From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== An American pulp novelist, Mark Kendrick (Nicol), meets his rich neighbours across the lake and is soon seduced by beautiful blonde Carol (Brooke), the wife of Beverly Forrest (James), despite Beverly treating him as a friend. When Beverly is badly injured by a fall on his boat, Carol fails to persuade Mark to throw him overboard, so Carol does it. After first refusing to go along with her plan to call it an accident, Mark agrees when Carol tells him that they will meet up again later and live off her dead husband's money. However, after the coroner rules the death an accident, Mark does not hear from her, but the still suspicious CID inspector on the case arranges for Mark to find out that Carol has secretly married another old flame and changed residences. Mark angrily confronts her, but she sneers that she only used him and that there is nothing he can do about it without implicating himself. Mark decides to confess, thinking that, although it will probably mean a prison sentence for him, it will mean the rope for Carol. ===== A Scotsman named Gerald MacTeam (Richard Carlson) abruptly breaks off his engagement to pretty Kitty (Veronica Hurst) after receiving word of his uncle's death. He inherits a mysterious castle in the Scottish highlands and moves there to live with the castle servants. Kitty refuses to accept the broken engagement and travels with her aunt (Katherine Emery) to the castle. When they arrive, they discover that Gerald has suddenly aged and his manner has changed significantly. After a series of mysterious events occur in both the castle and the hedge maze outside, they invite a group of friends, including a doctor, to the castle in the hopes that they can help Gerald with whatever ails him. Although the friends are equally concerned by Gerald's behavior, they are at a loss as to its cause. One night, Kitty and her aunt steal a key to their bedroom door (which is always locked from the outside) and sneak out into the mysterious maze. There they discover Gerald and his servants tending to a frog-like monster. The monster panics upon seeing the strangers and runs back to the castle, hurling itself from a top-story balcony to its death. At the end, Gerald explains that the amphibious creature was the actual master of the castle, Sir Roger MacTeam, and that he and his ancestors were merely its servants. The death of Sir Roger releases him from his obligation and he is able to return to a normal life. ===== Twin sisters, Shane (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Elizabeth Dalton (Ashley Olsen), live separately from one another on opposite ends of the country after their parents divorced years earlier. Shane, who lives with their mom in Los Angeles, is a chilled out, tree-hugging vegetarian who is very into nature and spiritual beliefs, while her estranged sister Lizzie, who lives with their dad in Washington D.C, is a level-headed grade A student with a driven personality. However, unknown to each other, they both apply to be contestants on a reality game show filmed in Mexico called The Challenge, which tests contestants strength and survival skills in various challenges as they work as part of a team in order to win college scholarships. Marcus, (Brian Skala), the head intern at "The Challenge", informs the show's producer, Max (Joe Michael Burke), of their distant relationship. Knowing they dislike each other, Marcus puts both girls on the same team, Team Mayan, as part of a scheme to boost the show's ratings. Backstage, Shane meets and becomes close to Adam (Lukas Behnken), a laid-back jock who is put on the opposite team, Team Aztec. Team Aztec also includes Kelly (Sarah Bastian), an overly-competitive swimmer, JJ (Diana Carreno), a ditzy "triple threat" with dreams of stardom, and Charles (Ty Hodges), a calm and intuitive city boy who plans to study psychotherapy. Along with Shane and Lizzie, Team Mayan also includes Anthony (Theo Rossi), an Italian-American food enthusiast, and Justin (Zakk Moore), a surfer and skater from sunny Florida. At their first meeting, Max informs the group of the rules, which include a prohibition on romantic entanglements between contestants, as it can result in disqualification from a challenge. During the first challenge, Shane and Lizzie's bickering prevents them from working together, and Team Aztec wins the points. When Anthony and Justin make them realize that they'll need to pull together, they start putting aside their differences for the sake of the team. Over the first few days, Shane and Adam become more and more close, and Kelly suspects something is going on. At the same time, Lizzie starts hanging out behind the scenes with Marcus, although he is still being asked by Max to spy on the girls. Marcus finds out that Shane hates heights and that Lizzie is afraid of snakes, information which Max plans to use later on. Team Mayan win the fourth and fifth challenges, making the score 3-2 to Team Aztec, and Shane and Lizzie both start to respect what the other knows. One night, the girls sneak out to meet Marcus and Adam; but they're followed by Max who fails to get video footage of their meeting However, Kelly manages to take a picture of Adam and Shane kissing and shows it to Max. He disqualifies both of them from the next round, which Team Mayan eventually win, tying the score of the teams involved in "The Challenge". Team Mayan is given a boat party as reward for their victory, which Team Aztec have to cater for in costume. At the party, Marcus tells Lizzie that he's been behind Max's troublemaking, and she dumps him. Later on, Shane and Lizzie manage to patch things up with each other for good after realizing that they're not all that different from each other. The final challenge will decide the winners of "The Challenge". It is an assault course featuring various challenges including walking harnessed on a bridge high over a canyon (incorporating knowledge about Shane's established fear) and then walking on narrow planks over a pit of snakes (reflecting Max's knowledge of Lizzie's fear). The girls help each other out and Team Mayan reaches the totem before the others, making them the winners. All all of the contestants receive college scholarships. With the experience coming to a close, Kelly apologies for the mistakes, Lizzie makes up with Marcus, and then the girls retaliate against Max by tipping slime on him while taking a picture. The Challenge was Mary-Kate and Ashley's last direct to video production, so in a short scene at the end of the movie, some of the twins' boyfriends from past movies and TV-shows show up and begin arguing over who the girls loved more. This leads to the girls leaving together while saying, "Boys may come and go, but we'll always have each other—and that's not just in the movies." ===== Lois has booked Cheesie Charlie's for Stewie's upcoming first birthday party and sends Peter, along with Chris, to drop off the deposit check at the restaurant. However, once they arrive, they seek the opportunity to play with all the machines, causing Peter to lose his watch in a claw machine. A little boy wins his watch, which causes Peter to become angry and tries to force the watch off the child. Five minutes later, the manager sees this and asks Peter to leave. But once Peter shows the deposit check, he immediately apologizes and exclaims how they are very excited to host Stewie's birthday party. Peter, angered by how he was treated, states that they will not be celebrating Stewie's party there, which causes a crowd of people to circle around the manager shouting for the reservation. Peter, realizing what he has just done, immediately returns home with a poorly crafted lie in an attempt to evade Lois' aggravation which involves him saying that they are Nazis who torture, kill and kidnap people. He pretends that he is already planned an extravagant party at home so that Lois does not have do any work. Meanwhile, Stewie misinterprets the meaning of his birthday and assumes that the same mysterious "Man in White" who delivered him as an infant will be returning to force Stewie back into Lois' womb from which he escaped just one year ago. Meg cries all the way home to Peter from cheerleading practice, and has been having trouble fitting in at school. Later, she discovers a new friend named Jennifer. Meanwhile, Stewie makes it all the way to the airport looking for tickets but then is stopped by a member of staff. The man then gives Stewie some advice saying that running from your problems never solves anything. Stewie then reflects on this, deciding to finally face "The Man in White". But before he leaves, he wishes the man luck before freezing him in carbonite. Peter tries desperately, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to put together a party in time for Stewie's birthday. He finally reroutes a circus into the Griffins' backyard, saving the day - that is, until he reveals to Lois that he gave Meg permission to go to a party at her friend's house. Lois, who wanted the whole family together for Stewie's party, is upset with Peter for letting Meg go. What Peter and Lois do not realize is that Meg's "party" is actually a cult meeting where all the members are about to commit group suicide. Peter goes to retrieve Meg from her "party" and asks Meg to come as Lois wants her there. Meg just says it is just a birthday party and asks who would remember if she was not there. Peter says that Lois would as she remembers everything and that her best memories are of when Meg and her brothers were born. He then has an epiphany: having the entire family at the party is more for Lois than Stewie. Realizing how terrible she has been, Meg agrees to come home and the cult members agree as well. Peter makes a toast, then looks at his watch before he can drink the poisoned punch and pulls Meg out before she can drink hers, oblivious to the fact that he is saving her life in the process while the cult members all die. The cult leader chases after them while wearing his ceremonial white robe and is mistaken by Stewie as "The Man in White." Stewie does away with him and, feeling victorious, joins the others to enjoy his party. ===== The film begins at the start of the rice-planting season in northern Italy. In an effort to escape the law, two small-time thieves, Francesca (Doris Dowling) and Walter (Vittorio Gassman), hide among the crowds of female workers heading to the rice paddies in the Province of Vercelli in the upper reaches of Piedmont in the Po Valley. While attempting to board the train for the fields, the pair runs into Silvana (Silvana Mangano), a peasant rice worker. Francesca boards the train with Silvana, who introduces her to the planters' way of life. Francesca does not have a work permit, and struggles with the other "illegals" to find a place on the rice fields. After initial resistance from documented workers and bosses, the illegals are allowed a place in the fields. At work in the fields, Silvana and Francesca meet a soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco (Raf Vallone), who unsuccessfully tries to attract Silvana's interest. Toward the end of the working season, Walter arrives at the rice farm and becomes involved in a plot to steal a large quantity of rice. Excited by his criminal lifestyle, Silvana becomes attracted to Walter. She causes a diversion to help him carry out the heist, but Francesca and Marco manage to stop Walter and his accomplices. Francesca and Silvana face each other, armed with hand-guns. Francesca confronts Silvana and explains that she has been heartlessly manipulated by Walter. In response, Silvana turns her gun on Walter and kills him. Soon afterwards, her guilt leads her to commit suicide. As the other rice workers depart, they pay tribute to her by sprinkling rice upon her body. ===== Voyager is suddenly rocked by a distant explosion. Although ship systems appear undamaged, all information and control screens are suddenly locked and display an ominous omega symbol. Captain Janeway arrives on the bridge and instructs the crew not to worry. She orders the ship's computer to override the lockout and transfer all sensor data to her ready room, but leaves without explaining to her bemused crew what happened. After locking herself in her office she asks the computer to brief her on the detection of an object referred to as “Omega.” Janeway also summons Seven of Nine, an ex-Borg member of the crew, to her ready room, as the Borg have their own knowledge of “Omega.” Because Voyager has been separated from Starfleet, the Omega Team (a specially trained group which would normally be tasked with handling situations involving "Omega") cannot be brought in to deal with the problem. Janeway decides to break the code of silence involving the symbol and share information with her senior officers. She announces that a molecule hazardous to relativistic space travel, the Omega Particle, has been detected and she intends to follow the “Omega Directive,” an order that requires Starfleet captains to destroy Omega at all costs—even the Prime Directive is null and void under such circumstances. As Janeway explains, Omega is unstable and even the explosion of one particle out in space can nullify subspace for many light years around it, rendering faster-than-light travel impossible within that area. Moving to the coordinates of the explosion they encounter the planet and its resident alien race that created it. The society is on the brink of economic failure and is making Omega particles to “give their children a chance at a future.” Seven of Nine displays an interest in the scientists' methods, however, hoping to save the Omega particles and harness them because she believes them to be perfection—infinite parts working together as one (like the Borg)—despite ample Starfleet and Borg evidence of their incredible danger: The Borg, referring to the Omega particle as “Particle 010,” are expected to assimilate it at all costs, even though they have experienced the loss of a large quantity of Borg vessels to Omega particle explosions while trying to harness the power of the substance. Seven notes, furthermore, that the ability to harness Omega would make the Borg a nigh-unstoppable force; this remark only strengthens the urgency and motivates Janeway to wipe out all Omega particles, at any cost, as determined by the Omega Directive. Eventually and through a series of issues and difficulties, all the particles are safely gathered together and detonated a safe distance from the alien planet. Just before they are destroyed, they inexplicably stabilize, and Seven is able to view perfection for 3.2 seconds, “an eternity worth.” ===== Sir James Bond 007, a legendary British spy who retired from the secret service 20 years previously, is visited by the head of British MI6, M; CIA representative Ransome; KGB representative Smernov; and Deuxième Bureau representative Le Grand. All implore Bond to come out of retirement to deal with SMERSH, who have been eliminating agents; Bond spurns all their pleas. When Bond continues to stand firm, his mansion is destroyed by a mortar attack at the orders of M (who is, however, killed in the explosion). Bond travels to Scotland to return M's remains to his grieving widow, Lady Fiona McTarry. However, the real Lady Fiona has been replaced by SMERSH's Agent Mimi. The rest of the household have been likewise replaced, with SMERSH's aim to discredit Bond by destroying his "celibate image". Attempts by a bevy of beauties to seduce Bond fail, but Mimi/Lady Fiona becomes so impressed with Bond that she changes loyalties and helps Bond to foil the plot against him. On his way back to London, Bond survives another attempt on his life. Bond is promoted to the head of MI6. He learns that many British agents around the world have been eliminated by enemy spies because of their inability to resist sex. Bond is also told that the "sex maniac" who was given the name of "James Bond" when the original Bond retired has gone to work in television. He then orders that all remaining MI6 agents will be named "James Bond 007", to confuse SMERSH. He also creates a rigorous programme to train male agents to ignore the charms of women. Moneypenny recruits Coop, a karate expert who begins training to resist seductive women: he also meets an exotic agent known as the Detainer. Bond then hires Vesper Lynd, a retired agent turned millionaire, to recruit baccarat expert Evelyn Tremble, whom he intends to use to beat SMERSH agent Le Chiffre. Having embezzled SMERSH's money, Le Chiffre is desperate for money to cover up his theft before he is executed. Following up a clue from agent Mimi, Bond persuades his estranged daughter Mata Bond to travel to West Berlin to infiltrate International Mothers' Help, an au pair service that is a cover for a SMERSH training center. Mata uncovers a plan to sell compromising photographs of military leaders from the US, USSR, China and Great Britain at an "art auction", another scheme Le Chiffre hopes to use to raise money. Mata destroys the photos. Le Chiffre's only remaining option is to raise the money by playing baccarat. Tremble arrives at the Casino Royale accompanied by Lynd, who foils an attempt to disable him by seductive SMERSH agent Miss Goodthighs. Later that night, Tremble observes Le Chiffre playing at the casino and realises that he is using infrared sunglasses to cheat. Lynd steals the sunglasses, allowing Evelyn to eventually beat Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat. Lynd is apparently abducted outside the casino, and Tremble is also kidnapped while pursuing her. Le Chiffre, desperate for the winning cheque, hallucinogenically tortures Tremble. Lynd rescues Tremble, only to subsequently kill him. Meanwhile, SMERSH agents raid Le Chiffre's base and kill him. In London, Mata is kidnapped by SMERSH in a giant flying saucer, and Sir James and Moneypenny travel to Casino Royale to rescue her. They discover that the casino is located atop a giant underground headquarters run by the evil Dr. Noah, secretly Sir James's nephew Jimmy Bond, a former MI6 agent who defected to SMERSH to spite his famous uncle. Jimmy reveals that he plans to use biological warfare to make all women beautiful and kill all men over tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. Jimmy has already captured The Detainer, and he tries to convince her to be his partner; she agrees, but only to dupe him into swallowing one of his atomic time pills, turning him into a walking atomic bomb. Sir James, Moneypenny, Mata and Coop manage to escape from their cell and fight their way back to the casino director's office where Sir James establishes Lynd is a double agent. The casino is then overrun by secret agents and a battle ensues. American and French support arrive, but just add to the chaos. Jimmy counts down a series of hiccups, each bringing him closer to doom. Eventually the atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale with everyone inside. Sir James and all of his agents then appear in heaven, and Jimmy Bond is shown descending to hell. ===== M, the Head of the British Secret Service, assigns James Bond, 007, to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale- les-Eaux casino in northern France. As part of Bond's cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, personal assistant to the Head of Section S (Soviet Union). The CIA and the French Deuxième Bureau also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into an intense confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond; Le Chiffre wins the first round, cleaning Bond out of his funds. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, the CIA agent, Felix Leiter, gives him an envelope of money and a note: "Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA." The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffre's minders to kill Bond. Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH. Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and tortures Bond, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back. During the torture, a SMERSH assassin enters and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so, but cuts a Cyrillic 'Ш' for шпион (shpión, Russian for spy) into Bond's hand so that future SMERSH agents will be able to identify him as such. Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in hospital, and he gradually realises that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving the Secret Service to settle down with her. When he is released from hospital they spend time together at a quiet guest house and eventually become lovers. One day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Lynd. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide. She leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish Royal Air Force pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a new life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler—a SMERSH agent—she realised that she would never be free of her tormentors, and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger. Bond informs his service of Lynd's duplicity, coldly telling his contact, "The bitch is dead now." ===== Casino Royale was inspired by certain incidents that took place during Fleming's wartime career at the Naval Intelligence Division (NID), or by events of which he was aware. On a trip to Portugal, en route to the United States, Fleming and the NID Director, Admiral Godfrey, went to the Estoril Casino. Because of Portugal's neutral status, Estoril's population had been swelled by spies and agents from the warring regimes. Fleming claimed that while there he was cleaned out by a "chief German agent" at a table playing chemin de fer. Godfrey told a different story: that Fleming only played Portuguese businessmen, and afterwards fantasised about playing against German agents. The failed attempt to kill Bond at Royale-Les-Eaux was inspired by Fleming's knowledge of the attempted assassination of Franz von Papen, Vice-Chancellor of Germany and an ambassador under Hitler. Both Papen and Bond survived their assassination attempts, carried out by Bulgarians, because trees protected them from the blasts. The torture scene in which Bond's genitals are thrashed while he is strapped to a bottomless chair was a version of a French-Moroccan torture technique, ', in which the steel string of a mandolin was used to slice in half the testicles of British wartime agents. Fleming also included four references in the novel to "Red Indians", including twice on the last page, which came from a unit of commandos, known as No. 30 Commando or 30 Assault Unit (30AU), composed of specialist intelligence troops. The unit was Fleming's idea, and he nicknamed the troops his "Red Indians", although they disliked the name. ===== Stewie is in terrible pain from teething and cannot find comfort anywhere. When his mother Lois tells him that his pain will ultimately pass, it gives him the idea to build a machine that will move time forward to the point where his teething will have already stopped. Meanwhile, Lois tells Peter to drive their son Chris to his soccer match, then come right back to look after Stewie. However, Peter's friend Quagmire is there, and has brought beer, so Peter decides to ignore Lois and stay at the game. While there, another member of the crowd insults Chris. Enraged, Peter punches this person in the face, only to discover that it is a pregnant woman who looks and sounds like a man. Peter is put under house arrest for assault and soon begins to miss his friends. Peter has a vision of the Pawtucket Patriot, a fictional ale mascot, from his ale can label and on his advice opens a bar in his basement so that his friends can come to visit. The basement bar soon becomes a local hotspot. Lois is upset about this, until she gets a chance to sing on stage before an appreciative crowd. As she savors the spotlight over the next few days, Peter becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the attention she is getting, especially from the male patrons. Peter demands that she quit singing, but she refuses. Peter is soon cornered by the neglected wives of his bar's patrons, and invites them to drag their husbands out from his bar. Meanwhile, Stewie’s time machine plans are accidentally discovered by Lois, who shows them around to the bar's patrons. Angered and upset that his plans have been discovered, Stewie runs upstairs. Soon after, the wives storm the bar and Lois tells them that she only wants to feel appreciated and special, something to which all the other women relate. Meanwhile, Quagmire accidentally starts a fire. Upstairs, Stewie takes drastic measures to protect his plans, programming the machine to go back in time before he drew them up. In the bar, Peter and Lois have a heart-to-heart conversation, and they do not immediately notice that the bar is burning. When they try to escape, the stairs become blocked and they are trapped. Stewie reverses time just as Peter is having an epiphany about how poorly he treats Lois, and seconds before the basement bar goes up in flames. They all travel back in time, to when Lois asked Peter to take Chris to the game. While he is getting ready, Peter trips on Stewie's time machine, destroying it and injuring his leg, thus preventing him from taking Chris to his soccer match, while Stewie is left to suffer with more teething pain. ===== Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are a husband and wife living in Ohio — far from the surf and sand of their earlier lives together. Frankie is a stressed out car salesman and former "Big Kahuna" of the surf scene in California while Annette bottles her own sense of angst up in a bevy of shopping. Together they are raising a son, Bobby, who is in the throes of rebellion against his seemingly square folks. One day, the family decides to take a vacation to Hawaii. Deciding to stop in California to visit their daughter Sandi (Lori Loughlin), Frankie and Annette are appalled to learn that she has been making time with surfer Michael (Tommy Hinkley) throughout her time there. The family misses their flight to Hawaii, and ultimately end up staying in California, much to the chagrin of Frankie. Frankie and Annette get caught up with the lives of their old friends and their old beach, and thus their last beach adventure begins. Along the way, Frankie must work together with a new generation of younger surfers while nearly ruining his marriage by dallying with Connie Stevens — one of several pop-culture icons appearing in the film, including Fishbone, Don Adams, Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Edd Byrnes, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Barbara Billingsley, Dick Dale, Stevie Ray Vaughan, O. J. Simpson, and Pee-wee Herman. In the end The Big Kahuna overcomes his own fears and proves that he is still the king of the surfers, as he takes back his title and saves the beach from a gang of beach punks led by Zed (Joe Holland). ===== Needing extra money, Chris decides to get a newspaper route, to help pay for a birthday gift for a girl he likes. Among those on his paper route is an old man named Herbert who is sexually attracted to Chris. Chris later gives his crush a present, but his clumsiness and over-eagerness scares her off. Nevertheless, he decides to retain the paper route. Shortly thereafter, however, Chris witnesses a robbery at a convenience store, and his bike ends up being stolen by the burglar as a getaway vehicle (even though he takes the bike but runs on foot). Later, at the police station, Chris identifies the thief from a police lineup. However, Peter shows up and tells the thief (unknowingly) that he is here to pick up Chris who was going to "finger the guy who held up the convenience store" and then proceeds to give the thief a picture of Chris, along with various other personal information. When the thief escapes and swears vengeance on Chris, the family is placed in the Witness Protection Program where they are relocated to Bumblescum, a tiny town in the deep South, to which Meg complains, although Lois remains somewhat optimistic. Deciding to embrace the South, Peter decorates his car like the General Lee, though he fails to roll the passenger window down for Brian when beckoning him to enter. He then becomes sheriff with Brian as his deputy, although the two neglect their responsibilities in order to drink. Stewie joins a hillbilly jug band, Meg becomes the most successful and popular student among her classmates (besting Oinky the Pig), and Chris makes a new friend named Sam. Later, when Peter interferes with a Civil War reenactment, claiming the North won the war, despite how they were being portrayed in the play, Sam's dad says Chris and Sam can no longer be friends and Peter and Brian have to answer to the civil war survivors. Not knowing of this, Sam unexpectedly kisses Chris, and Chris assumes Sam is gay. As Chris writes in a journal about what happened with Sam, Brian hears the story (as Chris was speaking out what he wrote), and he explains that kissing Sam seemingly felt right. When the two meet again, Chris explains to Sam that even though he is flattered that Sam likes him, he is not interested in a romantic relationship and feels that they are probably better off as just friends. Just before the two go swimming, Chris finds out that Sam is a girl, and due to his bad experiences around girls, Chris now feels awkward around Sam. At a party that is held that night, Sam explains to Chris that he had no problem talking to her, when he thought she was a guy, so she tells Chris to think of her as a boy who he can make out with. After the FBI agents who were hired to look over the Griffins home in Quahog accidentally reveal the location of the family (telling the criminal where Meg was, but not Chris), the criminal tracks the family down in Bumblescum, and attempts to kill Chris. During the confrontation, however, the criminal is shot and killed by Sam's father. With the criminal gone, the Griffins return to Quahog with Chris having to leave Sam behind. Once they are home, they realize that someone had left 113 messages on their answering machine, all of which turn out to be from Herbert, who is looking for Chris. ===== Joanna Eberhart is a young wife who moves with her husband Walter and their two daughters from Manhattan to the idyllic Fairfield County, Connecticut, suburb of Stepford. Loneliness quickly sets in as Joanna, a mildly rebellious aspiring photographer, finds that the women in town all look flawless and are obsessed with housework, but have few intellectual interests. The men all belong to the exclusionary local Men's Association, which Walter joins to Joanna's dismay. Neighbor Carol Van Sant's sexually submissive behavior to her husband Ted, and her odd, repetitive behavior after a car accident also strike Joanna as strange. Joanna subsequently befriends the sloppy, irrepressible Bobbie Markowe, with whom she finds common interests and shared ideas. Along with the glamorously beautiful tennis playing trophy wife Charmaine Wimperis, the three organize a women's liberation meeting, but the gathering is a failure when the other wives continually divert the discussion to cleaning products. Joanna is also unimpressed by the boorish Men's Association members, including the intimidating president Dale Coba. Stealthily, the Men's Association collects information on Joanna including her picture, her voice, and other personal details. When Charmaine returns from a weekend trip with her husband as an industrious, devoted wife who has fired her maid and destroyed her tennis court, Joanna and Bobbie start investigating, with ever-increasing concern, the reason behind the submissive and bland behavior of the other wives. Bobbie and Joanna start house hunting in other towns. Later, Joanna wins a prestigious contract with a photo gallery. When she tells Bobbie the good news, Joanna is shocked to find her freewheeling friend has abruptly changed into another clean, conformist housewife, with no intention of moving. Joanna panics and visits a psychiatrist, to whom she voices her belief that the men in the town are in a conspiracy of somehow altering the psyches of the women. The psychiatrist recommends that she leave town until she feels safe. After leaving the psychiatrist's office, Joanna drives back home to Stepford passing a few computer tech plants and a biotech plant with Coba's namesake. She stops by the local pharmacy to pick up the drugs that were prescribed by the psychiatrist before returning home in the evening. In an attempt to gather her children and leave town, Walter startles Joanna and tells her that they are away from home with their "friends." Walter demands that Joanna go up to her room and lie down, which she eventually does but not before locking herself in after a physical confrontation with her husband. Later she sneaks out of the house during a thunderstorm and stops by Bobbie's house once more in a attempt to find her children, but Bobbie tells her that she is home alone doing housework and offers Joanna a cup of coffee. Joanna grows frustrated when Bobbie refuses to engage with her in a meaningful way. Desperate and disturbed, Joanna cuts her hand with a kitchen knife, and asks Bobbie if she bleeds as Joanna shows her own blood to Bobbie. Bobbie answers by telling Joanna to "look at your hand," which only angers her and then stabs Bobbie with the same knife. Bobbie does not bleed, but goes into a loop like a malfunctioning computer, revealing to Joanna that the real Bobbie has been replaced by a gynoid. Joanna rushes back home and bludgeons Walter with a firepoker, demanding he tells where her children were taken to. Her husband tells her the children are at the Men's Association. Despite sensing she may be the next victim, Joanna sneaks into the mansion which houses the Men's Association. There, she finds the mastermind of the whole operation, Dale Coba (who tells Joanna that her children are really with "Charmaine"), and eventually her own unfinished robot replica. Joanna is shocked when she witnesses its soulless, empty eyes. The Joanna-replica brandishes a nylon stocking and smilingly approaches Joanna to strangle her. Some time later, the artificial "Joanna" placidly peruses the local supermarket amongst the other "wives," all glamorously dressed. As they make their way through the store, they each vacantly greet one another. The android "Joanna" now has the normal- looking eyes of her original human counterpart. Ultimately, still photos depict a smiling Walter driving the family car, picking up his new "Stepford Wife" from the supermarket with their children in the backseat. ===== Keung, a hot-tempered but intelligent police detective, is assigned along with a new partner, Wah, to investigate a series of strange murders. ===== Infuriated at being told to write one final column after being laid off from her newspaper job, Ann Mitchell prints a letter from a fictional unemployed "John Doe" threatening suicide on Christmas Eve in protest of society's ills. When the letter causes a sensation among readers, and the paper's competition suspects a fraud and starts to investigate, editor Henry Connell is persuaded to rehire Ann, who schemes to boost the newspaper's sales by exploiting the fictional John Doe. From a number of derelicts who show up at the paper claiming to have written the original letter, Ann and Henry hire John Willoughby, a former baseball player and tramp in need of money to repair his injured arm, to play the role of John Doe. Ann starts to pen a series of articles in Doe's name, elaborating on the original letter's ideas of society's disregard for people in need. Willoughby gets $50, a new suit of clothes, and a plush hotel suite with his tramp friend "The Colonel", who launches into an extended diatribe against "the heelots", many heels who incessantly focus on getting money from others. Proposing to take Doe national via the radio, Ann is given $100 a week by the newspaper's publisher, D. B. Norton, to write radio speeches for Willoughby. Meanwhile, John is offered a $5,000 bribe from a rival newspaper to admit the whole thing was a publicity stunt, but ultimately turns it down and delivers the speech Ann has written for him instead. Afterward, feeling conflicted, he runs away, riding the rails with the Colonel until they reach Millsville. "John Doe" is recognized at a diner and brought to City Hall, where he's met by Bert Hanson, who explains how he was inspired by Doe's words to start a "John Doe club" with his neighbors. The John Doe philosophy spreads across the country, developing into a broad grassroots movement whose simple slogan is, "Be a better neighbor". However, Norton secretly plans to channel support for Doe into support for his own national political ambitions. When a John Doe rally is scheduled, with John Doe clubs from throughout the country in attendance, Norton instructs Mitchell to write a speech for Willoughby in which he announces the foundation of a new political party and endorses Norton as its presidential candidate. On the night of the rally, John, who has come to believe in the John Doe philosophy himself, learns of Norton's treachery from a drunken Henry. He denounces Norton and tries to expose the plot at the rally, but Norton speaks first, exposing Doe as a fake and claiming to have been deceived, like everyone else, by the staff of the newspaper. Despondent at letting his now- angry followers down, John plans to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the City Hall on Christmas Eve, as indicated in the original John Doe letter. Ann, who has fallen in love with John, desperately tries to talk him out of jumping (saying that another John Doe, has already died for the sake of humanity), and Hanson and his neighbors tell him of their plan to restart their John Doe club. Convinced not to kill himself, John leaves, carrying a fainted Ann in his arms, and Henry turns to Norton and says, "There you are, Norton! The people! Try and lick that!" ===== Annie John, the protagonist of the book, starts out as a young girl who worships her mother. She follows her everywhere, and is shocked and hurt when she learns that she must some day live in a different house from her mother. While her mother tries to teach her to become a lady, Annie is sent to a new school where she must prove herself intellectually and make new friends. She then falls in love with a girl by the name of Gwen. She promises Gwen that she will always love her. However, Annie later finds herself admiring and adoring a girl that she called the "Red Girl". She admires this girl in all aspects of her life. To Annie this girl is the meaning of freedom because she does not have to do any daily hygienic routines like the other girls. Annie John is then moved to a higher class because of her intelligence. For this reason, Annie is drawn away from her best friend Gwen, while alienating herself from her mother and the other adults in her life. It later becomes clear that she also suffers from some kind of mental depression, which distances her from both her family and her friends. The book ends with her physically distancing herself away from all that she knows and loves by leaving home for nursing school in England. ===== The game's story takes place during World War II in an alternate history. Thor's Hammer Organization (THO), is a shadowy organization with connections all over Europe and the goal of world domination. THO knows that this goal cannot be attained while there are powers capable of challenging them, and aims to use its connections and advanced technology to make sure the two sides of World War II devastate each other, while THO makes a grab for power when both are exhausted. The obvious influence of Norse mythology on the organization's name is further shown by the fact that all THO members use a mythological name as their call sign. In exchange for the services of both Allied and Axis higher-ups, Thor's Hammer provides them with some of their inventions, including Panzerkleins. Panzerkleins are very difficult to destroy, as they are essentially immune to small arms fire. ===== ===== Ruthie narrates the story of how she and her younger sister Lucille are raised by a succession of relatives in the fictional town of Fingerbone, Idaho (some details are similar to Robinson's hometown, Sandpoint, Idaho). Eventually their aunt Sylvie (who has been living as a ) comes to take care of them. At first the three are a close knit group, but as Lucille grows up she comes to dislike their eccentric lifestyle and moves out. When Ruthie's well-being is questioned by the courts, Sylvie returns to life on the road and takes Ruthie with her. The novel treats the subject of housekeeping, not only in the domestic sense of cleaning, but in the larger sense of keeping a spiritual home for one's self and family in the face of loss, for the girls experience a series of abandonments as they come of age. The events take place in an uncertain time, in that no dates are mentioned; however, Ruthie refers to her grandfather living in a sod dugout in the Midwest, before his journey to Fingerbone, while she herself traverses adolescence sometime in the latter half of the 20th century, as Ruthie reads the novel Not as a Stranger, a bestseller from 1954. ===== The emotionless, calculating Dominators have put together an Alliance to invade Earth and eliminate the threat posed by their unpredictable "metahumans". After purging the galaxy of numerous potential threats to their plan - securing Darkseid's non-interference by assuring him that they would not destroy the planet and thwart his quest for the Anti-Life Equation, assassinating many former members of the disbanded Green Lantern Corps, and attacking the Omega Men - the Alliance launches a massive attack on Earth, overrunning Australia and establishing a base there from which to conquer the rest of the planet. Meanwhile, the Spectre appeals to the Lords of Order to allow Earth's magicians to join in Earth's defense, only to be told that he must instead ensure their neutrality for fear of provoking the Lords of Chaos from intervening on behalf of the invaders and escalating the conflict into a cataclysm that would mean the destruction of everyone involved. The Alliance tenders an offer to spare the human race provided that the world's governments surrender their metahumans, but the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly rejects this offer.Invasion! #1 (January, 1989) Superman leads a counterattack against the main Alliance base. The counterattack is temporarily disrupted by the Daxamite observers, who become the equal of Superman and temporarily defeat him, but fall prey to Earth's atmospheric differences from their own world and how it affected their extreme and lethal sensitivity to lead poisoning. After Superman helps save them, they decide to withdraw from the Alliance and help defend Earth. To that end, a small fleet of troop transports arrive and demand that the Alliance withdraw from Earth. The Dominators decide to ignore them, unaware of the effect a yellow sun has on Daxamites, until the fleet deploys several thousand soldiers into space as a near invincible attack force. This, combined with key defeats in various theaters, and a full-scale and uncontrollable riot aboard the Alliance Gulag, leads to a quick collapse for the Alliance and individual surrenders by each former member.Invasion! #2 (February, 1989) However, a young Dominator, aspiring to prominence among his people, manages to isolate the "metagene" in humans that enables a person to develop superhuman powers. On his own initiative, he develops and deploys the Gene Bomb, a device that bathes the Earth in an energy that affects every metahuman exposed to it, causing them to lose control of their powers and fall into a coma. Since the point of the invasion was to harness these beings, not eradicate them, the Dominator is imprisoned by his own government. A group of heroes unaffected by the Gene Bomb, led by the Martian Manhunter, manage to take information from the Dominator's mind crucial to reversing the effects of the Gene Bomb and restore the affected metahumans back to health.Invasion! #3 (March, 1989) ===== Rachel Carlson (Moore) is a successful American murder mystery author living in London with her five-year-old son, Thomas (Balawi) and her second husband, Brian (Cusick), a successful book editor who has been unable to get any of his own works published. His mother being too busy working on her latest novel to play with him, Thomas goes outside to play outside their canalside home, only to accidentally drown, devastating Rachel and putting a tailspin on her marriage and her ability to finish her latest novel. Several months later, Rachel still blames herself for the death of her son, and is not only unable to finish her book but is also a simple signature away from formally being divorced from her husband. In an effort to finish her novel and find some emotional peace, Rachel moves away to a remote cottage on the Scottish coast. However, she soon starts to see the ghost of her late son, who at one point drags her into the waters and at another point moves a set of magnets on the refrigerator. A local town psychic informs Rachel that the spirit of her son is trying to tell her something, but the rest of the locals warn Rachel that the psychic is just a troubled woman. Troubled by the possibility that her son has returned from the grave, Rachel shares her troubles with a young and handsome lighthouse keeper named Angus (Matheson) and the two spark a romance that suddenly goes awry when she learns that Angus died seven years ago by committing suicide after murdering his wife and her lover in the lighthouse. Rachel fears that she may be going insane and her efforts to prove otherwise, and learn more about the suicide-murder of Angus, falter when the news articles about the tragedy have gone missing from the local library, and Sharon Winton, her best friend and writer for a British tabloid journal, goes missing after Rachel saw her killed by Angus in the lighthouse. It eventually comes to light that her soon to be ex-husband has been having an affair with her best friend, and that they paid a man, Patrick, to pose as Angus in order to cause an already emotionally unstable Rachel to act crazy enough in public that, when they make her murder look like a suicide, no one will suspect foul play. Just as Rachel is about to leave town, convinced that her dead son is trying to warn her that her life is in danger, she is drugged by Sharon and Brian and dumped into the sea, only to be saved when the keys to the chains she has been put into suddenly fall into the water and thus allow her to free herself and make her way to the lighthouse in an effort to seek some revenge. (It was previously written on a slate, "don't forget, look behind you" and Rachel heard her son repeating those lines in water). However, after a brief fight at the lighthouse, Sharon hits her head and is killed in the kitchen, and Brian is murdered by Patrick, possessed by the spirit of Angus, in much the same way that Angus's wife and lover died seven years previously. Patrick then jumps from the tower, as Angus had done. Rachel leaves town, with the promise that no one will be allowed to access the lighthouse, so that Angus's spirit can finally rest. She returns to her home in London, where her son died, having decided to celebrate his life instead of mourning his death. ===== Rose Da Silva and her husband Christopher are deeply disturbed by their adopted daughter Sharon's constant sleepwalking and nightmares about Silent Hill, a town in West Virginia that was abandoned 30 years ago due to a massive coal seam fire. Against Christopher's wishes, Rose takes Sharon on a trip to Silent Hill to find answers. Her erratic behaviour concerns police officer, Cybil Bennett. Rose flees from Cybil, but when a girl steps out into the road, Rose crashes and blacks out. Waking up some time later, Rose finds herself in the foggy dimension of Silent Hill and realizes that Sharon is missing. Searching the town for Sharon, Rose pursues the same girl she encountered prior to the crash, who turns out to resemble Sharon. At various points, the town transitions into a nightmarish dimension inhabited by inhuman monsters, including the fearsome Pyramid Head. Cybil catches Rose and tries to arrest her, but then finds out that they are trapped and all the road ends are gone. Rose runs away and is encountered by many other inhuman creatures. Rose survives the transitions and consequently learns of the existence of Alessa Gillespie, a young girl burnt by the Brethren, the town's fanatical cult. Her mother Dahlia wanders the streets as an outcast, guilty for her negligence that led to Alessa's doom. Rose is later joined by Cybil, also trapped in the foggy dimension of the town due to a giant fracture isolating Silent Hill. Meanwhile, in the real world, Christopher searches the abandoned town with policeman Thomas Gucci, but their search is in vain. Upon finding a photo of Alessa, Christopher goes to the orphanage where Sharon was adopted. Gucci appears, revealing he lived in Silent Hill and saved Alessa from the fire. He encourages Christopher to end his futile search and go home. In the Silent Hill dimension, Rose and Cybil explore a hotel the Brethren once used, accompanied by Anna, a Brethren member, where they find the burnt remains of a ceremonial chamber. Rose also encounters the girl, revealed to be an aspect of Alessa. When the town transitions into the dark dimension, Rose, Cybil, and Anna flee to an old church but Pyramid Head emerges and skins Anna alive. Inside, Christabella, the high priestess of the Brethren and Alessa's aunt, suggests a "demon" knows where Sharon is. Her followers lead Rose and Cybil to a hospital, claiming the demon is in the basement. Christabella sees a photo of Sharon from Rose's locket and brands Rose and Cybil as "witches" due to Sharon resembling Alessa. Cybil fights the Brethren members but Christabella orders them to violently beat her. Rose enters the basement, but she is barricaded by a group of weapon-wielding nurses who appear to be almost completely blind due to their disfigured, covered faces. Although light and sound attract them, Rose manages to sneak through them, inadvertently startling them into attacking each other. She flees and enters Alessa's room. In a flashback, it is revealed that Alessa was stigmatised by the townspeople for being a bastard. Christabella convinces Dahlia, a formerly devout Brethren member, to "purify" Alessa, after Alessa is raped by the school janitor while attempting to hide from her tormentors. Christabella immolates Alessa during a ritual but Dahlia realises this and alerts Gucci. They arrive too late as the ritual goes awry, igniting the infamous coal seam fire. Hospitalised, Alessa's rage grew and manifested as Dark Alessa, who is responsible for the shifting dimensions of Silent Hill. Her remaining innocence is later manifested as Sharon, who is taken to the real world to be adopted. Desperate to find Sharon, Rose allows Dark Alessa access to the church by fusing with her body. Meanwhile, Sharon, protected by Dahlia, is captured by the Brethren. In the church, Christabella burns Cybil to death and plans to do the same to Sharon. Rose intervenes and confronts Christabella in regards to her crimes but Christabella stabs her in the heart in retaliation. Rose's blood summons both the original Alessa and Dark Alessa, who bisect and kill Christabella and her followers (excluding Dahlia) with razor wire. Rose rescues Sharon, and, upon seeing Dark Alessa, Sharon and Alessa/Dark Alessa reunite into one body. Rose and Alessa leave the town and return home. When they return home, it is revealed that they are still in the foggy dimension, separated from reality. Meanwhile, Christopher is alone in the real world but discovers that the front door has mysteriously opened. ===== In 479 B.C., one year after the Battle of Thermopylae, Dilios, a hoplite in the Spartan army, begins his story by depicting the life of Leonidas I from childhood to kingship via Spartan doctrine. Dilios's story continues and a Persian herald arrives at the gates of Sparta demanding "earth and water" as a token of submission to King Xerxes—the Spartans reply by throwing the envoy and his escort into a deep well. Leonidas then visits the Ephors, proposing a strategy to drive back the numerically superior Persians through the Hot Gates. His plan involves building a wall in order to funnel the Persians into a narrow pass between the rocks and the sea: negating the Persian advantage in numbers, and giving the Greeks' heavy infantry the advantage over the vast waves of Persian light infantry. The Ephors consult the Oracle, who decrees that Sparta may not go to war during the Carneia. As Leonidas angrily departs, an agent from Xerxes appears, rewarding the Ephors for their covert support. Although the Ephors have denied him permission to mobilize Sparta's army, Leonidas gathers three hundred of his best soldiers in the guise of his personal bodyguard. They are joined along the way by a few thousand Arcadians. At Thermopylae, they construct the wall, using slain Persian scouts as mortar. Stelios, an elite Spartan soldier, orders an enraged Persian emissary to return to his lines and warn Xerxes, after cutting off his whipping arm. Meanwhile, Leonidas encounters Ephialtes, a deformed Spartan whose parents fled Sparta to spare him certain infanticide. Ephialtes asks to redeem his father's name by joining Leonidas' army, warning him of a secret path the Persians could use to outflank and surround the Spartans. Though sympathetic, Leonidas rejects him since his deformity physically prevents him from holding his shield high enough, potentially compromising the phalanx formation. The battle begins soon after the Spartans' refusal to lay down their weapons. Using the Hot Gates to their advantage, as well as their superior fighting skills, the Spartans repel wave after wave of the advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally approaches Leonidas and offers him wealth and power in exchange for his submission. Leonidas declines and mocks the inferior quality of Xerxes' fanatical warriors. In response, Xerxes sends in his elite guard, the Immortals; the Spartans nonetheless defeat them with few losses, with slight help from the Thespians. On the second day, Xerxes sends in new waves of armies from Asia and other Persian subject states, including war elephants, to crush the Spartans, but to no avail. Meanwhile, an embittered Ephialtes defects to Xerxes to whom he reveals the secret path in exchange for wealth, luxury, women, and a Persian uniform. The Arcadians retreat upon learning of Ephialtes' betrayal, but the Spartans stay. Leonidas orders an injured but reluctant Dilios to return to Sparta and tell them of what has happened: a "tale of victory". In Sparta, Queen Gorgo tries to persuade the Spartan Council to send reinforcements to aid the 300. Theron, a corrupt politician, claims that he "owns" the Council and threatens the Queen, who reluctantly submits to his sexual demands in return for his help. When Theron disgraces her in front of the Council, Gorgo kills him out of rage, revealing within his robe a bag of Xerxes' gold. Marking his betrayal, the Council unanimously agrees to send reinforcements. On the third day, the Persians, led by Ephialtes, traverse the secret path, encircling the Spartans. Xerxes' general again demands their surrender. Leonidas seemingly kneels in submission, allowing Stelios to leap over him and kill the general. Angered, Xerxes orders his troops to attack. Leonidas throws his spear at Xerxes, barely missing him; the spear cuts across and wounds his face, proving the God-King's mortality. Leonidas and the remaining Spartans fight to the last man until they finally succumb to an arrow barrage. Dilios, now back in Sparta, concludes his tale before the Council. Inspired by Leonidas' sacrifice, the Greeks mobilize. One year later, the Persians face an army of 30,000 free Greeks led by a vanguard of 10,000 Spartans. After one final speech commemorating the 300, Dilios, now head of the Spartan Army, leads them to war, against the Persians across the fields of Plataea. ===== The strip is set in the year 2531. The Solar System is engaged in a war of survival against an alien species known as "Geeks". Steve Smith, a raw recruit, has just completed his training and signed on with the Global Combat Corps as a star- trooper, but is quickly thrown in at the deep end: he is assigned to the hard- bitten crew of a space patrol ship crewed by the "Vacuum Cleaners" or V.C.s for short; so called because of their penchant for clean kills, with little to no debris. The twist is that Smith is the only Earth-born crew member: the rest of the crew are all from colonies on the other planets of the solar system, often being physically adapted to alien environments, and having little love for 'Ma Earth'. A major theme of this series is the antagonism between the crew (often racially motivated), particularly towards the "earthworm" Smith; and Smith's struggle for acceptance by the crew. Like many war stories, there is a high mortality rate amongst the main characters. The V.C.s are regarded with contempt by the Earth-led high command, but are acknowledged as the best crew in the fleet. Eventually, the Diplomatic Corps (known as 'dishwashers') recalls most of the fleet back to the colonies in an effort to show the Geeks that they mean peace. However, the Geeks take this as an opportunity, and a Geek armada attacks every major colony in the system, including Mars and Earth. After this, a counterattack is launched against the Geek homeworld by the Dishwashers. Following a preliminary attack on what was thought to be the Geeks' home planet, the V.C.s disobey orders by going down to the planet to save a platoon of 'green' soldiers. The 'Dishwasher' in charge perceives this as a slight, and gives the V.C.s punishment by sending them on near-suicidal duties. Much in the style of The Dirty Dozen this results in a high fatality rate and over the course of the series all of the V.C.s save Smith and Jupe are killed off. Ultimately Smith, the sole member of the original V.C.s who remains fighting fit, leads a heroic attack on the Geek homeworld that ends the war. The VCs were revived in 2000 AD in 2002 and are still active. The new series is written by Dan Abnett and initially drawn by Henry Flint, later replaced by Anthony Williams. In the new stories Smith, now a major, is a veteran of the first Human-Geek war who leads a squad of raw recruits when a new war breaks out between the two races just as Earth is on the verge of joining the Polity, a galactic alliance of species. It was later revealed that "The Polity" was behind both wars. At the end of Book V, the Humans finally negotiated a deal with the Geeks. ===== The main characters of the series are the Lexx and its crew. The crew consists of the captain of the Lexx, Stanley H. Tweedle; the love slave Zev/Xev Bellringer; the undead former assassin Kai, last of the Brunnen-G; and the love-crazed robot head 790. Together they are looking for a new home. The background conflict of the series is the war between Mankind and the Insect Civilization, in which each side seeks the annihilation of the other. It was foretold to Kai that one day he will destroy the last remnant of the Insect Civilization. The plot unfolds across a time span of over 6,000 years. Kai's death (or undeath) occurs 2,008 years before the beginning of the events of the series. For the first two seasons, each episode is focused on space travel and usually one different planet. Each of the last two seasons has a single location for all episodes. At the beginning of Season 3 the crew spends about 4,000 years in cryostasis before arriving at the twin planets of Fire and Water. In Season 4, the Lexx reaches our Earth in the present. ===== 2016 2nd edition cover of Legion of the Lost, by Jaime Salazar. Said version was revised and rewritten by the author. It tells the story of Jaime, a bored and self-described corporate cog. In a quest to seek solace from his corporate existence, he joined the French Foreign Legion, reputed to be the world's toughest army. He experiences brutality, adventure, and an uncompromising camaraderie. This is the story of his life in the "Army of Strangers". In a defunct 2008 Note addition on the book's website, Salazar disavowed his reckless weekend behavior, notably that with women, into the context of a typical young man's military life. He claims not to condone such libertine, amorous behavior then or now. Some book characters were morphed from multiple people. Salazar admits to describing a few incidents that were actually second-hand accounts. He claims artistic license was taken for purposes of clarity and succinctness. In 2019, Salazar released the revised third edition. It was scrubbed for errors and clarity. Additional details, as well as a more spiritual air, were included. A new book cover including the author's likeness was also created. Legionnaire Woodman, one of the memorable characters in the book, was a thinly fictionalized version of a young US Army veteran. Notable as a heavily tattooed, hard-drinking brawler in Salazar's book, Woodman went on to return to the US military, where he served as a sniper who survived five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He later left the military to pursue an academic career, studying philosophy, logic and computer science at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maryland. As of April 2017, Salazar is working with former legionnaire, Alex de Bruyn, co-writing Escaping the Amazon, a memoir of his time serving in the elite jungle regiment, the 3e REI. De Bruyn managed a hair-raising escape from French Guiana in a leaking dinghy in an attempt to sail home to South Africa. Escaping the Amazon is represented by Leticia Gomez of Savvy Literary Agency. ===== At Ralph Waldo Emerson High School, bookish student Barney Springboro (Scott Baio) performs various scientific experiments on laboratory mice until his friend, yearbook photographer Peyton Nichols (Willie Aames), retrieves him for a class assembly. Peyton questions Barney's lack of interest in finding a girlfriend as the students rally in preparation for an upcoming baseball game against a rival high school. Afterward, Peyton seduces one of the school administrators, Corinne Updike, and Barney returns to his experiments. At the insistence of the pesky class president, Bernadette (Felice Schachter), Peyton promises to take photographs of Barney posing with the genetically modified orchids he has been growing for the school principal, Walter Coolidge. Barney drops the beaker containing the mice's feeding solution, producing a cloud of shimmery smoke that knocks him unconscious. Sometime later, he awakens and returns home, where his uptight mother chastises him for his tardiness and antisocial behavior. As she yells, Barney's bedroom door mysteriously slams shut. During English class the next day, Barney fantasizes about a popular but vain girl named Jane Mitchell (Heather Thomas). When the teacher calls on him unexpectedly, Barney furrows his brow, causing the map above the chalkboard to fall on her head. That afternoon, Peyton asks Jane on a date, but she reminds him that she has a college-aged boyfriend. As Barney stares at Jane's chest, her cardigan bursts open, leaving everyone confused. In the lab, Barney experiments with his new telekinetic abilities by levitating various objects across the room, unaware of Bernadette and Peyton, who are watching through the window. When his friends confront him, however, Barney convinces them to keep his powers a secret. At home, Barney propels his model spaceship through the air, imagining the crew members inside have come alive. He then animates a ventriloquist dummy, which frightens Mrs. Springboro so much that she believes her son is possessed. On the day of the big baseball game, Barney manipulates the ball and hits the winning home run. Meanwhile, Principal Coolidge attempts to break into Barney's lab to check the growth of his orchids, but cannot obtain the key. After Barney agrees to let Bernadette write a report about him for her older sister's college science journal, they notice Mrs. Burnhart sneak into his lab and uncover a pot of Peyton's marijuana hidden behind the orchids. She retrieves Principal Coolidge, but they return to discover the plants are missing. Baseball coach Dexter Jones finds Barney and Bernadette stuffing the plants in the incinerator, and the smoke causes him to become intoxicated: under the influence, he imagines riding a bicycle with Albert Einstein while being chased by his wife, who is dressed like a Viking warrior. Over the weekend, Barney, Peyton, and Bernadette go to a pre-graduation celebration at an amusement park, during which Peyton challenges Jane's boyfriend, Robert Wolcott, to a beer-drinking contest and a carnival games that Peyton ends up winning. While on the Tilt-a-Whirl, Barney increases the speed of Robert's compartment, causing him to vomit and lose the bet. That night, Peyton brings Jane home and seduces her by pretending to act older and more mature. Meanwhile, Barney and Bernadette have dinner and talk about former crushes. The pair spend the next afternoon together in the park before returning to Barney's lab, where they make love. At school on Monday, Jane admits that she regrets having sex with Peyton and returns to her boyfriend. Robert, however, invites Peyton to a casino-themed college fraternity party with the hopes of winning the money that he owes him for the drinking contest. Peyton begs Barney to attend so he can manipulate the roulette wheel, but Bernadette becomes angry that he would use his powers to gamble. Meanwhile, Mrs. Updike convinces Principal Coolidge to respond to a personal advertisement in the newspaper to meet a woman for a date. At the restaurant, Principal Coolidge discovers that his date is Rose Burnhart, and the two finally succumb to their long-time attraction by having sex under the table. During the fraternity party, Barney attempts to manipulate the roulette ball, but causes a commotion among the guests when he accidentally levitates the entire wheel. When Bernadette refuses to answer his telephone calls, he spends the night in his laboratory drinking whiskey. Hung over the next morning, he apologizes to Bernadette and arranges to meet her at the prom that evening. Before he leaves for the dance, however, Mrs. Springboro hires two priests to perform an exorcism on her son, and Barney uses his ventriloquist dummy to chase them around the house so he can get away. Peyton and Jane are crowned prom king and queen, and Jane rejects Peyton's continued advances. Peyton realize Jane is nothing but a snob, whatever he does is not good enough for her. As Barney dances with Bernadette, Peyton ruins the moment by offering his friend airplane tickets to Las Vegas where they can continue gambling, but Barney rejects the offer. When Robert confronts Peyton about the roulette game, Peyton apologizes and gives him a packet of nude photographs he took of Jane. Enraged, Robert attacks, and Barney uses telekinesis to summon a large gust of wind that tears off the students' clothes and sends everybody running outside. Barney also uses his telekinesis to take down Robert and his friends and humiliate Jane by stripping off her prom dress; as she is laughed at she runs away in shame. A wayward fire hose knocks Barney unconscious and he wakes up believing that he has lost his powers. However, while leaving the school, Barney grabs Bernadette by the waist and propels them through the night sky in a cloud of shimmery dust. ===== Like all Tex Murphy games, The Pandora Directive takes place in post-World War III San Francisco in April 2043. After the devastating events of WWIII, many major cities have been rebuilt (as is the case with New San Francisco), though certain areas still remain as they were before the war (as in Old San Francisco). WWIII also left another mark on the world: the formation of two classes of citizens. Specifically, the Mutants and the Norms. After the events of Under a Killing Moon, tensions between the two groups have begun to diminish. The end to the Crusade for Genetic Purity was a turning point in the relations between Mutants and "Norms". Tex still lives on Chandler Ave., which recently underwent a city-funded cleanup. The events of WWIII still left the planet with no ozone layer, and to protect their citizens many countries adopted a time reversal. Instead of sleeping at night, and being awake in the day, humans have become nocturnal, in a manner of speaking. Though Tex lives in what is considered a Mutant area of town, he himself is a "Norm". In The Pandora Directive, after accidentally offending his love interest Chelsee Bando, Tex (Chris Jones) is hired by Gordon Fitzpatrick (Kevin McCarthy) to find his friend, Thomas Malloy (John Agar). He learns that Malloy stayed at the Ritz, and decides to follow up the lead after reconciling with Chelsee and agreeing to go for dinner with her at her apartment. Upon investigating Malloy's room, Tex is knocked out by a mysterious masked figure dressed in black. Tex is out through the night, inadvertently missing his date with Chelsee. After finding out that a female acquaintance of Malloy works at the Fuchsia Flamingo club, Tex offers to take Chelsee there to both apologise and hopefully to check out the lead. Regardless of whether Chelsee comes out with Tex or not, she will decide to take a vacation to Phoenix for a few days. At the club, Tex meets with the girl, Emily who agrees to trade information on Malloy if Tex can find out who is stalking her. She gives a note she received from her stalker to Tex and upon showing it to his connection in the police station Mac Malden, Tex finds out that Emily is being observed by the Black Arrow Killer. Tex is able to discover that the NSA is involved and looking for Malloy, and breaks into one of their headquarters, Autotech. He finds out that the NSA are using video surveillance to monitor the goings on in Emily's room at the Fuchsia Flamingo. Tex finds the source of this and sees a figure dresses similarly to the person who attacked him in Malloy's room waiting to confront Emily. Tex hurries over to the club and is able to get there just in time to see the Killer jump out of the window carrying a small box. (Whether Emily survives or not will depend on the storyline path.) Tex chases him down and in the ensuing fight accidentally causes the Killer to fall off the roof and die. Tex removes the Killer's mask and sees that it is NSA agent Dag Horton, who had an office in Autotech. Tex is pulled in for questioning by the police, but is allowed to leave when an unknown woman enters the station and speaks to Mac. Tex retrieves the box that Horton stole from Emily's room, but is seized by the NSA and taken to Jackson Cross's office at Autotech. He is threatened to stay out of their affairs, and is forced to hand over the box. Returning to his office, Tex is met by the woman who talked the police into letting him go. She reveals her name is Regan Madsen, she is Thomas Malloy's daughter and that Malloy sent out several boxes like the one Tex found. Tex goes to the Fuchsia Flamingo and finds out that Emily is Malloy's wife, hence her being sent a box. using the return address on the packaging, Tex is finally able to track down Malloy in a run down warehouse in the industrial district. After establishing that Tex is not with the NSA, he reveals that he used to work at Roswell, the military base where a spacecraft allegedly crashed in 1947. Malloy asserts that the crash was legitimate and that the government covered the story up. The military began investigating then wreckage to look for weapons, and in the 1980s Malloy came into the project to attempt to decipher the hieroglyphics on the craft. After World War 3, Malloy left the project but was able to continue his research in secret. Before Malloy can continue his story, two NSA agents arrive and kill him. Tex is able to escape by blowing the building up. Tex fills a disheartened Fitzpatrick in on the events, but insists on following up on the details he has uncovered. Fitzpatrick tells him that he worked with Malloy in Roswell, and that after becoming close friends, Malloy confided in him that he had been deciphering the alien hieroglyphics and had discovered that a second spacecraft had crashed somewhere on Earth. He then reveals that he received one of Malloy's boxes and there are probably about 6 in circulation. Tex meets with Regan to tell her about her father, and she agrees to give him her box despite reservations that Tex will open it and sell off the information for himself. After stealing Horton's personal effects from the morgue where his body is being held, Tex is able to get into Autotech's evidence room to recover Emily's box. Tex travels to the Cosmic Connection shop and speaks to Archie Ellis, an eccentric comic book nerd and ufologist who recently interviewed Malloy. Archie tells him that the famous author Elijah Witt set up the interview between them, during which Malloy made several cryptic references to something called 'The Pandora Device'. He also reveals that during their research into the alien crafts at Roswell, the scientists accidentally released something into the facility that proceeded to kill off practically everyone in the complex before the military moved in and quarantined the entire base. Archie tells Tex that Malloy sent him one of the boxes but it was stolen, and that the alien power cell in a picture from one of the other boxes is still stored in the Roswell complex. Tex travels to Roswell and enters the deserted site, but whilst moving around the facility becomes increasingly aware that he is being stalked. It is revealed that the alien entity released by the researchers many years before is still lurking in the complex, but Tex is able to seal it off in a containment pod before he suffers that same fate and is then able to secure the power cell from the security room. Tex is able to break the code on a disc Malloy sent to Elijah Witt on which Malloy reveals that each of the boxes sent out contains a piece of the Pandora Device and that assembling the parts will reveal the information Malloy had discovered. After obtaining all the relevant pieces, Tex summons Fitzpatrick, Regan and Witt to his office where he assembles the Pandora Device. A hologram of Malloy appears and tells the group that there was indeed another spacecraft that landed on Earth and that Malloy discovered its location. He hypothesises that the ship contains large amounts of anti-hydrogen on board, and that if this gets into the wrong hands it could result in the destruction of life on Earth. Witt immediately decides that the ship must be destroyed, but Regan is adamant that they could sell the technology off for big money. Regardless, the four decide that they must find the craft so they each take a separate route to the location Malloy specified. Tex arrives and manages to navigate his way through a dense jungle and an ancient Mayan labyrinth in which he comes across Regan who set off earlier in hope she might get there first. Tex and Regan find the ship, but Jackson Cross arrives and it revealed that Regan and Cross had been working together all along. Before Cross is able to kill Tex, Fitzpatrick emerges from the ship and invites the three on board. Fitzpatrick shows them around and offers to show them the central power core before locking Regan and Cross inside, but not before Cross fires his gun and hits Fitzpatrick. As he is dying, Fitzpatrick reveals that he knows how to work the controls of the ship as his father was one of the aliens from the ship; his mother was a human woman from Nebraska, hence Fitzpatrick's human appearance. After urging Tex to type in the correct controls, he dies from his wound and Tex quickly exits the ship just in time for it to ascend into space and self-destruct. Tex is picked up by a late arriving Elijah Witt and taken home. ===== Rhapsody in August is a tale of three generations in a post- war Japanese family and their responses to the atomic bombing of Japan. Kane is an elderly woman, now suffering the consequences of older age and diminishing memory, whose husband was killed in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Kane has two children who are both married and both of whom grew up in postwar Japan. She also has a brother now living in Hawaii whose son Clark (played by Richard Gere) has grown up in America. Finally, there are Kane's four grandchildren, who were born after the Japanese economic miracle who have come to visit her at the family country home near Nagasaki in Kyushu. Kane's grandchildren are visiting her at her rural home on Kyūshū one summer while their parents visit Kane's brother in Hawaii. The grandchildren have been charged with the task by their parents of convincing their grandmother to visit her brother in Hawaii. The grandchildren take a day off to visit the urban environment of Nagasaki. While in Nagasaki the children visit the spot where their grandfather was killed in 1945 and become aware, at a personal level, of some of the emotional consequences of the atomic bombing for the first time in their lives. They slowly come to have more respect for their grandmother and also grow to question the morality of the United States for deciding to use atomic weapons against Japan. In the meantime they receive a telegram from their American cousins, who turn out to be rich and offer their parents a job managing their pineapple fields in Hawaii. Matters are complicated when Kane writes to Hawaii telling her American relatives about the death of her husband at Nagasaki. Her own two children, who have now returned from Hawaii to visit her, feel that this action will be viewed by their now Americanized relatives in Hawaii as hostile and a source of friction. Clark, who is Kane's nephew, then travels to Japan to be with Kane for the memorial service of her husband's death at Nagasaki. Kane reconciles with Clark over the bombing. Clark is much moved by the events he sees in the Nagasaki community at the time of the memorial events surrounding the deaths which are annually remembered following the bombing of Nagasaki. Especially significant to Clark is the viewing of a Buddhist ceremony where the local community of Nagasaki meets to remember those who had died when the bomb was dropped. Suddenly, Clark receives a telegram telling him that his father, Kane's brother, has died in Hawaii and he is forced to return there for his father's funeral. Kane's mental health and memory begin to falter. Her recollections of her lost spouse have never been fully reconciled within her own memory of her lost loved one. She begins to show signs of odd behavior in laying out her husband's old clothing as if her husband might suddenly reappear and need them to put on. When a storm is brewing, her mental health seems to confuse the storm for an air raid warning of another atomic bomb attack and she seeks to protect her visiting grandchildren by employing folk remedies, which confuse her children and especially her grandchildren. As the storm later intensifies again, Kane becomes more disoriented and mistakenly confuses the storm for the atmospheric disturbance caused by the bombing of Nagasaki which she witnessed visually from a safe distance when her husband was killed many years ago. In her disoriented state, Kane decides that she must save her husband, still alive in her memory, from the impending atomic blast. With all her remaining strength, she takes her small umbrella to battle the storm on foot on the way to warn her husband in Nagasaki of the mortal threat still fresh in her mind of the atomic blast which she cannot forget. ===== The series centres on the life of twin children, a brother and sister, Lucy and Louie, and their fears about their new baby brother, Billy Bob. BB3B actually stands for Billy Bob Third Baby. The plot generally involves a circumstance where the twins suspect the brother as usual of being an extraterrestrial, and they go on a wild adventure trying to prove it and stop him from launching an invasion. The twins are babysat by Chubba, a teenage boy with a fondness for pizza. Chubba often goes along with the idea of an alien brother, sometimes very seriously, and at one point he cracks and tells the parents of the twins plans to build a time machine. The show is set in the fictional American city of Sunnyfield, which is shown as having a central urban area and outer suburban area, the latter being the home of the family portrayed. The twins' grandmother lives in a trailer in the house's front garden. ===== Set in San Francisco, the film begins with the closing scenes of Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. We then see that the main character, Allan Felix, is watching the film in a cinema, mouth agape. He leaves the cinema regretting that he will never be like Rick. Apart from apparitions of Bogart, Allan also has frequent flashbacks of conversations with his ex-wife, Nancy, who constantly ridiculed his sexual inadequacy. Allan has just been through a messy divorce. His best friend, Dick Christie, and Dick's wife, Linda, try to convince him to go out with women again, setting him up on a series of blind dates, all of which turn out badly. Throughout the film, he is seen receiving dating advice from the ghost of Bogart, who is visible and audible only to Allan. Allan's ex-wife Nancy also makes fantasy appearances, as he imagines conversations with her about the breakdown of their marriage. On one occasion, the fantasy seems to run out of control, with both Bogart and Nancy appearing. When it comes to women, he attempts to become sexy and sophisticated, in particular he tries to be like his idol, Bogart, only to end up ruining his chances by being too clumsy. Eventually, he develops feelings for Linda, around whom he feels relatively at ease and does not feel the need to put on the mask. At the point where he finally makes his move on Linda (aided by comments from Bogart), a vision of his ex-wife appears and shoots Bogart, leaving him without advice. He then makes an awkward move. Linda runs off but returns, realizing that Allan loves her. The song "As Time Goes By" and flashes from Casablanca accompany their kiss. However, their relationship is doomed, just as it was for Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca. Dick returns early from Cleveland and confides to Allan that he thinks Linda is having an affair, not realizing that her affair is with Allan. Dick expresses to Allan his love for Linda. The ending is an allusion to Casablanca's famous ending. Dick is catching a flight to Cleveland, Linda is after him, and Allan is chasing Linda. The fog, the aircraft engine start-ups, the trenchcoats, and the dialogue are all reminiscent of the film, as Allan nobly explains to Linda why she has to go with her husband, rather than stay behind with him. Allan quotes a closing line from Casablanca, saying, "If that plane leaves the ground and you're not on it, you'll regret it; maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life." "That is beautiful", Linda says, causing Allan to admit, "It's from Casablanca. ... I've waited my whole life to say it!" His journey is complete. Bogart praises him, saying that since he has learned how to be himself now, he doesn't need him for advice anymore. The music from the scene in Casablanca resumes the theme "As Time Goes By", and the film ends. ===== The plot revolves around an eccentric trio, consisting of a comically hilarious but kind-hearted garage owner named Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, fondly called as Babu Bhaiya (Paresh Rawal), a crafty and cunning loafer named Raju (Akshay Kumar), and a simple and struggling pauper named Ghanshyam a.k.a. Shyam (Sunil Shetty), who find themselves trapped in crazy shenanigans including hilarious bits from Baburao himself. The film begins with Shyam searching for a job at a bank, which he finds is given to a girl named Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar (Tabu), even though Shyam's father died in the bank due to a fire. The manager (Asrani) tells Shyam that despite knowing the truth, he is unable to do anything further. Shyam walks off in a huff and accidentally bumps into Raju. Shyam mistakes Raju for a pickpocket and begins to chase him. Raju eventually gets away clean. Raju has his own troubles, dealing with his daydreams and unfriendly and disappointed people he is working for. He doesn't seem to keep a job alive and thus faces many problems. Shyam then approaches a garage owner by the name of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte and manages to get a room on rent by compromising on the amount for Baburao's alcohol. Unbeknownst to him, Raju is staying in the same house on rent, which he hasn't paid for the last two years. The trio fall into hilarious situations that usually involve Raju instigating Shyam and purposefully trying to create a ruckus that Baburao, fondly called as Babu Bhaiyya, has to resolve. During one such fight, Anuradha intervenes and tries Shyam to sign the Non-Objection Certificate, so that she could have the job at the bank. When Shyam refuses, Raju makes a plot to make him sign the papers. Shyam eventually finds out that Raju made him sign the papers and that is when the rivalry between the two commences. An old friend of Shyam's, Khadak Singh (Om Puri), comes to Shyam's place asking to return his money so that he can marry off his sister and afford the dowry. Shyam finds out that Raju has been deceiving his mother by posing as an engineer and creates an uncomfortable situation for Raju as he calls his mother fake while being inebriated. Raju retaliates, saying he wants to see his dying mother happy and nothing else. Anuradha prepares a job resignation meanwhile and gives it to Shyam, who in return tears it up because of her mentally ailing mother and the debts to be paid to the debtors. Their life takes an unexpected turn when they get a call from Kabira (Gulshan Grover) which is a wrong number actually meant for the owner of Star Fisheries, Mr Devi Prasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). The wrong number is because of the misprint in the phone directory, which renders Star Fisheries' number as Star Garage's and vice versa. (Thus this irritates Baburao a lot due to this problem). Kabeera, a terrorist cum kidnapper, thinking that it is Devi Prasad, tells him that his granddaughter Rinku is kidnapped and asks for a ransom. Raju overhears the entire conversation going between Kabeera and Shyam and decides to play a game. The game involves Shyam calling Devi Prasad posing as the kidnappers and asking for double the ransom amount. This will make their monetary problems disappear. Shyam and Baburao initially repel the idea and try to go the faithful way. But Raju, in turn, convinces them that even though wrong, this is a golden chance to earn money. Both relent and phone the real Devi Prasad and ask for double ransom. On their first attempt they wear helmets as a disguise, but their attempt gets foiled, by the police (called secretly by Devi Prasad's servant (Mushtaq Khan)) and Kabeera informs them that the ransom has been doubled. They phone Devi Prasad again. This time they ask for a foolproof double ransom. On their second attempt, they wear Zorro costumes to hide their identities. However, they reveal their true identities to Devi Prasad to win his confidence and try to save Rinku from the kidnappers. But she recognizes Shyam as an imposter and Kabeera gets alerted. A huge fight involving the police, Kabeera's gang members and Khadak Singh's men, infuriated by the delay in returning the money, takes place. Rinku is saved by the three and returned to Devi Prasad. Baburao and Shyam go home happily intending to find Raju with the money, but they find him missing. They think he has cheated them and call the police to confess the crime. But Raju is found to be gone to return the money of the debtors. The police arrive and seeing the money, the trio is arrested. In the end, Devi Prasad comes to the trio's rescue and convinces the police that it was all a misunderstanding and saves the three and they go home, richer than ever. The film ends with the trio picking up the call getting shocked and then laugh heartily as the call was from Devi Prasad's granddaughter Rinku. ===== A few days before Christmas, Glasgow radio disc jockey Allan "Dicky" Bird is stunned when Maddy (Eleanor David), his kleptomaniac girlfriend of four years, suddenly announces that she is moving out. His doctor friend Colin (Patrick Malahide) tries to console him, but Bird is heartbroken. One day, he goes for a drive to take his mind off his troubles. Noticing an attractive girl, Charlotte (Clare Grogan), in the back of a "Mr. Bunny" ice cream van, he follows it under a railway bridge on a whim and when the van stops, purchases an ice cream cone. (As in Alice in Wonderland, the protagonist has followed a rabbit through a tunnel, with sometimes bizarre consequences.) To his amazement, three men drive up and proceed to smash up the van with baseball bats. The occupants retaliate with squirts of raspberry sauce. By sheer chance, Bird finds himself involved in a turf war between rival Italian ice cream vendors: the young interloper Trevor (Alex Norton) and the older, more established "Mr. McCool" (Roberto Bernardi). As an admired local celebrity, Bird meets with McCool and his sons Bruno, Paolo, and Renato. He then goes back and forth between them and Trevor and Charlotte (later revealed to be McCool's rebellious daughter), trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Various misadventures follow, with his red BMW 323i Baur convertible suffering more and more damage each time. Bird becomes obsessed with resolving the war. To contact the combatants, he starts broadcasting coded messages on his early morning show, causing Hilary (Rikki Fulton), his boss, to ask his secretary if Mr. Bird's contract includes a "sanity clause". Hilary then orders Bird to see a psychiatrist about the Mr. Bunny he keeps trying to reach. In the end, Bird proposes that the rival entrepreneurs, who turn out to be uncle and nephew, join forces to market a new treat: ice cream fritters. Both sides are impressed by the product's potential. It appeals both to Trevor's fish and chips frying background as well as Mr. McCool's ice cream expertise. Since Bird alone knows the secret ingredient of the ancient Chinese recipe, he cuts himself in for 30% of the gross as well as repairs to his abused car. During the credits, he is heard trying to record a commercial for the new product: "Frosty Hots". ===== The memoir is about Simon's relationship with her sister Beth, who has an intellectual disability and who spends her days riding the fixed route buses in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania where she lives. Beth also lives independently, has a boyfriend named Jesse, and receives supports from two caring Direct Support Professionals, Vera and Olivia. Rachel is a busy writer and professor who loves her sister, but by the time they are in their late thirties, they've grown apart. When Beth asks Rachel to ride the buses with her for a year, Rachel reluctantly agrees. The book chronicles that year, during which Rachel befriends the bus drivers, Jesse, and Olivia, and learns about such key civil rights issues as self-determination and People- first language. The story in the present alternates with the story of the sisters' tumultuous family history, which also presents the struggles and pleasures of siblings of people with disabilities. ===== The episode begins with a flashback set seven years ago, where it is revealed that Brian was born in a puppy mill and taken from his mother. Back in the present, Brian tells his psychiatrist about the memory. Afterwards, Brian volunteers to pick up Stewie from his vacation at his grandparents' summer home in Palm Springs, California, where Stewie frames a maid for stealing to amuse himself at dinner. At the airport bar, Brian gets drunk and, when Stewie comes to find him, their plane tickets are stolen. They stop at a decrepit motel, where Stewie tries calling home, but fails because he believes his phone number is 867-5309. The next day, they have to escape and hotwire a car due to their credit card being rejected. To get home, Stewie and Brian masquerade as crop dusters to steal a plane, which they immediately crash. As the pair continue hitchhiking back to Quahog, they pass by a puppy mill near Austin, Texas, Brian's birthplace. Upon arrival, they discover that Brian's mother died one year prior to their arrival, was taxidermied and turned into a table by the puppy mill owners as a memorial. With Stewie's half-hearted help, Brian gives his mother a proper burial. The pair eventually complete their journey home by riding in an open boxcar, where Brian attempts to apologize to Stewie for all of the trouble he has put both of them through, only to have Stewie reply that he actually enjoyed it. In high spirits, they perform a musical duet "Off On the Road to Rhode Island" as the train takes them home. When Stewie and Brian return home, Lois asks Stewie about the trip, and Stewie covers up for Brian by saying the trip was "Smooth sailing through calm seas". Lois leaves and Brian tells Stewie that he is thankful to Stewie for covering for him, and asks Stewie if there's anything he can do to repay him. At first, it appears that Stewie wishes to make him his servant by providing an example with an episode of The Brady Bunch, although it turns out that Stewie wants Brian to tape that episode for him.Callaghan, pp. 90–95 Meanwhile, Lois urges Peter to watch relationship videos with her, but the videos turn out to be pornography hosted by Dr. Amanda Rebecca, who strips after asking the women to leave the room. Peter becomes addicted to the videos, much to Lois's chagrin. She gets herself on the end of one of the tapes in black lingerie and entices Peter. While kissing, Peter rewinds the tape, playing the part of Lois taking her robe off over and over. ===== A hacker shuts down a hydroelectric power plant. When the helicopter carrying Tom Jorgensen, the man who is the "single most valuable weapon in the war against terror", tragically collides against the dam, all of the CIA's remaining resources are focused on catching the hacker. But first they practice for the father-son softball game. Stan talks up Steve as an "absolute warrior", which Steve of course is not, outside of Dungeons & Dragons. He takes Steve to the batting cage to polish his skills, only to have the "big slugger" show that he is not the athlete that Stan thinks he is. So Steve can see how professionals hit the ball, Stan takes Steve and his friends to a Yankees game and to the locker room to meet Derek Jeter. But when the four nerds take off their baseball jackets to reveal not Yankees uniforms but Star Trek uniforms, Jeter tells Stan that his son is a geek. In denial, Stan runs home. He finds Steve's nerd toys, and an algebra book hidden inside a pornography magazine. Horrified, he tells his wife Francine that he would prefer Steve to be the product of a torrid affair than for such a nerd be his own child. He breaks out in a stress rash and grinds his teeth into misalignment. Stan ditches Steve (pretending it was raining) and brings a mid-20s-aged African-American ringer ("Darnelle" Smith) instead to the softball game. Steve figures out he has been ditched and becomes angry. Stan goes to the dentist, because he now needs to get braces due to his being a "class A grinder." Now that Stan has zits and braces, the other CIA agents beat him up and make fun of him. They ditch him when they go on a mosque raid, in exactly the same way that Stan ditched Steve. Stan returns home to the basement and finds that the hacker's language is the same language used in Steve's card game, "Elvish." Steve's friend Snot adjusts Stan's braces' "rear bracket" to get rid of his lisp, and they translate the hacker's notes, discovering who the hacker is. Stan's stress zits go away. They go to the science fiction convention to find the hacker, "Dan Vebber", a J.R.R. Tolkien fan who "hopes to create a Middle-Earth in the here and now." Roger feels cooped up in the house, like it is a prison without the thrill of a daily cavity search. Hayley's first idea, going to the beach with Roger posing as a Saudi exchange student and thus dressed in a burqa, does not satisfy him. Next, Roger gets a job as a Jumbo Juice costumed advertising man, but this ends when the Taco King mascot beats him up for being in his territory. Hayley takes Roger to the science fiction convention, where he can pretend to just be in costume. At the convention, Roger finds that the one human he probed (and whose Celica he set fire to) is there. The human's name is Kurt, and he went insane after the abduction. Roger spends the next two hours in the bathroom hiding from Kurt, both because the probing is presented with the undertone of a one night stand and because Kurt wants to show Roger to his ex-wife Eileen to prove aliens exist, which would blow Roger's cover. Stan and the four nerds look for Dan Vebber, who is giving a keynote on Frodo Baggins v. Luke Skywalker. After a fight and chase, Stan and Steve corner Dan Vebber. Steve burns a pair of Peter Jackson's underwear to distract Dan, before Stan shoots Dan in the leg. Stan tells Avery that the credit belongs to Steve. ===== At a grocery store where a cardboard box of six free puppies, five black labs and a Labrador retriever. Children come by and the black labs are adopted are taken to a home. Only the Labrador retriever puppy is left in the box and on that raining night he escapes to the streets. A year later, that puppy is eluding animal control. Eventually he is caught and taken to the pound. Calvin Wheeler (Kyle Massey) is a popular boy at school who collects comic books in his spare time. Calvin's best friend is Raymond Figg (Mitchel Musso), who prefers to be called Figg. He saved Figg's life in the second grade when Figg had an asthma attack, and Figg, very devoted, manages his schedule and occasionally does his homework. Gotham Man is the name of Calvin's favorite comic. His collection is almost complete, except for one issue that is ever-so-rare, the first one, which is worth $3,000. When a show-dog runs after Calvin while skateboarding, he finds out that when one wins a dog show, they earn major cash. The cash prize is $5,000, which Calvin needs to buy the first issue of Gotham Man. Calvin goes to the dog rescue shelter and adopts the Labrador retriever, whom he named Tyco. A girl volunteer at the run down animal shelter, Emily Watson (Kay Panabaker), believes that this has to be another one of the crazy schemes or plans that Calvin has in mind. So she interviews Calvin and judges him a good owner for Tyco, and she says yes when Calvin asks her to the upcoming school dance, until she realizes that he's entering Tyco in a dog show. But there is someone else who wants to make sure Calvin and Tyco lose - Preston Price (Carter Jenkins), a stuck-up rich boy who has won two of the past dog shows with his dog, Jaques. When Calvin and Tyco perform great at the qualifiers, Preston is jealous, so he hires people to beat Calvin up, and later to pretend that they are Tyco's real family, but when the three main characters realize that this is not Tyco's family, Figg and Calvin come up with a plan. He convinces Figg to pretend he is selling magazines and to fake an asthma attack. When this happens, Calvin runs into the basement and rescues Tyco while Figg is still acting. Emily forgives Calvin. This is the day of the dog show and they decide to go. Calvin's dad (Mark Christopher Lawrence) drives them there. They are not prepared, so they come up with a last minute routine of Tyco pulling Calvin on his skateboard. Preston scores a 98, but is worried that Calvin will win, so Preston cheats by rigging a ramp so Calvin will lose. However, Preston is caught and disqualified. Still, Calvin and Tyco win with a 99. Using his prize money, Calvin donates to the shelter so that the dogs can have better homes. In the end, the shelter is saved and Figg, along with many other people, adopts a new pet. ===== Stewie is obsessed with a British television program called Jolly Farm Revue, a colorful children's TV show featuring several imaginary characters. Reluctant to stay in Quahog, Stewie decides to travel to "Jolly Farm" in London and live there forever. Desperate, he goes to the local airport and stowaways on a transatlantic flight, intending to travel to England, and to find the BBC studios where Jolly Farm Revue is filmed. Brian tries to stop Stewie from leaving Rhode Island, and follows him onboard the plane. When he finally finds Stewie, the plane takes off and lands in the Middle East. Brian begins to search for a way to get back to the United States, but Stewie refuses to leave with him and insists they continue to London. Brian and Stewie search for a camel to use as transportation, and they perform a musical number as a diversion in order to steal one. They begin their journey, but the camel dies in the middle of the desert. They soon find a nearby Comfort Inn, however, in which to stay. They steal a hot air balloon from the hotel premises and make their way to the Vatican City, embarrassing the Pope upon landing, then traveling by train from Switzerland to Munich, and end up in Amsterdam. Upon finally arriving at the BBC Television Centre, Stewie is shocked to discover that the farm is a set, and his beloved characters are merely burnt-out, vulgar actors. Heartbroken, Stewie decides to travel back home with Brian to Quahog after getting revenge at the Mother Maggie actress for kicking him by defecating in her shoes. This situation also causes Stewie to lose interest in the show. Meanwhile, Peter is overjoyed to hear about Kiss-stock, a five-night set of concerts in New England by his favorite band, Kiss. He and his wife, Lois, dress in face paint and leather just like the band members in Kiss, as does the rest of the crowd, and they manage to stand in the front row. When Gene Simmons points the microphone at Lois as a way to prompt her to sing the next line in the chorus of "Rock and Roll All Nite," only to discover that she doesn't know the words, shaming Peter. Deeply saddened by this, Gene and Paul Stanley leave the stage, leaving Ace Frehley and Peter Criss to perform "Chattanooga Choo Choo" to cheer up the displeased audience. After the concert, Peter accuses Lois of only pretending to be a Kiss enthusiast, and they leave the concert venue in disgrace. Later that night, Peter and Lois stop at a Denny's on the way home from the concert. The Kiss members are seated at another table, and Lois recognizes Gene without his "Demon" make-up as Chaim Witz (Gene's birth name), an old friend. Peter is amazed to discover that Lois or "Loose Lois" had dated Gene when they were in high school. Peter's faith in Lois is then restored, and he proudly shares the news on public-access television that "my wife did Kiss." ===== The Story of B is presented as a diary of the American first- person narrator and protagonist, Fr. Jared Osborne, a Roman Catholic priest of the Laurentian order. The Laurentians have traditionally made it their duty to be the first group to recognize the Antichrist. With this mission in mind, an esteemed member of the order, Fr. Bernard Lulfre, personally tasks Jared with investigating an itinerant American lecturer, Charles Atterley, who has gained notable attention in Europe and whose ideas the Laurentians consider a potential danger to humankind. Although told that Atterley was last spotted in Austria, Jared is initially unable to track down the enigmatic preacher. Upon discovering that Atterley is more commonly known to the public as "B", Jared at last discovers him on a lecture circuit throughout major cities in Germany. Jared begins to attend each of B's speeches and takes verbatim notes that he faxes back to Lulfre. Ultimately pressed for a judgment on the possibility of B's being the Antichrist, Jared is driven to penetrate B's inner circle where he soon finds his religious foundations shaken to their core. Jared meets with and soon gets to know B personally. Although B immediately understands that Jared is a potential threat to himself and his movement, he does not seem to be as suspicious of or cold toward Jared as are the rest of B's cohort, including B's closest companion, the extremely distrusting, lupus-stricken Shirin. Instead, B welcomes Jared and seems legitimately motivated to educate him, even presenting his teachings to Jared one-on-one. Among the tenets of B's philosophy are: an advocacy of new tribalism and the "Great Remembering"-- which is his idea humanity has forgotten its hunter-gatherer history and should reclaim this forgotten knowledge that once steadily supported humanity's survival--as well as an opposition to "totalitarian agriculture", the style of agriculture whereby its practitioners destroy all competition and assume all resources are made only for their own use. Jared finds himself logically supporting these and others of B's ideas, though is unable to rationalize them in terms of his religious convictions. On a train after one of B's lectures, Jared stumbles upon the murdered body of B in an empty railroad car. B's followers immediately suspect Jared or his organization. To Jared's surprise, Shirin resumes Atterley's lectures where he left off and claims that she is now B. Even more surprising, she begrudgingly continues to personally tutor Jared in B's philosophy, though she openly calls Jared stupid, not because he lacks the capacity to learn but because she has never seen a person "with so much mental equipment being put to so little use". Shirin's further teachings include the idea of a Law of Life, the concept that storytelling may be a genetic characteristic of humans, the promotion of animism, and the notion that totalitarian agriculture results in ecological imbalance and over-population, which themselves are rapidly leading to humankind's self-destruction. Jared begins to see how he cannot remain devout to his religion and in agreement with B's teachings simultaneously. The diary abruptly picks up when Jared regains consciousness after surviving a mysterious explosion. In the hospital, Jared attempts to piece together his memories, chronicling that one of B's lecture theatres was bombed, and Shirin and B's inner circle are presumably all dead. Flown back to the United States to recuperate, Jared eventually confronts Fr. Lulfre, from whom he learns that the Laurentian order indeed authorized both Atterley's assassination and the bombing of the theatre. Jared renounces his devotion to the order and returns hastily back to Europe, desperately searching for any information about possible survivors of the bombing and lamenting his lack of knowledge about the people he seeks out, for example, the fact that he never even learned Shirin's last name. Ultimately, Jared recalls that the theatre had a tunnel through which Shirin and the others might have escaped. Visiting the mouth of the tunnel, which is barricaded by wooden planks, Jared finds contact information engraved in the wood. He is later reunited with Shirin and the others, and the memory comes flooding in that he warned them to flee moments before the explosion, thus saving their lives. A brief epilogue explains that Jared and Shirin plan to completely disappear from the public eye together. Moments before Jared must leave to board a plane, he urges the spreading of B's philosophy and writes the final words of his diary: that Charles Atterley, Shirin, he, and the reader, too, are all B. ===== The series followed the story of Black Jack Savage (Steven Williams), the ghost of a legendary 17th-century Caribbean pirate who teams up with Barry Tarberry (Daniel Hugh Kelly), a crooked Wall Street con artist who has escaped trial by coming to the Caribbean. Facing eternal damnation, both of them discover that they need to save 100 lives to compensate for the damage done by their sinful lives, and thus save their own souls. Any time Black Jack tries to leave the safety of his castle haunt on San Pietro Island, he is fair game for the "snarks". They are entities that can transport Jack to Hell through an entrance at the base of the tree where he was originally hanged. Tarberry has his own difficulties dodging the government agents sent to extradite him back to the United States to stand trial for his crimes. Other characters on San Pietro include the corrupt governor-general, Abel Vasquez (Bert Rosario), with whom Tarberry is able to make another deal, and island activist Danielle (Roma Downey), who is constantly trying to help protect the locals from the effects of Vasquez's corruption and is not above enlisting Tarberry's help in doing so. The show follows the misadventures of both Black Jack and his human counterpart as they team up to dodge the law, both supernatural and secular, to make their 100 soul quota and thus win their way to salvation. Each episode ended with a graphic telling the viewers "??? Lives To Go..." ===== The film begins as two slackers, Bones Conway (Pauly Shore) and Jack Kaufman (Andy Dick) work at "Crazy Boys" discount electronics store in Glendale, California. While they goof off on the job, both have aspirations of opening their own electronics store in the future. Both are fired though, after destroying a rack of television sets. Looking to score some quick start-up money for their store, and believing that the commitment will be minimal (they are easily lured by the recruiting slogan "One weekend a month, two weeks a year"), the two join the United States Army Reserves. Bones chooses water purification for their field since his brother was an experienced pool man and the field appeared to be devoid of combat. After surviving basic training, they attend water purification training. The two meet up with Christine Jones (Lori Petty), a female recruit longing for infantry, and Fred Ostroff (David Alan Grier), a skittish dental student. The foursome adopts the nickname of "waterboys". The group then returns to Glendale. What Bones and Jack do not realize, however, was that Libya has been planning an invasion of Chad, and they are consequently called up for service overseas. They first try to get a military discharge by pretending to be homosexuals, but they fail. Upon arriving in Chad, the four do not get along well with the full-time soldiers, particularly Special Forces Staff Sergeant Stern (Esai Morales). On a routine mission to resupply a forward base, their convoy is ambushed by a Libyan commando squad. The misfit reserves are thought to have been killed in action (KIA) and are left to fend for themselves. After a few days lost in the desert, they are captured by the Libyan forces and spend a night in a Libyan POW camp. There the reservists meet up with Staff Sergeant Stern who has been shot and captured in an ambush. He briefs them on his failed mission to rendezvous with two HALOed Fast Attack vehicles and destroy mobile Scud launchers carrying missiles armed with chemical warheads aimed at American bases in the region. During an airstrike, the four reservists and Stern escape and find the Fast Attack vehicles. They make contact with the American headquarters and are ordered to finish the Special Forces' mission. After locating the missiles, they have a difficult time holding off a battalion of Libyans while painting the missiles with a laser for an incoming airstrike. The airstrike goes off-target, forcing the reservists to destroy the missiles themselves. Bones grabs an AT4 anti-tank rocket launcher and destroys the Scud launcher base in one hit, but not before accidentally firing one rocket backwards, forcing the group to use the last rocket they have. The "waterboys" return home as heroes. At the end of the film, they open up their electronics shop next to an Army recruiting station -- where two men like themselves are looking skeptical about joining the reserves. ===== Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock) spends her nights in a drunken haze with her boyfriend, Jasper (Dominic West). She ruins her sister (Elizabeth Perkins) Lily's wedding by showing up late and disheveled, delivering a drunken, rambling speech, and knocking over the wedding cake. Intoxicated, Gwen steals a limousine from the reception, tries to locate a cake store, and winds up losing control of the car and crashing into a house. She is given a choice between jail time or 28 days in a rehab center, and she chooses rehab. Gwen is introduced to a variety of patients while in treatment: Oliver (Mike O'Malley) (a hypersexual cocaine addict), Daniel (Reni Santoni) and Roshanda (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) (alcoholics), Bobbi Jean (Diane Ladd) (an older addict), Gerhardt (Alan Tudyk) (a gay man whose addiction is not specified), and Cornell (Steve Buscemi), the rehab facility's director (a recovered drug addict and alcoholic). Her roommate is young Andrea (Azura Skye), a heroin addict who sporadically self-harms and is a fan of the fictitious soap opera Santa Cruz. Initially, Gwen is angry and resistant to taking part in any of the treatment programs on offer, refusing to admit that she is an alcoholic. On visiting day, Jasper shows up and slips her a bottle of medication, then the two sneak off for a day of drinking and drugging. Later, Gwen returns to the facility, clearly inebriated. The next day, Gwen is confronted by Cornell. He informs her that she's being kicked out of rehab the next day and will be going to jail instead. Gwen angrily denies that she has a problem with alcohol, that she can stop anytime that she wants. Ignored, she angrily makes her way back to her room, where she rifles through her tissue box to get to her smuggled drugs. She puts a pill in her mouth but quickly spits it back out, then tosses the open bottle out the third-story window. All throughout the day, Gwen experiences withdrawal symptoms. She shuns the meetings and any activities, all the while desperately trying to push through her physical discomfort on her own. Later that evening, in a moment of weakness, she attempts to climb out her window and retrieve the discarded meds. She falls, severely spraining her ankle, and is rescued by Eddie (Viggo Mortensen), a pro baseball player and fellow addict, who is just arriving as a new patient. The next morning, Gwen asks Cornell for another chance, finally convinced that anyone who would climb out of a three-story window to chase a high might have a problem. He relents; and Gwen finally begins to participate in the recovery process, growing closer to her fellow addicts and her roommate, Andrea. Gwen discovers that Eddie is also a fan of Santa Cruz, and their fellow group participants join Eddie and Andrea in catching up on tapes of the show. During therapy sessions, Gwen experiences flashbacks of a childhood that included a thrill-seeking addict mother who died of an overdose when Gwen was about six, leaving young Lily and Gwen to be raised by an aunt. On one of his visits, Jasper proposes to Gwen, bringing champagne to celebrate. Not wanting to jeopardize her newfound sobriety, Gwen throws the champagne into the lake. Later, her fellow addicts try to encourage her to see that Jasper isn't taking her sobriety seriously and to be careful. At some point, Gwen's sister Lily attends a group therapy session but leaves in disgust when Gwen become dismissive of Lily's recollections and resentments of her younger sister's drunken antics. Eddie and Gwen's friendship grows closer. Afraid to share what she'd done as a practicing alcoholic for fear of looking bad to Eddie, they share a moment when Eddie tells her that's just what she's done. She is just fine as she is. They are come upon by Jasper, who showed up unannounced. Jasper then proceeds to insult and pick a fight with Eddie, shoving him. Eddie punches him before Gwen stops any further violence. Eddie walks off, and Gwen and Eddie's friendship becomes estranged. Gwen's roommate, Andrea, is soon to be released and has been agitated and moody at the prospect, as well as heartbroken that her mother has never visited her during her entire stint in rehab. Gwen discovers Andrea dead in their bathroom, clearly having overdosed. Andrea's death leaves Gwen devastated and perhaps wiser as to how an addict's behavior affects others. Gwen commits herself to restoring her relationship with her sister. Gwen and Lily reconcile, and Gwen leaves treatment, but not before Eddie warns her that Jasper is dangerous to her sobriety. Back in New York, Jasper tries to make amends to Gwen for his behavior. Reconciling, Gwen tries to help Jasper to understand what needs to change in their relationship to support her recovery; but she soon sees that Jasper doesn't take her sobriety seriously. Seeing old party friends, Jasper wants to join them, demonstrating that he won't change his lifestyle or adjust to her needs and abstentions as a recovering addict. Gwen comes to terms with the fact that they are too different now and starts to see that recovery, though an everyday struggle, might be attainable. She breaks up with Jasper and walks away for good. Some time later, she is reunited with a sober Gerhardt at a floral shop. In a post-credit scene, Eddie recognizes a Santa Cruz character, Falcon, arrive as a new patient at the rehab facility. ===== In it, the players controlled neophyte superheroes looking to apply for membership in the Crusaders, an esteemed team of superheroes. The Crusaders roster consisted of: Manta Man, their leader, whose wife was killed by pirates and to exact revenge he built a costume that gave him the power to fly, breathe underwater and emit blasts of electricity. Enforcer, a secret agent who betrayed his agency and saved a scientist who had developed a secret formula. Drinking the formula, he gained the ability to generate force fields. Enforcer also uses a specialized pistol. Dreamweaver, a college student who gained the power to create illusions or become invisible from a dream research experiment. Laserfire, a teenager who gained powers of heat and light when he was caught in the thrust of an alien spacecraft taking off nearby. Evergreen, part woman, part plant, and able to mentally control vegetation. At the time of the module, she does not know her true origins. Blizzard, a comic book fan who decided to follow the lead of his print heroes when he developed his power to create ice. The players need to contend with the Crusaders' opposite numbers during the adventure, a villain group called the Crushers. A few of its members include Mocker, a robot able to fire sonic blasts, Mercury Mercenary, a soldier of fortune with superhuman speed and Enforcer's personal archenemy, Shocker, who has acidic blood and electric blasts and yearns to have Evergreen's love as well, and Marionette, a midget who can control minds. ===== The film opens on Keith Vincent, a Hollywood composer, as he creates a new song called "Nocturne". As he plays his piano, a woman sits silently in the shadows and listens to the composer speak as he plays. But the mood changes a little and he says "you're no longer the one" and encourages her to go away for a while. Moments later, as he alters the score with a pen, the composer is shot and killed. The police think it is suicide, but detective Joe Warne suspects murder. Susan Flanders is sleeping in the house but had ear-plugs in because "she didn't like the music". They take her in for questioning. Warne begins looking for "Dolores", because he sees that the score for "Nocturne" still on the piano has a hand-written dedication to this name. The Philipino houseboy, Eujemio, arrives after a day off - he knows his employer was planning to meet a woman but he does not know who. He tells Warne that the composer was a womanizer who called all of his girlfriends Dolores. There is a line of female photos on the wall... one is missing. The coroner returns a verdict of suicide but Warne continues to invrestigate despite being warned to stop by his boss. Warne follows a series of clues around Los Angeles. He spots he is being followed by a large man and challenges him outside the Brown Derby. Warne's ruthless questioning tactics lead several suspects to report him for abuse. Pursuing the case with dogged determination, the obsessed Warne is suspended from the police force. As he digs deeper into the murder, the clues draw him closer to Frances Ransom, but he deduces that she was framed by Ned Ford. Ford was enraged that his wife Carol had merely been the composer's latest conquest. When he found out that the composer had no intention of marrying Carol, Ford decided to kill him. Warne turns Ford over to the police, and reveals to Frances that he knew almost from the beginning that she was not the murderer. ===== The story is about an anthropomorphic pirate seal named Havoc (Lang in the Japanese version), his young sidekick Tide (Land in the Japanese version), a girl named Bridget, and an evil walrus pirate named Bernardo. Bernardo is looking for Emeralda, a gem with powers that can cause whole armies to be toppled. A map shows where Emeralda is located, and Bernardo is looking for the map. Havoc and Tide discover Bridget unconscious at a beach. When she wakes up in a dwelling, she instructs Havoc to keep her and the map safe. Havoc hides the map in a cliff. After Bernardo's henchmen kidnaps Bridget and Tide, Havoc sets off to rescue them. ===== The book has three separate but overlapping stories, with the repeated appearance of shared characters. The San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, the overarching setting of the trilogy, functions as a shared location of their convergence and resolution. The first story features former cop Berry Rydell, the protagonist of Virtual Light. Rydell quits a temporary job as a security guard at the Lucky Dragon convenience store to run errands for atrophied computer hacker Colin Laney (the protagonist of Idoru), who lives in a cardboard box in a subway in Shinjuku, Tokyo. As a child, Laney was the subject of pharmaceutical trials which damaged his nervous system. As a result, he suffers from a form of attention deficit disorder but gains the ability to discern nodal points in the undifferentiated flow of information, and from that he acquires a certain predictive faculty. This makes him ideal for the role of "netrunner" or data analyst. A side effect of 5-SB, the drug administered to Laney, causes the user to become attached to strong personalities. As a result, Laney has become obsessed with media baron Cody Harwood of Harwood/Levine, a powerful public relations firm. He spends his life surfing the net from his enclave in the subway, searching for traces of Harwood in the media. From this, Laney foresees a crucial historical shift which may precede the end of the world "as we know it". He predicts that Harwood, who had also taken 5-SB before (albeit voluntarily, with the knowledge of the consequences), knows this and will try to shape this historical shift to his liking. To stop Harwood, Laney hires Rydell under the guise of a courier to travel to San Francisco where he believes the next nodal point will congeal. The second story concerns ex- bicycle messenger Chevette Washington, also from Virtual Light, who is on the run from her ex-boyfriend. She escapes to her former home, San Francisco's bridge community, to find refuge and revisit her past. She is accompanied by Tessa, an Australian media sciences student who visits the bridge to film a documentary on "interstitial communities". The third story follows a mysterious, left-handed mercenary named Konrad. Although Konrad is employed by Harwood, he appears to be directed by his own motives. In particular, Konrad aligns his movements with the Tao, the spontaneous, universal energy path of Taoist philosophy. ===== Ryan Weaver (Ray Liotta) is arrested in New York City in connection to a series of murders that he says he did not commit. Even though police lieutenant Aldo Hines (Héctor Elizondo) at one point broke protocol during the arrest (which later enraged Weaver), the authorities have enough hard evidence to have Weaver transported to Los Angeles to face trial. He and another prisoner, Stubbs (Brendan Gleeson), are escorted by four US marshals on a Boeing 747-200 on a commercial flight. Even though it is Christmas Eve, the 747 is nearly empty, with only eleven people on board. During the flight, Stubbs breaks free while using the bathroom and begins a shootout with the marshals. A stray bullet fired from one of the marshals' sidearms punches a hole in the fuselage, instantly triggering an explosive decompression. Amidst the chaos, the captain is fatally shot and the first officer dies when his head slams into the yoke, disengaging the autopilot in the process. Weaver frees himself and attempts to save the last remaining marshal, but fails when both Stubbs shoots the marshal dead, after being shot himself. Weaver appears to be horrified by the ordeal, increasing the passengers' trust in him. With the pilots dead, Teri Halloran (Lauren Holly), a flight attendant, makes her way into the cockpit and learns she is the only one left capable of keeping the 747 from crashing. To make matters worse, the plane is heading into a storm which threatens severe turbulence. Weaver's behavior becomes increasingly erratic since he is paranoid of being sentenced to death upon landing and occasionally suffers nervous breakdowns. He then locks the passengers in the crew's cabin; and sexually assaults and strangles Maggie (Catherine Hicks), one of the other flight attendants, to death. He then calls the FBI control center at LAX and threatens to crash the 747 into their facility since he is now willing to do anything to avoid being arrested. His motives had become clear to Teri after she speaks, via the aircraft's radio, with Hines. Teri must be instructed by radio from Captain Bowen (Ben Cross) how to reprogram the autopilot to land at LAX, but her task is complicated by Weaver's obscene and constant interruptions. After the plane barely survives turbulence during the storm, Weaver breaks into the avionics bay and smashes the server running the primary autopilot software, rendering the first landing attempt unsuccessful, and forcing a last second go-around. It skims a rooftop Japanese restaurant and a multi-story parking garage, but regains the air. The plane's landing gear picks up an SUV, which hinders the next landing at LAX. The backup autopilot has now engaged, and Teri makes efforts to turn the plane around. The LAX airport chief sends an F-14 Tomcat to intercept the 747. Teri begs LAX not to have her shot down, insisting she can land the plane. Weaver breaks into the cockpit with an axe and tries to kill her, but the F-14 destroys the SUV instead, shaking the 747 and giving Teri a chance to attack. She grabs one of the marshal's guns and, in the midst of Weaver's assault, manages to load a spare bullet. She finally shoots Weaver through the head and kills him. Teri returns to the pilot's seat and with Bowen's radio assistance, safely lands the 747 using the autopilot. Despite Weaver's claims that he killed them all, the other crew and passengers are found alive. ===== ===== Serenity heads to Ariel, a central world of the Union of Allied Planets, where Inara is due for her annual Companion physical exam and license renewal. Following an incident in which River attacks him, Jayne demands that she and Simon be left on Ariel. Mal quashes any talk of leaving people behind, but privately warns Simon that River has to be kept under control. Simon acknowledges that his sister is getting worse. Simon approaches the crew with a job: he wants to get into the hospital in Ariel's capital city in order to scan River's brain with an advanced piece of medical equipment, and he needs the crew to get him inside. As payment, he will tell the crew how to steal valuable medical supplies undetected (they will be replaced automatically by hospital machines). Simon drugs himself and River so they appear dead, allowing the crew to enter Ariel city's hospital using a scrapped medical shuttle they refurbish and fake EMT IDs. The group then split up, with Jayne guarding Simon as he analyses River's condition while Mal and Zoe steal drugs from the hospital. However, Jayne betrays the Tams, placing a call to an Alliance officer who agrees to pay their bounty. Once awakened, Simon dresses as a doctor and takes River to the diagnostic ward with Jayne. There, Simon discovers that River's brain has been surgically operated on many times, disabling her ability to suppress emotions. With the analysis complete, Jayne leads them to a rear entrance, where they are arrested by Federal marshals, Jayne included, the Alliance officer deciding to keep the reward money for himself. Meanwhile, Mal and Zoe return to the medical shuttle with the loot, but realize that Jayne and the Tams are late so head back into the hospital to find them. The three prisoners are moved to a holding area where Jayne and Simon overpower their escorts and escape. Shortly afterwards, two blue-gloved men arrive to take custody of the Tams, using a mysterious sonic device to kill all the marshals when the pair learn that some of them talked to the Tams. Meanwhile, a terrified River leads Jayne and Simon to a locked door, which is opened from the other side by Mal and Zoe, enabling the group to escape. Inara returns to Serenity just as the medical shuttle arrives. Once everyone else has left the cargo area, Mal knocks Jayne out. Jayne awakens to find himself in an open airlock as the ship begins to leave the atmosphere. Jayne eventually confesses that he betrayed Simon and River, but denies double crossing Mal. Mal tells him that what he did was the same as betraying him. As Mal turns to leave, Jayne asks him not to tell his shipmates about the betrayal. Mal closes the outer door, sparing Jayne's life. ===== The film centers on two LAPD cops, Det. Mitch Preston (Robert De Niro) and Officer Trey Sellars (Eddie Murphy), who are paired for a reality police show and run into real trouble with a crime lord. Mitch breaks a news camera after a failed confrontation with a drug lord, who escapes by using a custom-built gun. Maxxis Television, the network that employed the cameraman, decides to sue the police department for $10 million, but will drop the lawsuit if Mitch agrees to star in a reality cop television show, which Trey later calls Showtime!. Trey enters the picture shortly after, as an LAPD officer who actually wants to be an actor while also trying to become a detective. He pays a friend to snatch the purse of the show's producer, Chase Renzi (Rene Russo), and then retrieves it after a staged fight scene. Even though the deception is embarrassingly revealed, Chase is impressed and signs Trey on anyway. It is quickly revealed that the show's producers have little interest in filming an actual police officer's existence; they build a mini- movie set in the middle of the station, and replace Mitch's nondescript personal car with a Humvee, while Trey drives a C5 Corvette. They also hire William Shatner (who once played T. J. Hooker) to give both men tips on how to act. Trey is eager to learn, Mitch is merely annoyed. Despite all this, Mitch tries to investigate the mysterious supergun, which is subsequently used by arms dealer Caesar Vargas to kill the drug dealer and his girlfriend. Through a clever ruse by Trey, they are able to get the arms dealer's name from the dead dealer's henchman. However, Vargas is less than cooperative, which causes a brawl at his nightclub. Trey and Mitch are able to defeat him and his henchmen, and subsequently have a relatively friendly conversation on their way home. Mitch's good humor evaporates when he finds that, in his absence, the Showtime producers have drastically remodeled his house and given him a retired K-9 dog as a pet. Vargas and his crew assault an armored car and kill the crew, then devastate the police who respond. Trey and Mitch arrive and are pulled into the shootout. When the attackers flee in a garbage truck, Mitch gives chase in a police car. In the ensuing mayhem, the car is rammed by the garbage truck, which winds up crashing into a construction site. Mitch, ironically, survives by jumping from the police car to Trey's sports car (he had previously denounced "hood-jumping" as a useless skill). In the wake of the disaster, the police chief pulls the plug on the show, suspends Mitch from duty and demotes Trey back to patrol. With the show ended, Mitch's car is returned and his apartment restored (but he refuses to return the dog, of which he has grown fond). While watching the final episode, Mitch calls Trey and apologizes for his actions and even offers him to help ask questions on the detective exam. But while doing so, Mitch sees one of his police colleagues at Vargas's nightclub. He and Trey investigate, finding that Vargas is selling the weapons at a gun show at the Bonaventure Hotel. Vargas flees with one of the weapons, taking Chase hostage in the process. The duo is able to rescue her, via a pocket pistol concealed in a Maxxis camera, but the ceiling of the room is shot. It is located just below the pool, so it floods, and Vargas is washed out the window to his death, Trey manages to save himself and Mitch by handcuffing them together. They wind up suspended from a broken beam outside the hotel. The movie ends with Trey promoted to detective, and that he and Mitch are now partners and still working together with a new case, and there are hints of a romance between Chase and Mitch. Showtime is revived and in its second season, this time with two young and attractive female officers, who are just as antagonistic as Mitch and Trey were. ===== Part One: Andry, the new Lord of Goddess Keep, has visions of war and death. He sees the destruction of Radzyn, its proud towers ablaze. To prevent his visions, he reworks the teachings and rituals of Goddess Keep based on the findings of the Star Scroll. He also trains Sunrunners in sorcery. Meanwhile, true sorcerers ready themselves to challenge Pol's right to Princemarch. Ruval, Ianthe's oldest, undisputed son, prepared for the challenge by learning sorcery, while Marron infiltrates Chiana of Meadowlord's personal guards. When he gets close enough, he allows Mireva to enter Chiana's chamber and enspell the Princess with a mirror. Chiana then begins to amass an army, which will invade Princemarch. Part Two: Year 728: Pol, now Ruling Prince of Princemarch, seeks to become the man and Prince that his parents, High Prince Rohan and High Princess Sioned raised him to be, but his spirit is impatient and restless. When word comes that dragons are being hunted, Pol follows Riyan and Sorin to Elktrap Manor. They find a dying dragon nearby, who shows them that men had attacked it using sorcery. The attackers were Ruval and Marron, who had been trying to get Pol's attention. A battle ensues. Sorin is killed. As the Desert mourns, Ruval enlists Prince Miyon of Cunaxa's aid in overthrowing Pol. He and Marron hide in Miyon's entourage as the Prince travels to Stronghold on business before the Rialla, while Mireva becomes a servant of Miyon's illegitimate daughter, Meiglan. Miyon plans to use Meiglan to ensnare Pol. Pol has been raised among strong, intelligent, independent women all his life, while Meiglan is an innocent, shy, easily terrified young girl. Miyon has abused Meiglan all her life, and thinks Pol will be smitten by her innocence and need for protection. As Pol prepares for the challenge Ruval will make, he begins to fall for Meiglan despite his suspicions of her. Before Ruval can make his challenge, however, Marron challenges Pol himself for Feruche, their birthplace. Riyan, who had only moments ago had been made Lord of Feruche, accepts Marron's challenge of sorcery. As Marron forms his first spell, Andry turns it back on the sorcerer by using his knowledge of the Star Scroll. He kills Marron in retribution for Sorin's death. This act results in Andry's banishment from the Desert. When Ruval's challenge finally comes, on starlight, Rohan realizes that Pol needs to be told the truth about birth: that Ianthe bore him and he was a diarmadhi. Pol is horrified and angry, but uses his newfound knowledge to study the sorcery in the scrolls. He and Ruval meet at Rivernrock and the rabikor begins. During the battle, Ruval tries to pull a dragon from the sky, but Pol bonds with it. The dragon, Azhdeen, kills Ruval, ending the threat to Pol's claim on Princemarch. Category:Dragon Prince series Category:1990 American novels Category:Novels by Melanie Rawn Category:DAW Books books Category:Books with cover art by Michael Whelan ===== The film tells the story of a troubled ex-Navy SEAL and Vietnam War veteran Mark Lambert (John Lithgow), who, upon returning home from the war, alienates his wife and child by deserting them and moving away into the remote wilderness of Washington state. After 10 years of living off the land and suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, Mark Lambert decides to rejoin civilized society and find his now teenage son, who is living in Illinois. As an estranged father and recluse, Mark Lambert quickly finds himself unprepared for the changes that he must face. ===== While on the island of Dorval, the Sunrunner Meath uncovers ancient scrolls in the ruins of an ancient Sunrunner keep. Concerned about the content and odd star symbols, Meath decides to these "Star Scrolls" to the leader of the Sunrunners, Andrade. Lady Andrade appoints Andry, nephew of High Prince Rohan, to translate the scrolls with the help of Hollis, his brother Maarken's unofficial betrothed. As Andry and Hollis work through the translation and the embedded code, they learn that the scrolls deal with ancient sorcerers and sorcery. They are unaware that the scrolls' existence and rediscovery is known to sorcerers in hiding. Mireva, a sorceress, forms a plan to retrieve the scrolls. One of her charges, Segev, Ianthe's youngest son, travels to Goddess Keep to pose as a young faradhi in order to steal the scrolls. He addicts Hollis to dranath as a cohort, but Andry disrupts Segev's plan. Meanwhile, an arrogant upstart called Masul attempts to proclaim himself Roelstra's son and heir. The whispers of this heir lead to an assassination attempt on Pol's life. To proclaim Pol's position as Prince of Princemarch, Rohan and Pol travel through Princemarch. Pol meets the local Lords and earns his people's favor by participating in their traditions. Unfortunately, another assassination attempt is made, this time ending in the death of Maeta, one of Rohan's most favored guards. At the Rialla, most of the discussion is over Masul, whether or not he is Roelstra's heir, and whether or not it even matters. As the Princes debate the issue, Segev continues to drug Hollis, who in turn draws away from Maarken. Then, Andrade claims that she can show the events of the past by using sorcery from the scrolls. Gleeful at the turn of events, Segev uses sorcery during her conjuring in order to kill her. Andry becomes Lord of Goddess Keep. Though saddened by Andrade's death, the debate of Masul continues; her conjure proved nothing. At last a duel is proposed between Masul and Pol. Maarken, first cousin to Pol, fights in Pol's place as Pol has yet to be knighted. During the battle, Segev uses sorcery against Maarken. Seeing Maarken in pain snaps Hollis out of her drugged state, and she kills Segev. Masul nearly kills Maarken, but at the last minute, Rohan intervenes and kills him with a pair of thrown daggers. As the Desert entourage travels home, accompanied by Hollis, who is slowly recovering, a valley filled with dragons is discovered. The site will become Pol's palace, Dragon's Rest. Sioned, who had earlier 'bumped' into a dragon on sunlight, attempts to 'speak' with a dragon. This time she succeeds and a bond is formed between human and dragon. Category:American fantasy novels Category:Dragon Prince series Category:1989 American novels Category:Novels by Melanie Rawn Category:DAW Books books Category:Books with cover art by Michael Whelan ===== The novel tells the story of Hajime, starting from his childhood in a small town in Japan. Here he meets a girl, Shimamoto, who is also an only child and suffers from polio, which causes her to drag her leg as she walks. They spend most of their time together talking about their interests in life and listening to records on Shimamoto's stereo. Eventually, they join different high schools and grow apart. They are reunited again at the age of 36, Hajime now the father of two children and owner of two successful jazz bars in Aoyama, the trendy part of Tokyo. With Shimamoto never giving any detail as to her own life and appearing only at random intervals, she haunts him as a constant "What if". Despite his current situation, meeting Shimamoto again sets off a chain of events that eventually forces Hajime to choose between his wife and family or attempting to recapture the magic of the past. ===== Simon Sinestrari (Andrew Prine), a cynical ceremonial magician, is on a quest to become a god. Simon is living in a storm sewer, selling his charms and potions for money, when he is befriended by a young male prostitute named Turk (George Paulsin). Turk introduces Simon to his world of drugs, wild parties, and bizarre Satanic rituals featuring Ultra Violet and a goat. Death, freakouts and mayhem ensue, along with romance for Simon with the district attorney's daughter (Brenda Scott). ===== Wiz 'n' Liz takes place on the magical planet of Pum, where a group of "wabbits" (rabbits) have been taken by a spell gone awry and it's the job of two wizards – Wiz and Liz – to rescue them. ===== Mom and Dad tells the story of Joan Blake (June Carlson), a young girl who falls for the pilot Jack Griffin (Bob Lowell). After being sweet talked by Griffin, she has sex with him. The girl requests "hygiene books" from her mother Sarah Blake (Lois Austin); however, the mother refuses because the girl is not yet married. The girl later learns from her father Dan Blake (George Eldredge) that the pilot has died in a crash. She tears up a letter she had been writing to him, and lowers her head as the film fades into intermission. The film resumes at the point when the girl discovers that her clothes no longer fit, sending her into a state of despair. She takes advice from her teacher, Carl Blackburn (Hardie Albright), who had previously been fired for teaching sex education. Blackburn blames her mother for the problem, and accuses her of "neglect[ing] the sacred duty of telling their children the real truth." Only then is the girl able to confront her mother. The film then presents reels and charts that include graphic images of the female anatomy and footage of live births – one natural and one Caesarian. In some screenings, a second film was shown along with Mom and Dad, and contained images portraying syphilis and venereal disease. Mom and Dad is believed to have had a number of endings, although most typically concluded with the birth of the girl's child, sometimes stillborn and other times put up for adoption.Schaefer, 200. ===== Over the course of the game, it was revealed that both Day Watch and Night Watch found a way to change the potential Others' affiliation via electronic transmitters. Stas was one of its first test subjects, as he was originally supposed to be a Dark Other. Zavulon was planning to take advantage of the spell by converting all the potential Others in Russia into Dark Others. ===== A corporate conglomerate called "The Ellison Group" acquires four breweries, all of them experiencing financial trouble. Enter Frank Macklin (Robert Hays), a young manager hired by Ellison to help reorganize one of the ailing breweries. The only thing, though, is that brewery is a major employer in his home town. Originally, his old friends, who work at the brewery, give him a cold welcome, as they think he'll be unable to revitalize the brewery. But when Frank informs them that the brewery is drowning in red ink, and that they may be losing their jobs soon, they welcome him with open arms, and ramp up the brewery's sales and production. The brewery improves so much that the Ellison Group decids to sell it to a Texas oil millionaire, who doesn't know the first thing about running a brewery or — apparently — running a business. ===== Aging, respected Captain Paul Blanchard (Heston) is on his final submarine tour before promotion to command of a submarine squadron (COMSUBRON). Surfaced and returning to port, the submarine, USS Neptune, is struck by a Norwegian freighter en route to New York in heavy fog. With the engine room flooded and its main propulsion disabled, the Neptune sinks to a depth of 1,450 feet (442 meters or approx. 241.6 fathoms) on a canyon ledge above the ocean floor. A United States Navy rescue force, commanded by Captain Hal Bennett (Keach), arrives on the scene, but Neptune is subsequently rolled by a gravity slide to a greater angle that does not allow the Navy's Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) to complete its work. A small experimental submersible, Snark, is brought in to assist with the rescue. Snark is very capable, but run by a U.S. Navy officer misfit, Captain Don Gates (Carradine). The tiny submersible is the only hope for a rescue. Ultimately, the surviving members of the crew are rescued by the DSRV, thanks to Gates sacrificing himself by using the Snark to jam the Neptune in place as another gravity slide begins while the rescue is taking place. Moments later the gravity slide pushes the Neptune and the Snark off the ledge and into the ocean's abyss. The film ends with a somber Blanchard climbing out of the DSRV and being welcomed aboard the rescue ship USS Pigeon by Bennett and his officers. ===== Picking up two or three years after the original left off, narcotics officer Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) is still searching for elusive drug kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). Orders from his superiors send Doyle to Marseille, France, to track down the criminal mastermind and bust his drug ring. Once in France, Doyle is met by English-speaking Inspector Henri Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson), who resents his rude and crude crimefighting demeanor. Doyle then begins to find himself as a fish out of water in France, where he is matched with a language he cannot understand. Doyle is shown round the police station where he finds his desk is situated directly outside the toilets. He tells Barthélémy that he is not satisfied with this positioning and hopes it is not a joke at his expense. Barthélémy informs Doyle that he has read his personnel file and is aware of his reputation and especially hopes he has not brought a gun with him as it is strictly forbidden in France for visiting police officers from other countries to carry firearms. Doyle continues to struggle with the language and tries to order drinks in a bar. He eventually makes himself understood, befriending a bartender while buying him drinks and they eventually stumble out of the bar together at closing time, followed by two men. The next day, while Doyle is watching a beach volleyball match, Charnier sees him from a restaurant below. Determined to find Charnier on his own, Popeye escapes from what are in fact French police escorts keeping watch on him in case Charnier would get him: Doyle doesn't understand that he is being used as a bait by French police... The same night Charnier sends his men to capture Doyle, killing one of his watchers in the process, and take him to a secluded, seedy hotel in the old quarter for interrogation. For several weeks, Doyle is injected with heroin in effort to force him into capitulation. Scenes of his growing addiction follow, including one in which an elderly lady (Cathleen Nesbitt) visits him in his befuddled state. She talks to him, declaring herself to be English, and saying that her son is "just like" him, while stroking his arm. Initially she seems compassionate to his plight, but a change in the camera angle reveals her 'track' marks. The gentle old lady steals his watch. Meanwhile, Barthélémy has sent police everywhere to search for Doyle. Charnier interrogates a needy Doyle about what he knows, but Doyle says he was sent here just because he is the only one who can recognize him. Charnier believes Doyle, so lets him go after one massive injection. Doyle is dumped barely alive but addicted in front of police headquarters. Gruelling scenes of resuscitation and drug withdrawal follow. In his effort to save both Doyle's life and his reputation, Barthélémy immediately quarantines Doyle in the police cells and begins his cold turkey withdrawal from the heroin. Supervising his recovery, and at his side with both emotional support and taunts questioning his toughness, Barthélémy ensures Doyle completes the cycle of physical withdrawal. When he is well enough to be on his feet, Doyle starts back on the road to regaining his physical fitness. He searches Marseille and, finding the hideout he was brought to, sets it on fire. He breaks into a room at the hotel and finds Charnier's henchmen, whom he pursues and interrogates as to the whereabouts of Charnier. A delivery of opium is taking place at the harbour for a future production due. Doyle, Barthélémy and other inspectors rush to the boat that is being unloaded and engage Charnier's henchmen in a gun battle in a dry dock. The thugs open the spillways, water starts rushing in, Doyle and Barthélémy are trapped. The henchmen and an inspector are killed, Doyle rescues Barthélémy. French police hold Doyle responsible for the inspector's death and want to send him home. But Doyle believes that the deal is not done and convinces Barthélémy, who "owes him one" to keep watch over the ship. They eventually spot the ship's captain on his way to meet Charnier's lieutenant, whom Doyle recognizes. A tailing ensues taking the police to the drug warehouse, which they raid, but are met with a barrage of fire. Doyle picks up a gun and kills a gangster machine-gunning them. Charnier's lieutenant and other men escape with the drug load on board a van, but Barthélémy closes the warehouse door and stops them. But once again Charnier has escaped. Doyle, in a foot chase of Charnier, who is sailing out of the harbor on his yacht, catches up with the boat at the end of the pier, takes his gun out of his holster, calls Charnier's name, and in the last seconds of the movie shoots him dead. ===== Kira Aso and Rei Kashino meet when Rei asks Kira for directions to a local hospital one day in the park, but instead of telling him the directions she draws him a map and hands it to him without saying a word. On the back of the directions is a picture Kira drew of a mother and child. On the first day of school they are both surprised to find that they are in the same class. Later, Rei walks in on their teacher sexually harassing Kira. Rei promises to protect Kira in exchange for a painted version of the sketch that was on the back of the map. He also offers to "lend Kira his body," and she asks him to model for her. Thus beginning a relationship that is opposed by the world in general. They draw on their love for each other to heal the wounds the world has left on them; Rei, the scars from his twin's suicide over something Rei told him, and Kira, her hatred of men due to her stepfather taking advantage of her. ===== After being mentored by the God of Gamblers Ko Chun, Michael Chan/Little Knife (Andy Lau) has become a top gambler and become renowned in the United States, where he is branded as the Knight of Gamblers. Having achieved successful and fortune, Michael currently inhabits in a villa previously owned by his Kuwait neighbor, Sam, who has gone broke after Kuwaiti was invaded by Iraq. Ko's friend, Mr. Yama plans to announce Michael's identity and his charity casino project to the Hong Kong press, but Ko's rival, Chan Kam-sing, who is imprisoned after being defeated by Ko, wants to seek revenge, so Chan's godson, Hussien, schemes to destroy Michael's reputation by impersonating him. On the other hand, Sing (Stephen Chow), despite a world champion gambler and branded as the Saint of Gamblers, is living in poverty since he cannot spend any money won by using his supernatural powers as it gives him bad luck, so his uncle, Blackie Tat (Ng Man-tat) suggests him to plead the God of Gamblers to accept him as a disciple. After sending a video to Michael which he dismisses, Sing and Tat march into Michael's mansion where they are kicked out by the latter. They sneak in again at night but is caught and beaten by Michael's bodyguard, Lung Ng (Charles Heung), but they refuse to leave and stays outside all night. The next day, Hussein sends killers to Michael's mansion. While Michael defeats several killers and successfully escapes with Sing and Tat, Ng was knocked out in an explosion and was abducted by Black Panther. Michael brings Sing and Tat to his village old home, which is inhabited by his underling, Raven, and Sam. Using his supernatural powers, Sing sees an unconscious Ng being brought to a bar, so he visits the bar with Tat where they meet the owner, Dream (Sharla Cheung), who looks exactly like Sing's old crush, Yee-mung. Tat becomes smitten with Dream, much to Sing's dismay, and pleads Sing to transfer some of his supernatural powers to him. Tat uses the powers to win stud poker game at Dream's house and gives some of his winnings to Dream, causing himself and Sing (whose power energy is connected to) to lose their supernatural powers. It is then revealed that Hussien found out from a mainland Chinese supernatural power expert, Tai-kwan, how to get rid of Sing's powers and forced Dream, who owes him HK$2 million to manipulate Tat. Hussein then attempts to rape Dream and kidnaps Tat. Meanwhile, Michael finds out from the newspaper that Hussien schemes where the latter plans to announce to the press about a fraud casino ship project to scam patrons, Michael plans to expose Hussien and prove himself to be the true Knight of Gamblers. With the help of Sing, Michael manages to win enough funds from Brother Kau's gambling den and confronts Hussien on his ship the next day to face off with him. However, Hussein's ship is surveillanced with high technology to help him cheat and since Sing lost his supernatural power, Michael loses. When Michael attempts to calls his mentor in Brazil to expose Hussein to the press, he discovers Tat and Ng have been captured and backs off. While feeling hopeless, Sam scolds Michael and Sing before returning to Kuwaiti to fight for his country, which motivates to confront Hussein at his ship again the next day. Knife publicly asks Hussein for HK$20, which he is able to use and win HK$25 million while Sing (having freed Tat and Lung) helps him distract Tai-kwan, allowing him to enter into the King of Cards competition. Although Hussein. As other players are eliminated, Michael, Sing, Hussein and Tai-kwan at the table. While Hussein and Tai-kwan try to cheat, Michael and Sing work together and eventually defeat Hussein and causes Tai-kwan to lose his supernatural power. Hussein's henchmen attempt to kill them, but Michael, Sing takes them down with the help of Ng and his younger sister, Kowloon (Monica Chan) and Michael exposes Hussein to the public before flykicking his face with Sing. In the end, Michael proposes a plan to Sing where the two agree to give each other their winnings, since Ko demands Michael to donate most of his winnings to charity and Sing would lose his powers if he spends his winnings, but Ko arrives to interrupt them. ===== The Rescue Rangers are going on a mission to retrieve a missing kitten for a girl named Mandy. As Gadget goes on ahead to scout the area and Monterey Jack is sent to investigate sightings of strange mechanical dogs with Zipper, Chip and Dale proceed through the streets and into a laboratory, where they are attacked by a crazed robot. After defeating the robot, Fat Cat appears and reveals that "Mandy's kitten" was just a distraction so he could kidnap Gadget and force her to work for him. Fortunately, Gadget is able to contact Chip and Dale by building a wireless phone and sending a map to them via carrier pigeon, allowing them to navigate through the treacherous landscape and reach Fat Cat's casino where she is being held. After rescuing her, Gadget provides the chipmunks with a rocket that sends them towards Fat Cat's hideout so they can defeat him. ===== ===== It is some time after the war, and Sir Richard Hannay is living in rural tranquility, having bought Fosse Manor and married Mary Lamington (both featured in Mr Standfast); they have a small son, named Peter John. Hannay's new friend, local doctor Tom Greenslade, a well-travelled and learned man, talks ominously one night of psychology, the subconscious, thrillers and post-war society. Later, Dick reads a letter from his old boss Sir Walter Bullivant, warning him that he will soon be asked to undertake another job for the country. ===== This film is set in a post- apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout. As a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Shortly before the movie opens, a group of mutant amphibians (who have been exiled to the desert by humans) capture a group of fertile women and are using them as sex slaves. Sam Hell (Piper) is a nomadic traveler who wanders the countryside. He is eventually captured by an organization of warrior-nurses, the closest thing to a government in his region of the world, who reveal that they located him by tracking the trail of pregnant women left in his wake. Their original plan was to use him as breeding stock with their collection of fertile women, but this was the group captured by the mutants. With their own attempts to capture the women failing, the group presses Hell into service as a mercenary; he is to infiltrate the mutant city (derogatorily referred to as "Frogtown") and rescue the women. To make sure that the rebellious Hell follows his orders, he is forced to wear an electronic protective codpiece that will explode if he disobeys or tries to abort his mission. Having already taken numerous samples of reproductive material from him, he is now deemed far more expendable than the women themselves. To aid him in his mission (and make sure he follows the plan), he is paired with one of the nurses, Spangle (Bergman), and an aggressive guard named Centinella (Verrell). During their journey to Frogtown, Hell tries numerous times to escape but quickly learns that a device Spangle carries will shock his genitals if used or if he gets too far away from it. Despite their rocky start and Spangle's initial cold demeanor, the pair grow closer during the journey and eventually fall in love. When they reach Frogtown, everyone involved is captured. The frogs' second-in-command, Bull (Nicholas Worth), tortures Hell and attempts to remove the codpiece for its technology. Meanwhile, a slightly drugged Spangle is forced to work as a slave and dance for the frogs' Commander Toty (Brian Frank) in the notable "Dance of the Three Snakes" sequence. Proving more successful than she had wished, the nurse soon finds herself at the mercy of the aroused commander. However, with the codpiece now removed (Bull finally removed it with a chainsaw, but it blew up and killed him), the escaped Hell rescues her along with the group of fertile women (Ellen Crocker, Kim Hewson, Ilana Ishaki, Annie McKinon and Janie Thorson) held captive. ===== At Wolfram & Hart, Harmony tells Angel that there was a mix-up with a girl named Dana's medication at a psychiatric hospital, and no longer sedated, she broke down her door, killed several people, and escaped. At the hospital, Dr. Rabinaw tells Angel and Spike that Dana had been kidnapped and tortured for months when she was 10, by the man who killed her family. Recently, she gained incredible strength. Angel realizes Dana — like Buffy — is a vampire slayer, activated by the events in the Buffy series finale. Wesley asks Giles to send “his top guy” to take care of Dana, who turns out to be Andrew Wells. He updates the group on how Willow activated every potential "Slayer of the Vampyrs"; when Wesley wonders how the Slayers will be trained now that the Watcher’s Council is gone, Andrew explains that Giles and some “Sunnydale alum” have been taking care of it. As Spike heads off to look for Dana, Angel follows Lorne's suggestion to visit Dana's childhood home with a psychic. The psychic flashes back to Dana’s abduction and her family’s murder; the smell of molasses and a basement is “where her pain lives,” he says. Meanwhile, Dana goes to the basement of the building where she was held captive, flashing back to her torturer injecting her with various drugs. When she looks up at his face, he is Spike. Andrew catches up with Spike, and updates him on the Scoobies’ activities - Xander is in Africa, Willow and Kennedy are in Brazil, Buffy and Dawn are in Rome, and everyone else is in England. Andrew guesses that Buffy does not know Spike is alive and wonders why he did not tell her. When Spike follows the scent of blood into Dana's trap, Andrew tries unsuccessfully to shoot Dana with a tranquilizer gun. Spike chases Dana to the basement, where she starts repeating what her torturer once said to her. Dana, channeling Nikki, recognizes Spike as William the Bloody. Before he can explain that she is dreaming of other slayers, she injects him with a sedative. At Wolfram and Hart, Fred and the team realize the smell of molasses indicates Dana was held in a distillery, and they send a tactical team to search abandoned distilleries. Back in the basement, Spike awakens to discover that Dana has cut off his hands. She tells Spike he cannot hurt her anymore, but when he insists she is thinking of someone else, she finally remembers who her torturer really was. Angel arrives, tells Dana her real torturer is dead, and knocks her out with a tranquilizer dart. Spike is taken to the hospital to have his hands reattached. Later, Andrew tells Angel because Dana is a slayer, she belongs in the care of the new council. This goes against Angel's intentions to have her treated in his own W&H; facilities. Andrew says none of the Scoobies—implicitly emphasizing Buffy, whom he points out, gives him his orders—trust Angel now that he works at Wolfram and Hart. “Don’t fool yourself… we’re not on the same side.” When Angel presses the issue, a group of slayers comes out of hiding and Andrew makes it clear that they will take Dana by force, if necessary. In the end, Dana is taken away with Andrew. Angel visits Spike at the hospital, where Spike admits he has never thought much about what being evil means, he only ever killed for the rush and enjoyment of the act, and he then states that he never once looked his victims in the eye. At this, Angel replies that Angelus could never stop staring into his victims; for him, it was always about the evil of the act. Spike says Dana is like them; someone turned her into a monster. Angel says Dana was an innocent victim and Spike notes that they were innocent victims once, too. ===== Suki, her cowardly brother Linus, and their conceited cousin Fleck are all lion cubs. When two rogue lions called Dark and Harry known as "The Wanderers" attack and while the lionesses help, they kill Fleck's mother leaving him an orphan. Suki and Linus decide to go exploring and find out how the Wanderers got across the river. Their mother Macheeba thought it impossible for the Wanderers to get across as there are Nile crocodiles in the river. Suki and Linus find a dead tree making a bridge, which is probably how the Wanderers got across. Elephants destroy the bridge leaving the cubs (and the Wanderers) trapped. When they meet Dark, he saves them from a pack of spotted hyenas, and Suki develops a crush on him. She and Linus have no choice but to swim across the river, and they successfully do. As the cubs become teenagers, Suki and Linus are being taught to hunt. Suki does not want to hunt and becomes a vegetarian. Fleck thinks that Suki and Linus do not like him because he is an orphan. Often in the film, Linus tries to practice hunting but is humiliated twice (being urinated on by an olive baboon, and trying to hunt a banded mongoose, but is chased up a tree by a herd of cape buffalo). When Suki, Fleck and Linus are adults, Suki refuses to hunt/contribute to the pride as she sees it as cruelty to kill animals, therefore rendering her useless or another mouth to feed to the other lions, and, seeing as she does not see that she fits in, leaves the pride and becomes a Wanderer. After a year with the Wanderers, Suki now has Dark's cubs but still refuses to hunt. One night Harry, who killed Fleck's mother, eats all but one of Suki's cubs, Rory. Harry claims they went missing and threatens for her last cub to "go missing" if she does not contribute. That night Suki overhears Harry talking to Dark about striking another attack on the pride saying they will kill them all. Outraged, Suki goes back to warn her pride about the impending attack. On her way back, Suki meets Lush, a lion who left the pride to see the rest of the world. Suki asks him to help her find some food and help fight the Wanderers. She hunts for the first time to provide food for the pride as they had not eaten for a while. Since the pride will not accept Fleck, he decides to join the Wanderers. Soon a fight erupts on the mountain top containing Harry and Linus where Harry dies by falling off the cliff side after Dark refuses to help him because Dark had just found out what Harry did to his cubs. Both Fleck and Dark leave after the battle, with Fleck threatening his revenge, claiming he will come back with an entire group of "highly-trained lions." Suki mates with Lush and has his cubs as Linus decides to leave to see the rest of the world and vows to come back when he is needed. ===== "In the 2001 film Undercover X (aka No Boundaries), Shaw plays an undercover LAPD detective named Truck Baker, a cross between action star Chuck Norris and The Dude from The Big Lebowski. He's laid-back, but he can also tear your head off with his bare hands. Newcomer Richard Magram plays Shaw's hyperactive partner Torino, who rambles on and on like Joe Pesci after four cups of espresso." The feature was filmed in Hollywood, California, Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo and Kamakura, Japan. This film is considered a "Zen Film" in that it was created in the distinct style of filmmaking formulated by Scott Shaw known as Zen Filmmaking. In this style of filmmaking, no scripts are used. ===== The episode opens with Gunn still being tortured by a demon in a hell dimension, when he is suddenly rescued by Illyria, who uses her ability to shift between dimensions to return them both to Wolfram & Hart. Gunn enters Wesley's office, and both have so much emotional baggage, they are uncertain how to behave. Wesley acknowledges that he should apologize for stabbing him earlier but is unsure how as he feels it would just be awkward. Gunn replies he isn't looking for an apology and he probably wouldn't accept one anyway, adding that his torture in the hell dimension was much worse. Meanwhile, Angel grows suspicious of Illyria's continued presence at the Firm, and concludes that she is staying not out of loyalty, but because of an attraction to the Firm's power. He orders Lorne to shadow her, and then turns his attention to a legal case involving a ceremonial demon pact. A pregnant woman named Amanda has agreed to allow a demonic cult called "the Fell Brethren" to adopt her baby, and Angel and Gunn start to advise her until they learn, to their outrage, that their client isn't the innocent woman, but rather the seemingly benevolent demons who are secretly taking advantage of her and planning to sacrifice the child on the eve of its 13th birthday. Meanwhile, Illyria enjoys sparring with Spike in the training room, perhaps because he does not kowtow to her, and is even learning to adapt to her fighting techniques, but she begins to act oddly even by her standards, and Wesley theorizes that she is growing emotionally and molecularly unstable as a result of her interdimensional travels. He realizes that if her energy excess continues to go unchecked, it will result in a catastrophic explosion. As Angel, Gunn, and Hamilton argue over how to handle the Fell Brethren case, Illyria grows increasingly disoriented and paranoid, culminating in a confrontation in which she effortlessly kills Angel, Lorne, Spike, and Wesley in a matter of seconds. At this point, the narrative switches to her point of view, and it is revealed that Illyria's disorientation has been caused by the fact that her excessive mystical energy has been sending her uncontrollably back and forth in time. Illyria again goes back in time to a point before she had killed the other characters, and she inadvertently begins taking Angel with her on her trips through time. Angel learns of the deaths of his friends and is horrified. After Illyria gives him advice about power, she explodes and likely decimates the continental shelf, but the explosion is so powerful it blasts Angel back in time to before Illyria killed everyone. This time, thanks to what Illyria told him, Angel is able to disrupt Illyria's attack and avoid the massacre. Illyria accuses Angel and Wesley of plotting to kill her with Wesley's massive ray gun, but Wes reveals that the gun is not meant to kill her, but rather to disperse her excessive energy and thus prevent the fatal explosion. Spike briefly holds his own fighting Illyria until she uses her time control powers on him, giving Wesley the chance to activate the ray in time. Illyria is left emotionally devastated by the resulting loss of some of her super powers. Angel returns his attention to the Fell Brethren case, and shocks Gunn by agreeing to represent the demons rather than the blithely naïve pregnant woman, having apparently taken Illyria's advice about power. ===== Deciding to go on a date with a hot but dumb blonde, Brian soon discovers he is dating "an idiot." Brian returns home depressed, and Lois tells him that he's too picky when it comes to the women he dates. Lois suggests that Brian go with Peter, Quagmire and Cleveland to a laser rock concert, but while there, Brian begins looking around the theater at all of the loving couples and becomes even more depressed, eventually deciding to begin drinking. On the drive home with the guys, he is soon pulled over by Joe and arrested for driving under the influence. One month later, Brian is sentenced to 100 hours of community service in the "Outreach to the Elderly" program, and assigned to an elderly woman named Pearl Burton, who has not left her house for 30 years. Appearing at her home the next day, he quickly becomes angered by her constant nagging, eventually losing his temper and telling her to "drop dead." Later that day, however, Brian soon discovers Pearl was actually a brilliant opera singer during the 1940s and '60s, who was shamed into hiding once she faced demands to sing her more popular radio jingles. Deciding to visit Pearl later that night, he discovers her about to hang herself, but saves her at the last second. Brian manages to convince Pearl that her voice is amazing and she is touched. The two quickly bond over Pearl's singing, and become close friends. Suggesting they go out for dinner, Brian leads Pearl out of her house, where she is immediately run over by a truck. At the hospital, Pearl is left in a serious condition and Brian feels guilty about taking her outside her house. Spending their last seconds together in virtual reality, which Brian had bought while at the rock concert, Pearl soon dies from her injuries, leaving Brian alone once more. Meanwhile, after watching an episode of Grizzly Adams on television, Peter decides to grow a beard, despite Lois' disapproval. After his beard is fully grown, the Griffin family decide to go out for dinner, but are soon pestered by a white- rumped swallow, who eventually settles in Peter's facial hair. Unaware that the bird is actually an endangered species, Peter attempts to remove the bird, but is soon threatened with jailtime if he does so. Left with no other choice but to let the bird live within his hair, Peter attempts to continue life as normally as possible, until he can no longer take the bird's constant squawking, and decides to shoot the bird. Stopped at the last second by Lois, Peter accidentally shoots a nearby window, causing the bird to fly out. Thankful that the bird is finally gone, the two soon hear peeping coming from inside his facial hair, and discover three small baby birds. Won over by their resemblance to his own children, he decides to keep the baby birds, and take the place of its mother. As time goes on, he becomes reluctant to release the birds once they have become fully grown, but is ultimately convinced by Lois to release them back into the wilderness once they attempt to fly out of their bedroom window. He does release them, and then he shaves the beard. Later in the Drunken Clam, Brian and Peter drink to each other's experiences and, as Brian sees an attractive blonde at the bar and Peter is getting looks from a large female bird, agree they aren't ready to move on. ===== During a late- night bachelor party at the Eager Beaver, a striptease club in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, drunken groom-to-be Paul Guber climbs on stage and grabs Erin Grant, one of the dancers. Before the club's bouncer can act, Paul is attacked with a champagne bottle by another customer. The attacker turns out to be Congressman David Lane Dilbeck, an incorrigible (yet secret) patron of adult establishments. Political fixer Malcolm Moldowsky, representing Dilbeck's legislative patrons in Florida's sugar cane industry, is furious at Dilbeck's stupidity since he is in the middle of a re-election campaign. Erin, a single mother engaged in a custody legal fight with her ex-husband Darrell, was fired from her job as a secretary for the FBI after he was arrested for grand larceny. The legal costs of her divorce impelled Erin to take up erotic dancing as a career. Ironically, her occupation has given the judge a prejudiced view of her, while Darrell's criminal record has been expunged after he has agreed to become an informant for the police. As a result, Darrell has been given custody of their daughter Angela, and Erin desperately needs even more money to reverse the court decision. One of Erin's lovestruck fans, a bookish man named Jerry Killian, recognizes Dilbeck from the club and tries to blackmail him into influencing the judge in Erin's favor. But when the judge proves resistant to Dilbeck's probing, Moldowsky decides the only way to safeguard Dilbeck is to have Jerry murdered. His body is found floating in the Clark Fork River in Montana – by Miami homicide detective Al Garcia, on vacation with his family. Another blackmailer surfaces in the person of Mordecai, a sleazy lawyer related to Paul's fiancee. One of Paul's friends from the bachelor party inadvertently snapped a picture of Dilbeck during the attack, with which Mordecai demands hush money. Instead, Mordecai and Paul's greedy fiancee are likewise murdered on Moldowsky's orders. However, Dilbeck's memory of Erin is indirectly sparked by the photo, and he obsessively refuses to continue with his campaign until he can "possess" her. Moldowsky, conscious that Dilbeck is necessary to his employers' continued prosperity, is forced to assist him. Garcia returns to Florida and compares notes with Erin and her main ally, the club's bouncer Shad. He discovers evidence linking Jerry's murder to Moldowsky, but nothing that will stand up in court. At the same time, Darrell is again busted for larceny and his criminal record is restored, tipping the dispute in Erin's favor. Deciding not to wait, she snatches Angela while Darrell is away, from her aunt's house. Meanwhile, Moldowsky approaches Erin's boss and asks for her to give Dilbeck a private performance. Erin agrees, knowing that it is the best way of gathering evidence. During her first private show, Dilbeck is rendered nearly helpless with lust, and Erin finds it easy to manipulate him. He offers her more money for a repeat performance, and she agrees. Realizing Dilbeck will probably escape implication in Jerry's murder under normal circumstances, Erin comes up with a plan to "destroy" him. On the night of the second show, Darrell follows Erin to the meeting place and comes upon Moldowsky watch-dogging the show, beating him to death in a drug-induced rage. Inside, Dilbeck tries to seduce her, and is vexed when she is unimpressed. Darrell enters and demands to be taken to his daughter. Erin moves to the next phase of her plan, drawing a pistol and ordering them both out. With the help of Dilbeck's limousine driver, Erin drives the two men to a sugar cane field owned by Dilbeck's most prominent supporters. When the car stops, Darrell runs into the cane and winds up falling into a drug-induced slumber; he is killed the next day when the cane he passed out in is fed into a milling machine. Erin offers to slow-dance with Dilbeck in the cane field. Dilbeck believes the dance is a prelude to "wild cowboy sex," but when he realizes it is not, he tries to rape Erin – at which point he is seized by a squad of FBI agents, led by Erin's old boss, who received an anonymous call saying she had been kidnapped. Erin gives Dilbeck an ultimatum: in exchange for avoiding arrest and public exposure, he must resign from his congressional seat. With Darrell gone, and the threat to her from Dilbeck and his patrons removed, Erin resigns from the club and starts a new life with Angela. In the epilogue, it is said that she has gotten back her old job as a secretary with the FBI and a night job dancing in the Main Street Parade at Walt Disney World, and is currently applying to become an FBI agent herself. ===== The cartoon stars Mr. T as a coach to a gymnastics team (with a specific emphasis on members Jeff, Woody, Robin, and Kim), travelling the world while becoming involved in and solving various mysteries. At the beginning of each episode, a live-action introduction featuring Mr. T himself is shown to explain what is going on. At the end of each episode, Mr. T narrates a moral lesson for the audience. ===== In September 1971, the US is losing the Vietnam War. Roland Bozz, a draftee opposed to the war, is an unruly soldier with no respect for authority. He befriends another Army recruit, Jim Paxton, an aspiring writer who records his experiences in a journal. Unlike Bozz, Paxton volunteered. Upon reaching their post, company commanding officer Captain Saunders makes clear that every soldier who passes through Fort Polk will be sent to Vietnam. He also states that any political views on the war are irrelevant. Having "X-ray vision for loopholes", Bozz finds ways for soldiers to get out of the army — one because he not only has children but also a handicapped wife; another, Miter, had joined to prove his manhood but finds himself in over his head. Eventually Bozz's natural leadership and ability earn him the title of squad leader. Another private, Wilson, a racial bigot and instigator, continuously demeans Miter and Bozz. Bozz fights Wilson, earning Wilson's hatred. Later, while doing live fire exercises, Wilson threatens Bozz with a pistol. Bozz tries to disarm Wilson, and the two wrestle each other to the ground, Wilson getting the upper hand and putting the gun to the back of Bozz's head and pulling the trigger. Miraculously, the gun misfires, saving Bozz's life. Saunders lets Bozz choose the punishment: have Wilson court-martialed or "let me deal with him", strongly suggesting the latter. Bozz says he wants Wilson "out of the Army", because he recognizes Wilson has taken an emotional beating ever since his inability to command became obvious. The platoon is sent to "Tigerland", a forested training area designed as a replica of Vietnam. During an exercise, Bozz's squad acts as villagers in a mock Vietnamese village, with one squad member designated as a Viet Cong sympathizer. They compete with another squad charged with rooting out the sympathizer. This other squad is led by Wilson, who was not kicked out after all. As the exercise ends with Bozz's squad "winning", Wilson tells Bozz he will kill him no matter what it takes. Soon thereafter, Bozz plans to escape to Mexico with the aid of some civilians he has paid. Platoon member Johnson tells him if he runs away, Wilson will kill Paxton instead. Bozz remains. During the last training exercise, the two squads are pitted against each other on patrolling missions. As Wilson's squad prepares for an attack, he replaces his blank cartridges with live ammunition and removes his blank-firing adaptor. As Bozz's squad nears, he opens fire. Though he does not hit anyone, it is obvious he is using live ammunition, and the trainer for the exercise tries to intervene. As he does, Bozz is standing above Paxton and deliberately fires a blank round with his rifle muzzle near Paxton's face, the flash wounding Paxton's eye. The trainer aims a pistol at Wilson's head to get him to hold his weapon up and surrender, telling him he will be court-martialed. The platoon gets ready to head to Vietnam, except for Paxton, whose eye injury, though not permanent, has earned him a medical discharge. Bozz and Paxton exchange farewells. Paxton tells Bozz he is going to write about him, but Bozz says he will not. He has stolen Paxton's journal and rips out pages as the platoon's bus drives off, leaving Paxton scrambling to recover them. Bozz tosses the journal as the bus speeds away. In the closing narration, Paxton says he never saw Bozz again. Over time, he heard from various sources that Bozz either died in Vietnam or disappeared over there. One acquaintance told Paxton he thought he'd seen Bozz, years after the war, in Mexico with a beautiful woman. ===== Vasanth (Shanthnoo Bhagyaraj) is an engineer who comes from Chennai. He falls in love with Narmada (Rashmi Gautam) at first sight. He acts blind, and she eventually falls for him. They date, and Narmadha's father (Ashish Vidyarthi), a police commissioner, gets to know abets. He manages to tell Narmada the truth, and she comes to know about Vasanth's blindness. They reconcile, and as the movie comes to an end, Vasanth has a successful operation, and they return to India happily to get married. ===== Jacques Austerlitz, the main character in the book, is an architectural historian who encounters and befriends the solitary narrator in Antwerp during the 1960s. Gradually we come to understand his life history. He arrived in Britain during the summer of 1939 as an infant refugee on a kindertransport from a Czechoslovakia threatened by Hitler's Nazis. He was adopted by an elderly Welsh Nonconformist preacher and his sickly wife, and spent his childhood near Bala, Gwynedd, before attending a minor public school. His foster parents died, and Austerlitz learned something of his background. After school he attended Oriel College, Oxford and became an academic who is drawn to, and began his research in, the study of European architecture. After a nervous breakdown, Austerlitz visited Prague, where he met a close friend of his lost parents, Vera, who often took care of "Jacquot" when his parents were away. As he speaks with her, memories return, including French and Czech expressions she taught him. The elderly lady tells him the fate of his mother, an actress and opera singer who was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp. From Prague, Austerlitz travels to Theriesenstadt, and after returning to England via train, with an emotionally difficult journey through Germany, manages to obtain a 14-minute video compilation of highlights from Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet, the 1944 Nazi propaganda film, in which he believes he recognizes his mother. Vera, however, dismisses the woman from the documentary. Instead, she confirms the identity of Austerlitz's mother in a photograph of an anonymous actress which Austerlitz found in the Prague theatrical archives. The novel shifts to contemporary Paris as Austerlitz seeks out any remaining evidence about the fate of his father. He meets up with the narrator and tells him of his first sojourn in Paris, in 1959, when he suffered his first nervous breakdown and was hospitalized; Marie de Verneuil, a young Frenchwoman with whom he became acquainted in the library, helps nurse him back to health. Sebald explores the ways in which collections of records, such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France or National Library of France, entomb memories. During the novel the reader is taken on a guided tour of a lost European civilization: a world of fortresses, railway stations, concentration camps and libraries. ===== Margaret Ford is a psychiatrist who has achieved success with her recently published book about OCD, but who feels unfulfilled. During a session one day, patient Billy Hahn informs her that his life is in danger because he owes money to a criminal figure named Mike Mancuso and brandishes a gun, threatening to kill himself. Margaret persuades him to surrender the weapon to her and promises that she will help. That night, Margaret visits a pool hall owned by Mike and confronts him. Mike says that he is willing to forgive Billy's debt if Margaret accompanies him to a back room poker game and identifies the tell of George, another player. She agrees, and spots George playing with his ring when he bluffs. She discloses this to Mike, who calls the bluff. However, George wins the hand and demands that Mike pay the $6,000 bet, which he is unable to do. George pulls a gun but Margaret intervenes and offers to pay the debt with a personal check. She then notices that the gun is a water pistol, and realizes that the entire game is a set-up to trick her out of her money. She declines to pay the bet, and spends the rest of the night socializing with the con men. The experience has excited her, however, and she returns the next night to request that Mike teach her about cons so that she can write a book about the experience. Mike appears skeptical, but agrees. Mike begins to enchant Margaret by showing her several simple tricks. Eventually, the two steal a hotel room and have sex. While in the room, he instructs her that all con artists take a small token from every "mark" to signify their dominance. While Mike is in the bathroom, she takes a small pocket knife from the table, believing that it belongs to the man who rented the room. Afterwards, Mike says that he is late for another, large con with his associates at the same hotel. Margaret is eager to tag along and, reluctantly, Mike allows it. The con involves Mike, his partner Joey and the "mark", a businessman discovering a briefcase full of money, and taking it to a hotel room. There they will discuss whether to turn it in or split it among themselves. In the hotel room, Margaret discovers that the businessman is actually an undercover policeman, and the trick is a sting operation. She tells Mike and they attempt to escape, but the policeman blocks their way and tries to arrest them. There is a struggle that ends with Margaret accidentally causing the policeman to fatally shoot himself. The three leave via the stairwell and end up in the garage, where they force Margaret to steal a car, driving past two uniformed police officers with the con men concealed in the back seat. While abandoning the car, they realize that the briefcase, containing $80,000 borrowed from the Mafia for the con, has been lost. Margaret finally offers to give Mike $80,000 of her own money so he can pay back the mob. Mike tells Margaret that they must split up so as not to draw any attention from the police, and says that he is flying away to hide. Margaret is riddled with guilt but, by chance, spots Billy driving the same red convertible she had been forced to steal earlier. She tracks him to a bar, where she spies on Mike and the entire group, including the man whose hotel room they stole, and the undercover policeman, discussing how the preceding events were a scheme to con her out of $80,000. She also learns that the pocket knife she stole from the hotel room belongs to Mike. After overhearing that Mike is flying to Las Vegas that night, Margaret waits for him at the airport. She says that she's been so worried about the police that she has withdrawn her entire life savings, and pleads to start a new life with him. They go to a restricted and deserted baggage handling area where Mike realizes he's being tricked when she lets it slip that she stole his pocket knife, something she wouldn't have known if she hadn't overheard their discussion of the con. He says that he cannot return her money because it has already been divided. Margaret, however, produces Billy's gun and demands that he beg for his life. Mike refuses, thinking that he is calling her bluff, but Margaret shoots him in the leg. When Mike curses her, she shoots him five more times, killing him. She calmly conceals the gun and walks away. Later, Margaret is shown just returned from a vacation, having moved on from the ordeal. While talking with a colleague at a restaurant, she seems to show no remorse for killing Mike stating, "When you've done something unforgivable, you must forgive yourself; and that's what I've done and it's done." After her friend leaves the table, Margaret distracts another diner so as to steal a gold lighter from her purse, relishing the brief thrill. ===== The events in the series are set in motion by Cobb Anderson, a computer scientist born in 1950 as part of the baby boomer generation. In the late part of the 20th century, the population bulge of the Baby Boomers causes massive unemployment. By 1995, Anderson's self-replicating robots, known as "boppers", colonize the Moon. By 2010, the United States Social Security system collapses. In response to riots, federal government turns over the state of Florida to the elderly. This leads directly into the events of Software, in 2020. ===== For months now, former President Lex Luthor has been using his resources to assemble an army against the superheroes. Luthor's team now has over two hundred members with a six-member core team consisting of Luthor, Talia al Ghul, Doctor Psycho, Deathstroke, Black Adam, and the Calculator. Nevertheless, not all the villains offered a chance to join this army are thrilled with this idea. Batman villain Catman has joined a team of five supported by the mysterious Mockingbird including Cheshire, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll, and Parademon to oppose this new Secret Society. Catman replaced the first Fiddler, after he was killed by Deadshot on Mockingbird's orders when Mockingbird felt he had not fulfilled his part in a mission. ===== For two generations humanity has been enslaved by the Vorra, a race of technologically advanced barbarians who had conquered space. On Qallavarra, the home planet of the Vorra, Gareth Shaw is an indentured servant of the House of Pwill, one of the giant city-states into which the planet is divided. As the only Terran on the estate, he is drawn into a seraglio intrigue by Under-lady Shavarri, the ninth wife of Pwill Himself, the overlord who rules the estate like a medieval duke. Shavarri's demand obliges Shaw to visit the "Acre of Earth", a ghetto-like enclave in the middle of a nearby city. In the Acre humans lived in relative freedom because they provided services that the Vorra could not provide for themselves. Chief among those services was the maintenance and repair of machines brought from Earth for the Vorra to use. But the Terrans also provided certain chemical services and Shaw had been sent to obtain one of those. Chased into the Acre by a Vorrish mob instigated by a squad of soldier-trainees, Shaw meets an almost equally hostile reception from three Terrans—Marijane Lee, her brother Ken, and their friend Gustav—who have rescued him from the mob. Seeing that he's wearing the livery of a Vorrish estate, they take him to Judge Olafsson, the voice of Terran law in the Acre. After being interrogated about his time on Qallavarra, Shaw leaves Judge Olafsson's court and completes his mission. He obtains from Hans Kramer, an apothecary, the love potion that Shavarri has ordered him to bring to her. Containing credulin, a drug that enhances suggestibility, the potion will enable Shavarri to manipulate Pwill Himself in her favor. Returning to the Pwill estate, he is called to the Grand Terrace of the manor house, where he finds Pwill Himself and his primary wife, Over-lady Llaq, having an angry confrontation with their wastrel son, Pwill Heir Apparent. Pwill, Sr. tells Shaw that his son has become addicted to a drug that affects the Vorra much as heroin affects Terrans—coffee—and that he expects Shaw to ensure that no one in the Acre will supply his son with more coffee. Later Pwill, Jr. prevails upon Shaw to keep him supplied with coffee beans through his friend Forrel. Soon after returning from the Acre and after his confrontation with Pwill Himself, Shaw begins to notice that he doesn't know things that he should know and that he knows things that, apparently, he shouldn't. He struggles to decode the meaning of that discovery and to regain lost memories, but has little success. After an encounter with the estate's whipmaster, he uses drugs obtained from Kramer to drive the whipmaster insane and thereby gains a reputation among the superstitious Vorra as a powerful shaman. One day he is taken to confront a rival shaman, who tells him that the Vorra acquired their hyperdrive-propelled starships and advanced weaponry by stealing them from another alien race. The shock of seeing the mummified remains of one of those aliens, still encased in a spacesuit, breaks a barrier in Shaw's mind and he begins to regain his lost memories, including why and how he lost his memories in the first place. On the same day that he regains his memories he is told by Marijane to cut off Pwill, Jr's coffee supply. Shaw agrees, knowing that Heir Apparent's display of withdrawal symptoms will throw the House of Pwill into crisis and put his life into jeopardy. But before anyone can notice his withdrawal symptoms, Pwill, Jr. comes to Shaw's room desperately seeking coffee and attacks Shaw. In self-defense Shaw kills the young man and hides the body in a sewer. Heir Apparent's disappearance precipitates the desired crisis and Shaw comes under suspicion of having provided the coffee that kept the young man addicted. The night before he is to be tortured to death, Shaw is extracted from the Pwill estate by Marijane, Ken, and Gustav and taken to the Acre. The next morning, convinced that his son has gone to the Acre in search of coffee, Pwill Himself leads four companies of his army toward the city, only to be ambushed by six companies of soldiers from the rival House of Shugurra. Soon thereafter the armies of ten other Houses join the battle and the Vorra are fully engaged in an all-out civil war, just as the Terrans had hoped. In the Acre all of the Terrans on Qallavarra climb to the rooftops and watch as a Vorra starship descends upon the city. The ship has been hijacked by a specially developed robot that had been hidden in a cargo container and now the ship will take all of the Terrans back to Earth. There the ship's technology can be copied for use against the Vorra in the general Terran revolt. Safe aboard the ship, Shaw sees the last piece of the puzzle fall into place in his mind. He realizes that the old shaman had lied to him about how the Vorra got their starships and advanced weaponry and he understands then that for the next century or so the Vorra will be the lesser of Earth's worries. ===== On the face of the Earth only the Barrenland remained an impenetrable mystery—a blasted radioactive area the size of a small state where no man dared to venture. But Jervis Yanderman was one of the more courageous souls of that future day when men at least were starting to reconstruct the vanquished civilization of the dim past. Jervis knew that the secret of the Barrenland had to be solved. For things from out of this world still emerged from it to terrorize neighboring lands and strange weird visitations haunted those who even approached it. ===== The film takes place in New Zealand in 1868 during Titokowaru's War phase of the New Zealand Wars between the Māori and New Zealand colonial forces. Sarah O'Brien (Samantha Morton) has grown up among soldiers in a frontier garrison on Te Awa Nui, the Great River. Pregnant at 16 by a young Maori boy, she gives birth to a son. When, 7 years later, her son, Boy, is kidnapped by his Maori grandfather, Sarah is distraught. Abandoned by her soldier father, Sarah's life becomes a search for her son. Her only friend, Doyle (Kiefer Sutherland) is a broken-down soldier without the means to help her. Lured to the ill rebel chief Te Kai Po's village by the chance to see her child, Sarah finds herself falling in love with Boy's uncle, Wiremu (Cliff Curtis) and increasingly drawn to the village way of life. Using medical skills she learned from her father, Sarah heals Te Kai Po (Temuera Morrison) and begins to reconcile with her son (Rawiri Pene). But her idyllic time at the village is shattered when she realises that she has healed the chief only to hear him declare war on the Colonials, men she feels are her friends, her only family. Her desperation deepens when she realises that Boy intends to prove himself in war, refusing to go back down river with her. As the conflict escalates Sarah finds herself at the centre of the storm, torn by the love she feels for Boy and Wiremu, anguished over the attachments she still has to the white man's world and sickened by the brutality she witnesses on either side. And when the moment comes, Sarah must choose where she belongs; will she be forced back into the white man's way of life, or will she have the courage to follow the instincts that are telling her where she truly belongs? ===== Zac was born on Christmas in 1960. He had a special relationship with his father Gervais, but things began to fall apart as Zac's non-masculine ways started to show. Their unique relationship officially came to an end when Gervais comes home to find Zac dressed in his mother's clothes. Ever since then, he "had unwittingly declared war on his father". At the Christmas party in 1975, Zac shotguns a joint with his cousin Brigitte's boyfriend Paul, which sparks Zac's attraction. His friend Michelle tries to kiss him, but Zac stops her with the excuse of protecting their friendship. Later on, he discovers that Brigitte is no longer with Paul. In a moment of spontaneity, Zac runs a red light on his motorcycle, only to be struck by a car and hospitalized. Zac later learns that Brigitte is back with Paul. Zac begins a relationship with Michelle, temporarily relieving Gervais — until he sees Zac stepping out of the car with a male classmate, adjusting his crotch. Angry, Gervais has Zac see a therapist to "cure" him of his "homosexuality". The therapist's conclusion was that Zac made "a subconscious deliberate mistake", intentionally doing it so that Gervais would catch him and find out he was "gay". At the Christmas dinner in 1980, Zac and Michelle's relationship has become closer and more physical. His brother Christian announces his engagement. At Christian's wedding reception, Zac and Paul shotgun a joint outside, but are seen by a guest who thought they were kissing. Gervais overhears this gossip, and chaos ensues. Gervais confronts Zac in the pouring rain, and Zac admittedly comes out, yelling that while he was not kissing Paul, he wished he had been. A sobbing, eavesdropping Michelle runs out of hiding, and Gervais tells Zac to leave. Zac flies to Jerusalem. Disgusted with himself after a gay sexual escapade, he walks into the desert and collapses in exhaustion. A Bedouin, who found Zac, drips water on Zac's face and takes Zac into his care. Zac returns home to find his second eldest brother hospitalized after a heroin overdose, who dies the next day. After the funeral, Gervais hugs Zac emotionally. Ten years after his brother's death, Zac narrates that Gervais "had become my father once more", even to the point of allowing his lover into his house. ===== In the Soviet Union in 1927, Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov, an impoverished aristocrat from Imperial Russia now working as a local village bureaucrat, is summoned to the deathbed of his mother-in-law. She reveals before dying that a fortune in jewels had been hidden from the Bolsheviks by being sewn into the seat cushion of one of the twelve chairs from the family's dining room set. After hearing the dying woman's confession, the Russian Orthodox priest Father Fyodor, who had arrived to administer the last rites, decides to abandon the Church and attempt to steal the treasure for himself. Shortly afterwards in the town of Stargorod, where Vorobyaninov's former mansion is located, a homeless con- artist, Ostap Bender, meets the dispossessed nobleman and manipulates his way into a partnership in his search for the family riches. The chairs, along with all other private property, had been appropriated by the State after the Russian Revolution. Vorobyaninov and Bender set off together to locate the chairs and recover the fortune, but are stymied by a series of false leads and other trying events. They find that the chairs have been split up and sold individually. Therefore, their hunt requires a great deal of travel to track down and open up each piece of the set in order to eliminate it as a possible location of the booty. As they progress, they meet comrades from every walk of life in Soviet Russian society, transforming the film into a satirical send up of failing Communism. By posing as the official in charge of the Department of Chairs, Bender tricks Father Fyodor into a wild goose chase to recover a similar set of eleven chairs in the possession of an engineer in a remote province in Siberia. Father Fyodor makes the long journey only to be thrown out of the engineer's house. When the engineer is reassigned to a post on the Black Sea, Fyodor follows him and buys the counterfeit chairs (on the condition that the engineer and his wife never see him again). He finds that none of the chairs has the jewels. Later, he runs across Vorobyaninov and Bender after they have retrieved one chair from a circus, and while being chased by them frantically climbs with the chair straight up the side of a mountain. After finding out that this chair doesn't contain the jewels, he finds that he is unable to get down again without help. Vorobyaninov and Bender leave him to his fate. After traveling many miles and perpetrating numerous cons to pay for the lengthy enterprise, the two men return to Moscow where they discover the last chair; because the others contained no hidden treasure, this one must contain it all. It is located in a Palace of Culture, which is inconvenient due to the presence of so many witnesses. Vorobyaninov and Bender return after closing time, entering through a window Bender secretly had unlocked earlier. At the moment of discovery, Bender carefully and quietly opens the chair cushion with his knife, but their hopes are dashed as it is found to be completely empty. Vorobyaninov is stunned and angry, but Bender laughs at the absurdity of the situation. A watchman finds them, and Vorobyaninov demands to know what happened to the jewels. "Look around you," the watchman answers, explaining that after the jewels were accidentally found, they were used to finance construction of the grand building in which they stand. Driven into a sudden rage, Vorobyaninov smashes the chair to pieces and assaults the officer whom the watchman has summoned. After admonishing him for hitting a policeman, Bender leads the way and they escape into the night. At the end of his patience, demoralized and bankrupted, Bender proposes that he and Vorobyaninov go their separate ways. In a desperate attempt to keep Bender from leaving, Vorobyaninov flings the remains of the last chair into the air, and collapses to the ground feigning an epileptic seizure; this is an act they had previously rehearsed as part of a con. Attracted by the crowd and understanding what Vorobyaninov is doing, Bender calls for the crowd's attention and begs the passers-by to give generously to this sad and stricken man. Using simple gestures without uttering a word, the two men cement their partnership in crime. ===== A young human gangster finds several demons have murdered his friends. Shocked, the man runs away and the demons chase after him. Angel beheads the demons and rescues the man who turns out to be a key witness needed to testify in court. Faith, the second Slayer, gets off a bus in L.A. then robs a man of his coat, money, and keys. In 1898 Borsa, Romania, Darla leads a blindfolded Angelus to a young gypsy woman bound on the floor. With Darla watching, he morphs and bites her inner thigh. In the present day, Angel attempts to convince the gang member he saved to testify. At a club, Faith dances and parties with various men. A fight breaks out when Faith begins flirting with another girl's boyfriend. She continues her dancing, knocking down anyone that tries to stop her or get in her way. In a courtroom, Wolfram & Hart is just about to close a case, but Angel shows up at the last minute with the gang member who is to testify against their client. Lilah Morgan and Lindsey McDonald, two lawyers from Wolfram & Hart, hire Faith to assassinate Angel. Back in 1898, Darla returns to the house to find her Angelus emotional and remorseful. He's been cursed with a soul, and she angrily rejects him because of it. In the present day, Faith works out a deal with the lawyers, and viciously beating one of them that dares to challenge her. While they're waiting for lunch with a prospective client, Faith shows up behind Angel and tries to shoot him with a crossbow. Angel catches the bolt and Faith runs off. After checking with Giles in Sunnydale, Angel plans to go after Faith while Wesley and Cordelia are to lay low. That night, he checks out weapons, when he senses Faith's presence up in the office. She gives him the opportunity to shoot her, and he tries to kneecap her, but the bullet is a blank. After she explains her plans to torture and kill him, she shoots him with a real bullet and leaves. Angel poses as a lawyer at Wolfram & Hart and sneaks into the office of Lindsey McDonald. Lindsey arrives in the office and informs Angel that their high-tech security system has documented Angel's every move on tape. Cordelia and Wesley try to get into Cordelia's apartment, but Dennis won't let them in at first, because, unbeknownst to Cordelia, Faith is inside waiting for them. They encounter Faith in the apartment who refuses to listen to their attempts to deescalate the situation and Faith knocks out Cordelia. Wesley punches Faith in return, and Faith ends the fight by kicking Wesley across the room. Back in 1898, a newly souled Angelus tries to find a meal on the streets. He knocks out several men and then tries to drink from the woman they were with. His soul keeps him from killing her. Angel finds Cordelia at her apartment, with Wesley missing. Faith ties him up and tortures him. Angel and Cordelia try to locate Faith. Angel charges into the apartment, stopping Faith from continuing to torture Wesley. A fight breaks out between Angel and Faith, destroying the apartment. Angel hurls himself and Faith out the window, and they land on the alleyway below, Faith initially keeping the upper hand on Angel. The rain starts to pour down outside as Wesley breaks loose and goes downstairs armed with a knife. With Wesley watching on, Faith seems to tire but Angel no longer defends himself or tries to hurt her. Angel tells Faith he won't "make it easy for her". Faith suddenly breaks down, declaring that she is evil, and begs for Angel to kill her. He refuses, and Faith stops fighting and cries in Angel's arms. Wesley looks on and drops the knife. ===== At a junior high school St. Valentine's Day dance in 1988 San Francisco, Jeremy Melton, an outcast student, asks four popular girls to dance. The first three girls, Shelley, Lily, and Paige reject him spitefully, while the fourth girl, Kate, politely responds "maybe later". Their overweight friend Dorothy accepts Jeremy's invitation and they proceed to secretly make out underneath the bleachers. When the school bully Joe Tulga and his friends discover them, Dorothy claims that Jeremy sexually assaulted her. Joe and his friends publicly strip and severely beat Jeremy, and his nose starts bleeding under the distress. It is later revealed Jeremy was expelled and eventually transferred to a reform school. Thirteen years later, in 2001, Shelley, now a medical student at UCLA, is at the morgue one evening studying for her medical exam. After receiving a vulgar Valentine's card in her locker, she is attacked by a man in a trench coat and Cupid mask. She is cornered in a cooler used to store cadavers, where she attempts to hide in a body bag, but the killer finds her before slitting her throat. The killer's nose bleeds as she dies. At Shelley's funeral, Kate, Lily, Paige, and Dorothy are questioned. They admit to not having seen her in some time after she moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Kate, Paige, and Dorothy subsequently receive obscene cards, each signed "JM." Lily also receives a card with a box of chocolates which she finds are filled with maggots. Meanwhile, Dorothy's boyfriend, Campbell, loses his apartment and temporarily moves in with her at her father's large mansion. As the girls attend the exhibit of Lily's artist boyfriend Max, they meet Campbell's bitter ex-girlfriend Ruthie, who accuses him of being a con artist. Lily becomes lost at the exhibit and the killer appears, who proceeds to shoot her repeatedly with arrows until she falls several floors into a dumpster. When they have not heard from Lily, the others assume she is in Los Angeles on a work trip. Upon contacting the police, they agree that the culprit could be Jeremy Melton. Dorothy admits to her friends that she lied and that Jeremy never attacked her and she ruined his life by getting him beat up and sent to reform school. Meanwhile, Kate's neighbor Gary, breaks into her apartment to steal her underwear. The killer catches Gary in the act and hits him with a hot iron. The killer then brutally beats him to death with the object. As Valentine's Day approaches, Dorothy is planning a party at her family's estate. On the morning of the party, the killer murders Campbell with an ax in the basement. The others assume he has simply left Dorothy. Angering her, Dorothy believes that they are jealous and still look at her as the "fat girl" of the group. After coming to the party to confront Dorothy with the truth about Campbell, Ruthie is thrown through a shower window by the killer who then impales her neck on the glass. At the party, Paige is attacked and trapped in a hot tub by the killer. The killer taunts her with an electric drill before throwing it into the water, electrocuting her. The party disintegrates when the power cuts out, and Dorothy and Kate argue over who the killer is. Kate claims that Campbell could be a suspect because they do not know anything about him or where he is, while Dorothy counters by accusing Adam, Kate's recovering alcoholic on-off boyfriend, who is now a journalist. After being told by Lily's boyfriend that she did not arrive in Los Angeles as planned, Kate realizes she is also probably dead and calls the detective assigned to the case. After dialing the number, she follows the sound of a ringtone outside the house and discovers the detective's severed head in the pond. Kate becomes convinced that Adam is actually Jeremy, disguised by reconstructive surgery, and goes back into the house, only to find Adam waiting for her. To her surprise, he asks her to dance. Kate becomes frightened, knees him in the groin and flees. She runs through the house, discovering the corpses of Paige and Ruthie. She locates a gun, but the Cupid masked killer jumps out from the darkness and sends them both tumbling down a staircase. The killer arises and is shot to death by Adam. As a shocked and confused Kate apologizes profusely, Adam pulls off the mask to reveal Dorothy. Adam forgives Kate, explaining that childhood trauma can lead to lifelong anger and some people are eventually forced to act on that anger, referring to Dorothy. As Kate and Adam wait for the police to arrive, they hug and Adam says he has always loved her. Moments later, when Kate closes her eyes, his nose begins to bleed, revealing that he is in fact Jeremy Melton and the true killer, framing the dead Dorothy for his crimes. ===== A successful weatherman at a Chicago news program, David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is well paid but garners little respect from people in the area who throw fast food at him, David suspects, because they're resentful of how easy his high-paying job is. Dave also feels overshadowed by his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine), who is disappointed in Dave's apparent inability to grow up and deal with his two children. The situation worsens when Robert is diagnosed with lymphoma and given only a few months to live. As he becomes more and more depressed, Dave takes up archery, finding the activity a way to build his focus and calm his nerves. David later remembers a conversation between himself and his father, where his father explains to him that "the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are often the same thing" and that "nothing that has meaning is easy". David appreciates this advice but struggles to implement it. To prove himself to his father and possibly reconcile with Noreen (Hope Davis), his estranged wife, Dave pursues a weatherman position with a national talk show called Hello America. The job would nearly quadruple his salary, but means relocating to New York City. When Hello America invites him to New York, he takes his daughter, Shelly (Gemmenne de la Peña), with him and bonds with her by helping her shop for a more suitable wardrobe. While away, Dave learns that his son Mike (Nicholas Hoult) attacked his counselor, Don Bowden (Gil Bellows), claiming that the man wanted to perform oral sex on him. Despite this stress and an all-night drinking binge, Dave impresses the Hello America interviewers and is eventually offered the job. When he returns, Dave slaps Russ (Michael Rispoli), Noreen's boyfriend, when he finds him dealing with his son's predicament. Dave later confronts the counselor at his home, beating him up and warning him that he is in store for worse. The family holds a living funeral for Robert (organised by Dave's mother, Lauren, played by Judith McConnell), in which Dave asks Noreen to reconcile and move to New York, but she has decided to marry Russ. Dave and Robert have one final talk, in which Dave breaks down in tears, unsure of his life's choices. Robert consoles him, telling him that he has time to "chuck" the garbage of his life. Robert dies soon after. The film ends several months later, after Dave has accepted the job and moved to New York. People have ceased throwing things at him though, he muses, this may be a pleasant side-effect of his archery hobby, for which he carries a bow. ===== A frame story has Carrie visiting the town as a widow with three children. She tells the children what happened thirty years before. Carrie Willow and her younger brother Nick are evacuated to a rundown mining town in Wales during the Second World War.For an account of various effects on evacuated children, see the 2011 Guardian article "Children of the wartime evacuation". Retrieved 28 September 2019. Other novels treating this include Joyce Cary's Charley Is My Darling (1940) and Noel Streatfeild's Saplings (1945). Retrieved 28 September 2019. After a traumatic difficulty in finding a family to foster them, they stay with a shopkeeper, Mr. Evans, who dominates his gentle but weak younger sister, whom they call "Auntie Lou". Another evacuee whom Carrie has befriended, Albert Sandwich, is staying at a dilapidated country house called Druid's Bottom with Mr. Evans's older sister, the dying Mrs. Dilys Gotobed, and her disabled cousin, Mr. Johnny Gotobed.Johnny seems to have cerebral palsy, but his disability is not named in the novel. Their English housekeeper, Hepzibah Green, is reputed to be a wise woman. Carrie and Nick become friends with Albert and Johnny and spend a lot of time there. The housekeeper tells the children many tales, including one about a curse on Druid's Bottom, which will be activated if a mysterious skull is removed from the house. It is revealed that Mr. Evans has been estranged from his older sister, Mrs. Gotobed, after she married a wealthy Englishman whose family owned the mines where their father was killed in an accident. Carrie is caught in the rift between the brother and sister. Despite almost universal contempt for Mr. Evans, Carrie gives him a chance and sees that, beneath his rough exterior, he genuinely is a well-meaning man, who became embittered with the world due to his hard life and the feud with his older sister, to whom he was once very close. When Mrs. Willow comes to visit them, they say nothing about their dislike of Mr. Evans, as they do not want to leave. Mrs. Gotobed assures Hepzibah and Mr. Johnny that they can continue to live in her house once she has died, and that she has made a will saying so. Carrie only meets Mrs. Gotobed twice before she dies, and Mrs. Gotobed asks Carrie to tell Mr. Evans that she has never forgotten him, despite their feud. Hepzibah and Albert tell Carrie that despite Mr. Evans's firm belief that Hepzibah is cheating Mrs. Gotobed out of money, she is in fact penniless. On Carrie's birthday, Albert kisses her as a present and she is delighted. Auntie Lou, meanwhile, becomes friendly with Major Cass Harper, an American soldier, keeping this secret from her brother, who would not approve. When Mrs. Gotobed dies, Albert is sure that Mr. Evans has stolen her will so that he can turn Hepzibah and Mr Johnny out of his deceased sister's house, despite there being plenty of evidence that Mrs. Gotobed had made no will – only mental deterioration led her to believe she had made one. Johnny and Hepzibah will be homeless after a month's notice, as the house has become Mr. Evans's property. Carrie does not want to believe this of Mr. Evans, seeing him as an honest man. Albert, on the other hand, is convinced that Mr. Evans has destroyed the will, and becomes even more adamant after he realises that a ring which Mr. Evans gives Carrie as a present had in fact belonged to Mrs. Gotobed. However, Carrie changes her mind about Mr. Evans after Albert vaguely recalls seeing an envelope in Mrs. Gotobed's jewellery box that disappeared after Mr. Evans visited the house to take an inventory of his late sister's belongings. This envelope, Carrie believes, was Mrs. Gotobed's will, and she too thinks Mr. Evans stole it to ensure that he would inherit everything. To prevent this from happening, she throws the cursed skull into the horse pond. Mrs. Willow arranges a new home for her family near Glasgow, and so the children prepare to leave, with mixed feelings. At the same time, Auntie Lou departs to marry Major Harper, leaving Mr. Evans alone. Carrie later learns that Mr. Evans is innocent after all: the envelope in fact contained nothing more than a childhood photograph of Mr. Evans and Mrs. Gotobed, which she had left him. Mr. Evans bought the ring he gave Carrie as a present for Mrs Gotobed in their youth. As the children leave by train, they see that Druid's Bottom is on fire. Carrie is guilt-stricken, believing it is her fault for casting out the skull. Thirty years later, Carrie's children discover that Hepzibah and Mr. Johnny are living in a converted barn at Druid's Bottom, having escaped the fire. Albert Sandwich still visits them. Mr. Evans, grieving and lonely, died long ago. ===== Bob, a former bank robber and convict who has gone straight for 20 years, lives on his own as a gambler in the Montmartre district of Paris. He is well liked by the demi-monde community there, but has hit a run of bad luck and is nearly broke. Ever the gentleman, he lets an attractive young drifter called Anne stay in his flat in order to keep her from the attentions of Marc, a pimp he hates, and encourages his young protégé Paolo to become involved with her. Marc is arrested for beating up his wife, and accused of being a pump, but is released on condition he becomes an informer. Ledru, the police inspector who does this, owes an unrepayable debt of gratitude to Bob, who once saved his life. Through an ex-con who is now a croupier in the casino at Deauville, Bob and his safecracker friend Roger learn that by 5.00 in the morning at the height of the season the casino safe can hold 800 million in cash. Forming a plan to lift it, they find a backer to finance their preparations and recruit a team of professional criminals. The croupier gets them detailed floor plans, together with the specification of the safe. Paid in cash for this valuable information, he uses some of it to buy jewellery for his avaricious wife. In bed with Anne, the immature Paolo brags about the upcoming raid, news which she passes on to Marc, who tips off Ledru that he has valuable info to share. When Anne confesses what she has done, Paolo shoots Marc dead before he can get to Ledru. Meanwhile, the croupier's wife has wormed out the secret of her husband's new riches and decides to blackmail Bob but, unable to find him, tells the police. Ledru finds it hard to believe, as he thinks Bob is truly reformed, and after checking with the casino mounts a fruitless search for Bob, who is already on his way to Deauville. Ledru follows with a convoy of armed police. Bob's plan is to spend the time until 5:00 as a customer inside the casino, keeping an eye on things until the rest of the gang burst in with guns. After wandering around the tables for a while, he can't resist placing a bet. There follows the most incredible run of luck, in which he wins millions. Just before 5:00 he orders the staff to cash his huge pile of chips and bring the money to the front door. Arriving there on time, his gang are ambushed by the police and Paolo is killed in the ensuing gun battle. The handcuffed Bob is put into Ledru's car and the casino staff put his winnings in the trunk. It is strongly implied that his lucky streak will hold and he will get off with little or no jail time. Indeed, he quips, he may sue the police for damages – while the beautiful Anne waits for him at his apartment. ===== Sergeant Joe Gavilan is a financially strapped homicide detective with the Hollywood Division of the LAPD. He has been moonlighting as a real estate agent for seven years. His current partner is K. C. Calden, a much younger detective who teaches yoga on the side and wants to be an actor. The partners are investigating the murders of the four members of rap group "H2OClick", who were gunned down in a nightclub by two unidentified assailants. The detectives discover there was a witness who fled, and they work to track him down. They are distracted, failing to bond as partners, as Gavilan has to deal with a looming real estate deal that may be the key to getting out of debt, while Calden further pursues his dreams of acting by trying to be scouted by talent agents. Meanwhile, the manager of H2OClick, Antoine Sartain, has his head of security eliminate the two hitmen, who he had hired to kill H2OClick, and earlier a rapper named Klepto that Sartain also managed. Gavilan and Calden believe the murders are gang-related, but when Calden happens to see the bodies of the hitmen at the morgue, they conclude that the murders were orchestrated. The detectives also notice similarities that tie the H2OClick and Klepto homicides together. Gavilan learns from an undercover officer that the songwriter for H2OClick, a man named K-Ro, has gone missing, leading Gavilan to believe he is their murder witness. They struggle to track down K-Ro until they finally learn his real name, Oliver Robideaux, the son of former Motown singer Olivia Robideaux. Meanwhile, Internal Affairs Lieutenant Bernard "Bennie" Macko arrives at the station. Macko and Gavilan have a bad history, as Gavilan embarrassed Macko after proving him wrong on a case years ago. The animosity is compounded by the fact that Gavilan's latest love interest, a psychic named Ruby, used to date Macko. Macko is intent on ruining Gavilan, going so far as to try to frame him and place both detectives in interrogation. Instead, it only serves to help Gavilan and Calden strengthen their partnership. Gavilan offers to help Calden with the case of his father's death; Officer Danny Calden had been gunned down during a sting operation gone wrong, with his partner, Officer Leroy Wasley, being implicated but eventually released due to lack of evidence. The partners track down K-Ro to his home, where Olivia professes her son's innocence and that manager Sartain was the real culprit. Sartain had been embezzling money from Klepto, H2OClick and other clients for years. Klepto and H2OClick discovered this and threatened to hire lawyers to nullify their contracts, which led Sartain to have his head of security hire the hitmen as a "lesson" to all his clients. It also turns out that Wasley is Sartain's security chief, and that Macko is also in league with him. When the partners can't locate Sartain and Wasley, Gavilan enlists the help of Ruby. She uses her psychic power to lead the two detectives to a clothing store. Just then, Sartain and Wasley happened to drive by, and Gavilan and Calden follow in a wild car chase. The chase ends with the four men on foot, with the two partners chasing the two culprits in different directions. When Gavilan struggles with Sartain, Sartain ends up falling from the top of a building to his death. Wasley has drawn a gun on Calden and loudly brags about having killed his father. Calden utilizes his acting skills to distract Wasley, incapacitate him, and reveals he had a tape recorder on the whole time. Gavilan and Calden reunite as LAPD officers swarm the scene, but Macko appears and calls for the arrests of the two officers. Instead, Macko is arrested for his part in helping to cover up Sartain and Wasley's crimes. Gavilan and Ruby are seen attending a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Calden is playing a lead role. It is implied that Gavilan successfully brokered the real estate deal, and Calden is giving his all in the pursuit of his acting dream. However, both of them receive calls from police headquarters and leave in the middle of the play, now solid partners. ===== John Hemingway, recovering alcoholic, has been appointed to the role of night shift manager of the St. Louis bus depot. He must deal not only with the intricacies of keeping the station running smoothly, but also the employees and other personalities who frequent the station, all while dealing with his own demons. This was highlighted in the first episode, with a running gag of every character offering to buy him a drink upon his meeting them. Much of the first season dealt with John's attempts to stay sober, with episodes representing each of the AA program's Twelve Steps. John constantly struggled to maintain control of the station, with regular conflicts with his secretary, Mahalia, the janitor, Heavy Gene, and most strongly with sandwich bar attendant Dexter, who had been turned down for the position to which John was appointed. Adding sexual tension to John's life was high class escort Carly, who was a friend of Dexter's. ===== The series was about a group of lucha libre wrestlers led by Lobo Fuerte who, along with Turbine, Maria Valentine, and Laurent, fought to protect Union City from a slew of different enemies Led by the Whelp and the bumbling antics of Mayor Potts. The series title is translated as "The Wrestlers" or "The Fighters" from Spanish. ===== Jane and Cathy are two young nurses from Nottingham who are taking a cycling holiday through rural France. While having lunch at a busy restaurant, Cathy notices a handsome man drinking alone at an adjacent table. Shortly after the women depart, the man also leaves the cafe on a Lambretta scooter. On a country road surrounded by farmland, the women are passed by the man on his scooter. Several minutes later, the women pass by him as he rests by a cemetery. As the women pass through a small village, they encounter the man again. Cathy, who has grown tired of cycling, decides she wants to sunbathe, and stops at a wooded area along the road. Jane agrees to rest momentarily, but the two women get into an argument over the trip itinerary, and Jane decides to continue on alone. Jane soon arrives at a rural roadside cafe, where the proprietor, Madame Lassal, warns her that the area is dangerous and that she should not be travelling alone. Meanwhile, Cathy, still sunbathing, becomes unnerved and senses she is being watched. Upon trying to leave, she finds that someone has destroyed the wheel of her bicycle. Moments later, she is confronted by an unseen assailant. Feeling guilty over leaving Cathy behind, Jane returns to the spot where she was sunbathing. She finds no sign of Cathy, apart from her camera lying in the grass. Moments later, the man the women saw earlier at the restaurant stops along the road on his scooter. He introduces himself as Paul, and Jane explains to him that she is looking for Cathy. Paul offers Jane a ride back to the village, where she believes Cathy may have gone. While questioning locals in town, Jane learns of an unsolved rape and murder of a young woman that occurred in the town the year before. Meanwhile, Paul rides into the woods on his scooter to search for Cathy. Jane encounters a British schoolmistress in town who drives her part-way to meet the gendarme and report Cathy's disappearance. En route, the schoolmistress tells Jane the unsolved murder occurred in the same wooded area from which Cathy vanished. Unable to locate the gendarme, Jane returns to the roadside cafe and asks Madam Lassal for help, but she again urges Jane to leave the area. Jane again encounters Paul, who reveals he is a private investigator who researched the case of the murdered woman. The two get into an argument when Jane discovers Paul has taken the film from Cathy's camera as evidence. Convinced he has hurt Cathy, Jane parts ways with him. Running through the town on foot, Jane finally locates the residence of the gendarme, and explains what has occurred. The gendarme goes to investigate the scene, leaving Jane alone at his residence. Paul arrives at the house, but Jane refuses to open the door. When he breaks into the gendarme's home, Jane flees into the woods, where she stumbles upon an abandoned trailer park. While hiding in a camper, Jane finds Cathy's corpse. Paul manages to corner Jane in the woods, but she beats him in the face with a rock. At the edge of the abandoned trailer park, Jane finds the gendarme. As she embraces him, the gendarme begins to fondle her sexually. He begins to attack her, revealing himself to be the perpetrator. Jane attempts to fend him off, and is rescued by an injured Paul, who hits the gendarme with a large branch. ===== The crew of Voyager are foraging for food on a planet, when the ship detects a cloaked Kazon vessel and they are ordered to return. Chakotay is left behind to search for Seska. As soon as he finds her, he is fired on by two Kazons, who are stunned by return phaser fire, allowing Chakotay and Seska to escape. Back on Voyager, Seska serves Chakotay mushroom soup and tells him that she and other Maquis raided Neelix's kitchen to make the soup. Chakotay is furious and threatens harsh disciplinary measures. Seska, having once been romantically involved with Chakotay, attempts to placate him, but Chakotay rebuffs her and leaves. Moments later, Voyager detects a distress call from a Kazon ship. On investigation, they discover that a piece of equipment on the Kazon ship has caused a catastrophic failure on board, killing all but one of the crew, who is comatose. Because the equipment bears similarities to Starfleet technology, the crew realize that the technology Kazon must have obtained it from someone on Voyager, and Seska falls under suspicion. Seska takes matters into her own hands and beams over to the Kazon ship, explaining that she must retrieve the equipment to prove her innocence. While on the ship, Seska is injured and is reprimanded by her superiors when she returns. Captain Janeway realizes that the comatose Kazon might be the only chance of finding out how the technology came into the Kazon's possession. Another Kazon ship arrives, whose captain, Culluh, demands to see his comrade. Culluh and his bodyguard arrive in sickbay where the Doctor is treating their compatriot. Suddenly, Culluh's bodyguard kills the patient. Disgusted, Janeway orders both Kazons off Voyager. Kes finds Seska has Cardassian blood, which Seska claims was the result of a bone marrow transplant from a friendly Cardassian woman. Investigations reveal that a message was sent to the Kazon from Engineering, and from the time of the message the two most likely suspects are Seska and Lt. Carey. The senior crew set a trap to identify the traitor, and Seska falls for it. She explains that the Kazon are a powerful race in this quadrant and by giving them technology, Voyager will gain a powerful ally. She escapes to a Kazon ship using a pre- programmed beam-out. Janeway orders a pursuit, but more Kazon ships arrive and Voyager retreats. Later, Chakotay asks Tuvok if he was naive for being fooled by Seska. Tuvok admits being fooled as well, reassuring Chakotay. ===== Students at Bratsky Monastery in Kiev (Kyiv) break for summer vacation. The impoverished students must find food and lodging along their journey home. They stray from the high road at the sight of a farmstead, hoping its cottagers would provide them. A group of three, the kleptomaniac theologian Khalyava, the merry-making philosopher Khoma Brut, and the younger- aged rhetorician Tiberiy Gorobets, attracted by a false target, must walk extra distance before finally reaching a farm with two cottages, as night drew near. The old woman begrudgingly lodges the three travelers separately. At night, the woman calls on Khoma, and begins grabbing at him. This is no amorous embrace; the flashy-eyed woman leaps on his back and rides him like a horse. When she brom-whips him, his legs begin to move beyond his control. He sees the black forest part before them, amd realizes she is a witch ((, ved'ma). He is strangely envisioning himself galloping over the surface of a glass-mirror like sea: he sees his own reflection in it, and the grass grows deep underneath. He bears witness to a sensually naked water-nymph (a rusalka).: ""the mirror motif", etc. By chanting prayers and exorcisms, he slows himself down, and his vision is back to seeing ordinary grass over earth. He now throws off the witch, and rides on her back instead. He picks up a piece of log, and beats her. The older woman collapses, and transforms into a beautiful girl. Later, a rumour had circulated that the daughter of a Cossack chief (a sotnik in Gogol's original text, designated "sotnik" by , etc.) was found crawling home from a walk, badly beaten and near death, her last wish being for Khoma the seminary student to come pray for her at her deathbead, and for three successive nights after she has died. Sketch for the French edition of Viy, by Constantin Kousnetzoff Khoma learns of this from the seminary's rector who orders him to go. Khoma wants to flee, but he witnesses the bribed rector advising the Cossack henchmen to tie the student up, and resigns to go when he sees the kibitka wagon transport escorted by stalwart Cossacks. When he is shown the corpse, however, he finds it is the witch he overcame earlier in the story. Rumors among the Cossacks are that the daughter was in league with the Devil, and they tell horror stories about her evil ways, such as previously riding on another person, drinking blood, and cutting off the braids of village girls and Khoma is reluctant to say prayers over her body at night. On the first night, when the Cossacks take her body to a ruined church, he is somewhat frightened but calms himself when he lights more candles in the church to eliminate most of the darkness. As he begins to say prayers, he imagines to himself that the corpse is getting up, but it never does. Suddenly, however, he looks up and finds that the witch is sitting up in her coffin. She begins to walk around, reaching out for someone, and begins to approach Khoma, but he draws a circle of protection around himself that she cannot cross. The next night similar events occur but more horrible than before, and the witch calls upon unseen, winged demons and monsters to fly about outside the church, but Khoma is invisible for them. When the cossacks find the philosopher in the morning, he tries to escape but is captured and brought back to finish. On the third night, the witch's corpse is even more terrifying, and she calls the demons and monsters around her to bring into the church the Viy, the one who can see everything. Khoma realizes that he should not look at the creature when they draw his long eyelids up from the floor so he can see, but he does anyway and sees a horrible, iron face staring at him. Viy points in his direction, and the monsters leap upon him. Khoma dies from horror. However, the monsters miss the first crowing of the rooster and fail to escape the church before the light of dawn. The priest arrives the next day to find the monsters frozen in the windows as they tried to flee the church. The temple is forsaken forever, eventually overgrown by weeds and trees. The story ends with Khoma's other two friends commenting on his death and how it was his lot in life to die in such a way, agreeing that if he had not looked into Viy's eyes, he could have still survived. ===== A gang of dwarves team up with a gangster's mistress, played by Angel Tompkins, to go on a crime spree. ===== The novel is related in broad chronological order by the main protagonist, Herbert Badgery, but with frequent digressions that relate the circumstances and life history of Badgery himself, and of many of the characters he meets. The story begins in 1919 when the thirty-three-year-old Herbert lands his aeroplane in a field close to the wealthy former bullock-herder Jack McGrath. Herbert befriends Jack and persuades him to invest in the construction of an aeroplane factory. Herbert also becomes the lover of Jack's teenage daughter Phoebe, who had previously been involved in a lesbian relationship with a teacher, Annette Davidson. Jack commits suicide following a violent argument between Herbert and some other potential investors. Herbert marries Phoebe and they bear two children, Charles and Sonia. After learning to fly Herbert's aeroplane, Phoebe steals it, abandoning her husband and children to live with Annette. Herbert briefly becomes the lover of Jack's widow, Molly, but goes out on the road to scrape a living, often as a confidence trickster, accompanied by his two children. He meets Leah Goldstein, a former medical student turned dancer who is married to the Communist agitator Izzie Kaletsky. She and Herbert become lovers and develop a variety act, but Leah returns to care for Izzie after he has both legs amputated following an accident. Sonia dies, and Herbert is subsequently jailed for an assault on a Chinese man who had been his childhood mentor, Goon Tse Ying, whose finger is torn off. In prison, Herbert is presented with the preserved finger in a jar, and finds that looking into the jar presents the viewer with curious visions. Herbert, who for much of his life had been illiterate, begins studying, and eventually obtains a degree in Australian history. Charles becomes a dealer in animals, and meets Emma Underhill when required to rescue her from the clutches of a frightened goanna. Charles falls in love with and weds Emma, despite warnings from her father about her fragile mental state. Charles builds a successful business selling animals and moves into larger and larger premises. Upon the outbreak of World War Two, he considers enlisting, but is rejected because of his hearing. Traumatised by his decision, Emma retreats into the goanna's cage and continues living in an adapted cage for the rest of her life. Leah returns to help Charles, but also begins living in a cage, as part of Charles' extended household. After his release from prison, Herbert goes to live with Charles at the pet emporium. He attempts to rebuild part of Charles' shop, but the attempt ends in disaster. Herbert befriends Charles' youngest son, Hissao, who dreams of becoming an architect. Herbert suffers a stroke, and Charles is obliged to consider how his shop can continue to maintain the support of his American backers, who wish to export animals illegally against Charles' wishes. Emma comes into possession of the jar of Herbert's that contains Ying's finger and claims that she sees a reptile in the bottle that she also claims is Hissao's half- brother. Distraught by the claim, Charles shoots Emma's goanna, and turns the gun on himself. Hissao claims he will not give up architecture in order to preserve the family business by becoming an animal smuggler, but does so, and becomes wealthy and much-travelled. He accidentally kills a rare bird he is smuggling, whereupon he sells much of his share in the business to Japanese investors and commences rebuilding the emporium to his own design, according to which it becomes a bizarre and controversial museum of the Australian nation. ===== The story is set in 1885 and concerns Dr. Bernard Hichcock (Robert Flemyng), a necrophiliac whose "horrible secret" of the title involves drugging his wife, Margaretha (Maria Teresa Vianello), for sexual funeral games. One day he accidentally administers an overdose of a new drug which slows the heartrate and thinks he has killed her. After burying her in a crypt, he leaves London. 12 years later, he remarries and returns to his old home. His new wife, Cynthia (Barbara Steele), starts to believe that she is seeing Margaretha around the house. After Cynthia falls victim to Dr. Hichcock's old parlour games, she suspects that he is trying to kill her, but she finds out that the truth is much worse. Having realised that Margaretha is still alive, but looking haggard from her ordeal, Dr. Hichcock plans to kill Cynthia and use her blood to restore Margaretha's beauty. ===== Los Angeles Times undercover reporter Irwin M. "Fletch" Fletcher (who writes as "Jane Doe") is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beaches of Los Angeles. While posing as an addict, he is approached by Boyd Aviation executive vice president Alan Stanwyk, who assumes Fletch is a real junkie. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to kill him at his mansion in a few days' time, stage the scene as a burglary, then flee to Rio de Janeiro. Fletch, not completely convinced on the truth of Stanwyk's story, agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Larry, he begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug exposé, much to the anger of his authoritarian editor Frank Walker. Disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file at the hospital and learns he does not have cancer. Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club. Pretending to be a tennis instructor and Alan's friend, he flirts with her during a tennis lesson. Looking into Stanwyk's finances, Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband, to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch breaks into the realtor's office and discovers the sale price was only $3,000. Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin learns of Fletch's drug report. He warns Fletch that the article will jeopardize his undercover operation on the beach. Karlin threatens to kill Fletch unless he agrees to drop the investigation. At the tennis club, Fletch witnesses arrogant club member Mr. Underhill, shouting at a waiter and decides as revenge to use Underhill's tab to treat Gail to an expensive lunch in her private cabana. Fletch reveals Alan's murder scheme to her and tells her the true price of the ranch. Fletch watches Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to deduce the nature of their meeting. When he is chased by LAPD officers lying in wait at his apartment, Fletch goes into hiding, returning to Provo. Posing as an insurance investigator, he interviews Stanwyk's parents, learning that Stanwyk has been married to another woman for eight years; his bigamous marriage to Gail allowed him access to her vast wealth. Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the planned murder, but finds Stanwyk waiting to kill him instead. Fletch reveals his discovery of Stanwyk's real plan to fake his own death by killing Fletch and burning his body beyond recognition, then escape to Brazil with his first wife and Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle drugs from South America to supply Chief Karlin, who blackmailed ex-convicts Fat Sam and Gummy to distribute it on the beaches. Karlin arrives unexpectedly; learning of Stanwyk's intention to flee with nearly $1 million of the Chief's drug money, he kills Stanwyk. Karlin and Fletch fight over the gun until Gail strikes Karlin from behind, rendering him unconscious. Karlin is indicted after Fletch's article, with testimony from Fat Sam and Gummy. Fletch begins dating Gail, taking her to Rio on Stanwyk's tickets and using Underhill's tab. ===== As Lois prepares dinner, Stewie puts the final touches on his mind-control device, only for it to be taken away from him by Lois, who won't allow 'toys' at the table. Later, Peter asks Lois for permission to attend an upcoming stag party. After he promises he won't drink, Lois lets him go. Unfortunately, Peter forgets his promise to Lois and plays such drinking games as "Drink the beer". He goes to work the next day with a hangover, and falls asleep on the job as a safety inspector in a toy factory. Peter misses dangerous objects such as a butcher knife, a surge protector, a gasoline can, razor blades, a porcupine, a toaster with forks inside and a plug in water. The company receives bad press after releasing unsafe toy products, and Peter is promptly fired by Mr. Weed. At dinner, Peter breaks the news to his children, but decides to keep it from Lois. He tries different jobs, such as cereal mascot and sneeze guard, but fails miserably. Brian pressures him to tell her the truth, but all he manages to do is to tell Lois how fat she is. Brian insists that Peter must look out for his family's welfare. With the word "welfare" in his mind, Peter soon applies for government assistance at a welfare office. But a processing error creates a weekly check for $150,000, which is based on a remark former President Ronald Reagan made of a women called Linda Taylor from Chicago, Illinois, calling her a "welfare queen" by making assumptions of earning such proportions from government benefits in 1974. Telling Lois he received a big raise, Peter spends his money on many foolish and extravagant things, such as renting the Statue of David, treating Meg to cosmetic surgery and even going so far as to surround his house with a moat to protect them from the Black Knight. Unfortunately, Lois is given the welfare check by the mail lady and storms at Peter for lying to her. Peter decides to return the money to the taxpayers by dumping it from a blimp during Super Bowl XXXIII while Brian accompanies him. After the commotion they cause, they are immediately shot down. Eventually, Lois receives the bad news and goes to court, still angry at Peter for lying to her in the first place. After Peter apologizes for lying to Lois and accepting the money instead of reporting the welfare error, the judge sentences him to 24 months in prison for welfare fraud. Lois, Brian, Chris and Meg exclaim, "Oh no!" but the Kool Aid Man bursts through the courthouse wall and exclaims, "Oh yeah!" Lois tries to explain he's not that bad and she loves him, and insists that, no matter what, she will always stand by her husband. The judge agrees, and sends her to jail with him. Stewie, being a baby, must have his parents by his side, regardless of his burning hate for them, especially Lois. He then whips out his mind control device and forces the judge into letting his father go free and get his job back. Peter states that he has learned his lesson and will never do it again. Instead he is going to try for such things as a minority scholarship, a sexual harassment suit, and a disability claim. ===== Before the intro starts, Stewie plays with the Sesame Street telephone. As the telephone says to count to three, Stewie uses his laser gun to destroy the telephone three times. Annoyed that Peter spends more time watching television than with his own family, Lois suggests he teach Meg how to drive. Peter reluctantly agrees, and unwittingly gives Meg a series of bad driving tips, including instructing her to "rev" her engine twice at stop lights and challenge other drivers to a race, which causes her to ultimately fail her driving test. As Peter drives them home from the DMV he notices that a show he wanted to watch is on television in a nearby house. Distracted by the show, he crashes the car into the main cable television transmitter, knocking out reception for the whole entire town of Quahog. As Peter and Meg realize this angry citizens of Quahog approach. Panicking, Peter makes a promise to Meg so that if she takes the blame for knocking down the cable transmitter, she would get a new convertible when she finally gets her licence. Once they arrive home with the transmitter still attached to the car, Lois becomes furious with Peter for placing the blame on his own daughter. Meg, of course, is blamed, and is about to admit the truth, but then decides to keep quiet, reflecting with an inner voice, a reference to The Wonder Years, at school. This shows an incredible lack of good judgment and morals by Peter. Meanwhile, Stewie, (seeing the opportunity of the dish attached to the car), steals the satellite dish in a plan to create a weather control device capable of destroying the world's supply of broccoli, since Lois had forced him to eat the vegetable earlier that day. Suffering withdrawal syndrome from the lack of cable, Peter straps a television-sized cardboard cutout to himself, making it appear as though his whole world is actually a television program. When Meg can no longer deal with the public scorn, she reveals that her father is really responsible for Quahog's loss of television, causing the town to turn against him. In an attempt to save Peter from further scorn and verbal attacks, Lois gives a heartfelt speech to the community about how television has kept them all from enjoying one another. Inspired by the speech, Peter drags the family to one outdoor activity after another, which quickly exhausts them. Once the family can no longer keep up with him, Peter decides to go off with William Shatner, who has appeared on the Griffin family doorstep after experiencing a flat tire, to a nearby festival. Meanwhile, Stewie's weather machine creates a huge rainstorm. The storm's lightning strike destroys Stewie's weather machine and blows Stewie off the roof and on the ground. While Meg is practicing driving with Lois, the storm causes her to accidentally hit Shatner and Peter, killing Shatner and hospitalizing Peter. As her father recovers, in a full-body cast, he is forced to watch television, causing him to become addicted once again, much to his family's relief. During the credits, Stewie tries (and fails) to make believe he is eating his broccoli by pouring it onto Brian's plate. ===== When Los Angeles' police force a down-on-her-luck businesswoman- turned-prostitute named "Princess" to help capture a murderous pimp named Ramrod, it's Princess’ life that is put on the line. Soon, the escaped killer is after her, and vice squad detective Tom Walsh and his team are hard pressed to keep the woman safe. ===== In Light City, a prole can remember details from the Information which have not yet been shown, about the three characters the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz, and is brought before the Editor for daring to ask Questions, a terrible Thought Crime. ===== On December 31, 1999, Quahog prepares for New Year's Day and the new millennium, and the Griffins have been invited to Joe's millennium party. At a store, a man wearing a chicken suit asks Peter if he wants a coupon, but Peter refuses, recalling the time he got a bad coupon from Ernie the Giant Chicken and started a massive fistfight. The man then warns Peter that the world will end because of the Y2K problem, so Peter locks himself and the family in their basement in hazmat suits, despite Lois' objections. Just after midnight, the Y2K bug hits. This causes a worldwide nuclear attack, with vehicles crashing and missiles self- launching, destroying much of the world, and mutating, injuring, and killing many people. The Griffins remain safe, though their house has been severely damaged. The next week, Meg whines about Kevin getting vaporized, and the Griffins discover that Quagmire and Cleveland have been stitched together and are now called "Clevemire" (or "Quagland"), and Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons have cooked and eaten Tricia Takanawa. Starving, Peter immediately eats all the dehydrated meals, without adding water. Peter recalls that the snack food Twinkies are the only food that can survive a nuclear holocaust, so the family prepares to travel to Natick, Massachusetts, in hopes that the Twinkie factory has survived. While loading the car, Chris attempts to bring a tree (named "Woody") but Peter refuses and says no, Lois attempts to reason with him but he walks behind the house and shoots the plant. After Meg puts mousetraps for a mutated rat down to protect Joe (Who is somehow melted to his driveway), the family get underway in their heavily damaged car. Soon they are stopped by survivors, who were looking for food, but the Griffins do not have any food so they have to distract them. They continue their journey only to find that the car has run out of gas. The Griffins now have to walk to Natick just as they found a new home, where Randy Newman just sings about everyone he sees. Lois initially insists they stay there, but they leave because Newman starts annoying her with his literal song while trying to eat an apple. So they once again continue their journey after Lois knocks out Newman with her apple. They make it to Natick, but there is no factory. Stewie berates Peter for costing them their lives before tripping and getting covered in nuclear waste. Upon sunrise the factory is revealed to still be standing and in perfect condition. Expecting to be able to live off the snack food while Stewie mutates his arms into tentacles, they establish the town of New Quahog around the factory. Peter proclaims himself mayor, and Joe and Clevemire join him to form a ruling council. In time, New Quahog has become a fresh new community, complete with houses and wells. Peter has successfully reigned as mayor despite many mistakes, such as giving people jobs just picked out of a hat rather than based on the person's skills. However, when Brian points out how New Quahog is a peaceful place with no violence, Peter says that they are completely defenseless and finds metal to make guns. Meanwhile, Stewie's body has completely transformed into an octopus, and when Lois tries put on Stewie's pajamas with a trap door on the back, he sprays ink but misses. Then he tries to get on the ceiling and soon falls off, and Lois catches him then says that he is getting heavy. Stewie suddenly lays hundreds of eggs. Peter shows up and makes guns and other weapons using the pipes from the city's irrigation system, outraging the citizens. Despite Peter's insistence that he is fit to continue to be the leader of the new community, the townspeople throw him out of New Quahog, and his family follows him. The citizens proceed to burn the guns Peter had made with the pipes in the middle of the town square, but as the final gun is thrown onto the pile, hundreds of newly spawned Octopus- Stewies eggs hatch and they begin to destroy the city, with the townspeople unable to protect themselves from the mutants. As the family walks away, oblivious to the town's destruction, they decide to continue to a Carvel factory in Framingham. The episode ends with a live-action parody of Dallas, in which Pam Ewing (Victoria Principal), clad in a blue silk nightgown wakes up and tells her husband Bobby (Patrick Duffy) about a dream she had of a strange episode of Family Guy. Bobby comforts her, but pauses and then asks what it is and the two turn and look with confusion into the camera. ===== Shaquille O'Neal and Dr. Phil wake up to find themselves chained to pipes in a bathroom. Their host, Billy the Puppet, reveals that the room is slowly filling with nerve gas with the only way out being to make a basket and get the saws, which have to be used on their feet. Unfortunately, Dr. Phil saws the wrong foot and faints, leaving the two to die. Meanwhile, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) visits her brother-in-law, Tom Logan (Charlie Sheen) in New York City. Her husband George (Simon Rex) has died, and her nephew Cody has enrolled in military academy, leaving her broke and lonely. Tom's attempted suicide results in his ingesting viagra, which greatly swells his penis and causes his death when he falls off the railing. Afterwards, Cindy takes a job to care for Mrs. Norris (Cloris Leachman), who lives in a haunted house. Next door is Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko), who runs into George's friends Mahalik (Anthony Anderson) and CJ (Kevin Hart), learning about their homosexual one-night stand. He is greeted at home by the arrival of his estranged children, Robbie (Beau Mirchoff) and Rachel (Conchita Campbell). Over the following day, Cindy bonds with Tom, confiding to him about George's death in a fateful boxing match. The two realize their newfound love, but are interrupted by a gigantic triPod which disables electricity and starts vaporizing the town residents. Cindy converses in mock Japanese with the haunted house's ghost, Toshio (Garrett Masuda), learning that the answer of the invasion is his father's heart. While Tom leaves the city with his children, Cindy reunites with her friend, Brenda Meeks (Regina Hall), miraculously alive after her death (having been pieces back together by Mahalik). Following Toshio's directions, the two head to the countryside and end up in a mysterious, isolated community. They are captured and put to trial headed by Henry Hale (Bill Pullman). The result allows them to live but never leave the village. Meanwhile, an emergency United Nations meeting, headed by the eccentric U.S. President Baxter Harris (Leslie Nielsen), who is reluctant to stop reading "My Pet Duck", goes awry when a weapon scavenged from the aliens renders everyone stark-naked. Tom and his children drive and find themselves in the middle of a war between the U.S. military and the aliens. Excited with the conflict, Robbie runs away, while Tom and Rachel are taken by the triPod. Back at the village, Henry is killed by the village loon, Ezekiel (Chris Elliott), revealing to Cindy that he fathered Toshio, who was killed during Cindy's boxing match. Cindy and Brenda are soon taken by the triPod and sent to the bathroom seen in the prologue, and they get stuck into the Venus flytrap. Cindy manages to get through Billy's challenge, but is threatened with the safety of Tom and his children, who are put to traps. Looking at a toilet with the "heart" nearby, Cindy realizes that Billy, through Henry's wife, is the true father of Toshio. Seeing how far Tom would go to save his children, Billy apologizes for the invasion and releases them. Robbie and Rachel are successfully returned to their mother (Molly Shannon), who is revealed to have married a much older man. Brenda also becomes romantically involved with Billy's brother, Zoltar. An epilogue set nine months afterward, narrated by James Earl Jones who is subsequently hit by a bus, reveals Brenda's giving birth to her child with Zoltar, Mahalik and CJ resuming their relationship, and President Harris being contented with his duck. Meanwhile, Tom appears in The Oprah Winfrey Show and wildly professes his love for Cindy by jumping around, throwing Cindy, and crushing Oprah's wrists and hitting her with a chair. ===== The story opens with Mustafa of Mudge, a turbaned desert monarch with blue whiskers, who collects lions. Mustafa demands one more lion — he already has nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and a half lions, but there are no more lions in Mudge, and Mudgers are forbidden by Ozma, on penalty of death, to travel beyond the desert borders of Mudge. However, when Notta Bit More, a clown from the circus in Stumptown (somewhere in the humdrum backblocks of the United States of America), and a serious-minded orphan boy called Bobbie Downs (but renamed as Bob Up, by the cheerful Notta) drop into Mudge together, this seems to Mustafa to be his chance to send a non-Mudge person out to bring the famous Cowardly Lion to be the ten thousandth lion in Mudge. Using a magic ring, he enchants Notta and Bob and compels them to set out on a quest to capture the Cowardly Lion. Meanwhile, in the Emerald City, the Cowardly LionJack Snow, Who's Who in Oz, Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; p. 46. believes that he has depleted the reserve of courage imbued in him by the Wizard (as told in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). The mischievous Patchwork Girl, Scraps (who was first introduced in an earlier Baum-written title), misdirects the Lion into thinking that he can replenish his courage by eating a courageous man. Since the Lion dislikes the notion of harming anyone, he resolves to do the deed as quickly as possible, and so embarks on his quest to find, and eat, the bravest man in Oz. Unbeknownst to the Cowardly Lion, he is being hunted by Notta Bit More and Bob Up.Who's Who in Oz, pp. 22, 146. Accidentally, the three meet each other. Concealing their objective from the lion, Notta and Bob resolve to trick him into going to Mudge. The three adventurers fall into a trap and are transported to the unexpected and unhappy Island of Un, which floats in the sky. The feathery, bird-headed people of Un are all thoroughly “unish“, or negative: unfriendly, unkind, ungrateful, and so on. The travellers meet a remarkable bird called Nickadoodle who tells them that if they remain on the isle of Un, they will grow feathers and become bird-like creatures themselves. Together, they escape the Island of Un in a flyaboutabus, which is a flying machine fitted with whirling feathered wheels. The Cowardly Lion, Notta, and Bob become fast friends, and reveal their secret plans to each other. The Cowardly Lion rejects his former plan to eat a brave man, and the travelers separate, the lion making his way to Mudge to appease Mustafa and prevent him from using his magic ring against Notta and Bob. Notta and Bob set out for the Emerald City to appeal to Ozma for help. The Cowardly Lion encounters Crunch, a stone giant, who joins him. Together they reach Mudge, where the giant transforms the Cowardly Lion into a stone statue to keep him company. However, Notta, Bob, Ozma, and the Wizard of Oz arrive and reverse the giant's transformation. Ozma takes away Mustafa's magic ring and order is restored. ===== Things are going from bad to worse in the dilapidated kingdom of Ragbad; even the rag crop is failing. To top it all off (or not), King Fumbo's head is blown away in a ferocious storm (with "ten thousand pounds of thunder"). Prince Tatters of Ragbad, and Grampa, a former soldier and the bravest man in the kingdom (population 27), set out on a three-fold quest: for King Fumbo's lost head, a fortune to save the bankrupt kingdom, and a princess for Tatters to marry. They are joined by Bill, an iron weathercock from Chicago, who was brought to life by an electrical storm and blown to Oz.Jack Snow, Who's Who in Oz, Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; pp. 17, 73, 81, 208-9. Meanwhile, in Perhaps City in the Maybe Mountains, the Princess Pretty Good has a problem: the prophet Abrog (also known as Gorba) foresees her marrying a monster if she does not marry in four days. (He suggests himself as her bridegroom.) When Pretty Good resists, Abrog kidnaps her and tries to transform her into a clod of earth; but since she is, in fact, more than just pretty good, as princesses go, Pretty Good turns into the beautiful flower fairy Urtha.Who's Who in Oz, pp. 5, 167. Wide-ranging adventures--from Fire Island to Isa Poso to Monday Mountain -- culminate in the location and restoration of King Fumbo's head. Dorothy (with the help of Percy Vere the forgetful poet)Who's Who in Oz, pp. 58-9, 158-9. manages to restore order. Prince Tatters ends up married to Princess Pretty Good -- which is pretty good for him. ===== Old Mombi, formerly the Wicked Witch of the North, is now a cook in the land of Kimbaloo. One day she comes across Pajuka, the former prime minister of Oz, transformed by Mombi into a goose years before. She sets out to find Pastoria, the king of Oz, whom she also enchanted in the past. However, she has forgotten what shape she transformed Pastoria into. She kidnaps a local boy called Snip as her unwilling assistant and bearer of burdens. Eventually deciding, however, that he knows too much, Mombi throws Snip down a well; he ends up in Blankenburg, populated by the invisible Blanks. Snip meets and soon rescues Tora, an amnesiac old tailor. Tora has been held prisoner for many years by the Blanks, to do their tailoring; he has compensated by sending his detachable ears flying about the countryside to hear the news. Meanwhile, Dorothy is accidentally transported to Hollywood, where she meets Humpy, a live stunt dummy, whom she brings back to Oz. They escape the Back Talkers in Eht Kcab Sdoow (by running backwards), and meet the Scooters who help scoot them on their way. Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant shows up to provide transport (of the mandane sort). Dorothy's party encounters Snip and Tora, and Mombi and Pajuka too. They come to the conclusion that Humpy the dummy is the enchanted Pastoria. Eventually, matters are clarified and settled: Pajuka is restored to humanity, but Humpy proves not to be the missing king after all. Old Tora is disenchanted and turns out to be Pastoria. He spurns any notion of returning to his throne, however; he is content to settle down as a humble tailor in the Emerald City, with Snip as his apprentice and Humpy as his tailor's dummy. In a rare act of Ozite capital punishment, Mombi is ruthlessly doused with water and melts away like the Wicked Witch of the West, so that nothing is left of her but her buckled shoes. ===== Thompson begins with a usurping tyrant, Irasha the Rough, the Pasha of Rash, a tiny kingdom in the southwest of Ev. The Pasha has a problem: his prison is too full to cram any more Rashers in. His Vizier's solution is to obtain a ferocious animal from nearby Oz to devour the luckless prisoners. Travelling to the Emerald City by his magical "hurry cane", the Vizier lures the Hungry Tiger (first seen in Ozma of Oz) to Rash. As might be expected from his history, however, the Hungry Tiger is too tenderhearted to eat prisoners. Meanwhile, through an unfortunate series of events involving a winding road and a pair of Quick Sandals, Betsy Bobbin (introduced in Tik-Tok of Oz) and her new acquaintance, Carter Green, the Vegetable Man, end up in Rash, and no sooner do they arrive than they're thrown into the crowded prison. There they meet the Scarlet Prince Evered (known as Reddy), the rightful ruler of Rash. Together with the Tiger, they escape, and have varied adventures with Big Wigs and Gnomes in their search for three magic rubies. Back in Oz, Princess Ozma has troubles of her own: she is confronted by Atmos Fere, a balloon-like being who lives in the upper stratosphere. His plan is to kidnap her up to his own kingdom, to prove to his skeptical fellows that living beings can exist on the surface of the Earth. Ozma, however, has a secret weapon (a pin). In time, the adventurers recover the magic rubies, and Reddy is restored to the Rashian throne. The Pasha and his evil Vizier end up stranded on a desert island in the Nonestic Ocean. ===== An example of the film's comedic tone comes in the opening monologue, which spoofs the opening of COPS: "TROOPS is filmed on location with the men of the Imperial Forces. All suspects are guilty--period! Otherwise, they wouldn't be suspects, would they?" Adding to the comic tone are the accents from the stormtoopers which is very reminiscent to the accents heard in the movie Fargo. A small visual gag near the beginning of the film is that the stolen Imperial droid recovered from the Jawas appears to be Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000. In TROOPS there is a notable alternate (tongue-in-cheek) take on the deaths of Luke Skywalker's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, presenting their fate as the end result of a domestic dispute gone too far, rather than execution at the hands of Imperial forces. Indeed, the spotlighted members of Black Sheep Squadron attempt to mediate the dispute before Beru makes a disastrous move with a thermal detonator. The film ends with an incoming message about a possible disturbance in Mos Eisley Cantina. ===== Peter returns for a third time, washing up on the Octagon Isle after a shipwreck. He joins King Ato of the Octagon Isle, who has been abandoned by his subjects, and Captain Samuel Salt, who has been abandoned by his crew of pirates. Together, they sail on the Nonestic Ocean (which surrounds the continent which includes Oz and its neighbor countries). Meanwhile, Ruggedo, the deposed Gnome King, is back.Jack Snow, Who's Who in Oz, Chicago, Reilly & Lee, 1954; New York, Peter Bedrick Books, 1988; pp. 145, 159, 185. He had been cursed with loss of speech by a magical "Silence Stone" at the end of his previous appearance in The Gnome King of Oz, and is scraping out a living as a peddler and beggar. He decides to answer an advertisement for the position of King of the Land of Menankypoo, whose people are also mute. These people demand "a dumb king" and Ruggedo meets this requirement. While serving as king, he recovers his ability to speak, joins forces with an ambitious magician, and also becomes leader of Captain Salt's mutinous pirates and Ato's rebellious subjects. He trains these followers into a military force, and attempts once again to conquer Oz. This is one of the few Oz books in which Ruggedo appears as a sympathetic character. The reader faces danger, overcomes obstacles, and experiences gratifying moments of triumph with him. Of the two narrative threads in the book, his is the more complex and suspenseful. (The other is Peter and Captain Salt and King Ato sailing around the Nonestic Ocean, visiting small islands.) Besides Captain Salt, this book introduces two notable characters: Clocker, a clockwork man who is not as trustworthy as Tik- Tok, and Pigasus, a flying pig whose riders are magically compelled to speak in rhyming jingles. Pigasus returns as a principal character in The Wishing Horse of Oz while Captain Salt and King Ato return in Captain Salt in Oz. ===== After a car accident knocks him unconscious, a man awakens from a coma, his face fully bandaged, to find that he has been admitted to a derelict sanitarium and that he cannot remember who he is or where he came from, or how he came to be there, though his fellow inmates seem to know him simply as "Max." As he delves deeper into the asylum's corridors in search of answers, Max finds himself transported to various obscure and otherworldly locations: a small town inhabited only by malformed children and overseen by a malevolent alien entity known only as "Mother," a demented circus surrounded by an endless ocean and terrorized by a squid-like individual, an alien hive overrun by cyborg insects, and an Aztec village devastated by the return of the god Quetzalcoatl. Between each imaginary episode, Max returns to the asylum grounds, blending real and unreal, each time closer to regaining his memory and unraveling the truth surrounding the mysterious Dr. Morgan, head of the asylum. He remembers the death of his younger sister Sarah years ago and the real reason behind his institutionalization. ===== The game starts with Oliver arriving at the Blackstone Asylum, which has been purchased and is being turned into a Museum of Psychiatric History. That doesn't sit well with Malcolm Metcalf, Oliver's father and last superintendent of the Asylum, who died some forty years before. All of the activity involved in transforming the Asylum has awakened its residents. For reasons not yet known to Oliver or the player, his father's spirit has taken his son, Joshua, and hidden him somewhere in the Asylum, apparently to coerce Oliver there. Exploring the mansion, Oliver encounters several spirits of patients who are bound to the asylum by their possessions, including a teenage girl with hysterical pregnancy, a schizophrenic who believes she's English royalty, and a depressed woman who was treated with steam baths and hydrotherapy. Oliver discovers that his father psychologically tortured to suicide or allowed several of his patients to be killed under the guise of accidents during treatment. This is counterpointed by the sterile and rose-tinted explanations from the museum equipment for the same procedures or implements (lancets are described as an attempt to bring the bodies humours into balance, where the spirit of a patient with Alzheimer's disease declares they were used liberally so patients could not defend themselves). Disheartened by the failure of traditional medicine, Oliver's father gradually turned to more and more extreme methods, including totally dismembering and vivisecting an 8-year-old boy to cure his illness. Eventually his treatments turned to outright torture, as a punishment of undesirable behaviors to eventually remove them. Over the course of the game, Oliver collects several personal items that influence him, causing him to nearly kill himself in several psychiatric methods (ECT, self- injecting neuro-toxins, locking himself in a steam box). His father Malcolm implies this is caused by the inherent evil contained within the items, although its heavily implied that Oliver developed these traps himself while under Malcolm's control, through a long, complicated sequence of post-hypnotic suggestions. Oliver's father eventually reveals his plan. While Oliver has been trapped in the asylum and continued to refuse Malcolm's demands that Oliver take vengeance on Malcolm's enemies, Malcolm returned Joshua home, and instructs him to murder his mother with a straight razor, as a punishment of Oliver for his disobedience to his father and to make Joshua a monster with Malcolm's similar outlook. With the help of the spirits trapped in the asylum, Oliver destroys the artifacts of his father throughout the asylum, banishing his fathers spirit. ===== The skill of sword-fighting is known to two tribes, the Tribes of Light (which consists of humans living on the world's surface) and Shadow (largely part-human-part-animal creatures and monsters living in an underground city, who enjoy a lifespan five times as long as the Tribe of Light and age one-fifth as quickly). The two tribes lived in peace and harmony, their domains separated by the "Words Worth" tablet—a huge monolith slab erected by an almighty creator. Although the tablet has writing on it, neither Tribe can read the text. One day, Words Worth was mysteriously destroyed by an unknown entity; its fragments were scattered among the domain of the Tribes of Shadow. The two Tribes blamed each other for the tablet's destruction, and started a war that has continued for 150 years (100 in the anime). Astral, prince of the Tribe of Shadow, desires to become a Swordsman of Shadow. However, his father, King Wortoshika, forbids him to do so. He is engaged to Sharon, a beautiful swordswoman and Astral's childhood friend, who has feelings for Astral but wishes he were stronger. ===== In the small West Virginia mining town of Electric Park, a group of self-proclaimed teenage pacifists calling themselves "The Dandies" decide to begin carrying guns. The resolution starts after one of their members, Dick, buys what he thinks is a toy gun. His co- worker tells him the gun is real, and the two start shooting and studying guns in their spare time. They later recruit other outcasts, young men and one young woman who do not, or cannot, work in the mine, including one boy in leg braces and his younger brother Freddie. Dick becomes gradually more and more attached to the gun, naming it "Wendy" and writing it love letters. The Dandies have several quirks and idiosyncratic rules. A Dandy may never brandish his weapon in public, but instead gains self-confidence simply knowing he is carrying a concealed weapon. As a badge of membership, they cultivate a 'Brideshead Stutter' (a reference to the character Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited, who also adopts a deliberate stammer). They refuse to say the word 'killing' and instead refer to it as 'loving.' They live up to their name, Dandies, by dressing in colorful, outdated clothing, including vests, long jackets and hats. Though they regularly shoot targets (bull's eyes are oddly common), they spend just as much time playing gun-related games, watching instructional videos and studying diagrams. They use their own personal guns, all antiques with names and back stories, more as props than weapons. Even when they do load and shoot their weapons, they favor style over function. The Dandies spend most of their time in an abandoned mining shaft that they decorate and call the Temple. Dick's loving childhood nanny Clarabelle introduces him to her troubled grandson Sebastian, on probation for a weapons-related crime, having to regularly check in with Dick, whom the town's sheriff deems to be a good role model. Dick allows Sebastian to break probation and asks him to join the Dandies, but only if he does everything on their terms. One day, Sebastian gives them a suspicious box full of guns, and soon breaks a club rule by firing another member's gun. Dick complains that Sebastian is "ruining it for everyone." The group's sole female member, Susan, takes a shine to Sebastian and this threatens Dick. Freddie suggesting she's attracted to men with large penises. Sebastian tells Dick that he and his friends carry guns because they're scared, that everyone is scared. He tells them that his grandmother, is too scared of "the gangs" to even leave her home (these vague, mysterious "gangs" had already been mentioned by Dick's boss at Salomon's grocery store, who was terrified of them to the point of a nervous breakdown). Dick devises a sort of war plan for assisting Clarabelle on her yearly visit to her cousin's, believing it to be the "decent American" thing to do. The Dandies accompany Clarabelle on her walk, but she becomes panicked when they encounter a deputy sheriff. There is a scuffle, he tries to help out and the old lady ends up shooting the deputy. The sheriff asks the Dandies to hand over Clarabelle, even telling them they can keep their guns if they do so. He tells the boys that they are what the country is made of. The Dandies notice his automatic gun, which Dick calls "treacherous," and sense that they are being set up just as several other police officers appear. The Dandies flee to the Temple to hide. Now outlaws, the Dandies decide to take Clarabelle to her cousin's once and for all. Their decision is based more on principle than practicality, and it is clear that they are willing to martyr themselves. They treat it as a suicide mission, cutting themselves ceremonially and donning their fanciest clothes. Sebastian discovers Dick's now-finished letter to Wendy, which ends with the coded threat: "And now, it's the time of the season for loving." They head outside one by one, armed, to face the team of shotgun-toting police officers assembled by a legion of squad cars. The first to go, Huey\, tells them "We're not interested in shooting anybody, so don't make us." The Marshall arrives and tells Huey to "Drop the pathetic gun right this minute." He is promptly shot by Huey, who smiles and announces "Officer d-d-down I'm afraid!" before hobbling into gunfire. Huey discovers that he can walk fine without his crutches just as he's gunned down. Meanwhile, a bullet ricochets and hits Clarabelle in the leg as the Dandies continue attempting to escort her to her cousin's house. Dick realizes that there is a sniper in their midst and sets on shooting the offender down. Susan is the next to shoot, using both of her guns and her carefully honed ricochet method. All the while, white lines and numbers on the screen graphically depicting the trajectories of the Dandies' shots. Susan is shot in the head. Stevie and his gun Badsteel come to her defense and he is shot in the heart. Sebastian asks Dick "What happened?" and a series of morgue photographs flash across the screen. Only Sebastian, Dick and Freddie remain. The three attempt to drag Clarabelle to safety. Freddie is the next to go. He has tied a cord around his testicles, a tactic with roots in Native American history that he championed earlier on, and grabs his crotch before getting up and firing. He is quickly shot down, rises, then is shot several more times. Clarabelle stirs and Dick is hit as he comes to her aid, though he manages to get her all the way to her cousin's house. While he is inside, police officers are scanning the windows and lining him up in their guns' sights. Sebastian remains outside, unharmed and hidden by the door of a police car. He sees Dick's gun, the one he called Wendy, lying in the street and recalls a line of Dick's letter: "Dear Wendy, I always dreamed that if someone were to make that final exit wound in me, it should be you. My saviour." He grabs the gun and then runs inside the home of his grandmother's cousin. He goes upstairs and shoots Dick in the back, mouthing "Dick, [unknown]?" Dick resembles a pilgrim as he turns around in his buckle hat. His life, at least that which was contained by the film, flashes before his eyes. He examines the exit wound and whispers "Wendy". The police on the roof across the street shoot up the windows and, mostly likely, Sebastian. ===== The film follows gentleman thief Arsène Lupin from a small boy, through the death of his father, and his adult years when he meets the strange woman, Joséphine, who appears to be immortal and uses a hypnotic drug to enslave people to her will. Arsène's ethos is to steal from the rich and deserving crooks. In this film he comes up against two parties, a secret society and Joséphine, who are intent on gathering three crucifixes which will reveal the secret of a lost treasure which contains secrets about Mehdi. ===== In this episode, the Three Investigators almost run into Prince Djaro with their car. Djaro is the soon to be prince of the fictional European state of Varania, a country which is still very conscious of old traditions and fashions (around the 17th to 19th century). The Investigators form an instant friendship with him. Soon afterwards, they are asked by the United States Secret Service to travel to Varania to keep an eye on Djaro; there are rumors and indications that Djaro is to be dethroned. An important role in the plot is played by the title's Silver Spider, a piece of jewelry which is the most treasured item of Varanian history (comparable to the English Crown Jewels). Soon, the Investigators find themselves actively involved, as the conspirators—headed by Duke Stefan, an ambitious nobleman and interim ruler of Varania—attempt to frame them for stealing the Spider, and by implication sully the name of Prince Djaro and endanger his coronation. Djaro cannot be crowned unless he is wearing the Silver Spider around his neck. Stefan and his men have stolen the real Silver Spider and left an imitation in its place. Bob suffers amnesia in their subsequent flight, and the Silver Spider goes missing. The Three Investigators and a pair of Djaro loyalists hide out, while scheming to expose Stefan's plot and help Djaro to prevail. Despite the fact that all seems hopeless, they finally prevail when Jupe recalls an important piece of Varanian history, which allows them to alert and rally Varania's loyal citizenry. The effort is wrapped up when Jupiter finds the Silver Spider as "nothing more than a spider", hidden ingeniously by Bob in a real spider's web. ===== Chi Mo Sai (Yuen Wah) meets Wong (Roger Kwok) in Auntie Fei's (Yuen Qiu) cafe and learns that Wong has a photographic memory. He decides to exploit this by teaching him how to play Mahjong, but Fei, Wong's boss, strongly objects. Despite Fei's objections, Wong learns Mahjong from compulsive gambler Chi Mo Sai. He impresses triad boss Tin Kau Ko (Wong Jing), but falls in love with Tin's mistress (Theresa Fu) and is beaten by his men. Wong goes crazy. Luckily, Fei cures him using Mahjong. Fei wants Wong to beat Tin in the climatic "King of Mahjong" competition. It is the only 2005 film to boast of having a sequel made in 2005. The budget of the first two films are considerably smaller than Kung Fu Hustle. ===== ===== The film focuses on 10-year-old Devon Stockard, a precocious and lonely young girl who has recently moved into a gated community called Camelot Gardens in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky with her parents, Morton and Clare. Recently having recovered from open heart surgery, Devon is encouraged by her parents to make friends, and she is pushed to sell cookies for a charity event for the summer. While selling cookies, Devon leaves the gated community against the instruction of her mother, and meets Trent Burns, a poor man who lives in a trailer in the woods, and who does landscaping work in Camelot Gardens. An imaginative child, Devon imagines her life to be like the fable of Baba Yaga, a fairytale which the film makes parallels to. Devon, at first an annoyance to Trent, continues to come to his property and slowly befriends him; despite the innocence of their friendship, he insists that she keep it a secret because of their age difference. While working in Camelot Gardens, Trent begins having altercations with two young men who live there; Brett, who is having an affair with Devon's mother; and Sean, a man with closeted homosexual tendencies who flirts with Trent. During a family barbecue, Devon explores her father's car in their garage. She finds her father's handgun in the glove compartment of his SUV. Brett discovers her with the gun and attempts to molest Devon in the garage, but she escapes. She tells her parents about the incident, but when her parents respond by stressing over the social implications and how influential in the community Brett's father is, Devon changes the story to that Brett was only trying to tickle her. Clare begins to notice Devon's apparent friendship with Trent when he comes to do lawn work at their house, and becomes alarmed. Meanwhile, Brett and Sean terrorize Trent by pouring sugar in the fuel tank of his lawnmower and start a fight with him after they wrongfully believe he stole CDs from Sean's car. Devon and Trent's friendship continues to grow, and the two go to visit Trent's mother and his father, a Korean War veteran who is dying of a lung disease. After leaving Trent's parents' house, Trent and Devon go for a drive in the country. While stopped in a field, Devon insists that since the two are "best friends", she can show him her surgical scar on her chest. She asks him to touch it to his reluctance, and then demands that he show her his abdominal scar which he sustained in a shooting. After showing each other their scars, the two see Sean's dog running through the field, having escaped. While trying to chase the dog down in the truck, they accidentally run him over. Trent kills the badly injured dog in spite of Devon's pleas for him not to, and she runs home in a panic over the incident. Clare and Morton, concerned over Devon's frantic behavior, ask her what happened, but she refuses to provide details, only saying that Trent killed Sean's dog and mentions that she and Trent took turns showing each other their scars. Assuming that Trent molested her, Morton drives out to Trent's property with Devon, assisted by Sean and an ex-cop who is a security guard in Camelot Gardens. The three men confront Trent while Devon sits in the car. Morton and Sean take turns beating Trent, and Morton accuses him of raping Devon. Morton attacks Trent with a piece of wood, beating him to the ground, and hands it to Sean; but before Sean can hit him, Devon exits her father's car with his handgun and shoots Sean in the abdomen. As Sean bleeds on the ground, Devon urges Trent to leave, and they say their goodbyes. Armed with her father's gun, Devon orders her dad to lift her up into a tree that she and Trent had decorated with ribbons, and she imagines a river and a forest rising up behind Trent as he drives away, protecting him as he escapes. ===== Popular rock singer and aspiring revolutionary Max Frost (Christopher Jones) was born Max Jacob Flatow Jr. His first public act of violence was blowing up his family's new car. Frost's band, the Troopers, live together with him, their women, and others, in a sprawling Beverly Hills mansion. The band includes his 15-year-old genius attorney Billy Cage (Kevin Coughlin) on lead guitar, ex-child actor and girlfriend Sally LeRoy (Diane Varsi) on keyboards, hook-handed Abraham Salteen (Larry Bishop) on bass guitar and trumpet, and anthropologist Stanley X (Richard Pryor) on drums. Max's band performs a song noting that 52 percent of the population is 25 or younger, making young people the majority in the country. When Max is asked to sing at a televised political rally by Kennedyesque Senate candidate Johnny Fergus (Hal Holbrook), who is running on a platform to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, he and the Troopers appear – but Max stuns everyone by calling instead for the voting age to become 14, then finishes the show with an improvised song, "Fourteen or Fight!", and a call for a demonstration. Max's fans – and other young people, by the thousands – stir to action, and within 24 hours protests have begun in cities around the United States. Fergus's advisors want him to denounce Max, but instead he agrees to support the demonstrations, and change his campaign – if Max and his group will compromise, accept a voting age of 15 instead, abide by the law, and appeal to the demonstrators to go home peaceably. Max agrees, and the two appear together on television – and in person the next day, using the less offensive mantra "Fifteen and Ready". Most states agree to lower the voting age within days, in the wake of the demonstrations, and Max Frost and the Troopers campaign for Johnny Fergus until the election, which he wins by a landslide. Taking his place in the Senate, Fergus wishes Frost and his people would now just go away, but instead they get involved with Washington politics. When a Congressman from Sally LeRoy's home district dies suddenly, the band enters her in the special election that follows, and Sally – the eldest of the group, and the only one of majority age to run for office – is voted into Congress by the new teen bloc. The first bill Sally introduces is a constitutional amendment to lower the age requirements for national political office to 14, and "Fourteen or Fight!" enters a new phase. A joint session of Congress is called, and the Troopers – now joined by Fergus's son, Jimmy (Michael Margotta) – swing the vote their way by spiking the Washington, D.C. water supply with LSD, and providing all the Senators and Representatives with teenaged escorts. As teens either take over or threaten the reins of government, the "Old Guard" (those over 40) turn to Max to run for president, and assert his (their) control over the changing tide. Max again agrees, running as a Republican to his chagrin, but once in office, he turns the tide on his older supporters. Thirty becomes a mandatory retirement age, while those over 35 are rounded up, sent to "re-education camps", and permanently dosed on LSD. Fergus unsuccessfully attempts to dissuade Max by contacting his estranged parents (Bert Freed and Shelley Winters), then tries to assassinate him. Failing at this, he flees Washington, D.C. with his remaining family, but they are soon rounded up. With youth now in control of the United States, politically as well as economically, similar revolutions break out in all the world's major countries. Max withdraws the military from around the world (turning them instead into de facto "age police"), puts computers and prodigies in charge of the gross national product, ships surplus grain for free to Third World nations, disbands the FBI and Secret Service, and becomes the leader of "the most truly hedonistic society the world has ever known". Ultimately however, Max and his cohorts may face future intergenerational warfare from an unexpected source: pre-teen children. When a young girl finds out Max's age (which is now 24), she sneers, "That's old!" Later, after Max kills a crawdad that was a pet to several young kids, then mocks their youth and powerlessness, one of the kids resolves, "We're gonna put everybody over 10 out of business." ===== The game starts when the producer notices that the film has been stolen by Bela Lugosi's double. The player must carry out an epic search of the locations where Plan 9 from Outer Space was filmed to find the six missing reels. From the back of the DOS version box: :Plan 9. The critics hated it. Bela Lugosi died during it. And his double has stolen it. :Lugosi's replacement is still bitter after 33 years from critics' reviews dubbing his only movie "The Worst Film of All-Time". Even though he remained faceless, he intends to bring glory to the cult classic using more footage of himself and ... colorizing it. As the studio's Private Eye you'll search over 70 locations, find the 6 reels and screen the film, frame-by-frame, to ensure that the warped actor did not cut Bela from the flick. Using actual digitized film footage, you'll sweat each scene, examining Plan 9 with slow motion, freeze frame, fast forward and rewind. It's up to you to preserve its original awfulness. ===== Set in AD. 2023, Tokyo the government is concerned about the increase in major criminal organizations, terrorists and other threats to the security of society. This leads to the formation of special extralegal police team from within the Metro Police Section 8 Branch called Warrior. Under their Commander, the team combines the talents of martial arts expert Rio Kinezono and skilled marksman and gun expert Maya Jingu. They are joined later by the shy Lilica Evette who uses her psychic powers to assist them in their crime-solving adventures. Later, the Police Council create obedient New Warriors to replace the original Warriors. These New Warriors are genetically modified humans with superhuman strength gained via drugs and based on data obtained from monitoring Rio and Maya's missions. ===== The series is centered around the adventures of Flint Hammerhead, a boy from the prehistoric era who was resurrected from his fossil prison and became a Time Detective, although his competency as a detective is dubious. Much like Inspector Gadget, much of the heavy thinking is done by Flint's friends Sarah and Tony Goodman who accompany him on his adventures. Flint, however, pulled his weight in battle when he would fight with the aid of his father Rocky Hammerhead whose partial resurrection left him a sentient talking rock with a face. Rocky, fashioned into a stone axe for Flint, served Flint as both sturdy weapon and adviser, the latter both in and out of battle. Flint's job as a Time Detective was to go back in time and convince time-shifters, cute, collectible creatures to ally with him to protect the timeline. Usually, he fought against Petra Fina and her cronies Dino and Mite (very reminiscent of Marjo, Grocky, and Walther from Time Bokan), servants of the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord himself sought to use the time-shifters' powers to invade the Land of Time, the creatures' home realm from whence he had scattered them. Similar to Pokémon or Digimon, time- shifters originate as small, cute creatures who can "shape-shift" into much stronger forms for a time before reverting. This usually took two forms: an evil form induced by the Dark Lord's magic (in the form of the Petra Stamp or Uglinator's mark), called a Con form and a good one brought forth by Flint and his team, called a Master form. ===== The novel begins with the murder of Bill Tanner by Klaus Doberman, a German-South American drug lord. Enraged by his friend's death, Bond disobeys his official orders to get revenge. According to the cover blurb on the back of the book, "In this new high voltage spy thriller, Secret Agent 007 must "liquidate" ruthless billionaire kingpin Klaus Doberman. But James Bond has his hands full as he battles a luscious lady assassin who offers lethal love Russian style and a slit-eyed Oriental sadist who is an elusive and deadly Ninja. Aided by his confederate Lotta Head and his old CIA buddy Felix Leiter, 007 is pitted against Klaus Doberman in his heavily armed fortress high in the Mexican Sierra Madres ... in the most bloodcurdling death duel in the great Bond saga." ===== The book follows the story of the Bloggs, a couple previously seen in the book Gentleman Jim. One afternoon, the couple hears a message on the radio about an "outbreak of hostilities" in three days' time. Jim immediately starts construction of a fallout shelter (in accordance with a government-issued Protect and Survive brochure, which he has collected from a public library), while the two reminisce about the Second World War. Their reminiscences are used both for comic effect and to show how the geopolitical situation has changed, but also how nostalgia has blotted out the horrors of war. A constant theme is Jim's optimistic outlook and his unshakeable belief that the government knows what is best and has the situation under full control, coupled with Hilda's attempts to carry on life as normal. During their preparations the action is interrupted by two-page dark illustrations. With the first being a nuclear missile on a launch pad, labelled "MEANWHILE, ON A DISTANT PLAIN....", the second a squadron of Warthogs, labelled "MEANWHILE, IN THE DISTANT SKY....", and third a nuclear submarine labelled "MEANWHILE, IN A DISTANT OCEAN...." The Bloggs soon hear of enemy missiles heading towards England and make it into their shelter before a nuclear explosion. They spend all the first day within the fallout shelter, but leave the shelter on the second day and move about the house, exposing themselves to the radioactive fallout. Undaunted, they try to continue life as normal, as if it was the Second World War again. They find the house to be in shambles, with both the water and the electricity cut off. On the third day, misreading advice given in government leaflets, they come to believe that they must stay in the fallout shelter for just two days rather than two weeks. Thus, they go outside, exposing themselves to a huge amount of radioactive fallout. While out, they notice the smell of cooking meat, unaware that it comes from the burning corpses of their neighbours. Jim and Hilda exhibit considerable confusion regarding the serious nature of what has happened after the nuclear attack; this generates gentle comedy as well as darker elements: amongst them, their obliviousness of the fact that they are probably the only people left of their acquaintance. For instance, they repeatedly state that they should go out and purchase supplies. As the novel progresses and their emergency water supply runs out, they resort to collecting rainwater. Though they are wise to boil it, it is still contaminated with radiation, and thus their situation becomes steadily more hopeless, beginning to suffer more effects of radiation sickness. At first they suffer headaches and shivering, moments after the bomb. Then, from the second day, Hilda suffers from vomiting and diarrhoea. On the fourth day, Hilda's gums begin to bleed, and she is finds blood in her diarrhoea, which they mistake for haemorrhoids. On the fifth day, Jim also shows bleeding gums; both are suffering blue bruising but mistake these for varicose veins. Finally, Hilda's hair begins to fall out. From then on, she insists that they go back into the fallout shelter and wait for help to arrive (though it never does). The book ends on a bleak night, when Hilda insists Jim, who has now lost faith in everything he once believed in, should pray; he begins uttering phrases from Psalm 23, which pleases Hilda. However, forgetting the lines, he switches to The Charge of the Light Brigade, whose militaristic and ironic undertones distress the dying Hilda, who weakly asks him not to continue. Finally, James's voice mumbles away into silence as he finishes the line, "...rode the Six Hundred..." The paper potato sacks they have wrapped themselves in then darken, in line with their ebb of consciousness, growing debility and ultimate deaths. This is then followed by the final blank white page. ===== Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin are in Paris. Modesty is being wined and dined by René Vaubois, head of the Deuxième Bureau (the French Intelligence Service), on a floating restaurant on the Seine. René asks Modesty for advice regarding a new protection racket. High-level people worldwide are receiving death threats, and those who don't pay end up dead. The really crazy thing is that most of the deaths are apparently natural deaths. Willie, waiting on the river bank for Modesty's return, encounters Chuli, a criminal whose speciality is planting bombs. René Vaubois' car has been wired with explosives. And when Modesty, Willie, René and Stephen Collier (making his first appearance) leave the scene they are followed by a car full of underworld killers, all bent on putting René down. This is the start of a rather strange story about Lucifer, a "young man with a godlike body, dark hair and a ruined mind" who had been studying to go into the church when he was seduced by a woman and suffered a nervous breakdown, becoming convinced that he was the source of all sin, and therefore the devil himself. A pair of ageing puppeteers, Seff and Regina, unable to get work when the music halls closed down, turned to crime. After discovering Lucifer's uncanny ability to predict forthcoming natural deaths Seff has created an incredible worldwide protection racket. The action heats up when Modesty is taken prisoner at their base on Sylt and a radio-controlled cyanide capsule is surgically implanted under her skin. The final confrontation takes place on a remote island in the Philippines. First Modesty and Willie are forced to fight a duel to the death against each other. Later the machine guns are blazing in a major battle between good guys and bad, with Modesty risking everything to try and save Lucifer. Category:1967 British novels Category:Modesty Blaise books Category:The Devil in fiction ===== Dr. Henry Jekyll (Spencer Tracy) believes good and evil exist in everyone. Experiments reveal his evil side, named Mr. Hyde. Experience teaches him how evil and violent Hyde can be: he rapes Ivy Pearson (Ingrid Bergman), who earlier expressed interest in Jekyll. Meanwhile, Jekyll is preparing to marry Beatrix Emery (Lana Turner). Over the course of the film, Hyde abuses Ivy. Feeling remorse over the treatment inflicted on Ivy by his “monstrous” counterpart, Jekyll vows never to take the serum again, destroys the key to his lab, and sends money to Ivy anonymously. Ivy believes the money was sent by Hyde in order to trick her into believing she is now free. On the advice of a friend over her rattled nerves, she goes to Jekyll for comfort. Jekyll promises that Hyde will never hurt her again. On the way to Emery's house for the announcement of his marriage to Beatrix, Jekyll transforms into Hyde without taking the serum. He goes over to Ivy's house, accuses her of meeting with Jekyll, and strangles her. He escapes back to his locked lab, only to recall that he no longer has the key. He fails to break into the front door of his place, so he hurries to his friend Dr. Lanyon (Ian Hunter) for help. Lanyon is shocked to find out that both Jekyll and Hyde are the same person as Hyde drinks the antidote in his friend's presence. Jekyll decides to break off his engagement to Bea in order to keep his dark secret. She refuses to accept, her reaction triggering Jekyll to become Hyde and frighten Bea. Her father (Donald Crisp) responds to her scream, only to be beaten to death by Hyde. Lanyon later discovers a piece of Jekyll's cane at the scene, and he realizes his friend is responsible for the murder. He then leads police to search Jekyll's lab, where they find Jekyll, who earlier, as Hyde, had strong-armed past his butler, Poole (Peter Godfrey), to get to the antidote. Soon the cornered doctor starts transforming once again into Hyde as authorities question him in the lab. A struggle ensues and Lanyon shoots Hyde. As the monster dies, he reverts yet again and finally to Jekyll. ===== At night just outside Paris, a woman drives along a riverbank and dumps a corpse in the river. After the body is recovered, Dr. Génessier identifies the remains as those of his missing daughter, Christiane Génessier, whose face was horribly disfigured in an automobile accident that occurred before her disappearance, for which he was responsible. Dr. Génessier lives in a large mansion, which is adjacent to his clinic, with numerous caged German Shepherds and other large dogs. Following Christiane's funeral, Dr. Génessier and his assistant Louise, the woman who had disposed of the dead body earlier, return home where the real Christiane is hidden (it's explained that Louise is deathlessly loyal to Génessier because he repaired her own badly damaged face, leaving only a barely noticeable scar she covers with a pearl choker). The body belonged to a young woman who died following Dr. Génessier's unsuccessful attempt to graft her face onto his daughter's. Dr. Génessier promises to restore Christiane's face and insists that she wear a mask to cover her disfigurement. After her father leaves the room, Christiane calls her fiancé Jacques Vernon, who works with Dr. Génessier at his clinic, but hangs up without saying a word. Christiane (Édith Scob) fails to make a phone call to Jacques Vernon. Scob's face is hidden behind a face-like mask for most of the film. Louise lures a young Swiss girl named Edna Grüber to Génessier's home. Génessier chloroforms Edna and takes her into his secret laboratory. Christiane secretly watches her father and Louise carry Edna to the lab, and then goes to tenderly caress the dogs her father keeps caged, who eagerly accept her love, and are unaffected by her appearance. Dr. Génessier performs heterograft surgery, removing Edna's face. The doctor successfully grafts the skin onto his daughter's face and holds the heavily bandaged and faceless Edna against her will. Edna escapes, but falls to her death from an upstairs window. After disposing of Edna's corpse, Génessier notices flaws on Christiane's face. Her face grows worse within days; the new tissue is being rejected and she must resort to wearing her mask again. Christiane again phones Jacques and this time says his name, but the phone call is interrupted by Louise. Jacques reports the call to the police, who have been investigating the disappearance of several young women with blue eyes and similar facial characteristics. The police have gained a lead concerning a woman who wears a pearl choker, whom Jacques recognizes as Louise. Inspector Parot, an officer investigating Edna's disappearance, hires a young woman named Paulette Mérodon (recently arrested for shoplifting) to help investigate by checking herself into Génessier's clinic. After being declared healthy, Paulette leaves for Paris and is promptly picked up by Louise, who delivers her to Dr. Génessier. Génessier is about to begin surgery on Paulette when Louise informs him that the police want to see him. While the doctor talks with the police, Christiane, who has long been disenchanted with her father's experiments, while slowly losing her sanity from guilt and isolation, frees Paulette and murders Louise by stabbing her in the neck. She also frees the dogs and doves that her father uses for experiments. Dr. Génessier dismisses the police (who readily accept his explanations) and returns to his lab, where an abandoned German Shepherd he had only recently obtained for his experiments attacks him, inciting the other dogs to follow suit—maddened by pain and confinement, they maul him to death, disfiguring his face in the process. Christiane, unmoved by her father's death, walks slowly into the woods outside Génessier's house with one of the freed doves in her hands. ===== ===== In 1997, Sarah Huttinger, an obituary and wedding announcement writer for The New York Times, travels to Pasadena, California, for her sister Annie's wedding, accompanied by her fiancé Jeff Daly. When Sarah tells her grandmother, Katharine Richelieu, that she is unsure about getting married, Katharine lets slip that her late daughter, Sarah's mother Jocelyn, ran off to Cabo San Lucas a week before her own wedding. Sarah visits her mother's best friend, Aunt Mitzy, who confirms that Jocelyn spent time with their prep school classmate Beau Burroughs the week before her wedding to Sarah's father Earl, and that Beau was friends with Charles Webb, the author of the novel The Graduate. Jeff points out Sarah's parents were married just short of nine months before her birth, leading her to wonder if Beau might really be her biological father. Sarah also accuses her grandmother of being the inspiration for Mrs. Robinson, the older character who seduced the young man (in The Graduate), who later ran away with Mrs. Robinson's daughter. After the wedding, Sarah decides to fly to San Francisco, where Beau, now a highly successful and very wealthy Silicon Valley Internet wizard, is giving a speech. She meets him; and he admits to sleeping with her mother and grandmother, but assures Sarah he couldn't be her father because he is sterile after suffering blunt testicular trauma while playing a soccer game in high school. The two go out for drinks, and the following morning Sarah wakes up in Beau's bed in his Half Moon Bay homethe third generation in her family to have sex with Beau. Although guilt-stricken by her behavior, Sarah allows Beau to convince her to be his date at a charity ball, where she meets Beau's son Blake. Beau explains his wife wanted a biological child and was artificially inseminated to become pregnant. Mollified, Sarah kisses Beau and is caught by Jeff, who has returned to California to find her after not hearing from her since she met Beau. An argument ensues and Jeff leaves her. Dejected, Sarah returns to visit Katharine, who flies into a rage when she learns Beau has slept with her granddaughter. The two learn Annie suffered an anxiety attack while flying to her honeymoon and wants to talk to Sarah. Sarah tells her sister about the sexual relationship three generations of Richelieu/Huttinger women have had with Beau. She reassures Annie she truly is in love with her husband, Scott, and in doing so, realizes she's ready to marry Jeff. It is also revealed that Earl was the one who accidentally caused Beau's testicular trauma. This makes Beau somewhat nervous to be around Earl, though Katherine is quite pleased by the revelation. Earl reveals to Sarah he always knew about Jocelyn and Beau's affair. Jocelyn returned to Earl because she loved him and he was someone with whom she could build a life. On the night she returned, Sarah was conceived. This explained the slightly early timing between her parents' wedding and her own birth. Determined to win Jeff back, Sarah returns to New York City and tells her fiancé about her feelings. They reconcile on the condition that if they ever have a daughter, she would not be allowed anywhere near Beau. The film ends with Sarah and Jeff's wedding. ===== At the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory, safety inspector Peter Griffin is working when his boss Mr. Weed introduces Guillermo, a ringer who will attempt to assist the company in winning the annual softball game. At home, Peter's wife Lois informs him of their new neighbors, the Swanson family, and wishes for him to make friends with them; however, Peter is not interested and leaves with Brian for softball practice. The regular pitcher is absent, so Peter fills in. He injures Guillermo with a wild pitch during practice and must find a new player to replace him or else he will be fired. Meanwhile, Lois goes with her youngest son, Stewie, to meet the new neighbors. She is greeted by Bonnie Swanson and soon after meets her husband, Joe, while Meg falls in love with Joe and Bonnie's son, Kevin. When Peter comes home he is rude to the Swansons. Later that night, Peter thinks about who can replace Guillermo, and Lois, hearing her husband's dilemma, reveals that Bonnie told her that Joe played baseball in college. Hearing this, Peter goes to Joe and apologizes for his earlier behavior towards him, and convinces him to play on his company softball team. However, while Peter and Mr. Weed are waiting for Joe at the ballpark, they're horrified when Joe shows up in a wheelchair, as Peter did not notice that Joe is paraplegic. Despite this, Joe proves to be an excellent ballplayer and leads Peter's company's team to victory. That night, Joe has a celebratory party in his house, where he reveals that he is a police officer who was crippled after fighting The Grinch on the roof of an orphanage (this was later revealed to be a cover-up in the 2012 episode "Joe's Revenge") and soon becomes very popular with the neighbors, including Peter's family. Joe's popularity makes Peter jealous, so Peter wants to be a hero too. He attempts to stop a bank robbery to compete with Joe's heroism. Peter and Brian are taken hostage in the process, but Joe convinces the robbers to surrender. An applauding crowd hoists Joe away in praise, leaving his wheel chair empty. Stewie tries to unlock the "power of the wheelchair," but Lois manages to remove him and puts a pacifier in his mouth, so he quickly falls asleep. After the hostage situation, Peter is disappointed, but his family consoles him by telling him that he is their hero.Callaghan, p. 30Plot synopsis information for "A Hero Sits Next Door", in Family Guy: Volume 1. [DVD]. 2003-04-15. 20th Century Fox. ===== In the final moments of Pastor Tomas Ericsson's noon service, only a handful of people are in attendance, including fisherman Jonas Persson and his pregnant wife Karin, and Tomas's ex-mistress, the atheistic Märta. After the service, Tomas, though coming down with a cold, prepares for his three o'clock service in another town. Before he leaves, however, the Perssons arrive to speak to him. Jonas has become morose after hearing that China is developing an atomic bomb. Tomas speaks to the man briefly, but asks Jonas to return after taking his wife home. No sooner have the Perssons left than substitute teacher Märta enters, and she attempts to comfort the miserable Tomas, and asks if he's read the letter she wrote to him. He has not, and tells her of his failure to help Jonas, and wonders if he will have anything to say, since he is without hope as well. Märta states her love for Tomas, but also her belief that he does not love her. She leaves, and Tomas reads her letter. In the letter, Märta describes Tomas's neglect of her, relating a story of how a rash that disfigured her body repulsed him, and neither his faith nor his prayers did anything to help her. She writes of how her family was warm and loving without religion, and expresses bewilderment at his indifference to Jesus. Tomas finishes the letter, and falls asleep. Awakened by the return of Jonas, Tomas clumsily tries to provide counsel, before finally admitting that he has no faith as well. He says his faith was an egotistical one – God loved humanity, but Tomas most of all. Serving in Lisbon during the Spanish Civil War, Tomas could not reconcile his loving God with the atrocities being committed, so he ignored them. Tomas finally tells Jonas that things make more sense if we deny the existence of God, because then man's cruelty needs no explanation. Jonas leaves, and Tomas faces the crucifix and declares himself finally free. Märta, who has been lurking in the chapel, is overjoyed to hear this, and embraces Tomas, who again does not respond to her affections. They are interrupted by the widow Magdalena, who tells them that Jonas has just committed suicide with a rifle. Tomas drives, alone, to the scene, and stoically helps the police cover Jonas's body with a tarp. Märta arrives on foot, and she and Tomas drive off to her home, where she invites him in to take some medicine for his cold. Waiting in Märta's classroom attached to her house, Tomas finally lashes out at her, telling her first that he rejected her because he was tired of the gossip about them. When that fails to deter her affections, Tomas then tells her that he was tired of her problems, her attempts to care for him, and her constant talking, and that Märta could never measure up to his late wife, the only woman he has ever loved. Though shocked by the attack, Märta agrees to drive with him to the Persson house. Informed of Jonas's suicide, Karin collapses onto the stairs and wonders how she and her children will go on. Tomas makes a perfunctory offer of help, and leaves. Arriving for the three o'clock service at the second church, Tomas and Märta find the building empty except for Algot, the handicapped sexton, and Fredrik, the organist. In the vestry, Algot questions Tomas about the Passion. Algot wonders why so much emphasis was placed on the physical suffering of Jesus, which was brief in comparison to the many betrayals he faced from his disciples, who denied his messages and commands, and finally from God, who did not answer him on the cross. He asks, "Wasn't God's silence worse?" Tomas, who has been listening silently, answers yes. Meanwhile, Fredrik tells Märta that she should leave the small town and Tomas and live her life, rather than stay and have her dreams crushed like the rest of them, but she chooses to start praying. Fredrik and Algot wonder if they should have a service since no one has shown up. Tomas still chooses to hold it, and the bells are rung. He begins the service reciting the Sanctus: "Holy Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty; heaven and earth are full of your glory." ===== Chris hates being in the Youth Scouts and wants to quit, but is afraid to tell his father Peter. Chris is finally kicked out when he runs over the troop leader during a Soap Box Derby. Peter insists on driving Chris and the rest of the family (Peter's wife Lois, their daughter Meg and their infant Stewie) to the Youth Scout headquarters, in Manhattan, to get Chris readmitted. While they are gone, their talking dog Brian is watching Nova just as the show is interrupted to show several episodes of the sitcom One Day at a Time. He tries to change the channel, but is unable to do so (nor he can turn the TV off), losing his intelligence shortly after watching a few episodes. The family stops at a Native American casino as Peter needs to use the bathroom, Lois quickly becomes addicted to gambling and loses the family car. After hearing that Lois has gambled the car away, Peter tries to get it back by claiming to be Native American. The doubtful Indian elders demand that he go on a vision quest to prove his heritage. Chris accompanies Peter into the wilderness, hoping to tell him that he only wants to draw instead of being in the Scouts. Delirious from hunger, Peter begins talking to anthropomorphic trees and sees a vision of his spiritual guide, Fonzie. After hearing Fonzie's advice Peter finally listens to Chris's complaints and realizes his son is a talented artist. Peter and Chris return to the casino and reclaim the car. The episode ends with Lois, Stewie, and Meg counteracting stereotypes about Native Americans, Mexicans, and Swedes, respectively, before Peter comments that "Canada sucks." ===== "The Statement of Randolph Carter" is the first person testimony of the titular character, who has been found wandering through swampland in an amnesiac shock. In his statement, Carter attempts to explain the disappearance of his companion, the occultist Harley Warren. Warren has come into the possession of a book, written in an unknown language, the exact contents of which he never revealed to Carter. Carter mentions that Warren has other "strange, rare books on forbidden subjects", several of which are in Arabic. From his mysterious book, Warren apparently deduces that doors or stairways exist between the surface world, and the underworld, through which demons may travel. He encourages Carter to travel with him to the location of one such portal, an ancient graveyard near Big Cypress Swamp. Upon arriving, Warren locates a particular tomb, and opens it to reveal a staircase that descends into the earth. Taking a lantern, he leaves Carter on the surface, and follows the stairs into the darkness, communicating with his companion by a telephone wire. After several minutes of silence, Warren suddenly begins to make vague, panicked outbursts that culminate in a desperate plea for Carter to flee. Finally, after Warren is silent for several minutes, Carter calls to him down the line, only to hear an alien voice telling him that Warren is dead. Definitive version. ===== The series begins in a desert on the colony planet Deloyer, where the remains of a destroyed robot are resting as a red-haired woman is standing in front of it. The woman hallucinates what appears to be a group of armed soldiers alongside the robot in a non-destroyed state. A man named Rocky appears, leading to the woman running into his embrace where she cries tears of joy. After this, the series flashes back to an earlier time, in order to explain the circumstances leading up to the first episode. Malcontents on the Deloyer colony agitate for the independence of their world from the Earth Federation. In an unexpected coup, the elected Governor declares martial law and sets himself up as absolute dictator. With the approval of the Federation, he rules the planet with an iron fist. In reaction, a ragtag group (including the governor's estranged son) rises in open rebellion, using a powerful prototype Combat Armor: the Dougram. Their goal is the end of the dictatorship and total independence from the Federation's influence. The story follows the actions of the guerilla freedom fighters known as "The Deloyer 7." The war is fought across the planet Deloyer as the Federation vigorously pursues the rebels. The series is noted for its realistic use of not just the combat armors and support vehicles, but also military tactics. The series also followed a wide range of characters and political intrigue, with many shady characters switching sides throughout the series. Crinn Cashim is the show's main character. Son of Governor Donan Cashim, he becomes trained in piloting the Soltic Roundfacer by Jacky Zaltsev, a Federation Ace, because of his father's political connections. When his father appears to be overthrown by a coup led by Colonel Von Stein, he pilots a Roundfacer while Federation forces battle Garcia's forces. He is stunned to learn that his father has actually sided with Von Stein in a secret plan, and eventually becomes angry at his father's forces in how they deal with the rebellion following the coup. Following a meeting with Dr. David Samalin, who introduces him to a combat armor he has designed, the Dougram, Cashim and his friends form The Fang of the Sun and join the rebellion against the Federation. ===== The series picks up five years after The Great Tomato War (much as the film Return of the Killer Tomatoes did), where tomatoes are banned. However that has not stopped Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen from engaging in his experiments. Gangreen's ultimate goal is to rule the world and he will not let anyone stop him. But his most successful experiment may very well be his undoing. Tara Boumdeay, a tomato turned human, runs away from Gangreen, taking along her 'Brother', the fur-covered F.T., whom she passes off as a dog. They befriend Chad Finletter (nephew of the Great Tomato War veteran, Wilbur Finletter) who, after saving the pair from a tomato attack, gets Tara a job at his uncle Wilbur's Tomatoless Pizza Parlor. She shares their secret with Chad regarding the two of them being tomatoes and Chad vows to help them against whatever Gangreen has planned. That is where everyone stands at the start of the first episode, "Give A Little Whistle", where the evil Doctor sets his new plans into motion (and would continue through the first season). Season Two would center on Gangreen actually conquering the world in the debut episode. But Gangreen learns on a personal level the importance of the quote "Be careful what you wish for". He is overthrown by Zoltan and his gang of twice-mutated tomatoes, and is forced to join up with Chad, Tara, Wilbur and the rest of the Killer Tomato Task Force (other vets of the Great Tomato War). ===== The film is a dark comedy about a birthday-party clown (Goldthwait) in the grip of depression and alcoholism, who is framed for murder. Different communities of clowns, mimes and other performers are depicted as clannish, rivalrous subcultures obsessed with precedence and status. This was Goldthwait's bitter satire of the dysfunctional standup comedy circuit he knew as a performer. ===== The Mayor of Normal Valley leads a mob to the mansion of the Maestro, who has been entertaining local children with magic tricks and ghost stories. The children assure the parents the Maestro has done nothing wrong, but the Mayor intends to banish him as a "freak". The Maestro challenges the Mayor to a "scaring contest": the first to become scared must leave. He performs magic tricks and dance routines with a ghostly horde, and finally possesses the Mayor, forcing him to dance. After the performance ends, the Maestro agrees to leave and crumbles to dust, but returns as an enormous demon. Terrified, the Mayor leaps through the window. The families agree that they had fun and allow the Maestro to stay. ===== A serial killer named Karl Hochman (Ted Marcoux) is known as "The Address Book Killer" due to his habit of stealing address books and choosing his victims from them. While he is working at a computer store, he obtains Terry Munroe's (Karen Allen) address book after another employee, who is demonstrating a scanner, copies a page of her address book into a computer. On a rainy night while heading home, Karl collides into a truck, which causes his car to go off the road and swerve into a cemetery as he laughs. In the emergency room he is put into an MRI machine. A surge from an electrical storm manages to transfer his soul into a computer. Now as a network-based entity, Karl continues to plot his killing spree using various objects connected to the electrical grid and computer networks. Karl opens the scanned page from Terry's address book and begins to kill everyone listed on the page. Her boss, Frank Mallory (Richard McKenzie), becomes the first victim when his microwave oven explodes. Another friend, Elliot Kastner (Jack Laufer), gets burned to death when a hand dryer turns into a flamethrower. Terry hires a babysitter, Carol Maibaum (Shevonne Durkin), to look after her son Josh (Wil Horneff). However, Carol becomes the third victim; she is electrocuted by an exploding dishwasher in the kitchen. The police do not believe the theory that Karl is on a killing spree after his death, but Josh realizes the order of the killings is related to a list of contacts from Terry's address book. Terry, along with computer hacker Bram Walker (Chris Mulkey), unplugs everything in her house. The police then receive anonymous reports of an armed robbery, a hostage situation, domestic violence, and a murder in progress, all at Terry's house. The police open fire on the home after mistaking an exploding generator for gunfire. When they realize their mistake, they cease fire. Terry's mother goes into shock during the siege and is transported to the hospital for recovery. Aided by Bram and Terry, Josh manages to defeat Karl by introducing a computer virus that traps him in a physics laboratory. They activate an atom smasher located in the lab, which draws Karl in and destroys him. As the film ends, Bram tells Terry to turn off a heart rate monitor in an ambulance, causing the screen to fade to black. ===== Distinguished Professor Gordon (John Hoyt) explains that Earth is being tormented by periodic "sex rays", which send people into a sexual frenzy. When one of the rays hits the Ford Trimotor passenger aircraft carrying Flesh Gordon (Jason Williams) and Dale Ardor (Suzanne Fields), the pilots abandon the controls and everyone aboard has manic sex. When they finish, Flesh and Dale escape the imminent plane crash by parachute. They land near the workshop of Flexi Jerkoff (Joseph Hudgins), who has a plan to stop the sex rays at their source. They travel to the planet Porno in Jerkoff's phallic rocket ship, and are briefly hit by a sex ray, resulting in a frantic three-way orgy. They crash land after being shot down by the minions of Emperor Wang (William Dennis Hunt) and are attacked by several one-eyed "Penisauruses" before being taken prisoner by Wang's soldiers. They are brought before Wang, who is presiding over an orgy of more than a dozen men and women. Jerkoff is sent to work in Wang's laboratory, while Wang announces his intention to marry Dale. Flesh is sentenced to death, but is saved when Queen Amora (Nora Wieternik) instead takes him to be her sex slave. Wang shoots down Amora's ship, and Flesh is the only survivor. He is reunited with Jerkoff, and they resume their efforts to defeat Wang, now using Amora's Power Pasties. Wang and Dale's wedding is interrupted when Dale is kidnapped by Amazonian lesbians, whose leader, Chief Nellie (Candy Samples), attempts to initiate Dale into their cult. Flesh and Jerkoff save her, unexpectedly aided by Prince Precious (Mycle Brandy) of the Forest Kingdom. With help from their new ally, Jerkoff builds a weapon to destroy the sex ray. They confront Wang and trick his "rapist robots" into turning on him, but Wang escapes, seeking the aid of the towering idol of the Great God Porno. Porno comes to life and captures Dale as they flee, blandly commenting on his actions. Jerkoff shoots the living idol, freeing Dale and causing the god to fall on Wang and the sex ray. Flesh, Dale, and Jerkoff are celebrated as heroes and return to Earth. ===== The novel starts with Melanie stealing her mother's wedding dress and venturing out in the night into her family's property. However, on her way home, she realises she forgot the door key and is forced to climb up a tree to get back into her room, destroying the dress in the process. The next morning, Melanie learns of the unexpected deaths of her parents in a plane crash over the Grand Canyon, and she and her two siblings – Victoria and Jonathon – are moved to South London, to the care of her tyrannical uncle Philip, a bullish and eccentric maker of life-sized puppets and fantastical old fashioned toys. There, she meets her mute aunt Margaret, who is mistreated by and terrified of her husband and only converses through notes. She also meets Margaret's younger brothers Francie, a fiddler, and the rakish Finn. At first, Uncle Philip ignores Melanie and her siblings as they are introduced to his bizarre puppet shows and she is made to work selling toys in the toyshop. Meanwhile, Finn and Melanie grow closer until he takes her to a park which is the ruins of the National Exhibition of 1852. There, after seeing a worn, fallen statue of Queen Victoria and walking across a chess board (only on the white squares), Finn kisses Melanie. She feels intruded on by the gesture, imagining it to be romantic only as an observer from far away. The kiss begins Melanie's conflicted feelings of attraction toward Finn. At another puppet show, Finn fails to control his puppet and is thrown to the floor by Uncle Philip, who despises him. Satisfied that Finn shall never be adept at working the puppets, Uncle Philip devises a new plan, drafting Melanie to perform with the puppets. Philip assigns Finn to teach Melanie how to act on stage for the future show. During this time, Melanie notices a difference in Finn's behaviour. Whereas before he had been subtly rebellious, he now seems depleted of all resistance and resigned to Philip's control. Finn also becomes even more physically dirty than before. However, Finn's opposition to Philip returns when he refuses to make love to Melanie, as he considers this to be part of Philip's machinations. Soon the day of the puppet show arrives. Melanie appears on stage in a white dress. Philip has arranged for Melanie to play Leda as she is raped by the god Jove in the guise of a monstrous swan. However, the play is not successful, as Melanie struggles to beat off the swan. As she scrambles to escape the swan puppet, Finn calls for the end of the show. In a rage, Philip slaps Melanie and accuses her of ruining his show. Shortly after the show, Uncle Philip goes on a business trip, taking Jonathon with him and leaving the rest of the family alone at the house. Finn decides to destroy Philip's puppet swan and buries it in the park next to the fallen Queen Victoria. He returns home and crawls into bed with Melanie. She comforts him and arrives at the realisation that they will someday marry and have children, leading a poor, constrained life together. Finn reaches a sort of epiphany about his life and decides to wash and not tolerate Uncle Philip's hegemony any more, something exemplified when Finn sits in Uncle Philip's seat at the dinner table. After a somewhat drunken evening, Melanie learns that Margaret and Francie have been having an incestuous relationship. Suddenly Uncle Philip returns, discovering the infidelity of his wife and the rebellion of his household. In a tremendous rage, he sets the house on fire. Margaret finally speaks as she urges Finn and Melanie to escape. They do so just in time, running outside the house and turning to watch the floors of the house collapse in fire. They realise now that their old world is destroyed and, for better or worse, all they have left is each other. ===== Frankie (Ione Skye) works at her uncle Leo's Cafe Blue Eyes in San Francisco (named in honor of family friend Frank Sinatra), and is hoping to meet her ideal lover, ideally one with blue eyes like Sinatra, while going to auditions with her friend Allison (Jennifer Aniston). Frankie suffers from insomnia, and has not slept through the night since childhood, when her parents were killed in a car accident. She spends most of her time at night reading. Writer David Shrader (Mackenzie Astin), takes a job at the cafe, and Frankie falls in love with him, while he attempts to cure her insomnia, she reads his writings, and the two take turns reciting philosophical quotes and guessing their source. The film is shot in black and white until Frankie sees David, when the film switches to color and David's eyes are revealed as blue. David breaks Frankie's heart when she finds out that he is engaged to a lawyer, Molly (Leslie Stevens), but he eventually chooses Frankie over his fiancé, and visits her in Los Angeles, where she has joined Allison, who is exploring an acting career. The film ends with Frankie falling asleep in David's arms. A subplot has Rob (Michael Landes), the gay son of Leo (Seymour Cassel), trying to convince his father he is straight, with the help of Allison "acting" as his girlfriend. After Allison and Frankie leave, Rob comes out of the closet to his father, who in fact had known and accepted that Rob was gay for many years. ===== At the bowling alley, Mort Goldman bowls a perfect game and becomes an overnight celebrity. Lois arrives to pick Peter up from the bowling alley, but discovers Quagmire spying on her from the ceiling of the ladies' toilet. Quagmire is arrested, but released shortly after by Joe. On his return, Lois, Bonnie and Loretta reveal that they're petitioning the city of Quahog to have Quagmire removed from their neighborhood. As Peter and the other guys are defending Quagmire, Ernie the Giant Chicken attacks Peter and starts a fight that causes huge casualties inside and outside of Quahog. After the fight, Peter returns to the neighborhood to return to the conversation and tells the women that "Quagmire's a good guy, he's just a little mixed up, that's all!" Eventually, the women agree to let Quagmire stay in the neighborhood so long as he manages to control his perverse behavior. Quagmire's taught self-control through operant conditioning by Peter and his friends, and is eventually allowed out in public. Soon, however, he is distracted by three cheerleaders playing in a fountain in the shopping mall and panics, running into a CCTV camera operation room monitoring women's changing rooms. Discovering that an attractive blonde lady in a fitting room is having a heart attack, he appears to rush to her aid, performing CPR and saving her life. Quagmire is congratulated for his heroism, but his intention had been to molest the woman while she was unconscious (which he reveals by asking "What the hell is CPR?"). This upsets Peter, who is disappointed to notice that he is the one amongst his friends who hasn't been successful. In the hope of becoming famous, Peter attempts to set a world record for eating the largest number of nickels, but develops nickel poisoning and loses his vision. Attempting to drown his sorrows, Peter visits his local bar, The Drunken Clam, with his guide dog, unaware that the bar is on fire (caused by God trying to impress a woman). Discovering the bartender Horace trapped under debris, Peter saves his life and is proclaimed a hero by local newsman Tom Tucker. When told that he saved Horace from a burning building, Peter replies with disbelief, "That freakin' place was on fire?!" For his inadvertent bravery, Peter is awarded a medal by the mayor and receives an eye transplant, the replacement eyes coming from a homeless man dragged to death when Peter accidentally tied his guide dog's leash around the man's neck, thinking he was a parking meter. The end of this episode is an unconnected parody of the closing scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. ===== The story is about Toru, an extremely quiet and shy high school student who has a crush on Ryoji, a popular member of the high school swimming team known for his sexual escapades. Further complicating this matter is that Toru and Ryoji are very close friends, thus forcing Toru to hide his real feelings for Ryoji and pretend to be just one of his good friends, while being torn between his love for Ryoji and the facade he has to keep up when he sees him every day. But all that changes one day when Ryoji makes an indecent proposal to Toru, asking him if he would like to experiment with him sexually, and admitting that he had been aroused by thoughts of him during sexual intercourse with his girlfriend. Toru unhappily accepts, pressured by his feelings for Ryoji, but as time passes Toru becomes even more aggravated as he realizes that his sexual affair with Ryoji was just a fling based on Ryoji's sexual curiosity, and not on actual romantic attraction. Toru is so depressed about the one-sided situation between him and Ryoji that he confides with a close friend named Kashiwazaki about his emotional turmoil. Together, they come up with a plan to discover Ryoji's true intentions by secretly deciding to lie to him about them being in a romantic relationship together. After learning of this, Ryoji becomes very angry and jealous about Toru and Kashiwazaki's alleged relationship, and tries to break them up. The plan apparently has worked, but Toru is now in a serious love triangle between Ryoji and Kashiwazaki when he begins to realize that Kashiwazaki has been in love with him for a very long time. As the story progresses, he begins to understand that he and Ryoji were not the only ones that were hiding their true feelings. ===== Drake is the premier assassin of a Neo Macau-based clan known as the 99 Dragons. While training in the Kwoon, he hears a break in. He enters the chamber containing the Soul Portal Artifact, given to the clan over 3000 years ago, battling enemies before a mysterious Ghost Assassin swoops out of the room with the artifact. The assassin is in cahoots with Tang, a businessman and the clan's mortal enemy. Drake then pursues the assassin, but is unable to stop the villain when he phases out of a window of the penthouse. He returns to the Master's chamber, only to find the corpses of himself, the Master, and the other members of his clan. Shocked, Drake collapses, and the tattoo on his chest glows. In a flashback, Drake is given the tattoo of the Undying Dragon by The Master, which provides him with supernatural powers as well as immortality. The tattoo glows, and Drake unleashes the abilities to run up walls, slow down time, and freeze time. He explores the penthouse and collects thirty souls of his fallen comrades and enemies. When the powers go to Drake's head, he leaps out a window and falls to his death. He then awakens in the Spirit Realm, and is scolded by the four Spirit Gods. They inform him that he must collect more souls for the Undying Dragon and recover the Soul Portal Artifact in order to avenge his Master's death. They give him a new body and return him to the mortal realm. He pursues a courier and follows his blood trail to a fireworks factory. Drake shoots at him, but is killed in a sudden explosion. The gods, annoyed once more at Drake's lack of competence, bring him back to life and send him to the House of the Dreaming Cloud casino. There, Drake attempts to find the courier, but is attacked by the casino's owner Pok and his demon dogs. After defeating Pok, Drake tails the courier to the Hung Fook Casino Palace, where it turns out he lost the Soul Portal Artifact in a gambling match. A thug beats Chun to near-death for his mishap, but Drake saves his life in time and learns the location of the Soul Portal Artifact. Drake quickly sets off through the city, fending off biker gangs along the way, and returns to the House of the Dreaming Cloud. While fighting Pok, now in his "true" demonic form, Drake once again gets caught up in an explosion. Serpent-Eye Sung, a business partner and accomplice of Tang, steals the Soul Portal Artifact from a dying Drake and heads off to his canned seafood factory, which they are harvesting the soul from an albino orca. Drake goes to stop Serpent-Eye and take the Artifact back, but is attacked by Tang's henchwoman Banshee and killed once more. The Spirit Gods decide to cut their losses and send Drake back to the penthouse, where the Tang Undertakers are stealing the corpses of the 99 Dragons. Drake chases after a truck holding his master's body, and finds himself taken to a cyborg creation facility. There, he finds that Master has been turned into a cyborg, but manages to defeat the robot and retrieve his Master's body from the remains. Outraged, Drake decides to go after Tang. Upon infiltrating Tang Towers, he discovers Tang's true scheme: to use the artifact to reap the souls from the Spirit Realm and use those souls to power his cyborg army. Drake then breaks into Tang's secret morgue facility and recaptures his clan members' souls. He then travels to the basements of the facility, where Tang is using the artifact to open the portal to the spirit realm. Drake fights and defeats a demon-like creature, but the Ghost Assassin steals the Soul Portal Artifact and escapes into the spirit realm. Drake enters the realm and pursues the assassin, ultimately defeating him. He then retrieves the Soul Portal Artifact and collects the Master's soul. Drake then falls down to a nest of a three-headed beast called the Spirit Lord Supreme, and confronts and defeats it. Drake then goes back to the Serene Garden, and revives the Master with the artifact. Master thanks Drake for his efforts, stating that he achieved a level of proficiency even he was unable to reach, and he has proven himself to the Gods. ===== The game's story revolves around the Crests, six magical stones which preside over their respective elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Time and Heaven). When all crests are combined, the Crest of Infinity will appear, allowing its holder infinite power and the ability to conquer all realms with it. The demons of the Demon Realm have long fought each other for possession of the Crests, five of which have since fallen into the hands of a red demon named Firebrand. Seeking infinite power, Firebrand challenges a Demon Dragon for the Crest of Heaven and is victorious, though badly wounded. In his weakness, a rival demon named Phalanx ambushes Firebrand and takes all the Crests except the Fire Crest which shattered into five shards. As the game begins, Phalanx has already begun using the Crests to become the ruler of the Demon Realm, while Firebrand is imprisoned in an amphitheater and made to fight the zombified Demon Dragon. After escaping the amphitheater, Firebrand sets out to regain the Crests and get revenge on Phalanx. Along the way, Firebrand is repeatedly challenged by Phalanx's general, Arma, who grudgingly returns each of the Crests to Firebrand out of respect for his power. Finally, Firebrand challenges Phalanx in his castle within the Demon Realm. Depending on the player's choices, three different endings are possible in this battle. The worst ending has Firebrand killing Phalanx and leaving the Demon Realm as it falls into complete anarchy, while a more favorable ending has Phalanx sealing himself inside the Crest of Heaven and Firebrand hiding all the Crests. The third ending concludes with Firebrand slaying Phalanx after he summons the Crest of Infinity to transform into a hideous beast, then tossing the Crests off a cliff after deciding that he does not seek conquest. Completing the game with the third ending gives the player a special password that allows Firebrand to continue the game with a new transformation, the Ultimate Gargoyle, which allows him to challenge a secret boss named Dark Demon. Upon winning this battle, a new ending plays in which Firebrand casts away the Crests out of pride for his own power, then leaves to seek another worthy opponent to fight. ===== Three escaped female convicts, along with an undercover policewoman, Lee Hampton, begin a search for stolen diamonds in the Louisiana swamps. The escape, allowed by the authorities, is part of a larger plan by the authorities is to trail the convicts and recover stolen diamonds. When notified that the stolen diamond cache has been recovered by the undercover officer, they plan to rearrest the women and return the diamonds to their rightful owner. The plan fails to work as designed. During the inmates' search of the swamp, they steal a boat from a research geologist and his girlfriend, resulting in the girlfriend's death from the attack of indigenous alligators.Frank (1998) The Films of Roger Corman. Batsford After recovery of the diamonds, one of the convicts double-crosses the others, attempting to sneak off with the guns and diamonds, but she is killed by the one of the other convicts. The two remaining convicts begin to suspect the undercover cop, and threaten to kill the geologist if she doesn't reveal herself. A fight ensues between the convicts and the undercover officer, assisted by the geologist. which allows the authorities enough time to show up and regain custody of the two remaining fugitives.Million Monkey Theater ===== The plot of the film is that the birds live in a fictional, peaceful town named Chirpendale. A crow arrives known as the Black Menace. As his name suggests, the Black Menace terrorizes the town. The story follows the adventures of the hero Bill, a cab driver, as he tries to save Coo and the rest of the town's inhabitants from certain destruction. ===== In Robert Southey's version of the tale, three anthropomorphic bears - "a little, small, wee bear, a middle-sized bear, and a great, huge bear" - live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each of these "bachelor" bears has his own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they make porridge for breakfast, but it is too hot to eat, so they decide to take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman approaches the bears' house. As she has been sent out by her family, she is a disgrace to them. She is impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty, and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The old woman eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The end of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds his empty bowl, his broken chair, and the old woman sleeping in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, and here she is!" The old woman wakes, jumps out the window and is never seen again. ===== The game's premise is that American old west cowboy Marshal Gram (played by Stephen Wilber, also hired to coordinate the game's stunts) is required to save the universe from scientist turned evil time lord Vulcor, who's found a way to manipulate and distort time itself; and to also rescue Princess Kyi-La (played by LeAnn McVicker) of the Galactic Federation, whom Vulcor is holding prisoner in his quest to disrupt the flow of time. The player must pursue the villain across time through the ages overcoming various obstacles along the way while undoing all the damage done by Vulcor. ===== The boys have a new fellow student in their class, the mentally and physically handicapped Timmy, who is only capable of saying his own name, the phrase "livin' a lie", and otherwise a very limited number of words. Mr. Garrison and Principal Victoria do not realize the extent of Timmy's handicaps, and Mr. Mackey suggests that Timmy may suffer from ADD. They send him to a doctor who diagnoses him with that condition in a very odd fashion (reading The Great Gatsby in its entirety, then asking one random question about a mundane detail from the book). Timmy is then freed from all homework, leading all the other kids in the class to claim that they also have ADD in an attempt to get out of their homework. They are all promptly diagnosed with the condition using a similar method as Timmy, and they are all prescribed Ritalin as a result. Without the burden of homework, Timmy finds a new pastime as he is discovered by The Lords of the Underworld (the rock band consisting of Shelley Marsh's ex-boyfriend, Skyler, and his two friends, as seen in the season three "Cat Orgy"), which takes him on as its new lead singer. The band becomes instantly successful due to Timmy's antics. However, many people are upset as they think that Timmy is being ridiculed. Phil Collins in particular is displeased with the new band, which has been booked to open for him at the Lalapalalapaza festival. Shortly after, Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld (at this point only referred to as "Timmy") take Collins's place as the headliners of the festival. The other boys have actually started to take their Ritalin medication, making them very calm and rather boring. Cartman develops a side effect from Ritalin that causes him to see pink Christina Aguilera monsters (one of which causes him to accidentally kill Kenny). The adults are uncomfortable among them, but accept their new kind and obedient children when they also start taking Ritalin. Chef and the pharmacists are the only people left who are not under the drug's influence. Meanwhile, Phil Collins tries to break up Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. First by appealing to Timmy's parents, Richard and Helen (who also have large heads, use wheelchairs, and unable to say anything other than their names), and later by telling the guitarist, Skyler, that Timmy is stealing his fame and is only holding Skyler back, reminiscing to his Genesis era. Skyler leaves the band, which is subsequently cancelled from the festival. Collins regains his headlining spot, and Skyler's solo project Reach for the Skyler is booked to open for him, but Skyler bails out. In the meantime, Chef tries to convince the parents that there are other methods to fight ADD than medication, namely beating the children to force them to "sit down and study," but as the parents are all taking Ritalin too, he does not get any help. After the boys come in and tell Chef that they want to go to the festival to see Phil Collins perform, Chef decides to go confront the pharmacist alone. As the pharmacist and doctor who prescribed the Ritalin are counting their profits, Chef angrily tells them that they are responsible for the children liking Collins. Horrified that they are responsible for this, they make a plan to distribute an antidote called "Ritalout" by mixing it into free drinks at the Lalapalalapaza festival. They get the drinks from a lemonade stand run by Mr. Derp (a minor character who appeared last in "The Succubus"). The plan works perfectly; Collins is booed from the stage, and the crowd starts chanting for Timmy. The band reunites with Skyler and they play their show. Timmy even learns the words to introduce the band properly. Collins is carried out of the arena via crowd surfing, with the position of the Oscar implied to have been inserted in his anus. This was shown in a segment which aired during the last 20 seconds of the episode. ===== Solar Lottery takes place in a world dominated by logic and numbers, and loosely based on a numerical military strategy employed by US and Soviet intelligence called minimax (part of game theory). The Quizmaster, head of the world government, is chosen through a sophisticated computerized lottery. This element of randomization serves as a form of social control since nobody – in theory at least – has any advantage over anybody else in their chances becoming the next Quizmaster. Society is entertained by a televised selection process in which an assassin is also (allegedly) chosen at random. By countering and putting down threats to his life, using telepathic bodyguards, the leader gains the respect of the people. If he loses his life, a new Quizmaster, as well as another assassin, are again randomly selected. Quizmasters have held office for timespans ranging from a few minutes to several years. The average life expectancy is therefore on the order of a couple of weeks. The novel tells the story of Ted Benteley, an idealistic young worker unhappy with his position in life. Benteley attempts to get a job in the prestigious office of Quizmaster Reese Verrick. Reese has just been forced out of office, however, and Benteley gets tricked into swearing an unbreakable oath of personal fealty to the former world leader. Verrick then makes it clear that his organization's mission is to assassinate the new Quizmaster, Leon Cartwright, in the world's most anticipated "competition". To defeat the telepathic security web protecting Cartwright, Verrick and his team invent an android named Keith Pellig, into which different volunteers' minds are alternately embedded for the purpose of breaking any steady telepathic lock on the assassin. Cartwright ultimately kills Verrick, and Benteley, much to his own astonishment, becomes the next Quizmaster. A second plotline concerns a team of Leon Cartwright's followers travelling to the far reaches of the solar system in search of a mysterious cult figure named John Preston, who, 150 years after his disappearance, is thought to somehow be alive on the legendary tenth planet known as the "Flame Disc". ===== In 1974, 11-year-olds Wendy Richards, Jude Cunningham, Kelly Lynch and Nick McBride play hide-and-seek in an abandoned convent. When 10-year-old Robin Hammond tries to join them, the group starts teasing her, repeating "Kill! Kill! Kill!", and leading to a scared Robin accidentally falling to her death through a second story window. The children make a pact not to tell anyone what happened and keep the incident a secret and they leave. Just then, the shadow of an unseen person who witnessed Robin's death crosses over her body. Six years later in 1980, Robin's family attend her memorial on the anniversary of her death. Robin's teenage sister, Kim, and fraternal twin brother, Alex, are preparing for the school prom to be held that evening. Kelly, Jude and Wendy begin receiving anonymous obscene phone calls, while Nick ignores his ringing phone. Kim and Nick are now dating and plan on attending prom together. Jude is asked by goofy jokester Seymour "Slick" Crane, who she meets by chance. Kelly is going with Drew, her boyfriend. Wendy—Nick's ex- girlfriend—asks Lou to the prom with the sole purpose of embarrassing Nick and her rival Kim. In the changing room after gym class, Kim and Kelly discover the locker room mirror cracked with a shard missing. Later, Wendy, Jude and Kelly each find their yearbook photos stabbed with a piece of glass. Meanwhile, Kim and Alex's father (also the school principal) learns that the sex offender blamed for Robin's death has escaped from a psychiatric facility. Lt. McBride, Nick's father, investigates his disappearance. During the senior prom, Kelly and Drew make out in the changing room, but Kelly, a virgin, refuses to have sex and Drew angrily leaves. As Kelly gets dressed, an unidentified figure wearing a ski mask and all-black clothing approaches her and slits her throat with a mirror shard. Jude and Slick have sex and smoke marijuana in his van parked outside school grounds. They are attacked by the masked killer, who stabs Jude in the throat. Slick struggles with the killer, who jumps from the vehicle before Slick drives off a cliff to his death. Staking out the prom, McBride is informed that the sex offender blamed for Robin's death has been caught. Now wielding an ax, the killer confronts and chases Wendy through the school. Evading the killer several times, she screams when she discovers Kelly's body in a storage room and is hacked to death. The alcoholic school janitor, Sykes, witnesses Wendy's murder and attempts to notify the school staff, but they dismiss it as a drunken rant. Meanwhile, Kim and Nick prepare to be crowned prom king and queen, but Lou and his lackeys tie up Nick, and Lou takes his crown. Mistaking him for Nick, the killer approaches Lou from behind and decapitates him. Lou's severed head rolls onto the dance floor, sending the prom-goers fleeing in horror. Kim finds Nick and frees him. As they prepare to escape, they are confronted by the killer who attacks Nick but not Kim. In the ensuing brawl, Kim strikes the killer's head with the ax. She and the killer stare at each other and Kim realizes his identity. The killer runs outside where the police have arrived. The killer collapses and is then revealed to be Alex, who explains to Kim that he witnessed their sister's death, and that Jude, Kelly, Wendy and Nick were responsible. He cries out Robin's name before dying in Kim's arms. Kim cries over the death of another sibling. ===== The movie is set in the early 20th century. Wong Fei-hung, along with his romantic interest 13th Aunt and apprentice Clubfoot, travels from China to America to visit another of his apprentices, "Bucktooth" So, who has recently opened a branch of Po-chi-lam, Wong's traditional Chinese medicine clinic, in San Francisco. While travelling by carriage across the wilderness, they pick up a friendly cowboy, Billy, who is almost dying of thirst. When the party stops to have lunch, a bunch of hostile Native Americans ambush them. Although Wong, 13th Aunt and Clubfoot escape unharmed, their carriage is destroyed. 13th Aunt and Clubfoot are rescued and taken to "Bucktooth" So's clinic. Wong, however, hits his head on a rock and loses his memory as a consequence. He is saved by another Native American tribe. In San Francisco, Billy tries to stop the corrupt mayor from imposing discriminatory laws to make life difficult for the Chinese migrants. Meanwhile, the Native American tribe that saved Wong gets into trouble with a more powerful rival tribe. The chief's son, Fierce Eagle, is injured by the rival tribe's leader. To everyone's surprise, Wong defeats the rival tribe's leader and half of his men, causing the rival tribe to flee in fear. He eventually makes his way to San Francisco and regains his memory with the help of his companions, but forgets everything that happened during his bout of amnesia. In the meantime, the mayor has fallen into debt so he hires a Mexican bandit to help him rob the bank and frames the people in Po- chi-lam for the robbery while he secretly plans to abscond with the loot. Wong and his companions are arrested and sentenced to death by hanging. Just then, the Mexican bandit discovers that the mayor has paid him less than he expects so he returns to claim his money, thus revealing the truth. In the ensuing fight, the mayor is killed and Wong manages to capture the mayor and clear Po- chi-lam's name. At the end of the movie, Billy is elected as the new mayor while Wong, 13th Aunt and Clubfoot return to China. ===== The film opens with Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov Jr.) being interviewed on television with two friends from the army. All three now live in Moscow, where Ilya Setevoy (Kirill Pirogov) is a programmer at a history museum, Konstantin "Kostya" Gromov (Alexander Dyachenko) works in security for a bank. After the interview, the friends retire to a bathhouse where Kostya reveals that his twin brother, Dmitry Gromov, is an ice hockey player for the Chicago Blackhawks and is being blackmailed by American kingpin Richard Mennis (Gary Houston). According to Konstantin, Dmitry once played for his home club he was invited by the NHL and emigrated to the United States. After he moved, the Ukrainian mafia moved in on him, demanding protection money. Dmitry (also portrayed by Alexander Dyachenko) was desperate and appealed to Mennis for protection. Mennis took him under contract, but it left Dmitry as an indentured servant as all proceeds are paid to Mennis. Konstantin informs that Mennis has come to Moscow to meet his employer, Valentin Belkin (Sergey Makovetsky) to discuss a business proposal. In Priozersk, Danila's brother Viktor (Viktor Sukhorukov) watches the interview with their mother. Seeing how her older son has turned into a drunken policeman, she pleads that Viktor travels to Moscow and seek his brother there. After the bathhouse, Danila meets up and begins an affair with pop singer Irina Saltykova (playing herself), who he met at the TV station. The next morning, Kostya approaches Belkin and pleads to remind Mennis about his brother. Belkin agrees, but Dmitry Gromov is of little concern to both of them. Belkin, being a Russian kingpin himself, wishes to cooperate with Mennis to legalise their assets. That evening, Danila stops at Kostya's apartment to discover him shot dead. After being briefly arrested and getting into a fight in jail, Danila and Ilya begin planning their revenge in the museum. On the black market, they purchase a CD with personal information about Belkin. They also purchase guns from a neo-nazi friend of Ilya's. Meanwhile, Viktor has arrived in Moscow and manages to find Danila in the museum, where he agrees to join their plans, and helps them steal a car. As it is the start of the school year, the gymnasium where Belkin's son Fedya is studying is holding its opening ceremonies. Arriving at the school in the stolen car, Danila introduces himself as Fedya's new teacher and invites Belkin to the staffroom for a private conversation. He confronts Belkin at gunpoint and interrogates him about Kostya's murder. Belkin reveals that it was not his doing, but that of Mennis. Danila leaves Belkin after he pleads for his life. The trio clear the museum, and Danila gives Ilya his remaining money to procure passports and tickets to Chicago. It is revealed that Kostya's murder was due to a misunderstanding, as he only wanted him fired. However, the stunt in the school now threatens his whole operation with Mennis. Belkin's thugs and his police contacts begin to search the city for Danila. Danila decides to lay low at Saltykova's apartment and brings Viktor with him. Meanwhile, Belkin's thugs discover the stolen car in the building's parking lot. Saltykova's chauffeur Boris warns Danila, and the Bagrov brothers ambush the mobsters and then lead them on a chase through the town and into a closed alley, where they make quick work of the thugs. News of Bagrov's success concern Belkin's partners, who begin doubting the security of their operation. Learning of the bought tickets under Bagrov's name, Belkin alerts the Ukrainian mafia in Chicago. To avoid capture, the brothers fly to America separately, and Viktor arrives in Chicago without any suspicion. Danila instead takes a flight to New York City where he arrives in Brighton Beach. There, he buys a cheap car to travel to Chicago by road, but it breaks down just outside Pennsylvania. Stranded, he hitches a ride to Chicago with trucker Ben Johnson (Ray Toler). Despite Danila's limited English, the two become close friends and on his way to Chicago, Ben shows Danila much about American life. Upon their arrival in Chicago, Ben drives by prostitutes, one of whom, Marylin, turns out to be a Russian named Dasha (Darya Urgens Lesnikova). Back in Moscow, Belkin is still determined to catch Danila, but a background check revealed that Viktor was on board the flight to Chicago. Paranoid, Belkin alerts the Ukrainian mafia in Chicago to find him. Meanwhile, Viktor arrives to the Ukrainian district in Chicago. Danila attempts to meet up with Dmitry and Viktor, but is unable to make contact with them. Badly needing a translator, he decides to find Dasha and travels to the neighbourhood where she works. Just before he can run away with her, he is savagely beaten by Dasha's pimp's henchmen. The Police let him go on the basis of recognizance and he gets revenge by tricking the same group into selling him weapons, which he steals by subterfuge. Afterwards, Dasha's pimp attempts to get even with her but is in turn killed by Danila, leaving Dasha no choice but to go with him. Danila and Dasha finally meet up with Viktor and the three enjoy an evening campfire on the beach of Lake Michigan where they share their experiences and attitude towards American society. Dasha tells her story of how she came in the early 1990s as an exchange student, worked in escort service in New York before finally degrading into a street hooker. Viktor, on the other hand, is much too impressed with the power of money that drives America. Danila instead shows his patriotism and offers Dasha to come back home with them, replying to her "what will I do there?" with the "What have you achieved here?" inferring to her social status. As for Viktor, Danila reminds him there are things that money can't buy. This philosophical discussion is broken by a homeless black man, who stumbles across them and is insulted when Danila called him a negr (not knowing that the word is an insult in English; in Russia, the word "Negr" ("Негр") means only "a person with black skin", it is not used as an insult). While waiting for a fight to come, Dasha replies that she believes that the aggressive primal nature of black people drives fear into white people, thus making them ultimately superior. This theory fails its test, when Danila's warning shots into the sand quickly forces the attackers to flee. Regardless, Danila finally begins to move in against Mennis and first hits his front, the Club Metro. Expecting Mennis to be there he sneaks a weapon into the toilet, and during a Rock concert that evening, involving the Bi-2 band, he kills every member of Mennis' mafia he encounters in the basement. Mennis, alas, is absent. Viktor, himself picked up a tail by the Ukrainian mafia, draws them away and kills their hitman, but not before learning of the mafia's operations and headquarters. The next morning Danila climbs 50 or so floors on a skyscraper's fire escape to reach Mennis' office. He finds him in a game of chess. Killing his colleague, he finally confronts him alone. As if continuing the debate on the lakeside, in his monologue (in Russian) he asks the American if power really comes from money. Arguing that his brother (whose photo is lying next to the chess table) believes this theory, Danila instead thinks that power lies in the Truth. He (implying Mennis), can be rich, but not strong, as his money he stole from someone else. Thus the tricked person is right, so he is stronger. Almost weeping in fear, Mennis agrees. In conclusion, Danila demands all of the money taken from Dmitry to be returned. Giving Dmitry his money, Danila sets off back home to Moscow driving through the Ukrainian neighbourhood he witnesses a police siege around the former headquarters of the Ukrainian mafia, where Viktor killed everyone inside. As he is dragged out handcuffed, Viktor shouts his intentions to stay in America. The film ends with Danila and Dasha taking off to Moscow, and the final call to Irina is not intercepted, as presumably, Belkin is also removed by his "investors", who in an earlier scene, face to face told him, that the sum of money he set up in this operation is too much to be risked. At the airport, Dasha is told that she will never be able to enter the United States again due to the expiry of her visa, but she does not care, signalling an intention she will never come back. ===== In Marseille, a prisoner named Corey is released early for good behaviour. Shortly before he leaves, a prison warden tips him off about a prestigious jewellery shop that he could rob in Paris. Corey goes to the house of Rico, a former associate who has let him down and with whom his former girlfriend now lives, and forcefully removes money and a handgun from Rico's safe. Then he goes to a billiard hall, where two of Rico's men find him. After killing one, knocking the other out and taking his gun, Corey buys a large (American) car and, hiding both handguns in the boot, starts for Paris. On the way up, listening to jazz and news on the radio, he encounters a police roadblock. The same morning another prisoner, Vogel, who was being taken on a train from Marseille to Paris for interrogation by the well-respected Commissaire Mattei, manages to escape in open country. Mattei chases him, misses him, orders roadblocks to be set and supervises the manhunt. Meanwhile, Corey, who has understood what this huge police activity is about, stops at a roadside grill in the epicentre of the manhunt, leaving his car boot unlocked. Vogel crosses a stream to send dogs off his scent, reaches the roadside grill and hides in the boot of Corey's car. Corey, who has seen him and had been waiting for this, drives off into an open field and tells Vogel to get out, that he is safe. After a tense confrontation where Vogel waves one of Corey's guns, he realizes that Corey has just been released from prison that morning and is trying to save him. The two drive off with Vogel back in the boot. Shortly after, a car with two of Rico's men catches up and forces Corey off the road. The pair take him into the woods, take his money and are about to kill him when Vogel, emerging from the boot with the guns, shoots both dead. Corey takes Vogel to his empty flat in Paris where they start to plan the robbery. For this they need a marksman, to disable the security system by a single rifle shot, and a fence to buy the goods. At the same time, Mattei is trying to locate the murderer of Rico's men and to recapture Vogel. To do this, he puts pressure on Santi, a night club owner who knows most of the underworld, but who refuses to talk. Corey recruits Jansen, an alcoholic ex-policeman and a crack shot, together with a fence. One long night, Corey, with Vogel and the support of Jansen successfully rob the jewellery shop. However, his fence refuses to take the goods, having been warned off by a revengeful Rico, who had been told inadvertantly by the prison warden from the beginning that Corey was on the job. Overcoming their disappointment, Jansen and Vogel suggest that Corey asks Santi to recommend a new fence. Mattei blackmails Santi to obtain information about the meeting planned that evening at his night-club where Corey is supposed to meet the fence. Mattei posing as the fence asks Corey to bring the goods to a country house. Corey does so, taking Jansen as backup and leaving Vogel at his apartment, who has been given the rose Corey had received from a waitress at Santi's. After Corey arrives at the country house and starts showing the jewels to Mattei, Vogel appears from nowhere [presumably] acting on his suspicion that Corey was not safe with this new fence, and tells Corey to run with the loot. After a brief, tense confrontation with Mattei, Vogel follows Corey. Jansen alerted by the gunshots in the mansion's park now filled with police, arrives to stop the pursuants. One after the other, the three men are shot dead by Mattei's officers, who recover the jewels. ===== Two years after the Westworld tragedy, the Delos corporation owners have reopened the park after spending $1.5 billion in safety improvements, and also shutting down Westworld. For publicity purposes, newspaper reporter Chuck Browning and TV reporter Tracy Ballard are invited to review the park. Just before the junket is announced, Browning arranges to meet with a Delos employee who promises he has dirt on the corporation. During the meeting, the tipster is shot in the back and dies after giving Browning an envelope. At the resort, guests choose from four theme parks: Spaworld ("where old age and pain have been eliminated"), Medievalworld, Romanworld and Futureworld. Browning and Ballard choose Futureworld, which simulates an orbiting space station. Robots are available for sex as well as amusements like boxing. They are guided through the resort by Dr. Duffy, who shows them the marvels of Delos, demonstrating that all the problems have been fixed. The reporters are stunned to find that the Control Center is staffed entirely by robots. That night, their dinners are drugged, and while they sleep, medical tests are conducted so Delos can make clones of them. A visiting Russian general and a Japanese politician are also tested for cloning. Back in her room a few hours later, Ballard wakes in a fright, remembering the experience as a nightmare. Ballard and Browning sneak out to explore the resort's underground areas. They end up triggering a cloning machine, which generates three samurai. Just as they are about to be captured by the samurai, a mechanic named Harry saves them. He takes them back to his quarters, where he cohabits with a mechanic robot he has named Clark after Superman's alter-ego. The reporters interview Harry, but they are interrupted and returned to their rooms. The following day, while Ballard is testing out a Delos dream-recording device (which includes a dream sequence of being saved by, dancing with and making love to Yul Brynner's Gunslinger), Browning slips out to see Harry. Harry takes him to a locked door that he has never been able to enter, although robots routinely enter. Realizing the key is in the robot's eyes, Harry destroys a robot and steals its face. They return with Ballard and open the door. Inside, they find clones of themselves, as well as clones of the Russian and Japanese leaders. The clones are instructed to always work for the good of Delos and to destroy their originals. Browning explains that his tipster's envelope was filled with clippings about leaders from around the world, realizing that Delos must be cloning the rich and powerful. The trio decides to flee the resort on the next plane. The reporters return to their apartment where Duffy is waiting for them; he explains that, by cloning world leaders, they can ensure that nothing harms Delos' interests, and that without "proper" guidance, humans will eventually destroy the planet. Cloning the reporters would ensure favorable coverage, letting people forget about the Westworld tragedy. Browning attacks Duffy but is easily overpowered with unnatural strength. Ballard shoots the doctor twice, and Browning peels back Duffy's face to reveal that he is a robot. As Harry races to meet up with the reporters, he runs into Browning's clone, who kills him. Ballard and Browning are then chased by their own duplicates, all the while taunting them with details about their lives. Eventually, one of each pair is killed, though which one is left unclear. When they find each other, Browning seizes and kisses Ballard. In the end, as they leave the resort with the other guests, Dr. Schneider meets them to make sure they are the clones. The reporters confirm that they will be writing positive reviews for Delos; but, just as they reach the exit, Ballard's badly injured clone stumbles towards him and Schneider realizes too late that he has been fooled. On the jetway, Browning tells Ballard that his editor is running the exposé on Delos, that the whole world will know what they are up to, and that kissing her was his idea to figure out whether or not she was a duplicate. ===== Legendary Wings is set in a distant future where an alien supercomputer named "Dark", which has been helping human civilization achieve a new state of enlightenment since ancient times, has suddenly rebelled against mankind. Two young warriors are given the Wings of Love and Courage by the God of War Ares in order to destroy Dark and ensure mankind's survival. ===== ===== Dick Harper is a successful aerospace engineer in Los Angeles, where he and wife Jane have a lovely house, with a swimming pool and new lawn under way. Jane (Jane Fonda) takes care of their son, Billy. Due to financial reversals at the business, however, Dick's boss, Charlie Blanchard, suddenly fires him. Dick and Jane owe more than $70,000 and abruptly find themselves with no income. Their attempts to find other gainful employment fail. Jane lands a fashion modeling appearance at a restaurant that becomes a fiasco. Dick ends up applying for unemployment and food stamps, while Jane's wealthy parents, rather than helping, advise them to use this experience positively as a life lesson. Unable to come up with any other solution to their problems, Dick and Jane turn to a life of crime. They make an effort to select their victims judiciously – robbing the telephone company, for example, which makes the customers in line cheer. In time, Dick and Jane weigh their guilty consciences against their needs, trying to get back their old lives and stay out of jail. They make the decision to "retire" from robbery. However, almost immediately they see Charlie Blanchard on television, testifying in front of a Congressional committee. After realizing that Charlie keeps two hundred thousand dollars in his office as a slush fund (used to pay off lawmakers), Dick and Jane decide to rob Charlie. At a gala at Dick's old firm, Dick and Jane are able to successfully break into Charlie's office, crack the safe, and steal the money. They are able to leave his office and make it to the main floor of the building, but the building's security guards are able to alert Charlie before the couple can leave. They are seen guarding all the exits. Dick admits to Charlie that he and Jane have stolen his money. However, they also explain that Jane has called the police about the theft. Knowing that the $200,000 would possibly be confiscated by the authorities and may lead to further unwanted investigations, Charlie tells the arriving police that no crime is committed and he walks the couple safely out of the building. The movie ends with a press release that states Dick has been hired to be the president of the firm after Charlie has resigned. ===== ===== An alien couple comes to Earth disguised as a cowboy and cowgirl and buy a pet shop from its owner in an attempt to kidnap the children for sale as pets to fellow aliens in their own pet shop. They look like normal people aside from the fact that they have a third eye on their foreheads which they cover with their hats. One by one they give some pets to random kids free of charge. The pets at first seem normal, until they change into their alien forms. The kids meet when they return to the pet shop because their pets stop eating and need some type of "vitamins" that the aliens feed them. ===== Tokyo, 1962. Shūhei Hirayama (Chishū Ryū) is an aging widower with a 32-year-old married son, Kōichi (Keiji Sada), and two unmarried children, 24-year-old daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) and 21-year-old son Kazuo (Shin'ichirō Mikami). The ages of the children and what they respectively remember about their mother suggests that she died just before the end of the war, perhaps in the bombing of Tokyo in 1944-45. Since his marriage, Kōichi has moved out to live with his wife in a small flat, leaving Hirayama and Kazuo to be looked after by Michiko. Hirayama and five of his classmates from middle-school, Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura), Horie (Ryūji Kita), Sugai (Tsūzai Sugawara), Watanabe (Masao Oda) and Nakanishi, hold regular reunions at a restaurant called Wakamatsu ("Young Pine"), which is owned by Sugai. They reminisce about old times and banter with each other. For example, Horie is teased about having a new young wife and asked whether he is taking pills to maintain his virility. Their old teacher of Chinese classics, Sakuma (Eijirō Tōno), nicknamed Hyōtan ("the Gourd"), attends one of the reunions. We learn from a remark of his that Hirayama went from school to the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, so would have been a career naval officer up to 1945. Sakuma has too much to drink, and when Kawai and Hirayama take him home, they find that he has fallen on hard times and is running a cheap noodle restaurant in a working-class area. They meet his middle-aged daughter Tomoko (Haruko Sugimura), who missed the chance to marry when young and is now too old. Sakuma's former pupils decide to help him out with a gift of money, and Hirayama goes back to the restaurant to hand it over. While he is there, Yoshitarō Sakamoto (Daisuke Katō), the owner of a small local car-repair shop, comes in for a bowl of noodles and recognises Hirayama as the captain of the ship in which he served as a Petty Officer during the war. He takes Hirayama to his favourite bar. Hirayama notices that the bar-owner Kaoru (Kyōko Kishida) resembles his dead wife. Kaoru puts on a recording of the patriotic song Warship March and Sakamoto marches up and down, holding a salute and singing meaningless syllables in time to the music, in a mocking version of military drill. Later, Hirayama visits the bar alone and Kaoru puts the record on again. Two tipsy customers begin to parody the kind of morale-boosting radio propaganda announcements that would have been introduced by this tune during the war. Kōichi borrows 50,000 yen from his father, ostensibly to buy a refrigerator, but this is more than the refrigerator will cost. He plans to use the extra money to buy a set of second-hand golf clubs from his colleague Miura (Teruo Yoshida). His wife Akiko (Mariko Okada) doesn't want him to, and says that if he is going to indulge himself like this she will spend money on an expensive white leather handbag. Eventually, having made her point, she relents. The "Gourd" tells his former pupils that it is because he selfishly kept her at home to look after him that his daughter is now condemned to a lonely life as a spinster. Troubled by this, Hirayama recognises his own selfishness in keeping Michiko at home to look after him, and decides to arrange a marriage for her. He asks Kōichi to find out if Miura, whom Michiko is fond of, is interested. Unfortunately, Miura is already engaged. Kōichi and Hirayama break the news to Michiko. Michiko does not react but retires to her room. Hirayama and Kōichi conclude that she is not upset, but a little later Kazuo comes in and asks why Michiko is crying. Hirayama later asks Michiko if she is willing to go for a matchmaking session with a candidate Kawai has selected. Michiko agrees. In one of the ellipses Ozu is famous for, the film next shows us Michiko being dressed in a traditional wedding kimono and head-dress. She has clearly agreed to marry, but the bridegroom, and the wedding ceremony, are never shown. After the wedding, Hirayama goes to a bar with friends while Kōichi, Akiko and Kazuo wait for him at home. When he returns, drunk, Kōichi and Akiko leave. Kazuo goes to bed, leaving Hirayama by himself. In the final scene, a melancholy Hirayama drunkenly sings snatches of the Warship March. His last words in the film are "Alone, eh?". ===== A third-person narrator describes the arrival of a mysterious inventor in the inward-looking Welsh town of Llyddwdd. Dr. Moses Nebogipfel takes up residence in a house neglected after the deaths of its former inhabitants. The simple rural folk become apprehensive about Nebogipfel's activities in the house and suspect him of witchcraft. Ultimately they storm the inventor's "devilish" workshop. Nebogipfel escapes with the sympathetic Reverend Elijah Ulysses Cook, in what is later revealed to be a time machine. The unnamed narrator later discovers the dazed Reverend Cook, who has been missing for three weeks. Cook then becomes a second narrator, relating in flashback the night of his disappearance, and a series of subsequent adventures in time with Nebogipfel. He reveals that Nebogipfel understands himself to be an "Anachronic Man", a man whose genius drives him to seek out a time more suited to his abilities. A 'time loop' is implied, in which Nebogipfel went back to the past and killed the previous owners of the house, thus causing it to fall into ruin and enabling him to occupy it for his present-day experiments. ===== After Makoto Shinjo hitchhikes a ride, the driver tries to molest her, but is stopped by Kiyoshi Fuji. He takes her on a date, first to watch the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, and then later to ride a motorboat on a river, where he rapes her. One day, after trying to wait for him at a bar he frequents, she is targeted by gangsters who prostitute women, but Kiyoshi fights them and they leave them alone in exchange for a payment. The two fall in love and Makoto spends more time with him, causing her to be rebuked by her older sister Yuki, resulting in her deciding to live with him. To make money, the two reconstruct how they met, with Makoto seducing a driver and, when he comes on to her, Kiyoshi extorting him. In one case, a politician named Horio picks her up, but makes her feel happy so she doesn't do it. When Makoto finds out that she is pregnant, Kiyoshi tells her to get an abortion, but when he tries to get her to exploit a driver again, she refuses. Horio picks her up, and when she calls Kiyoshi to ask whether she can stay the night, the line is busy. Kiyoshi asks an older lover he is seeing for a loan and when he gives the money to Makoto, she tells him she slept with Horio. In response he finds Horio and takes money from him, telling him that he was just another target of Makoto's. After the abortion, performed illegally at the clinic of Yuki's former lover Akimoto, the couple is arrested for extortion. After they confess, and with the help of Kiyoshi's older lover, the two are released and Akimoto is arrested. Kiyoshi breaks up with Makoto so they won't hurt each other anymore. The gangsters find Kiyoshi because the motorbike he borrowed from them for the extortions was stolen, resulting in two of them being arrested. They ask him to give them Makoto, but Kiyoshi refuses and is killed. At the same time Makoto is given a ride by a passerby, and when he refuses to let her out, she jumps out of the car to her death. ===== Mitchell Goosen (McDermott) is a teenager from California who loves to surf and rollerblade. His zoologist parents are given the opportunity for grant work in Australia for six months. Eager to accompany his parents to the surf-friendly shores of the South Pacific, he is dismayed to find out that he will not be joining them and instead will be living with his aunt and uncle in Cincinnati, Ohio, so as to finish the remainder of his high school semester. He arrives in Cincinnati in the midst of a winter storm, quickly coming to the realization that this is far from the free-spirited ocean atmosphere that he has been accustomed to. He meets his cousin Wiley (Green), an awkward but affable teenager and his aunt and uncle whose lifestyle and demeanor, though warm and hospitable, is a bit old-fashioned. Mitchell's first day at school is met with the typical fish out of water obstacles as he immediately grows to the disfavor and jealousy of the gritty hockey players who chastise Mitchell for his easygoing "Maharishi" philosophy and "California" appearance. These antagonists include Jack (Conrad), Augie (Black), Snake (Vargas), Rosenblatt, and the Banduccis. With an upcoming hockey game against the rival "preps", led by the aggressive and arrogant Blane, Wiley and subsequently Mitchell are asked to fill-in for two students who are caught putting a laxative into one of their teacher's coffee. Mitchell accidentally scores a goal for the preps, cementing his status as outcast with the hockey players. Jack is particularly upset and proceeds to tackle Mitchell while still on the ice, concussing him and leaving him unconscious for what appears to be hours. Over the course of the next few weeks, Mitchell and Wiley are harassed and pranked relentlessly, but one bright spot comes in the form of a girl named Nikki (Powell), who Mitchell makes a deep connection with. During a double date with Wiley and Nikki's friend Gloria, Blane (who is revealed as Nikki's ex) appears and physically confronts Mitchell and Nikki. Mitchell, a staunch pacifist, is attempting to defuse the situation peacefully even as Wiley is hurt in the confrontation. The intervention of Jack further complicates the situation as he is revealed to be Nikki's brother, and is not happy to see her with Mitchell. Mitchell is at first flippant to Jack's aggression, but steadfastly refuses to fight Jack. At Jack's insistence that Mitchell is backing out because he's scared, Mitchell's laidback stoicism cracks and he replies that he won't fight Jack because he and subsequently anyone else in Cincinnati isn't worth his time or effort as he's leaving in three months. Upon hearing this, Nikki leaves, heartbroken, having taken his comments to include her as well. Wiley also expresses his disappointment in Mitchell for not at least standing up for Nikki. In school, Nikki rebuffs Mitchell's attempts at reconciliation and Wiley is also upset. Sometime later, Mitchell is inspired by a dream (involving a Spanish-speaking shark named Pepe) to fight for Nikki without fighting Jack. Wiley is skeptical, but follows his cousin to a street hockey game between Jack's friends and the Preps the next day. Mitchell approaches the team who ostensibly agree to let him play (hoping to watch him suffer an injury), but are taken aback when he easily scores a goal against the preps. In the next play, it would appear that Mitchell suffers a setback when Blane takes a cheap shot, and he again backs down from a fight, but then Mitchell takes his revenge by sneaking up on Blane and pantsing him in front of the crowd, revealing he's not wearing any underwear under his jock strap. He escapes a pack of preps, but only after reconciling with Nikki, asserting to her that there are some things worth fighting for. Snake, Augie, the Banduccis, and Rosenblatt (Jack being notably absent) visit Mitchell at home, at first appearing to be hostile but then raising him up over their heads, celebrating his actions against Blane and finally accepting him as a new friend. They solicit Mitchell's help and rollerblading expertise in a race down a harrowing street route termed "Devil's Backbone" against the preps to settle their score once and for all. On the day of the race, it is agreed upon that the first team with three members crossing the finish line will be deemed the winner. Jack and Mitchell have a silent moment where they at least grudgingly appear to bury the hatchet. The race begins and many skaters, including Auggie, are injured. Snake takes the lead, with two of the preps struggling to keep pace with him. Jack and Blane follow, and after some difficult struggles, Mitchell start to bridge the gap. The remaining preps fall behind when the Banducci twins forego racing altogether in favor of simply fighting them all. Snake is the first across the finish line, located on the harbor by Riverfront Stadium, followed closely by two preps. Mitchell loses sight of Blane and Jack, but catches up by jumping from a second-story parking lot and landing on a makeshift ramp provided by a flatbed truck. Jack falls, but Blane, with the finish line in sight, attempts to push Mitchell into the water. Mitchell stops short and Blane falls into the river. Mitchell goes back, helps up Jack and the two cross the finish line together to the cheers of their awaiting schoolmates. Mitchell has finally earned the respect of Jack and his friends, and he is lifted on the shoulders of a cheering crowd. Mitchell and Nikki reunite and share a kiss as the movie ends. ===== Robin McAllister (Devon Sawa) and his family win the lottery and they end up moving from Kansas City to Seattle where Robin attends Locksley Academy, a wealthy private school. While there Robin comes up with a plan to help one of his friends who was hurt and needs money for an operation by robbing from John Prince Sr., the head of a very wealthy corporation. Robin becomes friends with a couple of misfits at school named Will Scarlett (Billy O'Sullivan) and Little John (Tyler Labine) and also falls for a girl named Marian (Sarah Chalke) who helps train the horses that Robin's family has. While helping out his friends Robin becomes an enemy of John Prince Jr. (Joshua Jackson), the big shot rich kid at school and his friends Warner and Gibson who are also the sons of rich parents. Then Robin goes to join the archery team but is not allowed to because of John Prince Jr. so he starts his own team and his 2 friends join and learn from Robin. McAllister has to outsmart FBI agent Walter Nottingham and help take down the richest kids in the school during the rest of the movie. ===== After the New York Yankees' latest prospect suffers a humiliating bout of stage fright in his debut for the team, scout Al Percolo, who discovered the young man, is punished by being sent to the Mexican countryside to look for his next find. Al's efforts are fruitless until he encounters Steve Nebraska, a young American with a consistent 100+ MPH fastball and a perfect batting average. The childlike Steve immediately agrees to join the Yankees when Al asks him, but when Al calls the team's general manager to report his find, he is fired and told not to return. Al defies the order and brings Steve back to the States anyway. The first indication that all may not be right with Steve occurs when he panics at Newark International Airport when he and Al are momentarily separated. Later, at Al's apartment, Steve thrashes in his sleep, screaming at an unseen assailant. Al arranges an open audition at Yankee Stadium in front of representatives from every Major League Baseball team. After Steve strikes out Keith Hernández and homers off Bret Saberhagen, a bidding war breaks out. The Yankees win the bid war, signing Steve to a $55 million contract, but after Steve violently snaps at press photographers, team management demands that he be psychiatrically evaluated and cleared before he plays his first game. Al picks the first listed psychiatrist in the phone book, a Doctor H. Aaron, and hopes that the evaluation will be swift, so that he and Steve can get on with life. After examining Steve, however, Dr. Aaron finds him to be deeply troubled and so severely abused as a child that he has blocked almost every memory of his early life. Desperate for Steve to play so that both can get paid, Al begs Dr. Aaron to clear Steve for play, on the condition that she sees Steve everyday before making his MLB debut. Life with Steve proves difficult for Al; Steve throws plates at reporters outside the apartment, upstages Tony Bennett at his own show, and argues with Al over what he does with his free time. At a press conference, Al lies about Steve's past. Dr. Aaron is livid when she finds out, but Al points out that Steve's behavior stems from her helping him acknowledge and deal with his past. Al pleads with Dr. Aaron to continue the good work she is doing for Steve. When the Yankees reach the World Series, however, Steve is suddenly depressed. Worse yet, he is contractually obligated to pitch in Game 1. A sold-out Yankee Stadium waits for Steve's debut in Game 1 of the World Series. When Steve is spotted on the roof of the stadium, Al sends for a helicopter to fetch him, then climbs up to plead with him to come down. Steve adamantly refuses, and Al, risking his own career, tells Steve that he can walk away from it all, no strings attached. Touched by Al's selflessness, Steve relents. His spirits greatly lifted, he boards the copter to make his grand entrance. Steve pitches a perfect game, striking out 27 St. Louis Cardinals batters on 81 consecutive strikes, and hits two solo home runs in a 2-0 Yankees victory. As Steve acknowledges Al as the Yankees celebrate his efforts, Al smiles proudly. ===== David Blaine visits South Park, impressing the town's residents, including Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and Kenny, with his street magic. Mesmerized, the boys join the cult of "Blaintology," hoping to learn more about magic. Stan becomes progressively more disturbed by the cult and soon leaves, but Kyle refuses to join him, and so Stan asks Jesus for help. Meanwhile, Kyle and Cartman go door to door in a recruitment drive, sporting nametags labeled "Elder Kyle" and "Elder Cartman." Jesus appears at Blaine's show in Denver, and challenges him by performing the miracle of the loaves and fish... after requesting that everybody in the audience turn around; Blaine manages to win the crowd with much more powerful enchantments. Jesus promptly requires the assistance of the Super Best Friends: a group of major religious figures including Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Joseph Smith, Krishna, Laozi and "Sea Man", an Aquaman-like character.Amos N. Guiora, Freedom From Religion: Rights and National Security, Oxford Univ Pr, 2011, p. 128. They are dedicated to defending the world against evil (except for Buddha, who "doesn't really believe in evil"). The Blaintologists, meanwhile, petition the government for tax-exempt status. Their request is denied, and all the Blaintologists are told that they are to commit mass suicide in Washington, D.C. Kyle is shown to have escaped the cult's control, but when he tries to convince Cartman that they should flee, Cartman reports him, and Kyle is imprisoned in a glass bubble and forced to participate at the mass suicide. When word about the mass suicide reaches the Super Best Friends, they consult Moses (previously seen in "Jewbilee") for advice. In D.C., the Blaintologists begin to drown themselves in the Reflecting Pool even though it is only approximately a foot deep, while Cartman installs a hose in Kyle's glass bubble to fill it with water, so as to drown him. The Super Best Friends arrive at the scene, to which Blaine responds by animating the statue of Abraham Lincoln to fight them. Meanwhile, Stan searches for his friends, first finding Kenny drowned in the pool and shouting "Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!", to which Kyle replies "You bastards!"; they alternately repeat their catchphrases in Marco Polo fashion to find each other. In order to defeat the Abraham Lincoln statue, the Super Best Friends create a giant animated John Wilkes Booth statue, which shoots it in the head, causing it to fall over and shatter Kyle's prison. Afterwards, Joseph Smith uses his ice powers to freeze the reflecting pool so as to prevent more suicides. It is revealed that Cartman has not managed to kill himself, as he keeps coming up for air. Blaine curses the Super Best Friends for ruining his plans and flies away in a rocket ship. Stan finally announces that any religion which forces people to relinquish their money or control over their lives is really a cult. After his speech, Kyle reconciles with Stan, they amuse themselves with kicking a taunting Cartman in the testicles, and the episode ends with the Super Best Friends flying away. ===== In the autumn of 1997, Danila Bagrov (Sergei Bodrov Jr.) returns to his small hometown of Priozersk following his demobilization from the Russian Army after the First Chechen War. On his way home, he ends up in a fight with security guards, after he accidentally walks onto the set of a music video for the band Nautilus Pompilius. He is arrested and brought to the local militsiya precinct. The officer in charge releases Danila on the condition that he will find another job within a week. After Danila arrives home his mother, very concerned for Danila, insists that he go to St. Petersburg to meet up with his successful older brother Viktor and ask for his help. Danila travels to St. Petersburg, but his attempts to make contact with Viktor are unsuccessful. Instead, he wanders around the city. He befriends Kat (Mariya Zhukova), an energetic drug addict, and "The German" Hoffman (Yury Kuznetsov), a homeless street vendor whom Danila helps after a thug attempts to extort him. Unbeknown to their mother, Viktor (Viktor Sukhorukov) is an accomplished hitman who goes by the street name "The Tatar" but is growing too independent and is starting to irritate his mob boss "Roundhead" (Sergei Murzin). His latest target is "The Chechen," a Chechen mafia boss who was recently released from prison and now runs a market. Roundhead, who is unhappy with the amount of money that Viktor demanded for the hit, orders his thugs to watch him in secret. Danila eventually manages to find Viktor in his apartment. To avoid exposure, Viktor passes his assignment to his brother, gives him money to settle into the city, and then lies to him that the Chechen has been extorting from him, and asks Danila to perform the hit. Danila asks the German to find him a room in a communal flat in the city center. He then makes a makeshift silencer out of a plastic soda bottle and an oil filter, as well as a decoy firecracker out of a matchbox. Finally, he follows the Chechen and, despite the latter's security, takes him out without being spotted. As Danila makes his exit, Roundhead's thugs spot him and chase him. Making his escape, Danila jumps into a freight tram and, despite being wounded in the abdomen, manages to kill one of the pursuing thugs. The tram driver, a woman named Sveta (Svetlana Pismichenko), helps Danila escape. Danila later recovers and meets up with Sveta. Despite Sveta being married, the two begin an affair. With the money given to him by Viktor after the hit, he begins to enjoy St. Petersburg, gives his provincial image a makeover, goes to a concert with Sveta, and manages to scare away her husband. He meets up with Kat to go to a nightclub and then smokes cannabis in an afterparty. The night ends with him sleeping with Kat. Meanwhile, Roundhead is angry about losing one of his men and the fact that Viktor used someone else to carry out the hit. He decides to draw him into a combined raid. Once again Viktor, suspecting a trap, passes the job to Danila. The two thugs raid the apartment, but their main target is away. While they wait, in an apartment on the floor above, a party is taking place with several well-known Russian rock musicians. A young radio director, Stepan (Andrey Fedortsov) mistakes the raided flat for the party flat and is almost killed by the thugs, who take him captive. Vyacheslav Butusov, the lead singer of Nautilus Pompilius, makes the same mistake, but Danila instead follows Butusov to the party above and relaxes in the friendly musical atmosphere. After spending time at the party, he comes back downstairs and finds that the thugs have just killed their primary target, and are about to do the same with Stepan. Instead, Danila kills both thugs. Danila and Stepan drag the corpses to the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery, where the German helps Danila dispose of the bodies. Roundhead is furious upon finding out what happened. Instead of going after Viktor, he decides to track Danila and intercepts Sveta's tram. They later raid her apartment, where his men beat and rape her, and learn his phone number, as well as his address. A henchman nicknamed "Mole" ambushes Danila near his apartment building, but Danila manages to kill Mole. Realizing that staying home is unsafe, he travels to Sveta's house and is shocked at her state. He learns that Roundhead was responsible and realizes that the only way they could have tracked Sveta was when he returned a phone call from her home telephone to his brother. At the same time, Roundhead raids Viktor's apartment and forces him to call Danila at gunpoint, so that he comes to pick up his payment. Realizing the depth of the situation, Danila goes back to the communal room that he was renting, buys a shotgun from his landlord, converts it into a sawed-off shotgun, and replaces the duck-hunting pellets with nailheads. At Viktor's apartment, he takes out Roundhead and two of his henchmen and tells the surviving thug to warn the rest of the gang that he will kill anyone who hurts his brother. In reply, the thug tells him that it was Viktor who turned him in (which Danila already suspected.) Danila forgives his brother, gives him some of the money from Roundhead's suitcase, and then tells him to return home and to work for the militsiya. Danila decides to go to Moscow. He visits Sveta, intending to take her with him, but her husband has returned and is beating her, demanding to know where Danila is. Seeing Danila, he challenges him to a fight, but before he can come closer, Danila fires a shot into his leg. Sveta rushes to her husband and begins to treat his wound. Danila urges her to leave with him, but she tells him to get out and never come back. He then meets up with the German, converses with him about the influence of the city on its residents, saying that everyone is weak here, to which the German replies that the city is an evil force that drains the strength from those who enter it. Danila offers him money, but the German declines, saying "What's good for the Russian is death for the German." Before he leaves the city, he finds Kat to say goodbye. She is indifferent to his departure, but he gives her money nonetheless. The last scene of the film shows Danila walking out of a snow- covered forest. He hitches a ride to Moscow on a passing truck. As he chats with the driver, the final shot is of the winter road stretching far into the wilderness. ===== Tired of being treated like a slave by team owner Sallison Potter, charismatic star pitcher Bingo Long steals a bunch of Negro League players away from their teams, including catcher/slugger Leon Carter and Charlie Snow, a player forever scheming to break into the segregated Major League Baseball of the 1930s by masquerading as first a Cuban ("Carlos Nevada"), then a Native American ("Chief Takahoma"). They take to the road, barnstorming through small Midwestern towns, playing the local teams to make ends meet. One of the opposing players, "Esquire" Joe Calloway, is so good that they recruit him. Bingo's team becomes so outlandishly entertaining and successful, it begins to cut into the attendance of the established Negro League teams. Finally, Bingo's nemesis Potter is forced to propose a winner- take-all game: if Bingo's team can beat a bunch of all-stars, it can join the league, but if it loses, the players will return to their old teams. Potter has two of his goons kidnap Leon prior to the game as insurance, but he escapes and is key to his side's victory. As it turns out, there is a Major League scout in the audience. After the game, he offers Esquire Joe the chance to break the color barrier; with Bingo's blessing, he accepts. Leon glumly foresees the decline of the Negro League as more players follow Esquire Joe's lead, but Bingo, ever the optimist, cheers him up by describing the wild promotional stunts he intends to stage to bring in the paying customers. ===== Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta) is a gang boss involved in illegal gambling all over the city. With the help of three goons, known as "the three Eddies", he controls several games that take place in the criminal underground. On one occasion, just before a big game, Macha loses his card man. Having no other options, Macha asks for help from Jake Green (Jason Statham), a card man with a good reputation underground. When Jake refuses, they harass Jake's brother Billy (Andrew Howard) and Billy's family to convince Jake to play. He succumbs and plays the game, which he ends up winning. The loser, a high roller named George, insults Jake's mother and Jake responds by shooting him in the foot, igniting a gunfight in which the game's money vanishes. The police investigation is leading nowhere until Jake's name is mentioned and he is brought in for questioning. Taking precautionary measures, Macha sends the three Eddies to Billy's house where they threaten his niece. Billy's wife reacts poorly in the situation and is accidentally shot. Jake does not give Macha's name to the police, in order to protect Billy and his family, and is sentenced to prison. He is given a choice to either spend 14 years in the general prison population or 7 years in solitary confinement. He chooses the latter. During his seven-year stint imprisoned in solitary confinement, Jake learns of a specific strategy (referred to as "The Formula") that is supposed to let its user win every game. The Formula itself was discovered by two unnamed men who inhabited adjacent cells on either side of Jake's own. They are referred to as a chess expert and a con man. During the first five years of his seven-year sentence, the three men communicate their thoughts on confidence tricks and chess moves via messages hidden inside library books, such as The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics. The chess expert and the con man plan to leave their cells simultaneously, and promise to take Jake with them. But when they disappear from their cells, they leave Jake behind to serve the remaining two years of his sentence. When Jake is released, he finds that all of his possessions and money have been taken by the two men with whom he had shared everything. Still, he has The Formula, and he goes about making a lot of money at various casinos. Two years later, Jake has garnered a reputation that leads many casinos to fear his freakishly good 'luck', and he is blacklisted by many casinos. The Formula applies to any game, and is often exemplified by Jake's apparent mastery of chess. Approximately two years after his prison release, Jake, Billy and their other brother Joe walk into one of Macha's casinos. He is recognised and "all the tables are closed" to Jake and his company. But Macha promptly calls them up to a private area of his casino where a high rollers' game is currently taking place. Jake bets Macha a fortune on a chip toss, and wins. This hurts Macha. As Jake says "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". Macha suspects that Jake, who seems unafraid of him, will be out for more revenge. As Jake and his brothers leave the casino, a man hands Jake a card and tells him that he can help him. Jake, who has a fear of enclosed spaces, decides to take the stairs. In the stairwell he looks at the card and then collapses, falling down the stairs. The card is revealed to read "Take the Elevator". Jake is rushed to the hospital. The doctors report he is very ill but do not disclose why he had the blackout. Macha puts out an order for a hit on Jake. Jake arrives home, without Billy, where Macha's assassin is waiting for him. However, on his doorstep there is another card, which says "Pick This Up". As Jake bends to retrieve the card bullets fly over his back. As the shooting continues, the same mysterious individual called Zach (Vincent Pastore) arrives and rescues Jake, who is the only person to survive the hit. Zach introduces Jake to his partner, Avi (André Benjamin). They offer him a deal: they will take all of his money and he will do what they say, no questions asked. In exchange, they will protect Jake from Macha. In the course of their proposal, they show Jake his medical file, which they have mysteriously obtained. It indicates that the blackout occurred due to a rare blood disease which will cause his death within three days. Jake suspects a con. The mysterious men later reveal that his money will be used to fund their loan shark enterprise. Sam Gold is seen to be the 'king' in this chess game of gang warfare. He is the ultimate figure that all men are supposedly aspiring to be. Sam Gold is revealed to be an ultimately powerless cipher, whose power is granted only by those who invest in him. He represents ego and self-investment. He is the personification of greed. Three days after he found out about his disease and working with Avi and Zach, Jake goes to a physician again, and it is revealed that the original diagnosis was wrong and that he has more time to live. Meanwhile, Macha is attacked by 2 assassins from a rival gang, one disguised as a waitress. Macha loses a finger but manages to kill the fake waitress, while Macha's hitman Sorter (Mark Strong) kills the other assassin. Afterward, Sorter kills all the other rival gang members. Jake's brother Billy is betrayed by his bodyguards, who let in all the Macha's men (including Sorter) in Billy's home. Macha's men torture Billy and threaten to kill Billy's daughter in order to find out where Jake is, but these acts cause Sorter to find his conscience, so he kills all his companions. Jake demands answers from Avi and Zach, who only cryptically tell Jake that his worst enemy is himself. While they are in Macha's casino, Avi attempts to get Jake to understand the nature of the ego. He tells Jake "the greatest con that [the ego] ever pulled was making you believe that he is you." This is seen to be the 'ultimate con', in that no one wants to sever their connection with their ego, because they refuse to challenge their own lifelong investment in it. Jake goes to Macha's bedroom, where he is sleeping, and asks an almost naked Macha for forgiveness. Jake then enters an elevator that gets stuck at the 13th floor. While waiting in the elevator, Jake has a conversation in his mind in which he rejects his ego. By doing this, Jake steps off the proverbial chess board by making a conscious effort to reverse everything his ego tells him to do. This is seen to be the truest and most fundamental application of the Formula. The characters of Jake, Zach, Avi and Sorter ultimately reject the ego's 'rules'. The character of Dorothy Macha is seen to succumb to them. As Jake is about to leave the building, Macha holds him at gunpoint, but a calm Jake just walks past Macha as he freezes, cries, and feebly tells Jake to fear him, consumed by his ego. It is revealed that Avi and Zach were Jake's "neighbours" during his years of incarceration. They have forced Jake to "induce head pain to engage the enemy" by making him give his money away under the principle that "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". They are inflicting this form of 'premature enlightenment' upon Jake because, according to them, he was not ready to hear how hard this process of liberation was going to be while in prison. It was because of this that they left without him. Monologue of Jake Green about the ego: "There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. "Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special." We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The "hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah." Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others." ===== This show details the various adventures of Richie Rich, his family, and his friends. ===== Dante is barred from entering the hill of salvation by three beasts that bar his path (Avarice, Pride, and Lust). Beatrice descends from above and asks the poet Virgil to guide Dante through the Nine Circles of Hell. Virgil leads Dante to a cave where they find the river Acheron, over which Charon ferries the souls of the dead into Hell. They also see the three-headed Cerberus, and Geryon, a flying serpent with the face of a man. They see the Devil eating human beings whole, harpies eating the corpses of suicides, an evil man forced to carry his own severed head for eternity, people half buried in flaming lava, etc. There follows a series of encounters in which the two meet up with a number of formerly famous historical figures whose souls were denied by both Heaven and Hell, and they listen to some of their tales told in flashback. These characters include Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucanus, Cleopatra, Dido, the Queen of Carthage, the traitor Caiphus, Count Ugalino, Peter of Vigna, Francesca Da Rimini and her lover Paulo, Brutus and Cassius, Mohammed and Helen of Troy. The main attraction of the film are the fantastic set designs depicting the horrors of Hell, with excessive violence and gore, designed to frighten the audience into becoming pious or God-fearing. =====