When a vicious dog chases Bart, he takes refuge in the garden of a house belonging to former Western actor Buck McCoy. After Buck shows Bart a trick to calm the dog, Bart starts to hero-worship him. Naturally, Homer learns about Bart's new idol and demands he worship him instead.

To help revive Buck's career, Bart lands him a job on Krusty the Clown's show. However, Buck gets drunk before the show and makes a fool of himself, culminating in him shooting Krusty live on air. Seeing how crushed Bart is, Marge and Homer help Buck overcome his alcoholism by cleaning his house and enrolling him in an Alcoholics Anonymous program. Despite making progress, Buck fails to restore Bart's hero-worship.

When Homer sees a news report about a robbery at the Bank of Springfield, he convinces Buck to foil the robbery and become a hero. Buck subdues the bank robbers and again becomes a hero in Bart's eyes. After acknowledging everything Homer has done, Bart declares him a hero too. As the episode ends, Bart is again chased by the vicious dog.

The episode begins with the Simpson family visiting Grampa after his retirement home mistakenly reports his death. An old woman named Zelda moves into his retirement home in place of the actual deceased resident. Grampa is determined to win her love over Zack, another resident who owns and drives a minivan. After renewing his driver's license, Grampa convinces Homer to let him borrow the car to romance her. Although he impresses Zelda, Homer and Marge think she is a hoochie and only likes Grampa because he can drive. After he crashes Homer's car in a drag race with a rival seniors gang, He becomes furious with Grampa and takes his keys away, forbidding him to drive ever again. Zelda informs Grampa that she got them tickets to a theater in Branson, Missouri, but when he tells her he does not have a car, she leaves with Zack and his minivan.

Grampa steals Marge's car and takes Bart with him on the road to Branson to win back Zelda. When realizing that Grandpa and Bart are heading to Branson, Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie take a bus there. At the theater, Grampa calls out to Zelda from on-stage, but then denounces her in front of everyone, who then chant to her a hoochie, forcing her to leave the stage. Grampa then reconciles with Homer.

During World War II, Navy Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence (Richard Widmark), a strict disciplinarian, is put in charge of Underwater Demolition Team 4 after its former leader, Lt. Cmdr. Jack Cassidy, is killed in action. The unit's men are distrustful of the professionally aloof Lawrence, and the relationship immediately takes a turn for the worse when they brawl with sailors aboard their transport ship. The ship's captain, Lt. Cmdr. Pete Vincent (Gary Merrill), understands the natural resentment the elite UDT men feel over the death of Cassidy, which they have transferred to Lawrence, and offers to go easy on the team at captain's mast. The "by-the-book" Lawrence, however, elects to hold his own mast and disciplines the entire team just before a dangerous reconnaissance mission to ascertain the safest landing beach during an upcoming invasion of a Japanese-held island. Lawrence is scornfully perceived as afraid when he splits up the platoon and puts team executive officer Lt. Klinger in charge of a diversion to the more dangerous beach, where the main landing is scheduled.

During the mission, Lawrence cuts his leg on coral, and the diversionary section's pick-up boat receives a direct hit from artillery during pick-up operations, killing Klinger and most of his men. Lawrence sees that two frogmen, including Chief Jake Flannigan (Dana Andrews), are still in the water, but rather than risk loss of the information already gathered, orders a rescue boat launched and continues back to the transport. The rescue succeeds in recovering the two swimmers, but Lawrence's apparently cowardly action increases the unit's ill will toward him. An embittered Flannigan and some of the others request transfer to another unit, but Lawrence insists that they first complete the next day's mission to clear the new landing site for the invasion.

The next morning, Lawrence, who is sick with coral poisoning, does not reveal his illness when he puts Flannigan in charge of the mission and stays behind. Convinced now that Lawrence is a coward, the men angrily but efficiently complete their task, although "Pappy" Creighton (Jeffrey Hunter), whose brother is a U.S. Marine, sneaks onto the beach with Flannigan to leave a sign "welcoming" the Marines. Creighton is shot after the prank, but Flannigan tows him to the pick-up boat. Back on the ship, Creighton is put in traction because of the bullets in his spine, and Flannigan confesses to Lawrence that the prank caused Creighton's injuries. Lawrence furiously upbraids Flannigan for giving in to the prank, and soon all of the men request transfers.

While Lawrence is discussing the transfer requests with Vincent, a torpedo hits the ship but does not detonate. Lawrence volunteers to disarm the torpedo, which has lodged in the sick bay next to Creighton's bed, and with Flannigan's help, succeeds. Soon after, Lawrence receives orders to blow up a Japanese submarine pen, and tells the men that although it will be their last mission together, he is proud to have served with them. Although Flannigan voices disdain that Lawrence will again dodge dangerous duty, Lawrence leads the mission, which is discovered when one of the men accidentally trips a signal wire. Japanese sentries shoot at the men as they plant the charges, and Lawrence is stabbed in hand-to-hand combat with a Japanese diver. He orders Flannigan to leave him behind, but Flannigan tows him to safety. The mission is a success, and soon Lawrence is recuperating beside Creighton. Finally won over by Lawrence's bravery, the men show their acceptance of him by asking him to sign the portrait they have drawn of Cassidy to present to his widow.

Renowned stage actor Sir Charles Cartwright hosts a dinner party at his home in Cornwall. His guests include: Hercule Poirot; psychiatrist Sir Bartholomew Strange; Hermione "Egg" Lytton Gore and her mother; Captain Dacres and his wife Cynthia; the playwright Muriel Wills; Egg's friend Oliver Manders; Mr Satterthwaite; and Reverend Babbington and his wife. When the Reverend Babbington suddenly dies after sipping one of the cocktails being served, Cartwright believes it was murder, though Strange finds no poison in his glass. Some time later, Poirot is in Monte Carlo and hears news from Satterthwaite and Cartwright that Strange died from nicotine poisoning after drinking a glass of port wine, despite there being no trace in the glass. With the exception of the three men, Strange's guests are the same ones who attended Cartwright's party. Both Satterthwaite and Cartwright return to England to investigate the murders. They learn that prior to the party, Strange had sent his usual butler away for two months, and that he exhibited strange behaviour as if expecting something. A temporary replacement he hired named Ellis has since disappeared, with Satterthwaite and Cartwright finding drafted blackmail letters from Ellis in his room. Babbington's body is soon exhumed, showing he too died from nicotine poisoning.

Cartwright, Satterthwaite and Egg partner to investigate the deaths, joined by Poirot as a consultant. Each guest has a possible motive or suspicious circumstances surrounding Strange's death, but no connection to Babbington. When Wills is interviewed, she recalls noticing Manders apparently drop a newspaper cutting on nicotine, and that Ellis had a birthmark on one hand; she later disappears. Poirot stages a party where he demonstrates how the poisoned glasses were substituted by the murderer while everyone's attention was on the victim. He then receives a telegram from Mrs De Rushbridger, a patient at Strange's Yorkshire sanatorium, who arrived on the day Strange died. Poirot and Satterthwaite go to meet her, but find that she has in turn been murdered. Learning that Cartwright's servant, Miss Milray, is hastily heading to Cornwall, Poirot follows her to find out why.

Upon his return, Poirot assembles Cartwright, Satterthwaite and Egg, eventually denouncing Cartwright as the killer. Cartwright wants to marry Egg, but already has a wife who resides in a lunatic asylum. As he cannot divorce her under British law, he decided to conceal this knowledge by murdering Dr Strange, his oldest friend and the only one who knew about the marriage. After his party, Cartwright convinced Strange to let him assume the role of his butler as a joke, and then poisoned him during his party and planted the nicotine cutting on Manders after tricking him into being at Strange's home. He falsified Ellis's blackmail letters, then travelled to Monte Carlo the day after to establish his alibi. The first murder was a dress rehearsal for the second to test whether the glass could be switched unseen, and the victim was selected at random. The only safe guests were Cartwright; Strange, who disliked cocktails; and Egg, to whom Cartwright gave a safe glass. Mrs De Rushbridger was used by Cartwright as a red herring to distract from Strange's behavior towards "Ellis", and he killed her to divert suspicion and prevent her revealing her ignorance of the case.

Poirot reveals that the nicotine came from rose spray distilled by Cartwright at an old tower near his Cornwall residence; the equipment was found by him when Miss Milray went to destroy it. His suspicions about Cartwright were based on several facts; Cartwright was the most likely to have poisoned the cocktail, his passport book shows his return to England to play Ellis, Miss Milray's actions were motivated by a secret love for her employer, Miss Wills noted Cartwright's similarity to Ellis and was spirited away by Poirot to protect her, and the telegram supposedly from Mrs De Rushbridger was addressed to Poirot when she knew nothing of his involvement. Cartwright flees, but Poirot says that he will "choose his exit" of public trial or suicide.

(In certain American editions, Poirot tells Cartwright that doctors and policemen are awaiting him in the next room. Cartwright, unable to believe someone as important as himself has failed, tries to prove Poirot a liar and is arrested when he opens the door.)

The shocked Egg is picked up by Manders, whom she initially cared for before Cartwright appeared. In the aftermath, Satterthwaite remarks how terrible it was that anyone, himself included, could have drunk the poisoned cocktail. Poirot remarks there was an even more terrible possibility: "It might have been me."

Bobby Jones is playing golf with Dr Thomas in the Welsh seaside town of Marchbolt. Seeking the golf ball he hit over the cliff edge, he sees a man lying on the rocks below. The doctor says the man is fatally injured and seeks help. Bobby stays with the man, who briefly regains consciousness, says "Why didn't they ask Evans?", and then dies. Bobby finds a photograph of a beautiful woman in the man's coat pocket, but no identification. Roger , a stranger wearing plus fours, offers to stay with the body so Bobby can play the organ at his father's church.

The dead man is identified as Alex Pritchard by his sister, Amelia Cayman, at the inquest. She is said to be the woman in the photograph; Bobby wonders how such a beautiful girl could become such a coarse older woman. After the inquest, Mrs Cayman and her husband want to know if Pritchard had any last words. Bobby says that he did not. Later, when talking with his friend Lady Frances "Frankie" Derwent, Bobby remembers that Pritchard did have last words and writes to the Caymans to tell them.

Bobby receives and rejects an unexpected job offer from a firm in Buenos Aires. Soon afterwards Bobby nearly dies after drinking from a poisoned bottle of beer. The local police do not pursue this. Frankie thinks Bobby is targeted for murder. Bobby agrees when he sees the issue of the local paper with the photograph used to find Pritchard's sister. Bobby sees that it is not the one he found in the dead man's pocket. He and Frankie realise that swapped the photographs and that Mrs Cayman is not related to the dead man at all. Bobby and Frankie search for . They trace him to Merroway Court in Hampshire, owned by Roger's brother and sister-in-law, Henry and Sylvia. They stage a car accident outside the house with the help of a doctor friend so that Frankie, feigning injury, will be invited to stay to recover. Frankie produces a newspaper cutting about the mysterious dead man; Sylvia remarks that he looks like Alan Carstairs, a traveller and big-game hunter who was a friend of John Savage, a millionaire who had killed himself after learning he had terminal cancer.

Frankie meets two neighbours of the – Dr Nicholson and his younger wife, Moira. Dr Nicholson runs a local sanatorium. Frankie gets Bobby to investigate the establishment. On the grounds at night, Bobby encounters a girl who says that she fears for her life; she is the original of the photograph that Bobby found in the dead man's pocket. Several days later, Moira Nicholson turns up at the local inn where Bobby stays in his disguise as Frankie's chauffeur. She says her husband is trying to kill her and says she knew Alan Carstairs before her marriage to the doctor. Bobby introduces her to Frankie. Moira suggests they ask Roger if he took the photograph from the body of the dead man. Roger admits that he took the photo, recognising Moira and wanting to avoid scandal for her. Frankie leaves after Henry is found dead in his home, an apparent suicide.

Interested in the will of the late John Savage, Frankie consults her family's solicitor in London and learns that Carstairs consulted him too. Savage was staying with Mr and Mrs Templeton when he became convinced he had cancer, although one specialist told him he was perfectly well. When he died by suicide, his will left seven hundred thousand pounds to the Templetons, who have apparently since left England. Carstairs was on their trail when he was killed. Bobby is kidnapped and Frankie is lured to the same isolated cottage by Roger. They manage to turn the tables on him with the timely arrival of Badger Beadon and find a drugged Moira in the house. When the police arrive, Roger has escaped.

Bobby and Frankie trace the witnesses to the signing of John Savage's will. They are the former cook and gardener of Mr and Mrs Templeton. Mr Templeton is also known as Mr Leo Cayman. The cook says that Gladys, the parlourmaid, was not asked to witness the will, made the night before Savage died. Frankie realises that the cook and gardener did not see Mr Savage before the signing, while the parlourmaid did and would have realised that it was Roger in the "deathbed" who wrote the will and not Mr Savage. The parlourmaid is Gladys Evans, hence the reason for Carstairs' question, "Why didn't they ask Evans?"

Tracing the parlourmaid, they discover she is now the married housekeeper at Bobby's home. Carstairs was trying to find her. Returning to Wales, they find Moira, who claims she is being followed by Roger and has come to them for help. Frankie is not deceived and spoils Moira's attempt to poison their coffee. Moira was Mrs Templeton and is Roger's co-conspirator. Moira then attempts to shoot Frankie and Bobby in the café when she is exposed, but is overpowered and arrested. Several weeks later, Frankie receives a letter from Roger, posted from South America, in which he confesses to murdering Carstairs, murdering his brother, and conspiring in all of Moira's past crimes. Bobby and Frankie realise they are in love and become engaged.

Nurse Amy Leatheran arrives at an archaeological dig near Hassanieh, Iraq, to assist the Swedish-American archaeologist, Dr Eric Leidner, in caring for his seemingly-neurotic wife, Louise. During her initial days, Amy learns that Louise was married before to a German named Frederick Bosner. Fifteen years ago, during the Great War, Bosner was arrested for being a spy within the US State Department, and sentenced to death; he escaped custody, but died later in a train crash. Louise reveals that she received death threats claiming to be from Frederick, whenever she was attracted to another man; these stopped when she married Leidner three years ago, until recently. A week later, after receiving another threatening letter, Louise is found dead in her bedroom in the archaeologists' compound near the dig site. Dr Giles Reilly determines she was struck by a very heavy, blunt object.

An initial investigation, led by Captain Maitland, cannot find the murder weapon, but confirms someone on the dig must have committed the murder. Reilly learns that his friend Hercule Poirot is travelling in Iraq, and so contacts him for help. When Poirot arrives, he notes that the bedroom has only one point of entry, that the only window in the room was shut and barred, and that a rug near a washstand has blood on it. Anne Johnson, a colleague of Leidner, claims she heard a cry, yet is unsure about it. Reilly's daughter Sheila remarks that the victim had the attention of every man, especially one of Leidner's old friends Richard Carey. Poirot takes an interest in the story Louise told Nurse Leatheran about her first husband; he wonders if Bosner, or possibly his much-younger brother William (presumably still living but whereabouts unknown) is somehow among team. Two men - epigraphist Father Lavigny and drug-addicted historian Joseph Mercado - are the right age to be Frederick. Furthermore, three younger men - dig assistants Bill Coleman and David Emmott, and photographer Carl Reiter - are the right age to be William. Reiter in particular is of German-American ancestry, and was tormented by Louise for his shyness and clumsiness. However, he seems to have an alibi. Poirot is also intrigued to find that the letters Louise received were apparently in her own handwriting.

Following Louise's funeral, Nurse Leatheran meets with Miss Johnson on the compound's roof. Johnson claims she knows how someone could have entered unseen; she does not elaborate on this further. That night, Miss Johnson unwittingly drinks a glass of hydrochloric acid which had been substituted for her usual glass of water on her nightstand. Amy attends to Miss Johnson, and hears her mention "the window" before she dies. The nurse does not believe Miss Johnson has committed suicide, and wonders if she hinted at how the acid was switched for the water. After spending a day sending telegrams, Poirot brings everyone together and reveals that both women were murdered by Dr Erich Leidner, who is, in reality, Frederick Bosner. The real Leidner died in the train crash 15 years ago - when Bosner came across his body and found his face disfigured, he switched their identities to escape the authorities.

Bosner was deeply possessive of Louise. To discourage her from forming relationships with other men, he sent her letters, which he carefully wrote out in her handwriting so the police would disbelieve her. The letters stopped after he married her twelve years later, when she no longer recognised him. When Louise became attracted to Richard Carey, Bosner decided to murder her to ensure no one else could have her. On the day of the murder, Bosner, on the rooftop, lured her to the window with a mask he had used to scare her on previous nights. Once she stuck her head out to investigate, he dropped a quern on her, which he then pulled back to the roof via a rope he had tied to it. On the pretense of checking on her, he shut the bedroom window while moving the body and the rug beneath it to where they were later found. He then used Amy as part of his alibi to divert suspicion from himself. Miss Johnson was murdered because she had begun to realise how Louise was killed.

In the aftermath of Poirot's investigations, it is revealed that Father Lavigny is actually Raoul Menier, a dealer in stolen artifacts. As Lavigny was known to Leidner only by reputation, Menier was able to impersonate him while stealing artifacts found at the dig and replacing them with excellent copies. Thanks to warnings sent out by Poirot, Menier and his associate Ali Yusuf are arrested in Beyrouth. Sheila marries David Emmott, and Nurse Leatheran returns home to England.

Emily Arundell, a wealthy spinster, writes to Hercule Poirot in the belief she has been the victim of attempted murder after a fall in her home in Berkshire. However, her family and household believe she actually fell by accident, after tripping over a ball left by her fox terrier Bob. When Poirot receives the letter, he learns she has already died; her doctor, Dr. Grainger, states her death was from chronic liver problems. While recovering from her earlier fall, a new will she made bequeaths her vast fortune and home to her companion, Miss Minnie Lawson. Seeking to investigate Emily's belief someone wanted to murder her, Poirot, accompanied by his friend Arthur Hastings, notes that under her previous will, her nephew Charles Arundell would have inherited, along with her nieces Theresa Arundell and Bella Tanios. All three wish to contest the will but do not pursue this course of action.

Visiting the house on the pretence of buying it, Poirot discovers a nail covered with varnish at the top of the stairs, deducing a string had been tied to it. Through Emily's last words, he concludes that Bob had been out all night and that she had therefore fallen down the stairs as a result of a tripwire, and that there is a chance Emily was indeed murdered. Her family thus become suspects in that matter. In his investigations, Poirot learns that a luminous aura was noticed coming from her mouth when she spoke during a seance held in Emily's home. Visiting Lawson at her home, he learns that she saw someone moving about on the night of Emily's fall, who wore a brooch with the initials "TA." At the same time, Lawson's gardener recalls Charles inquiring about his arsenic-based weed killer and is surprised to find the bottle containing it to be nearly empty. Bella later leaves her husband Jacob, on the implication he bullies her, taking the children with her. After Lawson helps hide them in a hotel, Poirot moves her to another on fear of a second murder; before he does, he gives her a summary of Emily's death. The next day, Bella is found dead from an overdose of sleeping medication.

Poirot soon brings together Lawson and Emily's surviving family, whereupon he reveals that Bella was the murderer. She had hated her husband, never truly loving him, and sought to separate from him and keep her children in England. As she had no means to do so, she decided to kill Emily to inherit her portion of her wealth. When her first attempt with the tripwire failed, she decided to switch one of her aunt's capsules for her liver troubles, with one filled with elemental phosphorus, knowing that her death from the poison would mimic the symptoms of liver failure. The aura witnessed by those attending the seance was because of the poison Emily had unknowingly taken. When she found out her aunt changed her will and that Poirot had discovered the cause of her death, Bella found herself in a far worse quandary. She thus relinquished her children back to their father before committing suicide; the medication was originally intended to be used in murdering Jacob.

Poirot reveals that Lawson saw Bella on the night of Emily's fall, though in a mirror; the brooch's initials were reversed from that of "AT" – Arabella Tanios. The arsenic was stolen by Theresa, who intended to use it, but could not bear to do so in the end. A small sum of cash that went missing was later discovered to have been stolen by Charles; he knew his aunt had changed her will before her death. Knowing Emily wished for no scandal, Poirot honours this, while Lawson decides to share her inheritance with Theresa, Charles, and Bella's children. Meanwhile, Poirot and Hastings find themselves returning home with Bob joining them.

Multi-millionaire Simeon Lee, frail in his old age, unexpectedly invites his family to gather at his home for Christmas. The gesture is met with suspicion by the guests. Simeon is not given to warm family sentiment, and the family are not on good terms, in particular, with the black sheep of the family, Harry. Simeon also searched out his orphaned, Spanish-born granddaughter, Pilar Estravados, to live in his house. None have met their late sister Jennifer's daughter before; she proves to be delightful. Simeon is intent on playing a cruel game with his family's emotions. Stephen Farr, a surprise guest, arrives on Christmas Eve. He is the son of Simeon's former partner in the diamond mines, welcomed warmly by Simeon. Simeon calls his family together that afternoon, to hear him on the telephone with his attorney, saying he wants to update his will after Christmas. This incomplete information stirs up negative feelings among his sons and their wives.

After dinner on Christmas Eve, the sounds of crashing of furniture and a hideous scream are heard by several, who rush to Simeon's room. When they get to his door, they find it locked and have to break it down. The sight revealed includes heavy furniture overturned, crockery smashed, and Simeon dead, his throat slit, in a great pool of blood, a grisly and shocking sight. The local police superintendent is already at the front door, before anyone could call the police. Superintendent Sugden notices Pilar pick up something from the floor. He insists that she give the small bit of rubber and a small object made of wood to him.

Sugden explains that he is at the house by prior arrangement with the victim, who confided to him the theft of a substantial quantity of uncut diamonds from his safe. Poirot accompanies Colonel Johnson to investigate this murder. The murder generates many questions. How was the victim killed inside a locked room? Was the murder connected to the theft of the diamonds? And what is the significance of the small triangle of rubber and the peg first noticed by Pilar?

Poirot's investigation explores the victim's methodical and vengeful nature and the way these characteristics come out in his sons, and observes physical traits as well. Each son, and perhaps one of the wives, appears as a suspect to the investigators. When the butler mentions his confusion about the identities of the house guests, Poirot realises that the four sons of Simeon's marriage may not be Simeon's only sons present in the home. Poirot finds the uncut diamonds mixed in with the stones of a decorative outdoor garden, which takes theft away as a motive. The family lawyer reads Simeon's will, which leaves half to son Alfred, who runs the business, and the other half to be split among his other children. This leaves Pilar with nothing, as her mother died a year earlier, and his granddaughter is not specifically named. Alfred, David and Harry agree to pool their inheritances and make a share for Pilar. This warm gesture, based on what is just, as Lydia tells her, upsets Pilar, and she refuses it. The final major clue comes from Pilar. She and Stephen are playing with balloons and one bursts; she mentions that the pieces are like what she found on the floor after Simeon Lee was killed. Poirot warns her to be "on her guard", as she knows more than she realises. Soon she is almost killed in another murder attempt, of a stone cannonball perched above her bedroom door.

A cable comes from South Africa reporting that the son of Simeon’s partner was dead; Stephen Farr admits his name is Stephen Grant, and he is in England to meet his father, from Simeon's last trip to South Africa, five years after his marriage in England. After that, Pilar reveals the story of the death of the real Pilar as the two crossed Spain during its civil war, and her own plan to arrive in England in her stead. With this knowledge, Sugden tries to blame the murder on Pilar. Then Poirot takes over and explains the crime. Poirot reveals that Sugden was another illegitimate child of Simeon, from an affair with a local girl. Sugden hated the man who abandoned his mother, paying her off. Sugden planned his revenge carefully and murdered his father hours before he set off the noisy sound effects.

David is relieved of his years of anger toward his father for mistreating his mother. Stephen takes Pilar, now Conchita Lopez, to South Africa, to marry her. Lydia will invite them to a proper English Christmas. Alfred and Lydia plan to sell off their old house to forget about the horrible murder. Alfred offers his legitimate brother David his mother's furniture, but David politely refuses. Other brothers including David leave the house one by one (Harry, David, George). Alfred and Lydia are a little sorry to leave Lydia's miniature gardens created in stone sinks. Lydia plans another miniature garden she will make in the future. Alfred wholeheartedly thanks his wife for serving him, but Lydia says that it was her duty as a wife.

The story ends with a conversation between Colonel Johnson, Chief Constable and Hercules Poirot, enjoying a wood fire.

Lucía, a children's book writer, is travelling to Brazil with her husband on vacation, when her husband disappears after going to the airport bathroom. She later learns that he was kidnapped by a group called the People Workers Party that wants 20 million pesos from her. Her husband frantically tells her to find the money in his aunt's safe deposit box. With the help of her neighbours, a Spanish Civil War veteran, and a young musician, Lucía sets out to find his kidnappers. She eventually discovers the truth about his disappearance after learning from the police that her husband is accused of being part of an elaborate embezzlement scam from within the Treasury Department of the government and may have possibly faked his kidnapping.

375 years ago, twin brothers Oswulf and Eldamar built a castle in a large valley in the Dragonspine Mountains and the town of Verdigris was founded below the castle. The town prospered under the guidance of the brothers. Oswulf was a paladin and Eldamar was a mage. As Eldamar became older, his obsession for immortality grew and he began studying how to become a lich. Oswulf tried to stop his brother, but failed. Eldamar became a lich known as the Dreadlord.

A horrified Oswulf could not bear to kill his own brother. He sought the help of a band of adventurers known as the Silver Blades to help contain the Dreadlord. The Dreadlord was certain that these adventurers were called upon to slay him and he began gathering armies of evil creatures to aid him. The town was overrun by monsters and the inhabitants abandoned it. With the help of the Silver Blades, they succeeded in driving the monsters out of the town and back to the castle. Oswulf was still determined not to kill his own brother, however. The Silver Blades set out to research a spell and when cast, it encased the entire valley in a glacier. Everything inside became frozen, but was still alive. Oswulf sacrificed himself so his spirit could guard the castle.

A few of the Dreadlord's followers were beyond the glacier's effects and began attempts to get through the ice, but failed. 15 years ago, they formed a group known as the Black Circle and succeeded in breaking the spell. The glacier began to melt. As the ice melted, many miners noticed the old mines of Verdigris were once again accessible and founded the town of New Verdigris. The mines contained vast amounts of gems. As the miners descended to the lower levels, monsters that had been frozen for over 300 years began to emerge and once again took over the mines.

In desperation, the miners took all their gems to the Well of Knowledge, which is said to grant wishes and provide information for those who dropped treasure into it. The party was then summoned to the town of New Verdigris by the Well of Knowledge at the wish of the townspeople. They need the party to protect them from the monsters and so begins the story of the Secret of the Silver Blades.

The party's objective is to adventure through the mountain region near Verdigris, entering areas such as the ruins of Old Verdigris, the Well of Knowledge, the mines, the crevasses, and eventually to the Dreadlord's castle. The party will face off against an evil group of humans called the Black Circle, many kinds of monsters in the mines and crevasses, and finally against the lich the Dreadlord himself.

During Prince Pompadore of Pumperdink's eighteenth birthday celebration, his birthday cake explodes, revealing a magic scroll, a magic mirror, and a doorknob. The scroll warns the prince that if he doesn't wed a "proper princess" within seven days, his entire kingdom will disappear. The prince, along with the kingdom's wise elephant Kabumpo, set off on an adventure to the Emerald City so Pompa can marry Princess Ozma, the only "proper princess" the Elegant Elephant can think of as worthy of his prince.

Meanwhile, Ruggedo the Gnome King (Thompson "corrected" Baum's spelling of "Nome") finds Glegg's Box of Mixed Magic while tunnelling under the Emerald City. After he brings a wooden doll, Peg Amy, to life, and makes Wag the rabbit the size of a man, Ruggedo turns himself into a giant. This means that Ozma's palace gets stuck on his head, and in a panic he runs off to Ev with it.

After many adventures in the strange lands of Rith Metic, the Illumi Nation, and the Soup Sea, Pompadore and Kabumpo arrive in the Emerald City to find Ozma missing. They set off to find her and eventually meet up with Wag and Peg Amy. The group reaches the edge of the Deadly Desert and is hijacked by the Runaway Country, a conscious, talking, mobile piece of land. It carries them over the desert to Ev.

Eventually, Peg Amy is revealed to be the princess of Sun Top Mountain (she was turned into a tree by the evil magician J. Glegg when she refused to marry him, then Cap'n Bill took part of the tree and carved her into a wooden doll for Trot), regains her original human form, and Pompadore marries her.

The owner of a liquor store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City finds a case of cheap acidic booze ("Tenafly Viper") in his basement. It is more than 60 years old and has gone bad, but he decides to sell it to the local hobos anyway. Unfortunately, anyone who drinks the Viper melts away hideously. At the same time, two homeless brothers find different ways to cope with homelessness while they make their residence in a local junkyard while one employee, a female cashier and clerk, frequently tends to both of them. Meanwhile, an overzealous cop (Bill Chepil) is trying to get to the bottom of all the deaths, all the while trying to end the tyranny of a deranged Vietnam veteran named Bronson (Vic Noto), who has made his self-proclaimed "kingdom" at the junkyard with a group of homeless vets under his command as his personal henchmen.

The film is littered with darkly comedic deaths and injuries. It also contains the notorious "severed privates" scene where a group of homeless people play catch with the severed genitals of one of their number, as he futilely attempts to recover it.

The game has no overarching story as such; each puzzle shows a small section of ''Hazard Park'', an amusement park with woeful disdain for its customers. Completing the puzzles in a particular section displays the fate of the unfortunate guests at a given ride, attraction, or location for that particular section.

One puzzle in the game has Cliff Johnson describing the discovery of Elmer McCurdy.

Gillian Holroyd is the owner of a rare African art store in Greenwich Village, New York City, and secretly a witch. Bored with her routine life, she takes an interest in her new neighbor, publisher Shep Henderson. On Christmas Eve, Shep arrives home to discover Gillian's aunt, Queenie, inside his apartment. Offended at being ushered out, Queenie – also a witch – casts a hex on Shep's telephone. He visits Gillian to use her phone, and they discuss the best-selling book ''Magic in Mexico'' and his desire to meet the author, Sidney Redlitch. As Shep leaves, Queenie invites them both to the Zodiac Club. Having perused his letters, Queenie reports that Shep is engaged, but encourages Gillian to use her magic to pursue him anyway.

That night, Shep brings his fiancée Merle Kittridge to the Zodiac Club, meeting Gillian, Queenie, and Gillian's brother Nicky, a bongo drum-playing warlock. Recognizing Merle as an old college enemy, Gillian torments her with the club band until Merle flees, followed by Shep. Returning to Gillian's apartment, the Holroyds exchange Christmas gifts; Nicky gives Gillian an enchanted liquid, with which they attempt to summon Redlitch. Queenie and Nicky depart when Shep arrives, and he reveals that he and Merle are eloping later that day. Gillian uses her Siamese cat and familiar, Pyewacket, to cast a love spell on Shep, who becomes immediately enamored of her.

After spending all night out on the town with Gillian, the infatuated Shep breaks up with Merle. Redlitch arrives at Shep's office, having been magically compelled to meet him, and explains that he is researching witches in New York City for his next book. The oblivious Shep introduces him to the Holroyds, and Nicky later reveals his powers to Redlitch, offering him access to the witch community in exchange for half the book's profits. Reveling in her romance with Shep, Gillian is torn when he proposes to her; although witches lose their magic if they fall in love, she agrees to marry him.

Gillian and Nicky quarrel about his exposing their world to Redlitch, and about her preparing to renounce magic and marry Shep. Using her powers to make Shep lose all interest in publishing Nicky and Redlitch's book, Gillian confesses that she is a witch and their relationship is the result of her spell. Shep refuses to believe her, but runs into Queenie, who confirms Gillian's version of events. Believing she enchanted him purely to spite Merle, Shep leaves Gillian heartbroken. He goes to Nicky, who brings him to Bianca De Pass, a very powerful witch, who brews a potion for him to drink, breaking Gillian's spell over him.

Shep confronts Gillian and cruelly presents her with a broom. She threatens to curse Merle, but Pyewacket runs away, and Shep is unable to convince Merle that he was bewitched. Queenie finds Pyewacket, but the cat rejects Gillian, who is now able to cry – proof she has fallen in love and is no longer a witch. Weeks later, Mrs. De Pass has become Redlitch's new collaborator, and Queenie confides to Nicky that she is worried about Gillian. Pyewacket is sent to Shep's office, and he returns the cat to Gillian at her transformed store. She explains that Pyewacket is no longer her cat; Shep realizes from Gillian's tears that she truly loves him, and they reconcile with a passionate kiss. Watching through the window with Queenie, Nicky celebrates by casting a spell on the entire street.

Naive but good natured young man Albert Hockenberry (Baldwin) arrives in Washington, D.C., with plans to work for his late father's army buddy Harold (Gail), owner of the run-down District of Columbia Cab company. Aware of the sorry state of his business and from the growing competition from the popular Emerald Cab Company, Harold wants to clean it up but doesn't have the financial means to do so. Complicating matters is the motley group of cab drivers that he has working for him. They all see driving as a dead-end job while they wait for better lives, until Albert inspires them to work as a team.

A valuable violin is found in one of the cabs, earning Harold and his wife a $10,000 reward as owners of the cab. Harold wants to share the money with the drivers and let them invest in the cab company as partners. However, his greedy wife Myrna picks up the reward money and tosses Harold and Albert's belongings out of the house. The cabbies are not happy about losing their share of the reward, so Albert decides to donate $6,063 of his own money to the cab company and convinces the drivers to stay and make something of the company and themselves. The cabbies completely overhaul the entire business, and the revitalized company soon supplants Emerald Cab as the most popular in the city.

Later on, the cabbies work together to rescue Albert and a diplomat's two children after they're kidnapped. The film ends with a parade in D.C. Cab's honor.

John Michael ("Chip") Hardesty (James Stewart) describes a murder, seen in a flashback. He then narrates the incident in which Jack Gilbert Graham (Nick Adams) took out life insurance on his mother and planted a bomb in her luggage for a flight she was taking from Denver, Colorado in 1955. Hardesty is shown delivering a lecture to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He begins to recount his history as an agent of the bureau, which is shown as a series of flashbacks comprising the remainder of the film.

In May 1924, Hardesty was working as a government clerk for the nascent FBI in Knoxville, Tennessee. He proposes to his sweetheart, a nagging librarian named Lucy Ann Ballard (Vera Miles). Ballard thinks Hardesty's potential is being wasted by the FBI and wants him to start practicing law. They marry with this idea in mind. Hardesty is inspired to stay with the bureau after hearing a speech from its new director, J. Edgar Hoover. Lucy Ann reveals that she is pregnant; she permits Hardesty to stay in the bureau for a preliminary year.

Hardesty is sent to the South to investigate the Ku Klux Klan. He is moved around until he is sent to Ute City, Wade County, Oklahoma to investigate a series of murders of Native Americans who had oil-rich mineral land and rights. The FBI was compelled to investigate after one of the murders was committed on federal government land. The FBI forensics laboratory ties the doctored wills and life insurance policies of the murder victims to a local banker, Dwight McCutcheon (Fay Roope), with the typewriter that he used. Lucy Ann, already the mother of three, suffers a miscarriage around this time.

On June 17, 1933, three FBI agents were escorting Frank "Jelly" Nash from a train to a car outside the Union Station in Kansas City when they were ambushed and killed. This event changed the FBI; a year later, Congress gave the FBI statutory authority to carry guns and make arrests. Hardesty and his friend Sam Crandall (Murray Hamilton) are excited by his prospect, but Lucy Ann does not like the idea at all.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/peopleevents/e_fbi.html "People & Events: The Rise of the FBI"]. – | [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dillinger/filmmore/ps_crime.html "Primary Sources: Some Anti-Dillinger Laws"]. – ''American Experience''. – PBS. – Retrieved: 2008-07-04

After receiving a tip, Hardesty and Crandall head to Spider Lake, Wisconsin, on April 22, 1934, but barking dogs alert the gangsters and they scatter. The agents then head to a nearby country store to call the Chicago office. When they get there they find Baby Face Nelson (William Phipps) holding two men hostage. Nelson opens fire, fatally wounding Crandall.

Hardesty then recounts his involvement in the capture and/or deaths of numerous infamous mobsters of the day including John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly. Unable to get Chip to obey her to leave the bureau, Lucy decides to leave their marriage and take his children from him. They move into her parents' home. While preparing an Easter egg hunt, Lucy ironically calls her mother "a nag, a real nag." Later, Lucy's mother sarcastically tells Lucy that Lucy's father is also "a nag." Realizing what she is and what she has done, Lucy decides to return home and bring back Chip's children.

With the U.S. entry into World War II, "enemy aliens" (Americans of Japanese, German, and Italian descent) are quickly rounded up by the FBI and sent to internment camps to prevent possible espionage and collaboration with Axis powers. The ranks of the bureau are quickly doubled from about 2,500 to more than 5,000 agents. One of those aspiring new agents is the deceased Sam's son George who is worried that he will never live up to his father's reputation; a romance buds between him and Hardesty's oldest daughter. Hardesty's only son announces his enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps. Lucy objects, placing her own interests ahead of her country's.

Hardesty is sent to South America to relieve three agents whose identities have been compromised. The third is revealed to be George; he has been deep in the jungle intercepting secret radio messages. Local authorities move in, forcing the FBI agents to destroy the equipment and flee. Back in the U.S., Hardesty and Lucy receive a telegram informing them their son had been killed in the line of duty during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

The final case depicted stems from a New York City clothes cleaner finding a hollow half-dollar with microfilm inside. The FBI investigates and tracks the owner of the clothing, leading to his capture as well as that of an associate.

Hardesty concludes his speech to the FBI. He is greeted by his family outside the building. He now has a grandson. The family drives away, passing by historic D.C. landmarks.

Squidward Tentacles gets a call from his wealthy former high school classmate and rival, Squilliam Fancyson, who has succeeded in everything in which Squidward has failed, including music. Squilliam reveals to Squidward that he has become the leader of a band scheduled to play at a venue called the Bubble Bowl, but he will be busy at that time and so cannot attend. Squilliam derisively suggests that Squidward's band should substitute for his at the Bubble Bowl, correctly believing that Squidward does not have one. However, to impress Squilliam, Squidward defiantly insists that he has a band and accepts the challenge. He assembles a large marching band composed of various Bikini Bottom residents, including SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mrs. Puff, Larry, Plankton, and Mr. Krabs.

During their one week of training, the band performs consistently poorly and fails to improve at all. On the first day, Patrick and Sandy get into a brawl. On the second day, while practicing a march, two flag twirlers spin their flags too fast (per Squidward's demand), causing them to fly into the air and crash into a blimp. On the third day, Squidward checks on Plankton's harmonica solo, but Plankton becomes exhausted and collapses from running back and forth between the holes since the harmonica is too big for him. On the last day of practice, Squidward (theorizing that "people talk loud when they try to act smart") says that, if everyone plays loudly, they will succeed. However, they take his theory too literally and play so loudly and poorly that they break the windows of the building. The band members start insulting and blaming each other for their poor performance as Squidward tries to bring down the tension but fails as the whole band gets into a huge brawl. As band class ends, everyone instantly calms down and starts filing out of the building; before they leave, Squidward appears outside, expresses his disappointment in them, and goes home in distress over his failure. However, SpongeBob convinces the other band members to go through with the performance for Squidward's sake, and he takes command of their training.

On the day of the concert, Squilliam shows up at the venue entrance, where Squidward claims that his band "died in a marching accident". The band then immediately arrives, and Squidward reluctantly proceeds with the performance. They enter the Bubble Bowl, a large glass dome that elevates them into a live-action football stadium full of human fans. Squidward cringes in fear as he conducts the band, assuming the performance will be a disaster, but to his and Squilliam's surprise, the band is tremendously successful, playing a rock ballad song called "Sweet Victory" (with SpongeBob's lead vocals provided by the song's actual singer, David Glen Eisley). Squilliam enters a state of shock and faints, leaving Squidward to happily conduct the band and celebrate triumphantly as he leaps into the air.

After the events of the first film and before getting frozen for 20,000 years, Scrat (Chris Wedge), after having found a new acorn, discovers a huge tree hollowed out and filled to the brim with acorns. There is one more empty spot in the middle of the acorns where Scrat tries to stuff the last acorn he brought with him (he first tries to put it in the same way he had done in the opening of the first film, but he seems to remember what would happen if he did, so he gently screws it in instead). However, it pops back out when his back is turned and after two more tries at getting it in place—both with the same result—Scrat gets frustrated and stomps it into place, unwittingly causing all the acorns to fall out of a hole in the tree. The avalanche of acorns sends Scrat sliding down the side of a mountain. The acorns and Scrat then go into free fall.

A short musical scene follows (to the tune of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz) with Scrat collecting acorns as he falls. Eventually Scrat collects and forms a 3-D sphere with the acorns, but then (with Scrat on top of it) it tilts upside down so Scrat and the acorns finally land hard on the icy land down below. There is one lone acorn left in the atmosphere (presumably the one he was trying to stuff into the tree). Scrat, stuck in the snow, is only able to free his arms before the acorn impacts right between his eyes with the force of a rifle bullet. The extreme force with which the acorn hits the ground results in a great big earthquake, shaping the Earth's continents (probably Pangaea) into their present-day form, taking all the other acorns with them and trapping Scrat on the original spot from the center of the impact. When Scrat digs out the acorn that hit him, he finds it has been charred and thus crumbled into ash. Disappointed and defeated, he turns to the camera, sighs and puts on the remaining acorn cap as a beret.

Michael Faraday is a widower and college history professor at George Washington University with a 10-year-old son named Grant. One day, Michael encounters a boy, Brady, stumbling in the middle of a road in his neighborhood with horrific injuries to his hands. Michael takes him to the hospital and meets the boy's parents Oliver and Cheryl Lang, discovering they are his neighbors. They soon become friends, and their sons join the Discoverers, a Boy Scouts-style group.

Actions of the Langs arouse suspicion in Michael, who sees blueprints in the Langs' house which are not for the building project that Oliver, a structural engineer, claims, and a misdirected letter suggesting he lied about where he attended college. When Michael laments the FBI's lack of contrition after his wife Leah, an FBI agent, was killed in the line of duty, Oliver states that the government should be punished for its mistakes. Michael's girlfriend, Brooke, and Leah's former FBI partner, Whit Carver dismiss Michael's concerns as paranoia.

Michael takes his college class on a field trip to the site of the standoff in which his wife was killed, where he passionately excoriates the FBI for failing to sufficiently investigate the besieged family and for provoking the standoff. Michael's students appear uneasy.

Oliver tells Michael that Grant wishes someone could be punished for his mother's death, which again rouses Michael's suspicion. He discovers in archives that Oliver's real name is William Fenimore, and that he tried to blow up a post office in Kansas at age 16. He is seen by Oliver, who later confronts and berates him. Oliver states that he sought revenge on the government for causing his father's suicide, that he was imprisoned, and admits to changing his identity to hide his past from his children.

Michael appears to let the matter drop. However, a few days later, Brooke sees Oliver swap cars with a stranger in a parking lot, and follows him to a delivery depot where a number of metal boxes are exchanged. From a pay phone, she leaves Michael a message that his suspicions may have been correct, but is discovered by Cheryl.

Michael learns of Brooke's (off-screen) death on the news, where it appears she died in a car crash. The next day, Michael inadvertently discovers that messages left on his answering machine had been erased. Again suspecting foul play, Michael phones Whit about Oliver/William and asks him to check FBI records and records of calls to his home.

Michael visits the father of the late Dean Scobee, accused of blowing up a federal building in St. Louis, from where the Langs had moved. The elder Scobee is certain his son was innocent since 10 children died in the bombing. Michael becomes convinced Dean was set up when he sees him in a photo with Brady, with whom Grant is on a Discoverer field trip, and rushes in a panic to retrieve him. Troop leaders tell him that Grant was taken home with Brady. Michael confronts Oliver at his home, where he confirms that his group killed Brooke.

The next day Whit accosts Michael, stating the FBI discovered nothing suspicious about Oliver/William or his acquaintances, and says that Michael's 'missing' telephone message was from a pay phone. The following morning, Michael slips out of his house, rents a car under a false name, drives to the pay phone where Brooke made the phone call, and sees a passing delivery vehicle. He follows it to its depot, where he sees some men he recognizes from Oliver's house, and from Discoverer photographs, loading metal boxes into the van.

Michael follows the van and is shocked to see Grant at the window. Oliver intercepts Michael's car and beats him, promising to kill Grant. Oliver expounds on his group's anti-government mission, and their current target: the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the FBI's headquarters. Michael overpowers Oliver and drives to the FBI headquarters, calling Whit to warn him.

Michael sees a delivery van at the gate to the FBI building and illegally pursues it into the secure parking garage, but discovers that it is a different van and is empty. Whit tells Michael that he is the only unauthorized person in the building. Michael rushes back to his own car, discovering a bomb in the trunk seconds before it detonates. The blast partially collapses the FBI headquarters, as Oliver watches from a distance.

A montage of news clips, which portray Michael as a lonewolf terrorist seeking revenge on the FBI for Leah's death, show that the Langs have successfully framed him. Statements from Michael's students (one of whom is a conspirator) support the official story, giving accounts of his erratic and paranoid behavior and implying that he held a dangerous grudge against the FBI. Grant, now orphaned, moves in with relatives, unaware of his father's innocence.

In the final scene, Oliver and Cheryl have put their house up for sale and prepare to move to another suburban neighborhood where they will plan their next terrorist attack, as well as look for another fall guy to take the blame for their group's actions as they did with Michael and others before him.

In 2009, humans make contact with their first extraterrestrials. The signal comes from beyond Neptune and even Pluto, on 1999 ZX, a celestial body between comet and planet in size, out in the Kuiper belt at 35 AU from the Sun. Twenty years later they send a scientific team to this small, ice-bound planetoid in the farthest reaches of the Solar System in the Oort cloud.

This cold, dark planetoid ends up being a strange world indeed. There is only a thin hydrogen atmosphere, almost vacuum, and the average temperature is some 30 K (-243 °C, -406 °F), where only hydrogen, helium, and neon are gaseous in state and nearly everything else is a solid. Yet on this icy, frozen world, life manages to thrive: the keracks, which are no bigger than a few centimeters in length resemble "large one-eyed prawns dressed in elaborate clothing". The keracks, despite their small size, have built rather small cities and developed a complex society on their planetoid which they dubbed "Ice". They have a collectivistic hive-like society with a rich culture suggesting that of England in the time of King Arthur.

The human visitors' first contact is the female kerack Merlene, wizard of the kerack city of Camalor. The humans themselves, being too hot and large, are unsuited for direct contact with the natives on this chilly world. So, instead, they have built "telebots" through which they can communicate with Merlene and the other keracks.

Merlene develops a fondness for conversing with the humans and eventually the humans and the keracks get to learn much about each other's worlds and cultures. The humans also teach Merlene more about science and technology which would hopefully advance the kerack race. The human scientists also uncover mysteries about the energy source of the keracks, who secrete an internal pellet of uranium and moderate its decay with a boron-rich carapace to provide internal warmth. Whenever a kerack dies its pellet is taken to be stockpiled by the colony's queen. The scientists discover the tragic conclusion of the kerack life cycle almost too late to save Merlene; when a kerack colony accumulated a large enough stockpile the queen would instinctively arrange it in such a way as to trigger a nuclear explosion, blasting kerack spores off of the Kuiper belt object to colonize other objects in the belt.

Since the kerack colony is exploded in the process no living kerack had known of their fate. The book concludes with Merlene going traveling to warn other colonies of the consequences of their expanding stockpiles.

The novel tells the struggle and survival of an abused wife named Paula Spencer. It is narrated by the victim. The title comes from an incident narrated in the book, where Paula's husband asks her how she received a bruise he was responsible for, and she replies that she "walked into a door." A sequel, ''Paula Spencer'', was published in 2006. The narrative blends her recounting of the circumstances of her childhood, courtship and wedding day, with reflections on those events. The gathering drama is linked to the increasing awareness of moving towards a climax, which is on the one hand the outbreak of violence in her marriage, and on the other hand the violent death of her husband.

''Running with Scissors'' covers the period of Burroughs' adolescent years, beginning at age 12 after a brief overview of his life as a child. Burroughs spends his early childhood in a clean and orderly home, obsessing over his clothes, hair, accessories, and having great potential, with his parents constantly fighting in the background.

When his parents separate and his mother begins to second-guess her sexuality, Burroughs is sent to live with his mother's psychiatrist, Dr. Finch, who lives in a rundown Victorian house in Northampton, Massachusetts. Finch lives with his "legal" wife, Agnes, as well as his two biological and one adopted children and some of his own patients. Rules are practically nonexistent and children of all ages do whatever they please, such as having sex, smoking cigarettes and cannabis, and rebelling against authority figures. Finch feels that, at age 13, children should be in charge of their own lives. However, the dysfunctional issues that occur in the Finch family are outdone by the psychotic episodes frequently experienced by Burroughs' mother.

The Finch house is a parallel universe to the home Burroughs came from. It is filthy, with cockroaches roaming around the uncleaned dishes, Christmas trees left up year-round, stairs up which Burroughs is afraid to walk because he thinks that they will collapse under him, and nothing off limits. Eventually, Finch comes to believe that God is communicating with him through his feces and develops a form of divination to try and decipher these messages. When Hope, Finch's second oldest daughter, believes her cat is dying, she keeps it in a laundry basket for four days until it dies: "Hope said Freud died of kitty leukemia and old age, I thought it was because Freud was stuck under a laundry basket with no food or water for 4 days."

Burroughs' mother is shown as emotionally drained, excessive, self-centered, and ultimately incapable of being a parent. She has a sexual relationship with a local minister's wife, which is revealed to Burroughs when he accidentally walks in on them when he skips school. When this relationship ends, Burroughs' mother starts another with an affluent African-American woman. This relationship is tumultuous and unstable. At one point, they have a mental patient named Cesar live at their house after another of his mother's breakdowns as his "dad". Cesar attempts to rape Burroughs while he is sleeping, but is unsuccessful (when Cesar goes to live with the Finches later in the book, he pays one of the Finches' daughters for sex and is then forced from the home). His mother's biggest psychotic episode happens when she and Dorothy (her partner) move everything out of their house and attack Burroughs when he tries to intervene. This later ends with a "road trip" and events leading to Burroughs' mother being restrained on a bed.

Burroughs tells Dr. Finch's adopted 33-year-old son, Neil Bookman, that he is gay. From the age of 13 to 15, Burroughs has an intense and open sexual relationship with Bookman, which begins when Bookman forces the young boy to perform oral sex on him. Neither his mother nor any member of the Finch family is bothered by their relationship. Burroughs begins to enjoy exacting power over Bookman by threatening to charge him with statutory rape. Bookman is obsessed with the young boy, even though Burroughs has problems with their relationship (going in phases of needing the affection of Bookman to wanting to humiliate or get away from him) which only infatuates Bookman more. Bookman eventually leaves Northampton for New York City and is never heard from again by Burroughs or the Finches, even after they try everything in their power to find him.

Burroughs forms a close relationship with Finch's daughter, Natalie, who is one year older than he is, even though he dislikes her at the beginning of the book. They do everything together, from finding jobs to running behind a waterfall to demolishing the kitchen ceiling. They finally leave the Finch household together.

At the end of the book, when Burroughs is living in his own apartment with Natalie, he is asked to choose between his mother and Finch when she accuses the doctor of raping her in a motel to cure her of one of her psychotic episodes. He still considers Finch's family and his mother to be his family, and he cannot bring himself to choose sides, although he is fairly certain that Finch did rape his mother. Quoted from the book, Burroughs states: "So it came to this: Was I a turd-reading Finch? Or was I my crazy mother's son? In the end, I decided that I was neither."

Set in Dublin before and during the 1916 Easter Rising, ''At Swim, Two Boys'' tells the love story of two young Irish men: Jim Mack and Doyler Doyle. Jim goes to school on a scholarship (for which he is looked down upon) – he is quiet, studious, thoughtful, and naïve. In contrast, Doyler is outspoken, rebellious, brave, and affectionate. Doyler might once have received a scholarship, like Jim, but Doyler withdrew from school to find work and support his impoverished family, leading the pair to grow apart. They have an additional connection through their fathers, who served in the army together during the Boer War, and were once best friends.

Events of 1915

Jim attends a Catholic school, regularly attends church, and plays in the school's flute band, where he is the object of his Latin teacher's obsession. ''Brother Polycarp'' likes to have extra prayer sessions with him alone, during which Jim is subject to mild sexual pawing whose nature he does not understand; Jim reminds Polycarp of his own past. Unbeknown to his father, Jim is offered the chance of a vocation to join the brothers of the church. When Doyler joins the flute band, their old friendship is renewed. Doyler takes Jim out to the Forty Foot a well known swimming area in Dublin Bay for a swim. The two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter Sunday, 1916, they will swim to the distant island of Muglins Rock and claim it for themselves. As their friendship grows, Jim reconsiders his vocation, ultimately refusing; Brother Polycarp is emotionally stricken and has to resign. Meanwhile, patriots appear on the novel's stage: ''Madame Eveline MacMurrough'' continues to support the idea of Ireland's liberty. The clergy also supports the patriotic body of thought, in particular, Father Amen O'Toiler – who pushes the boys church's flute band to resemble a regimental band. Even Jim's father, Mr. Mack, who is proud having served as a soldier in an Irish Battalion, is swollen with pride for the boys in MacMurrough's garden, seeing them all in uniform kilts.

Only ''Anthony MacMurrough'', the nephew of Eveline MacMurrough, turns away from their politics. After his return from imprisonment in England, for acts of gross indecency, his nationalist aunt Eveline MacMurrough is determined to redeem his reputation through a prosperous marriage. In a garden party, Eveline MacMurrough introduces him to Irish society, pushing him to follow her patriotic ideals. However, MacMurrough is still caught up in his memories of imprisonment, conversing with the internal voice of his dead prison-mate, Scrotes, on the fate of homosexuals.

In the meantime, Doyler works to help support his family, which has been driven to poverty by Mr. Doyle's alcoholism and illness. Doyler accepts payment from MacMurrough in return for sexual favours. Although Doyler is depicted as accepting his own sexuality, his response to the older man is ambiguous and ultimately MacMurrough fails to attract the boy. Doyler, being a vehement Socialist and outcast from the society of his home community, leaves home and joins the Irish Citizen Army at Dublin.

Events of 1916

Jim, bereft of the pal of his heart Doyler, befriends MacMurrough, who becomes a mentor to Jim, teaching about swimming as well as homosexuality and philosophy. MacMurrough finds that he is unable to rid himself of his fascination with the two boys, their relationship and their pact to swim to the Muglins and claim them for Ireland. The night before Easter Sunday, Doyler leaves his duties as army member and visits Jim. They renew their pact, confessing their love for each other. The next morning, Easter Sunday, Jim and Doyler successfully swim to the Muglins. Not only do they claim the islands with an Irish green flag, but they also make love to one another. On their swim back to the Forty Foot, as Doyler is close to drowning, MacMurrough rescues both of them.

While Doyler rests and recovers at MacMurrough's house, Jim feels responsible for the duties his friend cannot carry out. As the Easter Rising takes place, Jim grabs the uniform of Doyler and joins the fighting for the Irish Volunteers at Dublin downtown. Meanwhile, MacMurrough does not realize Jim's action.

When Doyler discovers what Jim has done, both Doyler and MacMurrough go searching for Jim. As they approach downtown Dublin where the fighting is occurring, Doyler sees Jim standing in the open. Just as the two are about to be reunited, Doyler is himself fatally wounded.

Daryl Poynter is a successful but self-destructive Philadelphia real estate salesman who is addicted to cocaine. He embezzles $92,000 of his company's money from an escrow account and then loses $52,000 to his addiction and the stock market. Waking up one morning next to a woman who suffered a heart attack from a cocaine overdose, he tries to cover up the drug use, but the police make it clear that they know what happened. There is also the matter of the company's money. Daryl goes to the airport to try to flee the country but his credit card is declined and he has no cash. His colleague Martin also refuses to put him up for a couple of weeks. Daryl then learns of a drug rehabilitation program on the radio which lasts about a month and which guarantees anonymity. He checks in, figuring he can hide out there. While in rehab he meets Craig, a tough but supportive drug rehabilitation counselor. With great difficulty, Craig helps Daryl to realize he is an addict and that his life is complete chaos. He says to him, "The best way to break old habits is to make new ones."

At a 12-step meeting, Daryl meets the older, reformed addict Richard Dirks who will act as his sponsor. Richard eventually encourages Daryl to confess at work what he's done with the money. He is promptly fired. Daryl becomes attracted to a fellow patient, a woman named Charlie Standers. She is a steel foundry worker who is addicted to alcohol and cocaine. Charlie is involved in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Lenny, a fellow addict to whom Charlie acts as a codependent. Daryl falls in love with Charlie and urges her to leave Lenny. He finally succeeds, only to witness Lenny's manipulative way of winning her back. Daryl tries to remain in Charlie's life to help her stay sober. After another fight with Lenny, she leaves the house, does a hit of cocaine (and perhaps return to Daryl) and is killed in a car accident. In despair, Daryl also feels a strong temptation to return to drugs. He visits Richard, who talks him out of it. Near the story's end, Daryl, confused but hopeful and reborn, accepts his 30 Day Sobriety Chip in front of an audience of fellow members, as he tells his story.

The film ends with a distorted shot of cars taking off into the night.

On a lonely highway, Jim Grayam spots a car stopped on the tracks of a railroad crossing. Inside he finds a sleeping or unconscious woman with the car doors locked. Unable to wake her, Grayam smashes a window and drives the car to safety just ahead of a speeding train.

Identifying her from a driver's license as Lorrie Benson, the wife of Beverly Hills millionaire Cort Benson, he drives her to their mansion. Grayam is a systems analyst for Benson Industries, widely admired throughout the company for his intelligence. When she wakes up, Lorrie makes it clear that she had parked the car on the tracks on purpose, a suicide attempt, and resents Grayam for saving her. Grayam declines a $1,000 reward.

Impressed that he didn't rescue her for his own advancement, the hard-drinking and wild-partying Lorrie recruits him for a scavenger hunt, then begins a romantic affair with him. When the relationship turns serious, Cort Benson begins to sully Grayam's reputation at work, making it appear the valued employee is having a nervous breakdown, similar to one from his youth. Dr. Elizabeth Larstadt, a psychoanalyst, is asked to examine Grayam and finds him to have a volatile personality.

Lorrie wants to leave her husband, but Cort makes it clear he won't permit her to take their young child. Grayam hatches a diabolical plot. He will kill Cort, but not before studying how to give the appearance of insanity, so that he will be sentenced to a psychiatric institution rather than to the gas chamber for murder.

The scheme works. Dr. Larstadt's testimony lands Grayam in a sanatorium rather than a prison cell. Grayam's intention is to gradually prove to doctors that he is safe to be released back into society. In the weeks to come, however, the other inmates' behavior drives Grayam slowly out of his mind and when he finally is visited by Lorrie, he discovers to his horror that she now has another man in her life.

A desperate Grayam plans to escape. He confides in Dr. Larstadt, now believing her to be the only one who truly understands him, and even professes his love for her. The doctor, however, is only making sure that she was correct in her assessment that Grayam is unbalanced. Hospital security guards carry him away.

In the American release, an introduction states that a war had destroyed the human race, leading to the creation of mutant humanoid animals.

Mok, an aging yet legendary rock musician, is on the search for a very special voice whose frequencies can unleash a powerful demon from another dimension, his dwindling popularity driving him to destroy the world in vengeance and immortalize himself in the process. After travelling around the world looking for the right voice, he returns to his hometown of Ohmtown, a remote, storm-ravaged village famous for its unique power plant. Meanwhile, at a nightclub, Omar, Angel, Dizzy and Stretch perform in a small rock band. As Angel performs her romantic ballad to a mostly empty audience, Mok hears her sing; he realizes that Angel has the voice he needs when a ring he is wearing reacts to her voice. Mok invites Angel and the band to his mansion outside of town, where the band is formally introduced to him and his assistants, the "Rollerskating Schlepper Brothers" Toad, Sleazy and Zip. Mok incapacitates Omar and Stretch with hypnotic "Edison Balls" as he takes Angel on a stroll through his garden and tries to convince her to join him. Although Angel is unaware of Mok's true intentions, she refuses to abandon her band. Unwilling to admit defeat, Mok kidnaps her and takes his blimp to Nuke York, where his summoning, disguised as a concert, will be performed.

Following their ejection from Mok's mansion, the band find out what happened to Angel and they follow the blimp in a stolen police car. Before they reach Nuke York, they are arrested by a border guard. Meanwhile, Angel attempts to escape with the unwitting help of Cinderella, the sister of the Schleppers. While sneaking through the ventilation system, Angel overhears Mok confirming his plans with his computer. At this time, the computer informs Mok that the only way to stop the demon is with "One voice, one heart, one song", but when Mok asks who can do this, the computer replies that there is "no one". Angel and Cindy escape the building and head to the zero-gravity dance club "Club 666", unaware that the Schleppers are following them. Dizzy's aunt bails out Omar and his friends, and tells them of the club. Angel and Cindy are intercepted and taken back to Mok's apartment, and the band tries to follow. Omar eventually bumps into Mok, who uses an impersonator to fool Omar into thinking that Angel has fallen for Mok. To manipulate Angel, Mok captures the band and tortures them within a giant Edison Ball to force her to agree with his demands. He also brainwashes them to ensure that they stay out of the way. The Nuke York concert turns out to be a disaster due to a power failure. Because the invocation requires a titanic amount of electricity, Mok relocates the summoning to Ohmtown, whose power plant has enough energy. Meanwhile, one of the Schlepper brothers, Zip, expresses childlike doubts about whether their actions are good or evil, and Mok rudely dismisses both his concerns and his feelings. During the concert, a power surge causes overloads all over the city. The shock also brings Omar and his friends out of their hypnosis.

Dizzy finds a poster advertising Mok and Angel's concert and Stretch sticks with him to save her. After confessing that Omar saw Mok and Angel together, Dizzy tries to remind him it's all mind games. Omar, still believing Mok's earlier deception, refuses to help Dizzy and Stretch stop the concert. They go without him in a stolen police car, but crash at the concert too late, as Mok forces Angel to sing and open a portal to the demon's dimension. A massive demonic entity emerges from the portal and begins wreaking havoc on all those present, wrecking part of the ceiling and devouring two innocents. But Omar has a change of heart and arrives to free Angel from her electronic shackles before the demon can turn on her. When the demon attacks Omar, Zip sacrifices himself to save Omar's life. Angel tries singing to banish the demon, but her lone voice only pushes him back. But Omar joins in harmony with Angel, and thus the creature is weakened, injured and driven back into its own dimension. Mok is thrown into the portal by Toad who is avenging Zip's death at the demon's hands. As his attempts to climb out prove futile, he realizes that "no one" did not mean that the demon could not be stopped; it meant instead that "no ''one'' voice" could, acting alone; two voices and two hearts singing as one were needed for the counter-spell. Mok then plunges into the portal's depths as it seals itself shut. The audience believes the confrontation to have been part of the concert's theatrics, and the band continues their song in triumph as Mylar, the Ohmtown nightclub manager, announces the band as the new super rock band sensation.

Karsten Bernick is the dominant businessman in a small coastal town in Norway, with interests in shipping and shipbuilding in a long-established family firm. Now he is planning his most ambitious project yet, backing a railway which will connect the town to the main line and open a fertile valley which he has been secretly buying up.

Suddenly his past explodes on him. Johan Tønnesen, his wife's younger brother, comes back from America to the town he ran away from 15 years ago. At the time it was thought he had run off with money from the Bernick family business and with the urge to avoid scandal because he was having an affair with an actress. But none of this was true. He left town to take the blame for Bernick, who was the one who had actually been having the affair and was nearly caught with the actress. There was no money to take since at the time the Bernick firm had been almost bankrupt.

With Tønnesen comes his half-sister Lona (whom Ibsen is said to have modelled after Norwegian feminist Aasta Hansteen), who once loved and was loved by Bernick. He rejected her and married his current wife for money so that he could rebuild the family business. In the years since Tønnesen left, the town has built ever greater rumours of his wickedness, helped by Bernick's studious refusal to give any indication of the truth.

This mixture only needs a spark to explode and it gets one when Tønnesen falls in love with Dina Dorf, a young girl who is the daughter of the actress involved in the scandal of 15 years ago and who now lives as a charity case in the Bernick household. He demands that Bernick tell the girl the truth. Bernick refuses. Tønnesen says he will go back to the US to clear up his affairs and then come back to town to marry Dina. Bernick sees his chance to get out of his mess. His yard is repairing an American ship, the ''Indian Girl'', which is dangerously unseaworthy. He orders his yard foreman to finish the work by the next day, even if it means sending the ship and its crew to certain death because he wants Tønnesen to die on board. That way he will be free of any danger in the future. Things do not work out like that. Tønnesen runs off with Dina on board another ship which is safe, leaving word that he will be back. And Bernick's young son stows away on the ''Indian Girl'', seemingly heading for certain death.

Bernick discovers that his plot has gone disastrously wrong on the night the people of the town have lined up to honour him for his contribution to the city.

It is all set up for a tragic conclusion, but suddenly Ibsen pulls back from the brink. The yard foreman gets an attack of conscience and rows out to stop the Indian Girl from heading to sea and death; Bernick's son is brought back safely by his mother; and Bernick addresses the community, tells them most of the truth and gets away with it. His wife greets the news that he only married her for money as a sign there is now hope for their marriage.

When the once-wealthy string magnate Rudolf Smuntz dies, he leaves his factory and an abandoned Victorian mansion to his two sons: the dutiful and optimistic Lars, and venal cynic Ernie, who has ignored the family business to become a chef; he walks out of the reading of their father's will, taking a box of cigars. At Ernie's restaurant, a cockroach crawls out of the box of cigars and into a dish prepared for the mayor, causing him to have a heart attack when he accidentally bites into it and is taken away in an ambulance. Shortly after the mayor dies, Ernie's restaurant, Chez Ernie, is condemned and scheduled for demolition, costing Ernie his career and home in the process. Meanwhile, a cord company called Zeppco International offers Lars a buyout for the string factory, but doesn't notice that he remembers he promised his father to never sell it, and refuses. Lars's wife April is furious and kicks him out. With nowhere else to go, the brothers spend the night in the mansion.

The brothers cannot sleep due to noises caused by a mouse, and while investigating find blueprints of the property. The blueprints reveal that the mansion was the final design of a famous architect, Charles Lyle LaRue, and it would be worth a fortune if restored. The brothers decide to renovate and auction the mansion to recover their lives. Ernie, fearing a repeat of the cockroach incident, convinces Lars they must also get rid of the mouse. Conventional methods fail when the mouse demonstrates itself to be exceptionally intelligent. The brothers resort to extreme measures to remove the mouse, including buying a monstrous Maine Coon cat named "Catzilla" and hiring an eccentric exterminator named Caesar; the mouse drops Catzilla to his death in a dumbwaiter, and traumatizes Caesar by dragging him through the mansion using his truck's winch line.

Ernie had borrowed against the mansion's mortgage to help pay for the renovations, and as the bank informs them that they will be evicted in two days unless they pay, they know that with their limited funds the brothers cannot pay their workers, causing them to go on strike. Ernie finds Zeppco's business card and arranges a meeting to secretly accept their buyout offer. Lars goes to the factory to manufacture enough string to pay off the mortgage and is met by April, who has learned of the mansion's value and takes Lars back, giving him the funds they need. Ernie then misses his meeting with Zeppco's representatives when he attempts to impress some women and is hit by a bus. The brothers return to the mansion only to witness a now-insane Caesar being taken away by paramedics.

Realizing the mouse's intelligence, the brothers become more desperate to kill him. Ernie chases the mouse with a shotgun and accidentally shoots a bug bomb Caesar had dropped, blowing a massive hole in the floor and sending him and Lars tumbling. As the brothers recover from the blast, Zeppco calls and leaves a message, saying that they have taken back their proposal since Lars declined their offer and Ernie never showed up for the meeting. Angry at each other for the deceptions, the brothers get into a heated argument. Lars throws an orange at Ernie, which misses Ernie but hits the mouse, who is stunned but still alive. The brothers cannot bring themselves to kill the mouse and mail him in a box addressed to Fidel Castro. The brothers reconcile and finish their renovations. The night of the auction, Lars discovers the postal box returned due to insufficient postage and a hole chewed in it, while Ernie sees the mouse on his podium as he gives a speech. As the auction begins, the brothers attempt to flush the mouse out with a garden hose, filling an inner wall of the mansion with water until it bursts, washing the bidders out and causing the mansion to collapse. As April leaves with a wealthy bidder along with the other bidders, the brothers are left with nothing, but take solace that the mouse was surely killed in the collapse.

The brothers spend the night in the factory, unaware that the mouse has survived and followed them. Seeing their sorry state, the mouse takes pity on them and activates the factory's machinery, dropping a block of cheese into the wax boiler to produce a ball of string cheese. Inspired, the brothers end their rivalry with the mouse and renovate the factory to produce string cheese and other cheese-based products. Lars (now having formed a relationship with a Belgian model named Hilde) runs the factory with Ernie as his chef, and the mouse as their taste-tester for new cheese combinations. The film ends with a shot of Rudolf's lucky string (the last thing he gave the brothers before he passed) framed and with a plaque underneath it saying his motto: "A world without string is chaos."

Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is busted out of a sheriff's jail by a couple of government agents under Governor Johnson (Charles Trowbridge) and Commissioner of Internal Affairs Emerson (Stanley Andrews). Johnson and Emerson wish to hire her to uncover white traders illegally selling guns to an Indian tribe near Buffalo Flats, one of the frontier areas; because the agents they previously sent to investigate have turned up dead, they feel they need a new approach and have conceived a plan to use Jane, both as a woman and skilled gunfighter. In return for her services, Johnson and Emerson offer her a full pardon for her past crimes.

The plan is for Jane to meet in Port Deerfield with Jim Hunter, another government agent, pose with him as a married couple, and join a settler's trek to the area where the gun running is taking place. However, the mastermind behind the gun smuggling is revealed to be Jasper Martin (Jackie Searl), Johnson's secretary. Jane finds Hunter dead and herself hounded by assassins. Evading an attempt on her life, she hitches a ride with Peter "Painless" Potter (Bob Hope), a travelling dentist fleeing town following one of his habitual blunders, and marries him to maintain her cover and to coerce him into joining the wagon train. The gun smugglers also join, to ensure delivery of a stash of dynamite and to track the federal agent sent to thwart them, believing Potter is their target. After Potter mistakenly leads part of the wagon train into Indian territory, and while they are taking a rest at a log cabin, the are attacked by the Indians. Locked out, Potter hides inside a barrel and shoots wildly while Jane secretly takes out several Indians from inside. Potter is credited with this achievement, reinforcing the smugglers' assumptions.

After arriving in Buffalo Flats, Jane meets with her contact, Hank Billings (Clem Bevans), and tasks him to find out where the dynamite will be delivered. Meanwhile, the smugglers concoct a plan which results in Potter incurring the wrath of Big Joe, a bad-tempered gunslinger (Jeff York). When this clash leads to a duel, Jane initially plans to allow Potter to be killed, to throw off the smugglers, but instead ends up aiding him again because she wants to use him as a decoy and because she has begun to fall in love with him.

The same night, Billings reports to Jane that the conspirators have hidden the dynamite in the undertaker's shop, then dies from an arrow in his back. Jane manages to manipulate Potter into going to the undertaker's to scope out who comes to pick up the dynamite; she prepares to follow in his wake, but both are captured by the smugglers and taken to the Indians' camp, where Martin has arrived with the rest of his weapons shipment. In order to punish Potter for killing their braves, the medicine man (Henry Brandon) prepares to have Potter ripped apart by two bent-down trees; however, the contraption instead catapults Potter into the forest, leading to the medicine man being banished. While returning to the camp to free Jane, Potter comes upon the medicine man, knocks him out and takes his clothes as a disguise.

Not knowing about the medicine man's banishment, Potter prepares to free Jane from the stake when the tribesmen close in on him. Taking a powder flask, Potter strays through the camp, laying a trail that eventually ignites and blows up some of the smuggled weapons. In the confusion, Jane and Potter escape in Potter's wagon, which is loaded with the dynamite, with the Indians and smugglers on their tail. After Potter drops a lit dynamite stick, he and Jane abandon the wagon just as the smugglers reach it and get themselves blown up. With the mission accomplished, Jane and Potter embark on their honeymoon for real. As the film ends, Jane (in Potter's stead) falls victim to one of the film's running gags.

The demon Mephistopheles sends his bounty hunter of the damned, the Ghost Rider, to retrieve the contract of San Venganza for control of a thousand corrupt souls. Seeing that the agreement would give Mephistopheles the power to bring hell on Earth, the Rider refuses and escapes with it. In 1986, Mephistopheles reaches out to 17-year-old Johnny Blaze, offering to cure his father's cancer in exchange for Johnny's soul. The next morning, Johnny awakens to discover the cancer cured, but his father dies later that same day from burns sustained in a stunt accident. Johnny accuses Mephistopheles of causing his father's death, but Mephistopheles considers his side of the contract fulfilled and promises to see Johnny again.

Mephistopheles' son Blackheart comes to Earth and seeks aid from the Hidden (three fallen angels bonded with the elements of air, earth, and water) to find the lost contract of San Venganza.

In 2007, Johnny has become a famous stunt motorcycle rider. He runs into his former sweetheart Roxanne Simpson, now a news reporter, whom he abandoned after his father's death. He convinces her to attend a dinner date.

Mephistopheles makes Johnny the new Ghost Rider and offers to return his soul if he defeats Blackheart. Johnny transforms into the Ghost Rider, his flesh burning off his skeleton, and kills the earth angel Gressil. He then uses the Penance Stare, a power that causes mortals to feel all the pain they have caused others, searing their soul, on a street thug. The next day, he meets a man called the Caretaker, who knows about the Ghost Rider's history. He assures Johnny that what happened was real and will happen again, especially at night, when he is near an evil soul.

Johnny leaves to find Roxanne, who's reporting the previous night's events on the news. At home, Johnny tries to control his firepower. Roxanne comes to visit before leaving town, and Johnny reveals himself as the Devil's bounty hunter. Unconvinced, she walks away in disbelief. After brief imprisonment for murders Blackheart committed, Johnny kills the air angel Abigor and escapes from the police. He returns to the Caretaker, who tells him of his predecessor Carter Slade, a Texas Ranger who hid the contract of San Venganza. At home, Johnny discovers that Blackheart has killed his friend Mack and taken Roxanne hostage, intending to kill her if Johnny does not deliver the contract. Johnny tries to use the Penance Stare on Blackheart, but it proves ineffective as Blackheart has no soul. Blackheart then orders Johnny to retrieve the contract and bring it to him in San Venganza.

Johnny returns to the Caretaker, demanding the contract to save Roxanne. The Caretaker reveals that it is hidden inside a spade, telling Johnny that he is more powerful than his predecessors because he sold his soul for love rather than greed, before giving the contract. The Caretaker then transforms with Blaze, revealing that the Caretaker was actually Carter Slade. Slade then leads Johnny to San Venganza and gives him a lever-action shotgun before bidding farewell and apparently having finally shaken off the curse, fades into dust as he rides away.

After killing the water angel Wallow, Johnny gives Blackheart the contract. He transforms into the Ghost Rider to subdue Blackheart, but is rendered powerless at sunrise. Using the contract to absorb the thousand souls, Blackheart attempts to finish Johnny off, but is distracted when Roxanne uses Johnny's discarded shotgun to separate them. Johnny shoots Blackheart with the gun, holding it in the shadows to allow him to enhance it with his power. Keeping his own body in shadow, he transforms again and uses his Penance Stare to render Blackheart catatonic by burning all the corrupt souls within him. Mephistopheles appears and declares the contract is complete, offering to take back the curse of the Ghost Rider. Determined not to let anyone else make another deal, Johnny declines, declaring that he will use his power against the demon and against all harm that comes to the innocent. Infuriated, Mephistopheles vows to make Johnny pay and disappears with Blackheart's body. Roxanne tells Johnny that he has his second chance and kisses him. Johnny rides away on his motorcycle, preparing for his new life as the Ghost Rider.

Asterion begins the story by suggesting to the reader that certain defamatory claims—that he is arrogant, misanthropic, or mad—are untrue. He describes his house in detail: that it has no locked doors; that it has many corridors and rooms, pools, and courtyards. He explains his hermetic ways by recounting how once, when he left his house, the commoners were so agitated that he now does not go out, believing that as a child of a queen, his royal blood sets him apart. Asterion explains how he spends his days in solitude: running through the corridors; pretending to sleep; and sometimes pretending that "the other Asterion" has come to visit, and giving him a tour of the house.

Asterion goes into detail about the infinitude of his house, comparing it to the universe. He also suggests that perhaps he created the world and has forgotten about it. Finally, he makes mention of other people: nine men who come every nine years "so that I may deliver them from all evil", and whose bodies he leaves in the empty rooms to distinguish one room from another. Asterion speculates about his own death, and eagerly awaits the coming of his "redeemer", who will take him away from his infinite house.

The story ends with a line from Theseus—"Would you believe it, Ariadne? The Minotaur scarcely defended himself." —revealing that Asterion, who is indeed the Cretan Minotaur, has been slain.

The story is told in flashback from Death Row as Ronnie Jackson (Bob Hope) relates to a group of reporters the events that led to his murder conviction. Ronnie's a San Francisco baby photographer who dreams about being a real private detective like his office neighbor Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd). One day, he is mistaken for a detective by mysterious lady in distress Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour), who claims that her wheelchair-using husband was kidnapped at the pier as they arrived from overseas. A sinister figure (Lorre) listens at the office door. Carlotta gives Ronnie her address, a coded map, and a $5,000 ring as payment, telling him that no one must know he's a detective.

Ronnie hides the map in the cups next to his office water cooler. He then drives to the address, which is a mansion down the Peninsula. Kismet (Peter Lorre) greets him at the door, lifting his handgun. Carlotta tells Ronnie that the missing man is her uncle, not her husband. He entered the country on some secret mission, she says. The mansion belongs to Major Montague, Carlotta says, her uncle's former partner. Major Montague enters the room and tells Carlotta she has a phone call.

When Carlotta leaves, Montague tells Ronnie that he had Kismet follow Ronnie from his office; he knows that Ronnie is a private detective. He tells Ronnie that Carlotta is mentally ill and introduces him to a wheelchair-using man in the next room as Carlotta's uncle, who obviously hasn't been kidnapped. Ronnie tells Montague that Carlotta had given him a map to hold. Carlotta re-enters the room and, alone with Ronnie, tells him that the call was from her uncle, who told her he was safe, but was forced to call. She suspects Montague, because he lied to Ronnie about her. He returns her ring, confused about whether Montague or Carlotta's telling the truth. Eventually, he believes her, and Carlotta tells him to guard the map with his life.

As Ronnie leaves, he finds that his handgun is missing. He climbs a tree and sees the gang conferring through a window before the shade is pulled. He sees "Uncle" stand up from the wheelchair and walk around the room. Ronnie snaps a photo of "Uncle" through the keyhole as evidence. Kismet, who's followed him, throws a knife at him. Ronnie runs to his car, roaring down the mansion driveway. The others chase him by car and shoot out one of his tires. Ronnie runs into an apartment building and intercoms himself in by saying that he is "Joe." Many women buzz him in, and he loses his tail.

Back at his office, Ronnie develops the keyhole photo showing the "Uncle" walking about. Kismet has followed him and, as Ronnie is calling the police, slugs him over the head. Kismet burns the photo and what he thinks is the negative. When Ronnie comes to, the prior day's customer arrives to pick up her baby's photograph; Ronnie gives her what he thinks is her baby's negative.

Ronnie summons the police and drives back to the mansion with them. The mansion is deserted, and Kismet poses as the gardener for the owners, who are out of the country. The police apologize to Kismet for the interruption. (This scene would be repeated years later by Alfred Hitchcock in his film "North By Northwest" with Cary Grant.) Montague gives Kismet Carlotta's ring with a note attached to leave as a 'clue' for Ronnie to discover. Ronnie returns to the mansion and finds the clue, which is a card for the Seacliffe Lodge in Carmel. Ronnie drives to the Lodge, which is really a sanitarium.

After a bizarre golf match with an inmate and an imaginary golf ball, Ronnie is captured by the Montague gang and locked in a room at the sanitarium. Carlotta is also prisoner there. Montague explains that Carlotta's uncle had turned down his offer to buy mineral rights. Carlotta's real uncle is then wheeled into the room to prove he is unhurt. He asks Carlotta to light his cigarette, puts it out, and then returns it to her. When Ronnie refuses to reveal the whereabouts of the coded map, Kismet slugs him. Carlotta lies, saying that the map is at the Ferry Building, about an hour away. Montague sends a stooge to the Ferry Building to retrieve the map.

In her room, Carlotta unwraps the cigarette from her uncle. Inside is a paper note, saying to see "James Collins", a scientist. Ronnie and Carlotta are able to knock out a nurse and flee. At his office, Ronnie returns the map to Carlotta. They call Collins' office and arrange to meet him at a restaurant that night. Unfortunately, Montague's stooge has followed them and overhears the arrangement.

Ronnie and Carlotta meet Collins and show him the map. Collins says that he made it, and it depicts cryolite deposits from which uranium can be mined. He says that Carlotta's uncle had scheduled an important meeting with the government at the Pilgrim Hotel in Washington. Collins pockets the map, and Ronnie drives him to the police station so he can testify. As Ronnie parks, Kismet, who's hiding in the back seat with Ronnie's gun, shoots Collins and steals the map from his pocket. Ronnie and the dead Collins are spotted by the police, and Ronnie flees the scene, now wanted for Collins' murder.

Carlotta and a disguised Ronnie fly to Washington and go to the Pilgrim Hotel. They answer a help wanted ad, applying as a bellboy and a maid. In the Montague gang's suite, they record the gang's confessions on a recording machine, including Kismet's confession that he murdered Collins. But, when the police are called, Kismet switches the records and throws the incriminating record out the window. Montague tells the police that Ronnie is wanted for the Collins murder in San Francisco. Ronnie is arrested and taken away; the gang still has the map and Carlotta's real uncle.

The flashback ends. Ronnie is on death row, cursing Carlotta for disappearing and not testifying at his murder trial. When the prison warden comes to get Ronnie from his death row cell, Ronnie faints. When he comes to, Carlotta is there and tells him that he is a free man. Ronnie had mistakenly given the keyhole photo negative to his customer. The photo from that negative revealed the "uncle" as an impostor. Carlotta said that a detective took that lead, capturing the gang, and "the rest was routine". Ronnie is cleared, and Carlotta's uncle is safe. The warden tells the executioner that the execution was cancelled. The executioner (Bing Crosby) curses and walks away. Ronnie and Carlotta embrace.

''Kokoro Library'' is a heartwarming slice of life series depicting the peaceful everyday lives of three orphaned sisters as they take care of the library which also serves as their family home. The anime delves more deeply into the library's history, its connection to the local town, and challenges faced by the sisters.

Kokoro, the youngest, has just joined her sisters Aruto and Iina as an official librarian. The library receives few visitors, and each visit is often the subject of an entire episode. Kokoro learns the meaning of being a librarian, meets her favourite author, and takes a family trip to the seaside. The library is called "the place where miracles happen", although we see nothing more magical than Kokoro's ability to produce rainbows with her watering can.

Events take a dramatic twist when phantom thief Funny Tortoise steals a mysterious locked book which belonged to Kokoro's father, who died when she was very young. Worse, the town mayor announces that the library will be closed due to lack of visitors. Kokoro is heartbroken, but believes the answer may lie in the stolen book, which has meanwhile been returned to the library.

The next episode is seen from the point of view of a young soldier named Sant Jordi,「サン・ジョルディ」, "San Jorudi". While this can be romanized in various ways, the name Sant Jordi is particularly referenced in the title of manga chapter 23, "Saint George's Day (サン・ジョルディの日)", referring to La Diada de Sant Jordi, a Catalan holiday celebrated on April 23 by giving books; and in this episode's BGM on the soundtrack, titled "April 23, Clouds and Then Rain". during a war which has seen the town heavily bombed. Jordi's positive attitude makes an impression on his comrades, who occupy a ruined library. When the town is approached by an enemy armored division, Jordi's decision to destroy the bridge without killing the enemy ultimately saves the town. He begins to distribute library books to the townsfolk to lift their spirits in the difficult post-war period, ultimately settling in the town and constructing Kokoro Library.

Kokoro, reading the story in what is revealed to be her father's diary of the war, finally has a connection to the parents she never knew. The sisters head to town hall to show the diary to the mayor, hoping to change her mind. They arrive to discover a massive protest against the library's shutdown—the people of the town have not forgotten Jordi's contributions. The mayor allows the library to remain open, and Kokoro and her sisters continue to live their peaceful days together in the library.

The story is about two struggling mouse musicians, Daniel and Jan. When they are fired from their latest gig (their music is deemed too old-fashioned and not with the times), Daniel goes to pawn his guitar in order to buy groceries. Jan wanders off on her own and encounters a shifty reptilian character in a white suit who introduces himself as "B.L. Zebub", a record producer.

He and his weasel assistant, Weez Weezel, offer her fame and fortune in exchange for signing a contract in her own blood. Jan does not read the fine print and trusts B.L., signing herself over to his record production company. Little does she suspect that B.L. is none other than the devil himself, and at midnight at the height of her fame, he will return to collect her soul. To assist her, Weez conjures three band members from thin air, a rabbit (Rabbit Delight), a beaver (Boom Boom Beaver), and a praying mantis (Pray Mantis).

As the lead singer of "Funky Jan and the Animal Kingdom", Jan is soon the most popular rock star on the planet, while the oblivious Daniel is left out in the cold. But when B.L. comes for her soul and she realizes what she has done, a distraught Jan goes to Daniel for help. A trial is held in the woods that night over Jan's soul, with Weez as the judge and Daniel acting as Jan's attorney. As an additional stipend, the Devil states that should Daniel lose the trial, his soul, as well as Jan's, will be taken as payment. At first, the trial seems hopeless, considering Daniel has no education as a lawyer and cannot present even the beginnings of a reasonable argument to release Jan.

Having nothing else to offer, Daniel begins to sing a heartfelt song. Jan joins in, as do her three heretofore unhelpful band members. The other animals watching the trial begin to sing and clap along to the tune and so do the jury of three lost souls (whom were Multiplied into 12 by B.L. himself). An enraged devil attempts to summon forth demons to stop the heroes, but the spirits he conjures also fall prey to the sway of Daniel's music.

A frustrated devil finally leaves, returning to Hell and taking Weez and all of his other minions with him. The two mice embrace one another as the film ends.

After losing her family farm to the bank, local beauty pageant winner Rene (Felicity Mason), decides to leave the small town of Berkeley. A number of strange meteorites are seen falling nearby, turning the local inhabitants into zombies. Rene and other survivors hide in the home of gun nut and alien abductee Marion (Mungo McKay). Marion has a large cache of guns and a basement fallout shelter, but he never had a chance to stock it with food or water.

The group ventures outside to scavenge, but encounter the zombies. Marion shoots one in the head and discovers that such is the way to keep the creatures down. They abandon the house, going to the garage to get Marion's van. They try to flee, only to find a huge barrier surrounding the entire town, which Marion blames on the aliens that had taken him. There is also a slightly acidic rain that falls at very regular intervals and the group is careful not to get wet.

Later, they are confronted by glowing, hooded figures. One by one, the group is either killed or pulled up into the clouds until only Rene is left. The aliens stop her and she is sprayed with the rain-like chemical, which turns out to be a cure for the infection. The aliens are actually there to keep the zombie infection from spreading. The "abducted" are floating in suspended animation above the clouds to keep them safe. Their job done, the aliens leave, unaware that Wayne (Rob Jenkins), presumed dead, managed to escape by plane and will spread the infection after they left.

The townspeople are rushed to the hospital to treat the injured. Unfortunately, Wayne transforms into a zombie, first infecting Marion and then spreading the plague once again.

The film ends at Rene's farm where the survivors are staying. The final shot is of the farm with a fenced-in area nearby, containing the zombified residents of Berkeley. Rene stands guard with a four-barreled shotgun and a gas mask, waiting for the return of the aliens.

In a parking lot, teenage filmmaker Eric attempts to document the Wannabe's lifestyle enjoyed by Allison Lang and her boyfriend Toby's gang of white upper-class teenagers living in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. A brawl ensues between Toby's gang and another gang, which ends with both sides fleeing just before police arrive. Later that night, Toby's gang goes to a party at Eric's house, and Allison's relationship with Toby as well as her other friends Emily and Sam is further revealed. At the end of the party, Allison performs a blowjob on her boyfriend.

The next day, Allison meets with her father, Stuart, at work to discuss family problems, the awkward conversation revealing the virtually non-existent relationship Allison has with her parents. Afterwards, she and her friends drive downtown into East LA, intent on buying marijuana, eventually encountering Mexican drug dealer Hector and his crew. Toby and Hector make a deal, but Toby believes that Hector did not sell him enough for what he paid, and attempts to confront Hector, who pulls a gun on him, humiliating him in front of his friends. Allison persuades Hector to leave Toby alone.

The next night, Allison and her girlfriends return to the location of the drug deal. There, she and her friends once again meet up with Hector and his crew, who invite them to a party at his house. Before they leave, Hector informs Allison of a motel where his crew regularly party, and invites her to stop by if she wishes. The next day, Eric continues his film project at Allison's home, with Allison turning his interview of her into a bizarre mind-game.

That evening, Allison meets up with Hector again in a store, and he shows her around his neighborhood, while talking about his family and lifestyle. His guided tour abruptly ends when the police arrive in force, ostensibly on a drug bust. Allison winds up being arrested with the other present gang members, but – save for an argument with her parents and Toby – is let off the hook. The experience only serves to increase Allison's fascination with the inner-city lifestyle. The night after her release, Allison and Emily agree to head downtown the next evening to hang out with Hector's crew.

The two meet up with Hector and his gang at a motel, and a night of partying and drinking results in Allison and Emily asking Hector if they can join his crew. Hector informs them of their initiation; to join the gang, the two must roll a dice; the number they roll corresponds to the number of gang members they must have sex with.

Allison rolls a one, Emily rolls a three. Hector and Allison pair off, but Allison has second thoughts and refuses to have sex with him, and is thrown out of the room by the gang when she tries to get Emily to leave with her. Emily eagerly engages in sex with Hector, but as she does so, one of Hector's fellow gang members anally rapes her. When Allison storms the room and screams at the men to stop, they flee the room, leaving the two distraught women.

The next day, Allison returns to the motel and confronts Hector over the previous night, but he responds by saying he didn't do anything wrong; that he only did what she and Emily had asked him to do. At that moment, a woman shows up at the door, surprising Allison, much to the amusement of Hector, who mocks Allison for thinking he had feelings for her, and calling her a poser who only knows how to play games and nothing about the realities of gang life.

The same day Emily is shown at a police station accusing Hector and his crew of gang rape. Allison is brought in for questioning, but claims to know nothing about a rape. Hector is subsequently arrested, and members of his crew vow to seek out and silence Allison and Emily, but wind up getting lost in Bel-Air. Meanwhile, Toby and his gang are shown posing with guns in front of Eric and his video camera, making clear on their intent to seek revenge on Hector's crew. Eric later shows Allison the footage, and Allison subsequently calls Toby and makes an ill-fated attempt to convince him that there was no rape and what he is doing is foolish.

Allison informs Emily of what Toby plans to do and reveals to Emily's parents the events at the motel. This initially upsets Emily to the point of nearly attempting suicide, but eventually the two reconcile. Meanwhile, Toby and his gang arrive at Hector's motel and bust in violently, but only succeed in frightening a group of Latina women and a baby. Toby tries to work up the nerve to shoot them, but, consumed by their desperate pleas to not hurt the baby, realizes he can't and storms out.

On their drive home, the gang passes the SUV containing the members of Hector's crew that had been looking for Allison and Emily. The two gangs exchange looks, and the screen subsequently fades to black. After a few seconds the sounds of tires squealing, people shouting and gunfire are heard.

With Eric's film project complete, Allison concludes by stating that teens will be teens, but if adults are willing to reach out to them to connect and give them even just a small amount of insight, it's like that they now suddenly know everything.

Liza Winthrop first meets Annie Kenyon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a rainy day. The two become fast friends, although they come from different backgrounds and have differing levels of confidence.

Liza is the student body president at her private school, Foster Academy, where she is studying hard to get into MIT and become an architect. She lives with her parents and younger brother in the upscale neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, where most residents are professionals. While at school, Liza fails to stop a friend and classmate, Sally Jarrell, from running her amateur ear-piercing business in the school basement, causing Liza and Sally to be reprimanded by the headmistress, Mrs. Poindexter.

Annie goes to a public school and lives with her parents—a bookkeeper and a cabdriver—and grandmother in a lower-income part of Manhattan. Although Annie is not sure if she will be accepted, she hopes to attend the University of California, Berkeley to develop her talent as a singer.

While they have different histories and goals in life, the two girls do share a close friendship that quickly grows into love. Liza's school is struggling to remain open and she finds herself having to defend a student, her friend Sally, in a school trial in front of the student body. This results in a three-day school suspension for Liza and helps to bring Liza and Annie closer together as they both deal with the struggles encountered by many high school students.

The suspension and the partly concomitant Thanksgiving break give the girls time to become closer and lead to their first kiss. Annie admits that she has thought that she may be gay. Liza soon realizes that although she has always considered herself different, she has not considered her sexual orientation until falling in love with Annie.

When two of Liza's female teachers (who live together), Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer, go on vacation during spring break, she volunteers for the job of taking care of their home and feeding their cats. The two girls stay at the house together, but in an unexpected turn of events a Foster Academy administrator discovers Liza and Annie together. Liza is forced to tell her family about her relationship with Annie, and the headmistress of her school, Mrs. Poindexter, organizes a meeting of the school's board of trustees in order to expel Liza. The board rules in favor of Liza staying at Foster, and she is allowed to keep her position as student president. However, the two teachers, Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer, who in the process are discovered to be gay, are fired, as a result of Sally's wrongful testimony about their influence on Liza. After their initial shock at discovering the girls together, the teachers are very supportive and go out of their way to reassure Liza not to worry about their dismissal, but both her family's response and those from fellow students end up pushing Liza to leave Annie.

The girls go their separate ways to colleges on different coasts. In a happily ever after, Liza's reevaluation of her relationship while at college and her corresponding acceptance of her sexual orientation allow the two girls to reunite.

The book is framed and narrated by Liza's thoughts as she attempts to write Annie a letter, in response to the many letters Annie has sent her. This narration comes right before the winter break of both their colleges' and Liza is unable to write or mail the letter she had been working on. Instead she calls Annie, and the two reconcile and decide to meet together before going home for winter break.

Cathy joins a motorcycle gang. Steed investigates an atomic plant which appears to be causing mechanical failure within a 2 mile radius. The gang and Cathy mention to Steed that the bikes also failed and mention two old sisters, Cynthia and Ermyntrude Peck, living in an old watermill, who warn the gang away from the area and threaten to cast a spell on them. Steed organizes a rally cross at night with a £25 prize. The two old ladies in hearing the noisy bikes then appear to do something with a jamming device which makes the bikes fail and again make reference to their witchcraft. The sisters catch a large mouse and put it in a bag as Steed arrives to visit them, claiming to be an "inspector of the National Distrust" and inspects the place.

Steed meets with the operator of the atomic plant who mentions that he believes the sisters to be the daughters of a late nuclear scientist of considerable renown. The daughters investigate the "National Distrust" in their directories and realize Steed is a spy. Steed revisits and battles with an assailant outside the mill and discovers the body of the atomic plant operator. Later, Dave, a gang member, tells Cathy that he has investigated the mill and has discovered the lock on one of the side doors is faulty which gives Steed and Cathy a chance to investigate whilst the sisters are at church. As Steed is about to leave the bar to visit the mill he is chatted up by a woman who offers him a whisky and drugs it and asks why he is interested in the old mill. Steed detects that it has been drugged, pours it behind his back and pretends to be knocked out, and then departs when the woman leaves the room. Cathy and Dave arrives at the mill first and enter and discover the jamming device. At that moment "Dave" removes his helmet and is discovered to be an imposter. Dave is later found tied up in the barn in which the motorcycle gang have been partying. The woman who attempted to drug Steed arrives with another accomplice and when the sisters return it appears that it is a gang attempting to steal their secret jamming system. Steed arrives as Cathy fends off the gang who flee leaving a distraught Cynthia who has to come to terms with the gang taking her "mousestrap" which she had spent all her life perfecting, only to then find the trap subdues the leader of the gang as he attempts to leave and is returned safely to her.

Danny Haley is an owner of an illegal gambling location that the police raid even though he pays the police for protection. Danny hangs out at a café where he listens to singer Fran Garlan. Fran is in love with Danny but Danny tells her that he cannot commit to a relationship and that she is just a girlfriend.

Later that evening at the café, Danny meets businessman and Air Force veteran Arthur Winant, who is in town to buy some equipment for a sports club. When Danny notices a check for $5,000 in Winant's wallet, he invites Winant to play poker at his closed establishment with Danny's pals Soldier, Barney and Augie. During the game, Winant talks about his older brother Sidney, who is coming to meet him late the next evening. Barney and Augie let Arthur win $325, but the next evening, they cheat Arthur out of all his money, including the $5,000 check.

The next day, Danny learns that Winant has committed suicide. Fearing police attention, Danny tells his friends to wait a few days before cashing Winant’s check. Barney, the most nervous of the group, thinks that someone is following him, and the next morning he is found dead.

Police captain Garvey interviews Danny and Augie and tells them that he knows that there is a connection between Winant's death and the poker game, and that Winant left a letter for his brother Sidney. He informs them that Sidney is a dangerous criminal and likely to avenge his brother's death, and that Barney was probably killed by Sidney. Danny and Augie deny any connection with Winant’s death.

Danny and Augie try to find Sidney before he finds them. In Los Angeles, Danny poses as an insurance agent and visits Winant's widow Victoria, telling her that he needs to locate Sidney, the beneficiary of Winant's life-insurance policy, and that Victoria will be the beneficiary if Sidney is not found. Victoria cannot provide a photo of Sidney because she has destroyed them. Danny spends a romantic evening with Victoria and confesses his true identity to her, and she then chases him out of the house in a rage. Danny tries to give her Winant’s check, but she refuses to accept it.

Returning to his motel, Danny finds Augie's body hanging from the shower in his room. The police arrest Danny after the hotel manager tells them that he heard both men having a loud argument the day before. Captain Garvey arrives in Los Angeles and, believing Danny to be innocent, persuades the police to release Danny, provided that he immediately leaves the city. Danny knows that the police are using him as bait to catch Sidney.

Danny travels to Las Vegas, where Soldier now lives and holds a job at a casino. Soldier gets Danny a job as a croupier at the casino. Fran comes to Las Vegas and Soldier finds her a job as the singer in the casino's lounge.

After work one day, Danny goes to a nearby casino to play craps and builds a small stake into more than $10,000. Victoria phones and tells Fran that Sidney knows that Danny is in Las Vegas and is on his way there. Danny asks Fran to send the money that he had won to Victoria the next morning if anything should happen to him. Believing that Danny is in love with Victoria, Fran leaves for Chicago.

Feeling that he is being followed, Danny retreats to his motel room where he sits with a gun in his hand, waiting for Sidney's attack. Sidney emerges from the bathroom, catching Danny by surprise, and starts to choke Danny. Captain Garvey and his men, who were following Danny all along, burst into the room and shoot Sidney.

The next morning at the airport, Danny runs onto Fran's Chicago-bound plane to tell her that he loves her. They kiss and walk back into the airport.

The peaceful dog-ruled planet K-9 finds itself under attack by the evil Pit Bully empire. In a last-ditch effort to save his world, Dr. Kibble fast tracks the Wonder Dog project, an experiment to create a superpowered dog. Running out of time, he tests the serum on his newborn son and sends him to Earth with a special outfit called the Wonder Suit. His son crash lands on the planet and immediately befriends a boy. However, the two are separated as the boy's father won't let him keep the dog. The dog then returns to the ship, dons the Wonder Suit and becomes Wonder Dog, who must save the planet K-9 from the Pit Bully invasion.

''Part II''

When Doc takes Marty to the year 2015 to prevent his future son from committing a crime, old Biff takes the ''Gray's Sports Almanac'' and travels back to 1955 and gives the book to his younger self. Over the next three decades, young Biff uses the information to win money on the outcome of each sporting event he bets on, making him the richest and most powerful man in the world by 1985. To ensure that no one else gets their hands on the almanac, Biff travels through time and collects various items and puts them behind locked doors in three different periods. This action has caused a disruption in time, and now the space-time continuum is falling apart. With Hill Valley in ruins, Marty must now travel to all three periods, then find and return all the items back to their original places in order to retrieve the almanac and destroy it.

''Part III''

After Marty returns all items to their rightful places and burns the almanac, Marty then receives a letter from Doc via a courier that was written in 1875 (although 1885 in the film). According to the old letter, Doc has become stranded in the past and must be rescued or else this will start to threaten the future. Now, Marty must go back in time in order to rescue Doc with the aged but repaired DeLorean. Before they can return to 1985, Marty must find and return ten more items to their rightful location.

The narrator, at first male, explains various events from his early childhood, living with a traveling family who finally settle in Ottawa, Ontario. He goes on to explain events from his years in private school (including his parents' death), until he graduates and travels to Portugal, where he, on his eighteenth birthday, wakes up as a female.

Surprisingly unfazed by her transformation, the narrator concludes her trip and begins university back in the fictional Roetown. She begins writing, and keeps travel in her life, eventually visiting such places as Spain and Thailand, to name a few. She shares romances with a select few — males and females alike. Eventually she gets published, and after graduating, moves to Montreal, where she gets a job as a waitress while continuing to write. At her job she meets Tito, her final love. But as the novel is nearing a conclusion, she is suddenly raped by a vicious neighbour in her secluded apartment and her body reverts to being a male again.

American Intelligence officials learn that Soviet spies have begun exploring a remote region of the Alaskan Territory in search of answers to the worldwide reports of "flying saucers". A wealthy American playboy, Mike Trent (Mikel Conrad), who was raised in that remote region, is recruited by intelligence officer Hank Thorn (Russell Hicks) to assist a Secret Service agent in exploring that area to discover what the Soviets may have found.

To his pleasant surprise, Mike discovers the agent is an attractive woman named Vee Langley (Pat Garrison). They set off together and slowly become mutually attracted to each other. Their cover story is that Mike is suffering from a nervous breakdown and she is his private nurse. At Mike's family's wilderness lodge, they are met by a foreign-accented caretaker named Hans (Hantz von Teuffen), new to the job.

Mike is very skeptical of the flying saucer reports until he spots one flying over the lodge. Assorted complications ensue until Mike and Vee finally discover that Hans is one of the Soviet agents who is trying to acquire the flying saucer. It turns out that the saucer is an invention of American scientist Dr. Lawton (Roy Engel). But Turner (Denver Pyle), Lawton's assistant, is a communist sympathizer and has other ideas: he tries to make a deal to sell the saucer to the Soviets for one million dollars.

Mike's trip to Juneau to see old friends, including Matt Mitchell (Frank Darrien), is ill-advised. When Vee tracks him down, he is in the company of a bar girl, named Nanette (Virginia Hewitt). Matt gets mixed up with the Soviet agents who are trying to obtain control of the saucer. When he tries to strike a bargain with ring leader Colonel Marikoff (Lester Sharpe), at the spy's headquarters, Matt is knocked unconscious.

He is able to escape and seeks out Mike, but they are attacked by the Soviets, who kill Matt. Before he dies, however, Matt reveals the location of the saucer: Twin Lakes. Mike rents an aircraft and flies to where the saucer is hidden at an isolated cabin. After flying back to his lodge, he tries to find Vee, who has tried to spirit Lawton away. The trio are captured by the turncoat Taylor and a group of Soviet agents. The Soviets lead their prisoners through a secret tunnel hidden under the glacier. An avalanche begins and wipes them out. Mike, Vee, and Lawton escape the tunnel just in time to see Turner fly off in the saucer. It suddenly explodes in mid-air, due to a time bomb that Lawton had planted on board for such an eventuality. Their mission now accomplished, Mike and Vee embrace and kiss.

Doctor Octopus is setting his master plan into action to take over the world with the help of the Sinister Six. Spider-Man manages to defeat all of them and save the world.

In ''Yo! Noid'', wild creatures led by Mr. Green are running amok around New York City. As they cause havoc, the Mayor of New York decides to call upon the Noid to stop his evil duplicate, save everyone, and give him a massive pizza reward.

Teenage prodigy Paul Conway and his mother Jeannie move into their new house in the town of Welling. He soon becomes friends with paperboy Tom Toomey. Living next door to Paul is Samantha Pringle and her abusive, alcoholic father Harry. Paul built a robot named BB, which occasionally displays autonomous behavior, such as being protective of Paul. Paul, Jeannie, and BB meet Paul's professor, Dr. Johanson, at Polytech, a prestigious university where Paul has a scholarship.

One day, Tom, Paul and BB stop at the house of reclusive harridan Elvira Parker, who threatens them with a shotgun. The trio then encounters a motorcycle gang led by bully Carl. When Carl intimidates Paul, BB assaults him. Another day, while playing basketball, BB accidentally tosses the ball onto Elvira's porch. She takes the ball away from them and refuses to give it back. On Halloween night, Tom decides to pull a prank on Elvira with the help of Paul, Samantha and BB. BB unlocks her gate and Samantha rings her doorbell. When alarms go off, they hide in a shrubbery nearby. When Elvira sees BB standing near her porch, she destroys him with her shotgun, devastating Paul.

On Thanksgiving, Samantha has dinner with Paul and his mother, and Samantha and Paul share their first kiss. Samantha returns home late at night, outraging her father, who pushes her down the stairs. At the hospital, Paul learns that Samantha is brain dead and will be on life support for 24 hours before the plug is pulled. As BB's microchip can interface with the human brain, Paul decides to use it to revive Samantha with Tom's help. The boys enter the hospital using a key taken from Tom's father, who works there as a security guard. After Tom deactivates the power from the basement, Paul takes Samantha to his lab. He inserts the microchip into Samantha's brain and takes her back to his house, hiding her in the shed. After he activates the microchip, Samantha "wakes up", but her mannerisms are completely mechanical, suggesting BB is in control of her body.

In the middle of the night, Paul finds Samantha staring at the window, looking at her father, and he deactivates her. The next morning, Paul finds Samantha gone. When Harry finds the cellar door open and goes downstairs, Samantha attacks him, breaks his wrist and snaps his neck. Paul finds Samantha, and Harry's corpse, in the cellar. Horrified, he hides the body, takes Samantha back to his home and locks her in his bedroom. At night, Samantha breaks into Elvira's house and corners her by throwing her to the wall of her living room. As Elvira screams in horror, Samantha kills her by smashing her head with the basketball stolen from Tom.

When Tom learns of Samantha's rampage, he gets into a fight with Paul and threatens to call the police. Still being protective of Paul, Samantha jumps out the attic window and attacks Tom, with Paul and Jeannie intervening. Trying to get her under control, Paul slaps Samantha, resulting in her strangling him. Samantha, quickly coming to her senses, lets him go and runs away. As Paul goes after her, he again encounters Carl, who gets into a fight with him. Samantha goes back for Paul, grabs Carl and kills him by throwing him at an incoming police car. She runs back to Paul's shed, where Paul comforts her and realizes she's regaining some of her humanity. However, the police arrive with their guns aimed at Samantha, who yells out Paul's name in her human voice. She runs towards him, trying to protect him, but Sergeant Volchek (Lee Paul), thinking she's trying to attack him, shoots her. She says Paul's name one more time before dying in his arms.

Later at the morgue, Paul tries to steal Samantha's body once more. Suddenly, Samantha grabs Paul's neck and her face rips apart, revealing a terrifying variant of BB's head. Her skin strips away, revealing half-robotic bones underneath. With a robotic voice, Samantha tells him to come with her. When a horrified Paul screams, she snaps his neck, killing him.

The film opens with Martin playing catch with his older brother Pete, who has severe learning difficulties and has been sent to live in a special boarding school in London, by their mother. Martin is the only remaining figure in Pete's family life; their father died years ago and their mother has a new life with her new husband, a wealthy banker. Martin expresses concern for his brother's well-being to the school's physician, who is comfortable with Pete's situation, though he makes it clear that Pete cannot be expected to live much longer.

After the title sequence, Martin is shown in a toy store, gazing at Susan, who purchases a toy. As she leaves, Martin follows after having pocketed a toy duck. Two store detectives ask them to return to the manager's office. The detectives assert that Martin and Susan were working together to allow Martin to steal a toy. Susan assures them she has never met Martin.

When questioned by the manager, Martin presents himself as mentally challenged, and calls himself "Georgie". Apparently now disbelieving in a link between them, the manager asks Susan for her address, and Martin appears to make a mental note when she offers it. Sympathetic to him, Susan pays for the toy. Implying that this was a misunderstanding, the manager lets them leave.

Martin returns home and finds his parents arguing in the parlor, over his lack of interest in life. Despite the apparent course of events in the toy shop, they have come to hear of the duck. There is allusion to some perverse behaviour he has exhibited, though this is not elaborated upon. In his room, now behaving as "Georgie", he rocks in a rocking chair while smiling meekly in the mirror and caressing a stuffed animal. The camera pans down to reveal that the rocking motion of the chair is smashing a photo of his stepfather.

The next day, Martin goes to Susan's house and waits for her to return. She arrives with a young Indian man named Shashee. He drops off Susan, who thanks him; she goes to the library, where she keeps an after-school job. Martin approaches Susan who immediately recognises him as "Georgie". He tells her that he followed her, and pays her back for the toy. Before he leaves, Martin, as Georgie, gets Susan to lend him a book about animals.

Martin has a heated conversation with his stepfather, who insists he travel to Australia. Martin refuses and returns to his room. Martin stares in the mirror, bare-chested, and caresses himself. He removes the rest of his clothes as the camera reveals a stack of male bodybuilding magazines on his dresser. He then smashes the mirror in apparent frustration or anger.

Martin sets in motion a plan to leave home, pretend to go to France and then go on to live with Susan. Martin leaves his family and shows up late at Susan's mother's house, where she rents rooms. Presenting himself as Georgie, he gains sympathy both from Susan and her mother and they let him stay.

The plot unravels with Martin's duplicitous nature clashing against his desires to win Susan's heart. He wants her to accept him as a lover, but cannot reveal that he is in fact Martin, as he is worried she will shun him. Meanwhile, Martin uses his new-found identity to his advantage to seek out revenge on his stepfather, who believes he is in France. This series of decisions leads Martin down the path of self-destruction.

One night, Martin sneaks out of Susan's house after stealing a pair of scissors, and stabs his stepfather to death in the garage of his home after his stepfather comes home from a dinner party. The police investigate the next day and focus their attention to finding Martin for questioning.

A few days later, Martin invites himself to tag along with Susan who is going for a swim at a country lake where Martin attempts to kiss her until she refuses his advances, making her uncomfortable and suspicious about him. At home a little later, Susan searches Martin's room while cleaning it, and discovers several books hidden in Martin's drawer that a person with learning difficulties would not read or understand, as well as a book titled ''Know Yourself from Your Handwriting'', in which signatures in the blank pages read 'Martin Durnley'.

At this point, Susan begins investigating Martin, first by talking with his mother, and realizes that Martin and Georgie are one and the same after seeing a photograph of Martin at the house. Next, Susan visits Shashee at a hospital where he works as a resident to question him about split personalities, and suspects that Martin may be not mentally challenged but a narcissistic sociopath.

At Susan's house, Martin begins losing mental control over himself as he rightly suspects that Susan may know who he really is. When Susan's neglected and unsuspecting mother attempts to sexually arouse Martin, he kills her by hacking her apart with a hatchet in the backyard wood shed (off-camera).

When Susan arrives home, Martin holds her captive in his room after finally revealing his true persona. He forces Susan to undress so he can sexually fondle her, while Susan's mother's body is found in the woodshed by Gerry Henderson, one of the "paying guests", who calls the police just at the time that Shashee learns the truth about Martin and also calls the police from the hospital and races to the house to rescue Susan.

The police arrive at Susan's house where they finally subdue and arrest Martin just when he appears that he is going to kill her. They burst into Susan's room as three shots are heard, but Martin had fired at his reflection in the mirror. As Martin is taken away he claims that he is Georgie and had killed Martin. Susan is unharmed but badly shaken. The final shot shows Martin, now confined in a cell at a local mental hospital, ranting over his lost love Susan.

Dr. Richard Talbot, unhappy with the dull routine of his married life in San Francisco, meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss by chance after he sees her get struck by a truck near his office. The two gradually begin to have an affair, causing disruption in Richard's home and professional lives. He tries to cool things down with Nora after he forgets his daughter's birthday, but, when Nora says she wants to break things off entirely and he is so shaken that he almost kills a patient during surgery, he realizes he is not willing to lose her. Not knowing how to ask his wife for a divorce, he seizes an opportunity to fake his death when a patient who looks somewhat like him and who he knows does not have any family or friends dies in his office. He puts his wedding ring on the corpse, puts the body in his car, and sets the car on fire and pushes it off a cliff before moving with Nora to New York with a large sum of money he has withdrawn from the bank. Shortly after arriving, Richard learns that the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

Richard does not tell Nora what he has done until it becomes clear that she is not buying his fake explanations for why he is living under an alias and never wants to leave their hotel. Even though the truth means they will not be able to get married and that Richard will not be able to practice medicine any more, Nora says she will stick by him and starts singing at the new club her boss from San Francisco has opened in New York. Left alone while she rehearses, Richard begins to drink heavily and becomes increasingly jealous. While fleeing the scene after a fight with Nora's boss, he crashes his car and his face is badly cut and burned. The police, not realizing who the injured man is, arrest Richard as a suspect in the murder of Dr. Talbot when his fingerprints are found to be a match with some found at the crime scene.

Back in San Francisco, Richard refuses to reveal his identity or speak in his defense, since he feels that doing so will only serve to cause his family more suffering because he has already ruined any chance he may have had at a tolerable future. He convinces Nora to help him keep his secret and allow him to be convicted and executed for his own murder.

First Lieutenant Shunichi Maki of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force is a prestigious F-15 Eagle jet pilot. A lifelong fan of flying since he was a child, being a pilot is his ultimate dream. Unfortunately, his duties distance him from his wife, Yoko, who feels neglected, and his son, Tsugumu, who has a possibly terminal congenital blood disease.

Maki decides to quit the Air Force to devote more time to his family and to spend whatever time is left with his son. He takes a part-time job as a commercial tour guide for a kindly group of people who allow him time to take care of his family.

Before quitting, Maki and his flight partner Yamashima are alerted to a strange red light streaking towards Japan, and Maki's plane passes through the red light seemingly without any damage. He suffers no ill effects other than strange images briefly playing out in his mind. He later discovers that the images are telepathic messages from a strange being that exists in the red light.

The father escaped the Soviet invasion of Budapest and now runs a Hungarian restaurant that is not doing well financially. The younger of his two sons is gay and struggling with coming out. His dad disowns him when he finally does. The older son is involved in the counterculture, gets kicked out of college, buys a motorcycle, starts dating a Maoist, and is also disowned by his father. The older of the sons runs afoul of an outlaw motorcycle club; the younger of the two sons gets drafted but is rejected because of his homosexuality. The older one joins his younger brother in a gay rights protest.

Major events of the year such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy are interspersed throughout the plot and depicted in the film using stock footage.

Sea Rim City Police Homicide Detective Keith J. Snyder had a problem which involved his previous partner, Wesley Simmons, so he was assigned, as a disciplinary measure, to be a bodyguard for several VIPs who were key to the inauguration of a new horror-themed casino, the ''Desert Moon''. The problems began when a fire broke out and a mysterious black liquid started to pour out of the fire sprinklers, turning the vast majority of the people into vampires that proceeded to devour the remaining survivors. Now Keith must find his way out of the casino and also try save as many people as he can.

The three main dancers from ''Breakin''' – Kelly "Special K" Bennett (Lucinda Dickey), Orlando "Ozone" Barco (Adolfo Quinones), and Tony "Turbo" Ainley (Michael Chambers) – struggle to stop the demolition of a community recreation center by a developer who wants to build a shopping mall. Viktor Manoel, Ice-T, Lela Rochon and Martika also appear as dancers.

A week after the funeral of Robert and Katherine Thorn, archaeologist Carl Bugenhagen learns that their adopted son Damien is still alive. Confiding to his friend Michael Morgan that Damien is the Antichrist, Bugenhagen wants him to give Damien's new guardian a box containing the means to kill Damien. As Morgan is unconvinced, Bugenhagen takes him to a local ruin to see the mural of Yigael's Wall, which was said to have been drawn by a monk who saw the Devil and had visions of the Antichrist as he would appear from birth to adulthood. Though Morgan believes him upon seeing an ancient depiction of the Antichrist with Damien's face, both he and Bugenhagen are trapped and buried alive as the tunnel collapses.

Seven years later, the 12-year-old Damien is living in Chicago with his uncle, industrialist Richard Thorn and his wife, Ann. Damien gets along well with his cousin Mark, Richard's son from his first marriage, with whom he is enrolled in a military academy. However, Damien is despised by Richard's aunt, Marion, who sees him as a bad influence on Mark and demands that they be separated. She dies of a heart attack after being visited by a raven in the dead of night.

At Thorn Industries, manager Paul Buher suggests expanding the company's operations into agriculture; however, the project is shelved by senior manager Bill Atherton, who calls Buher's intention of buying up land in the process unethical. At Mark's birthday party, Buher introduces himself to Damien, invites him to see the plant, and also speaks of his approaching initiation. Buher seemingly makes up with Atherton, who drowns after falling through the ice at a hockey game on a lake the following day.

An investigative reporter named Joan Hart, a friend of Thorn Museum curator Dr. Charles Warren, arrives in Chicago and attempts to interview Richard. When she asks about his brother's involvement with Bugenhagen, Richard angrily ends the interview. Having recently seen Yigael's Wall herself, Joan is horrified when she visits the academy and sees Damien in person. She drives away in a panic, but her car mysteriously stalls. The raven appears and attacks Joan by pecking out her eyes. She is killed by a semi-truck after wandering blindly into its path.

Meanwhile, at the academy, Damien's new commander, Sergeant Neff, is revealed to be a secret Satanist. Damien learns his true nature, and flees the Academy grounds. Later, Dr. David Pasarian is killed when he and his assistant suffocate from toxic fumes during an industrial accident. The incident injures Damien's class, who were visiting the plant at the time. When Damien alone is found to be unharmed by the fumes, a doctor suggests keeping him in the hospital as a precaution. The doctor discovers that Damien's marrow cells resemble those of a jackal; before he can investigate any further or report his findings, however, he is killed by a falling elevator cable.

Meanwhile, Bugenhagen's box has been found during an excavation of the ruins and delivered to the Thorn Museum. Dr. Warren opens it and finds the Seven Daggers of Megiddo, the only weapons able to kill Damien, along with a letter by Bugenhagen explaining that Damien is the Antichrist. Warren rushes to inform Richard. Mark overhears their conversation and confronts Damien. Reluctantly, and then proudly, admitting to being the Devil's son, Damien pleads with Mark to join him on his rise to power, but Mark's steadfast refusal "forces" Damien to kill Mark by causing an aneurysm in his cousin's brain.

Shaken by his son's death, Richard goes to New York City to see a half-crazed Warren before being taken to the train station where Yigael's Wall is being stored in a cargo carrier. As he sees Damien's image, a switching locomotive impales Warren and crushes him against the carriage, destroying the wall and convincing Richard beyond doubt that Damien is the Antichrist. Upon his return, Richard has Damien picked up from his graduation at the academy while taking Ann to the museum. When they find the daggers in Warren's office in the Thorn Museum, Ann uses them to kill Richard, revealing herself to be a Satanist who "always belonged to him". Having heard the altercation from an outside corridor, Damien wills a nearby boiler room to explode, setting fire to the building; Ann is consumed in the flames, as was her prophesised fate. Damien then leaves the burning museum and is picked up by the family driver, Murray, as the fire department arrives.

During the Depression era in the Midwest, con man Bill Starbuck acts as a rainmaker, but is chased out of town after town. One day, he arrives in a drought-ridden rural town in Kansas and shows up at the door of spinsterish Lizzie Curry and the rest of the Curry clan. Lizzie keeps house for her father, H.C., and two brothers on the family cattle ranch. As their farm languishes under the devastating drought, Lizzie's family worries about her marriage prospects more than about their dying cattle. Prior to Starbuck's arrival, Lizzie was expecting Sheriff File, for whom she harbors a secret yen, though he declined the family's invitation to dinner. Starbuck promises to bring rain in exchange for money. Against Lizzie's protests, H.C. goes for the deal out of desperation for rain even though he thinks Starbuck is a con. Starbuck is exposed, but the Curry clan stands up for him, leading to both Starbuck and File finally declaring for Lizzie. In the end, Lizzie gets her man, and of course, it rains.

Following his release from prison, Danny Ocean violates his parole by traveling to California to meet his partner-in-crime and friend Rusty Ryan to propose a heist. The two go to Las Vegas to pitch the plan to wealthy friend and former casino owner Reuben Tishkoff. The plan consists of simultaneously robbing the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand casinos. Reuben's familiarity with casino security makes him very reluctant to get involved, but when he starts to think of it as a good way to get back at his rival, Terry Benedict, who owns all three casinos, he agrees to finance the operation. The three men know that the Nevada Gaming Commission requires casinos to have enough cash on hand to cover all their patrons' bets and they predict that on the upcoming night of a highly anticipated boxing match, the Bellagio vault will contain more than $150,000,000.

Danny and Rusty recruit eight former colleagues and criminal specialists: Linus Caldwell, Frank Catton, Virgil and Turk Malloy, Basher Tarr, Saul Bloom, Livingston Dell, and "The Amazing" Yen. Several team members carry out reconnaissance at the Bellagio to learn as much as possible about the security, the routines, the behaviors of the casino staff, and the building itself. Other members create a precise replica of the vault, which is built in order to practice maneuvering through its formidable security systems. During this planning phase, the team discovers that Danny's ex-wife, Tess, is Benedict's girlfriend. Rusty urges Danny to give up on the plan, believing Danny incapable of sound judgment while Tess is involved, but Danny refuses.

On the night of the fight, the plan is put into motion. Danny shows up at the Bellagio purposely to be seen by Benedict, who, as predicted, locks him in a storeroom with Bruiser, a bouncer. However, Bruiser is on Danny's payroll and allows him to access the vent system and join his team as they seize the vault, coincident with activities of their other team members in and around the casino. Rusty calls Benedict on a cell phone Danny dropped in Tess's coat earlier and tells him that unless he lets them have half of the money in the vault, they will blow it up; Benedict sees video footage confirming Rusty's claim. Benedict complies, having his bodyguards take the loaded duffel bags to a waiting van driven by remote control. Benedict has his men follow the van while he calls in a SWAT team to try to secure the vault. The SWAT team's arrival causes a shootout that sets off the explosives and incinerates the remaining cash. After affirming the premises otherwise secure, the SWAT team collects their gear and departs.

As Benedict arrives to examine the ruined vault himself, his men stop the van and find the bags were only loaded with flyers for prostitutes. Benedict studies the video footage and recognizes that the flooring in the vault on the video lacks the Bellagio logo, which had been added only recently to the vault. It is shown that Danny's team used their practice vault to create fake footage to fool Benedict. Furthermore, they themselves were the SWAT team and used their gear bags to take all of the money from the vault right under Benedict's nose. Benedict goes to see that Danny has seemingly been locked up in the storeroom throughout the heist and thus innocent of any involvement. As Tess watches via closed-circuit television, Danny tricks Benedict into saying he would give her up in exchange for the money. Benedict, dissatisfied with Danny's plan to get back the money, orders his men to escort Danny off the premises and inform the police that he is violating his parole by being in Las Vegas. Tess leaves Benedict and exits the hotel just in time to see Danny arrested. The rest of the team bask in the victory in front of the Fountains of Bellagio, silently going their separate ways one-by-one.

When Danny is released after serving time for his parole violation, he is met by Rusty and Tess. They drive off, closely followed by Benedict's bodyguards, whose presence was noted by Rusty as he and Danny approach Rusty's car.

Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) is a New York bird smuggler who goes to Australia to replace a flock of escaped birds after a deal goes awry. While there, he has a wild liaison with a quirky, sexually ravenous girl, Angie (Susie Porter), who, after a brief courtship, knocks him unconscious and kidnaps him. When he awakes, he finds himself "married" to her - not legally - and stranded in Woop Woop, a desolate, dilapidated town hidden within a crater-like rock formation in Aboriginal territory. The residents are people who lived there at an asbestos mining camp before the land was handed over to the Aboriginal peoples; following a tragedy in 1979, Woop Woop was abandoned and literally "erased" from the Australian map. Not content with the deal given to them by the mining company (from Fremantle), they opted to return to their old lives in Woop Woop. At first, they repopulated themselves incestuously, which caused wide mental instability. A rule was then enacted ("Rule #3"), preventing residents from sleeping with their relatives. Since then, outsiders like Teddy have been occasionally kidnapped to keep Woop Woop populated.

Their only export is dog food made from road-killed kangaroos. The town is run by Angie's father, Daddy-O (Rod Taylor), in an authoritarian manner, that he disguises as communal (he and the other town elders keep the best luxuries for themselves in secret while doling out only the usual canned pineapple and sub-par tobacco to the others). The only entertainment available to the residents is old Rodgers & Hammerstein films and soundtracks, the latter of which they play constantly. These are presumably leftover from the town's last official contact with the civilized world.

After witnessing another kidnapping, 'Midget,' the local hairdresser, is shot dead by Daddy-O during an attempted escape. Teddy soon realizes he will be trapped in Woop Woop for life unless he finds a way out for himself. Initially, he repairs his VW van, which had been vandalized by the locals, only to have it vandalized again by Daddy-O. In addition, the Australian Cattle Dog that he adopts is shot as part of 'Dog Day.' He befriends a couple of locals, including the scruffy, affable Duffy and Krystal, Angie's sister, who help him confront Daddy-O's iron-fisted reign and arrange an escape plan. Duffy, reprimanded by Daddy-O for breaking 'Rule #3,' nonetheless elects to stay in Woop Woop, while Teddy, Krystal, and Krystal's pet cockatoo escape.

Yavaun has been under the oppressive control of the Empire—a merciless regime founded and led by the Tha' Roon—for a millennium, known by all as the Thousand Years. The Tha' Roon were once feared for their cruel and ruthless combat prowess, which they used to establish the very creation of the Empire; however, over the centuries, they have relied almost exclusively on the Obblinox as their force of arms. The Eaggra, their enslavement by will of the Tha' Roon and enforced by the muscle of the Obblinox, were obliged to construct and forge the original foundation of the Empire from the ground up, and have since been forced to maintain and expand it further throughout Yavaun. This reliance on the Obblinox for military power and the Eaggra for virtually all labor has progressively deteriorated the Tha' Roon's once unequaled self-sufficiency.

This oppression and slavery faced by the Eaggra over the age of the Thousand Years ignited the idea of revolution inside their hearts, and with the encouragement and inspiration from two Eaggra known as Colonel Khorn and Tywald Chainbreaker, they finally struck the first, powerful blow against the Obblinox. This started what was known as the First War of Yavaun. An Eaggra labor camp, of which its slaves formed a clan known as Faction E19, turned their picks against its stationed overseers and constructed their own base in the wake of its overtaking. From there, Faction E19 expanded and branched out to liberate other labor camps and spread word of their cause throughout Yavaun. The initial successes of their insurgency further inspired and reignited hope in other Eaggra.

Once word of the violent uprising of Eaggra slaves reached the Tha' Roon, the Tha' Roon immediately ordered a violent suppression of all rebellion, sending an onslaught of Obblinox forces to slay every last revolting Eaggra. The Obblinox, priding themselves as an honorable and noble race, found an utter absence of honor in the merciless culling of Eaggra innocents, of whom put up little challenge. With this feeling of dishonor came the Obblinox's first doubts after a millennium of the legitimacy of Tha' Roon rule and the Empire. With the continuation of rebel suppression, some Obblinox began to separate themselves from the Empire and align themselves with the Eaggra cause.

Tha' Roon viewed any and all mutiny, regardless of reason, as inexcusable and punishable only by death—even renegades who wished to realign with the Empire. This led to Tha' Roon commanding Obblinox to kill rebel Eaggra and Obblinox alike, which only further radicalized Obblinox to rebellion. Tha' Roon believed the ideation of revolution to have been planted by the Shama' Li, and so they sought to eliminate the Shama' Li entirely.

13-year-old twin sisters Melanie (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Allyson Porter (Ashley Olsen) have only one concern: boys. Desperate for them to broaden their horizons and see the world, their parents send them to Paris, France to spend spring break with their estranged grandfather, Edward (Peter White), who's the American Ambassador to France.

Expecting a fun time with their grandfather, they instead end up living day-to-day via a mundane itinerary with his no-nonsense assistant, Jeremy Bluff (Matt Winston), since Edward's always too busy with his ambassadorial duties to spend time with them. They also learn some harsh rules while staying at his swanky mansion, which includes: no loud music, no jumping on the bed, and having to be dressed appropriately for dinner every night without being a minute late.

While out for lunch one afternoon, the girls meet and befriend Brigitte (Yvonne Sciò), a beautiful French fashion model, who agrees to show them the great sights of Paris. They also meet two charming teenage French boys, Jean and Michel, and find various ways to ditch Jeremy so that they can spend time cruising around the city on mopeds with the boys. One afternoon, the twins end up in police custody, along with Jean and Michel, for trespassing on private property. To their dismay, the girls are forbidden by Grandpa Edward to see the boys again.

At dinner one night, the girls challenge the French Foreign Minister, Monsieur De Beauvoir, and manage to convince him to accept an important proposal that was established by their grandfather, concerning clean drinking water for the Embassy. This puts Melanie and Allyson back in Grandpa Edward's good graces, and he allows them to once again see Jean and Michel, even allowing all four of them to attend a dance together where they have their first kisses.

When the time comes for the girls to return home, Grandpa Edward decides to take a much-needed break from his ambassadorial duties and accompany them—the intention being to spend time with his family (whom he hasn't seen for a long time) back in the United States.

''The Master'' depicts the American-born writer Henry James in the final years of the 19th century. The eleven chapters of the novel are labelled from January 1895 to October 1899 and follow the writer from his failure in the London theatre, with the play ''Guy Domville'', to his seclusion in the town of Rye, East Sussex, where in the following years he rapidly produced several masterpieces.

The novel starts with a portrait of Henry as a public figure who feels humiliated in an unexpected way, not just in the public side of his writing career but also in a more personal way, in which all the precautions he had taken to carry on with his life as he wished it to be, come to a crisis. Henry resolves to reduce his public life by buying a house in Rye and there he nurses his loneliness and is haunted by all the consequences his need to maintain a protected space in which to live and write has generated all through his life. He's in his fifties and he's very much aware of how he had to refuse the company of his ill sister, whom he adored, at some point, how he chose to stay away from his country and his family, how he felt to turn cold with a writer friend he had been very close to previously and becomes a bachelor with an unresolved sexuality, certainly close to homosexuality, living in a house with servants in the South of England and a daily visit of the stenographer to whom he dictates. The portrait of Henry, a man appalled by the Oscar Wilde case while repressing his self and his sexuality, shows a complex and ambiguous man. He copes with life by exerting control over how much he would reveal, even to himself, and choosing to be a writer in order to achieve precisely that.

Part 1

Racing against the forces of ''Anubis'', SG-1 travel through the Stargate to an alien world which they know is home to a Repository of the Ancients Knowledge. As the team debate whether one of them should use the device or if they should simply destroy it in order to prevent Anubis from taking the device for himself, his forces arrive and begin their attack. Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), who years before was nearly killed by the overwhelming amount of knowledge after accidentally using an identical device, decides he should be the one to use, it in the hope it will help them defend Earth.

In Washington, D.C., new President Henry Hayes (William Devane) calls upon Dr. Elizabeth Weir (Jessica Steen), an expert in international politics, to replace General Hammond (Don S. Davis) for a three-month review. Vice President Robert Kinsey (Ronny Cox) approaches Weir, expressing in no uncertain terms the undesirability of interfering with his agenda.

As SG-1 retreat back to Earth, General Hammond tells them that he is being replaced. Dr. Weir arrives to a less than happy reception as she ceases all Stargate operations. Not long after, Teal'c's mentor Bra'tac (Tony Amendola) comes through the Stargate with the news that Anubis' fleet will arrive at Earth in three days. Kinsey believes this to be a ploy to keep the SGC running, but Weir hears out SG-1's proposal to find the Lost City of the Ancients, and with it the means to defend Earth. Bra'tac and Teal'c depart for Chulak, to find ships and warriors to aid in Earth's defense.

Part 2

O'Neill, under the influence of Ancient knowledge, writes down what Daniel believes is the location of the Lost City: Praclarush Taonas. Daniel realizes that there is a syllable in the Ancient language for each Stargate symbol, and thus "Praclarush Taonas" is a Stargate address. Unable to make a Stargate connection to Praclarush Taonas, Sam (Amanda Tapping) instead plots the planet's location and SG-1 sets off in a Goa'uld cargo ship along with Bra'tac and a young Jaffa pilot named Ronan. Jack's condition is worsening; his actions are becoming more and more subconscious, and he is losing the ability to communicate. He gives command of the mission to Carter. They arrive at a molten planet and discover Taonas, an Ancient outpost, buried under hardened lava. O'Neill activates a hologram showing Terra Atlantus—Earth and the Lost City of Atlantis, buried in Antarctica. O'Neill removes an advanced power source from the outpost. In orbit, Bra'tac fights and successfully kills Ronan who was not a Rebel Jaffa but actually an agent working for Anubis. During the fight, Bra'tac is wounded; O'Neill heals him using the healing powers of the Ancients, then enhances the cargo ship's hyperdrive and modifies its ring transporter to be able to melt through ice upon reaching their destination at Antarctica.

Anubis' scouts reach Earth, but General Hammond and President Hayes believe he is attempting to probe Earth's status and hold back launching their only defence, the ''Prometheus''. As Anubis' full force arrive in orbit, they destroy a fleet of US Navy ships, before turning their attention to Earth's communications network. Anubis appears as a hologram inside the Oval Office and demands Earth's surrender. Still at Stargate Command, Kinsey demands that Weir let him go through the Stargate to Earth's evacuation site, but Anubis dials in preventing his desertion. SG-1's cargo ship arrives above Antarctica and starts drilling; it is protected from a group of death gliders and Al'kesh by the ''Prometheus'', commanded by General Hammond, and its F-302 fight craft. Once inside the Ancient facility, O'Neill installs the power source while Daniel, Sam and Teal'c fend off Anubis' Kull Warriors. As Hammond orders a kamikaze run on Anubis' flagship, O'Neill activates Ancient weapons that obliterates the Goa'uld fleet. A drained O'Neill indicates an Ancient stasis chamber; as it activates, he says "ave, amicis" ("goodbye, friends"). Sam is determined to save him, while Daniel realizes they are in another outpost, not the Lost City. Teal'c wonders where Atlantis is as the three of them look at the frozen O'Neill.

The play is set in 1780s England. Frank Humber proposes marriage to the widow Mrs. Peverel, whose son is tutored by Guy Domville. The tutor Domville is planning to become a Catholic priest but learns that he is the last of his family. He starts to believe that it is his duty to marry and carry on the family line. When Mrs. Peverel rejects Humber's proposal, Frank suspects she may be in love with Domville.

Guy is later about to wed Mary Brasier, but she really loves Lieutenant George Round. Once he understands the situation, Guy refuses to go through with the marriage and instead helps Mary and George elope. Domville also realizes that Frank Humber and Mrs. Peverel are in love, and commends them to each other. He will enter the priesthood, as he previously planned.

*'''Part One'''

Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Toppers' House in London on New Year's Eve. They all want to commit suicide by jumping from the roof. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. After telling their individual stories to the others, they decide to hold off on jumping and to help each other. Thus a group of four unfortunate and very individual people forms. Jess's condition not to jump is that they help her to find her ex-boyfriend Chas. So they take a taxi and drive to the party they suppose Chas to be at. After finding and talking to Chas they decide to go to Martin's place where they find Penny, who has obviously been crying. She accuses Martin of cheating on her because he had left the party they'd both attended that evening without any explanation.

*'''Part Two'''

The next morning Jess's dad learns that the newspapers are publishing a story about Jess and Martin. Jess tells him that she slept with Martin, to avoid him finding out the truth of her attempted suicide. He takes her to task because the whole thing is very awkward for him. He is the Junior Secretary of Education and has a reputation to lose. He goes out to get an early edition of the paper and sees the story about her 'suicide pact' with Martin, so Jess's "whole sex confession bit had been a complete and utter fucking waste of time."

Jess's father asks Martin to clear up the accusations and Martin denies that he slept with Jess. After the conversation, her father asks Martin to protect Jess and gives him money. Afterwards, a reporter calls JJ wanting to know why they decided not to jump, but JJ refuses to discuss it.

Later Jess calls Maureen, and they decide to organise a meeting at Maureen's place. At the meeting, Jess suggests that they try to profit from the suicidal-report in the newspaper. Her idea is to confess to the press that they saw an angel who saved them from jumping. Martin, Maureen and JJ don't like the idea and they try to convince Jess out of talking to the press. The next morning they find out that Jess told a reporter, Linda, that they saw an angel that looked like Matt Damon. Jess also promised Linda an interview with Martin, Maureen and JJ. Although they are upset with Jess's behaviour, they decide to do the interview. Linda uses the interview to attack Martin in the press. Thus Martin is fired from his cable TV "FeetUpTV!” but he receives a second chance by promising to his boss that the other three will be guests in his show. The show is a disaster and Martin loses his job. At another TV show Jess admits that the angel story was not true.

Later, JJ decides that the four of them have to go on holiday for Maureen's benefit. Martin, Jess and JJ help Maureen to find a place for Matty, her son. One week later they're on a plane to Tenerife. On the second day, Jess sees a girl who looks very similar to her lost sister Jen. Jess bothers the girl and they have a fight. Out of frustration Jess gets drunk and the police have to take her back to the hotel. JJ meets a girl that saw his old band and they spend the night together. Martin decides to leave the hotel after a fight with Jess. During his absence from the others, he thinks about his life and decides that he has made no mistakes. He blames other people for how his life has turned out. In the taxi to the airport they talk about their holiday and plan another meeting for Valentine's Day.

They meet at 8 o'clock on the roof of Toppers' House on Valentine's Day. While they have a conversation, they see a young man who is planning to jump from the roof. They try to stop him from committing suicide but he jumps. They decide to go home and to meet the following afternoon at Starbucks.

*'''Part Three'''

Martin tells them about a newspaper article he read according to which people who want to commit suicide need 90 days to overcome their predicament. So they decide to hold their decision until 31 March.

Maureen and Jess decide to visit Martin's ex-wife Cindy to bring her back to him. Cindy Sharp lives with her kids in Torley Heath and has a new partner Paul, whom Maureen and Jess later find out is blind. Cindy explains to them that Martin made many mistakes and that he didn't take care of the children.

After that, Jess organises a meeting in the basement of Starbucks. She invites relatives of the four. All in all, seventeen people appear, but the meeting is a disaster. Jess and her parents are screaming at each other because her mother claims that she had stolen a pair of earrings from Jen's untouched room. While they are fighting Jess runs out of the Starbucks. JJ and a former member of his band are leaving the basement to have a fight and Martin has an argument with one of Maureen's nurses because he claims that he's flirting with Penny. Maureen is the only one of the four who is still present. She talks to Jess's parents and speculates that Jen may have come back to take the earrings. The nurses Sean and Stephen help Maureen to bring Matty home and on the way Sean asks her if she is interested in joining their quiz team. At the quiz, an old man from the team offers Maureen a job in a newsagent's. When Jess comes back from her trip to London Bridge, her mother apologizes for accusing her. Jess accepts the apology, seeing the hope Maureen's suggestion has given her mother.

Maureen, JJ and Martin have new jobs now. Martin is a teacher, and wants to start a new life; JJ is a busker and is happy to make music again; and Maureen has started work at the newsagent's.

The ninety days have passed and they meet in a pub near Toppers' House. They decide to go on the roof again. While watching the London Eye from the roof, they realise that their lives aren't that bad. They decide to delay their final decision on killing themselves for another six months.

The film begins with a tunnel collapse at the world-famous (but fictitious) Sonderditch gold mine outside Johannesburg, in a scene that establishes the courage of Slater and his chief miner, 'Big King', and the bond of trust between them. This is contrasted with the contempt with which some other managers treat the native miners. It is soon revealed that the collapse was no accident, but part of a plan by a London-based criminal syndicate, which includes the previous general manager who is killed in the abortive first attempt and the mine-owner's son-in-law and director manager Manfred Steyner, to destroy the mine so that the foreign syndicate members can profit from share-dealing and raising the price of gold on world markets. This will be done by drilling through a deep underground greenstone wall or dike which is all that prevents an adjacent reservoir of water from flooding the mine.

The mine's general manager, an accomplice in the plot, was killed in the tunnel collapse. Steyner then interviews Slater, who at this stage is underground manager, for the now vacant post of general manager, although the mine owner/chairman of the board Hurry Hirschfeld (Ray Milland) has the next regular man in seniority in mind as another candidate. At this point during his initial interview, Slater first meets Steyner's wife Terry at their luxurious mansion home and is attracted to her, but she does not at first return his interest. However, Steyner arranges for them to meet again, in the hope that Terry will influence her grandfather, the mine owner/board chairman, an old curmudgeon whom she lovingly calls "Poppsie", in Slater's favour. The plan works, with two consequences: Slater becomes general manager, and he and Terry start a love affair. Slater, unaware of the criminal plan, agrees to carry out the drilling but is cautious enough to plant a safety charge that will block the tunnel in case of a water leak. Steyner soon finds out that Slater is having an affair with his wife, but allows it to continue because it will keep Slater away from the mine, so that the safety charge can be disabled without his knowledge.

While Slater and Terry are holidaying together over a warm Christmas, the final breach is made in the underground dike and a wall of an ocean of water roars into the interconnected mazes of tunnels and shafts and the mine begins to flood, trapping a thousand workers. Slater hears of the disaster on the radio news, and flies with Terry in her small private plane back to the mine, making a hair-raising emergency landing on the mine access road. There is a tense scene in which Slater and Big King descend into the mine, amidst rising flood waters, to repair and reconnect the electrical line to the explosive safety charge that will seal the dike hole. They succeed, but only because Big King sacrifices his own life to detonate the charge, letting Slater fall injured into a rubber dinghy in the flooded tunnel and escape. Meanwhile, Steyner is murdered by Marais, one of his accomplices, running him down with his Rolls-Royce limousine while they are observing the mine rescue operations from a nearby towering rubble slag debris hill after they hear on the radio station news reports of Slater's set explosive charge sealing the dike hole and saving the mine, confirming that their plan has unravelled. Marais then also goes over the steep hill's edge after hitting his boss, tumbling down, killing himself as the car crashes and explodes.This conveniently leaves Terry free to continue her relationship with Slater, as grandfather Chairman Hirschfeld tells him again as he is loaded into an ambulance – "Slater, you're a maniac!” - with a satisfied smile as the film ends.

Each episode begins with Alice facing different problems and consulting with her cat Dinah. In order to find the answer she needs to get through a situation, she goes through her mirror that takes her to Wonderland where she partakes in strange adventures with its inhabitants that revolve around the situation that she is dealing with at home. Every episode contains singing and dancing.

Thrill seeker friends Sarah, Juno, and Beth whitewater raft together. Afterward, Sarah, along with her husband Paul and their daughter Jessica, are involved in a car accident when Paul is distracted. Paul and Jessica are killed, but Sarah survives.

One year later, Sarah, Juno, and Beth, as well as friends Sam, Rebecca, and newcomer Holly reunite at a cabin in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina for a spelunking adventure. The next day, they hike up to a mountain cave entrance and descend. While in the cave, Juno apologizes to Sarah for not being there for her after the accident, but Sarah is distant. After the group moves through a narrow passage, it collapses behind them, trapping them. After a heated discussion, Juno admits that she has led the group into an unknown cave system instead of the fully explored cave system that they had originally planned to visit, and so rescue is therefore impossible. She then tells Sarah that this adventure was in the hopes of restoring their relationship.

As the group presses forward with hopes of finding an exit, they discover aged climbing equipment and a cave painting that suggests an exit exists. Holly, thinking she sees sunlight, runs ahead, but falls down a hole and breaks her leg. As the others help Holly, Sarah wanders off and observes a pale, humanoid creature drinking at a pool before it scampers away. Later, the group comes across a den of animal bones and is suddenly attacked by a creature known as a "crawler." Holly is killed when a crawler attacks and bites through her throat. Sarah runs and falls down a hole, where she is knocked unconscious. Juno, trying to prevent Holly's body from being dragged away, kills a crawler with her pickaxe but then, startled and in shock, accidentally strikes Beth through the neck. Beth collapses with Juno's pendant in her hand and begs Juno not to leave her, but a traumatized Juno flees.

Sarah awakens to find herself in a den of human and animal carcasses, witnessing Holly's body being mauled and eaten by crawlers. Juno discovers cave markings from previous explorers that point to a specific path through the caves. Juno locates Sam and Rebecca. Sam has deduced that the crawlers are blind and rely on sound to hunt. Juno tells them about the markings, but she will not leave without Sarah.

Meanwhile, Sarah encounters Beth, who tells her that Juno wounded then abandoned her. Beth gives her Juno's pendant, telling her it is a gift from Paul, and realizes that Juno and Paul had an affair before his death. Beth begs Sarah to euthanize her, which Sarah reluctantly does by bashing her head in with a rock. Sarah then encounters several crawlers and manages to kill them all, falling into a blood-filled pond in the process and emerging covered in blood.

Elsewhere, Juno, Sam and Rebecca are pursued by a large group of crawlers. They reach a chasm and Sam tries to climb across, but a crawler scaling the ceiling attacks and rips her throat out. Sam stabs it before bleeding to death in front of Juno and Rebecca. Rebecca is then dragged away and eaten alive as Juno escapes. Juno encounters Sarah and lies to her about seeing Beth die. After defeating a group of crawlers close to the exit, Sarah confronts Juno, revealing the pendant and her knowledge of Beth's fate and the affair with Paul. Sarah then strikes Juno in the leg with a pickaxe and leaves her to die as a swarm of crawlers approaches. Juno is last heard screaming as Sarah escapes. Sarah falls down a hole and is knocked unconscious.

When Sarah awakens, she sees sunlight and clambers up a slope covered in bones to escape the cave. After exhaustedly running to her car, she speeds out of the woods before she pulls over to the side of the road, breaking down in tears. After a truck passes her, she vomits out the window. When she sits up, she sees a hallucination of a bloodied Juno sitting next to her and screams.

Extended ending

In the original release in the United Kingdom, an extended ending is presented, which was cut for the US release over concerns that it was too depressing. After hallucinating the image of Juno, Sarah awakens in the cave, her entire escape having been revealed to be part of the same hallucination. She sits up to see Jessica sitting across from her, holding a birthday cake. As Sarah smiles the shot widens to reveal that the cake's birthday-candlelight is actually the light of her torch. The camera slowly backs out, revealing the darkness surrounding Sarah as the crawlers are heard closing in.

Set in the year 2548, it has been 300 years since Earth lost contact with the colony ship ''Ozymandias'', en route to a². Somehow, the ship has reappeared near Jupiter. A team called S.O.A.R. (Special Operations And Reconnaissance) is sent aboard the probe ship ''Seyfert'' to investigate. As the ''Seyfert'' sends out a shuttle to investigate the ship, its weapons suddenly activate. A beam destroys the ''Seyfert'' and then the shuttle, killing nearly everyone except for Patrick Tyler, Sonya Hart, Commander Jacob Ranshaw, and McCoy. Patrick and Sonya reunite on the exterior of the ship and gain access. The ship's interior is derelict, although there is still power.

McCoy boards as well but is killed by a large ''Tyrannosaurus''-like creature which chases the team. The ''T. rex'' is then attacked, mauled and killed by a swarm of eel-like mutants, one of which is ripped in half and thrown to the floor beforehand. After fighting his way through the ship's storage areas, Patrick meets a survivor, a girl named Caren Velázquez. After meeting her, she runs away in fear.

Patrick spots Caren once again, looking at a picture frame of her father, Dr. Miguel Velázquez. Patrick learns she has been on her own for 300 years. Sonya discovers that MTHR - the ship's control system - is creating the dinosaur-like creatures from the DNA of animals in storage as a replacement for the human crew. When Patrick tells them that he is shutting MTHR down for good, Caren opens the door and runs away.

As Caren and the team hurry out of the experimental laboratory, they are attacked by a mutant ''Ankylosaurus'' known as a Regulus. Caren is struck in the abdomen and sent flying into the wall by the beast, and later fatally wounded. Jacob sacrifices himself to kill the mutant by setting off his grenades at the creature's mouth. At this point, it is revealed that Caren is an android.

Later, the same beast reappears, revealing that Jacob's sacrifice is for naught. With no choice, Patrick has to put the Regulus to rest.

Caren manages to repair the ship, saving Patrick from succumbing to the broken environmental systems. Patrick returns to the Energy Core to restart it, but the room is severely damaged when a mutant ''Spinosaurus'' crashes through the wall, filling the area with water coolant.

After fighting off the creature, the team runs to the MTHR sector as the core begins to go into meltdown. As they arrive at the sector, the MTHR and Engine Sectors detach from the ''Front Deck'', '''Shaft''' and '''Energy Sector''', which are destroyed by the meltdown. The Engines soon activate an emergency system and Warp Jump to Earth.

Patrick meets MTHR and questions her. He then tries to stop MTHR's main computer but she opens another hatch releasing the ''Spinosaurus'' the second time. Upon defeating the creature, Patrick tries to stop MTHR sending the dinosaurs to Earth and fights her, eventually destroying her system, which has disastrous effects on the ship, causing it to activate the self-destruct sequence. MTHR's last words are "I just wanted to complete my mission".

Patrick is reunited with Sonya and Caren as they try to escape the ship via an escape shuttle, but they are attacked by the "Cebalrai", a two-headed ''Giganotosaurus''. The beast jumps onto the platform and chases the trio down to the bottom of the platform. As Patrick runs, the Cebalrai slams its left head into him and tosses him into the wall, making him unable to reach his gun. Caren lures the creature toward her. Patrick tries to stop her, but a stomp of the Cebalrai's paw causes the platform Caren and the monster are standing on to collapse. Both Caren and the Cebalrai fall into the abyss - much to Patrick's dismay. After defeating another ''T. rex'', Patrick and Sonya are able to escape before the ship self-destructs, but the Cebalrai, being able to survive in a vacuum, was able to get on the top of the shuttle. Patrick gets on top of the shuttle himself to destroy the "genetic freak" in a final battle.

Midway through the battle, the Cebalrai grows a third head, and Patrick is forced to use a "Final Wasp", which weakens the creature and sends it flying into space.

During the 1920s, before the 1944 California prison reform, Warden Ben Rickey (Ted De Corsia) rules Folsom Prison with a ruthless hand. He believes that prisons should be used for punishment, rather than rehabilitation to reduce the incidence of repeated returns to jail (recidivism). His methods are violent, torturous, and intended to beat the prisoners into submission.

Chuck Daniels (Steve Cochran), one of the toughest inmates, and his group of followers are intent on escaping. However, after an attempt which is thwarted by Rickey, a riot ensues resulting in the deaths of two officers and a few prisoners. Rickey, with his iron fist, doles out severe and cruel punishments to all prisoners connected to the incident.

In response to increasing violence, and the warden's inhumane treatment, the prison's board of directors hire an assistant, Mark Benson (David Brian), as captain of the guards. He believes that the inmates, despite their serious crimes, deserve to be treated better and given an opportunity to change by being educated on how to live on the outside, prior to release, in order to increase their chances of becoming productive members of society. Benson makes many changes to the regimen including serving meat, allowing inmates to talk during meal times, and promoting rehabilitation programs such as employment help. He also changes the way the guards do their jobs as well, by expecting them to come to work clean, behave in a professional way, and discontinue the senseless beatings that cause trouble.

These changes go against the wishes of the warden and Benson eventually leaves his post as captain of the guards. With Benson gone, Warden Rickey reverts all of the reforms and the inmates retaliate with yet another escape attempt. A riot erupts in which many are fatally wounded.

The plot follows the members of Public Security Section 9, mainly consisting of Major Motoko Kusanagi, Chief Aramaki, Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa, Saito, and a nameless male, the Rookie, controlled by the player. The game's story is told using mission briefings and animated cutscenes.

After the terrorist organization known as the Human Liberation Front claims responsibility for blowing up the Megatech Body Corporation building, Section 9 is sent to resolve the situation. Section 9 is able to trace the terrorists' communications and find their location in the bay area; however, it is a trap. Chief Aramaki later announces that the leader of the Human Liberation Front is a mercenary known as Zebra 27. Ishikawa then reports that the Energy Ministry is interested in files relating to Zebra; Aramaki orders further investigation.

The Rookie's skill is put to the test, leading chase missions and surviving an ambush. Eventually, the Human Liberation Front's secret base is discovered in Aeropolis II tower by following the enemy supply line, along with the terrorists' intentions of using a nuclear reactor. Ishikawa informs Aramaki that an official of the Energy Ministry named Sawamura has been in contact with Zebra and is connected to Megatech Body Corporation. While conducting the raid on the enemy's base, the reactor begins to overload. In order to shut it down, squad leader Motoko Kusanagi attempts to remove the protective barrier from an access point nearby, as the rest of the team search for the other building's control room. After disarming the reactor, Kusanagi locates the leader on top of the tower. Batou and Togusa encounter obstacles that prevent them from moving to the top, leaving the Rookie as the only available member. Once he reaches the top, he engages the leader in combat and defeats him in a free fall battle off of the tower.

After the mission, it is revealed that Sawamura planned to collect bribes from Megatech in exchange for covering up a defect in the nuclear reactor, which was going to explode, and presenting it as a terrorist attack; however, Zebra seized the reactor to take it over and wanted to extort money from Sawamura. Kusanagi declares the entire experience as at least good training for the Rookie and acknowledges the Rookie's cleverness, but criticizes the overdependence on the Fuchikoma.

Inventor Tom Jeffers and his wife Gerry are down on their luck financially. Married for five years, the couple are still waiting for Tom's ship to come in. Anxious for the finer things in a life she's no longer enjoying, Gerry decides that they both would be better off if they split. Before she can act she ends up entangled with the Wienie King, a strange old man being shown round her apartment with his wife by a building manager anxious to rent it out from beneath his delinquent tenants. Sympathetic to her plight - and utterly taken by her youth and charm - the man gives her $700 from the giant roll of cash he keeps in his pocket. This is enough to get their rent current, pay off their most urgent bills, buy a new dress, take Tom to an expensive dinner, and still leave $14 and change pocket money for him.

In spite of a night of amour that followed their tipsy return home, she awakens early, packs a bag, and makes for the train station. Bound for Palm Beach, Florida, her plan is to get a divorce, meet a wealthy man who can both give her what she craves and also help Tom, and marry him. Penniless, and repeatedly escaping from Tom's clutches, she is invited to travel gratis as guest of the rich and soused Ale and Quail Club on their private car.

When it proves too rowdy, she flees for an upper berth in a nearby Pullman car, in the process meeting the meek, eccentric, but amiable John D. Hackensacker III, who begins to fall for her immediately.

, stars of ''The Palm Beach Story'', from the trailer for the film Left without even her clothes or purse in the chaos of her flight from the Ale and Quail reverie, she willingly accepts Hackensacker's initial chivalrous charity. Which takes a dramatic turn towards extravagance during a shopping spree for ladies finery he instigates in Jacksonville, swirling from trifles to ''haut couture'' and jewelry encrusted with precious stones.

Only when he hands over a card upon telling the store manager to charge it all to him is it revealed he is one of the richest men in the world and owner of the ''Erl King'', a fabulous yacht which the twosome board for the final leg to Palm Beach.

Back in New York the despondent Tom receives the same kind of generous no-strings-attached charity from the Wienie King he had accused Gerry of trading sexual favors for, helping clear his mind. The King encourages him to rent a plane, fly to Florida, and show up with a bouquet of roses to win back his bride.

Arriving at the railhead in Palm Beach Tom is directed to the dock for Hackensacker's yacht, where he sees the affectionate new couple still aboard. Failing to run him off on shore, a flustered Gerry introduces Tom as her brother, Captain McGlue. Hackensacker's oft-married, man-hungry sister, Princess Centimillia, is immediately smitten with him, and dismisses her previous lover, still in tow, Toto, as a valet.

When Gerry tells Hackensacker, who is working his way round to propose to her, that her "brother" is partners with her husband in the same investment, Hackensacker agrees to back it, saying he likes the Captain and it will keep it "all in the family" once they are married.

Invited to stay at the Princess' estate, the Jeffers try valiantly to maintain their farce – Tom reluctantly, wrangling to win Gerry back, and Gerry determinedly seeking to stick to her original plan. Until, to the strains of Hackensacker crooning love songs over a rented orchestra assembled beneath their windows, the couple end up romantically entangled the same way they had their very last night together. With the same impassioned result.

Unmasked the next morning, they are reunited as one and confess the ruse to the Hackensackers. After John agrees to finance Tom's invention as simply a "good investment", sans sentimentality, the matter is begged whether Tom and Gerry have a brother and sister. They do...''twins!''

There is an elaborate dual wedding, with Tom as best man and Gerry as matron of honor, John hand-in-hand with Gerry's sister and the Princess with Tom's brother. A title card tells us that they "lived happily ever after...or did they?", before credits roll.

Players assume the role of Mr. Diaz, a synthetic human hybrid created by aliens. In the game's introduction, he turns on his masters when he kills a synthetic human intended to replace the President's bodyguard, Johnny Slater. Diaz finds himself in a massive underground installation created by the aliens under Manhattan. As the game progresses, it is revealed that the player is actually assuming the role of Slater, who was disguised as Diaz by the Gargatuans. The Gargatuans are an alien race around three feet tall who, after being betrayed by a member of their species who awoke from hypersleep and piloted the ship to Earth, are forced to help said traitor with his genetic experiments. The alien creates clones and hybrids (a genetic mix of human and Gargatuan DNA, resulting in extra-powerful creatures) and intends to conquer the earth through a replacement of its leaders, beginning with the United States. A few Gargatuans have escaped the traitor, and conduct an underground resistance in the woodwork. They found Johnny after he had been cloned and disguised him as Diaz, who they incapacitated and kept unconscious. Johnny regains his memories, which were blocked while he was disguised. The player then must travel even further down the bunker in the hopes of stopping the aliens from replacing the president with a clone and by request of the Gargatuans to defeat the traitor. Johnny's personal motive to help him stay focused is that he must make it back in time to meet his girlfriend under the Christmas tree on the White House lawn.

Enemies included clones (unremarkable creations, created mainly for menial labor), agents (resemble the public perception of the secret service, men in black suits with sunglasses), mutants (genetic experiments that resulted in vicious creatures, presumably for military), robots (mostly humanoid, but some were straight-out mechs), and hybrids. One hybrid, created to replace the Secretary of Defense (or possibly State), is Johnny's antagonist for much of the game, before a final showdown wherein the alien creature explains much of the plot.

A Bajoran woman, Vaatrik Pallra, hires Quark to retrieve a strongbox from her late husband's shop on Deep Space Nine. Quark opens it to find a list of Bajoran names. A stranger, Trazko, sneaks up, shoots Quark and steals the list. As Dr. Bashir tries to revive Quark, Quark's brother Rom tells Odo about the list of names, and that the box was hidden in the shop during the Occupation.

In a flashback, five years earlier, Odo is solicited by the station's Cardassian commander Gul Dukat to investigate a murder. Odo interrogates Vaatrik Pallra, the deceased's widow. She claims her husband had been having an affair with Kira Nerys. When he interviews Kira, she says that there was no intimate relationship between her and Vaatrik, and that she was interviewing for a job at Quark's bar at the time of the murder.

In the present, Rom tells Odo that one name on the list resembled "Ches'so". Odo interviews Pallra, who claims ignorance of the list of names and the name "Ches'so". She also refuses to divulge who loaned her the money to pay her past-due electricity bill. Kira identifies "Ches'so": a philanthropist named "Ches'sarro", who has just died.

Five years earlier, Quark admits that Kira bribed him to provide a false alibi. When Odo confronts her about it, Kira reveals that she was committing a terrorist attack on the station. Odo tells Dukat that Kira is not the culprit in the murder.

In the present, Odo deduces that the names on the list are Bajorans who collaborated with the Cardassians during the occupation, whom Pallra has been blackmailing. Trazko attempts again to kill Quark; Rom saves Quark's life by screaming, gaining the attention of security officers. Brought to DS9, Pallra denies knowing Trazko, but Odo has confirmed that she recently transferred a large sum of money into his bank account. When she declares her innocence in the murder of her husband, Odo replies, "I know."

Odo has realized that it is Kira who killed Vaatrick five years earlier. He tells Kira that he began to suspect her when she was able to identify Ches'saro so quickly. When he deduced that the list consisted of Bajoran collaborators, Odo realized that Vaatrick was a collaborator too, and now understands that Dukat chose him to investigate so as to keep distance from his collaborators. Kira, a member of the resistance, killed Vaatrick when he discovered her trying to steal the list of names. She never told Odo because she was afraid it would affect their friendship. Kira asks him if he will be able to trust her again, and he is unable to answer.

The show deals with four women living together at a beach house located at 2000 Malibu Road: Jade (Lisa Hartman), a former prostitute trying to get out of the profession; Perry (Jennifer Beals), a young lawyer also escaping from her past (i.e. a slain fiancé police officer and a serious drinking problem); Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), a would-be actress trying to get the right break; and Joy (Tuesday Knight), Lindsay's overweight, overprotective, two-faced, manipulative sister, who also served as her agent. Jade owned the house. In order to leave her profession as a high priced prostitute, she took in roommates to help her pay for the house.

The series ended with several unresolved cliffhangers: Roger (Michael T. Weiss) was seen raping and beating Perry in a stairwell. Meanwhile, Porter's (Mitch Ryan) men shot Hal (Robert Foxworth) dead, and after arguing with Lindsay upon discovering she was sleeping with Eric (Brian Bloom), Joy was struck by lightning. Lisa Hartman provided a closing narration to serve as a (perfunctory) tie-up for the characters, though possibly only on overseas broadcasts.

The film retells the story of the Trojan War in 1100 B.C., albeit with some major changes from the Iliad's storyline; Paris of Troy (Jacques Sernas) sails to Sparta to secure a peace treaty between the two powerful city-states. His ship is forced to return to Troy in a storm after he has been swept overboard on the shore of Sparta. Paris is found by Helen, queen of Sparta (Rossana Podestà) with whom he falls in love. He goes to the palace where he finds Helen's husband, king Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis), Agamemnon (Robert Douglas), Odysseus (Torin Thatcher), Achilles (Stanley Baker) and many other Greek kings debating whether to go to war with Troy. Menelaus, who is denied by Helen, sees that his wife and Paris are in love and, pretending friendship, plots Paris' death.

Warned by Helen, Paris flees and, after they are both nearly caught by the Spartans, takes Helen with him to Troy. Under the pretense of helping Menelaus regain his honor, the Greeks unite, and the siege of Troy begins. Much blood is shed in the long ordeal, with the Trojans blaming their plight on Paris and Helen until it turns out that the Greeks are solely after Troy's riches, not Helen. The siege culminates in Greek victory through the ruse of the legendary Trojan Horse. While trying to flee, Helen and Paris are cornered by Menelaus. Paris faces the Spartan king in single combat, but just as he wins the upper hand he is stabbed from behind, denying him a fair trial by arms. Helen is forced to return with Menelaus, but she is serene in the knowledge that in death she will be reunited with Paris in Elysium.

After the food preservative that keeps perishable items fresh for years which he helped make has been approved, Clark Griswold finally earns the sizable cash bonus promised to him in the previous film from Frank Shirley. He announces to his family that he is taking them on vacation to celebrate and renew wedding vows with his wife Ellen. Excitement wanes, however, when Clark says they are headed to Las Vegas. His wife and teenage daughter, Audrey, have their doubts, as Las Vegas is not known for its family-friendly atmosphere, while teenage son Rusty appears to be more enthusiastic.

Upon arriving in Vegas, the family embarks upon a series of misadventures. The Griswolds attend a Siegfried & Roy show, and they also visit Cousin Eddie, the husband of Ellen's cousin Catherine. Eddie and his family now live in the desert just north of Las Vegas, on what used to be a hydrogen-bomb test site. While on a group tour of the Hoover Dam led by guide Arty, Clark becomes separated from the group after accidentally creating a leak in the dam's interior walkways, and is forced to climb the scaffolding to the very top of the dam to get out, because his cries for help cannot be heard over the roaring water. The next night, they are surprised to find tickets to a Wayne Newton concert have been delivered to their hotel room, along with a dress for Ellen. They go to the concert, only to realize that Newton had sent the dress. While singing, he brings Ellen up on stage to sing with him, and visits at their table.

The next day, the family agrees to an "alone day" and are left to their own devices. Clark goes to a casino and becomes addicted to gambling, usually losing to a snide blackjack dealer named Marty, who enjoys Clark's humiliation. Rusty buys a fake ID from a Frank Sinatra look-alike and becomes a winning high roller, taking on the pseudonym Nick Pappagiorgio. Audrey starts hanging out with Eddie's free-spirited exotic dancer daughter Vicki and her friends. Ellen begins spending time with Wayne Newton, who has feelings for her.

Clark gambles away the family's $22,600 bank account, leading a furious Ellen and the kids to desert him. Rusty wins four cars from four separate slot machines, while Audrey goes to a strip club with Vicki and gets a job as a go-go dancer. Eddie — who has money buried in his front yard — tries to come to Clark's rescue in return for everything the Griswolds have done for him and his family over the years. Clark and Eddie go to a local casino to get their money back, but Clark ends up gambling away Eddie's money too, causing him to re-evaluate his behavior. Clark then realizes he no longer cares about getting his money back, but needs to get his family back.

Clark then gathers up his family from around Vegas and they gamble their last two dollars on a game of keno. They sit next to an elderly man who compliments Clark on his family, and hints that he has been lonely all of his life. Out of sympathy, Clark tells the man to consider himself part of the Griswold family for the night. The man happily accepts Clark's offer, and both parties begin the game. At first, the Griswolds are optimistic, but as they realize they have already lost the game, they sit together in silence. Suddenly, the man next to them ecstatically declares that he has won the game. In his burst of joy, he suddenly begins to slip in and out of consciousness while Ellen sends Rusty for help. He revives long enough to whisper a message to Clark, before dropping his winning ticket. Clark, confused, tells Ellen that the man said "take the ticket" as the old man winks toward him while lapsing one last time. When the casino security guards and paramedics arrive, they declare the man officially dead. They tell the Griswolds that his name was Mr. Ellis and he would have given anything for a friend. As Mr. Ellis is carried away, a janitor approaches with a carpet cleaner, heading straight for the winning ticket on the floor. Though it appears Clark is going to allow it to be lost, at the last second, he slides the ticket out of the carpet cleaner's path.

With their newfound winnings, Clark and Ellen renew their wedding vows in the presence of Eddie's family. Clark then gives Eddie $5,000 to repay his kindness. The Griswolds all drive home in the four cars Rusty won on the slot machines: a red Dodge Viper, a maroon Ford Mustang, a black Hummer H1, and a white Ford Aspire.

Artist Reno Miller (Abel Ferrara) and his girlfriend Carol enter a small Catholic church, where he approaches an elderly bearded man (revealed as Reno's estranged derelict father) kneeling at the pulpit. The derelict seizes Reno's hand, causing him and Carol to flee from the church. Unknown to Reno, his father slipped him a piece of paper requesting a meeting with him. Reno denies knowing who the homeless man was.

Later at his apartment, Reno receives a large Con-Ed electricity bill, and a phone bill, both of which, along with his monthly apartment's rental fee, Reno cannot pay. He shares the apartment with Carol, a former flight attendant, and her drug-addicted lover Pamela, in a derelict-filled neighbourhood in Union Square. Reno visits Dalton, an art gallery owner, and tells him that he is currently painting a masterpiece. Reno asks for a week's extension and a $500 loan to cover the rent. However, Dalton refuses, saying that he has already lent enough money to Reno. However, if Reno finishes a satisfactory painting in one week, Dalton will buy it for the agreed amount.

The following day, a No Wave band named the Roosters begin practising their music in a nearby apartment, which makes Reno unnerved and frustrated. At 2:00 in the morning while painting, Reno becomes increasingly agitated by the Roosters' music. After seeing a vision of his own image saturated in blood, Reno walks the streets in the dark. He sees an elderly homeless man sleeping in a garbage-strewn alley, seizes him and begins ranting. Reno ducks into the alley with the man, where they see a small group of teenage gang members chasing another homeless person down the street. When the gang members are gone from sight, Reno drops the man to the ground and walks away, vowing that he will not end up like a derelict.

The next day, Reno complains about the Roosters to their landlord. However, the landlord refuses to act since the music doesn’t bother him. He demands the rent money, and ends up giving Reno a skinned rabbit for dinner. Reno takes the rabbit home, repeatedly stabbing it during the preparation. During a brief reprieve from the music, Reno hears voices calling his name and sees an image of Carol with her eyes gouged out. That night, Reno leaves his apartment and heads outside armed with a power drill connected to a portable battery pack. He discovers a homeless man inside an abandoned building and brutally kills him. The following evening, Reno, Carol and Pamela see Tony Coca-Cola and the Roosters at a nightclub. As the Roosters play, Reno becomes irritated by the music and crowd and leaves while Carol and Pamela dance and kiss.

Reno returns to his apartment, grabs his drill and goes out on a killing spree. Throughout the night, Reno kills a number of homeless people all over the city before returning home to sleep.

Later on, Tony visits Reno's apartment to ask Reno to paint a portrait of him. In exchange, Tony agrees to Reno's demand of $500 to cover his overdue rent. As Reno paints, Tony poses by playing his guitar and kissing Pamela.

Next, we see a transient man upset in a nearby alley, who is later attacked and killed by Reno. Afterwards, Reno completes his painting, then wakes and notifies Pamela and Carol.

The next day, Reno and Carol show the painting to Dalton who leaves after declaring it "unacceptable." Carol yells at Reno for sitting with a blank facial expression, which results in her leaving Reno for her ex-husband Stephen by the next morning. That evening, Reno calls Dalton and invites him to see another painting. When Dalton arrives as the Roosters are practising, a dressed-up Reno kills him with his drill. After visiting the Roosters, Pamela returns to the apartment where, upon the discovery of Dalton's body inside, she flees into the hallway before Reno grabs her. Pamela's fate is left ambiguous.

Across town, Carol is back with Stephen at his apartment. She takes a shower while Stephen prepares tea. Reno enters the apartment, kills Stephen, and then hides his body behind a kitchen counter. Carol, exiting from her shower, walks to the bedroom where Reno is hiding underneath the bed covers. She turns off the lights, gets into bed, and tells Stephen to "come here..."; The film suddenly ends, leaving Carol's ultimate fate unknown.

Upon his return to England after his overseas job in the police, Luke Fitzwilliam shares a London-bound train carriage with Lavinia Pinkerton. She talks with him about her reason to travel to Scotland Yard, hoping for agreement. She plans to report a serial killer in her village and tells him who was killed and who will next be killed. Amy Gibbs, Tommy Pierce and Harry Carter have been killed, and Dr John Humbleby will be the next victim. This woman reminds him of a favourite aunt, so he replies politely and recalls what she said.

He reads of Miss Pinkerton's death the next day, and then of the death of Dr Humbleby, who has died of septicaemia. Luke will not let this rest, and he travels to the village, Wychwood under Ashe. He poses as one finding material for a book on beliefs in witchcraft and superstition, as he investigates. He stays at the home of Gordon Ragg aka Lord Whitfield (Easterfield in the U.S. edition), claiming to be a cousin of Bridget Conway, Whitfield's fiancée, and the cousin of his own good friend. He and Conway receive the assistance of Honoria Waynflete, a woman whom they believe may know the person behind the deaths. He talks with villagers to learn the stories of the recent murders, including Mr Abbot, the solicitor who fired Tommy Pierce from his service; the Reverend Mr Wake, local preacher; Mr Ellsworthy, an antique shop owner who appears to be mentally unstable, and Dr Thomas, Humbleby's younger partner. People in the village view the deaths as accidents. Amy Gibbs died after confusing her cough remedy with hat paint in the dark, Tommy Pierce died from falling from an upper-floor window at the library while cleaning the windows, Harry Carter fell from a bridge while drunk and drowned in the mud, and Humbleby died from a cut that became infected. Luke learns that Mrs Lydia Horton was another victim of these accidents—she was recovering from acute gastritis and was getting better before she had a sudden relapse and died.

Luke believes Ellsworthy to be the killer because of his mental instability. Seeing Ellsworthy return home with blood on his hands adds to this image. Later on in that day, Luke and Miss Waynflete witness Whitfield arguing with his chauffeur, Rivers, who had taken Whitfield's Rolls-Royce for a joyride. Luke finds Rivers dead, hit by a decorative stone. Luke and Bridget realise that they are in love with each other, and Bridget tells Gordon of her decision to break off the engagement. Speaking with Luke, Gordon makes an odd statement. He claims that God kills people that do him harm, dispensing divine justice upon wrongdoers. Whitfield mentions that Mrs Horton had argued with him, Tommy Pierce did mocking impressions of him, Harry Carter shouted at him while drunk, Amy Gibbs was impertinent to him, Humbleby disagreed with him on the village water supply, and Rivers used his car without permission and then spoke disrespectfully to him; and all of them died soon afterwards. Whitfield predicts that Luke and Bridget, having wronged him, will soon meet their fates too.

Luke changes his mind about who is responsible for the deaths, considering Whitfield as the murderer. He consults Miss Waynflete, who confirms his suspicions, and tells him of how she knew he was insane: when they were younger, Waynflete and Whitfield had been engaged to be married. But one evening, Whitfield killed the bird that she kept as a pet, with the appearance that he enjoyed doing it. She ended their engagement.

Luke and Bridget decide that Bridget will leave Whitfield's estate to stay at Honoria Waynflete's house. Luke collects their luggage and prepares to leave, while Bridget and Honoria take a walk in the woods. Honoria reveals herself to be the murderer. During her engagement to Whitfield, Honoria had killed her own pet bird after it bit her, which prompted Gordon to abandon the engagement. She vowed revenge on Gordon, and decided to set him up for crimes he did not commit. She encouraged him in the belief that God exacted immediate retribution from those who disrespected him.

Honoria poisoned the tea for Lydia Horton, while encouraging others to believe the problem was in the grapes sent by Whitfield. Honoria killed Amy by swapping the bottles around in the night and locking the door from the outside using pincers. She killed Carter by pushing him off the bridge on the day he had a row with Whitfield, and she likewise pushed Tommy Pierce out of the window while he was working. Whitfield had been the one to assign Tommy to this job.

Honoria sees that Lavinia Pinkerton realised she is the killer, and that Humbleby would be her next victim. Honoria follows Lavinia into London and then pushes her in front of a passing car. Honoria frames Whitfield by telling a witness that she saw the registration number of Whitfield's Rolls-Royce. After inviting Humbleby round to her house, she cut his hand with scissors. She then applied a dressing to the wound, a dressing with pus seeping from her cat's ear; Humbleby dies a few days later from blood infection. After witnessing Rivers being sacked, Honoria hits him with a sandbag and caves his skull in with the stone pineapple.

Honoria drugs Bridget's tea and takes her into the woods, where the two of them began talking. Bridget does not drink the tea and is ready for what comes. Honoria reveals a knife covered in Whitfield's fingerprints, and informs Bridget that she will kill her and leave the knife at the scene. Further, Honoria arranges for Whitfield to be seen walking alone through the area where Bridget's body will be. Instead, Bridget fights with Honoria. Luke realises that Honoria is the murderer and rescues Bridget. Bridget and Luke leave the village to live together as a married couple.

The maid at Gossington Hall wakes Mrs Bantry by saying, “There is a body in the library!” Dolly Bantry then wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry to go downstairs. He finds the dead body of a young woman on the hearth rug in the library, with heavy makeup, platinum-blonde hair, and a silver-spangled dress. The colonel calls the police, and Mrs Bantry calls her old friend, Miss Marple. The police investigators include Colonel Melchett and Inspector Slack.

Trying to identify this dead young woman, Melchett heads to the nearby cottage of Basil Blake, but Blake's girlfriend Dinah Lee, a platinum blonde, is very much alive and arrives at the house while Melchett is interviewing Blake. Dr Haydock’s autopsy reveals that the young woman, healthy but not fully mature, died between 10 pm and 12 midnight the previous evening, had been drugged and then strangled, and was not sexually molested. Miss Marple notices that the appearance of this girl is not right, from her bitten fingernails to her old dress. She shares these observations with Dolly.

Hotel guest Conway Jefferson reports Ruby Keene, an 18-year-old dancer at the Majestic Hotel in Danemouth, as missing. Josie Turner, employee at the hotel, identifies the body as that of her cousin Ruby. Guests saw Ruby as late as 11 pm dancing with George Bartlett, but Ruby did not appear for her dance demonstration at midnight. Conway tells police he has revised his will to favour Ruby, until the legal adoption is completed.

Dolly and Miss Marple move to the Majestic to investigate further. Conway calls Sir Henry Clithering to join the investigation; Sir Henry sees Miss Marple at the hotel and in turn invites her to investigate.

Conway made large financial settlements for his children at the time each married. Then his wife, son and daughter were killed in an aeroplane crash eight years earlier. The three grieving survivors, son-in-law Mark, daughter-in-law Adelaide, and Conway, made up a household. They were playing bridge that evening with Josie. Police initially rule out the son-in-law and daughter-in-law, thinking each one is financially secure. But both are short of money, as Slack’s investigation and Adelaide’s conversation with Dolly reveal.

Bartlett's burned-out car is found with a charred corpse inside. From one shoe and one button, the corpse is identified as that of 16-year-old Girl Guide Pamela Reeves, reported missing by her parents the night before.

The police ask Miss Marple to interview the other girls at the Guides event, and ask Sir Henry to question Conway's valet, Edwards. Miss Marple learns from friend Florence that Pamela had been approached by a film producer and offered a screen test that evening, which was why she did not go directly home. Edwards reports that he saw a snapshot of Basil Blake fall out of Ruby's handbag while she was with Conway, which points to Blake. Slack had already found the hearth rug from the Blake home dumped.

Miss Marple believes that she knows who the murderer is, and seeks proof of her deduction. She visits Dinah Lee; Basil returns home, and he reveals how he found the corpse on the hearth rug around midnight when he came home rather drunk after a party. He moved the corpse to the Bantry home, not liking Bantry much. He did not kill the girl. The police arrest him.

Back at the hotel, Miss Marple asks the Bantrys to find a marriage record at Somerset House. She asks Sir Henry to approach Conway; Conway agrees to tell Mark and Adelaide that he will change his will the next day, leaving his money to a hostel in London. Sir Henry alerts the police, and shows the marriage record for Mark and Josie. At 3 am, an intruder, Josie Turner, enters Conway’s bedroom, and is caught in the act by the police before she can harm Conway with the syringe filled with digitalin.

Miss Marple explains her thinking to Conway and the police. The body in the library was Pamela Reeves, made up to look more or less like Ruby, with her bitten fingernails giving away her youth. Ruby was the one burned in the car. Thus the alibis at the hotel were useless. Miss Marple did not believe the identification by Josie (“people are far too trusting for this wicked world”) and sensed a plan gone awry.

She suspected that Mark and Josie were married. Besides wanting Conway dead, upon learning that Conway planned to adopt Ruby, they made the double murder plan. Mark lured Pamela to the hotel for the fictitious screen test. Josie dressed her, dyed her hair, and made her up to resemble Ruby, then drugged her. During the bridge game, Mark took a break, taking the drugged Pamela to Blake's hearth rug, where he strangled her with her belt. Just before midnight, when Ruby went up to change for the exhibition dance, Josie followed her and killed her by injection or a blow. After the midnight dance, she took Ruby, dressed in Pamela’s clothes, in Bartlett's car to the quarry where she set fire to the car. During the police interrogation, Mark breaks down and confesses all the details.

Adelaide says she has agreed to marry her long-time suitor, Hugo, which pleases Conway. His new will settles cash on Adelaide and leaves the rest to her son Peter.

While walking home from work, Thana, a mute seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana—her name an allusion to Greek god of death Thanatos—hits this second assailant with a small red glass apple, then bludgeons him to death with an iron, and carries his body to the bathtub. She goes to work the next day, and while working with an iron, she watches her boss Albert rip the shirt off a mannequin. Thana then goes into shock state, which worries her co-workers. However, when she looks at the trash bin at her office, she decides to dismember the burglar's corpse and throw the parts away in various locations of the city.

After being sent home, she dismembers the burglar's body, keeping his .45 caliber pistol. Thana puts the pieces of the body into plastic garbage bags, and stores them in her fridge. After cleaning her bathtub, she decides to take a shower, but as she strips, she begins to hallucinate the first attacker in the mirror grabbing her breast. This puts her into shock, and she notices that organs and body fluids from the burglar are overflowing in the drain. Mrs. Nasone, her nosy neighbor is an old, recently widowed woman. She is also the landlady. She and her small dog 'Phil' also starts to notice Thana's odd behavior.

While she is disposing of one of the bagged body parts, on her walk home from work the next day, Thana is noticed by a leering young man on the street. Thinking that she accidentally dropped the bag, he retrieves it, frightening her. He chases her through the alleys of the city and, fearing another sexual assault, she fatally shoots him when she is cornered by him. The event furthers her impulse for vengeance. While running home from the incident, the landlady Mrs. Nasone notices she violently ran up the stairs and started throwing up. She insists in calling a doctor for Thana. Meanwhile Mrs. Nasone's dog, Phil, starts to become attracted to her fridge. Thana escorts her out of her apartment while still in shock.

As the limbs start to bring the attention of the media, Albert brings her into his office and notices she hasn't been sewing enough and hasn't been feeling well lately. He decides to invite her to a Halloween party that he is throwing for work, and tells her that there will be "many boys there [her] age" while stroking her neck. She responds to him in writing, saying "I'll try". As Thana's vengeance increases, she starts regularly targeting and killing several men, such as a fashion photographer, a pimp who assaults a prostitute over a debt, several members of a gang, a Saudi Arabian businessman and his limousine driver, and even drives a recently dumped salesman to suicide after her gun jams.

Her boss, Albert, notices her ditching work after going to dinner with her co-workers, resulting in her co-workers having to finish her work. However, she promises to go to the party with him in exchange for staying out of trouble for her absence. Thana notices that Mrs. Nasone's dog, Phil, is attracted to the smell of the burglar's dismembered limbs. Thana takes Phil for a walk then ties him to a post in the park. She leaves a note saying that Phil ran away but will probably find his way back home soon.

With Albert, Thana attends the costume party dressed as a nun with red lipstick. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nasone enters Thana's apartment and finds the burglar's dismembered head. She jumps to the conclusion that Thana killed her dog, and tells police that she is at a party with her co-workers. At the party, Albert takes Thana upstairs in private and tries to seduce her. In revenge for his borderline-sexual behavior towards her in the past, she shoots him. The party stops and her co-workers run upstairs to Thana, but quickly realize that she is the murderer when she steps out of the room with her pistol. Thana then begins a shooting spree, targeting many of the men present. Her co-worker Laurie picks up the knife from the cake table and stabs Thana in the back. Thana turns around and points the gun at Laurie, but hesitates; she screams in pain, "Sister!" then falls to the ground and dies.

After the party massacre, Mrs. Nasone is seen crying in memorial for her husband and her dog Phil. But outside her apartment door, Phil has returned and is shown running up the stairs and scratching at the door.

The show revolves around two different lifestyles that clashed repeatedly. On one side of the tracks was the wealthy Malibu crowd, and on the other was the more working-class gang of "the Valley". When Zack (Tony Lucca) from the Valley meets Chloe (Keri Russell) from the Malibu beachfront, they fall in love; but no one thinks it is a good idea but the two of them. After their "love-at-first-sight" meeting, Zach is transferred to Chloe's school along with his friends (due to an earthquake). The remainder of the episodes dealt with the clashing of the two groups.

Chris Hunter (Ann Sheridan) stabs a man in her home one night while her husband Bob is out of town. The dead man's name is Tanner and she claims not to know him and to have acted in self-defense.

Art shop owner, Martin Barrow (Steven Geray), contacts Chris' lawyer and good friend Larry Hannaford (Lew Ayres). Barrow shows Hannaford a bust of Chris Hunter's head, signed by Tanner, and attempts blackmail. It turns out Tanner had been a sculptor, and it is now evident to Hannaford that Chris has lied about never knowing the man she killed.

After learning about the bust, Chris goes to Barrow to try to take possession of it. But, Barrow has taken the piece to Tanner's wife (Marta Mitrovich), who is now convinced Chris had an affair with her husband and wants Chris punished for murder. Barrow convinces her to create more anguish for Chris by relaying this information to Bob Hunter (Zachary Scott), thinking also that the wronged husband would pay to avoid scandal. When Bob learns about the affair and sees the bust, he confronts Chris at home. After she admits to having an affair with Tanner while Bob was away during the war, he demands a divorce.

Chris is charged with murder and tried. Hannaford persuades the jury that while Chris was indeed guilty of adultery, she truly did stab Tanner in self-defense. Hannaford then convinces Bob, who has softened a bit on the idea of divorce after a long talk with his cousin, Paula, and Chris to at least consider trying to save their marriage, rather than rushing into a divorce.

The expansion's name refers to the return of the "Burning Legion"; a vast army of demons being one of the main, recurring antagonist forces in the Warcraft-universe and whose last invasion was defeated in ''Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos''. This legion and its allies are the main enemy which players will fight against in ''The Burning Crusade''. In addition to some new areas on Azeroth, this expansion mainly features the ravaged world of Outland which the Burning Legion and other powerful beings control.

The Doom Lord Kazzak reopened the Dark Portal to Outland, flooding Azeroth with the ravenous demons of the Burning Legion. Expeditions from the Horde and Alliance, reinforced by their new blood elf and draenei allies, passed through the gateway to stop the invasion at its source. On Outland's desiccated Hellfire Peninsula, the Alliance discovered several of their heroes who had crossed through the portal many years before, while the Horde made contact with the Mag'har (uncorrupted) orcs who had not participated in their race's original invasion of Azeroth. The expedition into Outland dragged Horde and Alliance armies further into conflict with the agents of the Legion and the lieutenants of Illidan Stormrage, who had claimed the shattered realm for his own.

The Black Temple

In his quest to reign over all of Outland, Illidan the Betrayer had established a mighty stronghold for his forces within the Black Temple, a former draenei citadel. Yet his influence began to wane after the defeat of his most trusted lieutenants, including the ruler of the Illidari Naga, Lady Vashj, and the traitorous former leader of the blood elves, Kael'thas Sunstrider. The resulting window of opportunity permitted Akama, an elder sage of devolved draenei known as the Broken, to rebel against the self-styled "Lord of Outland." Along with Illidan's former jailor, the obsessed night elf Maiev Shadowsong, Akama helped a group of heroes infiltrate Illidan's seat of power and put an end to the Betrayer's reign once and for all.

The Gods of Zul'Aman

Following years of battles alongside the old Horde, the troll warlord Zul'jin retired to the city of Zul'Aman, capital of the Amani trolls, where he called upon mysterious dark powers to rebuild his army. While the eyes of Azeroth focused on the fight against the Burning Legion and the expedition to Outland, treasure-seekers invaded Zul'Aman, rekindling Zul'jin's hatred of the outside world—particularly the high elves of Quel'Thalas. Upon hearing that these newly christened "blood elves" had become part of the Horde in his absence, the infuriated Zul'jin declared war on both Horde and Alliance. To gain the upper hand, Zul'jin attempts to awaken ancient animal gods to harness their power, but is slain by a group of heroes before his plans can come to fruition.

Fury of the Sunwell

Fresh from his defeat in Outland, Kael'thas Sunstrider returned to the blood elf city of Silvermoon. Rather than leading his people to glory as he had promised, the disgraced prince betrayed them. Kael'thas plotted to use the legendary Sunwell, source of the blood elves' magical power, to summon the demon lord Kil'jaeden into Azeroth. Aided by a joint task force of blood elves and draenei, the Shattered Sun Offensive, Horde and Alliance heroes, with the help of a dragon Kalecgos and the Sunwell's mortal form, Anveena; narrowly stopped both Kael'thas and Kil'jaeden, although Anveena sacrificed herself in the process. The draenei prophet Velen then used the naaru M'uru's energy to reignite and purify the Sunwell.

Mabel Stanley (Kristy McNichol) is an introverted and bookish teenage girl from the United States in a seaside community in Australia as an exchange student. She attends a local pirate festival featuring a swordplay demonstration led by a young curly-haired instructor and fellow American (Christopher Atkins), who then invites her for a ride on his boat. She is duped by her exchange family sisters, Edith (Kate Ferguson), Kate (Rhonda Burchmore), and Isabel (Catherine Lynch), into missing the launch, so she rents a small sailboat to give chase. A sudden storm throws her overboard, and she washes up on a beach.

She subsequently dreams an adventure that takes place a century before. In this fantasy sequence, the swordplay instructor is now named Frederic, a young apprentice of the ''Pirates of Penzance'', celebrating his 21st birthday on a pirate vessel. Frederic refuses an invitation from the Pirate King (Ted Hamilton), his adoptive father, to become a full pirate, as his birth parents were murdered by their contemporaries. Frederic swears to avenge their deaths and is forced off of the ship on a small boat.

Adrift, Frederic spies Mabel and her older sisters on a nearby island and swims to shore to greet them. In a reversal of roles, Mabel is a confident, assertive, and courageous young woman, while her sisters are prim, proper and conservative. Frederic quickly falls for Mabel and proposes marriage, but local custom requires the elder sisters to marry first.

Soon, Frederic's old mates come ashore, also looking for women and kidnap Mabel's sisters. Major-General Stanley (Bill Kerr), Mabel's father, arrives and convinces the Pirate King to free his daughters and leave in peace. The pirates anchor their ship just outside the harbour instead of actually leaving. Mabel wants Frederic to gain favour with her father so they can marry, so she plots to recover the family treasure stolen years earlier by the pirates. Unfortunately, the treasure was lost at sea, but the location where it lies was tattooed as a map on the Pirate King's back. Mabel successfully tricks the Pirate King into revealing his tattoo while Frederic sketches a copy. After Mabel manages to escape from him, she and Frederic, who has sabotaged the pirate's ship, leap overboard and swim for safety. The pirates open fire on them, but the ship partially sinks, enabling them to escape.

The next day, Mabel and Frederic recover the stolen treasure and present it to her father. The Major-General is underwhelmed as he believes the treasure will simply be stolen again once the pirates realise it is missing. Mabel dispatches Frederic to raise an army for protection, but the Pirate King interferes. The ship nurse, Ruth, convinces them to stop fighting, reminding the Pirate King of Frederic's apprenticeship contract. Frederic's birthday is 29 February, and he is dismayed to see that the contract specifies his twenty-first ''birthday'', rather than his twenty-first ''year''. As his birthday occurs every four years, Frederic has celebrated only five birthdays and is still bound by contract to remain with the pirates.

That night, the pirates raid the Stanley estate, and the Pirate King orders their execution. Mabel demands a "happy ending" – admitting for the first time that she believes this all to be a dream. Everyone – even the pirates – cheers their approval, leaving the Pirate King disappointed and shocked. Mabel then confronts her father, but the Major-General is steadfast that the marriage custom remains in effect. Mabel quickly pairs each of her older sisters with a pirate, and she also pairs the Pirate King to Ruth. With Mabel and Frederic now free to marry, the fantasy sequence ends in song and dance.

Mabel awakens back on the beach to discover that she is wearing the wedding ring that Frederic had given her in her dream. At that moment, the handsome swordplay instructor arrives and lifts her to her feet. He passionately kisses Mabel, who is still shaken by her dream. She asks if his name is Frederic. He assures her that he isn't who she imagines him to be, but then carries her off to marry her, thus giving Mabel her happy ending in reality as well.

New York dilettante Philo Vance decides to assist the police in investigating the death of another man-about-town because he finds the psychological aspects of the crime of interest, and feels that they would be beyond the capacities of the police, even those of his friend District Attorney Markham. Vance investigates the circumstances under which the body was found and reconstructs the crime sufficiently to determine that the murderer is five feet, ten and a half inches in height. Together, Vance and Markham investigate Benson's business associates and romantic interests until Vance manages to pierce the murderer's alibi for the time of the murder and force a confession.

Hannah Greenbaum, a first-year literature student, meets Michael Gonen, a doctoral student in geology, by chance in her Hebrew University building. They date briefly and then marry, though their backgrounds and personalities could not be more dissimilar. They rent a small apartment in the Mekor Barukh neighborhood populated by religious Jews unlike themselves. Michael's aunts and other elderly acquaintances pop in and out of their lives, but Hannah is largely on her own as Michael pursues his degree.

While Michael runs his life in a calm, methodical, unemotional manner, Hannah feels increasingly hemmed in by sameness and routine. She begins to escape into private fantasies – some featuring the heroes of her favorite childhood books, like Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff and Captain Nemo – and others based on her own dreams of being an exciting Sephardi woman named Yvonne Azulai, of being raped by strangers, of being a cold princess who commands others to go into battle for her. Two recurrent figures in her fantasies are Arab twin boys with whom she used to play as a child.

Michael finally realizes how deeply she has sunken when she has a nervous breakdown one winter day before he is called up to serve in the 1956 Sinai campaign, and orders her to stay in bed until the doctor comes. But he cannot satisfy Hannah's unfulfilled sexual needs and her daydreams and nightmares continue, forcing her downward into a vortex of lust and fantasy. Hannah also finds it difficult to love their child, Yair, who is as pragmatic and non-relationship-oriented as his father. When Hannah finally conceives another child, Michael is no longer hers, having been seduced by an old college friend who constantly asks him to help her write her papers. The novel ends with Hannah still married, but for all intents and purposes estranged from Michael.

The plot is very close to the original play and the 1928 movie. Racketeer and mobster Nick Scanlon has managed to buy several of the local government and law-enforcement officials of a large midwestern American city. However, he can't seem to touch the incorruptible police captain Tom McQuigg, who refuses all attempts at bribery. The city's prosecuting attorney, Welsh, and a state police detective, Turk, are crooked and make McQuigg's job as an honest officer nearly impossible.

McQuigg persuades sexy nightclub singer Irene Hayes to testify against Scanlon, which marks her for death. McQuigg not only wants to nail Scanlon, but also stop all the mob corruption in the city –- without getting himself or his witness killed. A bomb explodes near McQuigg's home, frightening his wife, Mary.

Honest cop Bob Johnson is helpful to McQuigg, as is reporter Dave Ames, who has a romantic interest in Irene. At the police precinct one night, Scanlon walks in alone demanding to see Irene, who is being held in protective custody, and kills Johnson in cold blood. After a car chase, Scanlon is arrested. McQuigg ignores the gangster's lawyer, ripping up his writ of habeas corpus. McQuigg has the gun that killed Johnson, which has Scanlon's fingerprints on it.

Welsh and Turk make a phone call to Scanlon's unseen mob boss for instructions. They end up telling Scanlon he must remain locked up until after the next election, angering the gangster, who threatens to tell all. Welsh and Turk then gesture toward a window and silently coax Scanlon to make a run for it.

Scanlon gets his hands on the murder weapon, but it's been emptied of bullets by McQuigg, who had foreseen everything Scanlon would try. Scanlon is shot dead by Turk, who is taken into a room with Welsh by investigators bringing subpoenas.

Irene leaves with Dave, indicating her interest in him. McQuigg goes home with his wife after a long day, aware that tomorrow will probably be just as busy.

Ever since his assistant Velda went missing, private detective Mike Hammer has been drinking and he is now homeless. Although Hammer hasn't worked a case in seven years, his old police friend Capt. Pat Chambers asks for his assistance on a job. Chambers and Hammer were both in love with Velda, which had ended their friendship. The case involves a senator who has been murdered.

Hammer is needed to talk with Richie Cole, a dying sailor who refuses to speak with anybody else. According to federal agent Art Rickerby, not only has Richie been shot by the same gun recently used to kill a politician, he is actually an undercover federal agent.

Hammer's investigation leads to Laura Knapp, the late senator's widow. She is beautiful and seductive, but Hammer does not trust her. He learns that they are caught in the fallout from a network of spies operating during World War II. Now a killer nicknamed the Dragon is trying to silence people who had information about the spy operation. Hammer finds and kills the Dragon. He confronts Laura with his suspicions about her involvement. Laura fires a shotgun that Hammer had rigged to backfire in order to test her loyalty. It is not clear if Velda is still alive.

Chance Buckman is the head of a Houston–based oil well firefighting outfit. With a team that includes Joe Horn, Greg Parker, and George Harris, Chance travels around the world putting out blazes at well heads from industrial accident, explosion or terrorist attack. Chance enjoys the thrills, but longs for ex-wife Madelyn. She divorced him 20 years earlier, taking their daughter Letitia with her, because Madelyn could not bear to see her husband risk his life. Though they love each other, Madelyn could not deal with her terror that Chance might burn to death in a fire.

While extinguishing a burning wellhead, Chance suffers a near-fatal accident when he is crushed by a bulldozer blade. Against his wishes, his daughter Letitia (Tish) visits him in the hospital, summoned by his old friend and former firefighting partner Jack Lomax and fetched by Greg Parker in The Buckman Company's corporate jet. She also pursues Greg Parker to a well fire in Louisiana. (Greg has a notorious reputation for using fires to pick up women. Generally, any woman he takes to a fire ends up in bed with him.) In the case of Buckman's spitfire of a daughter, however, after considerable initial friction Greg and Tish fall in love and marry five days after their first meeting. In spite of Greg's reputation, Buckman comes to trust his daughter's choice and accepts Greg into the family. Madelyn, projecting her own fears onto her daughter, though gracious is rather less accepting, despite her liking for Greg.

Greg suspects that his new father-in-law is growing increasingly protective of him after the marriage in an effort to protect his daughter from heartbreak should her new husband be harmed or killed. Tish wishes to see the fires that her husband and father fight, something that neither man encourages. Her father relents and allows her to accompany Greg into the field.

Chance, trying to re-unite with his ex-wife, leaves The Buckman Company to accept an executive position with his old friend Jack Lomax on the board of directors of Lomax Oil as a way to win her back. Chance gives his company to his son-in-law as a "wedding present", although Greg's pride compels him to tell Buckman he "doesn't want any gifts" and that he will "pay ''twice'' what it's worth." Greg and Tish begin traveling the world to put out oil fires. Soon the older couple announce that they will remarry, to the delight of Tish. Madelyn is happy to see her husband in a safe job, but before too long Chance becomes bored with corporate life and longs to be back in the field. As Jack Lomax earlier told Tish, "Your father is the best there is at what he does. No man can walk away from that."

Greg encounters problems with a fire in Venezuela: five oil wells in a tight line burning all at once, further compounded by guerrillas who are trying to undermine the operation. He asks Chance to return and help fight the fire. Chance does so without hesitation. Buckman goes to Venezuela in a Texas Air National Guard transport full of firefighting gear, unaware that Madelyn and Tish have followed him to Caracas. Madelyn uses Jack Lomax's influence with the President of Venezuela to get herself and Tish to the oilfield where the fire is burning. Madelyn declares "This is it for me," in the sense that it will either make or break her ability to deal with the fires once and for all, fully aware that her relationship with Chance is on the line.

The Hellfighters put out the fires with the help of the Venezuelan Army while under attack by rebel warplanes that strafe the oilfield. Madelyn explodes in anger at what she perceives as the Venezuelans' inability to protect the team from the unexpected air raid, railing at the Venezuelan army and civil officials for allowing the guerrillas to get close enough to attack. Chance pulls her away during her tirade. She snaps, "Damned if I understand your attitude!", to which he replies, "It's very simple — you'll do." When Greg asks Tish for her take on it, she just smiles and says, "I think we ought to get her a tin hat," referring to the bright red hardhats with The Buckman Company logo worn by the Hellfighters.

Series One

The killing of a 15-year-old-boy rocks the nation, as a Sikh classmate of the boy is charged with the murder. The trial, which is engulfed in protests and media speculation, brings together 12 jurors who find themselves having to make a decision that the entire country is waiting for.

The jurors include: Charles, a young man who has left the seminary to search for his lost love; Elsie, an old lonely woman who is dying; Johnny, a recovering alcoholic; Rose, a beautiful woman whose husband is paranoid in the aftermath of a car accident; Jeremy, a once-wealthy family man who lost all his money when conned by a friend in a bad investment; Peter, who wants to be a good and impartial juror at the trial but is besieged by his wife's parents, who want to get involved; and Marcia, a single mother who is forced to let her mother back into her life during the trial.

The victim, John Maher, was stabbed twenty-eight times on his way to school one morning. His classmate, Duvinder Singh, is accused.

;Episode 1

Prosecutor Gerald Lewis gives his version of events, painting Singh as a psychopath. The Maher family threaten Singh when he arrives in court, and later they decide to influence the jurors. Rose and Johnnie flirt, Jeremy discovers that the friend who conned him is a juror on another trial, Charles searches for Isobel his lost love, and Peter - against his instincts - tells his in-laws all about the case.

;Episode 2

Singh is abused by a prison warden; the prosecution argues that Singh stole a sword, killed Maher, threw the evidence into the river and fled; Rose and Johnny have lunch; Jeremy runs into Mark Waters who claims he would have saved Jeremy if he could; Elsie befriends Charles, and later learns she will need to undergo surgery; Charles meets his best friend, Sebastian (uncredited Darren Boyd) and learns Isobel has moved on from him; Rose's husband Len grows suspicious of her; Peter's in-laws investigate the evidence; and Marcia - angry that she has to keep her mother in her life - receives a phone call telling her that, for the sake of her family, she had better vote guilty.

;Episode 3

Len follows Rose to the trial and sees her with Johnny; Marcia receives further threats but - after telling the Judge - agrees to stay on, although the Judge says if any other juror is influenced, he will call for a retrial; Elsie learns that she may need a transplant; Cording, the defence attorney, learns of a psychopath who was arrested on the day of the crime near the scene; Duvinder takes the stand, claiming he stole the sword and planned to kill Maher but then backed out, dropped the sword and fled; Peter is threatened.

;Episode 4

Peter decides against telling the Judge he was threatened, since he is so enjoying the trial; Lewis cross-examines Duvinder which makes him look very guilty and the Mahers decide he will be found thus; Johnny and Rose meet at lunch again and tell each other how they feel but decide they cannot start a relationship at this point, although Len - who is spying on them - doesn't realise this; Peter's father-in-law comes up with his own theory about why the police did not find the evidence supposedly dumped in the river; the woman attacked by the psychopath on the day of the crime testifies; Cording accuses the police of racial profiling; Jeremy's friend informs him of another stock, this one for real, and Jeremy considers it; Charles and Elsie - now both alone - bond; and after an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Johnny is bashed by Len.

;Episode 5

Jeremy takes the stock, giving up his deeds to his home as insurance; Lewis and Cording make their closing statements; Charles leaves the seminary for good; Rose learns that Len bashed Johnny; the jury are taken into their room to deliberate, where they vote for Eva as foreperson; an initial vote reveals that opinion is divided, while Rose and Johnny are surprised by each other's vote; Eva's style is not liked by all, so she steps down and Peter is elected without even standing for the job; going home for the night, Rose tells Len she wants to leave him; looking after Elsie, Charles realises that his place is with the priesthood after all; Peter's father-in-law turns up at his house with what he claims to be important evidence, but Peter does not listen; and the Maher family decide to kill Duvinder if he is found innocent.

;Episode 6

Johnny slips back into drinking; Marcia befriends her mother; the jurors re-enact the crime and each person's individual experiences and prejudices begin to come through; Peter finally speaks out in Duvinder's defence and, when the judge is willing to accept a 10-2 vote, Rose becomes the key between guilty and not-guilty: she finally votes not-guilty. After the verdict is read, Peter's father-in-law tells him that there is a part of the river that he found out was never searched and the evidence could still be there. Peter refuses to listen. Johnny and Rose kiss, but admit that they need more time before they can start a relationship. As the Singh family leave the country, John Maher's father goes to the airport with a gun to kill him but instead kills himself. Jeremy pulls out of the stock at the last minute, only for it to go sailing high. Peter, beginning to fear his father-in-law was right, goes to the river to try to find the evidence but cannot.

Six months later, the jurors reunite for Elsie's funeral at which Charles, now a priest, reads the last rites. Johnny and Rose agree to get together. Peter says goodbye to them with a pained look on his face, now uncertain as to whether Duvinder Singh was guilty or innocent.

Series Two

The second series is entirely unconnected with the first, and was broadcast in 2011. It concerns the retrial of Alan Lane, who was convicted five years earlier of the murder of three women whom he'd met through an Internet dating site. John Mallory QC acts for the prosecution; Emma Watts QC, for the defence. The jurors include Paul Brierly, a single man looking after his mother; Katherine Bulmore, a teacher who has had an affair with a 17-year-old pupil; Tahir Takana, a Sudanese immigrant waiting to get a visa to join his brother in the US; Lucy Cartwright, the assistant of businesswoman Theresa Vestry who takes Theresa's place on the jury; Rashid, a quiet young man with Asperger's Syndrome, who lives with his parents; Kristina Bamford, a lonely woman; and Ann Skailes, a devout Christian.

;Episode 1 The lives of 12 people are turned upside down when they are summoned for jury duty in a controversial murder retrial. New evidence has come to light calling into question the conviction of Alan Lane, who was found guilty almost five years previously of killing three women he met on the internet. Julie Walters stars as defence barrister Emma Watts, with Roger Allam, John Lynch and Steven Mackintosh. ;Episode 2 John Mallory calls his witnesses to the stand, before the evidence against Lane is examined and argued by Watts. The jurors' complicated lives unfold as the mysterious woman tells Paul she was a member of the jury in the original trial, lonely Kristina creates an internet dating profile, and Lane writes back to Ann. ;Episode 3 Watts cross-examines Howson, the man in charge of the investigation into Alan Lane, Tahir tells Jeffrey about his experience in Sudan, and Paul and Tasha grow closer over lunch. Katherine prepares to make a big decision and Kristina gets out of her depth when she goes to meet her internet date ;Episode 4 Lane takes the stand, Jeffrey waits anxiously as Tahir finds out about his US visa, and Tasha tells Paul some shocking facts about the collapse of the first trial. The jurors retire to consider their verdict. ;Episode 5 Paul tells the other members of the jury what he knows as they struggle to reach a majority verdict, while Lane and Watts anxiously await the outcome. Rashid gives Paul information that makes him question everything, and Tasha has some explaining to do when the jurors' decision is delivered.

At his weekly lunch date with Dr. Julian Bashir, Garak appears to be having severe headaches, but refuses to allow Bashir to help. He later hears Garak discussing a deal with the bartender and small-time criminal Quark. The next day, Garak collapses in pain after drinking heavily, and Bashir takes him to the infirmary.

Bashir finds that Garak has an implant of some sort in his brain. He and Constable Odo observe Quark trying to order a piece of Cardassian biotechnology, which turns out to be classified by the Obsidian Order, the feared Cardassian intelligence agency.

Garak eventually reveals to Bashir that the implant was given to him by the former head of the Obsidian Order, Enabran Tain. It was designed to make him resistant to torture, but he has been using it to cope with the pain of living in exile, becoming addicted to it; and it is now breaking down from overuse. Garak claims he deserves his punishment and tells how he once destroyed a ship containing 98 Cardassians, including his aide, Elim.

Bashir turns the implant off, and Garak becomes extremely agitated. He explains that rather than killing Elim, he was exiled for releasing a group of Bajoran children he was supposed to interrogate. After expressing disdain for his friendship with Bashir, Garak again loses consciousness.

Even with the implant off, Garak is still dying. Bashir considers turning the implant back on to save him. Garak refuses, and decides to tell Bashir the "truth": Elim was not Garak's aide but his childhood friend. The two were both powerful men in the Obsidian Order until Garak tried to frame Elim for releasing Bajoran prisoners, but Elim beat Garak to the punch and Garak was exiled.

Bashir seeks out Enabran Tain to ask for his help. Tain tells Bashir that if he were truly Garak's friend he would allow Garak to die; however, he agrees to give Bashir the information needed to counteract the effects of the implant. Before departing, Bashir asks Tain what truly became of Elim. Tain laughs and explains that Elim is Garak's first name.

After recovering, Garak resumes his weekly lunches with Bashir. He says he has heard a strange rumor: Odo thinks Garak was once a member of the Obsidian Order. Pressed for "real answers", Garak tells the doctor that all his stories have been true - especially the lies.

The film features several different storylines, all of which intersect periodically throughout the film.

The film begins with a brief prologue. We see a young girl in a white room standing near a wall. She crouches near the wall, then stands. Then we see individual children each making a gesture in sign language for a single word. These alternate with the first girl shaking her head. The words include, for instance, Alone, Hiding place, Bad Conscience, Sad, Imprisoned. After the title is shown, the film's opening scene features a brief encounter with four of the main characters: Anne Laurent (Juliette Binoche) is an actress working in Paris, and she walks briefly with her boyfriend's younger brother Jean. After they part, Jean throws a piece of garbage at Maria, a homeless woman sitting on the side of the road. Amadou, the child of Malian immigrants, witnesses this and confronts Jean. The two fight, and eventually Amadou and Maria are both taken to a police station for questioning. Amadou is released presumably shortly after, though we learn that he was held, beaten and shamed, but Maria is deported to her native Romania and she reconnects with her family there.

Giles prepares to take all of the Potentials – except Kennedy, who is sick with the flu – on a trip to the desert to meet the First Slayer. Buffy goes to check on Spike, who is determined to remain chained in the basement until they know the First Evil is through with him. Suddenly, Spike begins to writhe in pain as his chip begins firing randomly without provocation. As Buffy and Spike talk about the potential causes of the chip's glitches, Buffy realizes that she will have to contact the people who implanted the chip in the first place: the Initiative.

After failing to reach Riley Finn on the phone, Buffy and Spike go to the Initiative's abandoned base to look for the painkilling drugs that were used on Spike during his captivity there three years before, when the chip was implanted, and for documentation on the chip. Buffy and Spike wander through the remains of the Initiative, finding many dead soldiers and demons. Inside the Initiative's base, Buffy and Spike are attacked by a demon. During the fray, Buffy is wounded by the demon and when Spike tries to help, his chip fires and renders him ineffectual. As the demon grabs Spike and tries to drag him away, Buffy battles with and finally kills the demon. As she crouches down by Spike to see if he is okay, lights turn on, revealing a group of soldiers. Their leader explains that Riley received Buffy's message, and they are there to help Spike. An examination confirms that Spike's chip is killing him, and Buffy must decide whether to repair the chip or remove it.

When Willow goes upstairs to bring Kennedy some tea, she finds that Kennedy is not actually sick, and is instead dressed for a "mission" which she says requires Willow's assistance, involving drinks at The Bronze where they get to know each other. After leaving the bar and returning home, Kennedy gives Willow an end-of-date kiss, with a surprising effect: Willow takes on the appearance of Warren Mears. Panicking, Willow rushes downstairs; on seeing her, the others recoil, partly because they know that the First has appeared to Andrew as Warren. Buffy hits "Warren", showing that "he" cannot be the First, who is incorporeal. When Willow threatens to tell some embarrassing old stories about Xander, the gang provisionally accept her claim.

As Willow and Kennedy attempt to break the spell, Robson, a Watcher, calls Buffy's house from England and reports that Giles may have been killed by a Bringer who had attacked him in London several weeks before. The Scoobies become alarmed when none of them can remember seeing Giles touch or carry anything since his return; no one has hugged him, and he is not driving the car to the desert. Xander, Anya, Dawn, and Andrew all go to the desert to find Giles and, in the case of danger, stop him from hurting the Potentials. Giles is tackled to the ground by the others, who are all pleased to find that he has a solid form and thus is not the First – or dead.

Willow and Kennedy meet with the Wiccan group at the UC Sunnydale, which now includes Amy. Willow runs away as she realizes she is starting to behave like Warren. Kennedy tries to follow, but Willow puts up a magical barrier to keep her away. After the meeting, Kennedy returns to the lecture hall to find Amy packing up as the rest of the group has left. Amy comments on Kennedy's concern for Willow, and draws Kennedy's suspicion when she mentions that Kennedy is a Potential, a fact that neither Kennedy or Willow had mentioned. Willow, increasingly dominated by the Warren persona, goes to buy a gun of the same model that killed Tara and wounded Buffy.

Kennedy confronts Amy, accusing her of causing the "Warren" problem. Amy reveals that she put a hex on Willow, whose effect is determined by the victim's subconscious. She did it because Willow murdered a man and remained beloved – crowning Amy's envy of Willow's relatively easy successes in magic. Amy then teleports Kennedy to the backyard of Buffy's house, where Willow starts to reenact Warren's attack on Buffy that resulted in Tara's death, but Kennedy talks her down. Willow tearfully explains that when Kennedy kissed her she let go of Tara's memory for a moment, making her truly dead. Then Kennedy kisses Willow again, breaking the spell and restoring Willow to normal.

Park City, Utah is in the midst of the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance's founder, Robert Redford, has decided that Park City has become too commercialized by the annual migration of the Hollywood jet set, so he decides to move the festival to South Park, Colorado. The Sundance Festival relocates to South Park, which is immediately deluged by Hollywood tourists. In school, Mr. Garrison gives the students an assignment to see one independent film during the festival and write a report on it. Chef sets up a sales stand at the festival for his fudge cookie recipes.

At night, as Kyle uses the restroom, he hears Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo calling to him from the toilet. Kyle persuades Stan, Cartman, and Kenny to help him find Mr. Hankey; they enter the sewer system to look for him. They soon find Mr. Hankey, who tells Kyle that the influx of all the Hollywood tourists, with their health-food diets, has disrupted the ecosystem of the sewer, which has made him deathly ill.

Kyle and the others appear before a film's showing, and Kyle pleads with the Hollywood visitors to understand that their presence is causing the death of his friend Mr. Hankey. However, they all think Kyle is trying to pitch a script, and they offer film deals. One agent approaches Cartman to buy the rights to Kyle's story; he readily agrees. A film is produced overnight, starring Tom Hanks as Kyle and a monkey as Mr. Hankey. The South Park locals are beginning to tire of the festival, seeing that it is causing the town to become overrun with commercialism and Hollywood kitsch. However, Redford plans to sue the whole the town if they go through with ending the festival; he then reveals to his wife, Phyllis, that he will make all small towns overrun with Hollywood culture, since he cannot escape it, so he wants to inflict it on everyone else. By this time, Cartman realizes he's been cheated out by the agent and only receives three dollars from the two million dollars the Mr. Hankey movie made and Stan promptly calls Cartman a sell-out; not to be outdone, Cartman then starts selling shirts of Tom Hanks with the monkey-version of Mr. Hankey.

Kyle tries to show Mr. Hankey to the crowd, but Mr. Hankey is pale and near death. Chef feeds Mr. Hankey one of his Chocolate Salty Balls, causing him to return to life. Stan, Kyle, Chef, and Mr. Hankey approach Redford as he is on a podium to announce the return of the film festival the next year. After he ignores their pleas to relocate the festival, Mr. Hankey makes a passionate speech about film festivals - instead of catering to the glamor of Hollywood, they should focus more on giving new-coming filmmakers a chance and actually enjoy the films. Infuriated, Redford throws Mr. Hankey against a wall, killing him; Chef revitalizes Mr. Hankey once again. He then causes the sewers to erupt over South Park, causing Redford and Phyllis' car to fill with feces, drowning them, and all the tourists flee the town. With the town saved (albeit covered in excrement), the boys reflect on Mr. Hankey's message and admit that while a few independent films are great, "most of them suck ass." As for Cartman, he feels that being a sell-out was positive for him because he wouldn't hang out with "poor-ass losers" like his friends and leaves with the money he earned selling shirts.

Lady Tressilian is now confined to her bed, but still invites guests to her seaside home at Gull's Point during the summer. Tennis star Nevile Strange, former ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, incurs her displeasure. He proposes to bring both his new wife, Kay, and his former wife, Audrey, to visit at the same time – a change from past years. Lady Tressilian grudgingly agrees to this set of incompatible guests. Staying in hotels nearby are Kay’s friend, Ted; a long time family friend, Thomas Royde, home after a long stretch working overseas and still faithfully waiting on the sidelines for Audrey; and Mr Treves, an old solicitor and long time friend of the Tressilians.

The dinner party is uncomfortable, as Lady Tressilian had predicted. That night, Mr Treves told a story of an old case, where a child killed another child with an arrow, which was ruled an accident. The child was given a new name and a fresh start, despite a local man having seen the child practising assiduously with a bow and arrow. Mr Treves remembers the case and the child as a result of a distinctive physical feature which he does not reveal. The next morning, Treves is found dead in his hotel room and his death is attributed to heart failure from climbing up the stairs to his room the previous night, greatly upsetting Lady Tressilian. Thomas and Ted are mystified, as they saw a note stating that the lift was out of order when they walked Treves back. They learn from hotel staff that the lift was in working order that night. His death is ruled to be from natural causes.

Lady Tressilian is brutally murdered in her bed, and her maid drugged. Her heirs are Nevile and Audrey. Evidence suggests Nevile Strange as the murderer. One of his golf clubs was found at the scene with his fingerprints on it. Nevile's quarrel with Lady Tressilian was overheard as well. However when the maid wakes up, she tells Superintendent Battle that she saw Lady Tressilian alive after Nevile's visit to her room, before he left for Easterhead Bay to find Ted. The evidence then points to Audrey: a bloodied glove belonging to her is found in the ivy next to her window together with the real murder weapon. It was fashioned from the handle of a tennis racket and the metal ball from the fireplace fender in Audrey’s room. Mary Aldin relates the story narrated by Mr Treves, and his claim that he could recognize that child with certainty; Battle is certain that the lift sign was placed in order to silence Mr Treves.

Angus MacWhirter is standing at the cliff where, a year earlier, he had attempted suicide, when Audrey attempts to run off the same cliff. He grabs her before she can jump. She confesses her fear, and he promises that she will be safe. The local cleaners inadvertently give MacWhirter an uncleaned jacket belonging to someone else. Though he is not one of the party at Gull’s House, he is aware of the progress of the investigation, well reported in the local newspapers. He realizes why the jacket has stains in a certain odd pattern. He visits Gull’s Point, and requests Mary Aldin's help to find a rope in the house. They find a large damp rope in an otherwise dusty attic, and she locks the door until the police come.

Battle arrests Audrey on the evidence and her ready admission of guilt. However, Battle's daughter had previously confessed to a theft she did not commit due to overwhelming pressure, and so he suspects that Audrey is in a similar situation. MacWhirter meets Battle and tells him what he has learned about this case, including his observation of a man swimming across the creek on the night of the brutal murder, and climbing into the house on a rope. Then, Thomas reveals that Audrey had ended their marriage, not Nevile, as she had grown afraid of him. She was about to marry Adrian Royde, Thomas' brother, when Adrian was killed in a road accident. With the parties on a motor launch, Battle uses this information to force a confession from Nevile Strange. He was the mastermind behind all the events and circumstances that should have converged into "zero" – the hanging of his first wife for the murder of Lady Tressilian.

Nevile may have been behind two other deaths (Mr Treves and Adrian Royde) but there is insufficient evidence to prosecute. With his confession, the rope, and the ruse with the bell pull explained, Battle charges him with the murder of Lady Tressilian. Audrey seeks out MacWhirter to thank him, and they decide to marry. They will travel to Chile where he begins his new job. Audrey expects that Thomas will come to realize that he really wants to marry Mary Aldin instead.

One year earlier on 2 November, seven people sat down to dinner at the Luxembourg restaurant. One, Rosemary Barton, never got up; instead she collapsed and died. The coroner ruled her death suicide by poisoning, due to post-flu depression.

Six months later, her husband George receives anonymous letters saying that Rosemary was murdered. George investigates and decides to repeat the dinner at the same restaurant, with the same guests, plus an actress who looks like his late wife, and who is meant to arrive late and startle the murderer into making a confession. The actress does not arrive and George dies at the table – poisoned, like his wife, by cyanide in his champagne. His death might have been judged as suicide, but George shared his concerns and some of his plan with his friend Colonel Race.

As per their uncle's will, if Rosemary died childless her inherited fortune passed to her younger sister Iris, now a wealthy girl. If Iris dies unmarried, the money would pass to her only relative, her aunt Lucilla Drake. Mrs Drake is a decent person but her son, Victor, is decidedly not. During the investigation it becomes clear that the intended victim was Iris. Colonel Race and Iris's suitor, Anthony Browne, realise that Ruth Lessing, George's trusted secretary, had fallen for Victor a year earlier.

The wrong person dies because of Iris's evening bag and the toast to her, the conjuring trick that saves her life. After the entertainment, George proposes a toast to Iris, when all sip champagne except her, being toasted. When the group leaves the table to dance, Iris drops her bag; a young waiter, retrieving it, misplaces it at the seat adjacent hers. When, in the dark, the group returns to the table, Iris sits one seat askew due to the misplaced bag. Everyone else therefore sits one seat askew. George sits at Iris's original seat and drinks the poisoned champagne. When this plot fails, Ruth attempts to run Iris over with a car. Colonel Race, together with the police and Anthony Browne, unravel the truth in time to save Iris from Ruth. Her last attempt at killing Iris is to knock her unconscious in her bedroom, then turn on the fireplace gas, and leave the house. Anthony and Colonel Race rescue Iris in the nick of time.

The anonymous letters to George were sent by Ruth, who then encouraged him to re-stage the dinner at the Luxembourg so that Victor and Ruth could kill Iris, as they killed Rosemary. To support a decision of suicide, Ruth had planted a packet of cyanide in Iris's bag, which packet dropped to the floor when she pulled her handkerchief out, without touching it (no fingerprints on it). Victor acted as a waiter, to drop the poison in the champagne during the show. He was taken at New York at the request of the police.

In 2004, Department Q, a Ministry of Defence department originally created in the 1940s to combat Nazi occult warfare, is privatised by the British government. The Department, by then consisting only of the crusty paranormal historian Dr Jonathan Brand and his assistant Jennifer Simmons, is bought by Ethan Kostabi, a reclusive multi-millionaire 1970s pop star. Kostabi announces that he has contracted their services as part of a new private ghost-busting outfit, to be known as Caballistics, Inc., and introduces them to their teammates, freelance occult investigators Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse. Even before the official press release for the new company can be sent out, the team is called to deal with a major paranormal infestation on the London Underground, where they meet the fifth member of the team, the powerful and seemingly evil Solomon Ravne. The team go on to investigate various paranormal phenomena, suffering from internal conflicts and divided loyalties, and all the while it is suggested that Kostabi has some ultimate plan in mind for the team beyond that which any of them expect.

''Caballistics, Inc.'' has an extremely dark tone. Several recurring characters have been unexpectedly killed off, and there is a degree of brutality unusual for a British comic magazine. Early in the series, Simmons was possessed by a powerful demon, a state that continues to this day. More recently, Brand, usually identified by fans as the 'good' member of the team, was pushed under a Tube train by another member, Mikey Ness.

Events within the team came to a head when - after three years of intrigue and suspicion - they were eventually pushed into confrontation with their erstwhile employer. At least three members of the team were killed in the ensuing battle in addition to Kostabi himself, with only Ravne and Simmons known to have walked away unharmed. With the ultimate fates of the only two other members being left highly ambiguous, this effectively marked the end of the organisation. Besides an epilogue, "Nativity", in late 2007, the remaining plot threads would be taken up in a spin-off series, ''Absalom'', beginning in 2011, and followed characters that had previously appeared in minor supporting roles in ''Caballistics, Inc''.

Caballistics contains many overt references to both ''Doctor Who'' and ''Quatermass''. The strip also contains many passing references to other cult television, film and literary mythologies alongside various religious traditions. Among the many mentions are Gnosticism, Kabbalah, the Rosicrucians, the Tetragrammaton, Opus Dei, Zoroastrianism, the Illuminati, paranormal warfare in World War II, the Thule Society, Aleister Crowley, ''Faust'', Grant Morrison's ''Zenith'', Delta Green, ''The Omen'', ''The Exorcist'' and references to the works of Clive Barker, Robert W. Chambers, Roger Corman, William Hope Hodgson, Shaun Hutson, H. P. Lovecraft, Palo Mayombe, Kim Newman, Edgar Allan Poe and Hammer studios.

Orphan Phillip "Pip" Pirrip lives with his shrewish older sister and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, Joe Gargery. While visiting his parents' graves alone, Pip encounters an escaped convict, Abel Magwitch, who intimidates the boy into returning the next day with blacksmith's tools to remove his chains. Pip also brings some food. Famished, Magwitch devours the food and thanks him. Magwitch is caught when he attacks a hated fellow escapee rather than fleeing.

Miss Havisham, a rich, eccentric spinster, arranges to have Pip come to her mansion regularly to provide her with company and to play with her adopted daughter, beautiful but cruel teenager Estella. Estella mocks Pip's coarse manners at every opportunity, but Pip quickly falls in love with her. He also meets a boy, Herbert Pocket, whom he beats in an impromptu boxing match. The visits come to an end when Pip turns 14 and begins his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. Estella also leaves, for France, to learn the ways of a lady.

Six years later, Miss Havisham's lawyer Mr Jaggers visits Pip to tell him a mysterious benefactor has offered to transform him into a gentleman with "great expectations"; Pip assumes it is Miss Havisham. He is taken to London and stays with Herbert Pocket, who is to teach him how to behave like a gentleman. From Herbert, Pip learns that Miss Havisham was left at the altar many years ago and that she is determined to avenge herself against men, with Estella as her instrument to break men's hearts.

When Pip turns 21, Joe Gargery brings a request from Miss Havisham to visit her. There Pip is reunited with Estella, who tells him, "You must know, Pip, I have no heart." She confesses to Pip that, despite flirting with the wealthy but unpopular Bentley Drummle, she has absolutely no feelings for him.

Back in London, Pip receives an unexpected visitor: Magwitch, who escaped from prison again and made a fortune sheep-farming in New South Wales, Australia. Magwitch reveals that he is Pip's benefactor, and that he was so touched by Pip's kindness, he resolved to prosper so Pip could live a gentleman's life. He tells the "dear boy" that he considers him his son.

Growing suspicious of Drummle's overtures towards Estella, Pip visits Estella. She tells him she is going to marry Drummle. Pip confronts Miss Havisham, saying, "I am as unhappy as you could have ever meant me to be." Miss Havisham begs his forgiveness. Pip leaves, but when she stands to follow him, a piece of flaming wood from the fireplace rolls out and ignites her dress. Her screams alert Pip, who runs back to save her, but fails.

After being warned that an old enemy has learned that Magwitch is in London, Pip and Herbert plot to smuggle the old man onto a packet ship leaving England, on which Pip is to accompany him. They row out to the ship, but are intercepted by waiting police, tipped off by Magwitch's old enemy. Magwitch is injured in a struggle, but his nemesis is pushed down to his death by the ship's paddlewheels. Magwitch is captured and sentenced to death.

Magwitch had spoken to Pip of his lost daughter, and Pip's suspicion that she is Estella is confirmed by Jaggers. Pip visits Magwitch, now dying in prison, and tells him of her fate and that he, Pip, is in love with her. Magwitch dies a contented man.

Stricken by illness and with his expectations gone, Pip is taken home and nursed back to health by Joe Gargery. He revisits Miss Havisham's deserted house, where he finds Estella. Drummle broke off their engagement when Jaggers informed him of her parentage. Learning that Estella plans to live in seclusion in the house, which she has inherited, Pip tears down the curtains and opens the boarded-up windows. Sunlight reveals cobwebs, dust and decay. Pip tells Estella that he has never stopped loving her. After hesitating, she embraces him and they leave the house together.

The story takes place in feudal Japan and follows the adventures of Jubei Kibagami, a mercenary ninja tasked with guarding the fabled relic known as the "Dragon Stone" and protecting its barer, Shigure the "Light Maiden", from both the Hiruko and Kimon Clans' forces; alongside him on this quest are the government spy, Dakuan, and the mountain thief, Tsubute.

Batman saves a woman named Mary from a bomb placed by the Joker at Gotham Chemicals, who is holding her son hostage for ransom. Using a transmitter, Batman tracks down the Joker and Mary to a partially demolished Gotham Bridge, where she is unmasked as Harley Quinn and the kidnapping scheme is revealed to be a plot to trap Batman. Batman defeats the Joker, but the latter falls off the bridge to his apparent death. Suspicious that the Joker survived, Batman lets Harley escape in order to monitor her using the transmitter.

Batman and Batgirl are alerted to Mr. Freeze attacking Gotham Industrial Research to kill scientist Isaac Evers, the creator of the miracle drug Promethium for cryogenically frozen people. Freeze seeks revenge against Evers for a promotional Promethium video he believes Evers sent to mock him. While pursuing Freeze, Batman uncovers Evers' dealings with the Joker, who funded his research after his initial government funding was cut because of Promethium being unstable. After saving Evers and defeating Freeze, Batman discovers Poison Ivy has created a new species of super-plants infested with deadly worms, and tracks her down to the remains of Gotham Chemicals. There, he finds Mayor Hamilton Hill, who explains Ivy blackmailed him and other wealthy socialites by poisoning them with her worm-infected plants, which were created from a mysterious chemical. Batman defeats Ivy and obtains an antidote to save her victims.

Batman witnesses the Joker's goons hijacking a blimp and speaks with Harley, who informs him that they have been operating on their own since the Joker's apparent death. After foiling their plan to send explosive Joker toys into the city's sewers, Batman finds an abducted Issac Evers. He explains that he had hired the goons to destroy Gotham Industrial for the insurance money, having been unable to collect on the damage left by Mr. Freeze without revealing his deals with the Joker. The goons then turned on him to carry out their plan to destroy Gotham using the toys. As Batman hands Evers over to the police, Commissioner Gordon is hit with a batarang. Blamed for the attack, Batman escapes from the police and concludes that Harley is behind everything since the Joker's apparent death. Disguising himself as a drifter to avoid police attention, Batman investigates the Joker's former hideout and finds evidence hinting at his survival.

After tracking the stolen blimp to the Gasworks, Batman confronts a still-living Joker, having faked his death to exact his true plan. He reveals that he secretly manipulated Evers, Freeze, Ivy, and Batman into fulfilling his goals to mass-produce a flammable Joker toxin developed from Promethium, which he intends to spread throughout the city's sewers. Batman shuts off the city's pipe network to stop the flow of the toxin, while the Joker attempts to escape in the blimp and spread the toxin himself. After subduing Harley, Batman stows aboard the blimp and stops the toxin from being released. As a last resort, the Joker tries to crash the blimp into the city, but Batman destroys the blimp and saves the Joker from falling to his death.

The villains are incarcerated at Arkham Asylum. Batman meets an apologetic Gordon, as it was discovered Harley threw the batarang, and thanks Batman for saving Gotham. Batman retreats to look out over the city, when the Bat-Signal appears behind him.

Coco Chavez and Junior Armstrong are two small-time criminals who make money at blackmail and sex scams. They attempt to break into the big time by kidnapping a computer genius and holding him for a $4 million ransom. To help them, they enlist Lizard Browning and Ruben Rubenbauer who provide firepower and technology. However, during the kidnapping, they accidentally kill the young wife of Louisiana Senator Hornbeck.

Racked by guilt, Coco and the group are pursued by veteran Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Sadie Hawkins and grizzled New Orleans detective David Friedman. The two combative officers enjoy showing up one another during their investigation, as well as commiserate about their jobs and personal foibles. Coco and Junior also have to deal with henchmen hired by the Senator to get revenge on the group.

As the plot unfolds, it appears that the murder may not have been entirely accidental. Detective Friedman's suspicions are raised when Senator Hornbeck threatens the detectives instead of offering assistance. On the cusp of getting away with a nearly flawless crime, the group faces betrayal from within.

In 1905 on the North West Frontier of British India, a maharajah asks British Army Captain Scott to take his young son, Prince Kishan, to Haserabad and then send him to Delhi to protect him from an uprising. Accompanying them is the prince's governess, an American widow named Mrs. Wyatt. They leave as the rebels storm the palace and kill the prince's father. This makes his five-year-old son the leader of the Hindu population in the region.

On arrival at Haserabad, Captain Scott sees that many local Hindus and Europeans are leaving on the last train to Kalapur. The Muslim rebels soon close in and take control of the outer wall and gate beside the railway yard. The British governor tells Scott that he must take the young prince to Kalapur for his safety. In the railyard, the British captain discovers the "''Empress of India''", an old railway engine cared for by its driver Gupta, affectionately known as ''Victoria''. They calculate that it will manage the journey if limited to pulling a single carriage.

Early the next morning, Captain Scott quietly loads the passengers onto the old train. They include Mrs. Wyatt, Prince Kishan, arms dealer Mr. Peters, British expatriate Mr. Bridie, Lady Windham (the governor's wife), two British Indian Army NCOs, and Dutch journalist Mr. Peter van Leyden (Herbert Lom). ''Victoria'' quietly freewheels down a gradient and out of the yard, but when her whistle is accidentally sounded, Gupta fires the engine and crashes her through the outer gate. The enemy fire on them and chase them but cannot keep up with the train.

Later that morning, the train encounters an abandoned train at a remote station. This is the refugee train which preceded them out of Haserabad. Everyone on board has been massacred (presumably by the rebels). Despite being told not to by Captain Scott, Mrs. Wyatt leaves the carriage and finds one survivor, a baby concealed by his mother's body.

The next morning, the train must stop because a portion of the track has been blown up. Mrs. Wyatt spots the signaling flashes of a heliograph atop a mountain summit, and everyone quickly realises that the Muslim rebels are sitting in ambush in the surrounding hills. With track repairs barely finished by Captain Scott, the train gets away under a hail of gunfire. Gupta is wounded but survives.

Later that day, while stopping to refill the engine's water tank, Scott walks into the pump house to find Van Leyden allowing Prince Kishan to stand dangerously close to the pump's rapidly spinning flywheel. In the evening Van Leyden refuses alcohol and the group correctly deduce he is Muslim. He explains this by saying he is half Indian. During the night, Mr. Van Leyden again approaches the prince, only to notice Lady Windham watching him.

The train reaches a bomb-damaged bridge. There is nothing under one section of rail except the ground far below. Scott has the others carefully cross that section one by one to lighten the train that will follow them. Finally, only Van Leyden and the prince remain behind. Van Leyden seems to deliberately hold the boy back and endanger his life. He falls and Scott grabs his hand, pulling him back to safety. Afterward, Scott accuses Van Leyden of trying to kill the prince, and he places the reporter under arrest. After that, Captain Scott, under Gupta's guidance, carefully maneuvers the train across.

Later, while going through a tunnel, Van Leyden uses the opportunity to overpower his guard. He uses a Maxim machine gun to threaten the passengers and now declares his loyalty to the Muslim cause. He is unable to kill Prince Kishnan because the boy is with Captain Scott in the locomotive's cab. Scott returns to the carriage with the young prince after spotting more rebel heliograph signals, but they are saved when the machine gun is knocked off balance by a kick from Mr. Bridie. Scott crawls up the carriage and starts to fight him. The two men end on the roof. At the climax of the fight a shot rings out: Mrs. Wyatt has shot Van Leyden with one of the rifles. He falls off and dies as the Muslim rebels ride up on horses.

The Muslim rebels chase the train on horseback but are thwarted when ''Victoria'' enters a two-mile-long hillside tunnel. On the other side, the train reaches the safety of Kalapur to strains of The Eton Boating Song. At the station, young Prince Kishan is met by his Hindu entourage, while Gupta is taken to hospital, and Lady Windham is informed that her husband, the governor, is safe. On learning Prince Kishan may yet fight the British, as his father instructed him, Scott quotes Kipling ("Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck, And march to your front like a soldier") before he and Mrs. Wyatt leave together carrying the infant she had saved earlier.

Finn is the alias of Paul Phillips. In ''Third World War'' it is established that Paul was once a soldier in the British Army stationed in Northern Ireland, but he deserted to become Finn, an eco-terrorist fighting to save the planet from multi-national corporations. ''Third World War'' began as a relatively realistic story set in 2000, with very little in the way of fantasy or science fiction elements, but that changed as Finn became more prominent.

In the eponymous strip in ''2000 AD'' it emerged that the leaders of the corporations were in fact a secret society of powerful aliens called Newts. In this strip Finn was a mini-cab driver in Plymouth by day, and a white witch fighting the aliens by night. He used military equipment alongside magical items such as the Hand of Glory.

For over three years, Tom Winters (Cary Grant), a lawyer working for the US State Department, has been separated from his wife and three children: David (Paul Petersen), Elizabeth (Mimi Gibson), and Robert (Charles Herbert). The film begins as he returns home to Washington from Europe following his wife's death. The children want to stay in the countryside with their mother's wealthy parents and her sister Carolyn (Martha Hyer), but instead Tom takes them with him to live in Washington, D.C. One evening, they attend an outdoor concert; but after it ends, Robert separates himself from the family and disappears. He later shows up in a small rowboat with an Italian girl, Cinzia (Sophia Loren), who seeks to experience America up close and personal. They land at a nearby carnival, where they eat pizza, dance, and "win" a harmonica. Later, she brings Robert home to a worried Tom. The next day, he hires her as maid to care for the children while he is away.

What follows are a series of misadventures as Tom attempts to move Cinzia and the kids away from Washington to a house in the country but wind up the inhabitants of a leaky, rotting houseboat. However. a complete renovation of the premises proves successful, and their floating new home becomes the backdrop for various episodes where Tom is finally able to win over his children—not to mention Cinzia, who is unable to cook, do laundry, or even make coffee. Winters' sister-in-law, Carolyn, suspects Cinzia's relationship with Tom is not entirely platonic. So does Tom's military aide, Captain Wilson (Murray Hamilton), who while somewhat drunk, rudely jokes about Cinzia's living arrangement with Winters. In the end, all misunderstandings are explained and Tom Winters finally marries his maid, as the children look on approvingly.

Episcopal priest Father Lambert is shot dead on a Bridgeport, Connecticut street at night. The police, led by Chief Robinson, fail to immediately find the murderer. The case soon becomes a political hot potato, with the police accused of incompetence and the city's reform-minded administration attacked by the political machine that it had displaced. Robinson and prosecutor Henry Harvey face severe pressure by political leaders, the press and the public to find the killer or otherwise seek outside help.

Strenuous local efforts yield nothing. However, vagrant military veteran John Waldron is arrested in Ohio and meets the general description of the murder suspect. He is extradited to Connecticut and identified in a lineup. Waldron is interrogated for two days by police until, suffering from severe sleep deprivation, he confesses. A gun that was in his possession is believed to be that which was used in the shooting, and witness testimony and other circumstantial evidence seem solid enough to guarantee conviction.

Harvey questions Waldron and investigates the evidence and the witnesses. He develops serious doubts about Waldron's guilt. In court, Harvey states that a prosecutor must seek justice, not merely attempt to convict. He presents the flaws in the case before the judge and indicates that he intends to dismiss the charges. Suspecting that Harvey's plea is driven by political motives, the judge warns him that he will hold his actions to the highest scrutiny. Chief Robinson thwarts a lynch mob trying to seize Waldron outside of the court building.

Harvey is threatened by reform party kingpin and real estate swindler Paul Harris, who seeks to blackmail him based on Harvey's wife's innocent contribution to a community fund for park land that Harris secretly owns. Harvey threatens to physically remove Harris from his home.

At a preliminary hearing, Harvey presents detailed evidence that would lead to Waldron's exoneration. Meanwhile, a reporter conducts his own investigation into possible wrongdoing. In court, the reporter secretly threatens to reveal Harris' double dealing, and Harris commits suicide in the courtroom.

Waldron is exonerated and the narrator explains that the murder was never solved and that the character of Henry Harvey had represented Homer Cummings, who rose from state prosecutor to become the United States attorney general.

Gideon Bell, owner of the Favre Emeralds, receives a letter stating that the emeralds will be stolen at midnight by "the Bat", and that police will not be able to stop the robbery. The Bat, a figure dressed as a bat, murders Gideon and steals the emeralds. The Bat leaves a bat-shaped note for the chief of police to inform him that he will be traveling to the country. The Bat travels by car to a mansion built by Courtleigh Fleming, the president of the Oakdale Bank, who has recently been found dead in Colorado. The mansion is being rented for the summer by writer Cornelia Van Gorder, whose maid, Lizzie Allen, sets up a bear trap to catch the Bat. Richard Fleming, Courtleigh's spendthrift nephew, wishes to lease the mansion, and plans with Dr. H. E. Wells to frighten Van Gorder away.

The newspaper reports that Brooks Bailey, a cashier at Oakdale Bank, has robbed the bank of $200,000 and has disappeared. Van Gorder's niece, Miss Dale Ogden, arrives with a supposed new gardener. Van Gorder asks the gardener about his knowledge on alopecia, urticaria, and rubeola, and he answers as if the terms referred to plants rather than medical conditions. On the staircase, Richard is shot, and Miss Dale manages to snatch part of a blueprint of the house from his pocket. Detective Moletti accuses her of trying to find a supposed hidden room in the mansion that should be shown on the blueprint. Detective Anderson arrives, and the group gets a call from the house phone in the garage, which sounds like groans of distress. A circular light shines on the wall, with the shadow of a bat in its center, but after investigating, the group finds that the shape was caused by a miller moth on a car headlight.

Dr. Wells has Miss Dale recreate Richard's murder, and she notes that she tucked the blueprint in a Parker House roll on a tray, but the blueprint is now gone. The new gardener is revealed to be Brooks Bailey, and Anderson attempts to arrest him for robbery, murder, and impersonation, but Miss Dale stops him, revealing that she and Brooks are engaged. Dr. Wells searches for the hidden room by knocking on walls, which causes the others to investigate the sound, leading them to a ballroom which is supposedly haunted. The candles in the ballroom go out when lit, and a shape appears to float towards Anderson and Lizzie, but it turns out to be the Japanese butler Billy carrying a lamp. After being confronted by Moletti, Dr. Wells knocks Moletti unconscious by striking his head, and he hides Moletti's body in another room. A beaten man enters the house, and Anderson finds that he has no identification on his person.

Billy sees a mysterious figure wearing a hat, and as he leaves to tell the others, the Bat's shadow passes by the door. The Bat sets up a system of wires that attach to a light switch. Outside, Brooks sees the figure in the hat crossing the roof, and realizes that it is the supposedly dead Courtleigh Fleming. Miss Dale finds the hidden room, located behind a fireplace. The Bat confronts her, demanding the combination to the safe in the hidden room, but she escapes. Dr. Wells is accused of helping the Bat, and the Bat is soon captured and held at gunpoint. However, the Bat activates the wire system, turning off the lights and allowing himself to escape. The Bat flees outside but his leg is caught in the bear trap placed earlier by Lizzie. The others find him and remove his mask, revealing him to be Moletti. The beaten, unknown man announces that he is the true Detective Moletti, and that the man underneath the Bat's mask had stolen his papers, locked him in the garage, set it on fire and impersonated him.

James Parker and Harry Holt travel in Africa on a quest for the legendary elephant burial grounds and their ivory. They are joined by Parker's daughter Jane. Holt is attracted to Jane, and tries somewhat ineffectively to protect her from the jungle's dangers. The expedition encounters an attack by both hippopotami and crocodiles. The mysterious Tarzan wards off the attack, but abducts Jane.

The experience is terrifying to Jane at first, but as their relationship develops, she finds herself happy; "not a bit afraid, not a bit sorry". As she returns to her father, her feelings are brought to a test. She wants Tarzan to come with her to London, and to be part of her world. But Tarzan turns his back on her and returns to the jungle. Her father tells her that is where Tarzan belongs, she cries, "no dad, he belongs to me".

The expedition is captured by a tribe of aggressive dwarfs. Jane sends Tarzan's ape friend Cheeta (Jiggs) for help, bringing Tarzan to their rescue. During the rescue, Tarzan summons elephants and they escape from the dwarf's stronghold, although Jane's father dies from wounds just as they reach the elephant graveyard. Jane decides to stay in the jungle with Tarzan and in the final scene, to the music of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, the happy couple appear on a rock, Jane holding Cheeta like a baby.

Jeffrey Franken, a young man who lives in New Jersey, is a worker at a power plant and a scientist who specializes in bioelectricity. He is about to get married to his fiancée Elizabeth, an overweight woman who's tried dieting but with no luck. At the birthday party of Elizabeth's father, Jeffrey presents him with an automatic lawnmower as a gift, but when Elizabeth tries to demonstrate it, she's caught in its path and gruesomely killed.

Jeffrey, in his grief, begins plotting to use his knowledge of circuits to rebuild Elizabeth and bring her back to life. His grief drives him to have mock dinner dates with the few pieces of Elizabeth he could salvage, as well as giving himself trepans with a power drill to help him calm down. He decides to make the perfect new body for Elizabeth by harvesting the body of a New York City prostitute.

After meeting several girls and their abusive pimp Zorro, a muscle-bound temperamental crack dealer, Jeffrey tricks Zorro into letting him rent every one of the girls for a single night to find the one with the perfect body for Elizabeth. Inspired by a news report about crack cocaine causing the deaths of many New York prostitutes, he then develops a "super-crack" which he finds causes living beings to explode. Deciding he's doing nothing wrong as crack will probably kill the prostitutes anyway, Jeffrey lures them all into a hotel room under the guise of a "medical examination" and marks the girls with the body parts he wants for Elizabeth. However, as he begins to have second thoughts, the prostitutes all find the bag of super-crack and all smoke it despite Jeffrey's pleas, causing them all to explode into pieces.

Zorro hears the commotion and rushes to the room only to be knocked out by one of the flying heads of his girls. Jeffrey hurriedly puts the body parts into trash bags, promising to restore the girls once he brings Elizabeth back. After picking the perfect body parts and sewing them and Elizabeth's head together into a single body, Jeffrey uses the lightning from a nearby storm to shock Elizabeth's new body to life again. However, her body and face move awkwardly, and she can only repeat what the previous girls said before they died. The "Frankenhooker" escapes the basement and begins looking for customers, who end up exploding from electricity when they try getting intimate with her.

Jeffrey goes looking for Elizabeth and finds her at a bar. Unfortunately, Zorro is there too, and upon hearing her mention his name and recognizing her body parts, he angrily strikes her so hard that her head mostly detaches from her body. Jeffrey evades Zorro and takes Elizabeth home to repair her neck and revive her again.

After bolting her head more securely to her new body, Jeffrey wakes Elizabeth up, finding her memory restored. At first, Elizabeth is impressed that Jeffrey brought her back, but becomes furious when she realizes what her body is now made of and how Jeffrey obtained the parts. Jeffrey tries to explain himself, but he is attacked and decapitated by Zorro, who's followed him home. Zorro then attempts to drag Elizabeth away with him, justifying himself by claiming that most of her new body belongs to him. However, the spare hooker parts have also been reanimated by the storm and merged into multiple grotesque limbed monsters, which overwhelm Zorro and drag him away into their storage cooler to his presumable death, along with his drugs.

Elizabeth decides to revive Jeffrey via the same procedure he used on her, but since the process only works on female bodies, Elizabeth is forced to put Jeffrey's head on a body made of the hookers' body parts to bring him back. As Jeffrey awakens, Elizabeth happily says they'll be together forever as Jeffrey moans in horror at his new female body.

''The Hostage'' depicts the events leading up to the planned execution of an 18-year-old IRA member in a Belfast jail, accused of killing a Royal Ulster Constabulary policeman. Like the protagonist of ''The Quare Fellow'', the audience never sees him. The action of the play is set in a very odd house of ill-repute on Nelson Street, Dublin, owned by a former IRA commandant. The hostage of the title is Leslie Williams, a young and innocent Cockney British Army soldier taken hostage at the border with Northern Ireland and held in the brothel, brought among the vibrant but desperately unorthodox combination of prostitutes, revolutionaries and general low characters inhabiting the place.

During the course of the play, a love story develops between Leslie and Teresa, a young girl, resident of the house. Both are orphans living foreign to the city they find themselves in, Teresa being from Ballymahon, County Longford. During this Teresa promises never to forget him.

The play ends with news of the hanging in Belfast and armed Gardaí raid the brothel. Leslie is killed in the ensuing gunfight, by Garda bullets. In the finale his corpse rises and sings "The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling".

In a bleak post-apocalyptic future, most of Earth's water has been placed under containment by the Eco Protectorate, a paramilitary organization, who governs the planet's new order. Orphan children, mostly teenagers, live in orphanages created by the Protectorate, designed to indoctrinate new recruits into their service. The orphans play a rough sport which is a hybrid of lacrosse and roller-hockey. Playing is the only thing that unites them other than the futile attempts of the Protectorate to control them. These orphans are Jason, the group's leader (Jason Patric), Terra (Jami Gertz), Tug (Peter DeLuise), Rabbit (Claude Brooks), Metron (James LeGros), and a young deaf boy named Daniel (Lukas Haas).

While hiding in a cave, Daniel finds a mysterious orb with special powers. The orb is an alien intelligence called Bodhi, who miraculously restores Daniel's hearing and has other powers, such as creating rain indoors. Another orphan, Darstar (Adrian Pasdar), takes the orb, hoping that he will be able to use it. He leaves the orphanage on roller skates and Daniel soon follows. The rest of the group chase after Daniel. The E-police learn of Bodhi while chasing the teens and catch Darstar with the sphere. The teens are eventually rescued by a band of older outlaws called the Eco Warriors. They have retired from fighting and are led by Terra's long-lost father, Greentree (Frank Converse). The teens leave the Eco Warriors and using their roller skating skills, break into the Protectorate's high security Water Storage Building. The teens discover the E-Police are trying to destroy Bodhi and they manage to recover the alien, but as soon as they do the sphere dematerializes and destroys the facility, releasing the water back to where it belongs as they rush out. As they all gather on a nearby hillside, Bodhi sparks the first thunderstorm the teens have ever seen and returns to space, but not without leaving a bit of himself behind in each of them.

Ultimately, in the closing credits, the orphans are seen swimming together in the newly-restored ocean, Darstar being fully accepted into the group and Jason and Terra sharing a kiss.

The film begins with the strains of "Why Can't I Touch It" by Buzzcocks as the camera pans across a rural landscape to the face of a beautiful teenage girl (Susanne Ashley) who is atop a hill surveying the road below. An open-ended truck rolls into view bearing a young man lying on a pile of turnips. This is Pondo Sinatra (Matthew Causey), the star of the story, a 22-year-old virgin burdened with raging hormones, no sex appeal or social skills. He is on his way to his first day at college. Upon arrival, Pondo cannot help but notice that the university is full of attractive and scantily clad females but try as he might he is of no interest to them. The good looking and popular 'Studly' (Timothy Carhart) soon takes him under his wing, as best friend and tries to teach him the ways of seduction but Pondo is without a clue and tries ever more bizarre schemes failing spectacularly with hilarious consequences. Even the local whore house won't help him. Desperate to break what seems to be a curse, Pondo descends into suicidal depression at which point the college's wise janitor named Elbow (Jerry Jones) steps in and gives Pondo some advice in one of the film's most famous scenes. This and a few of the other main scenes are so politically incorrect they would not be allowed in today's more careful cinematic climate. The attempts include a try at poetic seduction. Studley tells Pondo what to say to his vivacious date Natasha (Robin Harlan) via a remote microphone; sending Pondo to buy elegant new clothes (he goes to the Punk store by mistake and leaves looking like Quasimodo); taking massive quantities of drugs (which in reality would be lethal); and activating world's biggest vibrator, the Moby-M5 with disastrous consequences. The M-5 episode provides a pretext for an outrageous scene where two porn store employees discuss strategic arms limitation treaties, using various dildos as props.

After one of these dating debacles, Pondo frightens Studley by shouting "I'd sell my soul for a piece of ass!" Meanwhile, the lovely Miranda, (Susanne Ashley), a mysterious girl with supernatural powers who has been observing Pondo's struggles for some time, hears his cry and cryptically acknowledges it. Some time afterward, Pondo accidentally creates a chemical compound that makes him irresistible to women. At first he revels in his new "party animal" prowess; later, exhausted and terrified, he takes to barricading himself in his room to escape the mobs of obsessed women who pursue him everywhere. "I have been greedy," he confesses despairingly to Studley, "I am like King Midas; everything I touch turns to poontang!" The end of the film is tragic-comic with a metaphysical twist concerning the fate of those ruled by lust.

The movie is composed of a series of skits.

The film is available through MGM Home entertainment on a limited edition series of 80s comedies.

Eric Stanton, a well-dressed but down-on-his-luck drifter, feigns sleep but gets pulled off a bus in the hamlet of Walton because he does not have the fare to continue to San Francisco. He finds a low-budget diner called "Pop's Eats", where Pop is worried about waitress Stella because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd tells him not to worry, and the sultry Stella soon returns. Stanton is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk.

Stanton cons his way into a job with Professor Madley, a traveling fortune teller and spiritualist. He goes to the large house of Clara Mills, daughter of the late mayor, Abraham Mills.

The townspeople are unwilling to buy tickets to Madley's "spook meeting" because Clara Mills, an influential local spinster, disapproves. Stanton gets to Clara through her inexperienced younger sister June and persuades them to attend the performance.

Madley stages an entertaining séance, channeling Abraham Mills, the deceased father of Clara and June. Using information secretly dug up by his assistant Joe Ellis, Madley brings up the sisters' financial problems. The two become upset and leave.

Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men, and falls in love with her. She makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and buy her a home, which he agrees to do. To raise the money, Stanton romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been victimized by a man of Stanton's type in her past, is unable to prevent their marriage.

Stanton cannot stay away from Stella, even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to Stella, who has given up on him. He explains his odd scheme to her. She rejects him and he leaves watched by Clara who has followed him. He gets home late and is found by June sleeping on the couch.

The next day Stella is found to be murdered. Judd is asked by the local police chief to investigate. He first tries to beat a confession out of Dave Atkins, Stella's latest boyfriend, but Atkins has an airtight alibi. Stanton is also a strong suspect, having been seen quarreling with Stella shortly before her death. Judd tells him not to leave town.

Stanton flees, with June, to a seedy hotel room in San Francisco. He tells her all about his drifter's life of failed schemes. June tells Stanton that she loves him; the next morning, when she goes to the bank to withdraw her money, she is taken into custody for questioning.

Stanton returns to Pop's Eats, where Judd is waiting for him. Stanton has found evidence of Judd’s relationship with Stella and how he left NY police because of his violence. Stella had decided to marry Atkins rather than wait for Judd's wife to give him a divorce.

Judd pulls out his gun but Pop wrestles it away. Stanton prevents him from shooting Judd, though a shot is fired into the ceiling. This brings a police officer in, and Judd is arrested. Outside, June pulls up in a car and asks Stanton where they are going; he tells her, "Home."

Gordon Fleming, the owner of an asbestos abatement company in Massachusetts, makes a bid to remove asbestos from an abandoned psychiatric hospital. Desperate for money, he promises to complete the job in only one week, despite requiring two to three weeks. His crew includes Mike, a law school dropout who is knowledgeable about the asylum's history; Phil, who is dealing with his grief over a recent breakup; Hank, a gambling addict; and Gordon's nephew Jeff, who has a pathological fear of the dark.

While surveying the job site, Gordon hears a disembodied voice that greets him by name. The men begin their job, and Mike discovers a box containing nine audio-taped sessions that were recorded with Mary Hobbes, a patient who suffered from dissociative identity disorder. Mike begins listening to the tapes in the ensuing days. In the sessions, Mary's psychologist attempts to unveil details surrounding a crime she committed at her home two decades prior and Mary exhibits numerous personalities who have unique voices and demeanors. Meanwhile, Hank discovers a cache of antique silver dollar coins and other valuables from the crematory. Late that night, Hank returns to the hospital to retrieve the items, and discovers a lobotomy pick among them. He becomes frightened by noises and a shadowy figure, and is confronted by an unknown assailant.

Hank fails to show up to work the next day. An additional worker, Craig McManus, is hired to take his place. Gordon confides in Phil that he slapped his wife Wendy after she inadvertently splashed him with boiling water, and that she refuses to answer his calls or let him see their infant daughter. In a stairwell in the hospital, Jeff witnesses Hank staring out a window wearing sunglasses, talking to himself.

Hank goes missing and the men split up to search for Hank, but Mike is compelled to continue listening to the tapes. Jeff and Phil descend into the tunnels underneath the hospital where Phil finds Hank, half-nude, muttering to himself. The generator runs out of fuel, leaving a terrified Jeff trapped in darkness. Mike restores the electricity and continues listening to the ninth session tape, which reveals that one of Mary's malignant personalities, "Simon," was responsible for Mary stabbing her little brother and parents to death. Phil finds Gordon in Mary's former hospital room, staring at photos from his daughter's baptism which he has pasted to the wall. Jeff emerges from the tunnels and is attacked by an unseen assailant at the company van.

The following day, Gordon arrives at the hospital and finds Hank wrapped in plastic sheeting in one of the rooms, the lobotomy pick protruding from his eye. Gordon is then confronted by Phil, who repeatedly tells him to "wake up" before vanishing in front of him. Craig witnesses Gordon standing over Hank, who is barely alive. Gordon attacks Craig before pulling the lobotomy pick from Hank's eye and stabbing it into Craig′s. Gordon, in a dissociated state, finds the bodies of each of his crew members in various rooms in the hospital, and recounts his murdering each of them. He also recalls killing Wendy, his daughter, and the dog after Wendy spilled the boiling water on him.

Distraught, Gordon confusedly attempts to call his home to apologize to Wendy. An excerpt from the ninth session tape plays: Mary's doctor asks her "And where do you live, Simon?" to which "Simon" responds: "I live in the weak and the wounded, Doc."

It describes the survival ordeal of a real mountain man, Hugh Glass, who was attacked by a bear and abandoned in the wilderness by his companions (a young Jim Bridger and John S. Fitzpatrick), on the assumption he could not possibly live. Glass, with a broken leg and open wounds, had to crawl most of the way to Fort Kiowa to reach safety. When crawling back, Hugh could only dwell on revenge to the men who abandoned him.

In New York City, a waitress on her way home is assaulted by two muggers and seeks aid from a police officer, who breaks her neck. Over the next two nights, this "Maniac Cop" commits more murders, prompting Lieutenant McCrae, who was told by his superiors to suppress eyewitness accounts that the killer was wearing a police uniform, to pass on information to a journalist, in an attempt to protect civilians. This causes panic and dissent among the city, and results in innocent patrolmen either being shot to death or avoided on the streets by people afraid of them being the Maniac Cop.

Ellen Forrest, suspecting that her husband Jack may be the Maniac Cop, follows him to a motel and catches him in bed with fellow officer Theresa Mallory. Distraught, Ellen runs out of the room, and is slain by the killer. Jack is arrested under suspicion of murder, but McCrae believes Jack has been framed. McCrae gets Jack to tell him about his relationship with Mallory, who is attacked by the Maniac Cop while working undercover as a prostitute. Mallory and McCrae fight off the killer, who is deathly cold even through his gloves and does not appear to breathe; when they shoot him several times, the killer appears unfazed.

Mallory hides out in McCrae's apartment while he investigates Sally Noland, the only person Mallory told about her affair. McCrae follows Noland to a warehouse, where she meets with the Maniac Cop and refers to him as "Matt". Returning to police headquarters, McCrae discovers files on Matthew Cordell, an officer who was unjustly imprisoned in Sing Sing for police brutality and closing in on corruption in city hall. He was mutilated and killed in a shower room in Sing Sing by other inmates, whom he helped incarcerate.

When McCrae and Mallory visit Jack, they tell him they think Cordell is the real killer and plan to visit the chief medical examiner at Sing Sing. McCrae leaves to go to the clerical room, and he is attacked by Sally, who is convinced that Cordell is going to turn on her. After finding an officer hanging from the ceiling, Sally is beaten to death by Cordell. Hearing the commotion, Jack and Mallory leave the interrogation room and find the corpses of numerous officers strewn about the halls of the building. Mallory goes to McCrae's car while Jack searches for Cordell, who disappears after throwing McCrae out a window, killing him. Jack, who looks like the one responsible for the carnage to responding officers, flees with Mallory.

The two go to see Sing Sing's medical examiner, who admits that while he was preparing to autopsy Cordell, the officer showed faint signs of life. The examiner secretly released Cordell into Sally's care, convinced he was completely brain-dead. During the 50th annual St. Patrick's Day parade, Jack waits outside as Mallory warns Commissioner Pike and Captain Ripley about Cordell, but the two refuse to believe her and have her arrested. Cordell appears and fatally stabs Pike and Ripley, then targets Mallory, knifing the policeman left to guard her. Mallory escapes through a window, while Jack is arrested and placed in a van, which Cordell hijacks.

Mallory and another officer chase the van, which Cordell takes to his warehouse hideout. Cordell attacks Mallory and Jack, kills the other officer, and tries to escape in the van when backup arrives. Jacks clings to the side of the van and fights for control of it, causing Cordell to drive into a suspended pipe, which impales him. Cordell loses control of the vehicle, which crashes into the river, and sinks. Afterwards, the van is fished out, and, as it is searched, Cordell's hand emerges from the water.

Later in the extended version, the mayor, confident that Cordell is dead, relaxes in his office. After the mayor's assistant leaves the office, Cordell silently appears from behind the curtain and murders the mayor as revenge for framing him.

In Inniston, Marc Hall (Aaron Ashmore) is popular and his sexuality relatively well-accepted by his classmates and later his parents. But when he decides to take his boyfriend to the prom as his date, he finds he has stepped over the line straight into the fight of his young life and sends ripples through Canada's media. From just an ordinary teenager, he becomes an icon for LGBT rights across the nation when he discovers he is battling discrimination to date whomever he wants within the spotlight of the nation's media.

After being impaled by a pipe and plunged into a body of water, the now-undead "Maniac Cop" Matthew Cordell acquires a junked police cruiser and restarts his killing spree through New York City. Finding a convenience store in the middle of a robbery, he kills the clerk; the thief is subsequently killed in a shootout with police. As Cordell stalks the streets, his enemies Officers Jack Forrest and Theresa Mallory are put back on duty by Deputy Commissioner Edward Doyle, who has the two undergo a psychiatric evaluation under Officer Susan Riley. While Jack is content that Cordell is dead, Theresa is convinced that Cordell is still alive and plotting his revenge.

At a newsstand, Jack is fatally stabbed by Cordell. In order to protect the memory of Commissioner Pike, the corrupt official who originally framed Cordell, the police refuse to inform the public of the nature of recent events. This, along with her belief that Cordell is alive and killing, prompts Theresa to appear on a talk show to inform the public about Cordell. A traffic cop is murdered by Cordell later while attempting to tow a man's car. The man who was having his car towed is arrested on suspicion on the cop's murder. While en route to a hotel in a taxi, Theresa is joined by Susan, and the two are attacked by Cordell, who kills the cabbie and forces Susan and Theresa off the road. After handcuffing Susan to the steering wheel of a car and sending her into the busy streets, Cordell kills Theresa by snapping her neck. Gaining control of the car, Susan crashes and is found by authorities.

Elsewhere, a stripper named Cheryl is attacked in her apartment by Steven Turkell, who has strangled at least six other exotic dancers. Cordell arrives, murders two officers whom Cheryl called for, and helps Turkell escape. Turkell befriends Cordell and takes him back to his apartment, where Cordell stays for a short while. After Cordell leaves, Turkell visits a strip club, where he is identified by Cheryl to Susan and Detective Lieutenant Sean McKinney. He is arrested and placed in a holding cell.

Cordell breaks into the police station, murders nineteen police officers, and frees Turkell and several unnamed convicts. Using Susan as a hostage, Turkell, Cordell, and another criminal named Joseph Blum hijack a prison bus and head to Sing Sing, where Turkell believes Cordell wants to free all inmates and create an army of criminals. McKinney and Doyle follow, and McKinney convinces Doyle to reopen Cordell's case and rebury his casket with full honors on the assumption that this will appease Cordell.

Cordell gains entry into the prison using Blum's paperwork, and kills a guard for his keys. Shortly after entering death row, Cordell is contacted over the prison PA system by Doyle, who admits to Cordell that he was set up and states that his case has been reopened. After hearing Doyle's announcement, Cordell abandons Turkell, Blum, and Susan and heads deeper into the prison, where he is attacked with a Molotov cocktail by the three inmates who originally mutilated and killed him. While on fire, Cordell kills the three convicts who mutilated him, only to be attacked by Turkell. As Cordell and Turkell fight, the two crash through a wall, fall onto the bus below, and seemingly die when the vehicle explodes.

Some time later, Cordell is buried with full honors alongside 19 other deceased officers he murdered; Susan and McKinney attend his funeral. As Cordell's casket is lowered, McKinney throws Cordell's badge into the grave, leaves with Susan, and monologues about how justice and pressure are the only differences between a cop and a "Maniac Cop". Then the camera slowly and eerily zooms in on Cordell's gravesite. After a few seconds, Cordell's hand unexpectedly bursts through the lid of his casket (in a jump scare) and quickly grabs his badge as the screen cuts to black and the credits roll.

Timmy Lea and his brother-in-law Sidney Noggett are working as entertainment officers at Funfrall, a typical British holiday camp. The staff are lazy and inefficient, preferring to laze by the pool rather than organise activities for the holiday campers. A new owner, Mr. Whitemonk, an ex-prison officer, takes over the camp and is determined to install discipline into the staff. He is on the verge of dismissing Timmy and Sidney; however, Sidney's suggestion of organising a beauty contest changes his mind.

Producer Michael Klinger was not happy with the script, noting a number of problems that he felt detracted from the quality that set the series apart from its imitators.[http://michaelklingerpapers.uwe.ac.uk/docs1/holiday%20camp2.pdf]

A priest practicing the Voodoo arts resurrects Matt Cordell, who takes his badge and comes back to life to do his bidding. Meanwhile, a pair of cameramen who are hoping to make it big come across a convenience store robbery, where a police officer named Katie Sullivan intervenes in a hostage situation; she manages to wound the suspect but realizes that the clerk is his girlfriend, and she had intentionally let him in to rob the store. There is a crossfire, and while Kate is severely wounded, she ends up killing the clerk in return.

Though rushed to the hospital, Kate is declared comatose and brain dead, much to the chagrin of investigating officer Sean McKinney. McKinney catches the report of Katie using excessive force in a hostage situation, which portrays the clerk as an innocent victim and threatens to free the badly injured Frank Jessup.

Meanwhile, stalking Katie's progress, Cordell goes to the hospital to watch her (killing a heckler in the process). He kills one of her supervising physicians with defibrillator paddles, then murders Katie's physician with X-ray radiation. The four reporters who had framed Kate are also slain by Cordell afterwards.

Meanwhile, McKinney and a physician, Susan, are investigating the murders and the strange behavior experienced by the comatose Kate. Their investigations lead them to Houngan, who admits that he had brought Cordell back from the dead, and he is interested in Kate, who is on the verge of death. At gunpoint, Cordell forces Houngan to attempt the resurrection on her, but he is unable to do so, stating her spirit is refusing to return from the dead to be with him. Cordell kills Houngan, and both he and Kate are set on fire in the process; she is immolated.

As they escape, Susan and McKinney are chased by Cordell, who survived the fire while remaining ablaze. He chases them in a beat-up police car while they ride in an ambulance. They manage to throw an oxygen tank into the burning car before both crash. However, before Cordell can back up on the other disabled vehicle, the canister goes off, blowing up the car. Later, the charred corpse of Katie is rolled into a morgue, next to the burned remains of Cordell. While the lone coroner, who rolled Katie into the morgue, is busy with his computer, the camera pans to the bodies, which shows Cordell's hand moving over to hold Katie's hand.

Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) was abused as a child by his prostitute mother, and as a result, becomes a serial killer who murders young women, scalps them and attaches their hair to mannequins. After he awakens from a nightmare about killing a couple on a beach, he dresses himself, revealing terrible scars on his torso, and leaves his apartment towards Manhattan into Times Square. When Frank is randomly invited inside a hotel by a prostitute (Rita Motone), she kisses him before he abruptly strangles and scalps her. He returns home, dresses a mannequin with the dead sex worker's clothing and nails her scalp to its head. Frank tells himself that beauty is a crime punishable by death.

Sometime later, he dresses again and takes a collection of weaponry with him, including a double-barrelled shotgun, before leaving. He drives around Brooklyn and the Queens area, where he finds a couple exiting a local disco and parking near the side of the Verrazano Bridge. When the boyfriend (Tom Savini) starts up the vehicle after his date sees Frank spying on them, Frank kills the couple with his shotgun and then adds the woman to his mannequin collection. After seeing his recent crime on television, he talks to himself and the mannequins as he sobs himself to sleep.

During the next day in Central Park, Frank follows a photographer named Anna (Caroline Munro) after she takes a photo of him and a little girl riding a bicycle in the distance. At night, Frank sees a nurse (Kelly Piper) leaving the Roosevelt Hospital, where he then stalks her inside the subway station and murders her with a bayonet before adding her to his mannequin collection. Days later, Frank heads to Anna's apartment and is invited inside by Anna after she recognizes him from the photo she took of him. Upon him asking her out to dinner, he later shows her a photo of his mother who died in a car crash years ago. A few days later, Frank is invited by Anna to a studio during a photography session, and she introduces one of her models Rita (Abigail Clayton) to him. After seeing the two talking and holding hands, he steals Rita's necklace and leaves. Later that same night, he arrives at Rita's apartment to give her a necklace, before then attacking her and tying her to the bed. Frank begins talking and addresses her as his mother and stabs her with a switchblade before scalping her for his collection.

One night, Frank takes Anna on a date and they stop by a cemetery to visit his mother's grave. While laying some flowers beside the headstone, Frank begins to mourn over one of his early victims and attacks Anna. He chases her around the cemetery, but she hits him in the arm with a shovel before fleeing. He hallucinates his decomposing mother attacking him from the grave. He runs back to his apartment, where he sees his mannequins suddenly coming alive. They mutilate Frank with his weapons before ultimately tearing off his head.

The next morning, two police officers break into Frank's apartment and see Frank lying dead on his bed, having committed suicide by stabbing himself. After the officers leave, Frank's eyes suddenly open.

In Northern California, a preteen boy, Tim, throws a doll into a river. On the opposite bank, he sees a teenager, John, smoking a cigarette while sitting next to the nude corpse of his girlfriend, Jamie. Later, at a convenience store, Tim encounters John arguing with a clerk who will not sell him beer without ID. Tim returns home, where his older brother Matt and mother are searching for his little sister's doll. Matt's friend Layne arrives to pick him up, and the two drive to the home of Feck, a neurotic ex-biker and drug dealer, to obtain marijuana. On the way there, Layne recounts a party from the night before at which John and Jamie were arguing. At school, Layne and Matt smoke with their friends Clarissa, Maggie, and Tony. Matt talks about wanting to run away to Portland, which Clarissa dismisses. John arrives and says he killed Jamie. Thinking he's joking, Clarissa and Maggie leave for class. John brings Layne and Matt to see Jamie's body; Matt is disturbed, while Layne is focused on covering up the crime.

The group all plan to go see Jamie's body that evening, with Clarissa still assuming it is a practical joke. Layne's older brother, Mike, grudgingly drives them there in his truck, and they all see Jamie's body for themselves. Later that night, Clarissa calls Matt, but he is reluctant to talk to her. Meanwhile, Layne returns to the scene and pushes Jamie's body into the river. While driving afterward with John, he notices police cars near John's house. Layne panics, but John remains calm. They drive to Feck's house, and Layne leaves John there to hide out. Matt directs the police to the river, where they find Jamie's body washed up onshore. The police interrogate him, threatening to charge him as an accessory after the fact. Matt returns home and argues with his mother and her boyfriend. When he sees that Tim has defaced the grave marker for her "dead" lost doll that their sister made, Matt chases Tim down and hits him in the face. Tim goes to his friend Moko's house and they steal Moko's father's car to drive to Feck's so Tim can obtain a gun.

In the middle of the night, Layne, Clarissa and Matt drive to Tony's house, but Tony's father chases them off with a shotgun. Layne argues with Clarissa and kicks her out of his car. Matt gets out and walks with her. They stop at a convenience store and run into John and Feck. Tim and Moko break into Feck's house looking for the gun, but instead find his stash of marijuana, which they use to get stoned and then pass out in his house. Matt and Clarissa go to a park to talk, where they confide in each other about their conflicting feelings of grief and apathy over Jamie's murder. John and Feck go to the river's edge to drink beer, with Feck bringing along his blow-up doll, Ellie. Feck confesses to murdering his own girlfriend years earlier, despite having deeply loved her, whereupon John drunkenly begins to brag about killing Jamie, recounting his strangling of her with a relish that disturbs Feck. Matt and Clarissa have sex in the park nearby, then fall asleep. Layne drives around town in a panic, compulsively taking pills.

At dawn, after John falls asleep on the riverbank, Feck shoots him in the head. He returns home, where Tim and Moko knock him out and steal his gun. The police find Layne unconscious in his car and bring him in for questioning. At school, reporters interview Maggie and Tony, who seem dispassionate. During history class, Mr. Burkewaite, a teacher Clarissa respects, discusses morality, and asks Clarissa what Jamie meant to her in front of the class, but she cannot respond. Layne calls Feck's house asking where John is, and Feck tells him he's gone to the river. Before the conversation ends, the police break down Feck's door and arrest him. The teenagers go to the river together, where they see something floating in the river that resembles a corpse, but turns out to be Feck's doll, Ellie. Matt tells Layne he told the police that John murdered Jamie. Layne runs off down the riverbank and finds John's body. Tim arrives at the scene and points Feck's gun on Matt, threatening to kill him for hitting him the night before, but Matt dissuades him.

The police arrive and escort the teenagers and Tim away as the medical examiners remove John's body. In the hospital, Feck admits to killing John "because there was no hope for him," and confesses to murdering his girlfriend. Matt, Clarissa, Tony, and Maggie attend Jamie's funeral, where they show emotion at seeing her for the last time.

Vinny Durand (Joe Spinell) is a New York City taxi driver who is obsessed and dreams of directing a film starring the actress Jana Bates (Caroline Munro), known as the "queen of horror films". Durand, who lives in an apartment with his mother (Filomena Spagnuolo), tells her that he leaving to attend the Cannes Film Festival in France hoping to meet Bates and get her to star in his movie to kickstart his directing career. His mother tries to discourage him, calling it a "crazy idea."

At Cannes, Bates is promoting her latest horror film ''Scream'' in which she has been nominated for Best Actress. Accompanying Jana is her manager and ex-husband Bret Bates (Glenn Jacobson), and the film's producer and boyfriend Alan Cunningham (Judd Hamilton). Durand tries to meet Bates, but is turned away. Durand phones Bret, only to find out agented scripts are accepted. Shortly afterwards, Bates is at a press conference with Cunningham when she receives flowers and a note saying, "You've made your last horror film. Goodbye." She goes to see Bret at his hotel room and finds he's been murdered. When she later returns with the police, the body is gone.

Durand continues following Bates around and filming her with his movie camera. Marty Bernestein runs into Vinny and shrugs him off when Vinny asks him if he is willing to promote his movie. Marty meets with the movie's director Stanley Kline, and his personal assistant Susan Archer, where they reveal that all of them have received the same notes that Jana and Bret received. But when Marty takes his suspicions to the police, they think that Bret's disappearance is another publicity stunt. The next day, Marty gets a letter from Bret to meet him in a theater screening room. When Bernestein shows up, he also is murdered.

While Jana attends more press conferences, Vinny goes to a nightclub where he attacks a stripper after seeing her as Jana. He goes to a local cinema where he watches a gory horror film of Stanley Kline, and runs into him outside the theater. The following day, Susan tells Stanley that she wants to leave Cannes, but he convinces her to stay a while longer. That evening, both of them are killed by the hooded figure atop a building where Stanley is stabbed, and she falls off the building's ledge after getting shot. The killer then takes his movie camera and films all the deaths.

Across town in Jana's hotel room, Vinny sneaks in with a bottle of champagne and surprises Jana as she is taking a shower. He asks her to appear in his movie, but she insists he leave immediately, causing Vinny to break down in tears. Angered and upset, Vinny smashes the bottle in the sink and threatens Jana with the bottle's jagged edge. When the doorbell rings, Jana shoves Vinny aside and sprints off. Jana, clad only in her bathroom towel, runs screaming through the hotel lobby being chased by Vinny. The people in the lobby think it is another publicity stunt and applaud. Vinny, caught off guard, stops and smiles for them, allowing Jana to escape, who runs into Alan and a group of reporters outside the hotel. After explaining what happened, Alan tells Jana that he will take her away from the city.

The next day, Alan drives Jana to a remote castle in the French countryside where a musician friend of his named Jonathan is staying. Vinny follows them. That evening, Vinny sneaks into the castle, but is chased away by Jana's bodyguards who accidentally kill Jonathan as he tries to stop Vinny.

Alan and Jana return to Cannes for the awards ceremony where Vinny sneaks into the festivities dressed as a local policeman. While Jana waits in the back wing of the building, Vinny subdues Jana with chloroform and takes the unconscious actress away in his car back to the castle to film a scene there. Vinny films a scene with him playing Dracula and Jana as a victim. Suddenly, Bret Bates shows up with another camera and a pistol, and congratulates Vinny on setting everything up for him. Bret is revealed to be the killer and the mastermind behind this whole thing, not Vinny. Bret reveals that on the day when Vinny phoned him about his movie proposal, he realized that he had the perfect fall guy to set Vinny up for all the killings and to get even with Jana for leaving him. Vinny throws his cape over Bret, distracting him, and runs. But Bret grabs Jana and taunts Vinny to come out in the open. Outside, Vinny turns on a motorcycle's headlights, blinding Bret, and as Jana steps aside, Vinny murders Bret with a chainsaw. As Alan arrives with the police, Vinny stands before Bret's dead body and screams.

The image falls back to reveal that the whole story is a movie that Vinny filmed at the Cannes Film Festival with Jana Bates, and he is now back in New York showing it to his mother in a screening room. His mother tells Vinny that she is finally proud of him for directing and starring in his first movie, but Vinny explains that it will be his last horror film. As Vinny starts to talk to his mother about ideas for his next movie, she interrupts him to ask for a joint. The two share a smoke as the film ends.

The novel tells the story of Eamon Redmond, a judge in the Irish High Court of the late twentieth century Ireland. It reconstructs his relationships with his wife and children through his life and the memories of a childhood marked by the death of his father. The County Wexford landscape and the death of the father are the narrative material, which Colm Tóibín would revisit again in ''The Blackwater Lightship''.

The novel takes its title from a line from the song "Boolavogue", specifically "a rebel hand set the heather blazing".

The novel also plots the development of Fianna Fáil from the austere republicanism and style of Éamon de Valera to the corruption of the Charles Haughey era.

It has been said that this novel made Tóibín the heir of John McGahern. ''Amongst Women'', a book by McGahern, has similar atmosphere to this book.

Category:1992 Irish novels Category:Novels by Colm Tóibín Category:Novels set in County Wexford

A struggling writer takes a job with the mob to make ends meet.

A gang of teens escape a drug rehabilitation hospital after committing murder and grand theft auto, led by a man named Luck (Danny Lopes). They drive to a rendezvous point with the demented Reverend Salo (Kreskin) and his depraved wife (Christie Sanford) and their daughter Grace (Lizzy Mahon), who is a GUNWO-addicted slave. When the teens show up, they encounter demonic entities.

The story starts off in the aftermath of a particle accelerator experiment. Somehow the experiment has opened some sort of interdimensional rift allowing demons to possess the dead. As the dead come back to life, a zombie plague results.

The story's protagonist is Jim Thurmond, a construction worker living in West Virginia. Hiding away in a bomb shelter, which was previously constructed because of a fear of the aftermath of Y2K, Thurmond holds off packs of roving zombies, many of which were his neighbors and one of which is his recently deceased second wife who was pregnant. A distraught Jim laments his situation and worries about his son, Danny, who is living with Jim's first wife in upstate New Jersey. Jim considers suicide when unexpectedly Jim's cellphone rings with a message from his son, Danny. Danny whispers into the phone that he is hiding from the zombies in his mother's attic. Jim's suicidal thoughts turn around into a new purpose - to rescue Danny. Jim packs some supplies from the shelter and heads out into an apocalyptic United States overrun with gruesome sights. Jim fights his way out of the shelter by killing his undead neighbors and even his undead second wife, who taunts him with his unborn daughter. The moment he leaves the shelter, Jim is on the run discovering that the undead possess the ability to think, drive cars, use weapons, and set traps for the living.

Meanwhile, a scientist named Baker, who was working on the particle accelerator, is trapped within the confines of his underground workspace. Baker feels as if he is directly responsible for the zombie plague, believing that his experiment is what allowed the demons through to the human world. An old colleague is trapped inside a room, a member of the undead who refers to himself as Ob. The zombie named Ob explains that he comes from somewhere called The Void. The Void is part of The Labyrinth that exist in all "Levels" (multidimensional planes of existence), and where The Thirteen exist - Ob is one of The Thirteen. He learns that the zombies are not occupied by their original selves but instead a different evil entity with access to the host body's memories. Baker eventually escapes and finds his life being saved by Worm, a deaf young man whom the grateful Baker takes under his wing.

Recent paperback cover Jim eventually meets Martin, a wise elderly black minister. The two join forces to find Danny and soon run into many life-threatening situations such as packs of roving zombies, backwood cannibals seeking extra food and undead wildlife. Among their exploits, they run into a father and son in hiding, who help them along the way until tragedy strikes in a double suicide for the two. At the same time, Frankie, a heroin user and prostitute who is trying to hide from a vengeful pimp, narrowly escapes disaster in the Baltimore Zoo begins a trek out of the cities and into the country. Somewhere within Pennsylvania, the National Guard has seized control of the area. Led by the sociopath Colonel Schow, the soldiers abuse their authority by violently drafting people into their slave force, turning women into sexual slaves, and torturing anyone who questions them. Amongst all this chaos a lone private named Skip, who is disgusted with his comrades' behavior, looks to escape. Frankie eventually meets up with Jim and Martin. Together they help Jim reach his destination, New Jersey.

In the final chapter all the main characters meet which results in a scene of extreme violence providing a cliffhanger conclusion that raises more questions than answers. The story is continued in the sequel, City of the Dead.

Original Valiant Comics Version - 1992

'''''Bloodshot'' Volume 1'''

'''Angelo Mortalli''' is a ruthless and arrogant hitman climbing the mob ranks and about to marry the daughter of mobster Gino Canelli, head of one of New York City's major crime families. When it is discovered Mortalli is having an affair, Canelli takes revenge by framing him for murder. Mortalli offers evidence in exchange for federal witness protection rather than prison. But Canelli learns about this further betrayal and buys off an FBI agent to kidnap Mortalli. Rather than kill the former hitman, Canelli delivers him to be a new test subject for '''Project Rising Spirit,''' an illegal and clandestine attempt to turn people into living weapons, headed by the corrupt scientist Hideyoshi Iwatsu.''Bloodshot'' (Volume 1) #0-2.

Mortalli's body is injected with microscopic technology called nanites, leaving a blood-red circle scar on his chest. The nanites rebuild his brain and body, making Angelo superhuman but erasing his memory in the process. When Angelo uses his superhuman abilities or his nanites detect combat situations, his skin becomes paler, often turning chalk-white, and his eyes turn red.. Escaping from the lab, Mortalli takes the name "Bloodshot" and determines to learn who he was and how he was altered. While fighting and killing many members of the New York mob, Mortalli joins forces with the "Eternal Warrior" called Gilad. They had been enemies before but Abrams does not hold a grudge because he believes Mortalli metaphorically "died" the night Bloodshot was born. Mortalli is later disillusioned after learning about his past actions as a hitman. Having no desire to remain in New York or return to his old life, Bloodshot goes to Europe and uses his powers to fight corruption. He soon learns that his wife Mary was murdered by a powerful women named Crago. He goes after Crago but before killing her Crago reveals that she is his wife. He kills her and with the help of Abrams, he creates a new cover identity for himself, "Michael Lazarus," and operates as Bloodshot when he deems it necessary.''Bloodshot'' (Volume 1) #1-7. He battles a variety of villains and criminals, some of who are '''"psiots"''' or "harbingers" (people born with superhuman powers). One of his enemies include Ax, a psiot obsessed with attaining advanced technology such as Bloodshot's nanites and the alien armor of X-O Manowar.

Readers learn that in the future, the heroic line of Rai warriors adopt a similar appearance to Bloodshot to remember his heroism in the 20th century. The 43rd Rai, as well as the 44th Rai, even inherits Mortalli's nanites.

Acclaim Entertainment Reboot - 1997

'''''Bloodshot'' Volume 2'''

This incarnation of Bloodshot permanently has alabaster skin and red eyes, whether he actively uses his powers or not. Instead of a mobster who was captured and experimented on while alive, he is '''Raymond Garrison''', a secret operative for the '''Domestic Operations Authority (D.O.A.)'''. He is sent to infiltrate the Canelli crime family by using the cover identity "Angelo Mortalli." While living as Mortalli, Garrison begins a romantic relationship with Gina DeCarlo. When the mobsters realize "Angelo" is a traitor, they kill him. The D.O.A. brings his remains to its secret experiment known as '''Project Lazarus''', where Dr. Stroheim resurrects him with nanites, turning him into a superhuman "angel of death."

Garrison suffers partial amnesia as a result of his resurrection, and initially believes that his real name was Angelo Mortalli. He investigates his past and the circumstances of his death and transformation, bringing into conflict with the mob and the D.O.A. To fight and retrieve Bloodshot, D.O.A. Director Simon Oreck sends out the Special Circumstances Division (nicknamed "the Chainsaw"), a team of mercenaries equipped with advanced technology. While eliminating evidence that could lead back to them and Project Lazarus, the D.O.A. kills Garrison's former lover Gina DeCarlo.

Bloodshot finally learns he was once D.O.A. operative Raymond Garrison. Dr. Stroheim reveals Garrison was his first true success and the process cannot be replicated unless a "prime assembler" unit implanted in Bloodshot is removed. Rather than allow others to be transformed into undead soldiers as he was, Bloodshot destroys Stroheim's lab and leaves.''Bloodshot'' (Volume 2) #5.

Valiant Entertainment Reboot - 2012

''Bloodshot'' (Volume 3)

Starting with the 2012 Valiant Entertainment relaunch, the '''Project Rising Spirit Program (PRS)''' is said to have regularly created different super-soldiers since the days of World War II. The Bloodshot super-soldiers, later collectively known as the "Bloodshot Squad," are distinguished by nicknames: Tank Man (Winston Grover) first served in World War II, described as an "animated Frankenstein"; the science greatly improved for Viet Man (Sergeant Dell Palmer), who served in the Vietnam War and was "fully repairable and adaptable to his environment"; Cold Man was an operative who could adopt a more human appearance and blend in, helping him act as a covert agent during the Cold War. At some point, there was also a dog test subject nicknamed Bloodhound. All of these subjects were near-mindless weapons with little restraint against causing civilian casualties. Starting with Quiet Man, who served in the Gulf War, the Bloodshot project uses nanites to transfer memories from dead soldiers, providing the super-soldier with emotional restraint as well as motivation factors that can be manipulated to ensure control.

One Bloodshot cyborg who has multiple false identities implanted over time eventually becomes insane, forcing the program to destroy him in 2010. The techniques and technology used on him are improved on for on the next Bloodshot, who is nicknamed '''Every Man''' and serves in many Special Ops missions, including in Syria and Afghanistan. ''Bloodshot'' (Volume 3) follows the life of Every Man, who at the start of the series believes he is Raymond "Ray" Garrison, a soldier with a wife and son back home.

In 2007, Dr. Emmanuel Kuretich discovers PRS Director Simon Oreck is using Bloodshot super-soldiers to capture "psiots" or "harbingers", rare people born with superhuman abilities (particularly children psiots). Alarmed, Kuretich leaves and joins Toyo Harada's Harbinger Foundation, secretly making plans to stop P.R.S. Years later, while on a routine mission in Afghanistan, the modern-day Bloodshot soldier is captured by the Harbinger Foundation. Intending to expose Project Rising Sun to the world. Kuretich forcibly extracts mental records of his missions. The process causes Bloodshot to realize he has repeatedly been given false memories of different lives and identities in order to motivate him and control him. He believed he was Ray Garrison but now sees conflicting memories of other families, lives, and names (such as "Angelo Mortalli").Bloodshot'' (Vol. 3) #1-4.''

After escaping from Kuretich, Bloodshot learns PRS is willing to destroy him if necessary and evades them too, realizing all his memories may lies. Bloodshot later finds a P.R.S. facility known as the Nursery, built to house captured psiot children. Freeing the captives, he confronts the Nursery's sadistic jailer Gamma as well as an "outdated" cyborg hit squad called Chainsaw. His actions at the Nursery help lead to the ''Harbinger Wars'' crossover. Several free psiots join together to oppose both the Harbinger Foundation and P.R.S., calling themselves the Renegades, including a hacker activist named @x (pronounced "Ax").

''Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps''

When Bloodshot later meets Toyo Harada, his free will is overridden by the "Harada Protocol", a hidden Rising Spirit program compelling him to terminate the man. A vicious battle leaves Harada seriously wounded and Bloodshot with a depleted nanite count. Bloodshot becomes a prisoner of Harada's Harbinger Foundation. Harada subjects him to painful tests, hoping to learn more about his unique technology. Not wishing the Harbinger Foundation to uncover the secrets of their experiments, Project Rising Spirit sends out a superhuman combat team, the Harbinger Active Resistance Division Corps (known more simply as H.A.R.D. Corps). Despite losses, the team retrieves Bloodshot. In exchange for PRS restoring his health and nanites, Bloodshot accepts membership in the H.A.R.D. Corps and joins the team on various global missions, including retrieving a former Project Rising Spirit test subject codenamed Prodigal, and fighting the duo of Archer & Armstrong in the crossover story "Mission Improbable." During this time, ''Bloodshot'' (Volume 3) is temporarily retitled ''Bloodshot and H.A.R.D. Corps''.

Bloodshot pretends to become a loyal soldier and H.A.R.D Corps member in order to regain his health, as well as access to the Project's resources. As a reward for his cooperation and sign of good faith, Project Rising Spirit gives Bloodshot a file that seems to reveal his true identity is indeed Raymond "Ray" Garrison (though this could be another false life created by PRS). Once Bloodshot is sure he can survive without their aid, he breaks free of PRS and H.A.R.D. Corps, determined to be his own person rather than anyone's weapon. The series resumes the title ''Bloodshot'' for its final issues, #24 and 25. Deciding to retire from violence, Bloodshot disappears.

''Bloodshot Reborn''

Published in 2015 with creators Jeff Lemire and Mico Suayan, this series ran for 19 regular issues and had an annual issue, as well as the ''Bloodshot USA'' 4-issue miniseries and the one-shot ''Bloodshot's Day Off''. After having his nanites removed by Kay McHenry (Geomancer), Bloodshot tries to live a normal life as Ray Garrison. But when a number of shootings are carried out by men who look like Bloodshot, he investigates and returns to the life he left behind.

''Bloodshot Salvation''

Published in 2017 with creators Jeff Lemire, Mico Suayan and Lewis LaRosa, this series ran for 12 regular issues plus a number of event tie ins. Following directly after ''Bloodshot Reborn'', Bloodshot must now protect his girlfriend Magic and their daughter from Magic's sadistic family.

''Bloodshot Rising Spirit''

An 8-issue prequel series launched in 2018 under the writing trio of Kevin Grevioux, Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson, with artist Ken Lashley. The story takes place in 2010, two years before the Every Man Bloodshot learns his memories have been tampered with, leading him to go rogue. The prequel series focuses on a cyborg Bloodshot super-soldier who is regularly given new memories and identities, including one named "Angelo Mortalli." The imperfect memory alteration process eventually drives him insane and he turns on his handlers, forcing Project Rising Spirit to destroy him. By studying him, PRS ensures that their next Bloodshot soldier (the one who believes himself to be Raymond Garrison) will not suffer the same side-effect of insanity. This cyborg has no official name and is often referred to by fans simply as "Bloodshot Rising Spirit." The cyborg is seen by many as an immediate "prototype" to the modern day Bloodshot.

''Bloodshot'' (Volume Four)

In 2019, writer Tim Seeley and artist Brett Booth launched the current ongoing ''Bloodshot'' series.

The film, although based on fact, is a stylized retelling of the events of August 4, 1892, the day the father and step-mother of New England spinster Lizzie Borden were found brutally murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. Public interest in Borden and the murders is exacerbated by her aloof demeanor after the murders, and the public speculates about her involvement when she fails to express any emotion at her father and stepmother's funerals.

The subsequent incarceration of the prime suspect (Lizzie herself) as well as the coroner's inquest and the trial are largely faithfully depicted, using actual testimony. During the trial, various persons testify, including Bridget Sullivan, the Borden's maid from Ireland who was the only other person in the home at the time of the murders.

In what may be seen as deviation from the film's docudrama narrative, as Lizzie hears her verdict, flashbacks are shown of her actually committing the murders in the nude and bathing after each death, thus explaining why no blood was ever found on her or her clothes; however, it is left ambiguous whether Lizzie was actually reminiscing about the crimes or simply fantasizing how she herself would have disposed of her victims. When Lizzie returns home after acquittal, her sister Emma asks her point-blank if she killed their parents; Lizzie does not answer. The epilogue states that the killings of Andrew and Abby Borden remain unsolved.

Tae-suk (Jae Hee) is a loner who drives around on his motorbike, taping takeout menus over the keyholes of front doors and breaking into apartments where the menus have not been removed. He lives in those apartments while their owners are away, washing their clothes, mending their broken appliances, and taking selfies with their possessions. When he breaks into one large home, he is unaware that he is being watched by an abused housewife and former model Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon). Tae-suk leaves after making eye contact with Sun-hwa, but then returns. He witnesses Sun-hwa's husband Min-gyu abusing her and proceeds to catch his attention by practicing golf in the yard. He buffets Min-gyu with golf balls and then leaves with Sun-hwa.

Tae-suk and Sun-hwa begin a silent relationship, moving from one apartment to another, with Tae-suk occasionally practicing hitting golf balls by drilling holes in them, inserted a cord through the holes, and securing the cords with a knot around the bases of tree trunks. In one home, after drinking, they are caught by the returning owners, sleeping in their bed and wearing their pajamas. The male homeowner, a boxer, repeatedly punches Tae-suk. Later, Tae-suk practices hitting a golf ball tied to a tree, and the ball breaks loose from its cord, breaking through the windshield of a nearby car and brutally striking the car's passenger in their head. Tae-suk, awash with guilt, is comforted by Sun-hwa.

The next night, Tae-suk and Sun-hwa break into a hanok, where they sit quietly, drink tea, and share a kiss. They later enter an apartment where they discover the dead body of an elderly man. They proceed to give him a proper burial. The following day, the elderly man's son and daughter-in-law arrive at the apartment, and assume that Tae-suk and Sun-hwa killed him. Tae-suk and Sun-hwa are apprehended and interrogated by police, but remain silent. Tae-suk's camera is confiscated, and the owners of the homes seen in the photos on the camera are contacted. The police learn that nothing was stolen from any of the houses, and an investigation reveals that the old man died of lung cancer. Min-gyu arrives to take Sun-hwa home, and bribes the policeman in charge of the investigation to allow him to strike Tae-suk with golf balls. Tae-suk ends up attacking the police officer and is sent to jail. There, he practices golf with an imaginary club and balls and develops his gifts for stealth and concealment, frustrating his jailers by remaining out of sight.

Tae-suk is released from prison, and Min-gyu prepares himself in case he returns for Sun-hwa. With his improved stealth, Tae-suk is able to rejoin Sun-hwa in her house, using his skills to evade Min-gyu's detection. Sun-hwa appears to say "I love you" to Min-gyu and embraces him, but kisses Tae-suk over his shoulder. When Min-gyu leaves on a business trip, Sun-hwa and Tae-suk stand together on a scale. Text then appears, reading: "It's hard to tell whether the world we live in is either a reality or a dream."

Santa Claus assigns the Christmas angel Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton) to restore the Christmas spirit of Ginnie Grainger (Mary Steenburgen), the mother of Cal (Robbie Magwood) and Abbie (Elisabeth Harnois). Her husband Jack (Gary Basaraba) has been out of work for six months, and they must vacate their company-owned house by the new year. Jack fixes bikes as a hobby and dreams of opening his own bike shop, which would use up all the family savings. Ginnie works as a grocery store cashier.

Two nights before Christmas Eve, Abbie meets Gideon while mailing a letter to Santa. Gideon asks her to have her mother mail it instead and protects Abbie from being hit by a speeding car. Abbie gives the letter to her mother, but she refuses to mail it.

The family visits Jack's grandfather Caleb (Arthur Hill), who gives Abbie a snow globe of the North Pole. Gideon visits Abbie again and warns her that some bad things are going to happen, but she should not be afraid. He "accidentally" drops and shatters her snow globe, then magically restores it. Ginnie and Jack discuss their finances where Ginnie tells Jack he should find a new job instead of opening the bike shop. Frustrated, he leaves the house to go for a walk. She goes after him and meets Gideon. All the Christmas lights on the street around her turn off.

On Christmas Eve, on her way to work, Ginnie meets Harry Dickens at a gas station who is trying to sell some of his possessions in order to support himself and his son. She goes on her way while Jack leaves the children in the car while he goes to the bank to withdraw some of their savings for Christmas shopping. Abbie leaves the car to see Ginnie at the grocery store across the street and tells her that Jack is at the bank. She leaves to stop him and her boss fires her. She returns Abbie to the car and enters the bank, which Harry is robbing at gunpoint. Jack attempts to calm Harry down, but he impulsively shoots and kills Jack. He flees in Jack's car with Cal and Abbie still inside. Ginnie takes his car to chase after him, but runs out of gas before she can catch up to him. He swerves to avoid the police, but skids off a bridge into the river. Believing she has lost her husband and children, she returns to the house grief-stricken. Gideon rescues the children and the police bring them home. Ginnie tells them that their father is dead and is never coming home.

Abbie goes to the town's Christmas tree to find Gideon and asks him to bring back her father. He tells her he can't and the only one who can is Santa Claus. Gideon takes Abbie to the North Pole to see Santa, who informs her that he also cannot fix what has happened or make her mother feel better, but perhaps Abbie can. He shows her his workshop, which is a factory run by Christmas angels (dead people like Gideon) instead of elves. He retrieves a letter Ginnie sent him as a child and tells Abbie to give it to her mother.

Gideon returns Abbie to her house and she gives her mother the letter. Reading it makes her realize that the spirit of Christmas is to be thankful for what she has. She goes outside to mail Abbie's letter and says goodbye to Gideon. All the Christmas lights on the street come back on and it is the night before Christmas Eve again. Jack is alive.

The next day, Ginnie's boss gives her the day off so she can spend it with her family. At the gas station, she buys Harry's camp stove. He does not rob the bank. That evening, she attends the tree lighting in the village square and joins the participants in singing ''O Christmas Tree''. Later, the family is celebrating Christmas at Caleb's and she writes a check to Jack for the bike shop as a Christmas present. Ginnie hears Santa downstairs and finds him putting presents under the tree. He tells her "Merry Christmas, Ginnie" and she says it in return.

Xander works to repair the living room window while Dawn, Willow and Anya help clean up and discuss the potential danger that is Spike. Wearing a trench coat like Spike's, Andrew is coached by Warren to continue playing his part in the game. Warren explains that because he cannot take corporeal form, Andrew is now a crucial player. Buffy tries to offer comforting words to Spike while she ties him down to a chair. He instructs her to tie the rope tighter so he cannot get free.

Dawn drops by Principal Wood's office and informs him that Buffy is sick and unable to attend work. Buffy calls Quentin Travers and asks about Giles, but he is just as clueless as she is. He is with a group of Watchers and informs them that they need to find Giles quickly. Buffy checks on Spike, who is struggling to control his blood lust after tasting so much human blood. He vamps and snaps at her, but remains tied to the chair. Buffy and Willow talk about Spike outside the room and Willow volunteers to get him some animal blood to help ease his cravings.

Warren coaches Andrew on killing a pig, but Andrew fails miserably and resorts to going to the butcher shop to get the blood they need. At the butcher shop, Andrew orders an array of meats and pig's blood, but as he is leaving, he runs into Willow and spills his purchases on the ground. Andrew runs from her, but she catches up with him and uses his assumption that she is evil to frighten him. She takes him back to the house with her, pointing out his suspicious behavior and purchase of animal blood to the rest of the group. Xander and Anya interrogate Andrew while he is tied to a chair, but he does not say anything. Anya snaps and slaps Andrew before Xander pulls her out of the room. Upstairs, Buffy feeds Spike some of the animal blood as Anya and Xander meet in the bathroom to discuss their tactics with Andrew. Spike is calmed and talks to Buffy about how little he remembers about his killing. She asks about how he got his soul and he tells her about the demon trials.

Xander returns to Andrew and changes tactic to politeness. He unties Andrew and offers him water while using Anya's ability to hurt men as a threat. Anya comes charging in and attacks Andrew, intending to beat his knowledge out of him. Buffy leaves Spike momentarily to investigate Andrew's cries for help, but leaves as soon as Anya and Xander assure her they have things under control. When she leaves, the morphing version of Spike appears and starts to talk to the real Spike. Buffy hears Spike singing through the door to her room and when she goes back inside, she finds him acting differently. He claims to be hungry and asks for blood, but as soon as he gets it he breaks free from his chair and knocks Buffy down, leaving her stunned. While Andrew leans against a wall and starts to talk to Anya about what he knows in the next room over, Spike punches through the wall, grabs Andrew from behind, and viciously bites him.

Buffy recovers and pulls Spike off Andrew; she knocks Spike out with a powerful kick. Buffy discusses Spike's strange behavior with the gang and Xander concludes that Spike is being manipulated by a posthypnotic trigger, in military style. Buffy instructs the gang to begin researching so they can figure out what they are dealing with. At the high school, Wood leaves his office, but detours through the basement where he finds Jonathan's dead body on top of the symbol. He then buries Jonathan in a deserted location.

Buffy goes down to the basement to clean up Spike's wounds while he lies chained up to a brick wall. He wakes up and does not understand why he has no memory of his actions. Buffy tells him of Xander's trigger theory. Spike orders Buffy to kill him because she and the Scoobies are not prepared to handle the "real" Spike. She denies his request and Spike responds with a theory of his own: that Buffy likes men who hurt her and that is why she has never been able to kill him. She tells him that his theory no longer describes her; and that she is not going to kill him because something is controlling him, and because he can be, and now is, a good man. She tells Spike she believes in him.

Suddenly, the windows and doors break all over the house as robed figures attack the Scooby Gang. The gang fights a vicious battle with the robed figures attacking them. Dawn defends herself from two of the robed figures while Buffy chases one upstairs and protects Andrew from being killed. Most of the robed figures are disabled or killed, but they did not come for Buffy and the gang; they came for Spike. Down in the basement, Buffy and Xander find that Spike's chains are empty and he is nowhere to be seen. Buffy recognizes the faces of the robed figures as harbingers representing the First Evil (first encountered four years ago) and realizes that is who they are dealing with. The ghosts haunting them, the games being played on them and the impending danger that will come from beneath are all connected to the First.

Watchers report to Quentin about the numerous attacks on the Council around the world. Quentin confirms that the First is responsible and orders the Watchers to prepare for their greatest challenge. Seconds later, the Watcher's Council headquarters explodes. In the Sunnydale High School basement, Spike is strapped to circular contraption and the robed figures cut designs into Spike's skin. The First chastises Spike in his form before morphing into Buffy's form and watches as the Bringers raise the contraption and Spike up to the ceiling and turn him face-first over the seal. Spike's blood falls onto the seal and opens it. As the First explains, an older kind of vampire called a Turok-Han emerges.

In 1867, John O'Hanlan and Harley Sullivan are aging cowboys working on open cattle ranges in Texas. John gets a letter from an attorney in Cheyenne, Wyoming that his brother, D.J., left him The Cheyenne Social Club in his will. After making the trek to Cheyenne, John and Harley learn The Cheyenne Social Club is a high-class brothel next to the railroad. John falls into disfavor with both the Club's ladies and the men in Cheyenne when he decides to close the Club. John learns his brother's deed had a provision the property would revert to the railroad if the ladies moved. Jenny, the Club's madam, is assaulted by a man named Bannister. John kills Bannister and regains popularity. Bannister's relatives come to Cheyenne for revenge, but John, Harley and Jenny successfully fight them off. When advised that even more of the Bannisters' relatives will soon come to town, John transfers ownership of the property to Jenny and he and Harley return to Texas.

On May 19, 1927, after waiting a week for the rain to stop on Long Island, New York, pilot Charles A. "Slim" Lindbergh tries to sleep in a hotel near Roosevelt Field before his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. His friend Frank Mahoney guards his hotel-room door from reporters. Unable to sleep, Lindbergh reminisces about his time as an airmail pilot.

In a flashback sequence, Lindbergh lands his old de Havilland biplane at a small airfield to refuel on the way to Chicago. Despite bad weather, he takes off, unaware that heavy snow has closed the Chicago landing field. Lindbergh is forced to bail out in a storm after running out of fuel. Recovering mail from his crashed DH-4, he continues to Chicago by train. A suspender salesman tells him that two airmen just died competing for the Orteig Prize for the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris.

Lindbergh calls Columbia Aircraft Corporation in New York from a small diner at the Lambert-St. Louis Flying Field. Quoted a price of $15,000 ($ today) for a Bellanca high-wing monoplane, Lindbergh lobbies St. Louis financiers with a plan to fly the Atlantic in 40 hours in a stripped-down, single-engine aircraft. The backers are excited by Lindbergh's vision and dub the venture ''Spirit of St. Louis''.

When the Bellanca deal falls apart because Columbia insists on selecting the pilot, Lindbergh approaches Ryan Aeronautical Company, a small manufacturer in San Diego, California. Frank Mahoney, the company's owner and president, promises to build a suitable monoplane in just 90 days. With Ryan's chief engineer Donald Hall, a design takes shape. To decrease weight, Lindbergh refuses to install a radio or other heavy equipment, even a parachute, and plans to navigate by "dead reckoning". With no autopilot function available, Lindbergh will not be able to sleep during the flight. With the deadline pressing, Ryan workers agree to work around the clock, completing the monoplane in just 62 days.

Lindbergh flies ''The Spirit of St. Louis'' to New York, stopping at Lambert Field (St. Louis Lambert International Airport) on the way to show the aircraft to his investors. He prepares for the flight at Roosevelt Field, ensuring that 450 gallons of fuel is on board for the long flight. In the cramped cockpit, which does not allow direct forward view, the magnetic compass must fit above his head; a young woman offers her compact mirror, which is attached with chewing gum so that Lindbergh can read the compass. Mahoney secretly slips a Saint Christopher medal into a bag of sandwiches on board.

As the weather clears, ''The Spirit of St. Louis'' trundles down the muddy runway and barely clears electric lines and treetops. An American newspaper's headline reads: "Lindy Is Off!" Every hour, Lindbergh switches fuel tanks to keep the airplane's weight balanced. As he flies over Cape Cod, Linbergh realizes that he has not slept in 28 hours. He recalls past times when he had slept on railroad tracks, short bunk beds, and under a windmill. When he begins to doze, he is awakened by a fly. Over Nova Scotia, he sees a motorcyclist below, remembering his own Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he had once traded as partial payment for his first aircraft, a World War I war-surplus Curtiss Jenny.

Over the seemingly endless Atlantic, Lindbergh remembers barnstorming across the Midwest in a flying circus. After 18 hours, ice forms on the wings and engine, and the aircraft begins losing altitude. Lindbergh changes course and the ice breaks off in the warmer air; the engine, which had stopped, is restarted. Back on course, his compasses begin malfunctioning, forcing him to navigate by the stars. By dawn, he falls asleep, and the monoplane slowly descends in a wide spiral toward the ocean. Sunlight reflecting off the compact's mirror finally awakens him in time to regain flight control.

Seeing a seagull, Lindbergh realizes that he is close to land. He tries without success to hail a fisherman below. Sighting land, he determines that he has reached Dingle Bay, Ireland. Pulling out a sandwich from a paper bag, Lindbergh discovers the hidden Saint Christopher medal and hangs it on the instrument panel. Crossing the English Channel and the coast of France, Lindbergh follows the Seine up to Paris as darkness falls.

Finally seeing the city lights ahead of him, Lindbergh approaches Le Bourget Airfield in the dark, becoming disoriented by panning spotlights aimed into the sky. He glimpses strange movements and lights below, in reality huge crowds of people and traffic in and around Le Bourget. Confused by this chaos, Lindbergh begins his landing approach, quickly becoming panicked. As he goes lower, he whispers "Oh, God, help me!"

Landing safely and bringing ''The Spirit of St. Louis'' to a full stop, Lindbergh is rushed by hordes of people while sitting in the plane. As flash powder ignites and photos are taken, Lindbergh is carried triumphantly on people's shoulders toward a hangar. An exhausted Lindbergh eventually realizes that the crowds, numbering 200,000, are cheering for him and his achievement. On returning to New York City, Lindbergh, having now become a national hero, is given a huge ticker tape parade, with four million people lining the parade route.

Richie Maxwell is down to his last quarter at a slot machine in Atlantic City, so he asks cousin Evan for two more coins for one more spin — a spin that wins a $400,000 jackpot.

The joy of victory is quickly replaced by a fierce disagreement over who deserves what. Richie begins by offering Evan a very small percentage of his winnings. Evan didn't expect anything at first but now he is offended because he provided two-thirds of the money Richie sank into the machine.

A bitter feud develops. Richie, a sneaker designer, hogs all the money and quits his job. Evan, a doctor, is so annoyed that, as a prank, he lets Richie believe he is dying. By the time he reveals the joke, Richie has done something drastic.

The more rattled Evan gets, the more distracted he becomes at work. And even when the cousins come to a tentative truce, everything backfires on them in events that involve girlfriends, relatives and even the homeless.

In the end, Ritchie loses all his money and winds up right back where he started. Despondent, he goes home to perform oral sex on himself—a pastime of his.

The main character, Gorō Mutsumi, has no luck at all, not with jobs, nor with his schooling, and especially not with women. That is until the day he meets a fortune teller who informs him that he will have a fateful encounter and adds a spell to his cell phone that allows his guardian angels to appear to him. Gorō does not believe her and walks away as he remembers all of his previous times of bad luck with women.

It is then seen that he meets three girls who are waiting for him as he is bathing. They say they are now his guardian angels, sent to earth from the spirit realm. They are the first three of his twelve beloved pets who had died due to Gorō's poor luck, returning to him on earth. He does not find out they are his pets at first.

Soon more of his former pets return to him as guardian angels, and each desires to be his favorite. They also have fears from their past lives that they must overcome, and they must learn to live with each other. It is the only way they will stand a chance of helping Gorō turn his life around.

These girls however are not the only ones on earth; because of Gorō's own past life, there are strange people out there trying to put a stop to these girls turning his luck around. For their own reasons, these people fear Gorō and desire him out of the way. As the story progresses the girls learn they must protect Gorō not only from his own bad luck but from these other people, without fully understanding either who they are or why they want to harm their beloved master.

The game, like the film, follows the Warriors, a Coney Island-based street gang led by Cleon. Three months prior to the events of the film, the Warriors dispose their long time rivals, the Destroyers, after defeating their leader Virgil, who is a former friend of Cleon. Their reputation increases over time as they humiliate a low-ranking gang, the Orphans; kill the Hi-Hats' leader, Chatterbox; spray paint trains; and ally themselves with the Saracens, whom they help set up their rivals, the Jones Street Boys, and a group of corrupt NYPD officers.

The game eventually catches up to the events of the film, when Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in New York City, calls a meeting with all gangs in Van Cortlandt Park to propose a permanent citywide truce that would allow the gangs to control the city. Everyone opens to Cyrus' idea except Luther, leader of the Rogues, who shoots Cyrus dead, just as the police raid the meeting. In the ensuing chaos, Luther frames Cleon for the murder, resulting in the Riffs seemingly beating him to death. Swan, the Warriors' "warchief", assumes leadership of the gang as they try to make their way home, unaware they have been framed for Cyrus' murder, while the Riffs call a hit on them through a radio DJ.'''Masai:''' There must be some word. I want them all. I want all the Warriors. I want them alive, if possible. If not, wasted. But I want them. Send the word. '''DJ:''' All right, now. For all you boppers out there in the big city, all you street people with an ear for the action, I've been asked to relay a request from the Gramercy Riffs. It's a special for the Warriors. That's that real live bunch from Coney. And I do mean the Warriors. Here's a hit with them in mind.

The Turnbull AC fail to kill the Warriors as they board a train en route to Coney Island, only for the train to be stopped by a fire on the tracks at Tremont. While continuing their journey on foot, the Warriors encounter the Orphans, still mad at being humiliated by them.'''DJ:''' Now for the latest word in the big city. Turning the break beats against the Judas Bunch, the Boppers danced back to retain their reign supreme in Harlem. Up in Riverside, the Baseball Furies continued their winning streak by knocking out some Jones Street Boys. In the minor leagues today, the Orphans report that they been making some major moves by knocking out the Warriors, that outfit from Coney. / '''Ash:''' This is bullshit, man! / '''West:''' We never even met those wimps! We oughta kick them in their lying mouths! / '''Cleon''': Yeah, you're right. We oughta. The rest of you dudes stay put. Me and Fox is taking the new blood out to see if they as tough as they talk. '''Sully:''' Listen good, you fucking pansies. It don't matter whether we rumbled or not. What the Orphans say goes! Heh! Who the streets gonna believe? A solid outfit like us, or some bush league rejects from the ass-end of Brooklyn? / '''Cleon:''' Hey, Sully, that's a fine-looking car you got going on! Swan calls a truce with the Orphans' leader, Sully, and the Warriors are allowed to walk through the Orphans territory unharmed. However, Sully's partner Mercy mocks him,'''Mercy:''' Hey, Sully, aren't these the guys who trashed your car? You just gonna let 'em army right through here any time they feel like it? Pretty soon, every gang in town is just gonna boogie right in; soldier right through. I'll tell you, some man you are. causing him to change his mind and order his men to attack the gang. During the fight, the Warriors use a molotov cocktail, blowing up Sully's car; impressed, Mercy joins the Warriors. The gang arrives on the 96th Street and Broadway in Manhattan, where they are chased by the police and separated. Three Warriors - Rembrandnt, Vermin, and Cochise - escape via train and Marcy runs away on foot, while Fox, wrestling with a police officer, falls onto the tracks and is fatally hit by a passing train.

Swan and the remaining Warriors - Snow, Ajax, and Cowboy - are chased into Riverside Park by the Baseball Furies, where they defeat them. Afterward, Ajax notices a lone woman in the park and leaves the group to stay with her despite Swan's objections. When Ajax becomes sexually aggressive, the woman, revealed to be an undercover police officer, handcuffs him to the bench and arrests him. Arriving at Union Square, Rembrandt, Vermin, and Cochise are seduced by an all-female gang, the Lizzies, and invited into their warehouse, but escape when it's revealed to be a trap.'''Starr:''' So you're the famous Warriors. The guys that shot Cyrus! / '''Rembrandt:''' Shit, the chicks are packed! The chicks are packed! In the process, they learn everyone believes they murdered Cyrus. Meanwhile, Swan returns to 96th Street station and finds Mercy. The pair travel to Union Square on foot while forming a close bond and being stalked by the Punks, whom they eventually defeat upon reuniting with the other Warriors. Meanwhile, a gang member informs the Riffs that Luther framed the Warriors for killing Cyrus.

The Warriors finally arrive at Coney Island, only to find the Rogues waiting for them. Luther admits to murdering Cyrus for no particular reason, and challenges Swan to a one-on-one fight, before pulling out a gun. Swan dodges his shot and throws a switchblade at his hand, disarming him. The Riffs then arrive to deal with the Rogues, and acknowledge the Warriors' courage before they leave. The radio DJ announces the hit on the Warriors has been called off and salutes them with a song―"In The City".'''DJ:''' Good news, boppers. The big alert has been called off. It turns out that the early reports were wrong. All wrong. Now for that group out there that had such a hard time getting home, sorry about that. I guess the only thing we can do is play you a song. The game ends with the Warriors walking down the beach, finally safe and home.

After ten years of marriage, New York City millionaire socialite couple Brad and Caroline Sexton are miserable and have decided to call it quits. Their marital problems come to a head earlier that evening when Brad turns their 10th anniversary party into a real estate development pitch for a theme park he calls "The Holy Land", modeled after Biblical lore. The pitch turns disastrous when one of the display's special effects catches a guest's (who happens to be a federal judge) dress on fire.

At the same time, Brad's accountant, Bob Lachman is stealing the Sextons' millions through mismanagement and filing false tax returns. His money manipulation has caught the attention of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and field agent Frank Hall demands to meet Bob and Brad the following morning to bring the obligations up to date and settle the missing $5 million.

Bob arrives at the office early the following morning with a file box (likely the incriminating paperwork that could land him in jail), but leaves before Brad arrives. Though he doesn't get out in time, he manages to finally evade Brad and Hall, who has just shown up. Bob made Brad his scapegoat, since all the tax returns that Bob committed fraud are in Brad's name.

Hearing a hint from Bob that the Sextons could be fleeing (Brad told him about the Sextons' impending divorce), Hall orders the freezing of all their assets. Brad is unable to access his money through an ATM and Caroline has her credit card destroyed at her table as she's having lunch with some friends. Brad is then informed that his accounts have been frozen, but the bank teller refuses to tell him why. At first, he thinks Caroline is responsible, until he gets Bob on the phone, who tells him that he himself is the cause of their newfound problems, as he's headed for the airport.

Gung-ho IRS Inspector Derek Lester joins Hall to serve the warrant and bring in the Sextons. As Brad exits the bank (trying to chase down his Jaguar XK8 being towed), Hall and Lester surround him at the Charging Bull on Wall Street. Brad takes out his new satellite phone to answer a call, but the trigger-happy Lester mistakes it for a gun and pulls out his own pistol, shooting it out of Brad's hand, much to Hall's chagrin.

Brad flees on foot, steals a cab and happens to pick up Caroline. The Sextons get away from Hall and Lester and the NYPD (who apprehend the agents for reckless pursuit) and leave New York. They crash the cab into a muddy swamp and are forced to spend that night sleeping rough, covered in mud. The next day, they find themselves in Intercourse, Pennsylvania, a small Lancaster County-area community of Old Order Amish. Brad drops in on a conversation and after stealing some clothes, they masquerade as Jacob and Emma Yoder, a family's (also named Yoder) expected cousins from Missouri. Samuel and Levinia, along with their sons and daughters, make the pair at home.

The pair try to fit in, and while Brad manages to adjust well, the glamorous and spoiled prima donna Caroline, deprived of her cigarettes, fine clothes, makeup, and other creature comforts, throws various childlike tantrums when she and Brad are alone. This gets noticed by Levinia and Samuel, who chalk it up to the pair having marital difficulties. Brad decides to try and relate better to Caroline after a talk from Samuel about how each day, no matter how bleak, is a gift of life from God. Gradually, both learn to fit in through their own abilities. Brad with his knowledge of real estate values, helps Samuel's future son-in-law Henner buy a plot of land, and Caroline's knowledge of fashion helps their conservative ordnung relax their colorless dress code.

The Sextons then rediscover why they fell in love in the first place, largely through their efforts of helping others rather than themselves. As Samuel and Levinia's daughter Rebecca is exchanging vows with Henner, the ceremony is interrupted by police and a drenched Hall and Lester, who crashed into the stolen cab. The Sextons are exposed and hauled back to New York to face trial. Brad's attorney Phil Kleinmann informs them that he found Bob in Zurich and had him extradited back to America. A resisting Bob is then hauled into the courtroom by uniformed officers to face the Sextons. Bob confesses, and while Brad thanks him for saving his (Brad's) and Caroline's marriage, he still punches him in retribution for his actions. Charges against the Sextons are dropped.

Brad and Caroline return to the Yoders to make things right, but their pleas for forgiveness seem to fall on deaf ears. As they turn to leave, Samuel informs them that he and Levinia knew the whole time of the ruse. They said they put up with it, because it was planting season and they needed the extra help. Brad offers to give his watch as a present only to be told that the Amish cannot accept gifts, only trades. He then proceeds to trade the watch for Big John, a gargantuan Belgian horse that Brad (as Jacob) tamed largely by dumb luck and some corn. Brad also tells Sam not to "open the back of the watch;" the watch seems to have in it a risque picture, which amuses him. The movie ends with Brad and Caroline driving a 1954 Ford pickup with a horse trailer hauling Big John. It is then revealed that the Sextons traded their 1997 Jaguar for the truck. In the closing credits, Brad contemplates buying the pond, where they crashed the cab and Caroline reveals she is pregnant with the couple's first child.

Fong Kwok-wah was a Chinese guerrilla fighter during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1938, he was duelling with Yamamoto Kazuo, a major of the Imperial Japanese Army, when they were interrupted by Cheung San, the progenitor of all vampires. The two men and Fuk-sang, a boy who was hiding nearby, were bitten by Cheung San and they became vampires.

In the present-day (1998), Fong has changed his name to Fong Tin-yau and now lives in Hong Kong. His physical appearance has not changed since 60 years ago. He works as a policeman while Fuk-sang lives with him, attends primary school, and pretends to be his son. Fong meets Ma Siu-ling, the heiress to a clan of ghostbusters who have dedicated themselves to ridding the world of evil supernatural beings. Fong gradually becomes embroiled in a love triangle with Ma and Wong Jan-jan, Ma's close friend and confidante.

Meanwhile, Yamamoto has become the influential boss of a big company and has a small group of vampire followers under his command. Planning to turn every human into a vampire, Yamamoto unleashes his minions to attack people and spread the "vampire gene". Chaos break out in Hong Kong as vampires multiply and roam the streets freely. At this point, Fong teams up with Ma and his friends to stop Yamamoto and destroy him.

Not long later, a magician, Yu-meng Sap-sam, resurrects Yamamoto and controls him to do his bidding. The magician is actually Lo Hau, an evil sorcerer from ancient times who wants to dominate the universe. Once again, Fong, Ma and their allies combine forces to confront Lo Hau and put an end to his wicked ambitions.

During the zombie outbreak in Louisville, a military truck is transporting barrels of Trioxin, when one breaks loose and falls into a river without the driver noticing. The next morning, pre-teens Johnny and Billy take a reluctant Jesse Wilson to a cemetery mausoleum for a group initiation with a group of pre-teen bullies. Frightened, Jesse flees into a nearby storm drain, where he and the others stumble across the rogue barrel. Upon opening it, they find a corpse inside and running away screaming as the toxic gas contained within begins to leak out. When Jesse says he's going to call the Army from a number on the barrel, the bullies trap him in the derelict mausoleum and leave him.

Billy and Johnny return to the barrel and open it, releasing the Trioxin gas that begins to permeate the whole cemetery. A trio of grave robbers; Ed, Joey, and Brenda, arrive via van. Brenda is creeped out by cemeteries and stays behind in the van. Ed and Joey go into the cemetery where they start to loot the tombs in the mausoleum where Jesse is. When they enter it, Jesse is able to break free and run home. Meanwhile, acid rainfall causes the Trioxin to begin seeping into the ground and reanimating the corpses.

Returning home, Jesse is ordered to do his homework by his older sister, Lucy, but sneaks out of the house when a cable repairman, Tom, distracts her. He goes to Billy's house to see him, but he has suddenly fallen ill, so he makes up an excuse and Billy's mother allows him in for a brief visit. Suffering from the effects of Trioxin, Billy warns Jesse not to tell anyone what they've found. Against his friend's wishes, Jesse returns to the sewer to further examine the barrel. Upon seeing a tar-covered zombie, he flees to the cemetery, where the newly resurrected bodies begin to dig their way out of the ground. Meanwhile, Brenda goes to check on her companions and encounters a zombie, but is able to get away. Ed and Joey are still inside the mausoleum when a corpse comes to life. Joey smashes its head with a crowbar, and they flee the building. They are running through a mob of zombies when they run into a hysterical Brenda.

Jesse gets home and tries to tell Lucy about the zombie uprising, but she dismisses him and locks him in his room. Elsewhere, Ed, Joey, and Brenda show up at Billy's house to get help but they run away when Billy's dad pulls a shotgun on them. Meanwhile, Jesse starts a fire outside his door to set off the smoke alarms, to distract Lucy so he can escape. Jesse calls the Army and gets through to Colonel Glover, who had helped put down the Louisville outbreak days earlier, but the call gets disconnected. Ed, Joey, and Brenda steal Tom's van but are unable to get through the zombie horde, so they barge into Jesse's house. Joey begins to fall ill from Trioxin exposure. As the zombies close in on the house, the graverobbers attempt to find a getaway car. They manage to break into a doctor's house, where they convince him to let them use his car, and they drive to a hospital emergency room that appears to be deserted.

At Billy's house, his condition worsens and his father leaves to get a doctor, but Billy's mother sees him being attacked and eaten by a group of zombies. Fully turned, Billy proceeds to attack his mother. Elsewhere, Tom, Lucy, and Jesse escape a group of zombies and take the car to look around town. They make it to Lucy and Jesse's grandfather's house and break into his gun safe to get weapons and ammo. They go back to the hospital where Ed and Joey are experiencing symptoms of rigor mortis. Jesse is attacked by a zombie that both he and Tom shot multiple times. Brenda is upset about the diagnosis for Joey, and they try to leave in the car, but Ed follows them and gets in the car. They are stopped at gunpoint by National Guardsman under Glover's command. A fully zombified Ed attacks and kills one of the soldiers, causing his squadmates to flee. Brenda drives away with Joey, leaving Ed behind. Brenda is attacked by a zombified Joey, and unable to kill her former lover she willfully lets him cannibalize her.

Fleeing in a stolen ambulance, the survivors come to a roadblock, and the National Guard mistakenly opens fire on them, thinking they are zombies. Realizing that the whole town had been evacuated, Tom thinks of a new strategy to give the zombies what they want, drives them to a meat packing plant. They take a truck and distribute brains out of the back as they drive to a power plant intending to electrocute them all. Billy opens the gate and zombies corner them into the truck. Jesse is attacked by Billy and stabs him with a screwdriver, and then activates the power, killing all of the zombies. Billy walks in, holding the screwdriver, and Jesse pushes his tormenter into a large transformer that falls through the roof. Glover and his men arrive to contain the scene and lead the others away.

The game takes place in 1881. Many trains have been robbed the last few months by a mysterious and vicious bandit known as El Diablo. The railroad company Twinnings & Co has offered $15,000 to the one who can stop El Diablo. Bounty hunter John Cooper accepts the task, despite the objections of the bad-tempered and contemptuous US Marshal Jackson. However, he soon learns that the mission is not as simple as he thinks.

Cooper gathers a team of his old partners to aid him on his quest, consisting of explosives fanatic Sam Williams; Doc McCoy, a physician, safecracker and sniper; and seductive gambler Kate O'Hara. His group successfully captures the notorious bandit leader Pablo Sanchez; but as they attempt to deliver him to the authorities, they run into (and thwart) an ambush set by El Diablo's bandits. This and Sanchez's explanations that El Diablo has an informant at Twinnings lets Cooper conclude that Smith, the company's co-director who hired him, is the snitch. Smith is assassinated before Cooper can get some answers, and chased by Jackson's posse for murder, he frees Sanchez from prison and enlists his help. Sanchez guides the team to Socorro and raid Carlos for any lead to El Diablo's hideout. Mia Yung, a young Chinese girl, also joins the team after Jackson's men kill her father at his outpost, vowing to avenge his death. The group arrives at Grant and while Cooper listens in on a conversation between Carlos and one of El Diablo's representatives, Doc and Kate are taken hostage. Cooper, Sam, Mia, and Sanchez follow El Diablo's men on a train and manage to reunite at El Diablo's hideout.

El Diablo captures the group in a trap and imprisons them in his secret headquarters in a cave while having Sanchez brought before him. They escape with the help of Mia's pet monkey, Mr. Leone. Cooper rescues Sanchez and chases El Diablo up to his office. El Diablo reveals his true identity as Marshal Jackson. After a tough gunfight, Cooper manages to kill Jackson with his knife.

Kai Opaka, the spiritual leader of the Bajorans, requests a tour of Deep Space Nine from Commander Sisko. During the tour, she subtly asks him to take her through the wormhole. Against his better judgment he complies, and he, Dr. Bashir, Bajoran liaison officer Kira, and Opaka travel to the Gamma Quadrant. There they receive a distress signal from an unknown source. Opaka tells Sisko not to hold back on her account, so the group goes to investigate.

They find a planet with a network of satellites, one of which is malfunctioning. The runabout approaches the planet and one of the satellites attacks it, forcing them to crash-land. Opaka dies in the landing, which devastates Kira; however, her mourning is interrupted by a group of people called the Ennis, led by Golin Shel-la (Jonathan Banks).

The Ennis explain that they are at war with a group called the Nol-Ennis, who could attack at any minute. They take Sisko, Bashir, and Kira to a cavelike dwelling, and as predicted the Nol-Ennis attack within minutes. Many of the Ennis are killed fending off the attack, but after the battle Kai Opaka enters the cave, resuscitated by some form of nanotechnology that pervades the planet. The same technology revives the Ennis and Nol-Ennis, but rather than a blessing it is a curse; both groups were sent to the planet as punishment for centuries of conflict, doomed to die over and over.

As Deep Space Nine officers Dax and O'Brien search for the group, Sisko gets the Ennis and Nol-Ennis to agree to meet in an effort to negotiate peace. Meanwhile, the conflict between the groups reminds Kira of her own trauma, which she discusses with Opaka: years of fighting the Cardassians on Bajor have taken their toll on her and she has known nothing but violence since she was a child. However, while Kira is reconciling her problems, the Ennis and Nol-Ennis refuse to fix theirs and resume fighting.

The groups are revived once more and return to their respective camps, but by this time Bashir has discovered that the technology prevents those it revives (including Opaka) from leaving the planet. O'Brien and Dax find Sisko, and Opaka informs him that she will stay with the Ennis and Nol-Ennis. She says it is time for them to begin their healing process just as Kira has begun hers. Meanwhile, the Ennis and Nol-Ennis resume fighting. Before O'Brien transports Sisko, Bashir, and Kira to the runabout, Opaka tells Sisko that her work is there now, but reassures him that their paths will cross again.

The First Slayer tells Buffy in a dream that "It is not enough."

Anya and Spike are walking when a demon appears, sent by D'Hoffryn to kill Anya. Spike defeats the demon but allows it to live.

Principal Wood tells Buffy to go home and concentrate on her "real" job, killing monsters and getting ready to battle the First. Buffy takes him to the house and introduces him to the rest of the crew, including Spike. The tension between Spike and Wood is tangible. Wood gives Buffy a bag that he got from his mother and should have been passed on to Buffy anyway.

Chloe dies of suicide after the First talks to her all night. Buffy delivers a strong lecture, angering many of the others. She accuses Spike of holding back in fights and rebukes him that he used to be a better fighter before he got his soul back. She calls an emergency and opens the slayer's bag. Inside is a set of shadow figures that trigger a portal. Against the advice of her friends, Buffy jumps in, sending back an enormous demon that beats everybody up and flees. After Spike recovers, he gets his leather coat out of a trunk and tracks down the demon. Fighting with his old swagger, from before he regained his soul, Spike kills the demon after a long, brutal battle. He then drags it back to Buffy's house.

On the other side of the portal, Buffy is back in the desert where she once met the First Slayer. There, three African shamans speaking Swahili, tell her she is the last slayer to guard the Hellmouth and try to infuse her with additional essence of the demon that give all the slayers their strength. Buffy refuses the power, telling the men that they were wrong to have created the slayer line in the first place. As a parting gift, one of them touches Buffy's head and gives her a vision (though the viewer does not immediately see what it is).

After struggling with the incantation, Willow manages to reopen the portal by sucking energy from Anya and Kennedy. Spike throws the dead demon in, and Buffy returns. Later, she tells Willow about the vision and admits that the First Slayer was right that what they have is not enough. Willow asks Buffy what she saw, and the vision is shown to the viewer: Inside the Hellmouth, the First has an army made up of thousands of Turok-Han vampires.

Buffy and Willow criticize their bright green dresses and talk about Anya and Xander's rehearsal dinner from the night before. It was explained that Anya's friends are circus people, which explains their very odd appearances and surprisingly, the Harris family bought it. Willow has the honor of best man and Buffy, Dawn, and Tara are bridesmaids. Anya hugs both girls in excitement about their gowns, which she of course loves.

Xander tries to get dressed with his family and Anya's demon friends invading his apartment. Xander's parents Tony and Jessica arrive and complain about not being in the wedding pictures and being stuck with the "circus people" on Anya's side. Xander's cousin Carol asks Xander to set her up with Anya's demon friend Kroven. Outside on the streets of Sunnydale, an old man appears out of thin air and walks off, a purpose in mind.

Buffy forces Xander into his cummerbund and works on his bow tie while offering her happy wishes to Xander on his special day. Tara and Willow button Anya into her dress while the bride-to-be rehearses her vows, excitedly talking about how happy she is. Xander's uncle Rory (formerly an unseen character about whom Xander occasionally related anecdotes) shows off his "date" to Dawn, but his date is actually just one of the caterers. D'Hoffryn arrives along with Halfrek and Dawn greets them at the door. D'Hoffryn offers his very alive wedding gift in a box to Dawn.

Dawn continues to mingle through the crowd and encounters Spike with a goth date. Finally ready, Buffy and Xander proceed toward the crowd of mingling guests while discussing how to keep Xander's parents out of trouble. Xander greets people and is suddenly assaulted by people complaining about problems. A drunken Tony offers a toast to the waiting wedding attendees and insults the demons on Anya's side of the "family", which offends them, but Buffy pulls Tony away before a fight can break out between both sides.

The old man in a trench coat drags Xander away from the others and explains that he is Xander Harris from the future, and the wedding cannot take place. As proof, he shows the younger Xander a crystal ball detailing his future: where Xander and Anya have a human son and a part-demon daughter and Anya resents Xander for being an unemployed alcoholic who is too distraught to find work after getting injured in a failed attempt to save Buffy. The visions end as Anya and Xander argue about his behavior and he raises a frying pan at her. Xander, shocked by the visions, is warned by the old man not to marry Anya.

Buffy finds Spike alone and the two talk about the wedding and Spike's attempt to make her jealous with his date. After he finds that his efforts worked, Spike realizes it is best to just leave and takes his date away.

Willow runs into Xander in the kitchen and offers the final "best man" talk then leaves him to practice his vows. Anya continues to go over her vows in front of Tara, who advises against using the term "sex poodle". As the music begins, Buffy arrives to get Anya, but Willow pulls her out of the room and breaks the news that Xander is gone. Stalling while Willow looks for Xander, Buffy uses the excuse that the minister is also a doctor and the ceremony will be delayed while he performs an emergency c-section.

Anya tries her vows one more time while elsewhere, Xander walks away in the rain. His parents head back to the bar, complaining about Anya ruining the wedding. Buffy tries to stall the crowd with charades and juggling as Dawn chats outside with a teenage demon and both compare their embarrassing family and friends. Impatient, Anya heads out towards the wedding crowd, determined to get on with the wedding. The news that Xander is gone is accidentally spilled to Anya as Dawn talks to the demon teen and Anya freaks out.

Tony and other demons begin to argue and then a huge fight breaks out between the two sides of the wedding guests. Tara gets caught up in the battle, but Willow rescues her. Cousin Carol directs Anya to the man in the trench coat and Anya confronts him for scaring Xander off. She finds that he is really a man whom she transformed into a demon many years ago, who now seeks revenge against her. He showed Xander false images about his future to ruin Anya's wedding.

She begins to cry and the demon strikes out at her, prompting Buffy to get involved. Buffy starts to attack the demon and Xander arrives to help save Anya. Anya explains to Xander that he saw only lies in those visions, but Xander is not exactly relieved. After Buffy and Xander finish the demon off and Anya breaks up the fight between the wedding guests, Xander and Anya talk privately before the ceremony. Motivated by the fear of turning into an abusive drunk like his father, Xander refuses to marry Anya as he does not want to ever hurt her in that way. Anya tries to convince him otherwise, but fails, and sadly, the two part ways.

Buffy, Willow and Dawn sit around at the house and feel sorry for both Anya and Xander. As Xander checks into a motel by himself, a devastated Anya sits alone until D'Hoffryn comforts her and offers her job as a vengeance demon back.

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional creation, the central character in a series of short stories written by Dr John Watson and published in ''The Strand Magazine''. Watson conceives of Holmes as a way for him to solve crimes incognito, as he views detective work as merely a hobby and does not want the attention it would bring to his medical career. However, when the reading public demand to actually see "Holmes", Watson hires a washed-up stage actor, Reginald Kincaid, to play the part. Kincaid slowly learns to memorise the doctor's exacting, detailed instructions every step of the way and manages to convince the public that he is indeed "Holmes".

After a major case, Kincaid oversteps his boundaries with Watson, who fires him. Realising that he should have been honest from the start, Watson decides to write Holmes out of his stories and replace him with a new character, "The Crime Doctor", based on himself. Unfortunately, the idea of a physician rather than a detective solving crimes is rejected by the public, and when Watson attempts to investigate a crime of arson at a paper warehouse, he quickly finds that no one is willing to share information or co-operate with his inquiries.

Soon after, the British government contacts Watson, requesting that "Holmes" solve a major theft. A government mint recently reported the disappearance of printing plates for £5 banknotes, with the printing supervisor, Peter Giles, having gone missing on the night of the robbery. The counterfeiting of these notes would cause the inevitable collapse of the economy if they were allowed to circulate. Watson is therefore forced to hunt down a drunken Kincaid and clean him up before accepting the case.

Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade is jealous of "Holmes" and refuses to let him or Watson participate in the official investigation. Rather than relying on the regular police, therefore, Watson turns to the twelve-year-old street urchin, Wiggins, the leader of a street gang that he calls the "Baker Street Irregulars", paying them to keep an eye on people and locate evidence. One line of enquiry leads Watson to the printer's daughter, Leslie, whom he and the womanising "Holmes" invite back to their quarters to recover from the shock of false evidence of her father's death.

Watson and "Holmes" discover that the master criminal Professor James Moriarty is behind the theft and find him on the docks while receiving a consignment of printing ink. Watson is apparently killed and "Holmes" is left to rely on himself, using everything he has learned to solve the case. The trail takes him to an abandoned theatre where the forgeries are being printed. There, he discovers that Watson is still alive after all and the two team up to defeat Moriarty for good and recover the missing plates. In the process, Leslie turns out to be an imposter in the pay of Moriarty.

When they return to 221B Baker Street, "Holmes" announces to a reception committee of reporters that he intends to retire and gives full credit to the qualities of his "partner" Watson. For his part, Watson assures the public that, far from this being the end, the team of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson will continue their detective work from now on as friends.

On New Year's Eve 1946, a woman is standing over her dead husband with a gun in her hand. She panics and goes to two friends for help. While seeking help from the friends at a pair of parties, she wishes that she could live 1946 all over again.

Magically, on the way to see the trusted producer John Friday for advice, she tells the poet William Williams about her desire for a re-do exactly at the strike of midnight on New Year's. Her wish is granted and she is transported back to the beginning of 1946 with her husband alive. She attempts to relive the year without making the mistakes she and her friends made throughout the year, but certain events repeat themselves, including Williams being committed to a psychiatric institution. Nonetheless, Sheila is left to question whether there really is such a thing as fate or not.

The story climaxes again on New Year's Eve, when through Sheila's interferences over the year, her husband, a sloppy alcoholic hopelessly devoted to Paula Costello, a now-indifferent fellow playwright, becomes convinced that his spouse is trying to destroy him. He violently confronts her. This time, her friend William, who believes in Sheila's foresight, shoots her husband with her gun.

An older, wiser King Conan of Aquilonia receives a call for help from Amalrus, the ruler of neighbouring Ophir. Amalrus claims that Strabonus, the Emperor of Koth, is threatening his kingdom.

Conan marches into Ophir with an army of five thousand Aquilonian knights. His planned campaign is a trap; the two monarchs are working together to destroy him with the help of a Kothian wizard named Tsotha-lanti. The Aquilonian knights are cut to pieces while Conan is imprisoned within a Korshemish dungeon. This dungeon is used by Tsotha-lanti for nefarious experiments, and Conan discovers bizarre horrors during his escape.

Conan frees Pelias, a former rival wizard of Tsotha-lanti, who helps him escape the dungeon and regain his position as king of Aquilonia. The story climaxes with a gigantic battle, where Tsotha-lanti meets a grisly fate at the hands of Pelias.

In the Zamorian city of Arenjun, also known as the "City of Thieves,” Conan drinks in a tavern. He overhears a Kothic rogue describe a fabulous jewel known as the "Heart of the Elephant," which is kept in a tower by an evil sorcerer named Yara.

Conan ventures into Yara's garden to steal the jewel and encounters Taurus of Nemedia, known as the "Prince of Thieves,” who has the same agenda. Taurus is wily and fat, but amazingly agile. Impressed by Conan's daring, Taurus agrees to work together. After battling lions in the tower gardens, the thieves ascend Yara's spire. Upon reaching the top, Taurus enters a treasure vault and is killed by the venomous bite of a giant spider. Conan crushes the spider with a chest of gems, then continues his search for the Heart of the Elephant.

He discovers a strange being with the body of a man and the head of an elephant. The creature, Yag-kosha, is a blind and tortured prisoner of Yara.

Yag-kosha reveals to Conan the pre-cataclysmic saga of his people, their arrival on Earth, and how he taught Yara the art of magic only to have his apprentice betray him. At Yag-kosha's request, Conan grabs the fabled jewel, kills the being, extracts the heart from his corpse, and drips its blood over the Heart of the Elephant. When he sets the blood-infused relic in front of Yara in his sleeping-chamber, the gem's magic shrinks and draws the sorcerer into the jewel. Inside, a revived Yag-kosha, limbs and wings restored, pursues the screaming Yara, and the Heart vanishes.

Obeying Yag-kosha's instructions, Conan leaves, emerging empty-handed from the tower at dawn as it collapses behind him. He has nothing after his night's work except for his sword, loin-cloth, and sandals.

A middle-aged Conan of Cimmeria tries to govern the turbulent kingdom of Aquilonia.

Conan has recently seized the crown from King Numedides after strangling the tyrant on his throne. Conan is more suited to swinging his broadsword than signing official documents, though. The Aquilonians who originally welcomed Conan as their liberator have turned against him due to his foreign Cimmerian blood. They have constructed a statue to Numedides' memory in the temple of Mitra, and priests burn incense before their slain king, hailing it as the holy effigy of a saintly monarch who was killed by a red-handed barbarian.

A band known as the Rebel Four forms: Volmana, the dwarfish count of Karaban; Gromel, the giant commander of the Black Legion; Dion, the fat baron of Attalus; and Rinaldo, the hare-brained minstrel. Their goal is to put the crown in the hands of someone with royal blood. The Rebel Four recruit the services of a southern outlaw named Ascalante. However, Ascalante secretly plans to betray his employers and claim the crown.

Ascalante also enslaves Thoth-Amon, a Stygian wizard who has fallen on hard times since losing a mystical ring. A thief had stolen his ring and left Thoth-Amon defenseless, forcing him to flee Stygia. Disguised as a camel driver, he was waylaid in Koth by Ascalante's reavers. The rest of his caravan was slaughtered, but Thoth-Amon saved himself by revealing his identity and swearing to serve Ascalante.

The conspirators plan to assassinate King Conan when he is unprepared and defenseless. Two unforeseen events thwart their plan. Conan is warned of a coup by the arrival of a long-dead sage named Epemitreus, who marks Conan's sword with a mystical phoenix representing Mitra, a Hyborian god. Also, Thoth-Amon murders Dion and recovers his lost ring of power. He then summons a fanged ape-like demon to slay Ascalante. Conan slays the three remaining members of the Rebel Four, breaking his sword upon the helm of Gromel and using a battle-axe against the rest of his would-be assassins. Conan hesitates to kill Rinaldo, whose songs once touched the King's heart. This scruple costs Conan, as Rinaldo manages to stab him before being killed.

Ascalante, his goal in reach, moves to finish off the wounded king. But before Ascalante can strike, he is killed by Thoth-Amon's demon, which is then slain by Conan with the shard of his enchanted sword.

Robert E. Howard set his story in Hyborian Africa. The ''Teeth of Gwahlur'' are legendary jewels, kept within the ancient city of Alkmeenon, in the country of Keshan "which in itself was considered mythical by many northern and western nations".

Conan, following rumors of this treasure, journeys into Keshan and offers his services in training the local army against their rival, Punt. However, Thutmekri, a Stygian thief with similar intentions, and his Shemitish partner, Zargheba, also arrive in the country with an offer for a military alliance with another of Punt's neighbors, Zembabwei, with some of the ''Teeth'' to seal their pact. The high priest of Keshan, Gorulga, announces that a decision on the matter can only be made after consulting with Yelaya, the mummified oracle of Alkmeenon. This is all the treasure hunters require. Conan and Zargheba (independently of each other) travel to the city ahead of Gorulga's expedition.

In the abandoned city, an initial atmosphere of the supernatural gives way to intrigue over the oracle. Zargheba has brought along a Corinthian slave girl, Muriela, to play the role of Yelaya and tell the priests to give some of their jewels to Thutmekri (he needed them to prove that the treasure was real, and then planned to invade and take the rest of the jewels). Conan is at first frightened by the living oracle, but quickly discovers the ruse. Intrigue and mystery follows as the imposter and the body of the genuine oracle switch roles. Gorulga, however, is innocent in this, genuinely attempting to consult his oracle.

However, a fourth faction quickly appears. A Pelishti traveller, Bit-Yakin, had visited the valley where Alkmeenon is located centuries ago. When the natives of Keshan visited the site to worship Yelaya as a goddess, Bit-Yakin provided prophecies from a nearby cave. Eventually, he died there; his undying servants buried him as per his instructions and, free of their master's control, brutally slaughtered any priests from Keshan who attempted to visit the city to consult with Yelaya. Bit-Yakin's servants, revealed to be large gray-haired apes, kill Gorulga's party after they attempt to claim the jewels. Conan manages to acquire the chest containing the jewels, but is forced to abandon his prize so he could rescue Muriela. The two escape together and Conan ends his adventure by outlining a new plan.

In an Argos port, Conan demands passage aboard a sail barge, the ''Argus'', which is casting off for southern waters to trade beads, silks, sugar, and brass-hilted swords to the black kings of Kush. The captain objects to his demand to travel without paying for the passage, and Conan threatens him and the crew. The captain agrees to let Conan stay on board, since "It would be useful to have a fighting man on the voyage". Gradually, Conan and the captain, Tito, become friends. Conan tells Tito he is fleeing the civil authorities of Argos after a court dispute in which Conan refused to betray the whereabouts of a friend to a magistrate. Rather than betray his friend, Conan drew his sword and killed the magistrate. At this point, Conan has no experience or knowledge of the sea.

Upon reaching the pirate-infested waters of Kush, their trade ship is attacked by Bêlit's reavers. The ''Queen of the Black Coast'', Bêlit and her ebony-skinned warriors slaughter the Argus's crew. Conan tries to rally the crew after the captain's death, and when the fight becomes hopeless, he jumps aboard the pirate ship. Conan kills many of the pirates, fully expecting to be overwhelmed and killed, when Bêlit orders her crew to spare Conan. She is impressed with the Cimmerian's courage and ferocity and sexually attracted to him. Bêlit offers to let Conan sail with her, be her chosen mate, and help lead her warriors. Smitten, Conan agrees, and they raid the Black Coast together.

Soon, rumors spread that the she-devil of the sea, Bêlit, has found a mate, an iron man whose wrath is that of a wounded lion. Survivors of butchered Stygian ships curse the name of Bêlit and her Cimmerian warrior. Conan is named "Amra" ("Lion").

Sailing up the river Zarkheba, Bêlit and Conan encounter ancient ruins containing lost treasure, a winged monstrosity, and skulking hyenas used to be men. Despite the murders of their crew and the horrors lurking in the jungle, Bêlit and Conan find time for a theological discussion comparing Conan's grim god Crom to Bêlit's more ambiguous Semite deities. Bêlit promises that even death could not keep her from Conan's side.

Bêlit is soon captivated by a cursed necklace in the treasure. It seemingly instills the wearer with a madness and monomania. In this state, Bêlit issues faulty orders. Her crew is soon decimated, and Bêlit herself is hanged by the winged monster. Alone and raging, Conan confronts the monster. He is on the verge of being slain when Bêlit's spirit intervenes. Conan slays the winged horror and leaves the ruins with her corpse.

Conan gives Bêlit a Viking funeral, burning the ship with her and her treasures on it.

The story takes place in Conajohara, a newly established Aquilonian province recently annexed by King Numedides from the Picts. Balthus, a young settler on his way to Fort Tuscelan at the Black River, the province's border to the Pict Lands, encounters Conan in the forest slaying a Pict. Accompanying the young man back to the fort, Conan finds the corpse of a merchant left by a Pictish wizard named Zogar Sag and slain by a swamp demon. The fort's commander, Valannus, desperately asks Conan to slay Zogar Sag before he raises the Picts against the whole borderlands, especially since Tuscelan is vastly undermanned after Numedides foolishly decided to withdraw most of its garrison. Taking a hand-picked team of scouts and Balthus, Conan sets off stealthily in his canoe.

Soon, Balthus is captured and most of Conan's men are slaughtered in an ambush. Balthus and one of the scouts are tied to stakes in a Pictish village, and soon the scout is sacrificed by Zogar Sag to one of his jungle creatures. Before Balthus can meet a similar fate, Conan shoots the creature, causing it to thrash around in the crowd, and the two flee into the forest. Conan tells Balthus information on the cult of Jhebbal Sag, now forgotten by most. Once all living creatures worshipped him when men and beasts spoke the same language. Over time, most men and beasts forgot his worship. Zogar Sag has not, however, and can control those few animals and creatures who also remember, sending them on Conan's trail.

Conan is able to fend off the pursuing beasts using a symbol he once noticed, and the pair return to the Fort to warn everyone of an impending Pictish assault, but they are too late. The Picts have already surrounded the fort, and a fierce battle is going on. The number of Picts ensures that eventually the fort will be overwhelmed and the defenders slaughtered. The only thing left to do is warn the settlers to flee while the Picts are busy with the fort - otherwise they will be slaughtered, too.

The two go to warn everyone that an army of Picts have crossed the river and are about to attack. They are joined by Slasher, a feral dog formerly owned by a settler who had been slain by the Picts. Balthus is sent on to warn the settlers of an incoming raid, and Conan parts from him to aid a group of fishermen who had gone to gather salt. Balthus warns the women and children to leave their huts and flee. When a band of Picts arrive, who move quicker and might overtake the women, Balthus stays behind to cover their escape. Accompanied by Slasher, he makes his last stand against the coming Pictish raiders, first shooting arrows from concealment and then in a furious face-to-face battle. Both Balthus and Slasher's sacrifice delays the Picts, giving the settlers time to reach safety. Conan manages to warn the salt-gathering party in time, but finds he has been marked for death by the gods of darkness for misusing the symbol of Jhebbal Sag, and is attacked by a demonic creature who tells him that it and Zogar Sag are of one blood. Conan triumphs against the creature, but the fort is lost, and so is the entire province.

The story ends in a tavern on the other side of Thunder River, the former boundary between the Pict Lands and Aquilonia. A sole survivor from Tuscelan tells Conan about the courageous act of Balthus and Slasher. He also relates that in the midst of his victory at Tuscelan, Zogar Sag was mysteriously struck dead, sporting the same kind of wounds Conan had inflicted on the swamp demon. Upon hearing of Balthus and Slasher's demise, Conan vows to take the heads of ten Picts to pay for Balthus, along with seven heads for the dog, who was "a better warrior than many a man".

As Conan turns back to his drink, the survivor mutters, "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural; it is a whim of circumstance... And barbarism must always ultimately triumph!"

The plot is a loosely based on a melange of motifs from previous Conan short stories, most notably "The Scarlet Citadel", with which its early chapters share an almost identical storyline: Conan, captured and placed in a monster-infested dungeon, finds an unexpected ally and escapes. Meanwhile, the population of the Aquilonian capital, believing him dead, riots and is ready to accept an alternative King. From here the two diverge: ''The Scarlet Citadel'', a short story, ends with Conan coming back when the rioting just started and making short work of his foes; in the book-length ''Hour of the Dragon'' it's much more complicated, Aquilonia has to live under a long and harrowing foreign occupation while Conan goes through a long hazardous quest, before he could finally come back and dispose of his foes.

The book begins when Conan is about forty-two, during his reign as the King of Aquilonia, and deals with a plot by a group of conspirators to depose him in favor of Valerius, heir to Conan's predecessor Numedides, whom he had slain to gain the throne. To accomplish this they resort to necromancy, resurrecting Xaltotun, an ancient sorcerer from the forgotten empire of Acheron. With his aid, the Aquilonian army is defeated by the rival kingdom of Nemedia and occupied. Conan, captured, is slated for execution until a sympathetic slave girl, Zenobia, risks her life to free him.

Conan's quest to retrieve the Heart of Ahriman in order to defeat the wizard and regain his throne takes him through all the kingdoms of the Hyborian Age.

After his eventual triumph, he vows to make Zenobia his queen.

The story begins in an unnamed city-state between Zamora and Corinthia during a power struggle between two powerful leaders: Murilo, an aristocrat, and Nabonidus the "Red Priest", a clergyman with a strong power base. After he is delivered a threat by Nabonidus (the ear of a corrupt secretary that worked with Murilo), Murilo learns of Conan's reputation as a mercenary and turns to him for help.

Prior to the story's beginning, Conan kills a corrupt priest of Anu, who was both a fence and police informer. However, Conan was arrested after he became intoxicated and a prostitute turned him in. Languishing in a jail cell while awaiting his execution, Conan receives Murilo's visit and is proposed a bargain: in exchange for setting him free and getting him out of Corinthia with a bag of gold, Conan will assassinate Nabonidus.

After accepting his offer, Conan is given food and wine by Murilo. However, while he's eating, the jailer who should release Conan when Murilo has left (thus with an alibi) is arrested on unrelated corruption charges (corruption seems to run rampant in the city). Soon, his replacement is flabbergasted to see a prisoner awaiting execution while chomping down on a slice of beef. As he's entering the cell to confiscate it, Conan splits the man's skull with the very bone he was gnawing on and makes his escape. He briefly considers leaving Murilo on his own, but then decides to follow the original plan and keep his word.

After taking revenge on the prostitute who turned him in (he slays her new lover and throws the woman into a foul cesspit), Conan sneaks into Nabonidus' trap-filled mansion. However, he finds that Murilo and Nabonidus himself are being held captive by a mysterious third party who took control of Nabonidus' position while impersonating him. This turns out to be Thak, a primitive ape-like creature who Nabonidus had captured as a cub and trained as his personal bodyguard. The three observe Thak, via a series of hidden periscopes, and see that the creature has learned to imitate Nabonidus well enough to activate a toxic pollen trap, which eliminates yet another party of assassins (nationalistic agitators) penetrating the villa.

Finally, Conan and the other two men manage to escape from the basement and regain entry into Nabonidus' mansion. Later, Conan defeats Thak in hand-to-hand combat. The Red Priest soon betrays both Conan and Murilo; but, while Nabonidus is gloating over his plans in a monologue, Conan slays him with an expertly hurled stool. The surviving pair leave and go their separate ways.

"Red Nails" begins in the jungles far to the south of any known civilized or barbarian kingdoms. Valeria of the Red Brotherhood is fleeing persecution after she murdered a would-be rapist. She is followed into the wilderness by Conan, a fellow adventurer who wishes for an alliance with Valeria as her lover. Conan's stand-off with Valeria is interrupted by a dragon (actually a dinosaur, described with the characteristics of a Stegosaurus and Allosaurus) which mauls their horses. Conan and Valeria escape the dragon by climbing onto a rocky outcropping. Though they are trapped there without food or water, Conan recognizes some poisonous fruit growing nearby. Acting quickly, he coats the tip of a spear in poison and pierces the dragon's lower jaw with a well-aimed throw. Although blinded, the enraged beast pursues the two fugitives by their scent, but dies from the poison seconds before devouring Conan.

The couple emerge from their shelter and journey towards a mysterious walled city, which Conan sighted from the hill. Without grazing livestock or cultivated fields, the city appears deserted. Conan pries open a gate, long since rusted shut, and they enter a bizarre twilight world. The city, which is known as Xuchotl, is a massive structure completely enclosed by an emerald dome. A single great hallway runs across the entire city, without other streets or open courtyards. The structure consists entirely of four levels of rooms, chambers, and passageways. Xuchotl itself is carved from jade and other exotic materials.

The two separate and search the city's empty corridors. Valeria encounters a man named Techotl, who she joins in his feud between the two factions which are all that remain of the once large population. Soon, Techotl invites Conan and Valeria into the stronghold of his tribe, the Tecuhltli, where are welcomed by the king and queen, Olmec and Tascela.

Olmec recounts that the city was built centuries before its current inhabitants arrived. One day, a slave — Tolkemec — betrayed his master and guided the newly arrived invaders into the city while slaying the original inhabitants. The conquerors were led by two brothers, Tecuhltli and Xotalanc, who ruled peacefully over their city until Tecuhltli stole Xotalanc's bride. Meanwhile, Tolkemec betrayed both sides for his own reasons and was exiled to the catacombs. Nails driven into a pillar inside of Olmec's stronghold keeps count the number of slain rivals, and provides the title for this story.

Tascela develops an interest in Valeria, and has a slave try to drug her with a narcotic plant. Valeria manages to capture the slave and interrogates her into revealing her mistress' treachery, but the slave escapes into the catacombs. Valeria's pursuit is interrupted when Xotalanc's army breaches the stronghold. Eventually, all of Xotalanc's troops are exterminated while Conan, Valeria, Olmec, Tascela, and fifteen Tecuhltli warriors remain alive. When Conan begins an expedition towards Xotalanc's stronghold, Valeria is left behind while her wounds are treated.

While Conan is away, Olmec tries to rape Valeria, but he is thwarted by Tascela. She reveals herself as a sorceress and the stolen bride who originally started the feud. Vampire-like, Tascela plans to sacrifice Valeria to restore her own youth. Olmec has secretly ordered his guards to execute Conan, but Conan kills the two warriors and hurries back for Valeria. Returning to Tecuhltli, Conan finds a bruised Olmec in a trap inside Tascela's dungeon. After rescuing him, Olmec attempts to betray Conan and is killed.

Conan faces off against Tascela, who has Valeria chained on an altar. Caught in a steel trap, Conan watches helplessly as Tascela proceeds with her ritual. Suddenly she is interrupted by Tolkemec, returned from his exile and wielding an ancient sceptre shooting lightning bolts. Desperate for assistance against her nemesis, Tascela releases Conan, who manages to grab the scepter and kill Tolkemec. After freeing herself, Valeria impales Tascela with a dagger through her heart, declaring, "I had to do that much for my self-respect!" With the last inhabitants of Xuchotl dead, Conan and Valeria depart the empty city and make for the pirate coast.

Despite the warning he received in a suq by an elderly nomad, Conan spends the night at a cheap tavern in Zamboula, owned by Aram Baksh. As night falls, a black cannibal from Dafar enters his chamber, by means of a trick lock, to drag Conan away and feast on him. All of the Darfarian slaves in the city are cannibals who roam the streets at night. Since the cannibals only prey on travelers, the inhabitants of the city tolerate this and stay locked securely in their homes, while nomads and beggars make sure to spend the night at a comfortable distance from Zamboula. Even worse, Aram Baksh has made a deal with the cannibals - he provides them with "fresh meat" and profits from the belongings of his ill-fated guests at the inn. This night, however, the unfortunate cannibal attempts to prey on a fully aware Conan and pays with his life. Realizing his room is actually a trap, Conan escapes into the Zamboulan streets where he encounters a naked woman being attacked by the roaming cannibals. Conan rescues her, and the woman tells him how she tried to secure her fiancé's affection with a love potion, which instead made a raving lunatic of him, and he chased her out of their home. After promising Conan "a reward" for his assistance, the two capture the mad lover, and then attempt to murder the high priest responsible for the lover's insanity.

The woman is captured in their attempt, and forced - via hypnotism - to dance before the high priest until she is exhausted. Conan, after defeating a strangler named Baal-Pteor at his own game, rescues the woman and kills the corrupt priest. Right before Conan could claim his payment, the woman reveals herself as Nafertari, mistress of the satrap of Zamboula, Jungir Khan (the insane lover). Taking the antidote to Jungir, Nafertari promises Conan a position in her council and vast wealth.

Conan, however, leaves the city and reveals to the reader how he had recognized the two almost immediately. He takes his revenge on Aram Baksh by cutting out Baksh's tongue and slicing off his beard. Soon, Conan renders him both mute and unrecognizable. Eventually, he turns Baksh over to the hungry cannibals so they can devour him (one of the most profound displays of Conan's ironic sense of humor). After dealing with Aram Baksh, Conan leaves the city with a bag of gold and a magic ring which started the night's intrigues (Conan had stolen it from the insane Jungir during their first encounter), with the intent of selling his prize to another interested party.

In the Nemedian municipality of Numalia, the second largest city of Nemedia, Conan enters a museum and antique house called the '''Temple of Kallian Publico'''.

While robbing the museum, Conan becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. The strangled corpse of the temple's owner and curator, Kallian Publico, is found by a night watchman. Though the Cimmerian is the prime suspect, the investigating magistrate, Demetrio, and the prefect of police, Dionus, show forbearance. The two allow Conan to remain free and keep his unsheathed sword while their men search the premises. A combination of Conan's physique, his glare, and his insistence that he'll disembowel the first person who tried to apprehend him keeps the guards at bay.

As his investigation unfolds, the magistrate learns from Promero, Publico's clerk, that Publico had received from Stygia a bowl-like sarcophagus which now lies unsealed, open, and empty. This sarcophagus is a priceless relic found among the tombs beneath the Stygian pyramids and sent to Caranthes of Hanumar, Priest of Ibis, "because of the love which the sender bore the priest of Ibis". Intercepting this item meant for Caranthes, Publico believes the sarcophagus contains the diadem of the giant-kings. But the object held something more insidious.

While the magistrate and his men are baffled when uncovering this information, it turns out the murderer may have been non-human and was contained within the now-opened sarcophagus. A scream forces the police to retreat, leaving Conan to fend for himself with the roaming murderer. Conan locates the culprit, a giant serpent that he dispatches with his long sword.

The story takes place in the year 1468. The age of feudalism and chivalry was passing away, and the King of France was inciting the wealthy citizens of Flanders against his own rebellious vassal the Duke of Burgundy. Quentin Durward had come to Tours, where his uncle was one of the Scottish body guard maintained by Louis XI, to seek military service, and was invited by the king, disguised as a merchant, to breakfast at the inn, and supplied by him with money. Having narrowly escaped being hanged by the provost-marshal for cutting down Zamet, whom he found suspended from a tree, he was enlisted by Lord Crawford, and learned the history of Jacqueline. In the presence-chamber he was recognised by Louis, and the royal party were preparing for a hunting excursion, when the Count of Crèvecœur arrived with a peremptory demand for the instant surrender of the duke's ward, the Countess of Croye, who had fled from Burgundy with her aunt to escape a forced marriage; and proclaimed that his master renounced his allegiance to the crown of France. In the chase which followed Durward saved the king's life from a boar, for which service Louis, after consulting with his barber, entrusted him with the duty of conducting the Countess and Lady Hameline, ostensibly to the protection of the Bishop of Liege, but really that they might fall into the hands of William de la Marck. After proceeding some distance they were overtaken by Dunois and the Duke of Orléans, who would have seized the countess, but were prevented by Lord Crawford, who arrived in pursuit and made prisoners of them. Then Hayraddin came riding after them, and under his guidance they journeyed for nearly a week, when Quentin discovered that the Bohemian was in league with De la Marck. He accordingly altered their route, and they reached the bishop's castle in safety.

A few days afterwards, however, it was assaulted by the citizens, and Hayraddin having effected Lady Hameline's escape with Marthon, Quentin rushed back to save the countess, and, at Gieslaer's suggestion, Pavilion passed them as his daughter and her sweetheart into the great hall where the outlaw, who was known as the Boar of Ardennes, was feasting with the rioters. The bishop, who was also governor of the city, was then dragged in, and, having denounced his captor, was murdered by a stroke of Nikkel Blok's cleaver. There was a shout for vengeance, but De la Marck summoned his soldiers, upon which Quentin held a dirk at the throat of his son Carl, and exhorted the citizens to return to their homes. With the syndic's help Lady Isabella and her protector reached Charleroi, where she was placed in a convent, while he carried the news to the Duke of Burgundy, at whose court Louis, with a small retinue, was a guest. Charles, in a furious rage, accused the king of being privy to the sacrilege, and caused him to be treated as a prisoner.

At a council the following day he was charged with abetting rebellion among the vassals of Burgundy, and the countess was brought as a witness against him. She admitted her fault, and Quentin Durward was being questioned respecting his escort of her, when a herald arrived with a demand from De la Marck to be acknowledged as Prince-Bishop of Liège, and for the release of his ally the King of France. Louis replied that he intended to gibbet the murderer, and the messenger, who was discovered to be Hayraddin, was sentenced to death, the quarrel between the duke and the king being at the same time adjusted, on the understanding that the Duke of Orléans should marry Lady Isabelle. Crèvecœur, however, interceded for her, and it was arranged that whoever should bring the head of the Boar of Ardennes might claim her hand. Quentin, who had learnt his plans from the Bohemian, advanced with the allied troops of France and Burgundy against his stronghold, and a desperate battle ensued. At length the young Scot was in the act of closing with De la Marck, when Pavilion's daughter implored his protection from a French soldier; and, while placing her in safety, his uncle La Balafré fought the ruffian, and carried his head to the royal presence. Lord Crawford declared him to be of gentle birth, but the old soldier having resigned his pretensions to his nephew, King Louis vouched for Quentin's services and prudence, and the duke being satisfied as to his descent, remarked that it only remained to inquire what were the fair lady's sentiments towards the young emigrant in search of honourable adventure, who, by his sense, firmness and gallantry, thus became the fortunate possessor of wealth, rank and beauty.

Years after moving to Tokyo with her parents, Hinako returns to her hometown in rural Shikoku. She soon learns that her childhood friend, Sayori, died several years ago and that Sayori's mother, a Shinto priestess(?) who used to perform séances and exorcisms, has gone almost insane with grief. After seeing Sayori's yūrei several times during the night, Hinako consults with some local experts on the paranormal and discovers that Sayori's mother has something planned for her daughter.

Eddie Bartlett, George Hally, and Lloyd Hart meet each other in a foxhole during the final days of World War I. Following the war's end, Lloyd starts his law practice, George becomes a bootlegger, and Eddie becomes a cab driver. While unknowingly delivering a package of liquor to Panama Smith, Eddie is arrested. Panama is acquitted and after a short stint in jail, they go into the bootlegging business together. Eddie uses a fleet of cabs to deliver his liquor, and he hires Lloyd as his lawyer to handle his legal issues. He encounters Jean Sherman, a girl he formerly corresponded with during the war, and gets her a job singing in Panama's club. Eddie wants Jean as his wife, giving her an engagement ring that he asks her to hold until he's saved up enough money to quit the criminal rackets.

Eddie and his henchmen hijack a shipment of liquor belonging to fellow bootlegger Nick Brown who had refused to cooperate with him. In charge of the liquor shipment is George, who proposes that Eddie bring him in as a partner. Eddie agrees and back home they inform the authorities about one of Brown's liquor shipments. After the shipment is confiscated, Eddie and George raid the warehouse and steal it. As they are leaving, George recognizes one of the watchmen as his former sergeant that he disliked and murders him. After learning of the murder, Lloyd cuts ties with George, who then threatens to kill Lloyd if he informs on them. As the bootlegging rackets prosper, Eddie sends his friend Danny to arrange a truce with Brown, but Danny's corpse is dropped off in front of Panama's club. Eddie goes after Brown, but George, resentful of Eddie's increasing power, tips off Brown, who sets a trap. A gunfight ensues, and Eddie manages to kill Brown. Suspecting George's betrayal but unable to prove it, Eddie dissolves their partnership.

Eddie soon discovers that Jean has never really loved him, and is in fact in love with Lloyd. Subsequently, after investing in the stock market, Eddie's bootlegging empire crumbles in the 1929 crash, and he is forced to sell his cab company to George at a price far below its value. George mockingly leaves Eddie one cab for himself, stating that Eddie will soon be forced to go back to being a cab driver.

One day, Jean hails Eddie's cab and he renews his acquaintance with her and with Lloyd, meeting their young son. Lloyd now works at the district attorney's office and is preparing a case against George. The encounter leaves Eddie despondent as he still harbors feelings towards Jean, and he becomes an alcoholic.

When Jean discovers that George is planning to have Lloyd killed, she appeals to Eddie for help. He initially declines, but ultimately decides to go to George's house to ask him to have mercy on the couple. While there, Eddie is mocked again by George for his shabby looks. He then decides to have Eddie killed as he believes that Eddie will inform on him in order to help Jean, resulting in a shootout in which Eddie kills George and some of his men.

After running outside, Eddie is shot by one of George's men and collapses on the steps of a nearby church. As the police arrest the remainder of George's gang, Panama runs to Eddie and cradles his lifeless body. When a police officer begins inquiring about who Eddie was, she replies, "He used to be a big shot."

''Urban Strike'' takes place in 2001 (2006 in SNES/Game Gear/Game Boy release) and centers around the antagonist H. R. Malone, a millionaire media mogul who once ran for President of the United States. Despite losing the election, Malone's charisma has continued to sway many Americans to his side. Malone's agenda is moralistic and appeals to legitimate problems that have concerned Americans, such as violence, political corruption, and organized crime.

As the plot begins, one of Malone's men is revealed to be "Agent Ego" (played by co-Designer, Tony Barnes), a spy for the fictional "Strike C.O.R.E." organization and a former co-pilot from the events of ''Jungle Strike''. Ego reports to his superiors that Malone is planning construction of a superweapon with which to destabilize the U.S. government, and that valuable components are being collected in Hawaii. However, he is unaware that Malone has penetrated his cover, and Ego is killed with a car-bomb. The player character takes the news of Ego's death very personally.

The first mission takes place in Hawaii, where the player character intercepts Malone's attempted theft of giant mirrors and sees to the rescue of a plastic surgeon being targeted by assassins. After the mission's completion, the plastic surgeon reveals that he had operated on a horribly deformed burn victim in Washington DC many years ago, who later turned out to be Malone. The plastic surgeon says he was marked for death because he had recently deduced that the man he actually operated on was Carlos Ortega, who was one of the two main antagonists in (and was presumed killed at the end of) ''Jungle Strike''.

After further missions in Mexico and San Francisco, Malone finishes the superweapon and fires it at New York City, causing mass destruction and chaos. As the player flies out to control the damage and rescue civilians, Malone fires the weapon twice more, allowing Strike C.O.R.E. to track its location: a facility located near Las Vegas. After infiltrating the facility and capturing Malone, the madman attempts to kill the player by detonating a time-bomb strapped to his chest, but the player drops Malone onto his own superweapon as it detonates, destroying them both at once.

Graduate student Leon (Alan Solomon) summons five college students to his apartment and challenges them to participate in his latest game creation: The Great All-Nighter. He tells them about his game and instructs them to form teams. At first, the leaders refuse to play. However, rivalries between them lead all five to change their minds by the game's start time – a scenario Leon has already predicted based on his extensive planning.

Leon, as "game master", keeps track of the teams locations with a giant map, and various radio equipment. The teams are supposed to call and check in at each clue (though many of the teams end up skipping at least one location).

The adventures of the other three teams are subplots, as well as the situation at Leon's apartment ("Game Control"). Here, along with his female assistants Candy and Sunshine (Debi Richter and Kirsten Baker), Leon monitors the progress of the game. Already unpopular with his landlady, Mrs. Grimhaus (Irene Tedrow), for the amount of noise he makes, Leon faces eviction if any of the other tenants complain. Several of them ''do'' show up to complain, but as Leon explains the mechanics of the game to them, they become fascinated with it and help run it, much to the annoyance of Grimhaus.

The game culminates in a race-to-the-finish at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel where the yellow team ultimately prevails and wins the game. A huge party consisting of all contestants and game control follows.

Teams

Teams are made up of characters who are broad stereotypes. They wear matching sweatshirts, and ride in vehicles that also match their team color.

The members of the '''Yellow Team''' are all friendly and kind; they play fair and are the main heroes of the film. The yellow team are led by the protagonist Adam (Naughton). Partway through the game, they add an additional member, Adam's troubled younger brother Scott (Michael J. Fox, in his first movie), who acts out to get Adam's attention. They also force the shy Flynch (Joel Kenney), whom Adam has been counseling, to play the game rather than allow him to go on a date with an unattractive girl. Also on the team are Laura (Debra Clinger), Adam's love interest, and Marvin (David Damas), another friend of Adam's. The team vehicle, owned by Marvin, is often referred to as a Jeep but it is actually a Toyota Land Cruiser. The members of the '''Blue Team''' are all selfish and rude individuals who cheat at every opportunity and are the main antagonists. They are led by overweight snob and main antagonist Harold (Stephen Furst), who is intensely jealous of the popular Adam. Melio (played by future Hollywood director Andy Tennant) purposely instigates fights between Harold and his girlfriend Lucille (Patricia Alice Albrecht), who puts Harold on a diet just before the game starts. "Blade" (Sal Lopez), a Mexican-American who is constantly brandishing his switchblade knife, never speaks. An additional member, Barf (Brian Frishman), is apparently mentally challenged. The team vehicle is a Chevy van equipped with a computer that can solve clues; however, this device is destroyed early on when Harold hides a stash of marshmallows in the circuitry. The '''Green Team''', also known as the "Meat Machine," is made up of jocks from the school's football team. They are led by Lavitas (Brad Wilkin); the others are nicknamed "Blaylak" (Dirk Blocker), "Armpit" (Curt Ayers), "Cudzo" (Trevor Henley) and "Gerber" (Keny Long). Their antagonism drives both the Red and White teams into playing. The team vehicle is a Volkswagen Beetle named the "Meat Wagon." The '''Red Team''' is made up of four members of an unpopular sorority, led by Donna (Maggie Roswell) and Berle (Robyn Petty) who are feminists. The other two members are a set of frequently giggling, overweight twins (Betsy Lynn and Carol Gwynn Thompson), and many of the jokes involving the red team come at their expense. The Red team's vehicle is a Datsun pickup truck, which is eventually destroyed by the Green team. *The '''White Team''' is made up of debate team nerds, led by Wesley (Eddie Deezen). The White Team rides matching Puch mopeds, which they eventually share with the Red team after their vehicle is destroyed.

Shevatas, a Zamoran thief, awakens an ancient wizard named Thugra Khotan from his 3,000 year slumber. Thugra remembers his dream of world domination. He assumes the name '''Natohk''' (The "Veiled One"), assembles an army, and begins his strategy of conquering the Hyborian nations. But the tiny kingdom of Khoraja stands in his way. Khoraja is ruled by the beautiful Yasmela, sister of the king, who is now a prisoner in neighboring Ophir. Fearing Natohk's invasion, Yasmela seeks advice from the god of her ancestors, Mitra. Yasmela is told to travel into the streets and offer her kingdom's defenses to the first man she meets.

The first man she encounters is Conan the Cimmerian. Conan already has a position in Yasmela's army. Now, he's given full command over Khoraja's royal military, much to the confusion of his more cultured comrades. The arrogant officers now under Conan's command ridicule their new commander. But they fall victim to Natohk's magic. Meanwhile, Natohk has made it clear conquering the world isn't the only goal on his agenda; he also desires Queen Yasmela for himself.

Conan and his soldiers defeat Natohk's army, and the wizard devises a final attempt to capture Yasmela. Conan confronts him near the ruins of a Stygian temple.

Having colonized many worlds in the Spiral Arm, humanity is divided into three branches: the Earth-based Terran Hanseatic League (Hansa) and its subordinate planets, the independent world Theroc with its telepathic green priests, and the Roamers, interplanetary traders who prefer starships and hidden bases to a conventional planet-based civilization. The only other known intelligent species in the galaxy are the Ildirans, an ancient civilization at its peak, and the long-extinct Klikiss, whose planets remain empty but for their unusual ruins.

As the novel begins, the Hansa's test of a recently discovered ancient Klikiss technology that can convert gas giant planets into suns is a success. The ignition of the planet Oncier will eventually make its satellite moons into habitable worlds perfect for human colonization, but it has also murdered millions of hydrogues, a previously-unknown race of gas elementals living in the high-pressure core of the planet. Confined in crystalline globe ships, the hydrogues retaliate by systematically destroying several Roamer skymines, floating factories which harvest the hydrogen used to produce the vital stardrive fuel ekti from the atmosphere of gas giants. The powerful warglobes also destroy the moons of Oncier and the scientific space station there before warning the human race to stay away from all gas giants or be destroyed. This ultimatum is punctuated by the murder of the Hansa's puppet king Frederick and everyone in his vicinity.

As a lack of ekti will cripple both the human and Ildirian civilizations, and the hydrogues refuse to negotiate or even respond to human overtures of peace, their ultimatum is effectively a declaration of war. The humans and Ildirans mount a defense to protect their interests, but the virtually indestructible hydrogue ships and their lightning and ice weapons seem an unconquerable enemy. Arrogant Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas, the real power behind the Hansa, installs the young Prince Peter as Frederick's successor. Hand-picked by Basil from obscurity and specially trained for his role as Hansa figurehead, the new King Peter is soon at odds with the Chairman, whose governing style seems more to Peter like a self-serving consolidation of power than a means to lead the human population in a meaningful way. Meanwhile, the sudden appearance of the hydrogues complicates matters for Ildiran Mage-Imperator Cyroc'h; he and his predecessors have kept the existence of the hydrogues a secret for millennia as they plotted a means to neutralize the threat should the hydrogues return. Cyroc'h's own heir, Prime Designate Jora'h, has fallen in love with the human green priest Nira Khali, and Cyroc'h soon comes to believe that her telepathic abilities could be of use to his failing hydrogue plan.

Five years after the war began, the hydrogues maintain absolute control over the galaxy's gas giant planets. On Earth the government is tightening its grip on rebellious colonies while seeking to dominate the other humans throughout the galaxy, unaware that the seemingly-benign Klikiss robots, left behind when the Klikiss died out, are actually planning the destruction of the human race as they did their parent Klikiss. The Roamer skymines have been abandoned or destroyed, but innovative clans have come up with smash-and-grab tactics to acquire what ekti they can. The worldtrees of Theroc have been revealed as the verdani, ancient rivals of the hydrogues. Though a heartbroken Jora'h believes she is dead, Nira is secretly a captive being used in the clandestine breeding scheme of Mage-Imperator Cyroc'h to create an Ildiran capable of communicating with the hydrogues. So far the best candidate appears to be Osira'h, the secret daughter of Nira and Jora'h. The Hansa begins building military robots (Soldier compies) to fight the war using technology copied from Klikiss robots. Two new races of elemental entities are rediscovered the fire-based faeros and aquatic wentals who join in the war against their ancient enemies, the hydrogues.

The elemental war between hydrogues and faeros continues to sweep across the Spiral Arm, extinguishing suns and destroying planets. Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas (and his figurehead King Peter) attempts to unify all branches of the human race to stand together against the threat, even if they must resort to deception and oppression to do so. The Roamer clans and the people of Theroc do not give up their independence easily, however, and Basil's policies soon force the disparate civilizations to forge alliances of their own. Partly as a distraction from their peril and partly as a desperate hope, the Hansa launches an ambitious new colonization program using the network of recently discovered Klikiss transportals, instantaneous gateways that take colonists to many abandoned Klikiss worlds. On the planet Ildira, newly crowned Mage-Imperator Jora'h faces the responsibilities and secrets his predecessors have imposed upon him: a breeding program forced upon a colony of human captives and an uneasy pact with the Klikiss robots that could result in the extinction of the human race. But Jora'h must also survive an open rebellion among the Ildirans unleashed by his own brother Rusa'h, the first in 10,000 years.

Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora'h is preoccupied with the bloody rebellion that his brother Rusa'h has launched across the Ildiran planets, with the help of Jora'h's own first-born son Thor'h. But as the war between the hydrogues and faeros continues, the hydrogues offer the Ildirans peace if they help destroy the humans. On Earth, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas continues his red-herring war against the Roamer clans. With some of their hidden bases found and destroyed, the wandering Roamers scatter into hiding, trying to keep their culture and government intact, even when faced with enemies from all sides. Speaker Cesca Peroni, leader of the Roamers, finds herself stranded on a small icy outpost where miners have uncovered a hibernating army of Klikiss robots. It soon becomes clear to Cesca that the black robots are anything but benign.

With the fate of the Hansa seeming darker than ever, the increasingly desperate and irrational Chairman Basil Wenceslas's punitive treatment of Hansa colonies and free-spirited Roamers, as well as his refusal to aid the burned forest world of Theroc, has made enemies all around. Earth’s own Soldier compies have rebelled thanks to secret programming by the Klikiss robots, taking over most of the Earth Defense Force battleships across the Spiral Arm. Pushed into a corner, Ildiran Mage-Imperator Jora'h has reluctantly agreed to assist the hydrogues in exterminating the human race so that the Ildirans will be spared. Ancient verdani thorny tree battleships arrive after a long journey across the universe to aid Theroc, while the Roamers' plan to seed aquatic planets with wentals to rejuvenate the elemental race comes to fruition. The final hydrogue assault on Earth is put in motion, and with the Hansa's loss of military might and allies, the outlook is grim.

The hydrogues have been defeated across the galaxy thanks to the combined efforts of the Earth Defense Forces, the Ildiran Empire, the Roamer clans, the wentals and the verdani. But as the various factions try to recover, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas intends to brutally crush any resistance to his rule. King Peter and Queen Estarra, having escaped Earth and Basil's plot to kill them and their unborn child, have fled to Theroc and declared a new Confederation. Peter embraces the Roamer clans, denouncing Basil and assuring that the essential Theron green priests across the galaxy will not aid the Hansa until Basil abdicates. An ever-growing number of colony worlds, already devoted to Peter and tired of their treatment by the Hansa, also declare their independence from Basil's government and ally themselves with Peter. Despite several losses in their bid to seize control of the galaxy, the Klikiss robots continue to attack helpless worlds with stolen Earth battleships. They are stunned to come face to face with their ancient enemies the Klikiss, who have returned after 10,000 years intent on reclaiming their former worlds and willing to annihilate anyone who happens to be in the way. Jora'h's brother Rusa'h, thought killed when his rebellion was crushed, returns as an avatar of the faeros, devouring the souls of planet after planet of Ildirans to rejuvenate the weakened fire elementals and destroy Jora'h.

At the end of his rope, Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas has alienated all of the other factions in the Spiral Arm in his increasingly myopic and destructive struggle to reconsolidate the power he once held over the human race. With the Ildiran Mage-Imperator his hostage to thwart an Ildiran alliance with King Peter's Confederation, Basil installs a new puppet king of the Hansa: Peter's own brother Rory, thought killed years before. Rusa'h and the faeros have seized control of Ildira and Theroc with much loss of Ildiran and human lives.

A few hundred years before the events of ''Hidden Empire'' (2002), eleven generation ships had been dispatched from an overpopulated Earth to find new planets to colonize. One of the ships, the ''Caillié'', ultimately stumbles upon the Ildirans, an advanced race capable of faster-than-light travel. The Ildirans help the inhabitants of the ''Caillié'' settle the planet Theroc and rescue most of the remaining human ships, then send an envoy to Earth seeking an alliance. Earth is now governed by the wizened King Ben, with Hansa Chairman Malcolm Stannis pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Conan and his ally, Natala the Brythunian, are the sole survivors of Prince Almuric's army which swept through the Lands of Shem and the wilderness of Stygia. With a Stygian host on their heels, Almuric's soldiers had cut their way across the kingdom of Kush, only to be annihilated near the edge of Stygia's southern desert.

In the resulting conflict, when the Stygians and Kushites surrounded the trapped remnants, Conan sliced his way through the Stygian militia and fled on a camel, with Natala, into the southern desert. For days, the two pushed on, seeking water, until their camel died. Then, they continued on foot.

When their canteen is empty, Conan prepares to slay Natala in an act of mercy-killing. However, they spy the distant city of Xuthal. Eventually, Conan and Natala enter Xuthal while pursued by an entrance guard. They soon encounter Thalis, a beautiful Stygian mage, who reveals the history of her fabled city and the existence of Thog. Thog is a monstrous demon from the city-states of ancient Valusia, his current form summoned by the sorcerers of Xuthal from the darkness between the stars. For an ageless time, Thog has haunted the depths of Xuthal in search of living flesh to assuage the continuing manifestation of his body on the physical plane.

Thalis falls in love with Conan and, to eliminate her rival, kidnaps Natala in the hopes of sacrificing her to Thog. However, Thalis pauses to strip Natala of her tunic and, with a jewel-handled whip, flagellates the Brythunian. In the middle of this bizarre act, Thog suddenly appears, snatches Thalis, and devours her. The demon returns for Natala, but Conan intervenes and saves her. Conan fights Thog with all his might, but is scarcely harming the demon's supernatural form, while receiving hideous wounds in the coils of its pseudopods and tentacles. However, Conan manages to pierce what he perceives as the "head" of the monster from below and precipitates it down a well. Conan frees Natala, who sets forth to help him, but he's rapidly dying (this is the closest Conan ever gets to death in all of his saga). Fortunately, the Brythunian girl soon brings him a jade goblet full of golden wine, retrieved from a room with a dreaming woman of Xuthal in it. The beverage proves to be a life-giving elixir briefly mentioned by Thalis in a previous conversation, which miraculously heals all of Conan's wounds. Finally, the couple retrieve enough food and water to cross the rest of the desert with. The two depart toward the horizon while Natala jokingly blames Conan for having aroused Thalis' lustful nature and him retorting playfully about women's jealousy.

Drum has been born to a white prostitute, who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up to be a fighter and is often forced to bare-knuckle-box other slaves for the entertainment of the owners, one of whom is a gay Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny. DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but his advances are rejected by the slave and DeMarigny vows revenge against Drum. Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell, and are both taken to his plantation to work. Regine is purchased by Maxwell as well and is taken to the plantation for his own personal desires as a bedwench.

After arriving at Maxwell's plantation, Regine is set up in the bedroom above Hammond. Augusta Chauvel, Maxwell's fiancé is jealous and has other plans for Regine. Maxwell's daughter Sophie wants to sleep with Drum, but he won't for fear of being killed. Sophie also attempts to sleep with Blaise, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be castrated for the alleged rape.

Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. DeMarigny has been invited to attend the celebration and the guests end up discussing the best way to castrate a slave at the dinner party. While the party is taking place, Drum frees Blaise from his chains and there ends up being a violent uprising from the slaves at the engagement party. DeMarigny shoots Blaise during the fighting and Drum in turn grabs hold of DeMarigny's privates and rips them off. Both slaves and slavers are killed during the battle, but Maxwell and Chauvel are all saved by Drum. In appreciation for saving his family, Maxwell sets Drum free.

Olivia, having fled from her captivity in the city of Akif, is finally cornered near a marsh on the edge of the Vilayet Sea. Olivia's pursuer and former master is a sadistic rogue named Shah Amurath. Suddenly, before Amurath can lay his hands on Olivia, a figure rises from the reeds. The newcomer has witnessed all his friends betrayed and treacherously cut down to a man before escaping into the marshes. There, he has hidden out for so long he is nearly mad. The newcomer quickly kills Amurath, as he and Olivia climb aboard a raft while deciding to lie low for a while. Only then does the stranger identify himself: Conan the Cimmerian.

The couple sail towards a dark and apparently deserted island, where they spend the night sleeping near ancient ruins decorated with remarkably lifelike statues. Olivia has a bizarre dream where she witnesses a tribe of men being transformed into the statues by a vengeful god, and is convinced they will come to life in the moonlight. Conan is less than convinced by Olivia's fears; he's more concerned by whatever it is lurking in the jungle, lobbing giant boulders down at the two fugitives.

Eventually, a pirate ship arrives on the island. Leaving Olivia hidden in the foliage, Conan challenges their captain, an old rival. He slays the pirate captain, but is knocked unconscious by a stone from another pirate's sling. The pirates capture Conan and drag him to the ruins, where they discuss his fate, before passing out drunk. Meanwhile, Olivia narrowly escapes from a dark figure which pursues her close to the ruins.

Olivia sneaks past the drunken pirates and frees Conan. Soon, Conan slays the dark figure pursuing Olivia, a giant ape, which had also been hurling the boulders at them. As Conan recovers from his battle with the ape, he hears the beginning of a horrific slaughter back at the ruins.

The two quickly head back to the deserted pirate ship. As Conan prepares the ship to sail, a band of bruised and bewildered pirates appear while asking for his aid in leaving the "devil island". Conan challenges the pirates and they accept him as their new captain. At the end, Olivia begs Conan to allow her to stay with him and he, laughing, accepts, saying he will make her into a "Queen of the Blue Sea".

The actions of a greedy fisherman awaken an ancient demon, Khosatral Khel, on the remote island of Xapur. Khel resurrects his fortress which once dominated the island, including its cyclopean walls, gigantic pythons, and undead citizens.

Meanwhile, an evil governor from Turan, Jehungir Agha, tricks Conan into pursuing Princess Octavia to the island of Xapur. Jehungir Agha plans for Conan to fall into a prepared trap on the island. The unforeseen resurrection of Khel and his ancient fortress interrupts Agha's original plan.

When Conan arrives on Xapur, he battles not only the mercenaries employed by Jehungir Agha, but also a giant serpent and the iron-fleshed Khosatral Khel.

This Conan story is set in mythical Hyborian versions of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (Vendhya and Afghulistan respectively).

The death of Bunda Chand, emperor of Vendhya, (via a curse channeled through Chand's soul with a lock of his own hair) leads to the ascension of his sister, Devi Yasmina, who vows to exact vengeance on his killers, the Black Seers of Yimsha. Meanwhile, Conan has become chief of a tribe of Afghuli hillmen. Seven of his warriors have been captured by the Vendhyans and Yasmina intends on using the hillmen as collateral to force Conan into killing her enemies. However, Conan infiltrates the fortress where his men are imprisoned and kidnaps Yasmina instead (with the intent of exchanging her for his seven men). Inside his subterranean temple, Yimsha agrees to an alliance with Kerim Shah, a mercenary working for King Yezdigerd of Turan, who had arranged for Bunda Chand's assassination so he could conquer Vendhya in the resulting turmoil. However, a man named Khemsa, who was Kerim Shah's contact with the Black Seers, has fallen in love with the devi's maid Gitara. These two abandon their previous agenda, execute the captured hillmen, and pursue Queen Yasmina to kill her as well.

Conan escapes into an Afghuli village near Zhaibar Pass and the Himelian Mountains (Hyborian equivalents of Khyber pass and the Himalayas). Yar Afzal, chief of a Wazuli village, is murdered by Khemsa and the natives accuse Conan of killing him. He manages to escape with Yasmina. Soon, Khemsa catches up with Conan and Yasmina. However, his attack is interrupted by four rakshasas in service of Yimsha. The rakshasas kill Gitara, throw Khemsa down a cliff, stun Conan with an ancient spell, and capture Yasmina. Khemsa survives his fall off the cliffside long enough to give Conan a warning and his magic girdle.

Soon after, Kerim Shah and a tribe of Irakzais (Orakzai Pashtun people), hired by King Yezdigerd to capture Yasmina, encounter Conan. They join forces to rescue Yasmina, both explaining their private reasons for doing so, and approach the lair of Yimsha. All of the men are killed in their attempt. However, following Khemsa's advice, Conan succeeds in killing the Black Seers and rescuing Yasmina. As they escape, the two encounter the Turanian army in battle with Conan's tribe of hillmen, who blame him for the death of their captive fellows. Despite their attitude, Conan feels obliged to assist his tribe - but he is also loath to abandon the Devi. His problem is resolved when a Vendhyan army, invading the mountains to rescue their queen, arrives. Together, Conan with his Afghulis and Yasmina with her cavalry, they defeat the Turanian army. Conan leaves with the hillmen and Yasmina returns to her country.

Though they are strongly attracted to each other, the affair between Conan and Yasmina never gets beyond some kissing. Their respective roles pull them in opposite directions - she is Queen of Vendhiya, he's leader of nomadic hillmen engaged in constant robbery against Yasmina's domain. In the original Howard stories, they never meet again. In the 1957 novel ''Return of Conan'', Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp allow the two rivals to encounter each other again for one night of intensive love-making, many years later - when he is already King of Aquilonia and there is no more a conflict of interest.

The Bakalah tribe holds Livia, a soft and civilized woman, captive. They capture Livia and her younger brother Theteles when the two were traveling across a remote jungle, and eventually the natives torture Theteles to death. Conan appears as the leader of the Bamulas, a rival tribe. He negotiates a possible truce with the Bakalah and plans for a joint attack on Jihiji. After realizing Conan is white and may feel some kinship towards her, Livia asks him for his help. When Conan rejects her proposal, Livia offers herself to him as a reward for rescuing her.

Keeping his end of the bargain, Conan and his warriors attack the Bakalahs in the middle of their celebratory feast. He beheads their chief. The resulting carnage pushes the Livia to her breaking point. When she sees Conan drenched in blood walking toward her hut, carrying the chief's head, she believes he is coming to claim his reward. Frightened, she breaks their agreement by fleeing on horseback into the nearby jungle.

After escaping from the village, her horse stumbles, and Livia is thrown onto the ground. Unharmed, she descends into a valley filled with orchids. The valley is also inhabited by a tribe of brown-skinned lesbians. Believing she has found shelter from the blood-soaked "male brutality" of her Cimmerian savior, Livia feels safe amid the eerie beauty of her surroundings. Mesmerized by the hallucinogenic scent of a native flower, Livia barely notices she's being led to an altar-like section of the glade, where she is to be sacrificed to a bat-like entity, a "devil from the Outer Dark".

Conan, having pursued Livia and heard her cries for help, rushes to her aid. Conan drives away the bat-like creature. Conan tells Livia that he regrets the "foul bargain" he made with her and has no intention of forcing her to have sex, which in his view would have been as damnable an action as raping her. Since he believes Livia is not brave enough to survive within the Black Kingdoms, Conan tells her he will guide her to the Stygian borders where they will send her home to Ophir. Embarrassed by her grateful reaction, he tells Livia she is too soft to be "the proper woman for the war chief of the Bamulas".

"The Pool of the Black One", which appeared in ''Weird Tales'' magazine a month after "The Slithering Shadow", is a pirate-themed adventure story and occurs in the Western Sea of the Hyborian Age. The story begins with Conan adrift at sea, after escaping from rival pirates in the Barachan Isles. He climbs aboard the ''Wastrel'', a ship belonging to a different pirate order who are bitter rivals of the Barachan ones. After a tense conversation with the captain and his brawl with a Zingaran bully, Conan is begrudgingly accepted as a lowly member of the crew and is allowed to remain on board.

The vessel sails to a mysterious island, where the captain hopes to find a legendary treasure and, perhaps, much more. All hands go ashore, including the tyrannical captain and his mistress Sancha. The island seems deceptively inviting, as the crewmembers gorge themselves on sweet fruit - which causes them to fall asleep. While on the island, Conan confronts his captain alone in the jungle and slays him in a vicious duel. However, the mysterious kidnapping of a crew member convinces Conan to travel deeper into the jungle. The island is revealed to be inhabited by a tribe of tall black humanoids (not black as in kushite or zembabweian, but rather jet black with strange golden-glowing eyes and clawed hands) who capture the crew, force one of the pirates into performing an ancient ritual (which involves having him dance and cavort wildly to the tune of a bizarre flute-like instrument with the power to "lay bare the most secret lusts and passions of one's soul"), and proceed to dunk some of Conan's crewmembers in the eponymous pool, which transformed his men into shrunken figures. Thousands of such figures placed across shelves at the side of the pool indicate that the humanoids have been doing this for countless years, and this accounts for many ships which sailed into the west and never returned.

Conan rescues the remaining captives, including Sancha, and rallies them to fight against the black humanoids. After a brutal fight, Conan slays the leader of the black humanoids who, before falling dead, utters an ancient formula (the only words ever spoken by the taciturn beings) which triggers a self-destruct device inside the pool. Its sickly and verdant fluids erupt upwards like a geyser and, seemingly broke free of some mystical yoke, proceeds to chase after the surviving pirates, who all scamper wildly towards the ''Wastrel''. Fortunately, the crew manages to raise anchor and set sail literally seconds before the snake-like mass of fluid could touch their ship's hull.

Conan warns his crew about the powers of the greenish fluid, leading the way during their rush for the ship and jumping at the helm as soon as the ''Wastrel'' departs; bloodied by their battle against the '''Black Ones''' and shocked by these supernatural events, the surviving crew readily accept Conan as their new leader. Soon, Conan asserts his authority as captain and claims Sancha as his prize. The story concludes with the Cimmerian dreaming of raiding seaports and of the future plunder he will acquire.

"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is the earliest chronological story by Robert E. Howard in terms of Conan's life. The brief tale is set in frozen Nordheim, geographically situated north of Conan's homeland, Cimmeria. Conan is a young warrior traveling in a war party of the Aesir, the principal gods of Norse mythology. Shortly before the story begins, a melee has occurred on an icy plain. Eighty men have perished, and Conan alone survives the battlefield where Wulfhere's Aesir "reavers" faced the "wolves" of Bragi, a chieftain of the Vanir, another group of Norse gods.

Following his battle with the red-haired Vanir, Conan, lying exhausted, is visited by a beautiful partially-nude woman identifying herself as "Atali". Upon her bodice, she wears a transparent veil: a wisp of gossamer that wasn't spun by human origin. The sight of her awakens Conan's lust and, when she repeatedly taunts him, he chases Atali across the snow-covered region.

Mocking him with each step, Atali lures Conan into an ambush. Undaunted by the snare, Conan slays her twin brothers, two Frost Giants, and captures Atali in his arms. Atali calls upon her father, Ymir, to save her. Before Conan can ravish her, Atali disappears in a stroke of lightning which transforms the landscape and renders him unconscious.

When his Aesir comrades arrive, Conan believes he dreamed the encounter. Then Conan realizes he's still gripping a veil, the sole garment of the Frost-Giant's daughter.

The story begins with Conan in the Pictish Wilderness in the aftermath of a treacherous act by King Numedides, fleeing native warriors who are now hunting him. To escape his pursuers, Conan ascends a nearby crag of rock. Suddenly, he sees the Picts inexplicably abandon their chase and turn back. Soon, Conan realizes this spot must be considered a forbidden place to the Picts. The hill turns out to hold a treasure cave along with the preserved bodies of a pirate captain, Tranicos, and his men. Conan's attempt to remove the treasure proves futile, as a demon of mist appears and attempts to strangle him. He barely escapes with his life, leaving the treasure undisturbed.

Coinciding with Conan's attempt at looting the treasure is the main plot of a character named Count Valenso Korzetta, a former nobleman from Zingara. Vanlenso has fled his homeland to escape an evil sorcerer whom he double-crossed - Thoth-Amon of the Ring - only to end up on the western shores of the Pictish territory. With his entourage are his niece, the Lady Belesa, and her handmaiden, Tina, along with other soldiers and retainers. The Count is stunned when he learns that a buccaneer, Black Zarono, has also landed on the shores, followed by the pirate Strombanni. Both pirates believe Valenso has traveled to this deserted region in search of the legendary Treasure of Tranicos.

The buccaneers are both bitter enemies and bring their feud towards the Count's stronghold. During a meeting one night between the Count, Black Zarono, and Strombanni, Conan surprisingly emerges from behind some drapery, having made his way into the fortress by stealth. The men learn from Conan that he has discovered the Treasure of Tranicos and would be willing to share the loot with the others, if they help him retrieve it. They reluctantly make a thieves' pact and agree to join Conan, knowing full well that they will kill him once the treasure is in their possession. Conan, on the other hand, has something else in mind for his companions, chiefly trapping them in the treasure vault to have them be killed by the demon, taking the treasure with the crews of both ships, and sailing away.

Conan's scheme ultimately fails, and the sailors find themselves trapped by Picts surrounding the rocky crag. The pirates once again declare a truce to combat a common foe. Once the pirates escape the crag, they race to the Count's stronghold with the Picts in hot pursuit. The story ends with the defeat of the stronghold by the Picts and the treasure cave demon Toth-Amon called out to have his revenge on the Count, as well as the deaths of Strombanni and Black Zarono. However, Conan slays the demon by silver and fire and manages to escape across the fortress wall in the ensuing chaos, carrying both Belesa and Tina with him to safety.

Howard's version of the story pointed toward a new piratical career for Conan; one of de Camp's major changes was to make it instead lead into the revolution that would bring the Cimmerian to the throne of Aquilonia. The Counts of Poitain arrive on the isolated shores, looking for Conan to lead them against the despotic King of Aquilonia, Numedides. Tranicos' treasure would be used to finance the rebel army which would transform Conan from a pirate and mercenary into a king.

The first film in the trilogy, ''God Forgives . . . I Don't'', ended with Cat and Hutch driving away in a wagon in which they possessed the gold from a train robbery by Bill San Antonio, who had apparently died in a dynamite blast. ''Ace High'' begins with Cat and Hutch arriving in El Paso, where they unsuccessfully try to claim the bounty for Bill from his last earthly remains – Bill's boots and hat - even though they have no body or body parts. Failing that, they go to bank manager Harold – whom Bill in the first film disclosed as his partner in setting up the robberies – and announce themselves as Bill. After using physical force they are received and "convince" him (using force) to issue them a cashier's check to be paid out in gold.

The banker visits condemned man Cacopoulos, who is to be hanged the next day, and offers to help him escape if he restores the money. That night, the deputy is knifed by two men, who let Cacopoulos out. He takes the dead man's gun and shoots the two, then pours himself a footbath and tests the dead men's boots to find a pair that fit. He then pays a visit to the bank manager and reminds him that he and two others put him in jail for 15 years, and on his release framed him for murder with a stolen knife - the same one that was used to kill the deputy. Consequently, he wants guarantees that he will not be tricked again. Harold throws the knife, but Cacopoulos swings the chair so it strikes the back, then swings back around and shoots the manager, adding that it is guarantee enough.

Dressed as a peon on a donkey, Cacopoulos meets Cat and Hutch and robs them. They follow his trail south to Mexico and encounter people to whom he has given money – and a high wire performer Thomas and his assistant that he offered money to. They catch up with him in a village during a fiesta (that he has paid for). While Cat is lured away looking for him elsewhere, Caco, playing a joke on Hutch, appears before him and, in a quieter place, tells him about Harold and the other two ”friends” who shot his horse so he got caught after a bank robbery, and then framed him for murder. He says that he will give back their money, including what he has spent, if Hutch helps him collect his debts with the remaining two.

The first one is Paco who is a ”revolutionary” shown presiding over a kangaroo court condemning men to death for ”not fighting for country and freedom.” His men capture Cacopoulos and Hutch, but Cat enlists help from another ”revolutionary”, Canganceiro, by telling him about Cacopoulos´ ”treasure.” Together they defeat Paco's men and Paco is killed by Cacopoulos, who in his wrath forgets to make him give back any money. After some pillaging by his men, Canganceiro starts another kangaroo court that executes people for ”fighting for country and freedom”, and Cacopoulous is jailed until he tells where his treasure is. Caco attempts to escape by lulling the guards to sleep by telling the story of his heritage: his grandfather was a Greek who married a young Cherokee woman, and his father was one of their children, how his father raised his family in a small mining town until he was mysteriously murdered, and how his grandfather, carrying little Caco, had to take his own son's body back to his own tribe. Hutch and Cat then help Cacopoulos escape, but he shoots off their saddles, quoting his grandfather that one partner is too little, and two are too many. They ambush the last two men of the pursuing Canganceiro bunch and take their horses.

They now follow Cacopoulos in the opposite direction, encountering dead Canganceiro men along the way, the last ones with their leader just outside Memphis. In Memphis, they find Caco washing dishes in a saloon, together with the acrobat and assistant – because in this town people are only interested in gambling, substantiated by the fact that Cacopoulos has lost all his money while he was looking for Drake, the third ”partner”.

Cat and Hutch visit Drake's casino. Hutch loses all his money, while Cat spots the croupier looking at a hole in the ceiling. They put up Hutch to win money in a prizefight, buy weapons and give the rest to Cacopoulos with instructions for him to show up with them in the casino tomorrow.

That night, with some acrobatic prowess, Thomas and Cat gain entrance to a room in the attic of the casino where there is a peek-hole down to the roulette table and a voice tube down to a basement room where a magnet can guide the roulette ball. Cat, Thomas and Hutch take positions in the two rooms. Cacopoulos, however, seeks the company of a saloon girl and wakes up in the morning robbed of his cash. He hastily replenishes it by forcibly inviting a bill collector to a card game that Cacopoulos ”wins.” He finally enters the casino, where he repeatedly puts the money on 13 until he breaks the bank with a $360,000 win. Drake and his men arrive and confront Cacopoulos, leading to a showdown. The opposing parties wait for the roulette ball to stop, while the customers lie down on the floor and a Viennese Waltz (suggested by Cacopoulos) is played. Drake's men are shot and he is wounded and taken by the vengeful customers, who realize they have been swindled. Cacopoulos faints from the shoot-out, but only his arm was wounded, and he leaves together with Cat and Hutch.

Chapter 1

Fitz Linkhorn barely managed to make a living pumping out cesspools, but his consuming vocation was "Born Again" preaching from the courthouse steps in 1930 Arroyo, Texas; it was a small, mostly Hispanic, and heavily Catholic town in the Rio Grande Valley. Fitz denounced all sins except drinking; because, being a drunk himself, he made sure he was both eloquently, and tastefully drunk as often as possible. He had two sons, Byron, who was weak and sickly, and Dove.

Dove had no education because his father had not wanted to send him to a school with a Catholic principal (And what else could there have been in Arroyo?). Instead, he was supposed to see movies with Byron to learn about life, but Dove never got to go; his brother did not have the price of a ticket. Dove got his education from the hoboes who hung around the Santa Fe tracks, telling one another what towns, lawmen, jails, and railroad bulls (deputized railroad police), to avoid.

Dove began hanging around the La Fe en Dios chili parlor in the ruins of the Hotel Crockett on the other side of town. The hotel was the place where Fitz had met the mother of his boys. The hotel was closed, but the seldom-visited café was run by Terasina Vidavarri, a wary woman traumatized by her marriage, aged sixteen, with a middle-aged ex-soldier who raped her with a swagger stick on their wedding night. She continued Dove's education by teaching him how to read from two books. One of the books was a children's storybook; the other was about how to write business letters. When he was old enough (to enjoy her teaching); Terasina broadened Dove's education, by her and him becoming lovers.

Byron blackmailed Dove into stealing from the café, and Terasina knew that Dove had taken money out of the cash register. She kicked him out, but not before he raped her. Dove then left Arroyo on a freight train in early 1931. Dove took up with a girl named Kitty Twist, a runaway from a children's home, and saved her life when she was about to fall under the wheels of a train. When they attempted a burglary in Houston, Kitty was caught. Dove got away on a freight to New Orleans. One of the first things he saw in New Orleans was a man cutting the heads off turtles that were to be made into turtle soup and throwing the bodies into a pile. Even with the heads cut off, the bodies tried to climb to the top of the pile. One turtle was able to reach the top of the pile before it slid back to the bottom.

"Dove didn't hesitate. 'I'll take the tarpon soup.' He didn't yet know that there was also room for one more at the bottom."

Chapter 2

In the port city, with its many different influences and cultures, Dove experienced his most interesting adventures. He worked as a painter on a steamship (but did not paint anything), fooled a prostitute who was trying to rob him, sold coffeepots and "beauty certificates" (which supposedly entitled the bearer to a treatment at a beauty shop) while seducing the women to whom he was selling, and, in his most memorable escapade, worked in a condom factory. The condoms, which were called O-Daddies and bore interesting names and colors, were made in a house by a mom-and-pop firm, Velma and Rhino Gross.

Dove's lengthiest stay was with the people who inhabited the twin worlds of Oliver Finnerty's brothel and Doc Dockery's speakeasy. In the brothel he found, in addition to his old friend Kitty Twist, who had become a prostitute, Hallie Breedlove, a onetime schoolteacher who was the star of Finnerty's string of girls. Hallie was in love with Achilles Schmidt, a former circus strongman whose legs had been cut off by a train. "Legless" Schmidt's upper body was still powerful and every day he surged into Dockery's bar with the air of one who could beat up anyone there—and he could. Dove's main job at Finnerty's was to couple with the girls in the place, who were pretending to be virgins being deflowered, while customers watched through peepholes. Hallie, who still retained vestiges of her former life as a teacher, was interested in Dove's mind and helped him to continue to learn to read. Then she left town.

Chapter 3

Dove drowned his sorrow in alcohol. Finnerty fled with the money after calling the cops. Dove spent five months in jail with the colorful petty criminals of "Tank Ten". Once out, he ran in Dockery's bar into Schmidt, now wise to Dove's affair with Hallie. Schmidt beat Dove until he became permanently blind, then people threw out Schmidt whose platform rolled downhill to his death. Dove made his way back to his hometown for 1932, where his brother was now dead and his father now a joke, and went back to Terasina. "If God made anything better than a girl," Dove thought, "He sure kept it to Himself."

Captain Nolan is an Irish Canadian living in South Harbour, Nova Scotia who catches marine animals in order to pay off the mortgage on his boat and eventually return to Ireland. Nolan's crew is currently looking for a great white shark for a local aquarium, but a marine biologist named Ken is targeted by the shark. An orca intervenes and kills the shark, saving Ken's life. This switches Nolan's target to the orca. Later while hunting with his crew, Nolan tries to capture what he believes to be a male orca, but mistakenly harpoons a pregnant female. Nolan and his crew get the orca on board, where she subsequently miscarries. The captain hoses the dead fetus overboard as her mate looks on, screaming in anguish.

Seeking release for his near-dead mate, the male orca tries to sink the ship. One of Nolan's crew members, Novak, cuts the female off the ship, but the male leaps up and drags him into the sea. The following day, the orca pushes his now-dead mate onto the shore. Al Swain, representative of the local fishermen's union, berates Nolan for his actions after finding the dead whale. Nolan denies responsibility, but Swain and the villagers eventually find out his involvement. The villagers insist that he kill the orca, as the whale's presence is causing the fish that are vital to the village's economy to migrate. The orca terrorizes the village by sinking fishing boats in broad daylight and then breaking pipelines, thus destroying the village's fuel reserves.

Rachel Bedford, a colleague of Ken's and a cetologist, shows Nolan how similar whales are to humans and tells him that, "If he (the orca) is like a human, what he wants isn't necessarily what he should have." Nolan confesses to Bedford that he empathizes with the whale, as his own wife and unborn child had previously been killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Nolan promises Bedford that he will not fight the whale, but the orca attacks his seafront house where his injured crew member, Annie, is staying. The house starts slipping into the sea, and the whale bites Annie's left leg off. Nolan decides to fight the orca, but with Novak dead, and Annie maimed and unable to help, Nolan and Paul are now the only crew members left to take up pursuit. Bedford and Ken join the pursuit, along with Jacob Umilak, a Miꞌkmaq enlisted for his ancestral knowledge on orcas.

The crew begins to follow the whale after he signals Nolan to follow him. Ken (who was saved by the orca at the beginning of the film) is leaning over the side when the whale surfaces and grabs him with its jaws, killing him. They follow the whale until they reach the Strait of Belle Isle, but when Paul starts to get into a lifeboat, the orca knocks Paul out of the boat and drowns him. The next day, the whale shoves an iceberg into the boat and starts to sink it. Nolan manages to harpoon the whale just as he and Bedford escape from the boat, but Umilak is crushed beneath an avalanche of ice just after sending out an SOS.

Nolan and Bedford hide on an iceberg, although Nolan slips onto another. The orca separates the icebergs, trapping Nolan. The whale jumps onto the ice, causing it to tilt and sending Nolan into the water. The whale lifts Nolan up with his tail and throws him onto another iceberg, killing him, while Bedford looks on helplessly. With his revenge complete, the whale swims southward under the ice, while a helicopter is seen coming to rescue Bedford.

This fictional story is set during The Great Depression and follows the career of Carl (Carlos) Webster, a crack shot, well respected, and mannerful lawman who killed his first criminal at the ripe age of fifteen. The reader follows Carlos' career as he begins a long dance of death with Jack Belmont, an ambitious criminal who wants to become public enemy number one. The story follows other characters like Louly Brown, a woman who loves Carlos, but wants to be known as Pretty Boy Floyd's gal. There's also writer Tony Antonelli, of ''True Detective'' magazine, who wants to write like a pro, and wishes Elodie, a gal he likes, wasn't a whore. The novel is full of grade-A action and violence perpetrated through criminals, lawmen, Tommy guns, bank robberies, hot cars, all falling against the backdrop of Prohibition.

Carl Webster is presented as the son of Virgil Webster, introduced in Leonard's 1998 novel ''Cuba Libre''. Both men reappear in Leonard's 2007 novel ''Up In Honey's Room''.

Real life contemporary bank robbers who make an appearance in the novel include Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson

The novel is split into three parts across various settings in Argentina and in Barcelona, and takes place in both domestic and public spaces.

;Part One

The Story of the Night opens with a discussion of Richard's mother – her patriotism towards England before her death, and how Richard imagines she would have responded to the Falklands War. Richard experienced a lack of political awareness before the war when the generals were in power, but he recalls one time he was having sex with a dark-haired man and heard a revving sound outside. When Richard asked his partner what the noise was, he responded that the police station opposite were using a car to power cattle rods for torture.

Richard attends university during the Dirty War. He befriends Jorge Canetto, the (straight) son of a wealthy family; he teaches Jorge English and develops a crush on him. He eventually confesses to Jorge that he is gay, to Jorge's disapproval. One evening his mother asks him if Jorge is gay and Richard, surprised, reveals his homosexuality to his mother.

The novel then flashes back to Richard's childhood. His mother's family immigrated from England to Argentina when she was a child and, as a result, Richard himself felt he was English growing up. After his father's death, he and his mother were left without funds. Richard's aunts and uncles on his father's side were stingy, and provided little money. His mother decided they would stay with her sister (Aunt Matilda) in Molino, but they soon discover that Matilda and her family are very poor. They are put up in a shed by Matilda's tiny cottage. In the following days, Richard's cousin takes him to play with other boys who live on the estate. Three of these boys take Richard to a barn where they all disrobe and masturbate together. Richard develops a crush on one of the boys (Juan), but discovers that there are rules to this "game" after Juan calls him "queer" for trying to kiss him. Eventually his Uncle and mother fall out, and so Richard and his mother move back to Buenos Aires. Back at home his mother finds a job working in a "very refined" hotel, and is given some money by the English community in Buenos Aires to tide her over.

Back in the present-day, Richard attends university and his mother works in the hotel. Jorge invites Richard on a three-week visit to Barcelona, a friend of Jorge's had pulled out at the last minute. Whilst there, the two meet up with a group of young Chilean refugees from the Pinochet regime. Elena, one of the two Chilean girls, attaches herself to Jorge, but Jorge prefers the other girl, Maria Jose. Nonetheless, Jorge has sex with Elena every night. As Jorge and Richard are sharing a room, Jorge makes Richard pretend to be asleep whilst they are in the bed next to him.

It is revealed that two or three of the Chileans had been arrested and Raul, who had not been very political, had been tortured. Jorge sleeps with Maria Jose and then leaves Barcelona with her for a while. Richard continues to spend time with the Chileans and develops a crush on Raul. Elena gives Richard details about Raul's torture. She says that soon their group will be dispersed and they will have to settle in different places. Jorge and Maria Jose return and spend time alone away from the rest of the group. When it is time for Jorge and Richard to leave, Jorge gives the Chileans a fake address, in case they are arrested again. Jorge is afraid of what might happen if his address was found on them. Richard gives them his real address. They say goodbye and Richard and Jorge return to Argentina.

Richard's mother seems much older and frailer than she did before he left for Spain. She begins to hate Argentina and wishes her father had stayed in England. She eventually becomes too incapacitated to work and so Richard gets a job teaching English. She has a stroke and loses her ability to speak. After a while she dies.

Richard is emotionally numb for months after her death, but eventually begins to feel sexual desire again. He brings a man he met in the street back to his apartment. He starts to go to a sauna twice a week to meet other gay men.

Argentina takes hold of the Malvinas. People treat Richard with a little suspicion due to his being half English, but Richard wholeheartedly supports Argentina.

Jorge's father, Senor Canetto, invites Richard to their house for dinner. There are a number of middle-aged army men in attendance, all of whom are Peronists. As negotiations fail and the Falkland war breaks out, Richard often goes to the Canetto's for dinner and to discuss politics and the war. The men at these dinners are certain that Argentina will win but Richard is sceptical. Richard feels a great sense of shame for his country when Britain wins the war. Richard is at these dinners when important political changes happen; when Alfonsin is elected president, when the generals are put on trial etc. Richard discovers that Canetto has political ambitions, and hopes for American funding. Canetto invites Richard to meet some American diplomats. These Americans are hosting receptions and need someone who can talk to them about democratic possibilities, and who can speak both Spanish and English.

;Part 2

He goes to a party where he meets these American diplomats; Susan and Donal Ford. Initially he represents Canetto's interests, Canetto plans to run for president and needs someone who speaks English to convince the diplomats to fund him. Richard finds that he changes into someone new, someone more confident and assured when he talks to them. After this party he meets with Susan privately where they talk intimately; Richard tells her about his parents deaths and his relationship with his father. He goes to dinner with Susan and Donald where they talk politics. Richard says he thinks Argentinians are more concerned with issues like economics, employment and welfare than they are about people disappearing. The three of them begin having drinks and dinner often. They talk about informal things and relax together.

Richard begins to hate his teaching job. One day he goes to the sauna and seduces a young man, but this seduction takes a long time so Richard decides not to go to work that day. He and the man have sex, and then Richard goes to a movie alone during his evening classes. He tells the Ford's how he despises his job and Susan offers him a new job looking after a group of American economists. The economists are coming to Argentina to suggest ways the country can reduce spending so that they can pay debts. Richard doesn't go back to his teaching job, after two weeks he is given a cheque and a letter of dismissal. He stays in a hotel with the economists and works with them well.

Donald talks to Richard about a potential job working towards the privatisation of the oil industry. Whilst at a dinner with the economists, Richard talks to a friend from university who had also been working with the economists. Richard had been discussing with the Americans how he didn't know anyone who had disappeared and that the disappearances weren't important to his life. His friend from university talks about his girlfriend who he is certain was murdered when she disappeared.

Richard returns to his apartment and finds letters from Jorge. Senor Canetto is exasperated and impatient to know whether the Americans will fund him. He meets with Susan and shows her these letters. She suggests that Canetto have a fund-raising party which they will attend to get to know him. She tells him more about the work he will do in the Oil industry. Richard goes to the Canetto's house to tell them Susan's suggestion and he meets Jorge's brother Pablo for the first time Jorge sets up a tennis game – he and Pablo play against Richard and Donald.

Donald and Richard begin playing tennis privately. After one game Donald puts his arms around Richard whilst they are both naked and tries to lift him up. When Donald sees that Richard has an erection his suspicion that Richard is gay is confirmed.

The Canettos throw their party, but Donald and Susan are unimpressed.

Richard decides to go to a new sauna – it is Sunday and his usual one is closed. The new sauna is dingy, with a smell of rot and gay porn playing on a TV. In the changing rooms he runs into Pablo. Richard is desperate to talk to him, but cannot find him after Pablo disappears into the Sauna.

Donald and Susan convince Richard to rent an office and become an independent consultant and translator. An oil tycoon, Frederico Arenas, offers Richard a job involving the "transport" of some goods, saying that no-one would question if these goods were called "oil" and transported as oil. Richard refuses his contract.

Susan invites Richard for dinner while Donald is away. After dinner she brings him to her room. They both get naked and begin kissing but Richard cannot get an erection. Susan finds out he is gay. They cuddle in bed and Susan tells him that she was complicit in the overthrow in Chile. This upsets Richard as he remembers how Raul was tortured.

Frederico Arenas calls Richard again, and Richard refuses his offer again.

Susan finds out about a man running for president from La Rioja, his name is Menem. She asks Richard if he thinks Menem has a chance of winning the presidency. Richard flies out to meet her in La Rioja to check him out, and finds her there with Jorge. Jorge is unsubtle about his relationship with Susan, and the way he flaunts their affair echoes back to his actions in Barcelona.

When Richard arrives home he agrees to Frederico Arenas's offer and becomes friends with him.

Richard also becomes friends with Senor Canetto, who he tells about the oil industry. Canetto introduces Richard to an investment banker who will lend him large sums at a good rate of interest. They both invest in oil. Richard becomes incredibly rich through his investments, and his contract with Arenas.

Richard attends dinner with the Canettos and runs into Pablo again. When Jorge and Pablo drive him to the train station after dinner, Pablo unties Richard's shoelaces in a flirty manner.

;Part 3

Part three is shaped around Richard's relationship with Pablo. As this section opens, Richard's infatuation with Pablo grows, but he is still unsure as to whether Pablo reciprocates his feelings. Susan sets Richard up on a date with an American, and he is surprised when Charles (the American) asks him to use a condom during sex due to his fear about aids. He phones Pablo shortly after this encounter and they start dating. Pablo tells Richard the real reason he moved to America to study; the family maid walked in on Pablo having sex with his friend, and shortly afterwards his father pushed for him to go to America. Pablo never asked his father if the maid told him what had happened, but decided he would rather move than ask him.

Richard and Pablo fall in love. When Richard takes Pablo to visit his parents grave he thinks that after years of missing them and being alone he is finally content. They spend a weekend in Motevideo together. Whilst there they go to a gay club where they can kiss and slow dance in public without fear of judgement.

Richard sublets an upscale marina house from a US diplomat and invites Pablo to share it with him. They move in together, pretending to Pablo's family that he is only moving into the spare room so Richard can save on rent.

Pablo has two of his friends from California to stay, Mart and Jack who have been together for twelve years. When Pablo and Richard go to pick them up from the airport they learn that Mart has been treated badly by the airport security after they saw his AIDS medication. The four of them spend time together and Jack tells Richard that Pablo's ex-boyfriend died of aids, something which affected Pablo deeply. They think that Mart might have an infected line and take him to a doctor called Doctor Cawley. Before his friends leave, Pablo takes them and Richard to a restaurant and then to a bath-house where they scout for people to sleep with. Richard is initially reluctant to go to the bathhouse, but ends up enjoying sex with a stranger whilst there.

Donald and Susan reveal that they will be leaving Argentina soon. At a tense dinner Donald asks Richard how long Susan and Jorge have been sleeping together, and Richard reveals to Susan that he has been dating Pablo.

Susan and Donald have a farewell party. The next day Susan comes to say goodbye to Richard and they part. During this, it becomes clear that Mart is going to die and so Pablo decides to visit San Francisco where he and Jack live.

Richard goes to Miami for work, and hooks up with Tom Shaw, a blonde American he'd met a few times during previous trips. Pablo phones Richard once, but then doesn't phone back or respond to any of Richard's calls. When Richard arrives home he sees that Pablo has moved out of their house, and left a note breaking up with him.

Richard, devastated by the break-up, arranges to go to Tom Shaw's for the weekend and flies to New York. They do a lot of cocaine and have a lot of sex, but Tom is cold, only interested in physical gratification. Richard falls ill and decides he has to return to Argentina as soon as possible. On the flight home he cannot stop coughing, and is in agonising pain.

Richard goes to the Hospital who tell him he has pneumonia. Whilst in the hospital he realises he doesn't have anyone to put as his emergency contact, and gives his dead mother's phone number and information. Doctor Cawley visits him and tells him he has Aids. Upon release from the hospital, he calls Susan and breaks down crying as he tells her of his illness. He moves back into his old apartment, goes back to work, and slowly becomes used to the fact that he is going to die.

After his second meeting with Dr Cawley Richard runs into Pablo in the Doctor's waiting room. Pablo reveals that he was diagnosed with Aids during the weekend that Mart died. The pair lean on each other. Pablo has to stay in hospital to treat CMV, an eye disease that can cause blindness, and to have a line put in his chest. Richard visits him every day and when Pablo is released he takes him back to their house. The book ends as with Pablo deciding to live with Richard for a while, in their house by the Marina.

Stanley Ford is a newspaper cartoonist enjoying the comforts of a well-to-do and happy bachelorhood in his urban New York City town house; comforts which include his loyal and attentive valet, Charles Firbank. Stanley's comic strip, ''Bash Brannigan'', is a secret-agent thriller characterized by a high level of realism; no matter how outrageous the plot, Stanley will not allow Brannigan to do anything physically impossible or use gadgets that don't exist. He hires actors and sets up elaborate enactments of storylines, playing Brannigan himself, while Charles takes photographs which Stanley uses as visual references when drawing each comic strip panel.

While attending a bachelor party for his friend Tobey Rawlins, Stanley becomes very drunk and ends up with the wedding ring which Tobey throws away. This leads somehow to his marrying the girl who comes out of the cake: a beautiful Italian woman wearing a whipped cream bikini. Apparently, an equally drunken judge had performed the impromptu wedding, and the following morning Stanley cowers on a seat looking at his naked wife sprawled face down on the bed. Charles is told and storms off to start packing as he "does nor work for married couples". Stanley tries to explain to his new wife but is bamboozled when it appears that she does not speak English. He asks his lawyer Harold Lampson to arrange a divorce, but Lampson says this is impossible without legal justification.

Stanley's new bride is cheerful, affectionate, and sexy, but she does not speak English. To learn the language, she spends time with Harold's manipulative, hen-pecking wife Edna, who speaks fluent Italian. Unfortunately, in the process, she also learns Edna's manipulative ways. Charles, who has a policy of not working for married couples, leaves, taking a new job with Rawlins, who ended up being jilted by his bride-to-be. With his valet and the associated perfect organization of his life now gone, Stanley's bathroom fills up with beauty products and lingerie; he is now kept awake at night by the portable television, which his wife constantly watches to improve her English. Her high-calorie Italian cooking causes his weight to balloon up, and she announces that her mother will be coming from Rome to live with them.

Adjusting to his marital status, Stanley changes his ''Bash Brannigan'' newspaper strip from the exploits of a daring secret agent to a domestic household comedy, ''The Brannigans'', again drawing upon his real life. The comic strip turns Bash into a bumbling idiot and becomes wildly popular with the public. His wife continues to slowly alter Stanley's lifestyle. Increasingly irritated by the restrictions of married life, Stanley calls a meeting of his associates at his all-male health club. When Edna learns of the meeting, she telephones Mrs. Ford and arouses her suspicions about Stanley's activities. Mrs. Ford sneaks into the club to confront her husband, resulting in Stanley being banned for violating its "no women" whatsoever policy.

Stanley concocts a plot in his comic strip to kill Brannigan's wife. He drugs her with "goofballs" and buries her alive in "the goop from the gloppitta-gloppitta machine" at the construction site next to their townhouse, so that Brannigan can resume his career as a secret agent. As always, he enacts the events live before drawing the strip, again with the help of his old valet Charles. After drugging his wife during a wild cocktail party, Stanley carries her up to bed, then switches to a department-store mannequin to play out her burial in concrete.

Mrs. Ford comes to, sees the finished comic strip describing Stanley's murder plan and concludes that her husband does not love her. While Stanley sleeps, she leaves, taking nothing with her. After reading ''The Brannigans'' strip in the newspapers and recognizing that Mrs. Ford has disappeared without a trace, the district attorney and police decide that Stanley must have murdered his wife. Stanley is arrested, charged with murder, and his comic strips are used as prosecution evidence at the trial. When it appears that a conviction is likely, Stanley takes up his own defense and pleads justifiable homicide, appealing to the all-male jury's frustrations regarding their own wives and marriages. He is acquitted unanimously; the men in the courtroom applaud wildly and carry Stanley out as a hero on their shoulders, much to the consternation of the stunned women left sitting inside.

Accompanied by a joyful Charles, Stanley goes home and immediately sees that his wife has returned and is in their bedroom. His valet reminds him that killing her now would not have any legal consequences; since Stanley has already been acquitted of her murder, trying him again would constitute double jeopardy. However, in his time without her, Stanley has come to realize that he loves his wife. When he enters their bedroom, he finds her naked under the covers, waiting for him. After putting her wedding ring back on her finger, they are reconciled. Charles meets Mrs. Ford's attractive mother who has come from Rome (her daughter had run home to 'mamma') and is in the process of settling into the Ford household. Like Charles, she has a prominent tooth gap. There is instant chemistry between them, and together in her room, he closes the door behind him...

Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) is a young woman who yearns for fame. Strolling through Central Park, she meets Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon), who is a documentary maker. Gladys tells him she has just been fired and has $1000 saved up. Despite her savings, she is discouraged at having gotten nowhere in two years and she wants to make a name for herself. Pete, who is clearly taken with her, gets her address by offering to drop her a postcard when the documentary is finished so she can see herself in it. He encourages her to follow her dreams before the two part ways.

Wandering despondently, Gladys' attention is caught by a large billboard overlooking Columbus Circle that is available for rent. She has visions of her name on the billboard, and manages to secure it. Within a few days the sign is up and she is thrilled. However, it turns out the Adams Soap company has traditionally booked the sign and is upset to learn that another client has obtained it. She is called to a meeting where Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford) attempts to induce her to give up the sign by offering her more money. Gladys is not interested. She is called to another meeting and is offered six signs in exchange for the one. This time, she accepts. Now, there are six huge signs in New York, one in lights, each saying simply "Gladys Glover".

Meanwhile, Pete has taken an apartment adjacent to Gladys, and the two become friends. Pete is, however, exasperated by Gladys' fascination with her signs and her requests he tour the city with her to see them. Citygoers are intrigued by the mysterious signs. Gladys shops in Macy's department store, and when she gives her name, the word spreads quickly and dozens of people flock to get her autograph.

Soon, Gladys is being asked to appear on television shows, where she is treated as a figure of fun. Pete is not pleased with her portrayal on television, but the Gladys does not seem to realize that she is not being depicted in the most flattering light. As she becomes more known to the public, Evan Adams III hires her to do a series of advertisements for Adams Soap. While Gladys pursues what is becoming a lucrative career, relations between her and Pete become strained, as he sees no merit in her ambitions to be famous. At the same time, Adams is showing an increasing interest in her. The situation reaches a crisis when Gladys breaks a date with Pete and his parents in order to attend what Adams says is a business conference to discuss a cross-country publicity tour. The conference turns out to be an attempted seduction, and she leaves. When she arrives home she finds a film from Pete confessing that he loves her, and that the film is his farewell.

Gladys' advertising career continues, but she begins to find the jobs more humiliating, and their emptiness frustrating. She recalls Pete's frequent questions as to why she wants to be above the crowd instead of being happy as part of the crowd. When a plane is named after her by the USAF she is asked to speak at a ceremony, but breaks off, realising the truth behind Pete's words.

She finally resolves to end her quest for fame, and arranges for a plane to skywrite a message to Pete, which he reads while filming a crowd sequence in the zoo.

The film ends with Gladys and Pete on their honeymoon. As they drive and discuss their future plans, Gladys' attention is caught by an empty billboard available for rent. Pete notices this and asks what she is looking at, and Gladys replies as she embraces him: "Nothing, absolutely nothing!"

Priscila, Alice, Gilmar, Capachildo Capachão, JF, Nestor, Castilho, Malabi, Walter Gate, Waltinho, Borges, Bullborg, Bóris, Jaca Paladium, Paulo Paulada, and all staff of TV Colosso want to throw a party to celebrate the Dog's Day. They organize a game contest, and Gilmar chooses the Thinker Dog Statue, by renowned sculptor Cacheau Rodin, as a trophy. But Afrânio Furtado, Dona Jóia Furtado and his children Rubi and Furtadinho manage to steal it, trying to cut the fun short.

As Nicholas Collini (Desi Arnaz) takes a new job as a civil engineer, his new bride Tacy (Lucille Ball) comes up with an idea to buy a trailer to travel around the USA to various work projects on which Nicky is employed, as well as to save money that would otherwise be spent on a house. Tacy also hopes to haul the trailer themselves to Nicky's new place of work in Colorado, as part of their honeymoon trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains. But the honeymoon trip, as well as happenings leading up to it, rapidly becomes a series of disasters.

Shortly after arriving at the trailer show, Tacy and Nicky come across a large trailer home, which Tacy instantly falls in love with. To tow the trailer, the Collinis end up buying a new car and trailer hitch, and the money spent starts to mount up.

Early in the trip, after being swamped by friendly trailer park neighbors their first night, Tacy decides to camp back in the woods the next night. But after turning on an old logging road, the trailer falls on its side into the mud during a rainstorm, which Nicky tries to level. The next day, the Collinis go to visit Tacy's relatives. But upon arriving at the home of her aunt and uncle, with other relatives and neighbors who are gathered watching, Nicky accidentally backs the trailer into their hosts' carport, partly destroying it as well as a prized rose bush. As Tacy and Nicky continue traveling, Tacy is determined to make their trailer home, collecting fruits and vegetables to can for winter, as well as rocks to decorate their front patio when they arrive at their ultimate destination in Colorado. Soon Tacy wants to learn how to drive the car, but after being constantly criticized by Nicky about her driving skills, Tacy gets out and jumps in the back, furious. After having another fight that evening over who was sleeping where for the night, they make up again.

The following afternoon, Tacy attempts to cook dinner while Nicky drives, hoping to have dinner ready once he parks the trailer at their next stop. It goes awry, as the trailer moves and rocks, causing the dinner to be ruined and Tacy getting severely bruised. Afterwards, Nicky decides to take an offer on the trailer, hoping he and Tacy can move into an actual house. But Tacy is still determined to keep the trailer, and refuses to sell it. That evening, Nicky orders Tacy to get rid of all the rocks and canned foods she has collected before they make a cliffhanging ride on a narrow road through the mountains. But Tacy feels they are throwing away precious memories of their honeymoon, and decides to keep them hidden, so Nicky wouldn't find them. But as Nicky and Tacy drive up and down the mountain, everything Tacy has hidden rolls around inside the trailer, causing a big mess. Finally, when they reach the top of the mountain, the trailer falls over again, weighed down by all of the possessions. In a rage, Nicky takes everything Tacy has collected and throws it off the mountain. Tacy later storms off in a huff.

As their marriage deteriorates, Nicky meets up with Tacy as she prepares to sell the trailer and move back home. Nicky attempts to apologize, but doesn't know where to start and instead leaves. As Nicky starts driving off in the pouring rain, Tacy runs to catch up with him. The two finally forgive each other, and tearfully reconcile.

In the year 3000, the space salvage ship ''Mother III'' happens upon the derelict transport ''Demeter''. Captain Van Helsing (Casper Van Dien) and his crew board the abandoned ship.

They explore the bridge and find the corpse of the ''Demeter's'' Captain (Udo Kier) tied to a chair and clutching a crucifix. Despite the misgivings of the crew, particularly intern Mina Murry (Alexandra Kamp) and vice-captain Aurora (Erika Eleniak), the Captain claims salvage rights and decides to tow the ship back to Earth. As the crew prepares to return, ''Mother III'' suddenly uncouples from the ''Demeter'', leaving them stranded with no means of communication.

Later, cargo specialist "187" (Coolio) and deckhand "Humvee" (Tiny Lister) discover a cargo bay full of coffins. 187 speculates that the coffins could contain smuggled goods and opens one, only to find sand. Humvee heads back to the bridge while 187 stays to open the other coffins; he is soon mysteriously attacked. The crew rushes to 187's aid, only to find he is now a vampire. Under orders from his "master", 187 vows to kill the entire crew.

Aurora, fleeing 187, runs into the "master" (Langley Kirkwood), a vampire named Count Orlock. Aurora makes her way to a recreation room, where she reports her encounter with Orlock and reveals his intentions to return to Earth. Upon questioning, she is unable to explain how she escaped Orlock unharmed.

Thinking Aurora could be lying, the Captain ties her up, and Humvee guards her. Soon, 187 gains entrance and attacks Humvee, who manages to stake him in the heart with a pool cue. Aurora, still tied up, confesses that she is an undercover android cop investigating salvage activities. The Captain and Humvee feel betrayed but untie her.

Searching the ship's database, the Captain and the Professor (Grant Swanby), who uses a wheelchair, discover that the legendary vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing was one of the Captain's ancestors. The Professor believes Orlock will seek revenge against the Captain. The Captain learns how vampires can be stopped and decides to steer the ''Demeter'' on a course towards a binary star system.

Orlock soon confronts the Captain and Aurora. Aurora leaves to rally reinforcements, leaving the Captain to fight Orlock alone. Orlock eventually gains the upper hand and turns the Captain into a vampire. Aurora and Humvee return, only to be attacked by the Captain. Aurora stakes him with another cue stick, but Mina (now a vampire herself) attacks, allowing Orlock to escape. Humvee dispatches Mina.

The Professor, despairing of his chances of survival, finds Orlock, who promises to free him from his disability in return for aiding Orlock's return to Earth. When Aurora and Humvee return to the bridge, they find the Professor passed out. Aurora stabs him with a cross, revealing that he was a vampire. A furious Orlock tries to enter the bridge, but Humvee and Aurora close the door on him, cutting off his arm in the process.

As the ''Demeter'' draws closer towards one of the binary stars, Humvee and Aurora confess to each other that neither knows how to pilot the ship. Knowing they are about to die, they take comfort in the fact that Orlock's plan to return to Earth has been foiled. Aurora reveals that she is programmed for sexual pleasure, and it is implied the two spend their final moments having sex.

The movie ends with a video segment from the ''Demeter's'' Captain Varna, who announces his intention to sacrifice himself and his ship. The ''Demeter'' explodes in space, killing Humvee and Aurora and destroying Orlock.

In the early 1950s, sixteen-year-old Lynda Mansell lives in a small English seaside town with her widowed father Hubert and younger sister, Margaret. Feisty, outspoken, and precocious, Lynda likes to shock other people with her histrionic behavior (such as bicycling at the boardwalk with her skirt hiked up, inviting young men to compare her legs to Betty Grable's) and vulgar speech (her favorite insult is "Up yer bum"). Lynda works a variety of jobs, including the bus station and another at a fish and chip shop, but her rebellious nature often ends in termination. Hubert, whom Lynda has an adversarial relationship with, unsuccessfully tries to correct Lynda's behavior by taking her to a psychiatrist. Flashbacks reveal Lynda was close with her late mother.

Lynda returns the affections of a couple of male suitors, but the dates she goes on with them are unsatisfying. Eric, a bookie and one of Hubert's middle-aged friends, takes an interest in Lynda. Lynda initially refuses Eric's advances, but as her relationship with her father grows increasingly strained, Lynda begins sleeping with Eric. When Hubert finds out who she is with, he tells Lynda how ashamed he is of her, and how her mother would be as well if she were alive.

Lynda leaves her home to move in with Eric, but is greeted with his callous behavior instead of the affection and love she craves. She eventually leaves him and gets a job as a waitress at a tea room. Eric shows up and needles Lynda, insisting he has missed her. He only stops pestering her when she reveals she is pregnant. Lynda considers getting an illegal abortion, but realizes she does not have the money for one.

Having learned of his estranged daughter's pregnancy, Hubert shows up to the tea room and demands to talk to Lynda. Lynda denounces Hubert as he calls her a slut. The pair's argument escalates into a public spectacle with Lynda getting up on a table and shouting about British respectability and hypocrisy and insulting the customers. Though Lynda is fired, a few customers applaud her rants, including the elderly woman who plays the tea room piano.

Desperate and down-on-her-luck, Lynda meets with her Aunt Millie. Aunt Millie tries to persuade Lynda into getting an abortion or to give the baby up for adoption, as women who have children out of wedlock are looked down upon in society. Aunt Millie tells Lynda the choice is ultimately hers, but leaves her some money to pay for an abortion. Lynda returns to the abortion provider but hesitates at the doorstep as she imagines her father and daughter as onlookers.

Several months later, Lynda returns home. She arrives at her destination—the bus station she used to work at—with a newborn baby in tow. She passes by all the places she formerly frequented, including the boardwalk where she would flash her legs at the boys. Onlookers, a visibly uncomfortable Eric amongst them, are stunned to see Lynda defiantly pushing her baby in a pram. The film ends with Lynda ringing the doorbell to Hubert's home and embracing her baby.

In 2002, 4 years after the "Raccoon City Incident," the Umbrella-owned ocean liner, ''Spencer Rain'', has been infested by the T-virus stolen from Umbrella's Paris labs by bioterrorist and former Umbrella employee Morpheus D. Duvall, and its secret B.O.W. (Bio-Organic Weapon) cargo intentionally released. Morpheus holds the world hostage, with the U.S. and China at ransom for $1 billion - if they do not pay the money, his followers will launch missiles from an undisclosed silo with the warheads being replaced with the T-virus. Bruce McGivern, a member of USSTRATCOM's "Anti-Umbrella Pursuit Investigation Team," a U.S. government task force with the sole purpose of taking down Umbrella, is sent in. Alongside him is Fong Ling, sent by the Chinese M.S.S. Although they share the same goals and common enemy, their respective governments are against working together.

During Bruce's investigation, he is found by Morpheus and held at gunpoint on the foredeck. A surprise attack by Fong Ling with a grenade allows Bruce to escape into the ship, with Morpheus being injured in the explosion. He later infects himself with the experimental "T+G virus" in order to avoid an otherwise-fatal wound. After a brief encounter with the mutated Morpheus in the cargo hold, Bruce escapes into engineering with the aid of Fong Ling. Restoring power to parts of the ship and discovering important items, the two gain access to the bridge - with Bruce killing the infected captain in the search - to find that the ''Spencer Rain'' is on a collision course with a nearby island. Running outside to escape the ship, Bruce is forced to fight Tyrant 091, which had escaped containment before Bruce's encounter with Morpheus. Once it is defeated, Bruce jumps into the ocean and swims to the shore as the liner is destroyed.

Briefly exploring the island, which is shown to contain an abandoned Umbrella facility, Bruce moves down into its waterways in search of Morpheus. Making his way through a series of underwater channels, he discovers that the island was used as a waste disposal facility for failed B.O.W.s until it was recently lost in a biohazardous outbreak. Deeper in the facility, Fong Ling has escaped from "Pluto," a failed experiment that Umbrella lost track of, later rejoining with Morpheus. It is at this point that they discover that the Chinese have given in to Morpheus' demands and have agreed to pay up, arranging for an orbital weapons satellite to kill Fong Ling with a targeted laser device. Bruce correctly deduces that the satellite is tracking a chip in her tattoo, and proceeds to dig it out with a knife. With the chip destroyed, the satellite ceases its attack. The two make their way to a storage facility to transport to the underwater Bio-Sphere where the missile silo is a part of, but Bruce is forced to fight Pluto before he can reach it.

With the Pluto defeated, the two make their way down the elevator; Morpheus makes a sudden reappearance, sending the elevator crashing to the seafloor. The two operatives survive the crash and explore the facility, finding that Morpheus' own bioterrorist organization has already been compromised by another T-virus outbreak. Fong Ling is captured by Morpheus, who uses her to play a game with Bruce - try to save her, or abandon her to complete the mission. Bruce chooses to save her, allowing Fong Ling to provide logistical support as he searches for the missiles. Unfortunately, a greatly mutated Morpheus prevents him from reaching the missiles in time, though further damage causes the G-mutant to expand to such a size that the missiles simply impact him and explode.

Bruce and Fong Ling are revealed to have escaped the underwater facility's destruction by the use of an escape boat floating to the surface. With her own government believing her dead, Fong Ling has nowhere to go but the United States; Bruce re-assures her, and they kiss as US-STRATCOM sends in a helicopter to pick them up.

Henry Lloyd Moon (Nicholson) is a third-rate outlaw in the late 1860s; a convicted bank robber, horse thief and cattle thief. He is sentenced to be hanged in Longhorn, Texas, to the glee of the locals who gather to watch his execution. A local ordinance dictates that a man condemned of any crime other than murder may be freed, if a lady will marry him and take responsibility for his good behavior. Well aware of the ordinance, many of the townswomen scrutinize Moon as he mounts the gallows.

An elderly woman offers to marry him, but dies on the spot immediately. As Moon is dragged back to the gallows, Julia Tate (Steenburgen)—a headstrong, genteel Southern virgin—agrees to marry and take charge of him. She weds Moon, intending only to use him as labor in a secret gold mine under her property. This slowly evolves into a shaky partnership as he gains her trust, then develops into much more. Her chastity and his desire to consummate the marriage become a source of friction. Although they do spend the night together in a cave, she regrets her decision the following morning, and in anger, Moon ties her to the bed and, it is implied, sexually assaults her. He tries to flee town but is brought back by the sheriff's men where he and Julia patch things up, realizing they need each other.

The local sheriff's deputy (Lloyd) repeatedly accuses Moon of stealing "his" girl, although there is no evidence that Julia ever had any interest in the deputy, and it was she who offered marriage to Moon. Moon's old gang complicates matters when they arrive at Julia's home and introduce the teetotalling Julia to intoxicating beverages. They discover that Julia and Moon are mining gold. Moon schemes to betray Julia and steal the gold but a cave-in at the mine changes the nature of their relationship.

Tom Logan is a rustler experiencing hard times. His gang and he are particularly upset by the hanging of a friend of theirs by Braxton, a land baron, who takes the law into his own hands. They decide to seek vengeance against Braxton by killing his foreman Pete Marker, hanging him from the same tree that Braxton and his men hanged their friend. Logan and his gang then buy a small farm close to Braxton's ranch with money they stole during a train robbery, and begin rustling his stock.

First the gang, without Logan, rides across the Missouri River and north of the border into Canada to steal horses belonging to the North-West Mounted Police. The theft initially goes well, until the Mounted Police catch up to the gang, forcing them to abandon the stolen horses and flee for their lives. In their absence, Logan plants crops and enters into a relationship with Braxton's aggressive, virginal daughter, Jane.

Braxton is incensed with both his rustling problem and his daughter, and sends for Robert E. Lee Clayton, a notorious Irish-American "regulator", who for a price, will take care of rustlers personally.

Quickly suspicious of Logan, who does not strike him as a farmer, Clayton dons a variety of disguises and begins to pick off Logan's gang, one by one. Identifying himself under the pseudonym of "Jim Ferguson", he kills Logan's young friend Little Tod, who cannot swim, by drowning him in the Missouri River.

Clayton spies on Logan with binoculars and taunts Braxton about his daughter's affair with a horse thief. Braxton attempts to discharge him, but Clayton is determined to finish his job. He shoots Si as he is trying to have sex with a farmer's adulterous wife. He also shoots Cary after he enters an outhouse. Finally, Clayton arrives at the gang's hideout one night and sets fire to the house, forcing a burning Cal to run to the river and throw himself in to extinguish the flames. He asks Cal where Logan is, and Cal says he was in the house but refused to come out. Clayton then impales Cal through his right eye with a large throwing star. Logan arrives the next morning, and sadly buries Cal.

A few nights later, Clayton is serenading his horse by campfire light. Once the campfire goes dark and Clayton falls asleep, Logan sneaks into his camp and slits his throat. Logan then comes after Braxton, who has been feigning a trance due to shock. But, at an opportune time, Braxton pulls a gun on Logan and attempts to kill him. Logan gets the upper hand and shoots Braxton in the chest, killing him.

Logan abandons his farm and packs up to leave, planning to go north of the Missouri River. Jane arrives, telling him that she has found a buyer for the ranch, and asks about the two of them. He acknowledges to Jane the possibility that they can renew their relationship at another time and place, maybe six months in the future.

The Number Two from the earlier episode "The Chimes of Big Ben" (Leo McKern) returns to the Village. He calls his superiors and obtains permission to undertake a dangerous technique called "Degree Absolute" in a final attempt to break Number Six and learn why he resigned from his position as an intelligence agent. Number Six is put into a trance state, causing his mind to regress back to his childhood. He is taken to the "Embryo Room", deep below the Green Dome, filled with various props, as well as a caged room that contains living space and a kitchen. He, Number Two, and the Butler (Angelo Muscat) are subsequently locked into the room via a timer that will unlock the room after one week.

Number Two begins to use regressive therapy following Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man, using the various props to enact a series of psychodramas, with Number Two playing the authority figure (e.g., father, headmaster, employer) and Number Six the subject (child, student, employee). Each drama is aimed at trying to make Number Six explain why he resigned. During the first six of these, Number Two finds Number Six has developed an aversion to saying the word "six". Number Two also comes to like and respect Number Six as he learns more about him.

On the final day, Number Two enacts the role of military jailer, harshly interrogating Number Six as a prisoner of war. Number Two's efforts seem to have effect as Number Six starts to blather on reasons for resigning, but he becomes concerned when Number Six says he knew too much, including about Number Two. Number Two becomes agitated, and Number Six continues to call him a fool and an idiot. Suddenly, Number Six starts counting down from "six", and by the time he has reached zero, has regained full control of his mind. Already exhausted from his efforts, Number Two is shocked. Now in control, Number Six explains that Degree Absolute, a well-known psychiatric technique, has its risks to the one performing the therapy if they have their own psychological problems. Number Six shows this understanding in a brief role reversal (by asking Number Two "Why don't you resign?"), much to Number Two's delighted amusement.

Number Two recovers and joyfully offers Number Six a tour of the Embryo Room. They end at the door timer, finding only five minutes remain before the room unlocks. Number Two becomes scared and pleads with Number Six to tell him why he resigned. Number Six remains quiet as Number Two goes to the kitchen area and pours them both a glass of wine. Number Six suddenly closes the door to the caged area, locking a panicked Number Two inside. The Butler takes the key from Number Two. Number Two paces the caged area while a voice screams "Die, Six, die!", until the timer runs out. Number Two falls over, apparently dead. The door to the Embryo room opens where the Supervisor (Peter Swanwick) waits. He tells Number Six they will need the body and then asks Number Six what he wants. Number Six only replies "Number One", and the Supervisor offers to take him there. He, Number Six, and the Butler depart the room.

Alex Gates (Jack Nicholson) is a Miami wine merchant who has distanced himself from his alcoholic wife Suzanne (Judy Davis) with his philandering, and from his stepson Jason (Stephen Dorff) with his indifference.

Heavily in debt, Alex hatches a plan to steal a valuable diamond necklace from the house of his clients, the Reese family, where his Cuban mistress Gabriela (Jennifer Lopez) works. He cases the house during a wine delivery with Jason, who works in Alex's business. Jason becomes attracted to Gabriela, unaware of her relationship with his father.

On the day of the heist, Alex and his partner Victor (Michael Caine), a British safe-cracker, arrive at the house under the pretense that the Reeses' wine cellar needs repairs. Gabriela was supposed to let them in, but she was fired the day before. Fortunately, Alex had cultivated a relationship with the security guard and is able to convince him to let them inside. Victor sends Alex and the guard off on an errand while he works on the safe, but a second guard becomes suspicious, although Victor is able to complete the job before being discovered.

The pair decide that Alex will pawn the necklace in New York City, and he invites Gabriela to go with him. As he is packing, Suzanne happens upon his airline tickets and immediately realizes he is having another affair. The two get into a physical altercation and Suzanne knocks him out with a fire poker. Panicking, Suzanne empties out his suitcase, where he has hidden the necklace, and uses it for her own clothing. She and Jason flee to the Florida Keys. Upon arriving, they discover the necklace, but Suzanne doesn't want to keep it. Jason has it appraised and discovers it is worth $1 million. He also visits Gabriela back in Miami, giving her the phone number of the place where they are staying.

Victor and Alex visit Jason's friend Henry (Harold Perrineau) in an attempt to learn Jason's whereabouts. Victor, who is dying of tuberculosis and determined to profit from the heist, assaults Henry before Alex realizes he doesn't know anything. The pair contact various jewelers to be on the lookout for the necklace and get a report from Jason's appraiser. Arriving in Key Largo, Victor pretends to flirt with Suzanne, but Jason, who has gotten a description of Henry's assailant, realizes who he is. After a fight, Jason flees with his mother in their car. Victor and Alex give chase and cause an accident that kills Suzanne. Although injured, Jason discharges himself from the hospital and returns to Miami to kill his stepfather, only to find Gabriela in Alex's bed. After a brief argument, the two reconcile.

Alex discovers Jason and Gabriela the next morning, and accuses her of sleeping with his son. Victor confronts Jason, who tricks him into thinking that he has returned the necklace to Alex. Victor goes to Alex's house and attacks him before collapsing from exhaustion, whereupon Alex smothers Victor with a pillow. That night, Jason shows the necklace to Gabriela. The next day, she calls Alex and they search Jason's boat, but Jason, anticipating this, confronts them and he and Alex fight.

Eventually, Jason crushes Alex between the boat and the dock, severely injuring him, before fleeing the scene. Gabriela, who had fled with the necklace, returns and leaves it with Alex, insisting that she doesn't want it, but pilfers one of the diamonds before she leaves. With an ambulance and the police on the way, a defeated Alex realizes he has no choice but to dispose of the necklace and throws it into the ocean.

Dax and Odo investigate an unusual particle field emanating from a planet in the Gamma Quadrant; they discover the field is coming from a small village's power generator. The village magistrate, Colyus, tells them 22 people have disappeared without a trace in the past few days. Odo and Dax offer to help investigate the disappearances; but the oldest villager, Rurigan, seems unconvinced that the villagers will ever be found.

The next day, Odo interviews Rurigan's granddaughter, Taya, whose mother has disappeared. The two find common ground in that they are both orphans; during the course of their conversation, Taya reveals that the villagers never leave their valley. Rurigan assures Odo that searching beyond the valley would be pointless. Apparently no one has thought about searching beyond the valley or ever considered leaving it.

Taya brings Odo and Dax to the edge of the valley. When Dax leaves the valley, a device from the village vanishes from her hand. Taya reaches past the edge of the valley, and her arm begins to disappear. The three return to the village to share their findings: the entire village, including its citizens, is a hologram created by the reactor's particle field. The reactor has fallen into disrepair and is breaking down, causing the villagers to disappear one by one.

They convince the villagers to let Dax shut down the reactor and repair it before it stops functioning completely. When she does so, the village and all the villagers vanish – except Rurigan. He explains that when an alien empire known as the Dominion arrived on his home planet, he fled to an abandoned planet and recreated the world he had lost; but now he admits that none of it was real. However, Odo argues that Taya and the others are real and deserve a chance to live. Dax and Rurigan repair the reactor, restoring the village, including the missing people. Before he and Dax leave, Odo realizes how close he has grown to Taya, and demonstrates his abilities by morphing into a toy that Taya played with earlier.

Meanwhile, back on Deep Space Nine, Major Kira begins a romance with Vedek Bareil; the bartender Quark had Bareil invited to the station to distract Kira from a criminal operation he was planning, but she sees through the scheme and apprehends Quark's accomplice. Jake Sisko begins taking engineering lessons from Miles O'Brien, but eventually admits to his father that he doesn't want to join Starfleet.

Princess Hears a Strange Noise

Princess is awakened by a strange squishing sound. It is a man being manually masturbated by his wife. She is unsuccessful in bringing him to orgasm because he has taken a large dose of Viagra. After three hours of sexual activity, the woman begins performing fellatio. When the fellatio is unsuccessful he plays a porn movie on the television. When the porn movie is unsuccessful, he changes the channel to a show about interior decorating featuring Christopher Lowell, at which point he reaches orgasm. The force from the hours of sexual activity causes the semen to fly right through her head, killing her in the process. The episode ends with the semen-covered dog sneezing as the man asks her "What are we going to do?"

Princess Meets Officer Friendly

Later in the morning, as police officers survey the scene, the husband gives information about the crime scene to Officer Friendly, the man in charge of the investigation. Officer Friendly says this is the 18th case of the aforementioned incident since Viagra was introduced to the public. The husband then goes to inform his son, Tommy, about the wife. Meanwhile, a man claiming to be a coroner enters the house and asks for 20 minutes alone with the body. In reality, he is a necrophiliac, and performs anal sex with the corpse. Princess tries to tell Officer Friendly and his partner (a parody of the television show ''Lassie'') but they assume the dog is in heat. Princess then enters Tommy's room where the husband unsuccessfully attempts to explain to his son what happened. Princess barks and Tommy thinks the dog is telling him to "see Mommy". The episode ends with Tommy opening his parents' bedroom door to find the necrophiliac engaged in sexual acts with his mother's corpse.

Princess Finds a Red Balloon

At the end of the "Officer Friendly" episode, the viewers are invited to see the next installment, "Princess Finds A Red Balloon". However, according to South Park Studios, the episode was never produced following the rejection of the first two.

Los Angeles

As evening falls, tomboy cabby Corky picks up Hollywood executive Victoria Snelling from the airport, and as Corky drives, Victoria tries to conduct business on her phone. Despite their extreme differences socially, the two develop a certain connection. When Victoria suggests that cab driving is not much of a career, Corky counters that her dream in fact is to become a mechanic. During the ride, Victoria, who is a casting agent, comes to realise that Corky would be ideal for a part in a movie she is casting, but Corky rejects the offer because she intends to be a mechanic. The taxi is a 1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Wagon.

New York

Helmut, an immigrant from East Germany who was a clown in his home country, has found work as a taxi driver. After dark, he picks up a passenger named YoYo, a streetwise young man who wants to go to Brooklyn. Increasingly alarmed at Helmut's inability to handle an automatic transmission, ignorance of New York geography, and feeble command of the English language, YoYo takes over the wheel. During the drive, YoYo sees his sister-in-law Angela on the street and forces her into the cab to take her back home. Helmut is clearly amused by the vituperation between the two. After Angela and Yoyo depart, Helmut struggles to drive back to Manhattan, muttering "New York...New York." The taxi is a 1983 Ford LTD Crown Victoria.

Paris

At night, a cab picks up two drunk African diplomats, who mock the lowly driver and find it hilarious that he is from the Ivory Coast. In French, when he says he is ''ivoirien'', they say ''il voit rien'' (he can't see a thing). Sick of their insults, he throws them out, forgetting to get money off them. Next he picks up an attractive young woman, who is blind. As she cannot see the colour of his skin, he asks her where she thinks he is from. After a moment's thought, she says ''the Ivory Coast''. Prickly and sexually provocative, she rejects most of his efforts to be friendly, regarding him as beneath her, but he is genuinely fascinated by her and her predicament. So much so that, after dropping her off, he watches her walk beside a canal in the dark and he drives into another car, whose driver angrily accuses him of being blind. The taxi is a 1980 Peugeot 504.

Rome

In the early morning hours, an eccentric cabbie picks up a priest. As he drives, he starts to confess his sins. Much to the priest's discomfort, he goes into great detail about how he discovered his sexuality, first with a pumpkin and then with a sheep, then details a love affair he had with his brother's wife, miming the actions and mouthing the cries. Already ailing, overwhelmed by the barrage of unwanted information, the priest has a fatal heart attack. Unable to revive him, the cabbie leaves him on a bench to be found once it is light. The taxi is a 1976 Fiat 128.

Helsinki

After an evening spent drinking heavily, three workers, one of whom has just been fired from his job and has passed out, climb into a cab to return home. On the way, the two conscious workers talk about the terrible situation their unconscious friend is in, being out of work and having to face a divorce and a pregnant daughter. The driver, Mika, then tells them all the saddest story they have ever heard. The workers are terribly moved and depressed by the story, and even become unsympathetic toward their drunken, laid-off companion. Leaving him in the cab, they stagger off to their homes. Mika wakes him, takes payment and leaves. Worker sits on the ground, passing neighbours greet him and he replies back. The taxi is a 1973 Volvo 144.

UCLA college student Jonathan Moore (Anthony Edwards) is playing a game called "Gotcha" (popular on mid-1980s college campuses as "Assassin" or "Tag"), wherein the players are all assigned a mock "hit" on another player by use of a harmless paintball, dart, or water gun. Moore and his roommate Manolo (Nick Corri) go on a vacation to Paris. After touring some of Paris, Moore meets Sasha Banicek (Linda Fiorentino), a Czechoslovakian girl, in a cafe. Jonathan has sex with Sasha, losing his virginity.

Jonathan decides to leave Manolo (who is heading to Spain) and go with Sasha to West Berlin to spend more time with her. Jonathan believes that he is in love with Sasha. There, Jonathan and Sasha continue to have sex and even go to an Oktoberfest beer gathering. One night, Sasha tells Jonathan that she has to go to East Berlin to pick up a package, as she works as a courier. One night after arriving in East Berlin, Sasha leaves their hotel room and walks to dark street corner. There, Sasha meets a German man who tells her the location of the pickup of her package. Meanwhile, Sasha was being monitored by a Soviet agent, who was sitting in a car at a distance. The next day, Sasha tells Jonathan that if she gives him a certain message, it means that he must immediately leave East Berlin. At a cafe, Sasha gives Jonathan a package and says that a strudel is inside. A little later, Sasha tells Jonathan to meet her at the butcher shop near their hotel. All of a sudden, a Soviet agent begins to chase after her. She is ordered by the German man to use Jonathan to unknowingly get the package over to West Berlin, so the next time they are together she slips an object into his backpack. Later, Sasha is taken by the Soviet agent and East German secret police.

Jonathan goes to Checkpoint Charlie to cross the heavily fortified border into West Berlin. At the East German customs search, Jonathan is stripped of his clothes and his backpack is searched (but the unknown object is not found). Meanwhile, Sasha is stripped and given a cavity search for possible espionage evidence. The Soviet agent arrives at the border crossing to search for Jonathan, who has crossed the border safely before he could be captured. Once in West Berlin, Jonathan feels liberated by the Westernized society. In the hotel, Jonathan receives a message from Sasha to meet him. Jonathan finds out that his hotel room was broken into and robbed of his traveler's checks. Soviet agents eventually find Jonathan in West Berlin at the location Sasha gave him, where he meets a woman who asks for the object Sasha gave him. He gives her the strudel, but she tells him that is not the object, and is shot by the Soviets, who chase him throughout a public park. Jumping into a water canal, Jonathan manages to escape from the Soviets and stumbles upon a German punk rock group headed for Hamburg, who offer him a ride to the airport.

The punk rock group successfully get Jonathan to the airport (using full-face makeup to sneak him past a checkpoint) and Jonathan finally arrives in Los Angeles Tom Bradley International Airport and to his apartment. Soon, a band of Soviet agents also arrive in Los Angeles. Once home, Jonathan stumbles upon a film canister in his backpack - the object planted by Sasha. Jonathan visits his parents and tells them what happened in Germany, but they do not believe any of it and think Jonathan is on drugs. Jonathan decides to call the FBI, who refuse to help him and tell him to call the CIA for help. He does this, telling them about Sasha and the film. Jonathan returns to find his apartment broken into and looted.

The CIA officer tells Jonathan to give them the photo film canister. At the Los Angeles headquarters of the CIA, Jonathan spots Sasha, who looks like she is working there. Jonathan is able to arrange a meeting with Sasha, and uses Manolo's help to separate her from the CIA agents. Sasha admits that she is Cheryl Brewster, a CIA agent originally from Pittsburgh. Out of nowhere, the Soviet agents begin to chase Jonathan and Sasha on the UCLA campus. Jonathan eliminates all the Soviets with a tranquilizer gun which he gets from the campus veterinary sciences building. The Soviets are arrested, the CIA agents thank Jonathan for his (indirect) help in obtaining the film, and Cheryl/Sasha tells him she wants to continue their relationship.

After they part, Jonathan talks to a pretty student who rebuffed him at the start of the movie, and she rebuffs him coldly. As she walks away, he aims the tranquilizer pistol and shoots her in the rear.

In 2008, mass murderer Jason Voorhees is captured by the United States government and held at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. After numerous failed attempts to kill Jason over the following two years, government scientist Rowan LaFontaine suggests putting him in cryogenic stasis. Dr. Wimmer and Sergeant Marcus arrive with soldiers, hoping to further research Jason's ability to heal from lethal wounds, as they believe it involves rapid cellular regeneration that can be replicated. Jason breaks free of his restraints and kills the soldiers and Dr. Wimmer. Rowan lures him into a cryogenic pod and activates it, but he ruptures the pod with his machete, stabbing her in the abdomen. Cryogenic fluid spills into the sealed room, freezing them both.

455 years later, Earth has become too polluted to support life and humans have moved to a new planet, Earth II. On a field trip to Earth, Professor Brandon Lowe, his android companion KM-14, intern Adrienne Thomas, and students Tsunaron, Janessa, Azrael, Kinsa, Waylander, and Stoney explore the abandoned Crystal Lake Research Facility, finding the frozen Jason and Rowan. They bring them aboard their spaceship, the ''Grendel'', and revive Rowan while leaving Jason in the morgue, believing him dead.

Adrienne is ordered to dissect Jason's body but Rowan warns them of the danger, revealing Jason's nature and superhuman abilities. Lowe, who is in serious debt, calls his financial backer Dieter Perez on nearby space station ''Solaris''. Perez recognizes Jason's name and notes his body could interest a collector. While Stoney and Kinsa have sex, Jason awakens and attacks Adrienne, freezing her face with liquid nitrogen before smashing her head to pieces on a counter. Jason takes a machete-shaped surgical tool and kills Stoney in front of Kinsa. Sergeant Brodski leads a group of soldiers to attack Jason. Jason interrupts a projected holographic game, breaking Azrael's back and bashing in Dallas's skull. He tries to attack Crutch, but Brodski and his soldiers arrive. After Brodski splits up his team, Jason kills them one by one.

Lowe orders pilot Lou to dock at ''Solaris''. Jason kills Lou and the ship crashes through ''Solaris'', destroying it and killing everyone aboard. Jason breaks into the lab, reclaims his machete and decapitates Lowe. With the ''Grendel'' crippled, the survivors head for a shuttle while Tsunaron upgrades KM-14. After crew member Crutch is electrocuted by Jason, Kinsa panics and attempts to escape on her own, but forgets to release the shuttle's fuel line, causing it to crash into the ship and explode. Tsunaron reappears with an upgraded KM-14 who wields weapons and combat skills to stand a better chance against Jason. After having his right arm, left leg, right ribs, and part of his head blasted off by KM-14, his body is knocked into a nanite-equipped medical station. The survivors send a distress call, then set explosive charges to separate the ship's undamaged pontoon from the main section.

The medical station nanites rebuild Jason, who becomes a cyborg. With his new strength, Jason easily defeats KM-14 by punching her head off. As Tsunaron recovers her still-functioning head, Jason is stopped by Waylander, who sacrifices himself by setting off the charges while the others escape. Jason survives and punches a hole through the hull, causing Janessa to die in the vacuum. A power failure with the docking door forces Brodski to go outside in an EVA suit to fix it.

To distract Jason, a holographic simulation of Camp Crystal Lake is created with two virtual teenage girls. After killing them, Jason realizes the deception just as the door is fixed. Still in his EVA suit, Brodski confronts Jason so the rest can escape. As they leave, the pontoon explodes, propelling Jason at high speed towards the survivors; Brodski intercepts Jason's space flight and maneuvers them both toward Earth II's atmosphere, where they are both incinerated on atmospheric entry. Tsunaron, Rowan, and KM-14 escape as Tsunaron assures KM-14 she will have a new body.

On Earth II, a pair of teenagers are by a lake when they see what they believe is a falling star. The teenagers go to investigate as Jason's charred mask sinks to the bottom of the lake.

Paula Santos, the owner of Captain's Cove Amusement Park in New Jersey, has asked Nancy for help because there have been mysterious things happening at the park. First, the lead horse disappeared off the carousel. After that the carousel began mysteriously starting up in the middle of the night. Then the roller coaster suddenly lost power, resulting in a serious accident. The park is shut down until the city knows what caused it. There is a rumor going around that the park is cursed. Drew must determine whether the painted ponies are searching for their missing lead horse, or whether there is another explanation for the "midnight rides."

Wrong decisions can cause the game to end. In previous volumes of the series, these endings typically involved Drew's death; however, in ''The Haunted Carousel'', a more frequent conclusion is Drew being fired for a mishap.

A novice named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal) is about to take her vows when her only living relative, her uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), invites her to visit him. She has met him only once, and is reluctant to comply. Her mother superior pressures her to accept.

Don Jaime is a recluse living on a neglected farm with a few servants: Ramona (Margarita Lozano), her daughter Rita, and Moncho. When Don Jaime sees his niece, he is struck by her strong resemblance to his deceased wife.

On her last night Viridiana, grateful for her uncle's longtime financial support, reluctantly complies with his odd request for her to don his wife's wedding gown. When Ramona informs her that Don Jaime wants to marry her, she's aghast, and her uncle seems to drop the idea. Ramona secretly drugs Viridiana's drink and Don Jaime carries the unconscious girl to her room intending to rape her, but at the last minute he stops. However, the next morning he lies and tells her that he "took her virginity", so she cannot return to her convent. When she insists that she must go back, he confesses that he lied, leaving her uncertain about what had happened.

At the bus stop, the authorities prevent her from leaving. Her uncle has hanged himself, leaving his property to her and his illegitimate son Jorge (Francisco Rabal). Deeply disturbed, Viridiana decides not to return to the convent. Instead, she collects some beggars and installs them in an outbuilding. She devotes herself to feeding and morally educating them. Disgusted, Moncho departs. Jorge moves into the house with his girlfriend Lucia and starts to renovate the rundown place. Lucia, sensing that he lusts after Viridiana like his father did, leaves. Jorge then makes a pass at the willing Ramona.

When Viridiana and Jorge leave for a few days to take care of some business, the paupers break into the house. At first, they just want to look around, but faced with such bounty, they degenerate into a drunken, riotous bunch and party to the strains of Handel's ''Messiah''. The beggars pose around the table for a photo in which they resemble the figures in Da Vinci's ''Last Supper''.

The rightful owners return earlier than expected and find the house in shambles. The miscreants excuse themselves one by one and leave. Jorge confronts one of them, who pulls a knife. Another beggar strikes his head with a bottle, knocking him out. Viridiana enters the room and hastens to help Jorge who is lying on the floor. The first man grabs her. As Viridiana resists sexual assault, Jorge regains consciousness. He has been tied up, but manages to bribe one beggar to kill the would-be rapist. The police finally arrive.

Viridiana is a changed woman and young Rita burns her crown of thorns. Wearing her hair loosely, Viridiana knocks on Jorge's door, but finds Ramona with him in his bedroom. As Ashley Beaumont sings "Shimmy Doll" on the record player, Jorge tells Viridiana that they were only playing cards and urges her to join them: "You know, the first time I saw you, I thought, my cousin and I will end up shuffling the deck together."

Censored ending

The Spanish board of censors rejected the original ending of the film, which depicted Viridiana entering her cousin's room and slowly closing the door behind her. Consequently, a new ending was written; this turned out to be more suggestive than the first, because it implied a ménage à trois among Ramona, Jorge, and Viridiana.Buñuel, Luis. ''My Last Sigh''. Trans. Abigail Israel. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. . page 237.