From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Advertising executive Marcus Graham is a serial womanizer, prone to lying to seduce women but unwilling to commit until he finds the "perfect woman." His friends Tyler and Gerard tell him his standards are too high, particularly his habit of judging women by their feet. Marcus's company is acquired by cosmetics mogul Lady Eloise, who invites him to her home with amorous intentions; he spends the night with her, believing he will be promoted. The next day, he meets Jacqueline Boyer, who has been made head of his department instead. At a party to celebrate the merger, eccentric fashion diva Strangé is announced as the new face of the company, and Jacqueline introduces Marcus to colleague Angela Lewis, whom he sets up with Gerard. Though they get along fine, Angela and Gerard learn that they're better as friends. Despite his best efforts, Marcus is unable to woo Jacqueline. Over dinner at his apartment, she ignores his advances and is more interested in the basketball game on TV, leaving him frustrated. On a business trip to New Orleans, Jacqueline unexpectedly invites Marcus into her room, and they have sex. Afterward, he is relieved to find her feet up to his standards. Marcus begins to fall for Jacqueline, but finds himself on the receiving end of his usual tactics: she ignores his feelings, manipulates him with sex, and keeps their relationship strictly on her terms. Discovering she has bragged about their trysts to Strangé, whose advances he is forced to reject, Marcus confronts Jacqueline, and she ends their affair. Marcus finds himself the subject of office gossip, and his work begins to suffer. After a major business proposal is almost ruined, Jacqueline forces Marcus to take a few paid weeks off as an alternative to being fired. He spends time with Angela, who tries to bring him out of his funk. After hosting Thanksgiving dinner with Tyler, Gerard, and Gerard's tactless parents, Marcus and Angela sleep together. Gerard is furious, believing Marcus will mistreat Angela like his past conquests. Marcus and Angela move in together, but she is hurt when he downplays their relationship in a phone call with Jacqueline. Marcus, having regained his confidence, proves newly attractive to Jacqueline, and they sleep together again. He returns home to Angela in the middle of the night, and when she confronts him in the morning, he explains that he is confused by his feelings for her and for Jacqueline. Angela breaks up with him and takes a promotion at another company. Marcus rebounds with Jacqueline, but realizes his love for Angela; he returns home to find she has moved out. Marcus reconciles with Gerard, and visits Angela at her new job, convincing her that he is truly committed to her, and they get back together. ===== Jakers! takes place in two different settings, in two different time periods. In the present time (the frame story), Piggley Winks lives in the United States (or Great Britain, according to different versions) and tells stories of his childhood in a rural area in the south of Ireland to his three grandchildren. In flashbacks, he is seen as a child, playing with his friends and going to school in rural Ireland in the mid-1950s. Most of the main characters are anthropomorphic animals—including Piggley and his family, who are all pigs. However, there are normal, non-anthropomorphic animals in the show as well. ===== The plot is based on the book with fewer bloody details. A regiment of Union soldiers head South to engage Confederate forces. Joining them is Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy), a green private sent into battle for the first time. He is unprepared for the fight, but by the time battle breaks out, he finds his endurance and courage tested.Ross, Lillian. Picture, 1952. ===== In London during the Second World War, Lieutenant David Halloran, an American B-25 bomber pilot with the Eighth Air Force based in England, and Margaret Sellinger, an English nurse, meet on Hanover Street in a chance encounter. The following day, Halloran's squadron is sent to bomb Rouen. The plane's starboard engine is hit, but the fire is put out. Cimino, the bombardier, begs Halloran to let him drop the bombs early and turn back, but Halloran does not care about the danger and orders him to wait until they are over the target, prompting him to angrily exclaim that he hates Halloran. Halloran and Sellinger meet again two weeks later in a secret assignation on Hanover Street. Although she is married, they rapidly fall in love. She tries to resist, but is drawn to the charismatic American. By contrast her husband Paul Sellinger is, by his own description, suave, pleasant, but fairly dull. A former teacher, he is now a trusted member of British intelligence. During the next few missions, Halloran orders Cimino to drop the bombs early, as he is scared of death because he now has "a reason to live", much to anger and disappointment of Hyer, the co-pilot. Weeks later, before take-off, Halloran hears something odd in the engine and turns back, forcing Patman to go in his place. That night, it's revealed that Patman's plane was hit in the bomb bay with the bombs still on the plane, killing all on board, and that if it hadn't been for that engine, it would've been Halloran. Ashamed of his actions, Halloran volunteers for an undercover mission in Nazi-occupied France to deliver a British agent. At the last moment, Paul Sellinger takes the place of the agent, and himself joins the mission. His reasons are initially unclear, but he slowly reveals that he wants to prove himself. Flying over France, the aircraft is hit and the crew is killed except for Halloran and Sellinger. In occupied France, the two have to work together after Sellinger injures his ankle. Sellinger's mission is to proceed to the German headquarters in Lyon and, posing as an SS officer, photograph an important document that lists the German double-agents in British intelligence. Halloran agrees to help Sellinger. Making contact with the local French resistance, they disguise themselves as German SS officers and steal the documents. SS troops raise the alarm but the pair manage to escape after a lengthy car chase, and make it back to the farm where they had received assistance earlier. However, a collaborator betrays them and they are forced to flee again; though pursued by hundreds of Nazi troops, they successfully escape. In London, Sellinger's wife finds out that Halloran and Sellinger are together and have come back home, with her husband wounded but alive. Going to visit him in the hospital on Hanover Street, she meets Lieutenant Halloran for the last time. They embrace and kiss, and he tells her that he loves her "enough to let her go", she goes in to see her husband as he goes back out into Hanover Street, where the love story had begun. ===== East of Hope Street tells the real-life coming of age story of Alicia Montalvo, a teenage Salvadoran refugee caught up in the labyrinthine Los Angeles child protection system. Alicia struggles to survive the abuses of home, the inner city, and an overburdened social system in a Los Angeles most people never see. ===== Justice (Janet Jackson) is a young woman living in South Central, Los Angeles. She was named Justice by her late mother, who gave birth to her while attending law school. After the shooting death of her boyfriend Markell (Q-Tip), Justice falls into a deep depression. She spends the majority of her time in the house that she inherited from her grandmother, with her cat White Boy, only going out to her job at a local hair salon. Justice is a talented poet, and she reads many of her poems throughout the course of the film, both to other characters and in voice over. Justice is at the hair salon working one day when a young postal clerk named Lucky (Tupac Shakur) comes in and begins flirting with her. She rebuffs his advances with the help of her female boss; the two women pretend to be lesbians and mock Lucky with their "relationship". Lucky has also had tragedy in his life: his main focus is caring for his young daughter Keisha. He had to forcibly remove her from the care of her mother, Angel, a crack addict who was using drugs and having sex with her drug dealer while leaving the child unattended in the apartment. Lucky dreams of a professional career in music and shows considerable promise, but he insists that his cousin is the true talent. Justice's friend Iesha (Regina King) manages to talk Justice into taking a road trip to Oakland with Iesha's boyfriend, Chicago (Joe Torry), Lucky's co-worker at the post office. Justice warily accepts, mainly because she has to go to Oakland for a hair show and her car had stopped working at the last minute. Unbeknownst to Justice, Lucky is also on the trip, and she will now be sharing a postal van with him and their two mutual friends. Initially they argue, but they soften towards each other as they discover their similarities over the course of the film. The foursome make a couple of detours, the first being a family reunion barbecue they see signs for on the road. Here it becomes apparent (although there were ample hints earlier) that Iesha and Chicago's relationship is troubled. Iesha openly flirts with other men at the barbecue, while Chicago broods watching her behavior. Iesha and Chicago argue in the mailtruck until Justice talks to Iesha about her behavior with alcohol. Iesha throws up and cries on Justice and apologizes to her. The second stop is a carnival where Lucky and Justice grow closer as they discuss their lives. After leaving the reunion, they stop at a beach where each of the four characters contemplate their separate situations in internal monologues. After leaving the beach, the friction between Chicago and Iesha explodes when Iesha informs Chicago that she has been seeing someone on the side, and he physically attacks her. Lucky initially decides not to get involved in the fight until Justice defends Iesha by kicking Chicago in the groin, and Chicago turns his physical brutality at Justice in retaliation. Lucky, Justice, along with a bleeding and shaken Iesha leave Chicago by the side of the road and continue on their journey. Lucky stops the postal van at a beach, and Justice goes to see what's wrong. She begins opening up to him about her life, and Lucky becomes sympathetic. They share a kiss, and Justice walks away apparently unsure of her feelings for Lucky. She goes back to him, and kiss again. When the now-threesome arrive in Oakland, they are met with the news that Lucky's cousin, with whom he had been working on recording music, has been killed. Lucky blames himself for not being in Oakland sooner, believing he could have prevented the shooting had he been in town. He turns his anger on Justice, angrily blaming her for distracting him while they were on the road. Jessie gives Justice and Iesha advice about men before the hair show. Lucky's uncle and aunt give Lucky his cousin's recording equipment. Lucky decides not to come back to work and to take care of Keisha. Some months have passed, and Lucky meets up with Justice again back at the hair salon, just at the moment he brings in his daughter Keisha. Lucky is remorseful over his conduct in Oakland and the cruel words he said to Justice there, and apologizes. She smiles at him and they share a passionate kiss. Justice smiles coyly, and then turns her attention to Keisha, fussing over her hair. Justice and Lucky's eyes meet over Keisha's head and they smile, their connection as strong as ever. ===== On October 31, 1693, just outside of Salem, Massachusetts, Thackery Binx sees his little sister, Emily Binx, being taken away to the cottage of three witches. There, the Sanderson sisters, Winifred, Sarah, and Mary, cast a spell on Emily to absorb her youth and regain their own, killing her in the process. Thackery confronts the witches who transform him into an immortal black cat cursed to live forever with his guilt for not saving Emily. The townsfolk, led by Thackery’s friend, Elijah and his father, capture the witches. But before being hanged, Winifred casts a spell that will resurrect the witches during a full moon on All Hallows' Eve when any virgin lights the Black Flame Candle. Unable to convince his father of his true identity as a cat, Thackery decides to guard the cottage to ensure no one summons the witches. Three hundred years later, on October 31, 1993, on Halloween, Max Dennison is feeling unsettled from his family's sudden move from Los Angeles, California, to Salem, Massachusetts. Max takes his younger sister Dani out for trick-or-treating, where they run into Max's new crush Allison. Allison mentions that her family owns the Sanderson cottage as a museum but it's now closed. Max, in an effort to impress Allison, invites her to show him the Sanderson house to convince him that the witches were real. Investigating inside the cottage, Max lights the Black Flame Candle and inadvertently resurrects the witches, who must continue to suck the souls of every child in Salem to continue living, or else they disintegrate. The witches attempt to suck the soul of Dani, but Max comes to the rescue. Escaping, Max steals Winifred's spellbook on advice from Thackery, who now goes by his last name of Binx. The witches pursue them to a cemetery, where Winifred raises her unfaithful lover Billy Butcherson as a zombie to chase them on foot. The witches try to acclimate to the 20th century, but are horrified when they discover Halloween has become a holiday. They pursue the children across town using Mary's enhanced sense of smell. Max, Dani, and Allison find their parents at the town hall Halloween party, where Winifred enchants the partygoers to dance until they die. At Jacob Bailey High School, the children trap the witches in a kiln to burn them alive. While the children are celebrating, the witches' curse revives them again. Not realizing that the witches haven't truly died, Max and Allison open the spellbook as an effort to reverse the spell on Binx. The open spellbook reveals the location of the group, and the witches track them down and kidnap Dani and Binx, and get the book back. Sarah then uses her siren-like singing to mesmerize Salem's children, luring them to the Sandersons' cottage. Max and Allison rescue Dani and Binx by tricking the witches into believing sunrise came an hour early. Back at the cemetery, the witches attack, and Winifred attempts to use the last vial of potion to suck the soul from Dani. Binx leaps on Winifred and knocks the potion out of her hand. Max drinks the potion, forcing the witches to take him instead of Dani. The sun rises just as Winifred is about to finish draining Max's life force, and due to standing on hallowed ground in the cemetery, she turns to stone before being disintegrated into dust along with her sisters. With the witches gone, Max, Dani, and Allison say goodbye to Billy, as he returns to the grave. Thackery finally dies, freeing his soul. Appearing as a spectral, The thanks the children for their help, and bids farewell to them as he is reunited with the spirit of his little sister Emily. The exhausted partygoers, including Max and Dani's parents, Dave and Jenny are freed the spell is broken, oblivious to their enchantment and return home. Meanwhile, at the Sanderson’s cottage, Ice and Jay, who previously tormented Max and Dani and were captured by the witches after inadvertently insulting them, remain imprisoned in their cages and sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to pass the time. Winnie's spellbook is seen opening its eye, revealing it is still alive and the witches could possibly return again. ===== New York City sophisticates Dan King and Ruth Winters travel to Bird-in-Hand in the Amish country of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to sell a piece of property to Jacob Yoder, who intends to present it to his daughter Katie and her intended Ezra as a wedding gift. While there, they become involved with the local villagers, including Hilda Miller, who mistakes Dan's kindness for romantic overtures, and Ezra's banished brother Peter, who returns to claim the hand of his childhood sweetheart - Katie. ===== Father Brian Finn (Edward Norton), dedicated to his calling as Catholic priest since childhood, shares the duties of his New York parish with the older Fr. Havel (Miloš Forman). Rabbi Jacob "Jake" Schram (Ben Stiller), best friends with Brian since they were children and the youngest rabbi at his synagogue, focuses on his work to the detriment of his private life, much to the chagrin of his mother, Ruth (Anne Bancroft). The two men show a close bond even in their professions, planning to open a jointly-sponsored community center. The pair reminisce about their childhood friend Anna Reilly (Jenna Elfman), meeting them in middle school after beating up a bully. The three were close friends until Anna's family moved to California and they ultimately lost touch. Sixteen years later, Anna moves to New York for work and calls Jake and Brian out of the blue, rekindling their friendship. Anna and Jake begin sleeping together, but he is reluctant to become seriously involved as she is not Jewish, which could compromise his relationship with his congregation and his mother Ruth, who disowned her eldest son for marrying outside the faith. Between this conflict and their desire to spare Brian's feelings, the relationship is kept mostly secret. As the relationship continues, Jake remains unwilling to view the relationship as serious, despite Anna’s hints at her ‘taking a class’. She is upset when they run into members of Jake's congregation while on a date, and Jake introduces her only as "my old friend Anna". Brian is in private turmoil after also developing feelings for Anna, in conflict with his vows. He misinterprets Anna's words and actions – some of which are subtle signals to Jake – and even has an erotic dream about her. He seriously considers leaving the priesthood to pursue a romantic relationship with her. While the three have dinner with Ruth, she reveals to Anna that she knows about her and Jake's secret relationship. Jake and Brian walk in on the tearful moment, and Jake and Anna later argue over the religious issues complicating their romance and part ways. Anna calls Brian for comfort and he rushes to her, taking her tearful ramblings to be a confession of feelings for him. When he kisses her and confesses his love, she interrupts him, admitting she is in love with Jake and they have been seeing each other secretly for months. Embarrassed and rejected, Brian spends the night drinking on the streets. Still drunk the next day, Brian stumbles into Jake's temple and interrupts a post-bar mitzvah gathering, resulting in a confrontation with Jake that ends with the priest punching the rabbi. As the Community Center's grand opening approaches, along with the end of Anna's East Coast assignment, Jake reconciles with Brian, as does Anna soon after. A discussion with Brian prompts Jake to go to Anna's office building, with Brian shouting encouragement as he runs down the street. Interrupting Anna's going-away party, Jake gets her attention from a window across the street, and calls to explain himself and offer to set things right. That evening, they surprise Brian in the middle of his karaoke number at the interfaith center. Anna greets Rabbi Lewis (Eli Wallach) and mentions their meetings together, revealing that she had been taking classes to convert to Judaism. She tells him she hopes to pick it up again as she is now staying in New York, with Jake clearly thrilled. The film ends with the three friends happily posing for a photo together. ===== Bloom is set in the year 2106, in a world where self-replicating nanomachines called "Mycora" have consumed Earth and other planets of the inner solar system, forcing humankind to eke out a bleak living in the asteroids and Galilean moons. Two groups of humanity are described—The Immunity, who use "ladderdown" technology and augmented reality and live on the moons of Jupiter, and The Gladholders, who use human intelligence amplification and artificial intelligence and live in the asteroid belt. The story begins on Ganymede with an article about a “bloom”, or outbreak of Mycora, that serves to emphasize the danger and horror of this technogenic life (TGL). The article is written by Strasheim, the primary narrator character. He is first seen in the office of Chief of Imunnology Lottick, the effective ruler of Ganemede, who has called him there for an unknown purpose. Lottick tells Strasheim that the Mycora have apparently been stealing or assimilating human designed defensive nanotech and may soon develop resistance to the coldness of the outer solar system, which incites concern. It is planned to send mission to drop TGL detectors onto the polar ice caps of Mars, Earth, and the Moon, and Lottick asks Strasheim to go along as a reporter. For the longer term, a starship is being constructed to colonize other star systems before the Mycora. Strasheim agrees, and goes to meet the other crew- members and inspect the ship, which is called the Louis Pasteur. The ship is technologically camouflaged to protect the crew against Mycora. A terrorist attack releases a Mycora bloom in the hangar, killing one crew member and forcing the others to launch the Pasteur and escape—departing three weeks earlier than planned, and without adequate supplies. Because of their forced launch, the Pasteur docks at Saint Helier, a medium-sized Floral asteroid of the Gladholders to pick up supplies. While there, they are surprised by the culture multiple times, but what shocks them most is that the asteroid's inhabitants have apparently discovered, through powerful telescopes, human life on both Earth and Venus, co-existing with the Mycora. The "Pasteur" is pursued by ships of the Temples of Transcendent Evolution, a fringe political/religious group that believes the Mycora are divine, investing large sums of money in researching them. Searching for ways to defend themselves against the Temple ships, the crew discover that the mission has a somewhat more violent purpose than they were led to believe. The "detectors" they have by this time dropped on Mars, Earth, and Luna can actually be repurposed as "cascade fusion" devices. Shaken, the crew continues on their journey, but become aware that one of the crew is sabotaging the mission. The saboteur turns out to be the Mycorea specialist Baucum, with whom Strasheim has developed a personal relationship. She is secretly a member of the Temples of Transcendent Evolution, and after being discovered, Baucum ruptures a storage bag inside herself that had been carrying spores of Mycora. Terrified, the crew responds, with Strasheim himself shoving her out an airlock before the Mycora now consuming her can also devour the ship. It is determined that the mission's actual purpose was to use the detector/bombs to establish small footholds on the three planetary bodies, but it occurs to Strasheim that if such a device were detonated in the Sun, a massive blast of laddered-down iron would wipe out most Mycoran life in the inner solar system. Several of the Temples' ships that have chased them since Mars, are now desperately attempting to destroy the Pasteur against this possibility (The Pasteur is heading toward the Sun to get away from the Mycosystem via an out-of-plane slingshot, but the action could have been construed differently by Temples' agents.). Having discovered this possibility, the crew decide not to pursue it, but instead transmit the existence of this potential weapon back to the outer solar system. As a result of the energy of this high power transmition the Mycora break through the hull of the Pasteur, blooming, and unexpectedly assuming the form of a pseudo-human spokesperson. It transpires that the Mycora is sapient and without ill-will toward humans. Communication is brief but paradigm-shattering. The ambassador explains that the majority of persons consumed during the destruction of Earth or on the evacuation out-system was incorporated into the Mycosystem and are still alive in some sense, their consciousness and intelligence adjusted to run on the cellular-automata-like Mycora substrate, or "Unpacked". The crew is given information on how to mark areas as off-limits to the Mycosystem. They are told that humanity is, "...Utterly free. Free to conduct your lives in the classical manner, to escape this solar system, to populate the stars. Free to Unpack, if you choose." The book ends almost thirteen years later, with a description of how the captain of the Pasteur has been diagnosed with a terminal disease and requests that Strasheim (now a successful media magnate) be his witness as he joins the Mycora.McCarthy, Wil: Bloom, Del Ray Books, 1998 ===== Ellie Dunn, her father, and her fiancé are invited to one of Hesione Hushabye’s infamous dinner parties, to be held at the house of her father, the eccentric Captain Shotover, an inventor in his late eighties who is trying to create a "psychic ray" that will destroy dynamite. The house is built in the shape of the stern of a ship. Lady Utterword, Shotover's other daughter, arrives from Australia, but he pretends not to recognise her. Hesione says they are running out of money. Shotover needs to invent a weapon of mass destruction. His last invention, a lifeboat, did not bring in much cash. Ellie intends to marry businessman Boss Mangan, but she really loves a man she met in the National Gallery. Unfortunately, her fiancé is a ruthless scoundrel, her father's a bumbling prig, and it turns out that the man she's in love with is Hector, Hesione's husband, who spends his time telling romantic lies to women. Marriage to Mangan will be the sensible choice. A burglar is captured. They say they do not want to prosecute him, but he insists he will turn himself in unless they pay him not to. It turns out that the burglar is one of Shotover's old crewmen. He confesses that he is not a real burglar. He deliberately gets himself captured to get charitable assistance from his victims. Shotover laments that the younger generation have lost their romance. Ellie suggests that she should marry Shotover, but he says he's already married to a black Jamaican wife, though it's possible she's now dead. Lady Utterword says that everything will be put to right if only they get some horses. Every English family should have horses. Mangan declares that he is to head a government department, but Ellie suddenly announces that she cannot marry him as she is now Shotover's "white wife". Shotover predicts that the ship of England will founder, as the captain is drunk and the crew are all gambling. The maid enters with news that an air-raid is about to happen. The lights are switched off, but Hector switches them back on to demonstrate his lack of concern about the threat. A bomb lands in the garden, blowing up Shotover's store of dynamite and killing Mangan and the burglar who were hiding there. When it is over everyone says how bored they are. They hope the bombs will come again tomorrow. ===== Early in the morning, a mysterious man appears in South Park, entering from some kind of portal. Unfamiliar with his surroundings, he is hit lightly by a car. After shovelling snow, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny watch a report on CNN about the mysterious arrival. The mysterious person, who has come from over a thousand years in the future, is looking for work because of the overpopulation and poverty in his time, and he learns that the money that he earns in the 21st century will be enough to feed his family in 3045. Soon enough, large numbers of immigrants begin to come through the portal. The future people are described by CNN as "a hairless, uniform mix of all races" with the same skin color, while their language is a guttural mixture of all world languages; also, the immigrants are referred to as "Goobacks" due to having some kind of goo attached to them after exiting the portal (a satire of the modern slur "Wetbacks" referring to Mexican immigrants). As the boys return to offer to shovel snow again the next day, they find that the newly arrived time-immigrants have shoveled all driveways on the street for very low pay. As the immigrants are willing to accept jobs for that kind of pay, the original workers throughout South Park are replaced, thus resulting in massive unemployment throughout the town. At a meeting to discuss their concern with the Goobacks, construction worker Darryl Weathers complains that they have worked hard to get their pay high enough to make a living, but now are being ousted by the time-immigrants. The other workers voice their own complaints, with each sentence finishing off with an increasingly slurred and garbled exclamation of "They took our jobs!", which later becomes their slogan. Later at that meeting, Weathers has the audience suggest ideas for stopping the immigrants from arriving at the town. One man suggests everyone start stripping and engaging in a gay orgy; Weathers likes the idea, as it is the only way to stop the immigrants from coming because homosexual couples cannot spawn offspring. The protesters reluctantly agree with the exception of Jimbo Kern; and begin the orgy. Meanwhile, Stan's father Randy - despite initially being sympathetic to the Goobacks - loses his job to a Gooback and becomes the spokesperson of the protesters. Randy is interviewed by CNN while still naked. Next to him is a very embarrassed and disturbed Stan, who explains that he understands that the immigrants are living in poverty and they are just trying to get by, but realizes that poor societies often hurt other societies instead of helping them. He suggests that the people of the present should try to make the future better so the immigrants will not need to come. The entire town begins to recycle, install solar and wind power devices, plant trees, give to the poor, etc., hoping to cause the Goobacks to disappear. Although the townspeople's efforts are successful and the Goobacks begin to fade away, the boys observe that the work is "gayer than all the men getting in a big pile and having sex with each other". Stan apologizes, and the male adults including the boys happily resume their orgy. ===== The story centers on Jeremy Feeple, an ordinary student at Quagmire High, living an ordinary life. Shortly into the story, a beautiful female ninja named Itchy Koo (real name Ichikun Ichinohei) and an alien princess named Asrial appear. The earlier stories focus on the girls' comedic attempts to marry this seemingly plain, ordinary high school boy. The series plot started rather simply: Princess Asrial was sent to Earth to find Jeremy Feeple and marry him, an act that was described as required to ensure that their enemies do not lay claim to the planet. Since Earth was a non-aligned world, anyone could claim it, and the Salusians were desperate to keep it from being used against them. Ichi went to America to marry Jeremy as well, although her reasons for the trip were different, in order to become leader of her clan, her grandfather informed her that she had to marry the boy, the reason behind this is that Jeremy's mother was raised by this grandfather, and they wanted to be blood related. Unfortunately, shortly after landing, Asrial, Ichi, and Jeremy Feeple get caught up in a whirlwind of comic mischief, fighting, and plots by local villains to take over the planet. The comic often features parody versions of other comics or television shows, usually Japanese, but occasionally European or American, such as Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, Ultraman, Harry Potter, Superman, The Powerpuff Girls, Terminator, Robocop, Ninja Gaiden, Transformers, Fist of the North Star, and the Gundam series. Later the series does a time skip and focus on Jeremy's little brother, Ricky Feeple (who was mostly a minor character in the first series), as he enters high school himself, gaining new friends and soon coming into conflict with a rival ninja clan known as Shidoshi who set their sights on destroying him. While the comic still retained its comedic tones, it also ventured into darker territory and has a bit more drama thrown in than the original NHS. * The V2 spinoff has little to do with the actual storyline, although several main characters are used in the plot. It was created by Ben Dunn because it gave him the ability to tell stories he never got a chance to do with the original cast of characters. Furthermore, it allowed him to update the NHS timeline a bit. * Between issues 75 to 100, the storyline departed from the main line and started focusing on Ricky Feeple and his temporal trips to alternate timelines on a bid to save the universe from being destroyed. In this time, Asrial had been seen to have left Earth for Salusia on important yet unknown business at that time. Eventually the universe is saved. * Asrial's return to Earth following her trip came included with two children named Kassy and Lexus. Their age at introduction places them as at least 6 to 8 years old. As they are Salusian in appearance, Jeremy believes Asrial married someone else, however, when they call Jeremy "daddy", Asrial admits to Jeremy he is their father. It is then assumed that the reason Asrial left was because Jeremy impregnated her and thought it safer to raise them on Salusia in a more stable environment. Likewise, this time gap could be explained by the temporal hopping Ricky did in his efforts to save the universe. This is the first time that the connection between Jeremy and Asrial has been confirmed as mutually romantic although there may be earlier evidence of this romantic and violent interest in earlier issues. A point ending the first run was when Ichi-Kun reveals her first pregnancy, which is in conjunction with Asrial's third pregnancy, but with a note saying the series would continue at a later date. * Jeremy gets involved at least twice in Salusian affairs, one time by accident, in which he manages to uncover some secret plots to bring the Salusian Conglomerate to ruin. Information of this is sketchy at best. ===== In 1943 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, the newly commissioned Lt. Michael Grayson (Johnson) reports for duty to train the 442nd, a unit established on the US mainland and composed of Nisei. His expectation was to return to the U.S. 36th Infantry Division, a Texas National Guard unit, which he had served as an enlisted soldier. He has to come to terms with a group of people that he sees as Japanese, the enemy, rather than Americans. Grayson runs his platoon rather insisting on strict observance of military regulations. He learns that "Go for broke" is a pidgin phrase used in Hawaii meaning to gamble everything, to "shoot the works"—to risk "going broke" or bankruptcy. Grayson comes to learn the meaning of the frequently exclaimed Baka tare, which, loosely translates to mean "very stupid." There is only one brief discussion of the internment camps from which most of the men have come, but throughout the film there are references to the camps. There are also a few brief references to the distinctions between the Nisei from Hawaii ("Buta-heads") and those from the mainland ("Kotonks"). While Buta-heads (the phrase later devolved to "Buddha-Heads") are a key part of the Hawaiian economy and Hawaiian society, Katonks were largely distrusted and disliked by their neighbors. Arriving in Italy, the unit is joined by the 100th Battalion, a Nisei unit formed in Hawaii before the 442nd. The troops of the 100th are seasoned veterans and the new arrivals look to them for advice. On the march to the front lines, Grayson gets left behind when fraternizing with a signorina, but he is not found by the colonel because his platoon has covered for him during an inspection of their positions. By the actions by the 442nd in Italy and France, Grayson finds reason to replace his bigotry with respect toward them. His transfer to the 36th, as a liaison—over his objections—comes through when the 442nd is attached to the 36th. As he has misjudged the Nisei, they have misjudged him. The Nisei learn that he has defended them against bigotry, even getting into a fistfight with an old friend from the 36th had insulted them. The 36th is surrounded by the German army and the "Buddha-heads'" rescue "them". On their return home, they are the awarded the distinction of the eighth Presidential Unit Citation.Takemoto, Kenneth.' (2006). Nisei memories: my parents talk about the war years, p. 120. ===== US Navy submarine USS Corsair, operating in the North Atlantic, hunts out German merchant raiders preying on Allied shipping. Its new executive officer, Lt. Ward Stewart (Tyrone Power), has been transferred to submarines after commanding his own PT boat. At the submarine base in New London, Connecticut, he asks his new captain, Lieutenant Commander Dewey Connors (Dana Andrews), for a weekend leave to settle his affairs before taking up his new assignment. On a train bound for Washington D.C., Stewart accidentally encounters New London school teacher Jean Hewlett (Anne Baxter) and her students. Despite her initial resistance to his efforts, he charms her and they fall in love. His infatuation with PT boats irritates Connors but the two become friends after engaging a Q ship in which Connors is injured and Stewart sinks it. Connors, unbeknownst to Stewart, is already in love with Jean but delays marrying her until he gains a promotion to commander, and the commensurate pay raise it provides, so he can properly support her. Tension between the men ensues when Connors discovers that the woman Stewart is wooing is Jean. The film culminates in a commando raid by Corsair on an island supply base for the German raiders. After the raid, the two men make peace, and after the Corsairs return to New London, Stewart and Jean are married. ===== Cris Johnson can see into his future. He can only see two minutes ahead, with the exception of a vision he once had of a woman walking into a diner. Knowing no details other than the time, he goes to the diner twice each day at 9:08 to await her arrival. He works as a small-time magician in Las Vegas, where he supplements his income with gambling, using his powers to win medium amounts against the house. Cris draws the attention of FBI agent Callie Ferris, who has figured out his ability and wants to stop Russian terrorists from detonating a nuclear weapon. Before she can approach Cris, his gambling draws the attention of casino security. Using his ability to forecast the actions of his pursuers, he eludes them and the Las Vegas police. Ferris tracks Cris to his location, but he escapes after foreseeing her arrival. Later that night, the casino's security chief is approached by two of the terrorists, is interrogated about Johnson and is then killed. The following morning, Cris is at the diner again when he sees Liz Cooper, the woman from his vision. It turns out that Cris can not only see the future, but also see how his actions can affect that future. When Liz's aggressive ex-boyfriend arrives, Johnson envisions all outcomes of his intervening, and then chooses the outcome that gets him "in" with Liz. Knowing that she is heading for Flagstaff, Arizona, Cris tricks her into giving him a ride. Ferris follows, while the terrorists decide to kill him. With the weapon tracked to Los Angeles, Ferris convinces her superiors to let her bring Cris in. The terrorists follow in the hope that the agents will lead them to Cris. Cris and Liz have to spend the night in a motel. Ferris confronts Liz near the hotel. Claiming Cris is a dangerous sociopath, Ferris asks Liz to drug Cris so that they can bring him in peacefully. Instead, Liz warns Cris, who tells her his secret. When she asks why he will not help the FBI stop the terrorists, he explains his limitations, noting the exception for events involving her. Cris tries to escape from the FBI but is captured after saving Ferris from logs tumbling down the side of a mountain. Unable to get to Cris, the terrorists kidnap Liz. The FBI strap Cris to a chair and force him to watch television until he has a vision that can help. They expect him to see a report about the detonation of the bomb, but instead he envisions a broadcast from several hours in the future in which Liz is killed with a bomb vest while strapped to a wheelchair as bait for him. Cris escapes and races to the parking garage where she will be killed. Catching up to him, Ferris promises to help save Liz as long as Cris will help stop the bomb; she also sets up a plan to draw out the terrorists. Cris helps the FBI track the terrorists to the port where they are based. When they arrive, Cris is able to walk right up to the terrorist leader while using his power to dodge bullets. After killing the terrorists and saving Liz, they find that the bomb has already been moved. Ferris shows Cris a seismograph, hoping that he will see any tremors caused by explosions before they happen. As he stares at the screen he realizes that he has made a mistake and that he was too late: the bomb detonates out at sea and completely destroys the port, as well as the rest of the city. The timeline reverts a full day to Cris and Liz in bed at the hotel in Arizona, before Ferris arrived. Because of Liz's involvement in events, Cris has now been able to envision everything that could happen leading to the nuclear explosion. "Every time you look into the future, it changes." Cris calls Ferris and offers to help prevent the nuclear disaster, then asks Liz to wait for him. ===== In 1904, Emmeline Foster and Michael Reynolds, two British children, are the survivors of a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor Paddy Button. Eventually, Paddy dies in a drunken binge, leaving Emmeline and Michael all alone with each other. Together, they survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise. Ten years later, in 1914, the now adult couple live together in the island paradise, fish, and collect "beads" from the shellfish in the surrounding lagoon. One day a ship arrives carrying Doctor Murdoch and James Carter, two British men who, it is intimated, have fled as criminals from civilization. Surprised to find the couple on the island, Doctor Murdoch soon realizes that Michael collects valuable pearls without knowing their true worth. While Murdoch attempts to trick Michael into getting him a bounty of pearls, Carter tries to kidnap Emmeline and escape. Murdoch and Carter kill each other on the boat, and Michael and Emmeline vow to never attempt to leave the island again. They marry, and during a tropical storm a child, Paddy, is born. In 1917, 3 years later, Emmeline is reminded of the outside world and decides she wants to leave the island. She fears for their child if she and Michael should die and begins to think of his future. Michael finally gives in to her pleading and they pack a small boat and leave the island. But becalmed in the middle of the ocean, they succumb to exposure. They are found by a British ship, but the film leaves their fate ambiguous, showing only that their child, Paddy, remains alive in the small boat. ===== ===== Piper (Holly Marie Combs) arrives late at the Halliwell Manor, which infuriates Prue (Shannen Doherty) as they were trying to get an electrician. Prue states that Piper's boyfriend Jeremy (Eric Scott Woods) has sent some flowers and a bottle of Port, the ingredient she needs for her showpiece recipe in the morning. Piper sees an old spirit board that Prue found in the basement while she was looking for a circuit tester. She turns it over to see the inscription on the back. The pair then begin to wonder about their sister Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) who is living in New York. Prue suggests that they should rent out the spare room at a reduced rate in exchange for fixing things around the house. Piper suggests that Phoebe could move in before admitting that two weeks earlier she had agreed to allow her sister to move back in. Prue is not happy with this since she and Phoebe had fallen out over Prue's husband-to-be, Roger (Matthew Ashford). Phoebe, who is broke, had been accused of sleeping with Roger causing Prue to break off the engagement. Phoebe and Piper are seen playing with the spirit board. As Piper goes into the kitchen, the pointer on the spirit board starts to spell a word. Phoebe freaks out and calls in Piper and then Prue to see what the pointer is doing but it doesn't move while all three are watching. She tries to convince both sisters that the pointer is moving and making out a word, but they do not believe her since Phoebe is known to have moved the pointer in the past. Piper then sees the pointer move briefly and then the spirit board finally spells out the word "attic" as Phoebe writes it down on paper. As the storm continues, the power goes out. Piper and Prue head off to the fuse panel, but Phoebe follows the spirit board's prompt and heads to the attic. The door is locked but suddenly opens and Phoebe is guided to a wooden chest. Opening the chest, she discovers a large, ancient book called the Book of Shadows. Unaware of the powers involved, but overcome with curiosity, she reads a page aloud, which mentions three sisters and the power of three having the active powers of an ancestor named Melinda Warren. The spell bestows Phoebe with premonitions, Piper with molecular immobilization, and Prue with telekinesis. Prue tells Phoebe that the book is of witchcraft but they believe that nothing has changed. In fact, the photo of the three sisters has changed, as they have magically moved closer to each other, but the sisters don't see it. In the morning Prue is confronted by her ex Roger, who is also her boss. He removes her from the project that she had been looking after. Prue quits her job but her anger unwittingly causes her to make his pen explode and his necktie to nearly strangle him. Piper runs out of time and can't complete her dish until she accidentally freezes the chef of the restaurant which allows her to finish the sauce off and get the job. Whilst Phoebe is riding her bike, she gets a premonition of two boys on roller skates being involved in a car accident and she prevents the accident by causing herself to have an accident. Prue still has problems accepting that they are witches and sees her power in action for the first time when putting cream in her drink. While Prue is in a pharmacy looking for aspirin, Phoebe observes that Prue uses her power when she is angry. Phoebe winds her sister up over Roger and their Dad, which causes Prue to knock most of the stock off the shelves. Meanwhile, Piper is on a date with Jeremy, who is actually a warlock that steals the powers of good witches. Jeremy says that he knew all about them the whole time, hence why he started dating Piper six months beforehand when their grandmother went into hospital. He then shows Piper the powers of the witch whom he killed at the start of the episode. While Jeremy attempts to stab Piper with an athame, she freezes him and escapes before telling Prue and Phoebe what happened. The trio then create a potion which injures Jeremy and Phoebe has a premonition that he has been wounded but not defeated. After trying to blockade themselves from Jeremy, Prue remembers the inscription on the spirit board and the sisters hold hands chanting "The power of three will set us free" until he is killed. ===== Alexander Grady, a widower and father is chosen to represent the United States of America in an international martial arts tournament against Team Korea. Once a rising star in the martial arts world, he suffered a shoulder injury that forced him into retirement. Also chosen for the team are Tommy Lee, a highly skilled martial arts instructor; Travis Brickley, an extremely brash fighter with a short fuse; Virgil Keller, a devout Buddhist; and Sonny Grasso, a streetwise fighter from Detroit. Despite being coached by veteran trainer Frank Couzo, their chances of winning are virtually non- existent, as the Koreans train all year long, enjoy lucrative financial support from their nation, and have—on at least one occasion—killed a competitor in the ring. To win, they will need to be the best technically, physically, and mentally. As training begins, the team struggles to bond as Travis antagonizes them. Given the pressure, the American team hires a second assistant coach, Catherine Wade, whose spiritual approach to training clashes with Couzo's more rigorous coaching techniques. Tommy is disturbed when his opponent is revealed to be Dae Han, Team Korea's best fighter who was responsible for killing Tommy's brother in a similar tournament. Couzo hopes that Tommy's desire for revenge will give him the necessary aggression to win, while Wade is more concerned about Tommy's mental state. With time and training, the team begins to bond and to earn each other's respect. Couzo cuts Alex from the team when he breaks the rigid training regimen to visit his son, who had been hit by a car; later, Tommy quits after knocking out Virgil with a powerful spinning side kick during practice. Travis and the others persuade Couzo to reinstate Alex, and Tommy eventually rejoins the team after a change of heart. In the first two matches of the tournament, Virgil and Sonny are out-classed by their Korean opponents. Travis does his best to psyche up the team with his brash attitude, going point for point with his Korean counterpart, but loses in a tie-breaker brick-breaking competition. Alex dominates his match with his opponent, Sae Jin Kwon, but takes a devastating axe-kick to his shoulder which dislocates it. Instead of giving up, he implores Tommy to "pop" the shoulder back into place and resumes the fight, ultimately defeating his opponent with one arm. Finally, Tommy faces Dae Han. After a slow start, Tommy gets the upper hand and delivers a series of blows that forces Dae Han solely on the defensive. As the match nears its end, Tommy has brought the American team within two points of outright victory, and Dae Han can barely stand. Tommy prepares to finish the fight, but knowing that Dae Han would not survive the attack, his coaches and teammates dissuade him. Tommy hesitates and lets the clock run out, saving the man's life but forfeiting the overall victory. Couzo consoles Tommy afterwards, telling him, "You won that match. Don't ever forget that". At the medal ceremony, Dae Han unexpectedly approaches Tommy and praises him for his honorable act. He tearfully apologizes for the death of Tommy's brother, and in return offers himself as a brother. Tommy accepts, and Dae Han places his medal around Tommy's neck before the two men embrace. Sae Jin Kwon then walks up to Alex and states his long-time admiration for him as a fighter, before also handing over his medal. The other members of Team Korea then follow suit, awarding their medals to their respective American opponents. ===== Kuryu Kohei is a young public prosecutor who gets transferred to a division in Tokyo from Aomori. Kuryu is unlike a typical prosecutor; he refuses to wear a suit and tie, opting for casual clothing, his trademark orange down jacket and stylish boots. He looks and behaves more like a Generation X slacker. He is known for always buying bizarre items from infomercials and the home shopping network. Kuryu is a high-school dropout who was falsely accused of a felony, cleared only by a public prosecutor who took the time to uncover the facts. This forces Kuryu to abandon his delinquent lifestyle, take his high school equivalency, study for the bar exam and pass with flying colours. Also, when he was 17 yrs old, he was arrested whilst trying to protect a friend. [ Hero season 1, ep 10.] Kuryu's brilliant investigative instincts and determination make him well-suited as an investigator and advocate. Kuryu's job is to interview suspects and decide whether to proceed with pressing charges against them. However, unlike his colleagues, rather than sit behind a desk and rubber stamping suspects for trial, Kuryu will leave the office and (literally) do the legwork, go the extra mile and doggedly pursue the truth. However, his unorthodox approach generally generates a lot of antagonism and negative publicity. Kuryu's colleagues are all concerned with status and position and do not think highly of Kuryu or his eccentricities. Amamiya Maiko, his paralegal assistant, is concerned with attaining her law credentials and becoming a full prosecutor. At first, she believes Kuryu's addition may help her chances but at the beginning of the series comes to detest Kuryu. Kuryu doesn't care too much with how he is viewed and only cares about uncovering the truth of criminal allegations. Throughout the series, Kuryu uncovers coerced confessions, unethical legal practices, corruption, obstruction from overzealous cops, sensationalistic media, interference from politicians and well connected, powerful elites. Over the course of the series, his idealism and dogged pursuit for truth and justice ignite a similar passion in his colleagues, especially Amamiya. By the end of the series, Kuryu is transferred to Ishigaki Island because of all the commotion he causes. A running gag of the series was the bar tender who miraculously and instantly produced anything a person asked for, even if it was something rare, obscure or unlikely to be expected at a Japanese bar. The bar tender would never say a word except "Aru yo." (meaning "I got it"). He would even produce the obscure items that Kuryu couldn't get from the infomercial channel. The character even appears as a sushi chef in the rural village of the 2006 special. Kuryu asks the chef if he is the same person, twin brother or close relative of the Tokyo bar tender, but the chef characteristically says nothing, only "Aru yo" when asked for items. ===== In 1985, following the success of the film Tron and the incorporation of the Tiger, the Eagle launched a new strip called "The Ultimate Warrior". This was quickly renamed "The Computer Warrior" and was one of only two strips (the other being Dan Dare) to last for the rest of the comics lifetime. When the strip first appeared, Bobby Patterson's friend Martin French mysteriously disappears. Bobby Patterson receives a message in which Martin reveals that he had discovered a code to activate a real life facility on his computer, enabling him to literally enter the computer games realm and that his disappearance means that he has lost a game and is now trapped within the Nightmare Zone. In order to rescue Martin, Bobby must practice on the games before using the code to play the games in the computer realm. A single loss would mean Bobby himself would also be trapped in the Nightmare Zone. The only way for Bobby to free Martin was to complete 10 games himself using the code. Bobby made great progress through the tests, including overcoming various real life problems with his mother and father. Once Martin himself had the chance to free himself by finding a secret tunnel in the Nightmare Zone where he met the computer who gave him one chance to escape, by completing without practice the game UggaBulla, but unfortunately Martin was not successful. Eventually Bobby, saw through all 10 games, many of them used by the Eagle comic itself as prize giveaways and promotions throughout the run. Martin was rescued and Bobby gained the title of Computer Warrior. Due to the strip's popularity and a desire to continue it beyond the original concept it was then revealed that the purpose of the challenge was to find a champion to defeat the dark forces of the Nightmare Zone. The realm's ruler, the Computer Warlord, gathered together all qualified Computer Warriors and eliminated them one by one (banishing them to the Nightmare Zone) in a series of tests to find the 'Ultimate Warrior'. As before, each test was the successful completion of a popular computer game of the time. Bobby made friends and enemies amongst the other Computer Warriors as the tests went on, but eventually Bobby emerged triumphant and became the Computer Warlord's champion; the other Computer Warriors being freed from the Nightmare Zone. The Computer Warlord then set Bobby 5 more tests to defeat the Nightmare Zone creatures once and for all. In the final test the Nightmare Zone creatures picked a champion to defeat Bobby, his evil self! Finally, Bobby defeated this last enemy and the Nightmare Zone creatures were trapped in a 'cube of holding' by the Warlord. In future stories, Bobby defeated various Nightmare Zone creatures who refused to enter the cube and then became the Computer Warlord, the old one having died and bequeathing it to Bobby. Bobby then invited Eagle readers to take part in their own 'real life' games, with no danger of going to the Nightmare Zone! Eagle then had another revamp and a new plot line was introduced. Bobby was summoned before the 'Council of Warlords' to be told he wasn't really a Computer Warlord, and demoted to just plain Computer Warrior. Then another Warlord named Baal explained that they too were being attacked by Nightmare Zone creatures and he needed a champion to defeat them. By this stage, the quality of the writing had dropped significantly and the strip was reduced to Bobby being set test after test after test to 'prove he was a champion' which lasted for the rest of the strip's duration. No effort was made to introduce any other plot except the eternal completion of video games. The Eagle became a monthly comic in the early nineties and the Computer Warrior and Dan Dare became the only strips that weren't reprints. The Eagle eventually ceased production in January 1994 and the Computer Warrior storyline was quickly wrapped up. In the final video game test, Bobby played "Another World". When he successfully completed this, he was told by Baal that "no test had been too great" and he had now defeated the Nightmare Zone forces. How he achieved this was never explained. Bobby was returned to his home and told that all his adventures had taken place in seconds in the real world and he would no longer be needed. Bobby pleaded with Baal to come back but had to contend with himself that he would miss being the Computer Warrior. For the first three years the writer was credited as "D. Spence" a pen-name used by Alan Grant. ===== Americans Michael Pappas and Cathy Featherstone, a young couple from Connecticut who have just graduated from college, have known each other about 10 years and have been together about half that time. They vacation for almost the entire summer on the Greek island of Santorini. Michael sees it as a chance to enjoy one last crazy summer before going to work at his recently deceased father's business in the fall. When they visit a nude beach crowded with other young tourists, they are hesitant at first but find themselves getting caught up in the uninhibited energy that surrounds them. Cathy reads a book of sexual techniques, then ties Michael to the bed and drips candle wax on his chest. She comments that everyone thinks she's "such a Goody Two-Shoes" but she wants a little more adventure. Michael, who says he has never been with another woman, keeps noticing Lina Broussard, a French archaeologist on temporary assignment at the nearby Akrotiri excavation. One day, at the beach without Cathy, he gets his chance to talk to Lina and ends up starting an affair with her. He then feels so guilty that Cathy immediately notices something is wrong, and he admits what he has done, insisting that he still loves Cathy. Cathy is naturally disturbed by this, but tells him to get it out of his system, which he takes as permission to return to Lina. Cathy then goes to a local bar intending to sleep with another man as a way to get revenge against Michael for cheating on her. But in the end she chickens out after getting picked up by an amorous local boy. When Michael comes home later after seeing Lina again, Cathy is angry. Cathy goes to Lina's home to confront her. Lina assures Cathy that she does not intend to take Michael away from her, which seems to calm Cathy somewhat. Lina and Cathy end up spending several hours together getting acquainted, and find themselves fascinated by each other's work—Lina's archeology and Cathy's photography. Michael is confused when he learns that the two women are developing a friendship, but he quickly recovers and the three of them spend a few days gradually getting closer. Cathy knows Michael is still sleeping with Lina from time to time, but seems to accept it, although she says it would be difficult for her to see them in bed together. Nevertheless, she tolerates increasing signs of affection between Michael and Lina in her presence. In a very tense scene one evening, Cathy encourages Michael to kiss Lina. He gives Lina a light peck, but Cathy says it isn't convincing. He gradually turns up the heat while watching Cathy intently for her reaction. He then kisses Cathy, checking to see how this makes Lina feel. The three end up spending the night together. Lina moves in with them, and they continue enjoying the island paradise as a threesome. Just as the fantasy seems to be a total success, the natural complications of domestic life, like who does the laundry or dishes, come to the foreground. The three work through these problems, but then Cathy's mother, Jean, appears on a surprise visit, snapping everyone back to reality. The visit is particularly tense because Cathy's mother arrives to awaken Michael and Lina after a birthday party for Lina at which the three cover each other in olive oil. Cathy tells Jean she's never been happier in her life. Although Lina claims to be bad at relationships and prefers just "screwing", the three actually seem to be falling in love all around. Finding herself in an intense relationship, and uncertain about her future with them, Lina begins to fear getting hurt when the summer ends and the Americans return home. They tell her it doesn't have to end, but don't go into any details. To avoid getting too close to her new friends, Lina disappears with another young man, Jan Tolin, she met at the beach. Cathy and Michael are distraught, and spend several days searching for Lina. Eventually they conclude they won't find her as long as she wants to remain hidden. But their memories of Lina loom over everything they try to do, and they can no longer enjoy their time on the island. They pack up to return home, even though they have three weeks remaining prepaid on their rental. Lina finds her fears are outweighed by her feelings for the Americans, and returns to reunite with them, only to discover they have already gone. She races to the airport and intercepts them just as they are about to board the aircraft. Overjoyed at seeing her again, Cathy and Michael return to spend the last three weeks of their summer with her. ===== The novel occurs during a 22-day period mostly in Shanghai, China, and concerns mainly the socialist insurrectionists and others involved in the conflict. The four primary protagonists are Chen Ta Erh (whose name is spelled Tchen in the French original of the book), Kyoshi ("Kyo") Gisors, the Soviet emissary Katow, and Baron Clappique. Their individual plights are intertwined throughout the book. Chen Ta Erh is sent to assassinate an authority, succeeds, and is later killed in a failed suicide bombing attempt on Chiang Kai-shek. After the assassination, he becomes governed by fatality and desires simply to kill, thereby fulfill his duty as a terrorist, a duty which controls his life. This is largely the result of being so close to death since assassinating a man. He is so haunted by death and his powerlessness over inevitability that he wishes to die, just to end his torment. Kyo Gisors is the commander of the revolt and believes that every person should choose his own meaning, not be governed by any external forces. He spends most of the story trying to keep power in the hands of the workers rather than the Kuomintang army and resolving a conflict between himself and his wife, May. He is eventually captured and, in a final act of self-determination, chooses to take his own life with cyanide. Katow had faced execution once before, during the Russian Civil War and was saved at the last moment, which gives him a feeling of psychological immunity. After witnessing Kyo's death, he watches with a kind of calm detachment as his fellow revolutionaries are taken out one by one, to be thrown alive into the chamber of a steam locomotive waiting outside, intending, when his turn comes, to use his own cyanide capsule. But hearing two young Chinese activists talk with trembling fear of being burned alive, he gives them the cyanide (there is only enough for two), himself being left to face the more fearsome death. He thus dies in an act of self-sacrifice and solidarity with weaker comrades. Baron Clappique is a French merchant, smuggler, and obsessive gambler. He helps Kyo get a shipment of guns through and is later told that Kyo will be killed unless he leaves the city in 48 hours. On the way to warn him, he gets involved with gambling and cannot stop. He considers gambling "suicide without dying". Clappique is very good-humored and always cheerful all the time but suffers inwardly. He later escapes the city dressed as a sailor. ===== The narrative is presented as the author's compilation of histories of Bellarion's life, in particular that of one Fra Serafino of Imola. Bellarion, abandoned as a child and raised in an abbey, departs as a young man with a letter of introduction from the respected abbot, intending to study in Pavia. He meets and travels with a Franciscan friar, but discovers that someone has robbed him of his money and letter. Upon arriving in Casale, the capital of Montferrat, he finds himself pursued by the authorities, who suspect him of complicity with the false friar, actually a well-known scoundrel named Lorenzaccio da Trino. He flees until he reaches a palace and enters by a garden door which he is surprised to find unlocked. A beautiful lady admits him, bolts the door, and takes pains to hide him from his pursuers. They arrive, and Bellarion listens to her rebuff them, discovering that she is the Princess Valeria of Montferrat. When the Guard depart, Valeria quizzes Bellarion, mistaking him for a messenger she had been expecting, asking after Giufreddo and Lord Barbaresco. He corrects her misapprehension, but, sensing an intrigue and anxious to impress her, offers in return for her kindness to carry a message to Lord Barbaresco. She distrusts him, but charges him simply to ask what has become of Giufreddo, who Bellarion assumes is the previous messenger, and how Barbaresco's plan is progressing. He discovers that Barbaresco and a group of friends, including Valeria's trusted confidante Enzo Spigno, are plotting the murder of Theodore, Valeria's uncle, who is serving Regent of Montferrat until Valeria's brother, the rightful Marquis, reaches majority. Theodore is plotting to keep the throne for himself, and is doing so by corrupting his nephew and rendering him unable to rule. Bellarion continues to investigate the matter, despite Valeria's wishing that he would leave her alone; he discovers that Spigno is a traitor to the group and is in the employ of Theodore, and consequently stabs him. As he escapes, the Guard captures him, and its captain recognizes him as the same companion of da Trino who had escaped a week before. He goes before the local high court, over which the Podestà presides, for the murder of Spigno. He tells the court that Spigno was murdered in a fight in the house at which Bellarion was not present, and claims to be the adoptive son of Facino Cane, a condottiere in Milan, as a delaying tactic. The Podestà holds the case for the time being, intending to contact Facino to verify whether Bellarion is truly his adoptive son; meanwhile, Theodore enters his prison cell, believing that he was a traitor to Valeria and loyal to himself, and affords him means to escape, unaware that he did in fact murder Spigno. Bellarion travels thence to Milan. Upon nearing Milan, he is attacked by dogs commanded by Gian Maria Visconti, the despotic and cruel Duke of Milan and the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. He kills one, becoming soaked in dog's blood, and the rest become pacified, unwilling to attack someone who smells like one of them. Gian Maria believes this is some manner of witchcraft and takes Bellarion to Milan to interrogate him, whereupon Facino Cane, who has heard that his supposed adoptive son has arrived, takes possession of him. Bellarion explains his past to Facino, who thinks it highly amusing, and shortly sets about formalizing the adoption. The story continues to follow the career of Bellarion, who becomes a true and loyal son to Facino Cane, then pledges loyalty to Cane's widow after Facino dies. There are numerous twists and turns to the plot as Bellarion rises in rank to become an important mercenary captain. He serves Valeria in many ways, and that story takes over the plot. ===== The first part of the novel focuses on Colonel Haki, the dour but basically likable head of Turkish Security, who already made his first appearance in The Mask of Dimitrios and returns in later Ambler stories as a general. The protagonist is a British engineer traveling back from Turkey, where he had completed high-level technical talks which could help cement a Turkish-British alliance in the recently started Second World War. German spies seek to assassinate him. Most of the plot takes place on board an Italian ship, where the protagonist travels in company with his nemesis - a German intellectual spymaster, accompanied by a Romanian hired killer - and with a rich cast of other characters, such as a Turkish secret agent, a Spanish courtesan and her pimp, and a French couple of which the husband is left-leaning and his wife is a staunch reactionary. ===== Shack (Ernest Borgnine) is a merciless, inhumane, and sadistic bully, a dedicated Company Man/Railroad conductor on the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railroad, during the Great Depression. He takes it upon himself to ensure that no one ever rides his freight train, the #19, for free, and that anyone who attempts, literally dies trying. Shack has an arsenal of makeshift weapons: several differently-sized hammers, a steel coupler pin tied to the end of a length of rope, a 4-6' chain, and a high pressure steam hose from the locomotive, all wielded with brute force. During the opening credits, he hammers a hobo on the head whom he's found riding between two cars, causing the "bo" to fall down under the cars and be cut in two by the train's wheels. A hobo who is a hero to his peers, A-No.-1 (Lee Marvin) manages to hop the train, and the younger, less-experienced Cigaret (Keith Carradine) secretly coattails him closely behind, only to be unwittingly seen by Shack, who then locks them inside the car from outside, sealing their exit. Upon realizing their plight, A-No.-1 sets fire to the onboard hay load as a means to exit 'under cover' from the wooden livestock car in which he and Cigaret are now trapped. As Shack directs the crew to stop the train in an approaching rail yard to have yard workers help extinguish the fire and then catch his stowaways, A-No.-1 evades them all, escapes to the hobo jungle, greets his old pal Smile (Liam Dunn), who, in turn, rouses, and declares to the assembled huddle that "A-No.-1 is "King of The Road, having just arrived on the 19!". Meanwhile, Cigaret is caught by laborers back at the rail yard, who then brags to them (Vic Tayback, Matt Clark, Hal Baylor, and others) that he was the one who rode Shack's train and that the other tramp got them caught, and burned to death in the fire. Most of the workers believe him, and they dispatch another "bo" to spread the word back at the Hobo Jungle that Cigaret is the one who finally beat Shack. When this tramp arrives in the hobo jungle to spread the word, A-No.-1 is there, and is confronted with the story that the young braggart Cigaret is taking credit for his deed. Indignant, A-No.-1 determines to ride Shack's train all the way to Portland to prove that only he is capable of such a bold act. He has another young tenderfoot hobo tag his intention high up on the yard water tower, where everyone can see it. When word of this posting rapidly arrives back in the train shed, Shack is in the process of strangling Cigaret for daring to claim he has ridden Shack's train. Forgotten by the yard workers in their excitement over whether A-No.-1 will succeed, Cigaret quietly slips out unnoticed. The other hobos agree that the first who can successfully ride Shack's train will have earned the title "Emperor of the North Pole." Railroad workers place bets whether A-No.-1 can do it, spreading the news up and down the line by telephone and telegraph, Shack being widely known and disliked. The next morning is foggy. One of the hobos picks the lock on a switch so that Shack's train, Number 19, will be shunted onto a branch linesiding, making it easier for A-No.-1 to board. A-No.-1 unhitches the engine and tender from the freight cars to keep Shack further at bay, and Shack yells to A-No.-1 (now hiding back in the foggy woods) that this prank might cost 10 lives when the fast mail train comes through in just a few minutes. A-No.-1 challenges this as merely "a ghost story." Hogger (the engineer), Coaly (the stoker), and Shack desperately get the train going again, and they barely succeed in getting it onto a siding, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic collision with the mail train, nearly giving their dimwitted brakeman Cracker (Charles Tyner) either a stroke, or heart attack from the stress of the near miss. A-No.-1 re-mounts the train, and hides inside a hollow metal pipe on a flatcar and as the morning advances and the fog burns off, he discovers that Cigaret is hiding in the adjacent pipe, and worse yet, may have alerted the #19's crew to their presence by leaving his hat out in the open on the flatcar's open decking. Shack stops the train on a high trestle so that he and Cracker can search for hobos more easily. Realizing that he will soon be discovered, Cigaret climbs down the trestle only to discover that A-No.-1 is already relaxing and smoking a cigar in a junk pile at the bottom of a ravine. They reboard the train beyond the trestle but A-No.-1 loses his grip (Shack has sabotaged some of the hand- and footholds) and falls off. Shack strikes Cigaret on the head with a large hammer, causing him to also fall off. The two men go back to the junk pile and haul several buckets up the slope where they smear the rails with grease. A passenger train is slowed down sufficiently by this such that A-No.-1 and Cigaret are able to jump onto the roof of one of the cars from an overhead sluice. The two jump off at the Salem yard and A-No.-1 uses Cigaret as a foil to steal a turkey. A policeman (Simon Oakland) chases them to a hobo jungle, but is surrounded and forced to humiliate himself by barking like a dog. A-No.-1, by now deeply annoyed by Cigaret's empty boasts, tells the younger man that if he will only listen and allow himself to learn, he has what it takes to become a true hobo, possibly even Emperor of the North Pole. A-No.-1 then gets involved in a local ongoing immersion baptism service as a means of having Cigaret steal a change of clothes for them both. Back in the Salem yard, A-No.-1 has once again tagged on the water tower his intent to ride The "#19 (train) all the way to Portland". Shack tells Hogger to take the train out of the yard at regular speed, thereby allowing the two hobos to board easily; Shack clearly wants to settle the matter once and for all. A-No.-1 and Cigaret climb aboard the undercarriage of one of the freight cars, where Shack (once again) drags a steel coupler pin on the end of a rope (bouncing off the passing track ties under the moving train) to injure them. In pain, A-No.-1 uses his foot to throw a lever that releases the pressure in the brake lines, causing the train to stop quickly. Coaly is thrown against the firebox, severely burning his back. Cracker is flung from his perch in the caboose, breaking his neck and dying in the process. Cigaret finds A-No.-1 nursing his injuries near a pond and berates him for lacking the strength and courage to go the distance. The younger man insists that he himself is going to become one of the all-time great hobos. After this tirade, Cigaret reboards the train, but immediately retreats in fear from the hammer-wielding and very angry Shack. Just as Shack is about to deliver a fatal blow, A-No.-1 appears and begins battling Shack. A desperate struggle involving heavy chains, planks of wood, and a fire axe ensues (Cigaret watches from a safe distance, atop the caboose). A-No.-1 ultimately has the bloodied Shack at his mercy, but instead of killing him, throws him off the train. In defiance, Shack yells that A-No.-1 has not seen the last of him. A-No.-1 then tosses Cigaret off for bragging about how "they" defeated Shack, telling the kid he could have become a good bum but he's got no class. "You had the juice, kid, but not the heart", he yells, as the train rolls away to Portland, beyond the distant horizon. ===== Sergeant Joseph Andrew Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) is a tough cop. His seemingly frail mother Tutti (Estelle Getty) comes to stay with him and progressively interferes in his life, driving him crazy. After cleaning his gun with bleach and finding out she ruined it, Tutti buys him an illegal MAC-10 machine pistol, and witnesses the murder of one of the men who sold her the gun. Tutti is taken to the police station to give a statement, and starts poking around in Joe's cases. She learns the gun she purchased was part of a collection taken from a burned building, and the gun insurance money was received. On her way back home, Tutti recognizes a man at the airport. He flees when she and Joe follow him, and Tutti remembers she saw him on America's Most Wanted for shooting his mother. ===== Baja California's location Sam Farragut is a sociopathic business executive in Southern California who forces a team of advertising agency employees, Warren Summerfield, Paul McIlvain, and Terry Maxon to embark on a dangerous dirtbike trip to the Baja California desert in order to compete for his business. Warren Summerfield is a suicidal middle- aged ad executive who has been fired from the agency; the straightlaced Paul McIlvain is inattentive to his wife, and brash art designer, Maxon, feels suddenly trapped after his girlfriend announces she is pregnant. There are numerous long sequences of motorcycle riding on desert backroads. Summerfield has been having an affair with McIlvian's wife. He has not told his wife that he was fired and is simply serving out his tenure at the agency while looking for a new position. His wife is actually aware of the affair. Farragut convinces the ad men to make the motorcycle journey on the pretext of looking for a location to shoot a commercial. In reality, Farragut is reckless and looking to involve the men in a spontaneous edgy adventure of his own manipulation. After they leave, McIlvain's wife suspects that Summerfield is planning to kill himself for the insurance money, but she cannot convince Summerfield's wife to instigate a search. The four men travel deeper into Mexico on isolated dirt roads. At one point Summerfield contemplates plunging off a cliff. After being humiliated by a young American couple in a Baja bar, Farragut tracks them down on the beach while accompanied by Maxon. He tries to offer the young man one hundred dollars in order to sleep with his girlfriend, claiming he is a "hippie with money." Although rebuffed, he persists and is soon fought by the young man. Although the young man appears to be winning the fight, Farragut seizes an axe and destroys the radiator of the couple's car. After returning to the others, Farragut and Maxon don't inform them of the incident. They are later confronted by the Mexican police who tell them that the young man died trying to hike to safety and that the girl may die as well. Overnight in the town, Summerfield discovers the truth and tries to convince Maxon and McIlvain to help him turn Farragut in to the police. Maxon, manipulated by Farragut's promise of a promotion in the company, refuses to even admit the truth about Sam's actions, while the conflicted McIlvain resists out of prudency. The next morning, Farragut and Maxon leave on their own for the airport to fly home. They are pursued by Summerfield, who catches up to them. Maxon returns to the town, while Summerfield confronts Farragut, and says he plans to turn Sam into the authorities. Sam, in turn, reveals he knows about Summerfield's firing, life insurance policy, and his plans to commit suicide. When he is unable to either shame or manipulate Summerfield into changing his mind, Farragut pursues Summerfield across the desert in a motorcycle chase, intending to kill him. As Farragut chases Summerfield along a high cliff, Summerfield ditches his bike while Farragut loses control and plunges over the cliff to his fiery death. The three ad men return to the U.S. with Farragut's remains. McIlvain's wife informs him she wants a divorce. Maxon's girlfriend tells him she is no longer pregnant, implying she has had an abortion. Summerfield, with a new lease on life, is greeted warmly by his wife. McIlavin, knowing the truth about Summerfield's firing, offers to help him get his job back, but Summerfield refuses. Recognizing McIlavin's compliancy and cowardice, Summerfield warns him that no matter how different things may look, he is going to have to deal with the "Sam Farraguts of the world" and what they represent. ===== The film is a farce about a mentally unstable advertising executive, Denis Dimbleby Bagley (played by Grant), who suffers a nervous breakdown while making an advert for pimple cream. Ward plays his long-suffering but sympathetic wife. Richard Wilson plays John Bristol, Bagley's boss. Bagley has a crisis of conscience about the ethics of advertising, which leads to mania. He then develops a boil on his right shoulder that comes to life with a face and voice. The voice of the boil, although uncredited, is that of Bruce Robinson. The boil takes a cynical and unscrupulous view of the advertising profession in contrast to Bagley's new- found ethical concerns. Eventually, Bagley decides to have the boil removed in hospital but moments before he is taken into the operating room, the boil quickly grows into a replica of Bagley's head (only with a moustache) and covers Bagley's original head, asking doctors to lance it, which is done since nobody has noticed the switch from left to right nor the new moustache. Bagley, now with the boil head, moustache, and personality (the movie's third personification from Grant after the stressed executive and the raving lunatic) returns home to celebrate his wedding anniversary, with the original head merely resembling a boil on his left shoulder. The "boil" eventually withers but doesn't die, yet Bagley resumes his advertising career rejuvenated and ruthless, although without his wife, who decides to leave his new cruel persona. ===== Novelist Larry Donner (Billy Crystal) struggles with writer's block due to his resentment towards his ex-wife Margaret (Kate Mulgrew), who took all the credit for his manuscript and received acclaim for it, whilst Larry, struggling to make ends meet, takes a job teaching literature at a community college. Owen Lift (Danny DeVito) is a timid, middle-aged man who still lives with his overbearing, harsh and paranoid mother (Anne Ramsey). Owen fantasizes about killing his mother but can't summon the courage to bring his desires into fruition. As a student in Larry's class, Owen is given advice by Larry to view an Alfred Hitchcock film to gain some insight into plot development for his murder stories. He sees Strangers on a Train, in which two strangers conspire to commit a murder for each other, figuring their lack of connection to the victim will, in theory, establish a perfect alibi. Having overheard Larry's public rant that he wished his ex-wife dead, Owen forms a plan to kill Margaret, believing that Larry will, in return, kill his mother. He tracks Margaret down to Hawaii and eventually follows her onto a cruise ship she is taking to her book signing, where he plans to push her overboard. Owen returns from Hawaii to tell Larry of Margaret's death and that Larry now "owes" him the murder of his mother, lest he inform the police that Larry was the killer. After having spent the night drinking alone on a beach during the hours of Margaret's disappearance, Larry panics because he lacks a sufficient alibi. That, along with a news report announcing that the police suspect foul play, convinces Larry that he's the prime suspect. He decides to stay with Owen and his mother in an attempt to hide from the police. Larry meets Mrs. Lift, but despite her harsh treatment of him he refuses to kill her. Eventually, when Mrs. Lift drives Owen to the breaking point, Larry finally relents and agrees to go through with the murder. After two unsuccessful attempts, Larry flees the Lift home when Mrs. Lift recognizes him as a suspect from a news broadcast about his ex-wife's disappearance. He boards a train to Mexico and, surprisingly, Owen and Mrs. Lift come along so as to avoid having to lie for him. During the journey, Larry's patience with Mrs. Lift finally runs out when she impolitely gives him the correct advice on writing. He follows her to the caboose with the intent of killing her, but Owen begins having second thoughts about having his mother killed and gives chase. In the ensuing struggle, Mrs. Lift hangs from the train but is rescued by Owen and a repentant Larry. Mrs. Lift is grateful to her son for saving her, but unappreciative of Larry's help and kicks him, resulting in him losing his balance, and falling off the train to the tracks below. During his recovery in hospital, Larry discovers that Margaret is still alive; she had fallen overboard accidentally and was rescued by a Polynesian fisherman whom she has decided to marry. Much to his annoyance, Larry learns that Margaret plans to sell the rights of her ordeal for $1.5 million. On the advice of a fellow patient, Larry chooses to free himself of his obsession with his ex-wife and instead focus on his own life, and write about what recently happened to him, thereby freeing him of his writer's block. A year later, Larry has finished a novel based on his experiences with Owen and Mrs. Lift entitled Throw Momma from the Train. Owen visits and informs him that his mother has died (albeit naturally) and that he's going to New York City for the release of his own book. Unfortunately for Larry, Owen reveals that his book is also about their experiences together. Thinking that his book has been scooped once again, an enraged Larry proceeds to strangle him, but stops when Owen shows him that his book is a children's pop-up book called Momma, and Owen, and Owen's Friend, Larry with the story drastically altered to be suitable for children. Months later, Larry, Owen, and Larry's girlfriend Beth (Kim Greist) vacation together in Hawaii, reflecting on the final chapter of Larry's book. Larry and Owen's books have now become best-sellers, making them both successful writers as well as close friends. ===== An unnamed man (Timothy Bottoms) (simply called "young man" in the credits) sneaks into Ocean View Amusement Park and places a small radio-controlled bomb on the tracks of the park's wooden roller coaster, The Rocket. The bomb detonates, a coaster train derails, killing and injuring the riders. Safety inspector Harry Calder (George Segal), who initially cleared the ride, is called to the park to investigate. A park worker tells Calder that he saw what he thought was a park maintenance man up on the tracks earlier that day but did not state that the man was someone other than the park had authorized to be there. In Pittsburgh the bomber causes a fire on a dark ride at another park. Calder suspects the incidents might be linked, and learns that the executives of companies running the largest amusement parks in America are holding a meeting in Chicago. Calder flies to Chicago and intrudes on the meeting. One of the executives plays a tape sent by the bomber, wherein he demands $1 million to stop his activities. Back home, Calder is visited by FBI Agent Hoyt (Richard Widmark), who says the extortion money is to be delivered by Calder at Kings Dominion. There, Calder is ordered to wait at a telephone and the bomber calls, warning him there is a bomb in the park. He sends Calder a two-way radio so that he can keep contact, then orders Calder to go on various rides in the park such as the Rebel Yell roller coaster. While Calder is riding on the Skyway to the station near the Singing Mushrooms, the bomber tells Calder that the bomb is located in the radio. He warns Calder not to throw it away, because it will explode on impact on the paths below, which are occupied by many of the park's visitors. He orders Calder to falsely signal that he has made the delivery, in order to distract the FBI, then leave the money on a bench. Calder complies and walks away. Later, Hoyt admits that he marked the money (violating the bomber's instructions). Calder demands to be sent home and leaves the bomb radio with the bomb squad. Back home, Calder gets another call from the bomber. He blames Calder for the marked money, and threatens another attack. Assuming it will be directed at Calder personally, he deduces that the next target will be Revolution at Magic Mountain. The FBI rejects Calder's hypothesis, but decide to investigate anyway because the ride is scheduled to debut on July 4, when park attendance will be at its highest for the season. Agents disguised as park maintenance men eventually find a bomb attached to the tracks and disarm it. The bomber returns to his car and gets a new bomb just as the Revolution is about to open. In order to get on board, he pays a park guest $100 for his "Gold Ticket", which entitles the holder to be one of the first passengers. He places the bomb under his seat in the rear of the train. Following the inaugural ride, Calder recognizes the bomber's voice during his ride exit interview with a reporter. He chases the bomber, and alerts the agents that he might have placed something in the coaster train. The train leaves the chain lift on its second ride through. The bomber is eventually cornered and threatens to blow up the ride, holding the detonator in his hand while the agents try to jam the signal. He demands a firearm. Calder takes one from an agent and begins to hand it to him. Agents succeed in jamming the detonator's signal, and alert Calder. Calder retains the gun but in doing so accidentally shoots the bomber, who then runs away. He hops a fence into the area below the Revolution and runs blindly, eventually circling back toward Calder. The bomber climbs onto the track, but sees Calder and freezes. He is hit and killed by the coaster train. The ride re-opens following the accident. ===== The Inner Circle revolves around the tensions that are bound to arise if a small group of people deliberately abandons the traditional moral values with which they were raised in favour of an unconventional outlook on love, marriage and sex. While Kinsey preaches that sex is nothing but a "hormonal function" devoid of emotion, John Milk has extreme difficulty adjusting to this concept where his own wife — the young and beautiful Iris — is concerned. ===== The F+B Ambulance Company is locked in an intense battle with the Unity Ambulance Company to win a city contract for providing ambulance service to a territory within Los Angeles. Their star driver is "Mother" Tucker (Bill Cosby), a talented antihero who drinks alcohol on duty, harasses nuns, and behaves brazenly towards practically everybody he meets, including his partner Leroy (Bruce Davison). Indeed, the entire company is a band of misfits, including the hypersexual John Murdoch (Larry Hagman), his partner Walker (Michael McManus), putative medical student Bliss (Allan Warnick), and brash Texan "Rodeo" Moxey (Dick Butkus). Handling calls at the switchboard is Jennifer (Raquel Welch), whom the drivers nickname "Jugs" for her ample bosom. Harry "Doughnut" Fishbine (Allen Garfield) runs the company, using occasionally underhanded means (such as kickbacks) to maintain an income stream. When Walker is injured after falling through a staircase on a call, Harry Fishbine hires Tony Malatesta (Harvey Keitel), a disgraced sheriff's detective and former Vietnam War ambulance driver. Upon learning that Tony has been suspended from the sheriff force due to allegations that he sold cocaine to children, Mother nicknames him "Speed". Speed is initially paired with Murdoch, though their partnership is strained when Speed must stop Murdoch from raping an unconscious female college student who has overdosed on Seconal. On a false emergency call, Leroy is shot and killed by a junkie (Toni Basil) demanding drugs. When Mother pulls a gun on the junkie, the junkie commits suicide. Later that night, a drunken Mother assaults Murdoch for stating that Leroy's death "doesn't count"; though Murdoch states this in regard to the drivers' "dead body" pool, Mother perceives it as an attack on the character of his dead partner. Harry then partners Speed with Mother to alleviate his driver shortage. Meanwhile, Jugs has obtained her Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and ambulance driver certifications, and forces her way onto F+B's active roster with threats of sexual discrimination lawsuits. When Speed fakes an injury to prevent Jugs' arrest for misuse of an ambulance, the two fall in love. Though Jugs proves a capable EMT, she loses her nerve after a pregnant woman under her care suffers a severe obstetrical hemorrhage and bleeds to death in Mother's ambulance. Jugs secludes herself afterward until Mother counsels her and gives her the courage to return to work. At a City Hall meeting, City Councilman Warren informs the owners of both Unity and F+B that they will not be awarded the contract—it will instead be awarded to a larger, established company. To save their businesses, Unity's owner, Charles Taylor, proposes that their two companies merge. Though the councilman is agreeable to the merger, Fishbine is not. The discussion is interrupted by an emergency call: Murdoch, intoxicated and armed with a handgun, has broken into F+B's bus garage office with Walker and is holding Mrs. Fishbine hostage. All of Unity's and F+B's ambulances descend on the F+B garage; upon arrival, Murdoch opens fire and hits Speed in the shoulder. When Mother charges onto the garage grounds to rescue his ambulance, he comes face to face with Murdoch; Murdoch tries to shoot Mother, but his gun is empty. A deputy sheriff then shoots and kills Murdoch. In the aftermath of this incident, F+B does merge with Unity, forming the Fishbine + Unity (F+U) Ambulance Company, based out of the old F+B garage. (The new acronym for the company is also a slang abbreviation of "fuck you"; the old F+B stood for "Fish + Bine".) Speed, who has been cleared of all charges, is reinstated to the police force, though he remains romantically involved with Jugs. Jugs is initially relegated to switchboard duty again, until Mother insists that she become his new partner. The two drive off together, with Mother harassing the nuns one more time as the movie ends. ===== The sequel picks up precisely where the first book left off, with Arthur Lestrange in the ship Raratonga discovering his son Dickyhttp://www.classicreader.com/book/565/ and niece Emmeline with their own child, lying in their fishing boat which has drifted out to sea. While the last line of The Blue Lagoon states that they are not dead but sleeping, the first line of the sequel is "No, they are dead", and the reader is told that they have stopped breathing. The child is drowsy but alive and is picked up by the sailors. Arthur is shaken, but at the same time relieved. He can see that Dicky and Emmeline were healthy and that they must have lived in peace. He feels it is better that they died while still in a savage state and did not have to return to civilization. He has a dream-vision of the pair; they ask him to come to Palm Tree, the island where they lived, and promise he will see them again. Their child becomes quite popular with the Raratongas crew. His favorite among the sailors is a rascally quasi-pirate called Jim Kearney. Because the child says "Dick" and "Em" while playing with the sailors, Kearney calls him Dick M. Captain Stanistreet has been concerned for Arthur's sanity since they found Dicky and Emmeline, but he appears calm when they get to Palm Tree, investigating the things the couple left behind. Only when he enters the house and finds the flower decorations and neatly arranged supplies—unmistakably the work of Emmeline—does he break down in tears. Arthur plans to stay on the island with Dick M and the captain of the Raratonga asks for volunteers from among his crew to stay also. Jim Kearney volunteers. The captain says they will return the following year, but the ship is promptly swallowed up in a storm out at sea. Arthur believes his dream-vision is partly fulfilled when he looks at Dick and notices characteristics of both Emmeline and Dicky in him. Kearney does most of the parenting for Dick. Years pass; Arthur dies quietly while walking in the forest and his body is never found. Kearney and Dick are left to their own devices until an intruder enters: a young woman named Katafa (her name means "Frigatebird"). She hails from the island of Karolin, forty miles away, which is populated by Kanaka natives. It is a huge, almost treeless coral atoll, with no water source other than rain. Dicky and Emmeline were aware of the Kanaka's existence, but never encountered them—for many reasons, they stay away from Palm Tree and believe it is haunted. Katafa is actually the daughter of a Spanish sea captain who was killed to prevent his taking water from their wells during a drought. Raised by priestess Le Juan, and psychologically conditioned as a taminan untouchable, she can talk and interact with Karolin natives, but cannot touch or be touched by them. She is on Palm Tree only because a storm blew her fishing boat off course. She makes friends with Dick and teaches him her language, naming him Taori, but Kearney is suspicious of her, particularly when he finds she evades touch. She is likewise antagonistic toward him for having tried to touch her. Her boat destroyed by a volley from a passing ship, she has to stay on Palm Tree until further notice. She lights a fire as a prayer to Nanawa, the ocean god, to return her to Karolin, but Kearney thinks she is trying to signal her people to attack the island. She gets back at Kearney by stealing his chewing gum, blunting his fish spears and sabotaging his fishing lines. He comes to believe she is out to kill him and is about to return the favor when, pursuing her into the lagoon, he is trapped and killed by a giant tentacled cephalopod. Left to themselves, Dick and Katafa live somewhat as Dicky and Emmeline had done; Dick taking Katafa for granted unless he wants help or an audience. Katafa still wants to go home; she creates an image of Nan, the gentler of Karolin's two gods, out of a coconut shell, and puts it up on the reef on a pole, as a signal should any Karolin fishermen come close to the island. The god belongs only to Karolin's people and will show either that someone from Karolin lives on Palm Tree, or that Nan has been "kidnapped". Sure enough, four Karolin fishermen arrive. Seeing their proprietary god on a reef with Dick (a foreigner) nearby, they attack him. He lashes out, killing one. Katafa is angry when she learns her people were that close, but she finds she cannot hate Dick; she's falling in love with him, to the point that she begins to desire to touch other living things. Dick wants to hug her, but she automatically evades him and hides in the forest, due to her psychological conditioning. The narrative focus shifts to Karolin. The three remaining fishermen return with their terrible news. The fisherman Dick killed was the grandson of the island's king, Uta Matu, and the fishermen assume that where they saw one 'foreigner', there must be dozens, maybe hundreds. Worst of all, Nan is there, seemingly stolen by the newcomers. Advised by Le Juan in one of her epileptic trances, the king declares war and all the men of Karolin assemble in their canoes, led by the king's son Laminai and his second son, Ma. In the middle of the night, Dick pursues Katafa through the forest once more, carrying a spear in case of trouble, when he runs straight into the warriors. He kills Ma with the spear and is about to be killed by Laminai, when Katafa leaps out of nowhere and attacks Laminai. The people have long believed Katafa to be dead, so the warriors flee, thinking she is a ghost. A sudden storm blows up, and in the darkness, noise and confusion the Kanaka kill each other. Now able to hold and touch one another, Dick and Katafa become lovers. They stay together on Palm Tree, but prepare to leave for Karolin. When a schooner of copra harvesters arrives, crewed by Melanesian slaves under the direction of two white men, Dick wants to speak to them, but is attacked. He kills the leader, and the Melanesians stage an uprising and take over the island. Dick and Katafa escape to Karolin. By chance, Dick has picked up a large, beautifully decorated club left by the warriors. Katafa tells Dick that it is the sacred war club, and can be carried only by men of the royal family, so he must be the new king of Karolin, and indeed, when they get there, Uta Matu has died. The people—women, very young men, and little children—have turned against old priestess Le Juan, who has terrorized them for so many years and whose advice had sent all the warriors to die on Palm Tree. She drops dead of a stroke when she sees Katafa, seemingly returned from the dead, and the people proclaim Dick their new king. ===== Robert and Cathy Wilson are a timid married couple in 1940 London. He is a bookkeeper, she a bored housewife. However, their tedium-filled lives are drastically changed by the war. He enlists in the Royal Navy, while she joins the Wrens. During the three years the couple are apart (their shore leaves never coincide), they are transformed, each becoming much more self-confident. Cathy's assertive new friend, Dizzy Clayton, helps her break out of her shell. She begins going out with Dizzy's cousin, naval architect Richard, who falls in love with her. However, she remains faithful (if unenthusiastically) to her husband. Meanwhile, Robert toughens up on sea duty and in time becomes a petty officer. His hands are badly burned when his ship is sunk, but he stoically rows in the lifeboat for five days without complaint. He recuperates in a hospital, tended by Elena, a beautiful nurse. On the last night of his stay, he asks her out to dinner. He is attracted to her, but she informs him that she lost her beloved husband only six months earlier, kisses him, and leaves. Robert and Cathy both receive ten-day leaves, but each dreads being reunited with the dowdy spouse each remembers and being forced back into the dreary life they shared. Cathy cannot bring herself to return to her flat, where Robert is waiting. Instead, she phones Robert and asks him to talk with her on more neutral ground, blurting out that she wants to leave him. He is furious. They meet on the street, in the pitch dark of the blackout. Robert readily agrees to a divorce, to her surprise, telling her that he was going to ask her for one. They go to the neighbourhood pub to discuss the divorce and for the first time in three years they each get a good look at the transformation in the other. Throughout the film, they have been talking to their new friends about their life together, and now they revisit those issues and talk honestly to each other about the past. They find that if they are "perfect strangers" now, they did not know each other very well before. For Cathy, the hated view from their flat, all walls and smoking chimneys, is a symbol of their lives before the war. They dance with each other, for the first time, and are clearly attracted. Dizzy and Robert's friend 'Scotty' meet them in the pub. Both are stunned. Dizzy thinks Cathy is crazy. Scotty calls Cathy a pin-up, but the compliment goes wrong when he shares—at some length—Robert's unflattering descriptions of the 'old' Cathy. She is insulted and furious. It hardens her heart and she walks out as the pub closes. Outside, waiting in vain for a taxi in the bombed-out intersection, the argument continues—they even fight over where the shops were located. In the end, Scotty goes to his billet, leaving Robert on the street, thinking (in a voiceover). The girls go to the flat, where Cathy wistfully tells Dizzy about how she and Robert met. Robert returns to retrieve his gear and finds Cathy sitting in the window. The sky is bright with early morning light, and beyond the shattered houses, the vista toward the river and beyond is broken only by a church steeple. The high walls are gone. “Well, you've certainly got the view you always wanted,” Robert says looking straight out the window. “Miles and miles of it,” Cathy replies. “But oh Robert, the desolation.” “Poor old London,” he says. And then after a pause, “Well, we'll just have to build it up again. That's all.” “It will take years and years,” she says. Turning to her, putting his hand on hers, he answers, smiling, “Well, what does that matter? We're young.” They embrace, passionately. ===== One year after the events of Metal Slug 3, the world is under the threat of a mysterious and deadly cyber virus that threatens to attack and destroy any nation's military computer system. With Tarma Roving and Eri Kasamoto unable to help out due to their own assignments in the matter, Marco Rossi and Fiolina Germi are called in to investigate the situation and are joined by two newcomers, Nadia Cassel and Trevor Spacey. In their investigation, the group discovers that a rich terrorist organization known as the Amadeus Syndicate is behind the plot and has allied with General Morden's Rebel Army. They head into battle against Amadeus' forces, hoping to destroy the cyber virus before it gets the chance to wipe out the entire world's military computer system. Halfway through the game's story mode, the player is confronted by who they presume to be General Morden. In the final stage, they find an underground facility where android doubles of Morden are being manufactured. Allen O' Neil fights the player and is also revealed to be a machine replica. The player confronts the leader of the syndicate, Dr. Amadeus, who attacks with a series of powerful robots, but he is defeated and is trapped in his own devices as the base self-destructs, killing him. If the player safely escapes the base's bonus explosion stage, the credits will show the main cast eating a feast of food, but if the player gets caught in the explosion, the player character will appear in the hospital, bandaged and bed- ridden, being brought get-well gifts of food from both Tarma and Eri. After the credits, a single computer monitor is seen transmitting data to an unknown location before shutting down. ===== After being "created" by a dog, Doggy Poo meets various living and inanimate things. No one wants to be his friend, and Doggy Poo becomes sad because he believes he is worthless and has no purpose. Eventually, a plant grows out of the ground and tells Doggy Poo that she needs him so she can grow into a flower. Doggy Poo discovers his life purpose and he becomes absorbed by the flower. After being absorbed by the flower, Doggy Poo lives "a happy life". ===== In 1998 Macau, former mobster Wo (Nick Cheung) lives quietly with his wife, Jin (Josie Ho), and his newborn child in a nondescript apartment, having turned over a new leaf. But vengeful mob boss Fay (Simon Yam)—whom Wo once tried to assassinate—has dispatched a pair of ageing hitmen to cut that peaceful existence short. Once arrived, killers Blaze (Anthony Wong) and Fat (Lam Suet) find a second pair of hitmen, Tai (Francis Ng) and Cat (Roy Cheung), who are determined to protect Wo. After a brief showdown, the whole group comes to an uneasy truce, lay their weapons down and bond over dinner— after all, these men grew up together in the same gang. Reunited and hungry for another score, they visit a fixer called Jeff (Cheung Siu-fai), who gives the gang the job of killing a rival boss, Boss Keung (Gordon Lam), as well as telling them about the location of a large quantity of gold being transported for a corrupt official. Wo makes the gang promise that if anything happens to him, his wife and son will be looked after. Later that night the friends find Boss Keung in a restaurant; however, Boss Fay, wanting to take over the other boss's territory, interrupts the meeting. Boss Fay recognising Blaze sitting in the restaurant, openly chastises and humiliates him for not killing Wo, culminating in Fay shooting Blaze. However unbeknownst to Fay, Blaze is wearing a bulletproof vest and survives. Wo, seeing this, opens fire before Fay can finish Blaze off. A gunfight erupts in the restaurant with Fay being shot in the leg and Keung in the arm. The two bosses come to an agreement to share territory and profits, further agreeing to kill the gang of friends. Having narrowly escaped the restaurant shootout the friends decide to take a severely shot Wo to an underground clinic for medical assistance. After negotiating a price, the doctor operates removing the bullets from Wo. However, as he is sewing up Wo's wound, there is a loud banging at the door. Having heard this the remainder of the waiting friends hide in the doctor's flat. The door is answered and both Fay and Keung burst in seeking help for their injuries sustained in the restaurant shootout. Fay pushes a still unconscious Wo out of the way and orders the doctor to tend to his wound first. Meanwhile, Keung takes a look around the flat and comes across a hiding Fat. Realizing that they have been found, the gang begin to dispatch the bosses' henchmen. Meanwhile, Wo wakes up and slowly gets to his feet to escape before collapsing. The rest of the friends not knowing where Wo has got to, make an exit down the back of the apartment. However whilst escaping across the back courtyard, Boss Fay throws Wo from a high window and pins down Wo's friends preventing any rescue attempt. The gang desperately try to retrieve their critically injured but still alive friend but Fay still shoots at them and even manages to shoot Wo. Quick thinking Fat seeing that his friend has come to rest on some tarpaulin pulls Wo to safety and the gang escape. Now in the car Wo knowing he is near death, asks to be taken back to his wife and son. Wo dies shortly after. Handing Wo's body over to his wife, Jin, she demands to know what has happened and in her grief opens fire on Blaze and Tai who run away. Jin contemplates killing herself and her son but thinks better of it. She instead smashes up the furniture in the house and makes a funeral pyre for Wo. She then sets fire to Wo and the flat and leaves with her son. The reduced gang leave the city in search of the gold. After coming across the heavily guarded convoy carrying the gold, they flip a coin to decide whether to hijack it or not. The coin comes up tails meaning they will not proceed with the robbery. After carrying on down the road however the come across the convoy being ambushed by another gang. They witness all the police officers bar one crack-shot being killed. The friends decide to help the officer (Richie Jen) by dispatching the rest of the gang. The friends appreciating the policeman's sharp shooting decide to split the gold with him and drive off to a hidden dock to transport the gold to the mainland and a new life. Meanwhile, back in the city, Jin still furious about the death of her husband goes looking for the friends, asking many people until she is recognised by the fixer Jeff who in turn contacts his boss, Boss Fay. Fay with a captured Jin calls a gloating Blaze, who is then informed of the situation. He is told to meet Fay at midnight otherwise Jin and her son will be killed. Determined to protect Jin after Wo's death, the friends agree and leave the officer at the dock with the gold telling him they will return by dawn. Once at the meeting place the four friends are confronted by Jin, whom Fay allows to shoot Blaze in revenge. However Blaze is again hit in the chest, surviving due to his bullet proof vest. Tai steps in, throwing a bag of gold at Fay's feet telling him that he can have it all if Fay lets them all go. Fay agrees, but tells them Blaze must stay to face the consequences of not following orders. Blaze agrees to this deal and the remainder of the friends leave with Jin. However, as they leave, Tai informs Jin of the boat and the policeman and tells her to drive there. With Jin safe the greatly outnumbered friends open fire. In the resulting gunfight all are killed, including Boss Fay and Boss Keung. As the friends lie dying they all smile knowing they have kept their promise to Wo. ===== King of Jazz is a revue. There is zero story, only a series of musical numbers alternating with "blackouts" (very brief comedy sketches with abrupt punch line endings) and other short introductory or linking segments. The musical numbers are diverse in character, taking a "something for everyone" approach to appeal to family audiences by catering to the young, the old and the middle-aged in turn. The slow Bridal Veil number, featuring (according to Universal) the largest veil ever made, exhibits Victorian sentimentality that might best appeal to the elderly. The middle-aged were courted with a tune by John Boles in a lush setting crooning It Happened in Monterey in waltz time, or in a barn with a chorus of red-shirted ranch hands belting out the Song of the Dawn. The "jazzy" Happy Feet number was designed to appeal to younger audiences. One segment early in the film serves to introduce several of the band's virtuoso musicians (yet those musicians are not credited by name). Another provides the audience with a chance to see the Rhythm Boys, already famous by sound but not sight because of their recordings and radio broadcasts, performing in a home- like setting. There are novelty and comedy numbers ranging from the mildly risqué (Ragamuffin Romeo, which features contortionistic dancing by Marion Stadler and Don Rose) to the humorously sadomasochistic (the second chorus of I Like to Do Things for You) to the simply silly (I'm a Fisherman). There is a line of chorus girls, practically mandatory in early musicals, but in their featured spot the novelty is that they are seated. The grand finale is the Melting Pot of Music production number, in which various immigrant groups in national costume offer brief renditions of characteristic songs from their native lands, after which they are all consigned to the American Melting Pot. Performers from some of the earlier musical numbers briefly reprise their acts while reporting for duty as fuel under the pot. Whiteman stirs the steaming stew. When the cooking is complete, everyone emerges transformed into a jazz- happy American. There are a couple of early examples of the overhead views later elaborated and made famous by Busby Berkeley, but this film bears little resemblance to his films and other musicals of the later 1930s. It is very much a stage presentation, albeit on a very large stage, and visual interest is maintained only by changes of viewpoint. The cameras do not move. This is not because the Technicolor cameras were heavy and bulky. The cameras used for this early Technicolor process contained a single roll of film and were of nearly ordinary size and weight. King of Jazz was the nineteenth all-talking motion picture filmed entirely in two-color Technicolor rather than simply including color sequences. At the time, Technicolor's two-color process employed red and green dyes, each with a dash of other colors mixed in, but no blue dye. King of Jazz was to showcase a spectacular presentation of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, so this presented a problem. Fortunately, the green dye Technicolor used can actually appear peacock blue (cyan) under some conditions,Friedman, J: History of Color Photography, The American Photographic Publishing Company, Boston, second printing, 1945. Friedman, who joined the Technicolor Corporation in 1929, specifies (on page 480) Pontacyl green with a small admixture of Metanil yellow for the green dye bath in a two-color process, but also prescribes (on page 481) Pontacyl green in combination with Fast acid green for the cyan dye bath in a three-color process. Many synthetic dyes have dichroic characteristics and can appear as strikingly different colors in different concentrations. Various artificial light sources can also have a significant impact on their appearance. but acceptable results in this case would require very careful handling. Art director Herman Rosse and production director John Murray Anderson came up with solutions. Tests were made of various fabrics and pigments, and by using an all gray-and-silver background the bluish aspect of the dye was set off to best advantage. Filters were also used to inject pale blues into the scene being filmed. The goal was to produce a finished film with pastel shades rather than bright colors. Nevertheless, as it appears in an original two- color Technicolor print, the sequence might best be described as a "Rhapsody in Turquoise". Later prints made from the original two-component negative, which had survived, make the blues look truer and more saturated than they appeared to audiences in 1930. King of Jazz marked the first film appearance of the popular crooner Bing Crosby,Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation page 11 who, at the time, was a member of The Rhythm Boys, the Whiteman Orchestra's vocal trio. Crosby was scheduled to sing "Song of the Dawn" in the film but a motor accident led to him being jailed for a time and the song was given to John Boles. Composer Ferde Grofé, best known for his Grand Canyon Suite, was, in these early years, a well known arranger/songwriter for Whiteman. He is documented to have arranged some of the music, and may in fact have composed some of the incidental music. The film preserves a vaudeville bit by Whiteman band trombonist Wilbur Hall, who does novelty playing on violin and bicycle pump, as well as the eccentric dancing of "Rubber Legs" Al Norman to the tune of Happy Feet. There were at least nine different foreign language versions of the film. Reportedly, the Swedish version has at least some different music. ===== Sylvia Scarlett (Katharine Hepburn) and her father, Henry (Edmund Gwenn), flee France one step ahead of the police. Henry, while employed as a bookkeeper for a lace factory, was discovered to be an embezzler. While on the channel ferry, they meet a "gentleman adventurer", Jimmy Monkley (Cary Grant), who partners with them in his con games. ===== Bacall, Dalio and Bogart in a scene from the film In the summer of 1940, world-weary Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) operates a small fishing-boat, the Queen Conch, in Fort-de-France, on the French colony of Martinique. It is not long since the fall of France and the island is controlled by pro-German Vichy France. Harry makes a modest living chartering his fishing boat to tourists, along with his unofficial mate Eddie (Walter Brennan). Eddie is Harry's close friend and one time trusted co- worker, but he has become a loud-mouthed drunk. The island is a tinder-box of dissent, harboring many people sympathetic to Free France. At his hotel home, hotel owner Gérard (Marcel Dalio) (known as "Frenchy" to English speakers) urges Harry to help the French Resistance by smuggling some people onto the island. Harry steadfastly refuses, choosing to keep aloof from the current political situation. Also at the hotel, he meets Marie ("Slim") Browning (Lauren Bacall), a young American wanderer who has recently arrived in Martinique. An accomplished singer, she sings "How Little We Know" with pianist Cricket (Hoagy Carmichael) in the hotel bar. Harry's current charter client, Johnson (Walter Sande), owes Harry $825. Johnson insists he hasn't enough ready money, but promises to get the funds when the banks open the next day. In the hotel bar, Harry notices Slim pick Johnson's pocket and he later forces her to hand over the wallet. On inspection the wallet is found to contain $1,400 in traveler's cheques and a plane ticket for early the next morning (before the banks are open). On returning the wallet to Johnson, Harry demands that Johnson sign the traveler's cheques to pay him immediately. But just then, there is a shootout in front of the hotel between police and the Resistance, and Johnson is killed by a stray bullet. The police take Harry and several others for questioning, and seize Harry's passport and money. Back at the hotel, Gérard offers to hire Harry and his boat for one night to transport Resistance members Paul de Bursac (Walter Surovy) and his wife Hélène (Dolores Moran). Now effectively penniless, Harry reluctantly accepts Gérard's offer. Meanwhile, a romance has been developing between Harry and Slim, the latter of whom feels that Harry changed his mind about the smuggling to help her out. Her suspicions are bolstered by the fact that Harry has used some of the money he earned in transporting the fugitives to buy her a plane ticket back to America.Bogart and Bacall Harry picks up the de Bursacs, but his boat is seen and fired upon by a navy patrol boat. His passenger Paul de Bursac is wounded, but Harry manages to escape by turning the Queen Conch into a fogbank. On returning to the hotel, he learns Slim has not used the ticket he purchased for her and instead has stayed in Martinique to be with him. The de Bursacs are hiding in the basement of the hotel and at Frenchy's request, Harry removes the bullet from Paul's shoulder. He learns the couple have come to Martinique to help a man with the Free French escape from the penal colony at Devil's Island. De Bursac asks for Harry's assistance in this operation, but Harry respectfully turns him down. The police return to the hotel and reveal that they recognized Harry's boat the previous night. They also reveal that they have Eddie in custody. Exploiting his problems with alcohol, they plan to withhold liquor until he reveals the details of the smuggling plot. His friend in custody and his back against the wall, Harry decides to act. With Slim's help, Harry gains access to a gun in his desk, and turns the tables on the police, killing one of them in the process. He holds Vichyite Police Captain Renard (Dan Seymour) at gunpoint and forces him to order Eddie's release and sign harbor passes. When Eddie returns, Harry, Slim and the de Bursacs escape on the Queen Conch, Harry having agreed to help the de Bursacs with their mission. ===== Bugs Bunny has a chat with Elmer. Animation by Bob Cannon. Elmer buys Bugs Bunny in a pet shop (for 98¢). When they get home, Elmer builds an enclosure for Bugs, and then serves him dinner (a bowl of vegetables) which Bugs acts angrily towards. Then Bugs is seen grumbling in the night and he eventually takes Elmer's bed as his own. Throughout the short, Bugs irritates Elmer in various ways—from dancing to attempts getting in the shower, etc.—which culminates when Elmer brutally attacks Bugs (in a dark room with humorous fireworks exploding) and sends him out of the house. However, Bugs manages to get back inside and reclaim Elmer's bed. ===== A trade union lawyer named Walter Deaney (John Saxon) kills a burglar in his house. Only an unorthodox plainclothes detective named Mitchell (Joe Don Baker) believes that Deaney is guilty of something more than self-defense, but Chief of Police Albert Pallin (Robert Phillips) tells him that Deaney is wanted for "every federal law violation in the book" and is therefore "FBI property." To keep Mitchell away from Deaney, the Chief orders him to stake out the home of James Arthur Cummins (Martin Balsam), a wealthy man with ties to the mob whose "big scene" is the import and export of stolen merchandise. Mitchell initially is unconcerned with Cummins and focuses primarily on Deaney. But he gets drawn in after Cummins discovers that Salvatore Mistretta (Morgan Paull), cousin of his mafioso benefactor Tony Gallano (Harold J. Stone), is bringing in a shipment of stolen heroin from Mexico without Cummins' approval. Meanwhile, a high- priced escort named Greta (Linda Evans) shows up at Mitchell's apartment. Mitchell allows her to come in, and after spending two nights with her and arresting her for possession of marijuana, he discovers that Deaney is paying her $1,000 per night to entertain Mitchell. After unsuccessfully trying to bribe Mitchell with Greta's services and an offer of an illicit real estate deal, Deaney decides to work with Cummins to eliminate the annoying cop. Deaney is killed shortly thereafter during an attempt on Mitchell's life. Cummins refuses to let Mistretta use his port facilities to bring in the shipment, causing Gallano to send thugs to harass him. Cummins decides that the only ally he still has—aside from his faithful butler and bodyguard, Benton (Merlin Olsen)—is Mitchell, because he's no good to the police dead. In exchange for his own freedom, Cummins offers to allow Mitchell to pose as a chauffeur and pick up the shipment, putting him in a position to both confiscate the drugs and arrest Mistretta. However, Cummins double-crosses Mitchell by alerting Mistretta to his real identity. He also double-crosses Mistretta by replacing the heroin with chalk. Mistretta decides to kill Mitchell and dump the body on Cummins' boat. Mistretta is killed in the subsequent gun battle, allowing Mitchell to go after Cummins, who is attempting to flee the country by sea. Mitchell is dropped onto the boat by helicopter and kills Benton with a gaff hook. Cummins is killed by a close- range shot from an assault rifle after one final attempted double-cross fails, bringing the central plot to a close. Mitchell returns to his apartment to find Greta awaiting him. Mitchell brushes her off, pointing out that she is no longer being paid to keep him company. Despite this, Greta wishes to spend the night with Mitchell. However, he detects the scent of marijuana on her and the film concludes on what is intended to be a humorous beat, as Mitchell prepares to haul Greta off to jail for a second possession charge. ===== Bugs is reading The Song of Hiawatha out loud to himself and the saga turns real as a pint-sized, Elmer Fudd-like Hiawatha (minus the speech impediment) turns up, paddling his canoe. Hiawatha is looking for a rabbit for his dinner. Hiawatha manages to trick Bugs into thinking he is preparing a hot bath for him. It is actually a cooking pot, which Bugs quickly vacates once Hiawatha casually mentions that he is having rabbit stew for supper. ===== The film is set in China in the late 19th century during the Qing dynasty when Chinese sovereignty is being eroded by foreign imperialism. Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Hongzhang decide to stage a lion dance competition to showcase Chinese martial arts and restore national pride. Interested parties from all over China are invited to participate and compete for the title of "Lion Dance King". Wong Fei-hung travels by train from Foshan to Beijing with his romantic interest 13th Aunt and apprentice Leung Foon to meet his father, Wong Kei- ying, at the Cantonese Ten Tigers Association. At the train station, 13th Aunt meets Tomanovsky, a Russian diplomat, who was her classmate when she was studying in Britain. He starts vying for her attention and annoys Wong, who is disgusted by the Western custom of kissing a woman's hand. When Wong reaches the Association, he learns that his father has been attacked by a wealthy rival martial artist, Chiu Tin-bak, and Chiu's henchman, Clubfoot. Luckily, the elder Wong sustained only minor injuries. Wong Kei-ying decides to give his blessings to his son and 13th Aunt when he sees their romantic relationship. Before the competition officially begins, all the lion dance troupes that have gathered in Beijing are already fighting among themselves and holding another competition of their own. Wong does not participate and spectates instead. Unknown to him, Leung and his friends have secretly joined the competition out of mischief. A short chase takes place between Clubfoot and Leung when the latter annoys the former during the contest and flees. Clubfoot's legs are crushed when Leung accidentally releases a stampede of horses from a stable. Chiu abandons Clubfoot when he sees that he is now a useless cripple. Wong takes pity on Clubfoot, brings him in, and heals his legs. Clubfoot is initially hostile towards Wong, but he feels so touched and grateful to Wong that he starts bawling emotionally, and becomes Wong's new apprentice. With the aid of a camera given to her by Tomanovsky, 13th Aunt inadvertently uncovers a plot to assassinate Li Hongzhang during the competition and learns that Tomanovsky is one of the conspirators. She warns Wong, who joins the contest to stop the assassins. In the final round of the competition, Wong, Leung and Clubfoot fight with dozens of rival lion dancers as they battle their way to the top of a scaffold. Chiu also joins the competition and carries a large and deadly lion mask. Wong ultimately defeats Chiu and wins the competition. In the meantime, Tomanovsky fails to assassinate Li Hongzhang and is shot dead by his fellow Russians, who claim to the Chinese that he was a spy working for the Japanese. Although Wong wins the prize (a gold medal), he remarks that it is ultimately a defeat for the Chinese because of all the infighting. He then tosses the medal back to Li Hongzhang, turns his back and walks away. ===== Instead of Elmer Fudd, Bugs is hunted by a dog named Willoughby, but the dog falls for every trap Bugs sets for him until they both fall off a cliff at the end. ===== Adam Strange, a retired Home Office criminologist, solves bizarre cases with the help of Hamlyn Gynt (Kaz Garas), Evelyn McClean (Anneke Wills) and sometimes Professor Marks (Charles Lloyd-Pack). He employs the latest techniques in forensic investigation, which he undertakes in his own laboratory in his flat in Warwick Crescent in the Maida Vale/Little Venice area of London. ===== Elmer, driving his Ford Model T jalopy to a Conga beat, makes his way to Jellostone National Park (a pun on Yellowstone National Park) while looking forward to getting some rest. Elmer sets up his campsite by setting a camp fire, and hanging mirror on a tree and, beneath it, a wash basin on a table, hanging a hammock, and pitching his tent. The tent is positioned directly over Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole (just as Elmer had arrived, Bugs had posted a sign next to his hole saying 'Camp Here', then had retreated into the lair, covering it with grass as he went). From down there, Bugs breaks down the tent and drags it inside. Elmer reaches in and, in spite of resistance from below, retrieves the tent which is tied in knots. Bugs pops up, welcomes Elmer to Jellostone ("a restful retreat. Oh brudda!") and pulls Elmer's hat over his eyes. Elmer reaches in again and tries to yank Bugs out. After several attempts, Elmer pulls his hands out to find that his fingers are tied together. He nails a board over the hole ("that'll hold 'em alwhight, heh-heh-heh-heh-heh"). However, Bugs simply pushes it open, steps out and mimics Elmer. Bugs balloons up to Elmer's size and repeats what Elmer had said, labeling it "phooey". Elmer then settles into his hammock and quickly falls fast asleep, muttering to himself. Bugs places a pair of glasses on Elmer's face, paints the lenses black and sets the alarm clock to go off at noon. When it wakes Elmer, he thinks it is nighttime because everything seems dark. He goes to his tent, takes off his day clothes to reveal night clothes underneath, and goes to bed. Bugs then removes the glasses from Elmer and crows like a rooster, awakening Elmer who believes it is the next morning. Elmer washes his face but cannot reach his towel because it is hanging on a branch that Bugs keeps at a steady, short distance from him. Elmer blindly follows the towel ("I do this kind of stuff to him all through the picture", Bugs confides to the audience). He causes Elmer to step off a cliff edge. Elmer looks at the miraculous view of the Grand Canyon, but suddenly realizes he is in midair. He runs back to safety and holds on to Bugs for dear life. Bugs then admits he is the one pulling these gags and runs off, with a furious Elmer giving chase after retrieving a gun from his tent. However, he runs into a black bear. The bear starts growling, and so Elmer turns to a wildlife handbook for advice, which directs him to play dead. The bear soon gives up (after sniffing Elmer's "B.O." – his feet), but Bugs climbs onto Elmer and starts growling exactly like the bear. He misbehaves in various ways to keep Elmer on the ground with his eyes shut, but just as he starts biting Elmer's foot, Elmer sees what is going on and grabs his shotgun. The bear returns and Bugs runs away just as Elmer swings the gun, clobbering the bear rather than the rabbit. A chase ensues with Elmer and the bear running through the trees to the tune of the "William Tell Overture." Finally, the bear freaks Elmer out by riding on top of him. When the bear is knocked off him after hitting a tree branch, Elmer gives up and packs everything into his car (almost including a huge tree). He passes the welcome sign at the gate on his way out, backs up and reads it again. He declares he will make a promise of "a restful retreat" to be "bawoney!" and, to teach the park not to give false advertisement, he chops the sign to bits with an ax and stomps on the pieces while calling the park's "peace and wewaxation" promises "wubbish!" A ranger (along with Bugs) appears, and has an angry expression on his face. Elmer is arrested for the destruction of government property, and from his jail cell window he tells us that "anyway" he is "wid of that gwizzwy bear and scwewy wabbit! West and wewaxation at wast!" Unfortunately, he turns to find out that somehow he is sharing his cell with both Bugs and the black bear. They both ask how long he has in jail ("Pardon me but, how long ya in for, doc?" they ask). ===== Sandy Ricks is a young boy living in the Florida Keys who rescues and befriends a dolphin injured by a harpoon. His father, fisherman Porter Ricks disapproves, as dolphins compete for fish, which jeopardizes the family income. He is also upset that, after befriending the dolphin, Sandy neglects his chores, especially those assigned by Porter to repair items damaged by the hurricane from which Sandy and Porter escape at the beginning of the film. Sandy names the dolphin Flipper, and Flipper recovers from the wound and puts on a show to entertain the neighborhood children. Porter, seeing Flipper as both a threat to his nets and fish and a distraction to Sandy's chores, lets the recovered Flipper swim out of the pen to the open sea, despite Sandy's tearful plea to keep the pet that he has come to love. Flipper returns to the Ricks' pen, much to Sandy's delight, but devours Porter's entire catch of pompano, which were caught only because Flipper guided Sandy to the fish. The loss is keenly felt because of a red plague killing local fish in large numbers. Porter harshly berates Sandy for allowing Flipper to jump into the holding pen of valuable fish waiting to go to market. Reduced to tears, Sandy retreats to his bedroom as Porter's wife Martha reminds Porter that Sandy is just a child. Determined to make up for the loss, Sandy sets off to find more fish, and is led by Flipper to a large school of fish near a reef. Later, Sandy is rescued from a threatening shark by Flipper, and the grateful father draws closer to his son. Porter is finally convinced that Flipper did indeed help Sandy find fish and that there are enough fish for the local residents as well as the dolphins. ===== Photojournalist Frank West is alerted by a source that something is happening in the town of Willamette, Colorado. Flying into the town with helicopter pilot Ed DeLuca, he learns that the town is subject to a military quarantine and observes several violent incidents throughout the town. He is dropped onto the Willamette Parkview Mall's helipad, after asking Ed to return in three days. Arriving in the mall, he learns that the quarantine is due to an outbreak of zombies. The mall is breached, forcing Frank to take refuge in the mall's security room. With the help of janitor Otis Washington, he travels into the mall. After helping D.H.S. agent Brad Garrison in a firefight against an unknown assailant, the two strike an alliance. Person of interest to Brad, Russell Barnaby is located by the two, hidden in a bookstore. Barnaby refuses to be escorted to safety, forcing the two to return to the security room. Unable to call for assistance due to a communications jammer, the two rescue Barnaby from the unknown assailant. Brad is injured, forcing Frank to search for medicine. In his search, he comes across a woman he met during the mall's breach. The woman rebukes him, mentioning Santa Cabeza. Frank learns from Barnaby that Santa Cabeza was ostensibly a Central American town linked to the drug trade; which distributed drugs that had a zombifying effect. Locating the woman again on security monitors, he questions her. Revealing herself to be Isabela Keyes, sister of the unknown assailant, Carlito, she promises to set up an interview between the two. Isabela comes to the meeting alone, after being shot in a rage by Carlito. Frank escorts Isabela to the security room, where she reveals that Santa Cabeza was home to an American research facility experimenting on cattle, and that Barnaby was its head. Isabela, as a research assistant, was privy to the fact that a species of native wasp was used in an attempt to boost the performance of cattle, but instead had a zombifying effect. The wasps escaped and affected humans, forcing a U.S. military cleanup of all life in the town, with few escapees. Barnaby begins to zombify and attacks Brad's partner, Jesse McCarney, and is killed. Isabela reveals that Carlito is planning to use the mall as a staging point to spread the parasites across the country, using bombs located in trucks. Brad and Frank disable the bombs. Brad and Carlito engage in a firefight, and Carlito is mortally wounded. Carlito manages to kick Brad out of the room, where he is injured by zombies off screen. Frank can find him in the tunnels, where he tells Frank not to tell Jessie, and slides his hand gun to Frank, implying that he wants Frank to shoot him. He will then fully turn. Frank locates Carlito and receives his locket, before Carlito dies. The locket causes Isabela to realise the password of Carlito's computer, allowing her to shut down the jammer. However, U.S. Special Forces arrive in the mall regardless, and have cleanup orders. Jesse is allowed to live, but she zombifies. Otis escapes with a helicopter and possible survivors that Frank rescued. Frank returns to the helipad alone, and DeLuca's helicopter arrives, but crashes into the mall's clock tower. Isabela arrives, but Frank passes out. Isabela realises that Frank has been infected by the wasp larval parasite. Frank gathers supplies for a drug that can suppress the parasite, and discovers an exit from the mall created by DeLuca's crash. Isabela learns from Carlito's computer that he has manufactured the drug before, and used it on fifty infected orphans, spreading them across the country. After exiting the mall, Frank encounters the cleanup operation's commander, Brock Mason, who also commanded Santa Cabeza's operation. The two fight, until Mason is knocked into a crowd of zombies. Frank and Isabela escape from Willamette, but Isabela is taken into custody as a perpetrator of the incident. Frank manages to report on the incident and Santa Cabeza, but the truth of Carlito's orphans remain unknown. ===== Through first-person narration, the reader is immersed at the start of the story in the drab life that people live on North Richmond Street, which seems to be illuminated only by the verve and imagination of the children who, despite the growing darkness that comes during the winter months, insist on playing "until [their] bodies glowed." Even though the conditions of this neighbourhood leave much to be desired, the children's play is infused with their almost magical way of perceiving the world, which the narrator dutifully conveys to the reader: But though these boys "career" around the neighbourhood in a very childlike way, they are also aware of and interested in the adult world, as represented by their spying on the narrator's uncle as he comes home from work and, more importantly, on Mangan's sister, whose dress “swung as she moved” and whose “soft rope of hair tossed from side to side.” These boys are on the brink of sexual awareness and, awed by the mystery of another sex, are hungry for knowledge. On one rainy evening, the boy secludes himself in a soundless, dark drawing-room and gives his feelings for her full release: "I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: O love! O love! many times." This scene is the culmination of the narrator's increasingly romantic idealization of Mangan's sister. By the time he actually speaks to her, he has built up such an unrealistic idea of her that he can barely put sentences together: “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer. She asked me if I was going to Araby. I forget whether I answered yes or no.” But the narrator recovers splendidly: when Mangan's sister dolefully states that she will not be able to go to Araby, he gallantly offers to bring something back for her. The narrator now cannot wait to go to the Araby bazaar and procure for his beloved some grand gift that will endear him to her. And though his aunt frets, hoping that it is not “some Freemason affair,” and though his uncle, perhaps intoxicated, perhaps stingy, arrives so late from work and equivocates so much that he almost keeps the narrator from being able to go, the intrepid yet frustrated narrator heads out of the house, tightly clenching a florin, in spite of the late hour, toward the bazaar. But the Araby market turns out not to be the most fantastic place he had hoped it would be. It is late; most of the stalls are closed. The only sound is "the fall of the coins" as men count their money. Worst of all, however, is the vision of sexuality—of his future—that he receives when he stops at one of the few remaining open stalls. The young woman minding the stall is engaged in a conversation with two young men. Though he is potentially a customer, she only grudgingly and briefly waits on him before returning to her frivolous conversation. His idealized vision of Araby is destroyed, along with his idealized vision of Mangan's sister—and of love. With shame and anger rising within him, he is alone in Araby. ===== The story from the back of the original box: ===== The game takes place in the near future in a city similar to Los Angeles, California. Criminals are punished for their crimes not only by serving time in prison but by having their internal organs surgically removed (if they lost to another prisoner in an underwater arena) and transplanted to benefit the wealthier members of society. Officially responsible for law enforcement are the Anti-Crime Network (ACN) organisation and their employees, the bounty hunter-like Headhunters. In order to prevent damage occurring to the criminals' organs as they are apprehended, conventional firearms have been banned, replaced by Electric Neural Projectile (ENP) guns that fire special bullets which do not damage flesh but instead emit an electrical charge that causes severe pain in victims, paralyses muscles and eventually kills the brain. According to the game, ENP technology was developed by Biotech and the main manufacturer of ENP handguns is Smith & Easton (a reference to the firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson), although the technology can also be used with grenades, proximity mines, rocket launchers and other explosives. The game begins with Jack escaping from a secret laboratory, but soon after going outside he faints and falls unconscious. He wakes up in hospital and learns that he is suffering from amnesia and that although he was once the very best Headhunter, his license has now been revoked. In order to investigate the murder of ACN founder Christopher Stern, he must re-earn his Headhunter licence by taking part in virtual-reality tests (called LEILA tests) and capture some of the most dangerous criminals in the city. Throughout the game, Jack is aided by Christopher Stern's daughter Angela and his old boss Chief Hawke; although he also finds that his main rival to the title of best Headhunter is the unpleasant Hank Redwood. The game's storyline progresses through standard FMV cutscenes, propaganda commercials and satirical news broadcasts (presented by the fictional Bill Waverley and Kate Gloss). ===== Narayana (Horse Babu) and his accomplice, working for Nayar (Paresh Rawal), break into a bank in Hyderabad and steal INR 1,00,00,000. Found out by the police, the group engages in a shootout and later a chase, during which one of the gang members and the policemen are killed. Narayana, going rogue, kills his accomplice and betrays Nayar, hoping to keep the loot for himself. With the police watching all routes out of Hyderabad, Nayar and his men track Narayana to his brother's photo studio. Before he his caught, Narayana hides the clue to where he hid the money in one of the photo envelopes. Caught and tortured, Narayana reveals the clue, but before they can retrieve it, the envelope is taken by Satya (Sridevi), a middle-class working girl. Before dying, Narayana reveals the truth and the clue to his brother. Heading home, Satya is accosted by one of Nayar's men, who demands the envelope. Trying to escape, Satya accidentally stabs him, after which her nosy neighbor calls the police on her. While on the phone, the thug gets up again, only to fall down dead, a knife lodged in his back, which later is shown as being thrown by Narayan's brother. Meanwhile, Chandu (Venkatesh) is a small time thief posing as a police officer to con and steal from people. While relaxing at a dhaba, Satya enters the place and calls her friend to inform her about what happened, unaware that the police were listening in. Chandu inadvertently saves her from being assaulted by a gang of hoodlums, and while she is thanking him, the police arrive. Thinking that they are after him, Chandu takes Satya hostage and escapes into the jungle with her. Meanwhile, Nayar and his men also join the pursuit. Chandu and Satya face a few challenges in avoiding the police, Narayana's brother and Nayar in the forest, gradually growing closer to each other. They run into Nayar, where he demands to know where the envelope is. Escaping the police led by Inspector Yadav (Rami Reddy) and Narayana's brother, Chandu deduces that the clue to the money is hidden in that envelope. They eventually stumble across Nayar's truck, which they use to escape the jungle and into the city. Knowing that Satya's apartment is a crime scene and will be guarded, Chandu and Satya decide to scale the building from outside through her neighbour's apartment. They eventually find the envelope, which contains a storage receipt for the cloak room at the railway station. Evading Nayar's henchmen and the police, Chandu and Satya face off against one of Nayar's henchmen at Chandu's apartment and tie him up. While Chandu goes off to meet his friend and decide what to do with the money they found, Satya is left to guard the henchman, who breaks free and subdues her, then calls Nayar. Meanwhile, Chandu decides to keep half the money and return the rest but is ambushed by Nayar's henchmen and brought to his apartment, where he is forced to hand over the receipt. However, the police are tipped off to their location by a police informant, and a shootout ensues. Chandu manages to subdue Nayar and get the receipt, and they head for the station with Nayar and the police in pursuit. The duo reaches the station and retrieves the money bag. They then climb the train to escape Nayar. At the next station, Nayar and his men board the train, leading to a fight between Chandu and the goons. Left with Nayar and one of his men, Nayar holds Chandu and Satya at gunpoint, demanding the money. In response, Chandu hangs the bag over the side, threatening to drop if he shoots. Left with no options, Nayar decides to have the train stopped so that he can shoot them and retrieve the money, only for his henchman and the train driver to struggle and fall out of the train. Chandu unhooks the engine from the rest of the train, jumping back to grab the bag and jump off. With the engine out of control, it plows through a number of houses before finally ramming a wall and slowing down. Nayar is arrested by the police, and Chandu returns the money to Yadav, after being forced to do so by Satya. The film ends with Satya asking Chandru to drop her home, offering to introduce him to her mother, and an amused Chandu agreeing. ===== Kyle's cousin, Kyle Schwartz from Connecticut, comes to live in South Park due to his mother's failing health back at home. While Kyle was initially excited about seeing his cousin for the first time, he is baffled to see that his cousin is none other than a stereotyped version of a Jew, and has many irritating characteristics. Kyle is told by his mother to take care of his cousin. Kyle, fearing that Cartman, a staunch anti-Semite, will "tear this kid apart", attempts to bribe Cartman with $40 to not make fun of him. Cartman, in an attempt to earn the bribe, struggles to avoid mocking Kyle's cousin, but eventually fails. The boys decide that Kyle's cousin is just way too irritating to live in South Park with them. Much of the episode proceeds to have the boys make constant attempts to get rid of Kyle Schwartz. In one attempt to trick him into boarding a plane to Antarctica, Kenny is mistaken for a terrorist and shot through the head. However, Kyle's cousin always finds a way to come back to South Park. John Travolta riding "IT" Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison, annoyed and fed up with the inefficient and incompetent airline check-ins since 9/11, decides to invent his own vehicle. Inspired by watching Enrique Iglesias' sexualized singing on TV and by a gyroscope sitting next to him on his deck, he invents the gyroscope-powered monowheel "IT." According to Mr. Garrison, "IT" can "go up to two hundred miles per hour, and gets three hundred miles to the gallon". The only problem is that "IT" is controlled through a quite painful and unappealing method: using four "flexi-grip handles" that somewhat resemble erect penises; two held in the hands, one in the mouth, and a fourth handle which is inserted into the anus. Garrison invites many important investors to see his demonstration of "IT". Despite this unorthodox control mechanism, "IT" is still considered better than dealing with the airlines and Garrison's creation is a smashing success. This results in a lack of passengers and business in airports. Unfortunately, things go downhill when the government decides to bail out the airlines from going under because of "IT". To ensure the airlines' dominance as a mode of transport and the job security of everyone working for it, the government ends up outlawing "IT", deems using it a criminal act and confiscates all of the "IT" stock. As a result, Kyle's cousin, who turns out to have invested in "IT", gets a $5 million bailout payment and decides to return home to Connecticut to take care of his sick mother. After hearing of this great fortune, the boys suddenly change their plan and try to convince him to stay with them, but he rejects them. ===== The story centers on two cousins, Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, who are marooned with a galley cook on an island in the South Pacific following a shipwreck. The galley cook, Paddy Button, assumes responsibility for the children and teaches them how to survive, cautioning them to avoid the "arita" berries, which he calls "the never-wake-up berries". Two-and-a-half years after the shipwreck, Paddy dies following a drinking binge. The children survive on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise. They live in a hut and spend their days fishing, swimming, diving for pearls and exploring the island. As the years pass, Dicky and Emmeline grow into physically mature young adults and begin to fall in love. Ignorant of their human sexuality, they do not understand or know how to express their physical attraction to one another. Eventually, they consummate their relationship. The author, Henry De Vere Stacpoole, describes their sexual encounter as having been "conducted just as the birds conduct their love affairs. An affair absolutely natural, absolutely blameless and without sin. It was a marriage according to nature, without feast or guests."Stacpoole, H. de Vere. 2014. The Blue Lagoon. Cherry Hill Publishing. Accessed September 15. Book URL. Dicky becomes very attentive toward Emmeline, listening to her stories and bringing her gifts. Over several months they make love often and eventually Emmeline becomes pregnant. The couple does not understand the physical changes happening to Emmeline's body and have no knowledge of childbirth. When the day comes for delivery, Emmeline disappears into the forest and returns with a child. They discover over time that the baby requires a name and they call him "Hannah" because they have only ever known an infant called by that name. Dicky and Emmeline teach Hannah how to swim, fish, throw spears and play in the mud. They survive a violent tropical cyclone and other natural hazards of island life. Back in San Francisco, Arthur, Dicky's father and Emmeline's uncle, believes the two are still alive and is determined to find them, after recognizing a child's tea set belonging to Emmeline which was retrieved by a whaler on an island. Arthur finds a captain willing to take him to the island and they set out. Meanwhile, Dicky, Emmeline and Hannah row their lifeboat to the place where they had once lived with Paddy as children. Emmeline breaks a branch off the deadly arita plant as Dicky cuts bananas on the shore. While in the boat with her son, Emmeline fails to notice that Hannah has tossed one of the oars into the sea. The tide comes in and sweeps the boat into the lagoon, leaving Emmeline and Hannah stranded. As Dicky swims to them, he is pursued by a shark. Emmeline strikes the shark with the remaining oar, earning Dicky time to climb into the boat safely. Although they are not far from shore, the trio cannot get back without the oars and they are unable to retrieve them from the water because of the shark. The boat is then caught in the current and drifts out to sea; all the while Emmeline still grasps the arita branch. Sometime later, Arthur's ship comes across the lifeboat and finds the three unconscious but still breathing. The arita branch is now bare save for one berry. Arthur asks, "Are they dead?" and the captain replies, "No, sir. They are asleep". The ambiguous ending leaves it uncertain whether or not they can be revived. ===== A young executive turned teacher helps a group of young Latina girls find themselves and overcome societal obstacles through their dance troupe. ===== Goemon and his friends must stop Ebisumaru's descendant Bismaru, who plans to use one of the Old Wise Man's inventions in order to unleash another disaster. Specifically, the Old Wise Man (who has appeared in every game in the series) has created a "ghost return machine" that can bring the dead back to life. Bismaru is attempting to create an army of undead creatures for her master, Dochuki, the master of the underworld. Enemies like ghosts, skeletons, and creatures from Japanese folklore have been unleashed and must be stopped. Goemon and Ebisumaru then, will travel around five different worlds, starting from Edo. In the local town, "Lost'n Town", Sasuke will join them. Later they will reach the Edo Castle, where they will try to save Omitsu, the King and his daughter from the robot Impact, himself. As they realize Impact was hypnotized by Bismaru, the princess of Edo reveals that Bismaru was attempting to reach some island. Eventually, Goemon and allies reach Tortoise Island and find their final partner, Yae, who provides Sasuke with a "diving device". The team follows Bismaru to the second castle, which contains several underwater levels. After defeating Bismaru's robot, Bismaru turns to disappear again. A new neutral character appears, a mysterious female ghost named Susaku, who tells Goemon where Bismaru escaped: Mafu Island, an island full of undead, creepy ghost creatures in middle of the lava. In the local town, Goemon meets the Wise Man again, who reveals Bismaru's plan of returning the evil king Dochuki to the human world again. The gang must head to the third castle just to realize that it's too late, and Dochuki is already alive. Goemon and his friends manage to get to the Underworld, where undead and ghost creatures reside, and destroy Wise Man's Machine in the Underworld Castle. Unable to stop Bismaru again, Susaku appears to give Goemon directions. This time, the scenario takes places in a Floating Island in the sky. Susaku also gives Goemon a container to catch Dochuki's soul. The final castle, "Dream Castle", is a combination of the four previous castles, where the gang will find Susaku kidnapped by Dochuki, threatening to kill her if they don't give him the container. Goemon does so, having no option, and Dochuki breaks it with his hands. Impact and Dochuki's evil ghost-robot get into a fight. Eventually, Impact wins, and what appears to be the final encounter is a fight between Dochuki and Goemon. After being defeated, Dochuki shows his real form, a giant wolf which spits poisonous gas. Dochuki is beaten and tries to escapes, as there is no container to catch him, but Ebisumaru "farts" and kills Dochuki's spirit, as Ebisumaru's gas mixed with the spirit. After the game is completed, Wise Man calls Goemon's gang to thank and tell them that he invented a new and more powerful machine to resurrect the dead, again. Suddenly, a baby appears from nowhere, and Ebisumaru claims that it's from him. Bismaru appears and tries to kidnap the new ghost return machine again, but the baby accidentally presses the machine's self-destruct button. As in previous Ganbare Goemon games, the plot is wacky and lighthearted. Nintendo wrote that Goemon seems "at ease roaming a medieval Japan bustling with robots, DJs, space ships and extra-hold mousse". ===== Each chapter follows a storyline that continues throughout the series. Kelly voices the role of the song's protagonist, Sylvester, who wakes up after a one-night stand with a woman. As he prepares to leave, however, the woman's husband returns and Sylvester is forced to hide in a closet. This sets off an escalating series of events. ===== Detective Sergeant Tommy Murphy (James Nesbitt) is an uncompromising, sometimes tough talking cop. He has no issues with using his charm and sense of humour to attempt to impress any woman, especially Annie, his colleague and later boss. Murphy was previously married with a young daughter, in Northern Ireland.Electric Bill information from IMDB There, his family were taken hostage and he was forced to make a choice; either carry a bomb and blow himself up in a local barracks, or have his daughter killed. He originally chose the first option but when he got to the barracks he couldn't go through with detonating a bomb that would kill a hundred people. When he got back to the house, he found that they had slit his daughter's throat and that his wife had been forced to watch. His decision affected almost everything he does in life.Manic Monday information from IMDB He reflects at intervals, and remarks that he received 'a nice medal' for 'saving' so many lives, by making such a sacrifice. Yet, he still feels responsible for his daughter's death.Bent Moon On The Rise information from IMDB ===== Joe and Phyllis Britt are an old married couple in New York City who do not get along. Joe gets home from his job as a cab driver late one night, and Phyllis accuses him of seeing another woman. In the meantime, a television repairman is in the next room fixing their broken set. Irritated, Joe harasses the repairman about the inconvenience and cost. The repairman abruptly closes the open TV panel and announces the TV is fixed. After stating the job is free, he leaves, and the TV starts getting channel 10--a station showing the past, present, and future of Joe and Phyllis' lives. Joe refuses to let Phyllis watch the TV and faints when he sees himself and Phyllis talking about getting engaged. The TV shows Joe seeing another woman, and when he tunes in again later, it shows him killing Phyllis in a fight. Joe breaks down at the sight and tells Phyllis what is happening. Phyllis seeks help from the family doctor, who gives Joe a sedative and says that seeing oneself on television is one of several common delusions manifested by the struggle to adjust to the new technology of television. Profoundly disturbed by the sight of Phyllis' death, Joe tries to heal their relationship, telling her that he accepts the blame for their feuding and has realized that his extramarital affairs were only an escape from the stress of his job, that Phyllis is still the one he really loves. Embittered by years of Joe's coldness and philandering, Phyllis scorns his attempt at reconciliation. When he begins reacting to another channel 10 vision – this one showing his trial and conviction for Phyllis's murder and his execution in the electric chair – even as Phyllis sees only static, Phyllis is convinced that Joe has lost his mind and taunts him. Joe, angered, attacks her, and kills her in the same manner as he had seen on the television screen. As Joe is arrested by the police, he comes face-to-face with the TV repairman, who mockingly asks, "Fix your set okay, Mister? You will recommend my service, won't you?" The repairman smirks as Joe is taken away. ===== Police Officers Maki, Reimi and Yuka are stuck on traffic patrol when they would prefer to be involved in more "exciting" police duties. All that changes when they join in a police chase after a kidnapped girl. As a result, they become involved in the case of a white slave organization run by the politically connected businessman Samuel McCoy. While going to the aid of another girl, Yuka is then kidnapped by McCoy’s men. Frustrated at the inaction by the Police Department to prosecute McCoy and rescue Yuka, Maki and Reimi take what they need from the police armory, including police assault carrier, and go to her rescue creating mayhem in their wake. ===== James Parker is a hunter in Africa, searching for a mythical "white ape". He is joined by his estranged daughter, Jane, after her mother's death. They discover the "white ape" is actually Tarzan, an uncivilized white man raised by apes living in the jungle. James continues to pursue Tarzan with the purpose of capturing him, dead or alive, and bringing him back to England. Realizing that James is on his trail, Tarzan kidnaps Jane. Jane and Tarzan become fascinated by each other. Jane is then kidnapped by natives who intend to make her a wife of the tribe leader, forcing Tarzan into action. James is killed by the Ivory King, and the natives remove Jane's clothes. Tarzan comes to the rescue and escapes from the natives. Tarzan and Jane fall in love. ===== The story revolves around Rio Kinezono, a buxom member of Team Warrior who consistently overspends her paycheck, but is also a top-flight martial artist and a valuable member of the team. In the field, Rio is usually flanked by Maya Jingu, the green-haired team sniper who appears to have a serious lust for ranged weapons (specifically assault rifles). Their antics are backed up by the inventions of Nanvel Candlestick, the exotic team engineer whose job is to devise and implement special combat and surveillance hardware for the team's use. Lilica Ebett, the sprightly pink-haired girl who's a computer expert, can pretty much crack into any information system, and Yuji Naruo, a perverted, camera-toting voyeur, always serves as Warrior's drop-operation pilot and driver. Maki Kawasaki, the mysterious, bespectacled superintendent, is charged with commanding Warrior in the field and administering their various missions as they arise. The series chronicles the team members' adventures as they slowly track down a sinister city plot involving the manufacture and distribution of military armaments. It was preceded by the OVA Burn-Up W, although there are some inconsistencies with several elements, the most notable of which is the malevolent and calculating Ruby, who seems to be a completely different character altogether in Burn-Up Excess, despite the two anime being considered canon. ===== Burn Up W is about the adventures of Team Warrior, a band of highly skilled and completely reckless band of female cops. The team features the loose cannon Rio, trigger-happy Maya and ace hacker Lilica, who get the job done, regardless of the cost to the Tokyo Police Department or the city. ===== At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite. Later, as his flight to Kōchi Prefecture takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life. The story is told in flashback. Obiyamachi Shopping Arcade is a frequent film backdrop.In Kōchi, two years prior, Taku receives a call from his friend, Yutaka Matsuno, asking to meet at their high school. He finds Yutaka at a window, watching an attractive female transfer student whom Yutaka was asked to show around. The boys discuss their upcoming school trip to Hawaii. At the school gates, Taku is introduced to the new girl, Rikako Muto. She thanks Yutaka for providing directions to a bookstore. Taku teases Yutaka about his infatuation. Rikako is academically gifted and good at sports, but also arrogant. Taku believes she is unhappy about leaving Tokyo. His mother learns from gossip that a divorce brought Rikako's mother to Kōchi. In a phone conversation with Yutaka, he discovers that Rikako is living away from the family house. The school year ends, heralding the Hawaii trip. Taku, suffering from an upset stomach, is stopped in the hotel lobby by Rikako. She explains that she has lost her money and asks to borrow some. As Taku has a part-time job, he lends her ¥60,000. Promising to repay him, she warns not to tell anyone. As she departs, Taku sees a stern Yutaka and feels compelled to explain. Later, Rikako admonishes him for telling Yutaka about the money, saying that he also loaned her ¥20,000. Back in Kōchi, the third year begins with Rikako making a friend, Yumi Kohama. Rikako hasn't returned Taku's money and he wonders if she has forgotten. Out of the blue, a distressed Yumi calls Taku, explaining that Rikako had tricked her into coming to the airport on the pretence of a concert trip, only to discover that their real destination is Tokyo, tickets paid for with Taku's money. He races to the airport, sending Yumi home, saying that he will accompany Rikako. Upon arrival, it appears that Rikako has not forewarned her father, interrupting his planned trip with a girlfriend. Her father thanks Taku, repays the loan and arranges a room at the Hyatt Regency hotel. Later, Rikako explains that when her parents were fighting, she'd always sided with her father, but had now discovered he wasn't on her side. Comforting her, Taku offers his bed and attempts to sleep in the bathtub. The next morning, Rikako seems back to her normal self and kicks Taku out so that she can change clothes to meet a friend for lunch. Taku wanders around the city. After catching up on sleep at the hotel, Taku receives a call from Rikako asking to be rescued from former boyfriend, Okada, who is not as she remembered him. Returning home, Rikako ignores Taku, but doesn't hide from others that they spent a night together. Taku discovers this from Yutaka, who had earlier confronted Rikako to confess his feelings toward her, but had been rebuffed. Taku confronts Rikako in class for hurting his best friend, calling her "The worst!". She responds by slapping him and he slaps her in return. The autumn school cultural festival arrives and Rikako, who has been avoiding Yosakoi dance rehearsals, becomes more distant from the other girls, many of whom openly dislike her. Confronting her behind the school, Rikako stands firm as one girl, believing that Rikako was flirting with her boyfriend, attempts to strike her but is held back. Taku, who has seen all, approaches Rikako and comments that he is impressed with the way she handled herself. She slaps him but runs away with regret. Yutaka confronts a somewhat stunned Taku, who tries to explain. Yutaka punches him to the ground calling him an idiot before walking away. None of the three talk to each other for the rest of the year. In the present, Taku's plane lands and he is offered a lift home by Yutaka, who explains he punched him because he'd realized Taku had held back his feelings for his sake. At a class reunion, former student president Shimizu mentions she had met Rikako earlier. She explains that as Rikako was attending Kochi University, she had flown to Tokyo for her school break, missing the reunion. Taku realizes that Rikako was the woman he'd seen at the station. Walking home, Yumi tells Taku that she too had met Rikako, explaining she couldn't make it to the reunion and that she wanted to meet someone, but wouldn't say who, just that he slept in bathtubs. In Tokyo, Taku again sees Rikako across the platforms, but this time runs to find her. As the train pulls away, he finds Rikako and realises that he had always been in love with her. ===== Jack Tagger Jr., an obituary writer for the South Florida Union-Register, becomes intrigued upon seeing a death notice for James Bradley Stomarti, also known as Jimmy Stoma. Jimmy was the lead man of the rock band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies. Jack interviews Jimmy's widow, pop singer Cleo Rio, who says that Jimmy died in a diving accident in the Bahamas. Cleo plugs her new upcoming album Shipwrecked Heart, with a title song written by Jimmy and herself. However, after the obituary is printed, Jimmy's sister Janet tells him Cleo lied: Jimmy was working on his own comeback album. Jack gets more suspicious when he sees Jimmy's body in a funeral home and find that no autopsy was performed. However, before Jack can call for one, the body is cremated. Jack used to be an investigative reporter, but was demoted to the obituary beat after publicly insulting Race Maggad III, the CEO of the newspaper's publishing company. His ambition is to climb back onto the front page by "yoking my byline to some famous stiff." Jack's job of writing obituaries all day long has made him become morbidly obsessed with death, especially his own. Each year, Jack obsesses about people who died at his age, and about the fate of his deceased father Jack Tagger Sr., who disappeared when Jack was young. His mother refuses to say when Jack Sr. died, and he is paranoid about not living as long as his father did. These obsessions cost him his favorite girlfriend, Anne. Despite the refusal by Jack's editor, Emma, to let him investigate the rock star's death, he continues regardless. Parked outside Cleo's condominium one night, Jack sees her with a young male lover. Emma relents and gives Jack a week to investigate Jimmy's death. He tracks down Jay Burns, the Slut Puppies' old keyboardist, and Jimmy's dive partner. Jay is heavily stoned, but to Jack it is obvious he is lying about something. Later that night, a burglar breaks into Jack's apartment and attacks him with the frozen corpse of a dead Savannah Monitor lizard kept in his freezer. Jack is beaten unconscious, but the burglar disappears. A few hours later, two police detectives show up and tell him Jay has been found murdered. With his apartment trashed, Jack goes to stay with Emma. When the two search Jay's boat find an external hard drive concealed inside the false bottom of a scuba tank. Meanwhile, Jack is depressed to hear from Carla Candilla, Anne's teenaged daughter, that Anne is marrying a spy novelist. Meeting her at a club, he catches sight of Cleo's boyfriend, a man who calls himself "Loreal" and claims to be her record producer. Jack and Emma are alarmed when Janet disappears from her home; Jack finds a small patch of blood on her carpet. With the help of Jack's best friend, sports writer Juan Rodriguez, Jack decrypts the hard drive and finds it contains master recordings for Jimmy's unfinished album. Listening to it, Jack is still baffled in looking for a motive for Jimmy's presumed murder. To Jack's surprise, Emma spends the night with him at his apartment. A few days later, she excitedly tells him that Jimmy's bassist, Tito Negroponte, was shot but not killed in Los Angeles. Jack flies there and interviews Tito, who puts his finger on why Cleo killed Jimmy: she wanted a song from his album, titled "Shipwrecked Heart", for herself. Jack listens to the song, telling Emma that Cleo is desperate to put out another successful song before she fades from the scene, and believes Jimmy's song was better than anything she can write. Still, Jack admits that he cannot prove that Cleo killed Jimmy. Cleo's bodyguard kidnaps Emma, and she demands the master in exchange for her. At Lake Okeechobee, Jack and Juan meet the bodyguard and Loreal, and trade the master for Emma. The bodyguard tries to kill all of them, but ends up upending the airboat he is driving, with fatal results for himself and Loreal. On Jack's 47th birthday the next day, his mother sends him a card and an obituary revealing that Jack Sr. died at age 46. He feels relieved to have lived longer than his father. Janet resurfaces, having fled Cleo's goons, and admits that she switched the tags on a pair of coffins at the funeral home, meaning Jimmy was actually buried in the wrong man's grave. At her request, the body is exhumed, and a pathologist finds that Jimmy was drugged before he drowned. Cleo is convicted of murder; Jack sails back onto the front page covering the story while Jimmy's posthumous album is a success. A subplot focuses on Jack's ongoing conflict with Race Maggad III, and the ailing state of the Union- Register since Maggad bought it. Maggad's downsizing policy leads to more space in the paper devoted to advertisements than to news, fewer staffers employed, and stories that are deferential to business interests and lacking in depth. Jack finds an ally in MacArthur Polk, the newspaper's former publisher, who owns a large number of shares in Maggad's publicly traded company. Maggad is desperate to buy the shares back before two foreign companies initiate a hostile takeover. Polk dies and names Jack as trustee of his shares, with instructions that Maggad can have the stock back only if he sells the Union-Register back to Polk's widow Ellen. Maggad reluctantly agrees. Ellen restores the paper's obituary section to its format prior to Maggad's purchase, arranges for more reporters to be hired, and expands its news coverage. Emma is promoted, and the novel ends as she is trying to talk Jack back from his leave of absence from journalism. ===== The story centres on an immense golden bell named the Mother of Voices, which may or may not exist. Moorish king Aly Mansuh (Sidney Poitier) is convinced that it does. Having collected all the legendary material about it that he can, he plans to mount an expedition to search for it. When a shipwrecked Norseman, Rolfe (Richard Widmark), repeats the story of the bell in the marketplace, and hints that he knows its location, he is seized by Mansuh's men and brought in for questioning. Rolfe insists that he does not know more than the legend itself and that the bell is most likely only a myth. He manages to escape by jumping through a window before the questioning continues under torture. After swimming back to return home, Rolfe reveals to his father Krok and his brother Orm that he did indeed hear the bell pealing on the night his ship was wrecked in Africa. However, Rolfe's father has been made destitute after spending a fortune building a funeral ship for the Danish king, Harald Bluetooth, who then refuses to reimburse him by citing an outstanding debt. Rationalising that the ship does not yet belong to Harald (since he is still living), Rolfe and Orm steal not only the ship, but hire a number of inebriated Vikings to serve as its crew. In order to prevent Harald from killing his father in revenge for the theft, he also takes the king's daughter as a hostage. Harald declares that he will summon every longship he can find and rescue her. Since the ship was intended as a funeral ship, the crew begins to get superstitious and demands to return home. Rolfe asks the ship's captain what's the way to sway the bad luck off them, and he states that a maiden must be sacrificed to the gods. He pretends to do so (he stabs himself in the foot to draw blood) and later reveals the trick to the crew. After prolonged difficulties at sea, the ship is damaged in a maelstrom, and the Norse are cast ashore in a Moorish shore. After getting attacked and captured by the Moors, the Norse are condemned to execution, where Mansuh reencounters Rolfe and again demands to know where the Mother of Voices is. Mansuh's favourite wife Aminah (Rosanna Schiaffino) convinces her husband to use them and their longship to retrieve the bell. After they sail to the Pillars of Hercules, Rolfe and Mansuh find only a domed chapel with a small bronze bell where the Viking was certain he had heard the Mother of Voices. Frustrated, Rolfe throws the hanging bell against a wall, and the resounding cacophony reveals that the chapel dome itself is the disguised Mother of Voices. After a costly misadventure topples the Mother of Voices from its clifftop down to the sea, the expedition finally returns to the Moorish city, Aly Mansuh triumphantly riding through the streets with the bell in tow. However, King Harald and his men, including Krok, out to rescue the princess, have since conquered the city, and upon Aly Mansuh's arrival they leap out of hiding. The climactic battle ensues, and ends when the bell falls over and crushes Aly Mansuh; the Moors are defeated and the Vikings victorious. The film ends with Rolfe trying his best to persuade King Harald to mount another expedition for the "three crowns of the Saxon kings", much to Krok's amusement. ===== Stella is an adaptation of the Stella comedy troupe's stage show and short films. The series follows Michael, Michael, and David, three infantile men who always dress in suits, live together in a New York apartment, and apparently have no jobs. The show is a mix of sketch comedy and a sitcom; there is a central plot for each episode and recurring characters, but the show ignores continuity and is often surreal. The trio made 28 short films between 1998 and 2002, which were shown as part of the live show. The shorts cover various topics such as searching for Santa, mustache growing, pizza eating, and other absurd situations. The group cleaned up much of its material for the show, as much of the humor in the sketches and short films was often derived from taboo or adult topics like necrophilia and dildos. The show employs absurdist humor. Notable guest stars include Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Sam Rockwell, Topher Grace, Tim Blake Nelson, Alan Ruck, Janeane Garofalo, Elizabeth Banks, and Edward Norton. ===== The story depicts the near-future world of New York City where two gun toting couriers deliver questionable goods by questionable means. Very heavily influenced by the Hong Kong style of cinema and Japanese manga style comics, The Couriers is an action driven graphic novel that returns the artform of comic books to its pulp/action oriented stories, albeit with an updated modern feel. ===== In 1797, the year the novel begins, the Royal Navy was beset by two serious mutinies. The main grievance of the mutineers were over pay and working conditions. The sailors hadn't received a raise in decades, whereas the soldiers had just received a significant raise. Discipline was harsh and most of the seamen were conscripts. Unsurprisingly, Admiral Duncan's fleet was seriously affected. Quick thinking on the part of the first lieutenant of Delancey's ship prevents the mutiny from taking hold, and the Glatton is able to join Admiral Duncan's ship, and bluff until the rest of the fleet joins him. But he had to shoot a mutineer to do so. Since the mutineer's death occurred in port, the first lieutenant has to stay ashore, and Delancey has to assume his duties. He is acting first lieutenant when the Dutch fleet leaves port and is engaged by Admiral Duncan's fleet. The Battle of Camperdown is a decisive victory. Every ship's first lieutenant is to be promoted to commander. But Delancey's colleague has been acquitted, and the Captain wants him to receive the promotion, not Delancey. The Captain wants to make sure the trial does not put a black mark against this loyal officer's career — And the first lieutenant, after all had the primary responsibility for training the crew so that their performance was exemplary. Delancey is bitter, but he does receive command of a fireship. He makes the most of this, by researching the history of fireships. Fire was a very serious danger aboard sailing ships. Their upper works could be bone dry, and very highly flammable materials, like pitch, were used in their construction. Fireships were ships intended to be sailed against enemy fleets at anchor, loaded with incendiaries. Big hooks are hung from her upper works, to entangle with the enemies ship's rigging. When they get close to the enemy fleet, the incendiaries are set alight. Delancey learns that if his vessel is destroyed while burning an enemy vessel, he can count on promotion. It seems a long shot. But a French expedition to stir up sedition in rural Ireland provides him with his opportunity. Category:1975 British novels Category:Historical novels Category:Novels by C. Northcote Parkinson Category:Fiction set in 1797 Category:Novels set during the French Revolutionary War ===== In the farming village Nakanogō, on the shore of Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province in the Sengoku period, Genjūrō, a potter, takes his wares to nearby Ōmizo. He is accompanied by Tōbei, who dreams of becoming a samurai. A respected sage tells Genjūrō's wife Miyagi to warn her husband about seeking profit in times of upheaval, and to prepare for a probable attack on the village. Genjūrō arrives with wide profits, but she asks him to stop. Genjūrō nevertheless works long hours to finish his pottery. That night, Shibata Katsuie's army sweeps through Nakanogō, and Genjūrō, Tōbei and their wives are uprooted. Genjūrō collects his pottery from the kiln, and decides to take the pots to a different marketplace. As the two couples travel across a lake, a boat appears from thick fog. The sole passenger tells them he was attacked by pirates, warns them back to their homes, then dies. The two men decide to return their wives to the shore. Tōbei's wife Ohama refuses to go. Miyagi begs Genjūrō not to leave her, but is left on the shore with their young son, Gen'ichi, clasped to her back. At market, Genjūrō's pottery sells well. After taking his promised share of the profits, Tōbei runs off to buy samurai armor, and sneaks into the ranks of a clan of samurai. Lost from her companions, Ohama has wandered beyond Nagahama in her desperate search for Tōbei. She is raped by a group of soldiers. Genjūrō is visited by a noblewoman and her female servant, who order several pieces of pottery and tell him to take them to the Kutsuki mansion. Genjūrō learns that Nobunaga's soldiers have attacked the manor and killed all who lived there, except Lady Wakasa and her servant. He also learns that Lady Wakasa's father haunts the manor. Genjūrō is seduced by Lady Wakasa, and she convinces him to marry her. Meanwhile, Nakanogō is under attack. Miyagi and her son hide from soldiers and are found by an elderly woman who hurries them to safety. In the woods, several soldiers desperately search her for food. She fights with the soldiers and is stabbed. She collapses with her son still clutching her back. Location of Ōmi Province, the setting of Ugetsu, within Japan Tōbei steals the severed head of a general, which he presents to the commander of the victorious side. He is rewarded with armor, a mount, and a retinue. Tōbei later rides into the marketplace on his new horse, eager to return home to show his wife. However, he visits a brothel and finds her working there as a prostitute. Tōbei promises to buy back her honor. Later, the two return to Nakanogō, Tōbei throwing his armor into a river along the way. Genjūrō meets a priest, who tells him to return to his loved ones or certain death awaits him. When Genjūrō mentions the noblewoman, the priest reveals that the noblewoman is dead and must be exorcised, and then invites Genjūrō to his home where he paints Buddhist prayers on his body. Genjūrō returns to the Kutsuki mansion. He admits that he is married, has a child and wishes to return home. Lady Wakasa will not let him go. She and her servant admit they are spirits, returned to this world so that Lady Wakasa, who was slain before she knew love, could experience its joys. They tell him to wash away the Buddhist symbols. Genjūrō reaches for a sword, throws himself out of the manor, and passes out. The next day, he is awakened by soldiers. They accuse him of stealing the sword, but he denies it, saying it is from the Kutsuki mansion. The soldiers laugh at him, saying the Kutsuki mansion was burned down over a month ago. Genjūrō arises and finds the mansion he has lived in is nothing more than a pile of burnt wood. The soldiers confiscate his money, but because Shibata's army burned down the prison, they leave Genjūrō in the rubble. He returns home by foot, searching for his wife. Miyagi, delighted to see him, will not let him tell of his terrible mistake. Genjūrō holds his sleeping son in his arms, and eventually lies down to sleep. The next morning, Genjūrō wakes to the village chief knocking on his door. He is surprised to see Genjūrō home, and expresses concern. He explains that he has been caring for Genjūrō's son, and that the boy must have come to his old home in the middle of the night. Genjūrō calls for Miyagi. The neighbor asks if Genjūrō is dreaming, as his wife is dead. Miyagi's spirit tells Genjūrō: "I am always with you", while he continues on pottery, and their son offers food to her. ===== In 1944, eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter lives in Lecter Castle in Lithuania. The German invasion of the Soviet Union turns the Baltic region into part of the bloodiest front line of World War II. Lecter, his younger sister Mischa, and their parents travel to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops. After three years, the Nazis are finally driven out of the countries soon to be re- occupied by the Soviet Union. During their retreat, however, they destroy a Soviet tank that had stopped at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water. The explosion kills everyone but Lecter and Mischa. They survive in the cottage until five former Lithuanian militiamen, led by a Nazi collaborator named Vladis Grutas, storm and loot it. Finding no other food in the bitterly cold Baltic winter, the men look menacingly at Lecter and Mischa. Then, the soldiers kill and eat her. In 1952, Lithuania is under Soviet rule and Lecter Castle has been converted into an orphanage, which also houses Hannibal. After dealing violently with a bully, Lecter escapes from the orphanage to Paris to live with his widowed aunt, Lady Murasaki. While in France, Lecter flourishes as a student. He commits his first murder as a teenager, killing a local butcher who insults his aunt. He is suspected of the murder by Inspector Pascal Popil, a French detective who also lost his family in the war. Thanks in part to his aunt's intervention, as she leaves the butcher's head on the gates in front of the station during Lecter's interview, Lecter accepts responsibility for the crime. Eventually, Lecter becomes the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France. He works in Paris, where he is given a job preparing cadavers. One day, Lecter witnesses a condemned war criminal receiving a sodium thiopental injection, allowing him to recall details about his war crimes. Consequently, in an attempt to recall the names of those responsible for his sister's death, Lecter injects himself with the solution. His subsequent flashback reveals the men who had killed Mischa had cannibalized her as well. Lecter returns to Lithuania in search of his sister's remains. He excavates the ruins of the lodge where his family died, and upon finding Mischa's remains, he gives her a proper burial. He also unearths the dog-tags of the deserters who killed his sister. One of them, Enrikas Dortlich, sees him arrive in the country and attempts to kill him but is incapacitated by Lecter. After he buries Mischa's remains, Lecter forces Dortlich to reveal the whereabouts of the rest of his gang, then decapitates Dortlich with a horse-drawn pulley. Dortlich's blood splashes on Lecter's face, and he licks it off. Lecter then visits the restaurant of another one of the soldiers, Petras Kolnas, in Fontainebleau. He finds his young daughter and notices Mischa's bracelet on her. He gives her Kolnas's dogtag. Dortlich's murder puts the rest of the group on alert and, because of the similarity to the first murder, places Lecter under renewed suspicion from Popil. Grutas, now a sex trafficker, dispatches a second member of the group, Zigmas Milko, to kill him. Lecter kills Milko instead, drowning him in embalming chemicals inside his laboratory. Popil then tries to dissuade him from hunting the gang. During a confrontation with Lady Murasaki, she begs him not to get revenge. He refuses, claiming that he made a promise to Mischa. He then attacks Grutas in his home but Grutas is rescued by his bodyguards. Grutas kidnaps Lady Murasaki and calls Lecter, using her as bait. Lecter recognizes the sounds of Kolnas's birds from his restaurant in the background. Lecter goes there and plays on Kolnas's emotions by threatening his children. Kolnas gives up the location of Grutas's boat, but Lecter kills him when Kolnas goes for Lecter's gun. Lecter goes to the houseboat and finds Grutas assaulting Lady Murasaki. In a final confrontation, Grutas claims that Lecter had also consumed his sister in broth fed to him by the soldiers, and he was killing them to keep this fact secret. Enraged by the revelation, Lecter eviscerates Grutas by repeatedly carving his sister's initial into his body. Lady Murasaki, finally disturbed by his behavior, flees from him even after he tells her that he loves her. The houseboat is incinerated, but Lecter, assumed to be dead, emerges from the woods. He then hunts down the last member of the group, Grentz, in Melville, Canada, before leaving for the United States. ===== Celephaïs was created in a dream by Kuranes (which is his name in dreams—his real name is not given) as a child of the English landed gentry. As a man in his forties, alone and dispossessed in contemporary London, he dreams it again and then, seeking it, slowly slips away to the dream-world. Finally knights guide him through medieval England to his ancestral estate, where he spent his boyhood, and then to Celephaïs. He became the king and chief god of the city, though his body washes up by his ancestors' tower, now owned by a parvenu. In The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Randolph Carter pays a visit to Kuranes, finding that the great dreamer has grown so homesick for his native Cornwall, he has dreamed parts of Celephaïs to resemble the land of his boyhood. Kuranes advises Carter, on a mission to find his own dream-city, to be careful what he wishes for—he might get it. ===== Set in London, the film opens with American best-selling author Catherine Tramell in a speeding car with her companion, Kevin Franks, a famous English football (soccer / rugby) star. Tramell takes the man's hand and begins masturbating herself with it, all the while increasing her vehicle's speed. At the point of orgasm, Tramell veers off the road and crashes into the West India Docks in Canary Wharf on the Thames River. She attempts to save her partner but, as she says while being questioned later by the police, "When it came down to it, I guess my life was more important to me than his". Tramell is interrogated by Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Roy Washburn, who notes that D-Tubocurarine (DTC), which is a neuromuscular blocking agent used to relax muscles during general anaesthesia for medical surgery, was found in her car and in her companion's body, and the companion was not breathing at the time of the crash, (according to the autopsy), and that a man named "Dicky Pep" said that he sold Tramell "15 milliliters of DTC last Thursday". Tramell counters by saying that this Dicky Pep must be lying because "you've got him on some other charge and he's trying to deal his way out, if he even exists". Tramell begins therapy sessions with Dr. Michael Glass, who has conducted a court-ordered psychiatric exam and given testimony in her case. Dr. Glass strongly suspects that Tramell is a narcissist incapable of telling the difference between right and wrong. Tramell begins to play mind games with Glass, who becomes increasingly frustrated and intrigued by her. Meanwhile, the journalist boyfriend of Glass's ex-wife, who was in the process of writing a story critical of Glass, is found strangled to death. More murders begin to surface around Dr. Glass, including his own ex-wife, as his obsession with Tramell grows and when his career and life are threatened; he begins to suspect that Tramell is really committing the murders and attempting to frame him for them. Glass increasingly cannot distinguish himself between right and wrong, and the London police begin to suspect him. He confronts Tramell at her apartment where they engage in passionate sex. Tramell gives Glass a copy of the draft of her next novel, titled The Analyst. After reading it, he realises that Tramell has novelised most of the recent events with herself and Glass as characters. A character based on Glass's female colleague, Dr. Milena Gardosh, is depicted as the next murder victim in the novel. Glass runs to Dr. Gardosh's apartment to warn her, finding Tramell already there. Gardosh informs him that he is no longer in charge of Tramell's therapy and that his license will be revoked. Glass and Gardosh struggle, and she is knocked unconscious. Tramell then threatens Glass with a gun she carries, but Glass takes it away from her. When Detective Superintendent Washburn arrives at the scene, Tramell manipulates Dr. Glass into shooting him. In the final scene, Tramell pays a visit to Dr. Glass now at a local mental hospital where he has been institutionalised, and he learns from her that the novel has become a best-seller. Tramell claims that she manipulated Glass into committing all those murders, and flashbacks are shown of Glass committing the murders. Tramell leaves with a smirk on her face, while Glass continues to sit silently in his wheelchair. ===== On August 2, 1985, Delta Airlines Flight 191 a Lockheed L-1011 flown by Captain Connors (John Beck) and First Officer Rudy Price (Dick Christie) is preparing to land at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on its single stop, flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Los Angeles via Dallas Fort Worth. Air Traffic controllers advise that a thunderstorm is present. The flight crew surmise that the plane might get washed, but have no other worries about the storm being so near. Passengers such as Lucille Jacobson (Patti Labelle), who is terrified of flying, however, are fearful about landing in a storm. Others, like Marilyn (Gloria Hocking) and Mike Steinberg (Joe Berryman) are thinking more about their California vacation. As the rain pelts down on the plane, there is no warning of an impending crisis. Without warning, the L-1011 is slammed into the ground, a mile short of the runway, slicing into a small car on the road, killing William Mayberry (Rudy Young), before skidding onto the field and exploding. Within a minute, all airport fire and emergency units are alerted. Five minutes into the rescue, first responders Jack Ayers (Dean Jones), Beth Mancini (Angie Dickinson), led by Bob Sonnamaker (Charles Haid) are rapidly deployed to the scene. The severed rear section of the plane is where most survivors are found although flight attendants at the front also survive. ===== Kai and Hikaru are protected by a corporation called ASHURUM, from a society that fears E's. ASHURUM is 1 of the 12 corporations that rule the world. Found by Eiji, Kai was selected to be in ASHURUM's special force AESES and had to undergo intensive training in different areas, such as combat, hacking, and psychic training. When Kai had free time he visited Hikaru at the hospital. Hikaru's condition never improved, however. After a year, Shen-long warned Kai that Eiji actually only wanted his sister, because she was said to possess amazing psychic powers, but she was not able to use them due to her illness. Shen-long then went on to tell Kai that Eiji was just hoping that Kai would have those amazing powers too. Kai didn't believe Shen-long and goes on a mission to Gald city, with the other E's, to infiltrate a hideout of guerillas that is said to have been using E's against their will. Kai finds some civilians caught in the middle of the battle. While trying to save a little girl, one of the civilians that is afraid of E's, shoots and kills Kai's partner. Kai, still shocked from the death of his partner, tries to help the civilians, but meets up with Shen-long. In a rage, Shen-long unleashes a psychic blast that decimates half the city. Later, Kai, washed up ashore, was found by a girl named Asuka. After being brought back to health, Kai was told by Yuuki, Asuka's brother, that he would not have his psychic powers back to the level they were unless he goes back to ASHURUM. However, after spending some time in the city with its residents, Kai decides to stay with Asuka and Yuuki for a while. As it turns out, ASHURUM has been brain-washing Kai and the other E's in order to make them more powerful. Eiji plans to use Hikaru to destroy the human race to 'speed up evolution' so that only E's survive. ===== ===== Frobisher is employed as a Private Eye to investigate Alicia Mulholland's fiancé, Arthur Gringax. As a penguin detective would be somewhat conspicuous, he instead chooses to disguise himself ... as the Doctor! ===== Conservative lawyer Adam Calhorn Shaw (Edmund Purdom) hopes to be elected to office, like his father, and his father's father. He is engaged to a sophisticated society lady, Beth Hallson (Linda Christian). Arriving at a nursery to complain about the peach trees he had previously purchased, Adam meets the energetic and eccentric Athena Mulvain (Jane Powell), the oldest of seven sisters in a family of anti-smoking, vegetarian, teetotallers who follow astrology and numerology. Athena offers to give him advice on how to mulch the peach trees, however, Adam is uneasy, and leaves. Later, at a party, Athena arrives, mulches Adam's peach trees, kisses him, and announces her intention to marry him. She also decides, after a numerological calculation, that Adam's friend Johnny Nyle (Vic Damone) would be perfect for her sister, Minerva (Debbie Reynolds). Athena returns to Adam's house the next morning, to the shock of Adam's fiancée. Adam promises to tell Athena that he has no romantic interest in her, but finds she has left. He asks his legal secretary Miss Seely to search for her but to no avail. Eventually Johnny returns and tells Adam that Athena's family owns a health food store, and that he can find her there. That night when Adam goes to the house, he meets the meditating Grandma Salome, Minerva and Athena's 5 other beautiful, singing and dancing sisters: Niobe, Aphrodite, Calliope, Medea and Ceres. He also meets the bodybuilders that the girls' grandfather (Louis Calhern) has been training for the Mr. Universe competition, Ed Perkins and Bill Nichols. Despite the bizarre ways of the family, and although Adam initially tries to resist Athena, he eventually succumbs to her charms, and breaks up with Beth. Just when all is looking rosy, Grandma foresees difficult times ahead. Athena's sisters advise Athena to break up with Adam, however Athena chooses to push ahead with the relationship, knowing that "love can change the stars". The sisters visit Adam's house while he is out and perform a makeover, removing rugs and screens and installing large urns and fresh flowers. Adam's influential family friend, Mr. Grenville, Adam's law firm partner, Mr. Griswalde, and Adam's campaign manager for election to the United States Congress, Mr. Tremaine, phone Adam's house and reach Athena on the phone. Curious, they visit Adam's house only to find Grandma there in place of the girls. Adam invites Athena to a formal reception at Mr. Grenville's home. Athena at first charms the party with her pleasant nature and an off-the-cuff rendition of an aria from a Donizetti opera. However she loses her temper when Beth presents Athena with a buffet dinner where all of the vegetables are stuffed with meat. More difficulties arise when Adam humiliates Ed Perkins and Grandpa on television at the "Mr. Universe" final. Grandpa had hoped that Ed would marry Athena to produce perfect children. Adam verbally attacks Grandpa over the hypocrisy of many of his beliefs. Ed threatens Adam by putting him in a hold that Adam gets out of by throwing Ed in a jiu jitsu throw with both events appearing on nationwide television. Adam is told by his minders that his political career is over because he embarrassed the belief system of Athena's people, alienating voters with those sympathies, whilst those opposed to their beliefs would associate Adam with holding their beliefs by merely being with them. Despite requisite further conflict, harmony is restored and all of the main players gather around for a Mulvain-style feast. ===== Many of the events of the novel are narrated twice; first by the 'editor', who gives his account of the facts as he understands them to be, and then in the words of the 'sinner' himself. The story starts in 1687 with the marriage of Rabina Orde to the much older George Colwan, Laird of Dalcastle. Rabina despises her new husband because he falls short of her extreme religious beliefs, his love of dancing and penchant for drinking alcohol. She initially flees him but her father forces her back, and they live separately in the one house. Rabina gives birth to two sons. The first, George, is indisputably the son of the Laird, but it is strongly implied – though never confirmed – that her second son, Robert, was fathered by the Reverend Wringhim, Rabina's spiritual adviser and close confidant. George, raised by the Laird, becomes a popular young man who enjoys sport and the company of his friends. Robert, educated by his mother and adoptive father Wringhim, is brought up to follow Wringhim's radical antinomian sect of Calvinism, which holds that only certain elect people are predestined to be saved by God. These chosen few will have a heavenly reward regardless of how their lives are lived. The two brothers meet, as young men, in Edinburgh where Robert starts following George through the town, mocking and provoking him and disrupting his life. He appears to have the ability of appearing wherever George is. When on a hill-top, George sees a vision of his brother in the sky and turns to find him behind him, preparing to throw him off a cliff. Robert rejects any friendly or placatory advances from his brother. Finally, George is murdered by being stabbed in the back, apparently during a duel with one of his drinking acquaintances. The only witnesses to the murder were a prostitute and her despicable client, who claim that the culprit was Robert, aided by what appears to be the double of George's friend. Before Robert can be arrested, he disappears. The second part of the novel consists of Robert's account of his life. It purports to be a document, part-handwritten and part- printed, which was found after his death. It recounts his childhood, under the influence of the Rev Wringhim, and goes on to explain how he becomes in thrall to an enigmatic companion who says his name is Gil-Martin. This stranger, who could be seen to be the Devil, appears after Wringhim has declared Robert to be a member of 'the elect' and so predestined to eternal salvation. Gil- Martin, who is able to transform his appearance at will, soon directs all of Robert's pre-existing tendencies and beliefs to evil purposes, convincing him that it is his mission to "cut sinners off with the sword", and that murder can be the correct course of action. From Gil-Martin's boasting of the number of his adherents and size of his dominions, Robert falls into the delusion that he is Peter the Great of Russia, who visited England about that time. The confession traces Robert's gradual decline into despair and madness, as his doubts about the righteousness of his cause are counteracted by Gil-Martin's increasing domination over his life. Finally, Robert loses control over his own identity and even loses track of time. During these lost weeks and months, it is suggested that Gil-Martin assumes Robert's appearance to commit further crimes. However, there are also suggestions in the text, that 'Gil-Martin' is a figment of Robert's imagination, and is simply an aspect of his own personality: as, for example when 'the sinner' writes, 'I feel as if I were the same person' (as Gil-Martin). Robert flees, but is pursued and tormented by devils and can find refuge only as a shepherd. Finally he hangs himself with a grass rope – in which it is suggested that he is aided by devils. The novel concludes with a return to the 'Editor's Narrative' which explains how the sinner's memoir was discovered in his grave. Hogg appears as himself in this section, expressing scorn of the project to open the grave. ===== On February 24, 2018, in the Northwest gap of the Sea of Japan, a giant creature called a Heterodyne appears and goes on a rampage, destroying a major city and killing countless people before being destroyed itself by a weapon of mass destruction known as an "O-E (Over-Explosion) bomb". In the aftermath, a giant robotic weapon system, code-named Dai-Guard, was developed for the military by the 21st Century Defense Security Corporation as an alternative to the future use of such weapons. However, no further attacks occur for the next twelve years and the 21st Century Corporation is allowed to keep the useless weapon as a mascot which is managed by Public Relations Division 2. However, during a security exposition in 2030, a Heterodyne attacks, and the ill-prepared and unarmed robot is taken into battle by its pilot Akagi Shunsuke. His headstrong nature, combined with the talents of his fellow crew, enable Dai-Guard to be victorious against multiple Heterodyne attacks causing the military to want it back. Heterodyne are mysterious entities formed from dimensional quakes all around Japan and are attracted to electromagnetic hot-spots. Crystalline hexagons called Fractal Knots act as their nucleus and they form bodies using the matter around them. Although Fractal Knots replicate themselves indefinitely, if the original is destroyed it will immediately reduce the rest of the body into ethanol. The Heterodyne are dangerous and adaptable yet not invulnerable. They are a threat that must be faced in a dangerous world like typhoons, earthquakes or tsunami. Each one has a different physical appearance and behaviour. Much of the series concerns the conflict between the Corporation with its office politics, profit driven, bureaucratic nature and staff beliefs, and the Anzenhosho Army (ANPO) with its adherence to protocols, procedures and concern for its public profile. Both the Corporation and the Army have people who are more concerned with ambition and status than the need to serve and protect the population. A strong theme within the story is the need for cooperation between talented individuals to achieve a common goal. ===== Eighteen-year-old Tim Pearson, a soon-to-be graduate of Grandview High School, wants to go to Florida to study oceanography. Tim's father, Roger Pearson, loans Tim his brand new Cadillac to go to the Prom with his date Bonnie Clark. Later, while parked near a stream, Tim and Bonnie are making out in the Cadillac, when they feel the car moving, only to discover that the car is falling into the stream. Tim and Bonnie walk to "Cody's Speedway" to get a tow truck, Bonnie calls her father, who is so angry about the accident that he punches Tim. Mechanic Michelle "Mike" Cody comes to Tim's defense, and has Ernie "Slam" Webster, a local demolition derby driver, tow the car, taking Tim along. Slam stops at the bowling alley to see if his wife Candy had been there, but she wasn't. The next morning, Tim goes to see his father at his office. He talks to Tim and hints to him that he does not want Tim to drive his car again. Tim runs into Mike and thanks her for helping him with the car. Tim goes out to the Speedway, where he meets Mike's mentally challenged brother, Cowboy. Later on that night, Mike goes to the bar to see her uncle, Bob Cody, and asks if she can borrow $10,000, so she can fix up the Speedway. Bob doesn't have that kind of money, but wants to help her. Just then, they both hear a drunken Slam beating on a video game. Mike and Bob help Slam out to his truck. Mike and Slam talk about old times they had together. Slam is at work the next morning, hungover, but his boss tells him to go home. Slam gets home and sees his wife Candy with another man, Donny. Enraged, he jumps on the lover's car demanding that Candy come back to him; in the ensuing struggle, Donny accidentally shoots himself in the foot. At the hospital, Candy declines to press charges, but refuses to come home with him. That night, Mike sees Slam sleeping in his truck. Mike tries to comfort him, believing that he does not really love Candy, and is simply afraid of being alone. Later that day, Slam comes back and asks Mike if she wants to go out for dinner, but she tells him has to go to a County Commission meeting. Tim and his dad go the same meeting, and Tim tells Roger that he wants to go to Florida; Roger is not too happy with his decision. At the Town Hall, Roger asks Tim to go to his office and get his Rolaids. In the office, Tim sees plans for the Speedway renovation on his dad's desk. At the meeting, Mike asks the commission for more time to come up with the money to fix up the Speedway, but the commission won't give it to her. Tim comes in and reveals what they have planned. He then gets into an argument with his father and leaves. He runs into Mike, who thanks him for saving her place. They both go for a hamburger at the local restaurant, and Mike invites Tim to her house, where they spend the night together. Mike asks Tim if he still wants to drive in the Derby, she gives him a car to drive. In the morning, Slam shows up at the door and discovers them in bed together; he leaves, upset. Later on that day, Roger sees Tim near the stream, and says he is sorry about the fight. He asks Tim to give Illinois State University a chance, but Tim wants to go to Florida. At the Speedway, Mike sells her old cars to make extra money; this upsets Cowboy, who runs off crying. Slam goes to his house and sees his stuff on the lawn. Donny stands by the door and taunts Slam, telling him he called the cops. Slam gets his things and leaves. Later that night, the Demolition Derby is going on, and Tim is in the race, competing against Slam. At the race's climax, Slam crashes into Tim. Mike is mad cause she thinks Slam did it on purpose, and tells him to leave the track. Later that night, Candy and Donny are having sex in Slam's house when, suddenly, Slam appears on a bulldozer and knocks the walls down. The cops arrest Slam. As Tim and Mike drive home from the hospital, they see firetrucks passing by, and discover that the Speedway has burned down. Mike asks her mother what had happened, and she says it just started up. In the morning, however, the police discover that the gas tank was unlocked. It is eventually revealed that Cowboy started the fire because Mike sold the old cars. Tim and Mike talk, and she admits she is in love with Slam. Mike goes to bail Slam out from jail. He offers to help fix the Speedway, but Mike says she will sell the land to Roger Pearson; that way, they can afford to start a life together. Mike asks Slam for a favor. Tim is on his way to Chicago, with his family in tow to say goodbye. The bus leaves and a car is driving by the side of the bus; it is Slam, who gives Tim the old car and money for his trip to Florida. ===== Todd Anderson (Quran Pender) has just signed a 5-year/$30 million contract with his hometown basketball team the New Jersey Nets, he purchases many new luxuries for himself and his family including a new house in a well established, high class neighborhood called Garden Ridges Estates for him and his gold digging girlfriend Brittany (Meagan Good). Keeping with family tradition, he and his parents Em and JoJo (Jenifer Lewis and Frankie Faison) decides to host a regular family reunion cookout in his new place. He does not plan for it to clash with an important business meeting for an endorsement deal which his agent Wes (Jonathan Silverman) arranges. He even meets Garden Ridge's local security guard (Queen Latifah). Meanwhile, Bling Bling (Ja Rule) is jealous that his former classmate Todd has made it with his basketball contract after being insulted and embarrassed in front of the neighborhood when Todd did not recognize who he was. He plans to get many pairs of sneakers signed by the upcoming star to sell on eBay and become rich. Although the meeting is scheduled to take place in the morning, the guests are to arrive in the afternoon. One by one, members of Todd's eccentric family like Willie and Nelson (Jerod Mixon and Jamal Mixon), country cousins Jemar and Jasper (Shawn Andrew and Godfrey), wannabe lawyer Uncle Leroy (Tim Meadows), Todd's grandpa (Carl Wright), cousin Little Dee (Denee Busby) and her kids, and Em's sister Nettie (Rita Owens) alongside her husband Frank (Reg E. Cathey) and son Jamal (Kevin Phillps) begin to arrive before expected disrupting his business interview. As Em keeps Brittany busy, the neighbors Judge Crowley (Danny Glover) and his wife (Farrah Fawcett) are drawn to the cookout. Whilst on his way to Todd's new house, he crashes his car due to his clumsy friend Wheezer (Ruperto Vanderpool), tries to ride in the truck of a poo salesman (Vincent Pastore), and then tries to steal a new Mercedes from a parking garage without realizing the car belongs to Todd's girlfriend Brittany. After finding out, he holds her at gunpoint and forces her to drive him there. Todd is concerned mainly about his image, as his family's antics are making a poor impression on his neighbors when the security guard visits causing him to snap. Todd's childhood friend Becky (Eve) arrive. After a talk with her, Todd apologizes to his mother for losing his temper. She forgives him after settling her differences with Nettie. When Bling Bling and Wheezer invade the cookout so they can get Todd's autograph, the ensuing chaos makes Todd realize how much he needs his family. He gets a shock by the endorsement interviewer. Bling Bling and Wheezer are defeated by the security guard, Jemar, and Jasper and are arrested by the police. Todd breaks up with Brittney and marries Becky as DJ Enuff performs at the party. A postscript states that Todd scored 26 points in his debut in New Jersey as he and Becky use the car bed he originally slept in. Leroy failed his bar exam for the 16th time and his conspiracy book was a bestseller. Little Dee finally got a father figure for her kids and moved in next to Todd. Jamal completed med school and broke up with Brittany three times. The security guard Mildred Smith left Garden Ridges and became a cop who gained a record of different tickets written out. ===== In the 27th century after a resurgent Imperial Russia has seized control of Earth and an interstellar domain, Dante, a swashbuckling young thief and ladies' man, discovers he is an illegitimate scion of the Romanov Dynasty, aristocratic rivals to the Tsar. Dante's Romanov genes bond him with a sentient "Weapons Crest," a biological weapon which gives superhuman abilities—in Dante's case, the ability to extend bio-blades from his hands and hack into computer systems. He outrages aristocratic society and enjoys a turbulent relationship with Tsarina Jena. Dmitri, the Romanov patriarch and bitter enemy of the Tsar, tries to mold Dante into an aristocrat and killer worthy of the Romanov name. Dmitri's underhanded political maneuvering prompts his war between the Makarov and Romanov dynasties, despite Jena's and Dante's attempts to prevent it, and the lovers break off their burgeoning romance. The civil war rips the empire apart, and Dante is forced to commit many atrocities. Vladimir triumphs, Dmitri dies by his own hand, and the power of the Romanovs is broken. Dante, now the most wanted man in the empire, returns to thieving, joining his mother, Katarina Dante, and her pirate crew. After spending time in the Pacific, he is forcibly recruited into the Imperial Service. In his new role as Sword of the Tsar, Dante works against everything he once held dear, though he secretly abuses his position in order to plot against his employer as he begins to build a secret army. A massacre in the oppressed state of Amerika prompts Dante to try to kill the tsar. Imprisoned and tortured, Dante escapes from jail with the help of Jena, and the two renew their relationship and raise an army of thieves and whores to win a revolutionary war against the tsar. Tsar Vladimir is put on trial for his crimes and Dante proposes to Jena. Their happiness is cut short by the return of Dmitri Romanov. Dmitri embarks on a rampage, murdering several of Dante's close allies, capturing Jena and destroying Dante's weapons crest. He tightens his grip on the empire, planning to marry Jena and execute Vladimir on their wedding day, Dante fights the same war against a different enemy. On the day of Jena's forced wedding to Dmitri, Dante leads his army to a second, final triumph that leaves Dmitri dead and a new era of peace and prosperity set to begin. ===== Left to right: Don Taylor, Audrey Dalton, Gene Barry, Joan Elan, Peter Baldwin, Dorothy Bromiley In 1945, Roger Halyard is a stiff-upper-lipped British gentleman who lives on a South Pacific island with his three nubile, naive daughters, Violet, Hester and Gloria. Hoping to shelter the girls from the lascivious advances of the opposite sex, Halyard is thwarted when 1,500 Marines arrive to transform the island into an aircraft landing base. Despite the best efforts of Halyard, his housekeeper Thelma, and Marine Colonel Reade, romance blossoms between the three girls and a trio of handsome leathernecks. ===== The story takes the form of a non-fiction article by Clarke in which he warns the United States that the People's Republic of China is planning to, using a Russian rocket, launch a communications satellite in geostationary orbit to broadcast directly to Americans. The satellite will offer an uncensorable mix of heterosexual and homosexual pornography (using the Kinsey Report as market research), gore (such as details of bullfights and photographic evidence from the Nuremberg trials), and communist propaganda. The American ex-ad man and Communist sympathizer that reveals the plan to Clarke thanks his influential 1945 article on satellite transmission for giving China the idea, and boasts that "History is on our side. We'll be using America's own decadence as a weapon against her, and it's a weapon for which there's no defence". One of the pornographic films in the story is described as depicting the erotic sculptures of the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha (Clarke uses the variant spelling of "Konarak"). ===== Stan and Ollie are at home while a lovesick Ollie sings and plays piano for his absent sweetheart Jeanie-Weenie (only ever seen as a photograph), before revealing to Stan that he is to marry her. The postman delivers a letter from Jeanie-Weenie rejecting Ollie for another. A heartbroken Ollie announces that the pair of them shall be joining the French Foreign Legion, as it is the only place where he can forget her. When they arrive at the barracks in French Algeria, they discover that not only are all the other soldiers also trying to forget lost loves, they are all trying to forget the same lost love as Ollie and one another: Jeanie-Weenie! An attempt by the pair to leave the Legion is angrily rejected by the camp commander and the entire platoon is sent on a forced march. A scout enters the camp in a hurry to say that Legion fortress Fort Arid is to be besieged by native Riffian tribesmen, and the garrison is sent to defend it. The duo get cut off from the rest of the regiment in a sandstorm but reach the fortress before the others. Surprisingly, with the aid of barrels of nails, the boys defeat the Riffians by themselves and the leader of the Riffians is revealed to be yet another of Jeanie-Weenie's conquests. ===== As the men of South Park are preparing to hold their annual American Civil War reenactment of the (fictional) Battle of Tamarack Hill, the children rehearse as a Union Army rally band. In the morning of the reenactment, Stan's uncle, Jimbo informs the reenactors that over 200 people will come to see them reenact the battle, setting a new record. He also takes the time to remind everyone that the primary alcohol sponsor of their event is Jagerminz S'more-flavored Schnapps, "the schnapps with the delightful taste of s'mores." In addition, the special guest will be Stan's grandpa, Marvin Marsh. Meanwhile, Cartman comes dressed as General Robert E. Lee, and the boys are outraged by his dressing as a Confederate officer. Evidently under the impression that the reenactment is a competition of some sort, Cartman bets that the South will win the Civil War, and if it does, Stan and Kyle will be his slaves for a month, or vice versa. Knowing that the outcome is supposed to be historical victory for the North as planned, Stan and Kyle eagerly accept the challenge. Cartman manipulates the drunken Confederate reenactors into actually striving to win the reenactment. At the after party, all of the reenactors, Confederate and Unionist, are now drunk on the Schnapps, Cartman rallies them to attack Topeka, which is presumed by the reenactors to have been the next battle. The next day, Topeka is assaulted by the drunken South Park Confederates and the entire town falls. As the invasion continues town by town, their ranks are continually bolstered by either Confederate supporters or men who would simply choose to avoid fighting them. Stan, Kyle, and Grampa Marsh travel to Chattanooga which is under attack by the Confederates. The National Guard also arrives on the scene and shoots a warning flare into the air which kills Kenny (who had joined the Confederates under Cartman's promise of "lots of plunder and womens"). The boys hatch a plan to rid the army of their primary fuel, the S'More Schnapps. The army soon wakes up with raging hangovers and quickly disbands, but Cartman calls the Jägerminz company, who deliver to the entire army truckloads of alcohol. With the men drunk again, the next target of the Confederates is Fort Sumter. Though they easily overrun and secure the fort, they are then faced with the National Guard. The latter is defeated with help from Confederate reinforcements made up of the entire population of South Carolina. Finally the Confederate Army reaches Washington, D.C.. The army demands the Confederate States of America to be a separate country and blackmail President Clinton by threatening to release a (bluff) video of him with Marisa Tomei. Grandpa, realizing that the drunken men still think that the entire campaign is a reenactment, gets Stan and Kyle dressed up as Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, just in time to prevent President Clinton from signing the surrender, with the added condition that the South receive a free year's supply of Schnapps. The entire army breaks up happily and leaves upon surrender to Cartman's dismay. Stan and Kyle are deciding what to make Cartman do, having won the bet, but their triumph is short-lived. Cartman is saved from the terms of the bet after remembering the North still won the war, and that slavery was abolished because of it. President Clinton makes this clear by pointing out that the abolition of slavery was one of the significant outcomes of the Civil War, making slavery illegal and the bet nullified. Angered by this, Stan and Kyle insult Clinton before walking away, embittered. ===== In this often- comic novel, two Homeric scholars from Ireland by way of Harvard University plan to investigate the tradition of oral epic poetry in the rural habitats of Albania where historical epics are composed and sung by itinerant minstrels as popular entertainment. The singers have been doing this for many generations, possibly since ancient Greek times (H stands for Homer). The scholars travel to Albania with a tape recorder to study the phenomenon and record samples of the singing and the changes over time in multiple recordings of the same song, the study of which would give them an answer whether Homer was an editor or a writer. Their main interest is in the variations on the tradition exemplified in the work of individual singers, how historical events are woven into poetry, and whether there is regional bias in their interpretations.The File on H Full description When they reach their destination, they are confronted by suspicious provincial townspeople and a paranoid local governor, who sends spies after them, convinced that they themselves are spies of some sort. Their work is attacked by the Serbian pastor because the scholars favor the Albanian epic poetry as original and the Serbian as an imitation. One interpretation of the story is a metaphor for why legends continue to be believed despite our attempts to discover the truth, and highlights the difficulty that the modern world has in truly understanding past, or even rural, civilizations. The novel also considers the passing of the epic form as a means of recording and retelling history and questions the nature of civilization itself as art forms are lost to development and technology.File on H ===== Stanley revolved around the adventures of the namesake character (Hackett) as the operator of a newsstand in a posh hotel in New York City, the Sussex-Fenton. Burnett played his girlfriend Celia, and Lynde voiced the unseen hotel owner Mr. Fenton, who never appeared on camera but frequently could be heard giving orders to his staff.Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (9th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. . In the show's introduction, the following line was recited: "You think you've got troubles. Stanley, he's got troubles!" ===== In the late hours of a hot New York summer night, a pair of men subdue and kill Jean Dexter, an ex-model, by knocking her out with chloroform and drowning her in her bathtub. When one of the murderers gets conscience-stricken while drunk, the other kills him and throws his body into the East River. Homicide Detective Lt. Dan Muldoon and his young associate, Det. Jimmy Halloran, are assigned to Jean's case, which the medical examination has determined was murder. Muldoon has been a homicide cop for 22 years, Halloran for three months. At the scene, the police interrogate Martha Swenson, Jean's housekeeper, about Jean's boyfriends, and she tells them about a "Mr. Henderson". They also discover a bottle of sleeping pills and her address book. Halloran questions the doctor who prescribed the pills, Lawrence Stoneman, and Ruth Morrison, another model and Jean's friend. Back at the police station, Muldoon questions Frank Niles, Jean's ex-boyfriend, who lies about everything, claiming only a business relationship with Jean and denying knowing Ruth. Because of his lies, Niles becomes the prime suspect. Later, Muldoon deduces from the bruises on Jean's neck that she was killed by at least two men. That evening, Jean's estranged parents, Mr. and Mrs. Batory, arrive in New York to formally identify the body and tell the detectives that they have no knowledge of Jean's acquaintances. The next morning, the detectives learn that Niles sold a gold cigarette case stolen from Stoneman, then purchased a one-way airline ticket to Mexico. They also discover that one of Jean's rings was stolen from the home of a wealthy Mrs. Hylton. At Mrs. Hylton's Park Avenue apartment, the police learn that the ring actually belonged to her daughter, who, to their surprise, turns out to be Ruth. Learning that Ruth's engagement ring is also stolen property, and that she is engaged to Niles, Muldoon and Halloran take Ruth to Niles' apartment, where they coincidentally interrupt someone trying to murder him. The killer takes a shot at the cops and escapes down the fire escape onto the nearby elevated train. When questioned about the stolen jewelry, Frank claims that they were all presents from Jean, which reveals his true relationship with her, much to Ruth's chagrin. Ruth realizes she is engaged to a loser and slaps him. Niles is then arrested for the jewel thefts, but the murder case remains open. Halloran learns that a body recovered from the East River, that of small-time burglar Peter Backalis, died within hours of the Dexter murder, and believes the two incidents are connected. Muldoon, although skeptical, lets him pursue the lead and assigns two veteran detectives on the squad to help Halloran with the legwork. Through further methodical but tedious investigation, Halloran discovers that Backalis's accomplice on a jewelry store burglary was Willie Garzah, a former wrestler with a penchant for playing the harmonica. While Halloran and his team canvass the Lower East Side of New York using an old publicity photograph of Garzah, Muldoon compels Frank Niles to identify Jean's mystery boyfriend. Dr. Stoneman is "Henderson". At Stoneman's office, Muldoon uses Frank to trap the married physician into confessing that he fell in love with Jean, only to learn that she and Frank were using him in order to rob his society friends. Frank then confesses that Garzah killed Jean and Backalis. Halloran and Muldoon, using different approaches, have come up with the same killer. Meanwhile, Halloran finally locates Garzah and, pretending that Backalis is in the hospital, tries to trick Garzah into accompanying him, but Garzah (knowing he killed Backalis) sees through the ruse. The ex-wrestler rabbit punches the rookie detective, momentarily knocking him unconscious. Garzah attempts to disappear in the crowded city, but as police descend upon the neighborhood, he panics and draws attention to himself when he shoots and kills a blind man's guide dog on the pedestrian walk of the Williamsburg Bridge. Garzah attempts to flee over the bridge but, as police approach from both directions, he starts climbing one of the towers and is shot and wounded. High on the tower, Garzah refuses to surrender; gunfire is exchanged, and he is hit again and falls to his death. As aerial and street shots of New York are shown, the narration concludes by saying "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them." ===== Tony "le Stéphanois" has served a five- year prison term for a jewel heist and is out on the street and down on his luck. His friend Jo approaches him about a smash-and-grab proposed by mutual friend Mario in which the threesome would cut the glass on a Parisian jeweler's front window in broad daylight and snatch some gems. Tony declines. He then learns that his old girlfriend, Mado, took up in his absence with gangster Parisian nightclub owner Pierre Grutter. Finding Mado working at Grutter's, Tony invites her back to his rundown flat. She is obviously well- kept, and Tony savagely beats her for being so deeply involved with Grutter. Tony changes his mind about the heist; he now accepts on the condition that rather than merely robbing the window, they will take on the more difficult but more lucrative task of robbing the store's safe. Mario suggests they employ the services of Italian compatriot César, a safecracker. The four devise and rehearse an ingenious plan to break into the store and disarm its sophisticated alarm system. The caper begins with the group chiseling through a cement ceiling from an upstairs flat on a Sunday night. The suspenseful break-in completed, the criminals appear to escape without leaving any trace of their identities. However, without the others' knowledge, César pocketed a diamond ring as a bauble for his lover Viviane, a chanteuse at Grutter's club. The heist makes headline news and the four men arrange to fence the loot with a London contact. Meanwhile, Grutter has seen Mado and her injuries, who breaks off their relationship. Infuriated at Tony's interference in his life, he gives heroin to his drug-addicted brother Rémy and tells him to murder Tony. Grutter sees the diamond César gave to Viviane and realizes that César, Mario, and Tony were responsible for the jewel theft. Grutter forces César to confess. Forsaking a 10 million franc police reward, Grutter decides to steal the jewels from Tony's gang, his brother Rémy brutally murdering Mario and his wife Ida when they refuse to reveal where the loot is hidden. Tony retrieves it from the couple's apartment and anonymously pays for a splendid funeral for them. He then goes looking for Grutter and stumbles onto the captive César, who confesses having squealed. Citing "the rules," Tony ruefully kills him. Meanwhile, seeking to force their adversaries' hand, Grutter's thugs kidnap Jo's five-year-old son Tonio and hold him for ransom. The London fence arrives with the payoff, after which Tony leaves to single-handedly rescue the child by force, advising Jo it is the only way they will see him alive. With Mado's help, he tracks Tonio down at Grutter's country house and kills Grutter's brothers Rémy and Louis while rescuing him. On the way back to Paris, Tony learns Jo has cracked under the pressure and agreed to meet Grutter at his house with the money. When he arrives Grutter tells him Tony has already snatched the child and kills Jo. Seconds too late to save his friend, Tony is mortally wounded by Grutter before killing him as he tries to flee with the loot. Bleeding profusely, Tony drives maniacally back to Paris and delivers Tonio home safely before dying at the wheel as police and bystanders close in on him and a suitcase filled with 120 million francs in cash. ===== ===== On the surface of Mars, the Mars Rover is destroyed by an unknown force. Astronomer George Herbert (Howell) and his wife Felicity (Van Wyk Loots) are packing for a trip to Washington D.C. to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. George's son Alex tries to spot Mars through his telescope, but actually discovers a meteorite entering Earth's atmosphere. George is called to work about the incident, and his wife and son leave early for Washington without him. As he drives to work, a crashing meteorite disrupts all technology in the area. An alien "walker" emerges from the meteorite and massacres the witnesses with an energy weapon, George barely escaping with his life. George decides to meet with his younger brother Matt in Hopewell before moving on to D.C.. Despite rumours that D.C. has suffered some of the worst of the invasion thus far, George continues his journey and meets with Sgt. Kerry Williams, the last remaining member of his squad. George and Kerry meet with Lt. Samuelson, a power-mad soldier with unrealistic notions of resistance against the invaders, who rejects George and Kerry as cowards. In Hopewell, the aliens launch a heavy insurrection and George and Kerry find Matt dying in the trail of destruction. George is separated from Kerry in the confusion and escapes the attack. A Pastor, Victor, finds George and describes his belief that the invasion is a form of the Rapture. The two go on together towards D.C.. Victor's faith in Christianity is deeply shaken when a hysterical former member of his church curses God for the death of her young children. George and Victor witness the final effort of the military to fight off the walkers who are overwhelmed as the aliens begin using chemical weapons to disperse their opposition. The two seek refuge in the abandoned house of a veterinarian for food and medical supplies when the neighborhood is flattened by another of the aliens' ships. Hiding in the house's ruins deep in the aliens' camp, Victor concludes that God has abandoned them, and rejects his religion altogether. Rations become sparse and the aliens begin harvesting humans. George finds rabies vaccines with the hope that it can spread among the aliens and give them a chance to escape. Victor regains his faith after George successfully infects one of the aliens, only for it to kill Victor and leave. George realizes after a few days that the aliens have left the area and he continues his journey on foot to Washington D.C.. George reunites with Kerry and Samuelson, who has made himself a general and is building a resistance under his own dictatorship. Samuelson senselessly murders Kerry, and George in turn murders Samuelson. George finally reaches Washington, which is completely destroyed. He offers his life to the aliens, but finds that they are all dead. A handful of human survivors emerge and reveal to George that the aliens have been dying from a virus. George finds Felicity and Alex alive. ===== Marge Simpson invites the Flanders, the Lovejoys, the Hibberts and the Van Houtens to a dinner party. While the other guests enjoy themselves, Kirk and Luann Van Houten bicker. They get more quarrelsome as the party continues and Luann demands a divorce. Kirk moves into a singles complex and gets fired from his job at the cracker factory. Luann adjusts to life as a single parent with Milhouse and starts dating Chase, an American Gladiator. At Moe's, Kirk muses that he never saw the divorce coming and regrets being a worse husband. Kirk's cheap girlfriend Starla tosses his demo tape on the street while stealing his car, so Homer tries to console him and boasts that his marriage to Marge is rock-solid. However, Homer soon starts to fear that his marriage may end in divorce because he is a poor husband. Homer enlists Lisa's help to save his marriage, but she is unable to offer any advice beyond observing that he is lucky to have Marge as his wife. He recalls their no-frills wedding, followed by a cheesy wedding cake at a roadside truck stop. To save their marriage, Homer performs selfless gestures for Marge which only annoy her. Deciding that Marge deserves a fresh start, Homer secretly files for a divorce. Marge returns home that night and is surprised to find all of the Simpsons' friends gathered in the living room. Homer declares that he wants to be remarried, with a perfect wedding this time. Reverend Lovejoy reads the rambling wedding vows Homer has written himself, and Marge and Homer are remarried. Kirk tries to reconcile with Luann by singing her a corny love song from his demo tape. Luann rebuffs him and Chase kicks him out of the house. ===== Richard, a coal miner from Essen, returns after eleven years of being a Soviet prisoner of war in Siberia. In the meantime, his wife, two sons, and one daughter have reached a minimum standard of living without him. When he is unexpectedly repatriated in 1954, he has severe problems in reintegrating himself with his family and country. His wife is running a small business, his elder son has become a Communist challenging his father's ideals of the Nazi time, his daughter flirts with British soldiers who are his former enemies, while his 11-year-old son Matthias, who never knew his father, admires a local football hero instead, Helmut Rahn of Rot-Weiß Essen. While Richard is initially very stern about Matthias' love for football, he gradually softens such that, on the night before the final game, father and son drive to Bern to see the match. An additional plot of the movie is the personal triumph of Helmut Rahn, for whom Matthias becomes a lucky mascot. Rahn, nicknamed "The Boss", has a successful record at club level, though is rarely chosen to play at national level in trainer Sepp Herberger's team. A third more light-hearted comic relief story line revolves around the fictional sports reporter Paul Ackermann and his wife, who travel to the World Cup despite their fundamentally different views on the importance of football. There are several miraculous events in the film. For Richard, it is the sudden joy of scoring a goal with an abandoned football. For Rahn, it is seeing Matthias on the sideline that spurs him into scoring the winning goal. For Sepp Herberger, however, the miracles are more mundane: the sudden rain that slows down the Hungarians (however, German captain Fritz Walter tended to perform better in stormy conditions), but not so much the Germans fitted with Adolf Dassler's revolutionary screw-in football studs. For all Germans, it's the unexpected euphoria of a win that heals many wounds, becoming a symbol of the ongoing economic "miracle". ===== On a wet rainy night in Chicago, police officer Sharon Pogue is at the scene of a serious traffic accident holding the hand of one of the victims, pleading that he hold on and not give up. One year later, Sharon is frustrated with the men she dates, and has become estranged from her family for having her father arrested for beating her mother Josephine. Her father and brother, Larry, have never forgiven her, and her anger is affecting her police work. A man known only as "Catch" wanders the streets of Chicago in a trance-like state, doing good deeds for strangers and neighbors. One day he sees Sharon at a diner and watches her from across the street, and she notices him watching her. Just then a car pulls up and blasts the diner with machine gun fire, and Sharon and her partner chase after the criminals. Sharon catches up with one criminal and in the ensuing struggle, he gets her gun and shoots her twice in the chest. Seeing that she is protected by her bulletproof vest, he prepares to shoot her in the head, but Catch jumps the man and knocks the gun away, saving her life. That night, Sharon and Catch meet at a tavern and have a drink. A grateful Sharon tries to learn more about Catch, but he does not talk about himself. Sharon invites him to her apartment, and after some awkward moments between the two, they share a kiss. Catch abruptly stops and leaves the apartment, leaving Sharon confused. The next evening Sharon finds a dandelion taped to her mailbox with Catch's phone number. She calls and awkwardly invites him to breakfast at a coffee shop the next morning. When Sharon wakes up, she has second thoughts and calls Catch to cancel their breakfast date. Catch is already at the coffee shop and never gets the message. Upset at being stood up, he goes to Sharon's apartment and criticizes her for not showing up for her "appointment", and then storms out. Sharon follows him to his nearly empty apartment. Surprised at the living conditions, she demands to know more about him, but Catch refuses to reveal anything about his past. He only says that he is starting "from scratch". Following the advice of his mother-in-law Elanora, Catch calls Sharon and apologizes, and the two continue seeing each other. They go on a lakeside picnic in a state park and share a romantic swim, after which they make passionate love on the shore. In the coming days, Catch is there to comfort her after a family confrontation. His positive influence begins to show in her police work. One night they go to a blues club, and after the band has played a number, Catch notices a trumpet sitting on the bandstand. He picks up the trumpet and starts to play a soulful version of the tune "Nature Boy". As they're leaving, the owner approaches him, calling him "Steve Lambert", and asking where's he's been. Catch denies even knowing the man and walks away. The next day, Sharon investigates the name Steven Lambert in the police files and discovers that he is the man whose hand she held at the site of a traffic accident a year earlier, and that Catch's wife and child died in the accident. She goes to the house he abandoned after the accident and learns that he was a jazz musician and that the accident occurred on his son's birthday, causing Catch to create a mental block. Wanting to help Catch heal from his emotional wounds, she tries to talk to him about the accident and takes him to the cemetery to see the graves of his family, but he gets very upset and walks away. Sharon visits Elanora who is actually Catch's former mother-in-law. Sharon is looking for some way of helping the man she loves, and Elanora encourages patience and tells Sharon that Catch will find his way in his own time. At her parents' wedding vow renewal ceremony, Sharon tries talking to her father but he tells her that he feels like he doesn't have a daughter. As Sharon starts to leave, she stops and tells the videographer a wonderful story about her father playing with her and her brother when they were children. She is deeply moved by this memory. Her father overhears it and is also emotionally affected, but when Sharon looks at him, he turns away. Meanwhile, Catch finally goes to the cemetery and talks to his deceased wife and child, explaining how he remembers all the wonderful moments they shared. As Sharon leaves the reception, she sees Catch waiting by her car. They embrace and profess their love for each other. As they prepare to leave, Catch tells her that he'll drive. ===== After missing the bus, Bart and Milhouse are forced to walk to school, but they get into trouble and are arrested for stealing Chief Wiggum's squad car. Milhouse gets off but when Bart comes to the bench, Judge Constance Harm (voiced by Jane Kaczmarek) takes over and lays down the law while Judge Snyder is on his fishing trip. She holds Homer responsible for Bart's deeds and sentences him and Bart to be tethered together. Initially, this brings Bart and Homer closer together, despite Homer disrupting Bart's education and later getting cut up by glass during a baseball game. However, things soon go wrong, such as Bart being left outside in the cold while Homer drinks at Moe's, and again when Marge and Homer try to have sex when Bart does his homework, leading father and son to fight one another. Fed up with the punishment, Marge then finally cuts the tether, only for her and Homer to be brought back before Harm and have their heads and hands locked up in old-fashioned wooden stocks, as well as being slapped on the buttocks from passing cars. Unable to bear the punishment any longer, they break free with the help of Ned Flanders and decide to get back at the judge by vandalizing her houseboat. The plan goes awry when they accidentally sink the boat and are once again brought into court. When Bart pleads to take full responsibility for his parents' actions, Harm agrees and almost sentences Bart to 5 years in juvenile hall when Snyder returns from his fishing trip and declares a verdict of "Boys will be boys," dismissing the case. While driving home afterwards, Marge makes the entire family promise not to break the law again for a whole year, which Homer instantly breaks when he runs over Hans Moleman. ===== Marge grows irritated when Homer's loud snoring keeps her awake at night. Dr. Hibbert recommends an expensive surgery to correct the problem, but balks when Homer asks him to do it for free. While spending the night with Patty and Selma to get some sleep, Marge hears a news report that her old high school boyfriend, Artie Ziff, is now the fifth-richest man in the United States. She drunkenly dictates an e-mail to Artie to congratulate him on his success, but Patty and Selma turn it into a sexually provocative message, to Marge's horror. Artie, who has been deeply obsessed with Marge since high school, flies to Springfield and makes the Simpsons an offer: $1 million to spend a weekend with Marge to show her what life would be like if they were married. Eventually Marge accepts the offer to cure Homer's snoring. At first she enjoys Artie's company, but during a re-enactment of their high school prom, he tricks her into making out against her will. While trying to sneak into the prom, Homer sees them kissing and is devastated, not knowing the exact circumstances. A furious Marge leaves Artie and returns home to find Homer gone and a taped message saying he has left Springfield with Lenny -- similarly despondent over his relationship with Carl -- to work at an oil field. While working on an oil rig in West Springfield, Homer and Lenny accidentally set fire to an ant. The flames quickly spread and set the entire rig ablaze, endangering both men's lives. Bart tracks down Homer's location, worrying the entire family because West Springfield is a death trap. Marge puts aside her anger with Artie and calls him for help. He picks her up in his private helicopter and flies to West Springfield to save Homer and Lenny. At first they are reluctant to accept his help, but Artie admits defeat and tells Homer he could never win Marge's love, even with his fortune. Lenny is surprised to see Carl is also aboard the helicopter. He and Homer are saved just before the rig collapses. Instead of paying the Simpsons $1 million, Artie gives Homer a device that converts his snoring to soothing music. The device also allows Artie to watch Marge through a hidden camera and deliver subliminal messages to persuade her to leave Homer. ===== Thomas J. Watts is released from prison and assassinates the mayor. Police officer Shawn McCormick confronts the masked Watts holding the next mayor at gunpoint. She shoots Watts, who flees. The city's new mayor demands the gunman be found, while his councilmen reprimand him for disarming the police and setting up the cryo-prison where the inmates "sleep away" their sentences and emerge the same people as before. The Knight Foundation, created from a combination of Knight Industries and the Foundation for Law and Government, offers a possible solution – the "Knight 4000". Devon Miles and his partner, Russel Maddock, are green-lit on the idea, but the city wants to see a working prototype. Devon brings in Michael Knight as the test driver. The Knight 4000 has most of KITT's original features, but adds an amphibious mode that allows the car to drive on water, a heads-up display, and a stun device that can remotely incapacitate a human. Watts shoots Shawn after she discovers that some of her colleagues are working with the assassin to rearm criminals so the city will give the police their guns back. Doctors save Shawn by installing a microchip implant into her brain. She recovers, but cannot remember the details of the attack. Michael is furious that KITT has been dismantled and rebuilds KITT's AI unit, which is difficult since Maddock has sold most of KITT's technology to medical research. He reactivates KITT's logic module and installs him in the dashboard of his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. Shawn quits the police force after she learns her chief, Daniels, did not want to authorize her brain chip implant nor get involved in her case. She seeks employment with the Foundation, and Michael learns one of KITT's cybernetic chips is in her head. KITT links up with the chip and extracts her missing memories. Shawn remembers that Watts shot her and that her fellow officers were with him, including her partner. Image of the Knight 4000 in an in-film presentation Watts learns Shawn is alive and sends the corrupt cops to eliminate her and Michael, who are chased down when they try fleeing in KITT. KITT helps them evade capture by driving off a pier where he quickly sinks. Michael and Shawn are safe, but KITT is damaged when water enters his circuitry. With Watts believing Michael and Shawn dead, he captures Devon and uses mind scanning technology to discover what Devon knows, killing him afterward. Michael and Shawn swim to safety and return to the Foundation, learning of Devon's death. After Devon's funeral, the mayor terminates FLAG's contract. Michael quits, but after Shawn confronts him, he returns and retrofits the Knight 4000 with KITT's AI. Michael and Shawn follow her former partner to a warehouse where guns are stored. Shawn arranges a gun transaction with her former partner. Before he can cooperate with FLAG's investigation, Watts shoots him. Michael saves Shawn from being killed. Maddock sends KITT a copy of the prison release papers for Watts, signed by the murdered mayor. Michael has KITT print more copies, sending one with a fake signature to Daniels using her name, and a similar one to the mayor, this time with his name. Following the mayor's limo, they record a conversation between the mayor and Watts discussing the papers. After ambushing a caravan of corrupt cops, they find no guns. KITT informs Michael there is another group of police cars headed for the local mall. Maddock convinces Daniels to allow KITT to pursue them. Watts has begun a transaction with a gun buyer. When one of the corrupt cops guarding Watts sights Shawn moving in, he shoots her, and the buyer and Watts flee. Michael catches up to Watts and disarms him. A fight ensues between Michael and Watts, Michael only stopping when Watts picks up his handgun. Shawn, only slightly wounded, arrives with the other handgun, instructing Watts to drop his. Michael talks Shawn down from shooting Watts. Watts then draws another gun hidden under his coat but Michael draws out an ultrasound gun and shoots Watts, who falls to his death. After Watts' defeat, the mayor is incarcerated, Michael returns to retirement, and KITT remains at the Knight Foundation with Shawn and Maddock. The trio continue their police work. ===== In a sequence unconnected to the remainder of the episode, Stewie prevents Osama bin Laden from sending a hostile message to the United States by attacking him and killing several of his henchmen, and (in a parody of the opening scene from The Naked Gun) rides off on his Big Wheel, cycling through scenes from various films and video games. He eventually arrives at his house and runs over Homer Simpson. Upon seeing Homer on the ground, Peter asks "Who the hell is that?" Peter awakens Lois by noisily installing a red carpet in their bedroom, anticipating watching the Emmy Awards, but Lois forces him to go to Meg's school play (which resembles the musical Godspell) instead. After David Hyde Pierce's wardrobe malfunction during the ceremony, the FCC, led by Cobra Commander, receives an insignificant volume of phone calls concerning the incident, and decides to censor any content from television that could be even slightly harmful to viewers. The censorship is applied to such content as Chrissy Snow's cleavage from Three's Company, Ralph Kramden’s threats of spousal abuse on The Honeymooners and even Dick Van Dyke's name. Peter is outraged, and on advice from Tom Tucker, starts his own TV network, PTV, on which he broadcasts classic shows unedited. He also includes original programming, such as Brian and Stewie's sitcom Cheeky Bastard, Quagmire's Playboy After Dark-esque Midnight Q, Dogs Humping, and The Peter Griffin Sideboob Hour. PTV is successful, but Lois is furious about everyone's interest in perverted TV, as she is concerned over how children will be influenced by Peter's programming (in the DVD release, Peter and Cleveland, in a parody of Jackass, defecate on top of Lois' car). Brian argues that parents and legal guardians should take responsibility for what their children watch, and notes that there are worse influences besides TV. Regardless, Lois calls the FCC to have PTV shut down. This prompts Peter, along with Brian and Stewie, to perform an elaborate musical number lampooning the FCC's regulations. Although impressed with the song, the arriving FCC representatives shut down PTV. When Peter tells them that they cannot prevent people from being who they are even after they censor television, they decide to take on the challenge. The representatives start to censor any foul language and inappropriate behavior in Quahog, ruining moments of privacy: a "censor's bar" is pulled over Peter's genitals by FCC employees as he leaves the shower, all expletives are drowned out with an air horn, audible farts are overdubbed with Steven Wright punchlines, and Mayor Adam West is cautioned for shaking his penis more than once after using a urinal. Everyone in Quahog is outraged by this change except for Lois, who believes that the citizens need a lesson in decency. However, she discovers that the FCC's guidelines prevent her and Peter from having sex. Realizing the consequences of her self- righteous actions, Lois apologizes to Peter and admits he was right (prompting him to unveil a banner reading "Peter's Right!" which he had set up 15 years earlier in preparation for such an event; a clown was also supposed to appear, but he ended up dying and being reduced to a skeleton). They lobby Congress to have the FCC's rulings reversed; at first they disagree due to their strong support of the FCC, but they relent when Peter retorts by making them realize the resemblance of many Washington buildings to various private parts, including the Washington Monument to a penis, the Capitol Building to a breast and The Pentagon to an anus. With the oppression of the FCC finally over, Lois congratulates Peter, and the family watches an episode of The Brady Bunch that prominently features toilet humor. ===== Jody, a young, single, red-headed woman living in San Francisco, is attacked by a vampire and soon finds that she has become one herself. While attempting to adjust to her new nocturnal lifestyle, she finds the help of Tommy Flood, a wannabe writer who recently moved to the city and works as a night stocking manager (and champion "turkey bowler") at a local Safeway. She has him perform tasks during the day as her vampirism forces her unconscious except after sundown. As Jody and Tommy begin their life together and begin falling in love, they discover that a recent string of mysterious murders may be the work of the vampire who attacked Jody. To get to the bottom of the matter, they recruit "the Animals", Tommy's crew of stockers from the supermarket, as well as an eccentric street person and his faithful dogs known as "The Emperor." Bloodsucking Fiends is the first volume of a trilogy, followed by You Suck: A Love Story (2007) and Bite Me (2010). ===== German tourists Jasmin Münchgstettner (Sägebrecht) from Rosenheim and her husband fight while driving across the desert. She storms out of the car and makes her way to the isolated truck stop, which is run by the tough-as-nails and short-tempered Brenda (Pounder), whose own husband, after an argument out front, is soon to leave as well. Jasmin takes a room at the adjacent motel. Initially suspicious of the foreigner, Brenda eventually befriends Jasmin and allows her to work at the cafe. The cafe is visited by an assortment of colorful characters, including a strange ex-Hollywood set-painter (Palance) and a glamorous tattoo artist (Kaufmann). Brenda's son (Darron Flagg) plays J. S. Bach preludes on the piano. With an ability to quietly empathize with everyone she meets at the cafe, helped by a passion for cleaning and performing magic tricks, Jasmin gradually transforms the cafe and all the people in it. ===== Avinash and Sanjana's married life goes downhill when he realizes that she has been lying to him, even about petty things. Even though there is no concrete evidence, he is convinced that Sanjana is cheating on him. His attitude towards her changes, which becomes a cause of concern for his friends. They try in all futility to talk sense into him, but his anger towards Sanjana increases. Things come to an ugly turn when Avinash abuses and embarrasses Sanjana in a party they are attending. Sanjana heads back to their home and Avinash follows. Next day, Avinash learns that he brutally killed Sanjana in front of her uncle. A case stands in the court and he is given a life sentence. Unconvinced of his guilt, he asks his lawyer and friend Rohit for help. Avinash promises Rohit the power of attorney of his property in lieu of helping him escape. Rohit helps him escape, but backstabs him by fleeing with the money and leaving him for dead. Avinash is saved by his friend Sonia and nurtured back to safety and health. Determined to exact his revenge on Rohit, Avinash zeroes the location of latter in Malaysia. However, he is stunned to see Sanjana there, hale and alive, living with Rohit. He also narrows down and confronts Sanjana's uncle, who confirms that Sanjana was having an affair with Rohit and that he helped the duo to remove Avinash from their life. An enraged Avinash kills Sanjana's uncle and sets out to seek revenge. First, he confronts her, creating fear and panic in her heart. She tells about him to Rohit, who is sceptical and thinks that Sanjana is losing it. After Sanjana realizes this, she has a fight with him. Later, Avinash creates a rift between them, paying them back in their own coin. Unaware of all this drama, an Inspector is sent to find Avinash, who is still assumed to be missing. The Inspector also turns up in Malaysia, following the trail. Here, Rohit accidentally runs into Avinash and realizes that Sanjana was right. Sanjana is on the verge of breaking up, and Rohit becomes afraid that she might spill the beans. Rohit and Sanjana attend a party, where she almost lets the secret out. They have a confrontation and turn to go home, just like it happened with Avinash. They go into the parking lot, where Avinash is patiently waiting for them. Avinash knocks Sanjana unconscious and kills Rohit. Next day, Sanjana regains consciousness and finds that she has been arrested for killing Rohit. Based on the circumstances, Sanjana is found guilty and given life imprisonment. The Inspector, who has deduced all the story by now, meets her in her cell and expresses his satisfaction over her plight. Avinash too meets her one last time, after which he meets Sonia, indicating that he will start his life afresh with her. ===== Beverly Hills LAPD Lieutenant Raymond Tango and Downtown Los Angeles Lieutenant Gabriel Cash are considered the two best cops in Los Angeles. They are opposites in almost every way, and have an intense rivalry with each considering himself to be the best. Their actions often make headlines for their large drug busts through the Southern California area. Unbeknownst to them all the shipments actually belong to a single criminal organization headed by Yves Perret. After Tango's latest bust, Perret convinces his associates Kwan and Lopez that the two officers have become a problem and they need to remedy it. Perret, believing that having them killed is too "quick and easy", develops an elaborate scheme to discredit and humiliate them before finally torturing them to death. Individually informed of a drug deal taking place later that night, the detectives meet for the first time at the location and discover a dead, wire-tapped body just as the FBI arrive and surround the duo. Agent Wyler finds Cash's backup pistol with attached suppressor on the floor and arrests them. At their murder trial, Tango and Cash are incriminated by an audio tape; verified in court by Skinner, an audio expert, it appears to reveal them shooting the undercover FBI agent after discussing a drug purchase. With the evidence stacked against them, they plead no contest to a lesser charge in exchange for reduced sentences in a minimum-security prison; instead, they get transported to a maximum-security prison and are housed with many of the criminals they had each arrested. Once in prison, Tango and Cash are roused from their beds and tortured by Requin, Perret's henchman, and a gang of prisoners, until Matt Sokowski, the assistant warden and Cash's former commanding officer, rescues them. Sokowski recommends that they escape and provides them with a plan, but Tango opts out. When Cash tries to escape, he finds Sokowski murdered and is pursued by the guards. Tango rescues him and they head to the roof; Cash ziplines outside the prison walls, but Tango is attacked by the inmate "Face" before he can follow. Tango manages to electrocute Face by knocking him into a transformer before escaping. To clear their names, they separate; Tango tells Cash that if he needs to contact him, he can go to the Cleopatra Club and ask for "Katherine". The detectives visit the witnesses who framed them in court. Tango intercepts Wyler, who admits that Requin was in charge of the setup; Wyler gets killed in a car bomb while trying to escape. Cash discovers that Skinner made the incriminating tape himself; he starts destroying Skinner's expensive equipment until he agrees to help exonerate them. Cash finds Katherine, Tango's sister, but is quickly surrounded by cops; she helps Cash escape the night club by dressing him as a female. Later that night, Tango reunites with Cash and the duo are met at Katherine's house by Schroeder, Tango's commanding officer. He gives them Requin's address and tells them they have 24 hours to find out who he works for; Tango and Cash apprehend Requin and trick him into telling them Perret's name. Cash's weapons expert friend Owen lets them borrow a high-tech assault vehicle and the duo storm into Perret's headquarters to confront the crime lord. However, Perret has kidnapped Katherine and starts a timer that will trigger the building's automatic self-destruct procedure. After killing Perret's core security personnel and fellow crime lords, Requin appears, holding Katherine at knifepoint. He throws her aside to fight the detectives hand-to-hand and Cash kills him. Perret appears in a hall of mirrors holding a gun to Katherine's head; both detectives pick out the correct Perret and shoot him in the forehead. They gather Katherine and barely escape as the building explodes. They joke half-seriously about Cash's desire to date Katherine as a newspaper headline announces they've been completely vindicated and return to the LAPD as heroes. ===== A feline watchman gets sick, so his kitten son is enlisted to watch the kitchen. When the gangland-style rats find out that he's the one on duty, they try to take over. ===== Junior "JR" Bonner is a rodeo rider who is slightly "over the hill". Junior is first seen taping up his injuries after an unsuccessful ride on an ornery bull named Sunshine. He returns home to Prescott, Arizona, for the Independence Day parade and rodeo. When he arrives, the Bonner family home is being bulldozed by his younger brother Curly, an entrepreneur and real-estate developer, in order to build a trailer park. Junior's womanizing, good-for-nothing father, Ace, and down-to- earth, long-suffering mother, Elvira, are estranged. (Note: both Preston and Lupino were born in 1918, making them just twelve years older than McQueen.) Ace dreams of emigrating to Australia to rear sheep and mine gold, but he fails to obtain financing from Junior, who is broke, and refuses to ask Curly for it. After flooring his arrogant brother with a punch, Junior bribes rodeo owner Buck Roan to let him ride Sunshine again, promising him half the prize money. Buck thinks he must be crazy but Junior actually manages to pull it off this time, going the full eight seconds on the bull. Junior walks into a travel agent's office and buys his father a one-way, first-class ticket to Australia. The film's final shot shows JR leaving his hometown, his successful ride on Sunshine continuing to put off the inevitable end of his career. ===== Just as Mephesto is about to announce who Eric Cartman's father is, the electricity goes out, the room is darkened, and two gunshots are fired. As the lights come back on, everyone discovers that Mephesto has been shot. Chef notes that he is still alive and, along with the boys, rushes him to the hospital. Upon entering the hospital, they meet Dr. Doctor, and a nurse with no arms named Nurse Goodley; they are the only ones working in the hospital. He manages to get Mephesto on a life support system, but has many other patients to tend to. Outside, a terrible blizzard brews. While the rest of the adults in town and a visiting television crew film a reenactment for America's Most Wanted, a tree falls on the power line causing the power to go out. All of the adults are now stuck in a building until the storm settles. After only a few minutes of being trapped, the group hastily resort to cannibalism to survive. The power also goes out back at the hospital, and a plan is enacted to restore it. Dr. Doctor suggests that they split into two teams: team A, consisting of everyone in the room except Kenny, and team B, consisting of Kenny. His job is to reconnect the generator in the cold, while team A give advice to him via walkie-talkie as they enjoy some hot cocoa and TV. Once Kenny gets to the generator, he discovers that there is no wire connecting the cords, so he decides to make the connection himself to restore the electricity, fatally electrocuting himself in the process. Thanks to his brave deed, the power is restored and Mephesto survives. After casually revealing his shooter was his brother, he gathers everyone in the emergency room for the revelation of Cartman's father: his mother Liane. Mephesto explains that Liane is a hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female genitalia. He also reveals that hermaphrodites cannot have children, so Liane must have impregnated another woman on her intercourse spree. An angered Cartman then demands who his mother is, but when a narrator questions who his mother might be, he quickly refuses to pursue the issue further. ===== The class goes on a bus trip to the local planetarium. Once arriving, Cartman is tempted by a Cheesy Poofs truck parked outside, auditioning kids to sing the Cheesy Poofs song on their next television advertisement. The kids all think they will hate the planetarium, but after watching the star show, they want to go back again after the field trip. Not only do they go back, but they all also start volunteering to work at the planetarium. This turns out to be because the director, Dr. Adams, is using a brainwashing device on them. While doing so, he describes how stars are made up of hot gas, "which also comes out of Roger Ebert's mouth". Cartman sings the Cheesy Poofs song and gets selected to sing it on television, after cheating and browbeating his way past the other contestants. Stan and Kyle become concerned about the planetarium's star show. When they have Kenny go and witness the show while Stan and Kyle examine the controls, they casually increase the star projector's power, unexpectedly causing Kenny's head to explode. Stan and Kyle tell Officer Barbrady what has happened; Barbrady is skeptical but accompanies them to question Dr. Adams. Because of this, Dr. Adams brainwashes Barbrady to believe that he is Elvis Presley; he then reveals his brainwashing scheme to the boys: to have people work at the planetarium because nobody finds planetariums interesting. Meanwhile, school counselor Mr. Mackey and school nurse Nurse Gollum have learned of the mind control device through a child who earlier escaped the planetarium. They race to stop Dr. Adams, and a showdown occurs at the planetarium, with Stan, Kyle, Mr. Mackey, and Nurse Gollum against Dr. Adams and Barbrady. The boys, Mackey, and Nurse Gollum are quickly captured, tied down, and brainwashed into forgetting everything they found out. However, in the middle of the process, Cartman, upon discovering the other boys missed his commercial, angrily kicks the star projector, sending the full blast of the mind control machine into Dr. Adams' brain. Dr. Adams becomes a mindless shell collapsed against a wall. Cartman is elated that he not only was on television but saved everyone as well. ===== In a New York City bar, the brooding, mysterious forecaster Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy) is sitting and drinking from a very large brandy glass. He gets into discussions with a cross-section of affluent Americans at the bar, including local television newscaster Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), beautiful young New York society woman Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle), a California industrialist, a rancher from Arizona, and a Congressman. International news is bad, but these Americans do not want to hear it. While they all dislike Communism and appreciate the material wealth they enjoy, they also want lower taxes and don't see the need for industrial support of government. As he swishes the brandy around his snifter, Ohman tells the others that many Americans want safety and security, but do not want to make any sacrifices for it. Suddenly the news becomes worse. "The Enemy" is staging air attacks over Seal Point, Alaska and then Nome. Paratroops have landed on Alaskan airfields. Soon the enemy's plan of attack becomes clear: civilian airfields are captured as staging areas while military airfields are A-bombed. The United States fights back and attacks the enemy's homeland with Convair B-36 missions, but the enemy steadily moves into Washington and Oregon. Shipyards in Puget Sound are A-bombed with large casualties. Meanwhile, the Americans at the bar scramble to return to their lives to do what they can against the enemy, now that it is too late. Potter and Sanford fall for each other ("War or no war, people have to eat and drink... and make love!"). He continues to broadcast while she volunteers to help run a blood drive. The industrialist and the rancher both return home to find themselves on the front lines: the former caught in the battle for San Francisco, the latter in the destruction of Boulder Dam by a nuclear missile. The President of the United States makes ineffectual broadcasts with inflated claims of counter-attacks to rally the morale of the people. The enemy continues to advance with stealth attacks by troops dressed in American uniforms, including a paratrooper attack on the Capitol that kills the Congressman. New York is A-bombed, and Potter is soon killed during a broadcast. Sanford, confronted by an "enemy" soldier, jumps from a balcony. Suddenly, the image of her falling body appears in Ohman's brandy snifter. All five suddenly find themselves back in the bar, having just emerged from a hypnotic state Ohman had induced. After reassuring themselves that the recent events (including their deaths) did not really happen, they hurry off to take measures to boost military preparedness. Potter and Sanford "resume" their romance. ===== An Englishwoman named Sasha lives on France's Île d'Yeu with her infant daughter Sioffra and her husband, who is often away for business. One day, when Sasha is home alone, a young female drifter appears at Sasha's door and asks her for permission to pitch her tent in the garden. At first reserved and reluctant, Sasha eventually allows her camp in the yard and both women begin to develop a relationship with each other. Sasha decides to go shopping and leaves Sioffra in the care of the drifter, even though she is irritated by her unusual behavior. When she returns to find everything in order, she finally invites the woman to sleep inside her house. That night, the drifter sneaks into Sasha's room where she strips naked while watching her sleep. When Sasha's husband returns home on the following day, he finds an empty house. In the tent behind the house he finds Sasha bound and dead with her vagina sewn shut. The drifter, wearing Sasha's dress, holds the crying Sioffra on a ferry which is leaving the island. ===== Top flight Le Mans racing driver Michael Delaney (Steve McQueen) spots former rival Piero Belgetti's widow Lisa (Elga Andersen) buying flowers in the days before the race; he then drives to the scene of the accident which killed her husband the previous year. He has a flashback of Belgetti losing control of his Ferrari, forcing him to crash as well. Like many others, Lisa appears to feel Delaney was responsible, at least in part, for the accident. At the race she is understandably downcast while working through her emotions. In an awkward scene, Delaney looks for a place to sit in a near empty track commissary, only to ask Lisa if he may join her. There is obvious tension between them, but also respect and a hint of mutual attraction. After 13 hours of racing, Erich Stahler (Siegfried Rauch) spins his Ferrari 512 at Indianapolis Corner, causing teammate Claude Aurac (Luc Merenda) to veer off the track in a major accident. Momentarily distracted by the flames of Aurac's car, Delaney reacts too late to safely avoid a slower car, striking the guardrail and then bouncing several times across the road, striking the guardrails on each side of the road multiple times, totaling his Porsche 917. Both survive, but Aurac's injuries are extensive and he is medevaced to a hospital by helicopter. Lisa appears at the track clinic where Delaney is briefly treated. She is distraught at his crash, which stirs up emotions from Piero's passing she had been seeking to put in the past. Delaney consoles her and rescues her from a horde of reporters. After he puts her in a waiting car, a journalist asks Delaney whether his and Aurac's accident can be compared to the one with Belgetti in the previous year's race. Delaney merely stares him down. Porsche driver Johann Ritter senses that his wife, Anna, would like for him to quit racing. He suggests it, thinking she will be overjoyed. She demurs and says she would like it only if he likes it. He chides her a bit about not being entirely honest. Later the decision is taken out of his hands when team manager David Townsend (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) replaces him for not being quick enough on the track. Anna tries to comfort him, reminding him that he was planning to quit anyway. Lisa goes to Delaney's trailer to talk with him. After his brush with death she is even more drawn to him and despairs that he may meet the same fate as her husband, but Delaney finds the thrill too addictive to quit. Townsend enters and asks him to take over driving Ritter's car. After a moment's unspoken communion with Lisa, he follows Townsend who tells him "Michael, I want you to drive flat out. I want Porsche to win Le Mans." In the closing minutes of the race the two Porsches and their rival Ferraris vie for the win, with Delaney in the #21 car and teammate Larry Wilson in #22. The Ferrari leading the race retires due to a flat tire, leaving Wilson in the lead and only Delaney's archrival, Stahler, to contend with. The faster pair quickly catches Wilson. Delaney passes Stahler for second place. Slower traffic in his lane forces Delaney to brake, allowing Stahler to overtake on the left. Delaney drafts the German, then both move alongside Wilson. Delaney then takes actions that seem intended to guarantee a 1–2 Porsche win rather than going for first himself. Rather than try to pass Wilson, then possibly Stahler, Delaney switches to the right lane and drafts Wilson allowing both to pull up with Stahler. Then for good measure he bumps Stahler twice. When Stahler tries to pass again Delaney steers toward him, looking likely to bump Stahler again and send him into the guard rail, forcing him to throttle back and brake to avoid that outcome thus ensuring the desired 1–2 win for Porsche. ===== Petite Princess Yucie follows the adventures of country-girl Yucie as she is admitted by chance to the prestigious Princess Academy, where the daughters of royalty and nobles attend to learn magic, dance, etiquette, defense, art and music. There, she experiences many things in her quest to collect the "fragments" of the Eternal Tiara in hopes that she may become the legendary Platinum Princess, who is chosen every 1,000 years. Yucie, along with the four other Princess candidates who are initially her rivals but are won over by her offer of friendship, must grow in heart—if not in height—to become worthy of the Tiara. Yucie is a spunky heroine who is a genius of smiles, and who, despite her common lifestyle, is actually the daughter of a noble and former hero who has retreated from courtly life and lives in the countryside. She was discovered as a baby when Gunbard, the former Hero found her in the middle of a battle. The fragments take the form of Crystal Flowers and are scattered throughout the five worlds; Human, Demon, Heaven, Spirit, and Fairy. Strangely enough, the five candidates Yucie, Glenda, Elmina, Cocoloo and Beth are representatives of these five existing worlds in this story's universe. As the legend goes, once the Eternal Tiara is complete, it will select the Princess from the worthy candidates and can grant her one wish. Unknown to the candidates and the viewers, until almost the very end, is the sad history of the Eternal Tiara and the inevitable fate of the Platinum Princess and all the other candidates. Blindly pursuing what is her heart's lifelong desire, to finally grow up and be treated and respected like an adult, Yucie must prove her worthiness to the Tiara and sets out to do many odd jobs as part of the Academy's special Curriculum (NOTE: community service) for the candidates, such as tending flowers, babysitting a giant fluff ball, helping to run an old church, helping to run a bakery, and overseeing a kindergarten picnic. Each task seems easy at first but problems abound in every episode. The girls must overcome all obstacles and complete their tasks, no matter how daunting, in their petite bodies. The viewers later discover that all the candidates are under the same 10-year-old "curse" and their rivalry quickly turns into admiration for one another's determination in reaching their common goal. Yucie and her friends each have a reason for desperately wanting to become the Platinum Princess. In a side-story arc, Yucie is also hoping to find clues about the lost prince of the Human realm, who once saved her life while she was lost in the forest, looking for Sunset Blossoms, and whom she wishes to meet in person some day to thank him. Her memory of him is vague, and he was an adolescent at the time, so she has no idea what he may look like now or what kind of person he's become. When she encounters a young man named Arc during one of her odd jobs who looks so familiar to her, she has conflicted feelings. Arc is rude, patronizing, unfeeling and insensitive but she feels drawn to him somehow. The prince was her childhood romantic ideal, but her seventeen-year-old heart falls for Arc. To the relief of viewers who hate love triangles, Arc is actually Prince Arrow in disguise. As the girls continue to grow emotionally, their Platinum Princess candidate pendants grow in beauty and brightness as well, reflecting how much wisdom they have obtained. Towards the final story arc, Yucie and the others finally realize why the Fairy World princess was so troubled and uncooperative when Beth reveals that her father, King of the Fairy Realm, is dying. The girls are resolved in helping their friend and saving the Fairy Realm by defeating the ancient evil Diablo who threatens the existence of all the worlds. With the combined help of their stewards and friends, the girls succeed with the power they obtained as candidates, but the prince is badly injured. The final story arc begins with the final test in which a magical judge will oversee the Tiara's choice. Yucie's only wish now is to save the prince with the power of the Tiara. Upon entering the place of judgment, Yucie and her friends meet a mysterious figure, wrapped in a tattered brown cloak. The judge's identity is hinted at when she uses her magic staff to change all of the candidates' clothing similar to her own. Out of friendship for Yucie, and to support her wish to save Prince Arrow, Glenda, Cocoloo, Elmina, and Beth all renounce their candidacy, making Yucie the only choice. The Tiara accepts Yucie as its new master. However, in one final twist, the girls realize that those not chosen by the Tiara will simply vanish. Yucie refuses to accept the Tiara when she learns this, and tells the others she is determined to save the Prince some other way, as she cannot sacrifice her friends in the process. After careful thought, Glenda, Cocoloo, Elmina, and Beth ask the judge to erase Yucie's memories of them, so that she can return to the Human Realm in time to save the prince. In a tearful final goodbye, Glenda, perhaps Yucie's strongest rival, tells her to never forget to be her cheerful self. After Yucie leaves, the remaining four sketch a portrait of themselves and Yucie on a stone slab, in remembrance of their friendship, and disappear. Yucie returns to save Prince Arrow and collapses from exhaustion. The Eternal Tiara disappears after its owner makes her wish, its immense power quelled by Yucie's strength of heart, and history repeats itself. Yucie awakens to the keen sense that she has lost something of great importance to her, but cannot remember what. Her father, Gunbard, feels responsible for her misery, since he was the one who put the Tiara together and restarted the Legend in their lifetime. With the help of the fathers of the missing girls, he opens the gateway to the place of judgment so Yucie and Prince Arrow can retrieve what was lost. Yucie faces the cloaked figure once more and demands that what was lost be returned. The viewers discover that the ruined empty world that was the place of judgment is actually the lost Magic World, a sixth realm in this story's universe. The judge was actually a Platinum Princess Candidate 1,000 years ago, a princess of the Magic Realm, who refused the Tiara to save her friends, but lost her friends and her world to destruction as a result. Yucie stumbles across Cocoloo's drawing, which breaks the judge's spell and unlocks all of her memories. The princess of the Magic Realm chides Yucie for not accepting her fate, but Yucie tells her how important friends are, as they are her true strength, and recalls all the great moments she had with each of them. With her power as the Platinum Princess, her tears shine brightly on the ground, causing a miracle. All the spirits of the Magic Realm rush to Yucie, who can now hear them. She tells the princess of the Magic Realm that all who died there still love her, and that they have always been with her these 1,000 years, and they never regretted fighting alongside her to the very end. The judge realizes that she had never been alone and that she had made the right choice in trying to save her friends. Yucie's power covers the ground with Sunset Blossoms, and a Crystal Flower emerges from the ground to the hands of the Princess of the Magic Realm. The 6th and final fragment is added to the Eternal Tiara. Together, the former and present Plantinum Princess combine their strength to make Yucie's wish come true. The Magic Realm finally collapses after its last princess, smiling with joy, disappears. In the end, Yucie and her fellow former candidates are readmitted into the Academy for further study. With the curse lifted, and the Eternal Tiara again fragmented and sealed, they can finally grow up normally and enjoy their mutual friendship at their own pace. ===== Revathi (Menaka) comes to the city from a small town in search of a job and to have a good life and as it is with everyone, her problem starts with finding a house. Shyam (Shankar) wants to become a singer. His parents are against his wish to become a singer. So he runs away from home and needs a shelter. Revathi accidentally meets Shyam, who too is in search of a house through the common milk-boy, Chikku (Baiju). Chikku offers them both a house to rent if they are ready to pose as husband and wife in front of the landlord. Supran (Poojappura Ravi), a miserly moneylender who doesn't trust his much younger wife Kousalya (Thodupuzha Vasanthi) is their landlord. Revathi in search of a job, meets Ravunni Menon (Nedumudi Venu), a rich man who owns a bungalow in the heart of the city. Ravunni Menon stays with his wife whose name too is Revathi (Sukumari). Gopalakrishnan (Mohanlal) needs some investment to come up in business and life. But to get started, he ends up having to rob his stingy father (Sankaradi) of money that the latter had hidden away out of sight of tax authorities. He is in search of a rich woman he can marry. Accidentally, Revathi meets Gopalakrishnan who has come to Ravunni Menon's house to repair the electronic equipment, which he had sold to him. Gopalakrishnan thinks that Revathi is Ravunni Menon's daughter and her beauty enchants him. Revathi comes to know that there is a job in Gopalakrishnan's showroom and manages to get a job with him by playing along with his mistaken belief that she is Ravunni Menon's daughter. She is aided in this subterfuge by the fact that she shares the same name as Ravunni Menon's wife and all of his business interests are named after "Revathi". After office hours, Gopalakrishnan drops Revathi outside Ravunni Menon's house, thinking it to be her house. She always enters the bungalow through the front gate and skips out through the gate itself after hiding in the garden until Gopalakrishnan drives away. Ravunni Menon's wife, Revathi, sees her coming and going out of the bungalow and starts suspecting her husband of an affair. Gopalakrishnan frequently visits the bungalow to visit Revathi, who is never there, and Ravunni Menon thinks his wife is having an affair with Gopalakrishnan. Further her encounter with "Thenga" Govindan Pillai (C. I. Paul) makes the older Revathi believe that her husband has sons and daughters out of wedlock and, thus, is quite capable of another affair now. Shyam in the meantime begins falling in love with Revathi and to make her jealous, he pretends that he is attracted to Kousalya, who in turn thinks this to be true and is ready to elope with him after robbing her miser husband. In the climax, Gopalakrishnan sends a letter to Ravunni Menon that he is in love with Revathy, who considers it to for his wife. In the confusion Revathy reveals her identity. After a complicated fight, Revathy decides to spend the rest of her life with Shyam rather than with Gopalakrishnan, who wishes them luck. All ends good as Ravunni Menon and his wife Revathy decide to not separate, as they had planned earlier ===== There is a short animation during the game intro explaining a beautiful Princess and a Boy fall in love. But the evil wizard named Popil kidnaps her and traps her inside an enchanted forest and it is up to the Boy to rescue her. When the game is completed the Boy and Princess are happily reunited and it's revealed Popil kidnapped the Princess because he was jealous and he loves her too. ===== While swimming in a well, Kermit introduces himself as the narrator of a special about frogs. The special opens with Kermit and several other frogs sitting around a well, when a small frog they do not recognize appears. The frog introduces himself as Sir Robin the Brave, explaining that he is actually a prince. He recounts, in flashback, how he once fought an ogre named Sweetums and was transformed into a frog by Sweetums's master, a villainous witch named Taminella Grinderfall. Taminella intended to give Robin to Sweetums as his breakfast, but Robin hopped away before they could catch him. The other frogs laughingly dismiss Robin's story as a fairy tale. Kermit is more sympathetic, though he himself does not fully believe Robin. Robin reveals to Kermit that he cannot swim, and Kermit gives him swimming lessons. Nearby, they hear King Rupert the Second proclaiming that he will step down as king that evening; and his daughter, Princess Melora (who is turning nineteen that day), will be crowned queen. Robin is overjoyed, as he must be kissed by a princess in order to be returned to human form. The princess later comes to the well, and Robin learns that she is under an enchantment that prevents anyone from understanding what she says (her speech consists mostly of spoonerism). As she sits by the well, singing to herself, she accidentally drops her golden ball in the water. Robin offers to retrieve it for her if she will befriend him and take him to the palace (two conditions that must be met before she can kiss Robin). Though initially reluctant, Melora agrees; and Robin succeeds in fetching the ball, despite his limited swimming skills. Melora puts him in her basket to take him back to the palace; but before they leave, Robin learns that Taminella is also at the palace, posing as the king's sister. Robin reveals Taminella's identity to Kermit, who follows him to the palace to keep an eye on him. At the palace, it is revealed that Taminella placed the enchantment on Melora so that she could not tell anyone of Taminella's true identity. Robin asks Melora to kiss him, saying he will turn into a prince. She does not believe him; but in an effort to befriend her, he points out that he can understand her jumbled speech. They sing a duet of the song that Melora had been singing at the well; but before they can kiss, Taminella catches them. Recognizing Robin, she vows she will feed him to Sweetums before being summoned to speak with the king about the upcoming coronation. Melora tells Robin the only way to destroy Taminella's power is to "bake the hall in the candle of her brain," which Robin does not understand. As Melora and Taminella leave for lunch, Robin asks Melora to kiss him good-bye; Taminella suggests she bring Robin with them instead. At lunch, Taminella announces that she and Rupert have decided Taminella shall be crowned queen, as Melora cannot be understood. Melora frantically tries to tell her father the truth about Taminella, but he does not understand her mixed-up speech. Robin also tries to tell the king the truth, but Taminella silences him by stuffing his mouth with popovers. Unable to get through to her father, Melora storms out, leaving Robin behind. Taminella takes Robin to Sweetums's lair in a cage. Robin lulls Sweetums to sleep with a lullaby, and Kermit (who had followed them) tries to free Robin. Unsuccessful, he pretends to be Taminella and tricks Sweetums into freeing Robin himself (while sleepwalking). But Sweetums, realizing he is tricked, wakes up and intents on eating Robin. He chases him and Kermit around his lair, smashing furniture to pieces with his club in the process, until a falling pillar knocks him unconscious. Kermit and Robin escape, but learn that the coronation is starting. Robin tells Kermit to go back to the swamp and summon the other frogs, while he tries to figure out what "bake the hall in the candle of her brain" means. Kermit and the frogs return just before Taminella is to be crowned, and help Robin disrupt the coronation. Amidst the chaos of the hopping frogs, Melora yells out "The candle of her hane!"; and Robin realizes "bake the hall in the candle of her brain" really means "break the ball in the handle of her cane." He bites Taminella on the arm, causing her to drop her cane and shatter the glass ball in its handle. Taminella's power destroyed, she collapses and turns into a bird, which flies off. Melora's enchantment is broken, and she tells the truth to her dumbfounded father. She expresses her thanks to the frogs, particularly Robin, whom she kisses in gratitude. Robin turns back into a prince, to everyone's amazement, and professes his love for Melora. King Rupert the Second, still confused but not wanting to spoil the happy ending, crowns Melora queen; everyone sings in celebration. Back at the well, Kermit reveals that Robin and Melora were eventually married, and that he still sees them sometimes. They then appear with their infant son, whom they have named after Kermit. Kermit expresses how flattered he is to have a prince named after him, and leaps into the well and swims around, humming Melora's song from earlier as the credits roll. ===== Danny Reilly (Dean Paras) is a self-obsessed man who, after dumping Renee Weber (Neve Campbell), falls in love again with Corey Wells (Katie Wright). But Renee makes it her mission to see that Danny never falls in love again and sets out for attack when he falls for Corey. Who will get the girl when Danny's constantly talking roomie Tim (Stefan Brogren) falls in love with Corey too? ===== ===== This story is set in Shanghai in the early 1990s. One day, Guan Hongying is found dead. Chief inspector Chen Cao, along with his subordinate, Yu, start to investigate this murder case and find that this young woman lived a double life. On one side, Guan Hongying was a member of Communist Party and a popular public figure. On the other, she lived a “degenerate” lifestyle, away from the eyes of the public. This secret lifestyle brings the case into the public's attention, once this young woman dies. During the investigation, Chen and Yu discover that the number one suspect, Wu Xiaoming, is the son of Wu Bing, a high-ranking Party cadre. Wu and his father put the detectives under a huge pressure to avoid investigating, but with the help of Ling's father, Chen succeeds to save himself from the pressure and sends Wu to the court. Chen and Yu struggle to discover his motive to kill Guan. Eventually, Chen discovers her motive: Guan had been blackmailing Wu to make him leave his wife. Wu did not want Guan to jeopardize his political career. As a result, he murdered her. Chen brings these facts to the attention of his superiors. ===== In 1947, Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons), a middle-aged European professor of English literature, travels to the United States to take a teaching position in New Hampshire. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze (Melanie Griffith), largely because he is romantically attracted to her 12-year-old daughter Dolores (Dominique Swain), also called "Lo", who he sees while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of approximately her age (whom he calls "nymphets"), Humbert is immediately smitten with Lo and marries Charlotte only to be near her daughter. Charlotte finds Humbert's secret diary and discovers his preference for her daughter. Furious, Charlotte runs out of the house, when she is struck by a car and killed. Her death frees Humbert to pursue a romantic and sexual relationship with Lo, whom he nicknames "Lolita". Humbert and Lo then travel the country, staying in various motels before eventually settling in the college town of Beardsley, where Humbert takes a teaching job and Lo begins attending Beardsley Prep School an all-girls Catholic school. Humbert and Lo must conceal the nature of their relationship from everyone- strangers they encounter when traveling as well as the administration at Beardsley. They present themselves to the world as a father and daughter. Over time, Lo's increasing boredom with Humbert, combined with her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension that leads to a fight between them. Humbert's affection for Lo is also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty (Frank Langella), who has been pursuing Lo since the beginning of the pair's travels. Lo eventually escapes with Quilty, and Humbert's search for them is unsuccessful, especially as he doesn't know Quilty's name. Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lo asking for money. Humbert visits Lo, who is now married and pregnant. Her husband, Richard, knows nothing about her past. Humbert asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money. Lo also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to exploit them for child pornography. Quilty abandoned her after she refused to be in one of his films. After his visit with Lo, Humbert tracks down Quilty and murders him. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison. He dies in prison in November of 1950 due to a coronary thrombosis, and Lo dies the next month on Christmas Day from childbirth complications. ===== 700 years have passed since the great war involving Aura Machines ended. In his attempt to conquer Byston Well, the Black Knight Rabaan kidnaps the princess of the nation Baran-Baran – a nation said to hold a legendary treasure. Rabaan also captures Shion, a young hunter. Shion and the princess, Remul, escape from Rabaan's castle and return to their homeland. There, they find out that the Baran-Baran treasure is actually a powerful Aura Battler, Sirbine. Riding the Sirbine, Shion fights against Rabaan's evil forces. ===== The story begins with a quick shot of a small mouse with a bell on his tail- Tiki -climbing up to the top of a small tower. After viewing some fireworks and a few balloons being thrown up in the air, Tiki falls asleep. Elsewhere, four mice- Apollo (the leader), Brutus (the muscle), Watt (the gentleman) and Pete (the gut) -find that the provisions that had been set aside in the attic for a party have been absconded with. Naturally upset, everyone begins pointing fingers; thankfully, Apollo finds a more likely cause of the theft, as he spies a sneaky rat crawling around up in the attic. Knowing that rats travel in packs, Apollo rallies his fellow mice and begins the hunt for the whole rat pack. Finding the rats one by one (and knocking a few senseless for good measure), the gang eventually find the commanding officer behind the whole rat invasion hiding in the garage and- following an intense battle between the mice gang and rats -knock him out. Despite the victory, the mice still have no clue who these rats are or what they're up to; however, they are quickly stunned out of their wondering as Bonnie- the local high-society city mouse -comes in, worrying about her brother, Tiki, as he has gone missing. Thinking he's lost in the Back Alley, she joins Apollo's squad and rushes off, allowing the rat officer from earlier (who faked his fainting) to run away. ===== By 2012, humans had colonised many planets throughout the Solar System, including Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The planet Earth however, had become polluted and overpopulated. In an attempt to save mankind, President Battaille ordered the creation of the M.A.N.T.A. ship. M.A.N.T.A. Force was an acronym for Multiple-Air-Naval-Terrain-Assault Force and was the most advanced Earth ship ever built. It was designed to work in any environment and its engine was fuelled by a substance called Thorium. Following the successful launch of the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, the World Government created the Red Venom to help Manta Force colonise New Earth. On Saturn however, many of the people had grown tired of living in plastic bubbles and believed New Earth should belong to them. During its test runs therefore, the Red Venom was hijacked by a group of highly skilled soldiers called the Viper Squad. Under the command of Major Vex, the Viper Squad attempted to use the Red Venom to hijack the M.A.N.T.A. Force ship, so they could be the ones to colonise New Earth. Later the two opposing sides joined forces to fight off attacks from a cybernetic alien known as Mad Karnock, who was served by an army of robots called Karnoids. Another enemy also emerged from the swamps of New Earth in the form of the vile Stinkhorn, leader of the Stenchoids, who attempted to destroy the humans with their decomposing Stench weapons (which excreted a green compound similar to Play-Doh). ===== The story concerns mischievous mythical creatures, the Gremlins of the title, often invoked by Royal Air Force pilots as an explanation of mechanical troubles and mishaps. In Dahl's book, the gremlins' motivation for sabotaging British aircraft is revenge of the destruction of their forest home, which was razed to make way for an aircraft factory. The principal character in the book, Gus, has his Hawker Hurricane fighter destroyed over the English Channel by a gremlin, but is able to convince the gremlins as they parachute into the water that they should join forces against a common enemy, Hitler and the Nazis, rather than fight each other. Eventually, the gremlins are re-trained by the Royal Air Force to repair rather than sabotage aircraft, and restore Gus to active flight status after a particularly severe crash. The book also contains picturesque details about the ordinary lives of gremlins: baby gremlins, for instance, are known as widgets, and females as fifinellas, a name taken from the great "flying" filly racehorse Fifinella, that won both The Derby and Epsom Oaks in 1916, the year Dahl was born. ===== In March 1873, two Norwegian-born women who lived on the desolate Smuttynose Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, were brutally murdered. Maren Hontvedt, a sister of one of the victims, survived by hiding in a sea cave until dawn. The murdered women were her older sister Karen Christensen and Anethe Christensen, their sister-in-law. A man named Louis Wagner was tried and hanged for their murders, mostly on circumstantial evidence. His conviction has been argued about, as some people think he could not have done it. More than a century later, Jean Janes, a magazine photographer working on a photo essay about the murders, returns to the Isles with her husband Thomas and five-year-old daughter. Thomas is an award-winning poet who has been struggling with alcoholism and not writing much. Hoping to have a small vacation, they travel on a boat skippered by Thomas' brother Rich, who has brought along his girlfriend Adaline. Jean becomes immersed in the details of the 19th-century murders after discovering a purported memoir of Maren in the library. Gradually, tensions increase among the group on the sloop, with unspoken emotions surfacing. Jean begins to suspect an affair between Thomas and Adaline. The novel is split into two parts: the present day, told from Jean's point of view and in the present tense; and 1873, told in first person from Maren's point of view, her "memoir." ===== The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France. While visiting sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey discovers two museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote Un Coeur Simple. While trying to identify which is authentic, Braithwaite learns that Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty ("Une cinquantaine de perroquets!", p. 187) that had been held in the collection of the municipal museum. Although the narrative is mostly about tracking down the parrot, many chapters focus on Flaubert's love life . ===== The game starts off with the end of Dark Castle, where Prince Duncan toppled the Black Knight's throne. In the original version, after toppling the throne, the Black Knight stands up shaking his fist, and a gargoyle drops Duncan in Trouble 3. In the newer version by Delta Tao Software, Color Dark Castle, after defeating the Black Knight on advanced, the Black Knight's throne falls down, off the bottom of the screen, and Duncan does a victory dance as it fades out. When starting a new game in Beyond Dark Castle, the player sees Duncan approaching a fireplace and mantle. Duncan attempts to remove a nearby torch from the wall, only to have the whole wall turn around like a trapdoor. Duncan finds himself in a large anteroom, where there are five pedestals. Over the course of the game, the player collects five orbs to fill these pedestals, opening a gate that leads to the final duel with the Black Knight. ===== Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a hardened criminal, is recuperating in a hospital from a shootout where he killed a police officer. At the hospital, he is secretly visited by his fiancée, Teena Ricante (played by 15-year old Debra Paget). A shady lawyer arrives in Rome's room. Niles (Berry Kroeger), is representing another crook who is being held for a jewel robbery during which a woman was tortured and murdered. Niles attempts to coerce Rome into confessing to this robbery, supposedly in exchange for a deal which would see him escape the electric chair. Niles threatens to harm Teena, Rome reacts by trying to strangle the lawyer. Later, in order to protect Teena from both Niles and the police, who are searching for her in relation to the robbery, Rome charms his nurse, Miss Pruett (Betty Garde), into providing the girl a hiding place: Pruett's own apartment. After being transferred to the prison's hospital ward, Rome secures the help of a trustee (Walter Baldwin), to help him escape. He goes to Niles' office and demands money to allow he and Teena to get away. When Rome forces the lawyer to open the safe, he discovers the stolen jewels and makes Niles confess that the woman accomplice in the murder/robbery was a surly, heavy-set masseuse named Rose Givens (Hope Emerson). When Niles goes for a gun, Rome knifes him to death and takes the jewels, concealing them in a locker in a subway station. Rome is being pursued by police lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), and his partner, Lieutenant Collins (Fred Clark). Candella knows Rome's family well, having grown up in the neighborhood. Rome, feverish from his bullet wounds and exceedingly tired, goes to his parents' apartment seeking his mother's help. His teenage brother, Tony, himself skirts the law assisting the brother he worships. Their mother tells Rome he must leave; while she is preparing him some food, Candella shows up. He suspects Rome is hiding in the apartment and tells the woman, whom he calls 'Mama', he must search. Rome and Tony appear; Rome holds a gun on Candella, Tony makes sure the coast is clear and Rome escapes. Afterwards, Candella tells Tony to sit down for a talk. Rome uses an old girlfriend, Brenda (Shelley Winters), to track down Rose Givens' address. His injuries are causing him to weaken so badly that she enlists an unlicensed foreign doctor to attend to him in her car. The doctor administers enough care, for $200, to temporarily revive Rome. Brenda finally drops him off at Rose Givens' address. There, Rome makes a deal with Rose to give her the jewels for "five-thousand dollars, a car, a way out of the country and a good night's sleep". Candella becomes more obsessive about his pursuit of Rome. He and his partner stay up all night considering the case. The next morning at the station, the two talk to the trustee from the prison, the man who was in charge of the hospital ward when Rome escaped, and a group of foreign doctors. The doctor who treated Rome is among them and, when Candella discovers the $200 in the man's wallet, he confesses. Meanwhile, Rose has set out to secure the funds and to make the travel arrangements for Rome. He telephones Candella at the police station to inform them that Rose will be on the subway platform retrieving the jewels from the locker. He makes the mistake of assuming he would be in possession of the money and the tickets before she opens the locker, but Rose makes it clear she will not hand those over until she has the jewels. As she takes them from the locker, she is apprehended. She struggles and manages to fire her gun, aiming for Rome; instead she hits Candella in the shoulder. Candella flees the hospital and goes to Miss Pruett's apartment, knowing that she is the only one who could know where Teena is. Pruett tells him that Rome summoned Teena to meet him at a church. Outside the church, Rome meets Tony and, because he did not receive the money from Rose, orders the boy to go home, steal their parents' savings and return with it as fast as possible. Tony cannot bring himself to do this and seems to have decided to break with his brother's criminality. Inside the church, Teena informs Rome she will not go away with him. As he tries to smooth-talk Teena into changing her mind, Candella arrives and fills the girl in on all the human wreckage Rome has left behind him. Teena leaves. As the two men leave the church, Rome takes advantage of Candella's gunshot wound and makes to escape along the street. Candella shoots and kills him. In the aftermath, Tony breaks down and cries after helping Candella into a police car. The police lieutenant consoles the boy. ===== Seventeen-year-old Ben Marshall is the sensitive son of complacent Robert, a vicar obsessed with ornithology, and domineering Laura, who performs numerous charitable acts while ignoring her family's emotional needs, such as forcing Ben to deliver meals on wheels despite his having no car. Despite her strong religious beliefs, she is having in an affair with Peter, a young curate portraying Jesus Christ in the church pageant she is directing. Laura refuses to allow Ben to have a mobile phone or hang around people his own age, and uses his driving lessons to be ferried around for her affair with Peter. Miserable, Ben writes poems for Sarah, a girl he knows from church. He reads her his most recent "Sarah Poem", but she rejects him. At his mother's urging, Ben seeks summer employment to pay for the upkeep of Mr. Fincham, a mental patient Laura has adopted. Ben responds to an ad placed by Dame Evie Walton, an alcoholic, classically trained actress; reduced to a role on a daytime soap opera when her career began to fade, she has not worked since. In search of a companion to assist her in the house and drive her to various appointments, Evie immediately takes to Ben and offers him the position. When Laura refuses to allow Ben to take a camping trip with Evie, she suggests they take a drive in the country instead, then "swallows" the car key when they find an idyllic spot for a campsite. In the morning, she announces Ben must drive her to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she has been invited to read poetry. Their road trip provides an epiphany for Ben, who has his first sexual experience with Bryony, one of the young women organizing the event. He learns the importance of accepting responsibility and honouring commitments, and finds the inner strength to stand up for himself. Returning home, Ben is interrogated by Laura, who believes Evie has "corrupted" him. Evie comes to visit, but is rebuffed by Laura. Ben discovers this, and in a fit of rebellion walks offstage during the pageant, riding his bike to Evie's house where the two friends reconcile. Evie arrives at the Pageant and, "portraying" the part of God, whips the crowd into a religious frenzy, allowing Ben to join her in the car park. Laura chases the pair and tries to weaponise the Bible once more, but Ben finally tells her to go away. Laura is run over by Mr. Fincham, whose mental state has steadily declined. When Ben visits her at hospital, she tells him her near-death experience has made her a prophet, and that God says she must divorce Robert and run off with Peter, whom the Bishop has fired; Peter takes Laura to Cornwall to convalesce. Ben storms off, and runs into Sarah, who prattles in a condescending tone that the affair was God's will. Finally speaking his mind, Ben tells Sarah to "fuck off". On Evie's advice, Ben buys a tent and moves into the backyard. Robert tries to speaks to him, but Ben shouts that Robert, not Laura, should have asked for divorce. His father reveals that he did, explaining that he loved his wife and had tried to be faithful even when she was not. Finally free from Laura's brand of Christian fanaticism, Ben and his father reconnect. Ben visits Evie to tell her he is moving to Edinburgh to attend university and study English. Evie is pleased, though saddened Ben will no longer be working for her. He reads her a last poem expressing his gratitude for her friendship, for which Evie compliments him. Ben promises to visit her whenever he is home from college. The film closes as Ben, finally free, walks through the park on his way home to start packing for Edinburgh. ===== U.S. Army lieutenant Duke Halliday (Robert Mitchum) is robbed of a $300,000 payroll by Jim Fiske (Patric Knowles). When Halliday's superior, Captain Vincent Blake (William Bendix), suspects him of having taken part in the theft, Halliday has no choice but to pursue Fiske into Mexico. Along the way, he runs into Joan Graham (Jane Greer), who is after the $2000 she loaned to her boyfriend, Fiske. The two join forces, though they are not sure at first if they can trust each other. Fiske stays one step ahead of the couple, while they are in turn chased by Blake. When Halliday is knocked down trying to stop Fiske from getting away, he comes to the attention of Police Inspector General Ortega (Ramon Novarro). Halliday claims to be Blake (using identification he took from the captain after a brawl.) Ortega lets him go after Fiske, but keeps an eye on him. His suspicions are confirmed when the real Blake shows up at his office for help. Halliday and Graham track Fiske to an isolated house in the desert, where Fiske is meeting with Seton (John Qualen), a fence who offers Fiske $150,000 in untraceable bills in exchange for the payroll. The couple are captured by Seton's henchmen. When Blake shows up, Halliday is initially relieved to be rescued, until he learns that Blake is actually Fiske's partner in crime. Fiske wants to take Graham with him, but Blake makes it clear that he intends to dispose of both her and Halliday. Fiske reluctantly gives in. However, when he starts to leave, Blake shoots him in the back, explaining that his ex-partner, apparently still at large, can take the blame for the missing payroll. Halliday then points out to Seton that if Blake gets rid of him too, he can give the stolen money back to the army and keep the $150,000 for himself. Taking no chances, Seton pulls a gun on Blake. When Graham creates a distraction, a fight breaks out, which Graham and Halliday win. ===== Perfect babies are created in laboratories outside the woman's womb and then put up for adoption. When the wife of an aspiring local politician becomes pregnant she reluctantly confides in her husband and is secretly sent to an institution where she can spend the remaining months of her pregnancy and give birth to her baby. However, she feels imprisoned and threatened there and starts doubting her husband's good intentions. =====