The film begins with Turaga Vakama describing a land that existed before Mata Nui called Metru Nui, where the local Toa heroes fell in battle one by one as a relentless shadow sought to conquer the great city.

Lhikan, the last remaining Toa, travels throughout the entire city, giving Toa stones containing fractions of his own power to six Matoran from each of the city's different regions: Whenua, Nuju, Matau, Onewa, Nokama, and Vakama. After giving the last stone to Vakama, Lhikan is captured by two Dark Hunters, Nidhiki and Krekka. Vakama later meets the other Matoran at the Great Temple in Ga-Metru; there, they are transformed into six new Toa. After Vakama has a vision of Metru Nui's destruction, they all set out to recover the six Great Disks hidden throughout Metru Nui, hoping to prove to Turaga Dume, the city's leader, that they are worthy Toa. However, Dume declares that "simple gifts" will not confirm them as Toa, and puts them to a grueling test instead. When the six fail to pass, Dume denounces them as imposters and unleashes the Vahki, the city's law enforcers, upon them. In the ensuing chaos, Onewa, Nuju, and Whenua are captured while Vakama and the others escape the Coliseum by leaping into the city's chute transport system, with the Dark Hunters in pursuit.

The Dark Hunters force a chute worker to reverse the flow of the chute system, forcing Vakama and the others to abandon the chute system in the ice region of Ko-Metru. They then set out to find the other Toa and Lhikan, whom Vakama believes is still alive. They hitch a ride on a Vahki transport to Po-Metru, where they are ambushed by the Dark Hunters and forced to flee from a herd of Kikanalo beasts. Nokama discovers that her mask allows her to speak and understand foreign languages and persuades the Kikanalo to help them find Lhikan; Matau discovers his mask power of shape-shifting along the way.

Meanwhile, Onewa, Whenua, and Nuju are trying unsuccessfully to escape when they are approached by a mysterious Turaga, who explains that Toa mask powers are needed to escape and teaches them how to activate them. Growing impatient, the Toa argue until Onewa's mind-control and Nuju's telekinesis mask powers activate, and Nuju uses his to create an escape route. Whenua then discovers his mask power of night vision before the four reunite with Vakama, Nokama, and Matau. The Turaga then reveals himself to be Lhikan, who sacrificed his power to turn Vakama and company into Toa. He inquires as to the safety of the 'Heart of Metru Nui', which Vakama believed was Lhikan himself, but is actually the Matoran. Vakama then discovers a small canister that contains the real Dume; the Dume from before was an impostor. Pursued by the Vahki, the Toa, along with Lhikan, set out to stop the false Dume, who has summoned the Matoran to the Coliseum to be placed in canisters to sleep. The false Dume reveals himself to be Makuta in disguise, and plunges the Great Spirit Mata Nui into slumber. The Toa gather as many Matoran capsules as they can and race to escape the crumbling city. On their way out, the Dark Hunters attack them again, but are killed, along with a Nivawk (Makuta's spy), when Makuta absorbs them.

As the group leaves Metru Nui, Vakama creates the legendary Mask of Time, which he unsuccessfully tried to do as a Matoran, from the Great Disks. Makuta pursues the Toa, attacking them by raising and dropping pillars of protodermis. With help from Nuju's telekenesis, Vakama is able to get up the cliff to confront Makuta, donning the Mask of Time. However, Lhikan is killed while protecting Vakama in the ensuing battle, whilst the mask is separated from Vakama. In an anguished rage, Vakama knocks the Mask of Time into the sea and defeats Makuta in combat using his newfound mask power, invisibility. The Toa combine their powers to seal Makuta in a protodermis prison and move on to the surface, emerging on an island they name 'Mata Nui', in honor of the Great Spirit. There, they sacrifice their Toa power to awaken the Matoran and become Turaga. Vakama gives Lhikan's mask to an injured Matoran named Jaller, to the cheers of the other Matoran and Turaga, and their new lives on Mata Nui begin.

In 1937, in a small mining town on the Nevada–Arizona border, Jess Tyler is the caretaker of an unused silver mine. His wife, Belle Morgan, deserted him 10 years earlier and took their daughters, Janey and Kady, when she ran off with another man, Moke Blue. A 17-year-old Kady shows up at Jess's place, telling him her mother Belle is running a brothel, and one of the clients got Kady pregnant with a son, Danny. Danny's father is Wash Gillespie, the son of the wealthy mine owner, who refused to marry her. Kady is money hungry and has returned home to steal silver from the mine. Jess, initially opposed to stealing silver from the mine, relents and says they can take small scraps after she seduces him. They work in the mine together; afterwards, while Kady takes a bath, Jess ends up giving her a massage but stops short of having sex.

Soon after, Wash comes to town and proposes to Kady, and she accepts. Belle, suffering from severe tuberculosis, arrives with Blue and a mutual friend, Ed Lamey, ostensibly to celebrate the engagement. Blue insinuates that he knows about the theft, and while the others are out of the house, Belle stabs him with a hat pin, and he kills her in self-defence.

Jess realizes that Ed must have witnessed the theft and told Blue. Jess rushes to the mine, where Blue is frantically pillaging for silver and taunts him. Jess sees a "butterfly" birthmark near his navel, similar to one on baby Danny, and believes that Blue is Danny's father. Enraged, Jess shoots him. Before Jess leaves him to die, Blue reveals that Kady is his daughter.

Returning to the Gillespies, Jess lies and tells them that Danny is Blue's son. Wash decides to break off the engagement, but Jess stops him from talking to Kady about it himself. When Wash fails to arrive on the day of the wedding, she despondently resorts to her original plan to steal the silver. She goes to the mine with Jess, where the two have sex while Ed looks on. The police arrive with warrants for the arrests of Jess and Kady, and they are charged with incest.

At the hearing, Judge Rauch calls it "a crime against nature, shocking and repulsive to every basic sense of propriety, decency, and good citizenship." Jess pleads guilty, saying he forced her, so that Kady will not be punished. Jess is sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Kady objects, saying that their relationship was consensual. The judge threatens her with reform school, 10 years in prison, and Danny becoming a ward of the state. Jess reveals that Moke Blue is Kady's real father and the proof is the birthmark. Ed then reveals he is Moke Blue's half-brother and has the same birthmark and did not tell her because of the silver. The case is dismissed.

Wash is waiting outside the courthouse for Kady, who realizes what Jess did and is angry, but quickly forgives him. She says she loves him, but differently from how she loves Wash. She chooses Wash because of the life he can provide for Danny.

Around midnight during a ball the narrator is sitting at a window, out of sight, admiring the garden. He overhears the conversations of passers-by regarding the origins of the wealth of the mansion's owner, Monsieur de Lanty. There is also the presence of an unknown old man around the house, to whom the family was oddly devoted, and who frightened and intrigued the partygoers. When the man sits next to the narrator's guest, Beatrix de Rochefide, she touches him, and the narrator rushes her out of the room. The narrator says he knows who the man is and says he will tell her his story the next evening.

The next evening, the narrator tells Mme de Rochefide about Ernest-Jean Sarrasine, a passionate, artistic boy, who after having trouble in school became a protégé of the sculptor Bouchardon. After one of Sarrasine's sculptures wins a competition, he heads to Rome where he sees a theatre performance featuring Zambinella. He falls in love with her, going to all of her performances and creating a clay mold of her. After spending time together at a party, Sarrasine attempts to seduce Zambinella. She is reticent, suggesting some hidden secret or danger of their partnership. Sarrasine becomes increasingly convinced that Zambinella is the ideal woman. Sarrasine develops a plan to abduct her from a party at the French embassy. When Sarrasine arrives, Zambinella is dressed as a man. Sarrasine speaks to a cardinal, who is Zambinella's patron, and is told that Zambinella is a castrato. Sarrasine refuses to believe it and leaves the party, seizing Zambinella. Once they are at his studio, Zambinella confirms that she is a castrato. Sarrasine is about to kill him as a group of the cardinal's men barge in and stab Sarrasine. The narrator then reveals that the old man around the household is Zambinella, Marianina's maternal great uncle. The story ends with Mme de Rochefide's expressing her distress about the story she has just been told.

The episode begins in an abortion clinic with a woman giving her permission for doctors to use her aborted fetus for stem cell research. However, the truck transporting the fetuses to a medical research facility is destroyed in an accident. Its cargo is noticed and subsequently stolen by Cartman (riding his bike and singing Sheena Easton's "Morning Train"), who intends to resell the fetuses for a tremendous profit. This goal leads him to call various institutions in the style of a fast-talking agent, with the famous recurring line, "you're breaking my balls here", finally landing a deal with a government organization. To his dismay, the government puts a ban on stem cell research immediately afterward.

Meanwhile, Kenny is diagnosed with what is presumably muscular dystrophy, and his friends and family are told that he will probably die. The boys are shocked and saddened by the news, but do everything they can to support him and keep him company during his stay in the hospital – all but Stan, who cannot bear to see Kenny dying and refuses to visit him. This marks one of the few episodes in which Kenny's friends mourn his death. Cartman, in the meantime, has a doctor explain to him how stem cells actually work, and learns that they might be used to help Kenny. Cartman also mentions using stem cells to duplicate a Shakey's Pizza restaurant, although the researcher advises him that lumber would be better suited for that task. Cartman gives a speech to the House of Representatives on behalf of stem cell research. He ultimately succeeds in getting the ban lifted by singing "Heat of the Moment" by Asia, and begins visiting laboratories around the area to collect more fetuses, even convincing a woman to have an abortion.

Stan, with the supporting words of Chef, finally gets up the courage to come to visit Kenny in the hospital. Unfortunately, Kenny has died from the disease. On hearing that Kenny's last words were "Where's Stan?", he accuses himself of being Kenny's worst friend. During the funeral, Cartman bursts in and exclaims that a miracle has occurred. He drags Stan and Kyle away to show them how he has manipulated the stem cells from his aborted fetuses into building his very own Shakey's Pizza. Kyle realizes that Cartman had pretended to take Kenny's illness seriously in order to get the ban on stem cells lifted just so he could make a profit off them, therefore allowing him to make his own Shakey's Pizza. Realizing this, Kyle proceeds to beat Cartman up, while Stan is relieved that Cartman was Kenny's worst friend instead of him.

Cartman has Kyle's cousin perform a tally of his naughty and nice deeds. He informs Cartman that he has been too naughty to earn his coveted Christmas gift, a Haibo robot dog. In order to reverse his past misdeeds, he sets out to spread Christmas cheer to the people of Iraq. Meanwhile, at a tree lighting ceremony, Jimmy is given the honor of lighting, but first decides to sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Due to his stutter, it takes most of the episode for him to reach the end of the twelve verses.

With the use of Mr. Hankey's Poo-Choo train, Cartman and the other boys travel to the North Pole to convince Santa Claus to bring Christmas to Iraq. With the assistance of the Underpants Gnomes, Santa prepares his sleigh and travels to Iraq, only to be promptly shot down, brought in, and tortured. The boys realize that Cartman's little ploy may have ended Christmas for everyone and set out to make things right.

Taking a backup sled, they seek out Jesus. Upon hearing the news, Jesus promptly arms himself with an array of automatic weapons and travels with the boys to Iraq, brutally gunning down everyone who impedes him. The group breaks into the interrogation room and frees Santa.

As they make their way back to the sleigh, Jesus is shot dead by one Iraqi captor. Outraged, Santa kills the soldier, and proceeds to blast his way out. Back on the sleigh, Santa flies the children back to South Park, but not before covering Iraq in Christmas decorations.

Much to the town's delight, Jimmy finally finishes his song and switches on the Christmas tree, only for the lights to then blow a fuse. At that moment though, Santa flies past the tree and magically restores them.

Santa returns the boys home, hoping that people will always remember Jesus on this day. He gives the children all Haibo dogs as thanks, but Cartman is disgusted, as he wanted to be the only kid owning one and have his friends envy him. Kenny then shows up out of nowhere (his first appearance since "Kenny Dies"), though the three seem unfazed by this.

Mr and Mrs Foster are a mature, wealthy married couple living in New York. Mrs Foster has recently begun to suspect her husband of purposely exacerbating her pathological fear of missing a train or plane. She is continuously badgered by her husband, Eugene, who makes a habit of waiting until the last minute to leave the house.

Mrs Foster is preparing for a six-week trip to Paris (after weeks of persuading her husband to let her go), where their daughter and her family (including three grandchildren that she has never yet met) reside. After letting his wife wait anxiously for some time, Mr Foster finally gets into the car with her. As they are driven to the airport, Mrs Foster finds that despite being far behind schedule, her flight is temporarily postponed until the next day due to a thick fog. Mrs Foster decides to get a room near the airport for the night, but her husband insists that she come home.

The next day while attempting to leave for the airport without her husband, things finally come to a head. After the usual rounds of teasing his wife's delicate psyche, and demanding that he be driven to his club (which is in the opposite direction of the airport and therefore complicating the journey to the airport even more), Mr Foster tries to foil his wife for the last time by claiming he has mistakenly left a present for their daughter in the house. Mr Foster insists on looking for the gift himself and goes back inside. While her husband pretends to search their six-storey home, Mrs Foster finds the present down the side of one of the car seats and can't help but notice "it was wedged down firm and deep, as though with the help of a pushing hand". Mrs Foster rushes to retrieve her husband as quickly as possible, but hears a series of unspecified noises from inside their home and has a sudden change of heart. Mrs Foster gets back in the car and much to the surprise of the driver, demands to be driven to the airport immediately, stating that her husband will understand and will get a cab to the club instead.

Mrs Foster enjoys her time in Paris, meets and gets to know her grandchildren and writes to her husband weekly, as promised.

The visit concludes, and Mrs Foster flies back to New York. Upon her arrival at the airport, Mrs Foster notes that her husband has not sent a car to meet her. After arriving at home, she enters and notices a large pile of mail under the letterbox, as well as a strange smell. She does a quick lap around the first floor and, seemingly satisfied, calls the elevator company to report the home's apparently broken lift. The story closes with Mrs Foster waiting for the arrival of the lift repair man.

The story is told in flashback as Diane explains to American Intelligence how transmissions from passengers picked up from a missile to the moon are by Americans rather than Russians.

Harry Turner (Bing Crosby) and Chester Babcock (Bob Hope) are defrauding people in Calcutta by selling a "Do-it-yourself interplanetary flight kit" that ends up injuring Chester, giving him amnesia. An Indian doctor (Peter Sellers) says the only way for Chester's amnesia to be cured is through help from monks in a lamasery in Tibet.

At the airport, Chester mistakenly picks up a suitcase with a marking designed to be a point of contact between agents of a SPECTRE-type spy organization called "The Third Echelon." Diane, a Third Echelon secret agent, is supposed to give plans of a Russian rocket fuel stolen by the Third Echelon to the man with the suitcase, who will be taking them to headquarters in British Hong Kong. She mistakenly thinks Chester is the contact.

In Tibet, the two make their way to the lamasery in ''Lost Horizon'' fashion. Not only do the lamas cure Chester, but they have a Tibetan tea leaf that gives super memory powers to those who consume it. Chester and Harry observe as great works of Western literature in the manner of ''Fahrenheit 451'' are committed to memory; one giggling lama (David Niven) memorizes ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. The scheming Harry decides to steal a bottle to give Chester the power of photographic memory for lucrative nefarious purposes.

Returning to Calcutta, followed by Diane, Harry has Chester test the results of the memory herb by memorizing the rocket formula that Diane placed in Chester's coat. Not knowing what it is, Harry destroys it after Chester has successfully memorized it. Diane arrives too late, but after seeing Chester recite the formula, she offers them $25,000 to meet her in Hong Kong. On the way to Hong Kong, an agent of the High Lama replaces the stolen Tibetan herbs with a similar bottle containing ordinary tea leaves.

The Third Echelon is seeking the fuel for its own spacecraft with an underwater launching pad in Hong Kong. The goal is to be the first on the moon, where a base is to be established to launch nuclear weapons against Earth and to bring survivors under the agency's control.

With a Russian launch to the moon carrying two apes imminent, the Third Echelon, which was going to emulate the Soviet achievement, decides to gain respect at the United Nations by launching two human astronauts, Chester and Harry, instead of apes. The two are used as guinea pigs (and fed with bananas) to test the capabilities of the spacecraft and the effects of spaceflight upon humans. The mission is successful, with moonlight bringing back Chester's photographic memory.

Diane decides to leave the Third Echelon when she discovers that once her colleagues have extracted the final formula from Chester, they plan to dissect Chester and Harry to see the effects of space travel on their bodies. Diane helps the boys escape. They are pursued through Hong Kong, eventually leading Diane to the authorities. Chester and Harry happen to meet Dorothy Lamour at a nightclub where they are recaptured by the Third Echelon.

Chester, Harry and Diane all end up in a rocket bound for another planet. They think they're alone after landing, but they're not—Chester calls out, "The Italians!" as they are joined by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

The story revolves around a Bostonian painter named Richard Upton Pickman who creates horrifying images. His works are brilliantly executed, but so graphic that they result in the revocation of his membership in the Boston Art Club and he is shunned by his fellow artists.

The narrator is a friend of Pickman, who, after the artist's mysterious disappearance, relates to another acquaintance how he was taken on a tour of Pickman's personal gallery, hidden away in a run-down backwater slum of the city. As the two delved deeper into Pickman's mind and art, the rooms seemed to grow ever more evil and the paintings ever more horrific, ending with a final enormous painting of an unearthly, red-eyed and vaguely canine humanoid balefully chewing on a human victim.

A noise sent Pickman running outside the room with a gun while the narrator reached out to unfold what looked like a small piece of rolled paper attached to the monstrous painting. The narrator heard some shots and Pickman walked back in with the smoking gun, telling a story of shooting some rats, and the two men departed.

Afterwards the narrator realized that he had nervously grabbed and put the rolled paper in his pocket when the shots were fired. He unrolled the paper to reveal that it is a photograph not of the background of the painting, but of the subject. Pickman drew his inspirations not from a diseased imagination, but from monsters that were very much real.

Roddy St. James is a British pampered pet mouse who lives in a posh Kensington apartment. Roddy relishes in having the place to himself while his owners are gone away on holiday until a sewer rat named Sid spews out of the sink's drain and wants to stay, especially as England is playing against Germany in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final. Roddy decides to get rid of Sid by flushing him down the toilet, but is instead pushed himself by Sid and flushed down the drain.

Roddy finds himself in Ratropolis, a sewer city made out of various bits of junk that resembles London. He is told to seek out Rita Malone, an enterprising scavenger mouse who works the drains in her faithful boat, the ''Jammy Dodger'' who can possibly help him get home. Roddy and Rita are abducted by rats Spike and Whitey and brought before their boss, the Toad, as Rita stole back a prized ruby originally scavenged by her father. The Toad plans to have Roddy and Rita frozen with liquid nitrogen, but the pair escape. Rita takes the ruby, and a unique electric master cable required to control Ratropolis' sewer floodgates.

Roddy deduces that the ruby is a fake and easily shatters it, enraging Rita. Roddy offers Rita a real ruby if she takes him back to Kensington, to which she agrees. The pair first stop to visit her family before setting off. During Roddy's stay, he overhears a conversation that causes him to assume that Rita is selling him out to the Toad, so he reneges on the deal and steals the ''Jammy Dodger''. When Rita catches up to him, she is able to clear up the misunderstanding. The pair evade pursuit from Spike, Whitey, and their accomplices.

Incensed at his minions' repeated failures, the Toad sends for his French cousin, Le Frog. It is revealed that the Toad was Prince Charles' favorite childhood pet until he was abruptly replaced by a rat and flushed down a toilet, resulting in his hatred of rodents. Le Frog and his subordinates intercept Roddy and Rita to retrieve the cable, but the duo manages to escape out of the sewer drain and back to Roddy's apartment, though the ''Jammy Dodger'' is destroyed.

Roddy pays Rita the promised ruby and an emerald, then shows her around his apartment. She at first believes he has family, but notices his cage and realizes he is a pet and alone. Rita tries to persuade Roddy to come with her, but he is too proud to admit his loneliness and rebuffs her. Rita leaves via the toilet only for her to be captured, with the Toad taking back the master cable. Roddy joins Sid to watch the game. When Sid mentions half-time, Roddy pieces together the Toad's plan: to open the floodgates during half-time of the World Cup, when all the humans will most likely be using their toilets, allowing the ensuing, enormous wave of drainage to destroy Ratropolis, allowing the Toad to use the depopulated city as a home for his tadpole children. Roddy entrusts Sid with his home and cushy position, and has Sid flush him back down the drain again. He frees Rita, and together they defeat the Toad and his henchman by getting Toad and Le Frog’s tongues stuck to moving gears and freeze the wave of drainage with liquid nitrogen. Hailed as a hero, Roddy agrees to stay in Ratropolis with Rita. Soon after, the two, as well as Rita's family, set off on the ''Jammy Dodger II''.

In a mid-credits scene, Roddy's former human owner Tabitha returns home with a new pet cat, frightening Sid.

Dr. Hibbert introduces a frail Ben Matlock to a crowd of excited seniors at the grand opening of a geriatric medical center. After seeing Matlock mobbed to the ground by fans, Grampa becomes aware of his mortality and gives the family their inheritance early. He leaves them a box of old Liberty head silver dollars which they decide to spend right away.

During the entire trip to the mall and back home, Grampa tells far-fetched stories and spouts useless advice, making the family shun him. At the mall, Lisa eagerly buys the new talking Malibu Stacy doll, but is disappointed when the doll utters sexist phrases such as "Thinking too much gives you wrinkles" and "Don't ask me, I'm just a girl." After Lisa and Grampa bemoan how they are treated because of their age, they decide to change: Grampa will get a job and Lisa will find Malibu Stacy's creator, Stacy Lovell.

Grampa struggles with his new job at Krusty Burger, suffering a war flashback at the drive-thru and losing his false teeth when a coworker accidentally puts them in a customer's bag of burgers. He soon becomes angry at the way seniors are treated and quits.

Lisa visits Waylon Smithers, owner of the world's largest Malibu Stacy collection. She asks his help in finding Lovell, who was ousted from the Malibu Stacy company in 1974 (due to her ideas not being considered cost-effective — and for funneling profits to the Viet Cong). Lisa and Lovell decide to create a new talking doll, Lisa Lionheart, voiced by Lisa herself. The doll, designed to look more realistic than Malibu Stacy and costing $46,000 to mass-produce and market, says inspirational and encouraging phrases for girls. However, the Malibu Stacy executives learn of its development and worry that Lisa's doll poses a real threat to their sales.

After a slow initial release, Lisa Lionheart suddenly gains popularity among Malibu Stacy fans after being featured in Kent Brockman's news show. As kids and Smithers rush to the mall to buy Lisa Lionheart, a cart of Malibu Stacy dolls with new hats is wheeled into their path. Though Lisa protests at the cheap reissues of Malibu Stacy dolls, the kids and Smithers ransack the cart regardless. However, one little girl selects a Lisa Lionheart doll, which gives Lisa hope for her brand.

Having completed his medical residency in a Washington, D.C. hospital, Dr. Benjamin "Ben" Stone drives to Beverly Hills for a job interview with noted plastic surgeon Dr. Halberstrom. While passing through Grady, South Carolina, Ben crashes into a fence to avoid hitting a cow. The fence belongs to Judge Evans, who then sentences him to 32 hours of community service at the town's medical clinic. Mayor Nick Nicholson and a reception committee greet Ben, hoping to hire him to replace Dr. Aurelius Hogue, who is planning to retire. While his 1956 Porsche Speedster is being repaired, Ben tends to patients and flirts with ambulance driver Vialula (better known as "Lou"), a single mother of a four-year-old daughter. Local insurance agent Hank Gordon also courts Lou, while Nancy Lee, the mayor's daughter, pursues Ben.

The town's residents begin integrating Ben into their small-town life. Hogue initially dismisses Ben as too young and inexperienced until Ben saves his life from a heart attack. Grateful, Hogue privately calls Halberstrom explaining Ben's delay due to his enforced community service (which he explains as being "volunteer work"), while Judge Evans releases Ben from his remaining sentence. On the eve of Ben's departure, he shares an intimate evening with Lou. Unwilling to exploit the situation or incite Hank's jealousy, Ben secretly leaves town at night. Near the town's reservoir, Ben happens upon a local man whose wife is in labor inside their car. After a short hesitation, he stops to help. During the delivery, Ben's Porsche is once again damaged when a fatigued carnival truck driver knocks into it.

Ben prepares to leave the next day. The community has chipped in and bought him a plane ticket to Los Angeles. Lou, not wanting Ben to waste his talents in a small town, suppresses her feelings and tells him she is marrying Hank.

Dr. Halberstrom hires Ben based on Hogue's recommendation. Beverly Hills' superficiality soon leaves Ben, who grew up in a small town, feeling depressed and ostracized. A few weeks later, Hank and Nancy Lee arrive in Los Angeles, bringing Ben's repaired car with them. After Hank tells Ben that he and Lou broke off their engagement, Ben returns to Grady and reconciles with her.

As the Federation starship ''Enterprise'', under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, passes through the Coalition of Madena, it detects a small cargo ship, under manual control by its single occupant. The crew makes contact with the pilot, Captain Thadiun Okona (William O. Campbell), who requests help to repair a part on his ship. Captain Picard agrees, and the ''Enterprise'' tows Okona's ship while Okona is brought on board. The crew soon finds that Okona has taken a keen interest in the women on the ship, beginning with Transporter Chief Robinson (Teri Hatcher in an uncredited role) and is in no rush to effect repairs.

Continuing through the sector, the ''Enterprise'' is set upon by ships from two different planets, each of which locks its weapons upon the ''Enterprise'', though both are vastly outclassed, and pose no actual threat. Debin (Douglas Rowe), from the planet Atlec, accuses Okona of impregnating his daughter Yanar (Rosalind Ingledew), while Kushell (Albert Stratton) from the planet Straleb asserts that Okona has stolen a state treasure, the Jewel of Thesia. The two leaders clearly know each other, and both demand that their own claim on Okona take priority. Okona denies both accusations, but offers nothing to defend himself with. Picard offers to arbitrate the dispute and brings Debin, Yanar, Kushell, and Benzan (Kieran Mulroney), Kushell's son, aboard the ''Enterprise''. Okona sits and quietly listens to both Debin and Kushell's arguments but does not offer any evidence to defend himself from both allegations.

After much more arguing amongst the two leaders, Okona then declares that he is the father of Yanar's child and offers to marry her. Benzan then declares that the Jewel of Thesia hasn't been stolen: it is revealed that Okona has been acting as a go-between for Yanar and Benzan, who are in love with each other, and that Yanar is pregnant with Benzan's child; Benzan has offered to marry Yanar, intending to present the Jewel of Thesia, which he asserts is rightly his, as a courting gift. Okona was carrying the jewel between the two planets when he got engine trouble, and he only falsely claimed to be the father to force the two lovers to reveal the truth. Embarrassed and frustrated with how her relationship with Benzan has caused Okona to get into trouble and the quarreling of their parents, especially her father's pressuring her to marry in order to instill her family's honor, an exasperated Yanar declares that she is not marrying Benzan or Okona. Okona has a heart-to-heart conversation with Yanar about how she cannot throw away her relationship simply because their parents cannot "behave themselves". Yanar takes heed to Okona's advice. She and Benzan profess their love to each other in front of Debin and Kushell, who finally realize how happy their children are with each other. Picard cannot get involved in the internal political disputes between the two planets and allows Okona to go on his way once his ship is repaired, and Debin and Kushell are left to argue (in a friendly manner) about wedding details.

Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Data is motivated to explore the concept of humor after meeting Okona. Prompted by Guinan, Data uses the holodeck to generate a comedy club setting and stand-up comic (played by Joe Piscopo) as his adviser, but when he performs in front of the holographic audience, he is dismayed to find that they are predisposed to laugh at anything he says or does. Guinan cheers Data up by explaining that being able to laugh or make people laugh is not the final result to become human. As the ''Enterprise'' parts with Okona, Data is able to unintentionally make the crew laugh, but does not at first understand the joke himself.

Two College students Paxton Rodriguez and Josh Brooks travel across Europe with their Icelandic friend Óli Eriksson. In the Netherlands, they visit an Amsterdam nightclub, followed by a brothel. Unable to get back into their hostel because of a curfew, they accept the offer of a man named Alexei to stay at his apartment. He convinces them that, instead of going to Barcelona, they should visit a hostel in Slovakia filled with beautiful women.

The three board a train to Slovakia, where they encounter a Dutch businessman, who touches Josh's leg. Josh yells at him, causing him to leave. Arriving in Slovakia, they find that their roommates in the hostel are two women, Natalya and Svetlana. The women invite them to a spa, and later to a disco. Josh has a run in with a gang of local criminal kids. The Dutch businessman intervenes to defend him. Josh apologizes for his reaction on the train.

Paxton and Josh have sex with Natalya and Svetlana, while Óli leaves with the desk girl, Vala. The next morning, Óli does not return. The two are approached by a Japanese woman named Kana, who shows them a photo of Óli and her friend Yuki, who is also missing. Elsewhere, Óli has been decapitated, while Yuki is being tortured. Josh is anxious to leave, but Paxton convinces him to stay one more night with Natalya and Svetlana. Both women slip the men tranquilizers. Josh faints on his bed. The ill Paxton ends up locked in the pantry.

Josh wakes up in a dungeon-like room, where the Dutch businessman begins maiming him with a drill, making holes in Josh's body, slicing his achilles tendons, then slitting his throat. Paxton wakes up in the disco and returns to the hostel, where he learns that he had supposedly checked out. He is greeted by two women who invite him to the spa. Suspicious, he locates Natalya and Svetlana; Natalya takes Paxton to an old factory, where he sees Josh's mutilated corpse being stitched together by the Dutch businessman. Two men drag Paxton down a hallway, passing by several rooms where other people are being tortured. Paxton is restrained and prepped to be tortured by a German client named Johann.

While cutting off a few of Paxton's fingers with a chainsaw, Johann unintentionally severs his hand restraints. Johann falls over, accidentally severing his own leg with the chainsaw. Paxton shoots Johann in the head with a gun. He then kills a guard, changes into business clothes, and finds a business card for the Elite Hunting Club, an organization that allows its clientele to pay to kill and mutilate tourists. Paxton also discovers Kana, whose face is being disfigured with a blowtorch by an American client. Paxton kills the man and rescues Kana and they flee in a stolen car, pursued by guards. Paxton runs over Natalya, Svetlana, and Alexei, killing two of them while the pursuing car finishes off the third. He also encounters the delinquents from earlier and gives them a big pack of candy and gum. They then attack and kill the men pursuing Paxton with concrete blocks.

The two make it to the train station. Kana, seeing her disfigured face, kills herself by leaping in front of an oncoming train, which attracts attention and allows Paxton to board another train unnoticed. Aboard, Paxton hears the voice of the Dutch businessman. When the train stops in Vienna, Austria, Paxton follows the Dutch businessman into a public restroom and kills him before boarding another train.

Alternate ending

In the director's cut of the film, Paxton follows the Dutch businessman being accompanied by his young daughter into a public restroom of a train station. After finding her teddy bear in the women's restroom, the Dutch businessman frantically searches the crowd for his missing daughter. Paxton is then seen aboard the moving train with the Dutch businessman's daughter, whom he has kidnapped.

''Dragonshard'' takes place in the world of Eberron. In the creation myth of Eberron, the dragon Khyber warred with his sister Siberys and shattered her body to pieces. In his anger, Khyber's brother Eberron wrapped him in his coils, trapping Khyber. The bodies of the three dragons became the three parts of Eberron's world: the surface Eberron, the Ring of Siberys that encircles Eberron, and the underworld of Khyber. The three world parts produce dragonshards, crystal and rock fragments imbued with magic power.

The Heart of Siberys is the largest dragonshard in Eberron. When it fell from the Ring of Siberys to the continent of Xen'drik, it created a storm-swept mountain range known as the Ring of Storms and caused a city to sink into the earth. Its immense magical force caused the natural creatures of the Ring of Storm to evolve into the Lizardfolk. To this day, the Heart draws factions into conflict over control of its power.

In addition to the playable races, Eberron is populated by a number of neutral non-player factions and creatures, including the illithids, longtime foes of the Umbragen, a host of golems constructed by an extinct elven race, ettins, and thri-kreen.

''Dragonshard'' is the first video game set in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting of Eberron. Eberron's creator Keith Baker wrote the storyline for ''Dragonshard''. However, some discrepancies exist between the game and the canonical ''Eberron Campaign Setting''. Siberys dragonshards should be gold in color, but they are blue in the game. Building new warforged is forbidden under the Treaty of Thronehold that ended the Last War — the only sources for new warforged are Merrix d'Cannith's illegal forge in Sharn and the Lord of Blades' forge in the Mournland. However, in the game, the Order faction can build Warforged Titans.

Order of the Flame

The Order of the Flame is the military wing of the Church of the Silver Flame, an organization dedicated to banishing evil. The Order of the Flame is an alliance of cultures and traditions including humans, dwarves, halflings, and celestials. Led by the cleric Lady Marryn and guided by the Dwarven shaman Amathor, the Order travelled to the Ring of Storms to capture the Heart of Siberys and claim its magical power, but were annihilated by the Lizardfolk in a cataclysmic battle for the Heart of Siberys. Amathor, the Titan Bastion and barely an eighth of the original population of the Order's followers escaped to their spaceports so that they could evacuate from Eberron and set course for pastures new. The Order of the Flame can recruit Archons of the heavens, mighty Warforged Titans, fierce Sorcerers and Deathless Guardians.

Umbragen

The Umbragen are rumored to be the remnants of a race of elves that inhabited the ancient city Qalatesh. Qalatesh was destroyed and sank into Khyber after an apocalyptic shard storm, some survivors of the storm fled into Khyber. To survive against the horrors of Khyber, these elves harnessed Khyber's dark energies and integrated them into their culture, becoming the Umbragen. Led by the evil Satros, their goal is to drain the Heart of its power and use it to unlock the secrets of the ruins of Qalatesh. The Umbragen has dark shadow creatures, including flying demons and knights of darkness.

Lizardfolk

The lizardfolk are the native inhabitants of the Ring of Storms. They are rumored to have been placed in the region by dragons to protect the Heart of Siberys. Over time, exposure to the energies of the Heart altered them and granted them sentience. They were united by the hero Darroc, who sacrificed his life to defend the Heart from Order of the Flame invaders. The lizardfolk lived in peace for centuries since Darroc's death, but the Order and Umbragen incursions forced them to take up arms again. Darroc was resurrected later on by the four greatest living heroes of the Lizardfolk people; Redfang the Drakelord, Silverblade the Yuan-ti Pureblood, Wowen the High Shaman and Blackclaw the Master of Decay, and oversaw the bonding of the War Feldrakes for use in the coming war, but was later destroyed for the second and last time when the Ilithid Enchanter Orobus pulled down an especially huge Dragonshard that smashed Darroc's avatar to pieces. Lizardfolk focus on brute force, with units such as giant turtles and dragons.

The film deals with the mid-life crises of its two main protagonists, Mark (Eric McCormack) and Robert (Rafer Weigel), fictionalized versions of the film's director and producer/writer. The two friends struggle with adult career and relationship problems, all the while defiantly clinging to the geeky science fiction popular culture of their youth and seeking advice from their greatest hero, William Shatner.

Shatner plays a campy caricature of himself as he works on a one-man musical version of ''Julius Caesar'' in hopes of finally being taken seriously as a dramatist and musical performer. Hip-hop artist "The Rated R", joined by Shatner, provides the concluding musical number "No Tears for Caesar", a pastiche of famous lines from the play set to a rap rhythm. The film's score was produced by Scott Spock.

On a rainy night in 1928 in a Pennsylvania factory town called Iverstown, thirteen-year-old Martha Ivers tries to run away from the guardianship of her wealthy, despicable aunt, Mrs. Ivers, with her friend, the street-smart, poor Sam Masterson. She is caught and brought home, where Martha's tutor, Walter O'Neil Sr., presents his timid son, Walter Jr., as the one responsible for Martha's recovery. Scolded by her aunt, Martha defiantly states her name is not Ivers, but Smith, her father's name.

During a power failure, Sam comes for her, but Martha's aunt hears her calling to him from downstairs. While Sam slips out unnoticed, Mrs. Ivers starts beating Martha's kitten with her cane. Martha wrestles the cane away and strikes her across the head, causing her to fall down the stairs, accidentally killing her. When the power comes back on, Martha lies about the incident to Walter Sr. Even though Walter Jr. saw everything, he backs her up. The greedy Walter Sr. makes it clear to both Walter Jr. and Martha that he knows what happened but that as long as he and his son stand to benefit, he will play along. Sam leaves town.

Seventeen years later, in 1946, Walter Sr. is now dead, and Walter Jr. is now Iverstown's district attorney and is married to Martha, who has used her inheritance to expand the Ivers milling empire. Their marriage is one-sided; he loves her, but Walter knows she does not love him.

Sam, a former soldier and itinerant gambler, drives into the small town by chance and, after an accident, leaves his car to be repaired. While waiting, he goes to his old home, now a boarding house. He meets Antonia "Toni" Marachek, who has just been released from jail. She misses her bus, and they spend the night in adjoining rooms in a hotel. She is later picked up for violating her probation by not returning to her hometown. Sam asks Walter to use his influence to get Toni released.

Walter is convinced Sam has blackmail in mind. Sam then learns that Walter Sr. had presented Martha's version of the 1928 accidental murder to the police: that an intruder murdered Martha's aunt. With his leverage, Walter Sr. had made Martha marry his son. When the police identified a former employee of the aunt as the murderer, the two Walters and Martha helped convict him, and he was hanged.

When Martha reacts joyfully to seeing Sam, a jealous Walter forces Toni to set him up. Sam is beaten up and driven out of town, but he is too tough to be intimidated. When all else fails, Walter makes a halfhearted attempt to kill Sam himself but is easily disarmed. Walter inadvertently blurts out his fears of blackmail, only to learn that Sam had not witnessed the death. Martha breaks down and laments that he left without her all those years ago, taking her only chance for love and freedom with him.

Sam is torn between his old love and his new one with Toni. Although he eventually forgives Toni for betraying him, he and Martha spend an idyllic day together, rekindling his feelings for her.

Walter arranges to meet Sam to settle matters. Before Sam arrives, Walter gets drunk, and Martha finds out about the meeting. When Walter falls down the stairs, Martha urges Sam to kill her unconscious husband. Sam instead brings Walter around. Martha pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot Sam in "self-defense" as an intruder. Sam tells her it would work if she could get Walter to corroborate her story. Sam turns his back on her and leaves.

Walter embraces and kisses Martha, then points the gun at her midriff. Oddly relieved, she puts her thumb over his finger on the trigger and presses. As she is dying, she defiantly states her name is not Martha Ivers, but Martha Smith. Outside, Sam hears the shot. He runs toward the mansion but sees Walter, holding Martha's body, shoot himself. Sam and Toni drive away together.

Charlotte is a woman in her twenties, married to Pierre, an affluent man in his later thirties or forties. Pierre's passion is flying, and he flies his own private plane, after previously having been an air force pilot. Pierre has a young son, Nicolas, from his first marriage, which dissolved when his wife left him for another man. Pierre, Charlotte, and Nicolas live together in a modern apartment outside Paris. Charlotte spends her days going to cafes, shopping, swimming, at the cinema, reading women's fashion magazines, or with her lover, Robert, an actor. Pierre believes that Charlotte's affair is over, having previously confronted her with evidence from a private investigator.

As the film opens, Charlotte and Robert are in a Paris love nest that Robert has rented. They make love, and he repeats an earlier request that Charlotte divorce Pierre to marry him. Leaving the apartment, Robert drives Charlotte to the department store Printemps, where she says she is going buy new bras. (Indeed, the film is permeated by shots of advertisements for bras and Charlotte's monologues or dialogues about breast size and body image.) However, instead of shopping, she cuts through the store and Charlotte takes a series of taxis to avoid a private investigator who she thinks is still following her, and she goes to collect her stepson from school. They go to an airport to collect Pierre and his colleague, the filmmaker Roger Leenhardt, who have returned from Germany in Pierre's private plane. While in Germany, Pierre and Roger attended sessions of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, and both men have an interest in the Holocaust. They go back to the couple's apartment for dinner. After dinner they discuss the Holocaust and move to the question of memory and one's relationship to the past and present. After Roger's departure, Charlotte and Pierre play-fight and make love.

The next morning, the maid tells Charlotte a story of a ribald love-making session with her own husband. For this narrative, Godard borrowed from Louis-Ferdinand Céline's ''Death on Credit'', which he acknowledges indirectly in the film. Charlotte then attends a fashion photo-shoot at a swimming pool and eavesdrops at a nearby café as two teenage girls discuss their love lives and first sexual encounters.

Charlotte goes to the doctor and learns that she is pregnant. She does not know which man is the father and asks the doctor about contraception, leading to a discussion of the relationship between love, sexual pleasure, and conception.

Charlotte then goes to Orly Airport for an assignation with Robert, as previously arranged, before he has to fly to Marseille to act in a production of Racine's ''Bérénice''. They meet in the back of the airport's cinema, during a screening of ''Night and Fog'', Alain Resnais's documentary about the Holocaust. Partway through the film, they leave the theater separately and rendezvous at the airport hotel to make love. During their time together, Charlotte questions Robert about love. They hold hands on the mattress of the bed, echoing the opening shots of the movie. As Robert prepares to leave, they both say – one after the other – ''C'est fini'' ("It's over.").

''Les Carabiniers'' (1963) tells the story of two poor men called to serve in battle, lured by promises of the world's riches. Ulysses (Marino Mase) and Michelangelo (Albert Juross) receive letters from the king of their fictional country that allow them to have complete freedom from consequence while fighting in the war, in return for anything they desire—swimming pools, Maseratis, women—at the enemy's expense.

Their wives, Venus and Cleopatra (Catherine Ribeiro and Genevieve Galea) encourage them to fight when they hear about the riches. They leave and cross the battlefields and villages, destroying and pillaging as they wish. The pair's exploits are recounted through postcards sent to their wives, telling tales of the horrors of battle. The previously idealistic idea that the men have of war disintegrates, as they are still poor and now wounded. They return home with a suitcase full of postcards of the splendors of the world that they have fought for, and are told by army officials that they must wait until the war ends to receive their pay.

One day, the sky explodes with sparks, and the couples race into town, believing that the war has ended. Ulysses and Michelangelo are informed by their superiors that their king has lost the war, and that all of the war criminals must be punished. The two men are then shot for their crimes.

Set and filmed in Brunswick, a Melbourne suburb, it deals with a humble chef, Carl (Neill) who gets a job at a sleazy nightclub owned by Yanni Voulgaris (Nicholas Papademetriou). He begins a relationship with the Greek-Australian barmaid, Sophie (Zoe Carides), which soon brings him into trouble with his employers and her strict father. His drug dealing Turkish-Australian co-worker, Mustafa (Nick Lathouris), is beaten up by the Greek-Australian owners. Thinking Carl told them, Mustafa attacks Carl. Carl accidentally stabs and kills him.

He calls his friend, Dave (John Clarke), a grave digger, and they bury Mustafa. This leads to one of the most famous scenes in the film—Dave's idea that they bury the body in the opened grave of someone else whose husband will be buried above her the following day. Dave expects the coffin of the deceased to be comparatively empty, given how long it has been since she died. When he finds that the rate of decomposition is not what he expects, he begins to stomp and crush her body to make some room.

Later, Mustafa's wife and son come to the restaurant and ask Carl if they know what happened to Mustafa. Carl denies having any knowledge and is wracked with guilt. He gives Mustafa's pay to his wife, even though Dave tells him that it might make him suspect. Later Mustafa's son sees him at a pool with Sophie. Knowing that Sophie is also having a relationship with one of the Greek owners, Mustafa's Turkish friends confront Carl.

Believing the Greek owners to be responsible, they get their revenge on them, ironically killing the one who was originally responsible for beating Mustafa in the first place. Carl leaves his job and is later comforted when he sees Mustafa in the church (albeit, in a dream) who offers him a friendly handshake. After his domineering mother suffers a stroke and is left a quadriplegic, Carl marries Sophie, despite her father's protests and the final scene from their wedding is reminiscent of the Last Supper.

During the Algerian War, Bruno Forestier lives in Geneva to escape the enlistment in France. Working for a La Main Rouge, he is ordered to kill Palivoda, who is pro-FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria), to prove he is not a double agent. Refusal and hesitation keep him from carrying out the assassination.

Meanwhile, he meets and falls in love with Véronica Dreyer, who helped the FLN. Bruno plans to leave with her for Brazil, but is captured and tortured by Algerian revolutionaries.

He escapes, and agrees to kill Palivoda for the French in exchange for passage to Brazil for himself and Véronica. However, the French discover Véronica's ties to the FLN, and torture her to death.

The film is almost documentary in its portrayal of facts. It claims to be based strongly on facts, apart from some adaptations like merging various characters into one.

After two hours, the film changes dramatically. The first two hours are about the six years before the fall of Batista's dictatorship. The last hour is about the 40 years after that.

In the first two hours, Castro regularly distances himself from Communism and Communists, but after the take-over, the film suggests that Castro had always aspired a Marxist-Leninist State.

The uncouth Sir Les Patterson teams up with Dame Edna Everage (both played by Barry Humphries) to save the world from a virulent bioterror attack ordered by Colonel Richard Godowni (Thaao Penghlis) of the Gulf State of Abu Niveah.

An easy-going garage mechanic, Ed Walters (Tim Robbins), meets Catherine Boyd (Meg Ryan), a successful Princeton University mathematics doctoral candidate, as she comes into the garage, accompanied by her resistant and critical English fiancé, acerbic experimental psychology professor James Moreland (Stephen Fry). There is an immediate "electric" connection which Ed recognizes as he falls in love with her at first sight, but she does not reciprocate.

Ed sees his future, briefly, and Catherine is a major part of it; they are married, and have children together. "How long will all of this take?" asks Catherine, referring to the car repair, and Ed, thinking about their future life together, replies, "That's up to you". His life purpose has suddenly been decided by a force of nature greater than himself.

Finding a watch she left at the garage, Ed travels to her address and finds himself face to face with Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau), who is Catherine's uncle.

Albert—portrayed as a fun-loving genius—and his mischievous friends, fellow scientists Nathan Liebknecht (Joseph Maher), Kurt Gödel (Lou Jacobi), and Boris Podolsky (Gene Saks), quickly accept Ed as a friend and see Ed as someone who would be better suited for Catherine. The four of them bring their communal vehicle to Ed's garage to have it modified as a convertible, and chat with Ed about how to attract Catherine's interest. An amused suggestion by Ed to "borrow their brains" inspires them to try to help Ed look and sound like a scientist (i.e., a "wunderkind" in physics) temporarily, in order to garner Catherine's attention for Ed, while at the same time trying to convince Catherine that life is not all about the mind, but is also about the heart. James's heart is virtually non-existent (as seen in his casual cruelty in his treatment of test subjects and limited awareness of humanity), while Ed's heart is adventurous and virtually limitless.

Einstein sees bringing Ed and Catherine together as his most enduring legacy to his niece, because she was of the mistaken opinion that her only contribution to the world was to be through her children, and that she therefore must marry a total intellectual because then she will produce genius children, like himself. Einstein realizes that Ed loves Catherine for herself, and will help her blossom into her full potential as a person full of life and spirit; a fellow world traveler with mutual interests as varied as the Boyd's Comet and the Seven Sacred Pools on Maui, which James belittled.

Catherine eventually sees through the "intellectual Ed" ruse Einstein and his cohorts had temporarily created in order to get her to give Ed some attention, but falls for Ed anyway, just as Einstein had hoped. A smiling Albert Einstein uses a small telescope to spy happily on the two young moonstruck lovers as they take delight in the return of Boyd's Comet and in each other's company. The film ends with both Catherine and Albert saying "Wahoo!", just as Einstein had earlier in the film while riding on Ed's motorcycle.

12-year-old David has lived in a concentration camp for as long as he can remember.

David was a strong, brave, and intelligent boy who had been ripped away from his mother and put into a dreadful camp. His only friend in the camp, Johannes, died sometime before from a heart attack, as is revealed in a flashback in Chapter 1. One of the commandants has been keeping an eye on David, making sure he is fed properly and taking his vitamins. This guard sets up the escape, gives him some soap, and leaves a sack outside the camp fence with bread, a bottle of water, and a compass in it. David must go south to Salonika, find a boat to Italy, then travel north to a free country that has a king.

David finds a truck headed for Salonika, and without realizing it, climbs on board. He eats some of the food inside and when the truck stops, he jumps out. He finds a boat labeled "Italy" and sneaks in. After hiding for a few days and getting quite drunk from drinking wine, he is found. Thankfully, the Italian sailor decides to help David escape by lowering him down the side of the ship with a lifebelt on. He floats to land and, after climbing for a little way, promptly falls asleep.

After having a bath, David finds a cave to spend the day in. Then he decides to go to the town nearby to learn about life outside of a prison camp. He is given, much to his surprise, a loaf of bread. He also finds a piece of newspaper that he uses to practise reading with. Later, after visiting the town every day for a while, David uses the excuse that he works for a circus to explain why he is a polyglot and why he is traveling. Then he overhears people talking about him. He flees the town and travels north. On his way, he helps people, and sometimes they give him money. Along his journey, David discovers the beauty of the world and slowly he changes his behavior and the way he interacts with people.

He saves a girl named Maria from a fire in a shed where she was trapped. David spends some time in Maria's family's house, where he sees a globe and learns about different countries. However, his knowledge of suffering and death, as well as his enmity with their eldest son and his deepening, overtly exclusive relationship with Maria worries the parents. David overhears them talking about him and, after writing them a letter, leaves the house to travel north again. Some time later he sees a personal advertisement in a newspaper placed by Maria's family, offering him a home and saying they understand his reticence.

David has also been praying to the "God of green pastures and still waters", and a priest explains that while some people say there are many gods, there really is only one.

When he meets Sophie, a middle-aged lady who lives in Switzerland and likes to paint as a hobby, she asks David if she might paint him; later she invites David to have lunch with her in her house, and while he is there, David sees a picture of a woman in Denmark. Sophie tells him that the woman's husband and her child, a boy named David, were killed, but that a guard who was attracted to the woman allowed her to escape. He realizes he needs to travel to Denmark and find that woman, who is his mother. He also realizes that the guard, who became the commandant, has saved him because he was in love with David's mother. However, because she did not love him back, and he felt a need for revenge, he did not tell her that David was still alive.

When winter hits, David is traveling through the mountains, and he is held prisoner by a farmer who uses him for work. It is a hard season, but he is grateful to shelter at night in the farmer's stable until the snow melts. The farmer's dog, King, keeps him company through the winter. David knows that as the snow melts, he must escape from the bolted stable, as the farmer will soon hand him to the police. He makes a hole in the stable, digs a tunnel, and is free again. King catches up with him. Later, the dog gives his life to distract some guards in East Germany so that David can sneak over the border. David travels on through Denmark to Copenhagen where he looks up his mother's address in a telephone book, which he does find. Virtually at the end of his strength he knocks on the door of "the house" and introduces himself to his mother whom he recognizes from the picture he saw of her in Switzerland. His mother instantly recognizes him as her son David. Gladly she takes her son in to her house and that is the end of the story.

Inside a run-down building full of explosives in Gotham City, Batman confronts a group of thugs working for Dr. Johnathan Crane. The explosives are accidentally triggered during the fight, setting the building on fire. Batman makes his way through the inferno and catches Crane, but he sprays him with some gas, causing Batman to go psychotic and jump out of a window. The game then flashes back to a year ago in the Himalayas, during Bruce Wayne's training with Henri Ducard and the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. When the League tasks Bruce with executing a criminal to complete his training, he refuses to do so. Upon learning the League intends to destroy Gotham, which they believe is beyond saving, Bruce burns their temple down, and narrowly escapes with Ducard, leaving Ra's and the rest of the League to die in the fire.

After parting ways with Ducard, Bruce returns to Gotham and intends to fight crime. He sets up a base in the caves beneath Wayne Manor and becomes the vigilante Batman, inspired by his childhood fear of bats. He is aided in his crusade by his longtime butler Alfred and Wayne Enterprises archivist Lucius, who supplies him with advanced technology. Bruce keeps his Batman identity secret from everyone else including Rachel Dawes, his childhood sweetheart. A week prior to the game's opening sequence, learning that mob boss Carmine Falcone is involved with a drug shipment at the Gotham Docks, Batman captures him and leaves him for the GCPD to find. He then informs Rachel of the shipment, and provides her with enough evidence to enlist Sergeant James Gordon, one of Gotham's few honest cops, to arrest Falcone.

Bruce is informed by Lucius of the theft of a microwave emitter from Wayne Enterprises, and pursues the thieves in his Tumbler, but discovers they used a decoy to lure him away. Putting that issue aside, Batman seeks to learn more about Falcone's ongoing drug operation and his associates. He tracks down Gordon's crooked partner Arnold Flass as he attempts to blackmail psychotic serial killer Victor Zsasz into telling him about Crane, Falcone's new partner. Batman catches Flass and threatens him into revealing that besides drugs, Falcone's men are shipping some chemicals to Crane, who works at Arkham Asylum. Batman subsequently intercepts the shipment, and follows the helicopter used to transport it to Crane, leading to the game's opening sequence.

Lucius develops an antidote and cures Bruce of the gas sprayed on him, which he learns is a dose of toxin made by Crane which induces horrifying hallucinations and irrational fear. Meanwhile, Rachel seeks to investigate the connection between Crane and Falcone, who was previously transferred to the facility after being drugged with the toxin by Crane. She enters Arkham to question Crane, but ends up being drugged as well and held captive. Batman infiltrates Arkham and learns that Crane has introduced his toxin into Gotham's water supply. However, Crane discovers His presence and calls the GCPD to arrest him. As the police storm Arkham, Batman confronts Crane and interrogates him after exposing him to his own toxin, learning he works for Ra's al Ghul. Leaving Crane to be arrested, Batman speaks with Gordon and convinces him to help him get Rachel, who is dying from the toxin, to safety. After sneaking out of the asylum and avoiding the pursuing police, Batman takes Rachel to the Batcave, where he manages to save her life, but opts to keep his identity secret from her for her safety.

Later, during his birthday party at Wayne Manor, Bruce is confronted by surviving members of the League of Shadows, led by Ducard, who reveals himself as the true Ra's Al Ghul, and informs him of his plan to destroy Gotham by vaporizing its water supply using the stolen microwave emitter, which will render Crane's toxin airborne and cause mass hysteria. As the League sets the manor on fire, Bruce rescues Lucius and escapes with Alfred to the Batcave. Meanwhile, a prison riot occurs at Arkham, and numerous inmates escape onto the streets of Narrows Island, where they become violent after being exposed to Crane's toxin. Amidst the chaos, Batman confronts Crane and stops him from leading the criminals into Gotham. Crane is again exposed to his toxin and hallucinates Batman as a monster, causing him to jump into the river in fear.

Batman shifts focus towards stopping the League, after Ra's loads the microwave emitter onto Gotham's monorail train to transport it to the city's central water hub. He is helped by Rachel, who tries to stop the train at the monorail control station, until Zsasz attacks her. Batman rescues Rachel, indirectly revealing his identity to her in the process, and then boards the train in hopes of deactivating the microwave emitter. After defeating Ra's, he discovers the device cannot be shut down, so he detonates the Tumbler to destroy the track and prevent the train from reaching the heart of Gotham. Batman refuses to kill Ra's but chooses not to save him either, leaving the train before it crashes, killing Ra's.

Later, as Gotham slowly returns to normal, Bruce accepts his new responsibility as Batman.

In a neglected box in her Tokyo apartment, Ritsuko finds a teenage girl's audio diary on an old cassette. Ritsuko's fiancée Saku spots her in a television report at Takamatsu Airport about an approaching typhoon. He realizes she has gone to their hometown in Shikoku and goes after her. There, at his family home, he discovers a box of audio cassettes. He listens to them while retracting his steps from his school life.

In 1986, the teenage Saku attends the funeral of his school principal. The eulogy reader, popular school athlete Aki, catches his eye and they begin seeing each other. Saku's uncle Shigezou, a photographer, tells him he was once the principal's lover. At his request, Aki and Saku steal the principal's remains from the cemetery and give them to Shigezou.

Hoping to win a Walkman, Saku and Aki write to a local radio station that reads out listeners' stories of tragic romance. When Saku wins by concocting a story about a girl with leukemia, Aki records a tape chastising him, saying it is wrong to lie about such things. He apologizes and they begin exchanging long messages on tape. After they visit an uninhabited island and find an old camera with undeveloped film inside, Aki collapses and is admitted to hospital.

In the present, Ritsuko finds Saku in the school, engrossed in Aki's tapes, but does not disturb him. As the typhoon approaches, she takes shelter in Shigezou's shop and sees a photo of the young Saku and Aki in wedding clothes. Shigezou tells her he took the photo shortly before Aki's death.

In the past, Aki tells Saku she has leukemia. The young Ritsuko delivers Aki's tapes to Saku's school pigeonhole. Shigezou develops the old film from the island, revealing photos of Uluru in Australia. Ritsuko delivers the photos to Aki in the hospital, who is captivated by them. Saku promises her they will visit Uluru.

Aki sneaks away from the hospital with Saku to have passport photos taken at Shigezou’s shop. Inspired by Shigezou's wedding photography, she asks him to take a photo that people can remember her by and they stage a wedding photo. When Aki returns to the hospital, she learns her friend, another leukemia patient, has died suddenly.

Aki's condition worsens. She loses her hair and is moved to a sterile ward. Though they can no longer have physical contact, Saku proposes to her. He meets her at midnight to take her to Uluru, but at the airport, all flights are canceled because of a typhoon and Aki collapses. In the hospital, the dying Aki records a goodbye tape for Saku. Ritsuko is hit by a car and fails to deliver the tape.

In the present, Ritsuko calls Saku from Shigezou's photo shop and apologizes for not delivering Aki's final tape. He goes to the shop but finds her gone, having left Aki's tape with Shigezou for him. Saku tells Shigezou he has never gotten over Aki's death and Shigezou comforts him. Saku reunites with Ritsuko at the airport, where the flights have been canceled because of the typhoon.

Saku and Ritsuko visit Uluru and Saku listens to Aki's final tape. Together they fulfil Aki's last wish: to have her ashes scattered at Uluru.

Set in eighteenth-century Italy, ''Cry to Heaven'' focuses on two characters, peasant-born Guido Maffeo, who is castrated at the age of six to preserve his soprano voice, and fifteen-year-old Tonio Treschi, the last son of a noble family from the Republic of Venice, whose father, Andrea, is a member of the Council of Three of ''La Serenissima''. Although Guido becomes a star of the opera as a teenager, he loses his voice at eighteen, as many castrati did. After a suicide attempt, he becomes a music teacher in the Naples conservatorio. Tonio, on the other hand, learns that his older brother Carlo was exiled for embarrassing the family. Although Andrea attempts to cut Carlo out of the family, Carlo returns after Andrea's death, and plots to regain his original position. Revealing that Tonio is actually his illegitimate son, he has Tonio castrated, and sends him off with Guido to study in Naples.

Although everyone in Venice is inclined to believe that Carlo was behind his castration, Tonio cannot accuse him of the crime because doing so would result in the extinction of the Treschi family. After some soul-searching, he decides to remain in Naples and study under Guido, holding off on revenge until after Carlo and his mother (also Carlo's lover and later wife) have children to ensure the family line.

By the power of Tonio's almost inhuman soprano voice, Guido is roused from his depression, and takes him as a star student. Tonio progresses in his lessons extremely quickly. Guido also has Tonio perform some of his original compositions, which begin to impress audiences at the ''conservatorio''.

Tonio, for his part, struggles to come to terms with his castrato status; in his own mind, he is "less than a man". At first, he finds it difficult even to associate with his fellow castrati. As time goes on, he has a love affair with another castrato boy, Domenico, and after Domenico leaves, with Guido himself. He comes to dominate the ''conservatorio''—in addition to being a star student, he soon befriends all the boys his age, and becomes something of a leader and confidant.

Tonio also continues his studies in fencing and firearms, which, in Guido's words, make him into a "hero" to his fellow students, especially after, in self-defense, he kills a student who vowed to kill him. As he was raised to be a gentleman, and because he was castrated relatively late in life, he continues to act like a man, unlike the more effeminate poses of castrati boys. Despite the fact he is a castrato, even local noblemen come to respect him both as a sparring partner and as a friend.

However, Guido and others need to scheme to get Tonio, finally, out of the conservatorio and onto the stage. After his debut, Guido and Tonio travel to Rome for his operatic premiere. There he gains the patronage of a powerful cardinal, Calvino, and befriends a powerful count from Florence, di Stefano. Although he is almost booed off the stage for upstaging the operatic star Bettichino, he proves a great success, and both he and Guido have a bright futures in front of themselves. Tonio even becomes lovers with an English noblewoman and widow, Christina, seemingly restoring him to his former status.

Nonetheless, Tonio is unable to break free of the desire for revenge against Carlo. After having two children by Carlo, Tonio's mother, Marianna, dies. Soon afterwards—and before his Mardi Gras opera performance—hitmen sent by Carlo try to kill him. Against the wishes of all his friends, Tonio vows to return in time for an Easter opera, then disappears.

In Venice, Carlo has become a pathetic, alcoholic wreck. Disguised as a woman (a trick he learned for the opera), Tonio succeeds in "seducing" his father and capturing him. Intoxicated, Carlo not only curses ever coming back to Venice, but also wants to take Tonio's place, finding the city decadent and confining. Although he promises never to try and hurt Tonio again, he attempts to kill him the second he has the opportunity. In response, Tonio finally kills Carlo. He then returns to his friends, at last able to fully pursue his life.

Dylan Moran starred as boy next door Ian Lyons, who recently eloped with country girl Lisa Yardley (Charlotte Coleman). At the show's start, after a year living in London they move to the village of Snowle, where her intimidating father (Frank Finlay) breeds turkeys. He and most of Lisa's family (which included Emma Chambers as her sister and Peter Serafinowicz as her thuggish brother) take a strong dislike to Ian, and much of the comedy comes from how Ian copes with life with her family and village life in general. The situation is also complicated by Lisa's ex-boyfriend Derek (Mark Heap), who still loves her.

The series' title is a reference to the trade Ian takes up within the village, buying the business of the local photographer despite having no formal training in photography (he had previously managed a comedy club in London). Photography plays an important part within the stories; the beginning of series one shows Ian and Lisa outside a country church having wedding photos taken; this is then shown to be a staged event arranged by Lisa's family due to their unhappiness at them eloping and marrying abroad prior to the series starting. Ian first realises the extent of the family's hatred for him when he witnesses Lisa's mother cutting him out of the wedding pictures at the end of the first episode. Further episodes also have photography playing a key role, including an episode where nude photos of Lisa get circulated around the village after her brother and his friends discover them. Another episode sees Lisa's sister approach Ian for a photo shoot, and her disappointment when he is unable to photograph her looking glamorous and beautiful. There is a running joke throughout the series of Ian wanting to make a book of photographs of country fire stations in Britain.

Series 2 ends with Ian and Lisa sitting in their car debating whether to leave the village; Ian cannot bear to live there any more due to the repeated aggression shown by Lisa's family to him but Lisa does not want to live in London.

Alice White plays the part of a working class girl who dreams about living a life of luxury. Her father, Richard Carlyle, runs a cigar store while White works as a stenographer. William Bakewell, a soda jerker, is madly in love with White and has even asked her father for his consent to their marriage. Although Carlyle likes Bakewell and would like to see her daughter marry him, White refuses to consider marrying him on the wage he currently earns. One day, White convinces Bakewell to take her to a fancy exclusive nightclub. Once they arrive and are seated, Bakewell is shocked at the prices and suggests that they go elsewhere. This leads to an argument with White. As the couple is about to leave, an announcement is made for a leg contest and White decides to enter. She wins first place and is awarded her prize by Chester Morris, a gangster. Dazzled by his fancy clothes and car, White accepts his attentions and give Bakewell the air.

Eventually Morris asks White to marry him, but before they tie the knot, Morris, who is low on cash, robs a cigar store and in the process shoots the man behind the counter. Without knowing it, he has shot White's father. As White and Morris are about to head out for another night on the town now that they have money, they stop at her father's cigar store to say hello. As they approach they see police stationed around and Morris realizes what he has done. He convinces White to stay in the car while he checks out what happened. He talks a bit to the police and then tells White that her father is ok and that he now at the police station to help the police identify a thief. In reality, however White's father is at the hospital suffering from a gunshot wound that Morris gave him. Morris convinces White to continue on their date and they drive to the club, but Bakewell, who suspects that Morris was behind the robbery, asks the police to help him entrap Morris. They manage to get Morris to unwittingly to confess to the crime and convince him to skip town, but they arrest him before he has a chance to board the train. Morris is taken to jail and White's father recovers. White, humbled by the experience, agrees to marry Bakewell.

The story is set, like many Zelazny pure science fiction novels, a few centuries in the future. The narrator, a Mafia assassin named Angelo di Negri, has been revived from suspended animation by the mostly legitimate successors of the criminal organization, and given a mission to assassinate a scientist on a fortified facility on an otherwise uninhabited planet.

Part 1

The first part of the novel describes Negri's assault on the planet, in which he begins the attack in a heavily armed and armored space capsule, which is gradually reduced by the formidable defenses to a ground-attack vehicle, which in turn is slowly degraded until Negri abandons it to continue on foot with hand-held weapons, eventually left only with a stiletto.

After he completes the job, the phone rings. This is a motif throughout the story. His victim has managed to survive even the death of his body, and tells Negri that while they were fighting, war has taken place and humanity is near extinction. Only the technology in another building can preserve the remnants. Negri locates the cache, and sets out on the next phase of his story.

Part 2

Despite also being in the first person, the next part of the novel appears to have nothing to do with Negri. The narrator is a member of some secret cabal scattered throughout the House, a series of artificial environments where people live, never seeing the outdoors. It seems this cabal is in charge of the House, and someone is killing the members one by one.

Each death jolts the others, so they are evidently clones. (As described earlier in the novel, cloning can be accomplished, although clones have some unexplained psychic connection to each other). One of the cabal is the Nexus, the one who can interface with the computer that seems to run everything. Each time a Nexus is killed his consciousness transfers to another member. The narration passes from one Nexus to the next as the killer works his way through his list. Each one gets the memories of his predecessor at the moment of death.

The House has Wings, different sections, connected by Passages, which may really be wormholes in space. Some Wings are residential, some offices, some manufacturing, some maintenance etc. There are also levels within Wings. Wing Null is where the computer is, and also where a series of pins in a circuit board represent stages in the cabal's cleansing of evil instincts and bad memories from its collective personality. This mirrors the avowed purpose of the House - to rid humanity of all the traits which brought about its downfall, so it is fit to be let loose once more. This involves occasionally removing people with undesirable characteristics, in the effort to breed a better human.

The narrator has to deal with an internal demon, a voice that tries to get him to remove the most recent pin. Old memories are not entirely suppressed and manifest themselves in this way. As the menace from the killer - now known as Mr. Black, grows, the voice becomes more persistent until one by one the pins are removed, revealing more about the history of the cabal.

The narrator is further dogged by a woman, whose father was forced to commit suicide by the cabal to suppress an unwanted technology, and who seems to know Mr. Black. This section of the story features running battles through offices, factories and service tunnels, as the narrator hunts and is hunted by Mr. Black. In one scene the narrator is attempting to escape through offices, and as he passes each desk the phone rings in some mocking version of the pursuit.

As the pins are removed the narrator becomes a more capable hunter, and more ruthless. Finally the narrator kills Black, who dies with a smile on his face. It quickly becomes obvious why. Black is another clone, and his personality transfers to one of the cabal.

The narrator fights off the transfer, but realizes that in doing so he has allowed Black to take over one of the others, who are all in Wing Null. Arriving there with the woman in tow, he finds that all but one are dead, and Black has escaped to the Outside. He has also pulled all but the last pin. In a final fight across the same blasted landscape where Negri attacked in the beginning, Black kills the narrator, but then has to deal with the inevitable transfer.

Finale

Black becomes the new narrator. He was a stolen clone, but he did not remember his origins. He simply lived in the cracks in the House society, somehow being helped by an unknown party. He eventually became the cabal's nemesis, intent on opening the House and setting humanity free again. But now he is the cabal, with all their conflicting memories and motives. He has to fight his way back to Wing Null, dealing with all the old defenses again.

It becomes obvious that the clones are all related to Angelo Negri. With the pulling of the final pin, Negri's personality is restored. He realizes that the House is a failure. The only thing left to do is to break open the various Wings and shut down the computer. This he does. For the last time, the phone rings. The woman answers. It is the disembodied scientist, who has been manipulating events all along.

Negri tells the woman to take a message.

''Philadelphia, Here I Come!'' centres around Gareth (Gar) O'Donnell's move to America, specifically Philadelphia. The play takes place on the night before and morning of Gar's departure to America. Gar is portrayed by two characters, Gar Public ("the Gar that people see, talk to, talk about") and Gar Private ("the unseen man, the man within, the conscience"). Gareth lives with his father, S. B. O'Donnell ("a responsible, respectable citizen") with whom he has never connected. Gar works for his father in his shop and their relationship is no different from that of Boss and Employee. Private often makes fun of S.B. calling him "Screwballs" and parodying his nightly routine as a fashion show.

Essentially, this play is a tragicomedy. It contains many comical scenes, especially the scene with Lizzy Sweeney, Gar's aunt, in which Gar decides to go to America. Despite the fact that Gar seems to have a relationship with his father no different from that of Boss and Employee, there are indications that there is love between them. In episode 1, Madge says "It must have been near daybreak when he (SB O'Donnell) got to sleep last night. I could hear the bed creaking." Other indications that SB is secretly devastated by his son's imminent departure, include his remembrance of Gar in a sailor suit proudly declaring he need not go to school, he'll work in his father's shop – a memory of an event that may not have happened, and the scene when he pretends to read the paper, but fails to notice that it has been upside-down.

Gar's reasons for going to America (he wanted to prove to Aunt Lizzie that he was not "cold like the O'Donnells"), along with his secret love for his uncommunicative father, and their desperate final, pathetic attempts to communicate make this play quite tragic.

All of the action in this play takes place within a period of a few hours on the evening of Gar's departure, but it also includes flashbacks to Gar's relationship with local girl Kate Doogan, and the visit from his Aunt Lizzie.

''Earth X''

Earth X is one of a number of planets implanted with a gestating Celestial egg. About ten years after the end of the heroic age, Black Bolt releases the mutagenic Terrigen Mists into Earth's atmosphere, seeking to transform humanity into Inhumans so that his people would not suffer persecution.

He blinded Uatu the Watcher to prevent him from witnessing his actions, and Black Bolt and the Inhumans leave Earth. Unable to operate his observation equipment, Uatu transports X-51 (Machine Man)—who has long since given up super-heroics to imitate the life of his human creator—to the Moon to act as Earth's new Watcher. X-51 gets increasingly annoyed at Uatu's assurance of the heroes' defeat.

After killing Red Skull, Captain America quits the Avengers, considering himself unfit for the team. Shortly afterward, Reed Richards constructs a worldwide network of vibranium power centers to solve the looming energy crisis, but the experiment fails when one of Reed's scientists falls into the reactor, causing a worldwide explosive chain reaction. The scientist that fell into the reactor became encased within vibranium and discovered that she can manipulate the rare metal, becoming the Iron Maiden.

The Terrigen Mists begin mutating Earth's human population, though much of the world blames "Plague X" on Richards' failed experiment. Benny Beckley, the young son of Comet Man, gains the ability to control the actions of others and becomes known as Skull. Nearly all of the world's telepaths are killed by the backlash caused by Beckley's power manifestation. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom and Namor the Sub-Mariner fight the Fantastic Four. Doom is killed in an explosion along with Susan Richards. Namor kills Johnny Storm. Franklin Richards responds by cursing Namor, causing one side of his body to burst into flame upon contact with air, forcing Namor back into the ocean. A distraught Reed Richards dons Doom's armor and exiles himself to Castle Doom in Latveria.

Soon after, the Absorbing Man absorbs Ultron. The Vision defeats the Absorbing Man with a computer virus. Attempting to isolate the virus by turning to stone, the Absorbing Man is shattered by the Vision after murdering the Avengers. Absorbing Man's pieces are scattered amongst the world's leaders so that he can never be reassembled.

Norman Osborn manipulates America into electing him President by using alien DNA to create the Hydra—a parasite collective that mind-controls its host bodies—and grants Tony Stark (one of the last unmutated humans) political asylum in exchange for constructing robotic replicas of the fallen Avengers to battle the Hydra menace.

Loki tricked Odin into changing Thor into a female and discovers an elaborate Celestial manipulation on a cosmic scale: ancient humans were modified by the Celestials, given the ability to develop powers in order to act as a type of anti-bodies meant to stop radical elements such as deviants and alien species from harming the Earth and the Celestial embryo growing within it. Along with Earth, the Celestials modified the native species of many planets harboring Celestial embryos. Species affected by Celestial modification gradually undergo an evolution process where they develop powers either through natural means such as mutants, or unnatural means such as meta-humans like Spider-Man. Species with Celestial modifications in theory hold enough power to rival the celestials, but are inhibited by a clever psychological safeguard put in place by the Celestials. The safeguard relates to constructivist philosophy, that essentially states that people are shaped by their environment. The deities and devils within the Marvel universe are species that were modified by Celestials and unwittingly inhibit their own abilities due to the fact that they self-identify as a Marvel deity or devil. These evolved beings hold their sense of identity being reinforced by those that interact with them. Loki realizes that he was only the evil son of Odin and a Norse God because when he evolved beyond his mortal form his psyche became a tabula rasa. The first interaction that he had with another in that form were Nordic humans who thought that he was an evil god and thus he became one.

Meanwhile, Captain America and his partner Redwing learn that the Skull is gathering a mind-controlled army. After Redwing is overcome by the Skull's powers, Captain America retreats and recruits allies to fight the Skull.

Meanwhile, the Inhuman Royal Family return from space and contact Reed Richards, hoping to reunite with their people. While trying to find the lost Inhuman nation with Cerebro, Richards discovers Bolt's actions. The Skull's army reaches New York, overtaking it, and Captain America and his allies fall to the Skull's powers. While the Skull is distracted, Captain America kills the child dictator and liberates his followers.

Before the heroes can celebrate, the Celestials arrive on Earth to germinate the embryo. As the Celestials prepare to attack New York, Loki arrives with a host of Asgardians found in the afterlife and announces he's not bad because he formed the Avengers. Tony Stark sacrifices himself while trying to hold off the arriving Celestials. Black Bolt is killed just after using his voice to travel across the universe and call for Galactus, who is revealed to be devouring worlds in order to destroy Celestial embryos growing within them. Galactus kills several Celestials and forces the others to flee. Afterwards, Galactus consumes Earth's Celestial embryo. Galactus prepares to leave, and Reed requests that he remove his helmet. Galactus reluctantly agrees, revealing that he is actually Franklin Richards. Franklin Richards previously convinced himself that he was Galactus, willingly sacrificing his own identity to turn into the destroyer of worlds after realizing that Galactus needed to exist in order to keep the Celestial population in check. This needed to be done after the Fantastic Four killed the original Galactus with the ultimate nullifier. Reed Richards also realizes this fact and makes the heartbreaking decision to not remind Franklin of who he originally was for the sake of the universe.

X-51 realizes the Watchers' true purpose is to watch over Celestial eggs because one of their numbers failed to stop the birth of Galactus millions of years ago. X-51 destroys Uatu's ears and decides to destroy all Celestial eggs gestating inside the various planets within the universe. Reed converts his vibranium power network into "Human Torches", hoping to burn off the Terrigen Mists and restore Earth's human population.

''Universe X''

With the Celestial embryo gone, the Earth's mass is reduced, causing a shift in orbit and polarity as well as drastic worldwide climate changes. One-fourth of New York's population dies as temperatures plummet. The Tong of Creel, a cult dedicated to reassembling the Absorbing Man, begins killing those who hold his fragments. Under Mephisto's influence, Pope Immortus founds a church advocating mutant dominance of the galaxy and the destruction of Reed's Human Torches. Meanwhile, Mar-Vell is reincarnated as the child of the synthetic Him and Her, though his soul remains in the Realm of the Dead. Captain America becomes the Mar-Vell child's guardian and embarks on a worldwide quest with his new ward to obtain various items in order to deal with Earth's restless mutant population and prepare for an impending war in the Realm of the Dead. Arriving at Zero Street, the duo is attacked by the Night People, and Captain America sacrifices his life to save the Mar-Vell child.

Mar-Vell reveals that other than creating constructivist safeguards to stop species that they modified from being able to challenge their supremacy, the Celestials also schemed to manipulate causality and fatalism by helping to create beings such as death and Mephisto to distort truth and reality. Mar-Vell also discovered that beings that travel through time actually create new universes in the process of doing so and Celestials, acting through others such as Mephisto, encouraged time travel as it created entirely new universes for the Celestial to inhabit and grow in number.

When the Tong of Creel finally reassembles the Absorbing Man in New York, he attacks the city's Human Torch. Battling New York's heroes, the Absorbing Man absorbs Manhattan itself, adding its buildings and streets to his being, but Loki and Iron Maiden convince the villain to transform himself into vibranium and use his mass to stabilize the planet's fluctuating orbit and polarity. Meanwhile, in the Realm of the Dead, Mar-Vell leads an army of deceased heroes and villains against Thanos and Death. With the artifacts collected by himself and Captain America in his possession, Mar-Vell shows Thanos how Death has manipulated him and convinces Thanos to use the Ultimate Nullifier on the entity.

''Paradise X''

With Death destroyed, Mar-Vell constructs a Paradise in the center of the Negative Zone for the dead to inhabit. However, those among the living find themselves unable to die.

Meanwhile, X-51 decides that the inhabitants of alternate Earths should be warned about the Celestial embryos he believes are growing within their planets. He spreads the alarm across the multiverse by recruiting and dispatching Heralds from alternate timelines such as Bloodstorm (Ororo Monroe, Earth-1298), Deathlok (Luther Manning, Earth-7484), Hyperion (Earth-1121), Killraven (Earth-691), Iron Man 2020 (Earth-8410), Spider-Girl (Earth-1122), and Wolverine (Days of Future Past Earth-811).

After banishing the Watchers of Earth-9997 to alternate worlds with the hope that their presence will lead to the discovery and destruction of each Celestial embryo, X-51 takes his Heralds to his Earth, where he will aid each in achieving his or her wishes. In Mar-Vell's Paradise, the High Evolutionary's equipment transforms the souls of Black Bolt, Captain America, Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Dr. Doom, Giant-Man, Phoenix, and Tony Stark into the Avenging Host, charged with ushering souls from the Realm of the Dead to Paradise. Those who enter Paradise consume a piece of the Cosmic Cube, enabling them to create their own, seemingly perfect pocket reality. But as more souls enter Paradise, it begins to expand and consume entire worlds within the Negative Zone, causing Blastaar and Annihilus to attack the Baxter Building in New York.

Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, the Beast, and several other brilliant scientists convene to discuss a solution to Death's absence. They decide to access the imprisoned Jude the Entropic Man, who can turn others to dust on contact, and synthesize his essence into a chemical to end the suffering of those unable to die. With the chemical complete, Reed, growing suspicious of Mar-Vell's motives, plans to use Pym Particles to slow Paradise's rapid growth within the Negative Zone. Mephisto frees Jude from captivity, convincing him to go on a killing spree. Mephisto then steers Jude to Britain, where Mephisto hopes to find the Siege Perilous, which will allow him to traverse the multiverse. With the help of Merlin, Doctor Strange, Psylocke and the sacrifice of a recently resurrected Meggan, King Britain is able to slay Mephisto with Excalibur. Meanwhile, in Paradise, Reed and a legion of heroes confront Mar-Vell. After Paradise is nearly conquered in the name of the Supreme Intelligence by the arriving souls of the Kree military, Mar-Vell explains to Reed that he (Reed) is to become the new Eternity.

Using his new role as Eternity, Reed is able to end the conflict and free the remaining heroes from their Cosmic Cube-induced dream-worlds. Once this is accomplished, Mar-Vell explains to Reed that his plan is to build a wall around their universe, preventing any further influence from the Celestials. Feeling that his work is not yet complete, Mar-Vell tells the people of Paradise that he is going to the source of Excalibur, which is strongly implied to be the original universe.

''Marvels X''

In 2020 Marvel published ''Marvels X'', a prequel to ''Earth X'' written by Krueger. It focuses on the last normal human being on Earth named David as he deals with the aftermath of the terrigen mist that turns most of the individuals of Earth into super powered beings and freaks.

High school student Paula Crisostomo is tired of being treated unequally. She meets a group of student activists from around East Los Angeles and they decide to try to change the way students are treated. They are punished for speaking Spanish in school, their bathrooms are locked during lunch, they are forced to do janitorial work as a punishment, and many in the high school administrations actively dissuade the less promising students from attending college. Inspired by her Chicano teacher Sal Castro and despite opposition from her father, Paula joins in and helps hand out surveys to students to suggest improvements to the schools. Each East LA high school has two or three students who are in the group; Paula particularly becomes interested in Robert.

However the school board refuses to consider the suggestions so Paula urges the students to walk out of school. The police find out and the principal threatens to expel Paula if she walks out. Paula's father urges against her plan of "walking out." He believes that the group is a bunch of "agitators." Five East LA schools successfully walk out and the school board says they might consider their demands, but Paula's father throws her out of the house for her role in the walkout.

The students decide to walk out in only half of the schools the next day, but the police arrest and beat the protesters. None of the footage appears on the news and the students are painted as violent agitators with Communist ties. Paula decides to invite the students' families to the protests, hoping their presence will deter police brutality.

When the students walk out again their families come to support them and it appears that they have won because the school board agrees to hear their complaints. Paula invites Robert to prom, but while she is getting ready, the police suddenly arrest 12 of the leaders of the student movement. When Paula goes to Sal for advice she discovers that Robert (who is an undercover LAPD officer) has arrested him. The students are charged with conspiracy to disrupt a school with a maximum penalty of 66 years. Paula is defeated, but her father urges her not to give up and she helps to stage a massive protest outside the jail. Robert is on duty there and tries to stop her, but she continues leading the crowd until all 12 students and Sal are released.

In the year 2008, global warming and heavy rainfall has left large areas of London flooded. Rookie police officer Dick Durkin is assigned to partner with Harley Stone, a burnt-out and highly cynical veteran homicide detective who, according to his commanding officer, survives on "anxiety, coffee, and chocolate" after being unable to prevent the death of his partner Foster by a serial killer three years previously. Now, the murders have begun again and Stone is obsessed with the case. An Oxford-educated psychologist, Durkin is ordered to stick with Stone at all times and report any unstable behavior. After investigating the scenes of several killings, they appear no closer in identifying the killer, although Stone seems to share some sort of psychic connection with him. Their only clues are that the murders seem to be linked with the lunar cycle, and that the killer takes an organ from each victim, apparently to eat them. Lab analysis of blood left during one encounter shows that the killer possesses multiple recombinant DNA strands, somehow having absorbed the DNA of its victims. Complicating matters is the return of Michelle, Foster's wife who Stone had an affair with.

While attempting to figure out the killer's motives and pattern, Stone and Durkin begin to bond as Durkin loosens up and starts to understand Stone. Durkin hypothesizes that the killer is taunting Stone personally, following him and then killing someone at each location. The killer then attacks a woman in Stone's apartment building, afterwards kidnapping Michelle while the two detectives are downstairs. They track the killer deep into the flooded tunnels of the London Underground subway system and discover the truth: the killer is not human. It's actually a large, horrific and possibly demonic creature that is fast, savage, and bloodthirsty. Durkin figures out that Stone escaped from it ten years ago, and it is now fixated upon killing Stone just as it previously killed Foster. In fact, as the movie progresses, each killing and "appearance" of the monster is an attempt to lure Stone closer and closer. The massive chest wound that Stone sustained all those years ago is what created the psychic link between Stone and the creature.

Finally learning where the creature makes its lair, Stone and Durkin head to the area, armed to the teeth and relying on Stone to find the monster just as it always finds him. They emerge into an abandoned underground train station to find Michelle suspended over the water as obvious bait, but Stone frees her anyway, prompting the creature to show up. During the fight, Durkin wounds the creature's chest—allowing Stone to pull the monster's heart out and kill it. However, as the three of them leave the station, bubbles of air are seen breaking the surface of the water, suggesting that there may be more than one monster.

The book is a work of historical fiction set in the late pre-Columbian age in Mexico City and depicts the daily life of the ancient Aztec people, both the commoners (servants, traders and warriors) and the upper classes (priests, nobles, and government officials). The "Mexican" section contains a great deal of Mexican symbolism, geographical, political and religious references and historical data taken from various authors like Bernal Díaz del Castillo and his book ''Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España'' (in English, "True History of the Conquest of New Spain").

The novel also recounts the history and development of the Manriques, a family of Spanish nobles, and details aspects of life in 15th century Spain. The Manrique family lives through major historical events, such as the reconquest of Spain by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the reception of Christopher Columbus twice at Torremala (the Family Settlement), news of the discovery of the Americas and the relationship between the family of Hernán Cortés and the Manriques.

The two stories eventually merge with the meeting of the two main characters, Alonso Manrique and Xuchitl (the daughter of King Nezahualpilli of Texcoco, one of the three allied kingdoms that Cortés found at the time of his arrival). As Cortés approaches the great city of Tenochtitlan, the Mexican natives line the city's main causeway. Xuchitl is among the gathered crowds, and sees Alonso Manrique there for the first time. The Mexican set of characters struggles with love, pain, pride and hate with the Spanish group of characters during the conquest of Mexico (1519-1521) by Hernán Cortés, the fall and complete destruction of Tenochtitlan and its satellite kingdoms, and the emergence of a new nation, New Spain (now modern Mexico) out of the meeting of two great cultures: the Spanish heritage (with old Visigoth, Jewish, Moorish and Catholic roots) and the ancient native Mexican traditions (like the Olmecs, Mayans, and Toltecs).

The novel deals with the "conflict between two worlds": Christian Europe and Aztec America. Both civilizations are represented by equally-committed proponents: Alonso Manrique (Europe) and Itzcauatzin (America). Both characters are soldiers and priests (symbolizing nationalism and faith). Alonso started as a priest and later became a warrior; Itzcauatzin entered an academy (Calmecac) that prepared him for both. Caught in between is Xuchitl, the Aztec princess. Whoever wins her wins the future of the Aztec civilization. Xuchitl identifies the winner by giving him the Aztec talisman known as "el corazon de piedra verde" ("the green stone heart"). This talisman was worn by her father and represents the mystic powers of the Aztec religion. Alonso won, signifying the beginning of the Christianization of Mexico. Itzcauatzin gives his life as a human sacrifice vainly trying to add enough power to the traditional religion to overcome the Europeans. In the end, Alonso and Xuchitl have a son and return to Mexico from Spain. They bring the jade heart with them, but with the Virgin Mary etched on it to counteract the stone's original powers. The novel was the first of an intended five novels —each covering a century (16th to 20th)— tracking the creation of modern Mexico through the descendants of Alonso and Xuchitl. However, only four novels were finished before Salvador de Madariaga died.

Category:1942 novels Category:20th-century Spanish novels Category:Historical novels Category:Aztecs in fiction Category:Novels set in Spain Category:Novels set in the 15th century Category:Novels set during the Conquest of the Americas Category:Novels set in pre-Columbian America Category:Mesoamerica in fiction Category:Novels set in Mexico City

At a racetrack, aging drag racing star Lonnie "Lucky Man" Johnson makes engine refinements to his car, which is sponsored by the international oil company Fast Company (FastCo). On its first test run it blows up, but Lonnie escapes unhurt. FastCo team boss Phil Adamson is not impressed, telling the head mechanic, Elder, that the team can't afford to win if it breaks the budget. In the "Funny Car class", Lonnie's protégé Billy "The Kid" Brooker gives top dog Gary "The Blacksmith" Black a close run.

At the Big Sky meet, Adamson takes a backhander from the organizer. He says that the fans come to see Lonnie, so while the dragster is being repaired he will replace Billy in the Funny Car. Lonnie doesn't like the idea. Billy likes it less, blaming Lonnie's ego. Lonnie's first ever Funny Car run is against Black, who is angry at the driver switch, especially when he loses the race.

En route to a next race in Spokane, Lonnie calls the dragster mechanic with a few ideas, but is told that Adamson cancelled the repair work. At the meet, Lonnie is less than complimentary on his FastCo TV spot. Adamson is incensed and calls the company to say he's bringing in Gary Black. Candy the FastCo ad girl refuses to have sex with the TV interviewer as damage control, so Adamson fires her. He offers Black the job as FastCo driver.

Candy and Billy have sex inside Lonnie's trailer. Lonnie’s girlfriend Sammy shows up and interrupts them, assuming at first it’s Lonnie in bed. Reunited, Lonnie and Sammy kick out Billy and Candy, and they make love. Lonnie talks about quitting racing. Adamson walks in without knocking, causing Lonnie to punch him to the floor. He says they're finished, but Lonnie assures him the car will race. Outside the trailer, Adamson gives Black and his mechanic Meatball, a job.

While on another test run, the Funny Car's engine blows, but Lonnie controls the situation using the cockpit safety gear. Billy angrily accuses Black of sabotage, but Lonnie intervenes on Black's behalf. In the pit, Adamson announces that Black is the new Fast Co driver and the whole team is fired. Lonnie goes for him but is slugged with a tire iron by Meatball.

Billy is despondent, but Lonnie insists they'll still race at Edmonton next weekend (they will steal back the car). Billy and P.J. visit the local motor show and are amazed that Adamson has the car on display. That night, Billy and Candy create a diversion while Lonnie steals the car back. Working overtime, Lonnie, Billy, P.J. get it in shape for the race.

At the Edmonton racetrack, Lonnie's surprise independent entry is announced. Adamson is worried that Black will be beaten, but Meatball says he will win as long as he is in the left lane. Lonnie gives an ecstatic Billy the chance to drive in the race.

At the toss up for the lane choice, Billy wins and chooses left. Adamson ensures a last minute change, much to Billy's annoyance. Meatball pours oil on Billy’s Lane. As the race gets underway Billy gets a fast start, but Black tries to run him off the road. Black takes the lead, then cuts into Billy's lane and hits the oil, causing his car to Explode in a giant Fireball. Billy attacks Meatball at the side of the track and in the struggle, Meatball's overalls catch fire. Billy uses his cockpit extinguisher to save his life.

Adamson panics and flees to his plane. As it taxis down the runway, Lonnie jumps in the Funny Car. He catches up just as the plane takes off, clipping the end off a wing. Adamson fights for control but the plane dives into a parked FastCo oil truck, exploding on impact.

The next morning, the team members discuss the future. Lonnie promises he'll have new funding in place soon, but first he and Sammy are going to share some quality time.

In 1984, Captain Ray Quick and Colonel Ned Trent, explosives experts working for the CIA, are on a mission to blow up a car transporting a South American drug dealer. But when the car appears, a little girl is inside with the dealer. Ray insists they abort the mission, but Ned intends to see it through and allows the explosion to happen, resulting in the deaths of both the drug dealer and the child. Furious by the girl's wrongful death, Ray savagely beats Ned and flees, effectively resigning from the CIA right after getting Ned fired by reporting him to his superiors.

Years later, in Miami, Ray works as a freelance hit man. He lives a solitary existence with his cat, named "Timer". Desperate people contact him via an Internet bulletin board and he takes the cases that interest him. Ray specializes in "shaping" his explosions, building and planting bombs that blow up only the intended target while leaving innocent bystanders unharmed.

He answers ads placed by a woman named May Munro and speaks to her often to decide if he should take the job or not. During the talks, he becomes intrigued by her story, coupled with the fact that he sees how attractive she is while following her. She is the only child of parents who were killed by Tomas Leon and his men. Against his better judgment, and pushed by her insistence that she will infiltrate the gang with or without him, Ray is persuaded to accept the job. Even though he has agreed, May ingratiates herself into Tomas' world as Adrian Hastings.

Ned now works for Joe Leon, Tomas' father and director of their organized crime syndicate. Once the hits on their lower level men begin, they contact the chief of police to place Ned in their bomb squad. May tolerates Tomas and plays along as his girlfriend so she can watch the hits one by one. It is revealed after the second target is killed that May has actually been forced into a partnership with Ned, whose goal was to coax Ray out of hiding. After the job in South America went wrong, Ned was dismissed from the CIA and is intent on revenge.

When the trap for Tomas is set, May is in the room; the resulting explosion appears to kill them both. When Ned goes to Joe to pay his respects, he is left alive only so he can find Ray and bring him to Joe before Tomas is buried. Both Ray and Ned believe that May is dead, yet Ray discovers that bulletin board messages are still being posted. He responds to one, quickly realizing that it is a trap set by Ned and the bomb squad, and baits Ned into an explosive tirade.

When he goes to the funeral of Adrian Hastings, Ray finds that May is alive. She went to the funeral to see if Ray would attend. Then they go to the Fontainebleau Hotel. They undress and make love in bed and in the shower. After this, she leaves. Meanwhile, Ned has gone to the cathedral and learns that the person in the casket is not May. She runs into Ned in the hotel lobby and makes an excuse as to why she did not tell him that she was alive. A henchman is ordered to take her to the car, and on the way, she asks to use the restroom. Once there, she uses a cell phone to warn Ray. He rigs the hotel room to explode, and when Ned's henchmen enter the room, it detonates, breaking the entire room off into the ocean.

May is taken to Joe Leon but Ned insists on keeping her alive to lure Ray out. Ned listens in as Ray calls May, he refuses to meet with her and be "set up" again, but she convinces him that she truly does care about him. He arranges a meeting at a seafood restaurant and May uses secret coding to tell him it's a trap before hanging up. When Ned sends May inside, the restaurant explodes. Ray and May escape on a speed boat to his warehouse. Ned listens to the recording of Ray's call and tracks down his location. The next morning, May is preparing to leave to kill Joe Leon herself, but Ray tells her to let go of the past. Ned arrives with an army of police that surround the booby-trapped warehouse. In a final showdown, Ray and May are cornered. Ned pursues them, but is done in by his own hubris when he steps on a bomb. After the entire warehouse goes up due to the chain of bombs exploding, it appears that all inside have been killed, but Ray and May escape unseen through a tunnel.

The next day, Joe reads about the incident at the warehouse. He thanks God for bringing his revenge on Ray and May. He then opens the mail brought to him and finds a necklace. It contains a picture of May's parents, seeing that it's rigged with a bomb, he curses God just before the necklace explodes. After hearing the blast and knowing all responsible for her parents' death are dead, Ray asks how she feels, to which she responds, "Better". They drive off to start their life together.

In order to convict a counterfeiting ring, two United States Treasury agents are chosen to go undercover and infiltrate the Vantucci gang in Detroit. Dennis O'Brien and Anthony Genero are the agents, and they are to start at the bottom and work their way up the gang's hierarchy. To infiltrate the gang they must appear to be criminals from the Detroit milieu, so they study the history of Detroit crime in order to create reliable false identities. They declare themselves to be the last two members of the moribund River Gang, and that they are "on the lamb". They become Vannie Harrigan (O'Brien) and Tony Galvani (Geraro), and convince Pasquale, the proprietor of a notorious hotel that they are real criminals.

Pasquale sends them to Vantucci, who uses counterfeit revenue stamps for his highjacked liquor. He surreptitiously quizzes them about local crime history, offering up incorrect facts which the agents are able to correct, and they are "hired." They hear the name of a gangster, "Schemer", and learn that he is the gang's West Coast liaison. They secretly obtain a pair of his overalls and send them to the bureau's crime lab for analysis, where his size, weight, the fact he smokes cigars, and the fact he chews Chinese health herbs are ascertained. Armed with this information, O'Brien heads for Los Angeles.

O'Brien searches Chinatown following the herb lead, where he discovers that Schemer frequents steam baths. He finds a man fitting Schemer's description who goes to a hotel where there's a backroom craps game. O'Brian bluffs his way in, then introduces a counterfeit bill into play. The phony bill is discovered and O'Brian is blamed; they beat him and throw him into the alley. O'Brien shows Schemer his fake bill (which he has recovered). His bill is well-printed since hand-engraved plates were used, but it has inferior paper. The gang's counterfeit bills are the opposite: lesser quality printing due to mere photoengraving, but on superior stock. Schemer offers to approach a higher-up about a collaboration.

Gangsters await O'Brian in his apartment and rough him up, wanting to know his "game". They suspect he is a Treasury agent, so he tells them to check with Detroit. O'Brien is eventually taken to an exclusive home in Beverly Hills, where he meets a Mr. Triano. O'Brien proposes a merger, but Triano says he is all set, so O'Brien threatens to start his own operation.

O'Brien returns to Detroit and is given a sample of the gang's paper so he can print a bill on it using his plates. The result is acceptable, so O'Brien turns over the back plate, but says they'll get the front one when he meets the boss.

Tony's wife is out shopping with a friend who identifies Tony on the street. She attempts to engage him, but Tony claims he isn't married and doesn't know them. Tony's wife knows to deny it's Tony, but Schemer, who is with him, is suspicious.

Moxie locks Schemer into a steam room and turns up the heat, cooking him alive. Tony is overheard on a call asking about his wife. His cover blown, he is murdered in front of O'Brian. It is revealed that the gang's technician, Paul Miller, had worked with August Bauman, the engraver of the plates the bureau is using, so Miller would be able to identify the true engraver. O'Brien discovers a claim check in Schemer's room. It produces Schemer's coded documentation of all the gang's illegal activities, which he had kept as insurance.

O'Brien is taken to the gang's base of operation, a docked ship, in order to meet the Chief. Miller is summoned in order to verify the provence of the plates, but actually covers for O'Brien; Miller did recognize the plates, but he had realized that O'Brien was an agent early on, and spares him because he wants to become a government witness. Miller is shot; O'Brian is wounded but survives. The police arrive, raids are conducted, and the Chief is apprehended.

Rio de Janeiro, 1886. Actress Sarah Bernhardt performs at the city's Municipal Theater, captivating the local audience enthralled by French culture. The city is at her feet, and even the Emperor Pedro II comes to pay his respects. He confides a secret to her: the disappearance of a precious Stradivarius violin presented by him to the charming widow Baroness Maria Luiza. The actress suggests to the monarch to hire her friend, the legendary British detective Sherlock Holmes, to solve the case. Subsequently, a brutal murder shocks the city, and leaves the police superintendent Mello Pimenta: a prostitute had been killed and mutilated, her ears cut off and a violin string strategically placed on her body by the perpetrator. Later, under the heat of the tropical sun, the lives of Holmes and Doctor Watson are changed forever, as they find themselves neck-deep in a cultural milieu that portrays all standard Brazilian stereotypes.

Alice Bowman (Meg Ryan) moves to the (fictional) South American country of Tecala because her engineer husband, Peter Bowman (David Morse), has been hired to help build a new dam for oil company Quad Carbon. While driving one morning through the city, Peter is caught in traffic and then ambushed and abducted by guerrilla rebels of the Liberation Army of Tecala (ELT). Believing that Peter is working on Quad Carbon's oil pipeline, ELT soldiers lead him through the jungle.

Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe), a former member of the British Special Air Service, arrives in Tecala fresh from a successful hostage rescue in Chechnya. As an expert negotiator in kidnapping-and-ransom cases, he is assigned by his company, Luthan Risk, to bargain for Peter's safe return. Unfortunately, it is learned that Quad Carbon is on the verge of bankruptcy and takeover, and therefore has no insurance coverage for kidnapping, so they cannot afford Thorne's services. Despite Alice's pleas to stay, Thorne leaves the country. Alice is then assigned a corrupt local hostage negotiator, who immediately urges her to pay the ELT's first ransom demand: a $50,000 "good faith" payment. Not knowing what to do, Alice agrees, but the transaction is stopped by Thorne who (due to his conscience) has returned to help. He is aided by Dino (David Caruso), a competing negotiator and ex–Green Beret.

Over the next few months, Thorne uses a radio to speak with an ELT contact, and the two argue over terms for Peter's release—including a ransom payment that Alice can afford. Thorne and Alice bond through the ordeal, and become intimate. They eventually negotiate a sum of $650,000.

Meanwhile, Peter has become a prisoner at the ELT's jungle base camp. There, he befriends another hostage named Kessler (Gottfried John)—a missionary and former member of the French Foreign Legion—who has lived in the camp for nineteen months. The two concoct an escape plan, but during their attempt they are quickly tracked by the ELT. Kessler falls into a river after being shot in the shoulder and manages to escape, but Peter steps on a trap and is recaptured. Kessler is found and hospitalized. Thorne's ELT contact subsequently refuses to respond to his calls. Luckily, one of Alice's young maids recognizes his voice over the radio and reveals he is a government official. Thorne confronts the contact, who confirms that Peter is alive, but because of the ELT's escalating war with the government and Peter's knowledge of the terrain, the ELT will no longer negotiate.

At Thorne's urging, Alice and Kessler convince the Tecala government that the ELT is mounting an attack on the pipeline being built through their territory. This forces the government army to mobilize, thus forcing a bulk of the camp's ELT troops to mobilize for a counter-attack. Thorne, Dino, and several associates are then inserted by helicopter and raid the weakened ELT base. They overcome the camp's soldiers, free Peter and another hostage, and then fly back to the city, where Alice happily reunites with her husband. Thorne and Alice share a final intimate moment before the latter departs with Peter on an immediate flight to the U.S.

Three young men (Jacques, Pierre and Michel) share an apartment in Paris, and have many girlfriends and parties (During the movie, we even learn that they have signed a contract never to allow a girl to spend more than one night at their place). Once, during a party, a friend of Jacques' tells him he has a quite compromising package (which turned out to be heroin) to deliver, and asks him if he can leave it discreetly at their place. Jacques agrees and, as he works as a steward, flies away for a one-month trip in Japan, telling Pierre and Michel about the package. Then, one of Jacques' former girlfriends drops a baby before their door, making Pierre and Michel believe it is the package they are waiting for. Their lives are then completely changed. This movie follows the bachelors as they deal with angry gangsters, suspicious cops, and the overwhelming responsibility of fatherhood.

Gigolos in Europe are being terrorized by a serial killer. In Malibu, Deuce Bigalow has lost his wife Kate during a shark attack and is invited by his former pimp friend T.J. Hicks to Amsterdam after Deuce accidentally causes an incident involving berserk dolphins. Deuce goes to take his mind off of Kate.

After T.J. shows Deuce his boat, or "float crib," the pair go to a coffee shop where they get high and bump into Heinz Hummer, a German gigolo. After leaving the coffee shop, Deuce finds Hummer dead in an alley, but thinks he is merely stoned and takes the dead gigolo to T.J.'s float crib. When T.J. gets back, he immediately realizes that Hummer is dead. T.J. plans to dump the body, but skeptical of Hummer's reputation of being well-endowed, unzips his pants and examines his genitalia and is caught by a tour boat.

Upon his release from the police station, Deuce finds T.J. at a restaurant and recalls that he saw the killer walking away from Hummer's body. Deuce says it was a woman, so they both figure it was a she-john, a former client of the murdered gigolo. T.J. convinces Deuce to find the killer by becoming a gigolo again, visiting the former clients and "rooting" out the killer. They attend a meeting of the Royal Order of European Man Whores, but fail to procure a list of the clients. Antoine, Deuce's client from the first film manages to get the list and gives to Deuce at a restaurant but is killed by the Man-Whore Killer, which is believed again to be T.J. when he is caught near Antoine's genitals.

Deuce and T.J. visit the first client on the list. While Deuce distracts the woman, T.J. breaks into her residence and finds a brand of lipstick which might be the kind found on all the victims. After leaving, Deuce finds Inspector Gaspar Voorsbach on the street and shows him the lipstick. Gaspar throws the lipstick in the trash, mentioning that the lipstick found on the victims "is a very rare one: Lavender Love #66". As Gaspar enters the police station, his niece Eva approaches him and gives him his lunch. Eva slaps herself three times when Gaspar sneezes. Deuce helps her pick up the things she dropped and Eva explains to Deuce that she has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Deuce sees that she has a painting of a fish, so they go to the Amsterdam aquarium together. Deuce continues to investigate different women from Antoine's list. They include Lily, who speaks through an electrolarynx after a laryngectomy, Svetlana Revenko, who has a penis for a nose as a result of being born and raised in Chernobyl, Greta, a German hunchback and Louisa, a grimy Italian girl who becomes clean and beautiful again after Deuce throws her into a Venice canal. Eventually, Deuce and T.J. infiltrate the Man-Whore offices, where the Man-Whore Killer murders another gigolo and T.J. is arrested when he again is caught inadvertently holding the victim's charred penis.

Deuce then visits Eva's apartment only to discover items used by the Man-Whore Killer. Believing the killer to be Eva, Deuce confides his suspicions to a wary Gaspar, who then reveals herself to Eva as the real Man-Whore Killer before locking her up as a fall girl. Deuce then rides with Gaspar to the Man-Whore Awards Ceremony under the guise of protecting the man-whores. But when Eve escapes and warns Deuce, Gaspar pulls a gun on Deuce and reveals that he is the real Man-Whore Killer. Gaspar tells Deuce that he was once a man-whore hopeful. While Gaspar was observing a demonstration on how to perform a certain sex act, one of his classmates offered to let him use his penis-enlargement pump. When the demonstration ended, Gaspar was horrified the demonstration was his fiancée. Gaspar was so angry and shocked that he continued to pump until his penis exploded, causing the other men to laugh at him. He blames man-whores for the loss of his fiancée and his penis, and plans to kill them all at their awards ceremony.

At the ceremony, Deuce evacuates the building and gets into a sword fight with Gaspar, during which he mentions the other romantic ways of pleasing a woman; his words move the ladies in the crowd and the male gigolos. Gaspar beats Deuce, but before he can detonate the bomb, a woman with a penis for a nose and the woman with the tracheotomy distract Gaspar. Deuce knocks out Gaspar with a trophy taking the bomb detonator. For his bravery, Deuce is given the Golden Boner award. He shares a passionate kiss with Eva, and accidentally sets off the bomb when the statue's penis bumps the detonator button. Deuce and Eva leave the scene.

The following day, Deuce and Eva come to pick up T.J., who has been released from jail, and tells them that he is entering a brand new prostitution market: gay man-whoring.

In an epilogue: T.J. stops gay man-whoring and becomes a rapper. Deuce and Eva got married with Eva being pregnant. Gaspar is gang raped in prison. Svetlana marries a man with a vagina for a mouth in a wedding where everybody threw up. Kate's prosthetic leg is turned into a bong by an old Dutch woman.

Dr. Kiel Aronnax, Mirabelle and Loretta encounter a ten-year-old boy during their escape from prison. He turns out to be the former famous gunslinger Sheyenne Rainstorm and is equipped with a famous and mysterious ''ARMS'' weapon. The series follows Sheyenne and Kiel as they search for the mystery of Sheyenne's missing body.

A teenage girl, Su-mi, is being treated for shock and psychosis in a mental institution. She is released and returns home to her family's secluded estate in the countryside with her father and younger sister Su-yeon, whom she is protective of. The sisters have a cold reunion with their stepmother, Eun-joo, who constantly requires medication. Eun-joo also has a strained relationship with her husband, both of them enduring a sexless marriage.

Su-mi has a nightmare of her late mother's ghost. The next day, she finds family photos which reveal that Eun-joo was formerly an in-home nurse for her then-terminally ill mother. She discovers bruises on her sister's arms and suspects Eun-joo is responsible. Su-mi confronts Eun-joo about the bruises but Eun-joo refuses to apologize for her actions. That night, their uncle and aunt arrive for dinner, and Eun-joo tells bizarre stories that bewilder them. The aunt suddenly suffers a violent seizure and suffocates. After recovering, she tells her husband that she saw the ghost of a dead girl beneath the kitchen sink during her seizure. Eun-joo tries to see what is beneath the sink, but the ghost girl violently grabs her arm.

Eun-joo's relationship with her stepdaughters sours after she finds her pet bird mutilated and killed and her personal photographs defaced. She believes that these actions are somehow connected to the girls and locks Su-yeon in the closet. Su-mi releases her and tells her father about the abuse. Her father begs her to stop acting out and informs her that Su-yeon is dead. Su-mi refuses to believe it as she is sure her sister is right next to her sobbing uncontrollably.

The next morning, Eun-joo drags a bloodied sack through the house, whipping it. Su-mi believes that Su-yeon is inside the sack. Eun-joo and Su-mi get into a violent physical altercation. Su-mi's father arrives to find an unconscious Su-mi.

It is ultimately revealed that Su-mi and her father were alone in the house the entire time. Su-mi had suffered from dissociative identity disorder, where she possessed two personalities: herself and a ruder, more distant variation of her stepmom Eun-joo. The "body" in the sack that Su-mi was whipping was actually a porcelain doll and she was also the one who killed the pet bird. Su-yeon was also revealed to be long dead; her presence was actually the result of Su-mi's hallucinations.

The father and the real Eun-joo send Su-mi back to the mental institution. Eun-joo tries to reconcile with Su-mi, promising to visit her as often as she can, but Su-mi rebuffs her. That night, Eun-joo hears footsteps in Su-yeon's old bedroom, revealing that the ghost actually exists. Su-yeon's real ghost crawls out of the closet and kills Eun-joo. Meanwhile, Su-mi smiles, appearing to have finally found peace.

Flashbacks reveal the day that led Su-mi to be institutionalized. While her terminally ill mother was still alive, her father engaged in an adulterous affair with Eun-joo, when she was still their in-home nurse. This upsets the sisters and drives their mother to hang herself in the closet of Su-yeon's bedroom. Su-yeon attempts to revive her but the closet collapses on top of her. Eun-joo sees Su-yeon thrashing and suffocating and at the last minute, decides to save Su-yeon. However, Su-mi arrives and criticises Eun-joo for interfering with her family. Angry at Su-mi's criticisms, Eun-joo leaves Su-yeon to die and tells Su-mi that she'll "regret this moment." Su-mi leaves the house, unaware of both her sister and her mother's fates.

On a Los Angeles street, Officer Rawlins, a patrolman on his way home from work, stops a man he suspects of being a burglar and is shot and mortally wounded. The minor clues lead nowhere. Two police detectives, Sergeants Marty Brennan (Scott Brady) and Chuck Jones (James Cardwell), are assigned to catch the killer, Roy Morgan (Richard Basehart), a brilliant mystery man with no known criminal past who is hiding in a Hollywood bungalow and listening to police calls on his custom radio in an attempt to avoid capture. His only relationship is with his little dog.

Roy consigns burgled electronic equipment to Paul Reeves (Whit Bissell) and, on his fifth sale, is nearly caught when he shows up to collect on his property. Reeves tells police that the suspect is a mystery man named Roy Martin. The case crosses the paths of Brennan and Jones, who stake out Reeves's office to arrest and question Roy. He suspects a trap, however, and in a brief shootout, he shoots and paralyzes Jones. Jones wounds Roy, who performs surgery on himself to remove the bullet and to avoid going to a hospital, where his gunshot wound would be reported to the police. With his knowledge of police procedures, Roy changes his modus operandi and becomes an armed robber. During one robbery he fires his semi-automatic pistol, and the police recover the ejected casing. Lee (Jack Webb), a forensics specialist, matches the ejector marks on the casing to those recovered in the killing of Officer Rawlins and the wounding of Jones, connecting all three shootings to one suspect.

Captain Breen (Roy Roberts) uses that break to gather all of the witnesses to the robberies. They assist Lee in building a composite photo of the killer. Reeves then identifies Roy from the composite. However, Roy hides in Reeves's car and attempts to intimidate him into revealing details of the police investigation. He barely eludes a stakeout of Reeves's house. Because the police do not realize that Roy has inside knowledge of their work, the case goes nowhere. Breen takes Brennan off the case in an attempt to shake him up. Jones convinces his partner to stop viewing the case personally and to use his head. Plodding, methodical followup by Brennan, who uses the composite photograph, results in information that Roy, whose actual name is Roy Morgan, worked for a local police department as a civilian radio technician before he was drafted into the Army. Brennan tracks him down through post office mail carriers and disguises himself as a milkman to get a close look at Morgan and his apartment.

The police surround and raid the apartment that night, but Morgan, alerted by his dog's barking, flees through the attic and uses the Los Angeles storm drainage tunnel system as a means of escape. The film continues with a dragnet and chase through the drainage tunnels. Roy is finally cornered by the police in a passage when his exit is blocked by the wheel of a police car atop a manhole cover. As police tear gas affects Roy, he staggers and fires one last time at them. He is then shot down and killed.

The final scene is notable for its resemblance to the final scene in ''The Third Man'' in which Orson Welles' character is chased through the sewers of Vienna. No known connection between the films has been established; ''He Walked by Night'', which was first shown in the US in November 1948, predates ''The Third Man'' by about a year.

''The Angel of Darkness'' follows on from events in ''Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation'' and ''Tomb Raider Chronicles'', where Lara Croft was presumed dead. An unspecified time later, Lara arrives in Paris at the request of her former mentor, Werner Von Croy, who was tasked by a man named Eckhardt to find a set of artefacts known as the Obscura Paintings. The city, and Von Croy, are gripped with fear over a serial killer the press has dubbed the "Monstrum". During an argument between Lara and Von Croy, an unknown force attacks them, and Lara is knocked unconscious. She wakes to find Von Croy dead and her memories of the attack blurred. Suspected of his murder, Lara goes on the run. After retrieving Von Croy's journal from a colleague named Margot Carvier, she learns that Von Croy discovered the location of the fourth Obscura Painting beneath the Louvre; during her time in Paris getting help from local businessman and mob boss Louis Bouchard, Lara is stalked by Kurtis Trent, the last survivor of a society called the Lux Veritatis who are sworn to fight against Eckhardt's plans. After infiltrating the Louvre, she learns that the paintings hide pieces of the Sanglyph, an alchemical artefact created by Eckhardt hundreds of years before. The paintings were seized and hidden by the Lux Veritatis centuries before. After retrieving the Painting from its hiding place, Lara is ambushed by Kurtis and robbed of the Painting.

The two escape the Louvre as it is assaulted by mercenaries, with Kurtis using a magical disc to keep both Lara and the mercenaries at bay. The two are both knocked out by a shape-shifting stranger. Lara is rescued by Bouchard, who takes her to Von Croy's apartment to find further clues. However, Bouchard sends an assassin to kill Lara; she is able to eliminate the hitman and heads for Prague, where a new Monstrum killing has taken place. Arriving in Prague, she finds the location of the final Painting and re-encounters a captive Bouchard. He reveals that Eckhardt is planning to use the Sanglyph to awaken the Cubiculum Nephili, the last surviving member of the hostile Nephilim race, and breed them back into existence. Bouchard is later murdered by Eckhardt, who is revealed to have been killing and extracting samples for his experiments under the guise of the Monstrum. Lara infiltrates Eckhardt's headquarters in the Strahov Sanitarium. with help from an investigative journalist named Luddick. Luddick is later captured and murdered by Eckhardt. Lara encounters members of the Cabal, a secret society that shares Eckhardt's ambitions. While going through the complex, she switches off the power, releasing a rabid creature called the Proto-Nephilim. Later on, Lara is locked in a containment area by Kurtis so he can turn the power back on without interference.

Kurtis succeeds, finding his way through the Sanatorium and killing the Proto-Nephilim. Forming an alliance, Lara retrieves the final Painting, while Kurtis goes to retrieve a Periapt Shard, one of three magical daggers which can kill Eckhardt. After retrieving the Painting, Lara is forced by Eckhardt to hand over the Paintings to save Kurtis's life. After Eckhardt releases one of the Cabal's monsters on them, Kurtis helps Lara escape—giving her the two Periapt Shards in his possession—before killing the monster, being seriously wounded in the process. Lara recovers the final Shard and reaches Eckhardt, who reforms the Sanglyph and begins reviving the Cubiculum Nephili. Lara succeeds in wounding him but is stopped by Karel, Eckhardt's right-hand man. Karel proceeds to kill Eckhardt, revealing himself to be a Nephilim who has been secretly aiding Lara using his influence in the Cabal and shape-shifting abilities. He offers Lara the chance to join him, but Lara refuses after remembering that it was Karel who murdered Von Croy in Eckhardt's form. Lara uses the Sanglyph to destroy the Cubiculum Nephili, causing an explosion that kills Karel. On her way out, she finds Kurtis's weapon and it leads her toward the monster's chamber. Smiling, Lara walks through the door into the shadows, ending the game.

Gelsomina, an apparently somewhat simple-minded, dreamy young woman, learns that her sister Rosa has died after going on the road with the strongman Zampanò. Now the man has returned a year later to ask her mother if Gelsomina will take Rosa's place. The impoverished mother, with other mouths to feed, accepts 10,000 lire, and her daughter tearfully departs the same day.

Zampanò makes his living as an itinerant street performer, entertaining crowds by breaking an iron chain bound tightly across his chest, then passing the hat for tips. In short order, Gelsomina's naïve and antic nature emerges, with Zampanò's brutish methods presenting a callous foil. He teaches her to play the snare drum and trumpet, dance a bit, and clown for the audience. Despite her willingness to please, he intimidates her, forces himself upon her, and treats her cruelly at times; but she develops a tenderness for him that is betrayed when he goes off with another woman one evening, leaving Gelsomina abandoned in the street. Yet here, as throughout the film, even in her wretchedness, she manages to find beauty and wonder, aided by some local children.

Finally, she rebels and leaves, making her way into town. There she watches the act of another street entertainer, Il Matto ("The Fool"), a talented high wire artist and clown. When Zampanò finds her there, he forcibly takes her back. They join a ragtag travelling circus where Il Matto already works. Il Matto teases the strongman at every opportunity, though he cannot explain what motivates him to do so. After Il Matto drenches Zampanò with a pail of water, Zampanò chases after his tormentor with his knife drawn. As a result, he is briefly jailed, and both men are fired from the travelling circus.

Before Zampanò's release from prison, Il Matto proposes that there are alternatives to Gelsomina's servitude, and imparts his philosophy that everything and everyone has a purpose – even a pebble, even she. A nun suggests that Gelsomina's purpose in life is comparable to her own. But when Gelsomina offers Zampanò marriage, he brushes her off.

On an empty stretch of road, Zampanò comes upon Il Matto fixing a flat tire. As Gelsomina watches in horror, the two men begin to fight; it ends after the strongman punches the clown on the head several times, causing the fool to hit his head on the corner of his car's roof. As Zampanò walks back to his motorcycle with a warning for the man to watch his mouth in the future, Il Matto complains that his watch is broken, then stumbles into a field, collapses, and dies. Zampanò hides the body and pushes the car off the road, where it bursts into flames.

The killing breaks Gelsomina's spirit and she becomes apathetic, constantly repeating, "The Fool is hurt." Zampanò makes a few small attempts to console her, but in vain. Fearful he will no longer be able to earn a living with Gelsomina, Zampanò abandons her while she sleeps, leaving some clothes, money, and his trumpet.

Some years later, he overhears a woman singing the very tune Gelsomina often played. He learns that the woman's father had found Gelsomina on the beach and kindly taken her in. However, she had wasted away and died. Zampanò gets drunk, gets in a fight with the locals, and wanders to the beach, where he breaks down in tears.

Billy Tully, a boxer past his prime, goes to a gym in Stockton, California to get back into shape and spars with Ernie Munger, an 18 year-old he meets there. Seeing potential in the youngster, Tully suggests that Munger look up his former manager and trainer Ruben. Tully later tells combative barfly Oma and her easygoing boyfriend Earl how impressed he is with the kid. Newly inspired, Tully decides to get back into boxing himself.

Tully's life has been a mess since his wife left him. He drinks too much, cannot hold a job, and picks fruit and vegetables with migrant workers to make ends meet. He still blames Ruben for mishandling his last fight.

Tully tries moving in with Oma after Earl is sent to prison for a few months, but their relationship is rocky.

Munger loses his first fight, his nose broken, and he is knocked out in his next bout as well. He gets pressured into marriage by Faye because a baby's on the way, so he picks fruit in the fields for a few dollars.

For his first bout back, Tully is matched against a tough Mexican boxer named Lucero, who is of an advanced age and in considerable pain. They knock each other down before Tully is declared the winner. His celebration is brief when Tully discovers that he will be paid only $100, which causes him to end his business relationship with Ruben. He then returns to Oma's apartment and finds Earl there. Earl, still paying the rent, assures him that the alcoholic Oma wants nothing more to do with Tully.

Munger is returning home from a fight one night when he sees Tully drunk in the street. Munger tries to ignore him, but when Tully asks to have a drink, he reluctantly agrees to coffee. The two men sit and drink, and Tully looks around at all the people immediately around him, all of whom now seem at an impassable distance. Munger says he needs to leave, but Tully asks him to stay to talk a while. Munger agrees, and the two men sit drinking their coffee together in silence.

Katie is married to elderly billionaire Scott. In spite of their 30-year age difference, the two are deeply in love and live an active, fun-filled life, including passionate and frequent sex. While the two are horseback riding, Scott suffers a heart attack. He survives, but the couple is devastated to learn that he will no longer be able to have sex. Scott is denied a heart transplant due to his advanced age. Choosing to die on his own terms rather than live on borrowed time, Scott commits suicide.

Ascending to the afterlife, Scott is met by a fledging guardian angel (Julie Newmar). As Scott is the first soul in her care, the angel is uncertain of her role and Scott manages to persuade her to let him return to Earth as a ghost in order to be near the grieving Katie. Katie is the only one who can see or hear Scott's ghost. The two are frustrated by their inability to make physical contact (specifically, they can't have sex). Scott comes up with a plan for Katie to commit murder so that Scott can possess her victim's body.

On the pretense of handling her late husband's business affairs around the world, Katie uses her inheritance to travel in search of the perfect victim. Scott encourages her to have sex with each potential victim so that both of them will know if the body is compatible sexually. Eventually the two settle on a young, handsome man named Fausto. Katie has sex multiple times with Fausto while steeling herself to murder him, but the more intimate they become, the more difficult Katie finds the idea of killing him. Scott grows impatient that she keeps putting off the murder and questions if she has fallen in love with Fausto.

However, while on a snorkeling trip with Katie, Fausto is caught in a fishing net underwater and accidentally drowns. In an apparent contradiction, Scott is unable to possess Fausto's dead body. Katie revives Fausto with CPR, and Scott is able to possess the now-living body. Katie marries "Fausto," now permanently possessed by Scott.

Set in an alternate universe in the year 2007-2010 (2049 in the U.S. dub), giant monsters and conquering aliens start to appear, as was foretold by an apocalyptic prophecy about uncontrollable chaos over the Earth. Facing the threat, the TPC (Terrestrial Peaceable Consortium) is created along with its branch, GUTS (Global Unlimited Task Squad). Through a holographic message in a capsule found by researchers, the GUTS gets knowledge about a golden pyramid built by an ancient civilization. At the site, three statues of a race of giants who defended early human civilization on Earth about 30,000,000 years ago have been unearthed. GUTS finds the three ancient statues, but two of them are destroyed by the monsters Golza and Melba. The third one gains life from the spiritual energy of officer Daigo, a descendant of the ancient race. Daigo and the remaining statue merge into a single being, made of light. Shortly after defeating the two monsters, Daigo is revealed by the hologram of the prophecy that 30 million years in the past, a great evil that not even the giants could stop, destroyed the ancient civilization. Ultraman Tiga is a hero who protects the Earth. He accompanied the children throughout their childhood.

The same evil reappears in the finale of the series, the ''Ruler of Darkness'' Gatanothor, and his servants, Gijera and Zeiger. Gatanothor defeats Ultraman Tiga with ease, withstanding the Delcalium Light Stream and a modified version of the Zeperion Ray, both Tiga finishes and turns him back into a stone statue, but the light of humanity can turn him into Glitter Tiga, giving him the power to defeat Gatanothor and save the Earth. However, Tiga's victory came at a cost. Daigo was no longer able to become Tiga after the Sparklence disintegrated into dust after his final battle. It is revealed that Tiga, although no longer bound to Daigo, and its energy now remains in the hearts of all those who believe in Tiga, inner strength, and justice. Given the right conditions such as times of despair, the sparks will gather and the Tiga statue will be revitalized.

From another dimension, Yapool orchestrated attacks on Earth using biological weapons called that surpassed ordinary monsters. The first Terrible-Monster Verokron managed to destroy a city and the that was dispatched to fight it. A pair of youths Seiji Hokuto and Yuko Minami lost their lives in protecting nearby civilians as the fifth Ultra from M78, Ultraman Ace fused with them. The pair were given each per person and transforms into Ace whenever they perform the . Ever since Ultraman Ace fought on Earth, Seiji and Yuko were enlisted into TAC, short for , with the Ultra Brothers and Father of Ultra occasionally appeared to help them. Yapool, on the other hand, would send more Terrible-Monsters, including external help from various forces and occasionally went face-to-face with TAC and Ace themselves.

In the middle of the series, Yuko was revealed to be one of the last natives from the Moon and gave her Ultra Ring to Seiji, leaving Earth in episode 28. Seiji was on his own in succeeding episodes. In the final episode, Yapool masqueraded as the child of Alien Simon and combined several of his past Terrible-Monsters into Jumbo King. When Yapool allowed himself to be killed as the children lost their faith in Seiji, the latter exposed his identity to them and fought the chimeric monster, eventually triumphing over Jumbo King. With Yapool's first attempt (of what would become many) at taking over the Earth thwarted at last, Ace departed the Earth to return home.

Following the end of the 1979-80 anime ''The Ultraman'', ''Ultraman 80'' returns to the setting of the main Showa continuity, taking place after 5 years of peace since the end of ''Ultraman Leo''. A new middle school teacher Takeshi Yamato is actually the disguised Ultra from the Land of Light, Ultraman 80, whose mission is to fight a new wave of monsters resulted from Minus Energy while stabilizing his life as a teacher and UGM member. Although the initial episodes focuses on Takeshi trying to solve the daily problems of his students, starting from episode 13 onward he left the school to join UGM as a full time officer as more members keep appearing one after another in the series progress. Episode 31 returned to the setting of Takeshi interacting with the guest characters of children every week while dealing with appearing monsters and their relation to it. When the princess from the Land of Light Yullian went to Earth as a result of King Galtan's attack, she joined UGM to replace the deceased member Emi Jōno while operating with fellow Ultra Takeshi/80 in dealing against monster attacks. In the season finale, their identities were exposed by Captain Ōyama, who prevented them from participating in the fight against Margodon to prove humankind's reliability in defending the Earth. With their true nature exposed, 80 and Yullian spent their final days on Earth before departing toward the Land of Light, leaving Earth in a 25-year period of peace.

Kotaro Higashi is a wanderer who joined ZAT during his return to Japan, but his aircraft crashed and died from severe burns while fighting Astromons. The Five Ultra Brothers brought Kotaro's body to their home world of Nebula M-78 as Mother of Ultra warped him with the Brothers' own light, turning Kōtarō into Ultraman Taro, who would now form the Six Ultra Brothers. Kotaro was taken back to Earth and defeated the aforementioned monster as his first opponent. Many foes were found that would threaten the Earth, but Taro and ZAT defeated them time and time again with occasional help from the other five Ultra Brothers and from the weaklings of monsters only Taro could defeat. During Taro's era, Birdon killed him and Zoffy but Taro was revived and killed the bird monster. After Samekujira's death, Kotaro declared his intention to continue as a human and returned the Ultra Badge back to the Mother of Ultra. Valky would return to hunt the now-human Kotaro but the latter used his own skills and quick thinking to kill the alien by luring him to an oil refinery. The series ended with ZAT bidding farewell to Kotaro as he left for parts unknown.

In the original series, Ultraman Taro was meant to be Kotaro's transformed form (while the Ultra Brothers and Mother and Father of Ultra were regarded as his non-blood family members), which explained his absence in ''Ultraman Leo''. The ''Ultraman Story'' movie in 1984 would retcon this into providing a story of Taro being raised on the Land of Light, with Mother and Father of Ultra being his biological parents and his training was shown before he left for Earth.

Ultraman Leo comes from Nebula L77 (Leo constellation), and takes the human form of Gen Ootori. Ultraseven appears to fight a new foe, Alien Magma and his two "pets", the Red and Black Giras. Ultimately, Ultraseven is greatly overpowered and his leg is graphically broken by Black Giras. Ultraman Leo drives off the foes, but Ultraseven is confined to his human form because of his injuries and due to the Ultra Eye being damaged when he attempted to transform. Dan then maintains his role as Captain of MAC (Monster Attack Crew). Gen is a gymnastics teacher on the side and joins MAC to defend the Earth. Gen and Dan regularly train together, allowing Ultraman Leo to learn many moves in human form. In episode 34, Dan asks Ultraman Jack to take the Ultra Eye back to M78 to be restored while he heals on Earth. However, in episode 40 MAC is destroyed by Silver Bloome, a saucer monster that belongs to Commander Black. During the attack Dan asks Leo to keep defending the Earth and disappears in the conflagration. It is later shown that he was taken back to M78 to be fully healed and restored as Ultraseven. Gen is now unemployed and spends most of his time training the kids to defend themselves as well as defending the Earth as Ultraman Leo. Commander Black and Alien Bunyo capture Gen when he cannot transform completely. Gen as Leo is then dismembered, only to be brought back to life by Ultraman King. Leo would then face Commander Black's final monster, Black End, with the kids he trained, the latter of whom kill Black, and hand the sphere used to control Black End to Leo. Finishing his mission, Gen removes his Leo Ring and sets off to tour Earth, his "second home".

The game takes place on the fictitious planet of Gift 3 where war has broken out between four different races: the Scorps, Darkens, Mercs and Humans. The setting is shared with G-Nome.

Bran Mak Morn, King of the Picts, vows vengeance on Titus Sulla, a Roman governor, after witnessing the crucifixion of a fellow Pict. He seeks forbidden aid from the Worms of the Earth, a race of creatures who Bran Mak Morn's ancestors banished from their kingdom centuries ago. They were once men, but millennia of living underground caused them to become monstrous and semi-reptilian.

Searching for a contact with these creatures, Bran Mak Morn encounters a witch who lives in a secluded hut, shunned by her neighbors, who was born from a sexual encounter between one of the "Worms" and a human woman. The witch's price for helping him is "one night of love" which her human-half craves - as men in general are repelled by her reptilian traits. Bran Mak Morn, though also himself repelled, agrees to pay the price. In exchange, she tells him of a barrow where "The Black Stone", a religious artifact of great importance to the "Worms", is hidden.

Stealing the Black Stone is a highly risky enterprise - if caught by the "Worms", Bran Mak Morn would die in torment "as no man had died for a thousand years". Fortunately, the barrow is unguarded and he manages to carry out his theft by hiding the Stone at the bottom of a lake. To get it back, the "Worms" agree on delivering Sulla to him. This they proceed with, undermining and destroying a Roman fortress known as "Trajan's Tower" before snatching the Roman governor into their tunnels. Mak Morn intended, once Sulla was delivered, on challenging him to a duel to the death. However, Sulla's mind is damaged from his encounter with the horrific Worms of the Earth. Instead, Bran Mak Morn slays him in mercy rather than vengeance, realizing how some weapons are too foul to use, even against Rome.

The story starts in 1983. Instead of attending the opening festivities of the 17th store, Shin Tanokura (Oshin) decides to go on a train trip. Her family is in a frenzy, not knowing where she disappeared to. Oshin's grandson, Kei, remembers the story of the kokeshi doll she once told him. Based on a hunch thinking about the story, he goes on a trip of his own and finds Oshin in Yamagata. From there, the two of them begin a journey back in time, traveling through various parts of Japan including where she once lived years earlier, and starts remembering the difficult times that she faced in her life.

Early years in Yamagata

In 1907, Yamagata, seven-year-old Oshin is sent off by her father to work as a babysitter to support her sharecropper family. Her boss was a timber trader, and despite the physical and verbal abuse from the chief servant at his household, Oshin insisted on enduring it for the sake of her family. A sympathetic local teacher persuades the trader to allow Oshin to attend elementary school and bring the baby along. However, Oshin's classmates bully her and threaten to harm the baby. Oshin reluctantly stops going to school. However, when she is unjustly accused by the family of stealing money, she runs away, and for days suffers through blizzards as she walks back home to be with her mother Fuji, nearly freezing to death.

Oshin is rescued by a man named Shunsaku, an Imperial Japanese Army soldier-turned-deserter, and a self-described "hunter". She stays with him during the long winter until the snow melts. She furthers her reading and writing skills under Shunsaku. When the blizzard subsides, they are found by an army unit and Shunsaku is shot dead. Oshin is then escorted by the soldiers to a hut and interrogated about Shunsaku. A senior soldier then comes into the hut and tells Oshin that the unit will escort her home. However, Oshin declines the offer, mentioning that she knows the way, and walks to Sakata on her own.

Working at Kagaya

Upon her return, Oshin is once again sent out to work as a babysitter, this time to Kaga-ya in Sakata. Things do not start well because of Oshin's association with the deserter, Shunsaku. She also clashes with Kayo, the family's eldest daughter and designated heir, who is the same age as her. But the matriarch and owner of Kaga-ya, Mrs. Yashiro, views Oshin as a role model to make Kayo more sensible and less like a spoilt child. Kayo resents this but they eventually become good friends. Mrs. Yashiro sees the potential in Oshin and personally trains her in reading, writing and arithmetic using the abacus. Kayo's mother is unhappy with the attention Oshin receives, feeling that it is socially out of place for a servant. However, she accepts Oshin into the family when Oshin saves Kayo from a falling electricity pole.

Oshin stays at Kaga-ya for eight years until she turns 16. During this time, she is loved by everyone, including her co-workers. In the interim, Oshin's beloved grandmother dies and the kind Mrs. Yashiro sends Oshin back home in time to spend the last moments with her dying grandmother. Her death steels Oshin's resolve to make something out of her life and to no longer be poor.

One day, a mysterious man, Kota Takakura, visits Sakata. While Oshin is looking for Kayo, who was at the beach, Kota uses Oshin as a foil, as his girlfriend, to elude the police. Kayo and Oshin's lives are changed by this man, the son of a wealthy landowner and an idealist, who is a strong follower of socialism and wants to better the lives of the indebted sharecroppers through political agitation and land reforms. Kota reveals to Oshin his political mobilization efforts and wins her over with his idealism and passion. Unfortunately, both Kayo and Oshin fall in love with Kota; Kota does not reciprocate Kayo's love, feeling that it is simply an infatuation as he feels something special with Oshin.

In the meantime, Mrs. Yashiro trains Oshin in the tea ceremony and other feminine arts to boost her chances of marrying well. She attempts to set Oshin up with the second son of a wealthy Sakata family. But the match falls through because of Oshin's secret love for Kota. Kayo, who has grown up to be passionate about painting and literature, has no interest to take over Kaga-ya, nor in the feminine arts to improve her marriage prospects. She believes in marrying the man she loves. A rebellious Kayo leaves home on the day she was supposed to meet her prospective husband, fleeing to Tokyo with a reluctant Kota. Heartbroken and feeling troubled by Kayo's decision to run away from home, and unable to reveal the truth to the Kaga family about Kota, a guilt-stricken Oshin decides to leave Kaga-ya and return home.

Return to Yamagata

Upon returning, Oshin is re-united with her older sister, Haru, who was sent home from the textile mill where she had contracted tuberculosis. Haru's last wish is to see her secret love, her former supervisor, Hirano, who is persuaded to visit her. While visiting, Hirano reveals the poor working conditions at the textile mill and his failure to improve the workers' welfare for fear of losing his job. In the meantime, Oshin discovers that her father wants her to work as a barmaid to supplement the family's income. Haru warns Oshin that the agent touting the job had previously conned her fellow textile workers into prostitution. Haru persuades Oshin to run off to Tokyo, giving her a name and address in Tokyo and some money. Haru dies at the age of 19 in 1916. Oshin's mother Fuji, who had also returned home to take care of Haru, supports Oshin in her decision to go to Tokyo. Following her sister's death, Oshin runs off to Tokyo to follow Haru's dream of becoming a hairdresser.

Hairdressing in Tokyo

Oshin trains under Isho in traditional Japanese hairstyling. Two years into the apprenticeship, Oshin receives a letter from her mother informing her of the sudden death of Sayo, the younger sister of Kayo, from pneumonia. Oshin had also been her babysitter at Kaga-ya in Sakata. Oshin takes leave to visit the grieving family in Sakata. She is told that Kayo had not returned home and was somewhere in Tokyo. Kayo's mother pleads with her to stay behind but Oshin is unable to do so. Oshin is still hurting emotionally from the time Kayo and Kyota left Sakata two years earlier.

A year later, Oshin bumps into Kayo at a coffee house in the Ginza district while visiting prospective clients on a house call. Kayo had been working as a waitress at an upscale Ginza coffee house. Due to his agitation work, Kyota was not usually around. Upon learning about Sayo's death, Kayo decides to visit her family in Sakata, staying there for a month.

In the meantime, Mrs. Yashiro arranges Kayo's marriage with the third son of an Osaka rice dealer, Masao, a graduate of the Tokyo Imperial University (present-day University of Tokyo), who is prepared to marry into the family to help the family business succeed. Kayo wants to leave for Tokyo to be present for Kyota's return. But Mrs. Yashiro collapses from a heart attack, so Kayo reluctantly stays behind. She telephones Oshin to inform her when Kyota returns to Tokyo. Oshin meets Kyota when visiting Kayo's rented room to clean it. He tells Oshin not to let Kayo know that he is back in Tokyo and tells Oshin that he does not love Kayo, and that he had only used her to fill the emotional void left behind when he was not able to be with Oshin. Oshin leaves for Sakata to attend Kayo's wedding. She does not update Kayo with news about Kyota for the sake of Kagaya's future. Through Kayo, Oshin meets Ryuzo Tanokura, a seemingly rich textile trader who frequents the Ginza coffee house. The third son of a prominent Saga family, Ryuzo decided to leave home for Tokyo to strike out on his own. Seven years Oshin's senior, Ryuzo falls in love with her, and the two get married despite initial opposition from both their parents.

Married life in Tokyo

Ryuzo's business begins to go downhill due to the post-war depression and his lack of business acumen. Oshin's attempts to improve business practices are badly received by Ryuzo who believes that business is a man's world. To supplement the family income, Oshin decides to return to work for Isho with Ryuzo's reluctant approval as married women did not usually work. As she increasingly takes on the role of breadwinner, Ryuzo feels undermined as he believes that it is the man's job to look after the family. He becomes increasingly despondent and indolent, and turns to alcohol and women, while Oshin turns a blind eye because of her love for him.

After a confrontation during which Ryuzo makes clear his bitterness, Oshin realises that her working to supporting the family had wounded his pride. She decides that it would be better for Ryuzo if she were to leave him. However, Oshin then discovers that she is pregnant. She decides to quit hairdressing to save her marriage. But with the loss of her income, the household comes to the brink of starvation before Ryuzo realises that he cannot let his pride get in the way of supporting his family. He borrows money to tide them over, and they start to think of a new business venture.

Realising they need capital to start a new business, Oshin persuades Ryuzo to allow her to try selling their cloth at a night market. After a rocky start, she manages to sell all their stock within 10 days with help from gang ringleader Ken. They decide to use the proceeds to start a new business selling Western-style children's clothes designed by Oshin. Due to lacklustre business, Ryuzo arranges to sell their products at Onoya, a large local shop. The affordable clothes are sold out at Onoya on the first day, and Ryuzo begins to expand production despite Oshin's misgivings.

With Oshin's baby arriving soon, Ryuzo arranges for Fuji to visit. Oshin gives birth to a healthy baby boy whom they name Yu ("courageous"). After Fuji leaves, Ryuzo's father also pays a visit to see the baby. The couple learns that Ryuzo's mother Kiyo still refuses to accept Oshin. Ryuzo decides to borrow large sums of money to buy a plot of land and build a large factory, convinced that a successful business will prove his worth even as a third son and persuade his mother to accept their marriage.

One day, they receive an unexpected visit from Kayo who says she has come to see the baby. However she soon reveals that she wishes to run away from her unhappy marriage in Sakata and find Kyota, whom she has learned is at his parents' house in Tokyo. Kyota agrees to meet with Kayo who expresses her desire to be with him. However Kyota tells her that the only reason he met with her was to apologise for the way that he had left her. With his continued involvement in the workers' movement, he was not in a position to have a relationship. Kayo finally realises what a fool she has been all these years and that Oshin was the one Kyota had loved. Kayo resolves to return to Sakata and bear an heir to carry on the family business.

After months of building work and preparation, it is finally the day of the grand opening of the new factory. However disaster strikes, and the Great Kantō earthquake and subsequent fire destroy their factory and house. Their faithful retainer Genji dies protecting Yu, who survives unscathed.

With only shattered dreams and debts, Ryuzo decides that they have no choice but to return to his family in Saga. Oshin is fearful of the treatment she will receive at the hands of her mother-in-law and urges Ryuzo to try once again to build their lives in Tokyo. But after so much disappointment, Ryuzo no longer has the will to try again. Although Oshin wants to stay on in Tokyo with Yu, her mother (whom the Kagayas have sent to Tokyo to find Oshin) persuades her to stay together with Ryuzo for the sake of their son.

Hardship in Saga

Upon their arrival in Saga, they are greeted warmly by Ryuzo's father, who is overjoyed that they are unharmed. But Oshin receives a barrage of criticism from Kiyo, who blames her for all the disasters that have befallen Ryuzo, including Genji's death. Ryuzo's eldest brother makes it clear that Ryuzo will not receive another penny from the family since he took his share of the inheritance when he left home. Kiyo informs them that they will have to work the fields to earn their keep – the very life that Oshin thought she had escaped when she left home.

Kiyo is controlling and domineering, criticising Oshin at every turn while chiding Ryuzo for not taking charge of his wife. As Ryuzo and Oshin have no money, they are unable to purchase even simple items like soap, needles and thread. Oshin is keen to offer her services as a hairdresser to the villagers, but Ryuzo and Kiyo refuse to allow this as it would bring disgrace to the family. Ryuzo asks Kiyo for money, but she scolds Oshin for complaining to Ryuzo, leading to marital discord between the couple.

Oshin wants to leave and go to the nearby town or back to Tokyo, but Ryuzo will not hear of it as he is worried about how they will support themselves without any money. He decides to join a scheme to reclaim land from the sea, which he will own after 10 years. Oshin is concerned about such a high-risk endeavour but Ryuzo presses ahead nonetheless. While Oshin continues to be bullied by the household, Ryuzo becomes fed up with Oshin's complaining and begins to side with his mother. He even moves to a separate room, much to Kiyo's delight, who encourages him to divorce Oshin.

One day Oshin receives a letter from Isho who has returned to Tokyo after the earthquake and will be opening another hairdressing shop in a few months. Oshin decides to join her in Tokyo when the time comes. As she plans her escape, Oshin discovers she is pregnant with their second child.

On the day that she is due to catch a train to Tokyo, Ryuzo finds out and intercepts her. When he is unable to persuade her to stay, he struggles with her to take their son from her. Oshin falls and hits her head, paralysing her right side. She has no choice but to return to Ryuzo's home.

The partial paralysis in Oshin's hand renders her unable to cook, sew or look after Yu, who is now cared for by Kiyo. As the visible injury was to her head, not her hand, the family including Ryuzo begins to think that Oshin is feigning the injury. Aware that she is a burden to the family, Oshin cannot bring herself to tell anyone that she is pregnant. However Ryuzo finds out that she is pregnant, which brings them closer together once more.

Unfortunately, Kiyo learns that Oshin had planned to run away and wants to throw her out of the house. Ryuzo reveals that Oshin is pregnant and that she must therefore stay with the family. But Kiyo believes it will be inauspicious for Oshin and her own daughter Ritsuko, who is also pregnant, to give birth in the same house at the same time – it is said that one of the births will not go well. Oshin agrees to move into the shed, which Kiyo hopes will prevent the superstition from coming true.

After a difficult labour, Ritsuko delivers a healthy baby. Oshin goes into labour at the same time, but the malnutrition and forced labour have taken their toll – Oshin's baby is too weak to survive. With this latest calamity, Oshin's mind becomes unhinged.

As Ritsuko does not have enough milk for her baby, Kiyo asks Ryuzo to let Oshin breastfeed the baby. While he is initially taken aback by the idea, he agrees thinking that it might comfort and restore Oshin's mind. After feeding the baby, Oshin comes back to her senses and agrees to continue feeding the baby. Kiyo is immensely touched and grateful and promises to treat Oshin better.

After a month, Ritsuko returns home with the baby. Unbeknownst to the family, Oshin had already decided to leave the household as she realised that she would have to work the fields for the rest of her life in Saga and would never amount to anything. Now that her duty is done, she informs the family that she will be leaving for Tokyo. Ryuzo agrees to let her leave as a sign of love and they part believing that they will be together again one day. Ryuzo's father and eldest brother give her some money to help her in Tokyo. However Kiyo is furious and refuses to let her take Yu with her.

While preparing to leave the next morning, Kasumi, Ryuzo's sister-in-law tells her that she will bring Yu to her. As Kiyo refuses to hand over Yu, Oshin has no choice but to trust her sister-in-law. Kasumi turns out to be true to her word and stole Yu while Kiyo is out and Oshin leaves for Tokyo with Yu.

Night market in Tokyo

Oshin is warmly welcome by Isho in Tokyo. But Oshin discovers that her hand is still not recovered enough for her to resume hairdressing. Ringleader Ken helps her to set up a food stall at a night market and rent her own house. All seems well until one day a woman bursts in to Oshin's house when Ken is there. She turns out to be Ken's partner and accuses Ken of having an affair with Oshin and spending all his money on her. Ken admits that he is in love with Oshin, but says he has done nothing wrong. Oshin is shocked and saddened to learn that she has been the cause of another woman's grief, and uncomfortable about Ken's feelings for her. She worries that rumours may reach Ryuzo in Saga. Despite Isho's entreaties for Oshin to stay with her, Oshin cannot bring herself to be a burden to Isho, and decides to give up the stall and return to her family home in Yamagata.

Fuji is overjoyed to see her daughter Oshin after 4 years, but Oshin's brother's reception is cold when he realises that she intends to stay. They do not have enough food for her and Yu. Fuji's attempts to protect Oshin widen the rift with her brother and his wife. Oshin manages to find work helping other farmers.

Running an eatery in Sakata

One day, Oshin is informed that the madam at Kagaya is seriously ill and unlikely to recover. Oshin visits the Kagayas in time to bid the madam a final farewell. Masao, Kayo's husband comes to offer incense, but Kayo wants him sent away as she is unable to forgive him for having a child with another woman. Oshin convinces Kayo to give Masao one more chance as Kagaya needs an heir. Plans are made for Masao to move back into the Kagaya household.

When Kayo learns of Oshin's situation, she persuades Oshin to stay in Sakata and open a shop. Oshin decides to open a simple eatery, with a loan from the Kagayas.

Oshin's eatery has no customers on its first day. After advertising for 3 days, the eatery begins to do well. As Kayo's father and husband have now taken over the business, Kayo decides to help out at Oshin's eatery. Kayo is surprised and touched when Masao agrees to let her do so.

One evening a drunk customer comes to the eatery demanding sake. Oshin informs him that she does not serve sake and asks him to leave. The customer becomes increasingly belligerent until Kayo finally brings him sake, telling Oshin that they will be able to make more profit this way. Oshin is reluctant as she did not want the eatery turning into a bar.

Eventually the local yakuza turn up at the eatery to stop Oshin from selling sake as her low prices are hurting the business of other bars. As they begin to destroy the shop, Kayo is terrified and tells the yakuza they will comply, but Oshin is utterly adamant that she will not give in to them. Insisting that they take the matter outside, the yakuza are surprised when Oshin gives the formal yakuza greeting of Ken's house in Tokyo. Soon, they are all enjoying warm sake in Oshin's eatery, where the local yakuza express their admiration for Oshin, calling her sister and promising their protection. Oshin confesses to Kayo later that in fact she is not part of Ken's yakuza house, but had learned the greeting from him.

Oshin's eatery is now doing well enough to support Ryuzo, Oshin and Yu. Oshin has been writing to Ryuzo regularly for a year but has never received a reply. Little does she know that Kiyo has been intercepting Oshin's letters, so Ryuzo does not even know where Oshin lives. Oshin decides to write to Ryuzo one last time. If Ryuzo does not reply, she will give up on him.

One evening, Kyota comes to Oshin's eatery, not realising that it is run by Oshin. Kayo, who has now gotten over her infatuation for him, tells Kyota that Oshin and Yu have been abandoned by Ryuzo. Kyota tells Oshin that the labour movement is now legitimate and he no longer needs to hide from the police. He offers to become a father to Yu.

But all too soon, the government cracks down on the labour movement, making it once again difficult for Kyota to have a family. Oshin tells Kyota that just hearing his words of love have erased the years of bitterness from her heart. Kyota tells Oshin that although they will not marry, he will always look after them. Oshin says this is enough for her. Kyota says he will write to Ryuzo to make his intentions known.

Back in Saga, in a bid to persuade Ryuzo to give up on Oshin and remarry, Kiyo shows him Kyota's letter, in which he mentions that Oshin sent Ryuzo many letters but did not receive a reply. Kiyo says that Oshin must have been lying to Kyota to make herself look good. Unable to bear the deceit any longer, Kasumi finally shows Ryuzo a stack of Oshin's letters that Kiyo had intercepted but which she had saved. Ryuzo tells his mother to give up on the idea of his remarriage. Oshin is his wife and once he reclaims the land, he will ask Oshin to return. In the meantime it is better that she continues to work in Sakata rather than suffering in Saga. If they are faithful to each other, they will be together again one day. Ryuzo writes to Oshin and sends her some money.

Oshin is overjoyed to finally receive a letter from Ryuzo. However Kyota is astonished that Ryuzo is staying in Saga instead of coming to Sakata. But Oshin understands that Ryuzo has his male pride – he wants to succeed at the land reclamation. Also, Oshin knows that Ryuzo would not like running an eatery.

One evening, two drunken customers get into a knife fight in the eatery. Kyota wants to intervene but Oshin says she will handle it as they are her customers. Not only does she manage to persuade them to take the fight outside, she even gets them to pay their bills. Watching Oshin scrabble on the floor picking up money and crockery, and fending off the advances of drunken customers, Kyota becomes increasingly worried. He points out that if Ryuzo does not like running an eatery, things could be difficult if he were to come to Sakata. Kyota advises Oshin to consider a different trade.

Selling seafood in Ise

Kyota arranges for Oshin to stay with his aunt in Ise and sell fish instead. Oshin soon picks up the trade and gains customers with her low prices and resourcefulness. She dreams that one day Ryuzo will join her and Yu in Ise.

One evening, a typhoon hits Japan, washing away the land in Saga that Ryuzo had been painstakingly reclaiming for the past 4 years. With his dreams shattered once more, Ryuzo leaves Saga to forge a new life.

As Oshin sets off to sell fish one morning, she sees a familiar figure some distance away – it is Ryuzo. When she catches up to him, he reveals that he is on his way to Manchuria, where he has friends, to start again. He had planned to come to Ise to divorce Oshin but when he saw her and Yu, he was unable to do so. He tells her to wait for him. As he turns to leave once more, he sees Yu and they have a tearful reunion.

On the morning that Ryuzo is due to leave for Manchuria, he helps her push her cart to town and Oshin bids him goodbye. However, struck by the heaviness of the cart which Oshin pushes for 7 miles a day, Ryuzo decides to follow her to see what her life selling fish is like. When he sees how hard she has to work, he decides that he has no choice but to stay to help her. Oshin is overjoyed to be together as a family once more. With help from Oshin's landlady, the couple start a fish shop in town. Ryuzo begins to learn about fish and how to prepare and cook it.

Oshin writes to Saga to update Ryuzo's parents on his whereabouts. Kiyo is furious and asks her husband to go to Ise to retrieve Ryuzo, but he tells Kiyo that she must never separate them again. Kiyo finally realises that Ryuzo's love for his wife is greater than his love for his mother. She sends Ryuzo his possessions, along with a letter encouraging to make a new life in Ise with Oshin. Oshin is overjoyed that Kiyo has finally forgiven her, and is determined to make the shop a success so that Ryuzo's parents can visit one day.

A new beginning, and an end

Fuji is getting older and weaker, and is unable to do much work in the fields. Her son and daughter-in-law begin to resent having a useless mouth to feed. When Oshin writes inviting her mother to visit them in Ise, Oshin's brother is keen for his mother to stay with Oshin permanently. Just as Oshin and Ryuzo are wondering how to persuade her mother to stay with them, Oshin discovers that she is pregnant for the third time. Fuji is worried about being a burden as she is no longer strong enough to work. But Ryuzo's and Oshin's heartfelt entreaties convince her to stay, at least until Oshin delivers the baby. Oshin is also delighted to learn that after 10 years of marriage, Kayo is finally pregnant with the Kagaya heir.

Oshin gives birth to a healthy baby boy, Hitoshi ("benevolence"). However, minutes after the birth, Fuji collapses. They discover that she has leukaemia, which is incurable. To fulfil her mother's last wish, Oshin brings her home to Yamagata, carrying her on her back as Fuji is too weak by now to walk. Fuji dies in Oshin's arms in her own home.

The downfall of Kagaya

Oshin learns that Kayo's husband Masao has committed suicide. Kyota appears asking Oshin to bring 100 yen to Kayo who is living in Tokyo. When Ryuzo sees the address, he tells Oshin that before the earthquake, this was a bad neighbourhood with many brothels. Oshin is adamant that Kayo would never turn to prostitution no matter how bad things became. But Ryuzo warns Oshin to prepare herself for the worst.

Oshin enlists Ken's help to find Kayo in Tokyo's red-light district. Now a prostitute, a broken and dissipated Kayo reveals that Masao had gambled Kagaya's entire fortune away on rice derivatives that went awry. She and her parents had come to Tokyo but her mother fell ill after her father died, so Kayo had sold herself into prostitution to pay for her mother's medical bills. Unable to even bring their bones back to Sakata for a proper burial, Kayo now lives for her son Nozomi.

Unable to raise the 1,000 yen required to buy Kayo out of prostitution, Oshin is determined to at least bring Nozomi to Ise. But when she and Ken return to the brothel the following morning, they discover that Kayo has died. She had a weak stomach but drank a large amount of sake the night before and vomited blood, eventually choking to death.

Oshin finds a letter from Kayo among her belongings. Kayo knew she did not have long to live, but after meeting Oshin again, she knew that she could entrust Nozomi to Oshin's care. Oshin swears that from that day on, she will regard Nozomi as her own son.

The family grows

Oshin brings Nozomi back to Ise, and to a supportive Ryuzo. They bury the bones of Kayo and her parents in Ise so that Nozomi can visit them; he can bring them to Sakata one day if he chooses.

One day Kyota comes to Ise. He asks Oshin for the location of Kayo's grave so that he can pay his respects in the morning. Oshin says she will meet him there so that he can see Nozomi but he tells her no, in case he is followed by the police. The next morning, Oshin waits for him at the grave with Nozomi and Hitoshi, but when Kyota arrives he is captured by the special policemen who accuse him of planning to escape to Moscow. The policemen allow Kyota to light incense for Kayo before they take him away. Kyota pretends that he does not know Oshin to protect her, but Oshin is devastated to see Kyota being taken away.

4 years later, Ken visits Ise on his way to Osaka. He is accompanied by Hatsuko, a 9-year-old girl from Yamagata whom he intends to sell to a brothel in Osaka as a cleaning girl. Ken is related to her parents – tenant farmers who had a bad harvest this year and had no other choice but to try to sell their daughter for 50 yen. Hatsuko's hard fate and cheerful resourcefulness remind Oshin of herself when she was a girl, and of Ai, the baby girl Oshin had lost who would be the same age as Hatsuko had she lived. The couple decide to take Hatsuko in, paying Ken the 50 yen. Ryuzo and Oshin treat Hatsuko as part of the family, even arranging for her to continue her education.

Hatsuko grows closer to Oshin's sons. Soon, Yu is about to take an important examination. Yu tells Hatsuko that he must pass the examination because his mother has always worked so hard to look after him. The night before the examination, Oshin and Ryuzo are awakened by the sound of running water. When they go into the courtyard, they discover Hatsuko pouring cold water on herself while praying for Yu to pass his examination, a village superstition. The family is touched by her sincere, if foolish, actions.

The day before Hitoshi and Nozomi start school, Oshin decides to tell Nozomi that he is adopted and that his birth parents are the Yashiros. She takes him to visit his parents' grave. Nozomi seems to takes the revelation well, but on his first day at school he is bullied for being an orphan and runs away from home. The family search all day and night for Nozomi, and a devastated Oshin ends up at Kayo's grave, where she finds Nozomi. When she sees him, she slaps him for not being strong enough to face up to the bullies. She tells Nozomi that life will be full of difficulties. He promises to go back to school, and Oshin tells him again that the whole family sees him as one of them. Oshin brings Nozomi home where he is warmly welcome by everyone.

Oshin discovers that she is pregnant once more. Ryuzo is delighted, but concerned about making ends meet, he suggests sending Hatsuko back when her 3-year contract is over and she has graduated from junior high school. In any case Hatsuko's parents must be waiting for her. Oshin is reluctant to let Hatsuko go and feels that they should let her decide for herself when the time comes.

Oshin gives birth to a healthy girl whom they name Tei ("happiness"). Having reached the end of her contract, Hatsuko feels that she should go home because otherwise she will be a burden to the family with the addition of the baby. But when Ryuzo and Oshin realise that Hatsuko would in fact prefer to stay, they joyfully welcome her to the family.

Japan enters war

Japan begins to enter a period of military rule. Ryuzo gets involved with the military to raise more money along with the fish shop, something Oshin opposes but relents when she puts his interests at heart and decided that they need the financial support. Due to the military propaganda during this time period, Yu begins to side with the military and support the Sino-Japanese Wars.

When Yu began to apply for high school, he asked Ryuzo for permission to join the Military Officers Academy, where students are taught to become a military officer to fight the war. Oshin overhears the conversation and intervenes just when Ryuzo approves. Due to Oshin's convictions of pacifism, Oshin gets desperate to keep Yu from applying. When Yu remains firm on his decision to apply, Hatsuko reminds him that Oshin doesn't want him to fight since she has gone through adversity with him when he was still a child. To humor Oshin, Yu decides to apply to a school in Kyoto to study Humanities instead of applying to the Military Officers Academy.

As 1940 arrives, food rationing is on the rise to support the war effort. This was also the time when the black market surfaced to sell rationed goods. When the black market began to sell illegal imports of fish, Oshin is forced to close down the store to prevent trouble. Hisa moves to Tokyo due to the lack of fishermen and rations. Subsequently, Oshin's family moves to a new house that was previously owned by a man working with the military, who relocated in Pyongyang. When Yu came by to visit, Yu and Hatsuko profess their love for each other, something that Ryuzo opposes. Ryuzo also gets involved in the military committee, where he encourages boys in the area to enlist, and begins to manage a uniforms factory. Life continues as usual until Yu visits again in 1943.

Yu reveals to Ryuzo that student-exemptions for military drafts have been lifted, and later he breaks the news to Oshin that he must enlist within one month. A shocked Oshin begins to cry in front of Yu and feels like she betrayed Shunsaku, the military deserter who instilled pacifism in her as a child. After one month, Yu leaves in uniform.

As air raids began to be feared, Ryuzo mulls whether to send Tei to the countryside where she won't be affected by the air raids. Ryuzo sends her to a home of one of his factory workers where Tei gets mistreated and neglected. As Japan begins to lose, Yu's regiment is sent to the Philippines, where he would be safer due to the air raids in Japan. Hitoshi begins to support the war effort and declares that he wants to join the kamikaze squad, something both Oshin and Ryuzo oppose. However, Hitoshi sneaks out and joins the kamikaze.

Oshin's family begins to experience their first air raid and her first priority is to keep the house from burning down instead of evacuating into a bomb shelter. Before the bombs ignite into flames, Nozomi and Hatsuko get containers of water ready and diligently fight the fire but see that the factories they manage are burning down. After the air raid, Oshin receives a telegram stating Yu has died in the Philippines. Oshin refuses to believe until she has seen his body, and been informed by his best friend, who confessed Yu had malaria. Soon, Japan surrenders to the Allies in 1945.

However, Ryuzo soon finds out that his company is completely out of money. Feeling scared, disappointed, and angered that he betrayed Oshin, he is found on a mountain by a commoner, having killed himself, in spite of knowing Oshin and his family needed him. Oshin was now a widow, and had lost two members of her family because of the war. Eventually, she successfully brought back home Tei with her. Hatsuko, not being able to handle everything, leaves to Tokyo, to work at a rice store.

New trouble arises when the original owners of the house return from Pyongyang and demand their house back. They still hold the deed for the property and the paperwork Oshin produced were signed by the Japanese military and was not worth anything. The Tanokura family is forced to co-habit and are miserable. After being arrested for selling food on the street to earn money for her remaining family, Oshin gets kicked out of her house by an angry landlord. This entire war motivated Oshin to work as hard as she can, for her family's sake at least.

Mrs. Hisayama reenters their life and she visits Oshin to let her know that she is going to start her fishing business in Ise. She invites Oshin and her family to come live with her and Oshin happily accepts.

Seafood and vegetable store

A decade after the war, Oshin is now 50 years old, and owns a seafood and vegetable market with Hitoshi. Ken visits Oshin, telling her she must visit Tokyo as soon as she can. Hatsuko lied when she said she worked at a rice shop. She really works at a brothel, greeting soldiers every night. This was supposedly her rebound from Yu. Oshin finds her in the brothel, asks Ken to drag her out, and slaps her. Oshin manages to convince Hatsuko to return home with her and to forget everything that had happened in Tokyo. Shortly afterwards, they hire a sweet girl named Yuri to work with them, as they drop by people's houses and deliver their food. Hitoshi has decided that he wants to become a businessman and make a living from there. He also tells Yuri that one day, he and Yuri will get married. Few months later, Hitoshi leave to Tokyo to work as a clerk only to know that he cannot get a job as a delivery man without a college education. He drifted in Tokyo for several months and returned home. He met his future wife, Michiko, a daughter of a rich businessman. Later Yuri learned about it and run away from home. Oshin is very upset of Hitoshi and opposed to the marriage of Hitoshi and Michiko.

Sean Stein is a successful novelist, but after two divorces and a palimony suit, he now believes women only have loved him for his money. At a charity ball where armed thieves order guests to strip, he is bound nude to Daisy Morgan, a commercial artist. He is immediately attracted to her.

Daisy is in a rather rocky relationship with Marty, a whiny, unstable lawyer who is afraid to make a commitment. Sean does not know she already has a well-off boyfriend, but he decides to play a little trick to win her. With the help of his lawyer, Jay Bass, he pretends to be a poor failure to see if Daisy will love him for himself. As their relationship develops, Sean ultimately decides to reveal his true self. But on that very day, Marty persuades Daisy that he is a changed man and that they should live together in his home. Sean is heartbroken.

On moving day, Daisy accidentally sees a newspaper clipping that reveals Sean's true identity. She demands an explanation, which she accepts, telling him she realized that he is who she truly loves. However, he wonders if she only decided this after reading the article about his success and seeing his Beverly Hills home. She lies.

They elope to Lake Tahoe to be married. On the way, Sean urges her to sign a prenuptial agreement. She thinks it "unromantic" but concedes. In a casino in Nevada, gambling by herself, Daisy then miraculously hits a jackpot on a slot machine, winning two million dollars.

Sean returns to say he has had a change of heart and requires no prenup. Now it is Daisy who wants to know when exactly he decided this. She admits lying to him before. Marty shows up and begs her to return to him. Sean says: "You can have her."

Back in Los Angeles, realizing she has made a mistake, Daisy rejects a proposal of marriage and pays off Marty for his trouble with some of her casino winnings.

A disturbed Sean spots a prostitute who robbed him. He decides to avenge himself against women in general by bringing the streetwalker to his home and robbing her. She turns out to be a transvestite. Daisy suddenly bursts in and wants to marry him again, throwing all of her remaining cash at him. The prostitute picks up his gun and sees the pile of cash, but generously says: "I'll only take cab fare."

After being disappointed by a new episode of ''Itchy & Scratchy'', Bart and Lisa decide that they can write a better one themselves. Inspired by the sight of Homer accidentally slicing Marge's hair off with hedge shears, they write a script titled "Little Barbershop of Horrors", but their episode is rejected by Roger Meyers Jr., head of Itchy & Scratchy International. Correctly guessing that Meyers did not take them seriously because they were children, they resubmit the manuscript under Grampa's name, leading Meyers to hire Grampa as a staff writer. Bart and Lisa inform Grampa of their scheme, and the trio conspire to continue passing off Bart and Lisa's scripts as Grampa's, splitting the money three ways. Bart and Lisa’s cartoons are met with acclaim from audiences, resulting in Meyers firing ''Itchy & Scratchy''’s entire writing staff, with the exception of Grampa.

For his work on ''Itchy & Scratchy'', Grampa is nominated for an award for Outstanding Writing in a Cartoon Series. When Grampa sees ''Itchy & Scratchy'' for the first time in a clip show introducing the award, he is appalled at the violent humor, and turns his acceptance speech into an assault on both the cartoon and the audience amused by it. He storms off the stage amidst boos and thrown vegetables. Grampa gives the award to Bart and Lisa, and Bart swears never to watch an award show again, unless Billy Crystal is featured.

In the subplot, Homer and Marge attend their "Class of 1974" high school reunion, where they have a great time and Homer wins a variety of humorous awards. However, Principal Dondelinger interrupts the ceremony to announce that Homer technically never graduated from high school due to failing a remedial science course and revokes all of Homer's awards. Determined to win back the accolades, Homer retakes the course and passes the final exam, finally graduating.

The episode concludes with a self-contained segment, complete with its own theme song, titled ''The Adventures of Ned Flanders''. In the sketch, itself titled "Love That God", Ned is upset with his sons for not wanting to go to church, until they inform him that it is Saturday and he laughs at his mistake.

Josh Jarman is a playwright who can't find anyone to produce his dramatic play. The only producer to show some interest would like to turn it into a musical. This leaves Josh with a dilemma, does he sell out for fame and fortune or does he insist on his artistic integrity, but if he does that he will remain a struggling playwright?

''The Buddha of Suburbia'' is said to be very autobiographical. It is about Karim, a mixed-race teenager, who is desperate to escape suburban South London and to have new experiences in London in the 1970s. He eagerly seizes an unlikely opportunity when a life in the theatre presents itself as a possibility. When there is nothing left for him to do in London, he goes to New York for ten months. Returning to London, he takes on a part in a TV soap opera and the book leaves its reader on the brink of the 1979 general election (the defeat of Jim Callaghan's government on a motion of no confidence is specifically mentioned later in the novel).

Through his work with two theatre companies, Karim gets to know new people from completely different backgrounds, like the working-class Welshman Terry, who is an active Trotskyist and wants him to join the party, or Karim's lover Eleanor who is upper middle class but pretends to be working class. Mixing with the people surrounding Eleanor and Pyke (a strange theatre director), he realises that they are speaking a different language, because they received a good education, which was not valued in the suburbs.

Other characters and their struggles to make it in London are described, too. Kureishi portrays Eva as a social climber at war with the city: "Eva was planning her assault on London. […] she was not ignored by London once she started her assault. She was climbing ever higher, day by day. […] As Eva started to take London, moving forward over the foreign fields of Islington, Chiswick and Wandsworth inch by inch, party by party, contact by contact". Later in the novel the main character's father (an Indian immigrant, a boring bureaucrat living with his family in a grey London suburb) is suddenly discovered by London's high society, which is hungry for exotic distractions, and so he becomes their Buddha-like guru, though he himself does not believe in this role. His son does not believe in him either and, at the same time, has his first erotic experiences.

In the Yorkshire countryside, Mona (Natalie Press) is lying in a field when Tamsin (Emily Blunt) passes by on her horse. Tamsin is from a wealthy family and says she has been suspended from boarding school. Mona comes from a working-class family, and her only living relative is her brother Phil (Paddy Considine). Both girls regard their lives as mundane and unsatisfying.

Mona finds Phil getting rid of all the alcohol in their late mother's former pub, which is situated below their living quarters. After going to prison for petty theft and violence, Phil has undergone a religious transformation and now uses the pub to host meetings of local Christians. Mona meets her lover, Ricky (Dean Andrews), for sex in his car, but he breaks up with her afterward. The next day, the girls begin to bond as they spend the day drinking, smoking and talking about their problems. The next day, Tamsin takes Mona to the house where Tamsin claims her father's mistress lives. Mona smashes a window of Tamsin's father's car, and the girls flee.

Tamsin purchases an engine for Mona's scooter, and they ride to a small river for a swim. Under a waterfall, the girls share a kiss. At Tamsin's house, Mona tries on her dresses. Tamsin tearfully recounts the death from anorexia of her sister Sadie. In the garden, Tamsin plays the cello while Mona dances. Tamsin kisses Mona passionately, and they later have sex, but they are briefly interrupted when Phil comes to the house looking for Mona.

Phil wants Mona to come with him to a local cross-raising ceremony, and Tamsin accompanies her. During the ceremony, Tamsin seems to be attracted to Phil. At Tamsin's house, she and Mona enter her sister Sadie's bedroom, where they find a bag of magic mushrooms. They take the mushrooms and go to a dance hall, where their raucous behaviour disturbs the patrons. They return to the river and declare their eternal love to each other, swearing a suicide pact should they ever be separated.

Phil later comes to Tamsin's house seeking Mona again. Tamsin lets him inside and pretends to seduce him, then switches to mocking him for his religious beliefs. He angrily chokes Tamsin, then releases her and forces Mona to return home with him, locking her in her bedroom. Later, during a meeting of the Christians, she loudly fakes suicide. Phil intervenes, but Mona further mocks his religious beliefs by pretending to be possessed by a devil. Reverting to his old anger, Phil beats Mona and forces the Christians to leave. Mona packs a suitcase and leaves to be with Tamsin.

When she arrives at Tamsin's house, Mona discovers that Tamsin is returning to boarding school. She also finds out that Tamsin lied about her parents, and that her sister Sadie is still alive. Dejected, Mona goes to the river. Tamsin joins her there and dismissively tells Mona that she shouldn't have been so gullible. Seemingly forgiving her, Mona slips into the water, enticing Tamsin to join her, and the two girls kiss again. Mona grabs Tamsin by the throat and holds her under the water, as if to kill her, but eventually releases her and walks away.

Best friends Claire and Hailey are enjoying their last few days of summer vacation together in their small beach town of Baybridge, near Tampa, before Hailey moves to Australia due to her mother's job as a marine biologist. Hailey prays to the ocean god for a miracle to make her mother change her mind about moving; minutes later, a violent storm occurs.

The next night, the girls sneak into the local pool where they discover a mermaid named Aquamarine, who was washed in by the storm. Aquamarine befriends the girls and explains that she ran away from home due to being forced into an arranged marriage. In order to end the engagement, Aquamarine must to prove to her father that true love exists.

Aquamarine (who is able to change her tail into legs during the day as long as she does not get wet) has set her eyes on Raymond, the lifeguard Hailey and Claire have had a crush on for years. They are reluctant but when Aquamarine explains you get a wish if you help a mermaid, they agree, hoping they can prevent Hailey from moving.

As Aquamarine is not human, she does not understand how love works and is rejected by Raymond when they first meet. The girls promise to make Raymond fall in love with her in the next three days, using strategies found in teen magazines. However, a group of popular girls headed by Cecilia, the spoiled daughter of the local meteorologist also interested in Raymond, gets in the way.

Aquamarine and Raymond bond at a local dance but she is forced to leave since she transforms back at sunset. Before departing, she kisses him and asks him to meet her on the pier in the morning. Cecilia follows the three girls to the water tower where Aquamarine is staying, and discovers her secret. She unhooks the ladder to prevent Aquamarine from getting down and calls the news so she can expose her on national television. However, the town's mysterious handyman helps Aquamarine escape and she grants him a wish. Cecilia's father confiscates her car as punishment for embarrassing the family on national television.

The next morning, Aquamarine asks Raymond if he loves her. Raymond admits that he likes her but has not fallen in love with her yet as they have only been on one date, and that he wants to get there with her slowly. Aquamarine is heartbroken, when Cecilia interrupts and pushes her into the ocean, where Aquamarine turns back into a mermaid. Raymond is shocked but rushes to get his rescue board to save her, much to Cecilia's dismay.

Aquamarine's father summons a giant storm, dragging Aquamarine back homeward, but Hailey and Claire jump into the ocean to her aid. When Aquamarine asks why, they respond that they love her. The power of the girls' friendship finally convinces Aquamarine's father of true love's existence and the storm abates. The girls receive their wish but decide to not use it to keep Hailey from moving away as her mother worked hard for it. Instead, they save the wish and say goodbye to Aquamarine, who promises to visit. Raymond asks her to visit him as well and they kiss. Back on shore, Raymond thanks the girls for their bravery and for introducing him to Aquamarine. Hailey and Claire tell each other they will miss one another and part ways.

In the stage booklet, it is revealed that a year later Claire, Raymond, and Aquamarine meet up with Hailey in Australia exploring the Great Barrier Reef together.

The game takes place in the fictional town of Hillsfar. There are guilds for each class; Fighter, Cleric, Mage, and Thief. Depending on the class chosen by the player during their character's creation, the player must go to the appropriate guildmaster, who assigns them several missions. Upon completing all missions issued by the guildmaster, they will increase the player's gold and experience points, and the character then retires.

As heroes battle invading aliens, a Daredevil in distress calls Elektra for help. She finds him on the Daily Bugle building, where he fights her. She defeats him and removes an alien device from the back of his neck. This releases him from the control of one Niles Van Roekel, who lets his Imperfects into the city to fight heroes. The heroes also find more alien devices and fight any "infected" to remove those devices.

Meanwhile, a girl named Maya trains to fulfill Roekel's goal to create the best and most deadly warrior. She begins by destroying different alien devices. As training continues, she takes on the name Paragon, fighting the same aliens the heroes are.

She fights her way out of the secret headquarters of the Imperfects and into the city, where Magneto finds her. So that Paragon will serve as his minion, he uses an alien device to control her. Paragon eventually breaks free of the device's control and defeats Magneto. She realizes that she is not evil and plans to stop Roekel. Roekel reveals that he is an alien, is responsible for and will spread the invasion. Maya attacks Roekel and kills him by taking away his life force. She stops the invasion, and she and the other Imperfects join together to share the Earth with the heroes.

After World War II, immigrants in Cuba who are refused visas for various reasons try to sneak into the U.S. illegally with the help of a human smuggling ring run by Palinov (George Macready), a Levantine café owner. Following the death of one immigrant, U.S. Immigration operative Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) is sent to Havana, where he poses as a Hungarian in need of Palinov's services. During his dangerous undercover investigation, Pete meets Marianne Lorress (Hedy Lamarr), a penniless Austrian refugee of the Buchenwald concentration camp who is waiting to be smuggled into the United States by Palinov. He decides to use her to obtain the place and time of Palinov's next operation.

However Pete falls in love with Marianne, and deducing that she must give herself to Palinov in trade for the trip, talks her into staying in Cuba. Palinov discovers Karczag's true purpose and decides to use his own services. He exposes Pete to Marianne, who angrily decides to go ahead with the smuggling trip. Palinov tries to have Pete killed but the agent overcomes his would-be killer, gets the information from him, and reports it to his superior, Frank Westlake (James Craig). Palinov flies to the United States with Marianne and the other smuggled passengers. However, the airplane is being tracked by U.S. Immigration and is unable to refuel in Florida. Palinov and his pilot crash-land in the Florida Everglades in a desperate attempt to elude capture.

Palinov forces Marianne to accompany him and his pilot, seeking a boat hidden on a river. He kills one of the passengers trying to board their small raft; the rest flee into the glades. Pete and Westlake take up pursuit but split up when Westlake decides that saving the lives of the remaining immigrants takes priority over arresting Palinov. Pete continues after the fugitives and Marianne. The pilot is bitten by a poisonous snake and is left behind. Pete finds the hidden boat and gives it to Palinov in exchange for Marianne, although Palinov treacherously tries but fails to shoot them during his escape. Pete reassures her that Palinov won't get far—Pete emptied the boat's fuel tank before giving it up.

Alundra, the silent protagonist and player character, is an elf from the clan of Elna, the Dreamwalkers. He set out for a place called Inoa because of a recurring dream in which a mysterious figure who calls Alundra "Releaser" tells him that he must save the villagers from the evil of Melzas. The ship carrying Alundra is caught in a storm and is broken in half, leaving most of the crew dead and Alundra drifting unconscious.

Alundra is next seen washed ashore to an unknown beach, where a man named Jess finds and rescues him. Jess carries Alundra to his house at the village of Inoa and lets him sleep in his guest room. In the village, Alundra discovers he is a Dreamwalker, which means he has an ability to enter other peoples' dreams, and helps the villagers get rid of the nightmares that have been possessing them. Since Alundra's arrival, bad things begin to happen in the village, with various villagers being murdered in their dreams, which leaves them dead outside of their dreams as well. Some of the villagers eventually start blaming Alundra for what is happening.

Another dreamwalker, Meia, from the clan Elna arrives to the city and helps Alundra fight off the nightmares of the villagers. Later in the game, it is revealed that the demon, Melzas, has disguised himself as a god, and he is the source of all the nightmares of the village. His goal is to make the villagers pray for their god, and thus make Melzas himself gain power from their prayers. Ronan, the priest of the village, was also on the side of Melzas and helped him to deceive the villagers, and keep them praying for Melzas, the false god. Once Alundra discovers the truth, he gathers the information and items needed to access Melzas' palace to defeat the demon. After Melzas is destroyed, Alundra and Meia bid farewell to the villagers and depart together, before going their separate ways.

Gameplay is very similar to Origin's ''Strike Commander''. Unlike it or the ''Wing Commander'' series, ''Pacific Strike'' immerses the player into a real historical context as an American pilot during the months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, flying aircraft from a carrier and performing missions like reconnaissance, intercepting enemy planes or attacking enemy vessels. If the player does well it is possible to defeat the Empire of Japan without recourse to the atomic bomb. Extremely poor performance could result in the defeat of the United States Navy and the ceding of Hawaii to the Empire.

''Armitage III'' and ''Poly-Matrix''

In 2046, the overpopulation of Earth has led to the colonization of Mars—with the aid of the "first type" androids, men were able to begin terraforming the unfriendly environment of Mars and build the city Saint Lowell. Some time after the start of colonization, the city is completed and inhabited by great numbers of people and "Second type" robots, much improved versions of the "First types". Ross Sylibus, a middle-aged policeman from Chicago, flies to Saint Lowell using a space shuttle. Sylibus asked to be transferred to the Martian Police Department to escape from his past and haunting memories of his previous partner being killed by a robot. At the Saint Lowell's space port he is to meet his new partner—a young woman named Naomi Armitage.

On the same shuttle as Sylibus travels Kelly McCanon—"the last country singer in the Universe". As the shuttle nears the terminal, a mysterious man is seen entering the cargo section; soon after this, the intruder is noticed and the alarms go off.

Later, as Ross gets off the shuttle, he witnesses a disturbing scene at the airport. He bumps into the mysterious man with a big suitcase and two guards. Soon after that, Armitage orders the men to stop and get their hands up. Puzzled, Ross notices a few drops of blood spilling from the mysterious man's suitcase. The two robot guards are killed by Armitage and the mysterious man is wounded, but flees. However, he leaves his suitcase behind—inside of which is the dead body of Kelly McCanon. To everybody's surprise and horror, McCanon turns out to be a robot: a new, never-seen-before "Third type" android that is superficially identical to humans.

Later, the mysterious man hacks into the public television system and replays the security camera footage. The tape shows the man killing Kelly McCanon and reveals the fact of her being a robot to the entire city. The mysterious man, René D'anclaude, reveals that the Third types have been among the regular people for a long time and nobody can tell them apart from humans. He also reveals a list of Thirds—and it turns out that a lot of well-known people are actually robots. Riots begin in the city as people start to capture and burn all the Thirds they can find. Meanwhile, René D'anclaude proceeds with his extermination of the Thirds. The two main characters start their investigation and eventually realize that the victims are women.

One of the dying victims, Jessica Manning, sends out a message with the list of Thirds to save them from being slaughtered. Armitage receives it and pursues D'anclaude. Armitage is eventually revealed to be a third and goes into hiding as the police hunt for her. Ross seeks her out as she enlists the help of a male third named Julian Moore. D'anclaude then attacks them and is revealed to be a second.

While the police drop the case with D'anclaude's supposed capture, Armitage and Julian search a databank for information on her origins. Armitage eventually defeats D'anclaude, but is too late to stop Julian from being killed. She and Ross break into the hospital D'anclaude was recovering in, branding themselves as criminals after the rescue.

Armitage and Ross later go off in search of her "father", Dr. Asakura, only to learn he had lost his mind, as explained by a gentler, reprogrammed version of D'anclaude, living with delusions of creating "Fourths". They learn that the Thirds were originally "assassinroids" - deadly robots with organic components, capable of infiltrating secure facilities by masquerading as humans. This project was re-purposed to bolster the low Martian birth rate, itself a result of Earth's strongly feminist society encouraging the immigration of males and discouraging the immigration of females. However, Earth's discovery of the Thirds incensed its leadership, forcing Mars to reverse its plans; Earth demanded that the Thirds be annihilated, offering female immigrants as a reward - and threatening war if not obeyed. The assassinroid program was thus re-activated to hunt and destroy the Thirds, which had vanished into the Martian population after their creation.

These revelations shock and dismay Armitage, leading her to seek comfort in Ross, who affirms her value as a living being before consummating their relationship. The next day, after Asakura deactivates Armitage so he can install angelical wings and particle cannons on her chassis, the military kills Asakura, and Armitage and Ross eventually finish off the military. Months later, Ross returns to Mars, using false IDs, however Armitage throws hers away after Ross Sylibus' arrival. Armitage tells Ross that she is pregnant with their child.

''Dual-Matrix''

It had been several years since the events of the previous OVA. Naomi Armitage and Ross Sylibus, now living under assumed identities, are living in St. Lowell on Mars, along with their daughter Yoko. Ross now works for a company seeking to restore oceans to Mars by using ice asteroids. However, a new effort to restore the Third project prompts Naomi to travel to Earth to figure out what is happening. Meanwhile, Ross saves a facility from a group of terrorists and is declared a Martian hero.

When Armitage arrives on Earth, she confronts Colonel Strings, hero of the First Error, which was a suppression of a robot uprising, which in reality, was to cover up the existence of the Thirds. But then he is shot by agents of an Earth Robotronics Corporation. Its vice president, Demetrio Mardini, asks Armitage to give the data on how Thirds can conceive so humanity can create a race of beings who exist to serve. She refuses so he resorts to force and unleashes a robot that scrambles her eyes. She manages to use her telepresence abilities to hack into its system and overload it. She then escapes but is damaged and is found by a repairer third named Mouse, who prides himself on his skill and frequently brags that he's a "genius". However, Mouse is also an informant to Demetrio and presents the data he found on Armitage; but he only got the recent data and Demetrio wants the conception data. Mouse claims that he did not know about the conception data, and also that if it existed it would be with what he gave him; but Demetrio refuses to believe either of these and tries to brutally force it with two clones of Armitage, who severely injure Mouse. He does not get anything and throws Mouse in the trash. Mouse swears revenge.

Back on Mars, prime minister Fredrick O'Hara sends Ross to Earth to represent the planet in the support of robot rights, promising amnesty from the charges against them. However, Demetrio's agents captured Yoko while Ross was away from the hotel, and is threatened that he will not see Yoko again if he votes for the Rights Bill. With a little reluctance, Ross remains neutral on the bill. Demetrio's agents, however, reveal that they were planning on killing Ross from the start, contrary to their deal. After a car chase, Armitage is able to save him at the very last moment. Together, they vow to rescue their daughter.

They storm Demetrio's compound; Armitage deals with Demetrio while Ross saves Yoko. The same robot Armitage encountered earlier had been upgraded to withstand her telepresence attack. Meanwhile, Ross manages to locate Yoko in a freezer. Elsewhere, Demetrio demands the secret in exchange for forgetting the damages they committed against him and his company. Armitage lures him closer, presumably to tell him what he wants to know; but she ends up kicking him in the crotch and telling him that Third conception is not simply data, it is about true love. With that she escapes again, forcing Demetrio to unleash the clones on her. She manages to evade the two and meets up with Ross and Yoko. Yoko is overjoyed to see her mother but recoils when she sees Armitage's metal shoulder that was scraped off by the clones. Just then, they attack. While Armitage holds them off, Ross and Yoko make their way to an unused space elevator. It is here that Yoko shows that she has a photographic memory, leading them to the space elevator whose location she determined from a map she saw minutes beforehand (Ross comments that she is "quite the little genius"). Soon, Armitage flees to Mouse, who repairs the damage and gives her a program that will allow her to go beyond her limited fighting abilities. He tells her that the password is "Heaven's Door"; but that if she exceeds more than her internal battery can handle, she will "be knocking at the Pearly Gates for real". She also has him do her one more favor: broadcast the footage of the Third massacre attempts all over Earth and Mars (upon seeing it himself, Mouse comments, "I think it's inhuman, and I'm a robot!"). This compels Demetrio to command the clones to prevent the family from leaving. After both clones are beaten, Demetrio tries having the elevator's defenses fired on their shuttle only to be killed by the last remaining clone, who is at the time controlled by what was left of ''Poly-Matrix'''s Julian Moore. Without Demetrio's authorization, the turrets do nothing. A hologram of Julian Moore then appears, wishing the family goodbye. The movie ends with the family enjoying a day at the beach on Mars, on Naomi's birthday.

In a post-credits scene, Mouse salvages one of the Armitage clones for himself.

'Doc' Penny and two other members of his gang, who have recently broken out of San Quentin, rob a gasoline station. In the process a police officer is killed and one of the gang members is wounded. As a city-wide search ensues, a hard-nosed detective named Lieutenant Sims searches records in an effort to determine if there is an ex-con the thugs might contact. Sims rejects professionalism and logic and operates on raw emotion. He feels that Steve Lacey is a good candidate for the killers to contact, though he has been out of prison for two years and is trying hard to maintain his new life. Steve regularly receives phone calls from ex-cons who pass through town, each trying to "put the bite" on him. When Sims' man phones Steve, he does not answer; he had already received an anonymous call from someone both he and his wife Ellen assumed to be yet another former prisoner, and she persuades him to not pick up. This sparks Sims to suspect Steve of being involved in the crime.

Gat Morgan, the wounded man, knocks at Steve's door. The criminal has already summoned a disreputable, alcoholic former doctor who is now a veterinarian, Otto Hessler, whom both men knew in prison; Steve demands Morgan leave, but he says he is "hurt bad" and cannot move. Shortly after he says this, he dies. The doctor arrives and confirms this, grabs his fee from the dead man's jacket, and leaves. Steve recognizes that the other two escapees, Penny and Hastings, will likely arrive soon. Ellen convinces him to phone his parole officer; while they are talking, Sims shows up. He grills Steve, demonstrating that he believes "once a crook, always a crook" and takes him to jail for three days, threatening him with fresh charges if he does not help catch Penny and Hastings. Steve refuses.

When Steve and Ellen get home after his release, the two men turn up and impose themselves. Fearing for Ellen's safety, Steve resigns himself to having them there for "a couple of days." Sims visits Hessler and persuades him to go to Steve's to ascertain if he has heard, or expects to hear, from his old prison mates. The veterinarian does what he is told and happens to overhear men's voices in the apartment, though he does not see anyone other than Steve. After Hessler is shaken up by Steve and leaves, Hastings follows him, in Steve's car, to the dog and cat hospital where he prevents Hessler's phone call to the police by murdering him.

Penny, meanwhile, is laying out the details of his plan to rob a bank. Steve insists he will not be involved but when Hastings returns to report that he has "fixed" Hessler "real good" and, because someone heard the commotion and summoned police, he had to leave Steve's car behind, Penny notes that Steve is involved whether he wants to be or not. Penny then decides that all four will leave the apartment and set the bank job in motion. Sims finds the car and immediately orders an All Points Bulletin be issued for Steve Lacey, "wanted for murder."

Penny and Hastings direct Steve, in a stolen car, to a hideout where two other thugs are waiting. The deal is set that Steve must help with the robbery, as getaway driver, or Ellen will be harmed.

When they pull the job, the criminals are ambushed; the entire bank is staffed with police officers. Steve takes off for the hideout, with Sims in pursuit. At the hideout, Steve fights off the gang member who is holding Ellen hostage. Sims takes the couple away in his car. After revealing that the note Steve left in his medicine cabinet, alerting police to the robbery, was found and helped to set the trap, Sims lectures Steve about how he chose to handle the situation - "Next time, Lacey, call me...you got trouble, you need help, call me." He then sends the two home.

''Detective School Q'' is the story of a group of young students from Class Q of Dan Detective School (DDS), a prestigious and renowned detective academy founded by Morihiko Dan, the most famous detective in Japan, and the adventures and mysteries they unfold and solve together. They eventually work against , a mysterious organization which creates almost fool-proof plans that only a handful of detectives can solve.

An American family – Dr. Benjamin "Ben" McKenna, his wife, popular singer Josephine “Jo” Conway McKenna, and their son Henry "Hank" McKenna – are vacationing in French Morocco. Traveling from Casablanca to Marrakesh, they meet Frenchman Louis Bernard. He seems friendly, but Jo is suspicious of his many questions and evasive answers.

Bernard offers to take the McKennas to dinner, but cancels when a suspicious-looking man knocks at the McKennas' hotel-room door. At a restaurant, the McKennas meet friendly English couple Lucy and Edward Drayton. The McKennas are surprised to see Bernard arrive and sit elsewhere, apparently ignoring them.

The next day, visiting a Moroccan market with the Draytons, the McKennas see a man chased by police. After being stabbed in the back, the man approaches Ben, who discovers he is Bernard in disguise. The dying Bernard whispers that a foreign statesman will be assassinated in London and that Ben must tell the authorities about "Ambrose Chappell". Lucy returns Hank to the hotel while Ben, Jo and Edward go to a police station for questioning about Bernard's death. An officer explains that Bernard was a French Intelligence agent.

Ben receives a phone call at the police station; Hank was kidnapped but will not be harmed if the McKennas say nothing to the police about Bernard's warning. Knowing Hank was left in Lucy's care, Ben dispatches Edward to locate him. When Ben and Jo return to the hotel, they discover Edward checked out. Ben realizes the Draytons are the couple Bernard was looking for and are involved in Hank's abduction. When he learns the Draytons are from London, he decides he and Jo should go there and try to find them through Ambrose Chappell.

In London, Scotland Yard's Inspector Buchanan tells Jo and Ben that Bernard was in Morocco to uncover an assassination plot; they should contact him if they hear from the kidnappers. Leaving friends in their hotel suite, the McKennas search for a person named Ambrose Chappell. Jo realizes that "Ambrose Chapel" is a place, and the McKennas arrive at the chapel to find Edward leading a service. Jo leaves the chapel to call the police. After Edward sends his parishioners home, Ben confronts him and is knocked out and locked inside. Jo arrives with police, but they cannot enter without a warrant.

Jo learns that Buchanan has gone to a concert at Royal Albert Hall, and asks the police to take her there. Once the police and Jo leave, the Draytons take Hank to a foreign embassy. In the Royal Albert Hall lobby, Jo sees the man who came to her door in Morocco. When he threatens to harm Hank if she interferes, she realizes he is the assassin sent to kill the foreign prime minister.

Ben escapes from the chapel through its bell tower and reaches the Royal Albert Hall, where Jo points out the assassin. Ben searches the balcony boxes for the killer, who is waiting for a cymbal crash to mask his gunshot. Just before the cymbals crash, Jo screams and the assassin misses his mark, only wounding his target. Ben struggles with the would-be killer, who falls to his death.

Concluding that Hank is likely to be at the embassy, but that it is sovereign and exempt from an investigation, the McKennas secure an invitation from the grateful prime minister. The ambassador organized the plot to kill the prime minister, and blames the failed attempt on the Draytons. Knowing that Hank can testify against them, he orders the Draytons to kill the boy.

The prime minister asks Jo to sing. She loudly performs "Que Sera, Sera", so that Hank will hear her. Lucy, who is guarding Hank while Edward prepares to murder him, is distressed at the prospect of killing a child, so she encourages the boy to whistle along with the song. Ben finds Hank. Edward tries escaping with them at gunpoint, but when Ben hits him, he falls down the stairs to his death.

The McKennas return to their hotel suite. Ben explains to their now-sleeping friends, "I'm sorry we were gone so long, but we had to go over and pick up Hank."

The manga is about a high school student Yuu Sakagami who, raised separately, is reunited with his mother, Misako, and his sister, Eri, who both become infatuated with him. When Yuu becomes sexually aroused his inner demons take over and he is unable to control his actions, and the women in his family, his English teacher from America, and a female neighbor (who is later revealed to be the boy's aunt), are quick to take advantage of this. The situations and humor are similar to the non-sexual manga, ''Ranma ½'', but nearly always have a sexual focus.

Yuu starts out having slept with his sister Eri, but eventually one night he and both his mother and sister get drunk and they have a threesome. The insanity continues when Yuu gets disgusted with what he is doing and leaves the house, only to be taken in by his English professor, who seduces him. This ends with him swearing to give up sex because of how he gives in to his dark desires.

Next we find Yuu and Eri making wishes for what appears to be New Year's, Yuu wanting to "get it on" with a woman, Miss Sakura. Eri later witnesses said woman having sex with a man, but doesn't tell Yuu. Yuu decides to get his fortune told, and it comes back with these words; "Doom. Death. Defeat. Despair." Also it has a tiny message at the bottom; "sorry, kid".

Next we see an encounter between Yuu and Misako, in which Yuu is eating food made by Misako. The mother is wearing nothing under her apron, and tries to seduce Yuu. Yuu tries in vain to keep from getting aroused, but Misako sits on his lap and that's that. Yuu envisions his "reason" getting run over by a train marked "instinct" and it's off to the races again. Yuu and Misako have sex, after which Yuu looks in horror on what happened and comments that he's going to hell.

Yuu and Eri next arrive home to find their mother passed out after a session of phone sex with her boyfriend. This ends with Eri seducing Yuu again and Yuu giving in once more. Next, Yuu has an encounter with the woman next door, who has the nickname "virgin killer". She mistakes Yuu for a virgin and seduces him using special chocolates. Yuu gives in to instinct again and has sex with her. During her climax it is revealed that the woman next door is actually his aunt. When Yuu gets home, Eri accosts him with an even larger batch of more potent love chocolates.

Yuu then has another encounter with his Mom, Misako, in which she forces his darker side to stay active so she can have sex with him. Yuu has sex with Eri again, in which he sodomizes her against her will and hurts her pretty badly.

Misako talks with Yuu and it is revealed that Yuu's dad had the same problem Yuu does, and that it why he's not around anymore. Misako implores Yuu to keep control saying that it is all a matter of willpower. Yuu ponders this and envisions a battle within his mind between Reason and Instinct, both attractive women in this vision, the actual "battle" being a lesbian scene between the two. Yuu eventually chooses Reason, and he defeats his dark side. He wakes up and Misako tells him he has won, but soon realizes the regular Yuu is a virgin. She teaches him all about sex in a last encounter, and Yuu goes back to being himself. The story ends with Yuu stating how far he is come since that time, and admitting that he and Eri still have sex.

Dr. Bashir has volunteered to help treat four genetically augmented individuals who, due to unintended neurological side effects of their augmentation, are unable to function in society: hyperactive, paranoid Jack; hypersexual Lauren; childlike Patrick; and silent, catatonic Sarina. Bashir realizes that their primary problem is boredom: as Jack points out, they are forbidden from pursuing any profession where they could put their enhanced brain power to work.

Meanwhile, Damar, the new leader of Cardassia, proposes peace talks with the Federation. Watching his speech, the augments make several accurate guesses about Damar and how he came to power. Bashir convinces Captain Sisko to allow the augments to review the peace negotiations to see if they can determine the Dominion's agenda.

Based on subtle clues in Damar and Weyoun's speech and behavior, the augments deduce that the Dominion wants to draw the border to secure a planet that has the raw materials needed to make ketracel white, the drug used to control the Dominion's Jem'Hadar soldiers. Knowing this gives the Federation negotiators a huge advantage in the talks.

Starfleet provides the augments with further intelligence in order to develop a statistical model to predict the future. The augments soon come to the conclusion that the Federation is doomed to lose the war and suffer casualties in the hundreds of billions. As a result, they recommend surrender, which will save those lives and still leave the Federation in a position to rise up against the Dominion in the future. Bashir is convinced the augments are right and argues the case before Sisko. However, Sisko and Starfleet reject the suggestion out of hand.

The augments decide to leak Starfleet's strategic plans to the Dominion, hoping to shorten the war and minimize the casualties. When Bashir objects to this treasonous plan, Jack, Lauren, and Patrick overpower him. Bound hand and foot, and left alone with Sarina, Bashir convinces her that her fellow augments' actions will result in their imprisonment and separation. Sarina frees Bashir in the nick of time, and Bashir intercepts the augments on their way to the meeting with the Dominion negotiators.

Bashir realizes that the augments believed they couldn't possibly be wrong because of their superior intellect; but despite the presumed infallibility of their statistical model, the actions of one person (Sarina) completely altered history. The augments return to their institution, promising to continue work on a plan for defeating the Dominion.

Settling into their new jobs, Fry, Leela and Bender are introduced to the other Planet Express employees: Doctor John A. Zoidberg, intern Amy Wong and bureaucrat Hermes Conrad. It becomes apparent that the ship needs a captain, and Leela is chosen. On their first mission, a delivery to the Moon, Fry undergoes severe culture shock. No longer a daring voyage of exploration, lunar travel has become a day trip to a Disneyland-esque amusement park called Luna Park. By the 31st century, the actual details of Project Apollo are lost (to the extent where people believe that Ralph Kramden was the first man in space) and have been replaced by musicals about whalers on the Moon and goofy gophers. This greatly upsets Fry, who wants to see "the real Moon".

In spite of Leela's orders to the contrary, Fry hijacks a car from the lunar rover ride and forces it off its track, taking Leela with him. They fall into a crater, forcing Leela to use up most of their oxygen to save them. Meanwhile, Amy loses the keys to the ship and has to recover them from a video arcade claw game. Bender attempts to help her, but is caught reaching through the prize slot and ejected from the park, leaving him stranded on the Moon's surface. Running low on oxygen, Fry and Leela take refuge on a hydroponic farm. Bender arrives and proceeds to seduce one of the farmer's robot daughters, resulting in him, Fry and Leela going on the run. Whilst trying to out-distance themselves from both the farmer's shotgun and the lunar terminator, Leela berates Fry for refusing to accept that, apart from the amusement park, the Moon is nothing but a wasteland. As night falls on the Moon, Fry and Leela find the Apollo 11 Lunar Module ''Eagle'' and take shelter inside it, while Bender goes back to flirt with the farmer's daughters. Fry apologizes to Leela for hijacking the car from the ride and explains his childhood dream of being an astronaut. Leela sympathizes with him and begins to see the beauty of the moon herself, as they watch an Earthrise together. Eventually, Amy manages to rescue them and Bender with her newly-developed crane operation skills, just before the farmer can kill them.

''The Bedford Diaries'' explores the excitement and intensity of New York City college life through the eyes of six students with different backgrounds, experiences and ages, who are brought together in a provocative sexuality seminar. The seminar, which examines the human condition through sexuality, is taught by maverick Professor Jake Macklin, who will challenge and inspire his students as they question their assumptions about their own sexuality, life and identity. The themes include sexual responsibility, manipulation, and the differences between love and sex, passion and abstinence.

The students’ innermost thoughts and desires are told through video diaries they make to fulfill their weekly class assignments.

Among the students are Sarah Gregory, the Student Government President, poised and assured but vulnerable in love, and her younger brother, Owen Gregory, a freshman pre-med major, who plans to take advantage of all the fun college life has to offer. Natalie Dykstra, a lovely, outgoing and emotional woman, has returned to campus after a suicide attempt. She now struggles with being stereotyped as “the jumper.” Natalie's ex-boyfriend, Richard Thorne, a former Park Avenue bad boy who turned his life around after Natalie's jump, is also a member of the class. He's now clean, sober and works as the college newspaper's editor, but he's still tormented by old demons. Lee Hemingway is a scholarship student from Queens with ambitions to become an art historian. Lee has a serious girlfriend, Rachel, but he's attracted to another scholarship student, Zoe Lopez. Zoe talks a fast and flirty game, but despite her brash veneer, she is still a virgin and struggles with her growing feelings for Lee.

The series also stars Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald as Professor Carla Bonatelle, a Political Science professor and head of the Ethics Committee, who regularly clashes with Professor Macklin, as well as with Harold Harper (Peter Gerety), the fatherly, compassionate and often beleaguered dean of students.

In 1692 in fictional Whitewood, Massachusetts, a witch named Elizabeth Selwyn is burned at the stake. Before her death, Selwyn and her accomplice, Jethrow Keane, sold their souls to Lucifer for eternal life and revenge on Whitewood in return for providing the Devil with two yearly virgin human sacrifices on the Hour of Thirteen during Candlemas Eve and the Witches' Sabbath.

In the present day, following his lecture on witchcraft, a university history professor, Alan Driscoll, advises an interested student named Nan Barlow to visit Whitewood during her vacation to slake her interest in witchcraft by studying Whitewood's history. Nan settles in The Raven's Inn, a hotel owned by eccentric Mrs. Newless, becoming acquainted with the only normal-seeming local resident Patricia Russell, who loans her a book on witchcraft. Reading the book, Nan learns that this night is Candlemas Eve.

She is lured down to the basement and is restrained on a satanic altar by Mrs. Newless and members of her coven. Mrs. Newless reveals herself to be Elizabeth Selwyn before proceeding to sacrifice Nan.

Two weeks later, Nan's concerned fiancé, Bill Maitland, and her brother, Richard, learn The Raven's Inn does not exist in any phone directory. They are visited by Patricia, who is also concerned with Nan's disappearance. The men travel separately to Whitewood, and Bill barely survives a car crash caused by an apparition of Selwyn.

Richard reaches Whitewood and meets up with Patricia before visiting her grandfather, Reverend Russell, who reveals that Whitewood is under the control of Selwyn's coven. Soon after, Patricia is kidnapped as the coven's sacrifice, and Richard attempts to save her before they are cornered in the graveyard. Professor Driscoll is revealed to be a coven member. A severely-injured Bill arrives at the last minute and succeeds in extricating a large wooden cross from the ground. After being gravely wounded by Selwyn, Bill uses the last of his strength to burn the coven members alive under the cross's shadow. Selwyn escapes during the chaos. Her pact with the Devil has been undone by the intervention, and Richard and Patricia find her charred corpse in the hotel which was earlier revealed to have been built on the site of her burning.

The series starred Linden Ashby as Lorne Cash, a retired secret agent who reluctantly agrees to get back into the "spy game" and work for a secret government agency. Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the downsizing of international intelligence agencies worldwide, the reduced demand for highly qualified espionage agents has flooded the civilian market with displaced former agents. With the surplus of independent agents running rogue operations, Cash is called in to work with a meager agency whose sole directive is to police these newly freelance spies.

Cash contrasts his partner, Max London, played by Allison Smith in their "low" vs. "high" tech approaches to problems. Cash is an expert martial artist and was trained to improvise by re-purposing objects in his environment as tools or weapons; conversely, Max prefers to arm herself with the latest cutting-edge technology and gadgets, which occasionally puts them at odds. For example, when disabling a camera system, Max speculates about defeating it with electronic jamming, while Cash simply puts a post-it note over the lens. Alternately, Cash may spend considerable time trying to defeat an opponent in hand-to-hand, while Max will simply use a tranquilizer gun.

Despite initial friction, the two quickly establish a rapport (with the usual romantic overtures). Some of the show's humor is generated from Lorne's reluctance to use modern gadgets, as well as the occasional revelations about his past and his high connections. In the premiere episode, for example, Lorne calls the president who is a personal friend and is given a security clearance higher than his boss'.

The series was a throwback to the stylish spy series of the 1960s, with particular comparison being made to ''The Avengers'' and ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'', while at the same time poking fun at the genre. (The opening credits were a parody of the opening credits of ''The Avengers''.) The show's first episode featured cameos by numerous stars of spy shows of the past (including Patrick Macnee and Robert Culp).

''Spy Game'' was canceled after nine of the thirteen episodes produced were aired.

While Homer, Bart and Lisa are watching a beauty pageant on television, Marge announces that she is going to audition for a local musical production of ''A Streetcar Named Desire.'' She explains that she wants to meet new people because she usually spends all day caring for Maggie. The family ignores her and she leaves for her audition, feeling unappreciated by Homer.

The musical, ''Oh, Streetcar!'', is directed by Llewellyn Sinclair. After Ned is cast as Stanley Kowalski, Marge auditions for Blanche DuBois. Llewellyn immediately rejects Marge, explaining that Blanche is supposed to be a "delicate flower being trampled by an uncouth lout". However, as a dejected Marge calls home and takes Homer's dinner order, Llewellyn realizes that she is perfect for the role.

The next day, Maggie causes distractions when Marge brings her to rehearsal, so Llewellyn tells Marge to enroll the baby at the daycare center, The Ayn Rand School for Tots, which is run by his sister Ms. Sinclair, who immediately confiscates Maggie's pacifier. Maggie and the other babies later engage in an attempt to retrieve their pacifiers, but Ms. Sinclair thwarts their efforts and sends Maggie to a playpen.

During rehearsal, Marge struggles with a scene in which Blanche is supposed to break a glass bottle and attack Stanley, but she cannot muster enough anger towards Stanley to break the bottle. After coming home, Marge asks Homer to help her learn her lines, but Homer is uninterested. The day before the performance, Marge and Ned are again practising the bottle scene as Homer arrives to drive Marge home. Homer repeatedly interrupts the rehearsal. Imagining that Stanley is Homer, Marge finally smashes the bottle and lunges at Ned.

The next day at the daycare center, Maggie again attempts to regain her pacifier. With assistance from her fellow babies, following a complicated plan, she succeeds and wildly distributes pacifiers to all the small children. Homer retrieves her, and he and his children go to attend the musical. As the play is about to start the director is giving the cast one last pep talk, and Otto is replaced by the director. Homer immediately falls into boredom, but he perks up when Marge appears on stage. While Homer slowly learns the show's plot, he appears sad. At the end of the musical, Marge receives a warm reaction from the crowd, but she misinterprets Homer's sadness for boredom. She confronts him with frustration and hostility, but Homer is able to explain that he was genuinely moved by the play. He feels for Blanche's situation, and he realizes Marge's feelings along with it. He expresses his intentions to be the husband that she deserves—someone to have in her life who loves her—not like Stanley who neglects and mistreats his wife. Marge realizes that Homer really did watch the musical, and the two happily leave the theater.

''In medias res'', Patty Meyers wakes up to a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of millions around the world. The radio announcer suggests this may be the Rapture of the Church spoken of in the Bible. Patty finds that her husband has also disappeared. The United Nations sets up an emergency government system called the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) and declares anyone who does not receive the Mark of the Beast identifying them with UNITE will be arrested.

Several flashbacks occur to times in Patty's life before the rapture. The story begins with three friends who will have different destinies: Patty and her two friends who have different approaches to Christianity. One considers Jesus Christ her savior while the other, Diane, is earthly minded. Patty considers herself a Christian because she occasionally reads her Bible and goes to church regularly. However, her pastor is shown to be an unbeliever. She refuses to believe the warnings of her friends and family that she will go through the Great Tribulation if she does not put her faith in Christ. Meanwhile, her husband, who has been attending another church, has accepted Jesus. The next morning, Patty wakes to find that her husband and millions of others have suddenly disappeared.

Patty is conflicted and refuses to trust Christ yet also refuses to take the mark. She desperately tries to avoid UNITE and the mark but is eventually captured. Patty escapes, but after a chase she is cornered by UNITE on a bridge and falls from the bridge to her death.

Patty wakes up and realizes it has all been a dream. She is relieved, but her relief is short-lived when the radio announces that millions of people have in fact disappeared. Horrified, Patty frantically searches for her husband only to find he is missing too. Patty realizes that the Rapture has actually occurred and she has been left behind.

Animator Drew Blanc (Christopher Lloyd) is the original creator of the ''Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show'', which has been a ten-year success for his company. In reality, the many cute talking rabbits that star in the show sicken him. His self-revered creation Flux Wildly, a wise-talking small purple character, has been denied the chance of starring in his own show. Drew's boss Sam Schmaltz (Ben Stein) sets him the task of designing more bunnies to co-star in the show by the next morning. However, the depressed animator soon nods off, suffering from acute artist's block. He wakes in the night to inexplicably find his television switched on, announcing the ''Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show''. Suddenly, Drew is mysteriously drawn into the TV screen and transported to a cartoon world populated by his own creations, among many other cartoon characters. He soon befriends Flux Wildly (Dan Castellaneta) and discovers that this fictional paradise is being ravaged by a ruthless new character named Count Nefarious (Tim Curry) with a weapon of evil called the Malevolator, a flying saucer which mutates the idyllic landscape and its inhabitants into dark and twisted counterparts.

Upon meeting with King Hugh (David Ogden Stiers), the king of Cutopia, Drew is given the task of hunting down and stopping Nefarious, thereby restoring peace and harmony to the land, in return for safe passage back to three-dimensional reality. Drew and Flux then go on a scavenger hunt through the lands of Cutopia, Zanydu and the Malevolands to collect the parts needed to complete the Cutifier, a counter-weapon to Nefarious's Malevolator. After Nefarious's feline assistant Ms. Fortune (Tress MacNeille) informs him that Drew (referred to as an "alien") is working against him, the villain sends his henchmen after Drew and Flux, who find several ways to hide from the clumsy stooges. As Drew and Flux carry on with their quest, Nefarious continues his attacks on Cutopia, destroying Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun's meadow; turning the kingdom's Carecrow, a friendly mannequin, into a creepy scarecrow; and turning Polly and Marge, a sheep and a cow who produce butter in a barn, into a dominatrix and a submissive in bondage.

After collecting all the parts and inserting them in the Cutifier, Drew and Flux revert the damage caused by Nefarious. After reuniting with King Hugh, Drew considers his mission finished and asks the king to be sent back to the real world. However, Hugh tells Drew that the deal was not only to save Cutopia, but to cutify Zanydu and the Malevolands as well. Hugh soon reveals himself to actually be Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun in disguise, with a plan to rule over all kingdoms and become a god. Before Drew and Flux can escape, Fluffy strikes Flux with the Cutifier, turning him into her minion, and commands him to execute her evil plan. Although Drew flees, he ends up captured and taken to Count Nefarious, who injects him with a serum that will eventually turn him into a cartoon. Ms. Fortune hypnotizes Drew and he reveals the location of Flux and the Cutifier. Nefarious then goes after Flux, while Drew is imprisoned in Nefarious's castle.

Drew manages to set himself free and navigates through the castle to find the Malevolator and a gadget that can warp him to reality. As soon as he hops in the Malevolator, Nefarious appears on the saucer's screen attempting to bargain with Drew and convince him to drop his plans and in return get sent home. Drew refuses, and uses the Malevolator to destroy Fluffy, Nefarious and the Cutifier. In the process Flux is transformed back and gives Drew a transdimensional communicator so they can keep in touch. Drew activates the warp gadget and returns to the real world, thinking his adventure was just a dream. In the morning, he pitches to Sam a new series called ''The Flux & Fluffy Show'', only for it to get shot down. As Drew resigns himself to his soulless job, Flux calls him through the communicator to warn that Fluffy and Nefarious are still alive, and Drew happily teleports back to Cutopia as he is turned to a cartoon.

Korean War veteran Jeff Warren returns to his town and duties as a train engineer, driving streamliners hauling passenger trains for the fictional Central National railroad. Warren worked alongside Alec Simmons and was a boarder in his home before going off to war. Alec's daughter Ellen is smitten with Jeff.

Carl Buckley is a gruff, hard-drinking psychopath. He is an assistant yard supervisor married to the younger Vicki. After Carl is fired for talking back to his boss, Carl begs Vicki to visit John Owens, a man from her past and an important customer of the railroad. Carl hopes Owens' influence could help him reclaim his job, but when Vicki is gone for hours, Carl surmises that she has been unfaithful. After a violent argument during which he elicits the truth from her, Carl forces Vicki to write a short letter to Owens, setting up a meeting with him later that night in his sleeping car drawing room. Owens is taking the train to Chicago and Carl and Vicki are returning home. Carl and Vicki barge into Owens' room and Carl kills Owen off-screen with a knife that he had used for whittling. Carl takes Owens' wallet and pocket watch to make the murder appear to be the result of a robbery, also taking the letter that Vicki had written. Carl tells Vicki that he is keeping the letter to prevent her from going to the police. After the murder, Carl sees Jeff on the train and persuades Vicki to distract him seductively so that Carl can pass unnoticed.

At the murder inquest, Jeff and other train passengers are called as witnesses. Jeff denies having seen anyone suspicious. Vicki and Jeff soon resume their relationship. She lies about the night of the murder, saying that she had visited Owens' compartment for a liaison but found him dead. Jeff questions why she did not seem distressed when they met on the train. Vicki explains that she is frightened of Carl's temper and shows Jeff marks on her body where Carl had hit her.

Ellen sells Jeff a ticket to an upcoming dance, and hopes that he will invite her, but she knows that he is involved with Vicki. Jeff tells Vicki that he wants to marry her and that she should leave Carl. She tells Jeff the truth about Owens' murder and the letter, but Jeff remains determined to keep Vicki.

Carl has become a drunk and has again lost his job. Vicki tells Jeff that Carl is selling the house and forcing her to leave town with him. She cannot find the letter and suspects that Carl must keep it with him. She suggests that she and Jeff will have to part forever but hints that things would be easier with Carl out of the way.

Jeff, clutching a large monkey wrench, follows a drunk Carl in a railyard before a passing train blocks the view of the characters. Later, Jeff tells Vicki that he could not murder Carl and accuses her of setting him up so that he would kill Carl. She tells Jeff that she loves him and that if he loved her he would have killed for her. Jeff hands her the letter, which he has taken from Carl's pocket and leaves.

When Vicki gets on the next train, Carl confronts her, imploring her not to leave him. He offers her the letter but she tells him that he does not have it. Carl accuses her of running away with Jeff, which she denies. She admits that she is in love with Jeff, and had asked him to kill Carl, but reveals that Jeff rejected her. Carl strangles Vicki (presumably) to death.

Meanwhile, as Jeff operates the train alongside Alec, he reflects on the dance ticket that he bought from Ellen.

The book is a collection of short stories describing various aspects of human life on Earth in the 22nd century. The plots of the stories are not closely connected, but they feature a shared set of characters. The most commonly recurring characters are Evgeny Slavin and Sergei Kondratev, who, as a result of a lengthy journey through interstellar space at near the speed of light, are thrown over a century into the future and must re-integrate into the society of their great-grandchildren.

The book includes the following stories: "Night on Mars" - Two doctors walk on foot on Mars after their vehicle was lost in quicksand. They must avoid an encounter with a local wild beast, while hurrying to assist in the delivery of Evgeny Slavin, the first human born on Mars. (This apparently takes place in the late 20th century.) "Almost the Same" - Sergei Kondratev as a young man in flight school. "Old-timer" - The photon engine-driven spaceship ''Taimyr'' mysteriously returns to Earth after having disappeared a century earlier. Kondratev and Slavin are the only survivors. "The Conspirator" - Schoolchildren Pol Gnedykh, Aleksandr "Lin" Kostylin, Mikhail Sidorov, and Gennady Komov plan and dream about their futures. "Chronicle" - A scientific report giving an analysis of the disappearance and reappearance of the ''Taimyr''. "Two from the ''Taimyr''" - Kondratev and Slavin recuperate from their wounds after the crash of the ''Taimyr'', and begin to investigate the Earth of the future to which they have returned. "The Moving Roads" - Kondratev explores Earth on a global system of moving roadways. "Cornucopia" - Slavin attempts to adjust to the domestic technology of the future. "Homecoming" - Kondratev encounters Leonid Gorbovsky, and decides to take a job in oceanography. "Langour of the Spirit" - Gnedykh and Kostylin reconnect after many years apart. "The Assaultmen" - Gorbovsky tours the artificial satellites of Vladislava, and journeys to the surface with Sidorov and Ryu Waseda. "Deep Search" - Kondratev and oceanographer Akiko Okada hunt giant squid on a deep sea expedition. "The Mystery of the Hind Leg" - Slavin encounters the Collector of Dispersed Data project. "Candles Before the Control Board" - Okada (now married to Kondratev) tries to visit her dying father, the subject of the Great Encoding "Natural Science in the Spirit World" - Espers assist the Institute of Space Physics in an effort to explain the ''Taimyr'' disappearance and reappearance. "Pilgrims and Wayfarers" - Gorbovsky discusses the "Voice of the Void" and other mysteries, and the philosophy of space exploration. "The Planet with all the Conveniences" - Komov, Waseda, and others explore the planet Leonida and make brief contact with the Leoniders. "Defeat" - Sidorov tests prototype colonization devices in a remote area on Earth. "The Meeting" - Gnedykh and Kostylin again meet after a long separation, and Gnedykh regrets his accidental killing of an alien creature who may have been sentient. "What You Will Be Like" - Kondratev, Slavin, and Gorbovsky explore Tagora. Kondratev and Slavin discuss the progress and stagnation of humanity over their long lifespan, and Gorbovsky tells a fantastic story about his encounter with a visitor from the future.

On Christmas Eve in New Orleans, U.S. Army officer Charlie Mason meets beautiful Maison Lafitte hostess "Jackie" (whose real name is Abigail Manette). She tells him, in flashbacks, the story of the decline of her marriage with the charming but unbalanced Robert Manette. When her husband kills a bookie, his controlling mother tries to cover it up. When he is caught, she and her son blame Abigail. Abigail, feeling guilty when her husband receives a life sentence, becomes a bar hostess. Meanwhile, Robert escapes from jail and comes to see Abigail, but he is shot by police and dies in her arms, leaving her to start again.

Thirteen-year-old Lanny Budd, spending the summer of 1913 at a Dalcroze Eurhythmics school near Dresden, vows lifelong friendship and dedication to art with fellow students Kurt Meissner, scion of a German ruling family in Silesia in Prussia; and Rick Pomeroy-Nielson, an English Viscount's son from Oxford. Author Upton Sinclair weaves Lanny and these two friends, and many other characters in this book, into the saga of the turbulent decades to follow in the eleven-volume Lanny Budd series.

Lanny was raised on the French Riviera by his mother, called Beauty. His father, Robbie, visits regularly from Connecticut while selling arms manufactured by the family-owned Budd Gunmakers. Robbie never married Beauty, but he set up a perpetual trust for Beauty and Lanny to live in a seafront villa at Juan-les-Pins, near Cannes. Lanny, without formal schooling, has grown up with languages, music, and the society of Beauty's wealthy, connected friends. Robbie teaches Lanny history and diplomacy needed for a Budd to sell arms to European powers. Basil Zaharoff, a brilliant and dangerous competitor, runs arms giant Vickers and plots to absorb Budd.

Perplexing incidents intrude on young Lanny's idyllic life. Robbie erupts when he learns Beauty's "Red" brother Jesse introduced Lanny to followers of syndicalism. On the train home from a picture-postcard Christmas at Kurt's family schloss, a Social Democrat says commoners in Silesia are basically slaves; and Lanny should avoid being alone with certain Prussian aristocrats, including Kurt's father. Also on the train, Lanny meets the charming Johannes Robin, a Jewish jobber from Rotterdam; Lanny wonders why Jews have been absent from his life. Back in France, a Russian baron whom Lanny trusted lures and assaults the handsome boy. Beauty, faced with Lanny's new questions about life, hires a psychiatrist and a tutor for him. Lanny absorbs the new knowledge and realizes that a painter friend, Marcel Detaze, is Beauty's lover.

Lanny, Rick and Kurt meet in London to see plays and operas. A few blocks from Beauty's posh hotel, Lanny is mugged in a piteous slum. Seated near the Royal Box at Ascot Racecourse, Lanny asks Rick if the King is aware of poverty. Rick suggests education will cure poverty. Kurt says poverty is not permitted in Germany. The boys discuss sex. Kurt says the peasant girls are always available, but he seeks one true love. Rick says his sister's suffragette friends disdain that sentiment, and are using birth control. Lanny tells of his escape from the Russian baron. Rick says puritanism leads to homosexuality in the English schools; Kurt says it's a problem in the German army. News arrives that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria has been assassinated in Sarajevo. The friends agree such matters are irrelevant to their pursuit of art, but a message directs Kurt to return home immediately. Before leaving England, Lanny falls in love with Rosemary, a beautiful English aristocrat.

Lanny and Beauty meet Robbie in Paris as war breaks out. Marcel has joined the French army. Lanny helps transcribe new orders into Budd code for cabling. Rick becomes a fighter pilot for England; Kurt joins the German Army. Marcel is horribly wounded but survives to marry Beauty. To Beauty's dismay, Marcel re-enlists and is not heard from again. Robbie is neutral on the war; he says the real point of the war is oil. Jesse agrees.

America enters the war and contracts for all Budd output. Robbie takes Lanny to Connecticut to meet the Puritan Budd family and learn the arms business. The Germans agree to an armistice when they lose access to their sources of oil. Robbie takes Lanny back to Europe as regional wars erupt. On the ship, Professor Alston, an expert for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, offers Lanny a job at the Paris Peace Conference. In Paris, Joannes Robin plans to sell war surplus; Robbie invests even though it is a "Jewish" business. The French continue the Blockade of Germany, which starves civilians and boosts the Bolshevik influence in Bavaria and Berlin. Rick is shot down and loses use of his leg. Rosemary writes that she still loves Lanny but must marry an English earl.

The Peace Conference, increasingly controlled by British and French industrialists, turns ever more punitive against Germany. Kurt works underground in Paris to turn French opinion against the blockade. Wilson's health drains as his liberal policies are ignored at the Conference, and at home, Americans reject the League of Nations. Poland is carved from German lands as a French client state; the Ottoman Empire is dismembered by Britain and France. Kurt's spy cell is raided; he lives with Beauty while continuing his work, disguised as a Swiss musician. Beauty and Kurt become lovers; as the French police close in, they escape to Spain. Alston, Lanny and others resign in protest from the failed Conference. French police catch Lanny with incriminating leaflets; they hold him in a filthy, windowless dungeon. Uncle Jessie secures his release. Jesse tells Robbie capitalism makes the next war inevitable. Robbie says he will fight the Reds with his own machine guns. Lanny realizes his youthful faith in peace, reason and beauty—that world has ended. He heads home to the villa at Juan.

Category:1940 American novels Category:American historical novels Category:Novels by Upton Sinclair Category:Novels set during World War I Category:Fiction set in the 1910s Category:Viking Press books

Yūta Takemoto, Takumi Mayama and Shinobu Morita are three young men who live in the same apartment complex and are students at an art college in Tokyo. One day, they are introduced to Hagumi Hanamoto, the daughter of a cousin of Shūji Hanamoto, an art professor, who has come to live with Hanamoto and has become a first year art student at the art school that everyone attends. Yuta and Shinobu both fall in love with Hagu, but Yuta hides his feelings and tries to be a friend to Hagu while Shinobu expresses his love in ways that seem only to scare Hagu, such as calling her "Mousey" and constantly photographing her. Hagu herself, though initially timid and afraid of company, gradually warms up to the three.

The group comes to include Ayumi Yamada, a master of pottery who is well known by her nickname "Tetsujin" (Iron Lady), who becomes very close to Hagu. When not at school, she helps run the family liquor store. While Ayumi is popular with many young men, she falls in love with Takumi, who does not reciprocate her feelings and considers her a very dear friend. Instead, Takumi pursues an older woman, Rika Harada, a widowed friend of Professor Hanamoto who runs an architecture studio she founded with her late husband. The story follows these five characters in their love triangles, unrequited love, graduating from college, finding jobs, and learning more about themselves.

''Jack Kaplan'' is a US Army Soldier and Weapons Expert kept as a POW somewhere in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos (the script is never quite clear on that). Liberated by a "rescue team", he returns home to the United States only to find out that his wife ''Diane'' has been captured by infatuated gangster ''Duffy Collins''. ''Kaplan'' embarks on a mission to find his wife, running into characters like ''Digger'', ''Man With The Golden Hand'', and the treacherous femme fatale ''Eve''. ''Diane'' is killed by ''Collins'' while trying to escape him, and the storyline turns extremely confusing. ''Collins'' sends bizarrely named hitmen like ''Cat Burglar'' and ''Panther'' out to kill ''Jack Kaplan'', who dispatches all of them. ''Kaplan'' ends up suspected of the murder of one of the minor baddies (whom he didn't actually kill) and a fugitive from the law. Mike Monty and Ronnie Patterson show up as policemen, who eventually track ''Kaplan'' down to a junkyard where he's been hiding. ''Kaplan'' escapes with the help of his customized car and a combination of a bazooka, a crossbow and a shotgun. The setting switches from the US to "the jungle". ''Kaplan'' kills a legion of policemen on his trail and is wounded in the process. He holes up in a "jungle" cave, where he's attacked by a ninja called ''Shadow'', who is one of the henchmen of ''Duffy Collins''. Kaplan kills ''Shadow'', masquerades as him and infiltrates the stronghold of ''Collins'', where he, after a short fight, disposes of him with ''Shadow'''s samurai sword.

During World War II an American war correspondent, Bill Wainwright (played by Crosby), was stationed in Paris. He met and fell in love with a French singer, Lisa Garret (played by Maurey). They married and had a son, Jean.

Wainwright was then assigned to cover the Battle of Dunkirk and after the evacuation of Allied troops and the French surrender he could not return to Paris. He later learned that his wife was murdered by the Nazis for participating in the French Resistance and that his small son went missing during a bombing raid.

This background information is presented via a flashback narrated by Wainwright. The war is now over and the grieving widower has returned to Paris to find his lost little boy. His best friend is Pierre Verdier (played by Dauphin).

Wainwright has been told that his son is living in an orphanage. There, he finds a sad and confused boy, Jean (played by Fourcade), who does bear a resemblance to Lisa, and Wainwright believes he might be his son. The Mother Superior (played by Dorziat) insists that the boy is his, but Wainwright is skeptical and sets out to test him. He begins to form an emotional attachment to the boy, but eventually, when the boy fails the test, Wainwright realizes that the child has been fed information in order to help him pass the test. He confronts the nun, who confesses to having tried to help the boy because of her determination to have her orphans placed in good homes and have happy lives.

Though Wainwright and the boy have formed a bond, he cannot get over his grief until he speaks to a friend who advises him to face up to his wife's death. While out and about, he has seen a stuffed toy identical to one that Wainwright had won at a carnival for Lisa, and which was named "Binky". He buys the toy and has it sent to the orphanage. The movie ends as Wainwright returns to the orphanage, having realized that he needs the boy, even if he may not be the son he lost. Jean, seeing the stuffed dog, hugs it and calls it "Binky", thus revealing that he is Wainwright's son.

Gideon is an ex-gospel singer turned pop star who has scheduled a final recording session. He invites his old band to join him including professional back-up singer Tryshia, failed rock singer turned Mary Kay Cosmetics salesperson, Vicki, and studio engineer Jim. Buddy is a young Texas gospel singer, who has idolized Gideon his entire lifetime. He has come to Los Angeles to meet Gideon and to follow in his footsteps to cross over from gospel to pop. His world is shaken when, during the course of the recording session, he learns that Gideon is gay and has AIDS.

''Syndicate Wars'' follows on from to the events in ''Syndicate,'' taking place 95 years later (in the year 2191). At the game's opening, the player-controlled syndicate (called EuroCorp) is at the peak of its power (achieved during the previous game), a megacorporation controlling the world through a combination of military and economic power, and technological mind control, using the CHIP implant technology they developed. Corporate decisions are facilitated through a number of AI entities connected through a global communications network.

As the game opens, this totalitarian status quo is threatened by the emergence of a virus named "Harbinger" in the global communications system, damaging mind-control CHIP implants and leaving citizens vulnerable to co-option. Some of the newly liberated persons, dubbed "unguided citizens", choose to engage in an armed insurrection. The Unguided appear in early missions as random antagonistic elements, but over time form a well-organized militia.

Viral damage to the global network causes disruption to Syndicate coordinations, with individual stations isolating themselves to avoid receiving rogue communication. The London station, as the headquarters of the EuroCorp syndicate, attempts to regain authority via direct intervention by the game's signature quartets of heavily armed agents.

The virus was released by the ''Church of the New Epoch'', a religious group led by a group called "The Nine" and following a religious text known as "The Book of Cataclysm". The Church are seeking to undermine the world rule by corporations in favor of subjecting its parishioners to its own variety of mind control. "Harbinger" was their first step in demolishing the existing world order. The Nine began as the ''Otherworld Research Group'' (ORG), a group of top scientists who were researching alien technology found at an archeological dig site near Reykjavik. The ORG went into hiding to continue their research on "The Codex", an encrypted set of alien technological information, subsequently forming the Church.

The bulk of the game concerns the development of armed conflict between EuroCorp and the Church. As insurrections take hold, the player is also obliged to conduct missions to control rogue elements within the syndicate itself, as various sub-corporations change allegiances or make bids for independence.

The game's story culminates in a battle for control of the moon (accessible via a transport system called the "orbital elevator"), with The Nine intending to convert ionosphere calibration equipment located there into a weapon (known as the "ion gate") and destroy all life on Earth; however, The Nine are eliminated, and the weapon deployment does not succeed.

The ironic parallels between the objectives of Church of the New Epoch and the original EuroCorp syndicate itself are abundantly clear throughout the game, further reinforced by the fact that the game can be played from the point of view of the Church itself to similar ends. It is revealed early in the game, when played on the Church's side, that the "disciple" in control of Church agents is a former EuroCorp agent who has been converted.

The Doctor and Charley are all alone in a new universe without the TARDIS as it, much like them, has no meaning. With their senses failing, they must confront not only their feelings for each other, but also a creature they can only hear.

Setting

''Pokémon Ranger'' is set in the Fiore region. The region's name originates from the Italian word for flower. The Go-Rock Squad is the resident crime syndicate of this region. Fiore itself does not have any native Pokémon, but has many Pokémon from other regions. It also does not have any Pokémon Trainers. All people who live with Pokémon keep them outside of Poké Balls, like pets, as Pokémon are never trained here. Fiore is located quite some distance from the other regions of the Pokémon world up to the third generation. It is a relatively small island region that is quite mountainous. There are four major settlements in Fiore, each named after the season it constantly experiences — Ringtown (spring) to the west, Fall City (fall) to the east, Wintown (winter) at foot of mountains to the north and Summerland (summer) on an island to the south. The Krokka Tunnel connects Fall City and Ringtown. From there, one can also get to the Panula Cave, which is also accessible from Summerland's harbor via water vehicle (aka the AquaMole), the coldest spot of the Fiore region, hence ice Pokémon appearing there, including the legendary Regice. It leads to Wintown, located on the foot of the Sekra Range. The Sekra Range is a mountain range that is notable for having a waterfall that can "fill the Capture Arena 23 times in one minute"; housing the Go-Rock Squad's base; a house high up where the residents inside will recharge the player's Styler; "Shiftree", a tree where five Shiftry live in and will attack the player all at the same time; and the Fiore Temple, an ancient temple mountain currently home to a lot of wild Pokémon, but with a strange door that will only open when you capture the 3 wanted Pokémon; where the game's climax takes place, located at the very summit of the Sekra Range. On the same island where Summerland is located on is a big jungle called the Olive Jungle. Numerous Bug- and Grass-type Pokémon live here, and in the center is a ruin, with the same symbols on Kyogre, called the Jungle Relic. In the past, Rangers came to the Relic to test themselves. There are four Challenges involving Dragon Pokémon, each representing one of the four classical elements: the Challenge of Destruction (Earth), the Challenge of Wind (Air), the Challenge of Fire and the Challenge of Water. These Pokémon are Flygon, Salamence, Charizard, and Kingdra respectively, as on the cover of ''Pokémon Ranger''. It is said that should all four be cleared, a catastrophe will befall Fiore. After beating the game, the player may roam around free to do almost anything. There is also the Ranger Net for special missions after the main missions. In these missions, the main character is required to capture 3 legendary Pokémon not seen anywhere else in the game; Deoxys, Celebi, and Mew. If the code for the special Manaphy mission is unlocked, it can be used to get the Manaphy Egg, which can later be transferred to ''Pokémon Diamond'', ''Pearl'', and ''Platinum''.

Characters

The storyline revolves around a single Pokémon Ranger — Lunick or Solana, depending on the player's choice. In addition to the protagonist characters in the game, several other Pokémon Rangers are part of the Ranger Union. Each ranger leader holds domain over that town's rangers. These rangers are named Cameron, Elita, Joel, and Spenser. A professor named Professor Hastings also plays a significant role in the game, as the Chief of Technology for the Ranger Union. The new villainous group, the Go-Rock Squad, has four sub-leaders called the Go-Rock Quads, the leader's three sons and daughter. The Quads have a motto they repeat every time they are encountered. Their original plot is to use the Super Styler, a more powerful version of the original Styler that resembles an organ, to take control of Entei, Suicune, and Raikou to attack citizens of Fiore. They would then command them to stop, leading people to believe the Go-Rock Squad were heroes. They would afterwards command Pokémon to start other problems and charge money to solve the problem. The player is then required to prove their worth in three extra post ending missions and capture the enraged legendaries; Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza.

One day Takamori, a young man living with his mother and dominant younger sister Tomoe, receives a letter from Singapore. After a while they manage to decipher the unusually poor Japanese, and figure out that Gaston Bonaparte, a man who used to be a pen friend of Takamori during his school days, will soon arrive in Japan. On the expected day, they find the poorly dressed Gaston (a striking contrast to his more famous relative, in the eyes of his Japanese hosts) in the cheapest class, deep down in the ship.

Gaston immediately befriends a stray dog (who he initially calls 犬さん - ''Mr. Dog'', but later renames ''Napoleon''), who is to follow him for most of the story but he is eventually captured by the dog catcher and killed. After staying a few days at Takamori and Tomoe's home, Gaston decides to carry on his mysterious mission in Japan. He ends up checking into a Love hotel in Shibuya with his dog, attracting some strange looks from the owner. During the night Gaston manages to help a thieving prostitute escape (although mostly due to misunderstanding the situation), which gets him kicked out of the hotel in the middle of the night, but she gets him food and puts him in contact with an old fortune teller, who makes Gaston his assistant. Soon Gaston is kidnapped by a gangster planning to murder two old army officers for revenge. Gaston tries to talk the man, Endo, out of his violent plans. When this doesn't work, he simply steals the bullets from Endo's gun, thus making the victim able to run away.

Endo knocks Gaston out and flees, but Gaston manages to track the next victim down, and outside his house he finds Endo once again. The former is not overly happy to see him, but figures that he could use some help with digging up some silver that the army officer stole during the war. In the mountain swamp where the treasure is supposed to be located, Endo and the army officer get into a fight. Gaston gets between them, saving the life of Endo, who is later found by a fisherman and rushed to a hospital.

Gaston disappears and is never found again. Takamori and Tomoe later get hold of Gaston's diary. All that is written is a scrawl about his failure in passing the missionary exam. It is written that he still must go to Japan. It is clear by the novel's end that Gaston's visit has led the main characters to reassess their lives, Takamori begins to look at the less well off in Tokyo for the first time.

The Troubleshooters (player characters) are tasked with taking a bag full of Communist propaganda to the trash. While on their way, they hear a loud explosion. Upon investigating, they discover a cryogenic box from which emerges one of the Complex's original programmers, Clem. The Troubleshooters are immediately arrested and charged with causing the explosion and being in possession of Communist propaganda. They are sentenced to be executed live on the ''Alpha Team Show''. They are rescued by Clem, and accompany him to Des Moines to gather the resources needed to reboot the Computer. When the Troubleshooters follow Clem's instructions, The Computer crashes permanently.

This programming error was called "The MegaWhoops" in later ''Paranoia'' adventures. Subsequent adventures took place in the era known as "PostMegaWhoops."

The wizard Zebedee, a red jack-in-the-box-like creature, is having a nightmare about the ice villain named Zeebad. Dougal the well-meaning cheeky, slacker dog places a tack in the road to pop a sweet cart's tyre, hoping to be rewarded with sweets for watching the cart. After the driver goes for help, Dougal accidentally crashes the cart into the magic roundabout at the centre of the village. Zeebad, the evil blue ice jack in the box-like creature, emerges from the top and flies away, followed by a Foot Guard figurine thrown off the roundabout. The roundabout freezes over, trapping repairman Mr Rusty, Dougal's young owner Florence, and two other children named Coral and Basil within an icy cell.

The horrified villagers, who are all animals, call upon Zebedee for help. He explains that the roundabout was a mystical prison for Zeebad. With it broken, Zeebad is free to work his magic on the world again as he once did before by starting the Ice Age. The only way to stop Zeebad freezing the world is by collecting three magic diamonds (one of which is supposed to be hidden on the roundabout, while the other two are hidden at separate locations far beyond the village). Slotting the diamonds onto the roundabout will re-imprison Zeebad and undo his magic, but if Zeebad retrieves them first then their power will allow him to freeze the Sun itself. Zebedee sends Dougal, Brian the cynical snail, Ermintrude the opera-singing cow and Dylan the hippie rabbit, to accomplish this mission along with a magic train. Meanwhile, Zeebad crash lands after escaping the roundabout, and animates the Foot Guard figurine, Sam the Soldier, to help him find the enchanted diamonds. Meanwhile, Zebedee's fellowship makes camp in the icy mountains. Dougal wanders off during the night and is captured by Zeebad. Ermintrude breaks him out of his prison. Zebedee then shows up to battle Zeebad but loses the battle with Zeebad freezing him and collapsing the cliff on which he stands.

Mourning for their friend, Dougal and his friends embark to recover the diamonds. This task takes them to a lava-bordered volcano and an ancient temple filled with booby-traps and evil skeleton guards, but Zeebad captures both of these diamonds; leaving the only hope of stopping Zeebad by getting back to the roundabout and to the final diamond before Zeebad does. The gang are forced to leave an injured Train behind, leaving them to return to the village on foot through the snowy barren wasteland the world is now freezing into. Zeebad, after having abandoned Sam the Soldier to die wounded in the snow, beats the gang to the now-frozen village, but is unable to find the third diamond anywhere. Sam then arrives on an elk, having realised that his true duty is to protect the roundabout against Zeebad, he tries to make a stand but is easily defeated. Having learned that Sam was in fact on the roundabout, Zeebad discovers that the third diamond is and always was hidden inside Sam, and removes it from him (ending Sam's life as a result).

Zeebad, with all three diamonds now in his possession, uses them to freeze the world by freezing the Sun. However, the gang finally reach the village, get to the diamonds, and put them into their places on the roundabout until only the third diamond is left. Though Zeebad beats the gang to the diamond and seemingly secures his victory, the timely arrival of a healed Train knocks the diamond out of Zeebad's reach and gives Dougal the chance to place it in the roundabout's final slot. Zeebad is now re-imprisoned, and the world is thawed, Zebedee is restored to his friends, villagers are freed, and the Sun shines again.

Of those trapped in the roundabout, a comatose Florence is revived by Dougal. As everyone goes for a ride on the roundabout, they discover that it does not work because Sam is lifeless. At this point, Sam is restored and then reverted to his inanimate form, and placed back on the roundabout which functions once again. Dougal now realises the true value of his friends and the good qualities of selflessness, courage, and humility.

The novel tells a story of two young men from Earth, ''Anton'' and ''Vadim'', who decide to go for a trip to Pandora, but are persuaded rather to travel to an uncharted planet by a mysterious man whom they know as Saul Repnin. Their choice is an unnamed planet in EN-7031 system, because that's where Gorbovsky and Bader predicted that Wanderers' traces could be found.

After landing successfully on the planet (which they named Saula after Repnin), the explorers soon discover a local human civilization, as well as the predicted Wanderers' traces. The latter appear as a phenomenon later called "everlasting machines" and largely influence the entire local population. Despite the fact that it is strictly forbidden for them to initiate a contact with any human or alien civilization without an authorization from COMCON, they try to do just this - and fail, having misinterpreted the situation. What Anton and Vadim (who lived in Anarcho-communism) see as catastrophic is just a routine life in an early feudalistic society of Saula.

Saul Repnin, who, as it was later uncovered, was from 20th-century Earth (a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, but originally in drafts he was a Soviet political prisoner) but shifted into the future (s.c. ''time guest''), is so shocked to see a local civilization (even though it is not the Earth's one) commit just the same cruelties he saw in his time, that it causes a severe psychological crisis in him. Anton and Vadim decide that it's the best to leave the planet immediately. On arriving back to Earth, they discover that Saul has disappeared, leaving a short note, which partly explains who he was and that he wants to go back to continue his fight against the Nazis (he is armed with a guard's machine-gun).

Saul Repnin was killed in a firefight soon after he returned to his time.

Cordelia finally gets Angel to talk about Doyle's death when she suddenly has a vision. Angel and Wesley go to the envisioned house in the suburbs when a boy named Ryan from the house walks out onto the street. Angel saves him from an oncoming car, and he talks with the parents, Paige and Seth. Noticing that something is off but not sure what is going on, Angel takes advantage of Paige's overflowing gratitude and takes her up on a dinner invitation about which Seth clearly disapproves. Outside, Wesley finds glowing goo called "plakticine" (similar to ectoplasm) oozing from the foundation all around the house and they realize someone in the house is possessed by a powerful mass-murdering Ethros demon. Angel suspects the father, but the only way to be sure which family member is possessed is to have each ingest eucalyptus powder, which will force the demon to manifest. They mix the powder with brownies that Angel brings to dinner, where Angel watches Seth carefully and it isn't until the daughter Stephanie screams that he sees the demon horrifically manifesting in Ryan before the boy falls unconscious. Paige is frantic and accuses Angel of poisoning her son, but Seth supports Angel, reminding Paige that something has been truly wrong with the boy since long before Angel's advent. They agree to attempt an exorcism and take the boy and his parents back to Angel's place for preparations.

Cordelia establishes a magic circle of protection around the bed to bind Ryan there. Stressing that Ryan is not himself anymore, Angel warns Seth and Paige, particularly Paige, that they risk being killed if they break the barrier or go anywhere near the boy. Angel and Wesley try to make contact with the priest reputed to be professionally trained to perform exorcisms but find that he has died and they must attempt the exorcism themselves. Meanwhile, Ryan has seemingly regained consciousness and commences tormenting Paige with guilt at leaving him abandoned and alone in the dark. Her resolve breaks, and when she rushes to his side he begins strangling her; after a tense few minutes, Wesley and Angel rush into the bedroom and manage to pull Paige from Ryan's choke hold, but their efforts send the demon deeper, and the boy again lapses into unconsciousness. Upon learning from Cordelia's research that expelling the demon will send him to the nearest "warm body", Angel sends her to procure an Ethros box from Rick's Magick & Stuff, which is supposed to hold the Ethros demon. Rick's, however, does not have an Ethros Box, so Cordelia instead buys a box intended for another type of demon. While Cordelia shops, Wesley attempts the exorcism. He manages to raise the demon far enough to animate the boy once more, and the Ethros cruelly taunts him about his inadequacies as a youth and as a Watcher until Wesley grows visibly more distracted and vulnerable. He fails. Someone or something telekinetically uses marbles on the table to write the words, "Save me". The demon taunts Angel and he wraps his hand with a length of cloth, grabs the cross and Wesley's small volume of incantations, and strides into the bedroom. Holding the cross pressed to Ryan's chest, Angel ignores the pain of his hand sizzling through the protective layers and begins to chant, his voice growing louder and more commanding as he repeats the ritual phrases until, finally, he shouts, "Now get the hell out!" With an invisible rush, the demon is expelled from the boy, but the box Cordelia bought is unable to contain the demon's energy and shatters.

Some time later, after sending the Andersons home, the AI team tries to determine the demon's current whereabouts. They realize the Ethros demon will need to take corporeal form to recharge itself after expending so much energy to escape. Leaving Cordelia behind, Wesley and Angel search the sea caves and find the Ethros demon. They are surprised when the evil being reveals that Ryan is soulless and psychopathic. The demon had been inside the boy, but unable to manifest because of Ryan's naturally evil personality, and thus merely being a source of his powers since until Ryan ate Angel's brownies. They realize that the "save me" message was from the demon, and the boy walking in front of the car on the first night was the demon sleepwalking Ryan to kill him. Angel kills the demon swiftly, and he and Wesley realize that the Andersons are in even greater danger now that they believe themselves safe at last.

That night, in the Andersons' home after everyone is asleep, Ryan, his door unlocked for the first time in a long time, steals matches from Seth's bedstand, then locks his parents' door shut with a toy block. Ignoring his now-awake parents as they struggle to open the door, the boy sloshes gasoline over his sister's toys and furniture, then lights a match and tosses it down. The room ignites with a whoosh, cutting Stephanie off from the door by a wall of flame. Seth and Paige finally burst out and find Ryan staring entranced at the roaring flames while Stephanie screams from behind them. Angel suddenly crashes through the window opposite and scoops Stephanie into his arms as Wesley hustles Ryan and his parents down the hall to safety. A little while later, Angel and Seth stand outside while firemen contain the blaze. Behind Seth, Paige and Stephanie huddle together near the front door. Detective Kate Lockley comes over to inform Seth that Social Services is taking custody of Ryan, and that they can see him in the morning, but that there won't be anything to report until after the evaluation. Angel informs Seth of what he discovered about Ryan and redirects his attention from the son he cannot save to the wife and daughter he has already protected. Almost imperceptibly nodding his thanks, Seth turns to embrace his welcoming family. Angel makes his own way out to the sidewalk.

Cordelia pitches Angel an idea for a commercial, but he is skeptical. She then films Doyle, who is uncomfortable and awkward on camera. Cordelia is frustrated with Angel’s brooding, so Doyle volunteers to talk to him. Angel tells Doyle how he sacrificed his humanity and happiness with Buffy in order to be able to continue fighting evil; Doyle commends Angel’s heroism and avers that he himself lacks that strength, as he cannot even ask out, or be truthful with, Cordelia. Later, Doyle is about to tell Cordelia his secret when he has a vision. Arriving on the scene of the vision, Angel and Doyle find a group of Lister demon refugees hiding who hail Angel as their “Promised One.” They are being pursued by The Scourge, a stormtrooper army of pure-blood demons who hate all demons of mixed blood. Doyle tells Angel about a similar incident in his past, in which he failed to help others of his own kind who were being hunted by The Scourge: unprotected, they were massacred.

Angel’s team arranges passage for the Listers on a cargo ship. Rieff, a Lister who is skeptical of Angel, takes off alone; Doyle pursues him and persuades him to return, but The Scourge approach. Doyle and Angel create a diversion, resulting in Angel pretending to join The Scourge. Angel learns that they have a human blood-specific WMD, the Beacon, and that the cargo ship ’s first mate has betrayed them. When the Listers board the ship one of them unwittingly reveals to Cordelia that Doyle is half-demon. When Doyle arrives with Rieff, Cordelia admonishes him for having withheld that and tells him to ask her out.

Angel arrives, warning of the impending attack and the first mate’s betrayal. The Listers secure themselves in the ship’s hold while Angel fights. He cannot prevent The Scourge from lowering the Beacon into the hold, and with the hatches locked from the outside, the Listers and Angel’s team are trapped. Angel prepares to defuse the Beacon, knowing it will be suicide. As they say goodbye, Doyle echoes Angel’s earlier words about heroism and then knocks him to the bottom of the hold. He kisses Cordelia and a purple light passes from his mouth to hers. He jumps onto the Beacon and, as it disintegrates his body, unplugs it, saving everyone else. Later, Angel and Cordelia watch Doyle’s commercial.

Like the first film, this follows the fraternal bond of two inmates, once again Ching, but this time with "Brother Dragon", a boss of the "Black Rats" gang. Ching escapes the prison in order to see his son, Leung was placed in an orphanage after his grandmother died, and gets into trouble with "Scarface's replacement, Officer Zau. Ching escapes a second time to follow Boss Dragon after he lied about jumping off a cliff to escape. Ching looked for his son and intended to bring him along, but was refused by the social worker.

He was later apprehended by the police and was brought back to prison. On the way, Officer Zau tortures Ching. Ching gets thrown into the prison cell of the Mainland group and is beaten up by them as they thought he was the one who betrayed Brother Dragon. Skull takes a toothbrush, with a sharpened back and stabs Ching. Ching then convinces Brother Fireball and the other cellmates to set a fire in the prison cell, so as to escape from prison.

After the fire breaks out, all the prisoners assembles outside, but Ching yells for help and runs towards to the Hongkie group for help. A fight then occurs between the Hongkie group and the Mainlanders, resulting in the arrival of more police personnel, who use water jet sprayers to control the situation, while Skull goes into hiding inside the canteen. Ching follows Skull and a violent fight starts. Officer Zau and his officers witness the fight and instead of breaking it up, Zau gives the order to lock them up, watching them fighting behind the gate. Skull begs Officer Zau to open the gate but Zau refuses.

Skull self reproaches on his mistakes to Ching, and when Ching turns his back, Skull tries to stab Ching with the toothbrush again. Ching eventually knocks Skull down by dragging him over the table. Officer Zau then opens up the gate, and tries to use his baton to hit Ching, but was stopped by a good officer. Unfortunately, the good officer gets knocked down by Zau's barbaric act. Ching picks up the toothbrush and hides it while Officer Zau approaches him. Zau hits Ching's left arm and Ching uses the toothbrush, and stabs it into Officer Zau's left eye. Officer Zau screams in pain and engages in delirium. Officer Zau collapses on the floor and Ching faints. Ching awakes in a hospital and takes up his son's report card and reads it.

His cellmate commented that his son's "handwriting was not bad", also a message for his dad: "Dad, don't be naughty in prison, Don't let me worry about you, remember..." this sentence is meaningful, "Tolerate, Tolerate, Tolerate...." Ching was discharged from the hospital and was being brought back to his cell, an officer told him that he was lucky that he had an officer to stand witness for him about the fight, that officer also gained a higher position thanks to him, signaling an end to the chaos.

A new superintendent visits the cell and it is a coincidence that they met together back at the orphanage when he escaped the prison for the first time. Ching requests the superintendent, when he visits the orphanage, to look out for his son. Before the ending credits roll, an officer says "Long time no see" to Ching, and it's Officer "Scarface" from the previous film, Ching then self mutters ... about how unlucky he is. However the tone of the scene is built to be humorous implying Scarface no longer wields any similar threat, especially since the prisoners from the mainland were instructed not to hurt Ching, while he maintains an elder appreciation and respect from his Hongkonger cellmates.

Detective Louis Burke (Jean-Claude van Damme) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Quebec confronts the maniac that killed his partner on the force: an enigmatic psychopathic serial killer by the name of Christian Naylor (Patrick Kilpatrick), who calls himself "The Sandman". Burke searches an abandoned house in Los Angeles, where he comes across a series of bodies hanging from the ceiling, and is then attacked by the Sandman. Burke is able to shoot the Sandman several times in the center of his chest, apparently killing him.

Sixteen months later, Burke joins a task force assembled by the governor to investigate a series of murders in the Harrison State Prison in California which is becoming a scandal threatening his reelection. While Burke poses as an inmate, attorney Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) acts as his wife.

Burke goes undercover and is interned in the State penitentiary, where befriends his cellmate Konefke (Conrad Dunn) and a clerk, Hawkins (Robert Guillaume). Despite Burke saving Hawkins from a confrontation with a Mexican gang, neither he nor Konefke will talk about the recent murders. Burke is able to track down the cellmate of the most recent victim (named Barrett), who works at the infirmary, but the cellmate also refuses to talk. When Burke threatens him, he reveals that he doesn't know what's going on, but that the guards are involved and that there is an "outside man." He sends Burke to talk to Priest (Abdul Salaam El Razzac), who gets him a key to the records room.

In the records room, Burke finds Barrett's death certificate covered in codes. He feeds the codes to Beckett and connects her with a teenage hacker, Tisdale (Joshua John Miller), who determines the codes come from the infirmary. With help from Priest and Hawkins, Burke breaks into the infirmary and finds several boxes labeled "medical waste" that are actually full of human organs.

Later, a new inmate arrives, and Burke is horrified to find that it's the Sandman, who did not die two years ago. The Sandman recognizes Burke and briefly apprehends him; instead of killing Burke, the Sandman reveals to their fellow prisoners that Burke is a cop.

Meanwhile, Beckett and Tisdale are able to decipher a code they find in the computer, which comprises prisoner identification numbers followed by their blood type. None of the inmates on the list have drug-related crimes, and they are mostly young, first-time offenders. All of the ID numbers match those of prisoners who have been murdered. Beckett identifies it as a "hit list", and tips off Burke that he's next on the list.

On the outside, Beckett then attends a party hosted by the state's attorney general, Tom Vogler (George Dickerson). Beckett believes that her boss, Ben Keane (Jack Bannon), is responsible for the murders, and prepares to tell Vogler of her theory. However, just as she is about to do so, she receives a call from Tisdale, who tells her that the man behind the murders is in fact Vogler.

Vogler produces a gun and reveals to Beckett that his wife needed a liver transplant, and when it turned out that even his money and influence couldn't move her up the donor list in time, he created a conspiracy to murder healthy prisoners for organs. After his wife's transplant, he continued the scheme for profit. He also reveals that he sent the Sandman to assassinate Burke, because Burke was too hard for the other inmates to kill. When his wife unexpectedly enters the room, Beckett escapes.

In the prison, Burke escapes his cell and the Sandman opens all the other cells to create a riot. Priest and Hawkins help him evade the guards; Hawkins is injured but saved by Priest, but Priest is then killed by the Sandman. The scene culminates in a showdown between Sandman and Burke with the inmates looking on. At first, the Sandman gets the better of the fight, but when he opens the door to the boiler room—proclaiming, "Welcome to hell!"—Burke turns the tables by kicking the Sandman into the flames.

This appears to be the end of the Sandman, but after some seconds, he emerges from the boiler, grossly burned. Burke kicks him again, this time sending him careering backward into a pillar, where his head is impaled on a valve stem. Despite this mortal injury, stuck to the valve, the Sandman continues to taunt Burke: "You can't kill me, Burke. I'm the Sandman."

Burke responds by twisting the Sandman's head around; the valve stem inflicts damage on the psychopath's brain, finally killing him. The inmates quietly allow Burke to leave the prison, where he is reunited with Hawkins and Beckett.

After years as a mob enforcer, Ben Archer (Jean-Claude van Damme) moves from Marseille to Los Angeles and decides to become legitimate so he can spend more time with his wife Cynthia (Lisa King) and son Nicholas (Pierre Marais).

Cynthia is a social worker with the INS, helping to process illegal Chinese immigrants. When a ship full of immigrants from Hong Kong is intercepted, she discovers a young girl named Kim (Valerie Tian) among them and decides, against regulations, to bring her home. She convinces a judge and INS agent Mac Hoggins (Danny Keogh) that the girl will be in grave danger if deported and asks for a week to make her case for asylum.

Kim's father, Sun Quan (Simon Yam), is a Chinese Triad boss who Kim saw murder her mother when she tried to leave him. Having tracked his daughter to Los Angeles, Sun Quan learns her exact whereavouts from Hoggins, who is corrupt, and he and his Triad henchmen kill Cynthia, her parents and many of the workers at the restaurant where they were dining. Nicholas and Kim flee amid the chaos. Ben, arriving late, engages in a shootout with the fleeing Triad members but is unable to stop them escaping before finding his wife's body. After a period of intense grief, he resolves to rescue the children and avenge Cynthia's death.

Ben enlists the help of Cynthia's uncle, Max (Anthony Fridjohn), a wheelchair-bound French mobster, along with Max's bodyguard Raymond (Claude Hernández) and friend Tony (Tony Schiena). Nicholas and Kim are found and kept hidden at Max's house. Ben decides to target Andy Wang (Tom Wu), one of the Triad members he saw fleeing the restaurant, having learned his name from police mugshots. Tony knows that Wang likes to frequent a brothel; Ben and Tony storm the brothel and kill Wang, along with several other Triad members.

Da Costa (Warrick Grier), the homicide detective assigned to both Cynthia and Wang's murders, is surprised to see Hoggins at the second crime scene for no apparent reason. During an informal visit to Max's house the next morning, he makes a point of mentioning this. Ben and Tony kidnap Hoggins - not realizing the Triads are watching - and take him to Max's house, where they brutally torture him for answers. Ben gets a call from Da Costa, who is at the morgue with some of the immigrants who died on the ship; an autopsy has revealed they were being used as drug mules. After Ben leaves, Max and Raymond force Hoggins to confess to his involvement with Sun Quan's heroin smuggling operation, as well as the boat he'll be on that night. Out of vengeance for Cynthia, they torture him to death.

Ben arrives at the morgue to discover that Da Costa and the attendants have been killed, and the heroin stolen, by two Triad members on motorbikes. He chases them down and kills them. Returning to Max's house, he and Tony see Triad vehicles speeding away, with Kim and Nicholas inside. Tony rushes into the house while Ben gives chase. Ben is able to rescue Kim, but the Triads escape with Nicholas. They return to the house, where Tony tells Ben that Max and Raymond have been killed.

Knowing Sun Quan will be at the docks that night, Ben and Tony storm his ship and kill all the Triad members on board. Sun Quan appears with Nicholas as a hostage; after a standoff, he and Ben shoot each other. Ben is severely wounded, while Sun Quan dies. Ben embraces Nicholas as the police arrive.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

to free Napoleon from his imprisonment at St Helena.

Hornblower raises his flag in the schooner HMS ''Crab'' and pays a courtesy call at New Orleans. There, he learns of a plot by Napoleon's most loyal followers to liberate him from his exile on the isolated island of St Helena. Hornblower intercepts their ship, the ''Daring'', but is powerless to stop them by force; with no other choice, he is prepared to sacrifice his honour for the sake of peace in Europe. He lies to their leader, Count Cambronne, telling him that Napoleon has died. When he returns to port, he learns to his astonishment and relief that his lie was the truth, recalling Saint Elizabeth's miracle of the roses.

The Star of the South

While attempting to suppress the slave trade, HMS ''Clorinda'', the vessel carrying Hornblower's flag, follows a faster slave ship, the ''Estrella del Sur'', into a Puerto Rican port. Hornblower figures out a way to disable the slave ship, so that when it leaves port, the ''Clorinda'' will be able to catch it. Hornblower, characteristically, outsmarts his subordinate, the dim-witted, pompous Captain Fell of the ''Clorinda'' to the point he thinks the sabotage plan was his idea.

The Bewildered Pirates

Pirates kidnap Hornblower and his young secretary Spendlove and take them to their hideout near Montego Bay, in an attempt to extort a pardon for themselves. They send Hornblower with their demand, keeping Spendlove as hostage. Hornblower feels honour-bound to return to secure Spendlove's release, but finds the resourceful secretary has escaped. Free to act, Hornblower leads a sea-borne attack on the pirate's camp, using mortars to reduce their hideout. Forester takes artistic license with the geography of Jamaica.

The Guns of Carabobo

Hornblower is visited by a rich young wool merchant, named Ramsbottom, one of the first millionaires. The young man is on a tour of the Caribbean in his yacht, a converted ex-Royal Navy brig-sloop, the ''Bride of Abydos''. Hornblower tours Ramsbottom's yacht during a dinner party on board. Ramsbottom explains his interest in Latin America by saying that he has a Venezuelan mother. He is cautioned to stay away from the South American coast, which is in a state of rebellion against Spain.

It turns out, however, that Ramsbottom, far from being a tourist, is dedicated to helping Spain's South American colonies to achieve their independence. While Hornblower and his squadron are conveniently away on manoeuvres, Ramsbottom, by pretending that his yacht is the ''Desperate'', a Royal Navy brig enforcing a (bogus) blockade, captures the ''Helmond'', an unsuspecting Dutch transport, and secures the Spanish artillery train forming its cargo. Hornblower hears the news on his return from manoeuvres and goes to investigate. He finds Ramsbottom's ship, empty, accompanied by the ''Helmond'', anchored off the coast of Venezuela. The captured cannons have been instrumental in the defeat of the Spanish forces. Hornblower secures ''Bride of Abydos'' just before the arrival of a Spanish and a Dutch frigate, from where Spanish and Dutch naval officers swiftly arrive to demand its surrender. Hornblower by verbal trickery manages to avoid both surrendering the ''Bride of Abydos'' and starting a war.

The Hurricane

Hornblower's wife Barbara comes out to Jamaica for Hornblower's final days as Commander in Chief, and to accompany him home. Hornblower is troubled by the case of a young marine bandsman, Hudnutt, a naturally gifted musician who refuses to play what he feels is a wrong note. Hornblower is sympathetic to the man's plight, and endeavours to help him, but is constrained by the demands of naval discipline. As the couple leave the island he hears Hudnutt has escaped; later he finds Barbara had arranged it. On the voyage back, they endure a hurricane; Hornblower needs to use his skill as a seaman to ensure their survival. In the middle of the hurricane, Barbara drops her final wall of reserve as she assures him she has never loved another man.

Joseph's latest role is that of ''Sky Coyote'', the trickster, the foolish one, the animal god of many Native American traditions. He will play it for the Chumash, a tribe in California in the late 17th century. His job is to persuade the village of Humashup to give up their entire lifestyle, which the company will take and "preserve," while the Chumash are shipped out to work in a Company facility. The Spanish are coming soon, and the Chumash culture will be wiped out along with all the others.

Of course, Joseph can't do this alone. He assembles a small army of his kind, including the erratic and moody botanist Mendoza, whom he occasionally regrets recruiting in 16th-century Spain; the anthropologist and former Babylonian Imarte; who is not averse to bedding her subjects to get more data; and many other specialists. Joseph is the Master of Ceremonies, however. He's also wearing a lot of non-standard equipment to turn him into a cavorting, fast talking (and priapic) god.

The Chumash turn out to be, well, ordinary. Superb craftsmen, their lives revolve around work, festivals, religion, festivals, getting ahead, and festivals. They may not have churches and boys clubs, but the ''kantap'' fills the same needs. The guilds make sure that everybody gets what they need and pays handsomely for it. Oily salesmen try to make their percentage any way they can. Joseph is a little surprised to learn that they are so worldly, and they are quite surprised that he, well, exists. However Joseph spins his tale with his usual skill and pulls off the job.

There are snags, but not the usual kind. For a start, actual 24th-century Company operatives have come back to supervise. They are disgusted that the cyborgs eat meat, drink alcohol and consume other stimulants banned in their era. The cyborgs are not too impressed with the childish, phobia-ridden operatives either, but a job is a job. Mendoza starts her feud with Imarte, which continues in the next installment. There is a messianic religion encroaching on Chumash territory. This gets Joseph's hackles up. Nature throws in an earthquake or two.

The Chumash go to their reward, the Company gets all the valuable information and samples it needs to sell to the rich and not-so-smart in the 24th century, and Joseph is left with a nagging doubt. For one thing, why does nobody know what happens after 2355, even though all history is available to the cyborgs up to that point? And why do cyborgs who talk too much about this tend to get suddenly reassigned? Why do the 24th-century people seem so cowardly and stupid? Didn't they go all the way back to 30,000 BC to start the ball rolling? Or was it 40,000? Nobody is quite sure.

However, Joseph is mostly satisfied, but unfulfilled and, at his core, unhappy. Mendoza has been released to wander the redwood forest, a dream task for the botanist. Joseph believes that in 1923 he saw her with a mortal she fell for in Tudor England, but that story is not completed in this volume. Joseph has more or less adopted Mendoza as his daughter, though he cannot admit it. By the end of the book he has become a 20th-century Hollywood studio executive, hiding artifacts of the era for the company.

Miles O'Brien pilots a runabout through the wormhole en route to the Parada system. He records a personal log of recent events:

Two days ago, O'Brien returned from a meeting with the Paradas to discuss security measures for upcoming peace talks. The next morning, he awoke to find his wife Keiko and daughter Molly dressed and eating breakfast at 5:30 am; both seemed awkward and suspicious around him.

Upon reporting for duty, O'Brien found an officer had begun working on the security arrangements without him, apparently under orders from Commander Sisko. Shortly afterward, he saw Sisko and Keiko having a private discussion on the Promenade. When asked about it, Sisko claimed he was concerned about his son Jake's grades in Keiko's class, but Jake later told O'Brien his grades were fine.

At O'Brien's annual physical examination, Dr. Bashir gave O'Brien a clean bill of health only after an overly long and invasive examination. Additionally, problems O'Brien had been assigned to fix seemed to have been intentionally designed to make him spend additional time repairing them. Reviewing the other officers' logs, O'Brien discovered that Sisko and the others were observing his movements.

O'Brien persuaded Odo to investigate the others' suspicious behavior. But soon, at a meeting in Odo's office, Odo appeared to have joined the conspiracy as well; Sisko, Bashir, and Major Kira arrived to arrest and sedate O'Brien. He overpowered the others and fled the Promenade.

Through maintenance conduits, O'Brien made his way to the runabout ''Rio Grande'' and escaped. He contacted Admiral Rollman to warn her that the command crew of Deep Space Nine was under some hostile influence, but she ordered him to return to the station.

Now en route to the Parada system in the Gamma Quadrant, O'Brien is being pursued by the runabout ''Mekong''. He eludes his pursuers and hides behind a moon, and then follows the ''Mekong'' to Parada II. There he finds Sisko and Kira with a pair of Paradan rebels, who promise that the explanation to the mystery of the past few days is behind a door. One of the Paradans shoots him, and when the door opens, Bashir is behind it—along with another O'Brien. It is revealed that the Paradan government abducted O'Brien and created a clone who believed he was the real O'Brien, but would assassinate the rebels at the peace talks.

As the clone dies, he asks the real O'Brien to tell Keiko he loves her.

A group of scientists and their support crew of five sailors land on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. They are searching for a previous expedition that disappeared without a trace, and to continue their research on the effects of radiation from the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests on the island's plant and sea life. The scientists on the expedition are led by Dr. Karl Weigand (Leslie Bradley), and also include geologist James Carson (Richard H. Cutting) and biologists Jules Deveroux (Mel Welles), Martha Hunter (Duncan), and Dale Drewer (Garland). Their party also includes technician and handyman Hank Chapman (Johnson).

Soon after their arrival, a sailor, Tate (Charles B. Griffith), falls in the water and is killed, his decapitated body floating to the surface. Two sailors (Beach Dickerson and Tony Miller) are left behind to guard the explorers, while the others, led by Ensign Quinlan (Ed Nelson), attempt to return to the mainland, but their seaplane inexplicably explodes.

The scientists are unable to report what happened due to a storm, so they decide to stay on the island and continue their research. They read journal entries written by the previous scientific team, which mention killer worm creatures. Martha and Dale later go scuba diving. That night, Martha hears "McLane", leader of the previous expedition, calling out to her. Carson descends into a pit that opened up outside during an inexplicable earthquake and falls, losing his footing.

The current expedition learns to their horror that the earlier group had been killed and eaten by two mutated, intelligent giant crabs, who have absorbed the minds of their victims and can speak telepathically in their voices. Members of the current expedition are being systematically attacked and killed by the monsters, which are now invulnerable to most standard weaponry because of their cell structure mutations.

The remaining scientists finally discover that both giant crabs are the cause of the ongoing earthquakes and landslides on the island; they are slowly destroying the island, reducing its size, by undermining it with tunnels. The scientists turn their attention to a way to stop the mating pair of monsters from reproducing. They are able to kill one of the giant crabs in a cave when their placed explosive detonates, shaking loose an overhead rock that crushes the head of the monster.

As the island continues to fall away into the Pacific, and after barely escaping from their collapsing laboratory building, the surviving trio of Dale, Martha, and Hank finally meet the remaining intelligent giant crab, Hoolar, who speaks to them via telepathy. Hoolar vows to go to the mainland with her fertilized eggs when the island is gone (and the three humans are dead) to feed upon even more people, absorbing those minds in the process. Hank then sacrifices himself by bringing down an electrically-charged broadcast tower directly on top of the giant crab, electrocuting the monster and her unhatched brood. Dale and Martha embrace on the small portion of what remains of the once large island.

A man who is "not of this Earth" (Paul Birch) has adopted the name "Mr. Johnson" for moving among the populace of Los Angeles. The alien has a sensitivity to high-decibel sounds and is conspicuous only for his stilted and formal syntax and his sunglasses, which he wears even in the dark. The sunglasses hide his blank, white-eyed stare which kills his victims by burning through their eyes and into their brains. He removes the blood of his first victim (a teenage girl who has just been dropped off by her boyfriend) using a system of tubes and canisters that he keeps in an aluminum attaché case.

Johnson is from the planet Davanna, where the inhabitants have developed an incurable blood disease, and he has been sent to Earth to examine the blood of humans for its usefulness in curing Davanna's dying race. Johnson is answerable to an authority on Davanna with whom he can communicate through a device hidden behind a sliding panel in the living room of his Griffith Park mansion. His bodyguard, Jeremy (Jonathan Haze), who also acts as his chauffeur and houseboy, provides him support and protection, but is unaware of his being an alien.

Johnson hires nurse Nadine (Beverly Garland) to look after him in his house. Her boss, town physician Dr. Rochelle (William Roerick), is under Johnson's hypnotic control after finding out about his patient's peculiar blood cell structure. With a limit on the number of transfusions he can be given, Johnson takes to murdering locals and draining their blood. Adding to his victims are a strolling Chinese-American man, a sleazy door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, and a trio of homeless male drunkards. The police are mystified by these "vampire killings".

Johnson's plans are disturbed by the unexpected and sudden appearance of a female from Davanna (Anna Lee Carroll). While Johnson can command Earth humans through telepathy, even to the point of using their native languages, he can also completely communicate with his fellow aliens through telepathy. The alien female asks him for an immediate transfusion, because her physical condition is rapidly deteriorating. Johnson breaks into Rochelle's office, but by accident he steals blood contaminated with rabies.

Later, the Davanna woman collapses in the street, dying at a hospital. Nadine's friend, police patrolman Harry Sherbourne (Morgan Jones), tries to question Dr. Rochelle about the dead woman, but he is unable to speak while under Johnson's mind control. As a precaution, now fearing discovery, Johnson sends a bizarre oxygen-activated umbrella-like flying alien creature to kill Rochelle. He eradicates Jeremy, who has discovered evidence of Johnson's murderous tendencies. Nadine, whom he attempts to kidnap and take with him, manages to call the police as Johnson chases her through the park in his car. Johnson abandons her and flees, pursued by the arriving Sherbourne on his motorcycle. When Sherbourne turns on his siren, Johnson (to whom the sound is immensely painful) loses control of his car and dies in a crash.

After Johnson's burial, Sherbourne and Nadine stand by his grave, which bears the inscription "Here lies a man who was not of this Earth". While Sherbourne expresses mild compassion for Johnson, for his motivation to rescue his world and its dying populace, Nadine refuses to offer any kind of pity. They leave, just as a mysterious man, wearing dark sunglasses, approaches the grave site. Like Johnson, he wears the same sunglasses and carries the same distinctive case containing transfusion equipment.

The story is based around 11-year-old Saga Bergman, a young girl in a small German town called Muhlenberg (based on real town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber). Saga lives with her grandmother Regina and works in a coffee shop when not in school. Saga is extremely structured and plans her life down to the minute. One day, she notices a tiny creature in a fluffy outfit that appears to be starving. She offers it a waffle, which helps revive the tiny creature. Saga learns that this tiny creature is Sugar, an apprentice season fairy. Sugar explains that season fairies alter the weather by playing a magical musical instrument, and her specialty is snow, which she creates by playing the piccolo. Sugar is joined by two more apprentice season fairies, Salt, an outgoing male fairy who plays the trumpet to make the sun shine more brightly, and Pepper, a quiet and caring female fairy who plays the harp to make the wind blow.

All three apprentices are shocked at the realization that Saga can see them, since humans are not supposed to be able to see season fairies. Pepper speculates that exceptional humans might be able to see them, which is the best possible explanation. Sugar tells Saga that the three have been sent to Earth to train as full-fledged season fairies, and to do that, they must find 'Twinkles'.

Sugar moves into Saga's bedroom and sets up residence, much to the consternation of the super-structured Saga. Saga is a well-meaning, intelligent and highly organized girl who feels compelled to look after the childish, loud and irresponsible Sugar, who is incapable of looking after herself. The story is complicated further with the arrival of three adult season fairies—Turmeric, a cloud fairy; Ginger, a rain fairy; and the Elder, the leader of the season fairies—and two more apprentices—Cinnamon, a hail fairy, and Basil, a thunder fairy.

With the highly disruptive presence of Sugar, Saga's life goes haywire. Her friends Norma and Anne think that she is losing her mind, and her teacher, Miss Hanna, is worried that her best student is acting strangely. Not at all concerned with her strange behavior is Greta, an egotistical rich girl who considers Saga to be her rival, and Phil, a goofy inventor who keeps trying to persuade Saga to help him with his experiments, if he is not already busy building and trying out his latest device.

While aboard a houseboat on Crystal Lake, teenager Jim Miller tells his girlfriend Suzi the legend of Jason Voorhees, before playing a prank on her with a hockey mask and a prop knife. The boat's anchor damages some underwater cables that shock Jason's corpse, which is still chained at the bottom of the lake, and revives him. He sneaks on board, takes the mask, and kills Jim with a harpoon gun before impaling Suzi.

The next morning, the SS ''Lazarus'' is ready to set sail for New York City with a graduating senior class from Lakeview High School, chaperoned by biology teacher Dr. Charles McCulloch and English teacher Colleen Van Deusen. Van Deusen brings McCulloch's niece Rennie along for the trip despite her aquaphobia, much to his chagrin. Jason sneaks on board and kills rock star-wannabe J.J. Jarrett with her guitar. That night, a young boxer who lost his match to champion Julius Gaw is killed by Jason in the ship's sauna. Rennie, searching for her pet Border Collie Toby, discovers prom queen Tamara Mason and her friend Eva Watanabe doing drugs. McCulloch nearly catches them moments later and Tamara pushes Rennie overboard, believing that she told on them. She then uses video student Wayne Webber to record McCulloch in a compromising situation with her but rejects Wayne's advances afterward. Jason kills Tamara with a shard of broken mirror after she showers.

Rennie sees visions of a young Jason throughout the ship. Jason kills Captain Robertson and his first mate. Rennie's boyfriend and Captain Robertson's son, Sean, discovers them and tells the others before calling for an emergency. Eva finds Tamara's body and flees. Jason chases Eva into the disco room, where he strangles her to death on the dance floor. The students agree to search for Jason while McCulloch decides that the deckhand is responsible. However, the deckhand is found with a fire axe in his back. Jason tosses student Miles Wolfe into the radio transmitter tower to his death, and Julius is knocked overboard. In the hold of the ship, Wayne comes upon J.J.'s body and is thrown into an electrical box by Jason. Wayne's corpse catches fire and causes the ship to take on water. With the other students that were left in the disco room seemingly dead, McCulloch, Van Deusen, Rennie, and Sean escape aboard a life raft and discover that Toby and Julius are still alive.

They row to New York where Jason stalks them through the streets. Rennie is kidnapped by a pair of junkies, and the group splits up to find help. Julius fights Jason but becomes exhausted after Jason does not go down and gets decapitated by a single punch from Jason. Rennie escapes from Jason when he kills the punks that kidnapped her. She runs into Sean, and they reunite with the teachers and the NYPD before Jason kills the officer who is helping them. Rennie crashes a police car after a vision of Jason distracts her. Van Deusen is incinerated in the car when it explodes, and it is revealed that McCulloch is responsible for Rennie's fear of water, having pushed her into the lake as a child. They leave him behind, and Jason drowns him in a barrel of toxic waste.

Jason chases Rennie and Sean into the subway, where Sean incapacitates Jason by pushing him onto the third rail. When Jason revives, he chases them through Times Square to a diner, and then to the sewers where they encounter a worker. He warns them that the sewers will be flooded with toxic waste at midnight. Jason appears, kills the worker and knocks Sean unconscious. Rennie throws a vat of toxic waste into Jason's face. She and Sean climb a ladder as Jason staggers after them. The sewers flood, and Jason, reminded of his childhood drowning, vomits water. The waste water overcomes Jason, causing his face to melt away. When the water recedes, Sean and Rennie witness what appears to be Jason as an unconscious child. Sean and Rennie make their way back to the street where they are reunited with Rennie's dog Toby in Times Square.

Augusten Burroughs' mother, Deirdre, who wishes to become a famous poet, suffers from severe mood swings and erratic behavior. Augusten's alcoholic father, Norman, proves to be of no help. By the time he is a teenager, Augusten no longer feels safe in his own house. Deirdre loudly claims that Norman is the reason for her unhappiness, and that he desires to kill her. She ultimately sends Augusten to live with her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch, the eccentric patriarch of an oddball family, which consists of his submissive wife Agnes, religious older daughter Hope, and his rebellious younger daughter Natalie, who is slightly older than Augusten.

Augusten finds it hard to adjust to living with the Finches, and is subject to irregular weekend visits by his increasingly unsound mother. After confessing to Natalie that he is gay, Augusten befriends Neil Bookman, Finch's patient and adopted 33-year-old son. The two begin an erratic sexual relationship quickly after meeting, but Augusten, who turns 15 in the film, finds it difficult to cope with their age difference.

Consistent with a confidence pattern seen with the family of Neil – and with a 41-year-old patient who abused Natalie, and with young adult patient Dorothy Ambrose – Dr. Finch manipulates Deirdre into signing over her money to him. By the time of Augusten's 15th birthday, Deirdre has found temporary stability with her living companion Dorothy ("I've always wanted a daughter"), leaving Augusten feeling like his mother no longer wants him, while also dealing with the negative effects of Neil's schizophrenia and Dorothy's animosity.

A few years later, the still-teenaged Augusten leaves for New York to become a writer. He says goodbye to his mother and goes to the bus station. Agnes, with whom he has developed a caring relationship, arrives and gives him some money she has saved up.

In a mid-credits vignette, it is shown that Dr. Finch lost his license for insurance fraud and died in 2000, Agnes went to work in a nursing home, Natalie earned a degree in psychology, Hope worked with her dad until his death, Norman re-established contact with Augusten before his death in 2005, Deirdre remains estranged from her son, Neil was never heard from again, and Augusten (the real Augusten, seen onscreen sitting beside the film's Augusten) wrote a book.

In 1979, Jimmy Bones (Snoop Dogg) is a numbers runner who is loved in his neighborhood as its member and protector. He is betrayed and brutally murdered by corrupt cop Lupovich (Michael T. Weiss) and drug pusher Eddie Mack (Ricky Harris) who then force Jimmy's associates Jeremiah (Clifton Powell) and Shotgun (Ronald Selmour) to take turns stabbing him to death. His lover Pearl (Pam Grier), had been the only one to refuse, trying to kill herself instead but was stopped. Afterward, Bones' elegant brownstone building becomes his own tomb and is closed.

Twenty-two years later, the neighborhood has become rundown because Bones' absence cleared the way for drugs to enter the neighborhood. Four teens, Patrick (Khalil Kain), his brother Bill (Merwin Mondesir), their step-sister Tia (Katharine Isabelle) and their best friend Maurice (Sean Amsing), buy the Bones house to turn it into a nightclub. In the process, Tia finds a black dog who is actually the spiritual manifestation of Jimmy's spirit. As the dog eats, Jimmy is slowly resurrected.

Patrick meets Pearl, who remains in the neighborhood, and her daughter Cynthia (Bianca Lawson), whom he begins courting. Exploring the basement, Patrick, Cynthia, Bill, Tia, and Maurice find Jimmy Bones' remains and realize he was actually murdered. The five decide to keep quiet about the murder and bury the remains. Jeremiah, father to Patrick and Bill and Tia's stepfather, finds out about their plan to open the club at Bones' old building. He freaks out and demands that Patrick and the others leave the building. Patrick, Bill, and Tia refuse his request and open the nightclub, in spite of their father's objections. On opening night, Maurice is lured into an upstairs room and mauled to death by the black dog.

Once he is fully resurrected, Jimmy sets the club on fire, scaring off the club goers, and begins his revenge. Shotgun, who is Pearl's neighbor, tells her how they should have burned the building down a long time ago. After the incident, Pearl admits to Cynthia that Jimmy Bones is her father, as she had a relationship with him. Jimmy first confronts Shotgun and mercy kills him (Shotgun has always felt guilty of Bones' death and became an alcoholic). Patrick confronts his father and demands to know if he helped murder Jimmy Bones twenty-two years earlier. Jeremiah admits to betraying Bones to make money and leave the neighborhood. Also, he got fed up living in Bones' shadow. Jeremiah allowed drugs into the neighborhood as long as he got paid for it.

Later, Jimmy confronts Eddie Mack in his home and decapitates him, keeping the head alive and containing his soul. He does the same to Lupovich. Pearl, knowing that Jeremiah is next, goes with Cynthia to his house to rescue him. They end up being too late. Pearl, Cynthia, Patrick, Bill, Tia and Jeremiah's wife Nancy (Lynda Boyd) watch him get dragged off by Jimmy, leaving nothing but a melted hole in the window. Jimmy brings Jeremiah back to his old house, along with the heads of Lupovich and Mack. Jimmy sends Lupovich and Mack to hell for all eternity while Jeremiah begs for his life.

Patrick, Cynthia, Bill, and Pearl go underground to find that Jimmy Bones' body has disappeared. Pearl tells them that in order to put Jimmy to rest, they have to destroy the dress she wore the night Jimmy was murdered which was buried alongside him, as his blood which splattered onto it still contains his spirit and is the only thing keeping him anchored to the world of the living. As they look for Jimmy, Pearl steps in the elevator which closes and goes up. Meanwhile, Jeremiah asks Jimmy what he wants. He asks Jeremiah if he could give him his life back. When Jeremiah says he can't do that, Jimmy sends him to hell.

Pearl gets off the elevator and walks into a room that is filled with ignited candles. She has a flashback and Jimmy appears and puts the bloody dress on her. Patrick, Cynthia, and Bill head to the second floor where they see a ghostly Maurice, who leads Bill in the wrong direction where he is captured and killed. Patrick tries to reach him but is too late. Patrick and Cynthia make their way to the room where Pearl and Jimmy are at; Patrick knows it's a trap. As Cynthia is lured to Pearl and Jimmy, Patrick hears his father's voice in a mirror begging for help. When Patrick hesitates, Jeremiah chokes him. Patrick uses his knife to chop Jeremiah's arm off and he disappears into hell. Patrick goes after Jimmy, who grabs Patrick by the throat as Cynthia begs him to let go. Pearl, realizing what is happening, tells Jimmy she loves him before grabbing a candle and setting herself and the dress on fire.

As Jimmy and Pearl both die together, Patrick and Cynthia escape, barely making it out before the entire building collapses. Before jumping to safety, Cynthia is briefly pulled back into the building by an unseen force. Outside, Patrick finds an old picture of Jimmy and Pearl as Jimmy's face turns to him and says, "Dog eat dog, boy." Too late, Patrick realizes that Cynthia has Jimmy's blood within her, and turns around as Cynthia, now possessed by Jimmy, smiles at him and vomits a mouthful of maggots into his face.

American army deserter turned criminal on the run Eddy Roback is being chased through the streets of Paris. The fugitive finds his old girlfriend, Denise Vernon (Signoret) and tries to get money from her in an attempt to get across the border to Belgium. The girlfriend's friend, an American crime reporter (Duke), as well as a country-wide manhunt become obstacles Roback must get past in order to escape. While trying to raise him money, Denise finds him a hiding place in the studio of a lecherous photographer Max Salva, who may have turned Roback in.

In September 1985, John Kreese, broke and destitute after the loss of his students due to the events in the first film, visits his Vietnam War comrade, Terry Silver. He vows to personally help him get revenge on Daniel and Mr. Miyagi and re-establish Cobra Kai. Silver sends Kreese to Tahiti to relax and hires Mike Barnes, a vicious karate prospect, to challenge Daniel at the upcoming All-Valley Karate Tournament.

Upon returning to Los Angeles from Okinawa, Daniel and Miyagi discover that the South Seas apartment complex is being renovated, leaving Miyagi unemployed and Daniel homeless. Using his college funds to help finance Miyagi's dream of opening a bonsai shop, Miyagi makes him a partner in the business.

Visiting the pottery store across the street, Daniel meets Jessica Andrews and they become friends. Barnes and his henchmen Snake and Dennis harass Daniel several times to enter the tournament, and even steal the bonsai trees from Miyagi's shop.

To replace the missing trees, Daniel and Jessica decide to dig up and sell a valuable bonsai tree that Miyagi brought from Okinawa. As they retrieve it, Barnes and his henchmen appear and retract the climbing ropes, leaving Daniel no choice but to sign up for the tournament. He asks Miyagi to train him for the upcoming tournament, but he refuses due to his principles.

Silver offers to "train" Daniel for the tournament at the Cobra Kai dojo with a series of brutal, violent, and offensive techniques, which alienate him from Miyagi and cause him to violently attack a stranger and break his nose. Daniel apologizes and makes amends with Jessica and Miyagi. He then visits Silver to tell him he will not compete at the tournament, but he discloses his true agenda as Barnes and Kreese (whom Silver previously claimed to Daniel was dead) appear. Miyagi intervenes and easily defeats him, Silver, and Barnes. Then, he finally agrees to train Daniel.

At the tournament, Barnes reaches the final round to challenge Daniel. Silver and Kreese instruct Barnes to inflict serious damage on Daniel, and gains the upper hand during the fight while taunting Daniel relentlessly, leading to sudden death. When the initial round concludes, Daniel wants to quit, but Mr. Miyagi urges him to continue, saying that his best karate is still inside of him. With this encouragement, Daniel performs the Kata, and strikes Barnes to win the tournament.

Brown Derby waitress Mary Evans (Constance Bennett) is an aspiring actress who has an opportunity to meet film director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman) when she serves him one night. He is very drunk but is charmed by the young girl, and he invites her to a premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Adhering to his policy of living life with a sense of humor, he picks her up in a jalopy rather than a limousine and then gives the parking valet the car as a tip.

Max takes Mary home with him after the event, but the next morning remembers nothing about the previous night. She reminds him he promised her a screen test and expresses concern about his excessive drinking and flippant attitude, but he tells her not to worry.

Mary's first screen test reveals she has far more ambition than talent, and she begs for another chance. After extensive rehearsals, she shoots the scene again, and producer Julius Saxe (Gregory Ratoff) is pleased with the result, signing her to a contract. Just as quickly as Mary achieves stardom, Max finds his career on the decline, and he avoids a romantic relationship with her for fear she will be caught up in his downward spiral.

Mary meets polo player Lonny Borden (Neil Hamilton). He genuinely loves her and, although he is jealous of the demands made on her by her career, he convinces her to marry him, against Julius and Max's better judgment. Lonny becomes increasingly annoyed by the dedication of his movie star wife to her work, and finally walks out on her. After their divorce is finalized, Mary discovers she is pregnant.

Mary wins the Academy Medal for Best Actress, but her moment of glory is disrupted when she's called upon to post bail for Max after he is arrested for drunk driving. She takes him to her home, where he wallows in self-pity despite her encouragement. Later, alone in Mary's dressing room, he stares at his dissolute image in the mirror and compares it to a photograph of himself in earlier days. Having stumbled on a gun in a drawer, he kills himself with a bullet to the chest.

Mary becomes the center of gossip focusing on Max's suicide. Hoping to heal her emotional wounds, she flees to Paris with her son and reunites with Lonny, who begs her to forgive him and give their marriage another chance.

In Angel's dream, he relives the moment in which Spike drinks from the cup that signifies he is the champion referred to by the Shanshu Prophecy. In his dream, the cup is not a fake, and radiance shines down on Spike, then incinerates Angel in the same way the amulet incinerated Spike when he sacrificed himself in Sunnydale. Meanwhile, Lindsey approaches Spike at a strip club, implying he was responsible for Spike's return from the dead and his subsequent return to corporeality. Introducing himself as Doyle, Lindsey claims he has visions of people in trouble and that he had a vision of a girl who is about to get attacked in an alley. Spike tells him to go to Angel instead, but "Doyle" says that Angel is "working the other side of the tracks" now. Spike saves the girl, after which Lindsey suggests that Spike may be the new champion of The Powers That Be. The next night, Spike saves a couple from vampires. Meanwhile, at Wolfram & Hart, Wesley and Gunn present Angel with possible solutions to deal with an evil warlock, but Angel - weary of the "gray area" of morality in which he constantly finds himself, suggests killing everyone. He then says that he is just tired and the others tell him to go get some sleep.

In Angel's dream, Fred cuts open Angel's chest and starts pulling out his internal organs, including his "dried-up little walnut" of a heart. Fred also pulls out a strand of beads (which she puts on), some raisins (which she eats), and a license plate. She pulls out a fishbowl, calling the dead goldfish inside it Angel's soul, and says that they will have to flush it and hands it to the bear standing next to her. Fred turns back to Angel and tells him that she cannot find anything wrong with him but thinks he is empty inside.

The next morning, Eve gives Wesley a fragment of a relic, saying the Senior Partners want to know what it is. Gunn arrives and announces that a vampire matching Spike's description has been out on the streets, saving people. Meanwhile, Angel is dreaming that Spike and Buffy are having sex in his bed. He wakes up and goes downstairs, where Gunn warns him to look out the windows. Angel joins the group of people in his office, staring out the windows at L.A. as it burns. Lorne suggests that Angel change his clothes, since there is something on his shirt. Angel looks down to see a bloody stake sticking out of his heart. As Angel dreams in his room, a blue creature feeds off of his chest in the same spot as the stake in his dream. He then dreams about the team and the firm celebrating Spike fulfilling his destiny to turn L.A. into utopia. A blue fairy floats in and sprinkles gold dust on Spike, making his heart beat again. As everyone cheers for Spike, Angel is suddenly a man staffing the mail cart.

In reality, Spike is at the spartan basement apartment that Lindsey provided for him, when Gunn and Wesley stop by. They tell him that if he wants to rescue people, Wolfram & Hart has resources that can help him. Spike declines the offer, saying Wolfram & Hart is the same evil law firm it has always been. At Eve's apartment, Lindsey reminds Eve that the Senior Partners will kill him if find out what they are up to. Eve assures him that they will not find him thanks to his tattoos. Wesley and Gunn head back to Wolfram & Hart and tell Fred that Spike thinks they have sold out. Fred starts to go up to check on Angel, until Eve arrives, reminding her to test the relic.

Angel is dreaming of Lorne dressed Old West-style, playing "My Darling Clementine" on a piano in Angel's room. As Harmony (dressed like a Copacabana waitress) serves him a drink, Angel tells Lorne that everything hurts, which Lorne remarks is a part of life, especially as Angel lives to see it forever. Lorne tells Angel that the crowd is turning on him as Gunn snarls and hisses at Angel. Eve appears, noting that Angel is suffering. Lorne says that Angel still has something on his shirt, and Angel looks down to see the blue creature on his chest. He pulls it off, wakes up, and kills it. Eve tells him that he is still dreaming but it is almost over. She pulls a bigger blue creature out of the box she is holding and puts it on him. She watches while he struggles against it, then leaves. At Spike's apartment, Lindsey pretends to have a vision and tells Spike that he should take care of it.

Angel sits in a chair in the middle of a sunny field as the gang approach him and assure him he can stay there as long as he likes. Angel says he is not done with his job, but Wesley says that he can be if he wants to. Fred says that he will be fine - he just has to stop caring. Suddenly, the four of them throw their heads back and scream.

In Angel's room, Spike grabs the blue creature and kills it. Later, the gang and Eve gather in Angel's room and Wesley explains that the creature was a parasite which makes the host oblivious to its presence and causes hallucinations. If Spike had not killed it, Angel might have been trapped in a vegetative state. Angel says Eve put the parasite on him - after Eve put the second parasite on him, she changed her clothes so that Angel would not remember her being there for real, but she did not change her earrings. He notes that Eve is playing her own game and wonders what the Senior Partners would say if they knew. Eve tells them to stop blaming her for their problems when they should really be looking within the group.

Riley invites Buffy out on a picnic. Willow and Buffy discuss the consequences of a possible relationship with Riley, who seems "safe" and unlikely to hurt her. Buffy wonders if true passion requires pain and fighting. Later, Buffy interrogates Spike, who is chained up in Giles' bathtub, but he does not give much information. Willow suggests a truth spell to make Spike talk.

Going to Oz's place, Willow finds it emptied and realizes he has had his possessions forwarded to him without getting in touch with her, crushing her last hopes of his return. That night at The Bronze, she opts to drown her sorrows in alcohol. Later, in the dorm bathroom, Willow performs a spell to let her will be granted in order to make her pain go away. However, her commands do not seem to work. When Giles drops by and asks why she did not show to help him perform the truth spell as scheduled, she admits feeling pressured to live up to high standards so soon after her break-up with Oz. Angry, she says that he cannot see anything, and then Giles leaves in a daze. Giles tries to perform the spell on Spike alone, but has difficulty reading. After Giles accidentally drops the key to the chains keeping Spike captive, Spike is able to escape. After Giles calls, Buffy goes to find Spike and once she catches him after Willow makes a sarcastic comment, she brings him back to Giles's apartment.

While talking to Xander, Willow flippantly suggests that Buffy and Spike get married if Spike is so important. Meanwhile at Giles' place, Spike proposes to Buffy and she accepts. Xander continues to try to console Willow, but in an act of misdirected rage and grief, she calls him a "demon magnet". While Buffy and Spike cuddle and kiss and make plans for the wedding, Giles calls Willow for help, confessing that he is totally blind. Buffy runs into Riley outside of a bridal shop and happily tells him about the wedding, which confuses and upsets him. Xander and Anya's romantic time is interrupted by various demons that attack them. They rush to Giles' place where Xander realizes that the cause is Willow and everything she wills is coming true.

D'Hoffryn, the demon responsible for making Anya a vengeance demon, comes forth and takes Willow through a portal to his demon world to make the same offer. When the gang goes to look for her, Anya recognizes the remains of a portal left by D'Hoffryn. Buffy and the rest of the group go to a crypt where they hope to stop D'Hoffryn from turning Willow into a demon. En route to the crypt, several demons attack, still drawn to Xander because of Willow's spell. In the meantime, Willow politely turns down D'Hoffryn's offer and he sends her back; giving her a talisman she can use to summon him in case she ever changes her mind. Willow breaks the spell and tries to make up for her mistake with cookies.

The next day, Buffy finds Riley and manages to convince him she was only joking about getting married; making fun of his panic at finding her gazing into a wedding dress store.

Buffy and Riley are making out on her bed, but before it gets too serious, Willow barges into the room and tells them of a demon that attacked the rec room. Armed with weapons, they go to the rec room only for Buffy to discover that it is a surprise party for her 19th birthday. At the party, Giles feels out of place, especially when Buffy introduces Riley as her boyfriend, and brags about how wonderful Professor Walsh is.

Walsh is informed that Buffy is the Slayer. After revealing Riley's 17 captures and kills, she inquires about how many "hostiles" Buffy has killed. Uncomfortable, Buffy initially keeps quiet to avoid bragging, but from her conversation with Riley afterward, she is forced to admit that she has killed hundreds of vampires and saved the world multiple times, leaving Riley impressed and intimidated. Meanwhile, Giles discovers that a powerful demon is about to rise, and calls Buffy, but Willow informs him that she is with Walsh. Giles goes to talk with Walsh about Buffy, unaware that she knows Buffy's identity and of her position in the Initiative. He has an immediate dislike for her, and is offended when she says that Buffy lacks a father figure.

Willow and Xander go with Giles to the cemetery to find the demon. They are very late and fail to find the demon. Instead, they find the area incredibly clean, which Willow suggests is the work of the Initiative. She and Xander go on about how thorough the operation is, only to discover that Giles never knew about the Initiative or that Riley and Walsh are behind it. Again feeling incredibly out of the loop and unwanted, Giles sends Willow and Xander away, offering to stay in case anything happens, but after a few seconds dejectedly leaves. Ethan Rayne walks out of the shadows, speaking of interesting things to come, only to be caught when Giles hears him and re-enters the mausoleum.

Giles prepares to beat Ethan, sparing him only with Ethan's hastily uttered promise of information. Going out for a drink, Ethan tells Giles that the underworld is being threatened by the Initiative, especially by something called 314, a plan that is throwing everything out of balance. Giles and Ethan get very drunk, with Giles opening up about how left out he feels and his annoyance that the Initiative has the demons running scared when he has been fighting evil for 20 years. Ethan flirts with their waitress and gives his number to her. Willow and Tara meet to practice magic, and a simple magical exercise to float a rose goes awry, causing the rose to fly wildly around the room.

When he wakes the next morning, Giles discovers he has been transformed into a horned demon with incredible strength. He breaks the phone trying to make a call, then breaks the door off its hinges as he tries to leave the house. At breakfast, Willow, who practiced magic with Tara the previous night, lies to Buffy that she was practicing magic alone. She does mention that some magical force interfered with the spell she was attempting to cast. Buffy realizes she never told Giles about Riley and the Initiative. Giles goes to Xander's basement and tries to get him to help, but Xander does not recognize and cannot understand Giles, who is speaking in a demonic language. Xander starts to throw things at him and Giles runs away.

The gang finds Giles' place destroyed, and are worried that the same demon that went to Xander was responsible for hurting or killing Giles. Walking through the cemetery, Giles runs into Spike, who is searching for a new place to live after moving out of Xander's basement now that he can hurt demons. Spike recognizes Giles, and identifies him as a Fyarl demon. Because he speaks the language, Spike agrees to help find Ethan and fix things for $200. Riley shows up at Giles' apartment where everyone is researching the demon. After finding the demon in Giles' books, they determine it can only be killed with a silver object.

Spike tries to figure out how to drive Giles' car while telling Giles of his experiences with Fyarl demons. Apparently they are unintelligent, love destroying things, and have an ability to spray paralyzing goo with their noses that hardens like rock. Upon spotting Walsh, Giles makes Spike stop the car so he can chase her down the street in revenge for their last conversation. Spike gets information out of the waitress that Ethan flirted with, and finds out where he lives. Breaking into the magic shop, Buffy finds a receipt for materials purchased by Ethan Rayne. Trying to escape the commando vehicles chasing after them, demon Giles jumps out of the car while the commandos continue their pursuit on Spike, who crashes the car while trying to escape.

Demon Giles charges into Ethan's motel room, and attacks him. Buffy and Riley arrive on scene and while Riley takes care of Ethan, Buffy fights with demon Giles. With a letter opener she took from Giles' place, Buffy stabs the demon, but then she looks into his eyes and realizes the demon is Giles. The letter opener turns out not to be made of pure silver, sparing Giles as he is turned back into a human and Ethan is arrested by Riley. While Giles watches Ethan get put away, Buffy and Riley talk about her abilities again. Buffy apologizes for not telling Giles about Riley and the Initiative and promises to tell him everything in the future, but Giles is worried about her safety and whom she trusts. Walsh is upset that Riley disobeyed orders for Buffy, but he manages to convince her that Buffy will "work out". Passing through security doors, Walsh enters a room labeled "314".

Willow, Anya, and Xander are playing three-handed poker since Buffy is elsewhere. They question the intentions of the Initiative. In a field test against the commandos, Buffy impresses Professor Walsh. The next day in the cafeteria, Buffy gushes about her performance to Willow. Willow confirms that the Scooby Gang, including Buffy, will assemble at the Bronze that night. Willow obviously misses Buffy, who has been rather busy of late.

Giles visits Spike at his new crypt to pay the $300 he owes Spike for undoing his demon spell. Spike makes it clear that he will not help them again and wants nothing to do with the Scoobies. Riley takes Buffy into the Initiative, where Walsh gives her a tour of the impressive facility and makes her a member of the team. However, a slip from Buffy indicating her prior knowledge of the Initiative's behavior modification research (''viz.'' Spike's chip) does not go unnoticed. Tara tries to give a crystal to Willow, a family heirloom, but Willow refuses to accept the powerful magical implement. Tara invites Willow to try some spells with the crystal that night. Willow reluctantly declines due to her plans with the Scoobies. Walsh enters Room 314 in the secure lab area to check up on her special project: a part-demon, part-human, part robot creature named Adam.

Buffy is an hour late meeting her friends at the Bronze, and when she does show, she brings Riley and the team. Buffy reveals that she is now working with the Initiative. Willow questions how much trust Buffy should put in the organization. After Buffy rushes off with the team, Willow, feeling abandoned, goes to Tara's dorm room after all. Buffy and the commandos deploy in two teams in search of a Polgara demon. They are instructed to keep the demon's arms, which contain vicious spears, intact.

Forrest spots Spike and sends his team after the vampire. Spike escapes, but they shoot him with a tracer to be able to track him later. The Polgara demon attacks the Alpha team; Buffy and Riley, fighting together, apparently kill it. Stimulated, they have sex for the first time in Riley's dorm room as Walsh watches them from a secret camera. As Buffy and Riley wake up in bed together in the morning, they talk, but when Buffy asks about "314", Riley immediately receives a call from Walsh with an assignment. Walsh and Dr. Angleman decide to go ahead with their plan to get rid of Buffy.

Desperate and unable to shake off the commandos, Spike goes to a reluctant Giles for help, begrudgingly returning most of the money that Giles paid him. Giles tries to remove the tracer from Spike's shoulder, but it is in deep. Riley reinforces Forrest's team. With the soldiers gone, Walsh summons Buffy for a very easy mission and arms her with a stun rifle. Wearing a heart monitor and sound camera, Buffy goes out alone. The mission is a trap. The rifle shorts out, the exit is barred, and Buffy is set upon by two powerful demons armed with axes.

With Willow doing a masking spell to buy time and Spike drinking a beer in lieu of anesthesia, Giles finally manages to remove the tracer from the vampire's shoulder. They flush it down the toilet just in time to misdirect Riley and his team. Buffy kills the demons, but in the fight the monitor falls off. With no reported heartbeat or movement Walsh assumes that she is dead. When Riley returns, she informs him that Buffy is dead and adds a few more lies. In the middle of her "eulogy" Buffy picks up the camera and reveals, in full view of Riley, Walsh's trap. Riley walks out on Walsh.

Back at Giles' apartment, Giles strongly urges Spike to leave Sunnydale for his own safety, reasoning that it is not safe for him to remain there while the Initiative is still active; Buffy arrives and tells everyone that it is not safe for any of them.

The Initiative has grafted an arm from the Polgara demon to Adam. Walsh, upset that she had to sacrifice Buffy and Riley's loyalty to safeguard her great project Adam, goes to Room 314 and speaks to the sleeping creature. Adam awakes and skewers Walsh with his new arm spear, killing her.

The novel tells the story of the Rainbow catastrophe of 2156. It starts very simple, as a Wave observer ''Robert Sklyarov'' notices an unusually persistent Wave and reports it to the ''Capital'' (the only city on the scientists' planet, whose primarily mission is conducting zero-transportation experiments, of which the Waves, destroying everything from the planet poles onward, are a sidekick). Simultaneously, ''Camill'' (the last remaining of "the Baker's Dozen") appears at his observation tower and tells him to leave it and fly south immediately. Sklyarov refuses to leave precious ''ulmotrons'' behind and urges Camill for help but when the wind front preceding the Wave strikes, the falling machinery seemingly kills Camill. Terrified Sklyarov flees south.

Back in the Capital, everything is still quiet. Leonid Gorbovsky, whose ''Tariel II'' has delivered scientific equipment to Rainbow, pays a visit to ''Matvei Vyazanitsyn'', the general director of the planet, then returns to his ship, when the ominous news come. Camill contacts (via videophone) the nearest scientist village and issues a warning that the Wave Sklyarov saw is closely followed by another one of a new type. According to him, it cannot be stopped like the ones before and therefore the Rainbow world council must begin the evacuation of the planet immediately. At this moment the Wave reaches Camill's observation tower and he dies once again.

Soon enough it becomes clear that humans cannot hold the new Wave back and an order to gather the entire population in the Capital is issued. Robert Sklyarov witnesses the Wave destroying semi-automatic ''charybdis'' Wave-stopper tanks and tries to pilot one manually to give his friends time to flee. In the end, his charybdis is destroyed, too, but Sklyarov manages to escape and sets off (on a flier) for the Children Village, where his fiancée, ''Tatiana Turchina'', works as a governess. He finds the Village already empty but on the way to the Capital, he locates on the ground an out-of-fuel aerobus that was carrying some of the children from the Village as well as Turchina herself. Having to choose whom to take with him (his flier can only carry two people), Sklyarov decides for his fiancée even though he knows that she would hate him for leaving the children behind and actually kidnapping her.

Meanwhile in the Capital, the situation is close to panic. Everyone knows by now that Gorbovsky's ''Tariel II'' cannot take them all to space and that the nearest to Rainbow spaceship that can won't make it in time. Plans like burrowing a huge cave under the Capital to hide from the Wave, or jumping over it, or diving under it (in the southern ocean) are desperately developed. At this time, Gorbovsky personally takes the hard decision on who is to be saved (same as Robert not long ago) and announces that only the children will be transported onto the orbit on ''Tariel II''. Everyone agrees that this is the best choice. Afterwards a crowd of scientists approaches him and asks to take some of their documentation on board, since they consider it too valuable to be sent directly into space with mini-rockets. Robert tries to save Tatiana one more time, arguing with Gorbovsky on sending her up with the children, but Tatiana downright refuses, hating Robert at the moment for leaving the children from her aerobus to certain death.

And in the very last moment, Gorbovsky refuses to board his ship, leaving his first mate in charge and making even more space for the children and documentation. Tariel, dismantled from the regular spaceship to the status of life raft and leaving behind parts of her machinery as well as her captain, lifts off when the Waves (both northern and southern) are a few kilometers away from the Capital. Shortly before the two reach it, Gorbovsky, Camill, Sklyarov and Turchina (in peace with Robert again in their last minutes) sit on the beach not far from the city and watch a team of ''null-T-testers'' float their blind team-mate toward the southern Wave, while he is playing a song on the banjo.

In Lugash, the fabled Pink Panther diamond is stolen. A mysterious woman looking to procure the priceless gem has a tête-à-tête with a man regarding price. Suddenly, Clouseau (having disappeared inexplicably on a plane flight in the previous film) bursts in. The woman shoots the man, then points the gun at Clouseau. His fate is a mystery. Meanwhile, his former superior, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), is pressured to oversee Operation Paragon and utilize Interpol's fictitious Huxley 600 computer Aldous to find the world's greatest detective to solve the crime.

What the world at large does not realize is that Clouseau was actually an inept fool whose cases were solved more through luck than actual detective genius, and that his accident-prone incompetence led Dreyfus to a series of nervous breakdowns. Anxious never to see or hear from his nemesis again, Dreyfus sabotages the computer to select the world's worst detective. This turns out to be Sergeant Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass), an incompetent officer of the New York Police Department.

Sleigh, who is descended from a long line of cops, sees the case as an opportunity to prove his worth. Dreyfus and his long-suffering assistant, Sergeant François Durval (André Maranne), soon find that the sabotage has worked a bit too well: while slightly more intelligent and capable, Sleigh is just as clumsy as Clouseau. When Sleigh meets Dreyfus for the first time in his office, Sleigh trips over his own feet and knocks Dreyfus into his wheeled office chair, which rolls out onto the balcony – and sends Dreyfus falling three stories into a pond below, breaking his left leg. Sleigh visits Dreyfus in the hospital to apologize, but accidentally ends up hurting Dreyfus more by falling over the hospital equipment holding Dreyfus's leg.

As he sets out on the case, Sergeant Sleigh encounters many people who prefer Clouseau not return: these include the Inspector's former manservant, Cato (Burt Kwouk), who attacks Sleigh when he breaks into the Clouseau Museum Cato now operates; Dreyfus, who attempts to kill Sleigh numerous times like he tried to kill Clouseau; and Bruno Langlois (Robert Loggia), the mafia boss from the previous film. Langlois orders several assassination attempts on Sleigh, but the detective's bumbling nature allows him to survive. Ultimately, Langlois, along with his henchmen (including Mr. Chong from ''Revenge of the Pink Panther'') have a final showdown with Sleigh in a dark alley in Valencia, Spain, during Carnival. Juleta Shayne (Leslie Ash), an employee of the enigmatic Countess Chandra, comes to Sleigh's rescue and manages to defeat Langlois and his thugs in street combat. Juleta then tries to seduce Sleigh, who insists on leaving to meet with the local police, when he refuses, she secretly drugs his champagne. However, a masked assassin shoots a tranquilizer dart in the window, knocking Juleta out. Just then the police burst in, having been (mis)informed by Dreyfus that Sleigh is an impostor and arrest him. However, one of the officer drinks the drugged champagne and passes out, allowing him to escape and meet up with Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven), who is now married to Clouseau's former wife Simone (Capucine) and is accompanied by his nephew George (Robert Wagner). Sir Charles was the notorious jewel thief known as "the Phantom", though only Clouseau was convinced of this. The Phantom would steal items of jewellery and leave behind a monogrammed white glove.

Eventually, Sleigh's trail leads to a health spa run by Countess Chandra (Joanna Lumley). There he meets famous British film star Roger Moore, who speaks with a rather odd French accent and falls about all over the place. Seeing a photograph of the Inspector, Countess Chandra tells Sleigh that Clouseau visited her several months ago but claimed his name was Gino Rossi (the thief who stole the diamond in the last film and was seen fencing it to Countess Chandra at the start of this film when the real Inspector arrived on the scene). She recalls he was looking for a good plastic surgeon and she recommended one.

Sleigh concludes, erroneously, that Clouseau stole the Pink Panther diamond, underwent plastic surgery, and changed his name to Gino Rossi. The real jewel thief's body was found washed up on shore after he was shot to death. It is believed that Clouseau was killed for the diamond. Anxious to be rid of Sleigh, Dreyfus announces that Sleigh has solved the mystery and officially closes the case, though it is clear that Dreyfus does not believe that this is what happened. In a final irony, as Dreyfus sets fire to Gino Rossi's photograph – happy to be rid of Clouseau once and for all – he accidentally sets fire to his office. Sleigh runs in and attempts to put out the fire with a hose, only to accidentally hit Dreyfus with the water, the force of which pushes him onto his balcony and Dreyfus again falls three stories into the pond below.

Film star Roger Moore was, in fact, Clouseau after very extensive plastic surgery. Clouseau has become Countess Chandra's lover and partner in crime. When Clouseau and Chandra open her hidden wall safe to admire The Pink Panther, they discover they have been robbed, and a white monogrammed glove has been left behind. "Swine Phantom!" mutters Clouseau, knowing only too well who is responsible for the theft. In the final scene, Sir Charles, Simone, and George are sailing away on board their yacht with the Pink Panther jewel, which Simone has stolen.

In a pre-credits scene, the animated Pink Panther is shown stealing the Pink Panther jewel. Realizing it's heavy, he slips out of the shot and drops the diamond offscreen, shattering it. The credits roll shortly afterwards.

The film begins with a succession of real-life film directors, including Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, and David Butler – refusing to helm a new Warner's film, ''Mademoiselle Fifi'', because Jack Carson has been signed to star in it. Frustrated, fictional studio head Arthur Trent finally decides to let Carson direct it. Seeking the perfect co-star for himself and fellow lead Dennis Morgan, Carson finds her in the person of studio commissary waitress Judy Adams, who has been in Hollywood for three months without even one audition and sneaks her way into Carson's office, where she forces him to give her a chance. A self-proclaimed liar, Carson advises her to pose as his secret bride to Morgan. Fooled at first, Morgan eventually catches on to the ruse. Following an angry outburst, Judy leaves the studio and feels used by the two actors for their entertainment.

Moving on, Carson continues his search for his romantic interest in the film, but nobody seems to be willing to work with him. When Jane Wyman is offered the role, she even faints. Dennis suggests to Carson that he should cast an unknown, because only outsiders are unaware of his image and would be willing to work with him. Judy is the first person that comes to their mind, though they do not know that – because of them – Judy has become disillusioned by Hollywood and is set to return to her home town, Goerke's Corners, Wisconsin. Both Carson and Morgan want to be the one who has discovered Judy officially, and go their separate ways to convince Judy to return to Warner Brothers and assume the role. Arriving at the station at the same time to stop Judy from leaving, and after running into Danny Kaye, both men succeed in making Judy believe that they will help her get her big break in the movies.

Carson and Morgan start by dressing Judy as a film star in order to impress Trent. At a fancy dress shop, Joan Crawford suspects that Judy is being taken advantage of, and condemns both men for it. Carson remembers that Trent likes to discover his own talent, so he dresses Judy in a number of different guises – such as an elevator operator, a cab driver and an oculist's assistant – in the hope Trent will see her, appreciate her potential, and insist Carson cast the unknown. Unfortunately, all Trent keeps seeing is a pretty blonde with a goofy smile and blinking eyes. Morgan, having lost all hope, discourages Judy from becoming an actress, but she is now determined to have her big break, explaining the hard work she has done to afford acting and singing lessons, as well as moving to Hollywood. By this time, both men are now not only fighting over discovering Judy, but also for her romantic attention.

Carson and Morgan attempt to arrange a screen test for Judy and continue their schemes to impress her. They are stopped at the studio, but Edward G. Robinson helps them sneak in. In the studio, they arrange for Judy to perform the song "That Was a Big Fat Lie" on camera directed by a reluctant Ray Heindorf. The screen test undergoes technical difficulties, which startles Trent when seeing it, and, coming on top of his "visions" of the same face everywhere (when Carson and Morgan planted Judy all around him), results in a nervous breakdown and a cancellation of production of ''Mademoiselle Fifi''. As a final attempt, Carson and Morgan conspire to disguise Judy as a famous French film star with dark hair named Yvonne Amour – and an inaccurate accent – but Trent still manages to recognize her despite the great amount of attention that "Yvonne" is receiving, including a meeting with Eleanor Parker and Patricia Neal and a performance of the song "At the Cafe Rendezvous".

Upset with all the backstage shenanigans she's been forced to endure, Judy considers returning home to Goerke's Corners to marry long-time sweetheart Jeffrey Bushdinkle. Carson and Morgan consider stopping her, but Judy's friend Grace makes them realize that she will be much happier with her fiancé in a small town than an uncertain career in Hollywood, and they step back. Judy overhears them promising another girl a career in the pictures, confirming her doubt of having been used by the actors. She leaves in tears and coincidentally shares the train with Trent. Now realizing her talent, Trent offers Judy a career in pictures, but she thinks he is lying as well and rejects him. Nonetheless, Trent announces that the film is back in production with Judy Adams as the only contender for the lead role. Carson and Morgan rush to Goerke's Corners to share the news with Judy, but realize that they have to interfere with her wedding, and decide to leave to let Judy lead a small-town life. Their curiosity as to what her fiancé has to attract her so strongly is satisfied when his face is revealed to be that of Errol Flynn.

Celeste Talbert, the long-time star of the embattled daytime drama ''The Sun Also Sets'', is targeted by her ambitious co-star Montana Moorehead; Montana connives to supplant Celeste as the show's star by promising sexual favors to its producer, David Seton Barnes. To make the audience hate Celeste's character, Montana and David come up with a last-minute plot change in which she will accidentally kill a young, destitute deaf-mute, played by the newly-cast Lori Craven. Despite the strong objections of head writer Rose Schwartz and Celeste herself, the scene plays out, but is interrupted by Celeste's recognition of Lori as her real-life niece. Network honcho Edmund Edwards sees potential in the relationship and makes Lori a regular cast member, hoping to boost the show's flagging ratings.

Montana and David seek to further unnerve Celeste by bringing back Jeffrey Anderson, an actor whom Celeste arranged to be fired from ''The Sun Also Sets'' decades before, after his romantic relationship with Celeste went sour. Bitter at being reduced to performing dinner theater for uninterested seniors in Florida, Jeffrey relishes the chance to needle Celeste. Outwardly despising Jeffrey but perhaps still harboring some feelings for him, Celeste becomes unhinged when Jeffrey and Lori seem to be about to begin a romantic relationship, seemingly from jealousy. However, when Lori and Jeffrey are about to enact a scripted onscreen kiss, Celeste stops them by revealing that Lori is actually her ''daughter'' by Jeffrey. On camera, Celeste explains that she was responsible for getting Jeffrey fired because she was distraught about the pregnancy. Then she went home, passed Lori off as her niece, and had her parents raise Lori, all due to pressure from the network. This incites disgust and scorn from nearly everyone on the show towards Celeste, but the scandal ignites renewed interest in the show, causing the ratings to skyrocket. A board meeting between the show's staff—including Rose, who speaks out in Celeste's defense—takes place thereafter, where David insists that she be fired, but he is quickly overruled as the situation has not only resulted in positive press for the show, but has generated a great deal of public sympathy for Celeste.

The next day, after an unpleasant exchange with Lori, Celeste goes to Jeffrey and pleads with him to speak to Lori on her behalf. Jeffrey is resistant at first, but after Celeste gives him advice on how to approach her and break the ice, the conversation leads to Celeste and Jeffrey embracing. Just when it seems the two are about to reconcile, Montana interrupts them and claims that she and Jeffrey slept together the previous night. Disgusted, Celeste storms off, leaving the situation between her and Jeffrey even worse than before. The dilemma is further inflamed when Rose—who by now is no longer angry with Celeste—shows her a tabloid newspaper proclaiming that Montana is pregnant with Jeffrey's child. After an explosive exchange between the three of them takes place over this, Celeste, Jeffrey and Lori go to the head of the network with their concerns and demand that some action must be taken to solve the problem. But it's Lori who delivers the ultimatum, stating: "Mr. Edwards--it's them or me--that is the bottom line here! ''They'' go or ''I'' go!"

A decision is made by the network, and the actors head into a live episode still not knowing who will be written off the show. They will read their lines from a teleprompter so that the secret will be kept until the last minute. It is revealed that Lori's character has "brain fever" and will die; still hoping to be rid of Celeste, Montana ad-libs and suggests that a brain transplant can save her. Lori is shocked by the revelation, but in character, Celeste immediately plays along, offering her own brain for the operation. Touched by the sacrifice, Lori asks Celeste and Jeffrey not to leave the show, and softens to her newfound parents. Montana, desperate to stop them, reiterates that she is pregnant with Jeffrey's child, but she is publicly ruined by Rose who, with the help of vengeful Ariel Maloney, who wanted Jeffrey for herself, reveals the secret from a high school yearbook that Montana is actually transgender, formerly called "Milton Moorehead, of Syosset, Long Island". David is shocked and Montana flees the set, screaming in horror. Later, Celeste, Jeffrey, and Lori win soap opera awards while Montana is relegated to performing dinner theater at Jeffrey's former venue.

Narrated by the main character Ryū, the novel focuses on his small group of young friends in the mid-1970s. Living in a Japanese town with an American air force base, their lives revolve around sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.

The near-plotless story weaves a vividly raw, image-intensive journey through the daily monotony of drug-induced hallucinations, vicious acts of violence, overdoses, suicide, and group sex.

The movie opens with Diane Arbus arriving to shoot pictures at a nudist colony. The story then flashes back to three months earlier in New York City, 1958. Diane Arbus plays assistant to her photographer husband Allan. Diane is from a wealthy family; her father is a furrier. Allan's family has run a photo studio for decades. Diane is clearly uncomfortable with the tepid life of a city wife and mother (to their two girls). One night during a party, she is gazing out the window and catches the eye of the mysterious neighbor who has just moved in upstairs. His face is completely covered except for the eyes and mouth. That evening after the party, Diane stands on their patio, opens her dress and exposes her bra. She admits this to her husband. A few days later, her daughter informs her of a problem with the plumbing. Opening up a pipe, Diane discovers clumps of hair blocking it. As she removes the hair, a key tumbles down. She takes the hair and key out to the trash, and then buzzes her upstairs neighbor to ask if he's been grooming a dog. He says no, and then suggests she look in the basement, which she does. She sees an ornate chair and a sideshow poster of a "wild man," which an armless woman then dusts off. Diane assumes she's the wife of the neighbor. When she can't sleep, Diane grabs the camera (that her husband had gifted her years before, and she'd as of yet never used), and goes upstairs to introduce herself to her neighbor, and ask if she could shoot his portrait. He asks her if she got the key, and then tells her to return the next night. She leaves, and then goes to grab the key out of the trash.

Thus begins her relationship with Lionel Sweeney, a man with hypertrichosis who is in demand as a wigmaker. Lionel sees in Diane a kindred spirit, and he takes her places where she meets transvestites, dwarves and others living on the fringes of society. Diane tells Allan she'd like to take time off from the business to take her own photographs, starting with the neighbors. He's supportive of her. As Diane spends more with Lionel, she grows more attracted to him and this new, strange and exciting world. She's taking photographs, but hides the undeveloped film in a cookie jar. The key was to Lionel's apartment, so Diane can let herself in at any time.

Lionel asks to be introduced to Diane's husband. Soon Diane has brought Lionel even into her family life. Her children help him with his wig making business, and he reads bedtime stories to them. She introduces him to her mother and father. At her and Allan's anniversary party, Diane finds Lionel breathing in some substance. He admits that his lungs are disintegrating, and within a few months he'll be "drowning." She cries at this news. They almost kiss, but are interrupted by Allan, who sees their intimate moment, and then leaves. Later at home, he asks Diane if she'd kissed him, but then realizes it doesn't matter if they have or if they haven't, that he knows her feelings towards Lionel. He begs her not to tear their family apart. Diane agrees to end the affair, and dresses and goes upstairs to do so. When she lets herself in to Lionel's, she finds him naked with shaving cream and razor in hand. He asks her to completely shave him. When he's naked, they make love. When she asks why he wanted to be shaved (after previously professing it wasn't worth the effort), he reveals he intends to "swim out," to commit suicide in the ocean, and wants her to be with him when he does it. She's devastated but agrees. They profess their love for each other. In the meantime, her daughter, having found her film stash, gives it to Allan to develop. Allan sees his wife's talent for the first time.

At the beach, Lionel presents Diane with a gift: a fur jacket, made from his own hair. She walks with Lionel to the edge of the water, and watches as he gleefully swims out.

She returns to her home, and as she puts the key in the door, realizes she cannot go in, back to her old life. Allan, standing on the other side of the door, does nothing. Diane returns to Lionel's apartment, rolls in his bed, and breathes the air he'd blown into a life raft to inflate it. Suddenly, she's surrounded by all of Lionel's friends, and they have a party to honor him. One of his friends gives her a photo album Lionel wanted her to have. It has fifty empty pages, all with photo plate tags in Lionel's handwriting. He wants her to fill them with her photographs.

Diane, touched by her experience with Lionel, now knows what direction to take with her life and career. The final scene shows her at a nudist camp, where she meets a woman who assumes she wants to take her picture. Arbus admits this, but first asks the woman to tell her a secret. The woman asks Diane to tell her a secret first, and Diane agrees.

As the novel opens, Mendoza is walking through incessant rain in the hills above old Los Angeles. It is winter, 1862, and to the east America is at war with itself. For over 150 years she has lived wild in the Pacific coast forest, collecting and cataloging plant species, and rarely interacting with anybody else, human or cyborg. This suits her fine, and she resents being commanded down to Cahuenga Pass for a special mission. As usual, however, she wants to be a "good little machine". She already knows what the mission is. The rain will be followed by a long drought, and there will be much to be preserved, which would otherwise be lost. What the drought cannot eradicate, starving cattle will. Meanwhile, smallpox will reduce the local population, especially the Native Americans.

Arriving at the Inn at the pass, she quickly meets her fellow cyborgs, the Facilitator Porfirio, Anthropologist Oscar, Zoologist Einar, Ornithologist Juan Bautista, and the Anthropologist Imarte, with whom she renews her ongoing feud. With all the traffic passing by, the Inn is a perfect cover for Company research and other work. However, when Mendoza arrives, the main problem is lighting a fire to cook dinner, given that everything is soaked by the rain.

Mendoza's first night is a rough one, as she dreams incessantly of Nicholas Harpole, her lover in 16th century England, who was burned at the stake. She is woken by Porfirio, who tells her she has been blasting the place with "Crome radiation", the blue radiance of psychic activity. She dismisses his concerns, but worries about this sudden resurgence of her previous troubles.

Later, she is led into the hills by Einar, to collect samples in the "Temperate Belt" which will be severely affected by the drought. This just happens to follow the future path of Sunset Boulevard. Along the way, Einar has to kill one of the locals. The hills are infested with bandits, crazy pioneers and other mortals likely to shoot first and warn later. Mendoza is shocked - cyborgs are programmed to run from danger and not harm mortals. Einar informs her that the rules are different here. She is even given a Navy pistol to use if necessary.

The Inn's inhabitants pass the time with movies supplied by the company. In one chapter, we get a long and reverent description of them watching D.W. Griffith's ''Intolerance'', with Einar as Chorus describing every scene. Since Imarte was actually alive in Babylon, one of the movie's famous settings, we hear much about what life was really like.

Everything is thrown into tumult, however, when Mendoza decides to forage in Laurel Canyon. The place is known to be saturated with Crome radiation from a bizarre underground quartz formation. It is this which will attract so many unusual people to the site in the 20th century, and give rise to many of the underground stories of Hollywood. Despite precautions and a lot of very futuristic equipment, Mendoza and Einar suddenly find themselves thrown forward in time to 1996. Mendoza the botanist is suddenly in urban LA, where the soil is concrete and the major life form is the automobile.

Staggering up to a Company safe house whose future location they know, they are hastily taken inside by the staff, who have been expecting this event. Horses and all, they are placed in a Time Transfer chamber for return to their own time, but at the last minute Mendoza sees the cyborg Lewis enter the building. Lewis had befriended Mendoza at the facility New World One and she suspected he was in love with her. Lewis makes an attempt to talk to Mendoza, and tries to warn her "Don't go with him!". She has no idea what he means, and in any case, the transfer takes place before any more can be said.

Returning to the Inn, short one horse which died from the Transfer, Mendoza confronts Porfirio. He must have known what was going to happen to her. He grudgingly admits he knew something, but was just told to let it happen. He also knew only what he needed to know, and nothing more.

The drought starts to bite, and Mendoza is going further and further around the bend. Her lover haunts her dreams every night, and the resulting Crome's radiation provides nocturnal fireworks for her colleagues. She can no longer do any real work. Then one of Imarte's clients leaves behind a briefcase with amazing documents in it. They seem to relate to a British plot to exploit the disarray in the United States and take over the Channel Islands, specifically Santa Catalina. From there, a few well-armed ships could control the seas of Western North America. Imarte records all the papers and heads for San Francisco to do more research. All the others are called away also, except for Mendoza and Juan Bautista, who has finally allowed his pets to be shipped out with all the other biological samples.

At this point, Mendoza is astonished by the arrival of her ex-lover, Nicholas Harpole, except that he does not recognize her and goes by the name of Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, an Englishman with mysterious intentions. Mistaking her for Imarte's assistant, he requests the usual service. Mendoza eagerly complies.

Soon Edward reveals he has come for the briefcase. However he is also intrigued by Mendoza, who shows sexual sophistication despite being ''virgo intacta'' - apparently the healing capability of the cyborg physiology has gone to extremes in her. She is able to persuade him to take her away, as she will enable him to avoid U.S. agents hot on his trail as he goes to meet his fellow conspirators.

Once more Mendoza embarks on an idyll, as they trek to San Pedro, and then to Santa Catalina, where a mysterious sailing ship awaits. Edward starts to show unexpected abilities, especially in being aware of things that humans usually cannot perceive. But then the ship turns out to be a trap, set by the Pinkertons. Edward is killed while disposing of the incriminating documents, and Mendoza finally snaps. She goes into overdrive, killing all the agents. When the British finally show up, she throws assorted body parts at them, whereupon they flee.

In the rest of the story Mendoza, having completed her confession, awaits her punishment. In the meantime, she examines her considerable store of information about the history of old LA, noticing for the first time how Santa Catalina has some kind of significance in the activities of the company. Apparently something on the island is vital to the actual creation of the company, but what?

Before she can pursue this further, she is put in a Time Transfer box and sent Back Way Back, or in more usual terms, to about 150,000 BCE. She is left on Santa Catalina itself, still forested rather than the barren island of later millennia. Her job is to raise food for a Company resort on Santa Cruz Island, where rich folks come back to hobnob with mastodons and hunt saber-tooths, or maybe vice versa. Her memory has been interfered with, so she can no longer remember details of the history she once knew. She also has a mission to alert the Company when certain unusual beings show up to colonize the center of the island. Apparently they have something the Company needs....

Mendoza seems hopelessly trapped. Can she survive to the 19th century all over again, or is her immortality as suspect as other things have become? Twice now she has met her demon lover. She knows he will come for her again.

Jamal Jeffries is a UBA (a fictionalized version of the NBA) basketball star whose undisciplined on-and-off-court antics have earned him a bad reputation in the basketball community. Jamal is dropped from his team, the Charlotte Beat and suspended indefinitely after he strips naked in protest of being removed a game. His agent Lorne Daniels is unsuccessful at finding him a new team and decides to cut Jamal as a client. Consequently, Jamal's life goes downhill: his endorsements drop him, he ends up bankrupt due to his lavish spending, his belongings are repossessed, his mansion is foreclosed on, and his girlfriend Tina, who only put up with his antics for his money and fame, walks out on him.

Now broke, jobless, and homeless, Jamal goes to live with his no-nonsense Aunt Ruby, the only person that is willing to put up with Jamal in spite of his outrageous antics. Lacking any other sort of skills, he decides to dress up as a woman named "Juwanna Mann" to play for the Charlotte Banshees of the WUBA (a fictionalized version of the WNBA). Aunt Ruby reluctantly agrees to help him with his charade as does Lorne, who has no choice but to help out after Jamal reveals himself to be Juwanna. In a scene involving the team physical, Jamal has to disguise himself as the team mascot in order to avoid being found out by the team physician.

As Juwanna, Jamal quickly becomes a star on the court, and his overall attitude changes drastically as well. He learns to play with a team rather than just himself. While becoming successful with the Banshees, Jamal also finds himself in a problematic relationship with his teammate Michelle, whom he has romantic feelings for but cannot act on because Michelle knows him only as her confidante, Juwanna. His situation is further complicated as Michelle is involved in a romantic relationship with rapper Romeo (who ends up cheating on her) while Jamal (as Juwanna) is busy warding off the amorous advances of Romeo's hyper sidekick Puff Smokey Smoke.

Eventually, Jamal is given a chance to return to the men's league, but the hearing takes place at the same time as the Banshees' first playoff game. After much debate, Jamal decides to do the selfless thing and stick with the Banshees and help them win. Jamal's cover is blown at the end of the game when Jamal decides to dunk the winning basket and shatters the backboard. Amidst the excitement, Jamal loses his wig, revealing his true identity, and is immediately fired from the team. Consequently, the Banshees, devastated at the betrayal, begin to suffer on the court.

Seeing this, Jamal decides to try to make things right again, and enters the Banshees' locker room during another game's halftime to apologize for the lies and deception, and tell them that playing with them had changed his views and attitude about basketball, women, and life in general. His ex-teammates (especially Michelle) are initially still furious at him, but ultimately end up accepting Jamal's genuine apology, which also inspires the team to win the playoffs and eventually the WUBA championship.

Afterwards, Jamal is called in for a hearing with the UBA's commission board. Despite the genuine apology and assurance by himself and Lorne that he has changed for the better, the board is still unimpressed due to the "Juwanna Mann scandal" and it initially appears that Jamal's playing career is truly over. In the nick of time, his former WUBA teammates show up and successfully vouch for him to be brought back into the league, and Michelle gives him a championship ring and a kiss.

Jamal is reinstated into the UBA and returns to action with the Charlotte Beat, a better player and person.

The novel picks up a day or so after the events at the conclusion of ''The Garden of God''. Dick Lestrange, son of Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, is about 14 or 15. He has come to love Katafa, a Spanish girl who is the adopted daughter of the Kanaka people of the island of Karolin, about 40 miles from the island (Palm Tree) where his parents lived. Now, she has brought him to her island, and due to a series of complicated political circumstances, the people have declared him their new king.

Dick is not unwilling to lead the people, but needs advice and guidance. He also sees immediately that the island has a defense problem. In ''The Garden of God'', all the Karolin men of warrior age and status have died as the result of an ill-advised attack on Palm Tree—and all their war canoes were burned. Fishing canoes still exist, but new war canoes must be built at once. The Melanesian slaves who took over Palm Tree at the end of ''The Garden of God'' were all men; if they decide to make Palm Tree (which the Kanaka call ''Marua'') their permanent home, they will attack Karolin, the nearest island, to steal women.

He is sent for three elderly men, expert canoe-builders, from the southern side of the immense island, but the ladies who took his message return without them, saying they do not acknowledge Taori (Dick) as their leader. Dick goes in person to explain the situation and meets Aioma, the oldest canoe-builder, and his granddaughter Le Moan, age 14, who falls in love with Dick on sight. She has no idea that Dick is already married, let alone that his bride is her own Aunt Katafa (Katafa being an adopted daughter of the late priestess Le Juan and therefore sister to Le Jenabon, Le Juan's biological daughter, who is Le Moan's mother).

Left alone on the southern shore when all the other people from the south side go north to help with the canoe building, Le Moan sees the ''Kermadec'', a schooner full of white men, sail into the lagoon. Thinking they might attack the people, and especially Dick, Le Moan tells them that she is alone on the island, that everyone else died in a storm. Captain Peterson, a rough and ferocious-looking but kindhearted man, takes her aboard and gives her over to Sru, his Paomotuan assistant, to stay with the Kanaka crew until he can find her a place to live on another island. Talking with Le Moan, Sru learns two things; the girl has a gift of absolute direction and can find her way to any place she has ever been without need of a compass; and she wears a very large double pearl ornament, which tells Sru that Karolin's lagoons are full of pearls.

Sru encourages her to confide in him, including the part about her being in love with Dick and trying to protect him. She also tells him that the lagoon is indeed thick with pearl oysters. Sru tells her Captain Peterson would never have harmed Dick or the people, but that he must not be told about the pearls, because he is something of a profiteer and might take everything for himself. He spends the next few weeks teaching her how to steer the ship. With first mate Rantan and a beachcomber named Carlin, who is hitching a ride on the ship to go to the northern islands, Sru plans and carries out a mutiny, killing both Peterson and a white sandalwood trader—and framing the natives of the island where the sandalwood trader lived for the murder.

Meanwhile, Aioma is enthusiastically directing the people in the building of new war canoes and conversing endlessly with Dick about boats, about the model ships built long ago by Kearney and treasured by Dick as his one remaining link with his old life. Aioma has also become Dick's chief of staff, so to speak, advising him about etiquette and his duties as king (for instance, he warns Dick that he must not lower himself to work with the people, because to be seen as their equal is unfitting). The ''Kermadec'' returns to Karolin, guided by Le Moan, who remains on board as Rantan and Carlin go ashore, shoot a number of the people including two babies, and break up the half-finished canoes. Returning to the ''Kermadec'', they tell the Kanaka crew that the people of Karolin attacked ''them'', but Le Moan saw what really happened and tells the crew later, advising them that the people of Karolin are good and will accept them if they go ashore in peace.

Le Moan manages to kill Carlin, and tries to kill Rantan; as he defends himself, she is rescued by crewman Kanoa, who is secretly in love with her. They tie up Rantan and deliver him into the hands of the Karolin people, who indeed welcome the Kanaka from the ''Kermadec'' in peace and friendship. Dick gives Rantan to the mothers of the babies who died, to do with as they see fit. Only now does Le Moan discover that Dick and Katafa are married.

A few days later, the tide goes out at half flood and returns with a vengeance, like a tsunami. Three great waves sweep the island, destroying everything, while the people take to the trees. In the next hours, huge flocks of birds are seen in the skies, coming from the direction of Palm Tree. When Aioma, Dick, and Le Moan decide to take the ''Kermadec'' out on the ocean so that the men can learn to steer it properly, they make for Palm Tree, only to discover that it has completely sunk beneath the ocean. The island of the Blue Lagoon is no more.

Aioma believes this is a sign, not from the gods, but from Uta Matu, the late king of Karolin, whose warriors Dick is responsible for having killed (though they mostly killed each other). Le Moan, hearing this, decides to try to keep Dick for herself by steering away from Karolin and pretending she has lost her gift of direction (implying it is the curse of Uta Matu). Dick, devastated by the loss of his former home, is so desperate to get back to Karolin and Katafa that he takes ill. Le Moan cannot stand his suffering, gives up, and declares that her direction sense has come back, and steers the ''Kermadec'' for home.

On the way, they encounter an abandoned ship. Aioma, unwisely, takes out his frustration with the ''papalagi'' (foreigners) and their ships by boarding this one—full of dead bodies—and setting fire to it. He proceeds to do the same to the ''Kermadec'' when they get back to Karolin. What he does not know is that his contact with the abandoned ship has infected him with the measles. By evening of the next day, everybody on Karolin has caught it, and having no resistance, nearly everyone dies. Katafa is frantic with grief, because Dick has caught it, too, and is lying delirious, speaking only in English.

Le Moan blames herself; if she had never asked the ''Kermadec'' for a lift, none of this would have happened. She believes the curse of Uta Matu, and of her own grandmother Le Juan, have brought shame, disgrace, sickness, and death to her people. She calls out to Katafa, "Taori will not die: I go to save him; the nets are spread for him, but I will break them -- I, who have brought this evil." The instant she speaks these words, Dick's fever cools down and he begins to improve. As Katafa goes to care for him, Le Moan gets in her fishing boat. Sailing it clear out to sea, she takes the sail down, lies down in the bottom, and gives herself to the gods. Stacpoole ends the story by saying that to this day, Karolin remains unexplored and uncharted, because try as they might, no one can ever quite get there.

The clerical community around Barchester's cathedral is rocked by a press investigation into the finances of Hiram's Hospital almshouse. Following the death of the bishop in the midst of the controversy, the chaplain and wife of the new bishop lead a reforming crusade, which arouses strong opposition within the diocese. These public events have a significant effect on the private lives of many of those involved.

The game centers around a longstanding war between the Earth-based New Earth Organization (NEO), and the Mars-based Russo-American Mercantile (RAM). The militaristic and dictatorial RAM, backed by a powerful army of genetically engineered soldiers, has been laying siege to Earth for years. NEO, effectively an organized resistance movement, is forced to operate out of secret bases on the surface of Earth and in orbit in its uphill battle for human freedom.

A new party joins the ranks of a desperate NEO. After an introductory briefing, the NEO facility is attacked by RAM rocketships and troop transports. The party successfully locates and activates the anti-aircraft defenses of the NEO base, foiling the RAM attack. Now considered valuable NEO operatives, the party is summoned to NEO's headquarters called ''Salvation III''. For their first mission as a discrete unit, the party is assigned a small shuttlepod and instructed to sweep the nearby area. During the patrol, a derelict and abandoned spacecraft is discovered and the party investigates. The presence of a parasitic infection has killed the crew and infected the party members. Also the place is infested with genetically engineered monsters called Gennies. The sole survivor of the ship's original crew, an artificial intelligence (or DP, digital personality) agent named Scot.DOS living in the ship's computers. After getting cured of the parasite, the party rids the gennie infestation and is able to save the ship which they use as their own called ''Maelstrom Rider'' and they return to base.

The party is given some leads pointing them towards the Ceres asteroid in the asteroid belt that encompasses the inner solar system planets featured in the game. A RAM base on the asteroid is awaiting the arrival of the pirate "Talon", who has been sent to rescue the staff from the base due to a series of experimental gennies that have escaped and overrun the base. The team can bluff their way in and claim to have been sent on Talons behalf. In the depths of the base the team discovers that the scientists were attempting to replicate the ECG's first encountered upon the ''Maelstrom Rider,'' in addition to working on an unusually powerful laser. After their mission on Ceres, the party's ship is unavoidably crippled, boarded, and captured by space pirates. Conveniently, the party meets another prisoner, the titular '''Buck Rogers''' and manage to overthrow their captors. Buck then returns with the party to Salvation and assists them in their escape.

Following this, the player is sent on a mission to Mars itself, to infiltrate the RAM base, Gradivus Mons. On Mars, the player meets the Desert Runners. Prior to the meeting, the player becomes aware of an impending RAM attack on the natives' city, but is unable to earn their trust before the attack begins. After repelling the attack, the party earns the trust and respect of the Desert Runners, and their leader, Tuskon, helps the party infiltrate Gradivus Mons and destroy the Doomsday Laser prototype along with the entire base. Clues uncovered on Mars then lead the team to Venus where RAM has constructed another base and convinced the local population of Lowlanders, to construct components for a super weapon. The player finds that the Lowlander village has been destroyed by RAM troops and only a few Lowlanders survive who assist the team in infiltrating the base and halting further attacks on the Lowlander population.

Ultimately, the party discovers RAM, along with the corrupt Mercurian government, is building its ultimate weapon, the eponymous '''Doomsday Laser''', in orbit of the planet Mercury with aspirations of destroying Earth entirely. After managing to land on Mariposa Three, an orbital city near Mercury, the party makes its way through a military complex and fights through a series of increasingly difficult battles. Finally finding themselves at the command center for the Doomsday Laser itself, the members of the party successfully destroy the weapon and manage to escape the massive explosion. The defeat severely damages RAM's ability to make war with Earth. NEO is, for the moment, victorious.

Several quarry workers discover a white cream-like alien substance bubbling out of the ground. These workers find it to be sweet and addictive. Later, the substance, marketed as "The Stuff", is being sold to the general public in containers like ice cream. It is marketed as having no calories and as being sweet, creamy, and filling. The Stuff quickly becomes a nationwide craze and drastically hurts the sales of ice cream.

Former FBI agent turned industrial saboteur David "Mo" Rutherford is hired by the leaders of the suffering ice cream industry, as well as junk food mogul Charles W. "Chocolate Chip Charlie" Hobbs, to find out exactly what The Stuff is and destroy it.

Under their commissions, Rutherford conducts an investigation into The Stuff. His efforts reveal, to his initial horror, that the craze for the dessert is far deadlier than anyone had believed: The Stuff is actually a living, parasitic, and possibly sentient organism that gradually takes over the brain; it then mutates those who eat it into bizarre zombie-like creatures, before consuming them from the inside and leaving them empty shells of their former selves.

A young boy named Jason also discovers The Stuff is alive and sees how it affects his family and how they are adamantly against his beliefs on The Stuff. He gets arrested for vandalizing a supermarket display of The Stuff, attracting the attention of Rutherford, who comes to his aid. Rutherford also manages to charm Nicole, an advertising executive who becomes his partner and lover when she sees the effect of The Stuff. The trio infiltrates the distribution operation, which is actually an organized corporate effort to spread The Stuff on the basis of eliminating world hunger, and destroy the lake of The Stuff with explosives. Meanwhile, United States Army Col. Malcolm Grommett Spears, a retired soldier, teams up with the trio and leads a militia in battling the zombies and transmitting a civil defense message for Americans to break their addiction to The Stuff by destroying it with fire. However, in their efforts to warn the public, Charlie is zombified at the Colonel's radio station; The Stuff bursts out of his throat and Nicole and Jason are cornered in a recording booth by the dangerous ooze. Rutherford lights The Stuff on fire and then they make their broadcast. The Stuff addiction is ended, and Rutherford, Nicole, Jason, and Col. Spears are hailed as national heroes.

Mo then visits the head of The Stuff Company, a man named Mr. Fletcher. He tells Mo that the destruction of the mine has not hurt his business, since The Stuff seeps out from many places in the ground, but Mo vows to find those places and get rid of them all. Another man, Mr. Vickers, brings in Mr. Evans, the ice cream mogul with whom he is now working—and who had originally hired Mo to find out about what The Stuff was. They tell him they have come up with a new product that they call "The Taste," which is a mix of 88% ice cream and 12% The Stuff, supposedly enough to make people crave more without it taking over their minds or killing them. However, Mo then brings in Jason, who is carrying a box, and then holds the two moguls at gunpoint. The box is full of pint containers of The Stuff, and Mo forces both to eat them all as punishment for all the lives lost to it, and for their greed. As they do, Rutherford asks, "Are you eating it or is it eating you?" When they finish, Mo and Jason leave them to the approaching police.

The film ends with smugglers selling The Stuff on the black market, having one of the smugglers tasting The Stuff, and revealing that samples of The Stuff still exist. In a post-credits scene, a woman in a bathroom (Brooke Adams) says "Enough is never enough" while holding The Stuff.

The player's party is invited to attend the coronation of a new Sun King on Mercury. They also meet up with Dr Romney, who explains that he has discovered a way to create an incredible source of free energy, one that has the potential to rebuild Earth and challenge the power of RAM (Russo-American Mercantile).

Buck asks the team to find Dr Coldor at Copernicus station on Luna (the Moon). The station is filled with corrupt officials, and a significant weapons manufacturer is also involved. RAM slavers are also operating in the area, giving the player another opportunity to test their skills. The team discovers that their ship has become sabotaged, filling it with radiation, and are forced to evacuate using escape pods. Although the launch kills most of the enemies facing them, Sid Refuge manages to leap on board and hang onto the back fin, where he is later picked up by PURGE (Prevention of Unwanted Research and Genetic Engineering) forces.

The Amaltheans are the descendants of the original researchers that had developed the genetically engineered Stormriders to live in floating cities above Jupiter's turbulent storms. After infecting the genetic tanks with a gennie created by the Stormrider race as a punishment for enslaving them, they are taken to an orbiting gas mining platform deep within Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere. The Matrix Device is about to be ignited when RAM attacks along with an insane Sid Refuge who appears to seize the Device for PURGE. However, once they succeed by infecting the genetic tanks with a gennie developed by the Stormriders, Dr Makali agrees to assist them in building the Matrix Device.

They take Makali to an orbiting gas mining platform deep within Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere. The scientists manage to activate the Matrix Device, thus, ensuring the resurrection of Earth and the eventual downfall of RAM.

Jack Issel (Judge Reinhold) is a natural-born slacker who has just graduated from business school and joined I.N.C., a large American corporation based in Chicago. On his trip up the corporate ladder, he sees the dirty underside of the corporate world and how it corrupts people. His two mentors, the stuffy and buttoned up chief financial officer Scott Dantley (Michael O'Donoghue) and the chief operating officer Bob Nixon (Ron Frazier), in fact, show him first-hand how to cheat and blackmail one's way to the top. Jack is further aided by his personnel officer Max Landsberger (Richard Masur) who tells Jack that money and power come before people in the corporate world. Jack's supervisor and the public relations vice president, Jane Caldwell (Jane Seymour), also tells Jack exactly the same thing as Jack learns that Jane is a shady vixen who's hell-bent on sleeping her way to the top by seducing every man she meets to get ahead in what she sees as a man's world.

Unsure of his abilities, and often incompetent, Jack can't figure out why he keeps getting promoted. Could it have something to do with his father (George Coe) being an influential (but corrupt) Senator?

Among the numerous subplots, Jack meets and falls in love with a young woman named Rachel (Lori-Nan Engler), who turns out to be the radical, left-wing daughter of the ruthless chairman of the board and CEO, Pete Helmes (Eddie Albert), who is revealed to be promoting Jack so he can gain Jack's father, Senator Issel's support to close down a textile plant in a small upstate town called Allenville, and move it into the Latin American country of San Marcos for company self-interest. Jack spends the rest of the movie trying to stop I.N.C. from closing down the plant, and trying to win Rachel's heart to prove that he can be a good businessman.

This film has a surprisingly strong supporting cast in the many interrelated and unrelated subplots who include such established stars as Danny DeVito, an inside trader named Frank Stedman, and Rick Moranis, as a screaming burnout executive Howard Gross, both of whom die 20 minutes into the film, the former committing suicide by jumping out of a window into a fountain, and the latter dying of a heart attack. Other subplots include an executive named Mike Hoover (Wallace Shawn), another burnout who learns he is dying from an unknown terminal illness and everyone, including his coke-sniffing best friend Al Kennedy (Bruce Wagner), is trying to maneuver into his job as head of the Latin American division. John Hudson (Merritt Butrick) is also a recent recruit at I.N.C. and one of Jack Issel's classmates who resorts to trickery to get ahead in the business. Boxing promoter Don King makes a cameo appearance as a I.N.C. executive.

Midway through the movie, most of the subplots end without a resolution and the rest of the movie focuses entirely on the Jack-Rachel situation. Within a week of his employment, the further promoted Jack, with Max in tow, travel upstate to the town of Allenville to give a press conference on the closing of the textile plant where Rachel has organized a huge protest of thousands of workers and townspeople protesting the closing of the plant. The mob of townspeople attack and destroy Jack and Max's limousine, much to the chagrin of the company limo driver Sal (Don Novello). At the same time, to impress Rachel, rather than tell a fabricated public relations story about the closing of the plant, Jack tells the truth to the reporters about I.N.C. reasons which are entirely of self-interest, while both the enraged Helmes and Jack's father watch the event on their TV sets. This does win over Rachel's affections and that night, she and Jack spend the night together.

The following morning, while Helmes decides to fire Jack, he sees that Jack's actions have drawn nationwide media attention whom hail Jack Issel as an honest businessman. Helmes changes his mind about firing Jack and invites him to his house that weekend where Jack runs into Rachel again and finally learns that she is Helmes' daughter. Helmes tries to win over Jack's loyalty to I.N.C. by inviting him to a dinner reception at the council offices of a fictitious Latin American country of San Marcos where a dinner reception is taking place where Jack is expected to give a $2 million bribe to a political rival of the San Marcos dictator General Sanchez (John Kapelos) as another I.N.C. ploy to win the support of the dictatorship government for further business purposes.

At the reception, Jack sneaks Rachel into the building where they finally learn the truth about Helmes plans for Jack, as well as his plans for I.N.C.'s business with the country of San Marcos. Stealing the suitcase with the $2 million cash-bribe money, Jack and Rachel flee from the building security forces in a climatic chase and escape from the building and expose I.N.C.'s plans to the press. As a result, the textile plant in Allenville is saved, Pete Helmes is forced to resign from I.N.C. in disgrace, and Jack and Rachel both inherit the majority of I.N.C. stockholder shares.

The final scene has Jack, now the new chairman of the board at I.N.C., traveling in Pete Helmes helicopter, to the offices with Sal as his pilot.

Bernhard Gunther, a 38-year-old Berlin ex-cop turned private detective, is hired in the summer of 1936 by rich industrialist Hermann Six to recover a diamond necklace stolen from his daughter Grete's house. As part of the robbery, it appears both his daughter and her husband, Paul Pfarr, were murdered and the house was torched.

Through various informants, Gunther discovers that Paul Pfarr was an SS officer and at odds with his father-in-law Six, and was working to eradicate corruption in the government administration under orders from SS and Gestapo leader Heinrich Himmler. He also uncovers a link between Six's private secretary Hjalmar Haupthändler and Kurt Jeschonneck, a shady diamond dealer.

The investigation then centers around a certain Von Greis, an aristocrat collecting blackmail material on important personalities for Hermann Göring, which Goering uses for political means. During the investigation Gunther meets Inge Lorenz, who becomes his assistant and, eventually, romantic interest. With Inge, Gunther follows various clues to try to find Kurt Mutschmann, the criminal who allegedly cracked the safe of the Pfarr house. This leads them to a dilapidated ''pension'' where they find Von Greis's decaying body. Eventually they learn that Mutschmann did the robbery for "Red" Dieter, head of the German Strength crime syndicate. Gunther then meets Paul's assistant, Marlene Sahm, at the Reich Sports Field during races that are part of the 1936 Olympic games. From Sahm, Gunther learns that Paul had discovered Six was corrupt and was about to indict him. To do that, he tried to convince Von Greis to release what he had on Six, but Von Greis refused, so Paul got the Gestapo to obtain the documents for him. Von Greis later was killed by Dieter's men.

Following his meeting with Sahm, Gunther takes a taxi to Haupthändler's beach house. There he sees Haupthändler, Jeschonnek, and a woman, and confronts them. In the scuffle he kills Jeschonnek and knocks out Haupthändler and the woman, but is then knocked out himself by an assailant from Dieter's crew. In the meantime, Inge disappears.

Once recovered from the beach house event, Gunther goes to Six's place to get answers to some pending questions. Six tries to pay to get him off the case, but Gunther confronts him with the facts at his disposal. During the exchange Gunther realizes that the woman he saw at Haupthändler's beach house was Six's daughter, not Paul's girlfriend. It turns out Grete Pfarr, Six's daughter, had killed her husband and his mistress and, with the help of Haupthändler, stole the necklace to generate some cash for an escape, then burned down the house. But by then the safe had already been deprived of the papers by Mutschmann, and their theft of the necklace just made Red Dieter look bad to his employer, Hermann Six. Six comes to the terrible realization that Red Dieter holds his daughter and Haupthändler, and he and Gunther retrieve a motor boat to go to the headquarters of the German Strength ring.

At the German Strength headquarters, Six and Gunther explain the case to Red Dieter, who helps them retrieve Haupthändler and Grete, who were being tortured based on the false belief that they must know the location of the von Greis papers since they have the necklace which was in the safe with the papers. In retrieving the two prisoners, Red Dieter has to shoot one of his own surly men and things heat up. Gunther tries to escape from the island with Grete in a boat but they are intercepted by a Gestapo raid. In the action, Grete catches a stray bullet and dies.

Gunther awakens to find out he has been taken in by the Gestapo and he is left to rot in a cell for a week. Eventually, a top Gestapo officer, Reinhard Heydrich, forces him to agree to go to the Dachau concentration camp to try to covertly befriend Mutschmann, who is a prisoner there, and obtain from him the location of the Von Greis papers. Gunther is sent to Dachau and has various unfortunate camp experiences there, which land him at the hospital. In the hospital he discovers Mutschmann, who is dying of hepatitis. In the end Mutschmann yields the location of the papers before dying. It is implied that Gunther gives the papers to the Gestapo, who let him go. He never finds Inge.

Act 1

Goodnight Desdemona begins with a "dumb show", or a scene with no sound, in which three situations occur simultaneously. Othello murders Desdemona, Juliet and Romeo kill themselves, and Constance Ledbelly throws a pen and a manuscript into a wastebasket.

In scene 1, Constance works on her doctoral dissertation, which claims that ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ''Othello'' were originally comedies written by an unknown author and that this can be proved by decoding a manuscript written by an alchemist named Gustav. Her longtime crush, Professor Claude Night, comes in, criticizes her dissertation topic, and tells her that he is taking a job at Oxford University that she had hoped to secure. Constance laments her fate and begins throwing her possessions into the wastebasket until she herself is sucked into the wastebasket.

Act 2

The second act takes place on the island of Cyprus, within the world of ''Othello''. During the scene where Othello resolves to kill his wife, Constance intervenes and reveals that Iago is tricking Othello. Othello binds Iago and expresses his gratitude to Constance. Desdemona arrives and asks whether Constance may stay with them. Othello tells Constance not to make known to Desdemona that he was jealous of his wife. Constance asks Desdemona for help in her quest to discover who originally wrote Shakespeare's plays. Desdemona agrees and tells her to come to battle. Constance wonders whether she has permanently changed Shakespeare's work and resolves to find the "Wise Fool", a typical Shakespearean character, who secures the happy ending of a comedy.

In scene 2, Iago discloses that he has a page from the Gustav manuscript and forms a plan to conspire against Constance. Constance bonds with Desdemona, telling of her relationship with Professor Night, while Iago eavesdrops. Constance describes the world of academia and her newfound feminist convictions. Desdemona encounters Iago carrying buckets of filth, and Iago stirs jealousy in her. Desdemona believes Iago's claims that Constance is a witch who is after Othello's heart, and she resolves to kill her!

Desdemona sees Othello give Constance a necklace, and her suspicions increase. Constance muses about what a strong woman Desdemona is. Iago and Desdemona enter, fighting with swords, and Constance nearly kills Iago, thinking that she is saving Desdemona. Iago shows Desdemona the page from the Gustav manuscript, saying that he found it in Constance's underwear drawer. Desdemona shows it to Constance, who confirms that it is hers. She reads its clue that she must seek truth in Verona, Italy. Before Desdemona can kill her, Constance is dragged offstage.

Act 3

Act 3 takes place within the context of ''Romeo and Juliet''. It begins with the scene in which Mercutio fights with Tybalt. Constance arrives and tackles Romeo to the ground before Tybalt can stab Mercutio under Romeo's arm. Romeo tells her, "Speak, boy", confusing her gender because Desdemona has ripped off Constance's skirt. Calling herself Constantine, Constance explains that they should stop fighting, because Romeo has married Juliet and they are all family now. They agree, and Romeo falls in love with Constance. The men make lewd jokes and go to the bathhouses. Constance wishes that she could go back home.

In scene 2, Juliet and Romeo wake up together and describe their declining interest in each other. They fight over their turtle, Hector, and end up ripping it in two; they part on bitter terms. Juliet complains to her nurse that she is dying of boredom and wishes that she could be unmarried, able to play the deadly game of love. The nurse tells her that she should cheer up, because she will enjoy the marriage festivities that night, and Juliet resolves to find another lover.

In scene 3, Constance pounces on a servant because she believes that he is the Wise Fool, but she finds instead that he is giving out invitations to a masked ball thrown by Juliet's father. In scene 4, Romeo and Juliet enter the masked ball, sulking at each other. Romeo thinks that Tybalt is Constance and puts his hand on Tybalt's bottom. Constance enters, and Romeo tells her that he loves her. Tybalt sees Romeo kiss Constance and sends Juliet to interrupt them. Romeo introduces Constance to Juliet, and Juliet falls in love with her.

Juliet dances with Constance while Romeo and Tybalt watch suspiciously. Tybalt resolves to kill Constance. Romeo decides to dress as a woman so that Constance will desire him, and he cuts in to dance with her. Juliet sees them and determines to dress as a man so that Constance will desire her. Romeo and Juliet begin to fight over Constance, and Constance tells them to apologize.

In scene 5, Juliet enters dressed in Romeo's clothing and woos Constance from below her balcony. They discover that they have the same birthday. Constance resists Juliet and tells her of her bitterness about love. Juliet tells her that she knows the name of the Wise Fool and will trade it for one kiss. Romeo then enters in Juliet's clothing, but Constance leaves before he can woo her.

Scene 6 takes place in the graveyard through which Constance walks on her way to Juliet's balcony. While she is there, she sees a ghost like that of the King in Hamlet, who tells her that the Wise Fool and the Author are the same "lass". The ghost disappears, and Tybalt enters, trying to kill Constance. Romeo steps between them, and Constance escapes.

In scene 7, Juliet pulls Constance up to her balcony with a rope. They share a long kiss, and then Juliet admits that she lied about knowing the name of the Wise Fool. Juliet tries to kill herself, but Constance pins her down and reveals that she is a woman. Juliet exclaims that she loves her all the more. Constance claims that she is not a lesbian, but Juliet convinces her that they should make love. Constance reaches under Juliet's shirt, where she finds a page from the Gustav manuscript.

A warp effect brings Desdemona to the scene, and she begins to smother Constance with a pillow. Juliet tries to save her and then goes to seek help. Constance holds up the necklace that Othello gave her, which has a birthday inscription to Desdemona, and Desdemona stops smothering her. Tybalt arrives, and Constance pretends to be dead, telling Desdemona to seek Juliet. In scene 8, Desdemona confuses Romeo for Juliet and tells him to meet them in the crypt.

Romeo, who is still in Juliet's clothes, has fallen for Desdemona. In scene 9, he invites her to lie with him in the crypt. Romeo confuses Tybalt for Desdemona, however, and Tybalt carries Romeo away, thinking that he is a maiden. Juliet enters and starts to stab herself out of sorrow, but Constance stops her, and they embrace. Desdemona enters and starts to stab Juliet until Constance stops her. Desdemona then urges Constance to come to Cyprus, while Juliet exhorts her to remain and die with her. Constance interrupts them and points out their faults. They promise to forgo their tragic impulses, and Constance realizes that she is both the Author of the play and the Wise Fool. Constance is then transported by warp effect back to her office at Queen's University, where she finds that her pen has turned to gold.

While on a reconnaissance mission in a runabout, O'Brien and Sisko discover human life signs on an uncharted planet. Beaming to the surface, they discover that a duonetic energy field has disabled their electronic devices and they cannot return to their runabout. They meet Joseph and Vinod, part of a group of colonists who became stranded ten years ago in a similar fashion. The leader of the colonists is Vinod's mother, Alixus; prior to becoming stranded, she was a philosopher critical of humans' dependence on technology.

One of the colonists, Meg, is dying and could be cured with the runabout's medical supplies, but Alixus forbids Sisko and O'Brien from attempting to contact the runabout. She tells them they will have to earn their keep by working in the field. While they work, a young man named Stephen is released from a metal box in which he was imprisoned for stealing a candle. That night, Alixus sends a colonist named Cassandra to attempt to seduce Sisko. When Sisko confronts Alixus, she assigns him to stand watch the rest of the night.

Meanwhile, DS9 officers Kira and Dax, searching for Sisko and O'Brien, discover their abandoned runabout traveling aimlessly, and attempt to retrace its course.

After Meg dies, Alixus accuses O'Brien of "defiling her memory" by trying to activate his technological devices. As his commanding officer, Sisko is placed in the punishment box. Once his punishment period is over, Alixus offers him water—if he will change out of his Starfleet uniform. Wordlessly, Sisko staggers back into the box.

O'Brien uses an improvised compass to locate the origin of the duonetic field, and discovers a generator buried beneath the sand. Vinod finds O'Brien and shoots at him with a bow, but O'Brien manages to outsmart him and brings him back to the village. O'Brien opens the punishment box with his now-functional phaser and reveals to the colonists that the field was artificially created. Alixus admits that she created the duonetic field, but she justifies her actions because they allowed the colonists to discover their true potential.

When Kira and Dax arrive, Sisko and O'Brien assume the colonists want to come with them, but Joseph announces that the colonists have chosen to stay. O'Brien and Sisko beam up to the runabout with Alixus and Vinod. After they leave, two young children are left staring at the point where the four vanished.

The first-person narrator, Charley, is a young man who, like all humans, is used as a riding mount (e.g. horses) for an alien race known as Hoots. Humans in Charley's world, a pastoral Earth, have existed in a master-slave relationship with the Hoots for centuries. The Hoots, who have no way to return to their home planet, maintain the natural systems that keep the world running. Escaped mounts like Charley's father, formerly the Guards' Mount known as Heron, lead assaults on the stables where humans are kept and seek to unify their own people against the Hoots.

When Charley (mount name Smiley) meets his father for the first time (Heron and Merry Mary were mated and separated by the Hoots soon after Charley was born), he resists betraying either his Master, the Hoot heir apparent, or anything that might help the resisting humans because his life as a mount is the only one he's ever known.

As Cordelia and Wesley bicker while using a new demon database, Darin MacNamara stumbles into the Angel Investigations office, saying his brother Jack was kidnapped the previous night by a group that was not "exactly people". Darin tells Angel he and his brother were not close, since Jack wasn't as successful as Darin. Jack had a gambling problem and, though Darin had paid off bookies for him in the past, had recently refused to help him again. He felt guilty afterwards and went to Jack's place in time to see the non-people taking him away. Angel goes to find Ernie, the bookie Darin wouldn't pay off, and interrupts his poker game to try to get information. He promises that Darin will pay off Jack's debts, but Ernie says it's no longer about money, but about making an example out of Jack. Angel offers him some money and learns that Jack may be somewhere under Beechwood Canyon. Cordelia and Wesley search the demon database with the information Darin gave them about the demon who took Jack. Wesley argues that by the time Cordelia finds the demon on the computer he could find it in his book, but Cordelia proves him wrong, producing a Howler demon.

Angel heads into a sewer under Beechwood Canyon and is attacked by Howler demons. He asks one of them where Jack is and is told that he was sold. A number of people in fancy clothes gather in a run-down neighborhood and head into a building. Angel sneaks in through the basement and looks at a women's ticket. In another room, two demons are fighting each other in a pit. One of the demons is knocked down and the crowd chants, “Killing blow!” A man nearby tosses a knife to the other demon, who slits the other's throat. The crowd cheers and the demon, Tom Cribb, is pronounced the winner. The next demon up, Val Trepkos, is announced as Angel spots Jack being led through the crowd. He follows them down a corridor, where they meet up with Darin. Darin warns Jack to be wary of Angel, since he managed to defeat the Howler demons. Angel realizes that he was set up and tries to fight off the guys, who are attempting to check him over, until cattle prods render him unconscious. Jack announces that Angel will be “a crowd-pleaser.” Angel awakens later to find himself with his jacket and shirt off, in a cage, surrounded by other demons in cages. He has a silver bracelet on his wrist that reads “XXI”, which he learns keeps him imprisoned. He tries to converse with his fellow captives but they don't appear to speak English. Jack tells the “slaves” that the only rule is that they stay inside the red area marked off around the cages. They can only get out of the red area when their bracelets are removed, and that only happens after their 21st kill. Angel refuses to kill anyone and Jack replies that in that case, he'll be the one killed.

The next day, Wesley calls Kate and is disappointed to learn that she doesn't know where Angel is. Cordelia is also worried that they can't reach Darin. Angel's fellow slaves are served food as they all engage in a little macho prison-guy talk. One of the demons, Mellish, warns Angel not to disturb things or he'll get himself killed. One of the demons tries to escape, but when he crosses the red line, he disintegrates, leaving only his bracelet behind. Angel is chosen as his replacement for a fight. Wesley interrupts Ernie while he's beating someone up, but Ernie won't give him any information without being paid. Ernie draws a gun but Wesley shoots the gun out of his hand with a crossbow bolt, intimidating Ernie's goons into dropping their own guns and allowing Wesley to ask Ernie where Angel is. While the fights are starting up that night, the woman whose ticket Angel looked at the night before talks to Darin about Angel. She mentions that he has a soul and wonders if this will give him an advantage in the ring. One of the demons tries to give Angel pointers for his fight, but Angel says that he's not going to kill him. The other demon tells him that he doesn't have a choice. Angel and his opponent enter the ring, and Cribb, the demon who fought the previous night, notes that Angel isn't even fighting. Cordelia and Wesley arrive at the arena, dressed up in fancy clothes. They realize too late that they've forgotten their fake police badge, but Cordelia approaches a couple anyway, introducing herself as Detective Andrews and Wesley as Detective Yelsew (Wesley backwards). Wesley flashes his wallet instead of a badge and Cordelia tells him to take down the couple's license plate number. She checks the couple's tickets and tells them that they're for an unlicensed event. Wesley warns that a raid is going to happen there tonight, so the couple decides to leave, leaving Cordelia and Wesley their tickets.

Inside, Baker beats on Angel, who still won't fight back. Cordelia and Wesley enter, spotting Darin, who's holding a bracelet. Wesley notes that these demon matches have been revived from the Roman Empire and that the bracelets kill people if they're wearing them when they cross the red line. Darin puts the bracelet down and gestures for a guard to drop a knife into the pit. Baker picks the knife up, cutting Angel's arm with it. Angel morphs into vamp face and the crowd chants, “Killing blow!” Angel defends himself from a few more hits, then stabs Baker in the chest with the knife. Once Baker is dead, the announcer says that Angel has made his first career kill. Angel heads back to join the other demons as Jack announces that it's time for a match between Trepkos and (expected loser) Mellish. Angel tells Trepkos that if he and Mellish don't fight, neither of them will die. Cribb tells Angel that he's not an expert just because he's made one kill; Angel replies that that wasn't his first kill. Angel tells Trepkos that they can fight their captors if they stop killing each other. Trepkos instead says that he'll kill Mellish quickly, a decision which pleases Jack. Once they're in the ring, Trepkos fulfills his promise. Outside the building, Cordelia tells Wesley that they need to call the police, but he thinks that Darin will destroy the evidence before anything can happen. Cordelia realizes that he would kill the demons and says that they need to get Angel out, which entails getting his bracelet off. Wesley thinks that, if he can get a bracelet, he'll be able to figure out how to forge a magical key to release other bracelets. Cordelia reveals that she swiped a bracelet when he wasn't looking.

When Jack congratulates Angel on his victory, calling him "a demon like the others", Angel grabs Jack and pulls him close to the red line. He asks Jack how to remove the bracelet and asks the demons to check Jack's pockets for a key; they won't help him. Darin enters with his guards and Angel agrees to let Jack go when he and the other demons are released. Darin pulls out a gun and calmly shoots Jack, and the guards again knock out Angel with cattle prods. He wakes up in the office of Lilah Morgan, the woman he and Darin both talked to earlier. She introduces herself as a lawyer working for Wolfram & Hart, and explains that she persuaded Darin to sell his contract to “the partners”. She tells him that he's free to go, provided he pretend the fighting never happened; after all, Lilah points out, there are a lot of people for him to help in L.A. Angel refuses to compromise, and willingly returns to the arena, where the other demons call him crazy for returning. Darin snaps Angel's bracelet back on and tells him that he's fighting Trepkos next; if Trepkos wins, Angel will be his 21st kill. Wesley messes around with the bracelet, trying to find something that will conduct electricity. Cordelia provides Wesley with a horsehair bracelet (“from Keanu, my palomino, before the IRS took him away”) which does exactly what he needs it to do to the silver bracelet. Back at the arena, Lilah places a $10,000 bet on Trepkos.

Angel and Trepkos enter the ring, where Angel tells Trepkos that even if he kills 21 demons, he will always be a slave. Trepkos says that he'll kill him quickly and Angel replies that he won't let him. The fight begins and, again, Angel defends himself. Cordelia distracts a guard so that Wesley can get to the slaves’ quarters. He asks Cribb where Angel is and is told that he'll be dead soon. Wesley announces that he has a key to open all of the demon's bracelets and Cribb grabs it from him. A guard drops wooden staffs into the pit and Trepkos charges Angel with one of them. Wesley returns to Cordelia and tells her that someone took his key. The fighting continues and Angel gets part of Trepkos’ staff, holding it to his throat. Cribb unlocks his bracelet, watching as Angel starts to walk away from the fight, then get overtaken by Trepkos. The crowd encourages Trepkos to kill Angel, but Trepkos decides not to. Darin sends guards after both of them, but Wesley pulls out a gun and tells Darin to stop the guards. Cribb and the other demons storm the arena and Wesley and Darin start fighting over the gun. The demons and guards face off and Cribb unlocks Angel's bracelet, calling him a loser. The spectators all leave the arena. Darin is about to shoot Wesley when Cordelia pushes him into the pit. Darin points the gun at Trepkos and blasts him for not killing Angel when it would have set him free. Cribb puts a bracelet on Darin's wrist. Darin is thrown out of the red circle and disintegrates. Cribb unlocks Trepkos’ bracelet and Angel and Trepkos congratulate each other on a good fight. “I could have taken you,” Angel claims. Cordelia and Wesley help Angel out of the building and he thanks them for finding him before it was too late. Cordelia says that Wesley was the one who figured out how to make the key, and Wesley says that she was the one who figured out that horsehair would work. Angel says that they did good work, even though, as Cordelia points out, they released a bunch of demons.

Curt Garrish is a college student who lives in one of the campus dorms. At the end of a spring semester, he returns to his room after a particularly hard exam. He talks to a couple of his fellow students and the dorm's RA who tells him to fill out a damage form. Garrish's roommate, an untidy student nicknamed Piggy, has already left for the semester. Garrish takes out a hunting rifle hidden in his closet. Rifles are permitted on campus, with proper documentation, for use on the campus' shooting range. Garrish had checked the rifle out and hidden it in the woods, retrieving it late at night while everyone was asleep. He field strips and loads it from a box of ammunition. After talking to another student named Bailey, who takes the nude model pinups from over Piggy's bed, Garrish relates the story of Cain and Abel, then opens a window and begins to hunt for targets outside. His first shot kills a pretty blonde student. His next shots take out her parents, then other students as they try to run. Garrish sees another student trying to hide and wanting to run but is frozen with fear. Garrish begins to pull the trigger again.

David, friend of a caretaker named Homer, is an elderly man who is spending his later years hanging out at the local gas station in a small town. Homer narrates a tale about Mrs. Todd, who is obsessed with finding shortcuts. Homer admires her persistence but begins to have doubts, as there are only so many shortcuts someone can find. Mrs. Todd's habit of resetting her odometer shows remarkable evidence that something strange is going on. He also discovers evidence that her shortcuts are taking fewer miles than are in a straight line between the trip origin and its destination, something that would be impossible in reality. Mrs. Todd compares the shortcuts to folding a map to bring two points closer together, suggesting she has discovered a warped version of reality, akin to a wormhole.

Mrs. Todd finally convinces Homer to take one of the special 'shortcuts'. Homer loses his hat to the grasping arms of a living tree. Soon, he encounters road signs and bizarre animals which he cannot explain. Frightened, Homer doesn't wish to take any more rides. Nonetheless, Mrs. Todd is changing and growing younger with each trip she takes, and the appeal of this overwhelms Homer, despite him discovering a horrifying rodent-like creature on the grill of her car. She brushes this off, seeing the creature as an unfortunate yet normal animal. In the end, Homer, who is looking younger himself, gets into Mrs. Todd's car in front of his friend. It's implied that Mrs. Todd (who by this time is considered to be a missing person together with her car) will now take him into whatever new world which she has found a shortcut to.

The film begins with friends from ''L'Auberge espagnole'' meeting in Saint Petersburg at the wedding of Wendy's brother, William. Xavier begins to reminisce about the events of the past several years.

Xavier and Martine have split up and Martine has since had a child and become a committed environmental activist. For financial reasons, Xavier becomes a writer for pulp romantic novels and a ghostwriter, writing the autobiographies of celebrities. Martine criticizes his pulp novel work as being unrealistic and corny. Despite agreeing with this, Xavier replies that he earns good money. In Paris, Xavier has a brief affair with Kassia, a sales clerk from Senegal. When Xavier's grandfather asks about Xavier's fiancée, he asks his friend Isabelle, who is a lesbian, to pose as his fiancée.

In Paris, Xavier runs into Wendy, who has become an accomplished television writer. She is currently involved in an unhealthy relationship. A TV assignment later takes Xavier to London where he had requested to work with Wendy. Xavier is given the chance to ghost write an autobiography of Celia, a successful young model, whom he visits on a number of occasions. On one of these visits Xavier and Celia kiss before sleeping together while looking at the boats on the River Seine. The film shows Xavier and Wendy's attraction to each other growing before developing into a physical relationship. Xavier fights with Wendy's boyfriend which results in Xavier throwing him out.

Wendy's brother William has fallen in love with Natasha, a Russian ballerina. He spends a year learning Russian to try to win her over. He succeeds and moves to be with her in Saint Petersburg. Xavier and Wendy go to Russia to stay with William and Natasha. Natasha takes them to see the Street of Ideal Proportions, a street on which the buildings are the same height as the street's width and the street's length is ten times its width. Xavier and Wendy's relationship is going well until Celia calls Xavier and asks him to visit her as she is staying in Moscow. Xavier goes to visit Celia, telling Wendy that he has to see a publisher in Moscow. Xavier does not know that Wendy had looked at his cellphone and seen that the caller was another woman, not the publisher. Saying goodbye at the train station, Wendy tells Xavier what she has seen and explains her true feelings. Xavier is stunned and doesn't move from the train as Wendy walks away crying.

In Moscow, Celia and Xavier meet up and sleep together again but some of the attraction between them has gone. Later at a club she asks Xavier to get her a glass of milk. While he is at the bar, Celia runs into some old friends and reluctantly goes with them to another party. After failing to contact one another that night, Xavier and Celia never meet again.

Celia can be seen to represent an ideal woman, the type of unattainable fantasy that Xavier has been seeking his whole life. Xavier is aware that, like the Street of Ideal Proportions, she is ultimately uninteresting in her perfection. Xavier subsequently returns to St. Petersburg but finds that Wendy is avoiding him as she is convinced that he had an affair while in Moscow.

Towards the end of the film, the scene returns to William and Natasha marrying in front of family members and the characters introduced in ''L'Auberge Espagnole''. Wendy's divorced parents begin to squabble during the reception. Wendy has been avoiding Xavier during the time leading up to the wedding, but she is unhappy at seeing her parents arguing and lets Xavier comfort her. He apologises for his past behaviour and the film ends with Xavier and Wendy embracing at Waterloo Station.

The plot of the game refers to the Sengoku era feudal Japan being given giant mecha. The player takes control of one such mecha, the Aleste, piloted by a man named Kagerou, as he fights other feudal lords.

Kagerou (Shadow) is the sole surviving member of Oda "Demon King" Nobunaga's robot ninja army, the White Fang. The Aleste is an 8-metre tall mechanized steam-powered mech. At the start of the game, Nobunaga's home is razed to the ground by Kurogane, who is a frequent end-of-level boss throughout the game and the older brother of Kagerou. Nobunaga survives, Kagerou defeats Kurogane and resumes his mission to bring down the anti-Oda alliance.

Kurogane is humiliated and refuses to believe that he was defeated by his younger brother Kagerou through skill alone, so he builds himself a gigantic mecha to match the power of the Aleste. He then tests the machine's firepower on a defenseless village, killing all of the innocent villagers caught in the onslaught. Kagerou eventually learns of this and fights Kurogane in a battle to the death. The Aleste, in the end, wins and Kurogane dies.

Kagerou continues his mission and after defeating all of the opposing warlords he comes face-to-face with Astaroth, the leader of the anti-Oda alliance. After defeating Astaroth, Kagerou learns that she has come from another dimension which was supposedly destroyed by Nobunaga, who she believes to be the resurrected figure of Lucifer. Nobunaga plans to take over the world and Kagerou eventually uses the Aleste to stop him once and for all, trapping him in Honnō-ji.

The story begins with 18-year-old Eugene Morris Jerome from Brooklyn, who is drafted into the United States Army during World War II and is sent to Biloxi, Mississippi for basic training. There he meets a diverse assortment of soldiers, including the gentle and intelligent Arnold Epstein, who is the play's central figure. The piece portrays Epstein's struggle for power with middle-aged, hard-drinking platoon leader Sergeant Merwin J. Toomey. In a memorable scene, Epstein manages to force Toomey to perform two hundred push-ups in front of the platoon.

Late at night, a deaf old man is the sole patron in a cafe. Nearby, two waiters, one young, the other older, talk about him. When the old man orders another brandy, the young waiter purposely overfills his glass. The waiters speculate about the old man's recent suicide attempt. The young waiter wants the patron to go home, and complains that he never gets to bed before three o'clock, while the older waiter is more understanding of the old man's plight. Again the old man asks for another brandy, but this time the young man tells him the cafe is closed. After he leaves, the waiters resume their discussion. The young waiter wants to hurry home to his wife; the older waiter is more thoughtful. He muses on youth and observes that he is now one "of those who like to stay late in the cafe," likening himself to the old man. He mentions the importance to some people of having "a clean, well-lighted place" in which they can spend time. After the young waiter leaves, the older waiter reflects on the emptiness of his own life and returns to his home and his insomnia.

Captain Archer, Commander Tucker and Sub-Commander T'Pol are having dinner to celebrate the first anniversary of T'Pol's assignment aboard ''Enterprise''. During conversation, Archer asks why T'Pol traveled to Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, before she joined ''Enterprise''. T'Pol reveals that, contrary to human belief that the first contact between humans and Vulcans occurred in the mid-2060s , it actually occurred a century earlier. Tucker and Archer react incredulously to this claim, so T'Pol offers to tell them her great-grandmother's story.

T'Mir is a member of a four-Vulcan crew studying Earth from orbit in 1957, when they witness the launch of ''Sputnik'', the planet's first artificial satellite. A mishap with their impulse manifold forces the craft to crash-land in Pennsylvania. The captain is killed and T'Mir, as second-in-command, takes charge. A distress signal is sent, but after more than two weeks no reply is received. From fear of starvation, Mestral and T'Mir enter the nearby town of Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. Over the next few months, the Vulcans successfully integrate themselves with the townsfolk, renting an apartment from Maggie, a tavern owner.

One day there is a firedamp explosion in the mine; Mestral helps rescue a dozen trapped miners by covertly blasting through a rock wall with a phaser. Eventually, a Vulcan vessel signals that it will arrive to retrieve the crew. Before leaving, T'Mir learns a human lesson in compassion, and travels by train to Pittsburgh where she "sells" the rights to Velcro. The money she receives is more than enough to pay for the college education of their landlady's son. As the Vulcan ship nears, Mestral announces that he intends to stay on Earth and observe the great advances he expects lie ahead. T'Mir reluctantly agrees, and tells the rescuers that Mestral had died along with the captain. T'Pol leaves Archer and Tucker unsure whether or not to believe the story. In her quarters, she reveals she still has T'Mir's 1950s-era handbag.

Kenichi Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) is a police detective with a mentally unstable wife (Anna Nakagawa). Takabe investigates a series of bizarre murders in which each victim is killed in the same way, with a large "X" carved into their neck, but the perpetrator is different each time. In every case the murderers are caught close to the scene of the crime, and although they readily confess to committing the crimes, they never have a substantial motive and cannot explain what drove them to kill.

Takabe, together with a psychologist named Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki), eventually determines that one man is the common thread among the murders, as each person he comes in contact with commits a killing shortly thereafter. The man, called Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara), appears to have extreme short-term memory loss; he seems constantly confused about what day it is, where he is, and what his name is. He claims to recall nothing of his past. Mamiya constantly counters Takabe's interrogation with evasive questions regarding Takabe's identity. This drives Takabe nearly insane as he gradually loses his initial calmness. The futility of the case starts to affect his psyche as he becomes more and more volatile, exploding into violent fits of anger.

Takabe discovers that Mamiya used to be a student of psychology who researched mesmerism and hypnosis. He comes to realize that Mamiya has no memory problems, and is instead a master of hypnosis, capable of planting criminal suggestions in strangers' minds by exposing them to repetitive sounds, the motion of water, or the flame of a lighter.

In an archive, Sakuma finds a videotape of a mysterious man, speculated to be the originator of Japanese mesmerism, and shows it to Takabe. The man is depicted hypnotizing a woman in the late 1800s. She had been under treatment for hysteria and was hypnotized by the man who gestured an "X" midair. The woman later killed her son in a manner similar to Mamiya's crimes. Sakuma believes the current crimes have a connection to the earlier events, describing Mamiya as a missionary of ceremonial murders. After showing the tape, Sakuma is revealed to have unconsciously drawn an X on his wall, and starts to experience hallucinations of Takabe menacingly cornering him. Several days later, the police discover Sakuma's body in his home, and conclude that he committed suicide. Meanwhile, Mamiya is jailed and charged with incitement to murder.

Mamiya finds Takabe fascinating, possibly because he cannot force Takabe to kill. Takabe is tormented by visions of his wife dead, however, and the more he studies Mamiya, the more he feels that he might be losing his mind. The detective grows frustrated with his wife's helplessness and even expresses murderous intent towards her at one point. His wife's strange behavior and concerns about his own mental stability lead him to have her committed to a mental hospital.

When Mamiya escapes, killing a policeman and a doctor in the process, Takabe tracks him to a deserted building in the wilderness and shoots him. Exploring the building, Takabe finds and listens to an old phonograph cylinder that contains a scratchy recording of a male voice repeating what seem to be cryptic hypnotic instructions.

The next scene cuts to the mental hospital where Takabe has had his wife committed. A nurse hears a squeaking sound behind her and turns to see Takabe’s wife’s lifeless body in a wheelchair with an “X” carved into her neck. There is no indication of the killer’s identity.

The film ends ambiguously at a restaurant where a waitress serves Takabe, then suddenly draws out a knife after speaking to the detective — suggesting that the phonograph’s hypnotic power continues to spread.

A cop (Tierney) is suspected of killing a gorgeous film star. Since he was extremely drunk at the time, even he suspects that he did it.

The investigation leads him to Candy, an artist's mistress (Mansfield), as well as to a slimy ''Laura''-type gossip columnist (John Carradine) who spent time with the woman that night and becomes the main suspect. But he also becomes a red herring when a third man is finally found to be the real killer.

Howard Tyler is a family man from Boston, living in California with his wife and boy, who has trouble finding a job. He meets charismatic small-time hood Jerry Slocum, who hires Howard to participate in gas-station robberies. Later, Jerry concocts a plan to kidnap the son of a wealthy man to receive a large ransom. Things go wrong when Jerry kills the man and throws the body into a lake. Howard, who did not know that his and Jerry's criminal exploits would include murder, reaches his emotional limit and begins drinking heavily. He meets a lonely woman and, while drunk, confesses to the crime. The woman flees and informs the police.

When the two kidnappers are arrested, a local journalist writes a series of vicious articles about the two prisoners. A vicious mob assembles outside the police station, overpowers the guards and storms the building, seizing the two men in order to kill them.

In Palestine shortly before the end of the British mandate, the Haganah has learned that a former German tank commander, General Gustav Schiller, is teaching the Arabs battle tactics, but they are unable to locate him. Then they learn of the existence of his Jewish former wife, Judith Auerbach Schiller, and arrange for her to be smuggled into Palestine via the port of Haifa. She is placed in the care of Aaron Stein, a Haganah commander, at a kibbutz.

Schiller had abandoned his wife during the war and took away their son. Judith was then sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where she was forced to serve in an officers' brothel, but survived.

Judith dislikes the rigours of kibbutz life, and is unable to tell the kibbutz leaders anything about Schiller, but Stein hopes that she can at least identify him. He "suggests" that she ask the local army commander, Major Lawton, to help her. Judith travels to Haifa to see him and pleads with him to hand over the file on Schiller, which he eventually does. It turns out that Schiller was last known to be in Damascus, Syria.

Judith, Stein and a colleague are smuggled into Damascus, and after days of searching, they find Schiller. As they are about to capture him, Judith shoots and wounds him. Schiller is smuggled back to Palestine and interrogated, but he refuses to give any information. Left alone with Judith, he pleads for mercy. But as the kibbutz comes under attack by Arab forces, he finally reveals the battle plans, and also tells Judith that he knows the whereabouts of their son, Karl. The room in which he is being kept is bombed and Schiller is killed. Aaron promises that he will help Judith find her son.

''The Circus Series'' begins with ''Mr Galliano's Circus'', where the protagonist is Jimmy Brown. The story starts with how Jimmy and his parents join the circus, where Jimmy's Dad gets a job as a handyman. Then Jimmy's affinity with animals brings into his life 'Lucky' the dog. The story revolves around Jimmy, his parents, his dog Lucky and the others like Lotta, who work in the circus. Lotta is a small girl who rides horses. The other characters include Lilliput, the man with the monkeys; Stanley, the clown; Mr Tonks, the owner of Jumbo the Elephant; and Lotta’s parents, Lal and Laddo.

In the second book ''Hurrah for the Circus'' and the third ''Circus Days Again'', Mr Galliano's famous circus is getting bigger and better all the time. Madame Prunella joins the show with her talking parrots, and so do three new clowns (Twinkle, Pippi and Google), a performing seal and twelve zebras. But everything starts to go wrong when a new ringmaster arrives, and at last Jimmy and Lotta, the circus children, decide that something must be done.

In the mid-1960s, a nuclear war and devastation of Earth gave rise to three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia, and East Asia. By 1984, London, with its bomb-proof ministry, is designated as the capital of Airstrip One, a province of Oceania, controlled by one all-powerful Party, embodied by the figurehead Big Brother.

In the spring of 1984, Winston Smith, a member of the elite Outer Party, encounters Julia, a woman he suspects may be a member of the Thought Police. Winston returns to his apartment, where an electronic surveillance eye examines the contents of his briefcase. Smuggling a small black diary past the eye, Winston begins to write down the subversive thoughts he fears to say aloud. Winston's reverie is interrupted when Selina Parsons, a little girl who lives next door, enters his apartment to practice denouncing him as a traitor. Robert Parsons, Selina's father, invites Winston to join him for a drink at the local Chestnut Tree café.

At the cafe, Winston and Parsons spot Rutherford and Jones, two Outer Party traitors who have been rehabilitated by the government's Ministry of Love. Afterwards, Winston goes to a junk shop to wonder at the objects of yesteryear that are now deemed worthless. Julia enters the shop, sending Winston scurrying into the street, where he is stopped by the police and ordered to report to Administration the next morning.

At the Administration the next day, a party officer reprimands Winston for socializing with the common masses. Winston then proceeds to his job at the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth. When Winston discovers a photo that would prove Jones and Rutherford innocent, O'Connor, Winston's superior, instructs him to destroy it.

That evening, at a political rally, Julia passes Winston a note professing her love to him. Later, they arrange to meet Sunday in a meadow outside London, far from the prying microphones and monitors of Big Brother. There, they touch each other, an act prohibited by the Anti-Sex League, and proceed to make love.

Two weeks later, Winston proposes renting a room at the junk store, one of the few places free of the omnipresent monitors. In the sanctity of their quarters, Winston confides that he believes O'Connor may be a member of the Underground.

One night, Winston finds a note written in O'Connor's handwriting that reads "down with Big Brother." Convinced that O'Connor represents their only hope to break free of the tyranny of Big Brother, Julia and Winston go to his apartment and declare that they want to join the Underground. O'Connor instructs Winston to carry an empty briefcase with him at all times.

A few days later, during a rally to launch Hate Week, a man switches briefcases with Winston. When Winston opens the case, he finds a copy of a treatise by the alleged leader of the Underground. Back in their secret room, Julia muses that only love can defeat Big Brother. At that moment, a telescreen hidden behind a mirror condemns Julia's sentiments, after which, the police burst in to arrest them.

At the Ministry of Love, Winston is confined in a pit-like room. Soon after, Parsons is thrown into the pit, his daughter having denounced him for muttering in his sleep "Down with Big Brother." After Parsons is taken away, O'Connor enters the room and reveals himself to be a covert agent of the state. Under O'Connor's direction, Winston is subjected to a brainwashing campaign. Still resistant after a series of electroshock treatments, Winston declares that the party will never eradicate his love for Julia. Having ascertained that Winston's worst fear is being eaten alive by rats, O'Connor confines him in a room filled with the squealing rodents, after which Winston breaks down and begs them to feed Julia to the rodents instead.

After O'Connor authorizes his release, Winston mindlessly wanders through the streets, where he spots Julia. After they confess their mutual betrayal, Big Brother broadcasts that the Eurasian army has been routed in battle and that the war will be soon over. He goes to look and then finds Julia gone after he looks back at her. The final shot has a rehabilitated and brainwashed Winston fervently joining the crowd cheering "Long live Big Brother!"

An alternate ending was also produced, in which Winston rebels against his brainwashing and starts to shout, "Down with Big Brother." He is then shot down. Julia runs to his aid and suffers the same fate.

Star basketball player Barney Livingston and the beautiful and brilliant Laura Castellano are neighbors in Brooklyn who are as close as siblings. After graduating from Midwood High School in 1954 Livingston attends Columbia University and Castellano Radcliffe College, and both enter Harvard Medical School in 1958; he wants to become a psychiatrist, and she is drawn to pediatrics. Others include Rhodes Scholar Bennett Landsmann, the wealthy black adoptee of Jewish parents; former Jesuit Hank Dwyer; former Miss Oregon Grete Anderson; and top students Peter Wyman and Seth Lazarus.

They survive the immense stress that drives some to suicide, and after graduation leave for internships and residencies. Livingston becomes an author and finds at the New York State Psychiatric Institute that psychiatrists can be as disturbed as their patients; Castellano's unhappy marriage to an Army officer causes both to have affairs; Wyman aggressively seeks fame as a researcher at Harvard; Landsmann at Yale–New Haven Hospital finds that some during the Civil Rights Movement dislike his two heritages; Anderson's beauty attracts men that she has difficulty forming relationships with; and Lazarus in Chicago begins to commit mercy killings of patients in great pain who want to die.

By their late 30s Livingston and Castellano, after many other relationships for both, marry and become first-time parents in New York City; Wyman is at a Silicon Valley biotechnology company; Anderson is a transplant surgeon in Houston; Dwyer opens a successful IVF clinic in Hawaii; and Landsmann, a lawyer after a spinal injury ends his surgical career, defends Lazarus in a trial for murder.

Dr. Peters receives a phone call from a nurse, who sounds desperate, but Dr. Peters can do little. He has forgotten when he last slept, but he knows that in the coming hours he will make life or death decisions. As he begins his internship, he must deal with assisting the surgeons in the operating room, help nurses who happen to know more than him, cope with worried friends and family of the ill and injured, and pretend that he is a qualified doctor. The book takes a deeper look into the psychical and psychological effects on a medical intern.

When big-city newspaper reporter Mike Reese (Duryea) writes and publishes a story (after breaking his promise to withhold it) that results in the murder of a state's witness against a local gang lord, he loses his job. He soon finds that no one else will hire him, so he extracts money from the drug lord (who is actually grateful for the story Reese published), moves to small-town Lakeville, and buys a half-interest in the newspaper, ''The Lakeville Sentinel.'' The newspaper is owned by Catherine Harris (Storm), who immediately has differences with Reese on how things should operate. Reese, trying to use the paper as a step up, latches onto a murder of a woman who happens to be the daughter-in-law of a newspaper magnate, his former employer. When a local black woman is suspected (revealed to the audience early as a scapegoat), Reese turns the story into a media circus, and soon his reporting is back in the spotlight again. Eventually, he finds himself having to decide if he will reform his opportunistic ways. The film is notable for the pejorative use of the word "nigger," though this is clearly dubbed, not what was originally filmed.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Charles Boyer) launches an unsuccessful seduction of the Countess Marie Walewska (Greta Garbo), who is married to a much older man (Henry Stephenson), but she resists until convinced that giving in will save Poland. After her husband annuls their marriage and Napoleon divorces the Empress Josephine, the pair are free to formalize their happy relationship, but Napoleon shocks her by announcing his decision to wed the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria for political reasons. While he doesn't expect it to impact his relationship with Marie, she leaves him, without ever telling him that she is expecting his child.

Violet Sanford leaves her hometown of South Amboy, New Jersey, her father Bill, and her best friend Gloria, to pursue her dreams of becoming a songwriter in nearby New York City. Violet tries multiple times to get her demo tape noticed by the recording studios but is unsuccessful. One night, she tries to get herself noticed by a music industry scout. The bartender jokingly points out Kevin O'Donnell, making her believe that he is the bar owner. When she discovers the joke, Violet feels hurt because she thinks Kevin was trying to make her look foolish. With only a few dollars left in her pocket after her apartment is burglarized, she goes to an all-night diner and notices three girls, Cammie, Rachel, and Zoe, flaunting the hundreds of dollars in tips they earned. After inquiring, she finds out that they work at a trendy bar named Coyote Ugly.

She finds her way to the bar and convinces the bar owner Lil to give her an audition. Violet's first audition does not go well, but after Violet breaks up a fight between two customers, Lil gives her a second audition. At her second audition, Violet douses the fire warden in water which costs Lil $250. However, Lil decides she can work at the bar if she can make up $250 in one night. Kevin turns up at the bar, and Violet auctions him off to another woman at the bar to earn the money. Kevin tells Violet that she owes him, so Violet agrees to go on four dates with him. The two begin a relationship.

Kevin commits himself to helping Violet overcome her stage fright, which she is informed she will have to do to have her songs heard. Violet tells Kevin she inherited her stage fright from her now deceased mother, who also moved to New York in her youth to pursue her dreams of singing. Violet's stage fright mostly extends to singing her original pieces, as she is able to sing in the bar doing karaoke to help Cammie and Rachel break up a fight between customers.

One night, her father Bill comes to see her at work after a photo of her on the bar appears in the paper. When he arrives, she is dancing on the bar with the other bartenders pouring pitchers of water over her. He is angry about her job and refuses to talk to her when she calls him shortly after. She keeps the job despite her father's wishes, but shortly thereafter gets fired when Kevin gets into a fight at the bar. She and Kevin then break up. With her dreams not working and her job at the bar lost, Violet goes to New Jersey for Gloria's wedding. That night, Bill gets hit by a car and is seriously injured, which almost prompts Violet to move back to New Jersey. However, Bill convinces her not to give up while telling her the truth: her mother did not have a problem with stage fright and actually quit singing because of Bill.

Back in New York Lil visits Violet at a restaurant where she is now working and the two make amends. Violet finishes a new song and later performs it at an open mic night at the Bowery Ballroom. After a difficult start, she gets help from Kevin and is able to sing. The Coyotes, Bill and Gloria are also there for moral support. The performance leads to a deal with a record label. The film concludes back at Coyote Ugly with LeAnn Rimes, having recorded Violet's song, singing on the bar as Violet joins in and Violet kissing Kevin celebrating her dream coming true.

Frame story

Segments titled "Joseph in the darkness" appear before and after each of the episodes described below. Joseph, apparently talking to his father-figure, Budu, fills in historical detail in the storyline and discusses his own motivations.

1996: Hollywood

In ''Mendoza in Hollywood'', the botanist Mendoza and her companion Einar were thrown forward in time from 1863 to 1996 in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. This is supposed to be impossible, but Mendoza is a Crome generator, a psychic who cannot control her potential, and Laurel Canyon is a focus of Crome radiation (explaining its attraction for certain kinds of people over the years!).

As the action of this novel opens, Lewis is arriving at Company HQ in Laurel Canyon in 1996. Entering the building he is just in time to see Mendoza being sent back to her own time, and tries to warn her "Don't go with him!", meaning the English agent she encounters later. From his point of view, that encounter was the cause of her disappearance. She vanishes as the transfer takes place.

Lewis takes advantage of work in San Francisco to contact Joseph who is working in the hi-tech industry there. Joseph persuades him to try out a new virtual reality helmet, which turns out to have a fault that disables cyborgs' implanted monitors for 24 hours. Joseph and Lewis can now talk freely, without Company eavesdropping. Initially reluctant, Joseph drives Lewis to Bodega Bay to talk to Juan Bautista who was the last cyborg to see Mendoza. They give him a dose of VR and then pump him for information.

Juan Bautista is able to draw a picture of the man Mendoza met in 1863 and subsequently ran away with. To Joseph's shock, the man is a double for Nicholas Harpole, the religious fanatic with whom Mendoza fell in love in Tudor England, and who was subsequently burned at the stake. Joseph sees Nicholas as the main cause of Mendoza's troubles. He also hates religious fanatics of all stripes. Leaving Juan Bautista, Joseph and Lewis agree to meet from time to time as circumstances allow, and as they learn more.

2025: Austin, Texas

A family is celebrating the "Day of the Dead" at a graveyard in Texas. The ''paterfamilias'', actually an uncle, is Porfirio, Mendoza's Facilitator in 1863. Under cover of an electrical storm, Joseph contacts Porfirio and asks what he knows about Mendoza. Porfirio tells him Mendoza was sent back in time, Back Way Back, over 100,000 years. The Company operated resorts for rich clients back before the arrival of humans in the New World. She must have been sent there, but why? Porfirio sends Joseph on his way with one request: don't come back.

2026: London, England

Lewis poses as an antiquarian, buying old papers and books, and comes into possession of a box which contains a picture of a man named Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax, who he recognizes as the man in the picture drawn by Juan Bautista. Further research turns up a well-born man, apparently a natural son of someone in high places, with powerful friends who guide his life. He served as an agent of various shadowy entities. Lewis contacts Joseph and they meet in London. They make a junket to the north of England.

They spend time in the country of "The Innocents", an imagined novel combining elements of ''Animal Farm'' and ''Watership Down''. This novel and its loony fans are among the catalysts for the growing animal-rights movement which will eventually ban meat consumption in many countries. They stay at a house run by two of the more extreme fans, but Joseph has other motives. He has finally decoded some information Budu forced on him, and he means to act on it.

Under cover of another storm, Joseph sneaks out of the house, with Lewis tailing him. They uncover a secret installation in a hillside, containing many cyborgs suspended in tanks of fluid. Are Mendoza and Budu in places like this? Lewis' Company conditioning, intended to keep cyborgs out of forbidden places, causes him to re-experience his suppressed memories of being disabled and kidnapped in medieval Ireland. He begins to understand why the Company left him in South America for 700 years, until the events recorded in ''Sky Coyote''.

2142: London and Fez

Lewis is still researching Edward when he can. He learns that Nennius, another cyborg, was monitoring or guiding Edward, even being the headmaster of his school. Joseph seeks out Suleyman, a former Barbary Coast pirate who has built up an independent power base in Fez, Morocco. Suleyman has also found means of frustrating the Company monitoring. Suleyman reveals that he himself is working secretly against other factions, some of whom seem to be creating new diseases to wipe out humans. He implicates Budu in this, to Joseph's consternation.

Joseph and Lewis meet again in London. Joseph now has one of Suleyman's masking devices. Lewis tells him all he knows about Edward. Edward was working for people who wanted to gain possession of Santa Catalina island, off the California coast. Joseph has a meeting with Victor, who reveals that he did bring Budu down, a few hours before the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, and tells Joseph where to find him.

2225: London; Irún del Mar, Spain

Lewis is working in a library. Finding his cover blown by a strange little man, Lewis drops out of sight and heads to Spain for another meeting with Joseph. On the way he encounters more of the strange men, and is injured with some kind of disrupter that partially disables his hand. This is not supposed to be possible, as the cyborgs have self-repair mechanisms. Told to take a vacation, he accompanies Joseph on a tour of the local archeological sites— the places where Joseph was raised, 20,000 years previously, before checking into a Company base for repairs.

2275: Santa Catalina Island, California

Lewis has an "accidental" encounter with Nennius aboard a cruise ship, and Nennius feeds him a story about Edward. Lewis contacts Joseph, and they proceed to Santa Catalina where Lewis believes the key to the mystery is hidden. It is a trap. Lewis is taken, and Joseph severely injured. Rolling off a cliff and into the sea, he eventually washes up onshore and is able to reach one of Suleyman's mosques, from where he is taken to Suleyman himself. When he recovers, his implant has been removed. He is a free agent, but also a fugitive. If the Company ever discovers he is still alive, there will be Hell to pay. Suleyman gives him the same message as Porfirio did: go, and don't come back.

2275: San Francisco and Mount Tamalpais, California

Joseph follows Victor's instructions and locates Budu, buried by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He takes the remains to one of the Company's storage facilities under Mount Tamalpais and starts the process of revivification, with help from the cyborg Abdiel, whose entire life consists of journeying between these facilities, maintaining them.

Joseph in the darkness

Joseph settles down to wait for Budu to re-activate, and tells his recovering corpse his story. He likens himself to Hamlet, for delaying too long in taking action, resulting in the deaths of all around him. But he still has 74 years until 2355...

Hugh Norreys, crippled in a road accident, watches from his couch as John Gabriel runs for parliament in the small Cornish town of St. Loo. Hugh's invalid status seems to encourage his visitors to reveal their secrets and emotions. Hugh is mystified by Gabriel, an ugly little man who, nevertheless, is attractive to women. He is also intrigued by Isabella, a beautiful young woman from the castle down the road. So, Hugh and most of St. Loo are shocked when, shortly after Gabriel wins the election, he and Isabella run away together and Gabriel resigns as a member of parliament.

The novel explores love, caring for others, redemption, and a gothic tragedy of one woman and the men who love her.

''Strider'' takes place two years after the end of ''Dear Mr. Henshaw'', and Leigh Botts has grown a lot. At age 14, he writes in his diary about his experiences with his parents' divorce, starting high school, his friend Barry, a red-haired girl named Geneva, and a dog named Strider, whom he and Barry find abandoned on a beach.

Leigh and Barry decide to share custody of Strider, in the same way divorced parents share custody of their children. However, as time goes on, Barry doesn't seem to take good care of Strider, which causes trouble for Leigh. Finally, feeling desperate, he winds up taking custody of him. He is a dog that loves to run, so they run every morning. Because of Strider, Leigh finds himself running well enough to join the school track team. He also develops a crush on Geneva, who is on the track team.

In the film, Lords is the reigning queen of "good girl gone bad." This is a story of a glamor photographer's fixation with a beautiful model named Traci. A French film festival is the setting, where Traci arrives and gets the attention of photographers. She gets the special attention of Jean-Paul (Gabriel Pontello), who sees her as his favorite nude model. Jean Paul finds Traci to be the very essence of sensuality. She finally agrees to pose for him and they begin a love affair, where he helps her to explore her sexuality through his underworld connections in the Arena of Pleasure. Traci discovers true love and the ultimate sex adventure.

First, Traci has sex with a casting agent. She becomes a topless dancer, and Jean-Paul secretly watches in the audience. Off stage, she gets a necklace from Jean-Paul with her name engraved, which makes her remember another sexual encounter. On that night, with an audience watching, she ends up in an orgy with Leanna, Diana, Monique (Marilyn Jess) and a group of strange men dressed in all black. Jean-Paul watches from the audience before joining. Traci's presence arouses the audience members who finally get involved. After remembering, Traci takes the necklace to meet Jean-Paul in a car. He puts his gift around her neck, then Traci opens her legs to reveal she is not wearing any panties.

The central character of the film is Harry Melchior, based on the real tunneler, Hasso Herschel. Despite being imprisoned for several years for his role in the June 1953 uprising in East Germany, Melchior competes for and wins the national swimming championship in 1961. With the aid of a false passport and disguise, Harry succeeds in fleeing to West Berlin. His best friend, Matthis, manages to escape through the underground sewer, but Matthis's pregnant wife Carola is caught and remains in East Berlin. Harry's beloved sister, Lotte, and her husband and daughter are ambivalent about leaving the confines of the GDR.

Committed to getting their loved ones out of the GDR but knowing that ground routes are heavily guarded, Harry and Matthis have the idea of going underground. Matthis is an engineer by training. They link up with a small circle of others, initially Vittorio 'Vic' Constanza and Fred von Klausnitz. They find an unused factory building close to the Wall that has ample underground space. They are eventually joined by Fritzi Scholz, whose fiancé, Heiner, is also trapped in the east.

The work is slow, hard and sometimes dangerous, and the group reluctantly agrees to take in several more helpers. Over a span of months, the tunnel takes shape following Matthis' design, with the necessary shoring, lights and even a railbed. Discovering a film crew from NBC in the city one day, the leaders convince the network to fund their efforts in exchange for exclusive footage of the digging and eventual escape.

In the meantime, communication with the would-be rescuees in the east is necessary but hazardous. Vic, an American citizen, can pass through the border freely. He is in contact with Lotte and with Carola. The latter, however, has been blackmailed by the Stasi to inform; if she does not cooperate, the state will take her soon-to-be-born baby. Carola informs on Vic and he is detained when trying to cross back to West Berlin. He is released after a while but cannot go back to the east. Fritzi's love, Heiner, makes a futile attempt to cross the barbed wire and walls, but is shot by the East German border guards and left to die in a scene mirroring the true case of Peter Fechter. The American soldiers prevent Harry from climbing the wall to help Heiner.

Overseeing the efforts to thwart tunnelers and other efforts at "illegal emigration" is Colonel Kröger.

Finally the pieces are all in place for the planned escape of about 30 people. Word is spread by surreptitious means, though the Stasi are watching closely. They go to the home of Fred's widowed mother to take her into custody, but she takes her own life first.

Carola has admitted to Lotte that she has been an informant but swears she can now be trusted. In a ruse that means leaving her baby with Lotte's family, she leads her Stasi tail to a remote location far from the actual escape site. In the meantime, Fritzi has crossed the border with a fake passport to guide the escapees through the tunnel. After the true location of the escape is discovered, Harry enters East Berlin through the tunnel and, surprising a border guard, takes his uniform, helmet and gun, and blends in with the troops swarming the area in order to send them in wrong directions. The would-be escapees gather in a café across from the building where the tunnel begins, and Fritzi gradually escorts them over. Tense moments ensue as Colonel Kröger closes in, and pursues the escapees through the tunnel. A sign has been erected in the tunnel marking the boundary of the French sector, and the pursuing guards have the political sense to know they cannot go further.

The storyline in ''Team Apache'' is developed through FMV sequences, in-mission briefings and newspaper articles.

Colombian Campaign

In 1998, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia–Ejército del Pueblo or FARC-EP (Spanish for "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army") has staged a large-scale guerrilla offensive against the government of Colombia. In its wake comes a wave of kidnappings and assassinations of high-ranking officials and their families. The corrupt and inefficient military of Colombia and police cannot hold their own against the insurgents, and need help from the United States. The United States needs to safeguard Colombia's oil industry and eliminate FARC's illegal cocaine industry.

Latvian Campaign

Mr. Krabs struggles to get out of bed; after getting up, he asks Pearl if she thinks he's old, which Pearl says she does. When he arrives to the Krusty Krab, he overhears a customer complaining that their Krabby Patty tastes weird, which their mother comments that it is "all old and dried out," comparing it to Mr. Krabs, upsetting him further. After SpongeBob and Patrick announce their "big night out," Mr. Krabs asks to join, in an attempt to feel young again.

During the evening, SpongeBob and Patrick arrive to Mr. Krabs' house, and the three characters take off to a laundromat, where SpongeBob and Patrick watch their faces spin in the mirror's reflection of a washing machine; Mr. Krabs finds this activity boring, and would rather see more of the night life. They then partake in several more bizarre activities, none of which satisfies Mr. Krabs. At an arcade, SpongeBob, Patrick and several children ask Mr. Krabs if he's "feeling it" multiple times, which angers him, berating the duo. As he's about the cancel his night out, Patrick then changes his mind when he reveals that they are going out on a "panty raid," grabbing the interest of Mr. Krabs.

When SpongeBob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs arrive to grab a woman's underwear from her dresser drawer, they are caught, and it turns out that the woman happens to be Krabs' mother. Because of this antic, she grounds her son; SpongeBob follows him and apologizes, to which Mr. Krabs forgives him, and says that being in his old bedroom made him feel young again. After SpongeBob and Patrick leave, Mr. Krabs is ordered by his mother to shut off his bedroom lights.

In the opening, Kang hopes to speed up an exceedingly slow and boring baseball game, despite Kodos' protests, but ends up destroying the universe when the baseball players go so fast, they turn into a killer vortex which sucks up the universe, even God. When Kodos berates Kang off-camera for destroying the universe, Kang responds by leaving a post-it note on the white void, revealing the title of the episode.

B.I. Bartificial Intelligence

In this spoof of ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'', Bart winds up in a deep coma after attempting to jump out of a window into a swimming pool. The family takes in a robotic boy, named David, who quickly proves to be a better son. Bart soon wakes up from his coma and competes against David for the affection of the rest of his family. However, Bart is dumped on a road by Homer, who decides to keep David instead. When Bart finds a group of old rusty robots, he steals their parts to become a cyborg. Angry that Homer abandoned him, he then returns home and cuts through both David and Homer with a chainsaw after the robot tries to use Homer as a shield. Although the family is now together again, Homer is angry that he has to be fused with David's lower half, which soon collapses due to Homer's weight. Suddenly, the whole scenario is revealed to be a dream conjured by Homer's demonically possessed mind as he is being exorcised. Marge reluctantly says she will call work and tell them Homer cannot make it in, much to his delight.

Survival of the Fattest

In a parody of the 1924 Richard Connell short story "The Most Dangerous Game", men from Springfield arrive at Mr. Burns' mansion to go hunting. Unbeknownst to them, they are the prey to be hunted, with Burns pledging that if they survive by noon the following day, they will be free to go home. The hunt is broadcast on live television as ''The World Series of Manslaughter'', with Terry Bradshaw as a guest analyst. Homer manages to survive the night while the others are killed left and right, but Burns closes in on him in the morning. Just as he is about to be shot, Burns and Smithers are knocked out by Marge with a frying pan in each hand, who then hits Homer on the head for being away from home for 18 hours without calling, before they end up having make-up sex behind the astonished Bradshaw.

I've Grown a Costume on Your Face

In a parody of ''The Twilight Zone'' episode "The Masks", the citizens of Springfield dress in their Halloween costumes for a semi-annual contest party. The winner is declared to be a strange old green-skinned witch. When given the award and asked who she is, she is forced to admit that she is a real witch. As a result, her reward is rescinded because she is not in actual costume. In anger over losing her gift certificate, she turns everyone into their costumed characters, including transforming Homer into a decapitated human, Marge into a skeleton, Bart into a werewolf, Lisa into Albert Einstein, Dr. Hibbert into Count Dracula, Apu into R2-D2 and Hans Moleman into a mole (though he complains that he wasn't wearing a costume). The only person who can reverse the spell is Maggie, who was dressed as a witch. Instead of reversing the spell, Maggie turns them all into pacifiers with their normal heads and then flies off on a broom. The segment ends as Moe and a transformed Dennis Rodman talk to the audience about the importance of reading.

The story of ''Kraith'' is ostensibly concerned with Spock finding a wife. The series, however, set out to question the presentation, in ''Star Trek'', of humans as the dominant race throughout the galaxy. James Kirk was shown as imposing not only human values, but specifically 20th century American values on them, supposedly for their own good or to save them from being conquered by the Klingons. Lichtenberg's stories showed this as reflecting the overall attitude of the Earth-dominated Federation toward unaffiliated and member worlds, which other cultures and species, which would have different values and might reject capitalism, would object to.

Vulcan, with its monoculture derived from the Reforms of Surak, has been affected by contact with other races. Many Vulcans in the stories feel the changes are not for the better. A major plot arc concerns a proposal that Vulcan secede from the Federation. It is officially voted down, but there are still many who agree with the idea. Lichtenberg's goal was to show that the Vulcan culture we saw on the show was not perfect, and that contact with other civilizations would help post-Reform culture evolve from its present, static form, to "what it ought to become". The friendship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy became a microcosm reflecting these changes.

Lichtenberg believed that, at the time, most readers incapable of accepting the ideas she proposes, because they were far too radical or ahead of their time.

''Kraith'' took a different turn with the input of Sondra Marshak as Lichtenberg's chief collaborator. One of Lichtenberg's plot arcs concerned the idea that Kirk, having been in contact with a number of telepathic alien species, had gained telepathy. In order learn control and proper use of his new abilities he came to Vulcan to attend a psychic school. For this and other reasons, some politically complex, he was then adopted by Sarek and educated in the Vulcan way of life. This education had occasionally involved a "Warder-Liege compact" between Kirk and Spock, in which Kirk accepted Spock as his mentor and obeyed his commands (or vice versa, as in the Kraith novel ''Federation Centennial'').

Marshak, seeing plot possibilities in the Warder-Liege, and revived and expanded on its implications. Later ''Kraith'' stories are rife with BDSM undertones, and in one entry, Joan Winston's "The Maze" (published in ''Metamorphosis'' 2), Spock spanks Kirk a as punishment for disobeying an order in favor of saving Spock's life while under Warder-Liege restrictions.

Princess Yasmin of Lugash (Debrah Farentino) is abducted in French territorial waters off the coast of Nice by terrorists led by a mercenary named Hans (Robert Davi) in order to force her father to abdicate and allow her disgraced stepmother's lover, a military general with terrorist ties to an unfriendly neighboring kingdom, to claim the throne. Police Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is tasked with solving the case of the kidnapped princess. While investigating her disappearance in the South of France, he has a run-in with the kidnappers, and a local ''gendarme'', named Jacques Gambrelli (Roberto Benigni). Gambrelli opens the rear doors of the kidnapper's van and unknowingly spies the Princess who he believes is the driver's sister en route to the hospital.

Hans becomes aware that Gambrelli witnessed the Princess in the back of his van and sends his henchmen to kill Gambrelli as a routine precaution. Dreyfus follows Gambrelli to the hospital where he observes the bumbling Gambrelli's antics with stumbling around as well as getting his bicycle stuck in a wet cement sidewalk outside the hospital. When Hans' henchmen arrive and chase after Gambrelli on his bicycle, Dreyfus intervenes and saves the klutzy policeman. He then takes Gambrelli to his home where he lives with his mother Maria (Claudia Cardinale) whom Dreyfus recognizes as a suspect in a murder case 30 years ago. During the casual encounter with Maria, Dreyfus learns from her Gambrelli is in fact the illegitimate son of the late Inspector Jacques Clouseau. When Hans' men attempt to plant a bomb under the Gambrelli house, it leads to Dreyfus becoming injured instead and sent to the hospital.

While Maria decides to stay beside the injured Dreyfus at the hospital to see him recover, they both reveal Gambrelli's origins to him as the only known offspring of the late Inspector Clouseau. Gambrelli finally decides to set off to rescue Princess Yasmin and prove himself his father's true heir and legacy. Gambrelli recognizes one of Hans' henchmen at the hospital who is inquiring about a doctor for Hans who is injured after Yasmin had attempted to escape. Impersonating a doctor, Gambrelli gains access to Hans' hideout and clumsily attempts to treat the injured Hans. Jacques accidentally stabs himself in the cheek with a needle filled with Novocaine, and gets locked up with the princess.

Hans decides to move his safe house out of France and to Lugash, and sends his men to kill Gambrelli by placing him in a van and rolling it down a steep road off a cliff, but Gambrelli manages to escape. Seeking help, Gambrelli travels to Paris to look up Clouseau's old friends and soon meets his late father's former manservant Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk) who directs him to Inspector Clouseau's former costumer Professor Auguste Balls (Graham Stark) to assist them with making new disguises for themselves to travel to Lugash to rescue Princess Yasmin. Gambrelli and Cato fly to Lugash where they meet a government agent at a local restaurant to point them the location of Hans' new hideout.

While being followed by the Lugash Army, as well as Cato, Gambrelli ventures to a castle located outside the Lugash capital city where in a climatic gun battle, Gambrelli gains access to the castle with the assistance of the army and after confronting Hans and his henchmen, defeats them, with a little of Cato's help and rescues Princess Yasmin.

After returning to France, Gambrelli is promoted to detective and transfers to Paris' metro police force as a full Police Inspector. He attends the wedding of Maria and Dreyfus whom have gotten engaged during their time together while Dreyfus recuperated at the hospital. During the reception, Dreyfus is uncomfortably shocked when Gambrelli's twin sister Jacqueline Gambrelli (Nicoletta Braschi) appears and who turns out to be just a clumsy and dim-witted as her brother, as Maria tells Dreyfus that she in fact had twins from her one-time tryst with Inspector Clouseau.

The final scene has Inspector Gambrelli attending a ceremony in Lugash attended by King Haroak and Princess Yasmin who award him with a special medal for his rescue of Yasmin which is attended by Maria, Dreyfus, Cato, Prof. Balls and Jacqueline Gambrelli where his clumsy antics disrupt the proceedings just like his father's Inspector Clouseau's antics used to do in previous Pink Panther films. Gambrelli closes the film by saying "That felt good!" following by the image of Gambrelli freezing as the animated Pink Panther walks across the still of Jacques, until an animated Gambrelli suddenly cuts away the head of live-action Gambrelli and pops out of the hole, dropping the head on the Panther's foot. Having been made a fool by Gambrelli once again, the enraged Panther chases him into fading blackness.

In Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner operated as TOPAC Flight 420 prepares to takeoff for San Francisco with 16 passengers and a crew of five. Former captain Dan Roman, the flight's veteran first officer known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by a takeoff crash in South America that killed his wife and son and left him with a permanent limp. 420's captain, Sullivan, suffers from a secret fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers and crew. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby are contrasts in age and experience. Stewardess Spalding attends her passengers, each with varying personal problems, and befriends the terminally ill Frank Briscoe after being charmed by his pocket watch. A last minute arrival, businessman Humphrey Agnew, soon causes her misgivings by his strange behavior.

After a routine departure, 420 experiences sporadic sudden vibrations. Although the crew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, they cannot locate a problem. When a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing amiss. After nightfall, as the plane passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs, accusing him of having an affair with Agnew's wife. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a gun, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the plane swerves violently when it loses a propeller and the engine catches fire. The crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the crew radios for help, assisted by an amateur radio operator aboard the steamer ''S.S. Cristobal Trader'', and sets in motion a rescue operation. Dan discovers that the airliner is losing fuel from damage to a wing tank and that as a result, along with adverse winds and the drag of the damaged engine, the plane will eventually run out of fuel and be forced to ditch.

Unassuming fisherman José Locota disarms Agnew and confiscates the gun, compelling him to sit quietly. Broadway producer Gustave Pardee, who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, but warns that their chances of making the coast are "one in a thousand." The passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. In San Francisco, Operations Manager Tim Garfield, who redeemed Roman's career by hiring him at TOPAC, arrives at the airline's operations center but is not sanguine about their chances. A favorable change in the winds and the arrival of a Coast Guard rescue B-17 to escort them raises the crew's hopes that they have just enough fuel to reach San Francisco. Wilby, however, discovers that in his nervousness he made an elementary error in navigation and their actual remaining time in the air is less than he originally calculated.

Garfield sends Sullivan a suggestion for conserving fuel that he fears Sullivan will disregard as disparaging his flying ability. Dan's experience tells him that their luck would be better trying to make land than ditching in the rough seas at night, and he recognizes that fear rather than judgment is governing Sullivan's decisions. When Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, Dan slaps him back to his senses. Dan adjusts the controls without Sullivan's permission to save gas. A recalculation of the remaining fuel convinces Dan the fuel supply is barely sufficient to reach San Francisco if the tail winds continue to increase, which persuades Sullivan to make the gamble.

As the airliner approaches rain-swept San Francisco in the middle of the night and at a perilously low altitude, the airport prepares for an emergency instrument landing. The plane narrowly surmounts the city's hills and breaks out of the clouds with the runway lights dead ahead, guiding them to a safe landing. As the passengers disembark, Garfield watches their reactions from the shadows of the terminal as they are harried by inquisitive reporters. After the tumult dies down, he joins the crew inspecting the damaged airplane and informs Dan that only thirty gallons of gas remained in their tanks. Dan acknowledges the gamble they took and walks away. "So long...you ancient pelican," Garfield mutters to his disappearing form.

Johnnie Maher is under a lot of pressure. Recently emigrated from Ireland to The Bronx, he sleepwalks and experiences nightmares. Try as he might, he can not identify the cause of his torment or make sense of the fleeting remains of his dreams. He shrugs them off, but things seem to be getting worse. Johnnie works as foreman on his uncle Trump's construction crew. Work tensions run high as the building owners complain about the cost and pace, while the workers constantly find their pay-packets shorted. Sly as a fox, Uncle Trump always explains everything away. Even when arrested for indecent exposure in a park frequented by gay men on the prowl for sex, he handily swears he only stopped there to relieve himself and was arrested by mistake. Openly bisexual, Johnnie's pressures mount when his girlfriend, Maria, and a sex-partner, Christian, begin to pressure him for more commitment. He fumbles his responses, and no one is satisfied. Finally, Johnnie catches his Uncle Trump in an act that fractures the dam of memories, and in a short time, they come flooding back into Johnnie's consciousness. Although shaken to his core, Johnnie finds the answers he needs. Most importantly, he survives the flood and can finally move forward.

Alan challenges Billy to eat a worm a day for 15 days. The winner gets $50. Tom prepares the worms in a variety of ways to make them more appetizing, using condiments such as ketchup, mustard, horseradish, and maple syrup. His parents eventually find out about the bet, but he is allowed to finish and eventually wins. Billy drives his newly-won mini-bike over to his usual lunch-spot and we hear that he's gotten so used to eating worms, he now can't stop.

The first part is an extension of the first person accounts previously supplied by Mendoza, which accounts are apparently previous chapters in her journal, written on any material she can get. Somehow all of this manages to stay intact for the unknown amount of time, perhaps 3000 years, that Mendoza spends in exile on Santa Catalina. The period is uncertain because Mendoza herself cannot remember living through some portions of it. From time to time she looks down at her plants, and next time she looks up months or years have slipped by. She may just be doing the cyborg version of 'zoning out', but since she has already slipped forward in time once, there's no telling what might be happening. What is certain is that she is about 150,000 years in the past, growing fruit and vegetables for a Company resort on Santa Cruz island.

One day, a man shows up in a Company Time Shuttle. These previously unknown vessels let the Company ship tourists back to the past, but can only be piloted by cyborgs. Nonetheless the man is the image of her two previous lovers, and she does unto him what she did unto them. This time, however, he leaves behind genetic material when he goes back to the future. She is able to learn from this that he is no more human than she, but in a different way. His name is Alec Checkerfield.

Next we learn about "Smart Alec", precocious scion of rich privileged 24th century Londoners, who leave him in the care of their housekeepers so they can get on with their lives away from dismal, puritanical England. Alec affects all around him, especially machines. Given a highly controlled moral teaching unit at a young age, he is able to re-program it by instinct to become his personal assistant and, eventually, partner in crime. This entity becomes "The Captain", after the pirate Captain Morgan. They resolve to rule the oceans of the world, using smuggling to pay the bills. Since meat, alcohol, chocolate etc. are illegal in most of the developed world, this is both easy and lucrative.

With the assistance of the Captain, Alec outwits the Company and becomes master of his own time machine. This is in no small part thanks to Mendoza, who disables the self-destruct device on the one he initially stole from the Company. However, at the peak of his achievements, he finds he has committed one of the most heinous crimes of history. He, Mendoza and the Inklings all become aware of their parts in this. All are left desolated, filled with self-loathing and worse.

Setting

In the past, a comet crashed into the world, throwing dust clouds into the sky and shrouding the world in cold and darkness. At about the same time, the inhabitants, the Aethers, discovered a new form of energy from the meteorite's core, which they named Lens. Combining this with further research, the people were able to create cities in the sky and live in them. Unfortunately, only a select few were chosen, leaving the rest of the people to remain on the bleak surface of the planet. These people became known as the Erthers.

Over time, the sky's inhabitants became known as the Aetherians and their Aeropolis cities. They created a horrific weapon called the Belcrant that shot down any who dared oppose them. This caused full-scale war to erupt between the two civilizations, now known as the Aeth'er Wars. However, regardless of their will and persistence, the Aetherians continued to have the power to dominate every engagement through the use of their superweapon.

In their disgust of their civilization's elitist behavior, a group of Aetherian scientists went to the surface. There, with aid from the people, they were able to create special swords, called Swordians, that were sentient. Unlike other weapons, these swords chose their masters and were able to call upon the elements of nature to do their will. Using these weapons, the people of the surface finally had an edge against the Aetherians.

Thanks in part to the Swordians and their masters, scores of Aeropolis were sunk to the depths of the ocean. In the end, the Erthers claimed victory over the Aetherians. Thousands of years later, this story has been mostly forgotten. In the meantime, the purposeless Swordians fell into a deep stasis sleep, only to awaken when grave threats rose once again.

Story

The story of the game begins when country-boy-turned-adventurer Stahn Aileron, who seeks fame and adventure, sneaks aboard the flying ship Draconis as a stowaway. He is found out by the crew and forced to work as a deckhand, but when a large hostile force attacks the ship, the crew is overwhelmed and Stahn breaks free during the ensuing chaos. Looking for a usable weapon to fend off the attackers, he gains access to a storeroom and discovers a "junk" sword. However, the sword starts talking to him, calling itself Dymlos and claiming to be a sentient Swordian from the Aeth'er Wars. Armed with Dymlos, Stahn fights his way to an escape pod, which he uses to escape the rapidly descending ship before it crashes into the ground.

Dymlos becomes the key to the fame, fortune, and adventure Stahn seeks as the young man meets other Swordians, quickly becoming embroiled in a battle for a relic of the Aeth'er Wars: a huge, extremely powerful Lens called the Eye of Atamoni.

Main characters

• is a 19-year-old adventurer who grows into a powerful sword-based physical fighter, Stahn is the protagonist of ''Tales of Destiny''. Not known for his intelligence or his cultured background, his fire-elemental Swordian is Dymlos. He is voiced by Tomokazu Seki.
• , armed with Atwight, the Swordian of water, is an 18-year-old headstrong Lens hunter who travels the world looking to make a profit with her partner, Mary, and eventually develops a romantic relationship with Stahn. She is voiced by Yuka Imai.
• is a master swordsman of Seinegald – at age 16 the youngest in history to serve the kingdom, and a close associate of the president of the powerful Oberon Company. A complex and slightly brooding character, Leon's agile Swordian is Chaltier. He is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa.
• is a 19-year-old priestess. Isolated from the outside world until the events of the game, she has a sweet, charming personality and is very dependable, but she can also be overly fastidious. Her powerful spell casting ability is augmented by her Swordian, Clemente. She is voiced by Kikuko Inoue.
• is the 23-year-old Prince of Phandaria, and a skilled archer as well as a swordsman; Igtenos is his wind-elemental Swordian. Wise and mature, he is known for his cool-headed battle tactics. He is voiced by Shō Hayami.
• is a 24-year-old woman who suffers from amnesia, and is not aware of her last name due to an unknown event in her past. Mary has no Swordian, but can use swords and axes as a strong physical attacker. She is generally easy-going, but sometimes flies into berserker rages in battle. She is voiced by Yuri Amano.
• is the 14-year-old granddaughter of Garr's archery master, Alba. Though she appears cute and innocent, she is an archer skilled beyond her age. She is voiced by Naoko Watanabe.
• is a 39-year-old powerful fighter from a battle arena. Loud and egotistical, he uses his fists as weapons. He is voiced by Tesshō Genda.
• is the estranged 26-year-old son of an aristocratic family and a bard by trade. Seemingly fragile from outward appearances, he can provide useful support in the party through songs played on his lute. He is voiced by Kōichi Yamadera.
• is Stahn's younger sister. She is cheerful and energetic, but knows when to command respect when she is angry. Lilith fights with a frying pan and has no Swordian. She is voiced by Chie Sawaguchi.

Angel asks Wesley and Cordelia to look into the mysterious history of the abandoned Hyperion Hotel. A photograph of the hotel blends into an action shot of the hotel exterior during the 1950s, as the manager sends the bellhop upstairs to give the guest in 217 his weekly bill. The bellhop nervously makes his delivery, then runs downstairs, as Angel- the feared occupant of 217 -opens the door. As the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings blare on a TV, Angel strolls through the lobby and the manager turns away an African-American family, telling them that (despite what their sign says) the hotel has no vacancies. On the second floor, heading towards his room, he observes a man banging on a door. In the background, two men share a furtive romantic moment outside a room door. Back in his room, Angel finds a woman pretending to be a maid. When Angel calls her bluff, she tells him that she's hiding from her boyfriend, the man earlier seen banging on a door. Angel helps her hide from him, smashing the door in his face when the man pulls a gun.

In the present, Angel visits the now-abandoned Hyperion. While doing research with Wesley, Cordelia discovers that the property is a historical landmark, but that it has been plagued by strange events since it was built. Cordelia then spots Angel in a 1952 photograph of the hotel lobby, and Wesley realizes that Angel has a personal connection to the Hyperion.

In 1952, the salesman in the room next to Angel's listens to a record, talks to someone unseen, then holds a gun to his head. Angel hears a gunshot and the record skipping, and drinks his glass of chilled blood without reacting. When the manager and bellhop discover the salesman's suicide, the manager hears a demonic voice whispering, "They'll shut you down," and instructs the bellhop not to call the police. They then hide the body in a meat locker. That night, the guests gather at Griffith Observatory, where they discuss the suicide and wonder why the police haven't been notified. Judy tries to thank Angel, but he is unreceptive. The next day, the guests continue to discuss the salesman, questioning if he might have been murdered. Upstairs, when Angel comments on Judy's agitation, she confesses the man banging on the door was a PI sent by the bank from which she stole money. She was fired from the bank when they found out that, although she "passes" as white, she is actually part African American. Her fiancé also left her when he found out. Angry at the bank, she stole the money, but has not spent any of it, and Judy regrets her decision to steal. Angel replies that "fear makes people do stupid things," then clarifies he was referring to her employers. As Angel stashes Judy's bag of money in the basement, he hears whispering and realizes something in the hotel is making people paranoid.

In the present, Cordelia and Wesley find newspaper reports of the bellhop's execution for the salesman's murder, and an article about Judy with the headline, "Search Called Off — Fugitive Woman Believed Dead." Down in the basement, Angel finds the bag of money and once again hears the whispering. He contacts the others, announcing the hotel hosts a Thesulac demon that whispers to its victims, then feeds on their insecurities. He says he already knows the ritual to make it corporeal so that it can be killed.

In 1952, Angel returns from a bookstore where he has learned the ritual to corporealize the demon; meanwhile, the PI reveals Judy's secret. When the guests turn on her, she points them towards Angel, announcing that he has blood in his room. Everyone attacks Angel, except Judy, who starts to cry. Angel is dragged into the hallway; a noose is tied to a rafter and he is pushed over the railing to hang. The crowd cheers, then slowly wonders what they've done. When everyone leaves, Angel frees himself and drops to the lobby floor. On the stairs, the Thesulac demon becomes corporeal, gloating about the paranoia he just fed on; Judy's despair is particularly delicious as she had just come to start to have faith in humanity again due to Angel's friendship and help. Her pain at what she has done to Angel has made her "a meal that will last a lifetime". The demon says, "There's an entire hotel here just full of tortured souls that could use your help." Angel replies, "Take them all.", abandoning Judy and the rest of the residents to their fate.

In the present, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn arrive at the Hyperion and, after performing the spell to make the Thesulac corporeal, Angel electrocutes it with the exposed wires of the fuse box. Angel heads upstairs and finds Judy, now old, still in her room, where she has served as the Demon's "room service" since 1952. She says the voices are gone, and asks Angel if it is safe to go out. He tells her it is, but she is so tired that she needs to rest first. She then tells Angel that she is sorry she got him killed and asks his forgiveness. He assures her she did not kill him and tells her that he forgives her. She then passes away. Angel returns downstairs and announces that they're moving in. Wesley reminds Angel that evil things have happened in the hotel, but Angel tells him that all of that is in the past.

Two students at the local university, Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis, take refuge from a storm in West Mansion, a local landmark known as "Splatterhouse", for the rumors of hideous experiments purportedly conducted there by Dr. West, a renowned and missing parapsychologist. As they enter the mansion and the door shuts behind them, Jennifer screams.

Rick awakens in a dungeon under the mansion having been resurrected thanks to the influence of the "Terror Mask", or in some versions, the "Hell Mask", a Mayan sacrificial artifact from West's house which is capable of sentient thought. The mask attaches itself to Rick, fusing with his body and transforming him into a monster with superhuman strength. With the mask's encouragement, Rick goes on a rampage through the dungeon and the mansion grounds, killing hordes of monsters.

Inside the mansion, Rick finds Jennifer, prone on a couch and surrounded by a throng of creatures that retreat upon his arrival. After their departure, Jennifer transforms into a slightly taller, fanged monster that attempts to kill Rick while begging him for help. Rick is forced to kill Jennifer, who transforms back to normal and thanks him before she dies. Infuriated, Rick tracks the remaining monsters to a giant, bloody hole in the mansion's floor.

Upon entering it, Rick discovers that the mansion itself is alive. He follows a bloody hallway to the house's "womb", which produces fetus-like monsters that attack him. Rick destroys the womb, which causes the house to burst into flames as it "dies".

Escaping the burning mansion, Rick comes across a grave marker. The Terror Mask releases energy into the grave, reviving a giant monster named "Hell Chaos" that claws its way up from the earth and attempts to kill Rick. Rick destroys the creature, which unleashes a tormented ghost that dissipates into a series of bright lights. As the lights vanish, the mask shatters, turning Rick back to normal, and he flees as the house burns to the ground and the credits roll. However, after he leaves and the credits end, the Terror Mask reassembles itself and laughs evilly for several seconds as the word "END" appears in the bottom right corner of the screen.

After his investigation into an oxycodone ring results in a botched drug bust, NYPD Detective Eddie Arlette is sent to London to assist Scotland Yard with its work on the same case. Eddie and his British police partner, Inspector Monty Pippin, help crack the case, and Eddie is asked to stay on at Scotland Yard. He initially declines but suddenly changes his mind to the surprise of those around him.

In addition to his work, Eddie has an adversarial but flirtatious relationship with Fiona, who occupies the flat he is renting from her parents; she begrudgingly puts up with him (and his Bull Terrier, Pete), because he has threatened to reveal to her parents that she is not actually enrolled at university. Eddie frequently tries to make Fiona question her relationship with her boyfriend, Nigel. It is possible that he would like them to break up so he might be able to date Fiona. In the final episodes of the series, Eddie and Fiona seem to be forming a deeper connection with each other, while still maintaining their teasing relationship. In the final episode, it is predicted that Eddie will fall in love with a woman on a red bus. In the last moments of the episode, Eddie sees Fiona get off a red bus. He clearly notices this fact but chooses not to tell Fiona.

Eddie's other influential relationship, while in England, is with his friend and co-worker Monty Pippin. On his first day in London, Pippin takes Eddie to a swingers club. Pippin explains that he is not actually married but he and a friend pretend to be, so they can take part in the club. Pippin has many other strange sexual habits. In one episode, Pippin joins a support group for "sexaholics" (nymphomaniacs) but tells the group his name is Eddie Arlett. He also drops his English accent and takes on an American one. He never takes the support group seriously and promptly attempts to seduce one of his group members. While Eddie puts up with Pippin's antics, he frequently tries to encourage Pippin to change. Eddie also states that Pippin's personality is not natural as everything Pippin does contradicts something he did previously.

Eddie also has a flirtatious, albeit a seemingly imaginary, relationship with Carol Ross (Superintendent Nathanial Johnson's assistant), whom he calls "Ms. Moneypenny" and with whom he banters using double entendres. When he asks her seemingly innocent questions, she gives a sexual reply ("How are you, Miss Moneypenny?" "Completely...shaved." or "What's new, Miss Moneypenny?" "Crotchless panties." or "What's your position, Miss Moneypenny?" "On...all...fours."). Eddie frequently asks those around him if they heard her response. Except for a single incident in the episode ''Keeping Up Appearances'', no one ever appears to have heard her sexual response but simply hear a neutral comment (when he asks her how she's doing, he hears her say "Terribly horny", but anyone he asks heard "Terribly well").

Eddie's dog Pete is extremely ill-tempered. Eddie attempts to leave him in quarantine at the airport when he arrives in England but Pippin rescues Pete, by claiming Pete is a police dog. Pete chews on everything and frequently destroys TV remote controls and cellphones. He also has strange sexual appetites, from Fiona's cat Princess to a fur coat to sleeping humans. More than once, he has aggressively cornered visitors at the apartment and forced them to stand motionless for hours until Fiona or Eddie come home.

Eddie also has a catchphrase when introduced to a villain or upon making an arrest: "Hi, I'm Eddie...how do you like me so far?"

Over the course of his adventures, Master Higgins managed to maintain the peace and tranquility of his home, the mystical Adventure Island, and even earned the love and support of the local "Miss Jungle", the lovely Tina (erroneously called "Jeannie Jungle" in English materials). At nighttime, the young hero was quietly enjoying a well-deserved rest with his grateful girlfriend Tina loyally leaning on his side atop a treetop (said to be stargazing in the English manual). When the warmth of Tina's soft touch suddenly becomes a chilling coldness, he turns around and is shocked to find that the evil sorcerer, Dark Cloak, used a spell to turn Tina into a stone statue for eternity. Dark Cloak retreats to the legendary Ice Mountain across the sea, and Higgins resolves to defeat the wicked sorcerer in order to restore her to life.

The player controls Higgins as he travels his way through five stages with four areas each. The first three areas in each stage has Higgins fighting his way through an obstacle course, fighting many traps and enemies, in order to reach the goal ball. The final area in each stage consists of a boss battle.

''The Wall'' is the story of Pink, who grows up to become an alienated and embittered rock star, with a failing marriage and feelings of megalomania. "The Thin Ice" can be seen as the introduction to his story, since the previous song, the album's opening track "In The Flesh?" is chronologically placed later in the album's narrative, and then the story is begun via flashback. "The Thin Ice" introduces Pink as a baby and young child, and while the lyrics assure the listener that ''"Mama loves her baby, and Daddy loves you, too"'', it warns that ''"[T]he sea may look warm... the sky may look blue"'', but ''"Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice/Appears under your feet"''.

''The Wall'' tells the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star in retreat from society and personal relationships. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" concerns Pink's youth, attending a school run by strict and often violent teachers who treat the pupils with contempt.

According to Waters, the lyrics were a reflection of his own negative experience in school. He described this in an interview with Tommy Vance of BBC Radio One.

''The Wall'' tells the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star. As told through the song "Mother", part of Pink's sense of alienation comes from being raised by an overprotective single mother, who lost her husband, Pink's father, in World War II. The song narrates a conversation by Pink (voiced by Waters) and his mother (voiced by Gilmour). The listener learns of the overprotectiveness of Pink's mother, who is helping Pink build his wall to try to protect him from the outside world, evidenced by the line ''"Of course Momma's gonna help build the wall,"'' spoken by Pink's mother. She insists that Pink stay by her side even after he grows up, and cannot stand it when Pink eventually grows older and falls in love.

In a brief prologue, a skylark is heard chirping. The sound of approaching bombers catches the attention of a child (voiced by a young Harry Waters), who states, "Look mummy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky".

The lyrics go on to describe the memory of the Blitz: ''Did you see the frightened ones? Did you hear the falling bombs? Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky? ... The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on.''

''The Wall'' tells the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star. At this point in the album's narrative, Pink has achieved wealth and fame, and is usually away from home, due to the demands of his career as a touring performer. He is having casual sex with groupies to relieve the tedium of the road, and is living a separate life from his wife.

The end of the song is a segment of dialogue between Pink and a telephone operator, as Pink twice attempts to place a transatlantic collect call to his wife. A man answers, and when the operator asks if he will accept the charges, the man simply hangs up. This is how Pink learns that his wife is cheating on him. (''"See, he keeps hanging up,"'' says the operator. ''"And it's a man answering!"'') With this betrayal, his mental breakdown accelerates.

The dialogue with the operator was the result of an arrangement co-producer James Guthrie made with a neighbour in London, Chris Fitzmorris, while the album was being recorded in Los Angeles. He wanted realism, for the operator to actually believe they had caught his wife having an affair, and so didn't inform her she was being recorded. The operator heard in the recording is the second operator they tried the routine with, after the first operator's reaction was deemed unsatisfactory.

''The Wall'' is the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star, whose sanity is failing as he isolates himself behind a psychological barrier. "One of My Turns" finds Pink inviting a groupie into his room after learning of his wife's affair. While the groupie tries to get his attention, he ignores her, and muses on his failed relationship with his wife. A TV can be heard in the background, the dialogue mixed in with the groupie's attempts at conversation.

While the hapless groupie continues trying to get his attention, Pink feels ''"Cold as a razor blade / Tight as a tourniquet / Dry as a funeral drum,"'' before exploding into a fit of violence, destroying his room, and frightening the young woman away. When his hotel room is finally in complete shambles, and the groupie is gone, Pink feels something more: Self-pity, and a lack of empathy for others, as he screams ''"Why are you running away?"''

The show that is on the television during the beginning of the song is from September 24–26, 1979, ''Another World'' episodes 3864–3866. Kirk Laverty brings Iris Bancroft and her maid, Vivan Gorrow, to his lodge in the Adirondacks. Dobbs was the caretaker of the lodge. Laverty is the man talking to Dobbs, not Mr. Bancroft. Laverty was played by Charles Cioffi.

''The Wall'' tells the story of Pink, an alienated and embittered rock star. At this point in the album's narrative, Pink has discovered his wife's infidelity. He invites a groupie to his hotel room in L.A., during his American tour and destroys the hotel room in a fit of rage, scaring the groupie away. Pink falls into a depression. Despite the dysfunctionality of the marriage, he listlessly pleads with his wife not to leave him, stating ''"I need you, babe / To put through the shredder in front of my friends"''.

Waters, in a 1980 interview with Jim Ladd, described this song as being about "two people who have treated each other very badly", yet are devastated at the prospect of their relationship ending. He also stated during the 1992 US radio special ''Pink Floyd: The 25th Anniversary Special'' that the lyrics had nothing to do with his personal life, as he had a more cordial relationship with his wife in real life than Pink did.

Film version

The song begins with a close-up of the debris in Pink's hotel room, then switches over to the hotel's pool, where Pink is seen floating in a crucifix position. Having cut open his right hand during his violent outburst, his blood stains the pool water. What follows is a fantasy sequence in which Pink watches ''The Dam Busters'' on TV in a much larger, and entirely empty, hotel room. The shadow of Pink's wife emerges on the back wall before materialising into a praying mantis-like monster, which then transforms into the vulva-shaped flower from "What Shall We Do Now?". The song ends with Pink cowering in the corner of the room, tortured by both the imaginary mantis in front of him, and thoughts of his wife's adultery.

As with all tracks on ''The Wall'', "Goodbye Cruel World" relates to the listener a segment of Pink's (the album's protagonist) story. More specifically, this song expresses Pink's recognition of the completion of his mental wall, and acknowledgement of his thorough isolation from society.

The plot revolves around the players on a hockey team ("Les Boys") that play in a low level amateur hockey league. They are made up of a wide variety of professions and personalities, including a police officer, a barely competent doctor, a mechanic, an unemployed hockey trivia buff who has lost his confidence as a goaltender, a shifty real estate salesman and a closeted gay lawyer. The team is sponsored by a pub owner, whose son desperately wants to play hockey with the older men. The film starts at the time of the league championship, at which time the team is soundly thrashed in the final.

Meanwhile, the pub owner is losing at poker to the head of the local organized crime syndicate, to the tune of $50,000. Given the opportunity to pay him back, the owner can only raise $25,000. After threatening to break his leg, the crime boss proposes another wager - a game between Les Boys and his own team. If Les Boys win, the debt is settled, but if they lose, the crime boss gets the pub.

In the week leading up to the big game, a number of sub plots emerge. Chief among them is the fact that most of the partners of the hockey players are starved for affection and intimacy, including the effeminate partner of the gay lawyer. Their primary complaint is that their men are either consumed by work or hockey to the exclusion of their relationships. Meanwhile, the doctor is attempting to get the pub's attractive waitress to notice him, but she only has eyes for the team's best player, the hunky, but married, mechanic.

When game day arrives, the waitress has waylaid the mechanic on the pretext that her car needs work. The rest of the players show up (including the goalie, who has previously vowed retirement) to find themselves faced with a team of ringers, including players they recognize from various minor leagues. Bewildered by the competition and handicapped by the lack of their best player, they quickly fall behind until the pub owner finally discloses the wager, and the mechanic shows up when he learns from his teammates that his wife is looking for him at the rink. Naturally, they overcome all obstacles and triumph, the gay lawyer is outed by his reunion with his lover, and the waitress finally sees the doctor without his cheap toupee and likes what she sees.

''The Wall'' tells the story of Pink, an alienated young rock star who is retreating from society and isolating himself. In "Hey You", Pink realizes his mistake of shunning society and attempts to regain contact with the outside world. However, he cannot see or hear beyond the wall. Pink's call becomes more and more desperate as he begins to realize there is no escape.

Film version

"Hey You" was shot for the film ''Pink Floyd—The Wall'', but the sequence (also known as Reel 13) was ultimately not included. A workprint appears on the special edition DVD, in black and white. Most of the footage was used in other sequences (most notably "Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)").

The scene begins with Pink trying to claw out of his freshly completed wall. The scene then switches to Pink's concert-goers, all of them with a blank and vacant look on their faces. These are the people "Standing in the aisles with itchy feet and fading smiles" that Pink is trying to reach out to. Next is a shot of empty infirmary beds followed by a view of two empty chairs in a white room. A motionless Pink fades into the chair on the left, with his nude wife fading into the right chair a short time later. After turning her head to look at her unresponsive husband, she fades out of the scene, which shifts to a montage of rioting scenes, with people tipping over cars and throwing Molotov cocktails at riot police. After the montage, a hand is shown clawing at a window (the colour version of this is actually shown at the end of "The Trial") followed by a large group of maggots (the "worms" eating into Pink's brain). After a shot of Pink in an infirmary bed and his screaming wife superimposed over the image, the scene takes back to the riot, where a long line of police officers hold back a mob of rioters who have barricaded themselves behind a pile of desks and mattresses. The scene ends with Pink against his wall, having given up on finding a way out.

At this point in the plot, the bitter and alienated Pink is attempting to reach anybody outside of his self-built wall. The repeated question "Is there anybody out there?" suggests that no response is heard.

On the other hand, Comfortably Numb, some songs later in the album, starts with the sentence "Hello, Is there anybody in there?" addressed to Pink.

Millionaire businessman-sportsman Thomas Crown accomplishes a perfect crime by orchestrating four men to steal $2,660,527.62 from a Boston bank ($ in dollars ), along with a fifth man who drives the getaway car with the money and dumps it in a cemetery trash can. None of the men ever meets Crown face to face, nor do they know or meet each other before the robbery. Crown retrieves the money from the trash can after secretly following the driver of the getaway car. He deposits the money into an anonymous Swiss bank account in Geneva, making several trips, never depositing the money all at once so as not to draw undue attention to his actions.

Independent insurance investigator Vicki Anderson is contracted to investigate the heist; she will receive 10% of the stolen money if she recovers it. When Thomas first comes to her attention as a possible suspect, she intuitively recognizes him as the mastermind behind the robbery, and shortly thereafter guesses that he organized the robbers so none of the men knew him or met each other.

Thomas does not need the money, and in fact masterminded the robbery as a game. Vicki makes it clear to him that she knows that he is the thief and that she intends to prove it. They start a game of cat and mouse, with the attraction between them evident. Their relationship soon evolves into an affair, complicated by Vicki's vow to find the money and help detective Eddie Malone bring the guilty party to justice.

A reward offer entices the wife of the bank robbery's getaway driver, Erwin Weaver (Jack Weston) to "snitch" on him for $25,000 ($ in dollars ). Vicki finds out that he was hired by a man he never saw, but whose voice he heard (via a microphone). She tries putting Erwin in the same room as Thomas, but there is no hint of recognition on either one's part.

However, while Vicki is clearly closing in on Thomas, using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as leverage against his liquid assets, he forces her to realize that she is also becoming hemmed-in by her emotions. When she (seemingly) persuades him to negotiate an end, his point is proven when Eddie stubbornly refuses to make any deal.

Thomas organizes another robbery exactly like the first with different accomplices and tells Vicki where the "drop" will be, because he has to know for sure that she is on his side. The robbery is successful, but there are gunshots and the viewer is left with the impression that people might have been killed, raising the stakes for Vicki's decision.

Vicki and the police stake out the cemetery, where they watch one of the robbers make the drop and they wait for Thomas to arrive so they can arrest him. However, when his Rolls Royce arrives, she sees that Thomas has sent a messenger in his place, with a telegram asking her to bring the money and join him – or if not, "you keep the car". She tears the telegram to bits and throws the pieces to the wind, looking up at the sky with tears in her eyes. Crown flies away in a jet.

Thieves infiltrate the Metropolitan Museum of Art inside an actual Trojan horse, preparing to steal an entire gallery of paintings, but are apprehended. In the confusion, billionaire Thomas Crown – the crime's secret mastermind – steals Monet's painting of ''San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk''. NYPD Detective Michael McCann heads the investigation into the theft of the $100 million artwork, with the unwelcome assistance of insurance investigator Catherine Banning.

Crown lends a Pissarro to fill the Monet's space in the museum and falls under Banning's suspicion. She persuades McCann to begin surveillance of Crown, deducing that the wealthy playboy is motivated not by money but the sheer thrill of the crime. Banning accepts Crown's invitation to dinner. Before the date, Crown's therapist correctly speculates that he has found "a worthy adversary" in Banning.

At dinner, Banning has a copy of Crown's keys made; she and her team search his home and discover the Monet, which is revealed to be a taunting imitation, painted over a copy of ''Poker Sympathy'' from the ''Dogs Playing Poker'' series. Banning confronts Crown and the two give in to their mutual attraction, spending a passionate night together.

Banning and Crown continue their cat-and-mouse game and their trysts, despite McCann's surveillance. Accompanying Crown on a trip to Martinique, Banning realizes he is preparing to run, and rejects his offer to join him when the time comes. McCann presents Banning with photographs of Crown with another woman, Anna, complicating her feelings toward the case and her prime suspect. Banning and McCann discover that the fake Monet is in fact an expert forgery that could only have been painted by someone with access to the original; they visit the likeliest forger, Heinrich Knutzhorn, in prison, to no avail, although his attitude suggests to them that he recognizes the work.

Later, Banning finds Crown packing his belongings with Anna. He promises Banning his interest lies with her alone, stating that Anna works for him but he would be compromising her to define the nature of their association. Crown offers to return the Monet by putting it back on the wall of the museum, and gives Banning a time and place to meet him when he's finished. Tearfully, Banning leaves and informs McCann.

The following day, the police stake out the museum, waiting to arrest Crown. Banning learns that the fake Monet was painted by Anna; the imprisoned forger is her father, a partner of Crown, who became her guardian. Crown arrives and advertises his position in the lobby. The police realize that he expected Banning to turn him in, and that Crown has set up another plot. Before he can be apprehended, Crown quickly blends into the crowd, aided by lookalikes in bowler hats a la Magritte's ''The Son of Man''. Evading police, Crown sets off the museum's fire sprinklers. His donated Pissarro, hanging in the Monet's place, is washed clean by the sprinklers to reveal the real Monet.

Crown's plan is made clear; upon stealing the Monet, Crown had Anna forge the Pissarro over it, and "returned" it to the museum. However, Crown has now vanished with another painting. Banning however, considers the case closed as this painting is not covered by her employer. McCann has since stopped caring whether or not they catch Crown, and bids Banning farewell, and she races to meet Crown, but finds only the missing painting. Devastated, she has the painting sent to McCann, and boards a plane back to London. Taking her seat, she finds Crown sitting behind her and the two are passionately reunited.

Elizabeth Masterson, a young emergency medicine physician in San Francisco whose work is her whole life, is in a serious car accident while on her way to a blind date at her sister's dinner party. Three months later, David Abbott, a landscape architect needing a fresh start from an event he doesn't want to talk about, moves into the apartment that had been Elizabeth's, after 'discovering' it in what seems to be a fateful happenstance.

Elizabeth begins to appear to David in the apartment, and both are confused. Elizabeth thinks he's a squatter, and David thinks she broke in somehow. However, it becomes clear that Elizabeth isn't really alive. She can suddenly appear and disappear, walk or move through walls and objects. Elizabeth doesn't seem to remember anything about herself, and refuses to think she's dead. David tries to have her spirit exorcised from the apartment, but to no avail. David enlists the help of a psychic bookstore clerk, Darryl, who tells him that Elizabeth isn't really dead. He tells David that it's clear he's got a blocked heart, and he needs to let go of the woman who was previously in his life. Elizabeth says David needs to get over being dumped. David storms out, and then Darryl tells Elizabeth not to disrespect the dead. Elizabeth finds David and he reveals that his wife Laura had died.

Since only David can see and hear her, others think that he is hallucinating, getting back into his alcoholism, and talking to himself. Elizabeth asks David to help her looks for clues around Elizabeth's apartment to try to find out who she is and what happened to her. David talks to people in the building who didn't know much about Elizabeth. As they walked into a restaurant she said she liked, a man has a medical emergency, and Elizabeth talks David through saving his life. She remembers she was a doctor, and they go to the nearest hospital, where Elizabeth remembers her life as a doctor, and her mentor Fran tells David that Elizabeth has been in an accident. Elizabeth finds her body in a room, where she's been in a coma for three months. When David touches the body's hand, Elizabeth feels it, so she knows she's still connected to her body, and not all hope is lost.

Elizabeth's sister Abby arrives, and the attending doctor notifies her that Elizabeth signed papers to not take extraordinary measures to save her life, but since she was a doctor at that hospital, they've treated her as a special case. However, the doctor asks Abby to consider taking her off life support, and she says she'll think about it.

David and Elizabeth begin to bond, and he tells her about his wife's death. He takes Elizabeth out of town to a beautiful landscaped garden he designed. Elizabeth tells him she senses she has been there before, and in fact, the garden was something she was dreaming of in the opening scenes of the film, where she was awakened by a colleague from cat-napping after working a 26-hour shift in the hospital.

David's real estate broker calls him to say the owners have offered him a long lease on the apartment, likely meaning that Abby has signed the papers to let Elizabeth die. David tries to prevent this going to Abby's house with the intention of telling her that Elizabeth is communicating with him, and plans to reveal bits of information about Abby that only Elizabeth knows. While there, Elizabeth's niece Lily is shown to be able to sense her, as she puts a cookie on the plate before her. David tells Abby he was a patient of Elizabeth's and begs Abby to keep her alive, but Abby says it's too late, she's already signed the papers and Elizabeth will be taken off life support the next day. In a last ditch effort to save Elizabeth, David blurts out something Abby did on her wedding day, and Abby freaks out, threatening him with a knife and driving him out of her house.

David offers Elizabeth the opportunity to do anything she wants for her last night alive, but she wants to spend it with him in their apartment. David wakes up the next morning and decides to prevent Elizabeth's death by stealing her body from the hospital. He asks his friend/therapist Jack to help him, and Jack is found to be Abby's former college boyfriend who had set up a blind date for David with Elizabeth on the night of the accident - the reason David can see Elizabeth is that they were meant to meet. He then admits to Jack and Elizabeth that he loves her and that is the reason he doesn't want her to die; he has gotten past the death of his wife.

They are quickly discovered in the hospital while trying to steal Elizabeth's body. The security guards find them, and when they pull Jack away from Elizabeth, her breathing tube comes off. The guards encircle David and Elizabeth, but she is now dying. David frantically kisses the dying Elizabeth, breathing some air into her lungs, while her spirit begins to fade away. Then, amazingly, her heartbeat returns and she miraculously awakens from the coma. However, while Elizabeth recognizes Abby, she doesn't recognize David, and he sadly leaves the hospital.

Sometime later, Elizabeth moves back into her apartment. She is drawn up to the roof of the building, where she finds David, who has transformed the roof into a beautiful landscaped garden. David reveals he'd gotten in using the spare key her spirit had shown him. Just as he is about to leave, she asks for her key back. When their hands touch, her memory of the events during her coma are restored, and she kisses him happily.

The final scene fades away from the rooftop to show Darryl staring into a snow globe.

Pink is tired of his life as a fascist dictator and the hallucination ends. Also tired of "The Wall", he accordingly devolves into his own mind and puts himself on trial.

Unlike the other songs on the album, this particular song offers little to the plot involving Pink as a whole. It notes that "the ones who ''really'' love you" are standing outside the wall and warns that, if you do not tear down your metaphorical wall, some might eventually give up on you and leave you to live out a lonely life instead of "banging [their] heart against some mad bugger's wall". This is what happens to the main character, Pink, during the course of the album.

Roger Waters himself has refused to provide any explanation when asked for one.

Tom Sullivan (Marc Singer) is a blind college student who wants to be normal. When not in class, Tom hangs out with his friend, Will Sly (R. H. Thomson), who does not treat him like a blind person. In fact, he goes out of his way to challenge Tom. Tom likes to go jogging while Will leads him on his bicycle. Will leads him past obstacles such as park benches, shouting out "Bench!" at the last moment so Tom has to jump over it.

On campus, Tom meets a black woman named Heather Johnson (Shari Belafonte), with whom he falls in love. But she breaks off the relationship because "the black and white thing," coupled with Tom's blindness, is too complicated for her. Crushed by Heather's abandonment and experiencing loneliness, Tom continues to struggle with himself, still denying that his blindness affects his "normalcy". Then he meets his future wife, Patti Steffen (Sarah Torgov), and his life changes irreversibly.

The movie is most famous for the scene where while Tom is on the phone with someone, his stepdaughter, Blythe, falls in their indoor pool and nearly drowns, and he, upon realizing she is missing, manages to find her at the bottom of the pool and save her life.

A man posing as a bank examiner steals $50,000 from teller Mike Donovan's cash drawer. Because Donovan does not immediately report the shortage after he discovers it, he is accused of theft and fired by the bank.

Donovan is prevented from finding other employment by Gus Slavin, an insurance investigator and former cop who informs each of Donovan's next employers that Donovan is a thief who should be fired. Because of Slavin's intimidation, Donovan loses the few jobs that he is able to obtain, followed by his home and nearly his marriage.

Despite many setbacks, Donovan tries to clear his name, but even his wife does not believe that he will succeed. However, the real culprit is identified and Donovan reclaims his life and his old job.

Taking place in 1958, popular culture in London is transforming from 1950s jazz to a new generation on the verge of the rock and roll 1960s. Young photographer Colin is in love with aspiring fashion designer Crepe Suzette. Colin aims to be an artist with integrity. Suzette's boss, famous designer Henley of Mayfair, takes advantage of her forward-thinking designs to boost his own image.

Colin lives in the poor, ethnically diverse neighbourhood of Notting Hill. To make money, he gets a job with music producer Harry Charms, taking photos of new teen idol Baby Boom. Despite Colin getting commercial photography work, Suzette breaks up with him. She explains that she wants success and luxury in life and won't settle for less ("Having It All"). He's initially despondent, but believes she'll eventually come back to him.

Colin learns that Suzette will be at a party hosted by gossip columnist Dido Lament, and so he attends. He learns Suzette plans to marry the middle-aged, homosexual Henley for her career ("Selling Out"). Colin also meets advertising mogul Vendice Partners at the party.

Meanwhile, the Teddy Boy subculture is increasingly hostile towards Black residents in London, spurred by the recent rise in immigration. The White Defence League, led by the Fanatic, preaches fascist politics and is vehemently against the increasing ethnic diversity of London. Colin despises this rise in racist ideology.

Partners brings Colin to his advertising agency, where he shows off plans for the White Housing Development. Partners offers Colin a position as an advertisement photographer. While hesitant at first, Colin is convinced to take the job in the hopes that the money may help him win back Suzette ("That's Motivation").

Henley and Suzette marry, but she is deeply unhappy. Colin, Dido, and Charms go on the TV show ''Searchlight''. Dido gropes Colin, prompting him to have an outbust and rail against the elder generation trying to exploit teenagers. Later, at a jazz club, Colin is commended for his honesty on television. However, he's upset when he sees a newspaper headline about Suzette's wedding ("Killer Blow").

Racial violence intensifies in the area. Colin's Black friend, Mr. Cool, informs him that the White supremacist movement is becoming more organized and dangerous. Colin discovers that the new White Housing Development is a scheme between Partners and Henley to "redevelop" the "West 11." Colin sends incriminating photos to Dido in an attempt to reveal the plan, but she's in cahoots with Partners and is no help.

Colin witnesses the 1958 Notting Hill race riots ("Riot City"). His pleas for peace are ignored. The police eventually arrive and stop the violence. Colin finds Suzette and they flee a fire set by the WDL. Mr. Cool has a fight with the Fanatic and wins. There is celebratory dancing in the street as rain puts out the fires. Colin and Suzette go back to his flat and have sex. He throws her wedding ring out the window.

In 1780, African prince Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall) goes to Transylvania to seek the help of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the slave trade. Dracula refuses, however, and insults Mamuwalde by making a pass at his wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee). After a scuffle with Dracula's minions, Mamuwalde is bitten by Dracula and transformed into a vampire. Dracula then curses him with the name "Blacula" and imprisons him in a sealed coffin in a crypt hidden beneath the castle while leaving Luva to die in the chamber with Blacula.

In 1972, two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris) and Billy Schaffer (Rick Metzler), purchase the coffin and ship it to Los Angeles. Bobby and Billy open the coffin, only to become Blacula's first victims. At the funeral home where McCoy's body is laid, Blacula spies on mourning friends Tina Williams (McGee), her sister Michelle (Denise Nicholas), and Michelle's boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), a pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department. Blacula becomes obsessed with Tina, believing her to be the reincarnation of Luva. Thomas notices oddities with McCoy's death that he later concludes to be consistent with vampire folklore. Blacula follows Tina after leaving the funeral home but unintentionally frightens her. Tina runs away from him, and Blacula loses her when he is hit by a cab. He then kills the cabbie, Juanita Jones (Ketty Lester), turning her into a vampire.

Thomas, Michelle, and Tina celebrate Michelle's birthday at a nightclub, and Blacula shows up to return Tina's purse she dropped the night before. Thomas answers a phone call from the funeral director, who informs him that McCoy's body has gone missing. Blacula asks Tina to see him again the following evening, but they are interrupted by Nancy, a photographer who takes a photograph of them together. Soon after, Blacula kills Nancy and destroys the photo she just developed, which shows Blacula conspicuously absent. The next evening, Blacula visits Tina at her apartment and shares how Dracula enslaved him and Luva and how he was cursed with vampirism. He and Tina then spend the night together.

Thomas, Lt. Jack Peters (Gordon Pinsent), and Michelle are meanwhile following the trail of murder victims, as Thomas begins to suspect a vampire of being the perpetrator. After Thomas digs up Schaffer's coffin, the corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Thomas, who fends him off and drives a stake through his heart. Thomas calls the morgue and alerts Sam (Elisha Cook, Jr.), the attendant, to take Jones' body out of deep freeze and leave. Sam rolls her body out but neglects to lock the door. Jones rises and immediately attacks and kills him. Thomas and Peters arrive at the morgue to find blood smeared on the corridor wall near the payphone where Sam answered the call, but no sign of Sam himself. They walk into the exam room by the freezer, where Peters sees a sheet-covered body lying on a gurney and pulls the sheet back to reveal Jones rising to attack him. Thomas keeps her at bay with a crucifix long enough to open the window blinds and expose her to sunlight, destroying her.

That evening, Thomas, Michelle, and Tina are enjoying drinks at the club when Blacula arrives to pick Tina up. Thomas questions Blacula about vampires and makes it known that the police are planning a search for the vampire's coffin, provoking an uncomfortable Blacula and Tina to leave. Soon after, Thomas searches Nancy's house and finds a photo negative of Tina standing in front of the invisible Blacula. He correctly deduces that Blacula is the vampire they seek and that Blacula and Tina are still together. Thomas rushes to Tina's apartment, finding them embracing. Thomas and Blacula briefly struggle, but Blacula knocks Thomas unconscious and flees, killing a police officer in a nearby alley as he escapes. After McCoy is seen walking the streets of Los Angeles, Thomas, Peters, and several police officers track Blacula to his hideout. They locate a nest of several vampires there, including McCoy, and destroy them, but Blacula escapes.

Blacula hypnotizes Tina into going to his new hideout at a nearby underground chemical plant while Thomas and the police pursue him. Blacula dispatches several of the officers, but one of them accidentally shoots and mortally wounds Tina. To save her life, Blacula transforms her into a vampire. Blacula fights the police, one of whom locates the coffin and alerts Thomas and Peters. However, Peters kills Tina with a stake, believing that Blacula would be in the coffin instead. Devastated, Blacula climbs the stairs to the roof, where the morning sun destroys him.

Sam Lambert is an experienced RAF Bomber Command Avro Lancaster pilot based in East Anglia. He has flown almost fifty bombing missions over Germany as part of the Combined Bomber Offensive since the start of the war. As Lambert nears his tour's end, he is developing signs of exhaustion. Lambert is an accomplished cricketer and the station commander needs his participation to assure victory against a rival. Lambert's refusals to do so causes his flight commander, an ambitious and unscrupulous flight lieutenant, to force him out of flying by replacing Lambert's best crewmen with poor performers. At the same time, his crew revere him and believe that he is the one factor that will ensure their survival.

Across the North Sea, ''Oberleutnant'' Victor Löwenherz, a Junkers Ju 88 night fighter pilot who intercepts RAF bombers in Defence of the Reich, dislikes the uncouth Nazi barbarians who rule the Fatherland. Fellow pilot ''Unteroffizier'' Christian Himmel is outraged to learn that ''Luftwaffe'' doctors are participating in Nazi human experimentation on concentration camp inmates. Himmel steals the results from an experiment and sends copies to other officers including Hermann Göring; he is sure that the ''Reichsmarschall'' will stop such disgraces to the air force's honour once he learns of them, although Löwenherz doubts that that will happen.

Near the Dutch border, people in the small German market town of Altgarten are aware of the war's progress but have not been bombed, unlike Cologne and other large cities in the heavily industrialized Ruhr. ''Oberleutnant'' August Bach commands a Freya radar unit on the Dutch coastline that tracks British bomber streams on their night-time raids against Germany. A highly decorated World War I veteran who voluntarily serves as a lower-ranked officer away from the front lines, he is a widower with an older son on the Eastern front. While briefly visiting his home in Altgarten, Bach proposes marriage to the young Faith and Beauty Society member who cares for his younger son.

In Altgarten, the ''Bürgermeister'' finalises preparations for his own birthday banquet, at a restaurant in the medieval town square. While the town's hospital treats war injuries, and its TENO (''Technische Nothilfe'' or "Civil Defence") engineers often work in the Ruhr and have experience with air raids, the fire department does not have such experience.

The RAF is organising a large raid on Krefeld in the Ruhr. The bomber crews relax and prepare for the ordeal. The men, their planes, weapons, responsibilities, attitudes, thoughts, and fears are described in great detail. There are frequent references to weather conditions, meteorological phenomena, and forecasts that add to the foreboding in the plot.

The bombs are loaded into the Lancasters, the German radars "warm up", and the fighter pilots adjust their night vision. Superstitions, rites, and rituals are respected as the combatants ready themselves.

The British bomber stream forms up and avoids known flak concentrations and searchlight batteries. Despite the meticulous planning, things go wrong immediately: A Lancaster almost crashes on take-off; a Ju 88 crashes into the sea after a bird strike over the IJsselmeer; another is shot down by a friendly flak-ship. As German radar tracks the bombers, tiny pieces of shrapnel from an 88mm anti-aircraft shell destroy Lancasters, each costing more than £42,000 ($ in ). A pathfinder Mosquito is downed and the marker bombs it is carrying explode southeast of Altgarten; with little flak and clear bombing conditions, ''Christmas Tree'' marker pyrotechnics are placed over the wrong target. Creepback causes the carpet bombing of a town of 5,000 inhabitants by a force designed for a city.

The raid's two waves cause a firestorm that destroys Altgarten; many of the main characters on both sides die or lose those close to them. Despite the attack completely missing its industrial target no one is punished for the failure, but Himmel and Lambert are executed and demoted, respectively, for non-combat reasons. The book ends with an epilogue which gives details of the post-raid lives of the major characters.

Maurice Castle is an aging bureaucrat in the British secret service MI6. Married to a black African woman with whom he fell in love during his previous stint in apartheid South Africa, he now lives a quiet life in the suburbs and looks forward to retirement. As the book begins, a leak has been traced to the African section in London where he works and threatens to disrupt this precarious tranquility. Castle and younger colleague Davis make light of the resulting inquiry, but when Davis is accused on circumstantial evidence and quietly "disposed of", Castle begins to wrestle with questions of loyalty, morality and conscience. On the one hand, Castle undertakes his day-to-day job professionally, and is willing to do what is more than required for both Davis and Daintry, his boss. On the other hand, Castle is grateful to Carson, who, as a Communist, helped Castle's wife escape South Africa. In return, Castle decides to help the Communists and believes that by helping them, he is helping his wife's people—not knowing that Moscow has all along been using him for entirely different purposes.

The novel ends with a bleak portrayal of life in Moscow for defectors who were feted but at the same time suffered the shortages, shoddy furnishings and underwhelming work shared by Soviets. The disappointment is sharp for Castle, who never had an investment in Communism and whose actions severed him from the two people he loved.

The novel builds its suspense by focusing on the psychological burdens of the pawns in the game, particularly frustration with the culture of secrecy in the three secret services—British, Soviet and South African—and with the sophisticated amorality of the men at the top. Greene's characters are complete psychological portraits located within the context of the Cold War and the impact of international affairs on the complicated lives of individuals and vice versa. The interplay of international politics and personal dissent is a trademark of this author.

Jimeoin, in the title role, plays a man obsessed with becoming famous. He is passionate about being a celebrity, but unfortunately he just isn't very talented. After trying to secure roles in myriad productions he finally finds employment as an extra, and what follows is his misadventures as he becomes involved with shady business men, producers and mobsters, all of whom are fixated with show business.

The parents of South Park are a bit concerned when Father Maxi informs them about the Young Men's Catholic Retreat and agree that they do not want their kids to go. They also decide to have a counselor talk to the boys to find out if the priest had been molesting them. The counselor, assuming the children were molested, asks, "Did Father Maxi, at any time, ever try to put something in your butt?" Having never been abused by Father Maxi, the boys are completely baffled about the question's meaning. Cartman has a "brilliant" idea, reasoning she meant it could be possible that eating food through the rectum can cause defecation through the mouth. The other boys (especially Kyle) think it is stupid and disgusting, and Cartman bets him $20 it will work. While the counselor is questioning the boys, all the parents decide to become atheists, as the sexual molestation scandals have destroyed their faith in Catholicism and God.

Cartman ultimately does defecate out of his mouth, winning the bet and continually boasts the fact to Kyle, who becomes increasingly angered by it. News of this spreads, and it is concluded nationwide that this method of eating is much healthier than the traditional method (with the surgeon general basing that on "absolutely nothing"). The adults of South Park immediately adopt the new method of eating, calling it ''interorectogestion'' and even start passing trash cans around at social situations to openly collect the waste (literally "spewing crap from their mouths"), completely disregarding the previously long-held custom that defecation should occur in private.

Meanwhile, Maxi has gathered a meeting of Catholic priests in Colorado to discuss the problem of child molestation. Maxi is appalled by such behavior and wants it to cease entirely, but to Maxi's horror, all of the other priests there have molested their altar boys. Maxi decides he has to go to the Vatican. Once there, he quickly finds the same: priests from all over the world (and from other worlds, specifically an alien race known as the Gelgameks) are molesting children and claim they need to continue the practice to receive gratification. They claim the "Holy Document of Vatican Law" does not prohibit the behavior, so Maxi wants to change the canon law to outlaw sodomy, as well as to allow sex with women. The Cardinal tells him that the Document cannot be changed as no one knows where it is. Maxi decides to try to find it. Meanwhile, Kyle has lost his patience with Cartman's incessant boasting and tells Cartman that he accepts the fact that he beat him fairly. This angers Cartman, as he wanted to hold the victorious bet over Kyle's head indefinitely.

Maxi searches through the lower levels of the Vatican, and goes through a gauntlet in the style of ''Pitfall!'' in order to reach the Holy Document. But the Pope says they must first consult the highest power. He summons the "Queen Spider", which has for centuries been responsible for the pedophilia in the church, and declares that the Holy Document of Vatican Law cannot be changed. Angered by this, Maxi finally snaps and tears the Document in two, and the building begins to crumble. Maxi stands in front of the ruins, and tells everyone that Catholicism is not about the Holy Document of Vatican Law, molestation, or Queen Spiders, but about being a good person. He says by clouding the moral lessons of the Bible with needless ceremony and so many literal translations, the Vatican has caused people to reject religion and argues that "when they have no mythology to live their lives by, they just start spewing a bunch of crap out of their mouths". The parents, watching this on TV, regain their faith in God, deciding to stop shoving food up their rectum and to start going to church again, wanting to reconcile with God and their religion. Randy then vomits up another bowel movement.

The plot follows the story of college student Eun-shik and his efforts to impress a Junior, Eun-hyo. Eun-shik has a habit of finding himself in awkward situations that often embarrass him and sabotage his attempts to impress Eun-hyo. After serving a two-year mandatory military service, Eun-shik is transferred to the National University, where he plans to major in Law. He stays with 3 other roommates; most of them are typical college freshmen who are equally perverted. Eun-hyo, an aspiring national aerobic athlete, first notices Eun-shik, who is somewhat of an eccentric, in the college canteen while he stared at her tightly clasped thighs protruding from her lower mini-skirt. With a mischievous intentions, she spreads her legs tauntingly, and a glimpse of her white undergarments catches Eun-shik by surprise. Afterwards, their awkward encounters follow. Although Eun-hyo sympathizes with Eun-shik's one-sided love, she eventually picks the most handsome student in college, Sang-ok. While two-timing with another aerobic athlete, Sang-ok spends one night with Eun-hyo, which leads to an accidental pregnancy. Due to his wealthy and spoiled upbringing, he offers her money for an abortion emotionlessly. Insulted by his actions and his lack of responsibility, Eun-hyo runs away and tries to abort by herself. The doctor from clinic requires someone to accompany her during the procedure and recovery. At a loss of whom to confide in, she turns to Eun-shik for help, who is initially illusioned that they are going out on a date. Due to his kind demeanor, he helps her with everything after her procedure; he aids her during her post-operational fever, cooks her meals, and keeps her company. He even tries to entertain her after her recent breakup with Sang-ok. Finally, on the day of national aerobic competition, Eun-hyo manages to come onstage at the last minute and performs with all her might. After the competition, she gives in to the looming sadness from her abortion and breakup. She goes to the restroom, cries, and bleeds from her womb as an after effect from her abortion operation. Eun-shik notices her missing and sends her to the hospital after discovering her in the restroom. Out of frustration and deep-seated hatred of Sang-ok, he searches for Sang-ok. He finds Sang-ok enjoying himself after the competition. He tells Sang-ok about Eun-hyo's recent tragedy and punches him. At the end of the movie, Eun-hyo is discharged from the hospital and asks Eun-shik if his feelings still remain the same.

The Galactic Federation receives video evidence that the X, a dangerous species of parasite that can mimic any creature it infects, survives on the remote planet ZDR. They dispatch seven EMMI (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) robots to ZDR to investigate, but lose contact with them shortly after. The Federation sends Samus Aran to ZDR to investigate.

Samus encounters a Chozo warrior deep underground, who destroys the exit, defeats her in combat and strips her suit of most of its abilities. Samus is instructed by her ship's computer, Adam, to find another path to the surface and return to her ship. Samus is attacked by the EMMI, which have been reprogrammed to consider her hostile. She escapes and absorbs a mysterious energy from one of the planet's central units. The energy temporarily enables the Omega Blaster, with which she destroys the EMMI and regains some of her abilities.

In Ferenia, Samus is captured by another EMMI, but is saved by a Chozo named Quiet Robe, who deactivates them. Quiet Robe explains that, long ago, two Chozo tribes, the scientific Thoha and warrior Mawkin, banded together to trap the Metroids on the planet SR388. The Thoha intended to destroy SR388, but Raven Beak, the Mawkin leader, wanted to use the Metroids as a bioweapon to conquer the galaxy. He slaughtered the Thoha tribe and spared Quiet Robe so the Metroids could be controlled with his Thoha DNA. He planned to use ZDR to house Metroids, but had to contain an infestation of the X while Samus eradicated the Metroids from SR388. Raven Beak reprogrammed the EMMI robots and lured Samus to ZDR to extract the Metroid DNA implanted in her during the events of ''Fusion'', which would allow him to revive the Metroids.

Quiet Robe opens a barrier to allow Samus to progress before he is assassinated by one of Raven Beak's robotic soldiers. Adam encourages Samus to defeat Raven Beak and destroy ZDR. In Elun, Samus encounters the X parasites and inadvertently releases them into the rest of the planet; one of the X possesses Quiet Robe's corpse and reactivates the remaining EMMI. Samus arrives on the surface, where she is attacked by the last of the EMMI; she destroys it by sapping its energy with her hand, a power gained from her Metroid DNA. As a side effect, Samus is slowly becoming a Metroid.

On the floating fortress of Itorash, Samus confronts Raven Beak, who has been masquerading as Adam. Raven Beak reveals that he spared her before so that she would awaken her Metroid powers, at which point he would clone her to create an army of the most powerful Metroid of all. Samus battles Raven Beak and is nearly killed, but the Metroid abilities within her grant her incredible power. Samus attacks Raven Beak, draining energy from Itorash and causing it to crash into ZDR. Raven Beak is infected by an X, and Samus uses her newfound powers to destroy him. Samus retreats to her ship as ZDR begins to self-destruct, but is unable to use it due to her energy-draining Metroid powers. The X possessing Quiet Robe appears and allows itself to be absorbed into Samus to neutralize her Metroid abilities, allowing her to escape the planet before it explodes.

The opening of London's National Opera House is celebrated by the performance of a new composition, ''The Giant''. The audience was either puzzled or ecstatic about this modernist piece. One man who does not personally like the composition, but can see the genius that scored it, is Carl Bowerman, an elderly and distinguished music critic, who joins the owner of the Opera House, Sebastian Levinne, for a private drink. Despite the foreign nature of the music, Bowerman recognises that the composer, known as Boris Groen, must be English because "Nationality in music is unmistakable." He states that Groen is the natural successor to a man called Vernon Deyre who was killed in the war. Sebastian politely refuses to tell more about the absent Groen, saying "There are reasons..."

In the late years of the Victorian era, Vernon Deyre was a small boy growing up in the old country house of the Deyre family, Abbots Puisannts. He was the only child of Walter, a soldier by profession, and Myra Deyre who was something of an emotional and clinging person. Walter is a sad figure who is not in love with his wife and is subject to various dalliances. Vernon's nurse – an important figure in his childhood – raises him, but he has no friends. In their place he has four imaginary friends, the most important of whom is called Mr. Green, a florid man who loves playing games and who lives in a wood that borders on the grounds of Abbots Puisannts.

One of the main male figures in Vernon's life is his Uncle Sydney, Myra's brother who is a self-made man who runs a manufacturing business in Birmingham and is someone with whom Vernon instinctively feels uncomfortable. Someone who promotes a different reaction is Walter's sister, Nina, an artistic woman who impresses Vernon by her playing of the grand piano in the house. This is an object for which Vernon has an unreasoning terror, naming it "The Beast", as it promotes a hatred of music in his soul.

Aunt Nina's marriage breaks up and Walter wants her and her young daughter Josephine (Joe) to live with them, but Myra objects. Fate takes a turn though when the Boer War breaks out and Walter goes off to fight. In his absence, whilst Vernon is away at school, Nina dies and Myra takes Joe in. As a result, Vernon has a playmate in the holidays and the two start to make a circle of acquaintances. One of them, Nell Vereker, is a thin girl who cannot keep up with Vernon and Joe in their games. The local village is aghast when the property adjoining Abbots Puisannts is bought by a rich Jewish family called the Levinnes and, although held at arm's length at first, gradually the family come to be held in a grudging acceptance. Vernon and Joe also make friends with the son of the family – Sebastian, who is about the same age as them. A few weeks before the end of the war, Walter Deyre is killed in action and Vernon inherits Abbots Puisannts, though as he is not of age so it is held in trust for him. A shortage of money means that Myra and her son have to move, and they rent the house out while they move to Birmingham to be near Uncle Sydney.

Eleven years pass. Vernon and Sebastian have remained friends through their time at Eton and Cambridge. Sebastian's father has died in the intervening years and he, unlike Vernon, has inherited millions. Sebastian is starting on his career as a patron of the arts, opening a gallery in Bond Street, while Joe has artistic tastes and Vernon is at a loose end as to what he wants to do – money, or the lack of it, still being a concern. He has a life-changing moment when he is forced to attend a charity concert at the Albert Hall and suddenly overcomes his childhood hatred of music, so much so that he declares that he wants to be a composer. Vernon reaches twenty-one and is bitter to learn that his financial situation means that he cannot afford to move back to Abbots Puisannts. He is forced to agree that he will work at Uncle Sydney's firm, but life takes a different tack when, after a gap of several years, he meets Nell Vereker again at Cambridge. She has grown into a beautiful young woman and Vernon falls in love with her. He is opposed by Nell's mother, who has brought her up to be a lady – despite being desperately short of money herself – and is determined that Nell will marry riches. Her preferred candidate for her daughter's hand is an American called George Chetwynd. Uncle Sydney is also opposed to Vernon marrying Nell and persuades him to wait until he is more established.

One night, while Nell and her mother are abroad, Vernon is introduced to a professional singer called Jane Harding at a party hosted by Sebastian. He is attracted to Jane, despite a ten-year age difference, and starts to see her, to Joe's approval but Myra Deyre's consternation. Jane's effect on Vernon is to apply himself more to composing music and, to do so, he leaves his uncle's firm. Nell is frightened of Jane and confronts her, but the older, more experienced girl is more than a match for Nell. Vernon finishes his composition and, suddenly scared of rumours that Nell is going to marry George Chetwynd, proposes to her, but she asks him to wait.

Events reach a crisis point when Joe absconds with a married man, and this prompts Vernon to accuse Nell of not having that sort of courage. This outburst merely prompts her into getting engaged to Chetwynd with whom, as she tells Vernon, she "feels safe". On the rebound, Vernon starts a relationship with Jane. He also finishes his composition which Sebastian produces and in which Jane sings. The piece receives warm reviews. The First World War is declared on 4 August 1914 and four days later Nell sees Vernon again and confesses that she still loves him. Hearing that he has enlisted, she agrees to be his wife and they are married later that afternoon.

Six months later, Vernon is sent to France and Nell becomes a VAD nurse, finding the work and the treatment meted out to volunteers like her hard to take. After some time she receives a telegram to say that Vernon has been killed in action. Several months pass and George Chetwynd meets Nell briefly, before he goes off to Serbia to carry out relief work, and promises to keep in touch with her. Nell has, through her widowhood, inherited Abbots Puisannts and she makes a move that Vernon never could by selling the house. She finds out that Chetwynd has bought it and he invites Nell and her mother to visit him at the house where he proposes to her. She accepts and they marry.

It is 1917. In neutral Holland, Vernon turns up one night at an inn, having escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Germany. The daughter of the woman who runs the inn gives him some old English magazines to read and a letter for a soldier she knew called Corporal Green. Struck by the man having the same name as his imaginary childhood friend, he happily agrees but is then dumbstruck to read in one of the magazines of Nell and George's marriage. He staggers into the night and throws himself in the path of a coming truck. Two years later a man called George Green is the chauffeur of a rich American who found the man in Holland suffering from loss of memory after an "accident" and working as a driver. They are back in England now and George's employer visits Chetwynd, an acquaintance, at Abbots Puisannts. By coincidence, Jane Harding is also visiting the house that day. She has lost her singing voice and is now an actress appearing locally with a repertory company. Chetwynd has invited her to tea. She and Nell meet, and their mutual animosity to each other is clear, but Nell receives a greater shock when she catches sight of their American visitor's chauffeur and realises that Vernon is still alive. Jane also recognises Vernon in the nearby town and hurriedly summons Sebastian down there by telegram. They get Vernon professional help and he slowly starts to recover his memory and has a proper reunion with Nell, while Chetwynd, unaware of what has happened, is away. Vernon wants to take up where he left off, although he accepts the loss of Abbots Puisannts, but Nell, afraid, lies to him that she is pregnant. Disconsolate, Jane takes him away, no one else being aware that he is alive, but not before she has confronted Nell with her lie.

The two go to Moscow where Vernon is taken up with Meyerhold and the Avant-garde music of the new movements in Russia. They suddenly receive a telegram saying that Joe is dangerously ill in New York City and they sail across to see her. On the way, the ship hits an iceberg and starts to sink. In the confusion of the evacuation, as the ship starts to tilt badly and go down into the water, Vernon sees Nell, she and Chetwynd having been on board but sailing in a different class of passengers. She cries out to Vernon to save her and he does so, watching Jane's horrified face as she goes "down into that green swirl..." Back safely in New York, Vernon confesses to Sebastian that he let the love of his life die. Sebastian is furious but the emotional shock to Vernon causes him to regain his passion and talent for composing. He begins ''The Giant'', oblivious to all else, even Nell who visits him to admit that she still loves him. He rebuffs her, his only concern now being for his music.