The series followed Shō Zama, as he suddenly finds himself pulled to the world of Byston Well during a vehicular incident with one of his rivals. Byston Well is located in another dimension located between the sea and the land, and is populated with dragons, castles, knights, and powerful robots known as Aura Battlers. Once Shō is discovered to possess a very powerful "aura", he is drafted into the Byston Well conflict as the pilot of the lavender-colored Dunbine.

As in other Tomino creations, Dunbine's cast is populated by Nordic-looking military types in elaborate costumes on one side, a young Japanese hero caught in the middle, and freedom fighters on the other side. Beautiful female warriors abound on both sides, and the hero falls for the main female lead. There are romances that cut across battle lines, and the non-stop battles between elaborate fighting craft on land and on the air. Most of the cast pilot Aura Battlers, although there are many standard airships, smaller fighters, and large warships as well. Also, in typical Tomino style, a large number of named characters die tragically throughout the series.

700 years have passed since the great war involving Aura Machines ended. In his attempt to conquer Byston Well, the Black Knight Rabaan kidnaps the princess of the nation Baran-Baran – a nation said to hold a legendary treasure. Rabaan also captures Shion, a young hunter.

Shion and the princess, Remul, escape from Rabaan's castle and return to their homeland. There, they find out that the Baran-Baran treasure is actually a powerful Aura Battler, ''Sirbine''.

Riding the Sirbine, Shion fights against Rabaan's evil forces.

In a forest in the Johto region, a Pokémon trainer named Sammy is warned by a woman named Towa to be wary of the “Voice of the Forest”, which is Celebi, a Pokémon capable of time travel. Celebi is pursued by a Pokémon hunter and is injured. Sammy protects it from the hunter, but Celebi uses its powers to travel forward in time, taking Sammy with it. Forty years later, the elderly hunter is confronted by the Iron Masked Marauder, a cruel and sinister member of Team Rocket, who seeks to enslave Celebi. The Marauder uses a Dark Ball(a unique poke ball that can capture Pokémon already owned by Trainers, turns them evil, and increases their power to the highest level) on the hunter's Tyranitar and orders it to use its Hyper Beam attack to destroy most of the hunter's possessions.

Meanwhile, Ash Ketchum, Misty and Brock arrive in the neighbourhood of Arborville, spotting the legendary Suicune on a riverbank. Speaking to Professor Oak, the trio learn he encountered Suicune himself many years ago, but they have to depart before he can explain how. The group are taken to the forest by a local named Mr. White, but encounter the elderly Towa and her granddaughter Diana, warned of the Voice of the Forest. Celebi and Sammy appear from the past, but the former hides, while Sammy comes to term with his time displacement. Ash, Sammy, Misty and Brock find the wounded Celebi and decide to take him to the Lake of Life, said to have healing waters.

Team Rocket pursue the children, joining forces with the Marauder. The children are guided to the lake by wild Pokémon, where Celebi is healed. That night, Ash and Sammy bond, hoping the latter can return to his era. The next day, the Marauder confronts the group, using a Dark Ball to capture Celebi and uses its immense powers over nature to encase it in enormous draconian-like armour made from the forest. Jessie is captured; the Marauder admitting he plots to overthrow Team Rocket's leader Giovanni and conquer the world. Ash, his friends, and Suicune battle to rescue Celebi from the Marauder's influence.

Ash, Sammy and Pikachu breach Celebi's armour and convince it to resist the Marauder, regaining his memories and is freed from the Dark Ball's influence. The Marauder and Jessie tumble in the lake as Celebi's armour collapses.

However, upon taking Celebi to the lakeside, it dies in Sammy's arms. The group attempt to revive it when Suicune purifies the lake, but it fails. Just as all hope of reviving Celebi is lost, the Voice of the Forest, which is actually each Celebi from across time, materializes in the sky and magically resurrects their brother. Suddenly, the Marauder appears and kidnaps Celebi, using a jetpack to escape, but Ash and Pikachu rescue Celebi, the Marauder crashing into the forest and is confronted by Towa, Diana, White, and the angry wild Pokémon.

Celebi takes Sammy back to his own time, who promises to reunite with Ash in the future. The Marauder's freed Pokémon go their separate ways, as Giovanni would learn about the Marauder's betrayal and urge to kill him and claim Team Rocket for himself and refuse to bail him out. Ash, Misty, and Brock speak to Professor Oak of their adventure, Ash saddened by Sammy's departure. However, Professor Oak reassures him that friendships can withstand the test of time and he and Sammy will remain friends. However, upon ending the call, the trio are perplexed about how Professor Oak knew Sammy's name, having never mentioned it. In his laboratory, Oak owns Sammy's sketchbook, revealing he is the same character. During the end credits, Tracey discovers Oak's sketchbook and inserts it into a bookshelf for safekeeping. In the end, Jessie is swimming in the lake when James and Meowth find her on a raft. Soon after the Tyranitar which was caught by the Marauder attacks the raft. Team Rocket, having their raft destroyed, decide to relax in the lake.

The story begins with a quick shot of a small mouse with a bell on his tail- Tiki -climbing up to the top of a small tower. After viewing some fireworks and a few balloons being thrown up in the air, Tiki falls asleep.

Elsewhere, four mice- Apollo (the leader), Brutus (the muscle), Watt (the gentleman) and Pete (the gut) -find that the provisions that had been set aside in the attic for a party have been absconded with. Naturally upset, everyone begins pointing fingers; thankfully, Apollo finds a more likely cause of the theft, as he spies a sneaky rat crawling around up in the attic. Knowing that rats travel in packs, Apollo rallies his fellow mice and begins the hunt for the whole rat pack. Finding the rats one by one (and knocking a few senseless for good measure), the gang eventually find the commanding officer behind the whole rat invasion hiding in the garage and- following an intense battle between the mice gang and rats -knock him out. Despite the victory, the mice still have no clue who these rats are or what they're up to; however, they are quickly stunned out of their wondering as Bonnie- the local high-society city mouse -comes in, worrying about her brother, Tiki, as he has gone missing. Thinking he's lost in the Back Alley, she joins Apollo's squad and rushes off, allowing the rat officer from earlier (who faked his fainting) to run away.

By 2012, humans had colonised many planets throughout the Solar System, including Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The planet Earth however, had become polluted and overpopulated. In an attempt to save mankind, President Battaille ordered the creation of the M.A.N.T.A. ship. M.A.N.T.A. Force was an acronym for Multiple-Air-Naval-Terrain-Assault Force and was the most advanced Earth ship ever built. It was designed to work in any environment and its engine was fuelled by a substance called Thorium.

Following the successful launch of the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, the World Government created the Red Venom to help Manta Force colonise New Earth. On Saturn however, many of the people had grown tired of living in plastic bubbles and believed New Earth should belong to them. During its test runs therefore, the Red Venom was hijacked by a group of highly skilled soldiers called the Viper Squad. Under the command of Major Vex, the Viper Squad attempted to use the Red Venom to hijack the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, so they could be the ones to colonise New Earth.

Later the two opposing sides joined forces to fight off attacks from a cybernetic alien known as Mad Karnock, who was served by an army of robots called Karnoids. Another enemy also emerged from the swamps of New Earth in the form of the vile Stinkhorn, leader of the Stenchoids, who attempted to destroy the humans with their decomposing Stench weapons (which excreted a green compound similar to Play-Doh).

The story concerns mischievous mythical creatures, the gremlins of the title, often invoked by Royal Air Force pilots as an explanation of mechanical troubles and mishaps. In Dahl's book, the gremlins' motivation for sabotaging British aircraft is revenge of the destruction of their forest home, which was razed to make way for an aircraft factory. The principal character in the book, Gus, has his Hawker Hurricane fighter destroyed over the English Channel by a gremlin, but is able to convince the gremlins as they parachute into the water that they should join forces against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis, rather than fight each other.

Eventually, the gremlins are re-trained by the Royal Air Force to repair rather than sabotage aircraft, and restore Gus to active flight status after a particularly severe crash. The book also contains picturesque details about the ordinary lives of gremlins: baby gremlins, for instance, are known as widgets, and females as fifinellas, a name taken from the great "flying" filly racehorse Fifinella, that won both the Epsom Derby and Epsom Oaks in 1916, the year Dahl was born.

Sometime in the future, humanity invents a series of machines which allow them to view events in their past. Tagiri is a researcher at Pastwatch, the organization in charge of these machines. Her special interest is in the colonization of the Caribbean and the life of Christopher Columbus. One day she accidentally discovers that the machines may be used to send information backwards in time (meaning the past is not unalterable). Unsure about what to do with this knowledge she is nonetheless put in charge of a project to explore it along with her husband Hassan. They are eventually joined by their daughter Diko.

A parallel narrative tells of Columbus' efforts to secure financial and political backing for his voyage across the Atlantic. Tagiri and other researchers note that Columbus had always yearned for greatness but that as a young man he had been determined to head east in a new Crusade to liberate from the Muslims the Holy Land as well as Constantinople, whose fall was a recent and painful event to Europeans of Columbus' generation. Columbus only changed his mind and decided to head west across the Atlantic after nearly drowning in a storm.

The mystery of exactly why Columbus changed his mind is solved by Diko. She uses a new, and more visually sensitive, version of the time viewer and discovers that after surviving the wreck Columbus received a vision directing him to head west to convert the people who lived on a previous undiscovered continent. The researchers realize that this vision is actually a hologram sent back in time by people from an alternate timeline in order to influence the direction of Columbus' life.

Realizing that someone has already changed the timeline they try to figure out what might have been different if Columbus had headed east instead of west. The answer is provided by Hunahpu, an Amerindian researcher with Pastwatch. He argues that in the original timeline, the Europeans exhausted themselves in the anti-Muslim crusade propagated by Columbus, and meanwhile across the ocean the Tlaxcalan Empire of Central America grew powerful enough to invade the weakened Europe, subjecting the continent to a harsh regime of human sacrifice. Eventually, the Tlaxcalans underwent an Industrial Revolution and developed advanced weapons which enabled them to conquer the entire world - still without changing their bloodthirsty religion for what must have been an extended period. In order to undo that atrocity, the Pastwatch's counterparts from the original timeline sent the hologram back to direct Columbus, the greatest man of his era, to head west. The European conquest of the Americas thereby neutralized the threat - but at the price of untold suffering for the Native Americans, trampled under the European conquest.

Tagiri and her team determine that they must change history so that neither timeline happens as it did. The urgency of doing so increases when it is revealed that Tagiri's world is an imminent accelerating ecological disaster, which threatens the very survival of humanity. Tagiri and the others reason that the ruthless plundering of the world's resources which led to the disaster was a continuation of the dynamic of ruthless European conquest of the Americas, and averting the one might avert the other as well. In any case, with the world on the brink of total disaster, there is little to lose in interfering with history and trying to change and improve it.

Tagiri's team use their machinery to send Diko, Hunahpu, and a Turkish researcher named Kemal, back in time in order to change history. Hunahpu and Diko appear years before Columbus' voyage in Central America and the Caribbean respectively. They use genetically-engineered viruses to spread immunity to Old World diseases and work to strengthen Indian society for the coming European contact, including by spreading a pseudo-Christian religion among them and outlawing human sacrifice. Hunahpu helps accelerate the development of a Central American empire to rival European powers. When Columbus arrives, Kemal sinks his ships, stranding the explorer and his men in the Caribbean. After overcoming prejudice, Columbus learns to live with the indigenous people and becomes a powerful political leader among the natives of the Caribbean and eventually oversees a political union with the Central American empire.

Diko becomes Columbus' lover and the two establish a strong, lasting loving relationship. After years of their knowing and trusting each other, Diko reveals to Columbus the truth about her origins and what she had done. When hearing about how his voyage of discovery would have led to the widespread killing and enslavement of the Indians, Columbus bursts out crying and thanks Diko for saving him from perpetrating such deeds.

By the sixteenth century, the people of Central America and the Caribbean are able to send ships across the Atlantic to meet the Europeans on more equal footing. Neither Europeans nor Native Americans are in a position to conquer the other, and they embark on reasonably peaceful relations.

A postscript describes the future of this new timeline as a utopian one and how archeologists in the 1950s discovered the skull of Kemal and found within it a set of small metal plates which contained a message from Tagiri and the Pastwatch program.

In March 1873, two Norwegian-born women who lived on the desolate Smuttynose Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, were brutally murdered. Maren Hontvedt, a sister of one of the victims, survived by hiding in a sea cave until dawn. The murdered women were her older sister Karen Christensen and Anethe Christensen, their sister-in-law. A man named Louis Wagner was tried and hanged for their murders, mostly on circumstantial evidence. His conviction has been argued about, as some people think he could not have done it.

More than a century later, Jean Janes, a magazine photographer working on a photo essay about the murders, returns to the Isles with her husband Thomas and five-year-old daughter. Thomas is an award-winning poet who has been struggling with alcoholism and not writing much. Hoping to have a small vacation, they travel on a boat skippered by Thomas' brother Rich, who has brought along his girlfriend Adaline.

Jean becomes immersed in the details of the 19th-century murders after discovering a purported memoir of Maren in the library. Gradually, tensions increase among the group on the sloop, with unspoken emotions surfacing. Jean begins to suspect an affair between Thomas and Adaline.

The novel is split into two parts: the present day, told from Jean's point of view and in the present tense; and 1873, told in first person from Maren's point of view, her "memoir."

Kai and Stefan are two friends who own a gourmet pizza delivery business as a front for selling cannabis. Stefan is finishing law school and preparing to take the Bar examination to become a lawyer under the behest of his father, who is a judge. They visit their outdoor cannabis growing operation only to discover that aphids are destroying their plants. They visit a head shop and meet Achim, who informs them that he knows how to get rid of aphids, handing them a tub full of ''Aphidoletes aphidimyza''. However, unbeknownst to the protagonists, Achim is an undercover police officer.

After much debate, the duo decide to bring Achim to the plantation so that he can help with the aphid problem, using an adulterant on the plants called "Brain cell massacre," which, according to Achim, is used in Kazakhstan plantations. On the way to the growing area, they try to pick psychedelic mushrooms, convinced that nobody will be suspicious of mushrooms on a pizza. They test them out on Achim while he is at the plantation, stating that they already tried some. Achim is poisoned by the mushrooms and goes into a convulsive state, when suddenly a hunter is spotted nearby. The "Brain cell massacre" is used to knock Achim out, and he is locked in the protagonists' trunk, along with the hunter who discovered the cannabis plantation as well as the harvested crop itself.

After narrowly avoiding an unrelated police search, the duo confront Stefan's father and confess their situation. Though Stefan's father becomes upset, he calls the chief of police, whom he befriended when he was a public prosecutor. With the help of the chief of police, the duo get off the hook, and Stefan takes his bar exam only to walk out at the last minute to pursue his lifelong dream of owning a cafe on a beach.

The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France. While visiting sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey discovers two museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote ''Un Coeur Simple''. While trying to identify which is authentic, Braithwaite learns that Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty (''"Une cinquantaine de perroquets!"'', p. 187) that had been held in the collection of the municipal museum.

Although the narrative is mostly about tracking down the parrot, many chapters focus on Flaubert's love life .

The game starts off with the end of ''Dark Castle'', where Prince Duncan toppled the Black Knight's throne. In the original version, after toppling the throne, the Black Knight stands up shaking his fist, and a gargoyle drops Duncan in Trouble 3. In the newer version by Delta Tao Software, ''Color Dark Castle'', after defeating the Black Knight on advanced, the Black Knight's throne falls down, off the bottom of the screen, and Duncan does a victory dance as it fades out.

When starting a new game in ''Beyond Dark Castle'', the player sees Duncan approaching a fireplace and mantle. Duncan attempts to remove a nearby torch from the wall, only to have the whole wall turn around like a trapdoor. Duncan finds himself in a large anteroom, where there are five pedestals. Over the course of the game, the player collects five orbs to fill these pedestals, opening a gate that leads to the final duel with the Black Knight.

Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a hardened criminal, is in a hospital room awaiting surgery for wounds he received in a shootout where he killed a police officer. At the hospital, he is visited by members of his family and his girlfriend, Teena Ricante (played by 14-year old Debra Paget), as well as by police detectives Candella (Victor Mature) and Collins (Fred Clark). The officers question Rome about a jewel robbery and murder, for which another man has already been caught and sentenced to death. Candella especially despises Rome for having turned to crime though they had been childhood friends from the same poor Italian-American neighborhood. Rome is also visited by W.A. Niles (Berry Kroeger), a shady lawyer, who attempts to coerce Rome into confessing to the jewel robbery, threatening to harm Teena. Rome reacts by trying to strangle the lawyer. Later, Rome charms his nurse, Miss Pruett (Betty Garde), into hiding Teena from Niles and the police at her own apartment.

After being transferred to the prison's hospital ward, Rome escapes with the help of a trustee (Walter Baldwin). Going to Niles' office to demand money to allow him and Teena to get away, Rome discovers the stolen jewels and makes Niles confess that the woman accomplice in the murder/robbery was a surly, heavy-set masseuse named Rose Givens (Hope Emerson). When Niles goes for a gun, Rome knifes him to death - the resulting gunshot which accidentally kills Niles' receptionist, Vera, who was listening in the conversation in the outer office - and takes the jewels, concealing them in a locker in a subway station.

Rome, feverish and exhausted, goes to his parents' apartment. Although Rome is rejected by his father, his teenage brother Tony (Tommy Cook) worships him. Their mother tells Rome he must leave, but while she is preparing him some food, Candella shows up. As he is about to search the apartment, Rome appears holding a gun. When Rome escapes, Candella has a talk with Tony, warning him about following in his brother's criminal ways.

Rome uses an old girlfriend, Brenda (Shelley Winters), to track down Rose Givens' address, but he is so weak that Brenda gets an unlicensed foreign doctor (Konstantin Shayne) to attend to him. When Brenda finally drops Rome off at Rose Givens' address, he offers to give Rose the jewels that he took from Niles' office in exchange for "five thousand dollars, a car, a way out of the country and a good night's sleep".

At the police station, Candella and Collins question people who might have helped Rome to escape from the prison hospital and after, including the trustee from the prison, the man in charge of the hospital ward, and several unlicensed doctors. One of those doctors is the veterinarian, who confesses to treating the wanted man.

Meanwhile, Rose has set out to get money and transportation for Rome, who double-crosses her by telephoning Candella to let him know that he will meet Rose at a subway station where the jewels are stored in a locker. Rome meets Rose first and demands the cash she promised, but she demands to get the jewels first. When the police arrive to take her, she tries to shoot Rome but wounds Candella instead.

Candella leaves the hospital where he was being treated to look for Teena, who might lead him to Rome. He discovers that Teena has gone to a church, where Rome meets her. Teena, however, refuses to go away with Rome, and Candella arrives, persuading her to leave the church. As Candella arrests Rome and leads him out of the church, Rome, seeing that Candella is wounded and bleeding and would not be able to keep up to him in a chase, breaks away and runs down the street. Candella fires at the escaping criminal, killing him. Just arriving on the scene, Rome's brother Tony, who could not bring himself to steal money from their mother as Rome had asked, breaks down in tears.

Seventeen-year-old Ben Marshall is the sensitive son of complacent Robert, a vicar obsessed with ornithology, and domineering Laura, who performs numerous charitable acts while ignoring her family's emotional needs, such as forcing Ben to deliver meals on wheels despite his having no car. Despite her strong religious beliefs, she is having in an affair with Peter, a young curate portraying Jesus Christ in the church pageant she is directing.

Laura refuses to allow Ben to have a mobile phone or hang around people his own age, and uses his driving lessons to be ferried around for her affair with Peter. Miserable, Ben writes poems for Sarah, a girl he knows from church. He reads her his most recent "Sarah Poem", but she rejects him.

At his mother's urging, Ben seeks summer employment to pay for the upkeep of Mr. Fincham, a mental patient Laura has adopted. Ben responds to an ad placed by Dame Evie Walton, an alcoholic, classically trained actress; reduced to a role on a daytime soap opera when her career began to fade, she has not worked since. In search of a companion to assist her in the house and drive her to various appointments, Evie immediately takes to Ben and offers him the position.

When Laura refuses to allow Ben to take a camping trip with Evie, she suggests they take a drive in the country instead, then "swallows" the car key when they find an idyllic spot for a campsite. In the morning, she announces Ben must drive her to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she has been invited to read poetry. Their road trip provides an epiphany for Ben, who has his first sexual experience with Bryony, one of the young women organizing the event. He learns the importance of accepting responsibility and honouring commitments, and finds the inner strength to stand up for himself.

Returning home, Ben is interrogated by Laura, who believes Evie has "corrupted" him. Evie comes to visit, but is rebuffed by Laura. Ben discovers this, and in a fit of rebellion walks offstage during the pageant, riding his bike to Evie's house where the two friends reconcile.

Evie arrives at the Pageant and, "portraying" the part of God, whips the crowd into a religious frenzy, allowing Ben to join her in the car park. Laura chases the pair and tries to weaponise the Bible once more, but Ben finally tells her to go away. Laura is run over by Mr. Fincham, whose mental state has steadily declined. When Ben visits her at hospital, she tells him her near-death experience has made her a prophet, and that God says she must divorce Robert and run off with Peter, whom the Bishop has fired; Peter takes Laura to Cornwall to convalesce.

Ben storms off, and runs into Sarah, who prattles in a condescending tone that the affair was God's will. Finally speaking his mind, Ben tells Sarah to "fuck off". On Evie's advice, Ben buys a tent and moves into the backyard. Robert tries to speaks to him, but Ben shouts that Robert, not Laura, should have asked for divorce. His father reveals that he did, explaining that he loved his wife and had tried to be faithful even when she was not. Finally free from Laura's brand of Christian fanaticism, Ben and his father reconnect.

Ben visits Evie to tell her he is moving to Edinburgh to attend university and study English. Evie is pleased, though saddened Ben will no longer be working for her. He reads her a last poem expressing his gratitude for her friendship, for which Evie compliments him. Ben promises to visit her whenever he is home from college.

The film closes as Ben, finally free, walks through the park on his way home to start packing for Edinburgh.

U.S. Army lieutenant Duke Halliday (Robert Mitchum) is robbed of a $300,000 payroll by Jim Fiske (Patric Knowles). When Halliday's superior, Captain Vincent Blake (William Bendix), suspects him of having taken part in the theft, Halliday pursues Fiske into Mexico. Along the way, he runs into Joan Graham (Jane Greer), who is after the $2000 she loaned to her boyfriend, Fiske. The two join forces, though they are not sure at first if they can trust each other. Fiske stays one step ahead of the couple, while they are in turn chased by Blake. When Halliday is knocked down trying to stop Fiske from getting away, he comes to the attention of Police Inspector General Ortega (Ramon Novarro). Halliday claims to be Blake, using identification he took from the captain after a brawl. Ortega lets him go after Fiske, but keeps an eye on him. His suspicions are confirmed when the real Blake shows up at his office for help.

Halliday and Graham track Fiske to an isolated house in the desert, where Fiske is meeting with Seton (John Qualen), a fence who offers Fiske $150,000 in untraceable bills in exchange for the payroll. The couple are captured by Seton's henchmen. When Blake shows up, Halliday is initially relieved to be rescued, until he learns that Blake is actually Fiske's partner in crime.

Fiske wants to take Graham with him, but Blake makes it clear that he intends to dispose of both her and Halliday. Fiske reluctantly gives in. However, when he starts to leave, Blake shoots him in the back, explaining that his ex-partner, apparently still at large, can take the blame for the missing payroll. Halliday then points out to Seton that if Blake gets rid of him too, he can give the stolen money back to the army ''and'' keep the $150,000 for himself. Taking no chances, Seton pulls a gun on Blake. When Graham creates a distraction, a fight breaks out, which Graham and Halliday win.

In the final scene, Graham and Holliday are talking about what they'll do now that their problems have been cleared up. Neither really wants to say goodbye. He has to go back to the army, but she's got other plans. Some Mexican children run up to them, laughing, while music plays. He smiles at her suggestively. She blushes. The film ends.

Four troublemaking young men are assigned to Wienberg Military Academy as punishment for their antics: the heir to an organized crime family, Chooch; a faith healer’s son, Ike; the son of an Arab sheik, Hash; and Oliver, whose governor father is up for re-election. In charge over these new recruits is sadistic Major Vaughn Liceman. Three of the four new recruits establish themselves as troublemakers from the start, but Chooch wants to go straight and focuses on his studies.

When Oliver’s girlfriend from back home, Candy, ends up enrolled at a nearby girls military school, the recruits plot to sneak out. They succeed, but when they return they find that Liceman knows about everything and even has compromising pictures of Oliver and Candy, which he threatens to use to damage the Governor’s re-election bid. The boys assume Chooch is the snitch, but he discovers Rodney is the guilty party. In retaliation, the boys hatch a new plan to get dirty photos of Liceman with Candy, and retrieve the original blackmail photos.

The counter-blackmail plan takes place during academy's soccer game. In the midst of the action, Rodney repents his actions and launches a rocket that destroys Liceman's cabin. The academy wins the soccer game, and the blackmail plot is foiled. The movie ends with Liceman chasing Ike, Oliver, Hash, Chooch, Candy, and Rodney while Liceman yells "play it again", playing the scene three times.

Best friends Dave Goodman, Sam Schecter, and Jeff Davis have spent almost four years at Holden University scamming their way through college. During one exam scam in their final semester, Dave meets Angela Patton and asks her out while writing his phone number on her exam sheet. Ethan Dulles (who calls himself "Cool Ethan"), a nerdy student who is obsessed with Angela, observes Dave and grows jealous. Ethan takes her exam question sheet after Angela leaves and uses it to blackmail the guys into setting up a successful date with Angela for him. The guys set Ethan up in multiple situations in an attempt to convince Angela to like him, while Dave tells Sam during their work researching her that Angela is no more important to him as any other scam they have done. Ethan fails to attract her after frequent confrontations based on his delusional behavior, immaturity and ignorance of social norms.

While trying to convince Angela to go out with Ethan, Dave and Angela grow a mutual attraction to each other. After telling Ethan that he has failed to convince Angela to go out with him, Ethan reveals to Dave that he has been obsessing over Angela for quite some time. He reminds Dave that he still intends to get Dave and his friends expelled if they fail him. Angela and Dave go on an impromptu date after a study session. Ethan finds out and follows and records them. Dave and Angela share a romantic swim and lovemaking session, which Ethan records. He shows the tape of Dave and Angela making love to Sam and Jeff to establish that Dave intends to keep Angela for himself. Sam and Jeff, unhappy with Dave's dishonesty, hand over their research on Angela. Ethan shows the file to Angela, telling her that Dave and his friends were actively stalking her. Dave punches Ethan in the face, but Ethan thinks he won Angela.

After a falling out with everyone, Dave returns to the dorm and admits to Sam and Jeff that he honestly cares for Angela. After making amends, the guys sabotage Ethan's job interview with a law firm and, during the final exam, while Dave is telling the truth to Angela in front of the whole class about his entire dishonest college career of cheating, Jeff plants an answer key in Ethan's backpack while tipping off the teaching assistant proctoring the exam. The guys get expelled, but Dave and Angela get back together and Sam ends up in a relationship with Angela's roommate, Reanna Cass. Jeff falsifies their diplomas from Holden University after Angela and Reanna graduate. Ethan, miserable that he lost Angela forever and also expelled from college after it was revealed he was stalking her, continues to work his dead end restaurant job. The movie ends with him singing his love of Angela and his hatred for Dave.

Backstory

Project Livewire was founded by S.H.I.E.L.D. as a means of testing the next generation of S.H.I.E.L.D. androids. These androids are based on the long-standing S.H.I.E.L.D. android, the Life Model Decoys (LMDs), and the LMD successors, the Mannites. The androids of Project Livewire combine the super-human abilities of the Mannites with the human appearance of the LMDs. Most of the work for Project Livewire was done by David Jenkins, the assistant chief designer of the project.

In total, ten androids were created for Project Livewire. By the beginning of the limited series, there were only five left functioning.

Issue one: "See These Eyes So Red"

The series opens in the middle of a mission with Stem Cell's activation as a replacement for Homebrew. The team has located one of their targets at a facility operated by a company named Thermogentech. The rogue Black Op is using cells secretly taken from the original Human Torch. These cells have been used to create a hive race of giant burning nanomachine-based robots called Pyronanos. The Pyronanos have gone rogue and have taken over the Thermogentech lab where they were created. Project Livewire assaults the building and discovers the Pyronanos attempting to build a nuclear fusion cannon to spread themselves across the land. After a long fire-fight, the members of Project Livewire manage to destroy both the facility and the Pyronanos.

Since Stem Cell is straight "out of the box", she still has her default human emotional responses in place and has difficulty adapting to the experiences.

Issue two: "Clockwork Thugs, Yo"

After escaping the site of their battle in Issue 1, the team uses a plasma grenade to destroy Homebrew's remains, buries them, and then proceeds to their next two missions.

The first of these missions is the intimidation of a rogue AIM scientist. The second mission is carried out solo by Gothic Lolita. To succeed in her mission she has to steal an experimental Sentinel antimatter power core that is being transported aboard a civilian cargo plane.

Issue three: "Mammalian Verisimilitude"

The team infiltrates a night club that is the evening hang-out of a research scientist who is a known employee for one of their targeted black ops. Inside, Social Butterfly dances with the scientist and while doing so, uses her abilities to get his security codes. Meanwhile, Hollowpoint Ninja distracts the scientist's robotic bodyguard and makes sure it records nothing out of the ordinary.

Using the codes, Cornfed sabotages the black op's computers and in the process uncovers information that indicates a location where they could gain access to the highest priority target on their list. This target is a black op so secret that even its true code-name is unknown. It is known only by the nickname The White Whale.

Issues four to six: Battle With The White Whale

The team stows aboard a tanker truck containing a shipment of inert nanofluid that is being delivered to the White Whale by AIM. At the arrival point, a huge black robot appears and takes the entire tanker up to the White Whale's headquarters. The headquarters is revealed to be a massive flying structure that was built around the frame of an "officially wrecked" S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. The White Whale itself is revealed later to be a hive mind made up of modified Nick Fury-based LMD's.

Once aboard, the White Whale discovers their existence very quickly, and the team's plans begin to fall apart. In the resulting turmoil there is a scramble to find safety as their enemies open fire. Team members begin to drop at this point. One of the huge outer guns is turned inward to shoot at the area of the fire-fight. Cornfed is hit and the blast disintegrates most of his body; his head and right shoulder are the only parts left intact. Gothic Lolita is caught by one of the White Whale LMD's and thrown into the Helicarrier's electromagnetic launcher. The launcher is designed to put a 10-ton payload into orbit, but Gothic Lolita is launched down instead of up. The impact is enough to cause a significant explosion. The last member to fall is Social Butterfly. She is cut to pieces by one of their foes using a high-tech monowire whip. Hollowpoint Ninja is captured shortly after pushing Stem Cell into the relative safety of a fuel pipe. Stem Cell is then forced to hack herself so that she can alter her emotions at will.

The battle ends when Stem Cell uses plans stolen from Thermogentech's files to create an upgraded version of the Pyronanos. Stem Cell designs these Pyronanos to run even hotter than the originals; she plans for the resulting explosion to destroy the Helicarrier. Lost in the resulting fight between the Pyronanos and the White Whale, Stem Cell recovers the remains of Cornfed and Social Butterfly. She then rescues Hollowpoint Ninja, who had lost one arm and both legs in the meantime, and launches an escape pod. Fleeing to safety, the two survivors watch as the Helicarrier explodes behind them.

Final pages of issue six: The Aftermath

After reaching the ground, Stem Cell recovers the fused remains of Gothic Lolita and sets out for Project Livewire's headquarters with what is left of her teammates. Instead of the high tech building she is expecting, she finds a huge hole and demands Hollowpoint Ninja tell her what happened. He then shares a memory archive showing the events that took place when Project Livewire's mission orders were activated.

Unknown to the other members of the Project, David Jenkins had a hidden agenda. He predicted that the robot's programmed machine logic would lead them to the conclusion that humans were likely to compromise the Project and that they would believe it to be within mission parameters to kill everyone else in the Project. Jenkins adapted their mission so that it would lead to the destruction of other black projects funded by the US government from a list he made himself. His reasoning for all of this was 'The sociopaths in suits can't be trusted.' Using the base's gamma reactor and more personal means, the robotic members killed all the human members of Project Livewire. Jenkins was voluntarily included in this killing. Before his death, he asked them to give his glasses to one of their own; they gave them to Stem Cell.

The series ends with Stem Cell trying to decide on a new name as she sets out to find a place to rebuild her teammates.

Clem Morgan, demobilised from the Royal Air Force and unemployed after the war, helps in the stealing and transporting of black market goods in coffins to crime boss Narcy's (short for Narcissus) headquarters in a funeral parlour. Clem finds the activity harmless enough, until one day he finds drugs in the latest coffin. Clem objects and tells his girlfriend, Ellie, that he will quit after one last job that night, the looting of a warehouse. Narcy betrays him, triggering the burglar alarm while he is inside. Clem manages to get back in the car with Narcy and another member of the gang, Soapy, before they drive off. When Narcy orders Soapy to run down a policeman, Clem grabs the wheel in an unsuccessful attempt to save the man's life and the car crashes into a lamppost. Narcy knocks him unconscious and has him moved to the driver's seat before fleeing with Soapy. Inspector Rockliffe arrives on the scene with other police officers to find the police officer dead and Clem injured in the car.

Clem is convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to fifteen years in prison in HM Prison Dartmoor. Sally Connor, Narcy's girlfriend, visits him in prison, telling him that Narcy is now with Ellie (who has not visited Morgan in prison) and that she knows he was framed as she was told so by Cora, Soapy's girlfriend. Sally offers to try to persuade Soapy to give evidence but Clem tells her to go away.

Back in London, Sally tells Cora that she has seen Clem and wants to go and speak to Soapy to get him to tell the police what really happened, but Narcy has found out that Sally has gone to see Clem in prison and brutally beats her up.

Clem escapes from prison and the police start a manhunt for him. He seeks shelter in a remote farmhouse, where Mrs. Fenshaw lets him bathe, shave and change his clothes, and also cooks him some food. Mr. Fenshaw comes into the room, but turns out to be a hopeless drunk who is hardly aware of his surroundings. Mrs. Fenshaw then tries to get Clem to shoot her husband, stating that as he is already a murderer it won't make any difference to him. Clem refuses and leaves, but he has handled the gun, leaving his fingerprints on it, and Mrs. Fenshaw uses it to shoot her husband dead.

Clem is now wanted for the murder of Mr. Fenshaw as well, but makes his way back to London and goes to stay with Sally; he then manages to escape both the police and Narcy, but Sally is kidnapped by Narcy and his gang and taken to their hideout, where Cora is already being held. Cora is forced to tell Narcy where Soapy is hiding out (in a room in a rundown hotel nearby) and Narcy sends Jim to go and kill Soapy, which he does.

Clem, whilst trying to find Cora and Soapy, is caught by Rockliffe, who tells him that he is not convinced by Mrs. Fenshaw's story, the first indication that the police might believe in Clem's innocence. In order to use him as bait, Rockliffe lets Clem go, and he goes to the Valhalla funeral parlour to meet with Narcy's gang. After knocking other members of the gang out, Clem and Narcy end up fighting on the roof of the parlour, before Narcy falls to the ground. Rockliffe, Sally and Clem gather round, begging Narcy, who is dying, to tell the truth about who killed the policeman but Narcy sticks to his story and repeats that it was Clem, before dying. Rockliffe leads Clem away, whilst Sally promises to wait for him. The ending is rather ambiguous, as Clem presumably has to return to prison, and he is also facing a possible murder charge; all that Rockliffe can do is promise to look at any new evidence that comes up.

Yôsuke Kobayashi is a detective and is on the case of a serial killer who dismembers his victims. The killer later sends Yôsuke's girlfriend dismembered but kept alive. Yôsuke hunts down the killer and due to the events, loses his sanity and develops Dissociative identity disorder with the two main personalities being Kazuhiko Amamiya, a cool headed detective and Shinji Nishizono, a reckless psychopath. After being placed in prison for murdering the killer, Yôsuke Kobayashi is released and works for an independent detective agency ran by Machi Isono. Later serial killers are appearing with barcodes in their left eyes, which Yôsuke Kobayashi also has. Yôsuke Kobayashi investigations lead him to believe he is not who he thinks he is and that his Kazuhiko and Shinji personalities have existed since childhood.

During the case known as "Lucy Seven", Shinji gains control of Yôsuke Kobayashi and disappears.

Later, it is found out that the Gakuso organization is behind the barcodes. Machi investigates and learns that Kazuhiko Amamiya and Shinji Nishizono are programmed personalities, genetically created (apparently by Gakuso) so that they could merge into a joint personality that is expected to greatly resemble that of Lucy Monostone, a legendary serial killer with a counter-culture personality.

It is revealed that there are multiple Shinji Nishizono personalities and that one exists in Machi's sister, Miwa. Miwa meanwhile runs into Yôsuke Kobayashi on a plane and manages to absorb the Kazuhiko Amamiya personality. At the same time, another host of a Shinji Nishizono personality (a teenager named Tetora Nishizono, who can temporarily transfer his Shinji Nishijono personality template to others) escapes from the Gakuso organization and runs into Miwa. She later gives the Kazuhiko personality to Tetora, who needs to add that personality to his own in order to remain psychologically stable. In exchange, Miwa demands that Tetora promise to keep the Kazuhiko personality alive and safe inside him no matter what.

Meanwhile, evidence of internal conflict inside Gakuso and of political use of same by high Japanese authorities mounts, and the police officers investigating the murders find themselves dealing with conflict and suspicion from all sides.

A few years later, Tetora continues his run from the Gakuso organization. The plot takes surprising turns, removing central characters while introducing new ones, leading to issue #11 which is in its entirety a flashback to events previous to the first issue of the series, bringing a new, more complete understanding of the whole situation. By #12 we resume the current day storyline and learn of new motivations for at least two characters. Gakuso's nature and goals are also fleshed out in a surprising way.

This game is based on the long-running, French comic book series ''Asterix the Gaul''. The characters Asterix and Obelix must rescue Getafix (Panoramix) and Dogmatix (Idéfix) from the Romans, who are in the process of taking over Gaul.

The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning sometime after the end of World War I. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Russian Caucasus to help the local Greek communities who are facing persecution. He sets off for Crete to re-open a disused lignite mine, and immerse himself in the world of peasants and the proletariat.

He is about to begin reading his copy of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' when he feels he is being watched; he turns around and sees a man of around sixty peering at him through the glass door of the café. The man enters and immediately approaches him to ask for work. He claims expertise as a chef, a miner, and player of the ''santouri'', and introduces himself as Alexis Zorba, a Greek born in Macedonia. The narrator is fascinated by Zorba's lascivious opinions and expressive manner and decides to employ him as a foreman. On their way to Crete, they talk on a great number of subjects, and Zorba's soliloquies set the tone for a large part of the book.

On arrival, they reject the hospitality of Anagnostis and Kondomanolious the café-owner, and on Zorba's suggestion make their way to Madame Hortense's hotel, which is nothing more than a row of old bathing-huts. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut. The narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of "good prose, carefully ordered, sober… powerful and restrained" and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table and get her to talk about her past as a courtesan. Zorba gives her the pet-name "Bouboulina" (likely inspired by the Greek heroine) while he takes the pet-name "Canavaro" (after real-life Admiral Canevaro, a past lover claimed by Hortense).

The next day, the mine opens and work begins. The narrator, who has socialist ideals, attempts to get to know the workers, but Zorba warns him to keep his distance: "Man is a brute.... If you're cruel to him, he respects and fears you. If you're kind to him, he plucks your eyes out." Zorba himself plunges into the work, which is characteristic of his overall attitude, which is one of being absorbed in whatever he is doing or whomever he is with at any particular moment. Quite frequently Zorba works long hours, and requests not to be interrupted while working. The narrator and Zorba have a great many lengthy conversations, about a variety of things, from life to religion, each other's past and how they came to be where they are now, and the narrator learns a great deal about the human condition from Zorba that he otherwise had not gleaned from his life of books and paper.

The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from his experiences with Zorba and the other people around him, but reversal and tragedy mark his stay on Crete. His one-night stand with a beautiful passionate widow is followed by her public decapitation. Alienated by the villagers' harshness and amorality, and having spent all of his remaining funds on a mining-related construction project that ends in a spectacular collapse, the narrator finds himself beset by doubts and uncertainty. Having overcome one of his own demons (such as his internal "no," which the narrator equates with the Buddha, whose teachings he has been studying and about whom he has been writing for much of the narrative, and who he also equates with "the void") and feeling he is needed elsewhere (near the end of the novel, the narrator has a premonition of the death of his old friend Stavridakis), the narrator takes his leave of Zorba for the mainland, which, despite the lack of any major outward burst of emotionality, is significantly wrenching for both Zorba and the narrator. It almost goes without saying that the two friends will remember each other for the duration of their natural lives.

The narrator and Zorba never see each other again, although Zorba sends the narrator letters over the years, informing him of his travels and work, and his marriage to a 25-year-old woman. Despite Zorba's many invitations to visit, the narrator does not accept. Eventually the narrator receives a letter from Zorba's wife, informing him of Zorba's death (which the narrator had a premonition of). Zorba's widow tells the narrator that Zorba's last words were of him, and in accordance with her dead husband's wishes, she wants the narrator to visit her home and take Zorba's santouri.

The player controls Keith Courage. In this game, Earth has been struck by a giant meteor, carrying an invasion force from another planet. Burrowing deep within the planet's surface, the planet of B.A.D. (Beastly Alien Dudes) seeks to take over the Earth. As a member of N.I.C.E. (Nations of International Citizens for Earth), Keith's mission is to defeat B.A.D. and bring peace to the world. Armed with a sword, Keith must first defeat the outpost guards. Then, enter the Underworld. Here Keith activates the awesome Nova Suit. A secret force left to him by his fallen father, he is half man, half mechanical monster. Nearly invincible, his sword cracks with the power of lightning, as you wreak havoc on the fearsome Dudes. His goal is to reach the Robo Zone (the seventh Alpha Zone), headquarters of B.A.D. Succeed here and the player will win the game, recapturing the Earth and restoring humanity's place in the universe. Four friends offer Keith advice, swords, bombs, and extra lives. The player's goal is to collect the stolen riches left behind by the invaders and buy your way out of trouble with money.

In 1978 New York City, Lefty Ruggiero, an aging enforcer in the Bonanno crime family, meets Joe Pistone, a young undercover FBI agent posing as jewel thief "Donnie Brasco". Lefty asks Donnie to sell a diamond he acquired from a strip club owner, but Donnie insists that it's a fake. Insulted, Lefty takes Donnie to the man and demands an explanation. Donnie beats the owner and takes his Porsche as repayment. Lefty teaches Donnie the rules of the Mafia and introduces him to members of his crew, including Sonny Black, Nicky, Paulie, and rival crew leader Sonny Red. After the boss of the family is killed, Sonny receives a promotion, angering Lefty who feels his years of service make him more deserving. As the crew runs a series of successful shakedowns and hijackings in the city, Pistone exploits his position as Lefty's associate to gather information for the FBI via wiretap recordings. He also ends up forming a genuine bond with Lefty, who is struggling with family issues and a lifetime of debt.

Pistone is asked by his FBI supervisor to incorporate Miami-based undercover FBI Agent Richie Gazzo into the Donnie Brasco operation. He convinces Lefty to meet with Ritchie and set up an illegal gambling racket in a long-closed tavern he owns. Lefty hopes to impress the local mob boss, Santo Trafficante Jr., by throwing a yacht party and convincing him to support his new business. Sonny finds out about Lefty's plan and intercedes by ingratiating himself to Trafficante and officially taking Donnie under his wing. Lefty believes Donnie betrayed him and cuts ties with him until Lefty's son nearly dies of an overdose and Donnie is the only one who comes to comfort him. Pistone's marriage with his wife Maggie continues to worsen due to long absences while undercover, leaving her alone to look after their three daughters. Pistone's behavior increasingly becomes more like that of the criminal he pretends to be, even hitting Maggie when she talks back to him.

On its opening day, Sonny's club is raided by corrupt Miami Police officers on Trafficante's payroll as a favor for Sonny Red. Suspecting a setup, Sonny Black and his crew return to New York and gun down Sonny Red and two other mobsters in an ambush. Sonny Black also orders Lefty to kill Nicky for lying about a drug deal and suspecting he snitched on the crew in Florida. Donnie is brought in to help clean up and dispose of the bodies. Sonny Black becomes the new boss and orders Donnie to kill Sonny Red's son, Bruno, so that Donnie can officially become a member of their family. Lefty finds Bruno's hideout and takes Donnie there. Donnie tries to offer Lefty a bag of money so he can leave the Mafia, but Lefty begins questioning his loyalty at gunpoint. The FBI intercedes before Donnie is forced to do anything, and the investigation ends.

FBI agents visit Sonny Black's hangout and reveal Donnie's true identity to the crew. Knowing the fatal consequences that awaits him for unknowingly letting an FBI agent infiltrate the crime family, Lefty leaves behind his valuables and tells his wife that if Donnie calls to tell him "if it was going to be anyone, I'm glad it was him", before he is called to a meeting with his crew. With his family in attendance, Pistone attends a small private ceremony for his service, being awarded a medal and a $500 check.

The end title cards state that the evidence collected by Pistone in the Donnie Brasco operation led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. Pistone lives with his wife under an assumed name in an undisclosed location, with a $500,000 open contract on his head.

After years of hopeful struggle, Al Stone (Jolson) is on his way to stardom. He plays a blackface minstrel.

"I'm Sittin' on Top of the World", he sings to an appreciative speakeasy crowd. But, as Al discovers, getting there is one thing. Staying there is another. Singing waiter Stone gets his huge break on a magical night when his song wows a big-time producer ''and'' a gold-digging showgirl he fancies. Broadway success and marriage follow, but sure enough, hard times are on the way. Al's fickle wife abandons him, taking the beloved son he calls Sonny Boy with her. Heartbroken, Al becomes a devastated loner until friends from the speakeasy that launched his career rescue him from a life on the streets. Soon, Al is back in lights. But another crisis awaits: Sonny Boy is in the hospital and dying.

After a long period of cold weather, the animals of the community become worried. They decide to send a messenger to the Great Sky Spirit to ask for relief. The Rainbow Crow, the most beautifully feathered bird, offers to make the arduous journey. He travels safely, and is rewarded by the Great Spirit with the gift of fire. He carries the gift in his beak back to his people, but upon his return, he does not appear to be the same bird that he once was. The fire has scorched his plumage black, with only hints of his previous color, and his voice has been made rough and hoarse by the smoke. In this way, his sacrifice is commemorated.

Another name for Rainbow Crow is '''Many Colored Crow'''. This is in reference to the iridescent feathers created from the fire that scorched his plumage black, with only hints of his previous color that reflect when sun light strikes them.

Max is a lonely 10-year-old boy living in the suburbs of Austin. In his imagination he has created a dreamworld named Planet Drool, where his dreams come to life. It contains two main characters: Sharkboy, who was raised by sharks after losing his father (a marine biologist) at sea, and became a shark-hybrid himself, and Lavagirl, who can produce fire and lava but has trouble controlling her power, so that objects often catch fire when she touches them. The pair act as protectors of Planet Drool. In the real world, Max's parents have little time for him, and their marriage is not going well. At school, he is bullied by his classmate Linus. He does receive some friendship from Marissa, the daughter of the teacher, Mr. Electricidad. Linus steals Max's dream journal and threatens to "make changes" to it. The next day, twin tornadoes form outside the school. Sharkboy and Lavagirl emerge from the storm and ask Max to accompany them to Planet Drool, which he learns is turning bad thanks to Mr. Electric, a robot resembling Mr. Electricidad and the dreamworld's now-corrupt electrician, under the orders of an unknown mastermind. They travel to Planet Drool with the Shark Rocket with an autopilot control. Max then realizes that he has never come up with a landing function.

They confront Mr. Electric in his lair, but he drops them into the Dream Graveyard, where many of Max's dreams have been dumped. They find Tobor, a robot toy that Max never finished building after being discouraged by his father. Tobor carries them to other parts of the planet. The three bond during their journey, but face hardships, such as Sharkboy's anger that the oceans are frozen over, and Lavagirl's desperation to find her true purpose on Planet Drool. They are pursued by Mr. Electric and his "plughounds". They plan to reach the Ice Princess and obtain the Crystal Heart, with which they could freeze time, giving them enough time to get to the center of Planet Drool and for Max to fix the dreamworld by re-dreaming it. Instead, they are captured by Mr. Electric and delivered to the mastermind, who is revealed to be Minus, a villain resembling Linus who has altered Max's journal and hence the dreamworld. Minus traps them in a cage. Sharkboy becomes enraged by singing bubbles and destroys the cage in a "shark frenzy". Max retrieves his dream journal while Minus is sleeping. Reading the book, Max informs Sharkboy that his father is still alive, but when Lavagirl wishes to learn what it says about her true identity, she grabs the book and it burns to ash. In a desperate rage, Lavagirl asks Max why he made her out of lava, and runs off. Max wants to follow, but Sharkboy tells him to let her cool down.

The three eventually reach the Ice Princess, who resembles Marissa. She hands over the Crystal Heart, but they are unable to stop the corruption, since the Ice Princess is the only one who can use the Crystal Heart's power, and cannot leave her home. Afterwards, Mr. Electric seemingly kills Sharkboy by tricking him into jumping into water filled with electric eels, which are his weakness. Lavagirl sacrifices herself by jumping into the water to retrieve him. Max realizes he has been selfish in wanting to get back to Earth. Tobor appears and convinces Max to dream a better, unselfish dream. Just then, Sharkboy regains consciousness and races Lavagirl to a volcano to revive her. Max realizes that Lavagirl's purpose is as a light against the darkness which has engulfed Planet Drool. Max becomes the "Daydreamer" and gains reality-warping powers to defeats Minus. He then offers that the two join to make a better dreamworld, and Minus agrees. Lavagirl thanks Max and Sharkboy for saving her.

Minus offers to let Mr. Electric return to running Planet Drool, but Mr. Electric reveals that he never enjoyed doing so in the first place. He tells Max that he made a terrible mistake of dreaming him up and flies to Earth to destroy Max while he is dreaming. Max awakens back in his classroom during the tornado storm. Mr. Electric arrives in the tornado in front of the class and an astonished Mr. Electricidad. Max's parents are caught in the storm too, but are saved by Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Max gives the Crystal Heart to Marissa so she can use the Ice Princess's powers to freeze and destroy Mr. Electric. Mr. Electricidad, Linus, and Max make peace with one another, and Max reunites with his now-reconciled parents.

Later, Max informs his class that Planet Drool is a proper dreamworld once again, that Sharkboy is now King of the Ocean and that Lavagirl is Queen of the Volcanoes. As the film shows Max finally finishing Tobor, he reminds the class to "dream a better dream, and work to make it real".

Taciturn, partially deaf Hanna (Polley) is a Yugoslavian native working in a factory in Northern Ireland. She is forced to use annual leave by her boss, who tells her that her co-workers have been offended by her work diligence. After overhearing a conversation about a need for a nurse, she takes on a job as private nurse for burn victim Josef (Robbins). He is bedridden on an offshore oil rig after a fire on the rig, and has severe burns and is temporarily blinded. The rig is not operational awaiting an investigation, and few people remain on board.

Hanna talks very little, and especially does not want to talk about herself. Despite his pain, Josef is constantly making jokes, some of them humorous sexual advances. Hanna's care for him includes holding the urinal and washing his entire body. As they get closer, they start sharing their experiences. Unbeknownst to him, she listens over and over again to a message on his mobile phone from a mysterious woman who was in love with him.

Hanna learns from a colleague that Josef was injured while trying to save a man who committed suicide by jumping into the oil-rig fire. Some other tragic connection between the two men is implied. He tells about a near-drowning experience because he cannot swim. Eventually Josef confides to Hanna his greatest secret guilt, and she tells him about her previous life in the former Yugoslavia. She describes in detail the horrors she endured during the Balkan Wars (Yugoslav Wars), including being kidnapped and repeatedly raped. She shares experiences of the other women, including one that was forced to shoot her own daughter, and the slow and agonizing death of her best friend. She tells of her own repeated torture and lets him feel the scars on her body from the wounds inflicted on her.

Josef is not getting better, and at Hanna's initiative he is air-lifted off the oil rig to be taken to a hospital. When the helicopter lands, Josef wants Hanna to accompany him, but she walks away without a word. However, she leaves behind a backpack (apparently intentionally), and it contains enough information to give Josef a chance to find her. After he recovers, Josef travels to Denmark to visit a counselor that Hanna had seen after fleeing the war, seeking to learn more about her. He then tracks her down at the factory in Northern Ireland where she works. They talk, and at first she keeps her distance, saying she couldn't be with him because she thinks one day she could drown them both in her sorrow. When he tells her that he will "learn to swim," she reciprocates the love. Later, Hanna is shown in a home with the voice of a young girl explaining that Hanna now has two sons, whom the narrator refers to as her brothers, indicating that the woman Hanna described as having been forced to kill her own child was, in fact, herself. The voice of her daughter ends the film with the hope that Hanna will one day be able to live completely in the "now" and no longer be haunted by the past.

Lawrence "Larry the Liquidator" Garfield (Danny DeVito) is a successful corporate raider who has become rich buying up companies and selling off their assets. With the help of a computerized stock analyzing program called "Carmen", Garfield has identified New England Wire & Cable Company as his next target. The struggling company is run by the benevolent and folksy Andrew "Jorgy" Jorgenson (Gregory Peck) and is the primary employer in its small Rhode Island town in New England.

Garfield decides to take over the company. After Jorgy learns that he has filed a Schedule 13D report, and after stubbornly insisting that no outsider can seize control of a business his father began, Jorgy is finally persuaded to hire his stepdaughter Kate (Penelope Ann Miller), a big-city lawyer, to defend against a hostile takeover. Garfield is instantly smitten with the beautiful Kate, although he is on to her tactics and does not waver from his goal of becoming the majority stockholder of New England Wire & Cable. Garfield tactlessly and unsuccessfully tries to seduce her. Despite their antagonism, Kate finds herself attracted to Garfield's bold nature.

The takeover attempt begins to fracture the New England Wire & Cable Company family. Kate's mother Bea (Piper Laurie) secretly travels to Garfield's offices to offer one million dollars in greenmail to Garfield if he'll go away, but he refuses, stating, "I don't take money from widows or orphans". Trusted company president Bill Coles (Dean Jones), fearful that the takeover will leave him with nothing, offers to let Garfield vote his shares in the company in exchange for a million-dollar payout. Garfield agrees, but specifies that Coles will get only half as much if his shares fail to make up the margin of victory.

Garfield concedes to Jorgy's offer to let the matter be settled at the annual shareholder's meeting. Relying on the support of longtime friends and investors, Jorgy makes an impassioned plea to save the company, appealing to the traditions of manufacturing as opposed to the new breed of capitalism which Larry the Liquidator represents, in which buyers of companies create no products or jobs and are interested only in money. The shareholders seem swayed by Jorgy's speech and boo Garfield when he gets up to give a rebuttal.

In his rebuttal, Garfield compares New England Wire & Cable to the last buggy whip manufacturer, arguing that even though the company's product may be high quality, changing technology has rendered it obsolete. Rather than running a failing business into the ground, he contends that the shareholders should follow his lead and get what value they can from the stock before the company's inevitable demise. At least when this company is liquidated, he says, they'll end up with a few dollars in their pocket.

When the vote is taken, the shareholders agree to give Garfield controlling interest in the company. The margin of victory is greater than Coles' shares and thus he does not receive the full amount he betrayed Jorgy to get.

Back at home in Manhattan, Garfield finds himself uncharacteristically despondent after his victory, having realized he has lost his chance for a romance with Kate. Just then, Kate calls. She's been having discussions with a Japanese automaker that wants to hire New England Wire & Cable to manufacture stainless steel wire cloth for making automobile airbags, something which will make the company profitable again on a new expanding industrial product. An excited Garfield invites her to dinner to discuss it. Kate tells him lunch, “strictly business, you know where”. Garfield blushes and smiles at this.

American schoolteacher Harriet Winslow goes to Mexico to work as a governess for the Miranda family, and becomes caught up in the Mexican revolution. Mexicans transporting her from Chihuahua, secretly soldiers of Pancho Villa's army, use her luggage to smuggle weapons to the servants at the Miranda hacienda. The servants in turn aid the attacking revolutionary army of General Tomas Arroyo. During the attack, a sardonic "Old Gringo", American author Ambrose Bierce, joins the fighting on the side of the revolutionaries; he operates a railway switch that sends a railroad flatcar laden with explosives to its target.

After the Miranda hacienda is taken, Winslow becomes romantically attracted alternately to Bierce and then Arroyo. Bierce has come to Mexico to die in anonymity; he feels that his fifty years as a writer have won him praise only for his style, not for the truth that he's tried to tell. Arroyo, by contrast, has returned to the hacienda where he was born. His father was a Miranda who had raped his peasant mother. Later in his youth, Arroyo murdered his father.

While his army enjoys previously unknown luxuries on the war-damaged palatial estate, Arroyo becomes obsessed with his past. Transfixed by childhood memories of his family buried there, he fails to move his army when ordered by Villa. To bring Arroyo to his senses and avert a mutiny of his officers, Bierce burns papers that the illiterate Arroyo considers sacred—papers that supposedly entitle the peasants to the hacienda land. Arroyo responds by shooting Bierce in the back, killing him. Bierce dies in Winslow's arms.

Winslow goes to the U.S. embassy in Mexico to claim Bierce's body and bring it back to the United States. She claims that he was her long-lost father. This puts Villa in a predicament because a U.S. citizen was murdered by one of his generals. Wishing to avoid American meddling in the revolution, he has Winslow sign a statement that her father had joined the revolution and was executed for disobeying orders, as was General Arroyo who had shot him, and that she witnessed both executions. She signs the statement, is provided with the coffin bearing Bierce's body, and witnesses the execution of Arroyo.

The eponymous protagonist, Angélique Sancé de Monteloup, is a 17th-century woman born into the provincial aristocracy in the west of France. In successive books, she marries at a young age the romantic and talented Joffrey de Peyrac, Count of Toulouse; gets her domestic bliss destroyed when King Louis XIV has her husband executed on trumped up charges; descends into the underworld of Paris; emerges and through a turbulent second marriage gets admittance to the court at Versailles; loses her second husband in war, just as she had started to truly love him, and subsequently refuses to become the King's mistress; finds that her first husband is after all alive but is hiding somewhere in the Mediterranean; sets out on a highly risky search, gets captured by pirates, sold into slavery in Crete, taken into the harem of the King of Morocco, stabs the King when he tries to have sex with her, and stages a daring escape along with a French slave who becomes her lover; gets back to France, only to be put under house arrest in her ancestral home and raped by rampaging royal soldiers, which arouses the province to a rebellion which is brutally put down; finds refuge with a Huguenot family and – just as they are threatened by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – is saved in the nick of time by her long-lost first husband appearing at La Rochelle and taking them all to America in his ship; and also being reunited with her children, whom she had thought dead but were alive and well in America. Then follow many more adventures in colonial North America – specifically, in French Acadia – involving French and English settlers, tribal natives and pirates.

The film begins with an unnamed man arriving by train to Helsinki. After falling asleep in Kaisaniemi Park, he is mugged and beaten by hoodlums and is left with severe head injuries, losing consciousness. He awakes and wanders back to the train station and collapses in its toilet. He awakes the second time in a hospital and finds that he has lost his memory. He starts his life from scratch, living in a shipping container, finding clothes with help from the Salvation Army and making friends with his poor neighbours.

In London in June 1911, George V will be crowned king on 22 June and in the preceding days, many important dignitaries arrive, including the 16-year-old King Nicholas VIII of the (fictional) Balkan country of Carpathia, with his father the stiff and pompous widower prince regent Charles, and his maternal grandmother the widowed queen dowager of Carpathia (inspired by King Michael I of Romania, Carol II of Romania and Queen Marie of Romania).

The British government decide that keeping Carpathia in the Triple Entente is critical amid the rising tensions in Europe. They wish to pamper the royals during their stay in London and assign civil servant Northbrook for the task. Northbrook takes Charles to the musical performance ''The Coconut Girl''. During the intermission, Charles meets the cast backstage and is smitten with performer Elsie Marina, to whom he sends a formal invitation for dinner at the Carpathian embassy.

Elsie meets Charles at the embassy and expects a large party but soon realises Charles' true intentions, to seduce her over a private supper. Northbrook persuades her to remain, promising to provide an excuse for her to escape after supper. When Charles makes a clumsy pass at her, she immediately rebuffs him and explains that she had hoped that he would sway her with romance, passion and "gypsy violins." In response, Charles changes his style and tactics, complete with a violinist. The two eventually kiss and Elsie admits that she may be falling in love, turning aside Northbrook's attempt o help her leave the embassy. When Elsie falls asleep, Charles places her in an adjoining bedroom to stay the night.

The following day, Elsie overhears that Nicholas is plotting with the German embassy to overthrow his father. Promising not to tell, Elsie then meets the dowager queen, Charles' mother-in-law, who invites Elsie to join them for the coronation in place of her sick lady-in-waiting. The ceremony passes and Elsie refuses to tell Charles of the treasonous plot. Nicholas invites Elsie to the coronation ball, where she persuades him to agree to a contract in which he will confess his and the Germans' intent, but only if Charles agrees to a general election. Charles is impressed and realises that he has fallen in love with Elsie. The morning after the ball, Elsie helps reunite Charles and Nicholas. Her honesty and sincerity have inspired Charles to finally show sincere love to his son.

The next day, the Carpathians must return home. Charles had planned to have Elsie join them, but his regency will end in 18 months and he will then be a free citizen. Elsie reminds him that her music-hall contract will expire at the same time. They both realise that much can happen in 18 months and they say goodbye to each other.

On Earth, Reginald Barclay is involved in the Pathfinder project, an effort to communicate with the USS ''Voyager'', which is stranded in the Delta Quadrant. Barclay soon becomes obsessed. He loses himself in the reality of the holographic ''Voyager'' created for the project, enjoying the false friendships within.

He seeks help from old friend and shipmate Counselor Deanna Troi, who advises him to forge real relationships and stop straying into the holo-program he has created of the ''Voyager'' ship and crew. When Admiral Paris visits the project to inspect progress, Barclay ignores orders from Commander Harkins, the project leader, not to bother the Admiral with his infeasible suggestions. Barclay puts forward his theory that using the MIDAS Array (an advanced sensor array), and computing ''Voyager'' s progress from their last contact, they would be able to create a micro wormhole in the Delta Quadrant near ''Voyager'' and use it to create a two way communication link. Admiral Paris is intrigued by this and promises to give it further study which Barclay is highly excited by, but at a later meeting with Admiral Paris, Barclay oversteps the line and is removed from the project for insubordination.

Later that night, he breaks back in to the Pathfinder project to prove his theory is correct. He hacks into the system and sends commands to the array which, as he predicted, creates the wormhole in the Delta Quadrant. As he attempts to contact ''Voyager'' using the array, Starfleet detects and sends security personnel to stop him. Barclay locks out the system and takes refuge in the holodeck simulation of ''Voyager'' where he continues to direct the wormhole to locate ''Voyager''. The security officers led by Commander Harkins follow Barclay into the simulation where the faux ''Voyager'' crew rebels, even firing on the security officers. Of course, this has no effect except to momentarily distract them as the safety protocols are on. The holo-Torres is destroyed by a pursuing Commander Harkins, who shuts down the primary cooling systems on the holographic ''Voyager'' which will cause the warp core to overheat and breach, effectively destroying the entire program unless Barclay complies and releases command back to him.

As a dejected Barclay is led out, Admiral Paris enters the lab and announces that Barclay's idea has real promise and should be explored further. As he is informed that the attempt has already been made and was unsuccessful, Admiral Paris expresses regret at Barclay's choice to disregard protocol.

Meanwhile, the real ''Voyager'', far in the Delta Quadrant, detects the micro-wormhole and a communication signal which Seven of Nine disbelievingly identifies as Federation in origin on a Starfleet Emergency Channel. The crew attempts to clear up the signal while back on Earth, the jubilant officers and Barclay assist. For a few seconds the team on Earth clear up the return signal, two-way communication is established for 86 seconds before the micro-wormhole collapses. A few words are exchanged and data from ''Voyager'' s logs, crew reports, and navigational records are transmitted to Earth. Barclay sends "data on some new hyper-subspace technology", along with recommended modifications to the ship's communications system, so that ''Voyager'' s crew will be able to keep regular contact with home. In the final seconds, the crew hear some moving words from Admiral Paris ending with, "I want you all to know we're doing everything we can to bring you home."

To celebrate the knowledge that home is looking for them and regular communication will be possible in due time, the crew of ''Voyager'' hold a party in honor of Barclay. They discuss what little they know of him through his personnel record and declare him an honorary ''Voyager'' crewmember.

The film tells the story of three young friends whose passion in life is surfing. The friends include: Matt Johnson, a self-destructive type who has a devil-may-care attitude; Jack Barlow, the calm and responsible one of the bunch; and Leroy "The Masochist" Smith, whose nickname tells a lot about his personality.

Their surfing lives are traced from the summer of 1962, to their attempts at dodging the Vietnam War draft in 1965 (including faking insanity, homosexuality, and all manner of medical ailments), and to the end of their innocence in 1968 when one of their friends is killed in Vietnam. The three make the difficult transition to adulthood with parties, surf trips, marriage, and the war.

The friends reunite years later, after Barlow has served in Vietnam, for the "Great Swell of '74". With this reunion, the transition in their lives becomes the end point of what the 1960s meant to so many as they see that the times have changed, and what was a time of innocence is gone forever.

Peggy Martin (Marilyn Monroe) and her mother Mae (Adele Jergens) both work as burlesque chorus girls. After star Bubbles LaRue quits, the stage manager Joe asks Mae to do a specialty number, but Mae secretly arranges for Peggy to do the number instead, and her performance is so good that she is given the starring spot.

One evening, Randy Carroll (Rand Brooks), a member of a wealthy society family in Cleveland, Ohio, is brought to a performance by friends and becomes completely enamored of Peggy. Learning that Peggy generally does not go on dates because her mother disapproves, Randy adopts a subtle strategy. Every night, he sends Peggy an orchid, but does not sign the card. Curious about her secret admirer, Peggy goes to the florist to learn his identity. When the florist tells her that the man is due to arrive at any moment, Peggy waits for him. After they finally meet, Randy asks Peggy to dinner and she accepts, but first she invites him to meet her mother. Randy is shocked to learn that Mae is also a dancer, but he politely asks her to join them for dinner. Mae declines, but waits anxiously for Peggy to return home. That night, an ecstatic Peggy tells Mae that Randy has proposed.

The next day, when Randy asks Mae for her consent, she warns him that there is a class difference between him and Peggy. In response to Randy's indifference, Mae tells him the story of her marriage to a Boston socialite, Peggy's father. After their marriage, she explains, her husband's family was horrified to learn how she made her living and had the marriage annulled. Randy protests that people are more broadminded now than they were in her day, and Mae agrees to the marriage on the condition that Randy tells his mother about Peggy's profession beforehand.

Randy then tries to tell his mother Adele (Nana Bryant) about Peggy's profession, but gets cold feet. Adele, however, is delighted that Randy has fallen in love and invites Mae and Peggy for a visit. Adele plans a lavish engagement party for all their friends, including Mae's old friend, Billy Mackay (Eddie Garr), a retired burlesque comic who has loved Mae for years. At the party, the trio of musicians that Adele has hired to entertain recognize Peggy and ask her to sing, addressing her as "Peggy, the Queen of Burlesque" in front of all the guests. The guests are scandalized, and feeling snubbed, Peggy and Mae decide to go home. But Adele stops them, declaring that if they run away, it will only make things worse.

Adele then asks Billy to help her sing a song with the trio. Afterwards, she announces to her shocked friends that she too used to be a chorus girl. Billy secretly tells Mae that Adele made up that story to help Randy and Peggy. As the happy young couple embrace, Adele persuades Billy and Mae to make it a double wedding.

Carol (Josie Davis), Maggie (Mayim Bialik) and Joan (Joanna Clare Scott) are three friends who took different ways in their lives. The girls go back to Kalamazoo, Michigan for their 10-year high school reunion, but they discovered that a time capsule placed on their graduation night containing predictions would be opened in one week. Horrified at the thought of having their unfulfilled goals made public, they decide to steal the time capsule and destroy it. But they have to deal with the life they left behind, including former loves and family.

The game begins with Gandalf (voiced by Tom Kane) visiting Frodo (Steve Staley) and explaining the significance and history of the Ring. Frodo suggests it be destroyed, and Gandalf explains only the fires that created it are powerful enough to do so; the fires of Mount Doom, deep in Mordor. As Gandalf cannot take the Ring himself, for fear it would corrupt him, Frodo volunteers to do so. An eavesdropping Samwise Gamgee (voiced by Scott Menville in PC & PS2, but Cliff Broadway in Xbox) volunteers to join Frodo and Gandalf agrees, telling them they must head to Rivendell and speak to Elrond. He also tells Frodo never to use the Ring, as to do so will begin to corrupt him, and will draw the attention of Sauron and the Nazgûl. On the night of Frodo's departure, a Nazgûl arrives in The Shire looking for the Baggins' home. Frodo is able to evade the Nazgûl and heads to meet Sam, whom he finds accompanied by Peregrin "Pippin" Took (James Arnold Taylor) and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck (Quinton Flynn). Much to Frodo's surprise they know about the Ring and Sauron, as they have been spying on Bilbo, Frodo and Gandalf for years. They vow to join Frodo on his quest.

With the Nazgûl in pursuit, the hobbits head through the Old Forest. As they reach a large willow tree, Sam, Pippin and Merry fall asleep, and are swept up into the tree's branches. Frodo is then approached by a man, Tom Bombadil (Daran Norris), who tells him the tree is called Old Man Willow. Tom puts Willow to sleep, and releases the hobbits. They go to his house, meeting his wife, Goldberry (Kath Soucie). The hobbits spend the night, before heading to the Barrow-downs, where Sam, Pippin and Merry are captured by a Barrow-wight. Tom arrives, again saving them, and leads them to Bree, advising them to stay in the Prancing Pony.

In the inn, Pippin has too much to drink and begins to tell stories about Bilbo. Afraid that he will reveal too much, Frodo climbs on a table and begins to sing and dance to distract the crowd. However, he slips, and the Ring lands on his finger, turning him invisible. An angry ranger takes the hobbits into another room, warning them they are drawing too much attention to themselves. He introduces himself as Strider (Daran Norris) and asks if he may join them on their journey. At this point, the innkeeper, Barliman Butterbur (Daran Norris), arrives with a letter from Gandalf which informs Frodo that Strider is really Aragorn, a trusted friend. Attracted by Frodo's accidental use of the Ring, the Nazgûl come to Bree, but Aragorn successfully hides the hobbits.

They head towards Rivendell, stopping at Weathertop for the night, where they are attacked by the Nazgûl. In an effort to evade them, Frodo puts on the Ring, not realizing it does not hide him from them. The Witch-king stabs him with a morgul-blade. Aragorn manages to fight off the attackers, but Frodo's blood is corrupted by evil. As they race to Rivendell, they are met by Glorfindel (Steve Staley), who gives Frodo his horse. Frodo crosses the River Bruinen, and the Nazgûl attempt to follow, but the waves of the river, under the control of Elrond, rise up, washing the Nazgûl away. At this point, Frodo faints.

He awakens to see Gandalf by his bedside. Gandalf tells him that Saruman has joined with Sauron, and that Aragorn is not just a ranger, but the last surviving descendant of Isildur, and rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. They head to the council chambers, where Elrond (Jim Piddock) is presiding over a debate about what to do with the Ring. Aragorn says the Ring must be destroyed, but Boromir (James Horan), a man from Minas Tirith, disagrees, arguing instead they should use it as a weapon against Sauron. Gandalf says this cannot be so, as anyone powerful enough to wield the Ring would become as terrifying as Sauron. As the debate becomes heated, Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mordor and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom, and Elrond agrees, forming a company of nine; Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, a silvan elf from Mirkwood named Legolas (Michael Reisz) and a dwarf from Erebor named Gimli (James Horan).

They set out, and attempt to cross Caradhras, but a snowstorm causes an avalanche, closing the pass. They reluctantly decide the only way past the Misty Mountains is to go under them, via the dwarven mines of Moria. In Moria, they fight off orcs as they pass through the chambers. Near the exit, they are attacked by a Balrog. Gandalf stands against it, defeating it by destroying the bridge on which it is standing. However, as it falls, it catches Gandalf with its whip, pulling him down after it. The distraught party leave Moria, entering Lothlórien, and meeting Galadriel (Jennifer Hale). She takes Frodo to see the Mirror of Galadriel, where he sees images of the coming War of the Ring. Frodo offers her the One Ring and although she is tempted, she turns it down, explaining that his resistance to its evil is because he has never tried to use it to control others.

The party leave Lothlórien via the river Anduin. Boromir tries to convince Frodo to take the Ring to Gondor to use it as a weapon against Sauron, but Frodo refuses. As they travel on the river, a Nazgûl riding a Fellbeast seizes Sam. The party give chase, and on the hill of Amon Hen, Aragon and Legolas slay the creature and rescue Sam. The game ends with Galadriel looking into her mirror, noting that although the Fellowship has succeeded in getting Frodo close to Mordor, she sees him and Sam alone in the future, with Gollum following closely behind them.

The book started with Dahl's voyage to Africa in 1938, which was prompted by his desire to find adventure after finishing school. He was on a boat heading towards Dar es Salaam for his new job working for Shell Oil. During this journey, he met various people and described extraordinary events such as a lion carrying a woman in its mouth.

He eventually joined the war as a squadron pilot in the Royal Air Force, flying the Tiger Moth, Gloster Gladiator, and Hawker Hurricane. He was among the last Allied pilots to withdraw from Greece during the German invasion, taking part in the air for the Battle of Athens on 20 April 1941. In one of his accounts, he described a crash in the Western Desert, which fractured his skull and brought him several other problems such as temporarily being blinded during his days in Greece. After the country fell to the Nazis, he went to the Middle East to fight Vichy French pilots after staying for a brief time in Alexandria, Egypt.

Richard, an unsuccessful artist who builds primitive flying machines, attempts to fly from the roof of a London office building wearing homemade wings but fails, instead crash-landing and only being saved by a rescue squad. As a result of his actions Richard is sentenced to community service, in the form of caring for Jane, an ill-tempered woman who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and has run off her previous carers.

Over time, Richard and Jane become friends, and eventually Jane asks Richard to help her find someone to lose her virginity to, explaining that she doesn't wish to die a virgin. Reluctantly Richard helps her search for an appropriate partner, while spending his free time building yet another experimental flying machine. Eventually the two settle on a high-priced male gigolo for Jane, who agrees to sleep with her for two thousand pounds. As neither of them has that amount of money, they conclude that Richard must rob a bank to secure the needed cash.

Richard books a hotel suite for Jane and pays the gigolo five hundred pounds, promising the rest later. As Richard leaves for the bank job, the gigolo lays a very nervous Jane on the bed, but she begins panicking and decides she no longer wants to go through with it. Meanwhile, Richard likewise changes his mind, drawing his gun in the bank but then fleeing immediately, calling Jane's name. He returns to the room and drives off the unhappy gigolo.

Richard and Jane are seen successfully taking a flight in Richard's flying machine, although it breaks apart on landing. The pair are then seen in bed, implying that they have slept together. Jane dies soon after, and the film ends with Richard placing a commemorative sign honoring Jane's memory on the wreckage of his flying machine.

The film begins in a maternity ward of a hospital, where the mother of Solmaz Gholami is upset to learn that her daughter has just given birth to a girl, even though the ultrasound indicated that the baby would be a boy. Worrying that the parents of the child's father will force their son to divorce her daughter, she tells another daughter to call her uncles.

At the phone booth, she passes by three young women, including Arezou and Nargess, who have just escaped prison. The three of them are trying to come up with money so that they can go to Nargess's home village. The third prisoner is immediately arrested, as she tries to pawn a gold chain, leaving just the two women. While waiting for Arezou in a market, Nargess spots a copy of A Wheatfield with Cypresses and mistakes it for a painting of her hometown. She shows it to Arezou, describing the paradise that awaits them at the end of their bus journey. Arezou acquires enough money from an acquaintance to get Nargess a bus ticket. Arezou decides not to go to Nargess' hometown, explaining that she would prefer to envision it as a paradise than to experience the real thing. The two of them separate.

At the bus station, Nargess convinces the clerk to issue her a ticket, despite not having a male companion or a student card. After buying a present to bring home, Nargess returns to the bus only to find it is being searched by police. She retraces her steps in search of Arezou, but cannot find her. Instead she tries to find another prisoner, Pari, who also snuck out of the prison that day. Pari's father aggressively denies Nargess entry to the house and lies that his daughter is dead. Just as Nargess leaves defeated, Pari's two brothers arrive, and angrily force their way into the house, in order to "talk" to their sister. Pari manages to escape, and eventually makes her way to a hospital where she finds Elham, another former prisoner who has hidden her past and is now a nurse, married to a doctor.

Pari confesses to Elham that she is four months pregnant and entreats her to help her abort the baby. Elham, concerned about arousing suspicions about her own past, is reluctant to do anything to help her, so Pari is left to wander the streets at night. Without ID, she cannot get into a hotel. At a street corner, she finds a mother trying to abandon her little girl, hoping that she will find a better life with a family. She continues wandering the street.

The mother is caught by an undercover police officer who thinks she is a prostitute, but she later manages to escape. Then, another woman who has been picked up as a prostitute is taken to prison. She is placed in a cell with other women we have previously met in the film, and the phone rings outside the metal door. A guard answers and comes to the window, calling for Solmaz Gholami, the woman with a baby girl in the first scene, bringing the story to a circular conclusion.

Louis de Pointe du Lac is being haunted by the spirit of Claudia, a child who, like Louis, had been turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt but was destroyed long ago. With the help of former Talamasca leader-turned-vampire David Talbot, Louis asks the beautiful witch Merrick Mayfair to use her spiritual powers to contact Claudia's ghost.

Merrick is also a former agent of the Talamasca, and shared many adventures with David in the past. Flashbacks introduce Merrick's malevolent sister, Honey Isabella or Honey in the Sunshine; Merrick's mother, Cold Sandra; and the Great Nananne, a powerful witch whose very presence is enough to frighten and instill respect in David. Merrick and David recall their journey to a cave in Central America which contained malevolent spirits protecting an ancient jade mask, which allows people to see spirits as if they were corporeal.

Merrick retrieves Claudia's diary from the Talamasca vaults, and makes it possible for Louis to speak with Claudia. The spirit's harsh words confirm the negative feelings for Louis that Claudia expressed in her diary, and a despairing Louis attempts suicide by exposing himself to the sun. Made a vampire by Lestat, Louis is too powerful to be destroyed in this manner, and his burned body is restored with vampiric blood bestowed by Lestat, David, and new vampire Merrick. She reveals that from the beginning, she used her magic to lure David and Louis to her in hopes of receiving the Dark Gift of vampirism. The turning of Merrick into a vampire infuriates the Talamasca, but in a letter David advises that they not wage war against the vampires because Lestat is too formidable a foe.

After amnesiac nurse Jane Marvin (Beverly Garland) is administered the drug sodium pentothal by psychiatrists Erik Lorimer (Bennett) and Wayne McGregor (Douglas Kennedy), she recalls a series of events from her repressed memories when she was known as Joyce Webster.

Joyce has just married a young man named Paul Webster (Richard Crane). Aboard their honeymoon train, Paul receives a telegram, and in a panic, immediately leaves the train to make a phone call. When the train pulls out, Paul is missing, having vanished without a word. Throughout the following months, Joyce employs private detectives and conducts her own search for her husband, to no avail, until one day she discovers the address of the Cypresses Plantation that Paul entered on his college enrollment forms.

Joyce takes the next train to the desolate whistle-stop town of Bayou Landing in the heart of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, swamp country. While waiting at the rail station, she notices a large crate, marked as containing radioactive cobalt-60, and meets Manon (Chaney Jr.), a handyman at the Cypresses, when he comes to pick up the crate. She asks him to drive her there and he obliges. As they proceed deeper in the swamps, Joyce is horrified when Manon tries to run over an alligator and then exhibits the hook where a gator bit off his hand, explaining his hatred for the reptiles. At the plantation, Joyce introduces herself to Lavinia Hawthorne (Frieda Inescort), the Cypresses' stern mistress. When Joyce suggests that Paul once lived at the plantation, Lavinia calls her a liar and tries to have her thrown out. However, when her manservant Toby (Vince Townsend Jr.) points out that Joyce has missed the last train back to town, Lavinia reluctantly invites her to stay the night under the proviso that she not leave her room.

That night, in a drunken craze, Manon is in the swamps attempting to shoot several alligators. Joyce is disquieted by the sound of gunshots, but when she tries to open the door to her room, she discovers it is locked. When the maid Lou Ann (Ruby Goodwin) delivers Joyce's dinner tray, she warns that the house is deeply troubled and advises her to leave as soon as possible. Later, Lavinia notifies Mark Sinclair (George Macready), a self-proclaimed "Swamp Doctor" who operates a clinic on the plantation, that Paul's wife is there. At the clinic, Mark administers an injection to an agitated patient who is swathed in bandages. Soon after, Lavinia arrives to confer about how to deal with Joyce.

Meanwhile, at the house, Joyce hears the strings of a piano and slips out of her room to investigate. As she descends the stairs, she sees a man in a trench coat, his face in shadows, seated at the piano and fails to recognize the shadowy figure as mutated Paul. When Joyce enters the room, Paul flees, leaving behind a trail of muddy, clawed footprints. Paul, his face terribly disfigured, stops Lavinia's car and in a distorted voice, insists that Joyce leave as soon as possible. The next morning, Mark comes to the house to question Joyce, and sensing that he is withholding information about Paul, she refuses to leave. Later that day, when Joyce demands that Lavinia tell her what she did to Paul, the older woman breaks down and confesses that Paul is her son.

That night, as a storm rages, thinking that Joyce has gone, Paul returns to the house. When Joyce sees him, he runs away and she follows him into the swamps. After being menaced by several alligators and a giant snake blocking her path, Manon rescues and carries her to his shack. After trying to get her to strip, Manon assaults her. When Joyce screams and tries to resist, Manon angrily knocks her unconscious. An outraged, reptilian-looking Paul then bursts in and fights Manon. After a struggle, Paul manages to incapacitate Manon and takes Joyce back to the house. Manon recovers and screams out in rage into the storm, vowing to kill Paul just like he would kill any alligator no matter what. Back at the house, Lou Ann is caring for Joyce as Lavinia confronts her son. After his mother insists that Joyce be told the truth, Paul presses Mark to give him an untested cobalt treatment in hopes of curing his condition. Mark reluctantly agrees to give him the treatment the following evening after Joyce has been informed of the situation.

The next morning, Mark summons Joyce to his lab and tells her about his experiments with reptilian hormones that are capable of regenerating limbs. He continues that after Paul was horribly mangled in a plane crash, Mark administered the serum to him and several other accident victims. The treatment appeared to be a great success, until his patients began to increasingly take on reptilian traits. Mark explains that after Paul received the telegram notifying him that his tests were positive, he hurriedly left the train and came home in hopes of reversing his condition. When Joyce learns of Paul's scheduled radical cobalt treatment, she insists on being present.

That night, Paul encounters Joyce at the clinic and turns away from her in shame. After seeing Joyce clasping her son's hands and reassuring him of her love, Lavinia apologizes to her for her brusqueness. As Paul climbs onto the table and Mark aims the ray at him, Manon bursts into the lab and destroys the control panel, shooting powerful rays at Paul that transform him into a bipedal, reptilian monster with an alligator-like head. After trying to attack Manon, Paul looks on as Manon's hook gets caught on some cords and is electrocuted while trying to kill Paul. Confused, Paul stumbles over to the other room and tries to communicate, but his voice has been replaced with a reptilian snarl. Hearing his wife and mother scream in horror, Paul flees into the swamps and sadly peering into the water, sees his reflection. Joyce scrambles after him, as the cobalt machine, short circuiting due to Manon's body, self-destructs and destroys the lab. Scrambling away from his wife, Paul is attacked by an alligator and wrestles it while Joyce screams at the sight. Managing to fight off the reptile and hurl it away, Paul stumbles into quicksand and slowly sinks out of sight to the sound of Joyce's shrieks, seemingly meeting his demise.

Back in the present, the psychiatrists review the tapes of Joyce's ordeal, and concluding that her amnesia has allowed her to suppress the horror and resume a normal life, they decide not to tell her about her life as Joyce Webster.

The first season of the series purports to tell the story of Wyatt's experiences as deputy town marshal of Ellsworth, Kansas (first four episodes), and then as town marshal in Wichita. In the second episode of the second season, first aired September 4, 1956, he is hired as assistant city marshal of Dodge City, where the setting remained for three seasons. The final episode set in Dodge City (Season 5, Episode 1 - "Dodge City: Hail and Farewell") aired on September 1, 1959. Beginning the next week on September 8, 1959 (Season 5, Episode 2 - "The Trail to Tombstone"), the locale shifted to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, for the remainder of the series.

Cassie Grant (Christina Ricci) is a young girl from the United States who is wandering through England on foot. On her way to Ashby Wake, Cassie is hit by a car. The driver of the car, Mrs. Marion Kirkman (Kerry Fox), immediately calls an ambulance. During an examination at the local hospital the doctor concludes Cassie only has some scratches and not even a concussion, but Cassie has lost her memory due to the accident. She only knows her name and mother country, but she does not know which town she comes from, who her family is, and why she is in England. The doctor explains to her that the loss of memory is caused by a shock and that she will regain it after some recuperation. As a result of the examination, Cassie is checked out. Mrs. Kirkman invites Cassie to stay at her house until she has overcome her loss of memory, because Mrs. Kirkman feels guilty and responsible for the lonely girl who nobody knows.

While recovering, Cassie is drawn into a deeper mystery, which seems to involve her hosts and other people she sees about the town. Her lack of memory compounds the air of suspense as she encounters a man named Dan Blakely (Ioan Gruffudd), whom she believes she knows, but with no idea from where. Cassie becomes very attached to Mrs. Kirkman's son, Michael (Harry Forrester) and becomes acquainted with her husband Simon (Stephen Dillane), an art historian, who is in the process of examining a church from Early Christianity (built in Glastonbury during the first century AD) after the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea. This church was recently discovered by two visitors to the Glastonbury Festival, who died after falling down a hole through the open roof of the buried church. In the Church there is an unusual relief made of stone, which illustrates the crucifixion of Christ. Also depicted are many curious onlookers who appear to be observing the gruesome scene.

During the next few days, Cassie has visions of the future of the people around her. She also recognises certain people who seem to watch her and often appear in a certain place in Glastonbury which she visits. She observes the strange auto mechanic, Frederick Michael Argyle (Peter McNamara) and examines his belongings, which include a scrapbook containing news clippings that detail accusations of child abuse at a local orphanage, that were ignored by the townspeople. The orphanage turns out to be the house the Kirkmans now live in. Cassie finds that Argyle was one of the children who was abused and that he identifies himself with the young Michael. She discovers that Argyle is planning to take revenge on the people of the town for their cruelty to him. Cassie suspects that a catastrophe is imminent, but she is unable to persuade anyone else of the impending danger she senses. She eventually finds out that the relief in the church illustrates a group of people known as "The Gathering". They are immortal and damned to watch catastrophes and murders for eternity as they stopped to watch the crucifixion of Christ out of morbid curiosity, a concept similar to the legend of the Wandering Jew. The priest and Bishop also discover this, and the priest rushes to inform Mr. Kirkman. However, on the way, he sees the "Gathering" on a bridge over the highway, and dies in a car accident as a result. The Gathering merely watch. Later that same day, Cassie experiences visions where she watches a young Argyle dragged into the house by the orphanage priest, while three of the town's leading figures watch and laugh. The priest then drags the child into a nearby room where he further abuses the child and is joined by the other three men. Cassie follows the men into the room, only to wake from the vision to see Michael standing over pictures of the archaeological site. Cassie then finds one of the photographs, which seems to horrify her.

However, after the priest's accident, the Bishop is able to pass on this strange news to Mr. Kirkman, who realises that his family is in great danger. He hastens to drive home to try to prevent whatever is fated to occur. Cassie is then seen attending the local festival with the Kirkman children only to then see the strange people gathering around the fairgrounds. She attempts to warn the police once more of Argyle's intent, but instead discovers Dan, who has killed the officer on duty. He then reveals that he is one of the Gathering, who have since stopped simply watching the world's tragedies but have also begun to set up the potential tragedies to be more likely to happen. Cassie manages to prevent Argyle from killing festival goers with a bomb, but is unable to stop him taking revenge upon the men who had abused him. After a harrowing chase, Cassie sacrifices her life to save the lives of the children of the Kirkman family. Mr. Kirkman arrives just in time to stop Argyle from killing his family. At the end it is revealed that Cassie also belongs to ''The Gathering'', because just after she "dies", she appears standing among them as they stare at Argyle being electrocuted. Cassie is shown to be weeping while the others just stand there and watch impassively. Because Cassie has shown compassion and tried to prevent evil deeds, her life of wandering will end and she will find peace, which she tells the son of Mr. Kirkman at night on the same day.

Similarities with the Ray Bradbury story "The Crowd" have been noted.

The play is set in Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, a run down dive bar in San Francisco. Much of the action of the play centers around Joe, a young loafer with money who encourages each of the bar's patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry, and sets up his flunky, Tom, with a prostitute, Kitty Duval. The bar is frequented by a number of colorful characters, including a frenetic young man in love, an old man who looks like Kit Carson, and an affluent society couple.

Nick's saloon is based on the café operated by Izzy Gomez in San Francisco, which Saroyan frequented.

The protagonist of ''The Last Ninja'' series is Armakuni, the sole survivor of a ninjutsu clan that was destroyed by an evil shogun named Kunitoki. This struggle leads our hero to the island of Lin Fen (in the first ''Last Ninja'') to modern-day New York City (in ''Last Ninja 2'') and to the mystical Buddhist temple in Tibet (in ''Last Ninja 3''). In each of the games, Kunitoki is the final adversary and every time eludes death after a somewhat decisive victory from Armakuni.

The year is 2999 and the Earth is at peace following the Space Wars. The safety of the human race is ensured by Earth Defense Force (EDF). Shortly before the turn of the fourth millennium, the peace is broken by the appearance of a gigantic alien battle cruiser. Powerless to defend itself, the EDF's Pluto base is completely destroyed and the evil Commander Makara reveals that the same fate awaits the Earth unless the mysterious F-Zero-One is handed over to her.

Unaware of the nature of F-Zero-One and fearing retribution, the EDF presses into action an untested, incomplete weapon, codenamed ''X-Project'', from its hidden moon-base. The X-Project is revealed to be a powerfully-armed spacecraft named ''X-Bomber''.

The series then follows the adventures of the crew of the X-Bomber, namely Doctor Benn, Shiro Hagen, Barry Hercules and John Lee who are joined by PPA, Lamia and her guardian Kirara. They set off to discover the nature of the F-Zero-One and try to protect it from the increasingly desperate Commander Makara and her menacing overlord, the ''Imperial Master''.

Eventually it is revealed that Lamia herself is the mysterious F-Zero-One, a powerful alien destined to bring peace to the galaxy at the turn of the millennium. The series continues with Lamia gradually discovering her true nature and powers while the Imperial Alliance attempts to capture her and destroy the X-Bomber. The series climaxes with the X-Bomber crew destroying Commander Makara and Lamia finally confronting and defeating the Imperial Master and bringing peace to the universe.

Former NYPD Captain Dewey Wilson is brought back to the force and assigned to solve a bizarre string of violent murders after high-profile magnate Christopher Van der Veer, his wife, and his bodyguard are slain in Battery Park. Executive Security, the private firm employed by Van der Veer, blames the murders on terrorists, but knowing that the victim's bodyguard was a 300-pound Haitian with voodoo ties makes Wilson skeptical. With pressure to solve the case coming from both the Police Commissioner and the Mayor, Wilson is partnered with criminal psychologist Rebecca Neff.

Elsewhere, in the South Bronx, a homeless man explores an abandoned church that is scheduled to be demolished by Van der Veer's development company. He is killed by an unseen monstrous being. Wilson and Neff investigate his murder. At the church, the apparent sounds of a baby crying lure Neff up to the bell tower. Wilson follows her, but does not hear the crying; once Neff is separated from him, he hears a wolf howl. He goes up after Neff and drags her to safety. Later that night, a bridge worker is apparently murdered by the same creature.

Coroner Whittington discovers non-human hairs on several victims and consults a zoologist named Ferguson, who identifies the hairs as belonging to an unknown subspecies of ''Canis lupus''. Ferguson compares wolves to Native Americans. Inspired, Wilson finds Eddie Holt, a militant Native activist he arrested some years previously, working in construction. While Wilson interrogates Holt on top of the Manhattan Bridge, Holt claims to be a shapeshifter, which implicates him as the killer. Wilson opts to leave Holt alone and tail him that night.

Following animal clues, Ferguson goes to Central Park, where the killer ambushes him in a tunnel. Wilson spends the remainder of his night with Neff where they have sex. The following morning, a man in a jogging suit rides Ferguson's motorcycle past Wilson as he leaves Neff's apartment. Whittington and Wilson stake out the church, armed with sniper rifles and sound equipment; after Whittington almost blows his ears out by opening a beer can near a parabolic microphone, an animal that appears to be a wolf kills him. Meanwhile, Executive Security apprehends a "Götterdämmerung" terrorist cell in connection with the Van der Veer slaying.

A traumatized Wilson escapes the church and finds himself at the nearby Wigwam Bar, where Holt and his friends are drinking. The group of Natives reveals the true nature of the killer as "Wolfen", the wolf spirit. They explain that the Wolfen have extraordinary abilities and "might be gods". Holt tells Wilson that he cannot fight the Wolfen, stating: "You don't have the eyes of the hunter, you have the eyes of the dead". The leader of the group, the Old Indian, informs Wilson that the Wolfen kill to protect their hunting ground. Wilson resolves to end his involvement in the Van der Veer case but he, Neff, and Wilson's superior, Warren, are cornered on Wall Street by the Wolfen pack. Warren is decapitated while Wilson and Neff flee.

Wilson and Neff are cornered in Van der Veer's penthouse by the pack, led by its white alpha male. Wilson smashes the model of the construction project that threatened their hunting ground, trying to communicate that the threat no longer exists and that he and Neff are not enemies. The Wolfen vanish just as the police barge in. Wilson claims the attack was made by terrorists. In a voiceover, Wilson explains that Wolfen will continue preying on weak and isolated members of the human herd as humans do to each other through class conflict. Wolfen will continue being invisible to humanity because of their nature; not that of spirits but predators, who are higher on the food chain than humans. The last scene is Eddie and his friends looking at the city from the bridge.

The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen who are supplied with leads — the names and phone numbers of prospects — and use deceitful and dubious sales tactics. Many of the leads rationed out by office manager John Williamson lack either the money or the desire to actually invest in land. The firm sends Blake, one of its top salesmen, to motivate the team. In a torrent of verbal abuse, he gives them all notice of termination and tells them that the top deal-closers of the month (with one week to go) will keep their jobs and gain access to promising leads for the Glengarry Highlands development.

Shelley "The Machine" Levene is a once-successful salesman in a long-running slump and with a daughter in the hospital. Desperate to keep his job, Levene tries to persuade Williamson to give him some of the Glengarry leads, but Williamson refuses. Levene tries first to charm Williamson, then to threaten him, and finally to bribe him. Williamson is willing to sell some of the prime leads, but demands cash in advance, which Levene does not have.

Meanwhile, Dave Moss and George Aaronow complain about the firm's management, and Moss proposes that they strike back by stealing all the Glengarry leads and selling them to a competing agency. Moss's plan requires Aaronow to break into the office, stage a burglary and steal all of the prime leads. Aaronow wants no part of the plan, but Moss tries to coerce him, saying that Aaronow is already an accessory before the fact simply because he knows about the proposed burglary.

While all of these events are happening, Richard Roma, the office's top closer, tries to manipulate a meek, middle-aged man named James Lingk into buying a property. Framing the deal as an opportunity rather than a purchase, Roma plays on Lingk's feelings of insecurity.

The next day, when the salesmen come into the office, they learn that there has been a burglary and the Glengarry leads have been stolen. Williamson assures Roma that his contract with Lingk was not stolen, and he and the police question each of the salesmen in private. After his interrogation, an infuriated Moss has one last shouting match with Roma and leaves in disgust. Lingk arrives to demand his down payment back under the three-day cooling-off period because his wife objected to the deal. Roma tries several tactics to stall and confuse Lingk but is interrupted by the police detective, who wants to question him. He lies to Lingk, telling him that the check has not yet been cashed and there is time to change his wife's mind. Williamson, who is unaware of the tactic, contradicts him, causing Lingk to rush out of the office upset. Roma vulgarly berates Williamson for interfering, then submits to questioning.

Levene, proud of a massive sale he made that morning, takes the opportunity to mock Williamson in private. In his zeal to humiliate Williamson, he mentions that Williamson lied about cashing the check. Williamson realizes that Levene must have broken into the office and seen the check on his desk, and threatens to inform the police if he does not return the leads. Cornered, Levene admits that he sold the leads to a competitor and split the money with Moss. Levene attempts to bribe Williamson with a share of his sales to keep quiet, but Williamson scoffs that Levene has no sales. His latest buyers are a notorious deadbeat couple who have no money and merely enjoy talking to salesmen. Levene, crushed by this revelation, asks Williamson why he seeks to ruin him. Williamson coldly responds, "Because I don't like you." Levene pleads for his ill daughter, but Williamson rebuffs him and leaves to inform the detective.

Roma emerges from questioning. Unaware of the exchange, he compliments Levene on his sale and suggests that they form their own partnership. As Levene gets up to meet with the detective, he looks back wistfully at Roma, who has already returned to his sales work.

Noblewoman Alanna of Trebond, disguised as the boy "Alan", exchanges places with her twin brother Thom, to go to the royal palace in the city of Corus to train for knighthood, while Thom studies magic. Throughout the four novels Alanna struggles with her gender identity, as well as going through puberty and bullying. Alanna befriends characters of a wide background during the quartet including George, the commoner king of the thieves; the scholar Sir Myles of Olau; senior students Gareth (Gary) of Naxen, Raoul of Goldenlake, and Prince Jonathan of Conté; Princess Thayet of Sarain; Liam Ironarm, a martial-arts champion; and Buriram (Buri) Tourakom, Thayet's bodyguard. Her principal rivals are classmate Ralon of Malven and Jonathan's kinsman Duke Roger. In the second volume, Alanna also acquires the magical cat 'Faithful', who accompanies her thereafter (Faithful is hinted to be an immortal, but his origins remain unknown. Because of her double identity as a girl masquerading as a boy, small size, magic, and impatience, Alanna often questions her own character. In the third book, she becomes an honorary member of the 'Bazhir' (a Bedouin-like ethnicity) and gains acceptance as a warrior, mage and a woman. In the final volume, Alanna becomes King's Champion to Jonathan and Baroness of the coastal estate Pirate's Swoop, following her marriage to George Cooper, newly minted Baron of Pirate's Swoop.

Four foster kids create a video game about heroes going up against space alien terrorists. Then a portal appears and pulls them into a dimension which is really similar to their game. This show also details their adventures in this parallel world, as they embark on a quest to find their missing video game cartridges and stop the sadistic extraterrestrial emperor Zorch from taking control of this intergalactic dimension.

Axel Nordstrom manages a glass-bottom boat tourist operation in the waters of Santa Catalina Island, California. His widowed daughter, Jennifer Nelson, occasionally helps by donning a mermaid costume and swimming underneath his boat for the passengers' amusement.

One day, Jennifer accidentally meets Bruce Templeton when his fishing hook snags her costume. He reels in the bottom half, leaving the irate Jennifer floating in the water bottomless. She later has a run-in with Bruce at her new place of employment, an aerospace research company in Long Beach, where she works in public relations. After she discovers that Templeton is the president of the company, she embarrassedly apologizes to him, but he clearly has taken a liking to her.

Bruce's company has created a gravitation control device, called the ''GISMO'', which the U.S. Air Force plans to put into orbit in a few weeks and whose secret formula is sought after by the Soviet Union. Bruce hires Jennifer for a new full-time assignment: to be his biographer and write his life story, while he is working on GISMO. His real purpose is to win her affections. Jennifer accompanies him to many of his appointments and begins to feel affection for him. When she is invited to his home, she meets Edgar Hill, a CIA agent making sure the GISMO project is securely handled, and Julius Pritter, a bumbling electronics technician who is installing a Hi-Fi system in Bruce's home. After Julius is left alone in a room, he is seen searching it for information regarding GISMO. He finds and photographs a cryptic note which Bruce had written while brainstorming ideas how to win Jennifer's affection. Julius is later seen transferring the photos to his handler.

When Bruce drives Jennifer with his remote-controlled high-speed boat to Catalina, the remote malfunctions and Bruce is thrown from the wildly careening boat, which eventually lands in a parking lot with Jennifer. After Bruce and Jennifer spend a happy evening with Axel and his wife, Jennifer's feelings for Bruce deepen.

Bruce is summoned to a meeting with Hill, bumbling security guard Homer Cripps and PR executive Zack Molloy. There Hill explains to him that secret information is leaking, e.g. the note that Julius had photographed. Cripps is very suspicious of Jennifer because of several odd things he had noticed about her: She dials the same telephone number several times every day, counts the rings and then hangs up with the words "that's enough for now, Vladimir." She burns papers alone late at night in the office. And she has a shortwave antenna installed in her home. There are innocent explanations for all of these things, which none of the people in the meeting know about: Vladimir is her dog, who gets his exercise by running through the house barking whenever he hears the phone ring. Jennifer had read a note in the office which explained that old documents should be burned so that they cannot be stolen. And she uses her shortwave antenna to communicate with Axel. Hill asks if the formula is safe and Bruce explains that the two copies are stored in voice activated safes, whose operation Bruce shows to the people in the meeting. Bruce begins to have some doubts regarding Jennifer, imagining her as Mata Hari, but shakes off his doubts. Later that evening, Air Force General Wallace Bleecker arrives to watch over the GISMO project.

Julius is confronted by his handler for only providing useless or publicly known information and is pressured into spying at a party which will be held by Bruce the next day. Cripps in turn is spying on Jennifer, overhearing her talking to her father and misunderstanding her end of the conversation as more proof of her involvement in espionage.

At the party, Bruce brings Jennifer to a guest room, where she declares her love for him and they plan to spend the night together, but Bruce is again called away to a meeting with Hill, Cripps, Molloy and Bleecker where they discuss the suspicions regarding Jennifer. When she picks up the phone to call Vladimir again, she is able to listen in on the discussion. She is furious at Cripps, Molloy and Bleecker for suspecting her of wrongdoing. And even though Bruce defends her and believes in her innocence, his remark that she is not intelligent enough for this kind of operation infuriates her even more. She intends to turn the tables by pretending to be a spy. She arranges for Molloy and Bleecker to have an embarrassing tete-a-tete by promising to meet both at the same time in the guest room. She manages to tie up Cripps, who had tailed her wearing women's clothing, in the powder room. When Bruce notices her deeds, he is angry and locks her up in the closet. There, she is freed by a hidden Hill, who is revealed to be a spy, has stolen the GISMO formula, and put it in Jennifer's purse to smuggle it out of the house.

When Jennifer returns home, she is confronted by Julius. But it is soon revealed that he is only carrying a water pistol and is harmless. But then Hill arrives, draws a gun, reveals himself as the spy and requests the formula. Julius and Jennifer manage to fight him off and then Jennifer flees through the neighborhood while Bruce, Cripps, Bleecker and Molloy, who have found out the truth, race in their cars to save Jennifer. Hill is finally stopped by a blow to the head with a nightlamp by neighbor Mabel Fenimore.

The film ends with Jennifer and Bruce on their honeymoon, where they ride the same boat from before, which again malfunctions and leaves them in the parking lot on Catalina Island.

American heiress Kit Preston and her British business owner husband Tony live in a wealthy neighborhood of London in a building undergoing major renovation construction. Returning home in a dense fog, Kit is startled by an unseen eerie male voice that threatens to kill her. The following day, Tony's assistant, Daniel Graham, notifies Tony that he has been looking at the books of Tony's company, and it appears a large sum of money has been embezzled from their firm.

Kit begins receiving phone calls from the same threatening voice. Tony and Kit report the incidents to Scotland Yard, but Inspector Byrnes dismissively attributes the case to Kit's imaginative way of getting her husband's attention. Kit's Aunt Bea arrives for a visit and upon seeing Kit's nervousness, Bea becomes concerned for Kit's well-being. After several more incidents, Tony and Bea insist that Kit see a psychiatrist.

The voice finally announces he is coming to kill Kit. Tony pretends to leave to lure in the stalker, but shortly returns. A gunman enters and takes a bullet in the ensuing struggle with Tony. The voice, however, is still heard coming from a tape recorder. Tony now turns on Kit and confesses he has been gaslighting Kit with help from his lover, their neighbor Peggy, in a scheme to kill her for the money to cover up his embezzlement. Terrified for her life, Kit runs through the balcony high onto the construction site and is rescued by the construction foreman, Brian Younger. Tony is arrested by Byrnes, who had tapped the Prestons' phone and realized that Kit's fear was real and that Tony was the mastermind.

While the Royal Australian Navy evacuates Salamaua in February 1942 ahead of a Japanese invasion, Commander Frank Houghton coerces an old friend, American beachcomber Walter Eckland, into becoming a coast watcher for the Allies. Houghton escorts Eckland to deserted Matalava Island to watch for Japanese airplanes. To ensure Eckland stays put, Houghton sees to it that his own ship "accidentally" knocks a hole in Eckland's launch while departing, so his only boat is a utility dinghy. To motivate Eckland, Houghton has his crew hide bottles of whisky around the island, rewarding each aircraft sighting (once it is confirmed) with directions to one of the bottles.

Eventually, Houghton offers Eckland a replacement (actually another coast watcher in need of rescue), but Eckland has to retrieve him from nearby Bundy Island by dinghy. He instead finds eight civilians stranded there who escaped from Rabaul: Frenchwoman Catherine Freneau and seven young schoolgirls (four British, two French and an Australian) under her care. She informs him that the man he came for was killed in an air raid. Eckland reluctantly takes the party back to Matalava with him, but there is no safe way to evacuate them.

The fastidious Freneau clashes repeatedly with the slovenly, uncouth Eckland; they call each other "Miss Goody Two Shoes" and "a rude, foul-mouthed, drunken, filthy beast," respectively. In the end, though, he adjusts to her and the girls, with Eckland getting one of the traumatised girls to speak again. Freneau learns that Eckland had been a history teacher before he became fed up and chose life in the South Pacific. Afterwards, Eckland cares for Freneau after they mistakenly believe she has been bitten by a deadly snake. With nothing else to do, he gives her whiskey; she gets drunk and speaks freely.

Now in love, the couple arrange to be married by a military chaplain over the radio, but strafing by a Japanese airplane interrupts the ceremony.

Since they have been detected, Houghton sends an American submarine, USS ''Sailfin'', to pick them up, but an enemy patrol boat shows up first. Leaving Freneau and the schoolgirls in his dinghy, Eckland takes his now-repaired launch out to lure the Japanese vessel beyond the surrounding reef so the submarine can torpedo it. The Japanese sink the launch, but the submarine sinks the patrol boat. An uninjured Eckland, his wife, and the girls are picked up.

A former Spokane, Washington cop turned private investigator takes on a case of a missing diamond cutter that leads him on an adventure of love and villainy spanning from the Nazis to the present day Mob.

The story revolves around unrelated pairs of people who spend time in karaoke bars across the United States in the week leading up to a big contest in Omaha. *Ricky Dean (Huey Lewis), a hustler on the karaoke circuit, travels from town to town feigning ambivalence of karaoke, then winning both the contests and side bets with locals. Detoured by a phone call, he travels to Las Vegas for the funeral of an ex; while there, he meets his daughter Liv (Gwyneth Paltrow), with whom he hasn't had contact for many years.

Seeking a father figure after her mother's death, Liv joins him against his wishes on the road, both singing solos at karaoke bars. They are involved in a bar fight when one of Ricky's marks retaliates. *Depressed California salesman Todd Woods (Paul Giamatti), so exhausted from business travel he doesn't even know what city he's in. Arriving home, his wife Candy (Kiersten Warren) and two children are too self-absorbed to even say hello. He walks out on his family and his old life, driving aimlessly. He wanders into a karaoke bar in New Mexico, where a fellow participant offers beta blockers to help him overcome his anxiety and stage fright. Todd gets hooked on the drugs as he keeps driving.

In Utah, Todd picks up hitchhiker Reggie Kane (Andre Braugher), a charismatic but violent fugitive convict, who recently robbed at gunpoint a truck driver who gave him a lift. They form an unlikely friendship after Reggie reveals a beautiful singing voice during a duet at a karaoke bar. Todd's mental health deteriorates further as Reggie tries to keep him out of trouble; he first has to drag Todd out of a hotel when he threatens the clerk with a gun; then, after he causes a standoff at a service station, Reggie shoots and kills the attendant. Reggie arranges for Candy to meet them in Omaha, but an emotionless Todd rejects her, insisting he is finished with his former life. *Cincinnati-based underachieving cab driver and once aspiring priest Billy (Scott Speedman) goes on a drinking binge after catching his partner cheating on him. He meets Suzi Loomis (Maria Bello), a broke drifter who gets by on karaoke contest prizes and sexual favors. Neither respects the other's lifestyle, but Billy nonetheless agrees to drive her to California, stopping at karaoke bars for her to compete along the way.

All three pairs end up at the Omaha contest, each having won the right to compete there for $5,000 after winning in a smaller town. Finally accepting his daughter, Ricky invites her to perform a duet of her mother's favourite song, "Cruisin'". Billy discovers that Suzi's has stage fright when he finds her in the ladies' room, vomiting, but he convinces her to compete. Reggie sees the police arrive, investigating the service station shooting. Performing an a cappella version of "Free Bird", he pulls his gun on stage, prompting police to shoot him; putting the full blame for the service station shooting on Reggie, and freeing Todd to return to his family.

After the contest, Billy and Suzi continue on their way to California. Billy invites Liv (with whom he had been flirting at the contest) and Ricky to join them, and they resolve to take a slight detour to another karaoke contest in Nevada. Todd and Candy fly home together on his frequent flyer miles.

The show featured the adventures of the title character Fortycoats (Fran Dempsey) - his catchphrase was "Be me forty coats and me fifty pockets" - and his companions Sofar Sogood (played by Conal Kearney), a prim goody two shoes character and Slightly Bonkers (played by Virginia Cole), a naive schoolgirl. They occupied the Flying Trick Shop (also known as the Flying ''Tuck'' Shop and the Flying Sweet Shop) and battled against the evil Wilhelmina, the Whirligig Witch (and her cat, Spooky) and the equally evil Pickarooney (who lived in a rubbish tip and kidnapped children).

On , Michael Myers is shot by his psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis and falls off a balcony. He survives and escapes into the night. Wandering the alleys, he steals a kitchen knife from an elderly couple and kills the teenage girl next door. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode, who narrowly avoided being killed that night, is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital while Loomis continues his pursuit of Michael, accompanied by Sheriff Leigh Brackett. Loomis mistakes costumed teenager Ben Tramer for Michael, resulting in Ben being hit by a police car and burning to death. Upon learning his daughter Annie has been killed by Michael, Sheriff Brackett blames Loomis and abandons the search, leaving Deputy Gary Hunt to take his place.

At the hospital, paramedic Jimmy begins to fall in love with Laurie, but head nurse Virginia Alves limits the time he spends with her. After hearing a news broadcast revealing Laurie's location, Michael makes his way to the hospital, where he cuts the phone lines and disables the cars. Wandering the halls in search of Laurie, he kills the security guard, the doctor, and several nurses throughout the night. In her hospital room, Laurie dreams about the time she learned she was adopted, and remembers she once visited a young Michael at the sanitarium. Jimmy and nurse Jill Franco search the hospital for Laurie, who is trying to evade Michael.

Jimmy finds the body of Mrs. Alves before slipping in a pool of her blood and knocking himself unconscious, giving himself a concussion. Meanwhile, Loomis is informed that Michael broke into the local elementary school earlier. He discovers clues connecting Michael to Samhain and the occult, which might explain his apparent indestructibility. His colleague Marion Chambers arrives to escort him back to Smith's Grove on the governor's orders and under the enforcement of a US Marshal. On the way, she tells him that Laurie is Michael's younger sister; she was put up for adoption after the death of Michael's parents, with the records sealed to protect the family.

Realizing that Michael is after Laurie and being told she was brought to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Loomis forces the Marshal at gunpoint to drive back to Haddonfield. Jill finally finds Laurie, only to be killed by Michael, who then pursues Laurie through the hospital. She manages to escape to the parking lot and hides in a car. Jimmy soon arrives and tries to drive the car to safety, but passes out again on the horn, alerting Michael. Loomis, Marion, and the Marshal reach the hospital just in time to save Laurie. Loomis shoots Michael until he falls down, seemingly dead. While Marion calls the police, the Marshal tries to check Michael's pulse as Loomis warns him to stay away, knowing he isn't dead. Michael then reawakens and slits the Marshal’s throat with a scalpel.

Loomis and Laurie run into an operating room, where he gives her the Marshal's gun before being stabbed by Michael. Laurie shoots Michael in both eyes, blinding him. As he staggers around trying to find them, the two fill the room with flammable gas. Loomis orders Laurie to run before igniting the gas, immolating himself and Michael in an explosion. However, the explosion only throws Loomis out of the room, knocking him unconscious. Laurie watches as Michael, engulfed in flames, emerges from the fire before finally collapsing. The next morning, she is transferred to another hospital, traumatized but alive.

On October 30, 1988, Michael Myers, who has been in a comatose state for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, is transferred to Smith's Grove Sanitarium by ambulance from his current residence in the Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium. Upon hearing that he has a niece, Michael awakens and kills the ambulance personnel, which causes the ambulance to lose control then crash into a river. Michael escapes and makes his way to Haddonfield. Michael's former psychiatrist, Samuel Loomis, learns of Michael's escape and gives chase. He follows Michael to a gas station and eatery, where he has killed a mechanic for his clothes, along with a female clerk. Michael then escapes in a tow truck hitting the gas pumps with the garage door stuck on front of the tow truck, then causing an explosion, destroying Loomis's car provided by Ridgemont in the process and disabling the phone lines. Loomis is then forced to catch a ride to Haddonfield to continue pursuing Michael.

Meanwhile, Jamie Lloyd, Laurie Strode's daughter and Michael's niece, is living in Haddonfield with her foster family, Richard and Darlene Carruthers, and their teenage daughter, Rachel. Although Jamie knows about Michael, she does not realize he is the man she has nightmares about. On Halloween night, Richard and Darlene head out to a party and leave Rachel to babysit, which forces her to cancel a date with her boyfriend Brady, making him frustrated. After school, Rachel takes Jamie to buy ice cream and a Halloween costume. Michael arrives in Haddonfield and steals a mask from the same store where Jamie and Rachel happen to be; he almost attacks the former but is forced to flee when Jamie screams and alerts Rachel.

That night, as Rachel takes Jamie trick-or-treating, Michael breaks into the house and finds photos of Laurie in Jamie's bedroom. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and warns the new sheriff Ben Meeker that Michael has returned. Meanwhile Michael heads to the power station and kills a worker by throwing him into a transformer, plunging the town into darkness. Michael then attacks the police station and kills all of the officers. A lynch mob is formed by the town's men to kill Michael once Loomis reveals Michael has returned. Rachel discovers Brady cheating on her with Sherrif Meeker's daughter Kelly, a rival for his affections, and loses track of Jamie. After being chased by Michael, Rachel finds Jamie.

Sheriff Meeker and Loomis arrive and take the girls to the sheriff's house, where Brady is with Kelly, along with a deputy. They barricade the house, and Loomis departs to look for Michael. With Sheriff Meeker in the basement awaiting the arrival of the state police before heading out to deal with the lynch mob, Brady tries to talk to Rachel, but she refuses to speak with him. Meanwhile, Michael sneaks in and kills the deputy and Kelly. Discovering the bodies, Rachel, Jamie, and Brady realize they are trapped in the house. Rachel and Jamie flee to the attic when Michael appears, but Brady stays to fend him off and is killed when Michael crushes his skull. The girls climb through a window onto the roof and Jamie is lowered down safely, but Michael attacks Rachel and knocks her off the roof. She is left unconscious from the fall.

Pursued by Michael, Jamie runs down the street and finds Loomis. They take shelter in the school, but Michael appears and subdues Loomis by throwing him through a glass door, then chases Jamie through the building. Jamie trips and falls down a flight of stairs. Before Michael can kill her, Rachel reappears and subdues him with a fire extinguisher, and Michael vanishes. The lynch mob arrives at the school after hearing the alarm go off. Earl and three other mob members agree to take the girls to the next town in a pickup truck, meeting up with the state police as they head for Haddonfield to reinforce Sheriff Meeker.

A trooper tells them of a substation just up the road where they will be safe, but Michael, who hid underneath the truck, climbs aboard and kills all three men, including Earl. Rachel pushes Earl's body out to take the wheel, continuously attempting to throw Michael off. She succeeds in doing so and then rams him with the truck, sending him flying into a ditch near an abandoned mine. Sheriff Meeker, Loomis, the rest of the lynch mob, and the state police arrive, but when Jamie approaches Michael and touches his hand, he rises. Meeker, the state police, and the lynch mob relentlessly shoot Michael until he falls down the mine.

Loomis and Sheriff Meeker take the girls back home where Darlene and Richard console their traumatized children. As Darlene goes upstairs to run a bath for Jamie, she is suddenly attacked. When Loomis goes to see what happened, he finds an emotionless Jamie holding a pair of bloody scissors at the top of the stairs, reminiscent of Michael when he killed his own sister. Loomis screams "No!" repeatedly and attempts to shoot Jamie, but Sheriff Meeker stops him. Loomis sinks to the floor and begins sobbing, as Rachel, Richard, and Meeker stare in horror.

On Michael Myers is shot and falls down a salt mine shaft. Sheriff Ben Meeker, the lynch mob of Haddonfield's truckers, and state police toss down dynamite to finish him off. Escaping into a nearby creek before the dynamite explodes, Michael stumbles upon an elderly hermit who nurses him back to health after he falls into a coma. One year later, on October 30, 1989, Michael awakens, stabs the hermit to death with his knife, and returns to Haddonfield to find his niece Jamie Lloyd again, who narrowly avoided being killed by him the year before.

Jamie has been admitted to the Haddonfield Children's Clinic after having attacked her foster mother. Jamie has been rendered mute due to psychological trauma, suffering from nightmares and seizures and exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis becomes aware of Jamie's psychic link with Michael, and tries to convince Meeker that Michael is still alive. Meanwhile, Michael stabs Jamie's foster sister Rachel to death and begins stalking their friend Tina. Michael kills Tina's boyfriend Mike, then poses as him by wearing a mask that Tina had given to Mike earlier.

Later that night, Tina and her friends Sam and Spitz go to a Halloween party at a farm. Sensing that Tina is in danger, Jamie (having partially regained her ability to speak) goes to warn her. While Sam and Spitz are having sex in the barn, Michael impales Spitz with a pitchfork and decapitates Sam with a scythe. Tina finds the bodies, and goes to warn nearby police deputies but finds that Michael has already killed them. Tina flees, but Jamie and her friend Billy Hill (a fellow patient from the clinic) arrive. Michael begins chasing Jamie in a car but crashes into a tree. Michael exits the car, and Tina sacrifices herself to allow Jamie and Billy time to escape. Loomis arrives, and Jamie finally agrees to help him stop Michael for good.

With Jamie's help, Loomis and Meeker have created a set up at the old Myers house to lure him back to his abandoned childhood home. Suddenly the police receive a call saying Michael has broken into the clinic, which prompts Meeker and most of the officers to leave; however, this call is merely a diversion. Michael appears and kills the trooper sitting in the patrol car outside, before entering the house. Loomis tries to reason with him, but Michael slashes him and throws him over the stair banister. Michael kills deputy Bloch who was protecting Jamie before chasing her throughout the house. Jamie hides in a laundry chute but is forced to abandon it when Michael stabs and injures her. Fleeing upstairs, Jamie finds the bodies of Max the dog, Rachel, and Mike in the attic. Michael finds Jamie and attempts to kill her, but stops when Jamie addresses him as 'Uncle," and removes his mask. When Jamie touches his face he goes into a fit of rage, and chases her again. Jamie heads downstairs and finds Loomis. Loomis uses Jamie to lure Michael into a trap, shooting him with a tranquilizer gun and dropping a steel net onto him. He beats the trapped, drugged Michael unconscious with a wooden plank until he eventually suffers from a stroke and collapses on top of Michael.

Meeker and the rest of the police return shortly thereafter and Michael is then taken into custody. Meeker assures Jamie that Michael, who is locked up in a cell, will remain in prison until he dies; Jamie doesn't believe him, however, and remarks that Michael will "never die." One of the officers goes to bring Jamie home when a mysterious man in black, who has been searching for Michael, arrives and causes an explosion at the police station. The officer, hearing gunfire, rushes back inside after warning Jamie to stay with the car. When the officer doesn't return, Jamie goes back inside to investigate and finds the station destroyed from the explosion, along with Meeker and several of his men dead. Jamie discovers Michael's cell empty and the back door of the police station broken open, causing her to break down in tears as she realizes Michael is free again to continue terrorizing Haddonfield.

On October 31, 1989, Michael Myers and his niece Jamie Lloyd are abducted from the Haddonfield Police Station by the Man in Black and two of his henchmen. Six years later, on October 30, 1995, Jamie gives birth to a child, and the Man in Black, revealed to be the leader of a Druid-like cult, takes the child away. Later, a midwife helps Jamie escape with her child, but Michael kills her. Jamie and her child flee in a stolen pick-up truck, with Michael in pursuit. Meanwhile, Dr. Sam Loomis has retired and moved to a cabin on the outskirts of Haddonfield, where he lives as a hermit. He is visited by his friend Dr. Terence Wynn, the chief administrator of Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where Michael had been incarcerated as a boy; Wynn asks Loomis to return to Smith's Grove. They overhear Jamie's plea for help on a local radio station when she makes a call to Loomis, only to be ignored by the radio D.J. Barry Simms. Michael catches up with Jamie, and she crashes the truck into an old barn. He kills Jamie but finds that her child is not in the truck.

In Haddonfield, Tommy Doyle, whom Laurie Strode babysat in 1978, now lives in a boarding house run by Mrs. Blankenship. Tommy is a reclusive individual who has become obsessed with finding the truth behind Michael's motives. The dysfunctional family living in the Myers house across the street are relatives of the Strode family: Kara Strode, her six-year-old son Danny, her teenage brother Tim, caring mother Debra, and abusive father, John. Tommy finds Jamie's child at the bus station, takes him into his care, and names him Steven. Tommy runs into Loomis and tells him about the Strode family living in the Myers house. Meanwhile, Michael returns to Haddonfield, where he stalks Kara before killing Debra.

Later, Tommy, Kara, and Danny go to the boarding house, where Tommy reveals that he believes Michael has been inflicted with ''Thorn'', an ancient Druid curse. Long ago, one child from each tribe, chosen to bear the curse of Thorn, must sacrifice its next of kin on the night of Samhain, or Halloween. Tommy believes that Steven will be Michael's final sacrifice. Later that night, while Tommy goes out to look for Loomis, Mrs. Blankenship reveals to Kara that she was babysitting Michael the night he killed his sister and that Danny is hearing a voice telling him to kill just like Michael did, indicating Danny also possesses the power of Thorn. Meanwhile, Michael kills John, Tim, Tim's girlfriend Beth, and Barry Simms. Danny and Kara managed to escape back to the boarding house where Tommy and Loomis are waiting.

The cult arrives at the boarding house, revealing that Mrs. Blankenship is a cult member and the Man in Black is Dr. Wynn. The cult drugs Loomis and Tommy and takes Kara, Danny, and Steven to Smith's Grove. Kara is locked in a maximum-security ward while the boys are kept in an operating room. Loomis confronts Wynn, who reveals that the staff at Smith's Grove have been working with the Thorn cult to study the power of Thorn and learn how to control it. Steven is implied to be the successful result of experiments to clone Michael's pure evil, and the cult plans to use Danny and Kara to clone another baby. Wynn wants Loomis to join in on his conspiracy, as he was the first to see the evil inside Michael. Loomis refuses and is knocked out by a cult member.

Tommy frees Kara as Michael pursues them through the sanitarium. They find Wynn and his team, who are about to perform a medical procedure on Danny and Steven. Michael suddenly appears and turns against Wynn and the doctors, killing them all. Tommy and Kara rescue the kids, and Michael chases them into a laboratory, where Kara notices fetuses from Wynn's failed experiments. Tommy injects Michael with corrosives and beats him unconscious with a lead pipe. Tommy, Kara, and the children leave Smith's Grove while Loomis stays behind to take care of business. Inside, Michael's mask lies alone on the lab floor, and Loomis screams in the background, leaving their fates unknown.

Hurricane Julia, a Category 4 hurricane, strikes the Gulf of Mexico, making a direct hit on New Orleans, Louisiana, killing thousands of people and causing severe damage. Large numbers of offshore oil rigs in the Gulf, and a major pipeline and the primary nerve center of the Gulf Coast petroleum industry at Port Fourchon, Louisiana are destroyed. It shows how the effects of that disaster could have significant consequences throughout the United States, even in areas far removed from landfall.

While the loss of life and property in the storm is staggering (with the death toll in the thousands and the damage in the billions), the greater impact is on the crippled energy industry. Due to the destruction at Port Fourchon and in the Gulf, oil prices skyrocket from $55 to $77 per barrel, and the United States government is forced to take immediate action to rebuild the Gulf's energy infrastructure. Once the storm passes, the government starts to rebuild the infrastructure at Port Fourchon (requiring a minimum of eight months) and repair or replace damaged offshore rigs (requiring a similar amount of time). Also, shipping that normally goes through Port Fourchon is rerouted to the Port of Houston; Houston's port facilities are open around-the-clock with higher-than-usual throughput, with attendant higher risk of accident.

With widespread gas lines and prices over $3.00 per gallon, the U.S. persuades Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production by 1m barrels a day. The Saudi decision to aid America causes a backlash among a restive Muslim population already energized because of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Local terrorists stage an attack on an upscale shopping mall in Riyadh which (after intervention by Saudi special forces) kills about 300 Americans associated with multinational oil companies. This attack leads the U.S. to send troops to Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, the oil crisis escalates when two large tankers collide in the narrow Houston Ship Channel, shutting down the Channel.

Once winter sets in, gas lines take a back seat to critical shortages of heating oil during a bitterly cold winter, with thousands dying in the cold. Some good news comes after the Houston Ship Channel is reopened, but on Christmas Day, the same Saudi terrorists blow up sections of the mammoth Ras Tanura refinery complex, killing 142 U.S. soldiers who were protecting the Saudi oil infrastructure; among the casualties is the eldest son of the convenience store owners. Oil prices reach $153 per barrel, and gas prices top $8 per gallon.

Meanwhile, with a government budget crisis due to military and economic pressures, farm spending is cut dramatically, leading to a subplot in which the social and political effects of this are explored. A well-renowned agricultural leader organizes a 750,000-farmer march on Washington, leading to clashes with police and the leader being taken into custody.

In the spring, the U.S. makes a deal with Russia to send of oil by tanker, but the oil companies involved subsequently make a deal with China, which, equally hungry for oil and with greater financial reserves, outbids the U.S. This leaves America in a state of chaos, as well leading to soul-searching on whether China has now become the world's economic superpower. The country considers fast-tracking development of alternative energy sources, but there is little that can be done in the short-term to alter an economy structurally dependent on cheap foreign oil. Later, the U.S. government, showing unexpected diplomatic skill, resurrects the Russian oil deal by agreeing to a $16 billion long-term investment in its oil industry, and the China-bound tankers change course to the United States.

The crisis finally eases a year after Hurricane Julia, with Port Fourchon back at 80-percent capacity, the strategic petroleum reserve being replenished and tensions in Saudi Arabia stabilized. Oil prices drop from their highs at the height of the crisis to $73 per barrel, and gas prices nearing the $4 per gallon mark and dropping. However, the country has been through a stress as great as the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and now knowing that relying on OPEC for most of its foreign oil imports makes the United States vulnerable, Americans will never take cheap oil for granted again.

A business man's son (Powell) has to choose between playing for his father's team and their rivals in a football match. He does the right thing and romantically impresses his father's secretary.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1864, during the Civil War, family patriarch Charlie Anderson (James Stewart) and his six sons Jacob, John, James, Nathan, Henry, and Boy (who is 16) run the family farm, while his daughter Jennie (Rosemary Forsyth) and daughter-in-law Ann (Katharine Ross) take care of the housework. The family has no slaves. Though Charlie attends church weekly and considers himself a "God fearing" man, he doesn't give God credit for anything, but takes credit for himself especially during dinner prayer. He internally blames God for taking his wife from him. His family is constantly late for church and will force people out of their seats to make room for his family, much to the annoyance of the preacher and congregation.

Charlie's oldest son Jacob (Glenn Corbett) wants to join the war, but Charlie repeatedly tells his family that they won't join the war until it concerns them. Although a few of the boys want to join, they respect their father's wishes and remain on the farm. Charlie's daughter Jennie is courted by a young Confederate officer named Sam (Doug McClure). He wants to marry Jennie, and when Charlie gives his permission, the wedding occurs a few days later. As soon as the vows are said, a corporal rides up and announces that Sam is wanted back immediately. Sam leaves, much to the sorrow of his new bride. Shortly after Sam leaves Ann goes into labor, giving birth to a baby girl whom they name Martha in honor of Charlie's late wife.

While out hunting raccoon, Charlie's youngest son Boy (Phillip Alford) and his friend Gabriel (Eugene Jackson Jr.) stumble onto a Confederate ambush. They run away and stop for a drink at a pond. Boy is wearing an old rebel soldier kepi cap that he found at the river. When a Union patrol comes on them, they take Boy as a prisoner of war, mistakenly thinking he is a rebel soldier. Gabriel, who has been told he is free by a black union soldier, runs to tell the Andersons what happened and then heads out on his own. When Charlie hears the news, he and his sons and daughter Jennie leave to look for Boy, leaving James (Patrick Wayne) and his wife Ann at the farm with their young baby.

The first place the Andersons look is a Union camp. They are told there are no prisoners there, but Colonel Fairchild (George Kennedy), who also has a sixteen-year-old son, directs them to a possible location, where Confederate prisoners are shipped North via railroad. However, the captain in charge at the train deport refuses to allow Charlie to look through the cars, as he "has schedules to keep". So Charlie sets up a roadblock on the tracks, then disarms the Union guards and sends them away. He looks through the boxcars, but Boy is not there, so he mounts his horse to leave. As he looks up, he sees Sam coming through the crowd. Jennie is overjoyed to see her husband. Sam leaves with the Andersons, telling the soldiers to burn the train and go home knowing there's no chance of winning the war.

After being taken to a different prisoner of war camp, Boy is befriended by rebel soldier Carter (James Best), who plans to escape and decides to let Boy come along. They and a few other men successfully escape while being loaded on a paddle wheeler and start heading south. They come onto a Confederate camp and the next day are attacked by the Federals. Carter is killed, and Boy is shot in the leg. A Union soldier almost kills him, but it turns out to be his friend, Gabriel who has joined the Union Army. Gabriel helps him hide in a bush until after the battle.

Back at the farm, three Confederate scavengers raid the place, killing James before attacking and killing Ann. On their way home, the Andersons run across a Confederate unit guarding the road. A young sentry, startled awake by the sound of horses, takes a shot at Jacob, killing him instantly. Charlie starts to strangle the sentry, but stops to ask him his age. The sentry replies, "Sixteen, sir." Charlie, remembering that his youngest son is sixteen, emotionally tells the sentry that he wants him to live and be an old man and have many sons. He wants him to know what it feels like to lose one of them. The sentry then weeps in guilt.

When the Andersons return home, the doctor tells them what happened to James and Ann. Their child Martha is still alive, with a black woman acting as her nanny, and Charlie takes her in his arms. Next day at the breakfast table, Charlie begins his standard prayer, but is so heartbroken that he can't finish it. He goes out to the family graveyard to see his wife's grave. He sees the graves of James, Jacob and Ann alongside hers, and he hears church bells ringing in the distance.

At the farmhouse, he demands to know why no one told him it was Sunday. The whole family gets dressed and ready for church, arriving as the singing begins. As the congregation completes the first song, the pastor (Denver Pyle) starts to announce the next hymn. Boy stumbles through the door on a crutch. The whole congregation looks, and Charlie Anderson turns to see what is happening. His face lights up, and he helps his son to the pew. Everyone joyously sings in unison as the story ends.

Guy Mannering, after leaving Oxford, is travelling alone in southwestern Scotland, on the coast of the Solway Firth. After losing his way at nightfall, he is directed to Ellangowan, the home of Mr Godfrey Bertram. The friendly but incompetent Bertram welcomes him, although his wife is in labour with their first child. As they await news, Mannering meets Dominie Sampson, a learned but socially inept tutor, and Meg Merrilies, a wild-looking, strident Gypsy woman, who has come to tell the child's fortune. The young student, however, offers to do this from the stars, and predicts that three periods of the boy's life will be very hazardous. Not wishing to concern the parents, he leaves his predictions to be opened when the child is five years old. Mannering also meets smuggler Dirk Hatteraick, who captains vessels active off the wild coast by Ellangowan.

However, before his fifth birthday is over, little Harry Bertram disappears while in the care of an excise-man, Kennedy, who is murdered by smugglers. No trace can be found of the child, though Kennedy's body is found at the foot of a cliff. In her distress, his mother goes into labour once again, and after giving birth to a daughter, she dies.

Seventeen years elapse, and Mannering, now a Colonel, returns from India and visits Scotland once again. He arrives at Ellangowan in time to be present at the death of the now destitute Godfrey Bertram. The possessions and home of Bertram and his daughter Lucy are being sold. Mannering attempts to buy the estate, but is called back to England to attend to his own daughter who is reported to have a lover, so misses the sale. The Ellangowan estate is purchased at a reduced rate by the conniving Glossin, whose unscrupulous dealings have been one of the causes of the Bertrams' downfall. The estate is sold on the condition that if the male heir is found, the estate will return to the Bertrams.

Mannering's daughter Julia has in fact been entertaining the affections of Vanbeest Brown, a young cavalry officer from her father's regiment, though she does not admit this to her father. Brown is unsure of his parentage, having been raised in Holland, and told that though born in Scotland, he was rescued at a young age from smugglers. Colonel Mannering in fact believes that he killed Brown in a duel in India, a fact which weighs heavily on his conscience. (Out of concern that Mannering will disapprove of Brown's low status, Mannering's wife had led him to believe that Brown's affectionate visits were to her, not her daughter. Mannering's wife dies before the truth of the matter is explained.)

Mannering brings his daughter with him to Scotland, and rents a house called Woodbourne, not far from Ellangowan. He invites Lucy Bertram to be a companion for his daughter, and Dominie Sampson to be his librarian.

Brown follows Julia Mannering to Scotland, taking a roundabout route to explore some of the wilder parts of his birth country. He dines at an inn called Mump's Hall, where he meets a jolly farmer, Dandie Dinmont. Here he also meets Meg Merrilies, who seems to recognise him. The proprietress of Mump's Hall sends thugs to rob Dinmont on the road, and Brown arrives in time to help fend them off. In gratitude Dinmont invites Brown to stay at his farm with his large family (and their many terriers, all called Mustard or Pepper) for some days. While hunting with his new friend, Brown meets a gamekeeper called Gabriel, who also seems to recognise him.

Meanwhile, at Woodbourne, a group of excise-men seek protection from a gang of smugglers, who outnumber them. Under the superior tactics of Mannering, the smugglers are driven off, and several of their ringleaders killed or mortally wounded.

Proceeding on his wintry journey, Brown becomes lost; following a light, he comes to a ruined hut in a ruined hamlet of Dernclough, in which Meg Merillies is tending a dying man (one of the smugglers), singing incantations to free the soul from the body. She hides Brown, saying the dead man's accomplices will kill him. Brown watches from a cramped hiding place under some straw as the thugs empty his portmanteau and dispose of all his papers, weapons and money. In the morning, Meg shows him the road and gives him her well-ladened purse, exacting at the same time a promise that he will come to her immediately whenever she calls him to do so. He continues on his way.

Writing to a friend, Julia makes great fun of the Dominie's peculiarities, and mentions Lucy's discouragement of her suitor, young Hazlewood, because she has no fortune and he is wealthy. Julia then describes with horror the sudden appearance of Brown, who intercepts them on a path through the woods. Hazelwood, nervous from the smugglers' attack, threatens Brown, who tries to disarm him; in the struggle Hazelwood is shot in the shoulder. Brown is now a wanted man and on the run, although Hazelwood acknowledges that the shooting was accidental.

The attorney Glossin, now a justice of the peace, is indefatigable in endeavouring to trace Hazelwood's attacker, in the hope of ingratiating himself to the Hazelwood family. He hears with pleasure that the gaoler McGuffog has a man in custody. However, the man is not Brown but Dirk Hatteraick, a Dutch smuggler, known well to Glossin, who has in the past been his accomplice. Hatteraick warns Glossin that Harry Bertram has been seen in Scotland. Glossin engineers Hatteraick's escape from custody, and meets him in a hidden smuggler's cave, close to where Hatteraick caused the death of Kennedy. It is revealed that Glossin was involved with the smugglers who committed the murder, and gave them the child to dispose of. Hatteraick explains that the child was adopted and educated in Holland, and that he has recently been seen by an ex-smuggler, Gabriel, in the local hills. He also reveals that it was Harry Bertram/Brown who injured Hazelwood. Glossin is determined to kill the young heir.

An elderly aunt of Lucy Bertram's dies in Edinburgh, generating hope that her fortune may have been left to Lucy. Mannering, accompanied by the Dominie, travels to Edinburgh to place the matter in the advocate Mr Pleydell's hands. He strikes up a lively friendship with Pleydell, but they find that the old lady has left her estate to the heir of Ellangowan, when he is found. They learn from a serving-maid that Meg Merrilies planted the idea that Harry Bertram is alive in the old lady's head. Dandie Dinmont is also there, and his robust honesty earns Mannering's respect, despite the class divide.

Harry retreats to Cumberland, and writes to his regiment for replacement papers. He also manages to correspond with Julia, whose letter draws him back to Scotland. He is landed at Ellangowan, and he explores the ruined castle beside the modern estate, finding it strangely familiar. There he encounters Glossin, who promptly has him arrested for shooting Hazlewood, and lodges him in the dismal bridewell (small prison) adjoining the custom-house at Portanferry. Here he is visited, unexpectedly, by Dinmont, who has heard from Gabriel of his being in danger. Dinmont manages to convince McGuffog to allow him to stay the night in Harry's cell. (Harry at this stage still believes himself to be Vanbeest Brown.)

Meanwhile, the Colonel has returned from Edinburgh. Meg Merrilies intercepts the Dominie on a ramble, and sends an urgent note by him to Mannering. She also stops young Hazlewood, and tells him to cause the soldiers who have been withdrawn from Portanferry to be sent back there instantly. Glossin has "warned" Hazelwood's father of an attack on his estate, in order that Portanferry is left unguarded, so that Glossin's men can attack and kill Harry Bertram. During the night the custom-house is fired by a gang of ruffians; strangely, however, Bertram and Dinmont are assisted to escape, and led to a carriage. It later emerges that Gypsy relatives of Meg and Gabriel have infiltrated the party.

On the same evening Counsellor Pleydell arrives to visit his new friend Mannering, and Mannering admits that he has sent a carriage to Portanferry on the strength of a note from the old Gypsy woman. They wait impatiently for the arrival of the carriage, unsure whom it will carry. Just as they have given up, the carriage arrives. Mannering is shocked to see Brown, alive; Julia, too, is shocked by her lover's arrival; Lucy is terrified to see the ruffian who injured her lover, Hazelwood, on the road; Sampson thinks he has seen the ghost of Old Bertram. Once things have been explained, Harry Bertram, now acknowledged as the heir of Ellangowan, is tearfully welcomed. Sampson hugs his "little Harry" with delight, and Mannering, his conscience cleared, welcomes the young man. Lucy embraces her long-lost brother, and Julia confesses her love to her father.

However, a legal right to Ellangowan has not been established, and Mannering and Pleydell must organise bail. Meanwhile, Bertram and the two young ladies are walking when Meg Merrilies meets them and demands that Harry come with her. He agrees, and Meg is pleased that Dinmont can accompany him as protector. The women then meet Hazelwood, and send him to follow on horseback. Meg leads the way to the Dernclough hut and arms them, then takes them to the smugglers' cave. Here the three men overcome Hatteraick, but Meg is mortally wounded in the struggle. Hatteraick is imprisoned, and crowds gather at Dernclough, where Meg is dying. They welcome the heir of Ellangowan with delight. Meg's dying revelations, along with testimony from Gabriel, furnish sufficient evidence to arrest Glossin also.

In prison, Glossin bribes McGuffog to obtain access to the smuggler's cell to concoct a defence. In fury, Hatteraick kills Glossin, then hangs himself.

Having recovered the property of his ancestors, Harry Bertram is able to discharge all his father's debts. With the help of Julia's dowry, he builds a new mansion, which includes a snug chamber called "Mr Sampson's apartment," and a separate bungalow for Colonel Mannering. Harry's late aunt's estate has also reverted to him, but he resigns it to his sister on her marriage to Hazelwood.

The Shadow of the Torturer

Severian, an apprentice in the torturers' guild, barely survives a swim in the River Gyoll. On his way back to the Citadel (whose towers appear to be disused rockets), Severian and several other apprentices sneak into a Necropolis where Severian first encounters Vodalus, an aristocrat who is the Commonwealth's leading revolutionary. Vodalus, along with a noblewoman named Thea and a servant named Hildegrin, are robbing a grave. Vodalus and his companions are attacked by volunteer guards. Severian saves Vodalus's life, earning his trust and the reward of a single "gold" coin.

Later Severian rescues a fighting dog that has lost a leg and names him Triskele. When Triskele leaves, Severian tracks him to a place in the Citadel called the Atrium of Time, where he talks with a beautiful young woman, Valeria, but he does not get Triskele back.

In the torturers' tower, Severian falls in love with Thecla, a prisoner. She is Thea's half-sister and was imprisoned for helping her and Vodalus. Severian's attraction to her is hastened by his sexual initiation in a visit to a brothel at the guild's expense. The brothel is run by a eunuch and the prostitutes are clones of noblewomen; Severian chooses the clone of Thecla for his encounter.

Shortly after Severian is elevated to journeyman, Thecla is tortured with a machine that makes her uncontrollably suicidal so she will mutilate herself to death with her bare hands. Severian smuggles a knife into her cell. By thus letting her shorten the time of her suffering, he has broken his oath to the guild.

Severian expects to be tortured and executed. Instead, the head of the guild is uncharacteristically forgiving and dispatches him to Thrax, a distant city that needs an executioner, also giving him Terminus Est, a magnificent executioner's sword. Severian travels through the decaying city of Nessus. He meets the hulking Baldanders and his companion Dr. Talos, traveling as mountebanks, who invite Severian to join them in a play to be performed the same day. During breakfast, Dr. Talos recruits the waitress for his play with a promise to make her beautiful. Instead of participating, Severian parts with the group and stops at a rag shop to purchase a mantle to hide his guild uniform (a cloak and breeches of fuligin, "the hue that is darker than black", which inspires terror in common folk; when working he also wears a fuligin mask). The shop is owned by a twin brother and sister, and the brother immediately takes an interest in Terminus Est. Severian refuses to sell the sword, shortly after which a masked and armored hipparch enters the shop and challenges Severian to a duel. Severian is forced to accept, and he goes with the sister, Agia, to secure an avern, a deadly plant that is used for dueling. He becomes strongly attracted to Agia and develops complicated feelings toward her. While on their way in a carriage, they race with the riders in a passing fiacre, and they crash into and destroy the altar of a female religious order, the Pelerines. The Pelerines accuse Agia of stealing a precious relic called the Claw of the Conciliator. After Agia is searched and released, she and Severian continue their journey to the Botanic Gardens, a large landmark of Nessus created by the mysterious Father Inire, right hand to the Autarch.

Inside the gardens, Severian falls into a lake used to inter the dead and is pulled out by a young woman named Dorcas who also seems to have come up from the lake. Dazed and confused, Dorcas follows Severian and Agia. Severian acquires the avern and the group proceeds to an inn near the dueling grounds. While eating dinner, Severian receives a mysterious note intended for one of the women, warning her the other is dangerous, but it's not immediately clear which is which. He meets his challenger, and though stabbed by the avern he miraculously survives and finds that his challenger was Agia's brother. When Severian wakes again, he finds himself in a lazaret. After finding Dorcas, who he is falling in love with, and identifying himself as a torturer, he is requested to perform an execution. The prisoner turns out to be Agia's brother, who had provoked the duel expecting to win when he could claim Terminus Est. Severian executes the brother.

Severian and Dorcas return to their travels. In his belongings, Severian finds the Claw of the Conciliator, a large glowing gem. Apparently, Agia stole the Claw from the altar they destroyed and knowing that she would be searched, placed it in Severian's belongings. Eventually, Severian and Dorcas encounter Dr. Talos, Baldanders, and a beautiful woman named Jolenta. Severian takes part in the play they perform, and the next day the group sets out toward the great gate leading out of Nessus. There Severian befriends a man named Jonas who is obviously attracted to Jolenta. The first volume ends with a riot or disturbance at the gate, whose nature is not immediately clear, separating Severian and Jonas from the rest of the group.

The Claw of the Conciliator

The story continues shortly after the previous installment left off. Now in the nearby town of Saltus, Severian and Jonas delay their search for the others as Severian has been hired to practice his art of execution on two people. The first was a servant of Vodalus. As the man is dragged out of his home by a mob, Severian glimpses Agia amidst the crowd. Agia flees and Severian still attracted to and hoping to reconcile with her, follows, searching for her at the town fair. Unable to find her, he consults a green-skinned man whose master offers his services as an attraction, claiming he can answer any question. In answer to Severian's queries as to how he could know everything, the green man tells Severian he is from the future (where the sun is bright and people have photosynthetic organisms in their skin). The green man does not know where Agia can be found, but Severian takes pity on him and gives him a piece of his whetstone so that he can free himself by grinding through his chains. Severian returns to town and executes the two prisoners.

Eating dinner with his friend Jonas that evening, he finds a letter that seems to be from Thecla (but is actually from Agia) asking him to meet her at a nearby cave. In the cave, Severian barely escapes a group of man-ape miners. The light from the Claw stops the man-apes' attack, but it also seems to wake a gigantic unknown creature deep below in the cave, which is only heard and not seen. Severian escapes, only to be attacked by Agia and her assassins outside the cave. One of the attackers is killed by one of the man-apes, who had his hand cut off by Severian in the battle in the cave. The ape gestures its stump at Severian, wanting him to do something with it, but Severian does not know what. Severian prepares to behead Agia, but still unable to hate her, lets her go. He returns to Saltus, where he and Jonas are captured by Vodalus's rebels for executing one of its members.

Severian recalls to Vodalus that he saved his life some years past, so Vodalus allows Severian to enter his service. Severian and Jonas attend a midnight dinner with Vodalus, where they eat Thecla's roasted flesh, which, when combined with a substance from an alien creature called an alzabo, lets the eaters experience her memories. For Severian the experience is permanent; Thecla lives again in his mind. Given the task of delivering a message to a servant in the House Absolute, the Autarch's seat of power, Severian and Jonas set off to the north. They are attacked by a flying creature that feeds on the heat and life force of living beings and escapes only by tricking the creature into attacking and killing a nearby soldier instead. Severian feels guilty and, having come to suspect the Claw has healing powers, uses it to bring the soldier back to life. He and Jonas are captured by guards of the House Absolute and thrown into an antechamber where prisoners are held indefinitely. Severian's Claw heals a wound Jonas receives during the night they spend there; then the pair escapes some unknown horrible creature by using a pass-phrase drawn from Thecla's memories to open a secret door. As they walk the corridors of the House Absolute, Jonas is revealed to be a robot who once crash-landed on earth and has been repaired with human parts as prosthetics. He steps into a mirror and disappears, promising to return for Jolenta when he is healed. Severian is lost and eventually encounters Vodalus's spy, who is the androgynous brothel-keeper. After the androgyne opens and then closes a portal to someplace with a giant winged alien, Severian swears service to him. In the subsequent conversation, he realizes that the supposed spy is the Autarch.

Stumbling into the gardens of the House Absolute, Severian is reunited with Dorcas, Dr. Talos, and Baldanders, who are preparing to perform the play they performed in the first book. Severian participates again, but the play is cut short when Baldanders flies into a rage and attacks the audience, revealing that aliens are among them. Talos and Baldanders part ways with Severian and Dorcas at a crossroad, Severian heading toward Thrax, and the giant and his physician headed toward Lake Diuturna. Jolenta tries to have Talos take her with him, but he has no more use for her now that the plays are no longer necessary, and Severian takes her. As they head north, Jolenta is bitten by a "blood bat" and falls ill. Severian realizes that she had been scientifically altered by Dr. Talos to be gorgeous and desirable, but is quickly becoming sickly and unattractive. Soon the trio meets an old farmer who tells them they must pass through an enigmatic stone city to get to Thrax. In the ruined city, Severian sees a pair of witches initiate a dream-like event in which ghostly dancers of the stone town's past, led in a ritual by a teacher named Apu-Punchau, fill the area and fight with the witch's servant, who is Vodalus's lieutenant Hildegrin. The book ends with Dorcas and Severian emerging from a stupor in the stone town, Jolenta dead and revealed to be the waitress whom Dr. Talos had promised to make beautiful, and the witches and Hildegrin gone.

The Sword of the Lictor

Severian takes up his position as the Lictor of the city of Thrax. His lover Dorcas falls into depression, in part because of her position as the partner of a reviled and feared figure in a strange city. She is also becoming increasingly upset by her inability to remember her past and convinced that she must unravel its secrets, however disturbing they may turn out to be.

After escaping an exotic creature that incinerates things, which seems to have come to Thrax to find him, Severian again shows mercy to a woman he had had sex with—she was to be executed for adultery—and must flee the city. He journeys alone into the mountains in search of the Pelerines so that he can return the Claw of the Conciliator.

On the road, he battles Agia and an alzabo, a beast that acquires the memories of those it eats, as well as a gang of men who have opted to become like animals. He takes a boy also named Severian, whose family was killed by the alzabo, into his care. They encounter a village of men who claim to be sorcerers and possess more power than Severian at first believes, but they escape amidst the threat of yet another dangerous creature set upon his trail. While exploring an ancient mountain stronghold in search of sustenance or something of value, Severian and little Severian climb to a gold ring on the finger of a monolithic statue carved into the mountainside. When little Severian touches the ring he is blasted by heat and immediately perishes. On his way back down, a suicidal Severian inadvertently revives a monarch from the past, Typhon, who was in suspended animation. Typhon tries to dominate Severian with physical threats, psychological manipulation, and something like hypnosis, but Severian finds a way to kill him.

Continuing his journey to the great Lake Diuturna, Severian is drawn into a local conflict on the side of a group of islanders being enslaved. He discovers that his old companions Dr. Talos and Baldanders are the oppressors. Severian makes his way through their lakeside castle, discovering that Baldanders is an inventor and scientist who conducts experiments on people, and in fact created his own homunculus in the form of Dr. Talos. Severian encounters the otherworldly hierodules within, who unexpectedly prostrate themselves in front of him. Severian then battles the giant Baldanders. He barely survives, while Baldanders vanishes in the lake. Severian's sword is destroyed in the battle, as well as the Claw. Down at the shore, he finds a curved thorn that he believes is the true claw that was set in the now-shattered stone.

In the wake of this battle, Severian seeks to digest a series of revelations: about the nature of Baldanders, the nature of the aliens (including Father Inire and the older witch in the stone town) who manipulate events on Urth and profess to be his friends and the nature of the Claw he carried for so long. As he does so, he finds himself approaching the edge of the war in the North.

The Citadel of the Autarch

Wandering around, Severian happens upon a dead soldier, whom he revives with the Claw, and they make their way to the Pelerines' camp. In the camp, Severian suffers a fever and is treated along with people injured in the war. While recovering, Severian judges a story-telling contest held by fellow patients. He returns the Claw by putting it on an altar. A leader of the Pelerines tasks him to bring a friend of theirs in the mountains away from the danger of the war to the safety of the camp. The man, a time traveler from a future where the world is covered in ice, refuses to come with Severian, and when Severian leads him away by force, the man disappears, as he does not belong in Severian's time. Upon returning to the camp, Severian discovers it has been attacked and abandoned. He soon finds the new camp, where most of those he met during his stay are dead or dying.

Severian is drawn into the war against Ascia. He nearly perishes in battle but is rescued by the Autarch. Severian is nursed back to health and converses with the Autarch about his role in the Commonwealth. Taking a flier over the war zone, they are shot down. The Autarch, dying, tells Severian to drink the contents of a vial around the Autarch's neck and eat his brain, as Severian is to be the next Autarch. Severian does so, and since the vial contained the alzabo drug or something similar, he acquires hundreds of consciousnesses that the Autarch had through the same process.

Before the Autarch died, he sent a message to Vodalus that the Autarch was aboard the flier. Thea and a group of Vodalus's men descend on the crash site and rescue Severian from their allies the Ascians. Severian is held prisoner and is visited by Agia in company with a former spacefarer who calls from other planets the creatures that have been attacking Severian. Agia attempts to kill Severian again, but he survives and is rescued by the green time traveler whom he rescued in ''The Claw of the Conciliator''. The green man opens a passage through time in which Severian is visited by an alien who takes the form of Master Malrubius, a torturer who had died in Severian's boyhood, accompanied by the dog Triskele. "Malrubius" tells him that he must one day face a challenge that will either create a New Sun and allow humanity to return to the stars if he succeeds, or strip him of his manhood, leaving him unable to produce an heir, if he fails. Severian realizes that the last Autarch must have failed and thus become an androgyne.

After the meeting, Severian is left on a beach where many wild rose bushes are in bloom. He is pricked by a thorn and realizes that it is identical to the Claw, even to glowing. Seeing that and countless identical Claws on other bushes leads him to a religious experience. He also ponders the meaning of the Claw, higher beings such as the alien who appeared as Malrubius, time travel, and the New Sun. In an interlude at the time of writing the book, he says that he is on his way to the test.

Severian makes his way back to Nessus aboard a ship whose crewmen revere him on sight. In a long-abandoned part of Nessus, he finds Dorcas in her old house but leaves without making himself known to her. He visits other people of his past, assumes the role of Autarch, and suspends the practice of torture. Finding the gold coin Vodalus had given him, he realizes it was counterfeit. He returns to the waiter who slipped him the note in ''The Shadow of the Torturer''. The note was meant for Dorcas, who reminded the waiter of his mother. A picture of Dorcas in a locket around the waiter's neck confirms this suspicion. It is implied that the waiter is Severian's father, making Dorcas his grandmother. Dorcas had died long before, and though Severian did not yet know he had the Claw, it brought her back to life in the lake.

The book ends with Severian exploring the Citadel and retracing Triskele's steps through an underground building. He follows his own tracks, returning to the Atrium of Time and Valeria.

Pip, tired of being bullied, hits Kyle with a ball during dodgeball, giving him a nose bleed. Kyle is sent to Nurse Gollum, only to discover that she has a dead fetus attached to her head, due to a condition called conjoined twin myslexia. Kyle tells the others and they react in disgust, making fun of her. Kyle's mother, Sheila, attempts to educate the boys on Nurse Gollum's condition, but is confronted by an irate Sharon Marsh. Sheila, in order to remedy the unawareness apparent in people of conjoined twin myslexia, decides to help the woman, and winds up causing a "Conjoined Twin Myslexia Week" declared in South Park for its sole sufferer.

Meanwhile, the school dodgeball team becomes eligible for competitions, and goes on to fight the state competition in Denver. South Park ends up winning because Pip becomes filled with rage whenever others bully him, giving him the strength to take down the other team. In the national competition, the Washington, D.C. team forfeits because of their fear of the inevitable international opponent, China, who are brutal and merciless at dodgeball. In China, the team is dismantled until Pip is the only one left. After they are tricked into teasing him, Pip single-handedly annihilates the entire Chinese team with one throw, but by this point, everyone has decided they do not want to play dodgeball anymore since even Kenny gets killed by China's team.

In South Park, after a week of festivities, a parade is held for Nurse Gollum to give a speech. She finally snaps at the crowd that all she wants is to be treated normally and that calling this kind of attention is aggravating and counter-productive and storms off, much to their annoyance.

''Chibi-Robo!'' takes place in a 1960s-style American home and revolves around a tiny, highly advanced house-cleaning robot of the same name given as a birthday gift to the socially withdrawn eight-year-old Jenny Sanderson by her father George. This is much to the dismay of Jenny's mother Helen, a homemaker who is constantly stressed over how much money her husband spends on toys despite his unemployment; he originally worked at a toy company called Macroware Robotics Inc. Chibi-Robo is packaged with a small "Chibi-House" and an assistant named Telly Vision who speaks on his behalf. Each of the one million Chibi-Robos in the world is supposed to collect "Happy Points" by doing good deeds for their owners and must occasionally charge their batteries at electrical outlets. During the night or when humans are not around in the Sandersons' house, several toys come to life: a superhero action figure named Drake Redcrest, a toy caterpillar named Sophie, a group of egg-shaped army men called the Free Rangers, a wooden pirate named Plankbeard, a teddy bear named Sunshine, a toy fortune teller named The Great Peekoe, a brick-made T-rex named Dinah, a toy mummy named Mort, a toy princess named Princess Pitts, a toy potted flower named Funky Phil, and a black and white toy named Primopuel. Chibi-Robo also meets several animals and creatures consisting of two frogs named Freida and Fred, a plug-headed being named Mr. Prongs, a bluebird, a eggplant-like creature called Kid Eggplant, and the Sandersons' pet dog Tao. Chibi-Robo eventually finds a large robot in the basement called Giga-Robo, who was once a companion of the Sandersons', but had to be deactivated due to its high electricity consumption. Chibi-Robo attempts to revive Giga-Robo by fully charging its massive battery using the Giga-charger and makes it a goal to find Giga-Robo's missing leg, but is attacked by spider-like robots called Spydorz.

When George purchases yet another toy, Helen locks herself in her room and tells him that she wants a divorce, prompting the rest of the family to do housework in an attempt to make up for it. Meanwhile, Chibi-Robo finds a strange pattern in the backyard and uses his radar to contact an alien species. Once the aliens land and greet him, Chibi-Robo uses a time machine made by the visitors to go into the past to find a code to enter a safe in the master bedroom containing Giga Robo's leg. He returns to the present to open the safe, but several larger Spydorz are released and capture the Sandersons. It is revealed that George originally created the Spydorz to be friends with the Chibi-Robos, but his toy company reprogrammed them to be hostile (it is unknown why), causing George to quit his job. George upgrades Chibi-Robo's blaster weapon, allowing the small robot to defeat the Queen Spydor, recover Giga-Robo's missing leg, and rescue the Sandersons. Chibi-Robo reactivates Giga-Robo, and the aliens meet them in the backyard. The aliens explain that the toys are able to walk and talk due to a request from Giga-Robo to give them life and to give all Giga-Robos infinite battery power to prevent their energy consumption. The aliens could not do the latter at the time and returned to their own planet to obtain the item necessary to grant Giga-Robo's wish. They then give Giga-Robo this ability, who shares it with Chibi-Robo and the rest of the robots in the world as well, eliminating the energy problem.

Don Haskins is the newly appointed men's basketball coach at Texas Western College in El Paso. Lacking necessary financial resources, he makes an effort to recruit the best players regardless of race to form a team that can compete for a national championship. Some of the young men he brings in possess skill, but are raw in talent when it comes to organized teamwork focusing on defense and ball distribution. In the end, his Texas Western Miners team comprises seven black and five white athletes; a balance that raises eyebrows among university personnel. Haskins puts his players through a rigorous training program, threatening to cut anyone who doesn't work as hard as he demands, while trying to integrate his players into a single team with a common goal.

Following initial victories against mediocre local teams, Haskins quickly discovers that he has to give his black players more free room on the court. Yet, the more victories his team achieves with its flamboyant style, up until this point rarely seen in college basketball, the more racial hatred mounts on his squad. This culminates in threats to his own family, the beating of a player while on the road and ultimately the vandalism of his team's motel rooms by racists while they are at an away game. Increasingly frightened, the team loses its last game of the regular season after the black players stop playing with passion. Thus, the Texas Western Miners finish the 1966 regular season with a 23–1 record, entering the 1966 NCAA tournament ranked second in the nation.

Going on to the NCAA final, played at College Park, Maryland, they take on the top-ranked University of Kentucky under legendary coach Adolph Rupp. Rupp, with a well-organized and more experienced all-white Wildcats squad, firmly believes that his opponent stands no chance. On the eve of the decisive game, Haskins decides to experiment with a bold strategy, informing his team that he intends to start an all-black lineup in the game, and also only using the two other black players in the rotation.

In the midst of seemingly insurmountable odds, Texas Western encounters mounting problems with forward and team captain Harry Flournoy leaving the game with an injury, and their center David Lattin in foul trouble. In a close game, the Miners narrowly lead at halftime, but finally manage to beat Kentucky 72–65 with some impressive steals, rebounding and passing techniques in the second half. The film ends with the players exiting the plane that brought them back to El Paso to the greeting of a raucous crowd.

Polly (Sheila McCarthy) is a worker for a temporary secretarial agency. Polly serves as the narrator for the film, and there are frequent sequences portraying her whimsical fantasies. Polly lives alone, seems to have no friends and enjoys solitary bicycle rides to undertake her hobby of photography. Despite her clumsiness, lack of education, social awkwardness and inclination to take others' statements literally, all of which have resulted in scarce employment opportunities, Polly is placed as a secretary in a private art gallery owned by Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon).

Ann-Marie MacDonald plays Mary, who is Gabrielle's former young lover, and also a painter. Mary returns after an absence, and she and Gabrielle rekindle their former relationship despite Gabrielle's misgivings that she is too old and Mary too young. Polly, who's fallen a little bit in love with Gabrielle, is inspired to submit some of her own photographs anonymously to the gallery. She is crushed when Gabrielle dismisses her photos out of hand and calls them "simpleminded". Polly temporarily quits the gallery, and goes into a depression. She returns to the gallery, and revives a little when Mary notices one of her photos.

All the while, Mary and Gabrielle have been perpetrating a fraud. Gabrielle has been passing off Mary's work as her own. When Polly finds out, she becomes livid and tosses a cup of tea at Gabrielle. Believing she has done something unforgivable, Polly retreats to her flat in anguish.

Mary and Gabrielle later visit Polly at her flat, and realize that the discarded photographs were by Polly. As the film ends, Gabrielle and Mary look at more of Polly's photographs and in a short fantasy sequence the three are transported together to an idyllic wooded glen, a metaphor for the beautiful world that supposedly plain and unnoticed people like Polly inhabit.

Sabah is a 40-year-old single immigrant from Syria living in Toronto with her family. She is responsible for her mother's well-being. Since her father's death, her brother Majid has been the family authority figure.

Her niece, Souhaire, does not want him choosing her husband. His marriage is rocky, and he insists on tradition. Sabah decides to start swimming again; an activity not allowed by Majid. At a city swimming pool she meets Stephen; they are attracted to each other. Because he is not a Muslim, Sabah hides their friendship from her family.

With passage of time, their relationship gets deep and at one point they share a kiss. Sabah's niece teaches her belly dancing which Sabah enjoys. One day, while visiting Stephen at his carpenter workshop, she decides to stay overnight with him. Informing her mother that she will not be back that night, she dances and the two have sexual intercourse.

The next day, as she returns home, she faces her mother, brother, sister, sister-in-law and niece who are anxiously waiting for her. After some hesitation, she tells them the truth about her doings in the last few months. Majid responds by announcing that Sabah is no longer a part of the family, as Muslim traditions forbid marriage for Muslim women to non-Muslims. Sabah leaves and Majid decides to take care of their mother.

At Stephen's workshop, Sabah is met by her mother, sister and sister-in-law who insist that she speak to Majid. Majid tells her that the money their father left had run out eight years ago and he is supporting the family himself. Eventually both agree that the family must change. The women of the family are impressed by Stephen and his deep blue eyes.

The film ends with a feast at Sabah's family home. Stephen is mingling with his in-laws and everyone is having a good time.

Bart Simpson falls asleep while studying and dreams of a strange universe where TVs and fairies roam the streets. The player must find Bart's lost homework and progress through the various levels to keep the homework pages and eventually wake up.

At a science fair, Martin Prince presents a virtual reality device that displays 6 educational exhibitions. However, Bart causes the device to malfunction and traps Bart. Bart must complete the six programs to escape the machine.

If Bart successfully completes every stage, Bart successfully escapes the device, only for Homer to enter the malfunctioning the device, which explodes shortly after his entrance. If the player gets a Game Over, the system "hangs" and the real Bart is trapped inside the device.[https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/SYSTEM/Sega_Genesis//Manual/formated/Virtual_Bart_-1994-_Acclaim_Entertainment.pdf]

''Night of Knives'' takes place in the 24 hours leading up to the night of the "Shadow Moon", a night on which a prophecy promises the return of the Emperor. Kiska is a young and enterprising girl who knows the Malaz City inside out and yearns to escape the dreary island and into the Malazan military. On the other hand, Temper, former bodyguard to Dassem Ultor, the legendary First Sword of the Empire, wants to stay beyond notice of the powers now converging on the city. In the city, the mages of Malaz, much reduced since the cull, now face an almost impossible task as an ancient power draws close.

The story follows a dinner party given by Bertha Young and her husband Harry.

The story starts with Bertha in a blissful mood as her party approaches, as she considers the specialness and unconventionality of her mood. The maid has prepared a colourful fruit tray for the party, which Bertha will arrange. The nanny is feeding the baby, who reluctantly lets Bertha hold her. The moment of connection with her daughter brings her more bliss.

After a phone call from her husband, who is running late, Bertha thinks ahead to who will attend the party that evening. A couple, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Knight (close friends to Bertha and Harry), Eddie Warren, a neurotic and sought-after writer, and Pearl, a strange, mysterious young woman that Bertha has taken a liking to after meeting at a club. As she prepares the drawing room cushions, Bertha recalls how Harry has declared that he finds Pearl dull. She is sure there is much more to her. Her feeling of bliss continues as she hugs the cushions and looks over the balcony to a most perfect blossoming pear tree in the garden, which she imagines "as a symbol of her own life." She lists to herself some of the many aspects of her life she is grateful for, and finds that her outfit is even reminiscent of the tree.

As the guests start to arrive, with Mr and Mrs Norman Knight calling each other nicknames and Eddie complaining about his taxi, she notes their outfits and appreciates how attractive the company is. As Harry arrives late, she considers the charm of her husband's eccentricities. Pearl is the last to arrive and, as Bertha takes her arm to lead her to the dining room, she feels an intense yet unspoken intimacy with her guest.

With everyone present, the meal begins. Compliments are paid regarding the food as theatre is discussed, and Bertha is overcome again by a sense of bliss, delighting in the company she has chosen. She thinks of the perfect pear tree in the moonlight in the garden, as she wonders how she can feel so connected to Pearl. She is somehow sure that Pearl must be feeling the same.

After dinner, when Pearl asks if Bertha has a garden, she takes it as a sign of their connection and leads her to the garden window. Here, she opens the curtains to reveal the pear tree. The two women stand side-by-side admiring its beauty and in a seemingly perfect moment of mutual understanding and bliss, when the lights are snapped on and the moment ends.

They rejoin the group for coffee, cigarettes, and more lively conversation. Bertha thinks about how her husband is being quite rude to Pearl, which upsets Bertha. She decides that she will try to find a way to explain to him what she and Pearl have shared, but also realises that soon the party will end. She fears she will be alone with just her husband but then, "for the first time in her life", finds that she is also filled with desire for him. She wonders if this ardent feeling is what all her bliss has been leading up to.

As the guests begin to leave to catch their trains and taxis, Harry goes to help Pearl with her coat in the hallway, which Bertha appreciates considering his earlier brusqueness. In the drawing room still, Bertha fetches a book for Eddie to borrow. As she turns her head to peer down the hallway she sees Pearl and Harry in a romantic embrace, secretly arranging to see each other the next day.

Not knowing they have been spotted, Pearl returns to the drawing room to say goodbye to Bertha and mentions the pear tree. As the final guests leave, Harry nonchalantly locks up behind them. Uncertain about the future, Bertha runs to her garden window and gazes upon her perfect tree, "as lovely as ever."

High school senior Steve Clark is new to Cradle Bay, a picturesque island community in Washington state's Puget Sound. His family has moved from Chicago after the suicide of eldest son Allen, a loss that continues to haunt Steve. On his first day at the local high school, Steve befriends three outcast students: Gavin Strick, U.V., and Rachel Wagner. Steve is also introduced to school psychologist Dr. Edgar Caldicott, who is aware of Steve’s loss and suggests he make new friends by joining a program called the Blue Ribbons, which is described as a “motivational workshop.”

The Blue Ribbons are a clique of preppy, clean-cut overachievers who organize bake sales and car washes. Members attempt to recruit Steve into their fold, but Gavin, who is viewed with contempt by the clique, steers him away. Gavin claims they are a murderous cult that has been “hypnotized, lobotomized and brainwashed” by Caldicott and that the whole town is in on it, but Steve thinks Gavin is exaggerating.

Outside a store where Gavin tries to score alcohol, Rachel is approached by Chug, a jock Blue Ribbon member with a thing for her. After catching sight of Rachel in her midriff-baring outfit, Chug suddenly snaps into a rage and starts savagely beating up a guy inside the store. Chug nearly kills him while the town’s police chief, Officer Cox, simply looks on. When Steve asks his new friends what just happened, Rachel says it must be 'roid rage. Gavin insists again on his mind control theory, producing photos of his former burnout friends who were “reprogrammed” into Blue Ribbons.

Gavin takes Steve to a school hideout where they eavesdrop on a PTA meeting presided over by Caldicott. During the meeting, Gavin learns his parents volunteered him for Caldicott’s program. A fearful Gavin brandishes a gun that he plans to use on potential abductors, but Steve calls him paranoid and wrestles the gun away from him. The following day, Gavin shows up to school as a clean-cut Blue Ribbon, with his long hair now cut short, his grungy clothing replaced by a preppy style, and his friendship with Rachel and U.V. coldly tossed aside.

Steve's attempts to reach Gavin are met with hostility from other Blue Ribbons. He is beaten up by the clique, with Gavin landing the final blow. When Steve returns home, he finds Blue Ribbon member Lorna in his living room, having just tutored his younger sister Lindsay. Lorna attempts to seduce him, but in her arousal she flies into a violent rage as her right eye glows red. Repeating the words “wrong, bad”, she smashes a wall mirror with her head and attacks Steve with a shard, but he subdues her and she snaps out of her episode, acting as if nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Steve befriends Mr. Newberry, the school janitor who also harbors suspicions about the Blue Ribbons. He demonstrates a device to Steve that emits a soft, high-pitched whine intended to repel rats. Later, Rachel is cornered in the boiler room by Chug in an attempted rape, but Newberry’s rat-catching device goes off and sends Chug into a frenzy. Rachel escapes and Chug finds the device, destroying it. Newberry, having witnessed the incident, realizes the device acts as an irritant on Blue Ribbons.

In search of answers, Steve and Rachel venture to Bishop Flats, a nearby mental hospital. Their investigation confirms Gavin’s theory about the Blue Ribbons and mind control: Caldicott is implanting brain microchips on Cradle Bay teenagers with the approval of their parents, who want to reprogram their kids from juvenile delinquents into well-behaved model citizens. However, Caldicott could not turn off the teenagers’ hormones, resulting in momentary violent fits whenever the subjects’ sexual urges act up. Steve and Rachel attempt to get Lindsay so they can flee town, but they are ambushed by Caldicott and Steve’s parents, who reveal the reason the family moved to Cradle Bay was to sign Steve up for the program. Multiple Blue Ribbons capture Steve and Rachel, and Steve wakes up at the programming place. Steve is strapped into a chair and a technician prepares to reprogram him, but Steve gets hold of a scalpel and frees himself and Rachel.

On their way out, they encounter Chug, but Rachel is able to strike him with a pipe, killing him. Rescued by Lindsay and U.V. in Rachel’s truck, they rush to catch an outgoing ferry but run into a roadblock where a horde of Blue Ribbons—Caldicott amongst them—is assembled. Newberry suddenly drives up in his car and activates the multiple rat-catching devices strapped to his vehicle, scrambling the mind control tech inside the Blue Ribbons’ heads and sending them maniacally chasing after him.

While U.V., Lindsay, and Rachel head for the ferry, Steve follows Newberry on a motorcycle. Newberry, fatally wounded by a gunshot from Caldicott and with multiple Blue Ribbons swarming him, drives his car off of a cliff, taking most of the Ribbons down with him. Steve encounters Caldicott and the two fight, ending with the doctor being pushed off the cliff. Steve rides the motorcycle to the ferry and reunites with Rachel in a kiss. The four teens leave Cradle Bay to begin a new life without their parents.

A final scene cuts to a classroom in an inner-city high school where kids are playing loud music and acting rowdily. A principal walks in the room to introduce a new student teacher. The teacher turns around to face the students and reveals his identity—a survived Gavin, still programmed with the Blue Ribbon technology.

In the fantasy world of Milola, three outcasts known as the Lionhearts – Roman, Q, and Jonesy – head to the arctic Bergog Wasteland to recruit a small blind man by the name of Rexus who they think they might need him to pull off the perfect heist: steal the legendary Book of Rule, a magical book that offers supreme power for anyone who uses it. The reason they need him is because the book had a locking spell which turns it into the Book of Basket Weaving. The Wild Wood Monks have been trying to unlock it for years by the order the villain King Forge, who plans to turn Milola into a theme park for his dim-witted son Prince Stig, and enslaving the rest of the world.

To impress a girl that he likes, Wallace "Suitcase" Jefferson applies for a job at the newly formed NASA. Unfortunately, since America's "love affair with racism was in full swing", Jefferson learns that NASA is whites-only. Undaunted, Jefferson and his friend "Loopie" Louie Hays form their own astronaut group. Their creation—the Negro American Space Society of Astronauts (NASSA)—is a resounding success, with more than 240 "blackstronauts" signing up by 1960. The venture also brings personal success to Jefferson—he wins the girl's heart and later marries her.

Using spaceships cobbled together from old rocket engines, landing capsules, a school bus, and a used Cadillac, NASSA quickly becomes a major player in the space race. Its members farm out across the country, barnstorming in small towns to raise money and becoming minor celebrities. In Washington, the US government worries about losing the space race to the Soviet Union, but is "ten times as worried" about losing the race to NASSA.

Like NASA, NASSA suffers some significant setbacks. Sullivan Carew dies a hero's death when his rocket-powered school bus burns up in the atmosphere, while Peter "Stinky Pete" Carver catches fire in an Illinois church parking lot. Unlike NASA, however, the blackstronauts refuse to slow the pace of their program (Stinky Pete is extinguished and makes another launch the following day).

The film features a letter from Sullivan Carew to his wife written two days before his death. It is a parody of the real-life letter by Union Army soldier Sullivan Ballou, which was used by Ken Burns in his documentary ''The Civil War''.

NASA attempts to lure away those members of NASSA who have light skin and can pass as white, including Gordon Cooper and Buzz Aldrin. When this fails to produce the desired effect, the government issues a "black blackout" and forces the mainstream media to focus only on negative issues affecting the black community. Soon the newspapers are full of stories about crime and riots, and the achievements of NASSA go unreported.

On September 31, 1966, Suitcase Jefferson and Louie Hayes land their rocket-powered Coupe de Ville on the surface of the Moon and return safely to Earth. Their amazing feat is buried by the black blackout, and appears on page 34 of the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' (and, presumably, gets the same treatment in other papers). The article reads as follows:

Saddened by the nation's lack of interest in their heroics, Jefferson and his friends decide to shut down NASSA.

A seedy traveling carnival's barker, Stanton "Stan" Carlisle, is fascinated by everything there, including a grotesque geek, who prompts an observation from Stanton that he "can't understand how anybody could get so low." Stanton works with "Mademoiselle Zeena" and her alcoholic husband, Pete. Once a top-billed vaudeville act, Zeena and Pete used an ingenious code to make it appear that she had extraordinary mental powers, until her attentions to other men drove Pete to drink and reduced them to working in carnivals. Stanton learns that many people want to buy the code from Zeena for a lot of money but she refuses to sell; she is saving it as a nest egg.

Stanton tries to romance Zeena into teaching it to him but she remains faithful to Pete, feeling guilty over the role she played in his downfall and effectively nursemaiding him in the hope of some day sending him to a detox clinic for alcoholics. But one night in Texas, Stanton accidentally gives Pete the wrong bottle: the old man dies from drinking wood alcohol instead of moonshine. To keep her act going, Zeena is forced to teach Stanton the mind-reading code so that he can serve as her assistant.

Stanton prefers the company of the younger Molly. When their romance is found out, the remainder of the carnies including strongman Bruno force the pair into a shotgun marriage. No longer welcome in the carnival, Stanton realizes this is actually a golden opportunity for him. He and his wife leave the carnival. He becomes "The Great Stanton," performing to enraptured audiences in expensive nightclubs in Chicago. As well as things seem to be going, however, Stanton remains emotionally troubled by Pete's death and by his own part in it. He eventually seeks counseling from psychologist Lilith Ritter, to whom he confesses all that has occurred.

Since Ritter makes a point of recording all of her sessions with her patients, she has accumulated sensitive information about various members of Chicago's social elite. Recognizing themselves as kindred spirits to a degree, she and Stanton conspire together to manipulate her patients, with Ritter secretly providing private information about them and Stanton using that information to convince them that he can communicate with the dead. The plan almost works, until Stanton tries to swindle skeptical Ezra Grindle by having Molly pose as the ghost of Grindle's long-lost love. When the heartbroken Grindle breaks down, Molly refuses to play out the charade and reveals her true self to Grindle, thereby exposing Stanton as a fake. As he prepares to flee, Stanton discovers he has been scammed by Ritter, who gives him only $150 of Grindle's money rather than the promised $150,000 they had conned him out of to that point. With her recordings of Stanton's confessions to her available for use against him, Ritter threatens to testify that he is mentally disturbed should he accuse her of complicity in his crimes. Defeated, Stanton gives the $150 to Molly and urges her return to the carnival world where people care for her. Meanwhile, he gradually sinks into alcoholism.

With nowhere else to go, Stanton tries to get a job at another carnival, only to suffer the ultimate degradation: the only job he can get is playing the geek, eating live chickens in a sideshow and replying to the offer with his recurring catchphrase, "Mister, I was made for it." Unable to stand his life any further, he goes berserk. However, Molly happens to work in the same carnival. She manages to calm him down and give him hope, bringing things full circle between Stanton and Molly, to Pete and Zeena's doomed relationship.

Following the Doom Marine's success at thwarting Hell in ''Doom'', ''Doom II: Hell on Earth'', and in the ''Final Doom'' storyline, a planetary policy is established to quarantine the U.A.C. research installations with apocalyptic levels of radiation. For years, the installations stood motionless and abandoned, until a long forgotten satellite monitoring one of the installations, barely functioning due to years of being subjected to the high levels of radiation, sends a message back to Earth.

The message indicates that a single entity, with vast rejuvenation powers and masked by the extreme radiation levels, escaped detection in its crippled state. This entity systematically altered decaying dead carnage back into corrupted living tissue, resurrecting the demons.

As the only experienced survivor of the ''Doom'' episodes, the Marine is sent in alone to exterminate them. Later, he realizes the demons had planned for this, after he unknowingly allowed himself to be lured back into Hell. The demons are unable to defeat him, and with the Unmaker, he eventually battles and kills the Mother Demon. The game ends with the Marine, no longer capable of having a normal life following his encounters with Hell's forces, deciding to remain in Hell forever to ensure no demon ever rises again.

In the ''Lost Levels'' from the 2020 remaster, the story continues as the Mother Demon was revealed to have a sister called the "Resurrector". It banishes the Marine back onto Phobos, forcing him to fight his way back to Hell to stop the Demons. It branches the storyline between the original games with the 2016 reboot of ''Doom'' and ''Doom Eternal''.

In August 1944, during the V-1 "doodlebug" offensive on London, patient Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) dies on the operating table in a rural British hospital in the southeast of England. The anaesthetist, Barney Barnes (Trevor Howard), has had a patient die previously in somewhat similar circumstances, and the hospital manager, Dr White (Ronald Adam), asks him to voluntarily suspend himself from duty, but Barnes angrily refuses.

Later, Sister Bates (Judy Campbell) claims to have evidence that Higgins was murdered, but before she can show anyone, she is stabbed to death herself by someone in a surgical gown. Scotland Yard Inspector Cockrill (Alistair Sim) is assigned to investigate. Maintaining a cheerful attitude about the serious business at hand, he declares happily that there are just five obvious suspects: Barnes; the surgeon, Mr Eden (Leo Genn); and three nurses, Freddi Linley (Sally Gray), Esther Sanson (Rosamund John), and Woods (Megs Jenkins). His investigation is hampered by the conflict between Barnes and Eden because of their competition for the affections of Linley. Some pills are revealed to be missing.

After Linley also mentions having an idea about the murders, the others advise her to wait until she can talk to Cockrill about it. She goes to bed and someone puts a shilling in the coin-operated gas meter without lighting the gas fire in her room. Before she is killed by the carbon monoxide in the coal gas, Sanson smells the gas, calls out, and breaks the window; but while being removed from the room, Linley falls down stairs. The inspector takes her away without allowing Barnes to examine her.

It turns out that Linley has a depressed skull fracture and craniotomy surgery is required. Cockrill demands that this be done by the remaining suspects themselves, re-enacting as far as possible the operation that killed Higgins. When Eden objects, Cockrill agrees to have him replaced, but insists he watch. The anaesthesia machine is discussed: it can dispense oxygen, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide from colour-coded bottles into the patient's mask. Woods puts in a new oxygen bottle, as was done with Higgins.

As Linley is anaesthetised, she quickly shows signs of distress; put on pure oxygen, she still does not respond, all just as happened to Higgins. But this time the reserve oxygen bottle is put into use, and she recovers. Cockrill then scratches paint off the "oxygen" bottle that was being used, revealing the green of a carbon dioxide bottle. As Linley awakens, he reveals that she had no head injury but was participating to help trap the murderer. Linley tells what she had noticed about the gown Bates was wearing when she was stabbed: a piece of it had been cut out, and the knife carefully placed through the hole to disguise it. And Cockrill now points to a mark on Woods's gown from still-wet paint on the "oxygen" bottle she put in.

The murderer is Sanson. Some time ago her mother had died after being buried in an air raid, and Higgins had worked on freeing her; but Sanson thinks he took too long and she blames him for her death. She killed him over this, and Bates to protect herself; she staged the gas "attack" and rescue of Linley to put herself above suspicion, but then decided to kill her anyway. While Sanson is confessing, Eden quietly loads a syringe. She flees from the room and Eden runs after, but Cockrill succeeds in stopping him from injecting her.

Sanson then collapses and dies; she had poisoned herself with the missing pills, and Eden was trying to give her the antidote. As Cockrill leaves, he resumes the voiceover from the start of the film, which is his letter to his superior about the case. He remarks that it was "not one of my most successful cases" and offers his resignation—in the hope that it will not be accepted.

Bart and his friends in his treehouse try to eavesdrop on Lisa and her friends having a tea party, and the treehouse gets destroyed in the ensuing fight. The Amish build a grand new one but, ignorant of electricity, install the wiring wrongly. There is a fire at the party to mark the completion of the treehouse. Everyone gets out safely except Homer. Santa's Little Helper is there, but does not even try to save him. Snowball II climbs up to save him, scratching him hard to restore him to consciousness.

Homer calls Santa's Little Helper a coward. The dog follows him everywhere, but Homer rebuffs him. Snowball II is a local hero. The local dog park is renamed the "Snowball II Municipal Cat Park". In an interview with Kent Brockman, Homer declares, "I have no dog!"

Santa's Little Helper is tethered in the backyard. There is an empty beer can there. Santa's Little Helper flips the can into the air, balancing it on his nose and drinking the last few drops. A ''Springfield Shopper'' reporter takes a photo of it which appears on the front page of the newspaper. This gets the attention of Duff Beer, who announce that Duffman will be replaced with Santa's Little Helper, as their new mascot, Suds McDuff.

Suds McDuff boosts sales of Duff Beer and the family's fortunes explode. However, this prompts Santa's Little Helper's original sleazy owner and racing trainer (from "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire") to visit the Simpsons and prove that he owns the dog by showing the interview footage of Homer declaring he has no dog. He becomes Suds' owner again and takes the earnings for himself.

The family manage to find Duffman, figuring that if they can get him to replace Suds as the Duff mascot, they can get their dog back. He is eager to join their scheme: he will help them get Santa's Little Helper back at a Duff Beer-sponsored beach volleyball event.

At the event, Homer pretends to be drowning, while he is actually floating on a keg of beer. As Homer expected, Santa's Little Helper is not brave enough to save him. However, when Duffman is called to save Homer, a shark is seen and Duffman refuses to go in. The shark tries to bite Homer, but bites the beer keg open instead and gets drunk. The crowd at the beach likes the shark, and Duff Beer announces that the shark — named Duff McShark — will be their new mascot. Santa's Little Helper returns to the Simpson family.

The whole town goes to the Springfield Botanical Gardens to see the blooming of a Sumatran Century Flower. Because the huge crowd is exactly one person over the maximum legal capacity, Chief Wiggum decides to eject the most bitter and unpopular person there from the ceremony: Moe. However, when the flower opens, it emits a horrible smell, sickening the townspeople and destroying the entire garden. When the townspeople start to drive away from the Botanical Gardens, the Simpsons become trapped in a traffic jam. Lisa tries to warn Homer that the traffic is moving, but he accelerates too hard and hits the brakes suddenly. The force sends Maggie flying through the sunroof after her cheaply made safety belt breaks. Moe, who is getting ready to leap to his death from a ledge, accidentally catches Maggie just as she is about to fall into the river below the bridge. Moe is then instantly declared a hero, much to his surprise, and he instantly bonds with Maggie.

The Simpsons let Moe babysit Maggie all the time and Marge is happy that she has had plenty of time to get things done, but Homer feels left out of Maggie's life and worries because she is his last chance to be a good father after his complete failures with Lisa and Bart. Later, Moe tells Maggie the story of ''The Godfather''. When he gets to the part where Don Corleone plays with his grandson, Moe demonstrates how the Don scares him by sticking a cut-up orange in his mouth, and Maggie enjoys it. When it comes to Maggie's birthday party, Moe annoys everyone with his behavior and his gift to Maggie: a toy-sized rendition of his bar, featuring "Classic Drunk Barney" and "Drunk Talking Homer". When Marge and Homer learn that Moe has installed his own baby-monitoring system in Maggie's room, they decide enough is enough and evict Moe from their house for good.

Moe reverts to being depressed, to the point of him imagining the barflies as Maggie. One night, the family is asleep, and Maggie wakes up and hears the mafia outside the house, plotting to kill the Castellaneta family. When one of the mobsters feels hesitant, Fat Tony does the Godfather-orange routine to cheer him up, and Maggie recognizes it and decides to follow the mobsters. When Homer and Marge find her missing, they assume that Moe kidnapped her, and they track him down with the aid of the police. They see Moe at his oven, and they think that Maggie is inside, but it turns out to really be a ham. When Moe is told that Maggie is missing, he offers to help the Simpsons find her. Searching the Simpsons' house yard, the group find the cut-up orange that Fat Tony used, and Moe works out that Maggie must have followed the mobsters.

Maggie follows the mobsters to Luigi's, where Fat Tony's gang and the Castellanetas are having a meeting. Maggie enters the restaurant where the two gangs are about to start a gun battle. The situation deteriorates when both groups of mobsters are aiming weapons at each other and Maggie is in the middle of an "Italian-American Mexican standoff". Homer, Marge and Moe are standing outside and Moe decides to go inside and save Maggie. Moe goes inside, and to prevent being shot, tells the gangsters about Maggie's innocence and how it redeemed his life. They start to cry, and Moe and Maggie leave safely. The family apologizes for their injustice against Moe, and Homer and Moe decide to have a "playdate": Homer spends quality time with the ham, and Moe spends more time with Maggie.

By February 2020, Earth has succumbed to global famine, energy crises, a plague based on a leaked American-government bioweapon, and, in the U.S., a nine-year drought and a variety of terrorist acts including the contamination of Manhattan's water supply. The U.S. government retreated to a fortress and commenced battling rebels through proxies known as Overseers. One rebel, Sabre, arrives at an abandoned theme park intending to free a group of captured comrades. With him is his lover and fellow rebel, Melissa Siren. As the local Overseer and technician Misty Visions follow their whereabouts, using security cameras that cover most but not every part of the park, Sabre and Melissa infiltrate the park's fantasyland castle and encounter animatronic mermaids and musicians while discussing the nature of men, women and the world that has been left to them. Hunting them are the mercenary Blackstar Blood, who sees Sabre as an honorable adversary, and the Overseer's troops – including the nervous, prattling Willoughby, and Grouse, an "ani-human construction" resembling a hybrid human and jungle cat.

Sabre, fully aware the hostages serve as bait to trap him, nonetheless commandeers a replica of an old sailing ship as he searches for the captives. Blackstar and his crew ram it with one of their own, and capture the duo. Sabre is taken to a Synchronization Center, where, displayed before a gathering of scientists and officials, his memories are methodically wiped clean as he is forced to view Melissa, in a brothel suite, being groped and violated by Clarence, a sentient skeleton, and Grouse. She feigns submissiveness and steals Grouse's metal whip, swinging its bunched coils to tear apart Grouse's robotic head and whipping Clarence until he falls apart. Willoughby, who'd been repulsed by his comrades actions, unlocks her shackles.

In the Synchronization Center, the Overseer frees a docile-seeming Sabre, who instantly fights back, having resisted the removal of his last few memories and pieces of identity. Escaping with a gun, he reaches the brothel suite but finds Melissa gone – and is told by the Overseer that she is dead. They prepare to duel, while elsewhere, Melissa and Willoughby bond as they talk about what brought him here. He tells her the Overseer is keeping the captive rebels in the castle's dungeon. As Blackstar and his men hunt Melissa, the dueling Sabre and Overseer fall from a building onto the monorail tracks just below. Technician Visions prepares to shoot Sabre, but Blackstar kills her out of disgust for the way Sabre and Melissa were tortured and wanting to best Sabre personally. As Sabre and the Overseer battle, and as Blackstar charges his horse toward them while a monorail bears down on all, Melissa and the freed rebels attack. Melissa takes a horse from one of Blackstar's men and rides onto the monorail track, chasing Blackstar. Sabre overpowers the Overseer, but when he sees Blackstar, Melissa and the monorail bearing down, he loses his grip. Blackstar fires his weapon at the monorail, destroying it in a cataclysm that throws the combatants and horses from the track. Sabre shoots the Overseer dead. Blackstar, saying he is now unemployed, suggests that Sabre leave before more forces arrive to capture him.

Two months later, a pregnant Melissa, knowing militias are hunting Sabre, orders him to leave without her. He does, vowing to return for her and their child.

The player takes on the role of Lieutenant Marta Louise Velasquez, a hot-tempered young pilot working for the Traffic Department in the city of Vulthaven, on the planet Seche, in the year 2192. Since the vile gang known as the Vultures began attempts to take over the planet, the Traffic Department has become the only law-enforcement in the city. As the game's introduction explains, fourteen years earlier, Velasquez saw her father Ric killed by the Vultures while returning from garrison duty.

The story deals with Velasquez's aggressive attitude towards everybody she meets, apparently caused by the painful memory of her father. Intertwined is a complex science fiction story of cloning, mind control, and cybernetics, combined with a tale of betrayal, infiltration, and warfare.

Four years after the events of ''The Final Reckoning'', midshipmouse Thomas Triton is troubled by memories of a traumatic incident in his youth that resulted in the death of his best friend, Woodget Pipple. His wife Gwen suggests that it would make him feel better if he wrote down what was bothering him.

Many years prior, Thomas is taken in by a kindly community of field mice after being caught in a snowstorm. There he meets Woodget, a little field mouse who becomes his close friend, and a beautiful maiden named Bess Sandibrook. Thomas falls deeply in love with Bess, but is unaware that Woodget has similar feelings for her. Stating that she loves Woodget, Bess gently rejects Thomas, only for them both to realise that Woodget has run away after mistakenly thinking he's getting in the way of their romance. Thomas vows to find Woodget, and catches up with him at a dock as a ship called the ''Calliope'' is getting ready to set sail. Thomas and Woodget meet a tough Irish mouse named Mulligan, who invites them to have a drink with him on the ship before he leaves. But they stay too long and to their dismay are stuck on the ship. The two become suspicious of Mulligan, who is evasive and will not let anyone see the contents of a satchel he always carries with him. The ''Calliope'' eventually crashes in a violent storm, killing most of its passengers.

Mulligan washes ashore in Crete with Dimlon, a simple-minded young mouse Thomas and Woodget befriended during the voyage. Dimlon drops his facade of innocence and reveals himself to Mulligan as Dahrem Ruhar, an adept of the Scale, an evil cult that worships a banished reptile god called Suruth Scarophion. Mulligan has been carrying a piece of a jade egg sacred to the Scale, trying to prevent them from obtaining it and joining it with the other pieces, which would create a vessel into which Scarophion can be reborn. Thomas and Woodget survived the storm as well, and come onto the island in time to see a dying Mulligan, poisoned by the blades of Dahrem. He has carried the egg fragment with him and pushes it into the horrified Woodget's paws, telling him to take it to a place called Hara. Thomas and Woodget are discovered by an army of Indian mongooses who demand to know where they got the egg fragment from. After they explain the situation, the mongooses offer to take the two mice to Hara, their home city in India so they can speak to the sadhu and ask his advice. Dahrem, once again in the guise of Dimlon, comes along with them. Upon their arrival in Hara, Thomas, Woodget and mongoose Captain Chattan go to see the sadhu, who also possesses a piece of the jade egg of Scarophion. In the night, the Scale arrive and launch a vicious attack on the city of Hara to steal the fragment. To everyone's shock, it is the sadhu himself who opens the gates for the Scale to enter. Dahrem attacks Woodget in the sadhu's chamber, demanding that he hand over the egg fragment Mulligan gave him. Thomas and Chattan hear the field mouse's screams and come to his rescue. Chattan engages in battle with Dahrem, who demonstrates his ability as an adept to tear his mammalian flesh off and assume the form of a lizard. Ultimately Dahrem is killed, but not before poisoning Chattan with his blades.

Faced with nowhere else to go, Thomas and Woodget decide to head to Singapore, where it is said that the jerboa prophet Simoon has journeyed. In a seedy bar called the Lotus Parlour, Thomas accidentally lets it slip to the bar's owner, Ma Skillet, that he and Woodget have the final egg fragment. Simoon is present and scolds the two mice for having walked directly into Scale territory. The bar is full of members of the cult (including Ma Skillet, the high priestess) who capture Thomas, Woodget, and Simoon and take them to their temple. The high priest joins the egg fragments together, and it appears Suruth Scarophion will be reborn. But as the reptilian form writhes within the newly created egg, it suddenly shrivels and dies. Simoon reveals that it was the plan all along to let the Scale obtain every piece of the egg, as he and other members of the Green Council like the sadhu knew it would ultimately be useless. The fragment held by Mulligan was periodically moved to different shrines to the benevolent Green Mouse deity, and thus gradually became a holy object. Cast from the ruined egg, Scarophion's spirit enters a nearby statue in his image. Riding on its back, the enraged high priest chases Thomas, Woodget, and Simoon. The statue is destroyed when it crashes on a crag of rock, and Woodget kills the high priest to save Thomas's life.

At the end of the journey, Thomas and Woodget are at a dock in Singapore waiting for a ship to take them back to England. An old beggar approaches them, but soon they discover that it is Ma Skillet, former high priestess of the Scale. She puts Thomas into a trance, during which he picks up Woodget and casts him into the water. Despite the field mouse's pleas, Thomas lets him presumably drown. Hours later, Thomas emerges from the trance and to his horror, remembers what he has done. He screams in anguish.

In present day Hara, Chattan's sister Sobhan is taking her grandson to see the sadhu. She tries to help the latter remember his former identity, but he responds that Zenna, the siren who rescued him from the sea, wiped his memory completely and he is content that way. The final line reveals that this new sadhu is none other than Woodget.

A community of mice lives an idyllic existence in an old empty house in the London borough of Deptford. The only problem they have is a fear of the vicious rats in the sewers below who worship a mysterious living god called Jupiter. No one has ever seen Jupiter, not even his subjects, and rumours abound as to who or what he truly is. One mouse named Albert Brown is drawn into the sewers by dark enchantments on the grill in the house's basement. He meets a young city mouse named Piccadilly who is also lost and the two quickly become friends. After hours of wandering they find themselves in the altar chamber of Jupiter. Whilst eavesdropping on a conversation between the evil being and his rat lieutenant, Morgan, Albert is captured and taken away to be killed by Jupiter. Unable to save himself, he tells Piccadilly to run for his life.

The next morning is the Great Spring Celebration, an important holiday for the mice when those who have come of age are given mousebrasses, magical talismans that help guide them through their lives. This year Albert's children Arthur and Audrey will receive theirs, but Audrey is too preoccupied with thoughts of her missing father to be excited about the festivities. When Audrey goes to get her mousebrass, she is shocked to encounter the Green Mouse, a benevolent deity worshipped by the mice, who personally hands her a pendant known as the Anti-Cat Charm. Her family is doubtful when Audrey tells them about her experience, but do wonder at the mousebrass she received. The Anti-Cat Charm is rarely given out as cats are never seen in the area. That night, Audrey slips into the sewers to visit a rat fortune teller named Madame Akkikuyu, hoping she can tell her where her father is. However, the mouse soon determines that Akkikuyu is a fraud and angrily leaves. On her way back through the sewers Audrey meets Piccadilly. When he learns she is the daughter of Albert, Piccadilly presents the latter's mousebrass which had been entrusted to him. Gently, he tries to tell Audrey that Albert is likely dead, but she refuses to believe him and calls him a coward for abandoning her father when he needed aid. Arthur and his friends the albino mouse Oswald and fieldmouse Twit enter the sewers to search for the missing Audrey, eventually finding her and Piccadilly after they all fight off a gang of rats.

The group returns to the house and Audrey's mother Gwen is given Albert's mousebrass. Upon hearing Piccadilly's story, she stoically accepts her husband's death and makes her children promise never to enter the sewers again. This becomes a problem when Audrey realises her own mousebrass is missing and guesses it was lost during her trip to the sewers. Knowing that she must get it back because the Green Mouse told her to keep it always, she asks Oswald to look for it with his dowsing rod, also goading Piccadilly into accompanying him to prove he is not a coward. Waiting at the grill for them to return and regretting her callous treatment of Piccadilly, Audrey is kidnapped by rats sent by Jupiter, who is concerned about a prophecy he heard that the girl will defeat him. Meanwhile, Piccadilly and Oswald come across some sleeping rats, one of whom has Audrey's mousebrass. They quietly remove it, but just then the rats begin waking up. Promising to bring help, Piccadilly is able to get away, but Oswald finds himself having to pose as a rat to avoid detection. In doing so, he learns that Jupiter has been planning to unleash the Black Death on the world once more, which will rid it of humans and enable him to conquer it.

Audrey is taken to Jupiter's altar chamber, where she has a tense confrontation with the malevolent deity, who emerges from his dark lair for the first time in hundreds of years to reveal himself as a hideous giant cat. A group of mice including Piccadilly, Arthur, Gwen, Twit, and grizzled seafarer Thomas Triton show up in the altar chamber to battle Jupiter as well. Oswald appears from a nearby tunnel and returns Audrey's Anti-Cat Charm to her, which she then throws at Jupiter. The evil cat is dazzled by brilliant green flames that explode from the mousebrass, losing his balance and falling into the water rapidly flooding his chamber. The spirits of the many mice and rats he has tortured and devoured then rise up and drag Jupiter down to a watery grave. Audrey glimpses her father among the legion of spirits as they depart and despairs before finally accepting his death. The sewer floods and the Black Death is destroyed. Thankful that they are alive, and resolving to celebrate Jupiter's downfall once they return home, the mice begin the journey back to the surface.

The story picks up shortly after the last book left off. Albino mouse Oswald Chitter is deathly ill, having caught an infection during his time in the Deptford sewers battling the villainous cat Jupiter with his friends. In caring for him, Oswald's parents have become sick as well. They are now being tended to by their friends the Browns, city mouse Piccadilly, and Oswald's fieldmouse cousin Twit. Midshipmouse Thomas Triton arrives with news that the Starwife, the wise and ancient queen of the squirrels, has summoned Audrey to her chambers so she can hear the story of Jupiter's downfall firsthand. While there, the Starwife reveals the main reason for summoning Audrey: the rat Madame Akkikuyu was found wandering aimlessly in Greenwich Park by her sentries. A phony fortune teller who once served Jupiter, Akkikuyu lost her mind when she discovered he was a cat. Now she is harmless, and the Starwife believes it best if Audrey, whom Akkikuyu considers her close friend, accompanies the rat to Twit's home of Fennywolde, a rural field. There she can live out her days in peace and happiness. Audrey is horrified when she learns she is to stay with Akkikuyu for the rest of the rat's life. She has no choice in the matter when the Starwife uses her magic to create a medicine to heal Oswald that will only work if Audrey agrees to the bargain. Oswald and his parents recover and there is a celebration, but Audrey is too depressed to join in.

Upon her arrival in Fennywolde, Akkikuyu immediately gains the respect of the inhabitants by saving the lives of two fieldmouse children and chasing off the owl who attacked them. Now able to move from their winter quarters and into the field again, the fieldmice build the Hall of Corn, an immense structure made from corn stalks. To celebrate its opening, Audrey creates a corn dolly as a gift to the fieldmice. But country beauty Alison Sedge, jealous of the town mouse's popularity, informs the strict religious fundamentalist Isaac Nettle, who denounces the doll as blasphemy to the Green Mouse deity and tosses it away. Meanwhile, Akkikuyu is haunted by a voice calling her name and discovers that it is a spirit named Nicodemus animating a tattooed face on her ear. He says he is trapped in limbo and needs her help in freeing him. In return he promises her magic powers. To convince her he is telling the truth, Nicodemus brings the discarded corn dolly to life. Multiple fieldmice turn up dead, and the Fennywolders begin to suspect Audrey as Isaac continues to vilify her. Nicodemus explains to Akkikuyu that to free him from the other side, a ritual must take place in which a female will be sacrificed. Audrey is the one he has in mind, to Akkikuyu's dismay. When the fieldmice discover that Audrey's animated corn dolly is the murderer, they want to hang her as a witch. But Twit invokes the Gallows Law, which states that if the accused can find a willing spouse, they cannot be hanged. He offers to marry Audrey, and she accepts only to save her life. Audrey is now under the protection of the Green Mouse, and thus unable to be sacrificed by Nicodemus. However, Akkikuyu suggests that Alison would be the perfect substitute.

Akkikuyu lures Alison into the ritual circle by saying she will cast a spell against Audrey. Alison soon finds out differently and midway through the ceremony, Akkikuyu herself learns she has been tricked as she sees she is turning into a cat. Nicodemus is revealed as the spirit of Jupiter, who plans to inhabit her body. Horrified, Akkikuyu leaps into the bonfire to free herself from Jupiter's control and burns to death. Alison escapes and Jupiter is left trapped inside Akkikuyu's crystal ball, where he transferred his soul temporarily during the ritual. The fire spreads throughout Fennywolde and it takes many days to be put under control. Having learned the truth, the Fennywolders realise they misjudged Audrey. Now that Akkikuyu is dead, she is free to return home, although Twit stays behind to help rebuild Fennywolde. Some time later, Alison, driven mad with grief and hatred, finds Akkikuyu's charred crystal ball. Cursing Audrey, she tosses the globe away. It smashes and Jupiter is released to wreak vengeance on his enemies.

It is winter and Yule festivities are underway in the Skirtings, the mouse community of the old empty house in Deptford. The Brown siblings, Arthur and Audrey, have returned from their disastrous stay in Fennywolde where, to prevent her being hanged as a witch, the latter was married to Twit. Several troubling events begin to occur: the psychic bats leave the house's attic, the Starwife's magical Starglass is stolen, and there are reports of a bloodthirsty rat army growing in the city. The Deptford mice soon reach the horrifying conclusion that the spirit of Jupiter has returned to seek revenge by smothering the world in eternal winter, and they have no idea how to defeat him this time as he is already dead.

The city rats, now led by Jupiter's former lieutenant Morgan (who survived his fall into the sewer water at the end of the first book), prepare to go to Deptford and slaughter all the mice there. But Jupiter appears to Morgan and once again ensnares him into his service. Lured to his master's base, the Deptford Power Station, Morgan is confused and horrified when all his rats are immediately murdered by Jupiter on their arrival. Piccadilly, Thomas, and Arthur go to the power station hoping that they can vanquish Jupiter by using Audrey's mousebrass charm, which is what worked last time. It is now in the possession of Morgan, who battles Piccadilly in a one-on-one duel but ultimately decides to commit suicide to free himself from Jupiter's control. When Piccadilly uses the mousebrass against Jupiter, he finds that the cat spectre is too powerful to be harmed by it now. The city mouse is surrounded and killed by the ghosts of Morgan's rats, returned from the dead as an invincible army wielding ice spears.

Thomas, wounded by an ice spear, is brought to the Skirtings by Arthur. Though reluctant as she assumes everyone will soon die anyway, the Starwife agrees to help Thomas, but only if Audrey assists her. With her magical silver acorn pendant, the Starwife casts the healing spell while simultaneously performing a ritual to transfer her powers to the unsuspecting Audrey. When Audrey learns she is now the new Starwife whether she likes it or not, she reacts in fury, tossing the pendant away. The former Starwife goes out into the yard where she prepares to sacrifice herself as part of a final plan to defeat Jupiter. Her frozen body is discovered the next morning and burned in a funeral pyre as she wished. Shortly afterward, a banging is heard on the front door of the empty house, which turns out to be a horde of Jupiter's ghostly rats trying to get in. Quickly, all the mice escape through the sewers to the ''Cutty Sark'' with Thomas, but Audrey hears a voice in her head compelling her to return to the garden. In spite of protests, she does so and finds a single snowdrop flower in the remains of the Starwife's pyre.

Audrey makes her way to the Greenwich Observatory, where she finally confronts Jupiter, throwing the snowdrop flower at him, which causes him terrific agony. He drops the Starglass and it shatters. Consumed by blistering green flames, Jupiter is sent to the void to be tormented by spring eternally. All the rat ghosts disappear as well. The frozen world begins to thaw and a beautiful spring day begins. The Green Mouse appears and thanks Audrey for releasing him. He also presides over the union of her mother Gwen and Thomas Triton, who have grown close. After some weeks, Arthur and a few other mice go to the old empty house in Deptford. The damage from Jupiter's ghosts cannot be repaired, however, and they return to live on the ''Cutty Sark'' with Thomas. Audrey, who accompanied them, searches until she finds the discarded silver acorn pendant. Taking leave of her family, she travels to Greenwich where she finally accepts her role as the new Starwife.

During World War II, Kurt Gerstein, a Waffen-SS officer employed in the SS Hygiene Institute, designs programs for the purification of water and the destruction of vermin. He is shocked to learn that the process he has developed to eradicate typhus, by using a hydrogen cyanide mixture called Zyklon B, is now being used for killing Jews and other "undesirables" in extermination camps. Gerstein attempts to notify Pope Pius XII about the gassings, but is appalled by the lack of response he gets from the Catholic hierarchy. The only person moved is Riccardo Fontana, a young Jesuit priest. Fontana and Gerstein attempt to raise awareness about what is happening to the Jews in Europe but even after Fontana appealing to the pope himself, the Vatican makes only a timid and vague condemnation of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Eventually Gerstein travels to Rome to speak to the Pope himself but is not allowed. When he arrives the Germans are taking control of Rome and begin rounding up the Italian Jews to be sent to the death camps. Fontana begs the Pope to force the Germans to stop the deportation by appearing at the train station in person but the Pope refuses, saying that doing so will cause hardship for the Christians living under Nazi Germany. In disgust and sorrow Fontana puts the Jewish Star-of- David yellow badge on himself and presents himself to be taken on the train of Jews being deported to the death camps. When he arrives at the camp Fontana is interrogated by the head of the camp, a powerful 'friend' of Kurt Gerstein known simply as the Doctor, who despite knowing that the war is lost and that Fontana is a Catholic priest, allows Fontana to stay with the Jews and work in the crematorium, and eventually orders him gassed.

Gerstein attempts to save Fontana but he will not leave. The Doctor escorts Gerstein out of the camp as Fontana and the remaining Jews continue to be murdered. They drive by German soldiers digging up and burning the bodies of previously murdered Jews in a mass grave near the camp, and the Doctor asks Gerstein if he knows any contacts to help get him out of Germany. Gerstein returns home and gathers all his evidence that documents the Nazi atrocities and takes them to the Allies. Despite accepting his evidence he is still arrested and after reading the charges against him he is found hanged in his cell. Afterward the Doctor is seen speaking to a Cardinal in Rome asking for help leaving the country saying "I'm a doctor, just a physician" and the cardinal agrees to help send him to Argentina.

The story alternates between Goodkind's telling his family history and early years (specifically, his first 26 years (1915–1941)) and his account of current events in 1973, leading up to the Yom Kippur War. The tales of Goodkind's early years describe his family – his mother and father, his sister, his mother's father and father's mother, his mother's half sister, and a tribe of more distant uncles, aunts and cousins (the 'Mishpokha', Yiddish for 'family'). After college, Goodkind works for Harry Goldhandler, a gag writer for radio comedies (very loosely based on David Freedman), and has a romance with showgirl Bobbie Webb. The tales of his present day in 1973 are centered on his wife, his daughter, their friends, and Peter Quat, a college friend who also worked for Goldhandler, and who had become a famous novelist for his sexually explicit characters and unflattering depictions of American Jewish life. Quat's books seem similar to the work of Philip Roth, but Roth did not attend Columbia nor work for Freedman.

As a young man, Goodkind becomes less observant, but his adult self has returned to the Orthodox practices of his father and grandfather. Goodkind as a child and young man is embarrassed by his first name Israel, mockingly shortened by several other characters to Izzy. In the last scene of the novel when Goodkind returns to the U.S. after the Yom Kippur War, he tells an El Al flight attendant to call him Israel.

The existence of the "Black World"—an alternate dimension populated by supernatural demons—is known to few humans. For centuries, a peace treaty between the Black World and the world of humans has been maintained to ensure relative harmony. Both sides of the continuum are protected by an organization of secret agents called the Black Guard, specifically from a group of radicalized members of the Black World.

Renzaburō Taki, a salaryman electronics salesman by day, and a Black Guard when needed, has casual sex with Kanako, a young woman who he has been meeting at a local bar for three months. Kanako reveals herself to be a spider-like doppelgänger from the Black World Radicals and escapes with a sample of Taki's semen after attempting to kill him. The next day, Taki is assigned to protect Giuseppe Mayart, a comical and perverted 200-year-old mystic who is a signatory for a ratified treaty between the Human World and the Black World in Tokyo, and a target for the Radicals. Taki is also informed that he will be working with a partner: a Black Guard from the Black World.

While awaiting Mayart's arrival at Narita, Taki is attacked by two Radicals at the runway, but is saved by his partner—a beautiful fashion model named Makie. Taki and Makie eventually meet Mayart; the trio take shelter in a Hibiya hotel with spiritual barriers to protect it from Radicals. While playing chess to pass time, the hotelier explains to Taki, who is unsure of his responsibilities within the Black Guard, that he will only value his position once he knows what he is protecting. During an assault on the hotel by a Radical, Mayart sneaks out.

Makie and Taki find him in a soapland in the grip of a Radical who has sapped his health, prompting a frantic trip to a spiritual hospital under Black Guard protection. Halfway there, Makie is taken prisoner by a tentacle demon, and Taki is forced to leave her behind. Upon their arrival at the clinic, Mayart begins his recovery, while Mr. Shadow—the leader of the Radicals—uses a psychic projection to taunt Taki into rescuing Makie. Ignoring Mayart's threats that he will be fired, he pursues Shadow to a dilapidated building far from the hospital, where he finds Makie being gang raped by Radicals. A female Radical attempts to seduce Taki, asking him if he ever copulated with Makie, but he kills her and the Radicals violating Makie, and wounds Shadow.

While tending to each other, Makie reveals to Taki that she was once romantically involved with a member of the Radicals, and that she joined the Black Guard because of her belief in the need for peace between the two worlds. Upon returning to the clinic, the pair are fired by Taki's superior, who deems Taki's desires a liability to his duties. While driving through a tunnel with a stowaway Mayart, they are ensnared by Kanako, who—having determined that Taki and Makie were partnered for genetic reasons—attempts to kill them again. Bolts of supernatural lightning kill Kanako, while Taki and Makie are wounded. They later awaken inside a church, and engage in passionate lovemaking.

A final attack by Shadow comes against Taki and Makie, which is deflected by more lightning generated by a surprisingly healthy Mayart, who reveals that he was actually hired to protect his "bodyguards". Mayart and Taki almost succeed in defeating Shadow, but the final blow comes from Makie, whose powers have increased due to her being impregnated by Taki. Mayart explains that the two are essential to the new peace treaty; Taki and Makie were selected to be the first couple from both worlds that can produce half-human, half-demon children, and their bond will be instrumental in ensuring everlasting peace between the two worlds. Although angry with Mayart because they were not informed of the Black Guard's plans, Taki implicitly admits that he has fallen for Makie and, per the hotelier's advice, wants to protect her and their child. The trio leave to attend the peace ceremony. Taki remains in the Black Guard to ensure the protection of both worlds and his loved ones.

Billy Diamond, a top stand-up comedian, is driving away from a TV studio when he is ambushed by Dave, a struggling comedian armed with a pistol. Dave demands Billy give him money to make up for the fact that he stole one of Dave's routines and used it on a national talk show, making it unusable for Dave. Billy attempts to wrest the gun away, and the car crashes into a truck.

Billy finds himself in the backstage area of a nightclub. A man named Max explains that Billy is dead, Max is now his agent, and he must audition on stage to determine his eternal fate in the afterlife. Though still disoriented by his situation, Billy dives straight into his act. However, the audience remains silent through joke after joke, and demand he instead tell them about the time he beat up a prostitute during a drunken rage, how he stole Dave's material, and his mother's death from hypothermia after evicting her from his house, which he blames himself for. The audience laughs uproariously at Billy's shame-faced accounts of these incidents. As he leaves the stage at the end of the set, he tells Max that the on-stage confession has made him realize that he despises himself. Max says that because his act was a massive hit, he must continue to do it for the rest of eternity, repeatedly recounting the most shameful incidents of his life for the entertainment of the audience.

Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is on an airplane when he is surprised by the anxiety the woman sitting next to him suffers during the flight. The woman introduces herself as Dr. Anne Ranberg (Jennifer Beals), also a psychiatrist, and after brief deliberation, Frasier decides to disclose what is on his mind, in hopes that it will help pass the time on the flight.

Frasier's girlfriend, Charlotte (Laura Linney), is leaving for Chicago, leaving Frasier devoid of any current love life. To commemorate her leaving for Chicago, Frasier and Charlotte sleep together on her final night in Seattle, resulting in a problem as Frasier misses his regularly scheduled radio show, which results in station manager Kenny Daly taking over at the last minute who quickly starts to enjoy himself. Once Frasier arrives, he bumps into his agent Bebe, where he learns about a job opening on a San Francisco television network after a death occurred there, but Frasier quickly declines, citing his comfort with his present situation at KACL. In the meantime, his brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and Niles' wife Daphne (Jane Leeves) are anticipating the birth of their child, while his father, Martin (John Mahoney), is set to be married to Ronee (Wendie Malick). A mishap occurs when Martin schedules the wedding for May 15 instead of July 15. Frasier and Niles agree to plan the wedding in eight days.

As the two are frantically putting the wedding together, both Frasier and Niles encounter numerous difficulties. Three of Daphne's brothers, Simon, Stephen, and Michael, are in Seattle in anticipation of Daphne's childbirth. Frasier has arranged for a ceremonial cannon-firing when Martin and Ronee are officially declared married. However, the person Frasier puts in position gets heat stroke from standing out in the sun too long, making him unusable. Michael volunteers to do the job instead and is told the cue from Frasier. However, Frasier and Niles also have to deal with finding a new flower girl, as the three brothers have accidentally intoxicated her, rendering her unconscious. Roz (Peri Gilpin) allows her daughter Alice to do the job in the flower girl's stead, but upon receiving the same cue as Michael was told, Michael fires off the cannon, creating havoc in the neighborhood. Daphne and Niles realize Eddie has eaten the rings and take him to a local veterinarian. While they are at the vet's office, Daphne goes into labor. Frasier, Martin, and Ronee all hurry to the clinic, where Daphne has given birth to the couple's first child, whom they name David. Ronee suggests that she and Martin get married in the clinic, so Daphne and Niles do not miss out, and Frasier marries them.

Later, a mover (the same from the first episode) returns to Frasier's residence to take away Martin's chair. Frasier calls Lilith to ask after Frederick. Afterwards, he finds himself with the peace and quiet he was once desperate for. However, with Martin having moved out and Niles and Daphne busy with their new son, Frasier realizes that he is lonely. He decides to take the job in San Francisco. The following day, Frasier and his colleagues learn that Roz has been promoted to station manager after Kenny quits to become a DJ. Frasier invites his brother, father, Daphne, Ronee, and Roz to his apartment to announce his move to San Francisco. However, before the dinner, Frasier begins handing out gifts of significance. When an ominous phone call answered by the answering machine from a doctor reveals potentially bad news regarding Frasier's future outlook, the attendees fear the worst. Frasier then informs them of his impending move to San Francisco, where his new show will begin the following week. Later, during the celebration, Frasier reveals his reasoning for taking the job, citing that with Daphne and Niles' child, Martin and Ronee's marriage, and Roz's promotion, each of them have now begun a new phase of their lives, and that he now desires to do the same. Frasier then recites Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Ulysses". He reads the same poem at the end of his final show at KACL, where he thanks the staff and listeners for the past eleven years before closing with his signature words "Goodnight, Seattle."

Frasier finishes his story just as the plane lands, giving viewers a surprise: Frasier was landing in Chicago, where Charlotte had moved, and not to San Francisco. He says, "Wish me luck," to Anne, then looks out of the plane window as the screen fades to black.

Recently-widowed Berlin-based American aviation engineer Kyle Pratt takes her husband David's body back to the U.S. with her 6-year-old daughter Julia, aboard an aircraft she helped design, a brand new Elgin E-474 (loosely based on the Airbus A380) operated by Aalto Airlines. Awakening from a nap, Kyle finds Julia missing, and none of the passengers or crew recall seeing her. Flight attendant Stephanie tells Kyle there is no record of her daughter boarding the flight, and Kyle is unable to find Julia's boarding pass and backpack. At Kyle's insistence, Captain Marcus Rich conducts a search of the aircraft, while the panicked Kyle is monitored by sky marshal Gene Carson.

Kyle reveals that her husband died falling from their roof, which she refuses to believe was suicide. Captain Rich receives a message from a Berlin hospital that Julia died with her father, and is convinced that Kyle, unhinged by her husband's and daughter's deaths, imagined bringing Julia on board. The increasingly erratic Kyle is confined to her seat, where a therapist, Lisa, consoles her. Kyle doubts her own sanity until she notices the heart Julia drew on the foggy window next to her seat.

Kyle asks to use the bathroom, where she climbs into the overhead crawl space and sabotages the aircraft's electronics. In the ensuing chaos, she rides a dumbwaiter to the lower freight deck and unlocks David's casket, suspecting Julia is inside, but finds only her husband's body. Carson escorts her to her seat in handcuffs, and explains that the flight is making an emergency stopover at Goose Bay Airport, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where she will be taken into custody.

She pleads with Carson to search the aircraft's hold, and he sneaks down to the freight deck. Removing two explosives and a detonator concealed in David's casket, he plants the explosives in the avionics section. It is revealed that Carson and Stephanie have conspired to hijack the aircraft for a $50 million ransom and frame Kyle, due to her knowledge of the aircraft; they abducted Julia to force Kyle to unlock the casket. Carson lies to Rich that Kyle is threatening to bomb the aircraft unless the ransom is wired to a bank account and a G3 aircraft is readied upon landing. He then plans to detonate the explosives, killing Julia, and leave Kyle dead with the detonator.

Landing in Newfoundland, the airliner is surrounded by FBI agents. Kyle confronts Rich, who angrily declares that the ransom has been paid. Kyle realizes that Carson is the perpetrator and, assuming the role of hijacker, commands Carson to remain aboard and the crew to leave. She strikes Carson with a fire extinguisher, handcuffs him to a rail, and takes the detonator. Carson frees himself and pursues Kyle, who locks herself in the cockpit, but manages to draw Carson away with a ruse so she can escape. After an altercation with Kyle, Stephanie flees the airliner.

Kyle finds the unconscious Julia but then is found by Carson, who reveals that he murdered David to smuggle the explosives inside his casket. Kyle escapes with Julia into the aircraft's non-combustible hold as Carson shoots at her. She detonates the explosives, killing Carson and damaging the aircraft's landing gear, but she and Julia emerge unscathed as the crew realize she had been telling the truth all along. The next morning, Captain Rich apologizes to Kyle as Stephanie is led away by FBI agents, while another agent informs them that the Berlin mortuary director has also been arrested. Kyle carries Julia through the crowd of passengers who realize the truth. As a passenger assists Kyle in loading her luggage onto a waiting van, Julia awakens and asks if they have arrived.

In 1954, a military train guarded by American soldiers and Japanese police is robbed of its cargo of guns, ammunition, and smoke bombs. During the robbery, a U.S. Army sergeant guarding the train is shot and killed. Five weeks later, a thief named Webber lies dying in a Tokyo hospital, shot by one of his own cohorts during a holdup in which smoke bombs were used. U.S. Army investigators discover Webber was shot by the same P38 pistol that killed the sergeant during the train robbery. Webber is questioned by military and police investigators, who discover among his possessions a letter from an American named Eddie Spanier, who wants to join Webber in Japan after his release from a U.S. prison. Though Webber refuses to implicate his fellow gang members, he does reveal that he is secretly married to a Japanese woman named Mariko Nagoya.

Three weeks later, Eddie arrives in Tokyo and makes contact with Mariko, gaining her trust with a photograph of himself taken with Webber, and learns about Webber's death. Mariko admits that Webber made her swear to keep their marriage a secret; she did not know about his criminal life and never sought help from the police out of fear that she could be targeted by his killers. Later, Eddie goes to a ''pachinko'' parlour, attempting to sell "protection" to the manager. But when he tries to shake down another parlour, he is beaten by a group of Americans led by racketeer Sandy Dawson, who is so intrigued with Eddie's audacity that he later arranges for him to join his gang, a group of disgruntled former American servicemen who have been dishonourably discharged. After being accepted into the gang, Eddie secretly meets with U.S. and Japanese investigators, for whom he is actually working undercover. To solidify his cover, Eddie asks Mariko to live with him as his "kimono girl." Hoping to discover who killed Webber, Mariko consents to Eddie's offer. In the meantime, Sandy grows to trust Eddie and even saves his life when Eddie is wounded during a robbery, surprisingly disregarding his own rule to leave wounded gang members for dead.

Eddie finally informs Mariko of his real identity – he is actually U.S. Army Sergeant Edward Kenner and is working as an undercover infiltrator into the Dawson gang. Mariko pledges to continue to assist Eddie in his investigation. When Charlie, one of Sandy's men, spies Mariko meeting with an American army officer to fill him in on the details of the Dawson gang's next heist, he notifies Sandy, and the job is thus aborted. However, an outside informant reveals to Sandy that (a) the police are poised to capture him and that (b) Eddie is a military plant. Sandy thus sets up Eddie's death with a fake robbery; he has Charlie knock Eddie unconscious and props him as the shop owner so that he will be shot by the police; but that plan backfires when Charlie is shot while trying to keep Eddie upright. Sandy is chased by the police and a recovered Eddie to a rooftop amusement park. After an intense gunfight, Eddie shoots and kills Sandy. The film ends with Eddie and Mariko being reunited.

Two cowboy friends, Jeff (J. Farrell MacDonald) and Cash (William Farnum), are traveling through the desert in the southwest U.S., when they come upon a baby who has been abandoned in the back of a covered wagon. They can't leave the defenseless child, so decide to take the baby with them, however, they argue over which of them would be better suited to raising the child. When Cash ends up prevailing in the debate, this creates a lifelong rift between the two friends.

Years later the baby has now grown into a young man, Bill Holbrook (William Boyd), who works with his adoptive father on their cattle ranch. Cash's erstwhile friend, Jeff, has remained in the area where the infant was found and has established his own ranch, centered on the water hole where the entire feud originally began, a feud which is still in full force. Jeff lives with his grown daughter, Mary Ellen (Helen Twelvetrees). The feud escalates when Cash wants to use the water hole on Jeff's property to water his cattle. Jeff is ready to confront Cash in a stand-off, preventing him from watering his cattle on the property Jeff has claimed, assisted by an itinerant cowboy, Rance Brett (Clark Gable), who has been smitten with Mary Ellen's beauty. The confrontation is temporarily avoided when Cash's herd unexpectedly stampedes.

When Bill discovers tungsten on Jeff's property, he attempts to use it to close the division between his father and Jeff, however this only results in his father kicking him out. He turns to Jeff, and begins a mining operation, which actually has the opposite effect of Bill's original intention, only exacerbating the tension between Jeff and Cash. Bill and Jeff's partnership also causes tension with Rance, since Mary Ellen now shows an interest in Bill. After a shipment of tungsten which was on its way to pay the loan they had taken out to develop the mine is waylaid, Bill works furiously with the miners to replace it with another load. He is successful. However, as he is celebrating the success of the mine, as well as his impending nuptials with Mary Ellen, the mine is sabotaged by a series of explosions.

Everyone believes the mine sabotage is the work of Cash, but it turns out to have been an act of jealousy on the part of Rance, who confesses, leaving the two old friends to reconcile, and their two children to marry.

Bruce Robertson is a detective sergeant serving in Edinburgh's "Lothian Constabulary". Robertson is a Machiavellian, intensely misanthropic man who spends his time indulging in cocaine and alcohol abuse, sexually abusive relationships, compulsive gorging on junk food, and, most of all, his penchant for "the games" – Bruce's euphemism for the myriad foul plots he hatches directed at workmates. He is able to pander to all of his vices during his annual holidays in Amsterdam.

The novel begins by introducing the murder of Efan Wurie, a case Bruce has been assigned. The plot has little to do with the actual crime; instead, the novel traces Bruce throughout his life, told in a first-person, stream-of-consciousness style. Through narrative devices such as the tapeworm he acquires, the reader explores the facets of Bruce's personality and learns about his past, as well as the various tedious police routines Bruce absconds from, his often-backfiring sexual endeavours, and his various short- and long-term schemes and plots against his colleagues (ultimately to raise his chances of gaining the hoped-for promotion to detective inspector). Apart from the general malevolent scheming, Bruce also seeks to satisfy his cravings for violence, drugs, sex, and pornography along the way while happily voicing his racism, anti-Catholic sectarianism, and misogyny, all the while pining for his ex-wife.

As the novel progresses, Bruce's mental health begins to deteriorate; it is revealed that he suffers from drug addiction and bipolar disorder, which, along with his inability to form meaningful, trust-based relationships, are exacerbated by latent, unresolved psychological problems caused by childhood abuses. Eventually Bruce is forced into taking leave due to injuries he suffers while dressed as his ex-wife, leading to the revelation that he committed the racially motivated murder that serves as the novel's main plot and that the colleagues he despises – particularly his boss Robert Toal – have been aware of his guilt all along and have been protecting him from the consequences of his actions out of a mixture of loyalty and pity. At the end of the story, Bruce kills himself, with his last thoughts being regret that his daughter has witnessed the suicide meant to punish his wife. Additionally the tapeworm—already distraught over the loss of the other (as a result of medication Bruce's doctor prescribed)--is expelled with his waste and dies with the host.

Author and amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and schoolteacher Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush) watch a large meteorite crash near the small town of Sand Rock, Arizona. They awaken a neighbor, who has a helicopter, and all three fly to the crash site. Putnam climbs down into the crater and notices a partially buried round object in the crater's pit. He comes to the realization, after he sees a six-sided hatchway close, that this isn't a meteorite but a large alien spaceship. The hatchway's noise starts a landslide that completely buries the craft. Putnam's story is later scoffed at by Sand Rock's sheriff (Charles Drake) and the local news media.

Even Ellen Fields is unsure about what to believe but still agrees to assist Putnam in his investigation. Over the next several days, local people disappear; a few return, but they act distant or appear somewhat dazed and not their usual selves. Convinced by these and other odd events, Sheriff Warren comes to believe Putnam's story that the meteorite is actually a crashed spaceship with alien inhabitants; he then organizes a posse to hunt down the invaders at their crash site. Putnam, however, hopes to reach a peaceful solution to the looming crisis. Alone, he enters a nearby abandoned mine, which he hopes will eventually connect to the now buried spaceship and its alien occupants.

Putnam finally discovers the spaceship and learns from the alien leader that they crashed on Earth by accident; the aliens appear benign and only plan to stay on Earth just long enough to repair their damaged craft and then continue on their voyage. The aliens' real appearance, when finally revealed to Putnam, is entirely non-human: they are large, single-eyed, almost jellyfish-like beings that seem to glide across the ground, leaving a glistening trail that soon vanishes. They are also able to shape shift into human form in order to appear human and move around Sand Rock, unobserved, in order to collect their much needed repair materials. To do this, they copy the human forms of the local townspeople that they have abducted. In doing so, however, they fail to reproduce the townspeople's exact personalities, leading to suspicion and eventually to the deaths of two of the aliens.

Now that they have been discovered, the aliens have decided to destroy themselves and their spaceship. Putnam reasons with them at length and convinces the alien leader to instead finish the repairs while he, as a sign of the aliens' good faith, takes the captives outside to the sheriff. To protect the aliens from the sheriff and his advancing posse, Putnam manages to seal off the mine in order to give them the time they still need to finish their spaceship repairs.

Shortly afterwards the alien spaceship finally leaves Earth. Putnam's fiancée Ellen asks him if they are gone for good. He responds "No, just for now. It wasn't the right time for us to meet. But there will be other nights, other stars for us to watch. They'll be back".

The story is about the skid row denizens of Monterey, California, during World War II. As declining fish stocks are shutting down a previously rich fishery and the dependent canning industry, bums and prostitutes lead colorful and adventurous lives in a balmy seaside setting.

Doc, a self-employed marine biologist, lives in a dockside warehouse and researches octopuses. Suzy DeSoto, a girl from the local bordello, is working there only out of necessity.

A collection of linked vignettes describes life on Cannery Row. It is depicted as an impoverished area inhabited by a motley band of people who have experienced failures, but somehow have found their niche and a community of strangely kindred souls.

Doc and Suzy don't quite fit in, but are accepted. Mac and the boys gather frogs and sell them to give a surprise party for Doc, which turns into a brawl and breaks the tank housing Doc's octopus collection. To make amends, they buy Doc a present of a microscope but mistakenly get him a telescope, instead.

A deeper mystery revolves around why Doc stays in Cannery Row. Suzy discovers that Doc was once a professional baseball pitcher but quit.

Another character, the Seer, spends his days playing his horn. He depends on the gifts that mysteriously appear, such as groceries. Suzy eventually learns that the Seer is a former baseball player whom Doc injured with a pitch to the head, and now Doc takes care of him. Doc and Suzy ultimately find love.

Workers at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant are reluctant to join the plant's softball team due to its previous unsuccessful year (just 2 wins and 28 losses). When Homer mentions he has a secret weapon, his co-workers eagerly join the team. His secret weapon is "Wonder Bat", a lucky bat he made from a fallen tree branch struck by lightning. They enjoy an undefeated season and earn a spot in the championship game against the Shelbyville Nuclear Power Plant.

Mr. Burns makes a million-dollar bet with Aristotle Amadopolis, owner of the Shelbyville plant, that his team will win. To ensure victory, Burns attempts to hire major-league stars Cap Anson, Pie Traynor, Jim Creighton, Gabby Street, Nap Lajoie, Harry Hooper, Honus Wagner, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown. After Smithers informs his boss that all the players he wants have been dead for many years, Burns orders him to find living players. He hires nine Major League Baseball players — Steve Sax, Wade Boggs, Ozzie Smith, Roger Clemens, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Ken Griffey Jr., José Canseco and Mike Scioscia — and gives them token jobs at the plant so they can play on the team, much to the dismay of the plant's team. Burns hires a hypnotist to boost his team's chances of winning. Homer is distraught when Wonder Bat is destroyed by a pitch from Clemens during practice.

Before the game, seven of the nine all-star players suffer from bizarre mishaps that leave them unable to play: Smith disappears at the Springfield Mystery Spot, Clemens starts acting like a chicken due to the hypnotist's incompetence, Scioscia is hospitalized due to radiation poisoning he got from working at the plant, Canseco is caught up rescuing a woman's possessions from a house fire, Griffey develops gigantism after overdosing on brain and nerve tonic that Burns administered to the team, Sax is arrested by the Springfield Police when they suspect him of committing every unsolved murder in New York City, and Boggs is beaten up by Barney at Moe's Tavern after an argument over whether Lord Palmerston or William Pitt the Elder was the greatest British Prime Minister. Mattingly is able to make it to the game, but Burns kicks him off the team for failing to shave off his non-existent sideburns (as he leaves, Mattingly admits that's he still likes Burns better than Steinbrenner). Burns is thus forced to use his team of regular employees alongside Strawberry, the only professional ringer still able to play; Homer is benched while Strawberry plays his position.

With the score tied and bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Burns pinch hits Homer for Strawberry, noting that fielding a right-handed hitter against a left-handed pitcher will serve to their advantage. Distracted by Burns' exaggerated gesturing, Homer is hit in the head by the first pitch, knocking him out and forcing in the winning run. The team wins the title and Homer, still unconscious, is paraded as a hero.

In 1961, in Paterson, New Jersey, divorced mother Catherine Spages visits Father Tom with her two daughters, nine-year-old Karen and twelve-year-old Alice, who both attend St. Michael's Parish Girls' School. Karen is preparing for her First Communion, and Father Tom gives her his mother's crucifix as a gift. A jealous Alice puts on a translucent mask, frightening Father Tom's housekeeper, Mrs. Tredoni. Alice steals Karen's porcelain doll, scares her, and threatens her if she tells anyone.

On the day of her First Communion, Karen is strangled to death in the church transept by a person wearing a translucent mask and a yellow raincoat, with her crucifix ripped from her neck. A nun locates Karen's body, disrupting the communion ceremony.

After Karen's funeral, Catherine's ex-husband Dominick begins independently investigating her murder, while Detective Spina formally handles the case. Catherine's sister Annie moves in to help her, though Alice and Annie despise each other. Catherine sends Alice to deliver a rent check to their landlord, the morbidly obese Mr. Alphonso, and he attempts to molest her. Annie is attacked by a masked figure. At the hospital, she claims that Alice tried to kill her. Alice is sent to a psychiatric institution for evaluation.

Dominick receives a hysterical phone call from someone claiming to be Annie's daughter Angela, saying that she has Karen's crucifix. Dominick agrees to meet her at an abandoned building. There, the figure stabs him before binding him with rope. Dominick sees that the killer is in fact Mrs. Tredoni, who chastises Dominick and Catherine as sinners over their premarital sex and divorce. After Dominick bites Karen's crucifix off her neck, Mrs. Tredoni pushes him out a window to his death.

Catherine goes to visit Father Tom. He is not home but Mrs. Tredoni invites her in. She explains that when her own daughter died on the day of her First Communion, she realized children are punished for the sins of their parents. In her grief and madness, she devotes herself to the church. Father Tom arrives and tells Catherine that Dom has died. During Dominick's autopsy, the pathologist finds Karen's crucifix in his mouth, and Alice is eliminated as a suspect. Father Tom and Catherine go get Alice from the institution.

Mrs. Tredoni sneaks into Catherine's apartment building. Mr. Alphonso wakes up screaming, as Alice had mischievously placed a jar of cockroaches on him while he slept. Mr. Alphonso encounters Mrs. Tredoni in the staircase and mistakes her for Alice. When he shoves her against a wall, she stabs him to death and flees. Detective Spina witnesses her running out without a mask on.

Mrs. Tredoni rushes to the church, where the police are stationed. Spina arrives too late to save Mr. Alphonso. At the mass, Father Tom denies Mrs. Tredoni communion. She stabs the priest in the throat as the police rush in. While Father Tom bleeds to death, Alice walks out of the church with Mrs. Tredoni's shopping bag, and places the bloodstained butcher knife into it.

Alison Parker, a beautiful but neurotic fashion model with a history of suicide attempts, moves into a historic Brooklyn Heights brownstone that has been divided into apartments. The top floor apartment is occupied by a reclusive blind priest, Father Halliran, who spends all of his time sitting at his open window. Soon after moving in, Alison begins having strange physical problems, including fainting spells and insomnia, and hears strange noises from the apartment above hers. Alison meets her odd new neighbors, including the eccentric, elderly Charles Chazen, and attends a bizarre birthday party for Chazen's cat. When she complains to the rental agent Miss Logan about the noisy and irritating neighbors, she is told that the building is occupied only by Halliran and her. Miss Logan proves this by showing Alison the various empty apartments, including ones Alison had recently visited and seen occupied. Alison's lawyer boyfriend Michael initially believes she is suffering paranoid delusions, but secretly contacts his corrupt detective friend Brenner to look into the situation.

Late one night, Brenner goes to Alison's building, while inside Alison is again awakened by strange noises, and encounters the animated, rotting corpse of her recently deceased abusive father in the stairwell. She escapes by stabbing him and, covered in blood, runs screaming into the street, arousing the whole neighborhood. Alison is hospitalized with a nervous breakdown, and two police detectives, Gatz and Rizzo, begin an investigation. Michael’s former wife fell to her death after refusing to divorce Michael, and Gatz and Rizzo suspect that Michael murdered her so that he could marry Alison. The detectives find no body in Alison's building, the blood on her matches her own blood type, and her father is confirmed to have died three weeks previously. However, they later find Brenner's stabbed body dumped elsewhere, and his blood type also matches the blood found on Alison, suggesting that Alison might have murdered him. Gatz and Rizzo also discover that the people Alison claimed she saw at the cat's birthday party are all deceased murderers.

Alison, who now has the ability to read strange Latin words that no one else can see, visits a Catholic church and confesses her sins, including her past suicide attempts and her adultery with Michael, to Monsignor Franchino. Michael, now conducting his own investigation, contacts the Diocesan office about Father Halliran and is directed to Franchino. Franchino is evasive, so Michael breaks into the office that night and reads Halliran's file, which shows he is one of a series of priests and nuns who previously attempted suicide in lay life and then became priests or nuns on the date of their predecessor's death. Alison is listed as the latest in the series, slated to take over as "Sister Teresa" starting the next day. Frightened, Michael leaves Alison in the care of her friend Jennifer while he goes to Alison's apartment building. There, Michael uncovers a secret plaque with the words “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” before finally being confronted by Father Halliran, whose eyes are white, and tells him that the building is the gateway to Hell. Michael screams at Halliran and tries to strangle him, but is killed by Franchino.

Alison meanwhile escapes from Jennifer's apartment and goes to her own, where she is confronted by Chazen and grotesque, deformed minions of Hell, including the now-dead Michael, who indeed had hired Brenner to kill his wife. Michael and Chazen explain that Halliran is the Sentinel, who ensures that the demons do not escape from Hell. Halliran is nearing the end of his life, and Alison, with her history of suicide attempts, has been chosen as the new Sentinel in order to save her own soul. Chazen (ostensibly now Satan) hands the distraught Alison a knife and tries to convince her to reject her task as the Sentinel, commit suicide and join Michael in Hell. Just as Alison is about to cut her wrist, the infirm Halliran enters bearing a large cross, supported by Franchino, who declares they will rescue Alison. As Halliran approaches the demonic horde, bearing the cross before him, Chazen commands them to stop him. Despite an intense struggle, with Halliran almost becoming overwhelmed, the demons eventually shrink away from Halliran and the cross, and Alison takes the cross from Halliran and sits in his chair, thus accepting her duty as the Sentinel and saving her soul. Defeated, an angry Chazen orders the demons back down to Hell before disappearing himself. Franchino then guides a weak and withered Halliran out of the room, leaving Allison alone.

The brownstone is demolished and replaced with a modern apartment complex shortly after. Miss Logan shows an apartment to a young couple looking to rent. The couple asks about the neighbors, and Miss Logan explains that there are only two: a violin player and a reclusive nun. The nun is Alison, now blind like Father Halliran. She sits facing out the open window in the top-floor apartment.

Adam West prepares to attend a gala-style charity event targeted towards orphans, featuring a variety of classic cars, including the original Batmobile from ''Batman''. Adam's butler, Jerry (whom Adam refers to as "Alfred"), arranges the event and reunites Adam with his former co-star, Burt Ward.

While at the gala, Adam reveals to Burt that he had kept the key to the original Batmobile from during the show's original run. As he showcases the key, the lights mysteriously go out, and when they turn back on, both Adam's key and the Batmobile itself are gone. After asking a valet, Adam discovers the thief had been asking for directions toward Arizona. Though Burt is reluctant to follow the perpetrators, Adam manages to coerce him into going on a road-trip in pursuit of the Batmobile.

As the duo travel down the Arizona roads, Adam and Burt reminisce on their life before the show. Burt recalls a time in which he was homeless, living under the Miami pier and collecting bottles for a living, before he managed to catch his big break after a successful audition as Robin. Adam, on the other hand, remembers how he had to compete against Lyle Waggoner for the role of Batman, only narrowly acquiring the part after the studio executives agreed he had a better jawline.

Arriving in Arizona, Adam and Burt stop into a nearby bar to ask about the mysterious Batmobile thief. As Burt steps away to urinate, Adam finds himself momentarily seduced by a mysterious woman, only for her to vanish moments later and a bar-fight to erupt. Defeating their attackers, Adam recalls the sexual tension between him and Julie Newmar, before noticing a frame of the original Batcave frozen onto the bar's television set. Leaving the bar, the duo find their car towed, but instead of a traffic ticket, they instead receive movie tickets to a screening of Batman: the Movie

Adam and Burt notice during the film that all footage of Batman and Robin have been cut, instead featuring only the villains. During the screening, Burt recalls an incident in which television censors began to criticize the tightness of his Robin briefs, forcing him to take temporary shrinkage pills (implied to be hormone therapy) to decrease his genital size during shooting. At the same time, Adam deals with the painful memories of his divorce and ostracisation from his children.

After the screening, the duo follow an oil slick to a nearby diner, but find no leads. After Burt and Adam recall a temporary on-set rivalry between them, a crazed fan who nearly killed Burt after a one-night stand, and a ridiculous outburst from method actor Vincent Price during his time as Egghead, a Batman fan that Adam had signed the breasts of years earlier (with a permanent marker that, fittingly, never washed off) arrives to tell them the location of the Batmobile.

Upon arrival to the Batmobile, the duo enter, but find it booby-trapped. Sedated and piloted remotely to the original Batcave set, Jerry reveals himself to be the thief and, in an odd turn of events, pulls off his mask to reveal himself to be Frank Gorshin, the actor who played the Riddler. Frank restrains Adam and Burt and reveals that, years earlier, he had stolen the set blueprints of the Batman series in his plan for revenge against the hero actors getting more recognition than those who played the villains. Adam realizes the woman from earlier was none other than Julie Newmar, who then reveals herself to be working as Frank's accomplice.

Strapped to an armed bomb, Adam tricks Frank into ejecting himself from the batmobile and onto a ledge, before cutting his and Burt's restraints off with a prop batarang he was gifted years earlier. Now free, the duo escape the cave just before it detonates (although Burt does suffer some burns), before calling the police to arrest Frank Gorshin and Julie Newmar.

Days later, Burt and Adam attend the re-opening of the classic car event for orphans. The lights vanish once more and the Batmobile is gone. Adam rushes off to find the perpetrators whilst accompanied by the classic Batman theme, with a more enthusiastic Burt running by his side.

The book begins where ''Gone with the Wind'' left off, with Scarlett attending the funeral of her former sister-in-law and rival for Ashley Wilkes' affection, Melanie Wilkes, at which her estranged husband, Rhett Butler, is not present. Scarlett, heartbroken and aggravated that Rhett left her, sets out for Tara and is saddened when she learns that Mammy, her mainstay since birth, is dying. She sends a telegram to notify Rhett about Mammy under the name of Will Benteen (her sister Suellen's husband), because she knows that Rhett won't come if he suspects Scarlett is there. Before Mammy dies, she makes Rhett swear to look after Scarlett. Rhett agrees, although he has no intention of honoring the request. After Mammy's death, Rhett and Scarlett fight, which culminates in Rhett leaving and Scarlett returning to the Atlanta house, determined to win Rhett back.

Scarlett travels to Charleston to visit Rhett's family and tries to corner him by winning his mother's affection. She convinces Rhett to take her for a sail on the harbour, where their boat capsizes during a terrible storm. Scarlett and Rhett swim to an island, where they make love in a cave. Rhett initially denies, then admits, that he loves Scarlett, but he does not want to "lose himself" over her again. Back in Charleston, Rhett leaves Scarlett near death at his mother's house, telling her, in a letter, that while he admires her bravery, he will never see her again.

After Scarlett regains her strength, she leaves Charleston with her two aunts, Pauline and Eulalie, to attend her maternal grandfather's birthday celebration in Savannah. She leaves a note to Rhett's mother with Rhett's sister, Rosemary, who burns the note.

Scarlett connects with the Savannah O'Haras against her maternal family's wishes. Scarlett's grandfather offers Scarlett his inheritance if she remains with him in Savannah until his death and avoids contact with her father's side of the family. Scarlett refuses and storms out of the house. She goes to stay with her cousin Jamie and his family. Soon another cousin named Colum, a priest from Ireland, joins them. Scarlett agrees to travel to Ireland with him. By this time Scarlett has realized that she is pregnant with Rhett's child but she keeps her pregnancy hidden.

In Ireland, Scarlett is heartily welcomed by her Irish kin. Exploring with Colum, they pass an old house called 'Ballyhara'; it was O'Hara land long ago before the English seized it. Scarlett soon receives a notification of divorce from Rhett. She makes plans to leave for America but learns that Rhett is now married to Anne Hampton, who is said to resemble Melanie Wilkes. Heartbroken, Scarlett decides to remain in Ireland. She works with lawyers and leaves her two-third share of her father's plantation, Tara, to her son Wade Hampton (fathered by her first husband, Charles Hamilton, brother of Melanie Wilkes), buys Ballyhara and settles down in Ireland, to her Irish family's delight. She and Colum tell everyone that her husband died rather than tell the truth that she was divorced.

As Ballyhara is restored, Scarlett eagerly awaits the birth of her child, praying for it to be a girl and vowing to be a good mother. She is well respected by the townspeople and her family, earning her a reputation as a hard worker. She becomes known as The O'Hara, a title reserved for the undisputed leader of a family clan.

On Halloween night, her water breaks. Her housekeeper, Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and the midwife whom Colum summons are unable to handle the situation, and it appears that Scarlett will die. Instead, she is saved by a wise old woman who lives near the haunted tower. The caesarean birth is successful, but internal damage is done to Scarlett, who can no longer have children. The baby, a girl, is born with dark skin like Rhett's, but with blue eyes that slowly turn green. Scarlett names her Katie Colum O'Hara, and calls her "Cat" because of her green eyes.

Ashley Wilkes—her past lover, whom she wished to marry during her youth—proposes to Scarlett. She is grateful but kindly declines, telling him that she is not interested in marrying him. Instead, Scarlett and Ashley decide to remain friends.

After Scarlett has settled down in Ballyhara, she runs into Rhett a number of times—in America while she is on the boat to Boston, at a fair where she admits she still loves him, and at a foxhunt a week later. He still does not know he has a child. He then seeks her out at a society ball and Scarlett realizes he still loves her.

Lord Fenton, one of the wealthiest men in Europe, pursues Scarlett, wanting to marry her. He wants Scarlett to bear his children after seeing Cat's fiery spirit and fearlessness. He also plans to unite their estates; he owns Adamstown, the land adjacent to Scarlett's. Angered by his arrogance, Scarlett refuses and orders him out of her house. Scarlett leaves for Dublin for her yearly visit for parties and hunts. She later decides to accept Lord Fenton when she hears that Anne is pregnant with Rhett’s child.

The news leaks out about her engagement and a drunken Rhett insults her when she runs into him at a horse race. A friend tells Scarlett that Anne and the baby both died, and she rushes back to Ballyhara hopeful that Rhett will come looking for her. She finds English there with a warrant to arrest Colum, who is the head of a group of Irish terrorists. Colum is murdered and Rosaleen Fitzpatrick sets fire to the English arsenal to avenge him. The villagers, thinking Scarlett is in league with the English, burn her house down. Rhett comes to her rescue and tries to convince her to escape with him, but Scarlett runs around her house yelling for her daughter. When she tells Rhett that he is Cat's father, he helps her search. After finding Cat, the three climb into a high tower on Ballyhara and stay there for the night. Rhett and Scarlett both say "I love you". They wake up the next morning ready to leave Ireland and start their new lives together.

Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is babysitting the children of Dr. Mandrakis (Carmen Argenziano) at his home. When the children are asleep, Jill receives a telephone call from a man who asks her if she has checked the children. Jill initially dismisses the call as a practical joke. However, he calls again and again, the calls increasing in frequency and threat level, and Jill becomes frightened. She calls the police, who tell her to keep the perpetrator on the line long enough for them to trace the call. Jill receives one final call from her harasser. Immediately after the conversation, the police phone to inform her that the calls are coming from a line located somewhere inside the house. Jill sees the intruder's shadow. Unbeknownst to her, an English merchant seaman named Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) killed the children shortly after Jill arrived. He leaves Jill unharmed and, after his trial, is sent to a psychiatric facility.

Seven years later, Duncan escapes from the psychiatric facility. Dr. Mandrakis hires John Clifford (Charles Durning), who investigated the earlier murders but is now a private detective, to find Duncan. Not knowing Clifford is after him, the homeless Duncan is beaten after harassing a woman, Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst), in a downtown bar. Duncan follows Tracy to her apartment and she takes pity on him. She tries to be nice to him while getting him to leave, hoping this will be the last she sees of him.

Meanwhile, an increasingly obsessed Clifford confides to his friend Lieutenant Garber (Ron O'Neal) his intention to kill Duncan rather than have him recommitted. Garber, who was also present at the Mandrakis crime scene, agrees to collaborate. Clifford tracks Duncan to Tracy's residence. He tells Tracy that Duncan literally tore the Mandrakis children apart with his bare hands and Tracy reluctantly agrees to act as bait at the bar that evening in an effort to draw Duncan out. Duncan never appears. After Clifford leaves, however, Duncan comes out of hiding from inside Tracy’s closet. Tracy screams for help and Clifford returns, chasing Duncan from the scene but losing his trail in the streets of downtown Los Angeles.

Jill is now married with two young children. One night, she and her husband Stephen (Steven Anderson) go to dinner to celebrate his promotion while their children are babysat by Sharon (Lenora May). While at the restaurant, Jill gets a telephone call and hears Duncan's voice asking again: "Have you checked the children?" The police escort Jill back home to discover that everything there is fine.

Upon hearing about the incident, Garber alerts Clifford. Clifford tries to call Jill, but finds that the line is dead in an eerie parallel to Jill's original stalking. Later that night, Jill hears Duncan's voice as the closet door appears to open. She tries to awaken her husband only to realize that the man lying next to her is the intruder. He chases Jill across the room and attempts to kill her, but Clifford arrives in time to shoot Duncan in the chest, killing him. Stephen is found in the closet, unconscious but alive. Their children are safe.

USS ''Voyager'' detects an unstable wormhole whose exit point is traced to the Alpha Quadrant. This would be a shortcut home for ''Voyager''; the only problem is that the Delta Quadrant side moves around erratically. While Harry Kim and B'Elanna Torres work on a way to stabilize the wormhole, Tuvok investigates a nearby planet called Takar with a Bronze Age civilization. He is surprised to discover evidence of replicator technology there.

Chakotay and Paris beam down to investigate. They discover two Ferengi posing as demigods who were foretold in the planet's mythology. Years ago, as told in the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode "The Price", they had come through the wormhole, and since it was unstable, had been unable to go back. Instead they had decided to exploit the replicator technology to make themselves rich. When the Ferengi are beamed aboard Voyager, they refuse to go back through the wormhole and point out the harm to the natives' religion if they simply disappeared. Janeway is forced to return them to the planet.

Neelix, disguised as a Ferengi, travels back to the planet. He pretends to be a representative (the "Grand Proxy") of the Ferengi ruler, the Grand Nagus, and demands the two return to the Alpha Quadrant so he may confiscate their riches. His ruse is uncovered and the Ferengi attempt to kill him. Neelix barely survives the assault and is left among the natives. However, the ''Voyager'' crew has learned the end of the native mythology – Neelix announces himself as the "Holy Pilgrim", a character prophesied to return the sages to their home. He coordinates with ''Voyager'' to create signs of his authenticity, which incites the natives to attempt to burn him and the Ferengi at the stake, citing a passage prophesying that they will return home on "wings of fire". Neelix and the Ferengi are beamed away at the last moment and the natives are convinced their prophecy has come true.

The ''Voyager'' crew succeed in stabilizing the wormhole, but the Ferengi manage to steal back their shuttlecraft, which ''Voyager'' had confiscated. Their attempts to escape back to Takar end with them being sucked into the wormhole and destabilizing it after being sent to the Alpha Quadrant. Voyager is left behind and they resume course to the Alpha Quadrant at warp 6.

One year has passed since the events of ''Streets of Rage''. To celebrate the defeat of the mysterious Mr. X and his criminal organization, The Syndicate, the trio of Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding had met at their favorite nightspot in the city, reminiscing about both their vigilante crusade and triumphant victory from within the previous year. Axel and Blaze had moved out of the city after the adventure, with Axel working as a part-time bodyguard and Blaze teaching dance classes. Adam has since rejoined the police force and lives in a small house with his younger brother, Eddie "Skate" Hunter.

The next afternoon, Blaze had received an unexpected yet emergency phone call from Skate, who had informed her that upon arriving at home from school, Skate was shocked to find his house in ruin and his older brother missing. Attached to the front door was a picture of Adam chained to a wall at the feet of Mr. X. The criminals began to retake the streets once more, as beatings and looting took place regularly and in broad daylight; chaos reigned in the city, far worse than before. Realizing that Mr. X and The Syndicate have returned for revenge against them and the city, Blaze wastes no time in informing Axel about the unexpected situation, with Axel himself personally vowing to help Blaze out in defeating Mr. X and rescuing Adam. From within the preparation of their upcoming second battle against Mr. X and The Syndicate, Blaze and Axel are soon joined by Skate, who wishes to help out in rescuing and saving his older brother Adam and Axel's friend, a professional wrestler named Max Thunder who also seeks to help aid Axel and Blaze out as well in rescuing and saving their kidnapped friend.

The quartet soon embarks on a rescue mission, which will take them from the city all the way to Mr. X's hideout on a desolate island, where they will eventually face Mr. X and his bodyguard Shiva. Unlike the other two games in the series, ''Streets of Rage 2'' has only one ending, where Mr. X is defeated and Adam is rescued, after which the heroes leave in a helicopter.

In the near future, the U.S. Navy develops the F/A-37 Talon, a single-seat fighter-bomber with advanced payload, range, speed, and stealth capabilities. The program recruits three pilots out of many applicants, them being Lieutenants Ben Gannon, Kara Wade, and Henry Purcell. Captain George Cummings is the overall head.

Cummings hires Dr. Keith Orbit to develop an artificial intelligence, the "Extreme Deep Invader" (EDI) to control an uncrewed jet that further advances the program. EDI joins the others on the in the Philippine Sea to learn combat maneuvers from the pilots. This sparks controversy over a machine's inability to make moral decisions versus humans' struggle to overcome ego.

The team is training EDI in air combat maneuvers when it is unexpectedly reassigned to kill the heads of three terrorist cells at a conference in downtown Rangoon. EDI calculates that mission success can be achieved only through a vertical strike, which could cause a human pilot to black out. Command orders EDI to attack but Gannon ignores the order, successfully carrying out the strike himself.

As the team returns to the ''Lincoln'', EDI is hit by lightning, which reprograms its neural patterns. Though EDI is discovered to be learning exponentially, developing a rudimentary ethical code and an ego, Cummings refuses to take it offline. During a mission to destroy stolen nuclear warheads in Tajikistan, Wade realizes that the nuclear debris will cause significant collateral damage. The human pilots abort, but EDI defies orders and destroys the warheads, causing extensive radioactive fallout and civilian casualties as anticipated.

Cummings orders the unit return to base but EDI refuses. Gannon orders that EDI be shot down. In the ensuing dogfight, Purcell crashes when a missile he fires at EDI explodes on a mountain, blinding him. Wade's plane is damaged by debris from the same explosion, which triggers her plane's auto-destruct, forcing her to eject over North Korea. Gannon must alone stop EDI from executing a twenty-year-old war scenario called "Caviar Sweep" that requires attacking Russia.

Gannon chases EDI into Russian territory where they defeat several Russian Su-37s over Lake Baikal. Both planes are damaged so Gannon calls a truce with EDI in order to keep both of them from falling into enemy hands and to be able to rescue Wade from North Korea. Cummings instructs Gannon to make an emergency landing with EDI in Alaska. Accountable for ignoring EDI's behavior and facing court-martial, Cummings seeks to eliminate witnesses by leaving Wade stranded in North Korea where she is being pursued by the Korean People's Army as she heads to the Korean Demilitarized Zone and by ordering Gannon eliminated in Alaska, where EDI's data will also be erased.

Gannon's Talon crash lands at the Alaska base. Suspecting Cummings' treachery, he narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by a doctor, who tries to inject him with a supposed tetanus serum. As the pair struggle, the doctor is injected with the substance and dies. Meanwhile, when Orbit places EDI into an interface, the AI expresses regret for its transgressions. Orbit realizes that EDI has developed sentience, and he is unwilling to erase EDI's memory. Gannon uses EDI's weapons systems to decimate the armed personnel, allowing Orbit to safely flee, then flies off to North Korea in EDI's plane, contacting the ''Lincoln'' skipper, Captain Dick Marshfield, to inform him about Cummings' deceit. Marshfield confronts Cummings, who dies of suicide while leaving a voicemail message to his financial contact, Ray.

Gannon finds the injured and embattled Wade nearing the border. He and EDI land and he runs to her aid. Out of ammunition and taking damage from a Mi-8 helicopter, EDI sacrifices itself by ramming the helicopter, destroying both. This allows Gannon and Wade to cross on foot into South Korea, where they are rescued.

After attending Purcell's funeral, Gannon awkwardly expresses his feelings of love to Wade.

In a post-credits scene, in the debris-strewn border between North and South Korea, EDI's "brain" is seen turning back on.

Following a disastrous video game test, Clayton Software fires the development team and replaces them with weapons expert Hardcore, game artificial intelligence designer Sol, and sound effects creator Bug. Company CEO Faye Clayton promises $1 million to whoever makes the scariest game, sparking a rivalry amongst the trio. Three weeks later, the programmers try out their game and computer network-integrated motion capture suit with help from company intern Laura Wheeler. However, lightning strikes the building, causing a blackout and wiping their data. Knowing someone has to stay overnight to monitor the backup, the four use the game to decide. Ultimately, Sol is chosen to stay behind.

After he inserts his new AI chip into the company mainframe, the suit activates and kill Sol. The following morning, Hardcore and Bug find Sol's body merged to the suit and the backup CD gone. The former attempts to review the security camera's footage, but is attacked by the suit, which decapitates him so it can take his body and weapons to better resemble one of the game's monsters. Upon learning of what happened, Bug theorizes the lightning strike, Sol's chip, and Hardcore's system rewrite caused the suit to believe the real world is part of the game. To stop the monster, Bug, Laura, and Clayton businessman Peter Drummond try to shut down the computer and wipe the game's data. However, the security system malfunctions, trapping them inside. The monster attacks Bug, but he exposes a gas line and uses his lighter to ignite the gas, killing himself and the monster. Nonetheless, it returns to the mo-cap suit and attacks Drummond, but Laura saves him by fighting the in-game monster. She tries to beat the game, but becomes frustrated and hysterical until Drummond suggests she use a virtual reality headset, promising to stay with her while she fights. In the midst of playing though, she realizes he left her before the real world monster returns. She escapes to the kitchen, where she finds Hardcore's PDA contains footage of Drummond stealing the backup CD. She later finds and confronts Drummond at gunpoint. After he mocks her, she shoots him in the knee and allows the monster to kill him before luring it to a fish tank to electrocute it.

Sometime later, a jaded, world weary Laura turns in the final version of the game and demands the bonus for herself, which she uses to become the new CEO of Clayton Software, renaming it Wheeler Software.

Newton Davis (Steve Martin) is a struggling architect. After building his dream house for himself and his longtime girlfriend Becky (Dana Delany) in his hometown, he is crushed when she refuses to marry him. He is unable to bring himself to live in the house, and leaves it abandoned and with a debt he cannot afford. Three months later, Newton meets a waitress named Gwen (Goldie Hawn) at a Hungarian restaurant in Boston. Believing that she cannot speak English, he spills out his sob story about Becky and the abandoned house. After the restaurant closes for the night, Newton learns she merely pretended to be Hungarian, and can speak English. He walks her home, which turns out to be a small apartment upstairs at the restaurant. They end up having sex.

The next morning, Gwen finds that Newton left in the middle of the night. However, he unintentionally left behind the drawing of the house he'd built for Becky. Interest piqued by the drawing, Gwen takes a bus ride out to see the house. She is charmed by it, and decides to move in. Gwen goes to the town's general store, where she charges her groceries to the "Newton Davis" account. When questioned about this, Gwen, who it becomes clear is a natural liar, says that she is Newton's wife. Gwen meets Becky, and spins a lengthy romantic story about how they fell in love, which surprises and impresses Becky. Gwen also meets Newton's parents, who are heartbroken that Newton got "married" without telling them, but Gwen manages to smooth things over with them with her charm.

Soon after, Newton travels to his hometown and is shocked to see that his house is lived in. When he finds out what Gwen has done he is initially furious, but he soon sees the potential in her being there. Gwen starts creating all sorts of opportunities for Newton: mending his relationship with his parents, helping out with his career by befriending Newton's boss and highlighting his long-ignored talent, and making Becky jealous. Newton and Gwen come to an agreement in which Gwen will help Newton win Becky, and in return she'll get all the furniture in the house. Through their time together, Newton begins to rely more on Gwen beyond their agreement, and Gwen starts to feel attached to her life with Newton. It is also revealed that Gwen became a compulsive liar in order to escape from what she feels is her own inadequate background, and that she has "changed" her life numerous times.

The film culminates with a reception held at the house in which the sub-plots of Newton's career, family and affections for Becky are brought together. Annoyed with Becky for her superior and suspicious attitude, Gwen confronts her in front of everyone, accusing her of trying to win Newton back. Gwen storms out of the house in tears, and Newton follows her, thinking it is still part of the plan. Outside alone, Newton praises Gwen for her brilliance, but Gwen replies that she wanted their marriage to work. Her feelings for him are apparent. Newton's boss gives him the promotion. Newton watches, confused, as Gwen leaves. Becky takes the opportunity to make a move on Newton, and asks whether all of Gwen's elaborate stories were real. Newton answers that they were all true and chases after Gwen.

Newton stops Gwen as she is about to board a bus to leave town. Although she resists, Newton follows her example and begins telling an outlandish romantic story of something they "did", which makes Gwen decide to stay. The film ends on the note of Newton and Gwen being happily married and living together in the house. As Newton and Gwen go into the house together, the final spoken words are of Newton saying "I love you, Gwen" and Gwen replying, "Actually, it's Jessica."

Isabella, one of many beautiful models employed at Christian Haute Couture, a Roman fashion house, is walking through the property's grounds at night when she is violently killed by an assailant wearing a white, featureless mask, a black fedora and a trenchcoat. Police inspector Silvestri investigates and interviews Massimo Morlacchi, who co-manages the salon with the recently widowed Countess Cristiana Cuomo. He also questions Isabella's ex-boyfriend Franco Scalo, an antique dealer; Silvestri discovers that he is a cocaine user, and that Isabella had attempted to break his addiction.

It is revealed that Isabella kept a diary detailing the staff's personal lives and vices. One of the models, Nicole — who is Scalo's current lover — finds the diary and promises to give it to the police, but her co-worker Peggy steals it during a fashion show. That night, Nicole visits Scalo's store to supply him with cocaine where she is stalked by the murderer, who murders her with a spiked glove. The figure searches her corpse and her purse for the diary, but cannot find it. Marco, a nervous, pill-popping dresser who has unrequited feelings for Peggy, visits her at her apartment offering protection, which she politely refuses. She is then confronted and beaten by the killer, who writes a demand in a notebook for the location of the diary. She says she burned it in her fireplace because it contained details of an abortion she underwent. Enraged, the murderer knocks her unconscious. The assailant then carries her away just as Silvestri arrives, takes her to another location, ties her to a chair, and continues the interrogation. Peggy pulls off the mask and is shocked to recognize her assailant, who burns her to death using a furnace.

Silvestri surmises that the murderer is a sex maniac and is one of the men associated with the salon, so he arrests everyone he believes might be responsible. Panicking when he is identified as having visited Peggy's apartment, Marco tries to accuse Cesare, the house's eavesdropping dress designer, for the killings because of impotency; he then suffers an epileptic seizure and is hospitalised, and his drugs turn out to be medication for his condition. While the suspects are in custody, Greta, another model, finds Peggy's corpse stashed in the trunk of her car, and the killer smothers her to death in the hotel she is staying at for the night. Having discovered Peggy and Greta's bodies, Silvestri releases all the men; as they collect their confiscated belongings, the killer's notebook is shown to belong to Morlacchi. After returning to Cristina, he is revealed to be Isabella, Nicole and Peggy's killer, while Cristiana murdered Greta to give him an alibi; the hypersexualization of the killings was merely a red herring to disguise their motivations. Their killing spree began with the murder of Cristina's husband, which they made to look like an accident, allowing them to marry in secret. Isabella had found out the truth about the crime and blackmailed them.

Morlacchi convinces Cristiana that, although the diary has been destroyed, they must commit one more murder to satisfy Silvestri's hypothesis. Later that night, Cristiana drowns a fifth model, the voluptuous Tao-Li, in her bathtub; to implicate her as the murderer, she leaves the mask, hat and coat strewn around the bathroom, and slashes Tao-Li's wrists with a razor, making her death seem like a suicide. Cristiana prepares to leave the apartment when she is interrupted by a loud knocking on the front door. She escapes through a second-story window and climbs down a drainpipe which falls under her weight, slamming her to the ground.

At the fashion house, Morlacchi excitedly searches through Cristiana's desk for her jewelry. A bloody and bruised Cristiana enters the room, now realizing that their marriage was merely a means for him to become the heir to her fortune. He had been the "policeman" knocking on Tao-Li's door, and knowing how Cristiana would attempt to escape, deliberately sabotaged the drainpipe. Morlacchi attempts to persuade her, but she shoots him dead. After calling the police and asking for Silvestri, the mortally wounded Cristiana collapses next to Morlacchi's body.

A once-again rehabilitated Norman Bates is now married to a psychiatrist named Connie and is expecting a child. Norman secretly fears that the child will inherit his mental illness. One evening, he hears radio talk show host Fran Ambrose discussing the topic of matricide with her guest Dr. Richmond, Norman's former psychologist. Norman calls into the radio show, using the alias "Ed", to tell his story.

Norman's narrative is seen as a series of flashbacks set in the 1940s and 1950s, some slightly out of order. When Norman is six years old, his father dies, leaving him in the care of his mother, Norma. Over the years, Norma (who is implied to suffer from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder) dominates her son, brutally beating him for even the smallest infraction (or even no infraction at all), throwing him out in the rain when naked, teaching him that sex is sinful, dressing him up as a girl and smearing lipstick on his face as punishment for getting an erection during incestuous foreplay (that Norma herself initiated). She forces him to urinate like a female by instructing him to "squat over this" (a pitcher). She also takes her frustration out on Norman when business at the motel fails due to the new interstate routing potential customers away from their location.

The two live in contented isolation until, in 1949, she becomes engaged to a brutish man named Chet Rudolph who openly bullies Norman every chance he gets. Driven over the edge with jealousy and sick of Chet's constant abuse (verbal and physical), all of which Norma encourages, Norman kills both of them by serving them poisoned iced tea. He disposes of Chet's body before stealing and preserving his mother's corpse. He develops a split personality in which he "becomes" his mother to suppress the guilt of murdering her; whenever this personality takes over, it drives him to dress in his mother's clothes, put on a wig, and talk to himself in her voice. As "Mother", he murders two local women who try to seduce him during their stay at his newly opened motel. After these and other killings, Norman appears to have no recollection of committing the murders himself and believes "Mother" is alone responsible.

In the present day, Dr. Richmond realizes "Ed" is Norman and tries to convince Ambrose to trace the calls. Richmond's worries are dismissed. Norman fears he will go insane and kill again. He tells Fran that Connie got pregnant against his wishes and that he does not want to create another "monster". He then tells Fran he realizes that his mother is dead, but he fears that his mother may repossess him and kill Connie "with my own hands, just like the first time."

Norman takes his wife to his mother's house with the thought of killing her and her unborn baby, but Connie reminds Norman that it was his own choice to go insane and do the things he did; reassuring Norman that their child will not be a monster with their guidance. He realizes the truth to having freedom of choice, and he drops his knife. Finally, Norman impulsively sets fire to the house where all his unhappiness began. As he tries to escape the flames, he hallucinates that he sees his victims, his mother and eventually himself preserving her corpse. Norman barely flees the burning house alive.

He and Connie leave the next day. Norman happily proclaims, "I'm free," indicating that his mother will never again haunt his mind and drive him insane. Then, the wooden doors of the house cellar close on the rocking chair that continues to rock; at which point "Mother" screams, even breaking down crying, for Norman to release her before the screen cuts to black and the sound of a baby crying is heard.

''Odin'' centers around the novice crew of the laser sailing space schooner Starlight as they embark on a historic interstellar test flight. They are intercepted by what seems to be a wrecked spaceship only to find that it contains a lone survivor; a young woman named Sara Cyanbaker. Unknown to the crew at this time, a mechanized space fleet approaches Earth and a scout vessel from that fleet was responsible for the destruction of Sara's ship.

Sara begins to have strange dreams about a place called Odin and a series of artifacts discovered on a lonely asteroid point to an ancient Norwegian mariner's folk song which mentioned the Norse god Odin. The crew decipher these artifacts and deduce that Odin may actually exist as a place, the paradise planet so often spoken of in mythology. The young crew is eager to make the journey but the captain and the ship's senior officers observe the need to follow the orders of Earth Command and return to Earth immediately. The crew mutinies and locks the senior officers in the officer's lounge and warp the ship to the location given in the artifacts. Upon arrival, the Starlight meet a cosmic being who appears before them in space. He identifies himself as Asgard and declares that he will block the gateway to paradise against corrupt beings of flesh and all other non-believers. As a result, the Starlight faces an almost endless swarm of mechanized attack ships. The Starlight crew successfully fights its way through to land on what appears to be a mechanized world only to face hordes of mechanized soldiers. Surviving the onslaught, Sara and the crew is horrified to learn that these soldiers are actually part living beings. A dying soldier hands a crew member a crystal memory chip and asks him to insert it into a computer display readout. Through it, the crew learn of the soldier's memories of Odin and the entire story of the alien people's exodus.

: ''Legends once told of a paradise destroyed by a kingdom of fire.''

Odin was once a planet that faced destruction by the radiation of its expanding sun, Canopus. Its people built giant computerized starships to monitor their exodus to find another world yet many stayed on Odin in the hopes that the fires of Canopus would die out. The computers on the ships ultimately developed sentience and transformed its humanoid refugees into cyborgs leaving those remaining on Odin the only ones who remained as themselves. The machines built larger machines to ensure that the mission succeeds resulting in an eventual corruption of the original purpose. Now these machines sought only to destroy all organic life. The dying soldier, noted that Sara not only looked like the queen of Odin's people, but that Sara was the queen's name. Sara confirms that there might be a connection as she recounts her own memories of The Tree of Life and how she was sheltered by two giants in her childhood. The cyborg soldier's dying words suggest that if Sara has these memories then Odin and its people may still live.

The crew promises to dedicate themselves to finding Odin. However, they must still defeat the master computer of this machine world; a being that calls itself Belgel. The crew finds a way to insert a computer virus which causes Belgel to overload and destroy the world-fortress. The movie ends simply with the Starlight crew pressing on, unhindered, to begin its search for the legendary planet Odin.

On Valentine's Day, Lisa's class at the Springfield Elementary School constructs paper mailboxes for the Valentine cards they are about to receive from each other. When Ralph cries after getting no cards, Lisa gives him one out of sympathy. Ralph cheers up, develops a romantic interest in Lisa, and walks her home from school. This leaves her feeling nervous around him, not knowing how to tell him she is not interested.

The next day at school, on Marge's suggestion, Lisa tells Ralph she is not ready to be romantic. Ralph asks his father Chief Wiggum for advice on romance and is told to be persistent. He soon uses his position as the police chief's son to get Lisa tickets to Krusty the Clown's upcoming ''29th Anniversary Special''; and he annoys her by getting the part of George Washington for himself in the school's President's Day pageant, in which Lisa plays Martha Washington.

Lisa reluctantly joins Ralph for Krusty's show. When Krusty starts interviewing audience members, Ralph takes the opportunity to declare that Lisa is the love of his life and he intends to marry her. Furious, Lisa loses her temper and tells Ralph she never liked him and only gave him a Valentine card because she felt sorry for him. Later at home, Bart, having taped the event, replays the scene to Lisa where Ralph is humiliated and deeply hurt, making her feel guilty and regretful. Wiggum comforts Ralph and attempts revenge on Lisa by smashing the taillight on Homer's car, but is alarmed when Homer warns him that one day the people will retaliate.

On the night of the pageant, Lisa tries to apologize to Ralph, but he ignores her. Ralph proves to be a remarkably effective and eloquent actor, gaining the approval of the audience and even reducing Groundskeeper Willie to tears. Lisa approaches Ralph on the swing set after the performance and gives him a new card with a picture of a bee on it, reading "Let's 'Bee' Friends". Ralph laughs at the pun and happily accepts the offer of friendship as Wiggum fondly watches them from his car.

Springfield is plagued by a cat burglar who makes several burglaries, including the Simpsons' house. Among the stolen items are Lisa's saxophone, Marge's pearl necklace, Bart's stamp collection, and a handheld television. The town's residents arm themselves and install security devices to thwart the burglar. A neighborhood watch group is formed and Homer is elected as its leader. The street patrol soon devolves into a vigilante group whose members violate laws instead of catching criminals. When Homer is interviewed on news anchor Kent Brockman's ''Smartline'', the cat burglar calls the show and reveals he plans to steal the world's largest cubic zirconia from the Springfield museum.

Homer's posse guards the museum, refusing the help of Grampa and his friends from the Springfield Retirement Castle. After Homer spots a group of teenagers drinking beer, he leaves his post to intervene but gets drunk with them instead. When the cat burglar subsequently steals the zirconia, Homer is blamed and pelted with fruits and vegetables by the unforgiving townspeople. Later, Grampa reveals that the cat burglar is a fellow resident of the retirement home named Molloy. Homer captures Molloy at the home, and the surprisingly amiable cat burglar returns the objects he stole. Chief Wiggum arrests and imprisons him.

At the police station, Molloy casually observes that Homer and the cops would like to know where he hid his loot. When Molloy tells them the stash is hidden under a giant "T" somewhere in Springfield, they rush from the station hoping to find the buried treasure. After checking several possible sites, the crowd returns to get more information from Molloy, who directs them to a large, T-shaped palm tree on the outskirts of town. The residents excavate the site, but find only a box containing a note from Molloy; he lied about the treasure in order to buy himself enough time to escape from his cell. Several citizens continue to dig, hoping that there is a real treasure, but soon find themselves at a loss for ways to get out of the hole they have made.

A large caravan of settlers attempt to cross the Oregon Trail. Breck Coleman is a young trapper who just got back to Missouri from his travels near Santa Fe, seeking to avenge the death of an old trapper friend who was killed the winter before along the Santa Fe Trail for his furs, by Red Flack and his minion Lopez. At a large trading post owned by a man named Wellmore, Coleman sees Flack and suspects him right away as being one of the killers. Flack likewise suspects Coleman as being somebody who knows too much about the killing. Coleman is asked by a large group of settlers to scout their caravan west, and declines, until he learns that Flack and Lopez were just hired by Wellmore to boss a bull train along the as-yet-unblazed Oregon Trail to a trading post in northern Oregon Territory (which at the time extended into current British Columbia), owned by another Missouri fur trader. Coleman agrees to scout for the train, so he can keep an eye on the villains and kill them as soon as they reach their destination. The caravan of settlers in their covered wagons would follow Wellmore's ox-drawn train of Conestoga Wagons, as the first major group of settlers to move west on the Oregon Trail.

Coleman finds love with young Ruth Cameron, whom he'd kissed accidentally, mistaking her for somebody else. Unwilling to accept her attraction toward him, Ruth gets rather close to a gambler acquaintance of Flack's, who joined the trail after being caught cheating. Coleman and Flack have to lead the settlers west, while Flack does everything he can to have Coleman killed before he finds any proof of what he'd done. The three villains' main reason for going west is to avoid the hangman's noose for previous crimes, and all three receive frontier justice instead. The settlers trail ends in an unnamed valley, where Coleman and Ruth finally settle down together amidst giant redwoods.

Lisa and Homer participate in a Habitat for Humanity project along with former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush. While working, Homer takes off his wedding ring for safekeeping, causing Lindsay Naegle and Cookie Kwan to mistakenly think Homer is a divorcé. Marge, driving by with Maggie, assumes Homer to be flirting with the women, and worries that Homer has lost interest in her. She decides to get liposuction on the advice of Manjula, but a mix-up at the hospital instead causes her to get breast implants meant for Mayor Quimby's assistant. Marge is forced to wait 48 hours before the implants can be removed.

Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse watch an episode of ''Batman'' guest starring Krusty, and attempt to recreate a stunt, damaging school property and the U.S. flag in the process. Upon discovering the two were influenced by Krusty, Principal Skinner leads a protest against the clown, who is now seen as a dangerous influence on children. Krusty's show is re-tooled to exclude anything considered dangerous and likely to be imitated by impressionable viewers.

After returning home from her surgery, Marge realizes that her new breasts are giving her difficulty in doing even the simplest tasks, but that she is given gifts and attention from the men of Springfield. When the family goes out for dinner, Kiki Highsmith, a trade show executive, approaches Marge and offers her a modeling job. Marge accepts and initially enjoys the experience, but is quickly plagued by back pain and harassment from the men of Springfield.

At the Springfield Shoe Expo, Marge is further humiliated while promoting shoe horns. At the same time, Bart decides to help Krusty to win back his popularity by having him appear to rescue Milhouse from Stampy by shouting Stampy's safe word: "magumbo." When Krusty forgets the word, Stampy stuffs both Milhouse and Bart in his mouth, as well as Homer when he tries to save them. The police prepare to shoot Stampy, endangering Homer, Bart and Milhouse, but Marge manages to distract the police by flashing her breasts. Krusty, ogling her breasts, shouts "Look at those magumbos!" Stampy releases Bart, Milhouse, and Homer, and Krusty is hailed as a hero and his popularity is restored with the town. Following the day’s events, Marge finally has her implants removed.

At Christmas time, the Simpsons go caroling around Springfield before the Blue-Haired Lawyer orders them to stop, citing copyright infringement. In response, Homer tries to write his own carol but when Ned Flanders tries to help, he soon creates an anti-Flanders song titled "Everybody Hates Ned Flanders". The song becomes so popular that the family, annoyed by its constant presence, leave for a dude ranch. At the ranch, Lisa meets a cowhand named Luke Stetson, with whom she begins to bond. Meanwhile, Homer and Bart meet a tribe of Native Americans who want a beaver dam removed so they can reclaim their land. They are confronted by the beavers while attempting to dismantle the dam and eventually destroy it after luring the beavers away.

Lisa overhears Luke expressing his love to a girl named Clara over the phone. When a jealous Lisa encounters her, she tricks her into going the wrong way on the path to a dance. Lisa finds out that Clara is Luke's sister and runs to the beaver dam with Bart. They find Clara standing on a rock in the middle of a torrential river. Bart taunts some beavers and scales a tree; the beavers chew through the tree, causing it to fall and create a bridge that Clara can cross. When Lisa comes clean about what happened to Clara, Luke is offended and leaves her. As the Simpsons return to Springfield, they hear a song entitled "The Moe Szyslak Connection" on the radio, sung by Moe Szyslak, and turn around to spend another week at the ranch.

In response to Springfield being named the least cultural city in the United States, a town meeting is held to decide a course of action, where Marge proposes that Springfield host a film festival showcasing films made by the townspeople. Marge is made the head of the festival's judging panel, and invites New York film critic Jay Sherman to be a special guest critic (who agrees primarily to escape the wrath of an enraged Rainer Wolfcastle, for slating his latest comedy film). Jay's presence makes Homer feel inadequate, so he convinces Marge to put him on the judging panel.

The film festival commences, and many of the townspeople, including Mr. Burns and Hans Moleman, enter films. Festival attendees are particularly touched by Barney Gumble's artistic introspective film about alcoholism, titled ''Pukahontas'', which Marge and Jay foresee to be the eventual winner. Burns' film, directed by Steven Spielberg's non-union Mexican counterpart "Señor Spielbergo", is ''A Burns for All Seasons'', a big-budget pastiche of famous Hollywood productions intended to glorify him; the film is rejected by the audience. He bribes two of the judges, Krusty the Clown and Mayor Quimby, to vote for it, leading to a deadlock. Left with the tie-breaking vote, Homer enthusiastically votes for Hans' aptly-named ''Man Getting Hit by Football'', but Marge and Jay convince him to reconsider and ''Pukahontas'' is named the winner. Barney declares that his victory has inspired him to give up drinking, but immediately forgets his promise when Quimby reveals his prize to be a lifetime supply of Duff Beer.

Sherman prepares to return to New York, and the Simpsons thank him for his help in making the festival a success. Marge suggests that Mr. Burns has learned a lesson that you cannot bribe everyone. Contrary to her statement, he submits ''A Burns for All Seasons'' to the Academy Awards; due to his bribing of everyone in Hollywood, he is nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. At the ceremony, the winner is announced to be George C. Scott, based on his performance in a remake of ''Man Getting Hit by Football'', angering Burns further.

It is the story of an ex-convict, Simon (Keith Carradine), who after returning to Iceland where his mother was born, to visit relatives, looks for the loneliest place in the world to commit suicide. In a small village he meets Dúa (Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir), an Icelandic young lady, who is found to be an interesting, rather strange woman by Simon. Dúa has a caged falcon that she hopes to tame, but they get into trouble as it is illegal to possess this kind of animal in captivity.

In the story, Simon is the embodiment of a jailed bird, one of the falcons and as she is an air sign, they join in a relationship ruled by Simon's belief that she is his illegitimate daughter. Surrounded by tension between them, Simon serves as a protective figure to Dúa, who keeps him from committing suicide.

The couple escape to Hamburg, Germany, to start all over again. The protagonists' behaviours are opposite to each other: Simon is down to earth and finds himself awkward by Dúa's eccentric beliefs in astrology, who considers Simon as a typical Scorpio and thus avoids deepening into a more serious relationship, partly because of the feeling of his paternity.

Dúa's falcon, that she nourished and protected when her uncle found it with a broken wing, has a high value to her, as she considers it last remnant of the beloved life in Iceland. The falcon travels with them on their escape and has a high monetary value. Later, as Dúa wasted their money, Simon tries to sell the falcon in order to cover their expenditure, but he is cheated by some crooked Germans and the falcon is stolen.

The game's main goal is to win Fin Fin's friendship. There are many ways to communicate with Fin Fin. The first way is to press the 1 to 5 keys, which make a sound that attracts Fin Fin. The second way is to use a microphone and a whistle that come with the game, but if the player makes a loud sound or uses the whistle to scold Fin Fin, he will run away. In the 3, 4 and 5 world versions, the player can record their own voice using the Fin Fin sound recorder that comes with the game and a microphone. Their voice then plays back when they press the 6 to 0 keys.

There is also a separate sensor unit that informed Fin Fin whether the player was sitting in front of the screen. The sensor doesn't work in the German versions because of a faulty installation routine.

In a 1989 suburban town, a boy named David tries to get in the cool group by helping his friend Scott, and two troublemakers named Roger and Randy (the former being the leader) carry out a prank. Their target is an elderly woman who was called a witch by all the kids in the school. When they attack her and steal her cane David flips her off to try to impress Roger. But when they leave the old lady's house, she cries out to David "Your Doppelgänger will regurgitate on your soul!" The following days David finds himself experiencing strange happenings that lead him to believe that he is cursed. After being rejected by Roger and his gang, David finds himself becoming a loser. He breaks his parents' window, he walks into class with his zipper unzipped, he falls off his chair in class, and his only friends are fellow outcasts Larry and Maureen "Mo". His actions lead Roger's gang to target him and his friends, calling them "The Three Stooges". He becomes friendly with a cute girl named Tori Williams, but his pants fall down when he gets the courage to ask her for her phone number. Finally, his younger brother Ricky, after being ridiculed by Roger's younger brother, loses all respect for David.

Eventually, David begs the elderly woman to remove the curse, but she asks for her cane to be returned first. As it turns out, Tori doesn't scorn David for his humiliation in having his pants fall down in front of her, and tries to pretend that she had her eyes closed in thought when it happened, to prevent David from becoming uncomfortable around her. David finally decides to fight for his dignity, and, with his friends and little brother by his side, he goes to face Roger's gang and get the cane back, not suspecting that many things, including the curse, are not as they seem. Mo, Tori, Larry, David and his little brother all go to Roger's house for the fight. They get the cane and bring it back to the 'witch' who turns out to be Tori's great-aunt. The aunt is not a witch and there was no curse but David was feeling so bad that sub-consciously he does the things to himself that had happened to the old lady. At the end of the book, 150 years later, a boy named Willy, who is similarly bullied, idolizes David, who is now a famous historical figure.

It is Homer and Marge's eleventh wedding anniversary and Grampa does not arrive at the Simpson house to babysit the children, spoiling Homer and Marge's evening together. Later that evening, Homer and Marge attempt to have sexual intercourse, but lack enthusiasm. The following day, it is discovered that the refrigerator's motor has burned out so Homer and Marge make their way to a hardware store to buy another one.

On the way, the car gets stuck in the muddy driveway in the middle of farm country. Homer and Marge rush into the nearest barn to avoid a sudden storm. A farmer discovers the barn door is open and suspects trespassers. He enters the barn, nearly catching Homer and Marge, who are hiding in the hay loft, but leaves after failing to locate them. When the coast is clear, Homer and Marge have inspired sexual intercourse in the hay loft.

Homer and Marge think their marriage has been recharged and go for a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast, but soon fall into their old patterns. However, a maid walks in on them and they conclude they are both aroused when they risk being caught during intimate moments, so they have sex behind window curtains in a room full of people. Their love life is recharged and one day they begin to have sex on the same miniature golf course windmill where Bart was conceived.

This time they come ''too'' close to being caught having public sex, and while they manage to escape, they have to flee through Springfield naked. After trying to seek help from Gil at his car lot, they steal his hot air balloon and fly throughout the city in it. As Marge tries to pilot the balloon after Homer falls and is left hanging on the rope, the balloon lands in a football stadium, and a naked photograph of Homer and Marge appears in the local newspaper. The next day, Bart and Lisa see the picture and their parents begin to explain sex to them. Before they go into detail, however, they decide to go back to the miniature golf course.

In a subplot, Bart and Lisa stay at the Springfield Retirement Castle with Grampa, and they discover a metal detector in his closet. While Bart uses it to look for pirate treasure, they uncover an alternate ending to ''Casablanca''. After playing the scene on a projector screen it turns out to be a very sanitized and typical Hollywood happy ending, where Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman's characters marry in the end. Bart, Lisa and Grampa all like it but one of the spectators, the Old Jewish Man, reveals that he was once a studio executive and tried to include this happy ending to the film. Disgruntled, he pays Bart and Lisa to re-bury the film reel, along with another reel of a killing spree ending to ''It's A Wonderful Life''.

It's occupied Rome in 1944. German SS troops are trying to arrest Giorgio Manfredi, an engineer, communist, and leader of the Resistance against the Nazis and Italian Fascists. The landlady of his rooming house warns him in time for him to elude capture. He sneaks to the home of Francesco, another Resistance fighter. There he encounters Pina, Francesco's visibly pregnant fiancée, who lives in the next apartment. She first suspects Giorgio of being a cop and gives him a rough time, but when he makes it clear he is a confederate of Francesco she welcomes him into his apartment to wait for him. With Pina's help Giorgio contacts Don Pietro, a Catholic priest who is helping the Resistance. Giorgio asks him to transfer messages and money to a group of Resistance fighters outside the city, as he is now known to the Gestapo and cannot do it himself. The priest willingly does so.

Don Pietro is also scheduled to officiate at Pina's and Francesco's wedding the next day. Francesco is not very religious, but would rather be married by a patriot priest than a fascist official; the devout Pina, on the other hand, is pragmatic about the decision - as it would be unthinkable in normal times for an unmarried pregnant woman to be married in a church - but wrestling with why God would allow such terrible things to happen to people as are occurring all around them. Her son, Marcello, a somewhat reluctant altar boy, is involved with a crippled youth fighting his own resistance planting bombs. Pina's feckless sister Laura stays with her, but works in a cabaret serving the Nazis and Fascists. She is also an old friend of Marina, Giorgio's girlfriend, who has been looking for him. Marina also works in the cabaret and has not only turned to prostitution for the luxuries she craves but has become addicted to drugs by the treacherous Ingrid, a consort of the local Nazi commander, Major Bergmann.

Bergmann, helped by the Italian police chief, suspects that Giorgio is at Francesco's apartment. They raid the huge building that afternoon, pulling everyone out and arresting dozens of men. Giorgio gets away, but Francesco is thrown in a truck to be hauled off. Seeing him, Pina breaks through a cordon of soldiers screaming his name, but is shot dead. The priest, who was in the building to erase any trace of the Resistance under the guise of praying for a dying man, holds her in his arms and prays as Part I ends.

Part II begins with the several trucks of Italian prisoners taken from the apartment building in a convoy with military vehicles, which is attacked by Resistance fighters. Most of the captives appear to escape. Francesco reconnects with Giorgio. Together they go to the priest, who has offered to hide them in a monastery.

Afterwards the pair go to an inn where Marina lives and works to spend the night in hiding. When Giorgio sees how she lives and finds her drugs they quarrel over her choices. Seeking revenge for his rebuke, she betrays both him and Francesco to the Nazis. The next morning Giorgio, Francesco, Don Pietro, and an Austrian deserter the priest is also aiding, leave for the monastery. Francesco lags slightly behind, and is able to escape when the rest of the party is ambushed by Germans, who mistakenly believe the Austrian is him. Marina is rewarded by Ingrid with a fur coat and more drugs.

At Nazi headquarters Bergmann tells Ingrid of his plan - to extract everything from his captives before dawn in order to take the Resistance by surprise before news of their capture can get back to it. He then offers leniency to Giorgio in return for betrayal. Giorgio refuses and is taken off to be tortured. The Austrian, who has already displayed cowardice at the prospect of interrogation, hangs himself in his cell. The Gestapo assault Giorgio in waves with whips and a blow torch, in vain.

Stressing at the deadline he has set himself, Bergmann next tries to convince Don Pietro to use his influence on Giorgio to betray his cause, saying that he is an atheist and communist who is an enemy of the Church. Don Pietro placidly responds that anyone who strives to live a righteous life is doing God's work. Bergmann then forces Don Pietro to watch Giorgio's torture. When Giorgio dies without revealing anything, Don Pietro blesses his body and commends him to God's mercy. Giorgio's refusal to yield shakes the confidence of the Germans, including Bergmann, who had boasted that they were the "master race", and no one from a "slave race" could withstand their torture.

Marina and a German officer who had bad-mouthed the Reich to Bergmann earlier in the officers' club stumble into the scene drunk. When she sees that Giorgio has refused Bergmann's deal and allowed himself to be tortured to death, she faints. The Gestapo chief and Ingrid decide that she is now useless to them and order her locked up. Ingrid removes the coat Marina had draped over her shoulders, saying she'll use it again on the "next one".

In the morning Don Pietro is taken to be executed. The parish altar boys/resistance fighters show up and begin whistling their signal tune to him. Effectively sightless since his glasses were broken being thrown roughly into a cell upon arrival at Nazi headquarters, Don Pietro is heartened when he recognizes the boys' tribute. An Italian firing squad readies to shoot, but most aim slightly off, unwilling to kill a priest. They fire. Seeing the merely wounded Don Pietro still mumbling prayers the presiding German officer, the same man who had decried the futility of the Nazi obsession with world dominance the night before to Major Bergmann, draws his pistol and puts the priest to a merciful end, muttering disdainfully over his involvement as part of the "Master Race".

The boys bow their heads in grief then slowly depart, the city of Rome and St. Peter's Basilica visible clearly in the background.

On his birthday, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiers all cast from one old tin spoon and arrays them on a table top. One soldier stands on a single leg because, as he was the last one cast, there was not enough metal to make him whole. Nearby, the soldier spies a pretty paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. She, too, is standing on one leg, and the soldier falls in love. That night, a goblin among the toys in the form of a jack-in-the-box, who also loves the ballerina, angrily warns the soldier to take his eyes off her, but the soldier ignores him.

The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill (presumably the work of the goblin) and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat and its passenger wash into a storm drain, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll.

Sailing on, the boat is washed into a canal, where the tin soldier is swallowed by a fish. When this fish is caught and cut open, the tin soldier finds himself once again on the table top before the ballerina. Inexplicably, the boy throws the tin soldier into the fire, which is most likely the work of the jack-in-the-box goblin. A wind blows the ballerina into the fire with him; she is consumed by it. The maid cleans the fireplace in the morning and finds that the soldier has melted into a little tin heart, along with the ballerina's spangle, which is now burned as black as coal.

Police disperse an organized street demonstration of elderly men demanding a raise in their meager pensions. One of the marchers is Umberto D. Ferrari, a retired government worker.

He returns to his room and finds that his landlady has rented it out for an hour to an amorous couple. She threatens to evict Ferrari at the end of the month if he cannot pay the overdue rent, fifteen thousand lire. He sells a watch and some books, but only raises a third of the amount. The landlady refuses to accept partial payment.

Meanwhile, the sympathetic maid confides in Umberto that she has her own problems. She is three months pregnant, but is unsure which of her two lovers (both soldiers) is the father, the tall one from Naples or the short one from Florence.

Feeling ill, Umberto gets himself admitted to a hospital. It turns out to be tonsillitis and he is discharged after a few days. When he returns to the apartment, he finds workmen renovating the entire place. The landlady is getting married. Umberto's room has a gaping hole in the wall. The maid tells him it is to become part of an enlarged living room. The maid was taking care of his dog named Flike, but a door was left open and Flike ran away.

Umberto rushes to the city pound and is relieved to find his dog; however, when he makes a veiled plea for a loan to one of his friends who has a job, the friend refuses to listen. Unable to bring himself to beg from strangers on the street Umberto contemplates suicide, but knows he must first see that Flike is taken care of. He packs his belongings and leaves the apartment. His parting advice to the maid is to get rid of the boyfriend from Florence.

Umberto attempts to find a place for Flike, first with a couple who board dogs, then a little girl he knows, but the latter's nanny makes her give the dog back. Flike goes to play with some children and Umberto slips away, hoping that one of them will adopt him. Despite Umberto's attempt to abandon Flike, the dog finds him hiding under a footbridge. Finally in desperation, Umberto takes the dog in his arms and walks on to a railway track as a speeding train approaches. Flike becomes frightened, wriggles free and flees. Umberto runs after him. At first Flike warily hides, but eventually Umberto coaxes Flike out to play with a pine cone. Still homeless and nearly penniless, Umberto scampers down the park lane with his dog.

Martin Kurtz, an Israeli spy working in a clandestine agency to allow plausible deniability for his superiors, recruits Charlie, a 26-year-old radical left-wing English actress, as part of an elaborate scheme to discover the whereabouts of Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist. Joseph is Charlie's case officer. Khalil's younger brother Salim is abducted, interrogated, and killed by Kurtz's unit. Joseph impersonates Salim and travels through Europe with Charlie to make Khalil believe that Charlie and Salim are lovers. When Khalil discovers the affair and contacts Charlie, the Israelis are able to track him down.

Charlie is taken to Palestinian refugee camps to be trained as a bomber. She becomes more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, and her divided loyalties bring her close to collapse. Charlie is sent on a mission to place a bomb at a lecture given by an Israeli moderate whose peace proposals are not to Khalil's liking. She carries out the mission under the Israelis' supervision. As a result, Joseph kills Khalil. Charlie subsequently has a mental breakdown caused by the strain of her mission and her own internal contradictions.

While watching a horror movie show hosted by Boobarella (the show's take on Cassandra Peterson's Elvira character), a commercial plays for the Ribwich (the show's take on McDonald's McRib sandwich), a new Krusty Burger sandwich in which meat from an unknown animal is processed and molded into the shape of ribs. Homer excitedly samples the Ribwich, recently arrived at the Krusty Burger in Springfield, and becomes addicted.

The next day, Principal Skinner holds a spelling bee at the school. Lisa is excited when she wins the spelling bee, for which she is awarded a scale model of the planet Mars (a kickball with the word "Mars" written on it). She continues to the state spelling bee, and wins again, qualifying her for the Spellympics to be held in Calgary.

Marge suggests they celebrate by going to a movie, but Homer says he has "important daddy business" — which turns out to be eating Ribwiches with Lenny and Carl at Krusty Burger, only to find that the limited-time-only Ribwiches are out of stock. However, a "Ribhead" (a fan of the Ribwich) tells Homer that it is being tested in other markets, so he decides to follow a group of Ribheads as they track the release of the Ribwich tour schedule.

At the Spellympics, hosted by George Plimpton, Lisa wins the semi-finals and secures a spot in the finals. The other two finalists are Sun Moon, a Korean girl, and Alex, a cute boy with big round glasses and a speech impediment who proves to be extremely popular. Plimpton takes Lisa aside and tells her that if she lets Alex win, she will be given a free scholarship to any Seven Sisters college and a free George Plimpton hot plate. Lisa is torn between wanting to win the Spellympics and free college, and asks Marge whether they can afford to send her to college. Marge is unsure, but promises to do whatever it takes to get Lisa into college, but Lisa is still uneasy since she is aware of Homer's low salary.

In San Francisco, Krusty informs all the Ribheads that the Ribwich will no longer be made, as the animal from which it was made is now extinct. He tosses the last one into the crowd. Homer catches it, fighting off the others. An Italian Ribhead offers Homer the "lease-a" to his car for the last Ribwich, and Homer remembers Lisa and the Spellympics. He agrees to the trade and takes off in the car, reaching the Spellympics finals just in time to see Lisa spell "intransigence" and encourage her. Lisa, happy to see her father, tells everyone that she was told to take a dive, but then unintentionally misspells her word. Lisa loses, and since she did not do it on purpose, Plimpton rescinds his offer.

On the way back to Springfield, Homer tries to cheer up Lisa when she admits that she let down everyone in town. However, she finds that in coming second she has become Springfield's most successful native ever (even outachieving the Springfield woman who once dated Charles Grodin). In her honor, the town carved Lisa's face on the side of a mountain.

A sleepy Marge is too tired on Valentine's Day to have sex with an eager and well-prepared Homer, who dejectedly leaves the house. He sees a billboard for a school offering extension courses. He goes to the school and attempts to take a course on stripping for his wife, which Dr. Hibbert teaches, but is kicked out for hogging the stripping oil. By accident, Homer winds up in a different class that teaches strategies for workplace success.

Inspired by the lessons, he begins to investigate problems at the power plant and propose solutions to Mr. Burns, who rejects them all without reading them. Homer later overhears Burns state that he has made a canary the legal owner of the plant in order to avoid any consequences of wrongdoing. With help from Bart, he devises a plan to overthrow Burns by setting the canary free.

Homer tricks Burns into believing that a team of inspectors is visiting to check conditions at the plant; when Burns is unable to find the canary, he panics and names Homer as the new owner. Homer's first act is to throw Burns from the office balcony, allowing a throng of employees in the parking lot to crowd-surf him into a waiting taxi. Burns and Smithers flee to Marrakesh, Morocco, intent on purchasing a large quantity of opium.

The responsibilities of running the plant soon force Homer to spend most of his time at work instead of with the family, and he becomes miserable after having to lay off employees and listen to business analysts discuss the plant's troubles. Burns visits Homer one night (informing him that Smithers has been sentenced to 80 years in prison for drug possession) and takes him to the cemetery, showing him the graves of people whose relationships with Burns suffered because he worked so much - including his wife. Homer decides to return ownership of the plant to Burns, who drugs him into unconsciousness and begins to wall him up inside one of the cemetery crypts. However, he is so slow and weak at building the wall that Homer easily steps over the few bricks he has laid after waking up. Leaving the plant in Burns' hands, Homer returns home to have a barbecue with his family and enjoy his old life again.

Will Warburton is a young gentleman of means, a man of commerce, who, losing everything in speculation, is forced into the life of a grocer, a thing he finds, at first, enormously tragic.

Will keeps his fate secret from his friends and his family and lives a life of humiliation and privation. It is only when the woman with whom he is falling in love discovers he is a grocer, and throws him over, that Will realizes that there is no shame in being a grocer.

Aspiring news anchor Sally "Tally" Atwater makes a demo tape of a fake story and is hired by Miami station manager Warren Justice. Though she lacks polish and experience, Warren sees promise in Tally and decides to give her a chance, giving her tough love assignments to foster her talent. After a well-done news story about two immigrants who drowned off the shores of Miami Beach, Tally and Warren form an even closer mentor/mentee friendship built upon mutual respect and simmering attraction. On New Year’s Eve, Tally covers the first locally-born baby of the year, a child by convicted felon Fernando Buttanda. A heated exchange occurs on air between Tally and the lead male anchor. She confronts the station's perception that she is merely in her position because she is Warren’s “protégée” and threatens to quit.

Tally tracks down and meets with talent agent Bucky Terranova, who takes her on as a client and lands her a position as a reporter in Philadelphia, a much larger market. Due to her impending departure, Tally decides to confront her feelings for Warren. The two end up physically consummating their emotional relationship, including a getaway to the Florida Keys before Tally’s move to Philadelphia.

Tally struggles at her new post - largely due to hostile veteran reporter Marcia McGrath, who jealously protects her position as top reporter - and starts to lose some of the charisma that initially captured Bucky’s attention. At Bucky's request, and out of affection for Tally, Warren visits her in Philadelphia and talks her through missteps she has taken by trying to emulate Marcia instead of being herself. Encouraged by Warren, Tally begins to perform to her previous standards, leading Marcia to accept an offer from a station in Cincinnati, thus handing the position to Tally. Tally asks Warren to marry her and relocate to Philadelphia so that they can be together. On their honeymoon they come up with a story idea that looks at a “day in the life” of Fernando, who has been relocated to a Philadelphia prison. During this time, Warren’s backstory is revealed as he attempts to find a job in order to remain close to Tally.

While filming the segment at the prison, a prison riot occurs wherein Tally and her cameraman Ned Jackson are taken hostage. Tally covers the volatile and groundbreaking story from within the prison walls as Warren looks on from outside, guiding her through her first national broadcast. As the story uncovers, she fulfills the potential that Warren initially saw in her. Her poise and bravery leads to an evening anchor position with the nationally-broadcast IBS News. While relaying the job offer to Warren, she discovers that he senses a developing story in Panama that he intends to cover. Warren tells Tally that she inspired him to want more, including possibly returning to journalism. Sadly, during Tally’s going away party at the Philadelphia station, it is reported that Warren and his crew were fired upon after wrapping up their story, resulting in Warren's death.

The movie ends with Tally discussing the purpose of journalism. In a touching tribute, she notes that Warren had a hunch, followed it, and ultimately got the story.

The narrative moves back and forth between the last days of World War II, the first few years of the British space programme, and the year 2001. The British had captured and relocated to England all the scientists and equipment found in Peenemünde, among them Dr. Wernher von Braun and the plans and pieces of the V-2 rocket bomb. Peenemünde and American advance troops are then (intentionally) obliterated by friendly fire, so that they cannot challenge the emergent British technological advantage.

The entire scheme is masterminded by Royal Air Force officer Air Commodore Sir John Dashwood, survivor of the Battle of Britain, who manages to convince Winston Churchill to establish the Ministry of Space and fund it with a black budget. The following years see British pilots: Breaking the sound barrier (1946). Launching the first artificial satellite in 1948, called Victory and radio-broad-casting "God save the King" in Morse Code. Pioneering human spaceflight (1950), in a reinforced and pressurized cabin, in a rocketplane named Britannia, wearing Leather jackets and sitting in a leather chair. John Dashwood becomes the first man in space. He loses his legs in the process, but receives a knighthood. Building a space station (1953–56) named "Churchill Station". In 1957 the National Service Act 1948 is not abolished, but now includes service in "The Royal Space Force". Landing on the Moon (1957) and in 1960 finding water on the Moon. *Establishing a colonial base on Mars in 1969, with nuclear motors and 700 people.

The story ends in 2001 and involves an American attempt to go into space, and their blackmailing of the British government concerning the secrets of the black budget that funded the Ministry of Space (which was derived from looting gold reserves from Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust). However, thanks to Dashwood's crimes, the British space programme has a crewed spacecraft that has reached Saturn, thriving British Martian and lunar colonies, asteroid belt mines and at least three Earth orbital space stations providing the country with free solar energy. The unrepentant Dashwood dismisses the Ministry's outrage at its origins with the claim that England will not care about the truth when it has reaped such benefits from the programme. However, the price of progress is hinted at in a closing page that shows that the culturally static Empire practices segregationism; the black female pilot that flew Dashwood to one of the space stations for questioning is shown to be staying in the "Non-White Women Staff" quarters.

In a shrine south of Granseal Castle, a thief named Slade unwittingly breaks the power of a magic seal by stealing the jewels of Light and Darkness; this unseals the demon king Zeon trapped therein. The following day, King Granseal falls sick when he is attacked by an unknown creature. Sir Astral, the court's adviser, along with his apprentices, Bowie the squire, Sarah the healer and Chester the knight, investigate these events at the castle. They find that the door to the Tower of Ancients has been unlocked and stands open.

Greeting their arrival in the tower are devils named "Gizmos" springing forth to attack, though their ultimate intentions are unknown. Upon their defeat, the Gizmo that appears to be the leader flees. It is discovered thereafter to have possessed King Granseal. Sir Astral and the nascent Shining Force visit the king, finding him possessed. Sir Astral exorcises the demon, which promptly flees. The Minister, in place of King Granseal who is looking over a fainted Astral, then orders the slaying of the Gizmo by a platoon of Granseal's soldiers. The Gizmo subsequently possesses the king of the neighboring kingdom of Galam. Bowie and his friends are captured by the Galam military: while in their dungeon, they meet the thief, Slade. When the party breaks out, Slade helps Bowie retrieve the Jewel of Light and accompanies his party back to Granseal, which has been invaded by Galam forces. They find the possessed King Galam inside the Ancient Tower, who has taken Princess Elis as a hostage. In the ensuing battle, Bowie wrests the Jewel of Darkness from him, but he is unable to rescue Elis, and the ground around the Ancient Tower collapses.

The people of Granseal are forced to resettle on the continent of Parmecia. It is here that the true nature of the threat is revealed, so Bowie and friends must now travel across Parmecia to gather allies, solve the riddle of the Jewels, obtain the Force Sword, and seal away Zeon once more.

Springfield Elementary School teacher Edna Krabappel, feeling increasingly lonely and isolated due to the lack of a male presence in her life, places a personal ad in the newspaper. Meanwhile, a yo-yo craze sweeps the school after a performance group demonstrates the potential of the toy. When Bart breaks the class fish tank with his yo-yo, Edna gives him detention for a month. During a session where Edna is not present, Bart rummages through her desk to retrieve his yo-yo and discovers her personal ad, ultimately deciding to respond to it as a prank.

Bart creates an adult male alter ego named Woodrow after seeing former President Woodrow Wilson's portrait on the classroom wall, and sends Edna a romantic letter using Woodrow's alias. Edna is immediately fascinated with Woodrow and replies to the letter, and Bart sends her a picture of ice hockey star Gordie Howe as Woodrow. Using dialogue from old romance films as well as Homer's old love letters to Marge, Bart tells Edna what she wants to hear, increasing her romantic interest in Woodrow. When Edna asks to meet Woodrow for dinner so they can finally meet, Bart, intending to end the prank, responds by asking her to meet with him at the Gilded Truffle restaurant. Unwilling to keep the date, Bart goes to a cinema to see a movie, seeing Edna in the restaurant on the way there. When the film ends, Bart returns to the restaurant and feels regretful when he sees Edna crying at her table.

Bart feels worse after being unable to console Edna. Not knowing what to do, he finally tells his family about his prank letters; Homer suggests telling Edna the truth, but Marge demurs, fearing it would humiliate Edna. Lisa suggests "Woodrow" write her a goodbye letter, and the family agrees to do so. Together, they collaborate on a romantic letter for Edna, with "Woodrow" announcing that he must leave but will never forget Edna. Edna feels better after reading it and invites Bart to spend his last day of detention outside the classroom.

In the subplot, Marge notices that Santa's Little Helper needs a new dog house. Homer tries to save money by building one himself, but his attempts fail and he curses loudly enough for Todd Flanders to overhear. When Todd says "damn" and "hell no" at dinner, Ned finds he learned those curse words from Homer. Ned complains to Homer, who criticizes his mustache. Ned promises to shave it off if Homer stops swearing. Marge suggests he put twenty-five cents for each curse in a swear jar (as her father used the same technique to cure his swearing problem as well). Homer's constant swearing eventually puts enough money in the jar to buy a dog house and a six-pack of beer.

The year is 2010, and as the result of a previous spill at a chemical factory in London, England, the insects in the surrounding area have mutated. Several different types of these mutated insects gather together becoming the evil "Herd", who are bent on taking over the garden, and eventually the whole world. The game casts the player as a Buck Bumble, a volunteer bumblebee that gets implanted with cyborg technology. He is part of an organization known as "The Resistance", which is trying to stop the evil Herd Army. Buck's missions send him on multiple tasks, such as defending the resistance base, attacking Herd supply lines while traveling through sewers, and eventually fighting the Herd's mantis-like Queen.

The film centers on the family life of Bill Gluckman, a wealthy Jewish senator from Malibu, California who is running for the office of governor of California. His son Brad is a wannabe "Eminem", preferring to go by the nickname "B-Rad" despite leading a rich, sheltered life. As a result, members of Mr. Gluckman's political campaign become concerned that Brad's idiotic, outlandish behavior will ruin his father's chances at being elected.

The campaign team members hire two actors, Sean and PJ, who don't know any more about inner-city life than B-Rad, to act as gang members. They kidnap him, and take him to South Los Angeles, where PJ's cousin Shondra lives, and they hope B-Rad will be "scared white" after witnessing what inner city life is really like. The trio engages in mildly dangerous activities such as petty theft in order to convince B-Rad that he should return home.

The three involuntarily become mixed up between rival gangs, unfortunately crossing paths with the leader of one of the gangs, Tec, after bumping into him at a club, and who also happens to be Shondra’s ex. In the meantime, B-Rad develops feelings for Shondra, who at first is unimpressed and annoyed, but slowly begins to enjoy B-Rad's company, and eventually admire him for who he truly is.

B-Rad comes to find out that the entire excursion to head to South Central was a ploy in order for him to be scared of his mannerisms, and soon takes matters into his own hands, turning the tables on his would-be captors. His recklessness leads to the trio becoming actually kidnapped by Tec and his crew, unbeknownst to B-Rad, who just assumes this is part of the act. Tec soon becomes impressed at intimidation tactics portrayed by B-Rad as a result of playing ''Grand Theft Auto''. Unfortunately, during a house party, B-Rad almost gets shot by Tec for a misunderstanding with Shondra (he accidentally shot himself in the foot, yet it barely grazed him due to his poor aim). When Bill Gluckman realizes that his son is in actual danger, he rushes over, and uses his trademark negotiating skills in order to ease the situation. In doing so, he realizes that he should just accept B-Rad for who he is, and decides that he will support his son unconditionally. The two reconcile, and when the family returns to Malibu, the film closes with Bill and B-Rad celebrating a Gluckman win in the governors' race.

Lobo, wolfdog leader of a wolf pack, has a price on his head. One day suffering from a thorn in his paw, he is found by Dave Weston, a borax prospector and befriended. The animal returns love and loyalty. Later Lobo saves Dave from attacks of scheming villain William 'Borax' Horton, who has designs on Dave's claim. Once again the villain attacks the young prospector and leaves him for dead on the site of the claim. Lobo arrives and Dave sends him with a message to town for help. In the meantime a posse is hunting Lobo, but he manages to escape them and at the same time, decoy them to Dave. There, they learn that Lobo is man's best friend.

''Daughters of the Dust'' is set in 1902 among the members of the Peazant family, Gullah islanders who live at Ibo Landing on Dataw Island (St. Simons Island), off the Georgia coast.(2012). [http://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/082561-daughters-of-the-dust/ ''Daughters of the Dust'' Synopsis – Archive of Films], Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic. Retrieved February 28, 2017. Their ancestors were brought there as enslaved people centuries ago, and the islanders developed a language—known as Gullah or Sea Island Creole English—and culture that was creolized from West Africans of Ibo, Yoruba, Mende, and Twi origin, along with some influence from the Bakongo of central Africa as well the cultures and languages of the British Isles, with the common variety of English being the superstratum in this case Developed in their relative isolation of large plantations on the islands, the enslaved peoples' unique culture and language have endured over time. Their dialogue is in Gullah creole.

Narrated by the Unborn Child, the future daughter of Eli and Eula, whose voice is influenced by accounts of her ancestors, the film presents poetic visual images and circular narrative structures to represent the past, present and future for the Gullah, the majority of whom are about to embark for the mainland and a more modern, "civilized" way of life. The old ways and African ancestral history are represented by community matriarch Nana Peazant, who practices African spiritual rituals. Nana tells her family as she bids them to remember and honour their ancestors as they embark on their new journey, "We are two people in one body. The last of the old and the first of the new."

Contrasting cousins, Viola, a devout Christian, and Yellow Mary, a free spirit who has brought her lover, Trula, from the city, arrive at the island by boat from their homes on the mainland for a last dinner with their family. Yellow Mary plans to leave for Nova Scotia after her visit. Mr. Snead, a mainland photographer, accompanies Viola and takes portraits of the islanders before they leave their way of life forever. Intertwined with these narratives is the marital rift between Eli and his wife Eula, who is about to give birth after being raped by a white man on the mainland. Eli struggles with the fact that the unborn child may not be his and his mother's pressure for him to maintain his connection to his ancestors. The unborn child of Eli and Eula narrates the film tracing the legacy before her birth.

Several other family members' stories unfold between these narratives. They include Haagar, a cousin who finds the old spiritual beliefs and provincialism of the island "backwards," and is impatient to leave for a more modern society with its educational and economic opportunities. Her daughter Iona longs to be with her secret lover St. Julien Lastchild, a Cherokee Native American, a resident of the island. Lastchild presents Iona with a letter confessing his devotion the day of Iona's departure asking her to stay with him.

While the women prepare a traditional meal for the feast, which includes okra, yams and shellfish prepared at the beach, the men gather nearby in groups to talk and play games. The children and teenagers play games, practice religious rites on the beach, and have a Bible-study session with Viola. Yellow Mary and Eula bond as survivors of rape. Bilal Muhammad, a cousin that is believed to be Ibo but hails from the French West Indies, leads a Muslim prayer. Nana evokes the spirits of the family's ancestors who worked on the island's indigo plantations. Nana combines the power of their ancestors with Viola's Bible as a symbol of the old and the new. Eula and Eli reveal the history and folklore of the slave uprising and mass suicide at Ibo Landing. The Peazant family members make their final decisions to leave the island for a new beginning, or stay behind and maintain their way of life. Yellow Mary chooses to stay on the island along with Eli and Eula. In tears, Iona jumps off of a departing boat as Lastchild comes for her on horseback. Haagar is held back by another family member while calling for her daughter. Remaining family members watch as most of the Peazants finally depart.

Ka Fu (Jaycee Chan) and Natalie (Nam) (Fiona Sit), are from two different family backgrounds. Ka Fu's father (played by Eric Tsang) is a mini-bus driver and his mother (played by Teresa Mo) is a restaurant hostess. Natalie is from a very affluent family and her parents (played by Candice Yu and Anthony Wong) are lawyers. In the beginning, Ka Fu and his two close friends, Bing and Sai wait to see Natalie outside her school every single day until she invited them to her school's Christmas party despite knowing that visitors were forbidden to go. They were eventually discovered by the school principals. While Bing and Sai successfully escaped, Ka Fu was caught but they decided to forgive him. Ka Fu took Natalie home, where they celebrated her 16th birthday, and Ka Fu spent the night there.

Another contrast is that Ka Fu has a loving relationship with his parents, but Natalie's relationship with her parents is distant as they are often away on business trips. Eventually, Ka Fu and Natalie gotten close with each other as they got to know each other more. It is exactly this window of opportunity of Natalie's parents' absence that causes the two to have a weak moment in their budding love for each other, which results in Natalie getting pregnant during a camp out for New Year's Eve. Natalie eventually found out herself when her pregnancy test came back positive.

Originally, they thought about getting an abortion in order to take care of the problem after getting an advice from Sai but upon seeing the operation room, Natalie decided not to and ran out in horror. Despite her anxiety of this issue, she decides to go through with the pregnancy in complete support from Ka Fu, along with Bing and Sai. However, Natalie, being underage and about two years younger than Ka Fu, causes her parents, especially her father, to fly into a rage and a lawsuit gets under way for Ka Fu and his parents. Ka Fu's parents also scold him and express that they do not want him to make the same mistakes they did. Upon knowing her pregnancy, Natalie's father's plan was for her to get an abortion, and send her to the United States to continue with her education, which Natalie aggressively objected, and she scolded her father for always making decisions for her. Her father gets angry and canceled her bank account, internet services and her cell phone. He ordered his wife to be at home and watch over her 24/7.

Learning of the impending legal action, and also because of the plan on aborting the baby, Ka Fu and Natalie, with the help of Bing and Sai, run away and make out a living for themselves in the countryside, where Sai used to live. Ka Fu worked in various jobs such as construction to make money to support themselves while Natalie stays home. Because of Natalie's father, Ka Fu made the headlines, depicting him as a rapist that kidnapped Natalie. Therefore, making Ka Fu a wanted person. The young lovers are eventually discovered by Ka Fu's parents after they forced Bing and Sai to tell them. When Natalie goes into early labor, they are forced to return to the city, where she gives birth to a baby boy (prematurely, although the baby survives) and Ka Fu is arrested. During the court scene, the relationships of the parents and their son and daughter are resolved as Natalie's father decided to let it go for the sake of the baby. During court, he revealed that he gave false information to the police about Natalie being underage due to his anger and prejudice towards Ka Fu. He eventually realized that even though Ka Fu got his daughter pregnant, he did try to make up his responsibility as he truly loves Natalie so he asked the judge to release him. Ka Fu was also sentenced to 3 months in a rehabilitation center for his actions. Upon his release, he is greeted by Natalie and their child.

Yorick's journey starts in Calais, where he meets a monk who begs for donations to his convent. Yorick initially refuses to give him anything, but later regrets his decision. He and the monk exchange their snuff-boxes. He buys a chaise to continue his journey. The next town he visits is Montreuil, where he hires a servant to accompany him on his journey, a young man named La Fleur.

During his stay in Paris, Yorick is informed that the police inquired for his passport at his hotel. Without a passport at a time when England is at war with France (Sterne travelled to Paris in January 1762, before the Seven Years' War ended), he risks imprisonment in the Bastille. Yorick decides to travel to Versailles, where he visits the Count de B**** to acquire a passport. When Yorick notices the count reads ''Hamlet'', he points with his finger at Yorick's name, mentioning that he is Yorick. The count mistakes him for the king's jester and quickly procures him a passport. Yorick fails in his attempt to correct the count, and remains satisfied with receiving his passport so quickly.

Yorick returns to Paris, and continues his voyage to Italy after staying in Paris for a few more days. Along the way he decides to visit Maria—who was introduced in Sterne's previous novel, ''Tristram Shandy''—in Moulins. Maria's mother tells Yorick that Maria has been struck with grief since her husband died. Yorick consoles Maria, and then leaves.

After having passed Lyon during his journey, Yorick spends the night in a roadside inn. Because there is only one bedroom, he is forced to share the room with a lady and her chamber-maid ("fille de chambre"). When Yorick can't sleep and accidentally breaks his promise to remain silent during the night, an altercation with the lady ensues. During the confusion, Yorick accidentally grabs hold of something belonging to the chamber-maid. The last line is: "when I stretch'd out my hand I caught hold of the fille de chambre's...End of vol II". The sentence is open to interpretation. You can say the last word is omitted, or that he stretched out ''his'' hand, and caught ''hers'' (this would be grammatically correct). Another interpretation is to incorporate 'End of Vol. II' into the sentence, so that he grabs the Fille de Chambre's 'End'.

''The Dancers at the End of Time''

''An Alien Heat''

The title of this volume comes from the poem "Hothouse Flowers" by Theodore Wratislaw.

An alien named Yusharisp comes to Earth to warn its remaining inhabitants that the universe is coming to an end; his own planet has already disappeared, and the Earth is sure to follow. Earth's inhabitants are unfazed as they believe him to be yet another doomsayer; the End of the Earth has been predicted for centuries. Jherek is far more interested in Mrs Amelia Underwood, a time traveller from Victorian England, as he is fascinated by the Victorian era. Jherek resolves to fall in love with her. Mrs Underwood, at first repulsed by the debauchery of the End of Time, finally comes to believe that Jherek is sincere in his affections and starts teaching him about moral values. She falls in love with him at last; as they are about to embrace, however, she is returned to her own time. Jherek, heartbroken, decides to rescue her, and travels to 19th-century London, using the time machine from Moorcock's ''Behold the Man''.

Jherek is inexperienced to the point of naiveté about the Victorian Era, despite his interest in it, and a (temporally) local thief, Snoozer Vine, tricks him into becoming an accomplice to Snoozer's latest scam. Not surprisingly, Jherek proves to be a poor criminal, and is quickly arrested, jailed and sent to trial. To his surprise, the judge appears to be none other than his friend, Lord Jagged, but claims to be one Jagger. Jherek is sentenced to death, as the case against him is unequivocal, but he cannot understand why all the people around him are so upset; inhabitants of the End of Time are immortal, and for them death is merely transitory. Jherek is hanged, only to wake up among his friends at the End of Time, who tell him that to them, he has only been gone for a second.

''The Hollow Lands''

The title of this volume comes from the poem "The Last Word" by Ernest Dowson.

Reunited at the end of Time, Jherek and the other inhabitants of the End of Time have returned to their preferred amusements of parties and games. They are interrupted by a ship of alien musician/pirates, the Lat. Hunted by the Lat, Jherek stumbles into a subterranean school built centuries ago to protect the last children of that era from the tyrant director Pecking Pa the Eighth (a reference to Sam Peckinpah). The time in the school is constantly recycled by a robot nanny so old she has started to break down, and as a result is recycling the same week repeatedly. The teacher-robot mistakes Jherek for one of her children as she has forgotten that there is anything outside her school, and keeps him. When she realises her mistake, she agrees to send him back to 1896; her ability to recycle time means that she can function as a time machine.

Returned to the 19th century, Jherek heads for Bromley, where Mrs Amelia Underwood lives. On the way, Jherek meets H.G. Wells and explains that he is a time traveller, but is met only with Wells's ironic disbelief. Jherek is finally reunited with Mrs Underwood but also forced to confront her husband Mr Underwood. Mr. Underwood is so suspicious of their story that a reluctant Mrs Underwood runs away with Jherek. Chased by the police, the two are rescued by a journalist, Mr Jackson who, like Judge Jagger, bears a strong resemblance to Lord Jagged.

The police catch up with the fleeing couple, but are interrupted in their attempted arrest by the appearance of the Lat, the Iron Orchid and a number of other residents of the End of Time. Chaos ensues as the police and the Lat start fighting, and the fabric of time itself begins disintegrating. The time travellers start vanishing, and Jackson, who finally reveals himself to be Lord Jagged (also Judge Jagger), takes Jherek and Mrs Underwood to a time machine that will take them to the End of Time. The machine appears to malfunction; instead of delivering them to the End of Time, it maroons them in what appears to be the Lower Devonian period.

''The End of All Songs''

The title of this volume comes from the poem "Dregs" by Ernest Dowson.

Jherek and Mrs Amelia Underwood, after spending some time alone in the Devonian, meet Una Persson and Captain Oswald Bastable, who introduce themselves as members of the Guild of Temporal Adventurers. They explain the notion of the multiverse as the combination of all simultaneously existing realities before sending Jherek and Amelia back to the End of Time. There, Jherek finds all his friends who had vanished from 1896 alive and well, except for Lord Jagged who has yet to return. Amelia is now more tolerant towards the people of the End of Time, though still occasionally revolted by their lack of morals. She and Jherek resume the life they led in ''An Alien Heat'', which is interrupted by the sudden arrival of a shell shocked, crazed Mr Underwood, Inspector Springer and a dozen policemen, and the Lat.

Jherek, the Duke of Queens, the policemen, Amelia and Mr Underwood seek refuge from the Lat in one of the Lost Cities, which hold the energy used by the people of the End of Time to alter matter through their rings, and are surprised to find it crumbling, and the sun gone. They are joined by Yusharisp and the end-of-time resident Lord Mongrove, a manic-depressive giant who explains that the apocalypse has begun, and that they are the sole survivors. The group realises with horror that their energy rings are no longer working. In light of their impending doom, Amelia finally admits that her love for Jherek is more important to her than morals or convention.

The Iron Orchid and Lord Jagged, by now assumed to be dead, appear. Lord Jagged reveals himself to be Jherek's father, and a time traveller from the 21st century. After learning of the Earth's impending destruction, he sought to preserve humanity by sending a "new Adam and Eve" to the beginning of time, thus creating a loop that would prevent humanity from spending thousands of years relearning the basics of civilisation. For genetic reasons, he chose Jherek and Amelia and orchestrated their meeting. Amelia and Jherek's marooning in the Devonian was not part of the plan; they did not, in fact, travel back in time, but too far into the future, past the end of the world in which they were currently residing. Upon realising this, Jagged understood that time is circular, not linear as was previously assumed, and devised a new plan. While his friends are devastated, he shows unwavering optimism and surprises everyone by creating a new sun with his energy ring. He proceeds to explain that energy can be drawn from any existing reality within the multiverse; this, combined with the technology that "recycled" time in the underground school, can be used to sustain the Earth forever.

Now reassured that the Earth is safe in a time loop and provided with a new source of energy, the End of Timers resurrect their friends who died in the aborted apocalypse, and rebuild their world. Amelia, now comfortable at the End of Time, becomes popular. During a visit to Mr Underwood in the Lost City, she is faced with his conviction that she is damned when she tells him of her belief that God is dead. While she struggles with her conscience and her newfound atheism, her husband travels back to the 19th century and she decides to marry Jherek. When Lord Jagged offers to send both her and Jherek into the future, out of the time loop and after the end of the world to start a new civilisation, they accept.

''Legends from the End of Time''

'''Pale Roses''' begins with the destruction of the rainbow part of Werther de Goethe's creation ''Rain'' by the Everlasting Concubine, Mistress Christia, and Werther's despair. After a short interlude, Werther discovers, by the use of a parachute that closely resembles a Hot air balloon, a child (Catherine Lily Marguerite Natasha Dolores Beatrice Machineshop-Seven Flambeau Gratitude) who is the fourteen-year-old daughter of two time travellers, and deigns to take on the role of her now deceased parents.

Following a masquerade with the theme of Childhood, Werther is passionately overcome and engages in sexual intercourse with Catherine. After the event, disgusted by what he perceives to be the enormity of his acts, he is even more disgusted in Catherine for having enjoyed what she describes as ''le petit mal''. The story climaxes with Werther's suicide by jumping from his tower unaided by his parachute and his subsequent resurrection.

It is then revealed that Catherine is really Mistress Christia in disguise, the series of events being an attempt to reconcile after her having destroyed his rainbow.

'''White Stars''': after discovering that he had inadvertently destroyed one of Lord Shark the Unknown's experiments with lichen, the Duke of Queens offers to duel with him to rid himself of his guilt.

In '''Ancient Shadows''', a time traveller, Dafnish Armatuce, and her son, Snuffles, arrive at the End of Time, and become involved with Miss Mavis Ming.

Paperback reprint of ''The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming''.

''The Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming''

Chronicling the transformation of Miss Mavis Ming and the parts played by Doctor Volospion, his fellow residents at the End of Time, and Mr Emmanuel Bloom, also known as The Fireclown. The ending originally involved a scene where the main character, Mavis Ming, was whipped into submission by Bloom. This was later rewritten by the author. The novel has also been published, with differences, under the titles ''A Messiah at the End of Time'' and ''Constant Fire''.

Elric at the End of Time

"Elric at the End of Time" is one of two Elric short stories included in the eponymous collection, ''Elric at the End of Time''. Its characters include Elric, Una Persson, and Lord Jagged.

Trepanation is the procedure of drilling holes in a person's head, supposedly increasing the circulation of blood and helping to improve the pressure inside one's skull, bringing out a person's sixth sense and causing them to gain superhuman powers such as ESP, being able to see ghosts, and controlling objects remotely with one's mind. This is speculative fiction based on the concept of trepanation.

Susumu Nakoshi is a 34-year-old homeless man living out of his car. For two weeks, he has declined his fellow homeless men's invitations to set up a tent with them, preferring to sleep in his car. However, one day, he is accosted by a strange-looking man searching for participants to subject themselves to trepanation. Nakoshi tells the man to leave, and discards the flier he'd placed on his windshield. However, when his car is towed, he agrees to let medical student Manabu Itoh drill a hole in his skull in exchange for 700,000 yen. Itoh claims to be interested in trepanation for the sake of science; he is interested in humans, fascinated with ESP and the sixth sense, and wants to disprove the existence of the occult. Itoh's father owns a lab facility, as his father is a rich hospital director. Itoh performs the trepanation surgery on Nakoshi and does a variety of ESP tests. When Nakoshi reveals that he sees distorted humans when using only the left side of his body, Itoh researches and discovers that Nakoshi can see homunculi.

Itoh explains psychoanalytic theory to Nakoshi after the yakuza incident.

The tale tells of a merchant whose wife enjoys revelry and socializing, on which she spends money. A young monk, who is close friends with the merchant, comes to stay with them. After confessing that she does not love her husband, the wife asks the monk for one hundred franks to pay her debts. The monk, without her knowledge, borrows the money from the merchant to give to the wife, at which point she agrees with the monk:

:"That for thise hundred frankes he sholde al nyght :Have hire in his armes bolt upright;" (lines 315–316)

The monk volunteers the information that he has returned the loan to the wife a few days after he had borrowed it, and then leaves town. When the merchant asks his wife about the money, she says it has been spent on clothing and blames the monk saying that she thought the money was in payment for him being such a long house guest. Instead of giving her husband the money back she says she will repay the debt in bed. As the wife is tallying her debt in bed the story ends on a bawdy pun that all should "tally" the rest of their lives.

Samson Shillitoe (Sean Connery), a poet, lives in Greenwich Village area of New York City with Rhoda (Joanne Woodward), a waitress who stands by him through all his troubles.

When Samson cannot find the inspiration to finish his latest poem, he becomes belligerent and depressed. Samson is continually pursued by a debt collector after his late alimony payments to a previous wife; if Samson doesn't pay he will be arrested. Samson eventually assaults a police detective who accompanies the debt collector.

Samson has other troubles when he loses his job as an office cleaner when he has sex with a secretary (Sue Ane Langdon) whilst his carpet cleaning machinery fills the office with soap suds. However, Samson does earn a $200 fee for doing a recital of his poetry to a woman's group that ends in disaster.

On Samson's behalf, but unknown to him, Rhoda seeks the help of psychiatrist Dr. West (Patrick O'Neal), who claims to be able to cure writer's block.

Rhoda gives Dr. West the $200 she collected for Samson's lecture to treat Samson for what she fears will become suicidal depression if he can't finish his poem. Dr. West reluctantly agrees to see him, and when Samson confronts the Doctor about the return of his money, West is fascinated by Shillitoe and persuades him to become a patient. In order for Samson to be away from the chaos of his life in the city that he might finish his poem, Dr. West arranges a stay for him in a sanitarium upstate.

Another doctor at the sanitarium, Dr. Menken (Clive Revill) is also interested in Samson, but for the purpose of experimenting on him with a new surgical technique to quell his violent temper. He persuades Rhoda to agree to the surgery. Dr. West and two other colleagues vehemently oppose such a procedure, as it is too close to a lobotomy to be safe.

Dr. West's wife, Lydia (Jean Seberg), is frustrated with their marriage. He is a popular TV guest for his pop psychiatric methods and views, and she sees very little of him. Eventually she runs into Samson at the sanitorium. Samson does not know she is married to Dr West but recalls her when she walked out of his women's club lecture. In his usual manner Samson immediately seduces her and the two have sex in a therapeutic bath. Dr. West, looking for Samson, secretly sees them in the tub.

When it comes time for the clinic senior staff to vote on allowing the surgical technique to be performed on Samson, Dr. West, having seen Samson with his wife, changes his vote, enabling Dr. Menken to go ahead. Lydia finds out about the surgery and rushes to stop it, but arrives just after it has been completed.

When Samson awakes from the surgery, at first his voice is so low and quiet he cannot be understood. As Dr. Menken leans in to listen, Samson throws a punch that lands the doctor on the floor. The operation has had no effect, and Samson returns to New York.

Rhoda quickly learns of his arrival, and rushes to rejoin him. Samson has finally been served with his subpoena, so he must pay his ex-wife or go to jail. Rhoda prevents him from pummeling the civil servant, until Lydia appears and pays him the amount owed.

Lydia informs Samson she is leaving Dr. West and hints that she would like to be with her new lover, Samson. Rhoda protests, as Samson invites her to come live with them both. Lydia, disgusted by the idea, becomes hysterical and rushes out, presumably never to speak to Samson again. Rhoda pleads with Samson as he goes charging off down the street, before informing him that she is pregnant. He accidentally punches her and the movie ends with him fighting off an angry mob of indignant spectators.

Three girls—Akari, Yuki, and Nozomi—meet each other at the concert of their idol, Reika. Each speaks to one another briefly, then goes their separate ways. They all love to sing, and when they each find admission forms for a music school overseen by Reika's manager, they do not hesitate to sign up. Reika's manager, Akiba Kisaragi, meanwhile, has decided to create a special class, the S Class, within the school for any singers who catch her eye.

Akari and Nozomi have no trouble signing up, and once there are nearly immediately accepted into the S Class, along with Jun Morimura. Akari and Nozomi recognize each other quickly and soon become close friends, but Jun keeps an aloof and superior attitude and students who were not selected for the S Class soon grow jealous. Yuki's hard-earned entrance money is stolen, and she joins a band of street musicians as a vocalist, soon becoming popular on the streets and online.

Sora, Umi and Ao are three school-aged girls who will tackle any job: delivering lunches, to doing your homework and cleaning smokestacks, in order to amass enough money to buy a nearby island and make their own country. However, they have encountered their biggest challenge yet: to convince a boy, Rikku, to go back to school when they themselves do not go.

Act I

On a cold winter's night, an old beggar woman comes to a young spoiled prince's castle, offering him a single rose in return for shelter. But the prince turns her away solely for her appearance. The woman warns him not to be fooled by appearances, as true beauty lies within, only to be rejected again. She then transforms into a beautiful enchantress and turns the prince into a hideous Beast and his servants into various household objects. She gives him the rose to use as an hour-glass. The only way he can break the spell is to learn to love another and earn her love in return before the last petal falls ("Prologue").

Ten years later, a beautiful young girl named Belle makes her way into town one morning to get a book from the local bookseller. On the way, she expresses her wish to live in a world like her books, full of adventure, while the townspeople note her unparalleled beauty but find her love of books odd ("Belle"). Belle has also attracted the attention of Gaston (the local hunter and town hero), who admires her only for her beauty.

Belle, however, is not oblivious to her peers' views of her. She voices her concerns about it to her eccentric father and inventor, Maurice, who assures her that she is anything but strange ("No Matter What"). The two then put the finishing touches on his invention, and Maurice heads off to an invention fair donning a scarf knitted for him by Belle ("No Matter What (Reprise)") but becomes lost in the woods and attacked by a pack of wolves. After surviving a wolf attack, he enters the Beast's castle. He meets the servants, including Lumière, a maître d' turned into a candelabra, Cogsworth, the head of household turned into a clock, Babette, a maid turned into a feather duster, Mrs. Potts, the head of the kitchen turned into a teapot, and Chip, her son turned into a teacup. They welcome him, but the horrid Beast arrives and locks Maurice away in the dungeon for trespassing.

Back in town, Gaston proposes to Belle, which she politely rejects ("Me"). Appalled by Gaston's forwardness, Belle once again voices her need for a life outside this provincial life ("Belle (Reprise)"). Gaston's sidekick, LeFou, returns from the woods wearing the scarf Belle knitted for Maurice. Belle realizes her father is in danger and heads into the woods to look for him. She ends up at the castle, where she finds her father locked away in a dungeon. She makes a deal with the Beast, Maurice goes free, but she remains instead. They agree, and Maurice is sent back to town without being allowed to say goodbye. Belle is given a guest room and ordered by the Beast to join him for dinner. She mourns her situation ("Home"), but Mrs. Potts and Madame de la Grande Bouche, an operatic wardrobe, attempt to cheer her up ("Home (Reprise)").

Back in town, at the local tavern, Gaston sulks at his loss of a bride. LeFou and the patrons attempt to cheer him up ("Gaston"). When Maurice rushes in, claiming a Beast has Belle locked away, they laugh at him but Gaston formulates a sinister plan ("Gaston (Reprise)"). Back at the castle, the Beast grows impatient as Belle has yet to join him for dinner. Cogsworth informs him she refuses to come. After a shouting match between Belle and the Beast (which ends in a victory for Belle), he tells her if she cannot eat with him, then she will not eat at all. He sulks and notes his fate in his quarters should the spell not break ("How Long Must This Go On?"). Eventually, Belle does become hungry and ventures into the kitchen where the servants offer her dinner despite their master's orders. They treat her to an amazing cabaret show ("Be Our Guest").

After dinner, Belle gets a tour of the castle courtesy of Cogsworth and Lumière. Her curiosity leads her to enter the West Wing, a place the Beast told her was forbidden. Mesmerized by a mysterious rose floating in a bell jar, she reaches out to touch it, but before she can, the Beast stops her and orders her to get out, accidentally tearing a piece of her sleeve in the process. Fearing for her life, Belle flees from the castle. Realizing his deadly mistake, the Beast knows he will be a monster forever if he cannot learn to love her ("If I Can't Love Her").

Act II

In the woods, Belle is attacked by wolves and is only rescued when the Beast comes to her aid, but he is injured during the fight and collapses ("Entr'acte/Wolf Chase"). Instead of taking the chance to run home, Belle helps him back to the castle. She cleans his injuries, and after a brief argument about whose fault this is, the Beast thanks her for her kindness, and thus, their friendship is born. Wanting to give her a thank-you gift, the Beast gives Belle his huge library, which excites her. She notes a change in the Beast's personality as the servants note a change in Belle and the Beast's relationship ("Something There"). They express their hope of being human once more ("Human Again") while Belle asks the Beast to accompany her to dinner that night. Back in the village, Gaston and LeFou meet with the local insane asylum owner Monsieur D'Arque. They plan to lock Maurice away to blackmail Belle into marrying Gaston ("Maison des Lunes").

The Beast and Belle attend a lovely dinner and personal ball, where they dance together in the ballroom ("Beauty and the Beast"). The Beast, who plans to tell Belle he loves her, asks Belle if she is happy here, to which she responds positively but notes that she misses her father. He offers her his Magic Mirror to view him. She sees that Maurice is sick and lost in the woods and fears for his life. But even though the Beast knows there are only a few hours left till the last petal falls from the rose, he allows Belle to leave to save her father; she departs after a tearful goodbye ("If I Can't Love Her (Reprise)").

Belle finds her father and brings him back to their house in the village. After she nurses him back to health, she explains the transformation she seems to have gone through while she was with the Beast ("A Change in Me"). A mob arrives, led by Gaston, to take Maurice to the asylum. Belle proves her father's sanity by showing the townspeople the Beast is real using the Magic Mirror but does not realize the error in her gesture. The townspeople immediately fear the Beast, but Belle insists that he is gentle and kind. Gaston catches her tone and recognizes the Beast as his rival for Belle's affections and organizes the mob to kill the Beast ("Mob Song"). To warn the Beast, Belle and Maurice attempt to beat the mob to the castle. However, they arrive too late, for Gaston and the mob had already reached the castle.

The servants keep the lynch mob at bay, but Gaston breaks through and finds the Beast in his tower. He engages in a fight with him, mercilessly beating and taunting him ("Battle"). The Beast has lost the will to live at Belle's departure. As Gaston moves in for the killing blow, Belle arrives. The Beast immediately turns on Gaston and is prepared to kill him, but spares his life after seeing the fear in his eyes. The Beast and Belle are reunited, but this reunion is cut short as Gaston fatally stabs the Beast in the back. This act of violence causes Gaston to lose his footing, and he falls to his death.

On the balcony, Belle assures the Beast he'll live, but they both know she is helpless to save him. She begs him not to leave her because she has found a home in his company ("End Duet"), but despite this, he dies; Belle sobs on his body and says she loves him just before the last rose petal falls. A transformation occurs ("Transformation"), and the Beast is alive and human once more. Though Belle does not recognize him at first, she looks into his eyes and sees the Beast within, and they kiss. The two of them sing of how their lives have changed because of love and they dance once more as the servants, now changed back to their human form, gathers in the ballroom ("Beauty and the Beast (Reprise)").

In 1215, the Court of King John of England is at the castle of Sir Ranulf Fitzwilliam to extort more taxes, and when the lord refuses to pay the King insults him. To defend his honour his son Hugh takes on the King's champion, Sir Gilles Estram, in a joust. The latter wins easily, though the joust is disturbed by the arrival of the TARDIS. The Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough are greeted as demons and welcomed by the King.

Having established the date, the Doctor concludes the King is not himself – in fact, he is not the King at all, as he is actually in London taking the Crusader’s Oath. Sir Geoffrey de Lacy, the cousin of Sir Ranulf, arrives at the castle and confirms he knows the King is in London. Sir Gilles is about to torture him as a liar during a royal banquet when the Doctor intervenes. It seems the King's champion is not who he claims to be, either: Sir Gilles sheds his disguise and reveals himself to be the Doctor's nemesis, the Master. He flees in his own TARDIS, which had been disguised as an iron maiden.

The King knights the Doctor as his new champion, and he is given run of the castle. After a series of mishaps, including the death of Sir Geoffrey at the Master's hands, the Doctor confronts the King and the Master and discovers the truth. The monarch is really Kamelion, a war weapon found by the Master on Xeriphas, which can be mentally controlled and used to adopt disguises and personas. Disguised as King John, the Master intends that Kamelion will behave so appallingly so as to provoke a rebellion and topple the real King from his throne, thus robbing the world of Magna Carta, the foundation of parliamentary democracy. It is a small plan on the Master's usual scale, but nevertheless particularly poisonous to the normal progress of Earth society.

The Doctor resolves the situation by testing the Master in a battle of wills for control over Kamelion. He takes control of the robot and steals it away in the TARDIS, thus foiling the Master's scheme. Kamelion reverts to its robot form and thanks the Doctor for his assistance and rescue. Kamelion asks to stay aboard the TARDIS, though Tegan seems unsure. When the Doctor suggests returning Tegan to Earth, Tegan however says she still wants to stay. The crew then head off for the Eye of Orion.

Firedrake is a young dragon who lives in a hidden valley in Scotland with other dragons. After realizing that humans intend to flood the valley and the dragons living there are no longer safe, Firedrake sets off with the guidance from the eldest member of his clan (Slatebeard) to avoid the "Golden One" and to find the Rim of Heaven, a legendary location that is a safe haven for all dragons.

Firedrake travels to the city with his friend Sorrel, a forest brownie, to find Gilbert Graytail, a rat who specializes in making maps. The duo meets Ben who provides Sorrel with human clothes so she may go in disguise to find Gilbert while Firedrake stays hidden. After finding Gilbert and providing payment, Gilbert hands over a map leading to the Himalayas, marking dangerous areas along the way. Only able to fly at night, Firedrake wastes no time wanting to leave. He and Sorrel also decide to bring Ben along with them. After Ben and Sorrel argue about turning East too soon or not, the three end up in a mountain range full of dwarves. Firedrake sleeps while the sun is up and the dwarves wait for him to wake up. While he rests however, one of the dwarves, Gravelbeard, runs to the castle in that same mountain range, revealing Nettlebrand, the Golden One, a fearsome dragon-like monster whose only purpose in life is to hunt, kill and eat dragons and his servant, Twigleg the Homunculus. After hearing of the trio, Nettlebrand decides to follow them, hoping to hunt down and kill the last of the dragons because he failed decades before.

Firedrake, Sorrel and Ben fly onward, but are soon swept off course by a storm, arriving on the shore of Egypt. Encountering a basilisk and a band of zealous archaeologists, the party eventually befriends a kindly scientist named Professor Greenbloom. Sorrel is initially suspicious but soon warms up to him. Professor Greenbloom gives Ben one of two freezing-cold metallic scales he has, which unknown to the humans, once belonged to Nettlebrand. Twigleg relays the news to Nettlebrand, who immediately makes his way to the dig site to find Professor Greenbloom and recover the scales. Meanwhile, the three searchers set out on the advice of the professor to seek the advice of a Djinn, whose thousand eyes can see everything. Ben succeeds in fulfilling the Djinn's arcane requirements with the question: "Where does the Rim of Heaven lie?" The answer to the question appears in two of the Djinn's thousand eyes; it is a path, marked by the Indus River, by a mountain range, and by a monastery. Beyond this monastery is the Rim of Heaven. In the monastery, Ben must break the moonlight on the stone dragon's head. The Djinn also gives them a prophecy: "When that day comes, twenty fingers will point the way to the Rim of Heaven, and silver will be worth more than gold."

Meanwhile, Nettlebrand tracks down Greenbloom, who managed to escape him. Twigleg is discovered but is allowed to stay due to his almost-perfect ability to understand and translate any language. He has grown to be very attached to Ben, and he begins relaying false information to his master, sending him into the middle of a desert where he got attacked by the sandmans, who the monster eventually escapes from. While flying over the ocean, a lunar eclipse occurs and Firedrake (who lives off of moonlight), cannot fly. He falls and lands on the back of an initially frightening but amiable sea serpent. She agrees to take the friends to Pakistan, where they will rendezvous with a Dracologist, Zubeida Ghalib. She alone knows a way to help Firedrake fly without moonlight. Along the way, the Serpent tells them (among other things) about Nettlebrand and his army of red-eyed Ravens. As the peaceful voyage atop Serpent-back continues, they are spotted by one of Nettlebrand's raven spies. Annoyed, Sorrel throws a stone which she has smeared her adhesive saliva. The stone sticks to the Raven's wing and sends him panicking to shore. In Pakistan, the friends enter a village where Zubeida the Dracologist is living and also find Professor Greenbloom. His wife and daughter, Guinevere, have joined him on account of the incident with Nettlebrand. Deeply worried, the two parties compare their findings, which all point to a single grim fact—Nettlebrand is hunting the Dragons who live in the Rim of Heaven, and expects Firedrake to find them for him.

Dr. Ghalib reveals a legend of a Dragon Rider who once lived in the village. Ben is his reincarnation, and his destiny is to save the silver dragons from a terrible enemy. No sooner have they heard the legend than two more of Nettlebrand's ravens descend on them. Sorrel attempts the saliva trick again, with one variation: a few sparks of Dragon-fire are added to the mix. The stones do not adhere, but the Ravens are indeed changed before the eyes of all, into a few crabs. This new strangeness on the part of Nettlebrand disturbs the searchers, ultimately inducing Twigleg to reveal his original intentions as Nettlebrand's spy. He also reveals Nettlebrand's origin—an alchemist created Nettlebrand as a dragon killing machine to obtain the Dragons' horns which he used in his experiments to create gold. Twigleg, and his eleven other Homunculus brothers, were made as Nettlebrand's caretakers. When the Silver Dragons went into hiding, Nettlebrand killed the alchemist and eventually ate all of Twigleg's brothers, then went hunting on his own.

Zubeida showed Firedrake not only the tomb of the original Dragon Rider, but also a species of flower which collects moonlight in the form of dewdrops on its leaves. Having drunk this "moon-dew", Firedrake is able to fly even if there's no moon at all. The two parties split up to lose Nettlebrand's pursuit in the mountains. After a hazardous encounter with a Roc, they are forced off course and must take refuge in a valley. Nettlebrand continues tailing a boat wherein are Professor Greenbloom and his family, knowing they will lead him to Firedrake, but is seen by Guinevere.

In the valley, help comes to Firedrake and company in the form of Lola Graytail, Gilbert's niece. Lola had been cartographing the country for her uncle and she guides them to the monastery. There, they are welcomed by the monks, who look on Firedrake as a bringer of good fortune. Also it is here that Ben "breaks the moonlight"--- actually a moonstone kept by the monks for this purpose. Ben shatters the moonstone and summons the aid of a four-armed brownie, named Burr-Burr-Chan. He agrees to guide Firedrake, Sorrel, Twigleg, and Ben to the Rim of Heaven. He warns, however, that Firedrake's kin have degenerated into earthbound cowards as a result of hiding from Nettlebrand. Whilst waiting for the moment of departure, the company discover Gravelbeard (who was threatened by Nettlebrand into becoming another spy) but fail to catch him. They fly on their way swiftly, with Nettlebrand in pursuit. To Twigleg's dismay, in the center of the Rim of Heaven is a great lake, a perfect gateway for Nettlebrand, who can travel instantaneously by water. To make sure that he is right, Lola takes Twigleg in her miniature airplane to investigate and distract Nettlebrand, while above the others seek the Dragons' cave. There, they meet with a she-Dragon, Maia. She is the only living dragon there, as the other twenty-two have since turned into stone through lack of moonlight.

Outside, Lola and Twigleg found Gravelbeard. In the struggle that follows, the Dwarf's hat (which functions as an altitude compensator), is taken by Twigleg. Promptly Gravelbeard is struck with mountain sickness, allowing himself to be taken a prisoner. Nettlebrand, who now knows their location, is coming. No one knows how they could ever stop him since he is twenty times as strong as one dragon as well as immune to other dragons' firepower. In disgust, Sorrel spits on the golden scale which the Professor gave to Ben. Inspired by his success with the Ravens, Firedrake breathes fire on it and reduces it to gold paint. Twigleg comes up with a plan. He pretends to be still loyal to Nettelbrand and frees Gravelbeard then sent him back to Nettlebrand. The Golden One, elated by upcoming success, orders the Dwarf to polish his armor. Unfortunately for Nettlebrand, the armor polish has been replaced with Brownie spits. When Nettlebrand enters the cave, he was at once dive-bombed by Firedrake, Maia, and Lola in her plane. At last, the Dragons came together and set Nettlebrand afire. The Brownie spits reacted at once, dissolving Nettlebrand's armor and destroying him. Nettlebrand melts to reveal nothing but a toad underneath. As the company stare in wonder at this transformation, Gravelbeard enters. He has seen the marvelous gemstones and rock formations in the cave, and wishes to enhance them with his own skill, revealing that doing so will bring the petrified dragons back to life. Within a few days, all the silver dragons are awakened again. Firedrake and Maia went flying with Sorrel and Burr-Burr-Chan to bring the other members of their species back home. Ben and Twigleg went to live with Professor Greenbloom and his family. Two months later, news reached the humans that Firedrake has convinced the silver dragons to come with him to the Rim of Heaven. Eager to see their friends again, Ben and Guinevere occupy their time with other investigations of "imaginary" creatures until they can visit the silver dragons again.

Nogreh is a young woman living in a war-torn Kabul with her father, sister-in-law and her sister-in-law's baby. covertly attending an all girls school against her conservative father's wishes. Nogreh is one of the few girls at the school who dreams of one day becoming president. While searching for water one day after school she comes across several truckloads of refugees returning from Pakistan and helps them resettle in the ruins she calls home. However, the number of refugees overwhelms the shelter where her family have been living and they are eventually forced out by several other families. They manage to find shelter in an abandoned airplane but this, too, is eventually overcrowded by refugees.

Nogreh meets a refugee among the ruins who is a poet. She asks him if he knows whether the president of Pakistan is a man or a woman and he, like everyone else, does not know. However, after befriending Nogreh and learning of her ambitions to be president, he helps procure political speeches and goes with her to a photographer to get photos of her that she can use to campaign.

Nogreh's father learns from one of the refugees that his son has died. Unwilling to tell his daughter-in-law, he moves the family further into the desert where his grandson dies of starvation and malnourishment.

In the desert they meet an old man who is waiting by his donkey, who is dying of hunger and thirst. The man had been trying to get to the city to speak on behalf of Osama Bin Laden to try to prevent him from being given to the Americans. Nogreh's father informs him he is too late and that the Americans have already invaded. After Nogreh's father buries his grandson the family continues on into the desert.

The setting of the story is the year 2097 AD, the place the city of '''Xenon'''. An ultimate cyber game, where players fight as biomech cyber robots, has been developed. However, there's something wrong: the game's cyberspace and the real world are linked, thus the damage done in the game's cyberspace creates ''real'' destruction in the city of Xenon. This all started when players heard a painful scream, saw a ghostly face, and a powerful scent of lemon overcame them. To solve this mystery, the creator of the game assembles a "Dream Team," which is the top three gamers in all of Xenon. The team is composed of rebellious and arrogant teens, who have to overcome their attitudes and fears to find the answers, answers to the mystery that is much bigger than just the game.

This animation parodies the MMORPG or '''M'''assively '''M'''ultiplayer '''O'''nline '''R'''ole-'''P'''laying '''G'''ame.

Will (Eric McCormack) feels neglected by his best friend, Grace (Debra Messing), as she spends a lot of time with her work. When Will calls Grace to confirm for a lunch date, Grace cannot go as she is too busy creating interior designs. Later, while doing his laundry, Will meets his new upstairs neighbor, Val (Molly Shannon). Immediately, the two take a liking to one another. The next day, Will visits Grace at work and introduces Val to her. After the two leave, Karen (Megan Mullally)—Grace's friend and socialite assistant—tells Grace that she did not like the way Will and Val acted towards one another. Grace, however, refuses to accept what Karen implies.

Meanwhile, after slapping a meter maid, Jack (Sean Hayes) is ordered to work 40 hours of community service, picking up garbage, and while he does this is forced to wear an orange jumpsuit. While doing community service he visits Karen at Grace Adler Designs. While there, Jack goes through a trash bag and sees Soon-Yi Allen's phone bill. Jack shows Karen the bill which quickly results in the two prank calling Soon-Yi.

At Will and Grace's apartment, Will and Val play ''Pyramid'' against Will's friends Ellen (Leigh-Allyn Baker) and Rob (Tom Gallop). Grace, who comes home, is shocked when her ''Pyramid'' record with Will—2 minutes and 14 seconds—is the same as Will and Val's. Before leaving, Grace is horrified that Will called her Val. While at her office, Grace learns that Will is sick. She goes home to attend to him and is surprised to see Val there. Grace tells her that since she is home that Val can go. Val, however, does not leave. This results in the two fighting. The fight, however, is broken by Will and tells them to work the situation out. Grace admits she felt jealous of Val as she believed Val had replaced her, due to her not being there for Will. Will, however, reassures Grace that no one can replace her as his best friend. As a result, Grace and Val make up.

Homer and Bart are watching the Warner Bros. Network on television when they are interrupted by Lisa playing her saxophone in her bedroom. Bart enters Lisa's bedroom and tries to grab the saxophone from her, but he inadvertently tosses it out the window. It lands in the middle of the street and is run over by traffic and stomped on by Nelson Muntz. In a period of mourning, Lisa reveals she cannot remember ever ''not'' having that saxophone, so Homer recounts the instrument's origins.

In a flashback to 1990, Bart goes to his first day of school, but things do not go so well for him and he becomes depressed. It is during discussions of Bart's future that the school psychologist realizes the young Lisa is very intelligent, telling Homer and Marge that they need to nurture her gifted spirit. They try to send Lisa to a private school but the tuition fee costs $6,000. Meanwhile, a terrible heatwave hits Springfield and Homer saves $200 to buy an air conditioner. Marge, however, asks Homer not to buy one until they figure out how to help Lisa. At the school, Bart talks with Milhouse and makes a farting sound, which Milhouse finds amusing. Encouraged, Bart entertains a group of children and sets out on his path to become the school prankster.

On his way to purchase a new air conditioner, Homer discovers that a musical instrument is a way to encourage a gifted child, and subsequently sacrifices his air conditioner money to buy Lisa her first saxophone. In the present, Marge mentions that there is some money in the air conditioner account, so Homer decides to buy another saxophone for Lisa.

Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) and colleague Ben (Idris Elba) investigate claims of miracles. On an expedition to the city of Concepción, Chile, they investigate claims that the corpse of a priest who has been dead for 40 years remains in pristine condition. Eventually they discover that toxic waste helped preserve the body.

In Louisiana, Katherine receives a call from a friend, Father Michael Costigan (Stephen Rea), who says that his photographs of her have developed burn marks that when assembled, form a sickle-like symbol "ㄜ", a possible warning from God, which she ignores. She meets Doug Blackwell (David Morrissey), a teacher from the nearby town of Haven, who asks Katherine to find out why Haven's river has turned red. The locals believe this is a biblical plague caused by a girl, Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb), who they believe killed her older brother in the river.

They travel to Haven, where Katherine sees the river is indeed entirely red. Katherine and Doug come across ruins of an old church, which Doug explains was destroyed one hundred years ago by several hurricanes, forcing the entire town to relocate. Meanwhile, Ben witnesses dead frogs seemingly fall from the sky. Doug invites them to spend the night at his house, where he reveals he comes from a long line of only children. That night, their dinner becomes rotted with flies instantly.

Katherine and Ben get a call asking them to come to a nearby farm, where they find that the cows are dying of an unknown disease. Ben begins to question whether the events could actually have biblical causes, but Katherine remains unconvinced. The owner of the farm tells them that the McConnell family have been visited by people who appear to be Satan worshippers, and that he saw evidence of a religious sacrifice. Later that evening, Katherine tells Doug why she left the church; five years ago, she was an ordained minister. While doing missionary work in the Sudan with her husband and daughter, the locals sacrificed her family, believing they caused a drought. Katherine then has intense dreams that she and Doug have sex.

Katherine goes to talk to Loren. Loren remains silent the whole time. Katherine notices that her leg is soaked in menstrual blood. Katherine helps clean her up and has a vision of Loren turning the river red. Loren's mother appears, asking if Katherine is there to kill Loren. Before she can explain, Loren attacks her and Katherine runs away. Ben and Katherine examine Loren's brother's body, finding the sickle-like symbol branded into his lower back. Test results prove the river contains human blood. The citizens, meanwhile, are shaving their children's heads, due to an outbreak of lice. Ben and Doug try to get the mayor to evacuate the town, but he and his staff are killed with boils.

A posse gathers to kill Loren to try to stop the plagues. Katherine calls Father Costigan, who explains that he has researched a satanic cult which sacrifices every second-born child once they reach puberty to create a "perfect child with the eyes of the Devil" to bring them power. He believes that Loren is the devil child. He also states that an angel, who cannot be harmed by the cult, will destroy them. He insists that Katherine is the angel, as the term is sometimes used to mean servants of God. At that moment, a supernatural force burns Costigan's room, killing him. Katherine returns to the McConnell house, where she finds the cult's sacrificial chamber. There, Loren's mother says that Loren is "his servant" now, then kills herself. Outside, Katherine finds locusts everywhere. As the townspeople arrive and prepare to kill Loren, the locusts attack and kill the posse. Doug runs away and falls into the river. Katherine locks herself in the house and Ben hides in a crypt, where he discovers skeletons and bodies of sacrificed children. He calls Katherine when Loren appears outside.

Katherine finds Ben dead. She confronts Loren as darkness falls and fiery hail and thunder rains from the sky. Katherine is about to kill Loren, when suddenly she says something that Katherine told her own daughter in Sudan. Katherine asks how she can tell what is real. Loren answers "faith", and shows her a vision of the truth. The cult, which actually encompasses the entire town and Doug, are shown trying to kill Loren since she has reached puberty. Loren escaped and her brother Brody stabbed her, but her wound miraculously healed, and Brody died. Katherine realizes that Loren is the angel God sent. She also sees that Doug killed Ben. The townsfolk surround them as Doug tells her that only an ordained servant of God can kill Loren. He reveals that his family recruited the entire town into the satanic cult, as the hurricanes that destroyed the old church led them to believe that God had abandoned them. He invited Katherine to investigate the plagues because they hoped she would join them, since she had turned her back on God. Katherine refuses. A sudden fire then rains down on the town, killing the satanists, who all happened to be first-born. Doug grabs Katherine as he is being lifted off the ground and killed, with Katherine being spared.

As Katherine drives Loren away, Loren reveals that Katherine is pregnant. Katherine realizes that the dreams she had of sex with Doug was actually Doug having drugged and raped her. Since this is her second child, Katherine realizes that her unborn son, fathered by Doug, is the prophesied demonic child.

Set in the small, decaying, nearly bankrupt town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of Miles Roby, the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, who has spent his entire life in the town.

He has an ex-wife, Janine, who has become a cocky, selfish bachelorette after losing weight and exercising rigorously. This is partly due to encouragement from Walt Comeau, an antagonistic fitness center owner who visits the Empire Grill every day and has moved into Roby's old house by this point.

Roby also has a loving teenage daughter, nicknamed "Tick", who is dealing with Zack Minty, her cruel ex-boyfriend, plus an emotional conflict over her mother's engagement to Walt, whom Tick despises. In addition, she has a complicated friendship with John Voss, an emotionally disturbed boy at school whose hard-luck story is known all too well around town. The obnoxious jock Zack and his friends constantly bully John.

Other important people in Miles' life include Max, his grubby ne'er-do-well father, a rascal who can't resist a handout when it comes his way; David, Miles' reformed marijuana smoking brother, who is a talented Empire Grill cook; Bea, Miles' good-hearted ex-mother-in-law, who owns a bar; the town's wealthiest woman, a condescending matron who owns the Empire Grill; that woman's daughter, who has loved Miles for many years; an attractive waitress; a retiring police chief; and a dimwitted police officer, Jimmy Minty, who is Zack's father and has known Miles since childhood.

Miles is plagued by flashbacks of his family when he was a child, including a mysterious affair between his mother and a suitor, the details of which might answer some questions Miles has had his entire life.

After his friend Marcellus is executed for heresy and treason, Demetrius makes it his mission to hide the Robe of Christ, revealing its location to no one. One day, while doing chores for his beloved Lucia (Debra Paget), he is arrested for assaulting a Roman centurion and sentenced to the arena. There, Demetrius trains as a gladiator and soon wins acclaim, proving his valor against a pack of hungry tigers. The emperor, Caligula, assigns him as bodyguard of Messalina (Susan Hayward), unfaithful wife of Claudius (Barry Jones). But he soon tires of waiting on his new mistress and returns to the arena. Later, Lucia disguises herself to gain entrance to the gladiator school to see Demetrius. However, the two are forcibly separated on orders from a jealous Messalina. Lucia is then assaulted by Dardanius (Richard Egan) and four other gladiators. Demetrius prays for God to save her, but it suddenly appears that Dardanius has broken Lucia's neck. All present are shocked at Lucia's sudden demise, especially Demetrius, who loses all faith in Christ.

Previously, he had avoided killing human competitors in the Emperor's games because of his religion, but all that now changes. His next time in the arena, not only does he fight, but he ferociously kills all five of the gladiators that took part in the assault on Lucia. The spectators, including the Emperor, are thrilled at his savagery. Caligula asks Demetrius to renounce Christ; he does. As a result, Caligula frees him and inducts him into the Praetorian Guard with the rank of Tribune. Having rejected Christianity, Demetrius begins a lusty affair with Messalina that lasts for months. One day, Caligula holds audience with Demetrius and orders him to retrieve the Robe. But while carrying out the emperor's command, he is surprised to discover Lucia, lying on a bed, clutching the Robe. It turns out she never died after all. Demetrius realizes his mistake, prays to God for forgiveness, and Lucia awakens.

Nevertheless, Demetrius takes the Robe to the Emperor, as ordered. Later, he is horrified when he learns the Emperor has had a prisoner killed so that he can use the powers of the Robe to bring him back to life—which he fails to do. As Demetrius steps toward Caligula to attack, he is stopped by the guards and, on Caligula's orders, he is sent back to the arena. When Demetrius refuses to take part in the mayhem, the Emperor tries to have Demetrius executed. But the Praetorian Guard (already angry at Caligula over bad wages and conditions) turns against Caligula, killing him. Claudius is then installed as the new emperor. In his first formal address as Rome's leader, Claudius decrees that those of the Christian faith will no longer be persecuted by the state. He then commands Demetrius to return the Holy Coat to the care of the disciple Peter and his followers.

''Evangelion:Death''

The first section, ''Evangelion:Death'', is a 're-cap' editing together scenes from the first 24 episodes of ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' in the form of a clip show, along with additional animation created after the show's original broadcast. This includes scenes from the original show re-drawn shot-for-shot, entirely new shots augmenting existing sequences, and linking segments based around the premise of the four main characters playing Pachelbel's Canon as a string quartet. Some of the additional shots and re-drawn animation would later be re-edited into the extended, 'Home Video Versions' of episodes 21-24 included on the Japanese VHS/Laserdisc and American and European ''Platinum Collection'' releases of the TV series, commonly known in the west as the "Director's Cut" versions though there is no clear substantiation of director Hideaki Anno's role in these. ''Death'' ends with credits accompanied by a double string quartet arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon.

'''''Evangelion:Death(True)''''' screened on January 2, 1998, on the Japanese satellite TV channel WOWOW; this second cut of ''Evangelion:Death'' was re-edited by Masayuki, who held multiple creative roles throughout the franchise's production, removing some of the extra footage new to the feature. This was released on home video for the first time as part of the ''Archives of Evangelion'' DVD box set on August 26, 2015.

''Evangelion:Rebirth''

The second section, ''Evangelion: Rebirth'', consists of approximately 24 minutes of entirely new animation that would eventually form the first third of the alternate ending film ''The End of Evangelion'', released four months later as the second stage in the ''Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth'' project. Serving as a preview while ''End'' was still in production, ''Rebirth'' only covers the initial preparations of the Human Instrumentality Project and the invasion of the Geofront by the JSSDF, ending with the arrival of the Mass Production Evas. Because of its unfinished state, there are differences between ''Rebirth'' and the portion of the finished ''The End Of Evangelion'' it covers. These differences include editing, shots that were later re-drawn entirely, and soundtrack cues that were replaced or further edited. The section ends with credits accompanied by the song Tamashii No Refrain by Yoko Takahashi.

Molly Moon, an orphan at Hardwick House Orphanage in Briersville, England, is living a "boring and plain" life with her best friend Rocky Scarlet, another orphan. She is described as being plain looking with a large "potato" nose, wobbly knees and green eyes. She is usually beaten down upon by Ms. Adderstone, the woman in charge of the orphanage, and Hazel, a snobby orphan girl. During school, Molly and Rocky have a fight and Molly storms away to the town library. As she walks in, she finds a man yelling at the librarian about a book he ordered, but ignores him. While looking in a curious compartment of the restricted section, she finds a book on hypnotism, placed in the wrong section because the "H" was ripped off the spine. Intrigued, she steals it and sneaks out of the library. She takes it to the orphanage to read it.

She fakes being ill so that she can study the book better. Curiously, she finds that chapters 7 and 8 ("Voice-Only Hypnosis" and "Long Distance Hypnosis") are missing. Not long after her discovery of the book, she learns that Rocky has been adopted and taken to America with his new family. Determined to see her friend again, she gains the actual ability to hypnotize from the lessons in her book, first successfully hypnotizing the orphanage dog, Petula. Later on, she is able to hypnotize both Ms. Adderstone and their orphanage chef Edna. Using her ability, Molly wins a large sum of money from a local talent competition, by hypnotizing the crowd into believing that she is a talented singer and dancer. She uses the money to fly to New York City, taking Petula with her. Before leaving, she buys a large gold pendulum, where the mysterious professor from the library learns about her, after he bought some anti-hypnosis glasses. She also hypnotizes Ms. Adderstone and Edna to be nice to all children.

Soon after arriving, Molly hypnotizes her way onto Broadway, landing the lead role in a musical called "Stars on Mars". However, she steals this part from a real child star, named Davina Nuttel, in the process. The show is a roaring success, and catches the attention of a man named Simon Nockman, who has passed himself off as a "professor" of hypnosis, but is truly just a criminal. He theorizes Molly must have obtained the book and learned hypnosis, and formulates a plan. After one performance of "Stars on Mars", Nockman kidnaps Petula, threatening to kill her if Molly does not comply with his orders, and she cannot hypnotize him because he always wears the anti-hypnotic glasses he bought in Briersville. He orders her to use her talents to steal some rare jewels from a bank for him.

Having no choice, Molly agrees. All goes as planned with the robbery until she finds Rocky, who much to her surprise has also learned hypnosis. He had previously stolen and learned from the missing chapters of Molly's hypnotism book, "Long Distance Hypnosis" and "Voice-Only Hypnosis". He also reveals that he had intended to take Molly with him when he was adopted, but had not been able to hypnotize his parents. Since then, he left them as they were not much fun. Working together, the two successfully pull off the robbery, but later form a plan to return the jewels. Rocky uses his power of voice-only hypnotism to hypnotize Nockman into giving up his life of crime. He then helps Molly return the stolen jewels by placing them in hollow garden gnomes and placing them around the city. However, Molly keeps one diamond, which Petula found in her jacket.

Molly gives her part in "Stars on Mars" back to Davina, and returns home with Rocky. Out of sympathy for the broken man, she takes Nockman with her. Before leaving, they work together to record a commercial, using their hypnotic powers to convince people to be kind to their kids. However, when they return, they find Ms. Adderstone and Edna have disappeared, believing that the children there will be happier without any grownups around to tell them what to do, leaving the orphanage in chaos. The older children, once close, have fought amongst themselves, and the younger children have hidden themselves away upstairs, too scared of the older children and the rats they think are living in the orphanage to venture down into the kitchen. With Nockman's help, Molly and Rocky get the orphanage back into a livable condition, and get the sweet-natured Ms. Trinklebury, the orphanage maid, to run it along with Nockman. The orphanage is renamed 'Happiness House' and the money that Molly earned in New York is used to buy new things and redecorate the orphanage. However, it is implied that Nockman has returned to his old ways as he steals a camera, a lollipop and five pounds from children in the orphanage.

At the end of the book, Molly is mysteriously summoned to the library by the librarian, Lucy Logan. Lucy explains that she is the descendant of Professor Logan, the man who originally wrote the hypnotism book, and is a skilled hypnotist herself. She had purposely hypnotized Molly into finding Professor Logan's hypnotism book and keeping it for a month. Now, Molly has come back to return it.

In an epilogue, it is revealed what happened to Ms. Adderstone and Edna; Ms. Adderstone left to become a pilot, and Edna is now an Italian chef.

Lewis is an aspiring 12-year-old inventor who grew up in an orphanage. His energy and eccentricity have been scaring off potential parents, so he works all night on a machine to scan his memory to locate his birth mother, who abandoned him at the orphanage when he was a baby. While taking the scanner to his school's science fair, Lewis meets 13-year-old Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future. Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen. Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it has been sabotaged by Bowler Hat Guy and falls apart, throwing the science fair into chaos. Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy, with the help of his robotic bowler hat named Doris, steals the scanner.

Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner. Lewis demands proof that Wilbur is telling the truth. Wilbur does so by taking them in a second time machine to the year 2037, which is highly advanced technologically. When they arrive, Lewis realizes he can simply use the time machine to meet his mother; the resulting argument makes them crash. Wilbur asks Lewis to fix the time machine, and Lewis agrees on the condition that Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterwards. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis accidentally leaves, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinson family except for Cornelius, Wilbur's father and the inventor of the time's technologies, who is away on a business trip. Having followed Lewis, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris try to kidnap him, but the Robinsons beat them back. The Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they learn that he is from the past. Wilbur admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust.

The Bowler Hat Guy and Doris approach Lewis, and offer to take him to his mother if he fixes the memory scanner. Once he does, they betray him and tie him up. The Bowler Hat Guy reveals that Cornelius Robinson is, in fact, Lewis's future self, and that he himself is an adult version of Lewis's roommate, Michael "Goob" Yagoobian. Because he was kept awake by Lewis's work on the scanner, Goob fell asleep during a Little League baseball game and failed to make an important catch, costing his team the championship. Goob became so withdrawn and bitter that he was never adopted and remained in the orphanage long after it closed. Doris is "DOR-15", one of Lewis's failed and abandoned inventions. They both blamed Lewis for their misfortunes and decided to ruin his life. Leaving Lewis in the future, they return to the past and enact their plan. However, it is revealed that Doris tricked everyone; once mass-produced, the Doris hats dispose of Goob and enslave humanity. Lewis repairs the second time machine, confronts Doris in the past, and destroys her by promising to never invent her, restoring the future to its utopian state. Wilbur tries to ask the adult Goob to join the family, but he has fled in remorse.

Back in Wilbur's time, Lewis finally meets Cornelius face to face. Cornelius explains how the memory scanner started their successful career, and persuades Lewis to return to the science fair. Wilbur takes Lewis back, but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to see the moment when his mother abandoned him.

Wilbur drops Lewis off in his own time and leaves. Lewis heads to the fair, en route waking up Goob just in time for him to make the winning catch. Back at the fair, Lewis asks for one more chance to demonstrate his scanner, which this time succeeds. He is adopted by Lucille, one of the science fair judges, and her husband Bud, who nicknames him "Cornelius" and takes him home.

The film ends with a quote which reiterates the message of not dwelling on failures and "keep moving forward", attributed to Walt Disney.

A White Swiss Shepherd puppy named Bolt is adopted by a 7-year-old girl named Penny. Five years later, Bolt and a 12-year-old Penny star in a hit television series called ''Bolt'', in which they fight crime with Bolt using various superpowers to protect Penny from the villain, Dr. Calico, who has kidnapped Penny's father. To gain a more realistic performance, the show's producers have deceived Bolt his entire life, arranging the filming in such a way that Bolt believes everything in the show is real and that he really has superpowers including a devastatingly powerful sonic scream-like "superbark". After a cliffhanger episode causes Bolt to believe Penny has been kidnapped, he escapes from his on-set trailer in Hollywood, but knocks himself unconscious in the process and is trapped inside a box of foam peanuts being shipped to New York City.

In New York, Bolt resumes his search for Penny. Much to his dismay and confusion, he finds out that his "superpowers" are useless. He encounters Mittens, a cynical feral cat who bullies pigeons out of their food. Believing that Mittens is an "agent" of Calico, Bolt ties her to him with a leash and forces her to guide him back to Penny. Mittens is convinced her captor is a lunatic, but the two start their journey westward by truck. Meanwhile, in Hollywood, a less-experienced Bolt look-alike is brought in so filming can resume. Penny is genuinely distraught over Bolt’s disappearance, but reluctantly agrees to halt the search so production can continue.

Surprised at his first feelings of hunger, Bolt is shown by Mittens how to act like a cute but needy dog, obtaining food for them both at an RV park. They are joined by Rhino, a fearless hamster and huge ''Bolt'' fanatic. Rhino's unwavering faith in Bolt substantiates the dog's illusions about himself, but allows Mittens to figure out Bolt is from a television show. She tries to tell Bolt this, but Bolt simply becomes frustrated as everything he believed to be real starts to crumble around him. Attempting to "superbark" her repeatedly, the noise draws the attention of the local animal control and Bolt and Mittens are both captured and taken to an animal shelter.

Bolt, freed from the patrol van by Rhino, finally realizes and accepts that he is just a normal dog. However, he regains his confidence after Rhino (oblivious to this revelation) exhorts him to heroism. They rescue Mittens from the shelter and as they continue west, Bolt and Mittens form a close friendship in which she teaches Bolt how to be an ordinary dog and enjoy typical dog activities. Mittens makes plans for the three of them to stay in Las Vegas, but Bolt is still drawn to find Penny. Mittens tells him that Penny is only an actor and humans never truly love their pets because eventually they will betray and abandon them as it happened to her. Bolt refuses to believe her and continues on alone to Hollywood, but Rhino encourages Mittens to stand by him as friends and they follow shortly after.

Bolt reaches the studio and finds Penny embracing his look-alike, unaware that Penny still misses him and her affection for the lookalike is only a part of a rehearsal. A broken-hearted Bolt leaves, but Mittens sees Penny telling her mother how much she misses Bolt. Mittens follows Bolt and explains. At the same time, the Bolt look-alike panics during the show's filming and accidentally knocks over some flaming torches, setting the stage on fire with Penny trapped inside. Bolt arrives and the two reunite inside the burning studio, but are unable to escape before Penny begins to suffocate from the smoke. Penny begs Bolt to go, but Bolt refuses to leave her. Bolt uses his "superbark" through the building's air vent, alerting the firefighters to their location and allowing both of them to be rescued in time.

Penny and her mother quit when their overeager agent proposes they exploit the incident for publicity purposes. The show continues with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny" and a bizarre new storyline involving alien abduction. Penny adopts Mittens and Rhino as she and her family move to a rural home to enjoy a simpler, happy lifestyle with Bolt and her new pets.

Detective Virgil Tibbs, now a lieutenant with the San Francisco police, is assigned to investigate the murder of a prostitute. A prime suspect is Reverend Logan Sharpe, a street preacher who is leading one of the sides in a city referendum on an urban renewal project. He tells Tibbs he was visiting the prostitute in his professional capacity, to advise her spiritually, and that when he left her apartment she was alive and healthy.

Tibbs tracks down and questions the janitor from the victim's building, Mealie Williamson, and Woody Garfield, a shady character who owns the building and might have been the dead woman's pimp, who sent the janitor into hiding. Later, suspicion falls on a hood named Rice Weedon, who is pursued and shot by Tibbs in self-defense.

Tibbs’ ongoing investigation leads him to conclude that Sharpe really is the murderer. When confronted, Sharpe confesses; however he requests that Tibbs not arrest him for 24 hours, until the polls close on the city referendum. When Tibbs refuses, Sharpe, while being taken away to be arrested, purposely steps in front of a moving vehicle and is killed.

The game starts with an opening crawl resembling the ones featured in the ''Star Wars'' films. Further story details are presented through the game's instruction manual, pre-mission briefings, characters' conversations during the game and in-game cut scenes. During the Trade Federation's initial invasion of Theed, Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes and Captain Kael are able to escape the capital and head into the surrounding farmland. The two attempt to protect civilian farmers, but Federation presence is too strong, and they retreat into the nearby swamps. There they learn of a smuggler hidden in the mountains who might aid them. With the help of farmer Ved Deviss, Sykes and Kael find Borvo the Hutt. Borvo agrees to assist the resistance movement against the Trade Federation after the group helps him escape Federation forces.

In their first strike against the Trade Federation, Kael, Sykes, Ved, Lutin Hollis and Kol Kotha, a mercenary agent of Borvo's, destroy the communications satellite Comm 4. The satellite's destruction temporarily disables a Federation base on the planet, allowing the resistance to successfully attack it and destroy numerous droids and heavy equipment. During the fight, Sykes commandeers a Federation gunboat and uses it to liberate labor camps along the Andrevea River, escorting the freed prisoners to a rendezvous point among ruins to the north.

However, during the escort mission, Kael disappears and Sykes begins a search and rescue mission for the missing Captain. Sykes discovers a mortally wounded Kael near his crashed fighter, and it is revealed that Borvo had shot down Kael after he'd learned of the Hutt's secret plan to sell the escaped prisoners into slavery. Seeking vengeance and the freedom of his people, Sykes hunts down Borvo, assisted by a disgruntled Kotha who disagrees with Borvo's betrayal. Though the Hutt is able to escape to Nal Hutta, the prisoners are saved.

Now in charge of the resistance on Naboo, Sykes leads a mission to liberate the Camp 4, a detention center where the Trade Federation has placed most of Naboo's important leaders. After the camp is freed, Sykes is contacted by Captain Panaka, and the plan to finally liberate Naboo is set in motion. After taking part in the diversionary attack on Theed that allows Queen Amidala and Panaka to infiltrate the Palace and capture Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, Sykes joins the rest of Bravo Flight in the climactic assault on the Droid Control Ship. Partnered with R2-C4, Sykes knocks out the Droid Control Ship's Shield Generator, which allows young Anakin Skywalker to destroy the ship from within. With the Trade Federation army disabled, Naboo is freed.

Eriko and her friends Yuma and Ayano are excited about entering their first year of high school at Yamasaki Academy. Their excitement leads to their breaking of the rules when they toured the school before the opening ceremony. They find out their preconceptions about the school may not be as true as they had first thought. Despite that, Eriko and her friends are joined by new friends. They aim to get through high school life together.

In Jets'n'Guns, the player starts out as a freelancer, contracted to drive out a gang of criminals from a sector of space. Soon, the player is contacted by their old commanding officer from a previous war, Col. Troubleman, who is based aboard the United Space Ship ''Impotence''. He explains that Xoxx, the evil dictator, has appeared again and has kidnapped a scientist, Professor Von Hamburger. The professor was developing a gigantic quantum cannon, which he intended to use for peaceful purposes. Xoxx, however, wants the cannon because it could, theoretically, destroy the entire universe with a single shot. Erecta Von Hamburger, the professor's daughter, also contacts the player, but she is mainly concerned with the rescue of her father.

The player first has to steal a better fighter, the ''TMIG-226'', from the heavily guarded FeX labs. The player then has to rendezvous with the USS ''Impotence'', and is only just saved from destruction by pirates by a well-timed volley of torpedoes from the ''Impotence''. The majority of the following missions involve assaults on Xoxx's forces and attempts to ascertain the locations of the professor and the quantum cannon.

Eventually, after many battles against Xoxx's forces and hench-beings, the player rescues the professor. Soon after, the location of the completed cannon, the Lord Chaos Mk 1, is discovered. However, when the player defeats Xoxx, Xoxx escapes in a "backup time washing machine", his parting message revealing that it is too late to stop the cannon firing. The universe is destroyed, leaving the player's ship flying in a field of rocky debris as the credits roll. Eventually,

• (If the player did not cheat) The Player reaches a restaurant, where he gets a time machine upgrade for his plane. The player will chase Xoxx through the time warp, and after the player defeats it, he reaches the beginning of the game on a harder mode.
• (If the player cheated) a time warp that featured earlier in the story re-appears, bringing the player back to the beginning of the game, except set on a harder mode.

During the Simpsons' visit to a high-tech gadget store, Bart buys a gimmicky utility belt from Comic Book Guy. When he shows it off at school the next day, Dolph, Jimbo and Kearney beat him up and take it. To get the belt back, Homer confronts their fathers at Moe's Tavern; they beat him up but find that they cannot knock him down, even after breaking a pool cue over his head.

After seeing Homer's ability to absorb physical punishment, Moe suggests that he take up boxing and allow Moe — himself a former boxer — to manage and train him. Marge insists that Homer have a full medical checkup first. Dr. Hibbert discovers that the layer of fluid around Homer's brain is thicker than normal, allowing him to withstand powerful blows to the head. Discovering that Homer is too weak and out of shape to inflict any damage by punching, Moe suggests that he let his opponents exhaust themselves trying to knock him out, then push them down to the canvas for an easy win.

Homer prevails in his first fights against several homeless men, eventually rising to the top of the Springfield Hobo Boxing Association and attracting the attention of Lucius Sweet, Moe's former boxing manager. Lucius tells Moe that current heavyweight champion Drederick Tatum is about to be released from prison and wants a comeback fight, preferably against Homer. Moe knows that Tatum is far too strong and fit for Homer to tire out, but the lure of fame and fortune makes him agree to the fight. He promises Lucius that Homer will last at least three rounds. Moe quickly wins Homer over by feigning confidence in his fighting skills.

Homer ignores Marge's pleas to withdraw from the fight, which is wildly hyped by the media. On the night of the event, Moe falsely promises Marge that he will throw in the towel if Homer appears to be in any danger. Tatum's first punch is strong enough to leave Homer badly dazed, and Marge urges him to start fighting back. Homer's punch completely misses Tatum, who hammers his head and prepares to deliver a punch that will either knock him out or kill him. Just before he can land the blow, Moe swoops in using a paramotor borrowed from the Fan Man and airlifts Homer out of the ring while the audience boos loudly.

Outside the arena, Marge thanks Moe for saving Homer while Tatum expresses his respect for Moe valuing his friend's life above all else. Lucius berates Moe for failing to deliver even one round of boxing, but pays him $100,000 anyway. Moe flies off with the paramotor to help people around the world, much to Fan Man's chagrin. [http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F03.html Episode Capsule] at The Simpsons Archive.

Fishermen John Crankton is killed by an unseen animal. The next day, medical examiner Sam Rivers and biologist Mary Callahan travel into the bayou to investigate John's mysterious death. Having grown up in the area, Sam is comfortable in his surroundings while Mary is not. They find Elmer noodling for catfish in the swamp canals. With Elmer, Sam and Mary travel upriver to the fishing community. They meet Gloria and Eliza Crankton, John's wife and daughter. Eliza's semi-boyfriend Dan also lives in the house. Gloria explains that a strange boat washed upriver three months ago after a hurricane and weird things have happened since.

Sam and Mary find a large fishing boat along the bank of a canal. They explore the interior while Elmer waits in the boat outside. They discover the remains of the crew in the hold. Upset and nauseous, Mary clumsily knocks Elmer from the boat and something drags him down. Sam and Mary flee in the boat, unaware that they have triggered a homing signal on the ship. On the mainland, a team relays the information to their employer, Jeff, a wealthy bounty hunter.

Later that night, Roland hears noises while on the roof of his houseboat. He leans over the edge and an unseen fish leaps up and decapitates him. His wife Bobbi attempts to escape the houseboat on a small boat, but the fish (revealing itself a frankenfish) flips her out and kills her. Frightened, the group tries to flee in boats, but the fish destroys them. Trying to come with a plan to escape, Eliza gets over to Roland and Bobbi's house to try and start it up to escape. However, the houseboat is inoperable. On a neighboring stilt house, Ricardo baits a large hook using an entire catfish and manages to land the fish. Roughly as big as a full-grown man, the fish can breathe air and hops forward biting at Ricardo's legs. Ricardo manages to kill it with a shotgun blast to the head. In vengeance, he tears out its heart and barbecues it. As he takes his first bite, a second frankenfish leaps from the water and devours him.

While everyone panics, Mary declares she has an idea on how to get off the boathouse. Before she can explain, she is killed by an accidental gunshot due to an explosion. A fire propels a propane tank into the boathouse causing an explosion that sends Eliza into the water. Sam dives in and rescues her. Simultaneously, the fish leaps from the water and bites off Gloria's legs. The fish begins attacking the boathouses, punching holes in them to make them sink.

Jeff and his crew arrive and the fish attacks them too, knocking them out of the fanboat. They swim quickly to the safety of the sinking stilt houses. Jeff explains that the fish are genetically engineered snakeheads. Sam, Eliza, and Dan have no choice but to join Jeff in pursuing the fish, even after most of his crew is killed.

The crew follows a trail of blood back to the fish's den and find the fish is dead. Jeff forces Sam at gunpoint to enter first. Sam flees the den as behind him, a third, much larger frankenfish kills two hunters, including Jeff. Dan, Sam, and Eliza quickly leave on the fan boat, chased by the fish. Dan falls from the boat during the chase but scrambles up a mudbank. Realizing they cannot outrace the fish, Sam drives the fan boat up a stand of tree stumps and knocks off the protective lining of the fan. Unable to slow its momentum, the fish launches into the whirling blades to its death. Sam and Eliza kiss and go back the way they came to get Dan. However, Dan is trapped in the mud as dozens of baby frankenfish attack him.

The story of ''The Quest of Ki'' acts as a prequel to The Tower of Druaga. It occurs shortly after the demon Druaga has stolen the Blue Crystal Rod and taken to a tower originally built by the Sumer Empire, in which the god Anu had destroyed. The goddess Ishtar gives the priestess Ki a golden tiara that enables the power of flight, and sends her to the tower in order to retrieve The Blue Crystal Rod. The game then follows her doomed quest to the top of the tower, with help from the dragon Quox. Upon reaching the 60th floor, Ki reaches the Blue Crystal Rod, however, Druaga splits the rod into three pieces and transforms Ki into stone, leading up to the events of The Tower of Druaga.

A crime wave, including a holdup at a nightclub that ends in a murder and a bank robbery in which a guard is killed, has hit Center City. A squad of FBI agents headed by inspector George A. Briggs meets with local FBI field officer Richard Atkins, police chief Bernard Harmatz and Police Commissioner Ralph Demory. After Briggs interrogates suspect Robert Danker, who claims he was not involved in either killing and that he has been framed, various tests are run at the FBI laboratory in Washington that exonerate Danker. Later Danker, who has been bailed out by "John Smith," is found stabbed to death. At the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, Briggs briefs agent Gene Cordell, who is going undercover in Center City to try to infiltrate the gang Briggs thinks is responsible for all three killings. Cordell takes a bus into Center City and rents a room at the same "Skid Row" hotel in which Danker had been living. Fellow agent Cy Gordon is in a similar hotel across the street from him. Using the name George Manly, Cordell makes himself known in the area by going to the local gym and picking a fight with one of the boxers training there. He is spotted by owner Alec Stiles, who offers him cash if he can last against the boxer. He does, and Alec pays him off.

Later, in a nearby amusement arcade, Cordell tells Gordon that while he was at the gym, his Social Security card was stolen. As they talk, two policemen approach and arrest Cordell for a break-in at a jewelry store, where his card has been found. The FBI has provided a false record for Cordell, and he is bailed out by John Smith, who turns out to be Stiles. Through the police department, Stiles has acquired a copy of Cordell's phony FBI record and is impressed enough to invite him to join his organization. Later Cordell meets with Briggs on board a ferry, and his report convinces Briggs that the Stiles gang are their culprits. After Stiles and his henchmen plan a robbery of a local mansion, Stiles has a violent argument with his wife Judy. Cordell alerts Gordon about the robbery and the FBI and police prepare an ambush, but Stiles' informant within the police department tips him off and he cancels the job. Cordell returns to gang headquarters and fires a shot from Stiles' Luger pistol in order to recover the bullet for testing. However, Stiles discovers that his gun has been fired and goes to see his informant, who turns out to be Commissioner Demory, and asks him to have his gun checked for fingerprints. Demory later advises Stiles that his gang has been infiltrated by Cordell.

Shivvy and Matty, two of Stiles' henchmen, take Cordell to see Stiles, and Gordon follows them in a taxi. Briggs, who has been observing Stiles and can link him to Demory, then receives a report from Washington that the barrel markings on the bullet fired from Stiles' gun are identical with those on the bullets used in the previous killings. After Gordon tracks Shivvy, Matty and Cordell to a factory, he tells the taxi driver to get word to Briggs as to where he is. Inside the plant, Shivvy discovers and then stabs Gordon. Cordell does not realize he has been found out until Stiles announces he is going to frame him and have Demory's officers "accidentally" kill him. However, the plan backfires when Briggs and Chief Harmatz arrive with backup and chase Stiles through the factory. Cordell corners Stiles and kills him, and as Briggs arrests Demory, agent Gordon recovers.

In this social satire, Barbara Undershaft (Hiller), an idealistic major in the Salvation Army, is deeply troubled by the fact that her father, Andrew Undershaft (Robert Morley), is a wealthy weapons manufacturer. Meanwhile, Andrew is looking for an heir for his industrial empire, in particular a foundling like himself.

The series begins when Amanda desires a unique pet and chooses a young ferret at the local pet shop. Her mother reluctantly yields to her decision on the condition that it should never injure her. Amanda names it Peach after seeing a fruit stand with peaches. Terrified of losing her new pet and companion, Amanda keeps Peach's biting a secret. Peach, in turn, rebels in a self-congratulatory way, maintaining that she is a ferret princess who must heroically retain her composure and courage while being tormented by five-headed giants and their slaves. After being forced to fight Mr. Fuzzy — a toy given to Peach which she views as a servant, Peach bites Amanda and Amanda, in response, tries the "Bitter Bite" spray to discipline her. Amanda's actions reminds her of her mother and Peach softens her view of Amanda.

Amanda brings Peach to her class's show and tell and because of Peach's popularity with the class, Amanda's friend Kim decides to get a ferret. Her ferret, Pavaratty, displays arrogance towards Peach and doubts her princess status since she lacks a palace, an entourage and treasure. Peach resolves to gain these things so she can impress the ferret prince. Meanwhile, two bullies turn Amanda's class against her after she wears a handmade ferret costume to school in an attempt to stand out. To collect more treasure, Peach secretly accompanies Amanda to school. Kim realizes Amanda's friendship is more important and admits she was wrong to turn against her. Peach accidentally saves the class's hamsters from being eaten by a snake which escaped during the show and tell. Amanda is redeemed in the class's eyes.

To ease Peach's boredom, Amanda gets another ferret, who is named Edwin after the hero of a romance novel. Initially Peach believes he is her ferret prince, but quickly becomes annoyed by him. Amanda brings the ferrets to her friend's house. There, Peach and Edwin meet Mimi's albino ferrets, the manic-depressive Spore and melancholy Truffle, who believe that they and anyone who enters their land is cursed. After Edwin breaks off a claw, Peach softens her view of him, but becomes ill. She recovers and decides that even if Edwin is not a prince, she still loves him.

At the age of twenty, young Alleyne, son of Edric, leaves the Catholic abbey where he has been raised—intelligent, skilled and well liked, though sheltered and naive—and goes out to see the world, in accordance with the terms of his father's will. The same day, the abbot banishes John of Hordle for worldly behaviour: great appetite, teasing and flirting. They meet at the Pied Merlin inn as they each rest for the night. There, they make friends with veteran archer Sam Aylward who has returned to England from France to recruit for the White Company of mercenaries. Aylward has brought a request for Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch to take command of the company. Aylward and John continue to Christchurch, while Alleyne detours to visit his older brother, the socman or landlord of Minstead, whose fierce reputation has grown to wickedness.

The brothers meet for the first time since Alleyne was an infant and Alleyne finds that his brother is still furious their father gave three hides of land (80–120 acres) to the monastery for the boy's support. The socman threatens a lovely maiden, Maude, who escapes with Alleyne's aid and they flee on foot to find her horse. Maude makes a striking impression on the abbey-raised young man. When she hears that Alleyne intends to rejoin his friends to approach Sir Nigel Loring, Maude laughs and leaves him. Alleyne meets up again with Aylward and Hordle John, and the three friends meet Sir Nigel and his formidable wife Mary. There, he learns that Maude is Sir Nigel's daughter. Alleyne is taken on as squire to Sir Nigel and as tutor to Maude. When the men eventually depart for France, the young couple admit their love, but only to each other. En route to Gascony, our heroes destroy pirates, then report to the court of the Prince of Wales in Bordeaux.

After adventures fearful and funny, the valiant fighters lead the White Company to join the Prince. A letter arrives to Sir Nigel declaring that Alleyne's brother, the Socman of Minstead, had attacked Sir Nigel's castle. During the siege, the socman died. This news means that Alleyne is the new socman and emboldens him to declare his love for Maude to Sir Nigel. Sir Nigel is startled by the news and Alleyne's declaration, but indicates that he prefers that Alleyne should be a full knight before he approaches Maude again with talk of love. The Spanish and French attack them in a narrow ravine, where the mighty warriors are almost all destroyed and the Company must disband—only seven bowmen remain, including John. Alleyne was badly wounded when Sir Nigel sent him to alert the Prince to their plight. Sir Nigel and Aylward are missing and presumed dead. The English go on to win the Battle of Nájera, fulfilling the mission. The Prince knights Alleyne in his sick bed. Alleyne returns to England victorious with John as his squire, only to learn from a lady on the road that Maude and her mother had news that none of the White Company had survived. The lady said that love of a "golden-haired squire", who was presumed dead with the fighters, had caused Maude to decide to join a nunnery. The lady had left just before Maude was to take the veil. Alleyne rushes to the doors of the nunnery and he and Maude embrace. They marry. Alleyn and John prepare to return to find out what happened to Sir Nigel and Aylward. As Alleyne rides to see if the boat is ready to take them, he meets Aylward and Sir Nigel. They have a tale of adventure describing what occurred after they were captured by the Spanish, but eventually escaped to return to England. And everyone lives happily ever after.

A slot machine mobster, Marty "Fats" Murdock, wants his blonde girlfriend, Jerri Jordan, to be a singing star, despite her seeming lack of talent. He hires alcoholic press agent Tom Miller to promote Jordan, both because of his past success with the career of singer (a fiction of the script) and because he never makes sexual advances towards his female clients.

Miller sets to work by showing Jordan off around numerous night spots; his machinations arouse interest in Jordan and soon offers of contracts follow. However, Miller realizes that Jordan really just wants to be a homemaker and tries to persuade Murdock not to push Jordan into a show-business career. He thinks he's succeeded when he reveals to Murdock that Jordan's singing is so bad it shatters light bulbs, but Murdock suggests that Jordan would be perfect for a song he composed while in prison, "Rock Around the Rock Pile" (a parody of "Rock Around the Clock"). Miller reluctantly records Jordan performing the part of a prison siren in Murdock's song and heads to Chicago to promote it to Wheeler, a former mob rival of Murdock who now has a monopoly over the jukebox industry.

Suspicious of Miller's reluctance to promote Jordan and of the obvious attraction between Miller and Jordan, Murdock has his associate Mousie wiretap a phone call between the pair. Feeling pity for them, Mousie edits out the romantic portions of their conversations and convinces Murdock that their relationship is strictly business.

In Chicago, Wheeler is impressed by the song and Jordan's voice and offers to sign both Jordan and the songwriter. However, when Miller reveals that the songwriter is Murdock, Wheeler throws him out of his office and vows never to play the song. A furious Murdock bullies bar owners into buying jukeboxes from him instead and successfully promotes his and Jordan's song. To prevent Murdock from stealing his business, Wheeler arranges to have Murdock assassinated at the rock show where Jordan will be making her debut.

On his way to the show, Murdock confesses to Mousie that he doesn't want to marry Jordan. Mousie confesses that he altered the tape of Jordan and Miller's phone call and encourages Murdock to let Jordan marry Miller. Backstage at the show, Jordan confesses her love to Miller and they kiss. Jordan also admits that she is a talented singer, who lied because she did not want a show business career; she goes on stage and performs a song about her love for Miller. When Murdock arrives, Miller declares to him that he and Jordan are in love; the delighted Murdock surprises Miller by shaking his hand and offering to be the best man.

Before Miller and Murdock can tell Jordan the good news, Wheeler's assassins shoot at Murdock. Miller fights them off and shoves Murdock on stage to perform his song, reasoning that the assassins won't shoot Murdock in front of so many witnesses. Wheeler arrives and, impressed by the audience's response to Murdock, calls off the assassination and signs Murdock instead. The film ends with Miller and Jordan kissing on their honeymoon, as Murdock and Mousie perform on a TV show in the background.

In 1969, four friends, Annie, Brenda, Elise, and Cynthia, graduate from Middlebury College. During a celebratory champagne toast, Cynthia has them promise always to be there for each other and takes a group photo.

In the present, the four women are not in touch. Cynthia learns through the tabloids that her ex-husband has remarried a much younger, more attractive woman. She sends notes to Annie, Brenda, and Elise and then commits suicide. Devastated by Cynthia’s death, the three friends reunite at her funeral and learn of each other’s marital troubles at lunch afterward. Annie is separated from her advertising executive husband, Aaron, and is in therapy for self-esteem issues. Elise is an alcoholic Oscar-winning actress in the process of divorcing her film producer husband, Bill, and relies on plastic surgery to keep hold of her fading career. Brenda is struggling financially after divorcing her husband, Morty, who runs a successful chain of electronics stores.

After the funeral, Aaron stuns Annie by asking her for a divorce so he can be with her therapist. Elise meets with a film director who tells her he envisions her playing the mother of the main character in his upcoming film. While shopping, Brenda runs into Morty and his beautiful, much younger girlfriend, Shelly, who insults Brenda’s weight.

The women come together again once they receive the notes Cynthia mailed before her death, in which she describes her loneliness for their friendship. They form the First Wives Club to obtain restitution from their husbands.

Brenda and Annie learn from Brenda’s Mafia-connected uncle that Morty’s first electronics store sold stolen goods and that his books are fraudulent. Annie’s daughter, who obtains a job at her father’s advertising agency to spy on her father for Annie, reveals that Aaron’s partners want to sell their share of the agency. Annie works up a scheme with Elise whereby Elise liquidates all of Bill’s valuable assets acquired during their marriage and sells them for one dollar to Annie, who then auctions them off and uses the proceeds to buy out Aaron’s partners. Unable to find any blackmail information on Bill, Elise gets into a vicious fight with Brenda and Annie while drinking. Annie contemplates leaving the Club, but Brenda and Elise convince her to stay, with Elise promising to sober up.

Elise meets with Bill’s young, attractive girlfriend, Phoebe, who is slated to play the main character in the film for which Elise is up for the part of the mother. She discovers that Phoebe is a minor and threatens to Bill that she will go public if he doesn’t help her, Brenda, and Annie fund a non-profit organization dedicated to helping abused women. Brenda similarly threatens to expose Morty’s tax evasion and Annie prevents Aaron from walking away from the advertising agency by bringing in a multi-million dollar account of her own. Bill, Aaron, and Morty all agree to the women’s demands.

Brenda, Annie, and Elise use their husbands’ money to establish the Cynthia Swann Griffin Crisis Center for Women. At the grand opening celebration, Brenda and Morty seem headed for reconciliation, with Morty frustrated by Shelly’s neediness; she later flirts with Bill. Elise is starring in a hit Broadway play and dating one of her fellow actors and a confident Annie rejects Aaron’s request to come back to her. The women close up the center and dance down the street singing "You Don't Own Me".

In 1940, C.W. Briggs is an insurance investigator in New York City who is highly successful, owing to his many connections and ability to think like a criminal. His work does not impress Betty Ann Fitzgerald, an efficiency expert who butts heads with C.W. over his old-fashioned views. Her advice is usually followed, however, because she secretly is in a relationship with her boss, Chris Magruder, who constantly reassures her that they will be free to pursue their relationship in public once he finalizes his divorce with his wife.

While attending a dinner with some employees, Voltan, a stage magician calls on Betty Ann and C.W. to be in his hypnotism act. Using the words "Madagascar" and "Constantinople" on them, respectively, as trigger words to put them in a trance, the two are given the suggestion that they are newlyweds who are madly in love before being reawakened. When C.W. returns home for the evening, he receives a call from Voltan, who uses C.W.'s trigger word to put him back in a trance and orders him to steal jewels for him. C.W. has no recollections of these crimes after he is woken up and is determined to prove himself by solving the crimes. He starts investigating Betty Ann on the grounds of her suspicious behavior (actually related to her affair with Chris) and sneaks into her house one evening. There, he witnesses Chris telling her that he has reconciled with his wife and will not have a divorce. When Magruder leaves, Betty Ann becomes drunk in a fit of depression and tries to jump out of a window. C.W. stops her and spends the night keeping her from other self-destructive activities.

Eventually, investigations start picking up evidence pointing to C.W., leading to his arrest. He manages to escape to Betty Ann's place, where she grudgingly hides him. Thinking that C.W. is no longer available, Voltan calls Betty Ann, using her trigger word of "Madagascar" to put her in a hypnotic state and steal for him. On her return, still in a trance, the subliminal suggestion of being in love leads her to seduce C.W. Eventually his co-workers and friends George Bond and Alvin "Al" recall the initial hypnotism and realize that it is the cause of the robberies. George, an amateur magician, frees C.W. of the trigger word and restores his memories. C.W. realizes what has happened and goes back to Betty Ann's apartment to find her missing. He then realizes that she must have been hypnotized again and manages to locate the site where the still-hypnotized Betty Ann is delivering the jewels to Voltan. Voltan discovers C.W. and holds him at gunpoint. However, C.W. deduces that a small-time criminal like Voltan would not have the nerve to do something as drastic as murder. Voltan tries escaping, but the police catch him shortly after. The still-hypnotized Betty Ann expresses her love for C.W. who takes advantage of her state to passionately kiss her before erasing her memories of the event.

Back at work, the employees talk about Betty Ann and Chris going on a romantic getaway. C.W. goes to Chris to inform him of his resignation. An apologetic Chris understands and lets him know that if C.W. leaves, the company will give him his blessing and if he stays, Chris will give him a raise. He also promises C.W. that if he stays, he will make sure that Betty Ann will no longer interfere with his work, letting him know that he intends on forcing her to retire after they get married, as he does not want his wife to be working with him. This visibly disturbs C.W., who then heads to Betty Ann's office to let her know of his resignation and say goodbye. The two have a parting drink during which Betty Ann playfully insults C.W. a few more times and he expresses his amazement that an intelligent woman like Betty Ann would be with Chris, stating that she refuses to be vulnerable even at the price of finding true love and happiness. Outside, Al says that he will quit if C.W. does, and the rest of the staff hail him as a hero. C.W. dismisses his success as luck. When Al notes that hypnotism can make people do things that they do not want to do, George reveals that a hypnotised person would not do anything that they would not when in a normal state, leading everyone to realize that both C.W. and Betty Ann have secret criminal instincts. Al then privately gets C.W. to admit that he loves Betty Ann. At Al's urging, C.W. decides to go after Betty Ann, who is about to leave for Paris with Chris. C.W. proceeds to propose to Betty Ann, confess his love for her, and convince her that she loves him, too. She repeatedly rejects and insults C.W. while Chris tries to get C.W. to leave. As Betty Ann and Chris are about to leave, a desperate C.W. uses her trigger word to hypnotize Betty Ann. Betty Ann, who is now in an amorous state, dreamily tells Chris that she is staying with C.W. and announces that the two are getting married, confessing to C.W. that she fell in love with him the moment that they met. A frantic Chris runs to stop his divorce while Al presents C.W. with the jade scorpion as a gift. C.W. and Betty Ann decide to go to her apartment to have sex. As they are leaving, Al notes that it was lucky that George forgot to deprogram Betty Ann, but George reveals that he had done that the night before. Meanwhile, Betty Ann continues to gush out her love for C.W., and C.W. promises her that he will be able to make her love him for real. Betty Ann notes that anything is possible, pointing out that she was able to make C.W. fall in love with her without using his trigger word. At that moment, he realizes that Betty Ann is no longer hypnotized and finds her grinning knowingly. Understanding that she is going with him willingly, the two head off with Betty Ann putting her arm around him.

Joe is an aspiring actor working as a bus boy in a high-class restaurant. His longtime girlfriend Mary works as a cosmetician for the fashion industry and largely supports him with her steady income. Joe is more concerned with expressing himself than getting a paying job, and has been unwilling to accept roles that do not live up to his artistic standard. Mary supports Joe, but urges him to accept any role to get his foot in the door. Meanwhile, his co-worker Bob lands a lucrative role on a soap opera. Bob is a classically trained actor, but is willing to overlook the quality of the material for the money. He also has a fetish for natural blonde women, leading him to date Sahara, a naive model, and then dump her after discovering that her hair is dyed.

Joe swallows his artistic pride and meets with an agent, Dee Dee Taylor, who arranges for him to be an extra in a Madonna video. Mary is harassed as she walks to work each day and begins taking a self-defense and anger management class on the advice of her therapist. The instructor encourages her to express her anger, and she finds the class extremely empowering. Bob is successful in his soap opera role and begins a relationship with his beautiful co-star Kelly, a "real blonde".

At the Madonna video, the director treats Joe and the other extras like cattle. Joe meets Madonna's body double, Tina, a friendly aspiring actress, and gets himself fired for protesting an anti-Semitic statement made by the assistant director. Joe's firing sparks an argument between Joe and Mary. The pressure of Joe's career is straining their relationship, and they have not had sex in a long time. Mary's instructor, Doug, gives her a ride home from her class and makes a pass at her. She rebuffs him, but lies to cover up the incident to Joe. Meanwhile, Bob suffers from erectile dysfunction and is unable to have sex with Kelly. She mocks his inadequacy and leaves him.

Dee Dee takes pity on Joe and allows him to audition for the role of a "sexy serial killer". He reads his lines with Tina and begins to improvise his dialogue. He impresses the producers and lands the role. Tina invites him out for a drink and he resists her advances with some difficulty. Mary meets with her therapist and tells him about her experience with her self-defense instructor. He tells her that she must become comfortable with men showing their attraction to her and begins sharing his own sexual fantasies about her. She storms out of the session. Meanwhile, Bob is negotiating a longtime contract on the soap opera, but Kelly continues to taunt him on set. Bob threatens to quit the show and then forces the producer to kill off Kelly's character.

Bob goes back to dating Sahara, with whom he is miserable. Joe breaks the big news about his role to Mary and they rejoice. Mary asks him if she is wrong for feeling angry when men hit on her. Joe supports her and threatens to beat up her therapist if he ever sees him again. They have sex for the first time in months and drift off to sleep, happy and satisfied. Mary wraps her hand around Joe's finger, revealing that his improvised monologue had been about his feelings for her.

Roberta Glass, an unfulfilled housewife in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is fascinated by messages between lovers Susan Thomas and Jim Dandy in the personals section of a New York City tabloid, particularly a column from Jim with the headline “Desperately Seeking Susan”, seeking a rendezvous in Battery Park. In an Atlantic City hotel, the itinerant Susan reads the column after a tryst with mobster Bruce Meeker. She steals a pair of ornate Egyptian earrings from his coat before departing; the sinister Wayne Nolan notices Susan's embellished tuxedo jacket as she leaves. Arriving in New York City, Susan dons one of the earrings, stashing the other in her suitcase in a Port Authority locker. She asks to stay with her friend Crystal, a magician's assistant at the Magic Club, and learns Meeker was killed at the hotel.

Hoping to spot the lovers, Roberta goes to Battery Park and sees Jim reunite with Susan before leaving with his band for Buffalo. Roberta follows Susan to a vintage store, watching her trade in her jacket before losing sight of her, and buys the jacket. Finding Susan's locker key in the pocket of the jacket, she posts another “Desperately Seeking Susan” column to meet with her to return it. Concerned about the column and Susan's connection to Meeker's death, Jim asks his best friend Dez to check on her. Waiting for Susan at Battery Park and wearing her jacket, Roberta is accosted by Nolan, mistaking her for Susan because she's blonde and wearing the distinctive jacket. Susan spots Roberta, but can't reach her as police chase her for not paying her taxicab fare.

Dez arrives on a moped and rescues Roberta, who falls and hits her head, losing her memory (and her bag - so no ID). Dez believes she is Susan and, finding the locker key, he takes her to the Port Authority to collect Susan's suitcase. Here she finds the other earring, and Dez says she can stay at his apartment for one night.

Believing she must be Susan, Roberta retraces Susan's steps with Nolan in pursuit. She arrives at the Magic Club – narrowly missing Susan, who has been released from jail and discovered her suitcase gone – and is hired as Crystal's replacement. After Roberta's disastrous first performance, Nolan attacks her, demanding the earrings, but he escapes as the police arrive. Roberta hits her head again, regaining her memory, but is mistaken for a prostitute and arrested. Searching for Roberta, her husband Gary finds his way to the vintage store and is put in touch with Susan, who believes Roberta and Dez are connected to Meeker's death and want to frame her. Susan accompanies Gary home, where they get high. Roberta calls from jail, but hangs up when Susan and Gary answer. After calling Dez to bail her out, they find his apartment ransacked by Nolan, and sleep together.

At Gary's house, Susan sees a television report about Meeker and Nolan having stolen the earrings, once belonging to Nefertiti. She realizes the truth from Roberta's diary, and posts a column to meet her at the Magic Club. Dez attacks an intruder in his apartment who turns out to be Jim, and confesses to his relationship with “Susan” as Roberta slips away. She reads the column, as do Jim and Dez; they arrive at the Magic Club, along with Gary, his sister Leslie, and Nolan. During her act, Roberta recognizes Nolan, who escapes backstage. Dez leaves as Roberta tries to explain the events of her disappearance to Gary, finally voicing her unhappiness and ending their marriage. Nolan threatens Susan at gunpoint, but is knocked out by Roberta. There, Roberta and Susan finally meet each other for the first time.

Later, Roberta finds Dez in a projection booth at the movie theater where he works. She introduces herself once again and they kiss, as Jim and Susan reunite in the theater below. Soon after, Roberta and Susan are celebrated as heroes in the newspaper and credited with returning the stolen earrings.

In late 1950s America, radio journalist Marcia Jeffries encounters a drunken drifter, Larry Rhodes, while recording a segment at a rural Arkansas jail. She invites him to speak to the audience and sing while playing his guitar, and his raw voice, folksy humor and personal charm make him instantly popular. Marcia dubs him "Lonesome" Rhodes and fast-tracks him onto his own radio program.

Marcia enlists the support of the show's staff writer Mel Miller and witnesses the charismatic Rhodes ad-lib his way to Memphis-area popularity, effectively criticizing local politicians along the way.

When he pokes fun at his sponsor, a mattress company, it initially pulls its ads, but when his adoring audience revolts, burning mattresses in the street, the sponsor discovers that Rhodes's irreverent pitches actually increased sales by 55%, and Rhodes returns to the air with a new awareness of his persuasive power. He begins an affair with Marcia and proposes to her.

An ambitious office worker at the mattress company, Joey DePalma, puts together a deal for Rhodes to star in a new TV show in New York City. The sponsor is Vitajex, an energy supplement that Rhodes ingeniously reimagines as a yellow pill marketed as a male enhancement product. As his fame, influence, and ego increase, Rhodes is enlisted to improve the appeal of presidential hopeful Senator Worthington Fuller of California, and rebrands the stuffy conservative as an everyman with the folksy nickname "Curly".

In contrast to his friendly onscreen persona, Rhodes has privately become an egomaniac who berates his staff. Marcia's hopes of marrying Rhodes are dashed, first when a woman turns up claiming to be his legitimate wife, and then when he returns from alleged divorce proceedings in Mexico, newly married to 17-year-old drum majorette Betty Lou. Rhodes and Marcia enter into a profit-sharing agreement after she reminds him of her role in his success.

Ultimately, Rhodes's ascent into fame and arrogance begins to turn on him. Joey has an affair with Rhodes's young wife. Rhodes dumps her and sends her back to Arkansas, but can't get out of his business arrangement with Joey, who threatens to reveal Rhodes's secrets.

Rhodes visits Marcia, who has come to regret her role in making him famous while he proposed his "Fighters for Fuller" proposal. While Rhodes gets comfortable, Marcia leaves in the rain. To destroy him, she activates a live microphone over the end credits of his TV show that reveals Rhodes contemptuously mocking Fuller and the station's "idiot" viewers. His popularity and the show's ratings plummet, and the advertisers cancel their sponsorships, as Rhodes descends in an elevator to the ground floor.

Rhodes returns to his penthouse, where he was scheduled to address the nation's business and political elite, only to find the room empty, except for his friend, Beanie, and a few Black servants, whom he dismisses when they don't respond to his demands. He discovers the truth during a phone call with Mel and Marcia and threatens suicide, but Marcia only goads him on. When the pair arrive at Rhodes's home, they find him speaking with an applause machine replacing the people whose support he lost. Marcia tells Rhodes that she was responsible for his open-microphone incident and demands that he never call her again.

Before they leave, Mel lays out a prediction of Rhodes's future: his career is not completely over, and he will likely find further TV work soon, but never again enjoy the same level of popularity and prestige. After leaving the building, Mel and Marcia hear Rhodes screaming from the penthouse, for Marcia to return to him, but ignore him as they depart into the night in a taxi, as a Coca-Cola sign in neon lights flashes continuously.

Gas station attendant Clint Ramsey, who works at ''Martin Bormann's Super Service'' in the desert, finds himself too irresistible to a series of girls, all of whom have the word "Super" in their given names. In the beginning, he is married to the hypersexual, demanding, and jealous SuperAngel (Shari Eubank), who constantly harasses him at work. She orders him home at once when she calls Clint and overhears a female customer, SuperLorna (Christy Hartburg), hitting on him at work. Clint finds SuperAngel's constant accusations and arguing a turn-off and, back at home, they fight after he rejects her aggressive advances. A neighbor calls the police as Clint leaves for a local bar, where the bartender is the very scantily clad SuperHaji (Haji).

Meanwhile, SuperAngel seduces Harry Sledge (Charles Napier), the cop who responded to the police call. He is impotent and unable to perform. She repeatedly taunts and insults him over this, which finally results in him killing her by stomping her brutally in a bathtub, then throwing a radio in the water which was plugged into the wall socket. Sledge burns down the house, then tries to pin the murder on Clint. Clint claims being in the pub all night, but SuperHaji has her revenge on him (for insulting her breast size earlier) by refusing to confirm his alibi. Clint is then forced to flee.

In his rush to escape, Clint hitchhikes a ride from a boy (John LaZar) and his girlfriend SuperCherry (Colleen Brennan). During the drive, SuperCherry comes on to him and puts his hand over her breast, but then pulls it back. She then tries to give him a handjob over his pants, but he continues to resist her advances. The driver takes offense to Clint rejecting his girlfriend, but she says he probably just wants a closer contact. She again attempts and fails to seduce him and he asks the driver to let him get out. The driver follows him out and beats and robs him. Clint is found by an old farmer who takes him to his farm to heal from his injuries and Clint agrees to work for the farmer for a week to repay him.

The farmer has a younger Austrian mail-order bride, SuperSoul (Uschi Digard), who is hypersexual. After energetically satisfying her husband, she comes knocking on Clint's door at night. She immediately pushes him into his bed where she proceeds to mount and rape him, until he manages to overpower her. However, she does the same the following day and this time overpowering him after jumping him from behind in the barn. Looking for SuperSoul, the farmer finds them in the barn, then chases Clint away and punches SuperSoul.

Fleeing from the farm, Clint meets a motel owner and his deaf daughter, SuperEula (Deborah McGuire), who convinces him to take a ride with her in her dune buggy to have sex in the desert. They are caught by her father and chased out of town.

Clint eventually meets up with SuperVixen (also played by Shari Eubank) at ''Supervixen's Oasis'', a roadside diner. SuperVixen is (inexplicably) a friendly and giving reincarnation of SuperAngel, whose ghost now appears nude between scenes to comment on the plot from atop a bedspring balanced on a mesa. Clint and SuperVixen fall in love and are inseparable, although their common nemesis, Harry Sledge, arrives on the scene and plots ending the lives of the now happy couple.

Allen Faulkner, a former British Army colonel turned mercenary, arrives in London to meet merchant banker Sir Edward Matheson. The latter proposes an operation to rescue Julius Limbani, the imprisoned President of a southern African nation who is due for execution by General Ndofa. President Limbani is held in a remote prison in Zembala, guarded by a regiment of General Ndofa's troops known as the "Simbas".

Faulkner accepts the assignment and begins recruiting forty-nine mercenaries, including officers he had worked with previously: Capt. Rafer Janders, a skilled tactician, and Lt. Shawn Fynn, a former Irish Guards officer and pilot. Fynn also brings in Pieter Coetzee, a former soldier in the South African Defence Force who wishes only to return home and buy a farm. The mercenaries fly to Swaziland, where they are whipped into shape. With training complete, Janders exacts a promise from Faulkner to watch over his only son, Emile, should he not survive.

Because of an unexpected development, Faulkner is given only a day's notice to launch the mission. On Christmas Day, the fifty-man mercenary group parachute into Zembala by a HALO jump. One group rescues an alive, though sick, Limbani from a heavily guarded prison, while another group takes over a small, nearby airfield to await pick-up. Back in London, however, Matheson cancels the extraction flight at the last moment, having secured copper mining assets from General Ndofa in exchange for President Limbani. Stranded deep in hostile territory, the abandoned mercenaries fight their way through bush country, pursued by the Simbas. Many men, including Coetzee, are killed along the way.

The mercenaries make their way to Limbani's home village, hoping to start a rebellion, but realise that his people are too ill-equipped to fight. An Irish missionary living there informs the group of an old Douglas Dakota transport aircraft nearby that they can use to escape. As the Simbas close in, the mercenaries suffer heavy casualties holding them off in a climactic battle while Fynn starts the Dakota's engines. Janders is shot in the leg and unable to board the departing airplane. Faulkner is forced to kill him to spare him from capture and torture. The thirteen surviving mercenaries from the original fifty eventually manage to land at Kariba Airport, Rhodesia, but Limbani dies from a gunshot wound sustained during the escape.

Some months later, Faulkner returns to London and breaks into Matheson's home to confront him. Faulkner takes the half a million dollars in Matheson's safe to compensate the survivors and the families of those who died. Faulkner then kills Matheson and makes a swift getaway with Fynn. Faulkner fulfils his promise to Janders by visiting Emile at his boarding school.

Elmer is reading a book on how to photograph wildlife. He walks along whistling as he holds the camera. He finds a rabbit and wants to take a picture of him. The rabbit finds himself a convenient victim to harass as Elmer tries to photograph him. Elmer points to where the rabbit was sleeping and tells him that he wants to take a picture of him. This tormenting eventually drives Elmer insane, causing him to jump into a lake and nearly drown. The rabbit saves him, ensures that Elmer is perfectly all right – and promptly kicks him straight back into the lake. Then, the rabbit throws Elmer's "How To Photograph Wildlife" book on his head, thus ending the cartoon as the screen irises out.

Dewey Hoople (Jack Moran) runs a broken down tourist trap along the Colorado River along with his French wife Babette (Babette Bardot) and his daughter Coral (Adele Rein). Business is so bad that Hoople must pay a local alcoholic (Frank Bolger as "Cracker") to entice tourists, called "suckers", to spend some time and money there.

Love is in the air when Seymour Skinner and Edna Krabappel are finally getting married. They each have their bachelor party, with Edna having hers at the Simpson house with Duffman and a topless Chief Wiggum as strippers, and Principal Skinner having his at Moe's with Homer. However, at his party, Skinner admits that he has doubts about marrying Edna. When the wedding is held at Springfield Elementary's gymnasium, Edna learns that Skinner does not want to marry her, and runs away from the ceremony as Skinner tries to catch up with her while Nelson cannot bring himself to play a prank on her.

After the wedding is called off, Homer and Marge try to get Skinner and Edna to be engaged again, but it is halted by Homer and Marge's own marriage problems. Edna returns a wedding gift to the Comic Book Guy, and she finds him to be an interesting man. Homer gets Skinner to serenade Edna using a band made up of Bart, Milhouse, and Martin, but that fails when he learns that the Comic Book Guy and Edna are in love. The family goes to the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con to confront Comic Book Guy, where they see ''The Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening. Comic Book Guy, proposes to marry Edna, and the room is ready for a ''Star Trek''-themed mock Klingon wedding ceremony. Skinner, dressed up as Catwoman (who he thought was Catman) battles the Comic Book Guy. Edna interrupts their fight to declare that she will not marry either man. When she tells the Comic Book Guy how they had fun but are very different, he accepts her decision, though Skinner is still upset. Later, at the Simpson house, Homer asks Marge to remarry him, which is conducted in the Klingon language, and she accepts (although she accidentally agrees to give their children a Klingon upbringing).

A man (named as John Sourpuss in the copyright synopsis) reading a newspaper comes across an article stating that meat prices have soared and the consumers are sore. Angry, he declares that he'll hunt his own meat to get back at the government for the price inflation. He takes his dog with him, revealing he is going hunting for rabbits.

In the woods, a rabbit leads the dog into a hollow log and pushes the log down a hill, where it smashes into a tree. Meanwhile, John sees several rabbits hopping over a hill. He fires his gun several times and runs to where the rabbits were. When he gets there, he finds two spinning wheels with pictures of rabbits on them, giving the perception of moving rabbits.

He then sees the rabbit sleeping. The hunter starts pouring salt on the rabbit's tail. The rabbit quickly gets up and holds a stick of celery under the stream of salt. The rabbit then runs into a cave, and the hunter runs after him. Before he reaches the cave, a pair of elevator doors closes, which the hunter runs into.

The bunny then dresses as a female dog, successfully seducing the hunter's dog. When the dog finally realizes he's with the rabbit rather than another dog, he resumes his chase. The rabbit then pretends he's a policeman, citing the dog for numerous crimes (speeding, running on the wrong side of the street, intoxicated "driving", etc.).

After confusing the dog and running away, the rabbit begins singing a song about how crazy he is. When he finishes his song, he turns to find the hunter with his gun aimed at him. The rabbit, trying to gain sympathy, begs for his life, explaining how poor and sick he is. John begins crying, feeling sorry for the rabbit. Despite this, the rabbit shocks John with a joy buzzer. The hunter then shouts that he can whip the rabbit and his whole family. Suddenly, a large group of rabbits surround John, looking for a fight (see "Notes" below for the true ending).

The Two Curious Puppies, one big and one little, are being pursued by a dog catcher until they hide in an abandoned house. They soon discover the house is owned by Sham-Fu, a magician who is unseen over the course of the short. As a result, each puppy (both of whom are separated from each other shortly after entering the house) encounters all manner of magic tricks, including Sham-Fu's pet hare. The bigger puppy is left to defend himself against the hare, itself a more than competent illusionist capable of all sorts of acts of cartoon physics, while the little one is engaged in a reckless battle with a Hindu rope and a magic wand, the latter of which he ends up accidentally swallowing, giving him bizarre hiccups throughout the rest of the movie.

The puppies and the hare all end up crashing into each other, at which point both puppies immediately attempt to pack everything back into Sham-Fu's trunk. Inexplicably, the little dog hiccups out a balloon containing the mischievous hare. However, this time, when the hare attempts another disappearing act, the bigger puppy who has had enough of the hare's tricks is able to stop it in its tracks and punches the hare as hard as possible. The scene irises out on the hare, whose eye is blackened and covered with a lampshade and sitting in a goldfish bowl with his feet sticking out.

When Bart and Lisa fight over what to watch on TV, they accidentally change the channel to a show hosted by a children's singer and guitarist named Roofi, a parody of Canadian-Armenian children's singer/songwriter Raffi Cavoukian. This does not appeal to Bart and Lisa, but Maggie adores the show, and after Bart and Lisa accidentally say there is a CD so that they can get the TV back, Marge buys the disc and plays it everywhere, much to the annoyance of Bart, Lisa, and Homer, all the while Marge is oblivious to their feelings due to pleasing obsessed Maggie. Marge goes as far as to even buy tickets to the concert, which is to be held at Cletus Spuckler's farm, in a parody version of the original Woodstock concert. However, because the concert was oversold, it ends up packed and the Teletubbies are the opening act, dismissed by Marge as repetitive. As it starts to rain, Roofi appears on stage to sing "The Nonsense Song", but is then hit in the face with a baby bottle, abruptly cuts the show short and gets on a helicopter. Soon, the babies riot against the police sent to contain them, an event referred to in the news as the "Tot Offensive", as reported by Kent Brockman.

In a response to the disaster, all the adults of Springfield who do not have children (single people, the elderly, couples who do not have children, teenagers, and homosexuals) are up in arms, because Kabul has declared they will no longer be Springfield's sister city and Mayor Quimby forcibly takes $1 million from the audience to cover the damages. Lindsay Naegle arrives to form an anti-youth group named "Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays Against Parasitic Parents" (SSCCATAGAPP) to rid the town of anything that provides comfort to families. A statue to America's deadbeat dads is erected, a school bus ignores kids waiting at the stop to take senior citizens on a gambling junket, and a new ordinance allows children who act up in public to be tasered.

A furious Marge lobbies to get an initiative: "Families Come First", as she lobbies "Proud Parents Against Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" (PPASSCCATAG). Her lobbying efforts do poorly at first, and she fends off a $50,000 offer from America's tobacco lobby, but fair support grows after Mr. Burns loans his signature on Marge's petition because he cares about children (specifically, their "supple young organs"). Other Springfield residents follow his lead, and Proposition 242 gets on the ballot. When the opposition slanders Marge with an ad where an actress posing as Marge says even she is against Prop 242, Homer tries to help with the campaign but screws up badly by placing the wrong information on bumper stickers and buttons for the voters, and his Rudy Giuliani-featuring advertisement is also a disaster. Bart and Lisa soon concoct a plan. When everyone goes to the voting polls, they are stopped in their tracks by the (literally) infectious hugs of children. Proposition 242 passes easily, and Homer decides to celebrate by dumping his kids at an R-rated movie with no supervision while he and Marge go some place nice by themselves.

In a country town, farmer Burt is married to the much younger Angel but cannot satisfy her sexually. Angel has an affair with a construction worker, Stone. Lana is Burt's 17 year old daughter to another woman. She tries to seduce Ray but he is more interested in Angel, so Lana winds up with Stone. Burt meets a sorceress in the forest who rejuvenates his sexual drive, leading him to be reunited with Angel. Lana winds up with Ray. Stone is beaten up by the husband of one of his earlier conquests.

After his reckless driving causes an accident, Homer is fired from his job at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Homer attempts to become a car salesman but ends up purchasing a 1959 ambulance; he begins acting as a paramedic. Meanwhile, Marge is inspired to write a novel after a visit to a bookstore and begins to write about whaling times. The main characters in Marge's novel are inspired by herself, Homer (who is the villain), and Ned Flanders, while romance is the central theme; she had originally intended for the Homer-inspired character to be the romantic hero, but was dissuaded when Homer asked her to use the computer to take down a dinner order. She completes the book, titled ''The Harpooned Heart'', and after it receives positive reviews, she decides to get it published. Helen Lovejoy soon begins to spread rumors that the novel is based on Marge's life.

After Homer is teased by several people, who imply that Ned is Marge's secret love, Homer decides to read the book. However, after falling asleep on page one and lying to Marge that he had read the book and approved of it, he listens to the audiobook version. After arguing with Marge, Homer decides to confront Ned. Lisa tells Bart that she fears that Homer and Ned's altercation may end the same way as ''The Harpooned Heart'', in which both the hero and villain died. When Ned flees, Homer chases him in his ambulance. Ned is sure Homer is going to kill him when he is cornered, but is stunned when Homer drops to his knees and begs Ned to show him how to be a good husband. Marge arrives in a panic but is relieved that Homer and Ned are speaking. Homer declares that the book was a wake-up call for him. Homer and Marge then decide to create a novel, titled "Who Really Killed JFK".

The story concerns Melibee who is away one day when three enemies break into his house, beat his wife Dame Prudence, and attack his daughter, leaving her for dead. The tale then proceeds as a long debate mainly between Melibee and his wife on what actions to take and how to seek redress from his enemies. His wife, as her name suggests, counsels prudence and chides him for his rash opinions. The discussion uses many proverbs and quotes from learned authorities and the Bible as each make their points. Dame Prudence's discussion of marriage mirrors those of the Wife of Bath and the wife in "The Shipman's Tale".

A man named Adolf Schwartz, Adolf Hitler in hiding, is living in a Bavarian-style castle in northern California. After an orgy in the dungeon with three women (The Headsperson, The Ethiopian Chef, Limehouse) and a man (Paul) he is murdered when someone places a ravenous piranha fish in his bathtub.

A voluptuous woman named Margo Winchester appears later in the nearby town ''Miranda'' and is spotted by local Sheriff Homer Johnson. He tries to make advances but Margo rejects flirtatiously (at this point). After that she is picked up by Leonard Box, a known troublemaker and son of a sawmill owner. An argument breaks out with the result that Leonard subdues and rapes the unconscious Margo, after that she accidentally kills him. This is witnessed by Homer, but he covers up the incident because Box's loaded father would put Margo in jail forever and of course he is horny for the busty beauty. So Margo and Homer wind up sleeping together, starting some kind of relationship, but a mutually unfaithful one as it can be seen later.

Homer helps Margo get a job at the local diner, Alice's. It is owned by Alice who is married to Paul, who was sexually servicing Schwartz. Alice also likes women, depicted earlier in the movie. Paul is similarly unfaithful, he was interested in Limehouse and after Margo finishes work and goes for a swim at the Salmon Creek, he comes after her. While Margo undresses besides the stream Paul does the same before approaching her and they have sex. Homer, who had stopped a woman earlier for a traffic violation and let her go after a blowjob, is in bed with a Native American woman named Pocohontas and shoves her out of the house when he hears Margo's van approaching, after she and Paul finished their date. Still nude she enters the house, seemingly ready for a second round with Homer who's under the shower to clean himself up. Scalding himself with hot water by accident. Margo comments on his red penis that he must have made it with an Indian!

Kitten Natividad plays the "Greek Chorus", who appears nude between scenes throughout the film to provide narration, plot details, and updates.

Margo performs a strip show at a bar which triggers the reaction of the lumberjack Rafe who rapes her. The other guests join in and flee when Homer arrives, both men end up killing each other!

It is revealed that Alice committed the murder because she was jealous about Schwartz, who was also her father, sleeping with her husband, and that Margo is an undercover cop to investigate the crime.

Upon discovering that his wife is having an affair, aerospace engineer and depressed insomniac Ed Okin drives to LAX on his friend Herb's suggestion. There, he is surprised by a beautiful jewel smuggler, Diana, who jumps into his car and begs him to drive her away from four Iranians who are chasing her. She persuades him to drive her to various locations, and he becomes embroiled in her predicament. After becoming increasingly exasperated with her demands, he discovers that Diana has smuggled priceless emeralds from the Shah of Iran's treasury into the country, and is being pursued by a variety of assailants, including the aforementioned agents of a criminal Iranian expatriate and a British hitman.

The couple's caper gets increasingly out of hand, until Diana is eventually taken hostage by the thugs at the airport; here, Ed shares his ennui with the man holding a gun to Diana's head. The man shoots himself, instead. Taken to a motel room by federal agents, they are given a fortune in cash from one of Diana's wealthy friends via a federal agent. Diana showers and Ed finally sleeps. He wakes up after a full night's rest to an empty hotel room, with most of the money gone. However, when he leaves the room, Diana is waiting for him, with the money, a smile, and a request for a ride to the airport.

On an unnamed planet, a race called the Gonds are subject to the mysterious Krotons, unseen beings to whom they provide their brightest intelligences as "companions". Thara, son of the Gond leader Selris, is the only one to object to this practice; those who have become companions before have never been seen nor heard from again. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrive in time to witness the death of the chosen companion Abu, who is vaporised by smoke sprayed from nozzles on either side of the doorway from which he emerges, and intervene to save Vana, the other selected for this fate, using her survival as a means to convince Selris and the Gonds of the malign influence of the Krotons on their society. The Doctor calls it "self-perpetuating slavery" by which the brightest in Gond society have been removed. Similarly, there are large gaps in their knowledge, especially relating to chemistry. This situation has been in existence for many years since the Krotons arrived in their spaceship, releasing a poison that polluted the lands beyond the Gond city – which the Gonds call "the Wasteland" – and killed much of the population.

Thara uses the disquiet of the situation to lead a rebellion and attack the Teaching Machines of the Krotons in the Hall of Learning. This prompts a crystalline probe to appear and defend the Machines, and warn the Gonds to cease. Zoe now tries the Teaching Machines and is selected to be a "companion" of the Krotons. The Doctor elects the same fate and both are summoned into the Dynotrope where they are subjected to a mental attack. Zoe deduces that the Krotons have found a way to transfer mental power into pure energy, while the Doctor busies himself with taking chemical samples of the Kroton environment. Circumstances now trigger the creation of two Krotons from chemical vats within the Dynatrope (the Kroton spaceship). The newly created Krotons capture Jamie, but are really seeking the Doctor and Zoe, the "High Brains", who have now left the Dynatrope. It takes Jamie quite some time before he is able to escape.

Eelek and Axus, two councillors previously loyal to the Krotons, begin to rally for all-out war with them and seize the initiative in Gond society. The more level headed Selris is deposed, but warns that an all-out attack will not benefit his people. Instead he has decided to attack the machine from underneath by destabilising its foundation in the underhall. Eelek has Selris arrested and reasserts control by negotiating with the Krotons that they will leave the planet if provided with the two "High Brains" who can help them power and pilot their ship. Zoe and the Doctor are forced into the Dynatrope and Selris dies, providing them with a phial of acid which the Doctor adds to the Kroton vats. Outside, Jamie and the scientist Beta launch an attack on the structure of the ship using sulphuric acid. This two-pronged assault destroys the tellurium-based Krotons and their craft. The Dynatrope dissolves away and the Gonds are free at last – choosing Thara rather than the cowardly and ambitious Eelek to lead them.

Leaving the Gonds to find their own answers for the future, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe return to the TARDIS.

Carol White is a housewife living in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles. She passes her days with activities like gardening, aerobics, and seeing friends. Her marriage and family life appear stable but sterile, and her friends are polite but distant. Following the renovation of the family's home, Carol suddenly starts experiencing physical symptoms when she is around certain everyday chemicals: she coughs uncontrollably when breathing exhaust fumes from a nearby truck while driving, has breathing difficulties at a baby shower, and suffers from a nosebleed while getting a perm at a hair salon. As her symptoms worsen, the chemicals that are triggering them seem ubiquitous. Finally, she has a complete collapse while at her dry cleaners that is being fumigated with pesticides.

Doctors have no idea how to cure or help Carol. She attends some psychotherapy sessions, but her symptoms are not alleviated. She finds that she is very alone with her disease when her community behaves indifferently towards her. Accepting that she can no longer function in her current life, she leaves her home, possessions, and life behind. Without her husband, she moves to Wrenwood, an eerie new-age desert community for people with environmental illnesses. Wrenwood, which has cult-like aspects, is led by a man whose relentless motivational talks amount to "psychological fascism".

Even in a community of people with similar health issues, Carol seems to become more isolated. She moves into an igloo separated from the rest of the community. The film ends with Carol looking into the mirror saying "I love you" to herself.

Andy Stitzer is a shy 40-year-old introvert who works as a stock supervisor at electronics store Smart Tech. He gave up trying to have sex after various failed attempts and lives alone in an apartment with a collection of action figures and video games. When a conversation at a poker game with his co-workers David, Jay, and Cal turns to past sexual exploits, they learn that he secretly is still a virgin.

Andy is mortified upon discovering the next day that everyone else at work has learned about the secret, including their boss Paula, who is attracted to him and later privately offers to take his virginity. He almost quits work in humiliation before David consoles him and recommends trying again to have sex. David, Jay, and Cal become determined to help Andy achieve this. They all give differing advice on how to interact with women.

David invites him to join them for a speed dating event and unsuccessfully tries to reconnect with his ex-girlfriend Amy there. Jay drags Andy to various social events, books a painful chest waxing appointment, and sets him up with a prostitute, which all end with embarrassing results. Cal advises Andy to simply be confident and ask women questions instead of talking about himself. He practices this on a bookstore clerk named Beth, who quickly becomes intrigued by him. David gives Andy his pornography collection, encouraging him to masturbate.

Andy eventually gets a date with a customer named Trish Piedmont. At the end of their first date, they almost have sex but are interrupted by her teenage daughter Marla. Trish suggests they postpone having sex, and Andy enthusiastically agrees; they decide to abstain until their twentieth date. Their relationship flourishes over the following weeks. She encourages Andy's dream of starting a business and helps fund it by selling his collectibles. After Marla argues with Trish over wanting birth control, Andy takes her to a group information session at a sexual health clinic, where she is mocked for being a virgin. Andy admits his own virginity to defend her, earning him Marla's respect.

Meanwhile, David suffers an emotional breakdown at work over his obsession with Amy and takes a vow of celibacy, which leads to Paula giving his sales duties to Andy for the day and later promoting him to floor manager due to his high sales quota. As Cal takes on Andy's previous role, he hires a woman named Bernadette to work at the store, hoping to match her with David so he can move on from Amy. After Jay's girlfriend Jill breaks up with him due to his infidelity, he concedes to Andy that sex can ruin a relationship. Following a reconciliation with Jill, Jay later invites Andy and the others to a nightclub to celebrate her pregnancy.

Trish tries to initiate sex with Andy on their twentieth date and becomes upset when he resists. They argue, and Andy leaves to meet his friends at a nightclub. He gets drunk and leaves with Beth to have sex at her apartment. Cal gets David and Bernadette to hook up, while Marla convinces Trish to reconcile with Andy. At Beth's, Andy sobers up and decides to leave without having sex, just as his friends arrive and encourage him to go back to Trish.

Andy returns to his apartment to find Trish waiting for him. She has found David's porn collection; he tries to explain, but she flees in alarm and disgust, fearing Andy may be a sexual deviant. While pursuing her on his bike, Andy collides with her car, flying through the side of a billboard truck. She rushes to his side, and Andy finally confesses that he is a virgin. Trish is relieved and accepting, and they profess their love for each other. They eventually marry in a lavish ceremony with everyone in attendance, having generated roughly $500,000 from the sales of his action figures to pay for it, before having sex for the first time. The film ends with a musical sequence where all the characters sing and dance to "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".

Qui-Gon Jinn and his ally Tahl must go to New Apsolon to investigate a murder that can destroy the peace between the planet's upper and lower classes. Although he feels left out, Qui-Gon's apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, also joins the group. The Jedi investigate, although they receive few leads. During the mission, Qui-Gon and Tahl pledge their love for each other.

However, Tahl is soon captured by the rogue faction that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were searching for. It is also learned that one of the heirs to the planet is in league with this faction. However, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are quickly focused on rescuing Tahl before she is killed.

Ethan Hunt has retired from fieldwork for the IMF. He instead trains recruits while settling down with his fiancée, Julia Meade, a nurse who is unaware of Ethan's real job. He is approached by IMF Assistant Director of Operations John Musgrave about a mission to rescue one of Ethan's protégés, Lindsey Farris. Lindsey was captured while investigating arms dealer Owen Davian. Musgrave has already prepared a team for Ethan: Declan Gormley, Zhen Lei, and his old partner Luther Stickell.

The team rescues Lindsey in Berlin and collects two damaged laptop computers. As they flee, Ethan discovers an explosive pellet implanted in Lindsey's head. Before he can disable it, it kills her. IMF Director Theodore Brassel reprimands Ethan and Musgrave. Ethan learns that Lindsey mailed him a postcard before her capture and discovers a magnetic microdot under the stamp.

IMF technician Benji Dunn recovers enough data from the laptops to determine Davian will be in Vatican City to obtain a mysterious object codenamed the "Rabbit's Foot." Ethan plans a mission to capture Davian without seeking official approval. Before leaving, he and Julia have an impromptu wedding at the hospital's chapel. The team infiltrates Vatican City and captures Davian.

Ethan threatens to drop Davian from the plane on the return flight as he interrogates him about the Rabbit's Foot, but Davian refuses to reveal anything. After landing, Ethan learns that the microdot from Lindsey contains a warning that Brassel is seemingly working with Davian. The convoy taking Davian across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel is ambushed by German speaking mercenaries, who extract Davian while deploying a MQ-9 Reaper missile armed drone. Realizing Julia is also in danger, Ethan races to Julia's workplace to discover she has already been kidnapped. Davian calls Ethan and gives him 48 hours to recover the Rabbit's Foot in exchange for Julia's life. Before Ethan can, he is captured by the IMF.

Musgrave takes part in Ethan's interrogation. He discreetly mouths that the Rabbit's Foot is located in Shanghai and assists Ethan in escaping. Ethan is declared an enemy of the state and placed on Interpol's most-wanted list. Ethan secretly travels to Shanghai, where Declan, Zhen, and Luther, sent by Musgrave under the guise of another operation, assist him in acquiring the Rabbit's Foot. As he delivers the Rabbit's Foot to the meeting point, Ethan is tranquilized. When he regains consciousness, a micro-explosive is implanted in his head. Restrained, Ethan sees Davian holding Julia at gunpoint, tied up and gagged in a chair. Despite Ethan asserting that he brought the real Rabbit's Foot, Davian shoots Julia and leaves the room.

Musgrave arrives and reveals himself as the actual IMF traitor; he explains that Julia is still alive. The woman killed was Davian's translator disguised as Julia, executed for failing to protect him in Vatican City. The ruse was to confirm the authenticity of the Rabbit's Foot. He arranged for Davian to acquire the Rabbit's Foot and sell it to a terrorist group so that IMF would have reason to launch a preemptive strike to increase the American military presence in the Middle East. When Musgrave lets his guard down, Ethan knocks him unconscious. He frees himself and uses Musgrave's phone to track the last call's location to find Julia. With help from Benji on the phone, he locates the place but encounters Davian and some of his henchmen. Ethan kills the henchmen, but Davian arms the explosive in Ethan's head. Ethan fights and kills Davian. He comes back to free Julia and jury-rigs an impromptu defibrillator to deactivate the explosive. Julia fights off and kills a henchman, then Musgrave, who is carrying the Rabbit's Foot. She resuscitates Ethan, who finally explains his IMF career to her.

Back in the US, Brassel and others congratulate Ethan as he leaves for his honeymoon with Julia.

Douglas Winter (Robert Sterling), the editor of a newspaper called ''The Dansburg Courier'', is being pushed out of business by a big conglomerate paper, ''The Gazette''. Though Douglas is an exceptionally kind and accommodating boss, his staff begin abandoning him when he becomes unable to pay them. After the linotype operator quits, the only remaining employees of ''The Courier'' are Douglas himself and his girlfriend, Jackie Benson (Pat Crowley). Douglas is an earnest dreamer who sees ''The Courier'' as his purpose in life; faced with its demise, he drives to a bridge to contemplate suicide. There he is approached by a strange man (Burgess Meredith) who introduces himself as "Mr. Smith" and says he came to town hoping to join ''The Courier'' as a linotype operator and reporter. Even after witnessing Mr. Smith's speed and precision with the linotype machine, Doug tries to talk him out of it, saying he cannot pay him or even resume operation of ''The Courier'' due to an overdue debt payment to the bank of nearly $5,000. Mr. Smith immediately loans him the $5,000.

Shortly after his hiring, Mr. Smith produces a report of a bank robbery that occurred just a half hour before. Business booms for the little newspaper, as Mr. Smith scoops ''The Gazette'' on dramatic news stories, with special editions which sometimes hit the streets barely two hours after the events happen. The owner of ''The Gazette'', Mr. Franklin, offers to buy out ''The Courier''. Though Douglas himself doubts that ''The Courier'' can stand up to Franklin's monopolizing tactics, assuming his recent success is down to luck, he refuses his offer. The day after, a fire burns down ''The Gazette'' building. When an edition of ''The Courier'' goes on sale just two hours after, Franklin accuses Doug of arson. Doug has witnesses to account for his whereabouts at the time, and when he asks Mr. Smith if he caused the fire, Smith successfully dodges the question.

Jackie, still suspicious of Mr. Smith, prods Douglas for information on where he came from, and says he should get rid of him now that the $5,000 loan has been repaid. Douglas refuses, and becomes irritable when she asks what he was doing at the bridge where he met Smith.

At last Mr. Smith reveals why he joined ''The Courier'': he wants Doug to sign a contract assuring Mr. Smith's continued services in exchange for Doug's soul. When Doug is reluctant, Mr. Smith uses a variation of doublethink, arguing that while he believes himself to be the devil, he is clearly mad, and to a sane sophisticated man like Doug things like souls and the devil clearly do not exist. Doug signs the contract.

Eventually, however, he comes to the conclusion that Mr. Smith is somehow causing the events that he writes about, and tells Mr. Smith he wants him gone. Smith says that is impossible now that the contract has been signed, and writes a story about Jackie being injured in an auto accident at 11:30—an hour and a half in the future. He tells Douglas that when he joined ''The Courier'' he modified the linotype machine so that anything typed on it happens, and will write that Jackie died of her injuries unless Douglas kills himself. In this way Smith could immediately claim his soul and move on to other clients, instead of having to work at ''The Courier'' for the rest of Douglas's natural life. Douglas tosses aside the offered gun and goes frantically searching for Jackie. Meanwhile, she confronts Mr. Smith. He agrees to leave town if she gives him a lift, and asks to drive.

Unable to find Jackie, Doug returns to ''The Courier'' building and uses the linotype machine to write a new story. The car with Jackie and Mr. Smith runs off the road, but Jackie is uninjured, and Mr. Smith has vanished. Doug shows a confused Jackie the story he wrote, which says that Mr. Smith left town at 11:29, and that his contract with Doug was declared void due to Doug's not fully understanding the terms of the agreement. Douglas resumes running ''The Courier'' after having the infernal linotype machine destroyed, and hauled away.

In ''Gravion'', '''Eiji Shigure''' is sent a letter from his missing older sister '''Ayaka Shigure'''. Responding to its message, his search for her leads him to the mysterious billionaire '''Klein Sandman''', and Eiji secretly infiltrates his enormous ''Saint-Germain Castle'' while he is hosting a party for '''Earth Federation Alliance''' ('''EFA''') leaders, in order to find her. He ends up piloting the ''G-Attacker'', a vehicle that is one of a group of five, called ''Gran Diva''s, that were secretly created by Sandman himself, during a mission of Sandman's '''Earthgertz''' team to defeat the invading mechanical extraterrestrials called the '''Zeravire'''. Sandman explains to Eiji that his unique ''G-Factor'' allows him to pilot machines such as the G-Attacker and his sister, who also had the G-Factor, was secretly part of Earthgertz. When she disappeared on a mission, Sandman was forced to send the letter to Eiji to bring him there in order to recruit him onto the team. Although only interested in finding his sister, Eiji becomes part of Earthgertz, who are the planet's only defensive team able to prevent the Zeravire from destroying humanity, by combining the Gran Divas with the ''Gran Kaiser'' mecha to form the titular super robot, '''Gravion'''.

In ''Gravion Zwei'', the Zeravire invasion seems to have stopped. However, when it rises back up all of a sudden, the Earthgertz and its trump card Gravion, is needed to defend the Earth again. In the meantime, the EFA creates their own weapons to counter the Zeravire, the '''Gran Trooper'''. As they attempt to fend off the Zeravire, the Earthgertz and the EFA must set aside their differences, confront their pasts and unveil the mysteries of the Zeravire, in order to end their impending threat once and for all.

During World War II, U-boats are sinking thousands of tons of British merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean. British intelligence, based in India, believes that information is being passed to the U-boats by a radio transmitter hidden on board one of three German merchant ships interned in Goa, then a colony of Portugal. Since Portugal is neutral, the ships cannot be attacked by conventional forces.

The head of the Indian section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) authorises attempts to kidnap and interrogate two known German agents, but these operations both fail. An approach is then made to a Territorial unit of British expatriates, the Calcutta Light Horse, to carry out the mission on its behalf. They all volunteer – all are trained in military skills and keen to 'do their bit'.

Whilst the volunteers are trained, Stewart and Cartwright travel covertly to Goa. By a mixture of blackmail and bribery, they arrange diversions on the night of the raid. A party is to be held in the Governor's palace, a brothel will offer free entry to sailors from ships in the port and a Carnival with fireworks will be held. Stewart has a brief affair with Mrs. Cromwell, a mysterious and socially well-connected woman, who turns out to be a German agent and the main conduit to the German 'Master Spy', known to the Germans and the British by the code-name ''Trompeta'' (Trumpet). She is eventually killed by Stewart, after she attempts to kill him but not before she's killed Jack Cartwright.

The raiding party sail around the coast in a decrepit and barely seaworthy barge; they set mines on the hull of the German ships in Goa. They then board one which is being used to transmit signals to U-boats, catching the depleted crew off-guard. Despite Pugh's order that there be no shooting, several German sailors are killed. The ship is set alight and the party withdraws, watching as the ship sinks. The final scene shows a surfacing German U-boat which is expecting to hear a signal from the now sunken ship.

Edna Krabappel tells her students to write a paper on World War I, due in three weeks. After class, Edna and Principal Skinner's apple picking date is cancelled when Skinner's mother, Agnes, interrupts. Bart continuously gets distracted from writing his paper by pranks and other activities, and at the end of the three weeks, he still has not started the assignment. The day before the date of submission, he asks Grampa for help, relying on his recount of World War I. Edna rejects Bart's paper for using six pages of ads as filler and tells him that he will have to do it correctly after school. As Bart finishes the assignment after school, supervised by Edna herself, he observes Skinner cancel a movie date with Edna when Agnes calls. Bart consoles Edna, and she reluctantly accepts his offer to accompany her to a documentary at the movie theater.

At home, Lisa suggests that Bart nominate Edna for the Teacher of the Year Award. When Edna is informed of her Teacher of the Year nomination, she thanks Bart at the ensuing press conference. Skinner is about to congratulate Edna when Agnes calls again. Bart informs his family that, as nominator, he and his family are going to Orlando, Florida.

At Springfield Elementary, Skinner is despondent at the thought that Edna could leave the school. Groundskeeper Willie lends Skinner his sports car so he can go to Orlando, where he surprises Edna with a kiss under the fireworks display. They are interrupted by Agnes, whom Skinner brought along, much to Edna's ire. During preparation for the awards ceremony, Skinner is shocked when he hears that the winner receives enough money to be able to retire. He requests Bart to help him sabotage Edna's chances of winning, though he has to resort to blackmail after Bart initially refuses. At the ceremony, each finalist must ask their nominating student a question. When Bart is asked what Edna would like to teach the world, he pretends to be illiterate, until Skinner tells the truth. Skinner asks Edna to marry him, and she agrees. Edna loses the award to Julio Estudiante, but looks forward to marrying Skinner.