Grosvenor (Alan Mowbray), the Kilbournes' butler, discovers at breakfast that the family silver has been stolen by the latest tramp, Ambrose, whom Emily Kilbourne (Billie Burke) had taken under her wing as the family chauffeur, in her obsession to reform fallen and destitute men, much to the exasperation of the rest of the family. A distressed Emily swears off taking in any more tramps, to the delight of the rest of the family. However, later in the morning, Wade Rawlins (Brian Aherne) appears at the Kilbourne's doorstep. His ramshackle car had broken down; when he got out, it rolled off a cliff. He wants to use the telephone, but is instead immediately adopted by Emily Kilbourne and appointed as the replacement chauffeur, despite the rude efforts of Grosvenor and Emily's daughters Geraldine "Jerry" (Constance Bennett) and Marion (Bonita Granville). Further attempts to convince Mrs. Kilbourne to get rid of this latest tramp are blissfully ignored.

Rawlins, as the new chauffeur is housed in the servant's quarters. He is overheard talking to himself while cleaning up by Grosvenor and suspected to be crazy. Jerry and Marion see the spruced up tramp looking the perfect gentleman and Jerry approves when Rawlins later brushes off Jerry's arrogant would-be suitor, Herbert Wheeler (Phillip Reed). They now have second thoughts when their father, Henry Kilbourne (Clarence Kolb), who has returned from work, tells Emily that he is putting his foot down and orders that they get rid of her latest tramp the next day.

A comedy of errors, nighttime interludes with drunken family behavior, the arrogant Herbert making a move on Jerry, follows with the rescue of the damsel in distress who has also somehow misplaced her keys where some delightful flirting ensues, resulting in Jerry falling in love with Wade. Marion also expresses a crush on Wade. The next day, Emily Kilbourne, despite orders to get rid of Wade, trains him to be a footman at the important dinner party that evening for Senator Harlan (Paul Everton). That evening, through a contrived prank by Marion, Rawlins is accidentally invited to the important dinner party for Senator Harlan, who takes quite a liking to him, as does his daughter Minerva (Ann Dvorak).

The next morning, the family finds Rawlins occupying the guest room. It is impossible to throw him out, as it is discovered that he is now a confidant of Senator Harlan and his daughter's target of affection. Jerry is consumed with jealousy, as she sees Minerva flirting with Rawlins at golf later that morning. After a fudge-making spat with Jerry, Rawlins takes the rest of the day off on an errand. The car he wrecked turns out to be a loan. He goes to pay for it, but the car has been found and the police inform the car's owner that Rawlins is assumed to be dead. The man leaves to identify his car. Thus, when Rawlins arrives, the owner's assistant George (Willie Best) thinks he is a ghost. The Kilbournes believe Rawlins has left for good, much to Jerry's dismay after waiting up to reconcile with him.

The next morning at breakfast, the newspaper reports the death of E. Wade Rawlins, the "noted novelist", from a car crash, much to the shock and dismay of the family, the cook and the maid. When Rawlins reappears, very much alive, Jerry is immensely relieved.

The highly fictionalised story sees "Schani" dismissed from his job in a bank. He puts together a group of unemployed musicians who wangle a performance at Dommayer's cafe. The audience is minimal, but when two opera singers, Carla Donner (Miliza Korjus) and Fritz Schiller (George Houston), visit whilst their carriage is being repaired, the music attracts a wider audience.

Strauss is caught up in a student protest; he and Carla Donner avoid arrest and escape to the Vienna Woods, where he is inspired to create the waltz "Tales from the Vienna Woods".

Carla asks Strauss for some music to sing at an aristocratic soiree, and this leads to the composer receiving a publishing contract. He's on his way, and he can now marry Poldi Vogelhuber, his sweetheart. But the closeness of Strauss and Carla Donner, during rehearsals of operettas, attracts comment, not least from Count Hohenfried, Donner's admirer.

Poldi remains loyal to Strauss, and the marriage is a long one. He is received by the Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria (whom he unknowingly insulted in the aftermath of the student protests), and the two stand before cheering crowds on the balcony of Schönbrunn.

Freebie and Bean are a pair of maverick detectives with the SFPD Intelligence Squad. The volatile, gratuity-seeking Freebie is trying to get promoted to the vice squad to garner perks for his retirement while the neurotic and fastidious Bean has ambitions to make lieutenant. Against a backdrop of Super Bowl weekend in San Francisco, the partners are trying to conclude a 14-month investigation, digging through garbage to gather evidence against well-connected racketeer Red Meyers, when they discover that a hit man from Detroit is after Meyers as well. After rejecting their pretext arrest of Meyers to protect him, the district attorney orders them to keep him alive until Monday.

After locating and shooting the primary hit man, and distracted by Bean's suspicions that his wife is having an affair with the landscaper, they continue their investigation seeking a key witness against Meyers who can explain and corroborate the evidence. In the midst of this, they foil a second hit on Meyers by a backup team, leading to a destructive vehicle and foot pursuit through the city, after which they learn that Meyers is planning to fly to Miami before Monday. Tailing him, they receive word that their witness has been located and a warrant issued for Meyers' arrest. Unbeknownst to them, a woman Red Meyers picked up at a local park is actually a female impersonator looking to rob Meyers.

During the arrest attempt Bean is shot by the thief, who flees with Meyers into the stadium where the Super Bowl is underway. Freebie corners the thief in a women's restroom. Despite being shot himself, he rescues a hostage and kills the thief after he nearly bests Freebie with his unexpected martial arts skills. The D.A. arrives after the shootings and tells Freebie that the warrant is canceled because the witness was assassinated on the way to the station. Freebie goes nuts and demands to be allowed to arrest Meyers, which is granted by the lieutenant in command of his squad, only to find that Meyers has died of a heart attack. Freebie is further demoralized to learn that the evidence they gathered was planted by Meyers' wife in an extra-marital conspiracy with his lieutenant.

Bean is not dead after all, however, and in the ambulance the two wounded partners engage in a free-for-all when Freebie thinks Bean has been playing a joke on him, causing yet another accident.

The film begins with a group of several nurses arriving in Australia, having been some of the few evacuated before the Japanese captured their base. One of them is Janet "Davey" Davidson, who wanted to stay and fainted at the start of the evacuation and remains in a coma. An officer asks the other nurses to describe their journey up to that point, beginning a flashback. The flashback begins in California, as the girls prepare to set off for the Philippines. Joan, another nurse, is revealed to have two fiancés because she can't say no to a man. Davey covers for her by stopping the two from figuring out her relationship, and the nurses quickly get on the boat. The war begins as they go to Hawaii, and the boat is rerouted to the Philippines. One of the boats in the convoy is also sunk, with survivors being taken aboard the nurse's boat. One is Olivia, who is very rude and uncaring towards her fellow nurses. On the boat Davey meets John Summers, a soldier who she initially dislikes. They come to like one another over time. Joan meets a man called Kansas, a marine who initially seems nervous. The ship has a party to celebrate Christmas, where Joan and Kansas dance as well as Davey and John. After a fight, Olivia reveals she was supposed to get married that day. However, her husband was killed in an the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Since then, she has sworn to kill as many Japanese as possible. Eventually, the ship arrives in the Philippines. Manila has been declared an open city, so it goes to Bataan instead. The nurses do their best to heal their patients, but supplies run low there. Joan takes a liking to the Filipino children in the base, while Janet does the best of anyone. Olivia initially takes up the job of taking care of wounded Japanese POWs, but she can't bring herself to kill even one. At the base John and Davey reunite and kiss. However, the base eventually has to be evacuated as the Japanese advance. Olivia sacrifices herself to ensure the other nurses escape by suicide bombing the approaching enemies with a grenade. The troops move onto a jungle "hospital", which is practically untamed but near a town. Supplies continue to run low here, although everyone does their best. Ma, the leader of the nurses, has to have her son's legs amputated which puts her through grief and puts stress on the entire unit. Kansas and Joan also reunite, with Kansas having fought and now leading a regiment of Filipinos. Janet and John also reunite again. Eventually, a bombing raid destroys much of the base and kills several nurses and doctors. The Japanese show no respect for international law, bombing clearly marked hospitals and ambulances. After John reveals the base's supply convoy has been destroyed and reinforcements are not on their way, the nurses evacuate to a fortress island along with most others. Joan notably has to knock Kansas out with a rock as he refuses to surrender and wants to fight to the death. On the island everything starts going well, but soon takes a turn for the worse. Bombing becomes more common, and it becomes more and more apparent even this "Gibraltar of the East" is going to fall. John and Davey decide to get married, despite this being against military law. The base chaplain conducts a makeshift ceremony, and the two are married. Not long after, John and several other soldiers set out to Mindanao to try to secure supplies. Before he can return, the base financial department starts burning money and the nurses are told they're being secretly evacuated first. Initially hesitant, most agree to go. Joan gives many of her belongings away to her patients, and tells Kansas not to die. He says he never dies, which isn't reassuring as everytime he's said something never happens to him it does soon afterward. Davey refuses to leave, saying she promised John she would be here when he returns. Ma tells her John's expedition is considered lost, but only the officers were informed. Upon learning John is probably dead, Janet faints. The nurses evacuate, and not long afterward the Japanese take the island. The flashback ends, with the officer saying he knows how to wake Davey up. He goes to her, and reads a heartfelt letter from John. John informs her he is still alive, still fighting, and still loves her. Davey wakes up and simply says, "John" and the movie ends. The movie was very timely, released just 13 months after the end of the Battle of the Philippines, with focus on allied efforts at Bataan and Corregidor as well as MacArthur's dramatic escape from the Philippines. Although the love-story plot line is the primary thrust of the film, the difficulties and emotional toll of war are also shown.

In a small village in 1906 Vermont, the mute Helen attends a silent film screening in the parlor of a local inn. During the screening, a crippled woman staying at the inn is murdered in her room by a man hiding in the closet; her murder is the third in a string of serial killings in the community. Dr. Parry, a friend of Helen's, drives her to the Warren home, a large estate outside town where Helen is employed as a live-in companion for the bedridden Mrs. Warren. Also residing in the house are Mrs. Warren's stepson Albert, a local professor; her son, Steven; and a live-in staff: Mrs. Oates, a housekeeper; her husband Mr. Oates, a handyman; Blanche, a secretary who is having an affair with Steven; and Nurse Barker, Mrs. Warren's verbally-abused nurse.

At the house, a cloaked figure watches from the woods as Helen ascends the driveway. Inside, Helen finds Mrs. Oates in the kitchen; she discusses the murder, and expresses fear for Helen, as the killer appears to be targeting "defenseless" women. While walking up the staircase, Helen pauses in front of a mirror to examine herself, and while doing so, the eye of an unknown person watches her from the shadows. In the midst of a rainstorm, the constable stops by and warns Albert to keep watch over Helen. After Mrs. Warren loses consciousness, Dr. Parry is summoned to the home. Nurse Barker discovers a bottle of ether has gone missing, and Albert sends Mr. Oates to retrieve some in town. Meanwhile, Mrs. Warren regains consciousness, and urges Dr. Parry to take Helen with him. He offers to bring Helen to Boston and help her work through the trauma of her parents' death, which triggered her muteness. She agrees to go, and Dr. Parry makes plans to return later in the evening after completing another house call.

After an argument with Steven, Blanche asks Helen if she can leave with her that night. Helen agrees, and Blanche goes to the basement to retrieve her suitcase, where she is attacked and murdered. Helen later finds her corpse in the basement, and is confronted by Steven. Frightened that he is responsible, she locks him in a closet and flees upstairs. She attempts to wake Mrs. Oates who has passed out, drunk on brandy. Helen attempts to call Dr. Parry, but is unable to speak to the telephone operator.

Albert finds Helen frantic, and she writes on a notepad that Blanche has been murdered. As he follows Helen up the staircase to Mrs. Warren's room, Albert confesses to killing Blanche out of jealousy. He then reveals himself as the serial murderer, professing his goal of killing the "weak and imperfect of the world." Helen flees in terror, locking herself in Mrs. Warren's bedroom, where she finds Mrs. Warren unconscious. Meanwhile, the constable returns to the house, and is answered at the front door by Albert; he leaves a message for Helen letting her know that Dr. Parry is unable to return that night, and that they will have to go to Boston the following day. As the constable leaves, Helen attempts to get his attention by smashing the bedroom window, but he is unable to hear it amidst the wind and thunder. Helen returns to the basement to free Steven, but finds Albert waiting in hiding. He chases her as she ascends the staircase to the second floor, but the two are met by Mrs. Warren, armed with a gun. Mrs. Warren shoots Albert multiple times in the chest, killing him, and in the midst of the gunfire, Helen screams in horror.

Mrs. Warren orders Helen to retrieve Steven, and she frees him from the basement closet. Mrs. Warren embraces Steven, and dies on the staircase in his arms. Downstairs, Helen emotionally calls Dr. Parry on the telephone—she is now able to fully speak.

New Orleans, 1875. Clio Dulaine returns, plotting revenge. Years earlier, she and her late mother were banished to Paris by her father's family, the Dulaines. Clio's mother was his mistress; Clio was born out of wedlock. His family forced him to marry a woman of his own class. When Rita tried to shoot herself, he intervened. She was accused of murdering him.

Clio has two devoted allies—her maid, Angelique, and a dwarf servant, Cupidon. They restore her mansion on Rampart Street; she assumes the name “Comtesse de Chanfrais”. Clio plans to shame the Dulaines and marry a rich man, but Angelique says Clio is like her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, fools for love. “They always hope, ladies like her, but never so…”

One Sunday morning, at the market, Clio falls in love at first sight with a tall Texan gambler, Clint Maroon. A furious Angelique whisks Clio away, but they soon meet at Begue's, a famous restaurant, where Clio takes the Dulaine's regular table. The Dulaines recognize her and flee, and Clio invites Clint to sit at her table.

At the house, Clint mistakes her for a prostitute. She slams the door on him. He haunts the house for weeks. Angelique intercepts a letter of apology. At last, Clio goes to church; he kneels beside her. They reconcile and become lovers. Clint has no interest in marriage, even with the girl back home who embroidered his neckties. He promises Angelique that he won't interfere with Clio's plans, because he wants her to be happy, but when she proposes opening a gambling house, he moves on to Saratoga. Clio's obsession with revenge keeps her in New Orleans.

Clio's various efforts to embarrass the Dulaines finally pay off. If Clio leaves New Orleans and gives up the name Dulaine, they will pay her $10,000 and bring her mother's body to New Orleans for burial as “Rita Dulaine, loving wife.”

Clint writes that the resort is “crawling with...respectable millionaires.” When Clio arrives, railroad heir Bartholomew Van Steed is at the station: Clio sent a telegram in his mother’s name. At the hotel, “Colonel Maroon” offers part of his suite to the Comtesse. Clint watches with amusement as Clio conquers the resort and Van Steed, with help from Sophie Bellop. Clio confesses to Sophie that she is desperate for the respectability and security money can bring. Van Steed's mother arrives, but Sophie foils her.

Van Steed is enchanted, but he has business problems. In his effort to monopolize railroads, Tycoon Raymond Soule, who destroyed Clint's father, has hired an army of goons to physically take over Van Steed's Saratoga trunk line. Clint makes the Saratoga shareholders an offer. In exchange for shares in the railroad, he will import a gang of men who are eager to get back at the tycoon who stole their land.

Clint goes to Albany, where Cupidon secretly boards the train. They take back the railroad, station by station. However, Soule sends a train from the end of the line in Binghamton. They crash head on. In the battle that follows, Cupidon is injured protecting Clint.

At Saratoga Springs, Clio dresses for the costume ball. Fearing for Cupidon, Angelique tells her about the plan. Clio accuses Bart of cowardice. He calmly proposes. He knows everything. He uses his mother. He gets what he wants, and he wants Clio. At the ball, men are talking about the success of the battle. Clio is distraught. Clint staggers in, carrying Cupidon, and collapses when Clio hugs him.

Clio is weeping at Clint's bedside, struggling with a piece of embroidery. He pretends to be delirious, speaking to another girl. Clio protests that she has changed, she is like her mother. She loves him.  “Rich and respectable, that's me,” he moans. When she says “I'll let you wear the pants” he declares, “Honey, that's all I wanted to know!” They laugh and kiss, and Angelique drags a laughing Cupidon away from the keyhole.

In January 1942, as many young men respond to the call for Marine Corps recruits, All-American athlete Danny Forrester boards a train in Baltimore, Maryland, after saying goodbye to his family and girl friend Kathy. The train picks up other recruits en route to the Marine training camp near San Diego, including womanizing lumberjack Andy Hookans, bookish Marion Hodgkiss, Navajo Indian Shining Lighttower, troublemaking "Spanish" Joe Gomez, Justus E. McQueen of Arkansas, Speedy of Texas, and the Philadelphian Ski, who is eager to escape the slums, but upset to leave his girl friend Susan.

Several weeks later, after the arduous training of boot camp, the men are accepted into radio school and assigned to the battalion commanded by Maj. Sam "High Pockets" Huxley. The Marines continue their military training and receive rigorous communication instruction from Sgt. Mac, but on weekends they get passes to San Diego. In a sleazy bar there, Ski drowns his sorrows in alcohol and women to forget that Susan has married another man. Concerned about him, Mac and his fellow Marines go to the bar, believing they are coming to his rescue, and get in a brawl with others there. Danny is saved from excessive drinking by the married USO worker Elaine Yarborough, and begins a relationship with her, until Mac, noticing a change in his performance, arranges for him to call Kathy long-distance. Recognizing the young man's loneliness, Mac and Huxley grant him a furlough to Baltimore, during which Danny elopes with Kathy. Meanwhile, the meditative Marion, who hopes to write about his wartime experiences, meets the beautiful and mysterious Rae on the Coronado ferryboat. Although she meets him there frequently and seems to admire him greatly, she will not share with him details about her life. Marion learns why she has been evasive, when she shows up with other B-girls ordered by Joe, at a party celebrating the regiment's orders to ship out.

The men are sent to Wellington, New Zealand, where they are warmly received. Andy, who respects no woman, tries to woo the married Pat Rogers by suggesting that he fill the void left by her husband, whom he believes is fighting in Africa. After the offended Pat tells him her husband died in action, Andy apologizes for the first time ever. Pat later invites the reformed Andy to visit her parents' farm, where, despite their attraction, they agree to remain friends only. After Christmas, the Sixth Regiment, now known as "Huxley's Harlots," is sent to Guadalcanal after the invasion to "mop up" a resistant band of Japanese soldiers.

Afterward, the battle-weary men, minus Ski, who was killed by a sniper, return to New Zealand, where Pat nurses the malaria-stricken Andy and decides to risk a short-term romance with him. To restore the men's stamina, Huxley, newly promoted to lieutenant colonel, orders them to compete in a brutal 60-mile hike, and while other companies are trucked back to camp, Huxley has his men hike the whole way, blistered and near collapse, but in record-breaking time. Aware that his men are special, Huxley is frustrated when they are not ordered to Tarawa with the main invasion, but held back to clear out remaining Japanese resistance afterward. Pat is afraid of losing another love to the war and tells Andy that she wants to break up, but Andy refuses and asks her to marry him. Although frightened, she accepts and only then admits that she is pregnant. With Huxley's assistance in cutting through red tape, Andy and Pat marry, but two days later, when the men are to ship out, Andy considers deserting to stay with Pat. Instead of arresting him, Huxley asks Pat to convince Andy to return voluntarily.

At Tarawa, Huxley's men fulfill their mission, but Marion and many others are killed. Afterward, while standing by on reserve on a Hawaiian island, Huxley receives word that other battalions are being moved out for combat. Sensing the restlessness of his men, Huxley risks court-martial to convince Gen. Snipes that the talents of his battalion are being wasted. Although at first offended by Huxley's "impudence," Snipes assigns the battalion to the invasion of Red Beach, the most dangerous mission in the Saipan campaign. The men are isolated from the rest of the division, and suffer heavy casualties from artillery fired from the hills above them. Huxley is killed, and Danny and Andy are seriously injured. However, the battalion holds out until a Navy destroyer pins down the Japanese, freeing the Marines to complete their mission. Later, at a rest camp, while recuperating from the loss of a leg, Andy becomes too demoralized to communicate with Pat or his concerned friends, but tough words from Mac make him realize that Pat still loves him. Andy returns to her and his baby son after completing rehabilitation. Danny is also given a medical discharge and returns by train to Baltimore, accompanied by Mac, who is visiting the families of men killed in action. In Baltimore, they say goodbye and Danny reunites with the waiting Kathy, as fresh recruits board the train.

In Fort Griffin, Texas, Ed Bailey comes looking to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of gunslinger John H. "Doc" Holliday. Seeing him in a bar, Holliday's girl, Kate Fisher, returns to Holliday's room, where the two argue while Holliday throws knives at the door - near her once she brings up Holliday's once-prominent family. Well-known marshal Wyatt Earp arrives in Fort Griffin thinking he will take outlaws Ike Clanton and Johnny Ringo into custody, but instead finds out that the local sheriff, Cotton Wilson, released them despite the outstanding warrants for their arrest. Holliday refuses to help the lawman, holding a grudge against Wyatt's brother, Morgan. Holliday kills Bailey with a knife-throw when Bailey attempts to shoot him in the back. Holliday is arrested for murder, though Wyatt and Kate allow him to escape from a lynch mob.

In Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt finds out that Holliday and Kate are in town. Holliday tells him he has no money, so Wyatt allows him to stay if he promises to not fight while he is in town. Meanwhile, gambler Laura Denbow is arrested for playing cards since women are not allowed to gamble. She is released and allowed to play in the side rooms of the saloon. Wyatt is forced to deputize Holliday because a bank robber kills a cashier and Wyatt's other deputies are out in a posse catching another outlaw. The bank robbers attempt to ambush Wyatt outside of town, but are instead killed by Wyatt and Holliday.

Back in Dodge City, Holliday learns Kate has left him for Johnny Ringo, who taunts Holliday to a shootout and throws liquor on him. Holliday steadfastly refuses to fight him. Shanghai Pierce and his henchmen ride into town, wound deputy Charlie Bassett and attack a dancehall, but Wyatt and Holliday hold the men and defuse the situation. As Ringo attempts to intervene, Holliday shoots him in the arm. Holliday returns to his room and Kate is waiting for him, but he refuses to take her back. Kate swears she will see him dead. By now, Wyatt and Laura have fallen in love, but when he receives a letter from his brother Virgil, asking him to help clean up Tombstone, Arizona, she refuses to go with him unless he changes into the man she wants him to be. Holliday catches up to Wyatt on the trail and both head to Tombstone.

In Tombstone, Wyatt finds out that Ike Clanton is trying to herd thousands of head of rustled Mexican cattle but cannot as long as the Earps control Tombstone's railway station. Morgan Earp criticizes his brother's association with Holliday, but Wyatt insists the gunslinger is welcome in Tombstone as long as he stays out of trouble. Cotton offers Wyatt a $20,000 bribe if he allows the stolen cattle to be shipped, but Wyatt refuses. He rides out to the Clanton ranch, returning young Billy Clanton to his mother after finding Billy drunk. Wyatt informs Ike that he has been made a U.S. Marshal and has legal authority in every county in the United States. Finding no recourse, the Clantons decide to ambush Wyatt as he makes his nightly rounds but kill his younger brother James Earp by mistake.

The next morning, Ike and five of his henchmen go to Tombstone to face off against the Earps at the O.K. Corral. Holliday, who is sick from tuberculosis, joins them. Though Virgil and Morgan are wounded in the gunfight, all six in Clanton's gang are killed, including Billy, who is given a chance to surrender, but refuses. After the fight is over, Wyatt joins Holliday for a final drink before heading off to California to meet Laura, as promised.

David Clemens is brought to a residential psychiatric treatment center by his apparently caring mother. He becomes very upset when one of the residents brushes his hand, as he believes that being touched can kill him. Cold and distant, he mainly concentrates on his studies, especially that of clocks, with which he appears to be obsessed. It is later revealed that he has a recurring dream in which he murders people by means of a giant clock.

He meets Lisa Brandt, a girl who has two personalities: one of them, Lisa, can only speak in rhymes, while the other, Muriel, cannot speak, but can only write. David befriends her by talking to her in rhymes. Over time, he begins to open up to his psychiatrist, Dr. Alan Swinford, and also becomes friendly with another resident, Simon, which provokes Lisa's jealousy. Following an argument when his mother visits, David's parents decide that he should leave the place. He returns to his parents' house, but after a short time, runs away to the treatment center, where he is allowed to stay.

One day Lisa realizes that she is both Lisa and Muriel and that they are the same person. After this breakthrough, she seeks out David, but he is busy listening to Simon play a Bach piece on the piano. Lisa turns on the metronome, interrupting Simon's playing and provoking David's anger. Then, Lisa runs away from the center and takes the train into Center City, Philadelphia, unnoticed. David and the staff fruitlessly search for her until the next morning, when David realizes that she might have returned to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she had once embraced a statue of a mother and child.

David and Dr. Swinford rush to the museum, where David finds Lisa on the museum steps. Upon seeing David, Lisa appears to be cured and speaks to him in prose. David, overcoming his own fear of touch for the first time, allows her to hold his hand, while they walk down the stairs to go on their return trip.

In August 1944, masterpieces of modern art stolen by the Wehrmacht are being shipped to Germany; the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel Franz von Waldheim, is determined to take the paintings to Germany, no matter the cost. After the works selected by Waldheim are removed from the Jeu de Paume Museum, curator Mademoiselle Villard seeks help from the French Resistance. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, SNCF (French National Railways) workers associated with the Resistance need only delay the train for a few days, but it is a dangerous operation and must be done in a way that does not risk damaging the priceless cargo.

Resistance cell leader and SNCF area inspector Paul Labiche initially rejects the plan, telling Mlle. Villard and senior Resistance leader Spinet, "I won't waste lives on paintings"; but he has a change of heart after a cantankerous elderly engineer, Papa Boule, is executed for trying to sabotage the train on his own. After that sacrifice, Labiche joins his Resistance teammates Didont and Pesquet, who have been organizing their own plan with the help of other SNCF Resistance members. In an elaborate ruse, they reroute the train, temporarily changing railway station signage to make the German escort believe they are heading to Germany when they have actually turned back toward Paris. Two deliberate collisions then block the train in at the small town of Rive-Reine without risking the cargo. Labiche, although shot in the leg, escapes on foot with the help of Christine, the widowed owner of a Rive-Reine hotel, while other Resistance members involved in the plot are executed.

That night, Labiche and Didont meet Spinet again, along with young Robert (the nephew of Jacques, the executed Rive-Reine station master) and plan to paint the tops of three wagons white to warn off Allied aircraft from bombing the art train. Robert recruits railroad workers and friends of his Uncle Jacques from nearby Montmirail. Robert and Didont are both seen painting the train cars and killed, but the train is indeed spared from bombing.

Now working alone, Labiche continues to delay the train after the tracks are cleared, to the mounting rage of von Waldheim. Finally, Labiche manages to derail the train without endangering civilian hostages that the colonel has placed on the locomotive to prevent it being blown up. Von Waldheim flags down an army convoy retreating on a nearby road, and learns that a French armored division is not far behind. The colonel orders the train unloaded and attempts to commandeer the trucks for the art, but the convoy's commander refuses the order. The train's small German contingent then kills the hostages and joins the retreating convoy.

Von Waldheim remains behind with the abandoned train. Strewn everywhere between the track and the road are crates labeled with the names of famous artists. Labiche appears and the colonel castigates him for having no real interest in the art he has saved: "You couldn't tell me why you did what you did". In response, Labiche turns and looks at the murdered hostages and then, without a word, turns back to von Waldheim and shoots him dead. Afterwards Labiche limps away, leaving the corpses and the art treasures where they lie.

Richard Rahl is the ruler of the D'Haran Empire, a collection of nations previously made up of D'Hara and the Midlands. Richard Rahl and the D'Haran Empire are currently locked in an epic struggle with the Imperial Order, an Empire from the Old World, led by Emperor Jagang.

''Chainfire'' continues the story of Richard in his attempt to teach the people that their lives are theirs alone, and that they can be free of the Imperial Order. Richard is gravely injured from an enemy's arrow. He is brought to Nicci, a sorceress and former Sister of the Dark, who heals him using Subtractive Magic; this causes unforeseen events to spiral out of control. When Richard awakens, he discovers that his wife, Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor, is missing. Furthermore, no one around him seems to remember her. Nicci and Cara both attribute Richard's memory of Kahlan to dreams and delusions brought on by his injury and possibly an unintended effect of the Subtractive Magic used in healing Richard. Despite Richard's attempts to explain the events of the last several years could not have happened without Kahlan, the paradoxes are explained away as Richard remembering things inaccurately.

Fearing for Kahlan's life, Richard desperately tries to find some trace of her and at the same time convince the others that she exists. His search leads him to the witch woman, Shota, who reveals "that which you seek is long buried with the bones". In return for more information, Shota demands the Sword of Truth, which Richard relinquishes to her pet, Samuel, the previous bearer of the sword. Shota then utters the words "Chainfire" and "The Deep Nothing" and tells Richard to "beware the four-headed viper". She also warns Richard of a "blood beast" conjured by several wizards and Sisters of the Dark, under the orders of Jagang. The beast is meant to kill Richard and is as unstoppable as it is unpredictable. Further, the beast is able to track Richard when he uses his gift because of the way Nicci healed his arrow wound.

In the meantime, Ann and Nathan together have discovered many blank pages in books of ancient prophecy. They seem to remember that the pages should not be blank but cannot remember what was originally written there. Zedd makes the same discovery independently.

Leaving Agaden Reach, Richard makes his way to the Wizard's Keep to find Zedd, but he also has no memory of Kahlan. Nicci arrives simultaneously. To prove Kahlan's existence, Richard exhumes her grave and is shocked to find a corpse in the buried casket with a nametag attached to her dress. He is devastated and falls into a deep depression. Meanwhile, Ann, Nathan, and Frederich also arrive at the Keep. Desperate to get their "Richard" back so that he will "fulfill prophecy" and lead the D'Haran army against the forces of Emperor Jagang. Zedd, Nathan, and Ann attempt to coerce Nicci into secretly using Subtractive Magic to delete Richard's "delusions"; Nicci instead begs Richard to persevere in his beliefs. Together with Cara, they head to the Sliph to travel to the People's Palace.

Richard learns that the Sliph knows of a place called the Deep Nothing. The Sliph takes them to some ruins called "Caska" in the Deep Nothing. Upon arriving, they find themselves in the midst of a group of Imperial Order advanced scouts who have captured a girl named Jillian, part of a people called the "Dream Casters". While Nicci eliminates the rest of the Imperial Troops scouts, Richard and Jillian look for answers in the catacombs. Together, they find a hidden passage that leads to a protected library. In the library, Jillian discovers a book titled ''Chainfire.''

At the same time, the reader learns that Kahlan indeed exists, and has been kidnapped by the four remaining Sisters of the Dark who escaped the Dream Walker in ''Blood of the Fold''. The Sisters have cast a spell called Chainfire, using Subtractive Magic to erase people's memories of Kahlan and Kahlan's memories of herself. The Sisters then use Kahlan to steal the boxes of Orden from the Garden of Life in the People's Palace. Kahlan leaves Spirit behind, the statue Richard carved for her.

Richard, Nicci, and Cara then travel to the People's Palace and learn that the boxes are missing and that they have been put into play. Richard finds the statue Kahlan left and figures out that the Sisters have stolen his wife and the boxes. With the proof in the Garden of Life, Nicci and Cara finally believe in the existence of Kahlan, despite not remembering her. While there, they learn that an older woman has been found fatally stabbed near the D'haran army; Nicci and Richard determine that it is Sister Tovi. Nicci uses deception to interrogate Tovi, discovering that it was Samuel who stabbed Tovi and took the Box of Orden she was carrying. She also learns about the Chainfire spell, about how it was used to obliterate everyone's memory about Kahlan, and that the Boxes of Orden were created in opposition to it. Later, Richard realizes that the Sword of Truth protected him from the Chainfire spell, which is why he was still able to remember Kahlan.

Richard, Nicci and Cara return to the Wizard's Keep and, with the information gathered from Tovi and the book "Chainfire", they finally manage to convince Zedd, Nathan, and Ann of the truth. While no one but Richard remembers Kahlan, they now believe that she exists.

''Aghwee'' opens with the anonymous narrator, a 28-year-old man, talking about the near-blindness in one of his eyes, the result of an attack by a group of children that year. Because of his blurred vision he sees "two worlds superimposed". The attack had prompted him to remember the events of the story, which took place ten years earlier, and the memory freed him from hatred of his assailants.

The narrator had worked as a companion to a composer, D, then aged 28, who had (apparently) gone mad after the death of his infant son. D says that when he goes outside, he is visited by the spirit of his son, who swoops down out of the sky: "a fat baby in a white cotton nightgown, big as a kangaroo". D talks to Aghwee but refuses to interact with the people around him, saying that he is no longer living in the present time. The narrator is told by D's estranged wife that D had killed their son, starving him because he was born with a brain hernia (which later turned out to be a benign tumour). 'Aghwee' was the only word the child had spoken. The wife accuses D of fleeing reality. She gives the narrator a key which turns out to unlock a box of D's compositions, which D burns and buries. D takes the narrator to various places where D had previously enjoyed himself, as well as sending him to inform D's former girlfriend that he will no longer see her.

Matters reach a crisis when a pack of dogs (of which Aghwee is said to be afraid) comes across D and the narrator while D is talking to Aghwee. However it is the narrator who panics until he feels a hand on his shoulder, "gentle as the essence of all gentleness" which he says he knows to be the D's but imagines to be Aghwee's. D then tells the narrator more about his experience of the world, saying that the sky contains all those whom a person has lost; he stopped living in the present to prevent the number of figures floating in his sky from increasing.

The story reaches an end with the death of D on Christmas Eve. D begins talking to Aghwee while he and the narrator are out in the city. While waiting to cross a road, "D cried out and thrust both arms in front of him as if he were trying to rescue something". D is injured and is taken to hospital. As he lies dying, the narrator asks him if he had simply made up Aghwee as a cover for his suicide, and says that he himself was about to believe in the spirit. In answer D merely smiles; whether mocking or "friendly mischief" the narrator cannot tell.

In a coda, the narrator returns to the recent incident when he was attacked by a group of children, who unaccountably became frightened and started to throw stones at him. He sensed "a being I knew and missed" — Aghwee — leaving him and returning to the sky. He no longer hated the children, and started to think of the figures who had filled his own sky over the intervening decade, associating the "gratuitous sacrifice" of his eye with perception of those figures.

The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the ''Mayflower'' settlers but now composed of maniacs, most of them homicidal. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, murderous family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves, Elaine Harper, who lives next door and is the daughter of the local minister.

His family includes two spinster aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother, Teddy, who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims; he thinks that they died of yellow fever); and a murderous brother, Jonathan, who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played on Broadway by Karloff).

Throughout the play, Jonathan is plotting to kill his brother, in fact almost does in one scene. Mortimer is struggling to find solutions to rid his family of the crazy, eventually sending Teddy and his Aunts to a senior living home and letting Officer O'Hara deal with his brother.

The film adaptation follows the same basic plot, with a few minor changes.

The character Mortimer Brewster says of his family’s history that it is as if "...Strindberg wrote ''Hellzapoppin''."

The Yooks and Zooks live on opposite sides of a long curving wall. The narrator of the story is a Yook child whose grandfather takes him to the wall, explaining he is a retired soldier. The difference between the two cultures is that while the Yooks eat their bread with the butter side up, the Zooks eat their bread with the butter side down. The conflict between the two sides leads to an escalating arms race, which results in the threat of mutual assured destruction.

The race begins when a Zook patrolman named VanItch slingshots the Yook patrolman's "Tough-Tufted Prickly Snick-Berry Switch" (a switch-esque truncheon with prickly burrs); the Yook involved in that incident was the narrator's grandfather. The Yooks then develop a machine with three slingshots interlinked, called a "Triple-Sling Jigger". This works once; but the next day VanItch counterattacks with his own creation, the "Jigger-Rock Snatchem", a machine with three nets to catch the rocks fired by the Triple-Sling Jigger and fling them back to the Yooks' side. Every time the patrolman is defeated, he reports this to the Chief Yookeroo, who tells him not to worry ("My Bright Boys are thinking"), and three intelligent Yooks are shown drafting plans for a more modern weapon.

The Yooks then create a gun called the "Kick-A-Poo Kid", which is loaded with "powerful Poo-A-Doo powder and ants' eggs and bees' legs and dried-fried clam chowder", and carried by a trained gun-toting spaniel named Daniel. The Zooks counterattack with an "Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz", a machine that shoots "high-explosive sour cherry stone pits". The Yooks then devise the brand new "Utterly Sputter": a large blue vehicle mainly intended "to sprinkle blue goo all over the Zooks". The Zooks counterattack with their own Sputter. Eventually, each side possesses a small but extremely destructive red bomb called the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo", and neither has any defense against it, so if the Yooks' patrolman or VanItch drop theirs, the Yooks and Zooks will have to stay underground to make sure that they don't get blown away.

The generals of both sides stand on the wall, each poised to drop their bombs onto the other side and waiting for the other to strike first. The narrator asks his grandfather, "Who's gonna drop it? Will you or will he?" to which Grandpa nervously replies, "Be patient. We'll see. We will see..." The book then ends without giving a conclusion (though it is very likely that no matter who drops their bomb first, the other will do so in retaliation, thus resulting in the annihilation of both sides).

The land of Shant on the planet Durdane is ruled by a purposely anonymous dictator called the Anome or Faceless Man. He maintains control by virtue of the torc, a ring of explosive placed around the neck of every adult in Shant.

The Anome is the product of a self-perpetuating, self-selecting dynasty. When one Anome grows old, he chooses his successor, a system hundreds of years old. The reason for this harsh system of government is the extreme individuality of the folk of Shant. They are divided into dozens of different cantons, each with very distinctive customs and laws, united only by a common language. Prior to the ascendancy of the Faceless Man, Shant was plagued by constant civil war and dissension. The Faceless Man not only provides the glue that holds Shant together; he communicates anonymously with the cantonal leaders. Those who lose their heads are largely those who have violated local law.

The protagonist of the trilogy is Gastel Etzwane, the son of a prostitute and an anonymous musician. The first two volumes chronicle his coming of age, his discovery of the identity of his father, his struggles to become a musician himself, the murder of his mother and sister by a race of alien barbarian invaders known as the Roguskhoi, and his struggle for revenge against them. This leads to Etzwane's discovering the identity of the Anome, who, strangely passive, refuses to mobilize the armies of Shant against the aliens. Etzwane is forced to assume the role of Anome himself and, through luck and improvisation, leads an eventually successful struggle against the invaders. In response to the social upheaval caused by the war, Etzwane lays down his office, and the torc system is abolished.

In the third and final volume, Etzwane learns - the hard way - that the invaders were the creation of an alien race known as the Asutra, who designed these caricatures of humanity in a first assay at biological warfare against the peoples of Durdane. Since the Roguskhoi are all males, they can only reproduce by sexual intercourse with human women, and they are insanely lustful. The resulting "imps" have no genetic relationship to the human mother, who is a host only. This process, by design, also renders the woman sterile.

The trilogy is set in the same broad Gaean Reach milieu of many of Vance's books. Like most of his work, it is full of color, ornately bizarre cultures and heroic adventure.

Johnny Brett (Fred Astaire) and King Shaw (George Murphy) are a dance team so down on their luck that they work in a dance hall for no money. Meanwhile, Clare Bennett (Eleanor Powell) is a big Broadway star. Owing to a case of mistaken identity, Shaw is offered the chance to be Clare's dancing partner in a new Broadway show, when Johnny's dancing was really what producer Bob Casey (Frank Morgan) saw and wanted. The partnership breaks up, but Johnny still helps out King, who lets his newfound success go to his head. Clare eventually realizes that Johnny, not King, is the better dancer, and she falls in love after having lunch with him. When Shaw gets drunk on opening night, Johnny steps in and saves the show with a brilliant performance, though he lets King think he did it himself. Clare later tells King the truth. Just before the next show, Clare discovers King drunk again, and Johnny becomes the permanent replacement. After the show, they find out that King was pretending to be drunk so that Johnny would get the job.Brenner, Paul [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=16:139589 Description (Allmovie)]

The television show focuses as much on the pirates as it does on Peter Pan. Captain Hook and Mr. Smee traditionally are the only pirates who receive any attention in the story, but here, the other crew members of the Jolly Roger (Robert Mullins, Alf Mason, Gentleman Ignatious Starkey, Billy Jukes, and Cookson) are given distinct personalities and character development. A real force to be reckoned with, Hook is a powerful, temperamental, cultured, intelligent, and charming pirate with an insatiable thirst for vengeance.

Some attention was also given to the Native American characters (no longer called Redskins). The people and their customs were often featured in the storyline.

Lloyd and Susie in London work for the same ad agency, but in different cities. An arrangement is made where they switch jobs and homes for a month. After settling into each other's place they consult each other by phone. It's not long before they fall in love.

Melanie, (Rachael Blake) is a waitress who works at an unnamed restaurant, presumably in New Zealand. One night, she meets a Man, (Sam Neill) they spend some time together, before Melanie asks him if he wants to go home. He says sure, and asks, "You're place or mine?" She answers with his, and they go to a dock, where his small boat is. After a short time, she passes out, and when she wakes up, they're in the middle of open ocean, with land nowhere in sight.

Terry Scott (Ginger Rogers), who is separated from her husband, and unhappily married David Campbell (Dennis Morgan), the father of two children, meet when they are selected to serve on the jury of the Los Angeles trial of Ernest Craig (Ford Rainey). The defendant is charged with murdering his wife when she refused to grant him a divorce. While sequestered during the lengthy proceedings, Terry and David get to know each other and fall in love. Some dramatic tension is added to the plot by juror Isobel Bradford (Margalo Gillmore), a snobby socialite who tries to sway the panel to vote for the death penalty.

In Edge City, insecure bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss is frequently ridiculed by everyone except for his co-worker and best friend, Charlie Schumaker. Meanwhile, gangster Dorian Tyrell, who owns the Coco Bongo nightclub, plots to overthrow his superior, Niko. One day, Tyrell sends his dazzling singer girlfriend, Tina Carlyle, into the bank to record its layout for an upcoming robbery. Stanley is attracted to Tina and she seemingly reciprocates.

After being denied entrance to the Coco Bongo to watch Tina perform, Stanley's faulty loaner car breaks down during his drive home. As he looks over the harbor bridge in despair, he notices a humanoid figure in the waters, which he assumes to be a drowning man. He attempts a rescue, but finds it to be a pile of garbage concealing a wooden mask. Upon returning to his apartment and donning the mask, he transforms into a green-faced, zoot-suited trickster known as "the Mask", who can cartoonishly alter himself and his surroundings at will. With newfound confidence, Stanley indulges in a comical rampage through the city, humiliating several of his tormentors, including his temperamental landlady, Agnes Peenman, and the mechanics who gave him the faulty car.

The next morning, Stanley encounters detective Lieutenant Mitch Kellaway and newspaper reporter Peggy Brandt, both of whom are investigating the Mask's activity. To obtain the funds necessary to attend Tina's performance, Stanley dons the mask and raids the bank, inadvertently foiling Tyrell's robbery. At the Coco Bongo, Stanley dances exuberantly with Tina, whom he ends up kissing. Shortly after, Tyrell confronts him for disrupting the robbery and Stanley flees, leaving behind a scrap of cloth from his suit, which reverts into a piece of his pajamas. After arresting Tyrell and his henchman, Kellaway finds the piece of cloth and suspects Stanley's involvement.

The next day, Stanley consults Doctor Arthur Neuman, a psychiatrist who has recently published a book on masks and deduces that the mask may be a creation of Loki, the Norse god of mischief, and its powers are only active at night. Though Neuman believes it is mythology, he concludes that the Mask's personality is based on Stanley's repressed desires. That night, Stanley meets Tina at a local park as the Mask, until they are interrupted by Kellaway, who attempts to capture him. Stanley flees with Peggy after he distracts the police with a mass performance of the titular song from ''Cuban Pete''; she then reluctantly betrays him to Tyrell for a $50,000 bounty. Tyrell dons the mask, becoming a bulky and malevolent green-faced being. Tyrell's henchmen force Stanley to reveal the location of the stolen money before turning him in to the police.

When Tina visits Stanley in the station, he urges her to leave the city. Tina thanks Stanley for showing her kindness and tells him the mask was unnecessary. She attempts to flee, but is kidnapped by Tyrell and forcibly taken to a charity ball at the Coco Bongo, hosted by Niko and attended by the city's elite, including the mayor. Upon arrival, the masked Tyrell kills Niko and prepares to destroy the club with a time bomb. Milo, Stanley's dog, helps Stanley escape from the station by retrieving the keys from the guard. Stanley then sets out to stop Tyrell, taking Kellaway hostage.

After locking Kellaway in his car, Stanley enters the club and manages to enlist the help of Charlie, but is quickly discovered and captured. Tina tricks Tyrell into removing the mask, which is recovered and donned by Milo, who battles his way through Tyrell's henchmen as Stanley and Tyrell fight each other. Stanley retrieves the mask, uses its powers to swallow the bomb seconds before it detonates, and then flushes Tyrell down the drain of the club's ornamental fountain; the police arrive and arrest Tyrell's henchmen. Kellaway attempts to arrest Stanley again, but the mayor intervenes, implicating Tyrell as the Mask and praising Stanley as a hero.

The following day, Stanley, exonerated and more secure, returns to the harbor bridge with Tina. Tina throws the mask into the water before she and Stanley share a kiss. Charlie tries to retrieve the mask for himself, only for Milo to swim away with it.

The novel concerns the love lives of two academic researchers, Viola Dace and her friend Dulcie Mainwaring, who are both attracted to the same man, Aylwin Forbes. Dulcie and Viola set about discovering more about his background, which entails a trip to his mother's guest house, which has a ‘bright Christian atmosphere’, in Taviscombe.

Moebius has explained that the story was improvised in a deliberately whimsical or capricious manner. For this reason, the story is at times (deliberately) confusing. The "garage" itself is actually an asteroid in the constellation Leo which houses a pocket universe. Major Grubert orbits the asteroid in his spaceship ''Ciguri'', from which he oversees the development of the worlds contained within. Several entities, including Jerry Cornelius, seek to invade the garage.

Richard "Richie" Rich, Jr. is '''"the world's richest boy"''', the son of billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Richard Sr.. Richie has only his loyal butler, Herbert Cadbury as a companion and lacks any friends his own age. At a dedication to the reopening of United Tool, Richie encounters a group of sandlot kids playing baseball. Unfortunately, before he is able to talk to them, the overly-strict head of security, Ferguson, stops Richie and sharply pulls him away.

Meanwhile, the greedy CFO of Rich Industries Lawrence Van Dough is plotting to steal the Rich financial fortune, believed to be stored in the Rich family vault. Van Dough, with the help of Ferguson, plots to blow up the plane carrying the Rich family to England.

After a failed attempt on Richie's part to make friends with the sandlot kids, Cadbury makes a suggestion to Richie's mother Regina and arranges for Richie to stay home in Chicago for a weekend of fun with the sandlot kids.

During the plane trip to England, the bomb Van Dough ordered planted is discovered by chance among the many presents they mean to deliver to the Queen. Upon realizing what it is, Richard is able to toss it out his window, but the bomb detonates while still near the plane, destroying part of the tail, sending ''Billion Dollar One'' into the ocean. Richard and Regina survive the crash and float on a life raft. While initially upset that Richie wasn't on the plane, Van Dough is undeterred and, believing Richie's parents to be dead, assumes leadership of Rich Corporation, and proceeds to cut the many charitable contributions the Rich family were known for. This includes closing the recently reopened United Tool factory, which the parents of the sandlot kids relied upon for their income. This angers Richie, and so with the encouragement and assistance of Cadbury, he proceeds to the company headquarters and, as a living Rich family member, assumes the leadership position.

Van Dough, however, sees this as a minor setback: as Richie is still underage, his ability to run the business is limited by the powers given to him by someone who was able to give it to him - namely, Cadbury. To rectify this, he has Cadbury framed for the Rich family's apparent murder when bomb parts are found in his room, and most of the Rich family's other loyal servants are fired ''en masse'' by Van Dough's edict. To ensure he doesn't somehow get released, Van Dough plots to have Cadbury murdered in jail and make it look like a suicide. When Professor Keenbean eavesdrops on their conversation, he manages to sneak Richie out and enact a successful plan to help Cadbury escape from prison just as a hulking hitman arrives to murder Cadbury. Cadbury surprisingly, is able to knock out the hitman as he is extremely irritated when he has sensible gums. Cadbury and Richie then make their way to Gloria's house, where Diane tends to Cadbury, and Richie uses Gloria's computer to hack into the Dadlink's mainframe at Rich Manor.

During this time, Van Dough finds out about Cadbury's escape and, with Ferguson's help, confronts Keenbean where he states that the lock to the Rich family vault is voice-activated by Richard and Regina. Richard manages to send out a distress code on his repaired Dadlink, but the signal is intercepted by Ferguson, who disconnects Richie's modem from the phone line and then informs Van Dough that Richie's parents are alive.

With threats of violence Van Dough is eventually led to Mount Richmore, a gigantic mountainside-sculpture of the three Rich members' heads where the vault is located. All the time assuming this was where the Rich family fortune was located, he is furious and outraged when he sees that the vault holds what the Rich family actually values most; precious memories, keepsake treasures and family heirlooms - but nothing that is of true monetary value, which was actually invested in banks, stocks, real estate, and insurance companies. Desperate to get the money, he attempts to shoot Richard and Regina, only for Richie to appear in the nick of time and interfere and is shot at instead, though the bullets prove harmless thanks to Keenbean's bulletproof spray. The Rich family manages to get away and the chase leads them down the side of the mountain, where they are under further attack by Ferguson and a rock-blasting laser that had originally been used to sculpt the mountain/vault. After a brief fight, Cadbury finally succeeds in disarming Ferguson and Van Dough is fired.

Days later, Richie plays baseball with his new friends for the United Tool team on the Rich Manor's yard, with Cadbury as team coach. He hits a home run, which is picked up by Van Dough, who is gardening with Ferguson as part of their work release and subsequently tosses the baseball into the fountain. Richard and Regina blissfully state that Richie now really is the richest boy in the world, as he has found the one thing that money can't buy; friends.

The plot of ''Uridium'' is described as follows:

The solar system is under attack! Enemy Super-Dreadnoughts have been placed in orbit around each of the fifteen planets in this galactic sector. They are draining mineral resources from the planetary cores for use in their interstellar power units. Each Super-Dreadnought seeks out a different metal for its metal converter.
Your Manta class Space Fighter will be transported to each planet in turn and it is your task to destroy each Dreadnought. First you must attack the defensive screen of enemy fighters, then you must neutralise the majority of surface defences before you land on the Super-Dreadnought's master runway. Once on board you must pull as many fuel rods as possible from the metal converters before you take off for a final strafing run as the Dreadnought vaporises into the ether.

While working with a team from the University of Chicago to convert hydrogen from water into clean energy, machinist Eddie Kasalivich inadvertently discovers the secret: a sound frequency that perfectly stabilizes their process. As the project team celebrates with a party at the lab, Dr. Paul Shannon, the leader of the project, and Dr. Alistair Barkley, the project manager, argue because Alistair wants to share the science and Paul thinks the US should keep the news to itself. After the party, project physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair finds her car unable to start, so Eddie gets her home by bus. Back in the lab, Alistair and assistant Dr. Lu Chen are on their computers preparing to upload their discovery to the Internet so they can share the breakthrough with the world, when a band of men enter the lab and attack the pair.

Returning to the lab to get his motorcycle, Eddie hears alarms and runs inside to find Alistair dead with a plastic bag over his head and Chen missing. As the hydrogen reactor has become dangerously unstable, Eddie, unable to shut it down, speeds away on his motorbike as a concealed detonator triggers a massive hydrogen explosion that destroys the lab and surrounding streets.

Upon returning from questioning by the FBI to their homes, Eddie and Lily realize that they are being framed, with planted evidence found in both of their houses. The two flee to an observatory belonging to Maggie McDermott, an old friend of Eddie's. They contact Paul, but they are almost caught in the process and narrowly escape. As the pair are evading more police, Paul meets with Lyman Earl Collier at C-Systems Research complex to discuss the current events. It becomes apparent that Lyman and the CIA orchestrated the plot to destroy the lab and frame the pair for it. Despite some disagreement, Paul and Lyman decide to continue the hunt for the pair, a task facilitated when Eddie sends a coded message to Paul arranging a meeting. At their rendezvous, Paul reveals his involvement, but Lyman’s thugs (the ones who murdered Alistair) capture Lily while Eddie barely escapes.

After tracing the license plate on the thugs' van, Eddie tracks them to the secret C-Systems Research facility where Paul and Lyman are forcing Lily and Chen who had been kidnapped, to replicate the project. Eddie sneaks in during the night and proceeds to "fix" the system.

The next morning, one of the other scientists discovers the working reactor and everyone celebrates. A suspicious Paul immediately obtains a download of the working data, and secretly gives it to his assistant, Anita, for safekeeping. He then finds Eddie at a computer in the company boardroom, who demands his release in exchange for making the reactor work. Paul agrees but Lyman refuses, believing that the process already works, so Eddie sets the reactor to explode while sending proof of his innocence to the FBI and blueprints of the reactor to "hopefully a couple thousand" international scientists. Lyman responds by shooting Chen dead, then locking in Eddie and Lily to die in the explosion.

Paul kills Lyman for overstepping the bounds of the program, leaving the body to be incinerated in the explosion. During his own escape, he deactivates the containment system, allowing Eddie and Lily to escape. They are attacked by Lyman's henchmen (Yusef Reed and Clancy Butler), but escape moments before a blast wave sweeps through the complex (incinerating both Reed and Butler's corpses).

Having survived the shockwave, Eddie and Lily are met by FBI agents Ford and Doyle, now convinced of their innocence, who take them to safety. Paul is shown departing the scene via chauffeured limo, and the last scene has him dictating a memo to his secretary Anita, which informs the Director of the CIA that "...C-System [is] no longer a viable entity."

The film opens with Kate Collins (Zooey Deschanel) walking up to a house. She knocks and a woman answers the door. Kate explains that although she doesn't know her she has a long story to explain.

The story begins with the death of her grandfather, Edmund Collins (Rip Torn). The movie then goes on to show how all the family members found out about the death, and how they came together for the funeral. As the Collins family joins their widowed mother/grandmother, Charlotte Collins (Piper Laurie), the family's dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies come to light. Kate's father, Daniel Collins (Hank Azaria), is an "obscure foreign film" actor whose career peaked at age 8 when he appeared in a peanut butter commercial. Kate's uncle, Skip Collins (Ray Romano), is an overly hormonal father of overly hormonal twin sons (Fred and Ted) who managed to run their mother out of their family. Kate's aunt, Lucy Collins (Kelly Preston), and her girlfriend Judy Arnolds (Famke Janssen) are both criticized throughout the movie because of their relationship. Most of this criticism comes from Kate's other aunt, Alice Collins (Debra Winger). The bossy, intimidating Alice has managed to both raise her three children and drive her husband into submissive silence, because of her persistent talking and badgering. Once they all arrive at the only family home Kate is told by Charlotte that her grandfather wished for her to give the eulogy at the funeral.

After a family dinner that goes south when Lucy and Judy announce that they are getting married, tired of the family feuding, Charlotte tries to commit suicide by overdosing on a medication. While the family sits in the waiting room they run into Samantha (Glenne Headly), a nurse at the hospital who is also an old friend of Alice's. After having her stomach pumped and after rejoining the family, Charlotte tries again by jumping out of a moving van on a bridge and although she does not die, she is seriously injured and spends the remainder of the movie in a wheelchair.

During the film, Kate continually tries to come up with a eulogy while dealing with a previous romance with Ryan (Jesse Bradford), from whom she ran away after being caught by Ryan's mother who came home while Ryan and Kate were having sex. Kate gets reacquainted with Ryan (after trying to dodge him several times around town) and their relationship reignites.

At Edmund's will reading, it is revealed that Edmund has three families that don't know about each other. This explains Edmund's inability to keep names and number of children straight over the years before also dropping the bomb that he was up to his "prostate in debt". Kate is tasked with finding and telling the other two families of Edmund's demise.

Ultimately, per Edmund's will, he is placed in a casket and floated out on a local lake in a boat. Ted and Fred, having previously filled the casket with gasoline, start shooting fiery arrows from a bow at the casket. During this time Kate finally gives her eulogy. One of the arrows eventually hits the casket and a moment later the casket, completely unexpectedly, explodes in a fiery explosion and completely demolishes the boat, body, and casket in a splintery mess.

The movie ends with Kate talking to the woman from the beginning of the film. The woman explains she is not actually the person she was looking for but rather her neighbor.

The film opens a live-action sequence in New York City, an elderly woman, her granddaughter, and the latter's Siberian Husky, Blaze, are walking through Central Park, looking for a memorial. As they seat themselves for a rest, the woman tells her granddaughter a story about Nome, Alaska 70 years earlier in the winter of 1925 (as it then transitions to the familiar 2-D animation of the film), where the sled dog champion Steele, a fierce and arrogant Malamute, cheats to ensure victory for his team and musher who returns first to the rural town of Nome. They almost run over Rosy's new musher hat, but Balto, a young wolfdog who is despised by dogs and humans alike, rescues her hat and meets her Siberian husky Jenna, whom he quickly develops a crush on, before being chased away by Rosy's father due to his part-wolf heritage. Following a confrontation where Steele, Star, Nikki and Kaltag make fun of his heritage, Balto and his adoptive father Boris Goosinov, a comical Russian-accented snow goose originally from Russia, return to their home on an abandoned ship on the outskirts of Nome, where they live with two polar bears, Muk and Luk.

One evening, all of the children are hospitalized with diphtheria, but Curtis Welch is out of antitoxin. Severe winter weather conditions prevent medicine from being brought from Juneau and Anchorage by air or sea, and the closest rail line ends in Nenana. A dog race is held to determine the best-fit dogs for a sled dog team to get the medicine with heading to rendezvous with the train in Nenana and transport the antitoxin back to Nome. Balto, who dreams of becoming a sled dog, enters and wins, but Steele exposes his wolf half, causing his disqualification. The team departs that night with Steele in the lead and picks up the medicine successfully, but on the way back, they end up in a blizzard, missing their second checkpoint. When this news reaches Nome, and with the children's health getting worse, Balto sets out in search of Steele and his team with Boris, Muk and Luk supporting him.

Getting desperate, Steele accidentally drags himself and his team off a cliff, stranding them at the base of an icy hill, with the musher knocked unconscious during the fall. Meanwhile, Balto, Boris and the polar bears are stalked and attacked by a massive grizzly bear. Balto fights the bear to save the others, but is easily overpowered and almost crushed to death before Jenna, who followed their marked trail, intervenes and saves him. The bear overpowers Jenna as well before it resumes attacking Balto and chases him out onto a frozen lake, but due to its immense size and weight, the ice starts to break, causing it to fall through and drown. Muk and Luk jump through the ice and save Balto before he could drown as well. Warming a frozen Balto, Jenna gives him the latest news from Nome. However, she is injured after the bear fight and unable to move on. Balto instructs Boris and the polar bears to bring Jenna back to Nome, deciding to continue the search on his own.

Jenna, having fallen in love with Balto, gives him her bandanna to wear before nuzzling him good luck. He eventually finds the team, but Steele refuses his help out of callousness and ferociously attacks Balto, only to fall off a cliff. Balto takes charge of the team, but Steele, refusing to concede defeat, spitefully sabotages Balto's marks and the team loses their way again. While attempting to save the medicine from falling down a cliff, Balto himself falls. Back in Nome, Jenna is explaining Balto's mission to the other dogs when Steele, feigning sadness and remorse, returns, lying that the entire team, including Balto and his musher, is dead, using Jenna's bandanna as fake proof and lies to Jenna that Balto made him promise to look after her. Knowing that Balto would never say such a thing, Jenna sees through Steele's lies and insists that Balto will return with the medicine. Using a trick Balto showed her earlier, she places broken colored glass bottles on the outskirts of town and shines a lantern on them to simulate the Northern Lights, hoping that it will help guide Balto home.

When Balto regains consciousness, he is ready to give up, believing himself to have failed Rosy. When a polar wolf appears and Balto notices the medicine crate still intact nearby, he realizes, thanks to remembering Boris' advice he told him earlier, that his part-wolf heritage is a strength, not a weakness. Balto rallies his confidence, embraces his heritage and drags the medicine back up the cliff to the waiting team. Using his highly developed senses, Balto is able to filter out the fake marks that Steele created. After escaping an avalanche and falling stalactites in an ice cave, where they lose one vial, Balto and the sled team finally make it back to Nome, alerting Jenna, who then alerts the others. Steele is exposed as a liar and the other dogs abandon him for his betrayal in anger, refusing to listen to his pleads to explain and abandoning whatever respect they once had for him. Reunited with his friends, Balto earns respect from both the dogs and the humans. He visits a cured Rosy who thanks him for saving her, before he is happily reunited with Jenna who chooses him as her mate.

Back in the present day (the live-action sequence from the beginning of the film), the woman, her granddaughter, and Blaze finally find Balto's memorial, and she explains that Alaska runs the Iditarod dog race over the same path which Balto and his team took. The woman, revealed to be an elderly Rosy, repeats the same line, "Thank you, Balto. I would've been lost without you," before walking off to join her granddaughter and Blaze, while the statue of Balto stands proudly in the sunlight.

In a remote mansion, Clare Quilty, drunk and incoherent, plays Frédéric Chopin's Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1 on the piano before being shot to death by Humbert "Hum" Humbert, a middle-aged British professor of French literature.

Four years earlier, Humbert arrives in Ramsdale, New Hampshire, intending to spend the summer before his professorship begins at Beardsley College, Ohio. He searches for a room to rent, and Charlotte Haze, a cloying, sexually frustrated widow, invites him to stay at her house. He declines until seeing her 14-year-old daughter, Dolores, affectionately nicknamed "Lolita", with whom he becomes infatuated.

To be close to Lolita, Humbert accepts Charlotte's offer and becomes a lodger in the Haze household. However, Charlotte wants all of Humbert's time for herself and tells him that she will be sending Lolita to an all-girl sleepaway camp for the summer. After the Hazes depart for camp, the maid gives Humbert a letter from Charlotte, confessing her love for him and demanding he vacate at once unless he feels the same way. The letter says that if Humbert is still in the house when she returns, Charlotte will know her love is requited, and he must marry her. Though he roars with laughter while reading the sadly heartfelt yet characteristically overblown letter, Humbert marries Charlotte.

Things turn sour for the couple in the absence of the child: glum Humbert becomes more withdrawn, and Charlotte grows increasingly unfulfilled and upset. Charlotte discovers Humbert's diary entries detailing his passion for Lolita and describing Charlotte as "obnoxious" and "brainless". In an outburst, she runs outside, but is hit by a car and dies.

Humbert arrives to pick up Lolita from camp; she does not yet know her mother is dead. They stay the night in a hotel that is handling an overflow influx of police officers attending a convention. One of the guests, a pushy, abrasive stranger, insinuates himself upon Humbert and keeps steering the conversation to his "beautiful little daughter", who is asleep upstairs. The stranger implies that he too is a policeman and repeats, too often, that he thinks Humbert is "normal". Humbert escapes the man's advances, and, the next morning, Humbert and Lolita play a "game" she learned at camp, and it is implied that they have a sexual encounter. The next day, Humbert confesses to Lolita that her mother is not sick in a hospital, as he had previously told her, but dead. Grief-stricken, she stays with Humbert. The two then commence a trip cross country, traveling from hotel to motel. In public, they act as father and daughter.

In the fall, Humbert reports to his position at Beardsley College, and enrolls Lolita in high school there. Before long, people begin to wonder about the relationship between the father and his over-protected daughter. Humbert worries about her involvement with the school play and with male classmates. One night he returns home to find Dr. Zempf, a pushy, abrasive stranger, sitting in his darkened living room. Zempf, speaking with a thick German accent, claims to be the psychologist from Lolita's school and wants to discuss her knowledge of "the facts of life". He convinces Humbert to allow Lolita to participate in the school play, for which she had been selected to play the leading role.

While attending a performance of the play, Humbert learns that Lolita has been lying about how she was spending her Saturday afternoons when she claimed to be at piano practice. They get into a row and Humbert decides to leave Beardsley College and take Lolita on the road again. Lolita objects at first but then suddenly changes her mind and seems very enthusiastic. Once on the road, Humbert realizes they are being followed by a mysterious car that never drops away but never quite catches up. When Lolita becomes sick, he takes her to the hospital. However, when he returns to pick her up, she is gone. The nurse there tells him she left with another man claiming to be her uncle and Humbert, devastated, is left without a single clue as to her disappearance or whereabouts.

Some years later, Humbert receives a letter from Mrs. Richard T. Schiller, Lolita's married name. She writes that she is now married to a man named Dick and that she is pregnant and in desperate need of money. Humbert travels to their home and demands that she tell him who kidnapped her three years earlier. She tells him it was Clare Quilty, the man that was following them, who is a famous playwright and with whom her mother had a fling in Ramsdale. She states Quilty is also the one who disguised himself as Dr. Zempf, the pushy stranger who kept crossing their path. Lolita admits she was infatuated by Quilty and also carried on an affair with him at Beardsley, then left the hospital with him when he promised her a Hollywood contract. However, he then demanded she join his bohemian lifestyle, including acting in his "art" films, which she refused.

Humbert begs Lolita to leave her husband and come away with him. She declines, reminding him that she has a baby due in three months, but apologizes for cheating. Humbert gives Lolita $13,000, explaining it is her money from the sale of her mother's house, and leaves to go shoot Quilty in his mansion. Intertitles explain that Humbert died of coronary thrombosis awaiting trial for Quilty's murder.

Throughout the pamphlet, the audience is introduced to a fictional financier called Coin, who holds financial lectures in Chicago. Over six days, he summarizes the United States’ financial history from the passage of the Coinage Act in 1792 to 1894, when the pamphlet was published. Coin introduces the audience to what he calls the "Crime of 1873", or the Fourth Coinage Act, which became controversial as the nation's debt and money supply went into doubt after the Civil War. In between Coin's various lectures, he is interrupted with questions from the audience, which is filled with prominent real-life individuals such as Lyman Gage and Joseph Medill. His school gradually gains more audience and media attention, most mocking him at first, but showing him more respect as they check the facts that Coin presents throughout his lectures. Coin presents U.S. financial history from 1792 to 1894 mostly from the populists and free silver supporters’ point of view.

The First Day

The first pages of the pamphlet introduced the reader to Coin, a young financier who held a financial school in the Art Institute of Chicago. Coin started his first lecture by outlining the financial problems that plagued the nation at the time. Still suffering from the Panic of 1893, the nation's crime rate, government budget deficit and unemployment remained dangerously high. He then introduced his audience to the basics of coinage in the United States, where in 1792, Congress passed the first Coinage Act. The Coinage Act defined a dollar as 371.25 grains of pure silver, as well as 24.7 grains of pure gold. In this case, both silver and gold were accepted as legal tenders of the United States, with a silver to gold exchange ratio of 15 to 1. The ratio was later changed to 16 to 1. Coin states that the Founding Fathers chose silver as the principal money because it was very commonly used among the working class as well as business owners. Gold was seen as the money of the rich, since the working and middle class rarely owned it, let alone handled it.

At that point, Joseph Medill, an editor from the Chicago Tribune, asked Coin about why only eight million silver dollars were coined during the bimetal period from 1792 to 1873. Coin corrected Medill by stating that it was not eight million silver dollars that were coined, but rather, it was eight million silver dollars that were coined, in addition to the eighty-nine million dollars in other silver coins, Coin added, there were 97 million dollars coined in halves, quarters and dimes¹⁸. Not only that, the United States received about 100 million dollars in foreign silver prior to 1860, further adding to the Treasury's silver reserves. Coin then claimed that silver was leaving the country by 1853 as a result of France establishing a ratio of 15.5 silver to 1 gold for its currency. To combat this, Congress lowered the amount of pure silver in its coins to prevent them from being exported.

Coin then introduced the audience to the "Crime of 1873", when the Fourth Coinage Act was passed. The act demonetized silver, as well as abolished its right to free coinage. Under free coinage, the government purchased and coined any silver that was sold. At the time, most people were using paper money, diminishing the importance of gold and silver coins. This gave the news and the people little reason to care about the demonetization of silver, according to Coin. The law was passed in relative obscurity, as newspapers did not report on it at the time of the law's passage, and then-president Ulysses S. Grant claimed that he did not know that the new law demonetized silver when he signed it into law. Coin concluded his first lesson by criticizing the secrecy that this law was passed with, given the effects it had.

The Second Day

The major newspapers in Chicago were taking note of Coin's first lecture, but all of them dismissed Coin as inconsequential and some others threw insults at the bimetallists such as "fraudulent free silverites" and "blatant orators". Coin started his second lesson in the Art Institute amid the increased media attention. Right after Coin called for start of the lesson, Lyman Gage, a prominent financier, asked Coin how two different metals can be coined at the same value at a fixed ratio when both metals fluctuate in value over time. Coin replied by noting that while prices are determined by the goods’ supply and demand, the government artificially inflated gold and silver's demand with free coinage. Under free coinage, the government took any gold and silver that came, effectively creating unlimited demand. To keep both metals from becoming infinitely expensive, the government artificially set a value for each metal to be used as units of money.

This was disrupted by the Coinage Act of 1873, according to Coin, as eliminating free coinage for silver also eliminated the unlimited demand for silver and its status as the legal tender. This made silver much more vulnerable to the market demands as all goods, including silver, was only redeemable in gold now. Coin then presented a chart to demonstrate the falling price of silver in comparison to gold, from hovering in between 15 and 16 silver per gold until 1873 to 23.72 silver per gold by 1892. Coin then claimed that there were $3,727,018,869 in gold and $3,820,571,346 in silver throughout the world. By eliminating silver as a legal tender, the world reduced its redemption money supply by a little over half, Coin concluded.

The Third Day

Even more people showed interest in Coin's financial school, and more bimetallists joined Coin's lessons every day. Coin started off the day's lecture by distinguishing between the two kinds of credit money: paper money, which include bank notes, and token money, which are forms of metal that do not enjoy free coinage. Credit money was used as promises that the government will redeem the owner with the primary money, which in this case was gold. Coin pointed out that by abolishing free coinage of silver, the government turned silver from one of the primary money to a token money, no longer redeemable by itself. This, in turn, reduced the nation's supply of primary money by half. By reducing the nation's primary money supply, the government effectively rendered many checks and greenback bank notes more volatile, since they were no longer backed by properties, but by speculation and federal government's credit.

Coin then defined the three main forms of credit: credit, checks and bonds. Coin defined credit as paper bills and token money redeemable in primary money, checks as forms of paper payable on demand, and bonds as credit payable at some point in the future. Ideally, one would prefer to keep the amount of the three forms of credit as same as the amount of primary money backing them up. Coin explained that during a period of prosperity, more and more businessmen and entrepreneurs took debts to further investments in their businesses. When too much of the credit money was purchased compared to the available supply of redemption money, this created a loss of confidence in the banks as more and more buyers run to the bank to collect their money and debt payments before the banks run out of money. This, combined with the halved supply of primary money from silver losing its free coinage, made new debt all the riskier.

As silver began to depreciate in comparison to gold, and many properties lost their value in proportion to gold, debts became harder to repay through revenue alone, so more businessmen and farmers had to take on more debt to pay off existing loans, and so on and so forth. Eventually, the collective debt reached over $40 billion, then an unprecedented sum. Farms and cities were mortgaged to pay off the debt, more and more businesses and farms went out of business, and so began the Panic of 1893.

The Fourth Day

The school continued to gain more attention and popularity as more newspapers began to cover the lessons, this time with more positive enthusiasm. It got to the point where Coin had to start charging the audience for admission, and donate the proceedings to charity. Among the first questions directed at Coin involved why the metals were chosen as money in the first place. Coin claimed out that silver in particular was considered more than valuable enough to be money because it can be used in many other settings. Therefore, it had enough intrinsic value that even if the financial system was to collapse, silver would still have value, and money backed by silver continues to retain some of its value should such a thing happen.

Coin was then asked about silver costing about 50 cents an ounce to mine, and how cost of production often dictated a property's value. Coin replied by noting that not all mines struck rich in their operations, and many mines failed as a result of silver sales not keeping up with the cost of machinery and labor.

Another member of the audience asked Coin about the potential of a greenback system. Coin replies that a greenback system, which would rely entirely on a limited supply of paper notes printed by U.S. Mint, could work as long as there is confidence in government credit. With any collapse in confidence, however, the value of each greenback would collapse as well, rendering the system very unstable. While in wartime, people used greenbacks as a result of precious metal being used for the war effort, they avoided financial damage by storing their good money for use later. In this case, it would help to have a currency backed by some kind of commodity more reliable, since the government's credit may not survive the war unscathed. James Sovereign, Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, asked Coin if instead a currency system based on labor instead of commodity may work just as well. Coin replied that it would work similarly to a greenback system, based on government credit and confidence as well, using postage stamps as an example.

When another man asked Coin on whether abolishing tariffs drove down the prices as a result of increased foreign competition, Coin pointed out that since the rest of the world is experiencing the same financial difficulties, United States would gain nothing by charging extra tariffs on foreign goods. In a time of financial crisis, no nation would want its trade restricted by high tariffs. Coin then went on to explain how silver depreciating in value in comparison to gold had deleterious effects on international trade as well. Most South American countries have used silver more commonly than gold up to that point, while England had abandoned silver as legal tender in 1816. Since then, England demanded all debts to be paid in gold, or redeemable to gold. With silver depreciating against gold, more and more silver would leave South American nations who had much more silver than gold in their treasuries. United States was paying England $200 million in interests annually by the 1890s, all in gold or some commodity that must be redeemed in gold. At this point, England had become the creditor nation of the world, and silver nations were finding it harder to repay their loans and bonds as a result of silver values falling against the gold.

The Fifth Day

Coin began his next lecture with three globes on the platform, of varying sizes. He explained that the largest globe represented all the property in the world, which he valued at $450 billion. The smaller two globes represented the combined value of silver and gold in the world, and the amount of gold alone. As Coin has noted before, abolishing free coinage for silver had reduced the amount of the money supply in the world by half. Because of the shrinking supply of money, the price of gold went up, and since every property was now measured in gold, property values dropped against the gold. Coin claimed that as the strongest nations in the world, such as Britain and United States, traded only in gold as of the 1890s, they compelled other nations to either drop their silver standards or trade their silver in their diminished rates.

To demonstrate the unsustainability of the international gold standard, Coin measured up all the gold in the world. The value of all the gold in the world, as Coin cited the latest U.S. Mint estimates, was around $3.9 billion as of 1894. There were 1.4 billion people as of 1894, which meant that the world's gold supply divided up to $2.50 per capita. Coin also shows, with a measuring tape, that $3.9 billion of gold could be measured in a room with a dimension of 22 x 22 x 22 feet, and still have 852 ft³ left. The total quantity of silver, on the other hand, was measured as 66 x 66 x 66 feet, which would add a tremendous amount of money to the world's money supply. Coin remarked that there is no wonder that commodity prices are so low with so little metal to be used as the world's measure of money.

Coin then reminded the audience that it was not the price of commodities that were falling, but rather the prices of commodities were standing still while the value of gold continued to climb. After all, all the properties in the United States were redeemable by gold, meaning that their values were measured by the increasingly expensive gold. To further demonstrate what happened to the value of silver in comparison to gold, Coin cited a hypothetical situation where diamond became the sole legal tender of the United States. A carat of diamond was worth $50.00 in gold in 1894, meaning that should diamond become the main legal tender, all the values in the nation would plummet to 1/50th of their current value. Due to lessening demand and increasing supply of gold, its value would start to fluctuate along with silver in relation to the diamond. Coin pointed out that while the property of commodities plummeted, the amount of debt owed did not, and the lower prices made the collective debt harder to pay off. He illustrated the point with an example of a wheat farmer. The farmer has seen the price of wheat fall from $1.40 per bushel in 1873 to $0.50 per bushel in 1893, while the prices of fares, hotel, coffee and even interests the same as before as he tries to file his taxes in the big city.

A Parable

Before the sixth lecture, the author included a little tale of a family of quails living in a wheat field. When the wheat was ready to be harvested, the mother quail told her children to wait. When the wheat grew riper, and the farmer suggested that he will bring some friends to cut the wheat, the mother once again told her children to wait. Only when the wheat was so ripe that it was ready to fall does the farmer decide to cut the wheat himself, and this prompted the mother quail to move the family elsewhere.

The Sixth Day

Coin's demonstration of the size of all the gold in the world gained attention throughout the city, and prominent newspapers confirmed his report as true. Before a crowd of thousands gathering in the Art Institute, Coin began a fiery speech on the ills brought upon by the abandonment of bimetallism, and lamented the role England has had regarding America's switch to the gold standard. From there, he called for a war with England over the issue, charging that America was forced to pay $200 million in interests to England every year, an amount that is becoming harder to pay off as a result of the Panic of 1893. He also criticized the proponents of the gold standard within the United States, who believe England will return to bimetallism on its own. That was despite the fact that England raked in major profits by forcing other nations to make transactions redeemable in gold only. In making these points, Coin called for a trade war with England, with promises of the backing of fellow silver nations such as France, most of South America, India and Mexico. In this trade war, Coin proposed that United States use its position as England's leading trade partner to raise tariffs and force England to switch back to bimetallism if they want American money back to its economy. Coin rallied the crowd to back a trade war with England, and lobby Congress for bimetallism for the good of the U.S. economy. With that, Coin concluded his financial school.

The game begins with The Project sending three teams (Alpha, Beta, and Gamma) to gather technology that would help with reconstruction; the player assumes command of Team Alpha in Arizona. While gathering pre-war "artifacts", the Project fends off attacks from an organization called the New Paradigm, another major survivalist organisation, which is more advanced than the player's forces. Later however, it is discovered that a self-aware computer virus named 'Nexus' is actually controlling the New Paradigm.

After the player defeats the New Paradigm, they are assigned to Team Beta, which is based in Chicago and under attack by a faction called 'The Collective'. Again, the player starts out less advanced than 'The Collective' and it is discovered that Nexus is controlling this faction too. At the end of the campaign, Nexus launches nuclear missiles at Alpha and Beta bases, prompting the player to abandon the facility and move to the Gamma base.

Upon arriving at Gamma base, the player is immediately ambushed by the Gamma forces, which have already been taken over by Nexus. After the player survives the ambush and develops countermeasures to 'Nexus' infection, Nexus takes control of the remaining NASDA satellites and attempts to destroy the player. However, before he can succeed, the Project captures a NASDA missile site, and shoots down the orbiting laser weapons. It is learned that the scientist Dr. Reed, who was bankrupted by the US military, transformed himself into the Nexus virus and was responsible for the nuclear holocaust by infiltrating the 'NASDA' systems. At this point, the survivors of the Alpha and Beta bases arrive, and the three Project teams launch a full-scale assault on Nexus. The Project destroys Nexus and can begin rebuilding civilization.

In the city of , protected by the dragon siblings Latias and Latios. Their father, also a Latios, is said to have saved the city from an evil Pokémon Trainer and their Kabutops and Aerodactyl whilst transforming the city's streets into canals. The citizens built the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare (D.M.A. for short) to protect the city if necessary, but have never had to use it. The father Latios died, leaving behind the , said to contain his own soul and can power the D.M.A.

In the present day, Team Rocket agents and acquire a book detailing the history of Alto Mare, plotting to control the D.M.A. Ash, Misty, and Brock are touring by and see an invisible Latias. Annie and Oakley stalk Latias, disguised as a human girl, trying to capture her using their Espeon and Ariados. Ash and Pikachu come to the rescue, guiding Latias to safety but she vanishes when Ash's back is turned.

Visiting the museum, the trio meet the curator who details Alto Mare's history, the D.M.A., and the evil trainer's fossilized Pokémon on display. Ash spots a girl, , who resembles Latias' disguise, and chases her across the city, but she does not recognize him. Latias herself appears, guiding Ash and Pikachu to a hidden garden where she and Latios live, protected by Lorenzo and Bianca, his granddaughter. While Pikachu plays with Latias and Latios, Lorenzo shows Ash the Soul Dew, unaware that Annie and Oakley's drone has infiltrated the sanctuary.

That night, Annie and Oakley sneak into the garden, successfully capturing Latios and the Soul Dew, but Latias escapes. Bianca and Lorenzo attempt to stop the thieves from using the D.M.A. but are captured, the Soul Dew and Latios are used to power the machine. Latias goes to Ash for help, with Latios' "Sight Sharing" ability allowing them to witness the events in the museum. Oakley becomes power hungry, using the D.M.A. to revive the Kabutops and Aerodactyl, and initiates a citywide lockdown to prevent interference. Ash, Pikachu, and Latias evade the lockdown, racing to the museum while being pursued by the Kabutops and Aerodactyl.

Oakley tries to drown the trio, but Latias' psychic powers cause the D.M.A. to go out of control. Reaching the museum, the trio rescue Latios and shut down the machine. However, Annie tries to take the blackened Soul Dew, which shatters, causing all of the city's water to flow out and return as a tidal wave. Latias and Latios combine their powers to stop the wave, with Latios giving his life in the process. The Kabutops and Aerodactyl are returned to their fossilized states, while Annie and Oakley remain trapped in the D.M.A..

Ash and friends find Latias, realizing Latios has died, but they share one last vision as he passes away. Several days later, Ash, Misty and Brock get ready to leave Alto Mare, saying goodbye to Lorenzo, but Bianca does not appear. On their way out of the city, they spot Bianca on the docks but she isn't wearing her hat (her hat is left back in her studio). Bianca gives Ash a sketch of him and Pikachu, kisses him on the cheek, and leaves without saying a word, Ash bids her goodbye and Brock and Misty are left wondering whether the girl was Bianca or Latias.

Annie and Oakley are soon saved by authorities and sent to prison, where they go through the possessions of Lawrence III.

To honour Julius Caesar's successful campaigns of conquest, gifts are brought to Rome from across the Roman Empire. Seeking to cement the celebrations, Caesar orders Caius Fatuous, head of a prominent gladiator school, to provide him with a grand show. Meanwhile in Gaul, Asterix notices that his friend Obelix has begun acting strangely. Getafix soon reveals that he is in love with Panacea, Chief Vitalstatistix's niece, who had recently returned. Attempting to win her affections, Obelix becomes distraught when she is reunited with Tragicomix, a much younger and handsome man who intends to marry her. Seeking to spend time together, the two lovers venture out into nearby woods, only to be ambushed by a group of Romans, led by a fresh recruit hoping to make a good impression.

When Asterix and Obelix discover what happened, they inform the village, who proceed to attack the garrison. In the aftermath, the camp's Centurion is questioned. He reveals that he angrily ordered the recruit to take his prisoners away, knowing of the consequences that the recruit's actions would bring. Asterix and Obelix, joined by Dogmatix, proceed to the nearest Legion HQ for information on where the recruit went. Upon learning he was dispatched to a distant outpost in the Sahara Desert with his prisoners, they join the army in order to follow after them. Arriving at the desert frontier, the pair learn that Panacea and Tragicomix escaped from the Romans before their arrival, and after deserting the Romans, soon discover that a band of slave traders found them and sold them on to Rome.

Securing passage to the Roman capital, Asterix and Obelix learn that Panacea and Tragicomix were bought by Caius. The pair attempt to meet with him at a bathhouse, causing Caius to witness them beating up his bodyguards easily. Impressed, he orders his men to capture them for his show. Following a small argument with his friend that causes him to misplace his magic potion, Asterix is kidnapped by Caius' men. When Obelix discovers he is missing, he proceeds to seek him out, rescuing him from a flooded cell. However Dogmatix goes missing, after running off into the city's sewers to recover the magic potion. Without both, the pair continue to seek out Panacea and Tragicomix and quickly learn that, under Caesar's orders, Caius arranged for them to become the grand finale of the emperor's show at the Colosseum.

Seeking to gain entry, the pair go to Caius' school and secure places as gladiators the following day. The Gauls soon quickly make a mess of the show, winning a chariot race and easily beating down a number of gladiators. As lions are released to kill them, alongside Tragicomix and Panacea, Dogmatix arrives with the magic potion. The group defeat the lions with the potion, while Obelix, distracted by Panacea, accidentally shatters a third of the Colosseum. Impressed with the show, Caesar grants the Gauls their freedom and gets Caius fed to the lions in their place. Returning home, the group arrive to their village's trademark victory feast being held in their honour. As the villagers celebrate, Asterix sits alone in a tree, after having somewhat fallen for Panacea on his return.

''Pikachu's Rescue Adventure''

As in Pikachu's Vacation, all of the faces of the main human characters are unseen. When Togepi wakes up to see a group of Ledyba flying by it yawns and falls back down a hill and falls down a dark hole, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Marill, Venonat, and Psyduck give chase and find themselves in a giant tree that once was Pikachu's old home. With help from Pikachu's new friend, Elekid, the Pokémon find Togepi but he has been mistaken for an Exeggcute egg. The Pokémon head off into the depths of the tree to find the missing egg, meeting a trio of dancing Bellossom along the way. A severe storm hits the area and Pikachu and his friends try to protect the Exeggcute eggs from being blown away. The grass Pokémon lend a hand and Snorlax saves everyone with his great strength. The storm fades when a Dragonair appears and calms the storm while a Chansey appears, revealing she had the missing egg all along. The eggs are reunited. Exeggcute suddenly evolves into Exeggutor with the assistance of a Leaf Stone. Pikachu and his friends say farewell to Elekid and the others and head back to their trainers. Meanwhile, Meowth tries to find his way to a campsite but ends up getting caught on Pikachu's mishaps and gives up.

''The Power of One''

Lawrence III, a Pokémon collector, strives to make a legendary prophecy occur. His plan to capture the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres will ultimately lead to the capture of the "Beast of the Sea" Lugia. Lawrence sets out in his flying hovercraft to the heart of the Orange Islands to capture the three legendary birds, referred to as the Titans of Fire, Ice and Lightning. He successfully captures Moltres, but this upsets the balance of power the birds have over the world's climate. Weather across the world begins to go haywire, alerting countless Pokémon to the change. Ash Ketchum and his companions Misty and Tracey Sketchit get caught in a freak storm, and are washed ashore on Shamouti, set in the centre of the Orange Islands. Learning that the island festival celebrating the legend is about to begin, Ash is selected as the festival's Chosen One by a girl named Melody, the festival maiden.

At the festival's banquet, Melody explains to Ash he must retrieve three crystal balls from each of the legendary birds' islands and take them to Shamouti's shrine, guarded by a talking Slowking, where Melody will end his task by playing the festival's song, actually the song of Lugia. Ash immediately sets out, led by the troubled Pikachu. Taken to Fire Island by sea captain Maren, Ash and Pikachu find Moltres' treasure, but are interrupted by Team Rocket. Misty, Tracey and Melody arrive via Melody's multi-purpose boat, followed by Zapdos who has come to claim the island. Lawrence appears overhead, attacking and capturing Zapdos as well as Ash and co. accidentally. Meanwhile, Professor Oak, Professor Ivy, and Ash's mother Delia Ketchum fly to the islands but their helicopter crashes on Shamouti. Lawrence frees Ash and the others and attempts to capture Articuno, accidentally awakening Lugia in the process. Trying to foil Lawrence's plans, Ash and the others free Moltres and Zapdos who escape and bring down Lawrence's hovercraft.

Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres engage in all out war, trying to destroy each other. Ash and co. manage to escape, gaining Zapdos' treasure in the process, and are transported back to Shamouti by a mysterious water spout revealed to be Lugia. Lugia at first tries to stop the battle, but is outmatched by the birds' powers combined against it. Telepathically it then explains the birds and the weather can be stopped by the legend's Chosen One, actually Ash in reality. Ash agrees to go to Articuno's island to get the final treasure, but his progress is halted by the legendary birds. Team Rocket arrive on a speedboat made from a dingy and the helicopter's discarded propeller, wishing to save the world in order to continue their villainy. The group race up to Articuno's shrine and retrieve the treasure, but before they can escape, the legendary birds appear. They destroy the speedboat before Articuno is knocked out by Moltres and Zapdos. Lugia rescues Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket, but Team Rocket heroically jump into the sea upon realising they are slowing Lugia down. Lawrence tries to catch Lugia, but Lugia uses its Aeroblast attack to destroy his airship and take out Moltres and Zapdos before collapsing into the sea.

Misty and Tracey rescue Ash and Pikachu, who venture to Shamouti Island's shrine and place the final treasure with the others. Melody plays Lugia's song, ending the storms and bringing peace to the legendary birds. Lugia rises from the sea, bringing the true Beast of the Sea with him, an underwater current that has been altering the climate. Later, after the birds returned to their islands, Lugia departs after thanking Ash. Delia and the professors arrive. Delia, having witnessed her son's actions, asks him to be more careful which he complies with. Lawrence laments his decisions, deciding to start his collection again. Team Rocket reach the island a day later and are told by Slowking that the audience saw their heroics; the trio contemplates changing their ways but ultimately decide to stay the same when they realize their boss might not like the idea.

The story is about judge Rachel Cutler and her husband Paul, a divorced American couple caught up in a treasure hunt for the long-missing Amber Room. A couple of competitive professional treasure hunters complicate matters. In their search through Germany to uncover the secrets behind its disappearance, they escape near-death in the tunnels running through the Harz Mountains, find themselves hanging off the edge of a tall church steeple, and discover a surprise in a hidden chamber of a Bohemian castle in the Czech Republic.

''World at the End of Time'' follows the story of a young Earth-born human, Viktor Sorricaine, on a colony expedition to a distant star system. The colonists are frozen for the long trip between stars. Unknown to both the humans of Earth and the colonists, the stars around them are home to immensely long-lived (effectively immortal) plasma creatures—with no knowledge of, or interest in, the activities of insignificant matter creatures.

Wan-To, one of the oldest and most powerful plasma creatures, is engaged in a war. After creating modified copies of himself, or "children", for company, Wan-To finds himself in a deadly game of chess with them. The "board" is the entire galaxy and the weapons are the stars themselves. Each star may be home to an enemy "child"; using a variety of exotic particles, Wan-To is able to cause a targeted star to flare and kill any enemy that may be living within it. Some time after the colonists have left Earth, its own sun falls victim to the war, being made to explode with humanity on Earth being destroyed as collateral damage. The colonists are thus the only humans left.

Into the middle of this battlefield, the three colony ships (''Ark'', ''New Mayflower'' and ''Argosy'') unwittingly head for their new home. Upon arriving, the colony begins to establish itself ... only to discover that their entire local group of stars appears to be undergoing a bizarre acceleration, and are dimming. After a disastrous disease outbreak and terraforming failures, the desperate colonists eventually decide to investigate the strange radiation emissions from a small world within their solar system.

Upon arriving in orbit, their ship is badly damaged and Viktor is forced into the onboard freezer systems. They are eventually rescued and unfrozen four hundred of the colony's years later, to find the colony in an even more desperate situation. The star around which the colony's world orbits has dimmed considerably (owing to the energy being siphoned off to accelerate it) and they are now travelling so fast that, because of relativistic effects, the universe around them has shrunk to a bright dot. The colony has become factionalized and heavily religious, with scientific investigation discouraged.

Viktor is eventually frozen again for attempting to investigate why they have been accelerating. He wakes four thousand of the colony's years later, to find the far descendants of the colony have rebuilt their society into habitats closely orbiting the dim star (a brown dwarf) and created a high-technology civilization dedicated to pleasure and comfort. He makes his way, eventually, to the former colony to find only a few fellow-colonists unfrozen and attempting to rebuild it. His unique status as someone who was born on "old Earth" brings publicity to their efforts and the rebuilding forges ahead.

During the four thousand years of Viktor's frozen sleep, the star system has been slowed again. After the vast amount of time that has passed, all that remains of the once young universe are dead stars and black holes, with Wan-To desperately surviving on the energy provided by proton decay. Wan-To receives a tachyon transmission from his long-forgotten systems and makes preparations to move into these last remaining stars — believing that the small matter creatures inhabiting the system are irrelevant and can be destroyed as a result should they become an irritation.

The origins of the narrator and the protagonist in the fictitious small town of Kaisersaschern on the Saale, the name of Zeitblom's apothecary father, Wohlgemut, and the description of Adrian Leverkühn as an old-fashioned German type, with a cast of features "from a time before the Thirty Years' War", evoke the old post-medieval Germany. In their respective Catholic and Lutheran origins, and theological studies, they are heirs to the German Renaissance and the world of Dürer and Bach, but sympathetic to, and admired by, the "keen-scented receptivity of Jewish circles".

They are awakened to musical knowledge by Wendell Kretzschmar, a German American lecturer and musicologist who visits Kaisersaschern. After schooling together, both boys study at Halle – Adrian studies theology; Zeitblom does not, but participates in discussions with the theological students – but Adrian becomes absorbed in musical harmony, counterpoint and polyphony as a key to metaphysics and mystic numbers, and follows Kretzschmar to Leipzig to study with him.

Zeitblom describes "with a religious shudder" Adrian's embrace with the woman who gave him syphilis (whom Adrian names "Esmeralda" after the butterfly that fascinates his father), how he worked her name in note-ciphers into his compositions, and how the medics who sought to heal him were all prevented from effecting a cure by mysterious and deadly interventions. Zeitblom begins to perceive the demonic, as Adrian develops other friendships, first with the translator Rüdiger Schildknapp, and then after his move to Munich with the handsome young violinist Rudi Schwerdtfeger, Frau Rodde and her doomed daughters Clarissa and Ines, a numismatist named Dr. Kranich, and two artists named Leo Zink and Baptist Spengler.

Zeitblom insists, however, on the unique closeness of his own relationship to Adrian, for he remains the only person whom the composer addresses by the familiar pronoun. Adrian meets the Schweigestill family at Pfeiffering in the country an hour from Munich, which later becomes his permanent home and retreat. While a fictional town, Mann based Pfeiffering on the actual Bavarian town of Polling.

He lives at Palestrina in Italy with Schildknapp in 1912, and Zeitblom visits them. It is there that Adrian, working on music for an operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Love's Labour's Lost'', has his long dialogue with a Mephistopheles figure who appears either objectively or out of his own afflicted soul. In these central pages, the fulcrum of the story, Zeitblom presents Adrian's manuscript of the conversation. The demon, speaking in archaic German, claims Esmeralda as the instrument by which he entraps Adrian and offers him twenty-four years' life as a genius – the supposed incubation period of his syphilis – if he will now renounce the warmth of love. The dialogue reveals the anatomy of Leverkühn's thought.

Adrian then moves permanently to Pfeiffering, and in conversations with Zeitblom confesses a darker view of life. Figures of a demonic type appear, such as Dr. Chaim Breisacher, to cast down the idols of the older generation.

In 1915, Ines Rodde marries, but forms an adulterous love for Rudi Schwerdtfeger. Adrian begins to experience illnesses of retching, headaches and migraines, but is producing new and finer music, preparing the way for his great work, the oratorio ''Apocalypsis cum Figuris'' ('The Apocalypse with Figures'). Schwerdtfeger woos himself into Adrian's solitude, asking for a violin concerto that would be like the offspring of their platonic union.

By August 1919 Adrian has completed the sketch of ''Apocalypsis''. There is also a new circle of intellectual friends, including Sextus Kridwiss, the art-expert; Chaim Breisacher; Dr. Egon Unruhe, the palaeozoologist; Georg Vogler, a literary historian; Dr. Holzschuher, a Dürer scholar; and the saturnine poet Daniel zur Höhe. In their discussions they declare the need for the renunciation of bourgeois softness and a preparation for an age of pre-medieval harshness. Adrian writes to Zeitblom that collectivism is the true antithesis of Bourgeois culture; Zeitblom observes that aestheticism is the herald of barbarism.

''Apocalypsis'' is performed in Frankfurt in 1926 under Otto Klemperer with 'Erbe' as the St. John narrator. Zeitblom describes the work as filled with longing without hope, with hellish laughter transposed and transfigured even into the searing tones of spheres and angels.

Adrian, producing the concerto which Rudi solicited, attempts to evade his contract and obtain a wife by employing Rudi as the messenger of his love. She however prefers Rudi himself, and not Adrian. Soon afterwards Rudi is shot dead in a tram by Ines out of jealousy. As Adrian begins to plan the second oratorio ''The Lamentation of Doctor Faustus'', in 1928, his sister's child Nepomuk is sent to live with him. The boy, who calls himself "Echo", is beloved by all.

As the work of gigantic dimensions develops in Adrian's mind, the child falls ill and dies, and Adrian, despairing, believes that by gazing at him with love, in violation of his contract, he has killed him with poisonous and hellish influences.

The score of the ''Lamentation'' is completed in 1930, Adrian summons his friends and guests, and instead of playing the music he relates the story of his infernal contract, and descends into the brain disease which lasts until his death ten years later.

Zeitblom visits him occasionally, and survives to witness the collapse of Germany's "dissolute triumphs" as he tells the story of his friend.

Eleven-year-old Phelim Green awakes to find his house full of small creatures, led by the Domovoy which has been living behind his stove. As the Domovoy explains to Phelim that the monsters attacking him are called 'hatchlings', the house is attacked by a monstrous black dog. The Domovoy saves Phelim from being eaten, but evicts him from his house.

Confused, Phelim wanders into a forest, where he meets a tree-dwelling tramp named Mad Sweeney, and later sees a washerwoman cleaning a bloody shirt. He flees in terror, encountering Alexia, a strange girl with no shadow, on a bridge. They are attacked by a hatchling that uses treasure to lure Phelim into the river. The pair are saved by Sweeney, who explains that the hatchlings come from ‘stones’ hatched by a gigantic Stoor Worm buried under Europe, which has been awoken by the sound of artillery from the First World War. Alexia tells Phelim that he is 'Jack O'Green', the hero fated to stop the worm from destroying Europe, helped by the Maiden, the Fool, and the Horse.

After performing a spell to summon the Horse, Phelim, Alexia and Sweeney are joined by a talking creature made of cloth called the Obby Oss. It takes them to Storidge, where the Worm's head is. Upon arrival, the trio undertake a variety of quests before discovering that Mr. Pringle, the Storidge librarian, has taken control of the town and is forcing its residents to perform ancient rituals to ward off the hatchlings. Pringle learns that Phelim is Jack O’Green and convinces him to take part in a tradition of carrying a burning bale of straw across the town. Alexia takes the bale from him and tries to continue the ritual, but it sets her on fire and she dies.

Sweeney and Phelim use Alexia's bones to make a ‘witch’s ladder’ which they use to climb the cliff up to the Stoor Worm's head. At the top of the cliff, Phelim sees the Worm's soul wandering out of her mouth as she dreams; he attacks it and throws into the sea, killing the Worm. Sweeney and Phelim resurrect Alexia, but she is not the same, so they change her name to Aisling, meaning ‘dream’.

Phelim returns home and confronts his older sister Prudence. He discovers that his father didn't die, as she had always told him; he was a dreamer, which Prudence hated, so after their mother died, she had him committed to an asylum. Angry, Phelim summons the ushtey, a water spirit, and tricks Prudence into riding it. It carries her away to the ocean, where she presumably drowns. As the story ends, Phelim and Aisling go to the asylum, where they find that his father is the gardener.

The son of the Duke and Duchess of Avon, the Marquis of Vidal is known as Devil's Cub not only for the excesses of his father but for his own wild habits. As he is paying court to a girl of the ''bourgeoisie'', Sophia Challoner, he also participates in a rather impromptu duel, the outcome of which forces him to leave the country. He intends to bring Sophia with him as his mistress: but her strait-laced sister Mary has no intention of allowing her sister to be ruined, and takes her place, assuming that the Marquis will let her go once the mistake is discovered, leaving him with no chance to take Sophia afterwards. But she has not yet obtained the measure of the Marquis's personality, for in the grip of fury he takes Mary off with him instead, and only when they are in France and it is too late for either to turn back does he realise that by abducting a respectable girl he has compromised her and is obliged to offer her marriage.

However, Mary refuses Vidal because she believes he is making the offer from guilt and as she has fallen in love with him she finds this intolerable. In her misery, she runs away, intending to seek her own fortune. While away, she meets Vidal's father, the Duke of Avon, by chance, and takes him into her confidence without realising that she is talking to Avon - who is an old crony of her grandfather's and has come to France to investigate the rumours surrounding his son and scotch any scandal. The two reach an excellent understanding, with Avon clearly coming to respect Mary.

Vidal pursues, and ultimately realizes he loves her, persuading her to marry him — in spite of Avon's dry observation that she could do better.

Heyer's ''An Infamous Army'' is a sequel to ''Devil's Cub.''

The horrific tragedy, set in 1599 in Rome, of a young woman executed for premeditated murder of her tyrannical father, was a well-known true story handed down orally and documented in the ''Annali d'Italia'', a twelve-volume chronicle of Italian history written by Ludovico Antonio Muratori in 1749. The events occurred during the Pontificate of Pope Clement VIII.

Shelley was first drawn to dramatize the tale after viewing Guido Reni's portrait of Beatrice Cenci, a painting that intrigued Shelley's poetic imagination.

'''Act I'''

The play opens with Cardinal Camillo discussing with Count Francesco Cenci a murder in which Cenci is implicated. Camillo tells Cenci that the matter will be hushed up if Cenci will relinquish a third of his possessions, his property beyond the Pincian gate, to the Church. Count Cenci has sent two of his sons, Rocco and Cristofano, to Salamanca, Spain in the expectation that they will die of starvation. The Count's virtuous daughter, Beatrice, and Orsino, a prelate in love with Beatrice, discuss petitioning the Pope to relieve the Cenci family from the Count's brutal rule. Orsino withholds the petition, however, revealing himself to be disingenuous, lustful for Beatrice, and greedy. After he hears the news that his sons have been brutally killed in Salamanca, the Count holds a feast in celebration of their deaths, commanding his guests to revel with him. Cenci drinks wine which he imagines as "my children's blood" which he "did thirst to drink!" During the feast, Beatrice pleads with the guests to protect her family from her sadistic father, but the guests refuse, in fear of Cenci's brutality and retribution.

'''Act II'''

Count Cenci torments Beatrice and her stepmother, Lucretia, and announces his plan to imprison them in his castle in Petrella. A servant returns Beatrice's petition to the Pope, unopened, and Beatrice and Lucretia despair over the last hope of salvation from the Count. Orsino encourages Cenci's son, Giacomo, upset over Cenci's appropriation of Giacomo's wife's dowry, to murder Cenci.

'''Act III'''

Beatrice reveals to Lucretia that the Count has committed an unnameable act against her and expresses feelings of spiritual and physical contamination, implying Cenci's incestuous rape of his daughter. Orsino and Lucretia agree with Beatrice's suggestion that the Count must be murdered. After the first attempt at patricide fails because Cenci arrives early, Orsino conspires with Beatrice, Lucretia, and Giacomo, in a second assassination plot. Orsino proposes that two of Cenci's ill-treated servants, Marzio and Olimpio, carry out the murder.

'''Act IV'''

The scene shifts to the Petrella Castle in the Apulian Apennines. Olimpio and Marzio enter Cenci's bedchamber to murder him but hesitate to kill the sleeping Count and return to the conspirators with the deed undone. Threatening to kill Cenci herself, Beatrice shames the servants into action, and Olimpio and Marzio strangle the Count and throw his body out of the room off the balcony, where it is entangled in a pine. Shortly thereafter, Savella, a papal legate, arrives with a murder charge and execution order against Cenci. Upon finding the Count's dead body, the legate arrests the conspirators, with the exception of Orsino, who escapes in disguise.

'''Act V'''

The suspects are taken for trial for murder in Rome. Marzio is tortured and confesses to the murder, implicating Cenci's family members. Despite learning that Lucretia and Giacomo have also confessed, Beatrice refuses to do so, steadfastly insisting on her innocence. At the trial, all of the conspirators are found guilty and sentenced to death. Bernardo, another of Cenci's sons, attempts a futile last-minute appeal to the Pope to have mercy on his family. The Pope is reported to have declared: "They must die." The play concludes with Beatrice walking stoically to her execution for murder. Her final words are: "We are quite ready. Well, 'tis very well."

The film opens with Welles performing magic tricks for some children while Kodar watches nearby. Welles quotes Robert-Houdin to the effect that a magician is just an actor. Welles promises that for the next hour everything in the film will be based on solid fact. Kodar is then shown strolling around a street in a miniskirt while being ogled by the men on the street. Welles reveals the footage is taken from another experiment about girl-watching, where Kodar deliberately drew attention to herself and the men were unaware they were being filmed. Welles says her story will continue later in the film, and then narrates the story of Elmyr de Hory, an art forger who sold many fake paintings to museums and collectors all over the world. De Hory is shown throwing a dinner party at his home in Ibiza and being feted by European society, although he dances around the question of whether he is guilty or not. One of those filmed is Clifford Irving, who had published a biography of de Hory called ''Fake'', and was later revealed to have been the forger of a fake "authorized biography" of Howard Hughes. Welles discusses the irony of Irving commenting on de Hory's forgery while having committed a version of it himself (Welles states his belief that Irving must have been in the process of working on the hoax at the time he was filmed for the de Hory project). Irving and de Hory tell about the art dealers who were fooled by the forgeries, and Welles considers the question whether this means art dealers and appraisers are fake also.

Welles presents more of Irving's story of having had secret contact with Hughes, and the odd stories of Hughes's behavior that may or may not have been true. He wonders if believing such stories makes a person credulous or not, and questions the true wisdom of so-called experts, who verified Irving's forgery as authentic. Reichenbach is shown telling how de Hory provided him with several paintings of questionable authenticity, but the art dealers he gave them to were willfully blind to it. Welles notes that de Hory does not even own the house he lives in; it is provided for him by an art dealer. Welles recounts his own past use of fakery: how he got a job in Ireland by falsely claiming to be a famous New York actor, and how his broadcast of ''The War of the Worlds'' made deliberate use of fake news to enhance the story. He also notes the coincidence that his first film ''Citizen Kane'' was originally going to be a fictionalized version of Howard Hughes.

Irving describes how de Hory was nearly destitute when younger and subsisted in America by making and selling forgeries that were indistinguishable from the real works, while remaining one step ahead of the law through frequent relocations. He finally moved to Ibiza, but was not prosecuted for lack of witnesses to the actual forging, as well as the scandal that might be aroused by revealing the depth of the art market's complicity in the deception. de Hory insists he never signed any forgery, and Welles wonders whether, given the fact that all art eventually falls away to ruin, a signature truly matters to any art work. He illustrates the point by shots of the cathedral of Chartres, pointing out that the names of the men who created the magnificent building and the sculptures which adorn it are unknown. They did not sign their work, but it has endured.

Welles finally presents Kodar's story: she holidayed in the same village as Picasso, who noticed her and painted 22 pieces with her as the model. She insisted she be allowed to keep the paintings, but later when Picasso read about an acclaimed exhibit of 22 new pieces of his, he flew there in a rage, only to discover the pieces were all forgeries. Kodar took Picasso to her grandfather, the forger. In a verbal re-enactment by Welles (grandfather) and Kodar (Picasso), the forger defended his work with pride, saying he invented a new Picasso period. The grandfather suggests that the forgeries go un-reported, to allow him an artistic legacy that Picasso already has. Picasso angrily demanded the paintings back, which is impossible because the grandfather had burned them. Welles then confesses that he had promised everything in the "next hour" was true, and that hour had already passed. He admits the entire story of Kodar, her grandfather, and Picasso was made up. He apologizes, quotes Picasso's statement that art is a lie that makes us see the truth, and bids the audience good evening.

''Watching'' was set in Merseyside, with Brenda from Liverpool and Malcolm from Meols on the Wirral, the "posh" part of Merseyside on the other side of the River Mersey. The title refers to Brenda and her sister Pamela's hobby of "people watching", and to Malcolm's hobby of birdwatching, which initially Brenda endures rather than enjoys, but later comes to appreciate. Following the idea, the episode titles are verbs in the ‘-ing’ form.

Quiet biker Malcolm, who lived with his domineering mother (played by Patsy Byrne), was accompanied on his birdwatching trips by loud scouser Brenda, who was forced to ride in the sidecar of his Norton motorbike and had a habit of rubbing his mother up the wrong way. Other key characters in the series were Brenda's sister Pamela (Liza Tarbuck), her boyfriend (later husband) David (John Bowler – Series 2 onwards) and Brenda and Pam's mother Joyce (played by Noreen Kershaw) in the last few series. The series followed Malcolm and Brenda's on/off relationship, during which Malcolm married another woman called Lucinda (played by Elizabeth Morton). However, Brenda and Malcolm finally married each other in the final episode, "Knotting", which was broadcast on 4 April 1993.

The series ran for 54 30-minute episodes over 7 series, plus two 60-minute special extended episodes.

Forces TV began airing the series again in March 2022.

''Parasite Dolls'' is set in the original ''Bubblegum Crisis'' universe, taking place shortly after the events of the original OVA series. It focuses on a division of A.D. Police called Branch that is tasked with stopping terrorist activities and destroying Boomers that are a threat to society.

Florante's tale

The son of a princess and a royal adviser, Florante grew up in happiness, showered with love. He liked to play games when he was six years old, and was almost captured by a vulture that entered in their mountain cottage, which was also followed by the attack of a falcon. He was saved by his cousin Menalipo, an archer from Epirus.

When he turned eleven, his parents, Duke Briseo and Princess Floresca, sent him to Athens, Greece to study under Antenor, a renowned teacher. There, he met Adolfo, a fellow countryman, the brightest student in their school. After five months of studying Astrology, Philosophy and Mathematics, Florante surpassed Adolfo's capabilities, talents, and intelligence, gaining popularity.

While performing during a school contest, Adolfo attempted to kill Florante because of his jealousy towards Florante's popularity. Florante's friend, Menandro, was quick enough to intervene. Adolfo headed home to Albania after his failed attempt. One year later, Florante received a letter from his father, announcing the death of his mother. Florante fainted for 2 hours from the grief.

Seven months later, Florante receives a second letter from his father telling him to return to Albania. Menandro, unwilling to be separated from him and allowed by his uncle Antenor, he accompanied him on his journey. Upon his arrival to Albania, an emissary of the kingdom of Krotona requested his assistance in the incoming war against the Persians. Florante had not the will to refuse, for the King of Crotona was his grandfather. During his stay in Albania, Florante was invited to the royal palace and was glamoured of Laura, the daughter of King Linceo. He stared at her for hours forgetting about the war then lost.

Months later coming to the aid of Crotona, Florante fought with the Persian general Osmalik for five hours, finally slaying him in the end. He stayed in Crotona for five months before returning to Albania to see Laura. He was surprised by the sight of a Persian flag waving atop the kingdom. He recaptured the palace and saved his father, the King, and Count Adolfo. He also saved Laura from being beheaded from the hands of the Emir and was declared "Defender of Albania" for his bravery, deepening Adolfo's envy and hatred.

Florante protected the kingdom once more from the Turkish forces under General Miramolin, an acclaimed conqueror. This took place in Aetolia, where he later received a letter from his father summoning him back to Albania. He left his troops in the care of his friend, Menandro, and upon returning, he was ambushed by 30,000 soldiers under Adolfo's orders and was imprisoned for 18 days. There, he learned of the tragic fate of his father and the king who were beheaded under Adolfo. Florante was then exiled into the forest and tied to the tree.

Aladin's tale

After Florante finishes his story, it was Aladin's turn to recount his life. He first introduces himself as Prince Aladin of the Persian kingdom, son of Sultan Ali-Adab.

While walking through the forest, Aladin tells about his fiancée, Flerida. Unbeknown to him at that time, his father also desired Flerida. After returning home from a battle (revealed to be the battle of Florante and General Osmalik), Ali-Adab imprisoned the Prince, using his abandonment of his troops as the reason, and the eventual loss made the latter order a decapacitation of Aladin.

In a turn of events, Aladin was released by a general on orders from his father, with the constraint that he may never enter the kingdom again. Heartbroken, he unknowingly walks to the forest where Florante was tied up.

Reunion and peace

Aladin's speech is interrupted when they hear voices. A woman narrates her escape from a kingdom and a marriage. She speaks of her search for her beloved, a search which lasted six years. She shares that while deep in the forest, she heard cries for help, and upon finding a lady about to be tortured, she uses her bow and arrow to kill the assailant. The woman introduces herself as Flerida.

The lady saved by Flerida is revealed to be Laura, who begins to tell her story. While her love was away at war, Count Adolfo used deceit to gain popularity and turned the people of Albania against their king. Count Adolfo then rose to the throne, forcing Laura to be his queen. An army under Menandro, Florante's childhood friend, was able to overthrow Adolfo from power. Seeing all was lost, Adolfo fled into the woods with Laura as his hostage.

After hearing all this, Florante and Aladin reunite with their loved ones. Florante and Laura return to Albania to rule as king and queen. Aladin and Flerida returned to Persia, where Aladin became the new sultan as his father died of depression because Flerida had left him. Aladin and Flerida are then baptized into the Catholic faith, and the two kingdoms lived in harmony and peace.

The ups and downs of marriage and commitment are realized as Florence and Chet Keefer recount their marriage to the divorce judge. As the judge attempts to decipher whether or not their love for one another is gone, key moments of their lives together are recalled.

Florence and Chet came close to making it big at various times, and suffered when those opportunities were lost. But the biggest stressor on their marriage occurred when their son drowned in a lake. They recover from his death as well as they can, and Florrie returns to work while Chet is recuperating from an injury. When Florrie's former boss leaves her a lot of money in his will, Chet is concerned about what the context might have been. They fight over the money, and though their daughter tries to stop their arguments, things boil to a head. When they go to their family for advice, it seems divorce makes the most sense.

After talking it all through with the judge, they realize that they never really wanted to get divorced in the first place. After the judge leaves, Florrie and Chet resolve to try again and not blame each other when things go wrong.

When Sofia's hometown is destroyed by The Bandits, Muazena, the village's wise woman, must find a way to teach Sofia the secrets in the fire. Even with Muazena trying to help, Sofia must overcome multiple adversities such as losing both her sister and her legs to a land mine and all the strife that comes with growing up. Throughout her recovery Sofia finds that she is not as weak as some would have her believe and that she has a strength of her own.

Bennington Austin "Bink" Cotwell IV, the infant son of socialites Laraine and Bennington Austin "Bing" Cotwell III, lives in a mansion in a suburb of Chicago and is just about to appear in the social pages of the newspaper.

Three very clumsy criminals, Edgar "Eddie" Mauser, Norbert "Norby" LeBlaw, and Victor "Veeko" Riley, disguise themselves as baby photographers from the newspaper and kidnap him, demanding a $5 million ransom. After the kidnapping, however, the criminals have difficulty controlling Bink at their apartment. Norby attempts to put him to sleep by reading his favorite storybook, ''Baby's Day Out'' (or "Boo-boo", as he calls it), only to fall asleep himself from boredom, leaving Bink unattended. Looking through the book, Bink notices a bird on the page and then one by the window; he follows it out and successfully gets away from his kidnappers. The ensuing chase culminates in Eddie falling off the building and into a garbage bin. Norby and Veeko rescue him and they begin pursuing Bink across the city.

The FBI arrives at the mansion, headed by Dale Grissom, where they try to piece together clues along with Bink's parents and his nanny Gilbertine. Meanwhile, Bink, now outside on the ground and crawling about, finds another part of his book – the blue bus, which he then boards. The criminals realize he is escaping and start chasing the bus in their van, but their efforts are in vain.

Meanwhile on the bus, Bink crawls into the bag of an obese lady who gets off at her stop shortly afterwards. By the time the criminals catch the bus, they realize Bink is not on board and follow the lady, leading to an altercation after she catches them. In the distraction, Bink crawls up to a revolving door at the entrance to a department store and is forced inwards by its momentum. He is stopped by an employee who works for the store's day care center, believing he is another baby who escaped from there. He then escapes from the store and eventually crawls into traffic after a ride on a taxi.

The criminals attempt to follow him, but keep getting injured in the process as he makes his way to the city zoo. They are shocked to find him in the ape house with a western lowland gorilla, which shows a paternal side and does not injure him. The gorilla also feeds Bink with some of its fruits. The criminals try to retrieve him, but the gorilla notices them; it pounds Veeko's hand, throws Norby into the air using a mop as a catapult, and hurls Eddie against the bars of another nearby cage.

The criminals corner and catch Bink in the zoo's park, but are confronted by two chatty police officers who have noticed that their van's engine is still running. During the conversation, Eddie hides Bink under his coat in his lap, but Bink reaches his cigarette lighter, setting his groin on fire and sneaking off as soon as the officers are gone. Veeko extinguishes the fire by stomping repeatedly on Eddie's groin.

They then follow Bink to a construction site where they experience several near-death mishaps such as Veeko getting thrown off the building and into the back of a garbage truck, Norby falling into a vat of wet cement, and Eddie getting stranded on a crane after being drenched in glue. The sun then sets as Bink and the construction crew leave the site. After managing to escape, the criminals give up on catching Bink and return home.

Bink's parents are notified of various sightings of him in the city and Gilbertine deduces that he has been following ''Baby's Day Out'', and will most likely head for the Old Soldiers' Home next. They find him there, but on the way home, he begins to call out for his "Boo-Boo" toward the criminals' flat. The recuperating criminals, upon hearing Bink calling out for his book, realize that he has returned, and upon looking out the window, to their shock, they find themselves surrounded by the FBI, who have arrived to arrest them, and also find Bink and his parents standing outside the building as well. As Eddie berates Bink for ratting them out, Grissom forces the criminals to return Bink's book.

Back at home, Bink is put to bed by his parents, who discuss having his picture taken by a normal photographer in the morning while, unbeknownst to them, he wakes up and gets ready to read another book titled ''Baby's Trip to China''.

In 1863 Gainesville, Georgia, a time traveller with modern laserdot-equipped machine-pistols slaughters Confederate States Army soldiers and steals their shipment of gold.

In 1994, the Justice Department sends George Spota to the Senate Appropriations Committee for approval on a secret project: the establishment of the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) to police the new threat of time travel. Spota convinces them that changes to history are already manifesting, evidenced by arms trafficking shipments paid for in stolen Confederate bullion. Senator Aaron McComb volunteers to chair the oversight committee and Eugene Matuzak is nominated as the TEC's first commissioner. DC Metro Police officer Max Walker considers accepting a position with the TEC. Leaving home, he and his wife Melissa are attacked by unknown assailants. Walker is left for dead as the house explodes, killing Melissa.

Ten years later, Walker is a veteran TEC agent, and is sent back to October 1929 to prevent his former partner Lyle Atwood profiting from the stock market crash. Atwood admits to working for Senator McComb, who is abusing his oversight of time travel technology to raise funds for his upcoming presidential campaign. Fearing McComb will erase him from history, Atwood jumps to his death, but Walker catches him mid-leap and returns them to 2004. Refusing to testify, Atwood is sentenced to death and returned to 1929 to complete his fatal fall. Walker and Matuzak agree McComb is a criminal, but need solid evidence.

Surviving an ambush by McComb’s henchmen, Walker is assigned a new partner, TEC rookie Sarah Fielding. They are sent back to 1994 to investigate McComb, and witness a disagreement with his business partner Jack Parker over manufacturing a new computer chip. They are interrupted by McComb from 2004, who advises his younger self that the chip will become highly profitable. The older McComb warns his younger self that they must not touch because the same matter cannot occupy the same space, then kills Parker. Fielding turns on Walker, revealing she works for McComb. After a shootout with McComb's henchmen, Fielding is wounded and Walker escapes back to 2004.

Arriving in an altered future where McComb is a wealthy presidential frontrunner and has shut down the TEC, Walker appeals to Matuzak, who has no knowledge of the changes to history. They realize that the original time machine prototype was never dismantled and that McComb has access, allowing him to neutralize the TEC. Matuzak sends Walker back to the past to restore history, and is shot by agents of the now-corrupt TEC.

Back in 1994, Walker finds Fielding in the hospital. She agrees to testify against McComb, but is murdered in her room. At the hospital, Walker finds a record of a recent visit by Melissa, discovering she was pregnant. Realizing she will be killed that night, he finds her and reveals himself to be from the future, and she agrees to make sure his younger self stays home.

That night, the younger Walker is attacked just as before by McComb's men, but is unknowingly aided by his older self. McComb from 2004 takes Melissa hostage and confronts the older Walker with the bomb that will blow up the house, knowing he will die in the ensuing explosion but satisfied his younger self will become president with Walker gone. However, Walker reveals he has lured the younger McComb to the house; he pushes them together, and the two McCombs merge into a writhing, screaming mass before disappearing from existence. The older Walker escapes with Melissa as the bomb explodes, leaving her beside his unconscious younger self and returning to the future.

Back in 2004, Walker finds the future changed once again: Matuzak and Fielding are alive with the TEC at full strength, while Senator McComb disappeared in 1994. Walker returns home to find Melissa alive and waiting for him, now with their young son.

In contrast to Ballard's earlier novel ''The Drowned World'', ''The Burning World'' describes a world in which water is scarce. After an extensive drought, rivers have turned to trickles and the earth to dust, causing the world's populations to head toward the oceans in search of water. The drought is caused by industrial waste flushed into the ocean, which form an oxygen-permeable barrier of saturated long-chain polymers that prevents evaporation and destroys the precipitation cycle.

The main focus of the book is on the surrealistic landscapes forming a changing setting symbolising the developing psychological conflicts and alienation of the principal character.

Michael "Rage" Hardy and James "Smarty" Cools shut down the E.V.I.L Inc. criminal empire. Three of its leaders, King, Boss, and Kong are all in the maximum security federal pen. The final, fourth member of the E.V.I.L Inc. gang, international terrorist Joe Fang is believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash, though his body was never found. After the downfall of E.V.I.L Inc., a comprehensive investigation of their black market and gun-running activities was launched in the Virtua City bank. Meanwhile, the Virtua City Police Special Investigations Unit got a new member in the shape of Janet Marshall, an expert in criminal psychology profiling.

The vice-president of the Virtua City Bank is killed in shady circumstances that are only officially termed accidental. And the swollen accounts of the now-defunct E.V.I.L Syndicate, which he had been suspected of laundering, are emptied overnight. The missing funds amount to more than the GNP of most small countries.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, there is a daring daylight raid on the biggest jewelers in the state. And at the site of the new subway construction, there's been an unusual amount of unexplained activity involving some very suspicious-looking material.

The story starts with the hero, Kirill, being "erased" from daily life in present-day Moscow. Everybody forgets him (even his parents and dog), another person lives in his apartment, all IDs and files in all offices disappear. After a while he is phoned and invited to an old water tower — but inside is his future home and working place. There it is revealed to him that he is able to open doors, leading to other worlds — although at first all but one are locked. Once opened each door becomes rigidly connected to some world, but which one can't be predicted. All of the worlds have mostly similar environments and seem to be on the planet Earth but the societies and people are different.

After a while Kirill meets a special group of '''''functionals''''', so called because they gained supernatural abilities making them excellent in some profession. They serve other people, but mostly other functionals. They say Kirill has become one of them — a ''customs officer''. He benefits from taxes paid by people who pass through his tower. Also he has superhuman strength and is almost immortal, but only within 10 km of his tower.

Kirill enjoys these new worlds, people and abilities. A politician Dima meets him and asks to find a national idea for Russia. He informs Kirill about the world number One, which nobody can access and which seems to be exactly our world living 30 years later. Critical information from this world may enhance the prestige of the country.

Kirill also encounters an underground, that is, a few people fighting against the 'corporate laws' of functionals and their working for themselves or the elites of other worlds. He remains untouched by the rhetoric of the underground, justifying most of this. Ideas of armed opposition are alien if not to say ridiculous for him. However, a younger woman whom Kirill falls in love with is a genuine underground activist...

The last door opened leads to the world number One: A lovely Moscow filled with smiling people: there were no horrors of revolution and no World War II, as this world ''lags'' for 30 years and the rulers of it carefully study the mistakes of other worlds. It's just what Dima proposed to Kirill, but applied in reverse.

Upon rather bloody returning to our world, Kirill faces troubles with his girl. Hating the system of functionals, she manifests disobedience. But their laws don't forgive this, and the functional Natalie murders her, Kirill being unable to resurrect her...

:''"An extreme foolishness," said I, "All these loud words and beautiful poses... 'they will not pass', 'yet it moves', 'motherland or death', 'am able to die for my beliefs' — all of this becomes nonsense when real death comes... All of this is for kids. And for adults who handle them..." :''Natalie nodded with approval.'' :''"But yet it moves" said I, "Doesn't it? It moves, and they will not pass, and motherland remains motherland even if death becomes death, and nobody is ready to die, but sometimes it's easier to die than to betray..."''

In Kirill's fighting Natalie, his tower becomes devastated, thus he ceases being a functional and is restored to his former life.

Setting

Set in the year 2099, the series depicts the Earth as very different from today. Following a number of environmental disasters, such as "the Withering" – which resulted in the loss of a great deal of human knowledge including the vacuum cleaner and fire (although the latter came back fairly quickly) – and a "Cattle-clasm" that killed off most of the livestock, the Earth has been reduced to a wasteland separated between "Withered Zones" and the remaining inhabitable areas. The Withering shifted the Earth into a new orbit, resulting in disruption to the seasons and a reformed calendar. Every day of the week is now 25-hours long except for Thursday (which, due to time anomalies, has not occurred in over a decade), while the change in the length of the year led to the creation of new months such as Janril, Febtober, and Marchuary. In addition, the dreary season of Hamble was created, which is permanently dark, cold and drizzly. The Withering resulted in vegetarians, pigeons and gays becoming endangered species, and completely wiped out tarts.

The Earth's geography is also radically altered. A new mountain range was formed in Britain by a day-long ice age, and the Earth now has twelve and a half continents. Many locations have been displaced and reduced to islands, including Oxford University and the London borough of Deptford, which is now in the Indonesian Ocean as a part of the Cockney Islands. The Solar System is equally altered: Jupiter has been deep fried by Harry Ramsden's, Mercury and Neptune have been knocked together, and there was an initiative to destroy the Moon, which according to the show was deleterious to the nightlight industry.

Religion also exists in the ''Nebulous'' universe. Pieced together following the Withering, theologians conclude that there were four true deities: the evil twins Yin and Yang, Feng Shui the destroyer, and merciful Bod, based on the children's television programme ''Bod'', the theme tune of which has become a hymn, sung in Gregorian chant. Bod is analogous to God, hence the commonly used phrase "Oh my Bod!"

Storyline

''Nebulous'' follows the adventures of the eco-troubleshooting team "KENT" (the ''Key Environmental Non-Judgmental Taskforce'', named after the English county of Kent). The group is directed by Professor Nebulous toward the goal of restoring a natural balance to Earth. However, they are woefully under-funded; KENT was forced to open a laundry to supplement funds. There is at least one other eco-troubleshooting team based in England, but despite their common goals they have a less-than-hospitable view of each other. LOUGHBOROUGH (the ''Legitimate Organisation Undertaking General Humanitarian Business Operations Requiring Optimum Unconditional Global Harmony'', named after the Leicestershire town Loughborough) is run by Professor Nebulous’ ex-love interest, Doctor Erica Flazenby. By comparison to KENT it is over-funded and well-equipped, with bazers, black helicopters and info pills, which provide the user with information by ingestion.

''Nebulous'' both parodies and pays homage to several well known science fiction programmes and films in both its setting and plotlines, often incorporating several different elements within a single story: Professor Nebulous himself is similar to Bernard Quatermass, a British scientist who led a research group and fought aliens in the classic science fiction serial ''The Quatermass Experiment'' and its sequels. KENT itself is based partly on the Department of Measurement of Scientific Work, nicknamed "Doomwatch", the eponymous organisation from the BBC science fiction television programme ''Doomwatch'', and partly on the Doctor Who Organization "U.N.I.T", otherwise known as the "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce". The second episode of series one, "The Loverly Invasion"|archive-date=2007-02-04 } } while "The Deptford Wives" takes both its name and premise from ''The Stepford Wives'' (and also borrows from ''Jurassic Park''). From the first episode of series 3 onwards, this also began to include the recent ''Doctor Who'' spin-off ''Torchwood'' and the ITV series ''Primeval'', with references to "baby dinosaurs falling through a hole in time" and "the sheer amount of paranormal activity in the Cardiff area alone ... starting to threaten the Earth's plausibility shield". Episode 6 of that series also parodied the tendency in British sci-fi for attempts to take over the world to start in Britain, with the chief villain (played by Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant) stating "Funnily enough, that's a tax thing," as well as one of the Ninth Doctor's nicknames, "the oncoming storm" (with Nebulous known as "the oncoming drizzle").

Harriet Claridge and Vesey Macmillan are loose acquaintances of the same age who meet as Harriet's mother, Lilian, and Vesey's aunt, Caroline, are close friends who met as young suffragettes. The summer they are 18 Vesey is sent to spend time in the countryside with his aunt before he is sent to Oxford. Harriet is frequently with Caroline as she tutors Vesey's young cousins. Harriet develops a crush on Vesey who only casually returns her feelings. Vesey assumes he will naturally become great and dreams of becoming a writer. Harriet, who is considered by her family to be unexceptional, has no dreams aside from being with Vesey. Sensing how deep the attachment is on Harriet's side, Vesey's aunt writes to her sister to request Vesey return home early.

With Vesey gone and the summer over, Harriet manages to get a job working as an assistant in a clothing shop and begins to date Charles Jephcott, her much older next door neighbour who had previously been jilted at the altar and is reluctant to recommit to another woman.

Over Christmas Vesey returns for a quick visit. Harriet's feelings for him are renewed enough that she rejects Charles when he proposes to her. Her mother dies shortly after, leaving her an orphan, and in the meantime Charles continues to care for her.

Nearly 20 years later Vesey and Harriet meet again when Vesey happens to be in town performing in ''Hamlet''. Vesey is now a mediocre actor in an unremarkable theatre troupe while Harriet is a middle-class housewife, married to Charles, and mother to a teenage girl named Betsy. Harriet still has feelings for Vesey and he feels a renewed and stronger attraction to her. Vesey tries to persuade her that while he is in town they should have an affair. Charles, who is aware of Harriet's earlier attraction to Vesey and is a deeply jealous man, forces Harriet to invite Vesey over in order to reassure him that nothing is going on between them. Instead the meeting has the opposite effect and only furthers Charles' jealousy while continuing to stoke Harriet's feelings for Vesey.

Vesey returns to London but continues to have an emotional affair with Harriet who begins to visit him. The two are ultimately unable to consummate their affair due to Harriet's deep guilt over betraying Charles. In order to end their limbo, Vesey finally decides to tell Harriet he is moving to South Africa to take over his estranged father's business. Harriet returns to Charles and confesses that she has been seeing Vesey. Surprised by her confession he decides to forgive her and the two recommit to their marriage.

The South African trip is a lie as Vesey remains estranged from his father and is beginning to fall ill and plans to move back in with his mother. He and Harriet see each other a final time before he moves away.

Thoughts about day-to-day life interpreted through snapshots and sound collages pondering if life is better than it was thirty years ago.

Two years after the events in ''Tortoise Beats Hare'', Bugs is watching footage of that cartoon, determined to learn how it was that Cecil managed to beat him (the cartoon seems to depict Cecil as having won fairly, rather than the truth, which was that the turtle engaged his cousins to cheat and help him win). Bugs then goes to Cecil's house disguised as an old man (a parody of Bill Thompson's "Old Timer" character from ''Fibber McGee and Molly'') to ask about the turtle's secret for winning. Cecil is not the least bit fooled by the disguise, but goes along with the gag, claiming that his streamlined shell ensures his success; he produces a set of blueprints for his "air-flow chassis." He also adds that, in contrast, the long ears of a rabbit only serve as "wind resistance", which slows the rabbit down. The turtle ends the conversation with the comment, "Oh, and another thing...Rabbits aren't very bright, either!" just before slamming the door in the enraged bunny's face. Not getting the hint that the turtle's story is a humbug, Bugs builds a shell of his own and prepares for the new race.

Meanwhile, the bunny mob learns of the match-up, places all its bets on Bugs, and hints that "the toitle" will not even finish the race. Initially, Bugs takes the easy lead, after dressing up in his new chassis. The rabbit mob, mistaking Bugs for Cecil and, despite Bugs' insistence to the contrary, attack the rabbit. Cecil does not help Bugs' cause by dressing up in a rabbit suit. The rabbit mob fall for it and cheer Cecil as the real rabbit, causing the turtle to remark to the audience, "I told you rabbits aren't very bright." Bugs still manages to regain the lead and nearly wins, until the mob stalls him right at the finish line, while other rabbits rush Cecil over the line and to victory. Bugs then bursts out crying, rips off his chassis and reveals that he was the real rabbit. In despair, realizing they just helped Cecil win ''again'', and thus lost everything they put on Bugs to win, the rabbit mob replies, "Ehhh, ''now'' he tells us," and kill themselves with a single bullet through all their heads.

In 2056 A.D., Earth is in ecological crisis as a consequence of pollution and overpopulation. Automated interplanetary missions have been seeding Mars with atmosphere-producing algae as the first stage of terraforming the planet. When the oxygen quantity produced by the algae is inexplicably reduced, the crew of ''Mars-1'' investigate—a crew consisting of Quinn Burchenal, a geneticist; Bud Chantilas, an aging philosophical scientist and surgeon; systems engineer Robby Gallagher; commander Kate Bowman; pilot Ted Santen; and terraforming scientist Chip Pettengill.

When ''Mars-1'' is damaged in arrival by a gamma-ray burst, Bowman remains aboard for repair while the others land to locate an automated habitat (HAB 1) in order to manufacture food and oxygen. During insertion, the team's landing craft is damaged and lands off-course. In the aftermath, "AMEE" (Autonomous Mapping Exploration and Evasion), a military robot programmed to guide them, is lost, and Chantilas suffers a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding, and tells the others to leave him behind. Santen refuses, but Chantilas tells them that they have limited oxygen left to make it to HAB 1. Chantilas tells Gallagher that it is all right, as he got to see Mars for the first time. The crew leaves to allow Chantilas to die in peace. In orbit around Mars, Bowman contacts Houston, which informs her that ''Mars-1'' is in decaying orbit, but offers hope of restoring engine function in departing Mars.

On Mars, the landing party find HAB 1 mysteriously destroyed. They are baffled for an explanation, since the module was designed and field-tested in Tornado Alley to withstand any storms on Mars. All expect their imminent deaths by suffocation. Pettengill and Santen wander from the others to explore, later to reach a canyon where Pettengill and Santen fight over whether or not the mission was a failure, and that Pettengill realizes that Santen would never accept defeat. This leads Pettengill to accidentally kill Santen. Pettengill returns to Burchenal and Gallagher and tells them that Santen committed suicide. His oxygen depleted, Gallagher opens his helmet, choosing a quick death over asphyxiation – and discovers that Mars' atmosphere is thin but breathable. The only salvageable material from the habitat is all of the liquid fuel, which has ruptured out of its containers but pooled under the wreck. With no remaining power in their suits, the astronauts set it on fire with a flare so they can have a bonfire to survive the massive temperature drop of the Martian night. AMEE reunites with the crew, and the three astronauts notice the robot is damaged and attempt to shut it down so they can recover its guidance device. Perceiving their actions as a threat, AMEE breaks Burchenal's ribs and pursues the others before retreating. Gallagher tells the others she has gone into military mode and intends to kill them all one by one. She wounded Burchenal instead of killing him because she has been programmed with knowledge of the old guerrilla tactic that a wounded man will slow the enemy down since effort must be expended to transport a wounded teammate.

Eventually, Gallagher builds a makeshift radio from parts of the Mars Rover ''Pathfinder'', through which Bowman instructs them to use a Russian probe's sample-return system to launch themselves into orbit. During the trip, Bowman tells Gallagher that the probe can hold only two people. The trio takes shelter from an ice storm inside of a cave. Devastated by the recent news and afraid of being left behind, Pettengill flees with the radio, only to be killed by AMEE. After the storm subsides Gallagher and Burchenal recover the radio from Pettingill's corpse, and discover that it has become infested by insect-like native Martian life (identified by Burchenal as "nematodes"). The insects are highly flammable, as using a simple cutting torch on Pettengill's corpse to free his grip caused a chain reaction. Later, the two encounter a field of algae being eaten by the insects, and Burchenal pieces together what happened.

The Martian insects had lain dormant on their almost dead world, but when the probes from Earth spread algae fields across Mars it gave them a massive new food source and led to a population explosion. The Martian insects are what caused the algae to disappear, but in the process they actually gave Mars breathable oxygen levels, because they produce oxygen as a waste product (explaining why they are so flammable). The insects are also what destroyed the habitat module, as they tore in to get to the food supplies inside.

Burchenal explains to Gallagher that the biochemistry of alien insects' respiratory metabolism is capable of producing oxygen far more efficiently than human science is currently able to. Studying the insects' biochemistry is the key to terraforming Mars, and may even lead to discoveries which will allow Earth's polluted atmosphere to be repaired. However, Burchenal is attacked by swarms of the insects when blood drips from an open wound. Rather than be eaten alive, he passes his sample vial of insects to Gallagher before immolating himself and his attackers.

Gallagher reaches the Russian probe, finds sufficient fuel to power the rocket's engine, but not enough electrical power to launch the probe, and realizes that the only available replacement is AMEE's power core. In a final confrontation, Gallagher is able to lure AMEE into a trap and disable her using one of the probe's sample launchers, then takes her battery. Gallagher launches himself in the probe's sample-return capsule and reaches orbit where ''Mars-1'' is waiting for him, and he is recovered and revived by Bowman. Gallagher becomes upset that four astronauts died so that he could live, but Bowman tells him that they did not die for nothing. The computer is busy analyzing the sample of Martian insects which Gallagher brought back, and research on them might lead to repairing Earth itself. With a six-month-long trip back to Earth, the computer has plenty of time to analyze the insects, and Bowman and Gallagher have time to start pursuing a romantic relationship.

The lost colony of Alterra is a completely man-made world in a nearby galaxy, abandoned long ago. Alterra consists of five self-contained habitats, separately bio-engineered by a powerful ecosystem generation network known as a Multiple Organism Unit Link, or MORGUL for short. Early colonists used MORGUL to render Alterra habitable, but a cataclysmic earthquake severed all system interface functions, and MORGUL murderously rebelled. The few colonists lucky enough to escape told a grim tale of a higher intelligence gone berserk.

For generations, mankind sought a return to Alterra. Finally, genetic science created a saviour: Turrican, a mutant warrior, bio-engineered for the task of planetary reclamation. In the meantime, MORGUL has diligently twisted Alterran life forms to his brutal, destructive purposes. Thus, Turrican's challenges consist of eliminating hostile organisms from Alterra's five multi-level worlds and, finally, destroying the three faces of MORGUL.

In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, a group of village girls meet in the woods with slave Tituba, attempting to conjure love spells. Abigail Williams kills a chicken and drinks its blood, wishing for John Proctor's wife Elizabeth to die. When Abigail's uncle, Reverend Samuel Parris, discovers them, the girls run away, but his daughter Betty collapses unconscious.

Betty will not awaken, nor will Thomas and Ann Putnam's daughter Ruth, who was also conjuring. Giles Corey, who suspects that the children are just acting out, and John Proctor, with whom Abigail had an affair, visit the Parris household. Believing Betty and Ruth to be demonically possessed, Parris and the Putnams call Reverend John Hale from nearby Beverly to examine Betty. To save herself and the other girls from punishment, Abigail accuses Tituba of witchcraft. After being whipped, Tituba confesses to seeing the devil and is saved from being hanged. Struck by their new power, the girls begin naming numerous other women, including Elizabeth, whom they "saw" with the devil.

John wants to forget about his affair with Abigail and get back with Elizabeth. He decides to stop Abigail's accusations, telling his servant, Mary Warren, who is one of the "afflicted" girls, to testify at the trial that the witchcraft was faked. In court, Francis Nurse gives a list of people vouching for the accused; the judges order that all on the list be arrested and brought in for questioning. Giles insists that when Ruth accused Rebecca Nurse, Mr. Putnam was heard to tell Ruth that she had won him a "fine gift of land". Giles refuses to identify who heard this remark, and the judges order his arrest. Mary Warren insists she only thought she saw spirits but the other girls later cow her into recanting. Elizabeth says she is pregnant and will be spared from death until the baby is born, but John insists that the girls be charged with false witness.

The girls are called in and asked if they were lying about the witchcraft, but they start screaming that Mary Warren is bewitching them. To demonstrate Abigail's complicity, John confesses to having sex with her, claiming that she accused Elizabeth in order to get rid of her so that she could marry him. Abigail denies the affair, so Elizabeth is called in to verify it. Unaware that John confessed and wanting to save his reputation, she lies. As Reverend Hale tries to persuade the court of John's honesty, the girls turn the court further against the Proctors by screaming that Mary Warren is attacking them as a "yellow bird". John repeats his accusation that the girls are merely pretending, but they run outside from the "bird" into a nearby lake. To save herself from being hanged, Mary Warren accuses John of witchcraft. When asked if he will return to God, John despairingly yells "I say God is dead!" and is arrested as a witch.

On the day before John is to be hanged, Reverend Hale confronts Abigail at the now-abandoned homes of the victims whom she testified against. Because Hale was the lone official in the court to doubt her claims, Abigail attempts to convince the court that Hale's wife is also a witch; however, this backfires as the judges doubt her, as they consider a minister's wife to be pure. Eventually, the girls become outcasts and Abigail steals Parris' money to flee to Barbados, but not before asking John to go with her, telling him she never wished any of this on him. He refuses, stating "It's not on a ship we'll meet again, but in Hell".

Parris fears that John's hanging will cause riots directed at him, so he allows Elizabeth to meet with John to convince him to "confess" and save his life. John agrees and writes the confession. The judges insist that he sign the confession and publicly display it to prove his guilt and to convince others to confess, but John, determined to keep his name pure for his sons, angrily shouts "Leave me my name!", and tears it up.

On the gallows, John, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey's recitation of the Lord's Prayer is cut short when they are hung.

The story is set in an unnamed Latin American country that is painfully third world. The plot revolves around a captured prisoner who may or may not be the second coming of Christ, though Miller deliberately leaves the divinity of his unseen protagonist ambiguous. He is said to be able to perform miracles such as walk through walls, a major problem for the prison guards, and, because of his popularity among the impoverished citizens, the military dictator of the nation has sentenced him to be crucified. This creates many moral dilemmas with the play's cast of characters, which include a wealthy land-owner who is the cousin of the dictator, his depressed daughter—a close friend of the accused—and an American television production team that arrives to broadcast the crucifixion.

A Vulcan delegation, headed by Ambassador Soval, complains to Admiral Forrest about the recent diplomatic incident at P'Jem. Soval blames Captain Archer: in response, joint fleet operations are suspended, and Sub-Commander T'Pol is to be recalled from her post. ''Enterprise'' is already on its way to Coridan, a planet which has a mining agreement and the largest starship construction yards in the sector. As Archer and T'Pol head to the capital city, their shuttlepod is captured. Later, they try to escape, but are soon recaptured by Traeg, an anti-government leader, who then sends a ransom request of weapons to ''Enterprise''.

After refusing to co-operate with the Vulcans (sent by Soval to return T'Pol to Vulcan) and their rescue mission, Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed mount their own, leaving Sato to somehow distract them. The pair are soon 'captured' by Commander Shran and Tholos of the Andorian Imperial Guard, who want to repay Archer for his interventions at P'Jem. The humans and Andorians covertly break into the rebel compound where Archer and T'Pol are being held, while the Vulcans, led by Captain Sopek, attempt a more direct rescue mission.

The rival groups then confront one another amid the wreckage of the compound. As they argue about treaty violations, T'Pol notices Traeg targeting the group. She pushes Sopek out of the way and takes the phaser blast meant for him. Archer gathers her up and leaves with his away-team. In Sickbay, Doctor Phlox treats her, and Sopek arrives to ask about her condition. Archer asks that T'Pol be given a second chance, and he agrees to lobby the Vulcan High Command on her behalf. As they leave, Phlox revives T'Pol with a hypospray, and Archer says that she will be on ''Enterprise'' for a while longer.

The plot of ''The Heart of the World'' concerns two brothers, Osip and Nikolai, who compete for the love of the same woman: Anna, a state scientist studying the Earth's core. Anna discovers that the heart of the world is in danger of a fatal heart attack (which would mean the end of the world), and the brothers compete amongst the public panic. Nikolai is a mortician and tries to impress Anna with assembly-line embalming, while Osip is an actor playing Christ in the Passion Play and tries to impress Anna through his suffering. Anna is instead seduced by an evil capitalist, but has a change of heart and strangles the plutocrat, then slides down into the heart of the world, where she manages to save the world from destruction by transforming into cinema itself, the world's "new and better heart — Kino!"

Setting

The game takes place in the fantasy land of Lunar, a small habitable world orbiting the massive, barren blue planet (known as the Blue Star), forming a loose parallel between the game's world and the Earth and its moon. Centuries before the start of the game, the Blue Star was rendered unlivable by years of war. The powerful and benevolent goddess Althena relocated humanity to the Silver Star, the world of Lunar, and entrusted four dragons to safeguard the elements of the new world. From this point on, those who would use the power of the dragons to serve the goddess and protect the world were known as "Dragonmasters", and no such Dragonmaster was more revered than Dyne, a legendary hero who defended the goddess and succumbed to an unknown fate. The stories surrounding Dyne's exploits would form the life model for a young boy named Alex, the game's protagonist and central character, who also aspires to become a Dragonmaster himself. Many of the locations of ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' were given a deliberate "northern" feel to present an environment that was cooler than the settings of most role-playing games, if only to allow the characters to wear more clothing. Many towns and locations were based on areas of Russia and Medieval Europe.

Characters

The characters of ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' were designed by anime and manga artist Toshiyuki Kubooka. The main characters include Alex and his companions, each of which have their own reasons for joining his quest: Alex - a 15-year-old boy from a small town with dreams of becoming an adventurer. Alex is a mostly silent protagonist, typical for a Japanese RPG he never speaks in the game, except for one cutscene where he confronts Ghaleon, and in the last cutscene of the game where he yells Luna's name. Nall - a small, winged creature resembling a white cat who has been with him since birth. Luna - Alex's childhood friend and love interest who has the unique ability to heal with music. Ramus - son of the town mayor who dreams of one day opening his own shop, and begins Alex's adventuring career by having him fetch a priceless diamond from a dragon's cave. Nash - a junior premier of the floating city of Vane, often prone to rash decisions and occasionally despair. Mia - another junior premier of Vane, though much more reserved than Nash. Kyle - a headstrong and womanizing bandit. Jessica - a tomboyish daughter of a famous hero who is training to be a priestess.

Major supporting characters include the three surviving members of the Four Heroes, a legendary band of adventurers who aided Dragonmaster Dyne in protecting the Goddess Althena years before the game's story, whose ranks include: "Deadly" Mel D'Alkirk, father of Jessica and mayor of the bustling city of Meribia. In the original Japanese version, it is said that he governs Meribia, although Working Designs' translation adds that he founded the city. Lemia Ausa, mother of Mia and head of Vane. *Ghaleon, powerful sorcerer and teacher of Nash who becomes the primary antagonist after assuming his alter ego, the Magic Emperor.

The party is aided by: Laike, a powerful swordsman and expert adventurer who acts as a mentor to Alex and is later revealed to be Dragonmaster Dyne after losing his powers. Tempest and ''Fresca'', plains-dwelling fighters who have their own reasons for helping Alex and his group.

Many of the character's original Japanese names were altered for the game's North American release, such as Killy to Kyle, Faidy to Quark, Temzin to Tempest, and Pilya to Fresca; Mel's original epithet, "Hell" Mel, was changed to "Deadly" for censorship reasons. A witch named Xenobia serves as a secondary antagonist and Ghaleon's right hand servant.

Story

Much of the plot of ''Lunar: The Silver Star'' was written by novelist Kei Shigema, and involves a world of high fantasy and with emphasis on folklore and legend. The game begins in the small mountain town of Burg, where a young Alex frequently visits the monument to the fallen hero Dyne, his idol. At the behest of Ramus, eager son of the town mayor, Ramus and Alex embark on their first real adventure, with Alex's adopted sister Luna and their talking flying pet Nall, to the mysterious Dragon's Cave in search of a valuable diamond. Making their way through the cavern, the group meets Quark, an aged dragon who senses great potential in Alex, and urges him to complete the trials of other dragons to become the next Dragonmaster, champion of the Goddess Althena, and protector of the world. Quark shows an interest in Luna as well, remarking that she has a familiar aura about her. Obtaining the diamond from Quark, Ramus finds he cannot sell it in Burg, and must travel to the major trade city of Meribia to claim his fortune. The group then makes their way to Saith, a small port town to the south, where Luna leaves the group to stay with Alex's family.

Across the ocean, Alex, Nall, and Ramus enter Meribia, where they meet one of the legendary Four Heroes, Mel. Attempting to sell his diamond, Ramus is swindled by a jewel dealer who flees into the sewers. After reclaiming it, Ramus slyly bargains the owner's life for his entire shop, and leaves the group to pursue his dream of becoming rich. Alex and Nash depart for the city of Vane where they meet Mia, daughter of the city's ruler and Nash's love interest, who informs them of Ghaleon, head of the guild and former great hero who fought with Dyne years ago. Seemingly intrigued by Alex's quest, Ghaleon sends Alex on a mission to investigate the appearance of a false Dragonmaster in a faraway town. Upon arrival, Alex meets Jessica, daughter of Mel and aspiring priestess, who helps him locate the imposter before returning to Vane. Pleased with his success, Ghaleon accompanies Alex back to his hometown to meet Quark and discuss Alex's future, when he suddenly attacks, revealing himself as the Magic Emperor and seemingly kills Quark in a fit of rage. Citing the loss of his friend Dyne, who died protecting the Goddess, Ghaleon swears revenge on both she and her dragons and departs after kidnapping Luna. Distraught, Alex and Nall return to Meribia to find it under attack by a band of monsters under Ghaleon's command. Regrouping with Jessica, the group fights back a wave of invaders before witnessing Mel turn to stone from a dark spell of Xenobia, Ghaleon's top general. Wanting revenge, Jessica accompanies Alex to Vane, also under siege, and assists Nash and Mia with a similar invasion before they too join the group.

Realizing they must make Alex a Dragonmaster to confront Ghaleon and save Luna, the team heads to the border town of Nanza to enlist Kyle, Jessica's boyfriend, in letting them cross into foreign land. After traveling to a town of inventors, the group obtains a floating device that leads them to the lair of the Red Dragon, who is seemingly destroyed by Ghaleon just before they arrive. The dragon's spirit grants Alex her power before disappearing, and the group departs for the Blue Dragon's cave behind a musical town. Again, the dragon is defeated before their arrival, and the team must travel to the distant and barren Frontier to seek the final trial. The party finds the black dragon, which attacks the team in a mad rage induced by Ghaleon but is defeated. With the final dragon's blessing, Alex and his companions approach the construction site of Ghaleon's mobile mechanical castle, the Grindery, but are unable to stop its advance before it destroys Vane using the power of Luna, who is revealed to be the human form of the Goddess Althena and who is under the Magic Emperor's control. After obtaining Althena's Sword and learning the truth about Luna, the party attacks the Grindery and defeats both Xenobia and the Magic Emperor. Knowing what he must do to bring Luna back, Alex climbs the path to Luna, who, as Althena, continuously blasts him with lightning; he plays his harp as he advances, and hearing their song allows Luna's personality to return. She awakens in Alex's arms, surrounded by their friends.

The film's content is derived from three previously released animated featurettes Disney produced based upon the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne: ''Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree'' (1966), ''Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day'' (1968), and ''Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too'' (1974). Extra material was used to link the three featurettes together to allow the stories to merge into each other.

A fourth, shorter scene was added to bring the film to a close, originally made during the production of ''Blustery Day'' (based on the presence of Jon Walmsley as Christopher Robin). The sequence was based on the final chapter of ''The House at Pooh Corner'', where Christopher Robin must leave the Hundred Acre Wood behind as he is starting school. In it, Christopher Robin and Pooh discuss what they liked doing together and the boy asks his bear to promise to remember him and to keep some of the memories of their time together alive. Pooh agrees to do so, and the film closes with The Narrator saying that wherever Christopher Robin goes, Pooh will always be waiting for him whenever he returns.

The campaign follows the fictional Black family in a series of three "Acts", which divide the story arc into three generations. All three acts are narrated by Amelia Black (Tasia Valenza).

Instead of playing as one of the standard civilizations, the player controls special civilizations linked to the character or period that each Act portrays: the Knights of St. John for Act I, John Black's Mercenaries for Act II, and the United States for Act III.

Act I: Blood

In the late 16th century, Morgan Black —a Scottish-born mid-level commander of the Knights of Saint John— defends their last stronghold on Malta from the forces of Sahin "The Falcon" of the Ottoman Empire (in a telling of the Great Siege of Malta). When the Turks flee, Morgan and his superior Alain Magnan discover a stone library telling of the Lake of the Moon; the Fountain of Youth, a rumored source of eternal life; and a secret society called the Circle of Ossus, who seek the Fountain for their own gain. Alain orders Morgan to sail to the New World to search for the Lake, but Morgan is attacked by the pirate Elisabeth "Lizzie" Ramsey and lands in the Caribbean islands. Morgan and his men defeat Lizzie and sail to New Spain. There, Spanish conquistador Francisco Juan Delgado de Leon captures Sahin. Morgan defends his new Aztec allies from the Spanish and learns Delgado was looking for the map to the Lake of the Moon. Morgan sets sail for Florida, but his fleet is damaged by a hurricane and docks in Havana, Cuba, where he earns Lizzie's respect and promises her the gold from the Spanish treasure fleet if she takes him to Florida.

In Florida, while Alain claims the lake, Morgan and Lizzie capture Spanish treasure ships and Sahin, killing Delgado in the process. Sahin tells Morgan that he only wanted to keep the Circle from claiming the Fountain. Alain orders Morgan to execute Sahin, but Sahin and Lizzie convince Morgan that Alain actually leads the Circle of Ossus. At the Lake of the Moon, the group captures defeats Alain and destroys the Fountain. Sahin returns to Turkey, and Lizzie, having lost her Spanish gold, leaves for the Caribbean, although it is hinted she and Morgan will reunite. Morgan wonders whether they really found the Fountain of Youth, then refills his empty canteen with water from the lake.

Act II: Ice

In the mid-eighteenth century, Morgan's grandson, John Black, his Mohawk friend Kanyenke, and their mercenaries are summoned by John's uncle, Stuart Black, to defend the colony of Brunswick against Cherokee raiders. After saving the colony, John and Kanyenke attack the Cherokee war camps, forcing the Cherokee to arrange a truce. While John, Kanyenke, and most of the colony's garrison are negotiating, British General Warwick leads an army to attack them and capture Brunswick. John and Kanyenke return to liberate Brunswick but learn Warwick has abducted Stuart. John concludes that the Circle of Ossus has returned. Kanyenke believes that his sister, Nonahkee, could be in danger, so they leave for New England. They find Warwick attacking Nonahkee's village, hoping to extract John's location from her. After the ensuing battle, Kanyenke discovers that John and Nonahkee are in love.

John and Kanyenke soon ally with the French in the Seven Years' War to continue fighting against Warwick. When Colonel George Washington tells them that Warwick is a renegade and from the British, John agrees to help them track him down. John's mercenaries and Washington's forces destroy Warwick's base in the Great Lakes region, where John finds Stuart's decapitated body. John and Kanyenke continue to pursue Warwick to the Rocky Mountains, where they intercept Warwick's supply train and destroy a fortified Circle base. Warwick and his troops flee even farther west to Colorado, where they have allied with the Russians. John and Kanyenke discover that the Circle plans to capture British and French colonies and towns while they are fighting, ultimately taking over North America. While John pursues Warwick, Kanyenke and some miners bring down rock bridges to stop the Russians' artillery from advancing. He and the mercenaries return east as Warwick ambushes John, who detonates explosives he has planted, killing himself and Warwick while burying the Russians and the Circle's troops in an avalanche. In the spring, Kanyenke returns to his village and learns Nonahkee has mothered John's son Nathaniel, whom he begins to help raise.

Act III: Steel

In 1817 (five years after Nathaniel's death in 1812), Amelia Black, Nathaniel's daughter and heiress owner of The Falcon Company, an American railroad company, seeks to expand operations after Nathaniel exhausted the compensation given by the British and Americans for John's sacrifice. After laying track to supply the US Cavalry near the Mexican border, Amelia meets French prospector Pierre Beaumont, who helps her and US Cavalry commander Major Ryan Cooper defeat a Mexican army attacking a fort. Beaumont leads Amelia to a Colorado mine, where an aged Kanyenke arrives to warn Amelia that Beaumont now leads the Circle of Ossus. Amelia, Kanyenke, and Cooper chase Beaumont through the mines and find a map to the Lake of the Moon. At the Lake, now a swamp, the three destroy a Circle base, after which one of Beaumont's wolves kills Cooper. Amelia, now wanting to avenge Cooper, learns from local Seminoles that an Inca city in Pacamayo Valley houses several barrels of the Fountain's water.

Amelia and Kanyenke sail to South America and help Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish. Bolívar offers them guides, and, with the Circle's army in pursuit, they make a dangerous passage through the Andes. They discover the Inca city in Pacamayo Valley and defend it from the Circle. Amelia soon finds that Beaumont has once again escaped, this time with the barrels of the Fountain's water. Amelia and Kanyenke next fight the Circle at their last stronghold, the Ossuary, in Cuba. After they destroy the Ossuary with help from Havana, Beaumont ambushes Amelia and Kanyenke, but Amelia shoots and kills him. She then uses the Circle's stored treasure to revive the Falcon Company and builds railroads to the future west coast of the United States. Back in the US, an elderly man congratulates Amelia and states that she broke the Circle in one lifetime, hinting that he is Morgan Black and that he greatly extended his life using water from the Fountain of Youth.

When Zena, Manny, and Joe move into the cinder-block cottage next door, Barney is intrigued by their glamorous, exotic lifestyle. His fascination grows when Zena introduces Barney to their favorite pastime: Interstellar Pig, a board game in which the key objective is to finish the game with the Piggy card in hand.

Zena quickly briefs him on the rules: each player picks their character from a box of cards depicting different aliens. Every alien race has its own strengths, weaknesses, and IRSC (Interstellar Relative Sapience Code, with lower numbers favorable). When the time runs out, every home planet will be obliterated ''except'' the one belonging to the holder of the Piggy. Barney is amazed when the neighbors keep choosing the same character cards: Joe repeatedly picks water-breathing Jrlb; Zena always chooses Zulma, an arachnoid nymph; and Manny always picks Moyna, an octopus-like gas bag.

While snooping through Zena's underwear drawer, Barney finds a manuscript written by Captain Latham— the same Captain who had built the house that Barney and his parents were renting— telling of the event that caused his brother to go crazy. At sea, the Captain rescued a man floating in the ocean, described as having a "leathery, greenish, reptilian hide" due to sunburn and a "swollen contusion", "yellow and filmed with slime" on his forehead.Sleator, William. ''Interstellar Pig'' (1984) Insisting that the man is the Devil, the Captain's brother strangles him—and in punishment, is keelhauled. Although he survives, his mind is damaged due to the oxygen deprivation, and he spends the rest of his life locked in his room (which later became Barney's bedroom), scratching patterns into the wooden walls and clinging to the strange trinket he had taken from the murdered man's corpse.

That night Barney begins to see a pattern in the marks the Captain's brother had scratched into the window of his bedroom: all the scratches centered on a particular rock on a nearby island. Remembering the trinket "to which [the brother] clung as he was pulled from the water, to which he ''still clings''", Barney decides to go out to the boulder and see if the trinket had been hidden there. He finds a small, silver, round object:

There was a face carved in this side, nothing but a rigid, slightly smiling mouth under a single wide-open eye... Crude as it was, the thing seemed alive. And it was the brutal wrongness of it, the mouth smiling with such placid idiocy, noseless, under the solitary gaping eye, that made the face so repellent. The Piggy.

Barney realizes that the game is real, the clock is running, and his neighbors— aliens in disguise— will do anything to get the Piggy. Each tries to bribe him with a unique incentive, similar to the Judgement of Paris, but Barney turns them down. Unfortunately, by doing so, he's just entered the real game as a player representing the human race.

As Barney hurries to select his weapons and equipment before a horde of aliens descends on his cottage, he makes the startling discovery that he shares a psychic link to the Piggy. The Piggy tells him that it created the game so that it could be loved and appreciated, despite its tendency to detonate whole planets (and their surrounding solar systems) from time to time when it hiccups. Barney concludes that the object of the game is backward, and it is only the possessor of the Piggy that will be blown up.

Minutes before his home is destroyed, Barney concocts a plan to pass the Piggy off to another player convincingly enough so that it won't arouse suspicion. He tells the carnivorous lichen where to find the Piggy. However, as they approach it he realizes that the same logical inconsistency exists with Piggy's version of the story. He decides that the only explanation that makes sense is that Piggy created both stories in order to learn about new people. He abandons the Piggy and lets the lichen board their spaceship home, drawing off the other alien players. Once they depart, no damage is done to either the lichen or to Earth.

The main character is Tycho Tithonus, an 11-year-old boy. Each child in his family is named after a famous artist or scientist and their parents expect them to live up to their names. Tycho himself is named after Sleator's younger brother, who in turn, was named after Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer. He finds a pocket sized time machine in the family's garden. He immediately uses it to change some things from the past and to visit the future. But as he travels more and more he realizes that he is turning into something horrible and it becomes a race against time to save himself and his family from his own future self.

The film begins in the present day, within a country house. A young girl named Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) dreams that she lives in a fairytale forest during the late 18th century with her parents (Tusse Silberg and David Warner) and sister Alice (Georgia Slowe). But one night Alice is chased down and killed by wolves. While her parents are mourning, Rosaleen goes to stay with her grandmother (Angela Lansbury), who knits a bright red shawl for her granddaughter to wear. The superstitious old woman gives Rosaleen an ominous warning, "Never stray from the path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet." Rosaleen returns to her village, but finds that she must deal with the advances of an amorous boy (Shane Johnstone). Rosaleen and the boy take a walk through the forest, but the boy discovers that the village's cattle have come under attack from a wolf. The villagers set out to hunt the wolf; but once caught and killed, the wolf's corpse transforms into that of a human being.

Rosaleen later takes a basket of goods through the woods to her grandmother's cottage; but on her way, she encounters an attractive huntsman (Micha Bergese) whose eyebrows meet. He challenges her, saying that he can find his way to her grandmother's house before she can, and the pair set off. The hunter arrives at Rosaleen's grandmother's house first, where he reveals his bestial nature when she insults him and kills her. Rosaleen arrives later and discovers the carnage, but her need to protect herself is complicated by her desire for the hunter. In the ensuing exchange, Rosaleen accidentally injures the huntsman with his own rifle. Upon this blow, the hunter contorts in pain and transforms into his wolf shape. A deeply remorseful Rosaleen apologizes and takes pity on the wounded beast, musing that his pack could leave him behind in his state. She sits down and begins petting the wolf caringly and tenderly, comforting him while telling him a story.

Ultimately the villagers arrive at the house sometime later, looking for a werewolf within. Instead, they discover that Rosaleen herself has become a werewolf. Together, she and the huntsman, her new mate, escape to the forest, joined by a growing pack. The wolves seem to stream into the real world, breaking into Rosaleen's house and gathering outside her bedroom. Rosaleen awakes with a scream as one leaps in through the window and sends her toys crashing to the floor, symbolizing the end of her childhood innocence.

Perrault's ''Le Petit Chaperon Rouge'' is then heard being read, with the moral warning girls to beware of charming strangers.

Granny's tales and Rosaleen's stories

Throughout the course of the film, a number of stories are interspersed into the main narrative as tales told by several of the characters:

• Granny's tale to Rosaleen—A young groom (Stephen Rea) whose eyebrows meet is about to bed his new bride (Kathryn Pogson) when a "call of nature" summons him outside. He disappears and his bride is terrified to see wolves howling outside. A search the following day yields a wolf pawprint only. Years later, she remarries and has children, only to have her original husband finally return. Angered at her having children with a new husband, the groom transforms into his werewolf form, but is killed when the new husband (Jim Carter) returns.
• Granny's second tale to Rosaleen—A young man whose eyebrows meet, the bastard son of a priest, is walking through the enchanted forest when he encounters the Devil (Terence Stamp), anachronistically arriving in a Rolls-Royce chauffeured by the actress playing Rosaleen in a blonde wig. The Devil offers the boy a transformative potion, which he rubs onto his chest, causing hair to sprout rapidly. The boy is pleased, but shortly thereafter vines grow swiftly from the ground, twining around his legs and trapping him. He wails in protest and fear, his face distorting with his cries. His anguished visage appearing in Rosaleen's bedroom mirror at the end of that dream sequence.
• Rosaleen's story to her mother—A woman (Dawn Archibald) who lived in a valley "done a terrible wrong" by a rich, young nobleman (Richard Morant) turns up visibly pregnant at his wedding party "to put wrong to right". She calls out the nobleman and the rest of the nobles for their bigoted actions, and further denounces them by declaring "the wolves in the forest are more decent". She then reveals that she is a enchantress and magically transforms the groom, the bride, and all the other nobles into wolves. They flee into the forest as the enchantress laughs; but afterward, the enchantress commands that the wolves "serenade" her and her child each night.
• Rosaleen's story to the huntsman/wolf—A she-wolf from the world beneath arrives at a village. Despite meaning no harm, she is shot and injured by a villager. She reveals herself in her human form (Danielle Dax) to an old priest (Graham Crowden) who takes her in and bandages her wound, seeing her innocence. Although touched by the priest's compassion and actions, she feels that she is not fit to stay. Ultimately, after some time, she returns to her world through the village well.

The story also deals with an issue that has affected Sue Townsend directly; she was registered blind in 2001, as a result of long-term diabetes. ''Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction'' was typed by Townsend's husband from dictation.

decoration using ''Make Way for Ducklings'' as the theme The story begins as two ducks (Mr. and Mrs. Mallard) fly over various potential locations in New England to start a family. Each time Mr. Mallard selects a location, Mrs. Mallard finds something wrong with it. Tired from their search, the mallards land at the Public Garden Lagoon to spend the night. In the morning, a swan boat passes by the mallards. The mallards mistake the swan boat for a real bird and enjoy peanuts thrown by the people on the boat. Mrs. Mallard suggests that they build their nest in the Public Garden. However, just as she says this, her husband is nearly run down by a passing bicyclist. The mallards continue their search, flying over Boston landmarks such as Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts State House, and Louisburg Square. The Mallards finally decide on an island in the Charles River. From this island, the Mallards visit a policeman named Michael on the shore, who feeds them peanuts every day.

Shortly thereafter, the Mallards molt, and will not be able to fly until their new feathers grow again, and Mrs. Mallard hatches eight ducklings named Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. After the ducklings are born, Mr. Mallard decides to take a trip up the river to see what the rest of it is like. Mr. and Mrs. Mallard agree to meet at the Public Garden in one week. In the meantime, Mrs. Mallard teaches the eight ducklings all they need to know about being ducks, such as swimming, diving, marching along, and to avoid dangers such as bicycles and other wheeled objects.

One week later, Mrs. Mallard leads the ducklings ashore and straight to the highway in hopes of crossing to reach the Garden, but she has trouble crossing as the cars will not yield to her. Michael, the policeman whom the Mallards visited, stops traffic for the family to cross. Michael calls police headquarters and instructs them to send a police car to stop traffic along the route for the ducks. The ducks cross the highway, Embankment Road (Storrow Drive had yet to be constructed when the book was written), then proceed down Mount Vernon Street to Charles Street where they head south to the Garden. The people on the streets admire the family of ducks. When the family must cross Beacon Street to enter the Garden, there are four policemen standing in the intersection stopping traffic to make way for the ducklings. Mr. Mallard is waiting in the Public Garden for the rest of the family. Finally, the family decides to stay in the Garden and lives happily ever after. They end each day searching for peanuts and food, and when night falls, they swim to their little island and go to sleep.

by author, 1866)

A woman arrives in Guernsey, with her son Gilliat, and buys a house said to be haunted. The boy grows up, the woman dies. Gilliat becomes a good fisherman and sailor. People believe him to be a wizard.

In Guernsey also lives Mess Lethierry – a former sailor and owner of the first steamship of the island, the ''Durande'' – with his niece Deruchette. One day, near Christmas, when going to church, she sees Gilliat on the road behind her and writes his name in the snow. He sees this and becomes obsessed with her gesture. In time he falls in love with her and goes to play the bagpipes near her house.

Sieur Clubin, the trusted captain of ''Durande'', sets up a plan to sink the ship on the Hanois reef and flee with a ship of Spanish smugglers, ''Tamaulipas''. He gets in touch with Rantaine, a swindler who had stolen a large sum of money from Mess Lethierry many years ago. Clubin takes the money from Rantaine at gunpoint.

In thick fog, Clubin sails for the Hanois reef from where he can easily swim to the shore, meet the smugglers, and disappear, giving the appearance of having drowned. Because of the fog he has mistakenly arrived at the Douvres reef, which is still halfway between Guernsey and France. Left alone on the ship, he is terrified, but he sees a cutter and leaps into the water to catch it. At that moment he is grabbed by the leg and is pulled down to the bottom.

Everybody in Guernsey finds out about the shipwreck. Mess Lethierry is desperate to get the ''Durande'' s engine back. His niece declares she will marry the rescuer of the engine, and Mess Lethierry swears she will marry no other. Gilliat immediately takes up the mission, enduring hunger, thirst, and cold trying to free the engine from the wreck. In a battle with an octopus, he finds the skeleton of Clubin and the stolen money on the bottom of the sea.

Eventually he succeeds in returning the engine to Lethierry, who is very pleased and ready to honour his promise. Gilliat appears in front of the people as the rescuer but he declines to marry Deruchette because he had seen her accepting a marriage proposal made by Ebenezer Caudry, the young Anglican priest recently arrived on the island. He arranges their hurried wedding and helps them run away on the sailing ship ''Cashmere''. In the end, with all his dreams shattered, Gilliat decides to wait for the tide sitting on the Gild Holm'Ur chair (a rock in the sea) and drowns as he watches the ''Cashmere'' disappear on the horizon.

The novel is divided into two parts: ''La mer et la nuit'' (''The sea and the night'') and ''Par ordre du roi'' (''On the king's command'').

In late 17th-century England, a homeless boy named Gwynplaine rescues an infant girl during a snowstorm, her mother having frozen to death. They meet an itinerant carnival vendor who calls himself Ursus, and his pet wolf, Homo (whose name is a pun on the Latin saying "Homo homini lupus"). Gwynplaine's mouth has been mutilated into a perpetual grin; Ursus is initially horrified, then moved to pity, and he takes them in. 15 years later, Gwynplaine has grown into a strong young man, attractive except for his distorted visage. The girl, now named Dea, is blind, and has grown into a beautiful and innocent young woman. By touching his face, Dea concludes that Gwynplaine is perpetually happy. They fall in love. Ursus and his surrogate children earn a meagre living in the fairs of southern England. Gwynplaine keeps the lower half of his face concealed. In each town, Gwynplaine gives a stage performance in which the crowds are provoked to laughter when Gwynplaine reveals his grotesque face.

The spoiled and jaded Duchess Josiana, the illegitimate daughter of King James II, is bored by the dull routine of court. Her fiancé, David Dirry-Moir, to whom she has been engaged since infancy, tells Josiana that the only cure for her boredom is Gwynplaine. She attends one of Gwynplaine's performances, and is aroused by the combination of his virile grace and his facial deformity. Gwynplaine is aroused by Josiana's physical beauty and haughty demeanor. Later, an agent of the royal court, Barkilphedro, who wishes to humiliate and destroy Josiana by compelling her to marry the 'clown' Gwynplaine, arrives at the caravan and compels Gwynplaine to follow him. Gwynplaine is ushered to a dungeon in London, where a physician named Hardquannone is being tortured to death. Hardquannone recognizes Gwynplaine, and identifies him as the boy whose abduction and disfigurement Hardquannone arranged 23 years earlier. A flashback relates the doctor's story.

During the reign of the despotic King James II, in 1685–1688, one of the King's enemies was Lord Linnaeus Clancharlie, Marquis of Corleone, who had fled to Switzerland. Upon the lord's death, the King arranged the abduction of his two-year-old son and legitimate heir, Fermain. The King sold Fermain to a band of wanderers called "Comprachicos", criminals who mutilate and disfigure children, and then force them to beg for alms or be exhibited as carnival freaks.

Confirming the story is a message in a bottle recently brought to Queen Anne. The message is the final confession from the Comprachicos, written in the certainty that their ship was about to founder in a storm. It explains how they renamed the boy "Gwynplaine", and abandoned him in a snowstorm before setting to sea. David Dirry-Moir is the illegitimate son of Lord Linnaeus. Now that Fermain is known to be alive, the inheritance promised to David on the condition of his marriage to Josiana will instead go to Fermain.

Gwynplaine is arrested and Barkilphedro lies to Ursus that Gwynplaine is dead. The frail Dea becomes ill with grief. The authorities condemn them to exile for illegally using a wolf in their shows.

Josiana has Gwynplaine secretly brought to her so that she may seduce him. She is interrupted by the delivery of a pronouncement from the Queen, informing Josiana that David has been disinherited, and the Duchess is now commanded to marry Gwynplaine. Josiana rejects Gwynplaine as a lover, but dutifully agrees to marry him.

Gwynplaine is instated as Lord Fermain Clancharlie, Marquis of Corleone, and permitted to sit in the House of Lords. When he addresses the peerage with a fiery speech against the gross inequality of the age, the other lords are provoked to laughter by Gwynplaine's clownish grin. David defends him and challenges a dozen Lords to duels, but he also challenges Gwynplaine whose speech had inadvertently condemned David's mother, who abandoned David's father to become the mistress of Charles II.

Gwynplaine renounces his peerage and travels to find Ursus and Dea. He is nearly driven to suicide when he is unable to find them. Learning that they are to be deported, he locates their ship and reunites with them. Dea is ecstatic, but abruptly dies due to complications brought on by an already weak heart and her loss of Gwynplaine. Ursus faints. Gwynplaine, as though in a trance, walks across the deck while speaking to the dead Dea, and throws himself overboard. When Ursus recovers, he finds Homo sitting at the ship's rail, howling at the sea.

The story of Bug-Jargal begins several weeks before the Haitian Revolution, when Toussaint Louverture fights the colonial regime. D'Auverney, the nephew of a landed aristocrat with many slaves, is betrothed to Marie, his cousin. A slave, Pierrot, falls in love with Marie, but can not do anything because of the obvious racial and cultural barriers between them. However, Pierrot does save Marie from a crocodile, but soon finds himself thrown in prison for trying to protect another slave from his owner's wrath. D'Auverney befriends him, and not long before the Haitian Revolution, Pierrot warns the lovers to flee the island. They stay despite the warning, and the day of the wedding the slave revolution begins, and the white landowners see the rapid and violent dissolution of their society. Pierrot saves Marie from a slave attack and whisks her away, but D'Auverney, thinking that Pierrot had kidnapped his new wife for his own desires, wanders into a dark grotto. He is taken prisoner by the infamously violent slave leader Biassou. In the grotto the freed slaves force their captured white prisoners to kill each other in order to preserve their own skins. Pierrot luckily comes to the rescue of D'Auverney, who learns that Pierrot is really Bug-Jargal, the mystical leader of the slaves. Pierrot leads him to his wife, and dies protecting his friends.

The year is 1793. In Brittany during the Royalist insurrection of the Chouannerie, a troop of "Blues" (soldiers of the French Republic) encounter in the bocage Michelle Fléchard, a peasant woman, and her three young children, who are fleeing from the conflict. She explains that her husband and parents have been killed in the peasant revolt that started the insurrection. The troop's commander, Sergeant Radoub, convinces them to look after the family.

Meanwhile, at sea, a group of Royalist "Whites" are planning to land the Marquis de Lantenac, a Breton aristocrat whose leadership could transform the fortunes of the rebellion. While at sea, a sailor fails to properly secure his cannon, which rolls out of control and damages the ship. The sailor risks his life to secure the cannon and save their ship. Lantenac awards the man a medal for his bravery and then executes him (without trial) for failing in his duty. Their corvette is spotted by ships of the Republic. Lantenac slips away in a boat with one supporter, Halmalo, the brother of the executed sailor, and the corvette distracts the Republican ships by provoking a battle the damaged ship cannot win. The corvette is destroyed, but Lantenac lands safely in Brittany and sends Halmalo ahead as a messenger.

Lantenac is hunted by the Blues, but is protected by a local beggar, to whom he gave alms in the past. He meets up with his supporters, and they immediately launch an attack on the Blues. Part of the troop with the family is captured. Lantenac orders them all to be shot, including Michelle. He takes the children with him as hostages. The beggar finds the bodies, and discovers that Michelle is still alive. He nurses her back to health.

Lantenac's ruthless methods have turned the revolt into a major threat to the Republic. In Paris, Danton, Robespierre and Marat argue about the threat, while also sniping at each other. They promulgate a decree that all rebels and anyone who helps them will be executed. Cimourdain, a committed revolutionary and former priest, is deputed to carry out their orders in Brittany. He is also told to keep an eye on Gauvain, the commander of the Republican troops there, who is related to Lantenac and thought to be too lenient to rebels. Unknown to the revolutionary leaders, Cimourdain was Gauvain's childhood tutor, and thinks of him as a son.

Lantenac has taken control of Dol-de-Bretagne, in order to secure a landing place for British troops to be sent to support the Royalists. Gauvain launches a surprise attack and uses deception to dislodge and disperse them. Forced to retreat, Lantenac is constantly kept from the coast by Gauvain. With British troops unavailable his supporters melt away. Eventually he and a last few fanatical followers are trapped in his castle.

Meanwhile, Michelle has recovered and goes in search of her children. She wanders aimlessly, but eventually hears that they are being held hostage in Lantenac's castle. At the castle Sergeant Radoub, fighting with the besiegers, spots the children. He persuades Gauvain to let him lead an assault. He manages to break through the defences and kill several rebels, but with Halmalo's aid, Lantenac and a few survivors escape through a secret passage after setting fire to the building. As the fire takes hold, Michelle arrives, and sees that her children are trapped. Her hysterical cries of despair are heard by Lantenac. Struck with guilt, he returns through the passage to the castle and rescues the children, helped by Radoub. He then gives himself up.

Gauvain knows that Cimourdain will guillotine Lantenac after a show trial. He visits him in prison, where Lantenac expresses his uncompromising conservative vision of society ordered by hierarchy, deference and duty. Gauvain insists that humane values transcend tradition. To prove it, he allows Lantenac to escape and then gives himself up to the tribunal that was convened to try him. Gauvain's forgiveness after Lantenac's courageous act contrasts with Lantenac's executing the sailor at the beginning of the novel. Gauvain is then tried for treason. The tribunal comprises Cimourdain, Radoub and Gauvain's deputy, Guéchamp. Radoub votes to acquit, but the others vote to condemn Gauvain to be executed, with Cimourdain casting the deciding vote. Visited by Cimourdain in prison, Gauvain outlines his own vision of a future society with minimal government, no taxes, technological progress and sexual equality. The following morning he is executed by guillotine. At the same moment, Cimourdain shoots himself.

A man who has been condemned to death by the guillotine in 19th-century France writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while awaiting his execution. His writing traces his change in psyche vis-a-vis the world outside the prison cell throughout his imprisonment, and describes his life in prison, everything from what his cell looks like to the personality of the prison priest. He does not betray his name or what he has done to the reader, though he vaguely hints that he has killed someone; just a nameless, faceless, meaningless victim.

Interestingly, the novel also contains a blueprint of Jean Valjean, the hero of Hugo's ''Les Miserables''. As the Condemned is waiting to be executed he meets another condemned man who recounts his life story. The man tells him that he was originally sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to save his sister's family. This, of course, is the same backstory that Hugo gives for Jean Valjean.

At another point he tries to escape by conning a superstitious guard to give him his clothes. The guard almost does until common sense gets the better of him and he declines exchanging clothes with the Condemned.

On the day that the Condemned is to be executed he sees his three-year-old daughter for the last time, but she no longer recognizes him, and she tells him that her father is dead.

The novel ends just after he briefly but desperately begs for pardon and curses the people of his time, the people he hears outside, screaming impatiently for the spectacle of his decapitation.

"E.N.G." stands for electronic news-gathering. The show is led by Anne Hildebrandt (Sara Botsford), the senior executive producer of the news broadcasts on fictional Toronto television station, CTLS channel 10. Hildebrandt is bright, assertive and also having a clandestine affair with star cameraman Jake Antonelli (Mark Humphrey). Jake is younger and married to Martha with two children; after Jake and Martha divorce, son Jeff lives with Jake, while their daughter lives with her mother.

Mike Fennell (Art Hindle) is the station's newly-appointed news director, taking a position Anne had been expecting to receive. Mike aims to improve ratings of the newscasts and his coverage philosophy is in obvious conflict with Anne's. Anne and Mike find common ground and later become romantically involved. Mike has a troubled teenage daughter named Carrie from his previous marriage; Carrie lives in Vancouver.

Other members of the CTLS staff include Jane Oliver, the station's weathercaster; Seth Miller, who worries about being pushed into retirement due to his age; Kyle Copeland, the station's general manager who sometimes clashes with both Anne and Mike; Bobbi Katz, another camera person; J.C. Callahan, the station's alcoholic and cranky assignment editor, who later is left wheelchair-bound by an accident; Marge Atherton, the station's video editor, who is very motherly and offers co-workers advice, and a compassionate shoulder to lean on; Dan Watson, a smarmy senior reporter who occasionally puts his foot in his mouth. Janice Roberts, a news researcher, joins channel 10 the same day Mike does. Janice later commits suicide after becoming too emotionally involved in a story. Bruce Foreman is a devious and scheming assistant assignment editor; Eric "Mac" MacFarlane is the newscast's openly-gay floor manager; Terri Morgan, a scheming reporter who tends to be very cut-throat. Victor Garber has a recurring role as tycoon Adam Hirsch, who owned CTLS during the final three seasons.

At the end of the series, Anne and Mike try to balance their personal and professional lives, when it is revealed that CTLS is going from a hard news format to a lifestyles format. Mike receives a new job offer in Japan, and invites Anne to go with him. After making peace with Jake, who urged her to have a life with Mike, Anne decides to accept his offer, although she would not be permitted to work, by Japanese law. In the final episode, "The Cutting Edge", Clarke Roberts (Janice's brother) dares Anne to get back in the trenches and help him with a hard news story. She does, finding how much she loves the excitement. She is offered a job at another news station, by the station owner (Simon MacCorkindale). After talking to Mike, they decide they want different things. Mike goes to Japan to begin his new job. Anne is last seen standing outside the building where her new job, as station manager will begin.

In this future, it is possible to obtain robot assassins out of vending machines at the cost of 3 Franks. After terminating their target, the robot self-destructs for easy clean-up. During his first mission, the Scud we follow sees his self-destruct warning in a mirror during an 18-page fight scene. Programmed for self-preservation for the sake of winning fights, Scud doesn't want to die, so only wounds Jeff bad enough to be put on life support at a nearby hospital, ensuring their mutual survival.

The main plot of ''Scud: The Disposable Assassin'' follows Scud's career as a freelance mercenary and assassin, working to pay off Jeff's medical bills.

Issue #20

With issue #20, the series went on indefinite hiatus with a cliffhanger. Schrab was growing dissatisfied with the direction the story was taking, and stepped back from the book rather than allowing things to worsen. At the same time his career in Hollywood began to pick up, so he shifted focus further away from the book. Since then Scud's publisher, Fireman Press, was dissolved after a falling out between Rob Schrab and a business partner over rights.

Four-issue series finale

On January 3, 2007, Schrab announced on his blog his plans to finish Scud in four parts, Issues 21–24, at which point he would release an omnibus of all 24 issues. Podcasts posted to Schrab's site gave his state of mind during the process, opportunities he is passing up to finish the book, and a view of the process he uses to create a comic page. Regarding the decision to conclude the series with 4 issues, Rob Schrab told fans that "he just couldn't make this another issue. I want Scud to go out with a bang."

The final installment of Scud was released as a four-part mini-series published by Image Comics, with covers by guest artists.

• 21 – Ashley Wood (February 2008) "Return of the Over–Used Muse"

  ** Rob Schrab (March 2008) – WonderCon Exclusive Variant of Issue 21 ** Jack Gray (April 2008) – Second Print of Issue 21

• 22 – Jim Mahfood (March 2008) "Challenge of the Over-Used Muse"

  ** Dan Hipp (April 2008) – Second Print of Issue 22

• 23 – David Hartman (April 2008) "Retaliation of the Over-Used Muse"

• 24 – Doug Tennapel (May 2008) "Death of the Over-Used Muse"

An oversized, one-volume edition of Scud entitled Scud ''The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang!'' was released August 6, 2008. In addition to issues 1–24, it contains "Drywall: Unzipped" and ''Black Octopus: Sexy Genius''.

Rob Schrab has stated that he currently has no plans for further issues of ''Scud Spin-offs – Scud: Tales from the Vending Machine'' and ''The Drywall & Oswald Show''.

In a closing interview conducted by Doug TenNapel at the end of Issue #24, Rob stated that he would like to see ''La Cosa Nostroid'' concluded, but that it would be up to Dan Harmon who helmed the series.

Washington, D.C. homicide investigator and forensic psychologist Alex Cross investigates the brutal murders of two black prostitutes and an infant. Then, at an exclusive private school, math teacher Gary Soneji kidnaps Maggie Rose Dunne and Michael Goldberg. Cross is pulled off the murder case to investigate the kidnapping instead. Angry because he feels everyone cares more about two rich white children than three dead black people, he meets Jezzie Flannagan, the head of the children's Secret Service detail. At an old farmhouse, Soneji buries the children alive in a specially made coffin. Angered by FBI agent Roger Graham's contemptuous comments about him on TV, Soneji later impersonates a reporter and kills Graham. Meanwhile, Cross, his partner John Sampson and the FBI search Soneji's apartment, discovering his obsession with kidnappings, particularly that of the Lindbergh baby, and his desire to become a world-famous criminal.

Some time later, Michael Goldberg's corpse is discovered, and the Dunnes receive a telegram demanding $10 million. Cross, Sampson and the FBI investigate, and Cross begins an affair with Jezzie Flannagan. He is ordered to deliver the money to Walt Disney World in Orlando, wondering how Soneji knows about his involvement. A man takes him on a plane, flying to a small island and taking the money, but never delivering Maggie Rose. At the old farmhouse, police officers find the empty graves where the children were held. Soneji returns to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where it is revealed he has a wife and a daughter.

In Washington DC, Soneji, dressed as a public utility employee, murders a teacher from the private school. Cross and Sampson are sent to the scene and, seeing the way he mutilated the body, quickly realize that Soneji is also behind the killings they investigated before and after the kidnapping. In the murdered prostitutes' neighborhood, an elderly woman recalls a man going door to door selling heating systems. They soon find out that a man named Gary Murphy works for the company, and put observation on his family home in Wilmington, but Soneji manages to escape. A day later, he walks into a McDonald's and holds several people hostage. Soneji is almost killed, but Cross saves him, as he believes Soneji knows where Maggie is. The criminal promises Cross will regret saving his life.

The trial of Gary Soneji/Murphy lasts eleven months. Cross hypnotizes him several times, learning he seems to have a split personality; Gary Murphy, his everyday persona, is a gentle family man, while Gary Soneji is a vicious sociopath. Despite the defense's best effort at an insanity plea, Soneji is imprisoned. Meanwhile, Cross learns that someone was following Soneji and knew about the kidnapping. Cross suspects Mike Devine and Charley Chakely, the Secret Service agents in charge of protecting Maggie Rose and Michael when they were kidnapped. He meets with Soneji, who confirms he may have been followed. He did not make the connection until he recognized the man at his trial: Mike Devine.

Cross meets with the FBI, who have believed for some time that Devine and Chakely took the ransom money, hiring and later murdering the pilot from Florida. Cross also learns that none other than Jezzie Flannagan masterminded the kidnapping using her lover, Devine, as a pawn. Around the same time, Soneji escapes from prison and goes to Washington, where he tortures Devine to find out where the ransom money is. After retrieving the money, he kills Devine.

Cross takes Flannagan on a Caribbean getaway, and confronts her about her actions. She explains that Devine and Chakely noticed Soneji driving by the Goldberg house, and followed him. The ransom was her idea, and they removed Maggie Rose after Michael died accidentally. Flannagan is arrested based on a recording Sampson made of the conversation, and Maggie Rose is found with a family in South America, where she had been living for the past two years.

Shortly after this, Soneji attacks Cross at his Washington home, attempting to kill his grandmother and children. Losing the fight, Soneji is hunted through the capital and eventually cornered on Pennsylvania Avenue, where he takes two children hostage. Soneji is about to shoot Cross, but Sampson shoots Soneji first, wounding him. Some time later, Charley Chakely and Jezzie Flannagan are executed for their crimes, while Soneji is locked up in a mental institution. He writes a last taunting letter to Cross and bribes a guard to leave it on Cross' windshield. Disturbed but unwilling to let Soneji disrupt his life any further, Cross returns home to spend time with his family.

By 1987, the once successful Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, has deteriorated due to drugs and crime running rampant throughout the school. The majority of students cannot pass basic skills testing, and even the teachers are not safe from gang violence.

Mayor Bottman (Alan North) learns that the school will be turned over to state administration unless 75% of the students can pass the minimum basic skills test. He consults with school superintendent Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume), who suggests they hire Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman), a former teacher of Eastside High who was forcibly transferred years before due to budget cuts, as the new school principal. Reluctantly, the mayor hires Clark.

Known as "Crazy Joe", Clark's immediate radical changes include expelling 300 students identified as drug dealers or abusers and troublemakers, instituting programs to improve school spirit including painting over graffiti-covered walls, and requiring students to learn the school song, and be punished if they cannot sing it on demand. When one of the expelled students is found beating up another student, Clark orders the doors of the school chained shut during school hours since funds are insufficient to purchase security doors.

Clark's actions begin to have a positive effect on his students. He encounters Thomas Sams (Jermaine Hopkins), a young student expelled for crack use, who pleads to be allowed back into school. Clark escorts Sams up to the roof of the school; there he viciously berates the boy for using crack, demanding that he jump off the edge of the building. Clark is (secretly) elated, when the now-hysterical Sams refuses to jump and proceeds to turn himself around. Clark also reunites one of his old elementary school students, Kaneesha Carter (Karen Malina White), with her estranged mother.

Some parents react strongly to these measures, particularly Leonna Barrett (Lynne Thigpen) -- the mother of one of the expelled students, who presses the mayor to oust Clark.

Clark's radicalism brings him into conflict with his own faculty, notably: Mr. Darnell (Michael Beach), an English teacher, whom Clark suspends for picking up a piece of trash during a recital of the school song; Mrs. Elliot (Robin Bartlett), a Music teacher, whom Clark fires for being insubordinate after he cancels a long-planned choral event (the school's upcoming annual Lincoln Center concert). Napier lectures Clark over these incidents, demanding that he act as a team player; Clark subsequently re-instates Mr. Darnell.

Unfortunately, a practice basic skills test fails to garner enough passing students. Clark confronts his staff for their failure to educate their students, and to prepare them for the world. Clark institutes a tutorial program to strengthen academic skills; he also encourages remedial reading courses on Saturdays, so that parents may attend alongside their children if they want (or need) to.

When the day for the minimum basic skills test finally arrives, the students are much better prepared and filled with a sense of self-worth. Before the scores can be calculated, the fire chief raids the school and discovers the chained doors. Clark is arrested for violating fire safety codes. That evening, the students gather at the meeting of the Paterson Board of Education, where school board member Leonna is leading the call for Clark's removal.

The students demand that Clark be released from jail and retained as principal. The mayor has Clark released from jail, so that he may urge the children to return home for their own safety. He is interrupted by assistant principal Ms. Levias, who reports that more than 75% of the students have passed the basic skills test. He announces the results over his megaphone.

As a result, the school's current administration remains intact. Clark is allowed to keep his job as principal, as he cheerfully informs the mayor that "You can tell the State to go to hell." The students celebrate by breaking into their school song. The film ends with the senior students, including Sams, graduating high school (amid the closing credits); Clark hands them their diplomas.

Kazuma Azuma is a boy on a quest to create ''"Ja-pan"'', a national bread for Japan, as many other countries have their own signature breads. He heads to Tokyo with the intention of working at the famous bread-making chain Pantasia. Along the way, he meets other bakers, both learning from and competing against them. The characters bake their bread using their burning passion and even anger, similar to the legendary cooking style of Hokkaido. Besides a desire to create Ja-pan, Azuma also possesses legendary : hands that are warmer than typical, prompting dough to ferment faster. While this gives him an advantage early on, his innovation is his greater talent.

Just after the events of ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'', Santa Claus receives a letter from his friend Father Time asking for help to find Happy the Baby New Year before midnight ("the 12th bong") on New Year's Eve or else it will be December 31 forever. Santa sends Rudolph out to find him due to the snowstorm currently happening outside.

An evil giant vulture named Eon the Terrible is supposed to live for exactly one eon after which he will turn into ice and snow and disintegrate. As this particular eon will end January 1 of the New Year, he plans to kidnap Happy to keep the year from ending and stop time, thus preventing his predestined death.

General Ticker (a military clock) and the great Quarter-Past-Five, or Quart for short (a camel with a clock in his hump), bring Rudolph to Father Time's castle beyond the Sands of Time. Father Time speculates that Happy, who ran away due to his big ears being laughed at when they were first seen by Nanny Nine O'Clock, is hiding out in the "Archipelago of Last Years" where the Old Years retire and rule over an island styled to resemble the year over which they ruled. When Rudolph is attacked by Eon on the ocean while en route to the Archipelagos, he is saved by Big Ben (a sperm whale with a clock attached to his tail) who transports Rudolph across the ocean.

Upon arrival in the Archipelagos, Rudolph first travels to the island belonging to a caveman named O.M. (short for One Million B.C.). O.M. inhabits an island anachronistically inhabited with friendly dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. As Rudolph and his friends search for Happy (who left after his hat accidentally fell off saving a baby Pterodactylus and revealing his big ears, causing the dinosaurs to laugh), they repeatedly encounter Eon.

After other off-screen visits to the islands of 4000 B.C., 1492, 1893, and 1965 have been completed without success, Rudolph and O.M. head for the island of 1023 (pronounced "ten to three," as in the time 2:50), belonging to a Scottish knight with a long beard named Sir 1023 whose island is filled with medieval trappings along with several fairy tale and Mother Goose characters. Meanwhile, Happy manages to befriend the Three Bears, but becomes saddened when he removes his hat and exposing his big ears to them, causing him to leave again despite Baby Bear begging him not to go.

The group then travels to the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by "Sev" (AKA 1776) who resembles Benjamin Franklin. Following Happy's seeming rejection on the Island of 1776 following the daily parade, Eon kidnaps him and takes him to his lair on the Island of No-Name which is said to be located "due north of the North Pole".

The group now leaves the Archipelego in pursuit. Catching up to Eon, they attempt to rescue Happy. However, Eon (upon being awakened by the sound of O.M. tumbling) thwarts them by sending an avalanche down on the group and trapping them inside giant snowballs. Managing to melt his way free using his nose, Rudolph climbs up to Eon's nest where he finds Happy, who refuses to leave. Rudolph shows Happy his nose and tells him his own story of being bullied because of his nonconformity before asking Happy to let him see his ears. Happy does so, and Rudolph, like everyone else before him, laughs at the sight. Happy once again gets upset, but Rudolph explains that the sight of Happy's ears had made him feel so wonderful that he had to laugh out loud, just like it had done with everyone else. With this declaration, Happy shouts out with joy, but causes Eon to awaken. Rudolph quickly tells Happy to take off his hat and leave it off for good. At the sight of Happy's large ears, Eon bursts into uncontrollable laughter which sends him tumbling down the side of the mountain and into the three remaining snowballs, freeing O.M., 1023, and Sev. Rudolph realizes that Eon is now so full of warmth and happiness that it would be impossible for him to turn to ice and snow. Santa arrives and the gang returns to Father Time's castle with Happy just before the 12th bong, which is designated "19-Wonderful".

The basic storyline is that Sammo Law (Sammo Hung), a well-respected Chinese cop, is transferred to America. As he works for the police department, fighting crime in Los Angeles, he is met with a clash in culture. He is also the mentor of Grace "Pei Pei" Chen (Kelly Hu), an undercover officer. When American techniques do not work, Sammo employs some Chinese cop work to get the job done.

Season one

Sammo is sent by the Chinese government to apprehend an old nemesis, Lee Hei (Tzi Ma). He finds out that his disciple, Pei Pei, had infiltrated Lee Hei's criminal empire. His goal is to capture Lee Hei and end his criminal organization. This plot line was unresolved and season one ended in a cliffhanger, although season two's premiere has Sammo alluding to Lee Hei's death (by way of accusing a one-shot villain of trying to avenge it). He is assisted in this by Grace (who joins the LAPD alongside him), Det. Louis Malone (Louis Mandylor) and Lt. Benjamin Winship (Tom Wright). Det. Dana Dixon (Tammy Lauren) is initially part of the team, but leaves after only five episodes; she is explained to have moved to another police force to be closer to her family. Halfway through the season, Lt. Terrell Parker (Arsenio Hall) joins the team and becomes Sammo's official partner.

Season two

Following the events of the previous season finale, and prior to the second-season premiere, Winship retires and Louis transfers to the NYPD, while Law decides to stay in Los Angeles and is now partnered with Grace. The department also gets a new captain, Amy Dylan, who thinks that the Chinese way of police work is not the best way of handling things. In addition, revelations are made of a secret society whose members include Law's long-lost son. While Law decided to return to China in the last episode, a line of dialogue leaves open the possibility of a follow-up.

Episode one: "Steed in the Stable"

After being arrested and charged with "foul atheism" and fornication, Casanova is sentenced to five years imprisonment at "The Leads": the most notorious of Venetian gaols. Brutalised by Lorenzo the gaoler and devoid of hope under the harsh prison regime, Casanova's mind wanders back to his past loves and adventures. He finds himself haunted by the memory of Christina, a simple country girl he gave to another rather than marry her himself.

Episode two: "One at a Time"

Casanova receives a new cellmate in the form of Schalon, a corrupt insurance broker, and reflects on his seduction of three daughters at a house in Grenoble.

Episode three: "Magic Moments"

Casanova is irritated by his constantly complaining cell mate Schalon and remembers how he once pretended to be a magician casting a spell to seduce the virgin daughter of an old naive man.

Episode four: "Window, Window"

The episode flashes back and forward between Casanova trying to seduce Anne Roman-Coupier, even though his friend strongly discourages this, and him trying to receive some books while being in prison. He is also haunted by memories of watching a man being executed and him smashing a window with a stone in Venice.

Episode five: "Fevers of Love"

While in his prison cell, Casanova is tormented by fever dreams and flashbacks to his past loves and especially his stay in London.

Episode six: "Golden Apples"

This episode flashes back and forward between Casanova finally managing to escape from his prison cell and him trying to write his memoirs in Castle of Duchcov near the end of his life as an old, dying man.

Narrated from the first-person perspective of John Moore, a crime reporter for ''The New York Times'', the novel begins on January 8, 1919, the day that Theodore Roosevelt is buried. Moore has dinner with Laszlo Kreizler, the famous alienist. Kreizler is surrounded by those he has rescued, including his black servant, Cyrus Montrose, and a boy named Stevie "Stevepipe" Taggert. (Mary Palmer, another patient and Kreizler's housekeeper, is deceased by the time of this dinner.) Together, they reminisce about their times with Roosevelt, but they focus on one moment: the spring of 1896 and their efforts to catch a serial killer on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The novel is narrated in retrospect, with Moore commenting on the events and how they impacted later history.

At 2 AM on March 3, 1896, Moore is awakened by one of Kreizler's servants banging incessantly on his door. Stevie, a young boy whom Kreizler had saved from being institutionalized and who is dedicated to Kreizler, brings Moore to the scene of a crime that Kreizler wants Moore to see. Roosevelt, the police commissioner, is already at the scene. When Moore sees the nature of the brutal murder, he is appalled. The victim, Georgio "Gloria" Santorelli, is a 13-year-old boy who prostituted himself by dressing up as a girl; the boy's wrists are tied behind his back, and he is kneeling with his face pressed on the steel walkway where he was found. Though makeup paint and powder on his face are still intact, his eyes are gouged out, his right hand is chopped off, his genitals are cut off and stuffed between his jaws, he has huge gashes across his entire body, his throat has been slashed, and his buttocks are "shorn off". The policeman at the scene, Detective Sergeant Connor, makes it clear that murders of such victims are usually ignored.

At Roosevelt's request, Moore, Kreizler, and he meet the following morning in Roosevelt's office to discuss the case. Kreizler has examined the body and disagrees with the official coroner's report. He connects the Santorelli killing to that of a second case in which two children, Benjamin and Sofia Zweig, were killed and had their eyes gouged out. Roosevelt announces that there are two more murders that match the pattern. Roosevelt decides to investigate, but because Kreizler has such a dubious reputation as an alienist, and because the investigation will become politically difficult, he establishes a base of operations for them outside the police precinct. Politically, Roosevelt cannot afford to be associated with the investigation and is not involved with the day-to-day operations.

Kreizler asks for some young detectives who are open to new methods and receives the help of Marcus and Lucius Isaacson, two Jewish brothers who were hired when Roosevelt began removing corrupt police officers from the force. The Isaacsons bring sophisticated methods, such as the Bertillon system and fingerprinting, to the investigation, although these were not popular in New York City police departments at the time nor accepted in courts of law.

The group begins to investigate the victims, hoping to understand the mind of the murderer by understanding his victims. They interview Georgio Santorelli's mother and discover, for example, that there was discord in his family. Georgio's parents had learned of his being manipulated into performing sexual acts for older boys in school, and the father's response was to try to beat it out of the boy. Georgio eventually left home and lived on the streets as a male-for-male prostitute. They also read the emerging science of psychology, such as the works of William James. Another body is discovered, and the evidence suggests that the victim knew his attacker. The team also deduces that the killer's agility on rooftops suggests that he is familiar with mountain- or rock-climbing.

Kreizler, Roosevelt, Moore, and Howard must deal with various interest groups during their investigation who wish to maintain society's status quo, including a corrupt police force, which takes bribes from owners of the brothels whose prostitutes include poor immigrants; the Catholic Church, which is wary of the potential power of an organized immigrant population; the Episcopal Church; and J. P. Morgan.

Kotarou Higuchi is befriended by his neighbor Misha, an angel-in-training. He is later acquainted with Shia, a demon, who is urged by her forgotten memories to search for something. Kotarou continues his daily life until Shia absorbs his life energy and leaves town. Kotarou investigates and discovers Shia is his great-grandmother who is searching for his dying great-grandfather, Taro Higuchi. After the revelation, Shia regains her memories and mourns Taro's death before she also dies. Afterwards, Kotarou learns that Misha's test involves helping Kotarou find happiness; regardless of the result, the two will separate when the test's deadline is reached. Realizing Heaven's true intent, Kotarou asks Misha to rid him of his ability to see angels as he has to search for happiness himself; Misha passes the test and becomes the angel. The series ends with the two returning to their separate lives.

Characters

; The heroine. Misha is an angel who was friends with Kotaroh. After Kotaroh's suicide, Heaven imprisons Misha and strips her of her status because she was an indirect cause of his death. In the present, Heaven frees Misha and gives her a chance to redeem herself by having Kotarou as her test. In the anime, Kotarou is not related to Misha's test and are neighbors by coincidence; she was voiced by Yukari Tamura. In 2002, Misha appeared in ''Newtype'' s poll in the favorite female character category.

; The protagonist. Kotarou is a sixth grade elementary school student at Misaki Seiei Private Academy. At a very young age he lost his mother after she saved him from a speeding truck. Because of this and his father's work, Kotarou is alone most of the time resulting in his stoic and independent personality. Kotarou is able to see angels, demons, and spirits because he is a descendant of Shia. He later discovers he is the reincarnation of , his grand-uncle and Shia's son. Kotaroh's family were labeled as demons by the villager. Since Misha was Kotaroh's emotional support, he committed suicide when Misha was forced to return to heaven. Kotarou was initially in love with Shia which strains his friendship with Takashi. Eventually, his feelings shift towards Misha and is reinforced when Shia is revealed to be his great-grandmother. In the anime adaptation, Kotarou's relation to Kotaroh and Shia was removed; he was voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.

; Shia is a demon with the appearance of a frail feminine girl. Because of her nature, she needs to absorb life energy while in the human world to survive. Before the start of the series, an amnesiac Shia lived in the human world as , an adopted daughter of a merchant. She married and gave birth to Kotarou's granduncle and grandmother. Due to her demonic nature, Shia was forced to return to hell to restore her health; her demon memories overwrite her memories as Shima. Due to Taro's ailing health, Shia returns to the human world and subconsciously searches for him. She regains her memories as Shima when Kotarou reveals her past to her, and attends Taro's funeral; ignoring her demonic nature to feed, Shia dies shortly after. In the anime, Shia has no relation to the Higuchi family and travels to the human world to complete her demon apprenticeship. Shia's good nature causes her to fail and her existence is annulled; at the end of the series, Misha brings Shia back to life as a human. She was voiced by Yukana Nogami.

; Takashi is Kotarou's friend and classmate. He secretly works hard to maintain his public image as a prodigy. He loves Koboshi but moves onto Shia when he learns Koboshi loves Kotarou. His family's financial difficulties forces him to abandon his dreams of enrolling in a high quality school. In the anime, Takashi's feelings and home life is never explored; he was voiced by Mitsuki Saiga.

; Koboshi Uematsu is Kotarou's friend and classmate. She harbors a crush on him and confesses her feelings later in the series. After she is rejected, Koboshi changes her outlook on life and strives to improve herself to make Kotarou regret his decision. In the anime, her confession does not occur; she was voiced by Rie Kugimiya.

;Other characters * is Kotarou's classmate. He strives to better himself in order to become a dignified head of the Mitarai family. In the anime, Hiroshi's story remains the same, and he was voiced by Motoko Kumai.Ending credits from * is Hiroshi's younger sister. She admires her brother and attacks anyone who insults him. She develops a crush on Takashi which prioritizes her admiration for her brother. In the anime, Kaoru's story remains the same and she was voiced by Sakura Nogawa. * is a demon who accompanies Shia and encourages her to act like a demon. He disguises himself as a black cat in public. While in cat form, he is named by Misha and is credited by that name in the manga and anime. Klaus is voiced by Yumi Touma. * is Misha's older sister and an angel. She is strict, formal, and often berates Misha for her laid back personality. She was voiced by Akemi Okamura.Ending credits from * is Kotarou's maternal cousin. Since her mother's death, Shino has been cared for by her and Kotarou's great-grandfather. Like Kotarou, she can see angels, demons and spirits. She moves in with Kotarou later in the series. In the anime, Shino's story remains the same, and she was voiced by Taeko Kawata.Ending credits from

, also known as ''Casshern'', is an android with a human consciousness, also known as a . Tetsuya turned himself into an android to hunt down and destroy the robots that have taken over the world.

His biological father, Dr. Kotaro Azuma, was the inventor of the automatons that were originally intended to serve humankind. However, the first android, BK-1, was struck by lightning and went out of control. Despite great efforts to stop it, BK-1 used its great strength to escape from the castle. After some time, it renamed itself Buraiking Boss (often mistranslated in English as "Black King Boss"; the name is derived from 無頼 or ''burai,'' meaning ''rogue'' or ''brute,'' using the symbols for "trust" and "nothing," but phonetically "Bu Rai" can mean "Lightning Man" or "Lightning Warrior," so the name fits with his background). The Buraiking Boss then built a robot army against mankind. The robots mutinied ''en masse'' when they logically concluded that the good of the Earth's ecosystem required the destruction of the human race.

Casshern and his robotic dog, Friender, join forces with a beautiful girl named Luna Kozuki to battle the robots led by the Buraiking Boss. Friender can transform itself into a tank or a jet aircraft and actively helps Casshern fight the robot army. Casshern has great strength and agility, but he is not armed, except for a pair of strange pistols, which are used more like rockets than weapons. While the robots are huge and robust machines, almost all of them have an antenna on top of their heads; ripping it off usually causes them to explode, so they are relatively vulnerable. Casshern can usually destroy the robots with his bare hands, dispatching a great number in any given battle.

However, Casshern also has some weak points. His body must be re-charged with solar energy and cannot sustain very long battles without risking low battery power. Luna started out as being totally harmless, until her father built an electromagnetic pistol, which was easily capable of destroying the robots.

An alien craft bearing the ruthless Dominators arrives on the peaceful planet of Dulkis. The craft lands on the Island of Death, a nuclear test site housing an anti-war museum, and soon absorbs all the radiation on the island. The robotic Quarks are sent out by the Dominators to prepare boreholes into the planet’s crust in order to convert the planet into rocket fuel. Toba uses the Quarks to fire on and kill three adventure seekers who stumble across his project. Their pilot Cully, however, survives by hiding, though the craft that brought him to the island is destroyed. Rago is furious that these potential slaves have been wasted.

The TARDIS arrives on another part of the island and the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe hear the explosion of the craft being destroyed. They take shelter in the museum and meet three other newly arrived Dulcians, Educator Balan and his young charges Teel and Kando. All are puzzled that the radiation reading on the Island is nil, since it should be radioactive after the nuclear explosion 172 years earlier. Cully arrives too, and tells them about the murderous Dominators and their robots. Balan does not accept this: Cully, the son of the Director of the ruling council, is well-known as a practical joker.

The Quarks have begun work on drilling the outer boreholes. The Doctor and Jamie are captured by a patrol of Quarks and taken to the Dominator ship for questioning and scanning. A scan of Jamie is presumed to apply to them both and to the Dulcian race as a whole, who are thus described as possible but not definite for conversion into a slave force. During an intelligence test, the Doctor feigns stupidity to prove their worthlessness. He also fails to use a weapon from the Dulcian museum, falsely claiming such military technology has been lost to the Dulcians. The Doctor and Jamie are freed as worthless idiots.

Cully has contacted his father, Director Senex, who orders him to recharge Balan’s travel capsule and use it to return to the Capital City. He takes Zoe with him to the Council Chamber, where the discussion lacks focus and purpose. Senex refuses to believe that Cully is telling the truth, despite Zoe’s protests, so Cully steals a travel pod and heads back to the island with Zoe to get proof of their story. The Doctor and Jamie take Balan’s pod to the capital city. They are angry that Cully and Zoe have been allowed to return to danger and have real trouble convincing the Council of the Dominators' threat. The true danger is only revealed when the Council obtains a visual image of a survey station destroyed by the Quarks on Toba’s instructions.

The Dominators capture Balan, Teel and Kando, using them for further tests on their species before they are made to work as slaves in the drilling sites. Zoe and Cully are also captured and enslaved but find Balan and Kando opposed to using force against the Quarks. However, they struggle to dig the borehole, with Balan collapsing. Cully sneaks back to the museum and captures a laser weapon stored there as an exhibit.

The Doctor and Jamie take control of a travel pod and return to the Island of Death. Jamie links up with Cully at the museum while the Doctor is captured by Quarks and taken with the slave force back to the Dominator ship. Cully uses the gun to destroy a Quark, prompting another of Toba’s rages. The museum is destroyed in retaliation, which infuriates Rago. He orders the Quarks to hold the Doctor and Zoe for further tests while Balan, Kando, and Teel are sent to excavate to the central bore site.

Jamie and Cully survive the explosion in a nuclear bunker below the main building. After a struggle they open a hatch above them and succeed in crushing a Quark with a boulder. This alerts Toba who heads off to investigate how another Quark has been destroyed, leaving the Doctor and Zoe free to roam the Dominator ship. Jamie and Cully continue to attack other Quarks in a series of guerrilla raids.

The Dulcian Council debates the situation and not even Tensa, Chairman of the Emergencies Committee, can spur them into decisive action. The key moment comes when Rago himself uses the travel pod taken by the Doctor to travel to the capital with a Quark. The robot kills Tensa on command. Rago says that the fittest Dulcians will be enslaved to use on the Dominator homeworld. The rest will be left on Dulkis to die, as the planet is doomed.

Toba returns to the ship and demands to know who destroyed the Quark. Balan is killed for refusing to answer, and the Doctor is selected to die next. Rago returns and sends Toba to complete the drilling and prepare the bore rockets, using the Quarks and the Doctor, Zoe, Teel and Kando as slaves. Rago focuses on a nuclear seed device to be dropped down the central borehole. He also hears from the Fleet Leader that no Dulcian slave force is to be assembled: all the Dulcians are now to stay on the planet to die when it is destroyed.

The dig proceeds with the Doctor and the other slaves making progress, but when Toba abandons his watch post Jamie and Cully disable another Quark and free their friends. The Doctor has worked out the Dominator scheme: a nuclear fission seed will be dropped down the borehole, converting the entire planet into a radioactive mass to power the Dominator fleet. They begin digging a tunnel to the central borehole to steal the deadly device before it can detonate. Jamie and Cully help by destroying Quarks with homemade bombs.

The Doctor intercepts the seed during its descent but tells his friends that it cannot be defused. Cully, Teel and Kando are told to flee in the remaining travel pod, while Jamie and Zoe are sent to the TARDIS. The Doctor runs to the Dominator ship and smuggles the seed on board before the craft lifts off. It departs and the Dominators’ last vision is of the seed device rolling on the floor toward them. The Doctor watches the Dominator ship being destroyed and then heads back to the TARDIS which departs in a hurry to avoid the advancing lava flows from the new volcanoes.

In the film, Lillian Travers, a wealthy Northern woman about to be married, visits her aunt in Florida. While there, she stops in a curiosity shop and buys a small casket which contains a note and a vial of seeds. At her aunt's house she reads the note which explains that the seeds change men into women and vice versa. Angry with her fiancé, Fred, Lillian decides to test the effects of the seeds. The next morning, Lillian discovers that she has transformed into a man. Lillian's transformation into Lawrence Talbot has also sometimes been read as a transformation into a butch lesbian. This reading is bolstered by the later transformation of Lillian's fiancé into what could be an effeminate gay man. However, as Lillian and her fiancé are shown attracted both to each other and to the same sex (albeit at different times), the film has also been considered to have the first documented appearance of bisexual characters in an American motion picture.

One day, Winnie the Pooh and his friends Piglet, Tigger, Roo, Rabbit and Eeyore hear a strange noise and find a set of large, circular footprints in the Hundred Acre Wood. The friends believe that there is a strange creature known as a "heffalump" in the woods. Rabbit organizes an expedition to go try to catch it. Roo wants to come along, but the others tell him he is too young and small to go. Despite this, Roo slips out on his own in search of the heffalump. He finds one; a playful young creature named Heffridge Trumpler Brompet Heffalump IV—"Lumpy" for short. Roo is afraid of his captive at first but the two quickly become friends and play. Meanwhile, Rabbit and his friends enter heffalump hollow to find and capture the heffalump, Eeyore get left behind carrying all the supplies.

After a while, Lumpy hears his mother calling for him to come home. Roo wants Lumpy to meet all of his friends first, and they head towards the Hundred Acre Wood. Lumpy hesitates, thinking that the "creatures" that live there are scary, but Roo reassures him. Meanwhile, Pooh and his friends hear a noise in the forest, thinking it is the heffalump they run away but it turns out to be Eeyore who is left behind again. When Roo and Lumpy arrive, the Hundred Acre Wood is deserted, as everyone else is still out searching for the heffalump. Roo and Lumpy continue playing, making a mess of Pooh's house and Rabbit's garden. The two friends hear Lumpy's mother calling him again. They search for Lumpy's mother, but she is nowhere to be seen. Lumpy uses his trunk to call to her, but it does not work. After hours of searching, Lumpy assumes that they will never find her, and starts to cry. Roo consoles Lumpy with a song he learned from Kanga. Then, Roo gets an idea: they could go find ''his'' mother, and see if she can help Lumpy.

Meanwhile, the others return home to find Pooh's house and Rabbit's garden a mess. They conclude that the heffalump has invaded. When Lumpy and Roo are discovered, Rabbit thinks that Lumpy has captured Roo. He and the others chase Lumpy through the heffalump traps they set up earlier in the film. Lumpy evades the traps, but Roo gets caught in the last one as Lumpy escapes into the woods. Roo frees himself from the trap, and runs to find Lumpy trapped in a giant cage. Lumpy is upset and hurt, thinking that Roo has lied to him about the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood being friendly. Roo tries to free Lumpy and apologizes for everything. Finally, Roo notices a rope at the top of the cage. He climbs up and unties it, freeing a very grateful Lumpy. Kanga, watching the two interact from behind a nearby tree, realizes that the heffalump is her son's friend.

Rabbit, Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet arrive and lasso Lumpy. Roo yells at them to stop. They refuse to listen, but Kanga tells them to have Roo explain himself. He tells the others that Heffalumps are not scary or mean. While Roo is explaining this, Lumpy stumbles and accidentally knocks Roo into a pile of giant, heavy logs forming a makeshift bridge over a ditch.

Lumpy and Roo's other friends try to rescue Roo, but the logs are too heavy for them to move. Lumpy gets an idea, and tries to call out to his mother. After a few tries, he finally gets it right. Lumpy's mother comes and tosses the logs aside, freeing Roo. Lumpy's mother is very proud that he has learned how to call out to her. Pooh explains to Rabbit why the heffalump was in their wood; she was only looking for her baby. They apologize for their misjudgment and befriend Lumpy and his mother. Roo and Lumpy get a little more time to play together before Lumpy has to go home.

During the credits, Eeyore finally catches up to Pooh and his friends and Lumpy has his adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood, including meeting Christopher Robin.

Inspired by the animated Hanna-Barbera series ''Jonny Quest'', ''Danger Island'' depicted the adventures of a trio of explorers in an unnamed tropical island group: Prof. Irwin Hayden, an archaeologist; Lincoln "Link" Simmons, the professor's youthful assistant; and Leslie, the professor's daughter, who serves as both a love interest for Link and the series' token damsel in distress.

Several years earlier, the professor's brother (also an archaeologist) disappeared in the same island chain while searching for the mythical lost city of Tobanya. They are joined on their quest by Morgan, a shipwrecked merchant mariner, and his sidekick Chongo, who speaks only in a series of monkey-like chatters and birdcalls. They are pursued by a group of bumbling, but heavily armed, modern-day pirates led by the murderous Captain Mu-Tan, and by three tribes of cannibal natives known as "the Headhunters", "the Skeleton Men" and "the Ash Men". The show spawned a popular catchphrase, "Uh-oh, Chongo!", among children of that time.

Every emperor penguin sings a unique song called a "heartsong" to attract a mate. If the male penguin's heartsong matches the female's song, the two penguins mate. Norma Jean, a female penguin, falls for Memphis, a male penguin and they become mates. They lay an egg, which is left in Memphis' care, while Norma Jean leaves with the other females to fish. While the males struggle through the harsh winter, Memphis briefly drops the egg. The resulting chick, Mumble, is unable to sing but can tap dance. Nevertheless, he is enamored with Gloria, a female penguin who is regarded as the most talented of her age. One day, Mumble encounters a group of hostile skua, with a leader who is tagged with a yellow band, which he says is from an alien abduction. Mumble narrowly escapes the hungry birds by falling into a crevice.

Now a young adult, Mumble is frequently ridiculed by the elders. After escaping from a leopard seal attack, Mumble befriends a group of Adelie penguins called "the Amigos", who embrace Mumble's dance moves and assimilate him into their group. After seeing a hidden human excavator in an avalanche, they opt to ask Lovelace, a rockhopper penguin, about its origin. Lovelace has the plastic rings of a six pack entangled around his neck, saying that they have been bestowed upon him by mystic beings.

For the emperor penguins, it is mating season and Gloria is the center of attention. Ramón, one of the Amigos, attempts to help Mumble win her affection by singing a Spanish version of "My Way", with Mumble lip syncing, to no avail. In desperation, Mumble begins tap dancing in synch with her song. She falls for him and the youthful penguins join in for singing and dancing to "Boogie Wonderland". The elders are appalled by Mumble's conduct, which they see as the reason for their lean fishing season. Memphis begs Mumble to stop dancing, for his own sake, but when Mumble refuses, he is exiled.

Mumble and the Amigos return to Lovelace, only to find him being choked by the plastic rings. Lovelace confesses they were snagged on him while swimming off the forbidden shores, beyond the land of the elephant seals. Not long into their journey, they are met by Gloria, who wishes to join with Mumble as his mate. Fearing for her safety, he ridicules Gloria, driving her away.

At the forbidden shore, the group finds a fishing boat. Mumble pursues it solo to the brink of exhaustion. He is eventually washed up on the shore of Florida, where he is rescued and kept at Sea World with Magellanic penguins. After a long and secluded confinement in addition to fruitlessly trying to communicate with the humans, he nearly succumbs to madness. When a girl attempts to interact with Mumble by tapping the glass, he starts dancing, which attracts a large crowd. He is released back into the wild, with a tracking device attached to his back. He returns to his colony and challenges the will of the elders. Memphis reconciles with him, just as a research team arrives, proving the statements of the existence of "aliens" to be true. The whole of the colony, even Noah the leader of the elders, engages in dance.

The research team returns their expedition footage, prompting a worldwide debate. The governments realize they are overfishing, leading to the banning of all Antarctic fishing. At this, the emperor penguins and the Amigos celebrate.

David Beeves is a young Midwestern automobile mechanic, who discovers he is blessed with what appears to be almost supernatural good fortune that allows him to overcome every seemingly insurmountable obstacle that crosses his path, while those around him fall in defeat. Like Midas, everything he touches is tinged with gold, leaving him to wonder if and when his luck will change, and he, too, will be forced to deal with life's tragedies, until he eventually realizes that his good heart, hard work, and quick thought have been responsible for his success far more than luck.

David Beeves works as a self-taught auto mechanic in a barn that doubles as a repair station, where the entire first act takes place. The scene unfolds as David tells J.B., a local shop owner, that he plans to confront his girlfriend Hester’s father about their intention to marry. This, of course, is not as easy as it seems; her father, Andrew Falk, has resented David for over seven years and still controls every aspect of Hester’s life. After receiving conflicting advice on how to mediate the situation from J.B., Hester, his father Pat, and Shory (a disabled veteran who manages the feed and grain store adjacent to the barn), a rich farm owner named Dan Dibble brings his Marmon over for repair after a competing mechanic informs him that the engine will have to be taken apart. J.B. then notes to David in secrecy that getting the Marmon to run properly might cement his place in the tractor business, despite David’s lack of prowess in tractor repair. David agrees to the job with brisk charm, though is filled with doubt about his ability to diagnose the Marmon properly.

Shortly thereafter, Mr. Falk arrives in a bitter frustration, ordering Hester to return home and confronting David Beeves directly. David, restraining himself from rash emotion and violence, bluntly tells Falk that Hester and he are marrying. Falk subsequently threatens to kill Beeves if he sees him again, and pushes his stalled car away. Only moments later, Dan Dibble returns with Hester, admitting in a stunned confession that he accidentally hit and killed her father with the front of his vehicle. David, feeling an ambivalent combination of sympathy for Hester, elation now that his obstacles have been removed, and a skeptical notion that what just happened was unreal, stays in the barn to work on the Marmon. As time presses on, Beeves gets progressively more tired and frustrated with his incompetence in diagnosing the Marmon’s mechanical issues. At the brink of his exhaustion, an Austrian mechanic named Gus enters the barn and offers to fix the Marmon at no charge while David rests. When he awakes in the morning, Gus has disappeared and Dibble has returned. Assuming that David was the one who repaired the automobile, Dibble promises to bring all of his tractors that need work done to David in the future, and guarantees the forming of other business connections along the way. In utter disbelief of his luck, David is unable to accept the money for restoring the Marmon.

The play resumes following a three-year lapse at the farmhouse David and Hester have inherited after Andrew Falk’s death. David’s close friends and family have gathered at the house, eagerly awaiting his brother Amos’s baseball game. Pat is later revealed to have received a telegram from Augie Belfast, a talent scout for the Detroit Tigers, notifying the family that he will be watching the game tonight specifically for Amos. After they return from the game, the crowd awaits Belfast’s arrival and the verdict on whether Amos has the skill to be drafted into the major league at the Beeves’ residence. During this brief interim, David decides to invest in a mink farm at the persuasion of Dan Dibble. Spirits are high within the group initially, but as time passes without any sign of Belfast, Beeves starts to doubt the value of man’s hard work and determination. When the man ultimately does show, he lauds Amos’s talent as a pitcher, but remarks that when the bases are loaded, he becomes panicky because he has been used to practicing in the cellar throughout his life. He leaves the house unwilling to make any sort of deal with Amos. Resentful and humiliated, Amos vows never to play baseball again, blames his father for his misfortunes, and discloses his envious feelings toward David’s fulfillment in life. Beeves tells him he is not fulfilled in life because of his perceived inability to have children, which spurs Hester to unexpectedly reveal that she is having a child.

Several months pass, and Hester has begun to enter labor as David, J.B., Shory, and Gus wait downstairs for the child to be born. Beeves tries to convince Gus to take over 60% of his business ventures so he can raise enough money to purchase more mink. Gus refuses on the basis that David could lose everything he owns if his mink perish, to which he replies that he has already mortgaged most of his assets. As things escalate into quarrel, David divulges that Hester has fallen and that the child could be delivered as a stillbirth or deformed. David is convinced that this catastrophe is his final payment for all of the luck that has pursued him throughout his recent life. Ironically, the child is born a healthy boy, and David continues to feel ashamed and guilty about his prosperity. A month later, Gus and Hester learn that Dan Dibble’s mink have all died after consuming contaminated feed; David uses the same feed for his own mink. Both decide to hold off on telling him; Gus fears that his psychological and emotional stability might come into jeopardy, and Hester believes that such a loss would eventually make him happy in the long run. Dibble eventually calls the house and informs David, who begins to chastise Hester. She makes the decision to leave him, the reasoning behind this misconstrued by David as Gus having an affair with his wife. Just as things come to an emotional climax, Dibble arrives and assuages their fears. David and he both realize that the careful monitoring of the feed has saved his mink. David has an epiphany after Gus points out that only Beeves’ hard work and meticulous caregiving could have saved the mink, not luck. He then departs. Hester asks David to come up for bed, and as thunder roars in the distance, he stares out the window with apprehension.

Audre Lorde grows up in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s, a child of Black West Indian parents. Lorde is legally blind from a very young age, isolating her even further from her surroundings and a family from which she does not receive much warmth or affection. Her two older sisters, Phyllis and Helen, are very close, but are rarely mentioned in ''Zami'' and Lorde spends little time with them. Her parents and other adults, especially her mother, discipline her harshly for insolence.

Lorde does not speak until age four, when she declares that she wants to read, and promptly follows through on this desire. She witnesses racism from a young age. The family's landlord hangs himself for having to rent his flat to Black people. When the family takes a trip to Washington, D.C., they are not allowed to eat ice cream at a lunch counter because of Jim Crow laws. Despite the rampant racism of this era that Lorde encountered in her daily life, her mother attempted to shield her from it. When white people spit at them during Lorde's childhood, her mother would disparage those low-class people for spitting into the wind.

After getting her first period at age 15, Lorde makes friends with a small number of non-Black girls at Hunter College High School, who label themselves "The Branded". She is elected literary editor of the school's arts magazine and begins writing poetry. After graduation, she leaves home and shares a flat with friends of Jean's (one of The Branded), ceasing contact with her parents and two sisters. At the same time, she also goes out with Peter, a white boy who jilts her on New Year's Eve after finding out she is pregnant. Lorde ultimately decides to get an abortion.

After some unhappy times at Hunter College, she moves to Stamford, Connecticut, to find work in a factory, where the working conditions prove atrocious. Following her father's death, she returns to New York and starts a relationship with Bea, whose heart she ends up breaking when she decides to move to Mexico to get away from McCarthyism. There, she goes to university and works as a secretary in a hospital. In Cuernavaca, she meets a lot of independent women, mostly lesbians; she has a relationship with one of them, Eudora, and works in a library. Back in New York, Lorde explores the lesbian bar scene, moves in with lover, Muriel. Another woman, Lynn, moves in with them and ends up leaving without warning and steals their savings. Finally, Lorde begins a relationship with a mother named Afrekete, who decides to leave to tend to her child. The book ends on a homage to Lorde's mother.

David, a young American man whose girlfriend has gone off to Spain to contemplate marriage, is left alone in Paris and begins an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni. The entire story is narrated by David during "the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life," when Giovanni will be executed. Baldwin tackles social isolation, gender and sexual identity crisis, as well as conflicts of masculinity within this story of a young bisexual man navigating the public sphere in a society that rejects a core aspect of his sexuality.

Part one

David, in the South of France, is about to board a train back to Paris. His girlfriend Hella, to whom he had proposed before she went to Spain, has returned to the United States. As for Giovanni, he is about to be guillotined.

David remembers his first experience with a boy, Joey, who lived in Brooklyn. The two bonded and eventually had a sexual encounter during a sleepover. The two boys began kissing and making love. The next day, David left, and a little later he took to bullying Joey in order to feel like a real man.

David now lives with his father, who is prone to drinking, and his aunt, Ellen. The latter upbraids the father for not being a good example to his son. David's father says that all he wants is for David to become a real man. Later, David begins drinking, too, and drinks and drives once, ending up in an accident. Back home, the two men talk, and David convinces his father to let him skip college and get a job instead. He then decides to move to France to find himself.

After a year in Paris, penniless, he calls Jacques, an older homosexual acquaintance, to meet him for supper so he can ask for money. (In a prolepsis, Jacques and David meet again and discuss Giovanni's fall.) The two men go to Guillaume's gay bar. They meet Giovanni, the new bartender, at whom Jacques tries to make a pass until he gets talking with Guillaume. Meanwhile, David and Giovanni become friends. Later, they all go to a restaurant in Les Halles for breakfast. Jacques enjoins David not to be ashamed to feel love; they eat oysters and drink white wine. Giovanni recounts how he met Guillaume in a cinema; how the two men had dinner together because Giovanni wanted a free meal. He also explains that Guillaume is prone to making trouble. Later, the two men go back to Giovanni's room and they have sex.

Flashing forward again to the day of Giovanni's execution, David is in his house in the South of France. The caretaker comes round for the inventory, as he is moving out the next day. She encourages him to get married, have children, and pray.

Part two

David moves into Giovanni's small room. They broach the subject of Hella, about whom Giovanni is not worried, but who reveals the Italian's misogynistic prejudices about women and the need for men to dominate them. David then briefly describes Giovanni's room, which is always in the dark because there are no curtains and they need their own privacy. He goes on to read a letter from his father, asking him to go back to America, but he does not want to do that. The young man walks into a sailor; David believes the sailor is a gay man, though it is unclear whether this is true or the sailor is just staring back at David.

A subsequent letter from Hella announces that she is returning in a few days, and David realizes he has to part with Giovanni soon. Setting off to prove to himself that he is not gay, David searches for a woman with whom he can have sex. He meets a slight acquaintance, Sue, in a bar and they go back to her place and have sex; he does not want to see her again and has only just had her to feel better about himself. When he returns to the room, David finds a hysterical Giovanni, who has been fired from Guillaume's bar.

Hella eventually comes back and David leaves Giovanni's room with no notice for three days. He sends a letter to his father asking for money for their marriage. The couple then runs into Jacques and Giovanni in a bookshop, which makes Hella uncomfortable because she does not like Jacques's mannerisms. After walking Hella back to her hotel room, David goes to Giovanni's room to talk; the Italian man is distressed. David thinks that they cannot have a life together and feels that he would be sacrificing his manhood if he stays with Giovanni. He leaves, but runs into Giovanni several times and is upset by the "fairy" mannerisms that he is developing and his new relationship with Jacques, who is an older and richer man. Sometime later, David runs into Yves and finds out Giovanni is no longer with Jacques and that he might be able to get a job at Guillaume's bar again.

The news of Guillaume's murder suddenly comes out, and Giovanni is castigated in all the newspapers. David fancies that Giovanni went back into the bar to ask for a job, going so far as to sacrifice his dignity and agree to sleep with Guillaume. He imagines that after Giovanni has compromised himself, Guillaume makes excuses for why he cannot rehire him as a bartender; in reality, they both know that Giovanni is no longer of interest to Guillaume's bar's clientele since so much of his life has been played out in public. Giovanni responds by killing Guillaume in rage. Giovanni attempts to hide, but he is discovered by the police and sentenced to death for murder. Hella and David then move to the South of France, where they discuss gender roles and Hella expresses her desire to live under a man as a woman. David, wracked with guilt over Giovanni's impending execution, leaves her and goes to Nice for a few days, where he spends his time with a sailor. Hella finds him and discovers his bisexuality, which she says she suspected all along. She bitterly decides to go back to America. The book ends with David's mental pictures of Giovanni's execution and his own guilt.

The Kamen Riders, known as Oni, battle man-eating beasts called Makamou with "pure sound". One of the Oni, a man named Hibiki, ends up having a "teacher-and-apprentice"-like relationship with Asumu Adachi, a young boy unsure of himself and is at a crossroads in his life as he transitions to high school. Asumu learns to be an adult through watching Hibiki and the other Oni as they all train together to hone their skills in fighting the Makamou and the homunculi aiding them. However, the sudden rise of Makamou numbers proves to be a prelude to an upcoming calamity.

The story is about Eliza Wharton, the daughter of a clergyman. At the beginning of the novel she has just been released from an unwanted marriage by the death of her betrothed, the Rev. Haly, also a clergyman, whom Eliza nursed during his final days in her own home. After this experience, she decides she wants friendship and independence. After a short period of time living with friends, she is courted by two men. One, Boyer, is a respected but rather boring clergyman, whom all of her friends and her mother recommend she accept in marriage. The other, Sanford, is an aristocratic libertine, who has no intention to marry but determines not to let another man have Eliza. Because of her indecision and her apparent preference for the libertine Sanford, Boyer eventually gives up on her, deciding that she will not make a suitable wife. Sanford also disappears from her life and marries another woman, Nancy, for her fortune. Eliza eventually decides that she really loved Boyer and wants him back. Unfortunately for Eliza, Boyer has already decided to marry Maria Selby, a relation of Boyer's friend. Sanford later reappears married, but is able to seduce the depressed Eliza. They have a hidden affair for some time until, overcome by guilt and unwilling to face her family and friends, Eliza arranges to escape from her home. Like the real-life Elizabeth Whitman, she dies due to childbirth complications and is buried by strangers. Mrs. Wharton (Eliza's mother) and all of Eliza's friends are deeply saddened by her death. Sanford, too, is devastated by her death. In a letter to his friend, Charles Deighton, he expresses his regret at his wretched behavior.

Most of the series takes place within the confines of the fictitious Colorado Casino in Las Vegas. There, a group of professional poker players has banded together to take down legendary gambler Don "The Matador" Everest (Michael Madsen) in a cash game. Each player has his own reason for wanting to hurt Everest, including a cop, Lee Nickel (Chris Bauer), who wants to see him in prison for killing Nickel's brother.

Everest, as it turns out, is a sophisticated poker cheat. His preferred cheating method is collusion with hired partners (Everest calls them his "horses") at the same table, who signal their hole cards to Everest by flashing subtle hand signs. Toward the end of the series, during the "World Championship of Poker" tournament, Everest's horses also help him advance in the tournament by accumulating chips during their own play, then "dumping" them to Everest by intentionally losing to him and passing them during breaks. Everest runs his cheating racket in much the same manner as a Mafia boss, treating his loyal partners lavishly but also coming down brutally on those who violate his trust (up to and including murder, thus giving his "Matador" nickname a whole new literal meaning), and bribing Colorado Casino officials and even local law enforcement to turn a blind eye toward his illegal activities.

One member of the group arrayed against Everest, Eddie Towne (Eddie Cibrian), manages to gain the Matador's trust and is offered a role as one of his horses. This enables Towne to learn firsthand how Everest operates, and eventually to set up a high-stakes game involving himself, his partners and Everest, in which he and his partners plan to use the Matador's own signaling system against him. Unfortunately for them, they learn the hard way that Everest was onto them from the beginning. Towne is brutally cast out of Everest's stable, and his partners are forced to abandon their stake money to Everest (as the price for not having charges pressed against them for their own attempt at cheating).

No longer able to break Everest at the poker table, Towne's group decides to take a different approach: Join forces with Nickel to try and turn Everest's associates against him. Nickel has also gained another ally: erstwhile Colorado Casino President Bart "Lowball" Rogers, recently ousted for crossing Everest one too many times. Lowball stakes Towne and his partners the $10,000 buy-in for the WCOP tournament, so that they can keep Everest preoccupied while he and Nickel put the heat on his henchmen.

Meanwhile, one of Towne's partners, Clark Marcellin (Todd Williams), brings Everest's cheating racket and attendant murders to the attention of an undercover FBI agent. In between WCOP playing sessions, Towne and his partners help the agent build a federal case against Everest. Ultimately Everest and Towne become the last two players left in the WCOP tournament. Towne wins the heads-up battle, only to learn later that Everest had deliberately thrown the hand—and had his daughter bet enough money on Towne to more than cover the prize difference between first and second place. Everest is then arrested by the FBI, but in the closing moments of the final episode a key witness against Everest is found hanged in a shower tub, as an apparent suicide.

The story describes a young middle-class Englishwoman who "had no luck". Though outwardly successful, she is haunted by a sense of failure; her husband is a ne'er-do-well and her work as a commercial artist does not earn as much as she would like. The family's life exceeds its income and unspoken anxiety about money permeates the household. Her children, a son Paul and his two sisters, sense this anxiety; they even claim they can hear the house whispering "There must be more money".

Paul tells his Uncle Oscar Cresswell about betting on horse races with Bassett, the gardener. He has been placing bets using his pocket money and has won and saved three hundred and twenty pounds. Sometimes he says he is "sure" of a winner for an upcoming race and the horses he names do in fact win, sometimes at remarkable odds. Uncle Oscar and Bassett both place large bets on the horses Paul names.

After more winnings, Paul and Oscar arrange to give the mother a gift of five thousand pounds but the gift only lets her spend more. Disappointed, Paul tries harder than ever to be "lucky". As the Derby approaches, Paul is determined to learn the winner. Concerned about his health, his mother rushes home from a party and discovers his secret. He has been spending hours riding his rocking horse, sometimes all night long, until he "gets there", into a clairvoyant state where he can be sure of the winner's name.

Paul remains ill through the day of the Derby. Informed by Cresswell, Bassett has placed Paul's bet on Malabar, at fourteen to one. When he is informed by Bassett that he now has 80,000 pounds, Paul says to his mother:

I never told you, mother, that if I can ride my horse, and get there, then I'm absolutely sure – oh absolutely! Mother, did I ever tell you? I am lucky!

"No, you never did", said his mother.

But the boy died in the night.

And even as he lay dead, his mother heard her brother's voice saying to her, "My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner."

George's coworker Reilly notices him stuffing himself with shrimp cocktail at a meeting and remarks: "Hey George, the ocean called; they're running out of shrimp." After the meeting, George thinks up a comeback: "Well, the Jerk Store called, and they're running out of you." He becomes obsessed with recreating the encounter so that he can make use of this comeback, despite Jerry, Elaine and Kramer all telling him that the comeback makes no sense.

Reilly changes jobs to Firestone in Akron, Ohio. George flies there to attend a meeting, and brings a tray of shrimp, prompting Reilly to repeat his "ocean" zinger. When George delivers the comeback, Reilly simply shoots back "What's the difference? You're their all-time bestseller." In desperation, George claims he had sex with Reilly's wife. This reduces the room to an offended silence, since Reilly's wife is in a coma. After arriving back in New York, George thinks of a new comeback, beginning with "the life support machine called...", and makes a U-turn so he can fly back to Akron and deliver it.

While browsing the staff picks at Champagne Video, Elaine becomes a fan of Vincent's picks. While Elaine is watching a Vincent pick, he calls her on the telephone. Elaine becomes romantically interested in him, but he refuses to meet her in person. On a subsequent visit to the video store, Elaine craves something lighter than the tearjerkers which dominate Vincent's picks. Kramer convinces her to try a Gene pick, ''Weekend at Bernie's II''. Vincent feels betrayed by this, terminates their relationship, and stops making picks.

After Elaine rents Vincent's pick that she spurned in favor of ''Weekend at Bernie's II'', Vincent agrees to meet her at his apartment if she brings some vodka, cigarettes, and fireworks. When she arrives, he refuses to open the door all the way. His mother opens the door, revealing that Vincent is 15 years old. Mortified, Elaine takes the vodka from the bag and walks off.

Jerry is pressured into buying a high end racquet by the worker at a pro tennis shop, an Eastern European man named Milos. While playing at a tennis club with Elaine, Jerry discovers that Milos is a horrible tennis player. In Jerry's eyes, this undermines Milos' credibility as a salesman. Milos offers to do anything in exchange for Jerry not revealing his secret. While in the shop, Jerry's eye is caught by an attractive woman. The woman, named Patty, waits for him outside his apartment. She propositions him for sex, but recoils in shame, revealing that she is Milos' wife and was instructed to seduce Jerry by her husband. The incident makes her lose respect for Milos.

Kramer rents a straight-to-video movie about a woman in a coma. Frightened by the movie, he has a living will drawn up. He retains a lawyer named Shellbach, with Elaine as his executor, and opts to have his life support terminated in all but the most extreme cases. Kramer finishes watching the movie, in which the woman comes out of the coma. Not having known that it is possible to awake from a coma, he resolves to get his living will annulled, but misses his appointment. He learns that he can catch up with Shellbach at the tennis club.

Milos asks Jerry to let him win a game of tennis to regain Patty's respect. During the game, Milos derides Jerry's tennis ability. Frustrated at Milos' taunts, Jerry begins to play for real. He hits a ball wide of Milos, who swings wildly at it, releasing his racquet into the air. It comes down on another tennis player, who falls on a ball machine, redirecting its aim to Kramer's head. Kramer ends up in the hospital. When Elaine visits him, looking for an outlet for her VCR, she unplugs a large plug. Kramer wakes up and, seeing the plug in Elaine's hand, thinks she just removed his life-support.

Dorothy Gale is an orphaned teenage girl living in a trailer park in Kansas with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Her dream of becoming a singer is slim, but when she overhears that the Muppets are looking for a backup singer, Dorothy hurries to the audition and gives them a demo CD. In returning home, the civil defense sirens sound as a tornado is headed for Dorothy's trailer park. When Aunt Em and Uncle Henry run into the county storm shelter for safety, Dorothy hurries back to her family's mobile home to get Toto, her pet prawn. She does not make it out in time, and the two are swept by the tornado across the vast fields of Kansas. When Dorothy climbs out of the wreckage, she finds that Toto can talk and that she is in Munchkinland, part of the vast Land of Oz.

The Munchkins inform Dorothy that the land's ruler the Wizard, has the power to grant her wish of becoming a famous singer. She meets the Good Witch of the North and receives a pair of magic silver slippers from the Wicked Witch of the East, who was killed when Dorothy's trailer fell on her. Dorothy and Toto embark on a journey on the yellow brick road to meet the Wizard of Oz.

On her journey, she meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Thing, and a Cowardly Lion. They are also seeking the Wizard of Oz to give them a brain, heart, and courage, respectively. The group meets various obstacles before arriving at the Emerald City and meeting the Wizard. Before he grants their wishes, the Wizard sends Dorothy and her friends to retrieve the Wicked Witch of the West's magic eye, a tool she uses to see anything she desires in the Land of Oz.

The Wicked Witch of the West sees them coming and sends the Flying Monkeys to deal with them. The Witch and the Flying Monkeys capture Dorothy, Toto and Lion while Scarecrow and Tin Thing are dismantled. Toto calls the Munchkins, who set him and Dorothy free and hold up the witch. Dorothy kicks the witch into her own "bottled water bath," which contains tap water (to which she is severely allergic). This causes the Wicked Witch of the West to melt. Dorothy finds the magic eye floating in the tub unharmed and grabs it.

Dorothy gains control of the Flying Monkeys and has them rebuild Scarecrow and Tin Thing. Then she and her friends travel back to the Emerald City to have their wishes granted. When they all storm into the Wizard's room, they discover it is merely a Hollywood effects stage and that the Wizard is just an ordinary man. He asked for the witch's eye so that she could not see him for who he really was. Even so, he still proceeds to grant their wishes. Dorothy finally becomes a singer in the Land of Oz, but realizes that all she ever really wanted was to go back home and be with her family. After traveling back to Munchkinland, she meets Glinda the Good Witch of the South, who tells her that by clicking her heels together three times, she will be able to go anywhere she desires. She does so, saying "take me home to Aunt Em". She is then spun by the slippers' charm into Kansas and finds out that she has been chosen to sing with the Muppets.

The aforementioned Spacewoman in question is a scientist and explorer. At this point, humans have explored many worlds in a number of different galaxies. Their quest is for knowledge and to be helpful to whom they encounter, but there is a strict rule against 'interference'. It is assumed to be in the far future, but no dates are ever given and it's mentioned that time works differently on different planets. The story is a retelling of the narrator’s experience training and career as a space explorer.

The narrator, Mary, is a specialist in 'communication' - a kind of telepathy that allows her to communicate with nearly every species she comes across in her exploration. She operates in a society where women are just as likely as men to be leaders, though she herself prefers not to lead. She operates in a more utopian society where leadership is not gender-specific, but Mary does make it clear that she does not want to lead herself. Their society is also one that does not engage with the same rules of sexual expression that we do. Mary is aware of her female sexuality and is free to enjoy it as she pleases. This results in her having multiple children. Four of her children are described as “normal” as they were conceived just as any other child. Viola, however, was conceived after her ovaries were stimulated through her interaction with a martian, resulting in a haploid child, who was healthy nonetheless.

In the future, two members of an alien race called the Dirbanu come to Earth. They win humanity's heart by their grace and love for each other. Earth's media has dubbed them the "Loverbirds", and almost everyone on Earth is touched by the Loverbirds' tender displays of wonder and affection.

Dirbanu heretofore had almost no contact with Earth, except for one short investigative trip in which the ambassador of Dirbanu made clear that he found Earth disgusting. However, the Dirbanu government breaks the silence with Earth in order to demand the return of the Loverbirds. Allegedly, the Loverbirds are fugitive criminals and must be extradited. Earth's government, hoping to profit by cooperation with this powerful planet, dispatches spacers Rootes and Grunty to return the Loverbirds.

Rootes, the Captain of the team, is an arrogant, loquacious womanizer. Grunty serves under the Captain. He is a hulking, taciturn poet, so-named because he grunts rather than speaks. Despite their radically different personalities, the two friends are famed in space travel circles for their teamwork and efficiency. They refuse to travel with any other spacers.

The faster than light propulsion employed by Earthmen has the side-effect of stunning the human nervous system to a variable degree. Rootes is deeply affected, while Grunty is almost unaffected, resulting in an extensive period of time after each "jump" in which Grunty is the only aware entity on the ship, a situation that to him is priceless.

While Rootes sleeps off the first jump, Grunty realizes that the Loverbirds are telepathic and have sensed a deep personal secret of his. Grunty prepares to kill them to protect his secret. To dissuade him from committing murder, the Loverbirds sketch for him a series of four drawings. The first is of Rootes, Grunty, and a beautiful human woman, all clothed. The second depicts all three humans nude. The third sketch depicts the Loverbirds themselves and a short, round extraterrestrial, all clothed. The fourth sketch depicts the three aliens nude.

When viewed in sequence, it becomes clear that the short, round alien is a Dirbanu female; Dirbanu males and females vary vastly from each other in appearance. The two Loverbirds, whom humanity had presumed to be male and female because of their physical similarity to Earth males and females, were actually both male. When Grunty realizes the significance of the sketches, he sets them free in an escape pod. The escape pod heads away from the planet, towards the outer reaches of the universe.

Upon awakening, Rootes is furious that Grunty has seemingly sabotaged the mission. Grunty justifies his actions by showing Rootes the four sketches. Realizing that the Loverbirds were a pair of male lovers, the outraged Rootes declares that he would have killed them if he had known. Grunty, having known this, allows Rootes to think this is why he set the Loverbirds free, avoiding the potential consequences if it were to be discovered that an Earth operative had killed Dirbanu citizens. His anger abated, Rootes is impressed by what he perceives as Grunty's cleverness.

Pondering aloud, Rootes realizes that the Dirbanu government's reluctance to interact with Earth must be based on homophobia: since human males and females both resemble Dirbanu males, the Dirbanu were presumably disgusted by the impression that Earth is a "planet full of queers". Although the Dirbanu intellectually know that this is not the case, their visceral reaction to the concept nonetheless repels them. Rootes also hypothesizes that the Dirbanu government wanted to bring the Loverbirds home, as they were ashamed to have the Loverbirds viewed as representatives of the Dirbanu planet.

Upon arriving at the Dirbanu homeworld, Rootes reports that the Loverbirds died of natural causes in transit, and the Earth ship is abruptly dismissed, leaving future interactions between the two worlds questionable. On the return trip, with Rootes again fallen unconscious, Grunty ponders him lovingly. The reader realizes that Grunty is gay and secretly in love with Rootes. Earlier in the story, the omniscient narrator had noted that the only way to destroy the pair's working bond would be to attempt "to explain it to Rootes". The story's conclusion clarifies the full meaning of this statement.

Part one (November 1, 1998)

The story begins in 1958 when Otis Williams, at the time a teenager, is running to meet his friend Elbridge "Al" Bryant at a musical performance by The Cadillacs, where Otis and the singer lock eyes, which he credits as the moment he devoted his life to music. After the concert, Otis and Al go to a barber where they get the Tony Curtis and DA-style process. Later, Otis arrives home for dinner, where his stepfather is angered by his hairstyle and pressures him to go to work at the assembly line instead of going into music, which Otis heatedly rejects. Six months later, Otis, Al and two new band members, are singing on a street corner when they see another group of singers, the Voicemasters, across the street, and are impressed by one singer's bass voice type. The next day after school, Otis spots the singer leaving to walk home, and decides to follow him. The singer sees Otis and begins to run away, thinking him to be a gang member. Otis eventually catches him and introduces himself, finding out that the singer's name is Melvin Franklin, and invites him to join his group, Otis Williams & the Siberians. Melvin agrees, on the condition that his mother approves. After talking to her, Otis convinces Melvin's mother to let him join.

The group, now with five members, are practicing their singing after school one day when they notice a group of girls watching them sing. Upon seeing this, the group follows them while singing "Earth Angel". The girls go their separate ways until one girl, Josephine, remains, and Otis asks her out on a date. The next Saturday, the group are making out with the girls in a milk truck when they hear for their group to come to the radio station, and hastily drive to the station, which turns out to be a run-down apartment. Johnnie May Matthews, the owner of the pirate radio studio in the basement, declares herself their new manager and producer, and also changes their name to Otis Williams and the Distants. In April 1960, the group are waiting to perform at a party where they meet Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, singers for The Primes, Diana Ross, lead singer for the Primettes, Smokey Robinson, lead singer of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, and Berry Gordy, founder and owner of Motown Records. Al arrives late at the party and shows hostility towards Eddie and Paul, while hitting on Diana. The Primes and Primettes perform and the Distants are impressed by their sound. After performing themselves, Otis and Melvin see Berry Gordy entering the bathroom and follow him. After some talking, Berry gives them a business card to contact him later on. Once the party ends, Johnnie shows up in a new car, bought with the money earned from their record, while also showing off rolls of money. Awestruck, they ask about when they get paid, which angers Johnnie and she immediately fires them, kicks them out of the car and drives away. Al and two other members promptly quit the group, leaving Otis and Melvin as the only two remaining members.

Shortly after, Melvin approaches Otis and tells him that Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams recently left their own group and are interested in joining them. Otis is reluctant to let them join, as he finds them arrogant and cocky, but ultimately accepts when Al rejoins the group. With this new line-up, the group renames themselves the Elgins. Eddie and Paul prove to be valuable members; Paul teaches them how to dance and becomes their unofficial choreographer, while Eddie becomes their falsetto singer. In March 1961, Otis enters Motown Studios, the headquarters of Motown Records, and meets up with Berry Gordy. After the meeting, Otis finds the others waiting outside for an answer. He informs them that Berry will sign them if they can come up with a better group name. After sitting outside the studio for hours waiting to be called in and thinking up a new name, a secretary named Martha Reeves finds them outside and calls them in to meet Berry. When they get to Berry, he asks them for their name, to which Otis replies "The Temptations".

Berry likes the name and agrees to hear them sing. After hearing them perform Oh Mother of Mine (which would become their debut single for Motown) Berry enthusiastically signs them under the Motown label. The group are now in high spirits and make a pact to never leave the group. Otis arrives home to find out that Josephine is pregnant, and although he is shocked, he promises to take responsibility for the baby. In a voiceover, Otis explains that he and Josephine were married shortly after and later gave birth to their son, Lamont. While making moderately successful records written largely by Berry, such as "Paradise" and "I Want a Love I Can See", and getting real choreography from Chollie Atkins, the group start to become known as "The Hitless Temptations" as they can't seem to make a real hit in the first three years under the Motown label. The group start to doubt themselves as talented singers and Al starts to lose his passion for singing and becomes more and more negative and volatile. This comes to a head after performing at a New Year's Eve party, Al smashes Paul in the side of the head with a beer bottle when asked to do an encore on stage. He is kicked out the group immediately. The remaining four go back on stage anyway and perform the classic party song "Shout". While singing, Jimmy Ruffin and his younger brother David Ruffin jump on stage and sing as well. The group are impressed the duos' singing, especially David's. After the party, the four, along with David, go to Melvin's mother's house to eat. While they eat and talk, the four invite David to join the group, which he readily accepts. With five members once again, they make a toast to the future success of the Temptations.

In January 1964, the group head to Hitsville to record a song written for them by Smokey Robinson. The song, called "The Way You Do the Things You Do" becomes an instant hit and puts the Temptations on the map. Shortly after the song hits the charts, the group go on a tour with various other Motown artists, such as the Vandellas, the Miracles, and Marvin Gaye. One afternoon, while changing a tire on the tour bus, a pair of racist Southerners drive by shooting at them with a shotgun, and David and Eddie try in vain to chase them down, but quickly give up. The tour eventually ends and they all arrive back in Detroit. While Josephine is waiting for Otis in front of Hitsville, she sees him with another woman, and assumes that they are having an affair, and storms off. Soon after, the Temptations go on tour again. In November that year, Smokey writes them another song called "My Girl". The song debuts early next year and becomes a massive success, reaching number one on the charts that years. The group enjoys their newfound success and wealth, spending money on themselves and their loved ones.

With this success, however, soon comes trouble. By early 1966, David starts to develop an ego, thinking himself to be solely responsible for the Temptations' success. He also begins using drugs and starts showing up late for rehearsals and meetings, if he shows up at all. This behavior starts to take a toll on the group, and soon after recording "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", Otis and Melvin pay David a visit, staging an intervention. They warned him to clean up his act or else be fired. Later, Berry introduces the group to their new manager, Shelly Berger. Shelly plans to expand the Temptations' fanbase to the mainstream white audience, which they are somewhat reluctant about, as they think their original fans will see them as sell-outs. After some consideration, the Temptations agree and are put on a month-long tour with the Supremes. The tour turns out to be a success and gets them to the Copacabana, although David's destructive behavior continues, and he declares his shady friend, Flynn, his new manager instead of Shelly. Flynn informs the group that David wants to change the group name to "David Ruffin & The Temptations" or else he will not perform, which they reject. David shows up anyway, albeit late, and performs "I'm Losing You" at the Copa, and leaves in a separate limo. After the show, the others take a vote on whether or not they should keep David in the group, and all but Eddie vote to kick him out. Shortly after, David shows up at Hitsville in his limo. While the four watch from a window, Shelly meets David outside and hands him a note informing him of their decision. Upon reading this, David flies into a rage, yelling at them through the window. He then gets into his limo and drives off. Melvin rhetorically asks "So now what"?

Part two (November 2, 1998)

Later in 1968, the Temptations hire Dennis Edwards, an old friend, as a replacement for David. It is around this time that the group enters their psychedelic soul era, started with their 1968 single "Cloud Nine". During a concert performance, the group is about to sing "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" when David jumps on stage and steals the microphone from Dennis and sings himself. The others go along with this to save face, but then chase him backstage afterwards. David and a pissed off Otis get into a brief argument before getting security guards to escort him out. By 1969, Paul's drinking becomes debilitating and Melvin develops rheumatoid arthritis in the legs and starts taking cortisone shots to ease the symptoms despite his doctor's advice, yet both continue performing anyway. Around this time Otis and Josephine also get a divorce. As Paul's condition gets progressively worse, the others begin to consider whether Paul should retire, at least for the time being. Eddie is against this, as he thinks that they should stick by Paul and be with him at all times, making sure he doesn't drink. In November 1970, Eddie visits David, who begins to turn him against Otis and Melvin while giving him his first shot of cocaine. Shortly after, Paul becomes well enough to sing again, and the Temptations record a new song written by their producer Norman Whitfield called "Just My Imagination". Eddie quits the group after recording the song. Later, Otis and his son Lamont visit Paul at his house. Paul asks to be back in the Temptations, while demonstrating his dancing, almost falling over. Otis tell him that he will be back when he gets better. In June 1972, Norman writes another song called "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", which the group are initially against recording, but eventually go along with it. In a montage set to the song, Paul is seen struggling with his addiction, while fighting with his wife, and later driving around town, ending with Paul committing suicide in a parking lot. Eddie reunites with the others at the funeral, with Melvin telling him that while he's out of the group, they will always be family.

By 1977, the Temptations have moved from Detroit to Los Angeles and have been hit with a dry spell in their career. The group, now with Otis and Melvin as the only remaining original members, fire Shelly as their manager, leave the Motown label and start recording under the Atlantic Records label. Eddie is still under the Motown label and has made two major hits, while David, who has had some hits after the Temptations, is also under a dry spell. One day, while Melvin is helping a woman with her grocery bags, a thief gets in his car and tries to start it. When Melvin tries to stop him, the thief shoots him in both of his legs, kicks him out, and drives off in his car. Melvin tells Otis to go on tour without him, as they need the money. After the tour, Otis goes back to Detroit with Lamont to visit his mother, who tells him that she has cancer. They then have a heart-to-heart on the porch.

In 1980, Melvin's legs are still recovering and the Temptations leave Atlantic Records. Eddie's success is starting to fade and he is reduced to playing in small nightclubs. While performing one night, Eddie spots David in the audience and once he finishes the song, brings David on stage and they sing together. After everyone leaves the club, Eddie and David have a drink at the bar and agree to start their own faction of the Temptations, along with Dennis Edwards, who was fired from the Temptations in 1978. Otis and Melvin move back to Detroit and go back under the Motown label and Shelly becomes their manager again. Not long after, Motown becomes interested in setting up a reunion tour between both sets of the Temptations.

By 1982, the tour is officially underway and both sets of Temptations come together to rehearse and become reacquainted. While on tour, Josephine calls and informs Otis that Lamont died in a construction accident. After Otis gets back from the funeral, the tour starts to fall apart, as Otis' grief gets the better of him and David's drug addiction starts to trigger his destructive nature.

In 1989, the Temptations are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Otis and Melvin are reunited with David, Eddie, and Dennis. And despite their past squabbles and rivalries, for one moment, they are all friends again as they accept their honor and remember Paul.

In June 1991, a dead body is found in front of a hospital. After a week in the morgue, the body is finally identified as that of David Ruffin, dead of an apparent drug overdose. Eddie dies soon after of lung cancer in October 1992.

In February 1995, Otis and Melvin, now in a wheelchair, visit Melvin's mother. While preparing to eat dinner, Melvin, despite being in a wheelchair, volunteers to get short ribs from the kitchen. While he's gone, Melvin's mother thanks Otis for taking care of Melvin and keeping the Temptations together through all the good and bad times. The two then call for Melvin, but he doesn't respond. They go into the kitchen and find him unresponsive. Many people show up at the funeral, including Smokey Robinson, who sings his song "Really Gonna Miss You".

The film ends with the "classic five" Temptations (Otis, Melvin, Eddie, Paul, and David) in their youth, singing "My Girl" on a stage. At the end of the song, they take a bow, with Otis saying in a voice-over "Temptations, forever."

The protagonist is born in the mid-1960s. After her father's premature death when she is seven, she and her sister are brought up in England by their mother, who is a French Catholic. Conditioned to believe that pre-marital sex is a sin(it is), at 18 the heroine is forced into an early marriage with a teacher, who works literally day and night at a remote boarding school for boys. Stripped of her privacy and her youthful ways, she clings to her husband, hoping he will take a job elsewhere. When he does not she deserts him and embarks on a series of affairs with wealthy men who are not interested in a long-term relationship with her: a lawyer, a capitalist ("the Billionaire"), a Lord.

Similar to Caroline Meeber in Dreiser's ''Sister Carrie'', the protagonist is not prepared to earn a living through honest work dependent on her qualifications. Accordingly, she always has to rely financially on the men in her life. In particular, it is the billionaire who, as a kind of parting present, volunteers to pay for her very expensive university education at some exclusive New York college as well as for her Upper East Side apartment.

After her graduation the protagonist eventually moves back to London. An affair with a sexually inexperienced man ("the Virgin") leads to her first pregnancy ever and a subsequent miscarriage. Having trained as an actress, she gets a few jobs in TV commercials. When she meets her ex-husband again it is only to find out that he is going to get married again. At the end of the novel, aged about 38 and still indecisive, she meets a single father who might become her future partner.

At the outset, the player can choose any one of seven main characters to play as, each with their own storyline:

• , formerly a human girl, was run over by a carriage and given a blood transfusion by the Mystic Lord Orlouge. Chosen as the Charm Lord's heir, she is despised by human and mystic alike due to her status as the only half-Mystic in existence. She escapes Orlouge's castle with the help of the Princess White Rose. Asellus and White Rose remain on the run from Orlouge's many servants, but after White Rose sacrifices herself to save Asellus's life and freedom, Asellus decides to return and defeat Orlouge, to end the struggle once and for all.

• is a young mage fresh out of magic school. His quest is to collect the "Gift" for as many magics as possible. After that he is destined to fight his twin Rouge who has gained the opposite magics. Whichever brother survives obtains the other's magic and receives the sacred "Life" magic.

• is a blond ex-con and secret agent formerly working as a model. Her story began when her fiancé Ren was murdered by a mysterious villain known as the "Joker". Wrongfully accused of the crime, she was sentenced to imprisonment in Despair, where she met Annie and Liza. With their help, they complete a competition the warden created to receive a full pardon for their crimes. After their escape, Emilia was recruited by the two to join the secret organization Gradius, which was also hunting for the "Joker".

• is a carefree bard whose mother kicked him out of the house until Lute found a decent job. He stumbles face-first into a plot involving Trinity general Mondo and resistance leader Captain Hamilton, and the legacy of Lute's deceased father, who was betrayed and killed by Mondo.

• is a teenage boy whose family is destroyed by the criminal syndicate called Black X. After being rescued from the same fate by the masked superhero named Alkarl, he is granted the identity of the superhero Alkaiser. After destroying several Black X bases and their main stronghold, Red stands at his father's grave, and Alkarl appears to take Red's powers away, making him a normal man again.

• (Known as in the Japanese release) is a Lummox, a fox-like creature, and one of the last remaining inhabitants of the mysterious world, Margmel. Determined to save his homeworld, he seeks the Rings of Margmel. In his search, he starts out in Scrap, where he finds the researcher Mei-ling. Riki's quest takes him around the regions to gather the Rings until he comes face to face with Virgil, a Mystic Lord. Following the battle, Riki returns home to attempt to restore Margmel.

*T260 is an ancient Mec, a model constructed from junk parts, awakened in modern times. Originally part of a combat ship with a secret mission against the RB3 (Region Buster 3), it lost its memory when it crashed into Junk. With help of Leonard, a human who transferred his memories into a Mec, and Gen, a master swordsman, it recovers its memory and finishes the job.

The Remastered Edition adds an eighth character whose scenario was cut from the original due to time and storage constraints: * (short for Crazy Fuse (クレイジーヒューズ)) is a patrolman for InterRegional Police Organization (IRPO).

The game begins when the main character ''Drak'' is teleported into the alien spaceship that is approaching the earth. The objective of the game is to destroy the spaceship by finding certain objects from the ship. When the self-destruction is active, Drak has to find an escape shuttle before the spaceship blows up in order to survive.

The game's plot is that of the Galactic Civil War and the construction of the Death Star. It occurs during the events leading up to ''A New Hope''.

In the Rebel campaign, the fledgling Rebel Alliance begin with an attack on the shipyards at Kuat introducing the player to basic space combat before infiltrating the planet of Wayland on a basic ground combat mission. The campaign explores how the X-wing fighter is pressed into the service of the Rebel Alliance, the liberation of Kashyyyk, the first whisperings of a brand new Imperial superweapon and ultimately the ''Battle of Yavin''.

The Imperial campaign features Darth Vader and his search for the fledgling Rebel Alliance, interspersed with missions to help complete construction of the Death Star. It then transpires that the plans for the Death Star have been stolen so the player has to seek out the traitor who has passed the plans to the Rebels, intercept Princess Leia and then use the Death Star to crush the Alliance once and for all.

The game begins with Riou and his childhood friend Jowy Atreides working together as members of the youth division of the Highland Army. Luca Blight, the prince of Highland, and Captain Rowd, Riou's commanding officer, orchestrate the slaughter of the Riou and Jowy's unit and blame it on the neighboring city-state of Jowston, giving the prince an excuse to invade Jowston. Riou and Jowy escape the slaughter by jumping off a cliff into a river.

They meet again after Riou is fished from the river by a group of mercenaries from the first game—Viktor and Flik—and Jowy is rescued by Pilika from the town of Toto. Eventually reuniting with Riou's sister, Nanami, the two are tried as spies against Highland and sentenced to death, but are saved by Viktor and Flik and return with the mercenaries. Blight pursues them, driving the group toward the city of Muse. Searching a shrine in Toto, Riou and Jowy are each given half of the Rune of Beginning—the Bright Shield Rune and the Black Sword Rune respectively. Afterwards, the two are transported by Leknaat out of the shrine, and continue on their travel to Muse.

After difficulty entering into Muse due to increased security, the party finally reunite with Viktor and members of the mercenary army that survived the attack. Viktor introduces Riou and Jowy to Lady Annabelle—the mayor of Muse—who tells them she has a story to share regarding the adoptive grandfather/father figure of Riou and Nanami, Genkaku, who died shortly before the game begins. Without the knowledge of the others, Riou and Jowy are asked to participate in a spy mission to the Highland camp to the north, and while trying to escape, Jowy is captured by the enemy. He promises Riou to catch up with him and Nanami, however, and eventually reunites with them in Muse.

Time passes, and Riou awakens on the morning of the Hill Top Summit held in Muse for all of the leaders of the city-state; Muse, Tinto, Two River, South Window, Greenhill, and the Matilda Knightdom. The party all attend the conference, where Annabelle shares the information on the Highland Army's imminent attack. The city-state is split on what action to take, as the Highland Army arrives outside Muse. After successfully defending the city, Riou and Nanami go to meet Annabelle for information regarding Genkaku. They arrive, however, to find that Jowy has murdered Anabelle, and immediately flees before he can be discovered. Anabelle then apologizes to them for how the state treated Genkaku, without revealing details about what actually happened. Shortly after Annabelle's last words, her assistant Jess arrives and assumes that Riou has killed Anabelle, and runs to get help. Jowy opens the gates to Muse as the Highland army invades the city, with the party managing to escape southward to South Window.

In South Window, the mayor asks them to travel to the city of North Window—Viktor's hometown—to investigate disturbances that have been occurring there. After discovering that the vampire, Neclord, is alive and causing the disturbances, the party obtain the Star Dragon Sword and drive Neclord from the castle. As the party begin to leave North Window, the rest of the survivors from Muse arrive and tell that South Window has fallen to the Highland Army.

With North Window as the site of a new base they begin to build up their forces, and Viktor reveals what Annabelle had wanted to share about Genkaku. He had been a heroic general for the city-state—who also wielded the Bright Shield Rune now worn by Riou—and was betrayed by the then mayor of Muse, Anabelle's father. He participated in a duel against his Highland friend and fellow general, Han, to decide the fate of Kyaro town. Anabelle's father coated Genkaku's sword in a poison that he detected before the duel began, planning to blame Genkaku for the death of the Highland general. Genkaku could not bring himself to strike his friend, and thus was defeated in the duel, with Kyaro becoming Highland territory and Genkaku's name disgraced for many decades. It is this connection to Genkaku and his own character that lead Riou to be named leader of the new Dunan Unification Army, and bring him to recruit people to join the cause.

Riou and the rest of the Stars of Destiny recruited work to gain the support of the remaining city-states to challenge Highland. During this time, Luca Blight sacrifices nearly the entire populace of Muse to the Beast Rune after running down refugees trying to flee the city. However, Jowy has risen through the ranks of Luca Blight's army after capturing Greenhill without even a battle, eventually marrying Jillia Blight—the sister of Luca—and murdering the King of Highland by poisoning himself and having the King drink his blood as part of a peerage ceremony. Luca becomes King of Highland, and eventually launches an unsuccessful attack against the Dunan army. However, Jowy betrays Luca Blight, giving the Dunan army information of the pending attack. This allows the Dunan army to set up an ambush for Luca Blight. He is defeated and killed with Jowy then ascending to the leader of Highland through his marriage. It is revealed that Jowy's intention since his original betrayal of the city-state by murdering Anabelle has been to bring peace to the land; he never expected Riou to have such success against Highland.

After finally freeing the occupied city-states and uniting all of them under one banner, Riou and his party successfully defeat Highland, causing Jowy to flee, however, Nanami is shot by arrow from one of the soldiers for the king of Matilda, who plotted to assassinate both Riou and Jowy. After the fall of the capital of Highland and the Beast Rune's defeat, Riou returns to the spot on the cliff from the beginning of the game, when the two first escaped from the youth brigade massacre and promised to return to if they should become separated. Jowy speaks about how the two's fate had been destined to be interconnected since they first accepted the two runes in Toto. The two duel, with Jowy, Nanami, and Riou's fate depending on how many Stars of Destiny the player has recruited and if the player chooses to attack Jowy.

''Eat the Document'' includes footage from the infamous Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, wherein an audience member shouted "Judas!" during the electric half of Dylan's set. Dylan's band during these shows were The Hawks (later to become The Band). Songs from various shows throughout the tour featured in the film include "Tell Me, Momma", "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)", "Ballad of a Thin Man", and "One Too Many Mornings."

Other scenes include Dylan and Robbie Robertson in hotel rooms writing and working through new songs, most of which remain unreleased and unpublished. Among these songs are "I Can't Leave Her Behind", which was later covered by Stephen Malkmus for the ''I'm Not There'' soundtrack.

The film also includes a piano duet with Johnny Cash performing Cash's "I Still Miss Someone".

John Lennon scene

Some bootleg versions of ''Eat the Document'' include a long scene featuring Dylan in a limousine with John Lennon on 27 May 1966. As Dylan shows signs of fatigue, and may be impaired by alcohol or drugs, Lennon urges him to get a grip on himself: "Do you suffer from sore eyes, groovy forehead, or curly hair? Take Zimdawn!...Come, come, boy, it's only a film. Pull yourself together."

Lennon would later recall in an interview with ''Rolling Stone'' that he and Dylan were "both in shades, and both on fucking junk, and all these freaks around us... I was nervous as shit. I was on his territory, that's why I was so nervous."

The book begins with Chet Morton showing off his new metal detector to the Hardy boys and Biff Hooper while inviting them to camp at Honeycomb Caves. Meanwhile, their father, Fenton Hardy, is working to protect a Coastal Radar Station from sabotage during its construction. They are interrupted by Mary Todd who tells them that her brother, Morgan Todd, is missing and asks Fenton to find him. The Hardy boys and their father decide to team up to both find Morgan Todd and protect the Coastal Radar Station.

The Hardy boys travel to Kenworthy College and meet Todd's colleague, Cadmus Quill. A clue leads them to Rockaway, but when it is mentioned they notice strange behavior from Cadmus Quill. While driving to Rockaway they hear a radio report that the radar station has been damaged, so they instead return to Bayport. Their help is not needed so they leave for Rockaway, stopping at ''Palis Paris'' to purchase a spinning wheel for their Aunt Gertrude. When they stop in at ''Tuttle's General Store'' Mr. Tuttle warns them to keep away from Honeycomb Caves because people have seen strange lights and heard shooting coming from the caves. Instead of leaving, the boys decide to camp at Honeycomb Caves with their friends Chet and Biff.

At the caves they meet a strange hermit who invites them for breakfast, then chases them off and even shoots at Frank. Their adventure continues with Callie Shaw, Iola Morton and Mary Todd trying to get jobs at the ''Palis Paris'', Biff getting knocked out while waiting in the parking lot, Chet's metal detector suddenly exploding and the Hardy boys' boathouse catching on fire.

The story concludes with the Hardy boys finding a submarine delivering supplies to the hermit in the caves. They explore the cave and learn that the caves have an underground passage to ''Palis Paris'' where a device was being built to interfere with the new Coastal Radar Station. The Hardy boys trap the criminals, including Cadmus Quill, in the cave while the State Police enter from the other end and arrest them all. The Navy is alerted and intercepts the submarine to find Morgan Todd being held hostage.

Easily the best of Eddie Cantor's gargantuan musical comedies, ''Roman Scandals'' begins in the middle-America community of West Rome, Oklahoma, where Eddie (Cantor) is employed as a delivery boy.

A self-styled authority of Ancient Roman history, Eddie bemoans the fact that the local shanty community is about to be wiped out by scheming politicians, certain that such an outrage could never have happened during Rome's Golden Days.

After a blow to the head, Eddie wakes up in Imperial Rome, where he is sold on the slave auction block to good-natured tribune Josephus (David Manners). Eddie soon discovers that the evil emperor Valerius (Edward Arnold) is every bit a crook and grafter as the politicians in West Rome, and he intends to do something about it.

He gets a job as food taster for Valerius—a none-too-secure position, inasmuch as the emperor's wife, Agrippa (Veree Teasdale), is constantly trying to poison him—and does his best to smooth the path of romance for Josephus and recently captured princess Sylvia (Gloria Stuart). Eddie's well-intentioned interference earns him a session in the torture chamber, but he escapes and commandeers a chariot.

On the verge of capture, Eddie wakes to find himself in West Rome, OK again, where he quickly foils the modern-day despots and brings about a happy ending for all his friends.

Parker and Longbaugh are a pair of low-level petty criminals who fund their existence through unconventional and often illegal means. Wanting to move past petty crime, they vow to get the proverbial "big score." While at a sperm donation clinic, the pair overhear a telephone conversation detailing a $1,000,000 payment to a surrogate mother for bearing the child of money launderer Hale Chidduck. Parker and Longbaugh resolve to kidnap the surrogate, Robin, but their attempt escalates into a shootout with her bodyguards, Jeffers and Obecks. The kidnappers are able to elude the bodyguards, who are arrested.

Jeffers and Obecks are bailed out and returned to Chidduck by his right-hand man Joe Sarno. As Sarno begins coordinating Robin's rescue, Longbaugh contacts her gynecologist, Dr. Allen Painter, and orders him to a truck stop to examine Robin. After the examination, Painter returns to Chidduck, and it is revealed that the doctor is Chidduck's son. It is also revealed that Jeffers and Chidduck's wife are romantically involved.

Longbaugh calls from a motel south of the Mexican border and demands a $15 million ransom. Jeffers and Obecks, tempted by the money, begin forming a plan to save the child and keep the money. As Longbaugh hangs up the telephone outside the motel, he is approached by Sarno, who identifies himself as the “bag-man” and offers to pay $1 million if they surrender Robin and simply walk away. Longbaugh, who is clearly skeptical of the offer from a “bag-man” declines the cash offer, but accepts Sarno's subsequent offer to buy him a cup of coffee. While having coffee the two discuss the current state of their chosen profession. Including the character of criminals and how no one takes “being a criminal” seriously anymore. Longbaugh jokingly mentions “they want to be criminals more than they want to commit crimes”, to which Sarno agrees. After the two leave the coffee shop Sarno tells Longbaugh that he “seems like a good guy” and ought to get out of this business. To which Longbaugh replies “what would I do then?”, indicating he is a true criminal. Sarno again offers to pay them $1 million dollars cash to turn Robin over to which Longaugh replies that he wishes he could accept the money but because Sarno is a bag-man he knows it would be a double cross alluding to that fact he was also a bag-man in the past. The two shake hands and guardedly go their separate ways.

Longbaugh returns to his room, where Parker and Robin are playing cards. Sarno then returns to Chidduck's home to plan the next step.

Jeffers comes to realize that Robin is Sarno's daughter. Jeffers, Obecks, and Painter leave to meet with the kidnappers, while Sarno departs separately with the ransom. At the motel, Parker is having second thoughts. As he confers with Longbaugh outside the motel room, Robin takes the opportunity to seize a shotgun and barricade herself inside.

As sirens are heard in the distance, Parker and Longbaugh hastily escape, and Robin emerges just as Mexican police arrive, followed by Jeffers, Obecks, and Painter. As Painter and the bodyguards try to persuade Robin to leave with them, the officers pull their guns and order everybody onto the ground. Parker and Longbaugh open fire from a nearby hilltop, and the shootout leaves the two officers dead and Obecks wounded. Jeffers shoves Painter and Robin into his car and drives off.

Parker and Longbaugh torture Obecks to learn Robin's location, while Jeffers confines Robin in a room in a Mexican brothel. Jeffers forces Painter to perform a Caesarean section to retrieve the baby, despite Robin's confession that the child is hers and Painter's and is not Chidduck's. Meanwhile, the heavily armed Parker and Longbaugh infiltrate the brothel. The ensuing gunfight, which leaves Parker wounded, turns into another standoff, until Painter shoots Jeffers. Outside, Sarno arrives with a group of men and the ransom, which they stack in the courtyard. Parker wants to kidnap Robin and Painter again, but Longbaugh, guilt-ridden after seeing her condition, responds: "She's had enough." Despite realizing that the money is bait, Parker and Longbaugh charge headlong into an ambush.

All of Sarno's men are killed in the ensuing firefight. However, Sarno manages to shoot and cripple the already wounded Parker and Longbaugh, and then calls for an ambulance. Painter emerges with Robin and the baby. Lying in a pool of blood, Parker and Longbaugh call out to Sarno, informing him that the baby is in fact Robin and Painter's, and thus Sarno's grandson. Parker wonders aloud if this fact will influence Sarno to let them keep the child. Robin and the baby are then taken away in the ambulance with Painter, Sarno and the money, leaving Parker and Longbaugh to die. Days later, Chidduck's wife reveals that she is pregnant.

On the distant planet Dreenor lives the most powerful species in the Galaxy. All of the Universe is the creation of the Dreens, who possess the power of "idmaging", turning their thoughts into reality. They can create whole worlds, of which the wild, ungovernable planet Earth is one. But suddenly Earth is a threat, its people on the verge of discovering interstellar travel, and with it, of gaining access to Dreenor itself - a paradox within a paradox, not to be permitted. While the elder Dreens plan Earth's destruction, a youngster, Ryll, embarks on an unauthorized jaunt across space. Forced for survival to merge bodies with an “Earther” whose mind is as strong as his own, he has to battle for control. And the future of all earthly life lies in the hand of a composite being, half wily, aggressive human, half naive adolescent alien, confused and far from home.

The film opens at Burger-Matic, where Henry Lever orders a milkshake at the drive-thru. At the window, he tells the attendant, Sally Jackson, that his wife knows about their affair. She asks him if he has also told his wife about her pregnancy. On his way home, he encounters a ferocious wind. It turns out to be a Cobra attack helicopter, which runs him off the road. In a panic, he flees through the woods and drops his heart medication. At an outdoor chapel, he sits on a bench as the helicopter hovers in front of him. The pilot, Angus Montier, shoots at the ground near him despite the protests of his copilot and brother, Dorian. The shots scare him enough to cause a fatal heart attack.

Throughout the attack, Dorian and Angus hear the chatter of Sally and her coworkers. Likewise, they hear the helicopter pilots on headsets. The next day, the police inform Beatrice Lever that Henry has died. She appears shocked and crestfallen, when Dorian and Angus arrive. It quickly becomes clear that she encouraged her sons to scare him to death. She is also furious about his affair, and wants revenge on his mistress. Angus and Dorian are worried that the people they heard on the radio might have overheard enough to connect them to his death. They quickly deduce that Burger-Matic is the only location close enough to have been on the same frequency. Angus goads Dorian into getting a job there to ensure that no one is wise to their crime.

Sally is heartbroken at the news about Henry. At work, Dorian bonds with her quickly. He gives her a model helicopter for her baby, and he explains that he and Angus fly them as reservists for the National Guard. She asks him to accompany her to lamaze class, since she doesn't have a partner. Eventually, he takes her to the base to see the helicopter that he flies. As she sits in the cockpit, she tells him about Henry.

Knowing that his mother is still furious about Henry's affair and that Angus would hurt Sally if he knew her identity, Dorian frantically tries to keep the truth from his family. When Angus discovers Sally's identity, Beatrice visits her under the pretense of making amends. Dorian is terrified of what Angus might do out of a misplaced loyalty to their crazy mother. Sure enough, he arrives at Sally's house in the attack helicopter. She, Dorian, and Beatrice escape in a truck. He eventually forces them to stop on the road. Beatrice pretends to be unaware of what is going on and leaves the truck. Dorian gradually convinces Angus to stop his attack.

The stress of the chase triggers Sally's labor, and Dorian drives her to the hospital. After she has a boy, he talks to him. He struggles to explain how they are related, and he tells him that he is lucky to have the best mother in the world.

Jack Chambers (Robson Green) and his wife, Kay (Beth Goddard), move into their new house on the Hadleigh corner estate – only to become embroiled in a tangled web of sexual relationships and secrets involving their neighbours, Doug Patton (Danny Webb) and his wife, Andrea (Olga Sosnovska). To make matters worse, Jack's work life has fallen into disrepair after his secretary Helen (Tara Moran) tries to seduce him, and he discovers his best friend, Kevin (Gilly Gilchrist), is having an affair with his wife. As the situation intensifies, Jack is caught up in the covering up of a murder, and Kay is left wondering who the father of her baby is when she falls pregnant. Meanwhile, Jack is forced to deal with the increasing pressure of his elderly father Don (Keith Barron).

On Christmas Eve 1989, aspiring filmmaker Mark Cohen, and his roommate, Roger Davis, learn that the rent previously waived by their old friend and landlord, Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III, is due ("Rent"). Their former roommate Tom Collins shows up and gets mugged. Mark and Roger meet with Benny, who tells them he plans to evict the homeless from the nearby lot and build a cyber studio ("You'll See"). He offers them free rent if they get Maureen, Mark's ex-girlfriend, to cancel her protest against his plans, but they refuse.

A street drummer, Angel, finds Collins and they bond since they are both HIV positive. Roger, who is HIV-positive and a former drug addict, tries to compose his one last great song ("One Song Glory"). He's visited by his downstairs neighbor, Mimi, an erotic dancer and heroin addict who tries to convince him to do heroin together despite her own HIV+ status ("Light My Candle").

On Christmas Day, Mark and Roger are visited by Collins and Angel, now in full drag, bearing gifts ("Today 4 U"). They invite Mark and Roger to attend Life Support, an AIDS support group. Roger turns them down, while Mark goes to fix Maureen's sound equipment. He runs into Joanne, Maureen's new girlfriend, who bonds with him as they discuss Maureen's promiscuity ("Tango: Maureen"). Mark arrives at the Life Support meeting ("Life Support"). He films the meeting for the documentary that he's making about people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mimi visits Roger ("Out Tonight"). Roger, whose ex-girlfriend died by suicide after discovering she (and Roger) were HIV positive, rebukes her advances and throws her out ("Another Day"). The next day, he joins Mark, Collins and Angel at a Life Support meeting ("Will I?"). Leaving the meeting, the group imagines what it would be like to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico ("Santa Fe"). Roger and Mark leave to help Maureen set up for her performance, and Angel and Collins reveal they are falling in love ("I'll Cover You"). Maureen performs her song that calls out Benny for changing who he was when he got married and blames him for trying to shut down the tent city ("Over the Moon"). The performance starts a riot because Benny called in police to make sure the protest stayed peaceful, but it escalated into violence. Once the protest is over, the group goes to The Life Cafe and celebrates Mark selling his riot footage to a local news station ("La Vie Bohème" or "La Vie Bohème A"). Roger and Mimi reveal they are falling for each other, and reveal they are HIV positive ("I Should Tell You"). They kiss, start a relationship and continue celebrating with their friends ("Viva La Vie Bohème!" or "La Vie Bohème B").

On New Years Day, Benny has padlocked the apartment, but Angel breaks the lock with a garbage can. Mark takes a job at Buzzline, the television news program that he sold his riot footage to. After another fight, Maureen proposes to Joanne; the relationship ends when Maureen flirts with another woman at the engagement party ("Take Me or Leave Me"). After being persuaded by Mimi, his ex-girlfriend, Benny gives the group back their apartment. Over the following year, Roger grows distrustful of Mimi, and their relationship ends ("Without You"). Angel becomes more ill and eventually succumbs to AIDS. At Angel's funeral on Halloween, the group goes their separate ways after a bitter argument, although Maureen and Joanne reconcile in the process ("I'll Cover You/Goodbye Love").

Roger sells his guitar, buys a car, and moves to Santa Fe. He returns because he still loves Mimi. Mark quits his job at Buzzline to pursue his own film ("What You Own").

On Christmas Eve 1990, Mark and Roger reunite with Collins, who reveals that he has reprogrammed an ATM to dispense cash when someone inputs the code: A-N-G-E-L. Joanne and Maureen find Mimi on the streets, near death. Mimi and Roger reconcile, and he sings the song that he has written over the past year ("Finale A/Your Eyes"). Mimi appears to die but suddenly awakens. She tells them that she was heading to the light, but Angel told her to go back. As Mark's documentary is shown for the first time, the friends reaffirm that there is "no day but today" ("Finale B").

The plot involves a 24th-century entrepreneur-tycoon-scientist, Simeon Krug, who has created a race of androids to serve humanity. Krug, probably Earth's wealthiest man, directs the construction of an immense tower of glass in the Canadian tundra. The edifice is not a monument, however, but a way to communicate with a distant planetary nebula, NGC 7293, from which an intelligent (though indecipherable) message has been received. Krug is also building a starship to send there, which is to be crewed by androids in hibernation.

The tower construction is directed by Krug's most faithful android, Alpha Thor Watchman. Thor and other leading androids have invented a secret religion for androids, based on the vision that their creator, Krug, intends to eventually make them equal to humans. Krug is unaware of the religion. Thor's dream is to convince him through indirect means, including the manipulation of his weak-willed son and heir, Manuel, through a sexual relationship with a female android, Alpha Lilith Meson. Thor eventually falls in love with her, as does Manuel.

After Thor and Lilith have manipulated Manuel into telling his father about the android religion, Krug insists that the minds of he and Thor be connected in the "shunt room" which allows one mind to probe another's (a form of technologically enabled telepathy). Thor discovers via the link that Krug regards androids as mere things, and has no intention of treating them as equal to womb-born humans. Realizing that Krug will never give freedom to androids, Thor despairs, loses his faith and announces Krug's true nature to androids worldwide. With the collapse of their religion, androids across all of Earth rebel. Many walk off their jobs, others take control of key Earth installations, and some even kill humans in their long-suppressed rage. Thor then causes the fall of the nearly-complete, tower.

An enraged Krug attacks Thor; the latter, unable to fight his creator, is pushed into an unprogrammed teleporter and annihilated. Krug, his empire destroyed and humanity in grave danger, flees in his starship, alone, towards the star system from which the alien message was sent.

The storyline focuses on Maureen, an underage streetwalker who is stabbed by her pimp in a dark alley one night. Fortunately for Maureen, Lady Sally is nearby: she had been walking her werebeagle. After defeating the pimp in hand-to-hand combat, Sally brings Maureen home. Her brothel has a fully functioning medical facility, where Maureen is treated and healed.

She falls in love with the place for its ambiance and safety but is rejected as an employee for many reasons. Most importantly, she is underage but she also has severe self-loathing issues. Lady Sally enjoys the fact that Maureen comes to accept and befriend the werebeagle and a talking German Shepherd but this is not enough let the main character stay.

Maureen's old pimp tracks down the brothel and puts many of the visitors in danger. Maureen uses her wits to help defeat the man; this convinces Sally to let her stay in a non-sexual context. The plot skips to Maureen becoming eighteen, she is allowed to take on sexual duties.

The rest of the plot focuses on three different subsequent incidents. There is 'Colt', a client with an unusual addiction that nobody seems to notice, one that presents various threats. Later, Maureen and her close friend Phillip swiftly realize that they are doing many things they do not wish to do over the course of their work-day. The concept of 'being forced into it' is something that Lady Callahan and her staff oppose in many, varied ways. Maureen and Phillip find that they are keeping quiet about this, even though they wish to tell everyone possible.

The last incident focuses on Maureen's old friend, the Professor, who needs fifty thousand quick or he will die horribly. A very specific, very counterfeit fifty thousand.

Like other books in the Callahan series, puns are a focus, sometimes seriously.

Forty-eight-year-old Cleopatra Andersson works at JTM, a company delivering networking solutions. She has raised her, now 20-year-old, by herself. He decides to move out to a flat of his own, and Cleo's life becomes full of new opportunities. At JTM she gets both help and counterthrust when she willingly and perhaps sometimes unwillingly becomes involved in the dreams and schemes of her colleagues. At the same time, her own personal life is far from carefree.

Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted, joyful poet and is also a musical artist. However, he has an obnoxiously large nose, which causes him to doubt himself. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness would prevent him the "dream of being loved by even an ugly woman."

Act I – A Performance at the Hôtel de Bourgogne

The play opens in Paris, 1640, in the theatre of the Hôtel de Bourgogne. Members of the audience slowly arrive, representing a cross-section of Parisian society from pickpockets to nobility. Christian de Neuvillette, a handsome new cadet, arrives with Lignière, a drunkard who he hopes will identify the young woman with whom he has fallen in love. Lignière recognizes her as Roxane, and he tells Christian about her and the Count de Guiche's scheme to marry her off to the compliant Viscount Valvert. Meanwhile, Ragueneau and Le Bret are expecting Cyrano de Bergerac, who has banished the actor Montfleury from the stage for a month. After Lignière leaves, Christian intercepts a pickpocket and, in return for his freedom, the pickpocket tells Christian of a plot against Lignière. Christian departs to try to warn him.

The play "Clorise" begins with Montfleury's entrance. Cyrano disrupts the play, forces Montfleury off stage, and compensates the manager for the loss of admission fees. The crowd is going to disperse when Cyrano lashes out at a pesky busybody, then is confronted by Valvert and duels with him while composing a ballade, wounding (and possibly killing) him as he ends the refrain (as promised, he ends each refrain with ''Qu'à la fin de l'envoi, je touche!'': "Then, as I end the refrain, thrust home!") When the crowd has cleared the theater, Cyrano and Le Bret remain behind, and Cyrano confesses his love for Roxane. Roxane's duenna then arrives, and asks where Roxane may meet Cyrano privately. Lignière is then brought to Cyrano, having learned that one hundred hired thugs are waiting to ambush him on his way home. Cyrano, now emboldened, vows to take on the entire mob single-handed, and he leads a procession of officers, actors and musicians to the Porte de Nesle.

Act II – The Poets' Cookshop

The next morning, at Ragueneau's bake shop, Ragueneau supervises various apprentice cooks in their preparations. Cyrano arrives, anxious about his meeting with Roxane. He is followed by a musketeer, a paramour of Ragueneau's domineering wife Lise, then the regular gathering of impoverished poets who take advantage of Ragueneau's hospitality and love for poetry. Cyrano composes a letter to Roxane expressing his deep and unconditional love for her, warns Lise about her indiscretion with the musketeer, and when Roxane arrives he signals Ragueneau to leave them alone.

Roxane and Cyrano talk privately as she bandages his hand (injured from the fracas at the Port de Nesle); she thanks him for defeating Valvert at the theater, and talks about a man with whom she has fallen in love. Cyrano thinks that she is talking about him at first, and is ecstatic, but Roxane describes her beloved as "handsome," and tells him that she is in love with Christian de Neuvillette. Roxane fears for Christian's safety in the predominantly Gascon company of Cadets, so she asks Cyrano to befriend and protect him. This he agrees to do.

After she leaves, Cyrano's captain arrives with the cadets to congratulate him on his victory from the night before. They are followed by a huge crowd, including de Guiche and his entourage, but Cyrano soon drives them away. Le Bret takes him aside and chastises him for his behavior, but Cyrano responds haughtily. The Cadets press him to tell the story of the fight, teasing the newcomer Christian de Neuvillette. When Cyrano recounts the tale, Christian displays his own form of courage by interjecting several times with references to Cyrano's nose. Cyrano is angry, but remembering his promise to Roxane, he holds in his temper.

Eventually Cyrano explodes, the shop is evacuated, and Cyrano reveals his identity as Roxane's cousin. Christian confesses his love for Roxane but his inability to woo because of his supposed lack of intellect and wit. When Cyrano tells Christian that Roxane expects a letter from him, Christian is despondent, having no eloquence in such matters. Cyrano then offers his services, including his own unsigned letter to Roxane. The Cadets and others return to find the two men embracing, and are flabbergasted. The musketeer from before, thinking it was safe to do so, teases Cyrano about his nose and receives a slap in the face while the Cadets rejoice.

Act III – Roxane's Kiss

Outside Roxane's house Ragueneau is conversing with Roxane's duenna. When Cyrano arrives, Roxane comes down and they talk about Christian: Roxane says that Christian's letters have been breathtaking—he is more intellectual than even Cyrano, she declares. She also says that she loves Christian.

When de Guiche arrives, Cyrano hides inside Roxane's house. De Guiche tells Roxane that he has come to say farewell. He has been made a colonel of an army regiment that is leaving that night to fight in the war with Spain. He mentions that the regiment includes Cyrano's guards, and he grimly predicts that he and Cyrano will have a reckoning. Afraid for Christian's safety if he should go to the front, Roxane quickly suggests that the best way for de Guiche to seek revenge on Cyrano would be for him to leave Cyrano and his cadets behind while the rest of the regiment goes on to military glory. After much flirtation from Roxane, de Guiche believes he should stay close by, concealed in a local monastery. When Roxane implies that she would feel more for de Guiche if he went to war, he agrees to march on steadfastly, leaving Cyrano and his cadets behind. He leaves, and Roxane makes the duenna promise she will not tell Cyrano that Roxane has robbed him of a chance to go to war.

Roxane expects Christian to come visit her, and she tells the duenna to make him wait if he does. Cyrano presses Roxane to disclose that instead of questioning Christian on any particular subject, she plans to make Christian improvise about love. Although he tells Christian the details of her plot, when Roxane and her duenna leave, he calls for Christian who has been waiting nearby. Cyrano tries to prepare Christian for his meeting with Roxane, urging him to remember lines Cyrano has written. Christian however refuses saying he wants to speak to Roxane in his own words. Cyrano bows to this saying, "Speak for yourself, sir."

During their meeting Christian makes a fool of himself trying to speak seductively to Roxane. Roxane storms into her house, confused and angry. Thinking quickly, Cyrano makes Christian stand in front of Roxane's balcony and speak to her while Cyrano stands under the balcony whispering to Christian what to say. Eventually, Cyrano shoves Christian aside and, under cover of darkness, pretends to be Christian, wooing Roxane himself. In the process, he wins a kiss for Christian.

Roxane and Christian are secretly married by a Capuchin. Outside, Cyrano meets de Guiche. Cyrano, his face concealed, impersonates a madman, with a tale of a trip to the Moon. De Guiche is fascinated, and delays his journey to hear more. When Cyrano finally reveals his face, de Guiche suggests Cyrano should write a book.

The newly wed couple's happiness is short-lived: de Guiche, angry to have lost Roxane, declares that he is sending the Cadets of Gascony to the front lines of the war with Spain. De Guiche triumphantly tells Cyrano that the wedding night will have to wait. Under his breath, Cyrano remarks that the news fails to upset him.

Roxane, afraid for Christian, urges Cyrano to promise to keep him safe, to keep him out of dangerous situations, to keep him dry and warm, and to keep him faithful. Cyrano says that he will do what he can but that he cannot promise anything. Roxane begs Cyrano to promise to make Christian write to her every day. Brightening, Cyrano announces confidently that he can promise that.

Act IV – The Gascon Cadets

The Siege of Arras. The Gascon Cadets are among many French forces now cut off by the Spanish, and they are starving. Cyrano, meanwhile, has been writing in Christian's name twice a day, smuggling letters across enemy lines. De Guiche, whom the Cadets despise, arrives and chastises them; Cyrano responds with his usual bravura, and de Guiche then signals a spy to tell the Spanish to attack the Cadets, informing them that they must hold the line until relief arrives. Then a coach arrives, and Roxane emerges from it. She tells how she was able to flirt her way through the Spanish lines. Cyrano tells Christian about the letters, and provides him a farewell letter to give to Roxane if he dies. After de Guiche departs, Roxane provides plenty of food and drink with the assistance of the coach's driver, Ragueneau. De Guiche attempts for a second time to convince Roxane to leave the battlefield. When she refuses, de Guiche says he will not leave a lady behind. This impresses the cadets who offer him their leftovers, which de Guiche declines, but he ends up catching the cadets' accent which makes him even more popular with the cadets. Roxane also tells Christian that, because of the letters, she has grown to love him for his soul alone, and would still love him even if he were ugly.

Christian tells this to Cyrano, and then persuades Cyrano to tell Roxane the truth about the letters, saying he has to be loved for "the fool that he is" to be truly loved at all. Cyrano disbelieves what Christian claims Roxane has said, until she tells him so as well. But, before Cyrano can tell her the truth, Christian is brought back to the camp, having been fatally shot. Cyrano decides that, in order to preserve Roxane's image of an eloquent Christian, he cannot tell her the truth. The battle ensues, a distraught Roxane collapses and is carried off by de Guiche and Ragueneau, and Cyrano rallies the Cadets to hold back the Spanish until relief arrives.

Act V – Cyrano's Gazette

Fifteen years later, at a convent outside Paris. Roxane now resides here, eternally mourning her beloved Christian. She is visited by de Guiche, who is now a good friend and now sees Cyrano as an equal (and has been promoted to duke), Le Bret, and Ragueneau (who has lost his wife and bakery, and is now a candlelighter for Molière), and she expects Cyrano to come by as he always has with news of the outside world. On this day, however, he has been mortally wounded by someone who dropped a huge log on his head from a tall building. Upon arriving to deliver his "gazette" to Roxane, knowing it will be his last, he asks Roxane if he can read "Christian's" farewell letter. She gives it to him, and he reads it aloud as it grows dark. Listening to his voice, she realizes that it is Cyrano who was the author of all the letters, but Cyrano denies this until he cannot hide it. Ragueneau and Le Bret return, telling Roxane of Cyrano's injury. While Cyrano grows delirious, his friends weep and Roxane tells him that she loves him. He combats various foes, half imaginary and half symbolic, conceding that he has lost all but one important thing – his ''panache'' – as he dies in Le Bret and Ragueneau's arms.

A team of researchers discover remains of a crashed spaceship in the Arctic Circle, finding two humanoids with cybernetic implants frozen in the wreckage. The bodies are taken to a nearby compound to be studied. The scientists marvel at the nanoprobes that begin to repair the long dead aliens. One of the seemingly dead subjects attacks the scientists, assimilating them. Using scavenged parts from the wreckage of the Borg ship to enhance the transport, they escape into space, upgrading it with a faster warp drive and weapons.

Admiral Forrest orders ''Enterprise'' to rescue the "kidnapped" researchers. They soon receive a distress call from a Tarkalean freighter, and they arrive to discover the ship under attack from the enhanced transport. Captain Jonathan Archer tries to disable their weapons, but the ship jumps to warp speed. Archer brings the survivors to Sickbay, and finds their situation reminiscent of a Zefram Cochrane story he remembers (relating to first contact). The assimilated crew soon awaken, and in the ensuing melee Doctor Phlox is infected with nanoprobes. They escape, and Lieutenant Reed then finds them modifying ship's systems, and learns that the ''Enterprise'' s phase pistols are ineffective against them. Archer, left with no other options, orders the section to be de-pressurized. Reed then begins upgrading the pistols, while Phlox treats himself with "omicron radiation" to destroy the nanoprobes.

''Enterprise'' again catches up with the transport, but the recent modifications suddenly activate and shut down weapons and propulsion. Soon after the aliens hail ''Enterprise'' and say, "You will be assimilated, resistance is futile". In response, Archer and Reed board the ship with upgraded pistols, plant explosives, and beam out. Commander Tucker troubleshoots the alien modifications thereby restoring main power to ''Enterprise''. With the transport crippled, Archer realizes the altered crew members are too far gone and orders the transport's destruction. Later, a recovering Phlox informs Archer that while infected he kept hearing a repeating numerical sequence - Earth's coordinates sent somewhere into the Delta Quadrant. Sub-Commander T'Pol states it would take almost 200 years to reach its destination, but Archer remains troubled, fearing they only postponed the invasion.

Fegele Abramovich (Christina Ricci), a Russian Jew is separated from her father (Oleg Yankovsky) as a child in 1927. Her father has travelled to America to seek his fortune and plans to send for Fegele and her grandmother. Before leaving, he sings "Je Crois Entendre Encore" from the Bizet opera ''Les pêcheurs de perles'' to her. After her father leaves, the village is attacked and burned in a pogrom. Fegele escapes with the help of neighbours; after overcoming many obstacles, she is crowded onto a boat headed for Britain, with only a photo of her father and a coin given to her by her grandmother.

Upon arrival, an English official renames her "Susan" and places her with foster parents. English students at school taunt her by calling her a "gypsy", but she does not yet understand English. A teacher at the school overhears her singing "Je Crois Entendre Encore" in Yiddish, and teaches her to sing and speak in English.

Time passes, and Suzie auditions for a singing dance troupe heading for Paris. There, she meets an older Russian dancer named Lola (Cate Blanchett), and they share an apartment as friends. At a formal party, both women perform as dancers alongside a mysterious performing horseman, Cesar (Johnny Depp), a Romani to whom Suzie is attracted. After their performance outside, they overhear a tenor inside singing "Je Crois Entendre Encore"; the voice belongs to Dante (John Turturro), an Italian opera singer who immediately catches Lola's eye. Lola works her way into his good graces and falls for his charms, enticed by his wealth and success. Dante, Lola, Suzie, and Cesar all work for an opera company directed by Felix Perlman (Harry Dean Stanton). Dante is an imperious follower of Mussolini; this alienates him from Suzie even as he becomes Lola's lover. Meanwhile, Cesar introduces Suzie to his "family" (essentially his entire tribe), and they fall in love.

One day, Dante is rifling through Suzie's things after a dalliance with Lola in the apartment, and deduces her Jewish heritage after finding her father's photo. An elderly Jewish neighbour downstairs, Madame Goldstein (Miriam Karlin), also knows that Suzie is Jewish and has warned her of the dangers on the horizon as the Germans invade Poland. The following year, as the Germans invade France and approach Paris, an exodus begins of Jews and other people threatened by Nazism. Crowds for the operatic show dwindle, and eventually the only cast members left are Dante and Suzie. When Dante attempts to seduce Suzie, she rebuffs him. He lashes out at her for her heritage and her relationship with Cesar, whose heritage he also scorns. Perlman comes to her defence; he reminds Dante that as an Italian in Paris at that time, should Mussolini align with the Nazis, Dante's own position in Paris would be precarious. Perlman closes down the show; the Nazis enter Paris the following morning.

Dante reluctantly returns to his earlier role as minstrel. After another rebuff from Suzie, Dante reveals to a German officer that Suzie is a Jew. Lola overhears this and informs Suzie that she is in danger and must leave Paris. Lola has also decided to leave Dante and has purchased tickets for Suzie and herself on an ocean liner headed for America. The same night of the party, the Nazis attack the Romani village and kill a child. When Cesar comes to her apartment to say goodbye, Suzie expresses her desire to stay and help Cesar fight the Nazis for his family, but he tells her she must flee and find her father. They share a tender last evening together.

Suzie searches for her father and discovers that he changed his name, gave up singing, and moved west after hearing about the attack on his home village, which he assumed killed all the members of his family. Suzie goes to Hollywood, where her father was a studio head, and discovers he has a new family and that he is dying. She goes to the hospital, walks past his new wife and children who are waiting outside the door to his room, and is reunited with her father. He recognises her and expresses joy at her appearance. She sits on the side of his bed and sings "Je Crois Entendre Encore" to him in Yiddish as tears roll down her face.

An escaped prisoner seeks refuge in the predominantly African-American town of Tatesville, Georgia, by passing himself off as the Rt. Reverend Isaiah T. Jenkins. He is joined in town by a fellow criminal, and the pair scheme to swindle the phony reverend's congregation of their offerings. Jenkins falls in love with a young member of his congregation, Isabelle Perkins, even though she is in love with a poor young man named Sylvester, who happens to be Jenkins’ long-estranged identical twin brother. Jenkins steals money from Martha Jane, Isabelle's mother, and convinces the young woman to take the blame for his crime. She flees to Atlanta and dies just as her mother locates her. Before dying, Isabelle reveals to her mother that Jenkins raped her and that he is the one who took her mother's money. She explains that she did not speak up before because she knew her mother would not believe her. Returning to Tatesville, Martha Jane confronts Jenkins in front of the congregation. Jenkins flees and during a twilight struggle he kills a man who tries to bring him to justice. The following morning, Martha Jane awakens and realizes the episode with Jenkins was only a dream. She provides Isabelle (who is not dead) and Sylvester with the funds to start a married life together.

The story was originally published in ''Superman'' #423 and ''Action Comics'' #583 (both September 1986). The first half of the story, published in ''Superman'', was billed as the comic's "Historic Last Issue" as it was retitled ''The Adventures of Superman'' with #424.

Part 1: ''Superman'' #423

''Daily Planet'' reporter Tim Crane interviews Lois Lane – who has married a man named Jordan Elliot – for a story about the last days of Superman, as she is the last person to have seen him before his disappearance ten years prior. Lois explains that a period of relative peace had ensued after four of Superman's most dangerous enemies were rendered inactive; Brainiac had been damaged beyond repair, Lex Luthor had gone missing, and the Parasite and Terra-Man killed each other. With no one left to fight against, Superman dedicated himself to conducting research in space. Upon returning from an expedition, Superman finds Metropolis destroyed at the hands of Bizarro, who until then was a well-meaning being endowed with a reversed reasoning that leads him to perform the opposite of his intentions. When Superman demands an explanation, Bizarro reveals his plan to become the "perfect imperfect duplicate": since Superman is a superhero who saves lives, Bizarro would become a villain who kills; since Superman's home planet of Krypton was accidentally destroyed and he came to Earth as a baby, Bizarro destroyed the Bizarro World himself and came to Earth as an adult; and since Superman is alive, Bizarro commits suicide with a piece of blue kryptonite.

At that time, Clark Kent had ceased to be a reporter for the ''Daily Planet'' and had become a news anchor alongside Lana Lang. The Toyman and the Prankster take advantage of this development to expose Superman's secret identity on live television: the pair send automated toys to attack the facilities and reveal Kent's invulnerability and uniform with a direct hit. The villains, communicating through one of the toys, reveal their involvement and that they had discovered Kent's identity through his childhood friend Pete Ross, whom they had tortured and killed. Superman tracks the broadcast radio waves and finds their location. During Ross' funeral, Superman voices his concern that three adversaries who were formerly only nuisances had become murderers, and worries that his more murderous enemies may reappear even worse. While Superman abandons the identity of Clark Kent, Lex Luthor searches an Arctic wasteland for the remains of Brainiac, hoping to study him. Brainiac's robotic skull proves sentient upon recovery, and it takes control of Luthor mentally and physically. Planning to exact revenge against Superman, the Luthor-Brainiac hybrid builds a new ship and takes his fight to Superman personally, kidnapping the Kryptonite Man along the way.

After saving the ''Daily Planet'' staff from an assault by an army of Metallos, Superman takes Lois, Lana, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White and his wife Alice to his Fortress of Solitude for their safety. Superman's dog Krypto joins them, having returned from deep space. At this moment, the Legion of Super-Heroes visits from the 30th Century, accompanied by Supergirl. Superman is shocked to see his cousin alive, as she had recently died in his time, though he spares Supergirl this detail when she wonders how she is able to be here when the laws of time travel disallow multiple versions of the same person from occupying the same period. The Legion gives Superman a gift, a small statue of himself holding the Phantom Zone projector, and Superman fears that the Legion is visiting him on this specific day to pay their last respects before his death.

Part 2: ''Action Comics'' #583

The next morning, Superman's fears begin to materialize: the Legion of Super-Villains arrives from the future, stating that according to legend, Superman faces his greatest enemy this day and will cease to exist. The Luthor-Brainiac hybrid erects a forcefield around the Fortress to prevent other heroes (including Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and others) from interfering. In the ensuing battle, Jimmy and Lana use artifacts from the Fortress's trophy room to acquire superpowers and aid Superman in the standoff. Lana subdues the Kryptonite Man while Jimmy successfully shuts down the force-field generator. Luthor briefly overcomes Brainiac's influence and begs Lana to kill him; she complies, snapping his neck. The Legion of Super-Villains kills Lana, while Brainiac maintains control over Luthor's corpse and murders Jimmy. A new attack on the Fortress breaches its walls, allowing the Kryptonite Man to rush in. He is ambushed and killed by Krypto, who succumbs to radiation poisoning in the process. Superman flies into a rage upon discovering Lana's death, and the Legion of Super-Villains is frightened into fleeing back to their own time.

After Brainiac deactivates when Luthor's body goes into rigor mortis, Superman realizes that not all of his old foes have yet been accounted for, and that the last one, Mister Mxyzptlk, must be behind such bizarre events. Mxyzptlk emerges, sheds his outer facade as a "funny little man" and reveals that after hundreds of years of being merely mischievous, he had become bored and began a new villainous phase in his immortal life. As Superman and Lois flee, they suddenly realize the significance of the statue Superman received, and Superman threatens Mxyzptlk with the Phantom Zone projector. Mxyzptlk panics and says his own name backwards, which sends him back to the Fifth Dimension; at the same time, Superman activates the projector, sending Mxyzptlk into the Phantom Zone. Mxyzptlk dies as he is torn in half between dimensions. Superman, in penance for breaking his own code against killing, voluntarily enters a chamber containing a sample of gold kryptonite — which permanently strips him of his powers — and disappears into the Arctic. Although Superman's body is never found, it is assumed by all parties that the powerless hero died of exposure.

After Crane concludes his interview and leaves, Lois and Jordan's son Jonathan plays with a piece of coal as the couple comment on how much Jordan prefers a normal life, implying that Jordan is really the de-powered Superman. As Jonathan squeezes the coal into a diamond, Jordan winks to the reader, as he and Lois continue to "just live happily ever after".

In a dark room, a shackled man with a bag over his head is being beaten with sticks by several attackers. Angel helps the man to his feet, and takes the bag off the man's face. The man thanks Angel but then Angel vamps out and bites the man's neck.

Nineteen hours earlier, Angel and Nina are lying in bed together and Nina notices that Angel is concerned with something at work. Back at Wolfram & Hart, Illyria complains that no one fears her anymore and Wesley is ignoring her ever since she pretended to be Fred. Spike tells her that although she has lost much of her powers, looking like Fred is more powerful than anything else to those who loved her. Meanwhile, Hamilton introduces Angel and Gunn to Senator Brucker and her vampire aide, Ernesto. Ernesto asks for human blood and Angel agrees to make an exception, upsetting Gunn. Wesley informs Angel that a Boretz demon is loose and killing people. However, Angel shrugs it off and leaves. Spike offers to take on the demon for Wesley and invites Illyria to go hunting with him.

In Angel's office, Angel, Gunn, Ernesto, and the Senator are watching a political ad of her rival, Mike Conley. The Senator asks Wolfram & Hart to brainwash Conley into confessing to being a pedophile so he will lose. Gunn is furious at the Senator's request, but Angel agrees. In Wesley's office, Wesley is researching Boretz demons when a strange circular symbol with eight spurs appears in his book but then disappears. Meanwhile, Spike and Illyria are searching for the Boretz demon. Illyria tells Spike that Angel has become corrupted through power but he refuses to believe her. The Boretz appears, and fights Spike but Illyria ultimately kills it. An injured Drogyn also appears and warns Spike that Angel cannot be trusted.

Back at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley walks into Angel's office where he finds Angel talking with Hamilton, and they ask Wesley to come back later. Gunn, Lorne, and Wesley all agree that Angel is not acting like himself at all. Spike calls, and the three gather in Spike's apartment to listen to Drogyn's tale of being attacked by a Sathari demon, an assassin-for-hire, at the Deeper Well. After a long and vicious fight, Drogyn learned that Angel hired it to kill him. Drogyn speculates that Angel wanted to cover up his involvement in helping Illyria's sarcophagus escape from the Deeper Well and that Angel sacrificed Fred on purpose. Lorne and Gunn take the news angrily, but Spike reminds them that Drogyn cannot lie. Wesley shows all of them the mysterious symbol of a black circle with eight spurs on it and believes it to be a connection to Angel's behavior. Gunn, Lorne, Spike, and Wesley leave to confront Angel, while Illyria keeps watch over Drogyn.

At the office, Spike interrogates Angel about Drogyn's attack but Angel denies everything. Angel explains that he has lost his sense of morality, and he wants global power, through any means necessary. He then meets with Nina and gives her three plane tickets, urging her to leave him for her own safety. Hurt and confused, Nina agrees. At Spike's apartment, Hamilton breaks in the door and knocks out Drogyn and Illyria. Meanwhile, Gunn and Spike interrogate Lindsey about the symbol. He explains that the symbol represents a small, but powerful, secret society of the elite evil, called the Circle of the Black Thorn who are responsible for the apocalypse. Lindsey explains that Wolfram & Hart is run by the Black Thorn while the Senior Partners actually live on a different plane of existence. Angel's team realize that Angel is being corrupted by the Circle of the Black Thorn.

Back in the dark room from the beginning, Angel takes the bag off the man's face to reveal it is Drogyn. Angel drinks his blood and is then branded with the symbol for the Circle of the Black Thorn. The robed attackers reveal themselves and celebrate Angel's acceptance into the fold. The next day at Wolfram & Hart, Angel is attacked by Gunn, Lorne, Spike, and Wesley. Angel disarms everyone and pulls a crystal out of his jacket, which activates a glamour that conceals the room for six minutes. Angel reveals that he has everything that he has been doing — agreeing with their evil clients, sending Wesley the symbol, hiring the assassin to kill Drogyn — is to convince the Black Thorn that he is evil so he can infiltrate them and eventually kill them to prevent the apocalypse. Angel explains further that two months earlier, Cordelia gave Angel a vision from their farewell kiss about the Black Thorn and the apocalypse.

Spike grimly points out that it is a suicide mission as the Senior Partners will kill them all in retaliation. However, the team eventually agrees to go along with Angel's plan as Hamilton ominously watches them from the window outside the office, suspicious but unable to prove anything.

After Berke Landers' girlfriend Allison breaks up with him, he tries to win her back by auditioning for the school play, despite having no theatrical talent. Meanwhile, his friends Felix and Dennis try to find him a new girlfriend.

With the help of Felix's younger sister Kelly, Berke wins a minor role in the play, a modern musical version of Shakespeare's comedy ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' called ''A Midsummer Night's Rockin' Eve'', written and directed by the school's domineering drama teacher, Dr. Desmond Oates (Martin Short). When one of the leads, the school's star actor Peter Wong, is injured in a freak accident, Berke takes over Wong's role of Lysander. He gradually improves with continuing assistance from Kelly, unaware of the growing attraction between them.

At a party thrown by Felix at Berke's house, Kelly kisses Berke, but he insists that a relationship between them could not work as she is Felix's sister. At the same party, Berke and Allison catch her new boyfriend Bentley "Striker" Scrumfeld cheating on her with her best friend Maggie. Allison breaks up with Striker.

During the intermission on the play's opening night, Allison confides to Berke that she wants to get back together with him. Meanwhile, Striker bribes two of the theater technicians to try and blow Berke off the stage using stage pyrotechnics. Before the play resumes, Felix gives the orchestra sheet music for a love ballad written by Kelly to replace Oates' unpopular tune.

When the curtain rises, Kelly sings her song so beautifully that Berke finally realizes he loves her. He abandons his lines from the script and improvises his own verse professing his character's love for Kelly's character Helena. The audience applauds as Berke and Kelly kiss. Striker protests this change, but unwittingly signals the technicians to set off the explosion, blowing him offstage and into the orchestral section.

Dennis kisses Kelly's friend and his dancing partner Basin, who kisses him back, suggesting that they also begin a relationship. Kelly and Berke leave the theater looking forward to their future together.

The film ends with Sisqó and Vitamin C singing and dancing along with the cast to the song "September" as the credits roll.

In the planet in which Rayman lives, people are harmonious thanks to the Great Protoon. However one day, the evil Mr. Dark steals the Protoon, causing the Electoons, other tiny beings that maintain harmony on Rayman's planet, to scatter all over the world. Betilla the Fairy, a guardian of the Great Protoon, battled Mr. Dark to get back the Protoon and Electoons, but failed, so Rayman decides to go and find the Electoons, free the Great Protoon and defeat Mr. Dark. Betilla the Fairy frequently interacts with Rayman as needed to give him additional magical powers along his journey.

Rayman begins his journey in the Dream Forest, one of the six lands of the valley. He begins with the ability to telescopically punch enemies until Betilla gives him the ability to hang onto ledges. He encounters a kindly local named Tarayzan, who hands over an instantly-sprouting magic seed to help him escape a rising flood. At the end of the Dream Forest, Rayman defeats the first of the game's six bosses, the giant Moskito. Betilla then gives Rayman the power to swing from flying hoops. Rayman arrives in Band Land, a world built around clouds and musical notes, symbols, and instruments. He is chased by Mr. Sax, a giant angry saxophone. Betilla grants Rayman the power to spin his hair like a helicopter for gliding. After defeating Mr. Sax, Rayman progresses through the Blue Mountains, a world of avalanches and rock monsters. He meets the family of musician friend and helps him build a new guitar in exchange for a potion that lets Rayman fly continually using his helicopter hair. Rayman defeats Mr. Stone, and Betilla gives him the ability to run. Picture City, the fourth land, is a world of paintings and art utensils, including slippery ink floors and deadly sharp pencils. Rayman makes his way through to arrive on the stage of a pirate-themed play, where a vicious actress in a Viking costume emerges from the ship's cannon and hurls knives at him. Later, Rayman again encounters this actress who turns out to be the area's boss, Space Mama, in an astronaut costume. Following her defeat, Rayman learns that Mr. Dark has kidnapped Betilla and imprisoned her in one of the little spheres attached to his hat.

Rayman reaches the fifth land, the Caves of Skops, a cave world ruled by Mr. Skops, a giant scorpion. Before he enters he meets Joe, a friendly extraterrestrial, who owns a snack bar whose electric lights have gone out. Joe gives Rayman a firefly to light his way through the cave to reinsert a plug that has fallen out, restoring power to his bar. After crossing a lake and through the caves, Rayman reaches the lair of Mr. Skops and defeats him. After he rescues all of the Electoons, Rayman arrives at the final land, Candy Chateau, made of desserts and crockery. At the end, he faces Mr. Dark who attacks with various disorienting spells. Rayman arrives in the chateau's hall, where Mr. Dark traps him with walls of fire. At the last moment, Electoons retrieve Rayman's ability to punch after Mr. Dark disables it. At this point Mr. Dark (probably using the power of the Great Protoon and Betilla) transforms himself into hybrids of the previous bosses to defeat Rayman. Upon the defeat of the hybrids, Rayman rescues Betilla and recovers the Great Protoon, thus restoring balance to his world. Rayman then takes a vacation with friends and former enemies.

One night, a Black Lum named André, who was supposedly said to have grown out of pure evil, appears and transforms other Red Lums into Black Lums to join him. The group eventually gains enough hair from various animals throughout the forest to dress themselves as scarecrow-like Hoodlums. In the middle of the process, Murfy, one of the residents and workers of the Fairy Council, discovers them. André later finds him hiding nearby, and he and his Black Lums pursue him. Murfy is chased to a small clearing, where Rayman and his friend Globox are sound asleep. Just after Murfy reaches them, Globox is awakened by the commotion. Now aware of the situation, Globox helps Murfy to try and get Rayman, who is still asleep, to safety. In the process, Globox accidentally removes Rayman's hands, forcing Murfy to pick Rayman up by his hair and fly him away from the clearing himself. In an attempt to save himself, Globox runs away to safety, taking Rayman's hands along with him.

As time passes, more and more Hoodlums invade the forest. After Rayman wakes up, he and Murfy reach the entrance to the Council and discover Globox hiding in a barrel. Just as Rayman gets his hands back from Globox, André and a few of his minions appear, following Globox as he flees into the Council. As Rayman and Murfy pursue them, they learn of André's evil plan: to taint the heart of the world so that he can create an army of Hoodlums. Eventually, André catches up with Globox, who ends up accidentally swallowing the evil creature. Afterwards, Rayman attempts to seek out a doctor that can rid André from Globox's insides and Murfy departs from the team, warning Rayman the Black Lum may force Globox to drink plum juice, in spite of the latter's allergy to it. Rayman meets up with three doctors: Otto Psi (a play on the word ''autopsy''), Romeo Patti (''homeopathy''), and Art Rytus (''arthritis''). After all three doctors make independent attempts at purging André by using various parts of Globox's body as musical instruments, they succeed in getting rid of him after collaborating in Art Rytus' clinic room. Refusing to admit defeat, André teams up with Reflux, a member of the Knaaren race that Rayman had previously defeated.

Reflux steals the scepter of the Leptys – a god worshiped by his people – from the child king of the Knaaren and uses it to increase his power, which in turn will allow Andre to infinitely reproduce. With Globox's help, Rayman climbs to the top of the Tower of the Leptys and faces Reflux and André as the former transforms into a giant winged monster. After a prolonged battle, Rayman and Globox destroy Reflux and Rayman turns André back into a Red Lum which results in all the Black Lums turning back into Red Lums. Shortly thereafter, Rayman and Globox return to the clearing that they were in before. Before they resume their nap, Globox admits that he misses André and would like him back, but Rayman says that's not a good idea and that he doesn't know how to get him back. Globox says that a Red Lum has to be scared to be a Black Lum, to which Rayman replies that he would hate to imagine what could scare a Lum. A flashback to before the beginning of the game reveals that Rayman unwittingly created André when his hands went off on their own and scared a Red Lum with frightening shadow puppets.

In 1939, on the brink of World War II, the St. Judes Reformatory is a ruthless Irish school for boys. Grey, gloomy and ruled by the sadistic Brother John (Iain Glen), the school prefers punishment to rehabilitation. But new lay teacher William Franklin (Aidan Quinn), fresh from the frontline of the Spanish Civil War, fights to liberate the boys from their oppressors.

Patrick Delaney 743 (Chris Newman) arrives at the school aged 13 and a half. He, like all the boys, is allocated a number which the brothers use. Franklin, however, always uses the boys' names. Delaney is an attractive boy and he receives the unwelcome attentions of a pedophile brother, Brother Mac (Marc Warren), who molests and rapes the boy in the school toilets. The boy tells of his ordeal to a visiting priest in confession only to be told not to say a word to anyone. Word of Delaney's confession reaches Brother Mac who punishes the boy by forcing him under a cold shower naked, then giving him his clothes so they are also wet.

Liam Mercier 636 (John Travers). Mercier is one of the few boys who can read and write, but is otherwise a hard case. Franklin befriends the boy and interests him in poetry, some of it written by communist sympathisers. Mercier and Franklin both challenge the authority of Brother John - Mercier by protesting at the vicious beating of two brothers on Christmas Day, and Franklin by stepping in and actually stopping the whipping. Brother John bides his time and, having tricked Mercier into coming out of class, beats him continuously in front of Brother Mac in the refectory. Franklin is eventually told by Brother Mac that Mercier is in the refectory, after which Franklin discovers Mercier's dead body. He carries the corpse out of the room.

Livid, Franklin attacks Brother John, calling him a murderer. Brothers John and Mac are taken from the school by the Church authorities. At Mercier's funeral, Franklin tells the other boys that his death was murder, before kissing the coffin. Franklin decides he has to leave the school, but is persuaded to stay at the last minute when he is moved by Delaney reciting Eva Gore-Booth's poem "Comrades" across the playground. Franklin drops his bags and Delaney runs towards Franklin and jumps up to hug him while all the other boys gather round in love and affection for their saviour.

The plot involves three strong-willed teenagers: Ryoma Nagare, Hayato Jin and Musashi Tomoe, who pilot three specially designed combat jets (Eagle, Jaguar, and Bear) which can be combined into three different giant robots, Getter-1 (balanced and for flight combat), Getter-2 (fast and for ground combat), and Getter-3 (strong and for marine combat). They were assembled by Prof. Saotome, who conceived the Getter Robo project as a means of deep-space exploration. The Getter machine is powered by an energy source known as Getter Rays, which are the invisible manifestation of the pilot's willpower. It became instead Earth's first line of defense against the Dinosaur Empire, a civilization of reptile-like humanoids who evolved from the now-extinct dinosaurs that roamed the earth millions of years ago. They have lived many years underground after being forced to do so by getter ray radiation from space that did not affect the apes who evolved into humans; they now want to reclaim the Earth as theirs and destroy humanity.

''Angel Densetsu'' is a story about Seiichirō Kitano, a kind and naive boy with the heart of an angel, but the sinister looks of a devil. This paired with his horrible luck and awkward social skills causes many misunderstandings, leading people to assume that he is a delinquent and heroin addict, and (unbeknownst to himself) results in a career as the head thug, or "school guardian" at his new school.

Didi Pickles is pregnant with her second baby, which makes her son Tommy wonder how that will change the family dynamic. The baby comes unexpectedly early and, despite being told it will be a girl, Didi delivers a boy. She and her husband Stu name him Dil and quickly find themselves struggling to cope with his constant outbursts. Tommy finds Dil hard to get on with but accepts being an older brother after Stu gives Tommy a speech about responsibility and assures him that one day he will be happy to have Dil as his younger brother, and gives him a pocket watch with a picture of Tommy and Dil inside. Elsewhere, a circus train is hijacked by the monkeys on board, who crash it in the woods, which all of the monkeys survive uninjured.

Stu finishes building the Reptar Wagon for a toy contest in Japan, which Phil and Lil suggest using to take Dil back to the hospital. As Tommy and Chuckie object, the car drives away with the babies on board. They speed recklessly through the streets and eventually crash in the woods, where they realize that they are lost. At first Angelica shows no concern until she realizes the babies have her Cynthia doll, which prompts her to take the family dog, Spike, to find them and retrieve Cynthia.

The babies set off for a ranger's cabin in the woods where they believe a magic "lizard" (a mispronunciation of wizard) lives and can grant their wish to go home. On the way they encounter the circus monkeys, who take Dil with them. When his friends refuse to go after Dil, believing they are better off without him, Tommy sets off to rescue his brother alone. Meanwhile, the parents soon find out that the babies are missing, and set out to find them in the face of the media sensation that has suddenly generated around their children's disappearance.

Tommy eventually finds Dil during a storm, but as he tries to take care of him, Dil again acts selfishly. Tommy finally snaps and prepares to give Dil back to the monkeys, but Tommy's rage scares Dil into ending his behavior. At the same time, Dil's remorseful tears cause Tommy to come to his senses and the brothers reconcile. After the storm, they are found by Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Angelica and Spike, and they all continue their way to finally reach "the lizard".

On the bridge to the ranger's station, the babies are confronted by the monkeys, who are then scared off by a huge wolf who has been tailing the babies since they arrived in the woods. Spike saves the babies by fighting the wolf and then dragging it off the bridge, saddening them when it appears Spike is gone. Stu, who has been looking for the babies in a pterodactyl-like glider, sees them from above and crash lands into the ranger's cabin. Believing he is the "lizard," the babies ask him to bring Spike back instead of going home. Stu falls through the bridge and reveals Spike, who survived the fall by landing on a plank of the bridge. The children are reunited with their parents and accept Dil as one of the group.

Ōe wishes to write a set of definitions to prepare handicapped children like his son for the real world. He struggles with definitions for concepts such as "death," only to learn that his son Eeyore has just as much to teach him about life. Ōe relates his interpretations of events with Eeyore in light of Blake's poetry, and discusses the influence of and similarities between Blake's work on his own.

Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), and Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) fly down to a small colony of 76 miners in order to trade for deuterium. They initially try to barter with Tessic (Larry Cedar), the colony's leader, but he appears reluctant to part with any of the 80,000 liters in inventory, which is being held for 'someone else'. After negotiations, a deal is struck − 200 liters of deuterium for four power cells and whatever medical supplies ''Enterprise'' can spare, on the proviso that the ''Enterprise'' crew can fix two offline pumps in two days.

Despite deuterium being a valuable commodity, Archer is startled by the lack of basic medical supplies and the run-down nature of the colony. The reason becomes apparent when seven Klingons show up to collect deuterium according to their 'regular arrangement'. When Tessic informs Korok (Robertson Dean), the leader of the Klingons, that they do not have all the deuterium because two pumps were not working, Korok hits him and gives them four days to meet the order. Later, when Tucker and Archer attempt to talk them into fighting against the Klingons, Tessic tell them to take their 200 liters and leave. Leaving does not sit well with Archer and he convinces the leader to resist with their support.

On ''Enterprise'', T'Pol teaches some of the colonists how to evade edged-weapon attacks (from Vulcan martial-art 'Suus-mahna'), while Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) teach other colonists how to fire their weapons more accurately. Archer and Tucker then suggest the colonists shift the entire colony to the south 50 meters. When the Klingon marauders arrive, the colony appears deserted and silent. Finally the defenders show themselves, and in the ensuing fight the Klingons are lured into an area surrounded by the capped-off deuterium well heads. On cue, the wells are ignited, surrounding the Klingons with flames. Tessic then tells the Klingons to leave and never come back. After they depart, Archer is rewarded with 2,000 liters of deuterium by the grateful miners.

A stage play begins, presented by Mother Goose and her talking goose, Sylvester, about Mary Contrary and Tom Piper, who are about to be married. The miserly and villainous Barnaby hires two crooks, dimwitted Gonzorgo and silent Roderigo. They are to throw Tom into the sea and steal Mary's sheep, depriving her of her means of support, to force her to marry Barnaby. Mary is unaware that she is the heir to a fortune, but Barnaby is aware and wants it all for himself. Gonzorgo and Roderigo decide to sell Tom to the Gypsies instead of drowning him, in order to collect a double payment.

Gonzorgo and Roderigo return and tell Mary, Barnaby, and the citizens of Mother Goose Land that Tom has accidentally drowned. They show Mary a forged letter in which Tom tells Mary he is abandoning her, and she would be better off marrying Barnaby. Mary, believing she is destitute, reluctantly accepts the proposal from Barnaby. Barnaby unknowingly arranges for the same Gypsies who have Tom to provide entertainment for the wedding. Tom, disguised as the Gypsy Floretta, reveals himself, and Barnaby pursues the frightened Gonzorgo and Roderigo, furious at their deception.

One of the children who lives with Mary informs her of some sheep tracks leading into the Forest of No Return. The children sneak away into the forest to search for the missing sheep. The trees of the forest awaken and capture them. Tom and Mary follow and find the children in the forest, where they tell stories about the live trees. The trees seem just like ordinary trees to Tom and Mary. Tom, Mary, and the children camp for the night. In the morning, the trees once again come to life and explain that they are now in custody of the Toymaker in Toyland (who is also the Mayor and Chief of Police). Tom, Mary, and the children happily continue on, escorted part of the way by the trees.

Through the windows of the Toymaker's house they watch the Toymaker's brilliant apprentice, Grumio, present a new machine that makes toys without any manual labor. Overjoyed, the Toymaker speeds up the machine to such a high rate that it explodes, destroying every toy in the factory. Tom, Mary, and the children offer to help make more toys in time for Christmas.

Grumio presents another invention, a shrinking "gun" that reduces everyday objects to toy size. He warns that if it is used on anything more than once, the shrunken object disappears completely. The Toymaker is at first delighted at the idea of producing toys by shrinking life-sized objects, but then Tom points out the impossibility of finding enough everyday objects to shrink down into the large quantity of toys needed for Christmas. The Toymaker berates Grumio for his stupidity and throws the shrinking gun out the window in disgust.

Barnaby, who has been spying on them, takes the discarded shrinking gun and uses it to shrink the Toymaker and Tom. When Barnaby's henchmen see him threatening to shoot Tom a second time, they abandon Barnaby. They try to flee, but Barnaby shoots them and locks them up with Tom in a birdcage.

Barnaby forces Mary to marry him by threatening to destroy Tom, and he threatens to destroy the Toymaker if he refuses to preside over the wedding ceremony. While the Toymaker draws out the ceremony, Gonzorgo and Roderigo rescue Tom, and the three of them sneak away and return with an army of toy soldiers to fight Barnaby. Barnaby easily demolishes the toy soldiers. He is about to obliterate Tom with another dose from the shrinking gun, but Mary destroys it with a toy cannon. The liquid splatters all over Barnaby and shrinks him to toy size. Tom, after challenging Barnaby to a duel with swords, stabs Barnaby, who falls from a great height into an empty toybox.

During the battle with Barnaby, Grumio creates and presents another new invention, one that returns miniaturized people and items to their original size. He immediately uses it on the Toymaker, Gonzorgo, and Roderigo, but not on Barnaby. Grumio is about to use it on Tom, but after reminding Grumio that he is the head toymaker and that Grumio is just his assistant, the Toymaker uses the invention himself to return Tom to his natural size.

A few days later, Tom and Mary are married attended by all of Mother Goose Village including Gonzorgo and Roderigo as well as the trees from the Forest of No Return, and everyone lives happily ever after as the stage curtains close, ending the film.

The film tells the modern love story set over a period of 12 months in London, England, of a young couple: Matt, a British climatologist, and Lisa, an American exchange student. The story is framed in a personal review from Matt's perspective when he is working in Antarctica. Their main common interest is a passion for live music and they frequently attend rock concerts together. The film depicts the couple, or Matt alone, watching the nine songs at Brixton Academy and other concert venues. It also shows their weekend getaway into the countryside, and their travels around London. Lisa brings their short and intense relationship to an end at Christmas time when she returns to the United States. After each concert a highly explicit sex scene is shown.

In 1978, a Haitian man named Christophe mysteriously dies in a French missionary clinic, while a voodoo parade marches past his window. The next morning, Christophe is buried in a traditional Catholic funeral. A mysterious man dressed in a suit who was outside Christophe's hospital window on the night he died is in attendance. As the coffin is lowered into the ground, Christophe's eyes open and tears roll down his cheeks.

Seven years later, Harvard anthropologist Dennis Alan is in the Amazon rainforest studying rare herbs and medicines with a local shaman. He drinks a potion and experiences a hallucination of the same black man from Christophe's funeral, surrounded by corpses in a bottomless pit.

Back in Boston, Alan is approached by a pharmaceutical company looking to investigate a drug used in Haitian Vodou to create zombies. The company wants Alan to acquire the drug for use as a "super anesthetic". The corporation provides Alan with funding and sends him to Haiti, which is in the middle of a revolution. Alan's exploration in Haiti, assisted by Dr. Marielle Duchamp, locates Christophe who is alive after having been buried seven years earlier. Alan is taken into custody, and the commander of the ''Tonton Macoute'', Captain Dargent Peytraud–the same man from Christophe's funeral and Alan's vision in the Amazon–warns Alan to leave Haiti.

Continuing his investigation, Alan finds a local man, Mozart, who is reported to have knowledge of the procedure for creating the zombie drug. Alan pays Mozart for a sample, but Mozart sells him rat poison instead. After embarrassing Mozart in public, Alan convinces Mozart to show Alan how to produce the drug for a fee of $1,000. Alan is arrested again by the ''Tonton Macoutes'', and tortured by having a nail driven through his scrotum, and then dumped on a street with the message that he must leave Haiti or be killed. Alan again refuses to leave and meets with Mozart to create the drug.

Alan has a nightmare of Peytraud, revealed to be a ''bokor'' who turns enemies into zombies and steals their souls. When Alan wakes up, he is lying next to Christophe's sister who has been decapitated. The ''Tonton Macoutes'' enter, take photos, and frame Alan for murder. Peytraud tells Alan to leave the country and never return, lest he be convicted of the murder, executed, and then his soul stolen by Peytraud. Peytraud puts Alan on a US bound plane, but Mozart sneaks on board and gives Alan the zombie drug. Mozart asks Alan to tell people about him, so that Mozart can achieve international fame. Alan agrees and returns to Boston with his mission apparently completed.

At a celebration dinner, the wife of Alan's employer is possessed by Peytraud, who warns Alan of his own imminent death. Alan returns to Haiti, where his only ally, a ''houngan'' named Lucien Celine, is killed by Peytraud and Mozart is beheaded as a sacrifice for Peytraud's power. Alan is then sprayed with the zombie powder and dies; later, Peytraud steals Alan's body from the hospital before the death can be reported to the US Embassy. Peytraud takes Alan to a graveyard where, helpless in his coffin, Alan sees that Peytraud has captured Marielle and will sacrifice her. Peytraud shows Alan Celine's soul in a ''canari''. Alan is then buried alive with a tarantula to "keep him company". Waking up in his coffin a few hours later, Alan is rescued by Christophe who was also turned into a zombie by Peytraud.

Having escaped Peytraud's trap, Alan returns to the ''Tonton Macoute'' headquarters looking for Marielle. There, Alan defeats Peytraud through a battles of wills, using Celine's white magic to drive a nail into Peytraud's groin, and sends his soul to hell. As the Haitian people celebrate the downfall of Jean-Claude Duvalier, Marielle proclaims "The nightmare is over".

Having returned from mastering his newfound abilities as an Onimusha, Samanosuke Akechi returns to battle the Genma army in Japan 1582 as he fights his way to Honnō-ji Temple to finally put an end to Nobunaga Oda. Though Samanosuke defeats Nobunaga's ward Mori Ranmaru, he is defeated by Nobunaga. Before the Genma Lord can kill him, he ends up being pulled through a portal that opened below him. Samanosuke awakens in Paris in the year 2004 where he aids a man named Jacques Blanc in fighting the Genma army that has begun its invasion near the Arc de Triomphe. The time portal reappears and teleports Jacques to feudal Japan.

Samanosuke then meets Michelle, Jacques' girlfriend, near the Arc and makes his way towards the roof. Across his fights, Samanosuke briefly meets an old enemy: The Genma scientist Guildenstern. Guildenstern recovered a device from Oni ruins that, through experimentation, generated a "time warp" that brought him and a number of Genma soldiers into the future. By establishing a base in Mont Saint Michel, he has built a new time warp generator to bring a large Genma army through time and conquer the future.

Jacques arrives in 16th century Japan, 10 days before the siege on Honnō-ji Temple and encounters a different Samanosuke. He is also met by an Oni spirit that grants him a gauntlet with Oni powers and entrusts him with a spirit named Ako in order to assist him in his quest. Samanosuke and Jacques must stop the Genma invasion in both the present and the past in order to return to their own time periods and undo the damage to the timeline. In 2004 Paris, future Samanosuke teams up with Michelle and Jacques' son Henri to save the city from destruction, while in feudal Japan, Jacques and the past's Samanosuke struggle to fight Nobunaga's forces. Across his journey, Jacques and the past's Samanosuke meet Tadakatsu Heihachirō Honda who is linked with the Oda clan. However, Heihachirō decides to join Samanosuke and Jacques' cause. The future Samanosuke also encounters the time displaced Ranmaru who has been infused with Genma blood and is progressively transforming into a Genma warrior.

Following several battles, future Samanosuke manages to defeat the Genma forces in 2004 by defeating Guildenstern and Genma Ranmaru. Meanwhile, in feudal Japan, Heihachirō is killed by the past's Ranmaru and Jacques avenges him when reaching Honnō-ji Temple. Jacques defeats Nobunaga and returns to his time, where Genma Ranmaru kills Henri. Jacques, after killing Ranmaru a second time, holds Henri's body and his Oni gauntlet transforms into an energy that enters Henri and revives him from death.

Back in feudal Japan, Nobunaga recovers and kills the past Samanosuke. However, future Samanosuke returns to his time and absorbs his alternate self to assume his Onimusha form. Following a battle in the Genma Netherworld, Samanosuke defeats Nobunaga's Genma form before sealing the warlord's soul in the Oni Gauntlet. Samanosuke then starts a journey with Ako to seal his Gauntlet to ensure Nobunaga can never return. In an alternate ending, Ako takes on a human form to accompany Samanosuke.

In the final scene, it is revealed that Nobunaga's death enables his former vassal Tokichiro to begin his own conquest of Japan as Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the Genma now supporting him.

Sir Launfal participates in the chivalric tradition of gift-giving to such an extent that he is made King Arthur's steward, in charge of celebrations. After ten happy years under Launfal's stewardship, however, King Arthur's court is graced by a new arrival, Guenevere, whom Merlin has brought from Ireland. Launfal takes a dislike to this new lady, as do many other worthy knights, because of her reputation for promiscuity. King Arthur marries Guenevere and Launfal's fortunes take a sudden turn for the worse. He leaves King Arthur's court when Guenevere shows ill will to him by not giving him a gift at the wedding. Insulted and humiliated, Launfal leaves the court, losing his status and income.

Returning to his home town of Caerleon (now a village in South Wales, where the ruins of the Roman fortress of Isca can still be seen, whose walls surrounding its Roman baths and elsewhere were still standing high during the medieval period). Launfal takes humble lodgings, spends all the money that King Arthur gave him before setting out, and soon descends into poverty and debt. One Trinity Sunday, the king holds a banquet in Caerleon to which Launfal, because of his poverty, is not invited. The mayor's daughter offers to let him spend the day with her, but he declines her offer since he has nothing to wear. Instead, he borrows a horse from her and goes for a ride, stopping to rest under a tree in a nearby forest. Two maidens appear and bring him to a lady they call Tryamour, daughter of the King of Olyroun and of Fayrye, whom Launfal finds lying on a bed in a glorious pavilion.

:"He fond yn the pavyloun / The kynges doughter of Olyroun, / Dame Tryamour that hyghte; :Her fadyr was kyng of Fayrye, / Of Occient, fer and nyghe, / A man of mochell myghte. :In the pavyloun he fond a bed of prys / Yheled wyth purpur bys, / That semyle was of syghte. :Therinne lay that lady gent / That after Syr Launfal hedde ysent / That lefsom lemede bryght."

(He found in the pavilion the daughter of the King of Olyroun, her name was Tryamour and her father was the King of the Otherworld – of the west, both near and far – a very powerful man. In the tent was a lavishly-adorned and very handsome bed. Lying in it was the beautiful woman who had summoned him.) Tryamour offers Launfal her love and several material gifts: an invisible servant, Gyfre; a horse, Blaunchard; and a bag that will always produce gold coins however many are taken from it, all on the condition that he keeps their relationship a secret from the rest of the world. No one must know of her existence. She tells him she will come to him whenever he is all alone and wishes for her.

Launfal returns to Caerleon. Soon a train of packhorses arrives, bearing all kinds of valuables for him. He uses this new wealth to perform many acts of charity. He also wins in a local tournament, thanks to the horse and banner given him by the lady. A knight of Lombardy, Sir Valentyne, challenges him (on the honour of his beloved lady) to come to Lombardy to fight with him. This section of Thomas Chestre's tale does not derive from Marie de France's ''Lanval'' or from the English ''Sir Landevale'', but perhaps from another romance that is now lost. Launfal makes the voyage, and defeats Valentyne, thanks to his invisible servant Gyfre, who picks up his helmet and shield when Valentyne knocks them down. Launfal kills Valentyne and then has to kill many more of the Lombard knights in order to get away.

Launfal's reputation for martial prowess and generosity reaches new heights and word at last reaches King Arthur. Launfal is summoned again by the king, after a long absence, and asked to serve as steward for a long festival beginning at the Feast of St. John. During some revelry at the court, Guenevere offers herself to Launfal. Launfal refuses, Guenevere threatens to ruin his reputation in retaliation by questioning his manhood and Launfal blurts out in his defence that he has a mistress whose ugliest handmaiden would make a better Queen than Guenevere. Guenevere goes to Arthur and accuses Launfal of trying to seduce her and of insulting her as well. Knights are sent to arrest him.

Launfal has gone to his room, but his faerie mistress does not appear and Sir Launfal soon realises why. Tryamour will no longer come to him when he wishes for her since he has given away her existence. Soon, her gifts have disappeared or changed. Now he is brought to trial. Since the jury of his peers all know that the Queen is more likely to have propositioned Launfal than the other way around, they believe Launfal's version of the encounter. However, for his insult he is given a year and a fortnight to produce the beautiful lady as proof of his boast; Guenevere says she is willing to be blinded if he manages to produce such a woman. As the day of the proof progresses, the Queen presses for him to be executed while others express doubt, particularly when two parties of gorgeous women ride up. Finally Tryamour arrives and exculpates Launfal on both counts. She breathes on Guenevere and blinds her. Gyfre, now visible, brings his horse Blaunchard, and Tryamour, Launfal, and her ladies ride away to the island of Olyroun, which in Marie's 12th-century version of the tale is Avalon.Burgess, Glyn S., and Busby, Keith, 1986. ''The Lais of Marie de France''. Penguin Books Limited. ''Lanval'', p 81. Once a year, on a certain day, Launfal returns and his horse may be heard neighing and a knight may joust with him, although he was never seen again in Arthur's land.

The player controls Johnny Dash, whose pet dog Tex was captured by the game's main villain, Count Chuck. Aided by the friendly Bed Monster and Frank Lloyd Rat, Johnny enters the Underworld armed with a slingshot and an infinite supply of rocks to slay Count Chuck and his minions and rescue his beloved Tex, as well as many more captured pets.

Dick Dastardly and Muttley, the villains from ''Wacky Races'', are now flying aces in World War I-styled aeroplanes and members of the Vulture Squadron, on a mission to stop a messenger pigeon named Yankee Doodle Pigeon from delivering top-secret messages to an opposing army. The other members of the Squadron are Klunk, an inventor who speaks an unintelligible language (punctuated by howls, clicks, whistles, and growls, accompanied by bizarre facial contortions), and Zilly, a very timid pilot whose main role is to translate for Klunk.

Each story features variations on the same plot elements: the Vulture Squadron tries to trap Yankee Doodle Pigeon using one or more planes equipped with Klunk's latest contraptions, but one or more of the Squadron messes up and the plane(s) either crash, collide or explode (or all of the above). While they are falling out of the wreckage, Dick Dastardly calls for help, which Muttley offers depending on whether Dastardly either agrees or disagrees to give him medals. Even when Muttley does agree to fly Dastardly out of trouble, Dastardly seldom has a soft landing. At some point the General calls Dastardly on the phone to demand results, and while Dastardly assures him that they will soon capture the pigeon, the General usually disbelieves him and bellows to Dastardly through the phone and extends his hand from it to either grab Dastardly by the nose or his mustache. By the end of every story, Yankee Doodle Pigeon escapes while the Vulture Squadron is often left in backfiring predicaments.

In a contemporary comic book/comic digest series of ''Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines'', Dastardly and Muttley still failed to stop Yankee Doodle Pigeon, except for three times: the first time when accidentally knocking out and capturing Yankee Doodle Pigeon with falling ice cubes; Dastardly and Muttley finding to their surprise that the pigeon's satchel contained nothing but moths. The second time, they salted his tail for the purpose of again retrieving his satchel, only to discover it contained a jigsaw puzzle that read "Sucker!", while the pigeon had the real message under his helmet. The third time, Dastardly and Muttley lured Yankee Doodle to their side during a 24-hour truce, hypnotized him and set him up to be a traitor.

The show also featured ''Wing Dings'', short clips with jokes, and ''Magnificent Muttley'', where Muttley encounters Walter Mitty-esque daydreams.

''Magnificent Muttley''

There was one ''Magnificent Muttley'' episode in each of the 17 broadcast episodes. Muttley is the main character and imagines himself in a lot of situations, with Dastardly in the role of the villain; each episode was about three minutes long. Dastardly's car from ''Wacky Races'' made a cameo in a few of these shorts, namely "The Marvelous Muttdini" and "Admiral Bird Dog".

Chili Palmer, restless after years of filmmaking, enters the music industry after witnessing the Russian mob execute his friend Tommy Athens, owner of a record company. Chili offers to help Tommy's widow, Edie Athens, manage the failing business, which owes $300,000 to hip-hop producer Sin LaSalle.

Chili is impressed by singer Linda Moon and helps free her from contractual obligations to Nick Carr and Raji, who has a gay Samoan bodyguard named Elliot, an aspiring actor and the butt of Carr and Raji's homophobic jokes. Carr and Raji hire a hitman, Joe "Loop" Lupino to kill Chili before he can save Edie's company by arranging a live performance for Linda along with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith.

Lasalle demands payment of the $300,000, but agrees to give Chili a few days to get the money plus the vig. When the Russians attempt to kill Chili, Joe Loop mistakenly kills Ivan Argianiyev, the Russian mob's hitman. Carr is furious about the mistake and demands that Raji talks to Loop at once. Raji then kills Loop with a metal baseball bat after Loop "disrespects" him.

Carr then tries to trick Chili by handing him a pawn ticket, claiming that Linda's contract is being held at a pawn shop owned by the Russians. Chili being much smarter than Carr anticipated, has Edie give the ticket to the police, who pay the Russians a visit. Raji and Elliot set up LaSalle by making him believe that Carr tricked Chili in giving him the $300,000 to get Linda's contract. LaSalle and the DubMD confront Carr in his office, as do Bulkin and his men. Insulted by Bulkin's racist remarks, LaSalle kills him.

Chili squeezes in a dance scene with Edie, celebrating as Linda Moon gets to make her appearance with Aerosmith in concert. Based on Linda's success in that concert, Chili assuages LaSalle by making him her producer.

But Carr is not accepting any deal, so he makes Raji put Elliot to kill Chili. By assuring Elliot that he can help his acting career, Chili befriends him. After learning that Chili had gotten him an audition for a Nicole Kidman film, Elliot turns on Raji, who had erased the message on his answering machine. For all his smooth talking and flamboyant wardrobe, Raji finds himself in a firework conflagration which roasts him live on camera. Carr is arrested on murder charges when Chili makes sure he is caught with the bat used to kill Joe Loop, via another pawn ticket.

At the MTV Video Music Awards, Linda wins the awards for best new artist and video of the year. During her acceptance speech, she thanks Edie, Sin and Chili. Edie and Chili leave the award ceremony. And as Chili drives off, he passes a billboard revealing that Elliot is the co-star of a new movie with Nicole Kidman.

The ''Enterprise'' is en route to Quadra Sigma to aid colonists caught in a methane explosion when "Starfleet Admiral" Q re-appears and demands that they abandon their mission to compete in a game. He teleports Commander Riker and the bridge crew, with the exception of Captain Picard, to a barren landscape and appears in front of them whilst wearing a uniform of a Napoleonic era French marshal wearing Order of the Golden Fleece (A Marshal outranks an Admiral). He explains the rule of the game is to stay alive, and after Yar (Denise Crosby) refuses to compete, he transports her back to the bridge of the ''Enterprise'' in a "penalty box".

Q returns to the bridge too, to talk Picard into setting a wager. He explains that the Q Continuum is testing Commander Riker to see if he is worthy of being granted their powers. Picard, having the utmost faith in his First Officer, takes the bet, as winning it would mean Q would get off their backs. Meanwhile, Riker and his team are attacked by what Lt. Worf reports as "vicious animal things" wearing French soldier's uniforms from the Napoleonic era and armed with muskets that fire energy bolts instead of the classic projectiles. Q returns to Riker and tells him that he has granted him the powers of the Continuum, and Riker promptly returns his crew mates to the ship but remains behind with Q to ultimately reject the powers. Q brings the crew back to the landscape, this time without their phasers and with Picard. The crew are attacked once more by the aliens, and both Worf and Wesley Crusher are killed. Riker uses the powers of the Q to return the crew again and bring both Worf and Wesley back to life.

Riker makes a promise to Picard never to use the powers again and the ship arrives at Quadra Sigma. A rescue team beams down and discovers a young girl who has died. Riker is tempted to save her, but in the end he refuses to do so out of respect for his promise; however, he quickly shows signs of regret at this decision, which he expresses to the captain. Tension between Picard and his first officer grows as Riker now seems to be embracing his powers, and his behavior toward the crew begins to change. At Q's suggestion, and with Picard's blessing, Riker uses his powers to give his friends what he believes they want, turning Wesley into an adult, giving La Forge (LeVar Burton) his sight, and creating a Klingon female companion for Worf. All the recipients reject their gifts, however, with Data (Brent Spiner) even anticipating and declining Riker's attempt to make him human. Picard declares that Q has failed, and when Q attempts to go back on his word, he is forcibly recalled to the Continuum. Picard is pleased to see Q gone, and praises Riker for confirming his trust in his "Number One".

This story is narrated in a letter from Mrs. Curren, the main character and a retired Classics professor, to her daughter who has previously left South Africa and migrated to the United States to make a clear stand against apartheid. Mrs. Curren lives in Cape Town during the Apartheid regime. She's just been told by her doctors that her cancer is incurable and that she's going to die soon. Upon arriving home, she turns away a homeless man, Vercueil, who is camped out near her house. He leaves, but comes back right away. Mrs. Curren gives him food and offers him work, which latter offer offends him. Later that evening, she spots the man staring at the TV through her window. Needless to say she's annoyed. In the night, however, she has a sudden painful attack, and the man helps her. They form a sort of weird friendship as Vercueil spends most of his time near her house. One day she asks him to mail a letter to her daughter. He takes a long time to agree, but eventually he mails the letter.

Mrs. Curren's housekeeper, Florence, returns from a trip and brings her two daughters and her son Bheki with her. Mrs. Curren resents having Bheki in the house, but he has no other place to go. His friend, who Mrs. Curren thinks is a hoodlum, gets into a fight with Vercueil, who disappears for a bit. Around this time, policemen start hanging out near the house, apparently keeping tabs on Bheki and his friends. Tensions are rising. When Vercueil returns, he brings home a woman and they both pass out drunk in the living room. Overwhelmed with people, Mrs. Curren starts to feel that everyone is conspiring against her to take over her property before she even dies.

One day Mrs. Curren witnesses the same cops who previously talked to her disrespectfully, force Bheki and his friend, John, who are on bikes, to run into a truck. John injures his head badly, and she sits in the street holding his head until the ambulance arrives. Previously insulated from racial hatred, Mrs. Cullen starts to realize that her neat little white world doesn't match the reality of police brutality against black people. She wants to demand justice from the authorities for John's injury, but Florence won't let her because she's afraid to be involved with the police. They all go to the hospital to visit Bheki's friend, but Vercueil and Mrs. Curren wait in the car because she's in too much pain. Brought to tears, she admits to him that she hasn't told her daughter about her impending death. He encourages her to tell the truth, so her daughter doesn't resent her after she's gone. At home that night, Mrs. Curren invites Vercueil to sleep on the couch. She catches herself wishing he lives there.

Tragedy strikes again when Florence gets a phone call in the middle of the night saying her son is in trouble. Mrs. Curren drives Florence and her daughter to Gugulethu, an unsafe place, where they meet Mr. Thabane, Florence's cousin. They drive to a part of town in chaos - fire, screaming people, and dead bodies. Faced with so much destruction and fear, Mrs. Curren essentially throws a fit and is put to shame about her privileged sensibility by Mr. Thabane who lectures her about the true meaning of comradeship. Eventually they find Bheki. He and four other black men have been murdered and left lying against a wall, their eyes and mouths full of sand. Horrified, Mrs. Curren finds a policeman and demands he do something, but he brushes her off. The next day, some women come by to pick up Florence's things, as she won't return.

After all of that, Vercueil asks Mrs. Curren if she intends to kill herself that day. She says yes, so they go for a drive. She's unable to go through with it however, so Vercueil buys some liquor and tells her to get drunk. Offended, she screams at him to leave, which he does. He stays away for a while. One night Mrs. Curren wakes up to find John asking about Bheki. She tells him that his friend is dead, but the boy doesn't seem to understand. He's injured, so she looks after him for a bit. When she finds him stashing something in the floorboards one day, she calls Mr. Thabane to take John away.

The next morning the police come to her house asking about John. She says that everything is fine, but John is afraid. Promising not to let anything hurt him, she tries to comfort him. In a cruel trick, an officer distracts Mrs. Curren and the others shoot John. The cops then say she can return to her home, but she can't stand the thought of it. She wanders the streets until she falls asleep under a bridge. Waking to kids groping her, she's robbed and in excruciating pain. Somehow Vercueil finds her, but she still refuses to go home. They fall asleep in the woods together before returning the next day. Her house has been trashed, and a policeman is there who interrogates her about John and Vercueil. After he leaves, she calls Mr. Thabane to warn him.

From this point on, Mrs. Curren fades quickly as the cancer progresses. Her pain gets worse, and she has bizarre nightmares. Vercueil, who is caring for her now, repeatedly encourages her to commit suicide. They start sharing a bed so that she can stay warm. Their relationship is completely platonic; she just can't stay warm any more. When she wakes up extremely cold one day, she asks Vercueil if today is the day. Without a word, he climbs into bed and embraces her. Her final words are that he can't make her any warmer.

Joel Backman is "the Broker," considered to be one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. However, Backman's life falls apart when a deal collapses involving a hacked spy satellite that nobody knows about, and he ends up in jail. Six years later, the political wheels have turned and other power-hungry men are eager for Backman's blood. Bargains are made, and after an outgoing disgraced President grants him a full pardon at the behest of the CIA, Backman finds himself spirited out of the prison in the middle of the night, bundled onto a military plane, and flown to Italy to begin a new life. He has a new name and mysterious new "friends" who teach him to speak the language and to blend in with the people in Bologna.

However, Backman soon realizes that something is not quite kosher in this new setup, in that he is under constant surveillance. In reality, the CIA is setting him up for professional assassins from China, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries. They intend to sit back and wait to see who kills him in an effort to solve the biggest mystery to hit the US government in decades: the question of who built this seemingly impenetrable and most advanced satellite ever. It turns out to be China; despite having low satellite technology, they stole the information from the US.

Backman barely survives several assassination attempts and manages to establish communication with his son, Neal. He escapes surveillance and returns to his home to contract a new deal with the US government. The CIA is told about the satellite, along with the taking of the satellite's program. In return, they agree to do what they can to get the countries targeting him to back off, though they caution him that some of them will not listen. Backman then covers his escape by pretending that he is resuming his old life, then quietly disappears and presumably returns to Italy.

The game's story unfolds primarily through a series of seven playable campaigns, all set upon the continent of Antagarich. During the campaigns, the story is told from alternating points of view, giving players the opportunity to play as each of the town alignments.

Following the disappearance of King Roland Ironfist of Enroth prior to ''Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven'', his wife, Queen Catherine, is left to rule the realm. In the meantime, her father, King Gryphonheart of Erathia, is assassinated. Without their beloved King, the kingdom of Erathia falls to the dark forces of Nighon and Eeofol. Queen Catherine returns home to Antagarich seeking to rally the people of her homeland and lead them against the evil that has ravaged their nation.

Erathia's capital of Steadwick is sacked by the dungeon lords of Nighon and the Kreegans of Eeofol. Meanwhile, the nations of Tatalia and Krewlod skirmish at the western border, seizing the chance to expand their territory. Catherine's first task is to establish a foothold in the conquered kingdom by enlisting the aid of allies. The wizards of Bracada and the elves of AvLee answer her call, and together they push towards Steadwick and eventually retake it, quickly quelling the border war in the west. Soon after, Lucifer Kreegan, a commander in the Eeofol armies, sends an envoy to Erathia claiming that Roland Ironfist is captive within their territories. AvLee invades Eeofol, but fails to rescue Roland, who is transported to their northern holdings. Afterwards, Catherine invades Nighon, pushing the dungeon armies back to their island home.

In the meantime, the necromancers of Deyja, having been responsible for the assassination of King Gryphonheart, plot to revive his corpse as a lich. They plan to use his wisdom in leading their own armies of the undead. However, King Gryphonheart's will proves too much for the necromancers even in his corrupted state, and he becomes a rogue lich. Having little other recourse, Queen Catherine is forced to ally herself with the necromancers and together they set out to destroy the lich of King Gryphonheart before he becomes too powerful.

A final bonus campaign, accessible only after the main campaigns are complete, tells the story of separatists living in the Contested Lands, a war-torn border between Erathia and AvLee. Tired of the skirmishes that bring unrest to their homelands, they join to fight for independence from the two large kingdoms. It is later implied that this rising was orchestrated by Archibald Ironfist, the antagonist of ''Heroes of Might and Magic II''.

Captain Archer finds himself in the witness stand of a Klingon tribunal where he's charged with both aiding rebels opposed to the Empire and of attacking a Klingon ship. In his cell, under the pretext of needing to be checked for contagion, Archer is visited by Doctor Phlox, who gives Archer an update that efforts to have him released are under way. Archer tells Phlox to relay a message, that no matter what the outcome, Sub-Commander T'Pol will leave orbit and keep the ''Enterprise's'' crew safe. In the chamber, the prosecutor, Orak, faces off against Archer's advocate, a veteran of the courts named Kolos.

Orak calls as his first witness Second Weapons Officer (formerly Captain) Duras to testify—a process in which Archer is not allowed to interject. Duras then relates a biased tale of himself confronting a belligerent Archer, who supposedly fires on the Klingon ship first. Archer cannot hold his tongue, and is quickly silenced with pain sticks by the tribunal guards. Back in the cells, Kolos is tasked with offering Archer a deal. Rather than plea bargain, Archer insists that Kolos actually work harder to put up a valid defense. In response, Kolos relates how the judiciary used to be about the law and honor, but more recently the warrior mindset meant that victories became the accepted norm.

Kolos re-enters the court and advocates for Archer's right to testify based on an archaic judicial charter. Archer is permitted to relate his tale of helping the neglected refugees and merely damaging the Klingon warship, giving Kolos the chance to relate the numerous times Archer has helped the Empire in the past. Archer is still found guilty and sentenced to life on the Klingon dilithium mining planet of Rura Penthe. Kolos protests, and is himself sentenced to a year at Rura Penthe. Meanwhile, T'Pol uses irregular back-door diplomatic channels and bribes to arrange to get the captain back. Kolos remains, deciding to obey the law he has served for so long with honor.

At the direction of Starfleet, ''Enterprise'' makes a detour to a planet passing between two gas giants in order to observe the gravitational forces and subsequent volcanic activity. Their new course takes the ship close to that of E.C.S. ''Horizon'', the cargo vessel where Ensign Mayweather grew up. He requests permission for a further detour to rejoin his family on ''Horizon'', as his father is ill and he hasn't been able to visit him in four years. Captain Archer readily agrees, but bad news arrives when Mayweather learns that his father died some six weeks earlier.

As planned, Mayweather boards ''Horizon'' and receives a warm welcome from most of the crew, including his mother Rianna. He finds that his brother, Paul, has been named acting captain, but he doesn't seem to be coping well with his new responsibilities. Mayweather offers to make a few repairs and upgrades to systems on the ship, but Paul tells him to stop, making him feel uneasy and out of place. Soon afterward the ship comes under attack, and a homing device is placed on the hull. Mayweather then recommends a boost in the ship's fighting capability, but Paul insists that the safest course is to flee to the nearest port and yield the cargo as needed.

Back on ''Enterprise'', Commander Tucker arranges a movie night for the crew featuring the ''Frankenstein'' film trilogy, and invites Sub-Commander T'Pol. She eventually consents, and finally finds in the film an insightful view into historical human-Vulcan relations. Meanwhile, Mayweather makes his intended modifications without permission, resulting in a confrontation when Paul finds out. The ship comes under further attack from an alien vessel, and Paul offers up the cargo as planned. The aliens refuse and demand the vessel as well. Left without any other option, Paul tells Mayweather to reinitiate the modifications and to detach the command module from the cargo section. They soon disable the alien ship. The brothers reconcile and Mayweather leaves, promising to visit again soon.

The film is divided up to four short stories:

My Robot Baby

A young Marcia hides in the closet from her parents' fighting due to a mistake she has made. Marcia apologizes when her mother finds her in the closet; her mother tells Marcia to never fall in love, get married, and have children. Twenty-five years later, Marcia is married to Ray and they are looking towards adopting a child. After going to an adoption clinic, they apply for an adoption trial where they take care of a robotic baby before they can adopt a human child. Marcia begins to struggle when she is alone to take care of the robot baby, as she becomes flustered with what to do when the baby cries. Marcia brings the robot baby to her father, a handyman, and sees if he can tamper with the electronics of the robot. However, Marcia’s father worries that the doctors of the adoption clinic will detect the alteration of the robot. Nonetheless, Marcia persists on getting the baby reprogrammed and leaves the baby to her father while Marcia goes to work. As Marcia comes home to the robot baby now automated, she attempts to talk to the baby. However, the robot baby goes berserk and attacks Marcia. Marcia finds the robot baby in the closet, then remembers her young self hiding in the closet as her own mother was angry. Marcia then cries and is able to hug her robot baby, finding closure to her past.

The Robot Fixer

Bernice witnesses her son, Wilson, in a severe accident that left him in a coma. Upset, she heads to Wilson's apartment and cleans up the place with her daughter, Grace. Bernice finds Wilson's old toy robot collection and attempts to find the missing parts through yard sales and hobby shops. Throughout the search, Bernice remembers flashbacks of how little she really knows of Wilson, as the young Wilson would play with his robot toys and not hear Bernice's callings. As Bernice learns that Wilson will inevitably die, Bernice scrambles to find the last robot, specifically, a missing wing from the only "girl" robot her son's collection. (In a flashback, Bernice remembers carelessly vacuuming up the now missing wing). She finds the complete female robot shop at a local hobby shop, only to find it is not for sale, as it is very rare. In an act of desperation, she steals the wing, attaches it to Wilson's toy, and pretends to fly it through the air, perhaps as a way to accept that her son is now truly gone, and is making his way toward heaven. To apologize for the theft, she sends all of Wilson's toys to the shop/collector, but keeps the angel like female robot as a way to stay connected to her son, even though she now finally accepts his death.

Machine Love

An office worker android, Archie, arrives at a workplace to do computer work. As he attempts to make acquaintance with people in the office workplace, he is rejected and shunned because he is a robot. Bob, the technician in charge of Archie, forgets to turn off Archie one night, letting him wander about the empty office complex after he finishes his work. He spots another office worker android across the street and stares at her all night. This becomes a reoccurring event for Archie, as Bob keeps forgetting to turn off Archie. As morning arrives, the workers are angry that Archie is not doing his work as he is low on power. Bob is then forced to turn Archie off, but Archie signals to Bob that he wants to meet the other office worker android across the street. As the two robots meet, they talk to each other and interact in a sexual manner.

Clay

John, an old sculptor, is told that he has only one year left to live. The doctors have recommended him to merge his consciousness into the digital world so he can live forever. He goes home and talks about his life expectancy to his wife (who has died in the past and is now a virtual hologram). The following day, John's son asks him to merge his consciousness in order for John to assist him, but John refuses as he wants to keep using his physical senses to make sculptures. John visits his wife in virtual space to ask her where she is, to which she responds multiple locations. John, unable to accept life after death through virtual reality, dies.

Teenager Angela (Chloé Winkel), who is skilled at drawing, meets and falls in love with an attractive Japanese DJ. Encouraged by him, she goes to Japan to work at an exclusive club for rich businessmen, who like to meet with young blonde women. From the start, the film is surreal with unique characters, clear and sharp cinematography, and slow panning camera work. Manga drawings are also used to enhance the plot and ambiance.

Angela seeks work at the aforementioned club and, after having been begrudgingly let in, she is met with derision by the other girls working there. However, despite having spurned some of the other girls, she soon proves to be a favorite among the patrons by pretending to be a Lolita-style 15-year-old to please the businessmen.

The plot has a sinister undertone of the possibility of murder of a girl, Larissa, whom Angela has replaced. As the film goes on, we learn Larissa was possibly murdered, not by Japanese men in search of sick sexual fantasy fulfillment, but at the envious and jealous hands of her workmates. In the last scenes we learn Larissa lives and, furthermore, this is when Angela is heralded with the contract to be a Manga artist.

Stan, Cartman, Kyle, Butters, Jimmy and Token are taping "Super School News", a newscast airing on South Park Elementary's closed-circuit television system. Cartman and Jimmy play the leading roles as head anchors, Butters is the entertainment and celebrity reporter, Stan is a field reporter, Token is the meteorologist, and Kyle does sports. However, after their news program airs, their teacher Mr. Meryl tells them that they did horribly in the ratings, trailing far behind Craig's home video show, "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens", which they consider pointless and banal. (The footage is accompanied by the tune ''Yakety Sax''.)

The news team then pledges to make a program that will be a ratings booster and gain the attention of all students. They rename the show "Sexy Action School News" and add flashy elements (in a parody of various infotainment shows), including random "Panda Madness Minutes" in which the newscasters spontaneously dance with pandas. However, nothing seems to work; although they beat Craig's original series, they fall far behind his new show, "Animals Close-Up With a Wide-Angle Lens Wearing Hats".

To get ideas, the boys decide to get high on cough medicine. They begin to experience weird hallucinations and start wandering through South Park behaving strangely. They eventually retire to their ideas room, and watch Craig's show with stoned expressions, and find it awesome.

When they come around, their notepads contain nothing useful. Then Stan realizes that the video they were watching all night while under the influence of cough medicine—and concluded was the 'greatest show ever'—was Craig's show. They realize that Craig's show gets such good ratings because most of the school must be high on cough medicine. They then decide to produce a special report that gets cough medicine banned from school.

Soon after, the ratings drop and Craig's show is cancelled, as the children are no longer high and therefore no longer enjoy the show. To emphasize the importance of good ratings, the AV teacher then suspends Craig from school and requests the removal of his testicles. Satisfied with their results, the "Sexy Action School News" team discovers the curse of a successful show: each subsequent episode has to be just as good. Back in the writer's room, they come up with nothing and eventually decide to just "bail".

The film begins where a little girl, Sophie, is being bullied by other children. Only a bus driver and a boy, Julien, help her collect her books that the others have thrown into a puddle.

To cheer Sophie up, Julien gives her a small tin box, a gift from his fatally ill mother. Because it is important to him, he asks her to lend it back to him from time to time. As Julien wants the box back at the moment he gave it to her, Sophie demands proof of how important it is to him. Julien disengages the handbrake of the bus without hesitation, and the bus full of children rolls down a hill. Their game has begun: the box changes its owner after each completed dare.

Between the son of wealthy Belgian parents and the daughter of poor Polish immigrants a lasting friendship develops. As children, they misbehave in school, wreak havoc on a wedding, and request silly tasks of each other. As teenagers, their romantic relationships with others suffer as a result of their dares. Meanwhile, the two friends ignore any consequences or punishment during their game.

While they are always looking for the next kick, a love is slowly evolving between the protagonists. Not wanting to admit it, they divert their attention from it by even more extreme dares.

As young adults, Julien tells Sophie that he wants to get married, only later revealing that he means to someone else. The climax is reached when Sophie interrupts Julien's wedding, after which he is cast out by his father and Sophie is nearly killed during another game. Julien returns to marry his wife, and Sophie declares that they will not see each other for ten years.

Ten years pass, and Julien is married with two children. Sophie has also married her husband, a famous soccer star. A successful Julien admits that he has not forgotten Sophie, though he assumes that she has forgotten him. On the night of Julien's tenth wedding anniversary, Sophie sends a message to him, indicating that the game is back on. Julien and Sophie meet for a brief moment in the midst of another dare, yet it is enough to remind Julien that their game is "better than life itself." After a dramatic accident, Julien and Sophie finally reunite, despite the protestations of their spouses.

The film has two alternate endings, which are shown consecutively. In the first, Julien and Sophie decide as an ultimate dare to finally share their dream together, their "dream of an eternal love" – the pair embrace while they stand in a construction pit that is about to be filled with concrete. The couple kiss as they are pulled beneath the cement, and both drown in the sludge. The other ending has the now aged Julien and Sophie spending time together in a garden and carrying on playing their game with milder dares. However, the opening scene of the film (an overhead view of a building site and a pit filled with concrete in which the upper side Julien's tin box rests partially sunk) replays, suggesting that the two friends actually did bury themselves and drown beneath the concrete.

Helen Simmons-McCarter and her attorney husband Charles McCarter have money, success, and a fine home. Despite seemingly perfect lives, Charles is actually distant, verbally and physically abusive, and has been having multiple affairs, while Helen is unemployed, bored at home, and desperately trying to make her marriage work.

On the evening of their 18th wedding anniversary, Helen arrives home to find all her belongings in a U-Haul, and that Charles is abandoning her for his young mistress Brenda, the mother of his two sons.

Helen kicks the driver Orlando out of the truck and visits her intimidating grandmother Madea. Madea takes Helen in and helps her get back on her feet, upsetting Madea's brother Joe. Joe's attorney son Brian defends Madea and Helen after Charles and Brenda catch the pair breaking into and vandalizing the marital home. Judge Mablean Ephriam places Madea, a repeat offender, under house arrest and sets a $5,000 property or cash bond for Helen.

Brian kicks his addict wife Debrah out of their home, causing him to have a strained relationship with their daughter, Tiffany, who wants to join the church choir. Fearing that Tiffany will turn to drugs like her mother, Brian refuses until Madea convinces him otherwise, encouraging him to also fix his relationship with Debrah. Helen cultivates a relationship with Orlando. Meanwhile, career criminal Jamison Milton Jackson asks Charles to defend him in his trial for shooting an undercover cop during a drug deal and to possibly bribe the judge $300,000 to rule in his favor, revealing that Charles received most of his money through drug deals and buying off judges.

In divorce court, Helen lets Charles keep all the money and property, provided he pay Brian's attorney fees and continue paying for her mother Myrtle Jean's stay in a nursing home since he made her place her there; Charles agrees to both terms. In the shooting case, despite Charles' efforts, the jury convicts Jamison. While being led out of the courtroom, Jamison snatches the bailiff's gun and shoots Charles in the back for failing to get him acquitted.

Orlando proposes to Helen. Before she can respond, she sees the shooting on the news and goes to the hospital with Brian. They encounter Brenda upon arriving. The doctor says Charles might be permanently paralyzed and asks if they should resuscitate him if things deteriorate. Brenda chooses to let Charles die, but Helen, still Charles's legal wife, tells the doctor to do everything possible for him.

Charles recovers, returns home with Helen, and resumes verbally abusing her, but Helen takes the opportunity to retaliate for years of neglect, verbal, emotional, and physical abuse by not only physically humiliating him, but also by revealing that Brenda finally showed her true colors by not only opting to let Charles die, but also by emptying his bank account and leaving with their boys during his hospitalization. She additionally reveals that their housekeeper Christina has left as well because Charles has no money to pay her, and that all of his friends, associates, and connections have abandoned him now that he has been left crippled and penniless.

Helen and Orlando argue when he learns she has moved back in with Charles to look after him, and he leaves heartbroken. Charles realizes his mistakes and apologizes to Helen, realizing that she was the only one who truly cared for him. He becomes a kinder man, while she helps him recover. He regains his ability to walk one day in church, where Debrah, now clean and sober after going into rehab, reconciles with Brian. Charles hopes to start over with Helen, but during a family dinner with Madea, she gives him her wedding ring and signed divorce papers and tells him she will always be his friend.

She finds Orlando, asks him to propose again, and accepts when he does.

The movie takes place again in the fictional Wangan Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, in the five years since the previous movie, the once empty space within Wangan's jurisdiction (the station was once referred to disparagingly as "the empty space station" by the surrounding jurisdictions) has become a popular tourist attraction, the officers at Wangan Station now have their hands full dealing with all manner of tourist related issues. In a sign of how much has ''not'' changed in the last five years, when Detective Sergeant Shunsaku Aoshima and several of other detectives playing the part of terrorists defeat a Special Assault Team unit during a counterterrorism exercise in front of the police brass and the media, all the detectives promptly have their pay docked by headquarters.

When a string of murders of company execs begins taking place, Aoshima jumps at the opportunity to pursue something other than his current case, which he finds less than inspiring. However the powers that be have other ideas, and Wangan again plays host to a special investigation team from headquarters, led by Superintendent Okita, whose inflexible methods, reliance on technology over old fashioned police work, and condescending attitude towards the locals quickly leads to one fiasco after another, with the local officers working to clean up the resulting mess. Aoshima's friend Superintendent Shinji Muroi, assigned by headquarters to assist Okita, is again powerless to help the local officers as decisions are made by the higher ups.

Howard Clemmons tells his grandchildren about his adventures as a young U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant in 1854. Clemmons had no seniority, power or talent for the army and was therefore chosen to lead an experimental project using camels as cavalry mounts in the southwest U.S. Clemmons remembers arriving at Fort Val Verde, Texas, where Sgt. Uriah Tibbs, is expecting Arabian horses. When Tibbs explains that he and his men competed for the privilege of being in the project, Clemmons declines to tell him the “Arabians” are actually camels. Clemmons then reports to the fort's commander, Col. Seymour Hawkins, who is more interested in his cannon practice than Clemmons's camel project. Later, Clemmons inspects the troops, including Nathaniel R. Higgins, who informs Clemmons that he re-enlisted so he could ride an Arabian horse. Although Clemmons wants to tell the men the truth, he is interrupted when a cook throws dishwater out the door and soaks him. When Clemmons and Tibbs later discuss the project at the saloon, they are accosted by Sgt. Naman Tucker, who is outraged his troopers did not receive the Arabian horses. A drunken Clemmons slides under the table as the two sergeants fight.

The next day, the camels arrive, but the troops ride their horses back to the fort in disgust, leaving Clemmons to deal with the camels. Hi Jolly, an Arab camel trainer, reports to Clemmons and as they herd camels through town, horses stampede in fright, ladies scream and dogs bark in fear. A wagon overturns, and a barrel splits open covering Col. Hawkins's daughter, Jennifer, in molasses. Hawkins berates Clemmons for the damage and plans to cancel the project, but Clemmons declares that the orders came from Jefferson Davis, the Secretary of War. That night, Jennifer sneaks into Clemmons's room, pours a small crock of molasses over his head, and declares them even before inviting him to afternoon tea. The next day, Hi Jolly gives his first lesson in camel care as Tucker rides up and insults Tibbs's men. Clemmons warns Tucker that if he insults the camel corps again, Clemmons will put him on report and transfer him into the camel project. To the cheers of Tibbs's men, Tucker apologizes and rides away. As Hi Jolly congratulates his comrade on raising the men's morale, Clemmons faints. Over time, the soldiers continue their camel training, but the lessons do not go well. When the men finally learn to mount the camels, the animals run wild, dumping them in the dirt and water troughs. That night, the men bet Tucker he cannot lasso a camel. When Tucker lands the rope around the camel's neck, the beast runs in panic, dragging Tucker behind. The next morning, the camel returns, still dragging Tucker, bleeding and bruised.

As weeks pass, the men become proficient with their camels and Clemmons romances Jennifer. He is ordered to capture a Native American renegade and Clemmons and his men pursue the outlaws, but they are thrown off their camels at a river. Later, Hi Jolly explains that camels are afraid of water; if Clemmons had dismounted and demonstrated the water was shallow, the camels would have crossed. That night, Jennifer takes a stroll with Clemmons, who tells her Col. Hawkins is cancelling the camel project. When Clemmons whines that he is a failure, Jennifer scolds him for being too cowardly to fight for his career.

The next morning, Clemmons proposes a 300-mile race to the town of Dos Rios between his camels and Tucker's horses. When Hawkins declines, Clemmons deceitfully claims that the camel experiment is the President's pet project. Sometime later, Hi Jolly is injured in a barroom brawl and cannot ride. Before the race, Jennifer gives Clemmons a thick book on camels and kisses him. Col. Hawkins fires a cannon and the race is on. Tucker's horses outpace Clemmons's camels, but within a few days, Clemmons's men catch up. However, Clemmons learns from Corporal Leroy that Tucker and his men are captured by an outlaw named Bad Jack Cutter at Dagger's Point. Clemmons insists on rescuing Tucker and his men. Along the way, Clemmons and Tibbs capture two other outlaws, steal their clothes and horses, then ride into town in disguise to meet Bad Jack, agreeing to join his gang. Later, they find Tucker and his men in jail and try to pull out the window bars using a horse. When the horse fails, a camel demolishes the entire jail. Tucker and his men run, leaving Tibbs and Clemmons to face the outlaws alone. A gunfight ensues but Clemmons's men ride in on camelback, rescuing their leaders, and ride off before the outlaws can get to their horses. That night, Clemmons discovers they have lost the camel carrying all but one of their water barrels. Although Clemmons believes they can find water in the mountains, Tibbs insists they follow the map to the next waterhole. After two days of riding, they discover the hole is dry, and they are out of water. Tibbs wants to ride back to a river, but Clemmons convinces Tibbs to let him try to reach the mountains, ordering Tibbs to head to the river if he does not return by sunset. Clemmons finds water, but as he ties the barrel onto his camel, a shot rings out. Black Jack exchanges gunfire with Clemmons as the camel runs away. After sundown, the camel reaches Tibbs and his men. The men drink their fill, then realize Clemmons is missing. The next morning, Black Jack realizes Clemmons is out of ammunition. He climbs down the rocks and shoots Clemmons in the chest but as he celebrates, Tibbs and the men capture him. Much to Tibbs's surprise, Clemmons is saved by the book Jennifer gave him; it was inside his jacket and stopped Bad Jack's bullet.

Later, Clemmons's troop races past Tucker and his men's exhausted horses outside Dos Rios. As Clemmons celebrates his victory, a telegram arrives from Washington, D.C., reporting that Congress has approved construction of the transcontinental railroad and the camel project is therefore unnecessary. Clemmons is ordered to turn the camels loose, but Tibbs and the men protest, concerned that the camels will perish in the American desert. As Clemmons finishes telling the story to his grandchildren, his wife, Jennifer, announces that dinner is ready. Clemmons goes outside to ring the dinner triangle, but Hi Jolly, Higgins and Tibbs report that one of the camels is in labor. As the four old men walk to the barn, Higgins wonders if they could move the camels closer to the house because he is tired that “each day he must walk a mile for a camel.”

Pete Bell, a college basketball coach for the Western University Dolphins in Los Angeles, is under a lot of pressure. His team is not winning as often as it once did and his successful program needs to attract new star players. But the brightest stars of the future—the so-called "blue-chip" prospects—are secretly being paid by other schools.

This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate after a losing season. A school booster, greedy "friend of the program" Happy, will stop at nothing to land these star high school players for Western's next season and gets the okay from the coach to do so. This includes offering a new car to the gigantic Neon Boudeaux (Shaq), a house and job to the mother of Butch McRae, and a tractor to the father of farmboy Ricky Roe, as well as a bag filled with cash.

With sportswriter Ed suspecting a scandal, Pete continues to be contaminated by demands from the players and a dirty association with the booster. His estranged wife, a former guidance counselor, agrees to tutor Neon, who has below average grades, but she feels betrayed when Pete lies to her about the new athletes receiving illegal inducements to attend the school.

Pete comes to realize that one of his senior players, Tony, a personal favorite, had "shaved points" in a game his freshman season, conspiring to beat a gambling point spread after carefully reviewing a video of the freshman season game depicting Tony's unusual behavior. Pete is disgusted at what he and his program have become.

Western University has a big nationally televised game coming up versus Indiana, the #1 team in the country, coached by Bobby Knight. After winning the game, Pete cannot bear the guilt of having cheated. At a press conference, he confesses to the entire scandal and resigns as head coach. Leaving the press conference and the arena, Pete walks past a small playground with kids playing basketball—he approaches, then helps coaching them.

An epilogue later reveals that the university would be suspended from tournament play for three years. Pete did continue to coach, but at the high school level; Tony graduated and played pro ball in Europe; Ricky Roe got injured and returned home to run the family farm, and Neon and Butch dropped out of college, but both now play in the NBA.

Ten years before ''Attack of the Clones'', the Sith Lord Darth Sidious orders his apprentice, Darth Tyranus, to eliminate his former pupil-turned-Dark Jedi and current leader of the Bando Gora crime syndicate, Komari Vosa, before she becomes a threat to his future plans. Meanwhile, Jango Fett captures gangster Meeko Ghintee after a long pursuit on the Outland Station, and turns him in for the bounty on his head. Upon returning to his Toydarian friend Rozatta, he is contracted by Tyranus with killing Vosa for 5,000,000 Republic credits.

To find Vosa, Jango investigates the Bando Gora's distribution ring of narcotics called death sticks, and captures death stick dealer Jervis Gloom on Coruscant, who reveals his source to be a gangster named Groff Haugg. While investigating Haugg's processing plant, Jango runs into his longtime rival, Montross, who is also hunting Vosa and has killed Haugg via carbonite freezing after interrogating him for Vosa's whereabouts. Following a brief fight, Montross leaves to find Vosa, while Jango infiltrates the penthouse of Twi'lek Senator Connus Trell, who is also involved in the death stick trafficking ring. Trell tells Jango to seek the Dug crime lord Sebolto on Malastare before being thrown to his death.

After escaping from a Republic gunship, Jango learns that Sebolto has put a 50,000 credits bounty on the head of his former employee Bendix Fust, who is incarcerated at the asteroid prison Oovo IV. Believing that capturing Faust will allow him to get close to Sebolto, Jango infiltrates the prison, but finds that another bounty hunter, Zam Wesell, has beaten him to Fust. The two are forced to work together to escape from Oovo IV with Fust, and stage a riot to create a distraction. After Jango's beloved ship, ''Jaster's Legacy'', is destroyed, he, Wesell, and Fust escape in another vessel, which Jango dubs ''Slave I''. Meanwhile, Montross finds that Haugg gave him a false lead, but hears of the Oovo IV riot and, realizing it was Jango's doing, decides to follow him.

Jango delivers Fust to Sebolto on Malastare, but the crime lord quickly deduces Jango's true intentions and attempts to flee, only to fall to his death down a pipe leading into his death stick factory. Jango enters the factory and finds some Bando Gora members guarding a ship with Huttese markings on it, hinting at the Hutts' involvement in the death stick distribution ring. Montross ambushes Jango again, taunting him over his adoptive father's, Jaster Mereel, death, and the disastrous Battle of Galidraan, where Jango's Mandalorian forces were slain by a Jedi ambush. Jango is defeated, but escapes with Wesell's help.

On Tatooine, while Wesell goes to question Gardulla the Hutt, Jango impresses Jabba by killing Longo Two-Guns and his gang. After learning from Jabba about Gardulla's involvement with the Bando Gora, Jango travels to her castle, but is captured after an imprisoned Wesell, whom he left in her cell to avoid sounding the alarm, compromises his position. Quickly escaping, he confronts Gardulla and feeds her to her pet Krayt dragon, which he then kills. Leaving Wesell behind, Jango continues his search for Vosa alone, only for Montross to attack Rozatta's station in an attempt to hinder him. Jango arrives to find a dying Rozatta, who gives him a guidance device to help him track Vosa and asks him to find something to live for besides money.

Jango journeys to Bogden's jungle moon Kohlma, the Bando Gora's secret headquarters, where he finds Montross waiting for him in front of Vosa's citadel. Jango defeats Montross and leaves him to be killed by the Bando Gora, refusing to give him a warrior's death. As he enters the citadel, Jango is captured and tortured by Vosa, until Wesell suddenly arrives to rescue him, getting herself injured in the process. After finally defeating Vosa, Darth Tyranus arrives and chokes her to death, before explaining to a stunned Jango that the bounty was merely a test to find someone worthy of becoming the genetic template for a clone army, and that Jango passed it. The bounty hunter agrees to be cloned but, in addition to his monetary reward, demands that he get to keep one unmodified clone for himself (thus honoring Rozatta's final wish). The game ends with Jango carrying the wounded Wesell to ''Slave I'', while telling her not to push her luck when she asks to split the reward 50/50.

All the fairies in Fairy World celebrate Timmy Turner's "Fairy-versary", a celebration of a godchild keeping his/her fairy godparents a secret for an entire year. Fairy godparent academy instructor Jorgen Von Strangle gives Timmy a magical muffin that allows anyone who eats it to have a "rule-free" wish. Timmy then asks how Cosmo and Wanda became his godparents. Wanda shows through a flashback that his parents lied to an 8-year old Timmy and tricked him into hiring Vicky as his babysitter. Upset, Timmy inadvertently wishes that his parents could tell the truth. Mr. and Mrs. Turner begin to feel guilty and they start counting the many times they have lied to Timmy.

Timmy takes the muffin to school but is followed by his fairy-obsessed teacher, Mr. Crocker, who detects the magic within the muffin. Crocker attempts to retrieve the muffin but only gets it out of Timmy's possession. During "muffin day" at lunch, Timmy sees Crocker frantically searching for the muffin and creates a diversion with a food fight. Bippy, a monkey that Timmy sets free, takes a bite out of the muffin. Suddenly, the whole world is transformed, making monkeys and apes the dominant species of life. Consequently, all fairy godparents are assigned to primate children, with Cosmo and Wanda assigned to Bippy.

Waking up in a treehouse version of his hometown, Timmy returns to school and witnesses Crocker being abducted by ape overlords for saying he plans to use fairy magic to overthrow them. Using a magic detector stolen from the "Crocker Cave", he tracks down Bippy, still in possession of the muffin. Timmy almost succeeds in retrieving the muffin but is captured by the ape overlords and brought to a human testing center. He is taken to a surgical room, and before the ape overlords can operate on his skull, Bippy fights to save him, then wishes away the monkey world.

Timmy discovers that Bippy lost the muffin during the scuffle, and immediately after the world is returned to normal, Crocker takes a bite from the muffin and wishes he could catch a fairy. He obtains a butterfly net, one of the few items fairy magic has no effect on, and captures Wanda. Timmy, knowing that Crocker will boast about his capture to his students, hurries back to school. With his new-found power, Crocker terrorizes his students with a scepter holding Wanda hostage, then chases Timmy off as he transforms the world and makes himself the all-powerful magical leader. Word spreads to Fairy World, so Jorgen scrambles the fairies for war and symbolically destroys their homeworld's rainbow bridge to Earth.

Timmy arms himself with various gifts from his Fairy-versary party and, disguised as a masked hero, engages Crocker in a magical duel. Crocker has the upper hand until Cosmo returns with greatly improved strength from an exercise video and overpowers him. However, Cosmo lets his guard down and is captured as well. Timmy and Crocker fight through time and space before Timmy's cover is blown. Realizing he cannot destroy Timmy with magic, Crocker decides to threaten his parents. Returning home, Timmy, now captured by Crocker, sees his parents under the mercy of his teacher and surrenders. As he reconciles with his parents, he reveals that Cosmo and Wanda are his fairy godparents, causing them to be vacuumed out of Crocker's possession back to Fairy World. With Crocker now powerless, Mr. and Mrs. Turner pummel him, knocking the muffin out of his possession. Timmy grabs and eats the rest of the muffin, then wishes for his godparents to return and for everything to be restored to normal.

Back at school, Crocker attempts to convince everyone that fairies exist before being sedated and escorted to a mental institution. Jorgen shows up in Timmy's room, still seeking to take Cosmo and Wanda away as punishment for Timmy revealing his secret, but Timmy throws a "Forget-Me-Knob" at Jorgen's head, causing him to forget what he was doing. Cosmo and Wanda then trick him into "assigning" Timmy as their godchild, then reenact their first meeting with Timmy. Fairy World's rainbow bridge is restored, and Crocker hears the fairies' cheers from within the institution, only for Timmy and his fairies to sedate him again.

Scientist Dr. Jeff Huntley inherits a fortune from his uncle and invests it in the development of a rocket ship, built with the assistance of his mentor, Dr. Nichols. After landing on the Moon, the pair discover a civilization of topless extraterrestrials led by a Moon Queen with telepathic powers. Enamored of Dr. Huntley, the Moon Queen allows the men to take photos of the nudists during their everyday activities. Their oxygen running low, the two are forced to return to Earth, realizing in the process that they've left their camera behind and have no proof of the aliens' existence. Jeff is dispirited to learn that nobody believes their trip succeeded, but his spirits are lifted when he sees the resemblance between Dr. Nichols's secretary, Cathy, and the Moon Queen. The movie ends as the two embrace, signaling the beginning of a new romance.

The Circles (who are appointed as priests/leaders of Flatland due to their many sides, or an appearance thereof) do not take A Square's revelation about a third dimension to be accurate, and A Square is ostracized by his community. Then after some time, society becomes more open to the ideas of Spaceland and, overall, to change and advancement. However, when a prominent surveyor finds a Triangle with more than 180 degrees, he is fired from his job and generally considered a crackpot, since such a construction is not possible in Euclidean geometry. He eventually makes friends with the grandson of A Square, A Hexagon, because he is a mathematician and scientist. Together, they come upon a theory to explain the unusual measurements: they actually live on a very large sphere, and the Triangles have more than 180 degrees due to being inscribed on a non-planar surface.

With help from the sphere from the first novel, they are able to prove this theory. However, the established scientific community is not able to comprehend the idea proposed by the two, and thus they do not attempt to enlighten Flatland. Furthermore, as the residents of Flatland advance, they begin to travel in space; they see distant worlds like their own, and the surveyor tries to find the distance between their world and these distant worlds, using trigonometry and radar. From his calculations, he and the hexagon determine that the universe is expanding; again they try to reveal this theory to the outside world, but again it is not accepted. Therefore, like his grandfather in the previous novel, the hexagon writes a book that is not to be opened until the theory of the expanding universe is discovered and accepted by others. Then they live an inferior existence without any more contact with the sphere.

Sean (Dr. Dre) and Dee Loc (Snoop Dogg) are roommates who have not paid their rent, and their landlord's given them a 3-day eviction notice. To make matters worse, Sean has just lost his job at Foot Locker due to a layoff, and his car has got a boot on it as well, so Dee Loc suggests his roommate stop by the same carwash where he works and apply for work there. Sean is immediately hired as assistant manager, with Chris (Eminem) having been fired the day before. Though Dee Loc has the full amount for the rent (from dealing drugs on the side), he refuses to pay, insisting Sean needs to be responsible, and come up with his half. Sean does his best to impress Mr. Washington (George Wallace), the owner of the car wash, so he can hold his job long enough to come up with his half of the rent.

At first, things go fine, but then Dee Loc is caught on tape stealing, Mr. Washington tells Sean he must decide what to do, including firing his roommate. Sean tries to help Dee Loc act more responsible, but this creates friction between them. Mr. Washington is kidnapped at gunpoint by two clueless and angry local thugs (one of whom is played by DJ Pooh), who call the carwash with their demands, unaware of caller ID, which reveals their location. Instead of calling police, Sean and Dee Loc put aside their differences long enough to rescue their boss. The crisis worsens, when former assistant manager, Chris, shows up with an AK- 47 wanting revenge on Mr. Washington for firing him. Chris shoots one of the kidnappers then shoots up the car wash, and runs out of ammunition. Sean attacks Chris, but loses the battle, and falls down. Before he could kill Mr. Washington, Security officer Dwayne (Bruce Bruce) steps in and handcuffs Chris. When all is over, Sean and Dee Loc walk off, as Sean tells Dee Loc he’s trying his best to pay his half of the rent but he first has to take the boot off his car.

This novel is episodic, with named chapters (US editions begin each chapter title with "Hornblower") that often focus on a self-contained incident.

Hornblower and the Even Chance

A gawky and seasick Hornblower comes aboard his first ship. He immediately earns the contempt of the other midshipmen. The young Hornblower is particularly despised by a midshipman named Simpson. Simpson, at age thirty-three, had failed his examination for lieutenant too many times to ever expect promotion. He takes out his bitterness and disappointment on his juniors. Hornblower is extremely unhappy. He takes the first opportunity for a way out, one way or another, by challenging Simpson to a duel. Hornblower insists on having one of the two pistols loaded and the other not, and to exchange shots at point-blank range, with neither Hornblower nor Simpson knowing which is which. The captain secretly frustrates this by having the officers of the duel load neither weapon and claiming a misfire when neither discharges. The captain later has him transferred to the frigate HMS ''Indefatigable''.

Hornblower and the Cargo of Rice

Transferred aboard ''Indefatigable'', Midshipman Hornblower is put in command of the French ship ''Marie Galante'', carrying a cargo of rice from New Orleans, by order of Captain Pellew after it is taken as a prize. It is Hornblower's first time in command of a ship since joining the Royal Navy. He is instructed to take the captured French ship and her crew to a British port where he is to report for his next orders. Sailing is relatively smooth for Hornblower and his four seamen, until one of the crew (Matthews) informs him that the ship is taking on water from somewhere. Hornblower recalls that ''Marie Galante'' was struck below the hull's waterline by a cannonball from ''Indefatigable'' before her capture. They check for moisture but find none until it is pointed out that the dried rice will absorb all of it. They hastily attempt to patch the hole with a sail, but by then the rice has expanded so much that the ship is breaking apart. A massive attempt to jettison the rice comes too late and Hornblower commands all hands to abandon ship. Hornblower's crew and the French prisoners are left at sea in an open boat.

Hornblower and the Penalty of Failure

In ''The Penalty of Failure'', Hornblower and his crew are still out at sea, between British and French ports. The captain of the recently sunk ''Marie Galante'' pleads with Hornblower to navigate to France and release him and his men, and promises safe passage for Hornblower and his crew. Hornblower promptly rejects the Captain's pleading in spite of their bleak situation and uses his pistols to prevent a mutiny. Not long afterward, Hornblower and his crew are caught by a privateer named ''Pique'' which was converted from a slave ship. This ship is commanded by Captain Neuville. Hornblower is now a prisoner of war, but ''Indefatigable'' falls in with them and makes chase. As ''Pique'' is the faster sailer, Hornblower devises a plan to slow her down: he sets a fire, which soon spreads to the very flammable paint locker. All hands are diverted to fighting the fire, which soon breaks out on the deck and spreads to the rigging, immediately slowing the vessel. The British ship ultimately overpowers ''Pique'', extinguishes the fire, and Captain Neuville and his crew surrender. Hornblower's fears of reprimand for losing ''Marie Galante'' are quickly extinguished by the offhanded dismissal of the incident by Captain Pellew. However, instead of taking credit for the fire, Hornblower suggests that there may have been spontaneous combustion in the paint locker, as a way of punishing himself for losing ''Marie Galante'' in the first place.

Hornblower and the Man Who Felt Queer

Upon returning to ''Indefatigable'', Hornblower is assigned a role of loosening the sail by Captain Pellew in his plan to take the French corvette ''Papillon''. Hornblower is set to command ''Indefatigable'''s jolly boat. Before setting out, Hornblower practises his task on ''Indefatigable'' to try and calm his nerves. While reviewing his men prior to shoving off, a man named Hales says to Hornblower that he feels queer. After the boat crews depart, Hales begins having a seizure. Because silence was essential and was the only thing keeping the men alive, Hornblower strikes Hales and inevitably kills him. On boarding the ship Hornblower and his men are frustrated by the absence of a footrope along the yardarm. Hornblower's fear of heights terrifies him, but tries to assure himself that he was courageous in his situation with Hales. Motivated by this act of emotional self-flagellation Hornblower runs unaided along the yardarm and looses the topsail. During the fighting the jolly boat is lost, with Hales still aboard, but ''Papillon'' is taken as a prize of ''Indefatigable''. Hornblower feels bad about the loss of Hales, without whom Hornblower believes he would never have found the courage to complete his task. Jackson claims that Hales would have never made a decent seaman anyway. Given the success of their mission Hornblower realises the loss of the jolly boat will not be held against him, but still regrets the inevitable death of Hales.

Hornblower and the Man Who Saw God

When Styles, a man in Hornblower's division, appears strangely marked with "boils" all over his face, Hornblower is suspicious. He gains a clue from Finch, another of his men, who suffers from delusions and claims that "God's in the maintop, but the Devil's in the cable tier, but only in the dog watches". After thinking about what this means, Hornblower investigates the cable-tier in the dog-watch and discovers a group of men "rat fighting". Styles without use of his hands has to kill rats with his teeth, while the others bet. A horrified Hornblower, having gathered up his courage, orders them up on deck and threatens to report them. Later, in action against a French ship, Hornblower and Finch are firing a swivel gun from the mizzen-top when the mast is hit and begins to fall. Hornblower persuades Finch to jump to safety by telling him to "get to God". The two men make a desperate jump to safety.

Hornblower the Frogs, and the Lobsters

Hornblower takes part in the attempted invasion of France by British and French Royalist forces at Quiberon in order to support the failed Revolt in the Vendée. Hornblower is ordered ashore with his seamen acting as gunners, and gains his first experience of land warfare and the horrors of the Revolution, including the guillotine. The expedition ends in failure and Hornblower escapes back to his ship, saddened, but philosophical. The Frogs are the French and the Lobsters are the (red-coated) British regiment landed to support them.

Hornblower and the Spanish Galleys

Hornblower's ship, ''Indefatigable'', is in Cádiz when Spain makes peace with France. Since Spain becomes officially neutral, the British ship of war is forced to leave, passing prisoner-rowed galleys still maintained by the conservative Spanish navy. Spain has completed its political turnaround and joined France in an alliance by the time ''Indefatigable'' is escorting another ship through the Straits of Gibraltar. When there is a lack of wind and the ships are becalmed, two Spanish galleys ambush them. The galleys are fought off and Hornblower, in command of the jolly boat, helps capture one of them, which gains him promotion to Acting-Lieutenant. Hornblower subsequently attributes the "fighting madness" with which he and his sailors attack the Spanish to an irrational hatred of the galleys.

Hornblower and the Examination for Lieutenant

After ''Indefatigable'' comes into port at Gibraltar, Acting-Lieutenant Hornblower reports to ''Santa Barbara'' where he and others are to take their examination for lieutenant. When asked a question by one of the captains conducting the examination, Hornblower freezes up and is about fail when an alarm of cannon fire interrupts the examination; fire ships have been sent by the enemy in an attempt to destroy the British ships at Gibraltar. Hornblower and Captain Foster, one of the examining captains, take heroic action and prevent a disaster for the British, and jump in the water. They are rescued by the crew of one of the fire ships, themselves escaping in a small boat, but then a British guard boat captures them in return. Since the Spanish crew saved his and Hornblower's life, Foster orders that they be released. The examining board does not reassemble since Foster falls out with another examining captain, who had been standing by with a boat but failed to reach them before the Spanish crew. Hornblower will need to wait for a later examining board. The chapter ends with Foster, impressed by Hornblower's actions, telling Hornblower that, since the attack prevented him from failing the examination, he should "Be thankful for small mercies. And even more thankful for big ones."

Hornblower and Noah's Ark

Acting-Lieutenant Hornblower accompanies the diplomat Mr. Tapling to buy cattle and grain from the Bey of Oran to resupply the fleet. However, an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the city forces Hornblower, Tapling and his boat-crew to take refuge aboard the transport ship ''Caroline'' and remain in quarantine for three weeks until they are clear of infection. Hornblower struggles with a tiny crew aboard a worn-out ship, but still manages to take a prize in the shape of an unsuspecting privateer lugger, and deliver the supply ship to the fleet's base at Gibraltar. There he is reprimanded by the Victualling Officer for having allowed his crew to feast on fresh beef over the last three weeks.

Hornblower the Duchess, and the Devil

Hornblower is given command of the French prize ''Le Reve'' and ordered to return to England with dispatches and, to his astonishment, a passenger – the Duchess of Wharfedale. In thick fog Hornblower sails his ship directly into the middle of a Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent. Anticipating capture Hornblower prepares to throw his dispatches overboard, but is persuaded by the Duchess, who also reveals her true identity as a popular actress, to allow her to conceal them under her clothes, as she is sure to be repatriated immediately. This he does. Much later, while in a Spanish prison at Ferrol, he receives a letter from her detailing her successful return to England, and another from the Admiralty confirming his promotion to lieutenant. Later, while on parole Hornblower rescues some sailors from a Spanish ship wrecked on the cliffs below him. After the rescue, he and his assistants, some Spanish fishermen, are forced out to sea by bad weather and found by another British frigate. Despite the temptation to stay aboard, Hornblower reminds the captain that he has given his parole and is returned to Spain under a flag of truce. Several months later, in recognition of his bravery, the Spanish authorities release him.

William Bush, who becomes Hornblower's faithful companion and best friend, is introduced boarding HMS ''Renown'' as the third lieutenant. Hornblower is the fifth and most junior lieutenant. It is quickly apparent that Captain James Sawyer suffers from paranoia, constantly suspecting plots to undermine his authority and inflicting irrational and arbitrary punishments upon Hornblower and the other officers. A young volunteer named Wellard suffers particularly badly. Four of the lieutenants meet in secret in the lower decks to discuss what can be done, but are interrupted when Wellard warns them that the captain is on his way to arrest "mutineers". The officers scatter. Then they learn that the captain has fallen head-first into the hold.

When the captain regains consciousness, he has entirely lost his reason due to the fall, and is incapable of resuming command. Buckland, the first lieutenant, takes charge. Ordered to capture an anchorage from which Spanish privateers are operating, he organises a clumsy frontal attack, which is repulsed. Hornblower suggests a surprise attack at night. Bush leads the successful attack, but it is Hornblower who is instrumental in negotiating the unconditional surrender of the remaining Spanish forces.

The Spanish base at Samaná is destroyed, a Spanish privateer and some small craft are captured and Buckland's promotion seems assured. Unfortunately for him, the Spanish prisoners seize control of the ''Renown'' during the night, taking Buckland prisoner while he is asleep in his cot. Hornblower alertly retakes the ship, but in the desperate fighting, Bush is severely wounded and the helpless Sawyer is killed.

Upon their return to port, there is an awkward court of enquiry. Hornblower repeatedly denies any knowledge of how Captain Sawyer came to fall into the hold. Anxious to protect Sawyer's reputation, the court convicts no one, but Buckland is passed over, and Hornblower is promoted to commander.

Unfortunately, the Peace of Amiens (1802) is signed before Hornblower's promotion can be confirmed, and he is restored to the rank of lieutenant. Moreover, the demotion is retroactive, so he must gradually repay the additional money he had received as commander. Reduced to poverty, he ekes out a living by playing whist for a modest stipend (plus whatever he wins or loses) at an upper-class gaming establishment. He resides in a lodging house, where he meets his future first wife Maria (née Mason), the daughter of the landlady. Bush meets him several times, and notes in a newspaper that Midshipman Wellard, a suspect in Sawyer's fall into the hold, has drowned in an accident.

The Peace of Amiens comes to an end in 1803. War has not yet begun, but is imminent, as evinced by a press gang Hornblower and Bush encounter. Hornblower's promotion is confirmed (by a Lord of the Admiralty he impresses with his exceptional cardplaying skills) and he is appointed commander of a sloop-of-war.

On 2 April 1802 Hornblower marries Maria, the daughter of his landlady, at the "church of St Thomas à Becket" in Portsmouth. He is unable to bring himself to be so cruel as to stop the ceremony despite thinking that "Maria was not the right woman to be his wife." Hornblower had, just days before, been promoted commander into HM sloop ''Hotspur'' as the fragile Peace of Amiens is breaking down and Britain is re-arming for a new war with France under Napoleon Bonaparte.

''Hotspur'' reconnoiters the approaches to the French naval base of Brest, and narrowly avoids capture when war is declared. Once the British fleet blockades Brest, Hornblower's restlessness and perfectionism prompts him to lead attacks and landing parties. He defeats a French attempt to break the blockade to send troops to Ireland, the action ending on the morning of 1 January 1804. That same day Maria gives birth to little Hornblower, as Hornblower discovers when the damaged ''Hotspur'' returns to Plymouth for repairs.

In spite of his successes Hornblower makes no financial profit from his activities. When Admiral William Cornwallis tries to put him in a position where he can make easy prize money by capturing a large shipment of Spanish gold, he instead takes on a stronger enemy frigate sent to warn the convoy and keeps it from accomplishing its mission. Eventually, by superior seamanship and skill, he drives it away. Hornblower rationalises that this is poetic justice, after he had earlier connived to facilitate the escape of his steward, who was facing hanging for striking a superior officer (a punishment Hornblower could not abide). It later transpires that the ships were claimed by the Government as (Droits of Admiralty) so that Hornblower would not have profited in any case. (Prize money was only paid to naval officers and men for ships they captured as part of a war, and Britain was not at war with Spain until soon afterwards.)

Hornblower is recommended for promotion to post captain as one of the final acts of the retiring Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, Admiral Cornwallis, a real figure outside of the Hornblower novels.

The Federation starship ''Enterprise'' arrives at the planet Haven, where the ship's Betazoid Counselor Deanna Troi has been summoned by her mother Lwaxana. Troi had previously been set into an arranged marriage to the young human doctor, Wyatt Miller (Robert Knepper), and his parents have since tracked down Lwaxana to enforce the marriage. After Lwaxana and the Millers are welcomed aboard the ''Enterprise'', the parents argue over whose cultural traditions will be honored at the ceremony. Troi and Wyatt attempt to get to know each other but find it difficult, as Troi is still in love with Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Wyatt has had numerous dreams of another woman with whom he has fallen in love, and had initially believed her to be Troi communicating telepathically with him.

The ''Enterprise'' then learns of an unmarked vessel approaching Haven. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) recognizes it as Tarellian, a race they thought to have been wiped out by a highly lethal and contagious virus. When they contact the ship, they find a handful of Tarellian refugees who have been travelling at sub-light speeds to Haven in hopes of finding an isolated location to live out the rest of their lives in peace. Picard insists that they cannot go to the planet for fear of spreading the virus, and has the Tarellian vessel placed in a tractor beam. Wyatt discovers that one of the Tarellians, Ariana (Danitza Kingsley), from his dreams, and she too recognizes Wyatt. Wyatt tells Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) that he will transport some medical supplies to them, but transports himself along with the supplies. When the crew discovers this, Wyatt's parents demand that Picard bring Wyatt back to the ''Enterprise'', but Troi insists that he cannot return, as Wyatt would now carry the Tarellian virus. Wyatt promises his parents, Troi, and the rest of the crew that he knew that this would be destiny, and is happy to try to help cure the Tarellian virus. Wyatt convinces the Tarellians to leave Haven and search for help elsewhere. Picard orders the tractor beam to be dropped and allows the vessel to depart the system.

The Tarellian spacecraft seen in this episode was developed by Andrew Probert, who also designed the Romulan Warbird and Enterprise 1701D (the TNG Enterprise). He also collaborated with Gene Roddenberry on this design, which helped develop the idea of putting the ships powerplant in the center of the spacecraft.

...I was just very pleased with the shape, the concept, it brings me good memories of Gene and me working together. Probert on the "Haven" alien spaceship

On Christmas Eve in 1995, a young man wanders into a bar and orders a whiskey. Soon after, he is joined by an old man who soon begins a story, telling of how God sent an angel down to Earth to find and bring him an example of kindness done in the spirit of Christmas ("An Angel Came Down"). While flying down, he overhears church bells ringing carols ("O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night"), as he flew closer, a single voice rang out in the church, later joined by a full choir ("A Star to Follow").

With the song over, the angel continued his search, the skies now snowing as he flies over the world ("First Snow"). Flying over the Ural Mountains, he notices a small village, where he takes upon the disguise of a human to approach the people ("The Silent Nutcracker"). The angel asks a village peasant what Russian hearts desire for Christmas, with the peasant simply answering "peace on earth" ("A Mad Russian's Christmas"). The angel returns to flight, thinking about the birth of Christ, and it's impact upon Christmas day ("The Prince of Peace"). The angel then flies over Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo, witnessing mass destruction and violent warfare below. Confused as to why individuals would kill each other, the angel flies close to a recent battlefield, where a single cello player stood alone playing a forgotten Christmas song. While departing, the angel realized that as long as there was music, there would always be hope ("Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24").

Flying over the countryside, the angel heard a voice begin to sing from a church below. The angel reached out and held the song in his hand, wondering if it was the answer he was seeking, however, he still believed there was something missing, and continued his journey into the night ("Good King Joy"). The angel soon overhears a prayer to God from a man in distress. Listening closer, he discovers that the man's daughter is lost, and his only prayer was for her to be home for Christmas ("Ornament").
The angel made it his personal mission to bring the girl home, and he followed the man's prayer to an old bar in New York City, where he found her standing outside, wishing upon the neon sign to come home, as there were no stars to wish upon ("The First Noel"). A young child entered the bar and asked the bartender if they knew of the lost girl outside. The bartender asked the child how he knew the girl was lost, to which the child told the bartender that on Christmas Eve, if someone were to be home, they would already be there. Moved by this realization, the bartender took money from the cash register, and paid for a taxi cab to take the girl to John F. Kennedy International Airport to help her get home ("Old City Bar").

The angel was moved by this gesture, and truly believed this to be the example of kindness that he had been looking for ("Promises to Keep"). As the girl finally arrived home to her father, the Angel flew back up to Heaven, bringing God back his shining example of kindness during Christmastime ("This Christmas Day"). The old man then concluded his story, and thanked the young man for his company as he left the bar. The young man then rushed outside to thank the old man; however, he discovered he was already gone, and had left no footprints. Walking back home, he realized that for the first time since his childhood, he'd finally dreamed and believed in Christmas again ("An Angel Returned").

After Santa's Little Helper swallows the TV remote while Homer watches the TV, he ends up changing the channel every time he barks. While the dog escapes and Homer chases him, Bart sees a commercial about a rap concert held by a hip hop artist named "Alcatraaaz". He asks for Homer's permission, he nonchalantly agrees when Bart says he will pay for the ticket himself. However, as he tries to leave for the concert, Marge is infuriated and forbids him from going; and Homer is forced to agree with her, to the point of singing a rap song with Marge about Bart's immaturity, much to his distress.

Since Bart paid for the ticket, he sneaks out of his bedroom window to attend the concert. During the concert, Alcatraaaz drops his microphone, which lands in Bart's hands, he therefore challenges him to a rap battle. Bart does an impromptu energetic rap, winning the battle, and gets a ride home from the concert with Alcatraaaz in his limo, meeting 50 Cent on the way. After being dropped off at home, he overhears Marge and Homer who are angry at him for disobeying them and going to the concert. To avoid his punishment, he fakes being kidnapped, writing a ransom note, and goes on the run. Homer and Marge are devastated and the next day, the "kidnapping" is covered by the media. Chief Wiggum vows to solve the case, but is made fun of by everyone due to his reputation as a bad cop. When Bart meets Milhouse and explains that he needs a place to stay until the heat dies down, Milhouse lets him squat at his dad Kirk's apartment.

As a joke, Bart calls the Simpson house impersonating the kidnapper, which is being recorded by Wiggum. When he hears how sad Marge is without him, Bart talks to her as himself and tries to reassure her, but is forced to cut the call short when the popcorn he is using begins to explode and Kirk arrives home. Wiggum, determined to redeem himself, deduces Bart's location from the popcorn brand from the phone call, and arrests Kirk for the "kidnapping", and is subsequently promoted to police commissioner. After seeing how badly Milhouse has been affected by his father's arrest, Bart confesses his hoax to Wiggum, who convinces him to keep it secret by showing him that Kirk is far better off in prison, due to having both regular meals and the admiration of numerous women as a result of being a convicted felon.

Lisa figures out the truth after discovering a sweater from the concert near Bart's treehouse, but upon showing Homer the evidence, he destroys it, having made a deal with Hollywood regarding the rights to Bart's story and having spent the money. Undeterred, Lisa and Principal Skinner travel to the home of Alcatraaaz, where they find footage of Bart at the concert. Moments later, Homer, Wiggum and Bart show up and try to convince Lisa to abandon her attempts at exposing them, on the basis that no one has been hurt over the lie, but Homer inadvertently knocks over Alcatraaaz's flat-screen TV. Alcatraaaz suggests they resolve the situation by throwing a pool party, to the delight of everyone but Lisa.

During the closing credits, Skinner inquires about a job in the hip hop business, but Alcatraaaz says he has already hired someone else for the job: Superintendent Chalmers, who, dressed as a rapper, orders Skinner to "step off... dawg." As Alcatraaaz's group laughs at him, Chalmers quietly confesses to Skinner that he needs the job as his wife is very sick.

In the television special, the Muppets are visiting Kermit's family for their annual reunion where they meet up with Kermit's aunts and uncles. When the others learn that the swamp is right next to Walt Disney World, they sneak in, and are pursued by a security guard named Quentin Fitzwaller (played by Charles Grodin). Attractions and areas featured include Big Thunder Mountain, the ''Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!'', Star Tours, the Mad Tea Party, World Showcase, the Walt Disney World Monorail System and the utilidors. The special depicts the three parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios) as one connected area, despite the parks actually being apart from each other.

The story ends with the Muppets having a friendly meeting at Mickey Mouse's office where Mickey and Kermit compare their company's theme songs, "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "The Rainbow Connection" and the ideals behind them. After that, the Muppets return to the swamp, but find out about Miss Piggy remaining stuck in front of The Great Movie Ride with her feet in the cement. They return to Walt Disney World for her afterwards to free her. While stuck in the cement, Miss Piggy shouts for help as the credits roll.

The show was set on a United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol Cruiser, an interstellar garbage scow operating out of United Galaxies Space Station ''Perma One'' in the year 2226. Adam Quark, the main character, works to clean up trash in space by collecting "space baggies" with his trusted and highly unusual crew.

In its short run, ''Quark'' satirized such science fiction as ''Star Wars'', ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Lost in Space'', ''Buck Rogers'', and ''Flash Gordon''. Three of the episodes were direct parodies of ''Star Trek'' episodes.

''Kill Me, Kiss Me'' is a story with two separate but loosely connected plots. The first, spanning only the first volume of the manhwa, centers around the high school girl Tae Yeon Im and her obsession over a handsome model named Kun Kang. Tae finds out that Kun goes to the same school as her cousin Jung-Woo Im, to whom she is almost identical in appearance. She makes a deal with Jung-Woo to trade places so she can get closer to the model of her dreams, though they settle on only one week for the switch. However, upon arriving at Pure Water High, she promptly gets beaten up by the gang member Ga-Woon Kim, apparently Kun Kang's closest friend. Despite this minor setback, Tae does not give up and goes back to the school the next day to continue her attempt to get closer with Kun. Most of the rest of the plot from this first story arc involves Ga-Woon starting to develop feelings of attraction towards Tae, though still under the belief that Tae is really Jung-Woo, Ga-Woon starts to question his sexuality.

The second arc in the ''Kill Me, Kiss Me'' series spans the rest of the manhwa from volumes two through five, and has almost no connection with the first arc. The story now concentrates on the beautiful girl Que-Min Ghun, who although appearing innocent at first glance is actually incredibly strong. She attends the same school as Jung-Woo and after meeting him one day in the street, starts to develop a crush on him, going as far as trying to protect him from people like Ghoon-Hahm Che and his gang, the Yi Won. Eventually, Ghoon-Hahm offers an arrangement: in exchange for not beating up Jung-Woo, Que-Min will have to go out with the gang leader himself. Ghoon-Hahm and Que-Min start their forced relationship, and Que-Min finally gets Jung-Woo to remember her name and notice her.

Martha Klein (Martina Gedeck) is a chef at Lido, a gourmet restaurant in Hamburg, Germany. A perfectionist who lives only for her work, Martha has difficulty relating to the world other than through food. Her single-minded obsession with her culinary craft occasionally leads to unpleasant confrontations with customers. Consequently, the restaurant owner, Frida (Sibylle Canonica), requires her to see a therapist (August Zirner) to work out her poor interpersonal skills. Martha's therapy sessions, however, turn into monologues on food, and her approach to stress management usually involves briefly retreating to the restaurant's walk-in refrigerator.

Martha's life takes a dramatic turn when she learns that her sister is killed in a car accident, leaving behind an eight-year-old daughter, Lina (Maxime Foerste). Martha must now look after her niece, who is understandably depressed, withdrawn, and refuses to eat. The girl's Italian father, Giuseppe Lorenzo, has been out of the picture for years living somewhere in Italy. While coping with her sister's death and raising the young girl, Martha's world is further complicated when Frida hires fun-loving and unorthodox Mario (Sergio Castellitto) as a sous-chef to replace Lea (Katja Studt), who is expecting a child any day. Martha looks on in horror as Mario transforms her kitchen of precision and logistics with his relaxed banter and eclectic jazz music.

Unable to find an acceptable babysitter, Martha starts to bring Lina to the restaurant with her. Lina begins to emerge from her depression in the presence of Mario's playfulness, and even begins to eat when Mario leaves her unattended with a plate of spaghetti he's prepared. Touched by Mario's kindness and concern for the child, Martha becomes more accepting of Mario. She even asks for his help in locating Lina's father in Italy and translating a letter she's written to him.

Just as Martha's strained relationship with Lina seems to be improving, she forgets to pick the girl up from school while helping Lea, her very-pregnant sous chef, get to the hospital to deliver her baby. Lina is angry at being forgotten at school, and the incident appears to cause a serious setback between her and Martha. To make amends, Martha offers to grant Lina any wish. For her wish, Lina wants Mario to cook for them. Mario agrees, and prepares a picnic-style dinner in Martha's living room. Despite the mess left behind in the kitchen, the evening of stories and games brings the three closer together.

The renewed warmth between Martha and Lina is immediately tested when Martha is told by the school principal that Lina has not been attending school regularly, and that when she does come to school, she falls asleep. He also tells Martha that when he asked the girl why she was always so tired, she told him that she was forced to work in a kitchen for her room and board. Angered by Lina's behavior, and also having been warned by the restaurant owner, Martha tells her she can no longer come to the restaurant. Lina storms off, nearly getting hit by a car, and later attempts to run away to Italy. Mario continues to support Martha emotionally, and their relationship becomes romantic.

Lina's father, in answer to Martha's letter, finally arrives and takes his daughter to Italy to live with his new wife and family. Distraught and conflicted by the separation, Martha rejects Mario's loving support, and after another confrontation with a customer, she quits her job. Soon after, Martha asks Mario to accompany her to Italy to retrieve Lina. After reuniting with the girl, Martha and Mario get married, and the three begin their lives together as a loving family.

The first chapter of ''Across the River and Into the Trees'' begins with a frame story depicting 50-year-old Colonel Richard Cantwell duck hunting in the Marano Lagoon, between Venice and Trieste in the present, taking place during the closing days of World War II. It is eventually revealed that Cantwell, referred to throughout the book simply as ''Colonel'', has a terminal heart condition. Beginning in the second chapter, the book is presented primarily through a flashback narrative of the Colonel's experiences during both World Wars, from his service in the Italian army during WWI, to his time in the American Army, ascending to General before being demoted to Colonel. Hemingway provides great detail in describing Italy, from its landscape to its food and drink.

The primary narrative of the book focuses on the Colonel's romance with the 18-year-old Venetian Renata, whom he calls ''Daughter''. Renata is aware of the Colonel's terminal illness, and the book details how both characters come to terms with the Colonel's impending death. Many of the Colonel's wartime memories are revealed as stories he tells to Renata, who wants to "share" in his experiences.

The novel ends with Cantwell suffering a fatal series of heart attacks as he leaves Venice after the duck hunt, on the same day as the book began. Shortly before dying, the Colonel recounts to his driver Stonewall Jackson's last words, from which the novel draws its name: "No, no, let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." The final scene shows the driver reading a note the Colonel had given him, indicating that his belongings should be given to their "rightful owner", Renata.

Lucia Nanami, the mermaid princess of the North Pacific Ocean, sets out on land to find the boy that she had saved from a tsunami wave seven years before the beginning of the story, to whom she fell in love and had entrusted her pink pearl. She eventually finds the boy: a teenage surfer named Kaito Dōmoto. However, Kaito does not recognize Lucia in her human form. She cannot directly tell Kaito who she really is; otherwise, according to mermaid legend, she would turn into bubbles and disappear. Lucia tries to convince Kaito into figuring out who she really is (since the legend doesn't say anything about the other person discovering a mermaid's true identity by him or her self).

At the same time, Lucia has been told that a group of water demons have invaded the sea world and she must gather six other Mermaid Princesses and their pearls to bring back the legendary goddess Aqua Regina to stop them. To fulfill this, she joins forces with Hanon and Rina, the Mermaid Princesses who came up to dry land, use their pearls, turn into singing teen idols, and use their voices as an offensive power. After the water demons fail, the Black Beauty Sisters show up to steal the show. The Mermaid Princesses believe in themselves and believe they can defeat the Black Beauty Sisters, which they do.

Todd stars as Amelia Frisby, the owner of a beauty supply business. Andy Williams (Wheeler) and Dr. Bob Dudley (Woolsey) convince her to hire them as salesman to promote her new flavored lipstick. The film features Etting singing "Keep Romance Alive" and Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee singing "Keep on Doin' What You're Doin'" by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.

The novel begins with an "oath" signed by John Conlan and Lorraine Jensen, two high school sophomores, who pledge that they will report only the facts about their experiences with Mr. Pignati.

When John, Lorraine, and two teen troublemakers, Norton Kelly and Dennis Kobin, are bored, they make prank phone calls. The goal of the game is to see who can stay on the phone the longest. When it is Lorraine's turn, she picks out Mr. Pignati's phone number and pretends to be calling from a charity. After she wins the game, Mr. Pignati offers to donate ten dollars. Against Lorraine's better judgment, she and John travel to Pignati's house to collect the funds. After hesitantly accepting "The Pigman's" offer of going to the zoo, a friendship begins to blossom between the three of them. He begins to take on the role of a parental figure for the two teenagers, something neither of them has.

John and Lorraine's visits become increasingly frequent, and during one such visit, they discover a document inside his room. After reading it, they realize The Pigman has been lying about where his wife has been. His wife, Conchetta, is dead, instead of being on vacation as The Pigman has stated numerous times. Soon, John and Lorraine visit The Pigman daily after school, and he showers them with gifts, food, and most importantly, the love and attention they do not receive in their own joyless homes. They reveal to him that they were never affiliated with any charity, and he reveals what they already know: that his wife is dead.

Pignati gives each of the two a pair of roller skates. Getting a pair for himself also, the three of them could not be happier, until one afternoon. Mr. Pignati suffers a heart attack while he and the teens are playing tag with roller skates. He is sent to the hospital, and John and Lorraine agree to take care of his house while he recovers. While they are doing so, they resemble a married couple. Between the responsibilities and numerous chores, they love being inside the house. They begin to even acquire feelings for one another, and John begins to care about his appearance. Having an empty house to themselves, the kids decide to have a party and invite a few people over. The situation quickly turns into a drunken, boisterous party with more visitors than the two anticipated. The partygoers destroy the house, not caring what they break. Lorraine's friend rips Conchetta Pignati's wedding dress in a drunken accident after putting it on. Norton ransacks Mr. Pignati's house in hopes of finding valuables and destroys Conchetta's collection of porcelain pigs, which Mr. Pignati holds very dear. John beats Norton in retaliation.

Mr. Pignati returns to find his house ransacked, and is incredibly hurt when he finds out John and Lorraine were responsible for the incident. The police are called, and John and Lorraine believe they will get arrested, but The Pigman does not press charges. They try to go back into the house and apologize, but the officer tells them Mr. Pignati is crying and that they need to go home. After going home, Lorraine is beaten by her mother and John's parents say they are getting him therapy, which will never happen. Feeling terrible, the two offer to take Pignati to the zoo to help make up for the destruction of his house. When they arrive at the zoo to visit Bobo the baboon, Mr. Pignati's favourite animal and buddy, they learn the creature has died. Overcome with grief and the heaviness of the recent events, Mr. Pignati suffers from cardiac arrest and dies, leaving John and Lorraine grieving and reflecting on the fragility of life. John tells Lorraine to wait outside of the area where he died, fearing that her mother would hit her in punishment for creating the situation. They blame themselves for Pignati's death and believe that he would have been better off never meeting them in the first place. John and Lorraine write their story down.

Two college students, Chuck van Chider and his friend Jerry Courtenay, accidentally invent a device that can transport them through space, powered by a substance called "Cheddite", which is created by irradiating Cheddar cheese.

Chuck and Jerry, their apparent mutual love interest Sally Goodfellow and their janitor-turned-KGB spy Old John find themselves transported to Titan, a moon of Saturn, where they must contend with the native Titanians. Later, through a bizarre chain of events, they are flung into the far reaches of the galaxy, where they become involved in an intergalactic war that could change the universe forever. By the end of the novel, they have returned to Earth, where Chuck and Jerry are revealed as gay lovers.

Jane, a woman from the present day, has taken a drug called chuinjuatin, thought to induce out-of-body experiences. She wakes up not as herself, but in a bloated body unknown to her. Initially she has amnesia. She has mentally time travelled into the future. Society is in this time period made up only of women, organized into a strict hierarchy of caste. She is a member of the mother caste. Jane's initial contacts have not even heard of men; they believe her to be mad.

Doctors consent to take Jane to meet Laura, an aged historian. Jane learns that she has only travelled a little more than a century forward. Not long into her future, a Dr Perrigan unintentionally created a virus which killed all men. A small educated elite, mainly in the medical profession, salvaged the catastrophe-stricken world, and devised a way for women to reproduce artificially. They took inspiration from Chapter 6, verse 6 of the Book of Proverbs's "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise" and created a caste-based society. Laura is certain that men were oppressors of women and that the world is far better without them. Jane, a happily married woman in her own time, disagrees.

Distressed, Jane requests that she be administered another dose of chuinjuatin, in order to return home. The method works. Jane, in the present, sets out to stop Dr Perrigan at all costs. The story ends on an ambiguous note and suggests that a predestination paradox may doom her efforts.

The Second Nun's Tale explains the story of a young noble lady named Cecilia, and how her unwavering faith in God transformed her into Saint Cecilia.

A young maiden named Cecilia, from "her cradle onward," was highly devoted to her faith in Christ, and her love for Virgin Mary, so she asked God to protect her virginity. Even when she was betrothed to a man named Valerian, on her wedding day she begged God again to protect her virginity and sang to him, "O Lord, keep my soul and my body unspotted, lest I be confounded." On her wedding night, Cecilia asked Valerian to understand her decision to not consummate the marriage, and informed him that her body is protected by an angel of God, and if he was to touch or love her "ignobly," the angel would "without delay...slay you on the spot". However, if he protects Cecilia "in clean love", the angel would also love him and appreciate him for his purity. When Valerian asked to see the angel, Cecilia told him that he must "go forth to the Appian Way," and get baptised by Saint Urban.

After his baptism, during which he saw God who appeared as an old man in pure white garments, Valerian returned home and saw the angel. The angel gifted him and Cecilia with two crowns of lilies and roses, and asked that they guard the crowns with "a pure body and unspotted thought." The lilies and roses from the crown were fetched by the angel from "Paradise". Valerian then asked his brother, Tiburce, to come and accept God and know the truth, so he could also be protected by the angel. The angel then agreed and called his brother to come.

Upon his arrival, Valerian convinced Tiburce to get baptised by Pope Urban, and renounce his faith in idols. Cecilia referred to them as, "nothing but vain things, for they are dumb and deaf…" Tiburce went with his brother to Pope Urban, and got christened, which allowed him also to see the angel of God.

Eventually, Almachius the prefect heard of this and ordered his officers to take these saints to the idol of Jupiter, and to behead anyone who does not make a sacrifice. On his way, Maximus, one of his officers, started crying and per the saints' instructions, he took the executioners to his house and from their preaching, "...they rooted out the false faith from the executioners," and made them believers of God. Cecilia baptised them all together, and told Valerian and Tiburce that they had served well, and preserved their faith, and in order to save their lives, they should do the sacrifice. However, Valerian and Tiburce did not care for this, and in their unwavering devotion, fell to their knees, ready to lose their heads. When Maximus saw this, he told many others, in turn converting many of them, and also losing his life to his oppressor, Almachius.

After Cecilia buried the three of them, Almachius sent for some of his men to seize her and have her taken to Jupiter to make a sacrifice, who were also converted by her preaching. After hearing this, Almachius ordered her to be brought before him, and in a trial, questioned her about her faith. Cecilia told him that she did not fear his power, and that she would neither make a sacrifice nor renounce her faith in Christianity. Cecilia greeted a man with such power as a "foolish creature". She stated that Almachius "in all things an ignorant officer and a vain judge". Enraged by her boldness and steadfast faith, Almachius commanded his men to bring her to the bathhouse and "burn her right in a bath of red flames."

She laid in the bath for the day and night however her body, representative of her unwavering faith, remained unharmed that "she sat cold and felt no pain; it did not make her sweat even a drop". So Almachius sent for one of his men to slay her and kill her. The executioner struck her thrice in her neck, and no more because it was against the law, yet she still did not die. Cecilia stayed like that, half-dead, with her neck cut open for three days, preaching and converting those who gathered around her. She finally died after the third day, and after she died, Pope Urban buried her body with the other saints and decreed her as Saint Cecilia.

Set in San Diego during World War II, it is a semi-autobiographical novel of the author's life working in an airplane manufacturing plant during the war years and the frustrations he endured there and in his personal life at the time. The main character is named James Dillon, a pen name under which Thompson previously published short stories.

Bobby mentors his young cousin, Seamus (Jason Barry), into a life of drugs and crime soon after Seamus emigrates from Dublin, Ireland. Bright, conscientious, but notably naive, Seamus finds himself unable to get used to the spontaneous dangers and recklessness of his new life in the United States.

Seamus commits a hate crime on an African American youth who had crossed the racial boundary around Charlestown in the 1990s. Following this and another particularly traumatic incident, Seamus is afraid of further involving himself with Bobby and Bobby's circle of criminal friends. Seamus tells Bobby he wants to return to Dublin.

The two argue after Seamus blames Bobby for dragging him into a dangerous and "damaging" lifestyle which he never wanted. Seamus is killed soon afterward by crime boss Jackie O'Hara (Colm Meaney). O'Hara mistakenly believes that Seamus told police about O'Hara's criminal operations. O'Hara had ordered an earlier hit against Bobby and Seamus' cousin Teddy (Billy Crudup), because Teddy had made a deal with police. The deal concerned a reduced prison sentence.

The game begins in ancient Egypt, with Prince Atem sneaking out of the palace to see his friends, Jono and Teana, at the dueling grounds. While there, they witness a ceremony performed by the mages, which is darker than the ceremonies that they normally perform. After the ceremony, Atem duels one of the priests, named Seto, and defeats him.

When Atem returns to the palace, he is quickly sent to bed by Simon Muran, his tutor and advisor. As Simon walks away, he is informed by a guard that the high priest Heishin has invaded the palace, using a strange magic. Muran searches for Heishin. When Muran finds him, Heishin tells Muran that he has found the Dark Power, then uses the Millennium Rod to blast Muran. When Heishin finds Atem, he threatens to kill the Egyptian king and queen if he does not hand over the Millennium Puzzle. Muran appears behind Heishen and tells Atem to smash the puzzle. Atem obeys, and Muran seals himself and Atem inside the puzzle, to wait for someone to reassemble it.

Five thousand years later, Yugi Moto reassembles the puzzle. He speaks to Atem in the puzzle, and Atem gives Yugi six blank cards. Not sure what they are for, he carries them into a Dueling Tournament. After he defeats one of the duelists, one of the cards is filled with a Millennium item. Realizing what the cards are for, Yugi completes the tournament and fills all six cards with Millennium items. This allows Atem to return to his time.

Once in his own time, Muran tells Atem of what has happened since he was sealed away. Heishin and the mages have taken control of the kingdom with the Millennium items, and that the only way to free the kingdom is to recover the items from the mages guarding them. After passing this on, Muran dies.

After he catches up with Jono and Teana, he goes to the destroyed palace and searches it. He finds Seto, who gives him a map with the locations of the mages and the Millennium items, and asks him to defeat the mages.

After Atem recovers all of the Millennium items but one, Seto leads him to Heishin, who holds the Millennium Rod. Atem defeats Heishin, but discovers that Seto has the Millennium Rod, and merely wanted to use Atem to gather the items in one place. Atem duels Seto for the items and defeats him, but after the duel, Heishin grabs the items and uses them to summon the DarkNite. Hoping to use the DarkNite to destroy his enemies, the DarkNite instead turns Heishin into a card. Heishin now turned into a playing card, DarkNite now mocks Heishin before incinerating the card. After Atem shows that he had the Millennium Items, DarkNite challenges him to a duel. Atem defeats him, and he transforms into Nitemare, who challenges Atem again. Atem defeats him again, and Nitemare begrudgingly returns from where he came. Atem then is able to take the throne and lead his people in peace.

At the wedding reception of Lou Pickles and his new wife Lulu, a mother-child dance saddens Chuckie Finster and his father Chas with memories of Chuckie's mother and Chas's wife, who died shortly after he was born. The following night Tommy Pickles' father Stu is summoned to EuroReptarland, a Japanese amusement park in Paris, to fix a malfunctioning Reptar robot he designed for the park's stage show.

The entire Pickles, Finster and DeVille families travel to EuroReptarland, where Angelica overhears a videophone conversation between the park's head – the bad tempered and child-hating Coco LaBouche – and Mr. Yamaguchi, the president of the Reptar corporation. Coco wants to be the next president but when Yamaguchi tells her his successor must love children, she lies and tells him she is engaged to a man with a child. Angelica is then discovered and saves herself by telling Coco about Chas and how he is considering re-marrying.

Coco begins pursuing Chas with the help of her put-upon but kindhearted assistant, Kira Watanabe, who tells the babies the origin of Reptar – that he was a feared monster until his gentler side was revealed by a princess. Hearing this, Chuckie decides he wants the park's princess to be his mother and goes in search of her with the babies and Kira's daughter, Kimi, when spending the day in the park with Chas and Coco. Meanwhile, the Pickles' dog Spike gets lost in the streets of Paris in pursuit of a stray poodle named Fifi.

While Coco wins over Chas, Chuckie remains deeply distrustful of her. At the Reptar show's premiere Angelica informs Coco of Chuckie's wish to have the princess for his mother, prompting Coco to infiltrate the show disguised as the princess. She lures Chuckie on stage and into her arms, where he is horrified to discover the truth, but seeing his son embrace Coco convinces Chas that she is right one for his family and decides to marry her immediately.

On the day of the wedding Coco has her accomplice, Jean-Claude, kidnap the babies and Angelica to keep them from intervening and Kira, threatening to reveal Coco's plan, is left on the streets of Paris en route to the ceremony. Jean-Claude locks the babies in the warehouse where the show's robots are kept, where Chuckie starts to cry in despair at his dad marrying a woman who doesn't like him. Angelica, in a rare display of guilt, reveals Coco's plan and her part in it and apologizes to Chuckie. Now knowing the truth, Chuckie rallies the others to hurry to Notre Dame and stop the wedding in the Reptar robot, picking up Kimi along the way. Jean-Claude follows piloting Reptar's nemesis, Robosnail, but is defeated when Reptar knocks him into the Seine River.

The babies arrive in time to interrupt the wedding, with Chuckie bursting in screaming "No" (which is his first word to be understood by the grown-ups). Chuckie is followed by Jean-Claude, who reveals Coco's true dastardly colors, leading Chas to call off the wedding in disgust. Mr. Yamaguchi, who is in attendance, fires Coco after Angelica informs him about Coco’s plan. After Coco deliberately knocks the babies down for standing on her wedding dress, Angelica retaliates by stepping on the dress as she storms off, ripping it and exposing her underwear to everyone, including some people with cameras. Coco runs out of the cathedral humiliated and defeated while Spike chases Jean-Claude away.

As Chas apologizes to Chuckie for everything Coco put them both through, Kira returns Chuckie's teddy bear which Coco had taken from him, and apologizes to Chas for not speaking up sooner. There, Chas and Kira realize they have feelings for one another and she, Kimi and Fifi (who they adopt) leave Paris for America, where Chas and Kira eventually marry. During the new family's first dance together, the entire reception erupts into an all-out food fight instigated by the babies.

Characters

The principal characters of ''Breath of Fire IV'' were designed by series artist Tatsuya Yoshikawa, and consist of Ryu and his companions, each with their own individual skills and personality traits carry the story forward. Ryu (voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi) is an amnesic young man with the mysterious ability to transform into powerful dragons, with his "other half" being Fou-Lu (voiced by Isshin Chiba), the principal antagonist and founder of the Fou Empire centuries ago with similar abilities, yet a much more malevolent personality. Aiding Ryu on his quest to confront Fou-Lu are several other heroes including Nina (voiced by Kyoko Hikami), a winged magic-user and the reigning princess of the Kingdom of Wyndia; Cray (voiced by Isshin Chiba), a burly member of the cat-like Woren tribe who wields a large wooden post and holds romantic feelings for Nina's sister, Elina; Ershin (Master in the Japanese version, voiced by Inuko Inuyama), an enigmatic robot-like armor who speaks in third-person; Scias (voiced by Unshō Ishizuka), a lanky mercenary and swordsman from the dog-like Grassrunner clan who lives for money; and Ursula (voiced by Kumiko Watanabe), prideful granddaughter of a military commander with kitsune-like features and skilled with guns.

Primary supporting characters include Yohm, a general from the modern Fou Imperial Army with the ability to summon monsters to his aid who see Fou-Lu as a threat to the world; Rasso, an elitist company commander dispatched to the Eastern Kingdoms to search for Ryu, Fou-Lu's key to obtaining his lost godhood; Yuna, a cruel geneticist and occultist who participates in horrific acts of genetic manipulation with dark magic; and Kahn, a muscle-bound chauvinist and comic-relief villain who constantly encounters Ryu's party.

Backstory

A long time ago an emperor called Muuru was having problems with the empire which was in a civil war, so he tried to summon a god named アルカイ「arukai」 (which was translated as Yorae) to unify the empire through its divinity. The summoning was imperfect, which made the god to be split both in time and bodies. The summoned god was called Fou-Lu. After ten years he was able to unify the western continent into the Fou empire. Meanwhile, the western continent was repeatedly attacked by the eastern continent, so Fou-Lu decided to create a bridge that would transport people and things to the other continent. Carrying the ambitions of Muuru, Fou-Lu wanted to unify both continents and cease the war. But due to the imperfect summoning Fou-Lu entered a sleeping state (sealed) and the empire lost its strike on the eastern continent keeping the war in a deadlock. Without Fou-lu's presence the war kept going on for many years of truces and war. Several years later, the second half of the god came into the world, waking up Fou-Lu that was sealed in a long sleep recovering his powers. And so the game begins...

Story

The story of ''Breath of Fire IV'' begins with a search team consisting of Nina, princess of the Kingdom of Wyndia, and Cray, leader from the plains-dwelling Woren clan. They are heading to the town Synesta for information on the whereabouts of Nina's older sister and Cray's love interest, Elina, who went missing several weeks earlier on a diplomatic mission. They are soon attacked by a berserk dragon and their sandflier crashes, forcing Nina to go to Sarai for spare parts while Cray guards their ride. Happening upon a crater left when a strange object landed from the sky, Nina confronts a large dragon who transforms before her eyes into a young man. Remembering nothing other than his name, Ryu, Nina surmises he must have amnesia and persuades him to help her search for her sister. Meanwhile, across the world in the western Fou Empire, the ancient Emperor Fou-Lu rises from his burial tomb, declaring that it is now his time to regain his throne, as he promised over six centuries ago. He commands one of his Guardian dogs, Won-Qu, to guard the tomb before heading south. In his vulnerable, newly awakened state, he is attacked by Yohm, a general in the modern Fou army who is privy to Fou-Lu's long-prophesied resurrection, and aims to kill him before carrying out his plan. Fou-Lu is overpowered in the struggle and is struck down into a ravine.

Elsewhere, Ryu and Nina run into trouble with a Fou Empire captain named Rasso and cannot get the needed spare parts in the end. While escaping the Fou soldiers, they travel to a town blighted by an evil miasma known as "hex" to get back to Cray, where they meet Ershin, a mysterious robot-like armor who leads them through the poisoned side of town. Re-uniting with Cray, the team makes their way west to gather more information. The story shifts back to Fou-Lu, who has awakened after his ordeal with Yohm and finds himself in the care of a man named Bunyan. After recovering enough, Fou-Lu departs down the mountain only to find Yohm and his soldiers blocking the path. After a struggle, Fou-Lu is forced to flee by transforming into a dragon and flying away, declaring that he must find his "other half", Ryu, and re-unite with him before the Empire finds him first. Yohm summons another creature to chase and strike Fou-Lu down. It succeeds and Fou-Lu crashes into the forest below.

By this time, Ryu and his friends arrive at the border town of Kyojin, where they meet Captain Rasso again who attempts to block them from entering the Causeway's gates. Quickly escaping past the guards in Fou Empire's continent, the team make their way north where they meet Yuna, an Imperial scientist who knows of Elina. He claims that she was here but is no longer. The soldiers then capture and return them to the Eastern Lands with accusations of breaking the pre-war peace treaty by trespassing in their lands. The group is detained in the town of Ludia and Cray is set to stand trial on their behalf. The group tries to help by "lessening the evidence" against Cray but to no effect with the judge. With no other choice Ryu, Nina and Ershin break him out of captivity with the help of Scias, a tall, dog-like mercenary who joins their cause. Determined to clear their names and find Elina, they travel past a swamp and through a volcano to arrive in Wyndia, where after an audience with Nina's father, the king, the group continues west. After seeking the Wind Dragon at the top of an ancient temple and brought to an ancient summoners' village, the group learns of Ryu's heritage, why the Empire is after Ryu, and the danger he would be in should he and Fou-Lu ever meet. They also learn that Ershin is carrying an Endless' spirit named Deis. While the group learns all this, Captain Rasso tracks Ryu to the summoners' village and kills most of the villagers. They then meet Ursula, granddaughter of a high-ranking Fou Empire official, who is against Rasso's savage methods. After attacking the villagers, Captain Rasso pulls out his trump card against Ryu. Ryu goes berserk and incinerates all the soldiers and Rasso and almost kills Ursula too, but Nina manages to calm Ryu down. Before leaving for Kyojin again along the western border, Ursula joins the group to keep an eye on them. Learning that the Causeway broke down after their initial visit, they find that they need a ship in order to proceed with their journey.

However, when the gang reaches the western continent, they find it in chaos. Strange, inexplicable things are occurring there, most of them happening in the city of Astana, where the Imperial Headquarters are situated. When they search the Imperial Headquarters, they find it horrifically transformed. When they are unable to pass through a certain obstacle, Elina's voice suddenly rings out, telling them that they cannot pass without first acquiring the Dragonslayer, a sword that is currently in the keeping of Yuna. Tracking Yuna down to a nearby city, Ryu attacks him, forcing him to discard the Dragonslayer. The party returns to Astana, but an atrocity occurs there: unbeknownst to the party, Yuna had the idea of modifying Elina's body and transform her into an artificial Endless but unexpectedly fused her with the Imperial headquarters. Elina has no wish to exist in this form, so she begs Cray to kill her with the Dragonslayer. After an internal debate, he complies, destroying the Imperial Headquarters and dealing a devastating blow to party morale.

After regaining their composure, Ryu and his team travel to the Emperor's pagoda to stop him, and find Ursula's adopted grandfather, General Rhuh, holding off several monsters and A-Tur charging the palace area. Dying in the struggle, Ursula's grandfather tells his daughter to stop Fou-Lu with her new friends, and restore the empire to its former glory. She agrees, and the group makes their way to the palace's inner sanctum, where Ryu personally confronts Fou-Lu and questions his motivation to destroy humanity after they have done so much for him in the past, recalling and comparing their memories. After an intense battle, Fou-Lu finally understands Ryu's defense and merges with Ryu to become the complete Yorae Dragon God, which decides to send the gods back to their own world. Then Ryu rejoins the group as a mortal, and they leave the palace together.

There is an alternative ending of the story where Fou-Lu absorbs Ryu, making him the dominant half where he then plans to destroy humanity, starting by killing Ryu's friends.

The manga adaptation, ''Utsurowazaru Mono: Breath Of Fire IV'', gives a third ending with Ryu refusing to fully absorb Fou-Lu as the gods disappear from the world. While Ryu's friends wait hopefully wait for his return, he and Fou-Lu are wandering the world side by side as mortals, both relearning and experiencing the joys of humanity.

Characters

Each character hails from a different clan made up of anthropomorphic animal-like beings or humans with fantastic powers, with their assortment of magic spells and personal field abilities that can be used out of battle to help the player progress through the game and find hidden items.

The main character is a young man named Ryu, one of the last surviving members of the Light Dragon Clan, who have been driven to near-extinction by their enemy, the Dark Dragon Clan. When his sister, Sara, is captured by the Dark Dragons, Ryu must travel the world searching for a way to get her back, as well as unlock his latent ability to transform into powerful dragons. During gameplay, the player can meet and recruit seven additional party members, including Nina, princess of the Kingdom of Windia whose race can transform into large birds; Bo (Gilliam in the Japanese version), a wolf-man held prisoner by the Dark Dragons after they attacked his homeland; Karn (Danc in the Japanese version), member of an ancient order of thieves with the ability to merge two or more party members together to create powerful fighters; Gobi (Manillo in the Japanese version), a fish-man and traveling merchant who can transform into a giant fish; Ox (Builder in the Japanese version), a large ox-man from a town of blacksmiths; Mogu, a mole-person with the ability to dig holes in certain areas; and Bleu (Deis in the Japanese version), an immortal sorceress with a snake-like lower body who commands powerful magic.

The principal antagonists are the Dark Dragon Clan, a militaristic empire made up of soldiers that can transform into dragons. They are led by Emperor Zog (Zorgon in the Japanese version), who seeks to take over the world by gaining the power of the Goddess Tyr (Myria in the Japanese version as well as the English version of the third game), who was sealed away centuries ago by the Light Dragons using six magic keys that have been scattered across the world. His main general is Jade (Judas in the Japanese version), who in turn commands his Four Devas: Cort (Kyura in the Japanese version), a mad scientist; Mote (Sigmund in the Japanese version), a wizard who has the power to terrorize people in their dreams; Cerl (Carla in the Japanese version), a half-breed magic user who resents her past mistreatment by humans; and Goda, an armored goliath.

Story

''Breath of Fire'' takes place in an unnamed medieval world. In addition to ordinary humans, it is populated by various "clans" of anthropomorphic animals. The Dragon Clan—a race of humans who are able to transform into dragons—differ from the others in that their members appear (for the most part) to be human. The back-story of the game is summarized during its prologue: Thousands of years ago, a goddess named Myria (also known as "Tyr" and "Maria" in some English translations and "Miria" in ''Breath of Fire II'') sowed discord amongst the Dragon Clan by offering to grant any wish. Feuding over the goddess' favor eventually split the Clan into two feuding sides, the Light Dragons and the Dark Dragons, who engaged in a war. Myria encouraged the fighting and watched the war escalate. Just as the world was on the brink of destruction, the "Goddess War" ended when a heroic Light Dragon imprisoned Myria and sealed her away using six keys. Each key has a unique magical property which affects the surrounding landscape; the Light Key is hidden in the port town of Auria, providing boundless prosperity for its residents. Alternatively, the Dark Key resides near the slums of Bleak, accounting for that town's perpetual darkness.

The Dark Dragons continue to hunt their longtime enemies, the Light Dragons, and have driven them into isolation. Unbeknownst to the Dark Dragons, the Light Dragon Clan sealed away its dragon powers long ago. The game's protagonist, Ryu, is living peacefully in Drogon, a village of Light Dragons survivors. Ryu was orphaned when he was young and was raised by his sister, Sara, a priestess who can summon powerful magic. One night he dreams of a dragon that warns him of impending danger; he awakens to find his village has been set ablaze. Sara uses her magic to draw the Dark Dragons away from Ryu and the other villagers, but is taken prisoner. The Dark Dragon Emperor, Zog, has announced that it is the birthright of the Dark Dragons to conquer the planet. Zog intends to release Myria by assembling the six Goddess keys. However, it could be that Zog is about to make a mistake that will lead the world to its destruction instead, so Ryu leaves the village and embarks on a quest to collect the keys before Zog can.

Ryu's first destination is the town of Nanai, under which the Earth Key is sealed. He seizes the key from the Dark Dragon forces stationed there, but ends up leveling the town doing so since the Earth Key governs seismic activity. He then travels to Windia ("Winlan" in the official translation) but discovers that the King there has been poisoned. He briefly meets Nina, the princess of Windia, and then has to rescue her from the tower of Karma after her mission to obtain the remedy for her father goes awry due to the use of a toxic weapon called Xeon Gas, which was seemingly developed by the Dark Dragons. Once Nina's father recovers, Nina elects to join Ryu on his further adventures, and the two next travel to Tantar, the home of the wolf-like Forest Clan. They eventually discover that the chieftain of the neighboring village of Tuntar is an impostor working for the Dark Dragon Empire. Ryu and Nina venture to a nearby forest to rescue the real chief, but end up walking into a trap. Fortunately, they and the real chief are rescued by Bo, a warrior of the Forest Clan who had just escaped the custody of the Dark Dragons. He also joins them on their quest and helps them locate another Goddess Key, the Space Key.

En route to the port town of Auria, Ryu, Nina and Bo find a mysterious shrine. It is here that Ryu is forced to undergo a great trial: once he completes it, his dragon powers awaken. At Auria, the trio are mistaken for thieves and arrested, but Karn, a thief they meet inside their cell, frees them. They meet Karn again inside a tomb in the desert, and when they recover a tome containing thieving secrets, he joins the team. Back at Auria, the party discovers that the Dark Dragons have blackmailed the town's richest resident into surrendering the Light Key. They manage to foil this plot, however, by claiming the Dark Key and the Mirror from a tower near the thieves' town of Bleak and using the Mirror to allow the rich man's wife to communicate with him from beyond the grave. However, the Dark Dragons then resort to more aggressive tactics and sink the ship the party planned to board. The captain of the ship and the gold digging merchant Gobi approach the group with a plan to obtain a new ship. Their new ship is sunk as well, though, stranding them on a desert island. In order for the party to continue their quest, Gobi ventures forth alone and succeeds in acquiring the Gills, which allow Ryu and his friends to breathe underwater, and they continue on their way with Gobi as a companion.

The party's next stop is the underwater city of Prima. Gobi leads them to one of the inns there, where an aspiring blacksmith is on his sickbed while a ghost waits to take his soul into the beyond. Upon defeating the ghost, the blacksmith delivers some alarming news: the Dark Dragons are developing a new weapon and have taken the blacksmiths of the industrial town of Gant prisoner so they can build it for them. The party promises to help the blacksmith rescue his friends and family. He introduces himself as Ox and takes the party to the castle of Nabal, where the people of Gant are imprisoned. It is here that the true nature of the Dark Dragons' new weapon is revealed — a torpedo which can be used to level Prima. Ox tags along with the group as they seek the immortal witch Bleu, who has taken up residence in a moving town in the desert. With Bleu's help, the party are able to thwart the Dark Dragons' scheme to destroy Prima with the torpedo. Ox and Bleu realize the gravity of the current situation and pledge their skills to Ryu's cause. The party's adventure continues after Karn obtains the ability to fuse his comrades together, and Gobi gains the ability to transform into a giant fish using a special item.

The group continues to an underground settlement, clashing with the evil scientist and Four Devas member Cort along the way. When they arrive, they discover that one of the warriors there, a young mole person named Mogu, has been imprisoned in the Dream World by Mote, another of the Four Devas. They rescue him from the dream by obtaining a special item from Tunlan, where the Time Key is also kept (the group loses this key when Four Deva member Cerl takes it). Mogu joins the party when he is rescued, and the party next travels to the town of Spring. The Sky Key is kept in a tower near the town, but someone has used it to create a permanent winter in the area. While investigating the tower, the party discover that the culprit is Mote, and fight him within the Dream World with the aid of his conscience. After restoring the weather to normal, the party continue towards the Dark Dragon capital of Scande, but are delayed once more when they enter the town of Carmen where time is standing still. Aided by a villager named Alan, they investigate a nearby tower and confront Cerl again, who is revealed to be a childhood friend of Alan's. Consumed with a desire for vengeance against humans, she attacks and critically wounds Alan, but later swears off her vendetta when the party delivers a fruit from the village where she and Alan grew up. The final Deva Goda then appears and ambushes the party. Cerl surrenders the Time Key to Ryu's party and stays behind to cover their escape while Alan enters Cerl's castle to be with her again. While restoring the flow of time, however, something goes wrong and Nina is forced out of the party by a warping of time and space.

The party finds her moments later in Tunlan. However, she is suffering from amnesia. When the party restores her memories, the now visibly older Nina rejoins them and tells everyone that she can transform into the Great Bird. With her new ability, the party flies to Scande, where they do battle with Zog and vanquish him. Afterwards, Jade traps them in a room with Sara. Jade plays on Ryu's emotions by placing Sara under a powerful mind control spell. She takes the keys from Ryu and delivers them to Jade. The party pursues him to the tower where Myria is sealed, but are stopped midway through the tower by Sara, who attacks them. The party is forced to kill her to break Jade's hold on her; the mind control is too strong to completely dispel any other way. As she lies dying, she tells Ryu and his friends that they have done nothing wrong — Jade and Myria are to blame as they created a situation where she had to die. The party resolves to stop Jade at any cost, but are too late to prevent him from freeing Myria completely.

Ryu wakes up three days later in his hometown, which is still in ruins. He learns from his comrades and the surviving Light Dragon members that Jade has unearthed the Obelisk from beneath Scande and that he, Goda and Myria have taken up residence within. They infiltrate the Obelisk with the assistance of Mogu's clan. Goda attempts to bar their path within the Obelisk, but is defeated. The party presses on to find Jade, who is enraptured by the power of Myria and engages the party in battle, but is defeated and slain. He ominously announces that the party will soon face the fell goddess responsible for the Goddess War thousands of years ago.

The party confronts Myria in the deepest room of the Obelisk, initially in the guise of a defenseless female. However, when Ryu uses the ultimate dragon power against her, Myria becomes enraged and transforms herself into a demon. The party battles her one final time and defeat her. She vows to return and destroys the ground under the party's feet. They are rescued by Nina's clan and taken to Wyndia, where Ryu sees Sara's apparition one last time. She expresses pride in Ryu for defeating Myria when the Light Dragon Warrior of the past failed to do so. The party members go their separate ways and devote themselves to reconstruction efforts across the globe now that the war is over.

U.S. Navy SEAL lieutenant Shane Wolfe is assigned to rescue Howard Plummer, a man working on a top-secret government project, from a group of Serbian rebels. Shane and his team successfully get Plummer off an enemy boat. Boarding the helicopter to escape, the team is attacked and Plummer is killed. Shane spends two months in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds to the chest.

At the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Shane's commanding officer, Captain Bill Fawcett, explains that he has been assigned to escort Plummer's widow, Julie, to Zürich, to retrieve the contents of Plummer's safety deposit box. Meanwhile, Shane has been assigned to stay at the Plummer residence in Bethesda MD, to search for the secret project called GHOST and mind the family's five children: Zoe, Seth, Lulu, Peter, and baby Tyler. The kids prove to be difficult to handle, even with the help of nanny Helga, who quits when one of Zoe and Seth's pranks intended for Shane goes wrong. Shane eventually begins to discover the children's problems and resolve them, gaining their trust after saving them from a pair of armed ninjas.

Later, the school's vice principal, Duane Murney, informs Shane that Seth has cut and dyed his hair, has a Nazi armband in his locker, and has skipped a month of wrestling practices. At home, Seth tells Shane he only joined the wrestling team because of his father. After Seth sneaks out of the house, Shane follows and learns that Seth has secretly joined an amateur production of ''The Sound of Music''. The director quits, and Shane takes charge of the show, takes care of the house, gives Zoe driving lessons and teaches Lulu and her fellow Firefly Scouts martial arts to defend themselves against rival scouts.

As Seth quits the wrestling team, Shane challenges Murney to a wrestling match in front of the entire school, which he easily wins despite Murney's show of bluster. The Firefly Girl Scouts use the skill Shane taught them to fight and tie up the rival boy scouts. Zoe and Shane share stories of their fathers, both of whom died in similar circumstances and both hug. They are interrupted by a phone call from Julie, who has figured out the password "My Angel", retrieved a two-prong key from the box and is on her way home. The kids immediately plan a "Welcome Home" party.

That evening, Shane discovers a secret vault underneath the garage, which requires just the key Julie acquired. When Bill and Julie arrive home, he and Shane go to the garage, where Shane says he is rethinking his career. The two ninjas from before arrive and pull off their masks, revealing themselves as the Chuns—the Plummers' North Korean next door neighbors. Suddenly, Bill overpowers Shane and knocks him out, revealing himself to be a double agent. Mr. Chun secures the children while Bill and Mrs. Chun take Julie down to the vault. They open the door, but a dangerous security system prevents them from proceeding.

The children elude Mr. Chun and wake Shane, who sends them to get help while he goes to the vault to help Julie. Mr. Chun follows them in Bill's car. With Zoe at the wheel, the kids force him to crash. Shane gets past the security system using the dance Howard had used to lull Peter to sleep each night. Julie knocks out Mrs. Chun, and Shane's voice activates the final vault, opening the door which knocks Bill unconscious. By then, the children have lured a large crowd of police to the house. Mr. Chun arrives and holds all of them at gunpoint. Shane notices the school principal and his love interest Claire Fletcher right behind him, having followed the chase when she saw it pass by the school. Shane distracts Mr. Chun with the help of the family pet duck Gary, and Claire knocks him unconscious.

Bill and the Chuns are arrested, Shane and the Plummers say their goodbyes. At Seth's performance, it is revealed that Shane has retired from the Navy and joined the school staff as the new wrestling coach. Murney, dressed as a nun, also performs in the play, singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" off-key, and Claire and Shane kiss backstage.

12-year-old Meggie lives with her father Mortimer or "Mo," who works as a bookbinder. One night, a man named Dustfinger visits Mo. Meggie overhears Dustfinger telling Mo that a man named Capricorn is looking for him. The next morning, Mo unexpectedly announces that he and Meggie have to go to Meggie's Aunt Elinor's house because Mo has to fix some books. Dustfinger joins them on the way. Mo sets off to work, and Meggie talks to Dustfinger, where she is introduced to Dustfinger's pet marten, Gwin. A short while after, Mo is captured by people with unusual names, bringing along with him a book, ''Inkheart''. Meggie and Elinor tell the police, but the police just think they are out of their minds.

Dustfinger, Meggie, and Elinor plan to venture to Capricorn's village where her father is being held. The three are taken to Capricorn's house where he waits for them. Elinor and Meggie are thrown into the cell where Mo is being held and they reunite, while Dustfinger disappears. Meggie makes Mo tells the story of why they were there.

A long time ago her father was reading ''Inkheart'' to Meggie's mother, Teresa. Mo found out that he had a special gift where he could bring things out of books just by reading aloud, but that came with a price: for everything that comes out of the book, something must go in. So, while reading the seventh chapter, three of the main characters from the book, Capricorn, Basta, and Dustfinger, come out of the book and into their house. Capricorn tries to fight Mo, but eventually Mo forces them out of his house. When he turns back, Teresa and their two cats that were sitting on her lap were gone and Meggie was crying. He later tried many more times to get his wife out of the book, but his power failed him.

Capricorn makes Mo read aloud. When Mo starts to read Tales from A Thousand and One Nights, a boy named Farid appears out of the book and is also imprisoned. That night, Dustfinger breaks out all of the prisoners.

Elinor returns home, while Dustfinger, Farid, Meggie, and Mo go to visit Fenoglio, the author of ''Inkheart,'' since Capricorn had burned all copies of the book except his own. They are disappointed when they learn Fenoglio does not have another copy.

Fenoglio offers them an apartment so that they can live there for the time being when Mo fixes Fenoglio's books. Mo, on an urgent call from Elinor, goes to the airport leaving Meggie with Fenoglio and his three grandchildren.

Fenoglio and Meggie are captured by Capricorn's men and imprisoned in an attic in Capricorn's house, where Meggie discovers that she also has her father's power.

Farid and Dustfinger sneak into the village where Dustfinger meets one of his old friends, Resa. Resa is a mute who came out of the ''Inkheart'' story a while back. Resa and Dustfinger conspire a plan to get ''Inkheart'' from Capricorn, but are caught.

Fenoglio then starts writing a counter curse for when Meggie has to read out a horrible villain called the Shadow. Gwin passes notes back and forth between Mo and Meggie, which are written in Elvish, to let them know what was happening.

Elinor and Mo arrive at the village, but Elinor then gets caught and is put in the crypt with Resa and Dustfinger.

Meggie asks to see Dustfinger and finds that Resa is her mother. Farid and Mo set Capricorn's house on fire. While everyone is paying attention to the fire, Meggie switches out the planned reading for Fenoglio's handwritten story. She creates the Shadow and turns it against its master. Mo reads the beginning of last paragraph, killing Capricorn.

Meggie then finishes the tale and the Shadow turns back into the fairies, glass men, and trolls whose ashes it was created from. Many of the magical creatures come home with Elinor. Meggie, Mo, and Resa, go and live in Elinor's large house. Gwin, Dustfinger, and Farid leave in the night after Dustfinger steals the last remaining copy of ''Inkheart'' from Mo.

The film depicts how L. Frank Baum came to create ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' while undergoing and eventually overcoming professional and personal failures. The story is interspersed with the famous Oz story, shown at certain points when Baum is writing down his ideas. It is shown that he was originally telling this to a group of kids, who asked him the name of this location, to which he looks at a file cabinet with the bottom drawer marked O-Z and decided "Oz". Another idea he had thought of was to say Dorothy was born in the Dakota Territory, only to scrap that sentence in favor of Kansas.

In 1960, the protagonist, Jack, is a passenger on a plane that crashes in the Atlantic Ocean. As the only survivor, Jack makes his way to a nearby lighthouse that houses a bathysphere terminal, which takes him to Rapture. Jack is contacted by Atlas via radio, and is guided to confront the perils of the ruined city.

Atlas requests Jack's help in stopping Ryan, directing him to a docked bathysphere where he says Ryan has trapped his family. When Jack first encounters the Little Sisters, Atlas urges him to kill them to harvest their ADAM, but Dr. Tenenbaum intervenes and insists Jack should spare them, providing him with a plasmid that can remove the sea slug from their bodies and free them of their brainwashing. Jack eventually works his way to the bathysphere, but Ryan destroys it before Jack can reach it. Infuriated, Atlas has Jack fight his way through various districts towards Ryan's lair, forcing Jack to contend with Rapture's deranged citizens along the way: such as the mad surgical doctor J.S. Steinman, and insane artist and musician Sander Cohen.

Eventually, Jack enters Ryan's office, where Ryan is casually playing golf and explains Jack's true origins. Through his dialogue and the evidence gathered up to this point, it is revealed that Jack is actually Ryan's illegitimate son, sold by Ryan's mistress as an embryo to Fontaine, who then had Tenenbaum and Suchong rapidly age Jack into adulthood and turned into an obedient assassin, capable of accessing any of Rapture's systems locked to Ryan's genetic code and thus ensure Fontaine's victory in the war. Jack was then smuggled to the surface with false memories of a normal life, waiting to be called back to Rapture when needed. Ryan suddenly takes control of Jack's actions by asking "Would you kindly?"; Jack realizes this phrase has preceded many of Atlas' commands as a hypnotic trigger, forcing him to follow any orders without question. Jack also realizes he was responsible for the plane crash, having read a letter onboard containing the same trigger phrase.

Ryan chooses to die by his own will, and compels Jack to beat him to death with a golf club. Atlas then reveals himself to be Fontaine, having faked his death and used "Atlas" as an alias to hide his identity, while providing a heroic figure for the poor people to rally behind for his own ends. With Ryan finally dead, Fontaine takes control of Ryan's systems and leaves Jack to be killed by hostile security drones. Jack is saved by Dr. Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters that had been cured, and is helped to remove Fontaine's mental conditioning, including one that would have stopped Jack's heart. Jack pursues Fontaine to his lair, where he transforms himself into a blue-skinned humanoid creature by injecting himself with a large supply of ADAM. The Little Sisters aid Jack in draining the ADAM from Fontaine's body, and eventually kill him.

The ending depends on how the player interacted with the Little Sisters: * If the player rescues ''all'' of the Little Sisters, Jack takes them back to the surface with him and adopts five of them as his daughters, and Tenenbaum happily narrates how they go on to live full lives under his care, eventually surrounding him on his deathbed. This ending is considered canon in ''BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea''. * If the player harvests one or more Little Sister, Jack turns on the Little Sisters to harvest their ADAM. Tenenbaum sadly narrates what occurs, condemning Jack and his actions. A US Navy submarine then comes across the wreckage of the plane and finds itself suddenly surrounded by bathyspheres containing Splicers, who attack the crew and take control of it. The submarine is revealed to be carrying nuclear missiles, with Tenenbaum claiming that Jack has now "stolen the terrible secrets of the world": The more Little Sisters Jack harvests throughout the game, the harsher and more furious Tenenbaum's narrative becomes.

In the stereotypical high school community of John Hughes High in Southern California, Priscilla, head cheerleader, separates from her football star but slacker boyfriend, Jake Wyler. Discovering she is now dating timid and weird Les to spite him, one of Jake's friends, Austin, makes a bet with him to turn nerdy Janey Briggs, a "uniquely rebellious girl," into the prom queen. Janey resists his efforts because she is not insecure enough to feel any need to change anything about herself, nor does she feel anything for him at first, but that does not stop him from trying.

As Jake attempts to court Janey, he faces adversity from his own sister, Catherine, who is sexually attracted to him; Janey's unnoticed admirer and best friend, Ricky Lipman; and memories from his past football career. Catherine eventually assists him by "drastically" altering Janey's appearance (simply removing her glasses and ponytail), instantly making her drop-dead gorgeous.

Meanwhile, Janey's younger brother, Mitch, and his friends Ox and Bruce, make a pact to lose their virginity by graduation despite still being freshmen. Mitch tries to impress his longtime crush, Amanda Becker with a love letter. Bruce says that he does not have a chance with her, saying, "Keep dreaming!"

As the prom draws near, Jake becomes known for failing to lead the football team to victory at last year's state championship game. Austin then tricks Jake into telling Janey about his bet to spite Priscilla, pretending to whisper the secret bet in Janey's ear, causing her to immediately leave upset. On prom night, Austin and Janey go together; a jealous Jake and Catherine have a dance-off with Austin and Janey, with Catherine dancing in a sexual manner. Janey runs off crying.

Meanwhile, Mitch and his friends are having a lousy time until Amanda arrives and Mitch gives her the letter (to which she responds she does not have sex with every loser who does such, but gives them handjobs), horny Bruce hooks up with the equally horny international exchange student Areola, and Ox later hooks up with Catherine after sharing a romantic and rather odd connection.

Jake is awarded prom king and the votes for prom queen are tied. Everyone thinks that it is between Janey and Priscilla, but they are shocked to find that conjoined twins Kara and Sara Fratelli win prom queen. During the traditional prom king and queen dance, Janey supposedly left with Austin to go to a hotel.

Jake goes to the hotel room where he finds Austin having wild sex with a girl, but is shocked to find that it is Priscilla and not Janey, while Les videotapes them with his pants down. Austin tells Jake that Janey "ran home to her daddy." Jake coldly punches Austin and Priscilla, knocking them unconscious for humiliating Janey. He then punches Les for "being really weird" (and punches a plastic bag floating next to Les); afterwards he runs to Janey's only be told she is on her way to Paris to art school.

Jake arrives at the airport and confronts her before she boards the plane, but uses a plethora of clichéd lines from other films (such as ''She's All That'', ''Cruel Intentions'', ''American Pie'', ''The Breakfast Club'', ''American Beauty'', ''10 Things I Hate About You'', ''Can't Hardly Wait'', and ''Pretty in Pink'') to convince her to not go. His final (and only original) speech suggests they would be better off separated, but Janey mistakenly believes he is quoting ''The Karate Kid'', and she decides to stay with him.

In a mid-credits scene, Janey's father Mr. Briggs drunkenly assaults himself with pies in his kitchen. In a post-credits scene, a previously seen albino folk singer, an afroed student with a guitar, reveals that she has become blind and calls out for assistance upon completing her song, while an audience member calls for another to assist in stealing her guitar.

Anmitsu is a beautiful princess living happily at the Amakara Castle. The only thing is that she is a tomboy and doesn't act very ladylike. When Anmitsu turns ten years old, her parents present her with a tutor named Castella, who's from the Pudding Kingdom, in hopes of getting Anmitsu more serious about being a princess. Nonetheless, Anmitsu is still up to her usual antics and frequently escapes from the castle to have fun. However, she learns many things about the world outside the castle and about life in general in her adventures. She also makes new friends and continues to cause trouble for the royalty in Amakara Castle.

Summary

Fade takes place in present-day France, and the player steps into the shoes of Louis, a married Frenchman suffering from amnesia since childhood. Throughout the game, he will explore various locations and will slowly discover the truth behind the mysterious blackouts that he occasionally has.

Expanded overview

The story starts out as the player takes control of Louis Everett, a French art dealer, as he wakes up in his home. The player is also introduced to Anne, Louis' wife, who is taking a shower at the time. Early in the story, the player learns that Louis suffers from random blackouts, and that he often has unusual dreams during those blackouts. Because of this, Louis takes medication.

The player soon receives a call from Félicienne, Louis' assistant at the antique shop he owns, regarding his latest client, one Mr. Belleville. Apparently, a file about a deal with Mr. Belleville was sent to Louis, which he promptly finds in his mailbox. Louis then heads to his shop in a village called Saint Jeoire via his automobile. His wife tags along for the ride, and player is presented with an opportunity to talk to Anne along the way.

Upon arriving at the village, Louis finds Félicienne in the process of changing a broken light bulb. He helps her, yet gets rid of her after by lighting a cigarette, which she abhors. A few moments later, in his office, the player is alerted that Mr. Belleville has arrived at the shop. This apparently is the first time that Louis is to meet his client as all their previous meetings have been over the telephone. Right before meeting Mr. Belleville, Louis succumbs to a blackout.

The player regains control of Louis, now in an unknown hotel in Paris. He has no recollection of how he had arrived, and no memory of what he was doing there in the first place. Louis finds his way downstairs and is directed by the hotel's receptionist to a bar across the street.

At the bar, Louis discovers that he has left his wallet in his room and goes back for it. Along the way, it is found that the receptionist is not at the lobby desk. A newspaper he was reading however, is on the desk, which the player may read. In the newspaper, there is a certain article about a serial killer in an area called 'Robertville sur Angeais'. It is also learned that all the killers' victims had their hearts removed with complete surgical precision. Louis then proceeds to his room, but is blocked by a chambermaid who does not want him to pass. He bypasses her by convincing a man he had met earlier in the bar to propose to the chambermaid.

After taking his wallet from his room, Louis goes back to the bar for a cup of coffee. He is directed by another man to the train station in the town, and Louis buys a ticket for 'Robertville sur Angeais'. After a long wait for the ticket, the player finally boards the train, where Louis meets a beautiful woman in his cab. Not long after, the player is treated to another one of Louis' blackouts.

Once again, the player finds that Louis has switched locations again before awakening from his last blackout. This time, Louis finds out that he is in the house of Jean, a friend of his. Louis talks to Jean for a while, about some seeming trouble with Anne. Louis walks to his house, discovers a strange occult symbol painted on his mailbox, and finds that Anne is not there. Apparently, the house does not have any electricity, so the player is forced to find a flashlight in order to restore power to the house. Louis runs over to Jean's place to find it empty. He uses a fuse he finds in Jean's house (after repairing it) to restore power to his house and almost immediately, the phone rings. Upon answering it, only a faint, buzzing sound can be heard. Louis decides to ask around the neighborhood.

Surprisingly, as the player moves from neighbor to neighbor, it is apparent that the neighbors believe that Anne was a battered wife. Louis flees the neighborhood to the bus stop, then to Saint Jeoire. It is still night when he arrives to discover his shop ransacked, with Felicienne sobbing in the back. After going back and forth in the town, the player finds Louis in the house of a friend of his wife, Astrid. She gives Louis the key to the dairy that Anne apparently owns and he promptly heads there. Breaking into the cash register, he finds a tape recorder inside, which he listens to. There appears to be a conversation between Anne and an unknown man on the tape, but the vocals aren't clear. Louis then uses a camera to take pictures of his vandalized mailbox and globe, and uses the tape recorder to record the sound emanating from his phone. But when he plays the tape again, he finds himself falling into another blackout.

Louis regains consciousness to find himself sitting on a fountain. After a few minutes of inquisitive exploration, the player finds out that Louis is now committed in a mental asylum. He is forcefully confined to his cell after an altercation with the receptionist, where he spends the night until breakfast the next day. In a scene reminiscent of the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the player is given the chance to converse (rather uselessly) with the mental patients. After more exploration (and an encounter with Zampano, the asylum's beefy tough guy) and interaction with the asylum's colorful residents, Louis is taken to the "doctor". He is interviewed and thrown back in his cell, where he formulates an escape plan. Louis starts a fire in one of the huts to create a distraction, which he uses to attempt an escape, but he is caught. Waking up in a heavily padded isolation cell, Louis finds the door unlocked. He eventually makes his way to a cavern where he witnesses a ritual involving his wife as a human sacrifice. Afterwards, he blacks out again.

Once again, Louis wakes up in his house, similar to the beginning of the game. Anne, once more, is not in the house. The phone then rings and Louis learns from the police that they have found Anne. To his horror, Louis finds that the police have actually discovered Anne's naked body in some woods near their home. There is some confusion, as Louis asserts that the body is his wife's, but not the girl's face. Eventually, the player finds clues that Anne is alive and well in Louis' mother's apartment in Paris.

In Paris, Louis finds himself in the apartment that he grew up in. The player is given the chance to explore around the house. In one of the bathrooms, it is discovered that Anne was growing some marijuana in the bathtub. He finds a notebook with names and telephone numbers of many people, including one Gisele Montfort, who he calls. She hangs up, but Louis decides to talk to her in person and heads to her house.

At Gisele's, Louis learns that his wife had been to a swingers' bar in town a few days before. He goes to the bar, accompanied by his assistant (who apparently had come along), and meets a girl named Christine. After some more exploration, the player ends up trying to break into Belleville's house. He takes several documents from the garage and heads back to his mother's house. The phone rings again and Louis is invited over by a man named Alex. Unfortunately, upon reaching Alex's place, the player discovers that the former had somehow hanged himself.

Dr. Reed Richards, a bankrupt physicist, is convinced evolution was triggered millions of years ago on earth by clouds of cosmic energy in space, and has calculated that one of these clouds is soon going to pass near Earth. Together with his friend, astronaut Ben Grimm, Reed convinces Dr. Victor Von Doom, CEO of Von Doom Industries, to allow him access to his space station to test the effects of exposure to the cloud on biological samples. Von Doom agrees, in exchange for control over the experiment and a majority of the profits from whatever benefits it brings. He brings aboard his chief genetics researcher (and Reed's ex-girlfriend) Susan Storm and her reckless brother Johnny Storm, a young astronaut.

The quintet travels to space to observe the cosmic energy clouds, but Reed has miscalculated and the clouds materialize well ahead of schedule. Reed, Susan, and Johnny leave the shielded station to rescue Ben who has gone on a space-walk to place the samples, and Victor closes the shield behind them. Ben receives full exposure out in space, while the others receive a more limited dose. They return home but soon begin to develop strange powers. Reed is able to stretch like rubber; Susan can become invisible and create force fields, especially when angered; Johnny can engulf himself in fire and is able to fly; and Ben is transformed into a large, rock-based creature with superhuman strength and durability. Victor meanwhile faces a backlash from his stockholders due to the publicity from the failed mission.

Ben returns home to see his fiancée Debbie, but she cannot handle his new appearance and flees in fear. He goes to brood on Brooklyn Bridge and accidentally causes a traffic pile-up while stopping a man from committing suicide. The four use their various powers to contain the damage and prevent anyone from being hurt. While the public cheer them for their efforts, Ben sees his fiancée leave her engagement ring on the ground and run. Reed hands a heartbroken Ben the ring and vows to find a way to turn him back to normal. The media dubs them "The Fantastic Four" for their efforts. Victor watches the news story and is told that his company is lost now. The four move into Reed's lab in the Baxter Building to study their abilities. Victor offers his support in their efforts but blames Reed for the mission's failure, the lights flickering as he grows enraged.

Reed tells the group he will construct a machine to re-create the storm and reverse its effect on their bodies, but warns it could possibly accelerate them instead. However, Johnny refuses to give up his powers and uses them to help him win extreme sports thus exposing Reed, Susan, and Ben's abilities to the public which leads to a small fight between him and Ben. Meanwhile, Victor continues to mutate, his arm turning into an organic metal and allowing him to produce bolts of electricity, and he begins plotting to use his new powers to take his revenge. Victor drives a wedge between Ben and Reed, resulting in Ben walking out in a rage. Susan soon scolds Johnny on how he is using his powers just to gain popularity. This motivates Reed to attempt the machine on himself, but he cannot generate the power needed to push the storm to critical mass. Victor hears Reed tell Susan this and has Ben brought to the lab. Ben is placed in the machine and Doom uses his abilities to produce the electricity needed to power it, turning Ben back to normal and accelerating Doom's condition, causing much of his body to turn to metal. Victor knocks Ben unconscious and kidnaps Reed.

Victor – now calling himself "Doom" – dons a metal mask to hide his physical deformities and tortures Reed using a super-cooling unit. Doom fires a heat-seeking missile at the Baxter Building to kill Johnny, and Johnny flies through the city to evade it, lighting a garbage barge on fire to trick it. Susan rushes to confront Doom as Ben begins to regret his decision to turn normal. Susan frees Reed and battles Doom but is outmatched - Ben arrives to save her, transformed into The Thing again by reusing the machine. The battle spills into the streets, and the four assemble to battle Doom. Johnny and Susan combine their powers to wrap Doom in an inferno of intense heat, and Ben and Reed douse him with cold water, inducing thermal shock and freezing Doom in place.

As an epilogue, Ben informs Reed that he has accepted his condition with the help of Alicia Masters, a blind artist for whom he has developed feelings, and the team decide to embrace their roles as superheroes and unite officially as the Fantastic Four. Reed proposes to Susan, who accepts and they share a kiss. Meanwhile, Doom's statuesque remains are being transported back to his homeland of Latveria when the dockmaster's electronic manifest briefly experiences electronic interference.

Advertising salesman Philip Woode wins dinner for two at a Manhattan restaurant on a ''Candid Camera''-style television show. When she flirts with him, he agrees to take Danielle Breton, a young French Canadian model and aspiring actress who was part of the prank, as his date. After dinner, they retire to her apartment to have sex. The next morning, Danielle tells Philip that Dominique, her twin sister, has come to celebrate their birthday. At her request, he goes to the drug store to refill a prescription and pick up a birthday cake. When he returns, he is stabbed to death by the crazed Dominique. Before he dies, he tries to alert a neighbor by writing "help" in his own blood on a window.

The neighbor, a reporter named Grace Collier, calls the police. Danielle's ex-husband Emil helps her clean up and hide Philip's body by folding it inside the sofabed. Grace accompanies the skeptical Detective Kelly and his partner on a search of Danielle's apartment, but Danielle insists that she has been alone since last night.

Certain that Danielle is hiding the murderer, Grace persuades her editor to let her investigate the story on the basis that the police are ignoring her because Philip was black. She hires Larch, a private investigator, to gain access to the apartment. He determines that the couch contains the body. He also finds a thick file from the Loisel Institute on the Blanchion Twins, Canada's first conjoined twins. Grace's further investigations uncover that the twins were separated only recently, and that Dominique apparently died during the operation.

As Larch pursues the truck that Emil called to haul the couch away, Grace tails Emil and Danielle to a mental hospital. When she is caught, Emil convinces the staff that she is a new patient. He sedates and promises to reveal everything, placing Danielle on the bed beside her. Grace has a bizarre dream about the twins' past and their separation, in which she herself is Dominique. Emil tells Danielle that the separation was necessary to save Danielle from the violent Dominique, who died during the surgery. Whenever she has a sexual experience, Danielle now dissociates to a violent "Dominique" personality. Emil kisses Danielle passionately to bring forth "Dominique," but she slashes him in the groin with a scalpel, and he bleeds to death. Grace awakens to find the sorrowful Danielle tenderly embracing Emil's bloody body and screams in horror. Detective Kelly arrests Danielle, who denies knowledge of the murders and says that her sister is dead.

Kelly interviews Grace, who is still under Emil's hypnotic spell, repeating lines that he fed her to deny there was a murder. Larch tracks the sofa to a remote train station in Canada.

''Ninja Resurrection'' takes place in the Tokugawa era, at a time when Christians in Japan were being persecuted. The leader of the Shimabara Rebellion, Amakusa Shirō, hoped to resist the government forces attacking Christians like him, but is assassinated.

Soon after, Amakusa's restless spirit returns to avenge his fallen comrades and is up to Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi to put a stop to the demonic onslaught.

The Revenge of Jubei

The Revenge of Jubei begins with a narration about the Battle of Sekigahara, the final battle between the Western Army, who were loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Eastern Army, led by Tokugawa Ieyasu; the events that led up to the Shimabara rebellion, including the capture and execution of Konishi Yukinaga, a Christian daimyō whose beliefs forbade him from committing seppuku, and the banning of Christianity in Japan; and a dark satanic prophecy about Amakusa Shirō, which foretold that if he was prevented from becoming Christ, he would return as Satan. Along with the narration, there are Japanese paintings of these events.

The first OVA called "The Cant of Hell" shows a small band of soldiers raiding a village outside of Harano Castle, and smashing a statue of Madonna. All the villagers hide except for a little boy, who they shoot. After the soldiers leave to report the Christian rebels to the shogun, a small girl named Ocho runs to the boy's body and begs him to wake up. The boy, who is Shiro, miraculously revives and shows the approaching villagers that the bullet hit a crucifix he had. Sunlight shines through the clouds onto Shiro and he raises the crucifix and a long beam of light shoots from it up into the sky. The villagers bow down and worship Shiro, declaring him the son of God and the returned messiah and saviour, and the Madonna statue reforms by itself. Meanwhile, an evil-looking man in the bushes watches the events as they unfold and smiles.

10 years later, during the Shimabara Rebellion, a small group of shogunate soldiers are seen marching though a thick fog outside Harono Castle. Suddenly, flaming arrows land near the troops and explode to form giant crucifixes, after which the soldiers are annihilated by a barrage of arrows. Nearby, armored Christian soldiers raise banners adorned with crucifixes and cheer for their recent victory. Meanwhile, inside a chapel that had been set up in Harono Castle, Amakusa Shiro's lieutenant, Mori Soiken, informs the people of their recent victory, stating that their victories were given to them by God as a reward for their piousness. He then states that as long as Shiro, the son of God, is with them, they will emerge victorious. Shiro then addresses his people, telling them to not hate their enemies, stating that they deserve respect and that the current conflict was inevitable. He also reminds them that both sides have died and suffered. His main desire is to end this war and not further betray the will of God. Meanwhile, at the camp of the Tokugawa Army, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, the army's general, is informed of the attack's failure and they have suffered at 500 casualties. Suddenly, a cloaked individual appears and tells Matsudaira that Christian soldiers' holy magic has protected Harono Castle and that they will not be able to penetrate the castle while they are protected. He then tells Matsudaira to leave the matter to him before disappearing. A brief narration then explains the origins of Shimabara Rebellion. Matsudaira is then shown leading another attack on Harono Castle. A nearby soldier informs Miyamoto Musashi about this. Musahi then proceeds towards the castle, while noticing a kite heading towards the castle. The extremely huge kite, tethered to someplace, floats high in the clouds above Harano castle. Jubei Yagyu and four other ninjas are standing on a narrow platform on the kite. They leap from the platform through a lightning storm and float down to the castle using capes. Using the aerial assault, Jubei and his four ninjas enter the castle and begin easily slicing the Christians in half. One ninja in particular, who has a penchant for explosives, detonates a wave of explosions throughout the castle. There is intense fighting with much bloodshed. Matsudaira Nobutsuna's army uses a battering-ram to enter the castle, and the soldiers battle their enemies.

Shiro gathers the women, children, and elderly in the chapel, which the soldiers can't enter because it is protected by a seal. He promises to protect them with the power of God. However, the four ninjas know about this seal and the four barriers that are maintaining the seal, and each one destroys a barrier. Shiro is alerted to the destruction of the seal and senses Jubei, referring to him as a "mighty power that will kill us". Jubei slices a bunch of men and then comes across two kids whom he wall-runs past. The kids then find Mori Soiken, who smiles wickedly and kills them. Jubei meets Shiro on a roof and Shiro bargains with him to spare the lives of the women and children if he commits seppuku, which Jubei accepts, but Shiro is stopped by Soiken, who shows him the decapitated heads of the two kids and tells him not to trust Jubei. Shiro goes ballistic and uses his magic to summon a lot of power into himself. He then uses the power of psychokinesis to destroy the roof and fire the tanto and shingles at Jubei. Shiro then summons a black dragon with which he attacks Jubei. Miyamoto Musashi, who has entered the castle, is easily slicing through Christian soldiers as he watches the events. Jubei tries to slice the dragon in half but it proves useless. He then flees but the dragon catches up to him, and he holds on to the snout of the dragon as it flies through buildings and into the sky. Shiro emerges from the top of the dragon's head and begins strangling Jubei. Two of the ninjas try to assist Jubei by firing harpoons at the dragon, but it breaks free, so the biggest and strongest of the ninjas tells those two to stay put. He and the ninja who likes explosives perform a tactical attack: the latter opens up a bazooka and fires it at the dragon, while the former protects himself with a folding metal suit of armor with rocket propulsion (concealed in his small shoulder pads) and attacks from a different angle, causing massive damage to the dragon. Jubei cuts off Shiro's hands and falls to the roof, but the dragon's head is still alive and sneaks up behind Jubei. Jubei holds up the children's heads and hesitates Shiro mid-attack, which he capitalizes on to throw his sword at Shiro, spearing him in the chest. The impact rips Shiro from the dragon's head and flings him into a window of the main chapel. Shiro then angrily curses Jubei for what he has done before the window breaks, causing him to fall into the chapel.

Having survived the fall and surrounded by flames and corpses, a saddened and wounded Shiro demands to know why God has abandoned him and his people. Soiken appears behind him and tells him that God does not exist, claiming that he is nothing more than a figment created by the weak in order to give their lives hope, and that his former master, Konishi Yukinaga, believed in and fought for God, which caused his entire family to be murdered by the Tokugawa. Hearing this, Shiro angrily demands to know the purpose of his existence. Suddenly, Ocho, who is revealed to be Soiken's daughter, appears and Soiken tells Shiro that if he wishes to be reborn, then he must become one with Ocho. Casting the spell that will allow Shiro to be reborn, Makai Tensho, Soiken cuts off one of his own fingers, which then comes to life and crawls inside Ocho. While Ocho proceeds to have sex with Shiro in the burning chapel, Soiken declares that from the flesh and blood of the victims of Shimabara, Shiro will be reborn as Satan and help destroy the world.

Sometime afterwards, the decapitated heads and corpses of the victims of Shimabara are shown skewered on pikes both outside and throughout the remains of Harono Castle. Meanwhile, outside the castle, Jubei is shown to have built two small graves for the two children who Soiken killed before he and his men leave. While leaving, he walks by Miyamoto Musashi, who, after Jubei and his men leave, proceeds to laugh evilly. The closing narration reveals that, with the exception of four soldiers who had surrendered, Shiro's forces were completely annihilated. In addition, Shiro, whose decapitated head is shown on top of a cross, was found lying injured and immobile in the destroyed chapel and Mori Soiken was never again seen by mortal men.

Hell's Spawn

The second OVA is called "Hell's Spawn". It begins by showing a younger Jubei kill five samurai with ease. Jubei's father, Munenori Yagyu, scolds him for his constant murders but Jubei makes excuses. Munenori challenges Jubei to a duel; warning him that he will not hesitate just because Jubei is his son. Jubei attacks but restrains himself and only slashes Munenori's shirt. Munenori jumps into the air and tosses a kunai into Jubei's eye. As Jubei stays bleeding, his father states that he knew Jubei would not attack him and used this knowledge against Jubei. Munenori tells Jubei that he must never lose and should exploit every weakness of his opponent and that he can't rely on strength alone. Jubei tells his father that he doesn't need his father's platitudes and that he is stronger than his father ever would be. Munenori banishes Jubei from his house and lands.

There is a historical narration about the strongest swordsmen of the time and how swordsmanship became a science and evolved. The samurai's discussed are Musashi Miyamoto, Mataemon Araki, Inshun Hosowei, Botaro Tamiya, Munenori Yagyu, and Jubei Yagyu. It states that their battles are legendary but their deaths are shrouded in mystery; for example, Musashi disappeared in foggy mountains and Mataemon was poisoned by an unknown person.

Several months after the Shimabara Riot, Jubei is resting under a tree when he starts to have memories of the riot and all the bodies. An old man is riding into the Yagyu lands when he spots a boy and a girl spear-fishing. The girl keeps nagging the boy and he dunks her into the water. The old man rides on towards the Yagyu estate. The girl jumps onto Jubei and pretends to be frighten of a snake. She then confesses how much she likes Jubei. When the old man, whose name is Jushin Sagoguichi, enters the estate he is dismayed that it is in ruin and that some walls are broken down. A servant tells him that lord Jubei allowed it to get that way. Jubei and the two children arrive and it turns out that Jushin is the children's father. Inside the house, Jushin scolds his daughter for not being ladylike and scolds his son, who is his heir, for doing servant's chores. Jubei tries to calm him down with sake. Another young girl, named Ohina, enters the room bringing food. She speaks graciously to Lord Jushin and Jushin compliments her on how beautiful she has become since he last saw her. As Jushin and Jubei eat, Jushin tells them that the shogun, Yorinobu, has requested that all unmarried girls of noble birth between the ages of 15-23 should be brought to Kishu. Jubei finds the mandate strange. Onwei, Jushin's daughter, protests stating she wants to stay with Jubei. Jushin tells Jubei that the shogun is amassing a large army and gathering much food and it looks like he will increase taxes. He also tells Jubei that many strange men have been coming to the capital. Jushin also tells Jubei that many girls have gone missing. Jubei invites Jushin to watch the girls spar. In the morning, Ohina demonstrates her skills with a naginata by defeating a lot of men in a sparring match. Onwei then challenges Ohina and the two battle to a standstill. Jushin compliments them on their improvement and soon afterwards leaves with them to Kishu. Before Onwei leaves, she reminds Jubei to bathe at least once every three days and to wear clean clothes. As Jubei watches them go, he tells his servant to send a spy to watch the castle in Kishu and that he, Jubei, would be gone for five days.

Somenight later, at Shosetsu Yui's residence in Edo, Ohina is attacked and raped by a born-again Inshun Hosowei. As he slowly rapes her, he licks her breasts and plays around with her. After he is finished raping Ohina, he kills her. Mataemon Araki, who is sitting nearby, comments on how Inshun likes doing that. Inshun retorts that Mataemon does the same thing. As Mataemon constantly stabs a kunai into his hand, he says that today he doesn't feel like killing girls but wants to kill rats. The two men are being spied on by a ninja. Mataemon suddenly leaps into the trees and slowly kills the ninja. Two more ninjas attack him. He kills one and chases the other. The ninja flees across rooftops, but Mataemon is faster than him. Mataemon calls the ninja a mouse. The ninja calls up other ninjas to assist him. Mataemon tells them his name and how it has been a while since he killed a man. The ninjas believe he is lying about his identity. Mataemon removes the scarf covering the lower half of his face and tells them he is "a born again". The ninja tells him "then you will die again". All the ninjas attack him at once, impaling him on several swords. Mataemon condescends the ninjas' futile attack. He pops the swords out of his body, along with his intestines. He then unsheathes his own sword and uses it along with his dangling intestines to attack and slay the shinobis. Two shinobi escape him. One backs into a dark corner and is quickly sliced to pieces by a resurrected Botaro Tamiya. Botaro tosses a dagger into the other ninja but he replaces himself with a cat. Mataemon yells at Botaro for ruining his fun. At Tajima-no-Kami Yagyu residence, the ninja who survived, whose name is Godaiyu, reports to Munenori Yagyu. He tells him that Lord Yorinobu in Kishu is organizing an army of ronin and that inhuman creatures were appearing. He also tells Munenori that he saw ghosts: Mataemon, Inshun, and Botaro. Munenori doesn't believe him and scolds Godaiyu for drinking. Godaiyu tells Munenori he wasn't drinking. Munenori says that those men were some of the most skilled killers, and he ponders what Shosetsu is planning. He then begins coughing uncontrollably. Godaiyu says that Jubei would be useful. Munenori yells at him to never mention that name, and Godaiyu apologises. Munenori tells him to continue observing Shosetsu, and Godaiyu slides away into the darkness.

Jubei is walking through a fog in the woods when he comes upon a small hut. Inside the hut, Jubei talks to an old man about the prophecy of 'Tenshi'. The old man asks if Jubei really believes in Satan and reminds Jubei that he saw Shiro's staked head. The old man informs Jubei that he has people familiar with underground paths and will be able to use them in case of battle. The old man then tells Jubei that Jubei is too young to quit being a warrior. Jubei tells him he is tired of murdering in the name of duty. The old man asks Jubei how many persons he killed but Jubei tells him that he lost count. The old man says that he should take a break and rest a little. The old man also says that Jubei reminds him of an old friend named Musashi Miyamoto, who strove to excel everyone in swordsmanship and now lives as a hermit in the mountains. As the old man talks to Jubei, a little boy leaves Musashi's house thanking him for the lessons. Musashi's house is dug into the side of a mountain. Inside is very spacious with large gigantic statues of numerous warriors. Musashi recollects the Shimabara revolt and watching Jubei fight. He questions if he would be able to defeat Jubei. Musashi then picks up a paintbrush and begins tirelessly drawing a lot of buddhist pictures.

Later that night, in Edo, during a full moon; Soiken Mori, Shosetsu Yui, Botaro, Inshun, and Mataemon stand on an altar in a room, surrounding Ocho, who is laying on the floor. They all start chanting "Satan". A cloud blankets the moon, causing the room to darken. Suddenly the moon turns red, the wind blows strongly, and electricity starts flashing within the room. Ocho starts levitating, her body convulsing wildly as her clothes fall off. Suddenly, she exhales an enormous cloud of smog. The smog shapeshifts into a crucifix, then the virgin Mary, and finally into the Devil. After maintaining its Devil form for a few moments, the smog then returns to Ocho's body. A big bulbous growth forms in Ocho's throat and crawls under her skin to her belly, where it turns into faces and then stretches and pulls Ocho's skin chaotically as it wriggles about. Suddenly, many long strands of silver hair fire out of Ocho's body and wrap around wooden beams, bars, the ceiling, and even Soiken's and Shosetsu's necks. Shosetsu tries to get it off, but Soiken tells him to leave it. As Ocho is suspended upside-down, Soiken calls for Satan and Shiro Amakusa to come out. Ten fingers push out of Ocho's mouth and wiggle about. Then a long split cuts from inside Ocho's body and a naked, silver-haired Shiro pushes his way out, ripping her into many pieces. Shiro shrieks and green energy shoots from his body into the air and descends onto the three resurrecteds: Botaro, Mataemon, and Inshun. After charging-up, the four jump through the ceiling. The moon returns to normal.

Somewhere else, Jubei is walking through the woods when suddenly there is a strong gust of wind which cuts his cheek, causing him to bleed. Musashi is still drawing, when a sudden breeze blows out the candle. A drop of blood falls on his page.

There is a street festival going on that night, with hundreds of people in attendance. Botaro is standing in the crowd. He draws his sword and begins slicing randomly, cutting men, women, and children in half. As people start fleeing, Mataemon races through the crowd, hacking people with his sword. Inshun carries a staff with a boomerang blade on the top. He flings the blade into the air and it cuts through many people before returning to his staff. Some persons try fleeing from the spinning blade, but are too slow. Shiro, who can use his hair for attacks, extends his hair to impale and slice-up people. Many are killed, with their bodies and heads staked for display. Soiken laughs and declares that hell is unleashing its force. The show ends with the four resurrecteds jumping into the air one by one.

Talpa, the demon lord of the Netherworld and ruler of The Dynasty, is bent on conquering the mortal world. Standing against Talpa and his four Dark Warlords are the five Ronin Warriors, each in possession of mystical armor and weapons. They are assisted by Mia Koji, a young student-teacher, and a mysterious warrior-monk known only as The Ancient.

The scene is Berlin in late 1923. Abel Rosenberg, an American-born Jew, is an unemployed alcoholic and former trapeze artist who uses alcohol to help him deal with the horrific nature and uncertainties of life in post-war Germany, poverty and inflation having crippled the German economy at the time. He returns home one night to discover that his brother Max has committed suicide. Abel meets up with his old boss, who gives him some money in an attempt to persuade him back to his now-successful circus. Abel realizes that he will not be as good as he was with his brother and declines, but his boss allows him to keep the money anyway. The Jewish community is being portrayed in the media as a drain on society; despite being a Jew himself, Abel has little sympathy for people, Jewish or otherwise, who get into trouble for "acting stupid." He goes to see his brother's wife Manuela to break the news of Max's death to her. She asks what triggered Max's suicide, but Abel is unable to provide a solid answer. The only sentence in Max's suicide note Abel can make out reads: "There's poisoning going on."

Attempting to drown his sorrow, Abel goes on a drinking binge that lingers into the early hours, and he spends the night at Manuela's house. The next morning, the two discuss possible new career paths for Abel. After Manuela leaves for work, Abel steals from her in order to buy alcohol. He is later taken by the police to the mortuary to identify a series of bodies, the first of which is that of Gretha Hofer, his brother's former fiancée who drowned. He is shown the body of another man who was murdered by a lethal injection; he does not know the man but comments that the man strongly resembles his deceased father. Next he is shown the body of an old female suicide victim whom Abel identifies as a woman who used to deliver papers to his village. Finally he is shown the body of a young boy who was hit by a truck, but he does not recognize the boy. Abel is told that all of the mysterious deaths happened within the vicinity of his home. He is told that he will have to remain in police custody until they are convinced of his innocence. Convinced that he is being set up because he is a Jew, he tries to escape the police station, but is quickly recaptured.

Manuela visits Abel in the hospital, where she informs him that all her money is gone, but Abel does not confess. Abel is released for lack of evidence and returns home with Manuela. However, on returning home Manuela is told by her landlady that Abel must leave because he and Manuela are not married, so Manuela decides to leave with Abel. As they prepare to leave, Manuela confesses to Abel that she actually works as a prostitute and concocted her office job out of shame.

In November, many fear an armed confrontation between extremist parties. Abel and Manuela live in an apartment on the outskirts of town. Manuela leaves for work one morning but Abel secretly follows her, discovering that she has actually been going to church. She confides in the priest that she feels responsible for her husband's death and is struggling to maintain her new life with Abel, as the two have become consumed by fear.

That evening, Abel discovers that Manuela had acquired their new apartment by providing sexual favors to the owner of the brothel where she works. He is initially disgusted and leaves and find his own place, but he soon returns and shares a passionate kiss with Manuela. One night while Abel and Manuela are enjoying a drink in the brothel and enjoying the cabaret, the brothel is overrun by soldiers who beat the owner to death before burning the building.

Abel secures a job as a file clerk in a hospital while Manuela gains employment at the hospital clinic. They are given an apartment surrounded by many derelict or empty buildings. One night, Abel is alerted to files containing detailed reports of past graphic and inhumane experiments conducted on patients at the hospital. Abel becomes even more fearful and will not even allow Manuela to touch him, and she starts to suffer from extreme mood swings. Abel gets drunk at a local bar, and on his way home, he vandalizes a bakery and gets into a fight with the baker and his wife, but has no recollection of why he did so. He is found in the street by a prostitute who convinces him to have sex with her. They enter the brothel, but it is already occupied by a man who is ranting about another prostitute, with whom Abel has sex.

Abel returns home to find Manuela dead on the kitchen floor and the apartment littered with cameras. He flees the scene and soon finds himself in a mysterious, seemingly abandoned industrial building. Eventually he is discovered by an unknown attacker and the two fight in an elevator, which Abel uses to cut off the attacker's head.

Abel returns to the hospital and confronts the doctor about the inhumane experiments carried out at the hospital. The doctor claims that all of the subjects of the experiments were volunteers, whom he states "would do anything for a little money and a warm meal." Abel is then shown footage of a man injected with a serum that drove him mad within minutes; the effects of the drug subsided, but the man committed suicide a few days later. It is revealed that Abel's brother Max was an assistant who was interested by the experiments and, against the objections of the doctor, he opted to inject himself with the serum, which later triggered his own suicide. Abel is shown a video in which a man and a woman living in the same apartment that he and Manuela had inhabited are driven into a frenzy by an odorless gas that causes extreme mood swings. He also states that it was not his intention to subject them to any detrimental experiments, as the buildings connected to the apartment had already been vacated. He was sincerely trying to help them and was fond of Manuela. As the police arrive on the scene and attempt to enter the laboratory, the doctor swallows a cyanide capsule and states that Germany is in need of a revolution that ordinary people are too weak to carry out, and that these experiments will benefit mankind in the long run. He then dies.

Abel is shown recovering from his ordeal in a psychiatric ward. The chief of police tells him that the circus has offered him his old job and forces him to accept the offer to begin right away. He also mentions that the Nazi party's latest attempt to seize power has failed.

A voice-over reveals that Abel escaped from police custody on the way to the train station and was never seen again.

Peter Egermann visits and murders a prostitute named Ka, committing an act of necrophilia. The coroner interrogates Peter's friends for an explanation. Mogens Jensen tells the coroner he is shocked by the murder, claiming there were no signs this could happen. Peter is married to career woman Katarina; they have no children. In fact, Peter had confided in Jensen that he was plagued with homicidal thoughts, primarily aimed against Katarina. Jensen considered the thoughts likely not serious, but advised Katarina to leave town. Katarina dismissed the warning as preposterous, and given it was a busy season for work, she decided it was impossible for her to leave.

Before the murder, Peter considered suicide by throwing himself from a building, and Katarina called a friend to calm him down. Peter came back inside, where he quarreled with Katarina. The two shared an open relationship, as Katarina seeks other lovers. Peter claimed he is the one who knows how to sexually satisfy Katarina. Katarina responded she sometimes had orgasms with Peter, but also that she sometimes faked them and left the bedroom to masturbate, and that on other occasions she only had small convulsions.

The interrogator questions Tim, a homosexual. Tim is a business partner of Katarina and her friend, and by extension, he also knew Peter. The interrogator asks if Tim ever had an affair with Peter; Tim hesitates before replying no. Agitated, Tim reveals he had desires for Peter, and is suffering a guilty conscience after having introduced Peter to Ka. Ka was one of Tim's friends. Tim blames his homosexuality for bringing Peter and Ka together, saying he had difficulties with Katarina and liked the idea that Peter would cheat on her with a prostitute. Slowly, he thought, he would lure Peter to him.

When Peter met Ka at a Munich peep show, Ka told Peter her real name was Katarina, the same as his wife. He tearfully murdered her. Jensen concludes that Peter, having grown up under an aggressive mother and then lived with a similarly aggressive wife, was unaware of his own latent homosexuality and that meeting Ka disrupted Peter's daily routine and triggered an emotional blackout. Peter is confined to a mental institute, where he cradles a teddy bear at night.

''Birthright'' spans a timeline of nearly 17 millennia, beginning at a very early stage of expansion from Earth and ending with the death of the last humans. In between, it chronicles a slow but (despite some set-backs) steady conquest of the entire galaxy - inhabited by thousands of sentient alien races, which are overpowered and oppressed using whatever tool it takes: economic pressure, diplomatic finesse, or simple military power.

Not all chapters deal with humanity's treatment of aliens; some also cover the "internal" politics that result in a development of the growing human empire from a democracy to a monarchy. But the biggest theme is undeniably the search for the elusive quality that allows humanity to overcome all opposition and manage the unique feat of conquering the entire galaxy. It is never clearly defined but manifests perhaps most succinctly when it also results in the failure of an attempt to cross the void between galaxies.

Then, after there is no more room for conquest, the only way left is down: internal struggles as well as deep-seated resentment of aliens result in a decline of human power that takes nearly as long as the rise, but is described far less extensively. Somehow, despite whatever enabled humans to achieve total power, they were unable to keep it.

Displaying a particular brand of irony, one of the chapters reveals the "literary genre of fiction" as another of humanity's peculiarities, not shared by any alien race.

The player creates a new WWE developmental superstar and assumes their role for the game. The created superstar starts off as a new wrestler signed to a WWE contract attempting to work his way up to the main roster. After this series of matches and cutscenes, the superstar is allowed to perform on ''Sunday Night Heat'', before he finally is allowed to join the main roster. There are two different brands to choose from (''Raw'' or ''SmackDown!''), each with their own distinct roster of wrestlers. As an effect, this will also choose which stable they will join. Choosing Raw results in joining Triple H's Evolution. Choosing SmackDown! results in joining The Undertaker's New Ministry.

The superstar goes on and works his way up the "rungs of the ladder" in a series of matches, ultimately resulting in the acquisition of the show's World Championship. If the player has chosen Raw, the World Heavyweight Championship will be awarded. If SmackDown! was chosen, the WWE Championship will be awarded.

As the story progresses, Triple H or The Undertaker starts kicking people off the team as they fail him or (as in the case of the created superstar) become a threat to his championship. The final battle is an Iron Man match at WrestleMania XX for the championship.

The story is continued in the sequel, ''WWE Day of Reckoning 2'', though under the assumption that the superstar chose ''Raw''.

Set initially in Bideford in North Devon during the reign of Elizabeth I, ''Westward Ho!'' follows the adventures of Amyas Leigh (Amyas Preston), an unruly child who as a young man follows Francis Drake to sea. Amyas loves local beauty Rose Salterne, as does nearly everyone else; much of the novel involves the kidnapping of Rose by a Spaniard.

Amyas spends time in the Caribbean coasts of Venezuela seeking gold, and eventually returns to England at the time of the Spanish Armada, finding his true love, the beautiful Indian maiden Ayacanora, in the process; yet fate had blundered and brought misfortune into Amyas's life, for not only had he been blinded by a freak bolt of lightning at sea, but he also loses his brother Frank Leigh and Rose Salterne, who were caught by the Spaniards and burnt at the stake by the Inquisition.

A pair of Germans visiting a remote Greek island go to the beach and are slaughtered by someone who emerges from the ocean. Five travelers are preparing to tour the islands and are joined by Julie, who asks for a ride to an island some of her friends live on. The only one who objects to this detour to the island (which Julie explains has only a few permanent residents and only sees tourists a few months out of the year) is Carol, whose tarot cards, the Tarocco Piemontese, convince her something bad will happen if they go. The group sails to the island anyway. While disembarking, the pregnant Maggie hurts her ankle, so she stays behind on the boat with its owner. A man attacks the ship, ripping the sailor's head off and abducting Maggie.

The others explore the island's town, discovering it in disarray, and abandoned except for an elusive woman in black, who writes "Go Away" on a dusty window. A rotting corpse that appears to have been cannibalized is uncovered in a house, prompting everyone to rush back to the boat, which is adrift. With no other options, the group goes to the house owned by Julie's friends, where they find the family's blind daughter, Henriette. After wounding Daniel in a panic, Henriette is calmed down and rants about there being a madman who smells of blood prowling the island.

To stop Daniel's wound from becoming infected, Andy and Arnold go into the town to search for antibiotics. Carol walks in on Daniel flirting with Julie and goes into hysterics, running off into the night. Julie goes after Carol but loses her and meets up with Andy and Arnold. The disfigured killer breaks into the house and rips Daniel's throat out but leaves Henriette alone and flees as the others return. Everyone treks through the island in the morning and finds a mansion belonging to Klaus Wortman. Julie mentions that she read that Klaus, his wife, and their child are assumed dead, having been shipwrecked, a tragedy which caused Klaus' sister Ruth to become unhinged. Ruth (the woman in black from earlier) watches the group enter the building, comforts the sleeping Carol, and hangs herself.

After waking Carol, Andy and Arnold look out a window and see that the boat has drifted close to shore. The two men go to secure the vessel, and Julie finds a partially destroyed journal among the objects in the mansion, and it reveals that the killer is Klaus and that the bodies of all of Klaus' victims are in a hidden room. Andy and Arnold split up, and the latter reaches an abandoned church, where he finds Maggie and is confronted by Klaus. Klaus has a flashback that reveals he and his family were stranded in a raft after being shipwrecked and that Klaus accidentally stabbed his wife while trying to convince her that they should eat the body of their dead son to survive. Klaus then ate his wife and son's corpses, driving him insane. Klaus regains his composure, stabs Arnold, then strangles Maggie to death. As Arnold slowly dies, he watches in horror as Klaus rips out and eats Maggie's unborn child.

Julie uncovers the room where Klaus' victims are at the mansion and skims another diary she finds in it. Carol stumbles into the chamber and drops dead from a slit throat. Klaus then attacks Julie, who locks herself and Henriette in the attic after a short chase. Klaus breaks through the ceiling and kills Henriette, and is then knocked off the roof by Julie and falls into a well. When Julie peers down the well, Klaus attacks her, but she is saved when Andy appears and stabs Klaus in the stomach with a pickaxe, causing the cannibal's intestines to spill out. As a last dying act, Klaus gnaws on his own innards, staring at Andy, while Julie looks at Klaus in horror; Klaus then falls over and dies. The film ends with Andy and Julie standing over Klaus' body, staring at each other in shock.