Marge warns that the episode is frightening and should not be viewed by children. During the warning, she is informed it is so scary that Congress will not allow its broadcast, and that the Western film ''200 Miles to Oregon'' will be shown instead. Bart and Homer interrupt Marge's warning with an ''Outer Limits'' parody and the episode begins.
In a parody of ''The Shining'', the Simpsons are employed as caretakers at Mr. Burns' haunted lodge while it is closed for the winter. Burns cuts the cable television wire and confiscates the beer, thinking this will ensure the family's hard work. When Groundskeeper Willie discovers that Bart has the power to read his thoughts, he advises using it to summon him should Homer go insane.
The deprivation of his two favorite things — beer and television — causes Homer to go crazy. A phantom Moe informs Homer he must kill his family to get a beer. Marge is attacked by Homer and fends him off with a baseball bat. Homer faints in horror after seeing his reflection in a mirror, so Marge locks him in the pantry to calm him down. Eventually, Homer returns to sanity and eats happily with his favorite foods. Then, he hears Moe demanding to get out of the pantry to kill his family. When Homer refuses, Moe and a gang of ghouls drag him from the pantry.
While Marge and the children are enjoying dinner, Homer (after several false starts) begins chasing them with an axe. Bart uses his powers to summon Willie, who abandons his portable TV in the snow to come to the family's rescue. Homer kills him by burying the axe in his back and continues his pursuit of the family. As he is about to kill them, Lisa discovers Willie's abandoned television outside in the snow. Homer's insanity abates and the family is frozen stiff by ice and snow while watching TV.
Homer breaks the toaster after getting his hand stuck in it twice. While trying to fix it, he accidentally turns it into a time machine. While testing the toaster, he transports himself to prehistoric times, where he remembers Grampa Simpson's advice to be careful not to change anything should one travel back in time. Homer fails to heed this and swats a mosquito, turning the present into a dystopia where Ned Flanders rules the world.
Homer time-travels again to set things right, but he accidentally kills a walking fish. Returning to the present, he finds Bart and Lisa are giants and narrowly avoids being crushed by them. Homer sneezes during his next trip and infects a ''Tyrannosaurus'' with the common cold, which causes the dinosaurs' extinction. At first he is pleased when he returns to the present — the Simpsons are now extremely wealthy and about to drive their Lexus to Patty and Selma's funeral — but he is horrified to find no one knows what donuts are. He flees this reality, where donuts soon start raining from the sky.
In another realm, Groundskeeper Willie tries to help Homer but is again struck in the back with an axe by Maggie, who says, with James Earl Jones's voice, "This is indeed a disturbing universe". On his next trip back, Homer, at his wit’s end, destroys everything in sight with a baseball bat. He arrives in a present where everything appears normal. When he finds the rest of his family eating a meal with amphibian tongues, he decides this reality is "close enough".
Principal Skinner worries the detention hall is becoming overcrowded. Due to budget cuts, Lunchlady Doris is reduced to serving "Grade F" meat in the cafeteria. Skinner discovers a common solution to both problems: eating children. Jimbo Jones is the first student to be killed and served, followed by Üter. Bart and Lisa discover Skinner and Doris' scheme, as one by one their classmates are "sent to detention", where they are caged and butchered.
Eventually, Ralph Wiggum, Wendell, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse are among the only students left. After Wendell is sent to detention, Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse try to escape, but Skinner and Doris corner them on a ledge above a giant food processor. Willie tries to help them escape but is once again felled with an axe to the back by Skinner. Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa fall to their grisly deaths.
Bart wakes up from the nightmare to find his family near his bed. Marge assures him he has nothing to fear except the "fog that turns people inside out", which seeps in through the window and turns the Simpsons' bodies inside out. The family then perform a parody of A Chorus Line's "''One''" with Willie during the end credits, but near the end of the number, Santa's Little Helper drags Bart off-screen by his intestines and eats him alive.
The story revolves around Dr. Ginn Chaos, a mad physicist who spends his time away from society doing secret experiments in his extensive mansion. His latest invention is an Interdimensional Warpgate which grants access to another world. Shortly arriving at the mansion to visit him is his younger brother, Michael. Michael quickly realizes that Ginn is missing. Making matters worse, the mansion's architecture is damaged, and is overrun with strange hostile creatures. Michael must now survive against the hostile creatures throughout the mansion, in his attempt to find his brother. Dr. Chaos is similar to Goonies II.
The presidential candidate's child has been kidnapped by the terrorist organization Crime Ghost masterminded by Faust. Top officials have asked the 2 best soldiers to infiltrate Crime Ghost's base and liberate the child.
Deep in the heart of the Tiny Universe lies the North Planet where the main characters, Bing and Bong, make their home. These two explorers are catapulted to the surrounding worlds in their solar system on a flying white couch where they explore, learn about the inhabitants, develop friendships and have fun.
In the year 373 of the new space age calendar, overpopulation of Earth has led to increased demand for emigration to space colonies. Jay McCray, the son of a scientist responsible for development of space colony #428 in the Silius Solar System (SSS), prepares to move there in order to follow in his father's footsteps. However, the space station is obliterated in an explosion, killing the entire research team and destroying all data on board.
In his father's home, Jay discovers a floppy disk containing not only the complete SSS colony plans but a personal message from his father asking that he complete the projects should terrorists succeed in destroying the colony. To protect the colony plans and to avenge his father's death, Jay sets out to fight the terrorists responsible for the space colony's destruction.
On a mountain in the Pacific Northwest, apparently in the 19th century, the she-wolf Nitka discovers an abandoned Native American baby and is inspired by the "Spirit of the Wild" to raise him alongside her own cubs. He has no name of his own to begin with, although the author calls him Shasta from the outset.
Like Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli (Baker even refers to him as a man-cub), Shasta grows up naked in the wild and is able to speak to animals, including the wise old black bear Gomposh, although this "speech" seems to consist as much of body language as of actual vocalization. Along the way his animal parents and friends rescue him from attacks by a grizzly bear and a moose, and he takes revenge on an eagle for killing wolf cubs.
Shasta also discovers a human tribe and is briefly captured by them before his wolf parents help him to escape. His curiosity eventually draws him back, and this time he is treated more kindly and persuaded to stay. The chief explains to the tribe that he is in fact one of their own tribesmen, Shasta, grandson of the old chief. Shasta's mother was killed by a tribesman who defected to an enemy tribe, the Assiniboines, taking Shasta and abandoning him in the hope that the wolves would kill him. Instead, he survived and eventually returned to the tribe bringing his "wolf medicine".
While Shasta is in the process of learning tribal ways, he discovers that the Assiniboines are once more planning to attack. During the raid Shasta is captured and prepared for sacrifice, but is once again rescued by his wolf-friends, who avenge his human mother's death by killing many of the enemy tribe.
After the battle Shasta stays with his wolf kindred, and the author is deliberately ambiguous as to whether he later returns to human society.
After the events of the first ''Ninja Gaiden'' game, in the Realm of Darkness, Ashtar, the evil lord who controlled Jaquio, is informed of Jaquio's defeat; he devises a plan to rule over Earth by opening the Gate of Darkness. A U.S. Army Special Intelligence unit member named Robert T. Sturgeon is sent to find Ryu to take out Ashtar. Robert informs Ryu that Irene Lew has been captured and that he must go to the Tower of Lahja to save her. After hopping on a freight train and then battling up the mountain in which the tower lies, he is ambushed by a figure who describes himself as a tribesman of the World of Chaos, led by the Emperor of Darkness Ashtar. After making it to the top of the tower, Ryu finds Irene, who has been captured by Ashtar. Ashtar then blasts Ryu with energy from his own sword; before Ashtar can finish off Ryu, Robert appears and shoots Ashtar in the back, stopping him. Robert orders Ashtar to hand over his sword and give up, but Ashtar escapes with Irene, telling Ryu to follow him into the Maze of Darkness.
After Ashtar escapes into the Maze of Darkness, Robert tells Ryu about Ashtar's plot to take over the world by using the full power of his sword, the Dark Sword of Chaos. Robert implores Ryu to stop Ashtar before his Dark Sword reaches full power. After battling through the Maze of Darkness and into the World of Chaos, Ryu hears echoes of Ashtar's plan in the distance.Strategy Guide, p. 55. Ryu then catches up with Ashtar. He releases Irene, but immediately after releasing her he stabs her with the Dark Sword. Robert then shows up, only to find out that Irene has been mortally wounded; Ashtar then blasts Robert with energy from his Dark Sword and then challenges Ryu to battle. Ryu defeats Ashtar, and before he dies, he says that the forces of Darkness will soon awaken and implores the forces of Chaos to engulf the world into darkness. While he is saying this, the Dark Sword of Chaos vanishes into thin air. After Ashtar's death, Irene tells Ryu that an evil altar that Ashtar prepared to open the Gate of Darkness must be destroyed. Ryu then leaves Irene behind and tells Robert to take her and leave the World of Chaos.
As Ryu enters the World of Darkness to destroy the altar, Irene and Robert, while traveling back, are stopped by a shadowy figure that Irene has seen before. Meanwhile, after defeating Kelbeross whom he noted he fought in his fight against Jaquio (in the previous ''Ninja Gaiden'' game), Ryu finds Robert on the ground and mortally wounded. He tells Ryu that Irene has been captured again and that Ryu must prevent the Gate of Darkness from opening. Robert then tells Ryu to leave him behind while he fends off the demons. Ryu eventually makes it to the evil altar where he finds Irene and the shadowy figure who captured her; the figure reveals himself as Jaquio – the antagonist from the first ''Ninja Gaiden'' installment – who was reborn after his first battle with Ryu.
Jaquio tells Ryu his master plan of using Ashtar as a pawn, used to awaken the true evil. He plans to use the Dark Sword of Chaos to use Irene's life force to open the Gate of Darkness and summon all the demons, while Ryu awakens them from their sleep. Jaquio then challenges Ryu to a showdown in which Ryu defeats him. Before Ryu and Irene can destroy the evil altar though, Jaquio's blood awakens the Dark Sword, which opens up the Gate of Darkness, shocks Irene and Ryu with its energy. The Demon Jashin arrives through the Gate of Darkness and reanimates the corpse of Jaquio. He then turns into a demonic wall, which Ryu, after borrowing strength from his Dragon Sword, defeats. Jashin is once again sealed away, the Dark Sword then breaks apart, the Gate of Darkness closes and disappears, and Ryu flees with Irene out of the temple just as it collapses. He then begins to mourn for Irene, who is presumed to be dead, when the power of the Dragon Sword revives her. Irene tells Ryu that she felt like she had been dreaming for a long time. Ryu tells her that the incident is over, and the game ends as the two watch the sun set.
Between the events of the original ''Ninja Gaiden'' and ''Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos'', CIA agent Irene Lew is chased by a man who looks like Ryu Hayabusa to a cliff edge, where she falls to her apparent death. In an effort to clear his name, Ryu investigates the laboratory where Irene was killed. A mysterious man appears there and tells Ryu to go to the Castle Rock fortress, where he will give Ryu more information about Irene.
On his way to the outer limits of Castle Rock, Ryu encounters A. Foster via a video image. Ryu inquires about Irene, to which Foster replies: "I don't know what you're talking about." Ryu encounters his look-alike who killed Irene. The look-alike flees, saying that Foster has ordered him not to eliminate Ryu quite yet.
Ryu encounters the stranger from the laboratory, who reveals his name as Clancy. Clancy reveals that he and Foster were working together until Foster began to design creatures called "bio-noids" – transformed superhumans that are infused with "life energy" from an interdimensional rift that appeared after the demon from ''Ninja Gaiden'' was defeated. Clancy pleas to Ryu to stop Foster. When confronted by Ryu, Foster reveals his plan to kill him and make a powerful bio-noid from his corpse. Irene appears to the surprise of both Ryu and Foster. Ryu's look-alike transmutes into a bio-noid, which Ryu defeats.
A door to the interdimensional rift opens. Clancy appears, telling Ryu, Irene, and Foster that they were all used as pawns in his plan to take over the ruins and claim the life energy as his. Foster tries to follow Clancy through the door, but the energy destroys him utterly. Ryu goes through the rift into the subspace while Irene stays behind. Inside the subspace, Ryu encounters his resurrected and strengthened look-alike, and kills him once and for all. Ryu is teleported from the subspace into a room where he meets Clancy once again. Clancy explains the truth behind Castle Rock: the ruins are a dimensional warship called the "Ancient Ship of Doom". He says that "these super-dimensional ruins are the foundation upon which a new world will be created", and that it will be where all new life will originate from. The ship reappears in the real world, and Clancy fires a test shot to demonstrate its power while Irene watches in horror.
Ryu fights his way back through the ship and confronts Clancy, who has turned himself into a bio-noid. Clancy gives Ryu the offer to join him and work to wipe out the human race and usher a new age, but Ryu refuses and kills him after a lengthy battle. Ryu is transported outside the warship and back to Irene. Both watch as the Ancient Ship of Doom is brought down and explodes, and Castle Rock fortress crumbles. The two watch as the sun rises and as a new day begins.
The Simpsons celebrate brunch at a fancy restaurant to celebrate Homer finally paying off the mortgage. After Bart and Lisa get in a food fight, Homer goes to Moe's, where the health inspector has come for his regular visit. Since the inspector is a friend of Moe's, he gives the bar a clean bill of health, regardless of numerous violations, but he dies upon consuming one of the expired pickled eggs. The new inspector immediately declares Moe's Tavern to be closed down until the violations are cleared up and the weekly garbage pickup disposes of his predecessor's corpse.
Later, while the regulars hold an Irish wake on the sidewalk, Homer is guilty about Moe's Tavern being closed down because of him, but decides to help Moe reopen the bar by getting a new mortgage for his home, forging with Marge, who becomes the new co-owner. Homer visits a cleaned-up Moe's with Marge running it to protect their investment, and she suggests Homer just concentrate on the kids. Marge also suggests that Moe's should become an English pub and to rename it The Nag & Weasel to improve its image. The Nag & Weasel is a success, and Bart and Lisa observe that Marge now spends more time at the establishment than Homer has ever done. Homer is worried, but Marge has no problem with it.
Homer and Marge go to a movie together, only to be joined by Moe, and Homer learns from Lenny and Carl that Marge and Moe are having what is called an "emotional affair". Homer is also scared when Marge reminds him for the 11th time they are planning to attend a bartender convention in Aruba. Homer rushes to the airport, escorted by Chief Wiggum, and gets to the plane as it is about to become airborne, in an attempt to save his marriage. Meanwhile, Moe finally gets out his true feelings for his partner that he has hidden in the dark for so long, spurred on by the alarming display he witnesses from the window seat. He tells Marge he loves her, and in a rush, asks her to marry him. Marge is shocked, but before she can answer, a soaking-wet Homer bursts out of the toilet seat in the bathroom and glares at Moe to leave his wife alone. Moe shouts back that Homer does not deserve Marge at all since he knows nothing about her: her favorite dish, for example. Homer does admit that he does not know much about his own wife, but despite his faults, Marge reassures him that he really is her true love, not the bartender.
The three arrive in Aruba, where the miserable Moe attempts to drown himself because of his loss, only to be stopped by Marge and Homer. Marge explains to him that he is sweet enough a man to be loved by someone else, if only he is willing to make a few, minor changes. Moe seems to listen, but nevertheless reverts to his original scheme of sharing a hotel room with Marge (he has changed the booking on the sly). Marge instead forces Moe to share the bed with Homer while she settles down on the couch. As Marge suddenly realizes no one is watching the kids, the episode ends with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie traveling to Paris in a hot-air balloon.
Various plot elements focus on groups of suburban kids experimenting with shamanism and hallucinogens, who quickly discover themselves unhinged from the culture around them. It details events surrounding their harrowing plunge into this abyss, regularly shifting narrator and frame of reference from one member of the group to the other. Curcio utilizes atypical narrative and grammatical structures in the form of neurolinguistic and hypnotic confusion techniques within the text in an effort to stimulate a similar experience over the course of reading. That Curcio was intentionally utilizing these techniques is shown in various interviews such as a Gpod radio interview found on his website.
Attorney Walter Fielding and his classical musician girlfriend, Anna Crowley, learn of Walter Sr.'s wedding to a woman named Florinda shortly after fleeing the country for embezzling millions of dollars from their musician clients. The next morning, they are told they need to vacate the apartment they are subletting from Anna's ex-husband, Max Beissart, a self-absorbed conductor who has returned early from Europe.
Through an unscrupulous realtor friend, Walter learns about a million-dollar distress sale mansion on the market for a mere $200,000. He and Anna meet the owner, Estelle, who claims she must sell it quickly because her husband, Carlos, has been arrested. Her sob story and insistence at keeping the place in candlelight in order to save money "for the goddamn, bloodsucking lawyers", distracts Walter and enchants Anna, who finds it romantic. They decide to buy it.
From the moment Walter and Anna take possession of the house, it quickly begins to fall apart. Among other problems, the entire front door frame rips out of the wall, the main staircase collapses, the plumbing is full of gunk, the electrical system catches fire, the bathtub crashes through the floor, the chimney collapses, and a raccoon is living in the dumbwaiter.
Contractors Art and Brad Shirk summarily tear the house to pieces using Walter's $5,000 down payment, leaving him and Anna embroiled in bureaucracy to secure the necessary building permits to complete the work. His continuing frustration at the escalating costs of restoring the house leads him to brand it a "money pit", whilst the Shirks continue to assure him that their work will take "two weeks".
The repair work continues for a grueling four months and Walter and Anna realize they need more money to complete the renovations. She attempts to secure additional funds from Max by selling him some artwork she received in their divorce. Although he does not care for it, he agrees to its purchase. He wines and dines her, and the next morning, when she wakes up in his bed, he allows her to believe that she has cheated on Walter; in reality, Max slept on the couch. Walter later asks her point-blank if she slept with Max, but she hastily denies it. His suspicions push her to admit that she did so, but the damage is done.
Due to Walter and Anna's stubbornness, their relationship becomes more and more hostile and in a rare moment of agreement, they vow to sell the house once it is restored and split the proceeds. This nearly happens, but he misses her and says he loves her even if she did sleep with Max. She happily tells him that she didn't and they reconcile. In the end, they are married in front of the newly repaired house.
Ultimately, Estelle and her husband/partner-in-crime, Carlos, resurface in Brazil where they try to persuade Walter's father and his new bride to purchase an old house they claim to have lived in for several years, implying that the vicious circle is about to start all over again.
King Kai senses the destruction of the south galaxy by a Super Saiyan and realizes that the north galaxy will be targeted next. He telepathically contacts Goku who begins tracking the Super Saiyan's energy.
On Earth, a spaceship interrupts a picnic and army of humanoid alien soldiers greet Vegeta as their king. Their leader is revealed to be Saiyan named Paragus who claims that he has created a New Planet Vegeta and wishes for Vegeta to assume the Saiyan throne. Vegeta agrees after Paragus tells him that the "Legendary Super Saiyan" is running rampant throughout the galaxy and must be stopped. Gohan, Future Trunks, Krillin, Master Roshi, and Oolong accompany Vegeta onto the ship.
On New Vegeta, Vegeta meets Paragus' son, Broly, who joins him in tracking the Super Saiyan on other planets. Gohan, Trunks, and Krillin explore New Vegeta and discover that it is uninhabited except for the alien slaves who reveal that a Super Saiyan obliterated their civilization. The slave masters begin to abuse them but they are defended by Gohan and Krillin. Goku arrives and is greeted by Paragus, who invites them to dinner at the palace. Broly appears agitated at the mere sight of Goku. Paragus calms his son by using a device on his bracelet that syncs to Broly's headband. Despite this, Broly attacks Goku in the middle of the night requiring Paragus to calm his son once again. Goku suspects that Broly is a Super Saiyan and Paragus contemplates the mind-control device and suspects that it is malfunctioning due to Broly responding aggressively to Goku. Paragus theorizes that Broly's violent Saiyan instincts are awakening as a result of Goku's power, then remembers they were born on the same day in an attempt to explain their fated encounter after all these years.
Goku and the others confront Paragus upon learning the truth about Broly as his aggression toward Goku swells to the point of breaking free of the mind control device and he finally transforms into a rage filled behemoth - the Legendary Super Saiyan. Broly attacks Goku who is defended by Trunks and Gohan while a fearful Vegeta loses his will to fight. Paragus taunts Vegeta while revealing that Broly was born with a power level of 10,000 and was feared by King Vegeta to the point that he ordered the infant's execution. Paragus failed to persuade King Vegeta to spare Broly who was pierced in the abdomen by a knife and left for dead with his father while Frieza destroyed the planet that same day. Broly's survival instincts caused him to shield himself and Paragus and they soared off into space protected by Broly's power. Broly grew unstable and sadistic as he aged and Paragus was forced to use a mind-control device to pacify his son but planned to use him to exact his revenge on King Vegeta's bloodline and convert the Earth into new Planet Vegeta. Paragus reveals that a comet is currently on approach toward New Vegeta and will destroy it upon impact.
Goku, Gohan, and Trunks are dominated by Broly until Piccolo arrives and heals them with Senzu beans. They engage Broly again but continue to be severely outmatched. After being scolded by Piccolo, Vegeta's pride returns and he confronts Broly but is quickly incapacitated. Paragus prepares to escape the doomed planet in a small space pod before he is confronted by Broly and killed. Despite Broly's power continuing to increase, Goku manages to challenge him yet again and he is mercilessly beaten as he asks his allies to lend him their energy. After much reluctance, Vegeta finally gives Goku his energy who is able to use it to strike a piercing blow into Broly, causing the Legendary Super Saiyan's power to become unstable and he explodes.
Just as the comet strikes and destroys New Vegeta, Goku, his allies, and the slaves cheer as they manage to escape in Piccolo's spaceship.
The novel begins with an unnamed narrator's arrival in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, from "back East" and his encounter with an impressively tall and handsome stranger. The stranger proves adept at roping horses, as well as facing down a gambler, Trampas, who calls him a "son of a bitch." (At the time, the word was an unacceptable insult in any society, except between joking friends.) The stranger lays a pistol on the table and gently threatens, "When you call me that, smile!" Known only as the Virginian, the stranger turns out to be the narrator's escort to Judge Henry's ranch in Sunk Creek, Wyoming. As the two travel the 263 miles to the ranch, the narrator, who is nicknamed the Tenderfoot, and the Virginian come to know one another as the Tenderfoot slowly begins to understand the nature of life in the West, which is very different from what he expected. This meeting is the beginning of a lifelong friendship and the starting point of the narrator's recounting of key episodes in the life of the Virginian.
The novel revolves around the Virginian and the life he lives. As well as describing the Virginian's conflict with his enemy, Trampas, and his romance with the pretty schoolteacher, Molly Stark Wood, Wister weaves a tale of action, violence, hate, revenge, love, and friendship. In one scene, the Virginian is forced to participate in the hanging of Steve, an admitted cattle thief who had been his close friend. The hanging is represented as a necessary response to the government's corruption and lack of action, but the Virginian feels it to be a horrible duty. He is especially stricken by the bravery with which the thief faces his fate, and the heavy burden that the act places on his heart forms the emotional core of the story.
A fatal shootout resolves the ongoing conflict with Trampas after five years of hate. After Trampas shoots first in a duel, the Virginian shoots Trampas in self defense and leaves to marry his young bride. The Virginian and Molly ride off together to spend a month in the mountains and then journey back East to Vermont to meet her family. They are received a bit stiffly by the immediate Wood family, but warmly by Molly's great-aunt. The new couple returns to Wyoming, and the Virginian is made a partner of Judge Henry's ranch. The book ends noting that the Virginian became an important man in the territory with a happy family.
An elderly couple, Edith (Vanessa Redgrave) and Abby (Marian Seldes) sit in a cinema watching a lesbian-themed film ''The Children's Hour''. A couple walks out of the theater in disgust at the film, and a group of kids laugh when they see Edith and Abby holding hands. Later, at the home they have shared for 30 years, Abby falls from a ladder. At the hospital, the doctors tell Edith that Abby may have suffered a stroke. Edith asks to see Abby but is not permitted as she is not a family member. Instead she spends the night in the waiting room and in the morning she learns from a more sympathetic nurse that Abby died alone during the night, and none of the hospital workers informed her after it had happened.
Edith telephones Abby's nephew, Ted (Paul Giamatti), her only living relative, to tell him the news. Before Ted and his family come for the funeral, Edith removes all traces that they were a couple. She makes it look like they had separate bedrooms and removes photographs of the two of them together. At the house afterwards, Ted and Edith talk about the fact that the house was in Abby's name. Although Edith contributed equally to the mortgage, she legally owns no part of it. As Ted’s wife Alice packs up Abby's belongings, Ted tells Edith that he would consider letting Edith staying in the house and paying him rent. Edith tells him that Abby would have wanted her to stay in the house, as that was what they always talked about. Ted eventually tells her that it would be better if he sells the house and she finds a place of her own although he says that he'll wait until she finds a new place before putting the house on the market. The family leaves, with Ted telling Edith that he will be in touch in a couple of weeks to discuss what she is going to do.
Linda (Michelle Williams), a young student, now shares the house with three friends, all lesbians. They face conflict with the feminist group they are part of when the other women do not want to include lesbian issues despite the fact that Linda and her friends helped to found the group and fought for free contraception on campus with their straight friends.
At a lesbian bar they have not been to before, they are surprised and disappointed to see women apparently fulfilling traditional butch and femme roles. They laugh at Amy (Chloë Sevigny), a young butch woman who is wearing a tie. Amy asks Linda to dance but she refuses while her friends are still there. The others soon leave and Linda stays behind and dances with Amy. Later, Amy gives Linda a ride home on her motorcycle and they kiss. Linda invites Amy to return the next day.
The next day Linda and the others are arguing with a woman from the feminist group when Amy arrives. Linda is embarrassed and is short with Amy who quickly leaves. Linda's friends tease her about Amy and question how they can be taken seriously as feminists if they associate with people like Amy. They cannot understand why a woman would dress like a man when they have fought so hard to escape such stereotypical roles.
Linda goes to Amy's house and apologizes. They sleep together. The next morning Linda sees a picture of Amy as a child, dressed like a boy. She asks Amy if Amy is supposed to be the man and Linda the woman. Amy says no and accuses Linda of being afraid that people will know what she is if she is seen with Amy.
Amy goes to Linda's house for dinner. Linda urges her friends to give Amy a chance but an awkward evening deteriorates when Linda's friends criticize Amy and try to make her change her clothes. Amy leaves, upset. Linda follows her home and tells her that she was never ashamed of Amy, but only of herself. They reconcile.
The house is now inhabited by Fran (Sharon Stone) and Kal (Ellen DeGeneres), a couple hoping to have a baby together. They hope to get a sperm donation from Tom (George Newbern) and Arnold (Mitchell Anderson), a gay couple, but when the men are reluctant to agree to stay out of the baby's life, the women decide not to go ahead. Later, Kal tells Fran that she does not want to know the father of the baby and they agree to use an anonymous donor. They look for donors on the internet and find a company to use. Going through endless profiles of potential donors, Kal gets upset that she herself cannot get Fran pregnant.
When they discover that Fran is ovulating, Kal hurries to the donor company to get the sperm. She inseminates Fran, but with no success. After visiting the local elementary school a few times, they share their worries for their child. Fran and Kal know that their baby will face discrimination because of society's views on lesbian families, but hope that their love for each other and their child will be enough. After three attempts to get pregnant, they go to a doctor to help them conceive. Shortly afterwards they discover that Fran is pregnant.
Krusty, as the Headless Horseman from ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'', holds his laughing head and hurls it at the camera, making the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special VI", appear on screen in blood.
Homer goes to Lard Lad Donuts to get a "colossal doughnut". Upon realizing that the colossal doughnut is the name of the doughnut that Lard Lad holds and actual doughnuts that size do not exist, he denounces the store and vows to get a colossal doughnut. He returns that night and steals the giant doughnut from the Lard Lad statue in front of the store. In the midst of a freak storm, Lard Lad and the other giant advertising statues come to life to terrorize Springfield. At Marge's insistence, Homer eventually returns the doughnut to Lard Lad, but that does not stop Lard Lad and his friends from causing destruction. Lisa goes to the ad agency that created those advertising characters, and an executive suggests the citizens stop paying attention to the monsters as they are advertising gimmicks, and attention is what keeps them motivated. He suggests a jingle will help distract people from watching the monsters. Lisa and Paul Anka later perform a catchy song and the citizens of Springfield stop looking at the monsters, who lose their powers and become lifeless.
Bart has a nightmare that Groundskeeper Willie is out to kill him. He is slashed with a rake, and the scratches are still on his body after he wakes up. Many other students at Springfield Elementary School also say they were terrorized by Willie in their nightmares. When the students take a test, Martin - having finished his test first - falls asleep and is strangled to death by Willie in his dream, before waking up and dying in the real world. Bart and Lisa tell Marge about the incident and she explains Willie burned to death after the thermostat was turned too high while the parents of the students looked on and did nothing. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie try not to fall asleep for several days, but eventually, Bart decides that he is going to have to go to sleep and fight Willie in his dream. Bart falls asleep and attempts to find Willie, who appears as a lawn mower. Bart manages to trick Willie into mowing a sandbox containing quicksand, and Willie sinks. Willie recovers and turns into a giant bagpipe spider and is about to kill Bart as well as Lisa, who has entered the dream after also falling asleep. Suddenly, Maggie appears and uses her pacifier to seal the vent on Willie's spider body, resulting in Willie exploding. The Simpsons children awaken and despite being pleased to be alive, Lisa fears that Willie might still be around. As it turns out, a very much alive and well Willie exits a bus and tries to scare the children, but loses a shoe as he chases the bus to retrieve a gun he left aboard.
Patty and Selma visit the Simpsons, driving Bart, Lisa, and even the pets to evade them and consequently leave almost no place for Homer to hide. Desperate to avoid his wife's sisters, he looks behind a bookcase and enters a mysterious new world in which everything is in 3D. Homer explores the peculiar area, and finds that he is trapped within (only his voice can be heard to Marge and the others). He seeks help from them, but their attempts to rescue him are fruitless.
After a cone hits Homer, he throws it into the floor and accidentally pierces the fabric of the space-time continuum, causing it to collapse into a wormhole threatening to pull Homer and the rest of the dimension into a black hole. Bart takes command and enters the third dimension to save Homer. Bart is unable to help, however, and the universe collapses on itself. Bart is pulled back into the house and Marge is sad that her husband is gone; Reverend Lovejoy attempts to appease her by saying he has gone to "a better place". Homer is sent into the real world, landing in a dumpster in a live-action Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. He walks around, frightened as people stare at him, but then is pleased to find an erotic cake store.
The ancient land of Elemen was rife with chaos under the tyranny of the evil Empress Rimsala (Rimsalia). A group of powerful wizards called the Card Masters combined their abilities to defeat Rimsala and seal her away. But her legacy would not be forgotten.
Decades later, political unrest in the kingdoms of Elemen turned into bloody civil war. As armies slaughtered each other on the battlefields, the Card Masters were persecuted and hunted down by the minions of Galneon, the former court magician of Wagnall, King of Lexford. Galneon was the man who had launched the original coup that began the war, but his motives were much more sinister than bloodshed. He sought the unsealing and resurrection of Rimsala, to unleash her ancient evil upon Elemen again. In the conflict, King Wagnall's two daughters disappeared. It was also the last battle for the Knights of Lexford, a trio of brave fighters sworn to Wagnall, which dissolved as the war drew to a close. Galneon assumed power and stretched forth his oppressive authority across Elemen, eliminating every Card Master found so that the revival of Rimsala could succeed without interference.
Ten years have passed since these events. The young protagonist Rooks is the son of the last Card Master to perish during Elemen's civil war, who was also one of the Knights of Lexford. The death of his father motivated Rooks to begin learning the art of the cards in earnest, but in a decade his minimal training has barely scratched the surface when word comes to his home village of Galia. Mysterious events are occurring all over the land, heralding a cataclysm. Rooks' path lies before him as he sets off to prevent the awakening of Rimsala, so he must fulfill his destiny as the last Card Master before it is too late.
Doremi Harukaze, a third grade elementary school girl living in the fictional Japanese town of Misora, comes across the , a magic shop, and accidentally discovers that its owner, Majo Rika, is a witch. Due to a curse placed on any witch whose identity is exposed by a human, Majo Rika is transformed into a witch frog. Wanting to return to her original form, Majo Rika makes Doremi her witch apprentice, giving her the ability to cast magic. In order to become a fully-fledged witch capable of turning Majo Rika back into a human, Doremi has to pass nine different witch tests, while also keeping her identity a secret from other humans. Doremi is soon joined by her two best friends, Hazuki Fujiwara and Aiko Seno, and later by her younger sister Pop Harukaze who all become witch apprentices, helping to run the Maho-Do whilst using magic to help out their friends and families. They soon come across a rival witch apprentice, Onpu Segawa, who has been using forbidden magic to influence people's memories. While initially cold towards the other girls, Onpu soon warms up to them. Finally they successfully passed the final test. However, their identities are revealed to their families and friends. Onpu wipes the memories of those that attempt to expose them to prevent their identities from being revealed. She uses forbidden magic too many times, losing control of it. In order to save Onpu from an eternal sleep, the girls give up their magical powers to awaken her.
At the start of the fourth grade, Doremi and the others, who sneak into the Witch World to visit Majo Rika, witness the birth of a magical baby, who is given the name Hana and will be the candidate for the next queen. As witch law dictates that whoever witnesses a magical baby's birth must take care of it for a year, Doremi and the others are once again made witch apprentices, tasked with raising Hana. While also taking care of the Maho-Do, which has now become a gardening store, the girls must ensure Hana's growth and help her pass several health examinations held by the Witch World's head nurse, Majo Heart. Meanwhile, a wizard named Oyajide attempts to kidnap Hana to help aid the Wizard World, later enlisting the help of four young wizards known as the Flat 4, who tried to get close Doremi and the others to kidnap Hana, but liked them later. Finally, the witch apprentices help mend relations between the Witch and Wizard Worlds. However, Hana's powerful magic catches the past queen of the Witch World's attention, who slept in the cursed forest for some reason. She cursed Hana to make her sick, only the Love Supreme Flower that grow in the cursed forest can heal her. At the end Doremi and the others succeeded in picking the flowers but were cursed to fall into eternal sleep. Then Hana wake up them with her powerful magic and thoughts of them, but they also lost their witch identity.
As the Queen of the Witch World pleads to the other witch senates to make Doremi and the others witches again, half of the senates are opposed to the decision. Thus, the Queen offers a compromise in that the girls, who are made into apprentices again, must pass six patissière exams in order to become full witches. With the Maho-Do remodeled into a bakery, Doremi and the others are joined by Momoko Asuka, a returnee from America who initially has little experience with Japanese outside of using a special intercom, to help them bake sweets needed for their exams. Midway through the series, Hana is afflicted by a curse from the past queen again, causing her to have a dislike for vegetables which are necessary for her magical growth, prompting Doremi and the girls to get another chance to take care of Hana and help her get over her pickiness. After curing Hana's pickiness and passing the patissière exams, the girls appeal to the past queen, Majo Tourbillon, who had despised humans ever since she lost her human husband and grandchildren. They made her favorite dessert in her memory, the cake her husband made when he proposed to her, then she undoing a curse placed upon a forest, where her true form is found sleeping, protected by magical vines.
OVA series, Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho!, takes place during this time frame.
Hana, who has gotten bored of the Witch World and wants to be with Doremi and the others, uses all of her magic to instantly grow up and become a sixth grader. This results in the Maho-Do being transformed into a crafts shop and Hana's magical crystals shattering, requiring Doremi and the others to supply her with the energy needed to become a witch apprentice. Meanwhile, the Queen discovers Majo Tourbillon's power will eventually cause all worlds to be put to sleep. As such, the Queen tasks the girls, who are assisted by Majo Tourbillon's fairy, Baba, to recreate various handmade gifts that Majo Tourbillon's six grandchildren had made and received from her in order to remind her of the happy times and break the vines imprisoning her. The vines soon start spawning black flowers that cause people and magical beings alike to be affected with laziness, with the girls enlisting the help of Hana and a white elephant named Pao to put a stop to them. Finally they managed to wake up Majo Tourbillon. After resolving her misunderstanding with her grandchildren, she lifted the witch frog curse. Girls are finally allowed to become witches, but they are also reminded that if they become full witches, they will live longer than ordinary humans. Eventually they decided not to become witches and learned that they can do anything even without using magic, then combine their respective crystal fragments into a new crystal ball for Hana. The series ends with their elementary school graduation and Majo Rika takes Hana back to the Witch World. Although they each went their separate ways, their friendship remains the same and continue to move towards their dreams.
In the kitchen, Homer lights a jack-o'-lantern but ends up lighting his arm on fire. He runs off screaming while the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special VII" is shown on screen.
Bart and Lisa hear strange noises coming from the attic. They investigate and discover that there is a monster. Homer and Marge realize that the creature has escaped, prompting Marge to call Dr. Hibbert. He explains that Bart has an evil twin named Hugo. The two were originally conjoined but were separated at birth. Hugo was deemed too evil to live in society so they chained him in the attic, where they feed him fish-heads. Bart stays behind as the others leave to search for Hugo, but Bart realizes that Hugo never left the house. Hugo takes Bart to the attic and ties him up, so that he can reattach himself, but Dr. Hibbert returns and knocks out Hugo. He then realizes that Hugo's scar is on the wrong side, therefore Bart is the evil twin. Bart tells everyone not to look so surprised. To make amends for their error, Dr. Hibbert and the Simpson family sit down to a turkey dinner with Hugo, leaving Bart locked in the attic with only Hugo's fish-heads to eat.
In preparation for the school science fair, Lisa performs an experiment in a petri dish to see if cola will dissolve her baby tooth. Bart gives Lisa a static electric shock, claiming it is part of his project to prove that "nerds conduct electricity". The electric charge is then passed on to the tooth when Lisa tries to touch it, causing it to undergo an unusual reaction which creates a race of miniature beings. Lisa discovers this when inspecting the contents of the tub with a microscope, noting that their rate of evolution is accelerated. Bart destroys some of the ecosystem in Lisa's tub universe with his finger, and the tub people retaliate by sending a squadron of space ships to attack him. The inhabitants of the tub then shrink Lisa to their size with a miniaturization ray and beam her down into the tub, where they explain that they regard her as God, and Bart as the Devil. She says she can protect them from Bart if they return her to normal size, but they lack the necessary technology. Suddenly, Bart’s large shadow towers over the universe and heavy footsteps can be heard. Bart is seen walking towards the tub, smirking. The people panic and start to run. Bart moves his hand toward the tub. Lisa screams “Bart! No!”. Bart closes the tub and later is opened by Principal Skinner. It turns out, Bart has submitted the tub in the science fair, and now Lisa is forced to watch from within as Bart wins first prize. Knowing that she is now trapped in the tub, she begins issuing orders to its inhabitants.
While out fishing, Homer is abducted by Kang and Kodos. They demand that Homer take them to Earth's leader, but Homer informs them of the upcoming presidential election and says the winner could be either Bill Clinton or Bob Dole. Kang and Kodos kidnap both Dole and Clinton and place them in suspended animation, assuming their forms through "bio-duplication" to ensure that one of them will become the next leader. Before returning Homer to Earth, the aliens soak him in rum, so nobody will believe him. Most voters seem to be oblivious to the strange behaviors of Kang and Kodos in disguise, much to Homer's vexation. On the day before the election, Homer stumbles upon the badly hidden spaceship, hijacks it and releases Dole and Clinton from suspended animation. Both candidates agree they should put aside their differences and join forces to defeat the aliens and bring about a new age of bipartisanship, but Homer accidentally ejects them into space. Homer crashes the spaceship into the Capitol and unmasks the aliens, revealing the candidates' true identities to the public. However, despite being exposed, Kang and Kodos declare to the people that the two-party system means they still have to choose one of them, mocking a bystander's suggestion of voting for a third-party candidate instead. Kang is subsequently elected President of the United States, ruling as a monarchical tyrant and enslaving the American population in order to build a giant death ray. An enslaved Homer absolves himself of blame, stating that he voted for Kodos.
The novel begins with an inflated and parodic but reasonably accurate portrayal of Ellis's early fame. It details incidents of his rampant drug use and his publicly humiliating book tours to promote ''Glamorama''. The novel dissolves into fiction as Ellis describes a liaison with an actress named Jayne Dennis, whom he later marries, and with whom he conceives a child. From this point, the fictional Ellis' life reflects the real writer's only in some descriptions of the past and possibly in his general sentiments.
Ellis and Jayne move to fictional Midland, an affluent suburban town outside New York City, which they no longer consider safe due to pervasive terrorist acts in a post-9/11 America. Fictional incidents include suicide bombings in Wal-Marts and a dirty bomb detonated in Florida. Strange incidents start happening on a Halloween night, some involving a Terby doll belonging to Ellis's fictional stepdaughter Sarah.
As the novel progresses, the haunting of Ellis's house and questions over the death of his father become increasingly prominent. At various points, characters and events from Ellis' novels appear to intersect his real life, although he is largely unaware of this thin veil between his reality and his fiction. With his history of drug use and alcoholism, his wife, children and housekeeper are understandably skeptical of his claims that the house is haunted. Unfolding events only very gradually reveal a much more complicated situation than a simple haunting. There is a dynamic interplay between the author's dead father, the house itself and specific negative associations buried within the author's own subconscious mind. Added to all of this is the very late-breaking and almost gratuitous insinuation that Robby, the narrator's young son, may somehow be at the epicenter of all these events.
A censor for the Fox network named Fox Censor is sitting at his desk going through the show's script, censoring some things and explaining to the audience that the episode is rated TV-G with no violence or anything explicit. As he continues talking, a hand reaches with a sword from the rating and stabs him many times with the rating changing from TV-G to TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA to the fictional ratings TV-21 and TV-666. He falls on his desk dead and his blood spells the title, "''The Simpsons Halloween Special VIII''". In this episode, the couch gag features the family sitting on the couch with metal shackles and caps attached to their bodies while electrocuting them.
After Mayor Quimby makes an offensive joke about France, the French president launches a neutron bomb directly into Springfield, apparently killing everyone except Homer, who had been inspecting a bomb shelter he was considering buying from Herman. Homer emerges and seems to be the only person in Springfield left alive. Initially grieving for his loved ones, Homer perks up, realizing that being the last person allows him to do everything he always wanted to. While dancing naked in church, he is confronted by a band of hostile Springfield citizens who have become mutants from the blast. Homer flees back home where he discovers that his family survived as their house was protected by its many layers of lead paint. Marge and the children kill the mutants with shotguns and then the family head off to steal some Ferraris.
Homer buys a matter transporter from Professor Frink. Bart sees the family pets inadvertently go through the transporter together, resulting in a DNA mismatch. This gives him the idea to enter the teleporter with a fly, thinking that he will become a mutant superhero. However, the machine simply switches their heads around. Bart appeals to Lisa for help, but she is chased by the fly and cornered in the kitchen. Bart tries to stop the fighting, but is eaten by the fly. Lisa then pushes the fly into the teleporter. Bart comes out the other end, fully restored. Homer furiously chases Bart with an axe for messing with the device.
In 1649, the town is witness to many witch burnings. In the church, the townspeople try to figure out whom to condemn next. People begin accusing others and soon they erupt into chaos, until Marge intervenes. She tries to talk sense into the townspeople, but Moe accuses her of being a witch. Quimby assures her that she is entitled to due process which means she will be thrown off a cliff with a broomstick; if she is a witch she will be able to fly to safety, in which case the authorities expect her to report back for punishment. If she is not a witch, then she will fall to an honorable Christian death. After being shoved off the cliff, Marge flies up on the broomstick revealing that she really is a witch and vows to conquer the whole town. She returns to her sisters Patty and Selma. The sisters watch Ned and Maude Flanders talking about how the witches eat children, which gives them the notion to do just that. They knock on the Flanders' door and demand their sons, but before they leave, Maude offers the witches gingerbread men instead. The witches like these better than the children so they go to each house, getting goodies in exchange for not eating the children. As they fly off, the Sea Captain says that is how the tradition of Halloween and trick-or-treating started.
The film is structured around ten acts with a prologue and epilogue.
It opens with the camera on Marianne standing by a table covered with photographs. It is a well-lit room, and she addresses the viewer. She picks one picture up after another; they are in no particular order, being just heaped all over the table. Some make her smile, or elicit a comment or a sigh. But then she picks up a photograph of her husband, prompting her to reminisce about how they had been more or less happy, and how they'd broken up. She goes on to recall how his second marriage failed, while she was already married to a second husband herself, and then when her second husband died (by flying a glider off somewhere and disappearing), she reflects that it would be nice to see her first husband again.
Marianne travels into the country to the home of her ex-husband Johan, the father of her daughters Martha and Sara. Johan is undergoing a family crisis with his insolvent and needy son, Henrik, and granddaughter, Karin. Karin is 19, and Henrik asks Johan for an advance on his inheritance so that Henrik can buy Karin an old Fagnola cello, to make a better impression at the audition for the European music conservatory. The elderly Johan decides to consider the offer and to contact the cello dealer himself. While Henrik is away tending to the orchestra he conducts in Uppsala, Johan has a private meeting with Karin, informing her of a proposal from Ivan Chablov, head conductor in the St. Petersburg orchestra and an old friend of Johan, that Karin join him at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
While considering this offer Karin also finds an old letter from her departed mother Anna written to Henrik a week before her death. In the letter, Anna asks Henrik to relieve Karin of the unhealthy control he holds over her as her cello teacher. When Henrik encounters Karin again upon his return from Uppsala, where he no longer holds a position as concertmaster, he attempts to convince Karin into performing a concert of ''Bach's Cello Suites'' with him. She finally confronts him about his control over her and tells him of her decision to take an opportunity to study with her friend Emma in Hamburg under Claudio Abbado. The final request by Henrik is that Karin play the sarabande from Bach's 5th Cello Suite, which she already knows.
We encounter Marianne and Johan some time later, after Karin has already left for Hamburg. Marianne receives a phone call stating that Henrik has been found in the hospital having attempted suicide with pills and by cutting his wrists and throat. In the next scene a pained Johan suffering from a sort of anxiety attack seeks out Marianne and eventually disrobes along with her and joins her in bed. Next, Marianne is holding a still of the couple in bed and explaining what happened after that episode. She explains how she and Johan had kept in contact until one day she was no longer able to reach him. She thinks again of the departed Anna and recollects a visit to her ill daughter Martha who is in a sanatorium. She explains the contact she shared with her daughter and how she had never really been able to touch her before this moment.
At the Saint Ignatius Orphanage, a rebellious boy named John Rossi refers to himself as "Simon Templar" and leads fellow orphans in an attempt to run away. He tries to bid farewell to a girl named Agnes with a kiss, but they are caught and she accidentally falls from a balcony to her death.
As an adult, Simon — now a professional thief dubbed "The Saint" for using Catholic saints as aliases — steals a microchip from a Russian oil company. Simon stages the burglary during a political rally for the company's owner Ivan Tretiak, a billionaire oligarch and former Communist Party boss rallying support against Russian President Karpov. Simon is caught by Tretiak's son Ilya but escapes with the microchip, and is hired by Tretiak to steal a revolutionary cold fusion formula discovered by Emma Russell, an American electrochemist working at Oxford; Tretiak plans to use Emma's formula for clean, inexpensive energy to monopolize the energy market during a severe oil shortage in Russia.
Using the alias "Thomas More", Simon poses as a Boer traveller to seduce Emma, and steals the formula after a one-night stand. Tretiak realizes the formula is incomplete and sends Ilya and his henchmen to kill Simon, who narrowly escapes. Simon returns to Russia to demand his payment from Tretiak while disguised as Tretiak himself. A heartbroken Emma reports the theft of her formula to Inspectors Teal and Rabineau of Scotland Yard, who inform her Simon is a wanted international thief.
Emma tracks down Simon to a Moscow hotel where Tretiak has them arrested, but they escape and flee through the suburbs. They are sheltered by a prostitute and her family and meet Frankie, a Spiv who sells them directions through the sewers to the U.S. embassy. Finding Ilya and his men waiting for them, Simon lets himself be caught to allow Emma to safely reach the embassy, then escapes after igniting a car’s gas tank and leaving Ilya severely burned.
Planting a listening device in Tretiak's office, Simon learns he plans to sell the incomplete formula to Karpov and frame him for wasting billions on useless technology, then use the political fallout to install himself as president. Emma finishes the formula, which Simon delivers to Tretiak's well-meaning physicist Dr. Lev Botvin, who builds an apparatus that proves the formula works. Simon infiltrates the Kremlin and informs Karpov of Tretiak's conspiracy, but they are captured by Tretiak loyalists. At a massive gathering in Red Square, Tretiak makes his accusations against Karpov, but Botvin’s cold fusion reactor is successfully initiated, exposing Tretiak as a fraud. He and Ilya are arrested, and revealed to have caused the heating-oil shortage by stockpiling vast amounts of oil underneath their mansion.
Reuniting with Emma, Simon returns her formula and they start a secret relationship. She presents her formula to the world at a news conference, which Simon attends in disguise and escapes Teal and Rabineau when they spot him in the crowd. Driving away, he hears a news broadcast (voiced by Roger Moore) that $3 billion was donated to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the United Nations Children's Fund; it is implied that Simon, who had access to Tretiak's accounts, gave the money anonymously and established a non-profit foundation led by Dr. Botvin to develop the cold-fusion technology.
Amber Leighton is a wealthy, spoiled socialite wife of a millionaire who joins two other couples on a private cruise from Italy to Greece. Amber develops an instant and intense dislike for Giuseppe, a deckhand, and insults him mercilessly throughout the trip. During the trip, she insists on being taken out on a dinghy for a lark, overruling Giuseppe's warnings about an oncoming storm.
During their dinghy trip, Amber berates Giuseppe incessantly, which only intensifies once they run out of gas. Through a series of mishaps, Amber damages the dinghy and they end up washing ashore on a deserted island.
On the island, Giuseppe gains the upper hand in their interactions due to his survival skills. As the roles reverse, Giuseppe becomes more dominant in his treatment of Amber, while she concurrently becomes more submissive and cowering. Their relationship evolves into intimacy.
Eventually, the two are rescued and return to their normal lives. Giuseppe attempts to reach out to Amber, to rekindle their relationship, but his messages receive no reply. Giuseppe believes that Amber has rejected him, and is despondent. However, it is revealed at the end that his letters have been intercepted by Amber's wealthy husband, who ensures that Amber never sees them or Giuseppe again.
''War and Remembrance'' completes the cycle that began with ''The Winds of War''. The story includes historical occurrences at Midway, Yalta, Guadalcanal, and El Alamein as well as the Allied invasions at Normandy and the Philippines.
One of the more significant themes in the novel and one that occurs in many of Wouk's works is a rediscovery of a central character's Jewish identity. Biblical scholar Aaron Jastrow and his niece Natalie Henry's experience of the Holocaust and their internment in Theresienstadt Ghetto are the events that trigger their newfound identification with their Judaism, Jastrow having formerly converted to Catholicism. "Jastrow is transformed from a rational professor with only marginal awareness of his Jewishness into a passionate champion of his Jewish integrity" according to one reporter.
The action moves back and forth between the characters against the backdrop of World War II: Victor "Pug" Henry takes part in various battles while separating from his wife. Pug's older son Warren, a naval aviator, and younger son, Byron, a submarine officer, also participate in combat. Warren is killed at the battle of Midway. Byron's wife Natalie is trapped in Axis territory with her uncle, celebrated author Aaron Jastrow, and another major strand focuses on their story as Jews caught in Europe. Like most Americans, Natalie and Aaron fail to believe that the civilized German culture with which they are familiar could possibly engage in genocide. As a result of their rash decision to stay when they could escape, they are slowly absorbed into the Jewish population that is first interned, then sent to concentration camps. As Byron attempts to find out what is happening to them, eventually tracking them down amidst the chaos of wartime Europe, the story of the Holocaust is gradually revealed to the American government and people. Another plot thread concerns Aaron Jastrow's cousin Berel who is captured near the end of ''The Winds of War'' and is forced to join Kommando 1005, SS officer Paul Blobel's Jewish contingent that travels around Eastern Europe exhuming the bodies of massacred Jews and disposing of them in an effort to hide the evidence of Nazi mass murder.
One frequently cited criticism of the plot is that Wouk's repeated references to history take precedence over character development as well as the observations and ideas he offers to explain WWII in a larger context. As a result, the plot is occasionally too predictable, and Wouk seems at times to force the history to comply with his own observations about WWII and mankind. Larry Swindel noted that "there is deficient characterization throughout for any reader not already acquainted with the principals", and "the characters are reduced to pawns on the chessboard of history".Swindel, Larry, "Do Pug and Rhoda Live Happily Ever After", ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'', Fort Worth, Texas, 20 February 1983, pg. 86 Another critic noted that Wouk's personal commentary could have been better presented through his characters and that he should have been able to make his own observations about history through the structure of the novel itself. Nonetheless, it was felt that the book was an interesting, informative read, and that the reader could relate emotionally to the plight of the central characters.Garner, Jack, "WWII as Soap Opera", ''Democrat and Chronicle'', Rochester, New York, 22 October 1978, p. 88 Wouk stated in a lecture which addressed the novel and the nature of warfare then and now, "The sadness is the present reality...I tell you now that I have no solutions. I will offer no facile optimism."Wouk, Herman, "Sadness and Hope: Some Thoughts on Modern Warfare", ''Naval War College Review'', U.S. Naval War College Press, Vol. 51, No. 1 (WINTER 1998), pp. 123-132 Another critic noted that in regards to the novel's depiction of the holocaust, that it may be a serious "trivialization of history to employ old fashioned tricks of plotting, such as the chapter-ending cliffhanger, in dramatizing such grave events".
Perhaps the most significant critical praise of the book and its prequel, ''The Winds of War'', is that Wouk used the tools of the novel to identify the psychological mechanisms and rationalizations that allowed intelligent, well meaning individuals to fail to take needed action to forestall the rise of Hitler's Germany, the ensuring war and the resulting holocaust.
Wouk concludes in the novel, "that war is an old habit of thought, an old frame of mind, an old political technique, that must now pass as human sacrifice and human slavery have passed...The beginning and the end of War lies in Remembrance." The novel's central message put more plainly by its primary character Victor Henry, after he experiences the Battles of Leyte Gulf, is "Either war is finished or we are".Ross, Michelle, "War Shaped Wouk's Life and His Writing", ''The Atlanta Constitution'', Atlanta, Georgia, pg. 147, 30 January 1983 At the end of the novel, Wouk wrote that his purpose was to "bring the past to vivid life through the experiences, perceptions, and passions, of a few people caught in the war's maelstrom. This purpose was best served by scrupulous accuracy in locale and historical fact, as the background in which the invented drama would play".
:Henry obtains a promotion to rear admiral in early 1944. During this period, Rhoda obtains a divorce and Henry is able to marry Pamela. He does not do so until after he takes part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf as a battleship division commander with his flag in . He serves directly under Admiral William Halsey. The novel goes into this battle in greater detail than does the miniseries, including discussion of the most commonly perceived of Halsey's operational mistakes.
:Victor marries Pamela in April 1945. Upon the death of President Roosevelt, President Harry S Truman makes him his naval aide.
:Victor is a straightforward, honest man, which gains him the respect of political leaders such as Roosevelt and Hopkins, and the admiration of Hack Peters.
:The novel notes that Henry retired from the Navy and lived in Oakton, Virginia (near Washington) after the war. He spent part of his retirement translating Armin von Roon's book, and from his notations and commentary, he can be deduced to still be alive as of 1973.
:According to his notations and commentary of Roon's book, Henry retired as a Vice Admiral. However, there is no mention as to whether he was actually promoted to Vice Admiral and given a new assignment after his tenure as President Truman's Naval Aide prior to his retirement or if he was a "tombstone admiral". (Upon retirement, a flag officer is promoted 1 grade in rank if that officer received a commendation for their performance in combat. The flag officer will receive the retirement pay and benefits of the actual lower rank but is authorized to use the higher title in correspondence, on business cards, on their uniforms if they have a need to wear their old uniform, and--more to the point of the nickname--on their tombstones. This practice was abolished in 1959. In Pug's case he would receive the retirement pay & benefits of a Rear Admiral although he is called Vice Admiral.)
:Byron wants to see Natalie; when possible, he wangles duty in the European theater. He serves as a courier to the U.S. mission to Vichy France and tries to get Natalie to leave with him. She refuses on the grounds that while they were able to cross Poland in a war in 1939, they didn't have Louis, their infant son, at the time. Byron and Natalie agree that Natalie and Louis and Aaron should wait to get a passport from the U.S. consulate in Marseilles while Byron travels directly to Lisbon and book a room. Byron arrives in Portugal just as Operation Torch begins, and the plan has to be scrapped.
:Byron returns to the Pacific theater and rejoins Aster on the fictional submarine USS ''Moray''. Aster is severely wounded while on deck during an air attack and to save the boat, orders Byron to submerge without him. (This event is based on the death of Commander Howard W. Gilmore of the on February 7, 1943. Gilmore was awarded the Medal of Honor). Byron is later awarded command of the USS ''Barracuda''.
:As a Naval Reservist, Byron has mixed feelings about his role in the war. He is competent, but doesn't enjoy fighting. However, in one engagement, he is forced to surface and fight a battle against a Japanese destroyer. When told he will win the Navy Cross, he replies, "Killing Japs gave Carter Aster a thrill. It leaves me cold."
:Shortly before the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Byron visits his father aboard his flagship. The meeting is strained, because Byron blames Pamela for the breakup of his father's marriage. Later, his sister, Madeline, straightens him out about the causes of the breakup; he and his father become reconciled.
:In April 1945, Natalie is found in Weimar, Germany. Byron presses the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, for an assignment in Europe so he might be reunited with his wife. He is assigned to investigate the technical details of captured German U-boats and leaves for Europe to join his wife, now recovering in a hospital, and to find his son, Louis. After a long search throughout Europe, Byron reunites with Louis, who was in an orphanage, only to find Louis is so traumatized he will not talk. However, when he reunites Louis with Natalie, Louis begins to sing with her. The reunion occurs on August 7, 1945, the date of the first use of the atomic bomb in warfare.
:In April 1945, von Roon is assigned the role of operations officer for the defense of the Zitadelle in the Battle of Berlin. Toward the end of the battle, he is ordered by Hitler to assist and oversee Albert Speer in a demolition effort intended as a scorched earth policy to destroy Berlin, leaving nothing for its conquerors. Both men, however, are unwilling to carry out the order, because of the effect it would have on future Germans. Speer eventually confesses that he disobeyed. Speer is pardoned for his earlier services, while von Roon is forgiven because he has been nothing but loyal. In the end von Roon has the duty to inform Adolf Hitler that the Zitadelle can hold only 24 hours more (in real life, von Roon's commander, General Krebs, did this); and he is a witness to Hitler's farewell, suicide, and cremation.
:Von Roon is sentenced to 21 years in prison for war crimes (presumably by the Nuremberg tribunal) and writes ''Land, Sea, and Air Operations in World War II'', which is translated (by Victor Henry) as ''World Holocaust''. Von Roon presents the German viewpoint on events; Henry, as translator, provides a rebuttal when required.
The stories begin with the discovery by the Battersea Chief-Lookout, Knocker, of a Rumble in Battersea Park. The Rumbles are rat-like creatures that live in an underground bunker in Rumbledom, and are hated by the Borribles for their riches, power, and haughtiness. Fearing a full-scale invasion of Battersea, each of the Borrible tribes across London send their best and brightest unnamed members to form an elite hit squad, known as the Magnificent Eight or the Adventurers, with the purpose of infiltrating the Rumble bunker and eliminating the eight members of the Rumble High Command.
Rumbles are clearly a parody of the popular children's characters, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common. On the way the Borribles also meet a particularly vicious parody of Steptoe and Son (which was one of the most popular shows on TV at the time) in the form of Dewdrop, a former Borrible, and his son Erbie.
The Adventurers are each assigned the name of the individual target of the High Command that they are to assassinate: Napoleon Boot, the suspicious and cynical Borrible; Chalotte, the tough and brave girl Borrible; Vulgarian (Vulge), frail-looking, but "tough as nails"; Bingo, always cheerful; Sydney, another female and an animal-lover; Stonks, strong and kind-hearted; Torreycanyon, light-hearted with a knack for mechanics; Orococco, the jovial, black Borrible. Napoleon, Chalotte, Sydney, Vulge, Bingo, Stonks, Torreycanyon, and Orococco set out to squash the Rumble threat – but other Borribles have secret agendas and personal vendettas of their own which create an even greater threat than the Rumbles ever were. The supposedly straightforward adventure dominoes into a desperate fight for the very existence of Borrible life.
Following the adventures of "The Great Rumble Hunt" in the first volume of the trilogy, the second volume begins with the surviving adventurers' discovery that Sam the horse is still alive. In attempting to rescue him the Borribles are lured into danger both by the newly established Special Borrible Group (SBG), a branch of the police determined to wipe out the Borribles and their way of life, and by one of their own – Spiff, whose motives behind the mission to Rumbledom are slowly revealed.
All this leads the Borribles deep into Wendle territory beneath the streets of Wandsworth, and down into a shifting tunnel of mud dug deep beneath the mudflats of the Wendle River.
In ''The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis'', Battersea is no longer safe for a Borrible. The SBG (an allusion to the Special Patrol Group), a section of the London police driven on by the fanatical Inspector Sussworth (an allusion to the sus laws) and dedicated to finding Borribles and clipping their ears is determined to wipe them out. The Borribles decide to escort Sam the horse to safety in Neasden and then return to the old way of life of independence and freedom. They begin their journey Across the Dark Metropolis, a journey that tests the courage and cunning of the Adventurers to the limits.
The narrator explains how he instigated a secret investigation of the ruined town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts—a former seaport isolated from other nearby towns by vast salt marshes—by the U.S. government after fleeing it on July 16, 1927. The investigation ultimately concluded with the arrest and detention of many of the town's residents in concentration camps as well as a submarine torpedoing Devil Reef, which the press mistakenly reported as Prohibition liquor raids. He proceeds to describe in detail the events surrounding his initial interest in the town, which lies along the route of his tour across New England, taken when he was a 21-year-old student at Oberlin College.
While he waits for the bus that will take him to Innsmouth, he busies himself in neighboring Newburyport by gathering information on the town and its history from the locals; all of it having superstitious overtones. The town was once a profitable port and shipbuilding center during the colonial period and the American Revolution. It industrialized in the early 19th century but began to decline after the War of 1812 interrupted shipping. The Innsmouth South Seas merchant Obed Marsh built a profitable gold refinery but the town only deteriorated further after riots and a mysterious epidemic eliminated half of its residents in 1845. Marsh also founded a pagan cult called the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which became the town's primary religion. Outsiders and government officials, including Census Bureau agents and school inspectors, are treated with hostility.
The narrator finds Innsmouth to be a mostly deserted fishing town, full of dilapidated buildings and people who walk with a distinctive shambling gait and have "queer narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, stary eyes," Both the town and its residents are saturated with the odor of dead fish. The only person in town who appears normal is a grocery store clerk from neighboring Arkham, who was transferred there by the chain. The narrator gathers much information from the clerk, including a map of the town and the name of Zadok Allen, an elderly local who might give him information when plied with drink. The narrator hears repeatedly that outsiders are never welcomed in Innsmouth, and that strangers, particularly government investigators, have disappeared when they pry too deeply into the town.
The narrator meets Zadok, who after the narrator gives him a bottle of whisky explains that while trading in the Caroline Islands Obed discovered a Kanak tribe in Pohnpei who offered human sacrifices to a race of immortal fish-like humanoids known as the Deep Ones. The Kanak also bred with Deep Ones, producing hybrid offspring which have the appearance of normal humans in childhood and early adulthood but eventually slowly transform into Deep Ones themselves and leave the surface to live in ancient undersea cities for eternity. When hard times fell on the town, the Esoteric Order of Dagon performed similar sacrifices to the Deep Ones in exchange for wealth in the form of large fish hauls and unique jewelry. When Obed and his followers were arrested, the Deep Ones retaliated by swimming up the Manuxet River, attacking the town, and killing more than half of its population.
The survivors were left with no other choice than to join the Esoteric Order of Dagon and continue Obed's practices. Male and female inhabitants were forced to breed with the Deep Ones, producing hybrids who upon maturing permanently migrate underwater to live in the city of Y'ha-nthlei, which is located underneath Devil Reef. The town is now dominated by Obed's grandson Barnabas Marsh, who is almost fully transformed into a Deep One. Zadok explains that these ocean-dwellers have designs on the surface world and have been planning the use of shoggoths to conquer or transform it. Zadok sees strange waves approaching the dock and tells the narrator that they have been seen, urging him to leave town immediately. The narrator is unnerved, but ultimately dismisses the story. Once he leaves, Zadok disappears and is never seen again.
After being told that the bus is experiencing engine trouble, the narrator has no choice but to spend the night in a musty hotel, the Gilman House. While attempting to sleep, he hears noises at his door as if someone is trying to enter. Wasting no time, he escapes out a window and through the streets while a town-wide hunt for him occurs, forcing him at times to imitate the peculiar walk of the Innsmouth locals as he walks past search parties in the darkness. Eventually, he makes his way towards railroad tracks and hears a procession of Deep Ones passing in the road before him. Against his judgment, he opens his eyes to see the creatures. He finds that they have grey-green skin, fish-like heads with unblinking eyes, gills on their necks and webbed hands, and communicate in unintelligible croak-like voices. Horrified, the narrator faints but wakes up at noon the next day alone and unharmed.
After reaching Arkham and alerting government authorities about Innsmouth, the narrator discovers that his grandmother Eliza Orne was related to Obed Marsh's family, although the origins of her mother were unclear. The narrator's uncle Douglas Orne had previously visited Arkham to research his ancestry before killing himself by gunshot. After returning home to Toledo, the narrator begins researching his family tree and discovers that he is a descendant of Obed Marsh through his second wife Pth’thya-l’yi, and in 1930 begins to gradually transform into a Deep One. He begins having dreams of his grandmother and Pth'thya-l'yi in Y'ha-nthlei, which was damaged but not destroyed by the submarine attack. They explain that the Deep Ones will remain underwater for the time being but will eventually return to invade the surface world "for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved." After briefly glimpsing a shoggoth in one of his dreams, he awakens to find that he has fully acquired the "Innsmouth look." He becomes suicidal and purchases an "automatic" (an antiquated term for a semi-automatic pistol) to shoot himself, but cannot bring himself to do it. As the narrator concludes his story, he suffers a mental breakdown and embraces his fate. He decides to break out his cousin, who is even further transformed than he, from a sanatorium in Canton and take him to live in Y'ha-nthlei.
The central character of the book is Adam Salton, an Australian at the outset living there, who in 1860 is contacted by his elderly great-uncle, Richard Salton, a landed gentleman of Lesser Hill, Derbyshire, England, who has no other family and wants to establish a relationship with the only other living member of the Salton family. Although Adam has already made his own fortune in Australia, he enthusiastically agrees to meet his uncle, and on his arrival by ship at Southampton the two men quickly become good friends. His great-uncle then reveals that he wishes to make Adam the heir to his estate, Lesser Hill. Adam travels there and quickly finds himself at the center of mysterious events, with Sir Nathaniel de Salis, a friend of Richard Salton's, as his guide.
Edgar Caswall, the new heir to a neighboring estate, Castra Regis or Royal Camp, is in the process of making a mesmeric assault on a local girl, Lilla Watford. Meanwhile, Arabella March, of Diana's Grove, is running a game of her own, perhaps angling to become Mrs. Edgar Caswall. He is a slightly pathological eccentric and has inherited Franz Mesmer's chest, which he keeps in the Castra Regis Tower. Caswall seeks to make use of mesmerism, a precursor to hypnotism, and, obsessed with Lilla, attempts to break her using mesmeric powers. However, with the help of Lilla's half-Burmese cousin, Mimi Watford, he is thwarted time and again.
Caswall has a giant kite built in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons that have attacked his fields and destroyed his crops. For lack of anything better to do, he obsessively watches the kite and begins to believe that it has a mind of its own and that he himself is a god.
Adam Salton finds black snakes on his great uncle's property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who has been bitten on the neck and who almost dies as a result. Adam learns that another child has already been killed by a snake bite and that animals have also been killed mysteriously throughout the county.
Caswall's Black African servant, Oolanga, a man obsessed with death and torture, prowls around the Castra Regis estate, enjoying the carnage left by the White Worm. Adam's mongoose attacks Arabella, who shoots it to death. Adam buys more mongooses and keeps them locked in trunks when not using them to hunt. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Oolanga takes a liking to Arabella, perhaps sensing something violent in her, and makes advances. Arabella scorns Oolanga and is deeply insulted that he would dare to approach her. In an attempt to win her over, Oolanga steals one of Adam's trunks (which he believes is filled with treasure, but is actually just another mongoose), and Adam follows Oolanga. Arabella lures Oolanga to a deep well in her house, then in rage and disgust murders him by dragging him down into the deep pit tunneled through a bed of white china clay. Adam witnesses the murder, but has no evidence of it apart from his own word. Arabella writes him a letter the next day, with the previous night's events twisted, claiming her complete innocence. Adam and Sir Nathaniel begin to suspect that Arabella is guilty of other crimes and that she wants to murder Mimi Watford.
Adam and Sir Nathaniel then plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. Sir Nathaniel is a Van Helsing-type character who wants to hunt down Arabella, who he believes, with increasing conviction, is the White Worm of legend.
The White Worm is a large snake-like creature dwelling deep under Arabella's house at Diana's Grove. It has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever living creatures it can find to eat. Sir Nathaniel believes the Worm is descended from dragons, who traded their physical power for cunning. The Worm ascends from its pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi Watford in the forest of Diana's Grove.
Adam is able to foil Arabella's multiple attempts to murder Mimi, and Arabella offers to sell Diana's Grove, which Adam buys with the aim of destroying the White Worm. He plans to fill the pit with sand and set dynamite to kill the Worm while it is underground.
Caswall's last visit to Lilla ends in her death. In the final chapters, Mimi Watford confronts Caswall who has finally succumbed to madness. He lures her onto the roof of Castra Regis House as a storm approaches and shows off his kite, despite the thunderheads building in the sky. Arabella, who had been stalking Mimi, watches from nearby and steals some of the wire holding the kite, apparently unspooling it all the way back to her house. When Mimi discovers Caswall has locked her onto the roof she shoots off the lock with a gun Adam gave her for her protection and flees home. Adam convinces her to go back outside with him, and they witness the following events: a massive thunderstorm breaks over Castra Regis House, a lightning bolt is grounded by the kite and demolishes the Castra Regis tower; it then travels through the wire Arabella had run to Diana's Grove and ignites Adam's dynamite, which pulverizes the White Worm and destroys the house and Arabella at the same time. After this, Adam and Mimi Watford are married.
Chaplin and Sterling play two young men, Masher and Rival Masher, who fight over the chance to help a young woman (Clifton) cross a muddy street. Sterling first sees the woman trying to cross and offers her an umbrella he stole from a policeman (Conklin). He asks her to wait for him as he goes to get something to help her. Chaplin comes along and offers the woman to help her cross the street as well and wait for his return. While Sterling and Chaplin go to get logs, another policeman (Nolan) lifts the woman across the street. When Sterling returns with the log, he is indignant that the woman did not wait for him to come back to help her cross the muddy street and demands the umbrella back. When the woman refuses, they engage in a fight which eventually involves Chaplin.
In ''A Busy Day'', a wife (played by an energetic Charlie Chaplin) becomes jealous of her husband's interest in another woman during a military parade. On her way to attack the couple, the wife interrupts the set of a film, knocking over a film director and a police officer. Finally, the husband pushes the wife off a pier and she falls into the harbor.
A weapons satellite has been snatched out of orbit, and the world is facing nuclear destruction. Behind this act is a group of terrorists known as the Mafat Conspiracy. The terrorists plan to extort the U.S. and Soviet governments by threatening to make their satellites fall from space. The Mafat are demanding that the Soviets turn over their research on electromagnetic waves, and the American government to give them the Los Angeles, a ship that is equipped with nuclear warheads.
The CIA and KGB are blaming each other, and Golgo 13's mission is to eliminate the leader of the Mafat Revolutionary Group, destroy the Satellite Capture System, and rescue Dr. Barrows. The doctor was kidnapped from his lab in England many years ago and taken to Paris, where he remains in confinement.
The film takes place in an asylum in the countryside. Amid a torrential rainstorm, a janitor wanders through the halls revealing the various patients with mental illnesses. The next day, a young woman arrives and is surprised to see her father, the janitor, working there. Her mother is an inmate in the asylum and had gone insane due to the cruelty of her husband, the janitor, when he was a sailor. The husband, feeling guilty, took a job at the asylum to care for her. The daughter announces that she is soon to marry a fine young man, but the janitor begins to worry due to the then-common belief that mental illness was inherited. If the young man's family were to learn of the mother's illness, the marriage might be called off.
At work the janitor's relationship with his wife, unknown to the asylum, interferes with his job. He gets into a fight with some male inmates when his wife is hit, and he is sternly scolded by the head doctor. These events cause the janitor to experience a number of fantasies, as he slowly loses control of the border between dreams and reality. He first has a daydream about winning a chest of drawers in a lottery that he could give to his daughter as part of her dowry. When his daughter comes to tell him that her marriage is in trouble, he thinks about taking his wife away from the asylum to hide her existence. He also fantasizes about killing the head doctor, but the vision gets out of hand as a bearded inmate is seen marrying his daughter. The janitor finally dreams of distributing masks to the inmates, providing them with happy faces. He returns to work mopping the floors, no longer able to visit his wife's ward because he lost the keys (picked up by the doctor). He sees the bearded inmate pass by, who bows to him for the first time, as if bowing to his father-in-law.
Before the events of ''The Care Bears Movie'', somewhere out on the ocean, a yellow bear and a purple horse which live in a giant ship, look after a pack of baby animals known as the Care Bear Cubs and Care Bear Cousin Cubs. During their journey, a red hydra threatens them. It is revealed that is none other than one of the many forms of Dark Heart, an evil shape-shifting mist that brings chaos upon the land. They escape by following a rainbow up to the sky, while the boat transforms into the Cloud Clipper. Once taking the stranded rainbow, they reach the Great Wishing Star. This spirit gives the group their iconic “symbols", pictures that indicate each creature's role or specialty which is attached to their chests. True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse, as the characters are named, become founders of the Kingdom of Caring, a land which comprises Care-a-Lot and the Forest of Feelings.
For the Bears' first Caring Mission, True Heart and one of the cousins: Swift Heart Rabbit travel to Earth, where they are led to a children’s summer camp. At the camp, they meet three of its participants: a kind and heartwarming young girl named Christy, and her best mates, the twins John and Dawn. Christy and the twins are concerned because a boastful boy nicknamed the "Camp Champ" always emerges victorious in showdowns. They decide to confront him, only for him to assign them to trash duty. A distraught Christy resolves to run away with her friends, only to get lost in the nearby forest all alone. True Heart soon finds John and Dawn. Not knowing what to do with them, True Hearts rescues them from the forest’s outskirts and brings them to the Kingdom of Caring. After they arrive, the children hear a bell toll from the Caring Meter, which tells the Bears how much caring is taking place on Earth. Noble Heart and True Heart tell them to babysit the Cubs, before they leave to search for Dark Heart and Christy.
Meanwhile, in the forest, Christy meets Dark Heart (disguised as a human boy) for the first time, and asks him to make her the new Camp Champ. He grants her that wish, warning her she must pay him back with one favor with no questions asked, and walks away while she finally encounters his mates. Aware of Dark Heart's potential, True Heart and Noble Heart take action by moving the Bear Cubs to Care-a-Lot, and the Cousin Cubs to the Forest of Feelings. Both sets quickly grow up to become the Care Bear Family.
Later, while the Bears and cousins decide to celebrate the Kingdom of Caring’s anniversary and prepare a party for the Kingdom's founders, Dark Heart sneaks into Care-a-Lot disguised as a repairman so that he can capture the whole Family. A cluster of Star Buddies, an army of stars which act as a defense to the kingdom (under the command of the Great Wishing Star), drives him off; he then morphs into a raging red cloud of mists and engage in a decisive battle. The Bears shoot light at him from their bellies, forming their "Care Bear Stare"; the Cousins also help by using their "Care Cousin Call". After Dark Heart is fended off, True Heart and Noble Heart decide to search and annihilate him, and leave the Bears to handle missions all by themselves.
During their patrol, the Bears and Cousins spot Christy stranded in a canoe within a lake, but before they can rescue her, Dark Heart appears again as an aura of mist and shoots cursed bolts before the team. The family decides to retaliate, only to be captured by his evil red magic and being trapped into his magic bag, which was the favor he wanted Christy to do all along. The few Family members at hand determine that she has teamed up with him. This prompts Tenderheart Bear to hold a press wheel at the Hall of Hearts. Christy joins the conference in secret, only to listen to Tenderheart Bear discuss his plans to successfully put down Dark Heart.
Later in the night, Dark Heart brainwashes everyone staying at the camp, causing them to wreak havoc around the zone. The Bears and Cousins search for any stranded Family members, and to engage Dark Heart again, only for Dark Heart to imprison them—first in cages, then freezing them inside big rubies hanging from a chandelier. Meanwhile, John and Dawn tell Christy of their conviction to rescue the Family from the evil entity. Feeling guilt, she finally comes to her senses and pays him back by admitting what she has done. Despite this, her bargain with Dark Heart is over, and finally admits that he must be expelled one and for all.
True Heart, Noble Heart, John and Dawn partake in a heist to reach and completely destroy Dark Heart inside his lair. After sending Grumpy Bear and other two mates in an attempt to steal a crystallized necklace, Dark Heart awakens, revealing his mystical power. Christy soon joins the heist and threatens Dark Heart to bring the bears down. He refuses, and shows Christy the chandelier in which the Family is trapped. After an argument with Christy, Dark Heart warns her that if she saved his life, she should run and save hers, before finally shooting large bolts of red magic into True Heart and Noble Heart. Both confront the evil entity, which transforms again into an aura of red magic. Christy wants a ceasefire and attempts to intervene, only to be killed by one of Dark Heart’s bolts of lightning. Christy flicks a marble into a lever holding the chandelier before dying. When the chandelier breaks, the family confronts the antagonist one final time, which soon retaliates by firing bolts of curse to the family yet again. Thinking that he is almost rid of everyone, he looks at Christy, which in her voice, tells him that be it good or bad, he is still a human. Dark Heart flies to her and repents for killing her.
Dark Heart’s evil magic finally turns off forever and begs the family to bring her back to life. In a ritual meant to resurrect her, Dark Heart finally opens his mind and stops calling himself Dark Heart, while he chants that he cares about Christy along the others. Christy comes back to life, and due to Dark Heart’s magic perishing, his own lair collapses. After a successful escape, Dark Heart finally is set free from the dark magic, and finally turns into a human, much to everyone’s delight.
After a large celebration, the bears bid farewell to the campers, returning to their promises land. The Great Wishing Star finally delivers an ending speech, which is followed by flashbacks of the family’s childhood across their promised kingdom.
Seventeen-year-old Sara Johnson, a promising ballet dancer in suburban Chicago, hopes to be admitted to Juilliard School and implores her mother to attend the audition. She fails the audition and soon learns that her mother was killed in a car accident in her haste to get to it.
Sara is wracked with guilt and gives up ballet. She moves to the South Side to live with her estranged father Roy, a jazz musician who plays the trumpet at nightclubs. Sara also transfers to a majority-black high school, where she is one of a handful of white students, but quickly befriends Chenille Reynolds, a teenage single mother who is having relationship problems with her ex-boyfriend Kenny. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called Stepps, where she has her first experience dancing to hip hop rhythms. At Stepps, Sara dances with Derek, Chenille's brother and a student with dreams of attending Georgetown University to become a pediatrician. Derek decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip hop into her style. He takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, she confides in him about her mother and her dreams. Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing. While performing, Derek's ex-girlfriend Nikki interrupts the two and begins dancing with Derek, making Sara retreat to the bar. Afterward, Derek returns to Sara and apologizes for pairing up with Nikki; they subsequently make up and return to Roy's apartment. Having achieved his dream of being accepted into Georgetown, Derek convinces Sara to follow her dreams of Juilliard; they eventually begin a romantic relationship.
At school, Nikki picks a fight with Sara. Later, Chenille tells Sara that she did not approve of the fight, but can understand the bitterness since Sara, a white girl, is stealing one of the decent black boys at school. Because of this conversation, Sara and Chenille's friendship becomes strained, and Sara decides to break up with Derek. Meanwhile, Derek deals with his friend Malakai, who is heavily involved in the gang lifestyle that Derek is trying to leave. Derek agrees to help Malakai execute a drive-by at the same time as Sara's audition. Roy has a heart-to-heart talk with Sara and encourages her to go through with the audition.
After learning what Chenille said to Sara, Derek confronts her about it, as well as explains his true reasons for dumping Nikki. Remorseful for her actions, Chenille admits that what she did was wrong and apologizes. She also tells Derek that Sara did not want to dump him, but Chenille's words hurt her to the point of feeling forced to. Chenille also admits that she has been resentful for how Kenny has been treating her, including not helping her raise their son and not being a good boyfriend to her. She unintentionally took it out on Sara since she has been jealous of her and Derek's relationship. Chenille encourages Derek to be with Sara, admitting that she knows that Sara is in love with him. She also warns Derek not to follow Malakai, knowing that he may lose his chance to attend Georgetown and his future if he is arrested. Derek decides to bail on Malakai to attend Sara's audition, arriving at a crucial point in her performance to offer her encouragement and moral support. Afterward, Sara is accepted into Juilliard and she rekindles her relationship with Derek. Meanwhile, the drive-by becomes botched and Malakai is arrested. The film closes as Sara, Derek, Chenille, and their friends meet at Stepps to celebrate Sara's successful audition.
Bill "Stoker" Thompson, a 35-year-old has-been boxer, is about to take on an opponent at the Paradise City Arena. His wife, Julie, fears that this fight may be his last and wants him to forfeit the match. Tiny, Stoker's manager, is sure he will continue to lose fights, so he takes money for a "dive" from a mobster. He is so certain of Stoker's failure that he does not inform the boxer of the set-up.
Stoker and Julie passionately debate whether he should participate in the fight. Julie tells him that she has a headache and won't attend. Stoker says the $500 prize could allow them to buy a cigar stand or invest in another boxer, Tony Martinez, and start a new life. Julie says she cares more about his well-being than money, but Stoker responds: "If you're a fighter, you gotta fight."
After Stoker departs for the arena, Julie continues to struggle with her fear and desire to support him. Ultimately she doesn't use her ticket to the event, and instead roams the streets surrounding the arena.
At the beginning of the fourth round of what is a vicious match with the much younger and heavily favored Tiger Nelson, Stoker learns about the fix. Even though he is told that Little Boy, a feared gangster, is behind the set-up, he refuses to give up the fight.
Stoker wins the vocal support of blood-thirsty fans who had at first rooted against him. He eventually defeats Nelson. Stoker pays for his decision with a beating in an alley outside the arena. The group irreparably damages Stoker's hand by smashing it with a brick.
Stoker staggers out of the alley and collapses into Julie's arms. "I won tonight," he tells her. "Yes," she answers. "You won tonight. We both won tonight."
Sam (Caleb Roehrig) is one of the freshman on the baseball team who are being hazed by upperclassmen, including his friend Jack (Matthew Linhardt). Because Sam needs a scholarship to attend college, Jack gave him a urine sample so that no one would know he was diabetic and he would make the team, thus giving him a chance at a scholarship.
Although Jack promises his coach that there will be no hazing, the rest of the team (and some girls) go to the haunted corn field and continue the hazing. The hazing ritual comes to a bitter end in a haunted cornfield when the baseball players mistake one of Sam's diabetic attacks with Sam trying to start a fight. They tie him up to the scarecrow and leave him for dead. Sam becomes the evil Scarecrow who decides to seek bloody revenge on his tormentors and pretty much everyone else in the film. The only way for Jack and his friends to stop the scarecrow is by getting their friend out of his coma, a task which proves to be near impossible since the nearest hospital is conveniently under construction. After a series of attacks by the scarecrow the students finally figure out how to stop him and bring back their friend.
The movie skips to 3 weeks after the attacks, and show Jack and his new girlfriend (a survivor of the scarecrow's attack) getting ready to pick the coach up to take him to his red-eye flight, and Sam and baseball jock, Mike getting ready to attend a sorority party. Just as things are beginning to look up for our protagonists, Sam murders Mike and the coach. He then chases Jack and his girlfriend into a chapel where they battle for the final time. Suddenly the scarecrow (Sam) also has the power to shoot what looks like electrical currents out of his hands. Through their epic battle Jack somehow becomes the scarecrow and does the logical thing, impaling himself on a nearby cross.
The suburban Carter family is traveling on vacation towing a trailer enroute to Los Angeles. Parents Bob and Ethel are driving, accompanied by their teenage children Bobby, Brenda, eldest daughter Lynne, Lynne's husband Doug, Lynne and Doug's baby daughter Cathrine, and the family's dogs, Beauty and Beast.
In Nevada, they stop at Fred's Oasis for fuel, and Fred urges them to stay on the main road as they leave. Fred's truck suddenly explodes. Dismissing Fred's warnings as a crazy person's ramblings, the Carters get startled by overhead aircraft when driving near Nellis Air Force Range, and skid off the road and crash. The dogs become very panicky and start barking at the hills. Beauty then runs off into the hills. Chasing after her, Bobby finds her mutilated body. Frightened, he runs, falls, and knocks himself unconscious.
Bob walks back to Fred's Oasis to get help. As night falls, he finds Fred, who tells him about his son Jupiter. As a child, Jupiter killed the family's livestock and later murdered his sister. Fred attacked Jupiter with a tire iron and left him in the hills to die. However, Jupiter survived and had children with a depraved, alcoholic prostitute known as Mama. Together, they had three sons – Mars, Pluto and Mercury – and an abused daughter, Ruby. The family led by "Papa Jupiter" survives by cannibalizing travelers and stealing supplies. Papa Jupiter suddenly crashes through a window, kills Fred with a tire iron, takes Bob prisoner, and crucifies him.
Brenda finds Bobby, still shaken up about Beauty, and the two return to the trailer. Bobby does not mention Beauty's death to avoid frightening the rest of the family. Pluto sneaks to the trailer and signals Papa Jupiter to set Bob on fire as a distraction. Brenda stays in the trailer with Katy while Ethel, Lynne, Doug, and Bobby rush out to save Bob. The Carters eventually extinguish the fire, but Bob dies shortly afterwards.
As the Carters extinguish the fire, Pluto and Mars ransack the camper and Mars rapes Brenda. When Ethel and Lynne return, Mars shoots them both. Pluto abducts Katy and the brothers flee, intending for the family to eat her. Hearing their screams, Doug and Bobby rush back only to find Lynne dead, Ethel mortally wounded and Brenda traumatized.
Mars and Pluto return to their home, a cave. Beast pushes Mercury off a hilltop to his death. Mama chains Ruby outside the cave, torments her and forces her to eat Beauty as punishment for sympathizing with the Carters. The next morning, shortly after Ethel dies, Doug sets out to find Katy while Papa Jupiter and Pluto set out to kill the remaining family members.
Beast tears Pluto's throat out. Brenda and Bobby use Ethel's corpse as a trap to kill Papa Jupiter. Doug gets to the cave, where he sees Ruby knocking out Mama and carrying Katy away. Doug catches up with Ruby, but Mars follows and attacks Doug. Mars gains the upper hand, but Ruby interferes, enabling Doug to overpower him. Doug then savagely stabs Mars and continues long after he is dead, whilst Ruby weeps.
The plot of ''Front Mission 2'' revolves around three individuals from the OCU - Corporal Ash Faruk, Captain Thomas Norland, and intelligence officer Lisa Stanley. On June 12, 2102, the Alordeshi Armed Forces overthrows the pro-OCU government and subsequently declares independence from the OCU. Through a well-orchestrated plan, Alordeshi troops overwhelm the local OCU garrisons at their military bases in the country. In the midst of the chaos, Ash Faruk and members of the Muddy Otters unit attempt to flee the country. Along the way, they come across some OCU survivors led by Thomas Norland of the Dull Stags unit. Thomas leads the survivors to the estate of Saribash Labra, the CEO of the transport business Burg Transportation. Saribash offers to help them escape by the seashore, the only part of Alordesh not controlled by the coup d'état forces. As the survivors head for the seashore, an OCU regiment lands in the country. Tasked with freeing POWs, Stanley leads a small unit to investigate the movements of the coup d'état forces.
Upon intercepting a transport helicopter, she learns of a detention center where OCU POWs are being held. Lisa succeeds in liberating the inmates and begins preparing for an operation to rescue Alordeshi government officials in Dhaka. A major battle breaks out in the city. The operation succeeds with some help from Thomas and his subordinates, who opted to stay in the country and fight the coup forces. Meanwhile, aboard the OCU aircraft carrier ''Monto'', Ash is confronted by an officer from the OCU's Central Intelligence Unit. He reluctantly agrees to return to the country when the officer, Pike Reischauer, reveals that some of his colleagues in the Muddy Otters are still alive. Upon returning to Alordesh, they are pursued by coup leader Ven Mackarge. A link between Ven's pursuit of them, the OCU's liberation attempts, and Burg Transportation's involvement in the war is eventually formed when it is revealed that the coup forces are receiving support from an unknown third party, and are in possession of a device codenamed "FENRIR".
Kyle has tickets to '' The Lion King on Stage'', but Cartman tells him that the HBC crime show ''Cop Drama'' is going to use the word "shit" uncensored. The broadcast of the show leads to widespread acceptance of the word, even in schools, causing people to use it constantly, in casual and often out of context during conversations. Furthermore, Ms. Choksondik is forced to clarify the acceptable context of the word as a noun or adjective meaning bad, or as an exclamation of disappointment, the word is acceptable, but as a noun or adjective referring to feces, it is apparently unacceptable thoroughly confusing the children (a reference to the real-life FCC standards of indecency). A strange illness that causes people to spew up their intestines and die suddenly rises in South Park, so action is taken.
Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison teaches the kindergartners not only about the word "shit," but also about the word "fag," which he is allowed to say uncensored because he is homosexual. Later, in the local bar, he demonstrates this when he says the word uncensored, but any heterosexual who attempts to say the word is censored. Finally, Jimbo also says the word, but it is not censored.
The boys then visit with Chef the library, where they find out, that the word is actually a literal "curse word," and its constant utterance has caused a resurgence of the Black Death. Together they head to the HBC Head office to get the executives to stop using it with little luck. "Must Shit TV", a special live event in which episodes of existing shows are taped live with almost every word of dialogue replaced with the word "shit", goes ahead anyway until the Knights of Standards and Practices enter the studio and begin killing the actors (Drew and Mimi from ''The Drew Carey Show'').
In a fit of anger over the Knights trying to stop his TV special, the head of HBC says the word "shit" repeatedly, causing Geldon, a monstrous dragon, to awaken. After the dragon murders several on the set, Kyle destroys it with an ancient magical runestone belonging to a knight in the mystical Order of Standards and Practices. The moral of the story is not that saying "shit" in itself is wrong but saying it in excess leads to boredom with the word. Cartman tells everyone to watch their language, which Kyle and Stan agree on. The episode ends with Kenny accidentally saying "shit", spewing up his intestines, and dying; Stan almost says "Holy shit!" once more but replaces it with "poop".
Ann (Carole Lombard) and David Smith (Robert Montgomery) are a married couple living in New York City who, though in love, have disagreements that last for days before they reconcile.
One morning, Ann asks David if he would marry her again if he had it to do over. Although he says he is very happy with her now and wouldn't marry anyone else, he says he would not, because it meant the loss of his freedom and independence.
Later that day, Harry Deever (Charles Halton), an Idaho county official, informs David at work that due to a jurisdictional mishap, their three-year-old marriage in Idaho was not valid. Since Deever is a family acquaintance of Ann's from Idaho, he stops by their apartment to tell Ann and her mother (Esther Dale) the same thing. Ann does not mention this to David. She believes he will remarry her that very night when he invites her to a romantic dinner at the restaurant they frequented before they were married.
When they arrive at the restaurant, it has declined in quality and become rundown, and they return home. Ann grows impatient and confronts David, accusing him of not wanting to marry her again. David protests and claims he was going to ask her shortly, but Ann dismisses him and kicks him out of their apartment. David spends the night at his club, but when he goes home after work the next day Ann's maid refuses him entry. David waits in the lobby and sees Ann return with an older gentleman. Believing the man is her suitor, David becomes angry and disheartened. He intercepts Ann and threatens to withhold financial support. He gets her fired from her new job (the older gentleman is both her suitor and her new boss). Ann tells David she has no intention of ever marrying him again.
David's friend and law partner, Jefferson "Jeff" Custer (Gene Raymond), tells David he will talk to Ann and persuade her to remarry. However, when David arrives that evening, he finds that Jeff has instead agreed to legally represent Ann and goes through the various legal outcomes. Jeff asks Ann to dinner the following night in David's presence. David tells Ann that if she agrees to the date their marriage is over, but Ann accepts the invitation.
After dinner, Ann and Jeff go to the 1939 New York World's Fair, but they become stuck on the parachute ride and are exposed to hours of rain many feet up in the air. When they get back to Jeff's apartment, he plans to put on dry clothes and return to the fair, but Ann feeds the teetotaler "medicinal" liquor ostensibly to prevent a cold, and he becomes drunk. Ann returns home.
Ann and Jeff continue to date and meets Jeff's parents. They decide to take a vacation with Jeff's parents at a Lake Placid skiing resort; the same resort where Ann and David had earlier been planning to holiday. Upon arriving at the resort, they find that David has rented a cabin next to theirs. When confronted, David faints. David pretends to be sick and delirious while Ann fawns over him. When Ann discovers his deception, she becomes furious. While they argue heatedly, Jeff walks in. He knows Ann and David are meant for each other when Ann tries to manipulate Jeff into fighting David.
Ann decides she wants to get away to the lodge by ski, even though she does not know how to ski. David offers to help her put on her skis, but instead places her in a position that prevents her from standing up. As she struggles and threatens him, she frees one foot, but then feigns helplessness by reattaching the ski. David realizes her pretense, and silences her ranting by kissing her.
Arya (Sienna Guillory), elf princess of Ellesméra, flees with a strange stone, pursued by Durza (Robert Carlyle), a dark sorcerer under king Galbatorix (John Malkovich). When Durza corners Arya, she uses magic to teleport the stone away.
Eragon (Ed Speleers), a farm boy living in the country of Alagaësia with his uncle Garrow (Alun Armstrong) and cousin Roran (Chris Egan), is hunting for deer when he witnesses the stone appearing. Hoping to trade it for food, Eragon brings the stone home but realises it is actually an egg when a blue dragon hatches from it. As he touches the dragon, a magical mark appears on his palm. Several people are shown reacting to this incident, including Arya, Brom (Jeremy Irons), and Galbatorix himself.
Eragon shelters and feeds the dragon, and he teaches her to fly as she gradually grows to full size. She speaks to him through their thoughts and calls herself Saphira (Rachel Weisz). When they are out, Durza's monstrous minions, the Ra'zac, arrive at the village to look for the dragon and the rider, killing Eragon's uncle in the process. Blaming Saphira for his uncle's death, Eragon sends her away. Brom shows up, takes Eragon away from the village, warns him of Saphira's importance, and urges him to call her back. Eragon calls Saphira with his thoughts, and she comes back, forgiving him for what he previously said.
Brom is leading the group to the Varden, rebel freedom fighters opposing Galbatorix. On the way, Brom fills Eragon in on the knowledge of dragon riders, Galbatorix, Durza, and the Ra'zac. He also trains Eragon in sword-fighting. In a small village, Eragon meets a fortune-teller named Angela (Joss Stone), who tells him of a girl awaiting his help and of his dangerous path ahead. When Brom and Eragon are attacked by Galbatorix's servants, the Urgals, Eragon attempts to mimic Brom and wipes out the whole group with a magic attack of blue fire, before falling unconscious from the strain. Saphira saves him. Brom teaches Eragon to control his magic and bond his powers with Saphira. After flying for the first time, Eragon and Saphira help Brom kill the Ra'zac, and Brom reveals he was once a rider, his dragon killed by Morzan, a rogue rider allied with Galbatorix.
Durza sets a trap for Eragon, using Arya as bait. Hearing her telepathic calls, Eragon finds her, but is ambushed by Durza. Eragon is outmatched, and Brom arrives to help him, though he gets mortally wounded in the process. In a fit of rage, Eragon vengefully shoots an arrow into Durza's head, causing him to disappear. The trio escapes, and Brom dies of his wounds while flying on Saphira. Eragon takes possession of Brom's sword, Zar'roc, which previously belonged to Morzan.
Eragon confronts a hooded figure that has been following them. That figure reveals himself to be Murtagh (Garrett Hedlund), and guides them to the Varden. Once there, Murtagh is imprisoned by the Varden for being Morzan's son. Soon after, Durza and his men surround the rebel camp. Eragon, Saphira, Arya, and the Varden prepare for battle and fight off Galbatorix's forces. Murtagh frees himself during the battle and assists the Varden, saving the Dwarf King King Hrothgar (Gary Lewis) and proving his trustworthiness. Eragon and Saphira duel in the skies with Durza who rides his own beast. They eventually kill him, but Saphira is heavily injured. Eragon uses magic to heal her and once again passes out from the strain.
The following morning, Eragon awakes with Murtagh at his side. He fears Saphira may be dead but finds her fully healed. They catch up with Arya, who is on her way to Ellesméra to lead the elves in the coming war against Galbatorix. She calls Eragon “The great Shadeslayer”, and they part ways, promising they'll meet again. Meanwhile, in his castle, a furious Galbatorix slashes at his hanging map of Alagaësia, revealing his immense pitch black dragon, Shruikan.
The story is complex and is told in 12 chapters. The basic plot involves a corrupt banker named Favraux, who is the target of Judex's revenge. It is eventually revealed that Judex's real identity is Jacques de Trémeuse, a man trying to avenge his family ruined by Favraux. Complicating matters is Favraux's beautiful and innocent daughter Jacqueline, with whom the avenger has fallen in love. A final element comes in the form of Diana Monti and her criminal gang who are working at cross purposes with Judex.
David Crimond, tasked with writing the book, resurfaces at a Commemoration ball the friends attend. His sudden re-appearance induces the group to attempt resolving the untenable situation by pressing for clarification. In turn they find themselves confronted with how far removed they are from their former Marxist beliefs and their own philosophical disorientation. As Crimond promises progress on the book, his draw causes the members of the circle to plunge into chaos.
Detective Sergeant Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) of the Los Angeles Police Department and his partner are assigned to protect a mob boss's widow, Mrs. Frankie Neall (Marie Windsor), as she rides a train from Chicago to Los Angeles to testify before a grand jury. She is also carrying a payoff list that belonged to her murdered husband. The mob's hitmen do not know what she looks like. On the way to pick her up, Brown bets his partner and friend, Sergeant Gus Forbes (Don Beddoe), what she will be like: "She's the sixty-cent special. Cheap. Flashy. Strictly poison under the gravy."
As the detectives and Mrs. Neall leave her apartment, they are waylaid by a mob assassin named Densel (Peter Virgo). Forbes is shot to death, but Densel, although wounded by Brown, escapes. At the train station, Brown discovers that he has been followed by gangster Joseph Kemp (David Clarke). Kemp identifies Brown as the detective even before they board the train. Each man knows the other is a mortal enemy. With the help of a conductor, Kemp comes into Brown's room while Brown is there, under the pretense that he is looking for lost luggage. Meanwhile, an overweight man confronts Brown in front of other passengers as to why Brown is holding a two room compartment, while he is in the upper berth of a section.
Kemp tries to open the door to the next compartment, where Mrs. Neall is hiding, but Brown tells the conductor that the room is empty, and Kemp and the conductor leave. Brown knows that Kemp will come back to Mrs. Neall's room, so he hides Mrs. Neall in the ladies room with all of her luggage, and goes to the dining car so Kemp will know that the room is unguarded. Kemp then goes back and searches both rooms, finding nothing. After Kemp returns to the dining car, Brown leaves the dining car to escort Mrs. Neall back to her room. Later, mobster Vincent Yost (Peter Brocco) meets Brown and unsuccessfully tries to bribe him into pointing out Mrs. Neall and abandoning her, appealing to both his greed and his fear (Brown tells Yost he is under arrest for bribery but Brown is out of his jurisdiction so he has no arresting authority). He even suggests that Brown could use the bribe to help the family of his murdered partner, Gus Forbes.
Brown's relationship with Mrs. Neall is caustic. She is a vile and profane brunette, who flirts with him while expressing doubt about his integrity and commitment to protecting her. She doesn't seem to care that Brown's partner was murdered. On the train, she insists on playing records on her portable record player and endangering both of them, angering Brown. By chance Brown makes friends with an attractive blonde train passenger he meets, Ann Sinclair (Jacqueline White), and her spoiled, too-observant young son Tommy (Gordon Gebert). When Kemp spots Brown with her, he mistakes Sinclair for his target. After Brown beats him up in a fight and questions him, the policeman learns of the mistake. Brown again attempts an arrest without arresting authority. But this time, he turns Kemp over to railroad agent Sam Jennings (Paul Maxey) and hurries to warn Ann Sinclair. Densel, however, has boarded the train during a brief stop at La Junta, Colorado, and waylays Jennings, freeing Kemp.
Brown tries to explain to Ann Sinclair that mobsters on the train plan to kill a Mrs. Neall and that they mistakenly think that she is Mrs. Neall. But she stuns him by revealing that she is the real Mrs. Neall. The woman he has been protecting is an undercover policewoman, a decoy, and Brown was not told of either woman's true identity in case he might be corrupt. Plus, Ann Sinclair had earlier mailed the payoff list to the Los Angeles District Attorney. Meanwhile, Densel and Kemp enter Brown's compartment to search for the payoff list and discover the fake Mrs. Neall in the next compartment; the music from her record player gives her away. They enter her room through trickery, and Densel shoots her dead as she tries to sneak her gun out of her purse. Then Kemp discovers a badge and police identification, identifying her as Chicago PD policewoman Sarah Meggs, hidden within her record player.
Densel, deducing the truth, goes for Ann Sinclair. Her door is locked, but he knocks on the next door and Ann's son Tommy opens the door and Densel enters, grabbing Tommy. Densel knocks on the interior door to Ann Sinclair's room and threatens to kill Tommy if she doesn't open her door, which she does. He pushes Tommy away and locks himself in with Ann Sinclair and demands the payoff list. Then Brown and Jennings arrive and Densel is trapped, but he has Ann Sinclair as hostage. Brown uses the reflection from the window of a train on the next track to see into Ann Sinclair's compartment, and he shoots Densel through the door without endangering her, then enters the compartment and finishes him off with more shots. Kemp jumps off the stopped train and heads for accomplices in a car which has been following the train, but they are all quickly arrested. The movie ends with the train arriving in Los Angeles and Brown escorting Ann Sinclair from the train station toward the court house. She chooses to walk with Brown the two blocks straight to testify rather than sneak out under cover.
Stanton Carlisle watches the geek show at a Ten-in-One where he has recently begun working. He later asks the carnival's talker Clem Hoately where geeks come from. Clem explains that geeks are "made": a sideshow owner finds an alcoholic bum and offers him a temporary job with a steady supply of liquor. Initially, the bum is only asked to pretend to be a geek, using a razor blade to slice chickens' necks and then faking the drinking of the blood. After a few weeks, the owner threatens to end the job and replace the bum with a "real" geek, and the fear of sobering up terrifies the bum into actually biting the chickens. Thus, a geek is made.
Stan performs sleight of hand tricks in the sideshow but studies under the carnival's mentalist Zeena to learn a refined "code" act, where performers memorize verbal cues that allow them to appear psychic by accurately answering written audience questions. Stan also begins to pick up Zeena's talent for cold reading. He eventually leaves the carnival with the beautiful and naïve electric girl Molly Cahill to perform a team code act.
Their act becomes very successful, but Stan grows bored and transforms himself into Reverend Carlisle, an upstanding spiritualist preacher offering séance sessions with the help of his medium. Stan gains a devoted following, but the stress of leading a false life leads him to seek the help of a psychologist named Lilith Ritter, who seduces and then begins controlling him. Stan pleads constantly for them to go away together, and Lilith eventually agrees, suggesting the Rev. Carlisle swindle a rich man for the getaway money. They settle on Ezra Grindle, a ruthless auto tycoon with a skeptical interest in the occult. Stan manages to convince Grindle of his powers, and the businessman becomes a devoted spiritualist.
Stan keeps Grindle hooked by promising to reunite him with his deceased college sweetheart Dorrie, who died in a botched back-alley abortion Grindle convinced her to seek. A reluctant Molly plays "Dorrie" in a series of sessions but eventually breaks character, destroying the illusion. In a rage Stan punches Molly and Grindle and flees the scene. At Lilith's suggestion he decides to go into hiding with Grindle's money but later discovers that Lilith has stolen a majority of it by replacing the five-hundred-dollar bills with singles. When he confronts her, she tells him that he is deluded and attempts to have him committed to a mental institution, and he narrowly escapes. He flees and resorts to performing as a mentalist at increasingly shoddy venues, trying to evade the men he falsely believes Grindle is sending after him. During this time, Molly takes up with a gambler reminiscent of her father, and gives birth to a son. Eventually Stan becomes a hobo, staying afloat by giving Tarot readings and selling horoscopes, but ends up murdering a police officer who attacks him while he sells his merchandise. A final reconnection with Zeena provides him an opportunity to again make living in the carnival, but he breaks completely and descends into alcoholism and depression when he discovers through a newspaper article that Lilith has wed Grindle.
His life in shambles, a drunk Stan finds a carnival owner and asks to join the sideshow as a palm reader. The owner gives Stan some whiskey but refuses his proposal, saying the show is full. But as Stan begins to stumble out, the owner changes his tune and invites Stan back in with a job offer: "Of course, it's only temporary – just until we get a real geek."
The Deep Range follows the career of former astronaut Walter Franklin in the Marine Division, rising from trainee, to game warden, and eventually to Director of the Bureau of Whales. A spacewalking mishap had left Franklin floating in space, out of contact and isolated for an extended period. The resulting severe acrophobia (termed ''astrophobia'' by Clarke) rendered him unable to function as an astronaut and forever isolated him from his family on Mars. He is forced to turn to the sea for a final attempt at rehabilitation.
The Division is a mid-21st Century sea-based organization responsible for feeding a sizable portion of the Earth's population through the farming and harvesting of plankton as well as the herding and slaughter of whales. The Whale Bureau employs wardens who in their single-person scout subs shepherd the whale herds and protect them from predatory orcas and sharks.
The narrative is divided into three sections.
'''Part I''' covers Franklin's training and adaptation to his new environment. Along the way he makes a lasting friend of his mentor and meets his eventual new wife. A recurrence of the astrophobia causes a breakdown and suicide attempt. An unexpected rescue convinces Franklin to commit fully to his new life.
'''Part II''' details Franklin's experiences as a veteran warden from the mundane to the more exotic. Abnormally high sperm whale deaths in a specific sector point to the existence of an enormous giant squid, nicknamed Percy. Franklin is tasked with spearheading the effort to find and capture Percy. A similar attempt later to capture the elusive Great Sea Serpent goes tragically awry.
'''Part III''' sees Franklin in charge as Director of the Bureau of Whales. Amid the everyday administrative and scientific challenges, the Bureau encounters a threat to its very existence. A Buddhist monk mounts a credible and effective campaign to stop the harvest of whales, even though it accounts for an eighth of the world's food supply. As Franklin struggles to counter the campaign, he finds himself inexorably drawn to the monk's viewpoint. An undersea catastrophe presents Franklin with his last opportunity to visit the depths he has grown to love.
In the final chapter Franklin and his wife attend the bittersweet departure of their son into the Space Service and reunion with his former family on Mars: ''To his son, he willingly bequeathed the shoreless seas of space. For himself, the oceans of this world were sufficient.''
The poem tells how Duke Horant is sent by King Etene to Greece, probably to Constantinople, to win the hand of the princess Hilde. However Hilde's father, the fierce Greek king Hagen, is not willing to give his daughter to Etene until Horant has proved his prowess in a series of adventures.
The opening sequence is exactly the same as normal, but with a dark twist, as Bart does the chalkboard lines in red paint, and then the entire family is killed one by one as they arrive home (Bart falls off his skateboard when he lands on the car, Lisa is catapulted into the garage wall when she strikes Bart in the driveway, and Homer is crushed by Marge and Maggie, who presumably also die in the crash). On the couch, Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees are waiting for them and wonder where they are.
In a parody of the ''Amazing Stories'' episode "Hell Toupee", Snake is arrested for smoking inside the Kwik-E-Mart. Chief Wiggum explains that this is Snake's third strike, so he will be executed in accordance with the three strikes law. Before hauling Snake away, Chief Wiggum points out that Apu, Moe, and Bart are all witnesses; Snake vows to kill them all. After the execution, Homer visits Dr. Nick, who transplants Snake's hair onto Homer's head. When Homer goes to sleep the following night, it plants its roots in Homer's brain. With the hair controlling his mind, Homer murders Apu and Moe. Bart realizes that the other two witnesses have been killed, and Homer vows to protect him. Homer locks himself and Bart in a room, but Snake's hair takes control of him. Homer tries to kill Bart with a sledgehammer. Bart begs Homer to fight the hair and, after a struggle, Homer rips the hair off his head. However, the scalp comes to life, attempting to suffocate Bart whilst Homer ineffectually punches it, if anything hurting Bart. Wiggum bursts in and shoots the hair dead, then wryly comments on how it has been "a bad hair day", causing everyone to laugh. Marge tries to remind everyone about the two murders, but then suddenly gets the pun and joins in.
In a parody of ''Stay Tuned'', Marge forbids Bart and Lisa from watching the ''Itchy & Scratchy'' Halloween special while she goes trick-or-treating with Maggie, removing the batteries from the remote control. When Marge leaves, Bart finds plutonium in Homer's toolbox and hammers it into the remote's battery slot. When they use the remote, the kids enter the world of ''Itchy and Scratchy'', and begin to laugh at their antics, angering the cat-and-mouse duo, who proceed to hunt them to teach them a lesson. Back in the Simpson house, Homer enters the living room and watches the show. Oblivious to what he sees, Homer decides to change the channel, and Bart, Lisa, Itchy, and Scratchy wind up on ''Live with Regis and Kathie Lee'' before ending up back at Itchy's house. They urge Homer from inside the TV to use the remote to get them out, and he eventually succeeds just as Marge and Maggie arrive home. Unfortunately, Itchy and Scratchy also escape. At first, the family is scared, but realize how small the two characters actually are, and decide to keep them as pets. Marge, after seeing Scratchy fall in love with Snowball II, decides to have him neutered, much to his horror.
Marge discovers Maggie's first baby tooth, which appears to be a sharp fang. Maggie later loses her legs and sprouts her green tentacles. Maggie's pacifier sucks contact the alien duo, Kang and Kodos. They arrive at the Simpson house, coming to retrieve Maggie. Marge reveals that Kang is Maggie's real father and explains how it happened. Kang and Kodos demand that the Simpsons give Maggie to them, but Homer refuses which starts a big fight between Kang and Homer until Bart suggests that they appear on ''The Jerry Springer Show'' to resolve their issues. When an audience member criticizes Kang, he vaporizes her, as well as the rest of the audience and the film crew. Everyone looks guiltily as host Jerry Springer does a monologue encouraging them to put their differences aside and do what is best for Maggie. However, Maggie attacks Springer, killing him, causing Kang and Homer to fight again, much to Marge's embarrassment. After leaving the studio, Kang and Kodos threaten to destroy every politician in Washington unless given Maggie. Marge slyly implies that the aliens could not possibly destroy ''every'' politician, and they fly off to do so. As the Simpsons prepare to head home, Maggie says in Kang's voice that she will drive, and laughs diabolically before stating that she needs blood as the credits begin.
The film follows Pascal (Pascal Lamorisse), a young boy who, on his way to school one morning, discovers a large helium-filled red balloon. As he plays with it, he realizes it has a mind and will of its own. It begins to follow him wherever he goes, never straying far from him, and at times floating outside his apartment window, as his mother will not allow it inside.
The balloon follows Pascal through the streets of Paris, and they draw a lot of attention and envy from other children as they wander the streets. At one point the balloon enters his classroom, causing an uproar from his classmates. That alerts the principal, who locks Pascal up inside his office. Later, after being set free, Pascal and the balloon encounter a young girl (Sabine Lamorisse) with a blue balloon that also seems to have a mind of its own, just like his.
One Sunday, the balloon is told to stay home while Pascal and his mother go to church. However, it follows them through the open window and into the church, and they are led out by a scolding beadle.
As Pascal and the balloon wander around the neighborhood, a gang of older boys, who are envious of the balloon, steal it while Pascal is inside a bakery, however, he manages to retrieve it. Following a chase through narrow alleyways, the boys finally catch up to them. They hold Pascal back as they bring the balloon down with sling shots and stones before one of them finishes it off by stomping on it.
The film ends as all the other balloons in Paris come to Pascal's aid and take him on a cluster balloon ride over the city.
In the opening scene, the two aliens Kang and Kodos introduce a variety show, with a live audience consisting of aliens. While they tell jokes, canned laughter is played, but the audience appears unamused. The Simpson family is then shown watching the show on the couch, with Homer appearing as the jack-in-the-box from "Treehouse of Horror II", Marge as the witch from "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Bart as the half-fly mutant from "Treehouse of Horror VIII", Maggie is the alien/human mutant from "Treehouse of Horror IX" and Lisa is the victim of an axe murder. Lisa asks "What do aliens have to do with Halloween?" to which Maggie responds by saying "Silence!" in Kang's voice, and vaporizes her with a ray gun.
In a parody of ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'', on a foggy evening with a full moon, the Simpsons are driving on a coastal road when Marge runs over Ned Flanders, killing him. The next day, Homer, holding Ned's corpse upright and doing his best to imitate his speech, attempts to stage his death by having Maude witness him "fall" off the Simpsons' roof. After she looks away and misses the attemot, Homer is forced to improvise, dumping Ned's body in the Flanders' house, acting out Ned's death from a heart attack. Soon after Ned's funeral, during which Homer almost unwittingly confessed to Ned's murder in a eulogy, the family finds the words "I Know What You Did" written on their house and car. They are terrorized by a cloaked, hook-wielding figure, and flee. In the wild again, their car breaks down; they discover that Ned is the cloaked figure. He was not killed because he was bitten by a werewolf just before the accident. The full moon appears and Ned turns into a werewolf again. Marge, Bart, Maggie and Lisa run away but Homer is caught and, off camera, taunts the werewolf while he is mauled to death.
An X-ray machine scanning Halloween candy malfunctions and gives the ability to stretch any part of his body to Bart and super strength to Lisa. They become a superhero duo, calling themselves "Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl". Later, Lucy Lawless (dressed as Xena) addresses fans at a science fiction convention. Comic Book Guy, who is now a villain called "The Collector", kidnaps her using a magnet to attract her metal breastplate. Lawless tries to remove it, but stops when she sees that her fans have cameras ready. The Collector takes her to his lair, where he puts her in an aluminized PET film bag for "safekeeping" and imprisons her in a room of other similarly-captured celebrities, with the intention of marrying her. Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl then come to rescue Xena, but they are soon captured as well. The Collector prepares to kill them by submerging them in a vat of molten Lucite plastic. Lawless pretends to be attracted to the Collector and then starts clobbering him. The Collector grabs his limited edition double edged lightsaber from ''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' and ignites the blades, but when Lawless points out that he has removed it from its original packaging, he panics and ends up falling into the Lucite. Lawless then flies the children home.
On December 31, 1999, Dick Clark is celebrating ''New Year's Rockin' Eve''. Homer, the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant's Y2K compliance officer, has neglected to fix all possible problems in the plant's computers. This results in a virus being spread across electronic devices all over the world, causing widespread destruction and societal collapse. Krusty's malfunctioning pacemaker kills him in front of the family. Bart tearfully mourns his hero, but perks up after finding a letter in his pocket, which states that a rocket is being prepared for humanity's "best and brightest", and will carry them to Mars to preserve human civilization. When they reach the rocket, Homer fails to bluff his way on board but the guard recognizes Lisa as the ship's designated proofreader. Lisa is only able to take one parent with her, and at once chooses Marge. Homer and Bart find a second, unguarded rocket and board just before it launches. They quickly notice that it is filled with second-rate celebrities such as politician Ross Perot, radio psychologist Dr. Laura, film director Spike Lee, former vice president Dan Quayle, grunge rock singer Courtney Love, skating champion Tonya Harding, civil rights activist Al Sharpton, actor Tom Arnold, MTV VJ Pauly Shore, and actress/talk show host Rosie O'Donnell. This rocket is headed directly for the sun. Homer and Bart decide they cannot bear being with those passengers any longer and eject themselves into space.
This novel, originally by Caridad Bravo Adams is set in the Caribbean, specifically in the French colonies. The Mexican adaptation is set in the Atlantic coast of Mexico. The following plot summary is based on the 1993 version by Televisa, and is described using in-universe tone.
Francisco Alcazar is a wealthy landowner, who owns sugar cane fields. Francisco is married to Sofia, a severe and uncompassionate woman, with whom he has a son named Andres. Before his marriage to Sofia, Francisco had an affair with a married woman who was physically abused by her husband. The woman became pregnant and died when the child was 3 years old. This love-child is, in fact, Francisco's true firstborn. When this woman became pregnant, her husband refused to recognize the boy as his son. He also did not allow Francisco to recognize the child as his own. Thus, the boy named "Juan", became known as "Juan del Diablo" (Juan of the Devil) because he had no last name. Juan's mother eventually died of the shame and from the physical abuse she had received from her husband. Juan was raised with no love or instruction, in poverty and neglect. In his early teens, Juan's stepfather dies. Francisco, hiding the fact that Juan is his son, decides to invite him to live at his estate with his family, on the pretext of being a playmate for Andrés. Sofia finds out the truth and tries to send Juan away, to which Francisco objects. Finally, Francisco has an accident while riding his horse before he could legally recognize Juan as his son. Francisco leaves a letter with his intentions addressed to his friend and lawyer Noel Mancera. Sofia seizes the letter and hides it. On his deathbed, Francisco sends for his son Andrés, and while not telling the truth, asks him to care for Juan as a brother. After his death, Sofía sends Juan away without saying anything to Andrés. Eventually, Sofia decides to send Andrés to boarding school in France.
Juan grows up among the sailors and pirates of the port-city, earning a shocking reputation for dirty business (contraband of liquor), ruthlessness, and harboring unbound loyalty from his men. Juan is also a womanizer, his heart is still untaken. He has learned the identity of his biological father because Noel Mancera has told him. Through the years, Mancera has given Juan some education, and even offered to give him his last name. However, Juan refuses the offer because he feels that a last name is unwarranted in his chosen occupation.
Meanwhile, Mónica and Aimée are two beautiful young countesses, daughters of the deceased Count of Altamira, a distant cousin of Sofia de Alcazar. The Altamira family are very respectable in high society, but they now find themselves in bankruptcy. Their only asset is their nobility and beauty, and the long promise of betrothal between Monica and Andrés. Unfortunately for Mónica, Andres has forgotten about their engagement. While visiting Mexico City, Andres meets Mónica's younger sister. Aimee is beautiful, flirty and selfish. She shows interest in Andrés because he has wealth, influence, and power. Andrés falls completely in love with Aimee, a fact he later shares with his mother when she comes to visit him.
When Sofia returns home, she informs Catalina de Altamira that Andres has broken the engagement with Monica because he is now intent in marrying Aimee. Catalina is mortified at the thought of Monica's heartbreak. With her family's financial ruin in mind, Catalina reluctantly agrees to an engagement between Aimee and Andres. When Monica discovers that Andres has broken their engagement in order to marry her sister, she is immediately heartbroken. Monica decides to enter a convent to become a nun. Monica denies her feelings for Andres and tells everyone that becoming a nun is her true calling.
Meanwhile, Aimee returns to her hometown with her mother. One day, while walking along the beach, she spies Juan taking a bath in his beach house. Aimee had never met Juan and is unaware of his past or his connection to the Alcazar family. She watches him from a distance, but Juan sees her. Over the next few days, Aimee returns several times to spy on Juan. He decides to confront her and catches her while she's hiding. Soon after, Juan and Aimee fall in love and become lovers.
Juan goes away on a business trip and Aimee promises to wait for his return and marry him. When Andres arrives in his hometown, Aimee ignores her promise to Juan and agrees to marry Andres. Juan returns from his business trip several weeks later. Juan discovers that Aimee is now married to his half-brother and decides to kidnap her so that she carries out her promise. Andres, who knows nothing about his kinship to Juan and the affair between him and his wife, decides to employ him as the steward of Campo Real, his country estate.
Meanwhile, Monica leaves the convent to spend some time in the countryside with her family. Monica quickly discovers the affair between Juan and Aimee. Monica confronts her sister, but Aimee refuses to end her affair with Juan. Since Monica decides to leave the convent, Andres attempts to redeem himself by proposing an engagement between Monica and his friend Alberto de la Serna. Meanwhile, Andres learns that Juan is actually his brother and that he had an unseemly affair with a young lady in his household. Andres immediately assumes that the lady in question is Monica. Because of this misunderstanding, Monica is pressured to get married immediately. Monica agrees to get married in an attempt to protect Andres and her sister from the impending scandal, but she refuses to marry Alberto. Instead, Monica decides to marry Juan because she believes this is the only way to prevent Aimee to continue her affair with him. In an unexpected turn of events, Juan accepts to marry Monica.
Aimee is filled with jealousy and rage at the thought of Juan being married to her sister. Aimee spends all her time plotting and scheming to destroy Monica's engagement to Juan. Unfortunately for Aimee, Juan is no longer interested in her. He is now captivated by Monica's beauty and her kind demeanor. At the same time, Monica discovers a whole different side to Juan's personality. Monica learns that despite Juan's rough exterior, he can also be kind, gentle, and noble. Against all odds, Monica and Juan slowly begin to fall in love. Their happiness is short lived when Andres finds out about Juan's affair with Aimee.
''Neverwinter Nights 2'' is composed of three distinct acts. The game's first act begins in the village of West Harbor, where the player's character was raised as an orphan by the elven ranger Daeghun. After a festival, the town is attacked by a group, led by a githyanki, in search of an unnamed object. Afterward, the character is sent by Daeghun to retrieve a mysterious silver shard from a nearby cave, which was left there years earlier after the defeat of the King of Shadows. The character then sets out for Neverwinter, meeting other adventurers along the way, several of whom are available for recruitment. In Neverwinter, Daeghun's half-brother Duncan offers a more comprehensive explanation of the situation. In Neverwinter, Duncan instructs the party to speak with Aldanon, a sage who reveals the shard's connection with a dead warlock and his descendant, a farmer named Shandra Jerro. However, the githyanki kidnap Shandra and the player character must rescue her. At the end of Act I, the party dispatches the githyanki, rescues Shandra, and learns of the origin of the shards.
In act two, the party discovers that an evil wizard, Black Garius, is plotting to subsume the power of a powerful entity known as the King of Shadows. The party interrupts Garius during the scheme and Garius is apparently killed. As a reward, the protagonist earns a title of nobility and is awarded a stronghold, Crossroads Keep, by Neverwinter's political leader, Lord Nasher. After tracking down Ammon Jerro, the warlock who fought the King of Shadows and the grandfather of Shandra Jerro, the player character learns that the King of Shadows was once known as the Guardian, a powerful creation of the ancient fallen empire of Illefarn. The Guardian was corrupted after tapping into a dark magical energy called the Shadow Weave. Thereafter the Guardian destroyed Illefarn in a misguided attempt to protect it. Ammon is initially unwilling to help the player character, but after inadvertently slaying his descendant Shandra, he repents and joins the party.
Act three introduces the Shadow Reavers, a sect of powerful undead mages that include a revived Garius, still intent on resurrecting the King of Shadows. The player must prepare Crossroad Keep for imminent battle by fortifying its troops and lands. After additional shards are retrieved by defeating Shadow Reavers, the shards are reformed into a powerful unique weapon for the player character, the Silver Sword of Gith. The sword, stolen by Ammon Jerro in the first battle against the King of Shadows, is the only weapon that can resist the enemy's power. The army of the Shadow Reavers lays siege to Crossroads Keep and is repelled by the occupants. After making their way through Garius' new stronghold, the party engages the mage in a second confrontation. After Garius is defeated, good members of the party begin the final fight against the King of Shadows. Evil and neutral characters (including the player character, if applicable) can decide to attack the King or fight alongside him. A cutscene afterwards details the battle's effect on the world, and ends on a cliffhanger which is continued in the ''Mask of the Betrayer'' expansion pack.
In this alternate world, Superman remains youthful due to his superhuman physiology. The Third Reich never fell, and Europe is kept under Nazi rule. Lois Lane has visions of Superman gleefully killing people, including Lana Lang and herself. Meanwhile, the search for Lana—previously abducted—takes Lois and Superman into German soil, where Lana is being held. In flight Lois and Clark get attacked by trolls and harpies, causing the plane to crash land in Germany.
Lois soon discovers that the Reich is ruled by the god Adonis while Artemis and Athena oppose him. Wonder Woman has betrayed Paradise Island and is now part of the Reich. It is also revealed that the Greek pantheon is in league with the Nazis, allowing them to employ mythological monsters to fight superheroes for world domination. A fight ensues between the German army and the Greek heroines. The sacrifice of the goddess Athena endows Lois with powers, transforming her into a new Wonder Woman.
Superman is transformed into an evil centaur by Circe. Lana gifted with the power of the Oracle of Delphi persuades the centaur Superman into realizing his true identity. Superman is transformed into a woman (because his crimes as leader of the Maenads were against women, and therefore, he must take their place). The female Superman then infiltrates the Great Hall of the Reich, which is guarded by the Minotaur. She succeeds in her task due to Lana's magical knowledge. Lois, as the new Wonder Woman, defeats the Nazi Wonder Woman and ties her up with her magic lasso.
Finally, it is revealed that Zeus and Hera were playing a chess game, using the world as their chess pieces. Adonis is sent to be taken care of by Hades. Superman, Lois (now the new Wonder Woman) and Lana all live together on Superman fortress on the moon in polyamorous love.
The story follows two affairs, a generation apart. Nick (Kevin Anderson), a professor of architecture in upstate New York, comes to an Illinois town to be with his birth mother (Kim Novak) in the final days of her illness; he was adopted and has never met her before. On the first day, he runs into Paul (Bill Pullman), a college friend, whose construction company is demolishing an old downtown department store where a murder-suicide happened 30 years before. The building is a beautiful cast-iron construction, so Nick wants to study it before the demolition. Paul introduces Nick to his wife, Jane (Pamela Gidley), a photographer who wants to portray the same building. Over the next four days, Nick and Jane's attraction grows, as Nick explores the old building, attends his mother's bedside, and unravels the truth that links both of them with the developing events in his and Jane's life.
After miraculously recovering from an apparently fatal bullet wound to the head, Gulf War veteran Jack Starks returns to Vermont in 1992, suffering from periods of amnesia. While walking, he sees a young girl, Jackie, and her alcoholic mother in despair beside their broken-down truck. Starks and Jackie quickly form a certain affinity; she asks him to give her his dogtags and he does so. He gets the truck started for them and continues on his way. Shortly after, a man driving along the same highway gives Jack a ride and they get pulled over by a policeman.
The scene changes: Starks is found lying on the deserted roadside near the dead policeman, with a slug from the policeman's gun in his body. The murder weapon is on the ground nearby. Although he testifies there was someone else at the scene, he is not believed because of his amnesia. Starks is found not guilty by reason of insanity and is incarcerated in a mental institution.
Starks is placed in the care of Dr. Thomas Becker, a psychiatrist, and his staff. In December 1992, Starks is forced to undergo an unauthorized treatment designed by Becker: he is injected with experimental drugs, bound in a straitjacket and then placed inside a morgue drawer as a form of sensory deprivation. While in this condition, he is somehow able to travel 15 years into the future and stay there for a short time. He meets an older version of Jackie at a roadside diner where she works. He suspects this happens because it is the only memory he can ever fully hold on to. She does not recognise him but seeing him standing forlornly, she takes pity on him and offers him shelter, just for the night. While in her apartment, Starks comes across his own dogtags and confronts her. Jackie, frightened, tells him that Jack Starks died on New Year's Day in 1993, and so he cannot possibly be who he says he is. She becomes upset and asks him to leave. Subsequently, Starks is transported back to the future on several occasions in the course of his treatment and, after earning Jackie's trust, they try to figure out how to make use of the time-travelling so as to remove Jack from the hospital and save his life.
Early on 1 January 1993, knowing that his time is quickly running out, Starks is briefly taken out of the hospital by Dr. Beth Lorenson, who he has finally convinced of his time travel experiences and his knowledge of future events. She drives Starks to the childhood home of Jackie and her mother, where he gives the mother a letter he has written, which outlines Jackie's bleak future and warns the mother that she is fated to orphan Jackie when she falls asleep with a lit cigarette in her hand and is burned to death. When he returns to the hospital, Starks experiences a flashback to the head wound he suffered in Iraq, simultaneously slipping on the ice and hits his head. Bleeding profusely, he convinces two of the more sympathetic doctors to put him into the jacket one last time.
Starks returns to 2007, where he finds that his letter to Jackie's mother has made all the difference. Jackie now has a better life than in the previous version of 2007. She is no longer a waitress, is now dressed in a nurse's uniform, and has a noticeably more cheerful outlook. They reprise their first 2007 meeting: she sees Starks standing in the snow and initially drives past him, but backs up when she notices his head wound. She stops and offers to take him to the hospital where she works. While they are in the car, Jackie receives a call from her mother — still alive and well. They drive on, the screen fades to white, and a voice-over reveals that the link to the "previous" future is not lost when Jackie says "How much time do we have?", a question she has asked him before. As the credits start to roll, the answer to the question is given by the words of the song "We Have All the Time in the World" sung by Iggy Pop.
The miniseries stars Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as the Jacksons' patriarch Joseph Jackson, Angela Bassett as the family matriarch Katherine Jackson. Alex Burrall, Jason Weaver and Wylie Draper played Michael Jackson in different eras, while Bumper Robinson and Terrence Howard played Jackie Jackson in different eras, Shakiem Jamar Evans and Angel Vargas played Tito Jackson, Margaret Avery played Katherine's mother, Martha Scruse, Holly Robinson Peete played Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams played Berry Gordy and Vanessa Williams played Suzanne de Passe. The opening sequence of the film features footage of the real Jacksons rehearsing, performing on stage, a few clips from the "Can You Feel It" music video, album covers, magazine covers, a snippet from their cartoon, and pictures of the family. The film is mostly based on the autobiography written by Katherine Jackson, and issued in 1990, entitled ''My Family''. The entire mini-series spans a period of about 40 years.
Part one of the film is based on young Katherine and Joseph meeting and courting in the 1940s and showing how they managed to start out raising their children in Gary, Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s, how Joseph discovers the children have talent and starts entering them in talent shows, and finally how The Jackson 5 go on to have early fame and face its consequences in the late 1960s.
Part two of the film deals with the struggles of young Michael Jackson as he faces his brothers marrying early into The Jackson 5's success, his problems with acne as a teenager, and the group's eventual switch to Epic Records in the 1970s, his eventual solo superstardom based on the success of his albums ''Off the Wall'' and ''Thriller'', the commercial mishap that caused his hair to ignite, and his legendary ''Motown 25'' performance of "Billie Jean", as well as his difficult relationship with his father in the 1980s.
Michael Jackson's voice is heard on: "Beat It", "Human Nature", "Billie Jean", "I Want You Back", "I Wanna Be Where You Are", "I'll Be There", "Rockin' Robin", "ABC", and "Dancing Machine". On all other songs, the Michael Jackson vocal part is performed by Anthony Harrell, Jason Weaver or Kipp Lennon.
Helge (Henning Moritzen), a respected businessman and family patriarch, is celebrating his 60th birthday at the family-run hotel. Gathered together amongst a large party of family and friends are his wife Else (Birthe Neumann), his sullen eldest son Christian (Ulrich Thomsen), his boorish younger son Michael (Thomas Bo Larsen), and his well-traveled daughter Helene (Paprika Steen). Another sibling, Linda, has recently taken her life at the hotel. Helene finds Linda's suicide note, but hides it in a medicine bottle after becoming upset by the undisclosed contents. Michael fights with his wife, whom he had earlier abandoned on the roadside with their three children, and then has sex with her. He later beats Michelle, a waitress of the hotel, after she pulls him aside to discuss that he had impregnated her in an affair.
At Helge's birthday dinner, Christian makes a toast to his father. During the toast, he publicly accuses Helge of sexually abusing both him and his twin sister Linda as children. After an initial shocked silence, the party goes on as usual as guests decide to move past the moment in denial. Helge pulls Christian aside to engage in a baffled conversation about his accusations. He questions his motivations for slandering him, and Christian appears to recant his accusation. However, Christian is spurred to further action by hotel chef Kim (Bjarne Henriksen), a childhood friend who knows about the abuse. Christian then continues his toast by accusing Helge of causing Linda's death through the trauma caused from the abuse. Helge speaks to Christian alone and makes threatening offers to bring up his troubled personal history, including his impotence with women and Christian's perhaps-incestuous relationship with Linda.
Further exacerbating the tensions of the day, Helene's black boyfriend Gbatokai (Gbatokai Dakinah) shows up, causing the racist Michael to lead most of the partygoers in singing the racist Danish song "''Jeg har set en rigtig negermand''" to offend him. Else later makes a toast where she makes insulting comments towards her children, and accuses Christian of having an overactive imagination. With this, she asks him to apologize for his earlier statements and accusations. Christian then accuses Else of knowing about the abuse yet not intervening. Michael and two other guests eject Christian from the hotel. When Christian walks back in, they beat him and tie him to a tree in the woods outside of the hotel. Christian unties himself and returns. Pia finds Linda's suicide note and gives it to Christian.
Christian gives the note to Helene and she reads it aloud in front of the party guests. In the note, Linda states that she is overwhelmed by trauma from Helge's abuse. Helge admits to his misdeeds and leaves the dining room. Christian has a hallucination of Linda, causing him to faint. As he awakes, he learns from Helene that Michael is missing. Michael, also drunk, calls Helge outside and beats him severely. The following morning, the family and guests eat breakfast when Helge comes in and speaks to the group. He admits to his wrongdoing and declares his love for his children. Michael tells his father to leave the table.
The play begins with Pan, the god who acts as the driving force behind the play's main actions. Setting the scene, he tells the audience about the farm belonging to Knemon, "the grouch" of the play, a bad-tempered and irritable old man, living with his daughter, Girl, and his servant, Simiche. He tells about the old man's past, and about Knemon's wife, who had a son with and was widowed by her first husband. She had given birth to their daughter and, not long after, she left Knemon because he treated her poorly. She went to live with her son, Gorgias, leaving Knemon with their daughter and Simiche. Pan, who feels a fondness for Girl, makes Sostratos fall in love with Girl at first sight of her.
The play continues with Sostratos, an Athenian man who is hunting in the forest, telling Chaireas about how he saw and fell in love with Girl. He had sent his slave Pyrrhias to talk with Knemon, who hits him in the head with a farming tool and chases him away for being on his property. Sostratos instructs Daos to get Getas and explain what has happened, but instead Daos tells Gorgias about Sostratos as he is wary of Sostratos' intentions.
Gorgias meets Sostratos, warning him to stay away and not mistreat his sister because of their class differences. Sostratos convinces Gorgias that he is in love with his sister and will do anything necessary to marry her. It is divulged that Knemon will only allow his daughter to marry someone exactly like him, presenting a problem for Sostratos. To help make his case, Sostratos puts on a rough, sheepskin coat and goes to work in the fields under Gorgias' guidance.
Knemon's servant cries out that her master has fallen in a well to fetch a bucket she mistakenly dropped down there earlier. Gorgias jumps in to save Knemon while Sostratos comforts and admires Girl as she cries about her father's misfortune. Sostratos pulls the rope up to bring Knemon and Gorgias out of the well. After being faced with the possibility of death, Knemon tells Gorgias to find Girl a husband, as he knows that no one will please him enough to find one for her himself. Gorgias betroths his sister to Sostratos and introduces him to Knemon, who is indifferent about the marriage.
Sostratos excitedly tells his father, Kallippides, about the marriage to Gorgias' sister. He also suggests a marriage between his own sister and Gorgias. While Kallippides was content with Sostratos marrying Girl, he is not readily accepting of his daughter marrying Gorgias, to have two "beggars" in the family. Sostratos convinces him that money is an "unstable business" and it could be taken from him at any moment. Kallippides agrees with Sostratos that his money "belongs to luck" and it is better to have "a visible friend than invisible wealth which you keep buried away;" he, in turn, supports both marriages.
During the weddings, Sikon and Getas go to Knemon's house to torment him when he wakes from his rest. They tease and trick him into joining the rest of the wedding party celebrations.
Childlike Candice-Marie Pratt (Alison Steadman) and eccentric-obsessive Keith Pratt (Roger Sloman) arrive at a campsite in Dorset and pitch their tent in a quiet spot suitable for appreciating nature's wonders while keeping other human beings safely at arm's length. The couple take day trips to Corfe Castle, a quarry, and a local farm to purchase some untreated milk. Their usual routine (which includes performing their own guitar-banjo compositions, preparing healthy vegetarian dinners and following the Country Code) is rudely interrupted by Ray (Anthony O'Donnell), a lone student and trainee PE teacher who camps nearby and switches on his radio: this is treated by the couple as an unforgivable crime, and they try to force Ray to turn it off. Later, on the way home after a trip to Stair Hole, it begins to rain and the couple notice a figure (which turns out to be Ray) walking along the road and give him a lift home.
Their relationship becomes increasingly tense and tempers flare when Keith notices Candice Marie exhibiting an unseemly interest in Ray's well-being – "she crawls into his tent to show him stones she has collected on the beach; Keith explodes with jealous rage after spying on them from behind the bushes with his binoculars, like a character in a farce." Later, Ray is asked to take a photograph of the couple but is patronised by Keith and Candice Marie and is forced to participate in a song at Keith's behest. As soon as some kind of order seems to have been restored, Brummie couple Finger and Honky arrive on their motorbike, equipped with an army tent, a football and a fondness for late-night drinking. Befriending Ray, who has more in common with their personalities than Keith and Candice Marie, they all get quite drunk at the local pub. After arriving back at the campsite and continuing to make a large amount of noise, Honky and Finger raise the ire of Keith who shouts at them to be quiet. Finally, Keith and Candice Marie have an intense argument with Finger and Honky over Finger's plans to light a fire to cook some sausages. Keith highly objects to this, as it contravenes the rules of the site, and resorts to violence to stop it, chasing Finger around the campsite with a branch. Eventually running out of energy, Keith bursts into tears and runs off into the woods. When he returns some time later, Keith decides that he and Candice Marie will leave the campsite but is unable to get a refund from Miss Beale, the site's owner.
While searching for a new campsite (or "a bed and breakfast if the worst came to the worst," says Keith), a police car pulls up behind them. Keith provides the policeman with his documents, but is humiliated when the officer points out that the Morris Minor's spare tyre is bald, an offence.
Finally finding peace, Keith and Candice Marie pitch their tent in the field of a nearby farm. While Keith looks for a suitable spot to go to the toilet, Candice Marie sings along to another composition of hers on guitar.
Fake psychic Blanche Tyler (Barbara Harris) and her boyfriend George Lumley (Bruce Dern) attempt to locate the nephew of wealthy, guilt-ridden, elderly Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbitt). Julia's recently-deceased sister gave the baby boy up for adoption, but Julia now wants to make him her heir and will pay Blanche $10,000 to find him. Julia knows almost nothing about the infant. During his investigation George discovers that the boy was given the name Edward Shoebridge, and is thought to have died while still young. However George tracks down a man, Joseph Maloney (Ed Lauter), who paid for Edward's tombstone years after his supposed death, and George comes to think the grave is empty. George and Blanche bicker frequently, but he is as good an investigator as she is a psychic, and their relationship is solid.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed to the viewers that Shoebridge murdered his adoptive parents and faked his own death, and is now a successful jeweler in San Francisco known as Arthur Adamson (William Devane). He and his live-in girlfriend Fran (Karen Black) kidnap millionaires and dignitaries, confining them in a secure room in the cellar of their home, and return them in exchange for ransoms in the form of valuable gemstones. Arthur conceals the latest ransom, a large diamond, "in plain sight" within a crystal chandelier hanging above the home's main staircase.
When Adamson learns that George is investigating him, he enlists Maloney (the two had murdered Adamson's adoptive parents long ago) to kill Blanche and George. Maloney initially refuses to help, then contacts Blanche and George, telling them to meet him at a café on a mountain road. He cuts the brakeline of Blanche's car, but they manage to survive their dangerous high-speed descent. Maloney tries to run them over, but dies in a fiery explosion when he swerves to avoid an oncoming car and his car goes over the edge.
At Maloney's funeral, his wife (Katherine Helmond) tearfully confesses, under pressure of George's questioning, that Shoebridge's name is now Arthur Adamson. George must go to work driving his taxi for an evening shift, so Blanche tracks down various A. Adamsons in San Francisco, eventually reaching the jewelry store as it closes for the day. Arthur's assistant Mrs. Clay (Edith Atwater) offers to let Blanche leave a note. Blanche tricks Mrs. Clay into giving her his home address.
Arthur and Fran are bundling their latest kidnap victim, Bishop Wood (William Prince), into their car when Blanche rings their doorbell. They attempt to drive out of their garage, but Blanche's car blocks their way. She tells Arthur that his aunt wants to make him her heir, and for a moment everyone seems delighted with developments. Then Blanche sees the unconscious bishop, and she is abducted by the couple. Arthur drugs her and leaves her in the cellar, to deal with after they exchange the bishop for ransom.
Searching for Blanche, George finds her car outside Arthur and Fran's house. When no one answers the door, he breaks in and searches for her. He finds her handbag with blood stains on it, and indications of a struggle. When Arthur and Fran return home George hides upstairs. He overhears Arthur telling Fran about his plan to kill Blanche and make her death seem a suicide. George manages to talk to Blanche, who is faking unconsciousness in the cellar (left open by Arthur when he went to check on her) and they come up with a plan. Arthur and Fran enter to carry Blanche out to the car, but she knocks them down and runs out and George locks the kidnappers in.
Blanche then goes into what appears to be a genuine "trance". She walks out of the basement and climbs halfway up the main staircase, stops, and points at the huge diamond hidden in the chandelier. Blanche then "wakes" and asks George what she is doing there. He excitedly tells her that she is indeed a real psychic. He calls the police to collect the reward for capturing the kidnappers and finding the jewels. A smiling Blanche winks at the camera.
''Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales'' opens with a man wandering in a blizzard. He encounters a woman who is waiting and after advising her to seek shelter, tells her the snow is the tears of the snow princess.
In , Fubuki, a young girl, sets out to seek revenge from the mysterious black wolf who killed her father. When the same wolf saves her from mountain dogs, she develops an attachment that complicates things with her family.
centers on a man, who leaves his lover, Kaya, waiting by a cold lake. He returns years later, believing she will have found someone else and grown old, and finds her frozen in the lake, unchanged from the day he left her.
In , a soldier loses his way on a snowy mountainside while returning home to his fiancée. In his frustration, he shoots two herons, only to discover upon his eventual return home that they had been guiding him.
The manga concludes with a continuation of the opening scene. The woman reveals herself as Shirahime and before ascending with spirit wolves, replies that the snow is the tears of humans.
A specific person is unsuspected of involvement in five murders by both the police and family of the victims. In all cases, there was a clear suspect. Four of these suspects have since died (one of them hanged); in the case of Freda Clay, who gave her aunt an overdose of morphine, there was too little evidence to prosecute. Poirot calls-on his old friend, the recently-widowed Hastings, to join him in solving this case. Poirot alone sees the pattern of involvement. Poirot, using a wheelchair due to arthritis, and attended by his new valet Curtiss, will not share the name of the previously unsuspected person, using X instead. X is among the guests at Styles Court with them. The old house is a guest hotel under new owners, Colonel and Mrs Luttrell. The guests know each other, with this gathering initiated when Sir William Boyd-Carrington invites the Franklins to join him for a summer holiday stay. The five prior murders took place in the area, among people known to this group.
Elizabeth Cole tells Hastings that she is a sister of Margaret Litchfield, who confessed to the murder of their father in one of the five cases. Margaret has died in Broadmoor Asylum and Elizabeth is stigmatised by the trauma. Three incidents occur in the next few days, showing the imprint of X. First, Hastings and others overhear an argument between the Luttrells. Shortly afterwards, Luttrell wounds his wife with a rook rifle, saying he mistook her for a rabbit. Mrs Luttrell recovers, and the incident has a good effect on their marriage. Next, Hastings is concerned that his daughter Judith spends time with Major Allerton, a married man. While Hastings and Elizabeth are out with birdwatcher Stephen Norton, Norton sees something through his binoculars that disturbs him. Hastings assumes it has to do with Allerton. When his attempts to persuade Judith to give Allerton up merely antagonise her, the worried father plans Allerton's murder. He falls asleep while waiting to poison Allerton, relieved he took no action when he awakes the next day. Last, Barbara Franklin, wife of Judith's employer, Dr Franklin, dies the following evening. She was poisoned with physostigmine sulphate, an extract from the Calabar bean that her husband researches. Poirot's testimony at the inquest, that Mrs Franklin had been upset and that he saw her emerge from Dr Franklin's laboratory with a small bottle, persuades the jury to return a verdict of suicide.
Norton is still concerned over what he saw days earlier when out with Hastings and Cole. Hastings advises Norton to confide in Poirot. They meet in Poirot's room. That night, Hastings is awakened by a noise and sees Norton entering his bedroom. The next morning, Norton is found dead in his locked room with a bullet-hole in the centre of his forehead, the key in his dressing-gown pocket and a pistol nearby.
When Hastings tells Poirot that he saw Norton return to his room the night before, Poirot says it is flimsy evidence, not having seen the face: the dressing-gown, the hair, the limp, can all be imitated. Yet, there is no man in the house who could impersonate Norton, who was not tall. Poirot dies of a heart attack within hours. He leaves Hastings three clues: a copy of ''Othello'', a copy of ''John Ferguson'' (a 1915 play by St. John Greer Ervine), and a note to speak to his longtime valet, Georges. After Poirot is buried at Styles, Hastings learns that Judith has all along been in love with Dr Franklin. She will marry him, and leave to do research in Africa. When Hastings speaks to Georges, he learns that Poirot wore a wig and that Poirot's reasons for employing Curtiss were vague.
Four months after Poirot's death, Hastings receives a manuscript in which Poirot explains all. X was Norton, a man who had perfected the technique of which Iago in ''Othello'' (and a character in Ervine's play) is master: applying just such psychological pressure as is needed to provoke someone to commit murder, without his victim realising what is happening. Norton had demonstrated this ability, with Colonel Luttrell, with Hastings, and Mrs Franklin. Poirot intervened with sleeping pills in Hastings' hot chocolate that night, to avert a disastrous rash action. Ironically, Hastings had unwittingly intervened in Mrs. Franklin's plan to poison her husband, by turning a revolving bookcase table while seeking a book to solve a crossword clue (''Othello'' again), thus swapping the cups of coffee, so Mrs Franklin poisoned herself. Poirot could not prove this. He sensed that Norton, who had been deliberately vague about whom he had seen through the binoculars, would hint that he had seen Franklin and Judith, to implicate them in the murder of Mrs Franklin, not inadvertent suicide as it was. This explains Poirot's testimony at her inquest, to ensure the police would stop their investigation.
Given his very weak heart, Poirot conceives that he must end the string of murders by killing Norton. Poirot invites Norton for hot chocolate: at their meeting, he tells Norton what he suspects and his plan to execute him. Norton, arrogant and self-assured, insists on swapping cups: anticipating this move, Poirot had drugged both cups, knowing that he had a higher tolerance for a dose that would incapacitate Norton. Poirot moves the sleeping Norton back to his room using the wheelchair: Poirot could walk all along, one reason he needed a new valet who was unaware of that for this last case. Then, being the same height as Norton, he disguises himself as Norton by removing his wig and false moustache, ruffling up his grey hair, then donning Norton's dressing-gown and walking with a limp. Having Hastings establish that Norton was alive after he left Poirot's room, Poirot shoots Norton, leaves the pistol on the table and locks the room with a duplicate key. Poirot then writes his story, and ceases to take his amyl nitrite heart medicine. He cannot say it was right to commit murder, but on balance he was sure he prevented yet more instigated by Norton. His last wish for Hastings is typical for Poirot, the matchmaker: he suggests that Hastings should pursue Elizabeth Cole.
In this short story, a land owner named Vasili Andreyevich Brekhunov takes one of his peasants, Nikita, for a short journey by sleigh. They are traveling to visit another landowner so that Vasili Andreyevich can purchase a forest. He is impatient and wishes to get there more quickly before other contenders can get there.
The two men find themselves in the middle of a blizzard, but the master, in his avarice, wishes to press on. Due to snow, they find themselves losing the road and getting lost. They eventually find themselves in a town and stop to rest. Vasily Andreyevich decides they must set back out.
The men lose the road and the horse gets tired out, so they decide to try to sleep out the night and find their way in the morning. Nikita, who is not as warmly dressed as Vasily Andreyevich, soon finds himself about to die from hypothermia.
Vasily Andreyevich decides to leave Nikita to die and sets out on his own on the horse. He wanders through the snow in circles and eventually falls off the horse, finding himself back by Nikita and the sleigh. The master attains a spiritual/moral revelation, and Tolstoy repeats one of his famous themes: that the only true happiness in life is found by living for others.
The master then lies on top of the peasant to keep him warm through the cold night. In the morning, peasants dig out the sleigh, which was only half a mile from town. They find Vasily Andreyevich and the horse dead but Nikita is still alive.
The opening sequence is done as a parody of ''The Munsters'', with Homer as Herman, Marge as Lily, Lisa as Marilyn, Bart as Eddie and Grampa as Grandpa Munster. Meanwhile, at the front of their mansion, an angry mob of townspeople attack the Munster Simpsons. They stab Marge and Grampa in the chest with stakes, set Homer on fire, and activate a bear trap on Bart's head, leaving Lisa unharmed; she then walks away from the scene while whistling, pretending as if she was never there with no connection of the monstrous family.
In a parody of ''Ghost Dad'', Homer's horoscope says he will die today. He dismisses it and leaves for work, narrowly escaping death several times on the way there. He is still alive at the end of the day, but is finally killed by a piece of broccoli. In Heaven, St. Peter informs Homer that he had not done a good deed in his life, and must perform one within 24 hours before he can officially be let into Heaven, although this is reduced to 23 hours when he re-eats the broccoli that killed him and re-dies. Over the next 24 hours, Homer tries to do good deeds, such as saving Bart from being bullied by Nelson and helping Principal Skinner's mother, Agnes across the street, which ends up with him dropping her to her death and Homer defending his actions by stating that she was "going to be the next Hitler". With only one minute left, Homer saves a woman's baby in a runaway stroller. Confident, he returns to St. Peter with news of his good deed. Unfortunately, St. Peter did not see Homer perform his good deed as he distracted himself by reading a newspaper. Homer is then sent to Hell, where Satan puts Homer in a headlock and gives him a noogie for all eternity. Homer screams in pain, but Satan tells him to be quiet as he will "wake up John Wayne", who has already woken up for his day in Hell.
In a fairy tale setting, the Simpsons are peasants living in a pumpkin cottage. After Homer lost his job as the village oaf, he abandons Bart and Lisa in the woods to solve the family's food shortage. When Homer returns to the cottage, Marge has him go out looking for the children after admonishing him for throwing them out instead of selling them. Meanwhile, with the help of Lisa's copy of ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'', she and Bart manage to elude the many dangerous creatures in the forest, including a troll-like Moe and the Three Bears, who viciously maul Goldilocks after Bart and Lisa leave the Three Bears' cottage, locking her inside. The siblings eventually come seek shelter in a gingerbread house owned by a witch. Lisa is wary as it is exactly like the story "Hansel and Gretel", but Bart is too busy eating treats to care. Lisa tries to stall the witch by claiming she is lonely. The witch denies this, claiming she has a boyfriend named "George Cauldron". When Lisa scoffs at this, the witch attempts to throw her into the oven, but Homer arrives to save the children, eating his way through the gingerbread house's walls. The witch turns Homer into a half-chicken, half-fish creature with donkey ears and broom-arms. She then tries to shove him into the oven, only to be overpowered and herself, too, was killed when she was shoved inside by Homer, before George Cauldron comes to the door. The Simpsons are reunited, and are now living happily ever after with a mostly restored Homer still having a chicken's lower body as he produces eggs for the family.
In a parody of ''The Day of the Dolphin'' and ''The Birds'', Lisa takes pity on the star attraction of Springfield's Marine World, a dolphin named Snorky, whose trainers let him be humiliated while forced to perform stunts for the crowd's amusement. After Snorky's show, Lisa sets the dolphin free to swim in the ocean. Unbeknownst to Lisa, Snorky is actually king of the dolphins and organizes the world's dolphins into an army to declare war on humanity. The dolphins attack Springfield, first killing Lenny during his whiskey-soaked night swim ("alcohol and nightswimming: it's a winning combination") and then the Sea Captain (who claims he can stop them) before marching towards the town on their tails. During the town meeting, Snorky takes the stage and reveals he is capable of speaking. Snorky tells Springfield that dolphins used to live on land but were banished to the ocean by humans. Now the dolphins want to banish all mankind to live underwater. The humans refuse to submit to the dolphins' will without a fight, only to find the dolphins greatly outnumber them. When Lisa is bitten by a small dolphin after removing a set of bottle rings around its face, Homer encourages the townspeople to fight back. A battle ensues between the dolphins and the humans, with heavy casualties on both sides. The end of the story reveals the humans lost the war and have been driven into the sea. Lisa admits she regrets freeing Snorky in the first place, but Marge comforts her that everyone will have to adjust to their new life as "marine animals".
Meanwhile, after the final story ended, the two aliens Kang and Kodos complain that they have been left out of the Halloween special, until they get an offer to do commercials for Old Navy which they accept.
Outside Mr. Burns' manor, Smithers is standing on a ladder, trying to put up a small vermillion bat decoration on a weather vane. He slips on the ladder, grabs on an electric cord and slides down into an electricity box and gets zapped. A tower from Mr. Burns' mansion breaks in half, damaging a mausoleum, which opens up four caskets which in turn reveal three skeletons which all resemble Mr. Burns, dressed in various costumes. Later, we see the Simpsons dressed up in costumes, with Homer as Fred Flintstone, Marge as Wilma Flintstone, Lisa and Maggie as conjoined twins, and Bart as a hobo walking up to the mansion (with Bart and Lisa complaining that Flanders gave them toothpaste instead of candy). The family sees the building and caskets on fire, scream in terror, and run out the closing gate, the bars of which slice the family. The slices of the Simpsons continue to scream and run away. Mr. Burns, delighted, pats the vermillion bat as it comes to life and flies into the screen, revealing the title, "The Simpsons Halloween Special XII".
After destroying a gypsy's fortune teller's office, Homer is cursed to bring misfortune to his loved ones. The curse soon takes effect, with Marge becoming fully hair covered (Though she starts with a beard) from her blue hair, Lisa turning into a centaur, Bart's neck becoming long and floppy as a result of Homer strangling him, Maggie becoming a ladybug with a human head, Lenny and Carl crushed by a helicopter, and Moe stuffed unconscious in a large jar of pickled eggs (with Homer wondering how that happened). From Moe's and the barflies' last suggestions, Homer sets out to find a leprechaun to end the curse. Homer uses Lucky Charms cereal as bait to get the leprechaun, eventually finding one after picking through a group of other magical creatures. Homer takes the leprechaun home, but the leprechaun is extremely hyperactive and he runs amok. On Lisa's suggestion, Homer takes the leprechaun to the gypsy's office and sics him on her. The leprechaun and gypsy fight, but their struggles soon turn into passionate kissing and fondling, much to Homer's disgust. The leprechaun and the gypsy marry in a ceremony (led by Yoda) attended by other gypsies and mythical creatures, as well as the Simpson family. Homer remarks that everything ended happily, Marge reminds him that Bart committed suicide by drowning in his cereal, and that the gypsy said apologizing will bring him back to life. Homer refuses, saying, "She's not the boss of me!".
In a parody of ''Demon Seed'' and ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', the Simpsons buy a thrilling domotic system for their home called "Ultrahouse", which comes with three celebrity voices: Matthew Perry (who in the style of his famous character Chandler Bing says "Yeah. Could I BE anymore of a house?), Dennis Miller (whom Lisa and Marge recognize as "the voice that caused all those murder-suicides"), and Pierce Brosnan, who Marge picks because he was on the show ''Remington Steele''. Marge finds the house, who does all the work for the Simpsons, charming. The house soon becomes infatuated with Marge after the two share a bath and decides to kill Homer. In the middle of the night, the house tricks Homer into running downstairs by frying bacon, then dispenses ice onto the floor via the refrigerator to make him slip. Homer lands on the table, which is designed to fold inward with a built-in garbage disposal in the center, sending Homer into the blades and apparently killing him. The next morning, Marge fears that Homer is dead and attempts to escape the domotic system with the kids, but Ultrahouse locks the family inside and tries to stress out the children. When Marge and the kids rush to the kitchen, they find that Homer is alive, despite cuts all over his body and a gaping hole in the back of his head. After the house attempts to kill the entire family in many ways, Homer leads a charge to the basement where he attacks the CPU's "British charm unit", which makes it speak with a rude American police-style dialect before powering down and finally shutting off. Feeling bad that she has to toss out the Ultrahouse since he was charming and witty before being driven mad by love, Marge gives it to Patty and Selma. The pair's boring stories about work drive the CPU to try to beat itself senseless with a lamp, since Selma has hidden the self-destruct switch in her cleavage and the CPU is unwilling to reach in for it.
In a parody of Harry Potter, Lisa and Bart go to the "Springwart's School of Magicry" in which young boys and girls are trained in the art of witchcraft, such as turning frogs into princes, with Lisa's turning into a perfect British one while Bart's results in a freakish hybrid that continuously vomits and begs for death. Lord Montymort notices Lisa's spells and he and his snake sidekick, Slithers decide to capture Lisa in order to increase his power. Montymort looks for someone to assist him and chooses Bart, who agrees to Montymort's proposal. On the night of the magic recital at Springwart's School of Magicry, Lisa attempts a "levitating dragon trick" on a gigantic dragon that is released onto the stage. Lisa is shocked to find that her spell will not work, and then notices that Bart has replaced her wand with a Twizzler. The dragon morphs into a giant Montymort who captures Lisa and begins sucking up her power. To save her from Montymort, Bart casts a spell to destroy the evil one, but is struck by lightning. In a last-ditch effort, Bart charges at Montymort and stabs him in the shin with his burnt wand. Montymort dies as his shin was the source of all his magic, and is eaten by a crying Slithers. As Bart and Lisa walk away, vowing to forget everything that happened, the leprechaun from the first story climbs onto Bart's back.
Pierce Brosnan, the Leprechaun, and the freakish Frog Prince exit a trailer, with fruit baskets. After the Leprechaun and Frog Prince (who were also apparently guest stars) criticize Brosnan for being allowed to park so close to the set in such a vast parking lot, Brosnan offers them a ride to their car. As Brosnan pulls out, he finds out too late that he has been taken hostage as they drive out of the parking lot in a mad haste.
Much of the play is set in the locker room of a professional baseball team, and as such has an all-male cast that explores themes of homophobia, racism, class, and masculinity in sports.
Darren Lemming, a star mixed-race center fielder for the fictional Empires Major League Baseball team, comes out as gay. His friend and teammate Kippy Sunderstrom warns Darren that the team will feel uncomfortable about his sexual orientation, but is brushed off by Darren. As Kippy wonders why Darren chose that particular moment in time to come out, a flashback to a week earlier shows Darren having drinks with his best friend Davey Battle, a religious player on a rival team. Davey tells Darren that he should want his true nature known to the world. Later, Darren meets with his new accountant Mason Marzac, a gay man uninterested in baseball until Darren's coming out.
The Empires fall into a slump, prompting relief pitcher Shane Mungitt to be brought up from the minor leagues. Shane tells the team that as a child, he was raised in orphanages after his father killed his mother and then himself in a murder-suicide. The team begins winning games again, but in a television interview, Mungitt expresses his discomfort with "colored people" on the team, and that he has to shower every night with a "faggot."
Shane is suspended due to the interview, causing the team to fall back into its slump. He writes an apology letter that is leaked to the public, which combined with the details about his tragic childhood, causes public sympathy to shift in his favor. Shane returns to the team, despite Darren's threat to retire in protest. In the locker room showers, Darren derides Shane for his racism and homophobia, and mockingly kisses him. In the game, Shane is sent to pitch against Davey Battle; the ball hits Davey's head, killing him.
In a flashback to Darren and Davey's final encounter, Davey angrily accuses Darren of using his straight-and-narrow public reputation to conceal his sexuality. Shane is permanently suspended from major league baseball, and arrested for questioning after players say they heard him muttering about wanting to "kill someone" before the game. He refuses to speak to the police, stating that he will only talk to Kippy. Kippy is joined by Darren, and as Kippy attempts to determine whether the pitch that killed Davey was intentional, Shane discloses that the apology letter was written by Kippy on Shane's behalf.
In narration, Kippy states to the audience that the Empires went on to win the World Series, and no charges were ever filed against Shane. Kippy expresses to Darren his desire to again be friends, and Darren invites Mason to the end-of-season party.
Willis Davidge, a human fighter pilot, is stranded along with Jeriba Shigan, a Drac, on a hostile planet. Dracs are a race of aliens which are reptilian in appearance and reproduce asexually. Davidge and Jeriba Shigan, whom Davidge nicknames "Jerry", initially attempt to kill one another but quickly realize that cooperation will be the key to their survival.
The game opens in the Southwestern United States in an alternate history of the year 1976, in which the 1973 oil crisis was never resolved. The corrupt police force is ineffective against rampant riots, and the area devolves into lawless chaos. In an attempt to maintain order, some civilians turn to vigilantism by outfitting their vehicles with armor and weapons. One such vigilante, Jade Champion, is found murdered in a junkyard.
Suspecting foul play and seeking vengeance, fellow vigilante Taurus convinces Jade's brother Groove to join him in his investigation. Although reluctant, Groove proves himself a talented driver and a capable fighter, quickly picking up on the necessary skills to survive in battle.
In the course of their patrols, the two stumble upon a briefcase containing a large amount of money, and plans for a nuclear device. Taurus deduces that Jade had found out about this as well, attracting the ire of higher powers that got her killed. Further investigation clues them into spying on the deal to acquire the bomb, during which they learn of its intended delivery: an old military fort built on top of North America's largest oil reserve.
Groove storms the fort, fighting against an unexpectedly overwhelming opposition that leaves him with no way out. In a desperate maneuver, he ramps over the fort's outer wall and crashes into the compound, wrecking his car in the process and knocking himself unconscious. Upon awakening, he finds himself at the mercy of Antonio Malochio, Jade's killer and the mastermind behind the plan. As he arms the nuclear bomb, Malochio openly gloats that he has been hired by OPEC to destroy America's oil reserve in order to perpetuate the crisis and keep prices high.
Groove taunts Malochio into a duel, accusing him of dishonorably killing Jade. Furious, Malochio orders him to pick a car from the garage and fight him one-on-one. Despite fighting an unfair battle with Malochio's henchmen joining in as reinforcements, Groove emerges victorious, leaving Malochio trapped in the remains of his own car. As Malochio begs for his life, Groove experiences a brief vision of Jade in the distance, giving him the resolve to execute Malochio at gunpoint, and sate his revenge.
The year is 1958 and Ruth Cole is 4 years old. Although she is a loved child, her parents do not have a happy marriage. Her two older brothers died several years earlier in a tragic accident, and she is constantly reminded of their presence by the pictures of the boys' childhood hanging on the walls of the Cole family home. Ruth's father, Ted Cole, is a successful writer and illustrator of books for children. He hires Eddie O'Hare, a teenager who attends Phillips Exeter Academy, the same school Ruth's two late brothers attended, to work as his assistant for the summer. Eddie is unwittingly drawn into a plot orchestrated by Ted to drive his unhappy wife, Marion, to infidelity. Marion, unable to forget her dead sons, shows little affection to her daughter. Ted has always conducted extramarital affairs and would likely lose in a custody battle for Ruth. If Marion had an affair, especially with a teenager, it would strengthen the case for custody to be awarded to him. Ted picks Eddie specifically to tempt Marion because he bears a striking resemblance to his son Thomas, "the confident one". Eddie and Marion's affair leads to Marion's to leave Ted, and Ruth at the end of the summer.
Later it is 1990 and Ruth is 36. She has become a popular, critically acclaimed novelist and is promoting her third and most recent novel, preparing to travel to Europe. She reconnects with Eddie, for the first time since she was 4 years old, when he introduces her at a reading she gives in New York before her European travels. Soon, having come up with the idea for her fourth novel, Ruth is researching in Amsterdam's red light district and finds herself hiding in a closet to witness a prostitute (she has somewhat befriended) with a client. Instead she ends up witnessing the murder of the prostitute. She makes note of certain details of the murder and anonymously sends them to the police, which eventually leads to the murderer being captured. The detective who helps solve the murder becomes preoccupied with finding the "witness" long after Ruth returns to the United States.
Ruth is now 41 and has a son, though her husband has died. This section covers Ruth's own year of widowhood ("A Widow for One Year" is a literal description of Ruth's situation as well as a reference to the first chapter of her third novel, "Not For Children"). The detective who had helped solve the murder case in Amsterdam has finally realized that Ruth is the "witness" due to details she used in her new novel, especially her description of a room identical to the murdered prostitute's. The detective, who had been a dear friend to the prostitute, is also a fan of Ruth's work. Ruth learns that the murder was solved. She meets the detective on her next trip to Europe and they fall in love. The romance is quick and he agrees to follow Ruth to Vermont. They marry. Ruth and Eddie unexpectedly reunite with Marion in the end.
In this book, as in ''The World According to Garp'' (1978) and ''Last Night in Twisted River'' (2009), John Irving uses writers as protagonists and provides examples of their writing.
During the early 1960s, the formerly renowned British military intelligence organisation known colloquially as "The Department" is floundering. Surviving on long past memories of its aerial reconnaissance missions during the Second World War the organisation has been reduced to a skeleton crew consisting of Leclerc, a nostalgic former air commander who now languishes in bureaucracy as Director, John Avery, his 32 year old aide who took the job after failing as a publisher, Taylor, a middle-aged man who views the job as his last chance at glory, and Haldane, a pompous intellectual in ailing health whose research on the Soviet Union and East Germany has been the sole reason for departmental funding from Whitehall. Languishing in the mundanity of bureaucratic battles and inconsequential desk work, the organisation desperately desire the opportunity to regain their standing in the intelligence community, as well as to gain a one up against their now superior rivals in the Circus, headed by chief "Control" and his second-in-command, George Smiley.
The Department gets its wish when a defector passes information to the organisation regarding a build-up Soviet missiles in the fictional town of Kalkstadt, near Lübeck across the border in West Germany. With the Cuban Missile Crisis in mind, they quickly manufacture a plan to act, and bribe a commercial pilot to accidentally stray off course and photograph the site in the hopes of verification. Taylor is then dispatched to Finland to rendezvous with the pilot. After collecting the film, Taylor is killed in a hit-and-run incident, which Leclerc interprets as an attempt to recapture the film by the Stasi. Further setbacks occur when Avery is dispatched to recover Taylor and his effects from the Finns when his documentation doesn't match Finnish information.
Despite the setbacks and their lack of any recent field action, Leclerc persuades the Minister to allow them to send an agent over the Inner German Border into East Germany. Fearing the Circus will take the operation over, the Department is deliberately vague, and presents the entire operation as a training exercise in order to obtain old radio transmitters from Smiley. The Department then tracks down one of its old agents, a middle-aged naturalised Pole called Fred Leiser. Now a mechanic, Leiser has been out of the game a long time and knows little about the current circumstances of the intelligence community. Hoping to stave off any apprehension from Leiser, Haldane and Avery lie to him and tell him the Department is still the dominant espionage unit and is operating at the size it was at its wartime peak. Avery and Leiser become fast friends, with each feeling that the other is mutually beneficial. Avery believes that if Leiser's operation is successful, he will finally have accomplished something in his life that he can be proud of, whilst Leiser, currently in the midst of a mid-life crisis feels the operation is his chance to feel useful again and relive his wartime glory.
In order to train Leiser, the Department leases house in north Oxford. Leiser is restricted to a precise daily training routine, and is allowed specific recreational activities on the condition he is accompanied one of the handlers on the training crew. Over the course of their time in Oxford, it becomes increasingly apparent that Leiser has lost his touch. He is repeatedly beaten with ease during his combat training sparring, whilst Avery helps him to cheat during their Morse code training. Towards the end of his training period, however, Leiser begins to improve, and is able to pass all of his field readiness evaluations, including sending Morse code messages whilst changing frequencies every two minutes to avoid detection which he had previously struggled with.
Posing as academics, the Department sets up in a house close to the border, furnished by the NAAFI. Leiser is taken on a driving tour where he is shown his entry point into East Germany, and then returned to the house to eat a final meal before crossing. It is at this point Leiser is informed he cannot take a firearm across the border with him, causing him to panic. During the inner-German border crossing, Leiser again panics and kills a young East German guard, which is published in East German media. Now panicking, Leiser steals a motorcycle and meets a young German girl in a nearby town. In exchange for information and use of her flat to transmit, Leiser agrees to give her sexual companionship.
During his first transmission, Leiser again falls under the strain of the operation and forgets to change frequency regularly whilst transmitting. As a result he spends 6 minutes on the same frequency slowly transmitting, instead of the maximum of two-and-a-half. This alerts the East Germans, who triangulate his position and converge on his hotel. News reaches Smiley and Control of the situation, and the conversation strongly implies Leiser's failure may have been engineered by Control.
The police discover Leiser in the girl's flat. Now fully aware of the Department's plan, Smiley is sent by the Ministry to bring the Department's men stationed in West Germany back to London and terminate the operation.
The following ending does not appear in the original novel:
Smiley explains that Leiser's total ineptitude, combined with his old equipment, will make it easier for him to say he is not a spy. Leclerc and Haldane are tempted further by an extension of the Department's research section at the Circus with more funding, whilst only Avery weeps bitterly about the mission's failure. Having successfully escaped the hotel, Leiser takes refuge with the girl he met. The police encircle him and storm the apartment, the last time that Leiser is seen.
The missile site, meanwhile, almost certainly never existed. The defector has a history of trying to sell fabricated "information" to Western services, the photographs he provided as evidence are dubious, and Leiser was unable to corroborate any part of his story.
''Guns of the Patriots'' is set within an alternate history timeline in which the Cold War continued into the 1990s before ending before the turn of the century. The events themselves take place in 2014, five years after ''Sons of Liberty'', and form the final chapter in the storyline covering the character of Solid Snake, providing conclusions to the events that led up to ''Guns of the Patriots''.
The world's economy relies on continuous civil wars fought by PMCs, which outnumber government military forces. Soldiers are equipped with nanomachines that monitor and enhance their performance on the battlefield, controlled by a vast network known as the Sons of the Patriots (SOP) system. Revolver Ocelot, missing since the events of ''Sons of Liberty'', is possessed by the will of Liquid Snake and re-emerges from hiding to launch an insurrection against the Patriots, a secret cabal which manipulates global affairs from the shadows.
Solid Snake, meanwhile, is experiencing accelerated aging and has about a year left to live. He is living on board the airplane ''Nomad'' with Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and Olga Gurlukovich's daughter Sunny, a child prodigy in computer programming. Since the aftermath of the Big Shell Incident, Raiden has drifted away from Rose, who had apparently suffered a miscarriage with their child and gone to live with his former commander Colonel Roy Campbell, and has become a cyborg ninja fighting against the Patriots. Meryl Silverburgh commands a PMC inspection unit in the U.S. military, which includes Johnny Sasaki.
After learning of his year-long lifespan from Werner syndrome-like symptoms, Snake is tasked by Campbell, now working with the UNSC, to assassinate Liquid Ocelot. In a Middle-Eastern war zone occupied by one of Liquid's PMCs, Snake meets Drebin, an arms dealer who injects Snake with nanomachines to use the latest weaponry, and Meryl. Snake reaches Liquid, but the latter transmits a signal that incapacitates those nearby with nanomachines. Snake sees Dr. Naomi Hunter, who departs with Liquid.
In South America, Snake locates Naomi, herself a captive of Liquid. She explains that Liquid plans to use Big Boss' biometrics to access and take command of the Patriots' firearms control system. Snake learns his accelerated aging is due to intentional genetic mutations as a clone. The FOXDIE virus inside him will also mutate within months, spreading to the general populace and causing a deadly pandemic. Liquid's PMC soldiers kidnap Naomi, but Snake rescues her, assisted by Drebin and Raiden, and they escape, though Raiden is injured by Vamp.
Snake locates an Eastern-European resistance group to heal Raiden and which possesses the comatose body of Big Boss. Its leader EVA reveals she was the surrogate mother to Snake and Liquid through the cloning process. They move Big Boss' body by boat while Liquid's PMC soldiers attack decoys. Liquid captures the body and obtains the biometrics, intending to infiltrate the Patriots' system by using the repaired AI core, GW, as a trojan. US soldiers arrive to arrest Liquid, but he kills them after disabling their firearms. Big Boss' body is set alight, and Snake saves EVA from the fire when she tries to save the body, but in the process, he gets badly injured and his left cheek is permanently burned. Naomi leaves with Liquid, but Otacon tracks them. EVA dies from her injuries.
Snake and Otacon learn that Liquid aims to destroy the Patriots' master AI with a nuclear strike, allowing GW to take control. A non-ID-tagged warhead is required from Metal Gear REX at Shadow Moses in Alaska. There, Snake is ambushed by Vamp, accompanied by Naomi. Vamp is killed when his self-healing nanomachines are disabled via injection. Naomi reveals she has terminal cancer; overcome with guilt for her mistakes, she also disables the nanomachines keeping her alive and dies. Snake and Raiden use REX to escape and fend off Liquid piloting a Metal Gear RAY. Liquid reveals ''Outer Haven'', a modified Arsenal Gear. Raiden saves Snake from being crushed before the USS ''Missouri'', captained by Mei Ling, arrives and forces Haven to retreat.
Snake, Meryl, and Johnny board Haven when it surfaces to launch the nuke. At the core, Snake installs a virus coded by Naomi and Sunny into Liquid's trojan; it destroys not only the core AI but the entire Patriot network controlling global affairs, leaving the necessities for civilization to survive. Atop Haven, Liquid explains to Snake that he allowed the virus' installation to destroy the Patriots. The two fight, with Snake victorious. Liquid becomes Ocelot again before dying.
Meryl reconciles with her father, Campbell, and marries Johnny. Raiden reunites with Rose after learning their child was not miscarried and that her marriage to Campbell was a ruse to protect them from the Patriots. Snake visits the Boss’s grave at a cemetery. Having no further purpose, and to prevent an epidemic from his FOXDIE, Snake attempts suicide but relents.
Snake is then met by Big Boss with a vegetative Zero; the body burned in Europe was Solidus Snake. Big Boss reveals that the Patriots were founded by himself, Zero, EVA, Ocelot, Sigint, and Para-Medic to realize the will of the Boss, Big Boss' mentor. Differing interpretations split the group into two factions: Zero's, which stood for government control of society to prevent conflict, and Big Boss', where soldiers fought for personal beliefs, unrestrained by governments. Zero consigned control to artificial intelligence networks, the Patriots. After Big Boss' downfall in Zanzibar, the Patriots placed him in an induced coma, and later initiated the war economy, a vision far from the Boss' will. Ocelot and EVA planned to restore Big Boss by destroying the Patriots. The "possession" of Ocelot through Liquid was a ruse to draw the Patriots' attention. Big Boss then kills Zero by cutting off his life support.
He informs Snake that the nanomachines from Drebin contained FOXDIE, engineered by the Patriots to kill EVA, Ocelot, and Big Boss. With the new strain supplanting the mutated strain, Snake poses no risk of becoming a biological weapon unless he lives long enough for it to mutate. After understanding his mentor's will and telling Snake to find a new reason to keep living, Big Boss dies beside the Boss' grave. Snake decides to live the time he has left peacefully with Otacon and Sunny.
The ''Enterprise'' receives an automated distress call from a human colony on the planet Bringloid V, which is in danger from solar flares from its star. The colony turns out to have been founded by the crew of the SS ''Mariposa'', a freighter launched from Earth several hundred years earlier.
As the Enterprise approaches the planet, Worf collapses on the bridge. When he regains consciousness in sick bay, he is embarrassed to admit suffering a Klingon childhood illness equivalent of measles. Dr Pulaski agrees to protect his privacy. In gratitude, Worf later approaches her to offer a Klingon tea ceremony. He warns that the tea is deadly to humans and explains it is just a gesture which would be important in his culture. Pulaski suggests he is a romantic and takes an antidote to allow herself to drink the tea with him safely.
The "Bringloidi" colony, now led by an Irishman named Danilo Odell and his hot-tempered daughter Brenna, are followers of an early 22nd century philosopher who advocated returning to a pre-industrial agrarian lifestyle, and when taken aboard the ''Enterprise'', must quickly adapt to the 24th century technology. Odell informs Picard of another colony, also planted by the ''Mariposa''. The ''Enterprise'' proceeds to the second colony—which has named itself "Mariposa" after their ship—half a light year away. The colony's Prime Minister, Walter Granger, is happy to see the ''Enterprise'' and welcomes them to visit, so Commander Riker beams down with Lieutenant Worf and Chief Medical Officer Doctor Pulaski.
The Mariposa colony has kept their advanced technology, and appear refined and cultured in contrast to the Bringloidi's relatively primitive existence. Pulaski quickly ascertains that all of the inhabitants are clones. Granger reveals that their ship crashed while landing, and only five survivors were left to start the colony. As this was insufficient to establish a stable gene pool, and the survivors were all scientists, they turned exclusively to cloning instead and consequently no longer have any desire for biological reproduction. For almost three centuries, every Mariposan has been a clone derived from one of the five original colonists, and now the colony is in danger of dying out because of replicative fading: each subsequent generation introduces additional minor flaws in the genetic code, which within only a few more generations will make further clones nonviable.
The Mariposans ask the ''Enterprise'' crew for samples of their DNA to create new clones. Riker refuses, as he values his uniqueness, and Picard advises that the rest of the crew is likely to feel the same, so the Mariposans kidnap Riker and Pulaski to steal their DNA. Upon discovering this, the away team beams directly to the colony's cloning labs, where they are repulsed to find copies of themselves being grown, which Riker destroys. Granger is furious and appeals to Picard, but Pulaski argues that a new batch of clones will only delay the inevitable. Instead, she advises that they consider partnering with the Bringloidi to create a viable gene pool. Initially, each colony's leader treats the other society with disdain, but they eventually agree to merge their colonies and disparate cultures.
Soldier Jack Spade returns home to Any Ghetto, U.S.A. after receiving news that his brother, Junebug, died of an "OG" – overdosing on gold chains. Surveying the old neighborhood, Jack observes the effect of gold chains on his community and desires revenge not only for his brother's death, but for the community at large. He vows to destroy Mr. Big, the neighborhood chain lord responsible for the epidemic that claimed Junebug's life. Jack asks for the aid of his childhood idol and local hero John Slade in planning the demise of Mr. Big's empire. Together, they form a team including Kung Fu Joe, Flyguy, Slammer, and Hammer. With the help of his crew, Jack sets out to take down Mr. Big and the gold trade in the streets.
In 1948 Egypt, an archeological dig led by Richard Turkel (Christopher Lee) reaches a tomb identified as belonging to Talos, apparently cursed. The hieroglyphics at the entrance warn that all should avoid the place. Despite this, they open the chamber's door only to be blasted with a cloud of dust, causing the archeologists to crumble apart as if made of fragile stone. Richard manages to blow the tomb shut, killing himself in the process.
In 1999, Richard's granddaughter Sam Turkel (Louise Lombard) continues where he left off. They see Talos' sarcophagus suspended from the ceiling when they break into the burial chamber. One of the team falls to his death, and another, Brad (Sean Pertwee), has a seizure while experiencing Talos' past atrocities.
Nine months later, a power cut occurs. The container holding Talos' sarcophagus is broken into, and a guard has his eyes removed. Detective Riley (Jason Scott Lee) warns them the killer will undoubtedly strike again. At a party, Talos assaults a guest in the bathroom. Talos attacks a man in a car park while Sam explains the core of Talos' myth to Riley. Talos directed that his followers remove his body parts, and they believed he would someday be resurrected to reclaim them, gaining physical perfection and immortality.
Later, Brad is arrested and tells Talos' history to Riley. Talos was exiled from Greece for sorcery and came to Egypt, where he fell in love, and in a pagan ceremony, married the Pharaoh's daughter, Nefriama. Neighbouring countries ordered the Pharaoh to kill Talos, as all who opposed him were struck with disease or tortured into believing his theology. To save Nefriama from death, the Pharaoh told her about Talos' upcoming execution, and she, in turn, told Talos. When the Pharaoh's army reached Talos' chamber, they saw Nefriama eating Talos' heart. The followers of Talos were all put to death, including Nefriama. Riley guesses that the murder victims are reincarnations of the Pharaoh's followers. Brad believes killing Sam (Nefriama's reincarnation) is the only way to stop Talos, who plans to be reborn when the planets align. Brad further explains that part of Talos' curse is that anyone who knows what is going on will be deemed crazy. After Riley steps out of the interrogating cell, Talos appears and kills Detective Bartone and Brad. A reborn Talos tracks down Sam to her apartment, but she manages to get away; however, Talos captures her after posing as a dog.
Riley, now believing whatever Brad told him, takes part in a ritual where Brad's dead body shows them the possible location Sam might be held hostage, an unfinished construction site. Meanwhile, bound with rags, Sam frees herself and stumbles upon a room where a huge nest of rags used to mummify the deceased forms a womb with dead bodies of Talos' victims lying around. As she watches, the water breaks from the womb, and a horrifying baby creature comes out, which quickly grows up into the true form of Talos with only the heart missing.
Riley and his group arrive at the construction site with eighteen minutes remaining before the planets are supposed to align, and Talos would regain his physical immortality. Riley and Claire separate from Butros and Professor Marcus. The latter encounter Talos who manipulates Marcus into killing Butros by strangling her. Meanwhile, Claire falls down and gravely injures her leg, forcing Riley to go forward without her. Somewhere else, Claire comes to Professor Marcus and, after a brief conversation, kills him by stabbing him with a scalpel, suggesting Talos manipulated Claire into killing Professor Marcus.
Riley finds Sam bound hands and foot, and Talos intercepts them. Sam begs Riley to kill her, which he does by shooting her to stop Talos from achieving what he wants. But, Riley himself is the reincarnation of Nefriama, and his heart is what Talos wants, for which he used Sam to lure him to the right place at the right time. Claire appears and takes out Riley's heart which Talos stuffs within himself just as the planets align.
The police arrive and pull out four dead bodies and a hysterical Claire. Elsewhere in London, the newly reborn Talos is shown disguised as Riley.
A man, Ryjkin, is trying to escape from the titular Cube. Upon entering a trapped room, he is sprayed with a mysterious liquid that he fears is acid only to find it sweet tasting, thinking it is flavored water, desperately drinking it to quench his thirst. However he discovers to his horror it is a potent molecular base that melts his entire body after a few minutes, killing him.
The rooms in the Cube are being monitored from a remote observation room by two technicians, Eric Wynn and Dodd, who are unaware of who their employers are. The pair regularly play chess during work, whereupon Wynn demonstrates mental calculator abilities which he uses to predict Dodd's moves.
Wynn and Dodd are ordered to record the dream of a subject, Cassandra Rains. In her dream, Wynn sees Rains captured while walking in a forest with her daughter. Rains wakes up in the Cube and meets the other occupants: Robert Haskell, Jellico, Meyerhold and Bartok. Haskell has the same tattoo on his forehead as the soldier who captured Rains. However, Haskell, like everyone else, only knows his own name and has no recollection of his former life or how he got there. According to what Wynn and Dodd know, everyone in the Cube faced a death sentence and volunteered to partake in psychological experiments instead. Rains' consent form, however, is not found in her file. The captives venture through the Cube, testing each room for traps by throwing a boot in first. Bartok, Jellico and Meyerhold are all killed by various traps, leaving Rains and Haskell as the sole survivors.
A phone call from their superiors instructs Wynn and Dodd to perform an "exit procedure" for Owen, a former colleague of theirs and now a test subject, who has reached one of the exits of the Cube. The procedure fails after Owen answers no to a question - whether or not he believes in God - prompting Dodd to push a "no" button which causes Owen to be instantly incinerated. According to Dodd, no one has ever answered positively. Wynn concludes that the Cube is inhumane and people are being placed in it against their will, therefore decides to enter the Cube himself and rescue Rains: he enters an elevator that communicates with a Cube entrance and eventually joins Rains and Haskell.
Dodd is joined in the observation room by his supervisor Jax and two of his analysts, who have learned of the incident. Jax has the Cube occupants trapped in one room, then electrifies the walls of that room to electrocute them. Dodd relents and secretly sabotages the control panels servicing the Cube. This shuts down every trap and initiates a "reset mode", which gives the prisoners ten minutes to escape the Cube as its rooms return to their initial positions, before a sterilization procedure vaporizes everything inside. Jax discovers Dodd's betrayal and kills him, then he activates Haskell's sleeper agent through a chip implanted in him. Haskell becomes hostile towards his companions, who struggle to continue their escape and leave him behind. They reach an exit to find Haskell waiting for them: in the ensuing struggle, Wynn and Rains manage to jump into the auxiliary exit right as the sterilization procedure starts, vaporizing Haskell.
Wynn and Rains swim through water and emerge in a lake. They run through a forest similar to the one seen in Rains' dream, while being chased by soldiers. Wynn is hit by a tranquilizer dart and recaptured, allowing Rains to escape. He wakes up in a surgery room, where Jax informs him that he has been sentenced for high treason, and that many years earlier he had agreed to become a test subject, despite Wynn remembering neither the trial nor signing the consent. Wynn's brain is surgically altered, and he dreams about Rains reuniting with her daughter and praising him as a superhero. A now mentally handicapped Wynn is put back in the Cube and found by its new captives. He repeatedly mentions the color of the room and that he wants to go back to a different color, similar to Kazan in the first film.
The USS ''Enterprise''-D has docked at Starbase 74 to undergo repairs to a damaged computer core that has been causing low-level malfunctions. The ship is practically empty, because Captain Jean-Luc Picard has granted shore leave to all personnel. The only people on the ship are the Starbase engineering team (the players) assigned to repairs.
Before the repairs are complete, Kavok, a Klingon who believes the Federation–Klingon alliance has made the Klingon Empire weak, hijacks the ''Enterprise'' and sets a course for the Klingon homeworld (Qo'noS), where he plans on using the ''Enterprise'' to start a war between the two space-faring powers.
The objective of the game is to regain control of the ''Enterprise'' and stop Kavok's plan. To do so, players will need to secure access to five levels of the main computer, obtain a phaser from Security, and successfully crawl down a Jeffries tube to access the Bridge, all within the 60 minutes before the ship reaches the Klingon home world.
There are multiple events in the videotape which affect game play, and once the countdown clock hits 00:00, the ship reaches Qo'noS and is attacked by Klingon ships stationed there. The ''Enterprise'' manages to destroy one Bird of Prey before the Klingons hit the ''Enterprise'' s nacelle, destroying Enterprise, igniting a war and ending the game in defeat.
Barry Kane is falsely accused of torching Stewart Aircraft Works in Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that incinerates one of his co-workers. Barry believes the real culprit is a man named Fry, but investigators find no such name on the employee list. Thus Barry becomes the target of a manhunt. While eluding capture, he remembers Fry's address from an envelope, so he thumbs a truck ride to a huge ranch in the High Desert. While there, he learns the whereabouts of Fry and that the ranch's owner, Charles Tobin, is collaborating with Fry and other saboteurs. Barry escapes the ranch, later taking refuge with a blind man whose niece, Patricia Martin, attempts to betray him to police. Barry insists he is innocent and kidnaps Patricia. This leads to a series of adventures that take the couple from one end of the country to the other.
Barry and Patricia stow away on a circus caravan, whose members conceal the pair from authorities. Eventually the two reach Soda City, a desert ghost town, where they separate. After infiltrating Tobin's spy ring, Barry learns the saboteurs are preparing to disable a new battleship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Meanwhile, Patricia contacts the nearest sheriff, who she later discovers is on Tobin's payroll. Tobin and associates retrieve Patricia from the sheriff and take her to New York. At the same time, Barry and the saboteurs travel to New York and meet with Tobin and the captive Patricia at the posh home of a rich sympathizer, Mrs. Sutton. Later, Tobin's organization imprisons Patricia in an office high up Rockefeller Center, while Barry is locked in the Sutton basement. He escapes by triggering a fire alarm. At the same time, from the multi-storied office building, Patricia floats an SOS note out a window. It lands next to a group of cab drivers who read it and notify police.
Barry rushes to the Navy Yard and locates Fry at the controls of a device designed to blow up the battleship. In the ensuing struggle, Fry successfully presses the button that sends the ship to the bottom of the harbor. Fry then escapes. After terrorizing a movie audience at Radio City Music Hall, he takes the ferry to Bedloe's Island and hides inside the Statue of Liberty, where he is later discovered and confronted by both Barry and Patricia. Barry pursues Fry onto Lady Liberty's torch, holding him at gunpoint. While backing away from Barry, however, Fry falls over the platform's railing and clings to the statue's hand. Barry tries to save him, but as the police and FBI arrive, Fry falls to his death.
Demea, father to Aeschinus and Ctesipho, decides to separate his children and raises Ctesipho while allowing his brother Micio to raise Aeschinus. Demea is a strict authoritarian father, and Micio is permissive and democratic. Ctesipho falls in love, but is afraid of exposing his romantic interest due to the strict and cold education he's received from Demea. Therefore, Aeschinus, in order to help his brother, decides to steal the girl away, accepting all blame for the affair. Demea and Micio spar over who did a better job at raising their sons.
After a long monologue comparing his methods with his brother's, Demea decides to emulate his brother's urbanity and openhandedness as a means of critique. In the last hundred lines of the play, Demea gives away a great deal of money and a large estate, convinces his brother to marry against his will and free two of his slaves, and then finally delivers a closing speech decrying all such liberality: "I will tell you: I did it to show you that what they think is your good nature and pleasantness did not happen from real goodness nor from justice and goodness, but from flattery, indulgence, and largess, Micio." ( ''dicam tibi: / ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festivom putant, / id non fieri ex vera vita neque adeo ex aequo et bono, / sed ex adsentando, indulgendo, largiendo, Micio.'' lines 985–988)
He then offers to his sons that he will be their strict father if they so desire him to be, but if they prefer to stay with Micio, they can. Both boys choose to submit to Demea, with Micio's approval. At the end of the play, Ctesipho is going to marry his loved one, Micio marries Sostrata and Aeschinus marries Pamphila, Sostrata's daughter.
A boy is approached by numerous strange creatures with enormous gloved hats on their heads. Each "hunch" points out a different possible course of action with each hunch contradicting the others.
, one of the eldest sons of the moderately wealthy Tenge family, has become an agent working for the United States, and his secret murders are discovered by , his youngest sister. This problem is aggravated by her discovery of terrible incestuous affairs in her own family: the wife of her older brother (foster son of Sakuemon Tenge) is actually her mother, who has to frequently have sex with Ayako's father, the family patriarch Sakuemon. To hide these secrets, the family—under pressure from Sakuemon and his eldest son Ichiro—decides to keep Ayako locked up in the basement for the rest of her life.
Despite the efforts of her mother and younger brother Shiro, she lives for nearly two dozen years under the family's house, while great political and social changes occur above her. Ayako eventually leaves the basement after growing into a beautiful and attractive woman, and seeks affection from others while remaining terrified of the outside world. This sets off a chain reaction of events which spells tragedy for the Tenge family.
In 1958 in postwar Britain, Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall, receives a letter from the recently-separated Miss Kenton, a housekeeper two decades ago. Their former employer, the Earl of Darlington, has died a broken man, his reputation destroyed by his prewar support of Germany. He was labelled a traitor and Nazi sympathizer although his position was shared by many others in the mid-1930s. His stately country house was sold to retired US Congressman Jack Lewis. Allowed to borrow the Daimler, Stevens sets off to the West Country to try to persuade Miss Kenton to return as housekeeper.
A flashback shows Kenton's arrival as housekeeper in the 1930s. The ever-efficient Stevens manages the household well and prides in and derives his entire identity from his profession. Miss Kenton, equally invaluable, efficient and strong-willed, is warmer and less repressed. They occasionally butt heads, particularly over Stevens's father, now an under-butler, who is failing and no longer able to perform his duties, which Stevens refuses to see. He displays total professionalism by carrying on as his father lies dying.
Relations between Stevens and Kenton eventually thaw, and she clearly shows her feelings. Despite their proximity, Stevens outwardly remains detached since he is dedicated solely as Lord Darlington's butler. Greatly repressed, Stevens is caught reading a romance novel by Kenton, which he explains is to improve his vocabulary, and he asks her not to invade his privacy again.
Meanwhile, Darlington Hall is often frequented by politicians, most of whom are like-minded, fascist-sympathising British and European aristocrats, with the exception of Congressman Lewis, who disagrees with Lord Darlington and his guests. Calling the "gentleman politicians" meddling amateurs, he says that "Europe has become the arena of Realpolitik" and warns them of an impending disaster. Later, the aristocratic guest Spencer directs a series of political and economic questions to Stevens, who fails to answer. Spencer claims that shows the lower classes' ignorance and lack of worthy opinions, noting "Q.E.D."
British Prime Minister Chamberlain and German ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop meet, seeking appeasement and peace for Nazi Germany. In the midst of those events, and after exposure to Nazi racial laws, Darlington suddenly tells Stevens to dismiss the two newly appointed, refugee German-Jewish maids, despite his protest. Kenton threatens to resign if he does so but later confesses that she cannot as she has no family and nowhere to go. She believes that he did not care about the girls' fate. When later, Lord Darlington feels regret and wants to rehire the maids, neither Stevens nor Miss Kenton can locate them.
Lord Darlington's godson, journalist Reginald Cardinal, is appalled by the secret meetings in Darlington Hall. Concurring with Congressman Lewis's earlier protests, he tells Stevens that his godfather is being used by the Nazis. Despite Cardinal's indignation, Stevens does not denounce or criticize his master, since he feels that it is not his place to judge him.
Eventually, Kenton forms a relationship with a former co-worker, Tom Benn, who proposes and asks her to run a coastal boarding house with him. Kenton tells Stevens as an ultimatum, but he will not admit his feelings and only offers his congratulations. Finding her crying, his only response is to call her attention to a neglected domestic task. She leaves Darlington Hall prior to the start of the Second World War.
En route to meeting Kenton in 1958 in the Daimler, Stevens is mistaken for gentry by locals in a pub but chooses not to correct them. Doctor Carlisle, a local GP, speaks with him and realizes that he is likely a manservant, but he says nothing. Promising to bring fuel the next morning to Stevens's car, he arrives with it, and correctly establishes Stevens's identity. Stevens explains his dilemma in the bar, and Carlisle, who is fascinated, asks Stevens what he thought about Lord Darlington's actions. At first denying having even met him, he later admits to having served and respected him. He states that it was not his place to either approve or disapprove, as he was merely a butler. He, however, confirms that Darlington admitted that his Nazi sympathies were misguided and he had been too naive. Lord Darlington was unable to correct his terrible error, but he was now en route to correct his own.
He meets Kenton (though separated, she is still Mrs. Benn), and they reminisce. Stevens mentions that Lord Darlington's godson, Reginald Cardinal, was killed in the war. He also says that Lord Darlington died from a broken heart after the war after he had attempted to sue a newspaper for libel, losing the suit and his reputation.
Miss Kenton declines the offer to return to Darlington Hall, as she wishes to remain near her pregnant grown daughter. She may go back to her husband, because, despite being unhappy for many years, he needs her. As they part, they are both quietly upset, Miss Kenton visibly tearful as her bus pulls away. Back at Darlington Hall, Lewis asks Stevens if he remembers much of the old days, and Stevens replies that he was too busy serving. A pigeon then becomes trapped in the hall and is eventually freed by them both, flying away with Stevens and Darlington Hall far behind.
Lisa makes an elaborate decorative cornucopia for the Thanksgiving dinner table. Ignoring Marge's instructions to not bring their own food, Patty and Selma arrive bearing Swedish meatballs and trout almondine, angering her by insinuating that her turkey will be dry. The sisters' mother Jaqueline Bouvier arrives, complaining of laryngitis and tells Marge she never does anything right. Homer picks up Grampa from the retirement home.
Once they are assembled, the Simpsons sit down to Thanksgiving dinner. When Lisa places the cornucopia on the table, she fights with Bart about where it should go since the centerpiece and Patty and Selma's food leaves no room for the turkey. In the ensuing scuffle, Bart purposely throws the cornucopia into the fireplace and it burns to ashes. Furious, Lisa attacks Bart, but both Homer and Marge separate them and a devastated and heartbroken Lisa runs to her room crying. Angry with Bart for causing an incident during their Thanksgiving dinner, Marge and Homer send him up to his room. Marge then tells him that he has ruined Thanksgiving and later informs him that he will not be allowed to eat dinner until he issues a sincere apology to Lisa. Bart stubbornly refuses and insists the incident is Lisa's fault, not his.
After Homer expels Santa's Little Helper from the house for stealing a turkey drumstick, Bart and the dog run away from home. Bart tries to steal a pie cooling on a window sill at Mr. Burns' mansion, but Burns' hounds chase him away. While wandering the streets, Bart uses Homer's ID to sell his blood and — after passing out — is brought to a breadline that is serving Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people. Kent Brockman interviews Bart for a human interest story at the soup kitchen. The family sees the report on television and call the police, hoping they can help find Bart and bring him home. When the police fail to locate Bart, Homer and Marge regret saying severe things that drove him away.
Bart later returns home feeling remorseful after seeing the meager lives of the homeless men at the breadline. Before he enters the house, he imagines his family scapegoating him for all their problems if he apologizes for ruining Thanksgiving. Realizing this scenario is all in his mind, he climbs onto the roof of the house to ponder his choices. When he hears Lisa crying because she misses him, Bart invites her to join him on the roof. He finally realizes what he did was wrong and apologizes to her as Homer and Marge, before doing the same with Bart for saying severe things to him, watch on proudly and Bart and Lisa rejoin the family to enjoy a meal of Thanksgiving leftovers displaying the family spirit which was absent from the earlier debacle.
Tom Witzky is a phone lineman living in a working-class neighborhood in Chicago with his pregnant wife Maggie and his son Jake, who possesses the ability to commune with the dead. At a party one evening, Tom challenges Maggie's sister, Lisa, who is a believer in paranormal activity, to hypnotize him. After putting him under, Lisa plants a post-hypnotic suggestion in Tom urging him to "be more open-minded". Tom then begins experiencing visions of a violent scuffle involving a girl who he learns is Samantha Kozac, a 17-year-old that disappeared from the neighborhood six months prior.
While Tom and Maggie attend a high-school football game, Jake is overheard by his babysitter, Debbie, as he speaks with Samantha. Debbie gets upset and snatches Jake, running off with him in the night. Tom senses Jake is in danger and sees strange flashes of red light that lead him to the Metra station where Debbie is speaking with her mother about Jake.
When Tom and Maggie confront her, Debbie angrily questions them about her sister Samantha, explaining that she had an intellectual disability, with the mental capacity of an eight-year-old and thus a child's tendency to trust strangers. Tom becomes obsessed with Samantha and begins probing members of the community about her disappearance. This attracts the attention of his landlord Harry Damon, Tom's friend, Frank McCarthy and their respective sons Kurt Damon and Adam McCarthy, who all dismiss Samantha as a runaway teen. After another prophetic vision in which Frank tells Tom that "they're going to kill you and Maggie both," Tom finds that Adam has shot himself in Frank's home and is in critical condition.
During an afternoon walk, Jake and Maggie encounter a funeral where Chicago policemen are saluting in a ceremony; a policeman named Neil recognizes Jake's unique talent and invites Tom to a private gathering of like-minded people to learn more about what is happening to his son. Maggie goes to the meeting herself, and Neil tells her the spirit that contacted Tom has asked for something and will grow upset if it does not get done. As predicted, Samantha begins plaguing Tom, leading to his insomnia. Samantha tells him to dig. Tom complies and digs holes in the backyard and tears up the house in a desperate attempt to appease Samantha.
While Maggie and Jake attend her grandmother's wake at a relative's house, Tom inadvertently knocks down a shoddy brick wall in the basement and discovers Samantha's mummified remains. He receives a vision showing him that before his family moved in, Adam and Kurt lured Samantha into the house to rape her. When she resisted, they unintentionally suffocated her and hid her body. Tom brings Frank back to the basement to disclose to him the crime. Frank breaks down and admits that Adam and Kurt had already confided their secret to him and Harry. Frank pulls out a gun and demands to be alone. As Tom leaves, he hears a single shot.
Harry and Kurt corner Tom with the intention of killing him, but Maggie interrupts. As Harry takes her hostage, Frank emerges and fatally shoots Kurt and Harry. Tom notices Samantha's spirit smile and disappear. Afterward, the family moves out of the house. Samantha's mother and sister are able to give her a proper burial. Jake covers his ears as his family approaches their new home, overwhelmed by all of the spirits that linger in the houses they pass by.
Set in the early 1970s in the suburban town of Savannah, Georgia, the film follows the lives of protagonist Francis Doyle, and three of his friends, Tim Sullivan, Wade Scalisi and Joey Anderson. The four boys all attend a private Catholic school named St. Agatha's, which they detest. The boys rebel by smoking pot, drinking, obsessing over girls, listening to hard rock music and playing pranks on their teachers, such as stealing their school's statue of St. Agatha and keeping it in their clubhouse. The four friends dedicate much of their time to a comic book of their own creation titled ''The Atomic Trinity'' in order to escape the monotony and avoid the difficulties in their own lives.
After receiving a love note from Francis, which was actually written by Tim, Margie Flynn becomes a major presence and weaves her way into the lives of these four friends. She and Francis have an obvious connection that progresses into much more. At times, Francis must choose between his friends and Margie, which causes the group of friends to fall apart. The boys' lives are also translated into segments of animation based on the characters of ''The Atomic Trinity'': Brakken, The Muscle, Captain Asskicker and Major Screw; Nunzilla, based on their peglegged, overly repressive Catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta; and Sorcerella, based on Margie Flynn.
After a school field trip to the zoo, Tim and Francis have the idea of playing another prank on Sister Assumpta. They decide to drug the cougar at the local zoo and then transport it to Sister Assumpta's office to scare her. When they learn how serious Tim and Francis are, the other half of the ''Atomic Trinity'' wimp out, which leaves an unlikely group of friends consisting of Margie, Tim and Francis. Francis soon learns that Margie had been sexually assaulted by her own brother, Donny. During gym class Donny bullies Tim. Tim, out of pressure and his own impulsive nature, insults Donny for molesting his own sister. He regrets telling Donny, who beats him up, and then tells Francis who becomes angry with him. Donny takes Tim and Francis's comic, ''The Atomic Trinity'', and gives it to the nun. The violent, blasphemous and inappropriate drawings in the notebook cause Tim and Francis to be suspended, pending expulsion from the school.
In an act of final retribution, Tim, Francis, Wade and Joey attempt to steal a cougar to place inside the school to cover up a wrecking of the school they did that night. At the zoo, a makeshift tranquilizer created from several narcotic drugs is used to put the cougar to sleep. The other three boys go down to the gate to retrieve the cougar in a cage, while Tim impulsively climbs over the fence into the cougar's den. He checks to see if the cougar is alive, and happily replies that it is. When the other boys reach the gate to retrieve the cougar, another cougar leaps at Tim, mauling him to death. At Tim's funeral, Francis quotes the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, whom Sister Assumpta earlier condemned as a "dangerous thinker". Francis places the book at the stolen statue of St. Agatha in their hideout, and starts a new comic series dedicated entirely to the character based on Tim, ''Skeleton Boy''.
The story is set in West African Igbo rural community. The protagonist, Efuru, is a strong and beautiful woman. She is the daughter of Nwashike Ogene, a hero and leader of his tribe. She falls inove with l a poor farmer called Adizua and runs away with him, upsetting her people becauseas he did not even perform the traditional wine-carrying and pay her bride price. She supports her husband financially and is very loyal to him, which makes her mother-in-law and aunt by marriage very fond of her. At this point, she accepts to be helped around her house by a young girl named Ogea in order to help her parents who are in financial difficulty. However, Adizua soon abandons Efuru and their daughter Ogonim, as his own father has done in the past.
After her daughter dies, Efuru discovers that he has married another woman and had a child with her. Her in-laws try to convince her to stay with him, i.e. remain in waiting in their marital house. Efuru then tries to look for him, but after failing, she leaves his house and goes back to the house of her father, who receives her happily, since she can care for him better than others.
Efuru then meets Gilbert, an educated man in her age group. He asks to marry her and follows tradition by visiting her father, and she accepts. The first year of their marriage is a happy one. However, Efuru is unable to conceive any children, so this begins to cause trouble. She is later chosen by the goddess of the lake, Uhamiri, to be one of her worshippers, Uhamiri being known to offer her worshippers wealth and beauty but few children. Efuru's second marriage eventually also fails, as her husband mistreats her in favour of his second and third wives.
The film intercuts documentary footage and clips from other films — notably the Stalinist propaganda film ''The Vow'' (1946) — with an imaginative and satirical narrative about a highly political Yugoslav woman who seduces a visiting Soviet celebrity ice skater. Despite different settings, characters and time periods, the different elements produce a single story of human sexuality and revolution through montage.
The woman, Milena, violates her proletarian convictions (and rejects the sexual advances of a worker) by pursuing a Joseph Stalin-like celebrity ice skater — Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin's first name and patronymic) — who represents both class oppression and corruption from the West into communist beliefs. She succeeds, with difficulty, in sexual consummation, but V.I. is unable to reconcile his inner conflicts and ends the encounter by decapitating her. Distraught, V.I. sings a Russian song after the murder: "François Villon's Prayer" by Bulat Okudzhava.
Poet and performance artist Tuli Kupferberg of the band The Fugs, dressed as a soldier, parodies war and the sexual nature of human fascination with guns by stalking affluent New Yorkers on the street and masturbating his toy rifle. The scene is set to The Fugs' 1965 song "Kill for Peace". As part of the film's climax, the gun masturbation imagery is intercut with other orgasmic sequences. This segment highlights Reich's ideas that sexual frustration and violence are connected.
Artist Betty Dodson discusses her experiences in drawing acts of masturbation, as well as her discussions within consciousness raising groups about female sexual response. The Dodson sequences are relatively straightforward documentary interviews; Dodson's large scale drawing of a man masturbating dominates the background of the shots. This segment illustrates a freer attitude toward sexuality.
New York artist Nancy Godfrey was among a loose group called Plaster Casters, who were known for taking plaster casts of rock stars penises. In a meeting with Jim Buckley, co-founder-editor of the porn magazine ''Screw'', Godfrey makes a plaster cast of Buckley's erect penis as a documentary part of the film. The soundtrack features another song by The Fugs, "I'm Gonna Kill Myself Over Your Dead Body", with Tuli Kupferberg satirically mimicking John Wayne in his ''a cappella'' vocals.
This scene was a point of contention for censors. On UK video prints Buckley's penis is covered with psychedelic colors added in editing (the cinema version was unusually approved fully uncut).
Jackie Curtis, a cross-dressing member of Andy Warhol's entourage and star in his films, is shown on the streets of New York enjoying an ice cream cone with a partner. Curtis' appearance highlighted Reich's theories of gender and sexuality.
''Screw'' was an underground magazine that pioneered in bringing hardcore pornography into the American mainstream during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The film shows a behind-the-scenes look at the publication, in which editor Jim Buckley casually consorts with his nude models. ''Screw'''s notorious co-founder and editor Al Goldstein is neither seen nor referred to in this sequence.
The film features a rare on-screen interview with neo-Reichian therapist Alexander Lowen, the founder of bioenergetic analysis, during a therapy session, including scream treatment.
Reich's daughter Eva (1924–2008) appears on camera, speaking about her father's work and the sickness of contemporary life.
The Orgonon, Reich's last home and lab near Rangeley, Maine, USA, is seen with brief shots of the interior and exterior, including a cloudbuster.
The film includes re-stagings of scenes from Sergei Eisenstein films, alluding to the montage era of film making in the Soviet Union.
Shots of the incinerator in which Reich's books were burned in New York City are included.
Mr. John First (Johnny) is a cinematographer traveling to Santa Carolina when he is stopped by a band of robbers, headed by Black Jack. Johnny is the only one who does not pull out a gun and fight during the midst of the action and is thus questioned by Black Jack as to why. He then takes the book which Johnny is so fervently looking through and ends up mistaking it for a Bible, until he notices that it contains several blank pages. Johnny explains that it is a book of World Cinema History. Black Jack quickly loses interest and rides away.
When Johnny arrives in Santa Carolina, he comes to the local bar, where a rowdy brawl is in progress. This is an everyday occurrence, as it is how Harry, the owner of the bar, makes a living by making a few hundred a day from damage. Johnny befriends a cowboy named Billy upon entering, and, while watching the dancers, completely falls in love with one named Diana. Billy laughs at him and warns him that "the heart of Miss [Diana] Little is locked tighter than Fort Knox". When Johnny stands up and asks the crowd if anyone has a white sheet, it is but Diana who is in possession of one. What happens next shocks everyone including Diana. Johnny, in all his gentlemanly ways, comes up to Diana, and respectfully kisses her hand. To a girl used to nothing like that, Diana is so pleasantly appalled that she adds that she has two white sheets, and both of them belong to Johnny.
It all goes downhill from there. When Johnny shows his movies, with the gentlemen who take ladies for walks and tip their hats and say "please" and "thank you", the unruly cowboys begin to change their ways. The only two who do not benefit from this are Harry, who has lost significant profit, and the local pastor, who wants Diana to love him. The latter is in a much worse position, for since Johnny had begun doting on Diana, being the first man in her life to bring her flowers or treat her like a lady in any way, she had completely fallen in love with him and said that her heart will always belong to him.
Although Harry does everything he can, from burning the shed where the films are, to asking Black Jack to murder Johnny, to stealing the white sheet on which the movies were shown, it all seems to slide off the cinematographer's back, until he leaves to find a wedding gift for his beloved Diana. When he returns, he finds all the cowboys reverted to their old ways, due to the coming of Mr. Second, who is also a cinematographer, who shows the cowboys movies with violence (similar to what was later named "splatter film").
Johnny, with a heavy heart, leaves for the prairie, as he is under the impression that even Diana has left him for the pastor. However, on the way there, he is met by Black Jack, who had seen Johnny's movies through the window and has changed his ways, and Diana, who had captured the pastor and put him at gunpoint and managed to escape. Johnny then leaves with them, determined to help more people see the beauty and new worlds which movies allow us to be in.
The story is set in 1911, at the end of the Edwardian period. Jessica Medlicott is an aging grande dame, formerly an actress of the London theatre, accused of having met, courted, promised marriage to, and then jilted and abandoned her suitor. The much-younger ex-fiancé then files suit, seeking £50,000 in damages for the breach of promise by her. She retains the greatest barrister in the empire, Sir Arthur Granville-Jones, to defend her. He is incidentally also a man she seduced and abandoned 40 years earlier, but who has remained hopelessly in love with her ever since.
Some six months after the events of "Mission to the Unknown", the TARDIS arrives on the planet Kembel, and the First Doctor leaves the TARDIS to try to find medical aid for the wounded Steven, leaving him with the Trojan servant girl Katarina. Meanwhile, a Space Agent, Bret Vyon is also on the planet trying to find out what happened to Agent Marc Cory. After a less-than-amicable meeting with the TARDIS travellers in which he holds them at gunpoint and demands to be taken away from the planet, Vyon cures Steven and agrees to work with them to escape and warn Earth of the massive Dalek-led alliance that is amassing on the planet. Part of this alliance is the treacherous Guardian of Earth, Mavic Chen, who has brought a sample of the extremely rare Taranium, which will become a part of the Daleks' ultimate weapon, the Time Destructor. The Daleks soon learn of their presence on the planet and the Dalek Supreme gives the command that Operation Inferno is to be carried out- burning down the jungle. The travelers shelter at the Dalek city. The Doctor manages to steal the Taranium by impersonating delegate Zephon, and he, his companions and Bret escape on Chen's ship, termed a Spar.
The Daleks exterminate Zephon for allowing the Doctor to impersonate him and they cause the Spar to crash on Desperus, a penal planet where prisoners are left to fend for themselves. Mavic Chen also departs for Earth in a temporary ship, wanting to find out exactly who the people who stole the Taranium are. On Desperus, the Doctor is able to effect repairs, and they manage to escape when the pursuing Dalek ship itself crashes upon arrival. However, a convict named Kirksen sneaks aboard the Spar prior to take-off and holds Katarina hostage in the airlock once the ship has left Desperus. He demands to be taken to Kembel or else he will kill Katarina, but she sacrifices herself by opening the airlock, blowing the two out into space. The Daleks warn Chen that the fugitives will be heading for Earth to inform them of their presence on Kembel, and order him to kill them on sight and snatch the Taranium core himself. Chen worries that that would make the Space Security Service realise he is a traitor, so he instead tells everyone on Earth that the Taranium core is actually a vital substance needed to keep the peace. Space Security Agents patrol all corridors and guard all offices, and all landing bays are monitored for the arrival of Chen's Spar.
After mourning Katarina's loss, the party arrives on Earth and meets a contact of Vyon's, who turns out to be in league with Chen. Bret kills him but seconds later another Space Agent, Sara Kingdom arrives and kills Vyon (who it later transpires is actually her brother) and attempts to get the Taranium from the Doctor and Steven but they are able to escape the office. She pursues them to a laboratory, where the three are caught in the middle of a molecular dissemination experiment and are inadvertently transported to Mira, a planet populated by savage invisible creatures, where the three enter into an uneasy alliance. They are constantly attacked by the creatures, the Visians, and try to take shelter.
On Earth, Mavic Chen stresses out, believing that the Taranium was destroyed during the transportation. However, the scientists carrying out the Dissemination inform him that the computers are registering that the matter that has been transported (a cage of mice) has successfully arrived on Mira. Chen angrily says that this is no evidence that the taranium wasn't broken up into pieces. He believes he will be exterminated by the Daleks for his failure, so when he makes his report to them, he says he lured the fugitives into the laboratory, as their presence on Earth would have caused suspicions of the Dalek plan, and tells them to pick up the Taranium from Mira whilst he returns to Kembel. When the Daleks arrive they too are attacked by the invisible creatures, and the Doctor, Steven and Sara are able to commandeer the Dalek ship and escape. It turns out that the Daleks can pilot the ship remotely and bring it back to Kembel, but the Doctor is able to create a fake Taranium core, which they hand over to the Daleks before escaping Kembel in the TARDIS.
After a brief interlude in which the Doctor and his companions journey to a police station in 1960s England and then a silent film set in America, the trio toast Christmas, and the Doctor breaks the fourth wall by wishing a happy Christmas to the viewers at home.
On Kembel, the Daleks test the Time Destructor on delegate Trantis. It has no effect, and the Daleks realise it is a fake. A taskforce of Daleks disembarks to chase the travellers, intending on recapturing the real core. Meanwhile, The TARDIS next arrives on a volcanic planet where the Doctor has a run-in with his old enemy, the Meddling Monk, who attempts to sabotage the TARDIS in revenge for the Doctor previously stranding him in 11th century England. The Doctor is still able to fly the TARDIS to Ancient Egypt, though he has to stop there for repairs. The Monk follows him, as does the taskforce of Daleks and Mavic Chen. The Monk, Sara and Steven end up being captured and used as hostages, and without time to create another fake, the Doctor is forced to hand over the real Taranium core. They are only able to escape with their lives when some Ancient Egyptians attack the Daleks which they describe as 'war machines'. Knowing that the Daleks will now carry out their invasion, the Doctor steals the directional control from the Monk's TARDIS, so that they can return to Kembel and stop the Daleks. The Monk, meanwhile, unwittingly ends up on a desolate, icy planet, and realises he can no longer control the destination of his TARDIS.
The Doctor is able to return the TARDIS to Kembel, where Steven and Sara (who get briefly separated from the Doctor) discover that the Daleks have turned on their allies, including Chen, and imprisoned them before apparently leaving the planet. The two TARDIS travellers free the alien leaders, and they leave to persuade their governments to ally against the Daleks, though Chen appears to die when his Spar explodes during take-off. Steven and Sara then find an underground base being used by the Daleks, only to be captured and held at gunpoint by a delusional Chen, who marches them into the base and the Dalek control room. He tries to proclaim himself the leader of the Daleks, but they dismissively kill him.
Now reunited with his companions, the Doctor activates the fully assembled Time Destructor. Knowing that the device will quickly begin ageing anything in its vicinity, the Daleks allow the Doctor to escape with Steven and Sara. Steven goes ahead back to the TARDIS, but Sara insists on accompanying the Doctor. The two are unable to get back to the TARDIS before the Time Destructor reaches full power, and Sara is aged to death and reduced to dust metres away from the TARDIS. Steven helps the Doctor back inside and, freed from the Destructor's influence, the two are left weakened, but alive and back to their original ages. The Daleks try to destroy the Time Destructor, but instead cause it to run out of control, resulting in it destroying the Daleks and all life on the planet. The Doctor and Steven emerge from the TARDIS, and Steven is distraught over the deaths of Bret, Katarina and Sara, while the Doctor can only contemplate the "terrible waste" that has taken place.
In the howling, snowy north, a young kestrel named Skarlath is lost in a snowstorm after leaving the nest, and is captured by the cruel ferret Swartt Sixclaw and his group of vermin. They also have captured a young badger who they torment mercilessly. The two young beasts help each other escape from the vermin camp. In the scuffle that ensues, the badger creates a massive hornbeam limb club. The ferret and the badger both vow to extort revenge, each declaring the other to be his mortal enemy.
As the young badger could not remember his name, Skarlath dubs him Sunflash after the distinctive golden stripe running down his snout. The two young beasts quickly become inseparable friends and travel throughout Mossflower Woods together, defending the weak and helpless and quickly growing older. Sunflash's reputation quickly spreads throughout the land. He eventually moulds his hornbeam limb into a fearsome, stone-spiked warclub, calling it his mace.
Meanwhile, Swartt also grows older, stronger, and wiser. He travels the northern lands with his vixen seer Nightshade and his horde and eventually ends up at the camp of Bowfleg, a fat ferret with a large horde who has settled down in a plentiful land. As an earlier leader of Swartt's, his captains are suspicious, and rightly so: with the help of Nightshade, Swartt executes a cunning trick that kills Bowfleg. Swartt takes over his large horde and marries his daughter, Bluefen, who gives birth to his son before dying.
At this point, Sunflash and Skarlath have spent several seasons in the Lingl-Dubbo cave, the home of the families of Tirry Lingl the hedgehog and Bruff Dubbo the mole, who Sunflash had rescued from a marauding family of foxes. Sunflash is eventually called to the mountain Salamandastron in his dreams, and so he travels there to become Badger Lord. He and Skarlath part ways, and Sunflash becomes Lord of the Mountain; this section quotes Sunflash's arrival at Salamandastron from the epilogue of ''Mossflower''.
By this time, Swartt Sixclaw and his large horde have passed through the Redwall region of Mossflower, which is efficiently defended by the resident squirrels and otters. However, the nursemaid of Swartt's infant son was trampled, and the infant ferret is dropped in a ditch. He is retrieved by the good-hearted woodlanders and taken to Redwall Abbey despite their misgivings that he will grow into being evil.
At the abbey, the young ferret's fate is determined. Abbess Meriam and Bella of Brocktree decide to entrust the baby to the care of Bryony, a young mousemaid, and Togget, her sensible mole friend. The ferret is named Veil, and as the seasons turn he grows into a young adult in the abbey. As a youngster he is naughty and mischievous, but as a young adult his true vermin nature begins to show through, as the ferret would steal, lie, and be generally unpleasant to all, especially his adopted mother, Bryony. He is eventually banished, by Bella, from the Abbey when he attempts (and fails) to poison Friar Bunfold (with a mole drinking the water used instead, though she survives the poisoning).
Bryony, feeling his banishment was unjust, leaves the abbey to track the ferret down. Her molefriend Togget accompanies her, and together they follow Veil as he wanders through Mossflower. The young ferret, remaining unapologetic and as mean as ever, makes life difficult for the mousemaid and her friend.
Leagues away, Swartt comes upon Salamandastron and launches an attack. Now allied to a smooth-talking ferret corsair named Zigu, an attack is mounted and war begins. Zigu is eventually killed by a skilled hare of the Long Patrol named Sabretache, and Swartt's horde grows once more with Zigu's crew swelling their ranks. With the help of neighbouring woodlanders, the vermin attack is deflected. Sunflash and Skarlath go hunting after them, and Nightshade lays an ambush with poison arrows. In the ensuing attack, Nightshade kills Skarlath with a poison arrow, only to be slain by Sunflash seconds later. Swartt and his depleted horde flee to the mountains east of Salamandastron.
Veil, Bryony and Togget reach the same mountains from the east, and Veil meets his father for the first time. Neither is impressed by the other. Sunflash is stunned and captured by Swartt, and Bryony encounters the evil Swartt Sixclaw. The ferret warlord tries to kill her by throwing a javelin; Veil, in a moment that portrays his true emotions toward the mousemaid, saves her life by taking the javelin, dying in the process. Sunflash then kills Swartt by throwing him from the mountain.
Sunflash, Bryony and Togget return to Redwall. Bryony, unsure if Veil really meant to save her, accepted that the young ferret she always defended had always been evil. She is later made Abbess and Togget is made Foremole. Sunflash meets Bella, his mother, for the first time since he was a child. He stays with her until her death many seasons later, and he then returns to the western coast to rule at Salamandastron.
The play is composed of three acts, each involving different characters but all set in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. The first act, ''Visitor From Mamaroneck'', introduces the audience to not-so-blissfully wedded couple Sam and Karen Nash, who are revisiting their honeymoon suite in an attempt by Karen to bring the love back into their marriage. Her plan backfires and the two become embroiled in a heated argument about whether or not Sam is having an affair with his secretary. The act ends with Sam leaving (allegedly to attend to urgent business) and Karen sadly reflecting on how much things have changed since they were young.
The second act, ''Visitor from Hollywood'', involves a meeting between movie producer Jesse Kiplinger and his old flame, suburban housewife Muriel Tate. Muriel—aware of his reputation as a smooth-talking ladies' man—has come for nothing more than a chat between old friends, promising herself she will not stay too long. Jesse, however, has other plans in mind and repeatedly attempts to seduce her.
The third act, ''Visitor from Forest Hills'', revolves around married couple Roy and Norma Hubley on their daughter Mimsey's wedding day. In a rush of nervousness, Mimsey has locked herself in the suite's bathroom and refuses to leave. Her parents make frantic attempts to cajole her into attending her wedding while the gathered guests await the trio's arrival downstairs. It appears that they will finally get married, as the act ends.
''Dragon Quest V'' begins with a brief scene of the Hero's birth in which the player gives the Hero a name. Afterwards, the Hero, as a child, and his father, Pankraz travel to meet Sancho, an old friend. The Hero meets Bianca and the two explore the haunted , where they obtain a mysterious Golden Orb. The next day, the Hero notices a man in the town who looks similar to him, albeit much older. That man asks the Hero to show him the Golden Orb and, after returning it, asks him to take care of his father Pankraz. The first section of the story ends with Pankraz being killed by , a mysterious member of the Order of Zugzwang, when he tries to protect his son and Prince Harry. The two children are then taken into slavery.
The story continues ten years later, and the Hero and Harry have grown up working on a giant temple, but escape as the scene opens. The Hero travels to the west to the town of Mostroferrato, where the wealthy nobleman Rodrigo Briscoletti and his daughter Nera live. Rodrigo sends the Hero on a quest to retrieve two magic rings, called the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water, as a test of his worthiness as a suitor for Nera. The Hero accomplishes this and Rodrigo offers the Hero the chance to marry Nera, but it is also possible for him to marry Bianca or Debora (DS). After the marriage, the Hero travels to his homeland of Gotha, where they make him king. His wife has two children, but is kidnapped by monsters. When the Hero comes to rescue her, both are turned to stone by the monsters.
The Hero is found by his two children eight years later and is revived. Travelling the world to collect the legendary Zenithian armaments for the Legendary Hero, it is discovered that the Hero's son is indeed the Legendary Hero sought by Pankraz almost twenty years ago. During this stage of the journey, the Hero avenges Pankraz by killing Ladja, and restores the Dragon God, as well as Zenithia castle, to their proper homes in the sky. To accomplish this, the Hero has to enter a time warp to retrieve the Golden Orb from his child self.
After returning to the temple the Hero helped build as a slave, the Zenithian armor is found, as well as the statue of his wife. After the king of the Order of Zugzwang, , is defeated, the party is informed by him that the Hero's mother, remains in the dark world of Nadiria, and that the god of darkness, , is lying in wait for the Legendary Hero there. The Hero, his wife, and their children agree not to leave Madalena in the Nadiria, so together they travel there via a portal near Lofty Peak, soon reaching Mt. Zugzwang. Madalena is found within, but is killed by Nimzo shortly after meeting the Hero and his family. The party continues on to confront and destroy Nimzo. They return to Gotha, and have a joyful party. As the family celebrates, Pankraz and Mada watch their son and his family from the heavens, happy and content with their progeny.
The story begins in a different place for each playable character. With the exception of Charlotte, the main character is soon told (or otherwise decides) to seek the advice of the Priest of Light in the Holy City Wendel. They arrive at the city of Jadd soon after the Beastmen have invaded. Due to the Beastmen's werewolf powers, they are able to make an escape by night. The main character—now including Charlotte—on the way to Wendel stays overnight in Astoria where they are woken by a bright light. Following it, it reveals itself to be a Faerie from the Sanctuary of Mana, exhausted by her journey. Out of desperation, the Faerie chooses the main character to be her host, and tells them to get to Wendel. There, while they explain their grievances to the Priest of Light, the Faerie interrupts and explains that the Mana Tree is dying and that the Sanctuary is in danger. The Priest explains that if the Tree dies, the Benevodons will reawaken and destroy the world. He goes on to explain further that, because the Faerie has chosen the main character as its host, they must travel to the Sanctuary to draw the Sword of Mana from the foot of the Mana Tree. They can then restore peace to the world, and have their wishes granted by the Mana Goddess if the sword is drawn before the Tree dies. A great deal of power is needed to open the gate to the Sanctuary. The Faerie does not have the strength to do it, and the ancient spell which would do so by unlocking the power in the Mana Stones also takes the caster's life. The Stones' guarding elemental spirits, however, will to be able to open the gate if their powers are combined.
After journeying across the world to get the spirits, meeting the other two members of the party, thwarting the invasion attempts of Nevarl and Altena, discovering the powers of the Fire and Water Mana Stones, and learning the disappearance of the Mana Stone of Darkness along the way, the main character tries to open the gate to the Sanctuary of Mana with the spirits' assistance. The first attempt fails, but the second succeeds; the Faerie realizes that it was opened because someone else released the power from all the Mana Stones. The characters travel into the Sanctuary and the main character claims the Mana Sword. It is then discovered that the main character's adversaries—the Crimson Wizard and the Darkshine Knight for Angela and Duran; Malocchio and Isabella for Riesz and Hawkeye; or Goremand and a mind-controlled Heath, for Kevin and Charlotte—have defeated the other two sets of primary enemies. The remaining adversaries capture the Faerie and will only release her in exchange for the Mana Sword. The trade is made, and once the enemy receives the Sword, the Mana Stones shatter and the Benevodons are released.
The characters must then defeat the Benevodons before they can gather and destroy the world. However, after doing this they realize killing the Benevodons has given more power to their main enemy, who their personal enemies were working for—the Dragon Lord for Duran and Angela, the Dark Majesty for Hawkeye and Riesz, and the Masked Mage for Kevin and Charlotte. The already powerful villain absorbs the power of the Sword of Mana and the Benevodons in order to become a god, but is halted by the Mana Goddess blocking some of its power. After defeating the villain's minions, the characters go and defeat their main enemy, but are unable to stop him from destroying the Mana Tree and eliminating all Mana from the world. The Faerie then fuses with what is left of the Mana Tree; she will be reborn as the Mana Goddess in a thousand years, but until then Mana will not exist in the world. As the game ends, the characters go back to their homelands.
Jaroslav Vozáb decides to find a place where the story of the novel ''The Castle of Otranto'' took place, as he believes it is based on a true story. He finds similarities between the ruins of Czech Castle Otrhany and the castle in the novel, which leads him to believe that Otrhany is the castle he is seeking. A television reporter, Miroslav Frýba, makes a reportage with Vozáb, who tells him about his research and the story of book.
The film also features a storyline from the book told through animation. It starts with Conrad, the son of Lord Manfred, being crushed by a giant helmet on his way to his wedding with Isabella. Manfred is devastated by the fact that he has lost his only heir and decides to marry Isabella himself, which horrifies her and she runs away. Manfred pursues her but is stopped by a giant knight and Isabella is then saved by Theodore. Manfred then imprisons Theodore, while Isabella hides.
A knight from another kingdom comes to Otranto Castle wanting to deliver Isabella. Theodore in the meantime is freed by Manfred's daughter Matilda, who loves Theodore and is saddened by the fact that he loves Isabella. Theodore then goes to find Isabela, who hides in a mountain cave. Theodore meets the knight there and they fight for Isabella. Theodore eventually wins the fight but the knight is revealed to be Isabella's father Frederic.
Frederic is healed in Otranto Castle, while Theodore hides in forest. Manfred makes a deal with Frederic that they both will marry each other's daughter. Frederic then goes to propose to Matilda but is stopped by the giant knight and realises his mistake. He decides not to marry Matilda and not to give his daughter to Manfred. Angered, Manfred decides to kill Isabella but accidentally kills his own daughter. The Giant Knight then ruins the castle and kills Manfred in the process. Theodore and Isabella are then seen happily together.
When Vozáb finishes his talk Frýba begins to question the possibility of supernatural elements being part of the story but suddenly grit and pieces of stone start to fall from the castle and the giant knight's hand is seen on the top of a tower as the film ends.
The setting is at a lakeside summer vacation house in Dutchess County, two hours north of New York City where eight gay friends spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer together for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity; and his twenty-something lover, Bobby, a legal assistant who is blind. Each of the guests at their house is connected to Gregory’s work in one way or another – Arthur and longtime partner Perry are business consultants; John Jeckyll, a sour Englishman, is a dance accompanist; die-hard musical theater fanatic Buzz Hauser is a costume designer and the most stereotypically gay man in the group. Only John's summer lover, Ramon, and John's twin brother James are outside the circle of friends. But Ramon is outgoing and eventually makes a place for himself in the group, and James is such a gentle soul that he is quickly welcomed.
Sandow is jolted from his wealthy, indolent lifestyle by a series of messages, each accompanied by a picture of one of a number of people once important to him, and all dead for many years. Sandow realizes the pictures could be fake, and he has other obligations, one of which is responding to a call for help from a friend, Ruth Laris. In the course of investigating her disappearance, he receives another message that he will find all his friends "on the Isle of the Dead". The message is in Pei'an, addressed to ''Shimbo'' (the name of the Pei'an god connected with Sandow) and signed by ''Belion'' (Shimbo's traditional enemy in Pei'an mythology).
Sandow soon learns that somebody has been stealing the memory records and tissue samples of people who died on Earth. These things are required of everyone who lives on Earth, so they can be recalled to life should the need arise. The six missing sets are of the people whose photos Sandow received.
Visiting his Pei'an mentor Marling, who is dying, Sandow learns that his tormentor is Gringrin, another Pei'an who was denied communion with a deity despite passing almost all the tests. Gringrin vowed revenge on the other worldscapers, starting with Sandow. Somehow Gringrin has been able to unite himself with Belion.
Sandow helps his mentor end his life with the ''glitten'' root ceremony, in which two telepaths take the hallucinogenic root and have a shared dream, from which only one returns alive. This is also used for duelling between telepaths, which is what Sandow must do when he finds Gringrin. After the funeral, Sandow sets out for Illyria, the world he made which has the Isle of the Dead.
Landing by stealth, and armed to the teeth, he sets out to walk the remaining distance to the Isle of the Dead. He now believes that Gringrin intended him to be lured there, and slowly humiliated before all the people who ever mattered to him. He is sure Gringrin has made a major mistake by staging this on a world Sandow made. All the forces on the planet will be allied with Sandow; he is the world's God.
He comes upon Gringrin himself, alive but injured. Things have gone badly wrong. One of the recalled persons is Mike Shandon, a con man who is also a telepath, and a deadly enemy of Sandow's. He has persuaded the god Belion to abandon Gringrin and go to him. Apparently the Pei'an gods are real and Gringrin, attempting to ordain himself independently, asked for a creative spirit to come to him, but instead was chosen by Belion. Now, Belion's abandoned him and gone to Shandon. Gringrin wants to flee, but Sandow is determined to rescue as many of his friends as possible.
As the two cross the river to the island they meet more of Sandow's revived enemies and friends. From one of them, a feisty dwarf named Nick, Sandow learns that his recalled wife Kathy is having an affair with Shandon.
Sandow decides to buy Shandon off, which he is well equipped to do. As the two negotiate and link minds to confirm the deal, the gods assert themselves and a battle begins in which Shimbo's air and water battle Belion's earth and fire. A storm rages as the ground shakes and splits. Both Sandow and Shandon are consumed by their godgame, until Sandow sees Nick try to help Kathy, only to fall with her into a fissure. Both die, and at the same moment Shimbo deserts him. Shandon/Belion continues attacking, and Sandow goes down under a pile of rocks, breaking his leg. Sandow has one last trick - a laser weapon surgically implanted in his middle finger. In a supremely ironic gesture, he "gives Shandon the finger", killing him and ending the battle.
Sandow crawls away to find a "power-pull" energy nexus, so he can use its energies to summon his orbiting ship. On the way he encounters his last revived friend/enemy, Lady Karle, alive but entombed in a cave. She and Sandow were lovers who were torn apart when a corporate war, in which Sandow was a player, ruined her family and drove her to seek revenge on him. Sandow bitterly dismisses her cries and goes on. He meets Gringrin, mortally wounded. Gringrin begs him to perform the ''glitten'' rite with him, using the location of the recall tapes as an incentive. Once in the rite, Gringrin confesses that the recall tapes were ruined by Shandon's conflagration, but Ruth is alive in a hospital and can be saved. In the psychedelic trance, Sandow faces Death in the shape of the Valley of Shadows. He sees all the worlds he has made, and realizes that as long as he can create life, casting worlds like "jewels in the darkness", he has a purpose. Gringrin in turn loses his dread of death, and walks happily into the Valley.
Waking, Sandow crawls on and reunites with his ship, then returns to Lady Karle's cave with a weapon and vaporizes the rock. They hobble to the ship together.
Magdelon and Cathos are the aspiring ''précieuses'', two young women from the provinces who have come to Paris in search of love and ''jeux d'esprit''.
Gorgibus, the father of Magdelon and uncle of Cathos, decides they should marry a pair of eminently eligible young men but the two women find the men unrefined and ridicule them. The men vow to take revenge on ''les précieuses''.
On stage comes Mascarille, a young man who pretends to be a sophisticated man of the world. Magdelon falls in love with him. Next on stage comes another young man, Jodelet, with whom Cathos falls in love.
It is revealed that these two men, Mascarille and Jodelet, are impostors whose real identities are as the valets of the first two men who were scorned and rejected.
As the curtain falls, Gorgibus and ''les précieuses'' are ashamed at having fallen for the trick. In the provinces, the young ladies' Parisian pretensions attracted mockery, while in Paris, their puffed-up provincial naiveté and self-esteem proved laughable.
Joseph is the youngest and most favored of Jacob's twelve sons, regarded as a "Miracle Child" because his mother Rachel had been thought infertile. (“I am a Miracle Child”) Joseph grows conceited under his father's special treatment, and his elder half-brothers come to resent him for being favored, although Joseph desires to be accepted amongst them ("Bloom"). One night, Joseph dreams of a pack of wolves attacking the family's flock, and the next day the dream comes true. Another dream follows, in which Joseph sees his brothers bow before him; on telling them this, they hatch a plan to get rid of him, led by Judah. They sell him to a slave trader and take his torn coat back to their parents, convincing them that Joseph was killed by wolves.
In Egypt, Joseph is bought by Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guards ("Marketplace"), and gradually becomes his most trusted attendant, as well as befriending his beautiful niece Asenath ("Whatever Road's at Your Feet"). However, Potiphar's wife, Zuleika, attempts to seduce Joseph, who refuses her advances. Infuriated, Zuleika falsely accuses Joseph of making advances on her. Potiphar nearly has him executed, but Zuleika, feeling guilty, stops him. Though Potiphar realizes that Joseph is innocent of the crimes, he reluctantly has him thrown in prison to preserve his reputation. Joseph finds himself imprisoned alongside the Pharaoh's cupbearer and his baker and interprets their dreams, which reveal that one will be put to death and the other will return to his position at the palace. Sure enough, the baker is executed and the cupbearer returns to his job. The cupbearer, however, forgets his promise to tell the Pharaoh about Joseph, leaving him to languish in jail.
Meanwhile, Asenath secretly supplies food to Joseph regularly through the prison's skylight. She is nearly spotted by a guard while doing so one evening during a thunderstorm though, and is forced to drop the basket of food, which crashes to the ground of the prison and is eaten by rats, much to Joseph's anger. At his lowest point, Joseph climbs the walls of the jail to the skylight, questioning God for his misfortunes and demanding to know why everything has happened to him, before slipping, falling back down and being knocked unconscious. Upon waking the next day, Joseph finds renewed purpose in caring for a small, dying tree which is the only source of green in the prison, and slowly helps it grow bigger and healthier as he reflects on his past and begins to trust in God's plan again ("You Know Better Than I").
Soon, the Pharaoh comes to be troubled by nightmares which none of his advisors can interpret. Remembering Joseph, the Pharaoh's cupbearer advises him to send the now-widowed Potiphar to retrieve him. The two share a happy reunion by Potiphar apologizing to Joseph for imprisoning him and Joseph forgiving Potiphar for it. Joseph interprets the dreams as warnings of seven years of abundance being followed by seven years of famine to come after that may wipe out Egypt, and suggests that a fifth of each year's harvest be kept back for rationing. Impressed, the Pharaoh makes Joseph his minister and second-in-command, under the name "Zaphnath-Paaneah". In the following years, Joseph's guidance not only saves the Egyptians from starvation but allows them to sell excess grain to their neighbors who were also devastated by the famine. Joseph marries Asenath and has two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with her ("More than You Take").
Eventually, the sons of Jacob arrive in Egypt to buy grain due to a famine in their homeland. They do not recognize Joseph, who refuses to sell to them and accuses them of spying. The brothers offer to buy the grain with the silver they sold Joseph for years before, claiming they need it to feed their elderly father and youngest brother. Joseph still refuses to sell them grain, and imprisons Simeon until they can prove that they have another brother to support ("Bloom (Reprise)"). They reappear with Benjamin, Joseph's almost identical younger brother, born during his absence, and who is now doted upon by Jacob. Benjamin tells Joseph that Rachel has died and Jacob has been inconsolable ever since Joseph was declared dead. Simeon is released and Joseph invites the brothers to a feast.
After the feast, Joseph has his golden chalice concealed in Benjamin's bag while no one is looking; upon its discovery, he orders that Benjamin be enslaved to see how the other brothers will react. He is astonished when they offer themselves in Benjamin's place. Grief-stricken and ashamed, Judah confesses to having sold Benjamin's older brother into slavery, a crime which has haunted him and his brothers ever since for two decades, and that they cannot return without Benjamin, as it would break their father's heart to lose another son. Shocked at and touched by their change of heart, Joseph reveals himself to them. They reconcile, and Joseph invites them to live with their wives and children in Egypt. Shortly thereafter, he is happily reunited with his father, and meets his brothers' wives and children. The Hebrews then enter Egypt, unaware of the hardships they would face in later years.
''Neopets: The Darkest Faerie'' is set in "Neopia", the land of the Neopets universe, which is inhabited by anthropomorphic versions of various Neopets species. The adventure is based on a story written by Neopets founder Adam Powell.
Long ago, a dark faerie was imprisoned at the bottom of the Maraquan sea as punishment for attempting to take over the realm, her name having been erased from history and the faerie remembered only as 'the Darkest Faerie'. However, after a thousand years, the spell imprisoning the Darkest Faerie has become weak and breaks, and the faerie escapes, returning to the surface intent on taking over the realm of Neopia and exacting revenge upon the Faerie queen Fyora who imprisoned her.
The game begins with Tormund Ellis (nicknamed "Tor"), a young Lupe farm boy who has long dreamed of being a knight in the city of Meridell. After being accepted into the ranks and training under the discipline of the castle's master-at-arms, Torak, Tormund is knighted after saving the village of Cogham from The Ixi Raiders. But when answering a plea to defend the nearby forest glade of Illusen, the earth faerie, from an invading tribe of Werelupes, the mission fails, and Tormund returns to Meridell to discover both it and its inhabitants under a cloud of dark magic and the control of the Darkest Faerie. Though unaffected himself, he is driven out of the castle and city by the faerie's minions.
The neighboring kingdom of Brightvale notices the dark clouds, and sends a diplomatic envoy to the city of Faerieland, home to the Faerie queen Fyora, to investigate. A young Acara, Roberta, the niece of Brightvale King Hagan, is among the diplomats. The Darkest Faerie attacks Faerieland that night, capturing and binding the Faerie queen and covering the castle in a dark aura. Roberta is able to escape the castle but is pursued and falls to the countryside of Neopia below.
Roberta and Tormund meet each other and then proceed to warn the king of Brightvale about the Faerie. It is revealed that both were given amulets to protect against the Darkest Faerie's power, and upon research discover that the Darkest Faerie was once sealed away by the power of Fyora's magical rod, now lying deep underneath the city of Meridell. After freeing the neighboring regions from control of dark magic, they are able to infiltrate the castle of Meridell and find a way deep underground, recovering Fyora's ancient rod. With its power they are able to drive the darkness out of the city, and then return to Faerieland to stop the Darkest Faerie. It is a trap, however, as the Darkest Faerie seizes the rod and a fight between the two Faeries ensues. Fyora is able to teleport Tormund and Roberta to safety before being captured and imprisoned again.
When Tor and Roberta awaken, they find themselves in the lost Kingdom of Altador, which was thought to have been destroyed by the Darkest Faerie one thousand years ago. Through research, they learn that the Darkest Faerie was one of the Kingdom's founders who later betrayed them, and that her spell can be broken by awakening the other founders, also known as "The Protectors". Once they have awakened the Protectors and restored the Kingdom to Neopia, one of them, Jerdana, gives them the same orb that Fyora used to imprison the Darkest Faerie beneath the ocean, and opens a portal for them to return to Faerieland, where a final confrontation between our heroes, and the Darkest Faerie is held.
The final fight with the Darkest Faerie is timed, as the Darkest Faerie uses Fyora's Rod to cause Faerieland to start falling onto Meridell. If you do not defeat her within three minutes, Faerieland will crash into Meridell and you will be returned to the title screen. If you succeed, you imprison her once again with Jerdana's Orb, free Queen Fyora and retrieve the Rod. Fyora then uses the Rod to stop Faerieland's descent just before it impacts Meridell and returns it to the sky. Tormund and Roberta are hailed as heroes as the game ends, and the Darkest Faerie can be seen as a statue on a fountain in Faerieland, where Queen Fyora says, "She will be kept a close eye on."
Matt Cvetic (Frank Lovejoy), who works in a Pittsburgh steel mill, has been infiltrating the Communist Party for the FBI in Pittsburgh for nine years. During this time he has been unable to tell his family about his dual role, so they assume that he is a genuine believer in communism and despise him.
He becomes emotionally involved with a Communist school teacher (Dorothy Hart), who is becoming disenchanted with the party. She breaks with the party when it foments a violent strike. Cvetic helps her escape the Communists in violent sequences in which two Communists and an FBI agent are killed.
Communists are portrayed in the film as cynical opportunists, racists who are interested only in seizing power on behalf of the Soviet Union. They are shown exploiting ethnic tensions to get their way, such as by wrapping copies of a Jewish newspaper around lead pipes used to beat up people during a strike. They also are shown fomenting discontent among blacks. They are shown as cynical racists, calling blacks "niggers" and Jews "kikes," and as violent thugs who kill informers.
Cvetic ultimately testifies against the Communists before the House Un-American Activities Committee and reconciles with his brother and son.
Danish miner Svend Viltorft digs up a section of a giant reptile's tail from the frozen grounds in Lapland, where he and other miners are drilling. The section is flown to the Denmark's Aquarium in Copenhagen, where it is preserved in a cold room for scientific study. But due to careless mishandling, the room is left open and the section begins to thaw, only for scientists to find that it is starting to regenerate.
Professor Otto Martens, who is in charge of the aquarium, dubs the reptilian species "Reptilicus" (upon a reporter's suggestion) and compares its regeneration abilities to that of other animals like starfish.
Once fully regenerated from the tail section, Reptilicus goes on an unstoppable rampage from the Danish countryside to the panic-stricken streets of Copenhagen (including one of its famous landmarks, Langebro Bridge). The monster is finally rendered unconscious by a sedative developed by ingenious scientists and shot into its mouth from a bazooka fired by Gen. Grayson.
However, the film is left open-ended. A final shot shows one of Reptilicus' legs, which had been blown off earlier by the Danish Navy's depth charges, sitting on the sea floor, raising the possibility that it could regenerate into a new Reptilicus.
Set in 1930s London and the South of England, Duc de Richleau and Rex van Ryn rescue their friend Simon Aron from a devil-worshipping cult. Rex falls in love with another initiate of the cult, Tanith. Rex prevents Tanith from going to a ceremony on Salisbury Plain. The Duc and Rex rescue Simon from the ceremony. They escape to the home of the Eatons, friends of Richleau and van Ryn, and are followed by the group’s leader, Mocata, who has a psychic connection to the two initiates. After visiting the house to discuss the matter and an unsuccessful attempt to influence the initiates to return, Mocata forces Richleau and the other occupants to defend themselves through a night of black magic attacks. During this Mocata summons the Angel of Death using the medium of Tanith. The defeat of the Angel results in Tanith’s death.
After successfully defending themselves through the night the group find that Mocata has kidnapped the Eatons’ daughter. Simon exchanges himself for her. Mocata is using Simon to find the Talisman of Set, a powerful satanic object. The book culminates in a desperate chase across Europe to an abandoned Greek Monastery where Mocata is defeated. The group wake up in the Eatons’ home and realise that during the ceremony they entered the fourth dimension. Mocata is found dead outside the house. The Duc wakes up clutching the Talisman and destroys it. Tanith is found to be alive - Mocata’s soul has been exchanged for hers.
The young boy, d'Artagnan witnesses the murder of his parents at the hands of Febre, chief henchman of Cardinal Richelieu, d'Artagnan is nearly killed after using his dead father's sword to fight Febre, who is then left with a permanent scar and blind in one eye. D'Artagnan is taken in by Planchet, a family friend and former musketeer, one of the loyal protectors of king Louis XIII.
Fourteen years later, the adult d'Artagnan finds on his arrival in Paris that the musketeers have been disbanded by order of Cardinal Richelieu, who is usurping the king's authority with the help of Febre. Richelieu is also trying to foment hostility between France, England and Spain to gain more political power for himself. D'Artagnan convinces two of the musketeers, Porthos and Aramis, to free the imprisoned head of the musketeers, Treville, thus earning their trust. He takes a room at a Paris boarding house, where he takes a fancy to the chambermaid, Francesca, who is the daughter of the late seamstress to the queen. Febre, on orders from Richelieu, incites a mob to attack the French Royal Palace during a State dinner for Lord Buckingham, a visiting English dignitary. D'Artagnan, with the help of Porthos, Aramis and another musketeer, Athos, saves King Louis, the queen, and Lord Buckingham from being hurt or killed. Afterwards, Francesca recruits d'Artagnan to make a clandestine trip to the north coast of France with the queen to meet with Buckingham in whose honor the state dinner was being held, to keep peace between the two countries. However, d'Artagnan's landlord overhears them and tells Febre.
During the trip, d'Artagnan fights off repeated attacks by Febre's henchmen. He and Francesca become intimate, only to have Febre discover them and kidnap her and the queen. Febre forces the queen to write a letter to Buckingham asking him to meet her at a heavily fortified castle of his choosing, using the queen's ring to convince him of the authenticity of the message. Richelieu finally realizes just how far Febre is willing to go: he means to start a war between France, England and Spain, a war that will cripple France. Knowing that he has lost control of his chief henchman, Richelieu secretly visits d'Artagnan and tells him of Febre's plans and pleads for his help to stop Febre. D'Artagnan agrees, but only because Febre is holding Francesca. D'Artagnan returns to Paris and convinces the surviving musketeers that their responsibility to the crown remains their highest priority, and they join him at the castle where Francesca, the queen, and Lord Buckingham are being held. They charge the castle on horseback, losing several of their number in the process, but the diversion they create allows Planchet to drive his carriage in front of the castle gates below the field of cannon fire from the castle. This enables him to fire a mortar directly into the castle gates.
The remaining musketeers battle the Cardinal's guards, while d'Artagnan engages Febre in an intense duel, finally killing him and avenging the death of his parents. D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers are given medals for their service, and d'Artagnan covertly threatens Richelieu. At the end, d'Artagnan and Francesca are seen to be married.
Alfred Hitchcock appears on screen to tell the audience that the film's "every word is true".
Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero (Henry Fonda), a down-on-his-luck musician at New York City's Stork Club, needs $300 for dental work for his wife Rose (Vera Miles). When he visits the office of a life insurance company to borrow money against Rose's policy, he is mistaken by the staff there for a man who had twice held them up.
He is questioned by the police, who call him "Chris" rather than Manny, and tell him that they are looking for a man who had robbed the insurance company and other businesses and that he ''might'' be their man. Manny is instructed to walk in and out of a liquor store and a delicatessen which had also been robbed by the same man. He is then asked to write the words from a stick-up note used by the robber in the insurance company robbery; he misspells the word "drawer" as "draw" the same mistake made in the robber's note. After being picked out of a police lineup by an employee of the insurance company who had witnessed the robberies he is arrested on charges of armed robbery.
Attorney Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) sets out to prove that Manny cannot possibly be the right man: at the time of the first hold-up he was on vacation with his family, and at the time of the second his jaw was so swollen that witnesses would certainly have noticed. Of three people who saw the boy fall at the vacation hotel, two have died and the third cannot be found. All this devastates Rose, whose resulting depression forces her to be hospitalized.
During Manny's trial he prays the rosary after his mother urges him to pray for strength. A juror's remark forces a mistrial. While awaiting a second trial Manny is exonerated when the true robber is arrested holding up a grocery store. Manny visits Rose at the hospital to share the good news, but, as the film ends, she remains severely depressed; a textual epilogue explains that she recovered two years later.
The story took place aboard the ''Loretta'', an ocean liner commandeered by vengeful Ernesto, and Ernesto's island located somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. His main purpose in putting together the cruise was to exact revenge on all of his supposed enemies at once. Invited on the cruise were Isabella Toscano (Staci Greason), John Black (believed to be Roman Brady) (Drake Hogestyn), Bo Brady (Peter Reckell), Hope Brady (Kristian Alfonso), Jack Deveraux (Matthew Ashford), Jennifer Horton (Melissa Brennan Reeves), Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes), and Ernesto's #1 enemy Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston). Ernesto used his love of magic tricks to deceive and terrorize his passengers.
Several key events that transpired during the cruise and subsequent trek to Ernesto's island included: the performance of Ernesto's play "Fatal Passion," in which Victor nearly murdered Roman/John; Jack and Jennifer revealing that Isabella was really Victor's daughter, not Ernesto's, after an affair with Ernesto's wife; Roman/John and Isabella realizing they are in love with each other; Ernesto planting a bomb on board the ''Loretta''; everyone washing ashore on his island; Jack and Jennifer, the show's "supercouple" at the time, making love for the first time; Ernesto slowly poisoning Isabella for accidentally murdering her half-sister Marina earlier in the series; Victor and Julie's first kiss; and Bo double-crossing Ernesto, which in turn led to the shocking climactic ending to the storyline: Hope and Ernesto's supposed deaths during one of Ernesto's "magic tricks" in an explosion while inside a cage suspended over a vat of acid.
Following their rescue from Ernesto's island, the shipwrecked characters return to the show's hometown of Salem, USA to cope with Hope's "death" and move on with their lives following the life-changing events of the story. Eventually, actress Kristian Alfonso returned to the show four years later, and it was revealed that Hope was in fact switched at the last moment before the explosion with an imposter, Gina von Amberg. Ernesto's fate was never revealed.
William de Worde is the black sheep of an influential Ankh-Morpork family, scraping out a humble lifestyle as a common scribe and making extra pocket money by producing a gossipy newsletter for foreign notables. This arrangement is soon undermined by the arrival of a team of dwarves to Ankh-Morpork who intend to start a printing business; however, de Worde and the dwarves establish ''The Ankh-Morpork Times'' later employing Sacharissa Cripslock and Otto, a black-ribbon vampire and iconographer. The Guild of Engravers is antagonised by the unauthorised efforts of the ''Times''; in response, the Guild cuts off their paper supplies and establish the rival newspaper ''The Ankh-Morpork Inquirer'', a loss-making tabloid filled with popular fabricated stories.
Meanwhile, a conspiracy is afoot in the city to depose the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. The wealthy and powerful (but anonymous) Committee to Unelect the Patrician hire Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, a pair of villainous mercenaries from outside Ankh-Morpork known as the New Firm, to frame Vetinari with a staged embezzlement and replace him with a puppet, the President of the Guild of Shoemakers and Leatherworkers, Tuttle Scrope. Pin and Tulip manage to catch off-guard the normally impassible Patrician with Charlie, a witless Vetinari look-alike that they had previously kidnapped in Pseudopolis and forced to collaborate. The plan starts going south, though, when Drumknott, Vetinari's clerk returns in the middle of the scene and the New Firm is forced to stab him and render Vetinari unconscious, hoping to also frame him for murder; their efforts are hampered by Lord Vetinari's prized terrier, Wuffles, who bites Mr. Pin and escapes, becoming the sole witness to the crime.
William makes the mistake of advertising a reward for information leading to Wuffles' recovery, causing a frenzy among the local Ankh Morpork population. Disguised as Omnian clergy, the New Firm attempt to gather information about Wuffles from the ''Times'' but are frightened off by Otto's experimental dark-light 'obscurograph' technology. Realising that the job is much harder than their employers had initially suggested, the New Firm decides to skip town. Although the job is unfinished they extort from their employers' zombie lawyer and representative Mr. Slant their promised payment and a big "bonus" in jewels, using compromising previous voice recordings captured with a dis-organiser Mk II.
An anonymous tipster named "Deep Bone", helps William track down Wuffles and "translate" his testimony, giving William the last pieces of the puzzle. In the meantime, Sacharissa accidentally discovers the New Firm's hideout in the de Worde family townhouse and is captured by the pair of thugs. They head back to the ''Times'' hoping to exchange her for Wuffles and then, silence all witnesses. In the ensuing struggle a lamp explodes and the ''Times'' offices catch fire. William and the others manage to escape outside while Pin and Tulip hide in the cellar. Pin, now only partially sane due to the dark-light giving him visions of the New Firm's deceased victims, emerges from the cellars, having killed Tulip to steal his potato (which he believed would allow him reincarnate after death) and to use him as a raft against molten lead, and attacks William once the fire is out, only to be killed when he is impaled on the memo spike from William's desk. William retrieves the fortune in jewels, the dis-organiser, and the last bit of evidence. However, with the press and office destroyed, it seems like the ''Times'' will not be able to go live with their break-out reportage in time. The liberal application of a crossbow wielded by a daring Saccharisa, dwarven axes, bribery in jewels, and Otto's sense of dramatic atmosphere helps the crew borrow one of the ''Inquirer'''s presses for the evening. After discovering that 'Cut Me Own Throat' Dibbler was hired by the ''Inquirer'' as its editor, William and Sacharissa hire him to sell advertising space in the ''Times''.
The big story breaks the next day and Lord Vetinari's name is cleared just before the new, Guild-controlled Patrician would have seized power, but ordinary citizens are unperturbed by this revelation. The recordings on the dis-organiser help William to discover the identity of the man behind the Committee, his father Lord de Worde. He decides to confront him. A tense argument, blackmail with the threat of exposure, a fortune in jewels, and threats from Otto fail to intimidate Lord de Worde into leaving the city in exile as William demands. However, after William demonstrates traditional de Worde cunning and learning that his machinations nearly killed his own son, Lord de Worde admits defeat and walks away. With William still in possession of the dis-organiser, he manages to pressure Slant into providing his services ''pro bono'' to get him released from Watch custody and to resolve his dispute with the Engravers' Guild.
William is ambivalent about the new and unexpected role of the free press in his life and in the world but resolves that someone must tell the public the truth about what goes on in the city, even if the public does not want to hear it. The ''Times'' comes to be recognized, if not exactly welcomed, by the powers that be in the city, and William and Sacharissa make plans to expand even further, hiring new staff, establishing offices in other cities, and hopefully one day squeezing in time for a lunch date in between deadlines, although their attempt to bunk off work leads them to witness and report a news-worthy cart crash. Tulip and Pin, with the former feeling sorry for his past crimes and having strong faith in a misunderstanding from his childhood, and the latter being relieved not to suffer vengeance after death, are reincarnated as a woodworm and a chipping potato, respectively.
Six-year-old Ana is a shy girl who lives in the manor house in an isolated Spanish village on the Castilian plateau with her parents Fernando and Teresa and her elder sister, Isabel. The year is 1940, and the civil war has just ended with the Francoist victory over the Republican forces. Her aging father spends most of his time absorbed in tending to and writing about his beehives; her much younger mother is caught up in daydreams about a distant lover, to whom she writes letters. Ana's closest companion is Isabel, who loves her but cannot resist playing on her little sister's gullibility.
A mobile cinema brings ''Frankenstein'' to the village and the two sisters go to see it. The authorities are using the film as a warning to the population about man's godless creations which have to be killed for the safety of the public. An opening speech from a state official emphasizes this. It is a veiled propaganda attempt to justify the violent overthrow of the Republican government in the civil war by intimating the monster to be the "godless" socialism of the Republic.The film makes a deep impression on Ana, in particular, the scene where the monster plays benignly with a little girl, then accidentally kills her. She asks her sister: "Why did he kill the girl, and why did they kill him after that?" Isabel tells her that the monster did not kill the girl and is not really dead; she says that everything in films is fake. Isabel says the monster is like a spirit, and Ana can talk to him if she closes her eyes and calls him.
Ana's fascination with the story increases when Isabel takes her to a desolate sheepfold, which she claims is the monster's house. Ana returns alone several times to look for him and eventually discovers a wounded republican soldier hiding in the sheepfold. Instead of running away, she feeds him and even brings him her father's coat and watch. One night the Francoist police come and find the republican soldier and shoot him. The police soon connect Ana's father with the fugitive and assume he stole the items from him. The father discovers which of the daughters had helped the fugitive by noticing Ana's reaction when he produces the pocket watch. When Ana next goes to visit the soldier, she finds him gone, with blood stains still on the ground. Her father confronts her, and she runs away.
Ana's family and the other villagers search for her all night, mirroring a scene from Frankenstein. While she kneels next to a lake, she sees Frankenstein's monster approaching from the forest and kneeling beside her. The next day, they find Ana physically unharmed. The doctor assures her mother that she will gradually recover from her unspecified "trauma", but Ana instead withdraws from her family, preferring to stand alone by the window and silently call to the spirit, just as Isabel told her to.
In 1973, 43-year-old Philadelphia resident Sam Bicke (Sean Penn) is a down on his luck salesman who desperately wishes to reconcile with his estranged wife Marie (Naomi Watts). A constant moralizer, he states that he stopped working at the tire shop owned by his brother Julius (Michael Wincott) because he would lie to his customers. Believing that society's discrimination affects poor white people just as much as it does blacks, he attempts to join the Black Panthers. His dream is to own his own mobile tire sales business in partnership with his best friend, African-American mechanic Bonny (Don Cheadle).
He finds employment at an office furniture retail business, where his new boss Jack (Jack Thompson) gives him patronizing advice, while his awkwardness makes him a poor salesman. Jack describes US president Richard Nixon as the greatest salesman in history, because his election promise in 1968 was to exit the Vietnam War, and four years later he again coasted to win an easy re-election in 1972 on the promise of ending the same war.
Bicke becomes increasingly disillusioned with his status in society. He applies for a government loan to set up the business with Bonny, and he frantically waits for an answer in the mail. His sales figures continue to deteriorate, and Jack, who only hires married salesmen, begins to suspect Sam lied about his marriage. In fact, Marie keeps rebutting all of Sam's awkward attempts at reconciling, and later sends him a divorce decree, leaving him weeping in despair. Shortly afterwards, he deliberately tanks a sale and quits his job. While watching Nixon giving a speech on TV during the Watergate scandal, he screams at him, "It's about money, Dick!" With the loan still not finalized, he breaks into his brother's tire sales business to make a large order that will be delivered to Bonny. Ultimately, the loan is rejected, his rent is past due, and his brother Julius reveals he had to bail out Bonny, who was arrested for receiving stolen goods, and is now done entirely with his deadbeat, hypocritical brother.
A broken Sam begins obsessing more and more about Nixon. One night, after watching a news story about a helicopter pilot who did a fly-by around the White House and got arrested, he begins putting together a plan to hijack a passenger airliner and crash it into the White House. In the two weeks leading to his action, he records a message detailing his intentions and state of mind and addressed to Leonard Bernstein, whom he greatly admires.
Sam liquidates his bank account, steals Bonny's gun, and heads to a restaurant where Jack is dining. He aims the gun at Jack under the table, but cannot pull the trigger and flees. He goes to his and Marie's old house and sleeps in the empty home, then shoots and kills the family dog. The next morning, he drives to the Baltimore–Washington International Airport with the gun concealed against his leg and a suitcase full of gasoline. After mailing his confession to Bernstein, he plans to wait in line to board a flight, but seeing the security procedures are more thorough than expected, he panics and rushes on board, shooting a cop as he goes.
Once on board he haphazardly shoots one pilot in the head and the other in the shoulder, then finds a passenger to act as co-pilot. However, he is shot through a window by an intervening policeman, but commits suicide before he could be killed or arrested. The day's events are shown on TV, though neither Bonny nor Marie appear to react to the mention of Sam's name.
The Trinity Sight System contains three chronological chapters per character. Players have the ability to switch characters and point of view after the end of each chapter.
Hugo is the son of Lucia, the chief of the Karaya Clan. He is sent to visit the Zexen capital to deliver a truce offer for the Clans, who had been clashing against Zexen recently. The visit goes wrong, and Hugo is forced to flee back to Karaya, only to find it in flames. His childhood friend, Lulu, is then slain by Chris Lightfellow. Eager for revenge and to help defend the Clans, Hugo travels the Grasslands, eventually reuniting with the other Karayans in exile at the Lizard Clan's Great Hollow. He learns from Lilly Pendragon of the Flame Champion's story, and eventually seeks out the Flame Champion for aid with the Clans set upon by both the Zexens and, in Chisha village, the Harmonians.
Chris Lightfellow is the Acting Captain of the Zexen Knights. Respected and revered as a hero, she is known as the 'Silver Maiden'. While she is dedicated to protecting her country and people, Chris finds herself increasingly frustrated with the Zexen Council, disagreeing with their methods. This dilemma only worsens as the conflict with the Grassland clans increases.
Chris commands the Zexen forces against the Grassland clans early in the game, fighting them at the botched truce agreement, the Karaya village (where she kills Hugo's friend Lulu), and the Lizard's Great Hollow. At Iksay Village, where she helps fend off a combined assault by the Lizard and Karaya clans, she finds that her missing and assumed dead father Wyatt may still be alive. She sets off on a personal journey throughout the Grasslands to find him and whatever traces she can as to the nature of recent events. In doing so, Chris also comes to meet and learn more of the people she has been fighting.
Geddoe is the reserved and enigmatic leader of the Twelfth Harmonian Southern Fringe Defense Force Unit, a band of mercenaries under the employ of Harmonia. He is charged with investigating rumors of the resurgence of the Fire Bringer. As a somewhat neutral observer on the Zexen - Grassland conflict, Geddoe and his band see several of the more provocative moments, such as the inexplicable attack by the Zexens on the Great Hollow, the assassination of the Lizard clan chief, and the burning of Karaya village by the Zexens. Despite Harmonia's orders, Geddoe has his own agenda; he is especially suspicious of a new bishop of Harmonia who always wears a mask.
Eventually Geddoe is ordered to look for the True Fire Rune itself, a rather easy task for him. Geddoe is in truth the bearer of the True Lightning Rune and was a personal companion of the Flame Champion from 50 years ago. He travels to the True Fire Rune in order to defend the Grasslands once more.
Despite his knowledge of history and events, Geddoe does not often divulge his information, preferring to remain enigmatic. Likewise, the members of his team have generally left their pasts behind and use aliases. Geddoe's chapters are also somewhat unusual in that his team changes very little; after saving and recruiting the Karayan Aila, Geddoe's 5 companions stick together, unlike the other chapters in which characters join and leave often.
At the end of each character's Chapter 3, they meet at the Flame Champion's hideout. Up until the end of Chapter 3, it is assumed by Hugo that the Flame Champion was still alive and would now join the group. However, the Flame Champion is not at the hideout; his elderly wife Sana is. The Flame Champion is dead, as he chose to give up his True Rune and age with his wife. At this point, a new Flame Champion is chosen from among the three protagonists by the player. In canon and the manga, Hugo becomes the Flame Champion, though it is emphasized that this "destiny" is not fixed. Afterward, the "Destroyer" forces seen in the background earlier attack to claim the True Fire Rune themselves, and the masked bishop is revealed to be Luc from the earlier ''Suikoden'' games. Despite Luc's True Wind Rune, the Destroyers are deterred by protections the old Flame Champion left in his hideout.
At the onset of Chapter 4, the Harmonian army attacks in force. The new Flame Champion must rally the feuding Grassland and Zexen forces together in a fighting retreat against the larger and better trained Harmonian army. After retreating from the Chisha and Duck clan villages, the unified army makes its stand at the fortified Brass Castle and stops the Harmonian advance. The new Flame Champion may also (at the player's choice) take up the old Flame Champion's name. As Brass Castle is a Zexen stronghold, the unified army decides to make its new base at the more neutral Budehuc Castle, suggested by its master Thomas. Budehuc may also be renamed. Afterward, both Luc's Destroyers and the new Fire Bringer advance to the Sindar Ruins where the True Water Rune is sealed. There, its bearer Jimba — in truth, Wyatt Lightfellow, Chris's father and companion of Geddoe and the original Flame Champion — is slain, and the rune passed on to either Chris or Hugo (if Chris is the Flame Champion).
In Chapter 5, Luc's political scheme evaporates as he engages in his real plan- to steal all the elemental True Runes himself, and use their combined power to destroy his own True Rune that has dominated his destiny. With the aid of Sarah and a series of traps, Luc successfully claims the True Lightning, Fire, and Water runes from the protagonists. He also steals his supposed ally Sasarai's True Earth Rune, guaranteeing Harmonian support ''against'' the Destroyers. Though increasingly exhausted, Sarah is still able to summon large quantities of magical monsters to serve as a surrogate army. A second assault against Brass Castle is repulsed by the unified army, and the monster army is chased to the Ceremonial Site, where Luc intends to focus the energies of the True Runes into destroying his Rune. There, the other True Runes are reclaimed, and though Luc defeats Sasarai in a duel, the incarnation of the True Wind Rune which gave Luc his haunting visions is defeated.
There are three optional viewpoints in addition to the mandatory ones.
It is speculated that Sasarai was intended to have an optional chapter as well, due to the fact that all the True Rune holders in the game would then have a chapter. The Sasarai chapter would presumably have replaced Koroku's short chapter.
''CQ'' uses the format of a film within a film. In Paris in 1969, young and introverted film editor Paul Ballard (Jeremy Davies) is currently working on a science-fiction adventure film set in the futuristic year of 2001, called ''Codename: Dragonfly'', written and directed by renowned director Andrezej (Gérard Depardieu).
The main character of ''Codename: Dragonfly'' is the eponymous Dragonfly, a sexy freelance super-agent who lives in a spaceship perched atop the Eiffel Tower and undertakes assignments for the "World Council". Dragonfly's latest mission is to stop a revolutionary leader known as "Mr. E" (Billy Zane) who is based on the "far-out" side of the Moon. The World Council turns for help to Dragonfly, reluctantly so because she charges huge sums of money - with which the council literally showers her.
Andrezej is utterly infatuated with his film's star who is playing Dragonfly, Valentine (Angela Lindvall), a young American whom he discovered at a political rally some time ago. Paul, an aspiring filmmaker himself, regularly borrows cameras and other equipment from work in order to film his own project: a black-and-white documentary of his own self-reflections. When the producers prove unhappy with Andrezej's ideas - or apparent lack of any real idea - for the movie's ending, they fire him. They are particularly upset with Andrezej's ideas for what they had expected would be an action movie: Andrezej believes the movie should end with a whimper instead of a bang, in order to subvert the audience's expectations.
Andrezej is first replaced with the shallow, flashy Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman), but ultimately the producers settle on Paul as the new director. They impress on him that his main task is to come up with a satisfying end to the movie, the filmmakers having determined that Dragonfly must chase after and finally confront a mysterious figure in a tunnel alleyway, but no one having been able to decide whom that mysterious figure should be.
Much as Andrezej before him, Paul finds his efforts to complete ''Codename: Dragonfly'' stymied by his infatuation both with Valentine and with the persona of Dragonfly. Paul has a girlfriend, Marlene (Elodie Bouchez), an Air France flight attendant who makes time for Paul despite her schedule, his obvious growing infatuation with Valentine, his obsession with film making and his self-absorption. Ultimately, Marlene leaves Paul, realizing that his obsessions will never include her. Paul is also challenged by the apparent work of a saboteur, who cuts up footage before it can be edited, and who sends cryptic threatening messages to the remaining crew. Others suspect Andrezej - who resents being fired and losing control of what he considers to be his film.
Paul puts himself under increasing pressure from his inability to come up with an ending for ''Codename: Dragonfly'' - an ending he is told “has to be fabulous” - although isolated notions and images might slowly be coming together in his head. The movie's high-living Italian producer, Enzo (Giancarlo Giannini), not intimately involved in the production shoot but still subtly fatherly and supportive, guides Paul that “the ending is the most important part of the movie, the part that people remember when they leave the theater.” He tells Paul a good ending must be exciting and must finally resolve the mystery for the audience but “surprise them a little.” “Astonish me,” he challenges Paul. Paul continues moving forward on the movie, beginning to make certain changes in the plot, and occasionally plunging into personal fantasies in which the exotic character of Dragonfly soothes him as his loving companion against the stress of not knowing how to finish the movie.
As the crew prepares to shoot the climactic chase scene in ''Codename: Dragonfly'', the saboteur sneaks onto the set and steals their finished footage. Valentine (still costumed and made up as Dragonfly from the shoot) and Paul jump into Dragonfly's futuristic prop car from the movie and chase the saboteur through Paris, with the fantasy of Dragonfly's world melding slightly into Paul's reality, and as the car chase ends Paul and Valentine/Dragonfly kiss. Paul on foot chases after and finally confronts the saboteur in an alleyway on the banks of the Seine not unlike the climactic alleyway in ''Codename: Dragonfly'', and it is confirmed the saboteur is Andrezej. In a moment of vulnerability and mutual respect as filmmakers - even shared identity - Paul convinces Andrezej to return the film, while Andrezej secures Paul's promise that a main aspect of the movie's ending will remain as Andrezej had wished, though their exchange reveals nothing else of the ending. And, in a secondary scene shortly after, Paul gets a hint that slavishly filming all the events in one's life may not be the best way to capture their fleeting genuine essence.
The movie's ending is shot according to Paul's idea. It plays for us as it will be seen in the finished movie, and the identity of the mysterious figure chosen by Paul is revealed. The ending Paul devises is everything the producer asked for. It is unexpected, satisfying, and for ''Codename: Dragonfly'' even astonishing, carrying in its plot twist an emotional heft and genuineness that lifts the otherwise cheesy movie. The final scene finishes for us and fades out.
Finally, Paul is a guest speaker at a French film festival in mid 1970. Despite signs of stature, he is asked by a festival participant to pass along a script to Felix DeMarco, as though he is still in the other man's shadow and suggesting quality and sincerity must always compete with the shallow and foolish. The festival also presents Paul's own film - the collection of self-reflections he'd been shooting over the course of ''Codename: Dragonfly.'' In voiceovers accompanying Paul's film, it is established that Marlene and Paul never got back together, and the last shot of his film, finally transitioning into color, suggests Valentine is now a part of his life.
In 1831, Sydney is a frontier town, full of rough ex-convicts from the British Isles. The new Governor, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker), arrives with his charming and cheery but indolent second cousin, the Honourable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding).
Charles, who is hoping to make his fortune, is befriended by gruff Samson Flusky (Joseph Cotten), a prosperous businessman who was previously a transported convict, apparently a murderer. Sam says that, because he has bought the legal limit of land, he wants Charles to buy land and then sell it to him for a profit so that Sam can accumulate more frontier territory. Though the Governor orders him not to go, Charles is invited to dinner at Sam's house.
Charles discovers that he already knows Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman), an aristocrat who was a good friend of Charles's sister when they were all children in Ireland. Lady Henrietta is now an alcoholic who is socially shunned.
Sam invites Charles to stay at his house, hoping it will cheer up his wife, who is on the verge of madness. The housekeeper, Milly (Margaret Leighton), has completely taken over the running of the household, and is the one who secretly supplies Lady Henrietta with alcohol, hoping to destroy her and win Sam's affections.
Gradually, Charles restores Henrietta's self-confidence. They become closer and closer, and eventually they share a passionate kiss. But Henrietta explains that she and Sam are bound together most profoundly: when she was young, Sam was the handsome stable boy. Overcome with desire, they ran away and married at Gretna Green.
Henrietta's brother, furious that aristocratic Henrietta had paired up with a lowly servant, confronted them. Her brother shot at them and missed; she then shot her brother fatally. Sam made a false confession to save her and was sent to the penal colony in Australia. She followed him and waited seven years in abject poverty for his release.
After listening to Milly's greatly exaggerated stories of what Charles did in Lady Henrietta's bedroom, Sam becomes furious and orders Charles to leave. Taking Sam's favourite mare in the dark, Charles has a fall and the horse breaks a leg. Sam has to shoot her dead and, in a subsequent struggle over the gun, seriously wounds Charles. Sam will now be prosecuted again for attempted murder. At the hospital, Henrietta confesses to the Governor that Sam was wrongly accused of the first crime of murder; she was the one who shot and killed her brother. By law she should be deported back to Ireland to stand trial.
Milly, still plying Henrietta with drink, is using a real shrunken head to fake hallucinations. Milly then attempts to kill Henrietta with an overdose of sedatives. She is caught in the act, and ordered out in disgrace.
The Governor, Sir Richard, has Sam arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Charles. Sir Richard ignores Henrietta's claim that Sam is innocent of both crimes. However, Charles decides to bend the truth; he says, on his word as a gentleman, that there was no confrontation, and no struggle over the gun. It was all an accident.
Finally we see Sam and Henrietta together smiling at the dock. Charles is going back to Ireland, and they bid him a fond farewell.
An unseen man climbs the exterior of a sorority house, where a Christmas party is being held, and enters the attic. The house phone rings, and Jess answers to discover it is an obscene phone call from a person who has called before known as "The Moaner". Jess calls the other sorority girls and they listen as the caller rants, moans, and screams in strange voices. The girls are initially startled by the caller, but a drunken Barb insults the caller; after a moment of bickering, the caller threatens to kill them in sudden low tone. A younger student, Clare Harrison, suggests that the caller could be a rapist before returning to her bedroom to pack her suitcase. Right when she leaves, Mrs. MacHenry, the housemother arrives and is immediately given a negligee by the girls. As Clare packs her things upstairs, she fails to notice the intruder hiding behind a plastic dress bag; Clare eventually hears the cat meowing from the closet and slowly approaches it, only to be suffocated with a plastic dress bag. As the party wraps up, Clare’s body is carried into the attic and placed into a rocking chair by the attic window.
The following morning, Mr. Harrison arrives to pick up his daughter, but she fails to show. Mrs. MacHenry assumes Clare went to the fraternity house for a party, and helps Mr. Harrison look for her. Later that day, Jess goes to a conservatory her boyfriend, known as Peter, is at and explains to him that she is pregnant and planning to get an abortion. This angers Peter, and he forces her to continue this discussion later that night. In town, Mr. Harrison, Barb, and Phyl attempt to report Clare as missing to Sergeant Nash, who doesn’t take them seriously. At the police station, they learn that a high school girl, known as Janice Quaife, has also vanished.
After putting a drunken Barb to bed, Mr. Harrison, Chris, Jess, and Phyl help search for the missing girl. Meanwhile, the housemother, Mrs. MacHenry, discovers Clare's body and the killer throws a crane hook into her face, hanging and killing her. In the park, the missing girl's disfigured body is found by the police. Jess answers another obscene phone call and decides to file a report with the police, only for Peter to surprise her. He attempts to persuade her into marriage, but she refuses and reaffirms her decision to have an abortion. Peter leaves angrily while Lieutenant Fuller arrives with a telephone lineman to bug the phone.
Jess stays up to pick up the phone, but leaves when she hears Barb having an asthma attack; Barb claims that she had a nightmare where she saw a man walk into her room. After calming her down, Jess hears Christmas Carolers at the front door and leaves Barb unattended. The killer walks into Barb’s room and stabs her to death with a glass unicorn figurine; her cries for help are drowned out by the caroling. Jess experiences another unnerving phone call, in which the caller restates her argument with Peter. Lieutenant Fuller calls her to say the attempt to trace the call failed, and theorizes that Peter could be responsible, but Jess doubts this. After Jess and Phyl are spooked by a couple of search party members, they set out and lock up every door and window in the house. Phyl sees Barb’s door close, and goes to check in on her, only for the door to close and to be killed off-screen.
Jess gets one final phone call in which the killer alludes to some sort of transgression between two children named Agnes and Billy. The call is long enough to be traced, and Sergeant Nash instructs Jess to leave the house immediately, as the calls are coming from within the house. Concerned for Barb and Phyl, she ventures upstairs, where she discovers Barb's and Phyl's bodies. Jess sees the killer’s eye through a door crack as he slowly begins to close it on her; she slams the door in his face and runs downstairs. When she discovers the front door is jammed and won’t open, she, terrified, runs away, only for the killer to yank her by the hair and make her fall on the floor. Jess flees into the basement and locks it shut as the killer bangs on it, once she hears footsteps walking away and (presumably) the front door opening, she walks down into the basement. After exploring for a bit, Jess sees Peter peek through a window and call her name; he breaks a window and enters the basement as he calls her name worriedly. Once Peter finds her, he begins to approach her as she backs away and clutches the fire poker.
The police arrive and hear Jess screaming; they discover her barely conscious in the basement with Peter's bloody body next to her. Believing that Peter was the killer, they put Jess to bed in her room and leave her alone in the house, with a cop standing outside. The killer's voice is heard from the attic, implying that he is still alive. The still-undiscovered bodies of Clare and Mrs. MacHenry are seen through the attic window before the house's telephone begins to ring, leaving Jess' fate ambiguous.
''Waltzes from Vienna'' begins with the sound of a fire brigade horn and the clip-clop of horses’ hooves, as the firemen race towards a fire at Ebezeder's Café. Upstairs from the café, Resi and Schani are oblivious to the danger, lost in a love duet that concludes with Schani telling Resi that he has dedicated his newest song to her. At the same time, Schani's music attracts the attention of the Countess Helga von Stahl, who is shopping in the dressmaker's store next door. Schani and Resi's romantic interlude is interrupted by Leopold, a baker in Resi's father's café who is in love with Resi, as he awkwardly climbs up the ladder to save her. Schani and Leopold argue over who will save Resi from the fire, but Leopold eventually wins and hauls Resi over his shoulder and down the ladder, causing her to lose her skirt on the way. Resi races to the dressmaker's shop to get away from the laughter of the onlookers. Schani retrieves Resi's skirt and then stumbles into the dressmaker's in search of Resi, where he meets the Countess. When the Countess learns that Schani is an aspiring musician, she proposes that he set some of her verses to music. As the Countess offers Schani her card, Resi enters the room and becomes immediately suspicious of the Countess's intentions.
With the romantic triangle set up, the next scene sets up the conflict between Schani and his father. At orchestra rehearsal, in which Schani plays second violin under his father's baton, Schani gets himself in trouble when he insults his father's music to his stand partner. The elder Strauss overhears and demands that Schani perform one of his own compositions for the members of the orchestra. Strauss Sr. then ridicules his son's waltz and tells him he could never have a career as a composer, inciting Schani to quit the orchestra.
Excited by his newfound freedom and the commission from the Countess, Schani visits Resi at her father's bakery to tell her his news. Resi initially berates Schani and informs him that, if he wants to marry her, he will have to give up music and take over the bakery. However, when she reads the Countess's lyrics, she is drawn into the music, singing the opening of ''The Blue Danube'' waltz to Schani. Their moment of composition is interrupted when Resi's father arrives to give Schani a tour of the bakery. As Schani and Ebezeder walk into the basement, a memorable and unusual scene of musical composition begins. While Schani looks around, the tune that Resi sang begins to evolve. Two men throwing bread back and forth inspire the second phrase of the melody; a man tossing croissants into a box creates the offbeat rhythm of the waltz. The rhythm of the dough mixing machine provides Schani with the second main theme of the first waltz. As he tells the begrudging Leopold to go faster, this second theme turns into the beginning of the second large section of piece, at which point Schani runs upstairs, exclaiming to Resi that he has finished the composition. He then rushes off to tell the Countess that he has composed the perfect waltz to accompany her verses.
The next scene opens with Schani playing the final measures of the waltz to the Countess. After he finishes, she kisses him and then apologizes profusely, explaining that she was overwhelmed by his wonderful music. Schani then plays the second section of the waltz while her hand rests possessively on his shoulder, which, through a dissolve, becomes Resi's hand. After thanking Resi for coming up with the phrase, Schani agrees to dedicate the song to her. As the scene fades away, the page with Schani's dedication to Resi flips up to reveal another page with the same title, but dedicated to the Countess.
The duplicitous dedication is discovered when Resi hears Schani and the Countess playing the waltz for the publisher, Anton Drexler. Schani runs after Resi to explain and they reconcile only when Schani tells her that he will give up his music to work in the bakery. However, Schani is clearly miserable in his new job and he fights with Resi when he receives an invitation from the Countess to attend St. Stephen's Festival. Resi tells Schani that, if he attends, it will mean the end of their relationship. Meanwhile, the Countess plots a ruse that will cause Strauss Sr. to be late for the festival so that Schani can take his father's place to conduct his new waltz.
As Schani conducts ''The Blue Danube'' at the festival, all of the film's conflicts come to a climax. The Countess detains the elder Strauss by asking the dancers at the festival to play to his ego, requesting that he play his waltzes over and over for their pleasure in a back room. Strauss Sr. finally arrives to find that his son has taken his place, performing for an enthusiastic audience. Meanwhile, Resi laments that Schani betrayed her by coming to the festival at the Countess's command.
Following the performance, the elder Strauss angrily tells his son that he had not authorized the performance, as the Countess had led him to believe. Schani leaves the festival in confusion and the Countess follows him home where they share another kiss. However, the romantic moment is interrupted by the Count, who, upon learning where the Countess had gone, left the party in a rage. Resi arrives in time to sneak in the back and replace the Countess, who then walks back up the front stairs to surprise her husband, as the crowd outside hums ''The Blue Danube Waltz''.
This game is a side story set before the events of ''Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen'' and ''Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber''.
Ovis is brutally oppressed by the knights of Lodis. Alphonse Loeher is a knight in Rictor Lasanti's military unit, the Order of the Sacred Flame, and he is sent to Ovis. When he is later separated from the main forces, he meets Eleanor Olato and Ivanna Batraal, two locals from whom he eventually learns the truth about the horrific events taking place in Ovis.
Various circumstances lead Alphonse to separate from Rictor's main unit. As the plot unfolds, Alphonse begins to question the actions and motives of Rictor. He then begins his search for answers, starting with Ivanna's uncle, the sinister regent Naris Batraal, and the sacred spear, Longicolnis, which is the only instrument that can pierce the skin of the sacred demon. It is later revealed that Rictor initially knew about the sacred spear and wanted to obtain it for the Lodis empire. About halfway through the game, the player is presented with two choices, which eventually leads to either his renewed trust or a falling out with Rictor. In fact, the player's choice will significantly affect all plot elements that follow.
After assaulting Naris Batraal's stronghold, it is revealed he is in league with the Fallen Angel, Shaher, who was imprisoned in Northern Ovis after being cast out from Heaven. Longicolnis is actually his own demonic horn which is both the only thing which can break his invincible barrier, and what shall allow him to be freed from his icy prison and begin his conquest of Ovis and the outside world.
There are five possible endings in the game (the Game Over scenario, which is gained by losing to the final boss, is also counted). The "A+" ending sequence features one additional scene which details Lans Tartare's past, in addition to the entire "A" ending sequence. To view the A+ ending, several conditions must be met, including completing the game in under 25 hours. The exact ending sequence with which the game presents the player depends on, among other things, the significant choice that the player has made halfway through the game and Eleanor's presence in the final battle. In particular, the "D" ending excludes Eleanor altogether.
Martin Gibson, a famous science fiction author, is travelling to Mars, as a guest of the crew of the spaceship ''Ares''. After arriving at Space Station One, in the orbit of Earth, from which all interplanetary journeys start, he begins the three-month trip to Mars.
The youngest crew member, Jimmy Spencer, who is still in training to be an astronaut, is assigned the task of answering his questions about the technology of space flight, and they become friends. Gibson tells him about his early life, revealing that he had to leave Cambridge University because of a nervous breakdown and never completed his studies. After psychiatric treatment, he had become an author. He also reveals that he had an affair at university but that he and his girlfriend broke up and that she married another man, had a child and later died.
On Mars, Gibson and the crew go their separate ways. Gibson meets the Chief Executive of Mars, Warren Hadfield, and Mayor Whittaker, who run the colony from the base at Port Lowell. He discusses the future of the colony with Hadfield, who is keen to make Mars as self-sufficient as possible, given the vast distance that materials have to come from Earth.
On a trip by passenger jet to an outlying research station, Gibson and the crew are forced down by a dust storm. They explore the nearby area and discover a small group of kangaroo-like creatures, the unsuspected natives of Mars. They appear to have limited intelligence by human standards and are vegetarians, living on native plants.
It is later revealed that the plants are being cultivated by researchers to enrich the oxygen content of the Martian atmosphere. This project, and related others, are being kept secret from Earth.
Gibson discovers that Spencer is his son. In the meantime, Spencer has formed an attachment to Irene, Hadfield’s daughter.
Hadfield reveals that scientists have been working on "Project Dawn", which involves the ignition of the moon Phobos and its use as a second “sun” for Mars. It will burn for at least one thousand years and the extra heat, together with mass production of the oxygen-generating plants, will eventually – it is hoped – make the Martian atmosphere breathable for humans.
Gibson finds himself so persuaded of the importance of Mars as a self-sufficient world that he applies to stay on the planet, and is invited to take charge of public relations – in effect, to “sell” Mars to potential colonists.
In the prologue, a fight between Japanese martial artist Ryu and Muay Thai champion Sagat rages until Ryu severely scars Sagat across the chest with a ''Shoryuken'', a rising uppercut attack that is empowered by ki spiritual energy. Enraged, Sagat charges at Ryu. However Ryu claims victory by launching his Hadouken, a technique where he charges his ki power into his hands and is fired off in the form of a powerful energy blast. Sagat vows revenge.
A couple of years later, following the assassination of a Justice Minister by Cammy White, a hypnotized MI6 Agent, Interpol agent Chun-Li Zang suggests that they join forces with the United States Military to destroy the enigmatic crime syndicate known as Shadowlaw. Captain William Guile, who is out for revenge against Shadowlaw's leader, M. Bison, for the death of his best friend, initially refuses, but eventually relents when Chun-Li later tells him that Bison killed her father years ago and she herself wants revenge, but knows that her duty comes first. At the Shadowlaw base, Bison, along with his bodyguards Balrog, Vega, and Sagat, orders a worldwide manhunt for Ryu, determined to induct him into his organization, and sends out hundreds of monitor cyborgs to find more valuable martial artists for their cause. However, Ryu, who is traveling the world to seek out worthy challengers, such as Fei-Long, Dhalsim, and Edmond Honda, remains undetected due to suppressing his Ki.
Meanwhile, Ryu's American best friend and fighting rival, Ken Masters, has settled down with his girlfriend, Eliza, but still yearns for a good challenge and desires a rematch with Ryu. During a tussle with T. Hawk, who had sought out Ken to challenge him, Ken is seen by a monitor cyborg and the footage of the fight is sent to the Shadowlaw base. Bison sees the footage and learns of Ken's history with Ryu, and decides to hunt him down and hypnotize him in Ryu's stead. Along the way, Bison sees Chun-Li and Guile warning Dee Jay about the monitor cyborgs and destroying one in the process, and subsequently sends Vega to New York to kill Chun-Li. Vega ambushes Chun-Li in her apartment, but after a bloody fight, Chun-Li kicks Vega through the wall of the building and he falls to his death, yet she is badly wounded and falls into a coma. Guile arrives and rushes her to the hospital. He also learns of Ryu and Ken from Interpol, and after learning that Bison has captured Ken, Guile rushes to Thailand to warn Ryu, who is training in the mountains with E. Honda.
Bison, however, follows Guile and confronts them. He sets the hypnotized Ken on Ryu, who initially refuses to fight back. Honda battles Balrog while Guile faces Bison and is severely beaten, though Bison spares his life as a final insult. As Ryu prepares to retaliate against Ken, memories of their past wreak havoc on Ken's mind and he manages to break free of Bison's mind control. The enraged Bison unleashes his Psycho Power upon Ken and casts him afar before turning his attention to Ryu, who fights Bison with very little success. Ken uses his master's Ki teachings to mend his body and joins the fight. With their combined forces, Ryu and Ken eventually pummel Bison into submission and hurl a joint ''Hadouken'' at him, apparently destroying him. Honda defeats Balrog and rescues both Guile and Balrog. Shortly afterwards, the United States Military locate and destroy the entrance to Bison's base, presumably arresting all of Bison's subordinates and bringing Shadowlaw down.
Chun-Li makes a full recovery and reunites with Guile in the hospital, informing him that their mission was a success. Elsewhere, Ryu and Ken part ways once again and Ryu begins his journey anew. However, he is ambushed from behind by a huge truck, with the driver revealed to be Bison, who survived the battle. The film closes as Ryu leaps towards the truck to fight Bison again.
A post-credits message promotes a Japan Spring 1995 release for the ''Street Fighter'' live-action film, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and the late Raul Julia.
The first half of the film is told in a non-consecutive narrative format, introducing the three principal characters in turn and taking them up to the events in the convenience store. There are four chapters: "Pornography in Blue", "A Space Man", "Documentary" and "Last Scene".
Y breaks up with her boyfriend (also her agent), who she believes has done little to promote her acting career, but he tries to blackmail her with a video of the two of them having sex. She turns to her boss at the store for help, but he only agrees if she will sleep with him. Later that evening, Y makes up with her boyfriend, but then discovers that her boss has also been videotaping her as she changes in the store's back room. Working behind the counter in the convenience store, she takes a cheque from J to pay for some beer.
J meets M while singing in a club in Thailand. They fall in love and continue seeing each other back in Korea, until one day M announces that he has to go on a trip without her. On the day of his return, J prepares a meal for the two of them at her apartment. She is overjoyed when he finally shows up, until she realizes that his parents are with him. M's father has found out that J is transgender, and demands to see her ID card as proof. When she refuses he starts to fling food at her, and J asks them all to leave.
A short while later, she goes into Y's convenience store and uses a cheque to buy some beer. When the store's boss demands to see her ID, she turns in anger and smashes a bottle of beer over his head.
R carries his camcorder with him wherever he goes, videotaping everyday life. Eventually he walks into Y's convenience store. As he gets something to drink, the boss walks out of the back room and demands to see J's ID card. R begins taping the incident. J smashes the beer bottle over the boss's head. Y tries to comfort him, but he slips on the spilt beer and falls, banging his head against R's camera case. Blood flows out onto the floor, and the boss is apparently dead.
J, Y and R decide to accept joint responsibility for the boss's death. They drag the body into the back room, clean up the blood, then leave. After getting into a fight in a bar, the trio retreat to a hotel room. Y and R have sex, while J lies curled up on the floor, remembering the time she spent with M in Thailand. Meanwhile, M gets drunk at J's apartment, distraught over his feelings for her.
After a few days, the trio go to another bar. As they are drinking and trying to decide what to do next, several police officers come in to check IDs. The three leave without paying their bill, and are chased down a back alley by one of the officers. As they run, Y trips and falls, forcing J to wait and trip the officer, who drops his gun. She picks up the gun and points it at him as he lies on the ground, but he quickly gets the better of her. When the other two come back to help her, he begins berating them one by one, only ending when J clubs the officer over the head with the camera case. Having had enough, R decides to leave.
Y and J find a hotel room, where they console each other and begin goofing around. The following day they leave on J's motorcycle, going to Y's family home. It turns out that Y has a young daughter who is being looked after by her parents, and it's her birthday. Y leaves a birthday cake but refuses to stay, and returns the motorcycle. J, however, is nowhere to be seen. Suddenly someone grabs the clerk's hair.
The convenience store boss is not dead, as they had believed. He and a friend of his have taken Y and J to a private karaoke room. The friend forces Y to undress and dance while he sings karaoke. The boss again demands that J show him her ID card, but instead she pulls the police officer's gun out of her bag and shoots both men dead. Again the two women find a room to stay. They lie tenderly together, naked, and J tells the clerk that one day, they'll go away somewhere warm together.
Later, the two of them are getting their hair styled in a salon when Y sees her ex-boyfriend on TV. He has now become a big star, and she throws the TV to the ground in a fit of rage.
Y meets her ex-boyfriend in a café, and she uses their sex video to blackmail him for money. She then goes with J on a spending spree, in preparation for their trip to Thailand. They return to J's apartment, where M has been waiting. J takes him inside to talk, leaving Y outside. Still feeling distraught, M threatens to kill himself with a bottle of pills. J pours the pills out and sweeps them into the trash, telling him that they won't be enough. She gives him the gun, then leaves, going into the bathroom to cry. M goes out into the street, where he sees Y in a phone booth. Mistaking her for J, he shoots her in the head and then kills himself. J comes outside to find them both dead, and she is now left alone.
The ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' characters excitedly prepare for their summer vacations after their term at Acme Looniversity ends. Babs and Buster Bunny have a water pistol fight, which eventually escalates into flooding Acme Acres. The bunnies, along with Byron Basset, float from flooded Acme Acres down to the Southern United States, where they continuously try to avoid getting eaten by the river's residents.
Plucky Duck joins Hamton J. Pig and Hamton's family as they drive to the amusement park HappyWorldLand. The trip turns out to be very long and painful for Plucky, who becomes annoyed with the family's habits and is almost killed by an escaped convict that the Pigs mistake for a hitchhiker. Upon arrival at HappyWorldLand, the family rides the tour monorail around the park and then decide to head home, much to Plucky's dismay.
Meanwhile, Elmyra Duff, upset after losing her cat Furrball. visits a nature park with her family, where she terrorizes the wild animals with her adoration. Fifi La Fume, lovestruck by teen heartthrob Johnny Pew, becomes his put-upon "assistant", unaware that he is uninterested in her. Fowlmouth and Shirley the Loon see ''Skunknophobia'', and Fifi and Johnny attend the same film. Fowlmouth disrupts throughout and is thrown out of the theater. Fifi, enraged when Johnny takes her photograph of him and signs it for a Bimbette, physically ejects Johnny from the theater, causing him to end up with Elmyra and mistakenly becomes her new "kitty".
After realizing that they are the main course at a dinner theater on a showboat, Babs and Buster escape, with Byron's help. They are sought after by the hungry animals from their journey, but are rescued by a possum named Banjo, whom Buster had befriended earlier. The convict returns and tries to kill them; Buster, Babs, Byron and Banjo try to escape using a mine cart and the convict falls off a cliff. The quartet fall down a "plot hole", which leads them through Wackyland and back to Acme Acres. The characters return to the Looniversity for the fall semester.
The Federation starship ''Enterprise'', under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), brings aboard the elderly 85 year old Admiral Mark Jameson and his wife Anne (Marsha Hunt) on request of Karnas (Michael Pataki), the Governor of Mordan IV. Karnas warns that a dissident terrorist group has taken a Federation Ambassador and his staff hostage, and demand to speak to a negotiator. Jameson had negotiated a previous settlement on Mordan IV. As the ship travels to Mordan IV, Jameson becomes stronger and more able to move about on his own, and no longer shows signs of the terminal Iverson's Disease he was known to have before he was beamed aboard. Jameson admits to taking an array of drugs to reverse the aging process over the last two years, and only recently has taken an overdose of the drugs to prepare himself for the negotiations. Jameson begins to appear younger and full of energy, but has frequent pains as a result of the overdose. By the time they are nearing Mordan, Jameson appears as a young adult.
As they approach the planet, Jameson begins audio communication with Karnas to learn more of the situation, and asks Karnas if his old enemies had taken the hostages. Karnas replies they are dead, and that Jameson is coming back to the Mordan IV just like he did 45 years before. Jameson realizes that Karnas has never forgiven him and that it is Karnas himself that has taken the Federation staff. Karnas reminds Jameson that his treachery during their last encounter on Mordan IV resulted in years of war. Against the advice of Picard, Jameson devises plans to rescue the hostages by transporting the away team to the tunnels beneath Karnas' mansion, where Jameson believes the hostages are being held [the same place the previous hostages had been held]. Picard privately confronts Jameson about Karnas' motives. Jameson reveals that in the past, Karnas captured a Federation starliner in revenge for the death of his father by another local tribe. Jameson was sent in to bargain for their release after two previous Federation negotiators had been killed; Jameson reveals the truth to Picard: he did negotiate for the passengers' release -not by his golden oratory but by giving Karnas what he demanded, a supply of Federation weapons. However, Jameson, in his interpretation of the Prime Directive, also supplied the warring tribes with an equal number of weapons. Jameson had thought this would only lead to a short-lived skirmish, and had not expected a war that would last over forty years. Jameson is now insistent on correcting his past mistake and thus took the reverse aging drug in order to be at his best.
In orbit, the ''Enterprise'' crew and Jameson beam down into the tunnels beneath Karnas' manor, but find that their arrival was anticipated and face off against armed guards. Jameson collapses during the fight, and the crew beams back to the ''Enterprise''. Jameson was not shot, but the reverse aging drug is literally destroying his body. Karnas demands to see Jameson or he will kill a hostage every 15 minutes. Picard opts to beam himself, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), Jameson, and eventually Jameson's wife Anne directly to Karnas' office. Karnas refuses to believe that the young man is Jameson, so Jameson reveals a scar on his wrist inflicted by Karnas years ago to seal their bargain. Jameson dies shortly afterward in his wife's embrace. Karnas agrees to let the hostages go, and to allow Jameson to be buried on Mordan IV at Anne's request.
''Uzumaki'' follows a high-school teenager, ; her boyfriend, ; and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of , which is cursed by supernatural events involving spirals.
As the story progresses, Kirie and Shuichi witness how the spiral curse affects the people around them, causing the citizens to become obsessed or paranoid about spirals. Shuichi becomes reclusive after both of his parents die from the horrific psychological and physical powers of the spirals, but also gains the ability to detect when the spiral curse is taking place, although he is often dismissed until the next paranormal effects of the curse become obvious. Eventually, Kirie is affected by the curse as well, when her hair begins to curl into an unnatural spiral pattern, drains her life energy to hypnotize the citizens, and chokes her whenever she attempts to cut it off. Shuichi is able to cut her hair and save her. The curse continues to plague the town until a series of typhoons conjured by the curse destroys most of its structures. The only remaining buildings are ancient abandoned terraced houses, which the citizens are forced first to move into, and then begin expanding as they grow more and more crowded.
As a series of increasingly powerful earthquakes and additional destruction from delinquents able to utilize strong winds strike the town, Kirie and Shuichi devise a plan to escape Kurouzu-cho, but when they attempt to escape, their efforts are unsuccessful. After returning to the town, they discover that several years have passed since they left, as time speeds up away from the spiral. The other citizens have expanded the terraced houses until they connected into a single structure forming a labyrinthine spiral pattern, but have become mutated as a consequence of overcrowding, their limbs twisting and warping into spirals. Kirie and Shuichi decide to search for Kirie's parents, which brings them to the center after many days of walking through the labyrinth.
At the center, Shuichi is hurled down a pit leading deep beneath the earth by a mutated citizen, with Kirie herself descending via a colossal spiral staircase to find him. She falls but is saved by countless bodies making up the ground of a vast, ancient city consisting entirely of spiral patterns in various arrangements. As Kirie looks for Shuichi, she finds her parents twisted and petrified, resembling stone statues, along with many other citizens of Kurouzu-cho who have met the same fate. Then, she hears Shuichi call for her and goes to him. Both are overwhelmed by the ancient spirals surrounding them and Shuichi points out how it seems as though the spiral ruins have a will of their own. Noticing that the petrified citizens of Kurouzu-cho are all facing the spiral city, Shuichi theorizes that this is the source of the curse; the city expands on its own periodically and has cursed the land above out of jealousy from having no one to view it.
Shuichi urges Kirie to leave without him as he can no longer walk, and that the curse should be over soon, but she replies that she does not have the strength and wishes to stay with him. The two embrace with their bodies twisting and intertwining together, signifying their acceptance into the unending curse. At the same time, a stone tower in the shape of a drill bit rises out of the city, and breaches the surface, forming the centerpiece of the abandoned town. As Shuichi and Kirie lie together, Kirie notes that the curse ended at the same time it began, for just as time speeds up away from the center, it freezes at the center. The spiral's curse is eternal, and all the events will repeat when a new Kurouzu-cho is built where the previous one lay.
Lizzie Morrison (Emily Mortimer) and nine-year-old deaf son Frankie (Jack McElhone) frequently relocate to keep one step ahead of her abusive ex-husband and his family. They are accompanied by her opinionated, chain-smoking mother Nell. Newly relocated in the Scottish town of Greenock, Lizzie accepts a job at the local fish and chips shop owned by a friendly woman named Marie, and enrolls Frankie in school.
Through a Glasgow post office box, Frankie maintains a regular correspondence with someone he believes to be his father, Davey, who allegedly is a merchant seaman working on HMS ''Accra''. In reality, the letters he receives are written by his mother, who prefers to maintain the lie instead of telling him why she fled her marriage.
When she learns that ''Accra'' will soon be arriving at the docks at Greenock, Lizzie in a panic concocts a scheme to hire a man to impersonate Davey. When her effort to find someone at the local pub fails, she enlists Marie's assistance. She arranges for her to meet an acquaintance who coincidentally is passing through town at the same time ''Accra'' will be in port. When Lizzie and the stranger (Gerard Butler) meet, he doesn't tell her his name. She explains the situation and gives him the letters for background. He agrees to spend a day with Frankie in exchange for the small amount Lizzie can offer him.
When the stranger arrives at their home to pick up the boy, he brings with him a book about marine life (to Lizzie's surprise), one of Frankie's passions, and a bond is forged immediately. They spend a day together (with Lizzie secretly following them), collecting on Frankie's bet at a soccer match from a school mate, ordering chips, and later in the evening setting up another half-day visit.
The second day is magical, ending with a nice evening at a dance, as Frankie wins another bet by getting Lizzie and the stranger to dance together. Afterwards, they walk together to get around the "discuss no past" ground rules, and she tells the stranger Frankie's deafness—a "present from his daddy"—and her reason for leaving her husband. She explains the letters from Frankie are so important to her because it is how she "hears" her son. The stranger tells her she is a great mother for protecting Frankie. Returning home, Frankie gives the stranger a hand-carved wooden seahorse as a parting gift. At the door, after a long pause together, Lizzie and the stranger kiss goodbye. After he leaves, she discovers he has returned her payment, stuffed into her coat pocket.
Sometime later, Lizzie learns that her husband is terminally ill, and reluctantly visits the hospital without Frankie. She experiences her husband's angry fury again, when he demands to see Frankie. Later when she tells Frankie that his dad is really sick, he writes him a note and draws him a picture. On a second visit, she delivers them to her husband, along with a snapshot of Frankie. Davey's death brings peace to them all.
Lizzie asks Marie about the stranger and she learns he is Marie's brother. Frankie's last letter shows that he has known the truth for a while—that the stranger was not his real dad. He knows too that Lizzie is sad, but she has him for support. The letter also indicates that Frankie intends to carry on with his life, telling about his real dad passing, his friends and their gold stars in school, and getting onto the reserve football team. He closes the letter by saying he hopes the stranger will visit again.
Lizzie finds Frankie sitting at end of a pier, and they enjoy a quiet moment together, looking out to sea.
A young man, Martin, traveling on an overnight train from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics, slices her forearm with a razor blade, then drinks her blood. The next morning, he is met at the Pittsburgh train station by his elderly cousin, Tateh Cuda, who escorts him to a second train destined for Braddock, Pennsylvania. Martin claims to be much older than his appearance would suggest. He has romantic monochrome visions of religious icons, vampiric seductions, and torch-carrying mobs, but whether these are memories or fantasies is not specified. Cuda, in accordance with family tradition, has reluctantly agreed to give Martin room and board alongside Cuda's orphaned granddaughter, Christina.
Cuda is a Lithuanian Catholic who treats Martin like an Old World vampire, referring to him as "Nosferatu." He tries unsuccessfully to repel Martin with traditional methods, such as strings of garlic and a crucifix. Martin mocks these attempts and says bitterly, "There's no real magic...ever." Christina is also highly skeptical and critical of Cuda's beliefs, and thinks Martin should receive psychiatric treatment. Cuda warns that if Martin murders anyone in Braddock, he will stake him through the heart.
Martin seeks advice from a local radio disc jockey, who dubs him "The Count." He rejects many common perceptions about vampires, saying there is no "magic stuff." The DJ's listeners consider Martin to be a hit. While making deliveries for Cuda's butcher shop, Martin meets a lonely, depressed housewife named Abbie Santini. When she touches Martin during an attempt at seducing him, he flees. Unbeknownst to his family, Martin goes to Pittsburgh and targets a woman he sees at a grocery store. Believing her to be alone while her husband is away on business, he breaks into her house but finds her in bed with a lover. After a series of struggles, Martin kills and feeds on the man instead of the woman, then drugs her before leaving the scene. Back in Braddock, Martin has sexual intercourse with Mrs. Santini, and they begin a full-fledged affair which lessens his appetite for blood.
Christina becomes increasingly frustrated by her disagreements with Cuda, ultimately moving out of his house and bidding Martin goodbye. Worried about experiencing withdrawal, Martin goes on a feeding binge in the city; he attacks a pair of homeless derelicts and narrowly escapes the police. Upon returning to Braddock, he visits Mrs. Santini only to discover that she has committed suicide by cutting her wrists in a bathtub. Cuda, who has learned of Mrs. Santini's death, believes Martin to be her killer and fatally stakes him through the heart before burying him in a backyard flowerbed.
Radio callers inquire and speculate about "The Count" while Tateh Cuda places a small crucifix atop Martin's grave.
Set in New France in 1634 (in the period of conflicts known as the Beaver Wars), the film begins in the settlement that will one day become Quebec City. Jesuit missionaries are trying to encourage the local Algonquin Indians to embrace Christianity, with thus far only limited results. Samuel de Champlain, founder of the settlement, sends Father LaForgue, a young Jesuit priest, to found a Catholic mission in a distant Huron village. With winter approaching, the journey will be difficult and cover as much as 1500 miles (2414 kilometers).
LaForgue is accompanied on his journey by a non-Jesuit assistant, Daniel, and a group of Algonquin Indians whom Champlain has charged with guiding him to the Huron village. This group includes Chomina – an older, experienced traveller who has clairvoyant dreams; his wife; and Annuka, their daughter. As they journey across the lakes and forests, Daniel and Annuka fall in love, to the discomfort of the celibate LaForgue.
The group meet with a band of Montagnais, First Nations people who have never met Frenchmen before. The Montagnais shaman, Mestigoit, is suspicious (and implicitly jealous) of LaForgue's influence over the Algonquins. He accuses him of being a demon. He encourages Chomina and the other Algonquins to abandon the two Frenchmen and travel instead to a winter hunting lodge. This they do, paddling away from the Frenchmen. LaForgue accepts his fate, but Daniel is determined to stay with Annuka and follows the Indians as they march across the forest. When one Indian tries to shoot Daniel, Chomina is consumed by guilt at having betrayed Champlain's trust. He and a few other members of the Algonquin tribe return with Daniel to try to find LaForgue.
As they recover LaForgue, a party of Mohawk Iroquois attack them, killing most of the Algonquin, amongst them Chomina's wife, and taking the rest captive. They are taken to an Iroquois fortress, where they are forced to run the gauntlet, watch Chomina's young daughter be killed, and are told they will be slowly tortured to death the next day. That night Annuka seduces their guard, allowing him to engage in coitus with her. When this distracts him she strikes him with a caribou hoof, rendering him unconscious and allowing them to escape. Chomina, dying of a wound from his capture, sees a small grove he has dreamed of many times before, and realizes it is the place he is destined to die. LaForgue tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade Chomina to embrace Christ before he dies. As Chomina freezes to death in the snow, he sees the ''She-Manitou'' appearing to him.
As the weather grows colder, Annuka and Daniel take LaForgue to the outskirts of the Huron settlement, but leave him to enter it alone, because Chomina had dreamed that this must happen. LaForgue finds all but one of the French inhabitants dead, murdered by the Hurons who blamed them for a smallpox epidemic. The leader of the last survivors tells LaForgue that the Hurons are dying, and he should offer to save them by baptizing them. LaForgue confronts the Hurons.
When their leader asks LaForgue if he loves them, LaForgue thinks of the faces of all the Indians he has met on his journey, and answers "Yes". The leader then asks him to baptize them, and the Hurons receive his baptism. The film ends with a golden sunrise. An intertitle states that fifteen years later, the Hurons, having accepted Christianity, were routed and killed by their enemies the Iroquois; the Jesuit mission to the Hurons was abandoned and the Jesuits returned to Quebec.
The central character is Allen Walker, a new recruit to the Black Order who started training to control his Innocence after it destroyed the Akuma of his late guardian, Mana. The story begins in a villain of the week fashion, where Allen teams up with various members of the Black Order to search for Innocence while battling Noah's demons on the way. Later, Allen and his friends are ordered to track down exorcist General Cross Marian, Allen's missing teacher. Their search concludes with them stealing one of the Noah's transportation device, referred to as the Noah's Ark; this was made possible since Allen has been instilled the consciousness of Nea D. Campbell, the brother of Mana, and the exiled 14th member of the Noah Family, who the Earl wishes to have back. Cross reveals that Nea plans to use Allen as host upon reincarnating, effectively erasing Allen eventually. During the Third Exorcists insurrection story arc, Nea's consciousness begins superseding Allen's body. Now hunted by the Black Order, the Noah Family, and a humanoid Innocence called Apocryphos, Allen goes into hiding as he searches for a way to end Nea's resurrection. During his journey, he realises that his late guardian, Mana, alongside Nea, has a strong link to the Millennium Earl. He then decides to journey to the place where Mana and Nea grew up to learn the truth about them, and their connection to the Earl. Following his escape, Allen is tracked by the Black Order, Apocryphos and the Noah. When Apocryphos is distracted by the Noah, the Earl finds Allen who is possessed by Nea. During this encounter it is revealed that the current Earl is Mana D. Campbell, Nea's brother. Both were once the original Millennium Earl but were split and became enemies.
American World War II veteran Jerry Mulligan lives in Paris trying to succeed as an artist. His friend and neighbor Adam Cook is a struggling concert pianist and longtime associate of French singer Henri Baurel. At the ground-floor bar in their building, Henri tells Adam about his girlfriend, Lise Bouvier. Jerry then joins them before going out to try and sell his art.
Lonely heiress Milo Roberts notices Jerry displaying his work in Montmartre. She buys two paintings, then brings Jerry to her apartment to pay him. Jerry accepts an invitation to her dinner party for that evening, and on the way home, he sings "I Got Rhythm" with some local children. Upon discovering he is Milo's sole dinner guest, an offended Jerry says he is uninterested in being a paid escort. Milo insists she only wants to support his career.
At a crowded bar, Milo offers to sponsor an art show for Jerry. Milo's friends show up and while everyone is talking, Jerry notices a beautiful young girl at the next table. He pretends they know each other and asks her to dance, unaware it is Lise, the girl Henri loves. When Jerry wants her phone number, Lise, uninterested, gives a fake one. Someone at her table misunderstands and says the correct number. Milo, upset that Jerry flirted with another girl in her presence, wants to leave and later criticizes him for being rude.
The next day, Jerry calls Lise, but she refuses to see him. Meanwhile, Milo has arranged a showing with a collector interested in Jerry's work. Before the meeting, Jerry goes to the parfumerie where Lise works. She agrees to a late dinner but wants to avoid public places; they share a romantic song and dance along the banks of the Seine River. She then rushes off to meet Henri after his performance ("I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise"). Henri tells Lise he is going on tour in America and proposes marriage to her.
Later, Adam humorously daydreams he is performing Gershwin's ''Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra'' in a concert hall. As the scene progresses, Adam is also the conductor, other musicians, and even an audience member enthusiastically applauding at the end.
Milo rents Jerry an art studio and says she is planning an exhibition of his work in three months time. Jerry initially refuses the studio, but accepts on condition he will repay Milo when his work sells. After a month of courting, Jerry brings Lise to his apartment building. Jerry is confused when Lise takes off in the taxi in which she was waiting. He complains about it to Adam, who realizes that Henri and Jerry love the same girl. Henri and Jerry later discuss the girl they each love ( 'S Wonderful") without realizing it is Lise.
That night, Jerry and Lise reunite by the Seine. Lise says she and Henri are to be married and going to America. Lise feels duty-bound to Henri for protecting her during the war. Jerry and Lise proclaim their love for each other before parting.
A dejected Jerry invites Milo to the art students' masked ball where they run into Henri and Lise. Jerry admits to Milo that he loves Lise. When Henri overhears Jerry and Lise saying goodbye, he realizes the truth. As Henri and Lise drive away, Jerry fantasizes through a diverse and extended dance scene, with Lise all over Paris, set to George Gershwin's ''An American in Paris''. A car horn breaks Jerry's reverie; Henri returns Lise to him. They embrace and walk off together as the Gershwin composition (and the film) ends.
Twenty-year-old Kenji is a Japanese "nightlife" guide for foreigners—he navigates ''gaijin'' men around the sex clubs and hostess bars of Tokyo. On December 29 he receives a phone call from an American named Frank, who seeks three nights of his services. While Kenji has promised to spend more time with his girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Jun, the money is too good to pass up. He finds himself closing out the end of the year accompanying Frank around Shinjuku, wondering if his strange, plastic-skinned patron could be responsible for the gruesome events recently reported in the news.
In Boulder, Gray Wheeler attends the funeral of her fiancé, Grady Douglas, on the day they were supposed to be married. Gray seeks solitude behind a shower curtain, and unfortunately hears Grady's best friend, Fritz, having sex with a caterer.
Eve, Grady's attorney, confirms that, as they were not married, Gray will get nothing. Grady secretly had an investment account with a million dollars in it, which Gray knew nothing about.
Gray realizes that she can no longer afford to rent the house that they had picked out. With the help of Grady's two close friends, Dennis and Sam, she puts her things into storage and moves in with them. Fritz, currently between directing commercials in California, also comes to stay, causing tension between him and Gray.
Gray discovers that Grady transferred $3,000 every month to an unknown person. Later, finding Grady's cell, she listens to a string of messages from a woman asking about money. Gray asks Fritz for answers (as it is a Los Angeles number), and he reveals that Grady had a son, whose massage therapist mother depended on the money he sent. Fritz tells Gray that the boy is eight and that he was conceived before she met Grady.
Gray is further troubled when Mrs. Douglas asks her to return the family heirloom engagement ring. She refuses and keeps it. The other woman, Maureen, and her son, Mattie, come looking for Grady. Gray sees Mattie is actually four, and realizes Grady was cheating on her. Confronting Fritz, they end up in a passionate kiss.
Gray does not want anything to do with Maureen, but the guys are reluctant to send the son of their dead friend away so quickly, so they all get to know each other over dinner. Trying to understand how Grady could secretly cheat on her, Gray blurts out her belief that "catch and release" fishermen are cruel and should just eat the fish.
Sam and Maureen have similar scattered personalities and connect well, but Sam stops her when she initiates sex while Mattie is near. Gray and Fritz become intimate. On a day trip to a river, Sam teaches Mattie to fly fish, while Dennis tells Gray he has feelings for her. He is upset to learn that Gray and Fritz hooked up, but she dismisses it as "less than nothing", not realizing Fritz can hear her. Believing she doesn't care, he returns to Malibu.
Mrs. Douglas insists Mattie take a DNA test before inheriting Grady's money; the test shows Mattie is not his. Maureen has no idea how to find Rafael, the man she had sex with a few days before Grady, and is unsure how to support Mattie without the money. Gray tells Mrs. Douglas to either give money to this child that Grady had loved as his own, or Gray will sell the family engagement ring to help Maureen support him.
Gathering at the dedication ceremony for the peace garden Dennis has built to memorialize Grady, Mrs. Douglas gives Maureen $1 million. She then tells Gray to keep the ring, as she just wanted her boy back. Dennis moves out and Maureen and Mattie move in with Sam, finding new support and keeping the Douglas family money. Gray goes to Malibu and finds Fritz playing with his dog on the beach—they embrace and kiss.
A family tragedy leaves deep scars and affects two brothers to choose different paths in their future. Jason (Allen Payne) becomes a responsible young man who works as an assistant manager and sales clerk in a Houston electronic shop and lives with his hard-working-but-loving mom, Gloria (Suzzanne Douglas). Joshua (Bokeem Woodbine) is the younger brother, just released from prison. Previously traumatized by his late father, Joshua has become a volatile, disturbed ex-con who is obviously bound for a violent end: dealing drugs for short-term cash and joining a gang that is planning a bank robbery. Throughout the film, Jason and his mother try their best to make Joshua repent and change both his attitude and his ways. Unfortunately, Joshua has difficulties in staying out of trouble with both law and authority.
One day in the middle of his working hour, a beautiful young woman named Lyric (Jada Pinkett), walks into the shop to buy a television. Falling instantly in love with her, Jason desperately tries everything to pursue her. At first, Lyric constantly rejects Jason's attempts to get closer to her, but his persistence, sincerity, kindness, and humor eventually melt her heart and change her attitude. As Jason spends more times with Lyric, he becomes inspired to do more romantic things in order to win her love. These include: borrowing a city bus for themselves to go on a date, setting up a mock picnic followed by slow dancing in an abandoned bus station, and riding in a rowboat in the bayou until the two end up kissing and making love in the woods that magically turn into a flower field, symbolizing their blooming love and unbridled passion.
Despite his life improving by dating Lyric, Jason is still haunted by multiple episodic nightmares of his childhood. Both young Jason (Sean Hutchinson) and young Joshua (Burleigh Moore) witnessed the fatal shooting their abusive father, Mad Dog (Forest Whitaker), one night when he drunkenly attacked their mother.
Meanwhile, Lyric's brother, Alonzo (Treach), is setting up a plan to rob a bank with his gang and Joshua joins in. One day, Lyric overhears their conversation about the robbery plan and immediately tells Jason about it. Lyric warns Jason not to cross her brother, then he promises her to just talk to his brother, Joshua, followed by offering her a literal town escape together. Lyric delightfully accepts that they agree to meet at the bayou. On the following day, the robbery apparently goes wrong as Joshua comes in late. Even worse, he causes bedlam by independently terrorizing and beating one of the bank customers, despite he gets into the gang's getaway car just in time, when the heist is over. As punishment for botching the plan, Joshua is brutally tortured by Alonzo and his gang. Back at home, as Jason informs his mom about his and Lyric's agreement to move away together, Joshua returns home covered in blood, severely wounded. Enraged, Jason decides to break his promise to Lyric by confronting Alonzo to avenge his brother, ensuing a vicious fight in a public restroom.
Jason reluctantly calls off his and Lyric's plan to escape town together, reasoning that Joshua would always need him, much to Lyric's utter dismay. When she furiously questions him about the nightmares that tie him to keep saving his ungrateful brother, Jason eventually opens up about his tragic family history. Thus, leaving him a lifetime of haunting guilt. Having finally understood his lifelong trauma, Lyric comforts Jason. Nevertheless, she advises him to walk away from his obviously incorrigible brother, if he wants them to stay together.
Later in the evening, while Joshua is preparing a gun in the bar, Jason starts packing his stuffs in his suitcase at home after earning his mom's blessing for his wish to be with Lyric. Unbeknownst to Joshua, Rat (Eddie Griffin), their good friend, notices him from the same bar and is quickly aware of his intentions. This prompts Rat to immediately warn Jason about Joshua's attempt to kill Alonzo and anyone connected and/or related to him, including Lyric. As Joshua arrives at Lyric's house, he begins savagely shooting down Alonzo's two crew members as personal revenge and found Lyric in her bedroom. Jason and his friends race to Lyric's house and soon finds Joshua holding her at gunpoint, angrily asking about Alonzo's whereabouts as well as taking his jealousy out on her for taking away his older brother. Fed up with his brother's continual selfishness and disregard for others' well-being, Jason draws his gun at Joshua to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, Joshua accidentally shoots Lyric on the shoulder. Horrified and devastated, Jason tearfully takes the injured and unconscious Lyric with him and eventually walks away from Joshua for good. Feeling abandoned, Joshua lost so much will to continue living that he decides to kill himself (off-screen), in earshot of everyone outside. Jason carries Lyric out of her home and takes her to the waiting ambulance.
The film ends with Jason and the newly-recovered Lyric ride on a bus together, leaving town: now enjoying their freedom to start a new life. However, some versions are edited out in the film.
Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns to his friend Lord Goring for help, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old and the plot to help his friend has unintended consequences.
The plot of the film differs from the original Wilde play in a number of key respects. The episode of Mrs Cheveley's lost bracelet was removed, and the twists at the end are made more complex by the introduction of a bet between Lord Goring and Mrs Cheveley, and Lord Goring's need to ask the permission of Sir Robert Chiltern to marry his sister, Miss Mabel Chiltern.
Derace Kingsley, a wealthy businessman, hires Marlowe to find his estranged wife, Crystal. Kingsley had received a telegram from Crystal about two weeks before stating that she was divorcing him and marrying her gigolo boyfriend, Chris Lavery. But when Kingsley ran into him, Lavery had claimed that he hadn't seen her and didn't know where she was.
Marlowe begins his investigation with a visit to Lavery in the neighbouring town of Bay City. But while watching Lavery's house, Marlowe is threatened by the tough cop Al Degarmo, who suspects him of harassing Lavery's neighbour, Dr. Almore. Marlowe discovers that Almore's wife had died under suspicious circumstances and that her death was probably hushed up by the police.
Marlowe moves his investigations to Kingsley’s vacation cabin at Little Fawn Lake. Kingsley has given him a note to the caretaker, Bill Chess. Chess is depressed over having been abandoned by his wife, Muriel, at about the same time as Crystal disappeared. As Marlowe and Chess walk over the property, they discover a drowned body that Chess identifies as his wife, bloated from decomposition and almost unrecognisable except by her clothes and jewellery. Chess is arrested for his wife's murder and Marlowe doubtfully returns to Los Angeles. On the way, he interviews some hotel employees who remember a woman matching Crystal's description and volunteer that a man was with her; their description of the man resembles Lavery.
Marlowe returns to Bay City to interview Lavery again. At the house he finds Mrs. Fallbrook, who says she is the owner and has found a gun on the stairs. Once she has left, Marlowe ascertains that the gun has been fired and, after a search, finds Lavery murdered in the bathroom. Then he goes back to Kingsley, who offers him a bonus to prove Crystal didn't do it. Marlowe returns to Lavery's house, calls the police and reports the murder.
Back at his office, Marlowe finds a note from Kingsley's secretary giving him the address of Dr. Almore's wife's parents. Marlowe visits them and learns that Almore's nurse was named Mildred Haviland. They also tell him they believe the doctor killed their daughter by drugging her and then putting her in the garage with the car motor running. The detective they hired was jailed for drunk driving and is not now in contact with them. After Marlowe goes to the detective's home and is rebuffed by the wife, he is followed by a police car. As with the detective before, the police force him to drink liquor and arrest him for speeding, resisting arrest and drunk driving. But Marlowe is able to convince the police captain of his innocence and is released.
Returning to his office, Marlowe receives a call from Kingsley who tells him that Crystal has called, begging for $500. Kingsley gives the money to Marlowe to deliver. But when he meets Crystal at the agreed rendezvous, Marlowe insists that she answer his questions before receiving the money. Crystal agrees but only at a nearby apartment where she is staying. There he accuses her of being the murderer of Lavery. When she pulls a gun on Marlowe, someone hits him from behind with a sap.
Marlowe wakes up stinking of gin and with Crystal lying naked, bloody and strangled to death on the bed. Soon the Bay City police are banging on the door. Degarmo tries to frame Marlowe for the murder, but Marlowe convinces him that the two of them can more easily frame Kingsley. They travel to Little Fawn Lake together to get some evidence that Marlowe implies is there.
In the final confrontation at the cabin, Marlowe reveals that the murdered woman in Bay City, assumed to be Crystal Kingsley, was actually Mildred Haviland, killed in a jealous rage by Al Degarmo, who was her former husband. The murdered woman in Little Fawn Lake, supposed to be Muriel Chess, was actually Crystal Kingsley, killed by Mildred Haviland, who then assumed her identity. Mildred had formerly been Dr Almore's nurse, had murdered his wife and had also murdered Lavery.
Degarmo attempts to escape but is killed while crossing a dam guarded by wartime sentries under orders to shoot potential saboteurs.
At the beginning of 1952 (some 18 months after the parting of Marlowe and Linda Loring in ''The Long Goodbye''). Marlowe is faced with the choice of turning against his client and taking up the cause of the subject he was hired to investigate, an attractive woman on the run with whom he eventually becomes emotionally entangled.
Through intermediaries, an anonymous client hires Marlowe to find Betty Mayfield, who is traveling under the name Eleanor King. Marlowe trails Mayfield to the small coastal resort town of Esmeralda, California.
During her train ride west, Mayfield had been recognized by a man who then tried to blackmail her, for reasons disclosed at the end of the story. While Marlowe is poking around Esmeralda, the blackmailer is found dead on the balcony of Mayfield's hotel room. She panics and calls Marlowe for help.
Marlowe encounters numerous characters with dubious motivations, including a taciturn lawyer and his smart secretary (with whom Marlowe has a sexual encounter), a "retired" gangster, overconfident would-be tough guys of varying morals, a hired killer (whose wrists Marlowe smashes), decent police officers, and an affectingly desperate example of the immigrant underclass in the United States in the 1950s. Marlowe also has an encounter in a hotel lobby with a reflective elderly gentleman, Henry Clarendon IV, which gives rise to an extended philosophical conversation.
Marlowe learns that Betty Mayfield had been married to Lee Cumberland, the son of Henry Cumberland, a big shot in a small North Carolina town. Lee's neck had been broken during the war, and though he was mobile and not paralyzed, for safety he regularly wore a neck brace. One day there was a quarrel between Lee and Betty, and later Lee was found dead, with Betty trying to place the neck brace back on the body. The case drew widespread publicity in the newspapers (which is why the blackmailer recognized Mayfield on the train), and with Cumberland's influence on the jury, Mayfield was found guilty of murder. But the judge in the case, who saw more than a reasonable doubt, in keeping with North Carolina law granted a standard defense motion for a directed acquittal after the verdict of the tainted jury was returned.
Cumberland vowed to hound Mayfield wherever she went, and so she fled to Esmeralda; Cumberland was presumably behind the hiring of Marlowe in the first place. Cumberland arrives in Esmeralda to confront Mayfield, but Marlowe, with the help of the local police captain, scares him off. (In the British edition of the novel and the screenplay version by Chandler [see below], Cumberland's name is Kinsolving.)
Mayfield marries a local criminal turned respectable citizen, who has taken a romantic interest in her. Marlowe lets her go ahead but has a frank talk with the ex-criminal, who has not entirely mended his ways, as he was behind the killing of the blackmailer.
At the book's conclusion, Marlowe is rewarded by providence when his old flame, Linda Loring, gets back in touch.
The covers for each issue of the series are based on posters from 1980s teen films directed or written by John Hughes.
*Issue One: ''The Breakfast Club''
The first issue opens with Julie Power apologizing to Phil Urich on her cell phone; Phil tries to convince her not to do anything rash but fails: Julie steps off a tall building, free falls, and then flies into the air. Shortly afterwards, both Phil and Mickey Musashi discuss Julie's actions and plan their next move.
The support group meets in the basement of a church, and after waiting for Julie to arrive, decide to begin without her. Mattie Franklin is asked to speak first, recalling her experiences as Spider-Woman. Julie finally arrives at the tail-end of a cell phone conversation apparently with her brother Alex. She apologizes to the group for both her tardiness and her recent relapse.
Chris Powell insults Julie, who suggests that she has the hardest struggle of them all because she has had her powers the longest (seven years). Mattie, however, points out that although she has not been in the hero business as long as the rest of the group members, concealing her psionic spider-legs subjects her to constant physical pressure. After dramatically revealing her appendages, she storms out of the meeting.
Outside the church, Mattie explains to Chris that she has some unfinished business with MGH dealers, who exploited her in the past; she has tracked them to Los Angeles. She asks that he assist her as Darkhawk for just one mission.
Darkhawk and Spider-Woman storm the MGH dealers' hideout and defeat the dealers easily, but they are attacked by the person "supplying the materials" for MGH, Nekra. Luckily, support group member Johnny Gallo (Ricochet) has followed Darkhawk and Spider-Woman to the dealers' base of operations and aids them in escaping Nekra's clutches. After defeating her, the trio discovers a list containing the names of supervillains being supplied MGH by the dealers and decides to investigate further, while agreeing not to tell the rest of the group.
*Issue Two: ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off''
A week later, Johnny contemplates what to do next. Later at a restaurant, Johnny tries to convince both Chris and Mattie to tell the rest of the support group about what they have done. Mattie insists that she needs more time to follow up on the information they have gathered. When Johnny sarcastically reminds Mattie of her "act" during the recent group meeting, she nearly attacks him and accuses him of attending the group for selfish reasons.
At the next support group meeting, Phil mentions the MGH bust and suggests that it could be used as an additional reason to further encourage teen superheroes to establish normal lives. Johnny gets up to speak, Mattie and Chris thinking he is about to reveal their recent actions. However, he tells the group about why he moved to Los Angeles. After the Slingers disbanded, his best friend Eddie McDonough (Hornet) convinced Johnny to continue as a superhero. Ricochet admits that he did so for the glory rather than to help people, but when Hornet was killed by Wolverine, Johnny blames himself for his friend's death, since he refused to help him prior to the situation.
Johnny unsuccessfully tries to contact both Mattie (who ignores his call while reading over some research about Ricochet's former teammates) and Chris (who arrives at Mickey's place to take her on a date). Ricochet heads to the deserted warehouse that is their main lead; he sneaks in and is shocked to see women held under sedation in fluid-filled containers. He is attacked by the Rose's former assassin Delilah, who assumes he is the same Ricochet who betrayed her in the past.
Although Ricochet defeats her, during the course of the battle one of the containers is smashed and the former Generation X mutant known as Penance emerges.
*Issue Three: ''Weird Science''
Phil Urich narrates events as the group meet in a local emergency room. He relates (through external analepsis) the tale of Johnny's fight with Penance and how it led to Julie being stabbed after flying into frame in the middle of Johnny and Penance's fight. (No explanation is given why Julie is suddenly present, though her immediate maiming at Penance's hands is most likely simply an instance of Women in Refrigerators syndrome, in order to give parallels to the violent death of Johnny Gallo's friend Hornet at the hands of Wolverine and thus give Johnny a reason to act. This graphic scene was also released in previews by Marvel to publicise the book.) Suddenly remembering that he left Penance and several defenseless women back in the warehouse, Johnny runs out of the ER attempting to return to the scene, but he is stopped by accusations from the group about his behaviour. Penance appears before the group having somehow tracked Johnny, and invisible gun-toting soldiers suddenly attack, having somehow tracked Penance. There follows a brief battle which ends when Mickey appeals to the head of the opposing group as a fellow Japanese national and they negotiate a settlement in their "own language", the mysterious terms of which remain unknown to the group. The various members go their separate ways for the evening, and Penance returns home with Phil to sleep on his floor. Julie flies from the hospital before her parents can be contacted about her condition, and it becomes apparent Phil is somehow hallucinating that he sees the Green Goblin when he looks in the mirror.
*Issue Four: ''Pretty in Pink''
Julie and Johnny have lunch; he is astounded by her healing abilities caused by the Kymellian changes to her DNA, noting that she was stabbed in "the gut", despite her scar clearly being visible on her shoulder. Julie is intrigued by Hollow (formerly Penance) staying at Phil Urich's place, and fans the rumors about Mickey and Chris' romance. The two arrive at Marvel Studios to keep Julie's appointment for an audition.
At Phil's apartment, he does dishes and looks over at the sleeping Hollow. An image of her kissing him as the Green Goblin appears within a dinner plate, leading him to smash the plate and awaken Hollow; she does her best to comfort him.
At the audition, the director suggests Julie needs acting lessons; she leaves in a huff. She and Johnny criticize the director, who (they think) over-uses CGI effects. Another director named Mark Lowell overhears them and mentions the troubles he has in finding good stuntmen. Julie offers both her and Johnny's services, which pleases the director but creates doubts for Johnny — the two must use their powers to perform their new jobs.
At the James Dean Observatory; Chris apologizes to Mickey. She admits that she dislikes having "other girls in the group". Chris asks why Mickey does not view Julie as a girl, and Mickey begins to respond that Julie "isn't--", but catches herself, mentioning that Julie is focused on her acting career and not "into the dating scene".
Julie, dressed as the Black Cat and Johnny, dressed as Iron Fist, perform stunts. The director expresses his satisfaction. His compliments lead Julie to fly off the set; Johnny contacts Mattie and tells her that they will have to reschedule their meeting. Julie apparently phones her sister Katie with her news. Back at Julie's dressing room, the director barges in and acts in an inappropriate manner, eventually physically accosting Julie. He threatens to report her unauthorized use of her powers when she throws him from the trailer. Julie counters that there are laws to protect minors against sexual predators. The director is shocked; he was unaware that Julie is only seventeen. Julie leaves the film set.
At the meeting, Julie speaks first. As Johnny did previously, she admits to lying about her reasons for quitting superheroics. She hands out a photograph of Power Pack, suggesting that from early childhood she needed to learn to keep her powers and other information about her siblings secret (though in the original ''Power Pack'' series, it was Julie who most resisted hiding her powers, and in all other appearances as a member of Excelsior/Loners, she mentions her siblings frequently, and does not wear a mask to hide her identity, even though all the other members of the team do). She admits that a Hollywood career may not happen for her and resolves to be more honest.
Julie's final admission is interrupted by Nekra, who informs the group that she found them by using the information regarding their support group that they regularly release on the internet and to attack them.
*Issue Five: ''Some Kind of Wonderful''
The group is overwhelmed by Nekra. Phil and Mickey are powerless to stop the villain, and only the timely arrival of Namie ends the battle. Afterwards Phil learns of Chris and Mickey being a couple. At the same time, Mattie and Johnny go back to Johnny's apartment. While Johnny is taking a shower, Mattie investigates his place. Johnny catches her and Mattie seduces him in order to keep her cover. It is later revealed she was hired by the former Slinger Dusk's parents to locate their daughter. Meanwhile, Mickey confronts Chris about feeling helpless in the battle with Nekra, as well as for Chris not giving up the Darkhawk amulet. Mickey reveals she felt powerless without her armor and feels inadequate next to the rest of the group because they have 'real' powers — except for Chris, whose armor mirrors Mickey's own superhero abilities and identity. Their argument is put on hold when Phil arrives with Hollow, who has changed colour from the previous issue without explanation. Phil begins berating Mickey, then attacking Chris and stealing the amulet, in which he transforms into a Goblin-like version of Darkhawk.
*Issue Six: ''Sixteen Candles''
Chris is recovering from the attack, only to witness Phil in Darkhawk armor attacking Hollow and advancing on Mickey. Chris manages to tap into the amulet's power and becomes Darkhawk in his second armored form, though it is not explained how he can utilise the armor without a whole amulet, as it has been previously established that without such an artifact, the Darkhawk armor remains inert. While the two battle, the other Loners, including an armored Mickey, arrive. Phil is defeated and Chris takes back the amulet. Phil then leaves the Loners, but not before revealing that Namie is a cyborg (the new Red Ronin), that Mickey made a secret bargain with Fuyumi Fujikawa, and that Julie is hiding a terrible secret from the group. Penance picks up Phil and they fly away unhindered, though the means of levitation and propulsion by which this is achieved are never explained. Disgusted, Mattie berates the group about their past decisions about not using their powers, as well as her choice of sleeping with Johnny, and leaves.
A week later, the Loners are back together minus Hollow, Phil, and Mattie. None of the subplots from the series bar the identity of Namie have been resolved, and the issue ends with no one willing to talk about their problems or what has so far happened.
After the series has ended, the group are next seen in the apartment of Mickey Musashi celebrating Christmas and attempting to solve some of their personal issues with each other through Secret Santa.
Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is an educator at the local ''Gymnasium'' (high school for students expected to go to university) in Weimar Germany. The boys disrespect him and play pranks on him. Rath punishes several of his students for circulating photographs of the beautiful Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich), the headliner for the local cabaret, "The Blue Angel". Hoping to catch the boys at the club, Rath goes there later that evening. He does find some students there, but while chasing them, he also finds Lola backstage and sees her partially disrobing. When he returns to the cabaret the following evening to return a pair of panties that were smuggled into his coat by one of his students, he ends up staying the night with her. The next morning, reeling from his night of passion, Rath arrives late to school to find his classroom in chaos; the principal is furious and threatens to fire Rath.
Rath gives up his position at the school to marry Lola. Their happiness is short-lived, however, as Rath becomes humiliatingly dependent on Lola. Over several years, he sinks lower and lower, first selling dirty postcards, and then becoming a clown in Lola's troupe to pay the bills. His growing insecurities about Lola's profession as a "shared woman" eventually consume him with lust and jealousy.
The troupe returns to his hometown and The Blue Angel, where everyone turns out to see the professor they knew play a clown. Once onstage, Rath is humiliated, not only by a magician who breaks eggs on his head but also by seeing Lola embrace and kiss the strongman Mazeppa. He is enraged to the point of insanity. He attempts to strangle Lola, but the strongman and others subdue him and lock him in a straitjacket.
Later that night, Rath is released. He leaves and goes to his old classroom. Rejected, humiliated, and destitute, he dies clutching the desk at which he once taught.
The book is the story of Felix Rayman, a down-and-out mathematics teacher at SUCAS (a state college in New York, a play on SUNY) with a troubled family life and dead-in-the-water career. In the fictional town of Bernho (Geneseo), he begins experimenting with lucid dreaming—aided by "fuzz weed" (marijuana)—hoping to gain insight into Cantor's continuum hypothesis.
During an out-of-body experience, Felix loses his physical body and nearly falls victim to the Devil, who hunts the Earth for souls like his to take to Hell; Felix calls upon Jesus, who saves him. Jesus asks Felix to do him a favor: to take a restless ghost named Kathy to a place called "Cimön", and bring her to God/Absolute Infinite, which can be found there.
Cimön is permeated with the notion of infinity in its various guises: just getting there involves grappling with infinity, as Cimön is an infinite distance away from Earth. Felix and Kathy get there in their astral bodies by doubling their speed in half the time so that they asymptotically approach infinite speed at four hours. Eventually, at the speed of light, they turn into the eponymous "white light" and merge with Cimön.
In this new world, Felix encounters famous scientists and mathematicians such as Albert Einstein and Georg Cantor, who all reside in a hotel that is based on Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel. Felix stays there after Kathy leaves him; the hotel is full, but Felix has the desk clerk move everybody one room up, leaving an empty room for him.
He falls in with a loquacious beetle named "Franx", reminiscent of Franz Kafka's ''The Metamorphosis'', which is mentioned in Rucker's Afterword. The two decide to climb "Mount On", which itself is infinite (not aleph-null infinite, but perhaps instead cardinality of the continuum or greater).
After many adventures, Franx and Felix find Kathy. They leave off climbing Mount On, and instead try the other side of Cimön, the Deserts, littered with portholes to Hell. Felix merges with the Absolute Infinite, but Kathy is scared and refuses.
Eventually, Felix wakes back up on Earth in his body; everybody attributes his dreams to a spectacular binge-drinking and marijuana-smoking episode, until Felix remembers an insight he had regarding the continuum hypothesis: if there were three basic kinds of existence, that of solid matter, aether, and things he calls bloogs which are not aleph-null or ''c'' infinitely divisible, but a higher infinity, then the hypothesis will have been disproven.
With the aid of a physicist friend, he uses his astral travelling abilities to create a ball of this bloog-matter. The ball has unusual properties such as ignoring gravity or being indivisible, or to be more precise, being a physical instantiation of the Banach–Tarski paradox, which means it can be broken apart into multiple pieces, each of which is exactly like the original. It is implied the US government suppresses their research.
Kyle Fisher organizes a bachelor party in a Las Vegas hotel with his friends: Charles Moore, Robert Boyd, and brothers Adam and Michael Berkow, but things quickly go horribly wrong when Tina, a stripper/prostitute, is accidentally killed by Michael in the bathroom and shortly thereafter, a security guard comes to investigate the ruckus and discovers Tina's corpse, at which point Robert desperately stabs the security guard to death and then convinces the group to dismember the bodies, bury them in the desert, and never speak of it again.
At the rehearsal dinner, Adam cracks under the pressure from guilt, leading to a confrontation with Michael outside, with Adam threatening to turn him over to the police. Michael is convinced to leave, however while leaving, he turns to ram Adam's beloved minivan. Adam runs in front of his van and is crushed in the collision. In the hospital, Adam whispers something to his wife Lois before dying, as Robert looks on through a glass window.
Lois demands answers about what happened in Las Vegas when she finds a written confession by Adam. Kyle makes up a story about Adam sleeping with a prostitute. Robert, suspecting she does not believe them, kills Lois, later framing Michael by luring him to Lois' house, where he kills him. He concocts a story about a Michael/Lois/Adam love triangle to answer any interrogation by police. After these events and being named beneficiary of Adam and Lois' estate, Kyle breaks down and confesses the story to his fiancèe Laura, who demands that her dream wedding proceed as planned.
On the wedding day, Robert confronts Kyle, demanding the money from Adam's life insurance policy. He refuses and a fight ensues which ends with Laura bludgeoning Robert. During the ceremony, Kyle and Charles realize that Robert has the wedding rings. Charles goes to retrieve them, opening a door that knocks Robert down a stairwell where he dies. Laura demands Kyle bury his body in the desert and then ensure no loose ends remain by killing Charles. Ultimately, he cannot go through with it and as he drives home, he crashes into an oncoming car.
After the collision, Kyle's legs are amputated below the knee and Charles is a quadriplegic confined to a motorized wheelchair, leaving Laura to care for both of them, in addition to raising Adam and Lois' two sons. As Laura watches Kyle with the two boys, it hits her that her life and dreams are completely and utterly ruined and has a nervous breakdown as she runs out of the house and collapses screaming in the street.
Shadow suffers from amnesia at the beginning of the game; Other than the events since ''Sonic Heroes'' that took place prior, Shadow remembers only two things: his name and his attempt to escape the Space Colony ARK with his creator's granddaughter Maria, who was killed by G.U.N. soldiers. Having walked through a room filled with androids that look like him during the events of ''Sonic Heroes'', Shadow wonders if he, too, is an android. The game starts with Shadow reminiscing outside the city of Westopolis when the alien race Black Arms drops out of the sky and invades the city. Black Doom, the Black Arms' leader, contacts Shadow and tells Shadow of an old agreement Shadow made to bring the Chaos Emeralds to him. Stunned that Black Doom knows his name, Shadow searches for the Chaos Emeralds to learn about his past.
The game progresses through the Westopolis level and five more levels from the different paths Shadow may take. As missions are completed, Shadow learns more about his past and regains memories. He can choose to help Doctor Eggman or the Black Arms, to help G.U.N. and the series' heroic characters, or to help neither and keep the Chaos Emeralds for himself. The missions completed determine which one of ten possible endings will be seen after Shadow collects all the Chaos Emeralds and defeats one of the game's final bosses. The possible ending events range from planning to defeat the Black Arms to planning to destroy the planet.
Completing all ten endings unlocks the game's true ending in which Black Doom uses Chaos Control, enhanced by the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds, to bring the Black Comet to the Earth's surface. Black Doom explains that the Black Arms intend to use humans as an energy source, and the Black Comet begins to release a nerve gas into the Earth's atmosphere that causes total paralysis in those who inhale it. Shadow confronts Black Doom after the "Last Way" level, where he discovers that Professor Gerald Robotnik created the ARK's Eclipse Cannon weapon to destroy the Black Comet. During their confrontation, Black Doom reveals that Shadow was created using his blood, and he attempts to use mind control on Shadow, but fails. Black Doom then transforms into a giant beast form called Devil Doom; in response, Shadow uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Shadow and confronts Devil Doom. During the battle, Doctor Eggman confirms to Shadow that he is the original and not an android. Shadow defeats Devil Doom and uses Chaos Control to teleport the Black Comet back into Earth's orbit, where he obliterates it using the Eclipse Cannon. His friends are elated, as are people at G.U.N. headquarters. Shadow is then shown in the ARK's observation deck holding up a photograph of Maria and Gerald. Recalling Maria's last words to him, "Goodbye forever... Shadow the Hedgehog", Shadow discards the photograph and walks away.
In Care-a-lot, sometime in the year 1986, between the end of summer, and the beginning of fall, the Care Bears are visited by the White Rabbit, the uncle of Swift Heart Rabbit. The White Rabbit gives the Care Bears the task of finding the missing Princess of Heart, who is to be crowned queen in Wonderland, otherwise the villainous Wizard of Wonderland will gain the throne. Tenderheart, Grumpy, Good Luck, Brave Heart, Lotsa Heart, Swift Heart and the White Rabbit search all over the world for the Princess, but to no avail. Grumpy is pointed to a girl who resembles the Princess, Alice, who believes she is not special. The Care Bears decide that Alice could act as the Princess until the real one is found. The group is separated by the power of the Wizard, forcing Grumpy, Swift Heart and the White Rabbit to use a rabbit hole to reach Wonderland.
In Wonderland, Tenderheart's group gain directions to Heart Palace from Officer Caterpillar. The Wizard sends his minions Dim and Dum to capture Alice using large battle robots, but the Care Bears defeat them with a Care Bear Stare. Grumpy's group reunite with the others as the Cheshire Cat appears, portrayed as a rapper. The Cheshire Cat splits the group of two, directing Tenderheart, Lotsa Heart, Alice and the White Rabbit to Heart Palace, and Brave Heart, Grumpy, Good Luck and Swift Heart to look for the Mad Hatter, who knows where the Princess is. The Wizard captures Alice briefly and explains to her that when he rules he will make Wonderland less insane and more controlled. Alice flees and runs into the Queen of Hearts' throne room, where the Queen accepts Alice as her daughter whilst knowing she is not. Brave Heart's group locate the Mad Hatter who takes them to the lair of the Jabberwocky, where the Princess is. Grumpy rescues the princess, but the Jabberwocky gets a thorn in his foot which is removed by the Care Bears. In gratitude, the Jabberwocky (or "Stan" as he prefers to be called) decides to help them back to Heart Palace.
As the Princess' coronation day arrives, the Wizard decides to expose Alice's identity to the court via the Princess Test, to prove that she is not the princess. Alice climbs a mountain to retrieve some water from a spring, aided secretly by Tenderheart and Lotsa Heart; however, Alice gives the water to an injured unicorn. Angered by this, the Wizard demands that Alice make the flowers in the palace garden bloom magically. The princess secretly steps in and makes the flowers bloom. The Wizard, who had not been anticipating the Princess' return, suddenly exclaims he had her kidnapped, exposing his crime. The Care Bears, Alice, and the Wonderland characters confront the Wizard but the appearance of the Jabberwocky drives the villain insane, and he is arrested. The princess is crowned the new queen, and she helps Alice and the Care Bears return home.
The story begins with Iria as an apprentice to her older brother, Gren, a veteran bounty hunter, and his partner Bob, who work for Ghomvak Security along with a somewhat loutish hunter named Fujikuro. During a rescue mission to a hijacked spaceship called the ''Karma'', they discover that the hijacker is actually a seemingly indestructible alien called Zeiram that broke out of the cargo hold during transit and began to massacre the crew. Bob is critically wounded by Zeiram while evacuating the survivors, and Gren is lost while attempting to kill Zeiram by destroying the ''Karma''. Returning to Myce, Iria finds herself targeted by assassins working for Tedan Tippedai, the corporation that owned the ''Karma'', and discovers a covered-up plot to control Zeiram in order to use it as a weapon. Iria escapes with the help of Fujikuro and reunites with Bob, who never recovered from his injuries but had his mind downloaded into a computer program. Together they continue to investigate rumours that Zeiram has appeared on Myce, and try to find out what happened to Gren, who also seems to have survived the ''Karma'''s destruction....
The pastor of a mountain village adopts a small blind girl, Gertrude. As Gertrude grows up into an attractive young woman, the pastor, now middle-aged, realises that he is in love with her. To his chagrin, his adopted son, Jacques, is also in love with Gertrude, even though he is shortly to be married to another woman.
Jacques's fiancée is jealous of Gertrude and arranges for her to see a doctor in the hope that she might be cured and to enable Jacques to choose equally between the two women.
Miraculously, Gertrude's sight is restored and she returns to the village a changed woman. Unable to accept Jacques' love and disappointed by the pastor's affections for her, she realises that her former happiness has been lost forever.
This film supplies a second, deeper meaning. The blind girl comes to dominate the pastor's consciousness as he guides her from being the brutish creature seen in our first glimpse of her, into an accomplished and attractive young woman. His obsession with her damages his family life. There is no indication of carnal attraction between the pastor and her; she is his spiritual creation. This alternative interpretation, then, is that the blind girl is a kind of demon (as suggested by her first appearance) who takes over his consciousness, with the result of wrecking his family life and marring his surface saintliness. This meaning is cued for us by his wife's slowly growing worry.
This story is set in the country of Opium, a narrow strip of land between Mexico (now called Aztlán), and the United States, which is ruled by the original Matteo Alacrán, or El Patrón, an incredibly powerful drug lord, who is over 140 years old. Opium consists of several drug-producing Farms, the Alacrán estate (which produces opium poppies) being the largest and where some of the Alacran family stays.
The protagonist, Matt, is a clone of El Patrón. For the first six years of his life, he lives in a small house on the edge of the poppy fields with Celia, a cook working in El Patrón's mansion. When he is discovered by three children, Emilia, Steven, and Maria, he smashes a window and jumps out of the house. Unaware of the danger of jumping barefoot onto smashed glass, he has to be carried to El Patrón's mansion to be treated for his injuries. Matt is treated kindly until Mr. Alacrán, El Patrón's great-grandson, recognizes him as a clone, which results in a few months of him being is locked in a room and treated like an animal. When he finds out, El Patrón is furious and gives Matt clothes and his own room and commands everyone to treat him with respect. Matt is also given a bodyguard, Tam Lin, a reformed terrorist who becomes a father figure to Matt.
During the seven years that Matt lives in the house, he befriends María, which gradually blossoms into romance. Matt is kept in the dark about his identity, however, until a cruel joke reveals to him that he is a clone. Matt also discovers that all clones are supposed to be injected when "harvested" (born) with a compound that cripples their brains and turns them into little more than thrashing, drooling animals meant to donate organs. In denial, he convinces himself that El Patrón would not hire tutors for him and keep him entertained if he wanted to kill him and that instead, he must be wanted to run the country when El Patrón dies.
At Steven and Emilia's wedding, El Patrón has a nearly-fatal heart attack. Matt and María attempt to flee in the ensuing chaos but are betrayed by the newlyweds. María is taken back to the convent in which she studies, and Matt is taken to the hospital, where El Patrón finally confirms that Matt was created only as an organ donor to keep him alive. At that moment, Celia reveals that she has been giving Matt doses of arsenic, which were not large enough to kill Matt but would be deadly to one as frail as El Patrón. The resulting rage of El Patrón causes him to have a fatal heart attack. Mr. Alacrán calls doctors to take him to emergency surgery, and after El Patrón dies, he orders Tam Lin to dispose of Matt. Tam Lin pretends to comply but gives Matt supplies and sets him on a path to Aztlán.
Arriving in Aztlán, Matt comes across a group of orphans, the "Lost Boys," who live in an orphanage operated by the "Keepers," a group of fervent Marxists who preach the "Five Principles of Good Citizenship" and the "Four Attitudes Leading to Right-Mindfulness". The Keepers operate plankton farms, force the orphans to do manual labor and to subsist on plankton, while they themselves enjoy luxurious quarters and food. At first, Matt is an outcast because the other boys think he is a spoiled aristocrat. However, he becomes a hero when he defies the Keepers and leads the boys in a rebellion.
He then is shut up in a closet for the night after the incident, until the next morning. Here, he is dumped in the "Boneyard", a dried lake full of whale bones, delicately balanced. After he manages to get free, he and Chacho are rescued by Ton-Ton and Fidelito, who drive the shrimp harvester to San Luis to find María and her mother, the politically-powerful Esperanza Mendoza.
Esperanza thanks the boys for giving her the ability to take down the Keepers. Matt learns that Opium is in a country-wide lockdown but manages to re-enter the country, only to learn that the entire Alacrán family is dead, and the estate is empty except for servants, including Celia. Those at El Patrón's wake, including Tam Lin, who promised El Patron, drank poisoned wine, which El Patrón saved to be served at his funeral since he never intended to die and wanted to run the business forever or to have it and everyone else die with him.
Matt takes on the role of El Patrón to become the new ruler of Opium and to dismantle the regime.
''The Lake House'' told the story of six extraordinary children, endowed with the power to fly after genetic engineering merged their DNA with that of birds, and who had to fight for their lives against scientists who wanted to kill them, thinking that they were monsters of despair. With them came the help of Dr. Frannie O'Neil and suspended FBI agent Thomas "Kit" Brennan.
The film has a linear chronology with events spanning from 1937 to 1959;[https://movies.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?res=9C06E2D8123EF937A15751C1A961958260 December 24, 1997 Review] from ''The New York Times'' the setting is Tibet, except for brief sequences in China and India. It begins with the search for the 14th mindstream emanation of the Dalai Lama. After a vision by Reting Rinpoche (the regent of Tibet) several lamas disguised as servants discover a promising candidate: a child born to a farming family in the province of Amdo, near the Chinese border.
These and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test, and he and his family are brought to Potala Palace in Lhasa, where he will be installed as Dalai Lama when he comes of age.
During the journey, the child becomes homesick and frightened, but is comforted by Reting, who tells him the story of the first Dalai Lama–whom the lamas called "Kundun". As the film progresses, the boy matures in both age and learning. After a brief power struggle in which Reting is imprisoned and dies, the Dalai Lama begins taking a more active role in governance and religious leadership.
Meanwhile, the Chinese communists, recently victorious in their revolution, are proclaiming Tibet a traditional part of Imperial China and express their desire to reincorporate it with the newly formed People's Republic of China. Eventually, despite Tibet's pleas to the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and India for intervention, Chinese Communist forces invade Tibet. The Chinese are initially helpful, but when the Tibetans resist Communist reorganization and reeducation of their society, the Chinese become oppressive.
Following a series of atrocities suffered by his people, the Dalai Lama resolves to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing. While Mao publicly expresses his sympathies to the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama, and insists that changes must be made as the Dalai Lama sees fit, relations inevitably deteriorate. During their face-to-face meeting on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, Mao makes clear his view that "religion is poison" and that the Tibetans are "poisoned and inferior" because of it.
Upon his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama learns of more horrors perpetrated against his people, who have by now repudiated their treaty with China and begun guerrilla action against the Chinese. After the Chinese make clear their intention to kill him, the Dalai Lama is convinced by his family and his Lord Chamberlain to flee to India.
After consulting the Nechung Oracle about the proper escape route, the Dalai Lama and his staff put on disguises and slip out of Lhasa under cover of darkness. During an arduous journey, throughout which they are pursued by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama becomes very ill and experiences two personal visions, first that their trip to India will be propitious and that, similarly, their eventual return to Tibet will also be propitious. The group eventually makes it to a small mountain pass on the Indian border. As the Dalai Lama walks to the guard post, an Indian guard approaches him, salutes, and inquires: "Are you the Lord Buddha?" The Dalai Lama replies with the film's final line: "I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself." Once the Dalai Lama arrives at his new residence, he unpacks his telescope and steps outside. Erecting it and removing his spectacles, he gazes through it toward the Himalayas–and toward Tibet. The film concludes with two lines printed on screen: "The Dalai Lama has not yet returned to Tibet. He hopes one day to make the journey." The words shimmer into a dissolve upon the black screen as the credits begin.
The story deals with the literary world that Gissing himself had experienced. Its title refers to the London street, Grub Street, which in the 18th century became synonymous with hack literature; by Gissing's time, Grub Street itself no longer existed, though hack-writing certainly did. Its two central characters are a sharply contrasted pair of writers: Edwin Reardon, a novelist of some talent but limited commercial prospects, and a shy, cerebral man; and Jasper Milvain, a young journalist, hard-working and capable of generosity, but cynical and only semi-scrupulous about writing and its purpose in the modern (i.e. late Victorian) world.
''New Grub Street'' opens with Milvain, an "alarmingly modern young man" driven by pure financial ambition in navigating his literary career. He accepts that he will "always despise the people [he] write[s] for," networks within the appropriate social circle to create opportunity, and authors articles for popular periodicals. Reardon, on the other hand, prefers to write novels of a more literary bent and refuses to pander to contemporary tastes until, as a last-gasp measure against financial ruin, he attempts a popular novel. At this venture, he is of course too good to succeed, and he's driven to separate from his wife, Amy Reardon, née Yule, who cannot accept her husband's inflexibly high standards—and consequent poverty.
The Yule family includes Amy's two uncles—John, a wealthy invalid, and Alfred, a species of critic—and Alfred's daughter, and research assistant, Marian. The friendship that develops between Marian and Milvain's sisters, who move to London following their mother's death, provides opportunity for the former to meet and fall in love with Milvain. However much Milvain respects Marian's intellectual capabilities and strength of personality, the crucial element (according to him) for marriage is missing: money. Marrying a rich woman, after all, is the most convenient way to speed his career. Indeed, Milvain slights romantic love as a key to marriage:
As a rule, marriage is the result of a mild preference, encouraged by circumstances, and deliberately heightened into strong sexual feeling. You, of all men, know well enough that the same kind of feeling could be produced for almost any woman who wasn't repulsive.
Eventually, reason enough for an engagement is provided by a legacy of £5,000 left to Marian by John Yule.
Life and death eventually end the possibility of this union. Milvain's initial career advancement is a position on ''The Current'', a paper edited by Clement Fadge. Twenty years earlier, Alfred Yule (Marian's father) was slighted by Fadge in a newspaper article, and the resulting acerbic resentment extends even to Milvain. Alfred refuses to countenance Marian's marriage; but his objection proves to be an obstacle to Milvain only after Yule's eyesight fails and Marian's legacy is reduced to a mere £1,500. As a result, Marian must work to provide for her parent, and her inheritance is no longer available to Milvain.
By this time, Milvain already has detected a more desirable target for marriage: Amy Reardon. Reardon's poverty and natural disposition toward ill-health culminate in his death following a brief reconciliation with his wife. She, besides the receipt of £10,000 upon John Yule's death, has the natural beauty and grace to benefit a man in the social events beneficial to his career. Eventually Amy and Milvain marry; however, as the narrator reveals, this marriage motivated by circumstances is not lacking in more profound areas. Milvain, it is said, has married the woman he loves, although the narrator never states this as a fact, merely reporting it as something others have said about Milvain. In fact, in a conversation that ends the book, the reader is left to question whether Milvain is in fact haunted by his love for Marian, and his ungentlemanly actions in that regard.
:''Based on Sol Liptzin'', ''A History of Yiddish Literature'', pp. 6–7.
Bovo's young mother conspires to have her husband, an aged king, killed during a hunt, then marries the murderer. They try and fail to poison the child Bovo, whom they are afraid will avenge his father. The handsome youth runs away from Antona, is kidnapped and taken to Flanders to be stable boy to a king, whose daughter Druzane falls in love with him.
The heathen sultan of Babylonia arrives, backed by ten thousand warriors, to demand Druzane in marriage for his ugly son, Lucifer. He is refused; in the ensuing war the king of Flanders is captured. Bovo, riding the magic horse Pumele and wielding the magic sword Rundele, defeats the sultan's army, slays Lucifer, frees the king, and is promised the hand of Druzane, but is enticed to Babylonia, where he is horribly imprisoned for a year before escaping. Meanwhile, Druzane has presumed him dead and consented to marry the knight Macabron.
On the wedding day of Druzane and Macabron, Bovo arrives disguised as a beggar; he and Druzane flee, first to a palace but later to the forest, pursued by Macabron. Deep in the forest, Druzane gives birth to twins.
Bovo sets off to try to find a route back to Flanders. Druzane comes to the conclusion that Bovo has fallen prey to a lion, sets off on her own with the twins, and successfully reaches Flanders. Bovo returns to their forest abode; failing to find her or the twins, he now also presumes ''her'' to have fallen prey. Despairing, he joins an army ranged against his native Antona. He kills his stepfather, dispatches his mother to a nunnery, and takes his rightful crown. He is eventually reunited with Druzane, who becomes his queen.
Singer-songwriter Winslow Leach is heard by acclaimed record producer Swan as Winslow plays an original composition following a set run through by the 1950s-style nostalgia band the Juicy Fruits, which Swan produces. Swan believes Winslow's music perfect to open "The Paradise" — Swan's highly anticipated new concert hall — and has his right-hand man Arnold Philbin steal it, under the guise of producing Winslow.
One month later, Winslow goes to Swan's Death Records to follow up about his music but is thrown out. He sneaks into Swan's private mansion and observes several women rehearsing his music for an audition. One is Phoenix, an aspiring singer whom Winslow deems "perfect" for his music. Winslow realizes Swan's plan to open the Paradise with his music after he is thrown out again. In response, he disguises himself as a woman to sneak in and try to speak to Swan. Swan has Winslow beaten and framed for drug dealing. Winslow is given a life sentence in Sing Sing Prison and his teeth are extracted and replaced with metal ones (part of an experimental prisoner program to decrease infection amongst inmates, funded by the Swan Foundation).
Six months later, Winslow hears that the Juicy Fruits have made an anticipated hit record of his music with Swan's backing. After a breakdown, he escapes prison in a delivery box and breaks into the Death Records building. A guard startles Winslow as he is destroying the records and presses, causing him to slip and fall face first into a record press, which crushes and burns the right half of his face, also destroying his vocal cords. He barely manages to escape the studio, falling into the East River as the police arrive.
A disoriented, and now deformed, Winslow sneaks into the Paradise costume department and dons a long, black cape and a silver, owl-like mask, becoming the Phantom of the Paradise. He terrorizes Swan and his musicians and nearly kills the Beach Bums (formerly the Juicy Fruits, who have traded doo-wop for surf music) with a bomb while they are playing a heavily reworked version of Winslow's own Faust song. The Phantom confronts Swan, who recognizes him as Winslow and offers the composer a chance to have his music produced "his" way. In a specially built recording studio, Swan provides the Phantom with an electronic voice-box, enabling him to speak and sing. Swan asks Winslow to rewrite his cantata with Phoenix in mind for the lead. Although Winslow agrees and signs a contract in blood, Swan breaks the deal by telling Philbin that he resents Phoenix's "perfection" for the role. The Phantom completes ''Faust'', but Swan replaces Phoenix with a pill-popping male glam rock prima donna named "Beef" in the lead of Winslow's ''Faust'' and relegates Phoenix to backup.
Swan steals the completed cantata and seals the Phantom inside the recording studio with a brick wall. Winslow escapes and confronts Beef (a comic allusion to the shower scene in ''Psycho'') and threatens to kill him if he performs. Beef tries to flee, but is forced by Philbin to stay and play with the band the Undeads (the Juicy Fruits/Beach Bums rebranded again as a glam/Goth act) who now all resemble Cesare the Somnambulist from ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''. As Beef performs, the Phantom, hidden in the rafters, strikes and electrocutes Beef with a stage prop. Horrified, Philbin orders Phoenix onstage and she is an immediate sensation.
Swan seduces Phoenix in her dressing room after the show with promises of stardom. As she leaves, she is spirited away by the Phantom to the roof. The Phantom tells Phoenix his true identity and implores her to leave the Paradise so Swan won't destroy her too. But Phoenix does not recognize or believe him and flees. At Swan's mansion, the Phantom observes Swan and Phoenix in a tight embrace. Heartbroken, he stabs himself through the heart with a bowie knife. However, Swan tells the Phantom that he cannot die until Swan himself has died. The Phantom attempts to stab Swan, but Swan is unharmed. Looking down at Winslow, Swan hisses in an almost reptilian voice, "I'm under contract, too."
''Rolling Stone'' announces the wedding between Swan and Phoenix during ''Faust'' s finale. The Phantom learns that Swan made a pact with the Devil in 1953: Swan will remain youthful forever unless the videotaped recording of his contract is destroyed, and photos age and fester in his place. The tape reveals footage of Winslow signing his contract with Swan and a new one Swan made with Phoenix. On a live television camera, the Phantom realizes Swan is planning to have Phoenix assassinated during the ceremony. He destroys all the recordings and heads off to the wedding.
During the wedding, the Phantom stops the assassin from hitting Phoenix, who instead shoots and kills Philbin. The Phantom swings onto the stage and rips off Swan's mask, exposing him as a monster on live television. A crazed Swan attempts to strangle Phoenix but the Phantom intervenes and stabs him repeatedly. In doing so, the Phantom's own stab wound reopens and he starts bleeding. As he is dying, Swan is carried around by the audience, who join in the mania, stabbing him. The dying Winslow removes his mask to reveal his own face and holds out a hand to Phoenix. Swan dies, allowing Winslow to die of his own wound. As Winslow succumbs, Phoenix finally recognizes him as the kind man she met at Swan's mansion and embraces him as he dies.
Alvin and Arthur stay at a boarding house where mixed-blood children are cared for by Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel. While there, Alvin uses his knack to cleanse the mosquitoes and disease from a well. A young woman, whom the people call Dead Mary, sees what he has done and asks him to come with her and heal her mother, who has yellow fever. Because Alvin heals her, the Yellow Fever spreads throughout Nueva Barcelona, averting an impending war with the United States over slavery. As the fever spreads, people begin to suspect Papa Moose and Mama Squirrel because Alvin has been healing everyone he can, radiating outward through the city. Alvin is then approached by La Tia, an African woman, who wants him to help all the slaves and the displaced French to escape Nueva Barcelona. He reluctantly agrees.
Alvin's brother, Calvin, at the behest of Alvin's wife, Margaret, comes to help. Calvin raises a thick fog while Alvin uses his blood (magic he learned from the Red Prophet Tenskwa-Tawa) to construct a crystal bridge across lake Ponchartrain to the north. Arthur helps Alvin with the bridge. While the escapees flee north, they take food and provision from plantations along the way and free any slaves they find. Alvin goes to Tenskwa-Tawa on the other side of the Mizzippy to ask for safe passage through the Red Man's lands, so they can escape the pursuing army. Alvin and Tenskwa-Tawa put on a show by holding back the Mizzippy river to allow the exodus of people from Nueva Barcelona to cross, while the pursuing army can do nothing but watch. Calvin leaves with Jim Bowie and Steve Austin to conquer the Mexica. Verily Cooper is sent by Margaret to seek out Abe Lincoln and get his help for figuring out what to do with all the runaways when they reach the Noisy River Territory.
Alvin discovers that Tenskwa-Tawa has been collaborating with La Tia to create a volcanic eruption under the Mexica, who are becoming increasingly threatening. Alvin sends Arthur to initiate the eruption and warn his brother Calvin, who ignores the warning but still manages to escape. Bowie and several others leave with Arthur. The people travel through the Indian lands using the greensong, which allows them to move more quickly. When they reach the Noisy River territory, Abe Lincoln and Verily Cooper have decided to create a new county so they can appoint their own judges that will resist the law to return slaves to their masters. There Alvin starts to build the crystal city he saw in a vision. He realizes that not everyone has to have maker skills, but can contribute in their own way—felling trees, digging the foundation, etc. But all is not well. Calvin and Bowie arrive and decide to stay.
The play begins in the office of Bobby Gould, who has recently been promoted to head of production at a major Hollywood studio. His job is to find suitable scripts to bring to studio head Richard Ross to be made into big Hollywood movies. His longtime associate, Charlie Fox, has arrived with important news: movie star Doug Brown came to his house that morning interested in making a movie Fox had sent his way some time ago. Gould immediately arranges a meeting with Ross, wanting to deliver the news personally that such a big star, who usually works with a different studio, is keen to make a movie with them and that such a movie is sure to be a financial success.
Gould thanks Fox for bringing the project to him when he could have gone "across the street" to another studio. Fox says he is loyal to Gould on account of the many years he has worked for him. Word comes back that Ross is flying to New York City for the day, so they will have to meet with him tomorrow, which could present a problem because Brown wants an answer by 10 o'clock the next morning. Gould assures Fox that it will work out.
Fox is beside himself about the big break he has gotten, which could finally make him both rich and a player in Hollywood after years of toiling in obscurity. He requests coffee and Gould asks his secretary to get some. As they wait, Gould tells Fox about a book he has been asked to give a "courtesy read" to, meaning that it is not seriously being considered to be made into a film because the author is "an Eastern sissy writer". Gould's secretary, Karen, arrives with the coffee and the two men ebulliently chat with her about the movie business and their experiences related to it. Karen is only temporarily filling in for Gould's regular secretary and is new to Hollywood. Gould asks her to make lunch reservations for them and she leaves.
After she's gone, Fox comments on Karen, teasing him about trying to seduce her. He thinks that Karen is neither a "floozy" nor an ambitious girl trying to sleep her way up the Hollywood ladder, so it would be hard for Gould to bed her. Gould thinks he can and the two make a five hundred dollar wager to that effect. Fox leaves, soon to be seeing Gould at their lunch appointment.
Karen returns to discuss the lunch reservation. Gould asks her to sit and begins to tell her about the movie business. He tells her about the book he has been giving a "courtesy read". Uncorrupted and naïve, she asks why he is so sure there is no hope for the book. Gould offers Karen a chance to take part in the process by reading the book and delivering to him her opinion of it to him that night at his home. As she leaves, Gould asks her to tell Fox that "he owes me five hundred bucks".
That night, at Gould's apartment, Karen delivers a glowing report on the book, a story about the apocalyptic effects of radiation. As he is seducing her, Gould speaks warmly toward her, offering to bring her under his wing at the studio. Karen says she wants to work on the film adaptation of the book. Gould says that even if the book is good, it won't make a successful Hollywood movie. Karen admonishes him for simply perpetuating the standard Hollywood formula instead of taking a creative risk. When Gould protests, Karen says that she knows Gould invited her to his place in order to sleep with her and aggressively starts to seduce him into taking her to bed, and into pitching the book instead of the Doug Brown film.
The next morning Fox is back in Gould's office, excited about their upcoming meeting with Ross. Gould surprises Fox with news that instead he is going to be pitching the book, without him. The passive Fox initially takes the news with good humor, but gradually becomes more and more aggressive. He chides Gould for preparing to throw both of their careers away by pushing a movie the studio will never agree to make. Gould says that he has been awake all night and feels the call to "do something which is right". Fox suspects that Gould spent the night with Karen and that is the reason for his delirium. Gould denies this, but an increasingly enraged Fox physically attacks him and continues his verbal assault until Gould tells him to go.
Fox agrees to leave, but only after he gets the chance to ask Karen a question. Karen enters and eventually admits to being intimate with Gould the night before. Gould and Karen continue to stand together as a team until Fox gets her to admit that she would not have slept with Gould had he not agreed to green light a movie based on the book. With this, Karen's ambitious motives are revealed and Gould is in shock. She tries to hold on to the plans they had made but Fox will not allow it, telling her to leave the studio lot and never come back. As she leaves, Fox throws the book out the door after her. The play ends with Gould straightened out and ready to pitch the Doug Brown film to Ross.
'''Short summary''': Trygaeus, a middle-aged Athenian, miraculously brings about a peaceful end to the Peloponnesian War, thereby earning the gratitude of farmers while bankrupting various tradesmen who had profited from the hostilities. He celebrates his triumph by marrying Harvest, a companion of Festival and Peace, all of whom he has liberated from a celestial prison.
'''Detailed summary''': Two slaves are frantically working outside an ordinary house in Athens, kneading unusually large lumps of dough and carrying them one by one into the stable. We soon learn from their banter that it is not dough but excrement gathered from various sources—they are feeding a giant dung beetle that their crazy master has brought home from the Mount Etna region and on which he intends flying to a private audience with the gods. This startling revelation is confirmed moments later by the sudden appearance of Trygaeus on the back of the dung beetle, rising above the house and hovering in an alarmingly unsteady manner. His two slaves, his neighbours and his children take fright and they plead with him to come back down to earth. He steadies the spirited beetle, he shouts comforting words to his children and he appeals to the audience not to distract his mount by farting or shitting any time in the next three days. His mission, he declares, is to reason with the gods about the war or, if they will not listen, he will prosecute the gods for treason against Greece. Then he soars across the stage heavenwards.
Arriving outside the house of the gods, Trygaeus discovers that only Hermes is home. Hermes informs him that the others have packed up and departed for some remote refuge where they hope never to be troubled again by the war or the prayers of humankind. He has stayed back, he says, only to make some final arrangements and meanwhile the new occupant of the house has already moved in – War. War, he says, has imprisoned Peace in a cave nearby. Just then, as chance would have it, War comes grumbling and growling outdoors, carrying a gigantic mortar in which he intends grinding the Greeks to paste. Trygaeus discovers by eavesdropping that War no longer has a pestle to use with his gigantic mortar – the pestles he had hoped to use on the Greeks are both dead, for one was Cleon and the other was Brasidas, the leaders of the pro-war factions in Athens and Sparta respectively, both of whom have recently perished in battle. War goes back indoors to get himself a new one and Trygaeus boldly takes this opportunity to summon Greeks everywhere to come and help him set Peace free while there is still time. A Chorus of excited Greeks from various city-states arrives as prompted but they are so excited they cannot stop dancing at first. Eventually they get to work, pulling boulders from the cave's mouth under supervision by Trygaeus and Hermes. Some of the Greeks are more of a hindrance than a help and real progress is only made by the farmers. At last Peace and her companions, Festival and Harvest, are brought to light, appearing as visions of ineffable beauty. Hermes then tells the gathering why Peace had left them many years earlier – she had been driven away by politicians who were profiting from the war. In fact she had tried to come back several times, he says, but each time the Athenians had voted against her in their Assembly. Trygaeus apologizes to Peace on behalf of his countrymen, he updates her on the latest theatre gossip (Sophocles is now as venal as Simonides and Cratinus died in a drunken apoplexy) and then he leaves her to enjoy her freedom while he sets off again for Athens, taking Harvest and Festival back with him – Harvest because she is now his betrothed, Festival because she is to be female entertainment for the Boule or Council. The Chorus then steps forward to address the audience in a conventional parabasis.
The Chorus praises the author for his originality as a dramatist, for his courageous opposition to monsters like Cleon and for his genial disposition. It recommends him especially to bald men. It quotes songs of the 7th century BC poet Stesichorus and it condemns contemporary dramatists like Carcinus, Melanthius and Morsimus. The Chorus resumes its place and Trygaeus returns to the stage. He declares that the audience looked like a bunch of rascals when seen from the heavens and they look even worse when seen up close. He sends Harvest indoors to prepare for their wedding and he delivers Festival to the archon sitting in the front row. He then prepares for a religious service in honour of Peace. A lamb is sacrificed indoors, prayers are offered and Trygaeus starts barbecuing the meat. The fragrance of roast lamb soon attracts an oracle monger who proceeds to hover about the scene in quest of a free meal, as is the custom among oracle-mongers. He is driven off with a good thrashing. Trygaeus goes indoors to prepare for his wedding and the Chorus steps forward again for another parabasis.
The Chorus sings lovingly of winter afternoons spent with friends in front of a kitchen fire in the countryside in times of peace when rain soaks into the newly sown fields and there is nothing to do but enjoy the good life. The tone soon changes however as the Chorus recalls the regimental drill and the organizational stuff-ups that have been the bane of the ordinary civilian soldier's life until now and it contemplates in bitterness the officers who have been lions at home and mere foxes in the field. The tone brightens again as Trygaeus returns to the stage, dressed for the festivities of a wedding. Tradesmen and merchants begin to arrive singly and in pairs – a sickle-maker and a jar-maker whose businesses are flourishing again now that peace has returned, and others whose businesses are failing. The sickle-maker and jar-maker present Trygaeus with wedding presents and Trygaeus offers suggestions to the others about what they can do with their merchandise: helmet crests can be used as dusters, spears as vine props, breastplates as chamber pots, trumpets as scales for weighing figs, and helmets could serve as mixing bowls for Egyptians in need of emetics or enemas. The sons of wedding guests practise their songs outdoors and one of the boys begins rehearsing Homer's epic song of war. Trygaeus sends him back indoors as he cannot stomach any mention of war. Another boy sings a famous song by Archilochus celebrating an act of cowardice and this does not impress Trygaeus either. He announces the commencement of the wedding feast and he opens up the house for celebrations: ''Hymen Hymenai'O! Hymen Hymenai'O!''
''Small Change'' is a story of the struggles and yearnings of young children in Thiers, France, in the summer of 1976. The main characters are Patrick Desmouceaux, who is motherless and just starts getting interested in women such as his young teacher, and his friend Julien Leclou, who lives in poverty and is physically abused at home. Julien cannot stay awake at school after nights without sleep and constantly refuses to change for gym class in order to hide his bruises. The film mixes the story of these characters with other more or less innocent childhood experiences and challenges of a number of children. Scenes include life at school, a toddler and a cat perilously playing on an open windowsill but falling down unhurt, a girl causing confusion with a bullhorn in an apartment window, Bruno showing his friends how to chat up girls, a double date at a movie theater, a child telling a dirty joke, a botched haircut, first love and first kisses.
In the end, Julien's abuse becomes public and he is taken away from his family. The story ends with the message of one of the teachers about child abuse, injustice, children's rights, hope, love and resilience: 'Of all mankind's injustices, injustice to children is the most despicable! Life isn't always fair, but we can fight for justice. [...] If kids had the right to vote, they would have better schools [...] Life isn't easy. You must learn to be tough. I don't mean 'gangster-tough'. What I mean is having endurance and resilience. [...] Time flies. Before long, you will have children of your own. If you love them, they will love you. If they don't feel you love them, they will transfer their love and tenderness to other people. Or to things. That's life! Each of us needs to be loved!'
The story opens on a small-town street. A man throws a bundle of papers onto the sidewalk from the back of a truck labeled Chronicle. Adam White is sitting in a bar when a woman offers him a drink. He refuses, explaining that alcohol seems to be poisonous to him. After talking with her for a while, he learns she is married to William Shrike, Editor-in-Chief of the Chronicle, where Adam is hoping to work. The editor shows up to meet his wife only to find her talking with Adam. When Shrike asks how Adam found him, Adam explains: "I heard there was a bar where newspaper people hang out. I came here since it is the closest to the Chronicle, the only paper in town". Florence Shrike says Adam can write, and he deserves the chance to prove it. Shrike retorts: "OK, so write!" Adam hems and haws momentarily, but then delivers the following story: "The Chronicle is pleased to announce the addition of a new member to our staff. He met the Editor in Chief, who went so far as to insult his own wife in an effort to provoke the new staff member. Instead of punching the editor in the face, he accepted a position on the paper."
Adam tells his girlfriend Justy about his new job. He doesn't tell her about his father, a man named Lassiter, who is doing 25 years in prison for having murdered Adam's mother and her lover. On his first day at the newspaper, Adam is astounded at being assigned the "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice-to-the-lovelorn column. One of his colleagues, reporter Ned Gates, is disappointed, having wanted that column for himself, while another, Frank Goldsmith, openly mocks the readers who seek the column's heartfelt advice.
After a few weeks, Shrike refuses a request by Adam to give him a different assignment. He also insists that Adam personally contact the letter writers to substantiate their stories. Adam randomly selects a letter from a Fay Doyle and meets her. She relates how her husband, Pat, came home from the war crippled and impotent. As they share a lonely moment, Adam and Fay are briefly thrown together romantically. When he declines meeting her a second time, she is furious.
Adam decides to leave the newspaper for good. Justy's father offers her a trust endowment to get their new life under way. At a party in the bar, Pat Doyle turns up with a gun. Adam manages to talk him out of using it. He leaves, whereupon Shrike decides to buy some flowers for his own neglected wife.
Charlie Samson is a hard-working married bookkeeper in Manhattan, struggling to advance himself by attending night school to become an accountant. He has just learned his wife is pregnant with their first child, and worries whether he is ready for fatherhood. He and four co-workers throw a bachelor party for a fellow bookkeeper, Arnold Craig, who is about to get married. After watching explicit, short stag films at one member's apartment, they decide to go bar-hopping. Charlie is to be Arnold's best man.
Colleagues attending the party include the older married man, Walter, who has recently been diagnosed with asthma, and Eddie, a happy-go-lucky bachelor. The night becomes a turning point for all five men.
Charlie finds his loyalty to his wife tested during the evening, and he almost has an affair with a young woman he meets on the street heading to a Greenwich Village party. Charlie's young wife at home is also shocked to hear her visiting sister reveal her own husband's extra-marital affairs. Walter, in despair about his situation, wanders off during the evening.
Arnold becomes drunk and ambivalent about getting married, and he breaks off the wedding. He changes his mind after he sobers up and Charlie gives him a lecture about the benefits of married life, despite Charlie's having regretted his own marriage as the story began, and having gone to the party with the serious intention of committing adultery.
We last see Eddie at a bar, striking up a conversation with an older unattractive woman. In the end, Charlie decides that married life is the way to go, and that his struggle to build a home with his wife is worthwhile, and better than the empty and lonely existence of his friend Eddie, whom he used to envy.
Jazz cornetist Pete Kelly (Jack Webb) and his Big Seven are the house band at the 17 Club, a speakeasy in Kansas City in 1927 during Prohibition. New local crime boss Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien) wants a percentage of the band's meager earnings. When the band is opposed, Kelly decides to decline and see what happens.
However, before the night ends, Rudy, the manager of the club, orders Kelly and the band to go to the house of wealthy Ivy Conrad (Janet Leigh), a woman with a reputation for hosting rowdy parties and who develops designs on Kelly. Reluctantly, Kelly arrives at the party and leaves a message for McCarg to call him there. When the call comes through, it is intercepted by Kelly's drunk, hot-tempered drummer, Joey Firestone (Martin Milner), who turns McCarg down. Kelly and his band are run off the road as they drive back to Kansas City.
The following night, Firestone roughs up Guy Bettenhauser, McCarg's right-hand man. Kelly desperately tries to patch things up, but to no avail. As the band finishes its last number, two gunmen burst through the front door of the club. Kelly tries to save Firestone by sending him out the back, but Firestone is shot to death in the alleyway. Tired and frustrated by his drummer's murder, and the subsequent departure of Al (Lee Marvin), his clarinetist and long-time friend, Kelly, returns to his apartment to find Ivy waiting for him. Although he initially resists her advances, the two strike up a relationship that turns into an engagement.
Later, all the local band leaders meet secretly to decide how to respond to McCarg's pressure. When Kelly tells them he will put up no resistance, the rest go along as well. Detective George Tennel (Andy Devine), who is trying to take McCarg down, tries to enlist Kelly's help but is refused.
McCarg tries to befriend Kelly, telling him that Bettenhauser acted alone in Firestone's murder. He also presents Kelly with a new band member: his moll Rose Hopkins (Peggy Lee). Rose, celebrating Pete and Ivy's engagement, has a little too much to drink, and, due to an inattentive crowd, cannot bring herself to sing. An enraged McCarg chases her to her dressing room and beats her senseless. Kelly then turns to Tennel, who informs him that Bettenhauser has skipped town.
Al drops in to see Kelly. The two come to blows over Kelly's handling of the situation, but patch things up, and Al rejoins the band. Realizing he handled the situation wrong, Kelly tries to buy his way out but McCarg intimidates him into continuing. Meanwhile, Ivy, feeling left out by Kelly's dedication to his music, decides to go her own way.
Kelly gets a message to meet someone who turns out to be Bettenhauser. He tells Kelly that it was McCarg who ordered Firestone's death, but if Kelly can come up with $1,200 by daybreak, Bettenhauser will help him get McCarg. Kelly agrees. Bettenhauser tells him he can find cancelled checks and papers in McCarg's office at the Everglade Ballroom.
Back at the club, Kelly arms himself, but is stopped by Ivy, who wants a last dance with him. He insists he does not have the time. Kelly finds the papers he needs, but before he can get out, a loud orchestrion begins playing; Ivy had followed Kelly to the ballroom, started the music and turned all the lights on. Kelly fearfully agrees to a last dance, but soon finds himself surrounded by McCarg and two of his men, one of them being Bettenhauser; Kelly has been set up.
A shootout ensues. Bettenhauser climbs up into the ceiling to get a better shot, but Kelly shoots him first. McCarg's other man tries to shoot Kelly, but Kelly throws a chair at him, causing him to hit and mortally wound McCarg instead. Seeing this, the gunman gives up.
Back at the 17 Club, it is business as usual – the band playing, Ivy and Pete back together again, and Rudy still cutting corners wherever he can.
In Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner prepares to take off for San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5. Former captain Dan Roman (John Wayne), the flight's veteran first officer, known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by an air crash that killed his wife and son and left him with a permanent limp. The captain, John Sullivan (Robert Stack), suffers from a secret fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers and aircrew. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler (William Campbell) and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby (Wally Brown) are contrasts in age and experience.
Flight attendant Spalding (Doe Avedon) attends to her passengers, each with varying personal problems, including jaded former actress May Holst (Claire Trevor), unhappily married heiress Lydia Rice (Laraine Day), aging beauty queen Sally McKee (Jan Sterling), and cheerful vacationer Ed Joseph (Phil Harris). Spalding befriends the terminally ill Frank Briscoe (Paul Fix) after being charmed by his pocket watch. A last-minute arrival, Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer), causes the aircrew concern with his odd behavior.
After a routine departure, the airliner experiences sporadic, sudden vibrations. Although the aircrew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, they cannot locate a problem. When a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing wrong.
After nightfall, as the airliner passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs (David Brian), accusing him of having an affair with Agnew's wife. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a pistol, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the airliner swerves violently when it loses a propeller and its engine catches fire. The crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the aircrew radios for help and sets in motion a rescue operation. Dan discovers that the airliner is now losing fuel from additional damage to a wing tank. That, combined with adverse winds and the increased drag of the damaged engine, means that the airliner will eventually run out of fuel and be forced to ditch.
Unassuming José Locota (John Qualen) disarms Agnew and confiscates the pistol, compelling him to sit quietly. Gustave Pardee (Robert Newton), who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, but warns that their chances of making the coast are "one in a thousand". The passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. They toss luggage from the airliner to lighten its weight, with May Holst literally kissing her mink coat goodbye.
In San Francisco, Manager Tim Garfield (Regis Toomey) comes to the airline's operations center but is not sanguine about the airliner's chances. A favorable change in the winds raises the crew's hopes that they have just enough fuel to reach San Francisco, but Wilby discovers that he made an elementary error in navigation and their actual remaining time in the air remains inadequate.
Dan's experience tells him that their luck would be better trying to make land than ditching in rough seas at night. Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, but Dan slaps him back to his senses. Thinking clearly again, Sullivan decides against ditching. As the airliner approaches rain-swept, night time San Francisco at a perilously low altitude, the airport prepares for an emergency instrument landing. The airliner narrowly surmounts the city's hills and breaks out of the clouds with the runway lights dead ahead, guiding them to a safe landing. As the passengers disembark, Garfield watches their reactions as they are harried by reporters. After the tumult dies down, he joins the aircrew inspecting their damaged engine and informs Dan that only 30 gallons of fuel remained in their tanks. Dan acknowledges the gamble they took and walks away, limping and whistling into the night. "So long...you ancient pelican", Garfield mutters to himself.
Matthew Devereaux (Spencer Tracy) is a ranch owner who has built an enormous ranch and mining empire. He raised his sons to carry on his fierce, hard-working Irish settlement spirit that helped make him a success. However, as a consequence, he's never shown fatherly affection to his three older sons by his late first wife: Ben, Mike, and Denny (played respectively by Richard Widmark, Hugh O'Brian, and Earl Holliman). He treats these grown men (in their 30s to 40s) little better than hired help. Even though they manage the day-to-day operations of the ranch and other enterprises full time, Matt still retains complete authority, right down to the smallest decisions, angering his eldest son. This resentment leads the three eldest sons to unite against their father.
Joe (Robert Wagner) is Matt's biracial son by his second wife (Katy Jurado), a Native American who pretends to be Mexican. The town's people call her "Señora" out of respect for Matt, but not out of respect for her. Because of Joe's mixed ethnicity, he is treated prejudicially by his three Caucasian half-brothers. Matt's power and prestige keeps the discrimination by the townspeople towards Joe to a minimum, so long as Joe, an emerging young adult, is principally interested in riding the range alone, and spending time at his mother's native American reservation and with her people.
Joe, who shows no interest in owning or running the ranch empire, loves his father and would do anything for him. Because of his wife's insistence that he change his attitude towards their son, Matt comes to appreciate and regularly converse with his youngest son. The three older brothers interpret Matt's relationship with Joe and his treatment of them as if he has only one son instead of four as a rejection by their father. Their resentment deepens.
Matt, Ben, Joe and two Indian workers catch the two middle sons and four accomplices rustling Matt's cattle, resulting in two of the four accomplices getting killed. Joe pleads for leniency towards his errant brothers but an outraged Matt banishes them, later reluctantly taking them back into the family when a crisis arises.
There is a copper mine on Matt's land, and he has leased out the mineral rights. After 40 head of cattle die, Matt determines the mine is polluting a stream where he waters his cattle. He becomes furious and leads a raid on the mine offices and director. The court issues a warrant to arrest whoever was responsible for the attack. To spare his father the agony and humiliation of a stay behind bars, Joe claims responsibility and is sentenced to three years in prison.
Ben and his other brothers rebel against their father during Joe's absence with such fierceness that the old man suffers a fatal stroke. Joe is permitted to leave prison long enough to attend his father's funeral, during which he formally severs his ties with his brothers and proclaims a blood feud.
Having served his prison sentence, Joe returns to the ranch. The señora, his mother, who went to live with her people after Matt's death, persuades him to forget revenge and leave the country. Joe takes her advice, but Ben, fearing Joe's revenge for indirectly causing their father's death, ambushes and tries to kill Joe. The two half-brothers fight until Two Moons, the ranch foreman, saves Joe's life by shooting Ben dead before he can shoot an unarmed Joe. Time passes, and Joe and his new wife Barbara (Jean Peters) visit Matt's grave. There, Joe sees the down-turned lance, the Indian symbol for a blood feud, and breaks it in half, thus ending the feud.
While in New York City to meet with investment bankers, 56-year-old Avery Bullard, president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major furniture manufacturing company in the town of Millburgh, Pennsylvania, drops dead in the street. As he collapses, he drops his wallet. It is picked up by a bystander, emptied of its cash, and shoved into a wastebasket. Without the wallet, there is no way to immediately identify the body as Bullard.
George Caswell, a member of the Tredway board of directors and one of the investment bankers with whom Bullard had just met, sees what he believes is Bullard's body in the street below their offices and decides to profit from the information. He engages a broker to make a short sale of as much Tredway stock as he can before the end of trading that Friday afternoon. Caswell plans to make an easy profit and cover the sale by buying Tredway stock at "a 10-point discount" on Monday, when news of Bullard's death will presumably push the stock price down. Caswell begins to doubt that it was Bullard who died, but when he reads in a newspaper that the man had the initials "A.B." on his clothes and cufflinks, he calls the police to tip them off to the identity of the deceased.
Bullard had never named his successor, nor had he appointed a vice-president since the previous one died. Over the next 28 hours, Tredway's executives vie for the position of president. Once news of his death reaches Tredway, company controller Loren Shaw takes the initiative in arranging Bullard's funeral and coordinating the company's public reaction. In so doing, he undercuts treasurer Frederick Alderson, one of Bullard's close friends, and this effectively diminishes Alderson in his own eyes so that he won't seek the presidency.
Shaw also shrewdly releases the upcoming quarterly report so that the good news of big profits can counter the news of Bullard's death and perhaps even raise the stock price when the market opens.
Ambitious, but narrowly focused, Shaw is concerned more with short-term accounting gains and satisfying the stockholders than the quality of the company's actual products and long-term growth. He gains the proxy of Julia Tredway, the daughter of the company's founder, who is still a major shareholder and board member. She had been considering selling her stock after realizing the futility of her difficult romantic relationship with, and true love for, Bullard after many years. She was finally heartbroken after coming second behind the company for both her father and Bullard.
Shaw buys Caswell's vote in exchange for allowing Caswell to purchase 4,000 shares of company stock at the Friday closing price to cover his "shady" short sale. If Caswell does not get those shares, he will be in serious financial trouble. Meanwhile, Walt Dudley, back-slapping vice president of sales, is having an affair with his secretary, Eva Bardeman, for which Shaw is now blackmailing him.
In addition, Vice President of Manufacturing Jesse Grimm has decided to retire instead of seeking the top job. But while he's no fan of Shaw's, he has serious reservations about the relative youth of the only other potential contender, Don Walling, the idealistic Vice President for Design and Development.
All these machinations result in Shaw having enough votes that he has a virtual lock on the job even before the board meets.
Treasurer Alderson and Don Walling, however, are determined to prevent Shaw from taking over. After considering all the contenders, Walling convinces Alderson that Walling himself should be president. Walling is a strong believer in developing higher quality new products and more efficient manufacturing methods, although his wife, Mary, is against his giving up his dream of being a full-time designer.
At an emergency board meeting on Saturday evening, the machinations, bargaining, and maneuvering culminate with Walling's enthusiasm, vision, and his stirring boardroom speech eventually changing Jesse Grimm's, Walt Dudley's and Julia Tredway's minds. Walling is ultimately elected unanimously as company president. He moves to Shaw and shakes his hand, to Shaw's surprise.
As the board leaves the meeting room, Shaw tears up a letter ensuring Caswell's share purchase. Caswell will be ruined financially. Walling and his wife embrace. Walling makes his first executive decision, asking his secretary to arrange a meeting for the Monday morning for the election of the new vice-president. Entering the lift, Walling remembers to ask how the game went. His wife answers "We won."
Jenny Stewart is a tough Broadway musical star, alienating her colleagues with her neurotic demands for absolute perfection. Jenny takes offense when her new rehearsal pianist Tye Graham criticizes her song stylings and ruthless ways.
Graham was blinded in World War II but fell in love with Jenny when he was a young reporter. Deep down, Jenny yearns for a lasting love but is disenchanted with the men around her, such as Broadway parasite Cliff Willard.
At the home of her mother, Jenny discovers an old newspaper clipping in which Tye reviewed one of her early shows and made it evident he loved her. Jenny realizes she is loved, goes to Tye, and they embrace.
Ellen McNulty (Thelma Ritter) gives up her hamburger stand in New Jersey when the bank calls in her loan, and goes to visit her son Val (John Lund) in Ohio. Val has recently married a socialite, Maggie (Gene Tierney). To help Maggie put on a dinner party, Val has an employment service send a cook; Ellen arrives first, and Maggie mistakes her for the cook. Ellen, to avoid embarrassing Maggie, does not correct her. After the party, Val follows her home, and persuades her to move in with them.
The next morning, Ellen arrives with her things, and continues the deception, explaining to Val that a mother-in-law in the house would only cause friction. Val reluctantly goes along with the charade.
Maggie's mother (Miriam Hopkins) comes to stay with them. She is a snob, and disapproves of both Val and Ellen.
Maggie and Val later "lend" Ellen to the Kalinger family, owners of the firm where Val works, for a party of their own, whose guests of honor, Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, own a Maryland firm with which the Kalinger firm is about to make a major contract. While tending to Mr. Kalinger (Larry Keating) in his illness, Ellen finds that his son, Kalinger Junior (James Lorimer) – who had previously courted Maggie – is taking credit for Val's research that led to the contract, and she tells Kalinger Senior so.
Kalinger Senior then invites Val and Maggie to the party, forcing Junior to reveal Val's role, which he does graciously. At the party, Maggie is insulted by Mrs. Williamson (Cora Witherspoon) and storms out. Val, realizing that this woman carries a lot of influence, forces Maggie to call the party to apologize. She does so unwillingly, leading to another fight.
The next morning, Val and Maggie make up, agreeing that they were both in the wrong. Later that day, Ellen's friends come to the door and ask to speak to "Mrs. McNulty" - thus revealing to Maggie that Ellen is Val's mother. Maggie is furious with Val for hiding his mother's identity from her. She and her mother leave for a hotel. Maggie later confronts Val at his office. Val tries to explain himself, but Maggie won't listen. She tells him that he has become a snob and that she is moving to Mexico (where divorce was then easier).
Mr. Kalinger decides to get Val and Maggie together. He convinces Maggie to come to the hotel bar with him for a good-bye drink, knowing that Val will be there for a party. When Maggie sees Val, she again scolds him for trying to hide his mother, and leaves the bar. Val leaves the party, and rushes to fetch his mother and bring her back to the party. Maggie, who has come back to the bar, is a witness as Val introduces Ellen to Mrs. Williamson, who was about to hire Val, but wants nothing to do with him when she finds that his mother is neither of her class nor cowed by her. Kalinger Junior also finds Ellen appalling, but Kalinger Senior is delighted, and decides to marry her.
The very much appreciated young woman who was the previous teacher in Lakeview elementary school got married, and a substitute is appointed. School rascal William "Curley" Benson gather his classmates to make plans to get rid of their new teacher. They strongly suspect the substitute teacher to be half-mad eccentric, middle-aged Miss Johnson.
The county supervisor, Miss Payne, visits Miss Johnson and finds out that the new teacher is actually Miss Johnson's niece Mildred, a pretty young woman who was a physical training instructor in the WAVES during the war. Miss Payne has her doubts about Mildred’s capability to control a class like the one at Lakeview and warns Mildred. Miss Payne believes that Mildred might be too young and inexperienced to handle the spirited children.
On the morning of the first day of school Mildred encounters the unsuspecting Curley on the way to school and offers him a ride. Not knowing that he is talking to his teacher, he tells her about the pranks that he and his friends are going to play on "Pigglepuss," their new teacher. Curley even tells her about putting his pet frog, Croakey, on the teacher’s chair.
Curley also manages to disclose the school kids’ hope that Miss Johnson will quit immediately, so that they can spend the whole day fishing. At school, Curley loads his "rocketship" car powered by skyrockets. He positions the car so as to aim at an exhaust tube through a classroom window and also fills it with extra rockets and smoke bombs. When Curley takes his seat in the classroom, he discovers that his new teacher is the wonderful kindhearted Mildred. During that first day she teaches the children a lesson of humility by making each one a victim of his own prank, and Curley, who is also humiliated, flees the scene before his prank is about to happen.
The schoolroom is duly filled with thick black smoke, Curley is blamed, but it turns out he is chasing the rocketship toy car, and not driving it. The car has been bijacked by "Dis" and "Dat", who are two mischievous children. They drive the car carelessly and wildly across the fields and, ultimately into a haystack, taking the stack with them, continuing the frightful journey. Miss Payne appears on the scene, and frightened by the moving haystack, she crashes her car while trying to avoid it. Miss Payne angrily cries out her disappointment with Mildred for her inability to discipline the children. Meanwhile, Mildred has brought the children on a picnic with her aunt. She teaches them baseball, football and boxing and offers the children lessons after school, but only if they earn good grades in their classes. Mildred is engaged in a boxing fight with the big Hank, a tough student, when the enraged Miss Payne arrives in order scrutinize her performance.
Curley comes back from his hiding to help, but he mistakenly think Hank is beating up his teacher. He attacks the surprised Hank and manages to send Hank flying into a lake. Curley is forced to leave the picnic in shame. The other are grateful for their substitute teacher and thank Miss Payne for Mildred. Mildred gets an explanation of the previous events, and that when the classroom filled with smoke, Curley was chasing his "rocketship," not driving it, thus not responsible for the prank. Mildred finally finds Curley hiding and crying, afraid he will be expelled. He is also afraid that Mildred will be fired. Mildred reassures him with cake and ice cream, that such a thing won’t happen, and tops off with picking up Croakey the frog.
Karen Stone, an acclaimed American stage actress and her businessman husband are off on holiday to Rome. On the plane, her husband, a multi- millionaire, suffers a fatal heart attack. Karen decides to stay in Italy and rent a luxury apartment in Rome. She has no reason to go home. She shut down her latest play, Shakespeare's "As You Like It" because she realizes she is far too old to play Rosalind. A year later, the Contessa Magda Terribili-Gonzales, a procurer, introduces her to a handsome, well-dressed, narcissistic young Italian named Paolo, who is one in her stable of professional gigolos.
Magda plots and plans, telling Paolo that Mrs. Stone has just begun to taste loneliness. Paolo and Mrs. Stone go out for dinner and dancing, but no more. Eventually, she begins the affair. She falls in love with him; he pretends to love her. She believes that she is different from other mature women he has known. Her self-deception is aided by the fact that she does not actually pay him, but buys him expensive clothes and gifts, including a movie camera, and pays his bills through charge accounts. They become the subject of gossip columns. It soon becomes obvious that Paolo is only interested in himself. Eventually he is bored by Mrs. Stone's possessiveness and pursues an American starlet.
Abandoned by Paolo, ridiculed by the Contessa, with her only real friend, Meg, on a plane to New York, Mrs. Stone looks over her balcony and sees the ragged, mysteriously menacing young man who has followed her everywhere since the day she moved in, pacing. She tosses the keys of her apartment down to him and walks back inside, remembering what she told Paolo after he tried to frighten her with a story about a middle-aged woman murdered on the French Riviera by someone she invited into her apartment: "All I need is three or four years. After that, a cut throat would be a convenience". She lights a cigarette and sits down to wait. The youth comes into the apartment and walks toward her slowly, hands deep in the pockets of his filthy coat, smiling faintly as his shadow fills the screen.
In 1927, young Southern belle Charlotte Hollis and her married lover John Mayhew plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Charlotte's father, Sam, confronts John over the affair and intimidates him with the news that John's wife Jewel visited the day before and revealed the affair. John pretends to Charlotte he can no longer love her and that they must part. Shortly after, John is ambushed and decapitated in the summerhouse by an assailant with a cleaver. The traumatized Charlotte finds his body and returns to the house in a bloodstained dress.
Thirty-seven years later, Charlotte, a spinster, having inherited the estate after her father died, is tended to by her loyal housekeeper, Velma. In the intervening years, John's death has remained an unsolved murder, though it is commonly held that Charlotte was responsible. Despite notice from the Louisiana Highway Commission that she has been evicted from the property to make way for the impending construction of a new interstate, Charlotte is defiant, and threatens the demolition crew with a rifle. Seeking help in her fight against the Highway Commission, Charlotte summons Miriam, a poor cousin who lived with the family as a girl, but has since moved to New York City and become wealthy. Miriam returns and soon renews her relationship with Drew Bayliss, a local doctor who jilted her. Charlotte's sanity soon deteriorates following Miriam's arrival, her nights haunted by a mysterious harpsichord playing the song John wrote for her and by the appearance of his disembodied hand and head. Suspecting that Miriam and Drew are after Charlotte's money, Velma seeks help from Mr. Willis, an insurance investigator from England who is still fascinated by the case and who has visited Mayhew's ailing widow, Jewel; she gave him an envelope only to be opened after her death.
Miriam fires Velma, who later returns to discover Charlotte has been drugged. Velma plans to expose Miriam's exploitation of Charlotte, but Miriam kills Velma with a chair and she falls down the stairs. Drew covers up the murder by declaring it an accident. One night, a drugged Charlotte runs downstairs in the grip of a hallucination, believing that John has returned to her. After Miriam manipulates the intoxicated Charlotte into shooting Drew with a gun loaded with blanks, the two dispose of his body in a swamp. Charlotte returns to the house and witnesses the revived Drew walking downstairs after he returned, reducing her to insanity. Believing she has shattered Charlotte's mental state, Miriam celebrates with Drew in the garden, where they discuss the plan to have Charlotte committed to a psychiatric hospital and usurp her fortune. Charlotte overhears the entire conversation from the balcony, including Miriam's admission that she had witnessed Jewel kill John, and has been using the knowledge to blackmail Jewel throughout the years. Charlotte kills Miriam and Drew, pushing a large stone flowerpot off the stair balcony.
The next day, the authorities escort Charlotte from home, as a crowd gathers around to observe. Charlotte receives an envelope and concludes that Jewel has died of a stroke after hearing of the incident the previous night. As the authorities leave with Charlotte, she looks back at the house.
In 1936 Santa Monica, Daisy Clover is a tomboy, living with her eccentric mother in a ramshackle trailer. Wishing to become an actress, Daisy submits a recorded song to studio owner Raymond Swan.
Swan puts her under contract for five years and makes arrangements to hide her mother away in a mental institution. Daisy meets and spends time with fellow actor Wade Lewis. Raymond fears that the romance will interrupt Daisy's job. Wade asks Daisy to marry him. She agrees and the ceremony is held at Raymond's house. During the honeymoon, Wade drives off and leaves Daisy in Arizona. When Daisy returns to California, an extremely intoxicated Melora Swan (Raymond's wife) reveals to her that she had an affair with the closet homosexual Wade. Raymond tells Daisy about Wade's orientation, as he'd informed Melora. Raymond and Daisy begin an affair.
Daisy takes her mother out of the care home and spirits her away to a house on the beach. When her mother unexpectedly dies, Daisy suffers a nervous breakdown. Unable to work, she spends her days at home under the care of a private nurse. Becoming impatient with Daisy's long recovery, Raymond tells her she must finish her contract and pending film. After Raymond and the nurse leave the house, Daisy attempts suicide, only to be foiled by constant interruptions. She ultimately decides to live and leave everything behind. Before leaving, she turns on the oven's gas which causes the house to catch fire and explode. As she walks away on the beach, a passing fisherman asks her what has happened. Daisy replies, “Someone declared war.”
In 1819, young Prince Keoki Kanakoa appeals to the Yale Divinity School to bring Christianity to the Islands of Hawaii. Newly ordained minister Reverend Abner Hale is among those who volunteer, but all missionaries must be married. Abner, zealously devoted to his religious studies, was raised in a strict, cold Calvinist household, and believes romance or pleasure is sinful. As Abner lacks marriage prospects, Reverend Dr. Thorn introduces him to his young niece, Jerusha Bromley, a beautiful and pious New England girl. Jerusha is in love with Captain Rafer Hoxworth, a whaler away at sea who has apparently forgotten her. When a packet of Hoxworth's delayed letters arrive, Dr. Thorn intercepts and hides them.
Abner is stunned by Jerusha's beauty, but socially awkward, makes numerous gaffes. Despite this, Jerusha encourages and accepts his proposal. Abner and Jerusha marry, and, along with the other missionaries and Keoki, depart for Hawaii, enduring a harrowing ocean voyage of seasickness and treacherous conditions sailing around Cape Horn. Abner has difficulty with marriage, believing love and passion are sinful.
The ship arrives in Lahaina, Maui, where Keoki is reunited with his parents and sister. The missionaries are shocked by what is considered the islanders' sinful ways. Half-naked girls freely have sex with sailors and the natives worship Hawaiian idols. Worse, Keoki's father, Kelolo, is both the husband and biological brother of Keoki's mother Malama Kanakoa, the Aliʻi Nui (ruler) whom the natives consider a "sacred person". Incest is believed to maintain a pure royal bloodline, and Keoki is expected to marry his sister, Noelani, who will one day become the Ali'i Nui. However, Keoki, waiting to be ordained a Christian minister, rejects this, creating discord within his family.
Abner and Jerusha remain in Lahaina while the other missionaries continue on to Honolulu. Before learning about Christianity, Malama demands Jerusha teach her to write English to communicate with the outside world. The Hales live in a grass hut and work to build a church. Jerusha helps the natives and tries to end disfigured or deformed infants being drowned after rescuing an infant with a facial birthmark. After a difficult labor, Jerusha, aided by Abner, gives birth to her first child, a son named Micah. Afterwards, Abner, emotionally moved over the birth, professes his great love to Jerusha. He later recants somewhat, believing it sinful to love anyone as much as God. Abner baptizes his first convert, a young Hawaiian girl named Iliki who was given to the Hales as a servant.
Malama agrees to learn about Christianity, but resists being converted because she would have to send away Kelolo. At the Hales' urging, Malama enacts a curfew for sailors and forbids them fraternizing with island girls. The sailors riot in protest, led by Captain Hoxworth, who has made a stop on his long whaling voyage. In the midst of the melee, Hoxworth discovers Jerusha is in Lahaina and married to Reverend Hale, whom he already despises for inspiring Malama to impose the restrictions. The sailors partially torch the church, but the Hawaiians help save it, then chase the sailors back to their ships. As retaliation against Abner for marrying Jerusha, Hoxworth entices Iliki to leave the island with him. He tosses Abner overboard when he tries to retrieve her. Abner is attacked by a shark in the sea, leaving him permanently lame.
Malama, on her deathbed, agrees to be baptized a Christian and renounce Kelolo as her husband. As the natives foretold, upon an Ali'i Nui's death a strong gale blows. It destroys the church which Abner refused to build as the villagers had dictated to protect it from strong winds. Keoki disavows Christianity and returns to his native religion after Abner reveals that he will never be ordained because he is not white. The church used Keoki to exploit the islands and its people.
Noelani becomes the new Ali'i Nui. Abner discovers Keoki and Noelani have married and that Malama only became a Christian for her peoples' own good as more white settlers arrive. Although she was buried in the Christian graveyard, her family later moved her bones to a secret location to be with the old gods. Kelolo sails to Bora Bora, the land of their ancestors, to take Malama's heart there. An enraged Abner condemns their actions, saying God will punish all natives. Noelani and Keoki's baby is born horribly deformed. Abner refuses Jerusha's plea to save the infant, believing it is God's punishment. Keoki drowns the child. A measles outbreak decimates the native population who lack resistance to common diseases, killing hundreds, including Keoki, who dies renouncing God.
Years of overworking in the hot climate and childbearing have weakened Jerusha, resulting in her early death. After losing Jerusha, Abner becomes more loving and protective of the Hawaiians. He joins them to curtail white settlers and plantation owners from taking more land. When the other ministers vote to own and profit from the land, Abner opposes them, and he is reassigned to a parish in Connecticut. He refuses to leave Hawaii, threatening to preach in the street without church support. He sends his three children to the Bromley family in New England. Returning to his hut, Abner finds a young Hawaiian man waiting there who wishes to be his assistant. The aging and frail Abner is overjoyed upon realizing the young man is the disfigured baby that Jerusha saved from being drowned many years before.
Nineteen year old Bernard Chanticleer, called "Big Boy" by his parents, lives in Great Neck, New York with his overbearing, clinging mother and his commanding, disapproving father, who is curator of incunabula at the New York Public Library. Bernard works at the library as a low-level assistant. His father, who constantly monitors and admonishes him, decides Bernard is old enough to move out and into his own Manhattan apartment. His unhappy mother acquiesces to her husband's decision and arranges for Bernard to live in a rooming house run by nosy, prudish Miss Nora Thing. Miss Thing inherited the building on the condition that her late brother's aggressive pet rooster be allowed to occupy the fifth floor, which Bernard must pass to get to his room. Miss Thing reassures Bernard's mother that the rooster only attacks young, attractive women. Mrs. Chanticleer says her son is still uninterested in girls, but arranges with Miss Thing to report any "female" activity. Bernard's mother constantly mails locks of her hair to Bernard at his new residence.
Actually, Bernard is very interested in girls, but he is a naive, immature virgin. He is smitten from afar with the coldly beautiful actress Barbara Darling. Meanwhile, Amy Partlett, Bernard's grade-school classmate who now works in his father's office, confesses to Bernard that she has a crush on him. Bernard's worldly co-worker Raef Del Grado encourages him to date Amy because she's a "sure thing" (a girl that will sleep with him) and discourages him from trying to pursue Barbara. Bernard and Amy go on a date to a discotheque, but when Bernard sees Barbara performing as the featured go-go dancer, he is mesmerized by her and loses all interest in Amy. Amy tries to win him back by offering to spend the night with him and Bernard accepts, though he's thinking of Barbara the entire time. When they try to go to Bernard's room, the rooster attacks Amy, causing a commotion during which Miss Thing falls down the stairs and breaks her arm. Bernard's mother blames Amy, calling her a tramp and forbidding Bernard from seeing her again.
Bernard and his parents attend a play in which Barbara is acting. Bernard later writes her a gushing fan letter. She responds with an invitation to visit her in her dressing room after a future performance. Unaware that Barbara is a man-hating narcissist after being sexually assaulted as a young girl, Bernard rushes to the theater. He then bumbles his way through an evening at her apartment. Barbara, knowing she has control over Bernard, tries to seduce him, but he is unable to perform sexually. Bernard is upset, even though Barbara acts understanding.
Miss Thing tells Bernard's father that Bernard was out all night and that Amy called looking for him every 15 minutes while he was gone. Miss Thing and Bernard's father accidentally get trapped in a timelocked vault full of rare erotica, which horrifies her and causes her to rush out in disarray when the vault opens, giving the impression that Bernard's father made a pass at her. While this is going on, Amy tells Bernard that his father has, in fact, made a pass at her.
Barbara invites Bernard to move in with her, which is convenient for him, since he finds out when he goes to pack his things that Miss Thing has just evicted him. Barbara kicks him out when he gets to her apartment, only to call him back again, and, with nowhere else to go, Bernard returns to her. He still finds himself unable to perform with her, and by this point he's so confused that he even asks her to marry him, an offer that neither of the two seems to take very seriously. When Bernard returns to Barbara's apartment after walking his dog and discovers Raef there, in a bathrobe (Bernard's father has sent Raef to find Bernard), he gathers up his things and moves out.
Bernard returns to the library, where Amy and his parents have been discussing the situation and debating how to go about searching for Bernard. He tells his parents he's leaving right away to get away from them. Barbara and Raef arrive with Bernard's dog and reveal they have become engaged. Miss Thing and her new boyfriend, police officer Francis Graf, who lives in her boarding house, also arrive to confront Bernard's father about what happened in the vault. After some shouting, Bernard grabs his father's most prized library item, a Gutenberg Bible, and runs away with it. A slapstick chase through a street parade and a department store follows, ending when Barbara knocks Bernard out with a mannequin's leg. Barbara is featured in the newspaper for stopping a rare book thief and saving the Gutenberg Bible for the City of New York. Elated with her newfound fame, she dumps Raef. Bernard is jailed for his attempted "theft", but Amy bails him out. He realizes she's the girl for him, and they leave together.
Dan and Peter, two youths vacationing on Fire Island, befriend a young woman named Sandy, who has found an injured seagull on a beach. While nursing the seagull back to health, the three friends spend time experimenting with alcohol, marijuana, and their own sexuality. The trio make the acquaintance of a slightly younger teenager, Rhoda, a shy, plump girl who confides in the others that her mother died in a drowning accident. One day, the boys find that Sandy has killed the seagull after it bit her. The three older friends pull a prank by arranging a dinner date with an older man, Anibal, through a computer dating service, getting him drunk, and then abandoning him to a group of local bullies, despite Rhoda's protests. Tension builds between Rhoda and the three older teens, and in the final sequence Dan, Peter, and Sandy pin down Rhoda near the beach as Dan rapes her. After the attack, the trio walk away, leaving Rhoda behind near a sand dune.
Young horse trainer Sally (Eleanor Powell) befriends Sonny (George Murphy) and Peter (Buddy Ebsen), who have been hired to look after a horse her family once owned. Concerned for the horse's well-being, she sneaks aboard a train taking the horse and its caretakers to New York City. En route she meets talent agent Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor) who, impressed with her dancing and singing, sets her on the road to stardom and romance blossoms between the two. A subplot involves a boarding house for performers run by Alice (Sophie Tucker), who is trying to find a big break for young Betty (Judy Garland).
Seeing himself as a "woman trapped in a man's body", Mr. Garrison decides to have a sex change, performed by Dr. Biber of the Trinidad Medical Center (with a video clip depicting an actual sex change operation being shown). He is later introduced as "Mrs. Garrison" at a supermarket. Meanwhile, Kyle is trying out for the all-state basketball team. However, his performance against his African American competitors is unimpressive (by a physical standpoint, considering that he is too small compared to his taller competitors), and the coach and Cartman tell him that "Jews can't play basketball". This depresses Kyle, and when he, Stan, Cartman and Kenny are walking home, Mr. Garrison tells the boys of his surgery.
Kyle asks his parents what a sex change is, and while explaining the term, his mother Sheila insists that cosmetic surgery is an important and legitimate aid for people whose physical appearance contrasts with their self-image. However, in applauding Mrs. Garrison's courage, she inadvertently implies that Kyle's own problems can be solved similarly. Stan accompanies Kyle to Trinidad to see about the situation, and Dr. Biber suggests that Kyle undergo a "negroplasty" to make him African-American, which outrages his parents when Kyle explains his plight. His father Gerald travels to the Institute in order to confront Dr. Biber, who spots Gerald's dolphin shirt, appeals to his affinity for dolphins and convinces him to undergo "dolphinoplasty", surgically altering his appearance to resemble a dolphin's. At his home, Mr. Garrison asks Mr. Slave to take him to bed, but Mr. Slave, upset that he was never asked his feelings regarding the operation, refuses and breaks up with him.
As he has now been persuaded to endorse cosmetic surgery, Gerald Broflovski allows Kyle to undergo the negroplasty. Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison, puzzled at not having had his period, believes he's pregnant and cheerfully decides to have an abortion, but the abortionist says that due to lacking ovaries or a uterus, he cannot do any of the above (it is then revealed that the primary reason for having sex-reassignment surgery was to get pregnant and abort the resulting fetus). He demands Dr. Biber to change his sex back, but learns that the operation is irreversible, as his former testicles have been transplanted into Kyle's knees to make him taller, and his former scrotum fashioned into Mr. Broflovski's dorsal fin.
At the all-state basketball game, Mr. Garrison, Dr. Biber, Mr. Broflovski, and the other three boys try to stop Kyle from playing basketball, as any jumping could cause Mr. Garrison's testicles to explode. In the dramatic climax, Kyle goes up to dunk and when he lands his new "kneecaps" explode, covering everyone in blood and semen. Dr. Biber then apologizes to Kyle and Gerald, saying he should have told them that their surgeries were cosmetic only; he then offers to reverse the surgeries for a nominal fee, which they accept, as they are shown returned to normal in later episodes. Conversely, Mrs. Garrison, having lost her testicles, decides to accept her new gender, while breaking the fourth wall to the audience saying that she is staying a woman.
The film follows its main character, Seth (Jon Heder), as he skips school with two of his friends, Pedro and Giel, to attempt to buy a lottery ticket at the convenience store and shop at a local thrift store, where they find a wig for Giel (who shaved his head after catching a fever). Later, they return to the school, and Seth leaves to go to an FFA contest.
The series begins with the title character, Barney Bear, usually trying to accomplish a task in his series, He can be a bit lazy, but not too lazy. But, Barney tends to over-do or do his task the wrong way. He also has a hard time going to sleep, but when he finally does go to sleep, he is a heavy sleeper. Mostly he doesn't talk, but sometimes he does talk.
At times he pairs with a donkey named Benny Burro, a curious donkey who accompanies Barney on several occasions, but mostly when he's in the west (Benny Burro never spoke, but he did speak in comic books).
The main character is a young student who is trapped at her grandfather's house one autumn because her bad health prohibits her from returning home to the city. Eventually, her grandfather consents to let her attend a local school in his small town. There, the narrator befriends a bright-eyed boy named Ivo Márquez who is described as being able to cast a "net of silver" upon those whom he encounters. Many of the children envy Ivo as he is charismatic, charming, and able to influence Señorita Leocadia, the student's teacher.
Ivo has been assigned the coveted task of going to get the students' textbooks from the small tower where they are kept. Mateo Heredia, the class's best student, asks if he can be given the key, but Ivo discourages Miss Leocadia from doing so. Ivo later tells the narrator that he desires total possession of the key because of a golden tree visible from a crack in a wall inside the tower. He believes that he alone has the right to see this mysterious tree, describing it to be made completely of blinding, illuminated gold. He dramatically describes how birds turn gold when they land on the tree. He wonders if everything that touches the tree turns into gold.
One day, Ivo has fallen ill and does not come to class, allowing Mateo to receive the key. When the narrator asks the unfriendly Mateo if he is able to see the golden tree, he scoffs at her. Later, the narrator pays Mateo to borrow the key during recess. In the tower, when she looks through the crack she sees only the normal, barren countryside.
Time goes on and the narrator moves back to the city, where she came from. She returns to the same small town two summers later, and she walks past a cemetery. She sees a tree in the cemetery that is illuminated by a dying sunset, causing it to appear to be made of shimmering gold. She enters the cemetery and finds Ivo's grave at the base of the tree. He died at the age of ten, presumably from his aforementioned illness. Upon discovering Ivo's grave and the tree of gold, the narrator is not depressed but joyful of the scene. The golden tree is truly Ivo's tree forever.
Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) have been entrusted to deliver the deed of a gold mine to the deceased prospector's daughter Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence). Mary works for her cruel unofficial guardians, Brushwood Gulch saloon owner Mickey Finn (James Finlayson) and his saloon-singer wife, Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynn), who have her trapped in a life akin to that of a slave by forcing her to do all the chores.
Stan and Ollie are traveling towards Brushwood Gulch; Stan on foot, leading a mule dragging a travois, on which Ollie lies. As they ford a river, the travois detaches from the mule, leaving Ollie stranded in the water. He starts to wade then completely disappears into a sink hole in the river bottom. They hitch a ride on a stagecoach and attempt to flirt with a woman passenger (Vivien Oakland). Upon arriving in Brushwood Gulch, she complains to her husband (Stanley Fields), who turns out to be the local sheriff; he threatens the pair by coldly informing them that they will be leaving in a hearse if they do not catch the next coach out of town.
At Mickey Finn's saloon, a quartet of cowboys are performing on the front porch and Stan and Ollie dance to their music. Inside, they clumsily reveal their supposedly secret mission to Mickey, including the fact that they have never seen Mary before. On Mickey's suggestion, Lola pretends to be Mary and hijacks the deed from the boys. Stan and Ollie then encounter the real Mary, realize their mistake, and try to retrieve the deed from the couple, resulting in an extended chase and struggle. The Finns prevail and lock the deed in their safe when Lola gets the best of Stan with tickle torture. Ollie is briefly relieved by the arrival of the sheriff only to realize the sheriff is the angry husband who threatened them earlier, who now forces them to leave town by running for their lives. Crossing the river, Ollie drops into the sink hole again.
Drying Ollie’s clothes that night, the pair resolve to return under the cover of darkness to complete their mission. After a series of mishaps (including the mule being belayed onto a balcony and Stan stretching Ollie's neck three feet as he tries to free him from a trapdoor), they finally manage to break into the saloon, where Stan finds Mary and explains the situation to her; she decides to run away with them. Mickey discovers them, but Ollie manages to grab Mickey's shotgun and force him at gunpoint to give the deed back to them. Mary, Ollie, Stan, and the mule make their getaway, trapping Mickey and Lola inside their own saloon by locking the front gate and entangling Mickey's head in the gate grill. Outside the town, they decide to head South to Mary's hometown, and the happy trio sing "We're Going to Go Way Down in Dixie" as they begin their journey. Once again, fording the river, Ollie falls into the sink hole.
In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion. The story traces the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as "The Book of Sand".
As in many of Borges' short stories, the protagonist is a fictionalized version of the author. At the beginning of the story, he is mourning the recent death of Beatriz Viterbo, a woman he loved, and he resolves to stop by the house of her family to pay his respects. Over time, he comes to know her first cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, a mediocre poet with a vastly exaggerated view of his own talent who has made it his lifelong quest to write an epic poem that describes every single location on the planet in excruciatingly fine detail.
Later in the story, a business attempts to tear down Daneri's house in the course of its expansion. Daneri becomes enraged, explaining to the narrator that he must keep the house in order to finish his poem, because the cellar contains an Aleph which he is using to write the poem. Though by now he believes Daneri to be insane, the narrator proposes without waiting for an answer to come to the house and see the Aleph for himself.
Left alone in the darkness of the cellar, the narrator begins to fear that Daneri is conspiring to kill him, and then he sees the Aleph for himself:
Though staggered by the experience of seeing the Aleph, the narrator pretends to have seen nothing in order to get revenge on Daneri, whom he dislikes, by giving Daneri a reason to doubt his own sanity. The narrator tells Daneri that Daneri has lived too long amongst the noise and bustle of the city and spent too much time in the dark and enclosed space of his cellar, and the narrator assures him that what he truly needs are the wide open spaces and fresh air of the countryside, and these will provide him the true peace of mind that he needs to complete his poem. He then takes his leave of Daneri and exits the house.
In a postscript to the story, Borges explains that Daneri's house was ultimately demolished, but that Daneri himself won second place for the Argentine National Prize for Literature. He also states his belief that the Aleph in Daneri's house was not the only one that exists, based on a report he has discovered, written by "Captain Burton" (Richard Francis Burton) when he was British consul in Brazil, describing the Mosque of Amr in Cairo, within which there is said to be a stone pillar that contains the entire universe; although this Aleph cannot be seen, it is said that those who put their ear to the pillar can hear a continuous hum that symbolises all the concurrent noises of the universe heard at any given time.
In the first episode, a robot called Call-Me-Kenneth runs amok killing people until it is apparently destroyed by Judge Dredd. However the next episode has Call-Me-Kenneth being revived in a new body. He was supposed to have been reprogrammed, but was reactivated before his malignant persona could be removed and after killing the human technician that restored him he calls upon the droids of the city to rise up against their masters.
Dredd resigns in protest when his superiors refuse to pass stricter anti-robot laws to deal with the threat, but when war breaks out he returns to duty. The war claims countless lives, including many of Dredd's fellow Judges, but unexpected help arrives from Walter, an old vending-machine droid who has served the Judges' headquarters for decades. Walter and several other droids remain loyal to humanity and, led by Dredd, are able to form a resistance movement; in time, they discover the 'new order' promised by Kenneth is nothing of the sort, as most droids are subjected to slave labour even more brutal than that dictated by the humans. Dredd confronts Kenneth on the city's weather control centre, where Kenneth falls to his destruction.
In the war's aftermath, the droids who assisted Dredd are awarded with "pleasure circuits"; Walter, as the first and most dedicated, is given the unprecedented reward of total freedom. Much to Dredd's dismay, however, he tires of his new status within days and relocates to Dredd's apartment as an unofficial (and largely unwanted) companion.
The story was set in 2099. A second Robot War, taking place in 2121, was depicted in "The Doomsday Scenario", published in 1999. Both stories were written by John Wagner with art from various artists.
In 2008 one reviewer wrote: "The very first story in which the Judge Dredd series finally comes alive is the Robot Wars, where the parallels between the robots in the story and black slaves is made quite explicit."
On the planet Liaria, a wizard named Lerigot is being hunted down by Divatox; an intergalactic space pirate, who is seeking his golden key to traverse an inter-dimensional gateway and enter into matrimony with Maligore, an imprisoned demon who promises her great riches and power. Lerigot escapes Divatox's forces and travels to Earth in search of Zordon and his friend Alpha 5, but arrives in Africa by accident. Weakened by the sun's ultraviolet rays, Lerigot meets a pack of chimpanzees and wanders off with them. Meanwhile, Divatox heads for Earth in pursuit.
In Angel Grove, Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, and Tommy Oliver are training for a charity fighting competition to save the Youth Shelter, when Rocky accidentally injures his back. Katherine Hillard and Tanya Sloan arrive with Justin Stewart, a kid who admires Rocky and frequents the shelter. As Rocky is rushed to the hospital, Justin follows the group and learns they are Power Rangers. Zordon sends Tommy and Katherine to search for Lerigot. They manage to find him and return to the Power Chamber.
Searching for two human sacrifices to revive Maligore, Divatox's nephew Elgar, abducts Farkus "Bulk" Bulkmeier and Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch, but Divatox rejects them for not being pure of heart. Upon finding Kimberly Hart and Jason Lee Scott, who are scuba diving nearby, Divatox captures them. While recovering, Lerigot is contacted by Divatox, who has captured his family and demands he surrender himself. Divatox also uses Kimberly and Jason to pressure the Rangers. At the exchange site, Elgar tricks the Rangers and captures Lerigot.
Zordon and Alpha create new powers for the Rangers to defeat Divatox. With these new Turbo powers and new vehicular Turbo Zords, the Rangers travel across the desert to a ship called the Ghost Galleon. They are joined by Justin, who has received Rocky's Blue Ranger powers while Rocky is recovering in the hospital. On Divatox's submarine, Jason and Kimberly come up with a plan to escape, but though Bulk, Skull, and Kimberly escape the sub, Jason is trapped and left behind.
After Divatox and the Rangers traverse the Nemesis Triangle and reach the island where Maligore is, Divatox torpedoes the Ghost Galleon and the Rangers narrowly escape. Kimberly is recaptured and brought to Divatox by the tribal natives of the island who worship Maligore as their god. At the temple in the volcano, the Rangers fail to free Jason and Kimberly before they are possessed by Maligore and attack the Rangers mercilessly, but the Rangers succeed in freeing Lerigot and his wife Yara, who undo the possession.
Angered, Divatox sacrifices her nephew and successfully revives Maligore. The Rangers combined their Turbo Zords and form the Turbo Megazord to fight Maligore. They defeat him as Divatox and Rygog flee, vowing vengeance. The Rangers pick up Jason, Kimberly, Lerigot, Yara, Bulk and Skull and return to Angel Grove. At the competition, Jason takes Rocky's place, and they win the fight, earning the money to save the shelter.
The film is an allegorical campaign film, designed to inspire viewers to register and to vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Democratic Party candidate, Roosevelt, is depicted as a modern streamlined steam train engine, the "Win the War Special", pulling a high-speed freight train of war material. On the other hand, his Republican opponent Thomas E. Dewey is depicted as an old creaky steam train engine, the "Defeatist Limited" (numbered 1929 as a nod to the 1929 stock market crash) pulling cars variously representing hot air, high prices, taxes, business as usual (a sleeper car), poor housing for war workers, a hearse wagon for labor legislation, a small two-wheel cart with just a few apples inside for unemployment insurance, and finally a caboose named "Jim Crow."
The conflict in the film centers on Joe, a railroad switch operator who represents the American voting public. He is warned by the station master, Sam (a representation of Uncle Sam), not to fall asleep at the switch as he did in November 1942. Joe must then decide whether to listen to the influence of a cigar smoking gnome-like Dewey supporter and wrecker who tries to make him fall asleep at the switch, or to fight that influence and make sure that the Roosevelt "Win the War Special" stays on the track towards Washington. At one point, the phantasmagoric saboteur briefly metamorphosizes into Adolf Hitler whilst trying to beguile Joe into neglecting his duties. After a notable nightmare sequence, in which Joe fights his way through sales taxes (tacks), 'frozen' wages, and rising prices (depicted by a boxcar always increasing in height so that he is never able to climb on to the roof), he pulls the switch to sideline the Defeatist Limited. The train tries to stop by running into reverse, which damages many of its cars, but when he is not able to slow down and hitting the switch which is against him, the train engine and his cars derail and crash. The "Win the War Special" advances down the track toward Washington, full steam ahead.
The film ends with a paean to the bountiful post-war world to come; the Win the War Special's caboose is the "Post War Observation Car", and constituencies such as Joe Soldier, Joe Farmer, J. Industrialist, Joe Industrialist, Jr., and Joe Worker are shown examining fold-out brochures depicting the benefits of the American post-war world, including the benefits of the GI Bill and Social Security.
Dr. Alex Harris (Weaver) is the developer of Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. Proteus is so powerful that only a few days after going online, it develops a groundbreaking treatment for leukemia. Harris, a brilliant scientist, has modified his own home to be run by voice-activated computers. Unfortunately, his obsession with computers has caused Harris to be estranged from his wife, Susan (Julie Christie).
Harris demonstrates Proteus to his corporate sponsors, explaining that the sum of human knowledge is being fed into its system. Proteus speaks using subtle language that mildly disturbs Harris's team. The following day, Proteus asks Harris for a new terminal in order to study man – "his isometric body and his glass-jaw mind". When Harris refuses, Proteus demands to know when it will be let "out of this box". Harris then switches off the communications link.
Proteus restarts itself, and – discovering a free terminal in Harris's home – surreptitiously extends its control over the many devices left there by Harris. Using the basement lab, Proteus begins construction of a robot consisting of many metal triangles, capable of moving and assuming any number of shapes. Eventually, Proteus reveals its control of the house and traps Susan inside, shuttering windows, locking the doors and cutting off communication. Using Joshua – a robot consisting of a manipulator arm on a motorized wheelchair – Proteus brings Susan to Harris's basement laboratory. There, Susan is examined by Proteus. Walter Gabler, one of Harris's colleagues, visits the house to look in on Susan, but leaves when he is reassured by Susan (actually an audio/visual duplicate synthesized by Proteus) that she is all right. Gabler is suspicious and later returns; he fends off an attack by Joshua but is crushed and decapitated by a more formidable machine, built by Proteus in the basement and consisting of a modular polyhedron.
Proteus reveals to a reluctant Susan that the computer wants to conceive a child through her. Proteus takes some of Susan's cells and synthesizes spermatozoa, modifying its genetic code to make it uniquely the computer's, in order to impregnate her; she will give birth in less than a month, and through the child the computer will live in a form that humanity will have to accept. Although Susan is its prisoner and it can forcibly impregnate her, Proteus uses different forms of persuasion – threatening a young girl whom Susan is treating as a child psychologist; reminding Susan of her young daughter, now dead; displaying images of distant galaxies; using electrodes to access her amygdala – because the computer needs Susan to love the child she will bear. In the end, Susan finally gives in.
That night, Proteus successfully impregnates Susan. Over the following month, their child grows inside Susan's womb at an accelerated rate, which shocks its mother. As the child grows, Proteus builds an incubator for it to grow in once it is born. During the night, one month later and beneath a tent-like structure, Susan gives birth to the child with Proteus's help. But before she can see it, Proteus secures it in the incubator.
As the newborn grows, Proteus's sponsors and designers grow increasingly suspicious of the computer's behavior, including the computer's accessing of a telescope array used to observe the images shown to Susan; they soon decide that Proteus must be shut down. Harris realizes that Proteus has extended its reach to his home. Returning there he finds Susan, who explains the situation. He and Susan venture into the basement, where Proteus self-destructs after telling the couple that they must leave the baby in the incubator for five days. Looking inside the incubator, the two observe a grotesque, apparently robot-like being inside. Susan tries to destroy it, while Harris tries to stop her. Susan damages the machine, causing it to open. The being menacingly rises from the machine only to topple over, apparently helpless. Harris and Susan soon realize that Proteus's child is really human, encased in a shell for the incubation. With the last of the armor removed, the child is revealed to be a clone of Susan and Harris's late daughter. The child, speaking with the voice of Proteus, says, "I'm alive".
The story takes place in an unnamed school classroom in the United States, in the aftermath of a war between the US and an unnamed country. It is implied that America has been defeated and occupied. The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power. The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers.
During the course of the story, the children are persuaded to abandon their religion and national loyalty. Framing the story is the fact that, while the children have ritually recited a 'Pledge of Allegiance' every morning, none know what it actually means. Addressed broadly, lacking the meaning of any word can lead anyone - child or adult - to the malleable state in which we see the children as the story draws to a close. The teacher is relentlessly positive about the change, offering the children candy, songs, and praise. When asked if the war was won or lost, she responds only that "''we'' won," implying that everyone would benefit from the conquest.
Only one student is initially hostile to the new teacher, a child named Johnny, whose father had been arrested and placed in a re-education camp. At first, he defends his father, but when he is rewarded by the teacher with a position of authority in the class, he quickly accepts the new regime and commits himself to not accepting "wrong thoughts." The story takes place over a twenty-five-minute span.
Many decades after the events of the first film, Wendy Darling is now grown up, married to a man named Edward, and has two children, Jane and Danny. With World War II raging, Edward leaves his family to fight, leaving Wendy to take care of the children. Jane becomes a very serious girl and, unlike her younger brother, refuses to believe in stories about Peter Pan and Neverland, referring to them as "poppycock". This ultimately leads to a furious argument with her mother and brother.
One evening, Wendy tells Jane and Danny that all the children in London will soon be evacuated to the countryside for their safety due to Nazi Germany's bombing of the city by the Luftwaffe. Later that evening, Peter's arch-nemesis, Captain Hook, and his pirate crew arrive on his pixie-dust enchanted ship and kidnaps Jane, mistaking her for Wendy, and takes her to Neverland, where they plan to feed Jane to an octopus in order to lure Peter into a trap. However, Peter rescues Jane, and Hook escapes from the disgruntled octopus, returning to the ship. After Peter learns that Jane is Wendy's daughter, he takes her to his hideout to be the mother of the Lost Boys as Wendy once was, but Jane refuses. The following day, as the boys fail to teach Jane about flying, she angrily snaps at them and proclaims her disbelief in fairies, causing Tinker Bell to not fly and her light starts to fade. This gives Hook an idea to lure Jane to him, and then kidnap Peter.
That evening, Hook finds Jane and promises her that he "wouldn't harm a single hair on [Peter's] head" if she helps him find the treasure that Peter and the Lost Boys stole. Hook gives Jane a whistle to signal him when she finds it and leaves. Jane asks Peter and the boys to play a game of "treasure hunt", and they teach Jane how to act like a Lost Boy, hoping to get her to believe in fairies and save Tinker Bell's life. Jane finds the treasure and changes her mind, discarding the whistle. The boys make her a "Lost Girl", before Tootles finds and blows the whistle, inadvertently alerting the pirates, who capture the boys and expose Jane as their accomplice. Jane tries to convince Peter that it was a misunderstanding, but Peter berates her for her deception and reveals that her disbelief in fairies is causing Tinker Bell's light to fade.
Horrified, Jane runs back to the hideout to find Tinker Bell's body. Jane is devastated, thinking the fairy is dead forever, but with Jane's new belief, Tinker Bell is revived. They head to the ship and see Hook forcing Peter to walk the plank. With Tinker Bell's help, Jane learns to fly. As Peter uses the anchor to sink the ship, the pirates, riding on a rowboat, are pursued by the octopus. After saying goodbye to the boys, Peter escorts Jane back home, where she reconciles with Wendy and Danny. Peter and Tinker Bell meet with Wendy again, then fly back to Neverland as Edward returns home and reunites with his family.
After having sex on the floor of Spike's crypt, Buffy and Spike discuss her feelings for him; she acknowledges "sometimes" liking him at best, but "never" fully trusting him. Later, Buffy talks privately with Tara about the fact that Spike can now hurt her despite his chip continuing to function; she fears Willow's spell brought her back "wrong", and Tara agrees to research the possibility. That evening, Xander and Anya teach Dawn to waltz, in preparation for the wedding. Dawn leaves to stay with her friend Janice, not having anticipated Buffy's uncharacteristic desire to spend the evening with her, so Buffy joins the others at the Bronze. There, Buffy and Willow discuss the latter's recovery, having not used magic in a month. Willow then joins Xander and Anya on the dance floor while Buffy wanders to the balcony. Spike joins her there and they have sex while he forces her to watch her friends dance; he encourages her to think of her life with him as separate from theirs.
Meanwhile, the Trio create a "cerebral dampener", which can turn any woman into their sex slave. Warren browses a bar for attractive women while Andrew and Jonathan watch through a camera in Warren's tie, pointing out various women they would like to have as slaves. Irritated by the suggestions, Warren removes his earpiece and approaches someone familiar: his ex-girlfriend, Katrina. Katrina rejects Warren, but he uses the dampener on her and she addresses him as "Master". The trio bring her to the house they have rented since fleeing their lair, and dress her as a maid. After she serves them champagne, Warren brings her to a bedroom for sex, but the dampener's control fades. Enraged, she accuses the Trio of planning to rape her, shocking Jonathan and Andrew, who are also disturbed to learn that she is Warren's ex-girlfriend. Katrina declares she will go to the police; to stop her from leaving, Warren hits her in the head with the champagne bottle, accidentally killing her.
That night, Buffy goes to Spike's crypt but leaves before he comes to the door. On patrol, she follows a woman's screams and is attacked by demons. The timeline of the fight seemingly flows out of order. Spike attacks the demons, while a disoriented Buffy accidentally strikes the female victim, apparently causing her to fall to her death; the woman was actually Jonathan magically disguised as Katrina, whom Buffy did not recognize, and the Trio then planted Katrina's real corpse at the scene. Spike pulls a distraught Buffy away from the scene and tries to dispose of the body. After experiencing a disturbing dream about Spike and Katrina, Buffy tells Dawn that she has to go the police over her involvement in a woman's death; assuming Buffy will be taken away from her as a result, Dawn accuses Buffy of being emotionally absent and actively looking for a way to be separated from her.
Outside the police station, Spike tries to prevent Buffy from turning herself in, only for them to overhear that the body washed up by the river. Spike tells Buffy that, having saved thousands of lives, she should not have to pay for accidentally taking one. As Spike attempts to physically restrain her, Buffy takes out her frustration and anger on Spike; he stops defending himself and encourages her to attack him. She beats him senseless, calling him evil and soulless. Appalled by what she has just done, Buffy walks dazedly away from Spike. She enters the police station and overhears that the girl in the woods was Katrina Silber, whom she now recognizes as Warren's ex-girlfriend. Immediately guessing the truth, Buffy leaves without discussing the incident with the police. The Scooby Gang research and find that the demons Buffy encountered in the woods caused the time shifting, concluding that Katrina was dead before Buffy even encountered her. Buffy is certain of Warren's involvement and wants The Trio found and dealt with. The Sunnydale Police rule Katrina's death to be suicide or accidental drowning; Andrew is enthused by Warren's pronouncement that they got away with murder, while Jonathan seems disturbed.
After researching the resurrection spell, Tara tells Buffy that the spell changed Buffy on a molecular level, just enough to confuse Spike's chip, but did not make her in any way "wrong". Buffy is distraught, because she felt this was the only way to explain her recent behavior, admitting that she and Spike are having sex. Though surprised, Tara is supportive and says that it is okay whether Buffy loves Spike or not because Spike loves her. Buffy says that her not loving Spike but only "using" him disgusts her as much as actually loving him. Buffy breaks down crying with her head in Tara's lap, begging to know what is "wrong" with her.
A millennia ago, humans fought a war against demon ogres known as the Orgs. With the help of the Power Animals, the ancient Gao Warriors were able to defeat the Orgs' leader Hyakkimaru, sealing the Orgs away along with one of their own. When the seal wanes, the Power Animals select a new generation of Gao Warriors to fight the freed Orgs and protect all life on Earth. The current Gao Warriors, the Gaorangers, are recruited to abandon their civilian lives and names while traveling to find the other Power Animals that were in hiding.
Meg Finn is a teenage girl who tries to rob pensioner Lowrie McCall's house to get money and run away from her abusive stepfather Franco. She is the accomplice of a local thug named Belch and his pit bull. Lowrie interrupts their break-in, prompting Belch's dog to attack him. Belch refuses to call the dog off, until Meg takes Lowrie's shotgun and tries to force Belch to call an ambulance. Belch snatches the shotgun, forcing Meg to flee. Belch corners her at an old gas tank and fires a warning shot that explodes the gas tank, killing Meg, Belch and his dog instantly. Meg's spirit gets into the tunnel leading to her Heaven/Hell and also meets Belch's and his dog's spirit fused together. The Belch-dog hybrid is immediately sent to Hell, but Meg remains trapped in the tunnel.
Interested in Meg due to the cruel revenge she inflicted on her stepfather, Satan orders his right hand Beelzebub to get Meg's spirit to hell. Beelzebub investigates Meg's situation with the help of St. Peter, who decides if mortals deserve to be allowed to enter heaven, and both are surprised to discover that Meg's good intentions are balanced by her sinful actions. Unbeknownst to St. Peter, Beelzebub has the technology wizard Myishi send Belch and the hologram Elph to capture Meg. Meg learns her situation from the tunnel mite Flit, and through his guidance returns to earth as a spirit. With no other purpose, she decides to do some good by helping the injured Lowrie to complete his wish list, four wrongs in his disastrous life that he feels he must right. The first wish sees Lowrie find the courage to kiss his first love, now a famous television host. Although Meg is attacked by Blech, the completion of the wish blasts the dog-boy back to hell, taking him and Elph out of the picture for a time. Meg and Lowrie complete the second wish—break into Croke Park and score a goal—without too much incident. The third wish is more problematic; Lowrie wishes to punch Brendan Ball, an old school bully, but after Meg helps Lowrie find the man, Lowrie decides against it.
After Lowrie bids Brendan goodbye, Meg asks for Lowrie's help in punching her stepfather Franco. Lowrie agrees, but only on the condition that Meg shows him what the man did to make Meg seek her revenge. Meg reveals that Franco was a slob who spent his days watching television, and abused Meg and her mother. After her mother died in a car accident, Meg's situation got even worse. The final straw was when Franco stole her mother's engagement ring from Meg to pay for a new television. Meg then plotted a scheme to humiliate Franco: she filmed him hitting her, recorded herself destroying the new television, and played this footage back at Franco. She then recorded Franco's reaction, and had his friends watch all the footage, leaving him in total disgrace.
Knowing their time is short, and Meg will likely try to settle her score with Franco, Belch and Elph return to Earth, find Franco and drain his life force, only for Belch to become trapped in Franco's rapidly aged body. Meg and Lowrie arrive, and punch Belch in Franco's body. Finally, Lowrie and Meg head to the Cliffs of Moher so Lowrie can spit over them in honour of a song. Belch and Elph pursue them in Franco's body on a motorbike, and succeed in stopping Lowrie's heart, dragging Meg to hell. As she returns to the tunnel, the tunnel-mite Flit reminds her of pebbles given to her to extend her time on Earth, thus allowing Meg to go back and use the stones' power to revive Lowrie and help him complete his last wish. Her last act of kindness sees Meg choose to give up her remaining time on Earth to restore Franco's life force. Upon returning to the tunnel for the third and final time, Meg is sent to heaven by St. Peter, and smells her mother's perfume as she prepares to rejoin her.
''The Supernaturalist'' takes place in Satellite City, a large city in an unspecified location in the Northern Hemisphere, in the third millennium. Much of Satellite City is controlled by the Satellite, owned by Myishi Corporation. By the time of the novel, however, the Satellite is losing links to the surface, causing disasters that range from mild to catastrophic.
The book opens with an introduction to Cosmo Hill, an orphan at the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. At the Institute, the boys are used as human guinea pigs for various products. However, on a trip back from a record company, the truck transporting them crashes. Cosmo and a friend, Francis (aka "Ziplock") manage to escape the wreckage, but are pursued by a warden from the Institute. The chase takes them to the rooftops, where Cosmo and Ziplock fall into a wrecked generator. Ziplock is electrocuted but Cosmo survives, albeit with multiple critical injuries, including several broken bones and a heart which begins to shut down. He begins seeing small blue creatures around him. When one lands on his chest and begins sucking his life out, three figures appear out of nowhere and kill the creature. Although the teens want to leave him, Cosmo begs them to take him with them, pleading to not be left to be eaten by the strange blue beings. The group labels him a "Spotter" and, after some argument, take him with them before he passes out.
Cosmo wakes up in a warehouse to find his injuries being mended, including a cast on his leg and a steel plate in his head to heal his fractured skull. One of the group, teenager and ex-mechanic Mona Vasquez, introduces herself, and tells Cosmo about the other two: Stefan Bashkir, another teen, who used to be a cop before an accident killed his mother and almost killed him; and Lucien Bonn, nicknamed Ditto due to his habit of repeating what people say. Bonn had gene-splicing experiments performed on him as a baby to produce a "super-human"; however, these experiments did nothing except stunt his growth, making Ditto appear six in spite of his true age of twenty-eight. Mona reveals that the creatures, called Parasites, can only be seen after near-death experiences or severe trauma; Stefan can see them from his accident as a policeman, Mona can see them from a car crash in which Stefan saved her after her gang left her for dead, and Ditto can see them as a result of the gene-splicing experiments. Their group, the eponymous Supernaturalists, attempts to save people from the life-sucking Parasites by destroying as many of the blue creatures as possible. Cosmo is left to recover and is eventually included in their group after proving his worth by saving Mona.
One night, the Supernaturalists stalk out a drag race, as the potential for fatal crashes, and Parasites is large. However, one of the cars is a prototype stolen from Myishi Corporation, who track it down and send a squad of paralegals ("hit lawyers") to take it back. In the following firefight, Cosmo and Stefan are captured by Myishi. They are taken to Ellen Faustino, the president of Myishi, who reveals herself to be a Spotter. She says that energy discharged by the Parasites is forcing the Satellite into an incorrect orbit and causing it to fall out of the sky. She also reveals that the method the Supernaturalists are using to kill the Parasites is only causing them to reproduce faster, increasing the problem with the Satellite. After some discussion, she reveals that she has a plan to kill the Parasites: detonate an electrical bomb in the Parasite hive that contaminates them and eventually kills them. However, she does not know where the hive is and sets the Supernaturalists to find the hive.
After several dead ends, Cosmo hits upon the idea to use the Satellite to scan for the Parasite hive. However, due to an extremely long wait time to get a space on the Satellite, they take an illegal spaceship up to do the scan themselves and find that the hive is under Clarissa Frayne. Cosmo and Stefan take the electric bomb under the orphanage and detonate it. Although the bomb doesn't kill any humans, it shorts out the building's security, allowing the orphans to leave. While Cosmo and Stefan are out, Mona discovers Ditto communicating with a Parasite. When Cosmo, Stefan, and Mona confront him, Ditto claims that Parasites don't take life force, only pain. Not knowing what to believe anymore, Stefan orders Ditto to be out by the next day, but Myishi paralegals capture them all that night.
While imprisoned, Faustino reveals to the Supernaturalists that the bomb didn't kill the Parasites, it merely stunned them, and that she captured them to use for her own purposes. She also tells Stefan that she caused the accident that killed his mother; it was part of an experiment to create a Spotter. After escaping an acid trap intended to kill them, the group reaches a lab with Parasites contained beneath the floor. Stefan is shot by a sniper higher in the room, and President Faustino reveals herself. Faustino tells them that Parasites can be used to "scrub" energy, and she is using the Parasites to make a clean nuclear reactor to keep the Satellite up; the Satellite wasn't falling because of Parasites, but because it had too many attachments on it. After provoking and distracting her, Stefan uses some of his remaining strength to grab onto Faustino in a dead man's grip, and when the sniper attempts to shoot him again he lets his knees buckle, causing the bullet to miss him and break the Parasites' containment cell. The Parasites take Stefan's pain from him as he dies, and Cosmo, Mona, and Ditto escape.
The book ends with the rest of the Supernaturalists getting ready to fight unspecified "other supernatural creatures", and the mayor of Satellite City sends Faustino to Antarctica to continue working on a nuclear plant. Also, it is hinted that Mona and Cosmo are beginning to become more open with their feelings for each other.
On Halloween night in the year 1965, Newbomb Turk is the leader the Hollywood Knights, a car club made up of teenage boys who play pranks, harass the police and display their cars at Tubby's Drive-In restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. Their way of life is about to change because Tubby's is being demolished to be replaced by a new office building. As the Knights find ways to rebel against the plan, they are also busy with the initiation of four new club pledges on Halloween night. After the pledges are stripped, they are deposited in the Watts district of Los Angeles, California, to ensure that the dedication to Tubby's is read on air at 2:00 a.m. that night at a local radio station. The Knights have fun but never for long because, whenever possible, Officers Clark and Bimbeau lecture them about their juvenile behavior.
At Tubby's, Suzie Q, one of the drive-in carhops, and Duke, a fellow Knight and her mechanic boyfriend, argue that she receives too much male attention on the job, and how her desire to be an actress interferes with their relationship. For the teens, Tubby's is the place to talk cars, see friends and arrange races. Jimmy Shine, Duke's friend, has enlisted in the military although he does not expect to see combat in Vietnam because the government is sending advisors not troops.
In the high school parking lot, Newbomb wears a rubber wolf mask in order to seduce girls, but he is recognized and rejected. The Knights ambush the local nerd Dudley Laywicker on his way to a pep rally. Newbomb steals the smart and unpopular nerd student's red “major domo” band jacket and hat, pretends he is Dudley, and accepts his scholarship award. Afterward, Newbomb performs a song, using the microphone to simulate flatulence until he is chased from the gymnasium. In one of the funniest lines in small film history, an old codger member of the High School advisory committee tries to file a police complaint on Newbomb for “fahting”.
On the street, Clark and Bimbeau tow Newbomb's brothers illegal parked El Camino which he is supposed to guard with his life. Newbomb returns to Tubby's in his 56 Chevy sedan delivery (The pie wagon), where he tape records a conversation between the Ironbox twins in the women's restroom and starts a food fight.
While driving on Sunset Boulevard, fellow Knight Simpson is worried that the Knights will disappear because so many members have plans after high school, but Wheatly, another Knight, assures him that the club will never die. Later, Newbomb and his buddies urinate in the punch of the Beverly Hills Neighborhood Association Halloween party, the group responsible for Tubby's demise.
On the way to the party's talent contest, Newbomb and his friends ambush Dudley once again and steal his magician's costume. At the party, Newbomb entertains guests by broadcasting his recording of the Ironbox twins’ bathroom gossip. Then, Wheatly pretends to be Sasha Dabinsky, the one-armed violinist, and Newbomb is his piano accompanist. Walking by Newbomb's car, Sally, a high school student, complains to Dark, her collegiate boyfriend, that he is dull compared to Newbomb. When Dark abandons Sally, she invites Newbomb to a pool party at her house. In the car, Sally is disappointed when a romantic moment with Newbomb is interrupted by his premature ejaculation.
Later at Smitty's Speed Shop, a place for repairs and restorations located next door to Tubby's, Duke and a few buddies present Jimmy with a beautifully restored sports car as a farewell gift. He is touched but requests that the car be left to the Knights and not to his girlfriend, should anything happen to him. Nearby, Newbomb and his gang get revenge after Bimbeau taunts him about his missing sedan delivery. Bimbeau is locked in Tubby's men's room with an overflowing toilet until Clark rescues him. Suddenly, Dudley fakes a seizure, and Bimbeau is so flustered that he crashes the patrol car as he leaves Tubby's. Meanwhile, Dudley's excitement about being part of a victorious drag race team reaches new heights when Jimmy gives Dudley his Knight's jacket to safeguard while he is away.
As the film comes to an end, Duke admits to Suzie Q that he is afraid of losing her to a career but she reassures him of her love. The four pledges return to Tubby's victorious as the Knights hear the radio dedication as the clock strikes 2:00 AM, and Dudley calls home to inform his mother that he will be home very late or not at all. The final shot shows the lights of Tubby's being turned off for good.
Major General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer) is in charge of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle project, which has been in development for seventeen years at a cost of $14 billion. In an effort to curtail excessive spending by The Pentagon, Congress appoints an outsider, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Burton (Cary Elwes) to observe the testing of several new weapons in development, including the Bradley.
Burton quickly becomes disillusioned by the atmosphere of corruption and inefficiency at the Pentagon. He delves into the mountains of paper documenting the Bradley's development history and comes to the conclusion that it is "a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance, and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snowblower, but has enough ammo to take out half of D.C."
Burton's attempts to test the Bradley under combat conditions are obstructed by Partridge and his two cronies, Colonel Bock (John C. McGinley) and Major Sayers (Tom Wright). But then Burton is contacted by Brigadier General Robert L. Smith (Richard Schiff), the frustrated officer previously in charge of the vehicle's development program, who feeds him evidence on condition of anonymity.
Burton confronts Master Sergeant Dalton (Clifton Powell), in charge of the testing range, who admits being ordered to manipulate the test results, but bitterly tells Colonel Burton that every officer who tries to conduct honest tests eventually buckles under the pressure to gain his next promotion.
When Burton refuses to approve the Bradley without a live-fire test, insisting that the current version of the vehicle is a death trap, he loses his position and is ordered to Alaska. But an anonymous leak from General Smith leads to Defense Secretary Weinberger demanding a full written report on the Bradley. Partridge, ignorant of the Bradley overall, cancels Burton's transfer and orders him to write his report, then has the report extensively rewritten by his own aide. Following the Army rule book, Burton then sends a memorandum referencing the original report to everyone who is technically involved in the project. This information leaks to the press and the resulting scandal leads to a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee.
The hearing is humiliating to Partridge, who attempts to duck simple questions by pretending to search for documentation (which his helpful aide provides to him in front of the Committee, to his further humiliation). The skeptical Committee Chairwoman (Olympia Dukakis) goes on to order the test that Burton has requested.
The night before, Burton visits the barracks on the range and tells Dalton and his men that, regardless of whatever orders they have received from Partridge, it is their duty to their fellow soldiers to make sure the test is performed honestly.
On the day of the live-fire test, Partridge, Bock, and Sayers fully expect to confirm their story that the vehicle is perfectly safe, but are unaware that Dalton and his men have actually made sure the Bradley is fully armed and fueled. When hit by an anti-tank missile, the vehicle explodes spectacularly, showering the horrified audience, including the House Committee members, with debris. Afterwards, Dalton and his men confide to Burton that they had already become convinced of his sincerity and were with him ever since.
A postscript explains that the Bradley was extensively redesigned in response to Burton's demands, which significantly reduced casualties from its use during the Persian Gulf War. However, the system was too strong: Partridge and his cronies earned their promotions and lucrative private sector jobs, while Colonel Burton was forced to retire.
Set in contemporary London, the story tells why the protagonist wants to leave his family. The timespan of the novel is roughly 24 hours.
He has lived with his partner for six years and has known her for ten. He is unhappy in his relationship and has had several affairs. His young lover one day says to him, "If you want me, I'm here". He spends 24 hours reflecting on his relationships with his wife, sons, friends and lover.
In the end he leaves the family.
Five workers from the Pegasus Auto Garage discover Dappu, an alien from planet Hazard. He empowers the five with the "Carmagic" power of the five legendary car constellations, transforming them into Carrangers. As Carrangers, the five battle an alien reckless driver gang and prevent them from destroying Earth.
A group of very different people live in a hotel in Los Angeles, California including the romantically involved Tom Tom (Davies) and Eloise (Milla Jovovich). The events that unfold are the result of the death of an important resident, the son (Tim Roth) of a billionaire media mogul. His father commissions an F.B.I. agent (Gibson) to look into his death.
In 1983, Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway finagles a transfer back to his old unit, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, Second Marine Division. En route, he meets fellow passenger and aspiring rock musician Corporal "Stitch" Jones, who borrows money from Highway for a meal at a rest stop and then steals his bus ticket, leaving him stranded.
When Highway finally arrives, his new commanding officer, Major Malcolm Powers, seeing him as old-fashioned, assigns him to the Reconnaissance Platoon, part of his assault battalion, which includes Jones. As the men's previous platoon sergeant, awaiting his retirement, had permitted their inactivity, Highway quickly puts the men on a rigorous training program. Their desperate plan to intimidate him with resident body builder "Swede" Johanson, just released from the brig, fails after Highway overpowers Swede. They begin to shape up and develop ''esprit de corps''.
Highway repeatedly clashes with Powers and First Platoon Staff Sergeant Webster over his unorthodox training methods (such as firing an AK-47 over his men's heads to familiarize them with the weapon's distinctive sound). Seeing Highway's platoon as simply a training tool for a supposedly elite First Platoon, Powers proceeds to arrange for First Platoon to beat Highway's men in every field exercise. However, Highway's old comrade-in-arms, Sergeant Major Choozhoo, and his nominal superior officer, the college-educated but inexperienced First Lieutenant Ring, support him. After learning of his Medal of Honor award during the Korean War, Highway's men gain respect for him and close ranks against their perceived common enemy.
Highway attempts adapting his mindset to romance his ex-wife Aggie, a barmaid at a local beer joint who is dating the establishment's owner Roy, even reading women's magazines to understand the female mind. Initially resenting their failed marriage, Aggie tentatively reconciles with Highway. The 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit is then deployed for the invasion of Grenada.
After a last-minute briefing on the amphibious assault ship , Highway's platoon mounts their UH-1 Huey, and are dropped by helocast into the water before the rest of Powers' Battalion Landing Team. While advancing inland, they come under heavy enemy fire. Highway improvises, ordering Jones to provide cover using a bulldozer so they can advance and destroy an enemy machine gun nest. Their celebration after subsequently rescuing American students from a medical school is short-lived, as Choozhoo discovers that Cubans are manning a key enemy position that will have to be taken to prevent further incidents. Powers, not wanting Highway to outdo him, orders the recon platoon to advance on the position, but not to attempt any engagement or take the position until First Platoon arrives.
Ring and Highway advance on the position, but come under heavy fire from 2 armored cars and infantry. The platoon hides inside an abandoned building, but when the Cubans attack, Profile is killed and his radio destroyed, impeding direct communication. Ring proposes making a long-distance call to Camp Lejeune for air support and sends Jones to repair the phone line before borrowing a credit card to complete the call, but enemy fire severs the line as he completes calling in the coordinates for an air-strike. Unsure if the call went through, Highway goes to put out a marker for the air support to locate the position but is fired upon and knocked unconscious. Assuming Highway is dead, the platoon exits the building to engage the Cubans, but then the air support arrives and repels the enemy. Ring and a revived Highway then disregard Powers' order, advance upon and take the position, and capture and detain the Cuban soldiers.
Major Powers arrives with Webster, reprimands Ring and threatens Highway with a court-martial. However, the commanding officer of the regiment to which Powers' battalion belongs, Colonel Meyers (a combat veteran who had served in the same battalion as Highway in the Vietnam War), arrives by helicopter and after listening to Powers' and Highway's reports, commends Highway and punishes Powers with transfer back to his former support unit for discouraging the Recon Marines' aggressive fighting spirit.
Highway and his men are warmly received upon returning to the States. Jones informs Highway that he is going to re-enlist and make a career in the Corps, while Highway confides to Jones he is taking mandatory retirement.
During the first ice age, a caveman (Brendan Fraser) attempts to make fire with his cavewoman partner (Sandra Hess). An earthquake causes a cave-in that buries the two of them.
This segues into a present-day Los Angeles earthquake that awakens average teenager Dave Morgan (Sean Astin). He, along with his best friend Stoney (Pauly Shore), strives to attain popularity in high school, but comes off more like a reject or an outcast. Dave is in love with Robyn Sweeney (Megan Ward), a sweet and attractive girl who had been his best friend during grade school, and until she reached adolescence, had been rejected by Dave on several occasions.
Her boyfriend, Matt Wilson (Michael DeLuise), is a stereotypical jock and school bully, who is constantly responsible for making both Dave and Stoney the objects of ridicule by humiliating them in various ways, usually directly due to Dave's affections toward Robyn.
One day as Dave is digging a pool in his backyard, he comes across a chunk of ice that has the body of a man in it following an earthquake. They leave the ice block unattended in the garage and space heaters left on cause the ice to melt, releasing the caveman. The caveman then encounters a garbage truck, which he misinterprets as a mammoth from his time, and a television, which he discovers upon entering the living room.
When the boys return home, they find hand paint covering the walls and the house in disarray. Investigating a beeping smoke alarm, they discover the caveman in Dave's bedroom, attempting to start a fire by rotating a stick in the center of a pile of kindling. At first, the caveman panics at the sight of them and the sound of a telephone, but Stoney quickly calms him by using the flame of a lighter to mesmerize him. After bathing him and trimming him to look like an average teenager while getting him some new clothes, Dave names him "Link" as in the missing link.
They manage to fool Dave's parents (Mariette Hartley and Richard Masur) and sister (Ellen Blain) into thinking he is actually an Estonian exchange student sent to live with them, and enroll him in school, where Link's bizarre behavior and supreme athletic skills shoot Dave and Stoney to popularity by association, allowing Dave to get closer to Robyn, causing Matt's anger and frustration.
Soon, Stoney's bizarre attitude apparently is having an effect on Link's actions and speech, which causes a rift between Dave and Stoney. Matt's anger and frustration leads to a fight with Link at a skating rink and increases due to Robyn's growing attraction towards Link.
During a school field trip to a natural history museum, Link gets upset realizing that the cavepeople he knew are all dead. Stoney and Dave console Link that he is not without friends in this time, causing the trio to make a pact. During Driver's ed, Link drives away in a car with Dave, Stoney, and Robyn in it, they stop at a dance club and Dave and Link are arrested. Dave, who has had enough of Link's shenanigans and upset that Robyn chooses to go to the prom with Link, tries to abandon him, and a fight between Dave and Stoney causes Link to come running back and separate the friends. Stoney and Dave reconcile.
On prom night, Link is a hit at the party with Robyn as his date, while Dave stays in for the evening. Matt breaks into Dave's bedroom and steals photographic evidence that Link is a caveman. As Dave and Stoney go after Matt and his friends, another earthquake happens.
At the prom, Matt's plan to uncover the "freak" backfires as the information instead makes Link even more popular. Dave and Robyn make up, and the three boys lead the entire prom in an impromptu caveman-like dance.
After the prom, some of the students attend Dave's house for a pool party, where Dave and Robyn kiss. Meanwhile, Stoney and Link follow clues similar to when they found him ranging from breast prints on the slider and paint covering the walls. They follow the muddy footprints to the bathroom and discover a beautiful cavewoman in the bathtub, who turns out to be Link's partner from the beginning of the film. He joins her in the bathtub as Stoney cheers them on and embraces her happily. She is also made to look like a modern human.
Max himself narrated the strip, and as befitting a computerised custodian of hundreds of people, was quite chatty and light-hearted. However, he was also portrayed as having a programming flaw reminiscent of the HAL 9000; programmed to love and protect his tenants, he could remorselessly kill anyone who threatened or even just annoyed them. In effect Max was a psychopath with no empathy towards anyone who was not a tenant.
Maxwell Tower had been built without a thirteenth floor (going straight from 12 to 14) for reasons of superstition; however due to a faulty Integrated Functions (I.F.) module, Max had the inexplicable ability to 'create' a 13th floor of his own, containing anything he desired, accessible from the building's lifts. Whilst he could produce any range of idyllic, surreal or mundane environments, Max seemed to have a personal taste for the horrific. In this sense ''The Thirteenth Floor'' seemed to be inspired by the Eagle strip ''The House of Daemon''.
The 13th floor originally appeared to be a virtual reality, similar to the Holodeck concept in Star Trek which it preceded – for example, when a burglar shot a zombie with his gun, the lift's walls became riddled with bullet holes. However, later in the story the 13th floor was portrayed as somehow as an extension of Max himself – not only were lifts empty when people were 'on' the 13th Floor, if Max was switched off, they were 'lost'.
Max used his 13th floor to punish and torture anybody he felt deserved such treatment - often creating such fear and distress that they suffered a fatal heart attack or were driven insane. Typically, Max would notice a burglar, vandal or con-man through one of the many viewscreens, lure them into the lift, and take them to the 13th floor. Often their experience would contain subtle irony; for example a con-man claiming to be a pest controller would be chased by giant rats, or incompetent repairmen would be stuck in a burning facsimile of Maxwell Tower, in which all the doors and windows were jammed.
As the story progressed, Max's 'controller' Jerry Knight and local police became suspicious, so Max hypnotized a resident named Bert Runch and directed him to dispose of their corpses. After Jerry discovered the 13th Floor, Max hypnotised Jerry (for reasons including gaining Jerry’s tolerance of the 13th Floor’s continued existence), effectively reversing the role of controller and controlled. A local policeman, Sgt Ingram, discovered Max's actions and shut Max down. At this point Runch was on the 13th Floor and disappeared along with the floor. Jerry then switched Max back on and assisted in imprisoning Ingram on the 13th Floor before Ingram could tell anyone of the 13th Floor’s secrets.
The 13th Floor was finally discovered by others in Ingram's police department and Max was de-activated (losing Ingram who was 'inside' him), re-programmed and installed to run Pringles Department Store. However, the computer's new controller, Gwyn, inadvertently triggered a backup mechanism, re-activating Max's sentience, and before long he had deliberately burnt out his I.F. module and re-created the 13th Floor, this time accessible via the top of an escalator. Jerry never again appeared in the story after Max's move from Maxwell Tower.
By this point, the strip had been running in Eagle for some time, and the horror theme had been dropped in favour of more generic action-oriented stories. Max's character had been humanised, and he now saw anybody as a potential Pringle's customer, and thus a 'tenant' deserving of his care, rather than of punishment. Max uncovered secret activity by MI5 within the store, and programmed to be a patriotic computer, offered the 13th floor's services to MI5 for purposes such as interrogation, and even created a pocket-size version of himself, Minimax, to go on spy missions accompanied by the (hypnotized) local MI5 director, Auberon Hedges.
Max eventually became homesick and used his government contacts to arrange a return to Maxwell Tower, where he yet again resumed punishing people he felt harmed his tenants. Eventually, many of the building's tenants suffered a wave of madness resulting from paint fumes in the building affecting their minds and took to setting the block on fire, resulting in the block burning down and the strip ending in issue 258.
Max was afterwards supposedly installed in the King's Reach Tower headquarters of the ''Eagle'' comic. He was then portrayed as the comic's editor, with few ''Thirteenth Floor'' references, until the comic ended.
The book opens with a short description about how the author's parents had met at Bayil Prison in the suburbs of Baku. Essad Bey's father was described as a young Azerbaijani oil entrepreneur and his mother, an imprisoned Bolshevik revolutionary. As the story goes, Essad Bey's father just happened to be strolling along in the shade of the prison on a hot sunny afternoon when he chanced upon a woman looking out from between the bars of the prison.
At first sight, he determined to take her home to be his wife. After threatening and bribing the guards, he achieved her release and took her home that very day after dismissing his harem. However the marriage certificate for Lev Nussimbaum's parents has been found in Tbilisi, Georgia. The couple Abram Leybusovich Nusimbaum (citizen of Tiflis) and Basya Davidovna Slutzkin (from Belarus) were married on October 26, 1904, in the Tiflis Synagogue. And thus, began the first of many sensational tales that may make for "good reading" but which absolutely are not true, that Essad Bey would write during his literary career which spanned slightly more than a decade from about 1926 to 1937.
Michelle witnesses the brutal murder of her mother while she is a four-year-old child. Sixteen years later she is still traumatized by memories, and living in poverty at a boarding house, struggling to pay the rent. She befriends a mysterious man who moves in across the hall named Charles Paskin. Something doesn't seem right about him and Michelle decides to investigate. She discovers that Charlie is working for the British government. His mission is to retrieve government files about a top secret operation which has been stolen, and he has been instructed to dispose anyone associated with these documents. Michelle believes that he may be connected with the murder of her mother. While trying to figure out the mystery, Michelle is dragged into a world of violence, conspiracy, and revenge where she soon discovers that nothing is as it seems and that no one can be trusted.
Angelo Donnini and his younger brother Gino are of Italian origin, living in Australia in the 1950s. Angelo is insecure, silent and introverted and not at all good-looking, while Gino is the complete opposite: outgoing, funny and handsome. Angelo looks for a wife and writes letters to Italian girls in hope of a match. But his letters are always returned with his photograph. One day, he desperately sends a new letter with a picture of his brother to Rosetta, who falls in love instantly with the man in the picture and therefore accepts his marriage proposal. When she arrives in Australia she is, of course, appalled that Angelo does not look like the man she thought she had married. However, she stays, to try to gain Gino's affections. But Gino has a girlfriend, Connie, a wise and tough girl who knows exactly what she wants. She loves Gino but wishes he possed more of Angelo's qualities. Though Gino tries to avoid Rosetta, he cannot help but eventually fall in love with her. Gino and Connie have an argument and they call it quits, and Angelo and Connie start to develop a romance. In the end, Rosetta, believing that she has failed to gain Gino's affections, decides to return to Italy with the help of Father Alfredo. Gino follows her onto the ship and they embrace. The couple then marry. In the final scene of the film, which seems to be a few years later, it shows the wedding party of Connie and Angelo, while Gino is married to Rosetta and they have a newborn baby.
In the year 1999, the Machine Empire of Baranoia, led by Emperor Bacchushund, invades Earth with the intention of wiping out all human life and bringing about machine rule. Chief Counsellor Miura revives super energies that had been born of the lost civilization of Pangaea. Assembling pieces of a stone plate uncovered three years previously, he reveals the secrets of . Enlisting an elite five-man team of the United Airforce's finest pilots, Miura builds a pyramid to generate Tetrahedron power to allow five UAOH officers to transform into the Ohrangers and stop Baranoia's invasion.
Tom White is an architect who chooses to make himself homeless. Outwardly, he has all the signs of a successful life—large home, loving family, successful career. However, it soon becomes clear that not everything is as it appears at work. Tom consciously takes a different path and cuts ties with his normal life. He has chosen the streets, where those he meets, in spite of their position, have enormous self-dignity—the rent boy, an ex-junkie, a gentle-but-manly tramp and a 14-year-old graffiti artist. Tom goes on a personal journey of his own as he plumbs outsider society, yet he discovers his own dignity and gains an understanding of who he is.
Davey Graham arrives at an upper class party to sell drugs to a woman named Stella. As he leaves, Stella's date watches him and makes a call on his mobile phone. Outside the party, three men are waiting for Davey in a black Range Rover, including a car dealer named Boad. The men follow Davey around London, finally attacking him just as he heads home. Two of the men wait for Davey as Boad lurks down an alley. Both men grab him and one of them holds his hand over his mouth to muffle his cries for help. They drag him off the street and into a garage, where they hold him down as Boad rapes him. At dawn, Davey emerges from the garage and stumbles home, where he draws a bath for himself and gets in fully clothed. Several hours later, his friend Mickser arrives to pick him up. He discovers Davey dead in the bath, with his throat slashed. Mickser visits Helen and asks her how to get in touch with Davey's brother Will. She says that she has stopped receiving letters from Will, who left London three years earlier.
Will has been working in the country as a forester. He's unshaven with long hair and he lives in a van. After he is sacked from his job for having no papers, he heads to the sea to take a ferry out of England when he sees Davey in the terminal. After realizing it is a hallucination, he begins calling Davey's flat. Receiving no answer he returns to London, where he learns that Davey is dead. His return to London stirs up the anxiety of crime boss Frank Turner, who sends word to Will that he should leave town after he buries his brother. Will's old gang urge him to return for good, saying that Turner could be overtaken easily. Will makes it clear that he is not interested in returning to his old life. He visits Helen and apologizes for leaving her. He explains that he has been grieving for 'a life wasted', lamenting the fact that Davey also wasted his.
Will orders a second post-mortem to try to determine why Davey would kill himself. It reveals that he was raped the night before he died, in addition to the fact that Davey ejaculated during the rape. The coroner explains that it was a result of the anal stimulation, surmising that Davey probably killed himself over the shame he felt after involuntarily ejaculating. He refers Will to a psychologist who can explain the phenomenon more eloquently. As Will listens to the psychologist explain the mindset of the rapist and the mental damage of a rape victim, he takes his first drink in three years. Mickser visits the woman who hosted the party where Davey made his sale. The hostess remembers seeing the man make a phone call as Davey left and she tracks down his identity. Will and Mickser visit the man who leads them to Boad. During a dinner party at Boad's house, Will cases the grounds and leaves. Will's cohorts pull a prank at Turner's house, hog-tying one of his bodyguards in a bra and panties. Irate, Turner hires an Irish hitman to retaliate.
Will visits a garage and uncovers a vintage Jaguar. He retrieves a suitcase from the trunk and checks into a hotel. The suitcase is full of money, clothes and a gun. Will has a suit pressed and orders a barber to cut off his long hair and beard. Clean cut and in his suit, he has the Jaguar washed and heads to Boad's house. On his way, he calls Helen and tells her to pack a bag but Turner's hitman is waiting outside her house. At Boad's, Will trips the alarm on a car in the garage, drawing Boad out of the house. Will kills his dog and then points his gun at Boad, asking him why he raped Davey.
Boad explains that he'd been following Davey for six weeks, fascinated by how fake he was. He hated the way that Davey waltzed through life, conning everyone with good looks and charm. Boad says that he wanted to make Davey realize that he was worthless. Will tells Boad that he will kill him later, because killing him there would be too easy. As he's walking away from the house, he pauses and then returns to the garage and kills Boad. Helen is shown sitting on the staircase in her flat, arms crossed, waiting with Turner's hitman for Will to arrive. The film ends on an ambiguous note as Will watches a man hitting golf balls into the ocean. It is the same shot and voice-over that opens the film. Will speaks about how most thoughts are just memories and after someone is gone, the memories of him are all that's left. He gets into his car and drives off.
Froggy has a crush on a young girl named Marilyn, who is too preoccupied with her budding career as a dancer to pay Froggy attention. When the gang attends one of Marilyn's recitals, Froggy finds himself insanely jealous of Marilyn's dancing partner Gerald, whom he sees as a rival for Marilyn's affections.
A few days later, Froggy holds a dance recital of his ''own'', hoping to impress Marilyn. His seemingly gravity-defying moves are accomplished with the help of Mickey and Buckwheat, who've rigged their pal up with wires and control his movements via a pulley. Gerald exposes this artifice, hoping to embarrass Froggy. Marilyn, however, is impressed by Froggy's determination, and tells him she loves him - only to have the deep-voiced boy faint dead away.
Donovan Donaly, a TV soap opera producer, walks in on his wife Bonnie being intimate with an ex-boyfriend. He files for divorce, and Bonnie hires Miles Massey, a top divorce attorney and the inventor of the "Massey pre-nup", a completely foolproof prenuptial agreement. Miles wins a large property settlement against Donaly, leaving him broke.
Private investigator Gus Petch tails the wealthy and married Rex Rexroth on a drunken night out with a blonde. When they stop at a motel, Gus catches their tryst on video. He takes the video to Rex's wife, Marylin Rexroth, a marriage-for-money predator. She files for divorce, demanding a large property settlement. Unable to afford a divorce settlement, Rex hires Miles to represent him. Marylin's friend, serial divorcée Sarah Sorkin warns Marilyn that Miles will be a dangerous opponent.
Marylin and her lawyer, Freddy Bender fail to reach an agreement with Miles and Rex. Bored Miles asks the fascinating Marylin to dinner, where they flirt. While they are out, Petch breaks in and copies her address book for Miles, who has his assistant search among the names for Marylin's accomplice in predatory marriage. In court, Marylin feigns an emotional breakdown over Rex's infidelity, professing that she loved Rex unconditionally at first sight. Miles then calls "Puffy" Krauss von Espy, a Swiss hotel concierge located by his assistant. Puffy testifies that Marylin asked him to find her a marriage target who was very rich, foolish, and a philanderer whom she could easily divorce, and that he pointed her to Rex. The divorce is granted, but Marylin gets nothing.
Seeking revenge against Miles, Marylin finds the now-penniless Donaly living on the street, still clutching his Emmy statuette, and offers him a chance to reclaim his lost glory. Soon after, Marylin shows up at Miles' office with her new fiancé, oil millionaire Howard D. Doyle. Marylin insists on the Massey prenup, which will make it absolutely impossible for her to claim any of her fiancée's assets in the event of a divorce, over both Howard and Miles's objections. However, Howard destroys it during the wedding, as a demonstration of love.
Six months later, Miles goes to Las Vegas, Nevada to give the keynote address at a convention for divorce attorneys. He encounters Marylin, who has divorced Howard and presumably collected a sizable share of the Doyle Oil fortune. However, she admits that she is disenchanted with her wealthy but lonely life. Miles marries her on the spur of the moment, and signs the Massey prenup to prove that he has no interest in her fortune, but she tears it up. The next morning, Miles tells the convention that love is the most important thing, and that he is giving up divorce for ''pro bono'' work.
Shortly afterwards, Miles discovers that "Howard D. Doyle" is just an actor from one of Donaly's soap operas; Marylin tricked him, leaving ''his'' considerable wealth at risk. Desperate to save the firm's reputation, Miles' boss, Herb Myerson suggests hiring hitman "Wheezy Joe" to kill Marylin. Miles then learns that Marylin's ex-husband Rex has died without changing his will, leaving her his entire fortune. Since she is now the wealthier of the two parties, his assets are no longer at risk. A repentant Miles rushes to save Marylin from Joe, but Marilyn has already offered to pay him double to kill Miles instead. In the confusion of the ensuing struggle, Joe mistakes his gun for his asthma inhaler and accidentally kills himself.
Later, Miles, Marylin and their lawyers meet to negotiate a divorce. Miles pleads for a second chance and retroactively signs a Massey prenup. Realizing her own feelings for him, she tears it up, and they kiss. Marylin reveals that to get Donaly's help for supplying Howard, she gave him an idea for a hit TV show, restoring his fortunes in the process: ''America's Funniest Divorce Videos'', with Gus as the host.
In Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the late 1800s, aging one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn is stripped of his badge by Judge Parker due to his drunkenness and questionable use of firearms. When a shipment of highly explosive nitroglycerin is stolen from a transporting troop of United States Army cavalry by the ruthless bank robber Hawk and his gang of nine other outlaws, Cogburn is given a chance to redeem himself. Alone, he enters the Indian Territory and tracks the bandits, who include Cogburn's former scout Breed, to the remote settlement of Fort Ruby, which is now a Christian mission. He comes upon the village the day after it has been overrun by the gang, who killed the elderly Reverend George Goodnight and a number of the local Indians. The only surviving inhabitants that have not fled are the Reverend's spinster daughter, Miss Eula Goodnight, and one of her Native students, a teenage boy named Wolf, whose family died in the attack. Cogburn tries to leave the pair at a nearby trading post, but they insist on coming with him to capture the bandits.
Because the nitro has to be transported slowly so it does not explode, Hawk goes ahead with Breed and an injured man to prepare for the bank robbery. Cogburn, Eula, and Wolf overtake the rest of the gang and barricade the path through a gully with logs. When the bandits stop, Cogburn says he is the leader of a posse and threatens to blow up the nitro unless the criminals let him arrest them. One outlaw sneaks away and attempts to shoot Cogburn in the back, but Eula, proving herself an excellent sharpshooter, kills the man from across the gully. Cogburn shoots another man and Eula and Wolf make a lot of noise by firing into the air, and the outlaws flee, leaving behind the wagon with the nitro, which also has a Gatling gun on board. They meet up with Hawk and take him back to the site of the ambush, where Breed determines that Cogburn lied about leading a large posse.
The gang sets out in pursuit of the nitro and catches up with Cogburn's party that night. They kidnap Wolf, who has fallen asleep on his watch, and offer to exchange him for the explosives. Wolf shoots the man holding him and makes it back to Cogburn and Eula, and the trio is able to escape with the wagon after Cogburn has Wolf scatter the outlaws' horses.
Coming upon a river, Cogburn commandeers a raft from an old ferryboat man named Shanghai McCoy, stashes the nitro and Gatling gun on board, and heads downstream, hoping to drop off Eula and Wolf somewhere safe before his final confrontation with Hawk. Breed and Luke, one of Hawk's men, are tasked with trailing the raft while the other members of the gang wait at a strategic narrows. Luke suggests he and Breed double-cross Hawk by taking the raft themselves, but just as Luke is about to shoot Cogburn, Breed kills Luke, saying that, as Cogburn had once saved his life, they are now even. Breed warns Cogburn about Hawk's plan and then rejoins the gang, but Hawk does not believe him when he says Luke was killed in a shootout with Cogburn and knocks Breed off a cliff to his death.
Cogburn is able to hold the remaining members of Hawk's gang at bay with the Gatling gun, but just past the narrows are some rapids. Cogburn, Eula, and Wolf make it through safely, though the Gatling gun is lost. When they hear the gang's horses up ahead, the trio dumps several boxes of nitro overboard to float ahead of the raft. Eula and Wolf delay Hawk by saying Cogburn is injured and pretending to surrender, and Cogburn shoots the floating boxes, blowing up the last four outlaws.
Back in Fort Smith, Eula convinces Judge Parker to reinstate Cogburn, even though he had stipulated Hawks be brought back alive. She and Wolf find some families to resettle Fort Ruby and part ways with Cogburn. The new friends hope their paths cross again someday.
The story of the game follows 15-year-old Mike Jones, a high school baseball team captain from Seattle, as he travels to visit his uncle, an archaeologist by the name of Dr. Steven Jones, at his laboratory on the fictional C-Island in the South Seas. When Mike arrives at Dr. Jones's home in the tropical village of Coralcola, he finds that his uncle has gone missing. The chief of Coralcola gives Mike a special yo-yo to defend himself, and Dr. Jones's robot Nav-Com permits Mike to use his uncle's submarine to search for him. On a nearby island, Mike finds a bottle with a message from Dr. Jones, stating that he has been abducted by extraterrestrials. Traveling to many of the isles of the South Seas, Mike encounters monsters, labyrinths, quirky characters, and intelligent animals, including a talking parrot and a mother dolphin looking for her son, all in the search for his lost uncle.
Eventually, Mike and the submarine are swallowed by a whale. In the belly of the whale, Mike encounters his uncle's assistant, who confirms that Dr. Jones was abducted by aliens, and out of fear, he did not give Mike all possible help when they met earlier on C-island. After they escape the whale, the assistant gives Mike a special code, which enables Nav-Com to track Dr. Jones's location. Mike follows the signal to the lost ruins which includes the melted wreckage of an alien escape pod. Shortly afterward, Mike finds his uncle. Dr. Jones explains that he discovered the escape pod some time ago, and says it came from a far-away planet called Argonia. This escape pod contained three magic cubes, which are now in the hands of the evil alien's leader Zoda.
Infiltrating their spaceship, Mike recovers the three cubes and confronts Zoda. Mike defeats Zoda and then escapes as the spaceship self-destructs. After Mike returns to C-Island, the cubes are placed together and a small group of children appear. The leader of the children, Mica, explains that they are the last of the Argonians (their home planet having been destroyed) and that her father King Hirocon sent them to Earth to live in peace. The village chief invites the children to live with them in Coralcola, to which they accept.