Wing-Chun is a young lady in charge of a family tofu shop in a mountain village with her father, sister and aunt. After local bullies tried to forcefully marry her during her youth, she trained to become a talented ''kung fu'' practitioner to fend off bad men lusting after her beauty, but her new prowess ends up scaring away any suitors to the chagrin of her father. She is the only person out of all the villagers who will stand up to the local bandits, led by two nefarious bandit brothers nicknamed the "Flying Chimpanzee" and "Flying Monkey". One day, a young and beautiful widow named Charmy comes to town, catching the eyes of the predatory Flying Monkey. Wing-Chun rescues the hapless widow and gives her a job in her family shop, earning the enmity of Flying Monkey.

Meanwhile, Wing-Chun's childhood sweetheart Pok-To, who previously went away to learn ''kung fu'' in order to protect Wing-Chun from local bullies, arrives in town returning fresh from years of training to claim her hand in marriage. He at first mistakes Charmy (who is enamored with the handsome stranger) for Wing-Chun and is disappointed that his "fiancée" is now a flirtatious saleswoman, and mistakes the masculine-dressing Wing-Chun as a rival suitor. Wing-Chun remains silent about the misunderstanding due to concern that Pok-To will not accept her current unfeminine, warrior persona.

Wing-Chun later injures the Flying Monkey in a night duel, hitting him with a fireball and rendering him permanently impotent. This arouses the curiosity of Flying Chimpanzee, who comes to avenge his brother. Impressed with Wing-Chun's fighting skills, he kidnaps Charmy and uses her to bait Wing-Chun and Pok-To to the bandit's mountain fortress and surrounds them. He then challenges Wing-Chun to a fight, on the conditions that she, Pok-To and Charmy will be allowed to leave safely if she can successfully pull out a spear impaled into a wall within three rounds of fighting, but if she fails she will have to become his woman. Wing-Chun manages to win the challenge through tactics, but is unable to really defeat Flying Chimpanzee and gets injured by the latter's formidable "cotton belly" in the process. When Flying Chimpanzee demands a rematch in three days, she seeks help from her master Abbess Ng Mui, a Buddhist nun who created her style of kung fu, but her master only advises her to go and live a normal life.

Pok-To finds out about Wing-Chun's tomboy disguise, and tells her that he doesn't mind that she is not a traditional woman. She agrees to marry him, and accidentally realizes (when Pok-To unintentionally punches the mosquito net to repel the pests) that her "inch strike" is the key to defeat Flying Chimpanzee's "cotton belly". Using this new-found knowledge, Wing-Chun returns to fight Flying Chimpanzee again and soundly defeats the bandit boss in a final showdown, forcing him to submit to her superiority. With the bandit problem gone, Wing-Chun marries Pok-To in a wedding celebrated by the whole village.

The film opens with the narrator (Dale Robertson in an early, uncredited role) laying the foundation of the story.

In 1871, six convicts escape from a Carson City prison. One of them freezes to death during a blizzard. The others—Canfield, Greer, Cockerell, Anderson and Maxwell—make it to Lake Monte Diablo, where eight women live in a settlement while their men are away prospecting. Granny is the elder, watching over Marcia, Rachel, Barbara, Susan, Harriet, Mary, and Millie.

Frightened, the women reluctantly permit them to use an empty cabin. Granny hides all the guns except one when they realize that the men are escaped convicts. Canfield has returned here for a reason; the other convicts think that he has money hidden somewhere nearby. Canfield was convicted of killing a mine owner, and $40,000 is missing.

Canfield learns that Marcia, to whom he is attracted, is engaged to be married to a man named Rudy Schaeffer. Canfield claims Rudy took the $40,000 and committed perjury to get Canfield convicted and sentenced to hang. Canfield reveals that he has returned to kill Schaeffer.

A barn catches fire due to Rachel's nervousness. After the convicts rescue the animals, the women treat them more kindly. Canfield is trustworthy, but the other four continue plotting.

Later, Canfield manages to take Granny's gun. Marcia rides off, so Canfield follows and catches up to her. They eventually embrace and kiss. He tells her that Morgan, a mine owner, had swindled him out of the money. When he came to talk to Morgan about it, Morgan pulled a gun on him, they scuffled and the gun went off, killing Morgan. Schaeffer witnessed this, but claimed that Canfield had killed Morgan in cold blood, so Schaeffer could keep the money himself.

While they are away, Johnny Greer charms Rachel, Schaeffer's sister, into revealing where Granny hid the other guns. He, Cockerell and Anderson arm themselves and wait for Canfield.

On the way home, the men of the town stop in a saloon. Rudy Schaeffer spots a wanted poster, so the alarmed men race back to their families.

Clyde Maxwell, the youngest convict, a psychotic, cannot control his murderous impulses whenever someone resists him. He takes Barbara on a long walk and tries to kiss her. Barbara tries to pull away and he pulls out a machete. Canfield, riding back with Marcia, hears Barbara's cries and arrives in time to intervene. In the ensuing struggle, Maxwell stabs Canfield in the shoulder. Maxwell chases after Barbara, but the other women, who are out looking for her, kill him with a pitchfork. Greer has no trouble taking the wounded Canfield's gun.

Rachel finds the $40,000 in a trunk belonging to her brother, Rudy. She gives it to Marcia to give it to the men to leave. Marcia gives it to Greer to get him to stop beating Canfield.

Schaeffer and his men arrive back in the small town and confront the convicts. In a gunfight, Cockerell and Anderson are shot. Greer flees up the mountain, chased by all but Schaeffer. Greer drops the $40,000. He tries to pick it up, is shot, and falls to his death. Schaeffer goes for the stolen money. Canfield comes up behind him and at gunpoint, telling Schaeffer to confess. Marcia runs up behind screaming. As Canfield half turns to her, Schaeffer spins around and draws his gun and waits for Canfield to shoot him.

The sheriff and his posse arrive. When he asks about the five fugitives (they found the frozen sixth man earlier), Granny shows him five newly-dug graves (the 4 convicts and Schaeffer). The others, including a somber Rachel (despite the death of her brother), go along, and the sheriff is satisfied.

The narrator claims the story is true and reveals the lake was renamed Convict Lake.

''Urban Reign'' follows the exploits of "brawler-for-hire" Brad Hawk, who is hired to find a kidnapped gang member by the swordswoman Shun Ying Lee. Brad fights his way through the street gangs of Green Harbor, a fortified city in the U.S. As he does so to get some answers, the true machinations of the protagonists reveal themselves and things become more complicated.

Bruno, 20, and Sonia, 18, are surviving on her welfare cheques and Bruno's petty crimes when Sonia becomes pregnant. While Sonia is absent, Bruno sells their baby to a black market adoption ring to make some quick cash. He tells Sonia, telling her that they can simply "make" another baby, but Sonia is sickened and faints.

Faced with Sonia's shock, and feeling regret for his mistake, Bruno buys the child back at a premium—but, after being turned away by Sonia, his mounting debts lead Bruno down a quick path to desperation. He also learns Sonia is pressing charges. He winds up in prison, and Sonia visits him, sharing a moment of despair.

The main character in ''Odama'' is Yamanouchi Kagetora, a young general struggling to avenge his clan and preserve the Way of Ninten-do, which is a philosophy that means "The way of heavenly duty". With this philosophy to guide him, he finds that his individual soldiers can band together to create a force strong enough to defeat even the most powerful enemy, a general named Karasuma Genshin. Genshin betrayed Lord Yamanouchi Nobutada, Kagetora's father, in a coup, leading Lord Nobutada to take his own life in order to avoid the shame of defeat. Kagetora exacts his revenge, using only limited resources against a vast army. One of these resources is a sacred object protected by his clan: a legendary weapon called the Odama.

Gunjo Gakuen ("Deep Blue School") is a facility designed to gather and isolate those students with a high adaptation coefficient (indicating that the student is less likely to be able to adapt to society), determined from an adaptation exam mandated by the government.

After a failed summer vacation with other members of the school's broadcasting club, Taichi Kurosu and some of the other club members return to the city, only to find that all living creatures within it except for the club members have completely vanished. In order to confirm the status of the outside world, Taichi decides to gather other club members to help Misato Miyasumi, the president of the broadcasting club, set up a broadcasting antenna to contact any possible survivors. However, Taichi soon discovers that the world is actually repeating the same week and thus all their actions are reset, with no loss or gain, no matter what actions are taken. Seeking himself and the restoration of broken bonds, Taichi must discover meaning to exist in this strange and lonely but, for Taichi, comforting world.

''Englar Alheimsins'', often called the Icelandic ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' , is the story of an Icelandic man, Páll (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson), who slowly descends into madness and depression after his girlfriend leaves him. His parents decide to send him to a mental hospital, where he meets Óli (Baltasar Kormákur), who believes he's the songwriter for The Beatles, Viktor (Björn Jörundur Friðbjörnsson), who signs cheques with the signature of Adolf Hitler, and other special characters. The movie depicts his struggle, both in and out of the mental hospital.

Book 1

The ambassador of Cypress, Woldol, pays a visit to Guardiana (erroneously written as "Gardiana" here) and presents a jeweled box as a gift for Queen Anri. Opening the box places her under a sleep spell, which Woldol declares that only King Edmond of Cypress can awaken her from. Guardiana launches an invasion of Cypress in retaliation, but a month passes and no word is heard from the Guardiana army.

The player controls Nick, a visitor, who is chosen to be the new leader of the Guardiana Shining Force. The party travels to the kingdom of Cypress to rescue Guardiana's captive soldiers and find a way to cure Queen Anri. On their journey, they are joined by members of the Cypress resistance force, who are fighting to free Cypress from the influence of Woldol, who murdered the rightful king and installed Edmond as a puppet ruler in service to the evil god Iom. The Guardiana army also learns that Nick is, in fact, the son of the late king.

In a final assault on Cypress's castle, Edmond is killed. Nick battles Woldol using the Sword of Hajya, which can only be wielded by those of the royal bloodline of Cypress and is the only weapon which can break Iom's power. Though victorious, Nick is infected with a venom that turns his right arm to stone. With Queen Anri cured by Prince Nick's actions, Guardiana becomes Cypress's ally.[http://www.shiningforcecentral.com/?p=scripts&id=sfcd Game Script], Shining Force Central.

Book 2

Cypress and Guardiana are now at war with Iom, a nation devoted to the evil god of the same name. The player now assumes the role of Deanna, a young man found wounded by the cliffs near Cypress's castle by two young Cypress soldiers, Natasha and Dawn. Nick and his troops depart to battle Iom, leaving Mayfair (a former member of the Cypress resistance) and several soldiers in charge of the castle. Once recuperated, Deanna joins them on guard duty, and though shy by nature, he begins to bond with Natasha.

An Iom agent steals the Sword of Hajya from the castle. A small team of young soldiers left to guard the castle, led by Natasha and guided by Mayfair, set out to hunt down the thief and reclaim the Sword of Hayja. Their pursuit takes them to the neighboring kingdom of Emild, whose ruler has been sacrificed to Iom and replaced with the shapeshifting general Gordon. They recover the Sword of Hajya from Gordon, but immediately after a mysterious benefactor informs them that Prince Nick was defeated and taken prisoner.

Natasha's force now heads to Iom to rescue Prince Nick. Their mysterious benefactor repeatedly comes to their aid but refuses to identify himself. They learn that Warderer, the king of Iom, is sacrificing members of royalty to Iom in order to summon the god to their world and that he intends to make Nick the next sacrifice.

When the Cypress force confronts Warderer, General Hindel of Iom rescues Nick. Nick explains that Hindel betrayed Iom in order to save Deanna, Hindel's brother and that the Cypress force's mysterious benefactor was sent by Hindel. Deanna had in fact been wounded by a Cypress soldier while serving in an invading force from Iom. Following this revelation, an enraged Warderer kills Hindel and sacrifices himself to Iom, thereby summoning the evil god. Nick and his men defeat Iom, sending him back to Hades. With the war over, Natasha and the others return to Cypress with Prince Nick. Deanna ultimately decides he must return home to Iom, despite his love for Natasha and the new friendships he has formed in Cypress. But Natasha, who has fallen in love with Deanna, insists on going with him.

Book 3

The player again assumes the role of Nick. Several months after Iom's defeat, Prince Nick's coronation ceremony is interrupted by an old woman named Dava. She asserts that Nick is unworthy of being crowned king and kidnaps Queen Anri. To prove himself worthy of the crown, Prince Nick must lead the Cypress army and his friends from Guardiana to rescue the lost queen.

Book 4

Nick and his friends are visiting the most historic museum in Cypress when the exhibits of Nick's greatest enemies suddenly come to life.

In ancient times, the hero Jamshid sealed away the dark god Ahriman and established the kingdom of Shadam. Although Shadam was once conquered by Ahriman's servant Zahhak, it was reclaimed one thousand years later by the hero Fereydun, and Shadam finds peace and prosperity under successive kings. However, Ahriman begins to plot his return; he manipulates the Yufurat Empire, led by Zahhak's descendant, into searching for the three holy rings that Jamshid used to seal him away. In the present day, King Shadam VII tasks his son, the Prince, with escorting Mariam, the Princess of the neighboring kingdom Mahamoud and keeper of one of the rings. When the Yufurat Empire attacks the Shadam Kingdom, the King gives the Prince the second ring and instructs him and Mariam to escape to Mahamoud and seek aid from its king. The Prince is attacked by the traitorous General Gaddafi and awakens in the lair of a resistance group. The group's leader informs the Prince of a magic lamp hidden within the kingdom's treasury, and suggests that the lamp's power can nullify Gaddafi's magic sword. The Prince obtains the treasury key from his dying tutor and discovers the lamp, which houses a powerful Jinn who declares the Prince to be his new master. Aided by the Jinn's magic, the Prince successfully defeats Gaddafi and avenges his tutor. The Prince and Mariam disembark on a ship helmed by a captain and his son Sindbad.

While replenishing supplies at an island village, the group is ambushed by Al Karria, an elite Yufurat royal guard. Al murders Sindbad's father, kidnaps Mariam, and strands the Prince and Sindbad on the island. Within the island's temple, the Jinn learns a spell that allows the group to teleport to Mahamoud. The Prince informs King Mahamoud of Mariam's capture and meets the magician Kala Han, who suspects that Mariam is being held in the Yufurat Empire's capital Gylan. The Prince obtains a Gylan passport from a Yufurat deserter and infiltrates Al Karria's castle, but falls into a trap and is imprisoned in Al's dungeon. The Prince escapes execution and releases Mariam, who discloses the Emperor's goal to obtain the holy rings, her ring having been taken. The group returns to Mahamoud, where Kala Han reveals that the third ring is hidden in a tomb near the village of Uruk. Mariam, grateful for her rescue, gives the Prince an amulet capable of putting the dead to rest. At Uruk, the group retrieves a hammer that can open the tomb from the hideout of Ali Baba and his bandits, who have been terrorizing the village. Upon retrieving the third ring, the Prince is contacted by Jamshid's spirit, who warns the Prince of Ahriman's plot to escape his imprisonment by destroying the rings. Outside the tomb, the Prince is tricked by Al, disguised as Mariam, into relinquishing the lamp. The resistance group finds the Prince in Uruk and recruits him into an operation to liberate Shadam. The Prince infiltrates the castle and confronts Al, who appears to hold King Shadam hostage for the other two rings. After taking the rings, Al reveals the King to be a zombie reanimated to serve Yufurat. After being forced into battle with the King and the Jinn, the Prince uses Mariam's amulet to put his father's spirit to rest.

The group returns to Gylan and defeats Al before witnessing the Emperor destroying the rings in a ceremony. As Ahriman returns to the mortal realm and kills the Emperor, the group flees to Mahamoud. The Queen recalls a prophecy by Jamshid foretelling the appearance of the Tower of Ziggurat, which would tie the physical and spiritual realms together upon Ahriman's return. Kala Han also informs the group that inserting the rings' ashes into the lamp will restore their original power. At the top of the Tower, the group encounters the Roc, who can fly between worlds. The group ventures to the spiritual world and faces Ahriman in a final battle. They weaken him into a state where he can be locked away once more with the rings, which have been restored by the group's hope and resolve. After returning to the mortal world, the Prince ascends to the throne and weds Mariam, and Sindbad becomes the captain of his father's ship.

In the 1890s, Lawrence Stevens (Dick Powell) is an obituary writer unhappy in his job, who is given, by an elderly newspaper man named Pop Benson (John Philliber), a newspaper that has tomorrow's news. He uses the paper to write stories and get the scoop on other reporters; but this also brings him under suspicion by Police Inspector Mulrooney (Edgar Kennedy), who wants to know how Stevens came by his knowledge of a robbery at a theater's box office during a performance, of which he read in the newspaper provided by Benson. Stevens and his new girlfriend Sylvia (Linda Darnell) – half of a clairvoyant act with her uncle Oscar Smith (Jack Oakie) – have a number of adventures, until her uncle mistakenly thinks that Stevens has consorted with his niece in her boarding house room. The uncle attempts to intimidate Stevens into marrying her, not knowing that Stevens has come to him to ask for her hand.

Stevens gets another newspaper from Pop Benson, intending to use it to pick horses at the racetrack, to win enough money to get married. Unfortunately, he also reads a story about his own death that night, so he and Sylvia get married immediately and head off to the track with her uncle. Stevens bets on winner after winner, amassing $60,000, which is then stolen on their way back to town. They give chase but are arrested for speeding. Stevens hopes for more help from Benson, but learns that the old man died two days ago, even before Stevens received the first newspaper.

Stevens tries his best to avoid the hotel lobby where his death is supposed to take place, but circumstances keep pushing him in that direction. He spots the man who stole his money and chases him on foot through the streets and over the rooftops, until they both fall through the chimney that leads to the very hotel lobby he's been trying to avoid. A gunfight breaks out, and the thief is shot and killed. Because he has Stevens' wallet on him, he is at first identified as the newspaperman, and his newspaper prints an erroneous story saying that their star reporter has been killed. When a reporter finds out the truth, the newspaper has already hit the streets; and it is this edition that he had gotten from Pop.

So Stevens does not die in the hotel lobby, and he and Sylvia live to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

The main characters in the novel are Steve Peterson, whose wife Nina was murdered two years before, his six-year-old son Neil, who witnessed the murder, and Sharon Martin, a young journalist who befriends them both. The novel opens as Steve and Sharon debate capital punishment. A young man named Ronald Thompson has been sentenced to death for Nina's murder. Sharon is against the death penalty and tries to save Thompson. Unknown to them, Thompson is actually innocent. The real killer is a psychopath named August Rommel Taggart, Arty for short. He calls himself Foxy because General Rommel was called the desert fox. He kidnaps Sharon and Neil, hiding them under New York's famed Grand Central Station. The rest of the novel describes the race against time to save the three innocent people.

The story is the testament of a tortured, morphine-addicted man who relates an incident that occurred during his service as an officer during World War I. In the unnamed narrator's account, his cargo ship is captured by an Imperial German sea-raider in "one of the most open and least frequented parts of the broad Pacific". He escapes on a lifeboat and drifts aimlessly, south of the equator, until he eventually finds himself stranded on "a slimy expanse of hellish black mire which extended about [him] in monotonous undulations as far as [he] could see.... The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish and less describable things which [he] saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain." He theorizes that this area was formerly a portion of the ocean floor thrown to the surface by volcanic activity, "exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths."

After waiting three days for the seafloor to dry out sufficiently to walk on, he ventures out on foot to find the sea and possible rescue. After two days of walking, he reaches his goal, a hill which turns out to be a mound on the edge of an "immeasurable pit or canyon". Descending the slope, he sees a gigantic white stone object that he soon perceives to be a "well-shaped monolith whose massive bulk had known the workmanship and perhaps the worship of living and thinking creatures."Lovecraft, "Dagon", p. 17. The monolith, situated next to a channel of water in the bottom of the chasm, is covered in unfamiliar hieroglyphs "consisting for the most part of conventionalized aquatic symbols such as fishes, eels, octopuses, crustaceans, mollusks, whales, and the like." There are also "crude sculptures" depicting:

As the narrator looks at the monolith, a creature emerges from the water:

Horrified, the mariner flees back to his stranded boat and vaguely recalls a "great storm". His next memory is of a San Francisco hospital, where he was taken after being rescued in mid-ocean by a U.S. ship. There are no reports of any Pacific upheavals, and he does not expect anyone to believe his incredible story. He mentions one abortive attempt to gain understanding of his experience:

Haunted by visions of the creature, "especially when the moon is gibbous and waning", he describes his fears for the future of humanity:

With the drug that has given him "transient surcease" running out, he declares himself ready to do himself in; the narrative is revealed to be a suicide note. The story ends with the narrator hearing "a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it" before shouting "God, ''that hand!'' The window! The window!"

The Zacharys are a thriving and respected family on the Texas frontier. Father Will Zachary was killed by Kiowa Indians, leaving his oldest son Ben (Burt Lancaster) head of the family. Ben and his mother Mattilda (Lillian Gish) are very protective of Rachel (Audrey Hepburn), who was adopted as an infant; she is doted on by the whole family, including her other brothers Cash (Audie Murphy) and Andy (Doug McClure). The family is supported by their neighbor and Ben's business partner, Zeb Rawlins (Charles Bickford); Zeb's shy son Charlie (Albert Salmi) wants to marry Rachel, which concerns Ben.

During preparations for a cattle drive to Wichita, Kansas, the family is unsettled by the appearance of Abe Kelsey (Joseph Wiseman), who claims that Rachel is Indian by birth. Believing this to be a lie, Ben and Cash engage in a gunfight with Kelsey, killing his horse, but he steals Rachel's beloved white stallion. Later, a group of Kiowa led by Lost Bird appears and offers Ben horses in exchange for handing over Rachel. Lost Bird claims that she is actually his sister, and that an old white man told him so.

Soon after, Charlie to whom Ben has decided to give permission to court Rachel is killed by the Kiowa. In her grief, Charlie's mother accuses Rachel of being a "dirty Injun". Ben leads the ranchers in tracking down Kelsey, and they bring him back to the Rawlins ranch to hang him as a horse thief.

With a noose around his neck, Kelsey tells the gathered ranchers that, on a retaliatory raid against the Kiowa that he led with Will Zachary, he found a baby girl and was about to kill her when Will intervened and took the baby as his own. Kelsey claims that his own son was captured by the Kiowa and ransomed for Rachel's return, but Will refused. Ben intervenes and tells the gathered group the story he knows, that Kelsey's son was actually killed in the fighting, and that Kelsey invented the story and followed them from town to town, poisoning peoples' minds wherever they moved.

Mattilda, driven to the edge by Kelsey's accusations, strikes the horse on which Kelsey is seated, so it runs out from under him, hanging him. Despite protestations that Kelsey was insane, her actions convince Zeb that Kelsey was telling the truth, and he tells Ben to give Rachel to the Kiowa or their partnership will be broken. Ben refuses, and all of the ranchers turn their backs on the Zacharys.

Back at their homestead, Mattilda admits to her family that Will took the Kiowa baby and brought her home to replace an infant daughter they had just lost. Cash, unable to accept an Indian as his sister, abandons the family and spends the night with Georgia Rawlins. The Kiowa return to the Zachary ranch in force, demanding Rachel, who tries to save her family by going over to the Kiowa. To stop her, Ben deliberately breaks the truce by ordering Andy to kill a Kiowa, which touches off a bloody siege. Facing down death, Ben expresses a desire to marry Rachel should they survive. During a break in the fighting, the Kiowa camped nearby play music on their pipes and drums, and the Zacharys play a Mozart composition back on their piano. However, Kiowa riders attack and destroy the piano, resuming the fight.

When the Kiowa stampede cattle over the roof of the house, the family sets it on fire and takes shelter in the root cellar. Mattilda, who had been shot earlier, succumbs to her wounds and dies. Almost out of ammunition, Ben embraces Andy and Rachel, and Rachel and he passionately kiss. Just as the family is about to be overwhelmed, a penitent Cash returns and turns the tide by fighting off the remaining Kiowa. Rachel, protecting a wounded Andy, is confronted by Lost Bird, who enters the house. After a tense moment, she shoots and kills him. With the rest of the tribe gone, Rachel and her brothers exit the house together and watch a flock of geese fly through the sky.

The game follows the adventures of the sorceress Princess Iris of Arliel. The evil Jyn have overrun her father's lands and stolen three of the four elemental crystals used to keep the peace. Her quest takes her through the lands of Arliel to fight the Jyn's elemental governors and reclaim the crystals before defeating Emperor Grym and his mysterious overlord. Aside from the introduction (and closing), there is no plot development in the game.

Q-SKY program director and morning DJ Jeff Dugan builds a large fanbase by assembling a group of charismatic on-air personalities playing popular rock and roll. He soon finds that corporate management expects Jeff to use the station's position atop the ratings to sell more advertising time, and does so with the aid of a newly-hired sales manager.

The new sales manager, Regis Lamar, presents him with the chance to advertise for the U.S. Army using a series of cheesy radio ads. When Jeff refuses to endorse the contract, Regis takes the issue to upper management. Jeff is then ordered to run the ads as provided by the Army and on the schedule specified in the advertising contract. Rather than comply, Jeff quits his job. All of the remaining DJs decide to take control of the station in a lock-in/sit-in/protest. They get listeners to gather in the street outside the station as a sort of protest while the DJs play music without any commercials.

Jeff Dugan wakes up to hear the DJs take control of the station. The crowd is already present when he arrives at the station. The DJs lift him up to the second story with a fire hose as they have already barricaded the front doors. The lock-in lasts only until the police get an injunction to remove the staff. A tow truck rips off the front doors and the police enter the building. The DJs battle back by using a firehose and throwing tapes and other office objects at the police.

The battle is resolved when Dugan finds himself fighting a policeman outside on an overhang. Jeff saves the policeman from falling off and decides that fighting is the wrong thing to do. He calms the crowd and announces that the DJs are coming out. Unknown to him, the company owner, Carl Billings, has watched from the crowd as the events unfolded. Billings insists that the DJs stay in the station, fires his management staff responsible for the advertising conflict, and then joins the DJs inside the station.

The film is set in post-World War II Moscow. Lieutenant Vladimir Sharapov (Vladimir Konkin) is a young reconnaissance officer who has just returned from the war and is assigned to peacetime service with the famous MUR (Moscow Department of Criminal Investigations). There he becomes part of an elite detective team led by the brilliant, tough, no-nonsense Captain Gleb Zheglov (Vladimir Vysotsky). The duo becomes embroiled in two seemingly unrelated investigations: that of the murder of young aspiring actress Larisa Gruzdeva, and the hunt for a brazen, vicious gang of armed robbers that calls itself "The Black Cat" and constantly manages to evade capture.

While suspicion in Gruzdeva's murder initially falls on her estranged husband Dr. Gruzdev (Yursky), it gradually becomes obvious that the two cases are connected, as a Black Cat mobster known as Fox (Aleksandr Belyavsky) is implicated in the murder. As a result of Zheglov's successful high-stakes operation to capture Fox, Sharapov inadvertently finds himself undercover at the Black Cat hideout, sparring with the gang's menacing leader, the Hunchback (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan). What ensues is arguably one of Soviet television's most memorable and suspenseful finales.

Carter, a weird fiction writer, who is likely Randolph Carter who features in some of Lovecraft's other tales such as "The Statement of Randolph Carter", meets with his close friend, Joel Manton, in a cemetery near an old, dilapidated house on Meadow Hill in the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. As the two sit upon a weathered tomb, Carter tells Manton the tale of an indescribable entity that allegedly haunts the house and surrounding area. He contends that because such an entity cannot be perceived by the five senses, it becomes impossible to quantify and accurately describe, thus earning itself the term ''unnamable''.

As the narration closes, this unnamable presence attacks both Carter and Manton. Both men survive and awaken later at St. Mary's hospital. They suffer from various lacerations, including scarring from a large horn-shaped object and bruises in the shape of hoof-prints on their backs. Manton describes the unnamable in the closing passage of the story:

Successful mystery novelist Janet Frobisher, who has been separated for years from her husband, a man with a criminal past, lives in an isolated home in Northern England. Her nearest neighbour is nosy veterinarian Dr Henderson. Janet has an affair with, and falls in love with, her secretary Chris's fiancé, Larry, who is years younger than she.

When her estranged husband unexpectedly appears, Janet poisons him by administering medication given to her by Dr Henderson for her horse. One of the deceased man's criminal cohorts arrives as she's preparing to dispose of the body in the local lake. When Janet's secretary and Larry arrive at the secluded house, the mysterious man, who has assisted her with her scheme, impersonates George, the long-absent husband of Janet.

George and Janet trade accusations and insults. Chris learns of Larry's affair with Janet, and determines to leave for London. Janet tries to convince Larry to stay with her, but he loves Chris and chases after her unsuccessfully. George shoots Janet's horse to upset her. Janet pretends she is remorseful about Larry and Chris, and sends George after Chris in an unsafe vehicle. He crashes, but survives.

The next morning the authorities are dragging the lake because of the crash. Janet's attempt to kill George has trapped them both, although George plans simply to run away. Janet tricks George into poisoning himself. As George dies, Dr Henderson arrives and says he knew all along that George was an imposter; the real George stopped by his house in the fog the night he arrived. Janet pretends to faint. Dr Henderson gives her a drink from the same flask she used to trick George. When she opens her eyes and recognises the flask, she realises she has killed herself, and bursts into hysterical laughter.

The film starts in Germany in 1943. During an Allied bombing raid Maria marries the soldier Hermann Braun. After "half a day and a whole night" together, Hermann returns to the Eastern front the following day. Following the end of the war, Maria is informed that Hermann has been killed. Maria starts work as a prostitute in a bar frequented by American soldiers. She has a relationship with African-American soldier Bill, who supports her and gives her nylon stockings and cigarettes. She becomes pregnant by Bill.

However, Hermann was not killed, and returns home to discover Maria and Bill undressing each other. A fight between Hermann and Bill ensues. When Hermann seems in danger, Maria unintentionally kills Bill, striking his head with a full bottle. Maria is tried by a military tribunal and expresses her love for both Bill and Hermann; Hermann is so struck with Maria's devotion that he takes the blame for the killing and is imprisoned. Maria has a stillbirth and asks her doctor to promise to maintain the grave. On the train home, Maria positions herself to catch the eye of a wealthy industrialist, Karl Oswald. Oswald, an older man, offers her a position as his assistant, and shortly thereafter Maria becomes his mistress as she had planned. Maria visits Hermann again and tells him about the development, promising that their life will start as soon as he is released. Maria becomes wealthy and buys a house.

Oswald visits Hermann and offers to make him and Maria heirs to his wealth if Hermann deserts Maria after his release. Neither man tells Maria of their agreement. On release, Hermann emigrates to Canada and sends Maria a red rose each month to remind her he still loves her.

Following Oswald's death, Hermann returns to Germany and to Maria. When Oswald's will is read by Senkenberg, the executor, Maria hears about Oswald's agreement with Hermann. Distressed, Maria and Hermann briefly argue about how they supposedly sacrificed through their whole life for each other, then she goes into the kitchen to light a cigarette from the burner of the stovetop. Maria is offscreen as Hermann is seen watching her, when he lurches away and screams "''Nein''". Before this, Maria had left the gas stove opened after lighting up a cigarette in the same place. A moment later, the apartment suffers a gas explosion from the stove, killing Maria and Hermann.

''Tea From an Empty Cup'' is at its core a tightly plotted detective novel.

The story revolves around near mythical Japan, which has been destroyed in a vaguely described natural cataclysm several decades before the story opens. The generation that remembers "Old Japan" appears to have passed on. A virtual version of Japan has become a sort of holy grail for a core group of artificial reality addicts. Artificial Reality, or ''AR'', like "post-apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty" has become immensely popular in an increasingly dreary overcrowded world, not just as a game, but as a way of life.

AR is not just a way of life, it turns out, but also of death, as homicide detective Dore Konstantin discovers when she is called upon to investigate the death of a young man in an artificial reality parlour (think video arcade with a full wired body suit) and discovers he died the same way in the game as in reality. She therefore decides to investigate this young man's life within the artificial realities he frequented, even though the legal precedents already established mean that nothing she discovers is admissible as evidence because "Everything is a Lie" in AR. In the process she stumbles onto something far more complicated than a mere murder case.

In ''Tea from an Empty Cup'''s interwoven storyline, Yuki, a young ethnically Japanese woman is desperately looking for her boyfriend Tom, whom she fears has taken up with a mysterious and notorious woman named Joy Flower, becoming one of "Joy's Boyz", about whom a lot of nasty rumours circulate.

When Yuki seeks Joy Flower out, she immediately is taken into Joy's inner circle, becoming her personal assistant, which leads her, like Konstantin, into a voyage of discovery towards the central mystery of the book.

Category:1998 American novels Category:1998 science fiction novels Category:Cyberpunk novels Category:Novels set in Japan Category:Post-apocalyptic novels Category:Tor Books books Category:American science fiction novels Category:Japan in non-Japanese culture

On a spacecraft, a crew of finds explosions in space and asteroids flying by. They are afraid that they are going to be hit, but their vessel's computer, named Wiz, tells them that they were seeing the "refraction" of an event that took place millions of years ago. Overjoyed, the ship's crew embrace each other. Later in the Orion space complex of Captain Mike Hamilton who is called to report on himself slapping an officer to the base commander. He says that the other officer did not give him a command personally, but told him to follow the directions of a computer.

Hamilton and his ship, the MK-31, are sent to repair an automated satellite. One of the crew floats over to the satellite and starts work. Viewing this on the screen, Hamilton is upset because it is required that space walkers work in teams of two, and predicts that the acid in the battery will eat through the astronaut's suit. The astronaut says that he is in control of the situation - but it does start to eat through his suit. Hamilton himself goes to rescue him. Later, A couple of astronauts wish to be intimate so they recline on separate beds while a light show machine plays between them while Hamilton tells a female crew member that he does not like this mechanized intimacy and kisses her and that he prefers the old-fashioned way of kissing.

The crew of the MK-31 then investigate an unstable planet where two flying saucers are seen orbiting it. The sensors of the ship state that these alien machines have "disintegrators" and Hamilton commands that they be destroyed, but they struck first leading the MK-31 to spin quickly. Eventually Hamilton gets the ship's engines to counteract the spin and the ship lands on the planet. A portal on this desert planet teleports people who walk through it underground. The first man through it, and a woman who wanders away later, get attacked, but the main body of explorers meet a race of aliens. Their elder says that they are under the control of an evil computer. The astronauts pledge to help the inhabitants of the planet escape their enslavement and succeed in destroying the computer. The ensuing explosion takes out the planet, leading to the crew and one surviving alien set off for Earth only to face further difficulties when a human member of the crew is possessed by the computer and goes on a killing spree. The alien eventually manages to subdue him, heroically sacrificing his own life. Although the crew are pleased at returning to Earth, the voice of the computer Wiz changes to that of the planet's computer.

A young girl runs through the woods being chased by a creature which corners and kills her, leaving nothing behind but the teddy bear she was holding. Later, a young man named Ian Richards (Brendan Hughes) is walking along a desert road holding a satchel and the teddy bear. He finds himself in the town of Canton Bluff, where he befriends the local church owner Dewey and gets a job helping him to repair the church. Whilst living with Dewey (Jered Barclay), Ian meets Dewey's daughter Elizabeth (Michele Matheson). A few weeks later, after the repairs are done, Ian and Elizabeth go to the fair, and Ian wins her a teddy bear, similar to the one seen at the beginning of the film. Soon after, they encounter R.B. Harker (Bruce Payne), owner of the local circus, and Winston (Sean Gregory Sullivan), who goes by the stage name of 'alligator boy'. Harker behaves suspiciously around them both and, feeling nervous, Ian and Elizabeth leave the circus and return home. The next day is the full moon, and Ian plans to leave town before it appears, but whilst waiting for Elizabeth so he can say goodbye, he falls asleep in his bedroom. Later that night, Ian awakens to find it is nighttime and the full moon has risen. He immediately begins to transform into a werewolf and then jumps out the bedroom window. Harker's assistant Bellamey (Antonio Fargas), who was sent to spy on Ian, sees the werewolf walking away from the church and returns to the circus to inform Harker. When Ian returns to the church later that night in human form, Harker has Ian restrained and reveals to Dewey and Elizabeth that Ian is a werewolf by forcing him to transform again by using a crystal he wears around his neck and reciting an ancient spell.

Ian wakes the next day to find Harker has caged him at the circus. Harker appears and tells Ian that he had killed Elizabeth the night before in his werewolf state, leaving Ian distraught. Meanwhile, Dewey and Elizabeth, revealed to be totally fine, argue over if Ian is the work of the Devil or God. The local sheriff, Fuller (Gary Cervantes), visits Ian and offers to help him leave the cage but Ian refuses, believing he is better off caged in case he hurts anyone else. Fuller reveals that Elizabeth is actually alive and well and Ian still decides to stay in the cage to protect everyone. Harker then adds Ian in his circus show as a dangerous werewolf with an uncontrollable urge for human blood along with the other 'freaks'; Bellamey, Winston, Toones (Deep Roy), and Toones's lover Carl/Carlotta (Christopher Morley). Later, Winston visits Ian and whilst talking to him, asks Ian to make him a werewolf too as he wishes to change his appearance due to his malformed body and skin. Ian refuses and encourages Winston to leave the circus as there is nothing wrong with him and he does not need Harker to survive. That evening, with a crowd of townspeople watching, Harker forces Ian to transform once again using the crystal and the spell. After Ian has transformed, Harker throws a cat towards him expecting Ian to kill it, but instead, Ian holds the cat briefly and then sees Winston in the crowd and throws the cat to him for safety. Harker is annoyed and immediately cancels the show. Dewey and Fuller are in the audience and are conflicted over what they have witnessed.

Later that evening, after the circus has closed, Sheriff Fuller believes something suspicious is happening with the circus and investigates the grounds. He finds evidence Harker is up to no good and goes to find and arrest him. When Fuller confronts Harker, Harker reveals that he is actually a vampire by transforming into his true form. Horrified, Fuller runs away but Harker easily finds and kills him. Fuller's corpse is found the next morning, and the townspeople believe that Ian is responsible.

Meanwhile, Ian escapes the circus and runs away with Elizabeth. That night, Ian reveals to Elizabeth that it was actually Harker who killed his family when he was a young boy and placed the werewolf curse on him. Soon after, Ian and Elizabeth make love. Later, Ian leaves a sleeping Elizabeth to confront Harker once and for all. He returns to the circus and enters Harker's RV, but finds it empty. As Ian opens the door to leave, he finds he is surrounded by Harker and the local townspeople, all armed with guns. Harker orders them to shoot Ian but they refuse, seeing just a man and not a monster standing in front of them. Fed up, Harker transforms into his vampire form and the townspeople attack him with their guns instead, but they have no effect. As the townspeople flee, Ian runs deeper into the circus grounds whilst Harker pursues him. Elizabeth has awakened and goes to the circus to look for Ian but is attacked by Toones. He drops his gun and in a struggle with Elizabeth, she picks it up and shoots him. Carol/Carlotta witnesses this and attacks Elizabeth, but gets shot and killed by an arrow fired by Dewey, who reveals he has followed Elizabeth to the circus. Ian and Harker then face off, with Harker easily overpowering Ian. During their fight, Harker drops his crystal and Winston grabs it and runs away. As Harker continues to attack Ian, Winston stands close by and uses the crystal and the spell to help Ian transform and gain the upper hand on Harker. Seeing Winston help Ian, Harker mortally wounds Winston by biting him in the neck. Ian rushes to assist Winston but, in the scuffle, also ends up biting Winston in the neck. Ian eventually is able to stab Harker in the heart and whilst he writhes in pain on the ground, Ian jumps up and rips the tent to allow the dawn sun through to shine on Harker, which kills him. Ian returns to his human form and looks at the pile of dust that was Harker. Ian then lifts the injured Winston and walks out of the circus towards the countryside, whilst Dewey and Elizabeth remain behind and watch them leave.

As a voice-over narrates, a man is seen driving and ignoring amber traffic light signals, until the odds catch up with him and he strikes another "amber gambler". In getting out of his car to confront the other driver, the camera pulls back to reveal that the other person is himself.

The phrase has been popularly used to succinctly describe high risk driving behaviors that enhance the likelihood of automobile collisions, damage, injury and death. It characterizes amber gambling as racing through amber lights at one end of the cycle or the other.

The informative film focuses entirely on the perspective of Ronald, a young boy who aspires to become a builder or surveyor when he grows up. His cousins Paul and Jane decide to test Ronald's know-it-all attitude by teleporting him to a building site, where Ronald must avoid several hazards and obstacles without getting hurt. In each test Ronald disobeys various warning signs and ignores the dangers, resulting in him getting killed in each one.

Each time Ronald is about to die a heartbeat sound is played to warn sensitive viewers. In order, Ronald's deaths are displayed as him being buried alive in a trench collapse, electrocuted in a condemned building, run over by an earthmoving vehicle, breaking his skull against a metal retaining wall, crushed to death by a pile of bricks and finally drowning in a disused quarry.

Back in the real world, Ronald announces he intends to abandon his ambitions, and goes outside to play with Paul and Jane. Over the closing shot of the film, Paul reads out real-life stories of children who were killed in similar ways to those seen in the film.

The story is told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator and details his experiences with a scientist named Crawford Tillinghast. Tillinghast creates an electronic device that emits a resonance wave, which stimulates an affected person's pineal gland, thereby allowing them to perceive planes of existence outside the scope of accepted reality.

Sharing the experience with Tillinghast, the narrator becomes cognizant of a translucent, inter-dimensional environment that overlaps our own recognized reality. From this perspective, he witnesses hordes of strange and horrific creatures that defy description. Tillinghast reveals that he has used his machine to transport his house servants into the overlapping plane of reality. He also reveals that the effect works both ways, and allows the inter-dimensional creature denizens of the alternate dimension to perceive humans. Tillinghast's servants were attacked and killed by one such inter-dimensional entity, and Tillinghast informs the narrator that it is right behind him. Terrified beyond measure, the narrator pulls out his gun and shoots it at the machine, destroying it. Tillinghast dies immediately thereafter as a result of apoplexy. The police investigate the scene and it is placed on record that Tillinghast murdered the servants in spite of their remains never being found.

Barney Hendrickson is a mediocre movie-maker with no prospects, and his employer, Climactic Studios, is about to go out of business, particularly as the owner, L. M. Greenspan, has systematically looted the corporation. In desperation, Hendrickson drags Greenspan to see Professor Hewitt, who claims to have a time machine. Hewitt's idea of a demonstration, sending a bottle seven microseconds into the past, doesn't impress Greenspan. Hendrickson takes over the machine, turns everything up to maximum, and sends Greenspan's Cuban cigar three seconds into the future, burning out the circuitry in the process.

Greenspan is convinced enough to finance a replacement, under cover of a mad scientist's plot device for a horror movie. Hendrickson aims to make a historical movie in the past, with a minimal crew, a handful of actors, and all the other parts filled by extras recruited (hopefully for wampum and beads) from the local people. His first script is ''Viking Columbus'', about the founding of the Vinland settlement, obtained by sending Chinese-American scriptwriter Charley Chang back to a barren Precambrian Catalina Island for a month.

On the first trip, they capture a Viking named Ottar in Orkney of the 11th century. With Ottar as local guide and interpreter, paid in bottles of Jack Daniel's, they move an entire sound stage into the past and begin filming. Their stars are Ruf Hawk, a narcissistic he-man, and Slithey Tove, a sex goddess.

In the present the auditors from the bank are arriving in a few days, at which point they will discover the cooked books. Also, Hewitt explains that the time machine must return to the present, a moment after departing, before going to any other time. As a consequence, time used in the present day is lost forever. Hendrickson thinks he can stay in the past as long as necessary, but following an attack by marauders shortly after their arrival, Ruf is injured and refuses to participate in the film. Then the time machine itself breaks down in the present day, taking hours to repair.

Improvising desperately, Hendrickson casts Ottar in the lead and resolves to stay in the past until all is done. They film Ottar setting sail for Vinland with an actual colonizing crew, then the film crew jumps, via present-day Hollywood, to Newfoundland a few months later, tracking Ottar by a radio beacon on his boat. While waiting, they have a nasty encounter with the natives, whom the Vikings will call ''Skrælings''.

Ottar hits the beach and digs in while the cameras roll, then the crew jumps forward a year to give the colonists time to build the settlement and stockade. They learn that Slithey, who had become smitten with Ottar, had been left behind by accident. Not only that, she has Ottar's baby son on her hip.

They continue filming, even during a mass attack by ''Skrælings'', which is repelled with tear gas and Viking axes. Shooting the final scenes, Hendrickson is triumphant—and downcast. Even with all the film shot, he still has to do a soundtrack, dub the spoken lines, and edit the final cut. There is no time in the future to do this, and no equipment in the past. All seems lost.

Hendrickson is all set to walk into Greenspan's office empty-handed, when he is stopped by a surprise visitor—a future version of himself, carrying a finished copy of ''Viking Columbus'' and sporting a blood-stained bandage on his left hand. This Hendrickson reassures him that all he has to do is return to the past and complete ''Viking Columbus'', and that everything will work out in the end. Hendrickson #2 then walks into Greenspan's office with the completed film, leaving Hendrickson #1 to wonder what happened to his hand.

Hendrickson #1 realises how the film can be completed in time: once they return to the present they can take as long as necessary in post-production, then jump back to before the deadline with the finished product. Filled with confidence, he returns to Vinland to complete filming. Along the way, however, he gets a wood sliver in his hand, and demands a huge bandage, over which he pours mercurochrome to make it look like blood.

Coda

, 1968).

With the movie a smash hit, Climactic's future is assured. Only one puzzle remains. The Vikings went to Vinland, but where did the real settlers land? The Norse sagas say that the expedition was led by Thorfinn Karlsefni, but there was no sign of him. Then Ottar, overhearing, reveals that his formal name is indeed Thorfinn Karlsefni. Shocked, Barney and Hewitt realize that the colony was founded because they decided to make a movie about founding the colony. Not only that, but Slithey, whose character in the movie was named "Gudrid," has also entered history as the mother of her son, whom she called "Snorey" because he snored so much. He will be known as Snorri Thorfinnsson, the ancestor of many Icelanders.

The sagas also mention another important figure, Bjarni Herjólfsson. Barney Hendrickson realizes: "They wrote a part for me!"

The novel ends with Greenspan planning to produce a historical film about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, shot on location in 1st century Judea, while a horrified Hendrickson tries to talk him out of it.

Adaptations

The BBC produced a radio play adaption of this novel for the long-running series "Saturday Night Theatre." It was broadcast on September 5, 1981.

While raiding Berk's Squab Farm, Mr. Fox triggers a fox trap caging himself along with his wife Felicity. Felicity reveals to her husband that she is pregnant and pleads with him to find a safer job if they escape, and he agrees.

Two human years (12 fox years) later, the Foxes and their son Ash are living in a hole. Mr. Fox, now a newspaper columnist, moves the family into a better home inside a tree, ignoring the warnings of his lawyer, about how dangerous the area is for foxes due to its proximity to facilities run by three feared farmers: Boggis (a chicken farmer), Bunce (a duck and goose farmer) and Bean (a turkey and apple farmer).

Soon after the Foxes move in, Felicity's nephew, Kristofferson Silverfox, comes to live with them. Ash finds this situation intolerable; his cousin is superior to him at almost everything, and everyone is charmed by Kristofferson. Longing for his days as a thief, Mr. Fox and his friend Kylie, an opossum, steal produce and poultry from all three farms for three straight nights. Angered, the farmers decide to kill Mr. Fox. They camp out near his home, and when Mr. Fox emerges, they open fire but only manage to shoot off his tail. After demolishing the site of the tree while attempting to dig Mr. Fox out, they discover the Foxes have dug an escape tunnel. As the Foxes will have to surface for food and water, the farmers wait at the tunnel mouth. Underground, Felicity is upset that Mr. Fox has returned to his thieving ways.

The group later encounters Badger and many other local animal residents whose homes have also been destroyed by the farmers. As the animals begin fearing starvation, Mr. Fox leads them on a digging expedition to tunnel to the three farms, stealing all of their produce.

While the other animals feast, Ash and Kristofferson begin to reconcile after Kristofferson defends Ash from Beaver's son. The cousins return to Bean's farm, intending to reclaim the missing tail but Kristofferson gets captured.

Discovering that Mr. Fox has stolen all of their produce, the farmers and the fire chief flood the animals' tunnel network with some of Bean's cider, trapping the animals in the sewers.

Realizing that the farmers plan to use Kristofferson to lure him into an ambush, Mr. Fox heads to the surface to surrender, but returns when Rat, Bean's violent security guard, confronts the animals and attacks Ash and Felicity. A fight between Mr. Fox and Rat results in the latter being pushed into a generator, electrocuting him. Before dying, Rat reveals Kristofferson's location. Mr. Fox asks the farmers for a meeting in town near the sewer hub where he would surrender in exchange for Kristofferson's freedom.

The farmers prepare an ambush, but the animals, anticipating it, launch a counterattack that allows Mr. Fox, Ash, and Kylie to enter Bean's farm undetected. Ash frees Kristofferson and braves enemy fire to release a rabid beagle to keep the farmers at bay, allowing the group to escape.

As the farmers fruitlessly wait for the animals to come out of the hole, the animals soon settle into their new homes in the sewers, inviting any other animals to join them. Soon after, Fox raids a grocery store belonging to Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, where Felicity reveals she's pregnant again as the animals dance in the aisle.

During a vacation with his grandmother Helga in Norway, eight-year-old American boy, Luke Eveshim, is warned about witches, female demons who immensely hate children and use various methods to destroy or transform them. Helga tells Luke that unlike ordinary women, real witches have claws instead of fingernails which they hide by wearing gloves, bald heads which they cover by wearing wigs that give them rashes, square feet with no toes which they hide by wearing sensible shoes, a purple tinge in their pupils and a powerful sense of smell which they use to sniff out children. To a witch, clean children stink of dog's droppings; the dirtier the child, the less likely she is to smell them. Helga says her childhood friend, Erica, fell victim to a witch and was cursed to spend the rest of her life trapped inside a painting, aging gradually until finally disappearing a few years earlier.

After Luke's parents are killed in a car accident, Helga becomes Luke's legal guardian and they move to England. While playing outside in a treehouse, Luke is approached by a witch trying to lure him with a snake and a chocolate bar, so he stays in his treehouse for protection and the witch goes away. On Luke's ninth birthday, Helga falls ill with diabetes. Her doctor advises they spend the summer by the sea. At their seaside hotel in Bournemouth, Luke meets and befriends a gluttonous but friendly boy, Bruno Jenkins. Luke unintentionally antagonizes the hotel manager, Mr. Stringer, after his pet mice frighten his maid girlfriend. Also at the hotel is a convention of witches, masquerading as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The Grand High Witch, the all-powerful leader of the world's witches, is attending under the name Eva Ernst.

Luke hides inside the ballroom and spies on the witches' meeting. Eva unveils her latest creation: a magic potion to turn all the world's children into mice, which will be used in confectionery products in sweet shops and candy stores to be purchased using money provided by Eva. Bruno, who was given the potion earlier, is brought into the room, turns into a mouse and flees. Luke is discovered and runs to Helga in their room but finds her resting after having a diabetes-induced dizzy spell. The witches seize Luke in the room and take him back to the ballroom, where he is forced to drink the potion and turned into a mouse before escaping. He finds Bruno and reunites with Helga, who has since recovered. Luke devises a plan to defeat the witches by sneaking into Eva's room to steal a bottle of the potion, then sneaking into the kitchen and put it into the soup for the special RSPCC party. Luke and Helga try to get Bruno to his parents, but they do not believe her story and are frightened by the mouse.

Mr. Jenkins orders the soup, though Helga stops him from consuming it. The Jenkinses finally realize Bruno is a mouse when he speaks up. As the witches enter the banquet, Miss Susan Irvine, Eva's long-suffering and mistreated assistant, quits upon being banned from the celebration. The formula turns all the witches into mice, and the staff and hotel guests join in killing them, unknowingly ridding England of its witches. Amidst the chaos, Helga spots the transformed Eva and traps her under a water jug before helpfully pointing her out to Mr. Stringer, who chops her in two with a meat cleaver. She then returns Bruno to his bewildered parents. Luke and Helga return home to where Eva's trunk full of money and an address book of all witches in the United States is delivered, allowing them to plan an operation to wipe out all the witches in America. That night, Miss Irvine, now a good witch, drives to Luke and Helga's house and returns Luke to human form, as well as his pet mice and glasses. She leaves to pay Bruno a visit, as Luke and Helga wave goodbye.

The story follows a German goatherd from a village named Sittendorf, today part of the town Kelbra. While looking for escaped goats, Peter Klaus is led to where others are playing games in the woods. After tasting their wine, he falls asleep and wakes up twenty years later.

The plot follows very closely the fairytale by Perrault, with an instrumental introduction and inserted dances.

A nondescript spacer with little education named Cerne Obrien finds a cache of extremely valuable "retron crystals", but crashes on an idyllic planet before he can sell them. The planet has a single continent, inhabited by humans with a Polynesian culture. The natives live contented lives, hunting a horrific sea-creature called the ''koluf'', which constitutes almost their entire diet. Obrien uses his surviving technology to rid the area of several pests, and eventually marries. The natives come to call him the "Langri", a title of deep respect.

Obrien lives a peaceful life, watching his descendants grow up, but when he realizes he is getting old, he begins worrying about the future. Unscrupulous developers would inevitably attempt to turn the planet into a resort and marginalize the natives. Obrien could handle them if they arrived soon, but he cannot live forever.

He has bright young people sent to him. He begins to teach them "the Plan". It is difficult to teach the non-technological natives all they need to know, as they have little concept of modern galactic society, but he manages it. His best pupil is a young man named Fornri.

Even as Obrien lies dying, a developer called Wembling arrives to illegally prospect for minerals. The people, led by Fornri, put the Plan into effect. They first capture Wembling and his men, and the crews of the four scout ships sent to find Wembling. The Navy eventually arrives, official negotiations ensue, and a treaty is signed recognizing the planet under the name Langri. The people of Langri fine the Federation for illegal landings. In due course, this (and Obrien's retron crystals) allows the people of Langri to hire a law firm as specified in the Plan.

Eventually Wembling realizes the planet's potential. He sees to it that the record of Langri's Galactic treaty is lost and procures a charter to develop a tourist resort. The construction drives away most of the koluf, and the people begin to starve; their adaptation to the environment has eliminated their ability to digest "normal" food. The starving people of Langri fail to get a court to stop Wembling; he has a seemingly valid charter.

Meantime, Wembling's niece Talitha and his hired (and fired) anthropologist Hort form a relationship. They discover Obrien's wrecked craft and read his log, including his notes on the Plan; they are amazed that one man could have created such a complete and detailed scheme, including Obrien's masterstroke. Sympathizing with the natives and fearing to interfere with the Plan, they keep their newfound knowledge to themselves.

In accordance with the Plan, the people of Langri have been secretly learning to read. After having achieved the required high literacy rate, they successfully petition for membership in the Galactic Federation. The Plan then enters its endgame: the duly formed planetary government imposes a tax rate of 1000%. Since the natives have few personal assets, they can easily afford to pay, but such an exorbitant rate would bankrupt Wembling. The developer mounts a legal challenge, but a government can impose any tax it wishes, as long as it is applied equally to all. Obrien knew of this obscure precedent and made it the cornerstone of the Plan.

The government plans to build schools, parks, and hospitals to benefit the people. In the short story, it even hires Wembling, admiring his ruthless energy, if not his morals. (In the novel, he departs in disgust after trying to offer the new government a deal on a hotel.)

After being shot down by police at the end of the previous film, the infamous Santa Claus Killer Richard "Ricky" Caldwell has been left comatose for six years, with a transparent dome affixed to his head by the doctors in order to repair his damaged skull. Wanting to contact Ricky, the eccentric Dr. Newbury begins using a blind clairvoyant girl named Laura Anderson to try to reach out to him. One Christmas Eve, after a particularly traumatic session with Newbury, Laura begins to regret her participation in his experiment, but Newbury tries to convince her to keep trying, saying that they can talk more after Laura returns home from visiting her grandmother over the holiday. After Laura is picked up from the hospital by her older brother Chris, a drunk hospital employee dressed as Santa Claus wanders into Ricky's room and begins taunting him, rousing Ricky back to consciousness. Killing the Santa impersonator, Ricky escapes from the hospital, taking a letter opener with him after killing a receptionist as well.

Picked up from a session with her psychiatrist, Laura is introduced by her brother to his new girlfriend, a flight attendant named Jerri, whom Laura dislikes. As the trio heads off to Granny's, they overlook Ricky (who can hear Laura thanks to their mental link) following them. Acquiring a truck and some fuel after murdering a motorist and a gas station attendant, Ricky makes it to Granny's first. Believing Ricky is simply an unfortunate vagrant, Granny tries befriending him but is killed when Ricky is provoked at the sight of a Christmas gift she offers him. Lieutenant Connely and Newbury find the two staff members butchered by Ricky at the hospital. They begin trying to track Ricky down, realizing he is drawn towards Laura after surveillance camera footage shows him uttering her name.

Reaching Granny's house, Laura feels something is wrong. Chris ignores her suspicions, who believes Granny may have just gone off for a walk. When Granny fails to show up and the car is found sabotaged, the group become very worried, with Chris and Jerri deciding to go out and look for Granny. Laura senses Ricky staring at her through the window and screams, bringing Chris and Jerri back to the house. After discovering the phone is dead and her picture is missing, Laura realizes it must be Ricky who is after her moments before Ricky punches through the door and begins throttling Jerri. She is saved when Chris stabs Ricky in the arm. Elsewhere, when Connely leaves the car to urinate, Newbury drives off, intending to try to reason with or trap Ricky, not wanting his experiment to go to waste by having Connely kill him.

Armed with an old shotgun, Chris, Laura, and Jerri go out searching for aid, but are ambushed by Ricky, who stabs Chris in the chest. While Laura and Jerri run back to the house, Newbury finds Ricky. At first, Ricky is uninterested in Newbury but is drawn close when Newbury plays a tape of one of his and Laura's sessions. As Ricky reaches out to him, Newbury, believing the tape had some kind of calming effect, grabs Ricky's hand, only to be stabbed in the stomach. Laura and Jerri barricade the door at the house, but Ricky still manages to break in. While looking for a gun, Ricky kills Jerri, and her body is found seconds later by Laura. Ricky approaches, allowing Laura to touch his face. Enraged when Laura flees in terror after feeling his artificial skullcap, Ricky chases after her. In the basement, Laura is encouraged by a vision of Granny, whose body she finds hanging from the ceiling before knocking the light out. Laura is easily knocked aside trying to attack Ricky. As Ricky begins choking her, Laura is saved when Chris appears and shoots Ricky with a shotgun. Unfortunately, the shotgun fires blanks, and the unharmed Ricky snatches it from Chris and uses it to choke him into unconsciousness. Ricky then moves in to finish off Laura, but she grabs a piece of a broken stick and holds it in front of her at the last second, and Ricky impales himself.

Reaching the house with backup, Connely finds the dying Newbury before discovering Laura cradling her brother's body in the house. Driven away by Connely as the body of a survivor is rushed to the hospital by paramedics, Laura wishes the lieutenant a "Merry Christmas" before having a vision of Ricky breaking the fourth wall as he states, "... And a Happy New Year".

Basil Elton, a lighthouse keeper, engages in a peculiar fantasy in which a bearded man in robes is piloting a mystical white ship which appears when the moon is full. Elton walks across the water on a bridge of moonbeams, joins the bearded man on the ship, and together they explore a mystical chain of islands unlike anything that can be found on Earth.

They travel past Zar, a green land where "dwell all the dreams and thoughts of beauty that come to men once and then are forgotten", then the majestic city of Thalarion, "City of a Thousand Wonders", where frightful demons dwell. They pass Akariel, the huge carven gate of Thalarion, and continue their voyage. Elton is informed that those who enter both places have never returned. During the voyage, they seem to be following an azure celestial bird. They also pass Xura, the "Land of Pleasures Unattained", which seems pleasant from a distance but reeks of plague upon getting nearer. They finally settle in Sona-Nyl, the "Land of Fancy", where Elton spends a period of time which he describes as "many aeons", living in what seems to be a perfect society. During his time in Sona-Nyl, he learns of Cathuria, the "Land of Hope". Though no man truly knows where Cathuria is or what lies there, Elton is thrilled with the idea, fantasizing about it wildly, and urges the bearded man to take him there, which the man reluctantly agrees to do. They follow the celestial bird westward. After a perilous journey to where the crew believes Cathuria to be, the ship instead finds itself at the edge of the world, and plummets to its doom.

Elton awakens to find himself on the wet rocks next to his lighthouse, mere moments after he first departed on the white ship - and just in time to witness a catastrophic shipwreck caused by the light having gone out for the first time. He is further shaken by his later finding a dead azure bird and a spar of pure white. He never sees the white ship again.

The game starts as the main character wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings. Their partner explains that the protagonist has enrolled at the Royal Tennis Academy, and he/she is the character's doubles partner. Having passed out the previous day during the Welcome Workout, they decide to get some breakfast. When they arrive at the restaurant, it is deserted and they find out that masked challengers have challenged the top academy students, including Alex, who is implied to be the top-ranked player at the academy. After hearing that the masked players defeated the school champions, they set out to become the top ranked player, in order to enter the main tournament (The Island Open) and discover the masked players' true identities.

After defeating the Junior and Senior classes, the player advances to the Varsity Level. Learning that only the two highest ranked doubles pairs are guaranteed entry in the tournament, the main character defeats the entire Varsity class. The player, their partner, and two other players named Elroy (Excel in the Japanese version, who is also the varsity captain) and Tori enter the Island Open.

After the winning the Island Open, the players has not yet discovered the identities of the masked players. However, the morning following their win, the two main characters are approached by Alex and led to a secret airport near the academy. Here, they meet Mario, who is implied to have been one of the masked players, and are taken to Peach's Kingdom to participate in the Peach Tournament against the other characters in the game. Winning the tournament ends the doubles game.

Afterwards, the main character becomes the singles champion of the school and wins the Island Open on their own, again traveling to the Mushroom Kingdom to play in the Peach Tournament. Winning this Tournament effectively ends the Story Mode's main plot line, and the main character presumably goes home the hero of the academy.

Since expulsion means that Rick's family will no longer be able to claim their welfare bonus, Rick begins looking for a job. One of his former teachers encourages him to get a job for the Vanguard Mining corporation, whose primary financial interest is in space mining of asteroids in the asteroid belt. The book follows his progress through an initial grueling examination period on Earth, initial training on an asteroid in a high orbit of Earth, and through an apprenticeship on another training facility in the asteroid belt. After proving himself, Rick is recruited to join a secret program to infiltrate and subvert Earth's education systems away from its current initiative-deadening pandering to the lowest common denominator.

In this novel Burroughs focuses on a younger member of the family established by John Carter and Dejah Thoris, protagonists of the first three books in the series. The heroine this time is their daughter Tara, princess of Helium, whose hand is sought by the gallant Gahan, Jed (prince) of Gathol. Both Helium and Gathol are prominent Barsoomian city states.

Tara meets Prince Gahan of Gathol, and is initially unimpressed, viewing him as something of a popinjay. Later she takes her flier into a storm and loses control of the craft, and the storm carries her to an unfamiliar region of Barsoom. After landing and fleeing from a pack of ferocious Banths (Martian lions), she is captured by the horrific Kaldanes, who resemble large heads with small, crab-like legs. The Kaldanes have bred a symbiotic race of headless human-like creatures called Rykors, which they can attach themselves to and ride like a horse. The Kaldanes imprison Tara, intending to fatten her up, then eat her. While imprisoned, Tara manages to win over one of the Kaldanes, Ghek, with her lovely singing voice.

Gahan, who has fallen in love with Tara, sets out to find her, only to find himself caught up in the same storm, and he falls overboard while attempting to rescue one of his crew. He stumbles upon Bantoom, realm of the Kaldanes, and manages to rescue Tara, and together with Ghek they flee in Tara's crippled flier. Tara doesn't recognize Gahan as the prince she met earlier, as he is worn from his ordeals and no longer dressed in his fancy clothes. In light of her earlier reaction to him, Gahan decides to keep his identity secret, and identifies himself instead as a Panthan (warrior) called Turan.

The three of them manage to reach the isolated city of Manator. Gahan ventures into the city seeking food and water, but is tricked and taken prisoner by the inhabitants. Tara and Ghek are also captured. In Manator, captives are forced to a fight to the death in the arena, in a modified version of Jetan, a popular Barsoomian board game resembling Chess; the living version uses people as the game pieces on a life-sized board, with each taking of a piece being a duel to the death.

In 1797, William Wilberforce is severely ill and taking a recuperative holiday in Bath, Somerset, with his cousin, Henry Thornton. It is here that Wilberforce is introduced to his future wife, Barbara Spooner. Although he initially resists any romantic overtures, she convinces him to relate the story of his career.

The story flashes back 15 years to 1782, and Wilberforce recounts the events that led him to where he is now. Beginning as a young, ambitious, and popular Member of Parliament (MP), he experiences a religious enlightenment and aligns himself with the evangelical wing of the Church of England. Wilberforce contemplates leaving politics to study theology, but is persuaded by his friends William Pitt, Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, and Olaudah Equiano that he will be more effective doing the work of God by taking on the unpopular and dangerous issue of the abolition of the British slave trade. His conviction in the cause deepens following a meeting with his former mentor John Newton (introduced mopping a church floor dressed in sackcloth) who is said to live "in the company of 20,000 ghosts… slaves". As a former slave ship captain turned Christian, he deeply regrets his past life and the effects on his fellow man. Newton urges Wilberforce to take up the cause.

Pitt becomes Prime Minister and Wilberforce becomes a key supporter and confidant. Pitt gives Wilberforce the opportunity to present a bill before the house outlawing the slave trade. Wilberforce's passionate campaigning leads him to become highly unpopular in the House of Commons. He is opposed by a coalition of MPs representing vested interests of the slave trade in London, Bristol, Glasgow, and Liverpool led by Banastre Tarleton and the Duke of Clarence. Despite popular support and the assistance of an unlikely ally in the form of Charles James Fox, Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade goes down to defeat. Afterward, the film portrays Pitt as one of his few friends and allies remaining in Parliament, however even their relationship becomes strained. Pitt, now facing the stresses of leading a shaky coalition during the French Revolutionary Wars, tells Wilberforce that his cause must now wait for a more stable political climate.

Wilberforce keeps up the fight but after years of failure he is left exhausted and frustrated that he was unable to change anything in the government. Believing his life's work has been in vain, he becomes physically ill, suffering from chronic colitis which causes him to become addicted to laudanum prescribed for the crippling pain, which brings the story back up to 1797. Having virtually given up hope, Wilberforce considers leaving politics forever. Barbara convinces him to keep fighting because there is no other person who is willing or able to do so. A few days afterward, William Wilberforce and Barbara marry. Several years pass with no further success. Wilberforce's wife and new children provide him with the support and strength needed to carry on the fight.

Finally, with a renewed hope for success Wilberforce devises a backdoor method of slowly weakening the slave trade through seemingly innocuous legislation. Aided by Thornton, Clarkson, and new ally James Stephen and cheered on by the now terminally ill Pitt, he reintroduces his bill to abolish the slave trade. In time, after the 20-year campaign and many attempts to bring legislation forward, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament in 1807, which abolishes the slave trade in the British Empire forever.

''Rabbit Redux'' finds former high-school basketball star Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom working a dead-end job as a Linotype operator at the local printing plant. Thirty-six, he feels that he is quickly approaching middle age and irrelevance, a fear he sees reflected in the economic decline of his hometown, Brewer, Pennsylvania. When his wife leaves him for an eccentric Greek man named Charlie Stavros, Harry and his thirteen-year-old son Nelson are at a loss.

Seeking to fill the void left by Janice, Harry starts a commune, composed of himself; Nelson; Skeeter, a cynical, drug-dealing African-American Vietnam vet with messianic delusions; and Jill, a wealthy, white, runaway teenager from Connecticut. While Skeeter keeps Jill in sexual thrall to him with heroin, Harry and Nelson are both drawn to Jill for the different things she represents to them: lost innocence and sexual conquest for Harry, and first love and coming of age for Nelson. Against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Harry, Skeeter, and Jill do drugs, have sex, and debate religion, race relations, and other political issues of the 1960s while Nelson attempts to romance Jill. The activities at Harry's house upset his middle-class, conservative neighbors, one of whom sets fire to the house in an attempt to put an end to the commune. Jill, high on heroin, burns to death. Though Harry is initially disturbed, the nihilistic Skeeter convinces him to forget about it; Harry nonetheless worries about the effect it may have on Nelson.

Charlie suffers a heart attack while he and Janice are together, but she saves his life. The near-death experience causes them to reevaluate their relationship and Janice returns to Harry. The Angstroms warily settle back into family life as they face the dawn of the 1970s.

It also follows several other characters: '''Tommy Hanson'''. Tommy Hanson is Britain's most successful musical artist and became famous after winning ''Pop Hero'' (ostensibly a reference to ''Pop Idol''). He is an abuser of several drugs and narrates his story to people at his NA and AA meetings. His character is possibly inspired by Robbie Williams, whose name is mentioned several times in the novel. '''Jessie'''. Jessie is a seventeen-year-old Scottish girl who, after running away from home to London, was coerced into prostitution. The story follows her battle to escape her pimp and her battle against her drug addiction. '''Commander Barry Leman''', a high ranking police officer who becomes obsessed with a personal quest for justice when a friend of his daughter's is horrifically sexually assaulted (and subsequently commits suicide) as a way of threatening him over his involvement with Peter Paget's campaign. '''Emily Hilton-Smith''', a drug-addicted socialite who publicly renounces drug use and joins Paget's campaign after the events of a night out force her to confront her addiction. '''Samantha Spencer''', Paget's beautiful but psychologically unhinged mistress. '''Sonia''', a teenage drug mule imprisoned in a Thai jail.

In 1960s London, Charles Dobbs (James Mason) is a staid MI5 operative investigating Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan (Robert Flemyng), a former Communist who apparently commits suicide. Dobbs becomes suspicious about the cause of Fennan's death while visiting Fennan's widow the morning after his death. When a wake-up call is received at Fennan's home, his widow Elsa (Simone Signoret) says the call was for her. Dobbs discovers this to be a lie, and as a result Dobbs suspects that Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi extermination camp, might have some clues regarding Fennan's death.

Other government officials want Dobbs to drop the case. However, Dobbs privately links up with retired police inspector Mendel (Harry Andrews) to continue inquiries. They uncover a network of Communist agents. Dobbs also discovers that his wife Ann (Harriet Andersson) is leaving him to go to Switzerland to join a former World War II colleague, Dieter Frey (Maximilian Schell), who may be using Ann to gain knowledge of Dobbs' investigation.

Dobbs uses his knowledge of Dieter to set a trap that proves that Elsa is a spy and Dieter is her control. In a final confrontation, Dieter strangles Elsa and shoots Mendel, but he is killed bare handed by the enraged Dobbs.

Two schoolboys are playing with a model plane on an abandoned military base in the English countryside. They are approached by two RAF personnel who rebuke them for trespassing, and take them to see their commanding officer. It soon becomes apparent that they are not really in the military and the two boys are kidnapped.

In London a British intelligence officer, Major Tarrant, is engaged in an undercover operation to try to infiltrate a gang of arms smugglers – who are selling weapons to terrorists in Northern Ireland. He makes an initial approach with Celia Burrows, a member of the organisation. He arranges to come back the next week to meet her boss. He then heads to a large country house, where the head of MI6 Sir Edward Julyan lives, and makes a report about his operation to Julyan and his direct superior, Cedric Harper. While he is there he receives a telephone call from his wife – who tells him their son David has been taken and she has received a strange phone call. Tarrant reacts calmly, revealing to his superiors only that he has a family problem, and is given permission to leave.

Tarrant goes to his wife's home in time to receive a second call from a man identifying himself as Drabble. Drabble demonstrates he knows exactly who Tarrant is and what jobs he does. He instructs him to get Harper to answer the next phone call – making it clear he has Tarrant's son David and is prepared to torture him. Tarrant goes to Harper, and informs him of the situation. Harper agrees to take the phone call and begins to put a surveillance operation into motion – to discover the identity of Drabble. When Drabble gets in touch, he demands that Harper give him £500,000 in uncut diamonds and make a rendezvous in Paris. Harper had recently acquired that exact amount of diamonds to fund another operation he has planned. Harper deduces that Drabble must be acting with information supplied by a member of British intelligence. He immediately begins to suspect Tarrant of staging the kidnapping, and has him placed under observation. Tarrant, meanwhile, has to assign his arms-smuggling case to another officer.

The Drabble gang have placed incriminating evidence into Tarrant's flat, which appears to show a relationship with Celia Burrows, and this is found by Scotland Yard officers conducting a search. This further fuels Harper's belief that Tarrant has in fact arranged the entire kidnapping himself. Harper meets with Tarrant in his office and tells him that he cannot allow the ransom to be met, as the British government does not negotiate with terrorists. Tarrant seemingly accepts this, but when Harper has departed, he breaks into his office and impersonates Harper on a secure telephone – arranging to have the diamonds made available. He then takes them to Paris to make the rendezvous – giving the slip to the tail Harper has placed on him. In Paris he is met by Celia Burrows at the rendezvous. She takes him to a building where it is claimed Tarrant's son is being held.

It soon becomes apparent to Tarrant that Drabble has not got his son there. Instead Drabble makes a cryptic reference to a place in Southern England where there is a view of two windmills. Once he has got the diamonds the ruthless Drabble murders Celia Burrows, and leaves an unconscious Tarrant lying beside the corpse. Tarrant is arrested by the French police – and handed over to Harper and British intelligence. A rescue is then staged by Drabble gang, freeing Tarrant from Harper's custody, but then trying to murder him. Tarrant manages to escape and head back to England. He realises that Drabble meant to try to silence him for good – therefore protecting whoever in British intelligence was supplying him from information. Tarrant then attempts to flush out the traitor, by pretending to be Drabble and arranging a rendezvous at the two windmills with various senior British officers which he now knows to be the Clayton Windmills near Brighton.

The man who comes to the rendezvous is Sir Edward Julyan who is ambushed by Tarrant. Under duress he admits that he arranged the whole thing as he urgently needed large amounts of money to enjoy a comfortable retirement with his free-spending wife. He tries to get Tarrant to accept half the value of the diamonds, but he refuses – and instead demands to know the whereabouts of his son. Julyan tells him that he is being held in the black windmill by Drabble. Tarrant then storms the windmill and rescues his son, killing Drabble and his henchman. He carries David out of the windmill and along the road singing "''Underneath the spreading chestnut tree''" to him.

Dr. Will Jennings, a research physician, has landed his major career break by patenting a new anesthetic drug. After speaking at a conference regarding the patent in a Seattle hotel, he is met by a strange woman, Cheryl, who introduces herself as an admirer of his work. Cheryl attempts to seduce Will in the hallway, before holding him at gunpoint and forcing him into his hotel room. She demands a ransom for his young daughter, Abby. Meanwhile, Cheryl's husband, Joe, has broken into Will's luxurious Portland, Oregon home, and confronts Will's wife, Karen, who has returned after picking Abby up from school. Joe sends Abby away with his cousin, Marvin, while Karen attempts to fight the attack, but is ultimately thwarted when Joe holds her hostage at gunpoint.

Marvin drives Abby to a remote cabin in the woods, but soon discovers that Abby suffers from asthma and is dependent on an inhaler. Abby begins to have an asthma attack, which causes Marvin to panic and phone Joe. Joe agrees to drive Karen to the cabin to administer the inhaler, blindfolding her for the car ride. An emotional Karen stops Abby's attack with the medication, but is quickly forced back into the car by Joe. Joe brings Karen back to her home, where she attempts to fight him, but he subdues her. When her neighbor, Joan, stops by unannounced, Karen is forced to pretend that she has been caught having an affair with Joe. After Joan leaves, Karen manages to slash Joe with a concealed scalpel and locks herself in the bathroom where she receives a phone call from Abby, who has snuck out of the cabin with Marvin's cell phone. The call is short-lived, however, as Marvin recaptures Abby, and Joe forces his way into the bathroom. With Karen under his control again, Joe makes her suture his wound.

At the hotel, Will manages to inject Cheryl with succinylcholine, paralyzing her and bringing her near the edge of death before he administers an antidote. Fearing for her life, Cheryl also loses her nerve, and admits to Will that she and Joe constructed the plot as revenge for their daughter, Katie, who died during a recent brain operation; Will assisted on Katie's surgery. When Will explains that he was wrongly implicated by the head surgeon in the negligence that caused Katie's death, Cheryl begins to sympathize with him, and agrees to botch the plan.

In the morning, Cheryl accompanies Will to a bank to retrieve the ransom money while they are monitored by police. Joe and Cheryl have a heated argument on the phone, in which it is revealed that Joe intended to keep Abby after receiving the ransom and raise her as his own daughter. Will and Cheryl board a seaplane to fly toward Portland, where Joe and Karen are embarking on a freeway toward them to exchange the money; traveling behind them are Marvin and Abby in a separate SUV. Karen attacks Joe in the car, forcing them off the freeway. As Will and Cheryl fly over the freeway, they spot Joe's car, and land the seaplane on the road, causing a multi-car pileup. Marvin loses control of the SUV in the melee and crashes.

While Joe chastises Cheryl, Marvin orders Abby out of the car, and urges her to find her parents. Abby is briefly captured by Cheryl, but released when a physical fight ensues between Will and Joe, which ultimately ends with Karen shooting Joe to death. Police and agents of the FBI descend on the scene as Abby suffers another asthma attack, but Karen is able to treat her with the inhaler. Cheryl is captured by police as Karen, Will, and Abby embrace.

Set in the future, the plot follows Zoichi Kanoe and his AI companion Fuyu Kanoe, whose luminous form is integrated into the system of his motorcycle. They are agents sent by TOA Heavy Industries to retrieve humans with the ability to resist and transmute the N5S infection originating from Mars, which is spreading across the world fast, turning humans into "Drones"; disfigured, zombie-like beings.

The game is set in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression in the small fictional town of Titusville, Illinois. Nancy Drew has been asked to come to the Lilac Inn to see Emily Crandall, whom Nancy knows only through a mutual friend. Emily's mother died a month ago, leaving her to run the inn with the help of her guardian, Jane Willoughby. Emily and her mother had been counting on the generosity of their kindly but strange neighbor, Josiah Crowley, to leave them part of his estate to support the inn they own. But in his will, everything was left to Richard Topham, his ESP teacher. When Nancy arrives at the inn, she encounters a mystery involving stolen jewels, a missing will, car chases, and plenty of adventure.

Meeper, the janitor of an alien pub called the Ale-E-Inn, has higher aspirations—a karaoke performer. After he accidentally electrocutes a singer, he is ejected from the pub. Outside, he is told by an incautious Gungan that "The ChubbChubbs are coming!" Meeper sees aircraft land in the distance, and huge, weapon-bearing monsters exit the craft. He assumes these are the ChubbChubbs.

Meeper rushes to warn the pub, and some chicks he finds pecking at the ground outside, but each of his attempts further injures the singer. Once the patrons are finally warned by a different visitor, the pub is promptly emptied due to said patrons taking off in panic, leaving Meeper behind during the process. When the monsters begin closing in to the pub, Meeper hides the chicks under his bucket in an attempt to save them. He then launches into a rendition of "Why Can't We Be Friends?" until, caught up in the song, he accidentally trips over the bucket, revealing the chicks. The monsters flee, screaming, "It's the ChubbChubbs!" The chicks reveal their razor sharp teeth and devour the monsters, who are actually known as Zyzaks. They gather around Meeper, who says, "So... You guys into karaoke?"

As the credits roll, Meeper and the ChubbChubbs sing a rewrite of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" in the pub. When the song is finished, there is dead silence. The ChubbChubbs glare and reveal their teeth in a sense of threat, and the crowd hastily bursts into applause.

In 1928, Arthur Spiderwick writes a field guide about the many fairies he has encountered. After finishing the Book, he hides it away for fear of Mulgarath, a shapeshifting ogre who plans to use the Book's secrets for evil.

Eighty years later, recently divorced Helen Grace inherits and moves into the abandoned Spiderwick estate with her children, daughter Mallory and twin sons Jared and Simon. Jared is angry about the move and would rather live with his father. After uncovering a hidden dumbwaiter, Jared discovers Arthur's study where he finds the Field Guide. When Jared explains his discovery of the Book and the existence of magical creatures, his family doesn't believe him.

The next morning, Jared meets a brownie named Thimbletack, who is initially angry with Jared for having opened the book that Thimbletack was supposed to be protecting from the shape-shifting ogre Mulgarath. Jared placates him with crackers and honey, and Thimbletack gives Jared a holed stone that allows Jared to see the normally invisible faeries by looking through it. Thimbletack tells him about the protective mushroom circle surrounding the house.

Jared witnesses Simon's abduction by goblins, led by Redcap. Simon is taken to the goblins' campsite where he is confronted by Mulgarath who is disguised as an old man. Jared sneaks into the campsite where he meets Hogsqueal, a hobgoblin, who gives Jared the ability to see faeries without the stone by spitting in his eyes so that he can help him get revenge on Mulgarath for killing his family. Mulgarath releases Simon so he can fetch the Book for him. Jared finds Simon and both fight over the book before they are chased by the goblins. The twins flee back to the house, and Mallory fights them off with her fencing sabre.

The children decide to visit Arthur's daughter, their great-aunt Lucinda Spiderwick, for advice. While Simon distracts the goblins, Mallory and Jared escape through an underground tunnel. Chased by a troll sent by Redcap, they narrowly escape when it is struck and killed by an oncoming truck. Jared and Mallory meet the elderly Lucinda in the psychiatric hospital where she lives, surrounded by sprites. She tells the children that they need to find her father and have him destroy the book and that, for eighty years, Arthur has been held captive by the sylphs. At that moment, Redcap and his goblins attack them through the window and manage to tear off several pages from the book before being driven off. Among the stolen pages, Mulgarath is pleased to find information on how to break the protective circle.

While Helen is driving home, she and Jared argue over her disbelief; Jared angrily tells Helen that he hates her and doesn't want to live with her anymore. Later, Hogsqueal, having overheard Mulgarath's plan, informs the children. Jared, Simon, and Mallory use the book to summon a griffin, which takes them to the sylphs' realm. There, they meet Arthur, who has not aged and is unaware of the time he has spent there. Jared asks him to destroy the book only to find out that Thimbletack had switched the pages and kept the real Book. Arthur is relieved until Jared tells him that Mulgarath knows how to break the protective circle. Arthur informs Jared that the sylphs won't allow them to leave as they, like him, know too much about the faeries. Arthur helps them escape by distracting the sylphs with the fake book.

At home, the children finally convince Helen of the truth. Meanwhile, the goblins finish spreading their potion, which successfully breaks the circle as the full moon rises. The family defend themselves with kitchen knives and tomato sauce/salt bombs (ingredients deadly to goblins), and manage to kill the goblins in an explosion of tomato sauce. Suddenly, the children's father, Richard, appears; however, Jared stabs him, revealing him to be Mulgarath in disguise. Mulgarath pursues Jared and the Book throughout the house before cornering him on the roof. Jared tosses the Book and Mulgarath transforms into a raven to catch it, but he is suddenly grabbed and eaten by Hogsqueal. Afterwards, Jared and his mother reconcile.

Several weeks later, the family brings Lucinda to visit the house. The sylphs arrive with Arthur, allowing him to briefly visit now that the Book is safe. However, Arthur cannot stay long as he will turn to dust if he remains. Lucinda asks to go with him and is transformed back into a child. The Grace family watch as the sylphs spirit Arthur and Lucinda away.

As the film opens, Julie Kohler (Jeanne Moreau) tries to throw herself out of an upstairs window, but is stopped by her mother (Luce Fabiole). Julie is dressed in black and is obviously grief-stricken. In the next scene, she is more composed, telling her mother she is going on a long trip, and counting out five piles of money. She gets onto a train, but right afterwards steps down on the opposite side, hidden from onlookers.

The next time Julie is seen, her hair is different, she is wearing white, and looking for a man called Bliss (Claude Rich). He is a ladies' man who is having a party on the eve of his wedding. When Julie arrives, aloof but attractive, he cannot resist approaching her. When they are alone on the balcony of Bliss's high-rise apartment, she tells him her name and pushes him off the balcony.

Her next victim is Coral (Michel Bouquet), a lonely bachelor. She lures him to a concert and they agree to meet the following night. Before their rendezvous, Julie buys a bottle of arak and injects a syringe of poison into it. When she meets Coral at his apartment, she serves him the drink. When he collapses in agony, she reveals her identity to him. He begs for his life, explaining that it was all an accident. In a flashback, there is a wedding procession on the steps of a church; a single shot rings out and the groom falls to the ground. Julie is the widowed bride.

The next man is Morane (Michel Lonsdale) a would-be politician. She follows his wife and young son home, befriends the boy, and gets the wife to leave by sending a fake telegram that the wife's mother is ill. Julie poses as the boy's teacher Miss Becker, and offers to cook dinner for Morane and his son. Afterwards she plays hide-and-seek with the boy, hiding in an enclosed small closet underneath the stairs, before putting the boy to bed. As she is leaving the house, she pretends that she has lost her ring. Morane helps her search, crawling into the closet where she had hidden earlier. She slams the door and locks him inside. Julie reveals her true identity, and he pleads for his life, saying what happened was an accident.

Another flashback reveals that Julie's husband was killed by a rifle shot fired by Delvaux (Daniel Boulanger), member of an informal hunting club that also included Bliss, Coral, Morane and Fergus. The five men were carelessly horsing around with a loaded rifle in an upper room across the street from the church. After the incident, they went their separate ways, intending never to reveal their involvement in the groom's death. Remorseless, Julie uses duct tape to seal the door of Morane's closet, and he suffocates to death.

Julie waits in Delvaux's junkyard, planning to kill him with a handgun, but he is arrested by the police. Julie moves on to find the fifth member of the hunting group: Fergus (Charles Denner), an artist. Julie models for him as the huntress Diana, eventually shooting him in the back with an arrow. She cuts her face out of his painting to remove the only evidence of her presence. When she discovers that Fergus had painted a mural on his wall depicting her reclining in the nude, she gets some paint to cover the mural's face, but hears someone coming and has to leave.

Julie attends Fergus' funeral and allows herself to be arrested. She admits that she murdered the four men, but refuses to reveal her motives.

Inside a prison, a meal cart is making its rounds. Julie is a prisoner in the women's wing, and Delvaux is on the men's side. When Julie works in the kitchen, she hides a knife. When the cart makes its rounds with Julie as one of the attendants, it turns a corner out of our sight. After a brief pause, a man's scream is heard.

Arkarian is kidnapped by the Order of Chaos, who plan to weaken the Guard by erasing his birth. Isabel is determined to save him, but that means defying Lorian's orders, risking her life, and facing the underworld itself. Going through many hardships in the underworld with her friend Ethan, and brother Matt. They meet a new friend along the way ( John Wren ) but also rescuing Ethan's sister who was killed when he was a boy ( she is a ghost/spirit ) - ( a wren is a birdlike creature but still has somewhat the appearance of a human ). When rescuing Arkarian, they gain another member of the guard Dillon who was working for the Order of Chaos but came to the good side. Arkarian and Isabel realise they love each other and Arkarian saves them by opening a rift. When they return Lorian summons Isabel to a hearing and Arkarian pleads for her life and finds out Lorian is his father. At the hearing Isabel is pardoned and Lorian grants her the power to cease ageing so she and Arkarian can be together.

In 1940, the Nazis invade the Netherlands. Miep Gies is a young woman, and an office assistant of Otto Frank, who is Jewish. As the Nazis begin to murder the Jews, Otto Frank becomes worried about his family. In July 1942, Otto Frank decides to hide his family after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labor camp. Miep, who is trusted by Otto, hides them in the attic above the office, that was called The Annexe. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down.

A few days later, the van Daans join the Franks in hiding, and after some months Albert Dussel, a Jewish dentist, joins them in hiding. Miep, her husband Jan Gies, along with Miep's fellow office workers Mr Kraler, Mr Koophuis, and Elli actively helps the innocent Jews to hide. Miep is never able to keep these hiders out of her thoughts, and she does her best to protect them. But all her efforts are destroyed on August 4, 1944. The Gestapo is informed about the hiders, and they come to the building to arrest them. Mr Kraler and Mr Koophuis are arrested with the hiders, while Miep is spared because she is Austrian (which was pro-Nazi since the Anschluss took over in 1938, the year before the war started as it is German-speaking and the birthplace of Hitler) as well as a Gentile, and Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer who arrested the hiders, was also an Austrian Gentile. So, out of mercy, Silberbauer spares Miep. After the arrest, Miep and Jan go to the annex, and Miep finds Anne Frank's diary in the floor of Anne's room, and she collects it before the Annex is emptied by the Nazis. A day later, Miep decides to bribe Silberbauer in return of her friends, but Silberbauer denies. The war is finished a few months later, and Otto Frank safely returns to Amsterdam. Miep and Jan shelter him. Otto tells Miep that Mrs Frank had been murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and Mr van Daan was gassed by the Nazis in Auschwitz. However, Anne, Margot and Mrs van Daan were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was not a death camp, and Otto has high hopes for them. But a few days later, a letter comes to Otto informing him that Anne and Margot had both died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Otto tells Miep, who is distraught. Miep takes Anne's diary, which she has not read, from her drawer and gives it to Otto Frank. While Otto reads Anne's diary, Miep goes to Anne's room in the hiding place, and sits in a chair. She then leaves the building, and the films ends with her cycling home, as we hear her speak in a voice-over.

''Crusaders of the Dark Savant'' starts at the end of ''Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge''. The party had just found the Cosmic Forge, the pen that the Cosmic Lords use to script the events of the universe, after it was stolen by the Bane King and his Wizard, Xorphitus. Before the party could decide what to do with it, it was spirited away by a servant of the Cosmic Lords, the cyborg Aletheides. The Cosmic Forge was used to hide the location of the Astral Dominae, a powerful artifact with power over life itself, on planet Guardia. Because of this, its theft revealed Planet Guardia to the universe. Now, multiple forces are converging on Lost Guardia to find this artifact, including the party itself. It is after planetfall on Guardia that the story begins.

As there are three endings to ''Bane of the Cosmic Forge'', there are four beginnings to ''Crusaders of the Dark Savant'' (one for each of the endings from the previous game, and a fourth for parties who are starting fresh). The first beginning follows a party who believed the lies of the Bane Queen and killed her husband, the Bane King, his lover, Rebecca, and her brother, Bela. On a whim, the party then enters the mouth of a "giant slumbering beast" (in actuality, a spaceship), which was secreted behind Bela's room, and takes off for the stars. The ship is captured in mid-flight by the Black Ship Dedaelis, which belongs to the Dark Savant, who is the main antagonist of the story. The party is then pressed into service by the Savant, who explains that he wants the Astral Dominae to overthrow the Cosmic Lords, and they are then transported down to Lost Guardia to aid the T'Rang in finding the Astral Dominae for the Savant. The second beginning follows a party who did not believe the lies of the Bane Queen, and who spared the life of the Bane King. He commits suicide, and Rebecca gives the party the key to her brother Bela's room. In this case, Bela does not attack the party; in fact, the party agrees to accompany him on his spaceship to chase Aletheides to his destination. As Bela has been in contact with a race called the Umpani for some time on an interstellar communication device, the party transports to the surface of Guardia just outside Ukpyr, where the Umpani are based. They then have the option of joining up with the Imperial Umpani Federation in their mission to defeat the T'Rang. The third beginning is not hinged on believing the Bane Queen or not; rather, it is dependent on whether or not the party decides to take the Cosmic Forge before boarding Bela's ship. Aletheides appears and takes the pen, and offers the party the opportunity to accompany him to Lost Guardia. After a long voyage, he transports the party to the surface of Guardia just outside Dionysceus, where the Dane live. The fourth beginning for new parties describes the party as adventure and treasure seekers, who stumble upon the Cosmic Forge in an abandoned temple. Aletheides appears and introduces the events of Wizardry VI, then the party accompanies him to Lost Guardia. This party starts just outside New City.

Whatever the initial circumstances of the party's arrival on Guardia, they are free to make or break alliances as they see fit. For example, a party initially aligned with the Savant and the T'Rang are fully capable of turning on them, with no repercussions in finishing the game. In fact, it is possible to either befriend or make enemies of every nation on the planet, and still be able to complete the main quest. The main plot involves the party's quest to find the resting place of the Astral Dominae, the greatest artifact ever created by the god Phoonzang. There are four distinct endings; each of these endings can then be imported as savegame files to Wizardry 8, the final chapter of the Dark Savant trilogy, which in turn has its own set of five beginnings. Each of the seven races of Guardia have a small side story of their own to complete, and almost all of them are necessary to finish in order to acquire the items needed to unlock the resting place of the Astral Dominae, the Isle of Crypts:

The Umpani want the death of the T'Rang queen, who if left alive, would spawn enough T'Rang to overrun Guardia and every world near it. They need the party to slay her, as the T'Rang would be less likely to suspect a group of Humans, Elves, Mook, etc... than a group of Umpani as assassins. The T'Rang are searching for a lost map that may lead them to the Astral Dominae, and plot to turn on the Dark Savant to acquire this ultimate prize. The party is tasked with the first two of the T'Rang's three goals. The Munk seek their lost Holy Work, which is being held by a fallen Munk sect underneath their city, and need the party to find it. The Dane desire the Cornu of Demonspawn, a powerful magical artifact, which is a horn on the forehead of a demon that the party must summon and defeat. The Gorn are in the midst of civil war, due to the interference of unnamed visitors from the stars, and it is up to the party to hear the tale of their betrayer, the Wizard Murkatos, and restore the spirit of the King. The Rattkin plot to ambush a T'Rang starship to extend their criminal empire offworld, and need the party's help to find the landing time of the perfect ship. *The Helazoid guard the secrets of Phoonzang for the Crusaders of their prophecy, the party itself.

Guido Contini, famous Italian film director, has turned forty and faces double crises: he has to shoot a film for which he can't write the script, and his wife of twenty years, the film star Luisa del Forno, may be about to leave him if he can't pay more attention to the marriage. As it turns out, it is the same crisis.

Luisa's efforts to talk to him seem to be drowned out by voices in his head: voices of women in his life, speaking through the walls of his memory, insistent, flirtatious, irresistible, potent. Women speaking beyond words (Overture delle Donne). And these are the women Guido has loved, and from whom he has derived the entire vitality of a creative life, now as stalled as his marriage.

In an attempt to find some peace and save the marriage, they go to a spa near Venice (Spa Music), where they are immediately hunted down by the press with intrusive questions about the marriage and—something Guido had not told Luisa about—his imminent film project (Not Since Chaplin).

As Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied—his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from the objective world (Guido's Song). His mistress Carla arrives in Venice, calling him from her lonely hotel room (A Call from the Vatican), his producer Liliane La Fleur, former vedette of the Folies Bergeres, insists he make a musical, an idea which itself veers off into a feminine fantasy of extraordinary vividness (The Script/Folies Bergeres). And all the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consumed by anxiety for him and a gathering dismay for their lives together (My Husband Makes Movies / Only With You).

Guido's fugitive imagination, clutching at women like straws, eventually plunges through the floor of the present and into his own past where he encounters his mother, bathing a nine-year-old boy—the young Guido himself (Nine). The vision leads him to re-encounter a glorious moment on a beach with Saraghina, the prostitute and outcast to whom he went as a curious child, creeping out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love. Her answer, be yourself (Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian), and the dance she taught him on the sand echoes down to the forty-year-old Guido as a talisman and a terrible reminder of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his appalled mother (The Bells of St. Sebastian). Unable to bear the incomprehensible dread of the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find nothing but the sand and the wind—an image of the vanishing nature of love, and the cause of Guido Contini's artistry and unanchored peril: a fugitive heart.

Back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him, Claudia Nardi, a film star, muse of his greatest successes, who has flown from Paris because he needs her, but this time she does not want the role. He cannot fathom the rejection. He is enraged. He fails to understand that Claudia loves him, too, but wants him to love her as a woman 'not a spirit'—and he realizes too late that this was the real reason that she came—in order to know, and now she does. He cannot love her that way. She is in some way released to love him for what he is, and never to hope for him again. Wryly she calls him "My charming Casanova!" thereby involuntarily giving Guido the very inspiration he needs and for which has always looked to her. As Claudia lets him go with "Unusual Way," Guido grasps the last straw of all—a desperate, inspired movie—a 'spectacular in the vernacular'—set on "The Grand Canal" and cast with every woman in his life.

The improvised movie is a spectacular collision between his real life and his creative one—a film that is as self-lacerating as it is cruel, during which Carla races onto the set to announce her divorce and her delight that they can be married only to be brutally rejected by Guido in his desperate fixation with the next set-up, and which climaxes with Luisa, appalled and moved by his use of their intimacy—and even her words—as a source for the film, finally detonating with sadness and rage. Guido keeps the cameras rolling, capturing a scene of utter desolation—the women he loves, and Luisa whom he loves above all, littered like smashed porcelain across the frame of his hopelessly beautiful failure of a film. "Cut. Print!"

The film is dead. The cast leaves. They all leave. Carla, with "Simple"—words from the articulate broken heart, Claudia with a letter from Paris to say that she has married, and Luisa in a shattering exit from a marriage that has, as she says, been 'all of me' (Be On Your Own).

Guido is alone. "I Can't Make This Movie" ascends into the scream of "Guido out in space with no direction,' and he contemplates suicide. But, as the gun is at his head, there is a final life-saving interruption—from his nine-year-old self (Getting Tall), in which the young Guido points out it is time to move on. To grow up. And Guido surrenders the gun. As the women return in a reprise of the Overture (Reprises), but this time to let him go, only one is absent: Luisa. Guido feels the aching void left by the only woman he will ever love. In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy led the women off into his own future to the strains of "Be Italian", Luisa steps into the room on the final note, and Guido turned toward her—this time ready to listen.

In 2008, a killer virus, known as the "Reaper virus", has infected the country of Scotland, causing its entire population to become hysterical and homicidally insane. Unable to contain the outbreak or cure the infected, the British government builds a massive 30-foot wall that isolated Scotland from the rest of Great Britain. Whilst the quarantine was deemed a success, the extreme method employed by the government destroys diplomatic and economic relations between the UK and the rest of the world, turning the state itself into a pariah state. This led to massive unemployment, civil unrest and extreme economic turmoil, causing the UK to collapse into a dystopia.

In 2035, 27 years after the start of the quarantine, a group of armed police officers discover several people in London infected with Reaper virus during a routine investigation. Prime Minister John Hatcher shares satellite footage of survivors in Scotland with domestic security chief Captain Nelson. Believing a cure may exist, Hatcher orders Nelson to send a team into Scotland to find medical researcher Dr. Kane who was working on a cure when Scotland was quarantined. Nelson chooses his top police officer, Major Eden Sinclair, to lead the team. According to Nelson, Sinclair also hails from Scotland, where she escaped from when the quarantine began at the cost of her right eye. For Sinclair the mission is also personal, as she hopes to learn if her mother survived or not.

Sinclair's team crosses the wall to Glasgow, Dr. Kane's last known location. In Glasgow, while searching the local hospital for survivors, Sinclair and her team are ambushed by a group of marauders. Sgt. Norton and Dr. Stirling manage to escape, while the team suffers heavy casualties. Sinclair and Dr. Talbot are captured by what turns out to be a huge gang of brutal cannibals, led by the power-hungry Sol, who plans to use her as leverage to cross the wall, allowing his army to start their invasion on England as part of his vengeance for Scotland's Reaper Virus epidemic. He then leaves for the sacrificial ceremony to join the rest of his gang, who burn Dr. Talbot alive before devouring his body. With the help of Cally, another prisoner, Sinclair escapes and kills Viper, Sol's second-in-command. She meets with Norton and Stirling, and the three escape on a train. Cally reveals that she and Sol are Kane's children. Unsatisfied with Kane's rule, Sol abolished martial law to create an army of insurgents to successfully overthrow the Scottish government.

Meanwhile, back in London, the increasingly violent infected riot on the streets in a zombie-like state, destroying everything in their wake and drinking the blood of any uninfected victim they see during their rampage. Victims of the infected then rise to join the host, adding to the chaos. Hatcher plans to evacuate the central London area because of the infection when one of the zombies breaks into Hatcher's office and tries to kill him. Nelson shoots and kills the zombie to save Hatcher, but his infected blood suddenly splatters all over the prime minister. As a result to Hatcher's unexpected infection, he is soon quarantined by his right-hand man, Michael Canaris, who also takes his place as ''de facto'' prime minister. Hatcher later commits suicide, knowing that his exposure to the Reaper Virus means an almost-certain death sentence from the virus.

After leaving the train, Sinclair's group is spotted and kidnapped by soldiers armed with archaic weapons and armour. They are taken to a medieval castle and imprisoned. Their leader, who is really Marcus Kane, tells Sinclair the truth: there is no cure—only people with a natural immunity, which was the reason why Scotland was placed under quarantine until who knows when. Originally a medical researcher, he was devastated when his family was left behind during the quarantine. After losing his wife, Kane became a twisted, sadistic lord who is now purged of the likes of the UK. In conclusion, Kane places blame on science for the downfall of not only the government in Scotland, but civilization of the country itself. As an example of his vengeance against science, Kane sentences her and her group to death, pitting Sinclair against Telamon, his executioner, in a small fighting ground to entertain his followers. During the duel, Sinclair subdues and kills Telamon while the rest of the group escapes, retrieving their equipment and rescuing Sinclair.

Sinclair, Norton, Stirling and Cally escape to a fallout shelter entrance on horseback. They locate an underground facility in the forest and find an intact 2007 Bentley Continental GT, which they fuel up. Kane's medieval knights arrive and kill Norton. Sinclair and the others drive the Bentley back to the quarantine wall. On the way, they are intercepted by Sol's gang, who seeks to avenge Viper once and for all. After a high-speed chase, Sol and many of his men are killed and Sinclair's group escape.

Using a phone retrieved from the fallout shelter, Sinclair calls Canaris, who later arrives in a government gunship. Canaris then tricks Sinclair into trading Cally (after an original rumor, according to Stirling, that her blood can be used to create a vaccine to treat the virus), revealing himself as the creator of the Reaper virus, which is, in fact, a bioweapon that can spread all over the UK as both a form of population control and shady profit; Canaris says that he intends to use the virus to wipe out a majority of the UK's population, and then later lead the survivors into a new world under his reign as king of Great Britain.

Cally and Stirling board the gunship with Canaris while Sinclair returns to her old house in search of her mother, followed by Nelson, who flew into the quarantine zone to speak with her. While Sinclair learns that her mother perished in despair during the quarantine, she is able to retrieve a picture of her. Sinclair gives Nelson a recording of Canaris' genocidal coup d'état scheme, the evidence that would save the UK from this state-wide pandemic once and for all. The recording is later broadcast to the rest of the country, much to Canaris' dismay, as it spells doom to his career and subsequential criminal conviction.

Meanwhile, Sinclair retrieves Sol's head and returns it to his gang; she throws the head onto the ground, announcing to the marauders, “If you're hungry, try a piece of your friend”. The marauders stand in shock for a moment of stunned silence before bursting into cheering, accepting Sinclair as their new leader.

The life of Nick Keller (Til Schweiger) can hardly be called well sorted. He stumbles from one temporary job to the next, and he has very serious problems with Heinrich, his rich and influential stepfather, as well as with his brother Viktor. Nick's latest temporary job is as a cleaner in a psychiatric clinic, where he prevents the barefooted patient Leila (Wokalek) from committing suicide just as he is being fired from this latest employment.

Leila's story is also complex. The first nineteen years of her life she had been confined at home by her mother. She has been hospitalized in the clinic after her mother's death, but is desperate to leave. However, emotionally Leila is still a child. For example, everything that she is told, she takes literally; and she dislikes physical contact with strangers. The unexpected consequence of Nick's saving Leila from hanging herself is that Leila secretly follows her saviour, in her nightdress and once again barefooted; and she appears in front of his door that night. After Leila adamantly refuses go back to the clinic, she and Nick go on a road trip together in order to attend his brother's wedding to Nick's ex-girlfriend. During the trip the relationship between the two deepens significantly. However, after serious disputes with his family, Nick once again tries to hospitalize Leila. As a result, he has to confess to himself that he has fallen in love with her.

Nick is then arrested for attempted kidnapping, and Leila is brought back to the clinic. Nick pretends to have mental problems so he can go into the clinic with Leila, but only after Leila once again attempts suicide does her doctor admit him. The last scene shows them together shopping in a supermarket some months later, after their release from the clinic.

During their journey to the Pole of Inaccessibility (POI), the remotest point of the Antarctic, the expedition of six men, led by Captain Choi Do-hyung, discovers a journal that was left behind by a British expedition 80 years earlier. The journal was remarkably preserved in a box in the snow and Kim Min-jae, another member of the expedition, gets the job of examining it. It turns out that the two expeditions shared the same goal and soon other strange similarities between them start to show up. Will they make it to their destination before the sun goes down for the Antarctic winter?

Lisa reminds Bart that he forgets her birthday every year, so he promises to get her a present this year. Meanwhile, Homer panics after seeing that all his white work shirts are dyed pink after Bart tossed his lucky red hat into the laundry. He is forced to wear a pink shirt to work, where Mr. Burns suspects his attire reveals he is a "free-thinking anarchist". Homer is sent home with a psychiatric quiz to allow Dr. Marvin Monroe to assess his sanity.

Homer makes Bart complete the quiz because he is too lazy to do it himself. Bart ticks 'yes' to all the questions, which ask if Homer hears voices, is quick to anger, or wets his pants. When Mr. Burns and Dr. Monroe see the results, they send Homer to a mental institution, where he is committed after an ink blot test image that resembles Bart triggers his temper.

Homer is put in a cell with a large white man who introduces himself as Michael Jackson. Being unfamiliar with the ''real'' Michael Jackson, Homer believes and quickly befriends him.

Marge visits Homer at the mental hospital and convinces his doctors that he is not insane when they realise 'Bart' is real and not a figment of Homer's imagination. When Michael reveals that he is in the asylum voluntarily, Homer invites him to stay with the Simpsons.

Despite promising to keep it secret, Bart blabs about Michael Jackson coming to his house; soon all of Springfield gathers outside to see the pop star. The crowd's excitement wanes when Homer introduces Michael and they realize he is an impostor. Angry at Bart, the townspeople leave.

In his excitement over Michael's arrival, Bart fails to acknowledge Lisa's birthday. After overhearing a distraught Lisa compose a letter disowning her brother, Michael convinces Bart to let him help heal their rift. Together they write and perform a song for her called "Happy Birthday Lisa". The song thrills Lisa, who declares it the best present ever.

Michael then reveals that his real name is Leon Kompowsky, a bricklayer from Paterson, New Jersey. He explains that he had been filled with anger most of his life, but found solace when talking in Jackson's voice because it made people happy. Leon bids farewell to the Simpsons, singing Lisa's birthday song to himself in his normal voice.

A reprise of "Happy Birthday Lisa" plays as the credits roll.

Sophie is a young orphaned girl living in the orphanage of the cantankerous and abusive Mrs. Clonkers. One night, Sophie wakes up and looks out of her window to see a cloaked giant blowing something through a trumpet into a bedroom window down the street; whereupon the Giant Man notices her and snatches her through the window, carrying her away to a mysterious realm known as "Giant Country".

In his cave, the Giant identifies himself as the Big Friendly Giant (or BFG for short) who blows dreams into the bedrooms of children at night, while all the other nine giants are vicious, bestial child-eaters. Not wanting to eat or steal from humans, the BFG subsists on eating "snozzcumbers"; revolting vegetables, resembling cucumbers, which are all that grows in Giant Country. He explains that he took her so she couldn't tell anyone that she had seen him and start a giant hunt. Sophie and the BFG quickly become friends; but Sophie is soon put in danger when a gruesome giant known as the Bloodbottler intrudes and unknowingly comes dangerously close to eating her. After the Bloodbottler leaves, the BFG makes her a new dress out of her blanket to replace her heavily soiled nightgown and treats her to a delicious and remarkable drink called "frobscottle".

The next morning, the BFG takes Sophie to Dream Country to catch more dreams. In Dream Country, the BFG demonstrates his dream-catching skills to Sophie and teaches her to fly; but the BFG mistakenly captures a "trogglehumper", the worst kind of nightmare. Upon arriving at his Dream Cave, the BFG shows Sophie all the dreams he has captured already and locks away the nightmare in his cavern of lava in a tiny chest, and takes Sophie to watch him on his dream-blowing duties; but this is cut short when they spot the Fleshlumpeater (the biggest and worst of the evil giants) devouring a little boy whom the BFG had previously given a pleasant dream. The BFG flees with her to prevent her from being in danger again.

Afterwards, the grief-stricken Sophie convinces the BFG to stop the evil giants. They develop a plan to expose the evil giants to the Queen of England. Using dreams from his collection, the BFG creates a nightmare, blows it into the Queen's bedroom, leaves Sophie on the Queen's windowsill to confirm the dream and retreats into the palace gardens when Sophie calls him. Because the dream included foreknowledge of Sophie's presence, the Queen believes her story, and speaks with the BFG. The British Army and Air-Force follow the BFG to Giant Country where the giants are tethered and taken prisoner. However, the Fleshlumpeater is the only one to evade capture. He furiously confronts and attacks the BFG for his betrayal and then goes after Sophie but, with the help of the terrible nightmare he caught earlier, the BFG is able to subdue the Fleshlumpeater, who is captured as well.

All nine of the evil giants are then all transported via helicopters to London, where they are imprisoned in a deep metal pit and forced to eat snozzcumbers for the rest of their lives. Contrary to the book's ending, the BFG stays in Giant Country instead of moving to England, and Sophie becomes his assistant at the distribution of dreams.

A Bajoran smuggler tells Major Kira that he has recovered a piece of metal that might be from the ''Ravinok'', a Cardassian ship that disappeared six years ago with a group of Bajoran prisoners, including a friend of Kira's. She makes plans to investigate, but the Cardassian government insists on sending Gul Dukat to accompany her. The two travel to a desert planet near where the fragment was found, where they find the wreckage of the ''Ravinok''.

Kira and Dukat discover twelve graves near the wreckage, but since several more people were on the ship, they conclude that some survivors may still be alive. First, however, Dukat opens the graves in order to identify bodies, and is overcome with grief when he finds the remains of a Bajoran woman who was his mistress. They soon set off on foot, scanning the planet for survivors. While setting up camp, Dukat reveals that he and his mistress had a daughter, Tora Ziyal, who may be among the survivors. Unfortunately, if he finds her alive, he plans to kill her to avoid a scandal that could endanger his Cardassian family and career. Kira tells Dukat she will not allow him to kill Ziyal.

Kira and Dukat discover a mining operation of Bajoran and Cardassian prisoners, supervised by the Breen. Dukat sees his half-Cardassian, half-Bajoran daughter among the prisoners. Disguised as Breen, Kira and Dukat infiltrate the mine, overcome the guards, and free the prisoners. Kira is sad to learn that her friend died two years earlier, but Dukat is only interested in finding his daughter. When he finds her, she instantly recognizes her father, thrilled to see him despite the fact he is aiming a phaser rifle at her. Kira arrives and tries to stop him. Ziyal realizes what is happening and tells her father she would rather die if she cannot go with him. She hugs him affectionately, and Dukat, shaken with emotion, decides to take Ziyal home — even if it costs him everything he has.

Meanwhile, in a side plot on Deep Space Nine, Captain Benjamin Sisko learns that his girlfriend, Kasidy Yates, has been offered a job on Bajor and is considering moving to the station. Instead of congratulating her, Sisko can only express his anxiety about escalating their relationship; but Sisko's friends and his son Jake convince him to apologize to her.

The Federation starship ''Defiant'' carries the senior staff of Deep Space Nine into the Gamma Quadrant to settle trade arrangements with the Karemma representative, Hanok. As the Dominion disapproves of trading with the Federation, the talks take place secretly in orbit around a gas giant and are mediated by the Ferengi Quark. Hanok is disgusted to learn that Quark has been lining his pockets by imposing fictitious Federation tariffs.

The negotiations are interrupted when a pair of Jem'Hadar ships fire on the Karemma ship. The Jem'Hadar chase the ship into the atmosphere of the gas giant, and the ''Defiant'' takes off in pursuit. The Jem'Hadar open fire on the ''Defiant'', crippling it in the turbulent fluorine atmosphere of the planet.

Science Officer Jadzia Dax heads below to try to repair the engines. She is successful but is nearly blown out of the ship when the hull is breached. Dr. Bashir saves her, but they are trapped in a turbolift shaft with a diminishing supply of oxygen and without communication with the rest of the crew, who presume them lost.

One of the Jem'Hadar ships attacks. The ''Defiant'' destroys it, but not before it is able to render the ''Defiant'' helpless again; Captain Sisko is gravely injured with a concussion. Major Kira tends to him, trying to keep him conscious.

Quark is trapped in the mess hall with Hanok, where a live Jem'Hadar torpedo lodges itself in the hull. Combining their cleverness—and taking a gamble—to defuse the torpedo helps Hanok get over his mistrust of Quark. Dax and Bashir huddle together for warmth; Bashir appreciates the irony that being trapped with Jadzia in his arms was once a fantasy of his. On the bridge, Kira cares for Sisko, telling him a Bajoran fairy tale to try to keep him awake, and regretting that her reverence for him as the prophesied "Emissary" has prevented them from being closer friends. Lt. Cdr. Worf and Chief O'Brien work on putting the ''Defiant'' s engines back together; O'Brien helps Worf learn how to tactfully manage the engineering team. The ''Defiant'' is eventually able to destroy the second Jem'Hadar fighter and rescue the Karemma crew. Upon returning to Deep Space Nine, Hanok gambles at Quark's bar, and Sisko invites Kira to watch a baseball game with him in the holosuite.

''Happy Hustle High'' follows the exploits of Hanabi Ozora. Hanabi is an assertive 16-year-old who protects her less assertive friends. The all-girls school that Hanabi attends, Uchino High School, is merged with Meibi High School, an all-boys school. Once there, Hanabi meets Yasuaki Garaku, a student council member who is also a surfer. Yasuaki expresses the fact that he has no interest in girls. When the Girls' council and the Boys' council start to fight, Hanabi jumps in, hoping that she can convince Yasuaki to change his mind.

According to the legend, five hundred years ago, there was an insignificant lord who possessed a mysterious power that drew (supernatural creatures) to him. A demon exterminator, Tokimori Hazama, was called upon to protect the lord and his castle. The lord's power stayed on the land even when he had died. Thus, Tokimori founded the Hazama clan, who inherited his techniques, to protect the land for centuries to come. This land is .

In the present day, Yoshimori Sumimura and Tokine Yukimura, heirs of the Hazama clan, are the that protect Karasumori (which is located on the grounds of the school they attend). They are ability users (people who can use supernatural powers) who use a technique called . ''Kekkai'' is a form of magical energy barrier which is primarily used to capture and destroy ''ayakashi'' that are drawn to this . Any ''ayakashi'' that stay on the land become stronger. Yoshimori and Tokine are to guard the land from the intrusion of ''ayakashi'' who try to "power-up" there.

Yoshimori and Tokine suffered a lot of hardships in their responsibilities to protect Karasumori. The ''ayakashi'' they must fight are becoming more and more powerful, but they managed to protect the land with the help from Yoshimori's older brother, Masamori Sumimura, and the . The Shadow Organization itself is an organization of ability users that is governed by a council of twelve, consisting of high level ability users. All the members are not the main inheritors of their clans lands or titles, or are loners who have no place to go, and thus have become a force that controls the course of their country.

Many ayakashi try to become more powerful by using Karusumori’s power, including Kokuboro (a group of ayakashi attempting to restore their leaders power), corrupt members of Urakai’s council of twelve who either were in league with Kokuboro or trying to kill another council member. Eventually a civil war begins between the leader and founder of Urakai, the leader (a powerful psychic who became a puppet of the founder) and the founder (another powerful psychic who alone with his power create Urakai, an army/intelligence agency at his disposal) who have become disembodied creatures who can possess others to act as their bodies to fool the other members into thinking the leadership of Urakai has changed hands.

Over the course of the story it is revealed little by little that the legend is full of lies. The real source of Karasumori's power is , an illegitimate son of the Hazama clan's founder, Tokimori Hazama, and the Karasumori clan's heiress. Tokimori used forbidden arts to try to give his son unearthly power, but the plan backfired, and instead gave Chūshinmaru the power to draw people's life force, killing everybody around him. Tokimori was forced to seal his own son beneath Karasumori. However, being alone with no aid Tokimori was unable to completely seal off the Shinkai he created, which allowed Chūshinmaru's power to leak out, and it is this that draws ''ayakashi'' to the land.

In the end, with the help of Yoshimori's mother and Tokimori, Yoshimori and Tokine find a new site for Chūshinmaru by displacing the founder of the Urakai from the domain of a land-god that the founder had taken over. To seal Chūshinmaru, Yoshimori's mother sacrifices herself by sealing the domain with herself inside. The series end with Urakai finally becoming better for all and the two families duties are finally finished ending their personal rivalry, with Yoshimori finally feeling everything was right with the world.

The situation is that of a group of people on a British mystery tour in a 1967 coach, focusing mostly on Richard B. Starkey (Ringo Starr) and his recently widowed Auntie Jessie (Jessie Robins). Other group members on the bus include the tour director, Jolly Jimmy Johnson (Derek Royle); the tour hostess, Miss Wendy Winters (Miranda Forbes, credited as Mandy Weet); the conductor, Buster Bloodvessel (Ivor Cutler); and the other Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison).

During the course of the tour, "strange things begin to happen" at the whim of "four or five magicians", four of whom are played by the Beatles themselves and the fifth by the band's long-time road manager Mal Evans.

During the journey, Starkey and his Aunt Jessie argue continually. Aunt Jessie begins to have daydreams of falling in love with Buster Bloodvessel, who displays increasingly eccentric and disturbing behavior. The tour involves several strange activities, such as an impromptu race in which each of the passengers employs a different mode of transportation (some run, a few jump into cars, a group of people pedal a long bike, while Starkey ends up beating them all with the bus). In one scene, the tour group walk through what appears to be a British Army recruitment office and are greeted by the army drill sergeant (Victor Spinetti). (Paul McCartney appears briefly as "Major McCartney", on whose desk rests a sign reading "I you WAS".) The sergeant, shouting incomprehensibly, appears to instruct the assembled onlookers on how to attack a stuffed cow.

The tour group also crawl into a tiny tent in a field, inside which is a projection theatre. A scene in a restaurant shows a waiter, named ''Pirandello'' (played by Lennon), continuously shoveling spaghetti onto the table in front of Aunt Jessie, while arriving guests step out from a lift and walk across the dining tables. The film continues with the tour's male passengers watching a strip show (Jan Carson of the Raymond Revuebar). The film ends with the Beatles dressed in white tuxedos, highlighting a glamorous old-style dance crowd scene, accompanied by the song "Your Mother Should Know".

The film is interspersed with musical interludes, which include the Beatles performing "I Am the Walrus" wearing animal masks, Harrison singing "Blue Jay Way" while waiting on Blue Jay Way Road, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performing Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes' "Death Cab for Cutie" sung by Stanshall.

One day in Feudal Japan, Kid Niki, the most radical of ninjas, is training at his Ninja School. Suddenly, a passing bird is struck down by an arrow and lands at Niki's feet. Attached is a note explaining that Niki's girlfriend, Princess Margo, has been kidnapped by the evil Stone Wizard. With the cry of "Will help you!" Niki bursts through the wall of his school and sets off on his quest to save Margo.

Karin Karino is a bespectacled and shy girl who is riding a bus with three boys from a local boys' only high school. One, Aoi Kiriya, is taking pictures of girls on the bus and the three initially make snide remarks about Karin. When he realizes she is reading a photography book called ''Blue'' by a photographer named Yuji, Kiriya approaches her, but she ignores him. As she moves to leave the bus at her stop, Karin drops her book and Kiriya accidentally lifts Karin's skirt while retrieving it for her. The skirt-lifting, combined with the fact that Kiriya still has his camera in his hand, causes Karin to think that Kiriya is "upskirting" her. Karin hits Kiriya and runs away. At school it is revealed that Karin has low self-esteem, and her "friend", Yuka Ishikawa, exploits Karin for free answers to homework and other favors.

Kiriya waits outside of her school to return the book and Yuka coerces Karin into arranging a group date. Karin arrives in her uniform, having no "date" clothes, so while the others go ahead Kiriya takes her to a clothing store and buys her a new outfit. During the date, Yuka decides she wants Kiriya, but Kiriya is only interested in Karin. When Karin gets drunk, he takes her to his place to sleep it off. In the morning, he is surprised to discover how beautiful Karin is without her glasses, though he also likes her with them on. When Yuka realizes Karin has Kiriya's attention, she grows jealous and begins bullying Karin. Karin's new, and real, friend Nanri alerts Kiriya to what is going on, after Karin stops speaking to him. He puts an end to it and Karin confirms she is attracted to him too. When Karin passed out Kiriya took her to his apartment, when she wakes up she takes off her glasses and it turns that she isn't bad looking he takes her first kiss.

They begin dating, but their relationship has its ups and down. They fight over Kiriya's pushing Karin to sex, Karin's father disapproves of the relationship and bans Karin from leaving the house for a while, and Kiriya struggles to deal with his own family having left them to support himself after the death of his big brother. In the end, they always forgive each other after a fight and make-up.

His big brother is in fact Yuji the photographer and he died in an accident underwater. Kiriya was with him that day. Kiriya thinks that his parents blame him for his brother's death.

On December 21 (year unknown), without prior warning, Thomas, the captain of the U.S. Navy destroyer, USS ''Nathan James'' (DDG-80), receives authenticated orders to carry out a nuclear strike on the Soviet city of Orel and its nearby silos. The nuclear-tipped Tomahawks are fired off in an emotionless, automated manner. Over a period of hours the crew watches them make landfall on radar and listens as the radio stations from Orel go off the air. With the mission completed, they report back to their superiors, and a reply from the U.S. Navy comes through, ordering them to break with general orders in this situation (operating under which they would proceed to the North Sea), but the message garbles to gibberish towards the end without relating their new orders. With one exception later in the book, this is the last official communication from the U.S. Navy that ''Nathan James'' ever receives.

While they can later surmise there must have been a series of major exchanges, as a simple, single exchange of 'counter-force' strikes would not account for the sheer scale of the fallout they later find, and they can also conclude other nuclear powers, like India, Pakistan, etc., have also fired at each other, the crew never learns with certainty what led to the launches or the exact sequence of events.

Thomas then decides to head southward into the North Sea and then to the United Kingdom, in order to re-establish contact with friendly forces. The ship encounters dense clouds of radioactive smoke all around Great Britain, through which can be seen the ruins of Big Ben and London.

Lacking information, the ship sets off to scout the Mediterranean coastline, counterclockwise from southern Italy to Gibraltar. Off the coast of Brittany the ship encounters a non-communicative submarine which tails them until the ship arrives off the destroyed Rock of Gibraltar, where it vanishes. ''Nathan James'' continues to scout the Mediterranean coastline, finding only masses of people suffering from radiation sickness who have fled the chaos inland. Off the coast of France, ''Nathan James'' finds a luxury sailboat with the passengers apparently killed mid-meal, suggesting the use of a neutron bomb on a coastal city. The corpse of the ship's radioman is found deeper within, along with his limited report of areas hit with nuclear weapons, painting a bleak picture for Europe, the Soviet Union, and North America. Returning to Gibraltar, the Soviet Navy ballistic missile submarine ''Pushkin'' surfaces to make direct contact.

The two vessels quickly establish a truce and agree to a joint operation. The ''Pushkin'', fully fueled but low on food, will first scout western Africa, then attempt to reach a secret Soviet supply base in the Arctic and retrieve supplies and nuclear fuel for ''Nathan James''. The U.S. Navy destroyer, relatively well-stocked with food but low on nuclear fuel, will scout northern Africa, then make her way to the Pacific Ocean in search of habitable land for the two crews. Thomas keeps the deal he made with the Soviet captain (trading food and a place for the Soviets in any society the ''Nathan James'' crew builds on land for nuclear fuel, if found at the Soviet base) from most of his crew, in order to not get their hopes up.

''Nathan James'' scouts Mediterranean Africa, but strangely, despite not seeing visible direct hits, finds no people but reads radiation levels which steadily increase the farther inland any shore party ventures. Throughout, the crew salvages relatively uncontaminated farming equipment, plants, and even two goats from a small island to potentially start farming any hospitable land.

Eventually ''Nathan James'' receives a message from the National Command Authority ordering all recipients to reply. They do so, but the message repeats unaltered with machine-like precision; they conclude it is just an automated transmission. Based on his knowledge of the Soviet Union's targeting of North America, the Soviet submarine captain's report, the French radioman's report, and what he has seen of Europe, Thomas, along with most of the ship's officers, concludes that the United States has simply ceased to exist, and what remains of North America is uninhabitable.

Many of the crew, though, wish to go home to the U.S. to see what happened. This would require them to expend most of their remaining fuel, rendering them unable to reach the Pacific to look for habitable land. If the U.S. were anything like Europe or Africa, the ship would simply be trapped. Thomas thus decides to proceed to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Suez Canal.

At Suez, the ship's Combat Systems Officer (CSO) states his belief that parts of North America may still be habitable and demands that the ship return to the U.S. East Coast, so they can see for themselves. The captain tries to discourage the CSO, but the latter challenges the captain's authority, reminding him that the U.S. Navy (under which Thomas is legally bestowed the title of captain) no longer exists, meaning Thomas is no longer in lawful command, and demands a vote on the correct course of action. Thomas, angered at this mutiny, allows a vote thinking the CSO has little support, but is shocked when nearly a third of the crew side with the CSO. The mutineers demand rafts and the captain's gig in order to sail thousands of miles to the United States. With a mixture of sadness and outrage, Thomas agrees, and the mutineers depart.

In the following weeks the ship proceeds through the Suez Canal, which is luckily open, and travels through treacherous seas in the Indian Ocean as nuclear winter begins to take full effect, with dramatic temperature drops and black snow at the equator.

They notice a pattern where the amount of fallout increases with the size of nearby landmasses. Approaching Singapore, the fallout becomes so dense that the crew cannot go onto the weather decks. Luckily, ''Nathan James'' was designed with cold weather and fallout in mind, and Thomas orders the ship hermetically sealed and people stationed on the bridge in short rotations.

Despite this, the crew suffers from mild radiation sickness, and their passage through the dense fallout becomes so trying psychologically that many crew vanish overboard. Things become even bleaker when they lose contact with the Soviet submarine, assuming she, with the nuclear fuel, was lost while scouting the Soviet coastline.

''Nathan James'' eventually reaches the remote South Pacific and, with the ship's nuclear fuel nearly gone, discovers a small, uncontaminated island in French Polynesia. The ship's crew establishes a community on the island, and they begin to try to conceive children to continue civilization. An archival project is started, wherein everyone is encouraged to write out their knowledge for future generations.

They work out a system to allow genetic diversity with anonymous fatherhood, with the women always in strict control. However, no pregnancies occur. They worry that the radiation of the nuclear winter may have rendered everyone sterile.

Some time later, the ''Pushkin'' appears on the horizon. Its crew is on the verge of starvation but bears an abundance of nuclear fuel. ''Nathan James'' is at last free to sail again, keeping the island as its home base. They even believe the Soviet submariners, who may have been free of contamination due to being submerged, can take their place in the genetic pool.

But then a new disaster strikes: a group of the ship's sailors, abhorring the remaining nuclear missiles aboard the ship, launches them without Thomas' permission. One of the missiles accidentally detonates while in flight, triggering a chain reaction among all of the other missiles, destroying ''Nathan James'' and contaminating the island.

Thomas, his remaining crew, and the Soviet crew immediately embark aboard the ''Pushkin'' to escape, beginning a new search for another sanctuary. They eventually reach the U.S. research facility at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which is abandoned but contains years' worth of food and supplies.

The ''Pushkin'' is modified during the escape to McMurdo Station by jettisoning its nuclear missiles into the ocean, so they can use the freed space in the silos for living space and a nursery. The introduction of the Soviet crew into the U.S. breeding program has resulted in at least three pregnancies. The ''Pushkin'' has the fuel and food from McMurdo to conduct long, thorough explorations of the world. Now well-provisioned, the survivors prepare to rediscover the world.

A young boy named Bastian helps yet again the Childlike Empress and her people of Fantasia, an imagination land that can be accessed and influenced through a magic neverending book called The Neverending Story, because the horrifying Nothing and other villains like the evil sorceress Xayide still threaten it. In the process, Bastian learns valuable lessons and gains many magical friends like the wooden Bark Troll, the luckdragon Falkor and many others.

The story centers on a young woman named Percy Talbott, a recently released prison parolee who arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of starting a new life. She lands a job as a waitress at the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah, whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and little tolerance for the grill's regular customers who are suspicious of Percy's mysterious past. None is more suspicious than Nahum, Hannah's nephew; although his wife, Shelby, has a kinder curiosity.

When Hannah is bedridden after a nasty fall, Percy and Shelby pitch in to save the Grill and win the approval of Hannah, who learns she does need friends. Joe, an attractive young man in town, becomes smitten with Percy. He is approached by a scientist who thinks that the town's trees might have medicinal benefits. As the plot unfolds, Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. This creates a positive change in the town, but the plans are disrupted by Nahum's suspicions about Percy and the revelation that a local hermit is Hannah's shell-shocked, Vietnam veteran son. Percy sacrifices her own life to save Hannah's son and prompts a number of the town's citizens to examine their own conduct more deeply.

Following the events of ''Spyro: A Hero's Tail'', at the end of their vacation at Dragon Shores, Spyro and his friends depart back to their homelands before wishing him the best of luck with some magic training at the Dragon Temple. Not long after he falls asleep on the beach prior to going there, a dark storm appears and traps everyone within the Dragon Realms, Avalar and the Forgotten Realms in a strange dimension known as the Shadow Realm. After initial guidance and being granted the Shadowstone from Elder Tomas, Spyro embarks on an adventure to master the martial art of dragon-kata and the use of magic, rescue everyone and unravel the mystery of the Shadow Realm.

During his journey, Red, the villain from ''Spyro: A Hero's Tail'' returns and decided to fight Spyro once again. After losing in a very short battle, it was revealed that Red was a pawn to the Sorcerer the purple demonic dragon wizard, the one responsible for trapping everyone in the Shadow Realm. Red decides to change his ways and help Spyro defeat the Sorcerer. After Spyro makes his way to the Sorcerer's lair, the Sorcerer reveals himself to be a dragon with four wings who, like Spyro, is purple as well. The two engage in combat, and when Spyro wins, the Sorcerer makes his escape before he loses his power completely. Spyro returns to the Dragon Realms, and a parade is thrown in his honor. Red soon arrives in the middle of everything and makes good on his word by apologizing to all of the Elder dragons. They all accept it (aside from Titan) and welcome him back. Later on, Spyro and the other Elders are seen preparing for when the Sorcerer strikes again. In another scene, the Sorcerer is seen flying away and the text at the bottom screen says: ''‘They knew he would return. But this time the dragons will be ready … and waiting.’''

A young woman (Jamie Rose) walking home from her birthday party is stalked by a man in distinctive sneakers. After she drops one of her presents, a police officer offers to escort her to her front door. The camera reveals that the policeman is wearing the same sneakers as the stalker.

The next day, divorced New Orleans police detective Wes Block (Eastwood) is playing football with his daughters Penny and Amanda. They take in a stray dog, adding to the several strays they have already taken in. As the family gets ready to go to a Saints game, Block is summoned to a crime scene, forcing him to break his plans with his daughters.

The young woman has been strangled in her bed. Her killer left no fingerprints, but he waited in her apartment until midnight to kill her, even pausing to make himself coffee. Block visits a brothel where the woman worked, and interviews a prostitute with whom she would perform group sex. The prostitute seduces Block, loosening his necktie, which he accidentally leaves behind.

The murderer rapes his victims, and he has been leaving behind a great deal of forensic evidence, including a residue of glass fragments and barley. Beryl Thibodeaux (Geneviève Bujold) runs a rape prevention program, and she advises Block on the case. The second victim is also a sex worker, and she is strangled in a jacuzzi. Block tracks down one of her co-workers and interviews her while the two prepare to have sex. He handcuffs the woman to the bed.

While Block inquires about the victims at another brothel, he has sex with a prostitute. The hidden killer watches Block and the prostitute. The next morning, Block is called to the scene of a third victim. He is shocked to realize that it is the prostitute he had been with the night before. Under the guise of working on the case, Block flirts with Thibodeaux, and the two spend the rest of the day together.

The killer taunts Block by sending a doll with a note, which directs him to another brothel. Once there, a dominatrix informs Block that an unknown man has hired her to be whipped by Block. She is then supposed to send Block to a gay bar. At the bar, Block meets up with a man who has been hired by the killer to have sex with Block. Block instructs the man to pick up his pay as scheduled and follows him, hoping to catch the killer. However, Block is too late, and the man is killed.

The killer kidnaps the second victim's co-worker, and he dumps her body in a public fountain. He drapes Block's abandoned necktie on a nearby statue. Block and Thibodeaux go out on a second date, escorting his children, while secretly observed by the killer disguised as a Mardi Gras participant. When they are in bed later, Block shies away from intimacy with Thibodeaux, and then has a nightmare that he attacks her in the guise of the killer.

One of the victim's clothes has some cash in it, which the police trace to the payroll of a brewery. The money has the same glass and barley residue on it that has been cropping up at all the crime scenes. When Block goes to the brewery to investigate, the killer watches him during his visit. That night, the killer breaks into Block's home, killing the nanny and some of Block's pets, and handcuffing and gagging Amanda. Block is nearly strangled in a struggle after he arrives and is only saved when one of his surviving dogs repeatedly bites the killer. Block fires two shots at the killer as he escapes. The killer is later seen watching from concealment as the police investigate the scene.

While going through news clippings, Block comes across the name of a cop, Leander Rolfe (Marco St. John), whom he arrested for raping two girls. Further investigation reveals that Rolfe had been paroled and was working at the brewery. Block and his team stake out Rolfe's apartment, but Rolfe has gone to attack Thibodeaux at her home (successfully slaying the cops guarding her). Realizing that she is in danger, Block races to her home, where he disturbs Rolfe's attempt to strangle her (despite being stabbed twice with scissors). Block chases Rolfe through a cemetery and into a rail yard. During their final battle, they end up in the path of an oncoming train; Block manages to roll out of the way in time, but Rolfe is run over and killed. Block accepts Beryl's touch after he tells her everything will be okay.

Master thief Luther Whitney breaks into the mansion of billionaire Walter Sullivan, but is forced to hide upon the arrival of Sullivan's wife Christy, on a drunken rendezvous with Alan Richmond, the President of the United States. Hidden behind the bedroom vault's one-way mirror, Whitney watches in horror as Richmond becomes sexually violent; Christy, in self-defense, wounds his arm with a letter opener. Richmond screams for help, and Secret Service agents Bill Burton and Tim Collin burst in, see Christy about to stab the President, and fatally shoot her. Chief of Staff Gloria Russell arrives, and they stage the scene to look like a burglary gone wrong. Whitney is unnoticed until he makes his getaway, pursued by the agents, but he manages to escape with millions in valuables as well as the incriminating letter opener.

Detective Seth Frank heads the murder investigation. Though Whitney, known to authorities as a high-profile burglar, becomes a prime suspect, Frank does not believe he is a murderer. Burton asks Frank to keep him informed on the case and wiretaps Frank's office telephone. Just as Whitney is about to flee the country, he sees Richmond on television publicly commiserating with Sullivan – a close friend and financial supporter of the president – on his loss. Incensed, Whitney decides to bring Richmond to justice. He taunts Russell, leaving her a photograph of the letter opener.

Whitney's estranged daughter Kate, a prosecutor, accompanies Frank to Whitney's home in search of clues. Together with Kate, for whom he feels a growing attraction, Seth enters Luther's townhouse and Kate sees the numerous photos of her that line her father's house, including photos where she did not know he was there, which moves her deeply. But the suspicion that he might be Christy Sullivan's murderer gnaws heavily on her and she agrees to set her father up, arranging a meeting at an outdoor café where the police can take him into custody. Frank guarantees Whitney's safety, but Burton learns of the plan through the wiretap, and both Collin and McCarty – a hitman hired by a vengeful Sullivan – prepare to kill Whitney. The two snipers, each unaware of the other, try to shoot Whitney when he meets with Kate. Both miss, and Whitney escapes disguised as a police officer. Whitney later explains to Kate exactly how Christy was killed and by whom.

Whitney tricks Russell into wearing Christy's diamond necklace during a White House event. Suspecting that Kate must know the truth, Richmond decides she must be eliminated. When Whitney learns from Frank that the Secret Service has taken over surveillance of Kate, he races back to Washington, D.C. to protect her. Whitney arrives moments after Collin forces Kate's car off a cliff, but she survives. Collin tries again to kill Kate at the hospital with a poison-filled syringe, but Whitney subdues him with a syringe of his own. Collin pleads for mercy, but Whitney delivers a fatal dose.

Whitney replaces Sullivan's chauffeur, and tells Sullivan what truly happened the night his wife was killed. Sullivan is unconvinced until Whitney explains how Richmond lied in his speech about Christy's excuse for staying home that night, which he could only have learned from her. He gives Sullivan the letter opener with Richmond's blood and fingerprints, and tells him that he has since returned the stolen items.

Whitney drops Sullivan off outside the White House. Sullivan passes through security with the letter opener and enters the Oval Office. Meanwhile, alerted by Whitney that his phone has been bugged, Frank discovers that a remorseful Burton has committed suicide and uses the evidence Burton left behind to arrest Russell. On television the next morning comes the shocking news from Sullivan that Richmond committed suicide by stabbing himself to death. Though not confirmed, it is suggested that Richmond died by Sullivan's hand or Richmond did in fact commit suicide to avoid punishment for his crimes. Whitney is satisfied that justice has prevailed, and happy his daughter is safe and part of his life again.

At the hospital, Whitney watches over Kate's recovery. Detective Frank visits briefly, whereupon Whitney suggests to Kate that Frank join them for supper sometime.

Continuing on course for home, ''Voyager'' s long-range sensors detect a debris field from a Borg cube. The crew decides to alter course to avoid the debris, since the Borg tend to salvage materials and parts from their vessels, and may return to the area.

As their general course takes them closer to the Borg vessel's debris field, Seven begins experiencing a form of multiple personality disorder and alternate personalities begin to manifest themselves. After several incidents witnessed by the crew, she is taken to Sickbay to try to find the source of the neurological problem. Seven speculates that it could be due to an active and undamaged vinculum (transponder device) still in the debris field from the Borg vessel. ''Voyager'' alters course to retrieve the vinculum and investigate further. Once at the debris field, they find the vinculum, still active, and beam it aboard for inspection.

Further scans reveal a synthetic pathogenic virus inhabiting it. After reviewing a number of data cubes, they deduce that the virus must have been introduced by the Borg cube's last assimilation, a small vessel carrying aliens referred to by the Borg as Species 6339. ''Voyager'' searches out these alien travelers, who reveal their attempt to infect the Borg Collective with a virus designed to shut it down. Thirteen of their people sacrificed themselves to be assimilated so they could spread the virus. Part of their plan depends on more Borg to find the vinculum and use it like a "Typhoid Mary" to spread the virus further into the Borg network.

However, Captain Janeway wants to keep the vinculum for a short period of time to give the crew time to separate Seven from it. Seven struggles to maintain control of the personalities splitting her consciousness — including some with memories of the defeat of the Starfleet battle group at Wolf 359 — while Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres and her team begin the difficult task of shutting down the vinculum. Tuvok suggests a Vulcan mind meld to help calm Seven. The aliens protest Voyager's interference with their plan and attack the ship. In the end, B'Elanna is successful and Seven is freed from the link. The vinculum is beamed off the ship and the aliens disengage.

In the closing scenes, Seven expresses to Janeway that she is unsure how to thank the crew for their efforts to save her. Janeway tells her to report to engineering to help with maintenance and Seven agrees, but states she has one crew member to visit first. She is revealed to be assigning readings to Naomi Wildman (who had earlier tried to engage her and helped through her alternate personality episodes) to help the girl with her ambition to be "captain's assistant". After giving Naomi several PADDs with the data, Seven tentatively asks Naomi to teach her how to play Kadis-Kot, a board game played among the crew. Grinning, Naomi agrees.

Around 4,500 years ago, the capstone upon the summit of the Great Pyramid of Giza absorbed the energy released by the Tartarus Rotation (a monstrous sunspot that occurs every 4,000–4,500 years), and saved the earth from major flooding and catastrophic weather. This capstone was later divided up by Alexander the Great with one piece hidden in a booby-trapped location within each of the other seven wonders of the world. If and when they are reunited and replaced on the capstone during another solar event, they can bring 1,000 years of peace or power for the nation which possesses them.

In 2006, seven days before this sunspot is again due, the pieces are still divided, and three teams are trying to reunite them: Two for their own gain; one from Europe (representing the Catholic Church); and the other is CIEF, the Commander-in-Chief's In Extremis Force (an American force covertly representing the power of the Freemasons). The third team is an alliance of a group of 'small nations' called the Alliance of Minnows (consisting of members from Canada, Australia, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Jamaica, New Zealand, and later Israel), led by Jack West Jr, trying to reunite the capstone for nobler reasons. This team and the European team each also possess a child—one of the only two people who can read the "Word of Thoth", a special hieroglyphics system used in the booby-traps. (The other person is her twin, Alexander, who is being brainwashed by the Vatican.)

West's team gains and loses a capstone (which is the head of the Colossus of Rhodes) to the CIEF but manage to escape and then reach the hiding place of two more pieces at Hamilcar's Refuge on the coast of Tunisia. There they again lose their gains to the CIEF, and again escape.

They then spring Mustapha Zaeed, the world's foremost authority on the Capstone and the Seven Wonders and a known terrorist, from Guantanamo Bay, who leads them to two more pieces. After separating the team, the "Coalition of the Minnows" is devastated through kidnap and death. The survivors escape to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq, but are there apprehended by an Israeli strike team. West is forced to lead the Israelis to the piece, but the Americans arrive, execute the Israelis, capture the piece and trap West and his team. Jack is presumed dead.

The European contingent escorts their hostages to Cairo with a lone Piece—taken from St. Peter's Basilica—and, in attempting to capture the CIEF's five pieces, lose the St Peter's piece (as well as Epper and Lily) to them. The CIEF team then goes to Hatshepsut's Mortuary, and—with the aid of the measurements from the Paris Obelisk—finds the last piece in the tomb of Alexander the Great. Taking the whole Capstone to the Giza pyramid on the day of the rotation, placing Alexander in the chamber beneath it to ensure the ritual works.

However, Jack West and his team's plane return to stop them. Judah tries to carry out the ritual, but Alexander crawls out to save himself from death, unwittingly ensuring its failure and del Piero's death; then, Lily crawls in willingly, and Zaeed carries it out successfully. West, however, has ensured a twist to who has world dominion by replacing the earth inside with some from central Australia. West's team then wins the battle and he finds that Lily has survived by (unlike Alexander) going into the chamber ''willingly''.

The epilogue takes place three weeks later, with Wizard and Zoe accompanying Lily across Central Australia, before reuniting with West.

Two years after the events of the first novel, Nathaniel (alias John Mandrake) serves in London’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, working to eliminate the anti-magician Resistance. Under pressure from his superiors, he summons his former servant, the djinn Bartimaeus. Though furious that Nathaniel has broken their bargain – having sworn never to summon him again in return for the djinn never divulging Nathaniel’s birth name – Bartimaeus agrees to six weeks of service if he will not be sent to the ongoing North American war.

Meanwhile, commoners Kitty Jones and Jakob Hyrnek are attacked by a magician; Jakob suffers extensive burns while Kitty is unharmed, demonstrating a natural resilience to magic. Denied justice, Kitty is approached by Mr. Pennyfeather, whose wife was killed after rejecting a magician’s advances. Convinced to help undermine magicians and their unjust rule, Kitty joins the Resistance, carrying out minor attacks and thefts. During a nighttime heist, she witnesses an enormous creature march through a street of magician-owned businesses, leaving massive damage in its wake and several Night Police officers dead. Believing the Resistance responsible, police begin a crackdown on the city.

Investigating the attack, Bartimaeus reunites with fellow spirit Queezle, who has learned the creature can destroy Spirits. The creature reappears and Queezle is killed; Bartimaeus battles the creature at the British Museum but is knocked out, and it escapes. At a meeting of high-ranking magicians, Bartimaeus reveals that the creature is a golem. Chief of police Henry Duvall insists that the Resistance are responsible, and lobbies the Prime Minister for expanded powers.

Mr. Pennyfeather organizes a final daring raid on the tomb of William Gladstone, but inadvertently releases Honorius, a powerful afrit. Trapped inside Gladstone’s bones and driven mad, Honorius kills the grave-robbers; Kitty escapes with Gladstone’s staff, and Honorius vows to hunt her down.

Nathaniel and Bartimaeus are sent to Prague, where the last-known golem appeared over a century ago. They find Kavka, the magician who created the golem with the aid of a high-ranking mole in the British government. Nathaniel promises Kavka, whose children are being held in a British prison, that his family will be freed if he helps unmask the traitor. A bearded mercenary – whom Nathaniel and Bartimaeus faced before – arrives, demanding the enchanted parchment to animate the golem. In the ensuing struggle, the parchment is destroyed, leaving no proof of the golem.

Nathaniel returns to find London in panic at Honorius’ rampage. Nathaniel discovers Kitty’s involvement, but she evades him. Bartimaeus forces Honorius into the Thames, seemingly defeating him. The magician Quentin Makepeace meets Nathaniel in secret with information on the Resistance. Bartimaeus captures Jakob to lure Kitty into a sting, but she is attacked by the Night Police werewolves. Nathaniel sends Bartimaeus to Kitty’s rescue and is arrested. Abandoned by his superiors, he makes a desperate appeal to the Prime Minister.

Laying low, Bartimaeus and Kitty debate their shared oppression by magicians. Bartimaeus, in the form of his favorite master Ptolemy, details the rise and fall of magical empires that history seems doomed to repeat, forever enslaving spirits to magicians; Kitty is struck by the similarity in magicians’ treatment of commoners.

Released by the Prime Minister, Nathaniel brings Jakob to Kitty and offers freedom in exchange for Gladstone’s staff. Honorius reappears but is distracted by the arrival of the golem. Honorius is destroyed, and Nathaniel manages to unlock the staff’s power but is knocked unconscious. Kitty risks her life to remove the animating parchment, immobilizing the golem. Bartimaeus allows Kitty and Jakob to escape and tells Nathaniel that Kitty was incinerated by the golem, sacrificing herself to save him. As its spell dissipates, the crumbling golem returns to its master, Duvall, who is arrested.

Though doubtful Duvall acted alone, Nathaniel finds his investigation at a close. Before he releases Bartimaeus, the djinn finally calls him "John Mandrake,” which Nathaniel accepts as a sign of respect; Bartimaeus meant to signify the innocent, honorable Nathaniel’s full transformation into the ruthless magician. Jakob leaves the country, but Kitty stays to study the history of magic, in search of an end to the cycle of tyranny.

Cockney cat burglar Harry Tristan Dean (Michael Caine) and his sculptor friend Emile Fournier (John Abbott) discover exotic Eurasian showgirl Nicole Chang (Shirley MacLaine) in a crowded Hong Kong nightclub. She bears an incredible resemblance both to the late wife of the world's richest man, an Arab named Ahmad Shahbandar (Herbert Lom), as well as to a priceless ancient Chinese statuette that he owns; Harry and Emile want to use her in a scheme to rob Shahbandar of it. Harry's mere explanation to Emile of the caper—in which Nicole meekly obeys instructions without even a single expression—is flawless.

Harry, Nicole (who initially resisted the offer), and Emile arrive in the Middle Eastern city of Dammuz; the former two assume the identities of Sir Harold Dean and Lady Nicole Dean and check into Shahbandar's hotel where Shahbandar himself lives in the penthouse. Harry's plot does not at all follow his imagined scenario; Shahbandar himself discovers Harry's deceitfulness, and only plays along with Harry and Nicole to see what they are plotting. She is aghast when she learns what Harry wants to steal, but goes along because she is falling in love with him.

Shahbandar invites them to dinner; Harry refuses but persuades Nicole to accept, so she will occupy Shahbandar while he will steal the statuette. Nicole, however, realizes that Shahbandar suspects them, and slips away to warn Harry. Working together, they steal the statuette without triggering the alarm; but a misplaced impulse afterwards causes Nicole to accidentally trigger the alarm anyway. At Harry's insistence, Nicole flees to the airport to return separately to Hong Kong, while he hides from the guards; he watches as they also check a secret compartment in the wall of the room, where the real statuette is hidden: the one in Harry's hands is a copy.

Shahbandar then rechecks the secret compartment, finds the fake, and has Nicole arrested at the airport. At breakfast, he tells her that his agents have found Harry in Hong Kong; he too will be arrested unless the real statuette is returned. She is free to go with a dossier of Harry if she takes that message to him.

At Emile's workshop in Hong Kong, Harry reveals that he actually hid the statuette inside a Buddha statue Emile had sold Shahbandar, and left the hotel a telegraph of this while she was traveling. In the least, Harry only wanted to give the appearance that it had been stolen, as no one yet knows when Shahbandar will reverse that credibility. Emile, in fact, made an exact replica of the statuette as well as the decoy that Shahbandar had on display; and with three prospective buyers already waiting, Harry and Emile must now sell the replica as the real thing.

Nicole proves unhappy at Harry's criminal lifestyle, so Harry smashes the replica to prove she is more important to him than his life of crime. She and Harry leave Emile supposedly disconsolate—until he receives a telephone call afterwards, happily starts making arrangements with a buyer, and takes one of several more replicas of the statuette.

The British Empire is falling apart. Many commoners are unhappy with the current government, though none of the commoners claim responsibility for the status quo. The magician's demons are being assaulted by the children's natural abilities to see and resist the demons. Some commoners advocate slow reform, while others advocate open revolt, while still others say the commoners should learn how to summon spirits of their own to combat those spirits belonging to the magicians. ''Ptolemy's Gate'' concludes with a council of surviving magicians and important commoners trying to work out a government that is beneficial to everyone.

Kitty Jones eventually unearths the reason why humans and spirits are locked into the endless cycle, that humans do not understand the nature of djinni and summon them only as powerful, but dangerous, slaves, not equals. This theory is confirmed by Bartimaeus who states that his greatest master, Ptolemy, was the only human who treated his servants as equals and tried to build a bridge between djinni and humans. However, Ptolemy misguidedly believed many others would follow in his footsteps.

England's domestic turmoil has taken its toll on John Mandrake. Mandrake is friendless and constantly watched by his numerous enemies. In the three years since ''The Golem's Eye'' there have been several attempts on Mandrake's life. His years as a high ranking government official have made Mandrake merciless, and he treats all of his servants cruelly, especially Bartimaeus. However, events in ''Ptolemy's Gate'' shatter Mandrake's confidence in what he has become. The transformation from Mandrake to Nathaniel is much more rapid than the one from Nathaniel to Mandrake. Nathaniel drops the name John Mandrake altogether, as well as the fear of others knowing his true name, humbly telling it to Kitty, with whom he seems to have struck up a newfound friendship, and boldly proclaiming it to the spirit Nouda. With the end of Mandrake, Nathaniel becomes all that Ptolemy hoped to be. Nathaniel willingly allows Bartimaeus to share his body to combat Nouda and his army of hybrids, using Gladstone's staff, a fusion that forever bridges the gap between humans and djinn. However, at the last moment, he dismisses Bartimaeus and then sacrifices himself to destroy the spirit Nouda. This incident was similar to what Ptolemy did in the moments before he died.

The film suggests that a British professional hit-man was hired by the CIA to assassinate the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, because of Palme's stance on nuclear weapons in Scandinavia. The hit-man (Michael Kitchen) works for money alone and is very careful. He finds a Norwegian man (Bjørn Floberg) that hates the Swedish P.M. He also involves a man to be blamed (this character is ''Christer Pettersson'', first convicted (by a disagreeing court
) of the real assassination, but later acquitted in the appealing court . The Norwegian man kills Palme just as his wife notices Christer Pettersson. Soon afterwards the hitman kills the killer, and all traces pointing to the professional hitman are gone.

In a bid to raise the town's profile and attract investment, the mayor of the struggling Yorkshire town of Townley has commissioned a performance of a series of Medieval mystery plays that will re-enact scenes from the Bible - however, frustrated local reporter Annie Woolf believes it's a ploy to improve his tattered reputation ahead of local elections. On the opening night of the Old Testament cycle, during a play about the fall of Adam and Eve, Doctor Bell - the man who was to play God - is found dead backstage. Detective Sergeant Frank Carpenter arrives from Manchester CID to investigate. While leaving the autopsy room he has a mysterious encounter with a man who is slicing up raincoats, who says he must "protect the children".

Woolf finds Carpenter in his hotel's bar, where he is filling in a crossword puzzle. She tries to press him for information, but he evades her questions. When he leaves, she sees that he has filled in the crossword with gibberish. Carpenter retires to his room, but is awoken late at night by the local police, who say the doctor's body has gone missing from the morgue. The only possible clue is a hacked-up raincoat like the one he had seen the mysterious man with earlier.

The following day Carpenter meets Mayor Purves and the local vicar, Reverend Tilley, but is unable to dissuade them from seeking out a replacement actor to play God. He then interviews their chief suspect, a man named Severs who portrayed Satan in the mystery play. But the interview goes badly wrong when Severs seemingly transforms into the Devil and begins to taunt Carpenter about something from his past. Carpenter has a vision of a barrister whitewashing bloodied children's wallpaper before staggering out of the building and vomiting. A police officer informs him that they've found Doctor Bell's body in a local pig pen, where it is being devoured.

At the offices of ''The Townley Guardian'', Woolf's editor suggests that the murder may be linked to an escaped mental patient from a nearby hospital. Meanwhile, Carpenter corners Mayor Purves on his way to a supposed council meeting, and grills him over the death of Doctor Bell, who had accused Purves of having sex with an underage prostitute. Purves denies the claim but Carpenter follows him to a brothel, where he glimpses the mayor having sex with a mannequin. Elsewhere, a rambler finds the body of a naked man in a crashed car in some woods.

The next day, Carpenter interviews Reverend Tilley, who admits that he hasn't believed in God since his wife died, but that he pretends to have faith to comfort his parishioners. Soon after, Woolf confronts Carpenter with the truth: he is actually the escaped mental patient, not a police officer. "Carpenter" admits this is true and says he can't exactly remember what it was that he did that got him locked up. However, after escaping he found the body of Detective Sergeant Carpenter in his crashed car, and saw a chance for redemption. If he could solve the mystery of the killing, he decided, he could solve the mystery of himself - what he did, and who he was before some unknown terrible thing in his past happened. He makes Woolf promise not to look into his past until the case is closed, but on advice from her editor, she decides to investigate anyway, and discovers that "Carpenter" was actually the "Raincoat Man" who was charged with brutally raping and murdering a little girl, Sarah Downing, in Townley some time ago.

The following evening, the town is preparing for the inauguration of the New Testament cycle, which will end with a recreation of the crucifixion of Jesus. The Raincoat Man tells Woolf that he's almost figured out who the killer is - he just needs to "rise up" above it to understand the case fully. Woolf calls the police and tells them what has happened. As the crowds gather in front of the crucifix, squads of police converge on Townley and Woolf breaks down, confronting first the Raincoat Man and then the crowd with the truth of his crime. The crowd becomes a furious mob that crucifies him on a hill overlooking the town, but they have only put the nails through his overcoat, and as police helicopters approach with beams on, he is able to slip down and escape in the confusion, leaving his coat flapping in the wind.

Ten years later, Townley is transformed; a Japanese company has come to the town and opened a factory, bringing prosperity to the area. Woolf, who has written articles and a book on the murder, is getting dinner with a writer named Alan, who is turning the whole thing into a play for television. As Woolf leaves, however, the waiter brings her the grey overcoat "Carpenter" was wearing during his investigation. She protests that it isn't her coat, but the waiter says it is - and even has her name inside. She allows him to put it on her as she says, "Yes. I suppose it is".

The Federation starship ''Enterprise'' arrives at planet Bre'el IV to prevent the looming disaster of the planet's asteroidal moon falling from its orbit and crashing into the highly populated planet; as the ship arrives, the planet is already experiencing damaging effects of the moon's gravitational field. As the crew is working, Q (John de Lancie) appears on the bridge naked. Q explains that he is being punished by the Continuum for spreading chaos throughout the universe and he has been stripped of all his powers, banished from the Q Continuum, and transported to the ''Enterprise'' as a human, asking asylum. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) reluctantly helps Q, but instead of assigning him guest quarters, Picard treats Q like a criminal and throws him in the brig.

As the moon continues to descend to the planet, Picard urges Q to use his powers and move the moon back into its original orbit. Q still insists that he is powerless except for his IQ of 2005. The captain assigns Lt. Commander Data to watch Q and he is ordered to assist the Engineering team. Q suggests that they "change the gravitational constant of the universe." Q begins experiencing more human conditions, such as back spasms and hunger. Data takes Q to the Ten-Forward Lounge. When Q inquires about what food is best to address his constant suffering, Data suggests a chocolate sundae as he has observed Counselor Deanna Troi turning to chocolate when depressed. After ordering ten sundaes, his hunger is quickly displaced upon encountering Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who takes advantage of Q's mortal form to stab him with a fork. Shortly thereafter, Q is set upon by a cloud of gaseous entities called the Calamarain, who, having previously been tormented by Q, are attempting to get revenge. After raising the shields to prevent the Calamarain from attacking Q, Picard determines that Q took refuge on the ''Enterprise'' to protect himself from alien species that hold grudges against him.

Q's idea of changing the gravitational constant of the universe, impossible with human technology, sparks an idea in Chief Engineer La Forge (LeVar Burton) to modify the gravitational constant in a small volume of space, which he tests; however, the test lowers the ''Enterprise'' s shields, allowing the Calamarain to attack Q again. Data attempts to save Q from their assault but is electrified in doing so, nearly frying his positronic brain. Realizing that his presence on the ''Enterprise'' is doing more harm than he expected, Q leaves the ship in a shuttlecraft. As the Calamarain close onto the shuttle, a second Q being (Corbin Bernsen) appears on the shuttle and informs Q that due to his selfless act to protect the ''Enterprise'', the Continuum is willing to give him a second chance and restore his powers. Q accepts and shrinks the Calamarain entities and teleports them into the palm of his hand, gloating over the restoration of his powers. The other Q reminds him that he should reflect upon the lessons he's learned, and he grudgingly turns the tiny aliens loose. Q, dressed as a mariachi, returns to the ''Enterprise'' and celebrates. Nudged by Picard to leave, he departs, bestowing a parting gift on Data for showing Q how to be more human. After Q disappears, Data begins to laugh uncontrollably for a moment, to the surprise of the rest of the ''Enterprise'' crew. Upon learning that the Bre'el moon has returned to a safe orbit, Picard surmises that Q is responsible, and says that perhaps Q has a residue of humanity after all, but a cigar appears in Picard's hand with Q's voice telling him, "Don't bet on it."

The crew of the ''Enterprise'' is sent on a mercy mission to deliver medical supplies to the war-torn non-affiliated planet Rutia IV, in the middle of a decades-long conflict with rebel separatists called the Ansata. The ''Enterprise'' crew cannot intervene in the conflict itself, internal to the planet, because to do so would violate the Prime Directive. While Chief Medical Officer Dr. Crusher, Commander Data, and Lieutenant Worf relax in a cafe, a bomb goes off in a public plaza, injuring many bystanders. Dr. Crusher attempts to tend to the wounded bodies against Captain Picard's suggestion to return to the ship, but her efforts are interrupted when she is abducted by a man using an unknown method of teleportation. After being denied the use of the ''Enterprise'' s superior firepower to seek and destroy the Ansata's base of operations, Alexana Devos, the head of Rutian security, orders severe interrogation of all known Ansata sympathizers, an act that the ''Enterprise'' crew find immoral. Without new information from Devos, the ''Enterprise'' crew investigate the teleportation technology and find that it is used to shift between dimensions, allowing the Ansata rebels to bypass even force fields. The investigative team, which includes Wesley, lets Picard know that they need to observe more of the teleportations to be able to pinpoint the location of the base.

At the Ansata base, Crusher learns her abductor is Kyril Finn, the leader of Ansata. Crusher refuses to eat or otherwise cooperate with Finn. After several hours, Finn lets Crusher out of her restraints and requests that she help treat their wounded. Crusher discovers that the "Inverters", the Ansata teleportation technology, cause irreversible damage to the user's DNA, and that many of the Ansata are sick due to excessive use of the Inverter. Finn admits that the Inverter is their only advantage against the Rutian government. After more hours pass, Finn believes that the Federation, by providing medical aid, is working with the Rutian government and launches an attack on the ''Enterprise'', despite Crusher's requests to avoid harming her son. The Ansata manage to plant a bomb on the ''Enterprise'' warp engine. It is quickly transported into space by La Forge, but the distraction is enough to allow Finn to appear on the bridge and abduct Captain Picard. With Picard as his captive, Finn uses the Inverter to come to Counselor Troi on the ''Enterprise'' and demand the Federation become involved in mediating the dispute, returning to the planet before security can arrive. Picard, learning of Crusher's situation, tells her to continue to work on gaining Finn's confidence to hopefully end the dispute peacefully.

Data and Wesley are able to use Finn's appearance to locate the Ansata base, and Commander Riker and Devos assemble their forces. After they transport into the base, the combined forces are quickly able to quell the resistance. Finn, as a last resort, attempts to execute Picard, but Devos kills him. It is her conclusion that if Finn remained alive, his imprisonment would spark more resistance, while being killed in battle will only elevate him to martyr status and reduce the violence in the short-term. When a young Ansata member attempts to exact revenge on Picard, Crusher is able to convince him to drop his weapon, which Riker notes is a sign that there may be more fruitful discussions to resolve the issue in the future.

The ''Enterprise'' is investigating the planet Angosia III as a candidate for entry into the Federation. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is approached by Prime Minister Nayrok (James Cromwell), who asks for help in apprehending a convict who has escaped on a transport ship from their prison colony on Lunar V. The ''Enterprise'' locates the ship, which flies behind an asteroid. However, only the drive section emerges from the other side with no life signs. Following it around they find the ship's wreckage. Believing that the prisoner has perished, the ship begins course back to the planet, only to discover the drive section they saw has disappeared.

Picard and Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) return to the ''Enterprise'' and following a hunch from Data (Brent Spiner) locate an escape pod and beam aboard the prisoner. When security try to take the prisoner into custody he fights back, virtually unaffected by their phasers. He overpowers the guards and injures O'Brien (Colm Meaney) before he is subdued. Upon further examination the crew find that the prisoner does not emit any life signs on scanner.

The prisoner identifies himself as Roga Danar (Jeff McCarthy) a former soldier. Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) meets Danar and reads little aggression from him, finding it unlikely that he could be so violent. Danar explains that he and others were genetically enhanced, greatly increasing their abilities and affecting their responses when in danger. The crew also finds that despite being a prisoner Danar has no criminal record. Nayrok confirms Danar's story but says that the soldiers were unsuited for life in civilized society. When Capt. Picard raises the subject with Nayrok, he refuses to discuss the abuses Danar alleges, considering it a matter of internal security, and instead simply arranges for Danar to be returned to the colony. Danar tells Troi that the conditioning was never reversed or treated, and due to its effects a small misunderstanding could often lead to murder. Rather than try to fix the conditioning, the government imprisoned them all.

During the transfer from the ''Enterprise'' to the Angosian transport, Danar manages to escape. Easily evading security, he cripples the ''Enterprise'' by causing an explosion in one of the Jeffries tubes, disabling her sensor systems. With the ''Enterprise'' blind Danar beams aboard the Angosian transport vessel. Taking control, he attacks the Lunar V colony and rescues several of his fellow inmates.

Danar and the other inmates lead an attack on the capital and confront the Angosian government. Nayrok pleads with the Enterprise to help. Picard beams down with an away team but refuses to help, questioning the morality of how they've treated their soldiers. Nayrok and his compatriots explain the government's view on the matter; that the soldiers' augments cannot be reversed, thus requiring them to be confined for their own good and perhaps used again in the future. Against this, Picard is frustrated at their intransigence on this matter.

In the middle of this argument, Danar and his rebels storm the government building. In an act of hypocrisy, Nayrok pleads with Picard to intervene against this insurrection. Picard elects instead to depart considering he has sufficient information for his report, including the flagrant sentient rights abuses discovered, reminding Nayrok that he himself called the matter an internal affair.

With Nayrok fruitlessly protesting against their being abandoned, Picard informs the government that they have to make a choice on what to do with their veterans. Danar smiles at the away team, happy to finally be recognized as they depart. On their return to the ''Enterprise'', Picard notes that if the government survives, they will be given assistance in helping their veterans with their conditioning. He also notes that they may reapply to join the Federation at a later date.

The episode begins with Data exploring the human condition through acting in a Shakespearean play, ''Henry V''. Captain Picard is giving Data some constructive criticism when he is notified by Commander Riker that a Romulan scout vessel is being pursued in the Neutral Zone. The scout vessel is under attack by a Romulan warbird, and they are approaching Federation space. The ''Enterprise'' moves to intercept the ship, causing the Warbird to cloak and return to Romulan space. The occupant of the ship is brought aboard the ''Enterprise'', and claims he is Sub-Lieutenant Setal, an insignificant logistics clerk seeking to defect to the Federation after coming across information about a secret Romulan installation on the planet Nelvana III, within the Neutral Zone, that could sustain a large Romulan fleet.

Picard and his crew are skeptical of Setal's claims after he refuses to provide evidence, and Picard orders an investigation of Setal's reliability while the Federation relays to the ''Enterprise'' the Romulans are seeking Setal's return. After Setal's ship auto-destructs, the crew review the records of Setal's arrival, and believe the Romulans arranged Setal as part of an elaborate hoax. Picard refuses to enter the Neutral Zone on the baseless claims.

Setal confides to Data his defection came at a heavy price, he will never see Romulus or his family; Data attempts to alleviate Setal's feelings by taking him to a holodeck representation of Romulus. Setal dismisses the hologram, then reveals he is Admiral Jarok, a high-ranking officer who led a vicious campaign against several Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone. Jarok again beseeches Picard to investigate Nelvana III, but Picard refuses, and demands either Jarok provide information or he will be deemed a traitor. Jarok gives in to Picard's request, and gives detailed tactical information to Picard. Picard orders the ''Enterprise'' to Nelvana III.

After they arrive, the crew find the planet barren with no evidence of any installation, to Jarok's surprise. Unexpectedly, two Romulan warbirds de-cloak and fire upon the ''Enterprise''. Picard realizes Jarok was used as a pawn by the Romulans, feeding him disinformation to lure the Federation into the Neutral Zone while disgracing Jarok. In response to Romulan commander Tomalak's demand for the ''Enterprise'' s surrender, Picard reveals he prepared for this: at his command, three Birds-of-Prey, sent by the Klingon Empire at Picard's request (as relayed by Worf), decloak and surround the warbirds, rendering the situation a stalemate. The Romulans re-cloak and retreat, allowing the ''Enterprise'' to leave. After the Enterprise left the Neutral Zone, the crew discover Jarok committed suicide... leaving behind a note for his family. While Data notes relations with the Empire make delivery of the letter impossible, Picard states 'as long as there are Romulans with Admiral Jarok's courage and conviction, it may, one day, be possible to deliver Jarok's letter home'.

The ''Enterprise'' travels to the planet Acamar III after detecting traces of Acamarian blood at a looted Federation outpost. Sovereign Marouk, the Acamarian leader, suggests that the looting was done by the Gatherers, descendants of Acamarian society a century ago that have turned to piracy to sustain themselves. Marouk initially suggests hunting them down with the help of Starfleet, but Captain Picard convinces Marouk to join him to seek a peaceful resolution, including ending the Gatherers' self-imposed exile. Marouk and her assistant, Yuta, arrive on the ship to help. Commander Riker finds Yuta attractive and tries to get to know her better, but Yuta finds herself unable to open up to him.

The ''Enterprise'' crew makes contact with one band of Gatherers led by Brull, and offer negotiations. Brull negotiates with Marouk and Picard, and after hearing the offer, agrees to pass it on to the Gatherer leader, Chorgan. Meanwhile, Yuta meets alone with one of the older Gatherers and touches his cheek, causing the Gatherer to suffer a heart attack. As the man dies, Yuta asserts that she, as the last of her clan, Tralesta, will outlive the Lornak clan. The Gatherer's body is later found but initially assumed that death was by natural causes. However, later investigation by Dr. Crusher reveals that a fast-acting "micro-virus", targeted to attack a specific Acamarian DNA profile, was the cause. Dr. Crusher believes the virus was purposely genetically engineered, and that the death was a targeted murder. At Picard's request, Marouk has her government send data to the ''Enterprise'' to investigate the murder.

The ''Enterprise'' meets with Chorgan's starship, and Picard, Marouk, and Yuta transport aboard to begin negotiations. At the same time, the ''Enterprise'' crew receives the database from Acamar, and find that fifty-three years earlier, another Gatherer suffered a similar heart attack - he too was from the Lornak clan, and a photographic record shows Yuta was present, and clearly hasn't aged a day. Finding the common clan, Riker discovers that Chorgan is of the Lornak clan, and realizing that Yuta is there to assassinate him, transports over to Chorgan's ship. He interrupts negotiations to prevent Yuta from serving Chorgan a drink, accusing her of the murder. Yuta explains she is the last of five survivors of the Tralesta clan that was wiped out by a Lornak attack, and has undergone genetic alterations to host the virus and to keep herself from aging, allowing her to seek out and murder the Lornak clan to the last person. Riker attempts to talk her out of her revenge at phaser-point, gradually increasing the yield with each successive shot, but she cannot break from her desire for vengeance that she built up over the last several decades. After pleading with her not to try again, she advances once more on Chorgan, and Riker vaporizes her with his phaser.

A truce is negotiated between the two sides; at the conclusion, the ''Enterprise'' is assigned a routine survey mission through the now-peaceful sector.

The crew plays host to a group of visiting interplanetary dignitaries who are negotiating for the rights to a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant discovered by the Barzan people, which could provide a valuable and efficient "bypass" through known space. Deanna Troi, overwhelmed by her duties as ship's counselor, reluctantly agrees to attend the delegations' reception. She meets Devinoni Ral, secretly a fellow empath and negotiator for one of the groups. Ral and Troi fall into an instant, passionate affair.

Meanwhile, talks over the rights to the wormhole are coming to a boiling point. Resolved to achieve success and take over the rights, the Ferengi incapacitate the Federation representative, Seth Mendoza. Captain Jean-Luc Picard selects First Officer William Riker to replace Mendoza in representing the Federation's interests. Riker recommends that the USS ''Enterprise'' conduct an exploratory expedition into it before committing the Federation to a binding contract. Picard agrees and orders Chief Engineer La Forge and Second Officer Data to take a shuttlecraft into the wormhole. In an effort to prevent being outdone, the Ferengi send in a shuttle of their own. The two craft are surprised to find themselves in the Delta Quadrant, and as they monitor the wormhole, La Forge and Data agree that while the other end of the wormhole may be stable, this end is not, making the wormhole worthless. Further, they detect signs that this end of the wormhole may move soon. The two try to warn the Ferengi about this before they return through it, but the two Ferengi remain steadfast. The Ferengi are shocked when the wormhole vanishes in front from them, stranding them in the Delta Quadrant.

Meanwhile, on the ''Enterprise'', negotiations for the wormhole continue, as well as the sparks between Troi and Ral. Even though she has fallen for Ral, Troi starts to have some second thoughts about him when he tells her in intimate confidence that he is part Betazoid and that he has been using his empathic abilities to manipulate the opposing delegates in the negotiations.

Ral deftly narrows the competition down to the Federation and his own employers, the Chrysalians. Just before Riker can obtain the wormhole rights, the Ferengi threaten to destroy the wormhole, claiming that an "informed source" has told them that the Federation has made a covert pact with the Barzan premier. Picard requests Riker's presence on the bridge to deal with the situation; in his absence, Ral takes the advantage, and builds his case on the Barzan leader's wishes for peace to win the claim to the wormhole for his group. When Troi realizes that Devinoni staged the entire altercation to sabotage the Federation, her sense of duty forces her to betray his trust and speak out publicly. But before the Barzan premier has a chance to cancel the bargain with Ral and the Chrysalians, the ''Enterprise'' shuttle emerges from the wormhole and hails the ship, announcing that it is worthless. Ral then says goodbye to Troi and returns to face his employers for purchasing worthless rights.

While the Federation starship ''Enterprise'', under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, investigates the asteroid-laden sector of space of the final battle between the Menthars and the Promellians, it receives a distress call from a Promellian battlecruiser; Captain Picard directs the ship to investigate. They find the ancient battlecruiser adrift but intact, and Picard, anxious to see the ship for himself, joins the away team as they transport over. They find the crew – all long dead, but still at their posts – while a recording by their captain suggests the ship was caught in a Menthar trap. With their investigation complete, the away team returns to the ''Enterprise'' to continue on, when they begin to suffer a series of power losses that prevent the use of either impulse or warp drive, and are bombarded by radiation that threatens to drain their shields and kill the crew. Picard orders Chief Engineer La Forge to find a way to restore power while a second away team searches for more clues on the Promellian vessel. They discover that the Menthars had previously used aceton assimilators to absorb an enemy ship's energy and redirect it back as hazardous radiation, and that the ''Enterprise'' is stuck in the same trap.

La Forge realizes that the only way to restore power is to reconfigure the warp drive, and traces the warp drive's design back to the ''Enterprise'' s construction and blueprints created by Dr. Leah Brahms. La Forge enters the ship's holodeck to help figure through the engine reconfiguration, whereupon the computer takes an off the cuff remark by Geordi literally and creates a holographic representation of Brahms herself to assist him in his work. As Geordi does so, he asks the computer to update the hologram with Dr. Brahms' personality profile, and slowly gains romantic feelings for her. Despite the holo-Brahms' help, La Forge is unable to find a way to safely maneuver the ''Enterprise'' away, and when Picard orders all extraneous power systems (including the holodeck) shut down to conserve power, La Forge convinces the captain to allow the holodeck to continue to run.

After power is restored, the simulated Dr. Brahms recognizes a solution which is to allow the computer to take control of the ship, allowing it to make rapid adjustments to compensate for the trap. La Forge then finds an alternate solution to the problem, which is to completely reduce the power output from the ''Enterprise'' and maneuver it out of the field by manual control with only two thrusters. Picard and La Forge decide that computers cannot account for human intuition and elect to go with the manual approach. Picard takes the helm himself to carry out the operation, successfully moving the ''Enterprise'' from the trap. Once free and with power restored, the ''Enterprise'' destroys the Promellian craft to prevent others from falling into the trap.

While investigating a planet once occupied by Koinonians, Security Chief Worf and members of the Enterprise away team trigger an ancient mine. They are transported to Sickbay, but Lieutenant Marla Aster is dead. As Captain Picard delivers the news of Marla's death to her son Jeremy, Wesley Crusher talks with Commander Riker about how Picard had delivered the news of his father's death to his mother and himself. Worf expresses his desire to make R'uustai, a Klingon bonding ritual with Jeremy, as they are both orphans and he believes he can help the boy recover emotionally, but Jeremy blames Worf for his mother's death.

The crew investigates the planet, discovering mines that were recently unearthed and exposed. They observe a beam of charged particles emanating from the surface headed towards the ''Enterprise'', while Counselor Troi senses a new presence from the planet. In Jeremy's quarters, a physical manifestation of Marla appears, explaining that the crew mistakenly considered her dead and that she wants Jeremy to live on the planet. Troi and Worf follow the two preventing "Marla" from using the transporter to return to the planet. They return to Jeremy's quarters, which has the appearance of the Asters' home on Earth. Chief Engineer La Forge tunes the shields to stop the particle beam, causing "Marla" to disappear and the room returns to normal.

A filament rises from the planet, striking the Enterprise and disrupting the shields; "Marla" appears and takes Jeremy, intent on going to the transporter room. Picard contains "Marla" with force fields and talks to her. "Marla" explains that she is one of two races that once lived on the planet; her species, made from energy, watched the other physical species wipe themselves out from wars and her people want to prevent more suffering caused by the remnants of the war, thus providing Jeremy with the illusion of his mother still being alive. Picard and Troi point out that dealing with death is part of the human condition. Wesley explains to Jeremy how he dealt with his father's death. Jeremy expresses his hatred of Worf, but Troi points out they are both orphans, while Worf notes that he was aided by humans after he lost his parents. Jeremy decides to go with Worf. Realizing that Jeremy will be all right, the illusion of Marla disappears and the alien presence is no more.

Some time later, Worf and Jeremy undertake the R'uustai ritual.

In the late 1940's, in New York's Lower East Side, lives young Tommy Woodry, who has a habit of crying wolf. Late one night, he climbs up the building fire escape and sees his two seemingly normal neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Kellerson, murder a drunken sailor in their apartment. No one – neither the boy's parents nor the police – believes Tommy when he tells them what he has seen, since they all assume that this is just another of the boy's tall tales.

When Mrs. Woodry takes Tommy to apologize to the Kellersons, he refuses and they become suspicious of him. When Mrs. Woodry leaves to care for a sick relative and Mr. Woodry is away at his night job, the murderous neighbors plan to kill Tommy, who has been locked in his room by his father to prevent further escapades. Under the pretense of going to the police, the Kellersons take Tommy to a dark alley, where they try to kill him. Tommy escapes, but the pair quickly recaptures him, taking him back to their apartment in a taxi. Tommy screams at a policeman for help, but the officer remembers Tommy as the boy who came to the station earlier and failed to convince the police. The Kellersons fool the cab driver by posing as Tommy's parents. Returning home from work early, Mr. Woodry discovers Tommy missing and asks a neighborhood police officer for help. The officer uses a police box to request a radio car.

Meanwhile, the Kellersons have Tommy secured in their apartment. Tommy escapes, climbs onto the roof and is pursued by Mr. Kellerson to a nearby building that is in the process of being demolished. The police officer suggests that Tommy went to see his mother, and he and Mr. Woodry leave the tenement. Tommy sees his father leave in his car and shouts for him, the sound of which alerts Mr. Kellerson to Tommy's location. The chase resumes with Tommy finding the body of the dead sailor and scrambling further upstairs; when Kellerson follows the stairwell collapses, leaving him struggling to gain sure footing as he continues grasping for Tommy. Tommy pushes a rafter aside, causing it to collapse and sending Kellerson falling to his death, though the young boy is left stranded on the remainder of the beam suspended many stories above the ground. Neighbors hear his cries for help and send for fire and rescue personnel. A collapsable net is set up below Tommy and he is encouraged to jump to safety before the beam collapses.

Tommy explains everything as he is escorted to a police cruiser, including where to find Mrs. Kellerson and the murder victim. His father assures him how proud he is as they ride to the police station and Tommy promises to stop inventing stories.

''Battle Arena Toshinden 2''

Following the discovery of his treachery, Gaia has been branded a traitor and marked for death by Uranus and Master, the other leaders of the Secret Society, who hold another Battle Arena Toshinden tournament in order to lure him out so that he can be swiftly eliminated by them and their loyal forces. In a complete state of personal desperation, Gaia turns to the previous tournament's fighters for help in having to overthrow his former allies, unaware that the entire situation is a deadly trap/scheme orchestrated by Uranus as she personally seeks to eliminate all who stands in her ambitious way of overthrowing Master and taking the Secret Society for herself.

As in the previous tournament, Eiji Shinjo advances to the finals and manages to defeat both Uranus and Master in battle, and even though he is still unable to locate his long-lost older brother Sho, a series of clues are left behind that may lead Eiji to Sho from within the near future. With the deaths of both Uranus and Master, it seems that the Secret Society has been crushed once and for all. However, unbeknownst to the participants, the tournament has secretly been observed through the eyes of the mysterious Vermilion, an agent for the Secret Society's long-time rival criminal group, the Organization, who start to put their own plan for the fighters in motion.

''Toshinden URA''

Sometime after the events of the first Toshinden game, a police scientist named Ronron creates an android fighter intended for law enforcement, its name being the Replicant. To make the android as strong as possible, its fighting abilities are patterned off the world's greatest fighter, Sho Shinjo. The prototype is later stolen just before it can be fully completed. Within time, someone begins murdering famous fighters around the world in a surprising yet shocking manner. With no evidence as to who is behind these murders, the Toshinden fighters grow suspicious of each other. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, known only as Ripper, is seeking Sho Shinjo as his sister (believed to have been Cupido) has disappeared without a trace and Ripper himself believes that Sho may have killed her from within the past. Every lead Ripper finds takes him to the scene of one of these mysterious murders, leading to him becoming the prime suspect in a shrouded conspiracy that seems to be surrounding him and the rest of the Toshinden fighters.

Homer sees an ad for a children's essay contest in the ''Reading Digest'' magazine. Lisa submits an essay on the contest's topic — "what makes America great" — after visiting Springfield Forest and seeing a bald eagle land nearby. The Simpsons travel to Washington, D.C. after Lisa's essay, "The Roots of Democracy", earns her a spot in the national finals there.

While Bart and Homer enjoy the all-expenses-paid perks of their trip, Lisa visits famous monuments for inspiration. At a shrine to a feminist icon, she sees a corrupt congressman, Bobby Arnold, taking a bribe from a timber industry lobbyist to allow loggers to clearcut Springfield Forest. Heartbroken and disillusioned by government corruption, Lisa destroys her winning essay. She pens a scathing indictment, "Cesspool on the Potomac", which condemns government greed and corruption and names the politician involved in the bribery.

Lisa's essay elicits a hostile reaction from the judges and audience members. When word of her speech quickly spreads through the capital, Congressman Arnold is arrested, removed from office and sent to prison, where he becomes a born-again Christian. Lisa's essay fails to win the contest, but her faith in government is restored and the contest winner commends her courage and honesty.

The episode documents PC Jim Carver's first day at Sun Hill Police Station, during which he is partnered with experienced WPC June Ackland. It isn't specified how long Ackland has been at Sun Hill but, even at that point, it appears to have been substantial, because she is highly respected.

The day is an eventful one: the pair's first assignment together leads them to discovering the decomposing body of a woman in her bath. Later, whilst on patrol, Jim encounters a rude youngster (Gary Hailes) and, influenced by comments made by older officers at the station, decides to clip him round the ear. That action results in Carver receiving a reprimand from Sergeant Wilding. However, the boy's father approves of his son's treatment, so no further action is taken. June Ackland and Dave Litten have been in an on-again off-again relationship and, whenever they cross paths, both tend to go silent, making other members of their relief uncomfortable. Sergeant Wilding advises Ackland to drop Litten, saying that she can do better. PC Reg Hollis is mentioned in the episode. Although not appearing on screen, an attempt is made to contact him by radio. When he fails to answer the call, the officers in the station make the assumption that he has wandered out of radio range.[http://thebillbios.billfans.com/history_intro.htm Introduction]

The story posits the reality of clairvoyance and telekinetic ability among a small number of people. In an opening scene, telekinetics are shown to be capable of causing a sub-critical mass of plutonium to explode as if it were a critical mass, simply by thinking about it (that is, by telekinetically enhancing its internal neutron emission). Conversely, they are able to prevent a critical mass from exploding. When the United States is held hostage with nuclear weapons planted around the nation by the Soviet Union, all known clairvoyants and telekinetic operators are gathered together and tasked with finding the bombs and preventing them from exploding. Each operator is given one city; but as time elapses and not all the bombs have been located, some of the operators lose their abilities through fatigue, and others are required to take on more than one city simultaneously. Eventually the bombs are found and disabled, with one exception (in Cleveland, when a project officer mistakenly distracts the protecting operator). In the final scene, the President requests that the psychics turn the tables on those who threatened them, by locating and exploding bombs in Russia.

At the beginning of the story, Heinlein uses the character of a bartender in El Centro to establish the danger of the quake and inundation:

Heinlein's perspective character is a traveling businessman who had picked up two chance-encountered children and a vagrant while driving frantically to higher ground, and the dramatic arc centers on the efforts of the men to survive and save the youngsters from drowning.

In the story, two scientists and a navy ship investigate two massive pillars of water in the Pacific to discover if they are a natural phenomenon or, as one of the scientists conjectures, created by intelligent beings. His belief is based on another strange recent occurrence in the Pacific: "Lagrange fireballs", spheres of energy which move in a seemingly intelligent manner and appear to be responsible for the disappearance of people in Hawaii. While on the naval ship, more is learned about the pillars: one shoots water far up into the sky, where it enters a cloud-like formation which cannot be successfully entered and studied by aircraft or rockets, because their engines shut off when they try to enter the cloud. After an experiment, they confirm the other water pillar is linked to the first and returns the water back to the ocean. While one of the scientists is on deck preparing to ride up the water column in a bathysphere, an energy sphere appears; it engulfs him, and he disappears. The other scientist, still believing that there is an intelligence behind these phenomena, decides to take the other's place and ride in the bathysphere up the water column in hopes of finding his colleague and/or further insight. The two men find themselves in an utterly featureless (and inescapable) environment where they are provided solely with bland food and water. Eventually they are placed together, and they conclude that they are in the hands of other intelligences, possibly alien or possibly a much higher form of Earth life. From the complete lack of communicative contact, they decide that they are not even being studied but are merely being kept as pets, similar to the pet goldfish kept by one of the men. They may even have been put together in the hope that they will breed, suggesting that their captors know nothing of human biology.

When one of the scientists dies and his body is removed, the survivor believes that the only way back home is to die. Believing that it is imperative to warn humanity, he methodically scratches a message on the only medium available to him: his skin. The message is "Beware. Creation took eight days", the implication being that man was created only on the sixth day and a higher earthly being was created on the eighth. His body is ultimately recovered from the ocean, but the message is not understood.

Two bar patrons and a bartender debate building a generation ship to Proxima Centauri. One favors space exploration as benefiting society like Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World; the other insists that "Columbus was a dope" and should have stayed home. At the end of the story, it is revealed that the bar is on the Moon.

Potiphar Breen is a middle-aged bachelor with a settled, orderly life, and a rather unusual hobby. We meet him first at breakfast in a Los Angeles diner, where he orders his usual meal, takes notes of various apparently unrelated items in several newspapers, and carefully counts out his payment, adding an exactly calculated tip. He then walks out to a bus stop, where a young lady is removing all her clothes.

A pair of passing transvestites try to provoke a beat cop into arresting her, but the cop refrains for fear that the publicity will simply inspire more kooks to disrobe. Breen is unmoved. He waits for her to finish undressing, then wraps his coat around her just as the bus arrives. She promptly faints. He drives her to his house, lets her dress, and after explaining that he is not trying to take advantage of her, interviews her. She explains that she has no idea why she had the sudden urge to take her clothes off. He tells her why he was not surprised at what she did. Apparently women have been doing the same thing, all over the city, for some time. The news has been carefully hushed up, just as Breen himself called a friend at the newspaper and fed him a phony account of this incident.

Breen is a statistician. Working mostly for insurance companies, he advises them on probability and trends. In his spare time, he studies cycles. Human behavior seems to run in cycles, with prices, wages, hemlines, fashions, and entire economies crashing and rising again for no reason, except that each was following the ups and downs of a cycle. Three big cycles bottomed out in 1929, causing the Crash of 1929. It is now 1952, and every cycle he tracks will either trough or crest simultaneously in about six months.

Breen explains to Meade Barstow, the young lady, that "This year, the human race is letting down its hair, flipping its lip with a finger, and saying 'Wubba, wubba, wubba.'" Meade's striptease, along with the commonplace public transvestism, the new churches with their ceremonial nudity and all the other pieces of minor insanity are simply symptoms of the inexorable trends. As Breen puts it, while any one person may seem to be rational, in the bulk people behave statistically, whether they like it or not. "Meade," he says, "I think we're lemmings."

Meade and "Potty" grow close, and as the weeks pass and the craziness increases, both abandon their jobs and prepare for when it will be "time to jump." Breen has transport, supplies and a firearm or two. He plans to head for the Mojave Desert. Then the record drought breaks, and the skies open. They decide to leave. On the way, there is an earthquake. A hitch-hiker attempts to steal the car at gunpoint. Meade surprises Breen (and herself) by shooting the thief with Breen's pistol. Far from the city, they are horrified when a nuclear explosion apparently destroys Los Angeles.

Living at an isolated cabin, they wait for things to stabilize. There has been a full-scale nuclear exchange, but the weather was so bad that few bombs reached their targets. Breen himself has had to shoot a group of marauding Russian soldiers. But now the world is at peace, and Breen can catch up on his reading, in journals of astrophysics. He comes across an article where the author calculates the exact conditions required to make the Sun explode in a nova, and even offers predictions about when in the life of the Sun this might occur.

Meade comes out of the cabin to join Potiphar and watch the sunset. There is a rather large sunspot on the Sun's face. Suddenly Breen realizes that this has not just been a bad year. Looking again at the article, he knows it is the final year. "Something funny is happening to the sunset," says Meade.

"No," replies Potiphar, "to the Sun."

The game takes place in the fictional Might and Magic universe, upon the world of Ardon. The prologue depicts the burning of a small village in the Fairfield Lowlands by the Legion of the Fallen, an undead army under the command of Necros, a paragon among Necromancers who sold his soul to the dark gods in exchange for unparalleled sorcerous aptitude.

A young boy named Drake, the only survivor of the massacre, escapes into the forests of Duskwood and roams Ardon for years, seeking revenge against the undead. During an attack on his camp by Ogres, Drake is saved by the blind hermit Nomandi, who becomes Drake's mentor over the next few years.

The first playable portion of the PlayStation version takes place in Stronghold following Drake's capture by Shamblers, the lowliest of the undead. Drake escapes Stronghold with the aid of Celestia, Lady Archon of Citadel, and is enlisted into the ranks of the valiant crusaders under her rule.

Traveling to Corantha, city of the Dwarves, Drake enters an agreement with Prince Dain Stonefist against the Ironpick rebels who attack the city from within, exposing Dain's brother, Tor, as an agent for the Legion. Travelling to Duskwood, Drake retrieves the Coranthan Scepter of Regency from a band of Ogres with the aid of the insectoid Dashers and their leader, Tamris.

Returning to Corantha, Drake discovers that Earth Elementals have awakened while both Dain and Tor have gone missing, with the Ironpicks continuing to battle the Stonefists. Drake navigates the deep mines and defeats the revenant of King Aiden, Dain's recently slain father raised through necromancy, thereby saving the Prince and gaining Corantha's favour against the undead.

Returning to Citadel, Drake is then tasked with retrieving a talisman named the Star of Erathia from the northern Glaciers to aid in the war effort. After doing so, he returns to Duskwood to combat the Legion in the grub-infested tunnels below the forest floor, successfully destroying Necros' supply lines. With this victory in hand, he travels back to Stronghold, to aid Celestia's crusaders and the Dwarves in the final siege against the Legion's bastion.

Upon his arrival, Drake encounters Celestia fleeing the battlefield, and finds the leader of the crusaders, Captain Ursan, missing. Nevertheless, while the crusaders fight on the front lines, he penetrates the walls of Stronghold, battling the Legion's armies. Drake finally comes face-to-face with Necros in Stronghold's depths, but the wily Necromancer departs through a portal, leaving the crusader to combat his lieutenants. Drake claims victory, and follows the Necromancer through the portal.

Finding himself in Necros' floating battleship, Drake discovers Necros' forces docked at a massacred, Legion-occupied Citadel. Drake fights his way to Celestia's throne room, finding no sign of the Lady Archon. He then comes upon a hidden chamber filled with arcane, futuristic mechanisms, discovering an elevator leading to an outer-world location. There, he finds Necros standing before an enormous interdimensional portal - the Kreegan Gate.

Necros claims that Celestia sought the power of the Kreegans just as much as he did, taunting Drake into doing battle. Instead of attacking the invincible Necromancer, Drake destroys the Gate itself, causing a rift in space. Drake targeted the outer pillars with Exploding Gems right where the bolts of electricity travel to the Kreegan Gate. Necros is drawn through the Gate's portal, screaming promises of revenge against Drake. Drake, triumphant, returns to Citadel, finding the crusaders victorious against the Legion. With Celestia still in hiding from Necros and her newly enlightened armies, Drake becomes the Lord Archon of Citadel, and the new leader of the crusaders.

Numerous aspects of the storyline differ in the Windows version. Before reaching the Citadel, Drake must pass through the small village of Cador-Sûl, which is not present in the PlayStation version. Also, Prince Dain must be rescued from the Ironpicks before he can be spoken to, and Tor is not present. Two dungeon-like locations, the Catacombs and the fallen Starship, are accessible only in the Windows version. Ursan plays a larger role, Celestia does not flee Citadel and the final battle takes place on Necros' Battleship, with no mention of the Kreegan Gate.

The story concerns a soldier who deserts his regiment and encounters a wagon train of settlers. When finding an attack by American Indians is eminent, he returns to his unit in order to elicit help.

In Israel, ex-CIA agent Peter Sandza and his psychic son Robin meet Ben Childress, Peter's old agency colleague. Sandza plans to leave his old life and return to the United States with his son, but Childress objects and subsequently stages a terrorist attack to cover up kidnapping Robin for his “protection”. Peter narrowly survives, maiming Childress in the attempt and escaping while heavily injured, but is unable to protect Robin.

Months later in Chicago, high-school student Gillian Bellaver discovers her psychic powers, including telekinesis and extra-sensory perception, during an in-class demonstration. The uncontrolled manifestations of these powers harm people who physically touch or provoke her. She volunteers to attend the Paragon Institute, a live-in research facility studying psychic powers in adolescents.

Meanwhile, Peter has tracked his son to Chicago. After evading Childress's agents, Peter meets with his girlfriend Hester, a Paragon nurse, who tells him about Gillian. Peter tells Gillian that Paragon's director is cooperating with PSI, a covert agency led by Childress that kidnaps psychic children to weaponize their powers for the American government, managing and controlling the psychics by brainwashing them and eliminating their families.

As Gillian's psychic prowess grows, she begins experiencing visions of the Institute abusing Robin, who has unsuccessfully attempted escape, and eventually connects to him telepathically. Knowing that she knows too much and that her powers are growing, Childress orders that Gillian be transported to PSI headquarters where Robin is being kept. Hester overhears Childress's conversation and informs Peter, who plans a rescue, hoping she can lead him to Robin.

The rescue is successful, but Hester is killed in the process. Gillian uses her powers to assist Peter in tracking Robin down to a remote mansion in the countryside, where Childress and his handler Susan have spent the last several months grooming and experimenting on him. Though Robin's abilities have grown to unprecedented levels, he gradually becomes increasingly unstable from the psychological strain of his superiors' machinations, culminating in a mass murder inside Old Chicago, an indoor amusement park.

As Peter and Gillian infiltrate the mansion, Robin senses her presence. Believing that PSI intends to kill him and replace him with another psychic, he finally snaps, telekinetically torturing and killing Susan. Peter confronts his son, but Robin, a now-schizoid, furiously attacks him. Robin is thrown out of the window and scratches Peter when he tries to save him from falling. When Robin plunges to the ground, a distraught Peter flings himself after his son, thus killing himself.

Robin lingers a bit before finally dying, and seems to make some form of psychic contact with Gillian; he transfers his refined powers to her, implying that she will save herself from Childress and avenge his death. The next morning, Childress approaches Gillian and starts manipulating her to get her to connect with him. Understanding his long-term intentions, she embraces her psychic abilities and avenges the deaths of Robin and Peter by causing Childress's body to explode.

Just a Pilgrim

The title character (never named, simply called Pilgrim) was a Green Beret prior to the burn. During one mission, he and his comrades were left adrift at sea in a lifeboat, and forced to resort to cannibalism to survive, with Pilgrim being the only survivor by the time help arrived. He was exonerated, but he had developed a taste for human flesh, and continued the practice after he escaped. He was eventually caught by the authorities. During his imprisonment, he was routinely visited by a priest, and eventually accepted God. When the burn happened, he was freed, though he was the only survivor in sight. Struck by the death of the holy man who tried to lead him to redemption, he took the preacher's cross and burned his faith into himself (the scar on his face).

The series begins some years later, when Pilgrim encounters the group of refugees and offers to show them the way. He helps defend them from a group of pirates who attack them during their trek. The Pirates are led by a man with no eyes, two hooks for hands and two peg legs. Pilgrim befriends Billy Shepard, a young boy who keeps a diary and sticks up for him. Most of the refugees do not trust Pilgrim, as their numbers keep dwindling and, according to a few, his stories do not make sense. Eventually, Pilgrim leads them in a climactic battle, revealing that he had knowingly used the refugees as bait to lure the pirates into a trap, justifying his actions by the fact that their deaths will make the area safe for other travellers. As Pilgrim expects, the battle annihilates both the refugees and the pirates, leaving him the only survivor.

Just a Pilgrim: Garden of Eden

In the sequel, ''Garden of Eden'', Pilgrim comes across an oasis of sorts in a deep oceanic trench, where there is still abundant water, plant life, and what may be the last remnants of a civilised humanity. The people are mainly scientists who have been building a space shuttle that is near completion which may be able to take them off planet to some more hospitable world. Pilgrim requests that they take the Bible with them when they leave. The group is threatened by the onslaught of sliders, mutated jellyfish which can possess the bodies of other organisms. Pilgrim assists the scientists in warding them off. Eventually, the sliders gain an upper hand, and raid the sanctuary killing almost everyone. The shuttle is launched at the last minute, with only two survivors among the scientists (a male and a female), on board. Defending their escape, with an enemy's fingers literally in his eye, Pilgrim changes his mind and tells the woman to throw away the Bible, having had lost faith due to the deaths of so many innocent people. Pilgrim manages to ensure that the journal of Billy Shepard is taken instead.

The shuttle launches, the two survivors are safe with their genetic samples and the fate of Pilgrim is unknown.

Quark's brother Rom collapses from an ear infection while working at Quark's. At the infirmary, Dr. Bashir is outraged that Quark refuses to give his employees sick leave and casually suggests that Rom form a union. When Rom returns to work, Quark announces that he is cutting his employees' salary. Angered at this mistreatment, Rom calls a secret meeting of Quark's employees and persuades them to start a union. Inspired by Chief O'Brien's tales of his union-leader ancestor Sean O'Brien, Rom makes up a list of demands—increased pay, shorter hours, paid sick leave—and when Quark laughs them off, Rom declares that the new union is now on strike.

Rom pays customers to stay out of Quark's, and the bar is practically deserted. After Lt. Cdr. Worf, O'Brien, and Bashir wind up in a brawl over a difference of opinion on the issue, station commander Captain Sisko threatens to collect Quark's back rent if the strike doesn't end soon. Quark offers Rom a bribe to stop the strike, but Rom, quoting Marx's ''Communist Manifesto'' ("Workers of the world, unite!"), refuses.

Liquidator Brunt, an agent of the Ferengi Commerce Authority, arrives and promises Quark he will put a stop to the strike. Brunt crashes a union meeting and threatens the Ferengi workers with monetary ruin and legal problems if they don't return to Quark's. However, Rom inspires his troops once again, and they rededicate themselves to the strike. Later Quark tries to talk Rom into giving up, worried about what the FCA will do to his brother, but Rom holds firm, questioning Quark's concern for his safety.

Back in the bar, Brunt has his thugs beat up Quark as an example. In the infirmary, Quark offers to secretly honor the demands of the strikers as long as Rom disbands the union and pretends that Quark has won, to which Rom agrees. Once everyone returns to work at their new, higher salaries, Rom makes amends with Quark, but quits his job at the bar to work for the station as a junior repair technician, having realized that he does better outside Quark's authority. However, he promises to be with Quark frequently, but as a paying customer.

In a subplot, Worf is uncomfortable with the chaos of living on Deep Space Nine, and he moves his quarters to the starship ''Defiant''.

A couple (Henry and Garr) have gone out to dinner at a fancy restaurant the husband claims has the world's most absent-minded waiter. Martin plays a poor waiter. He has many mishaps, including pouring water before placing down the glasses, forcing the couple to repeat their order of "two martinis" three times, and subsequently bringing them six martinis. The film culminates with the wife becoming angry that she got dressed up, hired a babysitter and then was brought out to a restaurant with such amazingly bad service. The husband pleads with her: "Trust me... trust me." Immediately afterwards, the waiter returns with their "change"—$10,000 worth—before the couple had even paid. As they gleefully get up from their chairs to leave, the waiter comes back to ask, "Two for dinner?" to which the wife quickly responds, "Yes, two please," and the couple then sits right back down at their table.

''Mandingo'' takes place in 1832 on the fictional plantation Falconhurst, located close to Tombigbee River near Benson, Alabama. Warren Maxwell is the elderly and infirm owner of Falconhurst and he lives there with his 19-year-old son, Hammond. Falconhurst is a slave-breeding plantation where slaves are encouraged to mate and produce children ("suckers"). Because of the nature of the plantation, the slaves are well fed, not overworked, and rarely punished in a brutal manner. However, the slaves are treated as animals to be utilized as the Maxwells wish. Warren Maxwell, for example, sleeps with his feet against a naked slave to drain his rheumatism.

Although Hammond keeps a "bed-wench" for sexual satisfaction, his father wishes him to marry and produce a pure white heir. Hammond is skeptical and is not sexually attracted to white women. Despite his misgivings, he travels to his Cousin Beatrix's plantation, Crowfoot, and there meets his 16-year-old cousin, Blanche. He asks Blanche's father, Major Woodford, permission to marry her within four hours of meeting her. After receiving the Major's permission, Hammond and Charles Woodford, Blanche's brother, travel to the Coign plantation where Hammond purchases a "fightin' nigger", Ganymede (aka Mede), and a young, female slave named Ellen. Later, Hammond reveals his love for Ellen, despite his intentions to wed Blanche.

Back at Falconhurst, Hammond and Warren mate Mede, a pure Mandingo slave, with Big Pearl, another Mandingo slave. It turns out that Mede and Big Pearl are brother and sister, but no one shows concern over the incestuous act. Charles and Hammond take Mede to a bar to fight with other slaves. Hammond plans to use his winnings to buy a diamond ring for Blanche. When it is Mede's turn to fight, he easily beats the other slave, Cudjo, in 20 seconds and neither man is seriously injured. Mede is clearly an extremely strong and powerful man.

Hammond sets off with his "body nigger", Omega (Meg), to the Crowfoot plantation to wed Blanche. Once he arrives at Crowfoot, Hammond learns that Charles never returned to the plantation, taking with him $2,500 that Hammond loaned Major Woodford and the diamond ring for Blanche. Despite the confusion, the Major consents to let Blanche and Hammond marry. They do so that evening, with Dick Woodford (Blanche's brother, a preacher) performing the ceremony.

On their wedding night, Hammond leaves his and Blanche's room in the middle of the night. Hammond believes that Blanche is not a virgin. Although she denies having previous sex partners, it turns out that Blanche lost her virginity to her brother, Charles, at age 13. She does not reveal this fact to Hammond.

After a few months at Falconhurst, Blanche is bored and dissatisfied. She begins drinking heavily and is jealous of Hammond's continuing preference for his "bed wench", Ellen, who is now pregnant. Soon, Blanche is also pregnant.

Hammond and Warren take Mede to another slave fight, where Mede is nearly beaten by a stronger slave, Topaz, but ends up killing Topaz by biting through his jugular vein. Later, Hammond travels again, this time to Natchez, Mississippi, to sell a coffle of slaves. When Blanche reveals her fear that Hammond will sleep around with "white whores", Hammond bluntly states, "White ladies make me puke."

While Hammond is away, Blanche calls Ellen to her room and whips her. Ellen miscarries and it is unclear whether her miscarriage is caused by the whipping.

While in Mississippi, Hammond sells one of his male slaves to a German woman, who obviously wants the slave for sex. When the other men in the group explain this to Hammond, he is physically repulsed and denies that a white woman would ever willingly sleep with a black slave.

Blanche has her baby, a girl, Sophy. Despite giving birth and Ellen's miscarriage, Blanche's jealousy of Ellen continues to grow. When Hammond travels to an estate auction and secretly takes Ellen along, Blanche becomes apoplectic. She orders Mede to come to her room and have sex with her. Before he leaves, she forcibly pierces Mede's ears with a pair of earrings Hammond gave her. This is a particularly poignant act of retaliation against Hammond because he bought an identical pair of earrings for Ellen.

Blanche becomes pregnant again and does not know if the baby is Mede's or Hammond's. She realizes it is too late to accuse Mede of rape. In the final chapter of the book she gives birth and the child is dark-skinned and looks like Mede. Blanche's mother, visiting Falconhurst, kills the baby by crushing its skull. When Hammond finds out, he calmly asks the doctor for some poison, mixes it in a hot toddy, and gives it to Blanche, killing her. He then boils water in a giant kettle and forces Mede to get in. When Mede resists, he uses a pitchfork to stab the slave to death and then orders the other slaves to keep the fire going, thus turning Mede into a soup. The novel ends with Hammond and Warren discussing Hammond's plans to leave Falconhurst and forge a new life out west.

The novel is the tale of the Drummond family from Vancouver gathering together to watch Sarah Drummond's space shuttle blast off at the Kennedy Space Center. The Drummonds are a group of misfits with a wide array of personal foibles and intricacies. The novel's plot is the tale of events that reunite the Drummond family after many years of estrangement.

Several plot points of the book include geriatric HIV, armed robbery, death in Walt Disney World, pharmaceutical drug lords, black market baby sales, Daytona Beach, and suicide attempts.

Early in the book the men of the family travel to nearby Walt Disney World where they receive a package destined for the Bahamas containing a letter written by Prince William stolen from Princess Diana's casket. The men start to travel to the Bahamas to deliver their package, but everything and anything happens to them on the way.

The novel is told in a similar style to ''Miss Wyoming'', with many plot flashbacks. However, the focus in this novel is on the temporally linear plot.

Matthew Hollis is married to Karen, and father to teenaged daughter, Nikki. Victor, Matthew's colleague and best friend, who is going through a divorce, is father to 17-year-old Jennifer. Matthew's marriage is not going well for reasons not explained. Just before they are to embark for a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but Karen says she is going on vacation to Bahia by herself to "think about everything." Matthew and Victor decide to go to Rio with their daughters. Jennifer and Nikki share a room, where she says to Nikki, "Your father is so sweet... I used to have a crush on him", to which Nikki replies, "Me, too". At the beach, Victor and Matthew sees a lot of music and pass numerous young girls and women walking around topless. The fathers spot their daughters in their bikinis in the distance, but the girls turn around to reveal that they are topless as well.

After dropping the girls off at a wedding, the men visit a pub. After Victor pairs off with a local divorcée, Matthew winds up at the wedding, where he runs into Jennifer. Suddenly all attendees of the wedding strips down to their briefs and panties and takes a dip in the cold ocean. Jennifer insists Matthew and they also join them. But as soon as Matthew tells that the water is warmer than he anticipated, Jennifer passionately kisses him while Nikki witnesses and the two proceeds to have sex on the beach. Next morning, Matthew stresses it can never happen again but to his avail, Jennifer begins seducing Matthew in various inappropriate situations. At one point, while Victor and Nikki were having breakfast in the garden, she kisses him while he was shaving and transfers some shaving foam to her cheek. At another point she touches his crotch bulge from under the table while having dinner and eventually the two makes love again.

Jennifer tearfully tells her father that she had an affair with an "older man". Victor becomes furious and sets out to hunt down the mystery man, expecting Matthew to help. While Matthew tries to talk Jennifer into ending their relationship, she is determined to never give him up and takes a naked polaroid of herself and gives it to Matthew in public while riding Sugarloaf Cable Car. Matthew ultimately discloses to his friend that Jennifer had the affair with him. Victor is not as irritated as Matthew expects, because Victor is revealed to have been having an affair with Karen.

Jennifer tries to commit suicide with an overdose of birth control pills, but survives and the incident brings all of the friends closer together, although the men constantly object about each other's sexual misconduct. Karen and Matthew decide to work on their marital problems, Jennifer begins dating a young male nurse she met while recuperating in the hospital, and Matthew thanks daughter Nikki for being the only one who has not misbehaved. As closing credits roll, Matthew, in voice-over narration, says, "You only live once, but it does help if you get to be young twice".

Shante Smith (Vivica A. Fox) is a woman who gives advice on how to keep a man in check. Her ideals are challenged when her man, an attorney, named Keith Fenton (Morris Chestnut), threatens to stray. Smith is a well-educated woman who feels that when it comes to men and their tricks, she knows them all.

On the other end, Shante’s boyfriend Keith is being led by his friend Tony (Anthony Anderson), who thinks he knows all the tricks that women play. When Shanté's boyfriend, Keith, is caught red-handed stepping out with a co worker, Shanté institutes her "Ten Day Plan" to get her man in line. The battle soon begins, though at the conclusion of the movie, Shante and Keith get back together.

Years after the "known" events of the Robin Hood legend, Robin's daughter, Gwyn (Keira Knightley) has grown up to be a strong-willed young woman, with a talent for archery, much like her father. As Maid Marian has died and Robin Hood (Stuart Wilson) is perpetually away battling in the Crusades, Gwyn has lived much of her life alone. Her only friend is the sweet but plain Froderick (Del Synnott), who clearly is in love with her. Upon the death of King Richard the Lionheart, Robin returns to see that the proper man takes Richard's place as King of England. Robin is quickly foiled and imprisoned by his enemies, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Malcolm McDowell) and Prince John (Jonathan Hyde).

It is then up to Gwyn to save the day. She must complete Robin's mission to find and protect the young Prince Philip (Stephen Moyer), who has just returned from exile in France to claim the throne – not an easy task since he has decided to forsake his true identity and is travelling anonymously under his valet's name (who died en route protecting his prince). Though she does fortuitously cross paths with the prince, she is not aware of his identity. With a romantic spark budding between them, they must find the Merry Men and join forces to free her father from the tortures of the Tower of London before the evil Prince John ascends to the throne and brings England to ruin. After freeing her father, Gwyn along with her father and Prince Philip stop the coronation of Prince John.

When Philip is about to be crowned as king, Gwyn with a heavy heart tells him that she can only serve and work for him, and they cannot be together. Robin later explains that he stayed out of Gwyn's life to protect her from the life he leads, but it did not make any difference because she grew up to be just like him. He then proposes a partnership between the two of them to serve Philip, with the only condition being that she take her orders from him (Robin) alone. She agrees, and at the end they are seen together leading Robin's men, side by side.

Johnny is burdened with remorse. He decides to euthanize his terminally ill mother with painkillers.

''Kingdom Come'' is a story of a family called the Slocumbs, living out in the country, who must come together after the death of a family member, whom no one seems to remember with much fondness. It is based on the Off-Broadway play ''Dearly Departed''.

First, there's Woodrow "Bud" Slocumb, the man in question, whose wife, Raynelle (Whoopi Goldberg), is pretty nonchalant about his death from a stroke. Then, there's Ray Bud (LL Cool J), a recovering alcoholic who has a problem with seeing his father dead because of their rocky relationship; his wife, Lucille (Vivica A. Fox), is a loving, devoted housewife who goes out of her way to make sure that everyone has everything they need, but can't have the one thing she wants out of life: a child. Next, Junior (Anthony Anderson) has blown all of his money on a failed invention, and his loud mouthed wife, Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith), is no help; she hits the roof after his infidelity and reminds him often that she could have been married to his rich lawyer cousin, who, it is later revealed, left his own wife Juanita (Toni Braxton). Then, there's Marguerite (Loretta Devine), a pious, overbearing mother who usually calls her wayward son, Royce (Darius McCrary), a "Demon Seed"; she fears that he will end up in jail like his brother, and the latter is an unemployed worker who is irritated by his mother's unsolicited and shrill advice on how to live his life.

Story Plotline

The film begins with a morning radio announcement by Rev. Beverly H. Hooker (Cedric the Entertainer). Raynelle receives and reads her sister-in-law Marguerite's letter (much to Bud's annoyance), which says that she was expecting Bud to attend Sunday service, but assumed that he decided to watch wrestling again like he'd always did, but wonders that there was going to be television in hell. She had also heard about Junior's and Charisse's business going bad, and wonders that would he ever learn. She thinks that both her nephew and her own son could learn from Buster Kincaid's child, Tiny. She had him over the weekend, and he did some chores around the house; as a reward, she gave him three dollars for his birthday the following week instead of the actual two dollars. Moreover, she says that she has decided to come over to visit after church; she believes that one of them needs to get things right with the Lord, and she is the woman for the job. She decides that they are going to spend of whole day in prayer, discussing scripture, and singing hymns until they wear her down, like it says in 2 Peter 3:8, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." After Raynelle finishes reading, Bud, who both agrees and disagrees with some things said in the letter, collapses and dies, with the former noticing.

Later, Royce is awaken by a loud ring of his phone. The one calling is his mother, who starts singing too pitchy, getting him annoyed that he hangs up. After he answers again, he calls her off for waking him up, in which she replies that she says that he's taking the Lord's name in vain. Royce talks harshly to his mother, but she talks back and asks why he is still in his bed. She tells him that it's 7:00 in the morning and why he isn't up looking for a job, but he replies that it's not that at all. She assumes that he has a love hangover and begins accusing him of laying with a harlot, in which she starts slapping her phone to get back at him. He tells her to stop that and asks what does she want. She thought that he want to know that his uncle Bud has died this morning. He seems to be compassionate, saying that he is sorry to hear that and asking how his aunt Raynelle was doing. She replies that his aunt is not doing well, as his uncle dropped dead at a breakfast table in the middle of her letter. He then pretends to be sympathetic about the cause of his uncle's death. She says that they are going to their house and giving them comfort and some Christian counsel.

The Leningrad Cowboys, a band with foot-long quiff hairstyles and long Winklepicker shoes to match, live in the tundra. Their manager Vladimir tries to promote them, but nobody seems to like their music, except for the mute village idiot, Igor. They are encouraged to move to America, for people will "buy anything" there. They depart for New York, bringing with them a band member who had frozen the previous night while practicing outside. Igor, who was not invited to come with them, stows away in the plane's baggage hold.

They arrive at the CBGB bar in Manhattan. An agent first suggests they should play at Madison Square Garden or Yankee Stadium, but after hearing their music, offers them a gig at a wedding in Mexico instead. He also recommends that they change their musical style to rock and roll. They buy a used 1975 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine, strap the coffin carrying their frozen band member onto the roof and set off to earn their way through the Deep South, adapting their musical style to suit local tastes at each new location. All the while they are being driven on and exploited by Vladimir, who hoards the money, takes most of the food for himself and hides beer in the ice-filled coffin. Meanwhile, Igor follows the band by his own means of transportation. When he finally catches up with them, the band members have revolted against Vladimir and tied him up, but Igor frees him and becomes the band's road manager.

During the trip, the band spends time in jail, has their car engine stolen, causes a nightclub to close after playing an unsuccessful show, and reunites with a long-lost cousin whose singing earns them positive reception from the audience. They eventually make it to Mexico and perform their wedding gig, where Igor revives the thawing bass guitarist with a shot of tequila and joins the group on stage. Vladimir watches them play then wanders off, but the band finally finds success in Mexico, making the top ten.

The story centres around two alien agents, Cadet Flynn and Pseudo-Cadet Niven. They are incredibly advanced and evolved vegetables on a fact finding mission to Earth, where they take on human form. Their supervisor is accidentally decapitated shortly after arrival, leaving the cadets to fend for themselves. Through the course of the series the aliens discover the intricacies of basic needs, like the eating ritual, the sleeping ritual and how to purchase things, usually doing so in their own idiosyncratic manner.

Their exact whereabouts on Earth is something of a mystery. The society in which they find themselves bears some resemblance to both Britain and America, and there are hints that a totalitarian government is in charge. There are also street gangs parodying those in ''A Clockwork Orange''. Two agents and their apparently psychopathic commander try to capture the aliens. The aliens repeatedly escape, but not without suffering occasional injuries themselves.

After being dumped by his fiancée, hard-drinking and depressed Mike Cormack (Payne) loses his job in the Los Angeles district attorney's office and serves as bouncer in a Las Vegas casino.

A wheelchair-using stranger, Barzland (Francis L. Sullivan), hires him to locate a ruby that disappeared in a Caribbean plane crash. He lures Cormack into doing the job by telling him it may be in the possession of the very woman who jilted him, Janet Martin (Murphy), who is now married to the pilot of the downed plane.

The ex-detective flies to remote Santo Rosario to find the stone and investigate the mystery. When he finds his old flame, her husband is in prison. Cormack, again falling for Janet, is coaxed into helping him break out of jail.

Her husband shocks Mike by revealing Janet sabotaged his plane, causing its crash, out to collect on his life insurance. Janet also double-crosses Mike, who discovers she has killed a man and has the ruby. Barzland returns but plunges to his death, and Mike watches the police take Janet away to jail.

Whittier arrives at the fictional California State College, hoping to join the national champion varsity cheerleading team. She meets up with her friend from cheer camp, Monica, and they both put on impressive performances at the tryouts. Head cheerleader Tina is ready to ask them to join the team, but fellow cheerleader Greg goes a step further, telling Tina that Whittier will be the next head cheerleader. This angers Tina's pal, Marni, who had the position staked out, but at the urging of Dean Sebastian, Tina goes along with the plan and takes Whittier under her wing.

Whittier meets Derek, a campus D.J. who immediately takes an interest in her. Tina is very demanding and domineering and warns Whittier that Derek is not the type of boy she should be dating. Monica is bothered by Tina's meddling, but Whittier momentarily lets her cheerleading ambition get the better of her, and betrays Derek. Tina upset's with Monica's sassy attitude, punishes her which leads to an injury and she forces Whittier to choose between her friendship and the squad. Whittier and Monica get fed up and quit Tina's tyranny, but Whittier's school spirit cannot be suppressed.

With Monica's help, she gathers up the outcasts from the drama club, the dance club, and other groups that have lost their funding because of the squad and forms a ragtag squad of her own, determined to battle the varsity squad for a spot at the national championship. The two teams end up competing for the spot at nationals, with Whittier's squad ultimately winning. Afterward, Whittier offers Tina a spot on her squad, a position that Tina initially refuses but ends up wanting. The film ends with Tina sucking up to Whittier and Monica, deciding she wants to be on their squad after all, while Marni throws a comical fit.

The entirety of the film takes place within the course of one day in the summer of 1936 in the Soviet Union. After witnessing Mitya contemplate suicide, the film cuts to Comdiv Sergei Petrovich Kotov, his wife Maroussia, and their young six-year-old daughter Nadia relaxing in a banya when a peasant from the local collective farm frantically tells them the Red Army's tanks are about to crush the wheat harvest as part of general maneuvers. After hearing this news, Kotov rides out to order the tank officer to halt. Kotov carries authority as a senior Old Bolshevik and legendary hero of the 1917 Russian Civil War, and he is also very popular with the common people and local villagers. The opening scene makes it clear that Kotov is a devoted family man, and he claims to be a personal friend of Stalin.

Following this incident, the happy family returns to their country dacha (country estate), where they join Maroussia's relatives, a large and eccentric family of Chekhovian aristocrats. However, Mitya (Dmitri), an ex-nobleman and veteran of the anti-communist White Army soon arrives after being away for roughly ten years. He was Maroussia's fiancé before disappearing in 1927. He shows up in a costume to disguise himself, but when he takes it off he is joyfully embraced by the family and introduced to Nadia as "Uncle Mitya". Maroussia is left feeling deeply conflicted, as she had suffered deeply when he left without explanation and even contemplated suicide as seen through the self-inflicted marks on her wrists.

Despite his personable nature, it is clear that Mitya has returned with a secret agenda. It is slowly revealed throughout the duration of the afternoon that he works for the Soviet political police, the NKVD, and has arrived to arrest Kotov for a non-existent conspiracy that Mitya had framed him for. Mitya is abusing his power for the purpose of revenge, since ten years ago Kotov had conscripted Mitya into the OGPU, the predecessor of the NKVD, and was therefore the reason for Mitya being taken away. Mitya detests Kotov, whom he blames for causing him to lose Maroussia, his love for Russia, faith, and his profession as a pianist. Kotov confronts Mitya about his activities in Paris, where he gave up eight White Army generals to the NKVD. All were kidnapped, smuggled to the Soviet Union, and shot dead without trial.

Although eventually realizing that Mitya intends to take him away, Kotov believes that his close relationship with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin will save him. However, a black car carrying NKVD agents arrives to remove Kotov, just as a group of Young Pioneer children arrives at the dacha to pay tribute to him. Kotov willingly goes with Mitya, pretending to be Mitya's friend and even lets Nadia briefly ride in the car with them. While riding away in the car with his captors, Kotov reminds them who he is and his status, but he quickly realizes that they don't care and that it was Stalin himself who ordered his arrest. Only after looking into Mitya's eyes does Kotov realize the severity of the situation, causing him to breakdown in tears. Kotov is forced to make a false confession to all the charges Mitya framed him for and is shot dead in August 1936. Meanwhile, following Mitya's success in his revenge against Kotov, he ultimately commits suicide, as his revenge did not satisfy him in the way he thought it would. In addition, Maroussia is arrested and dies in the Gulag in 1940. Although arrested with her mother and taken to a concentration camp, Nadia lives to see all three sentences overturned during the Khrushchev thaw, in 1956, and works as a teacher in Kazakhstan.

''Shadow Skill'' takes place in the warrior kingdom of Kurda, where the main character Elle Regu has recently become the 59th Sevaar, a title awarded to their most elite warriors. She often leaves a trail of destruction when she fights and along with a drinking habit. Elle is constantly followed by debts and throughout the series takes on jobs to work off these debts. One of these such jobs leads her to the Green Octopus Inn on an island outside the city, which eventually becomes the protagonists' base of operation.

Throughout the series, Elle travels along with her adopted younger brother Gau Ban, who is studying Elle's fighting skills so that one day he could become the greatest ''Sevaar'' in Kurda. Also in Elle and Gau's life is Faulink Maya (Faulee), a Sui Rame talisman sorceress, and Kyuo Liu, a Septia beast-catcher and grandniece of Eva Stroll, the king of Kurda.

Warriors in Kurda fight using the Kurdan-style Kōsappō (交殺法, lit. "combining kill methods", ''ADV'' dub: "annihilation techniques") which has two general divisions: ''Hyōgi'' (表技, lit. "bright skills"), which emphasize punches and throws, and ''Eigi'' (影技, lit. "shadow skills"), which focus on kicks and the user's footwork.

While the game is a close adaptation of the film, it has a number of differences:

• Unlike the film, the game begins off the coast of South Ataria Island, where Skull Squadron (led by Roy Focker) prepares to battle the invading Zentradi fleet. Just seconds after Skull Squadron takes off, the aircraft carrier ''Prometheus'' is sliced in half by a Zentradi laser fired from Earth's orbit. After the player finishes the first stage, all surviving Skull Squadron units fly toward the ''Macross'', which executes a space fold out of Earth. The actual beginning of the film starts the second stage.
• A sortie where the ''Macross'' initiates an ARMD attack (an updated version of the ''Daedalus'' attack from the original series) on a Zentradi ship is added to the storyline.
• In the film, the VT-1D Super Ostrich flown by Hikaru and Minmay is unarmed when it is captured and taken to a Zentradi ship. In the game, during the stage where Hikaru and Misa make their escape from the ship, Hikaru is given a Gun Pod by Focker.
• During the final battle where Minmay sings "Do You Remember Love?", the broadcast of her song is disrupted by a jamming satellite deployed by Boddole Zer's fleet. The player must destroy the satellite in order to resume the song's broadcast.

Lord Alwin (LeRoy Mason), Earl of Northumbria, is captured in a Viking raid and taken to Norway as a slave. There he is bought by Helga (Pauline Starke), an "orphan of noble blood" under the guardianship of Leif Ericsson (Donald Crisp). He proves a troublesome slave, and Leif's sailing master, Egil the Black (Harry Woods), prepares to kill him for his insolence, but Helga stops him. When Alwin challenges Egil to a sword fight, Leif is impressed by his courage and permits it. Alwin manages to break Egil's sword, but spares him. Helga then gives Alwin to Leif.

Leif, with the support of King Olaf (Roy Stewart), the first Christian king of Norway, sets out to search for lands beyond Greenland, which was discovered by his pagan father, Eric the Red (Anders Randolf). Back in Greenland, Eric kills one of his men after he discovers that the man is a Christian. When Leif stops there to pick up supplies, Eric gives his blessing for his marriage to Helga (unbeknownst to her). However, after it is revealed that Leif is himself a Christian, Eric disowns him and refuses to give him any supplies. Fighting breaks out after Leif instructs Alwin to take the supplies anyway. In the confusion, Helga stows away on Leif's ship.

Leif has no choice but to take her along. During the voyage, she and Alwin confess their love for each other. Unaware of this, Leif informs her that he will marry her on the "second change of the moon". Egil, in love with Helga himself, foments a mutiny among the crew, who fear sailing off the edge of the world. When Egil prepares to stab Leif in the back during the wedding ceremony, Alwin leaps in the way and is wounded. Leif kills Egil, but is enraged when Helga reveals that she loves Alwin. He raises his sword to kill the unconscious Alwin, but his Christian faith stops him. Just then, land is sighted, and the mutiny dissolves.

Leif steps ashore bearing a makeshift cross. He has a stone tower built and makes friends with the natives. When Leif leaves for home, Alwin, Helga and a few others remain behind. A final, 'modern day,' scene, with ''God Bless America'' sung in the background, implies that the stone tower still stands somewhere in a coastal city on the northeast coast of America.

In Utah, Nancy Breyers is a defense lawyer who is inexplicably in love with client Michael Bosworth, an intelligent and sociopathic convict. During a break from a courtroom hearing, Nancy sneaks a gun to Bosworth. After Bosworth snaps a guard's neck, Bosworth and Nancy slip away.

Bosworth tears at Nancy's clothing and leaves her behind, where she will tell authorities Bosworth held her at gunpoint during his escape. He speeds off in a car with his brother Wally, and their partner, the hulking, half-witted Albert, then changes cars with one Nancy has left for him in a remote location.

In the meantime, decorated Vietnam veteran Tim Cornell arrives at his former home with his ex-wife Nora, who have two kids—15-year-old May and her 8-year-old brother Zack. Tim and Nora separated due to his infidelity with a younger woman, and Tim shows up trying to reconcile with Nora, with whom he is still in love.

Needing a hideout until Nancy can catch up with them, the Bosworth brothers and Albert settle on the Cornells' home with a "For Sale" sign which is seemingly picked by Bosworth at random. Bosworth picks up intimate details of the Cornells, and one by one all of them find themselves the prisoners of the Bosworth brothers and Albert.

Nancy's innocent act does not fool FBI agent Brenda Chandler, who puts surveillance on her every move. Nancy eventually cuts a deal with Chandler to have charges against her reduced by betraying Bosworth.

As young Zack tries to escape through a window, a friend of the Cornells who visits the house by chance meets him. Bosworth makes the family friend enter inside by force, and as they talk, Bosworth shoots him, then makes Albert dispose of the body as Albert gets anxiety-ridden and decides to go off on his own. As Albert leaves while covered in blood, he intercepts two college girls, who expose his presence to a small gas station owner. The owner calls the authorities who chase after Albert. Albert ignores their order to surrender and is killed by the police on a river bank.

Nancy begs Agent Chandler to give her a gun, but unbeknownst to Nancy, Chandler removes the bullets. As she goes to the Cornells' house, the house gets surrounded, and as a shootout starts by Bosworth, Wally is fatally wounded in a barrage of FBI bullets and falls on top of a shocked Nancy. Wally's gun is taken away by Tim. Bosworth holds a gun on Nora and is prepared to use it if Tim interferes. He is unaware that Tim has removed the bullets. Tim then drags the criminal outside, where Bosworth ignores the FBI's order to surrender, and is fatally shot.

John, an English lecturer in French history, is on holiday in France. In Le Mans, he meets a French Comte, Jean de Gué, who looks and sounds exactly like him. The two men have a drink, and John confesses that he is depressed, feeling as though his outward life is a meaningless façade. They drunkenly retire to a hotel and eventually swap clothes. John passes out and later awakens alone. When a chauffeur mistakes him for Jean, John decides to take on the Comte's identity and gets in the car.

At a chateau in St. Gilles, John meets his doppelgänger's family: Jean's pregnant wife Françoise and young daughter Marie-Noel; his brother Paul and embittered sister Blanche; Paul's wife (and Jean's mistress) Renée; and Jean's elderly, morphine-addicted mother. Believing Jean must have acted wrongly to want to escape this life, John spends the following week trying to make things right.

John sees the verrerie (glass-works) and renegotiates a contract to save the family's glass business. The next day he learns Françoise's dowry is in trust for a male heir—if she dies or reaches the age of 50 without having had a son, Jean will inherit the money instead. John also meets Béla, another of Jean's mistresses, who becomes suspicious of his sudden concern for the verrerie and its workforce.

John learns of Maurice Duval, the former head of the verrerie, who was killed during the German Occupation. Marie-Noel goes missing, and everyone but Françoise searches for her. When she's found in the well at the verrerie, John discovers Jean and his men killed Duval and left him in the well, accusing him of being a Nazi collaborator; Marie-Noel climbed down the well as an act of penitence on behalf of her father. John also realizes Blanche had a relationship with Duval.

After falling from her bedroom window, Françoise and her baby—a boy—both die. Suspecting suicide, John learns from Jean's mother that Françoise knew of Jean's affairs and feared the family all wanted her out of the way; Marie-Noel's disappearance (an apparent sign that she had turned against Françoise) was the last straw. John persuades the mother to resume her position at the head of the family and give up the morphine. He also suggests that Paul take over the glass business and mend his marriage with Renée. Finally, John apologizes to Blanche for Jean's actions, and tells her to run the verrerie in his place.

The next day, John gets a telephone call from the real Jean de Gué, who declares his imminent return. They agree to meet at the house at the verrerie, but determined not to lose his new life, John waits for Jean with a revolver. However, the priest for Françoise's funeral finds him and takes the gun, believing he was planning suicide. When the priest leaves, Jean arrives and mocks John's attempts to help the family, mistakenly thinking he only wants to stay with them for the money and comfort, but John reveals he has grown to love them. Jean then reveals he has sold John's London flat, resigned from his university job, and cleared out his bank account—John's old self is effectively gone forever. The two men exchange clothes again. John tries to tell Jean his family has changed, but he ignores him and rejoins his family.

John goes to see Béla, who has intuited that he is not Jean. She reassures him the de Gué family will be different now, even if Jean tries to undo what John did. Lamenting that his feelings of failure led to a doomed love, John leaves to resume his travels.

This one-act play concerns two characters, Peter and Jerry, who meet on a park bench in New York City's Central Park. Peter is a wealthy publishing executive with a wife, two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets. Jerry is an isolated and disheartened man, desperate to have a meaningful conversation with another human being. He intrudes on Peter's peaceful state by interrogating him and forcing him to listen to stories about his life and the reason behind his visit to the zoo. The action is linear, unfolding in front of the audience in “real time”. The elements of ironic humor and unrelenting dramatic suspense are brought to a climax when Jerry brings his victim down to his own savage level.

Eventually, Peter has had enough of his strange companion and tries to leave. Jerry begins pushing Peter off the bench and challenges him to fight for his territory. Unexpectedly, Jerry pulls a knife on Peter, and then drops it as initiative for Peter to grab. When Peter holds the knife defensively, Jerry charges him and impales himself on the knife. Bleeding on the park bench, Jerry finishes his ''zoo story'' by bringing it into the immediate present: "Could I have planned all this. No... no, I couldn't have. But I think I did." Horrified, Peter runs away from Jerry, whose dying words, "Oh...my...God", are a combination of scornful mimicry and supplication.

The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Ed Tom Bell) set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican–American border in remote Terrell County in south-west Texas.

In 1980, while hunting pronghorns, Llewelyn Moss stumbles across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry that has left everyone dead, save a sole badly wounded Mexican who pleads with Moss for water. Moss responds that he does not have any and searches the rest of the vehicles, finding a truck full of heroin. He searches for the "last man standing" and finds him dead some distance off under a tree with a satchel containing $2.4 million in cash. He takes the money and returns home. Later, however, feeling remorse for leaving the wounded man and simultaneously desiring to know more of the circumstances surrounding the deal gone wrong and the money, he returns to the scene with a jug of water, only to find that the wounded man had since been shot and killed. When Moss looks back to his truck parked on the ridge overlooking the valley, another truck is there. After being seen, he tries to run, which sparks a tense chase through a desert valley. This is the beginning of a hunt for Moss that stretches for most of the remaining novel. After escaping from his pursuers, Moss sends his wife, Carla Jean, to her grandmother in Odessa, Texas, while he leaves his home with the money.

Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates the drug crime while trying to protect Moss and his young wife, with the aid of other law enforcement. Bell is haunted by his actions in World War II, leaving his incapacitated unit to die (having had no practical alternative), for which he received a Bronze Star. Now in his late 50s, Bell has spent most of his life attempting to make up for the incident when he was a 21-year-old soldier. He makes it his quest to resolve the case and save Moss. Complicating things is the arrival of Anton Chigurh, a hitman hired to recover the money. Chigurh is a ruthless, calculating killer whose weapons of choice are a silenced shotgun and a captive bolt pistol (called a "stungun" in the text), the latter of which he uses for close kills and to blow out cylinder locks. Carson Wells, a rival hitman and ex-Special Forces officer who is familiar with Chigurh, is also on the trail of the stolen money. After a brutal shootout that spills across the Mexican border and leaves both Moss and Chigurh wounded, Moss recovers at a Mexican hospital while Chigurh patches himself up in a hotel room with stolen supplies. While recuperating, Moss is approached by Wells, who offers to give him protection in exchange for the satchel and tells him his current location and phone number, instructing him to call when he has "had enough".

After recovering and leaving the hotel room, Chigurh finds Wells and murders him just as Moss calls to negotiate the exchange of money. After answering Wells' phone, Chigurh tells Moss that he will kill Carla Jean unless he hands over the satchel. Moss remains defiant and soon after, calls Carla Jean and tells her that he will meet up with her at a motel in El Paso. After much deliberation, Carla Jean decides to inform Sheriff Bell about the meeting and its location. Unfortunately for her and her husband, this call is traced and provides Moss' location to some of his hunters. Later, Sheriff Bell goes to the hospital to identify Moss' body, murdered by a band of Mexicans who were also after the drug deal cash. Later that night, Chigurh arrives at the scene and retrieves the satchel from the air duct in Moss' room. He returns it to its owner and later travels to Carla Jean's house. She pleads for her life and he offers her to flip a coin to decide her fate, and she initially refuses, declaring "The coin don't have no say." However, she ultimately chooses tails, and the coin turns out to be heads. Soon after, as he is leaving, he is hit by a car, which leaves him severely injured, but still alive. After bribing a pair of teenagers to remain silent about the car accident, he limps off down the road.

After a long investigation that fails to locate Chigurh, Bell decides to retire and drives away from the local courthouse feeling overmatched and defeated. At the end of the book, Bell describes two dreams he experienced after his father died. In one, he met his father in town and borrowed some money from him. In the second, Bell was riding his horse through a snow-covered pass in the mountains. As he rode, he could see his father up ahead of him carrying a moon-colored horn lit with fire, and he knew that his father would ride on through the pass and fix a fire out in the dark and cold and that it would be waiting for him when he arrived.

The film begins with Muhammad sending an invitation to accept Islam to surrounding rulers: Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor; the Patriarch of Alexandria; the Sasanian Emperor.

Earlier Muhammad is visited by the angel Gabriel, which shocks him deeply. The angel asks him to start and spread Islam. Gradually, a small number in the city of Mecca begins to convert. As a result, more enemies will come and hunt Muhammad and his companions from Mecca and confiscate their possessions. Some of these followers fled to Abyssinia to seek refuge with the protection given by the king there.

They head north, where they receive a warm welcome in the city of Medina and build the first Islamic mosque. They are told that their possessions are being sold in Mecca on the market. Muhammad chooses peace for a moment, but still gets permission to attack. They are attacked but win the Battle of Badr. The Meccans, desiring revenge, fight back with three thousand men in the Battle of Uhud, killing Hamza. The Muslims run after the Meccans and leave the camp unprotected. Because of this, they are surprised by riders from behind, so they lose the battle. The Meccans and the Muslims close a 10-year truce.

A few years later, Khalid ibn Walid, a Meccan general who has killed many Muslims, converts to Islam. Meanwhile, Muslim camps in the desert are attacked in the night. The Muslims believe that the Meccans are responsible. Abu Sufyan comes to Medina fearing retribution and claiming that it was not the Meccans, but robbers who had broken the truce. None of the Muslims give him an audience, claiming he "observes no treaty and keeps no pledge". The Muslims respond with an attack on Mecca with very many troops and "men from every tribe".

Abu Sufyan seeks an audience with Muhammad on the eve of the attack. The Meccans become very scared but are reassured that people in their houses, by the Kaaba, or in Abu Sufyan's house will be safe. They surrender and Mecca falls into the hands of the Muslims without bloodshed. The pagan images of the gods in the Kaaba are destroyed, and the very first azan in Mecca is called on the Kaaba by Bilal ibn Rabah. The Farewell Sermon is also delivered.

Successful Greek filmmaker, A (Harvey Keitel), returns to Greece. He has come to participate in a screening of one of his earlier films and to begin a personal journey across the Balkans. After the screening is disrupted by local ideological conflict, A takes a taxi from Greece to Albania. Ostensibly A is searching for 3 undeveloped reels of film shot by the Manaki brothers. The mysterious reels could predate the brother's first film, The Weavers, which is believed to be the first film shot in the Balkans.

A's journey fuses his own memories, the experiences of the Manaki brothers, and contemporary images of the Balkans. A drifts from Albania to North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. He travels on a train, a barge laden with a statue of Lenin (Polyphemus) and eventually a row boat. Though A makes some acquaintances along the way, he never lingers. His search for the roots of cinema, memory, and the Balkan identity pull him inevitably towards decay and death.

eventually travels to the besieged Sarajevo. He meets Ivo Levy (Erland Josephson), the curator of an underground cinema archive who had attempted to develop the missing reels before the war. A convinces Levy to continue his work with the reels. The film ends on a rare foggy day in Sarajevo. Ironically the fog protects locals from snipers and gives the city a rare chance to flourish. explores the city with Levy's family. Near the river the family encounters military personnel and are executed.

Three short sequences, based on the following Poe tales, are told: "Morella", "The Black Cat" (which is combined with another Poe tale, "The Cask of Amontillado"), and "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Each sequence is introduced via voiceover narration by Vincent Price, who also appears in all three narratives.

"Morella"

When Lenora Locke (Maggie Pierce) travels from Boston to be reunited with her father (Vincent Price) in his decrepit and cobwebbed mansion, she finds him drunk, disordered, and depressed. He refuses her company, insisting that she killed her mother Morella (Leona Gage) in childbirth. Lenora then discovers her mother's body decomposing on a bed in the house. Lenora cannot return to Boston and remains in the house to care for her father. His feelings soften towards her when he learns she has a terminal illness. One night Morella's spirit rises, and kills Lenora in revenge for her childbed death. Morella's body is then resurrected, becoming as whole and as beautiful as she was in life. This is in exchange for Lenora's, which is now decomposing where Morella lay. Morella strangles her horrified husband as a fire breaks out in the house. Then Morella and Lenora return to their original bodies, Lenora smiling as she lies on her dead father, rotten Morella cackling as the flames consume the house. The cast includes Edmund Cobb as a coach driver.

"The Black Cat"

Montresor Herringbone (Peter Lorre) hates his wife Annabelle (Joyce Jameson) and her black cat. One night on a ramble about town, he happens upon a wine tasting event and challenges the world's foremost wine taster, Fortunato Luchresi (Vincent Price), to a contest. Herringbone becomes drunk. Luchresi escorts him home and meets his wife. Time passes, and Annabelle and Luchresi become intimate. The cuckolded Herringbone then entombs them alive in an alcove in the basement. However he cannot escape "seeing" and "hearing" both the Black cat and the murdered couple taunting him. The authorities become suspicious and two policemen (John Hackett and Lennie Weinrib) visit the house to investigate. Hearing screeching behind a basement wall, they knock the wall down to discover the dead lovers — and Annabelle's black cat, whom Herringbone had accidentally walled up with the lovers. Cast includes Wally Campo as bartender Wilkins and Alan DeWitt as the wine-tasting chairman.

"The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"

Dying from a painful disease, M. Ernest Valdemar (Vincent Price) employs a hypnotist, Mr. Carmichael (Basil Rathbone), to alleviate his suffering by putting him under various trances. He then remains between the worlds of the living and the dead. In a trance, Valdemar begs Carmichael to release his soul so he can die, but Carmichael cruelly refuses. Months pass and Valdemar's putrefying body remains in his bed under the complete control of Carmichael. The hypnotist tries to force Valdemar's wife, Helene (Debra Paget), to marry him. When she refuses, he attacks her. Valdemar's putrid body rises from the bed and kills Carmichael. Helene is rescued by Valdemar's physician, Dr. Elliot James (David Frankham), and carried from the scene of horror.

Players take the role of Wesley Tyler, a senior mechanic on the IGTO Repair Base on Ganymede, who is tasked with the repair of various systems. At the start of the game, Tyler is ordered to repair the backup generators, and he and two other technicians drive out to fix them. On the way there, they discuss Tyler's past, how he was previously in charge of a security team, before being blamed for an accident involving faulty equipment. Upon fixing the power however, Tyler loses radio contact with the others, and starts encountering small three-legged insect like creatures. He then starts finding bodies, and larger more dangerous versions of the aliens he had encountered before. He finds a pistol and begins to battle the increasingly hostile aliens.

He eventually receives a message from a Corporal Jane Awryn, who is trapped in a water treatment facility. Tyler proceeds to rescue her and the two of them attempt to battle their way to the main colony of New Atlantis. On the way, they are ordered to report to "Weather Station 5", an illegal military compound and one of the first of the IGTO's secret military and research projects that Tyler will encounter throughout the game. Tyler is tasked by Lieutenant Dan Baxter with various different missions, before being reunited with Jane and sent to restore the ISERCom facility so that a message can be sent to any nearby space ships. The ''Provectus'', a large carrier class ship, hears the message and proceeds on route to help.

Meanwhile, Jane and Tyler are ordered to report to New Atlantis in order to protect the civilians living there. Despite some sizeable resistance, the colony had already mostly been trashed, and Tyler encounters few survivors. He and Jane do manage to rescue Dr. Harold Weiss, an IGTO research scientist, who informs them of the unfortunate news that the ''Provectus'' had already been shot down. Tyler and the rest search the stricken ship and eventually find and rescue Colonel Roger Smith, who despite the crash is still defiant and confident that they can take down the alien's mothership. Tyler is sent to go to the mines and find Baxter and his team to provide additional reinforcements, but arrives too late and only finds Baxter shortly before he dies.

Now on their own, Tyler reunites with Jane, Weiss, and Smith and they attempt to launch a series of defensive missiles. The missiles fail to launch, being engulfed on the launch pad. Ever undaunted, Smith devises another plan; they will take the alien pod, one of the many alien technologies that was being researched in secret by the IGTO, and the also alien AMEW bomb and blow up the ship from the inside. With Smith staying behind to man the launch, Tyler, Jane, and Weiss are flown into the heart of the mothership. Upon reaching the centre of the ship and defeating a final boss, the last of the Ancient ones, they are approached by the aliens' collective consciousness who inform them of the real reasons for the invasion and the danger they are posing to themselves and the whole Solar System.

The AMEW bomb was based on technologies that they had developed many years before, utilizing an energy source so powerful that it could destroy stars. The aliens had abused it themselves, destroying their home planet and most of their own race. Those that remained were intent that no one else should share the same fate. They had tried to recover all of the energy they had spread throughout the universe, but were disturbed to find out humanity's attempts to utilize it much as they did. They tried to warn them, but those in charge refused to listen, so they sent an army of genetically engineered warriors to protect humanity from itself. The bomb that they hold in their hands could take out every planet and moon orbiting the Sun. Weiss deactivates the bomb, and the aliens promise to never again meddle in our affairs, and return Jane, Tyler, and Weiss back to safety.

Odo is escorting Quark to a grand jury hearing where Quark is to testify against the criminal Orion Syndicate. Halfway to their destination, they discover that a bomb was planted on their ship. An attempt to transport the bomb away results in an explosion that forces them to crash-land on a frozen, barely habitable planet.

Their communication system is damaged and they have very little food. They are left facing a horrifying choice — starve to death or freeze to death — when Quark has an idea. He proposes that they haul their subspace transmitter, a heavy piece of equipment, up a nearby mountain, where the atmosphere may be thin enough to send a signal for help.

Sharing one set of cold-weather gear between them, they make their way toward the mountain, bickering all the way. They are dismayed to realize that what looked like a hike of a few hours will actually take several days. They argue throughout the journey, even as they finally begin to climb the mountain. Words soon escalate into a shoving match, and they wind up sliding down the mountainside. Odo's leg is broken in the fall.

Quark tries to drag Odo up the mountain, but it soon proves to be too much work for him. Odo insists that Quark leave him behind and continue alone to the top, but Quark, exhausted and hungry, is ready to give up. After Odo tries to take the transmitter himself, broken leg and all, Quark is shamed into resuming his attempt. But when night falls, Odo is still alone. Assuming that Quark failed to reach his goal and died, Odo assumes that he will die as well and begins recording a message intended for whoever finds his body.

Suddenly Odo and Quark are beamed to the starship ''Defiant''—Quark did make it to the peak, and his distress signal was received. As they recuperate in the infirmary, the two assure each other that when they said they hated each other, they meant every word.

Meanwhile, on Deep Space Nine, Nog returns from Starfleet Academy for his field study. He moves in with Jake Sisko, but the two come into conflict as roommates. Nog's strictly disciplined lifestyle as a cadet conflicts with Jake's more relaxed attitudes towards life, cleanliness, and exercise. They eventually reconcile, thanks to the efforts of their fathers, Benjamin Sisko and Rom.

Darren Shan is about to take the Trials of Initiation, a series of tests that vampires were forced to take part in during years gone by, to prove himself to the Princes. Currently, it is only used for vampires who want to become a general, or for those who wish to demonstrate their strength. However, Darren Shan is required to endure the trials to earn the respect of the entire vampire race for his mentor Mr. Crepsley's 'impulsive' decision to turn him. Darren is mostly trained by the games master of the Mountain, Vanez Blaze.

For the first trial, he must escape from a maze that is filling with water whilst dragging a stone weighing half of his body weight. The second trial Darren must complete is The Path of Needles, a barefoot journey through one of the mountains many caverns littered with stalagmites and stalactites, all of which are razor sharp and could fall at any second.

Luck is on Darren's side as the Festival of the Undead takes place right after his second trial. During this three-day period no official business can take place meaning he gets a five-day rest before his next trial. Suffering from a lot of cuts, notably on his hands and back, he finds it hard to enjoy the festival. A veteran vampire and Larten Crepsley's mentor, Seba Nile, asks to meet with him later as he has a cure for his discomfort. They go to a cavern deep inside the mountain which is covered in spider webs and Darren soon realizes that it is full of hundreds of thousands of spiders. Seba breaks up the cobwebs and applies them to Darren's cuts which he says helped immediately.

After the Festival of the Undead, Darren must choose his third trial which is The Hall of Flames, a metal room with various jets that emit flames periodically. Darren must remain in the room for approximately fifteen minutes, trying not to be 'toasted' by the scorching hot flames. This is revealed by many to be one of the hardest trials he could have picked, and he barely survives it.

The fourth trial is The Blooded Boars, a trial which is generally considered quite easy for full vampires. As Darren is only a half vampire and still nursing bad wounds from the previous trial, he struggles. The aim is to kill two wild boars which have been injected with vampire blood making them more aggressive than usual. Darren kills the first boar but it lands on top of him, and his lack of strength means he is unable to move the boar as the second closes in. It charges at him, certain to kill him when Harkat Mulds, the Little Person who accompanies Darren in his journey to the Mountain steps in and kills the boar. This causes an uproar as failure to complete the trials leads to death. Mr. Crepsley and Kurda, a soon to be Vampire Prince, argue that Harkat is not a vampire and cannot be expected to behave by their rules, and that Darren would've died if he had not been interrupted by Harkat. However, it is decided for Darren to be executed for not completing the Trials.

Kurda finds Darren in his room facing imminent death and encourages him to escape the mountain. Regretfully Darren follows Kurda as they make for one of the mountains many exits. Soon they are tracked down by Gavner Purl who tries to convince them to go back but eventually end up following them. They come across a cavern full of the Vampaneze. Kurda tells Darren to go on while he and Gavner would stay and fight the Vampaneze. Darren heads off but decides to come back and fight. He comes back and witnesses Kurda stabbing Gavner in the stomach and it is revealed he is an ally of the Vampaneze. Darren runs and ends up in the Hall of Final Voyage, where dead vampires were tossed into the strong current and washed out of the mountain. He realizes he is on the wrong side of the stream and attempts to jump over it. He falls short and manages to grab on to a rock as Kurda and the Vampaneze enter the cave. Kurda offers his hand to help pull him back to safety but Darren brands him a traitor and pushes himself out into the current. He is swept out of sight into the darkness beyond.

In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (Rod Steiger) is still faced with the 10-year-long war waged by patriots in the Italian colony of Libya to combat Italian colonization and the establishment of "The Fourth Shore"—the rebirth of a Roman Empire in Africa. Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani (Oliver Reed) as his sixth governor of Libya, confident that the eminently accredited soldier and fascist Grande can crush the rebellion and restore the dissipated glories of Imperial Rome. Omar al-Mukhtar (Anthony Quinn) leads the resistance to the fascists. A teacher by profession, guerrilla by obligation, Mukhtar had committed himself to a war that cannot be won in his own lifetime. Graziani controls Libya with the might of the ''Regio Esercito'' (Italian Royal Army). Tanks and aircraft are used in the desert for the first time. The Italians also committed atrocities: killing of prisoners of war, destruction of crops, and imprisoning populations in concentration camps behind barbed wire.

The film starts by introducing the audience to the historical context of the film. This introductory scene is part of historic records that present the rise of fascism in Italy and how it impacted Libya tragically. The scene concludes by telling us that the characters and the events in this film are real and based on historical facts. The first scene after the introduction starts with Mussolini in Italy, who created the Fascist Party in Italy, complaining about his generals’ defeats in Libya. In order to crush the Libyan resistance after twenty years of failure, and after losing five of the best Italian generals, Mussolini sends his most skillful general, Graziani, to Libya. This scene is then contrasted with a scene of Omar Al-Mokhtar, the old teacher who turned into a fighting rebel during the Italian colonization, teaching his young students in Libya. Graziani goes to Libya and starts his campaign to crush the rebellion. The Libyans show great tenacity and make enormous sacrifices to defend their country.

Despite their bravery, the Libyan Arabs and Berbers suffered heavy losses, because their relatively primitive weaponry was no match for mechanised warfare; despite all this, they continued to fight and managed to keep the Italians from achieving complete victory for 20 years. Graziani was only able to achieve victory through deceit, deception, violation of the laws of war and human rights, and by the use of tanks and aircraft.

Omar Al-Mokhtar shows great perseverance and wisdom in leading the resistance movement. He enters into negotiations with the Italians to liberate Libya, but never reaches a deal with them because they pretend to negotiate only to win time. They ask him for significant concessions and promise him some materialistic rewards to end the resistance movement, but Al-Mukhtar never accepts any of that, even after they captured him. They hang him in public to show the Libyans that resisting them is useless, but the resistance does not stop with his death.

Despite the Libyans' lack of modern weaponry, Graziani recognized the skill of his adversary in waging guerrilla warfare. In one scene, Mukhtar refuses to kill a defenseless young officer, instead giving him the Italian flag to bring home to Italy. Mukhtar says that Islam forbids him to kill captured soldiers and demands that he only fight for his homeland, and that Muslims are taught to hate war itself.

In the end, Mukhtar is captured and tried as a rebel. His lawyer, Captain Lontano, states that since Mukhtar had never accepted Italian rule, he cannot be tried as a rebel and instead must be treated as a prisoner of war (which would save him from being hanged). The judge rejects this, and the film ends with Mukthar being publicly executed by hanging.

Nick Cassidy and Rudy Duncan are cellmates in a prison in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula two days away from release. Nick plans to meet up with a young woman named Ashley Mercer, whom he has been corresponding with while Rudy simply wants is to go back to his family in Sidnaw for Christmas. During a prison fight, Nick is killed with a shiv. Rudy gets released and, wanting to get with Ashley, assumed Nick's identity. They go to a diner to get to know each other, then they have sex in a cabin.

The two are soon kidnapped by Gabriel, Ashley’s brother and a gang leader, in their cabin. He tells Rudy that the gang, composed of Pug, Merlin, and Jumpy, will rob the casino that Nick used to work at, using Nick's knowledge of the place. Rudy tries explaining that he is not Nick, but Ashley believes that he is. She reveals that she wrote to him knowing that Gabriel was going to force Nick to assist in the robbery. Rudy, knowing that he is useless to the gang as himself, is forced to continue his ruse.

Using the information from the real Nick’s prison cell stories, Rudy is able to devise a robbery plan and informs Gabriel that the biggest loot is hidden inside a safe in the manager Jack Bangs's office, calling it the "PowWow safe". Gabriel shows Rudy a hand-drawn map of the casino, but Rudy claims that the casino has been remodeled. They go to the casino the next day, with Rudy dressed as a cowboy, to snoop around to see any changes. He is almost caught by Nick's old boss, Jack Bangs, but Rudy escapes by impersonating a college student by switching clothes with him in the bathroom. Merlin finds out from a cigarette girl that the casino was never remodeled and has been the same since it opened. Rudy takes Ashley on the run with him as Gabriel and his thugs pursue them to a frozen lake, firing guns at them. One of the bullets causes Ashley to fall through the ice, forcing Rudy to jump in and rescue her. Gabriel and the thugs pull them out and are then spotted by an ice fisherman, whom Gabriel kills after getting suspicious.

Frustrated by Rudy's escape attempt, Gabriel throws darts at him to get some answers and rants at him about his life as a truck driver, knowing that Jack doesn't know anything about the planned robbery. He decides to give Rudy a second chance at drawing the map. Later, Rudy breaks out of his hotel room and stumbles upon Gabriel and Ashley in the pool area, learning that they are lovers and not siblings, but he is forced to return to his room when he is almost caught by Merlin. The group robs the casino, each dressed as Santa Claus. Rudy, forced to take part in the robbery with only a squirt gun, hides the fact that he knows Ashley’s secret. The robbery doesn't go according to plan due to the confusion of inaccurate details of Rudy's plan. As a result, Pug gets killed in the casino's count room.

Ashley drives into the casino and confesses to Rudy that she is in on the heist. Everyone meets in the manager's office. Gabriel introduces Rudy as Nick to Jack, but the manager recognizes him only as the cowboy from earlier and not as Nick. Rudy finally reveals his true identity. Gabriel, furious at Rudy’s deception, spares him for a moment when he demands to know where the "PowWow" safe is. When Jack opens the safe, he grabs guns from inside and kills Jumpy as the rest flee. Jack dies during the shootout while Rudy kills Merlin. Rudy is then grabbed out the back door by Gabriel and Ashley who tie him up in their 18-wheeler truck.

The two plan to drive Rudy off the edge of a cliff in a burning vehicle with some of the money so that officials will assume that the stolen money had been burned. After accidentally revealing too much information during an argument with Rudy, Ashley shoots and kills the now suspicious Gabriel. Shortly after, Nick appears, revealing he staged his death at the prison. It is revealed that Ashley's real name is Millie Bobeck and was aware of Rudy's true identity the whole time. He learns that the two had collaborated to rob the casino using Rudy, Gabriel, and Gabriel's gang. After they tie Rudy to the steering wheel to drive off the cliff, Rudy produces a knife he had gotten earlier, cuts his bindings, hot wires the car, sets it to reverse and crushes Nick's legs. A shocked Millie desperately attempts to fire at him, but Rudy rams the fiery car into her and dives out as the car and Millie go over the cliff, killing her. Nick, who is still alive, tries to convince Rudy that they can share the money, but Rudy locks him in the truck and also sends it over the cliff with Nick trapped inside.

With the whole ordeal finally over, Rudy picks up the stolen cash and begins distributing it in mailboxes he comes across on the way home to his family, where he eats Christmas dinner with them.

After the Wrath of the Lamb earthquake, Rayford Steele must find his wife Amanda White, who was supposed to land in New Babylon. Buck Williams must find his wife Chloe Steele, who was last seen in a house that is now a shattered ruin. The only other person accounted for is Tsion Ben-Judah, and nearly a quarter of the world's population was snuffed out by the earthquake. The Global Community (GC) starts a new program called Cellular Solar, aka: Cell-Sol (pronounced sell-soul), a solar powered cell phone global network. Both Buck and Tsion find a new home for the Tribulation Force, half of a duplex belonging to the late Donny Moore and his wife, after discovering the death of Loretta, a close friend to the Tribulation Force, and after Buck rescues Tsion from the shelter under the church where he lived.

Nicolae Carpathia is revealed to have believed Revelation about the earthquake, because all surviving GC in New Babylon move into a massive underground shelter. Mac McCullum, Rayford's co-pilot, wants to know what Rayford knows about Carpathia, not believing that someone who thought only of his own life (as Nicolae did during the earthquake) could be divine. Leon Fortunato, a sycophant of Carpathia and now his Supreme Commander, claims that Carpathia resurrected him from the wreckage of GC headquarters in New Babylon.

Buck searches for Chloe, discovering she is pregnant with their baby. He also meets Floyd Charles, a physician and fellow believer, who later joins the Trib. Force. Mac, becomes a Believer. Believers around the world discover that they have received a sign on their foreheads visible only to other believers, leading to the common phrase, “I can see yours. Can you see mine?” This mark becomes a central plot device, since believers are able to locate each other with ease and yet blend in with Antichrist and Global Community Potentate Nicolae Carpathia's henchmen when necessary.

Buck finds Chloe in a GC Hospital and rescues her, taking her back to the house where he and Tsion are staying. Tsion is planning to go back to Israel to teach the 144,000 witnesses. Ken Ritz becomes a believer as well. After TV signals return, they discover that the content is terrible from nudity, sexuality, torture, black arts, and more.

The Trib. Force finds Hattie Durham in an abortion clinic in Denver and discovers that Carpathia is plotting to have both Rayford and Hattie murdered there. Pretending to be Rayford, Buck rescues Hattie and unwittingly punches and kills an armed security guard intent on killing them. Later, Buck deeply regrets the guard's death even after one of his friends explains it was a "kill or be killed" situation.

Rayford, who continues to fly the Condor 216 for Carpathia, tries to find Amanda's body. He buys two sets of scuba gear to dive to the bottom of the Tigris River with Mac. Hattie is sick and Trib. Force members try to get her to accept God. Rayford and Mac find his wife's body as the First of the Seven Trumpet Judgments, flaming hailstones and blood pour down from the sky. Rayford is suicidal upon finding Amanda and tries to drown himself, but Mac will not allow it. Rayford recovers her laptop and says that the Hard Drive is intact. Rayford and Mac discuss that they did not see the mark of the Believer on Amanda, but decide that this is inconclusive because they do not know if she died before or after the marks started appearing, or if the mark stays on the believer or goes away after they die.

The GCASA (Global Community Aeronautics and Space Administration), find that a new comet is going to crash into the ocean, killing marine life and sinking ships. This is the second Trumpet Judgment. Ten weeks later, right before the Trib. Force travels to Israel for the Meeting of the Witnesses, the GCASA find a new threat in the heavens, a star called Wormwood. The GC tries to destroy it, but before they are able to effect a nuclear strike on it, it shatters into billions of pieces that fall into the lakes, streams, and fountains, turning the water to a bitter poison. This is the Third Trumpet Judgment.

Former Irish pugilist and Provisional IRA member Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) returns home to Belfast from a 14-year stint in prison at the age of 32. Weary of the unbroken cycle of violence in Northern Ireland, he attempts to settle down and live in peace. After meeting his drink-sodden old trainer Ike (Ken Stott), Danny starts up a non-sectarian boxing club for boys in an old gymnasium.

While fixing up the old building, however, he runs across a cache of Semtex hidden underneath the stage. He throws the cache into the river.

Danny's action infuriates Harry (Gerard McSorley), a bitter and ruthless IRA lieutenant. Danny reconnects with an old flame, Maggie (Emily Watson), now married to an imprisoned IRA man and required by IRA code to remain faithful to him. Their relationship dominates much of the film.

Harry sees Danny and Maggie's relationship as a way to undermine the authority of her father, Joe Hamill (Brian Cox), the grim but war-weary local IRA commander who is working for peace. Harry feuds with Danny, assassinating the kindly police officer who donates equipment to the boxing club. The murder causes a riot at one of Danny's boxing matches. During the riot, the gymnasium is burnt down by Liam, the young son of Maggie, who thinks Danny and his mother are going to elope.

Eventually, Harry and some other IRA men kidnap Danny and take him away to be executed. Then, in a last-minute twist, the IRA gunman shoots Harry instead of Danny, thus eliminating a rogue agent. With her son Liam in the car, Maggie picks up Danny and they all drive home together.

Rayford, filled with rage over so many losses, contemplates killing Nicolae Carpathia. He is so obsessed with the idea that he becomes stern and short tempered at times. At the New Babylon palace, David is placed in charge of delivering 144 computers to Nicolae, but diverts the delivery by telling the pilots one location and filling out the paperwork for another location. Floyd Charles reveals that he was infected from delivering Hattie's stillborn child and goes to the hospital where Leah Rose works. While on the run from Global Community (GC) forces, Floyd Charles succumbs to the poison and dies. The International CO-OP is up and running, which will allow believers to trade when it becomes illegal to buy and sell without the Mark of the Beast.

Rayford is still wondering if he might be the one to kill Nicolae. Hattie (who also wants to kill Nicolae) runs off after an incident with Floyd. Rayford and the newest member of the Trib Force, Leah Rose, a nurse from Arthur Young Memorial Hospital in Palatine, are trying to retrieve a large quantity of cash from Leah's safe when the Sixth Trumpet Judgment hits as prophesied in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rev%209:13-19&version=NIV Revelation 9:13-19], where a plague of death by fire, smoke, sulphur and deadly snake strikes carried out by 200 million demonic horsemen, visible only to the Tribulation saints, attack nonbelievers. Ray and Leah run into GC Peacekeeping forces and the horsemen, heading back to the safe house with the cash as the Peacekeepers are killed.

David Hassid meanwhile successfully gets the computers incorrectly delivered. He also introduces the Condor cargo chief and his love interest, Annie Christopher, to Mac. On a diplomatic trip to Sudan, the sub-potentate of the region sends assassins to blow up the Condor and kill those aboard, believing Carpathia is on too. Mac and Abdullah Smith, his new copilot and a believer, save Leon Fortunato. The assassins are killed by the demonic horsemen. The Condor is replaced by the "Phoenix 216", the former plane of Pontifex Maximus Peter Mathews, head of Enigma Babylon One World Faith. The GC plans a gala for the midpoint of the Tribulation and their covenant with Israel in Jerusalem.

Rayford uses cruel methods to get Bo Hanson to tell him where Hattie went. With the help of friends Mac made in Africa, he jets off to France to rescue her, only to be almost killed in a gunfight. In reality, the pilot had been murdered and Hattie taken to the Belgium Facility for Female Rehabilitation (BFFR, or Buffer). Rayford, Buck, and Leah leave for various missions 4 months later, at Gala Week: Leah to investigate in Belgium and hopefully free Hattie, Buck to witness the events of the week for his cyberzine The Truth, and Rayford supposedly to transport everyone but secretly also hoping to shoot Carpathia.

The Tribulation hurtles to its midpoint as the four murders prophesied in scripture take place. Peter Matthews is murdered by the 10 sub-pontentates of the world. Carpathia personally kills the Two Witnesses with a gun similar to the one Rayford buys to kill him. The Witnesses later protagonize a dramatic resurrection as they are taken up into the clouds, which is dismissed by the media as a hoax. After they are resurrected, an earthquake breaks out, destroying one tenth of Israel and leaving seven thousand dead, as prophesied in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2011:11-13&version=NIV Revelation 11:11-13]. Finally, Carpathia himself is assassinated as prophesied in [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013:3-4&version=NIV Revelation 13:3-4] while delivering a speech three days before the midpoint of the tribulation. Rayford is skeptical as to whether he really was the one who did the deed as he planned to. A hole in Carpathia's head is the same size that Rayford would expect his gun to make, but he was bumped from behind a split second before pulling the trigger. And there were several people near him who are just as suspect. In a brief flashforward to the day before the Potentate's burial, it is revealed that the assassin was caught on video camera and David Hassid is clearly surprised by what the tape reveals.

People flee from the scene of the assassination in a panic. Buck Williams notices that the gunshot sounded similar to the sound of the gun Nicolae used to kill Eli and Moishe. Rayford Steele is still wondering whether he really was the one that scripture singled out to deliver the killing blow to the Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia. In fact, it was Chaim Rosenzweig who stabbed Nicolae through the back of the head with a knife that he created- the thinnest, sharpest knife ever, although other suspects include Rayford, one of the sub-potentates, and even Hattie Durham. Leah Rose attempts to free Hattie from BFFR, meeting fellow believer and Global Community (GC) mole Ming Toy. Hattie was let go from BFFR and tracked by the GC, who expect her to lead them to the Tribulation Force safe house. She does not go to the safe house, as the GC wants her to, but goes AWOL.

Buck Williams is frantically searching for Chaim, believing that he has had a stroke, or worse, a heart attack. He returns to Chaim's manor to find several of Chaim's friends murdered by GC. Rayford escapes to Greece, worried that the GC may be pursuing him. He takes refuge with Lukas "Laslos" Miklos and his pastor. After being filled with rage for the past several months, resulting in his attempted killing of Carpathia, Rayford is guilty over his selfishness and vows never to allow his emotions to rule him again, and continues on his way back to Mount Prospect. Leah has already returned to the States but needs a ride. Meanwhile, Buck and Chaim make an escape from Israel, ending in a plane crash that results in Chaim's acceptance of Christ, as well as the death of T. M. Delanty.

Meanwhile, at the safe house, Chloe is in despair and has developed a plan to kill her son Kenny and then herself should they ever be found out by the GC, since she cannot bear to live without him. She is gently rebuked by Tsion. David Hassid informs them of danger and of a possible new safe house in Chicago (which the GC thinks is radiation-contaminated), the Strong Building, a huge skyscraper. Impulsively, Chloe goes to investigate it and leaves Kenny with Tsion, while Rayford and Leah return to Chicago.

At the safe house, Tsion Ben-Judah experiences a series of dreams given to him by God Himself. He witnesses a brief glimpse of the cosmic war in heaven that is slowly spilling into the Earth. He also receives a glimpse of the future, God's deliverance of His people- the Jews- into a safe haven, an act in which the Tribulation Force will soon play a vital role. He awakens to find that the safe house has been compromised. Rayford Steele, with the aid of new believer Al B, helps Tsion and toddler Kenny Bruce Williams escape the GC.

David Hassid coordinates purchases for the building of a statue of Carpathia done by flamboyant Guy Blod. He also is drawn closer into the circle of Leon Fortunato, who expects to be the new potentate. Leon shows him footage of the assassination and David listens in on the preparation of Carpathia's body by mortician Dr. Eikenberry. She discovers Chaims's blade and becomes part of the cover-up, lying and saying that she found a gunshot wound instead. Rayford becomes the scapegoat, since he is an easier person to blame than giving the truth that someone on the platform murdered Carpathia.

As the world mourns the death of their leader and a funeral service is set for three days later after the assassination, the statue of Nicolae is erected. Millions gather to view Carpathia's body, encased by bulletproof glass. Suddenly, the statue comes to life in the midst of black billowing smoke and speaks, demanding worship. Leon Fortunato, who is here revealed as the False Prophet, calls down lightning and fire from heaven to kill those who do not worship the image. David and his new fiancée Annie Christopher (who works in the palace and is also a believer) are stationed in different areas as they watch the resulting chaos. David sits with the Wong family (Ming Toy, her parents, and her younger brother, Chang, a believer and computer prodigy). In full view of the crowd, Carpathia is resurrected, possessed by Satan on the first day of the Great Tribulation. David is frantic because Annie is missing. The Antichrist speaks to the people of the world, declaring that if anyone is able to doubt that he is God after seeing this, and if there are still people who think that they have already been enduring Tribulation, then they should prepare for the Great Tribulation.

His Excellency Global Community Potentate Nicolae Carpathia has been resurrected and indwelt by Satan himself. He plans to remodel his offices and add two floors to his palace, including a glass ceiling. He also demands that the people of the Global Community (GC) worship him. Statues of himself are erected for worship. He introduces Viv Ivins to the senior staff and tells them of the loyalty mark program. The Antichrist declares that every single person on earth must receive his mark of loyalty and worship his image or lose their head to the loyalty enforcement facilitator. David Hassid finally finds out that his fiancée Annie Christopher has been killed by lightning called down by GC Supreme Commander and False Prophet Leon Fortunato. David passes out in the heat after the "funeral" while looking for Annie. He awakes to find himself tended by Hannah Palemoon, a nurse and a believer. She is added to their ranks and helps to plan their escape before the mark.

Albie and Rayford Steele run across Steve Plank, under the alias Pinkerton Stephens, at Boulder, CO, where Hattie has been taken. Steve tells them his conversion story; he became a believer during the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake, surviving but losing much of his body. He now wears prosthetic body parts and uses a wheelchair. The three then carry out the incredible rescue of Hattie Durham, who finally becomes a believer. Before they rescue her, she tries to hang herself in her room.

Terror comes to Christians in Greece as they are among the first to receive the death penalty for refusing the mark. Lukas Miklos loses his wife, his pastor, his pastor's wife and dozens of fellow Greek believers to the guillotine, while Cameron "Buck" Williams, who is in Greece in disguise along with Albie, help two Greek teenagers escape the detention center. Meanwhile, back in the states, Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr. also known as Zeke, is distraught to find out that his father, whom everyone calls "Big Zeke", has suffered the same fate after being caught helping and supplying other believers (subversives, according to the GC).

In New Babylon, David Hassid, Mac McCullum, Abdullah Smith, and Hannah Palemoon plan to leave, taking Ming Toy's 17-year-old brother Chang Wong (who is also a believer) along with them. But Chang, a computer prodigy, was brought by his parents to New Babylon, hoping to get him hired in Carpathia's forces. Determined to "make proud", Mr. Wong has Chang drugged, carried to the mark application site, and held down, even as he protests. But even after being given the mark of the beast against his will, Chang still has the mark of the believer clearly visible because he never accepted the mark of the beast by heart, spirit, and will. In this, David and Chang discover a great advantage: Chang can now be the new Tribulation Force mole in the GC Headquarters Palace as he can come, go, and trade freely. Meanwhile, the others plan a plane crash to deceive the GC into thinking they're dead while they join up with the Tribulation force to get ready for the massive exodus for believers which they call "Operation Eagle", calling in all their favors from the International Commodity Co-Op.

Everything reaches a climax when Carpathia announces that he will be returning to Jerusalem less than a month after his death there to occupy what he believes is his rightful house: the Jewish Temple.

''The Remnant'' begins immediately after the end of ''Desecration''. The Great Tribulation unfolds, with one million believers gathered in Petra under the protection of God as Global Community Supreme Potentate and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia continues to attack them and Armageddon approaches. Carpathia is ecstatic that he is about to attack the believers with massive amounts of conventional ordnance, a barrage that no one could survive without a miracle, yet all the believers do, not even feeling the flames that engulf their bodies. A final missile hits, opening a spring that drenches the fire. Afterwards, people talking to each other hear each other in their own language.

Chloe Steele Williams, Hannah Palemoon, and Mac McCullum all go to Greece disguised as GC officers to try to rescue George Sebastian. They gain information as to his whereabouts and begin searching that night. Meanwhile, Ming Toy leaves the safe house and under her new disguise (provided by Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr. a.k.a. Z) attempts to return home to China to aid her parents. While on the way, she falls in love with a South Korean Pilot named Ree Woo (who later marries her). She discovers that both of her parents have become believers, but a strange man informs her that her father was killed. Chang Wong despairs for his safety and looks to escape New Babylon. After an arduous ordeal, George escapes his holders. He finds his way to the Co-op, where he meets up with the others and a miraculous escape is staged. Steve Plank refuses the Mark of the Beast and dies at the guillotine.

The new safe house is compromised, thanks in part to Chloe's venturing out in the previous book, and the Tribulation Force is forced to look for a new place. They manage to leave the now compromised safe house and the Chicago, Illinois, area just in time before Antichrist orders what remains of Chicago to be obliterated by a nuclear blast. The main Trib. Force members find a new safe house with George Sebastian in San Diego, California. Meanwhile, over the next two and a half years, the next two Bowl Judgments hit: the world's freshwater supply is turned into blood and the sun scorches with fiery heat. The three angels of Revelation 14 begin appearing all around the world, spreading their messages. Rayford moves back and forth between San Diego and Petra, while Tsion stays at Petra to teach the Jewish remnant there.

Antichrist sends scores of false messiahs and false teachers to deceive as many people as possible. Many people, including several at Petra, follow them only to meet horrible and gruesome deaths. The next Bowl Judgement hits, and a deep and painful darkness descends upon the throne and kingdom of the Antichrist in New Babylon. Chang plans to use the darkness to his advantage in order to finally escape. As the book ends, the final year of the Tribulation begins. God is leveling the playing field and setting the stage for Armageddon, the cosmic battle of the ages that will decide the fate of all that exists.

Ned Flanders invites the Simpson family to a barbecue where he announces plans to open the Leftorium, a store for left-handed people. While pulling a wishbone with Ned, Homer—jealous of Ned's material success—wishes for the Leftorium to fail and go out of business. Undeterred after Lisa scolds him for indulging in ''schadenfreude'', Homer gloats when Ned tells him business is slow. Homer sees left-handed citizens struggling with items made for right-handed people and considers telling them about the Leftorium, but decides not to.

Eventually the store closes, plunging the Flanders family into debt and misery. Ned is forced to sell his possessions, and Homer gleefully buys many of them for a pittance. Overcome by regret, Homer decides to return Ned's possessions, but he finds Ned's house repossessed and the family living in their car. Homer tells Ned to open the store one final time and informs all the left-handed residents of Springfield about the Leftorium; they descend upon the store and buy almost everything. The business boom helps Ned keep the store open and get his house back.

In the subplot, Bart begins taking karate lessons at Akira's karate school. He soon finds himself bored with karate, so he decides to skip each lesson and play video games at the mall arcade instead. Whenever Bart is asked by his friends and family about the karate techniques he is learning, he refers to the Touch of Death, an ability he sees in one of the arcade games he plays. He proceeds to terrorize Lisa into doing his will by threatening her with the Touch of Death.

When the school bullies take Lisa's saxophone, she tells them Bart will defend her with the Touch of Death. Unable to actually defend himself or his sister, Bart is pantsed and hung by his underwear from a playground basketball hoop rim by the bullies. Having reclaimed her saxophone, Lisa wistfully notes that sometimes two wrongs ''do'' make a right.

It is the beginning of the final year of the Tribulation, and New Babylon is covered in thick darkness with the fifth Bowl Judgment. Rayford Steele, Abdullah Smith, and Naomi Tiberias travel by jet to New Babylon to rescue Chang Wong, their undercover mole looking for a way out. While there, Rayford discovers a believer named Otto Weser, whose underground cell of believers were hiding out in New Babylon from Global Community forces. Rayford and Otto crash a meeting that Global Community Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia holds in his office, telling his officials about the move to Al Hillah and the plan to build up troops in the Jezreel Valley for the final battle to deal with the Jews and believers in both Jerusalem and Petra. Rayford, Abdullah, Naomi, and Chang manage to escape, though Otto stays behind in New Babylon.

Meanwhile, Global Community troops are canvassing the area of the San Diego underground safehouse in which the members of the Tribulation Force are hiding out. Chloe Williams goes out to investigate one of their vehicles, but is soon pursued, captured, and brought into custody where she is interrogated for any knowledge she has concerning the Tribulation Force. With divine help, Chloe refuses to give them any information, even when she gets drugged and transported to an Illinois holding facility where she is injected with truth serum. Upon finding Chloe missing, Buck is absolutely frantic and short-tempered with others. The Tribulation Force try to find out where she was being taken, but are unable to rescue her before she is publicly executed. Before her transfer, Chloe is able to send a coded message to Rayford instructing him to quickly evacuate the safe house, as GC Troops know where it is located, and relocate to Petra. The San Diego believers are relocated to Petra, where they mourn not only for Chloe but also for Albie, who was killed by Mainyu Mazda when he tried to pay for his help in bugging the place where Nicolae's cabinet was going to meet.

Half a year later, Ming Toy and Ree Woo marry, and the Global Community cabinet now moves to Baghdad, to a special conference room that the Tribulation Force has secretly bugged in order to find out Carpathia's plans. During the meeting, Carpathia confesses that he is the Antichrist, and then with Leon Fortunato he causes three Carpathia clone bodies come to life by three froglike spirits that come out of their mouths. Their purpose is to gather up all the armies of the world to the Jezreel Valley (the Valley of Megiddo, or Armageddon) for the final battle. It is at this point that Tsion Ben-Judah decides to turn over the leadership at Petra to Chaim Rosenzweig in order to train himself as a soldier to defend Jerusalem from the Global Community forces.

At the final week of the Tribulation, God causes the Euphrates River to dry up, allowing the armies from the east to pass over and gather at the Jezreel Valley, fulfilling the sixth Bowl Judgment. The day before the Lord's second coming, Tsion travels to Jerusalem with Buck to fight with the Jews and to share the gospel with them so that they could be saved. An angel appears in New Babylon and calls believers to come out of her before she is destroyed. Mac McCullum travels to New Babylon with Lionel Whalum and delivers the remaining believers out prior to its destruction which they watch happen from the sky after rescuing believers from the city; New Babylon is utterly destroyed in 1 hour, similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. The battle finally commences on the day of the Lord's coming, with the Jews in Jerusalem dealing with Global Community forces storming the city and the people of Petra dealing with the vast sea of military forces surrounding the location. During the battle, Tsion is killed, and Buck and Rayford are mortally wounded, Buck defending the Old City, and Rayford when he is shelled on a reconnaissance mission outside Petra. One of the two original Tribulation Force members die at the end of the book.

The Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia has assembled the armies of the world in the Valley of Megiddo for what he believes will be his ultimate triumph of the ages. With a victory here, he would ascend to the throne of God. The Tribulation Force has migrated to the Middle East, most ensconced at Petra with the Jewish Remnant, now more than a million strong. Petra is surrounded by the Unity Army, poised to destroy all that is left of God's people and usher in Carpathia's new world order.

The world holds its breath as the greatest military battle to ever take place threatens to obliterate all that remains of free humanity. All seems lost. Tsion Ben-Judah and Cameron "Buck" Williams have been slain in Jerusalem, now overrun by Global Community forces. The hour of attack for Nicolae Carpathia’s Global Community Unity Army to assault the Rebels at the Temple Mount draws near. Mac McCullum goes to Jerusalem undercover to find Buck Williams and discovers his dead body before being ushered to a meeting with several more troops and Nicolae Carpathia's cabinet in Solomon's Stables. After witnessing Chaim Rosensweig preaching at Petra through live television and the death of a Global Community Officer, Satan temporarily leaves Carpathia's body and reminds the now trembling, feeble shell of Nicolae Carpathia that he is merely a shell for him before indwelling him once again.

Rayford is greatly wounded from a Global Community mortar attack on Petra's perimeter and is left on the brink of death before being discovered by Leah Rose and Abdullah and brought back to Petra in heavy bandages due to his injuries. As Mac returns and Chaim visits Rayford as night falls, the sun and moon go out before the stars and meteors fall upon the Global Community army, slightly reducing their numbers before the Sign of the Son of Man (a giant cross) appears and heals Rayford and all other saved and undecided of their injuries, causing many to become saved, including one third of the Jewish Remnant.

This does not dissuade the enemies of God, as the Unity Army, led by Carpathia himself, makes their final charge against Petra, seeking to annihilate all remaining rebels against the Global Community, even children. But suddenly, as Nicolae begins leading the attack, the cross disappears from the sky as the Global Community's weaponry is rendered useless. Suddenly, the whole world is covered in a blinding light as the entire earth sees Jesus Christ coming in power and glory out of Heaven with the Armies and Raptured Saints of Heaven. As Jesus speaks, the entire third of the Global Community forces and Carpathia loyalists at Petra are slain with Nicolae and Leon fleeing to Bozrah. The Remnant at Petra are suddenly blessed with the ability to run at superhuman speeds, allowing them to arrive at Bozrah right before Jesus obliterates all the Global Community forces there and temporarily descends to the fields of Bozrah and stains his robe with blood, fulfilling the Prophecy of Isaiah 63:1-6 of Jesus trampling the enemies of God.

With Carpathia's forces gone in Bozrah, Nicolae and Leon board a helicopter to the Valley of Megiddo where the other two thirds of the Unity Army are stationed. As the Remnant passes the Valley to get to Jerusalem, Rayford, Abdullah and Mac drive to a ledge of the Valley of Megiddo and witness Jesus obliterating the remaining two thirds of the Unity Army which are not at Jerusalem or around the world with the Seventh Bowl judgement and a loud cry from God in Heaven shouting "IT IS DONE!" . Viv Ivins is killed by a large hailstone crushing her before Nicolae and Leon escape the rising swamp of blood and gore of the fallen Global Community troops and make for Jerusalem in a Humvee.

As Rayford, Mac, Abdullah and the rest of the Remnant arrive at Jerusalem, so does Nicolae and Leon, welcomed by Global Community loyalists. Nicolae mounts horseback, preparing to attack the Rebels at the Temple Mount before the horses are afflicted with a flesh-dissolving plague. Jesus appears in the sky again with the Armies of Heaven and Nicolae orders missiles shot at Jesus but to no avail. As the Global Community troops at Jerusalem die, Nicolae and Leon along with what's left of the Global Community forces arrive at the Mount of Olives as Jesus dismounts and descends onto the Mount of Olives, causing a great earthquake that splits the Mount of Olives in two. The last of the Global Community forces at Jerusalem die as Nicolae and Leon flee for safety. The Mount of Olives splitting also ushers in the largest global earthquake ever felt, completely flattening the world and causing Jerusalem to rise more than three hundred feet. The remaining Global Community forces and Carpathia loyalists bearing the Mark of the Beast are killed simultaneously by the Word of God and the Global Community is finally overthrown.

Jesus enters through the East Gate into Jerusalem and calls all the Christians to him where he comforts them. Michael, the archangel, captures Nicolae Carpathia, Leon Fortunato along with Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm. Jesus personally shames Ashtaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm before destroying them. Leon is driven to tears and attempts to renounce Nicolae and Satan before being sentenced to eternity in the Lake of Fire. Nicolae at first refuses to bow to Jesus until Jesus casts Satan out of him, causing Nicolae to revert to what he would look like if Satan had not caused him to come back to life three and a half years prior. The feeble, elderly and rotting remains of what was Nicolae Carpathia bows to Jesus before confessing that Jesus is Lord and the Son of God along with confessing that he wasted his entire life on personal gain in his quest for power. Jesus then opens a hole in the ground which leads directly to the Lake of Fire before Nicolae Carpathia and Leon Fortunato are thrown into it and enter into eternal torment.

Michael then captures Satan and Jesus personally lays the charges on him, going back to the original rebellion in Heaven. Michael then chains Satan up and binds him before throwing him into the Bottomless Pit, where he will remain until the end of Jesus' 1,000-year reign. Jesus then departs for the Temple's throne as Believers find one another and find temporary lodging in houses and residential areas in Jerusalem.

The next day, Jesus gathers the entire remaining population of the earth in the Valley of Jehosaphat where the Sheep and Goats judgement occurs. Jesus banishes all those who still haven't accepted him as their saviour to Hell before resurrecting the dead Tribulation Saints and Old Testament saints before giving all of them their rewards. The Tribulation Saints along with the Raptured Church then re-unite with the surviving Tribulation Saints. Rayford is re-united with his wife Irene and son Raymie, and Kenny with Buck and Chloe, along with all the other saved characters who died throughout the series including Ken Ritz, Tsion Ben-Judah and his family, Hattie Durham, Floyd Charles, and others re-uniting in Glorified Bodies as the 75-day interval between the Glorious Appearing and the Millennium World begins.

''The Rising'' deals with Rayford Steele's childhood and college days, and how he nearly married another woman. A conflict between father and son as Ray decides to become an airline pilot against his father's wishes.

Also featured is the birth of Nicolae Carpathia, who would later rise up in ''Nicolae'' as the Antichrist. Marilena is a simple Romanian woman who is overcome by the need to have a baby. Her husband, Sorin, does not love his wife anymore and is revealed to be a homosexual. Thus, Marilena reads an ad for a group to find something "Beyond themselves", and meets Viviana Ivinisova, later known as Viv Ivins.

Viviana is a Russian who talks with the spirit world. She is a Luciferian, and says that loyalty to her lord can bring Marilena the baby she wants so badly. However, this baby comes through genetic engineering with the best traits of two sperm mixed into a hybrid sperm, which is fused with the egg. At first, it is unknown who Nicolae's two biological fathers are. (Later, they are found out to be Sorin and his lover.) After giving birth and realizing the amazing talent her son possesses, while showing no concern for her, Marilena discovers Viv's plans for the prodigy child.

Jonathan Stonagal is the financier of Nicolae's education. However, Marilena disagrees with these plans so much that she is finally assassinated; however, Nicolae is the one who plans her death through poisoning. Nicolae has his first taste of fame in a TIME Magazine article at a young age, graduates Secondary School early and graduates University in under 2 years and after learning of his parentage, he orders the deaths of both his fathers. After he becomes a multi-millionaire through Stonagal, Nicolae is taken by a demon to the desert, where he is forced to remain without food or water for forty days. In a contrast to Jesus' temptation, Nicolae falls to all three temptations. After this, Nicolae is returned to Romania.

Meanwhile, Ray Steele deals with his father, who is determined to have Ray take over the family business. Ray has his own dreams of becoming a pilot, and joins ROTC to attend college, where he meets and almost marries Kitty. However, Ray has second thoughts about the latter, and breaks up with her. Furthermore, he later dates his friend Irene, and they get married after a while. Chloe Steele is born during this time as well. After befriending a woman named Jackie, Irene slowly begins to feel something is missing in her life. Jackie, a Christian, lays out God's plan of salvation, and Irene accepts Christ.

The stage is set as Nicolae Carpathia ruthlessly eliminates any obstacles in his rise to power. Pan-Con Airlines Captain Rayford Steele prepares for a flight to London with beautiful flight attendant Hattie Durham. Because of his wife's newfound faith, Rayford looks forward to time—and the possibilities—with Hattie.

Journalist Cameron "Buck" Williams is in Israel when the Arab countries attack, and he experiences for himself the power of God when fire rains down from the sky, destroying the attackers. Even more, not a single casualty is reported in all of Israel. Buck cannot deny Chicago bureau chief Lucinda Washington's insistence that the event was prophesied in Ezekiel 38,39 and clearly of the supernatural, though he dares not consider the personal ramifications. Meanwhile, Nicolae Carpathia eliminates any obstacles in his path to power. As the newly appointed President of Romania, Nicolae is invited to speak before the UN.

Without warning, millions disappear and are inducted into Heaven, and believers from all over space and time reunite in the house of God, as prophesied in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17. The Judgment Seat of Christ takes place and the saints of the ages are rewarded for their perseverance with crowns from Christ himself. They are followed into Heaven, where they see the glory prepared for them by the Lord. On Earth, some realize what has happened, what they have lost, what they have missed, and the world plunges into chaos as drivers, pilots, and pedestrians of all occupations go missing. Rayford's first officer, Chris Smith, is among the first to commit suicide in the wake of the disappearances and the ensuing chaos. Pastor Bruce Barnes is among those left behind, and the young pastor knows that the disappearances signal the beginning of the Tribulation.

Seeing a catalog in men's fashion, Scrooge reflects that a man of his wealth should wear better quality clothes than what he often wears, or as he said "an old broadcloth I found at a rummage sale in Scotland in 1902". Scrooge feels that he should wear a coat of gold and provides gold bars. However, his tailor warns that the coat would be crinkly, as it would be the same as converting bauxite to tinfoil. The tailor says there is no feasible way to make a gold coat unless somehow the Golden Fleece exists. Scrooge decides to give up, realizing that not even his money can buy everything, until he meets a man called Ali Eikral who is from the country of Seikral. Donald Duck, who has never heard of Seikral, is suspicious of the Eikral's intentions, so he asks his grandnephews to look up the name Seikral in the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook. It mentions Jason and the Argonauts. The nephews figure out that "Seikral" is "Larkies" spelled backwards and Larkies are creatures who are half women, half birds and that the true name of their country is Colchis, where Medea fled when her relationship with Jason failed, taking the Golden Fleece with her and putting it a labyrinth of halls to be guarded by a "Sleepless Dragon".

Donald and the nephews are about to warn Scrooge that he is walking into a trap set by Larkies. Donald is also suspicious, and warns Scrooge as well when Scrooge is aboard a boat paying the disguised man five gold bars for his passage to Colchis. Just then, the "Eikrals" throw the gold bars overboard and reveal themselves as Larkies, capturing both Scrooge and Donald as Huey, Dewey, and Louie come to the rescue too late. However, the nephews see the Larkies' discarded gold bars in shallow water, then retrieve them to plan a rescue mission by buying their own weapons and hiring the services of a helicopter pilot to fly them to Colchis. The reason for the Larkies' kidnapping was that their queen has died, and they were on a mission to abduct the world's richest man (believing he is also the best gourmand) to judge in their cooking contest, the winner of which will become the new queen. One of the Larkies named Agnes agrees to help Scrooge and Donald escape if Scrooge says that her recipe is the best. To Scrooge's chagrin, it happened to be parsnip pudding, and Scrooge hates parsnips more than any other food. Later, while her sisters are sulking, the new queen Agnes lets Scrooge and Donald go but regrets it, so she later tricks them into yelling the word "Seikral" to find the way into the labyrinth. However, the maze of halls has a unique effect that will reverse the sound, so "Larkies" is shouted back. The Larkies find out that they escaped and bombard them near to the point of submission. However, the nephews arrive and drive away the Larkies with traps such as mice.

Eventually, Scrooge and Donald reunite with the nephews and they find the Golden Fleece and defeat the Sleepless Dragon by covering its eyes with the Golden Fleece then sing a lullaby. Scrooge rejoices that he will now have the world's most fashionable coat, gold cloth with diamond buttons. One month later, they are back in Duckburg where the tailor has now finished Scrooge's coat. Donald and the nephews marvel at Scrooge's sparkling coat, however he retrieves his old broadcloth he discarded, remarking "this glittering mackintosh is the coldest contraption I ever had on my back!"

Tom Crick, fifty-two years old, has been history master for some thirty years in a secondary school in Greenwich. As the world sets its clocks according to Greenwich Mean Time, this is a place where time begins. Tom has been married to Mary for as long as he has been teaching, but the couple have no children. The students in Tom's school have grown increasingly scientifically oriented, and the headmaster, a physicist, has little sympathy for Tom's subject. One of Tom's students, Price, questions the relevance of learning about historical events. The youth's scepticism causes Tom to change his teaching approach to telling tales drawn from his own recollection.

By doing so, he makes himself a part of the history he is teaching, relating his tales to local history and genealogy. The headmaster, Lewis, tries to entice Tom into taking an early retirement. Tom resists this because his leaving would mean that the History Department would cease to exist and would be combined with the broader area of General Studies. Tom's wife is arrested for snatching a baby. The publicity that attends her arrest reflects badly on the school, and Tom is told that he now must retire. In response, he uses his impending forced retirement as an excuse to recount a story to his students. The pivot of ''Waterland'' focuses on both the past in 1937, and the present time thirty years after – all related through the eyes of Tom as an adolescent.

The novel addresses some three hundred years of local history – including that of Tom's family – this relates to the broader historical currents of past centuries. It refers to smuggling and the isolation in the small towns of the Fens.

Much of the contemporary plot centres on Tom's tumultuous relationship with Mary, both as teenagers and after their marriage. Tom's brother Dick is mentally handicapped; he grows increasingly jealous when they are teenagers because of his own attraction to Mary. She grew up on her father's farm, located near the house of Tom's family. Tom's father, a lock-keeper, has a home with his two sons in the lock-keeper's cottage, beside a tributary of the Great Ouse. Tom's mother dies when he is ten years old. Mary's mother had died during her birth, and she is confined by a rigid religious upbringing from her father in her childhood.

As Mary matures, her interest in men grows, and she and Tom slip into an illicit relationship. Dick resents them. When she learns she is pregnant, Dick overhears and asks Mary if he is the father. He thinks if she is, she will have to devote something to him. Mary tells him another boy, Freddie Parr, is the father. Distraught at this information, Dick fights with a drunken Freddie, who is unable to swim, and pushes him into the river. Tom's father finds and pulls Freddie's body from the sluice, not realising that his drowning is not accidental. But that is the conclusion of the coroner's inquest. When Mary fails to provoke a miscarriage, she and Tom – who is the father of the child – go to an old crone for an abortion. Mary contracts septicaemia and later learns that she has been made sterile.

Her father forces her into seclusion, and for three years she remains isolated. The two fathers finally agree to allow their children to come together again. Unknown to them, Tom, away fighting in World War II, has already written to Mary. When he comes home, the two marry. Tom begins his teaching career while Mary takes a job in an old people's home.

The novel returns to the present day, with Tom's growing horror over the child taken by Mary, who believes it is a gift from God. He must take action and return it to the real mother, despite his wife's pleas. Mary, obviously unstable and suffering from grief for years after her abortion, is arrested after the baby is returned. Tom is later told that she has been committed to a mental institute.

The plot closes on a final flashback, which shows Dick's breakdown following the revelation that he was born from the incestuous relationship his grandfather forced on his daughter, his and Tom's mother. His adoptive father has never really accepted him or valued him as he does Tom. Dick becomes drunk on liquor he found in an old chest from his real father – which also coincidentally held the letters revealing his true parentage – and rides away on his motorbike. Frantic, his family gain use of friends' boat, and find Dick several miles away, about to jump into the water. Despite their pleas and assurances he will be valued as equal to Tom, Dick throws himself in the water and drowns. His death haunts Tom for the rest of his life.

, a journalist at a major newspaper, is a career woman in a society that does not handle successful women well. Sumire suffers from depression and anxiety. She also has hobbies that are very un-feminine, such as smoking, being a fan of pro wrestling, K-1, and shōnen anime.

After her fiancé leaves her for his mistress and Sumire is demoted at work, she stumbles across a young injured homeless man in a box outside her condominium. She takes him in and becomes attached to him. As a joke, she says she wants to keep him as a pet. To her surprise, the young man agrees. She names him , after her beloved dog from childhood. Sumire provides room and board, and Momo provides unconditional love and loyalty. Sumire says there is no sex in their relationship, and she will only sleep with men who have the "three highs": higher pay, higher education and higher height (i.e. taller than her 170 cm.) Despite this, there is definite sexual tension in their relationship.

Sumire later learns that Momo's real name is , and that he is a dance prodigy who studied classical ballet but was too short to take the lead roles. He switched to modern dance, and lived a semi-homeless life before meeting Sumire. When it is revealed that he and Sumire know one another, Momo passes himself off as Sumire's second cousin.

Complications arise when Sumire is reunited with the man with whom she was infatuated during her time at Tokyo University, . Hasumi meets all of Sumire's requirements. However, Sumire cannot quite open up to Hasumi-senpai, or give up her attachment to Momo. For example, Sumire lets Momo call her by her personal name, while she struggles to let Hasumi call her "Iwaya" instead of "Iwaya-san." Takeshi (a.k.a. Momo) starts to have feelings for Sumire as well and they began to have feelings that go way beyond those of a pet and its Master.

When Hasumi meets Momo, he recognizes Momo's face but cannot put a name to him. When Hasumi does some research on Iwaya-san's so-called cousin, he discovers that Takeshi was a child ballet prodigy and becomes friends with him. Takeshi, of course, has to keep the fact that he is also "Momo" to himself, even when Hasumi repeatedly brings up the topic of Sumire's pet in their conversations. Although, at times he changes personalities; something is up with Momo!

Distraught by the death of a friend in the Dominion War, Captain Benjamin Sisko contemplates leaving Starfleet. He begins experiencing hallucinations of 20th-century New York City, and is suddenly taken over by his vision: becoming Benny Russell, an African-American science fiction writer in 1953, who is not conscious of his life in the 24th century.

Russell encounters people who bear the likeness of people from Sisko's life on Deep Space Nine, such as a newsstand vendor who resembles his son's friend Nog. His fellow writers for the magazine ''Incredible Tales'' include Albert Macklin (Miles O'Brien); the short-tempered, left-wing Herbert Rossoff (Quark); and married couple Kay Eaton (Kira Nerys) and Julius Eaton (Julian Bashir). The magazine's illustrator Roy Ritterhouse (Martok) shows them sketches to be used in an upcoming issue; Russell is drawn to one of a space station resembling Deep Space Nine, and offers to write the story for it. Magazine editor Douglas Pabst (Odo) tells Kay (who writes under a gender-neutral name) and Russell they are to be excluded from upcoming staff photos, as the magazine's readers might object to a woman and a "Negro" as science fiction writers.

That night, Russell is harassed by two white police officers, Ryan (Dukat) and Mulkahey (Weyoun). He encounters a street preacher (Joseph Sisko) who seems to be speaking directly to him, imploring him to "write those words" in the name of "the Prophets". Russell goes home and begins to write.

Some time later, he finishes his story "Deep Space Nine", about the black captain of a space station. His girlfriend Cassie (Kasidy Yates) doubts his ability to earn a living as a writer, but is faithful to him despite flirtation from baseball player Willie Hawkins (Worf). A young hustler, Jimmy (Jake Sisko), laughs at Russell's idea of "colored people on the Moon".

At the magazine, the entire staff loves his story, including Pabst's secretary Darlene Kursky (Jadzia Dax); however, Pabst refuses to print it on the grounds that the readers won't like a story with a black protagonist. But Russell keeps writing sequels to the story, and Macklin proposes a compromise: frame the story as just a dream, which Pabst reluctantly agrees to. While Russell and Cassie are out celebrating, Jimmy is shot and killed by officers Ryan and Mulkahey. When Russell protests, they beat him savagely.

On his first day back at the office weeks later, Russell is eager to see his story in print. Pabst arrives empty-handed: the owner has pulped this month's issue rather than publish a story featuring a black hero, and Russell is fired. Russell breaks down, screaming that they cannot destroy his ideas and that the future he envisions is real. As he is taken away by an ambulance, the preacher appears next to him, and tells him that he is both the dreamer and the dream.

Sisko wakes up back on the station. He is deeply moved by his vision and wonders if somewhere, far beyond the stars, Benny Russell is really out there, dreaming of them.

Five French Resistance fighters, known by their animal-based code names (the Wolf, the Tiger, the Elephant, the Leopard and the Fox), fought during World War II. Their efforts came to a stop when one of their number, Claude Roget (the Wolf), was betrayed to the Gestapo by a contact called Boucher. In their interrogation of him, Roget—who was the husband of Manouche (the Leopard)--was shot dead before her eyes.

Twenty-eight years later, Thomas Devon (the Elephant) spots Boucher (going under the name of Rosch) in his shop. The surviving members of the Zoo Gang drop what they are doing and rendezvous for vengeance. The rest of the series follows the adventures of the remaining gang of four resistance fighters reunited decades later to scam habitual con artists and criminals in order to take their money and use it for good causes. Despite their ages, they put their skills and experience to use to raise enough money to construct a hospital in the memory of Claude. The gang is (reluctantly) aided by the son of Manouche and Claude, an inspector in the French police.

The series is set on the French Riviera in Nice. Guest stars included Philip Madoc, Peter Cushing and Jacqueline Pearce. Roger Delgado, best known for his role as ''Doctor Who'' villain The Master, also appeared, although he had died in a car crash prior to the series' broadcast.

The film takes place in Edo in the year 1630. Tsugumo Hanshirō arrives at the estate of the Iyi clan and says that he wishes to commit seppuku within the courtyard of the palace. To deter him, Saitō Kageyu (Rentarō Mikuni), the daimyō's senior counselor, tells Hanshirō the story of another rōnin, Chijiiwa Motome -- formerly of the same clan as Hanshirō.

Saitō scornfully recalls the practice of rōnin requesting the chance to commit seppuku on the clan's land, but in fact hoping to be turned away and given alms. Motome had arrived at the palace a few months earlier and made the same request as Hanshirō. Infuriated by the rising number of "suicide bluffs", the three most senior samurai of the clan -- Yazaki Hayato, Kawabe Umenosuke, and Omodaka Hikokuro -- persuaded Saitō to force Motome to follow through and kill himself, ignoring his request for a couple of days delay. Upon examining Motome's swords, his blades were found to be made of bamboo. Enraged that any samurai would "pawn his soul", the House of Iyi forced Motome to disembowel himself with his own bamboo blade, making his death slow, agonizingly painful, and deeply humiliating.

Despite this warning, Hanshirō insists that he has never heard of Motome and says that he is sincere in wanting to commit seppuku. Just as the ceremony is about to begin, Hanshirō is asked to name the samurai who shall behead him when the ritual is complete. To the shock of Saitō and the Iyi retainers, Hanshirō successively names Hayato, Umenosuke, and Hikokuro — the three samurai who coerced the suicide of Motome. When messengers are dispatched to summon them, all three decline to come, with each claiming to be too ill to attend.

After provoking their laughter by calling the samurai moral code bushido a facade, Hanshirō recounts his life story to the assembled samurai, starting with the admission that he did know Motome. In 1619, his clan was abolished by the Shōgun. His lord decided to commit seppuku and, as his most senior samurai, Hanshirō planned to die alongside him. To prevent this, Hanshirō's closest friend took his place instead, leaving Hanshirō responsible for his teenage son, Motome. In order to support Motome and his own daughter Miho, Hanshirō rented a hovel in the slums of Edo, taking up work as a fan and umbrella craftsman while Motome became a teacher. Realizing the love between Motome and Miho, Hanshirō arranged for them to marry. Soon after, they had a son, Kingo.

When Miho became ill with tuberculosis, Motome could not bear the thought of losing her and did everything to raise money to hire a doctor. When Kingo also fell ill, Motome left one morning, saying he planned to take out a loan from a moneylender. Later that evening, Hayato, Umenosuke, and Hikokuro brought home Motome's mutilated body, and described and mocked his death before leaving. It is now clear that Motome had requested a delay so he could visit his family and put his affairs in order. A few days later, Kingo died, and Miho lost the will to live and died, leaving Hanshirō with nothing. Finishing his story, Hanshirō explains that his sole desire is to join Motome, Miho, and Kingo in death. He explains, however, that they have every right to ask him whether justice has been exacted for their deaths. Therefore, Hanshirō asks Saitō if he has any statement of regret to convey to Motome, Miho, and Kingo. He explains that, if Saitō does so, he will die without saying another word. Saitō refuses, calling Motome an "extortionist" who deserved to die.

Hanshirō reveals the last part of his story. Before coming to the Iyi estate, he tracked down Hayato and Umenosuke and cut off their topknots. Hikokuro then visited Hanshirō's hovel and, with great respect, challenged him to a duel. After a brief but tense sword fight, Hikokuro suffers a double disgrace: his sword is broken and his topknot is taken as well. As proof, Hanshirō removes their labelled topknots from his kimono and casts them upon the palace courtyard. He mocks the Iyi clan, saying that if the men he humiliated were true samurai, they would not be hiding out of shame. He also questions the clan's honor and bushido, pointing out that they should not have ignored Motome’s request for a delay to his seppuku without investigating the reason why he asked.

Having badly lost face, an enraged Saitō calls Hanshirō a madman and orders the retainers to kill him. In a fierce battle, Hanshirō kills four samurai, wounds eight, and contemptuously smashes into pieces the antique suit of armor which symbolizes the glorious history of the House of Iyi. Finally, the clan corners Hanshirō and prepares to kill him not with swords, but with three matchlock guns. As Hanshirō commits seppuku, he is simultaneously shot by all three gunmen.

Terrified that the Iyi clan will be abolished if word gets out that "a half starved rōnin" killed so many of their retainers, Saitō announces that all deaths caused by Hanshirō shall be explained by "illness". At the same time, a messenger returns reporting that Hikokuro had killed himself the day before, while Hayato and Umenosuke are both faking illness. Saitō angrily orders that Hayato and Umenosuke are to be forced to commit seppuku as atonement for losing their topknots. Those three deaths shall be also attributed to “illness”.

As the suit of armor is cleaned and re-erected, a new entry in the official records of the House of Iyi is read by a voiceover. Hanshirō is declared to have been mentally unstable, and he and Motome are both listed as having died through harakiri. The Shōgun is said to have issued a personal commendation to the lord of the Iyi clan for how his councilors handled the suicide bluffs of Motome and Hanshirō. At the end of his letter, the Shōgun praises the House of Iyi and their samurai as exemplars of bushido. As workers scrub the blood from the ground of the clan's estate, one of them finds a severed topknot and places it in his work bucket.

Rina is a poor hunchback woman selling flowers on the streets of Mexico City. She approaches cars at stop-lights to offer her products and she meets an old rich man. He gets acquainted with Rina and eventually manipulates her into marrying him. The old man dies soon afterwards, and Rina is faced with dealing with his greedy sister-in-law Rafaela and her feelings for the son of that woman, Carlos Augusto.

Trill, the main character, is judged guilty (indicated for a crime he did not commit) and ordered in a space cryogenic prison for 250 years. 248 years later, he awakes, but without the memory of who he is, where he is and why he was imprisoned.

In the corner of his cell, which had doubled as a store-room, the prisoner finds a "briefcase computer" which gives him control over a group of four droids on a space ship. Now he must use these droids to find and free himself.

After failing to receive the Employee of the Month award at Pawtucket Brewery, Peter attempts to charm his supervisor, Angela, who is unimpressed by his work performance. He organizes a surprise cockfight in her house since she likes animals, but she returns to find the remains of several chickens who have killed each other. When his retarded co-worker, Opie, gets promoted and replaced by Soundwave from the Transformers, Peter still fails to win Employee of the Month. After speaking with Stewie's preschool teacher, Lois discovers several graphic pictures Stewie has drawn that show him killing her. She is oblivious to the obvious interpretation and instead notes that Peter is not included in any of the pictures.

Lois suggests that Peter make more effort to bond with Stewie. Peter reluctantly agrees, but fails to make headway until—while helping Lois in the kitchen—he accidentally knocks a box off a high shelf in the kitchen, hitting Lois in the head, causing Stewie to laugh hysterically. After striking her with larger boxes and then a jar, and seeing Stewie's delight, Peter interprets Lois being hurt as a sign of father-son bonding. This prompts more vicious pranks on Lois, including spraying her with a water hose while she is in the bathroom, but culminating with an incident where Peter pushes her into the cargo area of the station wagon before driving it into the lake. Peter and Stewie enjoy their bonding time and Stewie even begins to dress just like Peter. Later, a furious Lois returns home and—after sending Stewie to his room—demands an explanation from Peter. When Peter fails to win his argument and he realizes he went too far, Stewie feels betrayed and refuses to talk to his father.

To make amends with Stewie after using Brian's advice, Peter takes him to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Excited at the prospect of visiting Disney World, Stewie forgives Peter, although pretending to be annoyed. When the pair arrive, Peter inadvertently loses Stewie, who is captured by Disney World employees and forced to sing at the Tiny World ride, complying to do so after learning that the alternative is to be in a Christmas movie with Tim Allen. Peter finds him and takes him away, but is chased across the theme park by a security guard, who eventually loses them in ''The Temple of Doom'' style (with Peter dressed as Indiana Jones and Stewie as Short Round). The pair return home after a brief encounter with Michael Eisner and Stewie's faith in Peter is restored.

Meanwhile, after playing baseball in the street, Chris accidentally smashes his neighbor Herbert's window. In an attempt to repay his debt to Herbert, Chris agrees to help the elderly man in his household chores, much to Herbert's delight. Herbert takes Chris to dinner at a fine restaurant, where a photographer takes their photograph. Herbert then sings "Somewhere That's Green", envisioning a family life with Chris, but he falls asleep at the table after the song ends. In the coda, Herbert and his dog, Jesse, mope around the house until the ESPN Little League World Series comes on, perking up Herbert's spirits.

A Romulan delegation visits Deep Space Nine in order to receive intelligence about the Dominion promised to the Romulans by Starfleet. Complicating matters is the presence on the station of a crew of Klingons, another alien race with a history of poor relations with the Romulans.

Chief O'Brien, as an unexpected side-effect of radiation exposure, begins experiencing time shifts, each five hours into the future. He witnesses a bar brawl, in which he saves his future self from being stabbed by Klingons. In another time jump, he sees his future self killed by an explosion in a corridor near the Romulans' quarters. On returning from the time jump, he reports the incident; the resulting investigation detects the trap being installed by the Klingons, leading to the Klingons' arrest, preventing the explosion O'Brien witnessed.

In another time jump, he witnesses the destruction of the station. He deliberately subjects himself to more radiation in order to time shift only three hours into the future in order to see exactly what causes the destruction: a cloaked Romulan warship reveals itself and begins firing on the station. After telling his future self about his mission, he dies of radiation poisoning. It falls to the future O'Brien to go back in time to warn Commander Sisko about the Romulans' plot. Sisko, speculating that the Romulans intend to destroy the station and the wormhole in order to cut off further contact with the Gamma Quadrant, aims the station's weapons at the cloaked ship and has the Romulan delegates ejected from the station.

Later, O'Brien uses his limited knowledge of the future to annoy the profit-hungry Quark.

Jeffrey Cole (Omar Epps) is a recent graduate of the Cincinnati police academy who dreams of working undercover. Cole manages to get an undercover assignment the day of graduation and earns the praise of his superiors. He is soon given the task of taking down statewide crack dealer Dwayne Gittens (LL Cool J), an underworld boss so powerful that his nickname is "God".

Gittens is known as a family man and a man of the people, contributing to his community and helping those in need. However, there is another side to him, a ruthless leader of a criminal empire who will torture or kill anyone without question. Gittens controls eighty percent of the drug traffic in Cincinnati, controls many of his opponents through bribery or intimidation, and appears to be untouchable.

Cole goes undercover, posing as a drug dealer under the name of J. Reid from Akron, Ohio. He is determined to be the man who brings down Gittens underworld empire. Cole has to prove he has street cred to gain a place in God's crew. At one point God sends Cole out on a mission with a couple of his cohorts with the intention of Cole killing a man that God wants dead. Cole chases the target but intentionally missed his shots.

The crew believe he's loyal, but has bad aim. Cole eventually becomes close with one of the members of Gittens' crew, Breezy T. (Hill Harper). Later on, Cole eludes an assassination attempt by members of Gittens' crew that he was with earlier. Cole goes to Breezy T., thinking that he was set up by Breezy or God. Once Breezy advises that he had nothing to do with that, nor did Gittens, and the guys acted on their own accord, Cole leaves.

Cole's superiors are impressed at his undercover work and how close he has gotten to Gittens, earning his trust while providing his superiors with intricate details into the organization. Cole's superior, Preston D'Ambrosio (Stanley Tucci) worries that the line between cop and bad guy is getting blurred and that both identities are becoming one. He begins to see behavioral changes in Cole, as he starts to assume the J. Reid identity, and D'Ambrosio believes that Cole is getting too far deep undercover. D'Ambrosio places Cole on forced hiatus from undercover and sends him to a place in the woods far from the city to get his head straight and re-discover himself.

During that time, Cole rediscovers his identity and meets Myra (Nia Long), an aspiring model during one of Cole's photography classes. The two eventually begin dating and D'Ambrosio begins to take notice of his new life away from undercover work. Cole tries to convince D'Ambrosio to let him go back undercover in the Gittens case, to no avail. D'Ambrosio is too concerned for Cole becoming the J. Reid persona and losing his identity for good.

D'Ambrosio is eventually overruled by District Attorney Daniel Connelly (Jake Weber) and DEA agent Rick Scott (David Patrick Kelly), reasoning that Cole is the only undercover cop to infiltrate Gittens crew as deep as he has, and Cole is the person who can bring down Gittens' organization. Cole is then reassigned to the Gittens case. Myra, realizing that he has to go back undercover, begins to distance herself from Cole.

Cole starts to see Gittens becoming unhinged and his sporadic violence in the community, going as far as torturing, then later killing his second in command for making a pass at his baby's mother. The ruthlessness starts to get to Cole, as he dives deeper into his J. Reid cover. The further Cole goes undercover, the more his identities and loyalties are blurred. The younger members of Gods crew feel scared and under appreciated, and because of J. Reid letting them know he appreciates them are willing to kill “God” and give him control of the Drug Empire. Because of this, Cole begins to alienate himself from his superiors, his fellow officers, and even Myra, as Cole begins to lose reality of who he is.

D'Ambrosio wants to pull Cole out of undercover again, as he sees his officer becoming unhinged and becoming J. Reid. Connelly and Scott disagree, and they come up with a sting to bust Gittens meeting with his suppliers, to which D'Ambrosio eventually agrees after Cole convinces him the importance of this sting. A gunfight ensues when police arrive to arrest Gittens and the suppliers. Gittens advises his crew to lower their weapons and surrender.

Cole shields Gittens from police and a standoff ensues between the officers and an unhinged Cole, struggling between his loyalties. Realizing he is losing himself, Det. Angela Wilson (Pam Grier) talks him down and reminds him that he is Jeffrey Cole, not J. Reid, and to lower his weapon. Cole eventually gets a hold of himself and lowers his gun.

As Gittens is being read his Miranda rights, Scott requests Cole to bring Gittens in. Gittens, in disbelief, denies all allegations that Cole is an undercover cop. Eventually Gittens realizes the magnitude of the situation, and thinking he had a friend he could trust, calls Cole a sellout, and leaves in police custody.

During trial, Cole testifies against Gittens and his organization. Cole puts in a good word for Breezy T., helping him reduce his sentence. Because of the evidence against him and Cole's testimony, Gittens is convicted and sentence to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Gittens and Cole share a final glance before Gittens is taken away.

As Connelly and Scott hold a press conference for the conviction of Gittens, Cole and Myra are driving and listening to the press conference. Cole switches off the radio, while Myra reminds Cole that his undercover work was the sole reason Gittens is behind bars. The last scenes are shown where Cole is teaching new young officers about undercover work, and the importance to never lose their cover or get too deep.

Ben Crandall is a young teenage boy living in a fictional Maryland suburb, who experiences vivid dreams about flying through clouds and over a vast, city-like circuit board. Upon waking from the dream, he draws a diagram of the circuit board and shows the sketches to his friend, child prodigy Wolfgang Muller. At school, Ben develops a crush on Lori Swenson, but is unsure whether it is mutual. The boys also befriend punkish-but-likable Darren Woods, with whom they share their circuit-board concepts. Wolfgang builds an actual microchip based on Ben's drawings. The chip enables the generation of an electromagnetic bubble which surrounds a pre-determined area. The boys discover that the bubble is capable of moving at near-limitless distances and speeds without ill effects from inertia. They construct a rudimentary spacecraft out of an abandoned Tilt-A-Whirl car and name it the ''Thunder Road'', after Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name.

After Ben receives more dreams about the circuit board, Wolfgang discovers a means of producing unlimited sustainable oxygen; this means longer flights, whereas previously they were limited to whatever a typical oxygen tank could hold. They finalize their plan to explore the galaxy in search of alien life. The boys complete lift-off, despite interference from the authorities. Shortly after breaking Earth's orbit, something overrides the boys' personal computer-controls. The ''Thunder Road'' is beamed light years away into deep space and is tractor-beamed aboard a much larger spaceship. The boys venture out to meet their "captors", Wak and Neek: two aliens whose knowledge of Earth comes almost entirely from pop culture, particularly television reruns.

The young explorers hit it off with their extraterrestrial hosts, but then the alien ship is suddenly intercepted by a larger-still alien vessel. Wak urges the boys to leave. They are in the process of doing so when they're interrupted by a gigantic extraterrestrial who admonishes the Wak and Neek. It is revealed that Wak and Neek are brother and sister and the gigantic creature is their father; they've taken his ship out for a "joy ride", sending the dreams to the boys in the hopes of meeting humans. Transmissions of old movies have kept the extraterrestrial populace at a distance – except for the curious Wak and Neek – due to the way humans depict violence toward alien life.

Wak and Neek's father allows the ''Thunder Road'' and its crew to depart, after Wak and Neek give the boys a parting gift: an amulet which, according to the extraterrestrials, is "the stuff dreams are made of." The boys make it safely back to Earth, but a malfunction results in them crashing the ''Thunder Road'' into their neighborhood lake. A week later, Ben has a dream at school in which he envisions another vast circuit board while flying through more clouds overhead. This time – thanks to Wak and Neek's amulet – Ben is joined in the dream by Wolfgang, Darren and Lori. They proclaim that the circuitry is "really complicated" and speculate where it may take them once completed. Lori smiles at Ben while holding his hand.

Written in diary format, the story centers on the life of an unemployed young man named Joseph, his relationships with his wife and friends, and his frustrations with living in Chicago and waiting to be drafted. His diary serves as a philosophical confessional for his musings. It ends with his entrance into the army during World War II, and a hope that the regimentation of army life will relieve his suffering. Along with Bellow's second novel ''The Victim'', it is considered his "apprentice" work.

From a ''Gain Ground'' flyer:

A long period of peace has deprived the earthlings of their instinct to wage war. The Federated Government, greatly concerned regarding this ever increasing dangerous situation, developed a Gain Ground simulation system in the year 2348 in an effort to instigate their ever waning fighting spirit However, suddenly without warning, the Supercomputer went berserk and took many of the citizens as hostages. In order to rescue the POWs, three of the bravest warriors were urgently dispatched to go forth into the deadly Gain Ground.

18-year-old Joy, who comes from a big family with a heavy drinking mother and womanising father, leaves home to marry Tom and they have a son, Johnny. Tom mentally and physically abuses Joy and shows little interest or affection. He has been in prison for four years and, when he is jailed again after being caught attempting a big robbery, Joy and her very young son are left on their own.

After briefly sharing a room with her Aunt Emm, an aging prostitute, Joy moves in with Dave, one of Tom's criminal associates. Dave is tender and understanding, but the idyll is shattered when he is sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for leading a robbery which results in a woman being blinded, and given his long criminal record, early release seems unlikely. Intending to be faithful to Dave, Joy moves back with Aunt Emm, writes to Dave frequently, and initiates divorce proceedings against Tom.

After taking a job as a barmaid, Joy starts modelling for a seedy photographers' club and drifts into promiscuity. She likes men giving her presents but is too impulsive and easygoing to make a living as a prostitute. Bored with her humdrum surroundings, she dreams of bettering herself. When Tom is released, Joy goes back to him after he promises to move her from her small grotty flat to a modern well-furnished house. However, one evening, after Tom has slapped her several times, Joy goes out and upon returning, she finds Tom watching TV and Johnny missing. Joy frantically searches for Johnny and finally finds him alone on a demolition site where he has gone to play. Realising how much Johnny means to her, Joy decides to stay with Tom despite the abuse, but continues to dream of a future with Dave.

The game takes place in the year 2032, four years after the first ''Metal Slug'' game and before ''Metal Slug 7''. Series antagonist General Morden becomes allies with Oguma, president of Oguma Enterprises and world leader of technology. Because this alliance could only stand to further strengthen Morden's military power, Marco Rossi, Fio Germi, Tarma Roving, and Eri Kasamoto set out to dissolve both parties. Recurring boss character Allen O'Neil also returns to oppose the player.

Prologue

It is discreetly explained to the Chief of British Intelligence that, in the new atmosphere of détente, and the warming of relations with the Soviet Union, that the SIS's role will have to be redefined, and some of its more aggressive agents will have to be taught a lesson. The Chief is ordered to make an example of a maverick officer, and Sam McCready is suggested.

McCready's deputy is unwilling to let his mentor retire without a fight, and insists on a hearing, during which four of McCready's most celebrated cases are recalled.

Pride and Extreme Prejudice

The SIS is approached by a high-ranking Soviet general, offering to turn over documents with crucial details of Soviet military plans. The meeting is to take place in East Germany. McCready is in charge of the operation, but he is too well known by the Soviets to risk going himself. So, he recruits his old ally, ageing BND agent Bruno Morenz. As a favour to his old friend, and in stark violation of his BND employment rules, Morenz agrees to enter East Germany, where he manages to get hold of the documents.

He is, however, on the verge of nervous collapse due to earlier events in West Germany, where he had been having an affair with a prostitute who later insulted him, which led to him killing her and her pimp boyfriend. He also steals some covert tapes she had made of herself in compromising positions with influential people.In making his escape he becomes rashly involved in a minor traffic accident. A man-hunt ensues, with the result that the East German security services eventually realise that they have a substantial spy case on their hands. McCready comes to realise that Morenz is in deep trouble and digging into his past, locates a potential hiding place. Against all orders he assumes a false identity, and making use of old friends succeeds in crossing the border and locating Morenz without being noticed. Since the security search is closing in on them, and Morenz is in no state to make an escape, Sam kills him with poisoned alcohol, and takes the documents and manages to escape by slipping through the border again, thus protecting the general from exposure, saving Morenz from an uglier fate, and succeeding in retrieving the sought-after documents. Sam tries to retrieve the tapes but is found by the West German SS who retrieve the holdall and escorts him unto the plane unaware of the more important cargo he carries.

The Price of the Bride

During a visit by the Soviet Military Intelligence Corps (GRU) to Britain, a Corps member phones the Central Intelligence Agency's London outpost, and defects to the US, introducing himself as KGB Colonel Pyotr Orlov.

Orlov's information proves to be highly valuable, leading to the arrest of Soviet spies in many countries, and providing important information on Soviet military planning. While the CIA is delighted to have such a valuable asset, Sam McCready has a gut feeling that something might be wrong with Orlov; his suspicion is confirmed by the head of the KGB's London residency, who secretly works for McCready (Codename Keepsake). Keepsake claims that Orlov is not a defector, but a plant, tasked with denouncing the CIA's Deputy Director (Operations), Calvin Bailey, as a Soviet mole in an attempt to bring chaos and distrust to the entire agency.

At this point, the co-operation between the US and the British turns into mutual distrust, with both sides vouching for their own sources. Events accelerate when Orlov finally succeeds, indirectly, in identifying the supposed CIA traitor, followed by Keepsake suddenly departing for Moscow, making it look as if Sam is wrong.

To prevent the disintegration of the CIA from within, and to prove to himself that Keepsake did not deceive him, McCready prepares to help him escape from Moscow. Keepsake reveals that he returned to Moscow to bring back incontestable proof of both his own loyalty to Sam, and of Orlov's treachery.

Keepsake's information arrives too late, however; an over-eager CIA agent has already killed Bailey on the Director's orders. Confronted with Sam's information, the agent resigns from the Agency, but not before arresting Orlov, who stoically accepts his immediate execution.

A Casualty of War

The SIS uncovers evidence that Libya is preparing to ship a consignment of arms for the use of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other European terrorist groups.

Sam McCready recruits an ex-SAS soldier-turned-novelist named Tom Rowse, to pose as a weapons' buyer, thinly veiled by his pretending to be undertaking research for a new novel. He manages to get in touch with the Libyan arms provider, and get his order included in the shipment.

With this information, the British are able to identify the ship transporting the weapons. McCready enlists the help of the elite Special Boat Service (SBS), seaborne equivalent of the SAS, to intercept the vessel. A woman, in whom Tom was romantically interested, is found to be directly involved with the IRA terrorists, and is shot dead when the vessel is boarded.

A Little Bit of Sunshine

The Barclays is a small (fictional) British overseas territory in the Caribbean, in transition from British rule to independence. The island is about to hold its first election for Prime Minister, and, since no political parties have yet developed the two leading candidates are both expatriates, with no financial backing or popular support from the population.

When a visiting Florida law enforcement officer, who is on vacation, recognises a notorious hired killer amongst the candidates' campaign workers, he boards a plane in a hurry to fly back to Miami, but when it explodes in mid-air to kill all the passengers, his partner flies to the Barclayan capital of Sunshine to investigate. When the British territorial governor is also murdered, McCready, who is in the US, gets himself sent to investigate.

There are two Scotland Yard investigators on the island but it is McCready who exposes the two presidential candidates as a Bahamian cocaine smuggler and an agent of the Cuban secret service, respectively, both of whom are seeking to exploit the island for their own ends. It takes some quick thinking on McCready's part to apprehend the criminals, and forge a document to appoint himself Governor for a day – but he is able to foil both candidates' schemes, and ensures that Sunshine's transition to independence will be smooth.

The Florida law enforcement officer agent finally succeeds in catching his partner's killer in the smuggler's house, but Scotland Yard are unable to arrest the person who killed the governor. McCready figures out that the murder was committed by an elderly expatriate American lady, with the purpose of attracting the authorities and the press to the island to deal with the candidates' criminal campaign workers. Given her age, and popularity with the island's people, McCready decides to keep her crime a secret. Without the murder weapon or witnesses, Scotland Yard is unable to arrest her either.

Epilogue

The SIS hierarchy reject Sam's case, having decided weeks earlier that, since the Cold War was over, his office was no longer necessary. He is offered a variety of desk jobs which he declines in favour of early retirement, deciding that he's done his part. Before he leaves he warns his deputy to keep his eyes peeled, because, despite what the bureaucrats think, the world is still a dangerous place that will always need spies.

As he leaves the building, he passes a newspaper stand where the headlines declare the official end of the Cold War. Four weeks later, whilst fishing outside his retirement cottage, he hears over the radio that Saddam Hussein has invaded Kuwait. Upon hearing this news, vindicated and unmoved, he decides it's "time to change his bait".

The film takes many of its elements and main characters from the Third Crusade, which was prompted by the Saracen capture of Jerusalem and the crusader states in the Holy Land in A.D. 1187. The character of King Richard the Lionheart is a man of action but little thought. A hermit from Jerusalem arrives in Europe and starts gathering support for a Crusade. The hermit convinces a number of European rulers to travel to Jerusalem in order to bring the Holy City into Christian hands. Richard enlists in order to avoid an arranged betrothal to the King of France's sister, Princess Alice of France, but is followed by the Countess on the Crusade. A plot is laid against Richard's life by his brother Prince John and Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat. En route to the war, Richard meets Berengaria, Princess of Navarre. In order to get food for his men, Richard reluctantly marries her in exchange for her father's cattle and grain. Berengaria is forced to accompany Richard to the Holy Land.

During the Crusaders' attempts to get past the walls of Acre, the allies assemble in conference, but in disarray. Richard receives word that his brother John has seized the throne of England. Richard's ally, Philip II of France, is enraged at Richard's rejection of his sister Alice, but Richard defies Philip and the other troubled allies by proclaiming Berengaria Queen of England. The Christian leaders meet in parley with the Muslim Sultan and leader Saladin. Saladin is struck by Berengaria's beauty and bravery in supporting her husband. However, he rejects any truce with the Crusaders, and declares that the arrogant Richard will "never pass the gates of Jerusalem."

Berengaria is fearful that her presence in camp is causing disloyalty among Richard's allies, in particular the powerful French King Philip, and may harm their holy quest. Seeking death, she enters no man's land between the lines, only to be wounded and captured by the forces of Saladin. The hermit, the Christian "holy man" who had preached the Crusade, also is captured. Saladin escapes the siege, and after finding Berengaria wounded, brings her to Jerusalem to care for her, with admiration and growing affection. Not knowing this Richard and the Crusaders storm Acre to save the Queen of England.

The internal plot against Richard's life is hatched by Conrad and disloyal soldiers. Conrad reveals his plot to Saladin, expecting to be rewarded. Appalled by Conrad's treachery, Saladin orders Conrad to be immediately executed. Berengaria offers herself to Saladin if he will intervene and save Richard's life. Saladin sends a few of his soldiers to warn Richard who is searching the battle field at night for the body of a friend. Conrad's men attack Richard but are defeated by Saladin's soldiers who take the English King to Saladin. Richard and Saladin agree to a truce and the gates of Jerusalem are opened to all Christians with the exception of Richard, in keeping with Saladin's earlier promise. After losing his kingship, his wife and the opportunity to see the Holy City, Richard prays for the first time, asking God for him to be reunited with his wife. Richard encounters Berengaria on her way to the Holy City. He admits his mistakes and Berengaria tells him that Saladin has freed her along with the other Christian captives. Berengaria proceeds alone toward Jerusalem to visit the Holy City and promises to return to him.

The Rose of the Prophet series is set in Sularin, a fictional world ruled by a slate of twenty gods, each a facet of the central god, Sul. In the normal course of events, common to fantasy literature, the values of the gods balance each other out; however, as the series begins, the gods have turned away from the Sul and the world is in peril of falling apart. Each god is worshipped by people on the mortal realm and their strength corresponds with the strength and faith of their people. At the start of the series, each god and their foil rule over certain areas in the mortal realm.

One god in particular, Quar, the god of city dwellers in a Middle Eastern style land, has decided to move to seize more and more power. Akhran, the foil of Quar, learns of Quar's ambitions and warns the rest of the gods because upsetting the balance will affect them all. The other gods mostly ignore him, unconcerned because Quar's mortal domain is far away from their own. Akhran does not have the safety of distance and decides to take his own precautions and orders the djinns of the Sheiks of the two largest nomadic tribes to marry off their children to unite the tribes. Unfortunately for all involved, the two largest tribes have had years upon years of animosity and hate each other with a passion.

The story follows Khardan, the son of one of the tribes and Zohra, the daughter of the other as they seek to save their people from Quar's ambitions. Joining them is Mathew, a traveler from a distant land and a follower of Promenthas.

The Gond has been terrorizing nearby space colonies with its periodic raids of destruction. The time has come to put an end to his reign of terror. The player has been selected to pilot an advanced fighter ship with high offensive capabilities, and must enter the cave inside the asteroid where the Gond makes his home, and safely fly through every zone; the Mountain Zone, Rainbow Zone, Styx Zone, Stripe Zone, Bleak Zone, and the City of Mystery (aka Last Zone) where the Gond is rumored to reside. The player must take the Gond out, and succeed in the mission. If unsuccessful, the colonies will be doomed.

Each of the elements of life is portrayed using four different people in the urban streets of Los Angeles, with the gangster Fingers (Garcia) playing the character that intertwines all four individuals.

;'''Happiness'''

Forest Whitaker plays a meek bank employee who loves butterflies. He accidentally overhears acquaintances discuss a fixed horse race, and decides to bet $50,000, borrowing from a bookie, Fingers. Unfortunately he loses the bet.

Fingers derives his name from his habit of cutting off the fingers of those who don’t pay back their debts. Fingers threatens Happiness, and Pleasure, Finger's enforcer, visits him to collect, but pities Happiness, so gives him a revolver and leaves. In desperation, Happiness robs the bank. While fleeing, he is slightly hit by a moving vehicle, then escapes to the top of a building. Surrounded, the police order him to drop his gun. He does not comply, throwing the money bag off the roof, and is killed by the police. When he hits the ground his coat is spread out making him look like a butterfly.

;'''Pleasure'''

Brendan Fraser plays a man with a sad past and an ability to see the future of the people he meets, an ability that deprives him of the pleasure of enjoying the surprises in life. When he was young, he was forced to defend his younger brother in a street fight against two teenagers. Pleasure won the fight but found his brother lying dead. Pleasure often has flashbacks of this scene throughout the film. Later in life, Pleasure joins Fingers' gang and becomes one of his favorites due mostly to his ability. He, however, cannot see the future of Trista (Gellar).

He is assigned to look after Fingers' visiting nephew, Tony. He has a vision of Tony climbing a fence and falling back. To avoid trouble, he leaves Tony in a club while working (collecting protection money). Unfortunately, one of the girls that Tony is with, high on drugs, staggers into the next room. When Tony follows her, they struggle over a gun, and an older mobster gets shot. Pleasure rescues Tony, and they run from the henchmen, ending at the fence of the earlier vision. Tony gets away, and it is Pleasure who is caught by the henchmen, severely beaten, and then treated by Love (Bacon) in a hospital.

;'''Sorrow'''

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a somewhat morose up-and-coming pop singer/dancer with the stage name "Trista". In flashback, it's revealed that as a young child, she saw her father killed when he was accidentally hit by a moving car, immediately after promising to 'be there for her', and the loss affects her deeply. Trista's manager is deeply indebted to Fingers, and embezzles Trista's money to pay Fingers, but that is not enough, so he assigns Trista's contract to Fingers. Trista, incensed, escapes from Fingers and meets Pleasure. Fingers, naturally, has already ordered his team to find her. Pleasure, sympathetic to her, helps Trista by letting her stay with him, knowing that his house is the only place Fingers wouldn't search for her. They become lovers, but soon Fingers finds out about her location, and kills Pleasure, causing Trista even more sorrow. Her blood type is Kp(a-b-), which she reveals when a TV interviewer (Jon Bernthal) asks her what is special about her. This becomes hopeful information when Love hears it on the television, as he is searching for that blood type, the same as Gina's, when he is trying to save her life.

;'''Love'''

Kevin Bacon plays a doctor who is in love with his longtime friend Gina (Julie Delpy). He never confessed his love and, so, she married his best friend. Gina gets bitten by a poisonous snake and needs a rare type of blood. Desperate, Love races to the location where Trista is filming the interview; however, Trista's assistant is in the process of trying to help Trista run away. Love runs to Trista. Her bodyguards, thinking he is a crazed fan, grab him while Trista is accidentally knocked down, hits her head and ends up in the hospital. When she awakens, Fingers informs her that she will have to abort the baby that she has just become aware that she is carrying. In her sorrow that the baby, the one thing she has left of the man she loved (Pleasure) will be lost, she sneaks out of her room and goes to the roof to jump off and commit suicide. Love, by circumstance, sees her and races up in time to see her step off the ledge. He grabs the bed sheet that she had wrapped around her like a cape and catches her. He tells her she will have to come up and grab his hand for him to be able to pull her up. After she does this, the movie flashes to Gina, saved, awakening from her coma. Love loans Trista his car as a gift for saving Gina and she leaves the hospital.

;'''Ending'''

Fingers looks for Trista at the hospital, but his efforts to find her are in vain, as she has already left. As Trista escapes in Love's car, she slightly hits Happiness as he runs in front of her car in his dash from the bank (in the scene that we saw from his point of view earlier); as she sits at the intersection, as she's coming to grips with all that has happened, the money bag Happiness threw from the top of the building lands on her car's rooftop. The film closes with Trista at an airport traveling away, the money bag providing her with all the financial support she needs to escape from Fingers and start a new life for herself and her baby abroad.

The player controls Mowgli, a young boy who has been raised by wolves. Mowgli must leave his home in the jungle and go back to the human village because Shere Khan, a tiger, is now hunting him. Mowgli must fight jungle wildlife and ultimately Shere Khan himself to reach his village. During the journey he meets Bagheera, Baloo, King Louie, and the hypnotist snake Kaa as well as the evil Shere Khan.

Based in the Eighteenth century, Suzanne Simonin is an intelligent and sensitive sixteen-year-old French girl who is forced against her will into a Catholic convent by her parents. Suzanne’s parents initially inform her that she is being sent to the convent for financial reasons, stating it is cheaper for her to become a nun rather than paying a dowry in marriage. However, while in the convent, it is revealed to Suzanne that she is actually there because she is an illegitimate child, as her mother committed adultery with another man. By sending Suzanne to the convent, her mother thought she could make amends for her sins by using her daughter as a sacrificial offering for a new salvation.

At the convent, Suzanne suffers humiliation, harassment and violence because she refuses to make the vows of the religious community. Suzanne agrees to enter into the sisterhood; however, she is placed in isolation for six months for her reluctance to take her vows. Suzanne eventually finds companionship with the Mother Superior, Sister de Moni, as she pities Suzanne’s anguish. In the days leading up her death, Sister de Moni comforts Suzanne through prayer and her understanding of Suzanne’s torment in the convent.

Sister de Moni was succeeded by Sister Sainte-Christine, who does not share the same empathy for Suzanne that her predecessor had. In fact, the new Mother Superior blames Suzanne for the death of Sister de Moni and for the unrest the convent faces under the new leadership. Suzanne is physically and mentally harassed by Sister Sainte-Christine, almost to the point of death.

Suzanne contacts her lawyer, Monsieur Manouri, who attempts to legally free her from her vows. She loses the legal battle; however, Monsieur Manouri manages to transfer Suzanne to another convent, Sainte-Eutrope, liberating her from Sister Sainte-Christine's persecution. At the Sainte-Eutrope convent, the Mother Superior is revealed to be a lesbian and she grows affectionate towards Suzanne. The Mother Superior attempts to seduce Suzanne, but her innocence and chastity eventually drives the Mother Superior into insanity, leading to her death.

Suzanne escapes the Sainte-Eutrope convent using the help of a priest. Following her liberation, she lives in fear of being captured and taken back to the convent as she waits for the help of Marquis de Croismare.

Asa Leventhal's wife Mary has left the city for a few weeks in order to help her elderly mother move from Baltimore to her old family home in the South. While she is away, Leventhal must take of many tasks of caring for himself which his wife would ordinarily undertake for him. The action of the story begins when Leventhal is at his job as a copy-editor and receives a frantic phone call from his sister-in-law. She tells him that his nephew is terribly ill and that she desperately needs his assistance. During their conversation we learn that Asa's brother Max is a negligent husband and father who has practically abandoned his wife and two sons for itinerant work in Texas. His family subsists on the money he sends to them.

On his way to his brother's apartment, Leventhal reflects on the annoyance of being disturbed at work and the shameful treatment which Max is visiting upon his young family. But these reflections quickly take on a tone of self-reproach as Leventhal briefly admits to himself that he has allowed his obligation to this extended family to lapse inexcusably. Throughout the novel, Leventhal flirts with the possibility of widening his arc of responsibility to include humans other than himself and his wife. Usually, however, he finds a way to preserve his positive image of himself and to shirk responsibility for others.

This theme is expanded one evening when Leventhal, while walking in the park, is abruptly confronted by a man whose face he is unable immediately to place. Slowly, through conversation and subterfuge, the stranger reveals himself to be an old acquaintance named Kirby Allbee. Leventhal initially regards Allbee, who looks down on his luck, with a mixture of alarm and pity, but is swiftly put on guard, for Allbee's stream of false courtesy is barbed with anti-semitism, and it emerges that Allbee holds Leventhal responsible for his having lost his job at some point in the past.

As they stand there, Leventhal scrambles to recall the details of their acquaintance. He does recall Allbee's references to a party at which Allbee had angered Leventhal with anti-semitic remarks, and also that, while looking for a job himself, he had had a disastrous interview with Allbee's old boss. But Allbee has clearly become a 'crank' and a drunk, and Leventhal at first rejects out of hand Allbee's accusation that Leventhal's disastrous interview has lost him his job. Allbee asserts that Leventhal's angry behavior at the interview was deliberate provocation, payback for Allbee's anti-semitic remarks at the party, directed at Leventhal's close friend, Dan Harkavy, who had nonetheless contacted Allbee to help secure the disastrous interview for Leventhal.

Allbee confronts Leventhal several more times over the following weeks and it is revealed that in recent years Allbee has led a life of dissipation and poverty. The loss of his job, his wife's subsequent decision to leave him and her ultimate death in an auto accident have left him without resources. Leventhal mulls over his angry behavior at the interview and begins, despite the fact that Allbee is stalking him and spying on him and eventually turns up on his doorstep late at night, to accept some degree of responsibility. He enters into painful introspection about his stance toward others and interpretations of their behavior. We learn that Leventhal's mother was institutionalized for mental illness, that Leventhal's 'nerves' are shot, and thus despite Allbee's alarming behavior the reader accepts Leventhal's doubts about his own assessments of people's motives.

Interwoven with his struggles with Allbee are Leventhal's uneasy interactions with the family of his brother Max. After his initial visit to their lowly apartment, Leventhal is convinced that Max has neglected his young wife and children unconscionably and he resolves to give Max a piece of his mind. Leventhal convinces his sister-in-law to allow her son to be admitted to a hospital for treatment. When the young boy takes a turn for the worse, Max returns to the city just at the time of his son's death.

Bellow uses the twin events of the death of Leventhal's nephew and the jarring conflict with Allbee to portray a period of self-examination and growth in the life of the protagonist. Although his tangles with Allbee nearly end in disaster, he parts with his brother on good terms, and in a final chapter, we learn that he has been promoted, looks younger despite graying hair, and is about to become a father.

The end describes a chance meeting between Leventhal and his old tormentor Allbee—both early-middle-aged, in a theatre, just before the final act. Allbee's fortunes are superficially reversed: he is dating a Hollywood actress and is richly attired. Leventhal is dismayed when Allbee hails him, but Allbee comes close to apologizing for his past aggression, saying that now he has learned that 'the world wasn't made exactly for me' and that he has come to terms with 'whoever runs things'. But since Allbee has in the past bruited his belief that 'the Jews' run everything, Leventhal's parting words to him are, 'Wait a minute, what´s your idea of who runs things?' Poignantly, we part with Leventhal and his 9-months-pregnant wife in the dark, being shown to their seats by an invisible 'usher'.

Category:1947 American novels Category:Novels by Saul Bellow Category:Vanguard Press books

Astronauts on a mission to Mars attack the city of the Mysterons, a race of aliens with the ability to create duplicates of beings and objects. In revenge, the Mysterons declare war on humanity.

Earth is defended by Spectrum, a worldwide security organisation. The Mysterons attempt to assassinate the World President (voiced by Paul Maxwell) using a double of Captain Scarlet (voiced by Francis Matthews), a Spectrum agent they have murdered. The double is defeated, after which it breaks free of Mysteron control and remains loyal to Spectrum ("The Mysterons"). However, the Mysterons succeed in their efforts to assassinate the Director General of the United Asian Republic ("Winged Assassin").

Scarlet, Captain Blue (voiced by Ed Bishop) and Destiny Angel (voiced by Liz Morgan) come under attack from a trio of reconstructed Spectrum Angel fighters but are saved by the rest of the Angel squadron ("Seek and Destroy"). Later, the Mysterons launch an assault on Cloudbase, Spectrum's airborne headquarters, using a fleet of armed flying saucers. Cloudbase is destroyed, but the Mysterons ultimately decide to show mercy: using their extraordinary powers to reverse time, they take the base back to a point prior to the attack, leaving it intact ("Attack on Cloudbase").

One seemingly typical evening, at the Brady house, a man claiming to be Carol's long-lost first husband, Roy Martin, shows up at the suburban Brady residence. The Bradys believe his story about suffering from amnesia and having plastic surgery after being injured. Mike has been planning a second wedding/renewal of vows for himself and Carol, for an anniversary present without her knowing, although Roy's arrival throws a monkey wrench into things. Throughout Roy's stay, he is openly hostile to them, his sarcasm and insults completely going over their heads.

Peter, who is trying to decide what career path to choose, starts idolizing and emulating Roy, which frequently gets him in trouble at the architect firm where Mike works. Peter later mentions Roy talking about "the big house", and Mike learns it means prison, making him suspicious.

Greg and Marcia both want to move out of their shared rooms and when neither wants to back down, they have to share the attic together. When Roy's arrival suggests that Carol and Mike might not be married, Greg and Marcia believe that they are technically not related. This leads them to realize they are in love with each other, but try to hide it from one another throughout their time together.

Bobby and Cindy start a "Detective Agency" hunting down her missing doll and upon finding it, they stumble upon a photo revealing Roy's true intentions. He is actually a con man named Trevor Thomas and is there to steal a familiar horse statue that is actually a $20 million dollar ancient artifact.

The kids reveal to Carol his plans, and confront Trevor, who, in turn, kidnaps Carol and takes her hostage to Hawaii, where he plans to sell the artifact to Dr. Whitehead, a buyer in Hawaii. He also ties up the kids and Alice to keep them from intervening. Mike, who's now fully aware of Trevor's deception, having gone to the police with his suspicions, frees them, and the family flies to Hawaii to save Carol and foil Trevor's plans.

In Hawaii, Carol escapes from Trevor's clutches, and manages to find her way to Dr. Whitehead's estate before Trevor gets there. It turns out, Trevor was responsible for the boating accident that led to the disappearance of Dr. Whitehead's son Gilligan and Carol's first husband, a professor. In Dr. Whitehead's words, "The Minnow is lost", and he refuses to pay Trevor for the horse. Trevor attempts to hold Dr. Whitehead and Carol at gunpoint for payment, but Mike and the family arrive just in time to intervene, and, after a brief scuffle between the two men, in which Mike quickly gains the upper hand, Trevor is arrested and taken to jail.

Dr. Whitehead offers to pay the Bradys the $20 million dollars for the horse, but Mike declines the offer, claiming it's a symbol of their togetherness. Cindy gives him her doll, to console him, as she's outgrown it, after almost losing her mother. Jan, who made up a pretend boyfriend named George Glass in order to make herself seem more popular, meets a real boy named George Glass during the family's trip to Hawaii, and they become a couple.

As Mike and Carol renew their vows in a ceremony held at their home, Marcia agrees to let Greg have the attic to himself, until he goes to college, and the two share one last on-screen kiss, before returning to being brother and sister. The movie ends with Carol tossing the bouquet, and a genie named Jeannie arriving just in time to catch it. She then claims to be Mike Brady's first wife, much to Mike and Carol's dismay.

The plot centers around a young American singer named Wendy Reed, who wants to leave the US and her boyfriend (a musician played by Michael Cerveris), and travel to Tokyo, Japan, after hearing of the success of foreign groups overseas. She plans to visit a girlfriend but cannot find her. Instead she meets a young man named Hiro, who is the leader of an unsuccessful rock band. Wendy's appeal as a tall blonde American woman draws attention to both the locals and the band themselves. She falls in love with Hiro and develops a music career as the movie advances. With some tricks they manage to catch the eye of a record label producer and achieve success for a short time. The song, which is played throughout, is a cover version from John Sebastian's ''Do you believe in magic?'' While they top the charts, there is some luxury in their lives, but the blossoming relationship of the main couple starts breaking apart. A business mogul tells Wendy that being a foreign singer in Japan is looked at as a novelty, and questions the longevity of her career, citing quickly changing trends in pop culture as the reason. Wendy, no longer wanting to be used a gimmick, encourages Hiro to perform his own original songs as frontman for the band, so that their true essence will be the highlight and no longer based on Wendy's looks. Hiro does this towards the end and succeeds at the concert. Wendy realizes that "Tokyo Pop" is a one-day business where groups have their fifteen minutes of fame and then vanish forever. Since this is the case, Wendy goes back to the US in hopes of finding a more stable career. She appreciates the time she spent with Hiro, and the two have inspired one another. However, she believes she can leave him behind because she has given him the hope to believe in himself as a writer. At the end of the film, during the credits, Wendy is seen in the studio performing an original song inspired by her time with Hiro.

Oliver Lyon, a successful artist, is lodging at the house of an elderly baronet, Sir David, whose portrait he has been engaged to paint. At diner on the night of his arrival he recognises among the company a woman with whom he used to be in love. He has not seen her for twelve years, and knows her to be married. Her husband, Colonel Clement Capadose, is a brilliant and handsome gentleman with whom she appeared to be very much in love, and Lyon, having accepted her as something unattainable to him, feels no real jealousy towards him, being satisfied with her apparent happiness. He at first admires the Colonel, but over the course of the dinner, when he narrates a good many improbable stories that Lyon cannot believe, his opinion of him is rather altered, although he imputes it to a romantic tendency on the Colonel's part. However, he is rather startled by what appears a plain lie when the colonel tells him of a recent occurrence in the house, which his host Arthur Ashmore, the son of Sir David, states to be completely false.

Afterwards, while painting Sir David's portrait, the baronet explains to him that Colonel Capadose is a compulsive liar. He extenuates his fault, saying that he has no bad intentions, but merely cannot give a straight answer. His wife, Lyon realises, tries to shield him by not revealing his lies, and even supporting what he says. Sufficiently shocked by his, the artist hopes that she never actively participates in her husband's deceptions, and wonders how much her nature has been corrupted. To find out how far she will go to save his name, Lyon spends as much time as possible with them, painting first a portrait of their nine-year-old daughter Amy, and then of the Liar himself.

In the portrait, Lyon attempts to express the Colonel's deceitful nature fully, hoping that he might awaken his wife's moral sense. He tries to draw Mrs Capadose out about her husband's character, but she only says that his nature is noble, and hopes that Lyon will express no more than this in his picture. To capture the spirit of the Liar more fully, he encourages him to talk as much as possible during the sittings, and is given in return a vast amount of invented facts and anecdotes. On one occasion a poor model, Geraldine, comes into the studio seeking work. Lyon sends her away, but Colonel Capadose falsely tells him that she is not a model at all, but a mad woman with a vendetta against him who has been pursuing him for years.

Sometime later the season ends, and the Capadoses leave with the portrait nearly finished. Lyon also leaves the town, but returning briefly to see his unfinished picture, find that the Capadoses have come unannounced into his rooms. Coming upon them unnoticed, Lyon realises that Mrs Capadose has seen in the picture what he hoped she would, her husband's vile nature, and that she is ashamed of him. She terms the portrait 'cruel' but tries to leave before her husband, in a passion, rips up the canvas. They depart without knowing that Lyon saw them, and he too leaves, having seen the woman Geraldine about the house.

Lyon waits to see how the couple explain events. When they return to the town soon after, they act as if nothing has happened, and ask for the sitting to recommence. When Lyon tells them what has happened, they feign ignorance and Colonel Capadose, who also met Geraldine on the day, instantly accuses her of the deed. This is the last straw for Lyon; despite Sir David's affirmation that the Liar would never harm anyone, he has now 'wantonly sacrificing an innocent person', and his wife was an accessory to the misdeed. After giving her one last chance to confess to the deception, and to admit that she only shielded her husband form love, which Lyon could readily forgive, her leaves her to spare her further pain, remarking that 'she was still in love with the Colonel - he had trained her too well’.

The ''National Mirror'' is a tabloid publication that reports primarily on unexplainable phenomena. The editor, Vartan Malt, receives a story tip about a woman living with an angel in her house in a small town in Iowa, and decides to send three staff members to investigate. He chooses Frank Quinlan; Huey Driscoll, a photographer and owner of the ''Mirror'' star Sparky the Wonder Dog; and Dorothy Winters, hired by Malt to eventually replace Driscoll.

At the boarding house of Pansy Milbank, they meet her tenant Michael. While Michael has wings and smells like cookies, he has an unexpected taste for cigarettes and sugar, seems rather boorish at first, and does not appear clean. When pressed for the type of angel he is, he replies he is an archangel, with Pansy boasting he triumphed over Lucifer in the War in Heaven.

After Pansy unexpectedly dies, Frank and Huey decide to take Michael to Chicago. Michael reveals that this was his plan from the beginning. During the trip, Michael's mission on Earth is slowly revealed to be to get Frank and Dorothy together despite both having had bad experiences with love.

After Sparky is hit by a truck and killed, Michael brings him back to life. In the process, he uses up his allotment of miracles and begins to weaken. The group reaches Chicago just in time for Michael to see the Sears Tower (which he has always wanted to see) before disappearing. After Frank and Dorothy go their separate ways, Michael returns one more time (this time with Pansy in tow) and successfully gets Frank and Dorothy back together for good.

Nora Harper (Jenifer Lewis) is an African-American businesswoman who owns a hair salon in Los Angeles, California. She keeps a watchful eye over her employees, friends, relatives, and regular customers. Lilleana (Tatyana Ali) is a new employee from the Dominican Republic who is in an abusive relationship with Bennie (Bobby Brown). Chloe (Tamala Jones) is a hairstylist with aspirations of a career in show business. Ming (Lucille Soong) is an opinionated manicurist with anger issues. Devin (Jean-Claude LaMarre) is a bisexual man who is uncertain about his relationship with Delicious (Donn Swaby), and fears losing his girlfriend (played by Lil' Kim as herself) in the event she discovers his attraction to men. Later in the film, Nora suffers a heart attack; her friends from the salon hope for her recovery, but she dies shortly before the end of the film. In the end, the salon remains open, selling Nora's hairstyling products.

The story's prologue is set in Highgate Cemetery, where Professor Alexis Fairburn, an Eton beak (Professor), is tracing a tombstone when he is kidnapped by Wolfgang and Ludwig Smith. Fairburn manages to leave the piece of paper with which he was tracing. The story itself starts with young James Bond and his friend, Perry Mandeville (leader of the Danger Society), reminiscing the previous day's events.

Out of the blue, a letter to Pritpal from Fairburn comes, regarding Fairburn's resignation from Eton. To House Master Codrose and Headmaster Elliot, the "mistakes" are due to Fairburn's scatterbrained personality and eccentricity, but Pritpal soon realises that the mistakes were there for a reason. James and Pritpal work towards trying to decipher them - the first of them are easy - some wrong names in the letter (Luc Olivier and Speccy Stevens) translate into "Solve seven cryptic clues."

However, they have to get several photographs of the letter, which has been confiscated by Cecil Codrose, before they can continue. Eventually, they get it and continue. They determine from the second clue that they have to solve the puzzle of a certain crossword in the next ''The Times'' and eventually determine that "Gordian Knot" means that they must meet a man nicknamed "Gordius," who is coming to Pritpal's next Crossword Society meeting. James decides to come along to the meeting, but all the man does is play a game of Hearts, during which James wins five pounds. The man gives his name as Ivar Peterson, who is a professor at Cambridge University. However, James and Pritpal do not believe him. James arranges with Perry to go to Cambridge University during Perry's father's birthday leave.

Before James can go to London, there is a break in at the school. James is sure that the intruder was intending to take something related to Fairburn. James decides to leave for London with Perry at once and learns that one more clue, when solved, says that Fairburn has actually been kidnapped. As he and Perry drive to London, they spy an old Bentley that is for sale. Eventually, they arrive in London and James goes off to Cambridge University to find Peterson. However, when he goes into his office, he discovers that Peterson has been murdered with an Apache revolver bayonet. The killer is, in fact, still in the room, and James flees before he can be attacked.

James then reads a letter that he took from Peterson's desk and finds the name "John Charnage" in it. Before he can work out what it means, the killer James had seen (Ludwig) arrives with his accomplice (Wolfgang). James flees in his Bamford and Martin, but the men give chase and James ends up crashing in a river. He manages to escape the vehicle before it explodes and hides under a bridge.

James passes out from the cold and wakes up in a hospital. After managing to steal a suit and shoes, James returns to Perry's house. The two realise that "John Charnage" is actually Sir John Charnage, a local businessman whose father used to own a chemical factory. The two pay him a visit, but James is recognised as the boy that was seen leaving the scene of Professor Peterson's murder. Charnage locks them in a room, but when he leaves to call the police, James and Perry try and escape. They manage to get to Hackney, where the Eton Mission is and for which Pritpal and Tommy Chong are working.

The group solve the remainder of the puzzle and determine two things - they need to check Room 5 of the Royal College of Surgeons and then go to Highgate Cemetery. They go to the museum first and learn of Charles Babbage, who had tried to invent two machines for solving mathematical problems - essentially primitive computers. They determine that Charnage is trying to build one of these machines. They then head down to Highgate Cemetery. Wolfgang and Ludwig arrive at the graveyard, but James and Perry flee and split up. James hides in their car's trunk and is led straight to Fairburn's kidnapper - Charnage. When they arrive, James sets their car on fire and, in the confusion, enters the building.

James finds himself in an abandoned chemical factory and steals a bottle of potassium to use as a weapon before he is discovered and is forced to escape. He discovers that the factory has been changed into an illegal underground casino. James tries to find a way out, but an American man who has just lost a fortune in the casino forces him to win back the man's money in roulette, preventing him from escaping, although James wins and the man promises to give him a share of the winnings. James is caught and taken to Charnage, who decides that he needs to kill him. To do this, he forces him to drink a large amount of gin. Drunk and with a damaged liver, James is then dragged by Ludwig and Wolfgang to a barge to be thrown into the River Thames. In his drunken state, James works out the rest of the crossword and determines that the word "Bond" (in his name) must have the word "runner" and the letter "m" inserted into it, but cannot make sense of the results. He manages to escape by throwing the jar of potassium at the Smiths, blowing Wolfgang's hand off, and then throwing himself overboard.

After making it to land, James wanders through East London in his drunken state and passes out in an alley. He wakes up to find himself surrounded by a gang of girls, who prepare to beat him up. However, by coincidence, he is in the town of Red Kelly (the boy he met during the events of SilverFin). The leader of the gang is Red's younger sister, Kelly, who immediately takes a shine to James. James learns that Charnage's business had stopped several years before because the labourers were always dying, and determines that Charnage must have been doing a deal with the Russians to build the computer that he is trying to build, the N.E.M.E.S.I.S. machine, to avoid losing his fortune. Red inadvertently solves the last piece of the puzzle - one of the results James had got earlier, Brunnermond, was actually where a large explosion took place, near the Royal Docks. James realises that the machine is at the Royal Docks, in a boat called the ''Amoras''.

Upon arrival at the docks, James and Kelly sneak up to the boat and locate Fairburn before escaping to a nearby passenger ship, where they decide to shelter for the night. Kelly, who has demonstrated an interest in James since learning his identity, insists on dancing with him in the ballroom. However, during the night, Charnage's butler Deighton and a Russian man enter the boat and search for them, but they are rescued by Kelly's gang. They return to the ''Amoras'' and destroy N.E.M.E.S.I.S., killing Wolfgang and Ludwig in the process, before searching for the Russian in charge, Colonel Irina "Babushka" Sedova. They track her down to an abandoned train tunnel, where Kelly kisses James before they search. They eventually find Babushka, but she prepares to kill James. James manages to kill her henchman, and discovers a gun in his own pocket. He aims at Babushka's head, but spares her and lets her go.

Sometime after his return to Eton, James discovers that the American has kept his end of the bargain and given James a large sum of money. James tells Perry Mandeville that he intends to buy the Bentley they saw earlier with the money he won at the casino.

Comic

Screw-On Head is an agent for President Abraham Lincoln. He is summoned by Lincoln to track down Emperor Zombie, an undead occultist and originally a groundskeeper at Hyde Park. Zombie and his henchmen, the vampire Madam and scientist Dr. Snap, have stolen an ancient manuscript. This will allow him access to the temple of Gung, a warlord who nearly conquered the world over ten thousand years ago with supernatural power gained from "a fabulous melon-sized jewel", which Zombie obviously plans to use for himself.

With the aid of his manservant, Mr. Groin, and dog Mr. Dog, Screw-On Head manages to track down Zombie, but not before the villain and his henchmen find the treasure: instead of a jewel, the tomb contains a turnip with "a small parallel universe" inside. Zombie unleashes the Demigod within, but Screw-On Head manages to defeat it in combat.

TV pilot

The 22-minute pilot differs from the comic mainly in that the characters are fleshed out with backstories. Rather than a master of languages, Emperor Zombie (David Hyde Pierce) is the first of Screw-On Head's (Paul Giamatti) manservants, who has turned to evil despite Screw-On Head's advice. Out of revenge for his first defeat, Zombie developed what he refers to as a "petty vengeance fetish", killing the seven replacement servants after him, and before Mr. Groin (Patton Oswalt), in gruesome ways. The pilot also featured Molly Shannon, Mindy Sterling, and Corey Burton in various roles as well. On July 12, 2006, ''The Amazing Screw-On Head'' TV pilot was aired online at scifi.com with a survey to decide whether or not the show went to series. According to Mike Mignola on the November 29, 2006 Fanboy Radio podcast, the series was not picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel. The pilot was released on DVD on February 6, 2007.

Nezami's version begins with an account of Khosrow's birth and his education. This is followed by an account of Khosrow's feast in a farmer's house; for which Khosrow is severely chastised by his father. Khosrow asks forgiveness and repents his offence. Hormizd IV, who is now pleased with his son, forgives him. That very night, Khosrow sees his grandfather Anushirvan in a dream and Anushirvan gives him glad tidings of a wife named Shirin, a steed named Shabdiz, a musician named Barbad, and a great kingdom, that is Iran.

Shapur, Khosrow's close friend and a painter, tells Khosrow of the Armenian queen Mahin Banu and her niece Shirin. Hearing Shapur's descriptions of Shirin's flawless features, the young prince falls in love with Shirin, the Armenian princess. Shapur travels to Armenia to look for Shirin. Shapur finds Shirin and shows the image of Khosrow to Shirin. Shirin falls in love with Khosrow and escapes from Armenia to Khosrow's capital Mada'in; but meanwhile, Khosrow also flees from his father's anger and sets out for Armenia in search of Shirin.

On the way, he finds Shirin unclothed bathing and washing her flowing hair; Shirin also sees him; but since Khosrow was traveling in peasant clothes, they do not recognize one another. Khosrow arrives in Armenia and is welcomed by Shamira the queen of Armenia - yet he finds out that Shirin is in Mada'in. Again, Shapur is sent to bring Shirin. When Shirin reaches Armenia, Khosrow – because of his father's death - has to return to Mada'in. The two lovers keep going to opposite places until Khosrow is overthrown by a general named Bahrām Chobin and flees to Armenia.

In Armenia, Khosrow finally meets Shirin and is welcomed by her. Shirin, however, does not agree to marry Khosrow; unless Khosrow first claims his country back from Bahram Chobin. Thus, Khosrow leaves Shirin in Armenia and goes to Constantinople. The Caesar agrees to assist him against Bahram Chobin on condition that he marry his daughter Mariam. Khosrow is also forced to promise not to marry any one else as long as Mariam is alive. Khosrow succeeds in defeating his enemy and reclaims his throne. Mariam, out of jealousy, keeps Khosrow away from Shirin.

Meanwhile, a sculptor named Farhad falls in love with Shirin and becomes Khosrow's love-rival. Khosrow cannot abide Farhad, so he sends him as an exile to Behistun mountain with the impossible task of carving stairs out of the cliff rocks. Farhad begins his task hoping that Khosrow will allow him to marry Shirin. Yet, Khosrow sends a messenger to Farhad and gives him false news of Shirin's death. Hearing this false news, Farhad throws himself from the mountaintop and dies. Khosrow writes a letter to Shirin, expressing his regret for Farhad's death. Soon after this incident, Mariam also dies. According to Ferdowsi's version, it was Shirin who secretly poisoned Mariam. Shirin replies to Khosrow's letter with another satirical letter of condolences.

Khosrow, before proposing marriage to Shirin, tries to have intimacy with another woman named Shekar in Isfahan, which further delays the lovers' union. Finally, Khosrow goes to Shirin's castle to see her. Shirin, seeing that Khosrow is drunk, does not let him in the castle. She particularly reproaches Khosrow for his intimacy with Shekar. Khosrow, sad and rejected, returns to his palace.

Shirin eventually consents to marry Khosrow after several romantic and heroic episodes. Yet, Shiroyeh, Khosrow's son from his wife Mariam, is also in love with Shirin. Shiroyeh finally murders his father Khosrow and sends a messenger to Shirin conveying that after one week, she would have to marry him. Shirin, in order to avoid marrying Shiroy, kills herself. Khosrow and Shirin were buried together in the same grave.

Chief O'Brien is unjustly convicted of espionage on the planet Argratha. Instead of incarcerating convicts, the Argrathi correctional facility implants them with memories of years of imprisonment in a few hours of actual time. O'Brien experiences twenty years in prison before his fellow officers can extract him from the situation.

On returning to Deep Space Nine, O'Brien tries to adjust back to life on board the station, but his experiences while imprisoned still trouble him. Although he tells Dr. Bashir that he was alone in prison, flashbacks reveal to the audience that he had a cellmate, Ee'char, who taught him how to survive while incarcerated. He begins to exhibit habitual behaviours that he "picked up" while "incarcerated," such as hoarding food and sleeping on the hard floor instead of his bed. He begins to experience hallucinations of Ee'char.

Over time, O'Brien becomes increasingly irritable and reclusive. He has an altercation with Bashir, and assaults Quark when he has to wait to be served at Quark's bar. Captain Sisko later relieves O'Brien of duty, placing him on medical leave and ordering him to attend the counselling sessions that he has been avoiding. After he returns to his quarters, he almost hits his daughter Molly when she tries to get his attention. He flees to a cargo bay and starts tearing the place apart. Finding a weapons locker, he sets a phaser on maximum, preparing to take his own life.

Bashir follows O'Brien and finds him just in time. O'Brien tells Bashir how he killed Ee'char over a few pieces of bread that Ee'char was saving for the both of them, and that the guilt has been eating away at his conscience. O'Brien is convinced he is an animal, but Bashir tells him that if he truly were, he would have felt no regret for killing Ee'char, and so O'Brien is still human deep down inside. Bashir ultimately prescribes a new course of heavy treatment and soon has O'Brien on the way to recovery.

Front cover of the European NES version. The game begins with the titular M.C. Kids, Mick and Mack, reading a storybook about Ronald McDonald showing off his magical bag at a picnic in the meadow. Suddenly, the Hamburglar appears and steals Ronald's Magic Bag. Mick and Mack then search outside Ronald's clubhouse for four of the puzzle cards. After collecting four of the puzzle cards, Mick and Mack are told by Ronald that the Hamburglar was sighted near Birdie's treehouse.

Upon arriving at Birdie's treehouse, Mick and Mack search her house for five of her puzzle cards. After finding her puzzle cards, Mick and Mack are told that the Hamburglar is sighted near the cliffs.

Following the directions given by Birdie, Mick and Mack arrive at Grimace's loft in the Highlands and search his house for three of his puzzle cards. After finding two more cards, Grimace lets them head down a path to the Professor's workshop.

When Mick and Mack reach the Professor's workshop, they find that he has invented something to help them in their quest. He then has Mick and Mack find five of his puzzle cards.

Using the rocket that the Professor gave to them, Mick and Mack head to the moon to visit CosMc. They meet up with CosMc on the moon at his getaway where he tells him to find five of his puzzle cards. After collecting his cards, CosMc tells Mick and Mack to find an entrance to a volcano as the Hamburglar might be hiding out there.

Mick and Mack brave the scary volcano in their efforts to find the Hamburglar and the Magic Bag. When they find the Hamburglar, he tells them that the Magic Bag escaped from him. After collecting all six of his cards, Mick and Mack confront the Magic Bag where it launches a tied flag, a magic wand and then a rabbit in a hat in order to attack. When the Magic Bag is defeated, the game ends with Mick and Mack returning the bag to Ronald.

The cow town of Spurline is effectively ruled by Virgil Renchler, owner of the Golden Empire ranch.

One night, some of Renchler's hands beat young laborer Juan Martín to death. The newly elected sheriff of Spurline, Ben Sadler, decides to investigate the murder, but must contend with Renchler's henchmen and the fierce opposition of the townspeople, who fear that Spurline would be ruined without the Golden Empire's business.

Ranch foreman Ed Yates admits to Renchler that he killed Martin, but employee Chet Huneker is persuaded to tell the law that he had hit Martin accidentally with a car. Renchler's daughter Skippy tells the sheriff what she remembers from the night of Martin's death.

Sadler is beaten by Yates and Huneker, then dragged through town, tied to the back of a truck. Sadler retrieves a shotgun, tosses aside his badge and, with help from cropper Aiken Clay, pursues Renchler and his men, defeating them with the help of the townspeople, who then return Sadler's badge to him.

World-famous Italian tenor opera singer Giorgio Fini is in Boston for a concert when he gets a phone call asking him to perform at The Met. The call brings up bad memories from his disastrous appearance there seven years earlier. It scares him to the point where he cannot sing at rehearsal. Everyone panics thinking he is losing his voice.

His business manager, Henry Pollack, calls throat specialist Pamela Taylor. Giorgio at first refuses her, believing her not to be a doctor but "a nurse" because she is a woman. After being scared into seeing her by his manager, she immediately detects that the problem is only psychological, not physical. Pamela makes up a serious-sounding name for the condition and gives Giorgio a shot to cure it, which she reveals to Henry is harmless vitamin B12. After reacting to the prick of the needle, Giorgio instantly gets his voice back and proceeds to sing the following day at the Hatch Shell in Boston.

Giorgio is immediately physically attracted to Pamela, and even though he is married with two children, she agrees to go out on a dinner date. The date does not go well, but Giorgio is persistent, visiting the hospital where Pamela works. His quick thinking helps calm a scared child getting ready for surgery to remove his tonsils, promising ice cream which he delivers after the surgery. Impressed by his handling of the children, she agrees to another date. She eventually becomes his traveling companion. After spending a romantic week in San Francisco and the wine country visiting friends of Giorgio, the two eventually fall in love, even though at the start of their relationship he told her this was just "a fling" and made her promise not to fall in love with him. He gains the confidence through his love for her to agree to perform at the Met in the Giacomo Puccini opera ''Turandot''. However, because Giorgio refuses to leave his wife, Pamela throws him a kiss and leaves the Met while Giorgio is singing "Nessun Dorma" to her.

Rosalinda is a pretty woman who sells flowers and decorates a fancy restaurant. One day, she meets Fernando José, a man of high social status. He plays the piano at the restaurant. They eventually fall in love, get married, and have a child named Erika, but his stepmother Valeria desires to split the happy couple up, and she has the perfect way of doing so.

Rosalinda's real mother, Soledad, served a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of Fernando José's real father. She was innocent, but took the blame. After finding out this horrible news, Fernando José abandons Rosalinda and her daughter. Valeria kidnaps Erika. Rosalinda goes into a clinical and eventually loses her mind. She is locked up in a mental hospital.

One night, the mental hospital catches fire and burns down. Rosalinda manages to escape, but her loved ones are convinced she is dead. Suffering from a major case of amnesia, she is forced to become a thief by an old man who takes her in. She meets Alejandro "Alex" Dorantes while trying to steal from his house. Alex cleans her up and she takes on the identity of Paloma Dorantes and becomes a singer. She falls in love with Alex, the talent agent who makes her famous. Meanwhile, Fernando José marries Rosalinda's cousin, Fedra.

Rosalinda's life with Alex seems to be going well. However, things just don't seem to be totally right. One night, Rosalinda and Alex attend one of Fernando Jose's concerts. He plays a song which happens to be the first one he played the day they met. This seems to trigger Rosalinda's memory of her past. Overwhelmed by these memories, Rosalinda scurries out of the concert hall and gets hit by a car. Alex rushes her to the hospital. It is then that Rosalinda realizes that she is not Paloma, but Rosalinda. Now that Rosalinda has gained her memory back, she must go back and fight to gain her child back, her family, and Fernando Jose in the process.

The novel tells the story of Chloe Parker, a woman in her early 20s who had been adopted at the age of seven by a music superstar and his wife, and who now associates with Hollywood celebrities. What had followed was a wild childhood distinguished by parties with movie stars and rock idols, run-ins with the press and the police, and a subsequent stint in rehab.

When Chloe shoots to instant fame as a spokesmodel for a national ad campaign, her long-lost birth father appears out of nowhere, her best friend betrays her, and she has to struggle to keep it all together—her sobriety, her friendships, and her integrity—despite the betrayals of those around her. Ultimately, Chloe comes spectacularly into her own, achieving stardom in her own right and finding true love.

An iconic rock legend, Jack Fate (Bob Dylan), is bailed out of prison to perform a one-man benefit concert for a decaying future North American society. The film touches on many subjects from the futility of politics, the confusion of loosely strung government conspiracies, and the chaos created by both anarchy and ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''-styled totalitarianism. It further reflects on life, dreams, and God's place in a seemingly increasingly chaotic world.

Fate makes it clear that he "was always a singer and maybe no more than that". He produces no solutions to any of the problems the film presents. Rather, he makes it clear that he "stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago".

The film begins with Yoon So-eun (Kim Ha-neul), a student at Silla University eagerly awaiting a certain student Dong-hee (Park Yong-woo) returning to school after serving in the army. She meets him outside the amateur radio club room, where she tells him HAM radio is her hobby, and he thanks her for all the letters she wrote him during the war. Visiting her friend Heo Sun-mi who is recuperating from a broken leg in the hospital, So-eun tells her she is in love with Dong-hee.

At home, one night, she is awakened by a call on her radio, from another radio enthusiast, Ji-in (Yoo Ji-tae). They discover that they attend the same university and plan to meet in front of the school clock tower, where Ji-in offers to lend So-eun a book for amateur HAM radio operators. At the set time, both wait for the other, So-eun in front of an unfinished clock tower in the heat and dust, and Ji-in in front of a completed one, in heavy rain. Later at night, they argue about why the other person did not show up, and about the weather, and Ji-in is suddenly shocked to discover he is speaking over a radio with a disconnected power plug. Further, Ji-in, is then jolted with the information which So-eun reveals: she is a Junior in 1979, he is a sophomore in 2000. At first he begins to doubt So-eun's words, but is slowly convinced despite the improbability of what is happening to him.

Meanwhile, So-eun's relationship with Dong-hee is progressing well, and they end up dating. So-eun talks about her new-found relationship with Sun-mi at the hospital, but is not able to spend as much time with her now. Ji-in is close to a girl at school, Seo Hyeon-ji (Ha Ji-won), whom he takes for granted as she is always hanging around him, but for whom he comes to care for deeply. So-eun is increasingly irritated with the conversations she has with Ji-in over the radio, thinking he is lying about living in the year 2000. He then offers her some snippets from her future and his past, which finally make her believe that Ji In has been speaking the truth. So-eun then excitedly asks him about the future, and they also start to confide in each other about their personal lives, Ji-in telling So-eun to think of him as a sort of diary that talks. She begins talking about being in love, and Dong-hee.

During some student demonstrations, Dong-hee is injured and So-eun goes to visit him tearfully, and signs her name on the plaster cast on his arm. She also visits Sun-mi who is at the same hospital. That night, she talks to Ji-in about signing her name on Dong-hee, and how that gave her the feeling that he belongs to her. Ji-in suddenly mentions that his parents went to Silla University at the same time as her, and that she might know them, and reveals their names as Sun-mi and Dong-hee. This breaks So-eun's world apart, and she runs to the hospital to see the sleeping Dong-hee with Sun-mi's name now signed on his plaster cast. She goes about in a daze, remembering Sun-mi and Dong-hee bonding while they were at the hospital, avoiding Sun-mi, who has returned to school from the hospital, and feeling a strange sense of unknown guilt as she dreams about Dong-hee. She has another conversation with Ji-in, where he talks about finding out one's true destination, and breaks up with Dong-hee the next day.

Ji-in, on a visit to his parents' country home, sees pictures of his parents from school, the plaster cast his father's arm had been in once, the names signed on it and sees So-eun's name on there. He probes through the school yearbook of 1979 and is startled with the revelation that the lady he has been speaking with every night, was in love with his own father. The realization strangely disturbs and affects him. He wonders what would happen to him if So-eun chose to be with his father, and sets out to find out how So-eun is faring in his time, the year 2000. He finds her as a professor of English at another university and is touched to see her still single, but beautiful and happy, while So-eun smiles at him with vague recognition as she passes by. He leaves to tell So-eun over the radio that he saw her that day.

However, the radio does not seem to work now, and it is the end of the strange companionship across the barriers of time. Ji-in goes back to his world, accepting his girlfriend Hyeon-ji, and So-eun gets on with her life, having realized Dong-hee was not meant to be her destination.

A young, reckless cowboy named Eddie deliberately provokes an argument with the notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo, who is widely known as the fastest draw in the West, making him the perpetual target of every young gunslinger eager to become famous as "the man who shot Ringo". When Eddie draws his weapon, Ringo has no choice but to kill him. Eddie's three brothers seek revenge and pursue Ringo as he leaves town. Ringo ambushes and disarms them then drives off their horses. He tells them to walk back to town; instead, they follow him on foot.

In the nearby town of Cayenne, as Ringo settles into a corner of the largely deserted saloon, the barkeeper alerts Marshal Mark Strett. Strett is an old friend of Ringo's but nevertheless urges Ringo to leave, since his presence has already created a sensation and it is only a matter of time until trouble occurs. Ringo agrees to go as soon as he sees his wife, Peggy, whom he has not seen in eight years, and the son he has never met. Strett tells him Peggy has changed her surname to conceal their relationship and has no interest in seeing him.

Ringo must deal with Hunt Bromley, another young gunslinger keen to make a name for himself, and Jerry Marlowe, who mistakenly believes Ringo killed his son. A bar girl, Molly—another old friend—eventually persuades Peggy to talk to Ringo. Ringo tells her that he is now older and wiser, and wants to leave his gunfighting past behind. He intends to settle in California, where people do not know him, and he invites Peggy to come with him. She refuses but agrees to reconsider in a year's time, if he has kept his word and abandoned his past for good. Ringo meets his son at last, although he does not reveal that he is the boy's father.

Ringo's business in Cayenne is finished but he has lingered too long. The three vengeful brothers have arrived and lie in wait. Strett and his deputies intercept and apprehend them. Ringo bids farewell to Peggy and his son, but as he departs the saloon, Bromley shoots him in the back, mortally wounding him. As Ringo lies dying, he tells Strett that he wants it known that he drew on Bromley—that Bromley shot him in self-defense. Bromley protests that he does not want Ringo's help, but Ringo explains to his killer that he is doing him no favors. Bromley, he says, will soon learn as Ringo did that notoriety as a gunfighter is a curse that will follow him wherever he goes, making him an outcast and a target for the rest of his life. Strett orders Bromley out of his town, punctuating his order with a beating, which he warns is "just the beginning" of what Bromley has coming.

In death, Ringo has finally found what he sought for so long: his wife's forgiveness and reconciliation. At his funeral, as Peggy proudly reveals to the townspeople for the first time that she is Mrs. Ringo, a silhouetted, unrecognizable cowboy rides off into the sunset.

Widowed U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Frank Beardsley moves back to his hometown of New London, Connecticut with his eight children from his first marriage. After he and Helen North, a widowed handbag designer by trade with 10 children (four biological, six adopted), unexpectedly encounter each other at a restaurant while on separate dates, they do so again at their 30-year high school reunion.

Instantly rekindling their old sparks, Frank and Helen quickly decide to marry in a private ceremony, shocking both sets of children. They move into a new home on the same property where they shared their first kiss, joined by the North children's numerous pets (including a pot-bellied pig), and Frank's housekeeper, Mrs. Munion. It soon becomes apparent that Frank's very regimented view of doing things clashes with Helen's more free-spirited, laissez-faire attitude. Their respective children, shocked by the news of their quick wedding, initially do not get along well, even turning a planned lighthouse renovation project into an all-out paint fight.

Frank's oldest son, William, calls a meeting with his siblings and explains that they can rid themselves of their new situation by joining forces to make Frank and Helen's respective philosophical differences apparent, which will cause them to fight. However, while doing so, they gradually begin to bond, attending their siblings' soccer games and helping William in his class president campaign.

A short time later, Frank and Helen attend a formal Coast Guard dinner where his superior, Commandant Sherman, officially offers him the opportunity to be his successor. He respectfully declines it, citing both his obligation to the Coast Guard Academy and his new family. Meanwhile, as the young children have a food fight upstairs in the bedroom, the older ones throw a wild party downstairs, which quickly grows uncontrollable. When Frank and Helen return to find the place in total chaos, Frank is furious, and while also upset, Helen's more laidback approach only angers him more. This causes their worst fight yet, and the children, realizing how happy Frank and Helen have been together, begin to realize that they might have pushed things too far.

The next day, Frank informs Helen that he has decided to take the position as Commandant after all, and they schedule a family meeting to inform the children. As the children return home from school, jubilant over having defended their younger siblings from bullies and with the news of William having won the class election, Frank quickly deflates the mood by telling them of his decision to accept the new position. Feeling guilty for having torn him and Helen apart, they set about undoing their mistakes, with the younger children enlisting Helen to aid in their efforts. Together, the older ones launch the family's boat in an effort to intercept Frank (thereby fulfilling his previous dream of having an all-family sailing team that failed earlier), but he is convinced that Helen no longer wants to be with him, until he sees her turn on the lighthouse spotlight (referencing a story he had told her earlier about a beautiful female lighthouse keeper). Successfully reunited, they marry once again, this time with the children involved.

Set in London, the film tells the story of a middle-aged gay Jewish doctor, Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch), and a divorced woman in her mid-30s, Alex Greville (Glenda Jackson), who are both involved in an open love triangle with sculptor Bob Elkin (Murray Head), a younger man in his mid-20s. Not only are Daniel and Alex each aware that Bob is seeing the other but they know one another through common friends. Despite this, they are willing to put up with the situation through fear of losing Bob, who switches freely between them. Bob has his own coterie of artist friends who support his work, which consists of glass fountains.

Alex and Daniel are both close friends with the Hodsons, who are a bohemian, academic middle-class family living somewhere in a leafy London suburb. They alternate having Sunday dinner with the Hodsons, who are quite aware of their relationships but do not talk about them, though the Hodson children are inclined to snicker. Alex also has a depressed client who has recently lost his job to age discrimination. They sleep together at Alex's flat, and then Bob announces his arrival, forcing them to pretend to be having a casual drink. Bob tells Alex that he has no problem with her sleeping with other men. They are, in his words, "free".

There are minor crises in the narrative. The Hodsons' family dog is run over by a truck which narrowly misses eldest daughter Lucy. Daniel has to deal with a former lover (Jon Finch) who is a heroin addict. After unsuccessfully trying to fill a heroin prescription for him at a pharmacy, being unable to prove he is a doctor, Daniel finds that his medical bag has been stolen from his car.

For Alex, the relationship is bound up with growing disillusion about her professional life, failed marriage and uneasy childhood. For Daniel, it represents an escape from the repressed nature of his Jewish upbringing. Both realise the lack of permanence about the situation. When Bob decides to leave the country to settle in New York, after receiving an offer to open his own art gallery, they both come face to face for the first time in the narrative. Despite their opposed circumstances, Daniel and Alex come to realise that it is time to move on; Bob leaves for the United States.

The film ends with an unconventional speech from Daniel directly to the audience. He muses on his relationship with Bob, his friends' concern for his happiness, and declares "I am happy, apart from missing him." His last remark is "I only came about my cough," often a punch-line to a joke about a man going to the doctor and getting unexpected news.

Birdee Pruitt is a Chicago housewife who is invited onto the national Toni Post talk show under the pretense of getting a free makeover, but is ambushed with the revelation that her husband Bill has been having an affair with her best friend Connie.

Humiliated, Birdee and her precocious daughter Bernice move back to Birdee's hometown of Smithville, Texas, with Birdee's eccentric mother Ramona and her young, imaginative nephew Travis. As Birdee and Bernice leave Chicago, Birdee gives Bernice a letter from Bill, telling Bernice how much he misses her.

Birdee struggles to make a new life as a working single mother and deals with the growing attraction between herself and a former high school classmate, Justin Matisse, who Ramona hopes that Birdee will get together with. She also tries to rebuild her relationship with her estranged mother, her father (who has Alzheimer's disease), and Bernice, who desperately wants to be with her father and attempts to sabotage the romantic overtures Justin makes towards Birdee. Meanwhile, Bernice is struggling to adjust to her new life and school in Smithville.

Adding to Birdee's heartache is her former status as the school queen bee and beauty pageant winner who dismissively alienated many of her classmates. They remember Birdee's high school snobbery and rub her nose in her televised embarrassment.

Ramona tries to mend the gap between her daughter and granddaughter by telling a story about her childhood. She then asks Bernice what she wants for her upcoming birthday. Even though Bernice says she does not have a birthday wish, she secretly wishes for her father to return.

Ramona suffers a massive heart attack and dies. Birdee's sister and Travis's mother, Desiree, sends a telegram that she cannot make the funeral. Meanwhile, Travis wonders if his aunt Birdee will raise him now. When Bill arrives at the funeral, Bernice believes that her wish has come true and that her father wants them both to come home.

However, it soon becomes clear to Bernice that her parents' split is permanent when Bill asks Birdee for a divorce. Wanting to be with her father, Bernice runs to her room, packs a suitcase, and follows Bill to his car. She is devastated when he tells her that even though he loves her and promises to come back for her, he has no room for her in his new life with Connie right now. Bill drives off, leaving Bernice sobbing and screaming for him to come back and take her with him.

Birdee picks Bernice up, carrying her back into the house. As Birdee comforts her, she says she knows the letter was actually written by her mother, and not really by her father.

One day at work, Birdee finds Justin outside waiting for her with flowers. As she walks to him, she says, "Ok, Mama, stop pushing." After they kiss and embrace, he picks her up, places her in his truck and they drive off.

The final scene shows Birdee, Justin, Bernice, and Travis at a big town event. It is shown that Birdee has taken full custody of Travis and is also dating Justin, but is not planning on getting married again for a really long time. Bernice embraces Smithville as her new hometown, ultimately accepts Bill's departure from her life, and has warmed up to Justin as her mother's new love interest and a father figure.

The mother and daughter share a tender, yet humorous moment when Bernice asks if Birdee plans to marry Justin. When Birdee asks her if she does not like him, Bernice says her only real concern is being known as "Bernice Matisse".

Sixteen-year-old Ruby Baker and eleven-year-old brother Rhett lose their parents, David and Grace, in a car accident. Their will is not recent but, per its terms, the children are placed under the guardianship of family neighbors from years ago, the childless couple Dr. Erin Glass and Terry Glass, who live in a large glass house in Malibu.

From early on, all is not well. The children have to share a room; they are no longer educated privately, and Rhett is allowed to play video games at all hours. Ruby is uncomfortable with Terry's sexual hints when they are alone, and later finds unlabeled pharmaceuticals and sees Erin injecting herself, although she claims it is for diabetes. Ruby tries to get the children's estate and trust fund lawyer Alvin Begleiter to accept her concerns, but visiting social worker Nancy Ryan is taken in by the couple's assurances.

In the trash, Ruby discovers a postcard from their maternal Uncle Jack and a letter from a private school indicating the Glasses unregistered the children, pocketing the $30,000+ tuition. Ruby also discovers Terry is in debt to loan sharks, gradually realizing the Glasses are after the siblings' $4 million trust fund.

Suspicious of her parents' deaths, Ruby discovers evidence of the Glasses' involvement from spotting a Saab similar to David's at Terry's shop, and reading an article stating Ruby's parents had been driving a BMW (later revealed to be registered to Terry's business). Moreover, Ruby is expelled from school because her essay, which Terry wrote for her as a favor, was plagiarized; Terry plans to send Ruby to a distant boarding school. After the loan sharks push him to pay off his debt, Terry tries to get money from the trustee, claiming it is to be used for the children's benefit. His request is denied and he is shown a copy of the un-registration letter from the school, previously faxed to the authority by Ruby, which alerts the trustee to doubt Terry's real purpose for the money.

That same night, Ruby steals Terry's car keys, wakes Rhett and drives off in his Jaguar, attempting to escape, but because of a mudslide, the police stop her and demand to see her license. Terry and Erin appear, talking the police into letting the children go. Back home, Ruby attempts to run away again but they knock her down and drug her. Terry then tells Erin they must get rid of her. Erin is overcome by guilt; she is permanently stripped of her medical license, due to her drug abuse being discovered by her employer, Dr. Weiss. Erin commits suicide by overdose and the next morning, both Ruby and Terry are devastated to find her dead. Terry locks the kids in the basement and sabotages his Jaguar, expecting them to reattempt escape and to consequently perish. The loan sharks (alerted by Ruby posing as Erin) appear at the house, kill Begleiter (who has come to confront Terry, revealing his complicity), repossess Terry's Jaguar and Ferrari, and insist on taking a ride. Overhearing Terry begging them to take the Volvo instead of the Jaguar, Ruby stabs the Volvo's tires, forcing them to drive away in the Jaguar with Terry in it. The car goes over a ledge and crashes, seemingly killing a loan shark and Terry.

Meanwhile, the children are picked up by a friendly cop. They pass the scene of the accident with the Ferrari and the kids see a body being covered up. Continuing on, he stops at the site of the other crash. Telling the children to stay in the car while he investigates, he finds the car and radios that there is one fatality. Terry knocks him out then, severely injured, he climbs to the road and staggers towards Ruby and Rhett, hiding a gun. Ruby gets into the driver's seat and, telling Rhett to put on his seatbelt, speeds into Terry, killing him.

The kids are last seen placing flowers at their parents' grave with their Uncle Jack, who hugs them and says that things will get easier. Ruby says that they already have, and the three leave together to go home to Chicago.

The story begins with D'arci Stern, the protagonist, joining the Union City Police Department. Much of her time is spent dealing with the Wildcats, a gang that is getting increasingly bold in their criminal activity. With the help of a vigilante named Roper McIntyre, D'arci begins to believe that the Wildcats plan to take over Union City. As the Wildcats grow ever bolder, D'arci discovers that the gang is led by Mack Bane, a candidate for mayor of Union City. Eventually, the Wildcats attempt a hostile takeover of the city, which is finally repelled by D'arci, Roper and the police.

Some time later, D'arci is investigating a particularly brutal murder. She discovers that the murder was committed by Bane's elite bodyguards, a brotherhood of mysterious men in tailored black suits known as "The Fallen". This establishes a connection between Bane, the Wildcats and the Fallen. Soon after, he is arrested by D'arci and Roper in his out-of-town estate. Even from jail, Bane is able to direct the Wildcats, and D'arci and Roper are forced to deal with several more threats to the city. Later, Bane breaks out of jail and claims to be an Ancient Warlock. He uses his powers to summon a fire beast known as a Baalrog, which attempts to destroy the city, but D'arci and Roper defeat it. Bane and the Wildcats flee to a sanctuary tower to fulfill a prophecy; before they can complete their ritual, D'arci and Roper must rescue injured civilians, battle the remnants of the Wildcats and Fallen, and use the tower's ventilation system to destroy Bane once and for all.

The film follows the rehearsal and performance of a dreadful farce called ''Nothing On'', a hit British show that is preparing for its American debut in Des Moines, Iowa, with a second-rate, Broadway-bound theatrical troupe under the direction of Lloyd Fellowes. Among the cast members are fading star Dotty Otley, hot-tempered and scatter-brained Garry Lejeune, insecure matinee heartthrob Frederick Dallas, myopic leading lady Brooke Ashton, bubbly Belinda Blair, and alcoholic character actor Selsdon Mowbray. Frantically working behind the scenes are Tim Allgood and Poppy Taylor.

The film opens with the final dress rehearsal before opening night, with an unfinished set and the cast still forgetting lines, missing cues, and mishandling props. Fellowes is reduced to cajoling, yelling at, and pleading with them to get things right. Complicating matters are the personal problems and backstage relationships of the cast and crew, which are simmering under the surface during rehearsal but erupt into the open as the play works its way across the country en route to New York.

After the rehearsal, the film goes on to show two performances of the play, one a matinee in Florida in which the feuding cast are barely able to finish the first act, and another in Cleveland, which quickly degenerates into complete chaos and anarchy as none of the cast are able or willing to perform professionally. However, against all odds, they manage to sort out their personal differences and pull together for the Broadway debut, and the show becomes a massive hit.

Max (David Schwimmer), an alpha-male commitment-phobic sports broadcaster, and Jay (Jason Lee), a neurotic novelist, have been best friends since childhood in Chicago. Jay has just broken up with his girlfriend, Natasha (Vanessa Angel) and is writing his first book about their relationship in Milan, Italy.

Jay sets Max up with his editor Samantha (Mili Avital). After their first date, they each tell him in detail how terrible it was, he tells it like she was a loud and obnoxious drunk, while she claims he brought her to a strip club. Convinced they've fooled him, they make out, then burst out laughing.

Although they share few interests, they are engaged within two weeks, and shortly thereafter he moves in. Flipping through bridal magazines, a photo of Jay's model ex Natasha upsets him, so he later drunk-calls her.

Still, when Max is confronted with the fact that Sam will be the last woman he will sleep with in a dream, he proposes a test. Jay will hit on Sam, if she shows no interest, then Max will be confident enough in her loyalty to go ahead with the marriage.

However Jay doesn't want to, he gets really nervous and goes from proposing to stop meetings with Sam to meeting several times a week. The publisher pushes up their completion date to six weeks, forcing them to be together constantly.

Two weeks before the three plan to have a celebratory dinner for the book's conclusion, but Max has to go to Detroit for work. So, Jay and Sam go out drinking and dancing, he bumps into Natasha and Sam pretends she is his new fiancée.

Later, Jay crashes at Sam's, and after finishing reading the manuscript, she goes upstairs to talk to him, and before they have a moment, her cousin Drey interrupts them. He goes home, where his ex has invited him to her hotel room.

At Natasha's hotel room. she tears Jay's clothes off as having seen him with Sam has rekindled her interest. He realises he is finally over her. Feeling guilty at a sudden revelation of his feelings for Sam, he calls Max and realises he slept with his makeup artist.

Jay rushes over to Sam's but then chickens out. He goes home, hitting the bottle hard. Max finds him there, comfronting him over Sam. After an altercation, they agree to go to her to see which she wants.

Over a meal, Jay declares his love for Sam and kisses her. Max thinks it's a joke, spilling the beans about the fidelity test he'd asked Jay to do on her. Upset, she leaves, breaking off ties with both.

Jay moves to NYC, Max finally reads the book he'd recommended and realises he needs to reunite Jay and Sam. When he is in Chicago for his book signing, he leaves him a note, asking him to meet him in a restaurant. He enlists Drey to get Sam there. Once seated, he has notes delivered to both of them.

In the closing scene, Max gives them his blessing at their wedding.

The story takes the form of a report written by an ex-student of the story's protagonist, Professor Arthur Barnhouse. A year and a half before the writing of the report the professor develops the ability to affect physical objects and events through the force of his mind; he comes to call this power "dynamopsychism", while the press adopts the term "the Barnhouse effect". When Barnhouse makes the mistake of informing the US government of his newfound abilities, they try to turn him into a weapon. The program is successful, but Barnhouse, declaring himself the world's 'first weapon with a conscience', flees and goes into hiding. While in this reclusive state Barnhouse uses his dynamopsychic powers to destroy all nuclear and conventional weapon stockpiles, along with other military technologies. However, he realizes that because he is mortal, the world will revert to its warlike tendencies after he dies. Barnhouse passes on the secret of his abilities to his ex-student, who goes into hiding after he begins to manifest them as well.

The Romanian army accidentally blasts open a subterranean crypt, and the army captain, fearing looters and criminals, stations a guard near the site. Late in the night, an earthquake shakes loose one of the coffins, which slides down and lands at the feet of the confused guard. Curious as to what has fallen before him, the guard opens the coffin and discovers a dog's body, impaled by a wooden stake. He removes the stake, which revives the vampiric Doberman Pinscher Zoltan.

After slaying the guard and drinking his blood, Zoltan opens another coffin shaken loose from the crypt, this one holding the body of his master, an innkeeper named Veidt Smit (Reggie Nalder), who is also buried in the crypt, which belongs to the Dracula family, all of whom are vampires. Zoltan removes the stake from the innkeeper's chest, re-animating the innkeeper. The film cuts to a flashback of a village in Romania in 1670, over 300 years ago.

The dog of an innkeeper saves a sleeping woman from being bitten by Count Igor Dracula (Michael Pataki). Furious over losing his meal to a dog, Dracula, in bat form, bites the woman's savior, turning the dog into a vampire. Then Dracula, with the dog by his side, turns on his owner, turning the innkeeper into a "fractional lamia" (an undead creature that is only part vampire, able to function in the daytime and having no need to drink blood) and thus turning him into a slave of the Draculas.

Back in the present (1977), it appears that the Draculas have only one surviving (mortal) descendant, Michael Drake (also Michael Pataki), a psychiatrist, and (unknown to him) the image of Count Igor Dracula. He decides to take his wife, Marla (Jan Shutan) and their two children, Linda (Libby Chase) and Steve (John Levin) (who, technically, are ''also'' descendants of the Draculas), as well as their two German Shepherd Dogs, Samson and Annie, and their two puppies, on vacation in the family's Winnebago camper, hoping to spend some quality time with his family and their pets out in a national forest.

Still loyal to the Draculas, the vampire dog and his master travel to the United States, shipping themselves via boat to Los Angeles, California to make Michael their new master. Eventually, Zoltan and Smit find themselves in the same forest as Michael, his family, and their dogs.

Two fishermen, vacationing nearby with Buster, a Pointer belonging to one of them, discover that Zoltan bit their dog. The Drakes' two dogs are also bitten. The deceased dogs soon re-animate into vampire dogs, the minions of Zoltan. Veidt Smit and the four vampire dogs are all destroyed at the end of the film but, unknown to everyone involved, a vampire German Shepherd puppy (one of the two puppies belonging to the Drakes) that Zoltan had bitten before escapes destruction.

Being 400 years old, the Countess has collected a stable of young men and women who accompany her on her centuries-old journey through eternal life and youth. Though she is immortal, she is required to drink the blood of a young male virgin three times by Halloween each year to keep her immortality and youthful appearance. She finds this task increasingly and extremely hard, since attractive young male virgins are almost impossible to find in the 1980s, particularly in hedonistic cities, in this case, Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, virgin high school student Mark Kendall wants to have sex, but is being put off by his girlfriend Robin Pierce. One night, Mark and his best friends Jamie and Russ go into a singles bar in Hollywood. Mark meets the Countess, goes back to her mansion and after she seduces him, passes out when she bites his thigh. When he wakes up, she pretends they have had sex and tells him that he is now hers. Mark does not know what she means and, over the next few days, begins showing strange behaviors: having strange dreams, avoiding direct sunlight, and even drinking blood (from raw meat). After the Countess gets a second bite, Robin notices Mark's odd behavior and confronts the Countess during a dance-off at the high school's Halloween dance.

While it appears that Robin has won back Mark, this is only temporary. The Countess kidnaps Robin to lure Mark to her mansion for a final bite before her deadline expires, and it is up to Robin, Jamie, and Russ to stop her. Eventually, to save Mark from the Countess's clutches, Robin and Mark have sex in a coffin while being chased by the Countess's minions, thereby taking Mark's virginity, bringing him back to normal. This renders him useless to the Countess as she has to drink virgin blood. Defeated, the Countess then begins to grow old and decrepit before their eyes. The Countess's assistant, Sebastian, tells her not to worry as there are other virgins in the world despite the fact that the Countess doubts she will find another virgin. The movie ends with Mark and Robin continuing to have sex in the coffin.

A young woman is found dead in the Göta Canal, molested and murdered. The case is almost instantly cold: nobody can identify her and where and by whom she was killed. Then a stroke of luck: through Interpol her identity is ascertained; she is Roseanna McGraw, an American tourist who was taking a boat trip in southern Sweden. A meticulous investigation determines that she was murdered aboard the boat by a fellow passenger. Evidence is lacking, but after the suspect is observed at length, a sting operation of questionable ethical status (Beck's own opinion) results in the suspect, a sexual deviant, attacking a female police officer and being arrested.

In 1855 Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), seemingly a charismatic member of London's high society, is secretly a master thief. He plans to steal a monthly shipment of gold from the London to Folkestone train which is meant as payment for British troops fighting in the Crimean War. The gold is heavily guarded in two heavy safes in the baggage car, each of which has two locks, requiring a total of four keys. Pierce recruits Robert Agar (Donald Sutherland), a pickpocket and screwsman. Pierce's mistress Miriam (Lesley-Anne Down) and his chauffeur Barlow (George Downing) join the plot, and a train guard, Burgess, is bribed into participation. The executives of the bank who arrange the gold transport, the manager Mr. Henry Fowler (Malcolm Terris) and the president Mr. Edgar Trent (Alan Webb), each possess a key; the other two are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge railway station. In order to hide the robbers' intentions, wax impressions are to be made of each of the keys.

Pierce ingratiates himself with Trent by feigning a shared interest in ratting. He also begins courting Trent's spinster daughter, Elizabeth (Gabrielle Lloyd), and learns from her the location of her father's key. Pierce and Agar successfully break into Trent's home at night, manage to locate the hidden key and make a wax impression before making a clean getaway despite a close call with the butler.

Pierce targets Fowler through his weakness for prostitutes. Miriam reluctantly poses as "Madame Lucienne", a high-class courtesan in an exclusive bordello. Miriam meets with Fowler and asks him to undress, forcing him to remove the key worn round his neck. While Fowler is distracted by Miriam, Agar makes an impression of his key. Pierce then stages a phony police raid to rescue Miriam, forcing Fowler to flee to avoid a scandal.

The keys at the train station prove a much harder challenge. After a daytime diversionary tactic with a child pickpocket fails because Agar cannot wax them in the time available, Pierce decides to "crack the crib" at night. The whole operation is a matter of timing, because the officer guarding the railway office at night leaves his post only once, for seventy-five seconds (to go to the toilet). Pierce plans to use "snakesman" (cat burglar) Clean Willy (Wayne Sleep) to climb the station's wall, climb down into the station, enter the office via a small skylight in the office ceiling, and open the office door and the key cabinet from within. Because Clean Willy is incarcerated at Newgate Prison, Pierce and Agar first have to arrange for him to break out, using a public execution as a distraction. With Willy's help, the criminals succeed in making wax impressions of the keys without detection.

Clean Willy is subsequently arrested after being caught pick-pocketing and informs on Pierce. The police use Willy to lure Pierce into a trap, but the master cracksman easily eludes capture. Clean Willy escapes from his captors, but is murdered by Barlow on Pierce's orders. The authorities, now aware that a robbery is imminent, increase security by having the baggage car padlocked from the outside until the train arrives at its destination and forbidding anyone but the guard to travel in the baggage van. Any container large enough to hold a man must be opened and inspected before it is loaded on the train.

Pierce smuggles Agar into the baggage car disguised as a corpse in a coffin. Pierce plans to reach the car across the coach roofs while the train is under way, but he and Miriam encounter Fowler, who is riding the train to Folkestone to accompany the shipment. After arranging for Miriam to travel in the same compartment as Fowler to divert his attention, Pierce travels down the roof of the train and unlocks the baggage van's door from the outside. He and Agar replace the gold with lead bars and toss the bags of gold off the train at a prearranged point. However, soot from the engine's smoke has stained Pierce's skin and clothes and he is forced to borrow Agar's suit, which is much too small for him. The jacket splits across the back when he disembarks at Folkstone. The police quickly become suspicious and arrest him before he can rejoin his accomplices.

Pierce is put on trial for the robbery. As he exits the courthouse, he receives the adulation of the crowds, who consider him a folk hero for his daring act. In the commotion, a disguised Miriam kisses him full on the mouth, in the process slipping a key to his handcuffs from her mouth to his. Agar is also present, disguised as a police van driver. As Pierce is about to be put into the wagon, he frees himself and he and Agar escape, to the jubilation of the crowd and the chagrin of the police.

As the post-World War II baby boom explodes, an overworked stork (patterned after comedian Jimmy Durante) gets drunk in the Stork Club, complaining that he does all the work and the fathers get all the credit. Inexperienced animals; among them a dog with a propeller-powered tail carrying bundles of babies, four crows attempting to deliver an elephant, a pelican with simple devices to help haul the babies in its bill, and a mouse dragging a baby rhino; are among those commissioned to handle the increased workload as they take the babies to their parents. Because of the inexperience of the substitutes, babies are getting sent to the wrong parents; a mother goose is disgusted by her baby skunk, a baby kitten refuses to swim for its mother duck, a baby gorilla rides uncomfortably in the pouch of a Kangaroo, a Scottie Dog tries to rock his hippo to sleep, and two parents receive offspring that try to eat them—a kitten to a terrified mouse and an alligator to a pig.

Porky Pig is brought in to manage Storks Inc. and its assembly line, with Daffy Duck as his assistant. While Daffy mans the phones, making quick references to Bing Crosby ("I'm sorry, Bing, you've used up your quota."), Eddie Cantor ("You say you haven't got that boy yet?") and the Dionne Quintuplets' father ("Mr. Dionne, please!"), Porky runs the control room, contacting references to Roydan Stork, Jimmy Doolittle as Jimmy Doo-quite-a-little, and a B-19. Then a dog worker, apparently research and development, comes in through Porky's door and tells him that strapping a skyrocket to the back would speed things exponentially, but the rocket exploded before the send-off. It's back to the drawing board for that idea.

Then Daffy yells, "Fffull-speed ahead!" and Porky pulled the switch as the babies (among them Tweety in a brief cameo) are seen going through a conveyor belt (to the tune of Raymond Scott's famous "Powerhouse") as they are diapered, fed milk and mechanically burped before they are sent by various animals, one of which is a baby hippo crying loudly and paused as it cutely said, "I'm only 3½ seconds old," before resuming its wailing. Several minor mishaps happen along the assembly line; the machine that diapers babies is presented with a baby turtle but works around it by taking the baby out their shell, then when the milk feeding machine tries to feed the turtle, it ends up flooding the shell, forcing the turtle to bail the milk out while badmouthing the machine; when the milk feeding machine begins sprays milk over a puppy's diaper, it begins crying as an alarm suddenly sounds. In response, Porky pulls a lever that sends the puppy to be given a rather quick bath.

Problems, however, occur when Porky, reading the tags from the other babies, finds a stray egg is without an address and decides to have Daffy sit on it until it hatches. However, Daffy refuses to sit around on top of an egg. Porky chases Daffy around the factory (complete with an imitation of Porky by Daffy) until they wind up trapped on the conveyor belt. The belt winds up stuffing both of them into one package (with Porky as the legs and Daffy as the top half) and sends them off to Africa via a stork-shaped skyrocket (Patent Pending), where a gorilla is waiting for her arrival. When the gorilla looks at the "baby" she sees Daffy Duck crying, Porky peeks through the diaper, saying, "Uh, boo...", causing the gorilla to cry on the telephone, "Mr. Anthony, I have a problem!!" (a reference to John J. Anthony, who conducted a daily radio advice program at the time called ''The Goodwill Hour''; its stock phrase was "I have a problem, Mr. Anthony").

Daffy is relaxing in a pond with a group of mallards. Suddenly a gunshot goes off, and all the ducks dunk their heads underwater for cover (Daffy puts a swimming cap on his head before similarly dunking his head). Porky enters and lets off another shot, which sends the other ducks flying away.

Porky then takes aim at Daffy and orders him out. When Daffy comes out (still with his feet in the air), he quickly disarms Porky and tells the hunter that he is no ordinary duck and then shows this off by "singing", "dancing", and "acting" (flashing his contract with Warner Bros.). When this gag is over, Daffy offers to read the bumps on Porky's head, providing the bumps himself! Porky then tries holding a shotgun to Daffy, but Daffy responds to this threat by looking inside the shotgun to see a woman in a bathing suit. When Porky takes a look, he sees Daffy in the same pose! Porky shoots Daffy out, and Daffy runs back to the pond, where Porky cannot chase him.

Daffy is underwater singing when he notices Porky has jumped in with a diving helmet. Daffy then walks up to Porky as "the Fuller Brush Man!", and knocks on Porky's helmet. When Porky tells him to "come in," Daffy opens the front of the helmet, causing Porky to jump out and start bailing out the water from the lake with a bucket. Eventually, all the water is gone, and Daffy flips around like a fish out of water. When Porky refuses to 'believe' that Daffy is a fish, Daffy counters that he does not believe Porky is a pig; he believes that Porky is an eagle. After the gag where Daffy switches what Porky says, Porky decides to prove that he is an eagle by jumping off a tree. When this does not work, Porky uses up all his ammunition trying to shoot Daffy. However, he still has his "trusty six-shooter".

Before Porky can kill Daffy, Daffy asks to say goodbye to his wife and kids. Letting out a Tarzan-type yell (and then coughing at the end), his wife and three kids come to say a tearful goodbye. Porky then walks away, feeling that he would be a rat if he were to shoot Daffy. Just as he is out of sight, the "wife and kids" reveal themselves to be four friends of Daffy's, all with derbies and cigars. Their laughter is interrupted by Porky's shooting at them with his shotgun, and all five of them jump around, "hoo-hoo"-ing as they jump into the distance.

A baseball game is going on in New York City at the Polo Grounds (but the depiction of the frieze on the top deck was borrowed from Yankee Stadium), between the visiting Gas-House Gorillas (a parody of the real life Gashouse Gang which was the nickname of the St. Louis Cardinals teams of the early 1930s who were known for their shabby and unkempt appearance) and the home team, the Tea Totallers. The game is not going well for the home team as the Gorillas, a group of oversized rough-necks, are not only dominating the Tea Totallers, a team made up of just one elderly player, but intimidating the umpire by knocking him into the ground like a tent peg after he makes a "ball" judgment instead of a "strike". The Gorillas' home runs go screaming, literally, out of the ballpark and the batters form a conga line, each hitter whacking a ball out.

Bugs Bunny, watching from his hole in the outfield, is fed up with the unfair game and the Gas-House Gorillas playing dirty. He talks trash against the Gorillas, claiming that he could win the game single-handedly with an endless barrage of home runs. He loses a bit of his bravado when he suddenly gets surrounded by the Gorillas. They force him to take up his own challenge and, as a result, Bugs now has to play all the positions on the opposing team, including speeding from the mound to behind the plate to catch his own pitches.

Bugs throws his fastball so hard that it zips by the Gorillas' batter but, as he catches it, he is propelled off-screen, crashing into the backstop. In the course of his dual role, he shouts encouraging words to the pitcher before going back to the mound to make the next pitch, then returning to home plate to catch it. Next, Bugs decides to "perplex 'em with [his] slowball", throwing a pitch ''so'' slow that three Gorillas in a row strike out attempting to hit it.

For his first time up, Bugs selects a bat from the batboy, a literal hybrid of a bat and a boy. As promised, Bugs starts smacking the ball. On the first pitch, he makes a long hit, dashing around the bases while also showing off for the crowd, only to find a grinning Gorilla holding the ball just ahead of home plate, just waiting to tag him out to once again prove their superiority. To allow himself to score his first run, Bugs pulls out a pin-up poster, which distracts the Gorilla player. The scoreboard now shows the Gorillas as the home team, with 96 runs, and Bugs batting in the top of the fifth with one run so far.

Bugs hits another one deep, and while rounding the bases, a Gorilla ambushes the plate umpire and puts on his uniform. Bugs slides into home, obviously safe, but the fake umpire calls him out. Bugs gets in his face, actually behind the umpire mask, and argues the call, pulling his time-honored word-switching gag until the umpire ends up demanding that Bugs accept the safe call or go to the showers. Bugs gives in, and the faux-umpire gets wise too late as the board flashes another run.

Bugs slams a third pitch, and as the ball soars across the field, one Gorilla in the outfield races towards the ball with his mitt, screaming, ''"I got it, I got it, I got it!'', only for the ball to hit him with an incredibly strong impact and drive him underground; a gravestone then pops up from underground, reading "He got it". Bugs then whacks the fourth pitch, and a burly, cigar-smoking Gorilla attempts to catch it, but the ball strikes him in the face - with the powerful impact sending him backward and smack into a large wooden sign, which reads, "Does your tobacco taste different lately?".

Bugs hammers the fifth pitch on a line drive that bounces off each Gorilla with a ping sound as in a pinball game. The scoreboard then blinks a random series of numbers and the word "Tilt."

Bugs returns to pitching, and one Gorilla lands a hit. Just before he can score a home run, Bugs, with one foot on the home plate, shoves him to the ground with baseball in hand, tagging him out. As the dazed, concussed Gorilla sits there with several small illusionary winged Gorilla players swirling around his head, Bugs munches a carrot and pulls out a sign reading "Was this trip really necessary?" (a reference to a slogan used in a fuel rationing campaign during World War II).

The story jumps ahead to the final inning, announced by a radio-style jingle, with Bugs leading 96–95, both sides having each lost a run somewhere along the way, and with the Gorillas now the home team. Blanc's voice is now heard as the announcer as the radio booth has lost its original play-by-play man. With two outs in the last of the ninth, a Gorilla is on base and another, menacingly swinging a bat he has just fashioned from a huge tree, is ready for the pitch.

Bugs proceeds with a tremendous wind-up, lets the pitch go, and the ball is rocketed out of the stadium. Startled, Bugs desperately gives chase. He grabs a cab and is almost led astray until he realizes a Gorilla is driving it; he jumps out and catches a bus which takes him to the "Umpire State Building". He takes an elevator to the roof, climbs a flagpole, throws his glove in the air and manages to catch the ball. An umpire appears over the edge of the roof, and calls out the Gorilla player who has followed Bugs there. The Statue of Liberty comes to life to agree with the call, repeating, "That's what the man said–you heard what he said–he said that!". Bugs also joins her in repeating these words.

The plot was reused in Gone Batty (1954), with some sequences being shot-for-shot quotes.

On a hillside, Bugs is singing "A Rainy Night in Rio"Goldmark (2005), p. 114-125 on a banjo. In a nearby house, a burly, blond-haired opera singer named Giovanni Jones rehearses "Largo al Factotum" from ''The Barber of Seville''. Overhearing Bugs, he absent-mindedly begins singing along in operatic style. Realizing his mistake, Giovanni loses his temper over his rehearsal being interrupted in this manner. He reacts by going to Bugs on the hill and grabbing the banjo from him, popping the strings, then splitting it in two. He crushes the neck into the banjo body, turns it over to dump out the neck pieces then slams it over Bugs' head. ("Music-hater," Bugs opines.)

As Giovanni practices again, he overhears Bugs singing a variation on "My Gal is a High-Born Lady" on a harp. He tries to ignore Bugs, but he ends up both singing along in operatic style and dancing along. Becoming furious again, he retaliates by going to Bugs and resting his arm on the harp's center pole as he glares at Bugs and breathes heavily. When Bugs notices and asks what the problem is with his famous question: "Eh, what's up doc?" Giovanni sticks Bugs' neck between the harp's strings and then treats it like an accordion, pulling its bottom part close to the ground and its base, then pushing the bottom part back to crush the instrument with Bugs trapped in it. ("Hmm, also a rabbit-hater — oh, well," Bugs counters.)

Giovanni tries to start singing once more, but the sound of a sousaphone seems to come out of his open mouth when he tries to sing the first note. The sound is coming from Bugs playing "When Yuba Plays the Rhumba on the Tuba" on a sousaphone. Bugs ducks into his hole after seeing Giovanni approach to punish him again for interrupting his rehearsal, the bell of the sousaphone sticking out of the hole's small opening, but the singer simply pulls Bugs out through the sousaphone. Then, he ties Bugs' ears to a tree branch and pulls him down so that he bounces repeatedly beneath the branch, bonking his head on it several times, as Giovanni walks away in anger, certain that he has made sure Bugs will not interrupt his rehearsal any further. After this, a now-incensed Bugs decides it is time for payback against Giovanni for his actions another of his famous lines: "Of course you know, THIS means ''war!''"

Bugs exacts his revenge against Giovanni through a series of public humiliations during his concert (seemingly at the Hollywood Bowl). First, Bugs flicks the roof of the concert hall causing it to vibrate, temporarily disrupting the singer's vocals. Then he hammers it so that the violent shuddering causes Giovanni to bounce across the stage, until he falls off and lands in the orchestra's tuba. Bugs rescues him and takes him backstage. Next, Bugs sprays Giovanni's throat with "liquid alum" which shrinks his head, as well as his voice, as he sings the "Figaro" part.

Bugs dresses up as a teenage bobby soxer and asks Giovanni for an autograph ("Frankie and Perry just aren't in it!") —except the pen is a stick of dynamite. After the off-screen explosion, Giovanni steps out to the stage with a singed face and evening wear torn to shreds. He takes a couple of bows and then collapses.

During the concert's final act, Bugs poses as the highly respected Leopold Stokowski, prompting the musicians, Giovanni, the conductor, and the audience to immediately snap to attention, show reverence, and acknowledge him with repeated astonished cries of "Leopold!", as Bugs takes over the conducting duties and the original conductor respectfully hands the reins of the performance over to him.

Bugs casually snaps the baton evenly in two and tosses the pieces aside, conducting with his hands instead (as did the real Leopold). Bugs makes Giovanni sing various different notes, including a very low D sharp. Bugs, after accepting brief applause (which is instantly stopped when he raises his hand), cracks his knuckles, winds up his fists and, after scowling angrily at a nervous Giovanni, ready to deliver the finisher for his revenge against the singer, conducts Giovanni into holding a singular high G sharp until Giovanni can hardly endure the strain. Giovanni's face turns various colors as he squirms and his formal wear unravels.

Bugs leaves his glove hovering in the air and steps off of the stage to order a pair of earmuffs, which are delivered almost instantly to Bugs after he places the order into the mailbox. Bugs takes the earmuffs out of the package, puts them on, and then returns to the stage where Giovanni has obeyed the glove and is still holding the high note, now on the floor from the strain. Bugs puts his hand back in his glove to continue conducting Giovanni to hold the note himself, as the strain of holding the note causes Giovanni to start thrashing about on the floor banging his fists, his face continuing to turn various colors. Finally, the top of the concert hall's shell shatters and tumbles down on top of Giovanni.

As the audience applauds Bugs, who removes the earmuffs and bows to them, a roughed-up Giovanni (whose hair is now reddish) appears out of the rubble to take a couple of bows himself. Noticing one last piece of the amphitheater balanced on a steel beam above Giovanni, Bugs cues the singer to close out his performance with an encore of the high note. This causes the piece to fall and crush him offscreen. Satisfied with his victory, Bugs removes his wig and ends the show by taking out another banjo and playing the Vaudeville-era four-note riff, "Good Evening Friends".

Bugs Bunny is drumming up business for a vaudeville show in a remote Western town (notably one of the posters in the background is for "Frizby the Magician", a reference to director Friz Freleng). One of the main attractions is "''Fearless Freep''" and his high-dive act. As soon as Yosemite Sam hears the name "''Fearless Freep''", he goes into a joyful frenzy, buying as many tickets as he can. ("I'm a-splurgin'!")

During the show, as Bugs is about to introduce Freep, he gets a telegram informing him that Freep is delayed by a storm and will not be able to appear until tomorrow. An angered Sam insists on seeing the high-diving act and wants Bugs to take Freep's place and forces him at gunpoint to the top of a high-dive platform. But Bugs manages to pull out all his tricks and stops, and it is Sam who does all the diving, in a different comical setting nine separate times (in a variant of the diving act from "Stage Door Cartoon").

1: Sam pushes Bugs to the edge of the platform (with Bugs baring his claws to secure himself to the board). Sam shouts at gunpoint "Alright you varmint, DIVE!" Bugs tells Sam to cover his eyes while he puts on his bathing suit, and then proceeds to spin the board around so that Sam is at the diving edge. Bugs makes it look like he has taken the dive (accompanied with an audible "SPLASH"). Sam, muttering that he cannot believe Bugs actually jumped, turns around and walks right off the edge. As Sam descends to the tank, Bugs zooms down the ladder and watches this dramatic scene from the audience saying, "This I gotta see." After Sam lands in the tank, it falls apart; the hoops break off, leaving the water intact.

2: Bugs tries to start the next act but Sam is still intent on making Bugs dive and brings him back up to the diving board. Bugs begins jumping on the board (reciting the "One for the Money" poem) and jumps on the board so hard that he sends Sam up, over his head and down (separating Sam from his pistols in the process). Bugs then realizes that he forgot to fill the tank with water, so he grabs a bucket of water and throws it down from the diving board past Sam. With Sam's encouragement, the water makes it into the tank, but Sam misses it altogether, smashing through the stage into the basement.

3: Sam walks to the end of the board and finds Bugs standing on the board upside-down ("Great horny toads! What are ya doin' down there upside-downy?"). Bugs points out that it is actually SAM who is upside-down ("I'm not upside down, doc. You are! Look!"). Sam looks "up", sees the tank, and falls into it.

4: Having been verbally hit with "fightin' words", Bugs dares Sam to "step over this line" (in a gag similar to one from ''Bugs Bunny Rides Again''), sending Sam down for the splash again (but not before springing back up for a moment to declare: "I hate you!")

5: Sam is stopped by a door, and yells "Open up that door!" then turns to the audience and says: "Y'notice I didn't say Richard?". When Sam threatens to bust the door down, Bugs simply responds "uh-uh." He backs up and charges towards the door, which Bugs opens at the last moment, leading Sam to another splash, this time assisted by an anvil given to him by Bugs.

6: As his antagonist climbs up guns blazing, Bugs, dressed as an Indian, points Sam to a "short-cut" in a desert-like setting ("Quick! Him go that way! You take-um short cut! Head-um off at pass! Ugh!"). Sam thanks the "Indian" ("Thank ye, stranger!") and takes the route, leading to yet another dive.

After two more dives in which the setups are unseen, Sam finally has Bugs tied and standing on the edge of the platform, with Sam sawing away at the board, gloating: "Now ya smarty-pants, let's see ya get out-in this one! This time, you're a-diving!" However, as soon as Sam cuts through the board, it is the ladder and platform that falls, leaving the severed plank (and Bugs) suspended in midair. Bugs turns to the camera and cracks: "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never "studied" law!"

Joss Grey (Susannah York), a 16-year-old English girl, finds herself responsible for the care of her three younger siblings on a summer holiday in France when their mother is suddenly taken ill and rushed to the hospital. When they go to the Hotel Oeillets, proprietress Mademoiselle Zisi (Danielle Darrieux) does not want the responsibility of unchaperoned children, but her enigmatic English lover Eliot (Kenneth More) persuades her to accept them. As the days pass, she wishes she had stuck to her original answer; she is increasingly jealous of the attention Eliot pays to the children—especially to Joss.

Meanwhile, hotel employee Paul (David Saire) becomes suspicious of Eliot, snoops in his room, and finds a pistol. Eliot catches Paul and gets Zisi to fire him, but Joss's 13-year-old sister Hester (Jane Asher) has taken a liking to Paul and begs Joss to get Eliot to reconsider, which he does. But later he becomes angry when shutterbug Hester takes his picture. Then he rushes out of a tour of caves where champagne is stored to avoid famous guest Monsieur Renard (Raymond Gérôme), the best policeman in France. He also insists on turning away potential guests.

Tensions come to a boiling point when Zisi throws a glass of champagne in her rival's face. Eliot chases after her, saying—within Joss's hearing—that she is only a child. Learning from a newspaper article that Eliot is a notorious jewel thief, the outraged Joss mails Hester's photo of him to the police.

Eliot has already decided to leave. He sneaks out late at night, but, on hearing a drunken Paul attack Joss in her bedroom on the second floor, he rushes up to her room. He punches Paul, who then tries to climb down a drainpipe. The pipe breaks and he falls to his death. He tells everyone not to call the police. A remorseful Joss confesses to Eliot that she has denounced him to the police. At her request, he gives her a grownup kiss. Then he disposes of Paul's body and disappears.

While Renard is questioning the unco-operative children the next morning, their solicitor uncle, Mr Bullock (Maurice Denham), arrives. He has been summoned by an unsigned telegram to extricate them. From the source of the message, Renard realizes that it is from Eliot and that he is trying to escape across the border to Germany on a river barge. Renard explains that Eliot is now also suspected of murdering Paul, but Joss states he died in an accident after trying to escape from her room. With it now almost certain that the police will capture Eliot attempting to escape via the river barge, Hester breaks down in tears and is consoled by her uncle, while Joss walks away alone from the hotel down a country lane, disconsolate but accepting the consequences of her actions.

The story is about a shipping company which conducts cruiseferry traffic on the Baltic Sea between Stockholm, Sweden and Turku, Finland. It takes place on board MS ''Freja'', the exterior of which was portrayed in the series by the Finnish registered MS ''Birka Princess''. In the series the ship has different funnel colours from the ones in real life; in reality they were blue, yellow and red but in the series they were retouched to appear as different shades of blue. The show follows life on board the ship, mostly focusing on the crew and captain, but also on some of the passengers. The plot often involves love, breakups, accidents, deaths, murders, smuggling, theft, arson, rape, drugs, and insanity.

Another part of the story takes place on land, following the life of the Dahléns, the family who owns and runs the shipping company. There are also rival companies who try to gain control over the company, which leads to a constant struggle for power.

At Colonel Korny's World Famous Circus, Bruno the "Slobokian Acrobatic Bear" - who, evidenced by his accent, is clearly Russian - is the star of the show. But when the Colonel gets a phone call about Bugs Bunny's talents, he agrees to put him on stage partnered with Bruno - a decision for which Bruno shows his disgust by spitting into a corner.

When Bugs is introduced along with Bruno, the bear can't help but smack Bugs around a little. Bruno tries to get the better of Bugs - either by placing an anvil on top of a series of targets so Bugs can hit his head, or by not catching Bugs during a trapeze act. However, Bugs soon starts getting the better of Bruno, which includes turning the tables on the bear by letting him fall from the trapeze into the band section (''twice'').

After telling Bruno he's "too clumsy", Bugs starts playing up the idea that he's going solo and will be the star of the show; to prove it, he'll take a 200-foot dive into a tank of water. Bugs jumps onto a platform and hikes himself to that height. Bruno gets on an adjacent platform and, after reaching Bugs' position, declares that he will take a 300-foot dive into a bucket of water. This diving challenge reaches higher heights into smaller containers of water (a damp sponge) until finally, Bruno comes up with the challenge of diving off the platform into a block of cement ("On my head, yet!"). Bugs accepts the challenge and starts to do the stunt, but Bruno forces his way into going first. Bruno lands and is flattened on the cement block. When the dazed bear straightens up a bit, Bugs leads him toward what looks like the gangplank of a cruise ship, telling him that he's going on a 'trip' . When Bruno is situated, Bugs cuts a rope and starts a series of thoroughly timed "accidents" that begins with Bruno flying across the tent. He then gets whacked around by various acrobats of the circus until he is taken by a trick bicycle into the mouth of a cannon, which Bugs uses to shoot the bear out of the tent and Bugs turned to the camera and said. "Well, that's one way to wind this up with a bang." Then he laughs as the screen irises out.

Yosemite Sam is running for mayor of a small town, offering such empty promises as: "There's enough fresh air and sunshine in this great country of ours for everybody – and I'll see to it, that you'll get your share!". Bugs Bunny is underneath the podium drinking carrot juice when Sam makes a pledge to make good on his previous promise "to rid this country of every last rabbit" if elected. Bugs is horrified and then decides he needs to fight Sam by running against him for mayor.

Both of them proceed to engage in various stereotypical election ploys. Bugs tries to win the townspeople over with Theodore Roosevelt's famous "I speak softly, but I carry a BIG stick!" quote, even dressing up like Roosevelt. However, Sam declares "I speak LOUD and I carry a BIGGER stick, and I use it too!" He uses it on Bugs. Sam starts kissing babies (one of whom reacts by spitting the kiss off); he goes to kiss a disguised Bugs, who plants one on Sam first then yells that "a bad man bit my wittle nose", attracting some women of the town who chastise Sam and rough him up as punishment. Sam then steals Bugs' cigar stand at gunpoint ("If there's any giving away cigars, Yosemite Sam'll give 'em!"). Bugs switches his free "SMELLO" cigars for five-cent ATOM Explosive ones ("You Will Get A BANG Out of This"). Sam lights one for a voter and it immediately explodes, resulting in Sam receiving a solid punch in the face. Sam then sends a boxful of "assorted" picnic ants to steal the food from Bugs' free picnic. As they march by carrying the food, Bugs inserts a stick of dynamite inside a watermelon. Sam is taking the food from the ants and packing it into a sack; he stuffs the watermelon in and cheerfully scurries behind a wall. After the explosion blows up the sack, everything in it, and much of Sam's clothing and hair, Sam emerges saying, "I hate that rabbit!" Next, he rigs a cannon at the front door of Bugs' headquarters and greets Bugs with friendship at the back door; he knocks his boot heel against the floor to fool Bugs into going to answer the front door. The plan backfires when Bugs pretends that the person at the door is a girl from "Saint Louie" there to see Sam. Sam believes it's an old flame, Emma, and rushes to greet her, triggering the cannon. Sam then challenges Bugs, asking him if he can "play the pi-anna", and Bugs accepts the challenge; Sam rigs explosives in the piano, attached to a specific key, and presents the piano to Bugs to play "Those Endearing Young Charms" (a gag recycled from a Private Snafu short), but Bugs manages to avoid the trap by misplaying the tune on purpose, avoiding the rigged key. A frustrated Sam finally takes over and plays it correctly, falling for his own trap.

A quick chase through the streets leads the pair to the parade for the newly elected mayor. But as it turns out, a literal "dark horse" candidate, a chestnut-colored mare, stepped in and won. The car bears a sign reading "Our New Mare".

Bugs suggests a game of Russian Roulette and hands Sam a revolver. Sam agrees, points the gun at his head, closes his eyes and pulls the trigger; he gets the click of an empty chamber. He then hands the gun to Bugs, who points the gun at his head, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger as the "camera" irises into black in the center of the screen, to the sound of a gunshot. An iris opens up on Bugs to the left, showing that he had actually ducked immediately before he fired and now holds a smoking gun. He proclaims, "I missed!" The right side of the screen irises open to reveal a scorched, hatless Sam shot in the head by Bugs' wayward blast, and Sam grumbles: "I hate that rabbit!"