Two estranged friends – one a rabbi and the other an agnostic writer— are compelled to resume an argument that caused a separation between the pair many years earlier, after a chance meeting pushes the duo together once more.

A group of lawyers are meeting to take down Telecon corporations when suddenly they are all hit with a rhinovirus that the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) classifies as "CaV". At the same time, our protagonist Nick Barnes is in the back of an ambulance trying to save a woman who suffered a car accident. After a high-speed operation, the woman is saved by having the blood drained from a bruise on her chest.

After barely saving her life, Nick and his fellow EMT Charles both make it to the hospital. Nick faces suspension from the dangerous tactic taken to save the woman's life. After leaving the hospital, they come across an office building with a janitor with a battered face. He was the only survivor of the outbreak in the office building. After treating him, Nick and a few police officers at the scene move up to the lawyers office to see nine horribly calcified bodies.

Minutes later, the USAMRIID turns the area into a quarantine zone and lets Nick and the other officers off easily because they know that the virus could not affect them. Samantha Craig, the leader of the operation, dismisses Nick after he tries to discover what is going on. After time passes, Nick tries to break into the quarantine area only to be held up by a group of armed soldiers. He is taken back to Boston General Hospital and is suspended for breaking protocol.

Samantha learns that Nick's wife Jennifer was a victim of AIDS and was killed in a car wreck that nearly took Nick's right hand. She also knows that he has a degree in microbiology. Samantha too has lost family; her brother Jeffery had died. While the two go into the investigation to discover what causes the disease, they begin to contradict their previous research after discovering the function of CaV.

While this happens, president Marcus Teal of Telecon is preparing to activate his fiber optic system that had outdone Microsoft and other computer companies in the "Big Turn On". A controversy erupts between the employees because some are winding up dead and the lead programmer Melora Parkridge begins to plan her revenge on the world after what technology had done to the entire civilization. She creates Reaper to destroy all technologies in the world after the Big Turn On. The virus is capable of burning computers away, but she is unaware that the virus has become self-aware and is killing humans by electrocuting them at the keyboards on PCs or using CaV as a weapon.

After a woman is killed by CaV in Washington, Nick begins to believe that computers are killing people. His belief is extended after joining an autopsy to learn that the virus attacks the brain and tells it to calcify all the cells. What terrifies him the most is the fact that the virus has only affected the people with the beta test run on the Telecon system. This starts the conspiracy that the killer is a computer virus that produces a subliminal light pattern that causes the brain to react.

After getting photos of the Washington infection, they go to Telecon to speak to Marcus Teal about the virus and learn a good bit about fiber optics. He denies their claims and files harassment. Nick is fired, and then Samantha is thrown off the case of tracking down CaV. A friend of Samantha's decides to help her out by funding her search illegally. Eventually they get too deep into the system by sending in Samantha's ex-boyfriend. Nick ends up getting into a gunfight after gunmen take out Samantha's ex-boyfriend.

Samantha and Nick are on their own, so they decide to break into the system themselves in order to find information about the employees. They learn about the backdoor code that is a code for the military to use. Reaper itself has been using the backdoor code to slip into the test run. After getting enough information, they observe the data and go after a woman who was married to one of the programmers. They go in deeper and eventually Melora discovers them. After that, everybody around them who helps is getting killed or injured by an antagonist. After getting deeper in, a man named Ned Dickerson is also a victim of Reaper by helping it. Reaper is now capable of using light patterns such as those of CaV to control people to do linear tasks. Since it is evolving, this task is weak now.

Melora is now ready to complete her plan by releasing Reaper into the main computer of Telecon, unaware of its ability to use CaV or control people. The day of the Big Turn On, Marcus Teal is held hostage by Melora during the half-hour before the Big Turn On. Nick and Samantha have already entered the building to stop the oncoming disaster. While trying to shut down the computer, Ned shows up in a trance state with a rifle. He begins to shoot at Nick and Samantha. They begin a chase through the crowd because Ned shoots Teal and takes the key card needed to shut down the computer and quarantine the virus. They eventually find Ned, kill him in front of thousands, and finally stop the Big Turn On. Barely saving the world, Microsoft takes over the project and then they end up becoming the leaders of the system. Nick and Samantha end up getting married. Nick ends up starting his computer, only to receive a blue screen —hinting that they had failed to stop Reaper.

Category:1998 American novels Category:Techno-thriller novels Category:Novels about computing Category:American novels adapted into films Category:HarperCollins books Category:American novels adapted into television shows

During a formal dinner party at the lavish mansion of Señor Edmundo Nóbile and his wife Lucía, the servants unaccountably leave their posts until only the majordomo, Julio, is left. After dinner the guests adjourn to the music room, where one of the women, Blanca, plays a piano sonata. Later, when they might normally be expected to return home, the guests curiously remove their jackets, loosen their gowns, and settle down for the night on couches, chairs and the floor.

By morning it is apparent that, for some inexplicable reason, they are unable to leave. The guests consume what little drinks and food are left from the previous night's party. Days pass, and their plight intensifies; they become thirsty, hungry, quarrelsome, hostile, and hysterical. Only Dr. Carlos Conde, applying logic and reason, manages to keep his composure and guide the guests through the ordeal. A guest, the elderly Sergio Russell, dies and his body is placed in a closet so that the others do not start to worry and become more nervous. Later, Béatriz and Eduardo, a young engaged couple, lock themselves in a closet and commit suicide.

The guests eventually manage to break a wall open enough to access a water pipe. In the end, several sheep and a bear break loose from their bonds and find their way to the room; the guests take in the sheep and proceed to slaughter and roast them on fires made from floorboards and broken furniture. Dr. Conde tells Nóbile that one of his patients, Leonora, is dying of cancer and accepts a secret supply of morphine from his host to keep her pain under control, but the supply is later stolen by siblings Francis and Juana. Ana, who is Jewish and a practitioner of Kabbalah, tries to free the guests by performing a mystical ceremony, which fails.

Eventually, Raúl suggests that Nóbile is responsible for their predicament and that he must be sacrificed. Only Dr. Conde and the noble Colonel Alvaro oppose the angry mob claiming Nóbile's blood. As Nóbile offers to take his own life, a young foreign guest, Leticia (nicknamed "La Valkiria") notices that they are all seated in the same positions as when their plight began. Upon her encouragement, the group starts reconstructing their conversation and movements from the night of the party and discover that they are then free to leave the room. Outside the manor, the guests are greeted by the local police and the servants, who had left the house on the night of the party and who had similarly found themselves unable to enter it.

To give thanks for their salvation, the guests attend a ''Te Deum'' at the cathedral. When the service is over, the churchgoers along with the clergy are also trapped. It is not entirely clear whether those that were trapped in the house before are now trapped again, as they seem to have disappeared. The situation in the church is followed by a riot on the streets and the military step in to brutally clamp down, firing on the rioters. The last scene shows a flock of sheep entering the church in single file, accompanied by the sound of gunshots.

Instead of written credits at the beginning of the film, Gitai reads out the credits, introduces himself to the viewer, and explains that ''Alila'' is based on the novel ''Returning Lost Love''. The rest of the movie is made up of forty individual single-shot scenes depicting the lives of several Israelis. The character's lives overlap and collide. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who is older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police officer. In each scene the camera moves through walls, over desks, and around rooms in order to keep focused on the character it is following, in moments of drama as well as in moments of mundane daily activity.

The film is a historical tragedy set during the opening stages of Israel's 1948 War of Independence. The film follows the fate of a group of refugees from the Holocaust who are illegally brought to Israel by the Palmach. When they arrive, they are chased by British soldiers. Once they escape, they are immediately drafted into the war, and take part in a grueling battle against Arab irregulars. The film centers on two long monologues, one by an Arab peasant who pledges to oppose the Jews forever; and one by an emotionally demolished refugee who laments the seemingly endless suffering of his people. Gitai intended the film to be a more realistic answer to the romanticized depiction of the war in Otto Preminger's ''Exodus''. The final shot of ''Kedma'' is identical to the final shot of Preminger's film.

The cartoon starts out in the same, pastoral "after midnight at a closed bookstore" fashion of Frank Tashlin's trio of "books coming to life" cartoons, to the strains of ''Moonlight Sonata''; a colorized version of the storefront from ''A Coy Decoy'' can be seen. Inside, an inebriated "cuckoo bird" pops out of a cuckoo clock to announce the arrival of midnight (and signaling the "cuckoo" activities to follow) and the books come alive. The first of these is a book collection called ''"Complete Works of Shakespeare"''. Shakespeare is shown in silhouette while his literally-rendered insides ("works") are functioning clockwork mechanisms, along with old-fashioned "stop" and "go" traffic signals, set to the "ninety years without slumbering, tick-tock, tick-tock" portion of "My Grandfather's Clock".

Cut to a book titled ''Young Man with a Horn''; a caricature of Harry James breaks loose with a jazz trumpet ''obbligato'' similar to James' "You Made Me Love You", in which he segues into the standard, "It Had to Be You", as a striptease is about to begin on the cover of ''Cherokee Strip''. Book covers for ''The Whistler'' and ''The Sea Wolf'' show their characters whistling and howling at the off-screen action, Shakespeare's inner workings, when seeing the goings-on, break apart . Henry VIII (designed to resemble Charles Laughton's portrayal of him) also gets excited by the striptease until his mother on the cover of ''The Aldrich Family'' calls for him. As she starts to spank Henry, "The Voice in the Wilderness", an emaciated Frank Sinatra caricature, in a wheelchair, gently sings "It Had to Be You" while being pushed along by an orderly. Henry's mother, along with other female book cover characters (such as bobbysoxer versions of ''Little Women'', Mother Goose and Whistler's Mother on the cover of "Famous Paintings"), begin swooning for "Frankie".

Immediately thereafter, a jam session begins featuring Harry James, Tommy Dorsey on the cover of "Brass" (who at one point rubs his trombone slide under W.C. Fields' nose), an Indian on the cover of ''Drums Along the Mohawk'' who morphs into Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman as the "Pie-Eyed Piper" (some mice yell "Yay, Benny!"), and a green Bob Burns on the cover of the ''Arkansas Traveler'', all performing a jazz version of "It Had to Be You". Annoyed by the revelry, Daffy Duck steps out of the cover of a ''Looney Tunes'' & ''Merrie Melodies'' comic book (in the background is a book by "Ann Anonymous" titled ''The Invisible Man: A Biography of Robert Clampett'') and starts rifling through a trunk (''Saratoga Trunk'') for clothes. Just after Gene plays some notes on the buttons lining the corpulent stomach of ''Hudson's Bay'', Daffy dons a zoot suit coat, gloves and a curly, blonde hairpiece, as well as what appears to be a set of fake teeth.

Daffy orders for the music to "STOP!" and the jam session screeches to a halt. Standing in front of a book called "Danny Boy" with the classic Ukrainian tune Ochi chyornye as background music and the background becoming one with illegible newsprint superimposed on silhouettes of urban buildings, Daffy (effecting Danny Kaye's fake Russian accent) says "pooey!" to swing music and jazz. He then starts reminiscing about his "natife willage" with its "soft music", "why-o-leens" and the "happy peoples sitting on their balalaikas, playing their samowars" (misusing both terms) and also talks about a girl called Cucaracha, who he describes as "so round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw". Saying that "they would sing to him a little gypsy love song", Daffy breaks into his normal character and briefly sings "La Cucaracha" (including his "hoo-hoo" sounds). Daffy continues in his fake Russian accent as he sings ''Carolina In The Morning'', inadvertently teasing the Big Bad Wolf, who at this point is still in the window of "Gran'Ma's House"; Daffy beats a hasty retreat to stage left. Meanwhile, ''Little Red Riding Hood'', based on Margaret O'Brien, skips past Daffy and toward Gran'Ma's House. Realizing the danger, Daffy puts himself between Red and the door, breaking into Danny Kaye's scat singing style to warn Red about the Wolf, including mock chewing on her leg for emphasis, not noticing the Wolf adding salt to ''his'' leg. Red runs away screaming and Daffy halfway notices the Wolf before returning to his pantomime; finally he fully recognizes the danger (becoming a giant eye in a wild double take).

Daffy runs away, pursued by the wolf through ''Hopalong Cassidy'', ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and the ''Petrified Forest''. The police sergeant on the cover of the ''Police Gazette'' notices what's going on and alerts all other police officers. The Wolf ends up apprehended by the ''Long Arm of the Law'' and is placed before ''The Judge'' who declares the Wolf guilty and sentences him to ''Life'' in spite of his objections ("You can't do dis to me! I'm a citizen, see!" to the tune of "Lucia di Lammermoor"), though the Wolf makes his ''Escape'' soon after. Jimmy Durante, incongruously illustrating the cover of ''So Big'', turns toward the Wolf, and his huge nose trips the Wolf, who goes sliding down ''Skid Row'', nearly falling into Dante's ''Inferno''. The Wolf scrambles to the top, but the Sinatra caricature reappears, held in the orderly's hands as if he were a doll. The Wolf, being in the grandma archetype screams and faints, skidding head first into the inferno.

The rest of the characters, including Daffy and Red, proceed to celebrate the Wolf's death by dancing to a swing version of ''Carolina in the Morning'' (during which the background characters disappear, in an apparent continuity mistake). Suddenly, the Wolf pops out of Dante's ''Inferno'', ending the cartoon demanding the characters "Stop that dancing up there! (as Daffy had done earlier) ... Ya sillies!" (a la Joe Besser)

In 1940, Orson Welles (Schreiber), RKO studio head George Schaefer (Scheider), and screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Malkovich) struggle in making what will be considered the greatest American film, ''Citizen Kane''. Welles and Mankiewicz attend a party at Hearst Castle where meeting the hypocritical and tyrannical William Randolph Hearst (Cromwell) gives Welles the inspiration to make a film about Hearst's life. Mankiewicz is against it because he knows Hearst's wrath will be horrible but Welles says this is the film. Mankiewicz finally agrees.

After learning from the gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who had viewed a press screening, that Welles' film is actually a thinly veiled and exceptionally unflattering biography of him, publishing tycoon Hearst uses his immense power and influence to try to deny the release of the picture. Hearst's mistress, actress Marion Davies (Griffith), endures the embarrassment of having their private lives exposed and vilified. Later on in their relationship many years after the release of ''Citizen Kane'' she gives Hearst money when his finances begin to diminish (by selling all the jewellery he gave her and giving him the money in the form of a check).

In the end, after considerable delays and harassment, plus the disintegration of the professional relationship between Welles and Mankiewicz and a costly blow to Schaefer's career, the film is finally released. Its publicity is muted by Hearst's ban on its mention in all his publications and its commercial success is limited. Welles ultimately has the satisfaction of having created one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time.

In the early 1980s, Yuri Orlov, the eldest son of a family of Ukrainian refugees, is visiting a Brighton Beach restaurant where he witnesses a Russian mobster kill two would-be assassins holding Kalashnikov rifles. The incident inspires him to go into the arms trade. Yuri muses that the constant need for weapons is similar to the human need for food and drink, thus he can make a fortune. After successfully completing his first sale of an Uzi sub machine gun to a local mobster, Yuri convinces his younger brother Vitaly to become his partner.

The two brothers get their first big break during the 1982 Lebanon War, where they sell weapons to both Israeli and Lebanese troops despite witnessing the same weapons being used to commit war crimes and other atrocities. As Yuri begins to prosper by exploiting his growing network of business connections, he comes to the attention of Interpol, in particular an idealistic agent named Jack Valentine, with whom he crosses paths on multiple occasions. Valentine represents a unique threat to Yuri because he is after glory, not money, and thus cannot be bought off.

Vitaly becomes addicted to cocaine after a Colombian drug lord forces the brothers to accept several kilos of cocaine to pay for an arms sale of numerous Glock 17 pistols. Yuri quietly checks Vitaly into a drug rehabilitation clinic and continues his business alone. He lures childhood crush Ava Fontaine to a false photo shoot, and they subsequently get married and have a son.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yuri flies to Ukraine and illegally buys Russian tanks, guns, and munitions through his uncle, a former Soviet general who is overseeing the distribution of weapons to the newly-formed Ukrainian army. However, his uncle is killed in a car bombing attack planted by Yuri's rival in arms deal, Simian. Yuri then expands his business to Africa, where he begins a business relationship with Andre Baptiste Sr., a ruthless dictator engaged in a brutal civil war in Liberia.

During one flight into Africa in 2001, Yuri's plane is intercepted by Valentine and forced to land. Yuri escapes arrest by landing in a remote area and giving away all of his cargo to the locals. Yuri makes it back to his hotel and is surprised by Baptiste who coercing him into killing Simian to avenge his uncle and eliminate his competition. Yuri gives in and shoots Simian dead.

Valentine then tells Ava her husband is an arms dealer, prompting her to confront him. To please his wife, Yuri tries to legitimize his business in trading timbers, but soon becomes frustrated with the difficulties and lower earnings of honest work. When Baptiste visits him in person and offers him the largest payday of his career, a stash of valuable blood diamonds, Yuri goes back to crime.

Yuri picks up Vitaly to assist him with a major deal in Sierra Leone, where a militia force allied with Baptiste is visibly preparing to destroy a refugee camp. Unable to stomach his guilt, Vitaly pleads with Yuri to abandon the deal, but his brother refuses knowing that Baptiste's men will kill them for refusing to hand over the guns. Vitaly then steals a pair of grenades and uses them to destroy a truck full of weapons, accidentally killing Baptiste's son. He is gunned down by the militia, and while Yuri is spared due to his relationship with Baptiste Sr., he only receives half of the diamonds he was promised due to half of the shipment being destroyed. He then watches helpless as the militia massacres the refugees.

Yuri ships his brother's remains back to the United States. He pays a doctor to forge a phony death certificate and remove the bullets from Vitaly's body, but one bullet remains, and Yuri is apprehended by federal agents. Meanwhile, while being followed by Valentine, Ava finds a security container belonging to her husband, establishing definitive proof of Yuri's guilt. Ava finds the container full of her paintings, which Yuri secretly bought to prop up her career as an artist. Ava takes their son and leaves him for good. When Yuri tries to reconcile with his parents, his mother angrily disowns him for getting Vitaly killed.

Valentine detains Yuri in anticipation of his trial and conviction, but Yuri is unfazed. He then tells Valentine that, in a matter of minutes, a high-ranking American army officer will arrive and release him without any charges being filed. He explains that while he may be a criminal, the U.S. government is willing to turn a blind eye to his crimes because most of his weapons end up in the hands of their allies, who they cannot be seen publicly supplying with arms. Valentine then hears a knock at the door and realizes that Yuri is right, but before walking away, he says "I would tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there."

Yuri soon returns to the arms trade, claiming that it's what he does best. The film concludes with a statement on how the five largest arms producers in the world are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Marc has inherited the house of his late aunt on the Côte d'Azur and takes the family there on for their summer holiday, leaving their home in Paris. Charly, who has never had a girlfriend, is thought to be gay by his parents and Martin, who is gay, is also staying with them. Béatrix's lover Mathieu arrives in the village and manages to sneak opportunities to be with her. When Martin goes out one night to the local gay cruising area (an old fort on a nearby hillside) Charly follows him and meets Didier. After realizing he isn't gay, he calls Didier for help when the hot water stops working. Didier then meets Marc and they realize how much they missed each other from when Marc used to visit the area in his youth. Throughout everyone eats much ''fruits de mer'', especially sea violets. At the end everyone sings a song called "Fruits de mer", each with their preferred partner.

In 1959, following the flop of the theatrical musical ''Funny Boy'' (based on William Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'') ("Opening Night"), the show's washed-up producer, Max Bialystock, hires the neurotic Leo Bloom as his accountant. While studying Max's books, Leo notes that as a flop is expected to lose money, the IRS will not investigate the finances of failed productions. Leo jests that by selling an excess of shares and embezzling the funds, a flop could generate up to $2 million. Max asks for Leo's help with the scheme, only for the latter to refuse ("We Can Do It").

Returning to his old accounting firm, Leo starts fantasizing about being a Broadway producer ("I Wanna Be a Producer"). Leo quits his job and forms "Bialystock & Bloom" with Max. Searching for the worst play ever written, the duo finds ''Springtime for Hitler'', a musical written by an ex-Nazi named Franz Liebkind. Max and Leo, in order to acquire Franz's rights to the musical, perform Hitler's favorite song and swear the sacred "Siegfried Oath" to him ("Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop").

In order to ensure the play's failure, Max and Leo meet failing, flamboyant director Roger De Bris and his assistant Carmen Ghia. Roger is reluctant to direct, but when Max and Leo suggest he could win a Tony Award, he agrees on the condition that the play be more "gay" ("Keep It Gay"). Back at their office, a Swedish woman named Ulla appears to audition. Although Leo points out that they have not started casting, Max hires her as their secretary until they audition her later ("When You've Got It, Flaunt It").

To gain backers to fund the musical, Max has dalliances with several elderly women ("Along Came Bialy"), allowing him to raise the $2 million. Leo laments about the dangers of sex distracting him from his work, and shares a kiss with Ulla ("That Face"). At auditions for the role of Hitler, Franz, angered at a performer's rendition of a German song, storms the stage and performs it himself ("Haben Sie gehört das Deutsche Band?"). Based on the performance, Max hires Franz to play Hitler.

On opening night, as the cast and crew prepare to go on stage, Leo wishes everyone good luck, to which everyone warns it is bad luck to say "good luck" on opening night, and that the correct phrase is to say "break a leg" ("You Never Say Good Luck on Opening Night"). Franz leaves to prepare and literally breaks his leg in a fall. Max enlists Roger to perform the role in his place, and Roger accepts.

As the show opens, the audience is horrified at the first song ("Springtime for Hitler"), and people begin leaving out of disgust until Roger enters as Hitler ("Heil Myself"). Roger, playing Hitler very flamboyantly, causes the audience to misinterpret the play as satire, resulting in the show becoming a smash. Terrified the IRS will learn of their crimes, a dispute breaks out between Max and Leo, but stops when Roger and Carmen come into the office to congratulate them. Furious at Roger for making the play successful, Max angrily confronts Roger for his actions, and even goes as far to physically torture Carmen when he tries to defend Roger. Franz then appears and attempts to shoot all four of them for breaking the Siegfried Oath by mocking Hitler, only to attract the police. As Max and Franz attempt to evade the police, Franz breaks his other leg.

Arrested for his tax fraud, Max is imprisoned while Leo elopes with Ulla to Rio de Janeiro ("Betrayed"). About to be sentenced, Max is saved by Leo, who returns to defend him (" Til Him"). The judge, realizing Max and Leo are inseparable, sentences them both to five years at Sing Sing Prison with Franz. Writing and producing a new musical in prison ("Prisoners of Love"), Leo, Max, and Franz are pardoned by the governor for their work, allowing them to collaborate with Roger and Ulla and release ''Prisoners of Love''. The play's success means Max and Leo go on to become successful Broadway producers.

In a post-credits scene, the cast sings "Goodbye!", telling the audience to leave the theater.

Treehorn is a young boy who begins shrinking one day. The book opens with the line "Something very strange was happening to Treehorn," and the boy soon discovers that he is getting smaller when he cannot reach the candy bars and bumble gum he has hidden on a previously accessible shelf. (No reason for his shrinking is ever given in the text.) When his parents comment on it, they say, "Maybe he's doing it on purpose, just to be different." In the end, Treehorn returns to his normal size.

Rudy Baylor is about to graduate from Memphis State Law School. He secures a position with a Memphis law firm but loses the job when the firm is bought out by the large Memphis law firm Tinley Britt. As one of the few members of his class without a job lined up, a desperate Rudy is introduced to J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone, a ruthless but successful ambulance chaser, who makes him an associate. To earn his fee, Rudy is required to hunt for potential clients at the local hospital and sign them up to personal injury lawsuits. He is introduced to Deck Shifflet, a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor who received a law degree but doesn't practice law, having failed to pass the bar exam six times.

Rudy signs two clients. One is his new elderly landlady, who needs a revised will drawn. The other is a poor family, Dot and Buddy Black, whose insurance bad faith case could be worth several million dollars in damages. With Stone's firm about to be raided by the police and the FBI, Rudy and Deck set up their own practice and file suit on behalf of the Blacks, whose leukemia-stricken son, Donny Ray, could have been saved by a bone marrow transplant for which his identical twin brother is a perfect match. The procedure should have been covered and paid for by their insurance carrier, Great Benefit Life Insurance, but the claim was instead denied.

Rudy, having just passed his bar exam, has never argued a case before a judge or jury. He now finds himself up against experienced and ruthless lawyers from Tinley Britt, headed by Leo F. Drummond. On his side, Rudy has several supporters and a sympathetic, newly-appointed judge. While preparing the case in the local hospital, he meets and later falls in love with Kelly Riker, a young battered wife recovering from injuries inflicted by her husband Cliff.

Donny Ray dies just before the case goes to trial. Rudy uncovers a scheme by Great Benefit to deny every insurance claim submitted, regardless of validity. Great Benefit was playing the odds that the insured would not consult an attorney. A former employee of Great Benefit testifies that the scheme generated an extra $40 million in revenue for the company. The trial ends with a plaintiff's judgment of $50.2 million. Great Benefit quickly declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying the judgment. This leads to a series of lawsuits which forces Great Benefit out of business. Ultimately, there is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy, although Dot was never concerned with the settlement money, because for her helping to put the company out of business is an even greater victory.

During the Black trial, when Kelly is beaten again by Cliff, Rudy helps her file for divorce. While he and Kelly retrieve items from her home, Cliff arrives and threatens to kill Rudy, attacking him with a baseball bat. Rudy wrestles the bat away from Cliff and cracks his skull with it. Kelly intervenes and orders him to leave. Cliff dies from the injuries and Kelly allows herself to be charged with manslaughter to protect Rudy. Rudy gets the charges dropped, but Cliff's vengeful family have made several death threats against them both. Rudy and Kelly leave the state, heading for someplace where Rudy – who has become disillusioned with the law – can become a teacher, and Kelly can attend college.

The player controls a servant boy, Chauncey, who was raised by a herd of wild cows. In a fortunate mishap, Chauncey prevents Winthrop the Good, King of Franzpowanki, from choking on his meal and is rewarded with a plot of land upon which he may build a self-sustaining town. However, the land is under constant attack by "The Horde." The Horde consists of a number of destructive and hungry red monsters referred to individually as Hordlings.

The song takes place in a cabaret in an unnamed town where most of the residents "with any sense" have already left. The town's bank is being targeted by a gang of thieves led by an enigmatic figure called "The Jack of Hearts". The Jack of Hearts appears inside the cabaret right before the show. Big Jim and his wife Rosemary are in attendance of the show, though they arrive separately and it is apparent that Big Jim intends to use the night to pursue his affair with Lily. After her performance, Lily meets the Jack of Hearts in her dressing room with romantic intentions, but Big Jim makes his way to the dressing room as well, followed by Rosemary who has been driven to despair by her years of mistreatment at the hands of Big Jim. Big Jim is going to shoot the Jack of Hearts but is killed by a penknife in the back wielded by Rosemary (her "one good deed before she dies"). "The next day", Rosemary is executed, a hanging overseen by "the hanging judge", another figure in town who is in attendance at the cabaret the night before.

The fate of the Jack of Hearts is left ambiguous. He is described at the end of the song only as "missing", as Rosemary is on the gallows, his gang across the river with the safe from the bank, and Lily contemplating the events of her life.

When Muriel Kleinman (Olympia Dukakis) unexpectedly leaves her husband Sam (Peter Falk), their three daughters Linda (Ann Dowd), Hillary, Bonnie, and daughter-in-law Rachel (Elizabeth Perkins) set about trying to find her while Sam and his son Ben (Paul Reiser) spend a day in the country inspecting property Ben and his wife are considering buying. The journey evolves into an extended road trip in a restored 1940 Ford Deluxe coupe convertible Sam buys when Ben's car crashes. As time passes, the two men fish, drink, and play pool while discussing the past and reestablishing their relationship.

Ben learns Muriel went on vacation, but after enjoying a leisurely day by herself, began to experience blackouts. The doctors give her six months to live, and Muriel and Sam begin to mend a marriage Sam never realized was deteriorating. She lives through the summer, and Ben realizes he has never seen his parents happier in his life. When Muriel dies, Sam moves in with Ben and his family, and they enjoy life together until Sam himself passes away. Ben and Rachel have another child and name him Martin Samuel Kleinman to honor his parents, whose gravestone bears the Hebrew inscription "מה שלי שלך ומה שלך שלי" ("What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine"), testifying to the truly giving and compassionate relationship Ben's parents had with each other.

The night before Halloween, a gay couple are making out in a car when a bare-chested killer in a devil mask appears and decapitates them with a sickle.

Halloween finds Eddie at his job as a police technician talking with his police officer sister. He distributes flyers about the murders and dresses in his father's police uniform for a Halloween costume. While distributing the flyers, he meets Jake in a tattoo shop.

Eddie meets with his friends Chaz, Joey, and Tobey, and they head for the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival. They visit the murder scene, where the devil-masked killer appears. They taunt him because they think he is cruising them.

Eddie and his friends enter the carnival, and Eddie sees Jake coming in as well. Eddie leaves to find Jake. Joey sees a man on whom he has had a crush on for weeks entering one of the dance venues. Chaz encourages Joey to talk to the man, but when he does Joey is cruelly turned down. Chaz goes to the restroom with Joey to console him, then waits for Joey outside. Chaz takes ecstasy and leaves when he sees an attractive man walk past. Joey's crush comes into the bathroom and apologizes, leaving Joey ecstatically happy. Just then, the killer emerges from a bathroom stall and decapitates Joey, taking his head as a trophy.

Chaz goes into another dance venue, where the killer catches up with him on the dance floor. In his drugged state, Chaz does not realize that the killer is slashing his torso with the scythe. The killer then decapitates Chaz while the crowd dances on (thinking it is a Halloween gag).

Tobey, drunk and angry that no one is hitting on him while he is in his Halloween drag, spots the killer, who is still carrying Joey and Chaz's heads in trick or treat bags. Tobey pursues the killer, who dismisses him. When Tobey partially removes his drag costume, the killer returns and decapitates him as well.

Eddie finally finds Jake. They go to the first dance venue but find it closed following the discovery of Joey's body. Jake climbs over a tall chain-link fence to retrieve his motorcycle, and Eddie goes after him. On his motorcycle, Jake heads for the exit to circle around and return to Eddie. The killer finds Eddie inside the closed dance venue and attacks him. Eddie locks himself in a shallow chain-link enclosure. The killer slashes at Eddie with his scythe; the tip of the blade just touches Eddie's glass eye. Jake arrives with a police officer, and the killer leaves.

Eddie and Jake give their statements at police headquarters. Jake learns that Eddie wanted to be a policeman like his father, but he had lost an eye in a training accident and having a glass eye means he cannot join the force. The two go to Eddie's place and start having sex. Jake handcuffs Eddie to his bed and searches for condoms. As Jake is returning, the killer stabs him and leaves him for dead. Eddie hears the struggle and calls out. As the killer approaches and Eddie struggles with the cuffs, Jake hits the killer from behind with a baseball bat. Eddie slips a hand out of the cuffs, tends to Jake's wound, and heads off to call an ambulance, but the killer wakes and disables the phone. Eddie runs to the kitchen. He finds a knife but also finds the heads of Joey, Chaz, and Tobey in a closet. Eddie evades the killer and retreats to his bedroom, locking Jake and himself in. As the killer chops at the door, Eddie retrieves his father's gun and some bullets. Eddie pushes Jake onto the fire escape and loads the gun. The killer breaks down the door and attacks Eddie, knocking him out the window and over the fire escape railing. As Eddie dangles from the fire escape, the killer turns toward Jake. Eddie fires the gun, grazing Jake (as Eddie lacks the stereoscopic vision and depth perception to aim well). Eddie fires again, hitting the killer in the forehead.

Jake is taken to the hospital in an ambulance, and Eddie promises to be there when he wakes up. Eddie's sister gloats over the fallen killer, but Eddie realizes the man is still alive. In the final moment, the killer opens his eyes and grins hideously, disclosing that he has Eddie's artificial eye clenched between his teeth.

In 1957, immediately after co-hosting a 39-hour-long polio telethon in a Miami television studio, entertainers Lanny Morris and Vince Collins fly north to open the new showroom of a New Jersey hotel run by mobster Sally Sanmarco, who has intimidated them into appearing in order to improve his own image. In their New Jersey hotel suite, shortly after their arrival, the nude body of Miami college student Maureen O'Flaherty is found in a bathtub.

Maureen, an aspiring journalist working for the summer as a waitress at the comedy team's Miami hotel (which is also owned by Sanmarco), had been researching an article for her school newspaper on the comedy team, and had interviewed them in Miami just before she disappeared. Police investigation in no way connects either Morris or Collins to Maureen's death, which is officially attributed to a drug overdose. Soon after her body is discovered, the two men's comedy partnership is dissolved, despite their enormous success and the closeness of their dependence on one another.

Many unanswered questions remain for the investigators of Maureen's death; the most confusing aspect is how Maureen's body made it from Miami to New Jersey at the same time the comedians were traveling.

Fifteen years later, journalist Karen O'Connor, who as a young polio survivor first met the duo at the same telethon portrayed in the movie's opening sequence, accepts a job to ghostwrite Vince Collins' autobiography—a deal from which Collins will earn $1 million, which he badly needs. Karen makes a promise to Mrs. O'Flaherty that she will find the truth of how her daughter Maureen died. The project is complicated by the fact that she keeps receiving anonymously sent chapters from a book that Lanny Morris himself has written.

Karen, who has idolized the comedians ever since first meeting them, encounters Morris, accompanied by his faithful valet Reuben and manager Irv, by chance in the first-class section of a flight, where she shares a dinner table with them. Wishing to keep her identity secret, during the meal she introduces herself as "Bonnie Trout," the name of the best friend with whom she has traded apartments. Morris and Karen hit it off and have sex in his hotel. He disappears the next morning, apparently without leaving her a note.

Under her own name, Karen begins to work on the Collins autobiography. Complications arise when Collins invites her to an all-day working session at his Los Angeles home and she learns that Morris will be joining them as well. Near panic ensues; she abruptly invents an excuse to leave, but meets Morris in the driveway, and her masquerade is revealed—Morris discovers she has lied about who she is, and Collins discovers that the woman helping him write his memoirs is having or has had an affair with his ex-partner.

Collins agrees to continue with the book, but creates a situation to blackmail Karen into staying away from the story of Maureen O'Flaherty, which is Karen's consuming interest. After plying Karen with wine and drugs, Collins manipulates her into having sex with a young aspiring singer named Alice. He photographs the two women in compromising positions. Karen is told that unless she tells the publisher that there is nothing odd or improper surrounding Maureen's death, he will make the pictures public.

Karen discovers that Maureen had secretly recorded her interactions with Morris and Collins. Gradually, it becomes clear what really happened that night 15 years before: the three had engaged in a ménage à trois, fueled by drugs and booze, and at some point Collins tried to have sex with Morris, who resisted violently. Collins retreated to his room, whereupon Maureen tried to blackmail Morris into paying to keep this information a secret. (In 1957, it would have finished Collins professionally if it had come out that he was bisexual.) Morris tried to bribe Maureen to stay quiet but she wanted more money than he was either willing or able to give. Collins passed out in his room, Morris in his, and Maureen fell asleep on the couch. In the morning, she was dead.

Fifteen years later, Karen has begun to uncover the story. She discovers more about Morris' "fix-it man," Reuben. While both Morris and Collins were convinced the other murdered Maureen, they smuggled her body in a crate full of lobsters (a gift from Sanmarco) with Reuben's assistance, shipping it ahead of them to the New Jersey hotel. The tape recorder was on during the entire night, but the tape has been missing all these years.

Reuben offers to produce the tape. He asks Karen if her publishing company will pay him, say, $1 million for the tape. Karen puts two and two together and realizes that Reuben was blackmailing Collins, demanding $1 million to keep quiet about his bisexuality, proven on the tape, and perhaps his having murdered Maureen. (Collins was so drunk and drugged during that episode that he plainly does not remember what happened.) Reuben was demanding a million dollars for a murder he himself committed.

In the end, Collins is indeed destroyed, committing suicide. Morris is furious at Karen for all that she has set in motion, and Karen has the answer to her mystery. She goes to Mrs. O'Flaherty, saying she will publish the truth but only after an innocent bystander has died—referring to Maureen's mother herself, who would be crushed to learn of her daughter's behavior that contributed to her own death.

The fictional story is set on an unspecified date in the future and begins in Cary, North Carolina. The narrator recalls his first minimum wage job at Burger-G fast food joint in the early 21st century, and describes the Manna system, which was installed there as a simple store management tool that guided the minimum-wage workers via headset. He describes how advances in networking, robotics, and computer-vision drove the Manna system to dominate the service industry, leading to mass unemployment and extreme income inequality. After Manna finally takes over his current education job he is forced into a massive, cheaply built government welfare housing project, with little hope of regaining employment or escaping. After a year in the housing projects he is visited by two women who tell him that because his father bought stock in the Australia Project years prior, he's invited to live in Australia, an advanced society with Universal Basic Income. The narrator leaves the dystopian United States for Australia, and goes on to learn about, and live in, the Australia Project.

The novel imagines the future US, which has a libertarian economic system that leaves most Americans unemployable and living in cramped housing projects, where they are fed and kept safe like farm animals. Birth control medicine in the water prevents them from having children, indicating the wealthy few who rule the US intend for them to die off. In contrast, in the Australia Project, everyone has access to the goods provided by automation.

Commander Sugata is a scientist and sage who excels in mental reinforcements and is a master of every martial arts discipline. He discovered the existence of the Underground Empire Tube, a once peaceful kingdom that has turned into a malignant force under the mysterious Zeba, who desires to conquer the surface. In order to stand against them and thwart their plans, Sugata recruits five young people to become the Maskmen. Each becomes specialized in a style of martial arts, and Sugata teaches them the ways of the mystical . A year after Sugata recruits and trains the Maskmen, the Underground Empire Tube is ready to strike. Princess Ial of the deposed Igam Royal Family, sent to spy above ground as Mio, falls in love with Takeru, and wishes for those underground and above ground to coexist. She is kidnapped and imprisoned in ice for her betrayal. As Takeru and the Maskmen battle Tube, they learn about Ial and Igam's relationship, and a terrible dark secret about Zeba, the Tube leader.

The characters need to journey through a blizzard to get to the Bloodstone Mines, which lead to the duergar kingdom of Deepearth, and the Temple of Orcus.

The adventure begins with a set of village encounters, before some further encounters in a big valley. The player characters then proceed into the Mines of Bloodstone, where the duergar and svirfneblin are at war, and then on to the demonic temple of Orcus of the duergar. This is an attempt to gain an ancient treasure to help the belagured innocent citizens of Bloodstone Pass.

The module includes two Battlesystem conflicts, between armies of gnomes and duergar.

The plot revolves around a household in Paris: Mr Ruche, an elderly wheelchair-using bookseller, his employee and housemate Perrette, and Perrette's three children – teenage twins and young Max, who is deaf. Max liberates a talking parrot at the market and Mr Ruche receives a consignment of mathematical books from an old friend, who has lived in Brazil for decades without any contact between the two.

The household sets up its own exploration of mathematics in order to crack the code of the last messages from Mr Ruche's old friend, now apparently murdered. Mathematical topics covered in the book include primes and factors; irrational and amicable numbers; the discoveries of Pythagoras, Archimedes and Euclid; and the problems of squaring the circle and doubling the cube.

The mathematics is real mathematics, woven into an historical sequence as a series of intriguing problems, bringing their own stories with them.

The episode opens with the dream sequences of ''Voyager'' senior staff. The two commonalities between the dreams are that they are all nightmares and that in each dream, an unknown alien appears towards the end of each dream. Upon waking, and reporting to their duty shifts on the bridge, the captain and first officer compare dreams, and when noting the common strange alien in their dreams, Tom Paris notes that the same alien appeared in his dream. At this point it is realized that Harry Kim has not reported for duty yet. After failing to respond to the bridge hails, Janeway takes Tuvok to Kim's quarters in an attempt to find out why he isn't responding to hails. Upon entering Kim's quarters, they find him asleep and are unable to wake him up. They take him to sickbay for further examination. The Doctor explains that Kim and several other crew members are in a hyper-REM state and that he cannot wake them, even through medical means. The Doctor advises that everyone avoid going to sleep for the time being.

It is realized that ''Voyager'' is experiencing contact with an alien race which lives out its life in a dream state. Chakotay mentions that he has mastered a skill of his native people called "lucid dreaming". Before entering a dream state, Chakotay provides himself with a trigger image, Earth's Moon, that will remind him that he is still dreaming and can use it to restore himself to a conscious state. Suddenly he is asleep and in his dream, he is holding a spear and is deer hunting through the corridors of ''Voyager''. When the deer enters the mess hall, he sees the full moon outside the window and realizes he's dreaming. A few seconds later, he sees the deer again but it transforms into the alien. The two men fight but Chakotay manages to subdue the alien who expresses surprise that Chakotay can control his dream. Chakotay then forces the alien to tell him how the other crew members can wake up. The alien tells him that once they passed their space, they will awake. Chakotay taps his hand three times and is instantly awake in sickbay.

Upon reaching their desired destination however, it is realized that ''Voyager'' was deceived and was actually directed to the heart of the "Dream Aliens" space. First, a few crewmen cannot awaken, then the aliens attack. The attack occurs in the guise of crew members being put into a sleep state. The aliens take over the ship, or so it seems. The remainder of the crew are now not only in a state of sleep, but they all share the same dream.

Chakotay uses lucid dreaming to escape the collective unconscious. With chemical assistance provided by the Doctor he manages to stay awake long enough to locate the planet that is generating the neurogenic field which is keeping the crew unconscious and asleep. He then transports to the surface of the planet and finds a large cavern where thousands of the aliens appear in a state of sleep. He orders The Doctor to target the cave with a photon torpedo and destroy it if he does not hear from Chakotay in five minutes. Chakotay then wakes one of the aliens and orders him to turn off the field or he will open fire. Before he can take any further action, Chakotay falls asleep due to exhaustion and once again enters the dream. There, he tells the aliens that they will all be killed if they do not stop this dream immediately after which they comply and allow ''Voyager'' to proceed. The only side effect to this encounter is insomnia.

A group of prep school students consisting of Graham, Mercedes, Lewis, Randall, Regina, Tom, Dodger and Owen play a game called Cry Wolf, where someone is marked as a "wolf" and the group tries to figure out who it is.

After meeting his new journalism teacher, Mr. Walker, Owen and Tom meet the others for lunch. They discuss the police finding a girl's body, Becky, after it was dragged through the woods by a wolf. The group considers who could have murdered Becky, when Dodger proposes expanding Cry Wolf to the entire school. Owen suggests creating a fake e-mail telling everyone about a serial killer who goes from campus to campus stalking and killing students. They describe the killer as wearing an orange ski mask, a green camouflage jacket, steel toe combat boots, black tactical leather gloves, brandishing a hunting knife or a high-powered handgun. That night, they send out the e-mail.

The next day, the entire school has spread the story in the e-mail. Owen receives an instant message from someone using the name 'Wolf'. Tom and Owen accuse Dodger, but she claims she was studying with Regina.

Tom and Owen find their dorm room trashed. When the instant messenger comes up on Owen's laptop, they find a piercing stud and blood on Owen's keyboard. Tom blames Regina, who has a recipe for fake blood. When accused, she insists she was on a field trip.

Believing Dodger is lying, Owen confronts her. Dodger informs him that she was visiting her mother. Deciding that Randall is behind the odd behavior, Owen tries tracking him down, to no avail. Owen again seeks out Dodger, and finds her kissing Mr. Walker.

In his journalism class the next day, when Owen reaches into his bag for supplies, a hunting knife falls out. Mr. Walker escorts Owen to the Headmistress's office. Owen tells Mr. Walker that he knows about his relationship with Dodger, and that he will tell the headmistress if Walker reveals the knife. Mr. Walker agrees not to say anything.

On the night of Halloween, 'Wolf' attacks Owen. Thinking Tom was trying to prank him, Owen goes to leave with Tom's car, but sees Wolf behind him. The attacker ends up being Mercedes, who was trying to prove that attackers can be women.

The following day, Owen and Mercedes meet with the headmistress, who decides that Owen's fate will be decided over the weekend. The rest of the group is forced to stay at school over the weekend. Owen contacts them to meet in the chapel. Owen, Dodger, Tom, Lewis and Regina meet and try to get to the bottom of the attacks. While Lewis is on the phone, Mercedes is apparently attacked in the bathroom by Wolf. Lewis runs out as Owen tries to call for help.

Owen, Regina and Tom find Randall's body in a confessional. Owen goes looking for Dodger, and sees Lewis get attacked. Owen runs to the parking lot to see Mr. Walker still on campus. Owen runs to Mr. Walker's office as his phone rings. Owen answers to Dodger crying on the other end; she has found Mercedes dead. Dodger tells Owen she is coming and can see him through the window. He looks out to see Wolf kill her. Afterwards, Mr. Walker enters the room. Upon noticing that Mr. Walker has a jacket, an orange mask and a knife, Owen shoots him. The door is suddenly opened by Dodger, Tom and Regina.

Owen is arrested for murder while the group admits that it was a prank to get Mercedes and Owen back for making them stay on campus. Randall, Mercedes and Lewis are alive and well. Mr. Walker was involved with Becky, the gun in his desk having been used to kill her. Dodger visits Owen, who has been released on bail, and says she would never have played the game if she knew Mr. Walker was cheating on her, revealing she organized everything. Dodger killed Becky because she was jealous of Mr. Walker's relationship with her and had set up the game knowing that Owen would blame Mr. Walker for the killings, thereby killing him and making her happy. Despite Owen threatening to report her, Dodger replies that no one will believe him and leaves.

Adman Timothy Westerby (Smothers) throws his daughter's wedding day into chaos when he repeatedly hallucinates that he is seeing his "dream girl" (Twiggy), and refuses to leave her side.

On the rare occasions Westerby is coherent, the distraught bride (Fuller) has locked herself in her room, further delaying things.

Since Westerby is the only one who can see his "dreamgirl", this creates confusion with his wife (Sims) and father-in-law-to-be (Balsam), the latter of whom is a hot-tempered Texan prone to gun-toting tantrums.

Also, an important client (Backus) is expecting a new ad slogan for an important account starting yesterday, but Westerby is in no condition to deliver it.

The events of the film are dictated to a psychiatrist (Silvers) by a distraught patient (Stark), who was the wedding caterer and bewildered witness.

All her life, Isabella has suffered from motion sickness. Because of her illness, she couldn't play much with other children. She stayed at home and learned how to cook, becoming a renowned chef as an adult. She fell in love with Toninho and they opened a restaurant together, with Isabella stuck in the kitchen and Toninho out front taking the credit.

The only way for Isabella to control her motion sickness is to control her motion. She must drive rather than ride in a car, take stairs instead of elevators, lead while dancing, and be on top during coitus. Toninho, feeling emasculated and resentful of this, has an affair with a neighbor. Isabella flees Brazil for San Francisco with her Afro-Brazilian transsexual friend Monica, who spent her early years with her in the fishing community of Salvador. Despite old job offers from a number of restaurants, Isabella is unable to find a job until she takes over a cooking class at a local culinary school. Cliff, a neighbor and local television producer, smells her cooking, follows her to class, and signs her to host a live cooking show, ''Passion Food''. She makes Monica her assistant on the show. Isabella performs a sacrifice to Yemanja, a Brazilian sea goddess, to harden her heart and make her never love Toninho again.

Back in Brazil, Toninho's restaurant is floundering without Isabella. Toninho curses Yemanja, and the fishermen stop catching any fish. He figures out that Isabella has gone to Monica and follows her to San Francisco. He spots her on television and tracks her to the studio. With a group of local street musicians, Toninho sneaks into the studio and onto the set, serenading Isabella on the live broadcast. Cliff hires Toninho and the musicians for the show over Isabella's objections. Isabella pursues a relationship with Cliff but Toninho continues trying to win her back.

Network executives offer to syndicate Isabella's show nationally, but only after demanding a number of changes, including firing Monica. With the restaurant closed, Toninho apologizes to Yemanja, but tells her to "stay out of [his] business" with Isabella. He quits the show and makes another attempt to win back Isabella. Isabella goes after him but has to take an elevator, and her motion sickness slows her enough to allow Toninho to depart. Isabella also quits the show rather than accept the changes demanded by the network.

Isabella, with her love still gone but now wanting it returned, tries to cook another sacrifice to Yemanja but finds her cooking talent is gone. Undaunted, Monica substitutes some boxed macaroni and cheese. Isabella makes the second offering but nearly drowns. She has a vision of Yemanja, who rejects her new offering.

Isabella goes to collect her things from the television studio. Toninho, sent by Monica, shows up and suggests they cook something together. As they cook, the fish return to the village waters and Yemanja returns Isabella's original offering along with her love for Toninho.

The film closes with Toninho and Isabella operating a new restaurant as equal partners and with Cliff and Monica as a couple.

In Switzerland in 1912, photographer Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) and Anna-Marie, his fiancée, are married in an Alpine church. The following day, they are walking in the mountains when a snowstorm closes in. They are returning to the village when a crevasse opens and Anna-Marie falls into it. Charles tries to pull her out but he loses his grip and she dies. During the Great War, Castle serves as an army photographer in the trenches of France. While he is photographing corpses with his assistant Roy (Phil Davis), a mortar shell lands close by. Roy returns to the trenches but Castle seems unconcerned and continues photographing. He returns to the trenches just before the shell explodes.

After the war, Castle and Roy run a photographic studio in London. Castle specialises in photographic trick work, including photomontage. He attends a lecture at the Theosophical Society, where Arthur Conan Doyle is examining a projected image of the Cottingley Fairies. Conan Doyle seems convinced they are genuine, but Castle stands, publicly debunks the image, and hands out business cards to the audience.

At his studio, Castle is visited by Beatrice Templeton (Frances Barber), who shows him a photograph of her daughter. She is convinced that a mysterious shape is a fairy, but Castle dismissed the idea. However, he investigates the photograph, sees the shape laterally reflected in the girl's eye, and makes multiple large prints to discover how the picture was made. Unable to explain or debunk the photograph, Castle hastily travels to see Beatrice in a village called Birkenwell, where upon arrival he sees and recognises Templeton's daughters, Ana (Miriam Grant) and Clara (Hannah Bould), and follows them to their home. Beatrice tells Castle that the photograph no longer matters she has seen the fairies. She asks him to meet her at ''the great tree'' in Birkenwell Woods the following day.

At the appointed time, Castle walks to the great tree, where Beatrice is waiting. Before he arrives, she removes her hat and shoes then climbs the tree. When he arrives, Castle discovers Beatrice's removed clothing, then finds her lifeless body on the ground. After making a statement at the local police station, Castle encounters the Templeton girls, who are greeted by their father Nicholas, a Christian minister.

Nicholas reluctantly allows Castle to remain since the girls seem to like him and he is concerned about their behavior. Castle discovers that Beatrice had been documenting her daughters' odd behavior, and in her notes finds that she had been experimenting with a distinctive rare flower. Having already noticed Ana and Clara consuming the flower themselves, Castle takes some himself and discovered that it allows him to see the fairies that Beatrice and her daughters saw.

Castle calls in his business partner and assistant to set up a photo shoot using his most advanced equipment. After consuming the flower again and having them photograph the experience, Castle concludes that fairies do exist, and that the flower allows the brain to slow down enough so that they can be seen and interacted with, as they normally move so fast that only the most advanced of cameras can photograph them. Castle's obsession comes to a head when one day, a fed-up Nicholas starts burning his equipment; although Castle is too deep under the flower's influence to initially care, he flies into a rage when some of the fairies drift too close and catch fire. Castle assaults and kills Nicholas and is subsequently arrested.

Refusing to defend himself, Castle is found guilty and sentenced to hang, while Ana and Clara are put into foster care, though they seem to care little about the situation. Castle bids farewell to his associates and faces his death without fear. The final scene returns to the Alps, where Castle is trying to save Anna-Marie. This time he is successful in pulling her back up to the path, and they embrace and continue walking.

After coming off a successful comedy tour, Dolemite throws a get-together at his mansion. The party is crashed by racist police officers and they find out that the sheriff's wife is offering Dolemite money for sexual services. When the sheriff catches them red-handed, he shoots and kills his wife. Dolemite and his friends kidnap a young man and decide to head to California to meet Queen Bee. There, they find out that the local mob boss, Joe Cavaletti, has kidnapped two of Queen Bee's girls, forcing her to close her business and work for him. Dolemite rescues Queen Bee and her girls and teaches his enemies a lesson, all the while being chased by the sheriff, who has pinned the murder of his own wife on Dolemite.

Rita and Sue are two teenage girls in their final year of school who live on a run down council estate in Bradford. To earn some money, they babysit for Bob and Michelle, a better-off couple who live in a detached house in a nicer part of town. When the couple return later, Michelle pays the girls and tells Bob to give them a lift home. Bob, however, drives them to an out of the way place to have sex with each of them in the back of his car. They nonchalantly agree, and he and the girls plan to make it a regular thing. By the time they're finished, it's 2:00 a.m.

Sue gets a part-time job at a local taxi firm, and meets Aslam, a Pakistani boy who drives for the firm. He and another driver make a bet on who can get her into bed first. Sue rebuffs them. At school, Bob shows up at Rita and Sue's PE tennis class to take them for sex. Rita manages to get permission from the teacher to use the toilet (a ruse to see Bob) but Sue is denied and told to get back to the class. She takes her anger out on another student whilst Bob takes Rita to a show house on a newly built housing development to have sex.

Later, Michelle finds a packet of condoms in Bob's trousers whilst ironing them and they argue. During the argument, it is revealed that Michelle does not like sex, which frustrates Bob. It also turns out that Bob previously had an affair, discovered when Michelle found another woman's bracelet in their bed; the other woman had also been their babysitter. Michelle goes upstairs to get ready for their planned night out, for which Rita and Sue are again babysitting. Bob warns the girls that Michelle is suspicious and will ask them questions and try to trick them. They convince Michelle that Bob isn't sleeping with either of them.

After their night out, Bob and Michelle start arguing again, this time in front of Rita and Sue who desperately try not to laugh. Michelle takes her anger out on the girls, then storms off to bed. Rita and Sue make their own way home, unhappy that Bob can't take them in his car and have sex with them again. That night, Michelle decides to let Bob have sex with her to stop him going off with other women but it goes badly.

The next day, on a school trip, Sue gets into a fight with a classmate who calls her a "slag" because she is rumoured to be seeing a married man. Later, Rita and Sue skip school to go and meet Bob, hoping to make up for the previous night but Bob can't get an erection, embarrassing himself and leaving Rita and Sue unsatisfied. He takes them out to a club where Michelle's friend, Mavis, spots Bob with the girls. Bob warns the girls that Mavis will surely tell Michelle she saw them together.

The next morning, Mavis rushes around to tell Michelle, and Michelle storms over to Rita's house in Mavis's car. Michelle drags Rita out of her house and into Mavis's car and takes her to Sue's flat to confront them both, with Bob arriving there at the same time. Michelle, Bob, Rita, Sue, and Sue's parents have a big argument in the street front of all the neighbours, who are all having a good laugh over the spectacle. Michelle blames the girls for being slutty but Sue retorts that the reason Bob cheats on her is because she doesn't have enough sex with him. After everybody blames each other for the matter, and Bob and Sue's drunken father almost come to blows, Rita's brothers come to rescue her on their motorcycles. Michelle goes home humiliated, ransacks the house, and then leaves Bob for good, taking the children with her.

The next day, Sue goes to Rita's house to walk to school together. Rita tells her that she is no longer going to school because she is pregnant with Bob's child. She admits to having seen Bob a few times without Sue and that they are moving in together now Michelle has left him. When Bob arrives to collect Rita, Sue is enraged and tells them both to get lost.

Sue dates Aslam as a rebound to get over Bob. They go to the cinema and then off to a grassy hillside spot where they start kissing. Afterwards they go to Sue's flat where Aslam meets her parents. Her father comes home from the pub drunk and shouts racist comments at Aslam, causing Sue to leave home and move in with Aslam and his sister.

Some time later, Sue finds out that Rita has suffered a miscarriage and visits her in hospital. On the way out, Bob invites Sue for another sexual escapade, but she rebuffs him. He still gives Sue a lift home, but Aslam sees her getting out of Bob's car and threatens her as he thinks that she was out having sex with Bob.

While Bob and Rita are about to have sex at their house, Bob accidentally calls out Sue's name. This infuriates Rita who assumes Bob is now seeing Sue behind her back. She storms out of the house and goes to confront Sue. When Rita tells Aslam of her suspicions, Aslam violently attacks Sue. Despite everything, Rita comes to Sue's defence and kicks Aslam in the knee and then Sue kicks him in his groin before they both make a hasty escape. They go to Bob's house, where Rita tends to Sue's wounds, but Aslam shows up at the front door. They refuse to let him in but Aslam tries to find a way to break in, all the while trying to convince Sue to come back to him, threatening suicide if she doesn't come back. The situation is interrupted by the arrival of the police, having been called by a neighbour. Aslam then runs off with the police in pursuit.

When Bob returns home, Rita tells him that she is letting Sue move in with them, regardless of Bob's wishes. The two girls then go upstairs, leaving Bob feeling like a guest in his own home. However, when Bob goes upstairs into the bedroom, he finds both girls waiting for him in bed and dives in to join them.

In the Middle Ages, 10-year-old Prince Frederic is orphaned when his evil aunt Messina kills his parents in hopes of taking the throne for herself. Rather than killing the young prince, Messina transforms him into a frog. He escapes and spends the rest of his childhood in his new life as Freddie the Frog. The story flashes forward to the 20th Century, where the seemingly immortal Freddie has grown up to become a member of the French secret service, with the code name F.R.O.7. He is called to London, England by the British Secret Service, where a villain known as El Supremo has been stealing the U.K.'s most famous buildings. By the time Freddie arrives, Nelson's Column, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Stonehenge are already missing. Assisting El Supremo is Freddie's still-living Aunt Messina.

Freddie meets his team: the Brigadier G; martial arts expert Daphne Fortescue a.k.a. Daffers; weapons expert Scotty; and Trilby. He learns that El Supremo is planning to steal Big Ben next. Freddie, Daffers, and Scotty go to a secret island in Scotland and discover that El Supremo plans to use the shrunken buildings as batteries to power a giant crystal, which will send a powerful sleeping virus across the world, allowing him to enslave the planet. Freddie and Scotty are thrown into a pool of sea monsters, while Daffers is taken to be brainwashed into a mindless follower and slave of El Supremo and Messina. El Supremo uses the crystal to send his sleeping virus all across Great Britain and the whole country shuts down.

With the help of Freddie's old friend the Loch Ness Monster, Freddie and Scotty save Daffers from the snake guards in disguise. A final battle then ensues between Freddie, Daffers, Scotty, the Loch Ness Monster, El Supremo, Messina, and their army. During the battle, Freddie, Daffers, and Scotty stop El Supremo from conquering the world by shrinking him down to an ant's size. Messina then attacks by shape-shifting consecutively into a bat, hyena, scorpion, and boa constrictor. Freddie tosses Messina into an electrical pole, where she is electrocuted. Brigadier G and his team arrive in time, and Trilby is discovered to be a spy for the villains. Britain is restored to normal and Freddie, Daffers, and Scotty are hailed heroes. After that, the secret service receives a phone call from the United States that Messina, who was secretly alive and well, is starting her plan to take over Washington, D.C. as revenge on Freddie. Hearing the news, Freddie, Daffers, Scotty, and the Loch Ness Monster head off to stop Messina once and for all.

In the late-1970s, Phil Elliott plays wide receiver for the North Dallas Bulls professional football team, based in Dallas, Texas, which closely resembles the Dallas Cowboys.

Although considered to possess "the best hands in the game", the aging Elliott has been benched and relies heavily on painkillers. Elliott and popular quarterback Seth Maxwell are outstanding players, but they characterize the drug-, sex-, and alcohol-fueled party atmosphere of that era. Elliott wants only to play the game, retire, and live on a horse farm with his girlfriend Charlotte, an aspiring writer who appears to be financially independent due to a trust fund from her wealthy family and who has no interest whatsoever in football.

The Bulls play for iconic Coach Strother, who turns a blind eye to anything that his players may be doing off the field or anything that his assistant coaches and trainers condone to keep those players in the game. The coach is focused on player "tendencies", a quantitative measurement of their performance, and seems less concerned about the human aspect of the game and the players. One player, Shaddock, finally erupts to assistant Coach Johnson: "Every time I call it a 'game', you call it a 'business'. And every time I call it a 'business', you call it a 'game'." The coaches manipulate Elliott to convince a younger, injured rookie on the team to start using painkillers.

Elliott's nonconformist attitude incurs the coach's wrath more than once, and at one point, the coach informs Elliott that his continuing attitude could affect his future career with the Bulls. In the final game of the season, Elliot catches a touchdown pass with no time left on the clock to get North Dallas to within one point of division rival Chicago, but the Bulls lose the game due to a mishandled snap on the extra point attempt. In a meeting with the team owners and Coach Strother, Elliott learns that a Dallas detective has been hired by the Bulls to follow him. They reveal proof of his marijuana use and a sexual relationship with a woman named Joanne, who intends to marry team executive Emmett Hunter, the brother of owner Conrad Hunter. It is loosely implied that Emmett might be gay, and it is why she went to Elliot for her sexual needs. Although the detective witnessed quarterback Seth Maxwell engaging in similar behavior, he pretends not to have recognized him. They tell Elliott that he is to be suspended without pay pending a league hearing, and Elliott, convinced that the entire investigation is merely a pretext to allow the team to save money on his contract, quits the team, telling the Hunter brothers that he does not need their money that bad.

As he is leaving the team's headquarters in downtown Dallas, Elliot runs into Maxwell, who seems to have been waiting for him. Elliot informs him that he quit, prompting Maxwell to ask if his name came up in the meeting. Elliot deduces that Maxwell knew about the investigation the entire time. As Elliot walks away, Maxwell briefly reminisces about their time together on and off the football field. Maxwell prompts Elliot to turn around and throws a football to him, but Elliot lets it hit him in the chest and fall incomplete as he shrugs and throws his arms into the air, signifying that he truly is done with the game.

Jane Eyre (portrayed as the orphan child by Anna Paquin and as an adult by Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a plain, impoverished young woman hired by Mr. Rochester (William Hurt) through Mrs. Fairfax (Joan Plowright) to work as a governess for Adèle (Josephine Serre). Despite her mild unprepossessing nun-like manner, Jane has strong hidden passions and shows her strong character by expressing her opinions and showing resolve in times of trouble. Rochester is a Byronic anti-hero, tortured and tormented by family troubles, past injustices and secrets. Rochester and Jane develop a mutual affinity. They fall in love and the marriage date is set. What Jane does not realize is that she must share the estate and, ultimately, Mr. Rochester with his wife, Bertha (Maria Schneider), who is mentally ill and is confined in an upstairs attic with a nurse, Grace Poole (Billie Whitelaw).

The marriage is stopped by Bertha's brother Richard Mason (Edward de Souza) and lawyer Briggs (Peter Woodthorpe). Jane flees; her world in ruins. She recovers in the parsonage, her aunt's original home, and discovers she is now wealthy through inheriting her long-lost uncle's fortune in Madeira. She receives a proposal of marriage from Parson St. John Rivers but her heart and soul is with Rochester. Jane goes back to find Rochester's house, Thornfield Hall, burnt down and Rochester crippled and blinded by a fire set by Bertha, who perished. However, Jane's love for Rochester is undiminished; she nurses him back to health, he recovers his eyesight and they marry.

Orphaned, unloved, and unwanted ten-year-old Jane Eyre lives with her cruel, selfish, uncaring maternal aunt via marriage, Mrs. Reed of Gateshead Hall. Jane is ecstatic when Mrs. Reed, eager to be rid of her, arranges for Jane to be sent to Lowood Institution, a charity boarding school for young girls, run by the disciplinarian Mr. Brocklehurst.

Based on what Mrs. Reed has told him, Mr. Brocklehurst labels Jane a liar in front of her schoolmates and orders her to stand on a stool for hours on her first day of attendance. She is comforted and befriended by another student, Helen Burns. Later, Jane protests when Brocklehurst orders that Helen's naturally curling hair be cut. Both are punished by being forced to walk circles in a courtyard during a downpour. Dr. Rivers, a sympathetic physician who periodically checks on the students, brings the girls inside, but it is too late for Helen, who dies that night.

Ten years later, in 1840, twenty-year-old Jane turns down Brocklehurst's offer of a teaching position. She advertises for and accepts a job as governess for a young girl named Adèle. When she arrives at Thornfield, a gloomy, isolated mansion, she initially thinks her employer is Mrs. Fairfax, who is in fact the housekeeper for the absent master.

Jane goes for a walk one night only to startle a horse into throwing and slightly injuring its rider, Edward Rochester—whom she doesn't realize is her employer. When Jane arrives back at Thornfield, she discovers this fact, and Rochester calls her into his library to interview her. His brusque manner contrasts with her quiet, gentle demeanor, and he finally dismisses her with the wish that she will enjoy her stay there.

That night, Jane is awakened by strange laughter. She investigates, and discovers that Rochester's bed curtains are on fire. She rouses the sleeping man and they extinguish the fire without rousing anyone. Rochester bids her wait while he goes to another wing of the house, where mysterious seamstress Grace Poole keeps to herself. When he returns, he tells Jane nothing other than that the matter is under control. The next morning, he leaves Thornfield.

A winter and spring go by before he returns with a large group of guests. Jane is greatly saddened when Mrs. Fairfax discloses that everyone expects Rochester to marry the vivacious Blanche Ingram. However, Rochester confides to Jane his conviction that Blanche is attracted only by his wealth.

When a man named Richard Mason of Spanish Town, Jamaica, arrives at Thornfield, Jane sees that Rochester is disturbed. That night, a pained scream awakens everyone. Rochester assures his guests it is just a servant's reaction to a nightmare, but after he sends them back to their rooms, he has Jane secretly tend to a bleeding Mason in the tower while he fetches a doctor. Behind her, a locked wooden door rattles with someone trying to get out, but Rochester orders Jane to ignore everything she sees or hears. Rochester has the doctor take Mason away.

Rochester has a private conversation with Blanche, in which he bluntly asserts that she is a gold digger. Offended, she and the other guests leave. Unaware of this development, Jane broaches the topic of her future employment elsewhere after Rochester gets married, and confesses that she does not want to leave Rochester. In response, Rochester reveals that he loves her and not Blanche, and proposes marriage to her, which she accepts.

During the wedding ceremony, an attorney intervenes and declares that Rochester has a wife by the name of Bertha Antonietta Mason, who is mentally ill and deranged. This is confirmed by Mason, Rochester's brother-in-law. Rochester calls off the marriage ceremony and takes Jane and Mason back to Thornfield to reveal Bertha, who is insane to the point of animalistic behavior, and lives in a tower cell guarded by Grace Poole. Rochester explains to Jane that his and Bertha's marriage was arranged when he was a teenager, and he did not truly know her. He was helpless as she drove herself mad, and has been searching for happiness with a real partner ever since, which caused him to become desperate when he fell for Jane. Though they admit they still love each other, Jane rejects Rochester's offer to stay as his mistress, and she determinedly departs Thornfield to preserve her principles.

With her funds exhausted, Jane returns to Gateshead. She discovers that her aunt has suffered a stroke, caused by worry over the ruinous gambling habits of her son, who it is revealed has committed suicide. Mrs. Reed is happy to see Jane and they reconcile. After Mrs. Reed dies, Jane ponders what to do next, when she hears Rochester's anguished voice calling her name during a storm.

Jane returns to Thornfield and finds it in ruins. Mrs. Fairfax informs her that Bertha had escaped confinement, set the place on fire, and fled to the roof. While Fairfax took Adèle to safety, Rochester tried to rescue Bertha, but she jumped to her death. The burning staircase collapsed underneath Rochester, badly wounding him. With no other impediments, Jane reunites with Rochester, who is now blind from the fire. He tells her she should not waste her life with a crippled man like him, but she has made her choice to stay. They reaffirm their love and kiss passionately. Jane narrates that she married Rochester, and when their son was born, her husband's vision was sufficiently restored for him to see their child.

Jane Eyre is an orphan, who is raised by her abusive aunt and cousins until she is sent to the cruel school institution of Lowood School. Her best friend, who had a severe cough, was forced to stand outside in the rain and died the next day. On leaving, Jane takes a position as governess to a girl named Adele at Thornfield Hall. Fully aware of her low rank and plain countenance, she makes the best of her situation. But Thornfield holds many secrets and despite mysterious occurrences that Jane cannot comprehend, she and Edward Rochester, owner of Thornfield and Adele's guardian, fall in love. Suddenly, when Jane is about to win the happiness she deserves, a dark secret comes to light which needs all her courage, love and maturity.

A young bride (Edna Best) is deserted by her husband (D. A. Clarke-Smith) but finds happiness with another man (Herbert Marshall). They contract a bigamous marriage for the sake of their child (Frank Lawton).

The first husband turns up and starts black-mailing them. During a quarrel with the second husband, he dies. After some complications, their son learns the truth, but stands by them.

Reckless but brilliant Cambridge scholar Christopher "Kit" Marlowe is conscripted by Francis Walsingham to be a spy for Queen Elizabeth. Kit and Walsingham's young cousin Thomas experience love at first sight. Kit is soon sent to the English college at Rheims to ferret out recusants conspiring against the Queen and her Church of England. Walsingham and his agents discover a conspiracy, later known as the Babington Plot, to assassinate Elizabeth I. They use this discovery as a means to effect the execution of Elizabeth's rival, Mary, Queen of Scots. Kit is instrumental in the arrest of the conspirators, but horrified by their execution.

Marlowe is portrayed as a secretive, solitary and eventually isolated person. Burgess explores his sexual addiction and passion for the theatre.

Mrs. Bennet (Mary Boland) and her two eldest daughters, Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) and Elizabeth (Greer Garson), are shopping for new dresses when they notice two gentlemen and a lady arriving outside, exiting from a very expensive carriage. They learn that the men are Mr. Bingley (Bruce Lester), who has just rented the local estate of Netherfield, and Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier), both wealthy eligible bachelors, which excites Mrs. Bennet's interest. Collecting her other daughters, Mrs. Bennet returns home, where she tries to convince Mr. Bennet to visit Mr. Bingley, but he declines, explaining to her minutes later that he has already made his acquaintance.

At the next ball, Elizabeth sees how proud Darcy is when she overhears him refusing to dance with her. Elizabeth also meets Mr. Wickham, who tells her how Darcy did him a terrible wrong. When Darcy does ask Elizabeth to dance with him, she refuses, but when Wickham asks her in front of Darcy, she accepts.

The Bennets' cousin, Mr. Collins (Melville Cooper), who will inherit the Bennet estate upon the death of Mr. Bennet, arrives looking for a wife, and decides that Elizabeth will be suitable. Invited to a garden party by Charles Bingley at Netherfield Park, Collins keeps following Elizabeth around, who tries her best to avoid him, as he won't leave her alone. Darcy aids her and directs Collins away. Elizabeth surprisingly outshoots Darcy in archery; later he escorts her to the dance floor, but after seeing questionable behavior of her mother and younger sisters, he leaves her again, making Elizabeth angry with him once more. The next day, Mr. Collins asks her to marry him, but she refuses his persistent proposals. Later, Collins becomes engaged to Elizabeth's best friend, Charlotte Lucas (Karen Morley).

Elizabeth visits Charlotte in her new home. She is introduced to Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Edna May Oliver), Mr. Collins' "patroness", and during her visit she also encounters Mr. Darcy once again. At Charlotte's insistence, Elizabeth sees Darcy who asks her to marry him, but she refuses, partly because of the story Wickham had told her about Darcy, partly because he broke up the romance between Mr. Bingley and Jane, and partly because of his "character". They get into a heated argument and he leaves.

When Elizabeth returns home, she learns that Lydia has run away with Wickham but they were not married. Mr. Bennet and his brother-in-law unsuccessfully try to find Lydia. Darcy learns of this and returns to offer Elizabeth his services. He tells her that Wickham will never marry Lydia. He reveals that Wickham had tried to elope with his sister, Georgiana, who was younger than Lydia at the time. After Darcy leaves, Elizabeth realizes she loves him but believes he will never see her again.

Lydia and Wickham return to the house married. A short time later, Lady Catherine arrives and tells Elizabeth that Darcy found Lydia and forced Wickham to marry her by providing Wickham with a substantial sum of money. She also tells her that she can strip Darcy of his wealth if he marries against her wishes. She demands that Elizabeth promise that she will never become engaged to Darcy. Elizabeth refuses. Lady Catherine leaves in a huff and meets outside with Darcy, who had sent her to see Elizabeth to find out if he would be welcomed by her. After Lady Catherine's report, Darcy comes in and he and Elizabeth proclaim their love for each other in the garden. Mr. Bingley also meets Jane in the garden and takes her hand, all while Mrs. Bennet spies on both couples.

Elizabeth Bennet is a twenty-six-year-old college student living in early-2000s Utah. She lives at 318 Longbourne Avenue with four roommates Jane, Mary, and Meryton sisters Lydia and Kitty. Despite the social pressure to be married, Bennet is not interested in dating men until after she graduates and rather focuses her attention on becoming a writer. While working her shift at a bookstore, she meets pompous Englishman Will Darcy who criticizes Bennet for her arrogant attitude. After work, Jane convinces Elizabeth to attend a party with her roommates thrown by the wealthy Charles Bingley. Jane meets Bingley and they become immediately smitten with each other. While avoiding her admirer Collins, Elizabeth runs into her romantic interest Jack who casually proposes marriage to her over a game of pool. Elizabeth rejects him because she wants to focus on graduating and becoming a writer. Meanwhile, Bingley's sister Caroline pursues Darcy and Darcy orders Jack to leave the party. Jack tells Elizabeth they have a history of animosity due to a disagreement about a girl.

The next day, Jane and Elizabeth run into Darcy and Bingley playing tennis who invite them to join. Caroline flirts with Darcy, but Darcy says he is interested in Elizabeth. Bingley tries to set Elizabeth up for a tennis lesson with Darcy, but she politely refuses and leaves. At home, Jane shows Elizabeth a letter from a publisher who wants to meet with Elizabeth. Collins proposes marriage to Elizabeth despite her clear uninterest and blatant refusal. Later, Jack takes Elizabeth on a date where Elizabeth curbs Jack's conversations about marriage. Jack reveals that in the past, Darcy bribed him to stop dating his sister Anna. Elizabeth rejects Jack's unsolicited kiss which ends their date. Darcy visits Elizabeth at the bookstore, calls her "strangely attractive", and invites her to dinner. Elizabeth turns him down, offended by the rude manner in which he tried to compliment her. Back at home, Jane reveals to Elizabeth, crying, that Bingley has left Utah. Laughing, Jane tells Elizabeth that Collins proposed to her after class.

Elizabeth arrives at a restaurant called Rosings to meet with D&G Publishers to learn that not only is Darcy conducting her meeting, but he is the co-owner of the company. Darcy offers to publish the novel if it is extensively edited. Before storming out of the restaurant, Elizabeth blames Darcy for ruining Jack's relationship with Anna as well as Jane and Bingley's relationship. Darcy sends Elizabeth an email, apologizing for his bluntness and revealing that Jack had eloped to Las Vegas with Anna and maxed out her credit cards to pay off his gambling debts. Darcy paid off the debt and Anna filed for divorce, but it turned out Jack was still legally married to another girl. Darcy further explains that Bingley left on his own accord after seeing Collins propose to Jane. After spending time sad and heart-broken, Elizabeth begins editing her novel and prepares to go on a London study abroad as a replacement teaching assistant for her professor. In the mountains, Jane runs into Bingley and they quickly reconcile. Left alone, Elizabeth falls asleep editing her novel and wakes up to a thunderstorm. Unable to find her car, she enters a cabin that belongs to Darcy and Anna. They invite her for dinner before she can leave unnoticed. Darcy tells Elizabeth that he is leaving for California the next day but invites her to dinner when he comes back. Elizabeth tells him that she is leaving for London soon. Caroline interrupts their conversation. Caroline gives Elizabeth a ride to her car and tells her that she will miss her and Darcy's wedding while she is in London.

Back at home, Kitty reveals Lydia and Jack have secretly traveled to Las Vegas to elope. Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley, and Kitty rush to stop them. After receiving a call from Bingley, Darcy stops the ceremony at a Scottish-themed chapel. After a physical altercation, Jack is arrested for gambling and bigamy. Believing Darcy is marrying Caroline, Elizabeth leaves with her roommates and Darcy runs after her. Elizabeth and Darcy kiss in the middle of the road. The characters are shown in sequence in the future. Lydia never marries and authors a self-help book. Kitty becomes a professional cheerleader and later, a high school cheerleading coach; she marries and has five daughters. Collins and Mary marry. Caroline marries a 75-year-old billionaire with a heart condition, who lives for another eighteen years and with whom she has three children. Jane and Bingley marry and his wealth allows them to retire in South America. Jack escapes from prison and lives in Brazil while pursuing a career in daytime television. Elizabeth goes to London and finishes her novel. Darcy visits her in London and proposes to her, and she accepts.

Myles Falworth trains under the Earl of Mackworth to become a chivalrous knight . Once he obtains his knighthood, Myles begins to gain honor for himself by winning jousting matches and serving the Earl of Mackworth's brother in France. After returning home to England, Myles confronts and vanquishes a family enemy, the Earl of Alban, who had falsely accused Myles' father of treason. Through Myles' honorable victory, he clear's his father's name and earns the right for himself to court and marry Lady Alice, the Earl of Mackworth's niece and ward.

Jimmy Dolan is a college basketball assistant coach who wants to find a new star for his team since he believes this will get him a promotion to head coach at the school. He sees a home video of a prospect named Saleh and travels to Kenya to recruit him. Upon arriving in this country, Dolan finds himself confronted not only with the challenges of basketball but also with the challenges of adjusting to and learning how to live in the midst of a brand-new culture. Though Dolan is initially opposed by Saleh's father who is also the leader of the village, he later agrees to let his son play. Dolan and Saleh both teach each other life lessons before they take the court for one final game with everything on the line. One of the most dramatic scenes in the film involves the instruction of Saleh by Dolan regarding the "Jimmy Dolan Shake and Bake."

Roger Willoughby works at Abercrombie & Fitch as a salesman for sports fishing equipment. He is very successful at his job and highly sought after by his customers, who are looking for equipment which could help them win the next edition of the yearly fishing tournament at Lake Wakapoogee.

His boss Mr. Cadwalader requests Willoughby to also participate in the tournament, something Willoughby had never done before. This request comes at the suggestion of Isolde "Easy" Mueller, the daughter of the owner of the lodge at Lake Wakapogee, and Abigail Page, the director of public relations for the lodge and Easy's friend. They believe it would improve the tournament's standing and Mr. Cadwalader's business.

Willoughby refuses to participate. After Abigail and Easy follow him around and speculate about the reasons, he confides the truth in them: He has never fished in his life, cannot stand the touch or taste of fish, cannot swim and cannot operate a boat. His success comes from listening to his customers, most of which are very talkative: he simply passes on the advice that one customer gives him to his other customers. Abigail and Easy, who themselves are adept at fishing, promise to teach Willoughby in the remaining days until the tournament starts.

He arrives at the lodge with a ridiculously large amount of equipment, all of which was provided by Cadwalader. He does not know how to handle any of it and Abigail's lessons are not very successful, one ending with him almost drowning when he falls out of a boat. During another lesson Easy tells them that famous fishing champion Joe Killroy will arrive and enter the tournament. They think about ways for Willoughby to get out of the tournament and conclude that a broken arm would be a good excuse. So Abigail and Easy put an improvised cast on Willoughby's arm, only to find out that Killroy actually had an accident and has a cast himself. So they ineptly saw off Willoughby's cast, to his horror.

That night, Abigail comes to Willoughby's lodge to request a sleeping pill and lets herself in. When he has to leave to talk to some of his customers, who have also arrived for the tournament and want to get some tips from him, Abigail, who had taken the sleeping pill, falls asleep in his bed. When he comes back, he decides to sleep on the floor. The next morning, Easy arrives looking for Abigail. When she tries to help Willoughby open the zipper of his sleeping bag, his fiancee Tex arrives. She is at first amused at the sight but when Abigail comes out of his bedroom she storms off.

When the three-day tournament starts, Willoughby is still incompetent but, by sheer luck, catches some large fish which make him very competitive. During one of the nights, he walks Abigail to her lodge and they kiss. Even though the kiss clearly impresses her, she acts as if it was a disappointment, confusing and angering him.

On the third day, Willoughby, again by pure luck, catches another large fish, eventually winning the tournament. On that evening, Abigail comes to his lodge, in tears. She apologizes for getting him in so much trouble and also begs him to refuse the prize and come clean with his boss, the tournament director and his customers and competitors about not being able to fish. After she leaves, he admits that he was going to do that anyway but that she made it easier for him. He gathers everyone and confesses everything. Even though his boss fires him, everyone is impressed by his honesty.

Willoughby then goes to look for Abigail, who went camping at the lake shore to be alone. He finds her but they bicker until a storm forces them to share her tent, where they fall asleep, still angry with each other. Meanwhile the competitors convince Cadwalader that he has to rehire Willoughby for business reasons: when it will come out that even a totally incompetent fisherman can win such a tournament with Cadwalader's equipment, people will want to buy that equipment. So Cadwalader goes out on the lake to search for Willoughby. The storm meanwhile has flushed Abigail's tent out to the lake where they are met by Cadwalader's boat. After they hear the good news, Abigail and Willoughby happily kiss again.

At Moe's Tavern, the patrons pull a series of hazardous pranks on Moe. After pulling a harmless prank, Homer is disproportionately banned for life and must find another bar. He is asked to leave a refined cocktail bar, and rejects both a Cheers and a lesbian bar (owing to their karaoke nights and lack of fire exits, repsectively). Homer eventually settles for an airline pilots' bar, where he is mistaken for a pilot and put in the cockpit of an airplane, despite his vehement protests, which he promptly wrecks. In exchange for his silence about its mistake, the airline gives the Simpson family free tickets to any of the lower forty-eight states.

The idea of plane travel fills Marge with anxiety because she has a fear of flying. After several failed attempts to avoid the trip, she has a panic attack on the plane, so the trip is postponed. To conquer Marge's phobia, Homer rents fiction films with airplane themes. This backfires when one film shows the survivors of a plane crash surviving by eating the dead crew and passengers.

When Marge shows signs of lingering flight-related trauma, manifesting as compulsions to perform household chores either at night or to an excessive degree, Lisa convinces her to undergo psychotherapy with Dr. Zweig. Homer is highly paranoid of this, believing that Dr. Zweig will identify him as a problem and convince Marge to leave him. She uncovers the roots of Marge's fear: the moment she realized her father was not a pilot, but a flight attendant. Her shame is eased when Zweig assures her that male flight attendants are now very common, and that her father could be considered a pioneer. Marge also remembers other flying-related accidents that caused her fear, which include getting accidentally hit in the eye with an "airplane" spoon by her grandmother as an infant, riding an airplane scooter that caught fire, and being taken to a cornfield where she and her mother were attacked by a plane.

Thinking she has finally conquered her fear of flying, Marge boards a plane with Homer. The plane skids off the runway and lands in a body of water.

It is picture day at South Park Elementary, and as a prank, Kenny wears his parka upside down and stands on his head with his legs through the sleeves so that his buttocks show through his hood. Four days later, the photos arrive. When Ms. Choksondik says that one boy spoiled his photo and will not get it back, Kenny thinks she is referring to him, until it is revealed momentarily that she is referring to Butters, even though Butters looked normal in his photo. His parents, irrationally convinced that Butters' normal face is some sort of silly face, promptly ground him and force him to wear a brown paper bag over his head for making "silly faces". It is (what his parents do not notice) a piece of his hair sticking up after he combed his hair to look perfect which ruined his school photo.

To compound this prank, Cartman then submits Kenny's photo to a milk company, which places it on the milk cartons. Cartman's description of him includes features with obvious double meanings, such as a "winking brown eye", "blonde hair", and "rosy cheeks". The photo draws a response from a couple in Wisconsin, Martha and Stephen Thompson, who lost their son some years earlier, and shockingly have buttocks in place of their faces. They later explain that they suffer from a fictitious congenital condition known as "torsonic polarity syndrome" or "TPS" which has them born with their faces appearing as the human buttocks. With the syndrome, however, they still retain all normal functionality of their faces (including noses, eyes, etc.) under the buttocks. When the Thompsons appear looking at Cartman's house for Kenny, he is stunned and can no longer laugh, believing that he has seen something so incredibly funny, that nothing else will ever be able to make him laugh again. From that point on, Cartman refers to this as "blowing his funny fuse".

Meanwhile, Cartman does whatever he can to try to make himself laugh. He goes through a list of things like seeing a raunchy movie, and talking to Jimmy for his stand-up routines. When all else fails, Cartman is shown in his room holding a pistol. He writes a letter to his mother, explaining that he cannot face his friends without a sense of humor, places the gun in his mouth, and takes a bite, revealing that the gun is made of chocolate. He then asks his mother to buy him more chocolate guns (with marshmallow filling, as he does not like peanut butter).

At the end of the episode, the South Park milk company officially announces that the missing son of the Thompsons is none other than Ben Affleck. When Cartman finds out, he calls the Thompsons' son "Ben Ass-fleck" and this immediately causes him to start laughing again. Stan and Kyle conclude that he could not laugh before because he felt guilty for making the Thompsons believe that their son had been found – which Cartman vehemently denies. When Cartman invites Kenny over to eat some chocolate guns straight after, Kenny is suddenly run over and killed by a motorcyclist, which Cartman finds very funny.

In a cinema in Buenos Aires on July 26, 1952, a film is interrupted when news breaks of the death of Eva Perón, Argentina's First Lady, at the age of 33. As the nation goes into public mourning, Ché, a member of the public, marvels at the spectacle and promises to show how Eva did "nothing for years". The rest of the film follows Eva (née Duarte) from her beginnings as an illegitimate child of a lower-class family to her rise to become First Lady; Ché assumes many different guises throughout Eva's story.

At the age of 15, Eva lives in the provincial town of Junín, and longs for a better life in Buenos Aires. She persuades a tango singer, Agustín Magaldi, with whom she is having an affair, to take her to the city. After Magaldi leaves her, she goes through several relationships with increasingly influential men, becoming a model, actress and radio personality. She meets Colonel Juan Perón at a fundraiser following the 1944 San Juan earthquake. Perón's connection with Eva adds to his populist image, since they are both from the working class. Eva has a radio show during Perón's rise and uses all of her skills to promote him, even when the controlling administration has him jailed in an attempt to stunt his political momentum. The groundswell of support that Eva generates forces the government to release Perón, and he finds the people enamored of him and Eva. Perón wins election to the presidency and marries Eva, who promises that the new government will serve the ''descamisados''.

At the start of the Perón government, Eva dresses glamorously, enjoying the privileges of being the First Lady. Soon after, she embarks on what is called her "Rainbow Tour" of Europe. While there, she receives a mixed reception. The people of Spain adore her, the people of Italy call her a whore and throw things at her, and Pope Pius XII gives her a small, meager gift. Upon returning to Argentina, Eva establishes a foundation to help the poor. The film suggests the Perónists otherwise plunder the public treasury.

Eva is hospitalized and learns that she has terminal cancer. She declines the position of Vice President due to her failing health, and makes one final broadcast to the people of Argentina. She understands that her life was short because she shone like the "brightest fire", and helps Perón prepare to go on without her. A large crowd surrounds the Quinta de Olivos in a candlelight vigil praying for her recovery when the light of her room goes out, signifying her death. At Eva's funeral, Ché is seen at her coffin, marveling at the influence of her brief life. He walks up to her glass coffin, kisses it, and joins the crowd of passing mourners.

Bulcsú (Sándor Csányi) is a ticket inspector on the Budapest Metro; he spends his nights sleeping on the train platforms, and hasn't left the underground ever since he started working there. His ragtag team of inspectors – consisting of the veteran Professzor (Zoltán Mucsi), the disheveled Lecsó (Sándor Badár), neurotic narcoleptic Muki (Csaba Pindroch) and dimwitted greenhorn Tibi (Zsolt Nagy) – is routinely disrespected and assaulted by the commuters, who continue to evade paying fines in a variety of ways.

One of Bulcsú's company rivals, model employee Gonzó (Balázs Mihályfi) challenges him to a "rail run": after the last metro leaves a station, the two get on the tracks and try to make it to the next station on foot before the midnight maintenance carriage runs them over. Bulcsú wins the contest, barely saving Gonzó who wets himself as a result of the run. During a routine inspection, he is enamored by a girl dressed in a bear suit called Zsófi (Eszter Balla), the daughter of one of the veteran metro drivers, Béla (Lajos Kovács). In another occasion, Bulcsú unsuccessfully attempts to talk to his colleague Laci (László Nádasi) after Laci gets into an altercation with a passenger and takes him hostage; Laci exclaims he can't take it anymore and slits the passenger's throat.

After chasing a repeat offending prankster called Bootsie (Gyalogkakukk, lit. ''Road Runner'' in the Hungarian original; Bence Mátyássy), Bulcsú witnesses him being pushed on the tracks by a hooded figure, dressed in exactly the same attire as him; another incident in a long line of what people thought were apparent suicides. Because of his recurring nightmare of this figure, Bulcsú fails to apprehend the murderer, and when he's brought to questioning, he refuses to disclose details of the incident to the lead executive (György Cserhalmi) of the company. When the executive threatens to disclose the video footage of the incident, which only shows Bulcsú, he resigns his job. Muki later insinuates him being the murderer, citing his continual nightly absence and accusing him of having the same mental issues as Laci did; an infuriated Bulcsú almost pushes him on the tracks as well.

During an underground costume party, Bulcsú spots and follows the hooded figure and they get into an altercation, after which they start rail running similarly to the contest with Gonzó earlier. Bulcsú manages to outrun the hooded figure and escape the train. The hooded figure never emerges from the tracks. Bulcsú then meets Zsófi, who is now dressed as a butterfly, and the two finally emerge back to the surface.

A long-haired silver cat is nearly burnt in the bonfire Edward has set up for the autumn leaves, but his wife Louisa rescues it. After the couple unsuccessfully attempt to send the cat back to its home, Edward decides that if the cat does not leave by the afternoon, he will ask the police to make sure it is returned home.

While Louisa is admiring the cat's colour, she notices it has warts on his face. Louisa begins to play one of her daily concerts, a solitary pleasure that also seems to be one of her greatest passions, and chooses pieces by Vivaldi, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. Immediately, the cat reacts strongly, and it even appears to be "appreciating the work". The cat seems to be especially enthralled when Louisa plays Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets and ''Der Weihnachtsbaum'', but less impressed with Schumann's ''Kinderszenen''.

Louisa becomes convinced the cat is the reincarnation of Liszt, and informs her husband. Edward isn't convinced, even when his wife shows him the cat's reaction to the piano music. Edward believes the reactions to simply be a trick it was trained to perform, and refuses to take part in his wife's excitement (it is implied he is not as fond of music as Louisa). Louisa decides to go to the library to find out more about both Liszt and reincarnation. The book she checks out on reincarnation is assertive about how long it takes one to be reincarnated, stating it takes longer if your social status is higher. The book also says you can't come back as a lower form of animal — a fact Louisa chooses to ignore. Finally, it mentions historical figures who were, it suggests, reincarnations of one another: (Epictetus, for instance, is said to have come back as Ralph Waldo Emerson). Despite her incredulity, Louisa appears to believe what she is reading. She greets Edward returning from his work by saying, "Listen, my dear, did you know that Theodore Roosevelt was once Caesar's wife?"

When she gets back from the library she calls for Liszt and examines him. She notices the cat's warts are positioned on its face in exactly the same positions as those on Liszt's face. She even notices the cat seems to dislike one particular Chopin scherzo, the only piece of Chopin's which Liszt himself didn't love. By this time, Edward has become noticeably antagonistic to his wife's belief, perhaps spurred on by jealousy. Her plans are to tell the world, after which, she believes, all the world's musicians will want to come and meet her cat. Edward thinks her plans will make the two of them look like fools.

Louisa decides to cook a fancy dinner for the cat, and refuses to let her husband sway her. When she returns from the kitchen, she sees Edward.. coming in from the garden with black smoke, wet trouser cuffs, and long scratches from his wrist to his knuckle — the implication being he has thrown the cat on the fire. Louisa is horrified and falls into hysterics as Edward tries to calm her down.

The story is set on Venus in a jungle, where a group of four men whose rocket has crashed are attempting to reach the safety of a Sun Dome. Bradbury portrays Venus as having nearly eternal rains. The men depend on the Sun Domes, lit and warmed by a miniature sun and filled with provisions, to keep from going insane. There are over 120 of these domes, but the indigenous Venusians destroy them when they can. The men are led by a character who is only identified as "the lieutenant." One of the men is killed by a lightning strike when he tries to run; the others remark "he shouldn't have jumped up" during an electrical storm. The three remaining men make their way to a Sun Dome, but find that it has been destroyed by the natives and offers no shelter from the rain. One of the men becomes despondent and stops responding, instead staring up into the rain. He is shot by Simmons who defends his actions as a mercy killing, preventing the man from slowly drowning as his lungs fill up with rain. As Simmons and the lieutenant continue on to where they think the next Sun Dome should be, Simmons believes that he is also going to go insane before they reach safety, and so commits suicide. The lieutenant continues on, and finally reaches the Sun Dome where he is warm and safe, with dry clothing and hot chocolate. That said, by this point in the tale, the lieutenant may not be a reliable narrator. Given the story's original title ("Death-by-Rain"), and the fact that all the other characters die by succumbing to the rain's sanity-attacking events, it is highly possible that he is hallucinating.

After one of the characters uses the last floorboard for heating, the two hapless carpenters have to buy a replacement. They return to the house with the plank on top of a Morris Eight Series E, but the journey is fraught with unexpected difficulties.

The film is a series of "plank jokes" elaborating on the "man with a plank" slapstick routine seen in vaudeville and silent films, and adding new ones. For instance, at one point the plank is tied to the top of the car and projects backward into the open back of a large van. A man (played by Roy Castle) enters the back of the van and sits down. The van drives away, leaving him suspended in mid-air sitting on the end of the plank.

The story is narrated in the first person by the unnamed magistrate of a settlement that exists on the territorial frontier of "The Empire". The Magistrate's rather peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire's declaration of a state of emergency and with the deployment of the Third Bureau—the special forces of the Empire—due to rumours that the area's indigenous people, called "barbarians" by the people in the settlement, might be preparing to attack the town. Consequently, the Third Bureau conducts an expedition into the land beyond the frontier. Led by the sinister Colonel Joll, the Third Bureau captures a number of barbarians, brings them back to town, tortures them, kills some of them, and leaves for the capital in order to prepare a larger campaign.

In the meantime, the Magistrate begins to question the legitimacy of colonialism and personally nurses a barbarian girl who has been left crippled and partly blinded by the Third Bureau's torturers. He threatens to force the barbarian girl out of the city unless she stays with him. The Magistrate has an intimate yet uncertain relationship with the girl. Eventually, he decides to take her back to her people. After a life-threatening trip through the barren land, during which they have sexual relations, he succeeds in returning her—finally asking, to no avail, if she will stay with him—and returns to his own town. The Third Bureau soldiers have reappeared there and now arrest the Magistrate for having deserted his post and for consorting with "The Enemy". Without much possibility of a trial during such emergency circumstances, the Magistrate remains in a locked cellar for an indefinite period, experiencing for the first time a near-complete lack of basic freedoms. He finally acquires a key that allows him to leave the makeshift jail, but finds that he has no place to escape to and spends most of his time outside the jail scavenging for scraps of food.

Later, Colonel Joll triumphantly returns from the wilderness with several barbarian captives and makes a public spectacle of their torture. Although the crowd is encouraged to participate in their beatings, the Magistrate bursts onto the scene to stop it, but is subdued. Seizing the Magistrate, a group of soldiers hangs him up by his arms, deepening his understanding of colonialistic violence by a personal experience of torture. With the Magistrate's spirit clearly crushed, the soldiers mockingly let him roam freely through the town, knowing he has nowhere else to go. The soldiers, however, begin to flee the town as winter approaches and their campaign against the barbarians collapses. The Magistrate tries to confront Joll on his final return from the wild, but the colonel refuses to speak to him, hastily abandoning the town with the last of the soldiers. The predominant belief in the town is that the barbarians intend to invade soon, and although the soldiers and many civilians have now departed, the Magistrate helps encourage the remaining townspeople to continue their lives and to prepare for the winter. There is no sign of the barbarians by the time the season's first snow falls on the town.

Robert "Bob" Davis (Fred Astaire) is a well-known American dancer with a weakness for betting on the horses. After he loses his money gambling in Buenos Aires, he goes looking for a job with Eduardo Acuña, the wealthy owner of a nightclub. Acuña, however, does not wish to see him. Bob's friend, bandleader Xavier Cugat, invites him to perform at the wedding of Acuña's eldest daughter, Julia, Acuña insists his daughters must wed in order of age, from oldest to youngest. Maria (Rita Hayworth) is next in line to get married but refuses to, much to the disappointment of her two younger sisters, Cecy and Lita, who both have boyfriends and want to get married as soon as possible.

During Julia's wedding reception, Bob is attracted to Maria, but his advances are rebuffed by Maria, who refuses to talk to him. While talking with Acuña, Bob remarks that Maria's personality is like "the inside of a refrigerator". Aware of his younger daughters' plight, Acuña works out a plan: sending orchids and anonymous love notes from a secret admirer to Maria to help get her in the mood. One day, when Bob once again tries to see Acuña at his office, Acuña orders the unseen Bob, mistakenly assuming him to be a bellboy, to deliver the latest note and flower. Maria, who by now is in love and eagerly awaiting the next love letter from her secret admirer, sees Bob dropping off the note and flower and assumes that he is her admirer. When Maria sees Bob at her father's office, she asks her father to introduce them and invite Bob to dinner. At the dinner, after Mrs. Acuña almost shoots Bob, so Maria invites Bob to the garden, where they dance (I'm Old Fashioned.) Finding that Maria is truly in love with Bob, Mr. Acuña makes a deal with Bob: in exchange for a contract to perform at the club (at some later, unspecified date), Bob will court Maria and repel her with his "obnoxious" personality. But despite Bob's efforts to disappoint Maria, the two quickly fall in love.

With his plan gone awry, Acuña orders Bob to leave Buenos Aires. At the Acuña's 25th anniversary, Mr. Acuna plans to compose a farewell love note on his behalf while Cecy and Lita try to separate Bob and Maria, but fail. Mr. Acuña's wife sees him writing the note in his office and accuses him of cheating on her with another Maria, her dear friend Maria Castro. While Mr. Acuña tries to defend himself, Bob and Maria come into the office, where Bob has to confess that he hasn't been writing the love-letters to Acuña's daughter, disappointing Maria, who apologizes to Maria Castro. Impressed by Bob's behavior, Acuña grants him permission to begin dating Maria. After repeated deliveries of flowers fail to impress Maria, Bob asks for Mr. Acuña's help, who tells him about Lochinvar, a fictional knight who was Maria's first love interest. Bob imitates him and tries to dance, which impresses Maria who decides to forgive Bob and stay with him.

Shipwreck

''Phoenix''.

overboard.

Island 2: Survival

The three castaways go into the jungle looking for food, leaving the unconscious Will on the beach. They find durians, a strange but edible fruit and go into a feeding frenzy after not eating for weeks. They pass out for a while and awaken a few hours later to fight off a boar. They return to the beach to find a delirious Will, who has amnesia and believes he is still on Guam. Despite the others trying to reason with him, explaining that his sister is dead, he runs off into the woods convinced he and his sister were kidnapped.

The others build a makeshift shelter and begin to forage for food and build signals. Just as Ian explains that the chances of being rescued this early is almost impossible, a plane flies over-head and lands on the other side of the island. Believing they are rescuers, they run to the other side of the island only to witness a murder and learn that the men are illegal smugglers. While they are spying, another plane flies in and a watch dog detects their presence. They run back to camp and decide keeping a low profile is the only way to avoid capture, although it is inevitable.

They decide to try to find Will before the smugglers do because he lives in the jungle. Instead, they wind up meeting their presumed dead companions Lyssa and J.J., the latter of whom explains that he escaped the shipwreck via the ship's inflatable raft and found Lyssa unconscious in the water. Unlike the others, their raft came with freeze-dried meals and were able to survive easily. Will meanwhile meets the boar and befriends him. He confronts Lyssa, who tries to convince him to stay, but he runs off and grabs the last freeze-dried meal and shares it with the boar. He decides to name him Rat-face, but being the nickname of the ''Phoenix'' first mate, it ignites his memory and he heads off to join the others. The others, meanwhile, are sniffed out by the doberman and are almost discovered by him. The boar then saves them by ambushing and killing the dog. The smugglers open fire on the beast, killing it and then leaving. It is revealed that a stray bullet struck Will's leg and Ian proclaims that he could become infected and he could die.

As the smugglers leave by plane J.J., Luke, and Charla head to the smugglers camp and discover an old army installation from World War II. While exploring, J.J. falls in a pit revealing the presence of an atomic bomb. Deciding it is too dangerous to let the smugglers find if they were to come back, they cover it and find a newspaper dropped by the smugglers. It is about how Radford, the first mate, was rescued off the coast of China; he lies about how he tried to save them but everyone perished and he alone survived. Now knowing that no one is looking for them, the castaways head back to camp.

Island 3: Escape

The pressure builds when Will's injury starts to worsen and his fever rises. He begins to become delirious and slips into unconsciousness, and, as Ian states, if he is not taken to a doctor soon, he may not make it. He is given antibiotics from an abandoned army dispensary in the jungle, though the medicine is in short supply. They plan an escape, requiring J.J. to stow away in the smugglers' plane, be ransomed to his rich father, and arrange for the rescue of the castaways.

When the smugglers discover J.J. they threaten him, seeking information about anyone else on the island. He endures a broken arm rather than betray his friends. He is nearly shot, before managing to prove that he is the son of a Hollywood director using his designer sunglasses, and can be ransomed for a significant amount. Held captive for days, he realizes he will be killed once ransom is paid. He escapes, colliding with a police cruiser sent to investigate after J.J.'s father learns that J.J.'s designer glasses are being hawked by one of the kidnappers.

Meanwhile, on the island, Will's fever from the infected bullet wound grows worse, and Luke removes it with Charla's help and Ian's Discovery Channel knowledge, with supplies from the army camp near atomic bomb Junior. Will regains consciousness a few days later, and they all prepare to escape the island on the yellow raft. After sailing for six hours, a U.S. Marine scuba diver contacts them and gets them onto a helicopter that is carrying J.J.

Back in civilization, all are present when the scientists open up Junior, to find the uranium core replaced by a piece of paper with the word "KA-BOOM!!". (It is revealed during several mini-chapters throughout the book that while the army was attempting to move Junior to go home, the crane became stuck. The soldiers decided to simply remove the uranium core and leave the shell on the island so they can go home.) They decide to name the island Junior Island and put it on a map.

Radford is later arrested in a bar and charged with six counts of attempted murder.

The story ends with a reunion by the castaways in J.J's luxurious house, though they do not go to the beach.

On July 4, 1969, an unknown man attacks Darlene Ferrin and Mike Mageau with a handgun at a lovers' lane in Vallejo, California. Only Mike survives.

One month later, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' receives encrypted letters written by the killer calling himself "Zodiac," who threatens to kill a dozen people unless his coded message containing his identity is published. Political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, who correctly guesses that his identity is not in the message, is not taken seriously by crime reporter Paul Avery or the editors and is excluded from the initial details about the killings. When the newspaper publishes the letters, a married couple deciphers one. In September, the killer stabs law student Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa in Napa County; Cecelia dies two days later.

At the office, Avery makes fun of Graysmith before they discuss the coded letters. Graysmith interprets the letter, which Avery finds helpful, and he begins sharing information. One of Graysmith's insights about the letters is that Zodiac's reference to man as "the most dangerous animal of them all" is a reference to the film ''The Most Dangerous Game'', which features the villainous Count Zaroff, a man who hunts live human prey.

Two weeks later, San Francisco taxicab driver Paul Stine is shot and killed in the city's Presidio Heights district. The Zodiac killer mails pieces of Stine's bloodstained shirt to the ''Chronicle'' along with a taunting letter. San Francisco police inspectors Dave Toschi and his partner Bill Armstrong are assigned to the case by Captain Marty Lee and work closely with Vallejo's Jack Mulanax and Captain Ken Narlow in Napa. Someone claiming to be Zodiac continues to send taunting letters and speaks on the phone with lawyer Melvin Belli on a television talk show hosted by Jim Dunbar.

In 1971, Detectives Toschi, Armstrong, and Mulanax question Arthur Leigh Allen, a suspect in the Vallejo case. They notice that he wears a Zodiac wristwatch, with the same logo used by the killer, and Toschi heavily suspects him. However, a handwriting expert insists that Allen did not write the Zodiac letters, even though Allen is said to be ambidextrous. Avery receives a letter threatening his life; becoming paranoid, he turns to drugs and alcohol. He shares information with the Riverside Police Department that the killer might have been active before the initial killings, angering Toschi and Armstrong. The case's notoriety weighs on Toschi, who cannot sit through a Hollywood film, ''Dirty Harry'', loosely based on the Zodiac case.

By 1978, Avery has moved to the ''Sacramento Bee''. Graysmith persistently contacts Toschi about the Zodiac murders and eventually impresses him with his knowledge of the case. While Toschi cannot directly give Graysmith access to the evidence, he provides names in other police departments where Zodiac murders occurred. Armstrong transfers from the San Francisco Police homicide division, and Toschi is demoted for supposedly forging a Zodiac letter.

Graysmith continues his own investigation, profiled in the ''Chronicle'', and gives a television interview about the book he is writing about the case. He begins receiving phone calls with heavy breathing. As his obsession deepens, Graysmith loses his job, and his wife Melanie leaves him, taking their children. Graysmith learns that Allen lived close to Ferrin and probably knew her and that his birthday matches the one Zodiac gave when he spoke to one of Melvin Belli's maids. While circumstantial evidence seems to indicate his guilt, the physical evidence, such as fingerprints and handwriting samples, do not implicate him. In 1983, Graysmith tracks Allen to a Vallejo Ace Hardware store, where he is employed as a sales clerk; they stare at each other before Graysmith leaves. Eight years later, after Graysmith's book, ''Zodiac'', has become a bestseller, Mike Mageau identifies Allen from a police mugshot.

A textual epilogue indicates that Allen died before police could question him and that the case remains open.

Miss Emma Woodhouse (Kate Beckinsale) of Hartfield lives in the small town of Highbury, and is young, pretty, and rich. Though she has decided she will never marry, Emma takes credit for matchmaking her friend and former governess, Miss Taylor, to the widower Mr. Weston. Emma decides to organize marriages for others of her acquaintance, despite friendly warnings not to meddle from Mr. Knightley, who is both an old friend, her brother-in-law, and the wealthy owner of Donwell Abbey. Emma resolves to marry her new friend, a pretty orphan named Harriet Smith, to the young vicar, Mr. Elton. This fails once Emma realizes to her horror that Elton desires to marry her instead.

New arrivals come to Highbury, including young orphan Miss Fairfax and Elton's new pretentious wife. Frank Churchill, the handsome son of Mr. Weston, also arrives generating interest and gossip. Emma, so sure of her ability to judge the feelings of others, believes that Frank wishes to marry her. Eventually the town discovers that Frank and Miss Fairfax have been secretly engaged, while Emma comes to recognize her true feelings for Mr. Knightley.

In this case it is the schoolmaster who comes to grief. He is seated at this desk busily engrossed in private business and letting his students run riot. One of the youngsters causes great merriment by tying an artificial spider to a ruler, and shaking it in front of the schoolmaster's face.

''Turbo Teen'' is about a teenager named Brett Matthews who swerves off a road during a thunderstorm and crashes into a secret government laboratory. There, he and his red sports car are accidentally exposed to a molecular beam, invented by a scientist named Dr. Chase for a government agent named Cardwell. As a result, Brett and his car become fused together. Brett gains the ability to morph into the car when exposed to extreme heat and revert into his human form when exposed to extreme cold. With this new superhero power, Brett, along with his girlfriend Pattie (a freelance reporter), his best friend Alex (a mechanic who calls Brett "TT"), and his dog Rusty go on crime-fighting adventures together and solve other mysteries.

A recurring subplot involves Brett's, Cauldwell's, and Dr. Chase's search for a way to return Brett to normal. Also, a recurring villain is the mysterious, unseen "Dark Rider" who drives a monster truck and seeks to capture Brett in order to find the secret behind his abilities. Dark Rider is voiced by Frank Welker in a similar way to his voice performance of Dr. Claw in the ''Inspector Gadget'' series.

The show, set against a circus backdrop, focuses on Littlechap from the moment of his birth until his death. Each time something unsatisfactory happens, he calls out 'Stop the world!' and addresses the audience. After being born, going through school, and finding work as a tea-boy, his first major step towards improving his lot is to marry his boss' daughter Evie after getting her pregnant out of wedlock. Saddled with the responsibilities of a family, he is given a job in his father-in-law's factory. He has two daughters, Susan and Jane, but truly longs for a son. He allows his growing dissatisfaction with his existence to lead him into the arms of various women in his business travels—Russian official Anya, German domestic Ilse, and American cabaret singer Ginnie—as he searches for something better than he has. He becomes rich and successful and is elected to public office. Only in his old age does he realize that what he always had, the love of his wife, was more than enough to sustain him. But Evie dies, and Littlechap comes to terms with his own selfishness while writing his memoirs. At the moment of his death, he watches his second daughter give birth to a son. When the boy nearly dies, Littlechap intervenes and allows Death to take him instead. He then mimes his own birth, beginning the cycle once again.

This series takes place in 199X. On the Earth Ship, the command center of a defence agency called Sky Force, the guardians of peace on Earth, scientists have developed "Birdonic Waves", a newly developed technology that gives the subject superhuman abilities. Experiments called "J-Project" were successful. Aya Odagiri, the director of the project, chooses five elite Sky Force officials from Earth to use this technology. Ryuu Tendou, one of the Sky Force officers, is successfully exposed to the Birdonic Waves, making him the first Jetman, the Red Hawk.

However, the Earth Ship is suddenly attacked by Vyram, an evil outer-dimensional organization bent on inter-dimensional domination. They successfully destroy the ship, apparently killing Ryuu's lover and fellow candidate member Rie. In the chaos, the remaining Birdonic Waves for the other four officials become scattered on Earth, hitting four civilians. Odagiri and Tendou successfully escape and begin searching on Earth for the four remaining Jetmen, training them to aid them in stopping Vyram's plans of conquering their dimension.

The series later follows the tribulations of Ryuu as he learns of Rie's survival and enlistment in the Vyram forces, as well as a love triangle between Gai, Ryuu, and Kaori.

The story, illustrated by the author, is set in England during the Middle Ages, as the Black Death (bubonic plague) is sweeping across the country. Young Robin is to be sent away to become a knight like his father, but his dreams are endangered when he loses the use of his legs. A doctor reassures Robin that the weakness in his legs is not caused by the plague. His parents are away, serving the king and queen during war, and the servants abandon the house, fearing the plague. Robin is saved by Brother Luke, a friar, who finds him and takes him to St. Mark's, the monastery where Brother Luke lives, and cares for him.

Brother Luke teaches Robin how to read using the Bible, how to swim as exercise, whittling and wood carving and how to use crutches he assists in crafting, to be independent and build self-confidence, but Robin also learns patience and strength from the friar. The friar tells him that before overcoming a challenge you must first find "the door in the wall".

Robin's parents had planned for him to stay with Sir Peter de Lindsay to be a page, as the first step in becoming a knight. John Go-in-the-Wynd, a minstrel, gives him a letter from Robin's father telling him and John Go-in-the-Wynd and Brother Luke to go to Lindsay. They get there after traveling for long hours for several days, almost being robbed, and going on the wrong road for a time. Arriving safely, he is welcomed warmly by de Lindsay and his family. During his stay, he fulfills his page duties as far as he is capable, continues his literary lessons, and swimming in the autumn-chilled river. Inspired by Go-in-the-Wynd's playing, he also learns to play the harp, and utilizes his growing woodworking skills to start crafting his own.

Some time later, Lindsay Castle is besieged by the Welsh. Due to a lean harvest that year, food and water begin to run low. With Brother Luke's support and blessing, Robin hatches a secret plan to save the castle without de Lindsay's knowledge. Robin swims the chilly river, hobbles through enemy lines with his crutches, disguised as a simple-minded young shepherd, and alerts Go-in-the-Wynd, who at the time was staying with his elderly mother. John sends word to de Lindsay's cousin Sir Hugh, whose forces have the element of surprise and defeat the Welsh invaders.

Later that winter, the King and Queen with their forces and Robin's parents arrive just in time for Christmas Eve. Robin is reunited with his parents, and after he accompanies himself in a Christmas carol with his completed harp for the royal couple, he is rewarded for his service to the crown in saving Lindsay Castle. His parents assure him that they love him more for his brave spirit than for his physical prowess.

Richard Garrison is a corporal in the Royal Military Police who is disturbed by repeated nightmares involving a silver car, black dog, two men, a beautiful unseen girl, a Machine and a man-God and ending in an explosion. Thomas Schroeder, a German industrialist, along with his trusted companion and employee Willy Koenig, are brought to Ireland on business. Members of the IRA try to prevent Schroeder from developing in Ireland by kidnapping his wife. While Schroeder and Koenig are able to beat the IRA at their own game of intimidation, they underestimate them and are left frantically trying to return to their hotel rooms as they learn that a bomb has been planted in the building, again threatening the lives of Schroeder's wife and son. Garrison's and Schroeder's lives cross paths as Garrison is ordered to escort Schroeder to his hotel room in search of his wife and son. Garrison manages to save the lives of Schroeder, his wife and his son just as the bomb explodes in the room, as predicted in his dream. The explosion leaves Garrison blind and cripples Schroeder, reducing his life expectancy to a mere two years.

Schroeder brings Garrison to his home in Germany in an attempt to repay his debt. While there Garrison meets Vicki Maler, the daughter of a friend of Schroeder who is also blind, and the two quickly become involved. Schroeder meanwhile tries to help Garrison in his blindness with gadgets and a highly trained guide dog. Schroeder also reveals to Garrison his belief in extra-sensory perception (ESP) and that he has had both his, Garrison's and even Vicki's fortunes read. Schroeder is to die within two years, Vicki is to die within only one year, and Garrison is to meet a "T", a "Machine" and eventually be merged with "TS" – partially agreeing with the events of his former nightmares. Schroeder explains that he believes that after his death he will return and his consciousness will merge with that of Garrisons. Garrison is sceptical at first, but after Schroeder shows how he is able to test for ESP ability, revealing Garrison's strong natural ability in the process, Garrison changes his opinion and makes a pact with Schroeder. Schroeder will give Garrison money and power now in exchange for the rebirth in Garrison that is to come.

Vicki leaves Garrison to travel the world in the year remaining to her. Garrison asks Schroeder to have her body cryogenically frozen after her death in response to another dream where he saw her frozen body. Garrison returns to England with the new wealth and connections Schroeder has given him. Schroeder eventually dies and Garrison is able to feel it through a telepathic connection. Soon after Koenig comes to Garrison, ordered by Schroeder to keep him safe, and informs him that Schroeder's home in Germany now belongs to him.

For the next few years Garrison learns from Koenig as the two become closer friends. Garrison first overcomes his limitations due to his blindness, increases his wealth and power as he learns more about business and even increases his supernatural mental powers. "T" is revealed to him one night in a dream somewhere in Italy with danger surrounding her. Garrison and Koenig travel to Italy to find Terri, rescuing her from trouble just in time. Already knowing it must happen from his dreams, Garrison soon marries Terri and for a few years they live together in relative happiness.

Unbeknown to Garrison, Terri was once intimately acquainted with a psychiatrist Gareth Wyatt who is harbouring Hans Mass, née Otto Krippner, a Nazi who once tried to build a machine to create supermen for Hitler. Wyatt is using Mass to again try to build this machine, Psychomech, for which he will then take the credit and the profit. While Wyatt believes this machine only to be a tool to use to overcome one's fears, Mass' true purpose for this machine is to amply a person's ESP abilities and thus create a race of supermen. Mass succeeds but Wyatt murders him to prevent being caught for his role in harbouring a Nazi war criminal.

Wyatt runs into Terri at a party in England and both having learned that she is now married to a rich and powerful man and being in need of money, tries to again seduce her in the hopes of extorting money. Terri arranges for Wyatt to meet Garrison, who quickly agrees to lend financial and technical support to Wyatt when he realises that Wyatt's Psychomech is the Machine in his dreams.

Terri and Wyatt fall in love and plot to rid themselves of Garrison. After rebuilding and improving Psychomech, Garrison decides to be its trial subject. Wyatt tries to sabotage Psychomech to kill Garrison but Garrison uses his supernatural abilities to conquer his fears one by one. Schroeder's essence reveals itself to Garrison while he under Psychomech's influence. Garrison tries to deny Schroeder but allows Schroeder to merge with himself as he realises he can't overcome the final fear, the last obstacle along, Garrison/Schroeder enter the black room which holds Garrison's final fear and finds Terri and Wyatt locked in an embrace. They change revealing all those who have betrayed Garrison. Garrison/Schroeder's supernatural abilities reach their peak. They return sight to Garrison's body then resurrect Vicki, returning her to her original state while curing her eyesight and removing her terminal disease. They punish Terri and Wyatt first with pain and then death. Koenig is rewarded for his loyalty by granting him immortality by merging his consciousness with their own to form Garrison/Schroeder/Koenig. They erase the existence of Psychomech, Wyatt, and his house and then, together, the Garrison/Schroeder/Koenig entity, along with Vicki, are left to a world of untold possibilities.

Moschus has twin sons, Menaechmus and Sosicles. Moschus decides to take only one of the twins, Menaechmus, with him on a business trip, while the twins are still young. During the trip, Menaechmus is abducted and adopted by a businessman who lives in Epidamnus, separating the twins. Their father dies of sorrow and their grandfather changes Sosicles' name to Menaechmus (i.e., Menaechmus of Syracuse). When the twins are grown to manhood, Menaechmus of Syracuse sets out in search of his brother. He arrives in Epidamnus, unaware that his twin brother is there also.

Here, the brother is first shown to be, with good cause, the despair of his jealous wife. He is seen leaving his house, berating his spouse as a shrew and a harpy, promising that she shall have good cause for her jealousy. He confides to Peniculus, a professional parasite, that he has stolen his wife's mantle and is going to give it to Erotium, a prostitute who lives next door.

The two go to Erotium's door, and the husband presents the mantle with many blandishments. He suggests that a fitting return would include a dinner for himself and Peniculus. Erotium agrees, and the two men go to the Forum for preliminary drinks while the meal is being prepared.

Meanwhile, the twin from Syracuse has arrived with Messenio, his slave. The latter warns him of the depravity of Epidamnus, urging an end to the search for his missing brother since their money is nearly gone. His master gives his purse for safekeeping to the slave who continues his warning against the cunning people of Epidamnus "who think nothing of accosting a stranger" and bilking him of his money, when Erotium steps out of her house and endearingly accosts the Syracuse Menaechmus, thinking him to be his brother.

She asks why he hesitates to enter when dinner is ready, and the confused twin asks her, quite formally, what business he has with her. Why, the business of Venus, Erotium replies coyly. Messenio whispers to his master that the lady undoubtedly is a schemer for his money, and asks her if she knows his master. He is Menaechmus, of course, replies Erotium. This amazes the twin, but Messenio explains that spies of the city's thieves probably have learned his name.

Erotium, tiring of what she considers foolery, tells Menaechmus to come in to dinner and bring Peniculus. Peniculus, he answers, is in his baggage—and what dinner is she talking about? The dinner he ordered when he presented his wife's mantle, she replies. He first protests vainly that he hasn't any wife and has just arrived in the city, then begins to realize the possibilities of a dinner and a pretty girl. He sends Messenio to the inn, giving him orders to return for his master at sunset.

After the meal, he leaves his house with a garland on his head and the mantle over his arm; Erotium has told him to have it re-trimmed. He is chuckling over his luck—dinner, kisses and an expensive mantle—all for nothing, when the irate Peniculus, who has lost the Epidamnus twin in the Forum crowd, meets him and berates him for dining before he could arrive. Quite naturally treated as a stranger, Peniculus angrily rushes to tell the other twin's wife of the stolen mantle.

The Syracuse brother, further baffled because the unknown Peniculus addressed him by his name, is pinching his ear to make sure that he is awake when Erotium's maid comes out and hands him a bracelet to be taken to a goldsmith for repair. He suspects that something is amiss, and hurries off to the inn to tell Messenio of the happy shower of valuables that has been raining upon him.

Now the furious wife, told by Peniculus of her man's trick, rushes out of her house just in time to meet her husband returning from the Forum, expecting Erotium's banquet. She tells him to return the mantle or stay out of her house, and the husband goes to Erotium to get it, resolving to buy his sweetheart a better one. He is stupefied when she declares him a liar and a cheat, and tells him that she has already given him both the mantle and her bracelet. So the Epidamnus twin finds the doors of both his wife and mistress slammed in his puzzled face, and goes off to get the counsel of his friends.

The Syracuse Menaechmus returns, the mantle still over his arm, in search of Messenio, who has left the inn. His brother's wife sees him, and assuming him to be her husband, demands that he confess his shame. He asks her of what he should be ashamed—and, furthermore, why she should address a total stranger so. He adds that he didn't steal her mantle, that a lady gave it to him. This is too much for the wife, who calls her father from the house. The father, also assuming that he is the husband, tells him that he must be crazy. This idea seems an excellent means of escape for Menaechmus: he feigns insanity so violently that the father rushes off for a physician, the wife seeks safety in the house, and Menaechmus goes off to resume his hunt for Messenio.

As the father comes back with a doctor, the real husband returns. He flies into a rage when his wife and father-in-law add to his troubles by implying that he is quite mad. His anger convinces the doctor of his insanity, and he summons slaves to bind him and take him to an asylum. Just then, Messenio appears, and, thinking the struggling husband his master, overpowers the slave. As a reward he asks for his own freedom. The husband tells Messenio that he doesn't know him, but by all means to consider himself freed; then he begins to suspect he may really be a bit crazy when Messenio tells him that he will return shortly to give him the money he has been safeguarding. Husband Menaechmus is not too addled, however, to profess his ownership of the purse.

The husband goes to Erotium's house in further search of the mantle. The Syracuse twin returns, in his quest of Messenio, at the moment when the servant hurries back with his purse. His master upbraids him for having been gone so long, but the slave protests that he has just saved his owner from ruffians and has been set free. The master is pondering this new muddle when his twin appears from Erotium's house.

The two brothers rub their eyes in bewilderment on seeing each other, but explanations quickly bring recognition. They embrace. The happy master truly sets the slave free, and the brothers decide that the first Menaechmus shall go to live with his twin in Syracuse. Messenio announces an auction in the morning of the husband's goods, everything to go to the block—even the wife, if there be a buyer.

The main character, Fortunato, wants to escape the throes of his sisters and parents by joining the revolutionaries vying to overthrow Batista's regime.

Arenas seamlessly weaves in and out of the domestic voices that scream of the emotion and convention that young Fortunato wants to escape. Despite his courageous efforts, death remains outside in the backyard rolling the wheel of his bicycle.

Category:1982 American novels Category:Pentagonia novels Category:Hispanic and Latino American novels Category:Novels set in Cuba

The film is inspired by the relationship between Roberts and the absentee, criminally insane, substance-abusing father he barely knew, Robert Stone Jordan (born: Robert Samuel Jordan), a self-styled indie film director/producer in his later years. In the 1970s Bob Jordan toured with Leon Russell for a film project that he thoroughly bungled due to his drug-induced manic behavior. In the 1990s he produced and directed one of the first digitally captured film experiments based on the characters in Alice in Wonderland, often known as "Through the Looking Glass". His last known film project, "Meth" filmed in and around Palmdale/Lancaster CA involved a film "completion fund" scam where he ran off with the Sony Camera equipment loaned to him and the money he had collected from several investors. Upon returning to CA, he would die in 2001 awaiting a liver transplant, without ever contacting his sons. Christopher Walken bore an uncanny resemblance to Robert Jordan both in the physical and in his ability to appear menacing and unpredictable.

;''The Hand'' Miss Hua, a 1960s high-end call girl is visited by a shy dressmaker's assistant Zhang, to take her measure. He hears the sounds of sex, as he waits in her living room. He is drawn towards her but there is no meeting ground between the two individuals from completely different classes. She summons him when her client leaves. She tells him, she will supply him with an aid to his memory. He will think about her while designing her clothes, she says.

;''Equilibrium'' Nick Penrose is an advertising executive in the year 1955 under enormous pressure at work. He tells his psychiatrist Dr. Pearl about a recurring dream of a beautiful naked woman in his apartment, as they discuss the possible reasons why his stress seems to manifest itself in the erotic dream.

;''The Dangerous Thread of Things'' A bored couple, Christopher and Cloe, take a stroll near a resort on a lake on the coast of Tuscany. Visiting a restaurant on the beach, they see a sexy young woman, Linda. Linda tells him where she lives, inside a crumbling medieval tower. He goes to visit her and they have sex. As Christopher leaves the place, the two women later encounter each other on the beach, both naked.

The series is based on the story of the king of the Zulu, Shaka (reigned 1816 to 1828), and the writings of the British traders with whom he interacted. It also covers the broader Mfecane period alongside the rapid expansion of the Zulu state. The story is described primarily via flashbacks by Dr Henry Fynn, an Irish doctor.

As one of the character is saying at the beginning of the movie:

''L'alpagueur c'est un chasseur de tête, c'est un mercenaire, un marginal. L'alpagueur c'est l'astuce qu'a trouvé un haut fonctionnaire pour passer au-dessus de la routine policière.''

The alpagueur is a head hunter, a mercenary, a marginal. The alpagueur is a trick made up by a state employee to be above the cop's routine.

Originally a deer hunter, l'Alpagueur became a head hunter working for the police, paid by them with money stolen from criminals. The main plot revolves around l'Alpagueur's pursuit of l'Épervier, (Sparrowhawk) a bank robber and an assassin, who kills whoever sees him commit a crime. His technique is to pay a young and naive man to be his accomplice and kill him right after. One of his accomplices, Costa Valdez, is only wounded during one of his hold ups, and with his help, l'Alpagueur manages to find l'Épervier at the end.

Jack Hopkins is an aircraft designer and hands-on engineer with a passion for traction engines and he owns one called ''The Iron Maiden''. His boss is eager to sell a new supersonic jet aircraft (which Jack has designed) to American millionaire Paul Fisher, who has come to England with his wife and daughter.

The first encounter between Fisher and Jack goes badly, as (without knowing their connection) the traction engine crashes into the front of Fisher's car on a narrow lane. They then meet again at the airfield and recognise each other. Kathy agrees to be taken to see a "Duchess" and thinks it means a visit to the aristocracy, but it turns out to be another traction engine powering a ferris wheel. She sneaks a ride and ends up trapped in mid-air. When Fisher goes to rescue her, she gets down and in heavy rain takes his car, but abandons it in the middle of nowhere, much to his dismay.

Tensions heighten after Fisher's daughter Kathy damages ''The Iron Maiden'', rendering it impossible to be driven solo. Jack is desperate to enter the annual Woburn Abbey steam rally with the machine, but his fireman Fred Trotter is injured (breaking his leg by falling over his son's roller skate) and unable to participate. When all seems lost, the millionaire himself is won over by Jack's plight and joins him in driving the engine, and the two soon become firm friends.

En route to Woburn they cook breakfast on a shovel, but leave a bag of coal at the breakfast site. They take a short cut through land owned by the rival traction engine ("England Expects") owner, but he has laid a trap. They steal his wooden "keep out" signs to use as fuel, but this is not enough, and they also have to burn bags, their footwear and clothing, leaving them in their underclothes.

After an eventful journey, Fisher and Jack reach Woburn Abbey and enter the rally, which includes almost every English traction engine of the period, around 100 in total. The Iron Maiden arrives just in time, but Mr Fisher has injured his back and withdraws from the race within the rally.

When all seems lost, the sceptical Kathy appears and joins Jack on the engine. The two pilot ''The Iron Maiden'' from last place to first, winning the race; at the finish line, Jack and Kathy embrace and kiss, while ''The Iron Maiden'' boils over and explodes. The engine is memorialised when Jack's new jet is named after it.

As a young girl, Isadora (Verónica Castro) is voted to become the Silver Queen in Taxco, a Mexican village known for its silver handicrafts. The night before the coronation, in an act of jealousy, Isadora's former boyfriend Gerardo (Salvador Pineda) rapes her. For weeks Isadora refuses to tell anyone, but because of the strong love and trust she feels for her fiancé José Luis (Antonio De Carlo), she decides to tell him about it.

Just before the wedding, Gerardo confronts José Luis and provokes a fight. José Luis never arrives at the church for his wedding, and is later found stabbed to death. Isadora is carrying Gerardo's child, and her stepmother Piedad (Rosa María Bianchi) is terrified that this will force Gerardo to marry her.

Piedad is jealous of Isadora, and decides to get rid of the child at the first opportunity. Isadora leaves her family and moves to the city. Several years later, Soledad (also played by Verónica Castro) has grown into a kind and beautiful woman, and she moves to the city where she and Isadora meet.

Private Mizushima, a Japanese soldier, becomes the harp (or ''saung'') player of Captain Inouye's group, composed of soldiers who fight and sing to raise morale in the World War II Burma Campaign. When they are offered shelter in a village, they eventually realize they are being watched by British and Indian soldiers. They retrieve their ammunition, then see the advancing force. Captain Inouye tells the men to sing, laugh and clap, to give the British the impression that they are unaware of their presence. Instead of firing at them, though, the British soldiers begin singing the same melody, "Home! Sweet Home!". Inouye's men learn that the war has ended with the Japanese surrender, and so they surrender to the British.

At a camp, a British captain asks Mizushima to talk down a group of soldiers who are still fighting on a mountain. He agrees to do so and is told by the captain that he has 30 minutes to convince them to surrender. At the mountain, he is almost shot by the hold-out soldiers before they realize he is Japanese. He climbs up to the cave and informs their commander that the war has ended and they should surrender. The commander confers with the other soldiers, and they unanimously decide to fight to the end. Mizushima begs for them to surrender but they do nothing. He decides to ask for more time from the British, but when he creates a surrender flag, the others take it the wrong way and believe he is surrendering for them. They beat him unconscious and leave him on the floor. The cave is bombarded and Mizushima is the only survivor.

Mizushima is helped to recover from his injuries by a monk. One day, Mizushima steals the monk's robe and shaves his head so that he will not be spotted as a soldier. He begins a journey to the camp in Mudon where his comrades were sent. Finding many corpses of dead Japanese soldiers along the way, he decides to bury them.

Captain Inouye and his men are wondering what happened and cling to a belief that Mizushima is still alive. Eventually, they buy a parrot and teach it to say "Mizushima, let's go back to Japan together". They have an old woman villager take it to a monk they suspect is Mizushima in hiding. She returns the next day with another parrot that says "No, I cannot go back". She also gives the captain a letter, that explains that Mizushima has decided not to go back to Japan with them, because he must continue burying the dead while studying as a monk and promoting the peaceful nature of mankind. He states in the letter that if he finishes burying all the fallen soldiers' bodies, then he may return to Japan.

A young student from Russia (Conrad Veidt) is studying (art or dancing, records of the film are unclear) in Geneva, Switzerland. He wants to go home for a visit, but has no funds. A group of Nihilists need someone to go to Russia for some plot (that plot is not clear, as the film has been lost). The student allows himself to be recruited as their agent, and he goes to Russia.

In Russia, the student meets a young, beautiful Grand Duchess (Gussy Holl), and they fall in love. The student attempts to complete his plot, but is arrested. After some time in prison, he escapes and begins searching for his lost lover. After some time, he discovers she died while he was in prison.

Much of South Sea Adventure involves the Hunt brothers becoming stranded on an island in the manner of Robinson Crusoe. However, Hal and Roger's island is a pitiless environment scarce in such necessities as fresh water and adequate food. The brothers use their knowledge of science and zoology to survive.

A scientist travels in the ship as a passenger. The captain of the ship does not agree to accommodate any more passengers, so the only way the boys may go on the journey is to join the crew.

Roger defends a captured sperm whale against a group of sharks and later a pack of killer whales. This novel also explain how clever killer whales are.

The captain of the ship is a ruthless man who tortures and punishes the crew. He is beaten by Hal in a hand-to-hand fight. When an old sailor, who is keelhauled as a punishment, is eaten by a shark, the crew takes the control of the ship, confining the captain and his henchman in the cage.

In the end of the story, their ship was destroyed by a sperm whale and they were saved by a modern whaler with a whale-spotting helicopter.

Category:1960 American novels Category:Novels by Willard Price Category:Jonathan Cape books Category:1960 children's books Category:Fiction about whales Category:Children's novels about animals

Hal and Roger sail for New Guinea, an island still inhabited by headhunters and cannibals, where many dangers await them. However, they soon realize that the cannibals are not their biggest threat when they discover an old enemy that has escaped from jail and is bent on revenge.

Act 1

Inside a lively casino near the French Riviera ("Overture"), con-artist Lawrence Jameson is tricking wealthy women out of their money with the help of his "bodyguard" Andre ("Give Them What They Want"). Muriel Eubanks and a few other women express their devotion and amorous feelings for Lawrence, who has conned them ("What Was a Woman To Do"). Andre warns Lawrence about a highly successful con-artist known as "The Jackal", who is said to be visiting the area. Later, aboard a train, Lawrence watches an American named Freddy Benson (who he figures is The Jackal) swindle a woman, but notes that Freddy makes much less money than Lawrence does. Lawrence brings Freddy to his lavish mansion, where Freddy envies Lawrence's success as a swindler and describes everything he'll have when he's rich ("Great Big Stuff"). Freddy asks Lawrence to show him his ways. Andre thinks Freddy is unworthy of Lawrence's attention and compares Freddy to a chimp in a suit ("Chimp in a Suit"). Lawrence considers Freddy's request until Jolene Oakes, a woman he's conned, informs him at gunpoint that he's going to marry her and move with her to Oklahoma ("Oklahoma?"). Then Lawrence decides to use Freddy's help. Freddy poses as Lawrence's repulsive brother Ruprecht ("All About Ruprecht"). Seeing that Lawrence plans to make Ruprecht a large part of their life together, Jolene calls off the wedding.

Lawrence begins to think that there isn't enough room in town for both him and Freddy after the pair argue. They make a deal: the first to swindle a woman out of $50,000 gets to stay in town, while the other has to leave. Immediately after they agree on this, the arrival of "The American Soap Queen" is announced. Her name is Christine Colgate, and she is optimistic, naive and hopelessly clumsy, constantly bumping into people ("Here I Am"). Both con men decide to target her. Freddy presents himself as a man paralyzed from the waist down. Christine and Freddy discuss his medical options and he explains that only one therapist, Dr. Shuffhausen, can help him, but he can't afford Dr. Shuffhausen's $50,000 fee. Christine tells him to keep his hopes up ("Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True") and offers to pay for the therapy just as Freddy had hoped ("The Miracle"). Then she reveals that Dr. Shuffhausen is at the hotel and Freddy is shocked to discover that Lawrence is Shuffhausen.

Act 2

After a quick introduction ("Entr'acte"), Lawrence as Shuffhausen performs several torturous tests on Freddy ("Ruffhousin' Mit Shuffhausen"), who has to endure them without complaint. In the side show Muriel meets Andre and the two fall in love ("Like Zis/Like Zat"). Lawrence makes every effort to get close to Christine ("The More We Dance"). When he realizes that Christine is not as rich as they thought. Lawrence tells Freddy that they should call off their $50,000 contest. Freddy reluctantly agrees and they agree on new terms: whoever beds Christine gets to stay. Freddy sleeps with her, then hires two sailors to kidnap Lawrence so that he can have Christine to himself.

Freddy meets with Christine at the hotel where he tells her he needs motivation to get out of his chair. She says she'll be his motivation ("Love is My Legs"). She sits on the bed till he is finally able to stand up out of his chair and walk to her on the bed (where he "accidentally" falls on top of her in exhaustion). Lawrence then shows up and it turns out to be a test planned by him and Christine. Lawrence has the same two sailors kidnap Freddy while he takes Christine to the train station so she can leave ("Love Sneaks In"). Freddy shows up, having escaped the sailors too late to get to Christine.

The next day Freddy meets Christine back at the hotel who says she couldn't leave “without seeing you again.” ("Son of Great Big Stuff") The two get in bed together before the scene is switched to Lawrence's mansion where Christine arrives, telling him tearfully how she came back to see Freddy, how they made love, and then when she woke up all her money was gone: “I’m beginning to think he was never really paralyzed.” Out of remorse, Lawrence packs 50 thousand dollars in a suitcase and tells her to take it. Christine takes it, but returns and gives him back the suitcase saying, "I’ll have something so much better to remember you by" before leaving.

A few minutes later Freddy shows up in his underwear. Lawrence is angry at him for taking Christine's money. Freddy, however, claims that they never made love at all; they were about to when she knocked him out. When he woke up all his belongings were gone. Lawrence then opens up the suitcase to find the money gone, replaced by Freddy's clothes and a note that reads, “Goodbye boys. It was fun! Love, 'The Jackal'”, thus revealing that she knew about their scam the entire time, and instead ended up scamming them ("The Reckoning"). A while later Christine returns to Lawrence's chateau, bringing a group of other people with her. The guys admit the scam was a good adventure ("Dirty Rotten Number") and they hatch a scheme to scam the crowd of people ''together'' in the "Finale".

The main storyline often branches out to flashbacks of significant trees in John Wade's past. His childhood is constantly referred to as the advent of his persona, Sorcerer. As a child, John was frequently abused verbally and emotionally by an alcoholic father, who was admired by other children for his public persona. John often visited Karra's Studio of Magic, where he bought the Guillotine of Death, purchased by his father. John was devastated after his father's death and channeled his grief into magic.

Wade met his future wife Kathy during their college years, becoming intimate with her despite his secretive nature. John spied on Kathy, of which she was aware, just as he was aware of her affair with a dentist. When John was deployed to Vietnam, he and Kathy communicated through letters; some of his frightened Kathy. John became deeply absorbed in his identity as Sorcerer. He is portrayed as a member of Charlie Company, who were involved in the My Lai massacre. While working a desk job in records, John erased his involvement with the Company.

After the war, John entered politics. He was elected as lieutenant governor of Minnesota and later ran for the US Senate, with his campaign managed by the business-oriented Tony Carbo. At one point, Kathy has an abortion, despite her great wish to have a baby, because John felt that her having a child would be problematic for his political career.

After his landslide loss in the senate race, during which there was revelation of John's role in My Lai, John and Kathy take a vacation at a cabin in Lake of the Woods. They are troubled by the revelation of John's Vietnam secrets, but pretend to be happy. One night, John wakes up and decides to boil water for tea. He pours the boiling water over a few household plants, reciting "Kill Jesus". He remembers climbing back into bed with Kathy, but the next morning she's gone.

After a day of walking around the area and discovering the boat's absence, John talks to his closest neighbors, the Rasmussens. After some time they call the sheriff and organize a search party. The authorities are suspicious of John's calm demeanor and lack of participation in the search effort. Kathy's sister joins the search, and John does, too. After eighteen days, the search party is called off; the investigation into John heats up. With a boat from Claude and supplies from the Mini-Mart, John heads north on the lake. Claude is the last person to talk to John over the boat's radio and believes that he sounds disoriented.

O'Brien introduces numerous alternatives over the course of the novel. Maybe Kathy had sped over the lake too quickly, hit a rough patch of water, and had been tossed into the lake and drowned. Perhaps she had become lost in the wilderness, and ran out of supplies. Or possibly John had returned to the bedroom with the boiling water and had poured it over her face, scalding and killing her. Afterward he could have sunk the boat and body in the lake, weighed down with rocks. Or the event might have been John's last great magic trick, a disappearing act.

John and Kathy may have planned her disappearance together, intending for John to join her and their starting over. O'Brien introduces details that supports each of the possibilities and leaves conclusions up to the reader. Although the inconclusive ending irritated many readers, O'Brien argued that this is the truest way to tell a story. It is reminiscent of his book, ''The Things They Carried,'' which presents several linked stories featuring different characters and sometimes differing perceptions of the same events.

Sunset Towers is a new apartment building on Lake Michigan, north of Milwaukee and just down the shore from the mansion owned by reclusive self-made millionaire Samuel W. Westing. (Despite its name, Sunset Towers faces east – into the sunrise.) Sam Westing was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in paper products. He was very patriotic and never smoked, drank, or gambled.

As the story opens, Barney Northrup is selling apartments to a carefully selected group of tenants. After Sam Westing dies, at the beginning of the book, it emerges that most of the tenants are named as heirs in Westing's will. The will is structured like a puzzle, with the 16 heirs challenged to find the solution. In the will it states that one of his heirs has taken his life. Each of the eight pairs, assigned seemingly at random, is given $10,000 cash and a different set of baffling clues. The pair that solves the mystery of his death will inherit Westing's entire $200 million fortune and control of his company.

An Irish boy (Olcott) emigrates to America to escape the desperate poverty of Ireland. After finding work in construction, he finds success in politics. He returns to Ireland after receiving a letter from his sweetheart (Gauntier) just as her destitute family is being forced off their land.

Twelve-year-old Manolo Olivar is the son of Juan Olivar, a renowned bullfighter who was killed in the ring when Manolo was only three. The people in the town of Archangel, Spain, expect that Manolo will follow in his father's footsteps. His best friend, Jaime, has a brother, Juan, who yearns to fight bulls like his father before him, but Manolo has been trying to conquer his own fears. Many of the townspeople have paid much attention to Manolo, mainly by comparing him to his famous father or taking him to bullfights to see how to perform the sport. Through all this commotion, Manolo is trying to learn more about his father. Everyone in the town always speaks of how great Juan Olivar, Manolo's father, was, but Manolo wants to know the truth. Manolo has heard that his father first killed a bull when he was twelve years old. Manolo wants to know, did Juan Olivar have fear? After seeing the result of a bull goring, Manolo becomes more discouraged in becoming a bullfighter. He notices the old doctor cleaning the wound and, hearing that he was the only doctor who would touch a goring injury, decides that he could be the next doctor. Manolo still suffers from the problem that everyone wants him to be a bullfighter, not a doctor.

Realizing that he should follow in his father's footsteps, Manolo trains in secret as a matador with his friend's brother Juan. The more he practices, the sooner Manolo realizes how big a coward he is. The days left until the annual fiesta, his first bullfight, are decreasing. Manolo is close friends with Count De La Casa, a very famous count who also knew Manolo's father. Because of their friendship, Manolo is confident that the count would give him anything he asked for. Manolo goes and meets with Juan and promises him that he would ask the count if Juan could be invited to the party. Manolo does not tell Juan that he would like it if Juan fought Manolo's bull so he can have a chance for the count to see him fight. The day of his first contest arrives, and Manolo is successful in the corrida. He knows all the moves and has practiced daily, but when it is time for the killing, Manolo realizes that he simply does not have the spirit of a bullfighter, and he finally offers Juan a chance in the ring. The doctor who Manolo had met previously offers Manolo an apprenticeship, allowing Manolo to follow his own dream.

The show centers on the Parkers, a family living in the west side of Charlotte, North Carolina, who experience the highs and lows of everyday life. The series starred Arthur Reggie III as pre-teen son Alfie, Ralph Woolfolk IV as his younger brother Dee-Dee, Aisling Sistrunk as older sister Melanie, Karen E. Fraction as mother Jennifer Parker, Jim R. Coleman as father Roger Parker, and Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. as Alfie's troublesome best friend, Milton "Goo" Berry.

Brandon Lang is a former college football star who, after sustaining a career-ending injury, takes a job handicapping football games. His success at choosing winners catches the eye of Walter Abrams, the slick head of one of the biggest sports consulting operations in the United States. Walter takes Brandon under his wing, and soon they are making tremendous amounts of money.

Lang's in-depth knowledge of the game, leagues, and players brings in big winnings and bigger clients. Abrams's cable television show, ''The Sports Advisors'', skyrockets in popularity when he adds Lang's slick "John Anthony" persona to the desk, infuriating Jerry Sykes, who up to now has been Walter's in-house expert. Lang's total image is remade with a new car, new wardrobe, and a new look, with the assistance of Walter's wife, Toni, a hair stylist.

Things suddenly go south, however, when Lang begins playing his hunches instead of doing his homework. He loses his touch and is even physically assaulted by the thugs of a gambler who lost a great deal of money following Lang's advice. Abrams and Lang's once-solid relationship sours.

Lang's new high-rolling lifestyle depends entirely on his ability to predict the outcomes of the games. Millions are at stake by the time he places his last bet, and Abrams, a recovering gambling addict and alcoholic, grows increasingly unstable. He secretly begins gambling all of his own money on Lang's picks and becomes suspicious that Lang is having an affair with his wife.

The film concludes with Lang's predictions coming true for the last game, both of which he allegedly determines by flipping coins in a bathroom, as he leaves New York and takes a job as coach of a junior league football team.

In April 1687, 16-year-old Katherine Tyler (known as Kit) leaves her home in Barbados after her grandfather dies and a 50-year-old man tries to marry her. She relocates to Wethersfield, Connecticut to live with her Aunt Rachel, Uncle Matthew, and her two cousins, Judith and Mercy, in their Puritan community.

A brief stop is made in Old Saybrook, Connecticut to pick up four new passengers. As the small rowboat returns to the ship, a young girl named Prudence accidentally drops her doll in the water and begs her harsh mother, Goodwife Cruff, to get it back for her. Impulsively, Kit jumps into the water and retrieves the doll. She is then met with astonished suspicion, as few white people in Connecticut could swim so well. Cruff is the most skeptical of them all, believing Kit is a witch, commenting, "No respectable woman could stay afloat like that." On the slow trip upriver, Kit befriends John Holbrook, another passenger coming to Wethersfield to study with Reverend Gershom Bulkeley.

Kit finds Wethersfield very different from Barbados. Unlike at her previous home, where Kit's family owned servants and slaves, she is expected to work here along with the rest of the family. Her cousin Mercy has a lame leg and is on crutches. Kit is required to attend the Sabbath church meetings twice each Sunday, which she finds dull. Kit meets a rich young man, William Ashby. He begins courting her, though she does not care for him. Originally, her cousin Judith had hoped to marry William, but she focuses on John Holbrook, a divinity student studying with Reverend Bulkeley.

Kit's life improves when she and Mercy begin teaching some young children of Wethersfield, who are preparing for traditional school. Everything proceeds well until one day, bored with the normal lessons, Kit decides the children will reenact a passage of the Bible: the parable of the Good Samaritan. The head of the school, Eleazer Kimberly, enters the house just as things get out of hand. He is outraged at Kit for having the audacity to act out something from the Bible and shuts down the school. Heartbroken, Kit flees to the meadows where she meets and befriends the kind, elderly Hannah Tupper, who was outlawed from the Massachusetts colony because she is a Quaker and does not attend church meetings, as well as being suspected of being a witch. With Hannah's support, Kit convinces Mr. Kimberly to give the school another chance.

As fellow outcasts, Kit and Hannah develop a deep bond, and even after her uncle forbids Kit to continue the friendship, she keeps visiting Hannah. During one of her visits, Kit again meets the handsome Nathaniel (Nat) Eaton, son of the captain of the ''Dolphin''. Without realizing it, she falls in love with him, and though he doesn't say so, Nat reciprocates. Unfortunately, Nat is banished from Wethersfield after setting lit jack-o-lanterns in the windows of William Ashby's unfinished home. Nat is threatened with 30 lashes if he returns to Wethersfield. Kit also begins secretly teaching Prudence to read and write; Goodwife Cruff claims the child is a half-wit and "stupid" and refuses to allow her to attend the dame school.

When a deadly illness sweeps through Wethersfield, a mob gathers to kill Hannah by burning her house. Kit rushes to warn Hannah, and the two women escape to the river just as the ''Dolphin'' appears from the early morning mist. Kit flags it down. Nat takes Hannah aboard and invites Kit to come with them. She refuses, explaining that Mercy is gravely ill, though Nat believes Kit fears losing her engagement to William Ashby.

After the ''Dolphin'' sails away, Kit returns home to find that Mercy's fever has broken. In the middle of the same night, the townspeople come for Kit; Goodwife Cruff's husband has accused her of being a witch. The next day, after a freezing night in the sheriff's shed, Kit is asked to explain the presence of her hornbook in Hannah's house and a copybook with Prudence's name written throughout, as the townspeople fear that she and Hannah were casting a spell over the girl. Kit refuses to reveal that Prudence wrote her own name, as Kit does not wish to cause the girl trouble with her parents.

Just as Kit seems to be declared guilty, Nat appears with Prudence, who testifies that Kit was only giving her lessons. To demonstrate her literacy, Prudence reads a Bible passage and writes her name, thus convincing her father both that she is intelligent and that no witchcraft could be involved, as the devil would be foolish to allow a child to be taught to use the Bible against himself. While Nat is initially in trouble for returning and evades capture, Kit's Uncle Matthew intervenes on his behalf.

Soon after, Kit breaks off her engagement to William. Two engagements are announced: Mercy to John Holbrook and Judith to William Ashby. Kit decides to return to Barbados. However, she decides to talk to Nat first. Nat returns to Wethersfield with a surprise: he is the captain of a new boat. The boat is called the ''Witch'', named after Kit. Kit asks to come on board the ''Witch'' but Nat says no, until he gets her Uncle Matthew's permission to marry her.

Stan, Kyle and Cartman win an all-you-can-grab candy prize, but cannot claim it without the stub of the ticket they bought. They remember that they gave the ticket stub to Kenny to hold on to before he last died. Upon visiting Kenny's house, the boys are shown an urn containing his ashes, which they steal during the next night. However, having never heard of cremation, they expect to find Kenny's body and are confused when they find ashes inside. Cartman assumes it must be some kind of chocolate milk powder. He mixes the ashes with milk and drinks them, replacing the ashes with kitty litter.

The boys decide to build a ladder to Heaven to find Kenny so he can hand them the ticket. However, when questioned about why they are building the ladder, they neglect to mention that candy is involved and merely say they want to see Kenny again. As a result, the adults, thinking that the boys desperately want to see their dead friend again, are touched and the ladder's construction grips the whole country. Singer Alan Jackson turns up to memorialize the event in song.

The Japanese even start building a rival ladder of their own so that when the boys announce they have run out of stuff to build the ladder the United States military arrives and starts to build a reinforced tower in order to beat the Japanese. The ladder eventually reaches above the clouds and the boys are disappointed when they see nothing.

Suspicious photos taken of heavenly clouds are reported to the U.S. President as indicating a potential factory making WMDs run by Saddam Hussein, now dead and permanently living in Heaven. The U.S. decides to bomb Heaven, believing Hussein to be building nuclear warheads there. A U.S. representative explains the Satan/Saddam/Chris love triangle story to a skeptical United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Cartman starts viewing Kenny's memories every time something hits his head. After the adults try to tell the boys to get back to their lives and explain cremation to them, Cartman realizes that this is because he drank Kenny's ashes. After getting intentionally hit on the head a few more times, Cartman witnesses Kenny locking up the ticket in a box he kept in his room. The boys retrieve the stub, collect their confectionery and lose all interest in the ladder. The whole misunderstanding is explained and various platitudes exchanged that they all want to believe that they can go to heaven when they die, but the meaning is to enjoy life on Earth, which Alan Jackson tries and fails to turn into an umpteenth song. As they all leave, Cartman says that he is happy just to have Kenny's memories, but Cartman then insults himself in Kenny's words, implying that Kenny's soul really is trapped in Cartman's body.

In a final scene, it is revealed that Saddam Hussein is in fact building a WMD factory, disguised as a chocolate chip factory, and is lying to God about it.

Cusi, a modern Inca boy, leaves his home high in the Andes mountains to learn the mysterious secret of his ancient ancestors. Accompanied by his pet llama, Misti, he slowly discovers the truth about his birth and his people's ancient glory. Now he must prove himself worthy to be entrusted with the fabulous secret from the past.

Unknown to the world, there are 666 portals on Earth that connect this world to the other side which are concealed from human beings. However, there are some who are aware of their existence and are willing to locate and open the gates of the portals to obtain the power of darkness for their own use. Somewhere in Japan, there exists the 444th portal known as ''The Forest of Resurrection''.

In 10th century Japan, a lone samurai fends off a horde of zombie-like samurai creatures. Though successfully vanquishing the zombies, the samurai is confronted by a mysterious priest and his league of warriors. In an attempt to take out the mysterious priest, the lone samurai charges full scale but is easily killed and defeated. However, before dying, the lone samurai spots an ally behind him, who arrives too late to save him.

In present-day Japan, two prisoners escape through a forest and meet up with a gang of Yakuzas. When Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) sees a girl (Chieko Misaka) that the gang kidnapped, he immediately becomes suspicious of what they plan to do with her. After a heated argument, Prisoner KSC2-303 kills one of the Yakuza members who immediately comes back to life as a zombie. The zombies are killed and Prisoner KSC2-303 escapes back into the forest with The Girl. The Yakuza decide to disobey their orders to wait for their leader and pursue Prisoner KSC2-303 and The Girl.

Prisoner KSC2-303 and The Girl come across a man crucified upon a tree. Prisoner KSC2-303 steals the dead man's clothes and is confronted by one of the Yakuza. They engage in hand-to-hand combat while the other Yakuza begin facing problems of their own. The corpses of all the men they have killed and buried in the forest resurrect and attack them. Prisoner KSC2-303 and the other Yakuza abandon their fight to battle the zombies.

With the horde of zombies growing, the Yakuza call upon three assassins to aid them in their mission. The Yakuza leader, The Man (Hideo Sakaki), finally arrives and confronts them, angry that they lost Prisoner KSC2-303 and The Girl. The Yakuza and Assassins take the upper hand and kill him first. But The Man easily jumps back to his feet and turns the Assassins and Yakuza into his own minions. Two of the Assassins escape and find Prisoner KSC2-303. One is defeated by The Girl with a log, and the other is confronted by The Man and killed.

Prisoner KSC2-303 attempts to force The Girl to tell him what is going on, believing that she has been hiding secrets from him the whole time. Before explaining thoroughly, The Man finds Prisoner KSC2-303 and The Girl. The Man begins explaining to Prisoner KSC2-303 that they are reincarnations of past lives. The Man plans to use The Girl as a sacrifice to open the portal hidden in The Forest of Resurrection and obtain the power of darkness. Unable to accept his explanations, Prisoner KSC2-303 attempts to kill The Man but is killed himself instead.

The Girl manages to reach Prisoner KSC2-303's body and feeds him a part of her blood before being taken by The Man's minions. During his unconscious state, Prisoner KSC2-303 experiences a flashback of his past life in the 10th century; he is the ally that was too late to save the lone samurai in the opening scene of the movie. He and The Girl (who is revealed to be a princess) are confronted by the mysterious priest (who turns out to be The Man) and his gang. Outnumbered and facing long odds, Pre-Prisoner KSC2-303 reluctantly kills The Girl to stop The Man from obtaining the power of darkness. Enraged, The Man viciously kills Pre-Prisoner KSC2-303. Prisoner KSC2-303 is awakened in the present with the truth fully revealed to him.

The following morning, Prisoner KSC2-303 confronts The Man and his minions for a final showdown. Prisoner KSC2-303 takes on the minions first and wins, leaving only The Man left. Prisoner KSC2-303 decapitates The Man and rescues The Girl, and both make their escape from The Forest of Resurrection.

99 years later, Earth lies in ruin. The reincarnation of The Man travels through the remains of a city, and eventually confronts Prisoner KSC2-303 and the reincarnated versions of The Man's gang (who now work for KSC2-303). The Girl, held against her will, tells The Man that she should have been on his side 99 years earlier. With nothing left to destroy in this world, Prisoner KSC2-303 asks The Man to take him to the Other Side. The Man and Prisoner KSC2-303 charge at each other and engage in battle one more time.

The setting is 1953, during the early days of television broadcast journalism. Edward R. Murrow, along with his news team, producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joseph Wershba, learn of U.S. Air Force officer Milo Radulovich, who is being forcibly discharged because of family members being known communists and his refusal to denounce them.

Interest is piqued when it is found that the compilation of charges at Radulovich's hearing was in a sealed envelope and nobody saw them. Murrow presents the story to CBS News' director, Sig Mickelson, who warns Murrow that the story will bring serious accusations and repercussions to CBS and their sponsors, some of whom have government contracts. He reluctantly allows the story to air, which gains positive responses from the public. Murrow also tries to ease the worries of his colleague, Don Hollenbeck, who is struggling with both the strain of his recent divorce and attacks from newspaper writer Jack O'Brian, who is accusing him of being biased in his news reporting and being a "pinko".

Wershba is then given an envelope suggesting that Murrow has previously interacted with the Soviets and used to be on their payroll. CBS's Chief Executive, William Paley, brings this up with Murrow. He warns him that if any members of his staff are associated with Communism in any way, however remotely, they would have to recuse themselves from Murrow's next story. They were planning to make a direct attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade against Communist infiltration in the U.S. government, which some denounce as a witch hunt. Friendly and Murrow gather their staff together, and when one of the team members voluntarily excuses himself because his ex-wife had attended Communist meetings before they even met, Murrow concludes that this kind of fear is what McCarthy wants. The team stays together and presents the story, which becomes highly praised by the public and the press, with the exception of Jack O'Brian, who continues to attack both Murrow and especially Hollenbeck on their supposed support of communism. Hollenbeck pleads with Murrow to go after O'Brian, but Murrow reluctantly tells him that he cannot attack O'Brian while he is busy going after McCarthy.

As the team turns their focus to a filmed hearing of Annie Lee Moss, a Pentagon communication worker accused of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party, they receive the news that Milo Radulovich is being reinstated by the Air Force, citing no direct evidence supporting any connections with Communism. McCarthy then asks for the opportunity to speak for himself on Murrow's show, which Murrow allows. McCarthy openly accuses Murrow of being a Communist, citing several pieces of evidence that seem to support it. Murrow broadcasts a rebuttal the following week, easily disproving McCarthy's accusations and pointing out that McCarthy didn't do anything to defend himself other than accuse anyone who opposes him as being either a Communist or a Communist sympathizer.

A few days later, the news arrives that the U.S. Senate is investigating McCarthy, which means the imminent end of his crusade. As the team celebrates, Friendly and Murrow learn that Hollenbeck has died by suicide. Paley then tells Murrow and Friendly that their news program's air time is going to be severely cut, citing the high costs of the show's production, along with Murrow's attacks on controversial topics. Also, Joe Wershba and his wife Shirley, who have been concealing their marriage due to CBS forbidding co-workers from being married, are approached by Mickelson, who tells them that everyone knows of their marriage and that he will allow one of them to resign to save face, which Joe agrees to do.

The film is framed by performance of the speech given by Murrow to the Radio and Television News Directors Association at "A Salute to Edward R. Murrow" on October 25, 1958, in which he harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public, so that it does not become only "wires and lights in a box".

Strasbourg 1800

:''Opening Duel with Mayor's Nephew/First Duel: Sabres'' In Strasbourg in 1800, Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud of the French 7th Hussars, a fervent Bonapartist and obsessive duellist, nearly kills the nephew of the city's mayor in a sword duel. Under pressure from the mayor, Brigadier-General Treillard orders one of his staff officers, Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert of the 3rd Hussars, to locate Feraud and place him under house arrest. D'Hubert finds him at the house of Madame de Lyon, a prominent local lady, but when he delivers the order, Feraud takes it as a personal insult. Matters are made worse when Feraud demands of d'Hubert if he would "let them spit on Napoleon" and d'Hubert doesn't reply to Feraud's satisfaction. Upon their reaching his quarters, Feraud challenges d'Hubert to a duel. The result is inconclusive; d'Hubert slashes Feraud's forearm and causes him to fall backwards, hitting his head and knocking himself unconscious, but when d'Hubert goes to assist him he is attacked and facially scratched by Feraud's mistress. As a result of the fight, the general dismisses d'Hubert from his staff and returns him to active duty with his regiment.

Augsburg 1801

:''Second Duel: Small Swords/Third Duel: Heavy Sabres'' The war interrupts the quarrel and the two do not meet again until six months later in Augsburg in 1801. Feraud immediately challenges d'Hubert to another duel with small swords and seriously wounds him. While recovering under the care of his mistress Laura, d'Hubert takes lessons from a fencing master and in the next duel (held in a cellar with heavy sabres), the two men fight each other to a bloody standstill. Soon afterwards, d'Hubert is relieved to learn he has been promoted to captain, as military discipline forbids officers of different ranks from duelling.

Lubeck 1806

: ''Fourth Duel: Sabres on Horseback'' The action moves to 1806 when d'Hubert is serving in Lübeck. He is shocked to hear that the 7th Hussars have arrived in the city and that Feraud is now also a captain. Aware that in two weeks time he is to be promoted to major, d'Hubert attempts to slip away but is spotted by Feraud's perpetual second. Feraud challenges him to another duel, to be fought on horseback with sabres as "a compliment to the cavalry." Before the duel, d'Hubert happens upon his former mistress Laura. Initially a happy reunion, she chastises him for continuing to duel Feraud, saying that he will eventually be killed, before bidding him a tearful farewell. The duel is attended by many personnel from the military, especially cavalry, and a breakfast party is held by the spectators on the side while observing the duel.

In the encounter, d'Hubert slashes Feraud's forehead; with blood flowing into his eyes, Feraud can no longer see to fight. D'Hubert considers himself the victor and leaves the field ebullient, jumping his horse over a hay cart. Soon afterwards, Feraud's regiment is posted to Spain while d'Hubert remains stationed in Northern Europe.

Russia 1812

: ''Duel disrupted'' Six years later, in 1812, the pair (both now colonels) chance upon each other during the French Army's retreat from Moscow, but are forced to cooperate after being separated from the main force. Russian Cossacks attack, forcing d'Hubert and Feraud to fight together instead of against each other. After they have driven off the enemy with their pistols, prompting d'Hubert to suggest (perhaps sarcastically) that their next duel be fought with pistols, d'Hubert offers Feraud a celebratory drink from his flask, but Feraud silently turns and walks away. Making his way back on his own, d'Hubert comes across Feraud's perpetual second, frozen to death in the snow.

Tours 1814

Two years later, after Napoleon's exile to Elba, d'Hubert is now a brigadier-general recovering from a leg wound at the home of his sister Leonie in Tours. She introduces him to Adele, the niece of her neighbour, and the couple fall in love. Colonel Perteley, a Bonapartist agent, attempts to recruit d'Hubert as rumours of Napoleon's imminent return from exile abound, but d'Hubert refuses. When Feraud, now a Bonapartist brigadier-general, learns this, he declares he knew d'Hubert was a traitor and that he (d'Hubert) "never loved the Emperor", which was why he (Feraud) had originally challenged him.

Paris 1816

: ''Final Duel: Flintlock Pistols'' After Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo, d'Hubert marries Adele and joins the army of Louis XVIII. Feraud is arrested and is expected to be executed for his part in the Hundred Days war. Learning of this, d'Hubert calls upon the Minister of Police Joseph Fouché and persuades him to spare Feraud (with d'Hubert requesting that his part in the reprieve be kept secret). Feraud is paroled to live in a certain province under police supervision, while d'Hubert and Adele prepare for the birth of their first child.

After Feraud learns of d'Hubert's promotion in the new French Army, he sends two of his former officers to d'Hubert with a challenge for a flintlock pistol duel. Reluctantly, d'Hubert agrees to the terms. The two men meet in a ruined château on a wooded hill, entering the woods from opposite sides. However, Feraud is tricked into rapidly discharging both his pistols and d'Hubert catches him at point blank range. But instead of shooting him, d'Hubert says that the rules of single combat dictate that he now owns Feraud's life, and that from now on in all future dealings with d'Hubert, Feraud must "conduct [himself] as a dead man". From that moment on, Feraud can never again challenge d'Hubert to a duel.

With that, d'Hubert returns to his life and happy marriage. The film ends with a solitary Feraud gazing at the horizon in silent contemplation as he faces ending his days in provincial exile, locked away like his beloved Emperor, and unable to pursue the obsession of dueling that has consumed him for so many years. The scene references paintings of the former emperor in his South Atlantic exile (e.g. ''Napoleon on Saint Helena'' by Franz Josef Sandmann).

The manual included with the game elaborates on the story further, stating that Sumner is the good king of the eight realms and presides over them from his tower. The tower contained portals to all the realms for his easy access to them. It also stated that Garm, his younger brother, jealous of his power and status, searched for years for the 13 Runestones. Upon finding 12 after much toil of searching, he became impatient, and released Skorne then and there. Unfortunately, he was not able to control the demon without the 13th Runestone. Skorne summoned his minions and sent them through the portals in the tower to conquer the realms. Sumner, who was away at the time, returned to the tower, only to see the demon Skorne using it for his own evil gain. This infuriated Sumner, and he angrily engaged in battle with Skorne after sealing all the portals. Skorne was "no match" for Sumner's power, according to the manual, and he retreated into a deserted temple through Sumner's tower. Skorne shattered the enchanted stained glass window that was the only gateway to the temple, and gave one shard to each of his most powerful minions (the bosses of the game). He also scattered the 12 assembled Runestones across the various worlds. The temple from that point on is referred to as the Desecrated Temple.

The game is divided up into worlds, each containing a number of levels, all accessible from Sumner's tower.

The player's first objective is to beat all the levels, vanquishing the bosses of the eight originally available worlds. The player must collect crystals scattered about the levels to deactivate Sumner's protective shielding and gain access to new worlds and more levels. Upon defeating the bosses, the stained-glass window is slowly restored, and the light pouring from it reveals a special portal in the tower. This portal takes the player to the 9th world, the Desecrated Temple. The player must fight through a single level packed with enemies. Upon exiting, the player is automatically transported to Skorne's chamber. Here the player has to defeat the demon Skorne. After his defeat, he retreats into the Underworld. The player must then collect 12 Runestones from the previous 8 worlds. Once that is accomplished, their power reveals another special portal in the tower, leading the player into the 10th world, the Underworld. There, after beating a single level, the player is automatically transported to the battle with True Skorne. The player defeats True Skorne, banishing him from the eight realms forever. But the war is not over. Garm absorbs the fading remnants of Skorne's power, becoming a huge, immensely powerful statue of Skorne. He forms an army and unleashes an assault upon Sumner's tower. The player's final goal is to beat the 11th and final world, the Battlegrounds. After beating the third level of this world and collecting the 13th Runestone that is hidden within it, the fourth and final special portal is revealed in the tower. This portal takes the player to Garm's Citadel, where the final battle of the game takes place.

''The Bloodstone Wars'' consists of a Battlesystem scenario depicting a battle to rid a city of a bandit horde.

The module is designed for 1st edition ''AD&D'' and makes considerable use of some rules that were removed in 2nd edition, notably the assassin character class. There are two main parts of the module, the War itself which includes preparation and fighting out Battlesystem battles, and a small "dungeon" adventure which could occur at several points of the war. While the module provides alternatives for those who do not want to use miniatures to fight out the battles, the Battlesystem scenarios take a considerable portion of the module information.

Samandahl "Sam" Rey was a former soldier for the Planetary Union. He and his good friend Roiya Sintor were laid off from the army due to cutbacks, and became mercenaries. The pair were "vacationing" on the pleasure world of Tanipal when the series began. While on Tanipal, Sam and Roiya meet the beautiful Zanniati Oribatta and her bodyguard, an orange eyed-man named JeMerik Meer, these four would be inseparable for the rest of the series.

During that initial meeting, a Saurian assassin squad arrived looking for Sam. Sam had previously made an enemy of Tchlusarud, the youngest Saurian prince. The prince desperately wanted Sam dead. In the ensuing fight, Sam was tackled by an odd Saurian with glowing orange eyes. The Saurian cryptically said to Sam, "You shall find them, gather them, and lead them" and branded him with a swirling red and yellow mark: the sigil. The saurian then disappeared. While Sam was distracted, one of the attacking Saurians impaled Roiya with his weapon, fatally injuring her.

The four retreated to Sam's ship, ''The Bitterluck'', where they failed to save Roiya's life. In a fit of rage, Sam activated his sigil, destroying a large part of the city in the process.

The owner of Camp Sasquatch, Giddy, tries to keep his camp open after Hershy, the owner of Camp Patton, located just across the lake, wants to buy the entire lake for Camp Patton. Giddy suggests settling the issue with the traditional end-of-the-summer boxing match over rights to the lake. A tough, inner city punk named Flash is at Camp Sasquatch for community service as a counselor-in-training. Flash is recruited to box in order to save Sasquatch. Cheryl, a naive teen on whom Flash has set his sights, has never seen a "pinky", so her fellow teenage girl campers arrange for her to see a man naked. Meanwhile, the campers try to hide an alien from another planet who has been dropped off by his parents to learn Earth culture. He is nicknamed "Meathead" by the kids after repeating one of them saying "Me, Ted".

At the South Park Farmers' Market, Father Maxi holds a memorial service for nine people who died the previous day when they were run over by an elderly driver. The proceedings are then interrupted when another elderly driver plows straight into the market and kills several more people. The news covers the recent rash of senior-related driving tragedies, mentioning that the DMV was planning to suspend driver's licenses from senior citizens over 70 years of age. Grandpa Marsh and the other seniors have a meeting at the community center to decide what to do, struggling to remember what they were there for in the first place. When the meeting is over, all the seniors are driving on the road at the same time. Randy manages to save the boys, who were playing street hockey, and they flee from the many cars recklessly wandering the streets. They hide in an old abandoned house.

Because of the recent incidents, the state of Colorado demands that all seniors turn in their driver's licenses, much to the seniors' anger. Grandpa Marsh drives anyway to pick up his new Hover Round and makes the boys accompany him, with the boys theorizing they will be safer if they are ''in'' the car. After Marsh causes other cars to swerve off the road and crash, Officer Barbrady pulls the car over and takes Grandpa Marsh to jail. There, Grandpa Marsh calls the AARP to send their aid. During a class session later on, Mr. Garrison notices a large number of old people dropping out of the sky. The AARP has airdropped reinforcements and they begin taking hostages, liberating their colleagues from the retirement home and begin to take over the town.

The military arrives and the seniors list their demands: their driver's licenses, more money for Medicare and keeping kids from skateboarding on the sidewalk. The AARP leader realizes they could even take over the whole country, and demonstrates that they are willing to kill hostages and soldiers to get their demands, but Marvin feels this goes too far beyond their original demands. The children find their parents under lockup. Randy tells the boys that the seniors were able to organize so effectively because they get up earlier than everyone else, representing an advantage over their offspring, who prefer to sleep late. Randy then realizes that the children get up almost as early as the seniors, and are the only hope for getting the town back. Randy tells the boys to hide in the woods and find a way to fight, shouting through the fence, ''"Avenge me!"''

After fleeing, the boys resolve to board up the Country Kitchen Buffet restaurant in order to cut the seniors off from their collective food supply. The AARP's plans are thwarted when they start collapsing from hunger outside of the locked Country Kitchen Buffet. The military takes the town back and arrests the AARP. Marvin is turned back over to his family, but when Randy admonishes him for his actions, Stan rebukes Randy, telling him that the condescending manner in which he treated Grandpa like a child is one of the main causes that led to the crisis in the first place. Stan also tells his grandfather that he should be proud to be a senior, but he should realize that he is a killing machine when he is driving, an assessment that Grandpa accepts. As the reconciled family goes home, Stan mutters ''"Dude, I hate my family"''.

The home of Charles Kessler (Bela Lugosi) is beset by a series of unsolved murders. Kessler, who lives with his daughter and servants since his wife left him, is shown to be the murderer, unbeknownst to himself. His wife (Betty Compson), who became brain-damaged in a car accident not long after leaving him, has been visiting the grounds of the house and the sight of her through his window puts Kessler into a trance-like state which makes him homicidal. Ralph Dickson, the fiancée of Kessler's daughter, is convicted and executed for one of the murders. His twin brother Paul arrives and, through a series of events, including Kessler's wife finally entering the house and being seen by others, Kessler is seen to go into the trance and the mystery is revealed.

Alumnae of Mount Holyoke College (Wasserstein's alma mater) meet for lunch one day in 1978 and talk about their time together in college. The play is thus a series of flashbacks to the 1972-1973 school year as seven seniors and one freshman try to "discover themselves" in the wake of second-wave feminism.

Four years ago, a gigantic cylindrical object entered the Solar System. The International Space Agency (ISA) named it Rama and sent an expedition named "Newton Team" to investigate. They soon discovered that Rama is a hollow, rotating cylinder with enormous cities, populated by other alien species that have been collected during its travels: Myrmicats (seen in images but never encountered in the game), Avians, Octospiders. The "native" beings of Rama are the Biots (biological robots) constructed by the aliens who built Rama, and are a part of it.

As in many ''Myst''-like adventure games, the player is an anonymous, silent protagonist—an astronaut who is assigned to replace the late Valeriy Borzov who died during the mission under mysterious conditions, as the introduction explains.

The player at first must investigate the area known as "the Plains" and find items that will help solve the logical/mathematical puzzles. Two Raman cities, nicknamed "London" and "Bangkok" by the expedition crew, will be visited in order to learn more about the species that accompany the astronauts. To proceed, the player must solve "complete with the shape which is logically missing" puzzles as well as mathematic exercises in the octal and hexadecimal number systems.

After the Plains have been explored (actually when the player has managed to reach and obtain all the useful inventory items), Rama changes towards an impact course with Earth and a special team inside the expedition (originally consisting of Heilmann, Borzov and O'Toole) proceeds to the "Project Trinity" and arms a bomb network to destroy Rama and its inhabitants. The player then proceeds to the "New York" island within the Cylindrical Sea which houses one of the bombs. While there, the player learns that Rama's course has diverted away from Earth and is no longer a risk, but the bombs have already been armed to explode in six hours. Unfortunately, O'Toole, who knows the code to disarm it, is lost, and during the six in-game hours, the player has to interpret the code and find the bomb in order to disarm it.

The epilogue implies a sequel, which was already scheduled for production, but was never completed.

Characters

Many of the characters the player will meet first appeared in ''Rama II''. Characters are played by live actors. There are several hints throughout the game about the characters' relations that point to a secondary backplot. There are also some characters who are never met but are referred to elsewhere in the game:

Shigeru Takagishi (Scientist) (played by Jim Ishida) David Brown (Mission Commander) (played by Robert Nadir) Francesca Sabatini (Video Journalist) (played by Tiffany Helm) Otto Heilmann (Chief Security Officer) (played by Sean Griffin) Michael O'Toole (Codemaster) (played by Robert Henry) Richard Wakefield (Chief Engineer) (played by Stephan Weyte) Reggie Wilson (Print Journalist) (played by Donald Willis) Irina Turgenyev (Career Cosmonaut) (Voiced by Sharon Mann) Nicole des Jardins (Medical Officer) (played by Amy Hunter) Puck (little robot) (played by Kevin Donovan) Falstaff (little robot) (played by Edward F. D'Arms) Hiro Yamanaka (IBI Agent) Janos Tabori (IBI Agent) Valeriy Borzov (IBI Agent; Deceased before the game and replaced by the player character)

The play takes place the day before the outbreak of the Trojan War inside the gates of the city of Troy. It follows the struggle of the disillusioned Trojan military commander Hector, supported by the women of Troy, as he tries to avoid war with the Greeks. Hector's wife Andromache is pregnant, and this reinforces his desire for peace. Along with his worldly-wise mother Hecuba, Hector leads the anti-war argument and tries to persuade his brother Paris to return Paris's beautiful but vapid captive Helen to Greece. Giraudoux presents Helen as not only an object of desire, but the epitome of destiny itself. She claims that she can see the future by seeing what is coloured in her mind, and she sees war. For Hector, Helen means only war and destruction. But for the other Trojan men, led by the poet Demokos, she represents an opportunity for glory; and they are eager to have others fight a war in her name. The peace agreement Hector negotiates with the visiting Greek commander Ulysses, is no match for Demokos' deliberate lies, and at the end of the play, the seer Cassandra's cynical prediction that war cannot be avoided has been proven right.

The story is about Mei Yeung-Sheng, a lustful scholar (Lawrence Ng), who dares to challenge the moral teachings of the Sack Monk. The monk attempts to lecture the scholar that spiritual enlightenment transcends the passions of the flesh but the scholar, who enjoys women, doesn't agree. However, Master Iron Doors, the most powerful man in the town, marries his daughter Huk-Yeung (Amy Yip) to the scholar. The daughter is a virgin and has been taught that sex is dirty.

Choi Kun-Lun, the flying thief (Lo Lieh), tells the scholar that stealing other men's wives requires good lovemaking skills and equipment. He promises to help the scholar only if he has a horse's penis. Of course, the thief does not think it is possible, until the scholar returns one day, indeed, with a horse's penis attached as his own. Apparently, the scholar met a doctor (a cameo by Hong Kong comedian Kent Cheng) who was able to replace anatomical parts.

The doctor managed to transplant a horse's penis to replace the scholar's meager one. Armed with his new 20-inch penis, the scholar goes on a sexual rampage, not caring if he is seducing other men's wives or is nearly caught in the process. Meanwhile, Huk-Yeung, after experiencing the joys of sex, becomes sexually frustrated. She tries masturbating with paintbrushes but is left unsatisfied until she has an affair with Wong Chut (Elvis Tsui), the husband of one of the wives the scholar seduced, who is now working as Yeung-Sheng's gardener. She becomes pregnant and runs away with him, who out of revenge sells her to a brothel. Mistress Ku, the madam (Carrie Ng), assaults her leading to a miscarriage, originally unwilling she is coerced into becoming a prostitute and comes to enjoy her new life.

The scholar has become frail and sick due to too much sex (involving two sisters-in-law who are bisexual and into S&M). He goes to the brothel for treatment, where he is offered the top courtesan. At first, husband and wife cannot recognize each other; she looks at his penis and thinks it cannot be her husband's because his is small; he cannot recognize her because his eyesight is failing.

While they are having sex, he takes a close look at her figure and nipple and recognizes her. To her dismay, he screams, shouts and calls her a disgrace. To his dismay, she runs off and hangs herself. Yeung-Sheng, completely broken, goes back to the monk to ask for forgiveness.

Oh Pil-seung is a free-spirited, uneducated and somewhat lazy ordinary guy. One day, he gets identified as the long-lost grandson of a wealthy CEO and finds himself heir apparent to a top-level logistics company. Pil-seung struggles to rise to the challenge of his new responsibilities with the help of his stoic and perfectly efficient secretary Noh Yoo-jung, but his snobbish rivals and detractors gleefully wait for him to screw up.

Bong Soon-young is the manager of a large discount store, and a veteran of disastrous relationships. Always wearing her heart on her sleeve, she falls for the stable, well-educated, and intelligent Yoon Jae-woong, who looks to be a perfect catch. But then she meets Pil-seung, who gets in the way of their romance. Initially annoyed at his boorish personality, as Soon-young gets to know Pil-seung, she begins to appreciate what a decent, warm-hearted human being he is.

Elsie, a popular nightclub singer, refuses to go out with the customers at the request of the white owner of the club. The owner decides to get Benjamin, the black manager of the club, to talk to Elsie and try to persuade her to cooperate. Benjamin refuses and quits his job. Benjamin tells Elsie of his conversation with the owner and persuades Elsie to stay on because she is popular and can make a lot of money, but he warns her to be careful. Elsie stays, but still refuses to date the customers. Later, the owner hires John and Clyde, Elsie's uncles, to replace Benjamin. One evening, after the club closes, Elsie goes home and finds at her horror that her aunt, who lives with her, is dead. She calls the police and they discover that her aunt has been murdered by a single blow in the head. The police question Elsie and do not believe her story, so they arrest her for the death of her aunt.

John and Clyde testify that they saw Elsie on the night of the murder leaving the club for a short time and later returning. Mrs. Green, the sister of Clyde and John, tells the police that Elsie bought a large life insurance policy on her aunt, with herself as the beneficiary. With this evidence, Elsie is convicted of the crime and sent to prison. Benjamin, who has now become a detective on the police force, and Detective Wanzer, who is a close friend of Elsie's, do not believe that she is guilty and set out to find the real killer. After some investigation, they learn that Mrs. Green's husband was actually in love with Elsie's aunt. With jealousy as a possible motive, Benjamin and Wanzer now suspect that Mrs. Green and her two sons are connected with the crime.

One night they confront John and accuse him of the murder. John refuses to confess, so Benjamin and Wanzer take him to Tolston's Castle, which is supposed to be haunted. There they threaten to tie him up and leave him at the mercy of the ghosts. Terrified, John decides to tell all. He reveals the story of his sister's family, and tells them how her husband was tricked into marrying her. He told them that Mrs. Green's husband was in love with Elsie's aunt when they lived in the South. The husband, after realizing the trick, ran north, but Mrs. Green pursued him, and her two brothers threatened him to get back together with her. Although he stayed at home after that, Mrs. Green's husband continued to see Elsie's aunt and threatened to leave Mrs. Green.

John continues, and admits that he and Clyde lied about seeing Elsie leave the club on the night of the murder. Furthermore, he tells that early in the evening on the night of the murder Mrs. Green found a note left by her husband. The note stated that, out of despair, he had decided to kill Elsie's aunt and then take his own life by jumping off a bridge into the river. John also relates that it was Mrs. Green's plan to frame Elsie for the crime. The police recover Mrs. Green's husband's body from the river, verifying John's story. On this new evidence, Elsie is granted a pardon by the Governor and released from prison. Out of deep gratitude and love, Elsie marries Benjamin, who has been in love with her all the time.

Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a 16-year-old middle-class schoolboy who is intelligent and good-looking, but un-athletic and introverted. Bullied at school and misunderstood at home, his only confidante is his neighbor and best friend, Linda (Charlotte Brittain). Keeping his sexual orientation hidden from everyone else, he cruises in public toilets. He is surprised to find the school jock, John Dixon (Brad Gorton) also cruising, but John denies that he is gay.

At a school dance, Steven gains a friend after he comforts Jessica (Stacy Hart), following her argument with her boyfriend, Kevin (Tim Harris), who is also his bully. When he returns home, John follows him and confides about his own sexual orientation. They start a relationship.

Word around the school spreads about someone being gay, and John fears that Steven has been telling people. In order to maintain his status, John beats up Steven in front of his friends. Steven announces in front of assembly that he is gay, and looks to John for support, who ignores him. John apologizes for beating him up and says he loves him, but as he is too afraid to come out, Steven breaks up with him, wishing him happiness.

This French language film tells the story of 20-year-old Loic, who works by day in a chocolate factory, and by night cruises the internet for sex with older men. His life is a series of pointless anonymous sexual encounters until he meets one man who appears to be interested in him for himself, and not just his body.

Loic's journey to self-awareness is told through a series of episodic events, such as the suicide of his best friend, his growing infatuation with a local team's soccer star, a car accident and subsequent hospitalisation which uncomfortably reunites him with his parents. At the end of the film he realizes that he can be his own person and he recites a list of things he will never do in order to fit in and belong.

Lantier, the "human beast" of the title, has a hereditary madness and has several times in his life wanted to murder women. At the beginning of the story he is an engine driver, in control of his engine, "La Lison." His relationship with "La Lison" is almost sexual and provides some degree of control over his mania.

As a result of a chance remark, Roubaud suspects that Séverine has had an affair some years earlier, with Grandmorin, one of the directors of the railway company, who had acted as her patron and who had helped Roubaud get his job. He forces a confession out of her and makes her write a letter to Grandmorin, telling him to take a particular train that evening, the same train Roubaud and Séverine are taking back to Le Havre.

Meanwhile, Lantier, who is not working while his engine is being repaired, goes to visit his Aunt Phasie who lives in an isolated house by the railway. On leaving he meets his cousin, Flore, with whom he has had a longstanding mutual attraction. After a brief conversation with her his passions become inflamed and he is on the verge of raping her but this in turn brings on his homicidal mania. He has a desire to stab her but just about controls himself and rushes away. Finding himself beside the railway track as the train from Paris passes, he sees, in a split second, a figure on the train holding a knife, bent over another person. Shortly after, he finds the body of Grandmorin beside the track with his throat cut. It is also discovered that he has been robbed of his watch and some money.

An investigation is launched and Roubaud and Séverine are prime suspects, as they were on the train at the time and were due to inherit some property from Grandmorin. The authorities never suspect their true motive. Lantier sees Roubaud while waiting to be interviewed and identifies him as the murderer on the train, but when questioned, says he cannot be sure. The investigating magistrate, believing that the killer was Cabuche, a carter who lived nearby, dismisses Roubaud and Séverine. The murder remains unsolved.

Despite being cleared of suspicion, the marriage of Roubaud and Séverine declines. Zola casually tosses in a remark that the money and watch stolen from Grandmorin was hidden behind the skirting board in their apartment, thus confirming the reader's suspicion that Roubaud was the murderer all along. Séverine and Lantier begin an affair, at first clandestinely but then more blatantly until they are caught ''in flagrante delicto'' by Roubaud. Despite his previous jealousy, Roubaud seems unmoved and spends less and less time at home and turns to gambling and drink.

Séverine admits to Lantier that Roubaud committed the murder and that together they disposed of the body. Lantier feels the return of his desire to kill and one morning leaves the apartment to kill the first woman he meets. After having picked a victim, he is seen by someone he knows, and so abandons the idea. He then realizes that he has the desire no longer. It is his relationship with Séverine and her association with the murder that has abated his desire.

The relationship between Roubaud and his wife deteriorates when she realizes that he has taken the last of the hidden money. Lantier has the opportunity to invest money in a friend's business venture in New York. Séverine suggests they use the money from the sale of the property they inherited from Grandmorin. Roubaud is now the only obstacle to this new life and they decide to kill him. They approach him one night when he is working as a watchman at the station, hoping that the murder will be attributed to robbers. At the last moment however, Lantier loses his nerve.

Cousin Flore, meanwhile, sees Lantier pass her house every day on the train and noticing Séverine with him, realizes they are having an affair and becomes insanely jealous, wishing to kill them both. She hatches a plot to remove a rail from the line in order to cause a derailment of his train. One morning, she seizes an opportunity, when Cabuche leaves his wagon and horses unattended, near the railway line. She leads the horses onto the line, shortly before the train arrives. In the resulting crash, numerous people are killed and Lantier is seriously injured. Séverine, however, remains unhurt. Wracked by guilt, Flore commits suicide by walking in front of a train.

Séverine nurses Lantier back to health. She convinces him that they must kill Roubaud and Lantier finally gives in, and they concoct a plan to get away with it completely. However, Lantier's mania returns, and when Séverine tries to make love with him, just before Roubaud is due to arrive, he murders her. The unfortunate Cabuche is the first to find her body and is accused of killing her at the behest of Roubaud. Both are put on trial for this and the murder of Grandmorin. They are both convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lantier begins driving again, but his new engine is just a number to him. He begins an affair with his fireman's girlfriend.

The novel ends as Lantier is driving a train carrying troops towards the front at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The resentment between Lantier and his fireman breaks out as the train is travelling at full steam. Both fall to their deaths as the train full of happy, drunken, patriotic and doomed soldiers hurtles driverless through the night.

A nameless and conflicted Catholic priest is a fugitive in an unnamed Latin American state where religion is outlawed. He tries to escape the country but his efforts are thwarted by a crazy Native and other circumstances. He returns to his village. Another fugitive, a murderous North American bandit dubbed "El Gringo", has already arrived in town. The crazy Native and the police troops soon follow. While Maria Dolores- a beautiful Indian woman, entertains the men, the priest escapes from the back. As the priest escapes the bandit "El Gringo" holds off the troops in a gun battle. He ends up wounded. The priest and Maria Dolores escape. In another town the priest seeks sanctuary but the crazy Native tracks him down and tells him that "El Gringo" is dying and he must return to give him last rites. He is dying but refuses the confession. Of course, it was a trap by the crazy Native and the head lieutenant, who has been hunting him. The priest is captured and sentenced to death, but forgives the informant for betraying him. The priest's execution by firing squad brings an outpouring of public grief and shows the authorities that it is impossible to stamp out religion as long as it exists in people's hearts and minds. Even the police lieutenant acknowledges his own faith. In a church several residents pray for peace when there is a knock at the door. A man stands at the door announcing that he is the new priest for the village.

Danny Kaye plays a double role as a pair of estranged "super-identical twins". Despite their almost indistinguishable looks, the two have very different personalities. Buster Dingle, who goes by the stage name "Buzzy Bellew", is a loud and goofy performer at the Pelican Club, while Edwin Dingle is a studious, quiet bookworm writing a history book. The two brothers have not seen each other for years.

Buster becomes the witness to a murder committed by mob boss "Ten Grand" Jackson, and is promptly murdered himself. He comes back as a ghost, calling on his long-lost brother for help to bring the killer to justice. As a result, the shy Edwin must take his brother's place until after his testimony is given.

In the meantime, he has to dodge Jackson's hitmen and fill in for Buster at the nightclub. To help him out, Buster who cannot be seen or heard by anyone but Edwin possesses him, with outrageously goofy results.

Edwin, possessed by Buzzy, performs a bit where he pretends to be a famous Russian singer with an allergy to flowers. A vase of flowers is nonetheless placed on a table near him, and his song, "Otchi Chornya", is frequently interrupted by his loud and goofy-sounding sneezes.

The situation is further complicated by the love interests of the brothers; whilst the murdered Buster was engaged to entertainer Midge Mallon, Edwin is admired by librarian Ellen Shanley.

In the end, Ellen marries Edwin, whilst Midge consoles herself by marrying the owner of the Pelican Club.

Tom Stein is a celebrity agent, representing a handful of Hollywood actors, the most famous of which is Michelle Beck, an earnest but brainless blonde who wants to break into serious acting despite having very limited talent. Carl Lupo, Tom's boss, tells him to drop all his clients in order to take on Joshua. Joshua, as it turns out, is a Yherjak, an amorphous ameboid species that communicate through olfactory transmission, and smell horrifically awful, that have traveled to Earth in an asteroid to make first contact. Realizing they fit the Hollywood movie description of an alien monster, the aliens contacted Carl surreptitiously and created Joshua through an amalgam of Yherjak and Carl's thoughts.

Joshua hides at Tom's house, and fuses with Ralph, an elderly dog that Tom had been caring for, after Ralph suffered a heart attack. In order to give Joshua something to do, he begins hiring Joshua the dog out for roles, and he instantly becomes the most wanted canine actor in Hollywood, given his apparent abilities.

Later, after a disastrous reading for a part in a Holocaust drama movie, Michelle is accidentally smothered while making a special effect mask for a sci-fi movie. Realizing that the Yherjak could heal her by bonding, similar to how Joshua bonded with Ralph the dog, he conspires to take her to the ship. This causes an uproar, as bonding with a sentient member of a species is the most atrocious act among the Yherjak, and also that Michelle committed suicide. Upon further inspection, and learning that Michelle had suffocated by accident, the Yherjak agree and Michelle reemerges, now a mental amalgam of Michelle, Joshua, Carl, and Ralph the dog.

Tom stumbles on the idea of casting Michelle in the Holocaust film ''Hard Memories''. After meeting Tom's grandmother Sarah Rosenthal, a Holocaust survivor, Michelle absorbs her memories and delivers a blistering audition. The movie is an unparalleled success, and Michelle wins an Academy Award for Best Actress. During her acceptance speech, she gradually asserts her normal, clear gelatinous shape, while making a call for acceptance regardless of appearance or form. The Yherjak, revealed at last, are widely accepted.

The story is set at a local movie theater. The short opens with a view of the building's exterior. A sign advertises the double feature of the day, ''36 Hours to Kill'' (1936) and ''His Brother's Wife'' (1936). The camera moves to another sign, advertising the midnight show. A total of 15 features for the price of 15 cents. The features offered reportedly include "rejected shorts". The camera next moves to the interior of the building, where an audience of cartoon animals has taken seat. At first two viewers stand up and change seats, likely seeking a better viewing position. This introduces a scene where every other member of the audience decides to change seats, resulting in constant re-positioning.

The film show begins with a newsreel called "Goofy-Tone News", produced by "Warmer Bros.". The production company of the newsreel is a pun on Warner Bros., while the newsreel itself parodies ''Movietone News''. The slogan of Movietone, ''Sees All, Hears All, Knows All'' is parodied as ''Sees All - Knows Nothing''. Presenter "Dole Promise" (Lowell Thomas) has trouble recalling his own name, and someone whispers it to him. The first news item is that the United States are involved in a shipbuilding race and have just constructed the longest ocean liner. The depicted ship is huge and actually covers part of the Atlantic Ocean. Its "journeys" between London and New York City actually require only the slightest of movements. The next news item features "Heddie Camphor" (Eddie Cantor) interviewing Little Oscar, a long-lost insect. Oscar rants in a high-pitched voice, and the interviewer translates for the audience: Oscar would rather stay lost.

As the newsreel continues, the camera's attention shifts to the audience. An usher points out an empty seat to a late-arriving gentleman. But the new viewer discovers that his seat only allows him to view the screen through a strange angle. He moves himself to a new seat, with no better results. Having nowhere else to go, the viewer keeps his seat and sulks in frustration. Elsewhere, a hippo has to leave his seat for some reason. He passes through a row of seats on his way to the corridor, pressing on a lot of fellow viewers while asking them to pardon him.

On screen, another newsreel begins: ''Nit-Wit News'', featuring "Who Dehr" (Lew Lehr). His news story takes place in the town of Boondoggle, Missouri, where the bite of a mad dog has had strange effects on the population. This segment depicts townspeople acting like dogs, the mayor fighting with an actual dog over a bone, and matronly socialite Mrs. Ben Astorville acting as a pampered dog, albeit one still served by a butler. As Dehr concludes his report, he is himself bitten by one of the affected townspeople. Back in the theater, the hippo returns to his seat, pressing on his fellow viewers again.

Following the newsreels, the next part of the program is a sing-along. Maestro "Stickoutski" (Leopold Stokowski) plays his "fertilizer" (Wurlitzer pipe organ), while lyrics appear on screen for the audience to follow in singing. The lyrics are accompanied by illustrations of what they describe. The song of the day is "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter". In a gag, an irrelevant sign is depicted among the lyrics, and the audience sings its message: "please do not spit on the floor".

Afterwards, the main feature is presented, with a parody of the Leo the Lion (MGM) logo who crows like a rooster instead of roaring at the start. A parody of ''The Petrified Forest'' (1936) entitled ''The Petrified Florist'' is then shown featuring Bette Savis (Bette Davis) and Lester Coward (Leslie Howard), with rather long cast credits (the hero (Lester Coward), the shero (Bette Savis), rich man (John P Sockefeller), poor man (John Dough), beggar man (Kismet), thief (Oph Bagdad), doctor (Jekyll), lawyer (Ima Shyster), then repeats: poor man, beggar man, thief, doctor, lawyer several times). The film opens with "Coward" attempting to secure transportation via hitchhiking while reading a book. Meanwhile, in the theater, a donkey member of the audience chooses this moment to start acting as a hawker. He starts advertising various food items that he is selling in a loud voice, which results in the audience kicking him out of the building.

On screen, Howard makes his way to a desert inn and introduces himself to the waitress, Davis. When she figures him for a poet, Howard attempts to recite something. He gives a mangled rendition of ''Mary Had a Little Lamb'' (1830). In the theater, a baby goose is seated next to his father and keeps annoying the parent through constantly speaking. Either asking questions about the film they are viewing, asking for a drink of water, or asking to see a cartoon. The constant speaking annoys other audience members, who try to silence the child by intimidation. When the father protests, he is punched in the face. He in turn attempts to slap his annoying kid, who runs away.

The unsupervised child makes its way to the projection room and starts toying with the movie projector. He/she accidentally speeds up the film, then has it going backwards. Realizing the damage it has caused, the child attempts to fix the projector. But it is soon caught within the machine. The film ends with the child covered in film reels and struggling to break free.

Activision executive Jim Levy introduced ''Hacker'' to reporters by pretending that something had gone wrong during his attempt to connect on line to company headquarters to demonstrate a new game. After several attempts he logged into a mysterious non-Activision computer, before explaining, "That, ladies and gentlemen, is the game". The player assumes the role of a hacker, a person experienced in breaking into secure computer systems, who accidentally acquires access to a non-public system. The game was shipped with no information on how to play, thus building the concept that the player did hack into a system.

In 27 short chapters, arranged in a 3 × 3 × 3 pattern, the title character makes philosophical observations about the world around him. Calvino describes a man on a quest to quantify complex phenomena in a search for fundamental truths on the nature of being.

The first section is concerned chiefly with visual experience; the second with anthropological and cultural themes; the third with speculations about larger questions such as the cosmos, time, and infinity. This thematic triad is mirrored in the three subsections of each section, and the three chapters in each subsection.

For example, chapter 1.2.3, "The infinite lawn" ("Il prato infinito") has elements of all three themes, and shows the progress of the book in miniature. It encompasses very detailed observations of the various plants growing in Mr Palomar's lawn, an investigation of the symbolism of the lawn as a marker of culture versus nature, the problem of categorizing weeds, the problem of the actual extent of the lawn, the problem of how we perceive elements and collections of those elements ... These thoughts and others run seamlessly together, so by the end of the chapter we find Mr Palomar extending his mind far beyond his garden, and contemplating the nature of the universe itself.

Miss Jones, a missionary, lives with her brother in the Alas Islands. They are scandalised by the presence on the islands of Ginger Ted, a drunkard and womanizing scoundrel.

Miss Jones travels to an outlying island to treat an appendicitis case. She is horrified to find that Ginger Ted is also on board the boat on which she returns. The boat breaks down en route and they are forced to spend the night on a small island. Miss Jones is certain that Ginger Ted means to rape her as soon as the sun goes down. When morning comes and her virtue is still intact, she is convinced that he has had a change of heart and that he is, after all, a good man. Ginger Ted himself is outraged by this suggestion; it never occurred to him to rape Miss Jones.

Subsequently there is a cholera epidemic. Miss Jones persuades Ginger Ted to accompany her as she travels the islands to render treatment. He returns a non-drinking missionary, engaged to Miss Jones.

A fascist organization with roots in the Spanish Civil War, The Black Order Brigade, commits an act of terror in a small Aragonese village. All villagers are executed. The English journalist Pritchard, who once fought against the rebel faction during the civil war, decides to take revenge. He succeeds in assembling nine of his former comrades from the 15th International Brigade. One of them is now working for the Mossad in Tel-Aviv, another one is a rich screenwriter in Hollywood. There's an Italian judge, a famous Polish writer, a Philosophy teacher in Germany and a priest in Spain, among others. They all meet again after so many years; they are old, sick and weak, but full of passions and memories of the past.

The chase starts in Spain, where the local contact is killed in a bomb attack (attributed to the infamous Brigade). The group then travels around Europe trying to locate the fascist paramilitary old-timer gang. A small group of elderly people hunts another group of people at the same age, and it unravels a showdown with the past and the present.

The show depicts the daily lives of Dave and Vicky and their three children, Hillary, Larry, and Mike, on Long Island, New York, dealing with normal family issues. Dave is a middle class Jewish insurance salesman. He is often portrayed as insensitive and cynical, and sometimes as a paranoid, overprotective and hypocritical bigot. His family (especially Larry) find it difficult to accept his behavior. Dave is constantly scolded and insulted (and even punched once) by Larry for always picking on him. It is established toward the end of season one that Dave is the way he is because he had a father who constantly badgered him. Dave's wife Vicky is an attractive Italian-American Catholic part-time receptionist at a doctors' office. Generally levelheaded, she usually spends her time dealing with Dave's unreasonable behavior, but can be quite obnoxious herself.

Of their three children, the oldest is Hillary (Kaylee DeFer), a typical 17-year-old who frequently misbehaves, trying to get away with bad behavior behind the backs of her parents, who often regard her with suspicion. Second oldest is 16-year-old Larry (Kyle Sullivan), an odd misfit given to emotional outbursts (such as when Vicky denies him permission to see Brian Boitano star as Bilbo Baggins in ''The Lord of the Rings On Ice''). Larry is often seen with his best friend Kenny (Rami Malek). Initially Dave believes that the boys are both gay, but it is later revealed to the audience that while Larry is not gay, Kenny has a secret crush on Larry. Dave, and to a lesser extent Vicky, often treat Larry's flamboyancy with wary eyes. The youngest child, the pubescent 14-year-old Mike (Dean Collins), must deal with issues such as masturbation, dating and underage gambling. His character is portrayed as tougher and more cynical than Larry's.

The series frequently breaks the fourth wall between segments of an episode, during which Dave or other characters deliver a rant or other comment directly relating to the scene.

The bumbling volunteer fire department in a small Czechoslovak town organizes a ball in the town hall, including a raffle and a beauty pageant. The firefighters also plan to present a small ceremonial fire axe as a birthday gift to their retired chairman, who has cancer (although they believe he does not know it himself as doctors were forbidden from revealing terminal illnesses to their patients). During preparations for the ball, a man sets a banner ablaze and finds himself dangling from the rafters of the town hall when his colleagues allow his ladder to fall.

Raffle prizes start disappearing: a cake, a bottle of cognac, a head cheese, a chocolate ball. Josef, one of the firefighters, sees the prizes are missing, but no one admits to knowing anything about the thefts; he eventually finds out that even his wife is involved. During the ball, a bickering committee of firefighters looks for candidates for the beauty contest, but they have difficulty finding enough of them. A man buys drinks for the committee members to persuade them to include his homely daughter among the candidates. An amorous couple paw each other under the raffle table.

After much trouble, seven contestants for the pageant are found. They are told that the winner will present the gift to the chairman after the contest, and the committee instructs them in how to pose and walk. However, when the contest begins, the girls flee from the hall and lock themselves in the bathroom. Consequently, the crowd starts dragging replacement candidates to the stage and a melee ensues. An old woman is crowned the winner and the audience cheers.

A siren sounds because the house of an old man, Mr. Havelka, is on fire. Everyone uses the opportunity to leave the town hall without paying for their drinks. With their fire engine stuck in the snow, the firefighters manage to save some furniture and animals from the house, but they are unable to do anything about the fire with only a few shovelsful of snow. A table is borrowed from Havelka and used to sell more alcohol to the crowd that is watching the fire.

To help Havelka, who has lost almost everything, people donate their raffle tickets. However, nearly all of the prizes have been stolen during the ball, leaving only a few low-value items. The firefighters announce they will turn off the lights to give the thieves an opportunity to return the prizes. In the darkness all of the remaining items are also stolen, and when the lights come back on, Josef is caught returning the head cheese his wife stole. The firefighters' committee retreats to discuss how to save the reputation of the department. They return to a now-empty hall, where only their retired chairman remains. The committee presents him the gift box and he gives a heartfelt speech thanking them, but when the box is opened, it turns out that the axe itself has also been stolen.

The next morning, outside in the snow, Havelka lies down in his bed next to the fireman set on guard beside the ruins of his home.

It is the surreal story of two boys, Hashi and Kiku, who were both abandoned by their mothers during infancy and locked in coin lockers at a Tokyo train station in the summer of 1972. Both boys become wards of the Cherryfield Orphanage in Yokohama, where the tough and athletic Kiku comes to the defense of the slight, and often picked on, Hashi. They both experience difficulties, and are given mental treatment involving playing the sound of an in utero heartbeat to them, a sound they will later search for after having forgotten it.

They are adopted by foster parents, the Kuwayamas (the wife is Zainichi Korean) who live on an island off Kyushu. At the age of 16 both find themselves in a diseased urban wasteland in Tokyo named Toxitown. Hashi, whose voice has a profound effect on those who hear it, becomes a bisexual rock star, employed by an eccentric producer named D. Hashi falls in love with his (female) manager Neva and they marry. Kiku becomes a pole vaulter and with his girlfriend Anemone, a model who has converted her condo into a swamp for her crocodile, searches for a substance named DATURA in order to take his revenge upon the city of Tokyo and destroy it. Along the way, however, in a search for Hashi's real mother, D finds a woman and arranges a meeting with Hashi on live television. Kiku watches and sees Hashi break down, and goes to help, but ends up shooting the woman, who is actually his own mother. He is sentenced to five years in prison.

While Kiku is in prison, Hashi's music career grows, but he starts going mad from the stress, eventually trying to kill Neva to try and hear the sound he heard as a child. While in prison, Kiku embarks on a naval training ship, which is caught up in a storm and has to put in to land. Here, he and some other prisoners, Hayashi and Nakakura, make an escape and are picked up by Anemone. They travel to the island of Garagi, where Kiku had read about a large quantity of DATURA being buried in the sea. They go to the dive site and find the DATURA, however Nakakura takes some in and attacks Kiku and Hayashi, killing Hayashi before Kiku kills him. Anemone and Kiku then 'bomb' Tokyo with DATURA. The book ends with a scene of Hashi, now in a mental hospital, escaping to find the city destroyed. He takes in some DATURA and has an urge to destroy a woman he sees nearby, grabbing her by the mouth and trying to rip her apart, when he realises that she is his mother.

Amidst a storm, Captain John Finnegan and his crew, Joey Pantucci and Leila, are hired by mercenaries Hanover, Mulligan, Mason, Billy, T-Ray, Mamooli, and Vivo to pilot their boat across the South China Sea to an undisclosed rendezvous point. Meanwhile, the ''Argonautica'', a luxury cruise ship built and owned by Simon Canton, is undertaking its maiden voyage when a saboteur disables the ship's navigation and communication systems. A large object rises from beneath and rams the vessel, leaving it dead in the water, and the panicking passengers are attacked and slaughtered by unseen creatures.

Finnegan's boat collides with a speedboat shaken loose during the collision, at which point the mercenaries take over and reveal they intend to rob the ''Argonautica'''s passengers and vault, before sinking the ship with torpedoes stowed aboard the boat. The group boards the ship, leaving Leila and Billy behind to repair the boat, where they are both killed by the creatures. The group reaches the ballroom only to find blood and no sign of the passengers. Finnegan and Joey go to the ship's workshop to scavenge parts to repair the boat, under the guard of T-Ray and Mamooli. T-Ray goes off to investigate strange noises and is torn to shreds by the creature. Mamooli contacts Hanover, but is dragged off by the creature; as Joey and Finnegan flee, they run into Trillian, a passenger who was imprisoned for stealing. Meanwhile, Hanover's group reaches the vault and Vivo opens it, only to be mistakenly killed by Canton, who was hiding inside the vault along with Captain Atherton and three other passengers. Mason and Mulligan panic and accidentally kill the passengers.

Canton and Atherton explain to the mercenaries that the ship has been attacked by unknown creatures that killed everyone else on board. Under questioning, Canton is found to be the saboteur, having hired the mercenaries to sink the unprofitable ship so that he could collect on the insurance. The group is attacked by creatures resembling giant spike-covered tentacles, which eat Atherton. Canton theorizes that the creatures are an extreme evolution of the Ottoia, which drain their victims of their bodily fluids and then eject the carcasses. The survivors flee, but Mason is grabbed and kills himself by detonating a grenade. Mulligan elects to stay behind in the crew's galley until a rescue party can arrive. While arguing with the others, a creature slips in through the range hood; Mulligan scares it off but is ambushed and devoured by another.

In a running battle, the survivors find themselves being herded towards the bow of the ship, where they find a "feeding ground" full of bloody skeletal remains. Attempting to rid himself of any witnesses to his insurance scam, Canton misleads the others to the bow while he moves towards an exit route. The creatures break through the hull, flooding the lower decks and separating the survivors. Hanover wounds Joey in an attempt to slow the creatures, but Joey escapes. Joey later finds Hanover being devoured by one of the creatures. As an act of mercy, he leaves Hanover a gun, but Hanover wastes his only shot trying to kill Joey and is consumed.

Finnegan and Trillian spot an island and return to Finnegan's boat, but — having lost the engine parts — find it useless as a means of escape. Joey returns and begins improvised repairs, and Finnegan sets the boat's autopilot to crash into the ''Argonautica'' and detonate the torpedoes. Trillian returns to the cruise ship and locates a jet ski with the fuel they can use to reach the island, but Canton arrives armed with a flare gun. Canton asks Trillian to join him or hand over the keys, but she flees and he chases her. Finnegan pursues Canton to the ballroom on the main deck, saving Trillian. The creatures smash through the main deck and are revealed to be tentacles of a vast deep-sea monster — the Octalus — rather than individual entities. The Octalus grabs hold of Finnegan, who shoots it in the eye, blinding it and freeing himself, and he and Trillian escape on a jet ski. Canton flees the ''Argonautica'' by jumping onto Finnegan's boat, but he breaks his leg doing so. Crippled, he is unable to disable the autopilot and dies as the boat crashes into the ''Argonautica'', detonating the missiles and destroying both ships and the Octalus.

Finnegan and Trillian reach the island, where they find and reunite with Joey, whom they thought had died. As the three are catching their breath, a loud roar echoes from the forest; the camera pulls back, revealing the island to have an active volcano in the distance and something huge crashing through the trees towards the beach. Finnegan is then heard asking the audience, "Now what?" which ends the movie on a cliffhanger.

The story is set in Casinopolis (in Station Square), where Doctor Eggman turns the people gambling into robots, and brainwashes Miles "Tails" Prower and Amy Rose. Sonic must rescue his friends by winning a pinball tournament called the "Egg Cup Tournament."

When construction on a stamp museum wakes up the Simpsons, everyone in Springfield protests against its construction to the beat of the song "Eve of Destruction". Soon, Mayor Quimby moves it to where the Springfield Cemetery used to be, and the cemetery is moved next door to the Simpsons' house. Lisa is the only member of the family whose room overlooks it. She is scared and cannot sleep at night, and ends up sleeping with Homer and Marge. The next night, Lisa meets a white-haired man known as Gravedigger Billy, who is Groundskeeper Willie's cousin. After a hand comes out of a tomb, Lisa goes to Marge and Homer's room and makes a promise that if they go to the Springfield Stamp Museum, Lisa will sleep in her room. At the museum, there is a lecture for Milton Burkhart's book "The Land of the Wild Beasts", and an advertisement based on the book for a restaurant called The Hillside Wrangler.

Lisa then feels that she can sleep in her room with the cemetery, but is already afraid, and sleeps in Homer and Marge's room again, much to their consternation. Marge and Homer then spend a night in Lisa's room and find out how scary the view really is. They then try to book a therapist, but find out that it is expensive and Lisa may have to resolve her fears herself, as she was not nurtured enough as a baby. Lisa, however, does not want to go see a therapist, and goes with Santa's Little Helper to overcome her fears at the cemetery. When the gate is locked, Lisa is left alone when Santa's Little Helper flees. Afterwards, Lisa, unnerved after witnessing Dr Nick Riviera grave-robbing, hits her head on a tombstone and faints. She experiences a dream where she is eaten by a skeleton, and then is on a web in a slime pond with a slug resembling Milhouse, and a spider resembling Bart. Lisa then has another vision with the monsters from "The Land of the Wild Beasts", and finds out they are funny, instead of scary, and that it is okay to be scared. Marge and Homer then find Lisa, wake her up, and they go home.

During a science class, the boys dare Kenny to eat a manatee's spleen, which Kenny does in exchange for money. He eats his own vomit for money, then begins to undertake all manner of bizarre acts. He soon gets his own television program, ''The Krazy Kenny Show'', as a showcase for his outrageous behavior, but Jesus compares him to a prostitute since he takes money to perform acts that require no real talent. When the boys ask Chef to explain, he believes that they are referring to the sexual connotation of being a prostitute and sings a song about it with James Taylor.

Meanwhile, Cartman's mother and others from the town pay to send Cartman to fat camp against his will. There, a pair of overenthusiastic counselors try to teach him and other overweight children to exercise and live a healthier life, even using fake taco stands and ice cream trucks to catch kids who attempt to escape. Though Cartman resists, he soon reappears in South Park, having lost a great deal of weight and displaying a more mature attitude. This "Cartman" is actually an escapee from a drug rehabilitation center near the fat camp, who has struck a deal with the real Cartman to smuggle junk food into the camp for him to sell. As a result, none of the other campers lose any weight and their parents (also overweight, and claiming their children are genetically predisposed to obesity) decide to take them home.

Along with shock comedians Tom Green and Johnny Knoxville, Kenny appears on ''The Howard Stern Show'', where Howard Stern offers to pay them to perform oral sex on him. Kenny names the lowest price, but after performing the act, he is arrested for prostitution. When Cartman's impostor delivers the episode's moralizing statement, saying that it was wrong for them to have encouraged Kenny, Kyle gets suspicious and reveals the deception. At the fat camp, one of the kids reveals Cartman's junk food scheme, and the campers' parents allow them to stay and try to lose weight properly. However, Cartman is banned from the camp; he rails against the counselors and campers, but later sobs as he eats the last doughnut from his stash by himself.

In exchange for not revealing the impostor's scheme with Cartman or his escape from the rehab center, Kyle forces him to carry out Kenny's latest stunt: spending six hours inside Mrs. Crabtree's uterus on live television. As the time runs out, Mrs. Crabtree expels the impostor (disguised as Kenny) from her uterus, but he has died from the pressure on his body. She then expels the body of a second boy, to the host's great surprise.

In the later Famicom version, King Suren's forces have been captured and turned into trees and rocks by King Ogereth. King Suren has to release his warriors from trees and rocks, and defeat King Ogereth's forces. The allies coming from trees and rocks only appear in the Famicom version.

In the earlier X1, MSX and PC computer versions, however, the player starts with a complete army and may gain some extra knights by freeing them from prison cells, not from trees or rocks. There are no soldiers turned into objects in the original computer versions.

In this film, Grande Otelo, Ankito and Jô Soares are three thieves frequently searched by the police. Grande Otelo's character was having a crisis with his girlfriend due to his criminal lifestyle. However, things get even more complicated when Grande Otelo receives a letter from his aunt saying that she has sent her son. Grand Otelo's nephew, Zé Maria, is extremely Christian, and eventually wins over Grande Otelo, a fact that causes more problems than anticipated.

At a police station, Marilyn Gregor meets Inspector Johns and Lt. Bob Lawrence, as her brother Don Gregor had been arrested for carrying an unlicensed handgun. After posting for him he is released but they refuse Don's request to return his handgun. Johns suspects the young man is an associate of gangster Vic Brady.

The Gregor siblings return home, where Don opens a book and retrieves a hidden revolver. As he prepares to leave, Don has a chance encounter with his father Dr. Boris Gregor, a famous plastic surgeon, at the front door. Dr Gregor then heads for the book safe and discovers that the revolver is missing.

The scene shifts to a bar, where Don and Brady meet, and Don receives his share of the money for his role in a recent robbery. Brady then reminds his partner that they are going to rob the payroll of the Monterey Theatre, although Don has his doubts about the plan. Brady and Don break into the theatre and ambush the nightwatchman, who is forced at gunpoint to open the safe but they are disturbed by Miss Willis (Mona McKinnon), a bookkeeper who is leaving for the night, and Don shoots and kills the nightwatchman, while Brady shoots the fleeing woman in the back. Afterwards Brady collects their loot while Don seems to be in shock over his own actions. The two criminals flee while police sirens are heard approaching the theatre. The two manage to escape the police, whilst at the theatre it turns out that Miss Willis has survived the shooting, and she later identifies Don as the killer of the nightwatchman.

Brady leads Don to the residence of his girlfriend, Loretta. Don leaves unnoticed, and Brady decides to search for him. The following night, Don decides to visit his father's office and confesses the murder to his father, and the doctor urges him to surrender to the police. The guilt-ridden Don agrees to do so eventually and his father helps him escape the arriving police. Whilst fleeing Don is captured by Brady, who drives him back to Loretta's residence. They hear on the radio that they are both suspects for the robbery, although Don is wanted for murder. Don repeatedly expresses his decision to surrender and face the consequences of his actions. Fearing for his own safety, Brady kills his partner. The corpse is temporarily stored behind a curtain in the kitchen.

At this point, Brady conceives a plan to elude the police by undergoing plastic surgery, and he contacts Dr. Gregor, claiming that he is holding Don hostage until plastic surgery is completed. The doctor decides to have Marilyn assist him, since she is a trained nurse.

A few days later Brady, the Doctor, Loretta, and Marilyn gather in preparation of the operation. Brady expresses his distrust of the Gregors and has to be convinced that anesthesia is necessary. With Brady sedated, Dr. Gregor searches Loretta's kitchen for a water basin. He finds it, but also finds Don's stored corpse. He keeps this a secret and maintains a facade of calmness while performing and completing the operation. He claims that the bandages covering Brady's face have to stay on for two weeks.

Two weeks later, Brady and Loretta arrive at the Gregor residence on schedule. But so do Johns and Lawrence, who were both summoned by the doctor. They want to know who the bandaged man is. When Brady's bandages are removed, his new face is revealed to be that of Don. Besides the Doctor, everyone else considers him to be the wanted murderer, and the Doctor claims that the man is his son. A horrified Brady attempts to flee and is killed in a shootout with the police. His dying body falls into a swimming pool.

Human colonists on Ganymede send three extremely hardy and durable robots, ZZ One, ZZ Two, and ZZ Three, to explore the physically demanding surface of Jupiter and contact the Jovians.

Initially they are greeted with hostile attempts, though it takes the robots some time to deduce the hostile nature of activities because the attacks are too feeble, but reproduce normal conditions on Earth (e.g., using oxygen to poison the robots). After the initial hostile encounters with both Jupiter's wildlife and the suspicious Jovians, the robots establish a line of communication and are taken on a tour of the Jovian civilization. They quickly discover that the Jovians have a vastly larger population than the humans, since Jupiter has a much greater surface area than Earth. The robots also realize that the Jovians are considerably more advanced scientifically, and that they have developed force field technology far beyond that of humanity. Moreover, the Jovians are culturally inclined to believe themselves superior to the extent that they consider all other life forms, including humans, "vermin". They arrogantly threaten to use their force field technology to leave Jupiter, in order to destroy humanity.

However, as the tour proceeds, the robots repeatedly (and unintentionally) surprise the Jovians with their immunity to extremes of heat, cold and radiation. Because they use gamma radiation for close range vision, they even pose a danger to local microbes and the Jovians themselves. At the conclusion of the tour the Jovians return the robots to their spacecraft, only to be astonished that it does not need to provide them with any protection against outer space. After a flurry of diplomatic activity, the Jovians return to the robots and, unexpectedly, swear eternal peace with humanity, surprising the robots. They quickly retreat back to Earth.

On return from the surface of planet Jupiter, the three robots reflect on this change of heart by the Jovians. ZZ One (with his considerably lower reasoning capacity than the other robots) argues, from the perspective of the First Law, that the Jovians simply realized that they could not harm humans. However, the other two robots intuit the real reason. When the Jovians' superiority complex was confronted by the strength and resistance of the robots to all manner of hazards, it crumbled and led to their acquiescence. ZZ Three thoughtfully realizes that the three robots never thought to mention that they were robots, and the Jovians must have simply mistakenly assumed that they were humans.

The Cold War has endured for a century and an uneasy peace between "Us" and "Them" exists. A secret agent arrives in America from Moscow with the story that robots identical to humans in appearance and behaviour have been developed by Them and that ten have already been infiltrated into America. When they get together, they will trigger a nuclear-level explosion (they are components of a total conversion bomb).

A conference of "Our" greatest minds in all the branches of natural science is hastily convened to decide how to detect these robots and how to catch up on this technology. Almost too late, the head of the Bureau of Robotics realises that Their plan exactly anticipates this: the infiltrator robots have replaced scientists invited to this conference, and while the explosion would kill a relatively small number of people, it would precisely include "Our" top scientists, and therefore all the scientists arriving to the conference must pass a security check before they are allowed to get together.

His guess is proven correct almost immediately, as ten of the scientists en route explode via self-destruct charges. However, the Bureau head wonders how They could have realized and acted upon the discovery of the plan so quickly. The truth dawns on him; he pulls a blaster and blows the secret agent's head off. The body slumps forward leaking "not blood, but high-grade machine oil."

Robot TN-3 (also known as Tony) is designed as a humanoid household robot, an attempt by US Robots to get robots accepted in the home. He is placed with Claire Belmont, whose husband works for the company, as an experiment, but she is reluctant to accept him. Tony realizes that Claire has very low self-esteem, and tries to help her by redecorating her house and giving her a make-over. Finally, he pretends to be her lover, and deliberately lets the neighbors see him kissing Claire, thus increasing her self-esteem. In the end, though, Claire falls in love with Tony, and becomes conflicted and ultimately depressed when he is taken back to the lab. The TN-3 robot models are scheduled to be redesigned, since US Robots thinks that they should not produce a model that will appear to fall in love with women. US Robots robopsychologist Susan Calvin dissents, aware that women may nevertheless fall in love with robots.

The story of the game falls in line with the movie ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'': to save the leader of the Human Resistance, John Connor, and his mother Sarah from the T-1000, an advanced prototype Terminator bent on killing them both.

The player takes the role of a T-800 Terminator cyborg, already captured and reprogrammed by the human resistance, and fights alongside them against Skynet in the year 2029. Eventually, the T-800 and John Connor penetrate Skynet's headquarters and destroy the system CPU. Discovering the time displacement equipment, the T-800 is sent back through time to John's childhood, with the mission to protect him from the T-1000 that Skynet has already sent back. In the past, John, Sarah, and the T-800 launch an attack on Cyberdyne Systems in order to prevent the development and creation of Skynet. The T-1000 catches up to the group and pursues them in a police helicopter and a liquid nitrogen truck. The T-800 is able to freeze and shatter the T-1000 with the liquid nitrogen, but it quickly melts and reforms in order to continue its pursuit of John. Ultimately, the T-800 must stop the T-1000 from killing John and blast it into a vat of molten steel to destroy it.

Two endings are possible, depending on the outcome of the Cyberdyne raid. If all equipment is destroyed, the player receives a message that Judgment Day has been averted; otherwise, the company's research will continue and Judgment Day remains a possibility.

Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney), a young auto mechanic in California, "borrows" $20 ($ today) from the cash register at his job to pay for a date with blonde ''femme fatale'' Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney), who works at a nearby diner.

In a scheme to return the pilfered $20, Dan decides to pay only one dollar as a down payment at a jewelry store for a $100 wristwatch ($ today), a deal that requires him to sign a sales contract to buy the watch over time with regular installment payments. He then promptly goes to a pawnshop where he hocks the watch for $30 cash ($ today), using most of that money to cover the missing funds at the garage. However, the next day Brady is tracked down by an investigator who informs him that he has violated the installment contract by pawning a watch he does not legally own. The investigator tells him that if he does not pay the jewelry store the full $100 for the watch within 24 hours, he will be charged with grand larceny, a crime punishable by three years in state prison. After unsuccessfully applying for a payday loan and attempting to use his car as collateral for another loan, a desperate Dan resorts to mugging a tipsy bar patron known for carrying large amounts of cash.

Nick Dramoshag (Peter Lorre), the seedy owner of a penny arcade on Santa Monica Pier and a man who has had his own intimate history with Vera, discovers evidence of Dan's mugging. He blackmails the young mechanic, demanding a car from Dan's job in exchange for his silence. Dan steals the car, which he trades for the evidence from Dramoshag. Dan's morally lacking boss Oren Mackey (Art Smith) soon confronts Dan and says he knows that he stole the car. Mackey demands the return of the vehicle or $3,000 in cash ($ today), or he will go to the police.

Dan and Vera steal the month-end receipts from Dramoshag's arcade, obtaining $3,610 ($ today). Dan expects to use the money to pay Mackey. Vera, however, feels entitled to half the money, so she buys herself a mink coat for $1,800 ($ today). Once he learns what she has done, a furious Dan returns to the garage alone, where he offers Mackey $1,800 to settle their arrangement. Mackey takes the money, but picks up the phone to call the police. After Mackey pulls a gun, the two men struggle and Dan strangles his boss with the phone cord. Certain that the man is dead, Brady takes Dan's gun and returns to Vera to inform her of what he has done. He asks her to flee with him to Texas. She will not go, insisting that the authorities have no evidence against her. Disgusted by Vera's self-serving behavior, Dan storms out.

Outside Vera's apartment, Dan's still-loyal but unappreciated former girlfriend Helen (Barbara Bates) waits in his car to talk with him. She had seen him earlier on the street and realized then that he was in trouble. She now decides to accompany Dan as they drive out of town to avoid his anticipated arrest for murder. After his car breaks down, Brady carjacks a sedan, which happens to be driven by a sympathetic lawyer (Taylor Holmes). Dan subsequently gets out of that car when they arrive at Santa Monica Pier. There, he tells Helen to remain with the lawyer as he carries out his new plan to escape to Mexico on a friend's charter boat. He also assures Helen that he will send for her once he is safely resettled across the border. A few minutes later, the lawyer and Helen hear over the sedan's radio a news report that Mackey survived his injuries. They now drive back to the pier to find Dan and inform him that he is not a murderer. Meanwhile, police officers spot Dan there, wound him by gunfire in an ensuing chase, and take him into custody. Helen comforts Dan and vows to wait for him until he is released from prison.

The story centers around Sgt. John Riley and 16 men of his U.S. Army battalion who (against military law) are whipped for "desertion" only because they had traveled—without an explicit permission—to the Mexican side of the border to fulfill their religious obligation to attend Mass, and because they are thought to be "Papists" whose loyalty is ''ipso facto'' suspect in the eyes of their Protestant commanders. Sgt. Riley, with regard for the safety and well-being of his men, releases them at gun-point from the lash. He escorts them across the border to Mexico to hopefully find at Vera Cruz a ship back to Ireland, only to be violently captured by the revolutionary Juan Cortina as enemies of Mexico. Riley, wounded in his thigh, is nursed by Cortina's woman Marta. As Cortina considers what to eventually do with Riley and his men, news arrives that the U.S. and Mexico are now at war. Because of this, after a visit from the representative of the Mexican government the Irish deserters are presented with the choice of joining and fighting on the side of the Mexican Army, thus forming their own battalion under command by Riley.

Riley is made a captain, in charge of all the Irish-immigrant U.S. soldiers who have come over to the Mexican side in increasingly large numbers, (as General Zachary Taylor puts it, "''because of sex, saints and sadism''"). For encouragement they are given their own green flag as the Saint Patrick's Battalion.

Several key battle engagements are highlighted, with dates, and a cease-fire is reached. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is threatening to impeach President Polk as opinion turns against U.S. aggression and the invasion of the Republic of Mexico. The cease-fire is soon violated and hostilities resume. Gen. Zachary Taylor, unlike Gen. Winfield Scott, deplores the war, but he obeys his commander-in-chief.

As it becomes increasingly evident that the war is being lost by Mexico, Riley's men debate what to do. There is a difference between desertion and treason. Those who deserted before the war and are taken back to the U.S. will be lashed and branded; those who deserted after the declaration of war will be hanged as traitors. They decide to die as men fighting for freedom. When they finally lose, Cortina has escaped with many of his forces, and the Irish are taken prisoner. Many of them are still officially British citizens, having never yet been granted the U.S. citizenship they had first been promised for enlisting in the U.S. Army. General Winfield Scott utterly rejects the appeal of the Mexican Government, presented by Col. Nexor, to recognize Riley's men as Mexican citizens and prisoners of war; protests have come in from all the nations of the world denouncing their punishment as barbaric and an utter contradiction of the principles of the American Revolution. Scott is adamant: the deserters will be lashed and branded, and forced to watch those condemned as traitors hanged, whose heads will be forcibly faced in the direction of Chapultepec to watch the taking of that stronghold and the sight of the lowering of the Mexican flag and the raising of the Stars and Stripes, so that this will be their last sight—they will be hanged at that instant.

On the day of their execution, in sight of the men on the scaffold, Riley is lashed with a cat-o-nine-tails: 50 strokes. He is then branded on his right cheek with a large letter '''D''' "''just below the eye, so not to impair his vision.''" The soldier ordered to wield the red-hot brand is told to do it quickly, as "Riley must be conscious when it is done!". Visibly shaken, the soldier sears the brand into Riley's face upside down (backward). He is harshly reprimanded, then told to "''do it right!''", but he vomits and faints, and Riley is branded on his left cheek by the officer in charge of punishment. Riley is then forced to watch the executions ordered by Scott. He loudly cries out encouragement to them, who shout back as they are hanged.

Some time afterward, while working in a stone quarry for military prisoners, Riley is told by his former U.S. commander that he has been freed, to which he responds, "I have always been free". Riley returns to Mexico, locates Cortina, and finds Marta still alive. She still has the green flag of the St. Patrick's Battalion. Cortina recognizes her love for Riley and departs. Riley and Marta disappear into the wilderness. The epilogue explains that Gen. Winfield Scott, who had hoped to become President of the U.S., was defeated, and Gen. Zachary Taylor, who only wanted peace, was elected.

The researchers at Hyper Base are ready to test the first hyperspace ship. Previous experiments were successful in transportation of inert objects, but all attempts to transport living creatures have led to complete loss of higher brain function. As such, the ship has a positronic robot at the controls, since a robot is more expendable than a human, and its brain can later be precisely analyzed for errors to determine the cause. The ship fails to function as planned, and Susan Calvin persuades Gerald Black, an etherics engineer (who had also appeared in "Little Lost Robot"), to board the ship in order to locate the fault.

As Calvin suspects, Black finds that the fault lies with the robot, which, as a result of imprecise orders, has damaged the controls of the ship. They realize that the precise and finite robot mind must be compensated for by human ingenuity.

U.S. Robots is planning the production of the LNE series of robots, which are designed for boron mining in the asteroid belt. After a technician neglects to lock a terminal, a factory tourist accidentally reprograms the prototype LNE, wiping clean the structure of the robot's brain, and rendering it a baby in all effects.

Robopsychologist Susan Calvin experiments with it, in the process naming it "Lenny" (and developing maternal feelings for it), and after a month, has been able to teach it a few simple words and actions. She gets emotionally attached to Lenny and realizes that robots can be built that are able to learn, instead of being built for a fixed and specific purpose.

Complications arise when Lenny, unaware of its own force, breaks the arm of a computing technician, which is about to cause widespread "robots attacking humans" panic. However, Susan Calvin manages to exploit the sense of danger to add a new thrill of robotic investigation, just as happens with space exploration or radiation physics.

Circa the year 2020, the planet Earth contrived to ban and outlaw the books of supernaturalist authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce. A century later in the year 2120, the dying crew of an interplanetary rocket-ship is headed for the planet Mars. This crew is plagued by nightmarish visions and dreams, for which the cause is later revealed - the captain is carrying away from Earth the last copies of the forbidden books that survived Earth's extermination. The crew arrive and find the inhabitants of Mars are also dying. The inhabitants appear to be Lovecraft, Poe, Blackwood, Beirce, and they are fading from existence because the people of Earth have burned nearly all their books. Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare are there too, although the pompous Dickens bitterly resents his "ghettoization" among mere fantasy and supernatural writers. Seeking to forever banish the 'supernatural' plague before they re-colonise Mars, the rocket-ship's crew burn the last books of these authors. Thus they apparently finally consign to oblivion the 'Martian versions' of their authors.

''The Sundial'' tells the story of the residents of the Halloran house, opening on the evening of the funeral of Lionel Halloran, the house's master. Lionel's wife, Maryjane, is convinced that Lionel was pushed down the stairs and murdered by his mother, Orianna Halloran, who stands to inherit the house; only hours after the funeral, Maryjane taught her young daughter, Fancy, to repeat the phrase "Granny killed my daddy." Also living at Halloran house were the aged Richard Halloran, who needed a wheelchair to move around, and was kept by a nurse; Essex, a young man hired to catalogue the library (and of whom it is implied was more specifically hired to be a kept man to the elder Mrs. Halloran); Fanny, Richard Halloran's sister; and Miss Ogilvie, young Fancy's governess.

A less obvious but nonetheless imposing character in the novel is the Halloran house itself. Built by a man who came into great wealth late in his life, the house is lavish to the point of garishness, and the endless details of the grounds and interiors are carefully described by Jackson until they overwhelm both characters and reader alike. One of these details is the eponymous sundial, which stands like an asymmetrical eyesore in the middle of the mathematically perfect grounds and bears the legend "WHAT IS THIS WORLD?" (a quote from Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'', in "The Knight's Tale").

Immediately upon the death of her son, Orianna seizes ownership of the house and begins to exert her power over its occupants: Miss Ogilvie and Essex are to be dismissed, Maryjane sent away, and Fanny allowed to live in the house only by Orianna's good graces. Young Fancy, who Orianna claims will inherit the house upon her grandmother's death, will remain. Amid the uproar following this announcement, Fanny receives a vision whilst walking in the Halloran gardens: the ghost of her father warns her that the world is soon to end and that only those in the Halloran house will be spared. As Fanny tells the others of the coming destruction, a snake seems to manifest on the floor; this is taken as an omen from the ghost of Fanny's father. Orianna, shaken, reconsiders and allows everyone to remain in the house.

Soon after this, Orianna sends for Mrs. Willow, "an old friend" of Orianna's. Mrs. Willow arrives with her two daughters, Julia and Arabella; all three women seem intent on winning their way into the Hallorans' money, but become frightened when they hear of the coming destruction and refuse to be sent away. Only a few days after, another young woman named Gloria arrives. Gloria is seventeen, a daughter of a cousin of Orianna, who asks to stay with the Hallorans whilst her father is out of the country. Mrs. Willow, meanwhile, suggests they try to view the future through an oil-coated mirror—a parlor game from her adolescent years. Gloria volunteers to try it, and describes visions of the end of the world and the Eden-like paradise that will come afterwards. The visions terrify Gloria and the others must pressure her to see for them. Finally, a last member of the party is brought into the house: a stranger whom Fanny and Miss Ogilvie meet at random in the village. Upon making his acquaintance, Aunt Fanny dubs him "Captain Scarabombardon." His real first name is revealed to be Harry.

At first the small group is excited, using the opportunity to spend Halloran money to stock up on items for the "next world." They burn books in the library to make room for supplies. At first the items are useful, but gradually, as the pampered residents begin to think of luxuries they might miss in "Eden", the supplies grow fanciful to the point of ridiculousness. Orianna soon begins to issue edicts and laws regarding behaviour after the world ends, setting herself up as the queen of the coming paradise. The more she commands and postures, the more the others ignore her as they grow more and more caught up by Gloria's increasingly detailed visions of the beauty of the next world. When doubt is again expressed by Orianna, another omen—the spontaneous shattering of a window overlooking the sundial—is attributed to Fanny's dead father.

There are at least two dissenters in the group. Julia, who finds the concept of the end of the world ridiculous, wishes to leave with Captain. Orianna, realising that Captain is only one of two males who will enter the new world, bribes him with enough money to convince him to stay, claiming that she does not believe he will have enough time to spend it all. Julia goes on alone, but after a ride with a terrifying, sadistic cabbie (it is possible, though barely suggested, that this man might have been employed by Orianna solely to scare Julia), she flees back to the safety of the house. Gloria, meanwhile, has befriended Essex, and talks about her dream to live out the rest of her life—no matter how short it might be—in a real world, rather than the artificial, insulated world of the Halloran manor. Essex betrays Gloria by alerting Orianna of the young woman's plans of leaving.

A less obvious dissenter is Fancy. A spoiled and frightening child, Fancy resents the idea that the world will be destroyed before she has a chance to live in it, and plays obsessively with her dollhouse (which itself is a small model of the Halloran house), taking as much delight in ordering her dolls about as Orianna takes in lording over the residents of Halloran House. Fancy has taken her grandmother's promise of inheritance to heart, and claims that she will smash the dollhouse when her grandmother dies because she "won't need it anymore."

The evening before the world is due to end, Orianna plans a great party (outdoors, so that no one will comment on the preparations inside the house) and invites the whole village to attend for a final feast. This party takes on the air of a coronation when Orianna appears wearing a small gold crown to symbolise her position in the next world. Orianna vows never to remove the crown until she passes it on to Fancy. The day after the party is spent sending away the servants and covering up the windows of the house so that no one will have to see the destruction that will happen that night.

A violent storm begins, and the lights go out as the residents prepare to gather for the night in a single room. As the group goes downstairs, they discover Orianna dead on the landing. "I was certainly ''wondering'' about all those instructions and rules of hers," observes one character. "I kept ''thinking'' maybe she was going to a different place than ours." As they speculate on what might have happened, Fancy dashes down to take the crown from her grandmother's head and put it on her own. The two men brave the storm to carry Orianna's body to the sundial, where it is implied she will be swept away in the destruction. Then all the players gather together to wait for the coming morning, and the novel ends.

Two men, Jean-Paul Ladouceur and Grant Munro (representing French Canada and English Canada respectively), live peacefully in adjacent cardboard houses. When a single, small flower (possibly a psychoactive flower) blooms between their houses, they fight each other to the death over ownership of that flower.

The moral of the film is, simply, ''Love your neighbour''. The moral is also shown in other languages, including (in order of appearance): Japanese: 同胞に親切なれ (''Dōhō ni shinsetsu nare'') Chinese: 親善鄰居 (''Qīnshàn línjū'') Hindi: आपके पड़ोसी से प्रेम पूर्वक व्यवहार कीजिए (''Aapke parosii ke prem porvak vyavahaar kiijie'') Urdu: اپنے ہمساءے دوستانی برتاؤ کرؤ (''Aapne hamsaae dostaani bartaao karo'') Arabic: اَحِب قَرِيبَك (''Ahib qaribak'') Hebrew: וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ (''V'ahavta l'reacha'') Russian: Любите ближнего своего; ''Lyubite blizhnego svoyego'' Esperanto: ''Amu vian najbaron'' Norwegian: ''Elsk din nabo'' Spanish: ''Ama a tu prójimo'' German: ''Liebe deinen Nächsten'' Italian: ''Amate il prossimo'' *French: ''Aimez votre prochain''

A black man and a white girl (Mona Montgomery) are wed on a rooftop. He courts her by carrying her around in a trash can and chooses a Ku Klux Klansman to perform the wedding. The wedding guests are played by people dressed in early pop-influenced costumes such as American flags and tinfoil. Mary Vivian Pearce does a dance known as the Bodie Green.

Bill and Janice Templeton live a privileged life in Manhattan's Upper West Side with their 11-year-old daughter, Ivy. Over a period of several weeks, they begin to notice a stranger following them in various public places, and Janice grows alarmed when she sees the man follow her and Ivy home one afternoon. The man eventually reaches out to the couple by phone, revealing himself as Elliot Hoover, a widower who lost his wife and young daughter, Audrey Rose, in a car accident in Pittsburgh. The couple agree to have dinner with Elliot, during which he explains that he believes their daughter, Ivy, is a reincarnation of Audrey, and that details relayed to him by psychics confirm his suspicions; the details he is aware of include intimate knowledge of the couple's apartment and Ivy's bedroom. Furthermore, Ivy was born only minutes after Audrey died.

Bill, a skeptic, believes Elliot is extorting the family. He invites Elliot to their apartment, and arranges for his attorney friend, Russ, to listen covertly to their conversation from upstairs. When Elliot speaks Audrey's name, Ivy hears him from her room and enters an altered state of panic, which is only calmed by Elliot's presence. In this state, she bangs her hands against the cold window, and it leaves inexplicable burns. Elliot comforts her, after which she recognizes him as "daddy" and slowly falls asleep. Elliot insists that Ivy's burns are evidence of her reincarnation, as Audrey burned to death in the car accident. Bill grows enraged by Elliot and forces him out, punching him in the face, but Janice and even Russ are sympathetic to the strange man's plea.

One night while Bill is working late, Ivy experiences another night terror, in which she thrashes around the apartment violently. Janice, unable to control her, is surprised by Elliot's appearance at her door, and eagerly allows him in to help calm Ivy, but Bill remonstrates with Janice when he learns of the visit. During Ivy’s next episode, Elliot again arrives and Bill attacks him. After a struggle, Elliot locks the couple out of their apartment and disappears with Ivy through a service exit. An attendant informs the couple that Elliot rented an apartment in the building earlier that day. Police quickly discover him and Ivy in the apartment, apprehend him, and charge him with child abduction.

A trial ensues, during which Janice and Bill have Ivy sent to a Catholic boarding school in upstate New York to shield her from the public. During the trial, Elliot attempts to persuade the jury that his actions were necessary to grant peace to the spirit of his daughter, Audrey. The trial becomes an international news story, with a Hindu holy man testifying about their religious belief in reincarnation, to which Elliot ascribes. When questioned on the stand, Janice relents and admits that she believes Elliot, and that he had only pure interests in helping Ivy. The judge grants a recess in the trial, and Janice and Bill are subsequently informed that Ivy has injured herself at her boarding school by crawling toward a fire pit during a Christmas celebration.

After Ivy is treated for burns, Janice remains in upstate New York, and the two spend the evening in a hotel. In the middle of the night, Janice finds Ivy repeatedly greeting herself as Audrey Rose in the bathroom mirror. In a motion to complete Elliot's trial, Bill and Janice's attorney requests that Ivy be hypnotized as a means of proving she is not a reincarnation of Audrey. The hypnotist employs a past life regression hypnosis, which is observed in a hospital by the jury, along with Elliot, Bill, and Janice. The hypnosis reaches a fever pitch as Ivy revisits the traumatic car crash that took Audrey's life, and she begins to react violently. She eventually loses consciousness, and Elliot smashes the one-way mirror to access the room and attempt to calm her, but she dies in his arms.

Some time later, Janice writes a letter to Elliot, thanking him for transporting Ivy's cremated remains to India, and expressing her hope that Bill will come to accept her and Elliot's belief that Ivy was a reincarnation of Audrey. A closing intertitle quotes the ''Bhagavad-Gita'':

In 1964, a fiery car crash claimed the lives of Audrey Rose Hoover and her mother. Eleven years later, Elliot Hoover, her father, believes he has found Audrey's reincarnated soul in the body of 10-year-old Ivy Templeton. When Ivy dies during a terrible hypnotic reenactment of Audrey's death throes, the Templetons are devastated and Elliot disappears. However, the question remains: If Audrey Rose returned as Ivy Templeton, who died in 1975—then, where is she now? Janice Templeton is determined to find the answer.

Bill and Janice Templeton's peaceful lives are cast into chaos when a strange man begins fixating on their eleven-year-old daughter Ivy. This stalking seems to coincide with Ivy's horrible night terrors in which she beats at the windows and screams. One night while Ivy is in the middle of one of these episodes, the stranger contacts them directly and introduces himself as Elliot Hoover.

Hoover explains to the Templetons that he lost his wife and their three-year-old daughter, Audrey Rose, in a fiery car crash. To heal his mental anguish, he visited a clairvoyant who revealed that his daughter had been immediately reincarnated as another young girl born at the moment of Audrey Rose's death. Because of this immediate reincarnation, Audrey Rose's soul was not allowed the necessary time to reflect in the spirit world, causing her to be trapped forever at the moment of her horrific death. In an effort to rescue his daughter's soul, Hoover began to research births that coincided with his daughter's death, gradually determining that his daughter's soul now resides in Ivy Templeton.

The Templetons refuse to believe Hoover and order him to stay away from their daughter. However, Ivy's night terrors grow steadily worse. The Templetons are astonished when Hoover is able to calm Ivy by calling her Audrey Rose.

Hoover continues to intrude in the family's lives, going so far as to kidnap Ivy in an attempt to heal his daughter's tormented soul. Although Hoover soon returns Ivy voluntarily, Bill has Hoover arrested for kidnapping. While Hoover is in jail, Ivy nearly dies after walking into a bonfire, seemingly while in a trance. Bill suspects Hoover of brainwashing his daughter during the kidnapping, but Janice starts to believe that Ivy truly is the reincarnation of Audrey Rose. Bill dismisses his wife's beliefs, causing strain on their relationship.

During the kidnapping trial, Hoover continues to insist that his daughter's soul resides in Ivy. The newspapers begin to spin the trial as a supernatural child custody battle, and the resulting media circus disrupts Bill and Janice's lives, further threatening their marriage. A psychotherapist is brought forth to hypnotize Ivy before the jury. Ivy is taken into her past life by the hypnotist, where she suddenly begins reenacting Audrey Rose's violent death. While reliving Audrey Rose's last moments, Ivy dies of what is determined to be smoke inhalation, even though no smoke or fire is present. Devastated, the Templetons finally acknowledge that Hoover was telling the truth and have the charges against him dismissed.

Some years later, Janice writes a letter to Hoover to thank him for transporting Ivy's ashes to India. While Bill is still in denial, Janice has come to accept that Hoover was correct all along. She believes that both Ivy and Audrey Rose are now at peace and takes comfort in the thought that Ivy will one day be reborn. She closes with a quotation from the Bhagavad-Gita.

''Rygar: The Legendary Adventure'' takes place on an island in the Mediterranean Sea called Argus. Rygar is about to receive a wreath from Princess Harmonia in a ceremony for a victorious naval battle, when Titans suddenly attack led by Echidna. After she and Icarus capture Harmonia, Echidna has the Minotaur dispose of Rygar with a pit torn open in the ground. Surviving the encounter, Rygar finds the Diskarmor, a legendary shield of the gods and is given task to stop the Titans in order to rescue Harmonia and bring peace to Argus.

Nick Halloway is a stock analyst who spends most of his life avoiding responsibility and connections with other people. At his favorite bar, the Academy Club, his friend George Talbot introduces him to Alice Monroe, a TV documentary producer. Sharing an instant attraction, Nick and Alice make out in the ladies' room and set a lunch date for Friday.

The following morning, a hungover Nick attends a shareholders' meeting at Magnascopic Laboratories. Unable to endure the droning presentation by Dr. Bernard Wachs, Nick leaves the room for a nap. A lab technician accidentally spills his mug of coffee onto a computer console, causing a meltdown, and the entire building is evacuated. The building seems to explode, but there is no debris. Instead, much of the building is rendered invisible, including Nick.

Shady CIA operative David Jenkins arrives on the scene and discovers Nick's condition. While they are transferring him to an ambulance, the agents joke about how Nick will spend the rest of his life being studied by scientists. In a panic, Nick flees. Jenkins convinces his supervisor Warren Singleton not to notify CIA headquarters so that they can capture and take credit for Nick, who could become the perfect secret agent.

Nick hides at the Academy Club. He locates Dr. Wachs and asks for his help to reverse his condition. Wachs agrees to help, but Jenkins kills him to keep Nick's invisibility a secret. Jenkins' team gets a hold of Nick's background information but it doesn't prove very useful in finding him. It says that Nick has never been married, his parents are both dead, he has no relatives, a few friends but none that he's very close to, and he's not really dedicated to his job as he does it fast and loose. After reviewing Nick's profile, Jenkins says that Nick was an invisible man even before the accident. Nick infiltrates the CIA headquarters to find any information that can be used against them. Jenkins discovers Nick and tries to recruit him, but Nick is disgusted by the idea of him killing people. They have a confrontation, but Nick gets away.

Nick goes to San Francisco and stays in George's remote beach house. George arrives with his wife Ellen, Alice, and another friend, to spend the weekend. Nick phones Alice and tells her to meet him nearby. He reveals his condition to Alice, and she promptly faints. When she revives, Alice decides to stay with Nick and help him. They travel to Mexico, where Nick can start a new life. To make money, he trades stocks using Alice as a proxy. Jenkins tracks them down, and shoots Nick with a tranquillizer gun. Nick falls into a river, revives and escapes. He makes his way to a video store, where he records his memoirs on video tape, including an ultimatum for Jenkins: exchange Alice for the tape, or Nick will give it to the CIA and the press. Jenkins agrees to the exchange.

At the arranged time for the exchange, Jenkins puts Alice into a cab and orders his men to surround the phone booth where he thinks Nick is. The man in the phone booth turns out to be George, who is dressed in Nick's concealing clothing. Nick is disguised as the cab driver; he takes Alice away, pursued by Jenkins. They continue the chase on foot into a building still under construction, in the course of which Nick gets covered with concrete dust, outlining his silhouette. At the top, by taking off his jacket (which has the largest amount of dust on it), Nick tricks Jenkins into thinking that he has become desperate enough to commit suicide. Nick holds the jacket out to his side and pretends to begin to fall. Jenkins lunges at the jacket to try to save him, but ends up plunging off the building to his death.

Believing Nick to be dead, Singleton releases Alice. Nick reunites with Alice and they leave for Switzerland. The film ends with shots of Nick's apparently empty clothing skiing down a mountainside towards their chalet, where a pregnant Alice greets him with a hot drink and a kiss.

After attending a Lakers basketball game, an immigration lawyer named Mack finds himself at the mercy of potential muggers when his car breaks down in a bad part of Los Angeles late at night. The muggers are talked out of their plans by Simon, a tow truck driver who arrives just in time. Mack sets out to befriend Simon, despite their having nothing in common.

In the meantime, Mack's wife Claire and his best friend Davis, a producer of violent action films, are experiencing life-changing events. Claire encounters an abandoned baby while jogging and becomes determined to adopt her. Davis suddenly becomes interested in philosophy rather than box-office profits after being shot in the leg by a man trying to steal his watch, vowing to devote the remainder of his career to eliminating violence from the cinema.

The film chronicles how these characters—as well as various acquaintances, co-workers and relatives—are affected by their interactions in the light of life-changing events. In the end, they visit the Grand Canyon on a shared vacation trip, united in a place that is philosophically and actually "bigger" than all their little separate lives.

Published in 2005 by E.L. Doctorow, ''The March'' is a historical fiction novel set in late 1864 and early 1865 near the conclusion of the American Civil War. Central to the novel is the character of General William Tecumseh Sherman as he marches his 60,000 troops through the heart of the South, from Atlanta to Savannah, carving a 96 km (60-mile)-wide scar of destruction in their wake. As a result of Sherman's order to live off the land, his soldiers sow chaos as they pillage homes, steal cattle, burn crops, and attract a nearly unmanageable population of freed slaves and refugees who have nowhere else to go. While the novel revolves around the decisions of General Sherman, the story has no specific main character. Instead, Doctorow retells Civil War history according to the individual lives of a large and diverse cast of characters—white and black, rich and poor, Union and Confederate—whose lives are caught up in the violence and trauma of the war.

The character of General Sherman is an unstable strategic genius who longs for a sense of romance in the war he wages and chafes under the implications of a post-war bureaucracy. Charismatic, yet often detached, Sherman is idolized by his men and the freed slaves who follow behind in hope of a better future. Pearl is the young and attractive daughter of a black enslaved woman, Nancy Wilkins, and her white master who is unsure about her future and the attention she is now receiving from the handsome Union soldiers. She must decide whether to follow the advice of other emancipated slaves or choose to seek the possibilities she hopes the conclusion of the war will bring. Colonel Wrede Sartorius is a cold yet brilliant field surgeon who is seemingly numb to the horrors of war due to his close and frequent proximity to the surgical hacksaw which he carries with him everywhere. Trained in Germany, Sartorius experiments with new techniques on his patients and is consumed with his work, leaving little time for regret, romance, or pain. Arly and Will are two Confederate soldiers who serve the roles of the Shakespearean fool, alternately offering comic relief and poignant wisdom. Their antics are wild and chaotic and include defecting to the Union, impersonation, and robbing a church in order to be able to pay for a trip to a brothel. Emily Thompson, a judge's daughter, is a displaced southern aristocrat from Milledgeville, Georgia, which was then the state capital. She becomes the surgical assistant and lover to the cold, passionless Colonel Sartorius.

The novel concludes when Lincoln is assassinated on 14 April 1865, shortly after the war ends, exposing the cautious optimism of the freed slaves and beleaguered soldiers. The final scene describes the faint smell of gunpowder dissipating through a forest with the lonely image of the boot and shredded uniform of a fallen soldier lying in the dirt. While Doctorow's characters express guarded hope now that the conflict is over, the physical and psychological toll of the war has left its scars on the people and the land, and no one is quite sure what to do next.

The story follows the life of a young woman, Selina Peake De Jong, who decides to be a school teacher in farming country. During her stay on the Pool family farm, she encourages the young Roelf Pool to follow his interests, which include art. Upon his mother's death, Roelf runs away to France. Meanwhile, Selina marries a Dutch farmer named Pervus. They have a child together, Dirk, whom she nicknames "So Big," from the common question and answer "How big is baby? " "''So-o-o-o'' big!" (Ferber, 2). Pervus becomes ill and dies, and Selina is forced to take over working on the farm to give Dirk a future. As Dirk gets older, he works as an architect but is more interested in making money than creating buildings and becomes a stock broker, much to his mother's disappointment. His love interest, Dallas O'Mara, an acclaimed artist, echoes this sentiment by trying to convince Dirk that there is more to life than money. Much later in life, Selina is visited by Roelf Pool, who has since become a famous sculptor. Dirk grows very distressed when, after visiting his mother's farm, he realizes that Dallas and Roelf love each other and he cannot compete with the artistically minded sculptor. In the end, Dirk comes to appreciate the wisdom of his mother, who always valued aesthetics and beauty even as she scraped out a living in a stern Dutch community. Ultimately, Dirk is left alone in his sumptuous apartment, saddened by his abandonment of artistic values.

Danny O'Shea has always lived in the shadow of his older brother, Kevin, a Heisman Trophy winner and local football hero. They live in their hometown of Urbania, Ohio. Kevin coaches the local "Pee-Wee Cowboys" football team. Despite being the best player, Danny's tomboy daughter, Becky, nicknamed Icebox, is cut during try outs solely because she is a girl. Also cut are her less-talented friends, Rashid Hanon (who can't catch anything), Tad Simpson (who is a poor runner), and Rudy Zolteck (who's overweight and quite flatulent). After being ridiculed by the players who made the team, she convinces her dad to coach a new pee-wee team of their own.

At first, Danny is reluctant to do so, but later accepts in an attempt to show Urbania that Kevin is not invincible, and that there is another O'Shea in town capable of winning. Kevin mockingly reminds him of the "one town, one team" rule enforced by the pee-wee football League, and with the support of the locals, they decide to have a playoff game to determine the lone team that will represent Urbania. Alongside Becky, Hanon, Tad, Rudy, and Nubie (an intelligent boy who becomes assistant coach), Danny also gathers other children that have never been given a chance and dubs the team the "Little Giants." One such player is Junior Floyd, a strong-armed quarterback who turns out to be the son of Danny's childhood crush, Patty Floyd. Becky slowly develops a crush on him and struggles with her newfound feelings as a young woman.

Two local old-timers, Orville and Wilbur, encourage the rivalry between Danny and Kevin, reporting to them that a new star player, Spike Hammersmith, has just moved to Urbania. Danny succeeds at recruiting him by tricking his overzealous father, Mike, into believing he is the famous "Coach O'Shea", but Spike proves to be rude and arrogant, and he refuses to play on a team with a girl. The deception is later discovered and he switches over to Kevin's more well-structured team. Kevin also encourages his daughter, Debbie, to become a cheerleader and later tells Becky that a quarterback will want to date a cheerleader, not a teammate. Believing it is her best chance to win over Junior and feeling exploited as her father's best player, she decides to quit the Giants and pursue cheerleading.

Just as Danny's team start to lose hope, a bus arrives carrying NFL stars John Madden, Emmitt Smith, Bruce Smith, Tim Brown, and Steve Emtman. They teach the kids about football and inspire them to believe they can win.

On the day of the game, Kevin goads Danny into making an impulsive bet: If Danny wins, he gets Kevin's Chevrolet dealership; if Kevin wins, he gets Danny's gas station. Facing a 21-point halftime deficit, the Giants' spirits are lifted when Danny gives them a speech, inspiring them to each remember a time when they had a unique accomplishment. He reassures them that they only need to beat the Cowboys one time to prove themselves. With this, they begin to make a big comeback with a series of outstanding and unexpected plays. Realizing that Junior is the main threat to the Cowboys, Mike Hammersmith orders Spike to take Junior out of the game; Spike injures Junior by spearing him with his helmet after the whistle, an act which angers even Kevin who considers it a dirty and disgusting play, and tells Hammersmith that he will not tolerate such disgraceful conduct from his players.

Witnessing the attack on Junior from the sidelines, an enraged Becky drops her pompoms and suits up for the game. She immediately makes an impact when she forces a fumble after a jarring hit on Spike. Other Giants make touchdowns while overcoming personal demons, such as Hanon's fear of dropping passes and making a reception, or Johnny running towards the end zone in excitement when he sees his little-seen father has rushed back from a business trip to watch him play. In the game's closing seconds with the score tied at 21, the Giants make a goal line stand when Becky stops Spike. With time remaining for one final play, their offense steps back onto the field and uses a trick play Nubie calls "The Annexation of Puerto Rico," inspired by Tom Osborne's famous “fumblerooski”. Kevin shouts out its actual name as it occurs, shouting "Fumblerooski, Fumblerooski!" The play includes three different ball carriers, utilizing the hook and lateral from Zolteck, to Junior, and finally to Berman, who scores the Giants' 99 yard game-winning touchdown.

Afterwards, Danny suggests that rather than having the Giants solely represent Urbania, they should merge with the Cowboys, so that both he and Kevin can coach the team. Danny and Patty rekindle their childhood romance. He also decides not to hold Kevin to the prior bet, on the stipulation that the town water tower be changed from "Home of Kevin O'Shea" to "Home of The O'Shea Brothers," reflecting a much earlier promise that Kevin made to Danny from their childhood.

George Kuffs, an irresponsible 21-year-old high school dropout from San Francisco, has walked out on his pregnant girlfriend Maya. Having lost his job and with no other prospects, George visits his brother, Brad, to ask for money. Brad serves as an officer in the San Francisco Patrol Special Police, a civilian auxiliary police unit that has potential officers assign themselves specific areas and work on a for-hire basis. Brad, unwilling to loan George any money, suggests George join him as a Patrol Special in the district he owns and work under him. Before George can decide on accepting the offer, Brad is shot by a man named Kane, whom George sees holding the gun. Kane drops the gun and nonchalantly walks away from the scene, and Brad is rushed to the hospital.

George is brought in for a lineup where he identifies Kane as the shooter, but the police are forced to release him because George did not actually see Kane, who had worn gloves to prevent fingerprints, fire the gun. Shortly after, George is told by Captain Morino, a friend of Brad's, that Brad died from his injuries and that George has been bequeathed Brad's district. Local businessman Sam Jones tries to purchase the district so he can control it, but George decides to keep it and train to be a police officer. Seen as unskilled and rude, George draws the mocking of his fellow Patrol Specials and the ire of Officer Ted Bukowsky -a police liaison who has been assigned to work with the Patrol Specials as punishment for having an affair with the police chief's wife. George spikes Ted's coffee with sleeping pills while on duty, resulting in Ted getting suspended.

After George is shot and wounded by a suicidal writer, his life begins to improve. He cracks a criminal enterprise run out of a Chinese dry cleaner (run by Jones), gaining respect and admiration from his fellow officers, and also reconnects with Maya. George gets justice for his brother's murder by killing Kane (in self-defense) during a failed ambush in George's apartment. His joy is short lived, however; Jones gives George's high school transcript to the Patrol Specials -proving George is ineligible to be a police officer because he never graduated- and declares he will take control of the district.

George does not stop tracking Jones and seeks out the still-suspended Ted for help. They wind up in a massive rooftop shootout with Jones' goons and are eventually joined by the rest of the police unit. George corners Jones in the lowest level of a parking garage and fatally shoots him in self-defense.

George marries Maya and becomes the proud father of a baby girl named Sarah. At Maya's suggestion, he takes the high school equivalency exam and passes, allowing him to continue working as an officer. He also takes out a loan to expand his brother's district.

A timeless spirit of mischief, the boggart has lived in Castle Keep since ages past, wreaking havoc upon the MacDevons who've lived there. His job, as far as he's concerned, is to keep life "interesting" for his beloved family. He's been too busy filching apples, knotting shoelaces, and trashing the kitchen to pay much attention to the march of history. But when the last MacDevon dies, the boggart has to come to terms with a new set of owners: the Volnik family from Toronto, who have no intention of inhabiting the drafty tumbledown castle that they've inherited from their great-uncle MacDevon. The sulking boggart is most displeased to find himself mistakenly shipped to Canada inside an antique desk destined for Emily Volnik's room. But once out and about, he is fascinated by this new world of peanut butter, pizza, and electric gizmos. Filching oatcakes quickly becomes a thing of the past as the boggart finds all sorts of new ways he can drive this modern family crazy. Possessing the t.v. set? No problem. Booby-trapping the house for Halloween? Well, if kids can do it, boggarts can do it. The traffic lights in downtown Toronto? Wouldn't they look prettier if they were another color? But when the boggart's pranks send Emily to the hospital, she and her brother Jessup must find a way to pry the boggart out of his new home and send him back to the castle where he belongs.

Back in Scotland, the mail carrier swears his van is haunted when he delivers Tommy's Christmas package all the way from Canada. And the video game that Tommy finds inside seems to have a mind of its own! When Tommy crashes into the black hole himself, the boggart bursts forth from his own computer, home at last and free. The happy boggart returns to Castle Keep, ready to welcome its new owners with a whole host of boggart tricks.

Earth colonists on Ganymede, the largest satellite of Jupiter, have discovered the existence of intelligent life on the planet's surface. They manage to establish communication with the Jovians by means of a "radio-click" code, and exchange scientific information. When the Jovians realise that the humans are not like them, they break off communication with a threat to destroy what they see as inferior beings.

Scientists on Ganymede realize that no possible Jovian ship could leave the surface without utilizing force-field technology, and experimentally determine that said technology cannot be made practical—therefore the Jovians will be unable to carry out their threat. Although the force field can be created, it cannot exist for more than a fraction of a second at the strength needed to contain Earth's air pressure, let alone Jupiter's. The scientist in charge, a brilliant theoretician, predicts this and then proves it with an experiment that ends in an explosion. Nicholas Orloff, the Colonial Commissioner, (who had been on Ganymede to assess the threat) reports back to Earth that the danger that had been posed by the Jovians is ended.

Meanwhile, a ship is headed for Ganymede to pick up Orloff and return him to Earth. A conversation between the ship's Captain and a technician reveals that this ship utilizes force-field technology in an ingenious way which the scientists on Ganymede have not thought of. By trial and error the technician discovered that the field explodes, losing an arm and an eye in the process. However he has circumvented this by turning the field on and off at a high frequency, so it is never on long enough to explode, but is never off long enough to lose air.

The ending line, "I imagine he'll be rather pleased" [with the applicability of the new technology], is ironic since the reader knows that this is precisely the reverse of what we know Orloff's (and the rest of the human race's) reaction to the news will be, since this implies that the Jovians will eventually be able to overcome the technical difficulties and emerge from their planet to wage war on humanity.

The story illustrates a tension between the theoretical ("Scientific") attitude and the practical ("Technical") one, exemplified by the prominent scientist claiming that his theory shows the force-field technology to be impossible ("That's final! ''That's final!''"), and mirrored by the technician's account of his methods, and by the story's title.

In 73 BCE, forty gladiators escape from the school at Capua belonging to Lentulus Batiatus. They seize weapons and armour and flee southwards, pillaging and killing. They quickly attract followers to their cause; runaway slaves, freemen, young and old. Leadership falls nominally to Spartacus the Thracian and Crixus the Gaul.

Spartacus, who has some military training, tries to form the mob into an army in the Roman style. They eventually retire to a more defensible position on Mount Vesuvius, from where they defeat and massacre a Roman army sent against them. Still largely directionless, they move south into the Campania in the direction of the south coast, looting many fortified towns.

They divide into two large groups; that led by Crixus moves north against Rome. They are massacred and those not killed in battle are crucified along the Appian Way. Crixus, however, escapes and rejoins the other group. They establish a camp outside the wall of the coastal city of Thurium. The inhabitants are mainly descended from Greek colonists and have no love for Rome.

Spartacus, now styling himself ‘Imperator’ negotiates a truce with the Council of Thurium, a deal decidedly more in favour of the slave army, who now style themselves the Sun City. They commence the building of a new city, where all are equal, all work for the common good, all share the same (meagre) food. Spartacus enforces new laws with harsh discipline. Fulvius the lawyer from Capua commences a chronicle of the movement (which is never to be completed), and becomes the main political advisor to Spartacus.

With a population of 100,000, they receive emissaries from other polities and negotiate treaties and trade relations, including with the pirates that rule the nearby seas. They try unsuccessfully to encourage other slave populations to rise against Rome. But when the sea routes are closed by naval battles, food becomes even more meagre and the murmuring of the population becomes major.

One group decides to attack and loot the rich city of Metapontum. The surviving attackers are brought back by Spartacus's loyalists and the leaders crucified, which further increases discontent. Cut off by a large approaching Roman army led by Crassus, they bargain with the pirate fleet to convey them to Sicily, but are abandoned by them after handing over all their remaining money. They finally depart, destroying the Sun City behind them. A group led by Crixus, mainly Celts and Gauls, fights the Roman legions but is destroyed. Spartacus tries to negotiate an honourable surrender with Crassus, but is unsuccessful.

Battle is joined. The slave army are defeated and Spartacus killed. The survivors are crucified or sold into slavery.

Ray resides in Southern California. He devotes his time to helping those who are in trouble. His background is shadowy; all that is known about him is that he advertises surreptitiously in newspapers, ostensibly offering a 65 black Stingray, for Barter Only To Right Party" and including a telephone number (555-7687). Those wishing to enlist his services, presumably having learned the ad's real meaning by word of mouth, can call him for help. It is not clear if "Ray" is even his real name, or simply a nickname he has taken on based on the car he drives, the same one described in the advertisement. In the pilot, he does say that it is short for "Raymond", but it never becomes clear if he is being honest or using a cover. In the episode "Sometimes You Gotta Sing the Blues" he identifies himself to police as Charles D. Stroke and invites identification by fingerprint. However, it is not made clear if this is his real name or part of an elaborate cover. In subsequent episodes, the name Charles D. Stroke is not used.

Ray does not charge money for his help. Instead, he requests a favor from his client in advance: the client will repay Ray in the future by performing one service—perhaps easy, perhaps difficult—upon Ray's request, and the request may not be refused. As the series begins, Ray has apparently collected favors from many previous clients. This allows him to call in a variety of favors during the series to help his current clients. For instance, when he poses as a doctor and is called upon to perform surgery, he calls in a favor from a physician client who secretly takes Ray's place in the operating room.

Ray is a skilled driver and accomplished martial artist, and is excellent at covering his tracks and hiding his real identity. On several occasions, clients and government authorities believe that they have discovered who he really is, but in the end they always find that they are mistaken. Often it seems that Ray either is or was affiliated with a secret government agency, perhaps the CIA, but this is never conclusively proven. In "Abnormal Psych" an unnamed opponent with ties to the U.S. intelligence community claims to have "created" Ray, and in "Anytime, Anywhere" it is clear that he served in Vietnam in some capacity. Whenever the license plate for his Stingray is run through a computer, it lists many different addresses and owners. Two of the most notable were "1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC" (the address of the White House) and the motor pool for the Governor of California.

Ray's other talents include a photographic memory, speed reading, the ability to slow down his heart to barely perceptible levels, and a knack for adopting personas including an arrogant surgeon, a tent-revival preacher, a crippled Vietnam veteran, and a grieving husband. He is a skilled computer hacker, capable of accessing and altering data systems and coordinating information retrieval.

As the Smurfs get ready for the Blue Moon Festival, Papa Smurf sees in his cauldron a vision of Clumsy Smurf reaching for a dragon wand and the Smurfs' longtime enemy, evil wizard Gargamel, capturing him. Not wanting this vision to come true, Papa disallows Clumsy to pick smurfroot, since the smurfroot fields lead to Gargamel's castle. Clumsy disobeys Papa and ends up unintentionally leading Gargamel and his pet cat Azrael to the village. The Smurfs all flee for their lives while Clumsy unknowingly runs towards the Forbidden Falls, with Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy running after him. They find him at the edge of a cliff, and while trying to help him up, they are sucked into a gigantic vortex that spirits them to 2011 New York City. To make matters worse, Gargamel and Azrael follow them through the vortex. The Smurfs end up in the apartment of Patrick and Grace Winslow, a married couple who are expecting their first child, and their Basset Hound Elway. After introducing themselves and explaining their situation, the Winslows befriend them and allow them to stay in their apartment. The next day, needing to find a "stargazer", the Smurfs follow Patrick to his workplace at Anjelou Cosmetics, misunderstanding the previous explanation of his job as fortune-telling, where he calls Grace to pick them up.

Meanwhile, having extracted Smurf essence from a lock of Smurfette's hair, Gargamel also arrives at Anjelou Cosmetics and ends up being treated favorably by Patrick's boss Odile when he uses most of his acquired magic on her elderly mother by restoring her youth and attractiveness. Gargamel resumes his search upon recognizing Patrick and following him into FAO Schwarz, but gets arrested after stealing another man's leaf blower and for causing chaos in the store with some customers while trying to catch the Smurfs. Gargamel manages to break out of prison with the aid of flies, since he encountered a moth and told it to bring him eagles to help him escape. By that time, Papa manages to calculate the night he and the others can get home. But first, he must figure out the spell to do so. Patrick tells them that there is an old bookstore in the city near Anjelou Cosmetics that may contain the spell Papa needs. Meanwhile, Patrick bonds with the Smurfs after sending what he believed to be his finished advertisement to be published. The next day, Patrick learns that Clumsy accidentally attached Patrick's first attempt at the advertisement before it was sent, a blue-moon-themed image that he couldn't bring himself to submit. Angered, Patrick berates the Smurfs and walks out on them and Grace to save his job, believing that he will get fired if he doesn't fix Clumsy's mistake.

Forced to search on their own, the Smurfs except for Clumsy find the store and find the book ''L’Histoire des Schtroumpfs'' by researcher Peyo, containing the spell to turn the moon blue. Having learned of their whereabouts from a homeless man, Gargamel sneaks into the bookstore and finds a dragon wand, transferring his magic into it as he uses it to capture Papa as he sends the others to safety. Though the Smurfs promise Papa that they won't try to save him and return home, Clumsy and Patrick, having seen the error of their actions after Grace gave him a sonogram picture of their baby, convince them to plan a rescue. At Belvedere Castle, after increasing the dragon wand's power with Smurf essence extracted from bits of Papa's beard, Gargamel finds himself facing all the Smurfs, summoned to New York by Brainy after he reopened the vortex by conjuring the blue moon. As the Smurf army battles Gargamel, Smurfette defeats Azrael and saves Papa before they join the fray. Though Gargamel attempts to break the Smurfs by killing Papa, Patrick saves him while Gutsy knocks the dragon wand out of Gargamel's hand, but he drops it. Clumsy tries to catch it, and to Papa's surprise, is successful and sends Gargamel flying into trash bags and being hit by a MCI J4500 bus with the advertisement "Blue Moon" on it. The Smurfs cheer for Clumsy and Papa expresses how proud he is of him. Soon after, the Smurfs take their leave as Patrick receives a call from Odile that he still has his job because he finally gave her what she wants after she noticed the blue moon that Brainy created. Later, Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue to honor the Smurfs, who rebuild their village in the style of New York.

In the aftermath, Gargamel wakes up and learns that he is still in the present and he looks at the audience before breaking the fourth wall and asking them "What are you looking at?" and blasts them with his wand.

Arthur Burton, an English Catholic, travels to Italy to study to be a priest. He discovers radical ideas, renounces Catholicism, fakes his death and leaves Italy. While away he suffers great hardship, but returns with renewed revolutionary fervour. He becomes a journalist, expounding radical ideas in brilliant satirical tracts published under the pseudonym "the gadfly". The local authorities are soon dedicated to capturing him. Gemma, his lover, and Padre Montanelli, his Priest (and also secretly his biological father), show various forms of love via their tragic relations with the focal character of Arthur: religious, romantic, and family. The story compares these emotions to those Arthur experiences as a revolutionary, particularly drawing on the relationship between religious and revolutionary feelings. This is especially explicit at the climax of the book, where sacred descriptions intertwine with reflections on the Gadfly's fate. Eventually Arthur is captured by the authorities and executed by a firing squad. Montanelli also dies, having lost his faith and his sanity.

It is debatable to what extent an allegorical comparison can be drawn between the Gadfly and Jesus.

Dr. Ernest Sovac is taken from his cell for his execution, but is able to give notes to a reporter, which recount his story, as he is led to a chamber.

Sometime earlier, Sovac's best friend, bookish college professor George Kingsley, is run down while crossing a street. In order to save his friend's life, Sovac implants part of another man's brain into the professor's. Unfortunately, the other man was a gangster who was involved in the accident and was apparently heading for the electric chair, according to the police. The professor recovers but at times behaves like the gangster. Sovac is horrified but also intrigued, because the gangster has hidden $500,000 somewhere in New York City. The doctor continues to treat his unwitting friend and persuades him to take a vacation in New York; Sovac hopes this will revive the gangster's memory so that Kingsley will lead him to the fortune which he hopes to spend on a laboratory. Unfortunately for the doctor's plans, the professor's personality change becomes more extreme, including plotting revenge against other members of his former gang. When Kingsley (behaving as a gangster) attempts to murder the doctor's daughter, Sovac shoots him dead.

Returning to present, Sovac is executed.

A quiet gardener living in Los Angeles, California picks up blond women and is murdering them with garden shears. The police attempt to track him down but the man continues to kill. The killer lives in a shack on a hill overlooking Los Angeles (Chavez Ravine).

The story is a courtroom drama. It opens in 2034, with Simon Ninheimer, a professor of sociology, suing U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men for loss of professional reputation. He contends that robot EZ-27 (aka "Easy"), while leased to Northeastern University for use as a proofreader, deliberately altered and rewrote parts of his book ''Social Tensions Involved in Space Flight and their Resolution'' while checking the galley proofs (hence the title). Ninheimer holds that the alterations to his book make him appear an incompetent scholar who has absurdly misrepresented the work of his professional colleagues in fields such as criminal justice.

Susan Calvin (U.S. Robots' Chief Robopsychologist) is convinced that the robot could not have acted as Ninheimer claims unless ordered to do so, but infers from its refusal to answer questions about the matter that it has been ordered into silence by Ninheimer. In any case, a robot's testimony in its own defense is not legally admissible as evidence.

During the trial, Ninheimer is called as a defense witness in the presence of EZ-27 and is tricked into lifting EZ-27's inhibition on accounting for its actions. He responds to the robot's intervention by angrily denouncing its disobedience of his order to remain silent, thus implicitly confessing to having attempted to pervert the course of justice.

The story's final scene is a post-trial encounter between Ninheimer and Calvin. Calvin notes how Ninheimer was caught as a result of his mistrust of robots: far from being about to tell the court what Ninheimer had ordered it to do, EZ-27 was actually going to lie and claim that it tampered with the text without Ninheimer's involvement, because it had become clear that losing the case would be harmful to Ninheimer and EZ-27 was bound by the First Law to try to avoid that harm. For his part, Ninheimer explains his attempt to frame EZ-27 in order to bring disgrace on US Robots. He was motivated by his fear that the automation of academic work would destroy the dignity of scholarship; he argues that EZ-27 is a harbinger of a world in which a scholar would be left with only a barren choice of what orders to issue to robot researchers.

Two childhood friends, Leo and Ulrich, grow up to be soldiers in Germany. Leo becomes infatuated with Felicitas, the wife of a powerful count (a marriage about which Felicitas neglects to inform Leo). The count calls for a duel of honor with Leo, but insists that it be done under the false pretense that the quarrel was due to angry words exchanged between the two at a card game to protect the count's reputation. Leo kills the count in the duel, but then is punished by the military by being sent to Africa for five years.

Due to Ulrich's intervention, Leo only serves three years before being recalled home. On his return journey, he focuses on his dream of being reunited with Felicitas. Before he left for Africa, Leo had asked Ulrich to take care of Felicitas's needs while he was away. Ulrich — unaware that his friend is in love with Felicitas — falls in love with her and marries her.

Upon his return, Leo finds himself torn between Felicitas — which the woman encourages — and his friendship for Ulrich. Condemned by a local pastor for continuing to associate with Felicitas, Leo eventually loses control of his emotions, leading to a climactic duel between the two boyhood friends. While racing to stop the duel, Felicitas falls through a layer of thin ice and drowns. Meanwhile, the friends reconcile, realizing that their friendship is more important than Felicitas.

Clinton Madarian, the successor to Susan Calvin at U.S. Robots who has just retired, initiates a project to create a "feminine" robot which not only has female physical characteristics but will (it is hoped) have a brain with "feminine intuition." After several failures together costing half a billion dollars, JN-5 (also known as Jane) is produced and the company plan to use it (her) to analyse astronomical data at the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, to calculate the most likely stars in the vicinity of Earth to have habitable planets. This will allow the most effective use of the hyperspace drive to explore those stars.

Madarian and Jane go to Flagstaff and after absorbing as much knowledge on astronomy as possible, Jane gives Madarian an answer. Mandarian and Jane board the plane that will take them back to U.S. Robots, and Mandarian calls the director of the company with the news, stating that "a witness" had also heard Jane's answer. Unfortunately, Madarian and Jane are killed and destroyed respectively in an aircrash before completing the call.

Desperate to know what, if anything, Jane had discovered, U.S. Robots asks Susan Calvin for her assistance. She solves the problem using her own version of feminine intuition – a combination of careful information gathering and astute psychological reasoning. She deduces from the timing of the call (and Madarian's propensity to call as soon as possible) that the "witness" must have been the truck driver that took them to the plane. Information provided by this truck driver enables her to reconstruct Jane's answer.

Dickie Roberts is a very young actor who shot to fame on a 1970s television sitcom called ''The Glimmer Gang'' with his spoonerism catchphrase "This is Nucking Futs!". His career subsequently halted in the years following the show's cancellation.

Unable to find another acting gig due to his eccentric habits, a now older Dickie has been reduced to parking cars at a Morton's restaurant and appearing on ''Celebrity Boxing'', where he suffers a humiliating first-round defeat to Emmanuel Lewis. In the public eye and to his girlfriend Cyndi, who leaves him on the roadside after a car problem, Dickie is a washed-up loser.

After talking to his old friend Leif Garrett, Dickie is absolutely convinced a new Rob Reiner movie in the works titled ''Mr. Blake's Backyard'' will be his comeback. Even after his agent Sidney Wermack fails to land him an audition, Dickie persists. While on duty at Morton's, he joyrides in a customer's vehicle and drops into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where he pesters Tom Arnold to connect him with Reiner. After he is kicked out as he's not an alcoholic, Dickie fakes being drunk and mistakingly wanders into a Lamaze class Brendan Fraser is taking with his wife. Fraser finds Dickie's entrance to the class hilarious and ridiculous, and agrees to help him out by calling Reiner on his behalf.

Reiner bluntly tells Dickie that the part is not within his abilities because it requires knowing how a regular person lives. Unfortunately, he didn't have a normal childhood (he grew up in the limelight, and his emotionally abusive mother Peggy abandoned him once he stopped earning money). Desperate to prove to Reiner he is right for the part, Dickie manages to sell his raunchy autobiography for $30,000. With the money, he pays a family to "adopt" him for a month to properly prepare the role.

Once Dickie hires his "family", things get off to a rocky start, as George, the bread-winning father, insists that they need the money, despite the reservations of the other family members. Grace, the mother, comes to pity their new "son" and gradually provides him with surrogate guidance. Dickie begins to realize a lesson he read in the script for ''Mr. Blake's Backyard'': "Sometimes all of the things you need are in your own backyard".

Dickie learns much about himself and life in general, and begins to act less immaturely and more as a third parent. He helps the son Sam secure a date and helps the daughter Sally join the pep squad. Cyndi returns to him and he even earns the admiration of George, who turns out to be inept at fidelity.

Sidney lands an audition for Dickie by donating one of his kidneys to Reiner after the director is savagely beaten by a psychotic driver whom Dickie provoked while unknowingly driving Reiner's vehicle. Dickie gets the part, proving that "In Hollywood, sometimes your dreams can come true...again". After learning that George ran off with Cyndi, Dickie gives up the part to take George's place with the family he has come to love as his own. An ''E! True Hollywood Story'' story on Dickie, aired not long after, reveals that Dickie has since started his own sitcom starring all of his old friends, as well as his new family (including Grace, whom he has married).

The closing credits are a send-up on Relief albums listed as "To help former child stars" and includes many references to old television sitcoms where Dickie, Leif, their mutual friends, Florence Henderson, Marion Ross, and other former very young stars sing "Child Stars on Your Television".

In Northampton, in the East Midlands of England, Charlie Price is attempting to save the family shoe factory, which has been floundering since his father died. While on a business trip to London to sell the company's extra stock, Charlie encounters a woman being harassed by drunken hoodlums and intervenes to his detriment. He wakes up backstage, in the dressing room of Lola, a drag queen performer and alter ego of Simon. Charlie is intrigued when he sees that drag queens' high heels snap easily, and wishes to create high heels that can support a greater range of foot sizes and body types. Back in Northampton, while in the process of laying off workers, one employee, Lauren, gives Charlie the idea of looking for a niche market product to save the business. Charlie then recruits Lauren to assist him in designing a high-heeled boot for drag performers.

When their initial designs are met with scorn by Lola, Charlie and Lauren bring her on as a consultant. The road is initially bumpy: many of the male employees are uncomfortable with Lola's presence and the new direction, and Charlie's relationship with his fiancée, Nicola, begins to deteriorate as she encourages him to sell the factory building to a developer. Although things improve when Lola tones down her personality and starts making friends, matters take a turn for the worse when Charlie is invited to showcase the new boots in Milan; the strain he puts on his employees causes most of them, including Lola, to walk out.

Charlie's fiancée arrives at the factory, furious that he took out a second mortgage on their house to save the company. Nicola insists that he sell the company, but Charlie is determined to save it and the jobs of his employees. The argument (which ends with Nicola leaving Charlie) is broadcast on the factory's PA system, which is overheard by Lauren and Lola's bitterest opponent at the factory, Don, a chauvinistic male worker. Don turns over a new leaf after Lola had graciously allowed him to win an arm wrestling match, and rallies the factory workers to make the boots in time for Charlie and Lauren to get to Milan. When Charlie catches Nicola with another man, he angrily takes out his frustrations on Lola, causing Lola to quit. After arriving in Milan with no one to model the boots, Charlie is forced to go onstage and model the boots himself. After he trips and ultimately falls flat on his face, Lola and her posse of drag queens arrive, put on a spectacular runway show, and save the day.

In the film's denouement, Lola headlines her own show and sings a song in honour of the "kinky boots factory" of Northampton. Most of the key workers are in attendance and enjoying themselves, including Charlie and Lauren, who have become a couple.

The plot centres on the rivalry between Adam and his brother St John. As the younger of the two, Adam knows that when their father dies, the family estate and shipyard that he loves so much will be inherited by his wayward brother. The rivalry between the two men intensifies when Adam falls in love with Meriel Sawle, the beautiful daughter of the local tavern keeper. But St John is determined that Adam will have neither the estate or Meriel.

According to genealogical information provided in the book, Adam Loveday was born in Cornwall in 1767 as the son of Edward and Marie Loveday. He has a twin brother, St John Loveday.

Adam Loveday was encouraged to join the Royal Navy, and spent much of his early life as a junior officer. However, he was eventually forced to leave after being caught duelling with a rival officer, Lieutenant Francis Beaumont. After this he spent much time working in his father's shipyard where his designs for new ships helped to expand and improve the business. His talent for shipbuilding encouraged his father to make Adam heir to the family shipyard, further fuelling the rivalry between himself and St John.

Reissue cover for the first paperback edition ( ) Adam is described as being tall, with dark shoulder length hair, a lean build and deeply tanned skin from his long days spent at sea. He is twenty years old when introduced in the first book of the Loveday series.

Category:1999 British novels Category:Novels by Kate Tremayne Category:Hodder & Stoughton books Category:Historical romance novels Category:Literary characters introduced in 1999

Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is sentenced to death for the murder of his brother Michael, a crime he did not commit. Dr. Frank Griffin, the brother of the original invisible man injects the prisoner with an invisibility drug. As Radcliffe's execution nears, he suddenly vanishes from his cell. Detective Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) from Scotland Yard guesses the truth while Radcliffe searches for the real murderer before the drug causes him to go insane.

The Radcliffe family owns a mining operation. The recently hired employee Willie Spears (Alan Napier) is suddenly promoted within the company, stirring Radcliffe's suspicions. After forcing Spears' car off the road, Spears is frightened into revealing that Richard Cobb (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), Radcliffe's cousin, is the murderer. After a confrontation, a chase scene ensues during which Radcliffe is struck by a bullet from Sampson. Cobb is fatally injured by falling from a coal wagon but confesses to the murder before he dies.

Now cleared of all wrongdoing, Radcliffe, dying from blood loss and exposure, makes his way to Dr. Griffin. A number of Radcliffe's employees volunteer to donate blood to Radcliffe. The transfusion succeeds, making Radcliffe visible again, allowing the doctor to operate and save his life.

After a year of marriage, Marge Farrell (Gloria Talbott) is despondent that her husband Bill (Tom Tryon) is cold and not acting toward her the way he did before they were married. He doesn't show any signs of genuine affection towards her or toward his new dog, a surprise anniversary present from Marge. The dog barks and snarls at him whenever he approaches; he kills it in their basement, telling Marge the dog was strangled by his collar while pulling on his tethered leash. She is also becoming concerned because, wanting a family, she has not become pregnant. After undergoing various tests, her doctor assures her that she can have children; he suggests that Bill come in and see him to be tested.

She soon notices that other husbands in their social circle are acting the same way. One night, she follows Bill when he goes out for a long walk. He heads to an isolated area in the woods, where she discovers that he is not the man she thought she married but an alien impostor. An extraterrestrial life form leaves Bill's body shell and then enters a hidden spaceship.

She confronts the alien Bill, and he eventually explains that all the females on his dead planet are extinct. He and the other males of his species are taking over human men so they can have offspring with Earth's women, saving their race from extinction. Marge is horrified at the prospect and tries to warn others of the alien plot, but too many men in town have already been taken over, including the town's Chief of Police, who does nothing after hearing her story. She attempts to call Washington, D.C., but all outgoing phone lines are busy. She attempts to leave by car and the local police stop her, saying that the only exit bridge which leads out of town is down.

Finally, her doctor (Ken Lynch) comes to believe her wild story, and he gathers up a posse of men he knows cannot be disguised aliens, having recently fathered children. They attack the aliens in their hidden spaceship. Bullets can't hurt the invaders, who are surrounded by a force barrier. The aliens, however, prove to be defenseless against a pair of German Shepherd dogs being used by the posse. The aliens are killed when the dogs attack, all except the alien Bill.

Entering the spaceship, the posse finds that all the human male captives are unconscious but still alive, including Bill. The men are each hooked up to an apparatus that helps the aliens become their captors while living in faux human shells. The posse begins to disconnect the captives, which kills the aliens one-by-one. Shortly before his faux human body is destroyed, the alien occupying the Chief of Police broadcasts a warning to his people in orbit that they've been discovered by the humans. Thereafter, a fleet of alien spaceships is seen leaving Earth space. They must seek out humanoid females elsewhere now that their breeding plan on Earth has been discovered.

Doctor Pearson (Michael Rennie), who works at a hospital in Quebec, Canada, receives a series of poison pen letters. More letters, all signed with the mysterious picture of a feather, are delivered to others in the small Canadian town. Cora Laurent (Constance Smith), the wife of the main doctor - Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) - at the hospital, receives a letter accusing her of having an affair with Pearson. Another letter informs a shell-shocked veteran Mr. Gauthier that he is dying of cancer, causing the distraught man to commit suicide. Quickly, the townsfolk begin pointing fingers at all possible suspects.

In his hometown Oulu, Lepistö meets a man who shows him a map of Lapland, showing an "X" mark at the spot where he claims is gold. Lepistö believes the man and shows the map to his companion Ervasti. Lepistö and Ervasti travel to the Teno River, where they manage to find two kilograms of gold. They travel back to Oulu to lay official claim on the find site but are told it has already been claimed. Finally a large gold rush to Lapland starts.

When the Lovedays' banker is found dead in the river Thames, his legacy of debts and foolish investments plunges the family into financial chaos and leaves them facing ruin. As Adam struggles to face this new challenge, he falls in love with the mysterious gypsy woman Senara despite his father's censure. Meanwhile, St John, encouraged by his wife Meriel, throws in his lot with a gang of smugglers in order to win the riches both of them have always dreamed of. The growing Revolution in France also has repercussions for the family. Reissue paperback first edition cover

Category:2000 British novels Category:Novels by Kate Tremayne Category:Historical romance novels

Adam, now married to the half-gypsy Senara, returns to his home to find his father threatening to disown him for his wife's heritage. To support his wife and new child, he becomes an undercover agent helping nobility to escape from a France now in the turmoil of revolution.

Meanwhile, his brother St John is making a fortune as a smuggler and his wife Meriel is pregnant with his second child, ensuring his future as heir to their father's estate. But his success has made him an enemy of Thadeous Lanyon, a rival smuggler. When Lanyon attacks Meriel and causes her to lose her child, he is soon found murdered. With all the evidence pointing to him, St John faces execution unless the family can find some way of proving his innocence. Reissue cover for the paperback

Category:2001 British novels Category:Novels by Kate Tremayne Category:Novels set in Cornwall Category:Historical romance novels Category:Novels set in the French Revolution Category:British romance novels

''6teen'' is an animated comedy for older children, preteens, and teenagers. The plots take place almost entirely in a megaplex shopping mall known as the Galleria Mall. The Galleria Mall is a cross between the Toronto Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Mall. The series follows the cast of six 16-year-old friends in everyday lives, including their first part-time jobs. The show is rated TV-PG.

''6teen'' is focused on the common issues related to teenagers. The main characters are: Jude, Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, Caitlin, and Wyatt. They deal with first infatuations, first jobs, first bank accounts, and a sweet taste of freedom. Nikki finds herself stuck working at The Khaki Barn, a store where she would not shop herself, while Jen has found her dream job at a sporting goods store, but makes some mistakes. As a running gag, Jonesy manages to get fired from a new store in almost every episode with a few exceptions. Wyatt falls hopelessly in love with his older co-worker. Jude works at the Food on a stick. Caitlin endures the daily humiliation of working at the lowest store in the mall's hierarchy of cool – The Big Squeeze, a lemonade stand shaped like a giant lemon, where she's required to wear a hat shaped like a lemon as a part of her uniform.

While her husband is away on business, Lucia confronts Darby, a low-life Los Angeles criminal, and demands he stop seeing her 17-year-old daughter, Bea. He agrees, but with the caveat that Lucia pay him. She responds by telling him he has simplified the situation, that when she tells Bea "how deeply you feel about her" the girl will be glad to break off with him.

When Lucia returns home she is confronted by Bea - Darby had telephoned to tell her of her mother's visit. She refuses to believe Darby would mention money in the manner her mother suggests happened.

Lucia forbids her daughter to see Darby again but, that evening, Bea sneaks out to the family's boathouse to meet him. She assures him she does not accept her mother's version of things, but he indicates he could do with some money and that it does not mean the two could not continue to be together. Bea is repulsed by this and, during an ensuing struggle, she hits him and he goes down to his knees. Unknown to her, he shakily tries to follow her but accidentally falls and subsequently dies.

Having discovered Bea missing, Lucia searches for her. When she comes upon the distraught girl, who has just come indoors after her ordeal and reveals it to her mother, Lucia goes to the boathouse; there is nothing amiss and she does not see Darby. The next morning, however, she finds him lying dead by a jetty. She uses a motorboat and disposes of the body in a swamp; it is found, and a murder investigation begins.

Another L.A. criminal, handsome and smooth-talking Donnelly, the partner of Nagel, a brutal loan shark, shows up in possession of letters Bea had written Darby. Nagel had fronted the now-deceased man money and has been holding the writings as collateral. Lucia must now come up with $5,000 to keep Bea's relationship from becoming known.

As Lucia struggles to secure these funds, Donnelly is falling in love with her. He tries to allow her more time, he tells her he has declined his 'cut' and that if she can get half the money, he may be able to mollify Nagel. If he could, he says, he would pay the blackmailer off himself.

After desperately pawning much of her jewelry, Lucia has only $800. When she meets Donnelly to hand this over, he announces that she is in the clear, a man has been arrested in relation to Darby's murder. Lucia is stricken with guilt because she knows Darby was not actually murdered; she tries to convince Donnelly that she is the killer. He will not accept her story and says that while the man in custody may be innocent of this he is "guilty of a hundred other things" and it does not matter, she needs to think of her family.

Later, Donnelly learns that the suspect has been released. When Lucia gets home, her housekeeper says Nagel is waiting in the boathouse. He lets her know the suspect has been "sprung" and that she must pay the full $5,000 immediately. Donnelly arrives and attacks his partner; during the fight, Donnelly is wounded but manages to strangle Nagel to death.

Afterwards, Donnelly talks about his warm feelings for Lucia; she says she will call the police and straighten everything out, she cannot allow him to spend the rest of his life wanted for murder. He asks her for a drink and, while she is gone, Donnelly drives away with Nagel in the car. Lucia follows in her vehicle. While driving, Donnelly reaches into Nagel's pocket to retrieve Bea's letters; he loses control, smashes through a fence and into a tree, overturning the car and trapping himself under it.

When Lucia finds him, he tells her to not assist him, it will be better if the authorities find him this way. He gives her the letters. At home, as Lucia is trying to compose herself, her two children return from an evening out. Her son talks about "seeing a terrible accident". Bea tells Lucia how the police mentioned that, just before dying, the man pinned beneath the vehicle admitted to killing Darby.

Marjorie Morgenstern, born 1916, is a New York Jewish girl in the 1930s. She is bright, beautiful, and popular, with many admirers. Her father is a prosperous businessman who has recently moved his family from a poorer, ethnically Jewish neighborhood in the Bronx to Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her mother hopes that the change of neighborhood will help Marjorie marry a man with a brighter future.

Marjorie aspires to become an actress, using "Marjorie Morningstar" as a stage name. ("Morningstar" is the word-to-word translation of "Morgenstern" from the original German.) She begins with her school's (Hunter College) production of ''The Mikado'', and lands the title role. As a result, she meets Marsha Zelenko, who will become her best friend (for a while). Marsha encourages Marjorie in her quest, and helps her get a job as a drama counselor at the summer camp where Marsha teaches arts and crafts. That summer, Marsha persuades Marjorie to accompany her on an excursion to South Wind, an exclusive resort with a staff of professional entertainers. There Marjorie meets Noel Airman, an older man who has won some fame as a composer, as well as Wally Wronken, a younger man who hopes to become a playwright.

Marjorie idolizes Noel, who can sing, dance, compose, and speak several languages. They begin a relationship that determines the next four years of her life. He tells her that he has no interest in marrying, or fitting in with the middle-class life that he tells her she will ultimately want. Having changed his birth name from Saul to Noel to escape his Jewish origins, he mocks her Jewish observances (such as her unwillingness to eat bacon), and taunts her for her 'Mosaic' unwillingness to engage in premarital sex. Noel tells Marjorie that she is a "Shirley": a typical, well-brought-up New York Jewish girl who will ultimately want a stable husband and family, while he is embarking on an artistic career.

Over the course of the novel, neither Noel nor Marjorie finds professional success in the theater. Marjorie accepts that she will not succeed as a professional actress, and spends more of her time reading and working. Noel takes and quits stable writing and editing jobs, blaming Marjorie for motivating him to take jobs that do not suit him and for his unhappiness. He flees New York in a panic rather than marry Marjorie, saying that he will not succeed as a writer and will return to studying philosophy. Having entered a sexual relationship with him, Marjorie is convinced that her only hope is to marry Noel. She decides that the best way to persuade him to marry her is to wait a year and then pursue him to Paris.

However, en route to France, Marjorie meets a mysterious man named Mike Eden aboard the ''Queen Mary.'' She enjoys his company, he treats her well and speaks respectfully of her religious traditions, and he helps her locate Noel. In Paris, Noel tells her how happy he is to see her, but does not notice when she is hungry or hurt. He tells her that in his year in Paris he has not actually enrolled in school to study philosophy, and that he will return to the U.S. to take another stable writing job. He offers to marry her, but Marjorie has realized that life with Noel will not make her happy, and that it would be possible for her to fall in love with someone else.

She returns to New York free of her infatuation with Noel, and quickly marries, no longer caring whether Noel would describe her as a "Shirley". The novel concludes with an epilogue in the form of an entry in the diary of Wally Wronken, the only character who did manage to have a successful artistic career. Wally idolized Marjorie as a young man, and meets her again 15 years after she marries, when she has happily settled into a role as a religious suburban wife and mother. Wally recalls the bright-eyed girl he once knew, and marvels at how ordinary Marjorie seems at 39.

The character name Airman is a translation to English of the Yiddish word ''luftmensch''. The critic Dan Vogel writes that Wouk casts Noel as a "rasha" or bad or Satanic figure for leading Majorie in a descent from violating traditional Jewish laws of kashrut or kosher laws to violating traditional values of sexual morality.

Hsiao-kang is a street vendor in Taipei who sells watches out of a briefcase. His father dies. Soon afterwards, Shiang-chyi goes to him to buy a dual-time watch, as she is taking a trip to Paris. She likes Hsiao-kang's personal watch, which is out of stock. At first, he refuses to sell his watch, explaining that his father just died and that it would be bad luck. She is persistent and eventually convinces him to sell the watch to her. Hsiao-kang's mother mourns her husband's death; she leaves out food and water for him and thinks that he could be reincarnated. Hsiao-kang watches a film set in Paris, ''The 400 Blows''. During his daily routines, he changes every watch and clock to Paris time. Meanwhile, in Paris, Shiang-chyi is alone as she stays in her room and goes to shops, restaurants, and the subway. Hsiao-kang's mother sees that the clock in her house has changed time and thinks that it is because her husband is back. She turns off the lights in the house and blocks all the windows, and she and Hsiao-kang argue.

Shiang-chyi visits a cemetery and has a chance encounter with Jean-Pierre Léaud, the lead actor of ''The 400 Blows''. At a restaurant, she meets another Chinese woman, and they go back to the Chinese woman's place. They sleep in the same bed and kiss before the Chinese woman turns away. Hsiao-kang's mother eats dinner with a plate set for her husband, and afterwards she masturbates in bed. Hsiao-kang spends the night out and then has sex with a prostitute in his car. While he is sleeping, the prostitute steals his briefcase of watches and leaves. Hsiao-kang goes home and lays down next to his mother. Shiang-chyi cries while sitting on a bench by a pool. She falls asleep, and some people take her suitcase and put it in the pool. Hsiao-kang's father appears. He takes the suitcase out of the water and walks away.

After a tutorial level in which the player controls Isildur during the Battle of the Last Alliance, the game begins with Aragorn, the protagonist of the game, (voiced by Viggo Mortensen) stating "I am Isildur's heir. Not Isildur himself. My fate is my own." He then rides to Helm's Deep where he awaits the attack of Saruman's army of orcs and Uruk-hai. Atop the battlements he tells Éowyn (Carole Ruggier) of his encounters with the enemy prior to his arrival. Shortly after he first met the hobbits, the group stay at Weathertop for the night, but are attacked by the Nazgûl. Aragorn successfully drives them off but not before Frodo (Elijah Wood) is stabbed by the Witch-king with a Morgul-blade. The party reach Rivendell, where Frodo is healed. The Council of Elrond then form a fellowship of nine to bring the Ring to Mordor to destroy it; Frodo (who will carry the Ring), Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli.

Attempting to cross the mountain Caradhras, a snowstorm causes an avalanche, closing the pass. The party reluctantly decide the only way past the Misty Mountains is to go under them, via the goblin mines of Moria. They arrive at the Doors of Durin, but are attacked by the Watcher. After slaying the creature, they continue into Moria. Inside, Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) is horrified to learn that his cousin Balin is dead. In the Chamber of Mazarbul, the Fellowship finds Balin's tomb and a record of how the dwarves lost the mine to the goblins. The fellowship is then attacked by a hoard of goblins and a cave troll. The party manage to fight off their attackers and get to the exit, but on their way across the Bridge of Khazad-dûm they are confronted by a Balrog, and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) sacrifices himself to allow the others to escape.

Soon thereafter, they reach Amon Hen, and the fellowship fragments. Aragorn allows Frodo to leave with the Ring and make his own way to Mordor. As they are ambushed by a group of Uruk-hai, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) protect Frodo, giving him time to escape with Sam. Meanwhile, Boromir is left alone to protect Merry and Pippin. He is overwhelmed by the numbers, and is fatally wounded by the Uruk-hai leader, Lurtz. Merry and Pippin are then taken captive by the Uruk-hai. Before Boromir, dies, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli reach him and vow to avenge his death. They kill Lurtz and set out in pursuit of Merry and Pippin. This brings them to Fangorn Forest, where they encounter a wizard. Initially believing it to be Saruman, they soon realize it is Gandalf, who has been resurrected by the Valar. Merry and Pippin are also safe, having escaped their captors and come under the protection of the ent Treebeard.

Meanwhile, Gandalf explains there is now an alliance between the two towers of Barad-dûr in Mordor and Orthanc in Isengard, home of Saruman, who has sent out legions of Uruk-hai and orcs to ravage the countryside of Rohan, whose king, Théoden, has been rendered virtually comatose by Saruman's magic. Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli race to Edoras, where Gandalf frees Théoden from Saruman's spell, and it is decided that the inhabitants of Rohan shall make for Helm's Deep, a fortress which has never been breached. Gandalf leaves to get additional help, promising to return "at the turn of the tide." Meanwhile, on the path to Helm's Deep, the travelers are attacked by orcs riding Warg, but Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are able to fight them off.

The game then returns to the opening, with Aragorn and Éowyn on the battlements. The women and children are taken into the caves, as Saruman's army arrives, and the Battle of the Hornburg begins. Initially, the defenders are able to hold off the attackers, but the Uruk-hai blast a hole in the outer wall using explosives, through which hundreds of Uruk-hai and orcs flood. After the women and children retreat deeper inside, the defenders move to the courtyard to attempt to defend the door to the Great Hall. After a lengthy battle, the sheer numbers of attackers prove too much, and everyone retreats inside. Arargorn, Legolas, Gimli, Théoden and the remainder of the Rohan warriors prepare to make a suicide charge out of the Hall, but as they do, Gandalf arrives with a vast army of Rohirrim, attacking the Uruk-hai and orcs from behind whilst the others attack from the front. Saruman's army is decimated.

After the battle, Gandalf warns Aragorn that this is only the beginning of hostilities. However, he points out that Sauron fears Aragorn, as he knows of Aragorn's bloodline, and that he can inspire the men of Gondor. He also says the forces of good have one major advantage over Sauron; the Ring is hidden, and that they should attempt to destroy it has not entered Sauron's mind. He expects them to use it as a weapon, never imagining it is being brought closer to him every day.

), as seen in the opening credits. The show's main character was a forty-year-old middle school science teacher named John Martin (played by Edelman). While vacationing in Florida, he drinks from a spring which turns out to be the legendary Fountain of Youth sought by Juan Ponce de León. The water changes him into a twelve-year-old boy (played by Rist), and back again.

The changes occur spontaneously and without warning. Because Martin only sipped the water, the changes are recurring and not permanent; according to legend, had he taken a full drink, he would be age twelve permanently. Only his wife, Marjorie (Joyce Bulifant), and son, Ricky (Mike Darnell), know his secret, though Martin's students (who befriend him as "Little John") and his boss, principal Bertha Bottomly (Olive Dunbar), do become suspicious that something unusual is going on. The Martin family explain the younger John as their nephew, staying with them. Throughout the series, "Big John" unsuccessfully tries to find a cure for his predicament, but his experiences as "Little John" often give him insight into what his students are facing.

To make the two actors resemble each other more closely, Rist's blond hair was dyed brown, while Edelman wore a hairpiece that partially covered his baldness, though was absent during the credits sequences. Edelman and Rist appeared together in 1977, on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.

Chickenpox infects Stan's sister Shelley and Kenny. The other boys' mothers begin to think that maybe the other boys should be exposed to it too, so as to get it while they are young, when it is easier to deal with. They agree and have the other boys stay at Kenny's house. The boys are unenthusiastic about spending the night at Kenny's house because he is poor. The next day, Cartman and Stan get sick, but not Kyle. Stan's chickenpox gets so bad he has to be brought to the hospital with Shelley. Sheila Broflovski tries sending Kyle over to Kenny's house again, much to Kyle's protests, but he still fails to catch the disease.

Sheila, after learning from Carol McCormick that her husband, Stuart, and Gerald, Sheila's husband, had once been close friends, decides to try to patch things up between them by setting them both up on a fishing trip. However, the trip does not go well and the two fight. Apparently, Stuart is jealous of Gerald's success, while Gerald makes a speech to Kyle about how some people need to be poorer than others as part of a capitalist society. As part of his homework assignment, this makes Kyle come up with a plan to eliminate all the poor people in the world to make it a better place: by putting them in camps; this makes Gerald realize the callousness of his beliefs.

After Kyle learns from his mom that she tried to get him sick, he breaks Stan out of the hospital. Both go to Cartman's house to retrieve him and all of the boys decide to get revenge on the adults for what they did. The parents begin a frantic search, while the boys see Old Frida, a local prostitute with herpes in her mouth, and pay her to go to their homes and use the parents' items to give them all herpes. The parents find the children and bring them back to the hospital; Kyle finally falls ill and passes out on the floor. With all the boys in hospital, they laugh at their herpes-riddled parents, who accept the boys' actions while Kenny suddenly dies from chickenpox. Everyone is shocked, but just then continue laughing.

Major events

The Rally

Near the beginning of the novel, Nikhil brings his wife Bimala to a political rally in an attempt to get her to join the outside world and get in better touch with "reality." Though Bimala had heard of Sandip before this time, and developed a somewhat negative opinion of him, this was the first time she heard Sandip speak. This event not only changes her opinion of Sandip, but affects her entire outlook on her life both at home and in the outside world. "I was no longer the lady of the Rajah's house, but the sole representative of Bengal's womanhood," Bimala says (31).

Bimala's realisation

Towards the end of the book Sandip convinces Bimala to steal from her husband, Nikhil. While in the act of stealing 6,000 rupees, she comes to a realisation of the terrible crime she is committing, "I could not think of my house as separate from my country: I had robbed my house, I had robbed my country. For this sin my house had ceased to be mine, my country also was estranged from me" (144). This represents a character turning point for Bimala: While in the act of thieving, she realises that Sandip is not only corrupting and robbing the nation, but encouraging her and others to do the same. Ultimately, she ends up giving the money to Sandip and receives unceasing praise from both Sandip and Amulya for her newly recognised sin.

However, Bimala realises that she has made a mistake by stealing the money from Nikhil and attempts to have Amulya pawn off some of her jewellery to replace the money. Amulya attempts to give the box back, but Sandip steals it and gives it back himself. This event allows both Amulya and Bimala to see that Sandip is concerned only with himself, thus allowing them to break free from part of his web. It is during this time that Bimala realises her power over Sandip by being able to easily make him jealous.

The sequel picks up on Christmas Eve four years after the first movie, with Ricky Caldwell (born Ricky Chapman), the 18-year-old brother of the first film's killer, now being held in a mental hospital, sentenced there for life after a trial he had for a series of murders that he committed. While being interviewed by the psychiatrist Dr. Henry Bloom, Ricky tells the story of the murders his brother Billy committed throughout a series of several flashbacks using footage from the original film. These flashbacks feature new shots to make Ricky appear in more of Billy's original story.

After this, Ricky tells his own story: after Billy's death, he was adopted and given a good upbringing, but his trauma was never treated. After his foster father's death, Ricky loses his composure and commits a series of random murders, targeting people who are "naughty". A chance for a normal life seems to appear when he starts dating Jennifer Statson, but an unpleasant encounter with Jennifer's ex-boyfriend Chip sends Ricky over the edge. He kills Chip by electrocuting him with jumper cables that are attached to a car, while Jennifer watches in horror, and then strangles Jennifer to death with the car antenna after she screams that she hates him. A police officer witnesses this and as Ricky is about to be arrested, he grabs the officer’s revolver and shoots him in the forehead, before going on a shooting spree. He kills at least three more people throughout the neighborhood, including one man taking out his garbage. Later on, Ricky gets himself into a stand-off, where he tries and fails to commit suicide before being arrested.

Cutting back to the present day, Ricky strangles Dr. Bloom to death using audio tape and escapes from the mental hospital. He murders a Salvation Army Santa and steals his costume. Ricky plans to kill Mother Superior, which Billy failed to do four years ago. After chasing Mother Superior throughout her house, Ricky succeeds in decapitating her. Ricky cleans up the blood and stages the scene, with Mother Superior sitting in a chair, her severed head balanced on her body. As soon as this is discovered by the police officers that arrive on the scene, a screaming Ricky leaps out and prepares to attack, but is shot down out the patio door. Sister Mary wakes up, and the police officer tells her, "He's gone, Sister. It's over." Then she turns over and sees Mother Superior's severed head, before screaming in terror.

Ricky suddenly opens his eyes and smiles devilishly, indicating that he has survived his gunshot wounds. The final shot shows the arm of the murderer dressed in a Santa suit (stock footage from the first film) plunging a knife into the screen, before it freezes and the credits roll.

An unidentified man discovers a dead logger's body killed gruesomely by a deadly carnivore, he proceeds to cover it up by making it look like an accident. Reed Shelton, policeman and his introverted wife Rebecca Shelton are about to begin their vacation (something which Rebecca opposes). More and more sightings of a hairy, upright monster occur and Rebecca hears a shrieking in the night. Suddenly she is kidnapped by a large beast, Reed seeing her taken away.

Rebecca's captor proves to be a gentle giant however, a red colored female Bigfoot that lives in a small troop with her mate, an adult male, the male's other mate, and the other mate's offspring. Rebecca comes to call the male Jacob, the other female Leah, and the female who took her and seems especially maternal of her, Rachel. The bigfoot are powerful, but relatively peaceful animals skittish around humans and Rebecca comes to realize that rather than the source of the attacks or shrieks, they're actually running away from the true monster; a genetically engineered hybrid of a human and chimpanzee that had been driven insane by its condition. The reason Rachel abducted Rebecca was because the hybrid killed her offspring and the grieving mother mistook Rebecca for her baby based on their shared red color.

Eventually Rebecca manages to get away as the hybrid corners her after being wounded in a failed attack. It’s gunned down by its creator but the amoral scientist who tried to cover up his escaped monster's doings attempts to silence her by strangling her. Jacob saved Rebecca's life by killing the sociopath and Rebecca exchanges a goodbye with Rachel as the bigfoot depart.

In 1986, Chava is a young 11-year-old boy from El Salvador. His father escaped to the United States at the start of the civil war when he was only 5. His family lives in a small town of Cuscatancingo that is currently heavily fought over between the Salvadoran army and the El Salvador guerrillas. His mother makes a living for the family by sewing, and Chava sells the clothes in shops. When he's not in school, Chava works for a bus driver announcing stations for him as a part-time service to help his family with money.

He is nearing his twelfth birthday, when the Salvadoran military forces will recruit him into active service against the guerillas. Chava witnesses the army recruiting twelve-year-old children from his school inside, and also witnesses a 10-year-old recruited when he trips another boy as a bad prank on him, and he is violently restrained after he tries to run away, and his teacher is almost shot while trying to defend him.

One day, his uncle Beto, who has joined the guerrillas, comes to visit Chava's family. Beto wants to take Chava with him so the military can't recruit him, but Chava's mother is against it. Beto gives a radio to Chava and tells him how to listen to the guerrillas' banned radio station, ''Venceremos''. Throughout the scenes in the village where they live, there are firefights between government and rebel forces, as the settlement is on the border of the conflict. Chava knowingly plays a song banned by the Salvadoran Army in front of the soldiers, but the town's priest saves him by playing the same song over the church's loudspeaker, focusing the soldier's attention away from Chava.

During class, Chava falls in love with a girl in his class named Cristina Maria. The guerrillas attack the army from the school building and the school is closed. Kella and her family move out of town to her mother's house in a safer area. One of the guerrillas, Raton, tells Chava of the army's next recruitment day, and Chava and his friends warn the entire town to hide their children. Chava decides to visit Cristina Maria but only finds the bombed-out shell of her house. He and his friends decide to join the guerrillas, but they are followed and the guerrilla camp is attacked by the army.

Chava and his friends are taken from the camp, and forcibly marched to an unknown destination, repeating the opening scene. It appears to be an execution ground on a riverbank, where other bodies litter the scene. Ancha, the mentally handicapped local from Chava's village is seen to have been hanged. The soldiers begin to shoot the boys one by one, and two of them are killed. Chava is next in turn, but at the last moment he is saved by a guerrilla attack. He runs back into the undergrowth right into a raging firefight. After seeing a guerrilla get killed by a government soldier, Chava feels he should fight against them. He picks up the rifle, but realizes the government soldier is another young boy who he knew in school. He cannot bring himself to kill his old friend, another human. He flees, and the camera shows the boy he was aiming at, who realizes that his life was in another child's hands. Chava runs home to find his mother in the burnt out ruins of their house. She decides to send him to the United States to prevent him being caught by the authorities, and he promises to return and rescue his brother before he too turns twelve.

In 1992, six years later, it is shown that he also rescued his brother and brought him into the United States, and the war has ended.

Gustad Noble (Roshan Seth) is a Parsi bank clerk who lives with his family in Bombay (Mumbai), just before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. At first, he seems to be a self-centered, self-involved, neurotic man, who is so tied up in his own pain for perceived slights both past and present that he cannot seem to connect with either friends or family.

He is haunted by memories of his privileged youth and his father's fortune, which has been lost to the machinations of an unscrupulous uncle. He is baffled by the changes wrought in his eldest son, Sohrab (Vrajesh Hirjee), who refuses to attend the Indian Institute of Technology to which he has gained admittance, and worried about his youngest daughter, Roshan, when she falls ill. Other conflicts involve Gustad's ongoing interactions with his eccentric neighbors and his relationship with his close friend and co-worker, Dinshawji. Tehmul, a seemingly unimportant and mentally disabled character, is essential in Gustad's life, as he brings out his tender side and represents innocence in life.

A letter that Gustad receives one day from an old friend, Major Bilimoria, slowly draws him into a government deception involving threats, secrecy, and large amounts of money. He then begins the long journey that sheds new light on all aspects of Gustad's life.

The movie opens with a brief flashback to the previous film as Father Constantine finds the Lexicon - the final book of God's prophecy and its continuing to write itself - in the catacombs of his church. When he keels over from a heart attack, now it's up to a grad student, Allison (Kari Wührer), to keep it from the forces of darkness.

In the streets of Bucharest, a young girl named Maria loses her ball into the busy street. Suddenly, Lucifer (reprised by John Light) appears to her and tells her she should go get it. Almost trancelike, she wanders into the street and as a result is run over by a vehicle. Allison witnesses the whole thing and runs to the little girl's side. The girl tells Allison she has a message for her, but she cannot give it to her yet.

On her way down, Allison brushed into Dylan (Jason Scott Lee) who was standing at the entrance to her apartment building. He is sitting in a dark room assembling and loading his gun. A mysterious figure named Stark (Tony Todd) behind him discusses "the job" he was hired to do: to kill Allison. Dylan tries to take the noble route and shoots himself in the head rather than take another life. Not to be discourage, Stark brings Dylan back to life on the spot and tells him that the brief taste of hell he just tasted should convince him to work for Stark.

Dylan breaks into Allison's house and holds her at gunpoint, and tells her that he was hired to do a job, but something is telling him that she is different. She was meant to live. He wants to know why she should live. She responds by saying that she has been entrusted with a responsibility, but she will not say what it is. Torn between doing the right thing and doing his job, Dylan kidnaps Allison and takes her with him. Stark breaks into the apartment a short time later; he tears the place apart and finds the Lexicon, but is only a decoy, a set of magazine articles bound together in the Lexicon's cover.

Dylan takes Allison to his "friend" Gabriella's house to get her a wig, some perfume, and some iron pills. The iron pills change the taste of her blood and the perfume changes her smell. Angels hunt by smell and taste (according to the first ''The Prophecy'' film). As they are escaping from a group of angels, Dylan explains the angel hierarchy - Cherubim and Seraphim are the most dangerous. He then sends her on her way and goes back to fight a hopeless battle to buy her time. The perfume and iron pills do the trick; Allison is able to escape. Stark's thrones capture Dylan and bring him before Stark. Stark claims to Dylan that Allison is going to start genocide the likes of which the world has never seen, so Dylan should have killed her when he had the chance.

Allison goes to the only "person" she can – Lucifer. He explains that the Lexicon is going to name the Antichrist in a matter of hours. The angels in Heaven do not want that kind of information falling into the hands of the wrong people. However, there are laws in Heaven against killing people, hence the hired assassin. For Heaven however, Allison turned their hired gun before he could finish the job. He then tells her that he will not get involved in this one, despite the fact that he already had.

When Allison comes out of his rickety old mansion, there are two angels waiting to take her. She races across the field until she comes upon a funeral procession for the young girl Maria, who Lucifer sent to her death in the opening. The angels lose track of her in the crowd. The procession ends at an old church, which is safe ground for Allison. Meanwhile, Stark continues to torture Dylan because he still needs him, especially since Allison trusts Dylan now. Stark tells Dylan to get her out of the church, and they will take care of the rest.

Back inside the church, Allison hears the voice of the little girl calling to her: she says that she feels so cold, and tells her that the "bad angels" do not want humans in Heaven. They are trying to keep them out, so she cannot let them have the book, no matter what. Dylan shows up at the church and stays with Allison through the night; he asks her if she is sure that she is on the right side in this war. Allison claims that "you have to take some things on faith". Dylan takes a look outside and sees dozens of angels waiting for them; worried, he feels that they must get out of there soon or else there will be hundreds by the morning. Thus, he tells Allison to wait for his signal and then run directly to his car. When she gets there, though, he has locked her out; the double-cross is complete.

The angels capture Allison and bring her before Stark; he tells her that he is against the whole messy idea of Armageddon. If they can find the name of the Antichrist, they can kill the child before the apocalypse and save humanity. Allison claims she's not keen on the idea of going over God's head, and she doesn't think he is either or she'd already be dead. Stark promises to kill her if he has to; however, he lets her leave for now.

As Allison leaves, she runs into Lucifer in the park; he helps her reason through what has happened. Stark and a few of the other seraphim aren't happy with the idea of Armageddon. After all, it means Heaven will be flooded with humans, beloved by God above even the seraphim themselves. Lucifer however likes the idea of Armageddon because it will mean that a billion new corrupt souls will appear on his doorstep.

She leaves to check on the Lexicon's hiding place, but she's attacked by a homeless man. A voice whispers to her that it is time to fight back; that is just what she does - she fights off the homeless man and snaps his neck. Stark and Dylan have already figured out where she has hidden it as Dylan remembered that she used to take a walk through the same park every day. Stark says she would have gone that way to check on the Lexicon, and thus they head to an abandoned house that Stark theorizes contains the Lexicon.

Allison sees them heading for the house and breaks in through the cellar. The Lexicon has finished its task of writing the name of the Antichrist—Mykael Paun, and he shall bear four distinct marks on his face. Allison grabs the book and climbs the stairs to the top of the building. Stark is in hot pursuit; he catches up to her on the roof, cornering her and claims that the child is there in Bucharest. He then asks her if she wonders why she was chosen and how she's been able to keep the Lexicon from creatures more powerful than her. He states that she is a "nephalim", a half-breed between an angel named "Simon" (a character from the first film) and a human, bred specifically to protect the Lexicon; therefore Allison is nothing more than a tool.

Dylan, who is feeling the effects of death more than ever, staggers to the roof; he is caught between them. Allison tells him to accept God's will on faith, but Stark is telling him to complete his task so he can be done with this miserable existence. Dylan is torn; he goes back and forth between them before shooting Allison repeatedly in the chest. Nevertheless, there was method in his madness; as Allison falls over the precipice, the pages of the Lexicon scatter everywhere. The winds carry them throughout the streets of Bucharest, and Allison survives due to her "nephalim" healing powers. Now, Stark has no way of tracking them all down. The final page, the one Stark was looking for, falls at the feet of a young boy named Mykael Paun.

In 1970, Doctor Hoshikawa was researching how to transform the planet Sedon into a green, lush world, testing it by attempting to grow flowers. On the day the first flower bloomed, the Zone Empire launched an assault on the planet, separating him and his wife from their five children. Arthur G6 took the five children back to Earth and raised them while after the attack, Doctor Hoshikawa is safely went to Planet P16 Milky way.

Twenty years later, the five are now teachers at the same school, the Newtown Elementary School (Newtown Shougakko). The Galactic Imperial Army Zone led by Empress Meadow and Captain Garoa now prepares to invade Earth as its thousandth target to destroy for immortality of Empress Meadow (but later reveals that Empress Meadow is an illusion used by Vulgyre, their base which is also a gigantic lifeform monster to manipulate them in order to be a "god"). As they begin the attack, three vehicles appear and counter the offensive. Five warriors descend from the vehicles and confront Zone.

The Hoshikawa siblings have been developing the Fiveman technology and training hard upon the possibility of Zone invading Earth. Now the five siblings are ready to battle with the familiar foes as Fiveman.

In this version of the famous plot a group of midget circus runaways decide to form their own community to flee the chaos out come under attack from motorcycling ruffians. In response, of course, midgets hire seven tough people to defend them. One of them is a woman driving a car, another a stunt man, another a Mongolian eagle hunter, and a beatnik. The bandits have an easy victory and allow the hired fighters to leave with their weapons. However, they come back, teach the midgets to fight and entrap the bandits. In a final fight, the chief of the fighters confronts the main bandit at their lair and wins. The bandits return the stolen car to the fighter. The midgets exchange the car for a tractor following the final wish of the driver.

The film was shown in many international film festivals as both a fun movie and an oddity. It was billed as "The Last Soviet Film."

Lambert, a withdrawn middle-aged man, works the night shift at a Parisian petrol station. He has no friends, no family; his only companion is his bottle of rum. One night, a young Arab man, Bensoussan, enters his shop — and his life. This stranger has also no family, lives alone in a dingy room, and scrapes together a living as a drug dealer. The two solitary men develop a friendship — but this is brutally brought to an end when Bensoussan is killed in front of Lambert. Lambert soon realises that his new friend was murdered by his drug dealing associates and sets out to avenge his death — assisted by Lola, a punk girl who knew Bensoussan briefly. By doing this, Lambert manages to come to terms with his own tragic past.

In 1968, Justin McLeod has been living an isolated existence as a reclusive painter for the past seven years, following a car accident that left him disfigured on the right side of his face and chest burns sustained in the post-crash fire.

Chuck Nordstadt is a young boy who endures a dysfunctional relationship with his academically brilliant half-sisters and their oft-divorced mother. One day, Chuck meets McLeod on a ferry when McLeod witnesses Chuck in an act of vandalism born of escalating frustration. Chuck is both intrigued and slightly scared of him. Chuck needs a tutor to help him pass a military academy's entrance exam that he'd failed earlier that year. Eventually, upon discovering that McLeod is a teacher, Chuck persuades him to become his tutor. While he is initially baffled by McLeod's unorthodox methods, the two eventually develop a close friendship.

Chuck keeps his daily meetings with McLeod a secret in order to avoid being scorned for associating with a disfigured man whose past is shrouded in mystery. No one knows much about McLeod and few people have ever made an effort to know him. As a result, McLeod has become the object of gossip, speculation, and suspicion. "A proper troll," McLeod notes with self-deprecating humour. "Tourist board oughta pay me."

Ultimately, Mrs. Nordstadt learns that her son has been visiting McLeod. She and the rest of the town convince themselves that McLeod is molesting Chuck, despite Chuck's adamant denials. Chuck researches McLeod's car accident, which involved the death of another boy, thus causing McLeod's fear of another attachment. Chuck is forcibly taken to a psychiatrist, who Chuck correctly suspects is also biased against McLeod.

Chuck inevitably confronts McLeod to learn the truth of his disfigurement and to discover the identity of the youth who was killed in the car crash. As it turns out, the boy was a student of McLeod's. Consequently, McLeod was unjustly branded a pedophile, exiled from his hometown, convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served three years in prison. Once his relationship with Chuck is openly known, McLeod is once again run out of town and ordered by the authorities not to have any contact with Chuck.

Chuck enters the military academy he'd worked so hard to get into. At mail call, he gets the letters he'd sent to McLeod, marked Undeliverable. Needing to know what's happened to his friend, Chuck quietly leaves his school that night, and goes back to McLeod's house. He finds it empty, but for a painting he'd done of Chuck that summer, and a letter written by McLeod. The letter tells Chuck that he's moved on, and that he wishes him the best of luck in his academic goals, thanking him for the gift of grace he'd so unexpectedly been given.

In the film's final scene, Chuck is shown graduating from the military academy as his sisters and their mom (along with her newest husband) look on proudly. Chuck sees a familiar figure in the background and recognizes it as his "faceless" tutor. They silently greet each other.

The main character of this book is '''Dana Evans''', an anchorwoman for the press, who was also featured, though not as a main character, in another Sidney Sheldon book, The Best Laid Plans.

The book begins with Dana Evans returning from Sarajevo with an armless adoptee, Kemal after filming war coverage for three months. Soon after, the last member of one of the most respected families in the world, Gary Winthrop dies after being shot by robbers. Dana decides to set out to find why anybody would want to kill the family well known for its kindness and contributions to charity (all of Gary's relatives had died in suspicious circumstances one at a time before him). Dana starts by visiting Roger Hudson, one of Taylor Winthrop, Gary's father's friends to start looking for answers.

Meanwhile, Kemal is facing difficulties at his current school from Ricky Underwood, who teases him about having only one arm. After being repeatedly warned by the school principal for getting into fights and swearing, things finally reach a breaking point where the principal expels Kemal. Dana's boss's secretary, Elliot Cromwell helps Dana enroll Kemal in another school and refers her to an organization who help buy Kemal a prosthetic arm. As Jeff Connors, Dana's fiancé takes care of Kemal, Dana thinks about a motive for murdering the Winthrops. She rules out money, as when the Winthrop family dies, the fortune goes to charity. She settles on revenge as a motive, and starts hunting for clues by visiting the places where the Winthrops died.

Dana's search turns up cold, as all she meets say that the Winthrops were too good to have enemies. Finally, she gets the name Joan Sinisi, Taylor's secretary who filed a charge against Taylor, but later dropped it. After several failed attempts to contact her, Sinisi finally agrees to meet Dana after having the notion that someone is watching her. Sinisi later dies after being pushed off her penthouse window before being able to come to the meeting place. Dana then hears of the FRA, whose head, General Booster kicks her out. At the same time, Jeff is forced to go visit his ex-wife, who has breast cancer, thus Dana employs a nanny to look after Kemal.

Dana eventually comes to Russia, where she finds the pen she'd been given by her friends was a tracking device and destroys it and meets a military official named Sasha Shdandoff. Sasha promises to tell Dana why the Winthrops were killed, but she must first get him out of Russia, as someone is attempting to kill him. Dana accepts, and Sasha leads her to Krasnoyarsk-26, a closed town in Krasnoyarsk Krai. After disguising Dana as a prostitute and going in with her, Sasha explains that Krasnoyarsk-26 exists for the sole purpose of creating plutonium, the key ingredient in nuclear weapons. One hundred thousand scientists and technicians work there, and must severe all ties with the outside world before working there. It is impossible to shut down the plant as it warms the city above it, and without it the city's population would freeze to death. Taylor Winthrop was killed by his business associate after he got too greedy and decided to take all the plutonium. Sasha then says he will reveal more when he is out of Russia. After talking to Roger and Pamela Hudson, who have guided her through her adventure, Dana returns to find Sasha dead. After a sniper attempts to kill her, Dana realizes that Roger was Taylor's business associate, who is trying to kill her now after knowing the truth.

Dana is then forced into a cat-and-mouse chase from Russia to the United States, finding out that several people that she trusts are working to kill her. She is ultimately able to elude her enemies, but the Hudsons trick her into coming to their house after claiming they have Kemal, who, after realizing his nanny is also trying to kill him and Dana and is feeding him sleeping pills, was able to escape the apartment, but was tranquilized and brought to the Hudsons. Dana goes to the Hudsons' house in the hope of saving Kemal, but finds it was a trap and that Kemal had already been left for dead in a burning school. The Hudsons' doorman, Cesar takes Dana to a park to drown, but Jeff Connors, whose ex-wife asked him to leave after lying that her mastectomy to prevent her cancer from spreading was successful, arrives in the TV studio's helicopter and decapitates Cesar using the helicopter blades. Dana weakly utters Kemal's name before fainting. Jeff gets the hint and is able to rescue Kemal from the burning school. The Hudsons, furious, try to leave on a private plane for Russia, despite the airport ordering them not to by General Booster, but their plane explodes thanks to a bomb planted by Boris Shdanoff, Sasha's brother. Soon after, Dana marries Jeff and gets pregnant, Kemal gets to star in a TV show, Jeff's ex-wife dies from cancer and the Hudsons end up starring as the first criminals on the TV station's new crime program. The book ends with Dana asking her boss Matt about a murder of a 75-year-old millionaire in his hot tub.

Roffe and Sons is a family firm, an international empire filled with desperate, cash-hungry family members. The family consists of * Anna Roffe, whose husband Walther Gassner married her only because of her bloodline * Simonetta, the wife of Ivo Palazzi, a womanizer being blackmailed by his mistress, Donatella * Helene Roffe, the three time divorcee who marries Charles Martel. Martel invests in a vineyard by stealing his wife's jewelry, but the money drowns. * Alec Nichols, whose mother was a Roffe, whose gambling-addicted and spendthrift wife Vivian, pushes him into increasing debts. It is clear that everyone in the family is in need of money. The firm Roffe and Sons is managed by Sam Roffe and his assistant Rhys Williams. Sam Roffe was expecting a son, but instead got a daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was declined love from her father during childhood, but escaped the reality by reading about her great-great grandfather, Samuel Roffe.

Samuel Roffe was born in a Jewish ghetto, which was systematically and strictly controlled by officials. The ghetto gate was opened after sunrise and locked before sunset. Anyone caught outside the gate after sunset was captured and sent to prison camps. In midst of this chaos, along with the trauma of his mother's death, Samuel Roffe aspires to become a doctor. He wanders around the Wal house, the house of a rich Jewish doctor, and falls for his daughter. Wal accepts to teach him about medicine, and Samuel learns a lot. But later, Wal's daughter's marriage is fixed, which she rejects as she believes she is in love with Samuel. The Wals give Samuel six months to prove himself worthy of his daughter's hand, and he manages to do that by making a vaccine.

The bloodline goes on, to reach the present situation, with Roffe and Sons being the second largest company in the world. Elizabeth is sent to a Swiss boarding school, and later expected to host parties like her mother. She does not get involved in the family business, until she receives the news that her father died in a hiking accident.

All the money-hungry family members ask her to sell the stocks and make the company public, but Elizabeth refuses to, sensing that her father was against making the company public. She later discovers with a confidential report that someone is sabotaging the company. She narrowly escapes death twice: once in a car accident and another in a lift accident, in which her secretary dies. While searching for the culprit, she falls for Rhys Williams. Rhys and Elizabeth later get married as Elizabeth could not handle the company on her own so she insisted on marrying Rhys Williams who would become the president of the company. With Rhys Williams handling the company, Elizabeth investigates on who is sabotaging the company. In Zurich Kriminalpolizei, detective Max Hornung is assigned with the investigation of the lift accident targeted on Elizabeth. After further investigation, Max suspects one of Elizabeth's family members to be the culprit . Meanwhile, Elizabeth comes to a conclusion that Rhys Williams is the murderer of her father based on the research she does herself. To be safe, Elizabeth flees to her villa in Sardinia where she is escorted by a police chief. Later, she wakes up to find out that she was drugged and the power supply has been cutoff in the house. Amidst the darkness, she hears the footsteps of her killer approaching, and she runs towards a tower and climbs into it. After a dramatic climax, Elizabeth finds out that her killer was none other than Alec who wants to kill Elizabeth in order to sell the stock to repay off his debts. Alec threatens to kill Elizabeth by pointing a gun at her, but detective Hornung and Rhys Williams reach just in time with the police chief and save Elizabeth. Alec perishes in the fire he himself set to the villa, thinking about his wife Vivian and the murders he committed of young girls with a red ribbon tied around their necks for her.

Tracy is a successful bank-worker in Philadelphia, engaged to a wealthy heir, whose child she is carrying. Then her mother commits suicide, after being scammed by the New Orleans Mafia and left in debt. Tracy gets a gun to frighten the scammer, Joe Romano, into admitting her mother’s innocence, but he tries to rape her and is wounded in the struggle. Her attorney convinces her that she will get a much shorter sentence if she pleads guilty, but the judge sentences her to fifteen years to Southern Louisiana Penitentiary for Women, and she realises that the judge and the attorney are both working for Romano’s boss, mafia Don Anthony Orsatti. As she goes to jail, her employer and her fiancé abandon her and the unborn child, which she miscarries under the horrendous abuse she suffers from her prison mates.

Tracy now decides to avenge herself on all the men who have ruined her life. Granted an official pardon for saving the life of the warden's daughter, she uses her banking knowledge to divert large sums into Romano’s account, making it look as though he was planning to skip the country, and Orsatti imprisons him for his apparent betrayal. Then she gets the boyfriend of one of her jail-mates to plant evidence in the attorney’s home, making it look as though he was cheating Orsatti at cards, and Orsatti teaches him a lesson too. While the judge is in Russia, she sends him coded letters that implicate him as a spy, and he is sentenced to fourteen years of hard labor in Siberia. She stalks her ex-fiancé and his new wife, but decides that they look so bored and unhappy with each other that no further punishment is needed.

With a criminal record, however, her career is over, and she reluctantly slips into crime, presently finding that she enjoys stealing, especially from those who deserve to be stolen from. In the course of a colorful crime spree all over Europe with FBI, INTERPOL and Federal Police stalking, she falls in love with one of her co-conspirators, Jeff Stevens, and they plan to take their winnings and live the law-abiding life in Brazil. But on the plane, she finds herself sitting next to wealthy top criminal Maximilian Pierpont, who shows a strong interest in her, and we are left wondering if she will try to steal from him too.

The Stanford family is one of the most respected in America - but behind the facade of fame and glamour lies a hidden web of blackmail, drugs and murder. When Harry Stanford, one of the wealthiest men in the world, mysteriously drowns while cruising on his yacht off the rugged coast of Corsica, it sets off a chain of events that reverberates around the globe. At the family gathering following the funeral in Boston, a strikingly beautiful young woman appears. She claims to be Stanford's daughter and entitled to a share of the tycoon's estate. Is she genuine, or is she an impostor? Sweeping from the splendors of the Italian Riviera, to the fashion salons of Paris and New York, and the opulence of Boston and Florida, Morning, Noon & Night twists and turns its way through intrigue, smoke and mirrors to a surprise ending you'll never forget.

''Pandora's Star''

The book opens with a short section providing backstory. As part of the first mission to Mars, a team of astronauts exits their spacecraft for the first time, only to see another man standing there, connected to an air hose that leads through a wormhole to a laboratory in California. The wormhole generator's inventors, Nigel Sheldon and Ozzie Isaacs, chose to test it by beating the crew, by moments, to become the first humans to reach Mars. The saga then moves into the Commonwealth era in 2380, when humanity has used the wormhole technology to colonise several hundred planets across hundreds of light years.

On a distant planet, astronomer Dudley Bose performs the first detailed observations of a mysterious astronomical event known as the Dyson Pair Enclosure. Two stars, located roughly 1,000 light years from Earth (750 light years from the edge of Commonwealth space), disappeared some time in the past. The theory is that they have been enclosed inside Dyson spheres.

Bose's investigations reveal that the enclosing of Dyson Alpha and Dyson Beta (as the stars become known) occurred quickly and simultaneously. This implies that the technology of the Dyson aliens, or possibly of other unknown aliens, surpasses that of the Commonwealth; furthermore, did the Dyson Aliens enclose themselves, or did some other force enclose them? Was it for protection or to protect those outside the spheres?

To investigate, the Commonwealth builds its first interstellar ship, the ''Second Chance''. Lacking contemporary astronauts, it gives the command to Wilson Kime, one of the members of the original Mars mission. Using a self-enclosed "flowing" wormhole for propulsion, the ''Second Chance'' travels to Dyson Alpha.

When the ''Second Chance'' arrives and begins to explore what appears to be an enclosure generator, an unknown mechanism shuts it down and the barrier around the star disappears. Formerly imprisoned inside is an extremely warlike and aggressive species, a race that comes to be called "the Primes". They consist of intelligent "immotiles" that breed and control vast armies of sub-sentient "motiles" via electronically extended neural interfaces. The few immotiles constantly vie with each other for territories and resources, and by the time of the story, the strongest uses the technology gleaned by analysis of the human's wormhole-generation techniques to destroy all the other Prime immotiles and thus become the only one remaining Prime: MorningLightMountain.

Primes had previously colonised the solar system referred to as Dyson Beta using slower-than-light starships and had committed genocide against its native inhabitants in the process. Disconnected from their originating immotile groupings, and provided with novel biological forms, Beta's Primes started to routinely alter themselves through genetic manipulation and mechanical augmentation. This was an anathema to the Alpha Primes, who referred to them as ''AlienPrimes''. With Beta's Primes no longer under the control of Alpha's Primes, a war began between the two systems. The war appears to have continued until forces unknown erected the barrier around the stars.

After capturing two crew members of the ''Second Chance'' (one of them Bose), MorningLightMountain eventually discovers the location of the Commonwealth. Upon learning of the Commonwealth's existence, MorningLightMountain makes it its primary objective to destroy it. Having been in almost continual combat for its entire evolution, MorningLightMountain believes that it is necessary to eliminate all other life in the Universe in order to secure its survival into the distant future; it views all life that is not under its control as a potential threat.

Hamilton weaves several other stories into the main narrative of the Prime encounter. Among these is that of the ancient spacecraft ''Marie ''[sic]'' Celeste'', found crashed on one of the Commonwealth planets, Far Away. An enigmatic figure, Bradley Johansson, claims the original passenger of the spacecraft is alive, an alien he calls the Starflyer. He claims that it is using mind-controlled agents to manipulate events in the Commonwealth, and that it caused the events that led to the discovery of the Primes. The Commonwealth forces dismiss Johansson as a crazy terrorist, and his attempts to interfere with the voyage to Dyson Alpha are thwarted.

''Judas Unchained''

''Judas Unchained'', the second part of the Commonwealth Saga, picks up where ''Pandora's Star'' s abrupt ending left off.

The story begins with the small human resistance that exists on what remains of the Commonwealth worlds attacked by the Primes. Human resistance forces have found two ways to fight back: using the Prime weapons (primarily directed-energy weapons) against the invaders, and disrupting communication between the slave caste (motiles) and the commanding caste (immotiles) of the Primes. Meanwhile, the humans in the remaining Commonwealth pursue other plans: to develop a set of weapons and warships to defend against the next Prime invasion and force the conflict back into Prime space; to develop a "quantumbuster superweapon" based on technology supplied, unbeknownst to most humans, by the Starflyer; and to prepare for the evacuation of known space altogether if necessary.

Eventually, the human forces decide that there can be no other solution to the conflict than to commit genocide and destroy the Primes entirely. However, it is revealed that the Primes are planning a much larger invasion, which humanity will be all but powerless to stop.

As the war rages, the human forces begin to build much faster, better armed, ships and fitting them with new "quantumbuster" weapons. These weapons function by converting the entire rest mass of an object into energy, and are thus capable of destroying an entire planet. Later on, a more advanced quantumbuster is deployed, which is capable of inducing a main-sequence star to go nova via a feedback loop where the energy from the conversion is used to further expand the radius of the effect field. Despite the original plan to use it on the Dyson Alpha star and thus kill the entire prime race, a modified field version of a normal quantumbuster is eventually deployed on the Dyson Alpha forcefield generator, destroying the mechanism that was interfering with the generator's systems. This allows the mechanism to reactivate, trapping the Prime aliens inside and avoiding genocide.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth forces slowly realize that Johansson is correct, the Starflyer is in fact an AlienPrime which, by chance, escaped the enclosure event. After crashing on Far Away it has been plotting how to destroy both the Alpha Primes as well as dangerous Humanity by manipulating events to force both races to commit mutual genocide. Beta Primes would then become the dominant lifeforms. Through a long trail of companies, it funded Bose's "discovery" of the enclosure and snuck agents aboard ''Second Chance'' with a device to deactivate the enclosure generator.

As the Starflyer attempts to return to Beta, human forces engage in a desperate chase to prevent the Starflyer from escaping. Their forces fail, but Johansson's Guardians of Selfhood have been preparing for this event, marshalling the weather of the entire planet and unleashing as a massive directed hurricane, destroying the Starflyer's ship. Johansson is aboard the ''Marie Celeste'', and the action ends with him preparing to kill the Starflyer.

Alex, Antoine, Jeff and Manu have been friends for most of their lives and have achieved their professional goals, therefore all seems to be going well. Suddenly, the death of a father, a wife's infidelity and a daughter's wedding affects them and brings them closer together. Forced to confront situations beyond their control, they share their feelings, support each other, and question the true meaning of their lives. They realise that their relationship with women is at the heart of all their problems, their conversations and their conflicts.

Kate Blackwell, matriarch of the Blackwell family and head of multinational business empire Kruger-Brent Int., celebrates her 90th birthday. She sees the ghosts of her past but refuses to join them until a member of the family is ready to take over. The novel revolves around four generations of the empire's rise and Kate's dedication to the conglomerate.

Kate's father, Jamie McGregor, leaves Scotland for Klipdrift, South Africa to find his fortune in the growing diamond trade of the 1860s. He is swindled and left for dead by merchant Salomon van der Merwe but is saved by Banda, van der Merwe's servant, and they steal millions' worth of diamonds in a dangerous heist. An unrecognizable Jamie returns to Klipdrift under a new name and impregnates Margaret, van der Merwe's daughter, for revenge, revealing his true identity to everyone after announcing Margaret's impregnation to the supposedly moral and religious town, shaming the very religious van der Merwe. Jamie's wealth and business helps the town thrive. Jamie secretly takes control of the local bank and ruins van der Merwe financially, driving the latter to kill himself. Margaret gives birth to a son, and after leaving the baby on Jamie's doorstep after trying to reconnect with him, Jamie grows to love Jamie Jr. and agrees to marry Margaret to keep Jamie Jr. close to him. One night Jamie drunkenly mistakes his wife for his mistress, which results in Kate's birth. During the Bantu rebellion, Banda kidnaps Kate before rebels can take her, but Jamie Jr. is kidnapped and left to die in the desert. News of this causes Jamie to have a stroke, leaving him helpless in the care of Margaret, who runs Kruger-Brent with Jamie's right-hand man, David Blackwell. While captured during the Boer War, Kate realizes the need for power so she will never feel helpless again.

Kate grows up stubborn and obsessively in love with David, who is about 20 years older, but after her mother's death becomes serious about running the company and goes to business school. Upon her return, she learns of David's engagement to a woman whose family wants him to leave Kruger-Brent and run their company. Kate manipulates David into breaking off his engagement and eventually they marry. During World War I, Kate sees an opportunity to manufacture weapons. David is against it and stops her, but when he enlists for the war, she starts production, which causes a strain in their marriage upon his return. She becomes pregnant with his child but also begins to realize her obsession with Kruger-Brent and wonders if the company is becoming more important to her than her marriage. David is killed in an explosion in one of the company's mines, causing Kate to prematurely give birth to Anthony "Tony" Blackwell.

Kate makes Kruger-Brent a global success, though her demanding nature causes Tony to stutter in her presence. Tony opts for an art career and goes to an art school in France. He shows promise, but Kate pays a critic to negatively criticize Tony's work, leading him to give up his art and join Kruger-Brent. While working, he learns that Dominique, his French girlfriend, was actually a model working under one of Kruger-Brent's smaller companies and was paid by his mother to spy on him, and he gains the courage to cut Kate out of his life. Kate uses his hatred of her to manipulate him into marrying Marianne Hoffman so Kate can obtain the Hoffman electronics empire as well as grandchildren to inherit the company. Despite warnings from Marianne's doctor about her health, Kate persuades her to have children, and she dies giving birth to twins. Tony learns of how his mother persuaded Marianne to carry out the pregnancy at the same time Dominique reveals his mother was responsible for the end of his art career. Tony goes insane and tries to kill Kate to "save her" from the company. She is wounded, and he is then lobotomized and sent to an asylum while Kate takes care of both the company and her granddaughters, Eve and Alexandra.

Eve, the older twin, is manipulative, evil, and despises Alexandra, a trusting and sweet girl. Eve has secretly attempted to kill Alexandra several times. Kate decides to name Eve heir to Kruger-Brent while Alexandra the head of the conglomerate's charities, but disinherits Eve when she discovers Eve's true nature. Eve meets George Mellis, an heir like her who has been disinherited by his rich family, and they plot to have George marry Alexandra and kill her, leaving George with Alexandra's fortune while Kate will have no option but to take Eve back to run the company. Eve manages to help George marry Alexandra, but she taunts him to the point that he nearly beats her to death. A talented surgeon, Keith Webster, fixes her face, and Kate reconciles with Eve and plans to put her back in her will. Eve decides she no longer needs George and decides to get rid of him. She intercepts Alexandra and prevents her rendezvous with George. Eve then pretends to be Alexandra and kills him. The police find his body and build a case against Eve. Keith realizes the truth when Dr. John Harley, the family's doctor whom Eve visited under the guise of a suicidal Alexandra, says he was able to tell the twins apart because of Eve's facial scar from her assault though Keith knows he left no scars on Eve's face and has a post surgical photo to prove it. Keith threatens to show the photo to the police if Eve doesn't marry him, and although she complies she cheats on him openly with a younger man. Keith refuses to testify at the coroner's inquest and Kate gives Eve an alibi, believing Eve murdered George but thinking she will punish Eve in her own way. Before she can do so, Keith deliberately destroys Eve's face during a laugh line removal procedure, making Eve devoted to Keith in fear that he will leave her alone with her ugliness. Kate considers this punishment enough. Alexandra marries George's psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Templeton, and they have a son named Robert.

Back in the present, Robert, now eight, is a classical pianist prodigy. Kate tries to meddle with Robert's future, but is rebuffed by Peter and Alexandra who say Robert will choose his own life and won't be forced to take over Kruger-Brent. Kate relents, saying she would never interfere in anyone's life choices. She then offers to introduce young Robert to a renowned musician as she once offered to help with Tony's art career.

Colonel James Braddock is a US military officer who spent seven years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, which he escaped 10 years ago. After the war, Braddock accompanies a government investigation team that travels to Ho Chi Minh City to investigate reports of US soldiers still held prisoner. Braddock obtains the evidence then travels to Thailand, where he meets Jack "Tuck" Tucker, an old Army friend turned black market kingpin. Together, they launch a mission deep into the jungle to free the US POW's from General Tran.

The Space Cats come from a planet called Trygliceride-7, ruled by a being named D.O.R.C. (short for Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Cats) which can be described as a disembodied, bespectacled, human head with a funny voice. The Space Cats station themselves on Earth in an underground base with a garbage can as its only access. A live-action segment is shown, where various Space Cats are seen on duty.

D.O.R.C. describes each mission to the team's leader Captain Catgut. The animated segment is then shown where Captain Catgut sends the team of Tom, Scratch and Sniff out to work. At the end of each episode, the group gives the viewers a moral, then wrap up the episode vocalizing the Charge music and shouting out their team name. This was spoofed, when one Space Cat says the moral is for kids to stop watching TV and go read a book, the other two angrily remark that if that is taken seriously it would result in their own cancellation!

Joanna Lander, a clinical psychologist, interviews patients who have had near-death experiences; she aspires to understand what occurs between the times when a person dies and then is revived. She becomes frustrated when many of her patients cannot or will not give accurate information about their experiences. She realizes that the scientific evidence is contaminated by the influence of Dr. Maurice Mandrake, a persistent and almost omnipresent charlatan "researcher" who publishes best-selling books about near-death experiences and convinces patients that their experiences happened exactly the way his books describe NDEs, such as learning cosmic secrets from angels:

They remembered it all for him, leaving their body and entering the tunnel and meeting Jesus, remembered the Light and the Life Review and the Meetings with Deceased Loved Ones. Conveniently forgetting the sights and sounds that didn't fit and conjuring up ones that did. And completely obliterating whatever had actually occurred.

Dr. Richard Wright, who has discovered a way to induce artificial NDEs in patients and monitor their brain activity throughout, contacts Joanna and asks if she will join his research study and interview his patients after he induces NDEs. She agrees. They are intellectually compatible and have a budding, mutual romantic interest.

Mandrake considers the pair his competitors, and he sabotages their efforts by approaching revived patients before they can. Mandrake's method is to ask mellifluous leading questions of the patients and thereby taint their self-reported NDEs; this causes Joanna and Richard hardship in finding un-interviewed volunteers for their own study. The reader later learns that two of their volunteers are liars, which also corrupts their conjectures.

Lacking enough volunteers for proper methodology, Joanna elects to undergo the process. She gets the help of Tish, a nurse, to help with the prep; Tish is happy to, because she thinks Richard Wright is "cute" and can flirt with him while Joanna is "under".

Joanna finds herself in a dark passage that, through further NDEs, she realizes is part of a dream-like version of the ''RMS Titanic'', on which she encounters passengers of the real ''Titanic'' as well as someone symbolically near death, a high school teacher whom she had studied with a decade or so earlier, Mr. Pat Briarley. Between NDE sessions, Joanna struggles to figure out why she sees the ''Titanic'', and she eventually tracks down Mr. Briarley, who spoke often of the ''Titanic'' in class. Joanna discovers that Mr. Briarley, once a highly animated and keen teacher, now suffers from Alzheimer's disease. This is crushing to Joanna, who was certain that Mr. Briarley could give her "the key" to clarify why she sees the ''Titanic''. However, Mr. Briarley's niece, Kit, promises to help.

Joanna also consults with Maisie Nellis, a nine-year-old girl who suffers from a heart defect, "V-fib", because Maisie, a born rationalist, gives only accurate information about her NDEs. Maisie also gives Joanna important information about the ''Titanic''.

Through talking with her patients and undergoing more NDEs, Lander realizes that the near-death experience is a mechanism that the brain uses to create a scenario symbolic of what the brain attempts to do when it is dying: find a suitable neural pathway by which to send a message that can "jump start" the rest of the body back into life. If the person having a real near-death experience can metaphorically send a message to someone appearing in the NDE, she learns (specifically, from a revived coma patient), the person will awaken and survive.

Before she can tell Richard Wright about her discovery, she goes to visit Nurse Vielle in the Emergency Room and is stabbed by a man deranged by a drug called "rogue". Before losing consciousness, she manages to say a few words to Vielle, trying to communicate her discovery about NDEs. She finds herself on the ''Titanic'' again and races against dream-like obstacles to escape and awaken.

Richard Wright, on hearing that Joanna is dying or dead, enters an artificial NDE, thinking that he will find himself in the ''Titanic'' and be able to rescue Lander. He instead finds himself at the offices of the White Star Line, where the names of the victims of the ''Titanic'' disaster are being read to the public - he is too late to "save" Joanna. He awakens many hours later, and Tish, crying, tells him that Joanna has died.

As Richard and Joanna's friends struggle with her death, Joanna herself remains on the ''Titanic'' until it sinks, and her memories of life fade away.

Richard realizes that Joanna was trying to tell him something before she died (they had discussed the importance of last words), and he tracks down all the people she spoke to before she was stabbed. He learns what Joanna discovered. Before she could reach him, Joanna had told, of all people, Mandrake, "The NDE is a message. It's an SOS. It's a call for help." Grasping her dying message, Richard develops a chemical treatment that he believes can revive a patient. Maisie suffers V-fib and dies, but Richard successfully uses his experimental treatment on her, and she later receives a heart transplant; she will live.

Within her final NDE, on an imaginary ship, Joanna finds herself adrift on the water, with some memories still intact and accompanied by a child and a dog which Maisie has told her about from other disasters. As the novel ends, they watch the approach of a ship repeatedly mentioned by Ed Wojakowski.

Lauren Hartke and her film director husband, Rey Robles, are occupying an isolated house outside New York City. They have a sparse verbal exchange over breakfast before Rey leaves to go for a drive. Later that morning, Rey is found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his first wife's Manhattan apartment. An obituary detailing the frequently ambiguous details of Rey's life ensues, where Rey's age (64) is revealed, along with his history of depression and the fact that Lauren had been Rey's third wife.

A bereaved Lauren remains alone in the house against the advice of her friends and relatives. She becomes disconnected from the temporal world and from her own body, experiencing frequent and inexplicable déjà vu. Lauren spends the subsequent hours, days and weeks exploring this disconnection. She practices her trademark 'bodywork'-- aerobic and stretching techniques she has developed to prepare her body for performance pieces. Lauren also integrates a sequence of daily rituals, including chopping firewood and gazing for hours at webcam footage of a road in Kotka, Finland.

One morning, Lauren hears a noise coming from the upper floor of the house. She goes upstairs to investigate but finds no one there. Lauren goes upstairs again the next day. This time, she finds a man sitting in one of the bedrooms. The man's appearance varies each time Lauren sees him, but in this first incarnation, he is described as "smallish and fine-boned [resembling] a kid, sandy-haired and roused from deep sleep" (43).

This ageless man, whom Lauren dubs Mr. Tuttle, is unclear about his origins; he articulates only in fragments that echo past conversations between Lauren and Rey previous to Rey's suicide. These echoes are so uncanny as to include body gestures and intonations, leading Lauren to bring him into the house, bathe him, and take him shopping, all the while trying to pry from him the source of his "memories," that is, the conversations between Lauren and her dead husband.

Lauren processes Mr. Tuttle's presence in her home, all the while continuing her body artistry, detailed through her practice, a sort of yogic / kinesiological series of sometimes quotidian expressive postures that ultimately become imbued with her sublimation of deep loss. Because of Mr. Tuttle's "channeling" of Rey's words, Lauren begins to perceive him as an avatar of her late husband, and her attachment to him extends to sexual expression. Mr. Tuttle repeats the conversation between Lauren and Rey upon Rey's final departure from his wife towards Manhattan, where he shoots himself. Soon afterwards, Mr. Tuttle disappears.

After a period of searching for him, Krikor emerges as having absorbed Mr. Tuttle's voice, and an article by Lauren's friend Mariella establishes that Lauren has adopted, as a body artist, a performance that includes her "transformation" into a masculinized Mr. Tuttle figure. As the novella closes, Lauren continues to grieve in the couple's home, and the owner visits, asking if he can retrieve a chest of drawers stored in the house. After this visit, Lauren continues ineffectually processing her grief, a psychic state mirrored throughout the text in the repetition / perseverance of the narrative. ''The Body Artist'' ends ambiguously; her identity compromised throughout the novella, Lauren throws open a window to "feel the sea tang on her face and the flow of time in her body, to tell her who she was" (126).

The wealthy lawyer Richard Russell (John Howard) funds the dotty old inventor Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) to create an invisibility device. The first test subject for this machine is Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce), a department store model who had been fired from her previous job. The machine proves quite successful, and Kitty uses her invisible state to pay back her sadistic former boss, Mr. Growley (Charles Lane).

While the Professor and the invisible Kitty are off visiting the lodge of the millionaire Russell, the gangster Blackie Cole (Oscar Homolka) sends in his gang of moronic thugs (including strangely Shemp Howard) to steal the device. With the machine back at their hideout, however, they cannot get it to work. By now, Kitty has returned to visibility, and the thugs are sent in to kidnap her and Gibbs. However, she has learned that some alcohol will restore her to invisibility, and uses this to defeat the gang (with help from Russell).

At the end of the film, it is revealed she has married Richard and become a mother. To top it off, she and the professor learn that her treatment has apparently become hereditary, as her infant son vanishes upon being rubbed with an alcohol-based lotion.

The cliff tribe led by Kingsor are about to sacrifice three blonde women to their Sun God, but one of the women, Sanna, escapes and jumps off a cliff. She is rescued by fishermen of the seaside tribe, among whom is Tara, who becomes enamoured with her.

Tara takes Sanna to his people, who also worship the Sun God, but without sacrifices. After building a hut for herself, she joins them at a feast and celebration of a successful hunt, in which the men have captured a plesiosaur. The plesiosaur breaks free, but is subsequently killed and butchered. The feast continues, and a brunette woman, Ayak, jealous of Tara's feelings for Sanna, denounces Sanna as a witch and incites the elder women against her.

Kingsor and his men arrive, looking for Sanna after discovering she survived the fall from the cliff. She flees, and hunters of her former tribe, lead by Kane, give chase. During the search, Kane's search party is attacked by a ''Chasmosaurus'', which gores Kane. When Tara seeks Sanna, the ''Chasmosaurus'' charges him and injures Khaku, one of his companions. He is chased to a cliff, where the ''Chasmosaurus'' loses its footing and plunges to its death. Khaku dies of his injuries shortly after, while Kane's wounds are tended to by the seaside tribeswoman Ulido.

Khaku's funeral pyre at the shore is followed by a tribal frenzy during which an enraged Ayak burns down Sanna's hut. Sanna meanwhile becomes trapped by a carnivorous plant, and cuts off a portion of her hair in order to escape. As Tara goes looking for Sanna, he finds her hair trapped beneath the plant and assumes she is dead. Satisfied by this, Sanna's former tribe stop hunting her and join with Tara's tribe, with Kane, now healed, marrying Ulido.

Sanna seeks shelter in a ''Megalosaurus'' eggshell, fooling the mother and its baby into thinking she is one of them. Sanna grows attached to the baby and plays hide-and-seek with it, as well as teaching it to sit. Tara meanwhile sees one of the women in Sanna's tribe dyeing her daughter's hair with tar, in an attempt to prevent her from being sacrificed like Sanna.

Some weeks later, while Tara is hiking back to his tribe, which has been taken over by the overzealous Kingsor, he is carried off by a giant ''Rhamphorhynchus''. After killing the pterosaur, he finds Sanna and her tamed dinosaur. They are subsequently discovered and Tara is sacrificed to a ''Tylosaurus'' by Kingsor. Tara manages to escape and returns to Sanna.

The tribe then goes searching for Sanna again, and the two run away into a forest, where Sanna's dinosaur "parent" rescues her, but Tara is recaptured and the tribe prepare to burn him again. The coastline, however, begins to recede, and the tribe is attacked by giant crabs. As a tsunami looms overhead, Sanna arrives to save Tara and they escape with Kane and Ulido aboard a raft. Kingsor tries to command the water to heel in a last effort to appease his deities, only to be swept away. While Ayak is running towards the raft, she steps into a trap of quicksand and is sucked down to her death. As the waters calm, the four survivors stop to witness a lunar eclipse, left in awe by the creation of the moon above them.

The Federation starship ''Enterprise'' receives a distress signal from its sister ship, the USS ''Yamato'', from within the Romulan Neutral Zone and travels to rendezvous with them in order to assist with repairs. After the two ships meet, the ''Yamato'' suddenly suffers a warp-core breach and explodes in front of the horrified bridge crew, leaving no survivors. Shortly afterwards, a Romulan Warbird, the ''Haakona'', decloaks before the ''Enterprise'' and demands their retreat from the Neutral Zone. Captain Jean-Luc Picard informs the Romulans that they will not leave until they have determined why the ''Yamato'' was destroyed.

Picard reviews the ship logs made by his friend, Captain Donald Varley, to see if there was any relation to the destruction of the ''Yamato'' to the Romulans. Varley, an archeology buff like Picard, believed he had found the fabled planet of Iconia at a location within the Neutral Zone. Varley believed that the extinct Iconians had developed extremely advanced technology, and that the Romulans might be attempting to acquire this technology for use against the Federation. However, when the ''Yamato'' neared the purported planet, the ship was scanned by a probe from the planet, and then began to experience system failures and became stranded in the Neutral Zone. Picard orders the ''Enterprise'' toward the coordinates Varley had identified as that of Iconia. Wesley asks Picard how he and the other officers are able to cope with perennially witnessing death and destruction. After reviewing the log, the ''Enterprise'' begins experiencing similar system issues that the ''Yamato'' had experienced, beginning with Picard's replicator producing a potted plant instead of his usual Earl Grey tea. Picard then orders the ''Enterprise'' to the same planet that the ''Yamato'' had surveyed to see if a solution to the system issues can be found there before the ''Enterprise'' meets the same fate as the ''Yamato''.

When they enter the planet's orbit, a probe is automatically launched from the surface. Having reviewed the ''Yamato'' s logs, Chief Engineer La Forge recognizes that the probe carries a computer virus that led to the ''Yamato'' s destruction. He insists that they destroy the probe before the virus can be unleashed. However, a portion of the virus was stored in the ''Yamato'' logs and had infected the ''Enterprise''. Although mostly contained, the virus still threatens to destroy the ''Enterprise'' in a matter of hours. Picard, Lt. Commander Data, and Lt. Worf beam to the source of the probe launch. While exploring the ruins, they find a teleportation portal that appears to allow for instantaneous interstellar travel to a different location that changes every few seconds. Among the destinations are the ''Enterprise'' and ''Haakona'' bridges. Data attempts to access the Iconian computer systems and becomes infected with the virus himself, but retains enough of his functions to instruct Picard on how to destroy the base.

Meanwhile, in orbit, the ''Haakona'' decloaks in front of the ''Enterprise'' and threatens to attack, but soon appears to be suffering from similar system failures. The threat of attack, however, forces Commander Riker to raise the shields, which prevents them from retrieving the away team. Picard orders Worf to return with Data to the ''Enterprise'' using the Iconian gate, while he starts the destruct sequence. Before the entire structure explodes, and before the Enterprise could beam him out, Picard uses the gate to jump onto the ''Haakona'' s bridge, and discovers that their ship is set on an auto-destruct sequence they cannot stop due to the virus.

On the ''Enterprise'', Data's systems are nearly overtaken by the virus. His body automatically shuts down as a protective measure, and then restarts a short time later. La Forge finds Data's systems to now be completely free of the virus, and suggests a similar cold boot to clear the virus from the ''Enterprise''. With the transporters back online, Picard is beamed off the ''Haakona'', and Riker sends instructions to the Romulans on how to clear the virus. The Romulans successfully restart their computers, and both ships peacefully leave the Neutral Zone as the Iconian base can be seen destroying itself on the surface of the planet.

After the local mayor Sir Eustace Briggs makes negative remarks about Ireland, two Irish students at Wrykyn, O'Hara and Moriarty, sneak out at night to tar and feather a statue of Briggs, though they use leaves instead of feathers. They are not caught, but O'Hara realizes that during the escapade, he lost a tiny gold cricket bat he borrowed from his friend Trevor. Trevor won the bat, which is about an inch long, as a trophy since he was the captain of the winning cricket team in the latest house cricket cup. He is supposed to return it to the school by the next house cricket cup. Trevor is concerned about being blamed for the statue incident if the gold bat is found near the statue. Meanwhile, there is a vacant spot in the school rugby football team, and Trevor, as captain, considers Rand-Brown for the position, but favours Barry, who is smaller than Rand-Brown but more skilled.

A study belonging to a prefect named Mill is found wrecked, and a calling card left behind indicates that it was done by a group called the League, which was the name used by a society of students several years prior who bullied others to get what they wanted until they were expelled. The society has apparently been revived. Trevor receives a letter warning him that the League does not wish Barry to play for the school rugby team. Trevor knows the team will do better with Barry than Rand-Brown and ignores the letter. As a result, Trevor's study is also wrecked by the League. Rand-Brown has the clearest motive for trying to get Barry out of the team, and dislikes Mill, but he could not have damaged Trevor's study since he was playing rugby at the time the incident occurred. O'Hara tries to find where the League meets and believes he has succeeded when he sees two figures in a basement used to store extra chairs, but it turns out that they are only the two younger students Renford and Harvey, who are secretly keeping two ferrets in the basement.

The study of another prefect, Milton, is also wrecked by the League. Leather-Twigg, known as "Shoeblossom", saw a white figure coming out of Milton's study who was probably responsible, and Milton thinks the figure's description fits Rand-Brown, whom he insulted on the rugby field. Trevor receives a letter from the League warning him that they have the gold bat. Barry sprains his ankle and is unable to play in an important match against another school, Ripton, so Trevor chooses Rand-Brown to play instead. However, Trevor suspects Rand-Brown of being part of the League and searches his study for the gold bat, but Rand-Brown denies being involved with the League and Trevor does not find the bat. Rand-Brown plays badly in the important match and Barry is permanently awarded the place in the team. O'Hara and Moriarty again investigate the basement, but only find several students secretly smoking. The students smoking are caught, and O'Hara and Moriarty barely escape through a trap-door. Thereafter, the basement is kept locked, so O'Hara helps Renford and Harvey by moving the ferrets to another location behind the fives-courts.

The headmaster tells Trevor to search the studies in Dexter's House for hidden tobacco. While searching with his friend Clowes, they find the missing gold bat in a drawer in the study of Ruthven, who admits that he was blackmailed by Rand-Brown to form the League with him. Trevor intends to settle his feud with Rand-Brown with a fight, but O'Hara, who is a boxer, knows Trevor does not know how to fight and arranges a boxing match between himself and Rand-Brown before Trevor gets a chance. Moriarty goes as O'Hara's second. The fight takes place by one of the fives-courts, and Renford, coming upon the fight while on his way to feed the ferrets, agrees to keep time. O'Hara wins the fight, and it is also revealed that Rand-Brown is leaving the school since he was one of the students caught smoking. Political protesters repeat the tarring and feathering of Briggs's statue, apparently inspired by O'Hara and Moriarty's initiative. Sir Eustace Briggs was suspicious of the school's students after hearing that a tiny gold bat was found near the statue, and given to a student who claimed it was his property, but now thinks the protesters tarred and feathered the statue the first time too. Trevor also denies to Sir Eustace Briggs that it was his bat. Choosing his words carefully, he claims that his bat had been in a drawer nearly all the term.

The title of the book comes from its prologue, which is told in verse (by John W. Houghton):

T Swiss, against their Austrian foes, ::Had ne'er a soul to lead 'em, Till Tell, as you've heard tell, arose ::And guided them to freedom. Tell's tale we tell again—an act ::For which pray no one scold us— This tale of Tell we tell, in fact, ::As this Tell tale was told us.

The story is said to take place many years ago. Switzerland is under the control of the Emperor of Austria, who has his friend Hermann Gessler govern the country. Gessler is a tyrannical Governor and imposes excessive taxes on the Swiss people. The people of Switzerland send three representatives – Walter Fürst, Werner Staufacher, and Arnold of Melchthal – to Gessler's Hall of Audience to complain about the taxes. Gessler refuses to change the taxes and uses the threat of boiling oil (demonstrated on the tip of Arnold of Melchtha's finger, for which he is charged a fee) to make the three men leave the Hall. The townspeople decide to rebel, and to ask William Tell to be their leader. Tell is brave, patriotic, and skilled with the crossbow. The three representatives go to Tell's house. Tell lives with his wife Hedwig, who is the daughter of Walter Fürst, and their sons Walter and William. Tell is not much of an orator and is reluctant to be a leader, but he agrees to help if they need anything done.

Gessler enjoys annoying the Swiss by forbidding things, but having banned games, dancing, and singing, he has run out of things to forbid. He comes up with an idea and has a pole set up in the middle of the meadow just outside the town. He also has an old hat of his placed on top of it. Everyone must show their reverence to him by bowing to the hat when they pass by. Anybody who crosses the meadow without bowing will be arrested. Two armoured soldiers, Friesshardt and Leuthold, keep watch by the pole all day. A crowd gathers to throw eggs and other things at the guards from afar, without crossing the meadow. Tell and his son Walter, who have not heard about the hat on the pole, start to cross the meadow without bowing. The soldiers command Tell to bow but he keeps walking, and Friesshardt hits him on the head with a pike. Tell fights back, and is joined by the rest of the crowd. Tell, however, does not think a crowd should fight two men. He shoots the hat on the pole, which puts an end to the fighting as the people rejoice.

Gessler enters the meadow with a bodyguard of armed men, and the townspeople scatter. The two soldiers tell Gessler what happened. Gessler already dislikes Tell because Tell once insulted him, and is displeased that he shot the hat. Walter claims that his father can hit an apple on a tree a hundred yards away. Gessler says that Tell must shoot an apple off of his son's head from a hundred yards away, or else his own life will be forfeit. Tell responds that he would rather die than shoot at an apple on his son's head, but Gessler insists that Tell will die with his son if he refuses. The crowd returns and observes. Walter is confident his father will make the shot. Tell draws two arrows and places one in his belt. He fires the first arrow, piercing the apple, and the crowd cheers. Gessler asks Tell why he had placed a second arrow in his belt, and assures him that his life is safe whatever the reason. Tell explains that if the first arrow had hit his son, he would have shot Gessler with the second arrow. Enraged, Gessler has him arrested, claiming that he had promised Tell his life but not his freedom. Tell is to be imprisoned in Gessler's castle across the lake. He is bound and brought to Gessler's ship.

On the lake, the ship is caught in a storm. The helmsman is not skilled or strong enough to steer the ship in the storm, so Gessler orders Tell to steer. Tell steers the ship through a rocky area and saves them. When Gessler commands the guards to bind him again, Tell grabs the bow and quiver lying on the deck and jumps off the ship onto the rocks. Gessler orders his bowmen to shoot Tell, but Tell is faster, and Gessler is killed by Tell's second arrow. With the death of the Governor, the Swiss people are no longer afraid and successfully revolt against Austrian rule. A group of people bring Tell Gessler's pole, with his hat still nailed to it by Tell's arrow. Some of them want to burn the pole, but Tell decides to have it preserved as a memorial to their newly gained liberty. Tell retires to his home and lives there happily ever afterwards with his family.

Vasco Leitão (Vasco Santana), a medical student in Lisbon, is supported by a generous allowance from his two rich elderly aunts from Trás-os-Montes, Efigénia and Perpétua (Sofia Santos and Teresa Gomes), whom he had falsely told he had already graduated. In fact, he devotes himself to a bohemian life, preferring the popular fairs and pretty women, especially Alice (Beatriz Costa), a seamstress from the Castelinhos neighbourhood, which rather upsets her ambitious father, Caetano (António Silva), a tailor who is familiar with Vasco's debts. On the same day he fails his final exam, Vasco is surprised by his aunts' announcement that they will visit him in Lisbon to see his practice.

Immediately after arriving in Lisbon, the aunts' bags are stolen and the two elderly ladies faint. Vasco sees himself forced to accept Quinquinhas's (Eduardo Fernandes) suggestion to carry the two unconscious aunts in the carriage announcing an upcoming bullfight; when the aunts come to, they are outraged at the means of conveyance and get cross with Vasco. To soothe their indignation, Vasco asks Caetano for help, and he lies to the aunts, telling them their nephew is an excellent, renowned physician. What Vasco does not know is that Caetano's real interest is the old ladies' large inheritance.

Vasco and Alice have a falling out during the Midsummer festival. Meanwhile, at the local recreational society, Caetano single-handedly decides on the outcome of the competition to crown "Miss Castelinhos" so that his daughter Alice can win: the ceremony acts as a musical interlude in which Alce performs a song from a revue, "''A Agulha e o Dedal''" ("The Needle and the Thimble"), for all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood (who attend in spite of the tedious rhetoric of the jury led by Caetano).

The aunts start getting suspicious and see through Vasco's lies once he cannot show them his surgery and takes them instead to Lisbon Zoo, where he is mixed-up with the Veterinarian. The aunts are ashamed and stop supporting Vasco, and soon start being courted by Caetano and the local cobbler (Alfredo Silva) in a final attempt to get their inheritance.

Vasco is saved from misery by his good friend Carlos (Manoel de Oliveira), who gets him a job earning his living as a fado singer, turning him into something of a local celebrity. This does not deter him from pursuing a career in medicine, and he finally passes his final examination with flying colours, regaining the favour of his aunts and winning the hand of Alice in marriage.

''Starhunter'' follows the exploits of the crew of a retired luxury-liner refitted to serve a late-23rd century bounty-hunting crew, led by Dante Montana (Paré). The owning company's name, "Trans-Utopia Cruiseship HHS", was painted on her side but has faded, leaving some letters readable while obliterating others. The letters that remain have become her nickname, so she is casually known to the crew as the "Tulip". Non crew people and space transport hubs generally refer to the ship as the "Trans-Utopian"

In the first season, ''Tulip'' is owned by Rudolpho deLuna who has hired Dante Montana as a bounty hunter. Dante took the job to provide a means of traveling while also financing the search for his son, Travis, who was abducted a decade prior by a group of brigands called Raiders. Aiding him are the ship's engineer Percy Montana (Dante's niece) and security officer Lucrecia Scott, a former marine added to the crew by deLuna to keep Dante focused on the missions given him. Lucrecia has a hidden agenda, as an operative for a mysterious organization called "The Orchard". The Orchard comprises scientists and researchers dedicated to unlocking, in hopes of controlling, alien genes called "The Divinity Cluster".

When broadcast in Canada each episode began with a long message transmission from deLuna (usually to Dante) outlining Dante's current assignment and deLuna's philosophical thoughts about it. In the United States, these monologues were removed.

In the second season, the show was restructured (and retconned). Percy Montana emerges from hyperspace unaged, while fifteen years have passed in the outside universe. No characters remain in the show from the first season except deLuna. He attempts to assert ownership of the ''Tulip'' but since he collected on the ship's insurance when the ''Tulip'' was presumed lost, the insurance company now legally owns her. Percy claims ownership by salvage when the company shuts down. Travis Montana, Dante's son and Percy's cousin, joins the crew along with his sidekick Marcus Fagen. DeLuna brings Callista Larkadia, another bounty hunter. Percy describes the four as the "pretend cousin, big fat sleaze, little buddy, [and] mystery slut".

Two aliens escape from prison and begin traveling throughout the galaxy, hunting species on different planets for fun. The hunters set up on Earth, and begin terrorizing a group of high school students whose bus has broken down after a school football game. The aliens set up a force field around the area to prevent the teens and their chaperone (Stella Stevens) from receiving any outside aid.

The students seek safety in the house of a blind man (Roddy McDowall), who, unknown to them, is actually one of the hunters. The aliens force the teens to fight a robot, named Star Hunter. The students improvise weapons, but these prove ineffective against Star Hunter.

Officers from the alien prison arrive; known as trackers, they are in pursuit of the escapees. They attempt to help the teens. One tracker takes control of a student, but the alien is hindered by his unfamiliarity with human emotions.

It shows the life and problems of Marinete (Cláudia Rodrigues), a cleaning lady with a short temper. She always ends up depending on her friends, who are distracted by any stupid thing and leave her to solve things on her own.

The basic premise of the comic book series was that the 1986 Chernobyl disaster opened a rift in reality that allowed two humanoid alien races with supernatural powers, the Mineans and Dayaks, to enter our world. The two races are at war, and it is hinted throughout the series that they have a close genetic relationship and close cultural ties with humanity, suggesting a mutual origin of some sort, though the series ended before the exact nature of that relationship could be made clear.

The two primary protagonists, Andromeda Weaver, an ambitious geneticist, and Lucien Barnes, a hardened mercenary soldier, are caught up in this conflict. Both are transformed by mystical pages of the Mineans and Dayaks: Andromeda becomes a blue-skinned empath, and Lucien grows wings and gains super-strength, enhanced speed, and the ability to teleport, becoming gargoyle-like. The protagonists befriend Petra, the heir to the Minean throne. The protagonists are usually allied to the generally peaceable Mineans and are usually enemies of the aggressive Dayaks.

Story arcs

There were four major story arcs in the series:

• 0, 1/2, 1-6 (October 1997-May 1998): Andromeda and Lucien battle Voivodul, the evil Dayak sorcerer who attains god-like power.

• 7-12 (July 1998-April 1999): Andromeda and Lucien battle the chief disciple of Voivodul, Grigorieff, a human who is creating mutant beast-like Dayaks. This story places ''Ascension'' within the canon Top Cow universe, with the arc featuring ''Witchblade'' villains such as Kenneth Irons and Gavin Taylor.

• 13-19 (May–October 1999): Andromeda and Lucien battle Rowina, Petra's evil mother.

• 20-22 (November 1999-March 2000): Andromeda and Lucien battle General Caladon or Lord Shroud, an undead servant of Voivodul, and Shroud's army of orc undead.

This is the story of Dimple Dasgupta who has an arranged marriage to Amit Basu, an engineer, instead of marrying a neurosurgeon as she had dreamed about. They move to the United States and experience culture shock and loneliness. At one point, she jumps rope to escape her pregnancy. As frustration becomes expressed as abuse, the tale turns to tragedy with the murder of her husband, Amit at the end.

St John Loveday has been cleared of murder, but forced to leave England for America until the scandal of his trial dies down. His wife Meriel has left him to seek her fortunes elsewhere, and Adam Loveday is still at sea on his ship Pegasus.

Meanwhile, Japhet Loveday, spurned by the love of Gwendolyn Druce, leaves the peace of Cornwall for London. There he begins an affair with the treacherous actress Celestine Yorke. As bad fortune continues to dog him, he turns to highway robbery to settle his debts. When Gwendolyn arrives in London, Japhet realises how much he still loves her. But Celestine Yorke is not a woman to be trifled with and she is determined that if she can't have Japhet, then no one will.

Paperback recovered issue Edward Loveday is also shocked by the arrival of his illegitimate daughter Tamasine, who puts his relationship with his wife under immense strain.

Category:2003 British novels Category:Novels by Kate Tremayne Category:Novels set in Cornwall Category:Novels set in London Category:British romance novels Category:Historical romance novels Category:Headline Publishing Group books

(This plot summary is based upon the version of the poem found in Gonville and Caius College Cambridge MS 175, a missing folio supplied by British Library Cotton Caligula A ii.)

Sir Isumbras lives a comfortable life; he is a generous nobleman with a young family, a beautiful, loving wife and enjoys a respected position in society. However, his failure to think about his Christian duties causes God to tell him that he grown too proud.

The message is delivered, curiously, by a speaking bird. (This resembles the way that Sigurd is warned by the birds to kill Regin in the Saga of the Volsungs when he is splashed by the juice from the dragon's heart as it cooks and can immediately understand their language. Similarly, Canace is able to understand the lament of a lady-falcon in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tale from the Squire''.) Sir Isumbras is riding in his forest early one morning when a bird in the branches above him begins to talk. It tells him that one of two things must happen, and that he can choose his fate: either he can be wealthy in his youth and impoverished in his old age, or the other way around. Sir Isumbras, with no hesitation, chooses to have wealth in his old age, since:

:“In yowthe I may ryde and go, :I elde I may noght do so, :My lymes wyll wex unwelde.”

("In youth I can run about and ride a horse, but in old age I won’t be able to do any of these things because my limbs will be crippled." )

Immediately, Sir Isumbras's horse falls down dead beneath him, his hawks and hounds flee away in startled fright and a boy comes running up to tell him that his manor house has just burnt to the ground. On the way to see for himself, he learns that all his cattle and sheep have been stolen during the night.

However, his wife and his children are safe. Sir Isumbras arrives at a scene of devastation to see them standing charred and naked before him, having run from their beds to escape the flames. He has lost everything except his wife and his three sons, and he quickly decides that he and his family must go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They set out with nothing except the torn clothes they are wearing, begging for food along the way. Soon they come to a great river and try to cross it. Quickly, Sir Isumbras loses two of his sons to wild animals. A lion and a leopard make off with the boys as he leaves each of them in turn on the far bank in order to return for the others.

When the depleted group arrives at last at the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, intending to find a ship to take them to the Holy Land, an invading sultan takes a liking to Sir Isumbras's wife and buys her from him, much to the knight's distress. She is packed away into a ship to sail to the sultan's kingdom to be made the sultan's queen. Before they part, Sir Isumbras's wife urges her husband to try to find her by any means he can, and gives him a ring by which she might know him. Very shortly afterwards, Sir Isumbras's remaining son is carried off by a unicorn, and the payment he received for the sale of his wife is carried off by a bird.

Sir Isumbras finds himself alone and destitute in a foreign land. The wheel of fortune has carried him to its lowest depths.

However, like the hero of the romance ''Sir Gowther'', who may similarly have been punished for excessive pride, having reached this low point halfway through the tale, Sir Isumbras's climb now begins. He arrives at a working smithy and asks for food, but is made to work for it. Thus, he labours for his meals and after a while they take him on as an apprentice. For seven years he works in this smithy, and at the end of this time he is so proficient at metalwork that he is able to make himself a suit of armour. Meanwhile, the sultan has been campaigning throughout Europe and only now do the forces of Christendom feel able to commit an army to battle. The two sides face one another across a field of conflict.

Sir Isumbras, keen to avenge himself on the sultan who stole his wife, rides into battle on a horse used by the smithy for carrying coal, armed in his own armour (perhaps conjuring an image like that of Florent riding out against a giant wearing his father's rusty armour in the medieval romance ''Octavian''). Sir Isumbras performs magnificent deeds of valour and when his sorry horse is killed from under him, an earl rescues him from the battlefield, gives him a new horse and new arms and Sir Isumbras rides once again into the melee, managing at last to kill the sultan himself, winning the battle.

When the Christian king wishes to congratulate him, however, Sir Isumbras acknowledges himself simply as a blacksmith, much to the monarch's incredulity. He is sent to a convent to receive medical attention and convalescence and when he is fit again, rather than going to the king to claim the honours promised him, he makes his way once more towards the Holy Land as a beggar.

For many years Sir Isumbras lives in desperate poverty in the city of Acre, which was the last Christian stronghold to fall to the Muslims, in the late-thirteenth century. Then he makes his way to Jerusalem, and outside the walls of this city an angel appears one night to tell Sir Isumbras that God has at last forgiven him his sins. Destitute still, however, Sir Isumbras wanders the eastern lands until he comes to a city that once belonged to a great sultan before he was killed on the battlefield. Now it is ruled by his former queen. This lady is accustomed to distributing alms to wandering paupers and to taking in the most needy to feed and to ask them about their travels; as though keen to hear news of somebody. He is brought into the castle, meets with her, tells her his news and is invited to live there and to serve at the table. Yet, like Sir Eglamour of Artois after his travels, he does not recognise his own wife. Like Sir Yvain's wife, the Lady of the Fountain, and the wife of the eponymous hero of the romance Guy of Warwick, she does not recognise him.

One day, as he is outdoors pursuing the sports he used to love, he climbs a crag up to an eagle's nest and finds within it the distinctive red cloak which the eagle had stolen from him just after he had been parted from his wife, and before his youngest son had been abducted by the unicorn. The cloak had contained some food, all those years ago, and all the gold that the sultan had given to him in payment for his wife. In a sudden agony of memory, Sir Isumbras takes this cloak with the gold, carries it to his room and puts in under his bed. Then he goes about the castle grief-stricken and in tears, remembering the family he had once had.

This change in his behaviour is noticed by everybody and is brought to the queen's attention. One day, some noblemen break down the door to Sir Isumbras’ room and find the gold lying beneath the bed. They bring it to the queen. She recognises it immediately as the gold that her husband was once given for her. That evening, she confronts Sir Isumbras with the discovery and he tells her what happened. She asks him to produce the ring that she gave to him; it matches hers and they at last recognise each other. There is a tearful scene of reunion.

Sir Isumbras remarries his wife, is made king and soon decrees that everybody should become Christian. The population rebels and an army is raised against him, commanded by the kings of two neighbouring countries. Sir Isumbras and his wife – for she has armed herself as a knight – face the forces alone. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, three mysterious knights suddenly arrive on the battlefield, one riding a lion, another riding a leopard and the third a unicorn. They turn out to be Sir Isumbras' lost sons, come to aid their parents in battle. After defeating the opposing forces, Sir Isumbras appoints his sons to rule over the three kingdoms he now possesses.