At night just outside Paris, a woman drives along a riverbank and dumps a corpse in the river. After the body is recovered, Dr. Génessier identifies the remains as those of his missing daughter, Christiane, whose face was horribly disfigured in an automobile accident that occurred before her disappearance, for which he was responsible. Dr. Génessier lives in a large mansion, which is adjacent to his clinic, with numerous caged German Shepherds and other large dogs.

Following Christiane's funeral, Dr. Génessier and his assistant Louise, the woman who had disposed of the dead body earlier, return home where the real Christiane is hidden (it is explained that Louise is deathlessly loyal to Génessier because he repaired her own badly damaged face, leaving only a barely noticeable scar she covers with a pearl choker). The body belonged to a young woman who died following Dr. Génessier's unsuccessful attempt to graft her face onto his daughter's. Dr. Génessier promises to restore Christiane's face and insists that she wear a mask to cover her disfigurement. After her father leaves the room, Christiane calls her fiancé Jacques Vernon, who works with Dr. Génessier at his clinic, but hangs up without saying a word.

Louise lures a young Swiss girl named Edna Grüber to Génessier's home. Génessier chloroforms Edna and takes her into his secret laboratory. Christiane secretly watches her father and Louise carry Edna to the lab, and then goes to tenderly caress the dogs her father keeps caged, who eagerly accept her love, and are unaffected by her appearance.

Dr. Génessier performs heterograft surgery, removing Edna's face. The doctor successfully grafts the skin onto his daughter's face and holds the heavily bandaged and faceless Edna against her will. Edna escapes, but falls to her death from an upstairs window. After disposing of Edna's corpse, Génessier notices flaws on Christiane's face. Her face grows worse within days; the new tissue is being rejected and she must resort to wearing her mask again. Christiane again phones Jacques and this time says his name, but the phone call is interrupted by Louise.

Jacques reports the call to the police, who have been investigating the disappearance of several young women with blue eyes and similar facial characteristics. The police have gained a lead concerning a woman who wears a pearl choker, whom Jacques recognizes as Louise. Inspector Parot, an officer investigating Edna's disappearance, hires a young woman named Paulette Mérodon (recently arrested for shoplifting) to help investigate by checking herself into Génessier's clinic. After being declared healthy, Paulette leaves for Paris and is promptly picked up by Louise, who delivers her to Dr. Génessier. Génessier is about to begin surgery on Paulette when Louise informs him that the police want to see him.

While the doctor talks with the police, Christiane, who has long been disenchanted with her father's experiments, while slowly losing her sanity from guilt and isolation, frees Paulette and murders Louise by stabbing her in the neck. She also frees the dogs and doves that her father uses for experiments. Dr. Génessier dismisses the police (who readily accept his explanations) and returns to his lab, where an abandoned German Shepherd he had only recently obtained for his experiments attacks him, inciting the other dogs to follow suit—maddened by pain and confinement, they maul him to death, disfiguring his face in the process. Christiane, unmoved by her father's death, walks slowly into the woods outside Génessier's house with one of the freed doves in her hands.

Context

Dofus takes place in the World of Twelve, a High fantasy universe. Players must find the six primordial Dofus, dragon eggs that confer great power on their bearer, which are scattered across the world. The game features an open world that allows for a high level of player autonomy. Players can choose to engage in Player versus player combat, Player versus environment combat, or participate in the game's economy by obtaining and/or trading in-game items.

Universe

Dofus is the first Ankama product to take place in the transmedia world of the Krosmoz. From this first success will appear many derivative products, including two other video games, Arena in 2011 then Wakfu the following year, and television (Wakfu, Dofus: Aux trésors de Kerubim) and cinematographic (Dofus, book 1: Julith).

The first derivative work is the manfra Dofus, the first volume of which was released on October 10, 2005. It is written by Tot, co-creator of the game, and drawn by Ancestral Z.

Mary Baring (renamed Diana in the English version) is a member of a touring acting troupe. When she is found one day with no memory next to the corpse of a colleague, all circumstances point to the fact that she committed the crime. At the murder trial, theater producer, writer and actor Sir John Menier is the only juror who has doubts about her guilt to the end. However, he bowed to pressure from the rest of the jury and finally voted guilty.

Driven by his bad conscience, Sir John sets out on his own to find the real culprit. He also feels complicit in her conviction, as it turns out he has known Mary, who once applied to be an actress at his theater - but he turned her down. With two assistants, an acting couple from Mary's troupe, he investigates and comes across Handel Fane, an actor and acrobat with transvestite tendencies who was engaged to Mary. Mary must not know his dark secret that he is an escaped convict (Fane is a mulatto in the original) who must expect to be caught again at any time. When the common colleague wanted to tell her, Fane killed her.

Since Sir John has no idea of this motive, but assumes that he is the perpetrator despite the lack of evidence, he wants to corner Fane. He lets him audition for a supposed new play. The text to be presented has clear references to the Mary Baring case. Fane panics and leaves Sir John's office. At a circus performance, which Sir John visits to question Fane again, the latter commits suicide while performing a trapeze stunt. He leaves a written confession. Mary Baring is thus free. She is picked up from prison by Sir John in a car. (The original ends with Mary and Sir John performing together at his theatre.)

In 1997, Sarah Huttinger, an obituary and wedding announcement writer for ''The New York Times'', travels to Pasadena, California, for her sister Annie's wedding, accompanied by her fiancé Jeff Daly. When Sarah tells her grandmother, Katharine Richelieu, that she is unsure about getting married, Katharine lets slip that her late daughter, Sarah's mother Jocelyn, ran off to Cabo San Lucas a week before her own wedding.

Sarah visits her mother's best friend, Aunt Mitsy, who confirms that Jocelyn spent time with their prep school classmate Beau Burroughs the week before her wedding to Sarah's father Earl, and that Beau was friends with Charles Webb, the author of the novel ''The Graduate''.

Jeff points out Sarah's parents were married just short of nine months before her birth, leading her to wonder if Beau might really be her biological father. Sarah also accuses her grandmother of being the inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, the older character who seduced the young man in ''The Graduate'', who later ran away with Mrs. Robinson's daughter.

After the wedding, Sarah decides to fly to San Francisco, where Beau, now a highly successful and very wealthy Silicon Valley Internet wizard, is giving a speech. She meets him; and he admits to sleeping with her mother and grandmother, but assures Sarah he couldn't be her father because he is sterile after having suffered blunt testicular trauma while playing a soccer game in high school. The two go out for drinks, and the following morning Sarah wakes up in Beau's bed in his Half Moon Bay home the third generation in her family to have sex with Beau.

Although guilt-stricken by her behavior, Sarah allows Beau to convince her to be his date at a charity ball, where she meets Beau's son Blake. Beau explains his wife wanted a biological child and was artificially inseminated with a sperm donor to become pregnant. Mollified, Sarah kisses Beau and is caught by Jeff, who has returned to California to find her after not hearing from her since she met Beau. An argument ensues and Jeff leaves her.

Dejected, Sarah returns to visit Katharine, who flies into a rage when she learns Beau has slept with her granddaughter. The two learn Annie suffered an anxiety attack while flying to her honeymoon and wants to talk to Sarah. Sarah tells her sister about the sexual relationship three generations of Richelieu/Huttinger women have had with Beau. She reassures Annie she truly is in love with her husband, Scott, and in doing so, realizes she's ready to marry Jeff.

It is also revealed that Earl was the one who accidentally caused Beau's testicular trauma. This makes Beau somewhat nervous to be around Earl, though Katherine is quite pleased by the revelation. Earl reveals to Sarah he always knew about Jocelyn and Beau's affair. Jocelyn returned to Earl because she loved him and he was someone with whom she could build a life. On the night she returned, Sarah was conceived. This explained the slightly early timing between her parents' wedding and her own birth.

Determined to win Jeff back, Sarah returns to New York City and tells her fiancé about her feelings. They reconcile on the condition that if they ever have a daughter, she will not be allowed anywhere near Beau. The film ends with Sarah and Jeff's wedding.

At the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, safety inspector Peter Griffin is working when his boss Mr. Weed introduces Guillermo, a ringer who will attempt to assist the company in winning the annual softball game. At home, Peter's wife Lois informs him of their new neighbors, the Swanson family, and wishes for him to make friends with them; however, Peter is not interested and leaves with Brian for softball practice. The regular pitcher is absent, so Peter fills in. He injures Guillermo with a wild pitch during practice and must find a new player to replace him or else he will be fired.

Meanwhile, Lois goes with her youngest son, Stewie, to meet the new neighbors. She is greeted by Bonnie Swanson and soon after meets her husband, Joe, while Meg falls in love with Joe and Bonnie's son, Kevin. When Peter comes home he is rude to the Swansons. Later that night, Peter thinks about who can replace Guillermo, and Lois, hearing her husband's dilemma, reveals that Bonnie told her that Joe played baseball in college. Hearing this, Peter goes to Joe and apologizes for his earlier behavior towards him, and convinces him to play on his company softball team. However, while Peter and Mr. Weed are waiting for Joe at the ballpark, they're horrified when Joe shows up in a wheelchair, as Peter did not notice that Joe is paraplegic. Despite this, Joe proves to be an excellent ballplayer and leads Peter's company's team to victory. That night, Joe has a celebratory party in his house, where he reveals that he is a police officer who was crippled after fighting The Grinch on the roof of an orphanage and soon becomes very popular with the neighbors, including Peter's family.

Joe's popularity makes Peter jealous, so Peter wants to be a hero too. He attempts to stop a bank robbery to compete with Joe's heroism. Peter and Brian are taken hostage in the process, but Joe convinces the robbers to surrender, and Meg learns how to get Kevin to notice her in the process. An applauding crowd hoists Joe away in praise, leaving his wheel chair empty. Stewie tries to unlock the "power of the wheelchair," but Lois manages to remove him and puts a pacifier in his mouth, so he quickly falls asleep. After the hostage situation, Peter is disappointed, but his family consoles him by telling him that, even though he can't compare to Joe's regular heroics, he is their hero.Callaghan, p. 30Plot synopsis information for "A Hero Sits Next Door", in ''Family Guy: Volume 1''. [DVD]. 2003-04-15. 20th Century Fox.

In the final moments of Pastor Tomas Ericsson's noon service, only a handful of people are in attendance, including fisherman Jonas Persson and his pregnant wife Karin, and Tomas's ex-mistress, the atheistic Märta. After the service, Tomas, though coming down with a cold, prepares for his three o'clock service in another town. Before he leaves, however, the Perssons arrive to speak to him. Jonas has become morose after hearing that China is developing an atomic bomb. Tomas speaks to the man briefly, but asks Jonas to return after taking his wife home. No sooner have the Perssons left than substitute teacher Märta enters, and she attempts to comfort the miserable Tomas, and asks if he's read the letter she wrote to him. He has not, and tells her of his failure to help Jonas, and wonders if he will have anything to say, since he is without hope as well. Märta states her love for Tomas, but also her belief that he does not love her. She leaves, and Tomas reads her letter.

In the letter, Märta describes Tomas's neglect of her, relating a story of how a rash that disfigured her body repulsed him, and neither his faith nor his prayers did anything to help her. She writes of how her family was warm and loving without religion, and expresses bewilderment at his indifference to Jesus. Tomas finishes the letter, and falls asleep. Awakened by the return of Jonas, Tomas clumsily tries to provide counsel, before finally admitting that he has no faith as well. He says his faith was an egotistical one – God loved humanity, but Tomas most of all. Serving in Lisbon during the Spanish Civil War, Tomas could not reconcile his loving God with the atrocities being committed, so he ignored them. Tomas finally tells Jonas that things make more sense if we deny the existence of God, because then man's cruelty needs no explanation. Jonas leaves, and Tomas faces the crucifix and declares himself finally free.

Märta, who has been lurking in the chapel, is overjoyed to hear this, and embraces Tomas, who again does not respond to her affections. They are interrupted by the widow Magdalena, who tells them that Jonas has just committed suicide with a rifle. Tomas drives, alone, to the scene, and stoically helps the police cover Jonas's body with a tarp. Märta arrives on foot, and she and Tomas drive off to her home, where she invites him in to take some medicine for his cold. Waiting in Märta's classroom attached to her house, Tomas finally lashes out at her, telling her first that he rejected her because he was tired of the gossip about them. When that fails to deter her affections, Tomas then tells her that he was tired of her problems, her attempts to care for him, and her constant talking, and that Märta could never measure up to his late wife, the only woman he has ever loved. Though shocked by the attack, Märta agrees to drive with him to the Persson house. Informed of Jonas's suicide, Karin collapses onto the stairs and wonders how she and her children will go on. Tomas makes a perfunctory offer of help, and leaves.

Arriving for the three o'clock service at the second church, Tomas and Märta find the building empty except for Algot, the handicapped sexton, and Fredrik, the organist. In the vestry, Algot questions Tomas about the Passion. Algot wonders why so much emphasis was placed on the physical suffering of Jesus, which was brief in comparison to the many betrayals he faced from his disciples, who denied his messages and commands, and finally from God, who did not answer him on the cross. He asks, "Wasn't God's silence worse?" Tomas, who has been listening silently, answers yes. Meanwhile, Fredrik tells Märta that she should leave the small town and Tomas and live her life, rather than stay and have her dreams crushed like the rest of them, but she chooses to start praying. Fredrik and Algot wonder if they should have a service since no one has shown up. Tomas still chooses to hold it, and the bells are rung. He begins the service reciting the ''Sanctus'': "Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty; heaven and earth are full of your glory."

Chris hates being in the Youth Scouts and wants to quit, but is afraid to tell his father Peter. Chris is finally kicked out when he runs over the troop leader during a Soap Box Derby. Peter insists on driving Chris and the rest of the family (Peter's wife Lois, their daughter Meg and their infant Stewie) to the Youth Scout headquarters, in Manhattan, to get Chris readmitted. While they are gone, their talking dog Brian is watching ''Nova'' just as the show is interrupted to show several episodes of the sitcom ''One Day at a Time''. He tries to change the channel, but is unable to do so (nor can he turn the TV off), losing his intelligence shortly after watching a few episodes.

The family stops at a Native American casino as Peter needs to use the bathroom, Lois quickly becomes addicted to gambling and loses the family car. After hearing that Lois has gambled the car away, Peter tries to get it back by claiming to be Native American. The doubtful Indian elders demand that he go on a vision quest to prove his heritage. Chris accompanies Peter into the wilderness, hoping to tell him that he only wants to draw instead of being in the Scouts. Delirious from hunger, Peter begins talking to anthropomorphic trees and sees a vision of his spiritual guide, Fonzie. After hearing Fonzie's advice Peter finally listens to Chris's complaints and realizes his son is a talented artist.

Peter and Chris return to the casino and reclaim the car. The episode ends with Lois, Stewie, and Meg counteracting stereotypes about Native Americans, Mexicans, and Swedes, respectively, before Peter comments that "Canada sucks."

Quahog is in the grip of an unusual heat wave and, not having air conditioning, the Griffins are suffering. Peter learns of an upcoming dog show offering a top prize of $500, which he sees as the perfect way to be able to buy an air conditioner. He persuades a reluctant Brian to participate. Brian performs his tricks at the dog show. Peter puts a bone biscuit on Brian's nose; finding this demeaning and becoming angry, Brian refuses to "perpetuate the stereotype of the 'good dog'", as well as Peter saying he is embarrassed that Brian would not comply. Brian subsequently exits in a huff.

On the way home, Peter and Brian argue until Brian gets out of the car. A police officer gives Brian a ticket, for which Peter has to pay $10, for violating the local leash law, which only widens the rift between Peter and Brian. Another argument ensues and Peter mentions that he found Brian on the road as a stray dog. Angry that Peter brought that up and becoming more angry when Peter then demands that Brian stop being a bad dog, Brian leaves the house, whereupon he is treated cruelly by the community, and is (ultimately) forced to sleep at the bus shelter. Peter buys a new pet, a cat, which turns out to be troublesome and abusive; the family gets rid of it and searches for Brian. By the time Peter decides to apologize to Brian, Brian has been kicked out of a restaurant and a public store and chased by the police when he was found drinking from a water fountain. Brian becomes homeless, having actually attacked a man on the street for treating him as a drunken hobo and for not believing that he was not a good dog but a crazy animal. He is subsequently taken away by the police.

A social worker announces to Brian and the rest of his family that Brian is sentenced to be put down by lethal injection, which shocks everyone. While Peter works on Brian's appeal, Brian decides to study the law as much as he can, and goes to court to defend himself, and finally gets the chance to plead his case before the Quahog City Council. During his parole hearing, he references the court case ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', but unfortunately for him, the council believes that it's stupid to listen to a dog. Just when Brian is about to be dismissed, Peter steps in and delivers a last-ditch emotional appeal on his behalf. The city council members remain unmoved until Peter bribes them with $20 each, and Brian is immediately freed. The charges against him are finally dropped and the town shows him new respect, allowing him to finally drink out of a water fountain, showing his status to be the same as that of the other citizens of the community. The family returns home and Stewie, in an unusual (at the time) display of respect towards Brian, bows ever so slightly towards him. Brian and Peter are then left alone. Brian licks Peter's face in an endearing dog gesture, and threatens to kill him if he ever tells anyone about it.

"The Statement of Randolph Carter" is the first person testimony of the titular character, who has been found wandering through swampland in an amnesiac shock. In his statement, Carter attempts to explain the disappearance of his companion, the occultist Harley Warren.

Warren has come into the possession of a book, written in an unknown language, the exact contents of which he never revealed to Carter. Carter mentions that Warren has other "strange, rare books on forbidden subjects", several of which are in Arabic.

From his mysterious book, Warren apparently deduces that doors or stairways exist between the surface world, and the underworld. He encourages Carter to travel with him to the location of one such portal, an ancient graveyard near Big Cypress Swamp. Upon arriving, Warren locates a particular tomb, and opens it to reveal a staircase that descends into the earth. Taking a lantern, he leaves Carter on the surface, and follows the stairs into the darkness, communicating with his companion by a telephone wire.

After several minutes of silence, Warren suddenly begins to make vague, panicked outbursts that culminate in a desperate plea for Carter to flee. Finally, after Warren is silent for several minutes, Carter calls to him down the line, only to hear an alien voice telling him that Warren is dead.

The series begins in a desert on the colony planet Deloyer, where the remains of a destroyed robot are resting as a red-haired woman is standing in front of it. The woman hallucinates what appears to be a group of armed soldiers alongside the robot in a non-destroyed state. A man named Rocky appears, leading to the woman running into his embrace where she cries tears of joy. After this, the series flashes back to an earlier time, in order to explain the circumstances leading up to the first episode.

Malcontents on the Deloyer colony agitate for the independence of their world from the Earth Federation. In an unexpected coup, the elected Governor declares martial law and sets himself up as absolute dictator. With the approval of the Federation, he rules the planet with an iron fist. In reaction, a ragtag group (including the governor's estranged son) rises in open rebellion, using a powerful prototype Combat Armor: the ''Dougram''. Their goal is the end of the dictatorship and total independence from the Federation's influence.

The story follows the actions of the guerilla freedom fighters known as "The Deloyer 7." The war is fought across the planet Deloyer as the Federation vigorously pursues the rebels. The series is noted for its realistic use of not just the combat armors and support vehicles, but also military tactics. The series also followed a wide range of characters and political intrigue, with many shady characters switching sides throughout the series.

Crinn Cashim is the show's main character. Son of Governor Donan Cashim, he becomes trained in piloting the Soltic Roundfacer by Jacky Zaltsev, a Federation Ace, because of his father's political connections. When his father appears to be overthrown by a coup led by Colonel Von Stein, he pilots a Roundfacer while Federation forces battle Garcia's forces. He is stunned to learn that his father has actually sided with Von Stein in a secret plan, and eventually becomes angry at his father's forces in how they deal with the rebellion following the coup. Following a meeting with Dr. David Samalin, who introduces him to a combat armor he has designed, the Dougram, Cashim and his friends form ''The Fang of the Sun'' and join the rebellion against the Federation.

The series picks up five years after ''The Great Tomato War'' (much as the film ''Return of the Killer Tomatoes'' did), where tomatoes are banned. However that has not stopped Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen from engaging in his experiments. Gangreen's ultimate goal is to rule the world and he will not let anyone stop him. But his most successful experiment may very well be his undoing. Tara Boumdeay, a tomato turned human, runs away from Gangreen, taking along her "Brother", the fur-covered F.T., whom she passes off as a dog. They befriend Chad Finletter (nephew of the Great Tomato War veteran, Wilbur Finletter) who, after saving the pair from a tomato attack, gets Tara a job at his uncle Wilbur's Tomatoless Pizza Parlor. She shares their secret with Chad regarding the two of them being tomatoes and Chad vows to help them against whatever Gangreen has planned. That is where everyone stands at the start of the first episode, "Give A Little Whistle", where the evil Doctor sets his new plans into motion (and would continue through the first season).

Season Two would center on Gangreen actually conquering the world in the debut episode. But Gangreen learns on a personal level the importance of the quote "Be careful what you wish for". He is overthrown by Zoltan and his gang of twice-mutated tomatoes and is forced to join up with Chad, Tara, Wilbur and the rest of the Killer Tomato Task Force (other vets of the Great Tomato War).

In the fictional town of Palukaville, Shakes (Bobcat Goldthwait) is a good natured but depressed and alcoholic birthday-party clown. After his father died, Shakes was raised by his father's friend, Owen Cheese (Paul Dooley), who gave Shakes his job as a clown and owns the local clown bar, the Twisted Balloon. Shakes is excited because he put in an application to be the host of a children's clown show on television called the Big Time Cartoon Circus, after its original host, Peppy (Sydney Lassick), was fired for sexual harrassment. Shakes falls deeper into his depression when he learns that he has been passed over for the position in favor of Binky (Tom Kenny), a cocaine-addicted clown who is a neurotic and vindictive sexual predator and psychopath.

Shakes's clown friends, Dink (Adam Sandler) and Stenchy (Blake Clark) are concerned that he drinks too much and often encourage him to quit. On top of that, his alcoholism is messing up his relationship with his girlfriend Judy (Julie Brown), a waitress in the Twisted Balloon and an aspiring professional bowler. Shakes continually denies the extent of his alcoholism until Cheese finally tells Shakes that he needs to sober up, or he will have no choice but to fire him. Shakes decides to get sober so he can keep his job and make his father figure proud. Shakes is able to get through alcohol withdrawals and, for a time, seems to be doing well. However, Shakes suffers a relapse at a birthday party and trashes the house in a drunken stupor until he is knocked out by the child's mother.

Shakes returns to the bar later that night, where Cheese angrily fires him for upsetting the party guests. Ashamed and heavily intoxicated, Shakes goes into the back room and passes out. Judy, Dink and Stenchy are able to convince Cheese to give Shakes another chance, and when he attempts to find Shakes, he instead comes across Binky, his sad clown friends, HoHo and Boots, and some rodeo clowns, Ty and Randi, doing cocaine. Cheese is angered that they would be selling and doing drugs in his bar, and a panicked Binky beats him to death with a juggling club in a fit of rage. Shocked, Binky decides to frame Shakes for the murder. Binky moves the body into the room where Shakes has passed out and puts the murder weapon in his hand. Binky then calls the police, who arrive and go after Shakes.

Shakes ends up having to go on the run. Convinced of his innocence, Judy, Dink and Stenchy decide to help Shakes clear his name. Until he can find the truth, Shakes goes into hiding, posing as a hated mime in a class taught by the domineering Jerry the Mime (Robin Williams). Shakes is concerned deep down that he may have actually done it while blacked out and forgot. Later, Shakes, Dink and Stenchy go to a rodeo clown bar called the Broken Saddle, where they learn from the rodeo clowns that Cheese was actually murdered by Binky. Meanwhile, Binky attempts to seduce Judy, who again rebuffs his advances. Binky again gets nervous and accidentally admits to Cheese's murder. Binky knows that he cannot let Judy leave with this information, so he kidnaps her and takes her to the studio where he attempts to kill her live on the air with throwing knives and make it look like an accident.

The rodeo clowns are arrested for their involvement and Shakes, Dink and Stenchy confront Boots and HoHo. This erupts into a fight, which ends with one of the clowns shooting Shakes. Shakes manages to survive, as the bullet became lodged in his flask. Shakes, Dink and Stenchy arrive at the studio and fight Binky just in time to save Judy, and Binky is later arrested for his crimes. Grateful that he saved her life, Judy gets back together with Shakes and he promises her that he will stop drinking. Some time passes and Shakes is shown attending an alcoholics anonymous meeting, sharing with the others that he is still sober and is proud of his accomplishment. With Binky in jail, Shakes is now the new host of the TV show, which proves to be a big hit with children. Shakes, Dink and Stenchy are the stars of the show and entertain the audience by chasing around Jerry the Mime.

Set in Ukraine, beginning in late 1918, the novel concerns the fate of the Turbin family as the various armies of the Ukrainian War of Independence the Whites, the Reds, the Imperial German Army, and Ukrainian nationalists fight over the city of Kyiv. Historical figures such as Pyotr Wrangel, Symon Petliura and Pavlo Skoropadsky appear as the Turbin family is caught up in the turbulent effects of the October Revolution.

The novel's characters belong to the sphere of Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals and officers. In the army of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi they participate in the defense of Kyiv from the forces of Ukrainian Nationalists (led by Petliura) in December 1918. The character Mikhail Shpolyansky is modelled on Viktor Shklovsky.

The novel contains many autobiographical elements. Bulgakov gave the younger Turbin brother some of the characteristics of his own younger brother. The description of the house of the Turbins is that of the house of the Bulgakov family in Kyiv. (Today it is preserved and operated as the Mikhail Bulgakov Museum).

The mayor of Normal Valley leads a mob to the mansion of the Maestro, who has been entertaining local children with magic tricks and ghost stories. The children assure the parents the Maestro has done nothing wrong, but the mayor intends to banish him as a "freak".

The Maestro challenges the mayor to a "scaring contest": the first to become scared must leave. He performs magic tricks and dance routines with a ghostly horde, then possesses the mayor, forcing him to dance. After the performance, the Maestro agrees to leave and crumbles to dust, but returns as an enormous demon. Terrified, the mayor leaps through the window. The families agree that they had fun and allow the Maestro to stay.

While working at a computer store in Cleveland, Ohio, serial killer Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux), known as "The Address Book Killer" due to habitually stealing address books and choosing his victims from them, obtains Terry Munroe's (Karen Allen) address book, due to the store manager, who is demonstrating a scanner, copying a page of her address book into a computer, allowing Karl access to it. On a rainy night while heading home, Karl hurriedly drives into an oncoming lane and swerves to miss a truck. This causes his car to go off the road into a cemetery, all while he laughs like a maniac.

In the emergency room, he is put into an MRI machine. A surge from an electrical storm manages to transfer his soul into a computer. Now, as a network-based entity, Karl continues to plot his killing spree using various objects connected to the electrical grid and computer networks.

Karl opens the scanned page from Terry's address book and begins to kill everyone listed on the page. Her boss, Frank Mallory (Richard McKenzie), becomes the first victim when his microwave oven begins radiating the entire kitchen. Another friend, Elliot Miller (Jack Laufer), gets burned to death when a hand dryer turns into a flamethrower. Later on, babysitter Carol Maibaum (Shevonne Durkin) is hired to look after Terry's son, Josh (Wil Horneff), and his best friend, Frazier (Brandon Adams). However, Carol becomes the third victim; she is electrocuted from an exposed electrical cord on the kitchen floor when the dishwasher explodes and floods the kitchen.

The police do not believe the theory that Karl is on a killing spree after his death, but Josh realizes the order of the killings parallels a list of contacts from Terry's address book. Terry, along with noted computer hacker Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey), unplugs everything in her house.

The police then receive anonymous reports of an armed robbery, a hostage situation, domestic violence, and a murder in progress, all at Terry's house. The police open fire on the home after mistaking an exploding pole transformer for gunfire. After realizing their mistake, they cease fire. Terry's mother goes into shock during the siege and is transported to the hospital for recovery. Aided by Bram and Josh, Bram manages to defeat Karl by introducing a computer virus that traps him in a physics laboratory. They activate an atom smasher located in the lab, which draws Karl in and destroys him because of the extremely powerful magnetic field produced by the machine.

As the film ends, Bram tells Terry to turn off a heart rate monitor in an ambulance, causing the screen to fade to black.

Distinguished Professor Gordon (John Hoyt) explains that Earth is being tormented by periodic "sex rays", which send people into a sexual frenzy. When one of the rays hits the Ford Trimotor passenger aircraft carrying Flesh Gordon (Jason Williams) and Dale Ardor (Suzanne Fields), the pilots abandon the controls and everyone aboard has manic sex. When they finish, Flesh and Dale escape the imminent plane crash by parachute. They land near the workshop of Flexi Jerkoff (Joseph Hudgins), who has a plan to stop the sex rays at their source.

They travel to the planet Porno aboard Jerkoff's phallic rocket ship, and are briefly hit by a sex ray, resulting in a frantic three-way orgy. They crash land after being shot down by the minions of Emperor Wang (William Dennis Hunt) and are attacked by several one-eyed Penisauruses before being taken prisoner by Wang's soldiers. They are brought before Wang, who is presiding over a sex orgy of more than a dozen men and women. Jerkoff is sent to work in Wang's laboratory, while Wang announces his intention to marry Dale. Flesh is sentenced to death, but is saved when Queen Amora (Nora Wieternik) takes him instead to be her sex slave.

Wang shoots down Amora's ship, and Flesh is the only survivor. He is reunited with Jerkoff, and they resume their efforts to defeat Emperor Wang, using Amora's Power Pasties against his soldiers. Wang and Dale's wedding is interrupted when Dale is kidnapped by Amazonian lesbians, whose leader, Chief Nellie (Candy Samples), attempts to initiate Dale into their sexual cult. Flesh and Jerkoff save her, unexpectedly aided by Prince Precious (Mycle Brandy) of the Forest Kingdom. With help from their new ally, Jerkoff builds a weapon to destroy Wang's sex ray. They confront him and trick his "rapist robots" into turning on him, but Wang escapes, seeking the aid of the towering idol of the Great God Porno. Porno comes to life and captures Dale, blandly commenting all the time as they flee. Jerkoff shoots the living idol, freeing Dale and causing the god to fall on Wang and the sex ray, killing them both. Flesh, Dale, and Jerkoff are celebrated as heroes of the planet Porno and return to the Earth.

The novel starts with Melanie stealing her mother's wedding dress and venturing out in the night into her family's property. However, on her way home, she realises she forgot the door key and is forced to climb up a tree to get back into her room, destroying the dress in the process. The next morning, Melanie learns of the unexpected deaths of her parents in a plane crash over the Grand Canyon, and she and her two siblings – Victoria and Jonathon – are moved to South London, to the care of her tyrannical uncle Philip, a bullish and eccentric maker of life-sized puppets and fantastical old fashioned toys. There, she meets her mute aunt Margaret, who is mistreated by and terrified of her husband and only converses through notes. She also meets Margaret's younger brothers Francie, a fiddler, and the rakish Finn. At first, Uncle Philip ignores Melanie and her siblings as they are introduced to his bizarre puppet shows and she is made to work selling toys in the toyshop. Meanwhile, Finn and Melanie grow closer until he takes her to a park which is the ruins of the National Exhibition of 1852. There, after seeing a worn, fallen statue of Queen Victoria and walking across a chess board (only on the white squares), Finn kisses Melanie. She feels intruded on by the gesture, imagining it to be romantic only as an observer from far away. The kiss begins Melanie's conflicted feelings of attraction toward Finn.

At another puppet show, Finn fails to control his puppet and is thrown to the floor by Uncle Philip, who despises him. Satisfied that Finn shall never be adept at working the puppets, Uncle Philip devises a new plan, drafting Melanie to perform with the puppets. Philip assigns Finn to teach Melanie how to act on stage for the future show. During this time, Melanie notices a difference in Finn's behaviour. Whereas before he had been subtly rebellious, he now seems depleted of all resistance and resigned to Philip's control. Finn also becomes even more physically dirty than before. However, Finn's opposition to Philip returns when he refuses to make love to Melanie, as he considers this to be part of Philip's machinations.

Soon the day of the puppet show arrives. Melanie appears on stage in a white dress. Philip has arranged for Melanie to play Leda as she is raped by the god Jove in the guise of a monstrous swan. However, the play is not successful, as Melanie struggles to beat off the swan. As she scrambles to escape the swan puppet, Finn calls for the end of the show. In a rage, Philip slaps Melanie and accuses her of ruining his show.

Shortly after the show, Uncle Philip goes on a business trip, taking Jonathon with him and leaving the rest of the family alone at the house. Finn decides to destroy Philip's puppet swan and buries it in the park next to the fallen Queen Victoria. He returns home and crawls into bed with Melanie. She comforts him and arrives at the realisation that they will someday marry and have children, leading a poor, constrained life together. Finn reaches a sort of epiphany about his life and decides to wash and not tolerate Uncle Philip's hegemony any more, something exemplified when Finn sits in Uncle Philip's seat at the dinner table. After a somewhat drunken evening, Melanie learns that Margaret and Francie have been having an incestuous relationship.

Suddenly Uncle Philip returns, discovering the infidelity of his wife and the rebellion of his household. In a tremendous rage, he sets the house on fire. Margaret finally speaks as she urges Finn and Melanie to escape. They do so just in time, running outside the house and turning to watch the floors of the house collapse in fire. They realise now that their old world is destroyed and, for better or worse, all they have left is each other.

Frankie (Ione Skye) works at her uncle Leo's Cafe Blue Eyes in San Francisco (named in honor of family friend Frank Sinatra), and is hoping to meet her ideal lover, ideally one with blue eyes like Sinatra, while going to auditions with her friend Allison (Jennifer Aniston). Frankie suffers from insomnia, and has not slept through the night since childhood, when her parents were killed in a car accident. She spends most of her time at night reading. Writer David Shrader (Mackenzie Astin), takes a job at the cafe, and Frankie falls in love with him, while he attempts to cure her insomnia, she reads his writings, and the two take turns reciting philosophical quotes and guessing their source. The film is shot in black and white until Frankie sees David, when the film switches to color and David's eyes are revealed as blue. David breaks Frankie's heart when she finds out that he is engaged to a lawyer, Molly (Leslie Stevens), but he eventually chooses Frankie over his fiancé, and visits her in Los Angeles, where she has joined Allison, who is exploring an acting career. The film ends with Frankie falling asleep in David's arms. A subplot has Rob (Michael Landes), the gay son of Leo (Seymour Cassel), trying to convince his father he is straight, with the help of Allison "acting" as his girlfriend. After Allison and Frankie leave, Rob comes out of the closet to his father, who in fact had known and accepted that Rob was gay for many years.

At the bowling alley, Mort Goldman bowls a perfect game and becomes an overnight celebrity. Lois arrives to pick Peter up from the bowling alley, but discovers Quagmire spying on her from the ceiling of the ladies' toilet. Quagmire is arrested, but released shortly after by Joe. On his return, Lois, Bonnie and Loretta reveal that they're petitioning the city of Quahog to have Quagmire removed from their neighborhood. As Peter and the other guys are defending Quagmire, Ernie the Giant Chicken attacks Peter and starts a fight that causes huge casualties inside and outside of Quahog. After the fight, Peter returns to the neighborhood to return to the conversation and tells the women that "Quagmire's a good guy, he's just a little mixed up, that's all!" Eventually, the women agree to let Quagmire stay in the neighborhood so long as he manages to control his perverse behavior or else he’s kicked out of the neighborhood. Quagmire's taught self-control through operant conditioning by Peter and his friends, and is eventually allowed out in public. Soon, however, he is distracted by three cheerleaders playing in a fountain in the shopping mall and panics, running into a CCTV camera operation room monitoring women's changing rooms. Discovering that an attractive blonde lady in a fitting room is having a heart attack, he appears to rush to her aid, performing CPR and saving her life. Quagmire is congratulated for his heroism, but his intention had been to molest the woman while she was unconscious (which he reveals by asking "What the hell is CPR?").

This upsets Peter, who is disappointed to notice that he is the one amongst his friends who hasn't been successful. In the hope of becoming famous, Peter attempts to set a world record for eating the largest number of nickels, but develops nickel poisoning and loses his vision. Attempting to drown his sorrows, Peter visits his local bar, The Drunken Clam, with his guide dog, unaware that the bar is on fire (caused by God trying to impress a woman). Discovering the bartender Horace trapped under debris, Peter saves his life and is proclaimed a hero by local newsman Tom Tucker. When told that he saved Horace from a burning building, Peter replies with disbelief, "That freakin' place was on fire?!" For his inadvertent bravery, Peter is awarded a medal by the mayor and receives an eye transplant, the replacement eyes coming from a homeless man dragged to death when Peter accidentally tied his guide dog's leash around the man's neck, thinking he was a parking meter. The end of this episode is an unconnected parody of the closing scene from ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''.

The story is about Toru, an extremely quiet and shy high school student who has a crush on Ryoji, a popular member of the high school swimming team known for his sexual escapades. Further complicating this matter is that Toru and Ryoji are very close friends, thus forcing Toru to hide his real feelings for Ryoji and pretend to be just one of his good friends, while being torn between his love for Ryoji and the facade he has to keep up when he sees him every day.

But all that changes one day when Ryoji makes an indecent proposal to Toru, asking him if he would like to experiment with him sexually, and admitting that he had been aroused by thoughts of him during sexual intercourse with his girlfriend. Toru unhappily accepts, pressured by his feelings for Ryoji, but as time passes Toru becomes even more aggravated as he realizes that his sexual affair with Ryoji was just a fling based on Ryoji's sexual curiosity, and not on actual romantic attraction.

Toru is so depressed about the one-sided situation between him and Ryoji that he confides with a close friend named Kashiwazaki about his emotional turmoil. Together, they come up with a plan to discover Ryoji's true intentions by secretly deciding to lie to him about them being in a romantic relationship together.

After learning of this, Ryoji becomes very angry and jealous about Toru and Kashiwazaki's alleged relationship, and tries to break them up. The plan apparently has worked, but Toru is now in a serious love triangle between Ryoji and Kashiwazaki when he begins to realize that Kashiwazaki has been in love with him for a very long time. As the story progresses, he begins to understand that he and Ryoji were not the only ones that were hiding their true feelings.

Drake is the premier assassin of a Hong Kong based clan known as the 99 Dragons. While training in the Kwoon, he hears a break in. He enters the chamber containing the Soul Portal Artifact, given to the clan over 3000 years ago, battling enemies before a mysterious Ghost Assassin swoops out of the room with the artifact. The assassin is in cahoots with Tang, a businessman and the clan's mortal enemy. Drake then pursues the assassin, but is unable to stop the villain when he phases out of a window of the penthouse. He returns to the Master's chamber, only to find the corpses of himself, the Master, and the other members of his clan.

Shocked, Drake collapses, and the tattoo on his chest glows. In a flashback, Drake is given the tattoo of the Undying Dragon by The Master, which provides him with supernatural powers as well as immortality. The tattoo glows, and Drake unleashes the abilities to run up walls, slow down time, and freeze time. He explores the penthouse and collects thirty souls of his fallen comrades and enemies. When the powers go to Drake's head, he leaps out a window and falls to his death. He then awakens in the Spirit Realm and is scolded by the four Spirit Gods. They inform him that he must collect more souls for the Undying Dragon and recover the Soul Portal Artifact in order to avenge his Master's death. They give him a new body and return him to the mortal realm. He pursues a courier and follows his blood trail to a fireworks factory. Drake shoots at him but is killed in a sudden explosion.

The gods, annoyed once more at Drake's lack of competence, bring him back to life and send him to the House of the Dreaming Cloud casino. There, Drake attempts to find the courier but is attacked by the casino's owner Pok and his demon dogs. After defeating Pok, Drake tails the courier to the Hung Fook Casino Palace, where it turns out he lost the Soul Portal Artifact in a gambling match. A thug beats Chun to near-death for his mishap, but Drake saves his life in time and learns the location of the Soul Portal Artifact. Drake quickly sets off through the city, fending off biker gangs along the way, and returns to the House of the Dreaming Cloud.

While fighting Pok, now in his "true" demonic form, Drake once again gets caught up in an explosion. Serpent-Eye Sung, a business partner and accomplice of Tang, steals the Soul Portal Artifact from a dying Drake and heads off to his canned seafood factory, where they are harvesting the soul from an albino orca. Drake goes to stop Serpent-Eye and take the Artifact back but is attacked by Tang's henchwoman Banshee and killed once more. The Spirit Gods decide to cut their losses and send Drake back to the penthouse, where the Tang Undertakers are stealing the corpses of the 99 Dragons. Drake chases after a truck holding his master's body and finds himself taken to a cyborg creation facility. There, he finds that Master has been turned into a cyborg, but manages to defeat the robot and retrieve his Master's body from the remains.

Outraged, Drake decides to go after Tang. Upon infiltrating Tang Towers, he discovers Tang's true scheme: to use the artifact to reap the souls from the Spirit Realm and use those souls to power his cyborg army. Drake then breaks into Tang's secret morgue facility and recaptures his clan members' souls. He then travels to the basements of the facility, where Tang is using the artifact to open the portal to the spirit realm. Drake fights and defeats a demon-like creature, but the Ghost Assassin steals the Soul Portal Artifact and escapes into the spirit realm. Drake enters the realm and pursues the assassin, ultimately defeating him. He then retrieves the Soul Portal Artifact and collects the Master's soul.

Drake then falls down to a nest of a three-headed beast called the Spirit Lord Supreme and defeats it. Drake then goes back to the Serene Garden and revives the Master with the artifact. Master thanks Drake for his efforts, stating that he achieved a level of proficiency even he was unable to reach, and he has proven himself to the Gods.

The story is a recasting of the resurrection of Christ narrated in the New Testament. The man who survives his crucifixion comes to celebrate his bodily existence and sensuality. Lawrence himself summarized ''The Escaped Cock'' in a letter to Brewster (May 3, 1927):

I wrote a story of the Resurrection, where Jesus gets up and feels very sick about everything, and can't stand the old crowd any more — so cuts out — and as he heals up, he begins to find what an astonishing place the phenomenal world is, far more marvellous than any salvation or heaven — and thanks his stars he needn't have a 'mission' any more.

Holly and Jackie form a small group of "women's libbers". They convince Candy, a wealthy socialite who has an incestous relationship with her brother, to join them at their meetings. The group needs Candy's membership to bring money and "glamour" to their cause.

The game's story revolves around the Crests, six magical stones which preside over their respective elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Time and Heaven). When all crests are combined, the Crest of Infinity will appear, allowing its holder infinite power and the ability to conquer all realms with it. The demons of the Demon Realm have long fought each other for possession of the Crests, five of which have since fallen into the hands of a red demon named Firebrand. Seeking infinite power, Firebrand challenges a Demon Dragon for the Crest of Heaven and is victorious, though badly wounded. In his weakness, a rival demon named Phalanx ambushes Firebrand and takes all the Crests except the Fire Crest which shattered into five shards.

As the game begins, Phalanx has already begun using the Crests to become the ruler of the Demon Realm, while Firebrand is imprisoned in an amphitheater and made to fight the zombified Demon Dragon. After escaping the amphitheater, Firebrand sets out to regain the Crests and get revenge on Phalanx. Along the way, Firebrand is repeatedly challenged by Phalanx's general, Arma, who grudgingly returns each of the Crests to Firebrand out of respect for his power.

Finally, Firebrand challenges Phalanx in his castle within the Demon Realm. Depending on the player's choices, three different endings are possible in this battle. The worst ending has Firebrand killing Phalanx and leaving the Demon Realm as it falls into complete anarchy, while a more favorable ending has Phalanx sealing himself inside the Crest of Heaven and Firebrand hiding all the Crests. The third ending concludes with Firebrand slaying Phalanx after he summons the Crest of Infinity to transform into a hideous beast, then tossing the Crests off a cliff after deciding that he does not seek conquest.

Completing the game with the third ending gives the player a special password that allows Firebrand to continue the game with a new transformation, the Ultimate Gargoyle, and access the hidden fourth ending. In which Firebrand can challenge a secret boss named Dark Demon. Upon winning this battle, the fourth ending plays in which Firebrand casts away the Crests out of pride for his own power, then leaves to seek another worthy opponent to fight.

Three escaped female convicts, along with an undercover policewoman, Lee Hampton, begin a search for stolen diamonds in the Louisiana swamps. The escape, allowed by the authorities, is part of a larger plan by the authorities is to trail the convicts and recover the diamonds. When notified that the stolen diamond cache has been recovered by the undercover officer, they plan to rearrest the women and return the diamonds to their rightful owner. The plan fails to work as designed.

During the inmates' search of the swamp, they steal a boat from a research geologist and his girlfriend, resulting in the girlfriend's death from the attack of indigenous alligators.Frank (1998) The Films of Roger Corman. Batsford

After recovery of the diamonds, one of the convicts double-crosses the others, attempting to sneak off with the guns and diamonds, but she is killed by the one of the other convicts. The two remaining convicts begin to suspect the undercover cop, and threaten to kill the geologist if she doesn't reveal herself.

A fight ensues between the convicts and the undercover officer, assisted by the geologist. which allows the authorities enough time to show up and regain custody of the two remaining fugitives.

The plot of the film is that the birds live in a fictional, peaceful town named Chirpendale. A crow arrives known as the Black Menace. As his name suggests, the Black Menace terrorizes the town. The story follows the adventures of the hero Bill, a cab driver, as he tries to save Coo and the rest of the town's inhabitants from certain destruction.

The game's premise is that American old west cowboy Marshal Gram (played by Stephen Wilber, also hired to coordinate the game's stunts) is required to save the universe from scientist turned evil time lord Vulcor, who's found a way to manipulate and distort time itself; and to also rescue Princess Kyi-La (played by LeAnn McVicker) of the Galactic Federation, whom Vulcor is holding prisoner in his quest to disrupt the flow of time. The player must pursue the villain across time through the ages overcoming various obstacles along the way while undoing all the damage done by Vulcor.

The boys have a new fellow student in their class, the mentally and physically handicapped Timmy, who is only capable of saying his own name, the phrase "livin' a lie", and otherwise a very limited number of words. Mr. Garrison and Principal Victoria do not realize the extent of Timmy's handicaps, and Mr. Mackey suggests that Timmy may have ADD. They send him to a doctor who diagnoses him in a very odd fashion (reading ''The Great Gatsby'' in its entirety, then asking one random question about a mundane detail from the book). Timmy is then freed from all homework, leading all the other kids in the class to claim that they also have ADD in an attempt to get out of their homework. They are all promptly diagnosed with the condition using a similar method as Timmy, and they are all prescribed Ritalin as a result.

Without the burden of homework, Timmy finds a new pastime as he is discovered by The Lords of the Underworld (the rock band consisting of Shelley Marsh's ex-boyfriend, Skyler, and his two friends, as seen in the season three "Cat Orgy"), which takes him on as its new lead singer. The band becomes instantly successful due to Timmy's antics. However, many people are upset as they think that Timmy is being ridiculed. Phil Collins in particular is displeased with the new band, which has been booked to open for him at the Lalapalalapaza festival. Shortly after, Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld (at this point only referred to as "Timmy") take Collins's place as the headliners of the festival.

The other boys have actually started to take their Ritalin medication, making them very calm and rather boring. Cartman develops a side effect from Ritalin that causes him to see pink Christina Aguilera monsters (one of which causes him to accidentally kill Kenny). The adults are uncomfortable among them, but accept their new kind and obedient children when they also start taking Ritalin. Chef and the pharmacists are the only people left who are not under the drug's influence.

Meanwhile, Phil Collins tries to break up Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. First by appealing to Timmy's parents, Richard and Helen (who also have large heads, use wheelchairs, and unable to say anything other than their names), and later by telling the guitarist, Skyler, that Timmy is stealing his fame and is only holding Skyler back, reminiscing to his Genesis era. Skyler leaves the band, which is subsequently cancelled from the festival. Collins regains his headlining spot, and Skyler's solo project Reach for the Skyler is booked to open for him, but Skyler bails out.

In the meantime, Chef tries to convince the parents that there are other methods to fight ADD than medication, namely beating the children to force them to "sit down and study," but as the parents are all taking Ritalin too, he does not get any help. After the boys come in and tell Chef that they want to go to the festival to see Phil Collins perform, Chef decides to go confront the pharmacist alone. As the pharmacist and doctor who prescribed the Ritalin are counting their profits, Chef angrily tells them that they are responsible for the children liking Collins. Horrified that they are responsible for this, they make a plan to distribute an antidote called "Ritalout" (which, in one scene, is in a bottle labeled MDMA) by mixing it into free drinks at the Lalapalalapaza festival. They get the drinks from a lemonade stand run by Mr. Derp (a minor character who appeared last in "The Succubus").

The plan works perfectly; Collins is booed from the stage, and the crowd starts chanting for Timmy. The band reunites with Skyler and they play their show. Timmy even learns the words to introduce the band properly. Collins is carried out of the arena via crowd surfing, with the position of the Oscar implied to have been inserted in his anus. This was shown in a segment which aired during the last 20 seconds of the episode.

The film proceeds in chronological order, apart from the scene at the beginning of the first episode before the opening credits, which was taken from Winter 1997.

Summer 1989

The film begins in 1989 when Sergeant Alexander (Sasha) Belov, (nicknamed Bely, or ''white'') has finished his national service in the Soviet Border Troops, and returns to his home in Moscow. He is greeted there by his three childhood friends, Kosmos Kholmogorov (or Kosmos (Kos)/Space), Viktor Pchyolkin (Pchyola/Bee), and Valery Filatov (Fil/Phil). His return, however, shows that perestroika has deeply transformed the Soviet Union life and both Kosmos and Pchyola have turned to criminal racket on Moscow's markets. They try to lure Sasha to join them, but Belov abruptly refuses and instead has ambitions to attain higher education in vulcanology.

Belov also learns that his former girlfriend, Yelena Yeliseyeva (Lena, Lenka) has become a prostitute. Enraged, Sasha ventures to the ''disco'', and finds her there, but an attempted conversation is interrupted by Yelena's pimp, Mukha (Fly). Having earlier prepared for a likely fight, Belov strikes Mukha in the face with a brass knuckle resulting in fracture. Before Mukha's fellow gangsters have time to beat up Sasha, Kosmos, Fil and Pchyola arrive and rescue their friend.

What Bely did not know was that Mukha has strong ties in the Militsiya — his cousin Lieutenant Vladimir Kaverin (Volodya). After Mukha's recovery, Kaverin agrees to cover the revenge against Belov, which is likely to result in death. Belov instead comes to the gang's gathering and challenges Mukha to a 1-on-1 fight, which the latter loses. The fight also ends Belov's relationship with Lenka.

Unlike Pchyola and Kosmos, Fil instead is keen on pursuing a sporting career in boxing. His ambitions are lost when a doctor diagnoses him with early symptoms of Parkinson's disease and does not allow him to continue boxing, yet at the same time offers him to compete in an underground Mixed martial arts club. Fil makes his fighting début there and is supported by his three friends, but the audience includes Mukha, who decides to take his chance to avenge Belov by stabbing him, when a brawl breaks out among the supporters. The brawl is broken up by a man, who fires several shots in the air, causing the crowd to run off.

The next morning Mukha's body is found in the hangar where the fight took place and Kaverin bribes the investigator to consider Belov the prime suspect. Soon, the militsiya arrive at his apartment with a search warrant and plant a pistol in his clothes. Kosmos, who accidentally passes by, is asked to witness the discovery of the pistol. When requested to sign papers as a witness, Kosmos spots Sasha on the street approaching his apartment. Kosmos leaves hastily and throws him in a car and explains what has happened. Afterwards Kosmos hides Sasha in a dacha (vacation house) outside Moscow, and his friends make separate statements to the investigator. Simultaneously, Sasha's mother tries to recruit a lawyer and also seeks help from Kosmos's father, Yuri Rostislavovich, who is a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and thus has numerous contacts among the Soviet elite.

At the dacha, Sasha notices a beautiful neighbour, Olga Surikova, with whom he immediately falls in love. He follows her to her violin recital in Moscow and begins a courtship. The date ends abruptly when Olga, waiting for Sasha to return from repairing a broken heel on her shoe, notices a wanted poster on the train platform with his face and name.

Sasha's friends decide to lift his spirits, and with Fil's sport contacts "recruit" a group of four female swimmers, whom they drive to the Dacha for a party that ends with couples pairing off for sex. The music volume is so high that Olga's grandmother calls the local militsiya sheriff. Having arrived too late to break up the party, he, however, discerns Belov's face, and upon returning to his station recognizes him on the wanted poster and immediately calls the OMON (armed police squad) for an arrest. They arrive just after Fil and Kosmos drive off for more alcohol, and Pchyola and Sasha barely escape the gunfire-rattled dacha into the woods, where Sasha takes a bullet.

Realising that he is out of money, Kosmos arrives home and drunkenly confronts his father and Sasha's mother, promising that everything is all right with Sasha. Returning to the country, they find the sheriff taken hostage by Pchyola and Sasha and, warning him not to report the incident, drive off without killing him. In the meantime, Kosmos' father spends a whole night on the phone and finally announces that he has cleared Sasha's name. Unfortunately, it might be a year before he can return to Moscow. The 1989 story ends on top of Sparrow Hills as dawn breaks, with the four friends overlooking the panorama of Moscow. The blood-soaked Sasha swears to his friends that he will always remain loyal to them and to the Brigada.

Spring 1991

The film picks up in 1991 and the viewer learns that Sasha, after one and a half years of hiding in the Urals, decided that a criminal life would be natural after what has happened. Fil now works as a stuntman and the Brigada controls several auto-services and markets. Because, their income is insignificant and their prominence is low, Pchyola suggests to Sasha that they make their first big move by racketing the chairmen (and Pchyola's former neighbour) of the large trading company ''Kurs-Invest''. The company owner, Artur, despite the obvious fear stricken into him by Belov's somewhat-humorous methods, abruptly refuses to accept his "offer", and leaves Belov's lawyer badly injured.

In revenge, Belov hijacks Artur's large shipping of several train cars full of Aluminium from Tajikistan. After an unsuccessful attempt by Artur's own semi-criminal bodyguards to deal with Belov, the profile of the dispute catches the KGB's attention and agent Igor Vvedenskiy announces Belov's talent to his superiors and seeks permission to let the group develop further, under their control. At the same time, Artur contacts the militsiya and his case is taken up by, the now Captain, Kaverin who sees this as a perfect chance to settle the 1989 incident with Belov.

In the meantime, Sasha marries Olga and, after a lavish reception, their first wedding night is to follow in their new apartment in the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building (a wedding gift by Pchyola, Fil and Kosmos). However, this almost ends in disaster when the hem of Olga's wedding gown gets tangled in a wire attached to the pin of a hand grenade, neatly set up right across the front door of their apartment. Sasha manages to grab the armed grenade and throw it into the stairwell after a neighbour's dog rushed to rip the wire and release the pin.

Afterwards, in Kosmos's father's apartment, Olga confesses to Sasha despite her knowing who he is and what he does, she still loves him. Knowing that such action could have been carried out only by a mole, Sasha stages his imminent departure to Yalta, which causes the mole to reveal himself. Afterwards he is driven out into the woods and killed. Belov openly states to his Brigada that anyone who tries something like that will share his fate.

Kaverin shows Artur the picture of the dead mole, and much to irritation of Artur for the failed attempt to remove Belov, Kaverin tries to convince him that this is a perfect evidence to legally crush the Brigada. Artur refuses, but at that instant the Brigada burst into the office. Artur and Kaverin just manage to hide in the toilet, and Kosmos and Bee nearly assault Artur's secretary Lyuda. After they leave, Kaverin takes drunk Artur's signature to write a statement by himself. Yet at this point Vvedensky's KGB move in, and Kaverin is promptly discharged from service.

Simultaneously the original Aluminium producer from Tajikistan calls for the Tajik mafia to move in against Belov for hijacking their deal, as Artur paid only half the fee. In an imminent gang duel Bely recognises the leader as his old army friend Farkhad Dzhurayev (Farik). The two instead choose to turn to Drug trade, where Belov's Aluminium trains would be used to smuggle heroin from Tajikistan. To celebrate the deal, both Belov's Brigada and Farik's godfathers go to a lavish restaurant, where they witness Olga performing. Vvedensky makes contact with Belov and under threat of prison announces that narcotics are to be only transited via Russia. In return for Belov's agreement, Artur is forced to give up his position and emigrate, and Belov fully takes over Kurs-Invest including its office and even Artur's secretary, Lyuda.

Olga, after graduation from the Philharmonia fails to begin her music career, and instead turns to her former course-mate Vitalik, and joins his band. Vitalik, not hiding his attraction to Olga, tries to blackmail her into leaving her husband, who openly disapproves of both Vilalik and her being part of the band, which he further makes visible by having the whole party leave the restaurant. Eventually Sasha witnesses how Vitalik verbally offends Olga and makes him suffer in a short fight, after which Olga happily walks off with Sasha. The 1991 part of the film finishes when Olga and Sasha pause their love-making when they become aware that the television is broadcasting the same Swan Lake on all channels, which a Russian viewer will know is the beginning of the 1991 August Coup which brought the end of the Soviet Union.

Autumn 1993

The 1993 story picks with Sasha returning from the United States, just as Olga is about to give birth to their son, Ivan. He arrives during the Constitutional coup. Simultaneously, Farik also arrives in Moscow, who is sent by his family elders to negotiate a deal to sell narcotics in Moscow, rather than following Belov's less profitable suggestion of transporting them to the West. As the two parties reach Sasha's office, the Russian OMON raid the premises, and all the Brigada are arrested and taken to the Butyrka isolator.

The large cell is filled with people swept up in raids, including Kaverin and two colleagues. Although the two parties do not approach each other, they describe what they know of their friends, and that Kaverin, after leaving the MVD, now works for a private security firm with criminal activities, headed by Bek.

Vvedenskiy, realising what has become of Belov, arranges for his release. As soon as Sasha walks out he learns that Olga has given birth. As the Brigada drive off to the hospital they see army trucks removing the dead from the White House.

Seeing his newborn son, the Brigada come back to the office, where Farik tells the problems he has to Beliy. Kosmos and Pchyola agree that selling drugs in Moscow would bring more revenue, but Sasha refuses. The discussion ends, and Farik walks out saying that he felt betrayed. Kosmos convinces Beliy to change his mind, but stating that he will not play any direct role in the deal.

What they do not know, is that the whole conversation is recorded by Kaverin via remote surveillance equipment. Immediately Kaverin forwards the tapes to Bek, who agrees to hijack the deal. Sasha fearing that the clients might trap Farik, offers Fil to come along to oversee the exchange. Farik, however, refuses, and Sasha's worst fear comes true. The deal is carried out with Farik handing over the narcotics on the Ferris Wheel of the VDNKh and his two Tajik friends receiving the money outside Moscow. After the exchange, both Tajik parties are murdered.

Sasha learns what has happened and personally takes the bodies to Farik's elders in Tajikistan. Belov explains, to his father that they have every right to consider him responsible, but he is here alone, and that their partnership is more important. After showing Farik's father the photo of the newborn Ivan, the former allows him to return to Moscow and find those responsible.

Kaverin, now sceptical of Bek approaches the Brigada. After playing them the tapes, he convinces them that he was gathering intelligence for Bek, and knew he would hijack the exchange. The action on New Year's Eve alternates between Sasha and Olga at a performance of Tchaikovsky's Waltz from Swan Lake and various locations in Moscow where Bek himself and his group are killed in retaliation for Farik's death. Belov, bored at the concert, receives news of the successful operation amid the final applause. This causes him stand up with the audience and applaud a Bravo.

The 1993 part of the film ends with Vvedenskiy reporting to the KGB on Kaverin. Seeing how the subject has successfully played out a double agent between Bek and Belov and that his personal score with the latter, Vvedenskiy proposes to support Kaverin as a counterbalance Belov's growing brigade.

Autumn 1994

As Belov's group gains more and more prominence, bigger games become played. Their contacts go beyond narcotics, and Kaverin sets Kosmos up with Luka, a renowned Thief in law. Luka offers to use Belov's drug channels to transfer arms to Chechnya for Kosmos. Belov, however, is not interested in the Arms Trade, and instead wants to legalise his activities, for which he befriends a Russian politician, Viktor Petrovich and passes on a set of papers for a "restoration fund" which grants him tax-free trade of alcohol and tobacco.

However, the KGB (now FSK) want the arms deal to progress, and have Luka's men attack Sasha when he is visiting with Olga and Ivan to his mother's flat. Belov's bodyguard Max is able to kill two and pursues the remaining assassin away. Max hurries Olga and Ivan to a safe-house outside Moscow, while Belov and Fil hide in an undisclosed flat in Moscow.

The shoot-out gains wide coverage on television, which Vvedenskiy watches from home. He instructs Kaverin to bring Kosmos to Luka, who tells Kosmos that in case of Belov's refusal, Luka will remove Belov altogether and Kosmos will take over. Despite this offer, Kosmos breaks the situation to Belov. Olga discovers that Ivan has a throat infection that needs an urgent operation. Driving to a local hospital, their escort gets caught at a GAI checkpoint and is apprehended. During Ivan's operation, Luka's men surround the small provincial hospital, with only Max to defend it.

While Fil unsuccessfully tries to gain aid from Viktor Petrovich, Luka phones Belov and states his ultimatum. Belov throws the phone down, and Luka tells Kaverin to finish him off. Kaverin hires a professional sniper and a gang duel is called on the Tushino airfield with the sniper on top of a building several kilometres away. However, Luka is killed instead of Sasha, and Pchyola and Fil finish off his bodyguards. Luka's men leave the hospital and Ivan's operation is completed.

Afterwards, Beliy meets with Vvedensky and Kaverin. Vvedenskiy tells him that Kaverin is taking over Luka's activities and Beliy must sell weapons to Chechnya if he does not want a repeat of what has happened. The 1994 story ends when Belov visits his mother's flat. Witnessing the earlier assassination attempt, she collapsed with a heart attack, and died. Belov talks to her spirit, asking her to forgive him.

Spring 1995

The First Chechen War has broken out, and there are daily radio reports of Russian casualties from guerilla attacks. Kosmos feels very personal about this, as it was initially his idea, but now the weapons they are selling are being used against the Russians. Pchyola takes over the financial side of the distribution. This causes an open conflict between them, causing Sasha to intervene. Having already been an addict of cocaine, Kosmos overdoses, and is injured in a car accident. Sasha visits him at his father's house, and Kosmos confesses that back in 1989, upon seeing Mukha creep up behind Bely with a knife, it was he who shot him. Sasha forgives him and decides to end the Chechen problem.

Belov continues his attempts in legalising the Brigada's activities and secures a deal with Viktor Petrovich for a set of alcohol and tobacco licenses. Breaking the news to Fil, they go to a casino to celebrate, where Sasha becomes very drunk, and they bump into famous film producer Gordon and his wife, actress Anyuta, whom Fil knows from his work as a stuntman.

Kaverin finalises a new shipment of arms to Chechnya and after agreeing on the route, goes to the same casino, where he crosses paths with Belov. They begin to argue on their mutual dislike of each other, and Kaverin confesses it was his influence that the search of his house in 1989 included a false extraction of a pistol. Bely breaks a bottle of champagne on Volodya's head. Upon leaving the casino, Bely sees Anyuta's look and comes back to her place beginning an affair. The next morning he discovers that Gordon is homosexual and their marriage is merely a convenience.

Kaverin heads off to Chechnya, and meets the insurgent militants. The delivery of arms is intercepted by Army spetsnaz commandos, who kill the militants and destroy the trucks. Back in Moscow the frantic Pchyola, waiting for the call to confirm the deal, is told that everything is destroyed. Sasha reaffirms him that despite the US$11 million they lost, it will be good for them nonetheless. Viktor Petrovich thanks Sasha for the information he has given him and reassures him that he has nothing to fear from the Vvedensky's side. Belov meets Vvedensky in front of his own home, and realizing that Vvedensky is shocked that Belov knows where he lives, Sasha tells him that they both have children and that all he wants is for them to co-exist. Vvedensky acknowledges that even he can be manipulated by Bely, and agrees with him that stopping the arms flow was the right thing to do.

The 1995 part of the film ends with a blood soaked Kaverin, who despite taking two sniper bullets, is limping next a burnt out village. A Russian Army BTR patrol pulls up and the soldiers rescue him.

Winter 1997

After the previous events, the Brigada begins to cool down. Fil has a very successful part as a stuntman in a new production by Gordon about Highlander. Sasha maintains the affair with Gordon's wife, Anyuta, who has the main role in the film. After a particularly good stunt Fila borrows a camcorder from Anyuta to show Ivan, who returns with Olga from America. He also takes head of mannequin with him. Fil drives Olga and Ivan home and then catches the rest of the Brigada in a night club. There Pchyola negotiates a new money laundering deal with the Caucasus mafia. Bely refuses to accept it, out of principle's of continuing the legal profile of the business. Pchyola, much to the dismay of Kosmos, decides to follow it through alone and travels to airport not with Brigada but with Caucasians.

Pchyola departs for the airport to catch his flight to Germany. As Fil drives Kosmos and Sasha back to their office, all three notice how their wristwatch arms accelerate and the radio begins to glitch. In a split second decision Sasha yells for everyone to jump out, and with Kosmos they roll out onto the snow-covered street. Fil however hesitates, and jumps only seconds before the large Mercedes explodes. This is the scene that was shown before the opening credits of the first episode.

Unconscious, he is rushed off to the hospital where he spends several hours under surgery with serious head injuries. Kosmos convinces Sasha that Pchyola is the only one who could have carried this out, as after their death he'll have everything and he didn't sit into their car. They send their head of security, Shmit, and his men (all former thugs) to find him. Pchyola himself, as soon as he learns of the attack, just as he arrives to the airport, catches the first taxi back to Moscow.

Night falls, and Fil is still under surgery, Olga meanwhile is learning to drive with Maks (now her and Ivan's personal bodyguard), on the Kutuzovsky Prospekt, where Pchyola catches up with her. He tells her on the phone not to tell Max about him and asks her to stop at the pharmacy and come in alone. There he tells her that the camcorder which Fil borrowed remained turned on, and that right now it is at Anyuta's house (Fil returned it to her after realizing that it was Gordon's camera). Max upon seeing Pchyola immediately calls Shmit, who arrives and brings him to the hospital.

Olga meanwhile comes to Anyuta's home and confronts her, forcing to abandon the affair with Sasha, and to return the camera. At the hospital Pchyola is met with Bely and Kosmos holding pistols, they are interrupted by a nurse asking for anyone with Type B negative blood for Fil. Sasha points to Pchyola who makes a transfusion to the still unconscious Fila, after the operation was finally completed.

Kosmos then tells Bely that he will not have the courage to kill Pchyola, to which Sasha replies that neither will he. Kos advises Sasha to have Shmit do it. To calm his nerves, Sasha asks Kosmos for cocaine, stating that, he spent many years selling it but never tried it, though after a second attempt he feels nothing. At this moment Olga and Maks burst in with the camcorder. Sasha shouts at Olga, but Maks intervenes and plays the tape, which shows how Gordon plants the bomb inside the head of mannequin that Fil brought with him. Kosmos remembers that Gordon was borrowed half a million from Fil, but lacked the means to pay it off. Realizing what has happened, Kosmos pleads to Pchyola for his mistake. The 1997 part of the film ends when Olga walks in on the drunken Kosmos, Sasha and Pchyola and tells then that Fil is in a coma.

Winter 1998

A year has passed and Fil is still in a coma. The doctors try to persuade his wife, Tamara to turn off his feeding tube, as there is little chance of recovery. Learning of this, Belov, though agreeing to transferring him to a private clinic, decides to avenge his friend. Gordon makes a successful and popular premiere of his new picture, and to celebrate he meets his homosexual date where they drive off to a gay club. Before they leave the car, the young lad passes his regards from Sasha Bely and strangles Gordon to death.

The murder of a famous film producer generates a massive media outrage about the mafia, and Olga takes Ivan and leaves Sasha. Belov comes to the same dacha where her grandmother still lives and almost forcefully assaults Olga. The militsiya arrive, where Sasha recognises the same militsiya sheriff from 1989. He turns himself in and back at the station they drink and dance, telling their life stories. The militsiya officer then demonstrates the old wanted poster of Belov, and sets out making him some photocopies. As he awaits, Belov's eyes grow in shock when he sees an election poster with Kaverin's face. Kaverin has survived Chechnya, and is running for the State Duma in the upcoming majoritarian election.

Shmit, Pchyola and Kosmos pay Gordon's assassin, but after he leaves the cafe, a SOBR unit arrests them, drives into the woods, where the three are forced to dig a grave for themselves under gunpoint. The SOBR gunmen open fire at the empty trees right above their heads, and walk off, leaving the three to find a way out. When the three dirty men arrive back at the office, Belov enquires into the event. Viktor Petrovich tells him that it was carried out by a militsiya commander, who after Gordon's death sends a warning that there were still law and order who could crush Bely and his Brigada should this happen again. Bely confronts the Commander, telling he did what was necessary for his friend. He gets a phone call from the hospital that there has been further complications with Fil. Before leaving the Commander, he takes a Russian Orthodox cross that the SOBR took from his friends.

The 1998 part ends when Sasha visits Fil and finds him surrounded by doctors. He kneels over Fil, and seeing that his eyes are open whispers: "brother". A tear flows out of Fil's eyes. After that Belov makes up his mind to run against Kaverin.

Winter 1999

Its December 1999, and the elections are scheduled for early spring 2000, and Kaverin and Belov try to outdo each other. Vvedensky decides to act once again, and pushes the two to closer confrontation. Kaverin plays on discrediting his opponent, and to smear Belov's image, a provocative poster "Brotherhood is fighting to the Power" with Belov holding a pistol is issued, and then the typography which printed them is set on fire. One day Belov and his family arrive home to their television set that is playing police surveillance reels from the early 1990s showing how the Brigada are involved in racket, after which Kaverin rings to Belov. A bug is found in Belov's office, but most of all, at a press conference Kaverin demonstrates Artur to the public, who tells of how Belov's criminal gang forced him out of Russia and took over his business in 1991. Kaverin's public biography is based on a real officer who died in Chechnya and was given him by Vvedensky. Vvedensky warns Volodya that if the public finds out what he did there, this would be used against him.

Bely's campaign focuses more on the social problems. He has his men deliver presents to the poor, and sponsors construction of Eastern Orthodox Churches to win support. He tries to re-unite with Olga, and after a dinner together, breaks with her into the same dacha where he hid in 1989. There he tells her of his thoughts, before the discussion turns to love-making.

As the elections near, the two candidates engage in a television debate, both ask piercing questions into their cloudy past. Kaverin decides to play a trump card, a cassette with more early 1990s recordings. However instead a scene from The Godfather is played, much to the amusement of the viewers. Belov then takes the initiative and states that the reel that was to be played was one of thousands there could be and admits to his past. He then states that this mess, in which he was forced to take the actions he did, was caused at the very top in the government and he was just a pawn that was swept into the new world. Furthermore, he appeals that what is important is that, at present, everybody wants to live in a better country, where the necessary actions of the past would remain there.

Soon the elections come, and despite Kaverin's early lead, Belov clips a narrow margin at the last moment and wins the vote. A celebration follows at Belov's office, Kosmos proposes to Lyuda, Artur's original secretary who has worked with them since 1991. Then a phone call follows that Sasha and Olga are on their way. Pchyola and Kosmos come out into the snow-covered courtyard to greet them, and see Sasha's red armoured SUV driven alone by Maks, who climbs out and stabs the two.

Bely who arrives later, is shocked at what happened. At dawn Belov also learns that Fil, who was still recovering in the hospital and his wife Tamara were also killed in the clinic. On the wall a sign "GORGE IT BEAST" (in Russian "ЖРИ ТВАРЬ") is written with blood. Maks is nowhere to be found. Meeting up with Vvedensky Sasha learns that Maksim Karelskiy, despite working for eight years for Belov, and several times rescuing both him, his family and Pchyola from Bely himself, was nonetheless a mole for Kaverin since 1991. Originally he crossed paths with the Chechen mafia and Kaverin paid his ransom, after which he used him to infiltrate the Brigada.

Vvedensky along with Viktor Petrovich, the whole underground criminal world, and even Yuri Rostislavovich (Kosmos's father), all ask that Belov should not seek revenge. Sasha says that he can't accept that, and first rattles Kaverin's apartment with an PKM as a message he will avenge. In the final stunt, he contacts his old friend who the viewer saw throughout the film, karate trainer and stuntman Alexander Inshakov. Originally they meet up back in 1989 when Sasha bought a mastiff, then again in 1991 they offered him to train his men, and he refused, Inshakov was Fil's close friend during their stunt work for Gordon, and shortly before Gordon's death asked him to have all of the film reels to make a tribute to stuntman Filatov.

Sasha then visits the morgue where already the four coffins are prepared for the funeral, and symbolically adds three pistols into the hands of his friends. The next day, Kosmos's original Lincoln Town Car is shown to Sasha. Bely sends Shmit to the cemetery and says he follow onwards and introduces his new head of security and saying he explain everything to him later. When Shmit arrives, the funeral service is about to begin. As Belov, Olga and Ivan drive onto a causeway, the car is hit by an M72 LAW and falls into the river. The funeral mass is announced that Belov is killed.

Winter/Spring 2000

Although announced in the opening credits, this part of the film was never announced. Belov's death allowed Maks and Kaverin to come out of hiding. Seeing a final end to his lifelong rival, he and Artur engage in a joint business venture, and are examining a construction site that is soon to open as a new shopping centre. Out of nowhere Bely appears and kills Maks, Artur, a few of their fellow thugs and finally Kaverin himself. Afterwards he explains to Inshakov how he staged his own death and how the car was empty when it exploded and went over into the river.

The film ends in spring when snow melted, Sasha once again visits Sparrow Hills, this time alone, and remembers how nine years ago he swore to always stand for his brothers. Repeating the words his same words, he adds that he swears he will never forget those who he called brothers, and with that cracks his watch on the railing. At the airport, Olga and Ivan, await Sasha to board the plane and leave Russia. While the final boarding is called, Olga gets a call from Sasha, who says he will not be joining them right now, because it's too dangerous for them, but will come in a couple of months. The tearful Olga walks into the airplane with Ivan. Sasha, standing on a causeway, watches the airplane depart. As he catches a taxi, the screen turns black and the final credits begin to roll.

''Solar Lottery'' takes place in a world dominated by logic and numbers, and loosely based on a numerical military strategy employed by US and Soviet intelligence called minimax (part of game theory). The Quizmaster, head of the world government, is chosen through a sophisticated computerized lottery. This element of randomization serves as a form of social control since nobody – in theory at least – has any advantage over anybody else in their chances becoming the next Quizmaster.

Society is entertained by a televised selection process in which an assassin is also (allegedly) chosen at random. By countering and putting down threats to his life, using telepathic bodyguards, the leader gains the respect of the people. If he loses his life, a new Quizmaster, as well as another assassin, are again randomly selected. Quizmasters have held office for timespans ranging from a few minutes to several years. The average life expectancy is therefore on the order of a couple of weeks.

The novel tells the story of Ted Benteley, an idealistic young worker unhappy with his position in life. Benteley attempts to get a job in the prestigious office of Quizmaster Reese Verrick. Reese has just been forced out of office, however, and Benteley gets tricked into swearing an unbreakable oath of personal fealty to the former world leader. Verrick then makes it clear that his organization's mission is to assassinate the new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright, in the world's most anticipated "competition".

To defeat the telepathic security web protecting Cartwright, Verrick and his team invent an android named Keith Pellig, into which different volunteers' minds are alternately embedded for the purpose of breaking any steady telepathic lock on the assassin. Cartwright ultimately kills Verrick, and Benteley, much to his own astonishment, becomes the next Quizmaster.

A second plotline concerns a team of Leon Cartwright's followers travelling to the far reaches of the solar system in search of a mysterious cult figure named John Preston, who, 150 years after his disappearance, is thought to somehow be alive on the legendary tenth planet known as the "Flame Disc".

In 1974, 11-year-olds Wendy Richards, Jude Cunningham, Kelly Lynch, and Nick McBride play hide-and-seek in an abandoned convent. When 10-year-old Robin Hammond tries to join them, the group starts teasing her, repeating "Kill! Kill! Kill!", and leading to a scared Robin accidentally falling to her death through a second-story window. The children make a pact not to tell anyone what happened and keep the incident a secret and they leave. Just then, the shadow of an unseen person who witnessed Robin's death crosses over her body.

Six years later in 1980, Robin's family attend her memorial on the anniversary of her death. Robin's teenage sister, Kim, and fraternal twin brother, Alex, are preparing for the school prom to be held that evening. Kelly, Jude, and Wendy begin receiving anonymous obscene phone calls, while Nick ignores his ringing phone.

Kim and Nick are now dating and plan on attending prom together. Jude is asked by goofy jokester Seymour "Slick" Crane, who she meets by chance. Kelly is going with Drew, her boyfriend. Wendy—Nick's ex-girlfriend—asks school bully Lou to the prom with the sole purpose of embarrassing Nick and her rival Kim. In the changing room after gym class, Kim and Kelly discover the locker room mirror cracked with a shard missing. Later, Wendy, Jude and Kelly each find their yearbook photos stabbed with a piece of glass. Meanwhile, Kim and Alex's father (also the school principal) learns that the sex offender blamed for Robin's death has escaped from a psychiatric facility. Lt. McBride, Nick's father, investigates his disappearance.

During the senior prom, Kelly and Drew make out in the changing room, but Kelly, a virgin, refuses to have sex and Drew angrily leaves. As Kelly gets dressed, an unidentified figure wearing a ski mask and all-black clothing approaches her and slits her throat with a mirror shard. Jude and Slick have sex and smoke marijuana in his van parked outside school grounds. They are attacked by the masked killer, who stabs Jude in the throat. Slick struggles with the killer, who jumps from the vehicle before Slick drives off a cliff to his death. Staking out the prom, McBride is informed that the sex offender blamed for Robin's death has been caught.

Now wielding an ax, the killer confronts and chases Wendy through the school. Evading the killer several times, she screams when she discovers Kelly's body in a storage room and is hacked to death. The alcoholic school janitor, Sykes, witnesses Wendy's murder and attempts to notify the school staff, but they dismiss it as a drunken rant. Meanwhile, Kim and Nick prepare to be crowned prom king and queen, but Lou and his lackeys tie up Nick, and Lou takes his crown. Mistaking him for Nick, the killer approaches Lou from behind and decapitates him. Lou's severed head rolls onto the dance floor, sending the prom-goers fleeing in horror.

Kim finds Nick and frees him. As they prepare to escape, they are confronted by the killer who attacks Nick but not Kim. In the ensuing brawl, Kim strikes the killer's head with the ax. She and the killer stare at each other and Kim realizes his identity. The killer runs outside where the police have arrived. The killer collapses and is then revealed to be Alex, who explains to Kim that he witnessed their sister's death, and that Jude, Kelly, Wendy and Nick were responsible. He cries out Robin's name before dying in Kim's arms. Kim cries over the death of another sibling.

''Fallen Art'' presents the story of General Al, a self-proclaimed artist. His art, however, consists of a deranged method of stop motion photography, where the individual frames of the movie are created by photographs made by Dr. Johann Friedrich, depicting the bodies of dead soldiers, pushed down by Sergeant Al from a giant springboard onto a slab of concrete.

The ''Enterprise'', under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), responds to a distress call from the Federation freighter ''Arcos'', which has suffered engine failure and taken emergency orbit around the planet Turkana IV, the birthplace of the ''Enterprise'' s late chief of security, Tasha Yar. The ''Enterprise'' arrives just as the ''Arcos'' explodes, and finds a trail left behind by the freighter's escape pod leading to the colony. Turkana IV's government collapsed 15 years before; and the last Federation ship to visit, six years earlier, was warned by the colony's warring factions that trespassers to the planet would be executed. Because the freighter crew's lives are in danger, Picard decides to attempt a rescue.

Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) leads an away team to the surface, where they find the colonists initially unperturbed by their presence, but soon end up in a standoff with one of the colony's two remaining warring factions, the Coalition. Their leader, Hayne (Don Mirault), reveals that the other faction, the Alliance, holds the ''Arcos'' survivors hostage, and offers the ''Enterprise'' the Coalition's support in exchange for Federation weapons, a proposal that Riker rejects. Hayne, however, after learning of Tasha Yar's service aboard the ''Enterprise'', instead offers as a liaison Ishara Yar (Beth Toussaint), claiming she is Tasha's sister. Picard accepts Ishara aboard; although the crew is initially skeptical, DNA tests support her claim, and she gradually gains their trust. Commander Data (Brent Spiner), who was especially close to Tasha, becomes friends with Ishara, who seems ready to leave behind her life in the colony.

To find the hostages, Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) suggests using the crashed escape pod's instruments; Ishara recommends that she beam separately to a nearby location as a distraction, because her implanted proximity device will set off the Alliance's alarms. The crew executes the plan, but Ishara is wounded in the attempt. Riker rescues her, and is impressed by her bravery. Later, Ishara privately tells Hayne "It's working."

When the ''Enterprise'' receives a message from the Alliance announcing that they are preparing to kill the ''Arcos'' crew, Picard's crew decides to execute Ishara's proposed rescue plan: Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) removes Ishara's proximity device, which she gives to Data as a memento. Riker leads an away team to the planet, where they rescue the hostages, but Ishara disappears in the confusion. Data finds her trying to disable the Alliance security grid; Ishara reveals that a large Coalition force is just outside the Alliance perimeter waiting to attack. Data concludes that all her interaction with the crew was a ploy. Riker arrives to distract Ishara just as she fires at Data, who dodges and then stuns her and reverses her attempted sabotage. Riker notes that her phaser was set to kill.

With the away team and Ishara back aboard the ''Enterprise'', Hayne demands that Picard return Ishara and challenges his jurisdiction. While Riker argues that they have cause to hold her for firing on two Starfleet officers, Picard decides to allow her to leave. As Data escorts her to the transporter room, Ishara claims he was the closest thing she had to a friend. Data considers his relationships with both Ishara and Tasha, as the ''Enterprise'' departs.

The film opens with Danila Bagrov being interviewed on television with two friends from the army. It is made apparent, that unlike the prequel's subplot, where Danila was depicted as an HQ clerk, he is, in fact, a combat veteran from the First Chechen war (which explains his non-amateur performance and skill in the first film). All three now live in Moscow, where Ilya Setevoy (Kirill Pirogov) is a professional programmer who works for the State Historical Museum on Red Square whilst Konstantin (Kostya) Gromov works in the security department for the Nikolayevsky Bank. Danila himself reveals his ambition to study medicine.

After the interview, the friends retire to a bathhouse where Kostya reveals that his twin brother, Dmitry Gromov, is an ice hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks and is being blackmailed by American kingpin Richard Mennis. According to Konstantin, Dmitry once played for his home club, the Kiev Falcons, when he was invited by the NHL and emigrated to the United States. After he moved, the Ukrainian mafia moved in on him, demanding protection money. Dmitry was desperate and appealed to Mennis, who took him under contract. Due to Dmitry's lack of English, he did not understand the terms, which effectively left Dmitry as an indentured servant with most of the money going to Mennis. Konstantin informs that Mennis has come to Moscow to meet his employer, Valentin Belkin, to discuss an international business proposal.

In a different part of Russia, that same television programme was watched by Danila's brother Viktor Bagrov and their mother. Seeing how her older son has turned into a drinking policeman, whilst her younger is now on TV, she pleads that Viktor travels to Moscow and seek his brother there. The irony of the scene is that in the first film it was exactly the opposite, where Viktor was the role model. After the bathhouse, Danila meets up and begins an affair with a Russian pop singer Irina Saltykova, who he met at the TV station.

The next morning, Kostya approaches Belkin and pleads to remind Mennis about his brother. Belkin agrees, but Dmitry Gromov is of little concern to both of them. Belkin, being a Russian kingpin himself, wishes to cooperate with Mennis to legalise their assets. The importance of the new venture with Mennis makes Belkin see Kostya as a threat and that evening, Danila stops at Kostya's apartment to discover him shot dead.

Danila and Ilya begin planning their revenge. On the black market, they purchase a CD with personal information about Belkin, whilst a visit to a neo-nazi friend of Ilya's gets them armed with trophy guns and grenades from the Second World War. Meanwhile, Viktor has arrived in Moscow and manages to find Danila in the museum, where he agrees to join their plans, and helps them steal a car.

Danila and Viktor make first contact with Belkin at an elite gymnasium where Belkin's son Fedya is studying. Danila introduces himself as Fedya's new teacher and invites Belkin to the staffroom for a private conversation. At gunpoint he questions him about Kostya's murder. Belkin reveals that it was done under the pressure of Mennis and discloses much of his illegal operations including smuggling of pornography and extortion. Afterwards, he pleads for mercy, which Danila grants, saying "it would be a shame to leave such a kid with no father". Earlier, Danila watched Fedya read a very patriotic poem to the audience which moved him, and he will continue to mouth it throughout the film.

The trio clear the museum, and Danila gives Ilya his remaining money to procure passports and tickets to Chicago. It is revealed that Kostya's murder was due to a misunderstanding, as he only wanted him fired. However, the stunt in the school now threatens his whole operation with Mennis. Belkin's thugs and his police contacts begin to search the city. Danila decides to lay low at Saltykova's apartment in the elite Kotelnicheskaya embankment building and brings Viktor with him. Meanwhile, Belkin's thugs discover the stolen car in the building's parking lot. Saltykova's chauffeur Boris warns Danila, and the Bagrov brothers ambush the mobsters and then lead them on a chase through the town and into a closed alley, where they make quick work of the thugs with the Maxim gun they took from the museum. News of Bagrov's success concern Belkin's partners, who begin doubting the security of their operation. Learning of the bought tickets under Bagrov's name, Belkin alerts the Ukrainian mafia in Chicago.

To avoid capture, the brothers fly to America separately, and Viktor arrives in Chicago without any suspicion. Danila instead takes a flight to New York City where he arrives in Brighton Beach. There, he buys a cheap car to travel to Chicago by road, but it breaks down just outside Pennsylvania. Stranded, he hitches a ride to Chicago with trucker Ben Johnson. Despite Danila's limited English, the two become close friends and Ben shows Danila much about American life. Upon their arrival in Chicago, Ben drives by prostitutes, one of whom, Marylin, turns out to be a Russian named Dasha.

Back in Moscow, Belkin is still determined to catch Danila, but a background check revealed that Viktor was on board the flight to Chicago. Moreover a background check reveals his identity as "the Tatar" hitman from the first film. Paranoid, Belkin alerts the Ukrainian mafia in Chicago to find him. Meanwhile, Viktor arrives to the Ukrainian district in Chicago and quickly begins to spend his money, enjoying the American lifestyle, making tours of the city dressed as Al Capone. Danila attempts to meet up with Dmitry and Viktor, but is unable to make contact with both. Badly needing a translator, he decides to find Dasha and travels to the neighbourhood where she works. Just before he can run away with her, he is savagely beaten by Dasha's pimp's henchmen. The Police let him go on the basis of recognizance and he gets revenge by tricking the same group into selling him weapons, which he steals by subterfuge. Afterwards, Dasha's pimp attempts to get even with her but is in turn killed by Danila, leaving Dasha no choice but to go with him.

Danila and Dasha finally meet up with Viktor and the three enjoy an evening campfire on the beach of Lake Michigan where they share their experiences and attitude towards American society. Dasha tells her story of how she came in the early 1990s as an exchange student, worked in escort service in New York before finally degrading into a street hooker. Viktor, on the other hand, is much too impressed with the power of money that drives America. Danila, however, shows his patriotism and offers Dasha to come back home with them, replying to her "what will I do there?" with the "What have you achieved here?" inferring to her social status. As for Viktor, Danila reminds him there are things that money can't buy. This philosophical discussion is broken by a homeless black man, who stumbles across them and is insulted when Danila called him a ''negr'' (not knowing that the word is an insult in English; in Russia, the word "Negr" ("Негр") means only "a person with black skin"). While waiting for a fight to come, Dasha replies that she believes that the aggressive primal nature of black people drives fear into white people, thus making them ultimately superior. This theory fails its test, when Danila's warning shots into the sand quickly forces the attackers to flee.

Regardless, Danila finally begins to move in against Mennis and first hits his front, the ''Club Metro''. Expecting Mennis to be there he sneaks a weapon into the toilet, and during a Rock concert that evening, involving the Bi-2 band, kills every member of Mennis' mafia he encounters in the basement. Mennis, alas, is absent. Viktor, himself picked up a tail by the Ukrainian mafia, draws them away and kills their hitman, but not before learning of the mafia's operations and headquarters. The next morning Danila climbs 50 or so floors on a skyscraper's fire escape to reach Mennis' office. He finds him in a game of chess. Killing his colleague, he finally confronts him alone. As if continuing the debate on the lakeside, in his monologue (in Russian) he asks the American if power really comes from money. Arguing that his brother (whose photo is lying next to the chess table) believes this theory, Danila instead thinks that power lies in the Truth. He (implying Mennis), can be rich, but not strong, as his money he stole from someone else. Thus the tricked person is right, so he is stronger. Almost weeping in fear, Mennis agrees. In conclusion, Danila demands all of the money taken from Dmitry to be returned.

Giving Dmitry his money, Danila sets off back home to Moscow driving through the Ukrainian neighbourhood he witnesses a police siege around the former headquarters of the Ukrainian mafia, where Viktor killed everyone inside. As he is dragged out handcuffed, Viktor shouts his intentions to stay in America. The film ends with Danila and Dasha taking off to Moscow, and the final call to Irina is not intercepted, as presumably, Belkin is also removed by his "investors", who in an earlier scene, face to face told him, that the sum of money he set up in this operation is too much to be risked. At the airport, Dasha is told that she will never be able to enter the United States again due to the expiry of her visa, but she does not care, signalling an intention she will never come back by giving the gate agent the finger.

In Marseille, a prisoner named Corey is released early for good behaviour. Shortly before he leaves, a prison warden tips him off about a prestigious jewellery shop that he could rob in Paris. Corey goes to the house of Rico, a former associate who has let him down and with whom his former girlfriend now lives, and forcefully removes money and a handgun from Rico's safe. Then he goes to a billiard hall, where two of Rico's men find him. After killing one, knocking the other out and taking his gun, Corey buys a large American car and, hiding both handguns in the boot, starts for Paris. On the way up, listening to jazz and news on the radio, he encounters a police roadblock.

The same morning another prisoner, Vogel, who was being taken on a train from Marseille to Paris for interrogation by the well-respected Commissaire Mattei, manages to escape in open country. Vogel is pursued by and eludes Mattei, who orders roadblocks to be set and supervises the manhunt. Meanwhile, Corey, who has understood what this huge police activity is about, stops at a roadside grill in the epicentre of the manhunt, leaving his car boot unlocked. Vogel crosses a stream to send dogs off his scent, reaches the grill, and hides in the boot of Corey's car.

Corey, who has seen him and had been waiting for this, drives off into an open field and tells Vogel he can get out because he is safe. After a tense confrontation where Vogel waves one of Corey's guns, he realizes that Corey has just been released from prison that morning and is trying to save him. The two drive off with Vogel back in the boot. Shortly after, a car with two of Rico's men catches up and forces Corey off the road. They take him into the woods, take his money, and are about to kill him when Vogel, emerging from the boot with the guns, shoots both dead.

Corey takes Vogel to his empty flat in Paris where they start to plan the aforementioned robbery. For this they need a marksman to disable the security system by a single rifle shot and a fence to buy the goods. Meanwhile, Mattei is trying to locate the murderer of Rico's men and still trying to recapture Vogel. To do this, he puts pressure on Santi, a nightclub owner who knows most of the underworld, but who refuses to talk.

Corey recruits Jansen, an alcoholic ex-policeman and a crack shot, together with a fence. One long night, Corey, with Vogel and the support of Jansen, successfully rob the jewellery shop. However, the fence refuses to take the goods, having been warned off by a vengeful Rico, who had been told inadvertently by the prison warden from the beginning that Corey was on the job.

Overcoming their disappointment, Jansen and Vogel suggest that Corey ask Santi to recommend a new fence. Mattei blackmails Santi to obtain information about the meeting planned that evening at his nightclub, where Corey is supposed to meet the fence. Mattei, posing as the fence, asks Corey to bring the goods to a country house.

Corey does so, taking Jansen as backup and leaving Vogel at his apartment, who has been given the red rose that Corey had received from the flower girl at Santi's. After Corey arrives at the country house and starts showing the jewels to Mattei, Vogel appears from nowhere, presumably acting on his suspicion that Corey was not safe with this new fence, and tells Corey to run with the loot. After a brief, tense confrontation with Mattei, Vogel follows Corey. Jansen, alerted by the gunshots in the mansion's park now filled with police, arrives to stop the pursuants. One after the other, the three men are shot dead by Mattei's officers, who recover the jewels.

In 1985, two years after the Westworld tragedy, the Delos Corporation owners have reopened the park after spending $1.5 billion in safety improvements, and also shutting down Westworld. For publicity purposes, newspaper reporter Chuck Browning and TV reporter Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park.

Just before the junket is announced, Browning arranges to meet with a Delos employee who promises he has dirt on the corporation. During the meeting, the tipster is shot in the back and dies after giving Browning an envelope.

At the resort, guests choose from four theme parks: Spaworld ("where old age and pain have been eliminated"), Medievalworld, Romanworld and Futureworld. Browning and Ballard choose Futureworld, which simulates an orbiting space station. Robots are available for sex as well as amusements like boxing. They are guided through the resort by Dr. Duffy, who shows them the marvels of Delos, demonstrating that all the problems have been fixed.

The reporters are stunned to find that the Control Center is staffed entirely by robots. That night, their dinners are drugged, and while they sleep, medical tests are conducted so Delos can make clones of them. A visiting Russian general and a Japanese politician are also tested for cloning. Back in her room a few hours later, Ballard wakes in a fright, remembering the experience as a nightmare.

Ballard and Browning sneak out to explore the resort's underground areas. They end up triggering a cloning machine, which generates three samurai. Just as they are about to be captured by the samurai, a mechanic named Harry saves them. He takes them back to his quarters, where he cohabits with a mechanic robot he has named Clark after Superman's alter-ego. The reporters interview Harry, but they are interrupted and returned to their rooms.

The following day, while Ballard is testing out a Delos dream-recording device (which includes a dream sequence of being saved by, dancing with and making love to Yul Brynner's Gunslinger), Browning slips out to see Harry. Harry takes him to a locked door that he has never been able to enter, although robots routinely enter. Realizing the key is in the robot's eyes, Harry destroys a robot and steals its face. They return with Ballard and open the door. Inside, they find clones of themselves, as well as clones of the Russian and Japanese leaders. The clones are instructed always to work for the good of Delos and to destroy their originals. Browning explains that his tipster's envelope was filled with clippings about leaders from around the world, realizing that Delos must be cloning the rich and powerful.

The trio decides to flee the resort on the next plane. The reporters return to their apartment where Duffy is waiting for them; he explains that, by cloning world leaders, they can ensure that nothing harms Delos' interests, and that without "proper" guidance, humans will eventually destroy the planet.

Cloning the reporters would ensure favorable coverage, letting people forget about the Westworld tragedy. Browning attacks Duffy but is easily overpowered with unnatural strength. Ballard shoots the doctor twice, and Browning peels back Duffy's face to reveal that he is a robot. As Harry races to meet up with the reporters, he runs into Browning's clone, who kills him. Ballard and Browning are then chased by their own duplicates, all the while taunting them with details about their lives. Eventually, one of each pair is killed, though which one is left unclear. When they find each other, Browning seizes and kisses Ballard.

In the end, as they leave the resort with the other guests, Dr. Schneider meets them to make sure they are the clones. The reporters confirm that they will be writing positive reviews for Delos, but, just as they reach the exit, Ballard's badly injured clone stumbles towards him and Schneider realizes too late that he has been fooled. On the jetway, Browning tells Ballard that his editor is running the exposé on Delos, that the whole world will know what they are up to, and that kissing her was his idea to figure out whether or not she was a duplicate.

''Legendary Wings'' is set in a distant future where an alien supercomputer named "Dark", which has been helping human civilization achieve a new state of enlightenment since ancient times, has suddenly rebelled against mankind. Two young warriors are given the Wings of Love and Courage by the God of War Ares in order to destroy Dark and ensure mankind's survival.

Setting

Nearly a thousand years ago the Wars of Fire raged across the face of Ashan. Men, Elves, Dwarves, and their allies pitted themselves against the hordes of Demons. Great devastation was wrought, but in the end the allied forces were victorious. Their victory was largely due to the heroic sacrifice of the wizard known as Sar-Elam, the Seventh Dragon. Using his almost god-like powers and supported by his fellow wizards, Sar-Elam cast the Demons out of the world into a limbo of eternal fire. From the essence of his spirit, Sar-Elam wove a prison to contain the Demons forever. Something went wrong during Sar-Elams ritual, however. The magic he summoned failed to create a complete prison; the tiniest of flaws remained in the otherwise impervious barrier, a weakness that allowed Demonic influence to seep into the world during times of a lunar eclipse. Angry but patient, the Demons lurked in their prison waiting ... and planning.

All that remained of the Seventh Dragon was his skull. Now called the Skull of Shadows, it was spirited away by those loyal to the goddess Mother Asha, creator of the world and source of all magic. They hid it in an ancient temple on a deserted island, far from the machinations of Men, Elves, or Demons. There the Skull sits, awaiting the day when its powers might be needed again.

67 years after Sar-Elam's death, his disciple Sar-Shazzar prophesied that a half-demon, half-human child would one day be born; a walker between worlds who would-be known as the "Dark Messiah" and would use the relics of the Seventh Dragon to shatter the Demons prison forever.

969 years after Sar-Elam's death, after the young king Nicolai Griffin was killed by a demon renegade, the demon sovereign, Kha-Beleth impregnated Nicolai's former-fiancée, Isabel Greyhound, and before she could have been saved, she gave birth to the Dark Messiah.

20 years later, Sareth's story begins.

Story

The protagonist of ''Dark Messiah'' is a young man named Sareth, who is under the tutelage of the Wizard Phenrig. After years of studying the arts of magic and physical training in the arts of war, he is finally taken on an expedition to retrieve a rare artifact known as the Shantiri Crystal. After finding the Crystal and disposing of the would-be rival expedition, Sareth is tasked to bring the crystal to an associate of Phenrig's, the Wizard Menelag, who is also the lord of the city of Stonehelm. Menelag and Phenrig have certain "mutual interests" that involve finding an artifact called the Skull of Shadows. Menelag apparently is unable to continue his search without the Crystal. To guide him on his way, a spirit named Xana will reside in Sareth's mind.

Shortly after arriving in Stonehelm, Sareth witnesses an undead cyclops and a small army of ghouls sent by the Necromancers breach Stonehelm's defenses and begin to overwhelm the guards. Sareth is recruited to help in the defense effort by taking control of a ballista. Using this, he manages to stun the undead cyclops long enough for a guard to stab it in the eye, thus killing it. Seeing their most valuable asset destroyed, the remnants of the invading force beat a hasty retreat. Sareth then resumes his search for Menelag. Upon reaching the front gate of Menelag's manor, Sareth is greeted by Leanna, the young niece and pupil of Menelag. That night, the three enjoy a small feast in Sareth's honor after which Menelag informs Sareth that they will set sail the following morning to resume the search for the Skull.

In the middle of the night, the crystal is stolen by a ghoul, who murders Menelag in the process. Sareth then chases the ghoul to a warehouse, where he finds the necromancer Arantir using the crystal's power to open a portal to Nar-Heresh, the necromancer city. Sareth manages to steal the crystal back and escape to the docks, where he falls asleep. In a dream, he recalls his meeting with Phenrig, except that Phenrig is saying that he does not trust Sareth on this mission alone and says that he needs someone to "hold his leash" as he summons Xana. In the dream, Xana appears to be a demon and attacks Sareth. Sareth and Leanna leave Stonehelm by boat and travel to the island with the Skull of Shadows. While en route, Sareth has another dream in which he kills Leanna, and Arantir alludes that she is only the first of many victims.

After arriving, they find the expedition destroyed, and most of the men dead, killed by Orc warriors. Sareth and Leanna are chased into the Temple of the Skull by a Pao kai which Sareth kills a little later with a gate, and Sareth proceeds alone to the top of the Temple, where he places the Shantiri Crystal, and defeats the Orc chief Aratok in a duel. Arantir then reveals himself and appears to kill Leanna. Sareth, however, escapes to the crypt below and retrieves the Skull of Shadows. Sareth then has a vision of the Demon Sovereign Kha-Beleth, who reveals himself to be Sareth's father. Kha-Beleth names Sareth the Dark Messiah, and then commands to be released using the power of the Skull. Sareth wakes up to see Arantir, who takes the skull and then impales Sareth on a spike.

Fueled by Xana's demonic power, Sareth wakes up alive and gains the power to transform into a demon, which grants him uncanny strength at the cost of health. Stripped of all his belongings, Sareth uses the demon form to fight off the Orc guards as he recovers his items. He manages to leave the island and returns to Stonehelm. Once there, he takes the portal to Nar-Heresh. There, Sareth witnesses Leanna - who is still alive - being thrown into a spider pit. Saving Leanna is optional, but impacts the possible endings that the player may receive. Regardless of the player's choice, Sareth discovers Arantir's plans to sacrifice the entire population of Stonehelm in order to permanently seal Kha-Beleth's prison.

Sareth then returns to a besieged Stonehelm, fighting alongside the remaining human resistance. If Leanna was rescued in the previous chapter, Sareth may visit the sanctuary in order to purge Xana from his body. If Sareth proceeds with the cleansing, he loses the ability to transform into a demon, but gains the ability to use powerful holy weapons. If Sareth is unable or unwilling to undergo the cleansing ritual, nothing will change. Whatever the case, the choice determines which endings the player may receive.

In the ancient necropolis over which Stonehelm was built, Sareth is eventually reunited with Leanna. If the player left her behind in the spider pit, she appears as a Lich, who Sareth then destroys. If Sareth saved her, but did not cleanse himself, she will attack him. If Leanna was rescued and Sareth cleansed himself, she will join Sareth in the final chapter.

Sareth then makes his way through the necropolis and eventually catches up with Arantir as he is about to perform the ritual. When Sareth attacks Arantir, he summons his Avatar of Death, also seen in Heroes V: Tribes of the East (the dragon in Dark Messiah does resemble a pao kai but it is still uncertain as to what the dragon really is). Sareth fights off the Dragon, which forces Arantir to perform a resummoning, during which Arantir is vulnerable. Eventually Arantir is defeated, leaving Sareth to make his final decision for the Skull.

The player may use the Skull to lock his father away forever, or destroy the Skull and free his father. Each option offers a different ending. The ensuing cut scene will vary slightly depending on whether it is Leanna or Xana that accompanies Sareth at the end of the game, giving the game a total of four different endings.

Dick Harper is a successful aerospace engineer in Los Angeles, where he and wife Jane have a lovely house, with a swimming pool and new lawn under way. Jane takes care of their son, Billy.

Because of financial reversals at the business, however, Dick's boss, Charlie Blanchard, suddenly fires him. Dick and Jane owe more than $70,000 and abruptly find themselves with no income. Their attempts to find other gainful employment fail. Jane lands a fashion modeling appearance at a restaurant that becomes a fiasco. Dick ends up applying for unemployment and food stamps, while Jane's wealthy parents, rather than helping, advise them to use this experience positively as a life lesson.

Unable to come up with any other solution to their problems, Dick and Jane turn to a life of crime. They make an effort to select their victims judiciously – robbing the telephone company, for example, so making the customers in line cheer. In time, Dick and Jane weigh their guilty consciences against their needs, trying to get back their old lives and stay out of jail. They make the decision to "retire" from robbery. However, almost immediately they see Charlie Blanchard on television, testifying in front of a Congressional committee. After realizing that Charlie keeps two hundred thousand dollars in his office as a slush fund (used to pay off lawmakers), Dick and Jane decide to rob Charlie. At a gala at Dick's old firm, Dick and Jane break into Charlie's office, crack the safe, and steal the money. They leave his office and make it to the main floor of the building, but the building's security guards alert Charlie before the couple can leave. They are seen guarding all the exits. Dick admits to Charlie that he and Jane have stolen his money. However, they also explain that Jane has called the police about the theft. Knowing that the $200,000 might be confiscated by the authorities and lead to further unwanted investigations, Charlie tells the arriving police that no crime was committed and walks the couple safely out of the building.

A press release announces that Dick has been hired to be president of the firm, as Charlie has resigned.

''Volume 1'' (#1–4)

In the month since the former superhero, Plutonian, began his rampage across Earth, supervillain Max Damage has disappeared and is presumed dead. After his gang commit a robbery, Max suddenly reappears and subdues them for arrest. Max returns to his base and destroys all of the possessions and money he stole, and refuses to have sex with his underage lover, Jailbait. Max tells Lieutenant Louis Armadale that he wants to go straight and asks for his help. Max first goes after Origin, a supervillain offering to empower ordinary humans in exchange for money. Origin requires money to buy a teleporter from the villain Amberjack to escape Earth. Later, Max tells Armadale about why he decided to become a hero. On the day that Plutonian began his attack, Max was about to unleash a deadly plague that would kill billions, out of anger against ordinary people who possess the ability to taste, smell and feel - sensations his powers prevent. However, before he could release the plague, Plutonian attacked, killing millions. Max realized that without the Plutonian, the world needed a new hero. In the present, Max goes after Amberjack. Amberjack uses his giant robot to attack Max. Max throws Amberjack's teleporter at Jailbait who knocks it towards the robot, sending it away. Jailbait realizes that Max intended to send her away and leaves, disregarding Max's protestations that he wanted to send her somewhere safe.

''Volume 2'' (#5–8)

Max rescues a young girl named Annie from her kidnappers. He forces her to wear Jailbait's costume and accompany him on patrol, eventually revealing he is using her to convince his enemies that Jailbait is still with him, fearing that otherwise she will become a target. The ruse fails and Armadale gives Max a box containing Jailbait's finger, sent by the villain Deathgiver. Max confronts Deathgiver and distracts him while Armadale frees Jailbait. Max fights with Deathgiver and his henchmen while Armadale tries to stop a distraught Jailbait from leaping to her death. Armadale fails but Max manages to catch her in time, though she suffers injuries. Meanwhile, Annie returns home to find her family murdered by the racist Diamond gang. Max and Armadale take Jailbait to hospital. Annie, there with her family, recognizes Armadale and realizes that the young girl is Jailbait. She steals Jailbait's costume and flees. Max confronts members of the Diamond gang who reveal they have been told his secrets by someone who survived Plutonian's destruction of Sky City. Max falls asleep in the hospital and when he awakens, he is shot by a Diamond gang-member, his powers revealed to reset when he sleeps, rendering him temporarily mortal. Annie, dressed as Jailbait, takes out Max's assassin. She makes Max promise to protect her forever before injecting him with adrenalin to keep him alive long enough for his powers to activate and heal his injuries. After attacking the Diamond gang members that sent Max's assassin, Max and Annie discover that they knew his vulnerability through a manuscript written by Alana Patel, the Plutonian's former girlfriend.

''Volume 3'' (#9–12)

Max and Annie travel to Alana's apartment, but find only Diamond gang members who tell them that Alana is at their skyscraper. Max sees Alana bound at the top of the building and climbs up to her while Annie sneaks in from the ground floor against Max's wishes. Max finds that the "Alana" on the building is a mannequin, while Annie is attacked by the real Alana. Annie convinces Alana she is not the real Jailbait, who had tortured her in the past, and ends up getting drunk with her. Max attacks the Diamond gang, led by Senator Swain, who have sent a massive assault vehicle named "Retribution" to destroy Coalville, Max's home city. While travelling to face "Retribution", Alana reveals that she blames herself for Plutonian's rampage after outing his secret civilian identity, Dan Hartigan. Max tells her that it is not her fault and asks her to help him do good. Meanwhile, Swain goes on television and accuses Max of leading the Diamond gang and sending out Retribution, asking everyone to work together to kill him. Alana informs the news that Swain leads the Diamond gang, causing Swain's boss, Hayes Bellamy, to detonate an explosive in Swain's building, killing Swain and his followers. Max meanwhile faces Retribution, managing to lift it. The vehicle activates legs to walk, but they are less protected than the body and Max is able to break them. Retribution's operators threaten to activate a nuclear device, but Armadale uses confiscated supervillain weapons to breach the vehicle's armor and the drivers are arrested. Alana and Max agree to work together.

''Volume 4'' (#13–16)

Alana confides her current situation in Hayes Bellamy, unaware of his involvement with the Diamond gang. Max has been working on a plan to stop Plutonian, forgoing sleep for days and becoming erratic. Annie sneaks away and fights the villain Arsonol, defeating him but really attempting to get herself killed. Max arrives and goes with her to visit her family's graves where she reveals a gravestone in her own name, declaring her old life dead. Max reveals his plan to stop Plutonian, which Armadale and Alana agree will work and will gain Max his redemption. Before he can enact it however, the Vespan, an alien race, telepathically announces to the world that they have captured the Plutonian and he is no longer a threat. In the wake of Plutonian's defeat, the world celebrates. Max chases after and captures Joe Bonn, a pickpocket, but he is confronted by the Paradigm, a group of surviving superheroes, who want to arrest him. After a brief fight, the Paradigm offers Max a membership to help rebuild the world. Max chooses to refuse unless they can repair Coalville first. They agree to create a machine to purify the local water for drinking. Annie arrives, but is accused of being a poser by Paradigm member Qubit and Max tells her that they cannot be partners, causing her to run away. After meeting up with Armadale, Annie incapacitates him and steals the powerful gun he had previously used against Retribution. Meanwhile, Hayes reveals his plan to distract the poor and hungry from his life of wealth and luxury by creating incidents such as the Diamond gang and now he intends to use Max. Max and the Paradigm successfully create the water purification device, but Annie returns and shoots Qubit, killing him. Max tells Annie that he is taking her in for murder. Qubit's ally Kaidan summons a water deity to revive him and they finish building the water purifier. When it is activated, the water turns to blood. After tasting it, Max recognizes it as goat blood, part of a spell by Nebuchadnezzar Grass and his mother Loretta, sorcerers hired by Hayes to cause disruption. Max defeats the pair. Annie is imprisoned for murder.

''Volume 5'' (#17–20)

After their home is attacked by civilians, Alana takes Max to meet Hayes and hear his proposal. Hayes offers Max a base, weapons and funding for his cause, but Max refuses, believing the funding should be spent helping those in need. After leaving Hayes, Max is attacked by the villains Tumult, Safeword and Charlie Hustle. When Max begins to win, Safeword uses her power to force Max to stop, and they flee. When Max recovers, Bellamy agrees to fund the repair of the city if Max can bring him one honest man to run it. Alana accepts for Max. Max later wonders if Bellamy knows why the villains did not finish him while he was incapacitated. Max recruits Armadale to help him find Mike Whelan, a former federal prosecutor to become the city manager. Meanwhile, Charlie, Safeword and Tumult are revealed to be working for Hayes. They are attending a gathering of several supervillains planning to cause chaos. Alana, having discovered a secret about Hayes, is subdued with gas. Max finds Mike, but he refuses to help, revealing that Max killed his son. The supervillains begin causing death and destruction around Coalville. Max holds Mike hostage while he attempts to convince Mike to take the job. Alana is captured by the villains who attempt to sexually assault her. Safeword uses her power to make them all stop and frees Alana, having been a fan of her since she was a child. While Max is still attempting to convince Mike, Charlie Hustle attacks him, ripping out Mike's heart. Charlie then uses a gas-bomb on Max to make him fall asleep, using knowledge unintentionally provided by Alana. Max is taken to Hayes, who takes advantage of Max's power reset to repeatedly shoot him, put him to sleep and then start again. Armadale, having been sober for years, falls back on alcohol after learning that Max killed Mike's child. Hayes continues to torture Max, claiming he will use him to cause destruction to continue his own plans. Jailbait suddenly attacks, killing Hayes and his men before freeing Max. Jailbait then leaves.

''Volume 6'' (#21–24)

Max begins building an unknown structure. Armadale tells Max that whatever happened before the Plutonian's rampage does not matter if they are to survive, commending Max for not sliding back into old habits as Armadale did with alcohol. A gathering of villains contemplate what to do, bored of their unchallenged crimes. The villain St. Lucifer appears over Coalville in his ship and captures the villainous gang. Armadale attempts to gather his police force, only to find they have all abandoned their jobs. Max ignores Lucifer's ship and continues to build. Lucifer offers the villains, including Jailbait, the opportunity to serve him when he conquers Coalville, the last city with any type of infrastructure. Max finds and incarcerates Charlie in the building he has created; a jail. St. Lucifer sends his minions to kill Max, hoping to present his head to the Plutonian as a peace offering, but before he can act, Plutonian arrives and attacks Max, demanding to know Alana's location. Max proves a match for Plutonian as their battle is broadcast on the news. Plutonian demands to know where Alana is, unable to hear or see her, but Max claims that she is smart enough to hide from Plutonian. Max thanks Plutonian for inspiring him to become a better person, and then requests that Plutonian leave Coalville. Max says something to the Plutonian which causes him to agree to the request and leave. The news covers Max's victory as Coalville cheers him. With Coalville now considered the only safe place thanks to Max, the combined U.S./Chinese forces move in to turn the city into a high-security, military complex, and enlist Max to their cause. St. Lucifer's villain gang attacks the nuclear plant to seize control of Coalville's power. Max decides that the only way to get what he wants - the freedom to protect Coalville independently in his own way - is to ally with Lucifer and evict the military.

''Volume 7'' (#25–30)

In a flashback to Max's childhood twenty-two years earlier, Max is a son to a wealthy, but uncaring family. He is very close to his younger neighbor Katy. Max attempts to capture the Wolf Boy, a child said to live in the woods. When Max springs his trap, the child is revealed to be a young Plutonian who cripples Max. Max recuperates and then runs away from home, but he stays in contact with Katy. He embarks on a life of crime, is disowned by his family, and ultimately stops writing to Katy out of shame at his life. During a robbery, Max is captured by the now-public superhero Plutonian, who recognizes Max as the child who attempted to trap him and crushes his hands out of anger. While Max heals, he rationalizes that in a post-Plutonian world, he must gain power. Max contacts Origin and is given his superhuman abilities. Max sets out to prove that Plutonian is hiding his true self — the brutal Wolf Boy — but consistently fails to beat him because of the lack of sleep required to give him enough strength to compete. Elsewhere Katy watches the beginning of Plutonian's rampage in Sky City as she reads Max's last letter. In the present, Max teleports away with Qubit. Armadale investigates a murder case. Armadale observes the city, finding that the citizens are working to restore their previous way of life and that order is being maintained by Hate Crime, St. Lucifer, and Max. Armadale reveals that the murder case is his own, and his investigation shows that the city can survive without him. Armadale shoots himself. Lucifer blames Armadale's death on Bill Henrie, a man with evidence that a lethal radioactive cloud is approaching Coalville, to prevent the information becoming publicly known. After learning the truth, Max coerces Bill into revealing the evidence on television, believing that it will bring people together. Instead the citizens descend into criminal activity. Max takes Bill back to his prison for safety, but it is suddenly attacked by a superpowered Alana. Max and Alana fight while the citizens of Coalville break into Max's prison, believing it to be a shelter from the lethal radiation cloud. Alana convinces Max that he failed to be the leader the citizens of Coalville needed, and she blames herself for not giving him the guidance he required. After returning to his prison and seeing it in flames, Max states that there is no more hope as the Plutonian has destroyed the world, but that he will not give up. Lucifer is killed by the villain Dr. Cobra after seeking out his weather machine. Max realizes that his no tolerance style of crime fighting has caused problems and kept people at a distance, and decides to change. He seizes control of Lucifer's gang and prepares to deal with the impending radiation, but it is completely removed by the Plutonian (in ''Irredeemable #36''). With Coalville safe, Max decides to not carry all of the responsibility alone and grows closer to the citizens of the city, finally sharing his thoughts and stories with them. He refuses to reunite with Jailbait while she is under age, but reveals he is counting the days until her eighteenth birthday. He tells Jailbait that he will no longer stand up against things, but stand up for them.

Following Pyrus Goldfire's escape at the end of ''Aliens of Gold'', British Intelligence initiated a large-scale search to capture him. For many years, no trace of the arch-villain could be found. In 2149, Dr. Goldfire is spotted in an abandoned training facility near the former STAR Institute. He is building an army stronger than anything witnessed before, in a second attempt to enslave humanity. Blake Stone is once again sent to stop the villain, with a direct order to find and terminate Dr. Goldfire, so that he would never threaten earth again.

An alien couple comes to Earth disguised as a cowboy and cowgirl and buy a pet shop from its owner in an attempt to kidnap the children for sale as pets to fellow aliens in their own pet shop. They look like normal people aside from the fact that they have a third eye on their foreheads which they cover with their hats. One by one they give some pets to random kids free of charge. The pets at first seem normal, until they change into their alien forms. The kids meet when they return to the pet shop because their pets stop eating and need some type of "vitamins" that the aliens feed them.

Tokyo, 1962. Shūhei Hirayama (Chishū Ryū) is an aging widower with a 32-year-old married son, Kōichi (Keiji Sada), and two unmarried children, 24-year-old daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) and 21-year-old son Kazuo (Shin'ichirō Mikami). The ages of the children and what they respectively remember about their mother suggests that she died just before the end of the war, perhaps in the bombing of Tokyo in 1944–45. Since his marriage, Kōichi has moved out to live with his wife in a small flat, leaving Hirayama and Kazuo to be looked after by Michiko.

Hirayama and five of his classmates from middle-school, Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura), Horie (Ryūji Kita), Sugai (Tsūzai Sugawara), Watanabe (Masao Oda) and Nakanishi, hold regular reunions at a restaurant called Wakamatsu ("Young Pine"), which is owned by Sugai. They reminisce about old times and banter with each other. For example, Horie is teased about having a new young wife and asked whether he is taking pills to maintain his virility.

Their old teacher of Chinese classics, Sakuma (Eijirō Tōno), nicknamed ''Hyōtan'' ("the Gourd"), attends one of the reunions. We learn from a remark of his that Hirayama went from school to the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, so would have been a career naval officer up to 1945. Sakuma has too much to drink, and when Kawai and Hirayama take him home, they find that he has fallen on hard times and is running a cheap noodle restaurant in a working-class area. They meet his middle-aged daughter Tomoko (Haruko Sugimura), who missed the chance to marry when young and is now too old.

Sakuma's former pupils decide to help him out with a gift of money, and Hirayama goes back to the restaurant to hand it over. While he is there, Yoshitarō Sakamoto (Daisuke Katō), the owner of a small local car-repair shop, comes in for a bowl of noodles and recognises Hirayama as the captain of the ship in which he served as a Petty Officer during the war. He takes Hirayama to his favourite bar. Hirayama notices that the bar-owner Kaoru (Kyōko Kishida) resembles his dead wife. Kaoru puts on a recording of the patriotic song ''Warship March'' and Sakamoto marches up and down, holding a salute and singing meaningless syllables in time to the music, in a mocking version of military drill. Later, Hirayama visits the bar alone and Kaoru puts the record on again. Two tipsy customers begin to parody the kind of morale-boosting radio propaganda announcements that would have been introduced by this tune during the war.

Kōichi borrows 50,000 yen from his father, ostensibly to buy a refrigerator, but this is more than the refrigerator will cost. He plans to use the extra money to buy a set of second-hand golf clubs from his colleague Miura (Teruo Yoshida). His wife Akiko (Mariko Okada) doesn't want him to, and says that if he is going to indulge himself like this she will spend money on an expensive white leather handbag. Eventually, having made her point, she relents.

The "Gourd" tells his former pupils that it is because he selfishly kept her at home to look after him that his daughter is now condemned to a lonely life as a spinster. Troubled by this, Hirayama recognises his own selfishness in keeping Michiko at home to look after him, and decides to arrange a marriage for her. He asks Kōichi to find out if Miura, whom Michiko is fond of, is interested. Unfortunately, Miura is already engaged. Kōichi and Hirayama break the news to Michiko. Michiko does not react but retires to her room. Hirayama and Kōichi conclude that she is not upset, but a little later Kazuo comes in and asks why Michiko is crying. Hirayama later asks Michiko if she is willing to go for a matchmaking session with a candidate Kawai has selected. Michiko agrees.

In one of the ellipses Ozu is famous for, the film next shows us Michiko being dressed in a traditional wedding kimono and head-dress. She has clearly agreed to marry, but the bridegroom, and the wedding ceremony, are never shown. After the wedding, Hirayama goes to a bar with friends while Kōichi, Akiko and Kazuo wait for him at home. When he returns, drunk, Kōichi and Akiko leave. Kazuo goes to bed, leaving Hirayama by himself.

In the final scene, a melancholy Hirayama drunkenly sings snatches of the ''Warship March''. His last words in the film are "Alone, eh?".

A third-person narrator describes the arrival of a mysterious inventor in the inward-looking Welsh town of Llyddwdd. Dr. Moses Nebogipfel takes up residence in a house neglected after the deaths of its former inhabitants. The simple rural folk become apprehensive about Nebogipfel's activities in the house and suspect him of witchcraft. Ultimately they storm the inventor's "devilish" workshop. Nebogipfel escapes with the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine. The unnamed narrator later discovers the dazed Reverend Cook, who has been missing for three weeks. Cook then becomes a second narrator, relating in flashback the night of his disappearance, and a series of subsequent adventures in time with Nebogipfel. He reveals that Nebogipfel understands himself to be an "Anachronic Man", a man whose genius drives him to seek out a time more suited to his abilities. A 'time loop' is implied, in which Nebogipfel went back to the past and killed the previous owners of the house, thus causing it to fall into ruin and enabling him to occupy it for his present-day experiments.

After Makoto Shinjo hitchhikes a ride, the driver tries to molest her, but is stopped by Kiyoshi Fuji. He takes her on a date, first to watch the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, and then later to ride a motorboat on a river, where he rapes her. One day, after trying to wait for him at a bar he frequents, she is targeted by gangsters who prostitute women, but Kiyoshi fights them and they leave them alone in exchange for a payment. The two fall in love and Makoto spends more time with him, causing her to be rebuked by her older sister Yuki, resulting in her deciding to live with him. To make money, the two reconstruct how they met, with Makoto seducing a driver and, when he comes on to her, Kiyoshi extorting him. In one case, a politician named Horio picks her up, but makes her feel happy so she doesn't do it.

When Makoto finds out that she is pregnant, Kiyoshi tells her to get an abortion, but when he tries to get her to exploit a driver again, she refuses. Horio picks her up, and when she calls Kiyoshi to ask whether she can stay the night, the line is busy. Kiyoshi asks an older lover he is seeing for a loan and when he gives the money to Makoto, she tells him she slept with Horio. In response he finds Horio and takes money from him, telling him that he was just another target of Makoto's. After the abortion, performed illegally at the clinic of Yuki's former lover Akimoto, the couple is arrested for extortion. After they confess, and with the help of Kiyoshi's older lover, the two are released and Akimoto is arrested.

Kiyoshi breaks up with Makoto so they won't hurt each other anymore. The gangsters find Kiyoshi because the motorbike he borrowed from them for the extortions was stolen, resulting in two of them being arrested. They ask him to give them Makoto, but Kiyoshi refuses and is killed. At the same time Makoto is given a ride by a passerby, and when he refuses to let her out, she jumps out of the car to her death.

Mitchell Goosen is a teenager from California who loves to surf and rollerblade. His zoologist parents are given the opportunity for grant work in Australia for six months. Eager to accompany his parents to the surf-friendly shores of the South Pacific, he is dismayed to find out that he will not be joining them and instead will be living with his aunt and uncle in Cincinnati, Ohio, to finish the remainder of his high school semester. He arrives in the midst of a winter storm to a blue-collar Midwestern city, quickly coming to the realization that this is far from the free-spirited beach atmosphere that he has been accustomed to. To add to his disillusion he meets his cousin Wiley, who at first glance is an awkward teenager and whose parents' lifestyle and demeanor, though warm and hospitable, is a bit old-fashioned.

Mitchell is met on his first day at school with obstacles. He is antagonized by the gritty hockey players who chastise Mitchell for his easy going "Maharishi" philosophy and "California" appearance. The hockey players include Jack, Augie, Snake, Rosenblatt, and the Banduccis. With an upcoming game against the rival "preps", Wiley and subsequently Mitchell are asked to fill-in for two students undergoing punishment for misbehavior. Mitchell inadvertently scores a goal for the preps, cementing the disdain of the hockey players, and in particular Jack, who tackles Mitchell while still on the ice, concussing him and leaving him unconscious for what appears to be hours. Over the course of the next few weeks, Mitchell and Wiley are harassed relentlessly, culminating with Mitchell having a dream which convinces him to peacefully confront the situation.

During the interim, Mitchell falls in love with Nikki. During a double date with his cousin and Nikki's friend Gloria, Blane physically confronts Mitchell who is only saved when Jack arrives to stand up for Nikki who, as it turns out, is also Jack's sister. Mitchell's dream comes to fruition when he decides to proactively join Jack and his ice hockey brethren for a street hockey game against the preps. Mitchell embarrasses Blane, causing a change of heart from his teammates. Later, Snake, Augie, and the Banduccis solicit Mitchell's help and rollerblading expertise in a race down a harrowing street route termed Devil's Backbone against the preps. It is agreed upon that the first team with three members crossing the finish line will be deemed the winner. An aggressive and athletic Snake reaches the finish first for Mitchell's team, but two preps swiftly follow suit. Needing only one more person to win and with Blane in sight of the end, he decides to barrel into Mitchell but poorly times his attack and instead lands in the waters below. This leaves Jack and Mitchell in clear sight of the finish line, as they approach in tandem victory to the cheers of their awaiting schoolmates, and kisses of respective love interests. Mitchell has finally earned the respect of Jack and his friends, and he is lifted on the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

Robin McAllister (Devon Sawa) and his family win the lottery and they end up moving from Kansas City to Seattle where Robin attends Locksley Academy, a wealthy private school. While there Robin comes up with a plan to help one of his friends who was hurt and needs money for an operation by robbing from John Prince Sr., the head of a very wealthy corporation. Robin becomes friends with a couple of misfits at school named Will Scarlett (Billy O'Sullivan) and Little John (Tyler Labine) and also falls for a girl named Marian (Sarah Chalke) who helps train the horses that Robin's family has. While helping out his friends Robin becomes an enemy of John Prince Jr. (Joshua Jackson), the big shot rich kid at school and his friends Warner and Gibson who are also the sons of rich parents. Then Robin goes to join the archery team but is not allowed to because of John Prince Jr. so he starts his own team and his 2 friends join and learn from Robin. McAllister has to outsmart FBI agent Walter Nottingham and help take down the richest kids in the school during the rest of the movie.

After the New York Yankees' latest prospect suffers a humiliating bout of stage fright in his debut for the team, scout Al Percolo, who discovered the young man, is punished by being sent to the Mexican countryside to look for his next find.

Al's efforts are fruitless until he encounters Steve Nebraska, a young American with a consistent 100+ MPH fastball and a perfect batting average. The childlike Steve immediately agrees to join the Yankees when Al asks him, but when Al calls the team's general manager to report his find, he is fired and told not to return. Al defies the order and brings Steve back to the States anyway. The first indication that all may not be right with Steve occurs when he panics at Newark International Airport when he and Al are momentarily separated. Later, at Al's apartment, Steve thrashes in his sleep, screaming at an unseen assailant.

Al arranges an open audition at Yankee Stadium in front of representatives from every Major League Baseball team. After Steve strikes out Keith Hernández and homers off Bret Saberhagen, a bidding war breaks out. The Yankees win the bid war, signing Steve to a $55 million contract, but after Steve violently snaps at press photographers, team management demands that he be psychiatrically evaluated and cleared before he plays his first game.

Al picks the first listed psychiatrist in the phone book, a Doctor H. Aaron, and hopes that the evaluation will be swift, so that he and Steve can get on with life. After examining Steve, however, Dr. Aaron finds him to be deeply troubled and so severely abused as a child that he has blocked almost every memory of his early life. Desperate for Steve to play so that both can get paid, Al begs Dr. Aaron to clear Steve for play, on the condition that she sees Steve everyday before making his MLB debut.

Life with Steve proves difficult for Al; Steve throws plates at reporters outside the apartment, upstages Tony Bennett at his own show, and argues with Al over what he does with his free time. At a press conference, Al lies about Steve's past. Dr. Aaron is livid when she finds out, but Al points out that Steve's behavior stems from her helping him acknowledge and deal with his past. Al pleads with Dr. Aaron to continue the good work she is doing for Steve. When the Yankees reach the World Series, however, Steve is suddenly depressed. Worse yet, he is contractually obligated to pitch in Game 1.

A sold-out Yankee Stadium waits for Steve's debut in Game 1 of the World Series. When Steve is spotted on the roof of the stadium, Al sends for a helicopter to fetch him, then climbs up to plead with him to come down. Steve adamantly refuses, and Al, risking his own career, tells Steve that he can walk away from it all, no strings attached. Touched by Al's selflessness, Steve relents. His spirits greatly lifted, he boards the copter to make his grand entrance.

Steve pitches a perfect game, striking out 27 St. Louis Cardinals batters on 81 consecutive strikes, and hits two solo home runs in a 2-0 Yankees victory. As Steve acknowledges Al as the Yankees celebrate his efforts, Al smiles proudly.

David Blaine visits South Park, impressing the town's residents, including Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny, with his street magic. Mesmerized, the boys join the cult of "Blaintology," hoping to learn more about magic. Stan becomes progressively more disturbed by the cult and soon leaves, but Kyle refuses to join him, and so Stan asks Jesus for help. Meanwhile, Kyle and Cartman go door to door in a recruitment drive, sporting nametags labeled "Elder Kyle" and "Elder Cartman."

Jesus appears at Blaine's show in Denver, and challenges him by performing the miracle of the loaves and fish... after requesting that everybody in the audience turn around; Blaine manages to win the crowd with much more powerful enchantments. Jesus promptly requires the assistance of the Super Best Friends: a group of major religious figures including Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Joseph Smith, Krishna, Laozi and "Sea Man", an Aquaman-like character. They are dedicated to defending the world against evil (except for Buddha, who "doesn't really believe in evil").

The Blaintologists, meanwhile, petition the government for tax-exempt status. Their request is denied, and all the Blaintologists are told that they are to commit mass suicide in Washington, D.C. Kyle is shown to have escaped the cult's control, but when he tries to convince Cartman that they should flee, Cartman reports him, and Kyle is imprisoned in a glass bubble and forced to participate at the mass suicide. When word about the mass suicide reaches the Super Best Friends, they consult Moses (previously seen in "Jewbilee") for advice.

In D.C., the Blaintologists begin to drown themselves in the Reflecting Pool even though it is only approximately a foot deep, while Cartman installs a hose in Kyle's glass bubble to fill it with water, so as to drown him. The Super Best Friends arrive at the scene, to which Blaine responds by animating the statue of Abraham Lincoln to fight them.

Meanwhile, Stan searches for his friends, first finding Kenny drowned in the pool and shouting "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!", to which Kyle replies "You bastards!"; they alternately repeat their catchphrases in Marco Polo fashion to find each other. In order to defeat the Abraham Lincoln statue, the Super Best Friends create a giant animated John Wilkes Booth statue, which shoots it in the head, causing it to fall over and shatter Kyle's prison. Afterwards, Joseph Smith uses his ice powers to freeze the reflecting pool so as to prevent more suicides.

It is revealed that Cartman has not managed to kill himself, as he keeps coming up for air. Blaine curses the Super Best Friends for ruining his plans and flies away in a rocket ship. Stan finally announces that any religion which forces people to relinquish their money or control over their lives is really a cult. After his speech, Kyle reconciles with Stan, they amuse themselves with kicking a taunting Cartman in the testicles, and the episode ends with the Super Best Friends flying away.

The film begins after the protagonist, Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov Jr.) returns to his small home town following his demobilisation from the Russian Army. Even before he reaches home, he ends up in a fight with security guards, when he accidentally walks onto a film set. The local police release him, on the condition that he will find work, and we learn that his late father, once a classmate of the precinct, was a thief in law and died in prison. His mother, not wishing for him to share his father's fate, insists he travels to Saint Petersburg to seek out his successful older brother Viktor, whom his mother is confident will help him make a living.

Danila travels to Saint Petersburg, but his attempts to make contact with Viktor are unsuccessful. Instead, he wanders around the city. He befriends Kat, an energetic drug addict, and "The German" Hoffman, a homeless street vendor whom Danila helps after a thug attempts to extort him.

Unbeknown to their mother, Viktor is an accomplished hitman who goes by the street name "The Tatar" but is growing too independent and is starting to irritate his mob boss, "Roundhead." His latest target is "The Chechen," a Chechen mafia boss who was recently released from prison and now runs a market. Roundhead, who is unhappy with the amount of money that Viktor demanded for the hit, orders his thugs to watch him in secret.

Danila eventually meets up with Viktor. To avoid exposure, Viktor passes his assignment to his brother, gives him money to settle into the city, and then lies to him that the Chechen has been extorting from him, asking Danila to perform the hit. Danila agrees, monitors the Chechen's frequent visits, asks the Hoffman to find him a room in a communal flat in the city centre. With a makeshift silencer and a decoy firecracker he takes him out without being spotted by the latter's security. As Danila makes his exit, Roundhead's thugs spot and chase him. Making his escape, Danila jumps into a freight tram and, despite being wounded, manages to kill one of the pursuing thugs.

The tram driver, a woman named Sveta, helps Danila escape, who recovers and meets up with her. Despite being married to an abusive husband, the two begin an affair. With the money given to him by Viktor after the hit, he begins to enjoy Saint Petersburg, gives his provincial image a makeover, takes Sveta out to a concert of his favourite Nautilus Pompilius, and manages to scare away her husband. At the same time he also meets up with Kat to go to a nightclub, smokes cannabis in an afterparty and sleeps with her afterwards.

Meanwhile, Roundhead is angry about losing one of his men and the fact that Viktor used delegated someone else to carry out the hit, and decides to draw him into a combined raid. Viktor, again suspecting a trap, passes the job to Danila once more. The two thugs raid the apartment, but their main target is away. While they wait, in an apartment on the floor above, a party is taking place with several well-known Russian rock musicians. A young radio director, Stepan mistakes the raided flat for the party flat and is almost killed by the thugs, who take him captive. Vyacheslav Butusov, the lead singer of Nautilus Pompilius, makes the same mistake, but is saved by Danila, who opens the door. Danila, bored of the waiting, follows Butusov to the party above and relaxes in the friendly musical atmosphere. Some time aftewards he comes back downstairs to find the thugs killed their primary target, and are about to do the same with Stepan. Danila prevents this and kills both thugs. The corpses are dragged to the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery, where the Hoffman helps Danila dispose of the bodies.

Roundhead is furious finding out what happened. Instead of going after Viktor, he decides to track Danila and intercepts Sveta's tram. They later raid her apartment, where his men beat and rape her, and learn his phone number, as well as his address. A henchman nicknamed "Mole" ambushes Danila near his apartment building, but Danila manages to kill Mole. Realising that staying home is unsafe, he travels to Sveta's house and is shocked at her state. He learns that Roundhead was responsible and realises that the only way they could have tracked Sveta was when he returned a phone call from her home telephone to his brother.

At the same time, Roundhead raids Viktor's apartment and forces him to call Danila at gunpoint, urging him to come over. Realising the depth of the situation, Danila goes back to the communal room that he was renting, and buys a shotgun from his landlord, converts it into a sawn off, and replaces the duck-hunting pellets with nailheads. At Viktor's apartment, he takes out Roundhead and two of his henchmen and tells the surviving thug to warn the rest of the gang that he will kill anyone who hurts his brother. In reply, the thug tells him that it was Viktor who turned him in, as Danila already suspected.

Danila forgives his brother, gives him some of the money from Roundhead's suitcase, and then tells him to return home and to work for the militsiya. Danila decides to go to Moscow. He visits Sveta, intending to take her with him, but her husband has returned and is beating her. Seeing Danila, he challenges him to a fight, but Danila fires a shot into his thigh beforehand. Sveta rushes to her husband and begins to treat his wound. Danila urges her to leave with him, but she tells him to get out and never come back. He then meets up with Hoffman, and two converse about the influence of the city on its residents, saying that everyone is weak here, to which the German replies that the city is an evil force that drains the strength from those who enter it. Danila offers him money, but Hoffman declines, saying "What's good for the Russian is death for the German." Before he leaves the city, he finds Kat to say goodbye. She is indifferent to his departure, but he gives her money nonetheless.

The last scene of the film shows Danila walking out of a snow-covered forest. He hitches a ride to Moscow on a passing truck. As he chats with the driver, the final shot is of the winter road stretching far into the wilderness.

In 1867, Charles Dickens arrives at a theatre in Boston one snowy night to tell the story of "A Christmas Carol".

In Victorian London on one Christmas Eve, the merriment is not shared by a rich moneylender named Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge, on his way back to work from the Exchange, orders a criminal named Old Joe to arrest his debt-ridden clients, including Dr Lambert who, along with several other clients is, locked up in a debtors' prison. Belle, a middle-aged nurse and an old flame of Scrooge's, is informed by Scrooge's colleague Mr Leech that the debts have now been transferred to Scrooge. Belle goes to Scrooge's office, only for him to be out on business. Belle gives a letter to Scrooge's clerk. Bob Cratchit, before leaving to visit Dr Lambert in prison.

That night, Scrooge refuses to dine with his nephew Fred and deliberately pours a bucket of cold water over Bob's youngest son Tiny Tim, who was only discharged from hospital by Dr Lambert, and gets pnemounia. After Bob leaves for home, Scrooge is haunted by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, who wears a chain as punishment for his selfishness when he was alive. He warns Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits, and that the first of these will call at one o'clock in the morning. Despite this, Scrooge continues his selfish ways by refusing to donate money to two men of business, admitting that he supports the prisons and workhouses, and even claims that the poor are better off dead and should die to 'decrease the surplus population'.

When Scrooge goes to bed, he encounters the Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back to his youth. Scrooge witnesses when he was unwanted in school by his father, James Emanuel Scrooge, until his sister Fan came to collect him, claiming their father has changed, and also introduces him to Belle. It turns out that Scrooge's father still despises him and sends him off to Fezziwig's to be an apprentice. Scrooge then witnesses when he was happy under Fezziwig, who treated him like a son, before Scrooge and the spirit witness a Christmas party which includes Fan, her husband Fredrick, and Belle. However, young Scrooge, after being left the inheritance by his late father, shows his greedy side, whilst Fan, who is pregnant with Fred, is implied to be driven to poverty (as their father disowned her as he did not approve of her marriage to Fredrick) and dies after Fred is born. Scrooge then sees when Belle, who he was engaged to, leave him due to his changed ways.

The next spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, shows Scrooge how others keep Christmas, including Fred and the Cratchits. Tiny Tim, who is ailing with pnemounia, concerns Scrooge, but the spirit sarcastically tells Scrooge that he is better off dead, and uses Scrooge's previous unkind remarks of the surplus population.

The final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge what will happen in the future if he does not repent: Tim dies with his family mourning him, and a dead man who is robbed and spoken of negatively is Scrooge himself after seeing his 'grave'. The ghost of Marley returns him to the present, where Scrooge at first does not change, but after seeing his 'chains' via a mirror, quickly repents and hires a boy to buy and deliver a goose to the Cratchits. Scrooge becomes a kinder man, and is praised by the ghosts of the Past and Present. However, Scrooge becomes guilt-ridden when the children's hospital that Belle and Dr Lambert work at evicts its child patients due to his previous wickedness, prompting him to fire Old Joe. Scrooge is confronted by Belle, and Scrooge promises her that he will make up for his sins and the pair reunite as a couple.

The next day, Scrooge promotes Bob to become his new partner, replacing Marley, and promises to help his family as well as, giving him a raise and becomes a stepfather to a now-well Tiny Tim, and everything returns to normal, thanks to Scrooge changing his ways.

Tired of being treated like a slave by team owner Sallison Potter, charismatic star pitcher Bingo Long steals a bunch of Negro league players away from their teams, including catcher/slugger Leon Carter and Charlie Snow, a player forever scheming to break into the segregated Major League Baseball of the 1930s by masquerading as first a Cuban ("Carlos Nevada"), then a Native American ("Chief Takahoma"). They take to the road, barnstorming through small Midwestern towns, playing the local teams to make ends meet. One of the opposing players, "Esquire" Joe Calloway, is so good that they recruit him.

Bingo's team becomes so outlandishly entertaining and successful, it begins to cut into the attendance of the established Negro league teams. Finally, Bingo's nemesis Potter is forced to propose a winner-take-all game: if Bingo's team can beat a bunch of all-stars, it can join the league, but if it loses, the players will return to their old teams. Potter has two of his goons kidnap Leon prior to the game as insurance, but he escapes and is key to his side's victory.

As it turns out, there is a Major League scout in the audience. After the game, he offers Esquire Joe the chance to break the color barrier; with Bingo's blessing, he accepts. Leon glumly foresees the decline of the Negro leagues as more players follow Esquire Joe's lead, but Bingo, ever the optimist, cheers him up by describing the wild promotional stunts he intends to stage to bring in the paying customers.

'''Note:''' There are two different versions of Revolver. This plot synopsis is for Ritchie's preferred ''Directors Cut''.

In an unidentified city, cockney gangster and gambler Jake Green (Jason Statham) is released from prison after a seven year stretch in solitary confinement for an unspecified crime. Because of this, Jake developed claustrophobia: he becomes incredibly anxious in tight spaces and despises riding in elevators.

Two years later, Jake and his brother Billy (Andrew Howard) travel to a casino owned by Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta), a gang boss involved in illegal gambling all over the city. Macha is responsible for ordering Green to commit the crime that resulted in his prison sentence. Though Billy is reluctant, the brothers have arrived to collect the debt that Green believes the gangster owes them. Macha promptly calls them up to a private area of his casino where a high rollers' game is taking place. Jake bets Macha a fortune on a chip toss to one of the table's players, and loses. Manipulating Macha into a sense of false security, he makes the same bet with him, but this time, he wins. Humiliated, Macha orders his right-hand man, Paul (Terrence Maynard) to have Jake murdered.

As Jake and his brothers leave the casino, a man (Vincent Pastore) hands Jake a card and tells him that he can help him. Jake's phobia forces him to take the stairs. In the stairwell, Jake looks at the card and collapses, falling down the stairs. The card is revealed to read "Take the Elevator". Jake is rushed to the hospital. The doctors report that they don't know why he fainted, but inform him they will have the results in a few days. Later Jake arrives home, without Billy, where Macha's assassin Sorter (Mark Strong) is waiting for him.

On his doorstep there is another card, which reads "Pick This Up". As Jake bends to retrieve the card bullets fly over his back. As the shooting continues, the same mysterious individual, a loan shark named Zach, arrives and rescues Jake, who is the only person to survive the hit. Zach introduces Jake to his partner, Avi (André Benjamin). They offer him a deal: they will take all of his money and he will do what they say, no questions asked. In exchange, they will protect Jake from Macha. In the course of their proposal, they show Jake his medical file, which they have mysteriously obtained. It indicates that the blackout occurred due to a rare blood disease which will cause his death within three days. Jake suspects he is being conned and leaves.

Later, at a visit to his doctor, he is given the same prognosis and said to have three days to live. Jake returns to Avi and Zach's poolhall with a satchel of money and agrees to their terms. The mysterious men reveal that his money will be used to fund their money lending enterprise, then question Jake about his time in prison. Jake explains that he was given a choice to either spend 14 years in the general prison population or 7 years in solitary confinement, of which he chose the latter.

During his stint in solitary confinement, Jake learns of a specific strategy (referred to as "The Formula") that is supposed to let its user win every game. The Formula itself was discovered by two unnamed men who inhabited adjacent cells on either side of Jake's own. They are referred to as a chess expert and a con man. During the first five years of his seven-year sentence, the three men communicate their thoughts on confidence tricks and chess moves via messages hidden inside library books, such as ''The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics''.

The chess expert and the con man plan to leave their cells simultaneously, and promise to take Jake with them. But when they disappear from their cells, they leave Jake behind to serve the remaining two years of his sentence. When Jake is released, he finds that all of his possessions and money have been taken by the two men with whom he had shared everything. Disheartened, he uses The Formula, to go about winning at various casinos. Jake garnered a reputation that led many gambling houses to fear his freakishly good 'luck', and is blacklisted by many casinos. The Formula applies to any game, and is often exemplified by Jake's apparent mastery of chess.

Meanwhile, Macha brokers a cocaine deal with Lily Walker (Francesca Annis), the advisor of unseen crime kingpin Sam Gold, who is supposedly the "ultimate figure" that all other underworld members aspire to be. Walker warns Macha that Sam Gold is not someone to be delayed and emphasizes that he "hates publicity". Jake accompanies Avi and Zach as they perform a heist of a vault full of the cocaine from Macha's casino. Desperate that he is now indebted to Gold, Macha sends Paul to appeal to his rival, Triad kingpin Lord John (Tom Wu) to sell him replacement cocaine at a heavily inflated price. Lord John insultingly declines making a deal with his enemy. With Jake, Zach and Avi then rob John for millions of dollars; Framing Macha for the theft.

Furious, Lord John sends a hitwoman dressed as a waitress to kill Macha at his restaurant. Sorter shoots the assassin, but only wounds her. Then he travels outside and kills her getaway driver as he attempts to flee in a car. Inside, Macha struggles with the hitwoman, during which she shoots his finger off. In a rage, Macha empties his bodyguard's pistol into the assassin. In retaliation, Macha has Sorter kill Lord John, then sends Paul and his henchmen to interrogate members of John's triad to find the location of the stolen cocaine. The Chinese gangsters deny any involvement, and implicate Jake even when Paul tortures them to death.

Zach and Avi have Jake donate all the money he has given them so far to a child's charity in Macha's name. Macha takes the credit, believing it will improve his reputation. However, he is later visited by Walker, who claims that Gold is furious at Macha's newfound publicity and his constant delaying of the deal. Macha pleads for more time to settle business but Walker simply leaves with a cryptic threat.

Three days after Jake found out about his terminal diagnoses, he awakes to a call from Avi, who tells him he is "free" of his disease. Jake returns to his physician, who reveals that the original diagnosis was incorrect; Jake suffers from a rare blood disease, but it is treatable and not terminal. The doctor apologizes profusely for the mistake. Meanwhile, Macha, now believing Jake is the one conspiring against him, doubles down on the contract against him. His henchmen track him down to a house inhabited by Avi and Zach, but he evades them. In the chase, one of the hitmen falls on his shotgun and dies. The gangsters misinterpret this accident, and believe that Jake killed him.

Jake meets Avi and Zach on a rooftop, where it is revealed that they were Jake's "neighbors" during his years of incarceration. They reveal that Sam Gold is an ultimately powerless cipher, whose power is granted only by those who invest in him. He represents ego and is the personification of greed. Avi attempts to get Jake to understand the nature of the ego and to challenge his own lifelong investment in it. The men explain to Jake that by stripping him of the physical embodiment of ego (his money) they have freed him from Gold's "game" - It is heavily implied that "Avi" and "Zach" are merely figments of Jake's imagination.

Elsewhere, to settle a debt with the Macha, Jake's brother Billy is betrayed by his bodyguard, who lets Sorter and Paul into Billy's home. Paul tortures Billy, threatens to kidnap Billy's daughter and set him on fire in order to find out where Jake is. The violent acts unsettle Sorter, and allow him to find his conscience. Against his better judgement, he rejects his ego by killing Paul and all his companions to rescue the girl.

('''Note''': In the ''theatrical release'', Sorter is killed and the girl is taken.)

That night, an armed Jake breaks into the penthouse where Macha is sleeping. Surprisingly, he kneels before the bed and asks a half naked Macha for forgiveness. Jake leaves in the elevator, which gets stuck at the 13th floor. Macha retrieves his own handgun, and rushes down the stairs to meet Jake on the ground floor. While waiting in the elevator, Jake has a conversation in his mind in which he rejects his ego. By doing this, Jake steps off the proverbial chess board by making a conscious effort to reverse everything his ego tells him to do. This is seen to be the truest and most fundamental application of the Formula.

As the doors open on Jake and he is about to leave the building, Macha holds him at gunpoint, but a calm Jake refuses to fear him. He leaves Macha a crying, pathetic mess, weeping in the foyer of his penthouse - Jake has rejected the ego, where as Macha has been seen to be consumed by it, resulting in his humiliation.

('''Note''': This is where the ''Director's Cut'' ends.)

In the ''theatrical release'' of the film, Jake finds out about the niece's kidnapping and decides to return the crime bosses money to save her. When he arrives, Macha points a gun on Jake's niece, but Jake shows no fear. A humiliated Macha remarks that Jake can't kill him if he is already dead. Then he puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger as the screen cuts to black.

While waiting for their new home to be renovated, Nellie and her younger brother George are sent to a farm in the countryside, much to George's delight and Nellie's disgust. However, the farmhouse and the surrounding area are teeming with magical fey creatures, most of which Nellie cannot see initially because she doesn't believe in faeries. The first the two children properly encounter is a somewhat crotchety and unfriendly Brownie (folklore) named Broom (whom Nellie can see) who is (more or less) secretly looking after the farm.

While playing outside, George inadvertently stumbles into a faery ring surrounding a massive, ancient oak tree and ends up in the realm of faeries. Nellie is able to bribe Broom with honey cakes in exchange for him showing her how to see the faeries and how to find and enter Faeryland. Broom warns Nellie not to eat or drink anything while she is there, however, she reaches her brother just in time to see George eating a faery cake. The uptight Chudley informs them that the law of the faery realm states that a mortal who consumes even one mouthful of faery food must remain in the realm forever. Nellie and George strongly — and noisily — protest. The commotion attracts the attention of the Faery Prince Albrecht, the ruler of the realm, who offers them a chance to escape by setting three tasks for them.

What they do not know is that the evil brother of the Prince, the Shapeshifter, and his goblin henchmen, are trying to manipulate the children and the faery citizens (Merrivale, Huccaby, Chudley, and Starcross are the only ones met in the film) to usurp the rulership of the faery realm. The Shapeshifter can steal the throne with ease if he obtains the Orb, a powerful magical sceptre in his brother's possession. In addition, the Prince falls in love with a friend of the children, the pretty human farmhand Brigid, which proves pivotal in an old prophecy that foretells the future for the faery realm.

Nellie and George succeed in bringing Brigid to Faeryland, where she meets and falls in love with the Prince. Later, the children are instrumental in foiling the Shapeshifter's attempt to cause war between Albrecht and the faery princess to whom he was originally betrothed. Once the Shapeshifter is defeated, the princess gives Brigid and Albrecht her blessing, and Nellie and George watch as Brigid is married to Albrecht, and is transformed into a faery. Two tasks down, the children return to the farm, where the faeries have left a fabricated letter to explain Brigid's disappearance.

Later, the children bring Brigid to the home of her friend, whose newborn baby is Brigid's godson (making Brigid a real fairy godmother.) However, the Shapeshifter has followed them, and steals the child, leaving a goblin replacement. Brigid must steal the Orb for the Shapeshifter if she wants to rescue the child. Brigid makes the trade, but is horrified to see the faeries upon her return-now drastically aged, and Albrecht close to death, as the Orb is also the source of the faeries' youth and immortality. Brigid is only unaffected because she has not been a faery long enough to noticeably age. With a little help from Broom, the children and Brigid make a plan. Using a bead, a brooch pin, and a pinch of hobgoblin magic, the group creates a fake Orb. Nellie and George sneak into a goblin party and successfully swap the Orbs. Brigid returns the original to its rightful place in the palace, saving the faeries' lives and restoring their youth.

The Shapeshifter, unaware that the Orb in his possession is fake, marches into Faeryland, believing his brother and the other faeries to be dead. He is confronted by the children, who reveal the deception. Albrecht arrives, battles his brother (who transforms into a mantis-like monster) and ultimately wins.

The Shapeshifter and all but one of his henchmen are thrown into prison. The last one evades detection and runs away. Nellie and George have completed their three tasks, and, as a reward for saving Faeryland, are allowed to consume as much faery food as they desire, without having to remain in Faeryland or complete another three tasks. The film ends with the children deciding to extend their stay at the farm, and the faeries flying back to the tree.

This show details the various adventures of Richie Rich, his family, and his friends.

Dante is barred from entering the hill of salvation by three beasts that block his path (Avarice, Pride, and Lust). Beatrice descends from above and asks the poet Virgil to guide Dante through the Nine Circles of Hell. Virgil leads Dante to a cave where they find the river Acheron, over which Charon ferries the souls of the dead into Hell. They also see the three-headed Cerberus and Geryon, a flying serpent with a man's face. They see the Devil eating human beings whole, harpies eating the corpses of suicides, an evil man forced to carry his own severed head for eternity, people half-buried in flaming lava, etc.

There follows a series of encounters in which the two meet up with a number of formerly famous historical figures whose souls were denied by both Heaven and Hell, and they listen to some of their tales told in flashback. These characters include Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucanus, Cleopatra, Dido, the Queen of Carthage, the traitor Caiphus, Count Ugolino, Peter of Vigna, Francesca Da Rimini and her lover Paulo, Brutus and Cassius, Mohammed, and Helen of Troy. The film's main attraction is the fantastic set designs depicting the horrors of Hell, with excessive violence and gore, designed to frighten the audience into becoming pious or God-fearing.

In rural Queensland, the Thompson family, struggling to keep its farm from foreclosure, hopes their horse, Prince, will win the New Year's Cup so that they can use the winnings to pay off the debt. However, two struggling lowlifes, Bill and Sly (John Ewart and John Howard), find out about the horse and steal it, escaping into the nearby mountain range.

With the father off droving cattle and the thieves having sabotaged all forms of transportation and communication before escaping, the Thompson children Helen (Nicole Kidman) and John (Mark Spain), and their English cousin Michael (James Wingrove), saddle up their own horses and go after the crooks on their own, with Manalpuy, a local Aboriginal who works on the farm, assisting them.

Protagonist Jack Holloway lives a solitary life mining valuable "sunstones" in the wilderness of the planet Zarathustra, managed by Victor Grego's Chartered Zarathustra Company, which built colonial outposts there and now reaps the benefits of the planet's resources. One day, Holloway meets a small golden-furred humanoid whom he names "Little Fuzzy", who soon introduces Holloway to his family. Holloway cares for the Fuzzies and spreads word of their apparently intelligent behavior. When the Company discovers that the Fuzzies' intelligence may qualify them as a sapient species, the Company moves against them, as the discovery of sapient native Zarathustrans would turn the planet into a protected aboriginal zone, install a proper government there, and deprive the Company of its complete control of the planet's resources.

Leonard Kellogg, one of Grego's staff, manages a team of scientists working to legally disprove the Fuzzies' sapience at all costs. Holloway suspects Kellogg's intentions and resists him. When Kellogg kills a Fuzzy in anger, Holloway has him charged with murder, leaving the Fuzzies' sapience to be determined in court. In the midst of the proceedings, it is proven that Fuzzies have at least the mental capacity of a ten-year-old human child and speak to each other ultrasonically. Kellogg kills himself in his cell, but the prosecution continues, and the court officially rules that the Fuzzies are sapient beings, invalidating the Company's charter. Holloway and his allies are given Fuzzy-related positions in the new government.

Sequels

The second book, ''Fuzzy Sapiens'', deals with the newly charterless Zarathustra Company and its gradual cooperation with the planet's new governor to ensure chaos does not take over the planet, while the Fuzzies attach themselves to individual human guardians including members of the Company staff. Victor Grego, one of the villains of the first book and the manager of the CZC, finds a Fuzzy in his private apartment in the Company tower, adopts him, names him Diamond, and become a firm supporter of the Fuzzies. This enables the Company to cooperate with the new planetary government headed up by naturalist Ben Rainsford and work with the Native Affairs Commission headed up by Jack Holloway. It becomes clear that criminals are using the irregular status of the government and of the Company to attack it and steal sunstones. With the help of the Fuzzies, the thieves are thwarted. There is also further exploration into the biology of the Fuzzies, and it is established that the Fuzzies may be in a biological dead end, doomed to extinction without aid from the humans.

The third book, ''Fuzzy Bones'' by William Tuning, suggests that the remarkable affinity of all Fuzzies for the survival ration "Extraterrestrial Type Three" (a.k.a. "Extee 3", "estefee", or "hoksu-fusso", meaning "wonderful food") does not coincide with the composition of Zarathustran soil, a contradiction of Garrett's Theorem. A third significant Fuzzy character is developed called Starwatcher. Little Fuzzy, Diamond, and Starwatcher become the clear leaders in working with humans. Among other things, an alien spaceship is discovered on Beta Continent, and evidence that the Fuzzies are not in fact native to Zarathustra emerges, which raises a variety of legal and philosophical questions. Tuning introduces a number of memorable characters, including Christiana Stone, Grego's Fuzzy-Sitter-in-Chief; Reverend Thomas Aquinas Gordon, aka "The Rev;" Master Gunnery Sergeant Philip Helton, TFMC; and Liana Bell, a CZC scientist invited by the researchers of Holloway's Fuzzy Institute to join them in their research.

''Golden Dream'' by Ardath Mayhar fits with these three books in terms of the general plot and relationships. Essentially, it is ''Little Fuzzy'' told from the point of view of the Fuzzies rather than that of the humans.

After these two official sequels, the original third book by Piper himself, ''Fuzzies and Other People'', offers an alternative future wherein Little Fuzzy himself is separated from Jack Holloway and introduces a band of Fuzzies led by Wise One to the combined society. It explores the deepening relationships between the characters already introduced in Piper's first two books, and shows how the Fuzzies fit in with the humans on Zarathustra.

In 1957, in the town of Coburg, as in most of West Germany, reconstruction is the watchword, and Coburg's élite all benefit: the mayor, the police chief, the bank president, the newspaper editor and above all, Schuckert, a property developer who owns the brothel the other men frequent. His favourite employee is its singer, Lola.

This cosy arrangement is threatened by the arrival of the high-minded and cultured von Bohm, a refugee from East Prussia, as the new building commissioner. Divorced, he hires a woman with a young granddaughter as his housekeeper and devotes himself to his new job. One day, while he is out at work, his housekeeper shows her daughter his house. It is Lola, who decides she wants to know this interesting man and soon attracts his attention under her real name, Marie-Luise. Unaware of her night job or that Schuckert is her daughter's father, von Bohm proposes to her, but she warns him off. When he is finally taken to the brothel, he discovers the truth about her.

In the meantime von Bohm has been collecting evidence of Coburg's widespread corruption, including building permits masterminded by Schuckert, and decides to put a stop to it, but nobody is interested. Unable to change the system, and still in love with Lola, he marries her with Schuckert's blessing. As a wedding gift, Schuckert gives the pair the deed to the brothel and, while von Bohm is taking a walk after the church ceremony, takes the bride to bed.

''Note: this description of the plot is based on the version of the book published as The Plumed Serpent, not the version published as Quetzalcoatl.''

Shortly after Easter, a group of tourists visiting Mexico, including Kate Leslie, an Irishwoman, and her cousin, Owen Rhys, an American, attend a bullfight in Mexico City. Leslie is thrilled at the prospect of witnessing the fight, but later leaves in disgust, after witnessing the violence suffered by a horse and a bull. As she leaves, she encounters Don Cipriano, a Mexican general, and invites him to meet her. Later, at a party in Tlacolula which she attends with Rhys, Leslie listens to discussions of changes brought about by the Mexican Revolution, and encounters a Major Law, who states that there is a rumour that the recently elected Mexican President, Socrates Tomás Montes of the Labour Party, will be prevented from taking office by the military. She also meets Cipriano's friend Don Ramón Carrasco. Soon afterwards, she reads a newspaper report, "The Gods of Antiquity Return to Mexico", describing an incident in the village of Sayula, in which a man arose from a lake, then announced to a group of women that the Aztec gods Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc are ready to return to Mexico. Rhys returns to the United States, but Leslie decides to stay in Mexico. Wanting to leave Mexico City because of rising social tensions, she travels to Sayula, with the encouragement of Cipriano. She learns of a religious movement, the Men of Quetzalcoatl, and, upon making inquiries about it, is told that it was founded by Ramón, who is suspected of having political ambitions. Leslie begins to sympathise with Ramón, believing him to be a "great man". Receiving an invitation from Ramón, she meets him and his wife Doña Carlota, who tells her that he wants to be worshipped as a god and to destroy the belief of Mexicans in both Jesus and the Virgin Mary, objectives she deplores.

Cipriano tells Leslie that he wants to marry her and make her a goddess in a pantheon of deities alongside himself and Ramón, explaining that this will help Ramón. Leslie at first rejects these proposals and considers leaving Mexico. Meanwhile, the unpopular actions of the new President provoke a rebellion, and the Church moves against Ramón, denouncing him as an "Anti-Christ". Cipriano continues to support Ramón, despite being obliged to defend the Mexican government. Ramón tries to remain politically neutral. Cipriano arranges a meeting between Ramón and a bishop. Ramón tells Cipriano that every people in the world needs its own "Saviour", and that the "Teutonic world" should return to the worship of Thor and Wotan, just as other nations should return to the worship of their ancient gods. When Ramón and Cipriano meet the bishop, Ramón suggests to him that the Catholic Church should embrace all gods, including Quetzalcoatl; the bishop rejects this. Ramón tells the bishop that he intends to remove images from a church in Sayula, burn them, and replace them with images of Quetzalcoatl; the bishop warns him against this, but Ramón remains firm in his plans, and tells the bishop to advise his superiors of them.

Ramón tries to encourage Kate to marry Cipriano, but she still has doubts. He tells her of the dissatisfying nature of his relationship with Carlota, saying that the two of them never "met in our souls", and that her faith in Jesus and his role in the Men of Quetzalcoatl now makes this impossible. He explains to Kate that, for him, Quetzalcoatl is a "symbol of the best a man may be". Soon afterwards, a priest is attacked after preaching a sermon against Ramón and Quetzalcoatl, and later threatened with death. Priests denounce the Men of Quetzalcoatl. The church in Sayula is closed, and later entered by Ramón and a group of his followers, who remove images of Jesus, Mary, and several saints. The images are taken away and burned. These events are followed by further incidents of violence and unrest. Kate travels to Jamiltepec, where she meets Ramón and tells him that she approves of the removal of images from the church in Sayula. He encourages her to support his movement. When an attempt is made to assassinate Ramón, Kate becomes involved in the conflict, and he afterwards credits her intervention with saving his life. One of Ramón's followers tells Kate that priests and the Knights of Cortés are to blame for the attack.

Kate meets Ramón and Cipriano. Ramón tells her that just as he will be identified with Quetzalcoatl, Cipriano will be identified with Huitzilopochtli. Kate accepts Cipriano as Huitzilopochtli and they are married by Ramón. Afterwards, Kate returns to Sayula, where she learns that the church has been turned into a temple of Quetzalcoatl. A religious meeting presided over by Ramón and Cipriano is interrupted by Carlota, who calls on God to take Ramón's life. Carlota collapses and is taken to bed; she subsequently dies. Worship of Quetzalcoatl continues to spread through Mexico; Cipriano wants the President to declare it the official religion of Mexico, but Ramón disagrees, believing that it should be allowed to spread of its own accord. Cipriano gives Kate the name "Malintzi". Ramón later marries a young woman named Teresa. Kate tells first Teresa, then Cipriano, that she wants to leave Mexico. Later, an attempt is made to assassinate the President, and Mexico is taken to the point of religious war. In Mexico City, the Men of Quetzalcoatl turn a church into a Quetzalcoatl temple; the Archbishop of Mexico is arrested before he and his followers can attempt to retake the building for the Catholic Church. Eventually, the President has the Catholic Church made illegal and orders Quetzalcoatl worship made the official religion of Mexico; all churches are closed, and the Archbishop is deported. Kate and Cipriano are legally married. Ramón tells Kate to tell the Irish that they should follow their traditional gods and heroes. Kate is left conflicted about whether to leave Mexico or not.

Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman form a band called Moop, but disagree on what direction they should take, as they all like different types of music. The disagreement becomes so heated that Cartman bets that he will have a platinum-selling Christian rock album before Kyle's band does, and leaves the band. Seeking inspiration, Stan, Kyle and Kenny illegally download music from the Internet, including Judas Priest. They are immediately arrested by the FBI. They are told of the serious consequences of illegal downloading, namely forcing musicians like Lars Ulrich (drummer of metal band Metallica) and Britney Spears to lose so much income from music piracy that they must either downgrade their extremely lavish purchases to ''very-slightly'' less lavish ones or save up until they can afford all of what they want. As a result, Moop decides to go on strike until fans stop downloading illegally and are joined by a large number of musicians, including Britney Spears, Ozzy Osbourne, Missy Elliott, Master P, Blink-182, Metallica, Alanis Morissette, Meat Loaf, Rancid, and even Skyler's band, the Lords of the Underworld.

Meanwhile, Cartman enlists Butters and Tolkien to form his new band. Realizing that Christian rock is a perennial top seller, Cartman decides that his band, which he has christened Faith + 1, will join the Christian music racket. Cartman builds the band's repertoire by simply taking vague generic pop love ballads and changing references like "baby" to "Jesus". While effective, the band eventually comes under some scrutiny when one of the songs involves more passionate and sexual lyrics involving Christ. Cartman manages to manipulate his way out and the band begins to build a huge following.

Before long, Faith + 1 celebrates the sale of its millionth album. By this time, Stan, Kyle and Kenny decide that the satisfaction of having fans should be more important to musicians than fighting against the fans who make them popular and go to see their concerts. They decide that touring still brings in revenue and call off their strike. However, the other musicians do not follow suit, because, according to Britney Spears, "[they are] just about the money."

Cartman has spent all the money made from their album on a lavish, extravagant awards ceremony to celebrate Faith + 1's success, and specifically to insult Kyle for losing the bet to Cartman. However, Cartman's jubilation is short-lived. As it turns out, Cartman is told that Christian record companies only hand out gold, frankincense and myrrh records, so Faith + 1, as Christian artists, will never have a platinum album (which is not true in real life), meaning that Kyle technically did not lose the bet and never will. Cartman, enraged at this turn of events, destroys the band's myrrh album award, screaming "Goddammit!" and "Fuck Jesus!" This blasphemy causes the horrified fans to scream and flee.

When Tolkien angrily confronts Cartman for spending every penny of their take, driving away their fans and ending the career of the band, Cartman continues to rant and insults him by calling him a "black asshole". In response, Tolkien assaults Cartman on the stage before walking away. Conceding that Cartman got what he deserved, Stan, Kenny and Kyle also leave. As Cartman lies moaning in pain on the stage, Butters approaches him meekly. Butters then farts in Cartman's face, gives him the finger, and says "Fuck you, Eric," before walking away himself, leaving Cartman all alone to recover from his pain and humiliation.

The OVA starts with a man being shot in a jungle-like scenery. It is later revealed that the person is Yamanobe, the vice-president of a company who sent him to South America, where he was killed by local guerrillas. The company he works for is the main center of the story and it is where all other major characters work. The main character, , is apparently an everyman, known as a silent guy by his workmates. However, in secret, he is the Judge of Darkness, punishing living criminals that were not found guilty by human laws.

Two of Oma's workmates, Ryuichi Murakami and Koji Kawamata, are embezzling money from the company. To do it, Murakami seduced Yamamoto, a woman who works in the company accounting department. When an investigation about the case starts and a rumor that Yamamoto is the culprit starts to be spread, Yamamato is found hung in a rope. The police consider it as a suicide, but Oma, as the Judge of the Darkness, appears before Murakami and charges him for Yamamoto's murder.

After killing Murakami, Oma starts to chase Kawamata, and he first makes a call simulating Yamanobe's voice. Soon after, a mysterious man, who proclaims himself to be a lawyer, appears before Kawamata. The man says Kawamata will need his help and puts a seal on Kawamata's hand right before Kawamata dispenses his aid. However, when Kawamata is caught in an Oma's trap and the seal saves him, he goes to contact the "Metaphysical Lawyer". The lawyer explains the dead can have a grudge against the living people. To resolve this problem, he goes with Kawamata to the mountains, where the lawyer fights with Oma and defeats the Judge of Darkness.

However, through his girlfriend, Nanase, Oma evokes the "Hag of the Styx" to summon the Court of Ten Kings—the ultimate court of the hell. Although Oma cannot prove Kawamata to be the culprit even by calling Yamanobe's soul, the guilty Kawamata ends up stumbling on Enma's mirror. The artifact reveals Kawamata had a secret discretionary fund in South America that controlled the guerillas who killed Yamanobe. Kawamata is ultimately strangled by his own reflection in the hell and is found dead in his office by Nanase.

Steve "Jetlad" Traynor is aboard a train going directly to Neopolis, a new city created in America that will house all the science heroes, scientists, magicians, vampires and any other 'special' person throughout the United States and even parts of the world. On the train, he happens to cross paths with the Skywitch, Leni Muller. The Skywitch and Jetlad were enemies in the beginning of the war, before Leni defected to the Allied Power after learning how evil the Nazi regime truly was. On the same train car they meet a Hungarian man, who is also a vampire, covered in head to toe to save himself from the sun's light. Jetlad and Skywitch reminisce about their past and discuss their future in Neopolis. They share a cab to City Hall where they register and join an assembly to hear from the mayor, John Q. Public. The mayor explains to all the new citizens that the city of Neopolis is a new, social experiment full of the specials of the world, making them paradoxically normal in the city, and to make certain that they do not become vigilantes. After the assembly, Jetlad and Skywitch find a boarding home run by a Betty Doesgood, one of the first citizens of Neopolis. She explains to Steve and Leni that the first citizens of Neopolis were not science heroes but public characters, like Betty Doesgood who ran an advice column. Leni and Steve soon decide to visit a nearby bar to learn their surroundings and for Leni to inquire about a singing job. While in the bar, Leni and Steve meet the members of the Skysharks, a group of international pilots that fought against the Axis Power in World War II. Some of the Skysharks are impressed that Steve Traynor was Jetlad at such a young age. They all sit together and the Skysharks offer Steve Traynor a job at their hangar as a mechanic, which he readily accepts. Soon a pair of vampires enters the bar, demanding that the owner pay some protection money. Jetlad and the Skysharks get up to help the owner and suddenly three police officers, The Maid, Rocket Ryan and Steelgauntlet, enter the bar. The Maid, with her powers being divine, scare the vampires out of the bar, but not before they warn that they will be back. The Skywitch is inspired by the police officers, particularly by the Maid, and asks her if there are any positions available as a police officer. Skywitch is given information on how to reach the city's precinct and is told to apply the next day.

Jetlad works at the Skyshark's hangar as a mechanic and starts a friendship in particular with Wulf. Their conversation sometimes leads to awkward lapses and Jetlad finds himself lying, saying that Leni Muller is his girlfriend. In the hangar's canteen, Sharkey speaks to Jetlad and Wulf, informing them that the mayor of Neopolis may consider shifting power from the police and giving it to the military, to units like the Skysharks. The city of Neopolis is overrun with crime from the vampires and the robot population and Sharkey feels that the military could do a much better job than any police officer. Meanwhile, the Skywitch begins her first day as a police officer in Neopolis. She meets her captain, Doctor Omega, who has Steelgauntlet introduce her to her fellow police officers, including Sea-Knight and Major Lilliput. He then introduces her to her new partner, Black Rider. They go on patrol and shortly stop an act of vigilantism. The pair are then called to the Institute of Science, where pardoned, former Nazi scientists and science heroes work to make Neopolis as advanced as possible through architecture and other ideas. When they arrive at the institute, they find the body of Herr Panzer, a scientific advisor, on the floor, an apparent victim of murder. Black Rider opens Herr Panzer's helmet to find his skeleton covered in ash. They recruit the assistance of Major Lilliput to bring Herr Panzer's body to the station to be investigated further. The Skywitch tries to interview the Nazi scientists and advisors, but none are forthcoming with motives or any other information. That night, Jetlad and Wulf arrive at the bar near Betty Doesgood's boarding home and find the Skywitch nearby. Still feeling awkward over some of the exchanges he has had with Wulf during the day, Jetlad becomes very forward with Leni, even kissing her in front of Wulf. Leni is very surprised to find Jetlad this way and they both go back to the boarding room, leaving behind a grim Wulf, where they attempt to be intimate, but Jetlad is unable to go very far. That night the vampires that tried to racketeer money from the bar owners arrive back and kill the owner and his wife.

The next morning, things become very awkward between the Skywitch and Jetlad. The Skywitch goes to work where she becomes part of a contingency of officers that are raiding a vampire brothel. The Maid, whose divine powers are the most effective against the undead, is part of the group, as well as Black Rider and Steelgauntlet. They are able to raid the brothel, with the Maid and Skywitch having to kill one male vampire, Miroslav, who runs the prostitution operation. They also arrest a client in the brothel, someone named Junior Q. Public, the mayor's nephew. Meanwhile, Jetlad and Wulf speak to each other at the Skyshark's hangar and they have a talk. Wulf reveals to Jetlad that he is a homosexual and is attracted to him, but that he won't play any immature games. Wulf leaves Jetlad to ponder that information. Meanwhile, the Skywitch and her fellow officers report back to their captain, Doctor Omega, who realizes that the news of the mayor's nephew being arrested may cause John Q. Public to give up on the police department and simply use the military to bring order to Neopolis. Doctor Omega also realizes that the vampire fraternity of crime will retaliate after the events of the brothel raid. After the meeting with the captain, the Skywitch is told that Drang, one of the Nazis who was pardoned and works at the institute, has come to the precinct to speak to her. They go from the precinct to the institute, where Drang explains to the Skywitch that she had an affair with Herr Panzer, cheating on her perceived husband, Sturm. She also explains that Sturm was her brother and the Nazi regime forced them into their relationship, to bring forth a master race through their genetics. Drang disliked the idea and fell for Herr Panzer. Herr Panzer, before being killed, had informed Drang that the Iron Mask and Professor Gromolko were undertaking a secret project called the Janons. Gromolko and Iron Mask told everyone that the Janons project was meant to create energy but it was actually a time machine. Their plan was to go into the past and to alter events so that the Nazi regime could win the war. The Skywitch and Black Rider immediately rush to stop the two Nazis and finds that Professor Gromolko has already entered the machine. The Skywitch follows him immediately while the Black Rider holds Iron Mask. The Skywitch is able to stop Professor Gromolko before he could cause any damage with the time stream and brings him back to the present time, even though he and Iron Mask are able to escape. Doctor Omega informs Skywitch and Black Rider how proud he is of them for stopping any damage that Gromolko could have done. Doctor Omega then speaks to Steelgauntlet, telling him that he's heard of a tip that Miroslav's replacement to run the brothel will be getting into town from the train station at a specific time. Steelgauntlet expresses his concern that this may be a trap and Doctor Omega agrees, but cannot allow this opportunity to be squandered, especially with the bad attention they are receiving from the mayor. Meanwhile, Jetlad comes to terms with himself and tells Wulf that he is ready to further their friendship. They both leave the hangar and Sharkey, the Skyshark's leader, stays behind plotting a bomb run for Neopolis, not wanting to wait for the mayor's official sanction in taking care of the crime in the city.

The police officers of Precinct 10 make plans to scope out the train station so they can arrest the incoming vampire meant to run some of their illegal operations in Neopolis. The Maid informs her fellow officers that she will not be available for the bust that night, much to everyone's dismay. The Maid's divine powers make her the most effective against the vampires. This conversation is overheard by a vampire seer, who informs the vampire's leaders that the trap is set and the ambush against the police officers will eradicate them once and for all, especially with the Maid not being there. As the officers leave the Precinct to go to the train station, the Skywitch is approached by Jetlad, who apologizes for his advances. He tells Leni that he is gay and is with Wulf, and hopes that they can remain friends. The Skywitch has too much on her mind and leaves, saying that maybe they could talk later. The police officers are in the train station, awaiting the vampire intended to run some of their illegal operations, when they are ambushed by a plethora of vampires from the city. The press had been informed of the night's bust, so they broadcast the events to all of Neopolis. While the vampires descend on the police, Jetlad rushes to the hangar to grab his plane, Black Beauty, and help Leni and her fellow officers. At the hangar, he finds Wulf on the ground, shot. Wulf explains to Jetlad that he found out that Sharkey and Lars have taken their planes and went to bomb the robot section of town, then the train station, then other crime-riddled areas of town to stop the crime once and for all. Jetlad realizes he has to stop Sharkey and Lars before it's too late and rushes to the sky to stop them. Meanwhile, Doctor Omega plays out his actual plan and informs his fellow officers to use the fire hoses in the station and hit the vampires with the water. He informs them that the Maid went to the city's reservoir to bless the water, effectively making it holy water. They are able to defeat a vast amount of the vampires that very night. The Skywitch is told to go outside to find any lingering vampires when she sees the bomb blasts of Sharkey and Lars. She rushes to the sky on her broomstick while Jetlad is able to take down Lars. Sharkey makes moves to take out Jetlad but the Skywitch arrives in time to save his life, taking Sharkey out at the same time. In the air, the Skywitch and Jetlad make their peace and rebuild their friendship. The next day Jetlad visits Wulf in the hospital. They decide to give their relationship a try and wonder how where life in Neopolis will lead them.

Category:2005 comics debuts Category:America's Best Comics titles Category:Comics by Alan Moore Category:DC Comics graphic novels Category:Eisner Award winners for Best Graphic Album: New Category:Fiction set in 1949

In Ireland, Jerry Kelly (George Murphy) marries his sweetheart Nellie Noonan (Judy Garland) over the objections of her ne'er-do-well father Michael Noonan (Charles Winninger), who swears never to speak to Jerry again, even though he reluctantly accompanies the newlyweds to the U.S., where Jerry becomes a policeman, and all three become citizens. Michael continues to hold his grudge against Jerry, even when Nellie dies shortly after giving birth to her daughter, also named Nellie.

Years later, Jerry is now a captain on the police force, and little Nellie (also played by Judy Garland) has grown up as the spitting image of her mother. Michael dotes on his granddaughter but is embarrassed when she sings in public at the police department parade (It's a Great Day for the Irish). He uses a supposed weak heart, for which he takes a tot of whiskey from a medicine bottle, to get his way with little Nellie and to avoid work. When Nellie becomes enamored of Dennis Fogarty (Douglas McPhail), the son of Michael's old friend Timothy Fogarty (Arthur Shields), the conflict in the home intensifies. Jerry is happy for her, but Michael objects to the romance, and when Nellie, encouraged by her father, finally stands up to him, he leaves home.

Eventually, the three generations are reconciled, and Nellie and Dennis remain a couple.

''Family Album'' tells the story of Faye Price (later Thayer), since World War II to her death in present day. It relates her professional life as an actress in Hollywood's golden era to finally becoming one of the first female directors in Hollywood. But more important to her is her family life, from her marriage, the birth of her children, separations and reconciliations with her husband, the struggles to raise her children, and the problems they go through once grown up until, in the end, they come through stronger from the ordeal.

Andy is an extremely compulsive Mahjong player. Thrown out of the house by his mother and ignored by his more academically gifted and successful younger brother, Louis, he had a hard time running away from debt collectors. One day he met a woman named Gigi after a run-in with some of the debt collectors' men. Gigi started out as a thief, but because she fell for him and gave him immense luck, Andy gained great success with his extreme good luck in mahjong games and became very rich.

However, he refused to marry Gigi because she, though a nice woman when with him, was a sore loser who threw temper tantrums when on the verge of losing mahjong games. She could not understand that he couldn't stand the way she behaved. As Andy said, her behaviour could be revealed by just playing a game of mahjong where when she lost: She would throw the tables. He promised her that he would marry her if she could play a game of mahjong without such a bad temper. She couldn't and so he couldn't marry her though he loved her.

In the meantime, Andy found his mother who was now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. His brother faced bankruptcy and moved in with Andy, who lived in a bungalow. Not wanting to lose out in finding a job, Louis who had excellent luck in mahjong but zero skill, was conned out of all his money and even his clothes by a skilled, devious mahjong player, Sean (portrayed by Lau Ching-wan). A kind-hearted simpleton, a woman on the con team, (Cherrie) fell for him and decided to mend her ways.

Gigi, who was very disappointed with Andy's refusal to marry her, went with the bad crowd, in the form of the mahjong con men led by Sean. Andy who was cursed by Gigi lost his winning streak and instead found a living as a taxi driver; he moved into public housing. Being ever optimistic, he did not complain. However, not wanting Gigi to fall into the con men's trap, he played a game of mahjong with Sean and lost terribly. Gigi was touched by his actions and went back to him, promising she will return a better woman. Before she left, she gave Andy a blessing and, from there on, Andy's winning streak came back.

Louis, who had created a mahjong computer game with his new girlfriend (Cherrie), received word that there would be a mahjong tournament sponsored by his game. The ever optimistic Andy decided to join the contest which saw him competing against Sean. Before the tournament began, he discovered that Gigi had returned to her old job as a flight attendant and gave him good fortune items from around the world. During the tournament, Andy was able to secure a seat in the final match which included Sean, Sean's father, and a henchman. Andy easily won the match but was confronted by Sean to have a rematch. Andy agreed and the two squared off. Before the match could end, Andy gave the prize to Sean. Sean, surprised, looked at Andy's hand, which was a major breakthrough set. Sean realized all his mistakes and decided to learn from Andy. Andy regained all his money and started a mahjong school by the sea. He eventually married Gigi.

The film begins with Flashman making a patriotic speech to the boys of Rugby School framed by a giant Union Flag, in a scene which appears to be a parody of the opening sequence in the 1970 film ''Patton''. There is a brief flashback to the events of the original ''Flashman'', with the head of Rugby School (Michael Hordern) recounting Flashman's exploits in Afghanistan.

The film then follows the plot of the book, which itself largely derives from ''The Prisoner of Zenda''. Flashman is forced by Otto von Bismarck to impersonate a Danish prince, who is about to marry a German princess (Britt Ekland). Bismarck exacts this retribution partly in revenge for his humiliation at the hands of Flashman in London; Flashman stole Bismarck's mistress Lola Montez, then manoeuvred him into boxing against a professional boxer, John Gully (played by Henry Cooper), at a house party. Bismarck does not wish the Princess to marry a Dane, since this may tilt the balance on the Schleswig-Holstein Question and interfere with his plans for a united Germany.

The Duke de Richleau receives a letter that is a code from his missing friend the young American Rex Van Ryn, who hunted for treasure lost during the Soviet takeover of Russia, but who is now in prison somewhere in that vast country. He shares the letter with another young friend, Simon Aron, who agrees to accompany him to search for their friend.

The focus shifts from the previous protagonist of Morgon of Hed to Raederle of An. Raederle, the titular heir of sea and fire, was promised by her father to the man who won a riddle game with a ghost. In the previous book, this was revealed to be Morgon. As the book opens, Morgon has been missing for a year; with Morgon presumed dead, his power over the land of Hed has passed on to his heir.

Raederle sets out for Erlenstar Mountain, which Morgon was trying to reach when he disappeared. Along the way, she is assisted by Lyra, the Morgul of Herun's heir, and by Morgon's sister. The first half of the book describes their journey north. Along the way, Raederle grows to understand her own significant powers as a descendant of both shapechangers and witches. Her hidden ancestry makes her related to Morgon's enemies. Midway through the story, Reaerle discovers that Morgon is alive, while shapechangers and Ghisteslwchlohm, an ancient and traitorous wizard, pursue him.

Sensing a powerful force pursuing her, Raederle uses her abilities to confound it, thinking she is protecting Morgon; but discovers that the force she thought was Ghisteslwchlohm is Morgon himself, who had stolen much of Ghisteslwchlohm's power during his long captivity, while the helpless man he pursued was Deth, who had betrayed him. Confronted with this, and realizing how he appears, Morgon forsakes his revenge and allows Deth to escape.

The book by Dick King-Smith features the story of Harmony Parker, a 10-year-old girl who wants an animal of her own, but this is not allowed by her parents, who think that animals are dirty. Harmony has a 15-year-old sister, Melody, who spends most of her time looking in a mirror. Harmony's best friend is a toy dog, Rex Ruff Monty.

Harmony believes that animals are more interesting than humans, and so she pictures the people she meets as animals; her father is a sea lion, her mother a Pouter pigeon and her sister a Siamese cat.

She receives a magic 50p coin from her uncle, Ginger, which grants her seven wishes whenever she rubs the side of the coin that Queen Elizabeth II's nose is pointed at.

In 1770, youngster Jonathan Blake overhears two sailors discussing something suspicious in his aunt's ale-house in a Norfolk fishing village. He persuades his more respectable best friend, Horatio Nelson, to sneak aboard the sailors' ship with him. They overhear a plot involving insurance fraud. Jonathan decides to warn the insurers, walking 100 miles to London to Lloyd's Coffee House, where the insurers conduct their business. Mr. Angerstein, the head of one of the syndicates there, listens to him and is saved from a great loss. When asked, Angerstein explains to Jonathan that waiters at Lloyd's are also insurance auctioneers. Instead of a monetary reward, Jonathan asks to work as a waiter.

Many years later, when he is a grown man and Lloyd's has moved and become Lloyd's of London, Jonathan shows Angerstein a system of semaphore telegraph apparatuses he has invented, which can relay messages across the English Channel in five minutes. Around the turn of the century, while gathering news in France disguised as a French priest, he rescues Elizabeth, a secretive young Englishwoman picked up by the French after Napoleon orders the arrest of all English people. On the boat trip back to England, they fall in love. Elizabeth departs before Jonathan learns her full name and residence, but he finds out her address from the driver who transported her. He calls on her uninvited and learns that she is Lady Stacy, married to Lord Everett Stacy, a caddish gambler who has been frequently refused admission to the syndicates at Lloyd's. Insulted at being dismissed by Stacy as a mere "waiter" at Lloyd's, Jonathan vows to make himself so rich and powerful that even the aristocracy will have to pay him respect.The plot is loose with its historical references in this sequence. The order to arrest all Englishmen in France came in early 1803. During their boat escape, Jonathan and Elizabeth exchange references to Nelson's affair with Lady Hamilton in Naples, which began in 1798 but did not become grist for scandal and gossip until 1801. News posts sequences in the coffee house then advance time from December 1799 to May 1803.

Within a few years, Jonathan has his own very successful syndicate, but he has become cynical and hardened. He meets Lord and Lady Stacy again and begins seeing her in secret. Stacy, with heavy gambling losses and hounded by creditors, inveigles Jonathan to give him a share of the profits of his syndicate by insinuating he will expose them. War with France results in disastrous losses in 1805 that threaten to bankrupt Lloyd's.

When the insurers raise their rates, British shipowners refuse to sail unless the old rates are restored. Angerstein proposes that the old rates be restored by persuading the Admiralty to provide armed escorts to the merchant vessels. But Horatio Nelson now commands the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet and Jonathan objects that such a course would halve Nelson's fleet at a time when it needs to keep the French fleet blockaded in Toulon, threatening England's survival. He commits his syndicate to the old rates without escorts, single-handedly keeping British commerce going and Nelson's force intact. Stacy hounds Jonathan for funds, but as the losses mount, the syndicate runs out of money and he refuses. Elizabeth agrees to give her newly inherited fortune to Stacy in return for a divorce. However, the French fleet escapes Nelson's blockade anyway and Jonathan is abandoned by his syndicate members. Elizabeth forsakes her divorce and puts her fortune at Jonathan's disposal over his protests. Soon even this runs out.

Lord Drayton, First Lord the Admiralty and Stacy's uncle, agrees to order half of Nelson's fleet to convoy the merchant ships. Before the order can be sent, Jonathan receives a letter from Nelson thanking him for his sacrifices and urging him "at all costs" to protect his fleet from being divided. Jonathan sends a false message from France reporting a victory by Nelson. Stacy, however, learns that Jonathan was in Calais on the day the message was sent and goes to Angerstein. Angerstein warns him that if he denounces Jonathan, he himself will be ruined because Elizabeth's fortune is tied up in the syndicate as well. Stacy finds Jonathan and Elizabeth in each other's arms and shoots his rival in the back. Jonathan, however, has bought enough time for Nelson to win the Battle of Trafalgar, although Nelson is killed. A recovering Jonathan watches from the window as his friend's funeral procession passes by.

Steven Schoichet is a recently unemployed ne'er-do-well who has difficulty expressing himself. Steven finds he has a knack for ventriloquism. Steven's best friend is Fangora "Fanny" Gurkel, an aspiring punk rock singer who, along with Steven, is just looking for her niche. Eventually, Fanny takes a shine to klezmer music when she learns of an opportunity to get an actual gig. Through his newfound talent, Steven discovers that he is able to overcome his social problems through his dummy and decides to try impressing and winning the heart of Lorena Fanchetti.

Gordon Shumway is a fairly normal teenager living in suburban East Velcro with his parents Bob and Flo, brother Curtis, young sister Augie and their dog Neep on the planet Melmac. He spends time hanging out with his friends Rick and Skip who call him "Gordo", and he has a girlfriend named Rhonda. Sometimes the quartet would report for mandatory duty with the Melmacian Orbit Guard. The show includes an array of quirky supporting characters, which include the fortune-smeller Madame Pokipsi and the villain Larson Petty with his offsider Eggbert.

Sir John "Jack" Falstaff and Justice Shallow walk through the snow, then to a warm fire inside Shallow's home in Gloucestershire, as the two reminisce. The narrator explains that King Henry IV of England has succeeded Richard II, whom he has killed, "some say at the command of the Duke Henry Bolingbroke in Pontrefact castle on February 14, 1400." Richard II's true heir, Edmund Mortimer, is a prisoner in Wales, and Mortimer's cousins Northumberland, Worcester, and Northumberland's son Hotspur demand that Henry rescue Mortimer (from ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act I, Scene 3). The king refuses, and thus Mortimer's cousins, the Percys (Northumberland, his son Henry Percy, called "Hotspur", and Worcester), begin to plot Henry's overthrow.

To Henry's great dissatisfaction, his son Prince Hal spends most of his time at the Boar's Head Tavern, drinking "sack" (wine) and carousing with prostitutes, thieves and other criminals under Falstaff's patriarchal influence. Falstaff insists that he and Hal should think of themselves as gentlemen, but Hal warns Falstaff that he will one day reject both this lifestyle and Falstaff. They plot to steal money the next morning. Prince Hal (Harry) says he will act in a low fashion, then, when he returns to normal, everyone will admire him.

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act II, scene 4: at his residence Hotspur reads a letter from a nobleman refusing to Hotspur's request to help the Percy family in a rebellion against King Henry. To avoid the plot being revealed, he decides to start the revolution without the nobleman's help. Lady Percy enters, deeply worried about her young husband, whose preoccupation with some serious business has made him neglect her and most normal activities. Hotspur will tell her nothing, and she suspects that he faces great danger. He assures her, however, that she will join him at an unidentified destination.

The next morning Hal, Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Poins disguise themselves in Gadshill to prepare to rob a group of traveling pilgrims. After Falstaff, Bardolph, and Peto rob the pilgrims, Hal and Poins jump out in disguises and take the stolen treasure from Falstaff as a joke.

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act I, scene 1: King Henry is jealous of Lord Northumberland's son Hotspur. The king wishes that his son, Harry, could have been switched at birth with Hotspur. He says: "Then the Percy family would have my Harry, and we Plantagenets would have Hotspur!"

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act II, scene 5: Back at the Boar's Head Tavern, Falstaff begins to tell Hal and Poins with increasing exaggeration the story of how the money was stolen from him. Hal and Poins poke holes in Falstaff's tale until they reveal their joke to the entire group. In celebration of the newly recovered stolen treasure, they decide to put on a play. They will pretend to pre-enact Harry's meeting with the king. Falstaff and Hal take turns impersonating Henry with a cooking pot crown and vocal impressions. Falstaff's Henry chastises Hal for spending his time with common criminals, but names Sir John Falstaff as his one virtuous friend. Hal's Henry calls Falstaff a "misleader of youth".

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act III, scene 2: Hal visits the King at the castle and Henry scolds him for his criminal and unethical life-style. Henry warns Hal about Hotspur's growing army and its threat to his crown. Hal passionately vows to his unimpressed father that he will defend Henry and redeem his good name.

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act IV, scene 2: The King's army, including Falstaff, parades through the streets and off to war. A couple of commoners exchange threats. Falstaff meets the Chief Justice and Lord Westmoreland in the street.

From ''Henry IV, Part 1'', Act I, scene 2: Falstaff asks the chief Justice and archbishop of York for money for the battle. Suspicious of how he'll actually spend the money, they refuse. News comes to Hotspur that the Earl of Westmoreland and Prince John are coming with 7000 troops. Hotspur says he is ready for battle and prepared to die.

From ''Henry IV, Part 2'', Act III, Scene 2: Falstaff chooses men for battle. Before the battle, Henry meets with Worcester and offers to forgive all of Hotspur's men for treason if they surrender immediately. Hal vows to personally kill Hotspur. Worcester returns to his camp and lies to Hotspur, telling him that Henry intends to execute all traitors.

The two armies meet in the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403), but Falstaff hides for most of the conflict. After a long and bloody fight, the King's men win the battle, after which Hotspur and Hal meet alone and duel; as Falstaff watches from behind a bush, Hal kills Hotspur. Falstaff says: "Discretion is the better part of valour." Henry sentences Worcester to death and takes his men as prisoners. Falstaff brings Hotspur's body to Henry, claiming that he killed Hotspur; Henry does not believe Falstaff, instead looking disapprovingly at Hal and the ignoble company he keeps. Hal allows Falstaff to have the credit. The king sends Falstaff to join Prince John of Lancaster to go fight Northumberland and the Archbishop, thus separating him from Hal.

The narrator explains that all of Henry IV's rebellious enemies had been killed by 1408, but that Henry's health has begun to deteriorate. At the castle, Henry becomes upset and collapses when told that Hal is once again spending time with Falstaff. Hal visits the castle and discovers that Henry is sicker than he had realized. Hal vows to Henry to be a good and noble king. Henry finally has faith in Hal and advises him on how to be a king. Henry dies and Hal tells his men that he is now King Henry V.

Returning to the first scenes of the film, Falstaff, Shallow and Silence sit in front of a warm fire. They receive news that Henry IV has died and that Hal's coronation will be held that morning. Falstaff becomes ecstatic and goes directly to the castle, thinking that he will become a great and powerful nobleman under King Henry V. At the coronation, Falstaff cannot contain his excitement and interrupts the entire ceremony, announcing himself to Hal. Hal turns his back on Falstaff and proclaims that he is now finished with his former lifestyle. As Falstaff looks up at Hal with a mixture of pride and despair, the new king banishes Falstaff. The procession continues into the castle as Falstaff walks away, stating that he will be sent for that evening. That night, Falstaff dies at the Boar's Head Tavern, and his friends mourn him, saying that he died of a broken heart. The narrator explains that Hal went on to become a good and noble king.

The film is set in feudal Japan during the 18th century, an era known as the Edo period. It depicts the struggles and schemes of Matajuro Unno, a rōnin, or masterless samurai, and his neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser.

The story begins in a slum where poor families perform menial jobs. Shinza, though a hairdresser by trade, actually makes his living by running illicit gambling rooms and pawning his belongings. Unno, who lives with his wife next door, is the son of Matabei Unno, a great samurai. Since his father's death, Unno has struggled to find work and hopes that Mouri, his father's former master, will hire him after reading a letter from his father. Mouri avoids Unno and finds excuses not to read his father's letter. Nevertheless, Unno seeks out Mouri every day and follows him wherever he goes. Mouri tries to get rid of Unno by sending a gang of men to intimidate him and telling his gate guards to keep him out.

Unno's wife waits for news that Mouri has hired Unno, but every day he tells her that "he'll meet Mr. Mouri tomorrow." With her husband out of work, she supports him by making kamifusen (Japanese paper balloons). Unno avoids telling her that Mouri keeps rejecting him and starts drinking to forget his humiliation. Despite his worsening situation, however, he keeps his dignity by not accepting gifts, loans, or favors.

Shinza's story runs in parallel with Unno's, albeit more dramatically. Shinza often gets beaten up by local pawn shop owner Shiroko Ya's gang for money he owes and for secretly organizing gambling games in their territory. Shinza fearlessly disregards their threats, angering the gang and their leader, Genshichi Yatagoro. Shinza loses all of his money when the gang chases him out of a secret gambling den, so he boldly goes to Shiroko's shop to pawn his hairdressing equipment. Upon reaching Shiroko's place unannounced, he finds Shiroko's daughter Okoma and his clerk Chushichi in the midst of a romantic moment. This discovery makes an impression, because Okoma's father and Mouri have already arranged for Okoma to marry the son of a rich old samurai against her will. Chushichi refuses to offer Shinza anything for his hairdressing tools, and Shinza makes up his mind up to avenge himself.

While this is happening, Unno's wife decides to visit her sister's family. Before leaving, she reminds Unno not to drink too much sake, since he had only recently recovered from an illness. He promises her that he will not drink.

When Okoma goes out with Chushichi to a festival, Shinza kidnaps her to punish Yatagoro. After learning that Okoma has not come home, Shiroko sends Yatagoro and his gang to pay Shinza quietly with a ransom to preserve the girl's reputation before the wedding. Shinza convinces his neighbor Unno to hide Okoma in his room when Yatagoro and his men search for her. When Yatagoro offers only a small ransom payment, Shinza refuses and tries to humiliate Yatagoro by telling him to shave his head and apologize for treating him so badly. Furious, Yatagoro leaves and sends one of his men to inform Shiroko that Shinza will not let Okoma go. Shinza's landlord, seeing an opportunity to make some money (because neither Shinza nor the other tenants pay the rent very often), goes to Shiroko and negotiates the release of the girl for ten times more money than Yatagoro had initially offered. Although Shinza insists that he does not really care about the ransom, the landlord forces him to accept his share of the money. When Okoma leaves her hiding place in Unno's room to board a palanquin sent by her father, everyone in the neighborhood feels disappointed to see that Unno had participated in a shameful scheme unworthy of a samurai. When Okoma comes home, Chushichi promises that they will run away together.

Shinza celebrates his victory over Yatagoro and Shiroko by treating all the men from his neighborhood to sake at the local bar. He pressures the hesitant Unno into joining the party. Unno's wife comes back from her sister's just in time to see her husband breaking his promise and heading to the bar. Though unwilling to drink at first, Unno feels so elated after learning that Okoma's kidnapping damaged Mouri's reputation that he happily drinks with Shinza. As Unno's wife approaches her home, she overhears the neighborhood women criticizing Unno for getting involved in the kidnapping. She realizes that her husband has broken not only his promise to her, but also his samurai code of honor, and the neighbors have lost all respect for him. Yatagoro and his men arrive at the bar and summon Shinza to leave the party and walk over to a nearby bridge. Shinza knows that he is no match for Yatagoro in a fight, but accepts his fate calmly and bravely.

Unno comes back home drunk. When confronted by his wife, he lies to her again, promising that he gave the letter to Mouri and that he must now wait for the turmoil of the kidnapping to subside. After he passes out on the floor, she finds his father's letter still in his pocket and finally knows for certain that Mouri has mistreated and insulted her husband all along. As a last resort to save their honor, she takes out a tantō (short sword) and kills her husband and then commits seppuku. The neighbors find their bodies the next day, but suicides happen in the slum so often that they see no meaning in their demise.

The film ends with a little boy running to tell the landlord about the deaths and dropping a kamifusen into a drainage gutter full of running water. Floating in the current, the paper balloon recedes into the distance.

''Jungle Strike'' features two antagonists: Ibn Kilbaba, the son of ''Desert Strike's'' antagonist, and Carlos Ortega, a notorious South American drug lord. The opening sequence depicts the two men observing a nuclear explosion on a deserted island, while discussing the delivery of "nuclear resources" and an attack on Washington D.C.; Kilbaba seeks revenge for his father's death at the hands of the US, while Ortega wishes to "teach the Yankees to stay out of my drug trade".

The player takes control of a "lone special forces" pilot. The game's first level depicts the protagonist repelling terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., including the President's limousine. Subsequent levels depict counter-attacks on the drug lord's forces, progressing towards his "jungle fortress". In the game's penultimate level, the player pursues Kilbaba and Ortega to their respective hideouts before capturing them.

The final level takes place in Washington, D.C. again, where the two antagonists attempt to flee after escaping from prison. The player must destroy both Kilbaba and Ortega and stop four trucks carrying nuclear bombs from blowing up the White House. The PC version also extends the storyline with an extra level set in Alaska, in which the player must wipe out the remainder of Ortega's forces under the command of a Russian defector named Ptofski, who has taken control of oil tankers and is threatening to destroy the ecosystem with crude oil if his demands are not met. Once all levels are complete, the ending sequence begins and depicts the protagonist and his co-pilot in an open-topped car in front of cheering crowds.

Nine-year-old orphaned Oliver Twist is taken to the workhouse by the beadle Mr. Bumble. After daring to ask for more food, Oliver is sold as an apprentice to Mr. Sowerberry, a local undertaker but runs away following harsh treatment.

Oliver travels a seven day journey to London where he befriends a young boy named Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger who takes him to join a gang of pickpockets led by the villianous Fagin. He also become acquainted with Nancy, a former pupil of Fagin's who is in love with Fagin's associate, Bill Sikes. Dodger and his friend Charley Bates take Oliver out to teach him to pick pockets - it ends in disaster when Oliver is falsely arrested for stealing from Mr. Brownlow. However, Mr. Brownlow decides to take Oliver in and care for him when he learns of the boy's innocence.

Fagin and Sikes become worried that Oliver will bring down the authorities onto them, so force Nancy to help bring Oliver back. Sikes forces Oliver to help him rob Mr. Brownlow's house at gunpoint - Oliver is wounded in a shootout between Sikes and Mr. Brownlow. Sikes and Fagin later decided that Oliver knows too much and will likely 'peach' on them. Sikes suggests that they kill the boy to which Fagin agrees, despite caring for the boy. Nancy overhears this and manages to inform Mr. Brownlow of Fagin's plan, managing to keep Sikes out of it. However, unbeknown to her, Dodger has been sent by Fagin to spy on her and tells Fagin and Sikes, the latter of whom murders her.

Nancy's murder becomes public and the police across the city intend to arrest both Sikes and Fagin, for murder and abduction respectively. Sikes' dog, Bullseye, leads the authorities to the gang's hideout. Sikes uses Oliver as a hostage whilst attempting to escape but accidently hangs himself. Oliver is brought back to live with Mr. Brownlow and goes to visit Fagin in jail. He is sad to see Fagin, who was kind to him, hallucinating and even more devasted to hear that Fagin will be executed for his crimes. The film ends with Oliver and Mr. Brownlow returning home to continue their lives whilst a crowd gather to witness Fagin's hanging.

The story concerns George Caldwell, a school teacher, and his son Peter, outside of Alton (i.e., Reading), Pennsylvania. The novel explores the relationship between the depressive Caldwell and his anxious son, loosely based on John Updike's relationship with his father, Wesley Updike, a teacher at Shillington High School. George has largely given up on life; what glory he knew, as a football player and soldier in World War I, has passed. He feels put upon by the school's principal, and he views his students as hapless and uninterested in anything he has to teach them. Peter, meanwhile, is a budding aesthete who idolizes Vermeer and dreams of becoming a painter in a big city, like New York. He has no friends his age, and regularly worries that his peers might detect his psoriasis, which stains his skin and flecks his clothes every season but summer. One thing George and Peter share is the desire to get out, to escape their hometown. This masculine desire for escape appears in Updike's famed "Rabbit" novels. Similarly, the novel's image of Peter's mother alone on an untended farm is one we later see in Updike's 1965 novel ''Of the Farm''.

Jack Grimaldi is a homicide detective with the NYPD who seems to have everything; a beautiful wife named Natalie, and an adoring teenage mistress named Sheri. However, his lavish lifestyle is funded through extensive corruption, doing favors for Mafia boss Don Falcone in exchange for large cash bribes. His latest task is to reveal the location of Nick Gazarra, a mobster-turned-state's witness protected by federal agents. Gazarra and his protection detail are subsequently killed by a mob hitwoman, Mona Demarkov. Grimaldi is disaffected by this outcome, being uncomfortable with his complicity in the deaths of other law enforcement personnel.

Mona is arrested and Falcone gives Jack a new assignment, to kill Mona, whom he fears could not only testify against him, but be planning to take over his entire operation. Still reluctant about his double life, Jack is assigned as Mona's minder as she is transported to a safe house to await pick-up by federal agents. Upon arrival, Mona quickly seduces and tries to kill him, but their impromptu tryst is interrupted by the arrival of the agents and Jack leaves her to be detained.

Falcone, disappointed in Jack's ineptitude, orders one of his toes amputated. Realizing he has endangered both his wife and mistress, Jack instructs Natalie to leave the city immediately, giving her all the payoff money he has saved as well as instructions of where to meet him out West when the time is right. Jack ends his affair with Sheri and puts her on a train out of the city. Jack tries to hunt Mona Demarkov but is attracted to her sexually and no match for her professionally. Mona offers to pay Jack to help her fake her own death.

Although he obtains false papers for her, she refuses to pay and attempts to strangle Jack. He shoots and wounds her in the arm, then tries to drive away with her handcuffed in the back seat. Mona escapes by hooking her legs around his neck, causing him to crash the car. She slithers out through the shattered windshield without freeing her hands. Mona lures Jack to an empty apartment. He again attempts to kill her but is tricked into shooting Sheri instead. Mona fixes the corpse so as to suggest that it was she, and not Sheri, who died. Mona has Jack abducted and transported to an abandoned warehouse: she handcuffs him to a bed and they have sex. Later Mona forces Jack to assist in burying Falcone alive.

Mona then betrays Jack by turning him into the police, copping a plea deal that will indict Jack for the multiple murders that she tricked him into committing. The police arrange a confrontation between Jack and Mona Demarkov at the courthouse, as he is heading in and she is heading out. She threatens to kill his wife, prompting Jack to grab a gun from the ankle holster of a fellow officer and shoot her dead. He turns the gun on himself, only to discover that the revolver is empty. Instead of being sent to prison for the murder, he is given a commendation. This frees him to begin a new life in the West, under the identity of "Jim Daugherty". The final scene shows Jack living alone in a remote desert town and working as a bartender. He longs for Natalie's return and laments the loss of his old life.

The story revolves around a perpetual loser and slacker named Richter Boudreau (Eric Stoltz). Richter is from a privileged background in Tulsa, Oklahoma and works as a movie reviewer at a local newspaper only because his sour widowed mother Cynthia (Mary Tyler Moore) pulled strings for him to land the job. He is dissatisfied with the direction that his life has taken; he is about to be fired any day from his job because he can't meet deadlines, he lives in a dilapidated farmhouse, he uses and sells drugs behind the scenes for some extra cash, and he is so irresponsible with life and finances in which he has gotten so far behind on his bills that his electricity has just been cut off which ruins a blind date he has in the opening scene with a neurotic gold-digger named Trudy (Cameron Diaz).

Richter also owes money to Ronnie Stover (James Spader), an abusive drug dealer who he deals with. Ronnie is married to Vicky (Deborah Kara Unger), a beautiful woman who was disowned by her socially prominent family for her involvement with Ronnie. Richter is still in love with Vicky despite having ended their relationship many years before. Vicky is the sister of Keith (Michael Rooker), a misogynistic alcoholic whose large inheritance fails to soothe his anger, loneliness, and depression. Cherry (Joanna Going) is an exotic dancer from Chicago who buys drugs from Ronnie and gets romantically involved with Richter.

Richter learns that Ronnie plans to blackmail Bedford Shaw (Marco Perella), the son of a socially prominent businessman named Harmon Shaw (James Coburn), after Cherry tells Richter that Bedford Shaw murdered her friend, a stripper/prostitute, in a motel room and that she took photographs. Ronnie attempts to involve Richter by having him hold on to a mysterious black pouch and by exploiting Richter's newspaper connections. Richter wants no part of the blackmail scheme. But he gets in over his head when Keith discovers that Richter has been sleeping with Vicky.

''Jalsaghar'' depicts the end days of a decadent zamindar (landlord) in Bengal and his efforts to uphold his family prestige while facing economic adversity. The landlord, Biswambhar Roy (Chhabi Biswas), is a just but otherworldly man who loves to spend time listening to music and putting up spectacles rather than managing his properties ravaged by floods and the government's abolition of the zamindari system after Independence. He is challenged by a commoner who has attained riches through business dealings, in putting up spectacles and organising music fests. This is the tale of a zamindar who has nothing left but respect and sacrifices his family and wealth trying to retain it.

For many generations, the mystical land of Yenching had been inhabited by many animals, mainly cats, hares, frogs, and pandas. Because of a religious code called the Way, these four races had prospered throughout the ages in their own separate towns. But as the years passed, the younger generations began to defect from the Way. Ultimately, with no protective code to guide the races, Yenching was invaded by the Gorillas and the Rats (known as the Din), led by Gorilla Minister Shun and Tak, the Rat Alchemist. Minister Shun now rules the majority of Yenching with an iron fist, and is said to reside in the volcanic mountain of Waa-Lo.

The story now focuses around a figure named Kay. Kay is a hotheaded young cat, and the Master's finest martial arts student. Like many of the people of the races, Kay does not believe in the Way, and likes to focus on physical skills and strength. This is what makes his friend, Su Ling, leave his town in disgust, hoping to find another town that would share her belief in resurrecting the Way. One day, in Kay's martial arts school, Shun's gorillas and the mayor of Kay's town declare that they must shut down the school because new 'Din schools' must soon be erected in the town. Kay is outraged, and even more so when his Master simply agrees to the new terms. And so, making up his mind, Kay sneaks into his Master's house at night (the Master is drunk, and asleep) and steals the mystical blade the Master keeps. Kay then jumps out of the town walls, and makes his way into the wilderness.

Kay's exploits vary from traversing to the Haretree (the secret residence of all the hares of Yenching), befriending a dragon (and almost getting fried in the process), traveling through dangerous swamps in order to reach Frog City (the city of frogs, obviously), and riding on a dragon to get to the Forbidden City (the city of pandas, located on a plateau), all the while defeating hordes of rats, crocodiles, turtles, bears, ladybugs, and gorillas. There, in the Forbidden City, Kay finds his friend Su Ling, who is now a ringleader of the Avalanche, a group of pandas who are dedicated to the revival of the Way, and stopping Shun and the army of Din. After helping them out, the Avalanche begins its voyage to island of Waa-Lo, with Kay in tow. After an arduous voyage, Kay and the Avalanche begin to explore the caves of Waa-Lo, making their way to the center of the volcano. During the expedition, Kay finally catches up with Tak, the rat alchemist. After defeating him, Kay meets Shun in person. The two engage in a fierce duel, with Kay being the victor. Injured, Shun runs to the contraption he and Tak created. The fires of Waa-Lo power up the machine, and begin to fuse Shun and one of his bodyguards into a single, monstrous ape-like entity. With no choice left but to fight, Kay begins to do battle with the monster. As Kay strikes the final blow, Waa-Lo begins to erupt. Luckily, the Avalanche sends a rescue team, via a hot-air balloon.

As Kay, Su Ling, and the Avalanche (all back in the ship) stare across the horizon at the exploding volcano, the merchant (who the pandas have seemingly saved) tries to sell some souvenirs to Kay and Su Ling. With a grin, Kay pulls off the merchant's rice hat to reveal the Master himself. Kay jokes about finally having to ''master'' his abilities by outfoxing his master. Kay, Su Ling, and the Master all then begin to laugh, the ship returning for a free Yenching.

Jean-Pierre (Fiset) is a working class young Francophone with big dreams. He comes under the tutelage of his older best friend, a con-man and bank robber named Dock (Jean-Pierre Cartier), who starts teaching him the secrets of his trades, and making him an accomplice in his crimes. He is dating Dock's virginal sister, who is also active in the Quebec separatist movement.

To make ends meet, Jean-Pierre works a series of menial jobs. While doing clean-up on a commercial shoot, he meets Elizabeth (Sarandon), a beautiful Anglophone model. After he is fired from the shoot for explaining the English meaning of the French name of the product she is supposed to be selling, she starts going out with him out of a sense of guilt, and they soon become lovers. However, she is a sexual libertine with no intention of being monogamous, and this soon strains their relationship.

Eventually, the strain of keeping up with his two girlfriends wears on him and he decides to break up with Elizabeth. However, his clumsy attempts to break up in English (of which he does not have a fluent command) merely results in their spending the night together. He then decides to break up with Dock's sister, who realizing that he is going back to Elizabeth because of their sexual relationship, throws herself at him.

Eventually, Jean-Pierre's criminal activities catch up with him, and everything ends tragically.

From a lost expedition to a plateau in the borders of Peru, Brazil and Colombia, Paula White brings the journal of her father, explorer Maple White, to the eccentric Professor Challenger in London. The journal features sketches of dinosaurs which is enough proof for Challenger to publicly announce that dinosaurs still walk the earth. Met with ridicule at an academic meeting at the Zoological Hall, Challenger reluctantly accepts a newspaper's offer to finance a mission to rescue Maple White. Professor Challenger, Paula White, sportsman Sir John Roxton, news reporter Edward Malone (who is a friend of Roxton and wishes to go on the expedition to impress his fiancée), a skeptical professor Summerlee, an Indian servant Zambo, and Challenger's butler Austin leave for the plateau.

At their campsite at the base of the plateau, the explorers are shocked when a large rock falls, sent their way by an Apeman perched on top of an overhead ledge. As the crew look up to see their attacker, Challenger spies overhead a ''Pteranodon'' (mistakenly calling it a ''Pterodactyl'') eating a pig alive which proves that the statements in Maple White's diary are true. Leaving Zambo and Austin at the camp, they cross a chasm onto the plateau by cutting down a tree and using it as a bridge, but it is knocked over by a ''Brontosaurus'', leaving them trapped.

The explorers witness various life-and-death struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the plateau. An ''Allosaurus'' attacks a ''Trachodon'', and knocks it into a bog. The ''Allosaurus'' then attacks, and is driven off by a ''Triceratops''. Eventually, the ''Allosaurus'' makes its way to the campsite and attacks the exploration party. It is finally driven off by Ed who tosses a torch into its mouth. Convinced that the camp is not safe, Ed climbs a tree to look for a new location, but is attacked by the apeman. Roxton succeeds in shooting the apeman, but the creature is merely wounded and escapes before he can finish him off. Meanwhile, an ''Agathaumas'' is attacked by the ''Allosaurus'', and gores it to death. Suddenly, a ''Tyrannosaurus'' attacks and kills the ''Agathaumas'', along with an unfortunate ''Pteranodon''.

The explorers then make preparations to live on the plateau potentially indefinitely. Challenger designs a catapult to defend the camp. During a search for Maple White, Roxton finds his remains, confirming his death. It is at this time that Ed confesses his love for Paula and the two are unofficially wed by Summerlee who used to be a minister.

Shortly afterwards, as the paleontologists are observing the ''Brontosaurus'', an ''Allosaurus'' attacks it and the ''Brontosaurus'' falls off the edge of the plateau, becoming trapped in a mud bank at the base of the plateau. Soon afterwards, a volcano erupts causing a mass stampede among the giant creatures of the lost world. The crew is saved when Paula's pet monkey Jocko climbs up the plateau carrying a rope. The crew use the rope to pull up a rope ladder constructed by Zambo and Austin and then climb down.

As Ed makes his descent, he is again attacked by the apeman who pulls the rope ladder. The apeman is again shot and finally killed by Roxton. They discover the ''Brontosaurus'' that had been pushed off the plateau had landed softly in the mud of the river, trapped but still alive, and Challenger manages to bring it back to London, as he wants to put it on display as proof of his story.

However, while being unloaded from the ship, the spooked and disoriented animal escapes and causes havoc until it reaches Tower Bridge, where its massive weight causes a collapse, and it swims down the River Thames. Challenger is morose as the creature leaves. Ed discovers that the love he left in London has married in his absence, allowing him and Paula to be together. Roxton morosely but gallantly hides his love for Paula as Paula and Ed leave together, while two passersby note: "That's Sir John Roxton – sportsman."

The first part of the novel, ''The Fabulous Idiot'', narrates the birth of the gestalt. In the beginning, we are introduced to the world of Lone, referred to as the "Idiot", a 25-year-old male with a telepathic ability who lives on the street. He knows he can make people do what he wants them to, but has never experienced real human connection. One day he encounters Evelyn Kew, an innocent woman who has been completely sheltered in an isolated house by her domineering father. She is the first person he has mentally and physically connected with. Evelyn's father finds out about the relationship and kills Evelyn and himself. During this incident Lone barely escapes a beating from the father; bleeding and nearly dead, he is found and then adopted by the Prodds, a poor farming couple, and lives with them for about seven years. When Mrs. Prodd becomes pregnant, the couple are about to ask Lone to leave, but he makes his departure appear to be his own idea. Lone builds a shelter in the forest and is soon joined by three runaway children: Janie, an eight-year-old with a telekinetic gift, and the twins Bonnie and Beanie, who cannot speak but possess the ability to teleport. Lone returns to the farm to find Mrs. Prodd has died after giving birth to a "Mongoloid" baby. Altering Prodd's memories so that he thinks his wife is on a trip and they never had a child, Lone adopts the baby, who has a phenomenal mental capacity and thinks almost like a computer. Together, Lone, Janie, the twins and Baby form what will be later called the ''homo gestalt''. Prodd's old truck is always getting stuck in the mud, and when Lone asks Baby for a solution, Baby helps Lone build an anti-gravity generator. He installs it in Prodd's truck, only to find that Prodd has left for Pennsylvania.

The second part of the novel is ''Baby is Three'', which occurs several years after ''The Fabulous Idiot''. Gerry Thompson, a street urchin who has grown up in abusive institutions, is possibly sociopathic. He consults a psychiatrist, trying to piece his memory back together. Gerry ran away from the institution and was taken in by Lone. They lived in a refurbished cave until they found the abandoned Kew house. Lone was killed in an accident and Gerry subsequently became the leader of the gestalt. Lone had instructed the children to seek out Evelyn's sister, Alicia, after his death. In her urban house they were educated and fed under her care. Soon, however, Gerry learned that domestication and normalization had weakened their gestalt. He killed Alicia, and the group returned to living alone in the woods. If anything, Gerry's telepathic abilities are stronger than Lone's. His amnesia was caused by Alicia's having accidentally transmitted her memories to his mind when they first met, triggered by her strong emotional reaction to hearing the words "Baby is three". He learned about her entire life, including her past relationship with Lone, in a split second. After being helped by the psychiatrist, Gerry erases the man's memory of him.

The third and concluding part of the novel is ''Morality''. Again, it occurs several years after the previous part. Lt. Hip (Hippocrates) Barrows is a gifted engineer who worked for the US Air Force until the incident which led to his incarceration, first in an insane asylum, then in jail. Janie, now an adult, befriends him and helps him regain his health. He slowly remembers what had happened. He discovered some odd effects on an anti-aircraft range. Practice shells fired in a certain area were all duds. Barrows does magnetic tests and finally discovers the anti-gravity machine, still on the rusted-out old truck on the nearby farm. Gerry knows of Hip's investigation and poses as a common soldier assisting Hip. When they find the truck, Gerry launches the anti-grav into space to stop Hip from retrieving it. He then mentally attacks Hip to make him look insane, driving him to a mental breakdown and amnesia. Gerry does this because Baby has told him that if the anti-grav was discovered, it would lead either to a terrible war or to the complete collapse of the world economy. Aided by Janie, Hip regains his memory, and they go to the isolated Kew house where the gestalt is now living again. Gerry attempts to attempt to attack Hip again. Instead, he finds Hip prepared for this moment, imagining in his mind a code of morality. This prompts Hip to merge as the last part of the gestalt, its conscience. As a result of this completion, the gestalt is telepathically greeted by, and welcomed into, the pre-existing community of other gestalts around the world. At the conclusion Gerry:

He saw himself as an atom and his gestalt as a molecule. He saw these others as a cell among cells, and he saw in the whole the design of what, with joy, humanity would become.

He felt a rising, choking sense of worship, and recognized it for what it has always been for mankind ― self-respect.

In December 1976, financially desperate NASA engineer Arthur Lewis and his wife Norma find a package on their doorstep, containing a wooden box with a large red button. The mysterious and disfigured Mr. Steward arrives to deliver the key to unlock the button, and tells Norma that if the button is pushed, she will receive $1 million in cash, but someone she does not know will die. He gives her $100 for allowing him to enter the house and voice his deal, and leaves.

Norma and Arthur argue over Steward's offer, complicated by the news that their son Walter's private school, where Norma teaches, will no longer provide a discount for his tuition. They open the box to discover it is 'just a bunch of wood', and Arthur chastises Norma for her fear, but no decision is made before they go to sleep.

They discuss the matter further in the morning, and after work, Arthur reveals that the hundred dollar bill is real. After further discussion, Norma impulsively pushes the button, whispering 'It's just a box'. It is revealed that someone is shot, and the gunman ran from the scene with a briefcase. Mr. Steward arrives and presents Arthur and Norma with the $1 million, assuring them that someone did indeed die as a result of their actions, and that the same offer will be presented to someone else they do not know. Arthur attempts to return the money, but Steward declines, stating that he can do nothing because "the button has been pressed".

The police treat the murder as a domestic homicide, and it is discovered that the husband of the woman who was shot is a colleague of Arthur's. NASA chief Martin Teague and Norm Cahill, Arthur's boss, discuss Cahill's missing colleague, Arlington Steward. The chief tells Cahill that Steward became "something else" after being killed by lightning, shortly after NASA received the first photograph transmitted by the Viking 1 Mars lander in July 1976.

Arthur and Norma become plagued by seemingly supernatural happenings, and are visited by others who fell victim to the box, pressing the button and suffering the same fate as the Lewis family. It is revealed that Arlington has been collaborating with a group of benefactors, using the box to decide whether the human race is worth preserving.

After several paranormal incursions, Arlington returns to the Lewis home and informs them that Walter, earlier kidnapped by unknown assailants, is locked in the family's bathroom upstairs and has been stricken blind and deaf. Arlington laments that he had hoped the family would not succumb to the temptation of the money, and delivers a final ultimatum: They may keep the money and live out their lives with their disabled son, or Arthur can kill Norma, thereby restoring Walter's sight and hearing, with the million dollars placed in a high-interest account available to him when he turns 18. Norma asks Arlington if killing herself could be done instead, but Arlington tells her that it is non-negotiable. Arthur contemplates killing Arlington as he points a gun toward the back of his head, but Arlington then warns him he will be charged with the murder, his son's condition will remain, and the family will be left with nothing. Arlington departs, and Arthur realizes the choice to push the button has placed the family in purgatory. Norma, wanting her son to live his life without disability, asks Arthur to kill her, and after a long goodbye, he reluctantly agrees but cannot bring himself to pull the trigger.

Another couple is offered the same box. They also decide to press the button; at the same time, Arthur shoots Norma while embracing her, and Walter is healed from his condition. It is implied that this mysterious offer will continue among other couples in the future.

Out in space on a desolate planet, the shape-shifting bounty hunters Ug and Lee and their human companion Charlie McFadden search for a vicious, worm-like creature. After killing the beast, they depart the planet. Soon afterwards, they receive a new assignment by Zanti, head of the High Council. He tells them that Critters are still on Earth and must be destroyed. With that, they set a course for Earth. Noticing Charlie brooding, Ug enquires what is wrong. Charlie states his reluctance to going back after two years and asks, concerned, whether they would leave him there. Ug assures him they have no such intentions.

Back on Earth, Brad Brown, now 15, is visiting his grandmother in Grover's Bend, and word gets around the town fast, implying he became well known after the events of the first film. Shortly after the bounty hunters arrive, the Critters attack a man dressed as an Easter Bunny, killing him. No one is aware that it was the Critters who attacked him, as his death is attributed to a farming accident. Eventually the Critters make themselves known when they begin terrorizing the town, growing in large numbers. Lee is killed and devoured by the Critters, causing Ug to slip into a deep depression and revert to his alien form.

The remaining people of the town devise a plan. With Ug polymorphed into a Critter, they lead the Critters to a burger factory in an attempt to blow them up, but that fails and The Critters re-emerge, joined together into a large ball, and begin heading to the church. Just before they reach it, Charlie flies directly into them with Ug's spaceship, successfully destroying the Critters and seemingly sacrificing himself. Ug subsequently takes on Charlie's facial features in honor of his bravery. The next day, as Brad departs, it is revealed that Charlie survived by using a parachute. He stays on Earth, becoming sheriff of the town. Ug departs in a new spacecraft, still wearing the guise of Charlie.

Sometime after the events in ''Critters 2: The Main Course'', Charlie MacFadden is tracking down the last of the Critters. A family of three – Annie (the main protagonist), Johnny (her little brother) and Clifford (the father) – stops at a rest stop when their car's tire pops. At the rest stop, Charlie warns them and Josh, stepson of a corrupt landlord, about the Critters. As this happens, a Critter lays eggs under the family's car and the family leaves, unknowingly taking the eggs with them. Soon after they arrive at their tenement, the Critters hatch and attack the sleazy maintenance man, Frank. When the landlord arrives, he too is eaten by the Critters after Josh locks him in Clifford's room, unknowingly trapping his stepfather with the creatures. Next, one of the residents is attacked and wounded. Annie, her family and five others (including Josh) try to get to safety in one piece by getting to the roof of the building. Charlie arrives and destroys the remaining Critters, saving the remaining tenants. The film ends in a cliffhanger as Charlie is about to destroy two Critter eggs, but is ordered not to and a containment pod sent from the Intergalactic Council crashes into the basement.

The film begins where the previous film left off, as Charlie McFadden (Don Keith Opper) still in his role as an alien bounty hunter, is about to destroy two Critter eggs. He is suddenly stopped by a hologram message from his alien friend Ug (Terrence Mann), who tells him the eggs are the last two Critters in existence and that it is against an intergalactic law to cause their extinction. Charlie protests that the Critters are too dangerous to keep alive, but he obeys Ug's orders to place the eggs in a preservation capsule that suddenly falls from the sky. As Charlie puts the eggs in the pod, the hatch closes on him and he is launched into space.

Over a half-century later, in 2045, the crew of the salvage ship RSS ''Tesla'' finds the pod in deep space and bring it aboard. The ship is crewed by the shady and lecherous Captain Rick Buttram (Anders Hove); along with his eccentric engineer Al "Albert" Bert (Brad Dourif); pilot Fran (Angela Bassett); cargo specialist Bernie (Eric Da Re); and young engineer apprentice Ethan (Paul Whitthorne), who anxiously anticipates seeing his father back on Earth. While Rick and Bernie bully Ethan, Fran and Albert show him more appreciation.

After examining the pod, Ethan discovers the emblem of the old Intergalactic Council on the side and questions the legality of claiming it for salvage. After reporting their find, the ship gets a communication from Councilor Tetra (Terrence Mann), of TerraCor, who offers Rick three times the going rate if he brings the pod to a nearby station. Fran, Bernie and Albert encourage Rick to accept the deal, but Ethan disputes going off course as it will delay his trip home.

Eventually, the crew decides to go to the station, but find the facility abandoned and barely kept running by a malfunctioning central computer named "Angela" that will not obey orders unless given the exact opposite instruction. Matters are more problematic when Albert learns the reactor is leaking radiation although he does not anticipate it becoming critical for a month or so. Rick has bigger plans and secretly decides to rip off the others and take the contents of the pod for himself.

Eventually, Ethan stumbles upon Rick tampering with the pod, and Rick offers to cut him into his scheme saying his plan will get them back to Earth sooner. When Ethan refuses to abandon the others, Rick knocks him unconscious with a fire extinguisher. Rick manages to open the pod and encounters an excited Charlie who quickly jumps out. Infuriated, Rick refuses to believe Charlie is the only thing in the pod and crawls inside for himself. There, he discovers the freshly hatched baby Critters who quickly attack and kill him.

Charlie tries to shoot the Critters with Rick's gun but the critters manage to run off. He then revives Ethan and goes off to pursue the Critters with the confused boy in tow. Eventually, they meet up with the rest of the crew and Charlie explains who he is and how he came to be in the pod. While the crew contemplates his wild story, Bernie departs refusing to believe that "man-eating furballs" are running loose on the station.

Ethan then uses a computer keycard he earlier found outside a research lab to access a report made by Dr. McCormick (Anne Ramsay), who reveals that she was conducting research on various alien organisms for use as a bioweapon. Her creations however could not reproduce on their own and she requested finding a suitable organism capable of rapid reproduction. After realizing what has been going on aboard the station, Albert strongly suggests they all leave it immediately.

Meanwhile, Bernie sneaks into the station's pharmacy to steal drugs. The Critters sneak up on him and he becomes their next meal. After the others find his remains, Angela announces that the reactor will go critical within hours and starts sealing off sections of the station. Albert realizes the reactor was in far worse shape than he originally thought. The crew are then forced to crawl through tight service tunnels to reach their ship, during which they find a clutch of freshly laid Critter eggs and learn the Critters are breeding.

Unknown to the crew, the Critters have made their way to the ''Tesla'' and program the ship to head for the nearest inhabited planet – Earth. One Critter tells the other to "get the kids" while it preps the ship for take-off. Once the crew arrive, Albert hands Charlie the only weapon he has; an antique Colt revolver. Charlie wastes no time using it when they encounter the Critters on the ship, but his shots not only kill the Critters, but destroys the flight controls leaving the ship dead in the water.

While the crew attempt repairs, Ethan takes the gun to hunt down the last Critter himself. He finds the creature in the science lab using the equipment there to rapidly grow several baby Critters to full size. He then runs back to the ship to warn the others just as a Terracor ship carrying Tetra and his troopers arrives.

The surviving crew rush to meet Tetra, but finds the troopers pointing their weapons at them. Tetra demands the Critter eggs but Albert refuses to be threatened. Ethan arrives just as Tetra shoots and kills Albert. Tetra then knocks Fran to the deck while Charlie stands confounded that his old alien friend Ug has turned selfishly evil. Ug says "things change" and then orders his troops to go find the eggs.

Still unnoticed, Ethan runs back to the science lab and sets up a trap for Tetra's troopers. When they arrive he seals them inside with the pack of hungry critters. He then retrieves the Critter eggs from the tunnel and brings them back to Tetra while juggling them carelessly in the air. To Tetra's astonishment, Ethan purposely drops and breaks two of the eggs leaving one left. After Tetra threatens to kill Fran, Ethan tosses the last egg to distract him. Fran then notices the revolver hidden in Ethan's waistband and quickly strikes Tetra in the head with it, knocking him out.

Charlie and Fran then rush aboard Tetra's ship to prepare for take-off, but Ethan lingers to mourn over Albert's body. Suddenly, the last Critter appears and attacks him, but Ethan manages to flash freeze the Critter with a fuel hose. As Ethan recovers he finds Tetra pointing a gun at him. Charlie returns and points the revolver at Tetra who doubts that Charlie even has the guts to pull the trigger. Charlie utters, "Things change, Ug", and shoots Tetra in the head.

Angela then warns that the reactor will go critical in a matter of moments and the survivors rush aboard Tetra's ship to escape. As Angela counts down to detonation, the station suddenly explodes a few seconds early leaving Ethan to laugh at how stupid the computer was, and that it could not even correctly tell time.

With the critters now extinct, Charlie, Fran and Ethan depart on their continuing voyage to Earth and Charlie contemplates on how the future will look bright for him.

Kang Tae-young (Kim Jung-eun) is the daughter of a film director and carrying on her father's wishes, she studies film in Paris. To make ends meet, she works as a housekeeper for Han Ki-joo (Park Shin-yang), which she loves because she can watch his movies and drink his wine.

Unhappy with her services, he fires her. However, when he realizes that she is from the same hometown as the wife of a potential business partner, he hires her to act as his fiancée to warm up to his business partner. She agrees in exchange for getting her housekeeping job back. During the two dates that he takes her out, she is smitten by the fairy tale quality of the event. In turn he finds himself unexpectedly captivated by her. However, the fake girlfriend plan backfires, and they part ways on bad terms in Paris. Through a series of events she also meets Yoon Soo-hyuk (Lee Dong-gun), who is Ki-joo's nephew.

Recalled by his father, Ki-joo returns to Korea, and Tae-young also returns to attend her father's death anniversary. Both are reunited coincidentally in Seoul and have their misunderstandings resolved. She prepares to return to Paris, but discovers her uncle has squandered away her family house and run away, leaving her with her young cousin and the debts he has incurred.

While trying to sort out her family problems and retrieve her father's camera that was confiscated by the creditors, she meets Ki-joo again. Through multiple coincidental encounters, he finds himself attracted to her. Soo-hyuk also returns to Korea to track Tae-young down. He stays at her place and tries to win her heart. But he is devastated when he realizes that his uncle is also vying for her affections.

The situation is further complicated with the introduction of Moon Yoon-ah, the daughter of an influential politician whom Ki-joo's father has selected to become Ki-joo's wife. She also happens to be Tae-young's classmate in high school and is determined to win Ki-joo as her husband.

As Ki-joo and Tae-young open their hearts to each other, a scheming Yoon-ah and an emotionally wounded Soo-hyuk plot to split them up. Matters are further complicated when a long-held family secret is revealed: Soo-hyuk's mother Ki-hye is in fact Ki-joo's mother and not his older sister. Ki-hye had been in love with Ki-joo's father, but due to the difference in their wealth and status, the young couple was forced to separate by her father. She gave birth to Ki-joo out of wedlock, and to save face, the Han family raised Ki-joo as Ki-hye's younger brother. Then Ki-hye was married off to a rich man she didn't love, Soo-hyuk's father. Ki-joo reels from the revelation, and must deal with the lie at the center of his identity. Soo-hyuk also realizes that the closeness between his emotionally distant mother and Ki-joo was not that of siblings', but because Ki-joo was Ki-hye's more favored son. His bitterness grows that the two most important women in his life, his mother and Tae-young, have always chosen Ki-joo over him.

Meanwhile, Park Young-ji, an executive at GD Motors who wants to bring down Ki-joo, takes advantage of Soo-hyuk's feelings of envy and rivalry. He schemes with Soo-hyuk to leak the latest car design to the rival of GD Motors. The new car is announced and GD Motors is petrified because their latest design had been stolen. Later, Ki-joo figures out that Soo-hyuk was the culprit, but forgives him. The fact that Ki-joo forgave him so easily drives Soo-hyuk crazy. After getting into a car accident while blazing through the streets, he gets amnesia and loses his recent memories. (However, he was only pretending he had amnesia, as a final selfless act so that Tae-young and Ki-joo can be together guilt-free.) Yoon-ah also decides to let go of Ki-joo and throws her engagement ring into the Han River.

Ki-joo and Tae-young can finally be together. Unfortunately because of his family's disapproval of her, they decide to separate temporarily. She goes back to Paris and he stays in Korea. After two years, the new car is announced and is a success. Ki-joo immediately catches a flight to Paris. For some time, they do not know where the other is and keep missing each other.

Then one day, just like in the beginning of the story, Ki-joo throws a coin into a fountain and makes a wish to see Tae-young again. As he turns, he sees her standing there. The next scene shows them sitting by a river. Tae-young breaks the silence and asks, "If we had not met in Paris, do you think we would still have ended up together?" Ki-joo answers, "Most likely we would have."

In 1989, Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, whose father served in the earlier Vietnam War (1961-1975), attends United States Marine Corps recruit training before being stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. Claiming that he joined the military because he "got lost on the way to college", Swofford finds his time at Camp Pendleton difficult, and struggles to make friends. While Swofford feigns illness to avoid his responsibilities, a "lifer", Staff Sergeant Sykes, takes note of his potential and offers Swofford an opportunity to attend his Scout Sniper course.

After gruelling training, the Scout Sniper course is left with eight candidates, among them Swofford, now a sniper, and Swofford's roommate Corporal Alan Troy who becomes his spotter. When Kuwait is invaded by Iraq, Swofford's unit is deployed to the Arabian Peninsula as a part of "Operation Desert Shield" in the Gulf War (1990–1991). Eager for combat, the Marines find themselves bored with remedial training, constant drills, and a routine monotony that feeds their boredom, and prompts them to talk about the unfaithful girlfriends and wives waiting for them at home. They even erect a bulletin board featuring photographs and brief notes telling what perfidies the women had committed (known in military slang as a "Jodie Wall").

Swofford obtains unauthorized alcohol and organizes an impromptu Christmas party, arranging for Fergus to cover his watch so he can celebrate. Fergus accidentally sets fire to a tent while cooking some sausages and ignites a crate of flares, waking the whole camp and enraging Staff Sergeant Sykes, who demotes Swofford from lance corporal to private and puts him on "shit-burning" detail. The punishments, combined with the heat, the boredom, and Swofford's suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity, give Swofford a mental breakdown, to the point where he threatens Fergus with a rifle, then orders Fergus to shoot him instead.

Later, Operation Desert Storm begins and the Marines are sent to the Saudi Arabian-Kuwait border. Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged when the unit returns home. Troy becomes distant from his friends. Knowing that Troy will not be allowed to reenlist, the Marines attack him with a red-hot USMC branding iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. The Marines march through the infamous "Highway of Death" (on the northbound road leading back to Iraq from capital Kuwait City), strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of a bombing campaign. The Marines later catch sight of distant burning Kuwaiti oil wells, ignited only moments before by retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish, Sykes orders the squad to move upwind.

Near the end of the war, Swofford and Troy are finally given a sniping mission. Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, their battalion commander, orders them to kill at least one of two high-ranking Iraqi Republican Guard officers at a nearby airfield. At the last second before Swofford takes the shot, Major Lincoln interrupts them to call in an air strike. Troy desperately pleas to make a kill, but is denied and overruled as the airplanes destroy the Iraqi airfield, much to his and Swofford's disappointment. The war ends without Swofford ever firing his rifle. During a monologue, Swofford realizes that all of his training and effort to achieve the elite status as a marine sniper is meaningless in modern warfare.

After returning home the Marines parade through a town in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend but discovers she has a new boyfriend. He is a Private now. Fowler is seen with a prostitute in a bar, now as a Corporal, Kruger in a corporate boardroom, Escobar as a supermarket employee, Cortez as a father of three children, and Sykes continuing his service as a first sergeant in the Iraq War. Later, Swofford learns of Troy's death during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends his funeral, reunites with some of his old friends and afterwards reminisces about the effects of the war.

Quintus, a psychic researcher who has spent seven years in Tibet, wants to send someone back in time into a past life. He hires (for $500) a prostitute, Diana Love, and plans to send her into a trance over 48 hours so she can access her past life. Quintus' former professor is present to witness it.

Quintus puts Diana into a trance and sends her back into the Middle Ages, where she shares the body of her past self, Helene, who is in prison, sentenced to die at dawn under suspicion of being a witch.

At Diana's urging, Helene escapes prison, earning the attention of Livia (the witch for whose crimes Helene has been blamed) and of Satan himself. Via the psychic link between Diana and Helene, Quintus physically goes back in time to convince Helene to avoid her death, so he can witness the results of history changing.

However, if Helene evades execution, her future selves, including Diana, will never come into existence, so she accepts her fated death. When Helene dies, her link with Diana disappears, leaving Quintus physically stranded in the past, much to Satan's amusement.

The series follows Tracy Calloway, a single working woman who decides to have a child through artificial insemination, a decision that was spurred by an increase in working mothers at her workplace. Using a fourth wall technique, she tells the audience watching about the joy and sorrows of being a single mother while showing videos of her and her family and friends in her life.

As Tracy successfully goes through with the process, she eventually finds support in Dr. Charlotte St. John, her best friend—who also works at Tracy's company as a psychiatrist and can dole out advice on how to be a single mother (she was twice divorced and had two children with different fathers)—and in her brother Ernie, an aspiring painter who wants out of his marriage and to move to Europe.

The only person who initially has mixed feelings about Tracy's decision was her mother, Celia. At first, Celia thinks that Tracy has made the biggest mistake of her life by going through with the procedure, but eventually Celia comes to accept it. Despite that, Tracy knows her mother's reputation for trying to control her and Ernie's life, which indeed did play out through her pregnancy, with hilarious results.

Tracy's pregnancy also involves other situations which meet with hilarious results such as constant and uncontrollable water bursts and learning to breastfeed, including an incident when her lactating breast is accidentally exposed at a restaurant. Tracy also plays matchmaker for Charlotte, by hooking her up with her gynecologist Dr. Doug Bryan, leading to an on-again-off-again romance between the two.

By the end of the first season, Tracy gives birth to a son (a viewers' contest sponsored by Lifetime allowed fans to pick the baby's name). In August 1999, "Daniel" was the choice picked by viewers.

During the second season, Tracy finds herself trying to balance a life as a working mother as well as bearing Celia's constant interference, with disastrous results. That friction eventually also costs Tracy her job. As soon as she is let go, her fellow co-workers snatch everything from her cubicle.

Following that event, she and Charlotte decide to go into business for themselves by launching an online retail business called TrustMom.com whose logo is a picture of Celia, despite Tracy's objections.

Joey battled leukemia since the age of three, and was one of the first children to undergo chemotherapy for the disease. The story traces John through his years at Penn State seeking the Heisman Trophy, and Joey his preteens, as each brother inspires the other, and their family around them, to try harder in life.

John wins the Heisman during a downturn in Joey's illness. During his acceptance speech, John names Joey as his prime motivator, then gradually breaks down in tears, as he tells everyone he wants Joey to have his trophy, for inspiring him and for enduring so much difficulty with leukemia. The whole Cappelletti family is there, and Joey runs to John's side.

The film ends by revealing Joey succumbed to his leukemia and died with John by his side on April 8, 1976.

One year ago, a bear stole a calf from Mitch and Einar's ranch. The two friends attempted to save the calf, but the bear viciously attacked Mitch — and because Einar was drunk, he failed to save Mitch from serious injury. The bear escaped into the mountains.

A year later, Mitch's wounds still cause him constant pain. Einar cares for Mitch daily, giving him morphine injections, food, and friendship. He leans his guilt on emotional crutches, while Mitch struggles to walk with real crutches. The bear is later seen foraging for food in town. Sheriff Crane Curtis captures it and it ends up in the town zoo. About the same time, Einar's long-lost daughter-in-law Jean shows up on his doorstep.

Jean and her young daughter, Griff move in with Einar and Mitch. Einar's son, Griffin, had married Jean years ago. She discovered that she was pregnant with Griff after Griffin died in a car accident, after which the family broke up. Tension exists between Einar and Jean, as both are still grieving for Griffin; tensions build as Einar has always blamed Jean for his son's death.

Since Griffin died, Jean has been in a series of unsuccessful relationships. She moved in with Einar to escape her abusive boyfriend, Gary. Jean starts working at a local coffee shop to earn money to become independent. There she befriends Nina, another waitress. Sheriff Curtis also becomes her friend.

Meanwhile, Gary has tracked Jean down and appears in town. Initially, Einar and the sheriff throw him out of town. Einar asks Jean to tell him how Griffin died. Jean says they flipped a coin to determine who would drive, and she lost. At 3 a.m., the two tired souls had set out on the last leg of a long trip. Jean fell asleep at the wheel. The car flipped six times. Griffin died, but Jean survived. When Einar learns the truth about his son's death, he says they'll have to talk about Jean moving out. Jean says she's through talking. The next morning she takes Griff with her and leaves to stay with Nina, who ends up helping her understand Einar's gruff ways and bitterness.

Griff, who has begun to build a relationship with her grandfather, leaves her mother and goes back to the ranch alone. Einar meets Jean at the diner and invites her to come back and live with him after he and Griff go on a camping trip.

The "camping trip" is a cover story meant to allow them time to carry out a request from Mitch to set free the bear who mauled him. The plan to get the bear into a transport cage does not go well. Griff accidentally knocks the gearshift lever into neutral while Einar is luring the bear into the cage. The bear gets free, and Einar is injured as he jumps out of the way. Griff drives Einar to the hospital, where he and Jean attempt to reconcile. Back at the ranch, Mitch survives a peaceful confrontation with the bear from his past. It goes into the mountains, where it belongs.

Meanwhile, Gary returns to the area and comes to the ranch the next day to accost Jean. He and Einar have an explosive confrontation that ends in Einar threatening Gary with his rifle, before badly beating him up. Gary, battered and exhausted, leaves on a Trailways bus as it moves through Nebraska.

In the final scene, Einar affectionately talks with one of his cats, who throughout the whole story he'd coldly ignored. Griff invites Sheriff Curtis for lunch when he drops by to see Jean (previously Griff, knowing of her mother fooling around with Sheriff, had told him not to stay for lunch). All is well as Mitch narrates the last seconds of the story, describing to Einar his dreams of flying above the earth and coming to understand things about life.

There are three acts of roughly three scenes each, Heaven, Earth, and Hell. A poet named Dan and an art student named Candy fall passionately in love, as Candy gravitates to her bohemian lifestyle and love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship is alternating states of bliss, oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.

Heaven: the young lovers ecstatically experience sex, devotion, and heroin. Constantly seeking drug money, they borrow from Candy's parents or eccentric university professor Casper, then steal, then when Candy sells her grandmother's ring, she has sex with a smelly pawn shop owner for $50.

Earth: they marry and confront the realities of addiction and family life. Dan purchases the drugs; Candy prostitutes. While considering having sex with men in a park bathroom for money, Dan steals a credit card and scams the owner for his PIN, taking $7000. Candy becomes pregnant, and despite a few days of tortuously "going clean", their baby is delivered stillborn at 23 weeks. They return to heroin, but stop again, going through agonizing withdrawal symptoms in the process. Despite poor living conditions, constant struggles for money, and frequent disputes, the pair remain entangled in a relationship fueled by love and addiction.

Hell: The dissolution of their relationship and recovery. They choose to move to the country to "try methadone" as a way to ease into a more normal life and eventually quit drugs altogether. After a disastrous attempt to have Candy's parents over for Sunday lunch, Candy screams at her mother about how she is the cause for Candy to "never have been able to unclench [her] fists". After Dan returns home one day from working as a bricklayer, he finds Candy smoking pot with a new guy and watches as she later leaves to have sex with him. When she returns she screams at Dan about how much she hates him and wants him to go away. He leaves, and when he returns the walls of every room of the house are covered with poems about Dan and Candy that she has written in smeared makeup. Distressed, he seeks Casper again and does heroin with him. Dan is informed the next morning of Candy's hospitalization back in Sydney, where he finds her in the aftermath of a nervous breakdown. Dan returns to Casper's only to find him dead of a heroin overdose. This forces Dan to reconsider his life. While Candy recovers in a treatment clinic, Dan gets clean and finds a job washing dishes at a restaurant while still horribly missing Candy. But when Candy finishes treatment and comes to the restaurant to finish off where they started, he cries and says "There's no going back. If you're given a reprieve, I think it's good to remember just how thin it is." She subsequently leaves.

Flavio (Fernando Poe, Jr.) is a "Panday" (or blacksmith) whose village and land are under the reign of the tyrant Lizardo (Max Alvarado). Flavio is forced to brand innocent children every night with Lizardo's mark by the head of Lizardo's men in the village, Pilo (Paquito Diaz).

One day, Flavio's predecessor as Panday, Tata Temyong (Lito Anzures) finds the legendary "Black Book" that supposedly tells how Lizardo can be defeated. Later that night a meteorite lands in a nearby field. Based on a prophecy in the Black Book, Flavio and Tata Temyong then use the meteorite and an old bell to create a magic dagger, the only weapon that can defeat Lizardo. After finishing the weapon Flavio hunts down Lizardo's men in the village, he brands them before setting off with Tata Temyong, his young apprentice Lando (Bentot Jr.), and Monica (Liz Alindogan), a woman he had saved from Lizardo's men, to free the land.

On their way to Lizardo, they come across a seaside hut that is home to one of Lizardo's henchmen, a wizard. Flavio defeats him, but soon afterward they are attacked by siyokoy (mermen) that are driven away when Flavio's dagger hums, and when Pilo arrives seeking revenge against Flavio, they attack him and his men instead. Later Flavio and his companions are attacked by zombies in a forest. Tata Temyong and Monica end up captured and brought to Lizardo's fortress by his men. Elsewhere Lando finds refuge in a hut haunted by an aswang, and after a chase, Flavio finds and defeats it with his dagger.

Lizardo later challenges Flavio to a duel, and brings Tata Temyong, Monica, and all his slaves to witness the battle. He first orders his men to attack Flavio, who, though vastly outnumbered, defeats them after his dagger transforms into a sword. Lizardo then faces Flavio himself, only to rapidly age every time Flavio hits him. Flavio ends the duel by stabbing Lizardo in the chest, who dies and fades away. With Lizardo defeated, Flavio leads his companions and the former slaves to freedom.

The game follows the same basic pattern of the cartoon at the beginning of ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' and related shorts. After opening with a Maroon Cartoons title card, Mommy explains to Roger that (once again) he is in charge of babysitting Baby Herman, and if he proves incompetent at this task, "he's going back to the science lab!". Roger swears to perform faithfully, but immediately after Mommy's departure, Baby Herman catches sight of the large baby-bottle-shaped sign on top of a local bottling plant. He escapes the house, heading for the plant, so that Roger has to find his way out of the house, and up onto the roof of the plant, before Mommy arrives home and discovers Baby Herman missing. At the end of the game (whether successful or not) Roger must face Mommy and ultimately his director on the cartoon set.

Jessica Rabbit makes brief cameos in a couple of the environments.

In 1968, five-year old John Dolittle displays an ability to hear what animals are saying, starting with his own dog. John asks his dog questions like: "Why do dogs sniff each other's butts?" and the dog's response is that it is their own way of shaking hands, and John does it when meeting his new principal. His behavior concerns his father Archer, who hires a local priest to perform an exorcism on John in order to remove the "devil" from him. During the exam, the dog bites and attacks the man, resulting in Archer sending the dog away. Following this ordeal, John eventually stops talking to animals.

Thirty years later in 1998, John becomes a doctor and a surgeon, while living in San Francisco, California. He is happily married to his wife Lisa, and has two daughters, typical teenager Charisse, and nerdy Maya, who has a pet guinea pig named Rodney, and what she believes is a swan egg, which she hopes will bond with her upon hatching. A large medical company owned by Mr. Calloway seeks to buy John's practice, a deal in which one of his colleagues, Dr. Mark Weller, is enthusiastic about, though their other colleague, Dr. Gene Reiss, is skeptical about the deal due to the potential of downsizing patients and staff.

John's family goes on vacation, while John goes back to work to see a patient, and then pick up Rodney. On his way home, he accidentally nearly hits a dog with his SUV, causing the dog to shout at him in anger. Afterwards, as John is driving to the cabin his family is at with Rodney in the car, Rodney starts talking to John, causing him to believe he is having a mental breakdown. John has a CT scan after animals start asking for favors when he helps a wounded owl, and he then unwittingly adopts the dog he ran over, eventually naming him Lucky. John later starts secretly helping various animals, including a suicidal circus tiger named Jake, who suffers great cerebral vein. Through all this, John begins learning to re-appreciate his gift, at one point confiding to both Lucky and Mark that he has never felt excited about his work in years. However, Lisa and Mark catch him performing CPR on a rat, and have him sectioned in a mental hospital.

Believing his gift is a hindrance, John rejects all abnormality in his life and returns to work, but in doing so, ostracizes Maya as well, who comes to believe he dislikes her. Maya admits to Archer that she liked the idea of her father talking to animals, and John has a change of heart when he eavesdrops on the conversation. He admits to Maya that he does not like, but loves her for who she is, and encourages her to continue being what she wants to be.

John then apologizes to Lucky, and together, they sneak Jake out of the circus and take him to the hospital to perform surgery on him, on the same night a party is going on where Calloway will buy the company. Mark and Gene catch John, but Gene tires of Mark's greedy attitude and chooses to assist John. Soon, Jake is exposed in front of everyone at the party, and they all watch as John and Gene operate on Jake in the operating theater. Archer reveals to Lisa that John's gift is real, encouraging her to venture into the theater and keep Jake calm while John and Gene remove the cause of pain, saving Jake's life. John then declines Calloway's offer to buy the place and officially accepts his gift of talking to animals.

John becomes both a doctor and a veterinarian afterwards, embracing his ability to talk to animals. Maya's egg hatches into a baby alligator, and the final scene shows John and Lucky walking on the street together.

Chen Zhen attends class in Kyoto University when thugs from the Black Dragon Clan burst in and attempt to force him out simply because he is Chinese. Mitsuko, one of Chen's classmates who is in a romantic relationship with him, along with Chen's professor and classmates, defend his presence. The thugs turn violent but Chen easily defeats them using a variety of controlled Chin Na techniques. The Japanese thugs' sensei, Funakoshi Fumio, who is also Mitsuko's uncle, arrives to take control of the situation and apologizes for his students' behavior. Funakosji is impressed by Chen's skill and converses with him, and Chen learns that his master, Huo Yuanjia, has died after losing in a match against a Japanese karateka, Akutagawa Ryūichi. Chen is distraught after hearing the bad news and he leaves Kyoto for Shanghai immediately.

Chen returns to Jingwu School and learns that his master's son, Huo Ting'en, has become the new master of Jingwu School. The next day, Chen goes to the Japanese dojo to challenge Akutagawa, who honorably accepts. Chen defeats Akutagawa easily and concludes that Akutagawa was not capable of defeating Huo Yuanjia, after which he suspects foul play in his master's death. Chen has Huo Yuanjia's corpse exhumed for an autopsy against the wishes of Huo Ting'en and his fellow Jingwu members. It is revealed that Huo Yuanjia was poisoned and weakened before his match against Akutagawa. Over the next few days, word of Chen's victory against Akutagawa spreads and Chen becomes a local celebrity in Shanghai. The Jingwu members begin to look up to Chen as their new instructor, which incurs the jealousy of Huo Ting'en. Huo remains silent and seeks comfort in a brothel, where he becomes romantically involved with a prostitute.

Meanwhile, Akutagawa confronts General Gō Fujita of the Imperial Japanese Army after suspecting that his match against Huo Yuanjia had been rigged, which he considers dishonorable. After a heated argument, Fujita kills Akutagawa by breaking his back in front of the Japanese ambassador, and then places the blame on Chen. Enraged by their master's death, Akutagawa's students attack the Jingwu School, culminating in a fight that is eventually stopped by the local police. Chen is arrested and placed on trial for allegedly murdering Akutagawa. Several bribed witnesses provide false and conflicting accounts of the murder, but the court refuses to accept testimony from any Chinese defense witnesses on the grounds of bias towards Chen. Mitsuko shows up and testifies that Chen is innocent because he spent the night with her, and the court accepts her false testimony because she is Japanese. Chen is exonerated, but his apparent relationship with Mitsuko ruins his reputation because the Chinese view it as an act of betrayal against his fellow Chinese. Huo Ting'en and the senior Jingwu members demand that Chen leaves either Mitsuko or the school. Huo uses the opportunity to settle his personal vendetta against Chen by challenging him to a fight. Although Chen defeats Huo, he still chooses to leave with Mitsuko. Huo feels humiliated by his defeat so he gives up his position as master of Jingwu before leaving to join his lover. Jingwu's members eventually discover Huo's relationship with her and reprimand him. Huo learns his lesson and returns to Jingwu.

Chen and Mitsuko face hostility from the locals and are forced to take shelter in an abandoned hut near Huo Yuanjia's grave. At the same time, Funakoshi arrives from Japan, as requested by Fujita, to eliminate Chen. Funakoshi engages Chen in a fight, which ends in a draw and the conclusion that if Chen learns to adapt to his opponent's moves, he will be unbeatable. Funakoshi leaves after warning Chen about Fujita's ill intentions and brutal methods. Days later, Huo Ting'en visits Chen and apologizes for his earlier behavior, saying that Jingwu School accepts Chen and Mitsuko's relationship now. Huo teaches Chen the Mizong Fist that night while Mitsuko leaves secretly, leaving behind a message for Chen that she will wait for him in Japan.

The next day, Chen and Huo confront Fujita at his dojo, where Fujita exposes a traitor from Jingwu who played a role in Huo Yuanjia's death, and shoots him. Huo Ting'en then fights Fujita, who appears to be incredibly strong and resilient, and Huo suffers grave injuries. Chen engages Fujita in a long and exhausting fight, and eventually defeats him. Just as Chen and Huo are about to leave, the enraged Fujita comes after them with a katana. Huo pushes Chen out of the katana's way but is stabbed in the arm, and Chen is forced to kill Fujita. Japanese soldiers surround them and prepare to open fire. The Japanese ambassador, who is a pacifist against rising militarism in his country, arrives and orders his soldiers to stand down. He agrees with Chen's actions as he has been aware that Fujita is a madman, but also warns them that the Japanese government will use Fujita's death as an excuse to start a war with China, unless the Chinese can account for Fujita's death by executing the murderer. Chen expresses his willingness to accept the blame for Fujita's death in order to prevent war, earning the ambassador's further admiration. Instead of ordering Chen's death, the ambassador stages a fake execution and substitutes the dead Jingwu's traitor's body for Chen's. Meanwhile, Chen secretly leaves Shanghai for Manchuria.

The novel relates an episode in the life of Aulus Perennius, a middle-aged operative of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs, an agency which has evolved into an intelligence service over the life of the Empire. He is accompanied by his protégé Gaius, a dashing young cavalry officer with an unfortunate tendency to act without thinking, and an odd figure named Calvus, tall, slim, bald, incredibly strong, and rather clueless. (The story hints that Gaius is Aulus' biological son, but never makes a clear statement on the matter.)

At the beginning of the story Aulus' own mentor, head of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs, has summoned him back to Rome on a matter urgent enough to pull him out of a deep-cover operation in Palmyra just as it was coming to its critical phase. (This scene is a bit reminiscent of James Bond being summoned by his own boss for a new assignment). At the direct behest of the emperor the Bureau has been ordered to provide Calvus with any sort of support requested, and Calvus has asked only for the services of the Bureau's best agent—requesting Aulus by name.

Invoking the authority of the Bureau, Aulus orders an ancient Liburnian out of dry-dock storage to be outfitted for a trip to Cilicia in southern Anatolia, technically a part of the Roman Empire but at that time under the control of Odenath, to provide some unspecified service for Calvus. En route they are beset by pirates and other parties; the story of the journey takes up the greater part of the book. (In a sea battle with pirates, the Romans face a desperate plight due to the authorities in Rome having failed to provide an adequate Marine contingent; capture by brutal Gothic and Herulian raiders; the apparent warm hospitality offered by an isolated Christian community turns out to mask a virulently bloodthirsty, fanatic sect; a giant, predatory Allosaurus, displaced from the distant past, rampages in the countryside...)

Calvus, though taken for a male, is actually a female (of sorts) sent back from the far distant future to destroy the seed creche or "brood chamber" of monstrous aliens—intelligent social insects—who, by her time, have multiplied into billions, emerged from their underground creches, and are in the process of destroying the human race. As a desperate measure a set of six mutually telepathic sisters, including Calvus, are specially bred to be sent on the mission together. (The book hints that the future human race has evolved to be somewhat different from ourselves, and that the six sterile sisters—akin to worker ants or bees—are uncommon only in their preparation for this particular mission; there is a suggestion that, waging an existential struggle against social insects, future humanity was driven to emulate these enemies...)

Calvus is the only one of the siblings to arrive at the proper time in the past; there are strong hints that the presence of a handful of extinct creatures such as dinosaurs and sabre-toothed cats in Aulus' time are a side effect of the unintentional displacement of the other siblings into the far distant past.

The time-travel technology did not allow Calvus to take any weapons or other gadgets along, so she herself serves as the weapon. She has a limited ability to influence the thoughts of humans other than her sisters—which is how she induced the emperor to issue orders for the Bureau's cooperation—and at the end of the story she destroys the creche by self-destructing as a nuclear or thermal bomb. Before then, through her association with Aulus and separation from her sisters, she learns to experience her humanity almost in the way ordinary humans do.

The book starts somewhere in the middle. Zander is attempting suicide by trying to jump off the smokestack of an industrial plant. Cassie is at the same plant intending to do a little night flying. Zander succeeds in knocking himself unconscious and breaking a wing. Cassie drags him to shore and calls paramedics, eventually having to instruct them on how to set the broken bones.

Roughly half of the book is involved with Zander and Cassie's backgrounds. Zander grew up in the shadows of industrial plants. His father died under mysterious circumstances and his stepfather locked Zander out when he turned 18. Zander quickly fell under the influence of a class-mate of his, a small-time drug dealer who soon taught Zander about running from the police and how to tell a good stash from a bad one. Zander eventually became a drug runner in his own right until he started undergoing some of the preliminary changes of 'angelism'. As the condition was completely unknown at the time, he thought he was simply dying and holed up in a rent-a-cottage facility, ordering in pizza and beer. Eventually, when he began growing the hard green casing that is the first visible sign, he realized he had something new and became an all-out hermit.

Once the wings had sprouted, Zander contacted his old drug buddy and the pair worked out a scam to get money from elderly people. Zander would pretend to be the Angel of Death, but announced that he could be put off by a monetary donation. It was not until the pair encountered another angel, this one dead for several weeks, that Zander realized that he was not alone. He assaulted his drug buddy, went to a talent agency and became a talk show star. Eventually, this too became tiresome and he once again became a hermit.

Cassie's story quite different. Her mother was a bisexual sculptor and a single parent. When Cassie's uncle left them an old farm, they moved out to the farmhouse and Cassie's mother continued her sculpting. Cassie and her mother were always outsiders in the community, never quite able to fit in and never quite wanting to, either. Eventually, Cassie moved to Ann Arbor and started attending the University of Michigan's medical college. While she was there, she 'contracted' angelism and spent her time in a 'coop,' a safehouse run by other angels where one could transform in security. Returning to school, Cassie realized that she did not really want to become a medical doctor, but still wanted to help people. She chose to become a psychiatrist, and specialized in angels.

Cassie's book ''Angel Blues'' is considered the definitive work on angel psychology (largely because there is no other work on angel psychology) but Cassie believes herself to be a fake; she claims she wrote the book to "meet Oprah." After having a falling out with her patients and her colleagues, she was diagnosed as a flying addict and received treatment for it. This is roughly the time when she saved Zander's life, and he set up a meeting between them to work on his agoraphobia.

Working with Zander re-enthused Cassie to get back to working with her regular patients. She began treating Zander's old drug buddy, who had partially transformed into an angel. To be precise he was a 'penguin,' an angel without the extensive nerves in his wings and lacking a sense of balance when upright. Therefore, he had to shuffle around the ground on all fours or be pushed in a wheelchair. Zander takes on the case, declaring that 'he doesn't need a psychologist... he needs an engineer.' Using a series of counterbalances and a walker, he gets his buddy on his feet again and effectively cures penguinism. It is about this point where Zander and Cassie begin really exploring the possibilities of a sexual relationship, beyond doctor-patient and friend-friend.

This unforeseen event occurs at the beginning of summer, when Viola has just finished school. St. Winifred's, her "Alma mater", is an expensive public school which prides itself on turning out "ladies"—refined young women who are mostly "unemployable" and have certainly not been taught domestic subjects but who will nevertheless, it is believed, have no problem finding suitable husbands among their own social class. Secretly, Viola has already made her choice in this respect: She intends "to marry the Reverend Mr Chisholm and have ten children". Now she is waiting for Chisholm to respond to her subtle, ladylike advances.

However, at the same time she is in charge of the household, tending to her father Harry, who writes articles on literature; her twelve-year-old sister Persephone ("Perse"), who also goes to St. Winifred's; and her five-year-old brother Nicholas Anthony ("Trubshaw"). Their large house, The Old Vicarage, has not been renovated in a long time, which has started to show in places and does not make life easier for them. (They have named the spare bedrooms after the problems that have befallen them: Dry rot, Woodworm, the Mildew Room.) While they are slowly adjusting to their new life without Mother, Clementine Kemble occasionally informs them about her current whereabouts—they get cheery postcards from such faraway places as Marrakesh, Cairo, Istanbul, Samarkand, Kuala Lumpur, Eureka, California, Los Angeles, and Acapulco.

When Harry Kemble thinks they cannot cope alone any longer he hires Gloria Perkins, a friend of his wife's, to keep house for them. However, Gloria turns out to be not only dim-witted but also spectacularly incompetent as a housekeeper—the only dish she can prepare is goulash—while at the same time she is a young unattached and very attractive woman. Gossip among the villagers that she might be Harry Kemble's "mistress" seems inevitable, especially when people find out about her loose morals. ("Gloria wouldn't recognize a moral principle if it was served up to her on a plate, with chestnut stuffing".)

Even the Reverend Chisholm seems to be attracted to Gloria and succeeds in involving her in various church activities. Just as Viola starts becoming slightly suspicious of the two Chisholm, to her great and pleasant surprise, proposes to her, adding that the responsible thing to do will be to wait for a year or two for them to get married. Nevertheless, in seventh heaven now, Viola discards any ideas of continuing her association with Johnnie Wrighton, a friendly young man who has obviously fallen in love with her but whom she considers definitely beneath her as he is the son of ordinary farmers.

On Christmas Eve, six months after having bolted from Shepherd's Delight, Clementine Kemble makes a surprise appearance at The Old Vicarage. Looking out of the window, the Kembles see a beautiful woman clad in mink alighting from a London taxi, her baggage in tow. Only gradually does Harry Kemble accept it when his wife informs him that she has made up her mind to stay for good now. Immediately she takes over the regime again, having been used all her life to getting her way in all decisions big and small, whether they concern her own person or another family member. She gets rid of Gloria Perkins by inviting her husband's literary agent for the weekend and having her run off with him back to London without even doing so much as saying good-bye; she subtly prepares for the family's move from Derbyshire to the island of Sark, where she has just inherited a beautiful house but where no one except herself wants to go and live; and she vehemently forbids Viola to marry Chisholm.

When Perse gets into trouble by sending poison pen letters to a number of villagers Clementine Kemble once more takes the initiative. To protect her girl from being found out she deliberately spreads the rumour that it was her husband who, allegedly in a temporary state of overwork and confusion, has written and dispatched them. Harry Kemble is furious when she tells him, but at the same time can do nothing about it except thinking about relocating to another part of the country—maybe Sark.

The tragic aspect of Perse's bizarre adolescent prank is the ensuing suicide attempt of Agnes Buttle, a middle-aged spinster accused by Viola, herself the recipient of an anonymous letter ("Leave him alone or I'll kill you"), of writing the letters. However, as it soon turns out, Agnes Buttle has had other reasons for being desperate, first and foremost the Reverend Chisholm's abominable behaviour. To further his career in the Church, he made advances to Buttle, whose uncle was a bishop, although she is more than ten years his senior. When that uncle died, he dropped her. Chisholm has also fallen in love with Gloria Perkins and only proposed to Viola to avert attention from his association with Gloria. Viola considers it an important step in her journey from "green girl" to full-fledged adult when she breaks off her engagement and calls Chisholm a "''poor'' little bastard".

At the beginning of April, shortly before Viola's 18th birthday, the Kembles finally move to Sark. By now Viola has realised that she loves Johnnie Wrighton, but her mother already has other plans for her. Viola is to get a job in Berkshire as a receptionist for a distant uncle of hers who is a GP there. That way, Clementine Kemble assures her, she will meet many eligible young men to choose from. Only by means of a "ruse"—she tells her little sister that she got pregnant from a day tripper to the island—can she eventually convince her mother, who for an awful moment loses her poise and fears that it actually might be true, that they are now on the same footing. At the end of the novel Johnnie Wrighton proposes to Viola, and Clementine Kemble not only gives her consent but also surprises them by giving them The Old Vicarage as a wedding present.

Part I

On the holodeck, Lt. Commander Data plays a game of poker with holographic representations of Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. Data explains to Newton that the game is an experiment for understanding "how three of history's greatest minds would interact" in such a setting. He suspends the program when a red alert is issued from the bridge.

The responds to a distress call from a Starfleet outpost. Riker, Worf, Data and a security guard form an away team and they find the crew of the outpost dead. They are suddenly attacked by a group of Borg, who kill the security guard. Riker notices that, in contrast to previous encounters, the Borg are armed with energy weapons and refer to each other as individuals. Data experiences anger while fighting a Borg and breaks the Borg's neck. One Borg begins talking to himself about the nature of the away team members and appears to signal a withdrawal when he sees that Data is an android.

Meanwhile, in orbit, an unidentified ship fires on the ''Enterprise'', which returns fire. The alien ship beams up the remaining Borg from the outpost and flees, with the ''Enterprise'' in pursuit. The Borg ship suddenly enters a vortex and disappears. On the planet surface, Riker asks Data what happened, but Data can only explain that he felt anger. The away team is beamed back on board and Admiral Nechayev arrives to take command of the situation. She reprimands Picard for not destroying the Borg when he had the chance ("I, Borg") and orders him to do so if another opportunity presents itself. Data continues to try to understand what caused his behavior on the outpost. He tries to experience emotion again through simulations of the event, but does not succeed.

The Borg ship reappears and attacks another outpost. The ''Enterprise'' is once again the nearest ship, which makes Picard suspicious, since there are now several Starfleet vessels patrolling the area. The Borg ship reenters the vortex and disappears when the ''Enterprise'' intercepts; the ''Enterprise'' is caught in its wake and follows. When the ships have exited the vortex the Borg attack the ''Enterprise'', beaming drones on to the bridge. After a brief fire fight, one drone is killed and another wounded, but the distraction allows the Borg ship to escape. This, too, is unusual Borg behavior, since they had always reclaimed their drones, whether alive or dead.

The crew discover that the vortex takes them from one star system to another almost instantaneously. They do not know how it is activated, though, so they are unable to return to Federation space. Data is sent to speak with the captured Borg in an attempt to gather intelligence, but the drone manipulates Data into releasing him and they escape together in a shuttlecraft. Before the ''Enterprise'' can catch the shuttle it disappears into a conduit. The crew have learned how the conduits are activated and the ''Enterprise'' gives chase, tracking the shuttlecraft to a planet. An away team finds no trace of Data or the Borg, and something in the planet's atmosphere is blocking their sensors, so Picard decides to conduct a ground search utilising nearly the whole crew of the ''Enterprise''. Only a skeleton crew now remain on board under the command of Dr. Crusher.

Searching the planet, Picard, Troi, a security officer and La Forge enter a building and are surrounded by noisy Borg. Their leader, appearing on a platform, resembles Data but Troi recognizes that it is Data's brother Lore. Data appears alongside Lore and announces that together they will destroy the Federation.

Part II

Lore has discovered a way to give Data emotions and has turned him against the Federation. Lore plans to lead the breakaway group of Borg to destroy all organic life, believing that Lore and Data are perfect life forms. Picard, Troi, and La Forge are taken captive. Lore orders La Forge's VISOR removed. La Forge tells Picard and Troi that the VISOR enabled him to see a carrier wave being beamed from Lore to Data and they surmise that this is the source of Data's emotions and Lore's control over him. In orbit, the Borg ship is detected and Dr. Crusher, acting as captain, orders the away teams to be beamed back aboard from the planet. There is not enough time to retrieve them all and 47 crew members remain on the planet. Riker orders Crusher to leave the area and come back only when it is safe, since the rogue Borg vessel has detected the ''Enterprise''. Rather than leave the system, Crusher orders the crew to take the ship into the sun. Using the technology developed by Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga, they modify the shields to allow them to get closer to the sun than the Borg can. They use the ship's phasers to trigger an eruption on the sun's surface which destroys the Borg ship.

On the planet, Lore orders Data to perform an experiment on La Forge's brain – an irreversible procedure with a "60% chance" of being lethal. La Forge pleads with Data, who ignores him and continues setting up the process. In their prison cell, the away team constructs a device which they believe will reactivate Data's morality subroutines, hoping that he will question his unethical actions and Lore's intentions.

Riker and Worf encounter Hugh, who tells them that Lore is the leader of this Borg group. He says that at one time Lore's help was necessary, but that he has destroyed many Borg through brutal experimentation. Hugh's group are "rebel" Borg, wanting to remove Lore from power.

The away team manages to reactivate Data's ethical programming just as he is about to start the irreversible part of the experiment. La Forge pleads with Data, asking him to check his conscience. Data falters, claims that there are anomalies in the experiment and postpones it.

Lore begins to doubt Data's devotion and attempts to strengthen control by threatening to remove the emotions he has provided. Data appears to be subservient, but Lore remains suspicious, and orders Data to prove his loyalty by killing Picard. Data refuses, as the rebooting of his morality subroutines is complete. Two Borg seize Data and Lore is about to execute him, when Riker and Worf arrive, accompanied by Hugh and some of the rebel Borg. A battle commences and Lore flees, pursued by Data. In their ensuing confrontation, Lore attempts to talk Data into escaping with him. When Data is unswayed, Lore attacks Data, but Data shoots him with a phaser and then deactivates him.

In the aftermath, Hugh becomes leader of the Borg group and the ''Enterprise'' returns to Federation space. Data reports that Lore is to be disassembled permanently and that he intends to destroy the emotion chip, as it is "too dangerous", citing the harm he has inflicted under its influence. La Forge intervenes and advises him to keep the chip until he is ready.

Boo-Boo Bear wakes up from winter hibernation, excited about the new Spring. Then Yogi Bear wakes up, his only interest finding some food to eat. Cindy Bear unsuccessfully tries to woo Yogi. After Ranger Smith thwarts Yogi's latest attempts to grab some food, Yogi gets angry and convinces the Ranger to transfer him out of Jellystone National Park. Smith prepares Yogi to be sent over to the San Diego Zoo along with an identification tag. Yogi first says goodbye to everything, but tricks another bear named Corn Pone into going to California instead of him and Boo-Boo and Cindy remain unaware of this, thinking Yogi has departed for good.

Soon, Yogi is stealing food from all over the park under the alter ego "The Brown Phantom", but Smith believes it is another bear. He threatens whoever it is to be sent to the zoo. Cindy, wishing to be with Yogi at the zoo, angers Smith into mistakenly sending her away. However, she gets sent to the St. Louis Zoo by train instead, as the San Diego Zoo does not need any more bears. When she realizes her true destination, she gets very sad, crying since she knows she would be far from Yogi now.

Late that night, Cindy falls out of the train and becomes lost. A traveling circus, run by the Chizzling Brothers, is looking for a great act to raise their ratings, when suddenly, their dog Mugger runs off and scares Cindy into walking on the telephone wires, the perfect act to save their circus.

Yogi has recently missed Boo-Boo and, above all, Cindy. Yogi goes to Ranger Smith and hears about her disappearance. Soon, Yogi and Boo-Boo escape from Jellystone to find Cindy. Meanwhile, Ranger Smith decides to let them find their way home to avoid trouble with the Park Commissioner. After an extensive travel, Yogi and Boo-Boo locate Cindy, who is being kept a prisoner, forced to perform her high-wire act for the Chizzling Brother's circus. As Yogi confronts the manager, Grifter Chizzing, he is tricked into joining Cindy in her cage, where Grifter tells him he's now in "show biz." Boo-Boo releases Yogi and Cindy and they make their exit. As they make their way home, they crash a barnyard party, somehow escaping afloat a river with the barn's door. Then, while Cindy & Yogi dream about a honeymoon in Venice, they find themselves suddenly being chased and hunted by the police, as they somehow became fugitives, but make their escape.

They hitch a ride in a moving van, but find themselves in the middle of a busy city (later revealed to be New York City) and make a run from the police to the top of a hotel and across to a high rise under construction. The next morning, Ranger Smith sees the three bears on television and decides to pick them up in a helicopter. All the commotions have made great publicity for Jellystone and Ranger Smith gets promoted to Chief Ranger by the Park Commissioner. He brings all three bears back to Jellystone, where they promise to be "good bears" from now on.

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invade and occupy Kuwait, resulting in an allied coalition of over 100 countries to come to the aid of Kuwait against Iraq. During the first days of Kuwait's liberation, Special Forces team Alpha One is deployed on a rescue mission to Al-Hadar, where 'Delta Two', an allied Special Forces team is trapped behind Iraqi lines. With gunships providing assistance, Alpha One breach the city walls, locate and secure Delta Two's last known position but does not immediately make visual contact with them. Alpha One continues to search the city for them the next morning, and finally locate them after battling through several Iraqi troops and supporting armour in the city. Alpha One then escort Delta Two to an evacuation point at an Iraqi communications post, which Alpha One subsequently destroy upon Delta Two's extraction before leaving themselves.

Alpha One are then sent on a covert operation to destroy an Iraqi radar site and fuel dump. Sneaking past the base defences, Alpha One successfully destroy the designated targets, however upon completion of their mission Alpha One find themselves surrounded by Iraqi troops, tanks and gunships. Seeing very little option, Bradley orders his team to surrender, and Alpha One are taken prisoner. Inside an Iraqi prison, Alpha One are brutally interrogated by their captors. A flight of Stealth fighters drop smart bombs over the complex, providing Alpha One a means to escape. Before returning to the Allied lines, Alpha One are deployed to a site housing Sarin gas as well as multiple SCUD missiles and launchers that they disarm and destroy respectively.

As the liberation of Kuwait draws near, retreating Iraqi troops are ordered to set fire to numerous Kuwaiti oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy. Alpha One are ordered to halt further damage by disarming numerous explosives on several oil wells, before linking up with forward elements of the 2nd Marines. Alpha One and the 2nd Marines then embark on a mission inside Kuwait City, where Iraq has constructed two Superguns used to stall the advance of Coalition troops in the desert. Alpha One secure an airport where Iraqi troops have emplaced SAM sites as well as an air defence grid which Alpha One both render inoperable. With air superiority ensured for the coalition troops, Alpha One then embark on the destruction of both guns in the city's harbour, eradicating any hope remaining for the Iraqi forces of success.

In an ending cutscene, Alpha One are seen viewing the re-established Emir of Kuwait thanking the Coalition forces for their assistance as Kuwait is finally liberated.

The film opens in the Namib Desert. Mr. A skydives onto a train that is carrying the Queen Elizabeth II. He steals her crown by disguising himself as the Queen, beats her guards easily, and escapes. ACP Jai Dixit and the newly promoted Sub-Inspector Ali Akbar Khan are introduced to Shonali Bose, a special officer assigned to investigate Mr. A's case, who also happens to be a former classmate of Jai. After the initial investigation, Dixit analyses the underlying trend in Mr. A's heists. He concludes that the theft will follow in one of two famous Mumbai city museums. When Dixit realizes that the artifact in the museum he is guarding happens to be imperfect, he rushes to the other museum, where a disguised Mr. A steals a rare diamond and escapes. While he is about to catch a flight, Mr. A sees on the TV that someone else claiming to be himself, challenges the police, saying that he will steal an ancient warrior sword. In response, Dixit, Bose, and Khan enforce a strict guard at the location of the sword. At night, Mr. A meets the real thief, the one who made the claim on TV, in the room that holds the sword. The police are alerted, but they manage to steal the sword, Shonali is injured in the confrontation, and they manage to escape. The impersonator turns out to be Sunehri, a woman who idolises Mr. A; Sunehri convinces Mr. A to form an alliance, but he turns her down. Later, after a game of basketball between the two, he finally agrees to work together.

In Rio de Janeiro, Mr. A and Sunehri plan their next heist. As Dixit's analysis has named Rio the location of Mr. A's next heist, Jai and Ali travel to the city. There they meet Monali, Shonali's twin sister, who only speaks English, and Ali immediately falls for her. Later, Sunehri meets with Jai to discuss how things are going between her and Mr. A, revealing that they are working together, and Jai is using her by ensuring her freedom from prison. To get close to Mr. A and find out what his next plan is, they can catch and arrest him, but Sunehri begins to have her doubts. The relationship between Mr. A and Sunehri evolves into romance, and he unveils his real identity, Aryan, to her. However, during the Rio Carnival, disguised as one of the entertainers, he sees Sunehri and Jai together and realizes that Sunehri has been working undercover for Jai. The next day, Aryan forces Sunehri to play a game of Russian roulette. Sunehri cries and refuses to shoot him, but Aryan forces her to play. After six attempted shots, neither is killed, because Aryan never loaded the gun. Sunehri admits she betrayed Aryan and confesses her love for him.

In their final heist, Aryan and Sunehri successfully steal some early Lydian coins while disguised as performing dwarfs. With the heist successfully pulled off, Jai realises that he has been betrayed, and she called him on the phone to confirm that she wants to stay with Aryan and does not wish to remain allied with Jai, forcing Jai and Ali to go after them. After the chase, all of them end up on the top of a waterfall, where Ali catches Sunehri. Sunehri, despite conveying her feelings for Aryan, shoots him. Aryan falls from the waterfall, after which Jai allows Sunehri to go free. Six months later, it is revealed that Aryan survived and has opened a restaurant in the Fiji islands with Sunehri. Jai meets Aryan and Sunehri at the restaurant and states that despite their crimes, he does not wish to imprison the couple. Aryan tells him where all the stolen artefacts can be found via a digital watch. Jai is aware of the couple's feelings towards each other and releases them with a warning against returning to their life of crime. After leaving, Jai receives a phone call, and informs Ali that they should be heading back to India for their next case.

In Sudbury, Ontario, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is conducting a physics experiment. This is interrupted by the mysterious arrival of a strange man, who despite the people who meet him believe is a Neanderthal. Geneticist Mary Vaughn, a professor at Toronto's York University is called in to determine that the man really is a Neanderthal.

Mary is reeling from being recently raped by a masked man on the University campus, and finds this a welcome distraction along with the scientific opportunity of a lifetime along with her friend physicist Louise Benoit, who'd initially encountered the man. The two, plus physician Ruben Montego, learn that he is a Neanderthal from a parallel world.

His name is Ponter Boddit, having been a quantum physicist who passed somehow into our world as the result of an experiment gone wrong. They are fascinated by the fact of his existence, while exploring all the many differences that distinguish his people from theirs. Meanwhile, Ponter's spouse and scientific partner Adikor Huld is distraught at his sudden disappearance, then doubly so after he's been accused of murdering Ponter due to his vanishing.

Long-term contact is eventually created between the two worlds, along with formal diplomatic relations. However, issues of distrust and misunderstanding plague the characters. Ponter and Mary forge a relationship however as they strive for both their people's mutual benefit even as they struggle to work through profoundly different beliefs as a potential crisis looms for our Earth.

A plague known as the living death cripples civilization. A small group of surviving scientists and doctors — located in Atlanta, home of the CDC — work on a cure to save what remains of humanity. To complete their work they need information stored on a computer system in New York City. Pearl Prophet volunteers for the dangerous courier mission and is made into a cyborg through surgical augmentation.

Pearl, accompanied by bodyguard Marshall Strat, retrieves the data in New York but is pursued by the vicious Fender Tremolo and his gang of pirates. Fender wants the cure so he can have a monopoly on its production. Strat, badly injured while fighting the pirates, tells Pearl to leave him and find a mercenary, known as a "slinger", who can escort her to safety. She gets cornered but is saved by a slinger named Gibson Rickenbacker. After she explains her situation, they are overrun by Fender's gang, and Gibson is knocked out by falling debris. Fender demands that she accompany him to Atlanta or die.

Fender's gang slaughters a family and steals their boat. They head south for Atlanta via the Intracoastal Waterway with the captive Pearl. Gibson, who had been tracking the pirates, arrives at the scene of slaughter later that night. A shadowy figure attacks him, but he disables her. She turns out to be Nady Simmons, a young woman who mistook him as a pirate. Nady, whose family was wiped out by the plague, joins Gibson. Gibson is less concerned with a cure for the plague than with killing Fender. Gibson and Nady trek southward through the wastelands, where bandits ambush them. Concerned for Nady, Gibson unsuccessfully attempts to convince her to stay away. After declining sex with Nady, Gibson reveals that all he cares about is revenge against Fender, who killed his lover and destroyed his chance to have a normal life and family.

Intercepting Fender and his crew near Charleston, South Carolina, Gibson defeats most of his men, but Fender shoots him with an air rifle. Now nursing a gunshot wound, Gibson realizes Haley (his dead lover's younger sister whom Fender kidnapped) is now a loyal member of Fender's crew. He flees the pirates and ends up alone with Pearl and Nady. Pearl refuses to go with him — she calculates that Gibson is not strong enough to defeat Fender and will be unable to get her to Atlanta safely. She says she will go along with Fender and lure him to his death in Atlanta, where she has resources at her disposal.

Tired, wounded and badly outnumbered, Gibson flees with Nady through the sewer into a salt marsh, where they are pursued by the rest of the pirates and eventually separated from each other. Gibson is thoroughly beaten by Fender and crucified high on the mast of a beached, derelict ship. Haley lingers at the scene but still leaves with Fender. Gibson spends the night on the cross. In the morning, near death, he kicks the mast repeatedly with his dangling foot in a last fit of rage. The mast snaps, sending him crashing to the ground, his arms still tied and nailed to the cross. Finally, Nady appears out of the marsh to free him.

Gibson and Nady intercept Fender once again in Atlanta, this time better prepared. Fender's gang is taken down one by one until he and Gibson face off. During their fight, Nady rushes Fender with a knife, but he stabs and kills her. Gibson in turn stabs Fender in the chest. Thinking him dead, Gibson embraces Haley, who, during the battle turned decisively against Fender. However, Fender gets back up, and they continue to battle in a nearby shed, where Gibson finally kills Fender by impaling him on a meat hook. Gibson and Haley escort Pearl to her final destination, before heading back off.

Queen Christina of Sweden (Greta Garbo) is very devoted to her country and the welfare of her people. As queen, she favors peace for Sweden and argues convincingly for an end to the Thirty Years' War, saying:

Spoils, glory, flags and trumpets! What is behind these high-sounding words? Death and destruction, triumphals of crippled men, Sweden victorious in a ravaged Europe, an island in a dead sea. I tell you, I want no more of it. I want for my people security and happiness. I want to cultivate the arts of peace, the arts of life. I want peace and peace I will have!

Christina, who first took the throne at age six upon the death of her father in battle, is depicted as being so devoted to both governing well and educating herself that she has spurned any kind of serious romance or marriage, despite pressure from her councilors and court to marry her heroic cousin Karl Gustav (Reginald Owen) and produce an heir. One day, in an effort to escape the restrictions of her royal life, she sneaks out of town and ends up at the same inn as Antonio (John Gilbert), a Spanish envoy on his way to the capital. The two talk and become friends, though Antonio thinks Christine is a man because of the way she is dressed. When the innkeeper, who is also unaware of Christine's identity, asks if she will let Antonio share her bed because there is not a room available for him, Christine is unable to come up with a suitable reason to deny the request. In her room, she reveals to Antonio that she is a woman, but not that she is a queen, and they spend the night together. Their tryst is extended by a few days when they become snowbound at the inn.

When the time comes for Christina and Antonio to part, Christina assures Antonio that they will reunite in Stockholm. To his surprise, this occurs when the Spaniard is presented to the Queen, whom he recognizes as his lover. Antonio is initially somewhat hurt and annoyed because he thinks Christina has played a trick on him and compromised his loyalty to the King of Spain, who sent Antonio on this mission to Sweden to present Christina with an offer of marriage on his behalf. She makes it clear that her feelings for Antonio are genuine and that she regularly receives such offers from foreign royalty and has no intention of accepting the King's proposal, and she and Antonio patch things up.

When the scheming Count Magnus (Ian Keith), who had previously had some romantic liaisons with the Queen, rouses the people against the Spaniard, Christina is able to ease tensions for a time, but ultimately she decides to name Karl Gustav as her successor and, in a move that shocks the entire court, abdicate the throne to be with Antonio. When she gets to the boat that is to take Antonio and her to Spain, she finds him gravely wounded from a sword duel with Magnus, which he lost. Antonio dies in her arms, but Christina resolves to proceed with the voyage. She envisions residing in the home Antonio described to her as sitting on white cliffs overlooking the sea.

Near the completion of his sentence in Sing Sing prison, Paul Vitti's life is threatened by assassins and corrupt guards while incarcerated. He starts singing showtunes from ''West Side Story'' to get the attention of Ben Sobel, who previously hung up on him while attending his father's funeral. The FBI calls in Ben to perform psychiatric tests on Paul to determine if he is feigning insanity. After the tests, it appears Paul's mental state is deteriorating, and the FBI approves Paul's release for one month, into Ben's custody, for further therapy. As Ben drives Paul from prison, Paul immediately reveals that he was faking. Ben talks Paul into finding a regular job as requested by the FBI. Paul attempts to find a legitimate job (he tries a car dealer, a restaurant, and a jewelry store), but his rude manners and paranoia only complicate things further. This ends up in him getting fired each time.

At the same time, Paul is told by ''de facto'' boss Patti LoPresti that the Rigazzi family wants him dead. He responds to this by telling the Rigazzis that he is "out" and seeking a new line of employment. He eventually finds employment working as a technical advisor on the set of a mafia TV series. Meanwhile, FBI agents inform Ben that Paul has his former crew back together, and may be planning something major. This rouses Ben's suspicion, and he visits Paul. Both get caught up in a car chase with Rigazzi hitmen, which ends up with Paul escaping. The FBI blames Ben, and gives him 24 hours to locate Paul.

After locating Paul through Ben's son Michael, who is now working as Paul's chauffeur, Ben discovers Paul is planning a big armored car heist with LoPresti as a partner. He attempts to intervene and talk Paul out of it but Paul proceeds and Ben is forced to go along as well. The crew ambushes the armored car with smoke grenades, and lift it over a fence in the midst of the confusion. They extract over $22 million of gold bullion, but LoPresti's thugs take over, revealing themselves to actually have been working for Rigazzi. Ben, in a fit of anger, beats one of them, and Paul's men apprehend the others. They use the gold bullion to frame the Rigazzi family, leaving three Rigazzi goons locked in the armored truck suspended from the crane. This leads to the arrest of the entire Rigazzi family, and in turn, prevents a mob war.

Ben meets with Paul and Jelly near bridges on the New York waterfront, and they part ways again as friends, singing another ''West Side Story'' showtune together. During the credits, bloopers are shown.

In 1806, André Duvalier, a French soldier lost in the Confederation of the Rhine, is saved by Helene, a young woman who bears a resemblance to Ilsa von Leppe, the late wife of Baron von Leppe who died 20 years before. André sets out to investigate Helene's true identity and learns the Baron's darkest secret: after he found Ilsa with another man, the Baron killed his wife while his servant killed her lover.

Over the last two years, the Baron has been tormented by Ilsa's ghost, who has beseeched him to kill himself so that they can be together forever. After much hesitation, the Baron decides to do so and atone for his crimes. Unbeknownst to him, Ilsa's ghost is being commanded to haunt him by a peasant witch named Katrina.

After preventing the Baron from killing himself, André and Stefan, the Baron's major domo, capture Katrina and force her into compliance. Katrina reveals herself to be the mother of a man named Eric, whom she believes that the Baron killed 20 years before. She hopes to avenge Eric's death by damning the Baron's soul to Hell. Stefan reveals that it was the Baron who had died 20 years ago, not Eric, and that Eric felt so guilty about it that he took the Baron's place (thus explaining why the Baron had never left the castle in the past 20 years). Over the years, Eric has convinced himself that he is truly Baron von Leppe.

Realizing her error too late, Katrina goes with André and Stefan to stop Eric from flooding the castle crypt. Katrina's pact with the devil, however, makes her unable to walk on consecrated ground and she ends up burning to death after being struck by lightning.

At the von Leppe castle, Eric floods the crypt as Ilsa's ghost attempts to kill him and Stefan struggles to stop her. By the time that André gains access to the crypt, it is already starting to cave in and he is only able to save Helene. The two share a moment outside the castle before Helene turns into a rotting corpse.

The Phantom is born as Erik in Boscherville, a small town not far from Rouen, in the summer of 1831. His spoiled, vain mother scorns her deformed child from birth, puts a mask on his face, and cannot bring herself to name him. Instead, she instructs the elderly priest who baptises him to name the child after himself. Erik is forced to spend his childhood locked in his home lest he or his mother become a target for the superstitious villagers. Much of the verbal and physical abuse Erik suffers from his mother is chronicled in the opening chapters of the novel.

From a young age, Erik exhibits a strong interest in architecture and is privately tutored by a well-respected professor, but his strongest abilities lie in the subject of music. His mother does not encourage his pursuit of singing, claiming that his supernaturally beautiful voice cannot have been created by God.

At nine years old, Erik runs away from home, believing this will make his mother's life easier. After a week or so without food, he stumbles upon a Romani camp in the woods. Upon seeing his face, a freak show showman named Javert decides to exhibit him as the "Living Corpse" and Erik is locked in a cage. He remains with the tribe until he is about 12 years old, when the showman drunkenly attempts to force himself on him, at which point Erik kills him and is forced to flee.

While performing at a fair in Rome, Erik meets Giovanni, a master mason who takes the boy on as his apprentice. He stays with Giovanni until age 15, when Erik is forced to flee again after inadvertently causing the death of Giovanni's daughter Luciana.

Four years later, he is sought out by Nadir, the Daroga of Mazanderan Court and becomes a court assassin, magician, and personal engineer to the Persian Shah. Responsible for the entertainment of the Khanum, the Shah's mother, he builds sophisticated traps and torture devices for her amusement. In addition, he is involved in the design and construction of a palace for the Shah. After becoming involved in political intrigue, Erik makes his way back to France, where he helps design and build the Palais Garnier Opera House.

The rest of the book loosely follows the original novel ''The Phantom of the Opera'', though the relationship between Christine and Erik is explored in greater detail and with greater compassion than the original novel.

Quark learns from his doctor that he has a rare disease that will kill him within a week. To raise money to pay his debts before he dies, he auctions off his remains, accepting an anonymous bid for 500 bars of gold-pressed latinum. A few hours later, he finds out that his medical exam was in error, and he is not about to die.

The bidder turns out to be Quark's old adversary Brunt, an agent of the Ferengi Commerce Authority. Brunt demands that Quark fulfill his end of the contract by providing his own remains, ignoring Quark's protests that he will live. Quark faces the options of killing himself, having someone kill him, or breaking the contract—an act that will lead to the loss of his business license, confiscation of his family's property, and ostracism by other Ferengi.

Quark decides to honor his contract and attempts to hire ex-spy Elim Garak to kill him. However, he is afraid to approve any of the killing methods that Garak proposes. That night, Quark has a dream in which he meets Gint, the first Grand Nagus of the Ferengi and author of the sacred Rules of Acquisition. Gint tells him the Rules are really only "suggestions" (called "rules" merely for marketing purposes), and advises him to break the contract.

The next morning, Quark refunds Brunt's latinum and breaks the contract. Brunt immediately revokes Quark's business license and seizes all of his assets. To Quark's astonishment, his customers and the crew of Deep Space Nine come to his aid by carrying in all the supplies and equipment he needs to resume operations, on the pretext of using the bar to store furniture while portions of the station are under repair. Even though Quark is cut off from Ferengi society (except for his brother Rom), he is back in business and feeling richer than before due to the friends he never imagined he had.

Meanwhile, the pregnant Keiko O'Brien is injured in a runabout accident; to save both her and the pregnancy, Dr. Bashir performs emergency surgery to transfer the fetus into Major Kira's body. Kira has no problem with being a surrogate mother, but Keiko and her husband Miles are at first uncomfortable with the thought of another woman carrying their child. They eventually come to terms with it, and ask Kira to move in with them so they can be closer to the child.

David Merrill, a director in 1950s Hollywood, returns from abroad to find that a rising tide of McCarthyism and the Red Scare has led to him not being allowed to work in films. He will only be allowed to direct once he implicates colleagues as Communist agents. He must decide whether to turn informant, or to stick to principle at the cost of his life's work.

Nancy Drew is snowed-in at the Wickford Castle Ski Resort in Wisconsin. Not long after she arrived, the castle's historic library was vandalized, and one of the guests was shouting that her room had been robbed. The castle was originally owned by a millionaire who had Marie Antoinette’s tower from the Château Rochemont in France taken apart and rebuilt into Wickford Castle, but the entrance is hidden and sealed off. Nancy needs to explore the castle for clues and find her way into the Queen's tower.

Nancy Drew and her friend Maya Nguyen are at the Royal Palladium theater in St. Louis for the premiere of a new movie ''Vanishing Destiny''. Maya is set to interview the star of the film, Brady Armstrong, for her school's newspaper, but as Maya goes into his dressing room, she is kidnapped. Nancy has to race against time to find Maya and the kidnapper before the theater is demolished in three days.

The film opens to a fictionalized Daniel Defoe being offered to read a castaway's autobiography. He grudgingly obliges and begins to get engrossed in the narrative.

Robinson Crusoe (Pierce Brosnan) is a Scottish gentleman with experience in the Royal Navy and the British army. He accidentally kills his lifelong friend Patrick (Damian Lewis) in a duel over his childhood love Mary. Patrick's brothers arrive and threaten Crusoe, but his page manages to buy time for an escape. Fleeing back to Mary, Crusoe subsequently ends up leaving for a year so that Mary can attempt to smooth over relations with Patrick's family.

Crusoe joins the merchant marine transporting assorted cargoes between ports in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. He chronicles the ship's journeys at the behest of the captain until a typhoon shipwrecks him near the coast of New Guinea.

On his first day ashore on the island he buries other crew members who had washed up on the surrounding beaches. The next day he heads to the ship, which has beached itself on a reef. He salvages tools, supplies and weapons from the ship. Crusoe also frees the captain's corgi Skipper from a supply room. Crusoe begins to acclimate himself to the island while hoping for a passing European ship. One day a ship finally appears, but Crusoe notices it too late to be rescued. Crusoe resolves to acclimate himself to the island and moves inland, building a shelter and growing food.

One day he hears ominous drums and human voices. Investigating the noises he finds a tribe from a nearby island making human sacrifices. After two prisoners have been sacrificed Crusoe intervenes by firing his weapon, which allows the third prisoner (played by William Takaku) to escape. Later he meets the escaped native and attempts to befriend him. Cultural and language barriers prevent him from communicating before they are attacked by a group of the tribesmen. He witnesses the native cut out the heart of a defeated enemy and calls him a savage heathen before fleeing to his shelter and preparing a defence.

Days later Crusoe falls into a snare laid by the native. Crusoe communicates the danger and potency of his firearms on a bat, which allows them to begin communicating. He names the man Friday and has himself referred to as Master. Within six months Friday has learned the basics of English, but when Crusoe attempts to convert him to Christianity, Friday refuses and an argument ensues. Friday separates himself from Crusoe. Missing the companionship, Crusoe attempts to make peace with Friday.

Reunited, the two set a trap for the tribe of natives who attempted to sacrifice Friday before. Once they arrive Crusoe lights a fuse leading to a load of gunpowder, but Skipper chases after the lit fuse and also dies in the explosion. At Skipper's funeral Crusoe gains a deeper appreciation for Friday's religion.

Later Crusoe decides they must leave the island due to an impending attack by the native tribe. Friday mentions that he has heard of New Britain. He says he cannot take Crusoe to his home island because he is considered dead for being a sacrifice and he cannot go to New Britain because the Europeans enslave his people. Friday subsequently learns that "Master" is not Crusoe's real name, but an indicator of enslavement and once again leaves Crusoe, who subsequently attempts to build a canoe to get to New Britain by himself.

A typhoon arrives while Crusoe has nearly finished his boat. Friday returns and accepts that Crusoe had decided not to make him a slave. The two attempt to salvage their crops and wildlife, but the typhoon destroys them – as well as Crusoe's canoe. The pair set traps to defend the island, but expect to die in the defense.

The tribesmen arrive in force. Crusoe and Friday manage to defend the island, but Crusoe is shot by an arrow. Friday decides to try to save Crusoe by taking him to his home island. Upon arriving there Friday's tribe capture Crusoe, believing him to have come to enslave the people. They force Crusoe to fight Friday to the death for his freedom. After sparing Friday, Crusoe demands his friend kill him so that he may live. Suddenly, a group of European slavers arrive, killing Friday. Crusoe is rescued, but is devastated by Friday's death. The slavers tend to Crusoe's wounds, and bring him to Lisbon. From there, he sails home, and is reunited with Mary.

Daniel Defoe tells his publisher that he must write Crusoe's story.

The show begins with shots introducing the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, home of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. Lorelai is a 32-year-old single mother who is so close to her 15-year-old daughter, Rory, that many people mistake them for sisters. The show opens at the local diner Luke's, run by Luke Danes, where the girls go every morning. Lorelai has a special relationship with the owner and an addiction to caffeine. She squares off with the owner on a daily basis over just how much coffee she's allowed to have. While getting coffee, an unsuspecting male hits on both of the Gilmore girls, separately. This displays some of the quirky problems the Gilmore girls have. Clearly, there are hazards in being a mother and daughter pair so close in age.

Next, the scene shifts to Lorelai working at the Independence Inn. There's Michel Gerard, a rude French man who runs the front desk, an unbelievably sassy harp player, and Sookie St. James, the chef. Meanwhile, we find out that Rory is the kind of girl who is more interested in academic pursuits and reading Gustave Flaubert's novel ''Madame Bovary'', than worrying about clothes and boys. But unbeknownst to Rory there is a new guy in town, and he has his eyes set on her. Rory and her best friend, Lane Kim hang out after school and discuss an upcoming teen hayride. Rory wouldn't be caught dead at the event, but Lane has strict parents who are trying to set her up with the son of a business colleague.

The real story is that Rory hears she has been accepted to the exclusive prep school Chilton, which typically means guaranteed admission to Harvard. Rory is psyched, but Lorelai gets a rude awakening: the school wants a pricey enrollment fee in addition to first semester's tuition. And they want it pronto. Lorelai doesn't have the money, but can't bear the thought of disappointing her daughter. The only thing left for her to do is ask her wealthy parents. But that's not such an easy task since Lorelai's relationship with her parents is beyond strained. As a teenager, Lorelai didn't exactly fulfill her parents' high expectations. Lorelai does indeed end up asking her parents for money, where she receives quite the chilly reception. When she asks for the money, they agree, since it is really for Rory, but have one minor condition. Lorelai's mother, Emily, demands that she get to see her daughter and granddaughter once a week. That means dinner every Friday night. Lorelai hesitates, but agrees.

At school, Rory is explaining to Lane about Chilton when she bumps into Dean Forester, the new kid from Chicago who has been eyeing Rory. They talk and Rory begins to really like Dean. Just how hard she falls for him isn't revealed until later when she tells her mom that she doesn't want to go to Chilton anymore. Lorelai is confused and astounded, but Rory doesn't back down. When the truth comes out, Lorelai flips out and says she will not allow her daughter to throw her life away for some random guy. Rory is going to Chilton whether she wants to or not.

When the Gilmore girls go to the grandparents' house for dinner, the whole night turns into a big disaster. Lorelai's father starts talking about Rory's dad, Christopher, and all the success he has had with his Internet startup in California. This causes Lorelai to have a mini-breakdown. She and Emily end up fighting in the kitchen, and Rory overhears every word... including the part about paying for Chilton. When it's all over, Rory recognizes her mom's bravery and agrees to go to Chilton. The episode ends with the Gilmore Girls sitting in Luke's diner talking.

Lucas Corso is a middle-aged book dealer with a reputation of doing anything—regardless of legality—for his privileged clientele. While in Madrid attempting to authenticate a previously unknown partial draft of ''The Three Musketeers'', he is summoned to Toledo by Varo Borja, a notoriously eccentric and wealthy collector.

Borja has obtained a copy of a legendary book, ''Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows'', whose author was burned at the stake by the Inquisition. The book purportedly contains instructions for summoning the Devil. Only one copy of the book is supposed to have survived, but Borja claims three exist, two of which are elaborate forgeries. He hires Corso to compare the three copies and obtain the legitimate one by any means necessary. He promises to pay handsomely and cover all expenses.

Corso agrees, but continues to research the partial Dumas draft. The widow of the draft's previous owner, Liana Taillefer, insists the draft is a fake, but offers to buy it from Corso. After several encounters, she attempts to seduce Corso to obtain the draft; when he succumbs to her charms but refuses to surrender the manuscript, she becomes his enemy. She imagines herself as Milady de Winter, and uses a male associate (whom Corso nicknames "Rochefort") to follow Corso and attempt to retrieve the manuscript by force.

Corso confers with the Ceniza Brothers, book restoration experts with extensive knowledge of forgery. They give him basic knowledge to help him compare the copies of ''The Nine Doors''.

On his way to Lisbon to visit the owner of one of the copies, he encounters a beautiful blonde with striking green eyes. She identifies herself as "Irene Adler", and suggests that she is a fallen angel. They part company before he meets with Victor Fargas. Fargas is a renowned collector who has been selling off his extensive library to maintain his ancestral mansion. Corso compares Fargas' copy of ''The Nine Doors'' to Borja's, and finds subtle differences in the illustration plates. Most bear the initials of the book's notorious author, but some of the plates bear the initials "L.F."

As Corso returns to his hotel, "Irene" guards Corso against an attack by "Rochefort". Corso leaves her to arrange a robbery of Fargas' mansion to obtain his copy of the book. "Irene" informs him that Fargas has been murdered and his copy has been burned. She and Corso leave for Paris.

Corso confers with Replinger, an antiquarian and Dumas scholar, who authenticates the Dumas manuscript. As they talk, Corso spies Liana. He returns to his hotel and bribes the concierge to locate her hotel. "Irene" visits him, and they discuss theology; she implies that she is a witness to the events of the War in Heaven.

Corso visits Baroness Ungern, whose charitable institution possesses the largest occult collection in Europe, including the third copy of ''The Nine Doors''. They discuss the book's author, before Corso blackmails her with photo evidence of her Nazi sympathies so she will let him examine her copy. "Irene" calls to warn Corso that "Rochefort" is waiting outside. The Baroness translates the illustration captions while Corso compares Ungern's copy to Borja's.

Later, Corso realizes that, while none of the three sets match each other, the plates bearing the initials "L.F." form a complete set of nine without duplications, and realizes the nine illustrations form a list of instructions for the famed summoning ritual. "Rochefort" attacks again, and is again repelled by "Irene".

Using the concierge's information, Corso confronts Liana and her associate, but "Rochefort" renders him unconscious. When he revives, Borja's copy and the Dumas manuscript are gone. He learns that the Baroness has been killed in a fire at her library.

Using Liana's obsession with Milady de Winter, he traces her to Meung, where he is captured by "Rochefort". "Rochefort" is instructed by a man calling himself "Richelieu" to bring Corso to a nearby castle. "Richelieu" introduces him to the Club Dumas, a literary society of wealthy Dumas enthusiasts, who are gathered for their annual banquet. Corso is astonished to find that they only want to see the Dumas manuscript, and know nothing about ''The Nine Doors''. He is invited to stay for the party, but chooses to leave.

Corso returns to Spain to confront Borja. "Irene" insists that she is a fallen angel who has wandered the earth for millennia searching for him. Corso does not question this, and finds himself even more strongly attracted to her. He accuses Borja of being responsible for both murders. Borja, intending to use the ritual described by the book's true nine plates to summon the Devil and gain ultimate knowledge, has destroyed his entire library to prevent others from following his lead. Corso demands payment, but Borja ignores him and begins the ritual. Corso leaves in disgust; as he leaves, he hears Borja's screams of anguish as the ritual goes awry, remembering the Ceniza Brothers' discourse on false books and realizing one of the plates is a forgery. He joins "Irene" outside, and surmises that each of them will get the devil they deserve.

The lives of two leading families of Singapore, the Dexters and the Soongs, become intertwined when John Dexter falls in love with Julie Soong.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p241 Action takes place between the years 1935 and 1948.

Notable cast members included Christopher Bowen, Khym Lam, Anthony Calf, Gary Sweet, John Jarratt, Anne-Louise Lambert, Penne Hackforth-Jones, Lewis Fiander, Bryan Marshall, Betty Lucas, Wallas Eaton, Darren Yap and Anthony Wong.

The series is based on the novel, ''Tanamera'', by Noel Barber. Tanamera is the name of the house built by Grandpa Jack, the patriarch of the Dexter family. Tanamera is derived from ''Tanah Merah'', Malay for Red Earth. The grounds of the huge Tanamera bungalow consisted largely of red soil.

After Snoopy defeats Peppermint Patty at football, he celebrates with a dance party ("Flashbeagle").

At school, Peppermint Patty leads her gym class in a workout ("Peppermint Patty's PE Program (I'm in Shape)")

Charlie Brown and Sally host a party, where everyone begins a game of "Simon Says" until Lucy takes charge ("Lucy Says"). Afterwards, the kids dance to a song about Pigpen ("Pigpen Hoedown").

The next morning, Snoopy is sleeping when Charlie Brown berates him for oversleeping while others work.

Later that day, Snoopy decides on an outfit for a night on the town and heads to a discothèque with Franklin, where his dance moves are met with acclaim from the other club-goers ("Flashbeagle (1st Reprise)"). When he heads home exhausted from his performance, Charlie Brown takes notice and can't believe what his dog has done and become.

The ''next'' morning, Sally takes a groggy Snoopy to school for Show and Tell. After 5 talks about his pet chameleon, Sally's turn comes, but Snoopy is still exhausted. However, 5 berates Snoopy for just sitting there asleep. He changes all of that by turning on his boom box, causing Snoopy to awaken and dance, and the children gradually join in ("Flashbeagle (2nd Reprise)").

Charlie Brown tells Sally that he should do something about his dog's behavior. Sally disagrees because, thanks to Snoopy, she got an "A" (for the first time) for Show and Tell.

21st century Hong Kong

Hong Siu-lung is a 21st-century VIPPU special agent in Hong Kong. In the first episode, Hong and his colleagues stand guard at an exhibition of the First Emperor's Terracotta Army. One of Hong's colleagues notices that one of the terracotta warriors bears a striking resemblance to Hong. Moments later, wealthy businessman Lee Siu-chiu is attacked and held hostage at the museum by a madman who had suffered losses in the stock market. Hong rescues Lee and defuses the crisis.

Hong is unhappy despite his success in his career. He has just broken up with his girlfriend, Chun Ching, after a seven-year-long relationship. She insisted that they wed but he preferred to continue their relationship without a proper marriage. Chun married another man and Hong becomes depressed.

Time travelling

Impressed with Hong's rescue attempt, Lee Siu-chiu and Doctor Wu Yau recruit him for a secret time-travelling experiment. Hong agrees to help them in exchange for an opportunity to travel back in time to salvage his failed relationship with Chun Ching. He is tasked to travel back more than two thousand years to the Qin dynasty, half an hour prior to the coronation of Ying Ching in 247 BC, and document the event with a digital camera before a swift departure. However, a critical error occurs during the traveling stage and Hong is sent further back in time three years earlier than originally planned. He is now trapped in the Zhao state of the Warring States period in 250 BC.

In order to return to the future, Hong has to make an arduous journey across thousands of miles in ancient China to activate a device at a specific location and time. He was warned that making even a slight change in the grand scheme of events will trigger a chain reaction of catastrophes that will alter history.

Warring States Period

Hong enjoys a series of adventures in history. His knowledge of the 21st century, intelligence and experience as an elite special agent, as well as his prowess in martial arts, enables him to make a strong stand in history. He enters the service of various lords and nobles, and becomes a valuable ally to them. Concurrently, he becomes involved in romantic relationships with four women. The first, Sin-yau, is a wandering female assassin and the first person he meets after travelling back in time. The second, Wu Ting-fong, is the beautiful but spoiled daughter of a wealthy noble. The third is a pretty female scholar named Kam Ching, who resembles his 21st century girlfriend Chun Ching in appearance and shares a similar name (completely homophonic in Standard Mandarin). The last is Princess Chiu Sin, the daughter of the king of Zhao, who dies in a tragic incident later. He also befriends the king's sister Chiu Nga and her son Chiu Poon. Meanwhile, he foils the evil plans of Chiu Muk, a secret agent from the Chu state, and becomes Chiu's enemy. Chiu Muk's henchman Lin Chun also sees Hong as his greatest rival.

Destiny

Ying sees Hong as a valuable ally in his future endeavors and wants to retain him as an adviser. However, Hong begins to feel regret when he sees the evil creation of his efforts, fulfilling the predestination paradox. He is aware that he is not destined to leave his mark in history and refuses to stay in the imperial court. He leaves with Wu Ting-Fong and Kam Ching, who are both happily married to him at last. Ying sends his troops to pursue Hong and eventually decides to exile Hong and decrees that the name "Hong Siu-lung" shall henceforth be purged from history. All books and historical records pertaining to Hong are ordered to be destroyed, which leads to Qin Shihuang's notorious practice of the burning of books and burying of scholars.

Hong and his family find paradise in the plains far from the urban regions. Hong and Wu Ting-Fong have a son. In the final moments of the last episode, Hong's son tells him he wants to change his name from Bowie to Hong Yu, a man who historically become a prominent military general who overthrew the Qin dynasty but has a tragic end as he became a dictator. Hong then exclaims in English "Shit!"

At the start of the film Malcolm is working for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (then operator of Melbourne's trams). Autistic Malcolm is obsessed with trams, but he is also a mechanical genius whose modest inner-city cottage is fitted with a variety of remarkable gadgets. When his boss (Bud Tingwell) discovers that Malcolm has built himself a cut-down tram during work time and using work materials, and has taken it out on the tracks, Malcolm is sacked. With his mother dead and no other income, the local shop-owner advises him to take in a boarder, Frank (John Hargreaves). Frank's brassy girlfriend Judith (Lindy Davies) soon moves in with him, and Frank reveals that he is a petty criminal who has recently been released from gaol. Despite their differences, the trio develop an awkward friendship, and when Malcolm learns of Frank and Jude's plans to stage a robbery, he decides to use his technical ingenuity to help them. In his first demonstration, he shows Frank the "getaway car" he has built, which splits into two independently powered halves, and they use this to successfully elude police after Frank steals some cash from a bank customer.

For his next demonstration, Malcolm stages a near-successful hold-up of a payroll delivery, using a radio-controlled model car and trailer, fitted with a video camera, a speaker, and a gun loaded with blanks with which to threaten the guards. Frank walks in on Malcolm's bedroom "control centre" while the robbery is in progress; joining in, he helps Malcolm to steal the cash, although it is eventually lost when the planned getaway route (through a street drain) proves too small and the bag of cash is knocked off the trailer.

The trio then devises an audacious plot to steal the weekly $250,000 cash delivery from a major bank, and Malcolm collaborates with Frank and Jude to create a set of ingenious inventions. They plant a set of armed, remote-controlled motorised robot rubbish bins inside the bank, which are then secretly manoeuvered up to an overhead walkway between the two bank buildings. When the guards cross the walkway with the cash on a trolley, they are bailed up by the robot bins. With Frank's specially modified Ford Transit delivery van, stationed below, a spring-loaded arm fitted with a hammer swings up, breaks the glass of the walkway window, and the robots push the cash into a chute fitted into the roof of the van. The trio then make their escape, stopping in a lane to disguise the van as an ice-cream truck; they also set loose a Ned Kelly-like dummy in a radio-controlled wheelchair, armed with two shotguns, which they send out as a decoy for the police while they make their escape. They manage to elude the pursuing police, but they are nearly caught when two officers on a routine patrol pull up beside them and ask them for an ice-cream. Frank speeds away, with the police in hot pursuit, and they now employ their backup getaway plan. They dump the van in a suburban street and decamp on foot, but when the police arrive moments later and scan the area for the fugitives, they see only the back of a tram, pulling away into the distance. However, when we see the front of the tram, it is revealed to be Malcolm's custom-made mini-tram, with the trio and their loot aboard.

In the final scene, Frank is leaving a bank in Lisbon, Portugal (another city with a major tram network) where he has just deposited the proceeds of the Melbourne robbery. He then meets up with Malcolm and Jude at a local cafe, and as the film concludes they lay plans for another daring robbery.

As with his previous novels, Richardson prefaced the novel by claiming to be merely the editor, saying, "How such remarkable collections of private letters fell into the editor's hand he hopes the reader will not think it very necessary to enquire". However, Richardson did not keep his authorship secret and, on the prompting of his friends like Samuel Johnson, dropped this framing device from the second edition.

The novel begins with the character of Harriet Byron leaving the house of her uncle, George Selby, to visit Mr. and Mrs. Reeves, her cousins, in London. She is an orphan who was educated by her grandparents, and, though she lacks parents, she is heir to a fortune of fifteen thousand pounds, which causes many suitors to pursue her. In London, she is pursued by three suitors: Mr. Greville, Mr. Fenwick, and Mr. Orme. This courtship is followed by more suitors: Mr. Fowler, Sir Rowland Meredith, and Sir Hargrave Pollexfen. The final one, Pollexfen, pursues Byron vigorously, which causes her to criticise him over a lack of morals and decency of character. However, Pollexfen does not end his pursuits of Byron until she explains that she could never receive his visits again.

Pollexfen, unwilling to be without Byron, decides to kidnap her while she attended a masquerade ball at the Haymarket. She is then imprisoned at Lisson Grove with the support of a widow and two daughters. While he keeps her prisoner, Pollexfen makes it clear to her that she shall be his wife, and that anyone who challenges that will die by his hand. Byron attempts to escape from the house, but this fails. To prevent her from trying to escape again, Pollexfen transports Byron to his home at Windsor. However, he is stopped at Hounslow Heath, where Charles Grandison hears Byron's pleas for help and immediately attacks Pollexfen. After this rescue, Grandison takes Byron to Colnebrook, the home of Grandison's brother-in-law, the "Earl of L.".

After Pollexfen recovers from the attack, he sets out to duel Grandison. However, Grandison refuses on the grounds that dueling is harmful to society. After explaining why obedience to God and society are important, Grandison wins Pollexfen over and obtains his apology to Byron for his actions. She accepts his apology, and he follows with a proposal to marriage. She declines because she, as she admits, is in love with Grandison. However, a new suitor, the Earl of D, appears, and it emerges that Grandison promised himself to an Italian woman, Signorina Clementina della Porretta. As Grandison explains, he was in Italy years before and rescued the Barone della Porretta and a relationship developed between himself and Clementina, the baron's only daughter. However, Grandison could not marry her, as she demanded that he, an Anglican Protestant, become a Catholic, and he was unwilling to do so. After he left, she grew ill out of despair, and the Porrettas were willing to accept his religion, if he would return and make Clementina happy once more. Grandison, feeling obligated to do what he can to restore Clementina's happiness, returns to Italy; however, Clementina determines she can never marry a "heretic", and so Grandison returns to England and Harriet who accepts him. They are married; and everyone is accorded their just deserts.

In a "Concluding Note" to ''Grandison'', Richardson writes: "It has been said, in behalf of many modern fictitious pieces, in which authors have given success (and ''happiness'', as it is called) to their heroes of vicious if not profligate characters, that they have exhibited Human Nature as it ''is''. Its corruption may, indeed, be exhibited in the faulty character; but need pictures of this be held out in books? Is not vice crowned with success, triumphant, and rewarded, and perhaps set off with wit and spirit, a dangerous representation?" In particular, Richardson is referring to novels of Fielding, his literary rival. This note was published with the final volume of ''Grandison'' in March 1754, a few months before Fielding left for Lisbon. Before Fielding died in Lisbon, he included a response to Richardson in his preface to ''Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon''.

Cat Storm is a teenager attending an elite preparatory school in 1980s Manhattan. Cat begins to fall in with the popular crowd at her prep school, abandoning her longtime friend, Delilah, who is expelled from the school. Cat surrounds herself with some of the school's most popular students, befriending Grace, an English exchange student, and attending holiday parties held by Peg which are often frequented by Kenny, an ephebophile who supplies cocaine to the teenagers and tries to have sex with the young men.

Amidst struggles at home between her divorced parents, Cat becomes attracted to William Sellers, a delinquent who comes from an abusive household, and who also is significantly less wealthy than his peers. William and Cat pursue a brief relationship, which he ends, leaving Cat distraught. After some of Cat's anti-semitic friends find out her father is Jewish, she is ostracized, and only accepted by the prim Eloise, who befriends her.

Hearing about a party hosted by Delilah on the beach in The Hamptons, Cat goes to stay the night with Eloise at her house, using it as an opportunity to attend the party. There, she confronts Delilah, and the two argue about Cat abandoning her, but make up. Delilah walks to a nearby gay bar operated by Kenny, where she tries to find a ride back to the city for her and Cat. While there, she stumbles upon William receiving oral sex from a male drug dealer. William chases after Delilah and confronts her in the woods on her way back to the beach, and the two get into an argument. He pushes her, causing her to hit her head on a rock. Delilah screams at him and threatens to press charges, and, in a panic, he beats her to death.

The following morning, after searching for Delilah, Cat discovers that Delilah's body has been found and William arrested. After school that afternoon, the paparazzi and reporters interview the students with questions about Delilah, and they all deem her "reckless" and have little to say of her. The film ends with Cat and her mother resolving their own familial conflict and her mother apologizing to her in Central Park.

Mary (nicknamed Mouse) is a new student at the all girls' boarding school, and dorms with Pauline (nicknamed Paulie) and Victoria (nicknamed Tori). In an effort to get the shy Mary to break out of her shell, Paulie and Tori involve her in their activities, such as running in the mornings. When they hear that Mary's mother has died, Paulie nicknames her "Mary Brave."

Mary observes the intimacy between her two dorm mates. Peering out a window at night, she sees them kissing on a roof. Paulie and Tori's relationship is close and Paulie is full of life. At one point she turns a quiet afternoon on the campus into a music-blasting dance party and spikes the punch. In another moment, she defends Victoria from a frustrated math teacher who humiliates her when she does not understand basic math.

When the three are running one day, Paulie comes across a hurt falcon, which she befriends. After reading up on falcons, she trains the animal. While she is tending to the falcon, Mary and Tori come across some boys from the nearby boys school. One flirts with Tori, asking if she will be attending her brother's 18th birthday party and making it clear that he likes her. When Mary and Tori are alone, Tori expresses disgust at the boy's interest in her, saying, "He liked my tits." When Mary asks if she'll go to the party, Tori says, "And have all those gross guys groping me? I'd rather stay home."

Over time, Paulie and Tori become more comfortable showing affection in front of Mary. It progresses from a quick kiss on the lips in front of her, to the two sharing a bed while Mary is sleeping.

One morning, Tori's sister and friends rush into the room to wake up the older girls. Paulie is lying in Tori's bed, and it is clear that the two are topless. Horrified silence falls over everyone, and Paulie unconvincingly claims she was in bed with Tori because the latter has nightmares.

Mary pushes Tori's sister out of the room and closes the door. Tori angrily tells Paulie to get out of her bed. When confronted by her sister, she tries to extinguish her sister's suspicions by telling her Paulie has an unrequited crush on her and crawled into her bed. Her sister promises to "fix" the rumors about Tori and not tell their parents anything. As she walks away from this conversation, Tori collapses into tears.

In the library, Tori explains to Mary that her family, her parents and her sister, are strongly homophobic, and she must stop the relationship to prevent their rejection. Mary sympathizes with both of her friends, as she too feels rejected by her father, who does not bother to show up to a father/daughter dance. The break up is not clean, Paulie degenerates into abusive behavior, like destroying a mirror and thrashing a dish cart to the floor. She is sent further over the edge after receiving a letter from the agency that handled her adoption saying that her birth mother refused a request from Paulie to get in touch. Meanwhile, Tori dates the guy she met from the boys school and hardly speaks to Paulie.

Tori has sex with her boyfriend, which prompts Paulie to declare a duel with him. After she kicks his leg, during a fencing match, throwing him to the ground, she demands that he give up her queen. When he brushes her off, she stabs him in the leg. Mary rushes to stop her. Paulie then runs off. Mary runs to Victoria's soccer match, which is being watched by the principal and the main teacher. Just after reaching the group, Mary sees Paulie, sobbing from the top of a building. Crying out for her beloved, she jumps to her death.

Joan (Purviance) and Magdalen (Sothern) are the daughters of a fisherman in Monterey. Magdalen is engaged to Peter (Bloomer), a lowly fisher, until a writer (Whitman) comes to town. Both Joan and Magdalen fancy the writer, but Magdalen wins him over in the end and he takes her back to the big city. Joan and Peter then marry and stay in Monterey. Many years later, Magdalen returns and attempts to break up her sister's marriage, only to fail.

A meteorite crashes near Arborville, California. An elderly vagabond discovers, within the sphere, a massive slime mold-like substance that adheres to his hand. Three high school students, Brian, Meg and Paul, take him to a hospital. After Brian leaves, Paul witnesses the lower half of the rescued man melting from exposure to the Blob. As he calls for help, the Blob drops on top of him. Meg arrives to see Paul being consumed by the growing Blob. She tries freeing him, but his arm dissolves off. Meg is thrown against a wall and knocked unconscious. The Blob fully dissolves Paul and oozes out of the hospital.

After Brian and Meg have unsatisfactory encounters with the police, they meet at a diner where Meg tells Brian about the Blob. Brian's disbelief is shattered when the diner's handyman George is violently pulled into the sink's drain; killing him. The increasingly large creature pursues them to the diner's walk-in freezer, but it retreats after entering the freezer. After consuming the diner's owner Fran Hewitt and Sheriff Geller, the Blob reenters the sewers. Meg and Brian return to the police station, where the dispatcher tells them Deputy Briggs is near the meteor-landing site. They discover a military operation led by a scientist, Dr. Meddows, who orders the town and the two teens quarantined. While Brian escapes, Meg is taken to town where she learns her younger brother, Kevin had snuck into the movie theater with his friend Eddie. The Blob enters the theater, killing several staff and audience members. Meg arrives as the audience flees the theater, rescuing Eddie and Kevin.

Brian learns the Blob is a biological warfare experiment created during the Cold War; it grew into a mixture of bacteria mutated from outer space radiation. Meddows decides to trap the Blob in the sewers even if that means allowing Meg, Kevin, and Eddie to die. Brian manages to evade military personnel by driving his motorcycle into the sewers when he is found. Meg and Kevin flee from the Blob in the sewers; unfortunately, Eddie is consumed. Kevin escapes by scaling a pipe to the surface while Meg is saved by Brian. Meddows allows a militray truck to park on top of a manhole cover, trapping the teens. Brian uses a rocket launcher from a deceased soldier to blow up the truck freeing himself and Meg. He confronts Meddows in front of the townsfolk and Briggs. Meddows attempts to convince everyone Brian is contaminated and must die. When the plan fails, Meddows tries to shoot Brian, only for his own creation to kill him via oozing into his chemical suit and violently dragging him into the sewer. The military attempts to blow it up with grenades and other explosives. Unfortunately, this only succeeds in enraging the creature as it bursts from the sewers and feasts on the population. Reverend Meeker proclaims the scene to be the prophesied end of the world, after which a failed flamethrower attack sets him ablaze. Meg saves him with a fire extinguisher and also shoots the Blob with it. When the creature backs off, she realizes it cannot tolerate cold.

The survivors retreat to the town hall and hold the Blob off with furniture-barricades and fire extinguishers, but it is a losing battle; it engulfs half the building and devours Briggs. Brian goes to the town's garage and gets a snow maker truck that has canisters of liquid nitrogen attached. As the Blob is about to consume Meg and her family, Brian shoots snow at it. Angered, the Blob turns its attention towards him and knocks the truck over in retaliation; also knocking him unconscious. Meg lures the Blob away from Brian toward the canisters, which she has rigged with an explosive charge taken from a dying soldier. She snags her foot between two pieces of metal. Brian regains consciousness and runs over to free her. The Blob is about to overrun them both when the charge goes off, blowing up the canisters and covering the Blob in liquid nitrogen. The creature is successfully flash-frozen into a mass of crystallized pieces. Moss Woodley has the remains stored in the town icehouse.

Later, at a tent-meeting church service in a field, Meeker, disfigured by his burns and secretly driven insane, preaches a doomsday sermon resembling the Blob's attack. An elderly woman asks him when the day of judgement will arrive. Meeker replies "soon, my sister. The Lord will give me a sign.", revealing he has a still-living piece of the Blob, trapped inside a glass jar.

Jack DeVries (Chris Mulkey), a quiet citizen with no criminal past, robs a Los Angeles Wells Fargo bank, kills all of the security guards inside, and leads the Los Angeles Police Department on a high-speed chase. The chase ends when DeVries encounters a police blockade overseen by Detective Thomas Beck (Michael Nouri). DeVries is shot several times, smashes through the blockade and crashes the Ferrari he is driving. DeVries is taken to a hospital, where a doctor informs Beck and his partner, Det. Cliff Willis (Ed O'Ross) that DeVries is not expected to survive the night.

Upon his return to LAPD headquarters, Beck and his supervisor, Lt. John Masterson (Clarence Felder), meet FBI Special Agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), who informs them that Beck has been assigned to work with Gallagher to track down DeVries. When told of DeVries's condition, Gallagher rushes off to the hospital.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, DeVries suddenly awakens. Disconnecting his life-support equipment, he approaches the comatose man in the next bed, Jonathan P. Miller (William Boyett). After DeVries forces Miller's mouth open, a slug-like alien emerges from DeVries' mouth and transfers itself into Miller's body. Gallagher arrives to find DeVries dead on the floor and Miller's bed abandoned. Gallagher tells Beck to put out an alert on Miller, but Beck refuses, because Miller has no criminal record.

Miller goes to a record store where he beats the store's owner to death. He then goes to a car dealership, where he kills three men and steals a red Ferrari. He then visits a strip club, where the alien leaves Miller's body and takes over the body of a stripper named Brenda (Claudia Christian). Gallagher asks police to track Brenda when he sees her picture next to Miller's body. Brenda is then propositioned by a cat-caller, she accepts and follows him to his car. They proceed to have vehicular sex in a parking lot which results in his death. She then takes his car. Gallagher and Beck pursue her to a rooftop, where they mortally wound her in a gun battle. As Brenda dies, Gallagher points a strangely-shaped, alien weapon at her; however, she leaps from the roof. As Masterson arrives from his house to take charge of the scene, the alien transfers itself from Brenda's dying body to Masterson's dog.

Frustrated by Gallagher's continuing refusal to explain the strange phenomenon of ordinary citizens turning into crazed killers, Beck arrests him and puts him in a jail cell. Beck soon learns that "Gallagher" is an imposter, impersonating the real agent Gallagher, who is dead. When Beck confronts "Gallagher" with this information, "Gallagher" tells him that he ("Gallagher") is an extraterrestrial lawman and that they are in fact pursuing an alien thrill killer who has the ability to take over human bodies. Beck dismisses the story as insane and leaves "Gallagher" incarcerated in a jail cell at the police station.

Back at Masterson's house, the alien leaves the dog's body and enters Masterson. In the morning, Masterson goes to the police station and seizes a number of weapons, sparking a shootout between himself and the station's police officers as he attempts to track down "Gallagher". Convinced of "Gallagher's" story due to Masterson's immunity to excessive bullet wounds, Beck releases him from his cell, and the two confront Masterson. During the resulting shootout, Masterson confirms that "Gallagher" is an alien law enforcer named Alhague who has been pursuing the alien ever since it murdered his family and his partner on another planet. (When Alhague first came to Earth, he inhabited the body of Robert Stone—a park ranger—then assumed the identity of Lloyd Gallagher after the real Gallagher was killed in a fire.) Though Beck manages to stop Masterson, Alhague/Gallagher reveals that his weapon cannot kill the alien when it is inside a human body as the weapon does not work on human skin, thus requiring him to be present when it is transferring hosts. They are unable to stop the alien from abandoning Masterson's body for that of Beck's partner Willis, who then escapes the station.

Using Willis' credentials, the alien tries to gain access to Senator Holt (John McCann), a likely presidential candidate, at the hotel where the senator is staying. Alhague/Gallagher and Beck follow Willis, and a shootout ensues between Beck and Willis, during which Beck is severely wounded. As Willis, the alien corners Senator Holt and enters his body before Alhague/Gallagher can stop him. "Holt" then calls a press conference and announces his candidacy for the presidency. Alhague/Gallagher is forced to attack Holt in the middle of the press conference; though shot several times by the police and the senator's bodyguards, Alhague/Gallagher is able to get close enough to use a flamethrower on Holt. As the alien emerges from Holt's charred body shocking everybody, before collapsing Alhague/Gallagher kills it with his weapon.

Taken to the hospital where Beck is being treated, Alhague/Gallagher discovers that Beck is close to death. Witnessing the emotional suffering of Beck's wife and daughter, Alhague/Gallagher transfers his life force from Gallagher to Beck as Beck dies. When she sees her miraculously "recovered" father, Beck's daughter initially hesitates when he reaches out to her, but then smiles and takes his hand.

The film features two parallel stories. The first one is set in an unknown past time and is about a young man (Clémenti) who wanders in a volcanic landscape (shot around Etna) and turns into a cannibal. The man joins forces with a thug (Citti) and ravages the countryside. At the end, he and his gang get arrested and at his execution, he recites the famous tagline of the film: "I killed my father, I ate human flesh and I quiver with joy." The story is about the human capacity of destruction and a rebellion against the social prerequisites implied against it.

The second story is about Herr Klotz (Lionelli), a German industrialist and his young son Julian (Léaud) who live in 1960s Germany. Julian, instead of passing time with his radically politicised ''fiancée'' Ida (Wiazemsky), prefers to build relationships with pigs. Herr Klotz, on the other hand, with his loyal aide Hans Guenther (Ferreri), tries to solve his rivalry with fellow industrialist Herdhitze (Tognazzi). The two industrialists join forces while Julian gets eaten by pigs in the sty. Herdhitze intends to conceal the event. The story attempts to provide a link between the Third Reich and Wirtschaftswunder Germany.

James Tock was born in Snow County Hospital in Colorado and at the exact moment his grandfather, Josef Tock, a pastry chef, dies of a stroke. Though crippled by a stroke earlier in the week, moments before his death, Josef recovers miraculously to impart on his son Rudy ten cryptic predictions: among them that his grandchild will be named James—but that everyone will call him Jimmy. Josef also predicts five terrible days to come in his grandson's life. Coherent though his bizarre speech may be, Josef Tock does not recover from this event, but expires just as the baby is born.

Earlier in the evening, Rudy Tock made the acquaintance of a strange man, Konrad Beezo. Beezo is a clown for the very circus Tock's pass is for, and is a fitful, spiteful, creepy, chain-smoking individual half in his clown costume. His wife Natalie, a trapeze artist of some renown and born of a good family, is lying in childbirth, says he, and her relatives have virtually disowned her for marrying him. He speaks glowingly of his soon-to-be-born son, who is to be named "Punchinello", and will carry on the fine tradition of clowning. He speaks venomously of his father-in-law, using many colorful epithets.

Tock is only too grateful to leave Beezo. However, the grief for his father's death was short-lived. Beezo, upon learning Natalie died in childbirth, goes insane ranting about her family sending assassins to kill her and begins shooting, killing a doctor and a nurse. Tock, in perhaps the one moment of heroism in his meek baker's life, convinces the mad clown his enemies have left, and momentarily quells his anger.

Jimmy Tock writes the book, a loose autobiography of personal experience, reminisces, and second- or even third-hand accounts of events, transcribing it from a series of tapes on the eve of his fifth and final terrible day. The narrative is given in an often self-deprecating, comically understated manner. However, certain experiences stand out starkly, most noticeably blundering into a harrowing, yet almost surreal, bank robbery by a trio of plastique-wielding crazed history buff clowns led by none other than Punchinello Beezo—in which Jimmy gradually realizes he's falling for a comely fellow hostage and a dangerous game of chicken with a severely disturbed stalker on an icy road the night his wife Lorrie, the former fellow hostage is about to deliver their first child (on the second predicted date). The man after the Tocks is none other than Konrad Beezo himself, looking for retribution for his imprisoned, and accidentally-gelded son. His mad obsession with the family frames both this terrible day and the next predicted day for Beezo desires a male Tock child as his prize, a new son to raise in the fine clown tradition. The lunatic will do whatever he must to collect what he believes due him, including numerous facial reconstructive surgeries to assume new identities and escape the grasp of the law. Jimmy believes that everyone in the world is tenebrously yet inexorably connected to one another, just as his toes were at birth. This phenomenon is often called "Six degrees of separation". Punchinello, who is currently imprisoned, is asked by Jimmy and Lorrie, who aided in his conviction and sentencing, to donate one of his kidneys to help save the life of Annie Tock, the daughter of Jimmy and Lorrie. Punchinello only agrees to the donation in return for multiple favors that are frivolous by comparison to the precious kidney. As the deal is about to be complete, Punchinello asks that Jimmy kills Virgilio Vivacemente as one last favor.

As the prophecies are fulfilled one by one, and he survives each, Jimmy learns many things about himself—as well as Konrad, Natalie, Punchinello, and Konrad's father-in-law, Virgilio Vivacemente, the vain, sadistic patriarch of the world-famous acrobatic clan who casts his long shadow over the lives of both the Tocks and the Beezos. Some of Jimmy's revelations are beautiful; others fearsome; still others shake his meek, lumbering pastry chef's life to the foundation and cause him to reflect on the true meaning of syndactyly—as both an ailment and a life's philosophy.

Dr. Bashir, Major Kira and Lt. Cmdr. Dax travel to a planet that has been attacked by the Jem'Hadar, who have made an example of its people for resisting the Dominion by inflicting upon them an incurable disease called the "blight" that leaves spidery black painful lesions on the body that at a random time (usually before adulthood) will "quicken" into a spreading red form that results in a slow, agonizingly painful death.

Bashir is distraught when he learns that the closest equivalent to a doctor these people now possess is Trevean, a man who offers a swift and comfortable death through herbal treatments to the recently quickened. Bashir, with Dax as an assistant, attempts to develop a cure with the help of recently quickened volunteers, but fails when he finds that the electric fields from his equipment are causing the virus to mutate rapidly.

When the others leave to return to Deep Space Nine, Bashir elects to remain behind to help a recently quickened woman who is in late pregnancy. While he administers his anti-viral treatment to her, it appears to have no effect, and she dies shortly after childbirth. However, the child is born without the lesions, as the treatment apparently acts as a vaccine rather than a cure. This gives hope to the people of the planet that by applying the anti-viral treatment to pregnant women, the next generation can be free of the blight.

Back at DS9, Bashir is seen still working on a cure for the disease in those who already have it, but is unsuccessful. Captain Sisko, commends the Doctor for his excellent work and reassures him that at least the next generation will be free of the disease, but Bashir does not seem entirely satisfied.

A hundred years after the arrival of colonists aboard the ''Snowball 9'', planet Eden has become home to half a billion people. In this paradise managed by robots there is not any crime, taxes, unemployment, or freedom. The population lives in a domed "megapolis," and perhaps due to the war that occurred during ''Return to Eden'', there is not any contact between the cities and the surrounding natural world. The occasional sighting of flying saucers keeps the population afraid from going outside.

The main character, a nameless citizen of Enoch, starts the game in a beautiful garden where everything seems fine. He picks an apple from a tree, a worm pops out, and the player follows it outside the garden, through the desert, and then he awakens. It was only a simulation, one of the many forms of entertainment available during the reign of the third Kim. This "Garden of Eden as a prison" allegory sets the mood for the entire game. The objective is to explore the city, and while doing so the player must gather clues to unmask the government conspiracy behind the flying saucers.

In wartime England during the Blitz, Stephen Neale is released from Lembridge Asylum. While waiting for a train to London, Neale visits a village fête hosted by the Mothers of Free Nations charity. He is urged to go to the palm reader's tent to have his fortune told by Mrs. Bellane, an older woman. He asks her to ignore the past and tell the future, which startles her. She cryptically tells him to enter a contest and guess the weight of a cake as 4 pounds 15½ ounces. Neale does so and wins the cake. Then a young blond man hurries to see Mrs. Bellane. People try to persuade Neale to give the cake to the blond man, but Neale refuses.

Neale departs Lembridge with only a blind man sharing his train compartment. Neale offers him some cake. Neale sees the blind man crumbling his portion. When the train stops during an air raid, Neale's companion turns out not to be blind after all. He strikes Neale with his walking stick, steals the cake, and flees, with Neale in pursuit. The man shoots at him, but is killed by a German bomb. Neale finds the man's revolver and continues on to London.

Neale hires private detective George Rennit to help him investigate the Mothers of Free Nations. Neale meets Willi Hilfe and his sister Carla, refugees from Austria who run the charity. Willi takes him to Mrs. Bellane's London mansion (followed by Rennit). Neale is shocked to discover that this Mrs. Bellane is a beautiful young medium. She invites them to stay for her séance. Among the other attendees are artist Martha Penteel, psychiatrist Dr. Forrester, and Mr. Cost, the blond man at the fête. After the lights are dimmed, a mysterious voice claims she was poisoned by Neale, disconcerting him. Then a shot rings out – Cost is found shot dead. Neale admits to having the blind man's gun. He flees with Willi's help.

Neale goes to Rennit's office, only to find it ransacked. He talks to Carla. An air raid forces the two to shelter in an Underground station, where Neale reveals that he had planned to euthanize his terminally ill wife. He changed his mind, but she committed suicide using poison he had bought. Due to the circumstances, Neale received a light sentence of two years at the asylum.

The next morning, Carla hides Neale at a friend's bookstore. Neale spots a book by Forrester, ''The Psychoanalysis of Nazidom''. Carla reveals that Forrester is one of her volunteers, as well as a consultant for the Ministry of Home Security. Neale is convinced that Carla's organization is a front for Nazi spies. Carla finds out that almost all the people Neale suspects are charity volunteers, all recommended by Forrester. She tells Willi about her discovery, and admits that she loves Neale.

That afternoon, Neale goes to Penteel’s flat, only to find Mrs. Bellane. The two verbally spar. He flees when Penteel returns and begins screaming for the police.

Later, Carla tells Neale what she has learned. The bookseller asks the couple to deliver some books in a suitcase since they are leaving. They are nearly killed by the bomb inside.

Neale awakens in the hospital, the prisoner of Scotland Yard Inspector Prentice. Neale persuades Prentice to search the bombed-out cottage for evidence. Neale finds a microfilm of military secrets inside a piece of cake in a bird's nest. Officials insist that the documents have only been taken out of a safe twice, the second time when Forrester's tailor, Travers, was present. Neale recalls that the empty flat was leased in Travers' name.

Prentice and Neale go to the tailor's shop, and find that Travers is Cost. Travers ostensibly calls a client about a suit - it is actually a coded message. Then, seeing he is trapped, he commits suicide. When Neale dials the number, Carla answers.

Neale slips away to confront Carla. Willi emerges, armed with a pistol, and admits he is the head of the spy ring. Another copy of the microfilm is sewn into the suit he received from Travers. Carla throws a candlestick, striking her brother's hand. The two men struggle, and Carla picks up the gun. When she refuses to hand it over to Willi, he tries to flee, but she shoots him dead. Forrester and other Nazi agents chase Neale and Carla. Prentice arrives and kills the remaining Nazis.

The film is set in the fictional town of Greenwood Falls, Virginia (just outside Washington, D.C.) and stars Erik von Detten as Billy Jackson, a selfish teenager forced to relive the same Christmas every day. Billy's sister (Yvonne Zima) wishes that it was Christmas every day, and thereafter he has to keep repeating Christmas Day until he realizes the true meaning of the holiday season.

The movie also stars Robert Hays and Bess Armstrong as Billy's parents.

Billy finds the entire experience to be a nightmare. "My life is on rewind," he moans. Each December 25, he must face the school bully (Tyler Mason Buckalew); he must also get involved in his grocer father's dispute with his fat-cat uncle (Robert Curtis Brown) who wants to build a mega-store and ruin the local merchants.

One morning, Stitch awakens from a nightmare about turning bad again and causing destruction to Earth, including hurting Lilo. After consoling Stitch by reminding him that she knows he would never cause harm to her, Lilo tests his goodness level by having him do a few good deeds. Upon discovering that they are late for hula class, they use their hovercraft to get there.

While at the hula class, Kumu announces that Lilo and her classmates will be prepared to perform at the local May Day festival. Each student is required to create an original dance. Lilo is inspired when Kumu tells her about her mother being in the festival at her age and winning, giving her a picture of the event. After the hula class ends, Mertle insults Lilo by telling her that she will never be like her mother, causing her to start a fight with her. However, after taking pictures of the brawl, Stitch forgets to flush the evidence. Kumu thinks that Lilo is not ready for the competition because of the fight with Mertle, but Lilo says that she is ready and "triple promises" to be good.

While preparing for the competition, Lilo and Stitch have a hard time coming up with ideas and Nani wants them to enjoy their family fun night. While watching ''Them!'' on family fun night, Stitch's past comes back to haunt him and he goes berserk in the house. It turns out that after Stitch was created, Jumba did not get the chance to fully charge Stitch's molecules as the intergalactic police arrested him, disrupting the process. At first, this glitch causes Stitch to revert to his old destructive programming against his free will, but it will ultimately kill him if Jumba cannot create a fusion chamber before Stitch's energy runs out for good.

Meanwhile, Stitch's uncontrollable destructive behavior drives a wedge between him and Lilo and threatens to ruin her chances for success at the hula competition. Lilo and Stitch try to be inspired for their hula, but Stitch keeps malfunctioning because of his molecules. Since Lilo is so concerned about winning the competition, she fails to notice Stitch's glitch, which is not his fault, and she believes his new behavior is deliberate and begins to neglect him, much to his chagrin and eventual distress. In a subplot, Nani's boyfriend, David, believes Nani is losing interest in him. Pleakley comes to his aid and tries to give advice on romance.

Eventually, the two devise a hula based on the legend of Hiʻiaka. Lilo gets increasingly mad at Stitch as he ruins their practice sessions. To make matters worse, Jumba is having problems creating the fusion chamber because he doesn't have the proper alien technology to build one and must resort to using mere household objects. However, on the day of the competition, Stitch arrives just before Lilo is to perform, wishing her luck. The two reconcile as Jumba finally completes the fusion chamber. However, Stitch has another abrupt fit. Lilo, confused, tries to ask Stitch if he's okay, but he accidentally scratches her face. Knowing that Stitch would never want to intentionally hurt her, Lilo finally realizes that something is wrong with him, tries to ask what's wrong, but Stitch, greatly horrified and remorseful that he hurt her, runs off to leave Earth, as he believes himself to be too dangerous.

In the middle of her performance, Lilo ultimately forfeits the competition and runs off to help Stitch. As Stitch attempts to leave Earth, Lilo and the rest of the family desperately try to get him to return so they can re-charge him. While taking off, Stitch suffers his most violent and painful outburst, which causes him to lose control and crash the spaceship in the Hawaiian mountains. Lilo rides over to the crash site in their hovercraft, where she finds Stitch injured and close to death. She hurriedly gets him into Jumba's fusion chamber, but it's too late and Lilo watches in tears as Stitch apologizes one last time and dies. When a disheartened Jumba takes Stitch out of the chamber, Lilo holds him close and sadly apologizes for her treatment of him, having finally understood that while she kept saying that she needed him, he needed her more. She says that he is her '' ohana'' and, therefore, will always love him and breaks down in tears. Everyone grieves for a time as Lilo weeps, but Stitch eventually awakens, much to everyone's happiness. Pleakley is at a loss for words, to which Jumba explains what happened: Stitch was revived by Lilo's love.

Later that night, the family (along with David) performs Lilo's hula dance on the empty stage, and Nani tells Lilo that their mother would be proud of her, and a star twinkles in the sky to justify.

Henry murders his uncle Lawrence with a poison found in the mummy's tomb. When Henry tries to poison Julie in the same manner, Ramses comes to life and attempts to kill Henry, but succeeds only in scaring him away. After his awakening, Julie and Ramses are instantly attracted to each other. Ramses quickly adopts a pseudonym, "Reginald Ramsey", and claims to be an Egyptologist to throw off the accusation made by the frightened Henry that a "bloody mummy" rose from the crypt to harm him. With superhuman intelligence and the ability to learn quickly, Ramses quickly learns the English language and, with the help of an eager Julie, is given a tour of modern London and new technology that had arisen during the past two thousand years. While Henry's accusations are passed off as the rantings of a drunkard, the elderly and ailing Elliott Savarell suspects that it may be the truth. He trails Ramses and comes to believe that he is who Henry claims him to be.

During Ramses's reign as pharaoh, he had learned from a Hittite priestess the formula for an elixir that grants eternal life. The potion not only made him immortal, but also allows his body to regenerate from damage that would kill a normal human, such as multiple bullet wounds. He requires neither food nor drink nor sleep, and only the sun's rays to maintain his life. However, he still craves food and certain other physical pleasures, like sex, smoking, and alcohol.

Ramses nurses a deep secret. Prior to the Roman conquest of Egypt, he had served as an immortal advisor to its kings and queens, and the last person to awake him for consultation had been Cleopatra, the last ruler of Egypt. Although he served as Cleopatra's counsel (and encouraged her to romance Julius Caesar in a bid to keep the country independent), he had also fallen in love with her, and had revealed to her the secrets of the elixir. Having fallen in love with Mark Antony in defiance of Ramses's advice, Cleopatra refuses the elixir and chooses suicide upon Antony's death. In his depression, Ramses had given himself the name "Ramses the Damned", and had Egyptian priests seal him away underground.

With Julie's encouragement, Ramses begins to recover. While Henry is convinced that Ramses is an evil monster ready to kill the entire family, Elliott reads Lawrence's notes and chases after Ramses to learn the secret of the elixir of immortality. Eventually, Ramses and Julie decide to visit Egypt one last time so that Ramses can say good-bye to his past. Although Ramses appears to be coming to terms with his past, upon visiting the Cairo Museum, he unexpectedly recognizes an unidentified mummy as being that of Cleopatra. Breaking into the museum later at night simply to see her, he impulsively pours some of the elixir onto the dead body. Cleopatra is revived, but by Ramses not pouring the entire vial of elixir on her, the restoration is incomplete; she is a half-formed monstrosity, awake and conscious yet with parts of her face, hands, and torso still gone. Her incomplete brain restoration leaves her not totally coherent; though Ramses later repairs her body with more of the potion, she appears to be insane and kills a number of people, including Henry. Cleopatra unexpectedly falls in love with Elliot's son Alex though realizes a life with him cannot last because of his mortality and his innocence. Because Ramses would not give her long-ago love Mark Antony the elixir to save his life, Cleopatra holds a passionate hatred for him and seeks to even the score by killing his current love: Julie Stratford.

Cleopatra ultimately falters before killing Julie, realizing that the girl should not be punished for Ramses's actions. She also comes to regret the other murders she has committed. In an attempt to escape Ramses, Cleopatra "dies" when her car is hit by a train and is consumed by a fiery explosion so hot that it "could kill even an immortal". Ramses later gives the elixir to Julie after she attempts suicide in her grief for her loss of him, and he promises to stay with her for eternity. To thank him for his help in covering up all the unusual events, Ramses also gives the elixir to a dying Elliott, who drinks it after serious consideration of the consequences: dying miserably, or living eternally even when wishing for nothing but oblivion. Cleopatra has secretly survived the crash, and awakens under the care of a British doctor in Sudan. She vows to find Ramses again someday for revenge.

Shecky Moskowitz (Adam Sandler) is a struggling comedian working on a cruise ship. Shecky gets his chance to be the ship's comedian when it is thought that the regular comedian, Dickie Diamond (Scott LaRose), had fallen overboard and drowned. (Dickie actually locked himself in the men's room.) Shecky is nervous about performing, but King Neptune (Billy Zane) convinces him to go for the opportunity by telling Shecky about the power of laughter. Shecky's first performance is very unsuccessful as he is booed off the stage, he is especially heckled by the construction worker Dave (Billy Bob Thornton). However, after a lecture by Milton Berle, Shecky succeeds in making the audience laugh. At that point, the terrorists come on board and want to kill Miss Australia. Shecky, remembering the advice about the power of laughter, saves her by promising to put the assassins in a film.

On the remote Petrie's Island off the east coast of Ireland a farmer, Ian Bellows, goes missing and his wife contacts the local constabulary. Constable John Harris finds Bellows dead in a cave without a single bone in his body and fetches the island's physician, Dr Reginald Landers, but Landers is unable to determine what happened. He journeys to the mainland to seek the help of a noted London pathologist, Dr Brian Stanley. Stanley too is unable even to hypothesise what could have happened, so both men seek out Dr David West, an expert on bones and bone diseases. Although Stanley and Landers interrupt West's quiet evening at home with the wealthy jetsetter Toni Merrill, West is intrigued by the problem and so agrees to accompany the two doctors back to Petrie's Island to examine the corpse. In order for them to reach the island that much faster, Merrill offers the use of her father's private helicopter in exchange for the three men allowing her to come along on the adventure.

Once back at Petrie's Island, Merrill's father's helicopter is forced to return to the mainland so he can use it, leaving the foursome effectively stranded on Petrie until the helicopter can return. West and Stanley learn that a group of oncology researchers led by Dr Lawrence Phillips, seeking a cure for cancer, have a secluded castle laboratory on the island. Paying a visit to Phillips' lab reveals that he and his colleagues are just as dead (and boneless) as Ian Bellows. Reasoning that whatever it is must have begun in that lab, West, Stanley and Landers gather up Phillips' notes and take them to study them. From them they learn that in his quest to cure cancer, Phillips may have accidentally created a new lifeform from the silicon atom.

Thinking the doctors are at the castle, Constable Harris bikes up there looking for them to tell them about the discovery of a dead, boneless horse, only to wander into the laboratory's "test animals" room and be attacked and killed by an offscreen tentacled creature, the result of Dr Phillips's experiments. The creatures are eventually dubbed "silicates" by West and Stanley, and kill their victims by injecting a bone-dissolving enzyme into their bodies. The silicates are also incredibly difficult to kill, as Landers learns when he tries and fails to kill one at the castle with an axe when they first encounter them.

After learning all they can from the late Dr Phillips's notes, West and Stanley recruit the islanders, led by "boss" Roger Campbell and store owner Peter Argyle, to attack the silicates with anything they've got. Bullets, petrol bombs, and dynamite all fail to even harm the silicates. But when one is found dead, apparently having ingested a rare isotope called Strontium-90 from Phillips' lab (via Phillips' accidentally irradiated Great Dane), West and Stanley realise they must find more of the isotope at the castle and figure out how to contaminate the remaining silicates with it before it is too late. They obtain enough isotope to contaminate a herd of cattle – at the cost of Stanley's left hand, when he's grabbed by a silicate – and the silicates feed on these and begin to die.

The story ends with evacuation and medical teams inbound from the mainland, and West commenting on how fortunate they were that this outbreak was confined to an island. Had it happened on the mainland, he notes, they might never have stopped them in time. This sets up an epilogue and a visit to the satellite programme, in Japan, where the technicians are duplicating Phillips' work with the inevitable result. A technician walks down a corridor, hears a strange noise and investigates before screaming.

As a boy, the storyteller lost an arm and became an outcast to the villagers who rely heavily on their stonemasonry skills. The boy leaves the confines of the village, in order to seek a role for himself, and discovers his adeptness at telling stories.

The storyteller returns to the village, but most of his time is spent acting as a protector for a widow and her child who had also been forced out of the village, and live two days' walk away. Periodically, he returns to the village charged with new stories to tell.

England, 1944. After an attempt on the life of British high commander General Sir Lawrence MacKenzie-Smith (Danny Kaye) by German intelligence, all military camps in England are sealed off, resulting in leaves of absence being revoked. Ernie Williams (Kaye), a most reluctant American soldier, hypochondriac and talented mimic, and his fellow conscript Joseph Praeger (Jesse White) are thus left trapped in an Allied army camp in southeast England just before they can return to the States. In order to relieve his frustration, Ernie impersonates MacKenzie during dinner in the mess hall; a British officer entering the building falls for his disguise, sparking the idea in Praeger to use Ernie as a double to get them out of the camp. However, Praeger's unfamiliarity with cars causes them to be caught before they even get out of sight of the gate guards.

The incident and Ernie's remarkable resemblance to MacKenzie cause Allied military intelligence leaders Colonel Somerset (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and Colonel Houston (Gregory Walcott) to consider recruiting Ernie (under threat of court-martial) as the General's political decoy, in order to thwart the assassination plot. After Ernie is presented to MacKenzie in person, the General, after some initial reservations, agrees to the plan. MacKenzie's life is at stake because he is the leading strategist in the upcoming invasion of the European mainland; he is set to travel to Invasion Headquarters, adopting Ernie's identity as his disguise and vice versa in order to deceive German High Command. Only Sergeant Twickenham (Terence De Marney), MacKenzie's batman, is made privy to the situation, as he is to help Ernie maintain the deceit. However, the most vital detail – that Ernie will serve as a decoy target for German intelligence – is conveniently withheld from him.

The situation gradually begins to unravel when Lady Margaret (Dana Wynter), MacKenzie's wife, returns prematurely from a war bond tour in Canada to inform MacKenzie of her intention to divorce him, having tired of his neglect of her and his womanizing. As the result of Ernie's attempts to greet her with innocent marital affection, Lady Margaret quickly recognizes him as an impostor and is out of necessity made familiar with the situation. Taking pity on Ernie, she tells him more private details about MacKenzie which help complement his disguise. However, German intelligence continues its liquidation attempts, which result in Twickenham getting poisoned and a sniping attempt during a rallying speech to the troops, prompting Margaret to tell Ernie the entire truth. However, while trying to hand in his resignation from the project, Ernie and Margaret learn that the plane MacKenzie was travelling on was shot down by the Germans, with all hands lost, forcing Ernie to carry on the charade.

At a regimental party where Ernie is supposed to participate, the Secret Service intends to expose and apprehend a traitor who has been feeding information about MacKenzie to the Germans; one of his agents is revealed to be Captain Patterson (Allan Cuthbertson). During the party, Ernie is very nearly exposed as an impostor by his usual blunders and MacKenzie's aggressively domineering aunt, Lady Vivian (Margaret Rutherford). Acting upon Lady Margaret's advice, he pretends to be drunk and have a fight with his wife in order to have an excuse for leaving the party early. Afterwards, in private, Ernie and Margaret confess that they have developed feelings for each other, but then Ernie receives a message that the traitor was apparently caught and that he is ordered back to Headquarters. On his way there, he is kidnapped by Captain Patterson and Sergeant Bridget Stanhope (Diana Dors), MacKenzie's driver and mistress as well as Patterson's accomplice.

Ernie is flown to Berlin and interrogated about the Allied invasion plans, and his German captors refuse to believe his desperate attempts to explain that he is a mere decoy. Forced to go along with the game, he begins to blab about non-existent invasion plots, which the Germans readily take for the truth. Once left alone, Ernie acquires a list of German agents in Britain and facilitates his escape from German Headquarters. Chased through the streets of Berlin in the midst of a nocturnal bombing raid, he keeps changing disguises on the proverbial run, including a brief stint as Adolf Hitler and a subsequent cabaret act in a Berlin nightclub as "Fräulein Lilli" (in the style of Marlene Dietrich as Lola-Lola in ''The Blue Angel'', singing a mash-up of the various running gag catchphrases that have been in use throughout the film in a Germanicized English word salad, all to the tune of the 1934 song ''Cocktails for Two''.)

Finally, disguised as a pilot, Ernie boards a German bomber bound for England and manages to parachute out. Captured, he is brought to General Wiffingham (Rex Evans), a friend of MacKenzie's, but as he reads him the names on his list, Ernie discovers to his dismay that Wiffingham is the chief Nazi infiltrator within the British Secret Service. Somerset has in the meantime figured out Wiffingham's true allegiance on his own, and rescues Ernie before Wiffingham can have him silenced via summary execution by firing squad for espionage. The invasion proceeds smoothly, and what appears to be MacKenzie surprisingly returns from the dead, only to reveal himself to Margaret as Ernie, and the two end the film confessing their love for each other.

A meteorite impacts near Great Valley, which causes a drought to threaten the dinosaurs' lives. The increasing lack of water causes conflicts between the inhabitants of Great Valley, who have previously lived in relative peace and harmony. When the inter-species situation deteriorates, Littlefoot and the others set out to find water to keep the peace in the valley. They are pursued by a trio of arrogant teenage dinosaurs consisting of Hyp the ''Hypsilophodon'', Mutt the ''Muttaburrasaurus'', and Nod the ''Nodosaurus''. When Littlefoot and the others find a small lake, the trio emerges and claims the waterhole for themselves, demanding that Littlefoot and the others keep silent about their discovery. Unwilling to comply, Littlefoot and the others flee from the bullies. During the pursuit, the bullies are chased away by a wasp, and the children discover the reason behind the blockage of the water source.

Before they can return and tell the other inhabitants the truth, lightning hits a tree, and ignites a fire that spreads rapidly throughout the valley. The fire then devastates the valley destroying most of the green food. The dinosaurs barely make it to safety at the edge of Mysterious Beyond. When the children tell the adults of their discovery, disagreements about what to do erupts among the adults, preventing them from doing anything to utilize this knowledge. Hyp, Nod, and Mutt set out into Mysterious Beyond on their own to get to the water first. Anticipating the danger Hyp and his cohorts have gotten into and recognizing commonality with them, Littlefoot and the others follow to help if necessary. It becomes so when Hyp jumps into a tar pit after mistaking it for water. He screams for help, but Mutt and Nod do not save him. Instead, they argue about which one of them must save him. But Littlefoot cuts in, and tells Mutt and Nod that Hyp is stuck in the tar pit. Then, he hatches a plan to pull Hyp out. Finally, Littlefoot and the others pull him out of the tar. Soon afterwards, the adults arrive, and Hyp is harshly scolded by his aggressive and grumpy father, leading Cera's dad to realize that he is too hard on Cera sometimes and that they need to work together to find the water.

Before they are able to take further steps, the herd is suddenly attacked by a pack of ''Deinonychus''. The pursuit leads to a dam of boulders created by the rock slide that caused the drought. As the ''Deinonychus'' and the adults battle, the children, including Hyp and his cronies, work together to break the dam. They all watch as the freed water washes away the ''Deinonychus''. The water also puts out the fires which are still burning in the valley. Finally, they manage to survive and land on the opposite bank. Now the herd is able to return to Great Valley. The herd returns to Great Valley, which now has enough water for them. However, when they return home, the fire has destroyed most of their green food. The now devastated plants in the valley are beyond repair from the fire. However, despite being irreparable, the dinosaurs find the spots in Great Valley where green food still grows. They proportionately move from one verdant area to another and share everything they find. This pattern results in the event being called the Time of the Great Giving.

High school sweethearts Michael and Roslyn happily marry during the 1950s, both 18. Things go along smoothly until Roslyn gets pregnant, at age 19. The bills pile up and the two grow apart from each other. Roslyn spends most of the time taking care of their child and hanging out with her best friend, Joannie, who is married to a guy named Bobby. Joannie has been cheating on her husband with a man named Frankie.

Roslyn is introduced to Frankie's friend, Joey, a bad boy who is also married. Immediately, Roslyn begins an affair with Joey. At first Michael doesn't suspect anything, but when the two girl friends go out at night and come back later and later, it dawns on him that they are both having affairs. Michael works at a design company with Lorraine, who is into the Beat and jazz scenes. One night, he goes out to have an affair with her. The next morning, however, his uptight attitudes causes him to back out of the affair when he learns that he's not her only lover. Eventually Lorraine leaves to go to New York City. At the same time, Roslyn's trying to break off her affair with Joey, but he won't give up that easily. Varied events soon escalate in violence. Joey kidnaps Roslyn, and Michael goes after them, and takes his wife back from him. Michael and Roslyn go their separate ways, and Michael hits the road.

In a small town in Oklahoma, Sampson (Barry White) and the local Preacher (Charles Gordone) plan to bust out their friend Randy (Philip Michael Thomas) from prison. As they rush to the prison, the two are stopped by a roadblock and have a shootout with the police. Meanwhile, Randy and another cellmate named Pappy (Scatman Crothers) escape from inside the prison and wait for Sampson and the Preacher to help them get out. While waiting for them, Randy unwillingly listens to Pappy tell a story about three guys that resemble Randy and his friends. Pappy's story is told in animation set against live-action background photos and footage.

Brother Rabbit (Philip Michael Thomas), Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox (Barry White and Charles Gordone) are forced to pack up and leave their Southern settings after the bank mortgages their home and sells it to a man who turns it into a brothel, only to run off with the trio's money. The sheriff and deputy arrived as customers only to find that one of the prostitutes was the sheriff's daughter. After shooting his deputy in rage, the sheriff turned his gun on Rabbit, who threw a knife killing the sheriff. The trio ran off deciding to move to Harlem, "home to every black man". When they arrive, Rabbit, Bear, and Fox find that it is not all that it is made out to be. They encounter a con man named Simple Savior, a phony revolutionary leader who claims to be the cousin of "Black Jesus", and that he gives his followers "the strength to kill whites". In a flashy stage performance in his "church", Savior acts out being brutalized by symbols of black oppression—represented by images of John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon, before asking his parishioners for "donations". Rabbit and his friends quickly realize that Savior's "revolution" is merely a money-making scam. Rabbit openly steals a large portion of the donation money, prompting Savior to try to have him killed. After Rabbit tricks his would-be murderers (in a paraphrasing of the story of Br'er Rabbit and the brier patch), he and Bear kill Savior. This allows Rabbit to take over Savior's racket, putting him in line to become the head of all organized crime in Harlem. Rabbit lays out his plan to keep all organized crime money in Harlem. But first, he has to get rid of a few other opponents. Savior's former partners tell Rabbit they will join him but only if he can kill his opponents; otherwise they will kill him instead.

Rabbit first goes up against Managan (Frank de Kova), a virulently racist and homophobic police officer and bagman for the Mafia, who demonstrates his contempt for African-Americans in various ways, including a refusal to bathe before an anticipated encounter with them (he believes that they are not worth it). When Managan finds out that Rabbit has been taking his payoffs, he and his cohorts, Ruby (Frank de Kova) and Bobby, are led to a nightclub called "The Cottontail". A black stripper distracts him while an LSD sugar cube is dropped into his drink. Managan, while under the influence of his spiked drink, is then maneuvered into a sexual liaison with a stereotypically effeminate gay man, and then shoved into women's clothing representative of the mammy archetype, adorned in blackface, and shoved out to the back of the club, where he discovers that Ruby and Bobby are dead. While recovering from being drugged, he fires his gun randomly in a fit of madness, and is brutally shot to death by the arriving police (who were either called in or alerted by the gunshots going off) after shooting one of the officers dead in his stupor. All of Harlem celebrated the death of Managan.

Rabbit's final target is the Godfather (Al Lewis) who lives in the subway with his wife, daughter, and his cross-dressing, gay (and possibly incestuous) sons. The contract for killing Rabbit is given to his oldest and (possibly) only straight son, Sonny (Richard Paul). Arriving outside Rabbit's nightclub in blackface and clothing representative of minstrel show stereotypes, Sonny attempts to kill Rabbit, but Bear defends Rabbit, at the cost of getting shot by Sonny several times. When Sonny then attempts to escape in his car, he is shot multiple times by Rabbit before crashing into a wall and dying in the subsequent explosion. Rabbit then helps the injured Bear to safety. Sonny's body is cremated and taken back home, where his mother weeps over his ashes. She then tries to kill the Godfather in revenge for her son's death, only to be shot and killed by one of his henchmen, Mario the clown.

During his recovery, Bear becomes torn between staying with Rabbit or starting a new crime-free life. Bear decides to look for Fox in order to seek his advice. Upon arriving at Fox's newly acquired brothel, Bear is "married" to a girl that he, Fox, and Rabbit met during the fight with Savior's men. Under the advisement of Fox, Bear becomes an undefeated heavy weight boxer for the Mafia. Soon an invitation was sent to Rabbit to challenge a fighter against Bear. During the fight at the Godfather's lair, Rabbit sets up a melting imitation of himself made out of tar. As the Godfather and Mafiosos take turns stabbing at the "tar rabbit", they become stuck together. Rabbit leaves a bomb next to them and then he, Bear, Fox, and the opponent boxer rush out of the boxing arena as it blows up; vaporizing the Godfather and his associates. As they drove through the streets of Harlem, Bear was angry that Rabbit and Fox had planned everything and not tell Bear about it. The trio laughed knowing that it all worked out.

The live-action story ends with Randy and Pappy escaping from the prison with the aid of Sampson and the Preacher who finally arrive while being shot at by various white cops, but managing to make it out alive.

The main plot of the film is interspersed with animated vignettes depicting a white, blonde, large-breasted "Miss America" (Jesse Welles) who serves as a personification of the United States. In each of these short scenes, she seduces a black man (meant to depict the African-American populace), only to instead beat or kill him.

A family of aliens on a dying desert planet search for subterranean water to drink through a straw. A NASA research probe lands and begins taking atmospheric samples via a suction device. The aliens are accidentally sucked into the apparatus and the probe returns to Earth. The aliens escape a government base with their ability to manipulate electricity and destroy anything they touch. While most of the family runs off into the desert, the smallest alien breaks away and hides in a passing minivan occupied by single mother Janet Cruise and her two young sons (wheelchair-using younger son Eric and elder son Michael) who are moving to a new home near Los Angeles following the loss of the sons' father. Shortly after the move, Eric suspects the alien's presence. The next morning, he finds that the creature has trashed most of the house and learns its identity, but Janet blames both him and Michael for what has happened. After noticing the creature, Eric tries to catch up to him, but ends up sliding down a hill and falls into a lake, where he nearly drowns, but is rescued by the alien. Eric is not believed at all when he tries to tell his family about the creature's actions.

Later that night, he sets a trap with the help of his new friend, Debbie, who had also seen the alien. The two trap him inside a vacuum cleaner, which malfunctions and causes the entire neighborhood to suffer a power surge. After the alien is released, Michael now believes Eric, but it leaves before Janet can be convinced. Eric's behavior towards the alien, which he names MAC (short for "Mysterious Alien Creature") changes after he fixes all of the damage he caused to the house, and leaves behind several newspaper clippings that Eric believes are an attempt to communicate. Meanwhile, FBI agents Wickett and Zimmerman track MAC down and begin spying on the Cruise residence. Eric disguises MAC as a teddy bear and takes him to a birthday party at a local McDonald's, where Debbie's older sister Courtney works. Wickett and Zimmerman follow, but MAC starts a dance number as a distraction and escapes with Eric on his wheelchair. After Wickett and Zimmerman chase them through a nearby neighborhood and shopping mall with additional help, they are rescued by Michael and Courtney. Janet, having witnessed the chase while in the mall, catches up to the agents and inadvertently learns from Wickett that MAC is indeed real.

Eric, Michael, Debbie and Courtney decide to help reunite MAC with his family, who are lost in the desert without sustenance. Following MAC's directions, they travel to the mountains on the outskirts of Palmdale, where they find MAC's dying family and rejuvenate them with Coca-Cola. The group stops at a gas station and goes to a nearby supermarket. The restless aliens climb out of the minivan and enter the store, causing a panic. After MAC's father steals a gun from a security guard, the police arrive and a shootout takes place in the parking lot, which ends with an explosion destroying the supermarket and Eric being killed by a stray bullet. Once Wickett, Zimmerman and Janet arrive by helicopter, MAC and his family use their powers to revive Eric. For saving Eric's life, the United States government grants MAC's family American citizenship, with the Cruise family and their neighbors, as well as Wickett and Zimmerman, in attendance at the ceremony. MAC's family, in Earthling clothing, drives off in a pink Cadillac, and MAC blows a chewing gum bubble that reads "We'll be back!"

Chapter 1 – The Gift

The book's action begins when Carl Tiflin gives his son Jody a red pony colt. Overjoyed, Jody quickly agrees to all of the conditions his father places on the gift (to feed the pony, to clean his stall, etc.). Jody is so awed at the pony's magnificence that he decides to name him Gabilan, after the grassy and oak-dotted Gabilan Mountains that border the Salinas Valley ranch. After several weeks of training and getting to know Gabilan, Jody is told by his father that he will be allowed to ride the horse by Thanksgiving. Though the ranch hand Billy Buck assures him there would be no rain, the pony is caught in a downpour and catches what appears to be a cold after being left out to corral. Billy tries to cure the horse of its illness to no avail and finally diagnoses the illness as strangles, placing a steaming wet bag over the pony's muzzle and entrusting Jody to watch the pony. In the night, Jody becomes sleepy in spite of his constant worry and drifts off to sleep, forgetting about the open barn door. By the time he awakens, the pony has wandered out of the barn. When Billy arrives, he deems it necessary to cut a hole in the horse's windpipe so he can breathe. Jody stays by his side, constantly swabbing out the mucus that clogged the windpipe.

After falling asleep, Jody dreams of increasingly powerful winds and wakes up to see that the pony is gone again. Following the pony's trail he then notices a cloud of buzzards circling over a nearby spot. Unable to reach the horse in time, he arrives while a buzzard is eating the horse's eye. In his rage, Jody wrestles with the bird and beats it repeatedly, not stopping until he is pulled off by Billy Buck and his father, though the bird had long since died. The story overall deals with ideas regarding the fallibilities of adults and the entrance into manhood, and the inevitability of death for all living things.

"The Gift" was first published in the November 1933 issue of ''North American Review''.

Chapter 2 – The Great Mountains

Jody gets bored. He looks at the great mountains, wishing he could explore them. Suddenly, an old Mexican man named Gitano appears, claiming he was born on the ranch. Gitano requests to stay on the farm until he dies. Carl Tiflin refuses, although he does allow him to stay the night, noting that the old man is very similar to his useless old horse, Easter. That night, Jody secretly visits Gitano. He is polishing his old rapier. Jody asks if he has ever been to the great mountains, and Gitano says he has but remembers little. The next morning Gitano is gone, as is Easter. Jody searches the old man's things, but is disappointed to find no trace of the sharp sword. A neighbor reports seeing Gitano riding the missing horse into the mountains with something in his hand. The adults assume that this is a gun but, as Jody seems to know, it is most likely the rapier. Jody's father wonders why the man has gone into the mountains and jokes that he saved him the trouble of burying the old horse. The story ends with Jody filled with longing and sorrow at thoughts of the old man, the rapier, and the mountains.

"The Great Mountains" was first published in the December 1933 issue of ''North American Review''.

Chapter 3 – The Promise

Carl Tiflin thinks it is time for Jody to learn more responsibility, so he arranges for Jody to take the mare Nellie to be serviced at a neighbor's farm. The stud fee is five dollars and Jody works hard all summer to satisfy the five dollar credit his father held over him. After a few months, Billy Buck determines Nellie is pregnant.

While Jody and Billy take care of the mare, Billy states that his mother died in childbirth and he was raised on mares' milk. That's why Billy is supposed to be so good with horses. Jody dreams often about his coming foal. Billy explains that mares are more delicate than cattle and sometimes the foal has to be torn to pieces and removed to save the mare's life. This worries Jody. He thinks of his pony Gabilan, who died of strangles. Billy failed to cure the pony, and now Jody worries something will happen to Nellie. This doubt also assails Billy, who is insistent on not failing the boy again, both for Jody and his own pride.

Jody wakes up in the middle of the night. He dreams of all the possible things that could go wrong with Nellie's pregnancy, hoping none of them would come true. Then, "he [slips] his clothes on"Steinbeck, p.75 and sneaks out to the barn to check on Nellie. When Jody catches sight of Nellie, "She [does] not stop her swaying nor look around." Before Jody can try to return to sleep again, Billy Buck frantically tells everyone that Nellie is ready to give birth. Billy Buck kneels down to her and realizes that "It's wrong"Steinbeck, p.77 and that he "can't turn [the colt]". Billy Buck orders Jody to "turn [his] face". Billy Buck then hits Nellie over the head and performs a cesarean section on Nellie to deliver the promised colt to Jody. Billy then asks for Jody's help in caring for the new animal, and Jody goes to the house, but the image of Nellie and the bloody foal still linger in his mind.

"The Promise" was first published in the October 1937 issue of ''Harper's Monthly''.

Chapter 4 – The Leader of the People

Jody's grandfather comes to visit. Carl Tiflin complains about how his father-in-law is constantly re-telling the same stories about leading a wagon train across the plains. Mrs. Tiflin and Billy, however, believe he's earned the right to tell of his adventures, and Jody is delighted to hear them no matter how many times. The morning after his arrival, Carl Tiflin complains about Grandfather's stories at the breakfast table: "Why can't he forget it, now it's done?...He came across the plains. All right! Now it's finished. Nobody wants to hear about it over and over." At that moment Grandfather walks into the room.

Afterwards Jody's grandfather becomes melancholic. He acknowledges that his stories may be tiresome, but explains:

Jody, attempting to console his weary, nostalgic, and heartbroken grandfather, tells him that he wants to be a leader as well. The story ends with Jody preparing a lemonade for his grandfather, allowed to do so by his mother after she realizes he is acting out of genuine sympathy, not in an effort to win himself a treat from Teagan.

"The Leader of the People" was first published in the August 1936 issue of ''Argosy''.

Junius Maltby

The short story concerns a man named Junius Maltby, who, dissatisfied with his life as an accountant in San Francisco, finally breaks with that life on the advice of his doctor, who recommends drier weather for his respiratory illness. Junius, in fairer climate, takes boarding with a widow and her children in his convalescence. After some time, with the townsfolk beginning to talk about the single man living so long with the widow, Junius promptly marries his landlord and becomes the head of the well-kept, profitable ranch/farm. The widow releases her working man and tries to put Junius to work on the farmstead, but Junius, having become accustomed to a life of leisure, ignores his duties. Eventually the farm falls into disrepair, the family goes broke, and without enough food or clothes, the widow and her children succumb to disease.

Only Junius and his lone son by the widow survive. Junius, with his barefoot child and a hired servant as lazy as he, spends his time reading books and having fanciful discussions with his companions, never actually working. Because of this, his son is raised in rags, though well trained to independent thought and flights of the imagination. Despite his appearance and the intention of the other children to torment him, the child is well received at school and indeed becomes a leader of the children. So influenced by him are they, the other children begin to spurn their shoes and tear holes in their clothes.

Except for the teacher, who finds the man and his son to be romantically dignified, the rest of the community has nothing but scorn for Junius and sympathy for his child. The story ends with members of the school board attempting to give the child some shoes and new clothes as a present. Upon realizing the regard in which he is held by society, he loses the last of his innocence and becomes ashamed, realizing for the first time that he is poor. The last scene has the sympathetic teacher see Junius and his son, cleaned and well dressed though painfully so, on their way back to San Francisco where Junius will go back to dull work and ill-health in order to provide for his unwilling son.

Louise works as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood of Montreal where she lives. She has become obsessed with the story of a recent spate of serial murders committed in the area, and scours newspapers for stories about each victim. The latest victim is a co-worker who last spoke of a blond, muscular man she met at the bar, and with whom she had a drink after she got off work at midnight. Louise's wheelchair-using neighbour, Spencer, shares her interest to a point but values his privacy and solitude. When Victor, an awkward and talkative elementary school teacher, moves in to their apartment complex, he ingratiates himself into their lives and attempts to strike up a friendship, which they reluctantly accept. Louise, who prefers the company of her cats to humans, warms to Victor when he reveals that he is also a cat owner.

When their abusive Francophone neighbour Valérie poisons Louise's cats, Louise spends more time at Victor's apartment, though she requests alone time with his cat. Victor, who has developed a crush on Louise, invents an imaginary love life with her and tells his friends that they have become engaged, though Louise denies any romantic feelings for Victor when Spencer probes her. When Spencer dispassionately reveals to Victor that he was paralyzed in a car accident that killed his wife, Spencer rejects Victor's sympathy and later reacts angrily when Victor installs a wheelchair-accessible ramp in the building. During the cover of night, Spencer sneaks out his window and climbs the fire escape, secretly enjoying the city's nightlife. During one of his secretive outings, one of Victor's friends spots him, though Victor dismisses the possibility that it could be Spencer.

Louise uses sensationalist media reports to plan the murder of Valérie. After seducing Victor, she collects his sperm and uses it to give the impression that Valérie has been raped. On the way back to her apartment, holding evidence of her guilt, she runs into Spencer, who has gone out for a nighttime jog; caught in compromising positions, the two awkwardly acknowledge each other without asking any questions. Curious about the noise, Victor looks out his window and sees Spencer, whom he begins to suspect is the serial killer. Following a dinner party, where the three cautiously probe each other for information, Spencer outright suggests that Louise and he frame Victor for the deaths. At the same time, Victor proposes that Louise and he set a trap for Spencer. Louise agrees to both plans. As Spencer breaks into Victor's apartment, the police rush to his help, and Spencer flees to the fire escape toward Louise's apartment. Worried for her safety, Victor confronts Spencer, and Spencer falls to his death; Louise disinterestedly ignores the conflict as she feeds Victor's cat, whom she has adopted.

The game's plot is set several months after ''Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'', and begins with Professor Gobbo being captured by the Dantinis while he was witnessing Baron Dante's resurrection.

Back at Gobbo Valley, Croc is playing on a beach and finds a message in a bottle. The message explains that the senders are looking for their child. Croc is surprised when he sees a crocodile's footprint on it, and takes the message to King Rufus, who reads it and tells Croc that he needs to look for other Gobbos far off, who may be able to help him in finding the crocodiles who sent the message. A large number of Gobbos make a see-saw. Croc stands on one end and a Gobbo pushes a boulder on to the other end to propel Croc to the distant Mainland, where his search begins.

Croc's reputation precedes him on the Mainland. Most of the Gobbo villagers speak with Croc as if they have previously established a rapport. There is little reference to the main point of Croc's quest until the player reaches the final village. Meanwhile, Baron Dante purposely sends his minions out to stop Croc in the form of boss battles.

Each Gobbo village has a different biome and cultural theme. Croc's goal is to defeat the various Dantinis that are plaguing each community, as well as the major minions the Baron sends to crush each village and prevent Croc from reaching his goal.

At the end of the Inca Village, Croc fights Baron Dante in a small airplane crafted by Professor Gobbo before rescuing the latter in the Dungeon of Defright. Eventually, Croc comes face-to-face with Baron Dante one last time, while protecting Professor Gobbo from the Baron's attacks so he can summon a portal to send him back to the dimension he had previously been banished to.

The main plot of the game ends with Croc and Professor Gobbo flying to a small island to meet Croc's long-lost family before pivoting to another part of the island where Croc's parents' eggs can be seen being stolen by Baron Dante. After collecting each Jigsaw Piece in every secret area of the villages with the aid of the Golden Gobbos collected throughout the levels, Croc ventures to Baron Dante's Secret World, which consists of the villages (except the Inca Village) that Croc had previously visited, inhabited by Dantinis instead of Gobbos. Croc must collect five Colored Crystals in each village to retrieve one egg. Three eggs must be retrieved to beat the game.

After seeing Ned Flanders reject an offer from a crooked cable man for a $50 illegal cable hookup, Homer chases after the cable man and takes the offer. The Simpsons like the new channels and spend hours watching them. However, Lisa is suspicious about the cable hookup, and after a Sunday school lesson about the existence and nature of Hell, she fears that Homer is violating the Eighth of the Ten Commandments — "thou shalt not steal" — and will go to Hell when he dies.

After seeing other examples of common thievery everywhere, Lisa visits Reverend Lovejoy. He dissuades Lisa from reporting her father's illegal cable hookup to the police since the Fifth Commandment states one must "honor thy father and thy mother", but instead advises her to lead by example and refuse to watch programs via the cable hookup. Marge pleads with Homer to either cut the cable or pay for it, but he refuses. However, after the cable man offers to sell him a stolen car stereo and attempts to break into Ned's house, Homer barricades his windows in fear. Bart one evening discovers a porn channel called "Top Hat Entertainment" and despite fear of punishment from Homer who unfortunately spots him watching it, Homer lets Bart off with a warning telling him not to watch the channel again. Bart pretends to agree to this and behind Homer's back charges the neighborhood children 50 cents to watch the cable porn channel, but just as it begins Homer catches him and sends him to his room as punishment.

Homer invites his co-workers and bar buddies to watch Drederick Tatum fight for the World Heavyweight Championship during a cable-TV boxing match. Unfortunately for Homer Mr Burns also finds out and decides to attend the gathering to watch the match. When Lisa announces she will boycott the screening, Homer banishes her to the lawn, where she is joined by Marge and Maggie. Eventually Homer's conscience bothers him and he begrudgingly chooses not to watch the fight, dragging Bart outside with him. When his friends leave, Homer hesitantly cuts the cable hookup over Bart's objections. Homer accidentally cuts the neighborhood's electric power when he severs the wrong cable. He cuts the right cable on his third try, ending the episode abruptly with static showing onscreen.

The time is November 1899 through February 1900; the place is Ladysmith, a small railway town in the British Colony of Natal near the border with the Boer Republics. The Boers have surprised the world with initial victories over the British Army and have now laid siege to Ladysmith. As they shell the town from surrounding hills, people die, disease is rampant, structures collapse, starvation looms, there is panic about enemy agents and yet the British muddle through.

The setting of Giles Foden’s novel is historically accurate, and a number of historical figures appear as characters; for example, the Boers arrest a young reporter named Winston Churchill as he struggles to reach the besieged town, and an Indian lawyer-turned-medical volunteer named Mohandas K. Gandhi becomes more committed to his philosophy of active non-violence.

The core of ''Ladysmith'' is a fictionalised version of a love story that Giles Foden found in the letters of his great-grandfather, who was a British soldier at Ladysmith. Bella, the Irish hotelkeeper's daughter, falls in love, first, with a British soldier; and later with a Portuguese barber, thus defying convention and rebelling against her father.

Jack Deth is a retired police trooper in the 23rd century who has been called back into service to assist in hunting down Martin Whistler, a criminal mastermind who uses psychic powers to turn people into mindless "Trancers" and carry out his orders. Deth can identify a tranced individual by scanning them with a special bracelet. All trancers appear as normal humans at first, but once triggered, they become savage killers with twisted features.

Before he can be caught, Whistler escapes back in time using a drug-induced time-traveling technique. Whistler's consciousness travels down his ancestral bloodline, arrives in 1985, and takes over the body of a Los Angeles police detective named Weisling. Once Deth discovers what Whistler has done, he destroys Whistler's body—effectively leaving him trapped in the past with no vessel to return to—and chases after him through time the same way. Deth ends up in the body of one of his ancestors: a journalist named Phil Dethton.

With the help of Phil's girlfriend—a punk rock girl named Leena—Deth goes after Whistler, who has begun to "trance" other victims. Whistler plots to eliminate the future governing council members of Angel City (the future name of Los Angeles), who are being systematically wiped out of existence by Whistler's murder spree of their ancestors. Deth arrives too late to prevent most of the murders and can only safeguard Hap Ashby, a washed-up former pro baseball player, who is the ancestor of the last surviving council member, Chairman Ashe.

Deth is given some high-tech equipment, which is sent to him in the past: his sidearm (which contains two hidden vials of time drugs to send him and Whistler back to the future), and a "long-second" wristwatch, which temporarily slows time, stretching one second to 10. The watch has only enough power for one use, but he later receives another watch.

During the end fight with Whistler, one of the drug vials in Jack's gun breaks, leaving only one vial to get home. Jack is forced to make a choice: kill the innocent Weisling (who is possessed by the evil Whistler), or use the vial to send Whistler back to 2247, which would strand Jack in the present. Jack chooses to inject Weisling with the vial, saving the lieutenant's life but condemning Whistler to an eternity without a body to return to. Jack decides to remain with Leena in 1985, although observing him from the shadows is McNulty, his boss from the future, who has traveled down his own ancestral line, ending up in the body of a young girl.

'''Opening''' Footage of the protests at the 27th G8 summit in Genoa. Fidel Castro gives a speech. '''John Zerzan''' John Zerzan is interviewed. '''RealDoll''' RealDoll manufacturer gives a tour of his warehouse, showing the variety and cost of the sex-dolls. '''Cuba''' Mirta Muñes shows the Cuban ration card, Cuban toothpaste. Pre Fidel Speech Parade, Fidel going up to the pulpit. Tania speaks about having gone out of Cuba, amazed by supermarkets, McDonald's, and gaining a lot of weight. '''Internet''' Internet-wealthy Svante says he hates money, feels empty. John Zerzan on emptiness in consumer society. Ballmer's monkeyboy dance and then "I love this company" statement intermixed with workers stretching, then Fidel Castro lip-synched to "I love this company". footage from Alang, India where it says 40,000 workers scrap ships to recycle steel. John Zerzan speech saying violent protesting is better than peaceful protesting, intermixed with a car show, and protesting. '''New Ethic''' John Zerzan says corporate property of Starbucks or similar is the main target of his criticism due to being understood as destructive and wiping out freedom and diversity. footage of primitive man. *landfills, with conclusion: there is a paradigm shift coming where people will not want corporate products and will desire a simple, fulfilling life. This can be understood ironically. '''Credits'''

At Magic Mountain, Abner Devereaux, the park's engineer and the creator of a series of animatronic attractions is not pleased that his works are being overshadowed by an upcoming concert by Kiss. Calvin Richards, the park's owner, explains that the concert will generate much-needed revenue to make up for the quality control problems that have plagued Deveraux's creations. Melissa, a park guest, becomes concerned when her boyfriend Sam Farrell, a park employee and assistant to Devereaux, has gone missing. Meanwhile, three punks sabotage one of the rides and Deveraux is blamed for the incident.

Melissa goes to Devereaux's underground laboratory, which was the last place Sam was seen. Devereaux dismisses her after explaining that he has not seen Sam, but after she leaves the lab, he reveals that Sam has been placed under mind-control through the use of an electronic device on the back of his neck. The three punks enter the Chamber of Thrills, where they fall into traps set by Devereaux. Richards fires Devereaux for his erratic behavior and disregard for the guests' safety; because of this, Devereaux swears revenge upon Richards, the park, and Kiss—all of whom he blames for his misfortune.

Shortly after Kiss' first concert at the park, Devereaux attempts to discredit them by unleashing a robotic copy of Gene Simmons to wreak havoc on the park and the security guards. The band is questioned the next day, but no action is taken, causing the park's officials, including the police and Richards to apologize, to them by pardoning Gene of sabotage. Melissa seeks help from the band to find Sam, unaware that the security pass she received from Devereaux is a tracking device. Devereaux has Sam break into the band's lair and steals their talismans, but the plan is foiled due to the force field on the talismans' case. Kiss sneak into the park to confront Devereaux, fighting off Devereaux's animatronic white monkeys in the process. Meanwhile, Sam manages to steal the talismans and delivers them to Devereaux, who then neutralizes Kiss with a ray gun. Kiss, having lost their powers, are imprisoned in the underground lab. Devereaux then sends his robotic Kiss copies in place of the real Kiss in order to ruin their concert and incite a riot. The real Kiss manages to retrieve their talismans, thereby regaining their powers. They escape and quickly head to the stage where they defeat the imposters and save the concert.

After the show, Kiss, Melissa and Richards confront Devereaux in the underground laboratory, only to discover that he has frozen in a catatonic state, seemingly revealing himself as the namesake "phantom" of the park. Paul Stanley removes the mind-control device from Sam's neck, returning him to normal. Richards laments Devereaux's demise by saying, "He created Kiss to destroy Kiss...and he lost." An alternate take used the final dialogue "He created KISS...to defeat KISS...and in the end, it destroyed him."

Albert Vogler is a magician who leads a troupe of performers, known as Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater, who claim to possess supernatural abilities. Among them are Albert's grandmother, Granny Vogler; his wife Manda, who performs in costume as a man under the alias Mr. Aman; his charismatic assistant, Tubal; and their driver, Simson. Albert proclaims to have discovered animal magnetism. After leaving a show in Copenhagen, the group travel by carriage through the wilderness into Sweden, and hear screams emanating from the woods. They find an ill man lying on the ground nearby, who introduces himself as Johan Spegel, a former vaudevillian. The troupe decide to bring him along with them, and he becomes progressively ill. Albert keenly observes Johan as he apparently dies in the carriage.

The troupe arrive in a village and are met by Consul Egerman who, along with his wife Ottilia, is interested in the occult. Tubal informs Egerman and his associates that Albert is mute, and the townsmen question the nature of their magic show based on the advertisements promoting it. Dr. Vergerus, the Minister of Health, accuses Albert of practicing quackery and pseudoscience; the men privately plan to wager on Albert's abilities. Later, the troupe have dinner with Sara and Sanna, two servants who are enthralled by their presence, and Tubal peddles love potions made by Granny. The head cook, Sofia, is impervious to Tubal's bravado, but finds him attractive and solicits him for sex.

As a storm brews, Sanna grows frightened of the group after Granny tells her she is a witch who is 200 years old. Meanwhile, Simson flirts with Sara, and the two drink the aphrodisiac potions together before having sex. Ottilia approaches Albert and tells him that she believes in his powers, and that her husband and the other townsmen criticize him only because they do not understand him. She further explains that she hopes he can make contact with her deceased daughter. After Ottilia leaves, Albert is visited by Johan, who did not die. Johan laments his "unused" life to Albert before again dying in his arms; Albert conceals his body in a hidden compartment of a large trunk. Egerman observes the exchange from the shadows and is shaken by it, unsure if he has witnessed an apparition.

Dr. Vergeru approaches Manda in her room, her masculine disguise removed. She tells him the troupe are fleeing from the authorities, and admits that the group's entire act is a fraud. Albert listens to their conversation before entering the room, and assaults Vergeru when he goads him. Albert removes his wig, and Manda comforts him, recounting their travails on the road, the home they left behind, and his decision to disguise himself as a mute.

The following morning, the troupe perform a magic show for the townspeople. Tubal asks Henrietta Starbeck, the wife of the Police Superintendent, to be a volunteer in the show; apparently using magnets, Manda elicits cruel admissions from Henrietta about her husband, publicly humiliating him. Next, Engelson volunteers Antonsson, the stableman, for a trick in which Albert apparently manipulates his body. During the performance, Albert collapses and dies, and Antonsson flees in horror, later committing suicide. Albert's body is placed in his trunk—which, unbeknownst to Vergerus, also contains Johan's body—and brought to the attic for an autopsy.

After Vergerus performs a full autopsy, he is terrified when Albert emerges from the shadows, alive. Vergerus demands to know whose body he has performed an autopsy on. Albert responds that it was a "poor actor"—it was in fact Johan, who was also in the trunk. Angered, Vergerus remarks the troupe's performance as "miserable", and contemptuously pays Albert with a single coin for the entertainment. Manda has Simson hitch their horses so the troupe can leave, but Tubal tells her he wishes to stay with Sofia. Granny also tells Manda she will no longer join them, and plans to live the remainder of her years with the funds she has saved by selling her potions. Upset over Simson's departure, Sara asks Albert and Manda if she can join them, to which they agree. Before they can depart, Albert and Manda are escorted back into the house by police officers. They initially believe they are to be charged with crimes, but, to their surprise, the Police Superintendent Starbeck notifies them that the king wishes to have them perform at the Royal Palace. Shortly afterward, Albert, Manda, Simson, and Sara depart for Stockholm.

The protagonist is a fictional character named Nicholas Garrigan, a young Scottish doctor who goes to work in Uganda out of a sense of idealism and adventure, arriving on the day of the 1971 Ugandan coup d'état. He relates how he came to be the personal physician and confidant of Amin, the president of Uganda during the Second Republic of Uganda. The novel focuses on Garrigan's relationship and fascination with the president, who soon grows into a brutal and ruthless dictator. Garrigan consciously and repeatedly acts against his better judgment, remaining in Amin's employment until he is far past the point of easy escape physically and morally. Mesmerized by Amin's charm and charisma, he is gradually drawn complicitly into the corruption and brutality of Amin's rule (including his personal participation in the severance of British relations with Uganda, the murder of Kay Amin, the events of Operation Entebbe and the murder of Dora Bloch, and the Uganda-Tanzania War) with fatal results for his friends and colleagues, which Garrigan treats with a mixture of physical disgust; nonchalant, fatalistic acceptance of living under a totalitarian regime; and self-serving denial of culpability.

Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to his hometown, (fictional) Kingsmont, North Carolina, to settle his uncle's estate. Many years before, powerful tobacco magnate and cigar-manufacturer Major Singleton (Donald Crisp) drove Brant and his father (now dead) out of town. Singleton foreclosed on the Royles because they grew the best bright leaf tobacco and because young Brant dared to fall in love with his daughter, Margaret (Patricia Neal).

When Royle stops a runaway carriage driven by Margaret, she gives him a cool reception. His ardor remains undiminished. Bored and eager for excitement, she deliberately incites her father to confront Royle at the hotel. Inventor John Barton (Jeff Corey) needing financing for his revolutionary cigarette-rolling machine, sees the incident and approaches Royle. (Singleton dismissed the idea.) Royle has $40, a run-down cigarette factory—and a friend.

Brant was Sonia Kovac's (Lauren Bacall) first love. Long ago, he gave her his father's chiming pocket watch. Once a cigarette girl, Sonia has prospered by turning her late mother's house into a high-class bordello. Royle persuades her to invest in the machine, making her a partner. "I don't kiss partners," Sonia says. Brant hires medicine showman Chris Malley (Jack Carson) after he comes up with a perfect slogan: “The Royle Cigarette Company: Fit for a King.” Malley eventually becomes Royle's second in command.

Barton's invention produces cigarettes at a fraction of the cost of hand rolling, and Royle's company grows by leaps and bounds. “Sick of being treated like a lady” and aroused by the danger, Margaret leads Brant on. Brant comes hours late to Sonia's birthday party and tells her his plans, blind to the fact that she loves him. She goes to Europe.

One by one, Royle takes over the big businesses, until only Singleton is left. Finally, he shows the Major that he has acquired his shares and his debts. Royle offers to give them back as a wedding present. Margaret tells Singleton that she will marry Royle, even though she does not love him, in order to save the family interests. He is appalled at her cold-blooded practicality and, blaming Royle, challenges the upstart to a duel in the hotel bar. Royle refuses, even when Singleton threatens to shoot him in cold blood: That would violate Singleton's code of honor. Singleton does shoot, wounding the unarmed man slightly. Disgraced, he commits suicide.

Singleton's estate is worthless. Even Singleton House is mortgaged. Margaret refuses to sell the house: She will find a way. Royle comes to see her, to say that whatever hatred there was has gone with her father. She warns him to stay away from her. He replies that with him, she can have everything. They kiss.

Royle buys out Barton, who goes to Detroit and the fledgling automobile business. Sonia returns from Europe, to a house beautifully refurbished by Malley, who proposes. Sonia believes Brant and Margaret are through, now that the Major is dead. Malley shows her the betrothal announcement.

Margaret and Brant marry. Sonia's wedding gift is the pocketwatch. The Royles go abroad for a year. When they return, the business is in trouble and so is the marriage. Margaret refuses to share Royle's bed. Headlines read "Attorney General to Smash Royle Inc." over monopoly charges. Spending lavishly, Margaret has sold all the stock that Royle gave her. Malley says she has taken $2 million out of the company. Royle and Malley, who knew that Barton was behind the monopoly charges, learn that Margaret has been feeding Barton information. Brant confronts Margaret, who tells him she has schemed and planned to destroy him since the day her father was buried. Now she wants a divorce. Until the day he dies, Brant will remember the Singletons. She leaves; he sets the house on fire accidentally. He stops the fire brigade, crying “Let it burn!”

On New Year's Day, 1900, Brant comes to Sonia to say goodbye and to apologize. She says he has killed the Brant Royle she loved. As to the business, he says Malley will handle it; Royle tobacco is so big now, it doesn't need him. Riding out of town, he pauses to listen to his father's watch.

The protagonist, Obi-Wan Kenobi is trying hard to become an apprentice within four weeks. At the end of those four weeks is his thirteenth birthday, and by then he would have passed the cut-off age for apprenticeship, and be forced to leave the Jedi Temple. Master Yoda informs Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon Jinn is going to be visiting the Jedi Temple in search of an apprentice. As there are no other Jedi looking for an apprentice at the time, Qui-Gon is Obi-Wan's only hope.

Obi-Wan fails to become Qui-Gon's apprentice and is subsequently assigned to the Jedi Agricultural Corps on the planet Bandomeer. He finds out Qui-Gon is on a mission on Bandomeer, also. The two must dodge Whiphids and Hutts on a mining ship, which is eventually hijacked by Offworld Corporation, a rival faction to the group Obi-Wan is joining. Offworld holds the ship's stash of dactyl, a mineral required for most of the creatures on the ship.

The mining ship is soon attacked by pirates, which causes them to launch an emergency landing on a moon close to Bandomeer. The Jedi, Offworld, and Offworld's rival faction must work together to fight against predators and other threats. Offworld's uprising is also stopped during this truce, and once the ship is repaired, the factions travel together to Bandomeer.

Qui-Gon catches glimpses of Obi-Wan's potential, and starts to reconsider.

In 1970, Nicholas Garrigan graduates from medical school at the University of Edinburgh. With dull prospects at home, he decides to seek adventure abroad by working at a Ugandan missionary clinic run by Dr. David Merrit and his wife, Sarah. Garrigan becomes attracted to Sarah, who enjoys the attention but refuses to engage in an extramarital affair.

Meanwhile, General Idi Amin overthrows incumbent president Milton Obote in a ''coup d'état.'' Sarah has seen past corruptions and warns it will repeat itself, but Garrigan sincerely believes Amin will help the country.

Garrigan is called to a minor car accident where he treats Amin's hand. During the incident, Garrigan takes a gun and shoots a mortally wounded cow because no one else has the presence of mind to put it out of its misery. Amin is impressed by his quick action and initiative. Fond of Scotland as a symbol of resilience and admiring of the Scottish people for their resistance to the English, Amin is delighted to discover Garrigan's nationality and exchanges his military shirt for Garrigan's Scotland shirt. Later, Amin invites Garrigan to become his personal physician and take charge of modernising the country's healthcare system.

Garrigan soon becomes Amin's trusted confidant and is relied on for much more than medical care, such as matters of state. Although Garrigan is aware of violence around Kampala, he accepts Amin's explanation that cracking down on the opposition will bring lasting peace to the country.

Garrigan discovers that the polygamous leader has ostracised the youngest of his three wives, Kay, because she has given birth to an epileptic son, Mackenzie. When treating Mackenzie, Garrigan and Kay form a relationship and have sex, but Kay tells him he must find a way to leave Uganda.

Eventually, Garrigan begins to lose faith in Amin as he witnesses the increasing paranoia, murders, and xenophobia. Amin replaces Garrigan's British passport with a Ugandan one to prevent him from escaping, which leads Garrigan to frantically seek help from Stone, the local British Foreign Office representative. Garrigan is told the British will help him leave Uganda if he uses his position to assassinate Amin, but Garrigan refuses.

Kay informs Garrigan that she has become pregnant with his child. Aware that Amin will murder her for infidelity if he discovers this, she begs Garrigan for a secret abortion. Delayed by Amin's command that he attend a press conference with Western journalists, Garrigan fails to meet Kay at the appointed time. She concludes she has been abandoned and seeks out a primitive abortion in a nearby village, where she is apprehended by Amin's forces. Garrigan finds her dismembered corpse on an autopsy table and falls retching to his knees, finally confronting the inhumanity of Amin's regime, and decides killing him will end it all.

A hijacked aircraft is flown to Entebbe Airport by pro-Palestinian hijackers seeking asylum. Amin, sensing a major publicity opportunity, rushes to the scene, taking Garrigan along. At the airport, one of Amin's bodyguards discovers Garrigan's plot to poison Amin under the ruse of giving him pills for a headache. Garrigan is beaten by Amin's henchmen before Amin arrives and discloses he is aware of the relationship with Kay. As punishment, Garrigan's chest is pierced with meat hooks before he is hanged by his skin.

Amin arranges a plane for the release of non-Israeli passengers, and the torturers leave Garrigan unconscious on the floor while they relax in another room. Garrigan's medical colleague, Dr. Junju, takes advantage of the opportunity to rescue him. He urges Garrigan to tell the world the truth about Amin's regime, asserting that the world will believe Garrigan because he is white. Junju gives Garrigan his own jacket, enabling him to mingle unnoticed with the crowd of freed hostages and board the plane. When the torturers discover Garrigan's absence, Junju is killed for aiding in the escape. While Amin is being informed of Garrigan's escape, which he is too late to prevent, Garrigan boards the plane and tearfully remembers the people of Uganda.

An epilogue reveals that the Entebbe incident ruined Amin's reputation in the international community, and in 1979 he made a foolhardy decision to invade Tanzania, which promptly counterattacked and captured Kampala, overthrowing him. He lived the rest of his life in exile in Saudi Arabia until his passing in 2003.

Prologue

A young man named Robert Ross is introduced as squatting in a tattered Canadian military uniform, with a pistol in hand. A nearby building is on fire, and a train is stopped. There is evidence of war, and Ross is shown to be in the company of a black horse and a dog. Robert, the horse, and the dog seem to have been together for a while, as they understand each other. He decides to free a herd of horses from the train, and the prologue ends with the horses, rider, and dog all running as a herd.

Part One

Robert Ross enlists in the army to escape the guilt he feels after the recent death of his sister, Rowena, who died from falling out of her wheelchair while playing with her beloved rabbits in the barn. Robert feels guilty because he was unable to save her since he was making love to his pillows in his bedroom when he should have been watching her. His mother orders Robert to kill the rabbits after Rowena's death; when he refuses, his father hires Teddy Budge to kill the rabbits. In an attempt to stop Teddy, Robert is beaten up. Later, while he soaks the resulting bruises in the bathtub, Robert's mother comes in to talk to him. Drunk and visibly upset, she says that she knows Robert wants to go to war, and she accepts that she cannot stop him.

Robert goes to army training. There, he meets Eugene Taffler, a lauded war hero. Taffler shows him how to break bottles with stones, prompting Robert to think of him as David throwing stones at Goliath. Robert then goes with his soldiers-in-training to a brothel named ''Wet Goods''. He goes into a room with the prostitute Ella; when she realizes that he has accidentally ejaculated in his pants and therefore will not be having sex, she decides to pass the time by showing him a peephole into the next room. Here Robert sees Taffler having sadomasochistic sex with another man. Out of anger, Robert throws his boots at a mirror and a water jug, scaring Ella.

While sailing to England on the ''S.S. Massanabie'', Robert must kill a horse that broke its leg. While struggling to kill the horse, he fires and misses many times before landing his shots.

Part Two

Robert is now in France and in charge of a convoy. While scouting ahead in the fog, he falls into a muddy sinkhole and nearly drowns. After saving himself, he is met by Poole and Levitt, two of his men. They eventually reach the dugout that will be their temporary home. There, they meet the three other men that live in the dugout: Devlin, Bonnycastle, and Rodwell.

Rodwell cares for injured animals he finds: birds, rabbits, toads, and hedgehogs. The rabbits painfully remind Robert of Rowena. However, Robert manages to build a bond with Rodwell, the only other civil soldier who cares and respects animals.

Robert remembers Harris, another soldier whom he had befriended on the ship when both fell ill. On land, Harris died two days before Robert was scheduled to leave for France. It is during their time in the infirmary together that Robert and Harris meet Taffler again. After Harris dies, Robert asks Taffler to help him in burying his friend. However, Robert learns that Harris has already been cremated. Disappointed by this turn of events, Robert and Taffler dump the ashes into the sea. Robert says, "This is not a military funeral. This is just a burial at sea. May we take off our caps?"

On February 28, 1916, the Germans set off a string of land mines, strategically placed along the St. Eloi Salient. The whole countryside goes up in flames. This is the second half of a battle that the Canadians thought was already over. "30,000 men would die and not an inch of land would be won."

Part Three

Robert is now experiencing trench warfare at its worst. Following a shelling of the dugout, his fellow soldier Levitt loses his mind, and Robert finds himself close to the brink.

Ordered to place guns in a location sure to be a deathtrap, Robert and his men find themselves on the wrong end of a gas attack in the middle of a freezing cold winter. Robert is instructed to place the guns in a crater that is formed by the shelling attacks. As he descends the side of crater, Robert slips and smashes his knees on a discarded machine gun, creatin the men start descending the side of crater, there is a sudden gas attack. The bottom of the crater is full of freezing water, and many begin jumping into it. Robert takes control with his pistol and instructs the men to urinate on strips of clothing and hold them over their faces. One man is too scared to urinate, and Robert must do it for him. The men then lie down, feigning death. Hours later, Robert finally sits up and surveys their surroundings. He immediately realizes that they are being watched by an enemy German soldier sitting at the lip of the crater. Rather than shooting the soldiers, the German allows all of Robert's men to escape the crater. Just as Robert is leaving, however, the German makes a quick motion, and Robert shoots the German. Thinking that the German had been reaching for his rifle, Robert is shocked when he realizes that the German was only reaching for a pair of binoculars to look at the bird flying overhead; Robert is even more horrified to see that the German had had a sniper rifle, meaning that he could have killed Robert and his men if he had wanted to. Robert hears a bird chirping above him and, from then on, is haunted by the sound.

Part Four

In an interview, Juliet d'Orsey explains that the d'Orsey home was converted into a hospital for soldiers during the war. It is here that Robert recovers from his own injuries sustained in Part Three. Once again he meets Taffler, another patient at the d'Orsey home; Robert is devastated to find that Taffler has lost both of his arms in the war. While Taffler seems to be in good spirits, he ends up attempting suicide; one day, as Juliet comes into Taffler's room to give him some flowers, she finds him trying to rub his raw arm stumps against the walls and subsequently bleed to death. Various people, including Robert, respond to Juliet's screams, and Taffler is saved.

Juliet tells Robert that his assigned room is haunted by the ghost Lady Sorrel, who comes into the room every night and lights the candles. One night, Juliet thinks it would be a neat prank to dress up as Lady Sorrel, walk into Robert's room, and light the candles. When Juliet opens the door, she sees Barbara and Robert Ross having sex, so violently that Juliet at first thinks that Robert is hurting Barbara. Although they do not see who opens the door, Juliet begins to feel guilty. When Robert eventually leaves the home, Juliet slips him a candle and a box of matches in an effort to explain herself and apologize.

Part Five

Robert heads back to battle on a small train. He gets hopelessly lost on the way and loses his pack. After many weeks of travelling in circles, he arrives at Désolé, a mental institution. In the bath house, he is brutally raped by four men. Although he assumes that they are patients of the institution, he is horrified to learn that they are fellow soldiers. When he returns to his room, he finally receives his lost pack. He burns his only picture of Rowena, as an act of charity, reasoning that it would be horrible for something so innocent to exist in such a perverse world.

Robert then returns to the front. The Germans begin firing shells. Robert asks Captain Leather to let the horses out of the barn, as they will die if the barn is hit, but Captain Leather refuses. Robert returns to the barn and asks his friend Devlin to help him release the horses. As Devlin runs out to open the gate, Captain Leather comes out of hiding and shoots Devlin dead. He then fires at Robert but misses. At that moment, three shells land. Soon everything is burning around Robert; even the horses are slowly burning alive. Robert finds Captain Leather and shoots him dead.

Robert runs away, as he knows he will be court-martialed for disobeying orders. He finds a black horse with a black dog beside an abandoned train. Before riding the horse down the track, he realizes that there are horses in the train. He frees 130 horses from the train and flees the area with them. As Robert is riding with all the horses, a soldier stops him and tries to force him to return the horses; Robert shoots him dead.

Robert is finally caught in a barn with the horses. The soldiers surrounding Robert set the barn on fire in an attempt to smoke him out. However, the doors of the barn are locked. Before Robert can open them, the roof collapses on him and the horses. Robert is saved but badly burned, and all the horses and possibly the dog are killed.

Robert turns down an offer of euthanasia from a nurse from ''Bois de Madeleine'' hospital before being sent to England and tried ''in absentia''. Since he could not be kept in prison, he was given leave to stay in St Aubyn's for longterm treatment.

Juliet d'Orsey remains by Robert's side until his death in 1922. Mr. Ross is the only member of his family to come see Robert buried.

In the play, Petruchio comes to the town of Padua in the hopes of marrying a wealthy woman. Hortensio suggests that he marry Kate Minola, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the city, particularly because Hortensio can not court her sister Bianca until Kate is married. Petruchio takes an interest in Kate, owing to the dowry he could potentially receive, and agrees. During his first encounter with Kate, he matches her fierce temper and manages to convince her father that she passionately loves him but only pretends to hate him in public. The two are married, with Petruchio arriving at the wedding late and forcing Kate to leave the ceremony feast early.

Petruchio then starts to try to "tame" his wife in a variety of ways. He frightens Kate by yelling at the servants, and he prevents her from eating by insisting that the dishes are not good enough for her. He then offers Kate dresses and jewellery, only to return them saying that they too weren't good enough. When Bianca and Lucentio are married, Petruchio refuses to let Kate go to the wedding unless she agrees with everything he says, regardless of the validity of his claims. He puts her to the test by telling her that a man is a woman and that the moon is the sun – she agrees with both statements.

At the wedding, Petruchio is taunted by Hortensio and Lucentio for having married a "shrew". Petruchio proposes a contest to see which man has the most obedient wife: The three men are to call for their wives to see which ones respond. Of the three women, only Kate comes, and a triumphant Petruchio is the winner. Petruchio then orders Kate to bring the other wives and give a speech telling them to honour their husbands always.

The novel is about a pathetic young man named Nikolai Kavalerov, who refuses to accept Communist values and is consumed by loathing and envy for his benefactor Andrei Babichev, a model Soviet citizen who manages a successful sausage factory. With Andrei Babichev's brother Ivan, Kavalerov attempts to stage a comeback of all the old, petty feelings that were crushed under communism. In the end, Ivan and Kavalerov are crushed by their own iniquity.

Mr Finch, the headmaster of Deffry Vale School, has been changing the school to improve the students' performance; his changes include free lunches with special chips. The Tenth Doctor is undercover as a science teacher in the school, and Rose is working undercover in the school's cafeteria. The Doctor discovers the oil in the chips has caused the students' increase in performance. Rose observes that the chip oil has an adverse effect on the other kitchen staff, who must use hazmat suits to handle the oil.

Mr Finch's successes arouse the attention of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, a former companion of the Doctor. She meets the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey, with an immediate rivalry sparking between the two women. Sarah Jane shows them the robot dog K9 in the boot of her car. K9 identifies the chip oil as Krillitane oil. Rose, previously unaware that the Doctor even had past companions, confronts him on why he leaves his old companions behind and never mentions them.

The following day, the group returns to the school to investigate further. The Doctor confronts Mr Finch, who confirms that he and other staff members are Krillitanes – a composite species that takes desirable attributes of the species they conquer. He attempts to subvert the Doctor, without success. Mickey and K9 remain in Sarah Jane's car for surveillance. With the Doctor's help, Sarah Jane and Rose discover that the school computers – bolstered by the students' enhanced intelligence – are part of a Krillitane effort to solve the "Skasis Paradigm", a theory of everything. Mr Finch propositions the Doctor a second time, but the Doctor again refuses, and they run from Mr Finch. After Kenny (a student who had not eaten the chips) alerts Mickey to the students' plight, Mickey crashes Sarah Jane's car through the school's doors and unplugs the computers, allowing the children to flee. The Doctor leads the Krillitanes to the kitchen. Upon their arrival, K9 detonates the chip oil container, saturating the Krillitanes and blowing them up along with K9.

Sarah Jane declines a second chance of travelling in the TARDIS, having finally decided to move on with her life. Mickey decides to join the Doctor. Sarah Jane, now getting on better than at their first meeting, asks Rose to stay with the Doctor, and is given a new K9 as a parting gift.

Composer Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) and his orchestra are appearing in Miami, with vocalist Honey Hales (Ginger Rogers). Despite the warnings of accordionist and assistant bandleader Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire), Roger is attracted to the beautiful and flirtatious Belinha (Dolores del Río) in the audience. He leaves the bandstand to pursue her.

Dona Elena (Blanche Friderici), Belinha's chaperone, is informed of this, and arranges for Roger and the band to be fired. But Roger pursues Belinha to Brazil, and organizes an engagement for the band at the Hotel Atlântico in Rio de Janeiro, unaware that the hotel is owned by Belinha's father (Walter Walker). Roger persuades Belinha to allow him to fly her there in his private plane, which runs into trouble inflight, forcing a landing on an apparently deserted island. Under the moonlight, she falls into his arms, while admitting to him that she is already engaged.

In Rio, Roger informs his good friend Julio (Raul Roulien) that he has fallen in love, but finds out that Belinha is engaged to Julio. During rehearsals for the Hotel's opening (a brief bit of Astaire tap), Fred is told by police that the hotel lacks an entertainment license. When Roger spots a plane overhead, he comes up with the idea of strapping dancing girls to planes, with Fred leading the band and Honey and Julio leading the planes. The show is a great success and the hotel's future guaranteed. Julio gives Belinha up to Roger while Fred and Honey celebrate.

While attempting to get to an Ian Dury concert in Sheffield in 1979, the Tenth Doctor and Rose accidentally land in the Scottish moors 100 years earlier in 1879. They encounter a carriage carrying Queen Victoria, who has been forced to travel by roads to Balmoral Castle as a fallen tree has blocked the train line to Aberdeen, which is feared to be a potential assassination attempt. The Doctor poses as the Queen's protector using his psychic paper, and he and Rose join the Queen as she travels to the Torchwood Estate, a favourite of her late consort Prince Albert, to spend the night. The royal party is unaware that the Torchwood Estate has been captured by a group of monks led by Father Angelo, forcing its owner, Sir Robert MacLeish, to play into their ruse as they take the place of the house's servants and guards. The monks, having arranged for the fallen tree to force the Queen to the estate, have brought a man infected with a form of lycanthropy, hoping to pass its nature to the Queen and create a new "Empire of the Wolf".

The Doctor soon realises the trap they have fallen into, and helps to save Rose, the Queen, and Sir Robert from Father Angelo's men and the werewolf by taking shelter in the estate's library, its wood coated with oil of mistletoe wood to stave off the beast. They study the library and discover evidence collected by Sir Robert's father, a polymath, and Prince Albert which indicates the werewolf is really the current form of an alien species that survives by passing its lycanthropic form from human to human. The Doctor also realises that the estate was designed as a trap for the werewolf, as by use of its strange telescope along with the Queen's Koh-i-Noor diamond, its cut fashioned by Prince Albert, they can destroy the alien lifeform.

Sir Robert sacrifices himself to allow the Doctor, Rose, and the Queen to prepare the telescope in the observatory. They are able to trap and kill the werewolf in the concentrated light of the full moon collected by the diamond. The next day, the Queen gives the Doctor and Rose knighthoods before banishing them from the British Empire, with an order to never return. In honour of Sir Robert's sacrifice and his father's ingenuity, she orders the creation of the Torchwood Institute to help defend Britain from further alien attacks, declaring that, if the Doctor should return, he should beware, because Torchwood will be waiting, ready to deal with him.

Continuity

The Doctor introduces himself as "James McCrimmon". Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) was a young (fictional) Scottish piper from the 18th Century, and a companion of the Second Doctor.

Ellen takes the elevator from her workplace on floor 38, pressing the button for the parking garage. Burly workman Ben gets on several floors below. At floor 4, the elevator opens but nobody is there until a shout is heard as the door is about to close. Ellen holds the door to allow panic-stricken security guard Hank into the elevator, who takes the elevator back up. Ellen and Ben protest but see Hank's shirt is covered in blood.

Hank says something outside that looks like an alien is killing people and was about to get him. Ben doesn't believe it and tries unsuccessfully to send the elevator back down. Hank reveals he used his security card to override the controls. Ben tries to grab the card but Hank pulls a knife to defend himself. Ben restrains Hank while Ellen tries to call for help on the elevator telephone to no avail. The elevator rocks and the lights go out. Suffering claustrophobia, Ben opens the control panel using Hank's knife and tries to operate the elevator, but Hank stops him. He then tries to open the elevator ceiling hatch but Hank again stops him, saying the monsters will kill them all. The elevator becomes operational and Ellen wrestles the card from the men and sends the elevator down to the garage. Ben presses the button for floor 39.

When the door opens there is no sign of alien monsters. Ben steps out and invites Ellen to leave with him via the stairs. Ellen initially accepts but, seeing Hank's knife in Ben's pocket, dashes back into the elevator. As the elevator descends, Hank halts it with the stop button and something attempts to open the elevator hatch. Hank holds the hatch shut and instructs Ellen to send the elevator to floor 44. The thing outside dents the hatch before stopping its attempt to enter. Ben's mutilated corpse falls into the elevator.

Ellen blames Hank for not letting Ben back in and they struggle for possession of the security card which falls down the hole between the door and the floor. Ellen uses the knife to open the panel while Hank tries to convince her it is safer to stay in the elevator. She stabs Hank, initially accidentally, then proceeds to murder him by stabbing him repeatedly. The elevator descends to the parking garage.

When the doors open a shouting and screaming group of people squeeze into the elevator. Ellen grins malevolently.

Paul Armstrong (Sean Connery), a liberal Harvard professor and former lawyer opposed to capital punishment, is persuaded by an elderly woman (Ruby Dee) to go to Florida to investigate the conviction of her grandson Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood) for murder. Ferguson, a former Cornell University student, was convicted of raping and brutally murdering a young white girl named Joanie Shriver (Barbara Jean Kane) eight years prior. Ferguson tells Armstrong that he was physically and psychologically tortured by two police detectives to get a forced confession, but firmly states he is innocent. Armstrong, believing in his innocence, must save him from being executed in the electric chair. As Armstrong digs deeper into the case, he discovers that Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne), the chief detective on the case, did indeed coerce Ferguson's confession.

Ferguson tells the professor that the murder was actually committed by Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris), a serial killer awaiting execution. According to Ferguson, Sullivan constantly taunts him about his conviction for the crime. Sullivan, through the use of Biblical cryptic clues, later reveals the location of the knife used to kill the girl. Armstrong and Brown go to the place, where Armstrong asks Brown to retrieve the knife as Brown's the actual police officer. Brown tries to threaten Armstrong into abandoning the investigation. Armstrong then discovers why Brown is so passionate to get Ferguson convicted: the murdered girl was Brown's daughter's best friend. With a new testimony and with the murder weapon at hand, Ferguson gets a re-trial and is acquitted and thereafter freed from prison. Subsequently, the governor authorizes Sullivan's execution.

Armstrong receives a call from Sullivan, who says he has a final clue to share, but first wants Armstrong to visit Sullivan's parents and tell them he said goodbye. Arriving at the house, Armstrong sees various religious items before finding their butchered decaying bodies. Back at the prison, Sullivan gloats that he and Ferguson struck a deal: Ferguson would kill Sullivan's parents in exchange for freedom, while Sullivan would claim responsibility for the girl's murder, which Ferguson did in fact commit. Armstrong asks why he was needed for their scheme, and Sullivan replies that was "Bobby Earl's call", meaning that Armstrong would be much more believable in establishing the verdicts than either Ferguson or Sullivan. Armstrong, in his anger at being played, lies to Sullivan and tells him his parents were alive and that they "forgive him." Sullivan becomes enraged. Afterwards, he is forcefully taken by the guards to the electric chair, where he is executed.

Armstrong and Brown go after Ferguson, after Armstrong suspects that Ferguson has kidnapped his wife and daughter. Ferguson's motives for everything turn out to be a desire for revenge on Armstrong's wife Laurie (Kate Capshaw); she was the prosecutor against him in a previous kidnapping case which, while ultimately dropped due to lack of evidence, resulted in him being brutalized and castrated in jail when she had him remanded to make a name for herself, as well as losing his scholarship and being kicked out of Cornell in the process, thus robbing him of any chance of a family or a decent future. At the local regional swamps, Armstrong finds his wife and daughter in a small shack, where Ferguson appears. Ferguson's plans include raping and murdering Armstrong's wife and daughter (Scarlett Johansson) and then disappearing. At a critical moment, Brown reappears (after seemingly being attacked and killed by Ferguson) and he and Armstrong join forces. Armstrong stabs Ferguson to death and his body is subsequently eaten by an alligator. Armstrong's family is thus saved.

"The Man Who Falls" consists of a series of concentrated retellings of previously published Batman stories, including ''Detective Comics'' #33, which includes Gardner Fox and Bob Kane's first version of Batman's origin.

O'Neil's story begins with a young Bruce Wayne falling down a hole on the grounds of Wayne Manor. Bats begin to swarm towards him and out the hole. Bruce's father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, rescues Bruce but chastises him for his carelessness, while Bruce's mother, Martha Wayne, comforts him. When Bruce asks if he was in Hell, she reassures him it "was just some old cave". The story then cuts to the murder of Bruce's parents and him kneeling at their dead bodies. The layouts of this version of the Waynes' murder is designed to resemble Frank Miller's ''Batman: Year One''.

At the age of 14, Bruce leaves Gotham City to explore and obtain skills in martial arts and forensics. Scenes of his early training as a teenager are depicted, including experiences with college, and a disillusioning experience in working with the FBI upon turning 20. He realizes that to achieve justice the way he sees fit, he cannot work "within a system". The story next turns to Bruce's foreign travels, one extended scene depicts Bruce's time training at a monastery, hidden in a mountainous region of Korea. After nearly a year of training, Master Kirigi tells Bruce he has exceptional intelligence and physique, but his traumatic past has made him self-destructive.

Bruce Wayne leaves Korea and heads to France, where O'Neil summarizes events from Sam Hamm's ''Batman: Blind Justice''. Bruce trains with a bounty hunter named Henri Ducard, who shows him "the uses of brutality, deception [and] cunning". When Ducard kills a fugitive he had been tracking one night, Bruce abandons his training, disgusted.

The narration explains that Bruce meets and learns from every great detective in the world, when he approaches Willie Doggett. Summarizing events from O'Neil's own ''Legends of the Dark Knight'' story, "Shaman", Bruce (now 23) and Doggett track down a man named Tom Woodley to a mountain ledge, where Woodley shoots and kills Doggett. Woodley himself falls from a precipice. Bruce, without food or warmth, wanders the snowy mountains. After falling unconscious, he is rescued by a Native American shaman. When Bruce awakens, the old man tells Bruce he has the mark of the bat, an animal sacred in his tribe.

Bruce returns to Gotham to begin his crime-fighting career. O'Neil again recounts events from ''Year One'': Bruce's first night out, fighting street thugs while still uncostumed, is deemed a failure. While brooding in the library of Wayne Manor that night, a bat crashes through the study window. Modeling himself after the recurring images of bats, Bruce creates his costumed identity: the Batman.

The game's plot revolves around Dizzy and his girlfriend Daisy. Daisy is taken by the King Troll while walking through a forest with Dizzy, and he has to chase after her. On his way Dizzy must also collect 30 coins. Some of them are hidden quite well.

Peter and the neighbors are notified by mail that they will receive free boats if they attend a timeshare sales pitch. However, during a high-pressure sales interview, Peter trades the boat for a mystery box, which turns out to contain tickets for a comedy club. At the club, Peter becomes drunk and attempts to tell jokes on stage. Before his brief performance, during which he mostly abuses the audience, he puts his beer bottle without the lid on in his pocket, which spills down his trousers, making it look like he wet himself. The audience, amused with Peter's mishap, laughs hysterically, making a drunk Peter believe they liked his jokes. This leads Peter to believe he could be a hit as a comic.

Continuing his hubris, Peter tells a fascist-sexist joke at his job at the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory that offends female co-worker Sarah Bennett, who sues Peter and the factory for sexual harassment, meaning Peter faces a prison sentence and the company will be shut down. Her lawyer, Gloria Ironbachs, offers to drop the charges and commute the prison time to a fine if Peter goes to a sensitivity-training program. But after he commits another violent offense by squeezing Gloria's breast, which proves that the program has no effect, he is sentenced to a women's retreat and 10 years probation, where he continues to make insensitive comments until he endures pain comparable to childbirth: taking his bottom lip and stretching it behind his head.

By the time he returns home from the psychiatric hospital, he has been reconditioned to be very effeminate. At first, Lois appreciates Peter's newfound sensitivity, but she is soon tired of him spending more time in front of the mirror, taking pregnancy tests and scolding Lois for slavishly attending to her husband, who unbeknownst to Peter is him. She appeals to Peter's friends for help, even going to Glenn Quagmire's house to confess that the "new" Peter is not meeting her needs. The other guys try to bring Peter back to normal by bringing him among his "fellow men". Cleveland takes Peter to a convention of Black men (a nod to the Million Man March) where Peter blames the assemblage for all the crime and problems and chides them that they should be ashamed for ruining society; they mistakenly believe that he is racist and then chase him through the streets intent on hanging him.

When Peter and Lois attend a women's gala, Gloria insults Lois by saying that her current lifestyle is the reason for Peter's former disrespect and hatred for women. Lois reminds her that she is a woman and that she chooses to be a mother and housewife. When Gloria says Lois' children must be "screwed up," Lois furiously punches her and they both get into a clothes-shredding catfight, which turns Peter on. After Lois pins Gloria to the floor, Peter pulls Lois out and rushes her home to have sex. When they finish, Lois comments on how wonderful it was. Her voice startles Peter as he has already forgotten that she is still there, but since she is, he asks her to make him a sandwich. This pleases Lois because it means he is back to his old self.

Nishi is a 20-year-old loser with dreams of becoming a comic book artist. One late evening he runs into his childhood crush, Myon, on the subway. She tells Nishi she is due to marry. Nishi has flashbacks of exchanging love letters and messages with Myon and fantasizes declaring his love for her, but in reality fails to actually say anything.

They go to her father's yakitori restaurant, and see Myon's father and her elder sister Yan (who runs the restaurant). Nishi also meets Myon's fiancée, Ryo. Two yakuza gangsters enter, Atsu and a senior yakuza whom Atsu calls Aniki (literally 'brother', a term used by Yakuza to refer to each other). They are looking for Myon's father who hid under the table when the gangsters walked in. Atsu is after him as he had seduced and stole Atsu's girlfriend. It is later revealed through flashbacks that the senior yakuza is actually the first boyfriend of the girls' mother, who was also seduced away by Myon's father in a disco in their youth.

As Atsu threatens Myon with a gun, Ryo steps in and tries to punch Atsu, but instead gets knocked out. Atsu then prepares to rape Myon, who calls out Nishi's name. Atsu turns on Nishi, who is rolled in a ball, terrified, placing his pistol against Nishi's anus. Atsu fires when Nishi finally musters the courage to yell, "I will hurt you!", thus killing him instantly. The senior Yakuza, offended by Atsu's lack of control, shoots him dead, and then nonchalantly orders dinner.

Meanwhile, Nishi is in some sort of limbo where he encounters a being whose physical image changes every fraction of a second, ''Kami-sama'' (God). ''Kami-sama'' directs Nishi to walk into a red portal where he will disappear, but at the last moment Nishi runs for the opposite blue portal in order to return to life. ''Kami-sama'' becomes impressed by Nishi's sheer will to live, and so lets him escape.

Nishi returns to the moment just before Atsu pulled the trigger. This time, Nishi seizes Atsu's gun with his buttocks, and shoots him dead. He, Yan and Myon all pile into the yakuza's car, leaving the father and Ryo (still unconscious) behind. They speed off, followed by the massed yakuzas. The Yakuza boss calls Nishi using the yakuza's car phone and reveals that Atsu was a player on the Japanese national soccer team, threatening to frame the three for armed robbery and murder. Then after further chase the boss has his men force the trio in to a dead end on a bridge. However, Nishi steers the car off the bridge and they are swallowed up by an enormous whale.

Inside the whale, they meet an old man who was formerly yakuza and has been trapped in the whale for more than 30 years. (He is later shown through flashbacks to be the father of the senior Yakuza shown earlier). He shows them to the elaborate suspended house he has constructed over the 'sea' inside the whale's belly. Nishi attempts to escape the whale but he fails and they resign themselves to life inside the whale. Yan practices dancing and art, Myon practices swimming (a dream she gave up when her breasts got bigger), Nishi practices writing and drawing humorous manga and he and Myon finally become sexually intimate.

They attempt to leave the whale, again failing. The old man reveals that the water level inside the whale is rising, and he believes the whale is probably dying. They concoct a plan to make a motor boat using spare parts and fuel from the car they arrived in. On the day before the final match of the soccer World Cup, the whale returns to Osaka (their home town) and Yan, Nishi, and Myon, as well as the Old Man, manage to escape.

As the four fly through the air, the film returns to its very first scene, with Myon running from the Yakuza, only this time she does not get her leg caught in the door of the train, and the Yakuza is left behind on the platform. This is followed by a lengthy montage, similar to that of the opening credits, showing the histories of the various characters. The movie ends ambiguously, with the phrase "This Story Has Never Ended" appearing before the credits roll.

In a preface, Mickiewicz briefly outlines the history of the region, describing the interactions among the Lithuanians, Prussians, Poles, and Russians. The following six cantos tell the story of Wallenrod, a fictional Lithuanian pagan captured and reared as a Christian by his people's long-standing enemies, the Order of Teutonic Knights. He rises to the position of Grand Master, but is awakened to his heritage by a mysterious minstrel singing at an entertainment. He then seeks vengeance by deliberately leading the Knights into a major military defeat. It transpires that Wallenrod has a wife, Aldona, who has been living in seclusion. The Knights discover his treason and sentence him to death; Aldona refuses to flee with him. He then commits suicide.

A couple checks into a suite in Las Vegas. Flashbacks show that he's a computer whiz on the verge of becoming a dot-com millionaire (Peter Sarsgaard). She's a lap dancer at a club (Molly Parker). He's depressed, withdrawing from work, missing meetings with investors. He wants a connection, so he offers her $10,000 to spend three nights with him in Vegas. She accepts with conditions: four hours per night of erotic play, and no penetration.

During the days in Vegas, they get to know each other, have fun, and meet a friend of hers, casino dealer Jerri (Carla Gugino). After the first night, things get complicated. When the three days are over, the stripper makes it clear that she was only there for the money and that the man she spent the time with was just a client. Upset that his feelings aren't reciprocated, he rapes her; she makes no attempt to stop him. She then masturbates for him, achieving orgasm, saying "you want to see real? I'll show you real." The next day he returns home heartbroken.

The movie ends with his return to the strip club to see the woman he fell in love with again. She greets him fondly but interacts with him the way she had when they first met: as a stripper and a client ordering a lap dance.

Because the film is shown in a non-linear format, it is left to the viewer to interpret the ending. One could believe that the film ends with the meeting at the strip club and a chance for the two characters to have a real relationship together, or one could believe that the strip club meeting occurred earlier in time and the film ends with the characters going their separate ways in life.

Divorced and disillusioned about romantic relationships, Theresa Osborne is jogging when she finds a bottle on the beach. Inside is a letter of love and belonging to "Catherine," signed simply "Garrett." Challenged by the mystery and pulled by emotions she doesn't fully understand, Theresa begins a search for this man that will change her life. What happens to her is unexpected, perhaps miraculous-an encounter that embraces all our hopes for finding someone special, for having a true and strong love that is timeless and everlasting.

Touched by the warmth of the words in the letter Theresa embarked on a mission that would change her life forever. She discovers two other letters written by the same author and for the same recipient and goes to Wilmington to find this mysterious writer at the urging of Deanna, a close friend. It doesn't take long for her to find Garrett, the mysterious writer. Chemistry gradually grows between the two as they start dating. However, with the passage of time, the two are confronted with the reality of one of them having to change his/her life in order for them to be together. One night, the two have a confrontation about this issue that doesn't end well. Even worse, Garrett discovers his letters in Theresa's drawer. Angry at what he deemed as deception and an affair founded on lies, Garrett storms out of Theresa's apartment, taking with him his letters. Back at Wilmington, he tries to get over the issue by sharing with his father Jeb, who instead thinks Garrett mishandled the whole situation. Jeb receives a visitor that same day, a young woman whom he believes to be Theresa. Garret and Theresa argue, with Theresa giving up the relationship citing that she could never compete with Catherine. A grieving Theresa heads back to Boston to move on with life.

A few days later, Theresa received a surprise call comes from Jeb in Wilmington telling her to come right away. The heartbreak of Garrett's death confronted her in Wilmington. On that fateful day, Garrett had set sail on the Happenstance to drop one last message to Catherine, but he ran into a storm that lead to his death. Theresa has trouble getting back to her life afterward until she receives an unexpected package in the mail. Before his death, Garrett wrote a message to her in a bottle, asking for her forgiveness and offering to move to Boston for her. Theresa replies with her own letter of forgiveness which she throws off the sea affirming her love for Garrett.

A film based on the novel was shot in 1999 directed by Luis Mandoki. The film stars Robin Wright as Theresa Osbourne and Kevin Costner as Garrett Blake.

(In a conference Nicholas Sparks held in a school, he said that this story was inspired by his parents.)

''Sorry!'' is centred on Timothy Lumsden who, 41 years old in the first three series (his age increased to 42 and then 48 in subsequent series - Corbett was actually 50-57 during the series' run), is a librarian who still lives at home with his domineering mother Phyllis and henpecked father Sidney. Although quite shy around women, Timothy longs to find love and leave home, but Phyllis is always against the idea and constantly manipulates her son into staying at home. One of the catchphrases of the series is Sidney's "Language, Timothy!", typically said in response to something that has been misunderstood as inappropriate or offensive. Timothy usually responds "Sorry, Father", but sometimes snaps "Shut up, Father!", to which Sidney replies "fair enough".

Timothy's friend Frank and sister Muriel urge Timothy to stand up to his mother once and for all. Muriel had successfully left home and married Kevin, and so is viewed with distrust by her mother.

Set in 1953, the film explores the budding relationship between teenagers Billy Joe McAllister (Benson) and Bobbie Lee Hartley (O'Connor) (who corresponds to the unnamed narrator of the original song), despite resistance from Hartley's family, who contend she is too young to date. One night at a jamboree, McAllister gets drunk and seems nauseated and confused when entering a makeshift brothel behind the gathering. It turns out that in his inebriated state, he had sex with another man, later revealed to be his sawmill boss, Dewey Barksdale (James Best).

After his intimate encounter with Barksdale, Billy Joe disappears for several days. He then returns, and Bobbie Lee finally submits to her passions at a secluded spot near the bridge and encourages him to make love to her. Owing to his guilt, however, Billy Joe cannot consummate their relationship. He admits to Bobbie Lee that he has been with a man, and when she tries to reason that he was drunk, so maybe didn't have complete control of himself and didn't really know what was going on, he confesses that he knew what he was doing, knew it was wrong, and did it anyway because he wanted to. Tearfully, he bids her an enigmatic goodbye, and subsequently kills himself by jumping off the bridge spanning the Tallahatchie River. The local preacher, who saw Billy Joe and Bobbie Lee together, and other townsfolk spread the false story that Billy Joe committed suicide because he learned he had impregnated Bobbie Lee out of wedlock. For the sake of the family, Bobbie Lee's brother insists that she either quietly pursue an abortion or, if she insists upon having the baby, leave town.

In the film, as in the novel, the object thrown from the bridge is Bobbie Lee's ragdoll, symbolizing throwing away her childhood and innocence and becoming an adult.

Knowing that no one will ever believe that she and Billy Joe did not have sex and that she was never pregnant, Bobbie Lee decides to leave home. Very early one morning, with suitcase in hand, she walks to town to get a bus. On the way she meets Barksdale on the bridge, where he tells her that he is headed to her house to confess to her father and clear her name. She advises him against doing so, noting that revealing the truth would forever tarnish Billy Joe's reputation. He initially holds fast to his desire to confess, but Bobbie Lee calmly stresses that the news would further devastate Billy Joe's family and leave Barksdale himself subject to criminal prosecution. She also assures him that she does not mind her fate and then adds, "Oh, I'll be back before long; I'm only 15. What do I know of the world?" Finally agreeing with the girl's logic, he offers Bobbie Lee a ride to the bus station, which she graciously accepts. The film ends with the two of them walking across the bridge together.

The film tells the story of a man (Scott Cohen) who discovers his wife (Annabeth Gish) is having an affair, and the consequences of their resulting relationship with the mistress (Paulina Porizkova).

The book is narrated by "Chief" Bromden, a gigantic yet docile half-Native American patient at a psychiatric hospital, who presents himself as deaf and mute. Bromden's tale focuses mainly on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his sentence for battery and gambling in the hospital rather than at a prison work farm. The head administrative nurse, Nurse Ratched, rules the ward with absolute authority and little medical oversight. She is assisted by her three day-shift orderlies and her assistant doctors and nurses.

McMurphy constantly antagonizes Nurse Ratched and upsets the routines of the ward, leading to endless power struggles between the inmate and the nurse. He runs a card table, captains the ward's basketball team, comments on Nurse Ratched's figure, incites the other patients to conduct a vote about watching the World Series on television, and organizes a deep-sea fishing trip wherein the patients were going to be "supervised" by prostitutes. After claiming to be able, and subsequently failing, to lift a heavy control panel in the defunct hydrotherapy room (referred to as the "tub room"), his response—"But at least I tried"—gives the men incentive to try to stand up for themselves, instead of allowing Nurse Ratched to take control of every aspect of their lives. The Chief opens up to McMurphy, revealing late one night that he can speak and hear. A violent disturbance after the fishing trip results in McMurphy and the Chief being sent for electroshock therapy sessions, but such punishment does nothing to curb McMurphy's rambunctious behavior.

One night, after bribing the night orderly, McMurphy smuggles two prostitute girlfriends with liquor onto the ward and breaks into the pharmacy for codeine cough syrup and unnamed psychiatric medications. McMurphy, having noticed on the fishing trip that Billy Bibbit—a timid, boyish patient with a stutter and little experience with women—had a crush on the prostitute named Candy, primarily arranged this break-in so that Billy could lose his virginity and, to a slightly lesser extent so that McMurphy and other patients could throw an unsanctioned party. Although McMurphy agrees before the end of the night to a plan involving his escaping before the morning shift starts, he and the other patients instead fall asleep without cleaning up the mess of the group's antics, and the morning staff discovers the ward in complete disarray. Nurse Ratched finds Billy and the prostitute in each other's arms, partially dressed, and admonishes him. Billy asserts himself for the first time, answering Nurse Ratched without stuttering. Ratched calmly threatens to tell Billy's mother what she has seen. Billy has an emotional breakdown, regressing immediately back to a boyish state, and, upon being left alone in the doctor's office, takes his life by cutting his own throat. Nurse Ratched blames McMurphy for the loss of Billy's life. Enraged at what she has done to Billy, McMurphy attacks Ratched by ripping her shirt open and attempting to strangle her to death. McMurphy is physically restrained and moved to the Disturbed ward.

Nurse Ratched misses a week of work due to her injuries, during which time many of the patients either transfer to other wards or check out of the hospital forever. When she returns, she cannot speak and is thus deprived of her most potent tool to keep the men in line. With Bromden, Martini, and Scanlon the only patients who attended the boat trip left on the ward, McMurphy is brought back in. He has received a lobotomy, and is now in a vegetative state, rendering him silent and motionless. The Chief smothers McMurphy with a pillow during the night in an act of mercy before lifting the tub room control panel that McMurphy could not lift earlier, throwing it through a window and escaping the hospital.

Nicholas Marlow, an English engineer engaged to a young doctor, loses his well-paid job. Increasingly desperate, he responds to an advert from an English engineering company, the Spartacus Machine Tool Company of Wolverhampton. The firm manufactures the "Spartacus Type S2 automatic" boring machine, which is used for shell production. Able to speak some Italian, he is offered the post of the firm's representative in Italy. Marlow gladly accepts, secretly deciding that he will quit the job as soon as possible to go back to England and get married.

On arrival in Milan, Marlow discovers there is a huge backlog at his office, and that his personal assistant Bellinetti is highly inefficient. A lot of his time is diverted by the Italian authorities, to whom he has to report on a regular basis and who eventually claim that they have misplaced his passport so he is unable to leave the country. There is growing uneasiness on Marlow's part when he notices his private correspondence with his fiancée has been steamed open. He makes friends with Andreas Zaleshoff, a Russian spy whose office is in the same building. Marlow learns that his predecessor was murdered, and that Bellinetti is an agent for the OVRA.

Marlow is contacted by a General Vagas, a Yugoslav of German descent, who asks Marlow to spy for him. Zaleshoff informs Marlow that Vagas is actually a German agent, and encourages Marlow to accept the offer and feed Vagas information supplied by Zaleshoff. Zaleshoff's intention is to sow discord in the alliance between Italy and Germany.

Vagas's wife reports him to the Italian authorities, and an arrest warrant is issued for Marlow. Assisted by Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara, Marlow succeeds in escaping from Milan. The two men embark on a several-day-long journey by train and on foot until they reach the Yugoslav border. From Zagreb, Marlow can safely travel home to England.

In Timbuktu, experienced guide Joe January (John Wayne) reluctantly joins a Saharan treasure hunting expedition led by Paul Bonnard (Rossano Brazzi), a man obsessed with confirming his dead father's claim to have found a lost city. Dita (Sophia Loren), a woman of dubious reputation, becomes infatuated with Paul and his willingness to overlook her past. She invites herself along, despite Joe's protests. During the tough, dry ordeal, Joe and Dita become attracted to each other, raising tensions.

Just as they run out of water, they stumble upon the ancient city and a well. There, they find three human skeletons, a woman and two men. It becomes evident that Paul's father had found his woman in the arms of his guide, killed them and then himself. There is also no obvious treasure to be found. Paul's faith in his father is shattered and he becomes drunk.

However; they find the treasure after Joe deciphers the clues left by Paul's father in his bible. They load it and prepare to leave in the morning. Paul makes an attempt to seduce Dita; she rejects him and he gets into a fight with Joe, who protects her. Joe and Dita wake up to find that Paul had sneaked away during the night, taking all the animals, supplies and treasure with him and leaving his companions to die.

Joe and Dita pursue him on foot and eventually catch up. Paul is unconscious from dehydration. While Joe and Dita dig for desperately needed water, Paul regains consciousness. He buries the treasure and attacks Joe from behind with a knife. Dita shoots and kills Paul. When they spot a caravan approaching in the distance, Joe and Dita are saved.

An invisible woman is kidnapping newborn babies who're destined to be emperors and delivering them to the mysterious, subterranean villain known only as the "'''Evil Master'''". The police are powerless and the only hope for the city is a motley trio of women who all share a terrible past, they are: Tung (played by '''Anita Mui'''), the mild-mannered wife of a police inspector who secretly fights crime as the sword-slinging, knife-throwing heroine, "''Wonder Woman''"; Chat (played by '''Maggie Cheung''') a hard-boiled, shotgun-toting bounty hunter who goes by the nickname "''Thief Catcher''"; and Ching (played by '''Michelle Yeoh'''), the "''Invisible Woman''" who is the troubled but determined right hand of the Evil Master.

Tsao, the emperor's first eunuch, has successfully bested General Yu, his political opponent. The general was beheaded and his remaining children have been exiled from China. As the children are being escorted to the western border of the Chinese empire, Tsao plots to have the children killed. Tsao's secret police lie in ambush at the desolate Dragon Gate Inn. Martial arts expert Hsiao shows up at the inn, wanting to meet the innkeeper. Unknown to the secret police is that the innkeeper, Wu Ming, was one of the general's lieutenants and has summoned Hsiao to help the children. A brother-sister martial-artist team (children of another Yu lieutenant) also show up to help. These four race to find Yu's children and lead them to safety.

This is a period film set during the Ming Dynasty in the desert region of China.

Tsao Siu-yan is a power-crazed eunuch who rules his sector of China as if he were the Emperor and not a mere official. He is the leader of the Emperor's ruthless security agency known as the Eastern Depot (東廠 ''Dong Chang''). He has built up an elite army of skilled archers and horsemen who receive intensive training and powerful weapons.

When elements of his administration plot against him and his despotic rule, Tsao comes down ruthlessly. One such plotter is defence minister Yang Yu-xuan, who is executed along with his family. Tsao does spare two of the younger children and instead sentences them to exile in order to lure Yang's subordinate general Chow Wai-on into a trap.

Escorted by a couple of rather poorly East Factory soldiers, the children are sent out into the desert. Rebels, led by Chow's lover, swordswoman Yau Mo-yan, arrive to free them, but are attacked by East Factory troops. Tsao later calls off the attack when he realises that Chow is not among the fighters, and instead orders his troops to pursue them to find where they will be meeting with Chow. The rebels and the children then proceed to the Dragon Gate Pass through which they will cross the border.

They reach the Dragon Gate Inn, which is a meeting place run by brigands. The innkeeper, the lively Jade, runs a sideline in which she seduces and murders her guests. Jade also keeps whatever money the customer has, then drops them down a chute to the kitchen and have them served as the meat in buns. The cutting up is done by her cook Dao, an expert at stripping meat to the bones.

Mo-yan and her followers arrive at the inn. She is disguised as a man, but Jade is not fooled, claiming that only a woman would pass her without so much as a glance. That night she confronts Mo-yan and the pair engage in a lively acrobatic fight with both women trying to remain clothed, while stripping the other.

Rebel leader Chow arrives and is re-united with Mo-yan. They plan to cross the border with the children but the bad weather delays their departure. Furthermore, Jade takes a liking to Chow and resolves to get him for herself, also has in mind the reward offered for his capture. Things are made even more complicated when East Factory officials led by Cha arrive at the inn posing as merchants.

The scene is set for a vicious battle of bodies and wits between both sides, with Jade trying to keep the peace and getting every advantage, monetary or otherwise, that she can get out of it. Meanwhile, the bulk of the East Factory forces, led by eunuch Tsao himself, are on their way to the inn.

Chow believes that, like most den of thieves, the inn has a secret passage through which his comrades can escape. Jade agrees to show them the passage if Chow will sleep with her. He agrees if they marry first. Jade, a practical girl, is rather surprised at having to marry for a one-night stand but proceeds anyway, with Cha acting as host for the wedding. The heart-broken Mo-yan drowns her sorrows in drink.

The growing tension inside the inn breaks out into open battle when Cha and his men realise that the rebels want to use the secret passage to escape. The fight that follows results in the deaths of all the Dong Chang at the inn and most of the rebels and brigand hosts. Mo-yan herself is seriously injured.

Tsao and his army arrives and lays siege to the inn. Inside there is only a handful of survivors: Jade, Chow, Mo-yan, Dao the cook, and the children. They escape through the passage, but a loose ribbon gives them away and Tsao himself sets off in pursuit.

A vicious one-on-three battle amidst a desert storm as Tsao fights Jade, Chow and Mo-yan. Weakened by her wounds, Mo-yan perishes in quicksand. Just as Tsao is about to finish off Jade and Chow, Dao suddenly appears and takes him on with his carving knife. He carves away at Tsao, leaving the warlord with a skeletal arm and leg. Chow then moves in for the kill and Tsao is finished.

Chow and the children make their way to the border. Realising how much Chow meant to her, Jade and Dao decide to follow Chow after burning down the infamous inn.

In four elegant brothels, called "Flower Houses", in 1884 Shanghai, several affairs take place. The film follows four men who live for pleasure and pursue a number of courtesans, known as "flower girls".

The courtesans the men patronize are known as Crimson, Jasmin, Jade, Pearl and Emerald. Crimson belongs to the Huifang Enclave ( ) brothel, while Jasmin works at the East Hexing Enclave ( ) brothel. Jade and her friend Pearl work in the Gongyang Enclave ( ) brothel, and Emerald resides in the Shangren Enclave ( ) brothel. The relationships between the wealthy patrons and the courtesans are semi-monogamous, frequently lasting many years.

The courtesans are purchased at an early age by the owners of the brothels, known as "aunties". In spite of the luxury and the wealth surrounding them, the graceful, well-bred courtesans live lives of slavery. The girls, especially those with less forgiving aunties, are frequently beaten for misbehavior, although such beatings are not portrayed in the film. Because of oppressive social conventions, the best the courtesans can hope for is to pay off their debts some day (often with the aid of a wealthy patron) or marry into a better social position.

Much of the film concerns the quiet Master Wang, who leaves the courtesan Crimson at the end of their two-and-a-half-year relationship after he is refused her hand in marriage. He falls for the younger courtesan Jasmin, angering Crimson. He offers to settle Crimson's debts as compensation for leaving her, as he is her only client and source of income. Since she is the sole provider for her entire family, Crimson agrees to a settlement. However, Master Wang still has feelings for Crimson. When he finds out she is having an affair with an actor, he launches into a drunken rage. He agrees to marry Jasmin and departs for Guangdong after receiving a promotion. It is later revealed in conversation between other characters that Jasmin had an affair with Wang's nephew, after which he beat her and she attempted suicide. It is said that the nephew was sent away and the quarrel resolved, but Wang is miserable and believes he was betrayed by both Crimson and Jasmin.

Another courtesan, Jade, has been given a promise by her lover, the young and immature Master Zhu, that if they cannot be married together, they will die together. When it is apparent that the marriage will not occur, she gives Zhu opium in an attempt to poison him before attempting to drink opium herself. He realizes that she does not intend to die and spits out the drug as other girls rush in, saving the two. Ultimately, Master Zhu agrees to pay $5,000 for Jade's freedom and $5,000 for a future dowry so Jade can buy out her contract and be married off to someone else.

Emerald yearns for freedom from life in a brothel and is supported by Luo, one of her patrons. As a child, she was bought for $100 by her auntie who insists that freedom costs many times that value ($3,000); the negotiation goes on throughout the film. With the help of Master Hong and Emerald, Luo negotiates a satisfactory price and takes Emerald away from the brothel. The film ends with Crimson and an actor that she had an affair with sitting together as she affectionately prepares a pipe for him, contradicting a conversation she had with Wang about making the actor prepare his own pipe by himself.

After the death of his wife Amelia, wealthy businessman Philip Emmenthal (John Standing) and his son Storey (Matthew Delamere) open their own private harem in their family residence in Geneva. They get the idea while watching Federico Fellini's '' '' and after Storey is "given" a woman, Simato (Shizuka Inoh), to waive her pachinko debts. They sign one-year contracts with eight (and a half) women to this effect.

The women each have a gimmick (one is a nun, another a kabuki performer, etc.). Philip soon becomes dominated by his favorite of the concubines, Palmira (Polly Walker), who has no interest in Storey as a lover, despite what their contract might stipulate. Philip dies, the concubines' contracts expire, and Storey is left alone with Giulietta (the titular as an amputee) and of course the money and the houses.

While the film deals with and graphically describes diverse sexual acts in conversation, the film does not feature any sex scenes as such, though it does contain several instances of male nudity.

''The Trigger'' starts in the early to mid-21st century. A group of scientists invent, by accident, a device that detonates all nitrate-based explosive in its vicinity, thus providing good protection against most known modern conventional weapons. The first half of the book explores the reactions of society, government and the scientists themselves as the latter attempt to ensure that their invention will only be used for peaceful ends. Although at first beneficial, other uses for the device are found, such as a faultless at-range detonator. The novel also traces the scientists' slow progress in understanding the science behind their invention. The second half of the book begins when the science is sufficiently well understood that a second device can be built - one that does not detonate explosives, but merely renders them permanently harmless. The story ends with the scientists discovering that the hyperdimensional impulse wave can be set to scramble extremely specific DNA – making the device a killer.

The overall story is based on Kuo Cheng's 1993 short story "Highway Closing" (國道封閉, also the film's Chinese title).

Sub-plot 1: "The Journey of the Wolf"

Based on Kuo Cheng's 1991 short story "The Journey of the Wolf" (狼行千里), which has been translated into English by Susan Wilf. * Tou Chung-hua * Ku Pao-ming

Sub-plot 2: "Driving on the Road"

Based on Kuo Cheng's 1988 short story "Driving on the Road" (開車上路). * Chang Shih * Yue Hong

Sub-plot 3: "The Heart Thief"

Based on Kuo Cheng's 1997 short story "The Heart Thief" (偷心賊). * Annie Yi * Jerry Huang (voice)

The plot summary of ''Switchblade II'' varies between each version. In the original Amiga and Atari ST versions, the game is set several centuries after the last of the Blade Knights, Hiro, defeated the evil Havok and saved the land of Cyberworld from his influence. Under the leadership of Hiro, peace returned with the resurfacing of the knights acting as protectors, who enjoyed both respect and devotion from the inhabitants but their outlook on the knights changed negatively as time progressed, as they were starting to regard them as foolish and needless policemen who wasted valuable resources, before their number decreased and eventually disappeared once again. After this event, darkness returned and brought chaos to the land that signalized the return of Havok, who was not fully destroyed by the original Hiro and waited for the Blade Knights' second demise for his comeback to take over Cyberworld and its people, who were deciding between submitting to the leadership of Havok or die before doing so. Taetomi, the eldest person during the dispute, considered the Blade Knights' second demise as a massive mistake from their part and the many elements they took for granted also vanished as well, however he also mentioned the existence of a descendant from the former Blade Knights leader's lineage named Hiro, who has been taught with the way of the knights and knows the full risk in attempting to defeat Havok again without the now-decimated Switchblade with nothing but the knights' ancient weapons.

In the Atari Lynx version, it is implied that the original Hiro from the first game is the main protagonist, as he was granted immortality after defeating Havok 200 years ago, who survived the confrontation and vowed to return one day, with Hiro preparing himself once again in defeating him completely.

The plot borrowed heavily from the television series ''Battlestar Galactica'', ''Star Trek'' and the ''Star Wars'' film franchise, focusing on a fleet of ships carrying the human inhabitants of a planet threatened by an imminent supernova. The escape route leads through the Rexxon Empire's territory, however the Rexxons doubt the human's motives and refuse safe passage. With no other option, the humans are forced to attempt a crossing, leading to war between the two.

As the game progresses, it becomes apparent to the Rexxon scientists monitoring the human's sun that the exodus is indeed genuine. However, the Rexxon military suppresses the knowledge and doubles down on their efforts to stop the human's fleet, deepening the conflict.

The player controls the fleet's only hope, one of three experimental Epic class fighters. In the final mission, the fighter is also used to deploy a cobalt bomb.

Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi go to the planet of Telos on an unofficial mission to apprehend Xanatos, the Dark Jedi who had tried to destroy the Jedi Temple. Upon their arrival, they are surprised to find that Xanatos wields significant financial and political power on Telos. They soon discover that Xanatos and the government of Telos have been distracting the populace with a new form of gambling called Katharsis. In the meantime, the company UniFy, a subsidiary of the massive Offworld Corporation headed by Xanatos, has been mining the planet's resources despite the importance the native Telosians place on their environment.

Pursued by Xanatos' men, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are forced to trust Denetrus ("Den"), a con man associated with POWER, an outlawed political party dedicated to preserving the Telosian environment. The three infiltrate the UniFy headquarters, looking for evidence to prove that Offworld is mishandling the planet's resources. However, the two Jedi are arrested, and Xanatos personally informs them they have been sentenced to death. The Jedi manage to escape the public execution with the help of Andra, a member of the POWER party.

Obi-Wan and Andra infiltrate the Sacred Pools of Telos and discover that the site is indeed being used for mining operations. The two are detected by surveillance droids, but are able to escape and record evidence that Offworld is connected with UniFy. Meanwhile, Den and Qui-Gon have rigged the Katharsis lottery so that Den will win. When Den does win and Xanatos presents the prize to him, the recorded images are played for all the Telosians to see. However, Xanatos deceives the crowd and the Jedi are captured once more. But Den, addressing the crowd, tells the people how the lottery was rigged and how the Telosians were robbed of their money. Xanatos then makes his get-away, but Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan chase him back to the Sacred Pools site. After a lightsaber battle amid the black acid pools, the two Jedi finally corner the Dark Jedi. But Xanatos, not willing to be defeated, commits suicide by throwing himself into the acid pools.

Qui-Gon Jinn and Adi Gallia are sent with their young padawans to the planet of Kegan. They must pick up O-Lana - a Force-sensitive baby - and take her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant without interfering with the customs and isolationist-centered ideology of the planet.

However, the nature of this culture ends up compromising the original mission when Siri Tachi and Obi-Wan Kenobi are mistaken for orphaned children, captured, and put in a school known as the Learning Circle. This school is a brainwashing camp, where Keganite children are preached the ideals of V-Tan and O-Vieve, the Benevolent Guides who are the cause of Kegan's isolationism. While at the school, Siri and Obi-Wan meet several Keganite children and discuss the reality of the situation. Meanwhile, the apprentices try to talk sense into O-Bin, their "teacher". This attempt fails, and the duo is sent to the "Relearning Circle", where drastic actions are taken to try and brainwash them.

O-Lana is also located within this Relearning Circle, and Qui-Gon and Adi are able to rescue their padawans and the baby at the same time. After this incident, the truth behind the Learning Circle is revealed, which creates an uproar against the Benevolent Guides. Kegan is eventually introduced to the ways of the Galactic Republic.

The game begins with the Norse god Loki stealing Odin's sword, Freyr's spear and Thor's hammer and hiding them within the mortal world of the Vikings. Left powerless by his trickery, the gods decide to create an infant amongst the mortals who can bring back their weapons. In a small village of Vikings, a young woman finds herself magically pregnant with god's destined offspring, and gives birth to Heimdall. Upon growing to adulthood and completing a series of trials. Heimdall begins his search for the gods' weapons. In doing so, he explores the realms of Utgard, Midgard and Asgard, overcoming traps and monsters and eventually returns home with the missing weapons. Upon returning to his village, the gods bring him to them, and anoint him as one of their own for returning their power to them.

When a murderer tries to kill Didi, a friend of Qui-Gon Jinn, he and his fourteen-year-old apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi must stop the murderer. But they fail and the murderer, a bounty hunter by the name of Ona Nobis, starts going after them.

After several days of investigations, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon learn that Ona Nobis will stop at nothing, and Didi must be sent away from Coruscant. Unfortunately, Didi is attacked at his sanctuary, and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are forced to fight Ona Nobis. Qui-Gon is captured by the bounty hunter, and it quickly becomes clear that it was all a plot to capture ''him'', not Didi.

In 1959, on board a spacecraft, two aliens race to keep an experiment from being released by a third member of the crew. The seemingly possessed third alien shoots the canister into space where it crashes to Earth. Nearby, a college man takes his date to a parking spot when they see a falling star and investigate. It lands in the path of an escaped criminally insane mental patient. As his date is attacked by the axe-wielding maniac, the boy finds the canister, from which a small slug-like thing jumps out and into his mouth.

Twenty-seven years later in 1986, Chris Romero pines over a love lost, supported by his disabled friend J.C. During pledge week at Corman University, Chris spots a girl, Cynthia Cronenberg, and falls instantly in love. To get her attention, he decides to join a fraternity. Cynthia's boyfriend, who heads the Beta Epsilon fraternity, tasks them with stealing a cadaver from the university medical center and depositing it on the steps of a rival fraternity house. Chris and J.C. find a frozen corpse in a secret room, but when it grabs them, they flee. The thawed corpse then kills a medical student working at the lab.

Detective Ray Cameron, a haunted cop, is called in to the cryogenics lab break-in, where he discovers one of the bodies – the boy who discovered the alien experiment in 1959 – is now missing, set free by Chris and J.C. The corpse makes its way back to the sorority house where he picked up his date twenty-seven years ago. There, his head splits open and releases more of the slugs. Called to the scene, Det. Cameron finds the body, interpreting the condition of the head as the result of an axe wound in the face.

The next day, the fraternity brothers confront Chris and J.C., who they believe to be responsible for the previous night's incident. They are then taken in for questioning by the police. Based on the testimony of a janitor that witnessed them running out of the university medical center, "screaming like banshees," they confess to breaking in but deny moving the corpse. That night, the dead medical student rises from his slab and runs into the janitor.

Cynthia attempts to convince Chris and J.C. that the attacks are zombie-related, but they are skeptical. When J.C. sees Cynthia leaning on Chris' shoulder, J.C. leaves the two alone and is attacked by the slugs that emerge from the possessed janitor. After Chris walks Cynthia back to the sorority house, he runs into Detective Cameron, who has overheard their conversation. At his house, Detective Cameron explains to Chris that the escaped lunatic's 1959 victim was his ex-girlfriend, and that he secretly hunted down and killed the axe-murderer in revenge. After Detective Cameron reveals that he buried the body under what is now the sorority house, he gets a call that the same axe-wielding lunatic has killed the house mother. Detective Cameron blows off the corpse's head with his shotgun, which releases more slugs.

The next night, while everyone prepares for a formal dance, Chris finds a recorded message that J.C. posthumously left for him. J.C. says that the slugs have incubated in his brain, but he has discovered that they are susceptible to heat. He confesses his love to Chris, and wishes him luck with Cynthia. Chris recruits Detective Cameron, who was in the midst of a suicide attempt, and they retrieve a flamethrower from the police armory. They arrive at the sorority house just as Cynthia breaks up with Brad, who has become possessed. After killing him, the Beta fraternity brothers show up, despite having been killed in a bus crash. Cynthia and Chris team up to destroy the outside zombies, and Detective Cameron clears the house.

After they stop the horde, Chris spots more slugs racing toward the basement; Cynthia explains that a member of the sorority had received specimen brains for biology class. In the basement, they find an enormous pile of slugs, and Detective Cameron, tape across his mouth, prepping a can of gasoline. Detective Cameron begins counting down as he splashes gasoline and Chris counts down in sync with him as he and Cynthia race out of the house. As Cameron opens up the house's gas valve, several slugs leap to attack him. He flicks his lighter and the house goes up in a fiery explosion. Chris and Cynthia share a kiss as they watch the house burn.

Endings

The film has two endings, one of which was used for the film's theatrical release and the other is the ending originally intended by director Fred Dekker.

In the theatrical version, the dog who caused the bus accident returns and approaches Cynthia. As Cynthia bends down toward it, the dog opens its mouth and a slug jumps out toward her.

The original ending shows Chris and Cynthia standing in front of the burning sorority house, with the camera moving to the street where police cars race towards the burning building. The police cars race by the charred and 'zombified' Cameron who is shuffling down the street, still smoking a cigarette, when he suddenly stops and falls to the ground. His head then bursts open, with the slugs that incubated inside his brain scamper out and slither towards a nearby cemetery, suggesting the slugs have found new hosts to inhabit. Searchlights appear from the night sky, revealing the source to be the spaceship from the beginning of the film, with the aliens intending to retrieve their experiment.

Jenna Zan Arbor is a mad woman. She kidnaps Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, using him to investigate the Force . Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Astri Oddo look for a cure, while also searching for Qui-Gon. Along the way, they meet other characters, such as Cholly, Weez and Tup, and a bounty hunter named Ona Nobis. Obi-Wan uses clues from Uta S'orn's son to track them from Nobis' home planet of Sorrus to Simpla-12, where he finds Cholly, Weez and Tup. He also finds the bounty hunter Ona Nobis, who easily matches the young apprentice's strength.

At Simpla-12, Obi-Wan teams up with Adi Gallia and Siri Tachi before preparing to break into Zan Arbor's hideout and rescue Qui-Gon. However, it will not be an easy task, for Zan Arbor's laboratory is nearly impregnable.

The player takes on the role of medieval history lecturer Wil Mason, whose car breaks down while he drives through Snowdonia, Wales in a storm. He seeks refuge in a deserted tower, only to wake up in a strange world.

King Cullen passed control of the peaceful land Obitus to his four sons, warning them to stand united or the land would fall into evil hands. To symbolise the unity, the king gave each of his sons a Gem of Tranquility, which when joined conjured a mystical force to protect the land. Some time after the transfer of power took place, an evil sorceress sought to take advantage of the princes' fraternal pact. She told them each in confidence that they must break from the others in order to obtain personal wealth and power. The princes took these words to heart and fought for control of the kingdom. When the battle was over, each prince had one of the gems and one quarter of the land, and the power of the gems had been broken. Only by reuniting them in the Tower Obitus can the kingdom be saved.

As described in a film magazine, Marion Taylor (Dove) is a stenographer employed by Wall Street broker Edward Mallory (Morey). She is the support of an invalid younger brother, who has been ordered to the Adirondack Mountains by the family physician. To get money for this, she attends a reception as the escort of a young society man, for which she receives $100. Edward is peeved as she has rejected his advances, and threatens to expose her when he sees Marion at the party. Each guest at the function receives a mysterious note saying, "Consult your conscience. Your secret is common gossip." Immediately, the guests are thrown into a panic as each has something to hide. The notes, however, were inspired by flapper Virginia Gardener, who had been left out of the party thrown by her mother (Ware), and passed out the notes as a joke to get revenge. A man is shot during the excitement and Major Bruce Forbes (Gordon), who picked up the gun, is initially accused of murder. However, the real shooter soon confesses. Marion goes to the Adirondacks to see her brother, and finds happiness in the arms of Bruce, who fell in love with her at the ball.

Eighteen months after the events of the previous film, the world has fallen into chaos. In the collapsing ruins of the White House, U.S. President Gerald Fitzhugh (Louis Gossett Jr.) videotapes a confession. He looks out the window as a shadowy figure arrives in the doorway.

One week earlier, the Tribulation Force, consisting of Rayford Steele (Brad Johnson), his daughter Chloe (Janaya Stephens), Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron), Bruce Barnes (Arnold Pinnock), and Chris Smith are in the process of stealing Bibles from a Global Community (GC) compound. Guards burst into the warehouse and are handily defeated by Chris (Using Kung fu) while the remaining Trib Force members escape. In Washington, D.C., the President and his Vice-President, John Mallory (Charles Martin Smith), are taking some time away from the White House. Mallory informs Fitzhugh of Nicolae's plans and how he has found evidence that Nicolae is planning a biological attack on American soil. Before he can share the information, Mallory is killed in an ambush, but a militia group comes to the aid of the President.

Back at the Trib Force underground headquarters, Bruce Barnes performs a double wedding ceremony: Buck to Chloe, and Rayford to Amanda White, the newest member who once knew Rayford's first wife before the vanishings. After the ceremony is over, Buck heads over to Los Angeles and Rayford flies to New Babylon. Nicolae meets with Fitzhugh who expresses his deepest concern over the news of Mallory's death, and teams up with Carolyn Miller, who poses as Nicolae's top aide at GC headquarters. Together, they find Nicolae's secret plan of stealing Bibles and lacing them with anthrax before distributing them. The GC block their escape, and Fitzhugh kills one of the guards in the process.

Fitzhugh is recruited by Miller's ragtag military team to help take out Nicolae, which he participates in. He also learns that the British and Egyptian governments are working with the militia. As Fitzhugh enters the GC building and asks to see the President (it is also revealed that one of the GC guards is really an insider, but is shot by another). Fitzhugh enters Nicolae's office, but Nicolae is already aware of Fitzhugh's assassination attempt and foils it. Fitzhugh tries to shoot Nicolae with three rounds, but he is not affected as they go through him and hit a guard instead. Using supernatural techniques, Nicolae throws Fitzhugh out of a 20-story window, landing on top of a car. Nicolae goes over to the window to see, in disgust, Fitzhugh getting up and walking away. Fitzhugh is not believed when he returns to the militia base to inform that the plan failed: Carolyn takes this the hardest.

The underground Trib Force HQ is hit the hardest as World War III approaches. Bruce and Chloe are infected with the virulent bacteria, but in the end it is Chloe who miraculously survives when red wine, used in the communion they just took part of, is revealed to be the antidote. Buck meets Fitzhugh in a destroyed White House, where he helps the President become a Christian. Fitzhugh then confronts Nicolae in a final showdown where he activates a personal transmitter (and dials Carolyn's cell phone, where she hears the entire conversation), hoping to obliterate the entire GC headquarters, and himself, with a missile locked onto the transmitter's location. Fitzhugh dies in the resulting explosion, wiping out the GC base.

Buck Williams gets a call in the elevator from Chloe as she tells him about the wine and Bruce's death. Buck promises to come home from his trip soon as the elevator stops and the door opens to reveal an armed Carolyn. She lowers her weapon and Buck states that they need to talk, implying that they had met before. What is left of the Global Community Building burns down, police sirens wail in the background, and explosions are still going on. Nicolae Carpathia walks out from the flames looking very angry, completely unharmed.

The player controls a hero on a quest to defeat a demon.

''Conflict: Vietnam'' opens in 1968, just days before the Tet Offensive begins, as 19-year-old Private Harold "Cherry (later known as Doc)" Kahler is introduced to his squadmates on a Huey gunship heading to "Ghost Town", a 101st Airborne Division base in South Vietnam. Twenty-eight-year-old Staff Sergeant Frank "Ragman" Wier is the leader, highly familiar with the Vietnam War from two previous tours of duty. Corporals Bruce "Junior" Lesh and Will "Hoss" Schafer comprise the rest of the squad. Hoss is the squad's adrenaline-junkie machine gunner, while Junior, the squad sniper, is counting the final days of his tour. The Tet Offensive occurs just after Kahler's first combat patrol, and he and the rest of Ragman's squad soon find themselves cut off behind enemy lines after the helicopters deploying them on a night patrol are shot down.

Over the next several days, the squad battles through miles of unknown jungle filled with hostile NVA and VC. After escaping a napalm strike, they meet up with "The Chief", commander of a Navy PBR. The Chief is alone prior to meeting up with Wier's squad, having dropped some Green Berets off up river where he "saw some strange shit". After fighting their way through a VC-fortified area called 'Charlie's Point', the men discover the Chief has been killed and soon meet up with a group of Montagnards. After retrieving a sacred statue and releasing several village prisoners for the leader of the village, the squad uses a radio gained as a reward to call for a helicopter extraction from the 1st Air Cav, being landed in a base under siege. After fighting off a heavy VC and NVA assault, the squad is praised by an overjoyed Major Wallace, who promises all of them commendations for their bravery. A dying VC throws a grenade into the bunker as the Major speaks, however, rendering them unconscious, and the five men are taken prisoner. Major Wallace is killed when the men are forced to play Russian roulette.

Escaping from the VC POW camp, Ragman's squad fights their way through the jungle and meets Sergeant Stone of the SASR and his squad. The two sergeants lead their men through a series of VC tunnels that the SASR were ordered to destroy. They succeed, and Stone and Wier part on good terms. Meeting up with a USMC jeep, the squad joins up with a column of trucks and tanks headed for Huế. After battling through the war-torn city and destroying numerous NVA T-34s with an M48 Patton tank, the squad mounts up in a 101st Airborne Huey. While attempting to destroy HAWK surface-to-air missile batteries in the area that were captured by the NVA, the helicopter is shot down by an RPG, crash-landing near an NVA stronghold, the Citadel of Huế. The squad infiltrates the Citadel, taking the fortress and eliminating its garrison, including a handful of tanks and the commanding general.

A closing cinematic, narrated by Kahler, tells what happens to the members of his squad after their tour. Hoss signs on for another tour, and Kahler eventually learns from a drunk CIA agent that he is fighting in Cambodia, seeking the thrill of combat. Junior finally goes home, but meets an unjust fate after he joins the Black Panther Party and is killed in a shootout with the FBI. Ragman comes home to an empty house and divorce papers, and moves to live in the Rocky Mountains with his dog, Ho Chi Minh, having found peace. Kahler moves to New York City, raises a family, and becomes a respected doctor, utilizing his experience as a combat medic to treat wounds caused by inner-city violence.