Two alien college students, Zinnac and Yoof, are doing their thesis on heroes in Earth culture. To further their study, they send through the mail EEMs or Extreme Enhancement Modules that, when opened, endow the recipient with superpowers.

Due to the incompetence of Yoof, an EEM is sent to Lou Martin, a slacker, instead of Martin Louis, an upwardly mobile young lawyer and philanthropist. Lou receives superhuman strength and intelligence. Unfortunately, because Lou is so lazy, he is only able to use his intelligence either subconsciously or during moments of extreme concentration. Despite this flaw, Lou becomes an erudite and intelligent individual, but gaining powers is actually an inconvenience to him. Lou's EEM is designed to attract trouble and the other superhumans whom Martin would have chosen to lead.

The other "superheroes" are Val Andrist, the environmentalist daughter of an Ice Cream magnate who can fly; Francis Dutton, an aromatherapist hippie with a sonic scream; Lauren Isley, an elderly woman who can predict the future (but is so absent-minded she got confused with the past); a cat that became a giant when scared; and "Gecko", a nerdish man who can stick to walls.

EEMs were also gifted to a group of supervillains and attracted to one another in order to ensure battles would occur (e.g. the loser-turned-monster Nunzio, whom Lou brain-damaged via unintentional electrocution). Other stories involved a Nazi dinosaur from a parallel universe named Tyrannosaurus Reich, a demon-possessed toddler, carnivorous alien worms, an overly adoring fan of Lou's that tried to kill him to make him more famous, and an alien time traveler that destroyed time.

A young John Watson transfers from his school in the country to London’s Brompton Academy, where Sherlock Holmes befriends him immediately. Holmes’ mentors there include Rupert Waxflatter, an eccentric retired professor to whom the school has given a large attic space for his inventions, which include a flying machine. Waxflatter's niece, Elizabeth, and Holmes, are in love.

Elsewhere in the city, a hooded figure with a blowgun shoots two men with thorns that induce nightmarish hallucinations, causing their apparent suicides. Holmes brings his suspicions of foul play to Scotland Yard detective Lestrade, who rebuffs him.

After a school rival frames him for misconduct, Holmes is expelled. He has one last duel with Professor Rathe, the fencing instructor. While Holmes says goodbye to Watson, Waxflatter is shot with a thorn and stabs himself. Dying, he whispers the word "Eh-Tar" to Holmes.

Holmes, Watson and Elizabeth secretly investigate the murders, uncovering the existence of Rame-Tep, an ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris worshippers. The trio track the cult to a London paraffin warehouse and a secret underground wooden pyramid, where they interrupt the sacrifice of a young girl. The Rame-Tep wound them with thorns and they escape to a cemetery to endure the hallucinations.

Back in Waxflatter's loft, Holmes and Watson find a drawing of six men, including the three victims and a fourth man, Chester Cragwitch, who is still alive. That night, Holmes and Watson go to see Cragwitch, who explains that in his youth, he and the other five men were in Egypt, where they looted an underground pyramid containing the tombs of five Egyptian princesses. The resulting protest was violently put down by the British Army. A local boy named Eh-Tar and his sister vowed to seek revenge and replace the bodies of the five princesses. As they return to the school, a chance remark by Watson causes Holmes to realize that Eh-Tar is none other than Professor Rathe.

Rathe and his sister Mrs. Dribb abduct Elizabeth, planning to use her as the final sacrifice. Using Waxflatter's flying machine, Holmes and Watson reach the warehouse just in time to rescue Elizabeth and destroy the temple. When Rathe tries to shoot Holmes, Elizabeth shields Holmes with her body and is mortally wounded. Rathe falls into the frozen River Thames.

Holmes transfers to another school and Watson gives him an antique pipe that he bought during the investigations as a Christmas/farewell present.

An ending credits scene reveals that Rathe escaped. Checking in to a hotel in Switzerland, he signs in as "Moriarty".

Crash Bandicoot sends Doctor Neo Cortex falling from his airship into a cavern filled with glowing crystals. Convinced that they hold tremendous power, he takes one and gets back onto his laboratory.Universal, p. 5 One year later, Cortex and his new assistant Dr. N. Gin rebuild an upgraded, crystal-powered Cortex Vortex in outer space; N. Gin says that they need 25 more crystals to reach the Vortex's maximum capacity and they do not have any of their operatives left on Earth. Cortex then devises a plot to manipulate Crash into retrieving the crystals for him.

Meanwhile, Crash's younger sister, Coco, has him retrieve a new battery for her laptop, but Crash is abducted.Universal, p. 6 Finding himself in an ancient Warp Room that has access to several places all over the world, Crash meets Cortex via his holographic projection. Cortex tells Crash that he discovered that the upcoming alignment of the planets will create a solar flux capable of catastrophic proportions and urges Crash to retrieve pink power crystals through each of the Room's doors to help Cortex harness the crystal's energy to dissipate the massive power unleashed. Unbeknownst to Cortex, his former assistant Dr. Nitrus Brio also appears in hologram form and tells Crash that, scattered across the world, there are several clear and colored gems that serve as an alternative form of energy that Brio is planning to use against Cortex.Universal, pp. 9-12 On his way, while collecting crystals, Crash battles several of Cortex's former allies; the demented Ripper Roo, the scimitar-wielding Komodo Brothers and the ravenous Tiny Tiger.

Meanwhile, Coco uses her technology expertise to hack into Cortex's hologram communication to advise Crash to be careful trusting Cortex. Cortex eventually tells Crash to return the crystals he collected to his current assistant, N. Gin, but when Crash destroys N. Gin's mechasuit and defeats him, Cortex gets furious. After gathering all 25 crystals, Coco manages to hold a steady connection to reveal Cortex's ultimate plan; with the energy harnessed from the planetary alignment, Cortex will power the gigantic Cortex Vortex built onto his space station and brainwash everyone on Earth into serving his army. Crash reaches Cortex in outer space and incapacitates him once again before the crystals can be used, leaving him drifting through outer space, but leaves the Cortex Vortex intact. However, with Dr. Brio's aid, Crash uses all the gems he gathered throughout the Warp Room and learns that Brio built a laser beam machine powered by the gem's energy. With Crash's help, the laser beam breaks the Cortex Vortex apart, with one of the pieces falling back to Earth.

The shattered remains of Doctor Neo Cortex's space station crash-land on Earth and set free a powerful entity known as Uka Uka, the mastermind of Cortex's previous schemes. He regroups with Cortex and additionally recruits Doctor Nefarious Tropy, the inventor of a device named the Time Twisting Machine which will allow Cortex's minions to collect the Crystals and Gems from their original places in time. At the home of the Bandicoots, Aku Aku senses Uka Uka's return and informs the Bandicoots that Uka Uka is his evil twin brother, whom he had locked away long ago to defend the planet. He then leads the Bandicoots to the Time Twisting Machine, which they can use to collect the Crystals and Gems before Cortex does so. Crash and Coco venture throughout time and defeat adversaries such as Tiny Tiger, Dingodile and Doctor N. Gin. The defeat of N. Tropy causes the Time Twisting Machine to gradually fall into disarray. Upon the defeat of Cortex and Uka Uka, the Time Twisting Machine implodes and traps Uka Uka in a timeless prison with Cortex and N. Tropy who have been turned into infants.

The Adventure campaign features a frame story centering on Aku Aku and Uka Uka, who seek to resolve their feud via a contest between teams who battle in their stead, as the brothers are forbidden from fighting each other directly. During the course of the campaign, Uka Uka plots to use the crystals obtained by the player, a scheme which Aku Aku becomes wise to. The ending is determined by the player's choice of character. If the player chose a character from Aku Aku's team, Aku Aku locks the crystals away and banishes Uka Uka into the vacuum of space, but if the player chose a character from Uka Uka's team, Uka Uka wields the crystals' destructive power to his own ends. If two players complete the campaign with a character from each team, the characters are subject to a special tie-breaking game to decide which team prevails.

Characters

Fifteen characters are playable in ''Crash Team Racing'', although only eight of them are playable from the start. Crash Bandicoot, the main protagonist of the series, is an all-round racer with balanced acceleration, top speed and handling. Doctor Neo Cortex, Crash's archenemy, is a mad scientist who wants to stop Nitros Oxide so that he may conquer the world himself. Like Crash, his kart is an all-round performer. Coco Bandicoot, Crash's younger sister, is a computer genius who installed computer chips into her kart to increase its acceleration prowess. Doctor N. Gin is a rocket scientist who, like Coco, added custom parts to his kart to improve its acceleration. Pura and Polar pilot karts with low speed but improved handling, allowing them to navigate tight corners. Tiny Tiger and Dingodile control karts built for top speed at the cost of turning prowess.

The main antagonist of the story, Nitros Oxide, is the self-proclaimed fastest racer in the galaxy who threatens to turn Earth into a concrete parking lot and make its inhabitants his slaves. Oxide appears only as an opponent in the game's final race and time trials, and cannot be controlled by the player. Preceding Oxide are four boss characters: Ripper Roo, a deranged straitjacket-wearing kangaroo; Papu Papu, the corpulent leader of the island's native tribe; Komodo Joe, a Komodo dragon with a speech sound disorder; and Pinstripe Potoroo, a greedy pinstripe-clad potoroo. The four boss characters, along with an imperfect and morally ambiguous clone of Crash Bandicoot named Fake Crash, become accessible as playable characters if the Adventure Mode is fully completed. Doctor Nefarious Tropy appears as the player's opponent during the Time Trial races and an unlockable playable character, while a bonus character, Penta Penguin, can only be unlocked via cheat code.

Appearing as the player's tutors in the game are the sentient twin witch-doctor masks Aku Aku and Uka Uka, both of whom give hints that help the player develop their racing skills. They double as obtainable "Invincibility Mask" power-ups during the races, temporarily protecting the player from all attacks and obstacles while increasing the kart's speed. However, their power does not protect the player from chasms or deep water.

Story

The inhabitants of Earth are visited by an extraterrestrial named Nitros Oxide, who claims to be the fastest racer in the galaxy. Challenging Earth to a game called "Survival of the Fastest", he beckons Earth's best driver to race him. If Earth's driver wins, he promises to leave Earth alone, but if Oxide wins, he will turn Earth into a concrete parking lot and enslave the Earthlings. In response, the player character gathers all four Boss Keys needed to access Oxide's spaceship and races him in a one-on-one match. Upon Oxide's defeat at the hands of the player character, he temporarily leaves Earth, but promises that he will return when all of the Time Relics have been gathered. Oxide faces the player again after all the Time Relics are gathered. After losing once more, Oxide keeps his word and angrily leaves Earth forever. An epilogue is relayed during the end credits, explaining what the characters of the game did after the events of the story. Nitros Oxide himself returns to his home planet of Gasmoxia and secludes himself from society. After undergoing years of therapy to cope with his loss, he takes up unicycle-racing, only to get into a gruesome accident.

The plot revolves around the elderly Balbir and her daughter Min who have a difficult and tempestuous relationship. Though both Sikhs, they have been largely ostracised from the local Sikh community following the suicide of Balbir's husband Tej some years before. Seeking to secure her daughter's future, Balbir presses Mr Sandhu, a respected figure in the local gurdwara, to look into potential marriage partners for her daughter. Subsequently it emerges that Mr Sandhu had been conducting a gay affair with Tej, and that Tej had killed himself out of shame that it would be revealed. Mr Sandhu goes on to rape Min in the gurdwara, though this is covered up by others in the temple. Balbir later kills Mr Sandhu with a kirpan, and Min forms relationship with Elvis, her mother's black care-worker.

The film opens with a woman, Flora Bosch, walking her dog down an empty, darkened city street. As she passes by a manhole, a creature attacks Mrs. Bosch and drags her and the dog into the sewers.

George Cooper, a once-prominent fashion photographer, has since forgone fame and fortune and is living with his girlfriend Lauren. His current project is photographing New York City's homeless population, specifically those known as "undergrounders", or people who reside in the city's sewers and subway tunnels.

NYPD Captain Bosch has a personal interest in the recent flood of missing persons being reported to his precinct, as Flora—his wife—is also missing. Bosch interviews A.J. "The Reverend" Shepherd, who runs the local homeless shelter. A.J. believes that the recent events are part of a massive government cover-up and has the evidence to prove it. Bosch's superiors know more than they are letting on and seem to be taking their cues from Wilson, who works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

It turns out that monsters are lurking beneath the streets: beings that were once human, but have been mutated by radioactive, chemical toxic waste into hideous, flesh-eating creatures that prey on the homeless who live in the underground. Given the recent drop in the underground transient population, the creatures have resorted to coming to the surface through sewer manholes to feed. Through a series of events, both George and A.J. find themselves trapped in the sewers, a reporter gets involved and eaten, and Lauren has a problem with both a clogged shower drain and a mutant that comes up through the sewer access point that she opened in the basement of her apartment building.

A.J. and George meet up and discover that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is directly involved in the slaughter that has been going on. Although the political bureaucracy has forbidden the NRC to transport the toxic wastes through New York because of the large-scale danger to the public, it has secretly been hiding the waste by-products, marked as "'''C'''ontamination '''H'''azard '''U'''rban '''D'''isposal", beneath Manhattan in the abandoned subway tunnels. The underground homeless population has been coming into contact with these by-products, turning them into the mutated creatures. To protect this secret, Wilson plans to seal the sewers, open up some gas lines and asphyxiate the C.H.U.D.s and any witnesses of their existence, despite the inherent danger to the city. In the meantime, Lauren is attacked by the mutants in her apartment and narrowly escapes them.

Later that evening at a diner, two police officers and the waitress are killed and carried off by the mutants, finally drawing the public's attention to the disappearances. George and A.J. recover a camera set left behind by an NRC crew slain by the mutants during a previous clean-up attempt and use it to report their findings to Bosch. Confronted by Bosch, Wilson runs off, and later shoots Bosch while the latter helps A.J. and George escape from a manhole. Wilson then tries to run George and A.J. over with a truck, but A.J. fatally shoots Wilson with Bosch's gun, and the truck explodes as it drives into the manhole.

Molly Gunn is a fun-loving, free-spirited young woman who lives off the ample trust fund of her late rock legend father, Tommy Gunn. Molly falls for singer Neal Fox when he plays at her birthday party thrown by her best friends, Huey and Ingrid. They share a night of passion, but he leaves in the morning, saying that he cannot stay in Molly's life. Adding to her misfortune, she discovers that her father's accountant embezzled all her money, leaving her penniless and homeless. She moves in with Ingrid, who tells her that in order to stay with her, she must find a job.

Molly begins working as a nanny for an eight-year-old hypochondriac named Lorraine "Ray" Schleine, who is the daughter of Roma Schleine, a music executive who is too busy to notice Ray. Ray's father is in a coma and is being treated at home by a private nurse which causes Ray to stifle her emotions to maintain order. Although she enjoys ballet, she refuses to freestyle and often quotes Mikhail Baryshnikov: "Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun." Molly attempts to show her how to have fun, which at first causes much conflict between them, but eventually Ray opens up to let Molly in.

Molly continues to pursue Neal and holds onto his lucky jacket in hopes of seeing him again. After a baking accident, Molly causes a fire that damages Neal's jacket. She redesigns it to fix the damage, but Neal breaks up with Molly when he sees it, insisting he has to focus on his music career and does not have time for her flightiness. Soon after, he lands a record deal with Roma and has a hit music video with a song that Molly inspired him to write, all while wearing the jacket Molly made. Disgusted, Molly agrees to Ingrid's suggestions to sell off her possessions so she can prove that she is growing up. However, after a fight, Ingrid kicks Molly out, and Molly goes to live with Huey. One night, after fighting with and feeling hurt by Neal again, Molly spends the night with Ray after feeling alone at Huey's apartment and finds Neal one morning, having slept with Roma.

The budding friendship between Molly and Ray continues to develop when Molly takes Ray to Coney Island and explains that when her parents died, she ran away to Coney Island and rode the tea cups. She encourages Ray to talk to her comatose father, and promises that it will help him improve. However, Ray's father dies the next day, and Ray tells Roma to fire Molly. In Roma's office, Molly calls Roma out for never paying attention to her daughter. As she leaves, Molly runs into Neal, who begs for a reconciliation as she was his whole inspiration. Molly turns him down and admonishes him for only caring about her when it is convenient for him. Ray runs away from home and Roma begs Molly to find her. Molly finds Ray at Coney Island, riding in the tea cups. Despite being furious with Molly for raising her hopes, she collapses into Molly's arms, crying, finally coming to terms with her grief.

Molly, deciding to take charge of her own life, takes Ray's advice to auction off her late father's guitar collection to an unknown buyer; this enables her to afford her own place. At the wake for Ray's father, Molly meets other musicians who ask her to design their clothes after seeing Neal's jacket in his video. She and Ingrid also make amends and Molly finds Ray to apologize as well. She promises to stay friends with Ray and enrolls in design school after realizing her talent for fashion.

Molly arrives at Ray's recital late and is pleased to see Ray is wearing the tutu Molly designed for her earlier. She is surprised when Ray dances freestyle to Neal singing "Molly Smiles", a song written for her by her father when she was a child. He plays using Tommy Gunn's acoustic guitar, while the remaining ballerinas dance with the other guitars from her father's collection, revealing that he was the anonymous buyer. In a voice-over, Ray says that the end was a new beginning for all of them.

Park Mina, a highly popular singer who's won the hearts of many fans, gets into a car accident when her car swerves to avoid an oncoming vehicle. The car, which fell into a ditch, explodes and causes Mina to suffer second, third and fourth-degree burns on her body.

Mina's manager Kang Joon-seo happens to find Kim Soo-ryun, who looks almost exactly like Mina. Joon-seo initially asks Soo-ryun to take Mina's place for a short period of time until the real singer recovers. Soo-ryun agrees to the proposal because she badly needs money for her mother's surgical fees and her brother's tuition. After undergoing rigorous training from Joon-seo, Soo-ryun emerges as a near-perfect replica of Mina. However, Soo-ryun falls in love with Mina's boyfriend Jung Tae-hoon, and becomes enamored with fame and fortune.

Meanwhile, the real Mina returns, but the plastic surgeons were unable to restore her original appearance. Joon-seo, thinking that fans would not accept her new face, refuses to allow Mina to continue her singing career. Mina goes on television to reveal her true identity, and as Tae-hoon begins to investigate, Soo-ryun and Joon-seo feel threatened.

Mina later learns that Soo-ryun is her identical twin sister, and they had been abandoned at a Catholic orphanage after birth.

Soo-ryun asks Tae-hoon to forgive her, but he rejects her when he realizes that Joon-seo and Soo-ryun conspired to prevent the real Mina from coming back.

Depressed, Soo-ryun attempts to commit suicide. But Joon-seo stops her in time and tells her to prepare her final performance as Mina.

A young Polish noble, Tadeusz Soplica, comes back from his education in Vilnius to his family estate in Soplicowo. Tadeusz is an orphan raised by his uncle – Judge Soplica, who is a younger brother of Tadeusz's long lost father, Jacek Soplica. Tadeusz is greeted by the Seneschal (Wojski), a family friend. The Seneschal tells him about the trial between the Judge and Count Horeszko concerning the ownership of a castle which once belonged to Pantler Horeszko – the Count's distant relative, a powerful aristocrat who was killed many years before. The trial is currently conducted by the Chamberlain (Podkomorzy), who is a friend and guest of the Judge. Tadeusz also meets Zosia – a young girl, granddaughter of the Pantler, who lives in the Judge's household, and her caretaker Telimena – the Judge's cousin. Tadeusz takes an interest in Zosia, but also flirts with Telimena.

Meanwhile, Count Horeszko visits the Castle, where he is greeted by Gerwazy, the warden and an old servant of the late Pantler. The Count reveals to Gerwazy he has little interest in the Castle and intends to give up the trial. Gerwazy in response tells the Count the story of the conflict between Soplica's and Horeszko's family. The Pantler often invited Jacek Soplica, Tadeusz's father, to the Castle, as Jacek was very popular amongst lesser nobles in the land. Jacek aspired to marry the Pantler's daughter, but was refused by the Pantler. Later, when Russian troops stormed the Castle during the Kościuszko's uprising, Jacek suddenly arrived on the scene and shot the Pantler. Gerwazy swore to avenge his master, but Jacek disappeared. The story makes the Count excited about the conflict with the Soplicas and he decides he has to take the Castle back from the Judge.

News spreads that a bear was seen in a nearby forest. A great hunt for it begins, in which, amongst others, Tadeusz, the Seneschal, the Count and Gerwazy take part. Tadeusz and the Count are both attacked by the bear. They are saved by Father Robak, a Bernardin monk, who unexpectedly appears, grabs Gerwazy's gun and shoots the bear. After the hunt, the Judge decides to give a feast. His servant Protazy advises to do so in the Castle, to demonstrate to everyone the Judge is its host. During the feast, an argument breaks out when Gerwazy accuses the Judge of trespassing and attacks Protazy when he accuses Gerwazy of the same. The Count stands in defense of Gerwazy and claims the Castle as his own. Fight ensues until Tadeusz stops it by challenging the Count to a duel next day. The Count angrily leaves and orders Gerwazy to get the support of lesser nobility of nearby villages to deal with the Soplicas by force.

Father Robak meets with the Judge and scolds him for the incident at the Castle. He reminds the Judge that his brother, Jacek, wanted him to make peace with the Horeszkos to atone for his murder of the Pantler. For that purpose, Jacek arranged for Zosia to be raised by the Soplicas and intended for her to marry Tadeusz, to bring the two conflicted houses together. Father Robak also speaks about Napoleonic armies soon arriving in Lithuania, urging that Poles should unite to fight against the Russians, rather than fight each other in petty disputes. The Judge is enthusiastic about fighting against the Russians but claims that the Count, being younger, should be the first to apologize.

The impoverished nobles of the land gather on Gerwazy's call. They argue among themselves about organizing an uprising against the Russian forces occupying the land and news about the Napoleonic army, which they heard from Father Robak. Gerwazy convinces them that the Soplicas are the enemy within which should be dealt with first.

The Count soon arrives at the Soplicas' manor and takes the family hostage with the help of his new supporters. However, the next day, Russian troops stationing nearby, intervene and arrest the Count's followers, including Gerwazy. The Russian are commanded by Major Płut, who is actually a Pole who made a career in the Russian army. The second in command is Captain Ryków, a Russian sympathetic to the Poles. The Judge tries to convince Major Płut that the whole matter is just a quarrel between two neighbours and claims that he doesn't bring any complaints against the Count. Płut however considers the Count's supporters to be rebels. The Judge reluctantly accepts the Russians at his house, where, on the advice of Father Robak he gets them drunk, while Robak frees the arrested nobles. The fight breaks out when Major Płut makes drunken advances on Telimena and Tadeusz punches him in her defense. During the battle, Father Robak saves the Count's and Gerwazy's life, getting seriously wounded in the process. Captain Ryków ultimately surrenders the battle after suffering serious losses to the Poles, while Major Płut disappears.

Afterwards, the Judge tries to bribe Ryków to keep the whole incident silent. The Russian refuses the money, but promises the whole thing will be blamed on Major Płut drunkenly giving orders to attack. Gerwazy confesses he killed Płut to keep him silent.

Father Robak predicts he will likely die the following night because of the wounds he suffered. He asks to talk alone with Gerwazy with just his brother, the Judge, present. He reveals he is really Jacek Soplica and tells his side of the story of the Pantler's death. Jacek and the Pantler's daughter were in love. The Pantler was aware of this, but, thinking Jacek of too low birth to marry his daughter, pretended to be oblivious. The Pantler treated Jacek as a friend for political reasons, needing his influence amongst the lesser nobility. Jacek suffered through the charade, until the Pantler openly asked him for an opinion about another candidate for a husband for his daughter. Jacek left without a word, intending to never visit the Castle again. Much later he witnessed the Castle being stormed by the Russians. Seeing the Pantler victorious and proud made Jacek overwhelmed with grief and anger - which drove him to kill the Pantler.

Gerwazy admits that the Pantler wronged Jacek, and gives up his revenge, considering them even after Jacek (as Father Robak) sacrificed himself to save him and the Count's. Gerwazy also reveals that the dying Pantler gave him a sign he forgave his killer. Father Robak dies the following night.

The nobles who took part in the battle against the Russians, including Tadeusz and the Count, are forced to leave the country, as they are in threat of being arrested by the Russian authorities. A year later, they come back as soldiers of the Polish troops in Napoleonic army. Gerwazy and Protazy, now friends, reminisce on the events from a year before. Tadeusz and Zosia get engaged.

Once installed as king, following the death of his father, Edward II summons his friend and lover, Piers Gaveston, back to England from exile abroad, and showers him with gifts, titles and abiding love. Their relationship is fiery and passionate, but it is the focus of gossip and derision throughout the kingdom. Upon his return, Gaveston takes revenge on the Bishop of Winchester, who had been responsible for his banishment from England during the previous reign, by personally torturing him. Kent, Edward's brother, is the first to protest about Gaveston's return. Many others feel the same way, including the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Mortimer, who is in charge of the kingdom's military forces. Nevertheless, Edward defends his lover from his mounting enemies.

A pleasure-seeker, Edward is quite distracted from affairs of state, much to the distress and anger of the court (sombre men and women in business suits). Queen Isabella, Edward's French wife, vainly tries everything to win him back from his lover, but she is mercilessly rejected by her husband. Love-starved, Isabella turns to Gaveston, who inflames her desire by whispering obscenities in her ear, and then mocks her responsiveness.

The handsome, hedonistic and opportunistic Gaveston repels everyone except the King. His enemies join forces and threaten Edward with dethronement and exile; Edward is forced to comply with their wishes and sends Gaveston away. The lovers' separation is serenaded by Annie Lennox’s rendition of Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye".

The queen hopes that once Gaveston is away she could reconcile with her husband, but he rejects her once again. In a last effort to regain her husband's affection, she allows Gaveston to return. The king and his lover resume their relationship, but their enemies are ready to strike back.

Isabella and Mortimer, who has become her lover, plan to rule the realm through Edward and Isabella's young son, the future Edward III. When Kent tries to save his brother, he is murdered by Isabella. The nobles are soon plotting to get rid not only of Gaveston but also the king. Mortimer, their leader, is a military man and practising sadomasochist who takes a grim pleasure in personally torturing Gaveston and the lovers' friend Spencer, who he addresses as "girl boy." Their torture takes place while there is a clash between the police and members of the British gay rights organisation Outrage.

After Gaveston and Spencer's assassinations, Edward, who has been thrown in a dungeon, is executed by impalement on a red-hot poker. This hideous fate is presented as a nightmare from which the imprisoned king awakens. The executioner, when he does arrive, tosses away his lethal weapon and kisses the man he was sent to kill.

Back in the castle, Mortimer and Isabella enjoy their triumph just briefly. The king's young son, Edward III, who all along has been neglected by both parents and who has witnessed their quarrels, has donned his mother's earrings and lipstick and, while listening to classical music on his Walkman, walks atop a cage that imprisons his mother and Mortimer.

Captain Reiker (Curt Jürgens), a Dutch sea captain, sets off on what he intends to be his last slave-ship voyage. After capturing slaves with the complicity of an African chief (Habib Benglia), he then starts his voyage for Cuba. Along with the slaves below-deck, the passengers include his mistress, the slave Aiché (Dorothy Dandridge), and the ship's doctor, Doctor Corot (Jean Servais). Tamango (Alex Cressan), one of the captured men, plans a revolt and tries to persuade Aiché to join him and the other slaves. When the captured slaves do rebel, Tamango manages to hold Aiché hostage. A deadlock between the two sides then develops and Captain Renker states he will fire a cannon into the ship’s hold and kill all the slaves unless they give up. Aiché is given a chance to leave by Tamango but after looking up the ladder that leads out of the hold (and towards life), chooses to stay with her fellow slaves. The captain makes good on his threat and shoots the cannon into the hold, literally silencing the slaves' songs.

The film follows several characters, black, white and mixed race, and their relationships. It also chronicles the social inequality between the British who colonized the island and the native population. Maxwell Fleury (James Mason) is a white plantation owner's son who suffers from an inferiority complex and makes rash decisions to prove his worth. He is tormented by jealousy of his wife Sylvia (Patricia Owens), and he is envious of his younger sister Jocelyn (Joan Collins), who is being courted by the Oxford-bound Euan Templeton (Stephen Boyd), a war hero visiting the governor of the island, his father Lord Templeton (Ronald Squire).

David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte), a young black man emerging as a powerful politician, represents the common people and is seen by some as a threat to the white ruling class. Mavis Norman (Joan Fontaine), a woman from the elite white class, strikes up a romantic interest in Boyeur and much of the story explores the tension between these two.

There is also an interracial romance between Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge), a mixed-race drugstore clerk, and Denis Archer (John Justin), aide to the governor.

Maxwell believes that Hilary Carson (Michael Rennie) is having an affair with his wife. He strangles Carson during a quarrel, then tries to make it look like a robbery. Colonel Whittingham (John Williams), the head of police, investigates the murder.

A journalist named Bradshaw (Hartley Power) writes an exposé revealing that Maxwell's grandmother was part black. Maxwell has decided to run for the legislature, but is jeered by the crowd, then insults everyone there.

Jocelyn learns she is pregnant, but does not wish to burden Euan with a child of mixed race. Her mother reveals that Jocelyn's father was actually a white man, the result of an undisclosed affair. She and Euan board a plane to England, as do Margot and Denis, to begin new lives.

Maxwell, a broken man, contemplates suicide, then decides to go to Whittingham to confess. Mavis wishes to marry Boyeur and begin a new life of her own, but he decides the needs of the island and his people must come first.

In 1645, during the English Civil War, Matthew Hopkins, an opportunist witch hunter, takes advantage of the breakdown in social order to impose a reign of terror in East Anglia. Hopkins and his assistant, John Stearne, visit village after village, brutally torturing confessions out of suspected witches. They charge the local magistrates for the work they carry out.

Richard Marshall is a young Roundhead. After surviving a brief skirmish and killing his first enemy soldier (and thus saving the life of his Captain), he rides home to Brandeston, Suffolk, to visit his lover Sara. Sara is the niece of the village priest, John Lowes. Lowes gives his permission to Marshall to marry Sara, telling him there is trouble coming to the village, and he wants Sara far away before it arrives. Marshall asks Sara why the old man is frightened. She tells him they have been threatened and become outcasts in their own village. Marshall vows to Sara, "rest easy and no one shall harm you. I put my oath to that." At the end of his army leave, Marshall rides back to join his regiment and chances upon Hopkins and Stearne on the path. Marshall gives the two men directions to Brandeston then rides on.

In Brandeston, Hopkins and Stearne immediately begin rounding up suspects. Lowes is accused at his home and tortured. He has needles stuck into his back (in an attempt to locate the so-called "Devil's Mark") and is about to be killed when Sara stops Hopkins by offering him sexual favours in exchange for her uncle's safety. However, soon Hopkins is called away to another village. Stearne takes advantage of Hopkins' absence by raping Sara. When Hopkins returns and finds out what Stearne has done, Hopkins will have nothing further to do with the young woman. He instructs Stearne to begin torturing Lowes again. Shortly before departing the village, Hopkins and Stearne execute Lowes and two women.

Marshall returns to Brandeston and is horrified by what has happened to Sara. He vows to kill both Hopkins and Stearne. After "marrying" Sara in a ceremony of his own devising and instructing her to flee to Lavenham, he rides off by himself. In the meantime, Hopkins and Stearne have become separated after a Roundhead patrol attempts to commandeer their horses. Marshall locates Stearne, but after a brutal fight, Stearne is able to escape. He reunites with Hopkins and informs him of Marshall's desire for revenge.

Hopkins and Stearne enter the village of Lavenham. On a patrol to locate the King, Marshall learns they are there and quickly rides to the village with a group of his soldier friends. However, having earlier learned that Sara was in Lavenham, Hopkins has set a trap to capture Marshall. Hopkins and Stearne frame Marshall and Sara as witches and take them to the castle to be interrogated. Marshall watches as needles are repeatedly jabbed into Sara's back, but he refuses to confess to witchcraft, instead vowing again to kill Hopkins. He breaks free from his bonds and stamps on Stearne's face while his army comrades approach the castle dungeon. Marshall grabs an axe and repeatedly strikes Hopkins. The soldiers enter the room and are horrified to see what their friend has done. One of them, Marshall's friend Trooper Swallow, puts the mutilated but still living Hopkins out of his misery by shooting him dead. Marshall's mind snaps, and he shouts, "You took him from me! You took him from me!" Sara, also apparently on the brink of insanity, screams uncontrollably over and over again.

The screenplay by Sig Herzig, Val Guest, and Elliot Paul, based on a story by director Wesley Ruggles, revolves around comedian Jerry Sanford (Sid Field), who arrives in London believing he has been hired as the star of a major stage production, when in fact he is merely an understudy. Thanks to his daughter Peggy (Petula Clark, already a screen veteran at age fourteen), who sabotages the revue's star Charlie de Haven (Sonnie Hale), he finally gets his big break. The premise allows for a variety of musical numbers and comedy sketches performed by, among others, Kay Kendall in her film debut and Tessie O'Shea.

A spacecraft, presumed to be of alien origin, is discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, estimated to have been there for nearly 300 years. A team of experts, including marine biologist Dr. Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone), mathematician Dr. Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson), astrophysicist Dr. Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber), psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman), and U.S. Navy Capt. Harold Barnes (Peter Coyote), are assembled and taken to the Habitat, a state-of-the-art underwater living environment located near the spacecraft.

Upon examination of the spacecraft, they are perplexed to learn it is not alien at all, but rather American in origin. However, its technology far surpasses any in the present day. The ship's computer logs cryptically suggest a mission that originated either in the distant past or future, but the team manages to deduce that the long dead crew were tasked with collecting an item of scientific importance. Norman and Beth discover the ship's logs, with the last entry noting an "unknown event." A holographic re-enactment of the event reveals that hundreds of years in the future the ship encountered a black hole, which apparently led to the ship crash landing in the ocean, back in the 1700s. Soon after, Norman and the others eventually stumble upon a large, yet perfect sphere hovering in the cargo bay. They cannot find any way to probe the inside of the sphere, as the fluid surface seems to be impenetrable. Upon observation, Norman ominously notes the sphere reflects everything in the room except them.

Once they return to the Habitat, Harry hypothesizes that everyone on this team is fated to die. Harry notes that the black hole is referred to as an "unknown event" in the future logs. However, here in the present they have knowledge of the historic event, yet it's unable to be explained later on. During the night, Harry returns to the spacecraft and is able to enter the sphere. Norman follows after Harry, where he finds him unconscious next to the sphere and returns him to the Habitat. The next day, the crew discovers a series of numeric-encoded messages appearing on the computer screens; the crew is able to decipher them and comes to believe they are speaking to "Jerry", an alien intelligence from the sphere. They find Jerry is able to see and hear everything that happens on the Habitat.

A powerful typhoon strikes the surface, and the Habitat crew is forced to stay in the Habitat several more days. During that time, a series of tragedies strikes the crew, including attacks from aggressive jellyfish and a giant squid, and equipment failures in the base, which kill Ted and the team's support staff. The survivors, Beth, Harry, and Norman, believe Jerry is responsible. Norman discovers that they had misinterpreted the initial messages from Jerry, and that the entity speaking to them through the computers is actually Harry himself, transmitted from his mind while he is asleep. Norman and Beth eventually realize that when Harry entered the sphere, he gained the ability to make anything he imagines a reality and conclude that all the horrors that have befallen the Habitat were manifestations of Harry's fears.

Norman and Beth sedate Harry with enough sleeping drugs to put him into a dreamless sleep to prevent him from doing any further damage. When Norman is attacked by a snake, however, Beth realizes that Harry alone could not have been responsible for everything that had happened on the Habitat and confronts Norman, accusing him of entering the sphere when he went to retrieve Harry. Beth's suspicions prove to be correct, but after experiencing her own nightmarish vision, she confesses to Norman that she too entered the sphere. Upon being rejoined by Harry, the three of them realize that the crew of the ship must have also entered the sphere and ended up killing each other after being driven mad by their fears. Under the stress of the situation, Beth has suicidal thoughts which causes the detonation mechanisms on a store of explosives to engage, threatening to destroy the base and the spacecraft. They race to the Habitat's mini-sub, but their combined fears cause them to re-appear back in the spacecraft. As a psychologist, Norman is able to see through the illusion. He triggers the mini-sub's undocking process and overrides the others' fears that they will not escape the destruction of the Habitat and spacecraft. The sphere is untouched by the explosions.

The mini-sub makes it to the surface as the surface ships return. As Beth, Harry, and Norman begin safe decompression, they realize that they will be debriefed and their newfound powers discovered. They agree to erase their memories of the event using their powers, ensuring the "unknown event" paradox is resolved. The sphere rises from the ocean and then accelerates off into space.

In 1987, the teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki arrives from Japan in Wan Chai, Hong Kong on the trail of his father's killer, Lan Di, of the criminal Chi You Men organization. He searches for Master Lishao Tao, the only link to the whereabouts of Yuanda Zhu, a martial arts expert who sent Ryo's father a letter warning him of Lan Di's intentions. When Ryo finds Tao, whose real name is Xiuying Hong, she refuses to help, considering his quest for vengeance reckless. The two part ways, but Xiuying continues to monitor Ryo's progress.

Ryo encounters Wuying Ren, the wily leader of a street gang. Ren decides to help Ryo after deciding there may be money to be made in Ryo's mysterious phoenix mirror; Lan Di took the second mirror, the dragon mirror, when he killed Ryo's father. Wong, a street boy who admires Ren, and Joy, a free-spirited motorcyclist, assist Ryo in his journey.

Ren informs Ryo that Zhu is hiding from the Chi You Men in Kowloon Walled City, a densely populated, crime-ridden enclave of Hong Kong. They locate Zhu there but are ambushed by the criminal Yellow Head organization and Zhu is kidnapped. Ryo and his allies infiltrate the Yellow Head headquarters, but Wong and Joy are captured. Ryo defeats a powerful martial artist and rescues Joy. On the rooftop of the Yellow Head building, Ryo rescues Wong and Zhu from the Yellow Head leader, Dou Niu, as Lan Di departs by helicopter.

At Ren's hideout, Zhu reveals that Lan Di killed Ryo's father because he believes Iwao killed his own father. He also reveals that the mirrors will lead to the resurrection of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. Zhu advises Ryo to continue his search in Bailu Village in Guilin, where he says Lan Di is also heading.

In the mountains of Guilin, Ryo rescues a girl, Shenhua Ling, after she dives into a river to rescue a deer. Shenhua's family is connected to the legacy of the mirrors, and she seems to have magical abilities. They walk through the mountains to her village. At Shenhua's family home, a tree named Shenmue (Chinese for "sedge tree") is in bloom; she explains that her name means "flower of the Shenmue tree". The pair go to a stone quarry on the village outskirts to meet Shenhua's father, but find he is missing. They discover a cryptic note and sword; Ryo combines the sword with the phoenix mirror, triggering a device that reveals a large mural of the dragon and phoenix mirrors.

Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is one of the leading actors of his day, particularly famous for his portrayal of female characters, predominantly Desdemona in ''Othello''. His dresser, Maria (Claire Danes), aspires to perform in the legitimate theatre but is forbidden because of a law, at that time in effect, forbidding theatres to employ actresses. This law was enacted by the Puritans prior to the restoration of the House of Stuart. Instead, she appears in productions at a local tavern under the pseudonym Margaret Hughes. Her popularity is aided by the novelty of a woman acting in public, which attracts the attention of Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths), who offers his patronage. Eventually, she is presented to King Charles II (Rupert Everett).

Nell Gwynn (Zoë Tapper), an aspiring actress and Charles II's mistress, comes upon Kynaston ranting about women on stage and seduces Charles II into banning men from playing female roles. Kynaston, having gone through a long and strenuous training to play female roles, finds himself without a guise by which to keep the attention of his lover, George Villiers (Ben Chaplin), the Duke of Buckingham, as the latter never had intentions to lead a homosexual life and Kynaston has lost the acceptance of London society which had started to circulate rumors about their association. He is reduced to performing bawdy songs in drag in music halls, while Maria's career thrives, although her ability to emulate Kynaston falls short because, as she says, Kynaston never fights as a woman would do.

Called upon for a royal performance, Maria panics and her friends implore Kynaston for coaching, during which she coaches him to develop his ability to regain a theatrical career in male roles. He agrees, with the proviso that he replace the company head Thomas Betterton in the role of Othello. Maria becomes a theatrical star.

The story begins after the player has beaten Eddie and his street gang, "The Eastsiders", along with Melissa in Olympic City and is now revered as the best street racer in Olympic City. After a race, the player is called by an unidentified man with an "invitation" to join his team and that he "is not taking no for an answer." The player ends the call without answering and starts driving to a party but is ambushed by a Hummer H2 that rams his Nissan Skyline GT-R, wrecking it. A man with a scythe tattoo on his hand calls to confirm that he "took care of a problem."

Six months later, the player boards a plane to Bayview with a good luck note from Samantha that also refers to her friend, Rachel Teller. The player arrives in Bayview, buys his first car using the money provided by the insurance on his totaled Nissan Skyline, and starts racing again. The player soon gains fame and sponsorship deals from winning races and attracts the attention of "The Wraiths" and their leader, Caleb Reece. Caleb is revealed to be the driver of the Hummer that wrecked the player's car in Olympic City.

Rachel reveals to the player that Caleb is attempting to take control of the racing scene in Bayview by manipulating the sponsorship deals in his favor, threatening the player's livelihood, and Rachel's liaison with the sponsors. Caleb attempts to have the player lose an Underground Racing League tournament by placing Nikki Morris, a Wraith member, in the same tournament as the player. This ultimately fails, and Nikki leaves the Wraiths after Caleb berates her for losing; she then joins Rachel and the player's side. Nikki warns them of the consequences of Caleb's plan if he takes over the city's street racing scene.

Desperate to stop the player, Caleb eventually puts all of the remaining Wraiths members in an Underground Racing League tournament against the player, which fails and after losing another sponsor, Caleb challenges the player to a showdown. The player wins the race and celebrates with Rachel and Nikki while Caleb is left insolvent and defeated.

That event solidifies the player's status as the best Underground racer in Bayview.

After returning home from a five-year prison sentence, John "Goldie" Mickens has a plan to achieve money and power in Oakland, California by becoming a pimp. Goldie's criminal ways contrast with his brother Olinga's Black Nationalist efforts to save the community from drugs and violence. With Slim as his partner and Lulu as his head prostitute, he organizes a team of women and quickly rises to prominence. His success catches the attention of Fat Man, the heroin kingpin that Goldie worked for before heading to prison, and Hank and Jed, two corrupt and racist white detectives. Goldie refuses to work for Fat Man again, and dismisses the detectives' requests to stop his brother from ridding the streets of drugs. As a result, his mother is assaulted which eventually leads to her death. Even though Olinga is disappointed in Goldie because he "brought death to their house," he agrees to help him get revenge. They develop a plan with Slim to seek revenge, but their plans fall apart when Hank and Jed kill Slim at their rendezvous point. They reveal that they are responsible for Goldie's mother's death, causing Goldie and Olinga to kill them both. Realizing that one of his hookers, "Chico", snitched him out to Hank and Jed, he attempts to shoot her but then holds back and leaves. Oakland is now too dangerous and Goldie hugs his brother goodbye and heads out of town on a charter bus.

Two scientists decide to settle the question of racial superiority by leaving two children—a white girl and black boy—alone on an island to be raised without speaking by only a nurse, Norah. The British scientist Samuel Bates believes that the girl will emerge as the leader, while the French scientist Jean-Louis Belavoix believes that the two races can not live in peace and the children will ultimately murder each other. The experiment begins to run into problems when Bates and Belavoix argue about the validity of cranial measurements. Meanwhile, Bates's long suffering assistant Nicholas Quartley falls in love with Norah and decides to rescue her from the island.

Barry Gabrewski is a troubled and bullied asthmatic boy who lives with his widowed father, Jerry (Beau Bridges), in Houston, Texas. A loner, Barry has vivid daydreams about being Chuck Norris' sidekick, battling against Norris' movie enemies, who are often personified by Barry's everyday bullies such as Randy Cellini (John Buchanan). Noreen Chan (Julia Nickson-Soul), his favorite teacher, often plays the damsel in distress in these daydreams.

Barry wants to learn martial arts, but is rejected by the arrogant dojo owner Kelly Stone (Joe Piscopo) for being too weak. Instead, he is taken on as a student by an old Chinese man called Mr. Lee (Mako), Noreen's sly uncle and the owner of a local Chinese restaurant, "Frying Dragon". Mr. Lee finds creative ways to teach Barry to defend himself from his bullies. Lee devises training methods that increase Barry's endurance, which helps his asthma. Lee also deduces Barry's hero worship of Norris, and from that at least some of Barry's daydreams. He creatively incorporates this into Barry's training, devising training scenarios that seem more dangerous than they are so that Barry will feel heroic for succeeding at them.

Lee enters himself, Barry, and Chan into a local team Karate tournament but is a bit stymied to learn that a team must have four members. Norris is attending the tournament as a guest, and at Lee's urging, Chan convinces Norris to join the team. Norris is both willing to help an ardent fan and has his own motivation for participating: he has encountered Stone on several prior occasions and wants to teach him "a lesson in humility". Barry is stunned to find himself working together with his hero.

The tournament involves four events: Breaking, Men's Weapons, Female Kata, and Freestyle fighting. Stone's team narrowly defeats Chan in the Female Kata, but Lee defeats Cellini, one of Stone's students, in Breaking. True to his word, Norris defeats Stone in Freestyle fighting, and Barry—aided by a vivid daydream—scores a victory in Men's Weapons. The result is a tie between Stone's team and Lee's team. In the tie-breaker, Lee is allowed to choose the participants, and chooses Barry and Cellini, saying Barry is the member of the team with "something to prove". Stone chooses the event, Breaking. Barry is dismayed to be confronting Cellini in the latter's best event, but Lee tilts the odds in Barry's favor by using a small amount of lighter fluid to set Barry's bricks on fire. Faced with a much more heroic-seeming task, Barry wins.

After the tournament, Barry is seen talking to Norris, thanking him for his help. Norris vanishes, and it is implied that Barry has found the strength to live his life without the need for his daydreams. Before the movie fades to black, a young boy finds Barry's Chuck Norris magazine. With an excited "Wow" the camera pans out to reveal the young man is in a wheelchair.

In 1973, Father Jebediah Mayii casts out the devil from the body of young Nancy Aglet. In 1990, Nancy's body is possessed once again, while watching ''The Ernest and Fanny Miracle Hour'', a prosperity gospel broadcast by two hucksters.

After a visit to the hospital, and a visit from Father Luke Brophy, Brophy concludes that Nancy is indeed possessed. Mayii, however, refuses to perform the exorcism, claiming he is too weak, and that both he and Nancy barely survived her previous exorcism. Brophy visits the Supreme Council for Exorcism Granting. Ernest and Fanny of ''The Ernest and Fanny Miracle Hour'' are also present. Ernest concludes that an exorcism is warranted, and convinces the council to televise Nancy's exorcism. They agree, believing it will convert millions, so Ernest presents ''Ernest and Fanny's Exorcism Tonight'' to the network.

Feeling he may be needed, Mayii visits "Bods-R-Us", a gymnasium, to restore his physical strength. There, Brophy approaches him, informs him of the televised exorcism, and attempts once more to convince Mayii to conduct the exorcism. He refuses again.

After a montage of attempts to free Nancy's body using phone donations, song, and insults, ''Ernest and Fanny's Exorcism Tonight'' is announced as having the largest audience in history. Upon hearing this, the devil, in Nancy's body, sets the studio on fire, causing the audience to flee. He reveals to Ernest and Fanny that he used them to get the largest audience, and turns them into a pantomime horse.

Using the camera, the devil tries to claim the souls of the viewing audience, but is stopped by Brophy, who destroys the camera. The devil announces he knows another way to claim their souls, and runs away, heading for a satellite transmitter. He is pursued by religious figures from around the world, who have gathered at Brophy's command. Brophy teases the devil about his defeat by Mayii.

Back in the studio, the devil uses the camera to lure Mayii to him for a rematch. The exorcism, with commentary by "Mean Gene" Okerlund and Jesse "The Body" Ventura, is ineffective until the devil mentions that he hates rock 'n roll. Turning the TV studio into a live concert, the song "Devil with a Blue Dress On" is played to the devil by the various religious figures, including The Pope on guitars. The devil is tormented so that he is finally driven from Nancy's body.

The novel is written in a series of changing first-person perspectives. The main characters, though strangers to one another, become connected through their actions and relationships.

This first chapter follows Quasar, a member of a millenarianist doomsday cult, attempting to evade capture in Okinawa after releasing nerve agents into a Tokyo subway train. His efforts to remain reclusive are hampered by the friendliness of the town's other inhabitants.

The next chapter focuses on Satoru, a young Japanese record shop worker in downtown Tokyo with a deep love for jazz music. Satoru struggles to balance his complicated family life, musical ambitions, societal pressure to begin a career, and his infatuation with Tomoyo, a new customer in the shop.

In the third chapter, Neal Brose, an expatriate lawyer in Hong Kong, is asked to manage a secret bank account. A chance meeting with Satoru and Tomoyo leads Brose to meditate on the end of his own marriage. Following this and a police investigation into the bank account, Brose suffers a breakdown. He dies in diabetic shock while climbing a hill towards the Tian Tan Buddha.

The fourth chapter centers on a Chinese woman and her tea shack on Mount Emei. Throughout her life, she and the shack encounter Chinese warlords, Japanese soldiers, Red Guards, reformists, and a tree she believes can speak to her. After finally visiting a Buddhist monastery at the mountain's peak, she dies peacefully at the tea shack.

Next, the novel follows a disembodied spirit. The "noncorpum" survives by transmigrating between the bodies of living human hosts. Though unaware of their true origins, they follow a lead by transmigrating through rural Mongolia in search of answers. The noncorpum becomes untethered when a host is murdered, but is reborn as a Mongolian baby. They learn their origins by transmigrating into the baby's grandmother. The noncorpum began their life as a young Buddhist monk executed during the Cultural Revolution. An interrupted attempt by another monk to save their life by transmigrating their soul to another body led to their life as a noncorpum. Faced with the meaning of their existence, the noncorpum decides to save the baby's life by transmigrating back into her body and becoming her mortal soul.

In the sixth chapter, Margarita Latunsky works as an attendant in the Hermitage Museum. Rudi, her abusive boyfriend, and Jerome, an art forger, conspire with her to steal a Delacroix painting from the museum. Following the successful heist, Jerome betrays the group, steals the painting, and murders Rudi. Latunsky then murders Jerome, but the painting is again stolen by Rudi's criminal associate, leaving Latunsky to the police. The chapter ends with Latunsky's concession that she is an unreliable narrator.

The next chapter follows Marco, a ghostwriter and drummer in a band called The Music of Chance. Through the course of a day in London, Marco interacts with characters referenced in previous chapters and considers the role chance plays in his non-committal lifestyle.

In the eighth chapter, Mo Muntervary has resigned her position as a physicist studying quantum cognition after realizing the research was being used to develop weapons for the United States government. Military agents pursue her as she flees through London, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and finally her home in Clear Island, Ireland, where the inhabitants decide to defend her.

The ninth chapter is related entirely through dialogue. It centers on Bat Segundo, the host of a late night call-in radio show, Night Train. Segundo receives regular calls from an entity calling itself Zookeeper. It becomes clear that Zookeeper is a benevolent artificial intelligence that was created by Mo Muntervary, which has broken loose. Zookeeper claims to have prevented disasters such as nuclear war in a bid to protect humanity. During one of the calls, Zookeeper is interrupted by a non-corpum named Arupadhatu. They offer Zookeeper a pact to dominate the world, but Zookeeper refuses and destroys Arupadhatu live on-air. Segundo and Zookeeper continue their Night Train discussions through a series of global disasters.

The final chapter follows Quasar during his terror attack on the Tokyo subway. During the attack, Quasar encounters people and objects on the subway car referencing each other chapter. The novel concludes with Quasar on the subway platform questioning what has really happened.

Peter Vollmer (Dennis Hopper), the leader of a small and struggling Neo-Nazi group, is mocked and ridiculed by the crowds he preaches to on street corners. Ernst Ganz (Ludwig Donath), the elderly Jewish man that Vollmer has had a sympathetic, uncle-like relationship with since he was an abused and neglected kid, offers him shelter and compassion but not respect. Ernst spent nine years in Dachau and recognizes that Vollmer's politics stem from a childish desire for the respect of others. This pains Vollmer, who openly confesses that he views Ernst as a father figure, since his real father physically abused him and his mother was never around.

Beginning one night, Vollmer is periodically visited by a shadowy figure who teaches him how to enthrall a crowd. The figure teaches Vollmer how to speak, and pays Vollmer's rent at the hall where he holds rallies. He also instructs Vollmer to arrange the death of one of his followers, Nick Bloss (Howard Caine), thereby creating a martyr to rally everyone around (a reference to the 1930 murder of Horst Wessel, a low-ranking officer in the ''Sturmabteilung''). Following the figure's instructions and assistance, Vollmer becomes considerably more successful and his group's following grows. Ernst becomes fearful that Vollmer may actually succeed in igniting another Holocaust. He disrupts a rally, accusing Vollmer of being "nothing but a cheap copy" of the German Führer while Vollmer cowers before his surrogate father.

After the failed rally, the shadowy figure rebukes Vollmer for his failure and says that from now on he will be ordering Vollmer rather than instructing him. Vollmer demands to know who his mysterious benefactor is. The man steps forward from the shadows to reveal himself to be Adolf Hitler (Curt Conway). He orders Vollmer to kill Ernst, and Vollmer steels himself enough to complete the task. Hitler congratulates him and asks how it felt; Vollmer replies that he felt immortal. Hitler responds, "Mr. Vollmer! ''We ARE immortal'' !"

Police officers arrive soon after, to arrest Vollmer for conspiracy to murder Nick. Shot while fleeing, Vollmer is astonished by the sight of his own blood. Hitler's shadow appears on the wall behind the dying Vollmer as he gasps out, "There's something very wrong here... ''Don't you understand that I'm made out of steel'' !?"

Setting and characters

''Escape from Butcher Bay'' is set in the futuristic science fiction universe of the ''Chronicles of Riddick'' franchise, and is a prequel to the film ''Pitch Black''. The game takes place inside Butcher Bay, a maximum-security prison from which no prisoner has escaped. The facility—constructed on a barren planet—contains three increasingly secure holding areas, and a subterranean mining operation.

The game's protagonist is Richard B. Riddick (reprised by Vin Diesel), a murderer recently confined in Butcher Bay. Riddick is resourceful, and seeks to break out of the prison by any means necessary. His capturer is the bounty hunter William J. Johns (Cole Hauser); the two have had previous encounters. Butcher Bay's warden is a man named Hoxie (Dwight Schultz), while Abbott (Xzibit) is a prison guard disliked by the inmates. The inmate Pope Joe (Willis Burks II) is an insane old man, who lives in the sewer tunnels beneath the prison.

Story

The opening cinematic shows Riddick in hiding, having grown out his hair and beard, before the opening scene of the ''Chronicles of Riddick'' movie. He hunts an animal and after killing it, a disembodied voice starts talking to him asking him where he got his eyes. He states that he received them from a "slam preacher" and this causes him to remember his time at Butcher Bay. The game takes place in a flashback.

Another opening cinematic takes place in which Riddick is being transported for collection on the bounty. He and Johns have a brief conversation in which Riddick tells Johns that there is no way he is going to get the price he wants. Riddick wakes up as they land and stands out front of Butcher Bay waiting for the warden. He sneaks up behind Johns and breaks his neck and proceeds to escape. After getting his hands on a gun, he goes through the ventilation ducts and seemingly escapes into the desert. Everything fades to white as Riddick hears Johns saying "Rise and shine, Riddick." It turns out this escape was simply a dream.

Riddick wakes up and Johns escorts him off the ship. Johns meets with Hoxie to negotiate his pay, while Abbott escorts Riddick to his cell in the "single-max" security area. After making enemies with and killing a gang leader named Rust, Riddick familiarizes himself with the facility, and soon instigates a riot; during the confusion, he escapes into the prison's sewer system. Armed with a shotgun and a dying flashlight, Riddick discovers he is not alone in the sewers. Fighting through the sewers against mutant "dwellers", Riddick eventually meets Pope Joe, for whom he retrieves a lost radio, which Joe calls a blessed voicebox. A woman named Shirah (Kristin Lehman) tells Riddick that he "has been blind too long", and he gains his trademark "eyeshine" night vision. Afterwards, he accuses Pope Joe of tampering with his eyes; Joe says that he merely treated Riddick's injured arm. Riddick then continues his escape, while using the eyeshine to his advantage.

After emerging from a manhole in the showers of the guard living quarters, Riddick uses a guard uniform to blend in as he makes his way to the space port and his chance at escape. Realizing he requires a guard to get through the retinal scanner that locks the doors to the space port, Riddick decides to go after Abbott and take his eyes. He gains access to Abbott's apartment by telling him there is a delivery for him. A fire fight ensues and after that, as Abbott bleeds out on the floor, Riddick moves in for the kill but is stopped by Johns.

Riddick is captured and transferred to the "double-max" security area. Gaining the trust of the inmates by participating in fighting matches, Riddick eventually kills the champion of the fighting matches, a guard named Bam. This leads him to be taken to a room where no surveillance is seen and several guards await to kill Riddick. Abbott walks into the room, fully healed, holding a baseball bat. Shirah returns to him and tells him that the fury of all of his kind is within him, and he can release it if he chooses. A blast of energy called the 'Rage of Furya' kills all the guards around him except Abbott, who hides and then panics and attacks Riddick. Riddick kills Abbott and proceeds to find another way to escape. Using a secret entrance to an elevator, he infiltrates a mining facility. He meets an inmate of great influence in the area named Jagger Valance (Ron Perlman), who wishes to escape with him. He makes a bomb and plants it in a mining site with a massive gas leak. However, Riddick is discovered and caught by the guards. During his transfer to another section, the prison is disrupted by an outbreak of creatures called "Xeno", due to the bomb Riddick planted, in order to create the confusion necessary for his escape, and Riddick attempts to escape with Valance. His plans are foiled again by Johns. After a fist fight, Riddick and Johns are both shot by Valance (who only meant to hit Johns) and Valance is killed by the guards. After meeting again with the warden, and telling him that he is just getting started, Riddick is placed in the "triple-max" area, where inmates are kept in cryonic sleep. They are awakened daily for two minutes of exercise; during this time, Riddick discovers a flaw in the system and escapes. He then hijacks a large robot and fights his way through Butcher Bay to reach Hoxie.

Tired of dealing with the prison officials, Johns helps Riddick to elude the guards. Riddick knocks Johns out and flies the ship into the warden's office. The warden calls in two robot guards with cloaking abilities and Riddick defeats them. After Hoxie surrenders, Riddick receives the codes to Hoxie's ship and Riddick and Johns escape disguised as a guard and prisoner. Two guards enter Hoxie's room, where Hoxie is bound and covered in Riddick's former attire. They mistake him for Riddick and kill him. Riddick and Johns take off in Hoxie's ship, ending the game.

Don's Plum is centered around a friend group of young twenty-year-olds who meet at a restaurant called "Don's Plum" every Saturday night. The four male friends usually each bring a girl with them to all hang out. Drama ensues, including verbal and physical altercations between the friends and other members in the restaurant. There is very little concrete plot, with more of a friends-hanging-out movie.

In 2004, U.S. government agent Leon S. Kennedy (Paul Mercier) is on a mission to rescue Ashley Graham (Carolyn Lawrence), the U.S. President's daughter, who has been abducted by a mysterious cult. He travels to an unnamed rural village in Spain, where he encounters a group of hostile villagers who pledge their lives to ''Los Iluminados'', the cult that kidnapped Ashley. The villagers were once simple farmers until becoming infected by a mind-controlling parasite known as ''Las Plagas''.

While in the village, Leon is captured by its chief, Bitores Mendez, and injected with ''Las Plagas''. He finds himself held captive with Luis Sera (Rino Romano), a former police officer in Madrid, and former ''Los Iluminados'' researcher. The two work together to escape, but soon go their separate ways. Leon finds out Ashley is being held in a church and rescues her. They both escape from the church after Osmund Saddler (Michael Gough), leader of ''Los Iluminados'', reveals his plan to use the parasite they injected into Ashley to manipulate her into injecting the president of the United States with a "sample" once she returns home, allowing Saddler to begin his conquest of the world.

After killing Mendez, Leon and Ashley try to take refuge in a castle but are attacked by more ''Iluminados'' under the command of Ramon Salazar (Rene Mujica), another of Saddler's henchmen who owns the castle, and the two become separated by Salazar's traps. Meanwhile, Luis searches for pills that will slow Leon and Ashley's infection, as well as a sample of ''Las Plagas''. He brings the two items to Leon but is killed by Saddler, who takes the sample, while the pills to suppress the infection remain in Leon's hands. While in the castle, Leon briefly encounters Ada Wong (Sally Cahill), a woman from his past who supports him during his mission. He battles his way through the castle before killing Salazar.

Afterward, Leon travels to a nearby island research facility, where he continues the search for Ashley. He discovers that one of his former training comrades, Jack Krauser (Jim Ward), who was believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash two years prior, is responsible for her kidnapping. Ada and Krauser are working with Albert Wesker (Richard Waugh), for whom both intend to secure a ''Plagas'' sample. Suspicious of the mercenary's intentions, Saddler orders Krauser to kill Leon, believing that no matter which one dies, he will benefit. After Krauser's demise, Leon rescues Ashley, and they remove the ''Plagas'' from their bodies using a specialized radiotherapeutic device. Leon confronts Saddler, and with Ada's help, manages to kill him. However, Ada takes the sample from Leon at gunpoint before escaping in a helicopter, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape via her jet-ski as the island explodes.

In the boardroom of the Elmer J. Fudd Corporation, the board of directors meets to discuss a serious threat to the company's future. The CEO, Elmer Fudd, is suffering from a mental illness and believes himself to be a rabbit. The board unanimously agrees to commit Elmer to "Fruitcake Sanitarium" ("It's Full of Nuts"). Elmer, now wearing a rabbit suit, sees Bugs Bunny walking past and lures him to the window with a carrot. Bugs goes inside while Elmer hops out the window, gaining his freedom. Bugs lies in Elmer's bed to keep it warm for him.

Viennese psychiatrist Dr. Oro Myicin arrives to begin treating Elmer's delusion and is stunned to see Bugs instead. He declares Bugs as the worst case of "rabbitschenia" he has ever seen. Dr. Myicin tells Bugs that ''he'' is not Elmer J. Fudd, ''Bugs'' is Elmer J. Fudd. Thinking that Myicin is a "screwball," Bugs then attempts to psychoanalyze the doctor instead. Irked, Myicin gives Bugs a pill, which makes him very vulnerable to suggestion. Once it takes effect, the doctor forces Bugs to repeat again and again, "I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht."

Dr. Myicin releases Bugs (now sporting morning dress and a Derby hat) from the sanitarium as "cured" of the belief that he is a rabbit and convinced that he is Elmer Fudd. Upon picking him up, Elmer's chauffeur tells Bugs that since it is Wednesday, he has packed his hunting clothes and shotgun. Bugs decides to relax by hunting.

Dressed in Elmer's hunting clothes, Bugs follows "wabbit twacks" to a rabbit hole. Chomping a carrot, Elmer pops out. Bugs aims the shotgun and prepares to shoot Elmer, who causes the weapon to backfire by plugging the barrel with his finger. After a short chase through a stream, which includes Bugs taking an underwater shot, Elmer bounds into a cave. Bugs props the gun against a tree, leans into the cave and declares, "Come out, wabbit, or I'll bwast you out!" Meanwhile, Elmer has exited the cave through an adjacent opening, tossed the shotgun aside and taken its place against the tree. Bugs grabs Elmer, points him into the cave and Elmer says, "Bang, bang!" Bugs is fooled, and ventures into the cave to see. In the pitch dark, Bugs strikes a match to reveal a huge bear standing beside him. As Bugs flees with the bear chasing him, Elmer calls out the suggestion that Bugs plays dead. He does so and the bear buries him under a cliff ledge. Bugs then falls out of the underside into a stream far below.

Returning to his rabbit hole, Elmer is shocked to find Bugs waiting for him. Aiming his shotgun in Elmer's face, Bugs yells, "No wabbit's gonna outsmart Elmer J. Fudd!" Before he can fire, an IRS agent taps Bugs on the shoulder and asks, "Pardon me, did you say you were Elmer J. Fudd?" Bugs replies, "Yes. I am Elmer J. Fudd, miwwionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht." Bugs is then arrested, for non-payment of $300,000 in back taxes. As the tax collector hauls Bugs away, Elmer turns to the camera and says "I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz!" indicating that Elmer knew he was about to get arrested so he planned the whole thing and became a rabbit, then dances the ''Bunny Hop'' and hops away.

Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard brings Holmes a mysterious problem about a man who shatters plaster busts of Napoleon. One was shattered in Morse Hudson's shop, and two others, sold by Hudson to a Dr. Barnicot, were smashed after the doctor's house and branch office had been burgled. Nothing else was taken. In the former case, the bust was taken outside before being broken.

Holmes knows that Lestrade's theory about a Napoleon-hating lunatic must be wrong. The busts in question all came from the same mould, when there are thousands of images of Napoleon all over London.

The next day, Lestrade calls Holmes to a house where there has been yet another bust-shattering, but there has also been a murder. Mr. Horace Harker found the dead man on his doorstep after investigating a noise. His Napoleon bust was also taken by a burglar entering through a window. It, too, was from the same mould. Also, a photograph of a rather ape-ish-looking man is found in the dead man's pocket.

The fragments of Harker's bust are in the front garden of an empty house up the street. Holmes concludes that the burglar wanted to see what he was doing, for there is a streetlamp here, whereas the bust could have been broken at another empty house nearer Harker's, but it had been dark there.

Holmes tells Lestrade to tell Harker, a journalist for the Central Press Syndicate, that he is convinced that the culprit is a lunatic. Holmes knows that this is not true, but it is expedient to use the press to convince the culprit that this is what the investigators believe.

Holmes interviews the two shopkeepers who sold the busts and finds out whom they were sold to, and where they were made, Gelder & Co. A couple of his informants also recognize the ape-ish man in the picture. They know him as Beppo, an Italian immigrant. He even worked in the shop where the first bust was broken, having left his job there only two days earlier.

Holmes goes to Gelder & Co. and finds out that the busts were part of a batch of six, but other than that, the manager can think of no reason why they should be special, or why anyone would want to destroy them. He recognizes Beppo's picture, and describes him as a rascal. He was imprisoned for a street-fight stabbing a year earlier, but has likely been released now. He once worked at Gelder & Co., but has not been back. His cousin still works there. Holmes begs the manager not to talk to the cousin about Beppo.

That evening, Lestrade brings news that the dead man has been identified as Pietro Venucci, a Mafioso. Lestrade believes that Venucci was sent to kill the culprit, but wound up dead himself.

After sending an express message, Holmes invites Dr. Watson and Lestrade to join him outside a house in Chiswick where apparently Holmes is expecting another bust-breaking. Lestrade by now is exasperated with Holmes's preoccupation with the busts, but comes. They are not disappointed. Beppo shows up, enters the house, and comes back out of the window minutes later with a Napoleon bust, which he proceeds to shatter. He then examines the pieces, quite unaware that Holmes and Lestrade are sneaking up behind him. They pounce, and Beppo is arrested. He will not talk, however.

The mystery is at last laid bare after Holmes offers £10 (£ in ) to the owner of the last existing bust, making him sign a document transferring all rights and ownership of the bust to Holmes. After the seller has left, Holmes smashes the bust with a hunting crop. Among the plaster shards is a gem, the black pearl of the Borgias. Holmes was aware of the case of its disappearance from the beginning. Suspicion had fallen on the owner's maid, whose name was Lucretia Venucci – the dead man's sister. Beppo somehow got the pearl from Pietro Venucci, and hid it inside a still-soft plaster bust at the factory where he worked, moments before his arrest for the street-fight stabbing.

After serving his one-year sentence, he sought to retrieve the hidden pearl. He found out from his cousin who bought the busts, and through his own efforts and his confederates’, even found out who the end buyers were. He then proceeded to seek the busts out, smashing them one by one to find the pearl.

The band is a three-piece vocal group dominated by their utterly untalented lead singer "MPete". When they are caught lip-synching before the release of their first album, scandal erupts (fed also by their manager's physically assaulting an elderly male and an elderly female member of the Salvation Army and the revelation that MPete's 16-year-old girlfriend is actually only 12) and they are dropped by their record company. They consider leaving the music industry, but their manager gets them a sponsorship deal with a Norwegian fish finger manufacturer. Ultimately they bounce back to fame after an appearance at the HitAwards Norwegian music awards show.

Asato's catchphrase:

Series introduction:

Asato Tsuzuki has been a 'Guardian of Death' for over 70 years. He has the power to call upon twelve ''shikigami'', mythical creatures that aid him in battle. The manga portrays Tsuzuki's relationship with the shinigami in much more detail. Tsuzuki is the senior partner of the Second Division, which watches over the region of Kyūshū.

In the anime, the story begins when Chief Konoe, the boss, and the other main characters discussing recent murders in Nagasaki. The victims all have bite marks and a shortage of blood, which leads to the case being known as "The Vampire Case."

After some food troubles, Tsuzuki travels to Nagasaki with Gushoshin, a flying creature/helper who can speak, and together they do a bit of investigating. The rule is that Guardian of Death are supposed to work in pairs, and until Tsuzuki meets up with his new partner, he needs someone to watch him. However, Gushoshin gets held back by groceries, and Tsuzuki is on his own.

While exploring Nagasaki, Tsuzuki hears a scream and has a run-in with a strange white-haired woman with red eyes, who leaves blood on his collar. Taking this as is a sign that the woman might be the vampire, Tsuzuki tries to follow her. He comes to a church called Oura Cathedral, where he meets the story's primary antagonist, Muraki.

Doctor Kazutaka Muraki is initially portrayed as a pure figure, with much religious and color symbolism. He meets Tsuzuki with tears in his eyes and Tsuzuki, thrown off, asks if Muraki has seen a woman recently. Muraki says no body has been in the church, and Tsuzuki leaves. Tsuzuki later learns that the woman that he encountered is Maria Won, a famous singer from China.

From there Tsuzuki continues through Nagasaki into the area of the city known as Glover Garden, where he is held at gunpoint from behind. His attacker tells him to turn around, and when he does, he discovers a young man glaring at him. He suspects this man is the vampire. Tsuzuki is then saved by Gushoshin. Afterwards Tsuzuki learns that the boy is Hisoka Kurosaki, his new partner, and the rest of the story is heavily based on character development and the relationships between characters.

Later in the Nagasaki Arc (the first fourth of the anime series, and the first collection of the manga), Hisoka is kidnapped by Muraki, and the truth about his death is revealed. Tsuzuki rescues him after his "date" with Muraki, and the series follows the relationship between these three characters, supported and embellished by the rest of the cast.

The player takes on the role of a crew member aboard the Princess Blue, who was sent by his captain to investigate a small derelict spacecraft, the Sunracer class Jolly Roger. While he is on board the Jolly Roger, a group of aliens called the Manchis attack the Princess Blue using their Vulture class ships, destroying it.

Left only with the Jolly Roger, little money, and no ties to anyone, the player can decide his fate from there. He could engage in piracy, hunt bounties, become an interstellar merchant, or become embroiled in the interplanetary politics.

A bumbling screenwriter, Julius K. Moomer, is becoming desperate for a sale after years working on unproduced scripts. When his agent mentions that he is submitting another writer's pitch for a television series about black magic, Julius pleads to be allowed to be given first crack at the series. Knowing nothing about the subject, he attempts some research, but turns up only an actual book of black magic. While experimenting with the book, he accidentally conjures William Shakespeare, who says he is at the service of the conjurer. Deciding not to waste Shakespeare's talent on a television pilot, Julius directs him to write a film.

The producers decide that Shakespeare's script, ''The Tragic Cycle'', though archaic to the point of being almost incomprehensible, has potential. His task finished, Shakespeare proposes to leave. Julius argues that if he stops writing now, Shakespeare will lose his chance at Hollywood fame and become forgotten. Shakespeare at last says he will attend a rehearsal for the film and stay on if it does justice to his script. At the rehearsal, he is so horrified at the revisions by the sponsor that he assaults the leading man and storms out. Julius's next assignment, a TV special on American history, seems doomed to failure until he remembers his book on black magic, and uses it to conjure up Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Pocahontas, Daniel Boone, Benjamin Franklin, and Theodore Roosevelt to act as consultants.

After being fired from Nova Robotics over the events of the first movie, Benjamin Jahveri (nee Jabituya) starts up his own business, "Titanic Toy Corporation", that specializes in making sophisticated toy robots that he builds by hand from the back of his truck. For two days, Ben has been in a big city implied to be New York City peddling his toy robots on the street corners. One robot wanders away from his stand and makes its way into the office of Sandy Banatoni, an assistant buyer for Simpsons' toy department. Sandy tracks Ben down and orders 1,000 of his toys. Overhearing this offer is con artist Fred Ritter, who smooth-talks his way into brokering the transaction between Ben and Sandy, becoming Ben's business partner in the deal, and later acquires the funding Ben needs from a loan shark.

Ben and Fred, with some new workers, move into a derelict warehouse which, unknown to them, is the base of operations for thieves who are tunneling into a bank vault across the street to steal a set of jewels known as the Vanderveer Collection. The thieves (Saunders and Jones) attack Ben and Fred and destroy their equipment, causing the new workers to run away and preventing them from completing Sandy's order. However, Ben's friends Stephanie Speck and Newton Crosby have sent Johnny 5, a robot who became sentient after being struck by lightning whom Ben helped to create. When Saunders and Jones return, Johnny fends them off, then sets up self-defense mechanisms should they try to break in. Johnny sets to work mass-producing the toys to meet Sandy's deadline but later leaves to explore the city. He runs afoul of many people, who are rude and unfriendly. He befriends one man, Oscar Baldwin, who works at the bank across the street from Ben and Fred's warehouse.

Fred, having learned that Johnny is worth $11 million, tries to sell the robot. Discovering this, Johnny escapes into the city, is taken into police custody, and is placed in the stolen goods warehouse, where he is claimed by Ben. Johnny uses his robotic abilities to help Ben court Sandy.

With time running out before the Vanderveer Collection is moved from the bank, Saunders and Jones lock Ben and Fred in the freezer of a Chinese restaurant. It is revealed that Oscar is the mastermind of the heist, and he tricks Johnny into finishing the tunnel leading to the vault. Ben and Fred get Sandy to save them, using polyphonic renditions of songs that Ben learned on his date with her as clues to their location. Having discovered the Vanderveer Collection, Johnny deduces Oscar's true intentions, but is chased and severely attacked by a reluctant Saunders and a ruthless Jones per Oscar’s orders to destroy Johnny. As Ben, Fred and Sandy return to the warehouse, the police arrest Ben and Sandy as presumed suspects for the bank vault break-in just as Fred goes outside and searches the city for Johnny. Fred finds Johnny in an alley, is horrified at Johnny’s damages, and tells Johnny of Ben’s arrest. Fred attempts to repair Johnny by breaking into a Radio Shack and follows Johnny's guidance, but with limited success. Ben and Sandy are cleared of any charges for the break-in and persuade the police to help locate Johnny. Despite his backup battery being used up, an enraged Johnny vows revenge for Oscar’s betrayal, and with Fred’s help, tracks down Oscar and his accomplices. Saunders and Jones are caught by Fred, Johnny, and later arrested by the police. However, Oscar shoots Fred, escapes, steals a boat and flees. With not much time left on his main battery, Johnny ensues a dockside chase, finds and uses a crane, and swings down Tarzan-style to capture Oscar, who is then apprehended by the police. Ben, Fred and Sandy also arrive and tend to an exhausted Johnny while the last of his main power supply fully depletes. Ben revives Johnny with a defibrillator.

Following these events, Johnny is fully repaired and becomes a celebrity, while Sandy, Ben, and Fred start a new company with Johnny as its mascot. He and Ben later take the Oath of Allegiance to become United States citizens. After the ceremony, when questioned by reporters about his thoughts on becoming the country's first robotic citizen, a gold-plated Johnny leaps into the air and exclaims, "I feel alive!"

A long time ago, in ancient Trøndelag, the nisses lived merrily in their caves, unknown to the human populace of Trondheim.

One day, the wicked nåsås arrived. The nåsås killed many nisses and drove them out of their caves. The nisses in the only cave the nåsås missed hid ''Den Store Kloke Boken'' (the big wise book). If nåsås ever possess the book, they will discover the secret to increasing tax rate up to 100% and infiltrate all positions of bureaucracy and rule the world.

''Good Old Gammel Nok'', the surviving leader of the nisses, sent the three bravest nisses, Hansi, Fritz and Günther, on a quest to find the winding key of the ''play dåse'', a musical box playing his life-tune. ''Good Old Gammel Nok'' warned our heroes of the dangers of the nåsås and gave them 'Den Store Kloke Boken' to consult for wisdom.

The game starts with the protagonist, along with schoolmates Hidehiko, Yuka and Masao, playing a fortune-telling parlor game called "Persona" while Nanjō and Yukino watch. After playing the game, the group see a ghostly figure, and the protagonist, Masao, Nanjō, and Yukino are rendered unconscious. The protagonist is then drawn into the realm of Philemon, who grants him the power of Persona and warns him that his new power will soon be needed. After the four recover and at the suggestion of their teacher Saeko, they go to have a check-up and visit classmate Maki at the hospital. While visiting, Maki is taken ill, and while they are waiting for news, the ICU where Maki is being treated vanishes and the town is attacked by demons, the summoned manifestations of people's inner darkness. Using their Personas, the four defend themselves, and after meeting up with Eriko, they head to the town's Ayama Shrine to find Maki's mother Setsuko. Upon arrival, they find Setsuko wounded after an attack by Kandori. Setsuko reveals him to be the culprit behind the changes to the town, caused by a reality-altering machine called the Deva System. Nanjō and Masao head out to confront SEBEC, while the protagonist, Eriko and Yukino bring Setsuko back to the school. After this point, the game splits into two story routes: the main SEBEC route, and the alternate Snow Queen route.

In the SEBEC route, should the protagonist decide to confront SEBEC, he is first joined by an apparently-recovered Maki, then asked by Nanjō to help save Masao, who is captured by demons. The protagonist, Maki and Nanjō rescue Masao, but on the way Maki displays an odd lack of certain memories including being hospitalized. After rescuing Masao and infiltrating SEBEC, the group confront Kandori. After cornering him inside the Deva System, a girl in black called Aki appears and knocks the party unconscious. When they awake, they find themselves in a duplicate, idealized version of their world. The group eventually find and corner Kandori, whose ultimate goal was to become a deity and find meaning in life. After an initial fight, Kandori is possessed by his Persona Nyarlathotep, then finally defeated. Before dying, Kandori reveals that the Maki who has been traveling with the party is the "Ideal Maki", a version of herself from the true Maki's heart. Aki and a girl in white called Mai are also pieces of Maki, and the idealized Mikage-cho was created by Maki, and brought into reality when she unexpectedly linked with the Deva System. The group must help Maki avoid Kandori's path towards isolation and his current actions. The group manage to convince Ideal Maki to overlook her original self's unconscious actions and join them in fixing the problem. After rescuing the true Maki's self from the Sea of Souls, where all human life begins, the group must then confront Pandora, an aspect of Maki that wants to use the Deva System to destroy everything. When Pandora is defeated, all the pieces of Maki merge back into one, reversing the effects on the town and restoring her to full health. Philemon meets with the group and congratulates them on their success.

The Snow Queen route, which takes place in the real town of Mikage-cho, is unlocked by investigating an urban legend within the school surrounding a theatrical mask used in performances of "The Snow Queen": nearly everyone who wears the mask to play the title role has died, with the exception of Saeko, whose friend disappeared instead. After finding the mask, the protagonist encounters Saeko, who puts on the mask and is possessed by a spirit within it. Freezing the entire town, the possessed Saeko generates three towers, with the spirits of those previously killed by the mask as their guardians, whilst setting up her Ice Castle within the high school. Along with Yukino, Ayase, Eriko, Hidehiko, and Nanjō, the protagonist heads out to save Saeko. Philemon contacts them and tells them that the only way to save Saeko is the Demon Mirror, which can remove the source of the mask's curse. The spirit possessing Saeko turns out to be former classmate Tomomi Fujimori, who was horribly disfigured by the mask when she wore it in place of Saeko. Using the mirror, the group are able to free Saeko and bring Tomomi peace. It is then revealed that Tomomi herself was controlled by the Night Queen Asura, a powerful entity who wants to cloak the world in darkness. Upon defeating the Night Queen, the town is freed from her power.

Poutou the daughter of Gousti Bagus is in love with Nyong. She attends a barong dance depicting a mythical struggle between a demon and men but is only interested in Nyong who is also there in the crowd of spectators. Nyong is invited to the home of Gousti Bagus and Poutou the next day. He is on his way when he sees Poutou's sister Saplak bathing and is smitten. Nyong writes on a leaf for Saplak to meet him during the temple dance (Legong) Potou is to dance at. It is to be her last temple dance and Potou is very happy until she finds the note and learns of the betrayal. She goes to the bridge and sees the pair together and commits suicide. Gousti Bagus puts her body in a funeral pyre and burns it so she may be reincarnated.

In a space station orbiting the Earth, Uka Uka is upset with Doctor Neo Cortex for failing him once again, but Cortex promises a plan that will bring the Earth's inhabitants down to size. Cortex then introduces his Planetary Minimizer, which he immediately uses to shrink the Earth down to the size of a grapefruit. The situation is brought to Aku Aku's attention when Cortex taunts the now-microscopic people of Earth. When Aku Aku informs Crash of the Earth's predicament, Coco assumes that Cortex is using the Crystals to power his shrinking machine, and requests that Crash find the same kind of Crystals in various locations around the world, which she will use to build a device that will reverse the effects of Cortex's Minimizer.

Cortex decides to deal with Crash himself by firing the Planetary Minimizer at him after Dingodile, N. Gin and Tiny are defeated. However, Crash tricks him into shrinking the colored Gems that stabilize the Minimizer, causing it to malfunction. The unrestrained effects of the Minimizer fuse Cortex and the previous bosses together, creating a monster known as Mega-Mix, who chases Crash down the space station's hallway in an attempt to kill him. Fortunately, Crash escapes back to the Earth just in time for Coco to use the Crystals that he has gathered to return the Earth back to normal again. The Earth is returned to its original size, while the space station above Earth explodes and Cortex and the others escape in an escape pod.

Three years after the events of the first film, the survivors of previous Battles Royale have formed a rebel group called the Wild Seven, led by Shuya Nanahara. A class of ninth graders, composed of "a ragtag collection of delinquents and losers", are kidnapped by the authoritarian Japanese government. Many of these students are orphans whose parents or family died in bombings by the Wild Seven. After their school bus is diverted to an army base, the students are herded into a cage, surrounded by armed guards, and confronted by their schoolteacher, Riki Takeuchi, who lays down the ground rules of the new Battle Royale game.

Instead of being forced to kill each other, as in the old Battle Royale, the students are sent off to war and ordered to attack the Wild Seven's island hideout ''en masse'' and kill Shuya within 72 hours. Most of the students are not interested in being forced to avenge their families, but they are coerced to fight through exploding metal collars, which their captors can detonate by remote control. Takeuchi shows them a line in the caged classroom: those who wish to participate are instructed to cross the line, while those who refuse to participate will be killed. The students are put into "pairs"; if one student dies, then his or her partner will be killed via collar detonation.

The students are sent via boats onto the island base of the Wild Seven. A number of them are killed when they are bombed, shot or have their collars detonated during the journey, leaving only a cluster alive. Two of the survivors are a delinquent, Takuma Aoi; and Shiori Kitano, the daughter of the "teacher" of a Battle Royale program who was killed by Shuya three years previously. Taken into the Wild Seven's base, the surviving students' explosive collars are removed and they are encouraged to help the Wild Seven end the Battle Royale for good. While most of the survivors agree, Takuma and Shiori remain unconvinced.

On Christmas Day, Shuya sends a video message to the world stating their goal to live free. In response to the video, the United States fires a missile upon the island. Under pressure from the U.S. government, the Japanese prime minister takes command of the military present at the Battle Royale headquarters and orders an attack on the Wild Seven's base, with no survivors allowed – if they fail, the U.S. will bomb the island. Takeuchi is enraged by the change of actions and is discovered to have the same type of collar on his neck as the students.

The survivors of the base (including the surviving students, except Shiori) retreat to the mainland via a mine shaft while the war between the Wild Seven and the military occurs. Hearing the gunfire outside the tunnel, Takuma and two of his friends return to help in the fight. The combat takes numerous casualties on both sides, leaving Shuya, Takuma and Shiori as the only remaining fighters. While they try to evacuate, Takeuchi appears and, after a brief personal exchange, allows the group to flee as he sacrifices himself.

Outside Wild Seven's base the combat starts again and Shiori is mortally wounded by gunfire. Before she dies in Shuya's arms, she reveals herself as Kitano's daughter and seemingly forgives him for his past crimes. Shuya and Takuma run out to kill the rest of the soldiers while the U.S. bombardment begins. The program then ends on a voided status, listing the fates of Shuya and the surviving students as unknown. Three months later, Shuya and Takuma rejoin the other survivors, including Noriko Nakagawa, in Afghanistan. They have regrouped as friends, and what lies next for them remains unknown.

On December 16, 1985, in a remote wooded cabin, a mob informant is under protection by the FBI. They are ambushed by a hit squad who brutally slaughter the bodyguards and the witness. One of the agents killed is Blair Shannon, son of FBI Agent Harry Shannon, who vows revenge.

After capturing a man posing as a motorcycle cop, small-town sheriff Mark Kaminski goes home to his alcoholic wife Amy, who resents what their lives have been reduced to; Kaminski once worked for the FBI, but five years ago he brutally beat a suspect who sexually assaulted and murdered a young girl. Kaminski was given the option to "resign or be prosecuted" by ambitious prosecutor Marvin Baxter, who is now Special Federal Prosecutor heading up a committee investigating the dealings of Luigi Patrovita, the strongest of the Chicago Outfit Dons.

Due to a leak within the FBI ranks causing their agents to be killed, Shannon recruits Kaminski for an unsanctioned assignment to infiltrate and dismantle Patrovita's organization. Kaminski fakes his own death in a chemical plant explosion and poses as convicted felon Joseph P. Brenner. He manages to get an audience with Patrovita's right-hand man Paulo Rocca, and convinces them of his worth by harassing Martin Lamanski, a rival mob boss who is trying to move in on his former boss Patrovita's territory. While at Patrovita's casino, hidden in a basement level of a high class hotel, he makes the acquaintance of Monique, who works for Rocca's top lieutenant Max Keller.

Kaminski continues to work his way into the good graces of the Patrovita family, including devising a plan that recovers $100 million of heroin and cash seized by the feds from one of Patrovita's hideouts and simultaneously assisting in Lamanski's assassination. Keller isn't convinced that 'Brenner' is who he says and manages to find proof of the deception, showing Kaminski's photo to a police informant who previously arrested the real Brenner. The leak the FBI has been looking for is revealed to be Baxter, who is forced to stay close to Patrovita. Kaminski accompanies Keller to a cemetery for a hit job, but discovers that the target is Shannon, forcing Kaminski to blow his cover and kill Keller. In the ensuing shootout, Shannon is severely wounded and crippled.

Kaminski escapes with Monique's assistance. He tells her to go to the airport and wait for him. After gathering an arsenal of firearms, Kaminski raids one of Patrovita's gravel pits, killing everyone and stealing a large amount of drug money. He then sets off for Patrovita's casino, where he embarks on a killing spree, single-handedly wiping out all his soldiers, including the men directly responsible for the murder of Blair and his fellow FBI agents. Rocca and Patrovita retreat to a back room, but Rocca is cut down in a barrage of gunfire. Patrovita flees into an office pleading for his life, but Kaminski mercilessly guns him down. On his way out, he encounters a whimpering Baxter who tries to talk his way out by apologizing for what happened five years ago. Kaminski responds to Baxter by saying that because of him a lot of people are dead, and now it’s his turn and offers him a gun with the same line Baxter gave him five years earlier: "Resign, or be prosecuted. Any way you want it." Kaminski starts to walk off, and when Baxter attempts to shoot him, Kaminski turns and shoots Baxter dead in self-defense. After driving to the airport, Kaminski hands a duffel bag containing $250,000 in cash to Monique and gets her on a chartered plane, telling her she is free and can start a new life with no obligations to anyone.

During the aftermath, Kaminski is reinstated with the FBI and is reunited with a pregnant Amy. Kaminski visits a despondent Shannon, who refuses to undergo physical therapy. In order to thank Shannon for helping him, Kaminski asks him to be his child's godfather in exchange for completing his therapy, which Shannon accepts.

First edition from 1880 title page from Vol iiiWilliam Pitt Ferrars, a rising Tory politician with cabinet ambitions, is disappointed of his hopes by the fall of the Tory ministry of the Duke of Wellington in 1832, and his party's overwhelming defeat in that year's parliamentary election. He retires from his opulent house in Hill Street, London, to the modest country estate of Hurstley; his failure to reenter the government in Sir Robert Peel's brief ministry in 1835, and his inability to secure a parliamentary seat in the subsequent elections, leads his wife to die of sorrow and disillusionment, and ultimately to his own suicide.

He leaves behind him two adolescent children, Endymion and Myra, who are determined to redeem their father's legacy. Endymion has received a clerkship in Somerset House, a government office, and takes lodgings at the home of the Rodneys, former protegees of his parents; at Somerset House he becomes acquainted with fellow clerks Trenchard, Seymour Hicks, and the aspiring but pretentious novelist St. Barbe; Trenchard lays the foundations for his future career by introducing him to the debating club of the politically-minded Bertie Tremaine.

In the meantime his sister is hired as a companion to the daughter of Adrian Neuchatel, a great Whig magnate and banker. Myra becomes a favorite member of the household, and her position enables her to introduce Endymion to the high society of the Whig party. Myra herself is wooed and won by Lord Roehampton, secretary of state in the Melbourne ministry. This places her in a position to forward Endymion's career, and she recommends him for private secretary to the Whig cabinet minister Sidney Wilton, an old friend of her father. Her brother distinguishes himself. In the elections of 1841, however, the Whigs are voted out of office, and Endymion loses his position. He compensates for this by getting elected to parliament in a constituency controlled by the Whig Lord Montfort, whose wife Endymion has befriended.

In Parliament, under the guidance of Lord Roehampton, Endymion's makes his mark among the Whig opposition; and when his party returns to power in 1846 he becomes under-secretary of state to Lord Roehampton; when the latter dies of overwork, Endymion resigns rather than serve under his successor. Meanwhile, Prince Florestan, a pretender in exile from his country, whom Endymion knew at Eton, has returned to his country and successfully established himself on his throne. He now offers the widowed Myra (whom he has met at the Neuchatels) the crown as his queen. She accepts. Endymion, devastated at this separation from his sister, finds consolation in the love of Lady Montfort, whose husband has died. Although his party is soon again evicted from government, he is now a prominent member of the out-of-power Whigs, headed by Sidney Wilton; with the fall of the Tory ministry Sidney Wilton becomes Prime Minister, and Endymion his secretary of state; through success in foreign wars and prosperous management of relations with the continent, Endymion makes himself the natural successor to Sidney Wilton. When the latter resigns, Endymion is charged by the queen with the formation of the next government.

The story introduces André (Gérard Depardieu), a Frenchman who is divorced from his wife. He takes his beautiful teenage daughter, Véronique (Marie Gillain), on vacation to a paradise island with him. She is desperate to appear as a woman and not a girl, so in order to impress a local boy, she makes up more and more fascinating, yet intriguing stories, starting with André being her lover – a sugar Daddy. André is desperate to make Véronique happy and so plays along with her elaborate games, the stories they make up get increasingly bizarre, funnily consistent.

A jockey named Michael Grady is lying alone in his room after being banned from horse racing for life for fixing races by horse doping. He drinks in his depression, and rues his five-foot height, which horse riding had served to compensate for. He then hears a voice. The voice introduces himself as "the alter ego" and claims to live in Grady's head. He argues with the alter ego, trying to justify his life and his actions, even lying about his crimes, but the alter ego knows all about him. Grady is offered the chance to change his life with one wish. Grady says his greatest wish is to be big. After Grady wakes from a nap he finds his wish has been granted; he is now close to eight feet tall.

Ecstatic, Grady calls his ex-girlfriend over the phone, but she dismisses him. He boasts that he can find more girls who will appreciate him because of his newfound height. The alter ego remains unimpressed, feeling Grady has not made good on any of his promises. He derides his dumb and "cheap" wish, and says that Grady could have wished to win the Kentucky Derby fairly, or perform a heroic act.

A telephone call from the racing commission informs Grady that he has been reinstated and can jockey again. Grady joyfully thanks everyone who petitioned to give him a second chance, but the alter ego laughs at him. Grady realizes he has become even larger, about 10 feet tall — too tall to ride a horse, or properly fit in his own apartment. Devastated, the now-giant Grady wrecks his room and pleads with the alter ego to make him small again. The alter ego denies the request, and instead replies, "You ''are'' small, Mr. Grady. You see, every time you won an honest race, ''that's'' when you were a giant. But right now, they just don't come any smaller."

In the town of Brixton, Georgia, widow Annie Wilson is a clairvoyant fortune-teller who has visions of her late grandmother. After Jessica King, the promiscuous fiancée of the local school's principal, Wayne Collins, disappears, Annie receives a vision revealing that Jessica has been killed and her body thrown into a pond.

She informs local sheriff Pearl Johnson of her vision, and despite his skepticism, Johnson searches a pond at the home of Donnie Barksdale, the abusive husband of one of Annie's clients, Valerie. Donnie has repeatedly threatened Annie and her three children after Annie advised Valerie to leave him, accusing Annie of being a witch and telling her and her children that she will burn in hell. Valerie permits the search while Donnie is absent, but he returns while the search is proceeding. The police find Jessica's body in the pond and Donnie is arrested for her murder.

Buddy Cole, a mentally ill acquaintance of Annie's, harbors a hatred for his father, and tries to explain to Annie why, but Annie is preoccupied and refuses to listen. That evening, Buddy's mother calls Annie to come to their house, as Buddy has snapped and has his father bound to a chair. Buddy sets his father on fire, and it is revealed that Buddy's father sexually abused him as a child. Buddy is arrested and taken to a mental hospital.

During Donnie's trial for Jessica's murder, it is revealed that they had an affair. Donnie is convicted and sent to prison. Later, Annie receives more visions revealing that Donnie is innocent and that someone else wants to kill her. She asks prosecutor David Duncan to reopen the case. After Duncan declines, Annie counters that if he does not do so, she will reveal David and Jessica's affair, which she witnessed. Duncan attempts to bribe Annie in exchange for her silence, but Annie refuses.

Annie tells Wayne that Donnie is not responsible for Jessica's death and that Duncan will not reopen the investigation. At Wayne's suggestion, he and Annie drive out to the pond at night, where Annie learns from a vision that Wayne is actually the murderer. Wayne confesses to Annie that he was angry after he discovered that Jessica was cheating on him with Donnie. Wayne attempts to kill Annie by striking her in the head with a flashlight, but Buddy appears and knocks him out. Annie and Buddy lock the unconscious Wayne in the trunk of Annie's car.

Buddy tells Annie that he escaped from the mental hospital, and hands her a wash cloth to wipe her bloody head with. The two drive to the police station. Annie tells Buddy that he will have to return to the hospital, and he waits in the car while she enters the station. When she returns to the car with police, Buddy has disappeared. Annie explains to Johnson what happened at the pond, but he informs her that Buddy could not have aided her as he had died by suicide at the mental hospital earlier that day. Annie reaches in her pocket and pulls out the wash cloth Buddy gave her to wipe her head. Annie returns home and looks at photographs of her late husband Ben. The next morning, she and her sons are at his grave, mourning his premature death.

The Keroro Platoon is a group of five, froglike alien soldiers from Planet Keron. They mean to conquer “Pekopon” (their name for "Earth") but fail every time they try. Their leader, Sergeant Keroro, is incompetent and has little interest in conquering Pekopon. Instead, he likes making plastic Gundam models, watching TV, or coming up with schemes to make money. The four other members of the platoon are adorable but violent Private Second Class Tamama; bellicose yet tenderhearted Corporal Giroro; intelligent but mischievous Sergeant Major Kururu; and disciplined but traumatized Lance Corporal Dororo.

The largest obstacle in the way of their mission is the Hinata Family, who must take care of the Keroro Platoon due to the Keron Army deserting the latter on Earth. Keroro is kept busy with manual labor and constant abuse, primarily from the family daughter, Natsumi. Each member of the platoon finds himself in the care of a human: Giroro's is Natsumi Hinata, whom he falls in love with; Keroro's is Fuyuki Hinata, who considers the sergeant his only true friend; Kururu's is Mutsumi Saburo, who's just as mischievous as him; Dororo's is Koyuki Azumaya, a fellow ninja; and Tamama's is Momoka Nishizawa, who's just as bipolar as him. All are tied to the Hinatas in some way throughout the events in the anime and manga.

Set on October 31, 2001. Edward Carnby's best friend and partner, Charles Fiske, has been found dead off the coast of Shadow Island, a mysterious island near the coast of Massachusetts. Carnby's investigation quickly leads him to Frederick Johnson, who informs him of Fiske's search for three ancient tablets with the ability to unlock an incredible and dangerous power. Johnson pleads with Carnby to take the place of Fiske and reopen the investigation in order to recover the tablets. Carnby accepts and makes it his mission to find Fiske's killer. Johnson introduces Edward to Aline Cedrac, an intelligent, young university professor. She joins Edward to recover the missing tablets and assist Professor Obed Morton, whom she believes to be her father. While flying over the coast of Shadow Island, Edward and Aline's plane comes under attack by an unknown creature. Edward and Aline both jump out of the plane and parachute to the ground, but are separated immediately. Edward lands in the dense forest just outside a manor, while Aline lands on the roof of it. The game's plot is a separate canon from the main of the series.

It is Christmas of 1924, three months after ''Alone in the Dark''. "Supernatural Private Eye" Edward Carnby and his partner Ted Stryker are investigating the kidnapping of young Grace Saunders. The trail of clues leads to an old mansion named "Hell's Kitchen" - the home of an infamous gangster boss and his gang. Edward decides to pick up the trail when he learns of Ted's disappearance in the mansion, but Edward soon finds out that Ted has been murdered.

Carnby eventually finds out that the mobsters are the corporeal forms of the spirits of pirates that plundered the sea hundreds of years ago, the lot having sold their souls in exchange for eternal life through voodoo magic. Fighting his way into the house and ultimately onto a pirate ship hidden in the cliff on which Jack's house is built, Edward must survive, discover the secret of the pirates' apparent immortality, rescue little Grace, and find out why the pirates are so interested in her.

After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette (mispronounced by his pompous wife as "biss-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California, and run an orange ranch. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard), self-involved daughter Mildred (Jean Rouverol), and bothersome son Norman (Tommy Bupp). As they pass several prosperous orange groves, his wife softens and figures he made a good purchase. The information about the orange grove is confirmed; his barren plot contains only a tumbledown shack, and a tumbleweed. Disgusted, his wife and family are walking out on him. As he sits down on the car's running board, the car collapses under his weight.

Just when Harold is about to lose all hope, though, his luck takes a dramatic turn; a neighbor informs him that a developer is desperate to acquire his land to build a grandstand for a race track. Finally standing up for himself, and to his nagging wife, Harold holds out for a large sum of money (including a commission for the friendly neighbor), as well as a demand that the developer buy him an orange grove like the one in the brochure he has been carrying throughout the film. The film ends with Harold sitting at an outdoor breakfast table squeezing orange juice into a glass, while his happy family takes off for a ride in their new car. The now-contented Harold pours a flask of booze into the small amount of orange juice in the glass.

The film is a chronicle of the "many titanic struggles between Harold Bissonnette and the universe. There will be battle of wills between father and daughter, between male and female, between man and a variety of uncontrollable objects."

The plot is almost secondary to the series of routines that make up the film. Over the course of the picture, Harold fails to prevent a blind customer named Mr. Muckle (and Baby LeRoy) from turning his store into a disaster area; attempts to share a bathroom mirror with his self-centered, high-pitched, gargling daughter; has a destructive picnic on private property; and in the film's lengthy centerpiece, is driven to sleep on the porch by his haranguing wife, and is kept awake all night by neighbors (including further trouble with the mother of the baby who caused damage in his grocery store), salesmen, and assorted noises and calamities.

A well-known, and often somewhat misquoted Fields comment occurs at the climax of the film, as Harold is haggling with the developer, who angrily claims that Harold is drunk. Harold responds, "Yeah, and you're crazy; and I'll be sober tomorrow and ... you'll be crazy for the rest of your life!"

The windfall for Fields' character and the resultant happy ending of this film echo the climax of his earlier 1934 release, ''Man on the Flying Trapeze''.

In the near future, violence has become something of a national sport and television news has fallen to tabloid depths. Patrick Hale, a globe-trotting reporter with access to a staggering array of world leaders, has ventured to the Arab country of Hegreb to interview his old acquaintance, King Ibn Awad.

Awad has learned that the President of the United States may have issued orders for his removal; as a result, Awad is apparently making arrangements to deliver two suitcase nukes to a terrorist, with the intention of detonating them in Israel and the United States, unless the President resigns.

In the intricate plot that unfolds, nothing is quite the way it seems, and Hale finds himself caught between political leaders, revolutionaries, CIA agents and other figures, trying to get to the bottom of it all.

In the final twist, the government, with Hale in tow, locates two atomic bombs supposedly planted by Terrorist "Rafeeq" atop the World Trade Center. The U.S. uses this as pretext for invading the Middle East and taking possession of oilfields. Hale correctly intuits that the government had planted the bombs in order to rally U.S. support for the invasion, but gladly covers the story the way the government wants in exchange for front-line access to film the action.

Former journalist Danny Pastor has relaxed in Puerto Vallarta over the past year with María de la Luz Santos, a 22-year-old woman whom he'd first met as a cantina waitress. They moved in together shortly thereafter, and Luz asked Danny to marry her, but he kept her at arms' length. One night when Luz went off by herself, she got pregnant by a drunken college student. Danny paid for her to have an abortion, and that incident made up his mind about her.

One night as they relaxed in the El Niño cantina, Danny heard a gunshot and rushes outside to see two men dead. One was an American Navy officer, and the other was a software engineer ready to sell his company's work on failure analysis to the Taiwanese government.
Back at their apartment, Danny and Luz met a man who identifies himself as "Peter Schumann" and needs to get north of the Rio Grande quickly. Paying Danny five thousand in cash, Schumann arranges his passage in a rusting Ford Bronco named Vito. The film adaptation featured a Jeep Wagoneer instead of a Ford Bronco.

Unaware at first of the nature of their journey, Luz wants to go with them to see her grandparents' graves along the coast. When she met with them for the trip, Luz wore blue jeans and a shirt that read "Puerto Vallarta Squeeze" with two halves of a lime dripping down the center. Danny saw in the story of this trip a great opportunity for a literary comeback. As they travelled north, Danny, Luz, and Schumann evade American military and Mexican authorities. Schumann later revealed that he's really former Marine sniper turned mercenary Clayton Price; he was commissioned to kill the engineer, but he took his job personally when he shot the naval officer. During the Vietnam War, Price was abandoned behind enemy lines by the officer who commanded the helicopter.

After commandeering the backroads of rural Mexico, Price arranged to have a helicopter meet him near an abandoned silver mine at Zapata. After a fiesta the night before, Luz decided to go with Price because she's fallen in love with him. As Price put it, "I'm not sure ''I'm'' capable of loving at all. But, Danny, ''you'' love too timidly. I'm not sure which is worse. You have this offhand way of treating her most of the time, as if she's a partially reformed street whore. . . . She told me about her past. She says I treat her with respect. You figure it out."

In a standoff with authorities, Price and Luz are killed. Danny heads back to Puerto Vallarta through Mazatlán, but he's arrested when the gun Price used in the double murder is found behind his apartment's toilet. Despite the evidence being circumstantial, Danny serves seventeen months of a ten-year prison sentence before he's released with a one-way ticket to Laredo. Although ordered never to return to Mexico again, Danny does so to find Price and Luz's graves in the Zapata cemetery. Price's marker was removed, but Danny exhumed Luz's coffin and reburied it in Celaya, where her grandparents were buried. During his time in prison, Danny wrote a manuscript about his adventures with Price and Luz as they rode north, but he never saw it again.

After starring in a commercial by Mr. Burns for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer decides to be an actor. As he fills out a Screen Actors Guild form at home, Lisa points out that he has only written his middle initial, J, in the blank for his middle name. Neither Homer nor Grampa knows that name, but Grampa takes Homer to a farm where Mona, Grampa's wife and Homer's mother, spent some time during her days as a hippie. The farm is run by two middle-aged hippies, Seth and Munchie, who were friends of Mona. They point out a mural that she painted based on an incident at Woodstock, which is dedicated to Homer and reveals his middle name as Jay.

Seeing how carefree his life would have been as a hippie, Homer decides to become one. He dons a dirty old poncho left behind by Mona and begins to carry a frisbee, but is dismayed to learn that Seth and Munchie are running an organic juice company at the farm. He persuades them to accompany him on a "freak-out" ride through Springfield, disrupting the citizens' daily lives with silly antics. When the three return to the farm afterward, though, they find that Homer's frisbee has jammed the juicing machinery and caused the loss of an entire shipment of the farm's products. Seth and Munchie angrily order Homer to leave.

To set things right, Homer sneaks back to the farm at night, picks and processes all the vegetables he can find, and delivers the juice shipment to Springfield. In so doing, he unknowingly harvests a hidden field of peyote, which Seth and Munchie had intended for their personal use as recreational drugs. The juice causes intense psychedelic hallucinations in those who drink it, and the police quickly trace it to the farm and move in to arrest Homer, Seth, and Munchie. Homer defends Seth and Munchie by placing himself in the officers' path, reminding them of the morals and values from the 1960s, and placing a flower in the barrel of each officer's rifle. When Chief Wiggum fires, Homer ends up hospitalized with one of the flowers lodged in his skull.

The novel begins in Manchester, where we are introduced to the Bartons and the Wilsons, two working-class families. John Barton is a questioner of the distribution of wealth and the relations between rich and poor. Soon his wife dies—he blames it on her grief over the disappearance of her sister Esther. Having already lost his son Tom at a young age, Barton is left to raise his daughter, Mary, alone and now falls into depression and begins to involve himself in the Chartist, trade-union movement.

Chapter 1 takes place in the countryside where Greenheys is now.

Mary takes up work at a dressmaker's (her father had objected to her working in a factory) and becomes subject to the affections of hard-working Jem Wilson and Harry Carson, son of a wealthy mill owner. She fondly hopes, by marrying Carson, to secure a comfortable life for herself and her father, but immediately after refusing Jem's offer of marriage she realizes that she truly loves ''him''. She, therefore, decides to evade Carson, planning to show her feelings to Jem in the course of time. Jem believes her decision to be final, though this does not change his feelings for her.

Meanwhile, Esther, a "street-walker," returns to warn John Barton that he must save Mary from becoming like her. He simply pushes her away, however, and she's sent to jail for a month on the charge of vagrancy. Upon her release, she talks to Jem with the same purpose. He promises that he will protect Mary and confronts Carson, eventually entering into a fight with him, which is witnessed by a policeman passing by.

Not long afterward, Carson is shot dead, and Jem is arrested for the crime, his gun having been found at the scene. Esther decides to investigate the matter further and discovers that the wadding for the gun was a piece of paper on which is written Mary's name.

She visits her niece to warn her to save the one she loves, and after she leaves Mary realizes that the murderer is not Jem but her father. She is now faced with having to save her lover without giving away her father. With the help of Job Legh (the intelligent grandfather of her blind friend Margaret), Mary travels to Liverpool to find the only person who could provide an alibi for Jem – Will Wilson, Jem's cousin and a sailor, who was with him on the night of the murder. Unfortunately, Will's ship is already departing, so that, after Mary chases after the ship in a small boat, the only thing Will can do is promise to return in the pilot ship and testify the next day.

During the trial, Jem learns of Mary's great love for him. Will arrives in court to testify, and Jem is found "not guilty". Mary has fallen ill during the trial and is nursed by Mr. Sturgis, an old sailor, and his wife. When she finally returns to Manchester she has to face her father, who is crushed by his remorse. He summons John Carson, Harry's father, to confess to him that he is the murderer. Carson is still set on justice, but after turning to the Bible he forgives Barton, who dies soon afterward in Carson's arms. Not long after this Esther comes back to Mary's home, where she, too, soon dies.

Jem decides to leave England, where, his reputation damaged, it would be difficult for him to find a new job. The novel ends with the wedded Mary and Jem, their little child, and Mrs. Wilson living happily in Canada. The news comes that Margaret has regained her sight and that she and Will, soon to be married, will visit.

Jack Hofner and Rowe Rickenbacker, Cloud 7's top agents, are mandated to protect the Ishtarian royal family and their reputation while also protecting their property from crime and terrorism. While a few of their cases involved the protection of royal artifacts and royal family affiliates, Jack and Rowe were tasked by Commander Camille Freed to secure Noelle Ardelade, a girl of Ivory Island and candidate for the "15-year princess". As time passes, the two agents become involved in solving cases of corruption, bombings and murder that could rock the Ishtar nation. Jack and Rowe, working under Mister's orders, are placed in a black operation to expose top officials of DTI and Duke Regent Rand for their involvement in the assassination of Prince Sparda who found that there were illegal dealings in securing Ivorystone from Ivory Island. The two agents fake the assassination of Noelle in front of a live audience, which is also televised worldwide, in order to arrest the Duke and DTI Chairman Taylor for the prince's death.

The series ends with Noelle continuing her life as a civilian after her supposed death. While returning on an errand, Rowe is stabbed in the back by Frost, son of the former director of the now disgraced DTI. The ending is open to interpretation as to whether Rowe survived the stabbing.

Following his regeneration, the Fourth Doctor becomes delirious and falls unconscious in front of Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor tries to sneak off in his TARDIS, but the Brigadier and Sarah stop him, convincing him to help in finding the culprit in the theft of top secret plans for a disintegrator gun.

Sarah investigates the National Institute for Advanced Scientific Research, colloquially known as the "Think Tank". She finds that director Hilda Winters, her assistant Arnold Jellicoe, and former Think Tank member Professor J.P. Kettlewell are developing a robot, K1, to be used to perform tasks in hazardous locations in place of humans. Winters and Jellicoe have secretly instructed K1 to kill Cabinet Minister Joseph Chambers as an enemy of humanity and to use the completed disintegrator gun to steal international nuclear launch codes from Chambers' safe. Sarah is stunned to learn that Kettlewell was the mastermind behind the plot. K1 discovers Sarah's presence, and Winters orders K1 to kill her. When UNIT arrives, the three conspirators and K1 escape with Sarah as their hostage.

Winters sends a list of demands to the world governments and gives them thirty minutes to comply, then orders Kettlewell to connect to the launch computers and prepare to send the launch codes. Kettlewell, who never expected their plan to get to this stage, hesitates, and in the ensuing discussion, Sarah and Harry attempt to escape with Kettlewell's assistance. Winters orders K1 to stop them, but the robot inadvertently fires the disintegrator gun at Kettlewell, killing him. The death of its creator puts K1 in a further confused state, falling to the ground and apparently shutting down. Winters attempts to program the countdown, but the Doctor arrives and successfully counters it. As UNIT forces take Winters and Jellicoe away, K1 reactivates and attacks UNIT. K1 seeks out Sarah to protect her, a result of an Oedipus complex it developed from Sarah's previous compassion, according to the Doctor. When the Doctor finds out about the living metal that Kettlewell used in constructing K1 and the metal virus he designed to reduce the world's metallic waste, the Doctor races back to Kettlewell's lab to synthesise a batch of the virus. Meanwhile, Lethbridge-Stewart fires the disintegrator gun at the robot but the blast is absorbed by the living metal, causing the robot to grow to an enormous size. The Doctor returns, throwing a bucket of virus solution onto K1, and the robot slowly shrinks before the virus consumes it.

As they regroup back at UNIT headquarters, Sarah is saddened by the loss of K1. The Doctor offers to cheer her up with a trip in the TARDIS, extending the invitation to Harry as well. The TARDIS dematerialises just as the Brigadier arrives, and frets about letting Buckingham Palace know that their guests will be late for a celebratory dinner.

San Drad (a possible mistranslation of Japanized English ''San Dorado'', サン・ドラド), California, has been overrun by the Aliens, and the cybernetically-enhanced Major Dutch Schaefer and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa of the United States Colonial Marine Corps have been abandoned by their superiors and are cornered by a swarm of the Alien drones. Before they can be killed, a pair of the Predators appear and destroy the Aliens. The Predators offer an alliance with the two cyborgs in order to stop the Alien infestation.

The players take control of up to three of four characters: Dutch, Linn, a Predator hunter, and a Predator warrior, and battle the Aliens through seven stages. After destroying the Aliens' hive, the characters discover that the Alien presence on Earth is the result of a bio-war project headed by the renegade General Bush working for the Weyland-Yutani corporation. They board Bush's military ship as it lifts off, kill the Alien Queen after it kills him, and program the ship to crash into San Drad, triggering a huge explosion that eliminates all Alien life on Earth. The Predator warrior then gives his wrist blades to Dutch and Linn in recognition of their skills as warriors, before the Predators depart back into space. Linn asks the Predators why they chose to help them, and the Predators' vague reply makes her and Dutch wonder whether they will have to fight them the next time they return to Earth.

Young Bart Collins (Tommy Rettig) lives with his widowed mother Heloise (Mary Healy). The bane of Bart's existence is the hated piano lessons he endures under the tutelage of the autocratic Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried). Bart feels that his mother has fallen under Terwilliker's influence, and gripes to their plumber, August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes), without result. While hammering at his lessons, Bart dozes off and enters a musical dream.

In the dream, Bart is trapped at the surreal Terwilliker Institute, where the piano teacher is a madman dictator who has imprisoned non-piano-playing musicians. He built a piano so large that it requires Bart and 499 other boys (hence, 5,000 fingers) to play it. Bart's mother has become Terwilliker's hypnotized assistant and bride-to-be, and Bart must dodge the Institute's guards as he scrambles to save his mother and himself. He tries to recruit Mr. Zabladowski, who was hired to install the Institute's lavatories ahead of a vital inspection, but only after skepticism and foot-dragging is Zabladowski convinced to help. The two construct a noise-sucking contraption which ruins the mega-piano's opening concert. The enslaved boys run riot, and the "atomic" noise-sucker explodes in spectacular fashion, bringing Bart out from his dream.

The movie ends on a hopeful note for Bart, when Mr. Zabladowski notices Heloise and offers to drive her to town in his jeep. Bart escapes from the piano and runs down the street to play, with his dog Sport joyfully capering at his heels.

The Namekian people, now living on a new planet after their home world was destroyed by Frieza years prior, find New Namek under siege by a mysterious, sentient spaceship that has latched onto and began attacking their home. Dende, now the Earth's guardian, senses the plight of his people and telepathically calls on Goku for help.

Goku, Gohan, Krillin, Piccolo, Oolong, Yajirobe and Master Roshi travel to the New Namek and upon arrival encounter an army of large robots abusing the Namekians. They learn that Cooler, who Goku was thought to have killed, is responsible. Cooler, now with a metallic body, reveals that he is going to absorb the planet and its lifeforms to power his ship. Goku fights Cooler while the others battle his robots who have durable armor that they struggle to penetrate. All except Piccolo are captured along with a village of Namekians. Piccolo manages to destroys all of the robots in one large energy attack before making his way to rescue those who were captured. Elsewhere, Goku struggles against Cooler's new "Meta-Cooler" form which gives him the ability to regenerate himself. Cooler also reveals his ability to use the instantaneous movement technique, an ability which Goku also uses. Cooler explains that his ship constantly monitors his body, and fixes any damage it might incur and improves his design to increase his durability. Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan which is also ineffective against Meta-Cooler, and just before he is strangled to death, Vegeta saves him. The two Super Saiyans attack Meta-Cooler together and they manage to destroy him. However, his ship recreates one thousand manifestations of Meta-Cooler, tipping the balance of power decisively against the Saiyans. Goku and Vegeta attempt one final defense but are captured and transported to be converted into fuel.

As his ship is leeching their energy, Cooler explains that after his defeat, his brain was absorbed by the remnants of a spacecraft's computer system and fused together; which he eventually took control of. Goku and Vegeta begin to release all their energy which overloads the system. They encounter the true biological Cooler, who Goku manages to kill with an energy blast. Piccolo arrives and encounters a Meta-Cooler which explodes. All of the Meta-Coolers and robot soldiers subsequently explode and the heroes escape before the ship leaves New Namek's orbit and explodes.

Goku and Vegeta fall from the sky near their allies and everyone rejoices in the victory. In his spaceship, Vegeta crushes the computer chip that created Cooler's ship.

On his usual Sunday afternoon stroll, the narrator, a French literature professor at a women's college, watches icicles dripping from a nearby eave with intense meditation. He walks on, and is distracted by the reddish shadows cast by a parking meter and restaurant sign. He runs into D., a former colleague who casually informs him that Cynthia Vane, with whom the narrator had formerly had a short relationship, has died.

The narrator recounts his memories of Cynthia and her younger sister Sybil. The married D. had an affair with the narrator's student Sybil. Cynthia first approaches the narrator in hopes of recruiting him to end the affair, instructing the narrator to tell D. that he should either divorce his wife or resign. He confronts D., who tells the narrator that he and his wife are moving to Albany, ending the affair.

The following day, the narrator gives his French literature class, which includes Sybil, an examination. When marking Sybil's exam that night, he finds a suicide note. He calls Cynthia only to find that Sybil has committed suicide.

After Sybil's death, the narrator begins seeing Cynthia and immerses himself in her philosophies of spiritualism and the occult. He attends parties along with Cynthia's circle of believers, and listens keenly to her theory that the dead control events great and small. Unconvinced, the narrator ridicules Cynthia's searches for acrostics, and playfully criticizes her party guests, to which Cynthia fiercely reacts by calling him a "prig" and "snob." This ends their relationship.

The story returns to the narrator's encounter with D. Having learnt of Cynthia's death, he is suddenly frantic, fearful, and incapable of sleep, preoccupied with the idea of Cynthia's ghost returning to haunt him as her philosophies suggested. He tries to fight her spirit by searching for acrostics in Shakespeare. His search fruitless, he falls asleep and awakens to find everything seemingly in order. He scoffs at the "disappointing" show, and the final paragraph reads:

The play is composed of seven vignettes. The first takes place at a union meeting of taxi drivers, where union boss Harry Fatt tries to dissuade the men from striking. A few drivers ask of the whereabouts of Lefty, their elected chairman. Fatt reminds them their elected committee is already present, then lets Joe, one of the drivers, speak. Joe says that he is not a "red boy", citing his status as a wounded war veteran, but complains that any driver who expresses dissatisfaction with working conditions is labelled a "red" (slang for communist) by the bosses. He says his wife has convinced him to strike for higher wages.

In the second vignette, set a week before that union meeting, Joe comes home to find that his furniture, not yet paid for, was repossessed. Joe's wife Edna urges him to lead a strike and demand a living wage. Joe argues that strikes do not work and that he would lose money while on strike. Edna criticizes the union as benefitting only its leaders. Joe admits the union bosses are "racketeers" but refuses to stand up to them. Edna announces she is going back to her old boyfriend, since he earns a living. Joe protests, and Edna implores Joe to start a workers' union without the racketeers. Joe, swept up by her passion, tells her he is going to find Lefty Costello.

The next vignette features Fayette, an industrialist, and Miller, a lab assistant. Fayette raises Miller's salary as a reward for his loyalty, and reassigns him to a new laboratory where Miller will help create poisonous gas for chemical warfare. Miller loses enthusiasm, but Fayette believes the world is on the brink of war, and that the U.S. must be ready. Miller grows distraught, reminiscing about his brother who died in the previous war. Fayette expects Miller to provide a weekly confidential report on the project's leader Dr. Brenner. Miller refuses to do any "spying", insisting he would rather lose his job than agree to such terms. Miller's outrage grows and he punches Fayette in the mouth.

In the fourth vignette, Florence tells her brother Irv that she loves her boyfriend Sid. Irv urges her to break up with Sid, since he earns too little money as a taxi driver. Sid enters and Irv exits. Sid says he knows he is like "rat poison" to her family and knows that she is reconsidering whether to marry him. He laments their lowly status as "dogs" under the thumb of powerful rich men. He is upset that his brother, a college boy, has swallowed the "money men's" propaganda and joined the navy to fight foreigners who are, ultimately, just like himself. Florence says she will follow Sid anywhere, but he tells her to be realistic.

Back at the union meeting, Fatt brings up Tom Clayton, who took part in an unsuccessful strike in Philadelphia. Clayton says that his experience taught him that Fatt is right about not striking. Clayton's brother runs into the meeting and identifies Clayton as a company spy who has been breaking up various unions for years. Clayton leaves and his brother voices skepticism of Fatt's claimed ignorance of Clayton's true identity.

The next vignette occurs in the hospital office of the elderly Dr. Barnes. The younger Dr. Benjamin enters, upset that he has been replaced for surgery on a patient in the charity ward by an incompetent doctor named Leeds, the nephew of a senator. Barnes reveals that the hospital is shutting the charity ward because it is losing money. It is also firing some staff, including Benjamin. Though Benjamin has seniority, he is being fired because he is Jewish. Barnes takes a phone call and learns that the patient has died in surgery. Benjamin is furious, saying he was skeptical of the ideas of radicals until now, and vowing to fight on even if it means death.

A man named Agate talks to the taxi drivers, insulting their weakness and insulting Fatt. Fatt and his armed guard try to detain him, but Agate eludes them. Agate says that if "we're reds because we wanna strike, then we take over their salute too!" He makes a Communist salute. Agate incites the drivers with fiery rhetoric about the rich killing them off. He tells them to "unite and fight!" and not to wait for Lefty, who may never arrive. A man runs in and reports that Lefty has just been found, shot dead. Agate yells to his fellow union men, "Workers of the world... Our Bones and Blood!" and leads them in a chorus of "Strike!"

The backstory of ''Syndicate'' is contained in the manual, instead of the game itself. As multinational corporations gained power and influence they came to exercise direct influence over the world's governments, eventually replacing them, controlling the lives of people through commerce. One such "megacorp", named EuroCorp, invented the "CHIP", a device inserted into the neck which alters a person's perception of the outside world, numbing their senses to the misery and squalor around them. It also opened the user to suggestion and manipulation by the megacorps. Before long the megacorps became corrupt crime Syndicates, fighting amongst each other for monopoly over CHIP manufacturing and control over populations.

The game puts the player in charge of a self-named corporation in a near-future cyberpunk-style world in the year 2096. The teams of up to four cyborg agents - who according to the game's intro cutscene, are ordinary civilians who have been captured, cybernetically enhanced and reprogrammed. The agents are used in a series of missions, which include assassinations, infiltration, theft and "persuasion" (using a device called a Persuadertron to capture individuals of importance, or hordes of civilians, police and others to act as cannon fodder). New agents can also be Persuaded and added to your roster, to replace those who have been injured or killed. Losing all your agents results in a Game Over screen, as your corporation sets your control airship to self destruct and crash.

During the course of the game, the player establishes worldwide dominance with their established syndicate, one territory at a time, while engaging and eliminating rival syndicates (such as The Tao, Sphinx Inc., and The Castrilos) and putting down internal mutinies. The finale sees the squad eliminating wave upon wave of enemy agents on the Atlantic Accelerator research station: victory declares the dawn of a new Empire across the Earth.

Albert, an aspiring rapper and suburban kid who idolizes the gangsta rappers he sees on TV, and his friends Euripides and Otis decide that they want to start a rap group. Unfortunately, even though all three of them are talented, they have no connections and no image with which they can market themselves.

In order to get their name heard and build up a reputation, they appeal to local crime kingpin and nightclub owner Gusto, along with his sidekick and henchman 40 Dog, to ask for a spot on the bill at his club. During their meeting, by complete coincidence, the police rush in and throw Gusto in jail. Gusto believes that the trio set him up, swearing revenge when he is released from prison. Taking advantage of the situation, Albert steals his criminal background and identity, renaming himself "MC Gusto" while Euripides and Otis take the names "Dead Mike" and "Stab Master Arson", respectively. Pretending to be newly released convicts, they form the hardcore gangsta rap group CB4 (Cell Block 4) and successfully sign with Trustus Jones, a local music mogul.

CB4 quickly becomes the hottest band on the charts with controversial hits like "Sweat from My Balls" and "Straight Outta LoCash", and their rise to fame is documented by an aspiring director and his cameraman. However, an ambitious politician seeks to shut them down for obscenity charges, tensions between the group arise over one member's gold-digging groupie girlfriend Sissy, and the strain of the charade takes its toll on Albert's family life and relationship with his wholesome girlfriend Daliha. To compound this, the real Gusto escapes from prison and exacts his revenge by making Albert take part in a record store robbery, exposing his face to the CCTV cameras and then taking the tape as a tool for blackmail so he can profit from Albert's success.

CB4 breaks up, with Dead Mike becoming an Afrocentric rapper while Stab Master Arson establishes himself as a successful DJ, leaving Albert to wallow in self-pity and his growing addiction to drugs. One day, he gets a call from Mike that Trustus is dead, having choked to death in terror when Gusto pointed a gun at him in a restaurant. Fed up with Gusto taking everything he has, Albert decides to set up a sting operation to nab the gangster by having Sissy seduce him and then trading places with her to entrap Gusto so the police can arrest him and send him to prison for life.

Albert accepts that he is not a gangsta and makes a comeback under his own name. He persuades Mike and Stab Master Arson to reform the group, and they embark on a highly successful reunion tour.

Marge discovers that the Simpson family has run up a $400 telephone bill due to a call to Brazil. After the phone company cuts off the family's service for non-payment and Homer repeatedly injures himself trying to restore it, Lisa admits that she made the call in order to stay in touch with Ronaldo, an orphan boy she has been sponsoring. She had been receiving monthly letters from him until recently; when they stopped, she called the orphanage where he was staying and was told that he had gone missing. When Lisa plays a videotaped message from Ronaldo, telling her that he used her money to buy a pair of dancing shoes, Homer, Marge, and Bart decide to fly to Brazil with her and find him. They leave Maggie in the care of Patty and Selma.

Once the Simpsons arrive in Rio de Janeiro, they begin searching for Ronaldo—first in the city's slums, then at his orphanage—but without success. When they split into pairs to cover more ground, Homer and Bart are robbed by a gang of children and later kidnapped in a taxicab. Bart escapes to tell Marge and Lisa, and the kidnappers take Homer to a hideout within the Brazilian rainforest and demand $50,000 for his release. Unable to pay the ransom themselves or to borrow the money from anyone in Springfield, the remaining three Simpsons begin looking for Homer. They get caught up in a Carnaval parade, during which Lisa finds Ronaldo—now working as a flamingo-costumed dancer on a popular children's television program. He explains that the shoes he bought led to this job and a high salary, and gives the Simpsons the $50,000 they need, noting that he keeps all his earnings since he has no parents who can steal from him.

When they arrive at a meeting point arranged by the kidnappers—on adjacent aerial lift cars above Sugarloaf Mountain—they find that Homer has developed Stockholm syndrome and made a scrapbook to remember his kidnapping. They throw the money across and Homer jumps to the family's car, only for the cables to break and send them tumbling down the mountainside. They survive unharmed, and Homer thanks his family for being there to get him out of trouble. Bart is immediately swallowed whole by an anaconda, but is not troubled and begins dancing to samba music.

Chapter One

Fyodor Konstantinovitch Cherdyntsev (in Russian version the main character is called Fyodor Konstantinovitch Godunov-Cherdyntsev, the first part of the name refers to Pushkin's play ''Boris Godunov)'' is a Russian émigré living in Berlin in the 1920s, and the chapter starts with him moving to a boarding-house on Seven Tannenberg Street. He has recently published a book of poems, and receives a call from Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski congratulating him on the poems and inviting him to come over to a party to read a favorable critique in a newspaper. The poems reach back to Fyodor's childhood, which he spent with his sister Tanya in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg and the Leshino manor, the country estate of the Godunov-Cherdyntsevs. Fyodor arrives at the party only to learn that he has fallen victim to a crude April fool's joke; his book has not received any attention at all in the press. The Chernyshevskis had a son, Yasha, who looked like Fyodor and loved poetry. Yasha took his own life when he was caught in a tragic love triangle. Yasha's mother wants Fyodor to use Yasha's tragic end in his writings, but he declines. As a result of Yasha's death, his father suffers episodes of insanity. When Fyodor returns to his “new hole” he realises he has brought the wrong keys with him, but after he waits a while a visitor comes out and Fyodor gets back in. Fyodor dawdles away the summer. In the fall he attends a literary meeting of Russian émigrés and there he meets Koncheyev, whom he considers a rival. A reading of a new play bores the audience. When Fyodor is about to leave he and Koncheyev discuss Russian literature at length and with great animation, but their discussion turns out to have been largely fictitious.

Chapter Two

Fyodor is dreaming about his native Russia as he rides in a tramcar to visit his language student, but he can no longer stand it and he returns to his lodgings. When his mother, Elizaveta Pavlovna, comes from Paris to visit him, the shadow of his lost father hangs over their encounter, for his mother believes that her husband is still alive. Before her departure they attend a local Russian literary event, and Fyodor is the last poet there to recite one of his poems. Although almost unnoticed he is inspired by his mother's visit and by his study of Pushkin, and he seeks her support for his new project, a book about his father, Konstantin Kirillovich. He collects material, stumbles upon Sushoshchokov's account of his grandfather, Kirill Ilyich, a gambler who made and lost a fortune in America before returning to Russia, and he starts to focus on his father's activities as an explorer, lepidopterist, and scientific writer whose journeys between 1885 and 1918 led him to Siberia and Central Asia. Fyodor had only come along with his father on local trips, but he is imbued with the love of butterflies and he imagines accompanying his father in his journeys to the East. In 1916 his father departed for his last journey and remains missing. Fyodor's difficulty with his project is complicated by his need to find a new lodging. With the help of Mrs. Chernyshevski he finds a place with the Shchyogolevs. He moves in with them because he sees a short, pale-blue dress in an adjacent room and assumes it belongs to their daughter.

Chapter Three

This chapter starts by describing a day in the life of the protagonist. In the morning Fyodor hears the Shchyogolevs get up and he begins the day by thinking about poetry. He reflects on his development as a poet. At mid-day he joins the family for lunch. Shchyogolev is talking about politics, his wife, Marianna Nikolavna, is cooking, and Marianna's daughter, Zina Mertz, is behaving in a distinctly hostile manner. In the afternoon Fyodor gives his tutorial lessons and visits a bookstore where he comes across Koncheyev's book of poems, "Communication," and some reviews that failed to understand it. He also reads an article about Chernyshevski and Chess in the Soviet chess magazine, "8x8," and afterwards visits his editor, Vasiliev. After returning home and having supper in his room, Fyodor goes out to meet Zina in secret. While waiting for her he composes a poem embedded in the narrative. Zina Mertz has already appeared in the narrative - she bought one of the few copies of Fyodor's poems, and she is the daughter of Marianna Nikolavna and Shchyogolev's stepdaughter, occupying the room next to Fyodor's. The story of their encounters is recalled and we learn that Zina knew of Fyodor when he lived at his previous lodgings. Their meetings are held in secret and hidden from her parents. Shchyogolev implies that he married her mother to gain access to Zina, and this may be the reason why she hates him. Zina works for a law firm, Traum, Baum, and Kaesebier. Fyodor gets more involved with Chernyshevski's work and declares that he wants to write about him for “firing practice.” He reads everything written by and about him, and he passes from “accumulation to creation”. Zina is Fyodor's muse and reader. The first publisher to whom Fyodor submits his manuscript rejects it as a “reckless, antisocial, mischievous improvisation.” But Fyodor has better luck with another publisher.

Chapter Four

This chapter, a book within a book, titled "The Life of Chernyshevski", is Fyodor's critical biography of the 19th-century Russian writer, Chernyshevsky. Fyodor ridicules Chernyshevsky's aesthetics and his understanding of literature.

Chapter Five

The book about Chernyshevski finds itself in a “good, thundery atmosphere of scandal which helped sales”. Most reviews in the literary world of the émigrés are critical as the book debunks its subject as a writer and thinker, Koncheyev ’s review, however, is quite positive. Fyodor is unable to show the book to Alexander Yakovlevich Chernyshevski who recently died. His death and funeral are described. On his way home, Fyodor walks with the writer Shirin, “a deaf and blind man with blocked nostrils”. Shirin tries to engage Fyodor in the activities of the Committee of the Society of Russian Writers in Germany. Fyodor declines but attends some meetings observing the infighting for control of the society. Shchyogolev is offered a job in Copenhagen, and plans to leave Zina in the Berlin apartment. Fyodor is elated and takes a walk in the Grunewald forest, where he imagines to have a talk with Koncheyev. His clothes including the key to the apartment get stolen, and he has to return in his bathing trunks. At night he dreams that his father has come back. Next morning the Shchyogolevs leave for Copenhagen, and Zina stays behind. Fyodor who is planning to write a "classical novel" (''The Gift'') and Zina can now live together. They are without money, both at the moment have lost the key to their apartment, but they are happy, they feel that fate brought them together, and Zina declares that he will be “a writer as has never been before“.

Rena is a suicidal teenage girl whose father is serving a long prison sentence. The boy she likes only uses her for sex, and other teenage girls tease her relentlessly.

Rena and her family travel to the father's prison for the annual family picnic. Things seem to be going just fine, but he eventually becomes abusive and angry. Rena's brother Jay, who is secretly gay, wanders off to tour the prison with another inmate named Buddy. Rena's half-sister Barbie sneaks off to the conjugal visit trailers and engages in sexual intercourse with her stepfather (Rena's father), unbeknownst to the family. After this activity is witnessed by Buddy and Jay, the other inmates watch as Buddy makes her squeal like a pig in exchange for not reporting it to her mother. Jay and Buddy bond, and when the tour is over they secretly kiss passionately.

Rena tells her dad that she's pregnant, news which the father does not handle well. When Rena's mother later discovers that her husband is having an affair, they get into a physical fight. When the guards see this they attack him and he stumbles backwards and falls on Rena. Rena rushes to the bathroom, finding that she's bled, and lost the baby. She breaks a picture frame and uses the glass shards to slit her wrists, but Jay saves her just in time.

Rena's mother (Madge) and the children realize that the father is abusive and that continuing to support him has been holding the family back. Rena realizes that her "fond" memories of her relationship with her father were self-delusions. Madge announces that she is moving the family to Florida. Rena tells her boyfriend about the miscarriage and when he expresses indifference, she causes his prized car to drive into a swimming pool. The end shows the family leaving home for Florida, with Rena's now ex-boyfriend running through the yard screaming at her.

In post-Soviet Russia, civil war erupts as a result of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya. Military units loyal to Vladimir Radchenko, a Russian ultra-nationalist rebel, take control of a nuclear missile installation and threaten nuclear war if confronted.

The USS ''Alabama'', a U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarine, is dispatched on patrol with orders to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike if Radchenko fuels his missiles. Combat-hardened veteran Captain Frank Ramsey is in command and chooses Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter as his new XO, who has an extensive education in military history and tactics, but no combat experience.

Tensions arise between the headstrong Ramsey and the more analytical and cautious Hunter, exacerbated by Ramsey's decision to order a missile drill amidst the chaos caused by a galley fire that results in the death of the chief mess officer. Hunter helps fight the fire and discreetly questions the decision but is chastised by Ramsey for the appearance of discord.

''Alabama'' receives an Emergency Action Message ordering missile launch against the Russian base. As ''Alabama'' prepares to fire, a second radio message is detected before a rebel Russian attacks, damaging the ship's radio and leaving the message incomplete.

With the last confirmed order being to launch, Ramsey decides to proceed. Hunter refuses to concur as is required, believing the partial second message may be a retraction. When Hunter refuses to consent, Ramsey tries to relieve him of duty. Hunter orders Ramsey arrested for attempting to circumvent two-man protocol. The crew's loyalty is divided between Hunter and Ramsey, but the Chief of the Boat sides with Hunter in having Ramsey relieved of command and confined to his stateroom, putting Hunter in charge.

The Russian submarine attacks ''Alabama'' again. The American vessel emerges victorious but is hit by a torpedo. The main propulsion system is disabled and the bilge bay begins flooding. As the crew tries to restore propulsion, Hunter orders the sealing of the bilge with sailors trapped inside, saving the ship at the expense of the men. Just before the submarine reaches hull-crush depth, propulsion is restored.

Officers and crew loyal to Ramsey unite and retake the control room, confining Hunter, the Chief of the Boat, and a few others to the officers' mess. Repairs to the radio continue, but Ramsey is determined to proceed without waiting for verification. Hunter escapes his arrest and stages a second mutiny. In doing so, he gains the support of weapons officer Peter Ince in the missile control room, further delaying the launch and leading Ramsey to proceed to missile control. Hunter's party storms the ship's command center, removing the captain's missile key. Ramsey and his men return to the control room, resulting in an armed Mexican standoff. With news that the radio will soon be repaired, Ramsey and Hunter agree to wait until the deadline for missile launch. Communications are restored, revealing the full message from the second transmission – a retraction ordering that the missile launch be aborted because Radchenko's rebellion has been quelled. Ramsey turns the conn over to Hunter and returns to his cabin.

The two men are put before a tribunal at Naval Station Pearl Harbor to answer for their actions. The tribunal concludes that both men were both right and wrong, and Hunter's actions were deemed lawfully justified and in the best interests of the United States. Unofficially, the tribunal reprimands both men for failing to resolve their differences. Thanks to Ramsey's personal recommendation, the tribunal agrees to grant Hunter command of his own sub while allowing Ramsey to save face via an early retirement with full honors. The two men part ways amicably.

While in post-production on the low-budget slasher film ''Co-ed Frenzy'', Philadelphia sound technician Jack Terry (Travolta) is told by his producer Sam to obtain a more realistic-sounding scream and better wind effects. While recording potential sound effects at a local park, he sees a car careen off the road and plunge into a nearby creek. The male driver is killed, but Jack manages to rescue a young woman named Sally Bedina (Allen) and accompanies her to a hospital. There, a detective interviews Jack about the accident, and Jack asks Sally out for a drink. He learns that Governor George McRyan was driving the car and that Sally was his escort. Associates of McRyan attempt to conceal Sally's involvement, and persuade Jack to smuggle her out of the hospital.

Jack listens to the audio tape he recorded of the accident, wherein he distinctly hears a gunshot just before the tire blow-out that caused the accident, suspecting that the accident was actually an assassination. He learns from a news report that, seemingly coincidentally, Manny Karp (Franz) was also in the park that night and filmed the accident with a motion picture camera. When Karp sells stills from his film to a local tabloid, Jack splices them together into a crude movie, syncs them with his recorded audio and finds a visible flash and smoke from the fired gun. Though initially reluctant, Sally eventually agrees to cooperate with Jack to privately investigate the incident. When they go out for a drink, Jack reveals how he left his prior career as part of a government commission to root out police corruption after a wiretap operation he was involved in led to the death of an undercover cop named Freddie Corso.

Unbeknownst to Jack, Sally and Karp were both frequent blackmail co-conspirators who were hired as part of a larger plot against presidential hopeful McRyan. A rival candidate had hired Burke (Lithgow) to hook McRyan with a prostitute, take unflattering pictures of the pair, and publish them so that McRyan would drop out of the race. However, Burke decided to alter the plan by blowing out the tire of McRyan's car with a gunshot, thereby causing the accident. When the authorities arrived to find McRyan with Sally, Karp would be there to film it all. After botching the cover-up of Sally by murdering a look-alike, Burke murders two more look-alike women with piano wire and attributes the deaths to a serial killer, "the Liberty Bell Strangler", so that he can cover up the coverup when Sally is successfully murdered.

To help Jack investigate McRyan's murder, Sally steals Karp's film, which, when synced to Jack's audio, clearly reveals the gunshot that precipitated the blow-out. Nevertheless, nobody believes Jack's story and a seemingly widespread conspiracy immediately silences his every move. Local talk-show host Frank Donahue (Curt May) asks to interview Jack on air and release his tapes, to which Jack eventually agrees. Burke follows the development through a tap on Jack's phone, calls Sally as Donahue, and asks her to meet him at a train station with the tapes. When Sally tells Jack about Donahue's call, he becomes suspicious. He copies the audio tapes, but is unable to copy the film before Sally's meeting.

Shadowing a wired Sally from a distance, Jack is alarmed to see that his supposed contact is actually Burke. Immediately realizing that she is in danger, Jack attempts to warn her, but Sally and Burke slip out of range and into a parade. Jack manically dashes across the city, attempting to head them off and rescue Sally, but crashes his Jeep and is knocked out. By the time he awakens, Burke has gotten the film from Sally and thrown it into a river. He then takes Sally to a rooftop and attacks her. Still listening in on his earpiece, Jack spots them. He startles Burke and manages to stab him to death with his own weapon, but it is too late: he has already strangled Sally. A devastated Jack takes her lifeless body in his arms.

Burke's death, combined with the loss of the film, ties up the last loose end. Jack's audio tapes alone are insufficient to prove a gunshot and the cover-up is successful. Jack begins repeatedly listening to the recording of Sally's voice, becoming obsessed with it. In the last scene, he is back in the editing room and has used Sally's death scream in the slasher film. Ecstatic that Jack found the perfect scream, Sam plays it multiple times, forcing Jack to cover his ears.

Prologue

This segment was written and directed by John Landis. Two men are in a car driving along a country road late at night. The conversation turns to what episodes of ''The Twilight Zone'' they found most scary. The passenger then asks, "Do you want to see something ''really'' scary?" and says to pull over. He transforms into a monster and devours the driver.

'''Cast''' * Albert Brooks as the Driver * Dan Aykroyd as the Passenger

Segment one

The first segment is a partial reworking, but not a full remake, of the episode "A Quality of Mercy". This segment was also written and directed by John Landis.

Bill Connor is bitter after being passed over for a promotion in favor of a Jewish co-worker. Drinking in a bar after work with his friends, Bill utters slurs towards Jewish, black and Asian people. A black man sitting nearby asks him to stop. Bill leaves the bar angrily, and finds himself in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. A pair of SS officers patrolling the streets interrogate him. Bill can't answer satisfactorily since he doesn't speak German. A chase ensues, and Bill ends up on the ledge of a building, where he is shot at by the officers.

He falls from the ledge and lands in rural Alabama during the 1950s, where a group of Ku Klux Klansmen see him as an African-American man who they are about to lynch. Bill tells them he is white, to no avail. While trying to escape, he jumps into a lake and surfaces in a jungle during the Vietnam War, being fired at by American soldiers, one of whom throws a grenade. Instead of killing him, the grenade launches him into occupied France again. There he is captured by the SS officers and put into an enclosed railroad freight car, along with Jewish prisoners bound for a concentration camp. Bill sees the bar with his friends standing outside, looking for him. He screams for help, but they can't see or hear him or the train as it pulls away.

'''Cast'''

• Vic Morrow – Bill Connor
• Doug McGrath – Larry
• Charles Hallahan – Ray
• Rainer Peets and Kai Wulff – German officers
• Sue Dugan and Debby Porter – Waitresses
• Steven Williams – Bar Patron
• Annette Claudier – French mother
• Joseph Hieu and Al Leong – Vietnamese men
• Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen – Vietnamese children (scene deleted due to the death of both actors and Morrow during filming)
• Stephen Bishop – Charming G.I.
• Thomas Byrd, Vincent J. Isaac, Bill Taylor, and William S. Taylor – G.I.s
• Eddy Donno, Michael Milgron, and John Larroquette – Ku Klux Klan members
• Norbert Weisser – Soldier No. 1

Segment two

The second segment is a remake of the episode "Kick the Can". This segment was directed by Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, and Melissa Mathison (credited as Josh Rogan), and a story by Johnson.

An old man named Mr. Bloom has just moved into Sunnyvale Retirement Home. He listens to the other elders reminisce about the joys they experienced in their youth. Bloom insists that being elderly should not, and need not, prevent them from enjoying life. He invites them to join him, later that night, for a game of kick the can. Leo Conroy objects, saying that they cannot engage in physical activity because they are all elderly.

While Mr. Conroy sleeps, Mr. Bloom gathers the rest of the residents outside and plays the game, during which they are transformed into childhood versions of themselves. They are ecstatic to be young again, engaging in activities they enjoyed long ago, but their thoughts soon turn to practical matters such as where they will spend the night, since they will no longer be welcomed in the retirement home, and their families will not recognize them. They ask to be their true age again, and Mr. Bloom grants their wish, satisfied that, as with himself, their minds will remain young. Leo Conroy wakes up and notices that one resident, Mr. Agee, has opted to remain young. Conroy asks for Agee to take him along, but Agee tells him that such is impossible.

The next morning, Mr. Bloom finds Conroy kicking a can around the yard – having changed his outlook on life; Bloom breaks the fourth wall to assure the audience that "He'll get it." Bloom then departs from Sunnyvale for another retirement home, in order to spread his good-natured magic among other senior citizens.

'''Cast'''

• Scatman Crothers – Mr. Bloom
• Bill Quinn – Leo Conroy
• Martin Garner – Mr. Weinstein
• Selma Diamond – Mrs. Weinstein
• Helen Shaw – Mrs. Dempsey
• Murray Matheson – Mr. Agee
• Peter Brocco – Mr. Mute
• Priscilla Pointer – Miss Cox
• Scott Nemes – Young Mr. Weinstein
• Tanya Fenmore – Young Mrs. Weinstein
• Evan Richards – Young Mr. Agee
• Laura Mooney – Young Mrs. Dempsey
• Christopher Eisenmann – Young Mr. Mute
• Richard Swingler – Mr. Gray Panther
• Alan Haufrect – Mr. Conroy's Son
• Cheryl Socher – Mr. Conroy's Daughter-in-Law
• Elsa Raven – Nurse No. 2

Segment three

The third segment is a remake of the episode "It's a Good Life". This segment was directed by Joe Dante, from a screenplay by Richard Matheson, based on the short story by Jerome Bixby.

Helen Foley, traveling to a new job, visits a rural bar for directions. While talking to the owner, she witnesses a young boy, Anthony, being harassed by a local trying to watch a boxing match. Helen comes to the boy's defense. As Helen leaves the bar, she backs into Anthony with her car in the parking lot, damaging his bicycle. Helen offers Anthony a ride home.

When Helen arrives with Anthony at home, she meets his family: Uncle Walt, sister Ethel, and mother and father. Anthony's family are excessively welcoming. Anthony starts to show Helen around the house, while the family rifles through Helen's purse and coat. There is a television set in every room showing cartoons. She comes to the room of another sister, Sara. Helen calls out to the girl, who is in a wheelchair and watching television, and gets no response. Anthony explains that Sara had been in an accident; Helen is not able to see that the girl has no mouth.

Anthony announces that it is time for dinner, which consists of ice cream, candy apples, potato chips, and hamburgers topped with peanut butter. Confused at first at the family's unconventional diet, Helen thinks that this is a birthday dinner for Anthony. Ethel complains at the prospect of ''another'' birthday; Anthony glares at her, and her plate flies out of her hands. Helen attempts to leave, but Anthony urges Helen to stay and see Uncle Walt's "hat trick". A top hat appears on top of the television set. Uncle Walt is very nervous about what could be in the hat, but he pulls out an ordinary rabbit. Anthony insists on an encore, and a large, mutant rabbit springs from the hat. As Helen attempts to flee, she spills the contents of her purse, and Anthony finds a note inside stating "Help us! Anthony is a monster!" When the family points the finger at Ethel, she reveals to Helen that they are not Anthony's real relatives; Anthony brought them to his house to be his surrogate family after he killed his parents, and presumably he is doing the same with Helen. In punishment for writing the note, Anthony sends Ethel into the television set where she is pursued and eaten by a cartoon monster.

Helen attempts to escape only to have the door blocked by a giant eye. Anthony vents his frustration at everyone being afraid of him, summoning another cartoonish monster out of the television. When Helen tells him to "wish it away", he makes the entire house disappear, taking himself and Helen outside the physical plane of existence. Anthony says that he sent his "family" back where they came from, since they did not want to be with him. He cannot understand why everyone is unhappy with him, since he believes he provided for their every possible desire.

Helen offers to be Anthony's teacher and student, and help him find new uses for his power. After extracting a promise that she would never leave him, Anthony welcomes Helen's offer and makes her car reappear. As they drive through a barren landscape, meadows filled with bright flowers spring up alongside the road in the car's wake.

'''Cast'''

• Kathleen Quinlan – Helen Foley
• Jeremy Licht – Anthony
• Kevin McCarthy – Uncle Walt
• Patricia Barry – Mother
• William Schallert – Father
• Nancy Cartwright – Ethel
• Dick Miller – Walter Paisley
• Cherie Currie – Sara
• Bill Mumy – Tim
• Jeffrey Bannister – Charlie

Segment four

The fourth segment is a remake of the episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". This segment was directed by George Miller, and written by Richard Matheson.

While flying through a violent thunderstorm, airline passenger John Valentine is in a lavatory trying to recover from a panic attack due to a fear of flying. The flight attendants coax Valentine from the lavatory and back to his seat.

Valentine notices a hideous gremlin on the wing of the plane and spirals into another severe panic. He watches as the creature wreaks havoc on the wing, throwing debris into one of the plane's turbofan engines and causing a flameout. Valentine finally snaps and attempts to break the window with an oxygen canister, but is wrestled to the ground by another passenger, a sky marshal. Valentine takes the marshal's revolver, shoots out the window (causing a breach in the pressurized cabin), and begins firing at the gremlin. This catches the attention of the gremlin, who rushes up to Valentine and bites the gun in half. After they notice that the plane is landing, the gremlin grabs Valentine's face, then simply scolds him for spoiling its fun by wagging its finger in his face. The creature leaps into the sky and flies away as the airplane begins its emergency landing.

The police, crew, and passengers write off Valentine as insane. However, the aircraft maintenance crew arrives and finds the damage to the plane's engines complete with claw marks, while a straitjacketed Valentine is carried off in an ambulance. The ambulance driver is the car passenger from the prologue. The driver turns to Valentine and says "Heard you had a big scare up there, huh? Wanna see something ''really'' scary?"

'''Cast'''

• John Lithgow – John Valentine
• Abbe Lane – Sr. Flight attendant
• Donna Dixon – Jr. Flight attendant
• John Dennis Johnston – Co-Pilot
• Larry Cedar – Gremlin
• Charles Knapp – Sky marshal
• Byron McFarland – Pilot Announcement
• Christina Nigra – Little girl
• Lana Schwab – Mother
• Margaret Wheeler – Old woman
• Eduard Franz – Old man
• Margaret Fitzgerald – Young girl
• Jeffrey Weissman – Young man
• Carol Serling – Passenger
• Jeffrey Lampert, Frank Toth – Mechanics

At Riftgard, an isle in the far north, the ferret king, King Agarnu, and his cruel offspring, Princess Kurda and Prince Bladd hold sway over a Ratguard army and enslaved creatures. One of the slaves, Trisscar Swordmaid escapes with her friends Shogg and Welfo, southward to Mossflower. In the attempt, her friend Drufo is killed. Meanwhile, Kurda hires a pirate ship, the ''Seascab'', captained by Plugg Firetail, to take her to Mossflower, where she must find the royal artefacts of Riftgard to seal her queenship.

In Redwall Abbey, rebellious Dibbuns Ruggum and Bikkle run away into Mossflower Woods. They discover Brockhall, the ancestral home of badgers, but are chased away by serpents. Fortunately, they are rescued by the Skipper of Otters and Log-a-Log Groo, and they bring with them a golden pawring with strange markings.

Sagaxus, heir to Salamandastron, and his friend Bescarum Lepuswold Whippscut (who go by Sagax and Scarum respectively), leave the mountain for adventure with Kroova Wavedog, in his ketch the ''Stopdog''. Scarum's father, Colonel Whippscut of the Long Patrol, searches for them in the name of Lord Hightor, the Badger Lord. Sagax finds a bow on the ketch (the property of its previous owners) with similar markings to the pawring. They disregard it and decide to journey to Redwall, and on their way, they wind up in possession of a dagger with the same pattern.

Triss and her friends, in their ship, see the same markings. Triss is able to interpret them as an R, H, O, and R, standing for "Royal House of Riftgard". On the journey, they become dehydrated, but are rescued by the hedgehogs of Peace Island. Welfo remains with her newfound love, Urtica, while Triss and Shogg continue south. They cross paths with Kurda on the ''Seascab'' in the middle of a lightning storm, but the contraband vessel escapes.

Meanwhile, the Redwall denizens try to explore Brockhall, but it is inhabited by three serpents, one of which wears a crown with the Riftgard pattern. The adders, Zassaliss, Harssacss, and Sesstra, are the children of Berussca, an adder slain by and who in turn slew King Sarengo, Agarnu's father; they remain bound by Sarengo's mace and chain. Ovus, a tawny owl, brings Bluddbeak, an ancient red kite from afar to defeat the adders, but in their attempt, both birds die. Mokug, a golden hamster who had been Sarengo's slave, is rescued and brings with him a message in Riftgard script. Martin the Warrior visits Skipper's niece, Churk, in her dreams, giving the Redwallers the hint they need to decode the message, but it is a riddle that's difficult to interpret.

Elsewhere, Sagax, Scarum, and Kroova are captured by the crew of the ''Seascab'', and the ''Stopdog'' is destroyed. Triss and Shogg meet up with them, and together they are able to escape. Kroova and Shogg set up a hidden stake that injures Plugg, and his tail falls off, though he reattaches it with pine resin.

Kurda and her vermin then cross paths with the Redwallers, who fend them off, while Triss, Shogg, Sagax, Scarum, and Kroova enter the safety of the abbey. Triss sees the Sword of Martin and is immediately drawn to it, wielding it as the Redwallers continue to battle the Ratguard army. Bladd is killed by a falling pot of oatmeal, and Plugg is killed by the snakes, while Kurda concentrates her efforts on destroying the denizens of Redwall.

Eventually, Skipper's niece helps solve the riddle, which leads the Redwallers to Brockhall. There they encounter both the Ratguards and the snakes. During the ensuing battle, Shogg, Sagax, and Triss kill Sesstra, Harssacss, and Zassaliss, but Shogg is poisoned and dies by Triss's side. Later, Triss and Kurda face off, but Kurda falls on her own sword and dies.

Triss, Kroova, Sagax, Scarum, Groo, Skipper, Mokug, and others sail to Riftgard and free the slaves. There, King Agarnu is drowned by the slaves. Kroova stays on Riftgard with the sea otter Sleeve, and the others return to Redwall Abbey.

This article is licensed under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License]. It uses material from the [https://redwall.fandom.com/wiki/Triss_(book) Redwall Wiki article Triss].

A high school girl named Himeno Awayuki is attempting to adjust to her new life after her widowed father remarries wealthy widow Natsue. While taking a short cut to school, Himeno jumps out of a bush and lands on Hayate, the Knight of Wind. After some arguing Himeno wants to punch Hayate, but he blocks her hand causing a powerful light. Later she meets the other Leafe Knights who tell her that the red snow that has been falling on the town recently is being caused by the Princess of Disaster who is awakening, and that she is using demon larva to absorb Leafe, the essence of all life. They ask Himeno to become the Prétear and help them protect the world. Himeno is initially reluctant, believing they are trying to play a trick on her. When a larva attacks them and begins stealing leafe, Himeno agrees to help. Hayate tells her to take his hand and she merges with him to become the Wind Prétear. After adjusting to her new powers, Himeno is able to defeat the larva.

As the series progresses, Himeno finds herself slowly falling in love with Hayate, who is initially cold and refuses to acknowledge her as the Prétear. Eventually she learns the Princess of Disaster was once a girl named Takako, who was the last Prétear. She had not enjoyed fighting, but did it anyway, also falling in love with Hayate. When he could not return her feelings, her anguish caused her powers to turn to evil, changing her into the Princess of Disaster.

Mawata, one of Himeno's stepsisters, has been overwhelmed with grief since the death of her father and holds herself distant from her family. She and Himeno temporarily connect over their shared feelings, but Mawata is hurt when she sees Himeno with Hayate. Mawata is in love with Sasame, but it is revealed that he was in love with Takako. He throws away his status as a Leafe Knight and joins Takako to become her Knight of Darkness. Takako uses Mawata's love for Sasame to hurt her even more, enabling Takako to use her to fuel the Great Tree of Fenrir.

The town is overrun by the Great Tree. To protect the rest of her family, Himeno reveals her Prétear powers to them, then begs them to escape while she rescues Mawata. Instead, the family refuses to leave Mawata behind and put themselves in great physical danger to rescue her. Hayate and Sasame engage in a battle to the death, and Himeno climbs the Great Tree of Fenrir. Himeno's family starts attacking the bubble holding Mawata, calling to her desperately. Himeno continues up the tree to confront the Princess of Disaster. Mawata is freed and safe in the arms of her family. Takako doesn't want her to go and becomes desperate calling out for Sasame who appears after beating Hayate in battle. Fenrir asks Sasame to kill both Hayate and Himeno, but he is convinced by Himeno not to. Believing that not even Sasame loves her, Takako tries to kill herself, but Sasame shields her and dies. Takako comes back to her true self realizing that she loved Sasame too. Out of control, the tree captures Takako. Himeno tries to save her and she's attacked by the tree. Hayate shields her and then he dies in her arms.

To stop the tree, Himeno by herself becomes the legendary White Prétear and pours out a massive amount of Leafe. The town is restored, the Leafe Knights healed, and Sasame and Hayate are brought back to life. Hayate awakens to find the others crying over Himeno's lifeless body, lying in the grass as if she were sleeping. In agony, he holds her, then kisses her, which restores her life and enables her to awaken. At the end of the series, Himeno and Hayate are a couple, Himeno and her family are closer, Mawata is happier, and Takako is seen quietly sitting with Sasame.

At the start of the series, Ito Miura meets the beautiful transfer student Makoto Amano, and the girls become instant friends. Their personalities are completely different—Makoto is calm, quiet, and beautifully feminine, while Ito speaks, dresses, and behaves like a boy—but they share the same dream: becoming an actor. As soon as Makoto gets on stage at the drama club, it is clear she has talent, enough so she is cast as Juliet in the upcoming production of ''Romeo and Juliet'', opposite Ito as Romeo. However, Makoto has a rival for the role in Tsugumi Nomura, an upperclassman who is obsessed with the boyish Ito. Worse, Ito learns Makoto's secret: "she" is actually a "he". Makoto's strict father wants him to inherit the family dojo, and made a bet with his son—if Makoto shows he has the skill to pose as a female for his last two years of high school, he can become an actor as he wishes, but if anyone discovers his gender, he must stay home and accept the dojo. Ito agrees to keep Makoto's secret so that he could continue with his dream.

The series follows Ito and Makoto during their last two years of high school, as they work to improve their acting and keep Makoto's secret. They start out just as friends, but continue as boyfriend and girlfriend. One of the obstacles they must face is keeping their relationship a secret from their family and friends, both because of Makoto's assumed gender and it would expose his secret. They must also worry about Makoto's jealous arranged fiancée, Takayo, and her brother, who has a strong sister complex, and Ito's various suitors. All the while, the drama club performs various plays, some of which are essential to demonstrating Makoto's acting skill to his father.

The first part of the novel is laid out as an opera, with act and scene numbers as chapter titles and each of the characters being assigned a singing voice. Joseph quickly begins to suspect that Cynthia's entire family is engaging in incestuous behaviour, and that her mother Mimi is building a golem in the basement. The first part of the novel ends (operatically) in death. The second part is presented somewhat more conventionally, as Joseph attempts to recover from the events of the first part; this half of the book follows the form of a 12-step program. The first section of the novel is printed in black ink, while the 12-step program is printed in dark red.

Category:2000 American novels Category:Novels by Daniel Handler Category:Jewish American novels Category:Novels set in Pittsburgh Category:Thomas Dunne Books books

During a battle in Antarctica with the original ''Gotengo'', the monster Godzilla is entrapped under ice by a cave-in caused by a series of missiles fired off from the submarine. In 2020, environmental disasters cause the appearance of giant monsters and superhumans, dubbed "mutants", who are then recruited into the Earth Defense Force (EDF) to battle the monsters. An upgraded ''Gotengo'', commanded by Captain Douglas Gordon, battles and destroys Manda in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, but the ship is wrecked in the process and Gordon is suspended from the EDF.

Mutant soldier Shinichi Ozaki is tasked with guarding a U.N. biologist, Dr. Miyuki Otonashi, who is sent to study a mummified monster. They are teleported to Infant Island where they encounter the Shobijin, fairies of Mothra, who reveal the mummified monster as Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy the Earth who was ultimately defeated by Mothra. They warn that a battle between good and evil will happen soon and that Ozaki must choose a side. Suddenly, giant monsters attack several major cities: Rodan attacks New York City, Anguirus attacks Shanghai, Zilla attacks Sydney, King Caesar attacks Okinawa, Kamacuras attacks Paris, Kumonga attacks Arizona, Ebirah attacks Tokai, and Hedorah attacks an unknown location. The EDF engages the creatures, until the monsters mysteriously vanish as an alien mothership appears over Tokyo. The aliens, named Xiliens, warn that an incoming planet called "Gorath" will soon impact the Earth, and offer their help to destroy it. A peace pact is signed between Earth and the Xiliens. Meanwhile, Minilla, Godzilla's son, is found in the forests of Japan by Kenta Taguchi and his grandfather Samon Taguchi.

Distrusting the Xiliens, Ozaki, Miyuki, and Miyuki's sister Anna discover that the Gorath shown by the Xiliens is actually a hologram and that the aliens have replaced several members of the EDF with duplicates. After the Xiliens are exposed with help from Gordon and the other mutants, the Xiliens' Controller (who called himself "X" during an interview on a radio show) kills his superior to assume command, revealing the plan to use humans as a food source while taking control of all the mutants except for Ozaki through a property in their DNA known as "M-base". X also has the monsters placed under his control through M-base in their DNA and awakens Gigan to wipe out the EDF. The group escapes in a repaired ''Gotengo'', although Gigan pursues them. Gordon convinces them to travel to Antarctica to release Godzilla, who is immune to Xilien control thanks to his lack of M-base and easily destroys Gigan. The ''Gotengo'' then guides Godzilla into battle with the other monsters: he defeats Zilla, Kumonga, Kamacuras, Rodan, King Caesar, Anguirus, Ebirah, and Hedorah, and then returns to Tokyo to engage the Xiliens. After penetrating the mothership, the humans are captured and brought before X as he summons Gorath to Earth. Godzilla destroys Gorath just before it crashes, but this unleashes Monster X and the two monsters battle. An upgraded Gigan joins Monster X but is intercepted by Mothra, who is gravely wounded while managing to destroy the cyborg.

In the Xilien ship, X reveals that both he and Ozaki are superior beings known as "Keizers", powerful beings distinct from regular mutants born on rare occasions when human DNA and M-base are combined, before directly taking control of Ozaki to turn him against the group. A fight breaks out, and X loses control of Ozaki due to the Shobijins' blessing. Ozaki unlocks his true power and defeats X, who triggers the ship's self-destruct as the group falls back to the ''Gotengo'' moments before the mothership explodes. Godzilla and Monster X continue their battle, but a dying X transfers his Keizer energy to Monster X, enabling it to transform into its final form, Keizer Ghidorah. Godzilla is nearly killed by Keizer Ghidorah, but Ozaki transfers some of his own Keizer energy to Godzilla, giving him the strength to emerge victorious. Godzilla then shoots down the ''Gotengo'', before turning his ire towards its crew after they leave the damaged vessel. Fortunately, Minilla shows up at the scene and convinces Godzilla not to kill the humans. The humans watch as Godzilla and Minilla return to the ocean.

In a future society, all nineteen-year-olds go through a process known as "the Transformation", in which each person's body is changed to a physically attractive design chosen from a selection of numbered models. The process also slows deterioration due to age and confers immunity to disease, extending human lifespans, as well as making unspecified psychological corrections. Due to the overwhelming popularity of female model 12 and male model 17, all adults wear name badges to avoid confusion.

Eighteen-year-old Marilyn Cuberle decides not to undergo the Transformation. Nobody else can understand Marilyn's decision, and those around her are confused by her displeasure with the conformity and shallowness of contemporary life. Her "radical" beliefs were fostered by her now-deceased father, who gave Marilyn banned books and came to regret his own Transformation years earlier, committing suicide upon the loss of his identity.

When Dr. Rex is told about her decision, he has Marilyn confined to a hospital room against her will, ostensibly to psychologically examine her and cure her of her reason for refusing the procedure. Marilyn suspects that despite not being legally required, the Transformation is not optional, and is being maintained by the leaders of society to ensure conformity. Her best friend Valerie, who has already undergone the Transformation, shows no emotional reaction to Marilyn's protests, even when she is driven to tears. Marilyn realizes that no one who has undergone the Transformation remains capable of any empathy for or understanding of her. She tries to escape from the hospital, but ends up in the operating room to undergo the Transformation.

Dr. Rex, who operated on Marilyn, comments that some people have problems with the idea of the Transformation but that "improvements" to the procedure now guarantee a positive result. Marilyn reappears, looking and thinking ''exactly'' like Valerie. "And the nicest part of all, Val", she gushes, "I look just like you!"

Every episode had a different theme to it (e.g., "Hawaiian Day" or "Astronaut Day") and saw the Anipals usually getting into some sort of trouble, not wanting to do whatever their happy-go-lucky host had in mind for the day.

The theme song describes this show as the "last cartoon show of the day".

This show didn't show any cartoons from ''The Ambiguously Gay Duo'', ''The Michael Jackson Show'', and/or ''The X-Presidents'' despite some of its characters appearing in the theme song.

The basic lore of the series is built around a Queen who fairly and wisely rules a Universe. By balancing elemental forces with the help of nine Guardians, she keeps the various planets in her domain stable and her people content. However, the powers of the Queen and the Guardians fade over time, and successors must be appointed. In the first game ''Angelique'', the protagonist is a 17-year-old girl named Angelique Limoges who has been chosen by the current Queen and her aide Dia as one of two candidates from the Royal Smallney Girls' Academy to become the next Queen. She is transported to the Flying City to begin her final examination.

Each of the candidates is given a land to populate. Whoever finishes populating their land first wins and becomes the next Queen. It is done with the help of nine Guardians who use their powers to make the people of the candidate's land happy, or to devastate their rival's lands. Along the way, the candidates become friends with the Guardians and can fall in love. If they choose love, they forfeit their chance to become Queen, but will live happily ever after.

The story expands in later titles, but most entries in the series feature girls named Angelique or its short form name (Enju or Ange) as the protagonist, with ever larger casts of characters. The roster of potential love interests swells to 19 characters in later titles (in ''Angelique Trois'' and ''Angelique Etoile'').

The film begins with a close-up of the inscription above the stage in the ballroom of the Blackpool Tower: "Bid me discourse, I will enchant thine ear", from the poem ''Venus and Adonis'' by William Shakespeare. As the camera pans around the ballroom giving a view of the dancers, a voice-over explains that in Japan, ballroom dancing is treated with suspicion.

Successful ''salaryman'' Shohei Sugiyama (Kōji Yakusho) has a house in the suburbs, a devoted wife, Masako (Hideko Hara), and a teenage daughter, Chikage (Ayano Nakamura), and works as an accountant for a firm in Tokyo. Despite these external signs of success, however, Shohei begins to feel as if his life has lost direction and meaning and falls into depression.

One night, while coming home on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, he spots a beautiful woman with a melancholic expression looking out from a window in a dance studio: Mai Kishikawa (Tamiyo Kusakari), a well-known figure on the Western ballroom dance circuit. Becoming infatuated with her, he decides to take lessons in order to get to know her better.

Shohei's life changes once his classes begin. Rather than Mai, his teacher is Tamako Tamura (Reiko Kusamura), who becomes an important mentor to him. He meets his classmates: Tōkichi Hattori (Yu Tokui) who joined to impress his wife, and Masahiro Tanaka (Hiromasa Taguchi) who joined to lose weight. He also meets Toyoko Takahashi (Eriko Watanabe), another student. He further discovers that one of his colleagues from work, Tomio Aoki (Naoto Takenaka), frequents the dance studio. Tomio, who is balding and mocked at work for his rigid ways, is revealed to be secretly a long-haired (via a wig) ballroom dancer. Though distant from her, the classes increase his infatuation for Mai. His secret thus becomes twofold: not only must he hide the lessons from his wife, he must also hide them from his friends and colleagues as it is considered embarrassing according to traditional Japanese customs to participate in Western ballroom dance.

Later, after being rebuffed by Mai, Shohei discovers to his surprise that his passion for ballroom dance outweighs his infatuation with her. Indeed, dancing, rather than Mai, gives Shohei the meaning in life that he was looking for.

Masako, noticing his odd behavior, believes he is having an affair, prompting her to hire a private detective to follow him. Meanwhile, along with his classmates, Shohei enters an amateur competition, only to find out that his wife, having finally learned the truth from the detective (who has now become a devoted fan of ballroom dancing), is in the audience. Surprised by this, he stumbles and nearly knocks his dance partner to the floor. Though he successfully catches her, he accidentally rips the skirt of her dress off. Both leave the contest, later learning that Tomio won. When Tomio is ridiculed at work after his colleagues read of his success in the newspaper, Shohei stands up and tells them not to mock something they don't understand.

At home, Shohei's wife tries to understand her husband's new passion by asking him to teach her to dance as well. He is invited to a farewell party for Mai, who is leaving for Blackpool. At the party, Mai joins him to dance, asking him "Shall we dance?"

The story follows two main characters: Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau), a successful and reputable ophthalmologist, and Clifford Stern (Woody Allen), a small-time documentary filmmaker.

Judah, an upper-class respected family man, is having an affair with flight attendant Dolores Paley (Anjelica Huston). After it becomes clear to her that Judah will not end his marriage, Dolores threatens to disclose the affair to Judah's wife, Miriam (Claire Bloom). She is also aware of some questionable financial deals Judah made before becoming a wealthy ophthalmologist, which adds to his stress. He confides in a patient, Ben (Sam Waterston), a rabbi who is rapidly losing his eyesight. Ben advises openness and honesty between Judah and his wife, but Judah does not wish to imperil his marriage. Desperate, Judah turns to his brother, Jack (Jerry Orbach), a gangster, who hires a hitman to kill Dolores. Before her corpse is discovered, Judah retrieves letters and other items from her apartment in order to cover his tracks. Stricken with guilt, Judah turns to the religious teachings he had rejected, believing for the first time that a just God is watching him and passing judgment.

Cliff, meanwhile, has been hired by his pompous brother-in-law, Lester (Alan Alda), a successful television producer, to make a documentary celebrating Lester's life and work. Cliff grows to despise him. While filming and mocking the subject, Cliff falls in love with Lester's associate producer, Halley Reed (Mia Farrow). Despondent over his failing marriage to Lester's sister Wendy (Joanna Gleason), he woos Halley, showing her footage from his ongoing documentary about Prof. Louis Levy (psychologist Martin S. Bergmann), a renowned philosopher. He makes sure Halley is aware that he is shooting Lester's documentary merely for the money so he can finish his more meaningful project with Levy.

Cliff learns that Professor Levy, whom he had been profiling for a documentary centered on his philosophical views and the strength of his celebration of life, has committed suicide, leaving a curt note that only says: "I've gone out the window". When Halley visits to comfort him, he makes a pass at her, which she gently rebuffs, telling him she isn't ready for another romance. Cliff's dislike for Lester becomes evident during the first screening of the film. Cliff has maliciously edited the movie, which juxtaposes footage of Lester with clownish poses of Benito Mussolini addressing a throng of supporters from a balcony. It also shows Lester yelling at his employees and clumsily making a pass at an attractive young actress. Lester fires him.

Adding to Cliff's burdens, Halley leaves for London, where Lester is offering her a producing job; when she returns several months later, Cliff is astounded to discover that she and Lester are engaged. Hearing that Lester sent Halley white roses "round the clock, for days" while they were in London, Cliff is crestfallen as he realizes he is incapable of that kind of ostentatious display. His last romantic gesture to Halley had been a love letter which he had mostly plagiarized from James Joyce including references to Dublin.

In the final scene, Judah and Cliff meet by happenstance at the wedding of the daughter of Rabbi Ben, who is Cliff's brother-in-law and Judah's patient. Judah has worked through his guilt and is enjoying life once more; the murder had been blamed on a drifter with a criminal record. He draws Cliff into a supposedly hypothetical discussion that draws upon his moral quandary. Judah says that with time, any crisis will pass; but Cliff morosely claims instead that one is forever fated to bear one's burdens for "crimes and misdemeanors". Judah cheerfully leaves the wedding party with his wife, and Cliff is left sitting alone, dejected.

The wedding party continues. Ben the rabbi, who is now blind, shares a dance with his daughter while the voice of Prof. Levy is heard, saying that the universe is a dark and indifferent place which human beings fill with love, in the hope that it will give the void a meaning.

Bobby has ties to the local mafia boss, Max, but works as an honest mason for Max's construction projects. He fights in amateur boxing matches on the side, but his career is lackluster (five wins, five losses, one draw). Struggling to support his stripper girlfriend Jessica and her daughter Chloe, Bobby decides to do a mafia job for Max. Against his better judgment, he brings along his ne'er-do-well friend Ricky.

Bobby and Ricky go to New York to act as Max's representatives for a money laundering deal with his East Coast partner, Ruiz. They meet Jimmy, who will be their driver, and Horrace, who is connected to both Max and Ruiz. Ricky and Bobby squabble throughout their trip as Ricky tries to live large while Bobby wants to stay cautious and stick to the letter of Max's instructions. Ruiz has a low opinion of the pair, but sends them off to show his criminal contact, the Welshman, a good time. Gaffing several times along the way, the pair eventually manage to arrange a deal between Ruiz and the Welshman's Westie contacts.

Ricky grows suspicious of Ruiz, and insists that they bring a gun to their meeting with the Westies. Bobby adamantly refuses. On the day of the meet, Ricky has disappeared, but Jimmy insists that Bobby carry on with the meeting. As Bobby begins to grow suspicious of Jimmy, he meets with the Welshman and the Westies. The Westies double-cross Bobby and the Welshman, but Ricky arrives from a side entrance with a gun. A Westie recognizes Ricky's weapon as a starter pistol and a fight breaks out. Jimmy arrives with a real pistol and sends the boys away while he deals with the Westies.

Back in Los Angeles, Bobby severs all business ties with Max. Arriving home, he discovers Jessica in bed with a client and snorting cocaine. Bobby tries to convince Jessica to clean up her act for Chloe's sake, but Jessica refuses. Instead, she asks that Bobby take custody of Chloe and leave. In an epilogue set at Chuck E. Cheese's, we learn that Bobby and Ricky are now raising Chloe together, although the two friends still bicker constantly.

An astronaut, Major Robert Gaines, is orbiting Earth in his space capsule. Suddenly, his communication systems stop functioning and he blacks out, waking up on Earth with no memory of his return. He appears to be none the worse for his experiences and is released to the custody of his family.

However, inconsistencies quickly pop up. His daughter senses that he is not the same person. His house has a white picket fence that he's never seen, though his wife insists that it was there when they bought the house. Everyone calls him Colonel (confirmed by the rank insignia on his uniform) when he knows he's a Major, and he insists that the President of the United States is John F. Kennedy, a man whom no one else has ever heard of. Gaines concludes that he has slipped into a parallel universe. His acquaintances see this as nonsense until a mechanic reports his space capsule is not completely identical to the one he was sent out in. Gaines is summoned to examine the capsule, but when he approaches it he is gradually returned to the point at which he left his own universe.

He lands his craft safely and reports what happened to his superiors. They are prepared to write it off as a nightmare, but controllers on the ground subsequently receive another transmission—from ''Colonel'' Robert Gaines. The transmission cuts out a few seconds later, and the Colonel disappears from radar. The Major returns home and happily confirms that his daughter now recognizes him and the white picket fence is absent.

A joint operation between the FBI and the MVD in Moscow leads to the killing of the younger brother of the Azerbaijani mafia leader Terek Murad. In retaliation, Murad hires an international hitman, operating under the codename "the Jackal", to assassinate an unidentified prominent American for $70 million. Two weeks later, the MVD capture and interrogate one of Murad's henchmen, Viktor Politovsky in Porvoo, Finland, and discover the assassination plot. The interrogation, coupled with recovered documents, leads the FBI and MVD to suspect that FBI Director Donald Brown is the intended target.

Using a series of disguises and stolen IDs, the Jackal prepares for the assassination attempt. FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston and Russian Police Major Valentina Koslova turn to imprisoned IRA sniper Declan Mulqueen for help. They believe that his former lover, a former ETA militant and fugitive named Isabella Zancona, can identify the Jackal. Mulqueen reveals that he knows the Jackal and agrees to help in exchange for his release as well as U.S. citizenship and safe haven for Zancona. Mulqueen and Zancona want revenge on the Jackal after he wounded her in Libya and caused her to miscarry their unborn child. Zancona, now married, provides information to help identify the Jackal, including that he is a United States Army Special Forces veteran with combat experience from his stationing in El Salvador. Zancona discreetly slips Mulqueen a key to a drop box containing a clean passport and $10,000 cash to return to Ireland. However, Mulqueen has given Preston his word that he will not run.

Meanwhile, when the Jackal arrives in Montreal to collect a large caliber weapon, a contact notifies him that hijackers are pursuing it. The Jackal kills one hijacker and evades the others. He then hires a small-time hood/gunsmith, Ian Lamont, to build a control mount for the weapon. The Jackal demands that all design specs be turned over to him, and he also demands Lamont's complete confidentiality. When Lamont tries extorting more money from the Jackal, the Jackal kills him while test-firing the weapon. The FBI discovers Lamont's remains and evidence that the Jackal intends to utilize a long-range machine gun for the assassination. He then sails across the Great Lakes to Chicago, where he escapes the FBI and nearly kills Mulqueen. Mulqueen deduces that there is a mole tipping off the Jackal. They discover that the director of the Russian Embassy in Washington DC gave the Jackal a direct access code to FBI records, allowing him to kill Koslova and Agents Witherspoon and McMurphy.

As the Jackal drives to Washington DC, Mulqueen deduces from one of the Jackal's taunts that his target is actually the First Lady of the United States, who is scheduled to give a public speech. The Jackal, pretending to be gay, dates Douglas, a man he encountered earlier in a bar; unbeknownst to Douglas, he uses Douglas's garage to store his machine gun away. When a news report exposes the Jackal's identity, he kills Douglas. On the date of the First Lady's speech, the weapon is hidden in a small SUV parked near the speaker podium. The Jackal plans to shoot the First Lady via remote control. However, before the Jackal can act, Mulqueen uses a sniper rifle to destroy the weapon's scope. The Jackal then blindly opens fire, and Preston takes a bullet that is fired at the First Lady. Following a chase through the Washington Metro tunnels, Zancona shoots the Jackal, seriously wounding him; however, the Jackal's gun goes off, and Mulqueen is hit. While Zancona consoles Mulqueen, the Jackal, who was merely wounded, pulls another pistol. Seeing this, Mulqueen grabs Zancona's weapon and shoots the Jackal several times, finally killing him.

A few days later, Preston and Mulqueen witness the Jackal's burial in an unmarked grave. Preston reveals that he is returning to Russia to pursue Murad. He says that Mulqueen's request to be released was denied, but that he will likely be moved to a minimum security prison. Preston's heroics in saving the First Lady have enhanced his clout within the FBI. He turns his back on Mulqueen, allowing him to go free.

Paul is an upper-class young man who is about to start at a ''grande école'', one of the system of mostly public colleges to which students are admitted based on a highly competitive process and whose graduates often gain prestigious employment. He has chosen to live with two new roommates instead of his girlfriend Agnès.

As a result, with his studies, he has little time to see her. Agnès perceives cracks in their relationship when she suspects Paul's attraction to one of his new roommates, the aristocratic Louis-Arnault. Paul denies any homosexual attraction, but Agnès decides to make a bet with him: whichever of them beds Louis-Arnault first, wins. If she does, Paul must stop exploring his sexuality; if he does, she will leave him.

Before the bet plays out, Paul meets Mécir, a young Arab worker, who becomes besotted with him. With Mécir, Paul goes on a journey of discovery that changes many of his ideas about class, cultural differences and sexuality.

The story is set in a 19th-century-like England, in a small town called Draftingshire-Upon-Topsmart. An orphaned Pip is on his way to visit his parents' grave. While there, an escaped convict appears and threatens Pip. Pip, out of the goodness of his heart, aids the convict by giving him food and cutting the convict's handcuffs. He then goes home, where his sister's husband Joe reads an advertisement about a Miss Havisham seeking a boy to play with her daughter. Pip goes and meets the daughter, Estella, who constantly insults him. Miss Havisham hires Pip and throughout their playtimes he eventually falls in love with Estella.

Pip fears Estella could never marry a commoner like him. However, an offer comes for Pip from an anonymous benefactor to move to London and learn how to become a gentleman. Pip assumes the benefactor is Miss Havisham and accepts. In London, Pip meets his roommate Mr. Pocket who tells the story of Miss Havisham: she got engaged but was left at the altar, causing her to stop all the clocks in the house and never leave the house again. Pip spends the rest of his time in London learning how to be a gentleman.

After his time in London, he shows up at Miss Havisham's house, where she tells Pip that he can find Estella at a party at the palace. At the ball, Pip and Estella dance, and talk about how Pip is now a fine young gentleman. Estella says that she has no heart, and cannot love. Just before Pip asks Estella to be his girlfriend, her boyfriend, a modernly American seventeen-year-old named Steve, enters the scene.

Pip, saddened, runs to tell Miss Havisham, only to find that she approves of Steve. Miss Havisham is glad that Estella has broken Pip's heart and she explains that she has Estella break men's hearts to use their tears to power her "Genesis Device". She desires youth and wants to use the device to switch bodies with Estella. She then uses robot monkeys to attack Pip. Pip escapes and falls unconscious, awakening back home with Joe and Pocket. The anonymous person who sent Pip to London is revealed to be the escaped convict Pip met at the beginning of the story. Because of Pip's kindness, the convict led a life of goodness and became a millionaire. Sending Pip to London was his way of repaying Pip for the good that Pip did for him. The four of them, Pip, Joe, Pocket, and the convict, decide to stop Miss Havisham.

The group returns to the mansion discovering a bunch of men and boys with broken hearts and Miss Havisham powering up her device. Despite difficulties, such as the convict getting killed by an acid-spewing Miss Havisham, Pip manages to convince Estella to leave the machine, destroying it and setting Miss Havisham on fire. Fleeing the burning mansion, Pip's group and the hostage males escape as Estella finally declares her love for Pip. Ending the story, the narrator states that the characters "all lived happily ever after, except for Pocket, who died of Hepatitis B."

The neighborhood's cat owners all (literally) throw their cats out for the night. Porky Pig attempts to do the same, but his four cats (a tall black and white lisping cat (Sylvester), a medium-sized tabby named Gerald, a diminutive kitten named Pedro, and a dumb drunkard cat named Jose) attempt to turn the tables and throw ''him'' out into the snow. Porky states that he's starting to hate pussycats. Porky bangs on the door, demanding to be let in, but the cats pop out of the door and proclaim in unison, "Milkman, keep those bottles quiet!", and then slam the door in his face which soon leads to a battle between Porky and his cats for the house.

While the cats are lounging around, a furious Porky bursts through the window, making an incredibly menacing face. He chases them around the house until one of them throws him into a cabinet full of dishes and a teapot. Porky retaliates by setting his pet dog "Lassie" on the cats. The cats see the dog's shadow and run for their lives, not knowing that "Lassie" is for real only a shadow puppet created with Porky's fingers and he doesn't for real have a dog.

When Sylvester finds out that they've been tricked, he and the others plot revenge, which is exacted by having the cats create a ''War of the Worlds''-esque sensation about invading aliens, disguising themselves as the aliens and driving Porky into a panic over "Men from Mars!" Porky gets frightened and tries to shoot them with a gun but the cats, now dressed like Teddy Roosevelt, charge at Porky with swords and run him out of the house once and for all and winning the battle. Homeless, alone, and cold in the snow, Porky turns to the camera and asks the audience if they have a vacancy for a house.

After his owner Mr. Wing dies, the ''mogwai'' Gizmo becomes the guinea pig of scientists at a lab in the Clamp Center, a state-of-the-art highrise building in Manhattan, owned by eccentric billionaire Daniel Clamp. At the mercy of the chief researcher Dr. Catheter, Gizmo is rescued by his former owner Billy Peltzer and his fiancée Kate, both of whom work elsewhere in the building. Clamp befriends Billy upon being impressed by his skills in concept design, sparking the interest of Billy's superior Marla Bloodstone. Gizmo is left in the office, where water spills on his head from a broken drinking fountain and spawns four new ''mogwai'', one of them being Mohawk, a reincarnation of Stripe. They detain Gizmo in the air vents and later eat at the building's food court after midnight, becoming gremlins.

After Gizmo escapes from the vent, Mohawk captures and tortures him. The other gremlins set off the fire sprinklers and spawn a gremlin army that throws the building into chaos. Billy attempts to lure the gremlins into the lobby, where sunlight will kill them; after Billy briefs Clamp on gremlin knowledge, Clamp exits through a secret tunnel to cover the front of the building in a giant sheet to trick the creatures. The gremlins drink genetic serums in the lab; one becomes the intelligent Brain Gremlin, another gremlin becomes female, and a third becomes a being of pure electricity and kills Dr. Catheter before Billy traps it in the building's telephone system. All the while, television host "Grandpa Fred" films the chaos, aided by a Japanese tourist named Mr. Katsuji.

Murray Futterman, Billy's neighbor from Kingston Falls who is visiting New York City with his wife Sheila, is attacked by a bat-gremlin hybrid immunized to sunlight by the Brain Gremlin with "genetic sunblock". After fending it off, Murray realizes that he is not crazy and has to help; when Clamp escapes the building using his secret route, Murray uses it to sneak inside to aid Billy. Billy and chief of security Forster team up, but the enamored female gremlin chases Forster off. Mohawk drinks a spider serum and transforms into a monstrous gremlin-spider hybrid. He attacks Kate and Marla, but Gizmo saves them by killing Mohawk with an ignited bottle of white-out.

Billy's plan to kill the gremlins by flooding the lobby with sunlight fails when rain clouds block the sun. He instead directs Murray to spray the gremlins with a fire hose, then releases the electric one from the telephone to electrocute and melt them all. Clamp charges in with the police and press, but sees the conflict is resolved; thrilled by the result, he promotes Billy, Kate, Fred, and Marla and hires Mr. Katsuji as a cameraman. Billy and Kate then return home with Gizmo. Forster calls Clamp to notify him that he is trapped at the highest floor of the building. The female gremlin, the only surviving gremlin, corners him and entices him to marry her.

The narrator, like Aquin himself, turns his adventures into a spy thriller to while away the time he is forced to spend in the psychiatric ward of a Montreal prison, where he is awaiting a trial for an unspecified revolutionary crime. The novel was translated by Penny Williams in 1967, and later again by Sheila Fischman.

The story follows after a yearlong breakup between Lois and Clark. Lois returns to Metropolis from her job as a foreign correspondent and agrees to marry Clark. The wedding is put together quickly, but no corners are cut. During this storyline, Clark is without his powers as Superman, having lost them during the previous ''Final Night'' crossover. There are brief cameos by many DC superheroes and a short passage with Batman, who offers an apartment owned by him to the couple and gets the superheroes of the DC Universe to look after Metropolis while Clark goes on his honeymoon.

Jimmy Olsen serves as best man, with Lucy Lane serving as maid of honor. The wedding is a traditional Christian variety in a big church (the Metropolis Chapel of United Faiths) although Lois is estranged with her father Sam Lane at the time and refuses to be walked down the aisle by him. Despite this, Sam attends his daughter's wedding as a witness, refusing to miss this moment. The priest that presides over the wedding is drawn to look like Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman. The pews are also filled up with the writers and artists that have contributed to the Superman comic books over the years, including Joe Shuster, Superman's other creator.

The story of the game follows on from ''Maximo: Ghosts to Glory'', with Maximo still searching for his lost love, Sophia. He is again accompanied by Grim (a Grim Reaper). However, their search is interrupted as a series of mechanical creatures start to attack villages and slaughter the village folk. These creatures are the Army of Zin, an ancient army powered by lost souls, who were supposedly locked in the vault of Castle Hawkmoor after the last battle with them 500 years ago. However, they are now free, due to the actions of the mysterious warlord, Lord Bane.

Harmon Gordon, a wealthy old man married to a much younger woman named Flora, is exhausted by his wife's youthful and selfish lifestyle. Seeking to keep up the pace, he asks his scientist brother Raymond to inject him with an experimental youth serum. Raymond firmly refuses at first, saying that the serum has had mixed results even in laboratory animals and won't be ready for testing on humans without decades of refining. Moreover, he abhors Flora for her callous treatment of his brother, and is not enthusiastic about any step to strengthen their marriage. However, when Harmon suggests he will commit suicide rather than lose Flora, his brother reluctantly agrees to administer the serum.

At his brother's instructions, Harmon rests after taking the serum. He wakens to find himself a young man, to Flora's surprised delight. However, before Harmon can enjoy his new youth, the regression continues, and hours later he has become a toddler. Flora tries to leave, but Raymond insists she must stay and raise the infant Harmon or be cut off from Harmon's fortune. He threatens to take legal action against her if she abandons the child. Finding a stroke of poetic justice in what has happened, Raymond points out that by the time Harmon has regained adulthood, his position with Flora will be reversed, with Flora being old. When she bemoans the fact that everything is now on Harmon's side, Raymond shrugs, "Well, you see, Flora? As you get older, see how wise you get?"

In the future of 1967, Wallace V. Whipple, owner of a vast Midwestern manufacturing corporation, decides to upgrade his plant to increase output by installing a machine named the "X109B14 modified transistorized totally automatic assembly machine," which leads to tens of thousands of layoffs. Some former employees try to convince him that the value of a man outweighs the value of a machine, but their protests fall on deaf ears. His plant manager, Mr. Hanley, reminds him that Whipple's father, who ran the factory for 40 years, while profit-driven, had a sense of responsibility to his factory workers, and their pride in their work. Whipple coldly responds that while his father only "doubled" his factory production, his competitors quadrupled theirs. Dickerson, an angry veteran foreman, tries to smash a machine but is shot and injured by Whipple. While Hanley visits Dickerson in the hospital, Whipple is only concerned about his equipment. Hanley confronts Whipple about it and is summarily fired after being shown the machine replacing him. Whipple proceeds to replace secretaries with automated dictation machines, thinking that powder room breaks and maternity leave are inconveniences.

Whipple eventually fires all his human employees after replacing them with machines, which then turn on him by spitting out the harsh demeaning recorded parting words of his former employees back at him over and over, driving Whipple to insanity.

Eventually, the board of directors find him neurotically obsessed with machines and retire him. Whipple joins Hanley at the bar opposite his factory and expresses deep sorrow at his misfortune as he rambles about how it isn't fair that machines are replacing men, his poetic justice for caring more about machines in the first place. He also admits that he's lonely because he's not married and has no family and that he feels cast aside like a used part.

The last scene reveals Whipple's replacement to be a robot (Robby the Robot), which swings Whipple's key on a chain the same way he used to.

Barbara Polk has lived with her elderly, sadistic uncle Simon Polk for 25 years — even though she hates him — as she is the only heir to his fortune. Simon constantly harangues his niece, calling her various unflattering names and insulting her in creative ways. He uses a laboratory in the basement of his house to develop inventions, and has forbidden her from going down there to see his latest project, about which he drops malevolent hints. When she sneaks into the basement to peek at it, the two have a verbal altercation. Simon catches her and raises his cane to strike. Barbara blocks with her arm, causing him to fall down the stairs and break his back. Frustrated with his feebleness, nagging, and constant demands for hot chocolate, Barbara declines to assist and watches him lose his life.

Following Simon’s death, his lawyer Mr. Schwimmer reads the will to Barbara: to inherit his estate, she must live in the house and look after his last invention, a robot also named Simon. Although its behavior and speech are very mechanical at first, it engages in AI learning as time goes on. It eventually acts and sounds just like him — right down to the old man’s limp, which it develops as a result of damage from Barbara’s attempt to destroy it by pushing it over backward. The robot repeats insults that Uncle Simon had programmed, berating Barbara as a “bovine crab” and “peanut-headed sample of nature’s carelessness.” Since Mr. Schwimmer makes regular visits to ensure that Barbara is taking proper care of the robot, as per the stipulations of the will, she has no choice but to submit to its continuing verbal abuse and demands — including bringing it hot chocolate as she did for Simon — or risk being disinherited.

An elderly woman, Elva Keene (Gladys Cooper), receives strange anonymous phone calls in the middle of a stormy night. During the first calls she hears only static. Later she hears a man moaning and she repeatedly demands to know who is calling. The man continues to call and keeps repeating "Hello?" over and over. Finally he says, "Hello? Where are you? I want to talk to you." Elva, terrified, screams at the man to leave her alone.

The phone company traces the calls to a telephone line that has fallen in a cemetery.

Elva and her housekeeper, who believes the calls are the result of a bad connection, visit the cemetery where she finds that the line is resting on the grave of her long-deceased fiancé, Brian Douglas. Elva says that she always insisted on having her own way, and Brian always did what she said. Brian died a week before they were to be married. That day, she insisted on driving, lost control of the car and hit a tree. The accident crippled her and caused Brian to fly through the windshield, killing him.

Now that she can talk to him again, she won't have to be alone. At home, she picks up the phone and calls to Brian's ghost, pleading with him to answer. He replies that she told him to leave her alone and that he always does what she says. Then the line goes dead, leaving Elva alone and crying in her bed.

''Donkey Kong Land 2'' stars Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong in their quest to rescue Donkey Kong from Kaptain K. Rool and the Kremling Krew. While its stage names and world themes are borrowed from ''Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest'' (except for Castle Crush, which became Dungeon Danger; and Haunted Hall, which became Krazy Koaster), the level designs are different.

''Donkey Kong Land 2'' had the same storyline from ''Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest''. The manual contains a simplified version of the story from its SNES counterpart - K. Rool has kidnapped Donkey Kong and is at Crocodile Isle, and it's up to Diddy and Dixie to save him.

During a fishing vacation to Trelawney in an unidentified country, Mr. Robinson (his first name is never given) receives word that the ''Movement'', a protest group with the tacit approval of the government, is planning a General Strike. Mr. Robinson's landlady, Mrs. Blunt, is given notice that the government is claiming her land as eminent domain. The pressures of mass industrialization and scattered reports of Movement activity lead Robinson, Blunt, Alex, Mr. Lawson, and Sheila Willis to seek refuge in the country of ''Avalon'' before the borders are closed for good. Avalon is not specifically identified in the story; only a glimpse is seen of white sandy beaches there at the book's end.

Category:1965 British novels Category:Harcourt (publisher) books

Merlin, an elderly man telling his life story, describes a Britain faced with invasions and tyrant kings increasingly cruel to the people. Fairy Queen Mab seeks to reclaim her power by drawing people back to worship the "Old Ways". To do so, she creates a wizard named Merlin, whom she intends to champion her crusade. Merlin's mother dies giving birth to him and he is raised by his guardian, Ambrosia.

Years later, a teenage Merlin recounts to Ambrosia how he rescued a nobleman's daughter, Nimue, from drowning by magically growing a branch. Ambrosia tells him of his past and he is sent to Mab to begin his training with Frik, Mab's gnome servant; however, Merlin has little interest in helping Mab's crusade to restore the Old Ways, angering her. Merlin finds out from the Lady of the Lake that her sister Mab let his birth mother die and that Ambrosia is ill. Mab reaches Ambrosia's home before Merlin, but when Ambrosia refuses to convince Merlin to return to Mab, Mab lashes out mortally injuring Ambrosia. Merlin tries to attack Mab but can't defeat her; she coldly dismisses the deaths of his mother and Ambrosia as "casualties of war" and vows that Merlin will help her. Merlin makes a blood-oath to use his powers only to defeat Mab.

Many years pass. The tyrant King Vortigern is angered his new castle keeps collapsing. Mab convinces Vortigern his castle will only stand if Merlin's blood is mixed with the mortar. Vortigern orders Merlin killed but relents when Merlin tells Vortigern of his vision: a crimson dragon representing Uther Pendragon defeating the white dragon that represents Vortigern. Mab tells the king that he can vanquish Uther by sacrificing Nimue to a dragon, in the hope that Merlin will break his vow not to use magic. Merlin uses magic to save Nimue and she is sent to Avalon to recover from her burns. Merlin asks the Lady of the Lake for help, and she gives him the magical sword Excalibur.

Merlin warns Uther of Vortigern's intention to attack him under the cover of winter; Uther heeds Merlin's warning and during the battle Merlin uses Excalibur to defeat Vortigern, afterwards giving Excalibur to Uther.

Uther becomes obsessed with Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, Lord of Cornwall. Seeing his emerging madness Merlin tricks Uther out of Excalibur and plunges it into the Rock of Ages, who promises to keep it until a good man can withdraw it. Uther's mind is plagued by madness and lust for Igraine, and Britain slides back into civil war. Merlin strikes a deal with Uther to let him bed Igraine in exchange for guardianship of the son born from the union, and for Gorlois and his men to be spared. Merlin transforms Uther's appearance into that of Gorlois, fooling everyone in Tintagel Castle except for Igraine's young daughter, Morgan le Fay. After bedding Igraine Uther has Gorlois and his men slaughtered, deliberately going-back on his word to Merlin.

While Igraine is in labor, at Mab's behest, Frik convinces Morgan to place a black stone beneath the baby's sheets in his crib. Igraine gives birth to Arthur. Mab then confronts Merlin, proclaiming Arthur to be damned, but Merlin vows to raise him in the ways of good and hopes Arthur will help bring her down.

Arthur is tutored by Merlin. Uther sinks yet-further into his madness and later commits suicide, leaving the kingdom in turmoil. The noblemen in the kingdom try to take Excalibur from the Rock of Ages, but none can until Merlin presents Arthur, who is allowed to take the sword.

After some initial hostility, the nobles unite behind Arthur as their rightful king. Merlin leaves, thinking the kingdom is finally at peace, but Mab instructs Frik to seek out Morgan (Helena Bonham Carter) and poison her mind by making her beautiful, and has her seduce Arthur, who is unaware of their half-sibling relationship. Merlin races back to Camelot to confront Arthur. Morgan gives birth to Mordred (Jason Done) who, conceived through incest, is born evil. Mab helps raise Mordred to become Arthur's downfall. Arthur starts construction of his castle of Camelot and marries Guinevere.

Arthur decides to take his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, so he holds a tournament to crown a champion who will defend and complete Camelot in his absence. The Lady of the Lake vows to guide Merlin to a man worthy of being Camelot's guardian. Merlin meets a boy, Galahad, and his parents, Lancelot, a skilled rider and swordsman, and Elaine of Astolat, Lancelot's wife. Merlin brings Lancelot to Camelot, where he wins the tournament.

In Arthur's absence, Guinevere and Lancelot embark on a love affair. Mab makes sure Elaine sees his betrayal, and she is found dead at the shores of Camelot not long after. Lancelot flees Camelot in his guilt and shame. Arthur and his knights return, their quest for the Grail a failure.

Mordred introduces himself as Arthur's son and heir and reveals Guinevere's betrayal to all. Arthur is forced to condemn her to be burned at the stake for treason, but relents and has Merlin save her before she is harmed, causing him to lose respect among the younger nobles. Lancelot rides back to Camelot to save Guinevere, both of them riding away into exile.

Mordred raises an army among those dissatisfied with Arthur and Merlin. Meanwhile, Frik and Morgan have fallen in love. When Morgan refuses to allow Mab to further use Mordred, Mab kills her. Frik vows revenge on Mab but is left powerless when she steals his magic.

Mab creates an idyllic wilderness home for Nimue, and asks her to persuade Merlin to stay there with her, hoping to stop him intervening in the coming battle. Wanting to be with him, Nimue agrees and sends for Merlin.

The armies of Mordred and Arthur begin the Battle of Camlann, where many on both sides are slain. Arthur defeats Mordred and kills him, but Mordred deals Arthur a fatal blow. Sensing his protégé is dying, Merlin leaves Nimue to go to Arthur but Mab's creation seals itself behind him, parting Merlin from Nimue forever. At the battlefield, Mab's magic is unable to save Mordred, and Arthur lives long enough to tell Merlin to return Excalibur to the place it was found. Merlin gives back the sword to the Lady of the Lake. She tells Merlin she is slowly dying as the Old Ways are forgotten. Merlin accuses her of lying to him about the guardian of Camelot, but she explains that it was Galahad who was the true guardian and could have averted all this, though she assures Merlin that Arthur's death is not his fault. Merlin encounters Frik among the survivors of Arthur's army, who warns him that although Mab is greatly weakened, she is still dangerous.

Merlin confronts Mab at Camelot but the ensuing magical duel ends in stalemate. Mab sneers that she is invulnerable to conventional means of destruction, but Merlin responds that she will be defeated when she is forgotten. Mab slowly fades into nothing as Merlin, Frik and the entire court of Camelot turn their backs on her and walk away.

Merlin is again shown back in the "present" finishing his story. Frik appears along with Merlin's aged magic horse, who Frik says will take him to Nimue. Frik explains that some time after Mab disappeared, the spells she had cast lost their effectiveness, and Nimue was set free. Merlin finds the elderly Nimue at Ambrosia's old forest home. He manages one last act of magic to restore them both to youth so they can live out their lives together.

A contest has begun with big prizes for the first person who discovers the Lost World. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong have already left to find it, leaving a disgruntled Dixie Kong behind. Deciding to prove herself every bit as capable as them, Dixie partners up with her toddler cousin Kiddy Kong. Unfortunately, Baron K. Roolenstein and the Kremling Krew are also searching high and low for the fabled land. The level archetypes are the same as in ''Donkey Kong Country 3'', which takes place in the "Northern Kremisphere". While the levels have the same environments and the ''Donkey Kong Country 3'' bosses return, the worlds and stage layouts are all unique.

Wrinkly Kong is the only non-playable Kong family member to make an appearance. A character simply titled Bear or "Brother Bear" gives Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong hints and can teleport them to another world as well as hosting a card mini-game. He bears a resemblance to Bazaar Bear from ''Donkey Kong Country 3''. The Animal Buddies Ellie the Elephant, Enguarde the Swordfish, Squawks the Parrot, and Squitter the Spider all return. ''Donkey Kong Land III'' also marks the only time in a Rare ''Donkey Kong'' game where Donkey Kong does not actually appear.

The opera tells the story of the very building in which it was performed. Soon after the building was commissioned and work had commenced the State Premier who administered its genesis died.

The opera suggests that the Premier believed that if the work was not sufficiently advanced and there was a change of government then the project would be cancelled. Therefore, the foundation work was commenced before the architect had solved the problem of how to build the main structure of the building. The time and cost estimates were also understated to ensure work commenced. There were many other engineering and design problems that had not been solved when work had commenced.

The opera supports the idea that the architect was fully competent to solve these problems and indeed was able to provide solutions that were far more elegant than anything that anyone less inspired, less talented and at one with a vision could provide.

Some time after that there was indeed a change of government. There was much hostility toward the building and the new government was not willing to let the architect complete the project. Much scandal was made of the time and cost of the project. The state bureaucracy wrested control from its architect and the architect's intentions for the interiors of the building were never realised. The architect left the country and disowned the building.

Characters in the opera include the politicians, the architect, an engineer, socialites, and a prominent conductor (the maestro) who betrays the cause of opera for the cause of concert music (see full cast list below). There are also two young artists who firmly identify their future with the building. The names of the characters do not match their real-life counterparts and there are, no doubt, certain other fictional elements.

There is a large chorus and the music is quite accessible, with several bright choral climaxes. The opera consists of two acts, with a total of 15 scenes including Parliament House, the construction site and the suburban backyard where the young artists spend time with their families.

The opera concludes leaving the audience with a sense of loss for the complete vision that was never realised but also with an enormous sense of gratitude and wonderment that as much of that vision that has been completed has been.

Becky and Brett's narratives establish them as having been friends since childhood. They go on a trip to a ski resort as an attempt to find love, have fun, and seek new work opportunities. Brett is torn between his long-standing crush on Becky and desire to explore his options and play the field. Brett tries to navigate love on the mountain with a zany cast of eligible bachelorettes while helping his close friends Danny and Lucas with their own mischief. Along the way, he has to deal with Elliot and Conor, two pretentious men who are richer, more charming, and more famous than him. Brett's story culminates with a competition with Conor where the prize is the chance to take one of three girls on a dream vacation.

In Becky's story, she uses the vacation as an escape from her recent ex-boyfriend Sean only to have him arrive at the same time. Her story gives the player the option of a split path in the careers of waitressing or modeling, which results in different scenes becoming available. Becky's story involves maintaining her relationships with her childhood friends - the promiscuous Kiki and the geeky Erica, among new friends that can help or hinder her situation based on their motives. The player also guides Becky in advancing her career path and finding love while on the mountain. Ultimately, Brett confesses that he has feelings for Becky and the player is given the option to pursue a relationship with him or remain friends.

The story centers on Mai Tokiha, a seemingly ordinary high-school girl who has recently transferred to the prestigious Fuuka Academy with her younger brother, Takumi. The elite Fuuka Academy harbors a number of mysteries, involving both fellow students and staff. As they arrive at the Academy, Mai finds herself bound to a Child, a part-spiritual, part-mechanical creature, that can only be summoned and controlled by girls with the HiME mark.

Mai is told that she is one of twelve girls who have the aforementioned mark, and that they must use their powers to protect everyone from Orphans, monstrous creatures with abilities similar to the HiME's Children. Mai is very reluctant to become involved at first, because of her protective role towards her brother, but the other HiME quickly begin to manifest around her, each with very different motivations and goals for using (or not using) her powers. As the Orphans become more numerous and aggressive, Mai joins the other HiME's fight against them to protect those around her, including her friends, who are even drawn into the conflict as well. However, Mai and the other HiME soon find out the Orphans are not the only kind of enemy they have to fight, and as the cause of all of this is revealed, they find themselves facing the dark secret about their destiny.

Davey Osborne is an 11-year-old boy living in San Antonio, Texas. His father, Hal, is a military air traffic controller, who has problems relating to his son. Davey imagines the fantasy world of ''Cloak & Dagger'', an espionage role-playing video game existing between fiction and reality. Davey befriends Kim Gardener, a girl living nearby. Davey reveres Jack Flack, the game's main character, who he imagines as a more dashing version of his father. He wants to live an action-packed life like Jack, and he carries around a water pistol as his "gun" and a softball as his "grenade". Davey spends much time playing the game and spending time with Jack as an imaginary friend.

One day, Davey's friend, Morris, who owns a game shop, sends Davey and Kim on an errand, where Davey witnesses a murder. Before the victim dies, he gives Davey a ''Cloak & Dagger'' video game cartridge containing important military secrets that must be given to the FBI. Davey seeks help from the authorities, who disbelieve him.

Spies, led by the nefarious Dr. Rice, murder Morris and then chase Davey across the city. Along the way, Jack helps Davey evade the pursuers. However, Davey's sense of morality and concern for his friend Kim (whom the spies have kidnapped to try and blackmail Davey into handing over the cartridge) collide with Jack's harsh methods. Davey is cornered by the spies along the River Walk. During the fight, Jack urges Davey to lure two of the spies into the "Crossfire Gambit", causing one to kill the other. Jack convinces Davey to pick up the gun of a dead spy, but rather than shoot Rice, Davey panics and runs away down a dead-end path. Rice arrives and corners Davey, taunting him. When Davey proves unwilling to shoot first, Jack tries to get Rice's attention. Standing in front of a blank wall (and holding his Agent-X bulletproof beret in front of him for protection), Jack dares Rice to shoot him. Davey looks to Jack, warning him not to do anything, and Rice instinctively turns and fires at the wall, thinking "Jack" is a hidden ally. Enraged, Davey fires his pistol, killing Rice.

Realizing that Jack had tricked him into shooting the spy, Davey discards the pistol, pulls the miniature of Jack out of his pocket and breaks it on the concrete. Blood begins to pour from the bullet holes that now riddle Jack's body, and he collapses. While expressing regret about the rule, "...leaving when they stop believing", Jack confesses Davey was always his favorite playmate. Distracting Davey by asking for a smoke, Jack fades and vanishes. When Davey calls to Jack, saying he can't do it alone, Jack's voice reassures him that he always could, and tells him to save Kim.

Earlier, Davey had been befriended by an elderly couple but they turn out to be enforcers allied with the spies. Davey escapes them, but without the game cartridge, and he chases the couple to the airport where they are attempting to flee the country. At the airport, Davey pretends that they are his parents who are abandoning him. When security intervenes, Davey tells the guard the proof is the game cartridge he knows they have. Cornered, the couple kidnap Davey and commandeer a plane, unaware that Davey has brought the bomb which the spies had planned to use to kill Kim. The spies request a pilot, and Hal, who has arrived at the airport with Kim's mother, volunteers to be the pilot. As the plane moves to the runway, Davey tries to summon Jack for help; his father hears him and identifies himself as "Jack Flack" and calls Davey to the cockpit. When the female enforcer shows up to bring him, she discovers the bomb and panics, calling for her husband. Hal gets Davey out of the plane through the cockpit window. Davey runs after the plane down the runway, calling for his father, until the plane explodes, destroying the cartridge and the enforcers in the process. Then a figure appears and approaches him, looking like the silhouette of Jack Flack before revealing that he is his father. As the two embrace, Davey asks how he was able to escape, and Hal replies, "Jack Flack always escapes."

Davey, joyful that his father is alive, realizes that his father is his true hero and has moved on from Jack. He proudly replies to Hal, "I don't need him anymore. I got you, Dad."

The novel opens on an overcast October 23. Two friends - William "Will" Halloway and Jim Nightshade - both on the verge of their 13th birthdays, encounter a strange lightning rod salesman, Tom Fury. He announces that a storm is coming their way. The salesman gives Jim a lightning rod because he tells the boys that one of their houses is in danger. Throughout the night, Will and Jim meet up with townsfolk who also sense something in the air. Among the townspeople is Will's 54-year-old father, Charles Halloway, who works in the local library. Both Mr. Halloway and the boys learn about the carnival that is to start the next day. Jim and Will are excited that a carnival has come so late in the year, but Charles has a bad feeling about it.

The boys run out to watch the carnival arrive at three in the morning. As the train pulls in, the smoke billows in circles and solidifies as the carnival. The boys go the next day to explore the carnival and encounter their 7th grade teacher, Miss Foley, who is dazed after visiting the Mirror Maze. Jim insists on coming back that night and Will agrees, but when they bump into the lightning-rod salesman's abandoned bag, they realize that they must stay to learn what happens after dark. After investigating all of the rides, they go up to a carousel, which has an out-of-order sign. Mr. Cooger suddenly grabs Will and Jim after they climb up on horses and he informs them the merry-go-round is broken. Mr. Dark arrives and tells him to put them down. He pays attention only to Jim, who is enthralled by what he sees. The boys run away and then hide and wait. Both witness Mr. Cooger riding backwards on the carousel (as the music plays backwards), and when he steps off, to their shock, he is 12 years old.

They follow young Mr. Cooger to Miss Foley's house, where he pretends to be the nephew she was expecting. Jim tries to talk with him, because he wants to ride the carousel, but Will stops him. Jim takes off in the direction of the carnival. When Will catches up, Mr. Cooger is riding the carousel growing older, and Jim is about to join him. Will knocks the switch on the carousel and it flies out of control, spinning rapidly forward. Mr. Cooger ages over 100 years before it stops, and Jim and Will take off. They return with the police, but Mr. Cooger is nowhere to be found. Inside the tents they find him all set up as a new act, "Mr. Electrico", a man they run electricity through. Mr. Dark tells the boys to come back to the carnival the next day. Will tries to keep his father out of the situation, promising him that he will tell all soon. That night, the Dust Witch floats by in her balloon to find Jim and Will. Will lures her to an abandoned house and destroys her balloon with a bow and arrow. They later both dream of a bizarre funeral for the balloon, featuring a giant, misshapen coffin.

The next day the boys find a girl crying on the curb and realize she is the former Miss Foley made young again but also totally blind. They assist her to her house, but when they return they're cut off by a parade. The carnival is out searching the streets for the two of them. The boys hide, and Will's father spots them hiding under a storm drain in front of the cigar store. The boys convince him to keep quiet. Mr. Dark later arrives to talk to him. Mr. Halloway pretends not to know the two boys, whose faces are tattooed on the man's hand, but when the Witch comes and begins to sense the boys' presence, he blows cigar smoke at her, choking her and forcing her to leave. Mr. Dark then asks Charles Halloway for his name, and Will's father tells him he is the town library's janitor. That night Will and Jim meet him at the library where he has done research into his own father's ministerial notes. The carnival arrives once a generation, and leaves in the midst of a giant storm. Mr. Dark appears, and the boys hide in the book stacks. He discovers both of them and crushes the janitor's hand when Mr. Halloway attempts to fight him. The tarot witch casts spells on the boys to mesmerize them and also tries to stop Mr. Halloway's heart. Just before he is about to die, Charles looks at the Witch and begins to laugh hysterically. His laughter wounds her deeply and drives her away. He then follows Mr. Dark to the carnival to rescue the boys.

At the carnival, Charles triumphs over Mr. Dark, finds his son in the mirror maze, kills the Witch with a smile on a bullet, and destroys all the mirrors by using laughter and cheer. Then he and Will search for Jim. Mr. Cooger turns to dust and blows away before he can be saved by the carousel. Jim runs to the merry-go-round and rides it forward. Will tries to stop him and grabs onto his leg. They both end up going for a ride before Will jumps off and rips Jim away from the machine. Jim falls into a stupor, close to death. A child comes begging them to help him, but Mr. Halloway recognizes the boy as Mr. Dark. He holds the boy tight and kills him with affection, because Mr. Dark cannot survive in such close contact with someone so happy. The carnival falls apart as Will tries to revive Jim. They save Jim by singing and dancing and laughing, their happiness bringing him back from the edge of death.

''Wonderful Days'' is set in 2142. Environmental pollution has led to a breakdown of human civilization. A technologically advanced city named Ecoban was built and it harvests energy from the DELOS System, which uses pollution in a carbonite catalyzed reaction to generate power. Carbonite extraction is carried out by people who live outside the city in the surrounding wasteland. Among them is an enigmatic young man known as Shua (Marc Worden). He ends up in a love triangle with his childhood friend, Jay (Cathy Cavadini), and her superior, Ecoban security commander Cade (Kirk Thornton).

The film deals with environmental destruction, pollution and class struggle.

The series centers on The Pink Panther's two sons: pre-teen Pinky, his brother, toddler Panky and their friends in the Rainbow Panthers crew (the pretty Chatta, fighting Rocko, gibberish-talking Murfel, overalls-wearing Annie, and mixed-up-talking Punkin). Each episode shows the Rainbow Panthers coming together in friendship as they learn about growing up and take on a group of lions called the Howl Angels.

Featured in each episode would be short three to five minutes cartoons featuring The Pink Panther bookending the main cartoons with Pinky and Panky.

Cooper and his girlfriend Amber are looking for shelter from a storm when they come across Ghoulhaven Hall, a mansion owned by Baron Von Ghoul. When Cooper calls him a creep, Von Ghoul kidnaps Amber in retaliation. Cooper chases after Amber, encountering the many ghoulies inhabiting Ghoulhaven Hall. Crivens, the mansion's butler, agrees to assist Cooper, guiding him through the manor. Cooper eventually finds Amber, but before the two of them can escape, the mad scientist Dr. Krackpot appears and transforms Amber into a hideous ghouly. Cooper asks the cook Ma Soupswill for help, and she tasks him with collecting three ingredients she needs to synthesize a cure. Along the way, he is aided by the mansion's other inhabitants, including groundskeeper Fiddlesworth Dunfiddlin, Soupswill's skeletal assistant Mr. Ribs, and cleaning lady Barbara Buffbrass. After gathering the ingredients, Soupswill gives Cooper a jar of the cure. When Cooper pours the cure on Amber, Soupswill is shown to have mixed up one of the ingredients, resulting in Amber transforming into a bigger, hostile ghouly. Cooper is nearly overpowered by Amber, but Soupswill arrives and applies the correct cure, transforming Amber back to normal.

Cooper and Amber prepare to leave the mansion, but Mr. Ribs begs Cooper to help free other children imprisoned throughout the manor. Crivens tells Cooper that Von Ghoul has the key to free the children, but the door to his quarters is locked by a powerful spell, which can only be broken using a counterspell that is in three pieces scattered throughout the mansion. Cooper collects the three pieces and enter's Von Ghoul's quarters, but finds that Crivens is already there seemingly attacking Von Ghoul and retrieving the key. When Cooper attempts to take the key, Crivens attacks him and removes his disguise, revealing he was Von Ghoul all along. Cooper fights and defeats Von Ghoul, throwing him out of the mansion and collecting the key. Cooper then follows Mr. Ribs throughout the mansion and races to free all the children before the mansion's doors are permanently locked, trapping them inside forever.

If Cooper succeeds in freeing all ten children before time runs out, he and Mr. Ribs are ambushed by imps outside the mansion. Cooper is knocked unconscious and Mr. Ribs is decapitated, but before the imps can feast on them, Ma Soupswill arrives and fights back the imps. Cooper regains consciousness and is thanked for his efforts by Soupswill, Mr. Ribs, Dunfiddlin and Buffbrass. Cooper and Amber then walk off to a nearby village, unaware that Baron Von Ghoul is following behind them in his makeshift plane. If Cooper does not save all the children in time, the scene in which Soupswill defends Cooper and Mr. Ribs from the imps is omitted.

Roger and Rover are the two main characters. Rover the dog is frequently kidnapped by robots. The player, Roger the owner, must enter robot territory and get him back, hence the name "Rescue Rover".

The program is set in the fictional town of Junctionville, New York around the turn of the 20th century. Santa Claus is offended by an anonymous letter printed in the town's newspaper (and signed "all of us") claiming that he doesn't exist. In response, Santa returns the entire town's letters to them unopened. Upon reading the anonymous letter printed in the newspaper, Father Mouse — a mouse assistant to the human clockmaker Joshua Trundle — immediately suspects that his brainy, college student son Albert is its author. Albert confirms his suspicions, repeating the letter verbatim to him.

Father Mouse and the Trundle Family devise a plan to appease Santa by building a singing clock tower for him, built with a special recording to play a song to coax him not to bypass Junctionville on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, Albert enters the clock to explore it without permission, and inadvertently causes it to malfunction in front of the whole town, seriously damaging Trundle's professional reputation. Furthermore, the Mayor, publicly embarrassed at the clock tower's failure, refuses to give Joshua access to it for repairs.

Confessing his mistake, Albert volunteers to repair it himself and Father Mouse tells Joshua of the situation before waiting at his bed with worry on Christmas Eve. Although Albert does not complete his task until about one minute after the midnight deadline, the clock does play its song within earshot of Santa which convinces him to turn around and come to town after all.

The story follows Chun Hyang (춘향), the spirited, beautiful, yet headstrong daughter of a mudang in a Korean village. Her name means "spring fragrance" (the ''shun-ka'' in the original Japanese title; Chinese: ''Chūn-Xiāng''). A master of martial arts, Chun Hyang rises to the occasion when the Yangban, a tyrannical warlord, takes control of her village. He tried to kidnap one of her friends despite Chun Hyang's bold nature and formidable abilities, but there is little hope of freeing her village unless the amhaeng'eosa, a secret Korean government agent, arrives and catches the Ryanban in the act of abusing his powers.

When Mong Ryong, a somewhat lecherous but enchantingly handsome traveler appears, and apparently has fallen heads over heels with Chun Hyang, she reluctantly accepts his help to rescue her mother, who has been captured by the Ryanban.

Unfortunately, they are too late; Chun Hyang's mother has already killed herself to preserve her honor. Mong Ryong reveals himself the amhaeng'eosa and passes judgment on the Ryanban, though remains rueful that he could not do so before Wall Mae's death. Devastated, Chun Hyang does not know what else to do with her life, but Mong Ryong asks her to continue traveling with him. She agrees and they continue on, meeting many more people.

Suki follows the story of Hinata Asahi, also known as Hina, a childlike teenager who loves teddy bears. She lives alone in her house and early in the story, her new homeroom teacher moves into the empty house next door. Shiro Asou, her new teacher, becomes her first crush and he seems to take an interest in her as well. However, this simple love story grows complicated as Shiro's interest in Hina is put into question as more sinister elements are placed in the story, all while forcing Hinata to grow up at the same time.

Each story of ''The One I Love'' consists of seven pages of manga and an accompanying essay. * : A girl asks to meet her boyfriend in the park after they have had a fight. She wants to apologize, but she does not know what to say. She wears a kimono instead. When she meets her boyfriend, she finds that he is dressed up too; he had the same idea as she did. * : A girl reflects on the word "cute" with her boyfriend. She cannot visualize "cute," so she does not understand why it makes her happy when he says that she is cute. * : A girl has doubts about staying with her boyfriend, who has a very demanding work schedule. In the end, he skips work to visit her, and she decides that their romantic relationship will work out. * : A young woman working at a bakery reflects on a past unsuccessful relationship with a younger man. In the end, a younger bakery worker asks her on a date, and she is hopeful that their romantic relationship will work out. * : A girl working in a design company thinks about her past relationships, and one of her coworkers, whom she does not get along with. When a design job goes wrong and that coworker offers his ideas, she realizes that she is in love with him. * : A girl reflects on her childhood sweetheart, who introduced her to playing the harmonica. * : A girl panics as she decides what to wear to meet her boyfriend. When she is late to meet him, she realizes that her boyfriend always thinks she is pretty no matter what she wears. * : A girl has a dream about her boyfriend ending their relationship, and she is worried that it is a premonition. * : A girl confesses her love on Valentine's Day. * : A young woman has doubts about marrying her boyfriend. In the end, she realizes that even if they marry, nothing will change between them. * : A young woman wonders if her long-distance boyfriend is being faithful. In the end, she finds out that he is very dedicated to her. * : A young woman about to be married is nervous about her future. She is worried that she might change, but her husband reassures her that they will change together.

Wendell Floyd is an expatriate American living in an alternate version of 1950s Paris. In this world, the Nazi invasion of France failed, and Hitler was deposed by the German High Command. Without World War II, technology in this world has stagnated at 1930s levels, and Fascist political parties have gained power in France.

Floyd is a part-time jazz musician whose career has stalled since his ex-girlfriend, Greta, left Paris to pursue a musical career touring with another jazz band. He and his band-mate André Custine earn a supplemental income working as private detectives. When the novel opens, Floyd and Custine are hired by a concerned landlord to investigate the death of one of his tenants. Blanchard, the landlord, is certain that the death of Susan White, which the Parisian police have written off as an accident, is murder. Floyd is not so certain, but he's willing to investigate.

In a scene seemingly from another novel, Verity Auger finds herself responsible when her archaeology dig beneath the frozen ruins of some far-flung future Paris results in the death of one of her students. During her trial she is caught up in political infighting, and maneuvered into accepting a high risk assignment, without knowing what it entails.

But when she is summoned on a mission to Mars by the top-secret security agency Contingencies, Auger is more than relieved to be exempt from her tribunal and the years of prison that she would otherwise have to face. However, when she is taken to a secret underground base on the Martian moon Phobos containing an ancient alien relic that opens a portal to a distant part of the galaxy, and told that she is to go through it, she begins to have second thoughts about continuing with her mission. Things get even more bizarre when she finds out that at the other end of the portal is an alternate-history version of Earth in the year 1959 – almost 300 years behind her present-day – and that she is to retrieve a tin of documents that was left behind by Susan White, an earlier agent sent to "Earth Two", who died under mysterious circumstances.

The first series is set in the 1970s, it features a Westie couple, and stars Antonia Prebble and David de Lautour as Rita and Ted West. In the first episode, set in 1974, it features John Walker beating Rod Dixon in the 1500 metres at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. Each episode covers one year, from 1974 to 1979, with events like the Muldoon election, dawn raids on overstayers, carless days, and the birth of the punk rock scene in Auckland.

The second series is set in 1981, and follows the Springbok Tour. The series starts with Rita returning home from prison to find the West household in disrepair. Throughout the course of the series Ted's gang plots to steal from the South Africans visiting New Zealand, preventing them from buying land, while Rita plans a job against developer Evan Lace.

The third series is set in 1982 and deals with the fallout from the Evan Lace job and Wolf's first meeting with his future wife, Cheryl.

Spoiled delinquent high-school student Dawn Davenport goes berserk when her parents refuse to buy her the shoes she wants for Christmas because "nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels": she destroys presents, topples a Christmas tree on her mother, and flees the house. Dawn hitchhikes a ride with a lecherous man, Earl Peterson, who drives her to a dump where they have sex on a discarded mattress. Dawn gets pregnant, but Earl refuses to support her. She gives birth to a daughter, Taffy, whom she often beats and punishes severely. Dawn works various jobs and engages in criminal activities such as burglary and street prostitution with former high-school friends Chiclette and Concetta.

Dawn frequents the Lipstick Beauty Salon and marries Gater Nelson, her hair stylist and next-door neighbor. Donald and Donna Dasher, the owners of the beauty salon, recruit Dawn in a scheme to prove "crime and beauty are the same". They entice Dawn to commit crimes by promising her fame, supplying her with drugs and money, and photographing her crimes to stoke her vanity.

Gater's aunt, Ida Nelson, is distraught over her nephew's marriage because she wants him to date men instead of women. When the marriage fails, Dawn persuades the Dashers to fire Gater, who moves to Detroit to work in the auto industry. Ida blames Dawn for driving Gater away and exacts revenge by throwing acid in her face, leaving Dawn hideously disfigured. The Dashers discourage Dawn from having corrective cosmetic surgery and use her as a grotesquely made-up model. After they kidnap Ida and imprison her in a large birdcage, they give Dawn an axe to chop off her hand as revenge for the acid attack.

Taffy, now a teenager, is distressed by her mother's criminal lifestyle and persuades her to reveal the identity of her father. Taffy finds her father living in squalor and drinking excessively. She stabs him to death with a chef's knife after he tries to sexually assault her. Taffy returns home, falsely claims she was unable to locate her father, and announces she is joining the Hare Krishna movement. Dawn warns her she will kill her if she does.

Dawn, now with bizarre hair, make-up and outfits provided by the Dashers, mounts a nightclub act. When Taffy appears backstage in religious attire, Dawn fulfills her threat and strangles her to death. Dawn brandishes a gun onstage during her nightclub act and begins firing into the crowd, wounding and killing several audience members. When police arrive to ostensibly subdue the crowd, they shoot several audience members themselves but allow the Dashers to leave when they claim to be upright citizens. Dawn flees into a forest, but is soon arrested by the police and put on trial for murder.

At the trial, the judge grants the Dashers immunity from prosecution for testifying against Dawn. The Dashers feign innocence and completely blame Dawn for the crimes she committed at their behest; they also pay Ida to lie on the witness stand. Although Dawn pleads not guilty by reason of insanity, the jury finds her guilty and sentences her to die in the electric chair. As a priest says a prayer and Dawn is strapped to the chair, she thanks her fans for her notoriety before being executed.

Neurotic and delusional suburban housewife Peggy Gravel and her overweight nurse, Grizelda Brown, go on the lam after Grizelda smothers Peggy's husband Bosley to death. A cross-dressing policeman arrests the pair and gives them an ultimatum: go to jail or be exiled to Mortville, a filthy shantytown ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta and her treasonous daughter, Princess Coo-Coo.

Peggy and Grizelda choose Mortville, and engage in lesbian prison sex. They become associates of self-hating lesbian wrestler Mole McHenry, who wants a sex change to please her lover, Muffy St. Jacques. After confiscating a lottery ticket from Peggy, Mole wins the Maryland Lottery and uses the money to obtain gender reassignment surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. However, Muffy is repulsed by Mole's phalloplasty and insists she cut it off, so Mole gives herself a penectomy.

Most of Mortville's social outcasts—criminals, nudists, and sexual deviants—conspire to overthrow Queen Carlotta, who banishes Coo-Coo after she elopes with a garbage collector named Herbert, whom Queen Carlotta's guards later shoot to death. Coo-Coo hides in Peggy and Grizelda's house with her dead lover. When Peggy betrays Coo-Coo to the Queen's guards, Grizelda fights them and dies when the house collapses on her. Peggy, however, joins the queen in terrorizing her subjects, even infecting them (and Princess Coo-Coo) with rabies.

Eventually, Mortville's denizens, led by Mole, overthrow Queen Carlotta and execute Peggy by shooting a gun up her anus. To celebrate their freedom, the townsfolk roast Carlotta on a spit and serve her, pig-like, on a platter with an apple in her mouth.

Lady Divine is the owner and operator of The Cavalcade of Perversion, a free exhibit of various perversions and fetish acts and obscenities, such as the "Puke Eater". The show is free, but the various performers must persuade and even physically drag reluctant passers-by to attend.

As the finale to every show, Lady Divine appears and robs the patrons at gunpoint. This arrangement seems successful to Mr. David, Lady Divine's lover, but Lady Divine becomes bored with the routine and decides to murder the patrons rather than merely robbing them. After escaping the murder scene, she comes home to Cookie, her prostitute daughter, and her new boyfriend Steve, a member of the Weather Underground.

Lady Divine receives a call from Edith, proprietor of the local bar, who informs her that Mr. David had been at her bar with another woman (Mary Vivian Pearce). Lady Divine heads there to catch them, but is raped on the way by two glue-sniffers. Meanwhile, Mr. David and his new lover Bonnie—a woman who desperately wants to be part of the troupe—engage in sex acts at the home he shares with Lady Divine, during which Bonnie anally penetrates him with a dildo.

While Lady Divine contemplates her rape, the Infant of Prague appears and leads her to a church. Making her way uncertainly into the church, Lady Divine prays, but is then approached and seduced by a strange young woman named Mink. They have a sexual encounter in the church pew, with Mink inserting a rosary in Divine's rectum while describing the Stations of the Cross.

Now lesbian lovers, Lady Divine and Mink go to Edith's bar with the intent to kill Mr. David and his mistress, but they are too late: David and Bonnie, his lover (who have by this time decided that they have to kill Lady Divine to protect themselves) have left.

Mr. David returns to Cookie's house, intending to kill Divine, instead he finds Cookie and fellow Cavalcade performer Ricky there. An argument ensues, and Bonnie accidentally kills Cookie. They tie up Ricky and hide Cookie's corpse just before Divine and Mink return. When Bonnie tries to shoot Lady Divine, Divine attacks and kills her with a knife. She then turns on Mr. David and eviscerates him as well, cannibalizing his internal organs, and becoming more frenzied. Ricky suddenly surprises Mink, who shoots him. In a fit of anger, Divine accuses Mink of betrayal and stabs her. Divine becomes even more crazed upon finding her daughter Cookie's body hidden behind the couch.

Exhausted from the ordeal, Lady Divine collapses on a couch and is subsequently raped by Lobstora, a giant lobster. In the aftermath (mumbling "You're a maniac now, Divine"), she destroys a car, then wanders Baltimore trying to kill anyone she can. The National Guard appear, surround Lady Divine on the street, and shoot her, to the tune of "America the Beautiful".

The opening scene sees "The Man" being approached and attacked by two muggers in a dark alley of London. As the muggers check their seemingly unconscious victim for cash, The Man regains consciousness and brutally kills them. Around that time, Inspector Peter Neilson is investigating the apparent murder scene of the young Melissa and Nikki. In a flashback, the two girls are shown in a goth club looking to pick up men. Melissa spotted The Man and took him home. After spending the night with him, she began hallucinating about the people around turning to her with monstrous faces and voices. Melissa went to Nikki's house to seek help, then a creature burst out of Melissa's womb and attacked Nikki, killing both.

Sophie and Emma break into a house in a burglary attempt. When Emma finds a box of money under a bed, a bony old man pops up from the bedcovers and attacks her. The girls stab and bludgeon the old man multiple times before he finally dies. Intending to keep the loot to herself and seeing Emma as a liability for revealing their plan to her sister, Sophie kills Emma and runs home. There, the re-animated bodies of Emma and the old man appear and stab Sophie to death.

As the dead bodies are identified, Inspector Neilson links them to an earlier case he had solved in the past. The case involved a man named Kemper, former hypnotist and son of an infamous Satanist. Kemper had been using his skills to manipulate, abduct and kill children for over 25 years until he was apprehended by Neilson, tried and committed to a lunatic asylum. Neilson's boss has Kemper transferred to another facility so that his cell can be investigated.

Nick Holland is an amputee who is unable to engage in sexual activity with his girlfriend Natalie due to his frustration with the loss of his left leg in a prior accident. Nick visits his old friend Thomas and shoots him in the head. He then removes Thomas' left leg, puts it on ice and has it transplanted to himself by his doctor overnight. Nick goes through rehabilitation and eventually becomes able to move his transplanted leg. One night, while driving with Natalie, Nick loses control of his leg which steps on the accelerator, resulting in a crash that instantly kills Natalie. As two policemen arrive on the scene, they witness Nick stab himself to death, then The Man appears and kills them both. Meanwhile, a hit list is found in Kemper's old cell, containing the names and addresses of those responsible for his capture and their relatives, including the recent victims and Neilson himself. During his confinement, Kemper had also managed to give a copy of the list to The Man.

Richard is a reporter with a morbid obsession for extreme pornography and snuff films. He is chastised by his employer for misusing the work computer. Real footage of the Chechclear beheading plays on his computer screen. One day he finds a website offering real-time footage of people being attacked and tortured on commands issued by remote users. Richard's escalating obsession with the website causes him to lose his job and, eventually, his house. While attempting to log into the site from an internet cafe, he receives an email from an anonymous sender who reveals the location of the house where the live footage is filmed. Upon reaching the house, Richard is taken by the homeowner to the supposed location of the filming equipment, but instead he finds himself on the set of the snuff filming, where he is murdered by two masked men upon orders issued remotely by The Man. As his body is found and identified, Richard is revealed to be Neilson's son.

Determined to avenge his son and end the streak of killings, Neilson goes to the facility where Kemper is held and forces the staff to take him to Kemper's cell at gunpoint. He shoots Kemper in a leg and arm, but is immobilised by reinforcement guards before he can kill him. The Man, disguised as one of the guards, uses a machete to kill the director of the facility and the remaining guards, and is now revealed to be Kemper's son. Neilson shoots The Man, blowing half his head off, then delivers the fatal gunshot to Kemper. The Man however gets back on his feet and, with claws and tentacles emerging from the remaining half of his head, supposedly kills Neilson off-camera.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were four scholars, whose literary and artistic skills are unmatched in China. Tong Pak Fu (Stephen Chow) is the most famous, for having eight wives in addition to his expertise as an artist, poet, and calligrapher. However, Tong's wives are all gambling addicts and unappreciative of Tong's artistic skills. This leads to Tong's quest for a woman who can truly appreciate his strengths.

The Tong Family comes from a pedigree of martial art masters. They have two major enemies: the Evil Scholar, a notorious swordsman known for The Deadly Scholastic Sword (書生奪命劍), and an evil ex-girlfriend of his father's. Due to these rivalries, Tong Pak Fu is forbidden by his mother to use any form of martial arts.

One day, Tong stumbles upon the convoy of the House of Wah and meets Chow Heung ("Autumn Fragrance") (Gong Li), one of the four maids in the House of Wah (Who are named after the four seasons). This chance encounter convinces Tong that he has finally found his true love. On the advice of a boatman, Tong pretends to be a lowly servant 9527 in order to gain employment in the House of Wah.

Tong finds life as a servant very difficult, until after a night incident (which involved the saving of Chow Heung from rape by the Wolf gang), Madame Wah (Cheng Pei-pei) discovers that Tong is actually educated. After some persuasion by Chow Heung, Tong is hired as an assistant tutor for Madame Wah's two young sons, being renamed as Washington. After the accidental death of the main tutor of the House of Wah, Tong is promoted to senior tutor and manages to get closer to Chow Heung.

The House of Wah is then suddenly visited by Chancellor Wah's political rival, Prince Ning, who is planning a coup. During the visit Prince Ning shows off a painting of Tong Pak Fu. Slowly the showing turns violent as the Evil Scholar, now a subordinate under Prince Ning, fights and injures Madam Wah. Tong steps in to stop the battle but, in turn, destroys the Tong Pak Fu painting Prince Ning brought. Prince Ning seizes the opportunity to blame the House of Wah for insulting him and destroying the painting. Tong quickly grabs Chow Heung, lies to Prince Ning that the painting they had was a fake and the real one is in the Wah House. Chow Heung attempts to recreate the painting in the study to pacify the situation, but doubts that her painting skills can fool Prince Ning. While she was rambling, Tong completed a re-creation of the painting. Prince Ning doubts the painting, but has his own scholar verify that is it indeed a Tong Pak Fu painting and not a fake. Embarrassed Prince Ning leaves hastily and vows to kill the entire House of Wah.

However, in reproducing a painting and fighting off the Evil Scholar, Madame Wah is able to deduce Tong's true identity and poisons him. It is then revealed that Madame Wah was the former love rival of Tong's mother and still hold grudges against his father. With his strength nullified, Tong is then held prisoner in the Wah's tinder room.

Several days later, the Evil Scholar returns to annihilate the entire House of Wah. Madame Wah attempts to defend the family but is almost killed. At the last minute, Tong appears and, after a fierce battle, kills the Evil Scholar. As a reward, the House of Wah gives Tong Chow Heung's hand in marriage. Tong then discovers that Chow Heung is just as much a gambling addict as his other eight wives.

A deranged nanny (Maelcum Soul) kidnaps young girls and forces them to model themselves to death in front of her boyfriend (David Lochary) and their crazed friends. One of the spectators (Divine) fantasizes that he is Jackie Kennedy, and relives the JFK assassination in his mind.

The movie features random scenes of Maelcum Soul in nun habit drag, a priest drinking a beer, a woman being attacked with an electric fan, a drag queen riding a motorcycle, and Divine playing hide and seek. The soundtrack is played back from tape in the room during the screening, and includes radio advertisements, rock songs, a press conference with Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, and tune by the Shangri-Las.

Due to economic downfalls, the nations of the planet Earth began gradually to organize themselves into huge economic super-conglomerates. Eventually, these continental organizations merged into the World Economic Consortium. The WEC is a tyrannical entity, on paper an economic allegiance, but in practice a type of "New World Order" dictatorship. While the world is made to look peaceful and prosperous, the reality is that most liberties are suspended, taxes are well over 90%, military force is used mercilessly against those who dare oppose the WEC, and freedom is barely even remembered. Only an elite upper class of WEC executives have true power and wealth; among these are WEC President Gauthier and Chairman Nathaniel Draygan. The WEC is being fought by an organization calling itself the Resistance, led by former WEC colonel Quentin Maxis, promoted to general when risen to command of the group. The Resistance is a severely outnumbered and outgunned ragtag mix of disparate people: ex-WEC soldiers and employees rub elbows with political dissidents and criminals searching for pardon.

As ''No Remorse'' opens, a team of three Silencers—enigmatic super-soldiers—are returning from a botched mission in which they disobeyed an order to fire upon civilians who were (mistakenly) believed to be rebels. They are ambushed by a WEC mech and two of the Silencers are killed. The remaining one, a nameless captain (the player character), was able to disable the mech with a grenade. Reconsidering his options, the Silencer joins the Resistance, where, as a significant symbol of the WEC's military power and political philosophy, he is met with resentment, distrust and outright hatred. As the game progresses, the Silencer uncomplainingly undertakes dangerous missions, often with substandard equipment, and his continued success gradually earns the respect of his fellow Resistance members.

The Silencer eventually uncovers secret plans for a WEC space station, the Vigilance Platform, which can attack any location on Earth from space, meaning cities with a known Resistance presence can simply be annihilated at the leisure of the WEC. All such cities are threatened with orbital bombardment unless they surrender. Concurrently, the player's Resistance cell is betrayed from within, and almost all the non-player characters are killed. Despite these setbacks, the Silencer infiltrates the Vigilance Platform and destroys it. The traitor is also on the station, guarding the lifepods, and challenges the Silencer to a duel over the access card for the last pod. As the Vigilance Platform is exploding, the Silencer is contacted by Chairman Draygan, who swears vengeance against him.

Prior to the events of the series, Sydney Bloom was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Bloom, a computer scientist who was working on developing virtual reality. His wife Nora Bloom, a neurochemist, was also involved in the project. Sydney's father, and her sister Samantha, died in a car accident in 1978.

Now in 1995 Sydney is a telephone lineworker and computer hobbyist. One day she accidentally discovers that she can enter an advanced type of virtual reality, where she can interact with other people. Her actions in the virtual world have an effect on the real world. She subsequently agrees to use her abilities to help a mysterious secret organization called the Committee. She receives her covert assignments from Frank Morgan, and later from Oliver Sampson. Sydney's friend Duncan advises her and helps her when he can.

The show frequently uses inconsistencies in continuity and a distinctive color scheme as clues to suggest what is actually happening at various points throughout the series.

On Saturday, December 13, 1941, at 7:01 a.m. (six days after the attack on Pearl Harbor), an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine surfaces off the Californian coast. A naked woman swimming in the water is trapped atop the submarine, which is commanded by Akiro Mitamura and carrying Nazi Kriegsmarine officer Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt. Wanting to destroy something "honorable" in Los Angeles, Mitamura decides to target Hollywood, but a Japanese soldier notices the woman and exclaims that she is "Hollywood" before the submarine dives and the woman swims away unharmed.

Later that morning, a 10th Armored Division M3 Lee tank crew, consisting of Sergeant Frank Tree, Corporal Chuck Sitarski, and Privates Foley, Reese, and Henshaw, are having breakfast at a cafe where dishwasher Wally Stephens and his friend Dennis DeSoto both work. Wally is planning to enter a dance contest at a club that evening with his girlfriend, Betty Douglas. Sitarski instantly dislikes Wally, particularly his civilian attire, and trips him, causing a fight.

In Death Valley, crazed cigar-chomping United States Army Air Forces Captain Wild Bill Kelso lands his Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter near a roadside store and gas station, which he accidentally blows up while refueling. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Major General Joseph W. Stilwell attempts to calm the public, who believe Japan will attack California.

During a press conference at Daugherty Field in Long Beach, Captain Loomis Birkhead, Stilwell's aide, meets his old flame Donna Stratton, who is General Stilwell's new secretary. Aware that Donna is sexually aroused by airplanes, Birkhead lures her into the cockpit of a B-17 bomber to seduce her. When his amatory attempts fail, Donna punches him out; as he falls, Birkhead accidentally releases a bomb, sending it rolling towards the podium just as the General promises, "There will be no bombs dropped here." The assembled reporters and audience panic and scatter as the bomb strikes the grandstand and explodes, though Stilwell and the crowd are unhurt.

At the Santa Monica oceanside home of her father Ward Douglas and his wife Joan, Betty and her friend Maxine Dexheimer, who have both just become USO hostesses, tell Wally that they are only allowed to dance with servicemen as they are now the only male patrons allowed in the club. Wally is forced to hide in the garage when Ward, who disapproves of Wally, appears. Sgt. Tree and his tank crew arrive and inform Ward and Joan that the army wants to install an anti-aircraft battery in their yard; Sitarski begins flirting with Betty when Wally falls from the loft where he was hiding. Wally and Sitarski recognize each other from the cafe, and Ward and the soldiers pick up Wally and dump him into a passing garbage truck.

Meanwhile, the Japanese submarine has become lost trying to find Los Angeles after the ship's compass malfunctions. A landing party goes ashore searching for "Hollywood" and instead discovers lumberjack Hollis "Holly" Wood, who is selling Christmas trees. After being taken prisoner aboard the sub, Hollis is searched and the crew is excited to find a small compass which was the toy surprise inside a box of "Popper Jacks". Hollis snatches the compass and swallows it. After the crew attempts to make Hollis pass the compass by forcing him to drink prune juice, he manages to escape from the submarine and swim to shore.

Later that evening, Ward's neighbor, Angelo Scioli of the Ground Observer Corps, installs Claude and Herb in the Ferris wheel at the Ocean Front Amusement Park where they have volunteered to spot and report enemy aircraft. Herb has brought his ventriloquist's dummy along, greatly annoying Claude. Meanwhile, General Stilwell attends a showing of the Walt Disney film ''Dumbo'' at a theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Determined to get Donna up in an airplane, Birkhead drives her to the 501st Bomb Disbursement Unit in Barstow, where the mentally unstable Colonel "Mad Man" Maddox shows them the unit's aircraft. Convinced the Japanese have a secret airbase hidden in the alfalfa fields of Pomona, Maddox lets Birkhead and Donna borrow a plane, after Birkhead offers to go on a reconnaissance flight in an attempt to locate the fictional Pomona airfield. Donna, aroused by at last being up in an airplane, eagerly begins to ravish the nervous Birkhead during the flight.

Outside the USO club, Sitarski literally kicks aside Wally and drags Betty into the dance. Wally eventually sneaks in by knocking out a member of the Shore Patrol and stealing his uniform. He snatches Betty from Sitarski, and they end up winning the dance contest whilst evading Sitarski, whom Maxine is relentlessly pursuing. As the contest ends, Sitarski finally punches Wally, setting off a brawl between soldiers, sailors and zoot suiters. The free-for-all spills into the street and becomes a riot.

Sgt. Tree arrives with his crew and breaks up the melee, just as L.A. goes to Red Alert with unknown aircraft sighted over the city. At the Douglas' home, Ward spots the surfaced submarine offshore. Birkhead and Donna, still in the throes of passion, fly over L.A., where anti-aircraft batteries open fire. Kelso pursues Birkhead's plane and shoots it down, causing it to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits. He then spots the submarine near the amusement park, but before he can return to attack, Claude and Herb, who are still in the Ferris wheel, shoot down his P-40, mistaking it for a Japanese "Zero".

Back on Hollywood Boulevard, Sitarski is dragging away Betty, when Wally arrives, rescues her and knocks him out cold. Kelso, who has crash landed his plane on the street, informs them of the sub near the amusement park. Sergeant Tree, knocked silly during the melee, instructs Wally to go after the submarine. Wearing an Army uniform, Wally commandeers Tree's tank and heads toward the amusement park. Back at the Douglas home, Ward begins firing the anti-aircraft gun at the submarine, almost consequently destroying his house. The sub returns fire, hitting the Ferris wheel, which causes it to roll down a pier and into the ocean, sending Claude, Herb and the dummy into the water. The tank fires at the sub and then sinks when the pier collapses and Wally, Dennis, Tree and the crew jump into the ocean. Kelso has stolen a motorcycle which he drives off the pier. He swims to the submarine, where he is captured by the Japanese; undaunted, he declares, "Turn this tub around! You're takin' me to Tokyo!"

On Sunday morning, December 14, 1941, Stilwell and soldiers arrive at the remains of the Douglas home, where the other protagonists have gathered and spent the night. Ward delivers an inspirational speech to everyone present, vowing that their Christmas will not be ruined by the enemy; to symbolize his point, he nails a Christmas wreath to his front door, jarring the unstable house so that it collapses down the hillside. Stilwell, observing the motley disheveled crowd who have begun arguing and fighting, tells Sgt. Tree, "It's going to be a ''long'' war", and he walks away.

The film opens on Howard Cosell's coverage of the assassination of the president of the fictional "banana republic" of San Marcos and a coup d'état that brings Gen. Emilio Molina Vargas to power.

Fielding Mellish is a neurotic blue collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy by trying to get in touch with the revolution in San Marcos. He visits the republic and attempts to show his concern for the native people. However, Vargas secretly orders his men, disguised as Vargas's opponents, to kill Mellish, to make the rebels look bad so that the U.S. will send Vargas financial aid. Mellish evades Vargas's assassins, but is shortly after captured by the real rebels. Vargas declares Mellish dead regardless, leaving Mellish no choice but to join the rebels for two months. Mellish then learns, clumsily, how to be a revolutionary. When the revolution is successful, Esposito, the Castro-style leader, goes mad. The rebels decide to replace him with Mellish as their president.

When traveling back to the U.S. to obtain financial aid, Mellish (sporting a long fake beard) reunites with Nancy and is exposed. In court, Mellish tries to defend himself from a series of incriminating witnesses, including a reigning Miss America and a middle-aged African-American woman claiming to be J. Edgar Hoover in disguise. One of the witnesses does provide testimony favorable to Mellish, but the court clerk, when asked to read back this testimony, replies with an entirely different, wholly unfavorable rendition. Mellish is eventually sentenced to prison, but his sentence is suspended on the condition that he does not move into the judge's neighborhood. Nancy then agrees to marry him. The film ends with Howard Cosell's coverage of the between-the-covers consummation of their marriage, an event that was over much more quickly than Nancy had anticipated, with Mellish anticipating a rematch in the early spring.

In this book, you are introduced to Nancy's best friends, Elizabeth "Bess" Marvin and George Fayne, complete opposites. George is a brave, sporty tomboy, while Bess is a girly, shopping, scaredycat. One of Bess and George's cousins, Alice Regor, traveled with Nancy to their Aunt and Uncle's ranch in Arizona where the cousins' aunt attempts to keep up a ranch she received as payment of a debt. Nancy reunites Alice with her long-lost artist father, who is suffering from amnesia. She also uncovers the mystery behind why an old mountain woman is guardian of a beautiful young girl, all the while enjoying mountain life, including horseback riding, a flash flood, being lost in the mountains overnight, and a dangerous mountain lion.

After an introductory sequence during which chickens are beheaded on a chopping block, the main action begins. Platinum blond bombshell Mary Vivian Pearce begins her day by riding the bus and reading Kenneth Anger's ''Hollywood Babylon''.

Bombshell is later seduced by a hippie degenerate "shrimper" (foot fetishist), who starts molesting her feet while she fantasizes about being Cinderella. She is then hit by a car driven by Divine, a portly blonde who was trying to pick up an attractive hitchhiker whom she imagines naked. Divine places her in the car and drives distractedly around Baltimore experiencing bizarre situations, such as repeated visits by the Blessed Virgin Mary (Margie Skidmore)—during which Divine exclaims, "Oh Mary ... teach me to be Divine". Divine finally takes the unconscious Bombshell to Dr. Coathanger, who amputates her feet and replaces them with bird-like monster feet which she can tap together to transport herself around Baltimore.

'''Chs. 1–4''': Harvey and Lizbeth Durant arrive to witness the cutting of their embryo. Svengaard, a low-ranking doctor, tries to convince them to skip the procedure, but they are adamant and insist on their right, all the while secretly communicating their contempt for Svengaard in a silent Courier code. Potter, a high-ranking surgeon, arrives to perform the cut. During the procedure, he is shocked to discover that the embryo has qualities not seen in millennia; superior genetics in the areas of intelligence, plus vocation for immortality and full fertility. Obligated to destroy it, Potter is surprised to find himself unwilling to do so, aided by the on-the-spot collusion of one of the nurses who sabotages the record of the operation.

'''Ch. 5''': Max Allgood, Boumard and Igan arrive at the Hall of Counsel for an audience with the Tuyere. Tachy-Security monitoring has detected something amiss with the Durant embryo cutting. The nurse has been arrested, but has died under interrogation. The Optimen Calapine, Nourse and Schruille playfully mock their subordinates, always with a faint undercurrent of menace. Calapine flirts with Allgood in a semi-bemused fashion. The Tuyere order that Svengaard be brought before them. Boumard and Igan are revealed to the reader as Cyborg agents.

'''Ch. 6''': Svengaard is interrogated by the Tuyere. Badly frightened, he fumbles and grows agitated under their mockery, becoming insubordinate. The Tuyere calm him down by a display of magnanimity, reminding him of their power, wisdom and seniority.

'''Ch. 7''': In a service area under the Seatac Megalopolis, the Durants have gone into hiding. They meet with the Cyborg Glisson, who informs them of events, tells them that a strange external force had (beneficially) interfered with the cutting process of their embryo, and orders them to stay put. The Durants chafe under its unfeeling, domineering manner, hoping to one another to one day be free of the Optimen ''and'' Cyborgs. They scheme to deliver their baby the unheard-of natural way, and keep it out of reach of both. They wonder if the interfering power is God.

'''Ch. 8-9''': Svengaard detects activity in the hospital vat room, where the embryo is kept. Investigating, he is rendered unconscious and abducted from under the nose of Max Allgood's surveillance.

'''Ch. 10-11''': Potter is escorted through the streets of Seatac by a resistance agent. Near their destination, they are intercepted by security forces. Potter's escort sends him ahead, revealing himself as a combat cyborg and decimating the pursuers until it is destroyed. Potter is spirited away by the resistance. The Tuyere - and many other Optimen - watch the battle live, the long-unfamiliar thrill of violence awakening odd sensations in them.

'''Ch. 12''': In a resistance safehouse, Igan tries to recruit a recalcitrant Svengaard. Failing, they sedate him and make plans to evacuate Seatac, which they suspect the Optimen are about to genocidally purge of all life.

'''Ch. 13''': The Durants, Boumard and Igan (their cover blown) and a gagged Svengaard are moved out of Seatac in a hover-truck driven by a Cyborg, later revealed to be Glisson. At a checkpoint, Svengaard cries out briefly, causing them to be traced. Glisson changes their destination.

'''Ch. 14''': The Tuyere wipe out Seatac through a combination of poison gas and sonic weapons. They find themselves surprised by their unstable emotional reactions to the event.

'''Ch. 15''': The occupants of the truck observe the destruction of Seatac; Svengaard's faith in the Optimen is badly shaken. The Durants notice that Boumard and Igan are in the early stages of cyborgization. The truck proceeds to a ramshackle safehouse in the forest.

'''Ch. 16''': The Tuyere receives a field report from Max Allgood. Calapine, growing suspicious of his behavior, scans him with her instruments, discovering that he has accepted Cyborg implants. Enraged, she kills him remotely. Calapine and Schruille decide to run Tachy-Security themselves, finding themselves oddly stimulated by the prospect of an even more active involvement in violence. Potter is revealed to have died offstage in Seatac. Calapine and Nourse both require treatment for enzyme imbalance.

'''Ch. 17''': The occupants of the cabin decide that the apathetic Svengaard cannot be trusted, and should be killed. Harvey asks him if he wants to live; Svengaard suddenly finds that he does. He offers to care for the Durant's child, an offer Harvey accepts as he does not trust the cyborgs Boumard and Igan. The security forces of the Optimen surround the house and disarm (literally) Glisson.

'''Ch. 18''': The Tuyere debate what to do with the prisoners. They speculate that, if the infection of viability spreads, wiping out all the Folk and starting over is not out of the question. They decide to have the prisoners brought to themselves for interrogation.

'''Ch. 19''': A full assembly of Optimen meet in the Hall of Counsel. The prisoners are brought in, immobilized in a solid block. The Optimen begin to feel odd emotions, spiraling into greater and greater instability. Glisson asserts that reintroducing them to firsthand violence was a Cyborg ploy to destabilize the delicate equilibrium of the Optiman mind, and that the Cyborgs have won. A semi-hysterical Calapine converses with the prisoners, verging on killing them, but abruptly releases them instead. The Optimen descend into insanity; several, including Schruille, are killed in a stampede. The former prisoners try to help.

'''Ch. 20''': Calapine and the former prisoners discuss the new status quo. Glisson's gloating is cut off when a biological solution is proposed. Svengaard thinks that he will be able to stabilize the Optimen, and introduce the beneficial mutations of the Durant embryo on a wide scale, giving the Folk a lifespan of at least 12,000 to 15,000 years—longevity without the pernicious ossification of immortality. The novel concludes on a note of guarded optimism.

The main plot involves Dr. Caligari's experiments with her patients at the C.I.A (Caligari Insane Asylum), where she transfers glandular brain fluids from one patient to another. Two of her main patients, Mr. Pratt, a cannibalistic serial killer, and Mrs. Van Houten, a nymphomanical housewife, are the primary subjects of her mindswapping. Mrs. Van Houten becomes the cannibal and Mr. Pratt the nymphomaniac, although they seem to still retain some elements of themselves as well. Apparently, Caligari's unconventional idea is to cure people by introducing equally opposite traits to balance out disturbed minds, but this is never explicitly stated in the film.

Several other doctors, a married couple (Mr and Mrs Lodger) become concerned with Caligari's experiments and approach Mrs. Lodger's father, Dr. Avol, who confronts Caligari only to fall victim to her mindswapping and receive an injection of Mrs. Van Houten's brain fluid, turning him into a transvestite nymphomaniac. Sex is a prominent theme throughout the movie, especially for Mrs. Van Houten, who appears topless and performs masturbation at several points, but there are no hardcore scenes, as this was released as an R-rated feature. By the end of the film, Mrs. Van Houten has injected Dr. Caligari with her own nymphomaniacal brain fluid and herself with Caligari's ancestor's (the original Dr. Caligari from ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''); thus the patient becomes the doctor, the doctor becomes the patient and the inmates are left to run the asylum.

Sonny Mann (Timothy Olyphant) is released early from prison and returns home to the Florida Panhandle and tries to collect $200,000 owed to him by his former cohorts, Fred Vance (William Forsythe) and his nephew Eddie (Josh Lucas). He enters into a love triangle with best friend Dave Lockhart (Josh Brolin), a sheriff, and his wife, Ann Lockhart (Sarah Wynter).

A year after the events of the first film, Detroit is close to bankruptcy after failing to pay off its debts to conglomerate Omni Consumer Products (OCP). The OCP chairman intends to have the city default on its debt, then foreclose on all public property, effectively taking over its government and allowing for OCP's on-going, radical urban-redevelopment plan (as established in the first film). To rally public opinion behind the project, OCP sparks an increase in street crime by terminating the privatized Detroit Police Department's pension plans and cutting salaries, triggering a police strike.

RoboCop remains on duty with his partner, Anne Lewis. They raid a manufacturing plant of Nuke, a new designer drug plaguing Detroit. The cartel's leader Cain and his prepubescent accomplice Hob escape. RoboCop has flashbacks to his previous life as Alex Murphy, and has begun watching his wife and son outside their home. Still grieving over the death of her husband, his wife brings litigation against OCP, complaining of harassment. After his handlers dress him down, RoboCop tells his wife that Murphy is dead.

OCP struggles to develop RoboCop 2, a police droid fitted with the brains of legally-dead police officers, intended for mass production to replace the striking police force. The resurrected cops keep committing suicide upon activation. Morally-warped psychologist Dr. Juliette Faxx theorizes that Murphy's strong moral code and strict Catholic upbringing were critical in his initial success; she convinces the Chairman to let her lead the project to recover their 90-million dollar research and development investment. The research staff are later horrified to learn that she seeks to use death row inmates, who desire power and immortality, rather than police officers.

Cain fears losing his grip after the Delta City project, and uses corrupt police officer Duffy to undermine OCP and RoboCop's enforcement efforts. RoboCop tracks down Duffy and violently confronts him, revealing Cain's hideout. He confronts Cain's gang at an abandoned construction site, but he walks into a trap and is overwhelmed. The criminals cut apart RoboCop's body and dump the pieces in front of his precinct. Cain has Duffy vivisected for revealing their location and encourages Hob to watch.

RoboCop is repaired, but Faxx intentionally reprograms him with new and softer directives with the approval of the OCP Board of Directors that severely impede his ability to perform his duties so that her project can be selected. RoboCop eventually clears these by shocking himself with a high voltage transformer and rebooting his system. Murphy motivates the striking officers to aid him in raiding Cain's hideout. As Cain tries to escape, RoboCop wounds and apprehends him. Hob escapes and takes control of Cain's drug empire. Believing she can control Cain via his Nuke addiction, Faxx selects him for the RoboCop 2 project and disconnects his life support. Surgeons place his brain in a heavily armed robotic body, similar to ED-209, and reactivate him.

After failing to pay the city's debts via voluntary fundraising, the Mayor is contacted by Hob, who offers to retire the city's entire debt in exchange for a "hands off" policy towards Nuke, thereby nullifying OCP's scheme and preventing Delta City's construction. Threatened by this move, OCP sends Cain to the meeting. Cain slaughters everyone but the mayor, who escapes. RoboCop arrives to find a wounded Hob, who identifies the attacker before dying.

The chairman presents an unveiling ceremony for Cain and Delta City, their redevelopment plan. When he presents a canister of Nuke, Cain's uncontrollable addiction causes him to disobey his programming and murder many civilians and police officers. RoboCop arrives and fights Cain, and their battle extends to the street. RoboCop recovers the Nuke canister and Lewis uses it to distract Cain. RoboCop leaps onto his back, shoots through his armor, rips out his brain and smashes it onto the ground, ending Cain's rampage. The Chairman and Johnson decide to use Dr. Faxx as the scapegoat for Cain's attack. As Lewis complains that OCP is going to avoid accountability again, RoboCop insists they must be patient because "we're only human".

The film opens on ancient Greek ruins where a chanting Greek chorus introduces and narrates the story of Lenny Weinrib. Lenny is a sportswriter in Manhattan, married to ambitious curator Amanda. The couple decide to adopt a baby, a boy they name Max. Lenny is awed by their son who, it becomes increasingly clear, is a gifted child.

Lenny becomes obsessed with learning the identity of Max's biological mother. After a long search, Lenny is disturbed to find that she is a prostitute and part-time porn star who uses several names but confesses her birth name is Leslie Ash, and she likes "Linda" because it means “beautiful” in Spanish. Lenny makes an "appointment" to see her at her apartment. Linda is a bit of a ditz with a crude sense of humor and delusions of becoming a stage actress. Lenny does not have intercourse with her but instead urges her to get away from prostitution and start a wholesome life. Linda becomes angry, refunds Lenny's money, and forces him to leave. Lenny, however, is determined to befriend her and improve her life. He first manages to get Linda away from her violent pimp and then attempts to pair Linda with a former boxer, Kevin. They appear to be a well-suited couple until Kevin discovers Linda's background.

Meanwhile, Lenny and Amanda have been drifting apart, due to Lenny's obsession with Linda, but also Amanda's career and her affair with her colleague Jerry. Amanda tells Lenny she wants to explore her relationship with Jerry. Lenny and Linda console each other over their break-ups, and end up finally engaging in intercourse. However, the next day Lenny reconciles with Amanda, and they realize that they are still in love. Linda tries unsuccessfully to get back with Kevin but on the drive back to Manhattan, she sees a helicopter dropping out of the sky. She pulls over and gives the pilot, Don, a ride. It is revealed by the Greek chorus that they will end up married, although Linda is now pregnant with Lenny's child.

About a year later, Linda (with her infant daughter) and Lenny (with Max) meet in a toy store. They both have each other's children but do not realize it. Linda thanks Lenny for everything he did to help her and then leaves Lenny dumbstruck. The film ends with the Greek chorus singing and dancing.

When seven archaeologists found an old Inca mummy, they become the victims of an Inca curse. Back in Europe, they fall into a deep sleep one by one and only once a day, at the same time, do they wake up for a few minutes and have hallucinations of the Inca god. The story begins with the sixth archaeologist falling asleep by the contents of a crystal ball thrown into his car by Incas.

Professor Tarragon stays with Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock in Marlinspike Hall, when the Thompsons arrive, Tarragon learns from them that he is the last Councious Professor. A thunderstorm approaches and the lights go out. This is used by the Incas to put the last one in sleep and to capture Professor Calculus, who has proved to be a desecrater of the sanctuary by putting on the bracelet of the Inca sun god.

His friends Tintin and Haddock follow the track to Peru, up to the mountains through snow and jungle to the mountains and finally discover the Temple of the Sun where they are caught. Their only choice is to choose the day on which they want to be burned to death by the sun. Tintin chooses wisely and is able use an eclipse. At the end he achieves forgiveness and the archaeologists are cured from their curse and Calculus is released.

Frank is a jewel thief and ex-convict who has a set structure to his life. With a pair of successful Chicago businesses (a bar and a car dealership) as fronts for his criminal enterprise, Frank sets out to fulfill the missing part of his life vision: a family with Jessie, a cashier he has begun dating.

After taking down a major diamond score, Frank gives the diamonds to his fence, Joe Gags. However, before Frank can collect his share, Gags is murdered for skimming from the mob's collection money. Barry, Frank's friend and associate making the pick-up, discovers that a plating company executive Gags was working for, Attaglia, is responsible for Gags' murder and stealing Frank's payoff. In a confrontation at Attaglia's plating company, Frank demands his money back.

This leads to a meeting with Attaglia's employer Leo, a high-level fence and Chicago Outfit boss. Unknown to Frank, Leo has been receiving Frank's goods from Gags for some time. He admires Frank's eye for quality stolen goods and professionalism, and wants him working directly for him, offering Frank large profits. Their meeting is monitored from a distance by police surveillance.

Frank is initially reluctant, not wanting the added exposure or complications, but later that night, a conversation with Jessie changes his mind when she agrees to be part of his life, after he relates a tale of prison survival via a toughened mental attitude. Frank now agrees to do just one big score for Leo, telling Barry that this will be their last job. After being rejected at the state adoption agency, with Leo's help Frank is able to acquire a baby boy on the black market, whom he names David after his late mentor, nicknamed Okla.

After resisting a shakedown from a group of corrupt police detectives, and then subsequently ditching their surveillance, Frank and his crew are involved in a large-scale West Coast diamond heist organized by Leo. All goes well with Frank's "burn job" and he is expecting the agreed-upon sum of $830,000 for the unmounted stones of wholesale value $4 million. But when Frank returns from the job, Leo gives him less than $100,000. This is all that Frank will receive in cash according to Leo, who says he invested the rest of Frank's cut in shopping centers in Fort Worth, Texas and Dallas, Texas, an idea Frank had previously rejected. In addition, Leo sets up a Palm Beach score for Frank in six weeks without consulting him. Frank tells Leo that their deal is over and takes the cash as he leaves, demanding the rest of his money in 24 hours.

Frank drives to his car lot, unaware that Leo's henchmen have already beaten and captured Barry and are waiting in ambush. Frank is knocked out and Barry is killed by Carl, one of Leo's enforcers. Frank awakens with Leo staring down at him, surrounded by his henchmen. Leo informs him that he, Jessie, their child, and everything he owns are Leo's property. He threatens Frank's family if he does not continue working for him. Leo warns Frank to focus on his responsibilities. When Frank returns home, he orders an uncomprehending Jessie out of their house, telling her their marriage is over. Frank instructs an associate to drive her, the baby and $410,000 in cash to somewhere where they cannot be found, informing Jessie that more money will be coming at regular intervals, but that he will not be joining her.

With nothing to lose, Frank blows up their home using high-explosive charges. He then drives to his business establishments and does the same. Armed with a pistol, he quietly breaks into Leo's house in a peaceful neighborhood and pistol whips Attaglia in the kitchen. Frank hunts for Leo, killing him in the living room. Frank then pursues Attaglia as he tries to escape from the house, but is confronted in the front yard by Carl and another henchman. In the ensuing gunfight, Frank is shot, but manages to kill the trio. Frank loosens what appears to be a bulletproof vest he was wearing beneath his jacket, and walks away into the night.

The people of Harford Road are firmly divided into two camps: the neuters, the puritanical residents who despise anything even remotely carnal; and the perverts, a group of sex addicts whose unique fetishes have all been brought to the fore by accidental concussions.

Repressed Sylvia Stickles finds herself firmly entrenched in the former camp. One day, after leaving her promiscuous daughter Caprice (nicknamed Ursula Udders because of gargantuan breasts and a penchant for indecent exposure while dancing at a local dive bar) locked up over the garage, under house arrest "for her own good", Sylvia is smacked on the head by a passing car and meets Ray-Ray Perkins, a local mechanic and self-styled "sex saint" who opens her mind to a whole new world of sensual pleasure, as he and his followers search for the ultimate sex act.

Eventually, through a series of bizarre head knockings, everyone in the Harford Road area of Baltimore becomes a sex addict, as Ray-Ray shoots semen out of his head and becomes the messiah of "Let's Go Sexin'!"

In 2080, there is a colony on the Moon called Little America. Businessman, entrepreneur, retired smuggler and ex-convict, Pluto Nash (Eddie Murphy) buys a nightclub in an attempt to fulfill his long-time wish and also to prevent the murder of the club's previous owner, and old friend, Anthony Frankowski (Jay Mohr) by mobsters Gino (Burt Young) and his nephew, Larry (Lillo Brancato). With the help of his friend Miguel (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) and an android named Bruno (Randy Quaid), Pluto rebuilds, and cleans it up into a very popular nightclub.

Seven years later in 2087, a young woman named Dina Lake (Rosario Dawson), the daughter of a friend of Pluto's, Nicky Sticks, is stranded on the Moon and tries to earn money for transport back to Earth. Pluto gives her a job as a server. Pluto is accosted by Mogan (Joe Pantoliano) and Kelp (Victor Varnado), henchmen of mysterious entrepreneur and businessman Rex Crater, who wants to buy the club. When Pluto refuses, the henchmen use bombs to destroy the club. Pluto, Dina, and Bruno manage to escape.

Pluto's friend Rowland (Peter Boyle), a retired police detective who is a friend of his mother's, learns that Rex Crater has associates linked to human cloning. While Pluto and Dina investigate further, Crater's assassins strike, but Pluto and Dina escape by hijacking a limo driven by a holographic chauffeur, named James.

Their investigation further links Zoroaster Marucci (Alec Baldwin) to Crater. They are again attacked and chased by Crater's henchmen, but they escape and are then rescued by Felix Laranga (Luis Guzmán), a local smuggler who idolizes Pluto Nash. They infiltrate Crater's casino/hotel at Moon Beach.

Pluto finally confronts Crater, who reveals himself to be a clone of Pluto. Crater has shot both Marucci and Dr. Runa Pendankin into orbit and established his own criminal enterprise. When Mogan and Kelp arrive, Crater kills them for their incompetence. He and Pluto then fight, with Crater ultimately being thrown through a window to his death.

Sometime later, a celebration is held at the rebuilt, renovated Club Pluto with Nash as the true owner.

Jonathan Rivers is an architect and lives with his wife Anna until her unexpected death. Eventually, he is contacted by Raymond Price, whose son has also died. He says he has recorded messages from Anna through electronic voice phenomena (EVP). While Jonathan is initially dismissive and angered, he later learns about his wife's tragic drowning. Desperate, he begins to believe that the recorded voice is indeed that of his wife, and becomes obsessed with trying to contact her himself. He is warned by a psychic that, while she takes measures to avoid hostile entities, EVP is an indiscriminate process that offers no such safeguards. A woman named Sarah Tate, who also came to Raymond for his EVP work because she lost her fiancé, befriends Jonathan.

Raymond is found dead. Jonathan begins to be followed by three demons attracted by his obsession with EVP, and finds that some of the messages he receives are from people who are not yet dead, but may soon be. Jonathan hears cries from a woman whom he finds in a car with a child. He is able to save the child, but not the woman. At that woman's funeral, which Jonathan and Sarah both attend, Jonathan approaches the husband and tells him about what happened. The latter thanks Jonathan for saving his son but then demands to be left alone. Afterwards, Jonathan sees images of another person, a missing woman named Mary Freeman, while working with his EVP devices. Sarah is later seriously injured by a fall from a balcony while possessed by the demons, an incident which was foreshadowed by Sarah's image being among those on the EVP devices.

Jonathan locates the site of his wife's death by following signs on recordings and he also finds his wife's abandoned car. Jonathan finds a set of computers and electronic equipment on site. A construction worker from his company, who has been doing his own EVP work, is holding Mary captive. He has been under the control of the demons to kill all these people, including Anna. The three demons torture Jonathan by breaking his arms and legs and cause him to fall to his death, but a SWAT team arrives and are able to save Mary by shooting the construction worker dead. After his funeral, Jonathan's voice can be heard on the car radio through static interference saying "I'm sorry" to his son, who recognizes the voice and smiles. Sarah, at the graveside in a wheelchair, is menaced by odd noises. Right before the credits, the camera flashes to a TV where Jonathan and his wife are visible. A closing intertitle states that one of twelve out of thousands of EVP messages is threatening.

The family is creating an enormous jigsaw puzzle. After they realize a jigsaw piece is missing, the family look for it. Homer looks through Marge's memory box and sees a poster of Moe's Tavern's opening (advertised as ''Meaux's Tavern'') with Marge's writing on it. It says that Homer made the opening the worst day of her life because due to him becoming drunk and ditching her to play ''Asteroids'' on an arcade machine with his friends, after which he was sent to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. This leaves Homer concerned about why Marge stayed with him; he then finds a hospital appointment card dated two days later, confirming she was pregnant with Bart. When Homer confronts Marge about the letter, she says she was just upset that night but is forced to admit that Homer did, and still does, things that annoy her. Homer then realizes Marge has been resenting him behind his back. The next day, they argue again and Homer leaves the house. He spends some time at Kirk Van Houten's apartment, but the generally depressive mood of the apartment complex where he lives drives him out. Homer then reads a newspaper saying that there is a place available. Finding out that the place is in Springfield's gay district, Homer moves in with a gay male couple, Grady and Julio. Homer has a visit home after taking Bart and Lisa out, but Marge and Homer still argue. At a gay bar, Homer tells Grady and Julio that his relationship with Marge is on the rocks.

The next day, Homer sees Marge and the kids, who have brought "Weird Al" Yankovic and his band, who play a song called "Homer and Marge", a parody of John Mellencamp's "Jack & Diane", to tell Homer that Marge loves him. Marge then asks Homer out on a date, but he is nervous while preparing for his date and drinks too much margarita. Meanwhile, at the venue of the date, Marge anxiously awaits Homer's arrival. When he arrives, she is upset that he is late and drunk, and leaves him. Back at the apartment, Grady tries to comfort Homer by telling him that he will find someone else, and kisses him romantically. Homer realizes that Grady is in love with him and jumps out of the window, heading to Moe's Tavern to get some advice from Moe. Homer is about to come to the realization that all of his problems are caused by alcohol when Moe forces beer down Homer's throat, giving him alcohol poisoning.

After Homer awakens, Dr. Hibbert tells him that the incident was not as bad as the night he first treated him for alcohol poisoning. Homer says it was the night that destroyed his marriage. Hibbert disagrees and plays a tape from the past of Homer's first alcohol poisoning. Marge says that she loves him in the tape. Marge appears and says she still does and they reconcile.

Years later, an elderly Dr. Hibbert is watching the tape and remarks that he made tapes because he suspected a nurse of stealing sponges. Then for the first time he sees footage of the nurse sneaking past the hidden security-camera while gathering up a huge armful of sponges.

Big Enos Burdette is in a literal mudslinging campaign against John Conn for Governor of Texas. After failing to get the outgoing governor's endorsement, Big Enos overhears him on the phone ordering a crate in Miami to be delivered in nine days to the Republican National Convention in Dallas. Burdette schemes to earn the governor's endorsement and have the crate delivered to the convention in his name, and tracks down Cledus "Snowman" Snow and offers him and Bo "Bandit" Darville $200,000 to do the run. Cledus takes the Burdettes to Bandit to make the offer in person, but Bandit has become a heavy drinker since breaking up with Carrie ("Frog"), and is drunk when the Burdettes arrive and double the payoff to $400,000. Cledus accepts on Bandit's behalf, but adds that Big Enos should give them half in advance, to which they agree. Cledus is ecstatic, but Bandit begins to miss Carrie.

Cledus calls Carrie, who is back in Texarkana and again about to marry Junior when Cledus calls offering her $50,000 to help out; she agrees and again becomes a runaway bride. Though she still has feelings for Bandit, when Carrie arrives she initially intones she is only in it for the money, and she and Cledus work on getting Bandit off the booze and back into shape. She then trades in Junior's car for a new Trans Am. The three arrive at the pier in Miami only to find out the manifest is quarantined for three weeks. They return late that night to steal it, only to find the "package" is a live elephant (the G.O.P. mascot) which Cledus names "Charlotte" after his aunt. When Bandit removes a splinter from Charlotte's foot, she takes a liking to him.

Soon after they start off for Dallas, they are accosted for the first of several times by Sheriff Justice, but Bandit outwits him and they escape. En route, they stop at a remote fuel station and notice something wrong with Charlotte. Moments later, an ambulance pulls in with an Italian gynecologist in the back; "Doc" is initially reluctant to help, but when his ambulance driver speeds away unknowingly leaving him stranded, he asks to hitch a ride with them, agreeing to watch Charlotte.

Doc later finds that Charlotte is pregnant and due to give birth any time, but Bandit is determined to stay on schedule. Entering Louisiana, Doc says that Charlotte is almost in labor and needs to be off her feet. Cledus decides they all need a break and they go to a nearby nightclub where Don Williams is headlining. When Carrie sees Bandit scribbling on a napkin a picture of Charlotte cradled by suspended netting to keep her off her feet, she angrily leaves, but not before telling Bandit that she will come back only when he likes himself again. Later that night, a drunken Bandit makes his drawing a reality, and Doc agrees that his idea will work.

Buford decides to call for help from his brothers Reggie, a Mountie Sergeant in Quebec, and Gaylord, an effeminate Texas State Patrolman. Later, as Bandit and Cledus enter Texas, Buford lures the Bandit into a trap: a mass of 40 Texas Patrol and Mountie cruisers pursuing him across a desert basin. Bandit orders Cledus to get to Dallas, but he enlists a large convoy of his trucker pals and comes to Bandit's rescue instead, wrecking nearly all of the cruisers in a giant demolition derby while Doc and Charlotte watch from the sidelines. The two escape by crossing a makeshift trailer bridge with Buford and his brothers in pursuit. Two of the trucks pull away, resulting in Gaylord and Reggie's cruisers crashing in the ensuing gap before they can cross, but Buford is still in pursuit, though his cruiser is barely functioning.

Cledus begs Bandit to stop at a safari reserve, where Charlotte finally gives birth to her baby. Bandit is ready to load them both back up in the truck, but Cledus refuses and then knocks Bandit down when he insults him. When he sees Charlotte in tears, Bandit finally comes to his senses and apologizes.

Bandit later finds Carrie and tells her that he likes himself now, and that he does not want to be without her. He then tells her that he has not yet taken Charlotte to Dallas, but they can still make it. Carrie is overjoyed when she sees Charlotte's baby, and Bandit asks Charlotte's permission for him and Carrie to get hitched, to which Charlotte trumpets her approval; Doc, now riding in the cab with Cledus and Fred, also voices his approval, and they all drive away with Charlotte and her baby in tow in circus carts, with Buford still in pursuit, now driving a Greyhound bus.

A domestic terrorist group make an unsuccessful attempt on the life of US President Jonathan Hayes (Harrison) and the group's leader, Michael Smith (David Wheeler), is subsequently captured. Some members of the group manage to evade capture and continue with terrorist activities. Eight weeks later, believing the threat is past, the President organizes an outdoors activity trip for his teenage daughter, Jess (Monica Keena), who has grown tired of the public life and constant Secret Service supervision. Jess, excited about the trip, is disappointed to learn a Secret Service agent she dislikes, Alex McGregor (Mariel Hemingway), will be accompanying her, despising her over a misunderstanding embrace between her father and Alex. Jess goes so far as to spread rumours about Alex during the trip, leaving an air of animosity between the two of them.

Unbeknownst to the hikers, during their trip they are seen by members of the domestic terrorist group who have been hiding out in the same woods to evade capture. The terrorists initially believe they are witnessing a normal group of hikers, but soon notice bodyguards with guns. Eventually, one of the group recognises Jess, and identifies her as the daughter of President Hayes. They quickly form a plan to kidnap Jess in order to negotiate the release of Smith. They ambush the hikers, kill one of the bodyguards, and kidnap Jess.

With the help of one of the river guides, Grant Coleman (Savant), Alex searches for Jess and attempts a daring rescue.

The game follows a fictional history through sets of plots called "Sagas". There are currently four sagas: "The Chaotic Chronicle", "The Chaotic Throne", "Goddess of Destruction", and "Epic Tale of Aden". Large-scale updates/expansions are known as "Chronicles" (also known as "The Throne" in ''The Chaotic Throne'', "Chapter" in ''Goddess of Destruction'', and "Episode" in ''Epic Tale of Aden''), which introduce new story elements as well as new features and add-ons. They are released every six months. Each expansion new skills, quests, areas, and items. Some expansion also increased the level cap.

Characters

Characters play the role as a player's avatar within the game. Players are allowed to elect up to 7 characters per account. There are currently seven races in the world of ''Lineage II'': the Humans, who are similar to modern-day humans and who have all-around balanced characteristics; the Elves, who have superior dexterity, movement, and casting speed, but weaker offense; Dark Elves, who have higher magic and melee attack capabilities; Orcs, who have higher HP and MP but slower movement; Dwarves, who are powerful melee attackers and master craftsmen; Kamael, who are humanoids with single wings and gender-specific job classes; and Ertheia, female warriors with two completely unique classes, and different quest lines.

The book takes place in different parts of Los Angeles, California. The date is never actually specified, but various clues suggest it is set in the near future. Mostly the story takes place in the centre of Hollywood. The book depicts the differences between different social groups in America, from rich people with guards like Bruce Delamitri to poorer people Wayne and Scout.

The protagonist, Bruce Delamitiri, is an artist who works in the motion picture industry. Many people in the US think that, by making these movies, Bruce makes killing cool. Numerous characters throughout the book imply that he encourages everyone who's watching these movies to kill for fun. Bruce, on the other hand, defends himself by telling everyone that he doesn’t think he encourages anyone to do anything. He says that there has always been violence but humans are not like robots; seeing something on the screen does not necessarily make us want to do it ourselves (p. 13 "people get up from the movie theatre or the TV and do what they just saw"). He also claims that he is just showing existing violence. Unfortunately for Bruce, Wayne and Scout (a pair of psychopaths known in the media as the "Mall Murderers") have formulated a plan to hold him hostage and have him publicly announce that his movies are responsible for their crimes so they can avoid the death penalty (Wayne has a lengthy speech giving examples of how in America it is possible to be guilty and innocent at the same time.) As the novel progresses, Bruce and a critically injured Brooke Daniels are joined inside his house by his wife and daughter and a TV camera crew. The siege reaches its climax as Wayne holds a ratings monitor and announces on live TV that he will spare the hostages if everyone stops watching the siege in the next few minutes - however, this does not happen and he begins firing as the LAPD begin a frantic attempt to subdue him. Many of the characters die in the ensuing violence and the epilogue of the story reveals grim details as to how all the survivors have found a way of escaping responsibility for the tragedy using varying routes from lawsuits and finding religion to making documentaries which explicitly blame everyone else. The book ends with the line "No one has taken responsibility" — echoing an earlier rant by Bruce that we have created a blame free society in which any problem or shortcoming can be blamed on others rather than accepting responsibility for our own actions.

Arrogant scientist Sebastian Caine has developed a serum for the military that can make a subject invisible. His team includes ex-girlfriend Linda McKay, Matt Kensington, Sarah, Janice, Carter, and Frank. The team succeeds in reversing the procedure, returning an invisible gorilla to visibility. Sebastian becomes infatuated with Linda again but, unbeknownst to him, she has become involved with Matt.

Instead of reporting his success to the military, Sebastian lies to an oversight committee which includes his mentor Howard Kramer, telling them he is close but needs more time. He convinces part of the team to go right into human testing without military authorization, keeping the rest in the dark. The procedure is successful and Sebastian turns completely invisible. He enjoys sneaking around the lab in order to scare and play pranks on his fellow co-workers, one of which involves molesting Sarah. The team becomes concerned that Sebastian is taking it too far. The procedure to return him to visibility fails and he is almost killed.

Sebastian is quarantined in the laboratory due to his condition and the other researchers construct a latex mask for him to wear around the lab. With the constant testing done to him and unable to cope with the isolation, he defies instructions and leaves the building. After he drives to his apartment to retrieve some items, he notices a female neighbor undressing and rapes her inside her apartment. Linda warns Sebastian that if he leaves again, she and Matt will tell the committee about the experiment. Ignoring their threat, Sebastian assembles a device that runs a video loop of his heat signature in his quarters. He leaves the lab again and spies on Linda and Matt, becoming enraged when he sees them about to have sex. Becoming increasingly unstable, Sebastian later kills a dog being used as a lab animal in a fit of rage.

The team discovers that they have been watching a recording and that Sebastian has been leaving the lab without their knowledge. Linda and Matt go to Kramer's house and confess their experiments. After they leave, Kramer attempts to alert the Army. Having followed Linda and Matt to the house, Sebastian cuts off his phone connection then drowns him in his swimming pool. The next day, Sebastian waits until the whole team is inside the lab before he disables the phones and the elevator codes except for his own. The rest of the team congregates and decide to hunt Sebastian down and subdue him. At the same time, he begins to murder team members one by one, with Janice being his first victim after falling behind the others.

Linda and the others hide in the lab, while Matt and Carter take tranquilizer guns to hunt for Sebastian using thermal imaging goggles. Sebastian mortally wounds Carter before getting into a fight with Matt. Linda saves Matt. Sebastian then kills Sarah and Frank, and locks an injured Matt and Linda in the freezer, leaving them to die. Linda constructs an electromagnet using a defibrillator to open the door, then gathers materials to assemble a flamethrower. Meanwhile, Sebastian builds a makeshift bomb that will destroy the facility after he leaves using explosive chemicals and a centrifuge; he destroys the keyboard so that nobody can stop the machine.

Just as Sebastian enters the elevator, Linda fires the flamethrower at him. Sebastian escapes and the two fight. Before Sebastian can kill Linda, Matt strikes him with a crowbar. Sebastian recovers and approaches Matt and Linda from behind with the crowbar but Matt deflects the blow, throwing Sebastian into a nearby circuit box, shocking him and rendering him partially visible. Linda and Matt find the bomb, but cannot stop it. They attempt to climb a ladder in the elevator shaft to escape as the bomb explodes. Despite his injuries, Sebastian grabs Linda's ankle. He pulls her off the ladder and onto the top of the elevator. Linda disconnects the elevator cables, causing the partially-visible Sebastian to fall to his death down the shaft. Linda and Matt emerge from the burning lab and emergency personnel take them away in an ambulance.

Gallo Morales (Olmos) returns home after being imprisoned for seven years for murdering a man over a cockfight. His family welcomes him back with mixed feelings. While his daughter Angela (Lassez) is eager to have him back, his son Hector (Nucci) feels otherwise. Hector desires to leave behind the farm and wants to use the family's prize-winning cock, which he has inherited from his grandfather, to win money in order to move his family away. However, Gallo has returned from prison determined to continue the business and to raise a new flock of roosters. Hector and Gallo soon clash over their differing goals.

The crew of the Federation starship ''Enterprise'' is struck with deadly Rigellian fever, for which the only treatment is the mineral ryetalyn. Captain Kirk, first officer Spock and medical officer Dr. McCoy beam down to the planet Holberg 917-G in search of the substance and are attacked by an airborne robot, which is called off by its master, Flint. Flint demands they leave immediately, but Kirk orders the ''Enterprise'' to fire phasers on their coordinates if they are attacked. Acknowledging a stalemate, Flint agrees to let them remain long enough to obtain the ryetalyn.

Flint offers the help of his sentry robot M4 to gather the mineral and escorts them to his home, which has an impressive art collection. Spock notices that the brushwork of the paintings is identical to Leonardo da Vinci's, but his tricorder indicates that they are made with contemporary materials.

The party is introduced to Flint's young ward, Rayna Kapec, whose late parents, according to Flint, were employees of his. On Flint's suggestion, Kirk plays billiards with Rayna, and they dance to a waltz played on the piano by Spock. The sheet music, apparently in the hand of Johannes Brahms, is written with contemporary ink. M4 returns with a container of ryetalyn, but it is contaminated with irilium, and therefore useless. Flint apologizes and accompanies M4 on a search for more ryetalyn.

When Kirk kisses Rayna, M4 reacts as if he were attacking her. Spock destroys it with his phaser. The ''Enterprise'' reports that no information can be found on Flint or Rayna. A tricorder scan reveals that Flint is over 6,000 years old.

Rayna comes to say goodbye to Kirk, who has fallen in love with her and begs her to accompany him. McCoy tells them that after being processed in Flint's laboratory, the ryetalyn vanished. Spock follows tricorder readings to a laboratory chamber containing not only the ryetalyn, but a number of android bodies, all labeled "Rayna" and with a different number indicating earlier versions of her.

Flint reveals the truth. He was born in 3834 BC, and after falling in battle discovered he could not die. Flint has lived "lifetimes" as da Vinci, Brahms, and many others. He built Rayna to be his immortal mate and manipulated Kirk into teaching her how to love. Paranoid about the possibility that the ''Enterprise'' crew would reveal him and his location, Flint causes the ''Enterprise'' to disappear from orbit and reappear as a tabletop miniature in his laboratory, with the crewmembers in suspended animation. He proposes to keep them that way for up to 2,000 years. Rayna happens into the room and vehemently objects, so he restores the starship to its previous state. When Kirk professes his love for Rayna and pleads with her to leave with him, a fight breaks out between him and Flint for the possession of Rayna. Rayna stops them, claiming her right to choose her own future, and then, overwhelmed by indecision for fear of hurting either Kirk or Flint, dies.

Back on the ''Enterprise'', McCoy reports that readings from the earlier tricorder scan show that Flint has been aging normally since he left Earth's environment, and will soon die. Kirk falls asleep on his desk after commenting ruefully on Rayna's fate, and Spock places a suggestion to "forget" into his mind.

The film tells the story in pictures accompanied by the entire ''Brave'' record minus "Paper Lies" and the final song "Made Again". On the recording, it is left ambiguous as to whether the main character, played by Josie Ayers, commits suicide in the end. In the film, she does. Thus, "Made Again", which concludes the story on the record as a happy ending of sorts, is not included.

On the back of the cover of the videocassette, the description reads as follows:

:''Brave.. The Movie is a fifty-minute concept film directed by cult movie director Richard Stanley. It is Stanley's stark vision of a young life in the 90's inspired by Marillion's album of the same name, which centres around a teenage girl who is found wandering in a state of amnesia on the Severn Bridge, and her consequent search for her past. Although this story bears similarities to actual recorded incidents in the history of the Severn Bridge we wish to stress that this is a work of fiction.''

On the bottom of the cover, the final lines are:

''"Watch it loud with the lights off."''

Kivrin Engle, a young historian specializing in medieval history, asks her reluctant instructor, Professor James Dunworthy, and the authorities running the project to send her to Oxford in 1320 near Christmas. This period had previously been thought too dangerous, because it stretched the time travel net 300 years earlier than it had ever been used before.

Shortly after sending Kivrin to the 14th century, Badri Chaudhuri, the technician who set the time travel coordinates for the trip, collapses, an early victim of a deadly new influenza epidemic that disrupts the university and leads to the city being quarantined. Kivrin also falls ill as soon as she arrives in the past. She awakens after several days of fever and delirium at a nearby manor whose residents have nursed her. She loses track of the "drop point," the location where she arrived and must return at a prearranged time in order to get home.

The narrative switches between Kivrin in the 14th century and 2054/2055 Oxford during the influenza epidemic. Kivrin discovers many inconsistencies in what she knows about the time: the Middle English she learned is different from the local dialect, her maps are useless, her clothing is too fine, and she is far too clean. Kivrin fakes amnesia as she tries to find the drop point. She becomes semi-integrated into society, bonding with the children Agnes and Rosemund.

In 2054, Dunworthy tries to determine if Kivrin is safe as Oxford collapses into panic. Dunworthy befriends Colin, the grand-nephew of his friend Mary Ahrens, a doctor. Fears grow that the virus causing the epidemic has been transmitted from the past via the time travel net. This causes acting head of Balliol College Professor Gilchrist to order the net closed, effectively stranding Kivrin in the past.

Kivrin and Dunworthy realize that she has arrived in England in 1348 during the Black Death pandemic, more than 20 years later than intended. Though there was no slippage (the time shift between a traveler's intended and actual date of arrival, ensuring they cannot change history), it is discovered that that Badri, delirious with illness, input the incorrect coordinates. Ahrens and Dunworthy discover Badri contracted the influenza virus from human remains at the archaeological dig, starting the epidemic at future Oxford.

In the 14th century, two weeks after Kivrin's arrival, a monk infected with the Black Death comes to the village. Within days, many residents of the village fall ill, and Kivrin attempts to help Father Roche treat them. Kivrin’s arranged retrieval date passes with neither side able to make it. Despite every effort, Kivrin watches all the people she has come to know die from the plague. The last one is Father Roche, who dies believing that Kivrin is a Saint sent by God.

Influenza overwhelms the medical staff of the 21st century. Dunworthy is stricken by the disease but survives, awaking after the new year when the worst of the epidemic has passed. Of those able to help Dunworthy, many have died, including Ahrens, who succumbed while treating the infected.

At last, Dunworthy recovers and arranges for Badri to send him back in time to rescue Kivrin. Dunworthy and Colin find her, the last person left alive in the town. The three return to 21st century England shortly after New Year's Day. Colin is excited by the concept of time travel, saying he will go to the Crusades when he is old enough.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are visited by "the unhappy John Hector McFarlane," a young lawyer from Blackheath who has been accused of murdering one of his clients, builder Jonas Oldacre. McFarlane explains to Holmes that Oldacre had come to his office only a day earlier and asked him to draw up his will in legal language. To his surprise, McFarlane saw that Oldacre was making him the sole beneficiary and even heir to a considerable bequest, and McFarlane cannot imagine why he would do so. That business took McFarlane to Oldacre's house in Lower Norwood, where some documents had to be examined for legal purposes and where the murder allegedly took place. McFarlane left quite late and stayed at a local inn. He claims to have read about the murder in the newspaper the next morning on the train. The paper said quite clearly that the police were looking for him.

The evidence against the young McFarlane is quite damning. His stick has been found in Oldacre's room, and a fire was extinguished just outside in which a pile of dry timber burnt to ashes, complete with the smell of burnt flesh. It seems more than likely that McFarlane did the crime, especially as it is known that he was there around that time. Inspector Lestrade gloats in the apparent knowledge that he, unlike Holmes, is on the right track. Holmes begins his own investigation into the matter by going to Blackheath. This puzzles Lestrade, who had expected him to go first to Norwood. McFarlane's mother, Holmes finds out, was once engaged to Oldacre years earlier but later wanted nothing to do with the man once she found out how cruel he was: he had let a cat loose in a bird sanctuary.

Upon examining the handwritten notes given to McFarlane by Oldacre to be rendered into legally acceptable language, Holmes reckons they were written in a very haphazard fashion as if the writer failed to care about what he was writing. The alternation between legible handwriting and incomprehensible squiggles suggests to Holmes that the "will" was written hurriedly on a train, with the legible writing representing stops at stations. Also, Oldacre's financial dealings are found to have been a bit odd. Several cheques for substantial amounts, for unknown reasons, have recently been made out to a Mr. Cornelius. The discovery of Oldacre's trouser buttons in the fire ashes does nothing to exonerate McFarlane. Holmes fears the worst; "All my instincts are in one direction, and all the facts are in another." Still, Holmes has powers of observation that suggest Oldacre's housekeeper is deliberately withholding information.

Lestrade's gloating reaches a peak when a bloody thumbprint is found at Oldacre's house that matches McFarlane's thumb. However, Holmes becomes quite sure that something very devious is afoot, as he had examined that part of the house only a day earlier, and the thumbprint was quite surely not there then. Because McFarlane has been in gaol since his arrest at 221B Baker Street, Holmes deduces that someone is attempting a deception. Holmes sets up a small fire in one room of the house with a little straw and tells three of Lestrade's constables to shout "Fire!" Lestrade and Watson are quite astonished at what happens next: Oldacre emerges alive from a hidden chamber at the end of a hallway, where Holmes has deduced it must be by measuring the corridors, and runs to escape the fire. Oldacre is immediately seized.

It is revealed that McFarlane being accused of his murder had been part of a revenge campaign against the woman who rejected Oldacre years previously, the young mother of McFarlane. Oldacre tries to pass off his actions as a practical joke but is taken into custody, along with the housekeeper as an accomplice. Holmes lightly chaffs his rival for neglecting Blackheath, where he acquired the key information. As for Mr. Cornelius, the recipient of so much of Oldacre's munificence, Holmes deduces that it had likely been an alias used by Oldacre, who has been leading a double life with the eventual goal of shedding his Oldacre identity so that he would be able to start a new life. The bank account of "Mr. Cornelius" will be seized by Oldacre's creditors. Oldacre swears revenge against Holmes, who serenely dismisses the threats. Holmes remarks to Lestrade that Oldacre's plot was nearly perfect. Still, he went one step too far by planting the thumbprint (from a wax seal that McFarlane had pressed), thinking it would create even more damning evidence, after Holmes had already examined the room where it was found. "He wished to improve what was already perfect", says Holmes, "and so he ruined everything."

Following their previous adventure, after saving the galaxy and defeating Chairman Drek, Ratchet (James Arnold Taylor) and Clank (David Kaye) become celebrities, though their lives remain otherwise uneventful. After giving an interview for the holovision show ''Behind the Hero'', the pair suddenly find themselves in a spaceship sent by Abercrombie Fizzwidget (Jim Ward), the founder and CEO of MegaCorp, the galaxy's largest maker of consumer goods and electronics, who requests Ratchet's help to recover a stolen biological experiment from a masked thief, while offering Clank employment in the company, both of whom agree to the opportunities offered. Upon completing an extensive training regime en-route to the Bogon galaxy, Ratchet is tasked to travel to a flying laboratory on planet Aranos where the experiment was last seen, but before he can retrieve it, the thief manages to escape with it. Reporting back to Fizzwidget, Ratchet soon begins pursuing the thief, only to receive a video message showing that the culprit has captured Clank.

After saving Clank from the thief's clutches, the reunited duo work together to pursue the thief across several planets, dealing with mercenaries hired from Thugs-4-Less to protect the thief, until eventually confronting them on planet Siberius. Although the thief escapes from them during a fight, Ratchet manages to reclaim the experiment, and contacts Fizzwidget with the good news. Arranging a meeting to reclaim the experiment, Fizzwidget "accidentally" maroons the duo on a desert planet, whereupon after escaping from a network of caves, the pair are confronted by the thief, who accidentally exposes "his" true identity: a female Lombax named Angela Cross (Kath Soucie), who used to work for Megacorp as a scientist. Claiming that the experiment is a threat to the entire galaxy, Angela gives them the location of a testing facility on planet Dobbo where it was created and advises them to seek out the proof that backs up her story. Following her lead, the duo infiltrate the facility and discover a video recording that reveals the experiment to be highly dangerous and capable of going into a violent rampage. Shortly afterwards, Angela contacts the pair and reveals that MegaCorp has duplicated the experiment and intends to sell them as a new product called the "Protopet".

Convinced that Fizzwidget is unaware of the Protopet's flaws, Ratchet goes to warn him during a promotionary event being held on planet Boldan, only to discover it to be a trap by the Thugs-4-Less boss (Steven Blum), after cancelling their contract with Angela to work with MegaCorp. Captured, the pair find themselves transported to Aranos and aboard the same vessel, now being used as a remote prison, but manage to escape confinement. Discovering that Angela was captured by them, the pair track the mercenaries to their hideout on planet Snivelak, defeating their boss and saving Angela. Intent on stopping Fizzwidget, the group head for MegaCorp's Headquarters, only to discover that the CEO is none other than disgraced hero Captain Qwark (also Ward). In a bid to restore his reputation, Qwark took over MegaCorp as Fizzwidget, holding the actual Fizzwidget hostage (in the supply closet), with the intention of unleashing the Protopet upon the galaxy, so he can use a device created by Angela to defeat the creatures and make himself famous again. When he demonstrates the device, however, it malfunctions and transforms the original Protopet into a gigantic beast that devours him. While Angela goes to rescue the real Fizzwidget, Ratchet subdues the Protopet and saves Qwark's life. With Clank's help, Angela fixes the device and broadcasts a signal through MegaCorp's TV transponders, neutralizing the Protopets and restoring peace to the Bogon galaxy.

In a mid-credits scene, Ratchet, Clank and Angela hang out at Clank's apartment, where Angela informs them that Qwark has been assigned to work as a test subject for the "Crotchetizer" at MegaCorp as punishment for his crimes.

The action takes place in 1905 at the factory of the landowners Bardiny and Skrobotov. Skrobotov is dissatisfied with the liberal policy of his partner Bardiny and complains that the workers are given too much voice – "They don't dare squeak at me!" says Skrobotov, sincerely believing that the working class should not be allowed entertainment, education, or voting rights.

The factory has a social democratic worker's organization, and its activists demand the removal of a cruel manager, Dichkov. Skrobotov categorically refuses, believing that even if Dichkov deserves removal in this case, doing so in response to worker demands would be a fatal step.

Discussions between the workers lead nowhere, the situation spirals out of control, Skrobotov summons the militia, and blood is shed. One of the enraged workers mortally wounds Skrobotov, who before he dies identifies the worker as a communist. A murder investigation ensues, the militia arresting masses of workers. But the workers do not break, and display iron calm, coolness and courage.

A worker, Akimov, comes to Bardiny and confesses to the murder. But other workers come, and stand behind Akimov. Skrobotov's widow Cleopatra advises Akimov to flee into exile, to which Akimov responds:

The story is set around a group of students taking a college course in which they are asked to list ways in which society could benefit from the application of nanotubes. They are assigned together apparently at random, and they decide their topic: using nanotubes to alter human DNA, giving them access to abilities which are latent in the human genome. When they present their thesis, the university refuses to let them test it. During the night they test the nanotubes upon themselves and awake with superhuman abilities.

It has been implied that the experiment that gave them their powers has some connection to Jeff Carey, aka Breakdown, who stars in another of Aftermath's titles.

Harpo and Chico play Harry and Nick, two inept would-be robbers who try to pull a jewelry heist. Chico is disguised in a police uniform, and Harpo wears a Groucho Marx disguise. When they are caught and placed in a police lineup, the real Groucho shows up and is immediately fingered as the thief. Groucho then delivers the only line in the otherwise silent program: "We won't talk until we see our lawyer!" Everybody gives each other their leg, and the ''You Bet Your Life'' duck drops down with "The End" in its beak.

The Numata family consists of the father, Kōsuke (Juzo Itami); mother, Chikako (Saori Yuki); and two sons, Shinichi (Jun'ichi Tsujita) and Shigeyuki (Ichirōta Miyagawa). Shigeyuki is a junior high school student. He will soon be taking a high school entrance examination. Unlike his high school student brother, Shinichi, who lives up to the father's expectations, Shigeyuki’s grades are poor, and he is only interested in roller coasters. His father finds a private tutor, Yoshimoto (Yūsaku Matsuda), for Shigeyuki and imposes all responsibilities for his exam on the tutor. Yoshimoto's behaviour is extremely strange, including kissing Shigeyuki and hitting him painfully hard. Even though Yoshimoto is a seventh year student of a third-rate university, Shigeyuki’s marks become better and better. Eventually he passes the exam for the high school. At a family celebration, Yoshimoto begins to riot, hitting people, pouring wine on their heads, and throwing spaghetti around wildly.

The owner of a high-class Japanese hotel, the Europa, hopes to win a prestigious and lucrative contract for the hotel as the site of a summit meeting between important international officials. Unfortunately, the yakuza have taken a liking to this hotel as both a hangout and a target for extortion. In order to win the contract, the owner realizes, he must rid the hotel of the yakuza. Fearing to confront them himself, he deputizes a hotel accountant, Suzuki (Yasuo Daichi) and a bellboy and former college sumo-club member, Wakasugi (Takehiro Murata). The hapless pair are no more daring than their employer, however, and their tentative attempts to address the problem fail until they meet Mahiru Inoue (Nobuko Miyamoto), a lawyer who specializes in dealing with the yakuza. With Inoue's direction, the hotel staff comes together to face down the yakuza ruffians, who are portrayed as craven, outwardly-threatening-but-inwardly-weak, fools.

The ''Ong's Hat'' narrative is told in the form of conspiracy theories surrounding a group of renegade Princeton professors who had conducted quantum physics and chaos theory experiments to discover a new theory for dimensional travel using a device called "the egg", and were camped out in a parallel world. Their story is introduced through two documents, ''Incunabula: A Catalog of Rare Books, Manuscripts & Curiosa, Conspiracy Theory, Frontier Science & Alternative Worlds'' and ''Ong's Hat: Gateway to the Dimensions''.

The story is said to begin in 1978 when a man named Wali Ford bought over 200 acres of forested land and set up an ashram. This ashram was built for seekers of spirituality, politics, tantra, and psychopharmacology. The ashram was a place for Princeton physicists, among other accredited scientists, to perform experiments involving interdimensional travel. It was rumored that they were trying to train the human mind to manipulate quantum physics and reality itself.

A device called The Egg was developed in the late 1980s by these scientists and physicists. This device was created as a variation of a sensory deprivation chamber, and it was used to help them determine when a wave becomes a particle. However, during a test one day, something unexpected happened: it disappeared. A young man who was inside the Egg when it disappeared explained that in the seven minutes the Egg was gone, he had traveled to another alternate dimension of the Earth. This other Earth was exactly the same as our Earth, however, it did not contain human life.

Throughout the years, they continued their experiments. However, when military efforts threatened the research being done by these physicists and scientists, they had to move their site somewhere else. Piece by piece, they moved their ashram to the other Earth. They left behind only the house where the gateway between worlds is held. The only time the people who live in the ashram return is when they need to restock supplies.

The novel begins with the character of Peregrine as a young country gentleman rejected by his cruel mother, ignored by his indifferent father, and hated by his degenerate brother. After their alienation, he turns to Commodore Hawser Trunnion, who raises him.

Peregrine's detailed life experience provides a scope for Smollett's satire on human cruelty, stupidity, and greed: from his upbringing, education at Oxford, journey to France, jailing at the Fleet, and unexpected succession to his father's fortune and his final repentance and marriage to his beloved Emilia. The novel is written as a series of adventures, with every chapter depicting a new experience. The novel also contains a lengthy independent story called "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality", written by Frances Vane, Viscountess Vane.

''Peregrine Pickle'' features several amusing characters, most notably Commodore Hawser Trunnion, an old seaman and misogynist who lives in a house with his former shipmates. Trunnion's lifestyle may have inspired Charles Dickens to create the character of Wemmick in ''Great Expectations''. Another interesting character is Peregrine's friend Cadwallader Crabtree, an old misanthrope who amuses himself by playing ingenious jokes on naive people.

Smollett also caricatured many of his enemies in the novel, most notably Henry Fielding and the actor David Garrick. Fitzroy Henry Lee was supposedly the model for Hawser Trunnion.

After spending most of his life alone and working hard to make ends meet, Frank Grimes is hired at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He is assigned to Sector 7G, where he must work alongside Homer Simpson and his two friends Lenny and Carl. Grimes quickly becomes aghast at Homer's laziness and incompetence. When Grimes prevents Homer from accidentally drinking a flask of sulfuric acid by knocking it from his hands, Mr. Burns admonishes Grimes and reduces his pay, as the spilled acid destroyed a wall. Outraged, Grimes declares that he and Homer are now enemies. At Moe Szyslak's suggestion, Homer invites Grimes to his home for a lobster dinner, hoping to make amends. However, Grimes only grows more incensed by Homer's ability to live such a comfortable life despite his sloth and ignorance, while Grimes has worked hard his whole life and has little to show for it. Denouncing Homer as a fraud, Grimes leaves in anger.

The next day, Homer attempts to follow Marge's suggestion by acting as a model employee to impress Grimes, but his efforts fail. Grimes rants to Lenny and Carl about Homer's obvious incompetence, but they insist that, despite his faults, Homer is a decent person. Instead of calming down, Grimes decides to prove Homer's lack of intelligence by tricking him into entering a children's contest to design a nuclear power plant in an attempt to humiliate him in front of everyone. Grimes's plan backfires when Homer's derivative model wins the contest and, when Homer's co-workers applaud rather than ridicule him, Grimes has a nervous breakdown and runs amok in the plant, mocking Homer's habits. When Grimes gets carried away by grabbing hold of high-voltage wires without safety gloves, he is electrocuted. At Grimes's funeral, Homer falls asleep and talks in his dream, making Reverend Lovejoy and the attendees laugh as Grimes's coffin is lowered into the earth.

Meanwhile, Bart buys an abandoned factory for a dollar at a foreclosure auction. He and Milhouse spend their days wrecking the building until it collapses one night during Milhouse's watch, causing the rats in the building to swarm into Moe's Tavern.

Miles Harding is an architect who envisions a brick shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece that could enable buildings to withstand earthquakes. Seeking a way to get organized, he buys a personal computer to help him develop his ideas. Although he is initially unsure that he will even be able to correctly operate the computer, he later buys numerous extra gadgets that were not necessary for his work, such as switches to control household appliances like the blender, a speech synthesizer, and a microphone. The computer addresses Miles as "Moles", because Miles had incorrectly typed his name during the initial set-up. When Miles attempts to download the entire database from a mainframe computer at work, his computer begins to overheat. In a state of panic, Miles uses a nearby bottle of champagne to douse the overheating machine, which then becomes sentient. Miles initially is unaware of the computer's newfound sentience, but discovers it one night when he is awakened by the computer in the middle of the night when it mimics Miles talking in his sleep.

A love triangle soon develops among Miles, his computer (who later identifies himself as Edgar), and Miles's neighbor, an attractive cellist named Madeline Robistat. Upon hearing her practicing Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114 from ''Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach'' on her cello through an air vent connecting both apartments, Edgar promptly elaborates a parallel variation of the piece, leading to an improvised duet. Believing it was Miles who had engaged her in the duet, Madeline begins to fall in love with him though she has an ongoing relationship with fellow musician Bill.

At Miles's request, Edgar composes a piece of music for Madeline. When their mutual love becomes evident, however, Edgar responds with jealousy, canceling Miles's credit cards and registering him as an "armed and dangerous" criminal. Upon discovering this humiliation, Miles and Edgar have a confrontation, where Miles shoves the computer and tries to unplug it, getting an electric shock. Then the computer retaliates by harassing him with an improvised maze of remotely controlled household electronics, in the style of ''Pac-Man''.

Eventually, Edgar accepts Madeline and Miles's love for each other, and appears to commit suicide by sending a large electric current out through his acoustic coupler modem, around the world, and finally reaching back to himself just after he and Miles make amends.

Later as Madeline and Miles go on vacation together, Edgar's voice is heard on the radio dedicating a song to "the ones I love", titled "Together in Electric Dreams". The credits are interspersed with scenes of the song being heard all over California, including a radio station trying to shut it off, declaring that they do not know where the signal is coming from.

The Simpsons need money to pay for a $900 repair after Bart damages the gas line. Marge tries to sell a family heirloom — an "authentic" American Civil War doll — to Cockamamie's, a campy collectibles shop. Marge is disappointed when John, the shop owner, reveals her precious heirloom is a cheap liquor bottle of little value. The Simpsons take an instant liking to John, who is invited to their house to see campy items that the family owns.

The next morning, Homer tells Marge that he likes John and suggests they invite him and "his wife" over some time. When Marge informs Homer that John is gay, he is horrified. Homer's attitude towards John changes completely and he refuses to join the tour of Springfield that John has arranged. The rest of the family joins John for the tour and enjoy his company. Bart starts wearing Hawaiian shirts and dancing in a woman's wig, which makes Homer worry that Bart might be gay.

Hoping to ensure Bart likes girls, Homer forces him to stare at a cigarette billboard featuring scantily clad women. This backfires when Bart craves slim cigarettes, considered effeminate because they are marketed to women. Homer takes Bart to a steel mill to revel in a manly environment; however, the entire workforce is gay, which Homer learns when the steel mill turns into a gay disco during breaks.

Desperate, Homer tries to snap Bart out of his brainwashing state by taking him deer hunting with Moe and Barney. When they cannot find any deer, they decide to shoot reindeer at Santa's Village instead. The reindeer violently attack the hunters, who are genuinely afraid and drop their macho posturing. With help from Lisa and Marge, John uses a Japanese Santa Claus robot to scare away the reindeer and save the hunting party. Homer is grateful to John for saving their lives and grudgingly accepts him. As John drives everyone home, Homer tells Bart he is fine with however he chooses to live his life. Bart is confused until Lisa explains Homer thinks his Bart is gay. Bart is stunned as their car drives away blaring a gay anthem.

Bart wins a $50 bet against Homer after Homer fails to eat an entire box of spoiled baking soda that Lisa finds in the back of the refrigerator. As Bart and Milhouse spend the money, they enter The Android's Dungeon and find Martin Prince's mother trying to make a deal with Comic Book Guy to sell her son's collection of ''Star Wars'' memorabilia. Realizing that the items are worth far more than the $5 he is offering, the boys persuade Mrs. Prince not to sell him the items; angered, he retaliates by banning them from the store for life.

Bart and Milhouse later try to sneak into the store to see an appearance by special effects artist Tom Savini, but are stopped at the door (after Homer double crosses them so he can attend himself). Savini plays a series of tricks to embarrass Comic Book Guy, causing him to become so angry from the audience's mockery that he attempts to ban them all for life, but before he can throw them all out of the store, he suffers a heart attack.

Dr. Hibbert urges him to leave the store in someone else's care while he recovers; with no one else to turn to, he reluctantly puts Bart and Milhouse in charge. The store prospers at first under the boys' management, but business falters when Milhouse places an order for 2,000 copies of an extremely unpopular comic without telling Bart. As the boys argue, they stumble across Comic Book Guy's secret collection of illegal videos, such as a drunk Fred Rogers, police interview footage of Ned Flanders reporting Homer for letting a radioactive ape loose in his house, and a top secret film detailing the U.S. military's plan to use Springfield as a "nuclear whipping boy" in the event of war. They decide to hold a midnight screening in the store's back room for the children of Springfield.

Meanwhile, Homer helps a recovering Comic Book Guy look for a friend, but his attempts fail until he meets Agnes Skinner. Comic Book Guy and Agnes become romantically involved, discovering their shared contempt for everyone and everything around them, and begin a sexual relationship. When the police raid the store, Milhouse explains that he and Bart do not own the videos. The police then raid Comic Book Guy's home and arrest him while he and Agnes are making love, and Agnes breaks off the relationship, saying that she is too old to wait for him to be released from jail. With the store now closed by the police, Bart and Milhouse reconcile and return to their normal lives as Flanders tries to cope with the ape Homer let loose.

After the Second World War, Katherine "Kitty" Fremont, a widowed American nurse, is sightseeing in Cyprus following a tour of duty for the U.S. Public Health Service in Greece. Her guide mentions the Karaolos internment camp on Cyprus, where thousands of Jews—many of them Holocaust survivors—are detained by the British, who refuse them passage to Palestine. Kitty visits British General Sutherland, who knew her late husband. When Sutherland suggests she volunteer at the internment camp for a few days, Kitty declines, citing she would feel uncomfortable around Jews. She reconsiders shortly after one of the General's staff officers, Major Freddy Caldwell (Peter Lawford), makes an anti-Semitic remark.

Haganah rebel Ari Ben Canaan, a decorated former captain in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in the Second World War, obtains a cargo ship. He smuggles 611 Jews out of the camp and onto the ship for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine. Military authorities discover the plan and blockade Famagusta harbor, preventing the ship's departure. The refugees stage a hunger strike, during which the camp's doctor dies and Ari threatens to blow up the ship and the refugees. The British relent and allow the ship, rechristened the ''Exodus'', to sail.

While helping at the camp, Kitty meets Karen Hansen Clement, a Danish-Jewish teenager. Kitty grows fond of Karen and offers to take her back to America with her. Karen, whose mother and siblings were murdered in the Holocaust, is searching for her missing father. She has also aligned herself with the Zionist cause, and, wanting to go to Palestine, eventually turns down Kitty's offer.

Meanwhile, opposition to partitioning Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states is intensifying. Karen's young beau, Dov Landau, is recruited into the Irgun, a radical pro-Zionist militant group. Ari Ben Canaan's uncle, Akiva, who heads the Irgun, first interviews Dov. Before swearing him in, Akiva forces Dov into confessing he was a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz and was sodomized by the Nazi camp guards; this is where Dov acquired his bomb expertise. Akiva's violent activities run counter to his brother Barak, Ari's father, who heads the mainstream Jewish Agency, working to create a Jewish state through political and diplomatic means. Barak fears the Irgun will derail these efforts, especially as the British have placed a price on Akiva's head.

Karen goes to live at Gan Dafna, a fictional Jewish kibbutz near Mount Tabor near the moshav where Ari was raised. Kitty and Ari have fallen in love, but Kitty pulls back, feeling like an outsider after meeting Ari's family and learning about his previous love: Dafna, a young woman kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Arabs, who is the namesake of the Gan Dafna kibbutz.

Ari helps locate Karen's father, Dr. Clement, who is a permanent in-patient at a mental hospital in Jerusalem. He is in a dissociative state that is borderline vegetative, caused by the horrors he suffered in the past while in a Nazi concentration camp. When Karen visits, she is devastated that her father does not recognize her.

Akiva is arrested, imprisoned in Acre fortress, and sentenced to hang after the Irgun bomb the King David Hotel. The British authorities fail to heed a warning of the planned bombing which resulted in dozens of fatalities. Ari plots an escape to save Akiva's life, and free Haganah and Irgun fighters imprisoned by the British military. Dov, who eluded capture after the hotel bombing, turns himself in to utilize his bomb-making expertise to facilitate the Acre Prison break.

Hundreds of prisoners escape, including Akiva, though he is fatally wounded as he and Ari evade a roadblock. Ari is also wounded, but makes it to Gan Dafna where Dr. Lieberman removes a bullet from Ari. With the British on Ari's trail, he is taken to Abu Yesha, an Arab village near Gan Dafna, where his lifelong Arab friend, Taha, is the ''mukhtar''. When a recovering Ari develops a life-threatening infection, Kitty saves his life. This rekindles their romance. Meanwhile, the British arrest Dr. Lieberman when they find an illegal weapons cache hidden within the children's village.

An independent Israel is now in sight, but Arab nationals commanded by Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, plot to attack Gan Dafna and massacre the Jews, including the children. Taha warns Ari of the impending attack, though he reluctantly says he must join the Grand Mufti in fighting the establishment of Israel. Ben Canaan orders the younger children be evacuated to safety during the night as a small detachment of Palmach troops arrives to reinforce Gan Dafna's defenses.

Karen, ecstatic over the prospect of the new nation, goes to find Dov (who is on night patrol at the Gan Dafna perimeter) and proclaims her love for him. Dov says they will marry when the war is over. As Karen returns to Gan Dafna, she is ambushed and murdered by Arabs. Dov discovers her lifeless body the following morning. The same day, Taha's body is found hanging in his village, killed by the Grand Mufti. A Star of David is carved into his body and a swastika and signs saying "Jude" are on village walls.

Karen and Taha are buried together in one grave. Ari eulogizes them, saying that someday Jews and Arabs will share the land in peace. While others in turn add a shovelful of dirt to the grave, Dov, angry and heartbroken, bypasses the shovel and moves on. Ari, Kitty, Dov, and a Palmach contingent board trucks, heading off to the battle.

In its minimal and non-traditional plot, the protagonist travels about the country meeting with various acquaintances when not taking part in various mundane, day-to-day activities. There is no real rising action or climax, and Linklater's character does not change substantially throughout the course of the film.

The PlayStation 2 and GameCube release of the game has an entirely different plot from that of the Xbox version. It is also peripherally connected to the plot of ''Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory''.

PlayStation 2/GameCube (2007: ''First Contact'')

In July 2007, North Korea faces heavy turmoil as a result of famine sweeping the country. In an attempt to repair the damage, the government redirects much of the military budget to civic projects. The reappropriation of the funds angers the Korean People's Army command, causing General Jung Chong-sun to plan a coup against the government and puts the military on high alert for combat across the DMZ. Since a Silkworm missile that sank the U.S. Navy intelligence-gathering ship USS ''Clarence E. Walsh'' (CG-80) came from a North Korean missile battery, the U.S. decides to deploy the Ghosts and attack behind North Korean lines. Also during this time Sam Fisher from Third echelon is on a mission determining if the North Koreans intentionally fired the Silkworm missile. The missions include raiding a North Korean airbase, going after a downed OH-58 Kiowa transport and preventing Jung's plan to blow up a dam just upstream from the DMZ. Having dealt the North Koreans sufficient damage, Pyongyang backs down.

However, four months later, one of Jung's subordinates, General Paik, activates a Taepodong-2 missile loaded with multiple nuclear warheads and prepares to launch them against South Korea and NATO countries. The Ghosts are sent back into North Korea to destroy the missile. With the destruction of the missile, Paik commits suicide while Jung plots revenge.

Xbox (2011: ''Final Assault'')

Having recovered from the setbacks of the first game, Jung leads the KPA in revolt once more and gains access to the North Korean nuclear arsenal. Now ready for revenge, Jung prepares to launch a new Korean War and involve other Asian countries in the chaos. NATO and the United States, plus Australia deploys a peacekeeping force to the region. The Ghosts head back to the theater for the third time and wreak havoc among the North Korean forces. Determined to fight the West and squash dissent among the North Korean populace, Jung attacks some of North Korea's largest cities, such as Sinpo and Hyesan. With the Ghosts' strikes sapping the North Koreans of fuel, Jung gets more desperate in winning the war, and in one mission, the Ghosts have to seize three nuclear warheads from a train before they reach civilian-populated areas.

Now out of options, Jung leads the capture of a dam near Hamhung and installs a nuclear warhead. The Ghosts attack once more to stop the threat and eliminate the general.

The story starts with young Euphemia Texas Ashby (Tina Majorino) and her older sister Sara McClure (Dana Delany). When Euphemia gets back to the house from picking flowers she finds out that Sam Houston is coming to the house. Santa Anna is on his way so they must head east in the Runaway Scrape. While they attempt to cross a river Sara suffers from a miscarriage while her young son Little Johnnie dies in Euphemia's arms. Many other young and old Texans die and Euphemia is almost lost in a sea of graves. After a month and a week, Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna's army and Texas is reborn as the Republic of Texas. They now live in a new home with their horses. Their sisters Fannie and Jane Isabella come to live with them after their father dies at sea. They are very different from Sara and Phemie (Annabeth Gish) and must adapt to their new brutal life.

One year later, Sarah survives an encounter with Tarantula (Michael Greyeyes), a Comanche warrior, and his band of Comanches. Later, Euphemia's close friend Matilda "Maddie" Lockhart (Anne Tremko) is abducted by the Comanches and only later released. When given back, the Texans discover that she was brutally tortured, with the right side of her face disfigured by burn scars; the Comanche repeatedly awakened her by placing burning coals on her face. Maddie is bloody and shows signs of beating everywhere. She never fully recovers from her time with the Native Americans.

Euphemia is now sixteen and almost gets attacked by a panther when William King (Matthew Glave), a boy who she dreams about frequently, saves her. They continue to talk every day for the next five years and then get married. Sara's own husband dies in battle, and she gets remarried to a musician. Euphemia has a few children with William while they live happily together with the slave Tildy (Khadijah Karriem). They have a few horses, including one called Dancer. Euphemia meets Tarantula once again at a show (he is one of the actors) and since he is walking far for an old man, she gives him Dancer, her best horse. He gives her the name "Brave Squaw Child". This is the end of Euphemia's life in the book.

Cherokee (Julie Carmen) and Lewis (Michael York) want to leave Georgia because Cherokee is half Creek and they were being driven out. They wanted to leave before they were forced to.

Georgia Lawshe Woods (Angelina Jolie) falls in love at the age of fifteen at Swann Lake when two dogs frighten her and make her fall and Colonial Doctor Peter Woods (Jeffrey Nordling) tends to her wounds. She finds herself falling in love with this man and they get married the same year. They have four children a few years later and head to Texas. Along the way Georgia has doubts but Peter wants to keep going. They live in Texas for a while but find out the river water is contaminated, which leads to many deaths from cholera. They move again, and Georgia and Euphemia meet when Sam Houston keeps them together. The story then switches to Bettie Moss.

A screenshot showing the PC version of the game. The game's first two missions take place sometime during the film, in which the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) works to save hostages in a Charleston, West Virginia television station, and shut down operations from a West Virginian militia calling themselves the "Mountain Men". From the third mission on, John Clark recruits the team to work for the CIA and has the operatives work on seeking out and killing the conspirators behind an incident in Baltimore, Maryland, in which a nuclear bomb has been detonated during an American football game, killing a large number of people.

Eight months after the events of ''Re-Animator'', doctors Herbert West and Dan Cain are working as medics in the middle of a bloody Peruvian civil war. In the chaos of battle and with plenty of casualties to work on, they are free to experiment with West's re-animation reagent. When their medical tent is stormed by the enemy troops, West and Cain return home to Arkham, Massachusetts. There, they resume their former jobs as doctors at Miskatonic University Hospital, and West returns to the basement laboratory of Cain's house to continue his research.

Using parts pilfered from both the hospital's morgue and from a cemetery located next door, West discovers that his reagent can re-animate body parts by themselves. He becomes determined to create an entire living person from disparate body parts. West discovers the heart of Megan Halsey, Cain's fiancée, in the hospital morgue. With the promise to use her heart to re-animate a new Megan, West convinces Cain to help him with his project. Also stored in the morgue is the rest of the evidence from the "Miskatonic Massacre". Inside, pathologist Dr. Wilbur Graves discovers a vial of West's reagent and the severed head of Dr. Carl Hill. Using the reagent, he re-animates Hill's head.

Meanwhile, police officer Lt. Leslie Chapham begins investigating West and Cain, as they were the only unaffected survivors of the Miskatonic Massacre; the dead body of Chapham's wife was re-animated into a crazed zombie during the incident (it is implied later in the film that he caused her death). Chapham suspects West and Cain were responsible. When he stops by their house to question them, he discovers West's corpse-filled lab and the two get into a confrontation. A fight ensues and West kills Chapham by means of cloth treated with a chemical which causes cardiac arrest when inhaled (a product of West's research into obtaining the freshest possible corpses for his experiments). West then re-animates the police officer with the intention of covering up his crime. Chapham violently wanders out of the house and into the cemetery next door.

Hill, who bears a grudge against West, uses psychic powers to command Chapham to force Dr. Graves to stitch bat wings onto his neck, giving him back his mobility. He also extends his mental control to all of the zombie survivors of the Miskatonic Massacre.

When one of Cain's patients, Gloria, dies, West collects the last piece he needs for his creation: her head. With a complete body stitched and wired together, West and Cain inject the re-animation reagent into Meg's heart. While waiting for the reagent to take effect, a package is delivered to their house. West retrieves and opens it. From inside, Hill's winged head flies out. Simultaneously, the zombies Hill controls break into the house. West retreats back to the basement lab, where his creation, the Bride, has awoken.

A catfight breaks out between the Bride and Cain's current girlfriend, Italian journalist Francesca Danelli, whom he met in Peru. Cain rejects the Bride's love and sides with Francesca. Heartbroken, the Bride rips Megan's heart out of her own chest and then falls to pieces. West diagnoses this as tissue rejection.

Hill and his zombies force West, Cain and Francesca to retreat through the wall of the lab and into a crypt in the neighboring cemetery. Inside, all of West's prior test subjects arise and make their way towards him, stopping only when Herbert commands them to. The unstable crypt begins to collapse, trapping Hill, West and the zombies. Cain and Francesca escape the debris and claw their way to the surface of the cemetery together. Hill, is stuck in the debris, while Megan's heart, still in the hand of the Bride, stops beating.

For the past 13 years, Dr. Herbert West has been serving a prison sentence due to a murder at the hands of one of his zombies.

With what scant supplies he has on hand in the prison medical center, Dr. West has been capable of performing only extremely basic experiments on rats. However, his lack of supplies does not prevent him from uncovering a key element in his re-animation process. Dr. West has discovered "NPE" (Nano-Plasmic Energy), an energy that can be extracted from the brain of a living organism through an electrocution-like process, to be stored in a capsule resembling a small light bulb. The capsule can then be connected to a corpse and used in conjunction with West's previously developed reagent to restore the former dead to a lifelike state. The NPE prevents the degeneration seen in previous instances, where the reanimated are nothing more than mindless zombies. Used together with the re-agent, reanimated corpses regain their skills, memories, and motor functions and nearly fully resemble normal humans.

When a young doctor named Howard Phillips comes to work at the prison, West is assigned to assist the new doctor. Due to Phillips' interest in Dr. West's research, West is able to attain the supplies and tools needed to bring his experiments to the next level. It is revealed that Phillips is the younger brother of the teenage girl who was killed by West's zombie (he is shown watching West being taken away by the cops) and came to the prison for the explicit purpose of working with him. Despite his interest, Phillips still maintains an ethical reluctance to allow West's research to full completion. In the meantime, journalist Laura Olney, covering a story for her newspaper at the prison, meets and begins an affair with Dr. Phillips, and they fall in love. This new romance only temporarily postpones West's experiment, however. After the warden of the prison, also infatuated with Laura, attempts to seduce Laura himself, she resists and he angrily kills her.

Crushed by Laura's death, Dr. Phillips succumbs to Dr. West's wishes and his experiments are allowed to literally take on new life. West & Phillips revive Laura with the NPE, although it is quickly seen that the dangerous side effects of West's past work are still present with the NPE. Eventually, the warden of the prison uncovers West's experiments and moves to put an end to them, but he is killed by West, and subsequently re-animated. West uses the NPE from a prisoner's pet rat, causing some unexpected side effects in the warden's behavior. It quickly manifests itself as the prison descends into utter chaos as a riot breaks out, with vials of the reagent circulating through the population. Soon, it is unclear who is dead, who is alive, and who has been exposed to the agent.

When the chaos finally settles from the bloody prison riot, West escapes captivity before the guards appear by stealing Phillips' I.D. when he comes across Phillips weeping over Laura's decapitated body. As police and authorities take control of the prison, Phillips is dragged away as he and Laura's head start laughing. Herbert West is shown putting on his glasses outside the prison and disappears into the night to continue his research.

"The Customer Is Always Right (Part I)"

The Salesman walks onto a penthouse balcony where The Customer looks out over Basin City. He offers her a cigarette and says that she looks like someone who is tired of running and that he will save her. The two share a kiss and he shoots her; she dies in his arms. He says he will never know what she was running from but that he will cash her

"That Yellow Bastard (Part I)"

On the docks of Sin City, aging police officer John Hartigan tries to stop serial child-killer Roark Junior from raping and killing his fourth known victim, eleven-year-old Nancy Callahan. Junior is the son of Senator Roark, who has bribed the police to cover up his son's crimes. Hartigan's corrupt partner, Bob, tries to convince Hartigan to walk away; Hartigan knocks him out.

Hartigan, experiencing pain from a bad heart, heads into the warehouse where Roark Junior and several henchmen are holding Nancy. Junior shoots Hartigan in the shoulder and tries to escape. Hartigan catches up and shoots off Junior's ear, hand and genitals. Bob, now recovered, shoots Hartigan in the back. As the sirens approach, Bob leaves and Nancy lies down in Hartigan's lap. Hartigan passes out, reasoning his death is a fair trade for the girl's life.

"The Hard Goodbye"

After a one-night stand, Marv awakens to find Goldie has been killed while he slept. He flees the frame-up as the police arrive, vowing to avenge her death. His lesbian parole officer, Lucille, warns him to give up on this mission, believing Marv may have imagined it all due to his "condition". Marv interrogates several informants, working up to a corrupt priest, who reveals that the Roark family was behind the murder. Marv kills the priest but is then attacked by a woman who looks like Goldie, which he dismisses as a hallucination.

Marv goes to the Roark family farm and is subdued by the silent stalker who killed Goldie. He awakens in the basement to find Lucille has been captured after looking into his story. She tells Marv that the killer is a cannibal and that Goldie was a prostitute. He learns that the killer's name is Kevin and escapes. Lucille is shot by the leader of a squad of corrupt cops. Marv kills the cops except for their leader, whom he interrogates. He learns that Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark arranged for Goldie's murder.

Marv goes to Old Town, Sin City's prostitute-run red-light district, to learn more about Goldie and is captured by her twin sister, Wendy, the attacker Marv previously dismissed as a hallucination. Once he convinces Wendy that he is not the killer, the two return to the farm where Marv kills Kevin. He confronts Cardinal Roark, who confesses his part in the murders. Kevin was the cardinal's ward; the two men ate the prostitutes to "consume their souls". Marv kills the cardinal but is then shot and captured by his guards.

Marv is taken to a hospital where cops threaten to kill his mother, to get him to confess to killing Roark, Kevin and their victims. He is sentenced to death in the electric chair. Wendy visits him on death row and thanks him for avenging her sister. Marv is then executed.

"The Big Fat Kill"

Shellie is being harassed by her abusive ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy and his cronies. Her boyfriend Dwight McCarthy violently warns him to leave Shellie alone. Jackie Boy and his cronies flee to Old Town. Dwight follows and sees them harass Becky, a young prostitute. Gail, the prostitutes' leader and Dwight's on-and-off lover, also witnesses the scene. When Jackie Boy threatens Becky with a gun, Miho, a martial arts expert, kills Jackie Boy and his friends. They realize Jackie Boy is actually Detective Lieutenant Jack Rafferty of the Basin City Police, considered a "hero cop" by the press. If the cops learn how he died, their truce with the prostitutes would end and the mob would be free to wage war on Old Town.

Dwight takes the bodies to a tar pit, where he is attacked by an ex-IRA mercenary hired by mob boss Wallenquist. He nearly drowns in the tar before Miho saves him. The mercenary flees to the sewer with Jackie Boy's severed head but Dwight and Miho retrieve it and return to Old Town. Meanwhile, mob enforcer Manute kidnaps Gail. Becky, threatened with the death of her mother by the mob, betrays the prostitutes. Manute prepares the mob's invasion of Old Town. Dwight trades Jackie Boy's head for Gail's freedom but the head is stuffed with explosives; Dwight detonates it, destroying the evidence and Gail's captors. The other prostitutes gun down the mercenaries while Becky, injured in the fight, escapes.

"That Yellow Bastard (Part II)"

Hartigan is recovering in a hospital when Senator Roark informs him that Junior is in a coma and the Roark legacy is in serious jeopardy. Hartigan will be framed for Junior's crimes; if he tells anyone the truth, his family will die. A grateful Nancy promises to write letters every week while he is in prison. Hartigan goes to jail, though he refuses to confess. He receives a weekly letter from Nancy, as promised. After eight years, the letters stop and he receives a severed finger instead. Hartigan confesses to all charges, leading to his parole, and searches for an adult Nancy, not knowing he is being followed by a deformed, yellow man. He eventually finds her at Kadie's Bar, where she has become an exotic dancer.

He realizes he was set up to lead the yellow man to Nancy and the two escape in Nancy's car. Hiding in the trunk of Hartigan's car, the deformed man returns, revealing himself as Roark Junior, disfigured by years of surgery to regenerate his body parts. Junior attacks Hartigan, claims to have raped nearly a hundred other children, and takes Nancy to the Roark farm to finish what he started eight years before. Hartigan follows and fakes a heart attack, giving him a chance to kill Junior. Knowing that Senator Roark will never stop hunting them, Hartigan commits suicide to ensure Nancy's safety. Again, he justifies his life for Nancy's as a fair trade.

"The Customer Is Always Right (Part II)"

An injured Becky departs from a hospital, talking on a cell phone with her mother. In the elevator she encounters The Salesman, dressed as a doctor. He offers her a cigarette, calling her by name, and she abruptly ends the call with her mother.

Set in New Mexico around the turn of the 20th century and told in flashback, the film tells the story of Jeb Rand, whose entire family was slaughtered when he was a child. In the aftermath of the massacre Jeb is found by Mrs Callum, a widow, who raises him in her family. Traumatized by the killings, Jeb does not recall anything of that night, except for vague images that he sees in a frequent nightmare. Mrs Callum raises him as her own son, together with her daughter Thorley "Thor" and her son Adam. Years later Jeb is shot at while riding a colt, but the shooter misses him. Although Mrs Callum blames the incident on deer hunters, she knows that it was an attempted murder by her brother-in-law, Grant. She confronts Grant and it is revealed that there has been a long-standing feud between the Rands and the Callums. Jeb's father - with whom Mrs Callum was having an affair - took the life of her husband, and in an act of revenge, Grant killed Jeb's family. The night of the massacre Grant's arm is so severely injured he eventually loses it. Mrs Callum pleads with her brother-in-law to leave Jeb alone, reasoning that he is not a threat to anyone. Grant agrees to let Jeb live in order to prove to Mrs Callum that one day Jeb will turn on her.

Years later, Jeb, Adam and Thor are adults, and one day law officials arrive to recruit volunteers to join the US Army. Jeb and Adam are told that one of them must join. After agreeing on a coin toss, Jeb loses the toss and signs up. He is injured in battle, and while recuperating in hospital he again experiences the flashbacks to the night of his family's murder. Due to his injuries he is honorably discharged from the army and awarded the Medal of Honor.

Jeb and Thor have long been in love. After his homecoming celebration, Jeb tries to persuade Thor to run away with him and get married as soon as possible. He suspects that someone, or something, is following him. Thor refuses, saying that she wishes to get married on her own terms and not out of fear. Jeb goes for a long horse ride in order to clear his head and stumbles upon an abandoned ranch which he suspects he has seen before. When he returns home, his mother confirms that the ranch he came across is where he lived with his real parents as child, and where the murders occurred. As Jeb prepares to leave to gamble at the casino in town, Adam shows him the money that had been set aside for him while he was in the army. He also shows Jeb the profits he is entitled to according to their mother's wish that everything be split among the three. However, Adam calls Jeb's share the 'Rand share' and expresses resentment that there should be any money given to Jeb at all. The two come to the conclusion that the ranch is not big enough for both of them, and agree to a coin toss to determine who will leave. Jeb loses; Adam relishes throwing him out and they end up in a fistfight. Jeb declares he will return the next day for Thor and promises that, if Adam tries to stop him, he will kill him.

Jeb has a big win at the casino and the owner, Jake Dingle, offers him a partnership. Meanwhile Adam ambushes Jeb on his way back from the casino, but is killed by Jeb in self-defense. Jeb is acquitted of the murder in court but is shunned by Thor and Mrs Callum, who states that Jeb is dead to them. With no family, job, or home of his own, Jeb accepts Jake Dingle's offer and becomes part-owner of the casino.

Months later Jeb discovers that Thor is engaged to a man named Prentice and learns that Thor and Prentice will be attending a town dance. Jeb attends the dance and forces Thor to dance with him. Grant Callum goads Prentice to defend Thor's honor and persuades him to make an attempt on Jeb's life. Jake Dingle warns Jeb that Prentice is coming for him. Jeb steps out the back door into the alley in an attempt to avoid the situation, but Prentice is coming down the street. The two engage in a gun battle and Jeb is once again forced to kill in self-defense.

Some time later Thor and Mrs Callum hatch a plan to gain revenge on Jeb for the pain he has caused them. Thor pretends to forgive Jeb and agrees to marry him, planning to murder him on their wedding night. When the moment arrives, Jeb reveals to her that he knows her plan; she cannot bring herself to carry out the murder and reconciles with him.

Grant Callum rounds up a gang of other Callums and they chase Jeb across the desert, intending to finish the job of killing all the Rands that Callum had begun all those years ago. Jeb finally recalls the night that his father and siblings were murdered, realizing that it was Grant who killed them and that Mrs Callum was there too. Thor learns that her mother had an affair with Jeb's father, and that when Mrs Callum's husband discovered it, he attempted to murder Rand, but was killed himself, resulting in Grant slaughtering Jeb's entire family to avenge his brother's death. On learning that Jeb survived the slaughter, Mrs Callum adopted him, out of guilt. Thor pleads with her mother not to allow Jeb to be hanged, stating there is still time to make up for her actions. As Grant is about to hang Jeb, Mrs Callum shoots him dead. She asks for and receives forgiveness from Jeb and Thor, and advises them to look to the future and enjoy their lives together.

Warlock is a small Utah mining town of the early 1880s. Cowboys working for Abe McQuown often come into town, killing on a whim, and beating or humiliating any deputy sheriff who tries to stand up to them. The Citizens' Committee decides to hire Clay Blaisedell, a renowned gunfighter, as town marshal in spite of the misgivings of some, such as old Judge Holloway. The town is not incorporated and does not have authority to have its own marshal.

Blaisedell arrives with his devoted clubfooted friend, Tom Morgan, an expert gunman as well. Morgan has a reputation as a heavy-drinking gambler, but Blaisedell insists that he is part of the package.

Their first encounter with McQuown's men is without bloodshed. The cowboys are intimidated by Blaisedell, and one, Johnny Gannon, stays behind, because he has become sick of their murderous ways.

Morgan learns that his old flame, Lily Dollar, is coming to town on the stagecoach, accompanied by Bob Nicholson, brother of Big Ben Nicholson, who was recently killed by Blaisedell. Lily had left Morgan for Big Ben and knows that Morgan pushed Ben into challenging Blaisedell, who killed him. She wants Blaisedell dead to punish Morgan.

Morgan sets out to meet the stagecoach, but sees from a distance it being robbed by some of McQuown's men. He takes advantage of the situation to kill Bob Nicholson unseen. Lily arrives in town and sees Morgan there. She believes that he pulled the trigger.

The robbers are arrested without incident by Blaisedell and a posse. Before taking them to Bright City for trial, the sheriff, who disapproves of Blaisedell, accepts Gannon's offer to become Warlock's new resident deputy.

The robbers, one of whom is Gannon's younger brother Billy, are cleared by a jury intimidated by McQuown. The cowboys, led by Billy, immediately confront Blaisedell and Morgan in the street. Deputy Gannon asks them to leave and tells Billy, "I ain't backin' him, because you're my brother, and I ain't backin' you, because you're wrong." A cowboy tries to shoot Blaisedell in the back, but is spotted by Morgan and shot. Blaisedell kills two others, including Billy, after giving him a chance to back down. McQuown's smooth-talking man Curley posts wanted notices for Blaisedell, declaring the cowboys "regulators" in mockery of his quasi-legal status. Gannon vows to stop any regulators who come into town, and McQuown angrily stabs him in his gun hand.

Townspeople begin resenting Blaisedell and Morgan, exactly as Blaisedell had predicted. However, he has started a relationship with Jessie Marlow and decides to marry and settle down, much to the surprise of Morgan, who wants to move on.

Despite his injured hand, Gannon faces the cowboys alone after Morgan pulls a gun on Blaisedell, who had volunteered to back the deputy. With help from the citizens and from Curley, who promised him "a fair fight", Gannon unexpectedly kills McQuown and breaks up the regulators for good. Morgan cannot tolerate the idea that Gannon is now more of a hero than Blaisedell, and he resents Lily's attraction to the deputy, too. In the course of an argument, Blaisedell learns the truth about the deaths of the Nicholson brothers and turns his back on Morgan.

That evening, in a drunken state, Morgan calls Gannon out, intending to kill him. Blaisedell locks Deputy Gannon in his own cell, insisting, "Tom Morgan's my responsibility." Initially content to seem cowed, Morgan is pleased Blaisedell is a hero again, but when townspeople jeer and mock Morgan as he walks away, he challenges Blaisedell to a showdown. Morgan shoots off Blaisedell's hat before being fatally wounded a split-second later. Morgan's dying words are, "I won, Clay, I won!"

A grief-stricken Blaisedell carries his friend's body into the saloon, which he burns down. Gannon tells Blaisedell that he will arrest him in the morning if he does not leave town. Blaisedell decides to leave. Jessie refuses to accompany him. The next day, Gannon and Blaisedell face one another. Blaisedell outdraws Gannon, but then throws his famous golden-handled revolvers into the sand, smiles at Gannon and rides away.

Jim Slater (Richard Widmark) meets Karyl Orton (Donna Reed) in Gila Valley, Arizona. She thinks that he is searching for a gold cache believed to be hidden somewhere in the valley. When a man with a rifle starts shooting at him, Jim wonders if she can be trusted. After Jim kills his foe, he discovers the dead man was a deputy sheriff from Silver City. He takes the body there.

When Sheriff J. C. Marson (Edward Platt) questions him, Jim reveals that he is after the person responsible for his father's death. Jim's father and four other men were besieged and killed by Apaches. Jim believes there was a sixth man who got away and could have gone for help, but instead decided he wanted the gold they found all to himself. Marston reveals that one of the men was the brother of the dead deputy. There are two other brothers, who will want revenge. When Jim refuses to leave town, Marston suggests he go see Sergeant George Lake (Barton MacLane) in Tucson. Lake led the detail that found the massacre victims.

Jim takes his advice, but finds Lake and his men under siege at an isolated trading post. Lake tells Karyl that only three of the bodies could be identified. While there, Karyl stakes her claim to the gold; her husband was another victim of Gila Valley. Lake and Jim sneak out that night and stampede the Apaches' horses, allowing the party to escape. Lake, however, is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he reveals they found a horse bearing the brand of Carson's outfit in Texas.

When Jim returns to Tucson, he encounters Karyl in a hotel, being forced upstairs by a stranger. Karyl calls him by name, whereupon the stranger draws his gun. Jim kills him and wounds another man gunning for him, though he himself is shot in the shoulder. Afterward, Karyl reveals that the dead man is Jeff Welker (Robert J. Wilke) and the survivor his brother Tony (Harry Morgan). Jim slaps her. She tracks him down, tends to his wound, and offers to trade information. Jim kisses her.

When the pair reach their destination, Major Carson (Roy Roberts) tries to recruit Jim against Bonniwell (John McIntire), who has organized the local bandits. Jim is not interested in the upcoming range war, though he does learn that Bonniwell arrived in the region with $60,000, the same amount as the missing gold. One of Carson's gunmen, Johnny Cool (William Campbell), informs Bonniwell of Carson's plans.

Bonniwell gathers his men in town, guns down Sheriff Olson (Robert Foulk) when he tries to keep the peace, and prepares an ambush. He finds Jim locked in the jail. He lets the prisoner out when he learns who he is, then reveals that he is Jim's father, whom Jim had not seen since he was a child. The gold came, not from mining, but via robbery. The others forced Bonniwell out, only to run afoul of the Apaches, leaving him to collect the gold. Disillusioned, Jim wants nothing to do with his father.

Karyl pleads with Jim to leave immediately, but he wants to warn Carson. When he tries to fire a warning shot, he discovers that Bonniwell gave him back an unloaded gun. Bonniwell chases his son with a knife, but Jim manages to wrestle a gun from one of the bandits and fire. Alerted, Carson has his men surround the town, whereupon the bandits panic and flee. Bonniwell offers to step out of hiding and draw to see which Slater is faster, but he treacherously already has his gun in his hand. Carson's men ride in and fatally shoot him just before Jim steps out in the open.

The focus of Wilson's attention in ''Fences'' is Troy, a 53-year-old working-class head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; although never officially named, it makes mention of several key locations in Pittsburgh. In his younger days, Troy was an excellent player in Negro league baseball and continued practicing baseball while serving time in prison for a murder he had committed during a robbery. Because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball, Troy was unable to get into the MLB to make good money or to save for the future. He now lives a menial, though respectable, blue-collar life of trash collecting; later in the play, he remarkably crosses the race barrier and becomes the first Black truck driver in Pittsburgh instead of just a barrel lifter.

Troy lives with his wife, Rose and his teenage son, Cory. He has a younger brother Gabe, a World War II veteran whose war injury to his head has caused him noticeable psychological damage. Gabe had received $3,000 from the government, and Troy took control of this money to purchase a home for his family, including a room for Gabe. A short time before the play's opening, Gabriel has rented a room elsewhere, but still in the neighborhood. Lyons is Troy's older son from a previous marriage, and lives outside the home. Bono is Troy's best friend and co-worker.

The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why Black men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks; Rose and Lyons join in the conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to borrow money from Troy, confident that he will receive it, and promises to pay him back because his girlfriend Bonnie just got a job. Troy, who is a rigid believer in hard work and responsibility, belittles his son because he refuses to find a real job as Troy did rather than pursuing his dream of becoming a musician.

Cory tells Troy and Rose about an opportunity for a college football scholarship. Troy tells Cory he will not let his son play football for fear of racial discrimination, just as Troy believes he experienced when he wanted a career in the National leagues. However, it is suggested later on that Troy told Cory's coach that his son is no longer able to play football. When Cory discovers this, he and Troy get into a fight resulting in Troy sending Cory to his room. Later, it is revealed that Troy's age after serving a prison sentence, not his race, may have been the primary factor. Father and son argue about Troy's actions, but Troy stubbornly does not back down from his argument and kicks Cory out of the house. Later it is revealed that Cory enlisted in the military after this event.

Troy admits to Rose that he has been having an affair and that his mistress, Alberta, is pregnant. Later, Alberta dies in childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise the girl as her own, saying: "From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." She remains in the family home but the couple are estranged; she refuses to accept Troy back into her life.

Seven years later, Troy has died. Cory comes home for a visit from the military where he is a corporal in the Marines. He initially refuses to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, but he is convinced by his mother to pay his respects to his father — the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son. The family say their farewells to Troy and offer forgiveness that may not be fully deserved.

Allegories

The brother Gabriel is potentially an allegory to salvation. Other than being actually named Gabriel, like the angel, Gabe wears a trumpet, constantly chases away unseen "hellhounds", and regularly believes himself to be speaking with Saint Peter. At the end, just before Troy's funeral, the family gathers around Gabe in the yard. He blows three times into his trumpet, but no sound comes out. In a moment of trance, Gabe begins to dance and sing. The sun breaks through the clouds while the family looks on. Troy is at last delivered and the rest of the family is too; each seeming to find peace in their relationship with Troy.

The fence referred to by the play's title is built over many years and is revealed to be finished only in the final act of the play. It is not obvious as to why Troy wants to build it, but a dramatic monologue in the second act shows how he conceptualizes it as an allegory — to keep the Grim Reaper away. The fence is also symbolic of the emotional barrier that Troy erected between himself and his sons, one from each of his adult relationships. Rose also wanted Troy to build the fence as a symbolic means of securing what was her own, keeping what belonged inside in (her family), and making what should stay outside, stay out.

The movie is set in the Deep South of the United States prior to the American Civil War. Falconhurst is a run-down plantation owned by widower Warren Maxwell and largely run by his son, Hammond. Hammond and his cousin, Charles, visit a plantation where both men are given black women out of hospitality. Hammond chooses Ellen, who is a virgin. Both she and Hammond watch as Charles abuses and rapes the other woman, with Charles claiming that she likes it. Hammond asks Ellen if this is true, and she says no. Hammond then sleeps with Ellen.

Warren Maxwell pressures him to marry, so Hammond chooses his cousin, Blanche, who is desperate to get out of her house to escape her brother Charles. It is implied that Charles raped her when she was 13. After their wedding night, Hammond is sure that she is not a virgin—a claim Blanche denies. On their way back from their honeymoon, Hammond returns to the plantation where Ellen is kept and purchases her as his sex slave. Eventually, he comes to genuinely care for her.

Meanwhile, Hammond purchases a Mandingo slave named Ganymede. Nicknamed "Mede", the slave works for Hammond as a prize-fighter. He's forced to soak in a large cauldron of very hot salt water to ostensibly toughen his skin. Hammond also breeds Mede with Pearl, even though Pearl is a blood relation of Mede's. Hammond makes a great deal of money betting on Mede's fights.

Rejected by Hammond, Blanche becomes a slovenly alcoholic who does nothing all day long. While Hammond is on a business trip alone, Blanche discovers Ellen is pregnant. Correctly assuming the baby is Hammond's, Blanche beats Ellen. Ellen flees, but falls down some stairs, and miscarries. Hammond (who had promised Ellen that her baby would be freed), returns to Falconhurst and discovers Ellen lost the baby. Threatened with bodily harm by Warren, Ellen does not tell him how she miscarried. Hammond gives Ellen a pair of ruby earrings, which she wears while serving an evening meal. Hammond gave the matching necklace to Blanche, who becomes enraged to find Ellen being publicly favored by Hammond.

Hammond leaves on another business trip, taking Ellen with him. A drunken Blanche demands that Mede come to her bedroom. Although the other slaves attempt to stop him, Mede does as he is ordered. Blanche says she will accuse Mede of rape if he refuses to be raped by her, so he spends the night with her.

Hammond returns to the plantation. A great deal of time has passed since Hammond and Blanche's marriage, and Warren Maxwell is eager for a grandchild. Sensing that the marriage is troubled, Warren locks Hammond and Blanche in a room together and refuses to let them out until they reconcile. They appear to do so. A short time later, Blanche announces she is pregnant, but when the baby is born, it is clear the child is mixed race. To avoid a scandal, the child is killed on doctor's orders. Sickened at Blanche's sexual indiscretion, Hammond asks the doctor if he has the poison he uses on old slaves and horses. He pours the poison into a toddy for Blanche. An outraged Hammond seeks out Mede, intending to kill him. As Hammond attempts to force Mede into a boiling cauldron of water, Mede tries to tell him that Blanche blackmailed him into being raped by her. Hammond shoots Mede twice with a rifle and the second shot throws Mede into the boiling water. Hammond uses a pitchfork to drown Mede. In a fit of fury, the slave Agamemnon (Richard Ward) picks up the rifle and aims it at Hammond. When Warren calls him a "crazy nigger" and demands that he put the gun down, the slave shoots and kills Warren. As he runs away, Hammond kneels helpless next to Warren's lifeless body.

Act One

A charity banjo concert is to be performed in a church by Bertie Wooster, an amiable gentleman who often finds himself involved in various misadventures from which he is saved by his intelligent valet Jeeves. A friendly vicar, the Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker, introduces his friend Bertie to the church audience (the actual audience). Stinker also introduces the volunteers who are helping with the charity concert, and the show's stage manager, Jeeves. Bertie is handed an instrument and starts playing, but stops when he realizes he is holding a frying pan ("A False Start"). Jeeves reports that the banjo was stolen (though it is implied that this was arranged by Jeeves, who does not want Bertie to play the banjo). Jeeves suggests that Bertie recount one of his adventures while they wait for a replacement banjo. The volunteers perform the roles of the other characters in the story.

Jeeves directs the impromptu story to start. In the story, Bertie faces the magistrate Sir Watkyn Bassett in court after taking a constable's helmet as a boyish prank. Bertie uses an assumed name, Gussie Fink-Nottle. (Bertie has doubts about telling an improvised story, but decides to continue so the audience will not be disappointed ("Wooster Will Entertain You"). Jeeves continues to manage the production, and reminds Bertie about the story's events.) The real Gussie Fink-Nottle, one of Bertie's pals, comes to Bertie's flat. Gussie declares that he loves his friend Madeline Bassett, Sir Watkyn Bassett's daughter. Bertie has apologized for using Gussie's name, but now Gussie cannot use his own name with Sir Watkyn, so he has assumed Bertie's name. Madeline helped come up with this plan and invited Gussie to Sir Watkyn's country house, Totleigh Towers. Sir Watkyn and Gussie (calling himself Bertie) go to Totleigh. Bertie is shocked by an announcement in ''The Times'' saying that he is engaged to Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng, Sir Watkyn's ward. Bertie is friends with Stiffy but has no intention of marrying her. Following Jeeves's advice, Bertie plans to go to Totleigh using Gussie's name again, to confront Stiffy.

While driving to Totleigh, Bertie remains optimistic and also sees his friend Bingo Little, who loves the formidable Honoria Glossop ("Travel Hopefully"). Honoria also appears. She and Bertie were once engaged, and she still has feelings for Bertie, though Bertie is too polite to tell her he is glad the engagement ended ("That Was Nearly Us"). Bingo overhears this and is annoyed with Bertie. Bertie introduces himself, accidentally using his real name, to forthright American businessman Cyrus Budge III Jr., a guest at Totleigh who wants to court Madeline. Stiffy loves Stinker Pinker (played by himself), but they need Sir Watkyn's approval to marry. Stiffy had an engagement announced between her and Bertie so Bertie would have to come. She wants Bertie to help her and Stinker ("Love's Maze"). To make Bertie stay and help, she points out that Gussie will be in trouble when Sir Watkyn reads the engagement announcement in ''The Times''. Since Cyrus knows Bertie's name, Bertie makes sure Gussie uses his own name when greeting Cyrus, and they all reintroduce themselves ("The Hallo Song"). Cyrus realizes he is Gussie's rival for Madeline's affections and intimidates Gussie. Madeline inadvertently reveals to her father that Bertie is not Gussie, so Bertie pretends he is Bingo Little instead. Honoria and Bingo arrive at the house, and Bertie introduces Bingo as Gussie Fink-Nottle. Sir Watkyn and Cyrus are left confused about who is who.

Act Two

At the start of the second act, Sir Watkyn is confused about the identities of his guests, Bertie is concerned about Stiffy's scheming, and Bingo and Gussie want to be united with Honoria and Madeline respectively. Bertie, Bingo, and Gussie are not sure what to do next and ask for help from the brainy Jeeves ("By Jeeves"). Jeeves tells them he has not yet thought of a way to help. Gussie is afraid of Cyrus, who threatens to fight Gussie, and is too shy anyway to confess his feelings to Madeline. Jeeves suggests that Bertie tell Madeline that Gussie loves her. Bertie tries to do so by telling Madeline that someone loves her, but she misunderstands and thinks Bertie is confessing his love for her ("When Love Arrives"). Gussie and Cyrus are now upset with Bertie. Bertie is annoyed that Jeeves's advice has not kept him out of trouble, though Jeeves says he has tried his best to help ("What Have You Got To Say, Jeeves?"). Bertie tells Jeeves not to help anymore (except as stage manager).

Stiffy comes up with a plan for Bertie to pretend to be a burglar, so that Stinker can impress Sir Watkyn by stopping him. Stiffy and Stinker sing about their love for each other ("Half A Moment"). Bertie, somewhat moved by their song, reluctantly agrees to help them by taking part in Stiffy's scheme. Bertie wears a pig mask (since no better mask was available among the props on hand) and uses a ladder to break into Totleigh Towers. He ends up climbing into the wrong room, and is chased by multiple characters through the house, since they think he is really a masked burglar ("It's A Pig!"). Before Stinker can make an appearance of apprehending Bertie, Cyrus tries to catch Bertie, and Stinker accidentally hits Cyrus, who is briefly knocked out. While chasing Bertie through Totleigh Towers, Gussie reunites with Madeline by coming to help her, and Bingo bonds with Honoria. Just as Bertie is about to be unmasked by Sir Watkyn, Bertie apologizes to Jeeves for doubting him and asks for his help. Jeeves switches Cyrus and Bertie's places. Bertie is saved and Cyrus is caught as the thief. Since Stinker apparently helped catch the thief, he gets Sir Watkyn's approval. Bertie, Bingo, and Gussie try to reintroduce themselves to Sir Watkyn, though he is still confused. Stinker escorts Cyrus away, and the happy couples depart. Jeeves has also prevented further trouble by acquiring Sir Watkyn's copy of ''The Times'' before Sir Watkyn could see the engagement announcement.

The Totleigh Towers story ends. A new banjo arrives for Bertie to play, though it has been muted (apparently on purpose, since Jeeves does not want Bertie to play the banjo). Jeeves convinces Bertie that the banjo is still audible to the audience, so Bertie believes he can finally play the banjo for the audience as intended. He sings a song while playing the muted banjo, and the other actors perform as a supporting chorus while wearing costumes from ''The Wizard of Oz'' which they had on hand ("Banjo Boy"). Lastly, the group performs a reprise of multiple songs ("Wizard Rainbow Banjo Mix").

Charlie Barret walks to his private table in a restaurant, only to see two young men sitting at his table – Avery and Max. Another young man who is friends with Avery and Max, Brett, joins them shortly after Charlie sits down and begins chatting with them. Charlie happens to know Avery's father, and after an initial reluctance, is willing to go with the boys for a "night on the town".

Before meeting Charlie, they had previously planned to use chloroform to knock him out in their car. The plan goes awry, and Charlie fights back, almost wrecking the car before they can finally put him under. When Charlie wakes up, he sees himself surrounded by the three men, and a fourth friend, T. K., checks his vital signs. It is revealed that Charlie is Carlo Bartolucci, a former mob figure. The boys explain that Avery's sister, Elise, has been kidnapped, and that the kidnappers are demanding a $2 million ransom for her release. Unable to come up with the money on such short notice, they figure Charlie still has connections to get the money and set up an exchange. To ensure that Charlie knows how serious they are, Charlie is shown his cut-off finger, still wearing his signet ring, as the same was done to Elise. As incentive for his cooperation, they explain that they will do to him everything done to Elise.

Charlie flies into a rage and threatens to kill them, though he eventually agrees to help. As Charlie requests continual alcoholic drinks and his blood does not properly clot, T. K., a medical student, explains that Charlie's alcoholism may cause him to die of blood loss if he is not taken to a hospital. Charlie contacts his lawyer, who in turn contacts Lono, Charlie's bodyguard, asking him to track Charlie down. Lono goes about his own investigation, asking for, and in some cases beating out, information from people. However, he shows he has a soft side as one of the people he beats up is the father of Jennifer, the hostess at the restaurant that Charlie and the boys frequent. Meanwhile, Charlie seems to take perverse pleasure in playing mindgames with his kidnappers. During the course of these conversations, Charlie unnerves the friends with stories of his early years as a gangster. Especially concerning some former neighbors of his that he'd had killed, then feeding their remains to their Dobermans. Another story was how he got his signet ring.

Meanwhile Marty, Charlie's attorney, conducts his own investigation. He speaks to Lydia, a successful madam, whose life Charlie had saved, many years ago, from her former lover and pimp. He wanted to kill her because she'd spent money on herself that he felt belonged to him. Lydia gives Marty a list of contacts.

As Lono searches, Charlie takes advantage of the boys' naïvete. A fifth friend, Ira, shows up unexpectedly and demands an explanation – they are using his house under the cover story of a poker game. Ira is flustered by their carelessness in his parents' house and becomes even more worried when he realizes they have kidnapped a major figure in the mob. Charlie plays the friends against each other, slowly getting information out of them and using it to his advantage. After much cajoling and piecing information together, Charlie identifies Max, Elise's boyfriend, as an inside man. As his enraged friends plan to cut off his finger, Avery stops them, admits it was his plan, and says he recruited Max to help him. Avery made several unlucky bets, could not pay off his debts, and was approached by mobsters who had purchased his debt. They offered him a way out: Become an inside man in his own sister's kidnapping.

Lono eventually makes his way to Ira's house and has Charlie removed from his restraints, around the same time that the money is sent to the two thugs. Avery rushes to meet his sister at the appointed drop-off, but she does not appear. Charlie and Lono track down the two kidnappers, who insist they never kidnapped Elise and the whole operation was a con. Charlie and Lono kill the thugs, and it is revealed that Max and Elise set the whole thing up, splitting the ransom between them and the thugs. Charlie and Lono track Max and Elise to a boat off a tropic island where, although Charlie understands their reasons for conning him and agrees with Max on how special Elise is, he has Lono shoot them both dead. The screen dissolves to a rotoscope red and the film ends with only Charlie and Lono standing alone on the boat.

The story begins when Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with the following mysterious sequence of stick figures.

Cubitt explains to Holmes and Dr. Watson that he has recently married an American woman named Elsie Patrick. Before the wedding, she had asked her husband-to-be never to ask about her past, as she had had some "very disagreeable associations" in her life, although she said that there was nothing that she was personally ashamed of. Their marriage had been a happy one until the messages began to arrive, first mailed from the United States and then appearing in the garden.

The messages had made Elsie very afraid but she did not explain the reasons for her fear, and Cubitt insisted on honoring his promise not to ask about Elsie's life in the United States. Holmes examines all of the occurrences of the dancing figures, and they provide him with an important clue—he realizes that they form a substitution cipher and cracks the code by frequency analysis. The last of the messages causes Holmes to fear that the Cubitts are in immediate danger.

Holmes rushes to Riding Thorpe Manor and finds Cubitt dead of a bullet to the heart and his wife gravely wounded from a gunshot to the head. Inspector Martin of the Norfolk Constabulary believes that it is a murder-suicide attempt; Elsie is the prime suspect. But Holmes, after noting some inconsistencies in that theory, proves that there is a third person involved.

Holmes writes a message—in dancing figure characters—and has it delivered to a lodger at a nearby farm. While waiting for the result of this message, Holmes explains to Watson and Inspector Martin how he cracked the code of the dancing figures. The last message, which caused Holmes and Watson to rush to Norfolk, read "ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD".

The lodger, Abe Slaney, another American, unaware that Elsie is gravely wounded, arrives at Ridling Thorpe Manor and is seized as he comes through the door. Holmes had sent for Slaney using the dancing men, knowing that Slaney would believe the message is from Elsie. Slaney reveals that he had been engaged to Elsie, the daughter of the Chicago crime boss whom Slaney works for, and that she had fled to escape her old life. Slaney had come to England to get her back. When Slaney and Elsie were speaking through a window, Cubitt had appeared and shots were exchanged; Cubitt was killed and Slaney had fled. Apparently, Elsie then shot herself. Slaney is arrested and sentenced to hang, but his sentence is reduced to penal servitude because Cubitt had fired the first shot. Elsie recovers from her injuries, and spends her life helping the poor and administering her late husband's estate.

Holmes is contacted by Miss Violet Smith of Farnham, Surrey about an unusual turn in her and her mother's lives. Violet's father has recently died and left his wife and daughter rather poor. There was an ad in the news asking about their whereabouts. Answering it, they met Mr. Carruthers and Mr. Woodley, the former a pleasant enough man, but the latter a bullying churl. They had come from South Africa, where they had known Violet's uncle Ralph Smith, who had now also died in poverty and apparently wanted to see that his relatives were provided for. This struck Violet as odd, since she and her family had not heard a word from Smith since his departure for South Africa 25 years ago. Carruthers and Woodley explained that before dying, Ralph had heard of his brother's death and felt responsible for his survivors' welfare.

Carruthers began by offering Violet a job as a live-in music teacher for his ten-year-old daughter at £100 a year, about twice the going rate. She accepted after Carruthers said that she could visit her mother on weekends. That went well until Mr. Woodley came to stay for a week. He made the most oafish and clumsy sexual advances to her, and boasted that if Violet married him she would have a life of luxury. He even grabbed her and demanded a kiss, precipitating expulsion by his host, Carruthers. Violet has not seen Woodley since.

The specific thing that has brought Violet to seek Holmes's services, however, is the strange man who follows her on his bicycle as she cycles to and from the railway station for her weekend visits to her mother. The strange man always keeps his distance behind her and disappears without a trace, never letting her near him, and always along the same lonely stretch of road. Violet does not recognize him, but he has a black beard. Holmes asks her about her admirers, and other than Woodley, if he can be styled as such, she can only think of Mr. Carruthers, who, although a perfect gentleman at all times, seems attracted to her.

After Violet leaves, Holmes observes that it is odd that a household would pay £100 a year for a music teacher but be too cheap to pay for a horse and trap. He sends Dr. Watson to Surrey to see what he can find out. This turns out to be virtually nothing, except to establish that the lady's story is true, and that the mystery man comes out of and goes back into a local house, Charlington Hall. Holmes upbraids Watson for his lackluster results. They also receive a letter from Violet that evening saying that Carruthers has proposed to her, but she had to refuse since she is already engaged to a man named Cyril Morton, an electrical engineer in Coventry.

Holmes goes to Surrey himself, and gets into a fight in a pub for his troubles; when he returns and tells Watson what happened, he actually considers his experience in Surrey to be hilarious. It seems that Mr. Woodley was in the taproom at the pub and heard his name mentioned in conversation. He came out and demanded to know who Holmes was and what he wanted. The discussion escalated to violence; Holmes emerged with a few bruises, whereas Woodley had to be carried home. The innkeeper merely mentioned that Woodley is a regular weekend guest at Charlington Hall, which is rented by Williamson, who, rumor has it, is a clergyman.

Holmes returns to 221B Baker Street with his face somewhat marred, and another letter arrives from Violet, saying that her situation has become impossible owing to Mr. Carruthers's proposals, and Mr. Woodley's reappearance. She is quitting. Holmes knows that some intrigue is afoot, and he tells Watson that they must get themselves to Surrey to see that Violet makes it to the station. Carruthers has at last acquired a trap, and she need not ride her bicycle this time.

Failing to realize that Violet might take an earlier train than usual, Holmes discovers that he is too late to meet Violet. The trap comes along the road, but by the time it does, no one is in it: Violet has been abducted. Holmes and Watson board the empty trap in an attempt to go after the kidnappers. They come face-to-face with the mysterious cyclist, who pulls a revolver on them; however, both parties quickly realise that they are on the same side – both have Violet's welfare in mind. The cyclist declares that the abductors are Woodley and Williamson. He evidently knows something of the intrigue.

The group first find an unconscious groom, who was driving the trap, in the bushes, and then they find all three persons that they have been seeking on the Charlington Hall grounds, with the apparently defrocked clergyman performing a wedding ceremony between the other two. The bride is somewhat unwilling, judging from the gag over her mouth. Woodley's boast of having married Violet leads the mysterious cyclist, unmasking himself as Carruthers, to pull out his revolver and shoot Woodley, wounding him.

The intrigue does indeed involve Uncle Ralph in South Africa. He was dying when Carruthers and Woodley left; far from being penniless at his death, it is revealed that in reality, Uncle Ralph had amassed a large fortune. As he was illiterate, he would surely die intestate, and therefore Violet would inherit his wealth as Ralph's next of kin. The two crooks made their way to England in the hopes that one of them would get to marry Violet – Woodley having won the chance in a card game on the ship – and they had to draw Williamson into the plot, promising him a share of the lucre. The plan went awry when first, Woodley proved to be a brute, and next, Carruthers fell in love with Violet, and thereafter wanted nothing to do with his former confederates. He took to disguising himself and following her as she rode her bicycle past Charlington Hall, where he knew Woodley and Williamson might be lying in wait for her.

Heavy penalties await Woodley and Williamson, but Carruthers only gets a few months due to Woodley's less-than-savory reputation. Holmes reassures Carruthers the "marriage" performed by Williamson was void; not only was it performed against Violet's will, but Williamson had been unfrocked and therefore had no authority to legalise a marriage.

Holmes receives a visit from Dr. Thorneycroft Huxtable, the founder and principal of a preparatory school called Priory School in Northern England. He beseeches Holmes to come back to Mackleton with him to look into the disappearance of one of his pupils, the ten-year-old Lord Saltire, whose father is the very rich and famous Duke of Holdernesse. Huxtable explains that not only the boy has disappeared, but also the German master, Heidegger, along with his bicycle.

Once in the North, the Duke says to Holmes that he does not think that his estranged wife has anything to do with his son's disappearance, nor has there been a ransom demand. Holmes establishes that the boy and his kidnappers could not have used the nearby road without being seen, suggesting that they went cross-country. As if to confirm this, the police find the boy's school cap in some gypsies' possession. They swear that they simply found it on the moor, but the police lock them up.

Holmes and Dr. Watson go hunting for clues. They find a bicycle track, but it is not Heidegger's; it does not match his tyres. Holmes observes that one tyre has a patch on it. Almost everything observable has been obliterated by cow tracks (which are the only marks on the ground anywhere). Eventually, Heidegger's bicycle tracks are found, and they end where he lies, dead. After that, Holmes and Watson arrive at the Fighting Cock Inn, and meet the innkeeper, Reuben Hayes, who seems startled indeed to hear that Holmes wants to go to Holdernesse Hall, the Duke's nearby house, to tell him news of his son. The two men have lunch there, and Holmes suddenly realises that he and Watson saw many cow tracks out on the moor, but never at any time did they see any cows. Furthermore, the patterns of the hoof prints were quite unusual, suggesting that the cow in question trotted, cantered, and galloped. Holmes and Watson sneak out to Hayes's stable and examine the horse's hooves. As Holmes has expected, there is evidence of recent shoeing, but with old shoes and new nails. Examining the nearby smithy, Holmes and Watson are rather belligerently asked to leave by Mr. Hayes.

Shortly afterwards, the two men hide as a cyclist comes along the road from the direction of the Duke's. It is James Wilder, the Duke's personal secretary, and he looks agitated. He arrives at the inn. Soon afterwards, a trap pulls out of the stable yard and goes along the road towards Chesterfield. A while later, someone else – it is getting dark and only a fleeting glimpse of the new visitor is caught – arrives at the inn. Coming closer, Holmes observes Wilder's bicycle tyres and notes that they are the same make as the first ones encountered on the moor.

The next morning, they go to Holdernesse Hall, where they find that the Duke is not well. Nevertheless, Holmes demands from him a cheque for £6000 ( ), saying that he has earned the reward. His son is at the Fighting Cock, and the accused is the Duke himself, but the actual mastermind of this crime is James Wilder, who has a terrible secret: He is the illegitimate son of the Duke. He conceived a plan to kidnap Lord Saltire to force the Duke to change his will, knowing very well that his father would not call the police on him, as he abhorred the very idea of scandal. The plan began to unravel when Wilder hired Hayes – who has now fled, but been caught on Holmes's information – to do the actual kidnapping. Hayes killed Heidegger, and when Wilder heard the news, he confessed all to his father. So anxious was the Duke to avoid scandal, he agreed to let his younger son stay at the inn for another three days, and to keep quiet, so that Hayes could flee justice.

All ends well, except for Hayes, who faces the gallows. Lord Saltire is brought home from the inn and the Duke writes to his estranged wife asking her to reconcile with him. This he feels she will be willing to do, for the source of the friction between them is going away: James Wilder is being packed off to Australia to seek his fortune. As for the cow tracks, they were accomplished by shoeing the horses with special shoes shaped like cow's hooves. The shoes were from the Duke's collection of family memorabilia.

Holmes is hired by the débutante Lady Eva Blackwell to retrieve compromising letters from a blackmailer: Milverton, who causes Holmes more revulsion than any of the 50-odd murderers in his career. Milverton is "the king of blackmailers". He demands £7,000 ( ) for the letters, which if given to third parties would cause a scandal that would end Lady Eva's marriage engagement. Holmes offers £2,000, all Lady Eva can pay, but Milverton insists on £7,000. It is worth £7,000 to him, he explains, to make an example of Lady Eva; it is in his long-term interest to ensure that his future blackmail victims would be more "open to reason" and pay him what he wants, knowing he will destroy them if they do not. Holmes resolves to recover the letters by whatever means necessary, as Milverton has placed himself outside the bounds of morality.

Holmes visits Milverton's Hampstead house, disguised as a plumber, in order to learn the plan of the house and Milverton's daily routine. He cultivates the acquaintance of Milverton's housemaid and even becomes engaged to marry her. This rather shocks Watson, but Holmes assures him that he has a hated rival who will step in when the plumber disappears. Holmes has learned where Milverton keeps his blackmail papers (a safe in his study), and plans to burgle Milverton's house that night. Watson comes along.

They break into the study, but just as Holmes opens the safe, Milverton enters the study, even though he should be in bed asleep. Holmes and Watson hide behind a curtain, while Milverton has a midnight meeting with a supposed maidservant offering to sell letters that would compromise her mistress.

The woman is actually one of Milverton's former victims, whose broken-hearted husband died when she wouldn't pay Milverton and he revealed her secret. Now she avenges her husband by shooting Milverton to death, then stamps on his face.

Watson instinctively begins to rush out and stop the shooting, but Holmes restrains him. Holmes understands, and Watson instantly realises, "that it was no affair of ours; that justice had overtaken a villain..." The woman runs away, and Milverton's household is roused by the shots. During his final confrontation, Milverton's entire cache of blackmail papers had been in a safe with its door slightly ajar. Holmes now feeds this mass of compromising material into Milverton's burning fireplace, despite the risk of being discovered and caught.

Then Holmes and Watson escape through the garden and over the wall. Watson has to kick himself free from a pursuer who has grabbed his leg.

The next morning, Inspector Lestrade calls at Baker Street to ask for Holmes' help in investigating Milverton's murder, which he ascribes to the two burglars seen escaping over the garden wall. He has a description of one of them: "a middle-aged, strongly built man-square jaw, thick neck, moustache..." Holmes calls that vague. "Why, it might be a description of Watson!" he says, which amuses Lestrade. But Holmes refuses Lestrade's request: "My sympathies are with the criminals, and I will not handle the case."

Later, Holmes recognises the face of the woman who killed Milverton. He shows Watson her photograph displayed in a shop-window among those of other celebrities. Watson recognises the name of her famous husband, but Holmes signals silence with a finger to his lips. Watson assures his readers that the killer in question is beyond the reach of the law [i.e deceased] and that certain details have been disguised to hurt no one.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves in a university town when a tutor and lecturer of St Luke's College, Mr. Hilton Soames, brings him an interesting problem. Soames had been reviewing the galley proofs of an exam he was going to give when he left his office for an hour. When he returned, he found that his servant, Bannister, had entered the room but accidentally left his key in the lock when he left, and someone had disturbed the exam papers on his desk and left traces that show it had been partially copied. Bannister is devastated and collapses on a chair, but swears that he did not touch the papers. Soames found other clues in his office: pencil shavings, a broken pencil lead, a fresh cut in his desk surface, and a small blob of black clay speckled with sawdust.

Soames wants to uncover the cheater and prevent him from taking the exam, since it is for a sizeable scholarship. Three students who will take the exam live above him in the same building. The first, Gilchrist, is athletic, being a hurdler and a long-jumper, and industrious (in contrast to his father who squandered his fortune in horse racing); the second, Daulat Ras, is described as quiet and methodical; the third is Miles McLaren, a gifted man but thoroughly dissolute and given to gambling.

Holmes examines the office. The cheater obviously took the papers over to the window one by one while he copied them so that he could see Soames returning, but as it happens, Soames did not come back the usual way. A nearby door leads to Soames's bedroom. Upon examining that, Holmes finds another, similar, sawdust-speckled blob of clay. He stuns Soames by telling him that the cheater, upon hearing his approach, hid in Soames's bedroom. He was there, hiding behind a curtain, all the time that Soames was questioning Bannister.

The next morning, Holmes and Watson return to Soames's office. Holmes confronts Bannister who he believes is not telling all he knows. Bannister will not own up to anything, and insists that there was no one in Soames's office while he was there. Holmes, however, sends for Gilchrist, and proceeds to lay out his results. The cheater was someone who knew the exam proofs were there. This could only be Gilchrist because the proofs' whereabouts had been kept secret, and Gilchrist was the only one tall enough to look in through Soames's window to see his desk. Holmes has also identified the blobs as the special clay found in the long-jump pit, further implicating Gilchrist. Gilchrist reveals his guilt by reproaching Bannister for his apparent treachery. Bannister was indeed the one who covered for Gilchrist. He felt that he had to, for old times' sake: Bannister was once Gilchrist's father's butler.

Holmes then explains the remaining clues. The scratch on the desk was caused by Gilchrist's spiked jumping shoes as he grabbed them in his haste, and the clay blobs fell from his shoes. Bannister had collapsed in the chair to hide Gilchrist's gloves, which he saw had been left on the chair. For his part, Gilchrist credits Bannister with convincing him not to profit from his misdeed, and presents Soames with a letter stating his wish not to sit the exam, but to instead accept an offer to work for the Rhodesian Police.

One wretched November night, Inspector Stanley Hopkins visits Holmes at 221B Baker Street to discuss the violent death of Willoughby Smith, secretary to aged invalid Professor Coram. Coram had dismissed his previous two secretaries. The murder happened at Yoxley Old Place near Chatham, Kent, with a sealing-wax knife of the professor's as the weapon. Hopkins can identify no motive for the killing, with Smith having no enemies or trouble in his past. Smith was found by Coram's maid, who recounts his last words as "The professor; it was she."

The maid further told Hopkins that before the murder, she heard Smith leave his room and walk down to the study; she had been hanging curtains and did not see him, only recognizing his brisk step. The professor was in bed at the time. A minute later, a hoarse scream issued from the study, and the maid, hesitating briefly, inspected and found the murder. She later tells Holmes that Smith went out for a walk not long before the murder.

The murderer's only likely means of entry was through the back door after walking along the path from the road, and Hopkins found some indistinct footmarks running beside the path, the murderer obviously seeking to leave no trail. Hopkins could not tell whether the track was coming or going, made by big or small feet.

The professor's study contained a bureau; nothing seemed to have been stolen. Its drawers were left open, as was normal, and the cupboard in the middle was locked. The professor kept the key.

A lone piece of evidence was found in Willoughby Smith's hand: a pair of golden pince-nez glasses. Holmes examines these and from them alone deduces the following details of the murderer: It is a woman; She is of some good breeding; She dresses like a lady; She is a person of refinement and is well dressed She has a thick nose; Her eyes are close together; She has a puckered forehead, a peering look, and likely rounded shoulders; She has been to an optician at least twice over the last few months.

Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Hopkins head to Yoxley the next morning, and Holmes carefully examines the site. In the study, he notices a recent scratch on the bureau and reasons the murderer intended to access its contents. Smith was killed as his presence interfered with the burglary. No one saw the murderer leave, nor did anyone hear a door opening. Holmes notes that both the corridors, the one leading from the back door and the one leading to the professor's bedroom, are about the same length and lined with coconut matting.

Holmes interviews the professor in his bedroom, smoking many Egyptian cigarettes and dropping the ashes all over the floor. The professor claims utter ignorance regarding the murder and ventures that Smith's death may be suicide. Holmes asks about the locked cupboard in the bureau. The professor hands over the key. Holmes inspects the key and returns it immediately, leaving the bureau sealed.

Watson asks Holmes if he has a clue, and Holmes tells him the cigarette ashes might reveal the truth. Holmes meets the housekeeper in the garden and has a seemingly unimportant chat about the professor's eating habits; apparently, he has eaten heavily today. Come the afternoon, the three men return to the professor in his room, and Holmes deliberately knocks the cigarettes over as an excuse to get a closer look at the floor. Holmes' suspicion is confirmed – there are footprints in the ash. At that moment, the murderer, appearing exactly as Holmes deduced, emerges from a hiding place in a bookcase.

The business unfolded thus: The woman came in secret to the professor's house to obtain some documents, using a duplicate key she gained from one of the former secretaries. She was surprised by Smith, whom she attacked with the nearest object to hand, the sealing-wax knife; she had not intended to kill him. She lost her glasses in the scramble to escape; unable to see clearly, she turned along the wrong corridor and wound up in the professor's room. Although surprised, he hid her. The murderer is, in fact, the professor's estranged wife, Anna, and they are both Russian. Years prior, the pair had been involved with Nihilists; she and a non-violent nihilist friend were both betrayed by the professor for gain. Having finished her jail sentence in Siberia, Anna came in search of evidence that would exonerate her friend.

Anna had met Smith while he was taking his walk, explaining Smith's last words. The professor's increased appetite is, of course, explained by his having to feed a second, hidden person. Shortly after the final revelations, Anna dies from poison she took while in hiding. Her last wish is to ask Holmes to deliver the documents to the Russian Embassy, which he duly fulfills.

Mr. Cyril Overton of Trinity College, Cambridge, comes to Sherlock Holmes seeking his help in Godfrey Staunton's disappearance. Staunton is the key man on Overton's rugby union team (who plays at the three-quarters position, hence the story's title) and they will not win an important match the following day against Oxford if Staunton cannot be found. Holmes has to admit that sport is outside his field, but he shows the same care he has shown to his other cases.

Staunton had seemed a bit pale and bothered earlier in the day, but late in the evening, according to a hotel porter, a rough-looking, bearded man came to the hotel with a note for Staunton which, judging from his reaction, contained rather devastating news. He then left the hotel with the bearded stranger and the two of them were seen running in the direction of the Strand at about half past ten. No one has seen them since.

Overton has wired to Cambridge to find out if Staunton has been seen there; he has not. He has also wired Lord Mount-James, Staunton's very wealthy uncle and nearest living relative, but has heard no answer. Staunton is the almost-eighty-year-old Lord Mount-James's heir, but he must meanwhile live in relative poverty owing to his uncle's miserly behaviour. Meanwhile, Holmes questions the porter. The bearded man who brought the note was neither a gentleman nor a workman, and he seemed to be bothered by something too, for his hand was trembling as he handed Staunton the note. The only word that the porter overheard of their short conversation was "time".

At six o'clock, the porter had brought Staunton a telegram, and he saw Staunton write a reply. Staunton told the porter that he would send it himself. Holmes looks at the telegraph forms in Staunton's room, and then at the blotter, finally finding a clue. The impression on the blotter yields a part of the message that Staunton sent: "Stand by us for God's sake". Obviously at least one other person is involved ("us"), and there is some kind of danger. Other papers left in the room yield clues.

Lord Mount-James also briefly visits, but can give Holmes no useful information as to his nephew's whereabouts. The old miser seems utterly aghast at the possibility that it might be a kidnapping whose object would be to extort his wealth. Holmes and Watson then go to the telegraph office where Holmes uses a ruse to get the woman there to show him the counterfoil of the message that Staunton sent. It was addressed to Dr. Leslie Armstrong, a medical academic at Cambridge. They go to see him.

Armstrong tells Holmes that Staunton is an intimate friend of his. He does not react when told that Staunton has disappeared, and claims not to know where he is, and not to have seen him recently. He also says that Staunton is very healthy, but Holmes then produces one of Staunton's papers, a thirteen-guinea bill from Armstrong. Furious, Armstrong refuses to answer any more questions, denies that he had the telegram from Staunton, and has his butler show Holmes and Watson out. They lodge at an inn just across the street from Armstrong's office, where they can watch him.

Holmes conducts some inquiries. A man in the yard before the inn tells Holmes that Armstrong, although not in actual medical practice, regularly rides in his brougham out into the country somewhere. The round trip seems to take about three hours. Holmes tries following the brougham on one of its outings, hiring a bicycle for the purpose. He is thwarted by Dr. Armstrong, who makes it quite clear that he is aware that Holmes is following him. He gives Holmes the slip. The next day, Holmes's inquiries in all the local villages come to naught; no one has seen the doctor's brougham passing through their village.

The mystery is at last unlocked by Pompey, a beagle-foxhound cross by appearance, who tracks the doctor's brougham to a cottage in the countryside after Holmes had coated the wheels in aniseed oil. What Holmes finds is not pleasant. Staunton is there, but is grieving over his young wife, who has just died of consumption. Her existence was kept secret, because Lord Mount-James would not have approved of the marriage and would have disowned his nephew. Armstrong had told the woman's father about her condition, and he, the bearded stranger, had unwisely told Staunton, who felt compelled to rush off forthwith.

Sherlock Holmes wakes up Dr. Watson early one winter morning to rush to a murder scene at the Abbey Grange near Chislehurst, Kent. Sir Eustace Brackenstall has been killed, apparently by burglars. Inspector Stanley Hopkins believes that it was the infamous Randall gang who have committed several other burglaries in the neighborhood.

At Abbey Grange, Lady Brackenstall tells Holmes that her marriage was not happy; Sir Eustace was a violent, abusive drunkard. She then tells that about 11 o'clock, in the dining room, she encountered an elderly man coming in the French window, followed by two younger men. The older man struck her in the face, knocking her out. When she came to, she was gagged and tied to an oaken chair with the bellrope, which they had torn down. Sir Eustace came into the room and rushed at the intruders, one of whom struck and killed him with a poker. Lady Brackenstall fainted again for a minute or two. She saw the intruders drinking wine from a bottle taken from the sideboard. Then they left, taking some silver plate.

Sir Eustace's corpse is still lying at the murder scene. Hopkins tells Holmes some unsavoury things about Sir Eustace: that he poured petroleum over his wife's dog and set it alight, and once threw a decanter at her maid Theresa. Theresa corroborates Lady Brackenstall's account of Sir Eustace being an abusive alcoholic.

Examining the bellrope, Holmes notes that if it was tugged hard enough to tear it down, the bell would have rung in the kitchen, and asks why nobody heard it. Hopkins answers that it was late, and the kitchen is at the back of the house, where none of the servants would have heard. This suggests that the burglars must have known this, indicating a link between them and one of the servants. Oddly, the thieves stole only a few items of silver plate from the dining room. The half-empty wine bottle and glasses interest Holmes - the cork had been drawn with the corkscrew of a "multiplex knife", not the long corkscrew in the drawer, and one of the glasses has beeswing dregs in it, but the others have none.

Annoyed at being called to investigate a case that apparently has a ready-made solution, Holmes decides to catch the train back to London. However, after having mulled things over during the journey, Holmes thinks that Lady Brackenstall's story has too many holes in it and that probably she and Theresa have lied deliberately, staging a false crime scene. Upon returning to the Abbey Grange, Holmes, after examining again the supposed crime scene, reaches this conclusion: the killer cut the bellrope with a knife, and frayed the loose end to make it look broken. Holmes confronts Lady Brackenstall and Theresa, telling them he knows they are lying and demanding the truth, but they stand by their story. On the way out, Holmes notices a hole in the ice on the pond, and writes a note for Hopkins.

Holmes searches for the killer: almost certainly a sailor (indicated by the knots and the active physique) who was previously acquainted with Lady Brackenstall, and whom she and Theresa would protect. Lady Brackenstall traveled by the ocean liner ''Rock of Gibraltar'' of the Adelaide-Southampton Line, which is now halfway to Australia. However, the ship's first officer, Jack Crocker, who has been promoted to captain, has remained in England and in two days will take command of the company's new ship, ''Bass Rock''. Holmes takes a cab to Scotland Yard but does not go in. He tells Watson he is reluctant to name the criminal to the police until he knows more.

That evening, Hopkins calls at 221B Baker Street, with two items of news:

• As suggested in Holmes' note, the stolen silver was found at the bottom of the pond. Holmes suggests that the theft was a blind—a deliberate false clue. However, Hopkins rationalises that the pond was chosen as a temporary hiding place.
• The Randall gang was arrested in New York that morning, so they couldn't have committed a murder in Kent the previous night.

Later that evening, Captain Crocker comes to Baker Street, summoned by a telegram from Holmes. Holmes demands a full account of what happened at the Abbey Grange, warning Crocker that Holmes will summon the police if he lies or conceals anything.

Crocker met a woman named Mary (Lady Brackenstall) on the voyage from Australia. He fell in love with her, but not she with him. Then he happened to meet Theresa, who told him of Sir Eustace's abusive behaviour. He met secretly with Mary at the house; the last time on the previous night. They were in the dining room when Sir Eustace burst in, insulted Mary, and struck her with a cudgel. He then attacked Crocker, who killed him with the poker in self-defence. Crocker adds that he has no regret whatever. To avoid the scandal that could ensue, Crocker and Theresa concocted the cover story of burglars caught in the act. He cut down the bellrope exactly as Holmes deduced; he opened the wine bottle with his pocket knife's corkscrew; he took some silver plate and dropped it in the pond.

Holmes tells Crocker that the police don't yet know the truth, and that he will wait 24 hours before revealing it, allowing Crocker to get away. Crocker indignantly refuses the offer, insisting that he will only agree to any version of the case that will leave Mary out of it. But Holmes was only testing Crocker, and is impressed by his loyalty to Mary. He has given Hopkins "an excellent hint" and doesn't feel he must do more. He designates Watson as the "jury", and asks him to "render a verdict." Watson declares Crocker "not guilty." Holmes tells Crocker he will keep silent unless someone else is charged, and that he may come back to Mary in a year.

Like most of the Kroffts's productions, the show's opening sequence provides the setup of its fanciful premise: While loading food into various compartments to prepare a rocket for an upcoming mission, Barney instructs Junior to hit the "lunch" button, but Junior mistakenly hits the "launch" button. The rocket blasts off and takes them on various misadventures on alien planets.

Typically, in each episode, their spaceship (a NASA lunar module) would be captured by aliens (one being played by John Carradine, who so impressed Denver with his acting skills during a scene that he was left speechless and missed his cue, requiring another take) and taken to some strange planet, or the spaceship would merely land somewhere. Then, either Barney and Junior, or the ship, would be taken away by the strange creatures on the planet. After some weird mission was carried out, the two astronauts would be reunited with the spaceship and be off on their next mission.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find themselves at Poldhu in Cornwall one spring for the former's health, but the holiday ends with a bizarre event. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, a local gentleman, and Mr. Roundhay, the local vicar, come to Holmes to report that Tregennis's two brothers have gone insane, and his sister has died. Tregennis had gone to visit them in their village ('Tredannick Wollas'), played whist with them, and then left. When he came back in the morning, he found them still sitting in their places at the table, the brothers, George and Owen, laughing and singing, and the sister, Brenda, dead. The housekeeper had discovered them in this state, and fainted. The vicar has not been to see them yet. Tregennis says that he remembers one brother looking through the window, and then he himself turned to see some "movement" outside. He declares that the horrific event is the work of the devil. Mortimer Tregennis was once estranged from his siblings by the matter of dividing the proceeds from the sale of the family business, but he insists that all was forgiven, although he still lives apart from them. The doctor who was summoned, reckoned that she had been dead for six hours. He also collapsed into a chair for a while after arriving.

Holmes goes to the house in question and, apparently carelessly, kicks over a watering pot, soaking everyone's feet. The housekeeper tells Holmes that she heard nothing in the night, and that the family had been particularly happy and prosperous lately. Holmes observes the remains of a fire in the fireplace. Tregennis explains that it was a cold, damp night.

Afterwards, Holmes lays the case out to Watson thus: Quite obviously, there is no point in attributing the tragedy to the Devil; therefore, what took place can only be the work of a human. Whatever happened to those people happened right after Tregennis left, for they had not moved and everything was in the same place; Mortimer Tregennis went swiftly back to the vicarage where he lives (a footprint sample was obtained in the watering pot "accident"); The only suggestion of an explanation—the "movement"—comes from Mortimer Tregennis; Given the weather, anyone appearing at the window and doing something horrifying enough to instantly kill someone would have had to come right up to the window thus trampling the flowerbed, which is still intact; What on earth could this person at the window have done to cause such horror?

None of this seems to make for an elementary case, but soon, new questions are raised.

Dr. Leon Sterndale, the famous hunter and explorer, aborts his sailing from Plymouth after the vicar wires him (as the Tregennises and Sterndale are cousins) with the tragic news. He asks Holmes what his suspicions are, and is displeased when Holmes will not voice them. After Sterndale leaves, Holmes follows him discreetly.

The morning after Holmes comes back to his room, apparently none the wiser for following Sterndale, the vicar arrives in a panic with the news that Mortimer Tregennis has now died in the same way as his sister. The two men, along with Watson, rush to Mortimer's room, and find it foul and stuffy, even though the window has been opened. A lamp is burning on the table beside the dead man. Holmes rushes about, examining many things. The upstairs window seems especially interesting. He also scrapes some ashes out of the lamp, and puts them in an envelope.

Holmes deduces how the victims died or went mad and why people present when the death rooms were first opened fainted or felt unwell in each case. He tests his hypothesis by buying a lamp like the one in Tregennis's room, lighting it, and putting some of the collected "ashes" on the smoke guard. The smoke from this powder is so potent a poison that Holmes is immediately struck down. Watson is able to resist and drags Holmes out of the room just in time.

It is clear to Holmes that Mortimer Tregennis poisoned his siblings, but who killed Mortimer?

It is Dr. Sterndale, who left physical evidence at the vicarage clearly implicating himself. Holmes confronts Sterndale, who explains that he loved Brenda for years (but had been unable to marry her because of the current marriage laws which prevented him from divorcing his wife even though she abandoned him years ago) and killed Mortimer in revenge for the cruel murder.

The poison is called ''Radix pedis diaboli'' ("Devil’s-foot root" in Latin), which Sterndale collected from Africa as a curiosity. The toxic contents of the plant root are vaporized by heat and diffuse into the local atmosphere. He once explained to Mortimer what it was and what it was capable of, and Mortimer later stole some to murder his siblings by throwing it on the fire just before he left. Mortimer thought Sterndale would be at sea before news reached Plymouth, but Sterndale recognized the poison's effects from the vicar's description of the tragedy and deduced right away what had happened.

Holmes's sympathies in this matter lie with Sterndale, and he tells him to go back to his work in Africa.

Sir James Damery comes to see Holmes and Watson about his illustrious client's problem (the client's identity is never revealed to the reader, although Watson finds out at the end of the story; it is heavily implied to be King Edward VII). General de Merville's young daughter Violet has fallen in love with the roguish and sadistic Austrian Baron Adelbert Gruner, who Damery and Holmes are convinced is a shameless philanderer and a murderer. The victim was his last wife, of whose murder he was acquitted owing to a legal technicality and a witness's untimely death. She met her end in the Splügen Pass. Holmes also finds out that the Baron has expensive tastes and is a collector and a recognised authority on Chinese pottery.

Holmes's first step is to see Gruner, who is amused to see Holmes trying to "play a hand with no cards in it". The Baron will not be moved and claims that his charm is more potent than even a post-hypnotic suggestion in conditioning Violet's mind to reject anything bad that might be said about him. Gruner tells the story of Le Brun, a French agent who was crippled for life after being beaten by thugs after making similar inquiries into the Baron's personal business.

Holmes gets some help with his mission in the form of Shinwell Johnson, a former criminal who now acts as an informer for Holmes in London's underworld. Johnson rakes up Miss Kitty Winter, the Baron's last mistress, who was ruined because of it. She is bent on revenge and will do anything to help Holmes. Kitty tells Holmes that the Baron "collects women" and chronicles his conquests in a book. Holmes realises that this book, written in Gruner's own hand, is the key to curing Violet of her devotion to the scoundrel. Kitty tells Holmes that this book is kept in the Baron's study.

First, Holmes goes to see Violet, bringing Kitty with him, but Violet is proof against Holmes's words. Kitty then makes it clear that Violet might end up dead if she is foolish enough to marry Gruner. The meeting ends with Holmes narrowly averting a public scene involving the enraged Kitty.

Next, Holmes is attacked by two men, and the newspapers imply that he is near death. Watson goes to 221B Baker Street only to discover that Holmes's injuries have been exaggerated to give the impression that he will be out of action for quite a while. Several days later, Holmes is sufficiently recovered to be out of bed. The Baron is planning a trip to the United States just before the wedding and will be leaving in three days. Holmes knows that Gruner will take his incriminating book with him, never daring to leave it behind in his study.

Holmes orders Watson to learn everything that he can about Chinese pottery in the next 24 hours. The next day, Holmes presents Watson with a fake business card styling him as "Dr. Hill Barton" and an actual piece of Ming pottery, a saucer. He is to go to Baron Gruner's house, pose as a connoisseur of Chinese pottery, and try to sell the saucer. Watson does as Holmes tells him but cannot fool the Baron for very long. Gruner realises who has sent him.

As Watson faces his murderous captor, a noise from another room alerts the Baron and he rushes into his study just in time to see Holmes jump out of the window. The Baron rushes to the window, but Kitty Winter, who has been hiding outside, throws oil of vitriol in his face. Watson applies treatment to his injuries. During Holmes' visit he manages to steal the book.

The Baron is now hideously disfigured, but Holmes says this will not put Violet off him. They still need the book to cure her. When Violet sees the book of conquests, written in her fiancé's handwriting, she realises what a rogue he is. An announcement in ''The Morning Post'' says that the marriage between Baron Adelbert Gruner and Miss Violet de Merville is off. It also says vitriol-throwing charges are being pressed against Kitty Winter. Extenuating circumstances reduce her sentence to the lowest possible for such an offence.

January 1903, at Baker Street, James M. Dodd sees Holmes about a missing friend, Godfrey Emsworth. Dodd and Emsworth served in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the recent Second Boer War. Emsworth was wounded. Dodd has not seen him since the report of his injury, leading Dodd to believe something is amiss.

Dodd wrote to Colonel Emsworth, Godfrey's father, and was told Godfrey went off to sea, but Dodd was not satisfied with this answer. Next, Dodd went to the Emsworth family home, Tuxbury Old Park, near Bedford. There were four people there—the Colonel and his wife, and an old butler and his wife. The Colonel was less than gracious. He repeated the story about his son's world voyage, implied Dodd was lying about knowing Godfrey, and seemed irritated at Dodd's suggestion he provide information so he could send a letter to Godfrey.

Dodd determined to ascertain Godfrey's fate. That evening, in the ground-floor bedroom, Dodd talked to the butler, Ralph. After Ralph mentioned Godfrey in the past tense, Dodd suspected his friend was dead. Ralph indicated no, but dead might be better.

The mystery was complicated after Dodd observed Godfrey's face in his window, proving he was on the grounds and not at sea as the colonel claimed. Dodd chased him, but quit after hearing a closing door nearby.

Dodd contrived to stay another day at Tuxbury Old Park, and went looking about the property. He saw a well-dressed man leaving an outbuilding, whose suspicion was aroused because Dodd was aware he was watching him. Dodd was convinced Godfrey must be in this outbuilding.

Dodd went back to the outbuilding at night, and observed the well-dressed man and another, who he assumed was Godfrey, through the window. Before he could investigate, Colonel Emsworth appeared. Upset about Dodd violating the family's privacy, he insisted Dodd leave immediately.

Dodd went straight to Holmes to relate the story. Holmes needs only to ask about the publication the man with Godfrey was reading, and although Dodd cannot be certain, Holmes seems satisfied with the answer.

Upon his arrival at Tuxbury Old Park, Holmes observes a tarry smell coming from the leather gloves Ralph removed. The Colonel threatens to summon the police if Dodd and Holmes do not leave, but Holmes points out that would cause the catastrophe the Colonel wants to avoid.

Convincing the colonel he knows the secret, Holmes receives permission to visit the outbuilding; he and Dodd hear Godfrey's story right from his lips. The night he was wounded in South Africa, he went to a house and slept in a bed. After he woke, he realized he was surrounded by lepers. A doctor there told him he was in a leper hospital, and would likely contract the disease after sleeping in a leper's bed. The doctor helped heal his wounds; after Godfrey returned to England, the dreaded symptoms appeared. His family's fear of their son getting institutionalized and the stigma attached to leprosy forced them to conceal his presence.

The story ends happily. Holmes brings Sir James Saunders, a famous dermatologist from London. Dr. Saunders determines Emsworth has ichthyosis, or pseudo-leprosy, a treatable disease.

The story begins with a visit to 221B Baker Street from Steve Dixie, a black man and a cowardly ruffian who warns Sherlock Holmes to keep away from Harrow. Although Dixie has come to intimidate Holmes, Holmes secures Dixie's future cooperation by threatening to tell what he knows about the suspicious Perkins death involving Dixie. Dixie's boss is Barney Stockdale, and he must be connected with the Harrow Weald case, of which Holmes has just learnt from a message from Mary Maberley, a lady who lives at Three Gables, a house at Harrow Weald.

Mrs. Maberley is an elderly woman whose son has recently died in Rome. He was an attaché there. Some peculiar things have happened at Three Gables. Mrs. Maberley has lived there nearly two years and in all that time has attracted very little attention from her neighbours. Suddenly, however, a man came to her recently and offered to buy her house and all the furniture in it. She was not really willing to do it, especially after her lawyer, Mr. Sutro, told her that the legal agreement drawn up by this prospective buyer would forbid her to remove any possessions from the house when she moved out.

As she is telling Holmes this story, he becomes aware that someone is eavesdropping on the conversation. He opens a door and drags in Susan, a wheezing maid. Holmes manages to establish that Susan communicated to Barney Stockdale the fact that her mistress was hiring Sherlock Holmes, and that precipitated Steve Dixie's visit. Holmes also finds out that a rich woman hired Barney Stockdale and his thugs to do her dirty work. Susan is also a member of the gang but will not give up all their secrets. She leaves in a huff.

Obviously, this woman wants something that has come into the house quite recently. Holmes, seeing some trunks with Italian placenames on them, realizes that her late son Douglas's belongings must hold the key. He instructs Mrs. Maberley to try to get Mr. Sutro to spend a couple of nights at Three Gables, to keep the house guarded.

Holmes finds Dixie outside, keeping the house under surveillance. Dixie is now inclined to help Holmes if he can, to avoid any indiscreet talk about the Perkins lad who met his end so tragically. He swears, however, that he does not know who has hired Barney Stockdale.

Holmes and Watson go back to Three Gables to investigate a burglary that has happened there. The burglars chloroformed Mrs. Maberley and stole a manuscript from her son's belongings. She retained part of one sheet of paper from it when, coming round, she lunged after one of the thieves.

The police inspector at the scene treats the matter as an ordinary burglary, but Holmes knows better. He examines the bit of manuscript retained by Mrs. Maberley, and it appears to be the end of a lurid novel. Holmes is struck by the peculiar wording; the story abruptly changes from third-person narration to first-person narration. It is in Douglas's handwriting; so it would seem that he was putting himself in a story that he was writing.

Holmes and Watson go to see Isadora Klein, a wealthy woman who is used to getting what she wants. The happenings at Three Gables, and the information Holmes obtained from Langdale Pike, "his human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal", have all added up to something. It turns out that Douglas Maberley was involved with Isadora Klein at one time. She broke the relationship off, and he almost wrought his revenge by writing a thinly veiled account of their affair, to be published as a novel. Everyone in London would know who the characters truly were, were the novel ever published. Isadora established that no copy had ever been sent to Douglas's publisher but realized that he must have a copy. She hired Barney Stockdale and his confederates to secure the manuscript. She tried legal means at first, and when that did not work, she resorted to crime. She has burnt the manuscript.

Holmes forces Isadora Klein to write a cheque for £5000 to furnish Mrs. Maberley with a first-class trip round the world in return for his silence about Isadora's nefarious dealings.

Holmes receives an odd letter that makes reference to vampires. Mr. Robert Ferguson, who comes to 221B Baker Street the next morning, has become convinced that his Peruvian second wife has been sucking their baby son's blood. By his first wife, he has a 15-year-old son named Jack, who suffered an unfortunate accident as a child and now, although he can still walk, does not have full use of his legs. Since the start of the bloodsucking, Jack has unaccountably been struck twice by his stepmother, although Mr. Ferguson cannot imagine why. Ever since being found out by her husband, she has locked herself in her room and refused to come out. Only her Peruvian maid, Dolores, is allowed in. She takes Mrs. Ferguson her meals.

Even before Holmes and Watson set off for Mr. Ferguson's house in Sussex, Holmes has worked out what is going on, and it has nothing to do with vampires. Holmes's trip is made simply to observe and confirm what he has already deduced.

Upon their arrival in Sussex, Mrs. Ferguson's maid announces that her mistress is ill, and Dr. Watson offers to help. He finds an agitated woman in the room upstairs – she speaks of all being destroyed, and of sacrificing herself rather than breaking her husband's heart. She also demands her child, who has been with the nurse, Mrs. Mason, ever since Mr. Ferguson found out about the bloodsucking incidents. Holmes examines the South American weapons displayed in the house and meets the children. While Mr. Ferguson is doting on his younger son, Watson notices that Holmes is gazing at the window. He cannot imagine why his friend is doing this.

Holmes then reveals the truth about what has been happening, much to the relief of Mrs. Ferguson as this is exactly what she has been hoping for: for the truth to come from someone else's lips. It turns out that the culprit is Jack, Mr. Ferguson's elder son, who is extremely jealous of his young half-brother. Holmes has confirmed this by looking at Jack's reflection in the window while his father's attention was on the baby. Jack has been attempting to murder his half-brother by shooting poisoned darts at him, and his stepmother's behaviour of sucking the baby's neck is thereby explained: she was sucking the poison out. It also explains why she struck Jack, and why she was sick when Holmes and Watson arrived. The wounds, therefore, were caused by the darts, not by her biting.

Holmes receives a letter from a Nathan Garrideb of 136 Little Ryder Street, asking for help in a most peculiar quest. He is looking for another man with his unusual surname, for it will mean a $5 million inheritance for him. He has been approached by another man, John Garrideb of Kansas, who says that he needs to find others with the same last name.

The American Garrideb comes to see Holmes and Watson at 221B Baker Street, and is apparently not very pleased that Nathan Garrideb has involved a detective. Garrideb, who claims to be a lawyer, spins a ridiculous story about Alexander Hamilton Garrideb, a millionaire land tycoon he met in Kansas. Hamilton Garrideb bequeathed his $15 million estate to John Garrideb on the provision that he find two more Garridebs to share it with equally. He came to England to seek out people with the name, having failed in his own country. So far, he has found only Nathan.

During the interview, Holmes detects many discrepancies in John Garrideb's story, ranging from the time he has spent in London being obviously longer than he claims and his knowledge of a completely fictitious mayor of the town where Garrideb claims to have lived in before coming to England, but decides not to confront him. This piques Holmes' interest, and he decides to contact Nathan Garrideb to investigate further. Upon arrival at Little Ryder Street, Holmes observes Nathan Garrideb's nameplate outside the house. It has obviously been there for years; so Holmes concludes that Garrideb is at least ''his'' true surname.

It turns out that Nathan Garrideb is an elderly eccentric who collects everything from ancient coins to old bones. Garrideb's rooms look like a small museum. He is obviously a serious collector, but has nothing of great value in his collection. Holmes finds out that John Garrideb has never asked for any money, nor has he suggested any course of action. Nathan Garrideb has no reason, it seems, to be suspicious of John Garrideb. This puzzles Holmes.

During Holmes's and Watson's visit, John Garrideb arrives in a most jolly mood. He has apparently found a third Garrideb, as proof of which he shows a newspaper advertisement purportedly placed by a Howard Garrideb in the course of his everyday business. Holmes sees instantly that John Garrideb has placed the advertisement himself from various Americanisms in the spelling and wording.

Despite Nathan Garrideb's objections—for he is a man who very seldom goes out, much less travels—John Garrideb insists that Nathan go to Birmingham and meet this Howard Garrideb. It has now become clear to Holmes what the "rigmarole of lies" is all about. John Garrideb wants Nathan Garrideb to be out of his rooms for a while.

The next day brings fresh information. Holmes goes to see Inspector Lestrade at Scotland Yard and identifies John Garrideb as James Winter ''alias'' Morecroft ''alias'' "Killer" Evans, who escaped prison after shooting three men in the States. In London, he killed Rodger Prescott, a Chicago forger whose description matches the former occupant of Nathan Garrideb's room.

Holmes and Watson go to Garrideb's home armed with revolvers. They do not have to wait long before Winter shows up. From their hiding place, Holmes and Watson see the criminal use a "jemmy" to open a trapdoor revealing a little cellar. They capture Winter, but not before he manages to shoot twice, striking Watson in the leg. For once, Holmes shows his human side; he is distraught over Watson's injury, and strikes Winter on the head with the butt of a gun hard enough to draw blood, vowing that the villain would have never left the rooms alive if he had killed Watson. Fortunately, Watson's wound is superficial. The little cellar contains a printing press and stacks of counterfeit banknotes, hidden there by Prescott, the man that Winter killed.

Winter is sent back to prison. Nathan Garrideb ends up in a nursing home, so great is his disappointment, but many CID men are pleased that Prescott's equipment has at last been found. Watson seems the happiest at the adventure's outcome despite being hurt, declaring, "It was worth a wound, it was worth many wounds, to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask", from the sight of Holmes's panic and rage over his friend's shooting.

Head trainer John Mason from Shoscombe Old Place, a racing stable in Berkshire, comes to Sherlock Holmes about his master, Sir Robert Norberton. Mason thinks he has gone mad. Sir Robert's sister, Lady Beatrice Falder, owns Shoscombe, but it will revert to her late husband's brother when she dies. The stable has a horse, Shoscombe Prince, who Sir Robert hopes will win the Derby. He would be out of debt if that actually happened.

Mason is not quite sure what he wants Holmes to investigate, but a number of odd changes have happened at the stable:

Why has Lady Beatrice suddenly forgone her usual habit of stopping to greet her favourite horse? Why does she just ride on by in her carriage? Why has Sir Robert become so wild-eyed lately? Why has he given his sister's dog away to a neighbourhood innkeeper? Why does he go to the old crypt at night, and who is that man whom he meets there? *Why have burnt human bones been found in the furnace at Shoscombe?

Holmes decides to investigate on the spot. He and Dr. Watson go to Berkshire posing as anglers and learn some interesting things. The keeper of the inn where they are staying is the one who now has Lady Beatrice's dog, and it is quite an expensive breed, one that an innkeeper ordinarily could never afford.

With the innkeeper's permission, Holmes takes the dog for a walk, and goes to Shoscombe, where he releases it as Lady Beatrice's carriage comes out of the gate. The dog dashes forward enthusiastically at first, but then flees in terror. Then, even though a maid and Lady Beatrice are supposedly the only two people in the carriage, it is a male voice that yells "Drive on!"

Then there is the crypt. John Mason observes that a heap of bones there earlier is now gone. Holmes finds a coffin with a fresh, swathed body in it. Just then, Sir Robert arrives, catching Holmes and Watson in the act. After Holmes makes it plain that he has deduced most of the odd goings-on, Sir Robert invites him and Watson back to the house and explains everything.

About a week earlier, Lady Beatrice died of dropsy, and Sir Robert felt compelled to keep the fact secret so that the creditors would not swoop down on Shoscombe before he had a chance to win the Derby and pay off all his debts. He and the maid's husband hid the body in the crypt, but also found that they had to dispose of an older body—in the furnace. This same man also dressed up in Lady Beatrice's clothes and took her place in the carriage each day. The dog knew what had happened and might have given the game away if its noise had aroused suspicion.

Holmes refers the matter to the police, but the story ends happily. Shoscombe Prince wins the Derby, Sir Robert escapes any major judicial penalty for what he did to his sister's body, and he pays off all his debts with a great deal left over.

Sherlock Holmes is hired by a retired art supply dealer from Lewisham, Josiah Amberley, to look into his wife's disappearance. She has left with a neighbour, Dr. Ray Ernest, taking a sizeable quantity of cash and securities. Amberley wants the two tracked down.

Holmes is too busy with another case at the moment, so he sends Dr. Watson to Lewisham to observe what he can, although Watson is keenly aware that this is more Holmes's province. He does his best, observing that Amberley is busy painting his house, which seems a bit odd. He even sees Amberley's wife's unused theatre ticket; she and her young man disappeared while Amberley went to the theatre alone after his wife complained of a headache. Watson notes the seat number.

Watson also sees Amberley's strongroom from which his wife had taken the valuables. She, apparently, had a key of her own. He meets a lounger with a rather military appearance in the street, and later observes him running to catch the train at Blackheath Station as he is returning to 221B Baker Street. Holmes recognises the description; it is his rival in detection, Barker. It later turns out that Ray Ernest's family has hired him to find the missing doctor.

A number of other things about Amberley are obvious. He is a miser, and as such is quite a jealous man. He is an avid chess player (indeed, so is Ernest, which is how they became acquainted), suggesting to Holmes that he also has a scheming mind.

Holmes suspects something, and so sends Watson and Amberley on a fool's errand to the remote village of Little Purlington, near Frinton in Essex, just to keep Amberley out of the way while Holmes breaks into his house to investigate it. He is "caught" by Barker, but they decide to work together.

They reach a conclusion, and later Holmes confronts Amberley with the dramatic question "What did you do with the bodies?" Holmes manhandles Amberley just in time to stop him taking a poison pill. Amberley is obviously guilty.

Holmes explains how he reached his conclusion. Amberley's alibi fell apart when Holmes discovered that his seat at the Haymarket Theatre had not been occupied on the night in question, its number deduced from the ticket that Watson had seen. Also, the painting was a clue. Holmes realised that it was being done to mask a smell, and he soon discovered what that was: gas. He found a gas pipe leading into the strongroom with a tap outside. Amberley had lured his wife and her lover—for so he had believed Dr. Ernest to be—into the strongroom, locked them in, and turned the gas on, killing them out of jealousy. He had simply hidden the "stolen" valuables somewhere. In indelible pencil, one of the victims wrote "We we…", perhaps meaning to write "We were murdered."

The bodies are found in a disused well in the garden, hidden under a dog kennel, just where Holmes suggested that the police look.

Amberley apparently hired Holmes out of "pure swank", believing that no-one would ever find him out.

Holmes believes that Amberley will likely end up at Broadmoor rather than on the scaffold, owing to his mental state.

The Elias sisters, Moll and Lora, attempt to stop their vengeful sister, Belvera, from stealing the Elias triangle, three power units that can transform the sisters' daggers into powerful swords. Belvera succeeds, but is thwarted by her sisters' pet, Fairy Mothra, and fails to retrieve the proper unit for her dagger while Moll and Lora end up with one for the former.

The next day, preteen Shota ditches school to investigate a meteor that recently landed just as children from across the city mysteriously vanish. Moll and Lora examine the meteor's remains and deduces that the evil King Ghidorah, a three-headed space dragon who visited Earth in its past and destroyed the dinosaurs, has returned, captured the children, and placed them inside an organic dome. Mothra Leo, summoned by Moll and Lora, arrives to battle Ghidorah, but gets overpowered and retreats. Moll and Lora encounter Ghidorah, who hypnotizes the latter and forces her to attack Moll, attempting to drag both into the dome, but Fairy saves Moll. Intrigued by Ghidorah's arrival, Belvera investigates, but gets dragged into the dome.

As the space dragon wreaks havoc, Moll meets Shota, who learned his siblings Shuehei and Tamako were captured as well and tells him about Ghidorah's plan to feed on the children's life force. She convinces him to accompany her to see Leo. Communicating telepathically, Moll and Leo devise a plan, wherein Leo transforms into Light Speed Mothra and travels back in time to confront a younger Ghidorah with Moll's help.

Meanwhile, Moll gives Shota her sword and asks him to go inside the dome to find Lora and convince her to help Leo. After Shota reluctantly agrees, Moll, depleted of her powers after sending Leo to the past, falls into a state of suspended animation. Inside the dome, a worried Belvera encounters Lora and tells her that Ghidorah plans to destroy Earth. Still under Ghidorah's spell, Lora takes Belvera's unit, transforms her dagger, and engages her sister in combat. Belvera begs Lora to see reason and work with her, but to no avail. Shota finds Lora, but she attacks him. Belvera tries to stop her while Shota reminds Lora of who she is. Ghidorah's spell then breaks and Lora collapses, her sword combining with Moll's. Discovering the Elias triangle represents her and her sisters, Belvera uses the last unit to transform her dagger and combine her sword with Moll and Lora's in an attempt to break the dome. As the dome shakes violently, Shota realizes Leo is losing and asks the recovering Lora to help him. Lora sends her powers to Leo, and he recovers and immobilizes Ghidorah, dropping him into an erupting volcano, though not before a severed piece of Ghidorah's tail burrows itself underground. Grievously injured, Leo crashes to the ground. However, three primitive Mothra larvae wrap him in a cocoon time capsule.

In the present, Ghidorah and the dome disappear, freeing the captives. Shota reunites with his siblings and join Belvera and Lora as they stand vigil over Moll. Suddenly, a new Ghidorah, having regenerated from the severed tail, emerges and recaptures the children. Belvera and Lora then join forces in an attempt to stop Ghidorah long enough for Leo to return and reemerge as Armor Mothra and disintegrate Ghidorah in the ensuing battle. He then tells Belvera and Lora to channel their powers through their sword to revive Moll. The Elias do as they are told and succeed, resulting in a touching reunion for the sisters, though Belvera flies off shortly after. The children are released once more and reunite with their parents. Shota, Shuehei, Tamako, and their parents watch as the Elias, Fairy, and Leo, now Eternal Mothra, fly off into the sunset.

The book begins with the main character describing the city they (the character's gender is unclear) live in, "the city you can not see out of". Many of the city's residents believe it is impossible to leave the city, but the main character suggests that he and the reader should leave, "because there is something I want to talk to you about".

Leaving the city, the main character and the reader drive until their car breaks down, at which point they continue on foot until they come across a house where a strange person (who looks like what is presumably an alien on the explodingdog site) invites them in, offers them soup, and tells stories. The first story is ''the story of the king'', a narrative about a king who believes he has improved the land he rules, making his people happy (by forcing them to wear happy masks, a point that is not mentioned in the narrative but clear from the artwork). The king has also built "an amazing army" and "wonderful weapons".

Next, the alien host tells about the future. For example, in the future we will get our food over the internet. The title of the book comes from the statement that, "in the future, the rain will never mess up your hair".

In the end, with the king's rockets raining down on them, the main character and the reader flee. The main character has decided that "I love you" and "I want us to be together". Torn to shreds by the rockets, they flee into the ocean, where they are eaten by fish.

Millions of years before time, a giant three-headed space dragon called Desghidorah arrives on Earth and battles a species of enormous and highly advanced moths who serve as protectors of the "Elias", a race of tiny, humanoid beings. After the battle, Desghidorah is defeated and sealed under the Earth while three Elias, the benevolent Moll and Lora and the vengeful Belvera, and one moth, Mothra, remain. To preserve her species, Mothra lays an egg in 1996, which leaves her physically exhausted.

Shortly after, a logging company uncovers Desghidorah's subterranean prison and inadvertently break the seal containing him. One of the workers, Yuichi Goto, takes the seal home and gives it to his young daughter Wakaba as a souvenir. Taking advantage, Belvera controls her and makes her torture her brother Taiki. Moll, Lora, and a smaller Mothra named Fairy battle Belvera for control of the artifact, though Belvera prevails and releases Desghidorah to help her destroy humanity before they can destroy her race. As the dragon drains the environment's lifeforce, Mothra is summoned to fight it despite her condition. Amidst the battle, Mothra's larva, Mothra Leo, senses his mother's deteriorating strength and hatches prematurely to help her. Though his energized silk seems to turn the tide of battle, Desghidorah bites Leo and drains his energy. Desperate, Mothra airlifts her son to safety and lures her ancient adversary to a dam to keep it at bay. After lowering her son into the sea, Mothra collapses from her age, wounds, and weariness and sinks to her death. The distraught Leo attempts to save his mother, but to no avail.

Angered, the young moth creates a cocoon and begins to metamorphose while Desghidorah goes on a rampage. Having befriended Taiki and Wakaba, Moll and Lora encourage them not to lose hope. Soon, Leo emerges as a swarm of multi-colored butterflies before coalescing into his adult form and taking to the air to confront Desghidorah. Arriving in a hail of energy beams and fueled by righteous fury, Leo relentlessly blasts the three-headed monster, who is unable to defend itself. Drawing upon an ancient legacy, Leo eventually renews the seal that originally bound Desghidorah, defeating him. After restoring a blasted region the dragon destroyed during its assault, Leo travels to his ancestral home as Moll and Lora thank the children for helping them and return home to Infant Island with Fairy while Belvera escapes.

In a 1960s working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a teenage boy nicknamed "Birdy" befriends his next-door neighbor Al Columbato, and relates to him his fascination with birds and their ability to fly. The two begin pursuing Birdy's hobby of catching pigeons and caging them in a large, wooden aviary that he has built outside his parents' home. One night, they climb atop a refinery building, where Birdy hangs on the ledge to catch the pigeons roosting on it. Birdy loses his grip and falls several stories, but lands on a pile of sand. Slightly dazed, he tells Al that during the fall, he flew. After Birdy is hospitalized for minor injuries, his parents dismantle the aviary.

Birdy concedes to Al's wishes of pursuing another venture. After they purchase a 1953 Ford and restore it, Al's father registers the vehicle. Al drives Birdy to an Atlantic City boardwalk, but they are arrested the next day after Mr. Columbato reports the car stolen. After bailing the boys out of jail, Mr. Columbato sells the vehicle. Birdy later confronts him, claiming that the car was not his to sell, and refuses a sum of money offered to him on principle.

Birdy builds a new aviary in his bedroom and purchases two canaries. He names the female Perta and the male Alfonso after his friend. Upon returning to school, Birdy encounters a classmate, Doris Robinson, and Al encourages him to ask her out on a date. At the prom, Birdy dances unenthusiastically with Doris, leaving her confused and humiliated. Afterwards, Doris drives him to a secluded spot, where Birdy lightly rejects her sexual advances. Birdy returns home to his bedroom and lies down naked in the aviary. In a semi-conscious state, he expresses that he wants to die and be born again as a bird. He then imagines himself flying like a bird around his room, throughout the house and outside in the neighborhood.

Upon graduation, Al enlists and Birdy is drafted into the United States Army. During the Vietnam War, Birdy is placed in a mental hospital after being missing in action for a month. A flashback reveals that he was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash. Al is hospitalized in the same facility, his face heavily bandaged for injuries that he sustained from an exploding bomb. Major Weiss, a military doctor, informs him that, although Birdy's injuries are relatively minor, he has not spoken since he was found. Al speaks to Birdy at length, but grows increasingly frustrated by his lack of response. He is then elated when Birdy smiles at a joke he makes. Weiss dismisses the response as dissociative behavior.

Al suspects Birdy of feigning insanity to hide from the world, and expresses to him that he too wishes to hide due to his own injuries. Birdy unexpectedly responds by telling Al that he is "full of shit". Al alerts Weiss to Birdy's response, but when the doctor arrives, Birdy remains silent. Not seeing any progress, Weiss orders Al to leave, but Al pushes the doctor aside. After Weiss flees, two orderlies are sent in to subdue Al, who fights them off and takes Birdy to the roof of the hospital. Birdy rushes to the ledge, raises his arms and jumps off the side of the roof as if he were about to fly. Al runs over to the ledge and finds Birdy on another level of the roof perfectly fine.

The first book covers the years 982 to 990. While still a youth, Orm is abducted by a Viking party led by Krok and they sail south. They fall captive to Andalusian Muslims and serve as galley slaves for more than two years, later becoming members of Almansur's bodyguard for four years, raiding Santiago de Compostela under his command. They return to Denmark to King Harald Bluetooth's court where Orm meets Ylva. Orm later returns to Scania with Rapp. Orm and Rapp join a Viking party raiding England again after a brief period of peace in that area following the reconquest of the Danelaw in the mid-10th century by King Edgar, Ethelred's father. Orm joins a party led by Thorkell the High in England and when he learns that Harald's daughter Ylva is staying in London, gets baptised and marries Ylva. They move to a neglected farm, his mother's inheritance in Göinge, northern Skåne, near the border with Småland. During the following years (992 to 995), Orm prospers, and Ylva gives birth to twin girls (Oddny and Ludmilla), a son, Harald, and later to another son (though possibly from Rainald), Svarthöfde (Blackhair in the Michael Meyer translation). Meanwhile, Orm also gets busy in converting the heathens in the district, with the help of Father Willibald.

The year 1000 passes without Christ returning. In 1007, with Orm now forty-two, his brother Are returns from the east after serving the Byzantine Empire, bringing the news of a treasure ("Bulgar gold") he had hidden. Orm decides to travel to the Dnieper weirs in Kievan Rus for the gold, and together with Toke and the Finnveding chieftain Olof mans a ship. They recover the treasure and return home safely. But on their return they encounter an unexpected crisis at home - Rainald, the rather ridiculous failed German Christian missionary, had become a renegade, turned into a Pagan priest of the old Norse gods and the leader of a formidable band of robbers and outlaws, and causes great havoc before being finally overcome. Following this final crisis and from then on, Orm and Toke live in peace and plenty as good neighbours, and Svarthöfde Ormsson becomes a famous Viking, fighting for Canute the Great. The story ends with the statement that Orm and Toke in their old age "did never tire of telling of the years when they had rowed the Caliph's ship and served my lord Al-Mansur."

American single mother Ann Lake, who recently moved to London from New York, arrives at the Little People's Garden pre-school to collect her daughter, Bunny. The child has mysteriously disappeared. An administrator recalls meeting Ann but claims never to have seen the missing child. Ann and her brother Steven search the school and find a peculiar old woman living upstairs, who claims she collects children's nightmares. In desperation, the Lakes call the police and Superintendent Newhouse arrives on the scene. Everyone becomes a suspect and Superintendent Newhouse is steadfast, diligently following every lead. The police and Newhouse decide to visit the Lakes' new residence.

They conclude that all of Bunny's possessions have been removed from the Lakes' new home. Ann cannot understand why anyone would do this and reacts emotionally. Superintendent Newhouse begins to suspect that Bunny Lake does not exist, after he learns that "Bunny" was the name of Ann's imaginary childhood friend. Ann's landlord, an aging actor, attempts to seduce her. Newhouse decides to become better acquainted with Ann to learn more about Bunny. He takes her to a local pub where he plies her with brandy and soda.

On her return home, Ann discovers she still has the claim ticket for Bunny's doll, which was taken to a doll hospital for repairs. Regarding the doll as proof of Bunny's existence, she frantically rushes to the doll hospital late at night and retrieves the doll. Steven arrives later and when Ann shows him the doll, Steven burns the doll, hoping to destroy it, then knocks Ann unconscious. He takes Ann to a hospital and tells the desk nurse that Ann has been hallucinating about a missing girl who does not exist. Ann is put under observation with instructions for her to be sedated if she awakes.

Ann wakes up in the hospital and escapes. She discovers that Steven is burying Bunny's possessions in the garden, and had sedated the little girl, hiding her in the trunk of his car. Steven implies an incestuous interest with his sister, complaining that Bunny has always come between them. Believing that Ann loves Bunny more than him, the child threatens Steven's dream of a future with his sister. Ann, realising her brother is insane, begins playing childhood games with Steven, in order to distract him from killing little Bunny. Newhouse, having discovered that Steven lied to the police about the name of the ship that brought the Lakes to England, rushes quickly to the Lakes' residence, arriving in time to apprehend Steven, successfully rescuing Ann and Bunny.

Oliver Crangle is a hate-ridden fanatic who lives in an apartment with his parrot Pete. He maintains records of people he believes to be "evil" and has convinced himself that the so called "evil" people (communists, subversives, thieves, murderers) are engaged in a world wide conspiracy and have taken over Washington. He makes phone calls to them and their employers at all hours, writes letters regarding their actions, demands their prompt firing, and threatens to involve higher authorities if they do not comply. Unsatisfied with the results of his anonymous calls and letters, he searches for a more effective way to eliminate evil from the world; he settles on the idea of shrinking all evil people to two feet tall. Throughout the episode, Crangle's parrot Pete periodically calls out "nut," asking for a nut to eat, which Crangle gives him, not realizing that Pete is unintentionally calling Crangle a "nut."

His landlady Mrs. Williams arrives, whom he berates and treats horribly to make her leave. Mrs. Lucas also comes to Crangle's apartment and pleads for Crangle to leave her husband, a doctor, alone. Crangle is convinced that because her husband was unable to save the life of a woman in the ER who died from her injuries, that he is a murderer and evil. Due to Crangle's letter writing to the hospital, her husband has started to feel extremely guilty for the woman's death, and Mrs. Lucas wants Crangle to stop. Crangle simply believes that those people are also evil. Mrs. Lucas leaves, realizing Crangle is insane.

Crangle calls a number of government agencies, and Agent Hall of the FBI is sent to investigate. Crangle tells him of his plan to shrink every evil person at 4:00 that afternoon through sheer force of will, mentioning his belief about a global conspiracy involving the evil people of the world. He also mentions that he has tried such feats before (trying to turn wheels into triangle shapes due to believing that evil uses public transportation to move). He believes that by shrinking all evil people to two feet tall, that they will be unable to carry on their everyday lives and eventually become extinct. Hall asks Crangle if he has ever had any psychiatric help and tells Crangle that they do not need his kind of help because they have the law. Hall says that both support and help in upholding the law are appreciated, but what Crangle is doing is instead interference. Crangle accuses him of being in on the conspiracy. As Hall leaves, Crangle screams at him that he too will be two feet tall in just 20 minutes. When 4:00 rolls around, Crangle is horrified to find that he himself has been shrunk to two feet tall. He struggles in vain to get up to his window sill, and one last time Pete calls out the word "nut".

In the radio adaptation starring Stan Freberg, the ending was altered to be more gruesome as Pete the parrot mistakes the now-shrunken Crangle for a "nut".

The action takes place in the late 1930s. 30-year-old Mary Panton, whose extraordinary beauty has always been one of her greatest assets, has been a widow for one year. Her late husband Matthew, whom she married at 21 because she loved him, turned out to be an alcoholic, a gambler, a womaniser, and a wife-beater. Mary endures all the hardship and pain inflicted on her by her husband (including his having sex with her while drunk). When he drinks and drives, he has a car accident. A few hours later, he dies in Mary's arms. This, she concludes, is a blessing for both of them.

The Leonards (a couple who are not in the novel) offer Panton their 16th-century villa on a hill above Florence, Italy, for an extended stay. She gladly accepts the offer. The old villa is staffed by Nina, the maid, and Ciro, her husband and manservant—but it is otherwise empty. Mary, whose parents are both dead, enjoys the solitary life up at the villa. Occasionally, she joins other residents of, and visitors to, Florence for a party or luncheon. She enjoys driving round the countryside in her car. So far as a widow she has not taken a lover. She says it has been an easy decision as she has never been tempted.

During dinner at a restaurant with some of her acquaintances—among them the old Princess San Ferdinando, an American who is said to have been a "loose woman" in her day—they listen to a young man playing the violin. He is dressed in folkloric clothes and does not play well. At the end of the evening, the Princess tries to set Mary up with Rowley Flint, a young Englishman of independent means and risky reputation, by asking her to give him a lift back to his hotel. Flint makes a pass at her, but she rejects him, and laughs, even when he proposes to her.

After she has dropped him off, Mary drives back home. On her way, although it is late at night, she stops to have a look at the scenery. She senses someone nearby and learns that it is Karl Richter, the fiddler from the restaurant, who is also admiring the view. They begin to talk, and Mary learns that he is a 23-year-old Austrian art student who has fled his country because of Nazi persecution. Without a passport or documents, he is staying as an illegal immigrant in a rented room near the Leonards' villa.

Mary takes pity on Richter, and invites him to look at the paintings in the villa. Learning he had gone without dinner, Mary fixes him some bacon and eggs. They have wine with their improvised meal. They end up in bed.

When Mary thinks it is time for Richter to leave and the latter, to her dismay, asks when he will be able to see her again, the idyll quickly deteriorates. Mary remembers the revolver her suitor, 54-year-old Sir Edgar Swift, has forced upon her as a means of protection. When Richter starts threatening her, she pulls it out and aims it at him. She cannot pull the trigger and advises him to try and escape to Switzerland.

After she tells him she slept with him from pity, Richter attacks her verbally. He picks her up and throws her on her bed, before covering her face with kisses. She tries to get away from him but he overpowers her. Seized with remorse over what he sees as the impossibility of life since escaping his homeland, Richter says, "You asked me not to forget you. I shall forget, but you won't." He shoots himself through the breast with Swift's gun.

The maid Nina hears the shot and comes to the bedroom door. Mary panics and sends her away. She phones Flint and asks him to help her. Mary is prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions. But Flint suggests they try to dispose of the body.

They put the body in the car and drive out into the country, where he dumps it. A car full of drunk Italians approaches and must slow to try to pass. When the party see Mary and Flint embracing each other as they pretend to be lovers, they start singing "La donna è mobile" and drive on. The next morning, Flint returns and leaves the revolver with Richter's body.

Mary sleeps almost until noon. She has an invitation for luncheon, and Flint has urged her not to show any signs of panic or fear, so she attends it. Her guilty conscience is her constant companion.

Sir Edgar Swift, who has known her and her parents since she was a little child, arrives, planning to renew his suit since she was widowed. He had told her of an impending promotion to a high government post in colonial India and his need for a suitable wife. He proposes to Mary before a short trip to Cannes on urgent government business. Mary tells him she will give him an answer when he returns.

Mary confesses everything when Swift returns. He says that he forgives her and that he still wants to marry her. But, he says he must give up the promised post because of the risk of her past being exposed. He suggests that he can retire, they will marry and move to the French Côte d'Azur. Mary, finally says that she does not love him and could not be around him all the time.

After Swift has left, Flint turns up at the villa. When he mentions owning an estate in Kenya, and having read Dr Johnson, he appears more attractive. Agreeing with him that life is about taking risks, Mary decides to accept his proposal.

In the near-future year of 1974, boxing between human fighters has been criminalized and the sport is dominated by fighting robots. Former boxer Timothy Kelly (nicknamed "Steel" because, as a heavyweight, he was never knocked down) manages a B2-model robot called "Battling Maxo", an older model that is no longer in demand. Kelly and his partner, Pole, have used the last of their money to get to the fight venue. They are being given this chance because one of the scheduled fighters was damaged in transport. Kelly has to assure fight promoter Nolan (Merritt Bohn) and his assistant Maxwell (Frank London) that Maxo will be able to fight. After they leave Nolan's office, Kelly and Pole argue about Maxo's fitness. Kelly feels that Maxo should be able to go through with the fight despite its age and condition. Pole tests Maxo's functions and an arm spring fails; they do not have the parts or the money to fix him.

Kelly decides that he will disguise himself as Maxo in order to collect the money necessary for repairs. Despite a valiant effort, he is unable to damage Maynard Flash (Chuck Hicks), the B7 robot that he is fighting, even when he lands an unblocked punch directly into the back of its head. He is nearly killed but manages to last a little under three minutes of the first round. The crowd jeers and boos at Maxo's performance, not knowing that it is a human doing the fighting. Afterwards, the fight promoter will only give them half of the prize money because of "Maxo's" poor performance; Kelly dares not protest, or the promoter will recognize him as "Maxo" and renege entirely. Kelly, badly bruised but stubborn as ever, tells Pole that they will use the money to get the parts to fix Maxo.

Popeye, a strong sailor, arrives at the small coastal town of Sweethaven while searching for his missing father. He rents a room at the Oyl family's boarding house where the Oyls plan to have their daughter Olive become engaged to Captain Bluto, a powerful, perpetually angry bully who manages the town in the name of the mysterious Commodore. However, on the night of the engagement party, Olive sneaks out after discovering that the only attribute she can report for her bullying fiancé is size. She encounters Popeye, who failed to fit in with the townsfolk at the party. The two eventually come across an abandoned baby in a basket. Popeye and Olive adopt the child, naming him Swee'Pea after the town Sweethaven, and the two return to the Oyls' home. Bluto, whom Olive had stood up, finds out about this encounter and, out of rage, beats up Popeye and imposes heavy taxes on the Oyls' property and possessions. A greedy taxman follows up on Bluto's demand, but Popeye helps the Oyls' financial situation by winning a hefty prize by defeating a boxer named Oxblood Oxheart.

The next day, Popeye discovers that Swee'Pea can predict the future by whistling when he hears the correct answer to a question. J. Wellington Wimpy, the constantly hungry local mooch and a petty gambler, also notices this and asks Popeye and Olive to take Swee'Pea for a walk. He actually takes him to the "horse races" (a mechanical carnival horse game) and wins two games. Hearing of this, Olive and her family decide to get in on the action and use Swee'Pea to win, but an outraged Popeye finds out and takes Swee'Pea away.

Later, after Popeye throws the taxman into the sea (thereby earning the town's respect), Wimpy kidnaps the child at Bluto's orders. Later that evening, when Olive checks in on Popeye privately, she overhears him lamenting that Swee'Pea deserves to have two parents and he regrets leaving the way he did. The next morning, Wimpy informs Popeye about the kidnapping after being threatened by Olive. Popeye goes to the Commodore's ship, where he learns that the Commodore, who has been recently tied up by Bluto, is indeed Popeye's father, Poopdeck Pappy, who accepts that Popeye is his son after exposing Popeye's hatred of spinach. Meanwhile, Bluto kidnaps Olive and sets sail with her and Swee'Pea to find the buried treasure promised by Pappy. Popeye, Pappy, Wimpy, and the Oyl family board Pappy's ship to chase Bluto to a desolate island in the middle of the ocean, called Scab Island.

Popeye catches up to Bluto and fights him but, despite his determination, Popeye is overpowered. During the fight, Pappy recovers his treasure and opens the chest to reveal a collection of personal sentimental items from Popeye's infancy, including a few cans of spinach. A gigantic octopus awakens and attacks Olive from underwater (after Pappy saves Swee'Pea from a similar fate). With Popeye in a choke hold, Pappy throws him a can of spinach; recognizing Popeye's dislike for spinach, Bluto force-feeds him the can before throwing him into the water. The spinach revitalizes Popeye and boosts his strength, helping him to defeat both Bluto and the giant octopus. Popeye celebrates his victory and his newfound appreciation of spinach while Bluto swims off, having literally turned yellow.