Toopy and Binoo is an animated series based on the popular books created by Dominique Jolin. Toopy is a funny, friendly, optimistic, impulsive mouse whose insatiable zest for life is matched only by his love for his best friend, Binoo. Binoo is a lovable cat who is logical, sensible, and thinks before he acts. Binoo is devoted to his best friend Toopy. The characters are charming and endearing. The kindness, respect, and gentle aspects of childhood friendship are emphasized as the friends explore and discover the world around them with their colorful adventures. Toopy and Binoo allows for learning in a non-didactic manner. Individual segments are approximately five minutes in length, but are frequently grouped together as one thirty-minute episode, both on television and DVD releases, and, the 30 minute episodes have other characters talk besides Toopy.
There are also short 2-minute episodes that are seen on the website in the second season, where, there are either "Magic You", "Captain You", or, "Fabulous You" segments, featuring Toopy and Binoo as space captains, fairies, or, as superheroes who make things right by using magic (Toopy sometimes ends it by doing the same thing that's wrong on himself which he doesn't even notice), and they use the magic wand from "Godmother Toopy", explore things in their house and pretend to find out what they are, and, Binoo sometimes reveals what they are, such as a pillow, where, they use the same uniforms they had in "Strange New World", but, instead, the object they find is the entire form of the planet, and, help their friends when they have nothing to play with by playing games they can use with themselves. They use the same uniforms they had in "Super Toopy", but, Binoo looks a lot like Super Toopy, also. The segments encourage viewers (referred to in the show as "Magic You", "Captain You", or, "Fabulous You") to participate in the adventures and use their imaginations. Each DVD that has two half-hour specials has two of each of these three short mini-episode adventures, starting in this order: "Magic You", "Captain You", and then, "Fabulous You".
A take-off on ''Some Like it Hot''—the film follows two men who witness a murder, dress up like women to escape, and wind up hiding in the house of a drug dealer.
''Into a Dark Realm'' continues the Darkwar saga and mostly concentrates on two groups of characters. The first group consists of Pug, Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek who are attempting to reach the Dasati home world. The main problem facing them is that the Dasati exist on the Second Plane, the next lower plane of existence, a separate reality considered to be the first of the seven planes of hell (where the seven upper planes are considered heaven). The second group consists of Tad, Zane and Jommy who are sent into training by the Conclave of Shadows for their future as generals in the Conclave.
Tad, Zane and Jommy are sent to a monastic university in Roldem, where they will undergo training and education to prepare them for their future roles with the Conclave. Upon arrival, they instantly clash with a group of boys led by a bully named Servan, who they later discover is related to the king of Roldem. Eventually, the two groups of boys are forced to work out their differences, for they are soon released from the university, and commissioned as junior officers in the Roldemish army, where they immediately begin serving together in campaigns against raiders from Roldem's border colonies. There Tad, Zane and Jommy are reunited with Kaspar, another agent of the Conclave, who is a senior officer with the army.
Meanwhile, on their journey to the Dasati realm, Pug and his companions spend time with the Ipiliac, a race related to the Dasati, on their world of Delecordia, halfway between the first and second planes. There they become acclimated to the conditions they will face in the second plane, and undergo crucial training and education to help them survive in the harsh Dasati society. As he spends more and more time closer to the second plane, Bek realizes he belongs there, easily acclimating to the nature of the plane as well as the culture, and expresses a desire to stay behind when the others return.
An additional plot thread is added halfway through the novel, introducing Dasati culture as seen through the eyes of a young Dasati warrior, Valko, as he rises to become Lord of his clan, the Camareen. Unbeknownst to him at first, Valko's family are agents of The White, a secret organization of servants of Good who oppose the Dasati's Dark God and seek to restore balance to the Dasati.
After completing their training, Pug and his companions succeed in reaching the Dasati realm, on the outer world of Kosridi, finding themselves guided by allies of Valko and The White. When they finally reach the Dasati homeworld, the leader of the Dasati resistance, known as The Gardener, is revealed to be none other than Macros the Black, reincarnated as a Dasati. They also discover that the Talnoy hidden on Midkemia contain the souls of 10,000 lost Dasati Gods, banished after the Dasati Chaos Wars.
''Into a Dark Realm'' is very much an intermediary book, setting up the final book in the trilogy, ''Wrath of a Mad God''.
In Chicago, Edith Duval has become powerful in the African-American community, mostly because she came into possession of a South Chicago mansion where she was once a servant; the white family that owned the mansion abandoned it when blacks started moving into the neighborhood. She is in love with Jean Baptiste, but she rejects his idealism and he is at odds with her cynicism. Edith wants to convert the mansion into a speakeasy and nightclub.
Baptiste buys land in South Dakota and becomes a successful rancher. Five years into his time there, he falls in love with young Agnes Stewart. He considers the situation hopeless because Agnes is white, but she knows that he is black.
Fleeing back to Chicago to escape the relationship, which he believes is doomed, the former teetotaler Baptiste returns to Edith's club, her liquor and her charms. They plan to marry, but her former lover, an Ethiopian named Jango, appears, sneaks into Edith's room and complains of how she has ruined him. After he threatens suicide, she hands him a gun as a gesture of contempt. Instead of killing himself, he kills her. Baptiste is initially suspected of the murder, but is cleared.
Agnes's father, discovering that Baptiste has fled, tells her about his own background and she realizes that she is partly black. She takes a train to Chicago, where she and Baptiste are reunited; they marry and return to South Dakota.
The story opens on a note of pure fantasy, showing school children from the future taking a field trip through time to see the dyspeptic poet '''Francis Xavier Enderby''' while he is asleep. Enderby, a lapsed Catholic in his mid-40s, lives alone in Brighton as a 'professional' poet - his income being interest from investments left to him by his stepmother.
Enderby composes his poetry whilst seated on the toilet. His bathtub, which serves as a filing cabinet, is almost full of the mingled paper and food scraps that represent his efforts. Although he is recognised as a minor poet with several published works (and is even awarded a small prize, the 'Goodby Gold Medal', which he refuses), he has yet to be anthologised.
He is persuaded to leave his lonely but poetically fruitful bachelor life by the editor of a woman's magazine, '''Vesta Bainbridge''', after he accidentally sends her a love poem instead of a complaint about a recipe in her magazine. The marriage, which soon ends, costs Enderby dearly, alienating him from his muse and depriving him of his financial independence.
Months pass, and Enderby is able to write only one more poem. After spending what remains of his capital, he attempts suicide with an overdose of aspirin, experiencing disgusting (and rather funny) visions of his stepmother as he nears death. His cries of horror bring help, and he regains consciousness in a mental institution, where the doctors persuade him to renounce his old, "immature" poetry-writing self. Rechristened "Piggy Hogg", he looks forward contentedly to a new career as a bartender.
After a suicide attempt at the very end of ''Inside Mr. Enderby'', the second novel opens with the protagonist under psychiatric care and working as a bartender at a large London hotel. Under the name of 'Hogg' (his stepmother's maiden name, we learn), he is persuaded to renounce the creation of poetry as an adolescent preoccupation and to pursue useful work.
'''Hogg-Enderby''', bereft of his stock of capital and now divorced, is forced to earn his keep and finds that the poetic muse has left him. He also finds that his work has been plagiarised, again, by a certain rock singer named '''Yod Crewsey''' - whose band, the Crewsey Fixers, are managed and groomed by his former wife.
After being implicated in the public murder of Crewsey during a banquet at the hotel, Enderby-Hogg goes on the run to Morocco - to the bar of a rival poet named Rawcliffe. Assuming control and ownership of Rawcliffe's property upon his death, and the death of his 'Hogg' persona, Enderby realises that his muse is returning.
Category:Novels by Anthony Burgess Category:1968 British novels Category:British comedy novels Category:Novels set in hotels Category:Novels set in Morocco Category:Heinemann (publisher) books
When the evil "Black Section of Esoteric Buddhism" had tried to invade Tibet years ago, the Tibetan monks used a powerful magical item, the "Babu Gold Bottle" to expel them. The Tibetan master (Wu Ma) has the bottle's cap and wishes to reunite it with the bottle as the Black Section are stirring once more. He sends a young monk, Wong La (Yuen Biao) to Hong Kong to recover the sacred bottle, which is in the possession of a crippled lawyer.
Wong meets and protects a woman, Chiu Seng-Neng (Michelle Reis) who is acting as the agent for the lawyer, and the Black Section fight to gain the magical bottle for themselves.
The leader of the Black Section (Yuen Wah) learns of the intended hand-over, and seeks to get the Babu Gold Bottle for himself.
Enderby is a dyspeptic British poet, 56 years old, and ''The Clockwork Testament'' is an account of his last day alive. The day in question is a cold one in February. He spends it in New York City, where for the past several months he's been working as a visiting professor of English literature and composing a long poem about St Augustine and Pelagius.
Enderby's present situation arose from a chance encounter with an American film producer in Tangiers, where he owns a bar. Publican Enderby served the man a Scotch and pitched him an idea for a new film—an adaptation of Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetic masterpiece "The Wreck of the ''Deutschland''". The producer, intrigued, asked for a script, which Enderby duly composed. The eventual film bears little resemblance to this script or to Hopkins's poem; however, his name is prominently credited, and the film, and Enderby, are now famous.
This unwanted public recognition has led to an invitation to teach English at the University of Manhattan for a year. Also, since the film has controversial elements—including, for some reason, a lurid rape scene with Nazis and nuns—the reclusive, little-read poet has been receiving a barrage of ranting phone calls from angry citizens who are eager to denounce "his" film. Invariably, these callers (and other critics) have never read the original poem; indeed, they don't even know it exists.
Enderby suffers three heart attacks over the course of the day, and succumbs to a fourth some time after midnight. Between attacks, he goes about his business: he happily works on his Pelagian poem; eats dyspeptic American food and smokes White Owl cigars; refuses an offer of sex from a female poetry student who wants him to give her an A; struggles through two lectures; appears on a smarmy talk show; and draws a sword he carries hidden in his cane to defend a middle-aged housewife from a gang of thugs on the subway.
Everywhere—even on the subway—he encounters incomprehension and, usually, disapproval. When he finally gets home, however, a woman he's never seen before drops by and pulls a gun on him; she has come to tell him she's read and re-read all his poetry, and is now going to murder him for writing it. First, however, she orders him to strip naked and urinate all over his collected works. Enderby strips, but since he has an erection he cannot obey the rest of her command. The scene ends, apparently, in a sexual encounter. Enderby dies later that night.
Lenny (Merriman) is a 14-year-old boy living in the Bronx in 1955. Like every teenage boy, he is totally fascinated with the concept of sex. But Lenny is too young and scared to actually "do it”, so he dedicates his summer vacation to the next best thing—seeing two other people in an “act of love”, which proves to be easier said than done. Caught in the act of spying, his mother Sylvia (LuPone) and stepfather ship him off to spend the summer with his Aunt Norma (Levine) and Uncle Phil (Onorati) in "the country"—Queens.
Lenny's plan looks like a bust and his summer seems destined for boredom until he meets a whole new group of friends, young teens who dub themselves a "sex club." While his new friends don't actually do it either and instead just talk about sex, they have a lot more interesting information than what was available to Lenny back in the Bronx. Then Lenny meets Hedy (Mol), a gorgeous nurse twice his age and a former model for bra ads. Lenny is both smitten and inspired, and his goal for the summer kicks into high gear. Lenny's adolescent fascination with sex turns into a deeper story about growing up, betrayal, loneliness, and defining what an “act of love” really is.
Alvin marries Peggy, and they conceive a daughter (not born by the end of the book).
Alvin, Verily Cooper, Arthur Stuart, and Mike Fink are joined by John James Audubon, a French-speaking painter of birds. This group go to a Puritan-dominated place near Boston and end up confronting the witch laws.
Meanwhile, Peggy has gone to the Crown Colonies - slave states that ruled by the Stuart dynasty in exile - in an attempt to free the slaves.
Purity is introduced, a Puritan girl whose parents were hanged for their knacks, which are considered witchcraft by the Puritans. Purity meets Alvin's band and Arthur Stuart tells her the whole story of their travels. Purity goes away convinced they are witches and tells a local witcher, Quill, who is evil and twists her words against her and the boys. Quill intends to hang them as well as Purity.
Alvin whisks away Arthur Stuart, Mike Fink, and Audubon by leading them into the greensong that lets them run hundreds of miles without tiring, but turning back without the others en route. Alvin gives himself up to the men sent to bring in the "witches" while Verily hides for the moment.
Quill has both Purity and Alvin running in tight circles to wear them down - a semi-legal form of torture, intended to make them confess to witchery. Verily comes by and loudly scolds Quill in front of the crowd, saying it's inhumane.
At the trial, Verily Cooper makes a case for overturning the witchery laws: in all previous witch trials, it was the witcher who brought up any connection with Satan, while the defendant had been too beaten down to resist. The judge, John Adams, is sympathetic, but realizes that a sudden overthrow of long-kept laws will cause social instability. However, based on Verily's evidence, he suspends the licenses of all witchers in New England for alleged misconduct; since, to reinstate their licenses, a witcher would have to prove his claims in a normal court, and since this is impossible, it effectively ends the practice of witch trials while leaving the laws on the books.
Calvin has come back to America from France with Honoré de Balzac, the French boy-writer. The two meet up with Peggy and Calvin gets himself in serious trouble.
Claustrophobic thriller about a team of vampire hunters who infiltrate a nest of undead to rescue one of their own.
Carrie Rieger tugs at her bonds. The young vampire huntress has to free herself. Guarded by vampires, chained in a dark cellar by the mighty vampire King Pashek, her time is running out. She knows an even greater threat than the vampires is coming relentlessly closer. Everything will be decided tonight.
Carrie has crossed a dangerous trail: Back from a faraway journey, a man slowly transforms into a vampire. And he transforms further - into something that even the vampires fear; the mighty vampire demon Vlad Kossei.
The vampire sovereigns killed Kossei many hundreds of years ago, but now he has seemingly returned. In his new body, he will take revenge and destroy everything in his way. There is only one hunter who can stop him...
Marianne, a nightclub dancer, is on the run from her father, a retired corrupt judge who lives in a villa in Portugal with Marianne's half-sister Hildegarde. On her 21st birthday, Marianne will receive her mother's inheritance, which is tied up in a Swiss bank account and includes legal papers incriminating her father. The Judge and Hildegarde seek the account number from Marianne so that they can access and dispose of this evidence.
While evading The Judge's henchmen, Marianne encounters Sebastian, who seduces her and persuades her to marry him. On the wedding day, Marianne suddenly suspects Sebastian's motives and sabotages the ceremony by tricking the registry office into thinking that she is really marrying Eli Frome, Sebastian's best man, and putting Eli's name on the marriage certificate instead of Sebastian's. Marianne leaves Sebastian and she and Eli become romantically involved. Sebastian, who is actually Hildegarde's lover, travels to Portugal and informs The Judge of Marianne's marriage to Eli. The Judge promises Sebastian a large amount of money if he can bring Marianne to Portugal.
Eli is abducted by two of The Judge's men but gets away after stabbing one of them in the chest. Sebastian returns and Marianne, wanting to make peace with her father, willingly flies to Portugal with Sebastian and Eli. At the villa, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues as Sebastian and Hildegarde attempt to torture the account number out of Marianne by locking her in an overheated sauna. Not wanting Marianne hurt, The Judge drives away to get help but is killed when he loses control of his car (whose brakes Sebastian has sabotaged) and plunges off a cliff, crashing into the rocks below.
Marianne breaks out of the sauna and evades Sebastian and Hildegarde. Sebastian kills Eli and then, with Hildegarde, lures Marianne to an abandoned nunnery. Marianne fights both of them off and Sebastian, giving chase, is seriously injured when he falls through a weakened floor into an old cellar. Leaving Sebastian to die, Hildegarde returns to the villa only to be strangled by Rodriguez, The Judge's loyal manservant. Rodriguez and a tearful Marianne wait for the police to arrive.
''The Marquis'' takes place in Venisalle, a fictional land resembling France during the mid-18th century, complete with stratified society and Church dominance of everyday affairs. The story revolves around Vol de Galle, a former Inquisitor of The Faith who has the ability to see demons, many of which have infiltrated society disguised in human form. De Galle combats these entities with his sabre and a pair of specially built, anachronistic machine guns.
Meg is employed as an intern for Mayor West after doing an interview with him. The family is impressed by this news, and Brian feels pressured that he is becoming the "new Meg" due to him not having a job. Brian decides to become a taxicab driver, but soon becomes intent on exposing the corruption of Mayor West after receiving a $400 parking ticket for parking his taxi in a handicapped zone. When discussing his corruption beliefs with Meg, she argues that Mayor West is a nice person and that Brian should drop it. Stewie, after learning of Brian's intentions, decides to help. After meeting in a parking lot with a whistleblower, Kermit the Frog, Brian discovers where Mayor West will be that night, and follows him to a motel with Stewie.
Spying on West through the motel wall, they discover he's in a romantic relationship with Meg. Seeing this as an ideal opportunity to take West down, Brian photographs the two together in romantic scenes and threatens to reveal them to the press. After Meg finds out, she confronts West, who says he and Meg should separate due to the negative press which will follow - because even though he's used to it, he does not want Meg's life to be ruined, stating how much he really cares about her. They separate, with Mayor West telling Meg that even though he's leaving her, he'll always love her. Brian, having secretly heard this, realizes he has made a mistake, destroys the images, and apologizes to Meg that he lost sight of what was really important. His taxicab, however, is destroyed by Cleveland, believing Brian refused to give him a ride.
Meanwhile, Peter and Lois decide to participate in a community talent show with a folk-singing act they did in the 1980s. They have a hard time, however, writing new songs and start to smoke marijuana for inspiration, annoying the family. At one point, Peter rips out a piece of his guitar with his teeth and eats it, and him and Lois lie on the sofa naked in front of Brian and Stewie. At the show, they initially appear to wow the entire crowd with their performance, but, later, they realize that they lost. Chris reveals he was in the audience and then explains that they were completely high and they just shouted "Aah!" to the crowd while plodding chords on the guitar before preaching the dangers of marijuana to Lois and Peter.
A lone man walks through the deserted streets of a sweltering London. The film then goes back several months. Peter Stenning (Judd) had been an up-and-coming journalist with the ''Daily Express'', but since a divorce threw his life into disarray, he has been drinking too much (one of his lines is "Alcoholics of the press, unite!") and his work has suffered. His editor (Christiansen) has begun giving him lousy assignments. Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire (McKern), is a veteran Fleet Street reporter who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy.
Meanwhile, after the Soviet Union and the United States simultaneously detonate nuclear bomb tests, strange meteorological events begin to affect the globe. Stenning is sent to the British Met Office to obtain temperature data, and while there he meets Jeanie (Munro), a young typist who is temporarily acting as telephonist. They "meet cute", trading insults; later, they fall in love.
Stenning then discovers that the weapons tests have had a massive effect on Earth. He asks Jeannie to help him get any relevant information. It becomes apparent that Earth's nutation has been altered by 11 degrees, affecting the climatic zones and changing the pole and the equator. The increasing heat has caused water to evaporate and mists to cover Britain, and a solar eclipse occurs days ahead of schedule. Later, characters realise that the orbit of the Earth has been disrupted and the planet is spiralling in towards the Sun.
The government imposes a state of emergency and starts rationing water and supplies. People start evacuating the cities. Scientists conclude that the only way to bring Earth back into a safe orbit is to detonate a series of nuclear bombs in western Siberia. Stenning, Maguire, and Jeanie gather at a bar to listen to the radio broadcast of the event. The bombs are detonated, and the shock wave causes dust to fall from the bar's ceiling.
At the newspaper print room, two versions of the front page have been prepared: one reads "World Saved", the other "World Doomed". The film ends without revealing which one will be published, and in the words that talking Stenning where "humanity will recover after all this horror."
During an expedition into Central Africa, paleontologist Dr. Susan Matthews-Loomis and her husband George Loomis attempt to track down evidence of a local monster legend. The monster, which the local natives refer to as "Mokele-mbembe", shares many characteristics with the Sauropod order of dinosaurs. During the expedition, they discover ''Brontosaurus'' in the deep jungle and are further amazed when the animals show very little fear of them. The couple begins observing the creatures and become especially enamored with the curious young offspring of the pair, whom they nickname "Baby". Unfortunately, the discovery soon places the dinosaurs in jeopardy from both the local military as well as fellow scientist Dr. Eric Kiviat.
Whereas Dr. Kiviat sees Baby and his parents as his ticket to fame & fortune, the African military led by Colonel Nsogbu sees the dinosaurs as a threat and makes several attempts to destroy them. During one such attempt, one of the adult ''Brontosaurus'' is killed and the other captured. The Loomises are able to escape with Baby, but quickly find themselves lost in the jungle while being pursued by Colonel Nsogbu's forces. After finally escaping their pursuers, the pair decide to circle back and rescue the captive parent, whom Dr. Kiviat has persuaded Colonel Nsogbu to transport back to civilization.
With the aid of the local tribe – who see Baby and his parents as legends – George and Susan are able to break into the military compound and release the adult ''Brontosaurus''. During the escape, both Kiviat and Nsogbu are killed. Afterwards, the Loomises take the pair to a secluded jungle lagoon and say a tearful goodbye to Baby as he follows his lone parent away into the deeper parts of the jungle.
''Nansō Satomi Hakkenden'' is a novel about the tale of eight youngsters (The Eight Dog Warriors) bound by a fateful connection in another world between Princess Fuse, a princess of the Satomi clan in Awa, and the dog of ''kami'' Yatsufusa, set in the late Muromachi period (350 years before Bakin lived). The eight Dog Warriors, who commonly have family names including the character for '犬' (Inu, dog) each have a peony shaped bruise somewhere on their body and a bead of Japamala with the characters for humanity, justice, courtesy, wisdom, loyalty, sincerity, filial piety and obedience. Born in various parts of the eight provinces of Kanto region, they get to know each other guided by the fate of each other while experiencing hardship, and gather together under the Satomi clan. They served the Satomi clan and fought against the allied forces of powerful feudal lords, and the story came to an end. The themes of their adventures are loyalty, clan honor, Bushido, Confucianism, and Buddhist philosophy.[https://web.archive.org/web/20201019153210/https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8D%97%E7%B7%8F%E9%87%8C%E8%A6%8B%E5%85%AB%E7%8A%AC%E4%BC%9D-108857 Kotobanlk, Nansō Satomi Hakkenden.] The Asahi Shimbun
One thousand years have passed since the events of Arc the Lad III, and as a result, the world featured in the original trilogy has evolved. However, tensions between humans and a race of emerging humanoid monsters called Deimos, have run rampant for centuries, resulting in several long wars and leading the two races to ban any and all interactions. In the midst of this strife, a human woman named Nafia falls in love with a Drakyr Deimos named Windalf, and they give birth to a pair of twins they name Kharg and Darc. Due to relations between humans and Deimos being illegal, they are sought after by other Drakyr for not only violating this rule, but also Windalf for stealing the Wind Stone, the treasure of the Drakyr. Windalf is attacked with Darc in his hands, but Nafia is able to escape with Kharg.
Seventeen years later, the twins have now grown and are living different lives. Kharg lives in peace and harmony with Nafia in the town of Yewbell, while Darc is a slave to a toad like Deimos woman named Geedo after Windalf's death. During their stories, the halves of the Wind Stone that Nafia and Windalf gave them respectively, finally summon the Wind Spirit, who tells them their destiny. With this information, Darc and Kharg's main goal is to collect the five Great Spirit Stones and use them for the benefit of the Deimos or humans respectively. Kharg wishes to destroy the Deimos in order for humans to live peacefully. Meanwhile, Darc wishes to destroy the humans for the protection of the Deimos and to be their overall king. During their quest however, they cross paths with the autocratic Dilzweld Army, who plan to invade all five continents with the power of the five Great Spirit Stones they plan to collect.
In their separate journeys, they form alliances with other characters. In Kharg's story, he is accompanied by his childhood friend Paulette, a self-proclaimed prince named Maru, an ex-soldier who now lives with nature named Ganz, and an ex-member and head scientist of the Dilzweld Army named Tatjana. Darc's story has him accompanied by Delma, the sister of the Orcon leader, Densimo, Volk, a Lupine who wishes for revenge against the humans for killing his wife and son, Camellia, a Pianta Sage who became withered at the hands of the Dilzweld Army, and Bebedora, a puppet master created by the Divine Ruler. Other characters who Kharg and Darc cross paths with include Lilia Getmann, a mysterious girl who is being sought out after by the Dilzweld Army, Zev, an old treasure hunter, Samson, a thief who steals only from the Dilzweld Army and later revealed, Lilia's father, and Lord Darkham Ekid na Bard, ruler of Dilzweld and the central antagonist of the game.
Though Kharg and Darc are able obtain various of the Great Spirit Stones throughout the plot, as the game progresses, Darkham and the Dilzweld Army soon obtain four of the five Great Spirit Stones, and are forced to make an artificial Wind Stone as Kharg and Darc have the two halves of the Wind Stone.
Towards the end of the game, Kharg and his friends finally confront Darkham at Maluise Tower, where he uses the five Great Spirit Stones and Lilia to awaken the Flying Castle used by King Gaidel at the end of Arc the Lad II, which he plans to use to destroy the Deimos. It is here that Lilia is revealed to be "the friend of the spirits", the final key to activating the castle. In a show of its power, Darkham destroys the large populated city of Cathena. After defeating him, Darkham tells Kharg he must take his place in destroying the Deimos, and commits suicide. Soon, Darc and his friends arrive, and he and Kharg make a deal on whoever wins a duel between them and their allies will get all five Great Spirit Stones. The player then must choose between fighting the humans or Deimos, but no matter whoever wins, Zev appears after the fight and reveals himself to be the Divine Ruler, a human who gained dark powers 3,000 years prior to the events of Arc the Lad and would later become the Lord of the Black Abyss, the series' main antagonist. He tells everyone that they were just his puppets in getting him all five Great Spirit Stones. He then takes the stones and Lilia, and goes off to the Flying Castle. Whoever wins goes there first, and then the losing side goes after them.
After both the humans and Deimos have altercations between working between each other at first, upon their reunion, Kharg and Darc finally come to an agreement to work with each other, and after going through all the floors, Kharg, Darc, and all their friends arrive just in time to see the Divine Ruler use Lilia to awaken the powers of an ark that sealed the Divine Ruler 3,000 years ago, and the same ark used by Romalia to bring back The Lord of the Black Abyss in Arc the Lad II. After absorbing all the powers, the Divine Ruler becomes the Lord of the Black Abyss once again. He then takes everyone to a realm of darkness, where their inner demons torment them until either Kharg or Darc (depending on who the player is playing as) snaps them out of it. After defeating the monsters creating the visions, the group has to fight Lilia, who is trapped by the Lord of the Black Abyss. After defeating her, the Lord of the Black Abyss tells them that they're stuck there forever, but as hope is lost, Lilia is revived in part due to the power of Arc and Kukuru. After using the power of the ark, which was in the hearts of everyone, everyone is transported to the lair of the Lord of the Black Abyss, and ultimately, face off with him.
After defeating him, the Lord of the Black Abyss still has power, and threatens to destroy all humans and Deimos. Lilia plans to give her own life like Arc did to seal him away. However, the spirits contained in the five Great Spirit Stones appear and seal away the Lord of the Black Abyss, at the cost of leaving the world and the Deimos losing their life-force. The group returns to Cragh Island, and before Kharg and Darc can clash again, Lilia stops them and helps them both come to an agreement that even though humans and Deimos will most likely clash again in the future, it's better to enjoy the peace they already have.
This story starts years after the Great Disaster (the global disasters from Arc the Lad II), on the island of Eteru. Alec, a young man from a small farm town, Sasha Village, aspires to become a Hunter, just like the man who saved him during the Great Disaster. When his village is attacked by bandits, he and his quirky friend Lutz must run to the nearest town, Itio, and hire a Hunter to save the village. On the way to the town, they encounter monsters and realize they get a rush when fighting and also feeling a power within themselves. After the village is saved, Alec decides to leave and become a Hunter; Lutz naturally tags along.
To become a Hunter, Alec must collect the Ghost Dream Crystal in a nearby cave. With Lutz's help, Alec finds the crystal and officially becomes a Hunter. After taking enough jobs, Alec and Lutz eventually take on a job that lets them leave Eteru Island. A boat takes them to the next continent, Forestamore. There they meet Theo, a young Cardist who can turn monsters into cards like his mother. He joins them and together they meet Lieza (from Arc the Lad II), who is now running a monster ranch with Paundit. They also encounter Sharon, a woman from the Academy, who can control monsters with a machine. With Lieza's help, the trio rides a Flying Fire to their next destination, North Sularto.
Upon landing in North Sularto, they meet a spunky gunslinger named Cheryl. They also take note of how destroyed North Sularto became from the Great Disaster, having landed in a giant junk heap. Making their way to Society Village, a town dedicated to restoring the world, Alec completes his job by delivering a strange orb found back in Forestamore. The trio then heads to Gislem, a notoriously poor and equally dangerous city. It seems the Academy has been kidnapping people and it appears Shu (from Arc the Lad II) is helping. After a failed attempt of the kidnapping of Cheryl, Cheryl joins the party. A path to South Sularto opens up.
After taking some jobs in Testa, the group meets Tosh, the protector of the city and its precious Water Orb (Tosh being from Arc the Lad). The Academy steals the Orb from the village and Tosh, shocked from seeing his friend Shu with the enemies, decides to join Alec and crew and get back the Orb. Because of the lack of water in the desert town of Testa, the villagers travel to Gislem, where they temporarily live.
Learning that a secret Academy base is hidden in an old airship, the group makes their way inside, only to find it crawling with enemy robots. Halfway through, the group finds Shu, who reveals that he was really trying to infiltrate the Academy's plans. Having taken the Orb, Tosh returns to Testa and Shu joins Alec to get to the bottom of this. After defeating an Academy employee in a giant robot, Shu leaves the group. Afterwards, a new job opens up: Society Village needs to deliver information to the giant library in Jiharta. Taking the job, Alec and his friends take a boat to Jiharta. They quickly learn of an uproar in the Hunter's Guild and investigate: someone has stolen a water controlling scroll from the nearby Amaidar Temple. After speaking to Iga (Arc the Lad character), the party and Marsia, a young spellcaster from the Spell Institute who knows the thief personally, discover the thief, Tikva, is working for the Academy.
Alec and his party find the Academy and Tikva at the Romastor, conducting a water controlling experiment with the scroll and some machinery. After the experiment, the Academy members dismiss Tikva, who becomes angry at not being recognized as helpful. Galdo, a spear wielding Academy member previously seen in the secret base, was watching the experiment and now intervenes. Alec and crew attack, surprising Galdo that they can even scratch him. He teleports away and Tikva is taken bake to Amaidar Temple. As punishment, Iga forcesg him to join the temple and become a monk, much to the surprise of everyone. Marsia then decides to join Alec on his adventure.
After settling a few jobs in Jiharta, Iga then wish to deliver a letter to his friend named Leshalt in Parute, which makes Alec and crew had to cross the ocean again. In Parute, they came across the main city, Paltos, and learned that an annual tournament's opening ceremony was commencing. The first prize of the tournament being a goddess statue attached with an Aura stone. It appears that the Academy had set a base there too, with Sharon in charge. After the opening ceremony, Alec found Leshalt and consult him about the Academy. After making a promise that he'll help in any way he can, Leshalt send the team back, only to bump into his grumpy brother, Velhart, who was arguably the best swordsman in Parute and second the best warrior only to Gruga of Brakia (the same from Arc the Lad II).
After some time pass, a job order came from the committee of the tournament. It is to safeguard the prize kept inside a nobleman's house in Parute city. As predicted, the Academy did come and wish to snatch the prize. A battle ensues and Alec emerges victorious. The chairman of the committee is none other than Gruga himself, after taking advice from Leshalkt to keep the statue in the Rochefort's manor and had Alec's party to guard it. Not long after the incident, a job came from Leshalt in order to ask Alec to safeguard the Aura stone on the statue and keep it in the safe beneath the item society building. Then Leshalt told Alec that he might know who's the mastermind behind the academy. It appears that it was his old colleague from the time of the disaster. After Alec and his party leave the house, the Professor (leader of the academy), whose name later revealed to be Ludwig, and Sharon enter Leshalt's retreat. The professor's trying to ask Leshalt to join his cause, which he decline. He then go as far as to detain Leshalt as he would be an obstacle for his goal.
Back in the city, Alec is trying to convince Gruga to handing him the prize. But Gruga told Alec that he should win the tournament to get the prize and enlist him in the battle. Much to their surprise, Velhart suddenly ask for admittance of the tournament as a participant. Seeing how Velhart used to say that he won't participate without Gruga in the line makes Alec and his friend curious about the sudden change of heart. In the tournament, Alec battles a lot of worthy opponent, starting from Leegle, a hunter he asked to protect his village from bandits at the beginning of the story, to Velhart, as the best swordsman in Parute, and eventually won all the matches.
When the prize was about to be given to Alec, Velhart suddenly snatches the statue and run away. Alec and crew pursue him only to see that Velhart has aligned himself with the academy. They followed Velhart to the academy's headquarter in Parute desert. Upon reaching there, they learn that Velhart is actually trying to steal the goddess statue to save his brother Leshalt from the academy's captive. They set to double the aura stone Velhart brought, and the process was halted by Leshalt, which causes him to be killed by Seville of the Academy. Enraged by his brother's murder, Velhart join forces with Alec to chase off the Professor only to find out he had escaped.
After much depression and sorrow, Velhart buries his brother in the lot by his retreat and set off for the rest of the journey with Alec. The aura stone is then secured and brought to the item society's safe as Leshalt wished. Moments after, the Guildmaster send a word through his manager that he wishes to meet Alec. He order Alec and his crews to find the Academy's headquarters in a place called Ragnark, which is known as Romalia till the disaster. Using the hovercraft found in the Cariote cave sealed by the guild itself, they travel to Ragnark.
As was told, Ragnark used to be the source of the Great Disaster when it was still called Romalia. Alec and his crews arrive at Ragnark and infiltrate the city of Felator in order to find clues about the headquarters. After stealing a lab coat from a resting scientist, Alec sneak into the branch building of Academy and found out that the chief was Sharon. He overheard Sharon and Seville talking about a mysterious energy reading from what they had been researching and she require an escort to headquarter. Alec and his crews followed her through the White Bone Forest and Midoro Swamp to the main building of the Academy located north of Felator. There, they saw a melting alloy gate and Marsia presumes that someone is using an unbelievably powerful ignition technology, since she herself is unable to melt an alloy that thick. They are then confronted by the guards and accidentally learned that they are not the only intruders in the facility.
As they battle their way to the top of the building where the Professor, Sharon and Seville is, they are halted by the Fear Crimson, a fusion of a dragon and machine. Seville refers that it was their crown creation and was perfected due to the help by a cardist they captured in Forestamore, which is none other than Theo's mother herself. When asked where is she, Seville implied that on the day Fear Crimson was perfected, she just died. He then lock the team in for a battle with the abominable machine. Though Alec's team emerges victorious, the Fear Crimson then set itself to self-destruct and is about to catch the team in the explosion, when Elc's timely arrival and his Flame Shield prevented that. The Professor, Lugwig and Sharon argued over whatever or not to continue with harassing the power source locked away within the lake. Elc takes Alec up to the roof where they confront the Professor and Sharon. Ludwig used Sharon as a shield against Elc so he couldn't unleash his Fire Power at him. From the roof, they witness the revival of the Sky Castle as the lake's was being vaporized.
Upon seeing the desecrated town beneath the vaporizing lake, Alec's memory recall the past where the moment he was saved by a hunter in the fire. It was in Romalia. When thinking a way to get to the Sky Castle, he spots saw the Hien by the bottom of the lake. Elc decided to stay by the Hien to start repairing the airship so it can be used to fly to the Sky Castle. Meanwhile, Elc ask Alec to report to the Guildmaster and suggest that Alec go find Gogen the magic master to find a way to re-seal the Dark One as he predicted that the Academy will at least managed to release the Dark One.
At the guild, The Guildmaster promotes Alec to a hunter of a status like Elc and Shu, which act directly under the essentials of the guild. After being promoted, Alec directs the guild to find Gogen. He is then is discovered to be residing in an ancient ruin in a cape in Jiharta. After passing several riddles and tricks made by Gogen, they meet the old man himself and by their surprise, hearing him said that the Dark One can't be re-sealed, as the ark was destroyed by Andel and the lineage of Bravery and Goddess (respectively Arc and Kukuru) has expire. An idea cross by Lutz mind to create a new ark, and is heavily rejected by Gogen since it is an impossible task for men. But the team made their commitment to save the world therefore made Gogen tell them how to craft a new ark. It was told to be made of Eternal Steel, Eternal Tree, Eternal Ice and Eternal Flame. After that, one must be blessed by the guardians before the ark could be created. So the team set off to the guild master to learn the whereabouts of those four sacred relic.
The first to be found was Eternal Steel, since it is somewhere in Parute. They search the Cariote cave but found nothing. The next place to go will be the Museum in Paltos, since there is a lot of ancient weapons and armors displayed there. The clerk in the Museum told them that none of the weapons or armors of display was made by a material that ancient, but he points them to a clue of someone who might wield a weapon that ancient. It is Matheus, a master swordsman of the old time. The clerk told the team a story in which the undefeated Matheus was cheated by a fellow fighter to take the Great Mystic Sword for himself. He then point them to the old battle arena, which reside in the Digarta Wilds, to meet the Ghost of the cheating warrior, since he was unsatisfied for winning by cheating and haunts the arena with guilt and lust for power. Since Velhart is the best swordsman known in Parute, he challenged him over the Great Mystic Sword. But the Ghost Warrior is more than a match to Velhart and beat him almost single-handedly. After considering what lacks of Velhart, they pay Gruga a visit to consult the matter. Gruga tell Velhart that all he need to do is to change his point of view, which Velhart take as an insult. He then point Velhart to some "strong-willed" people that might help him. Starting from the arena host, that has been practicing for his ability, to Raia, the receptionist girl of the arena, which has a large passion to be a world-class singer. Alec's team then confronted by Shante, which came all the way from Eteru isle to fetch Raia for her bar. She then ask Velhart if he has corrected his point of view. Velhart then realized that the Ghost Warrior was the same as he was being, hungry for more power and glory. After correcting his point of view and his judgment, he once again challenged the Ghost Warrior and emerged victorious. Velhart then receive fragments of Eternal Steel after laying the Warrior's spirit to rest.
The second to be found is the Eternal Tree, which is in the temple ruin where Theo receive his power as a cardist. After arriving at the temple, they are once again confronted by the spirit of Nol and confirmed that the temple did house the Eternal Tree, though only the roots remain. After they succeeded in calming the guardian of the temple with the help of Lieza, her monsters and Poco, they head into the depth of the earth to search for the relic. On their way, Theo heard a cry for help from a seedling monster and decided to help him. The monster then said that he's a part of the "Mother's Tree". With the guidance of the seedling, they reach the Eternal Tree's root only to find it was badly decomposed and was eaten by Rootybus, a centipede-like monster that has an extremely strong regenerative technique. Proving impossible to beat it in the current state, the team withdraw for the moment. While thinking of a way to stop its regenerative ability, the seedling monster asked Theo to cardish him as he say that he has the power to stop Rootybus' regenerative ability. When Theo replied that once he used his card he will die, the seedling said that he can't die, for he is eternal. Having faith to that, Theo cardished the little monster and used him at Rootybus, which caused him to change shape into a scorpion-like monster. That made his regenerative ability rendered useless and the team make a short work of it. As they wonder if the roots will be enough to use, Theo searched for the little monster and found a seed on the floor. Recalling the little monster's word, Theo hurried to the surface and planted the seed. The seed grows into a giant tree in a matter of seconds and bear fruits similar to the shape of the seedling monster. The tree shed a branch for Theo and they receive the Eternal Tree's branch at last.
The third item was the Eternal Ice, which is said to be located in Jiharta. Alec's team reach Jiharta by hovercraft and head straight to the Amaidar Temple to consult Iga concerning the matter. Iga told the youngster that the Eternal Ice might be located in a place called the Ice Gallery, where the cavern is always frozen while the rest of Jiharta is warm. The team head into the Gallery and find a solid ice-made wall at the end of gallery. Each of them try their weapons on the wall and not even a scratch was found on it. When Marsia tried her Heat Shell spell, it won't even melt. So they decided to go to the magic institute in Rushart to ask Salubari of any magic strong enough to break it. As they turn their back, a pair of glowing red eyes was seen to watch them from behind the ice wall. At the institute, Salubari told them that their only chance was the Giga Plasma spell, the strongest spell known to the magic masters. In order to master the spell, one must have the essence of all the elements and beat the elemental wizards. Feeling unconfident of herself, Marsia decided to ask Sania (from Arc the Lad II) in Paysus city to replace her in learning Giga Plasma. When they set to find Master Harzan of Amaidar who knows about the location of Light and Dark wizard, they was told by Tikva that he is training on top of Mount Amaidar. But in fact, The Light and Dark wizard was actually one wizard with mastery of both elements and has died for sometimes without a successor. Tikva set to be the wizard with the help of Harzan and Iga, as he has the potential to be one. This makes Marsia realize how many people are willing to sacrifice for her and decided to face the wizards herself. At the institute, the elemental wizards have been assembled by Salubari takes Marsia's challenge by full force and eventually beaten by Marsia. As they leave the room, Tikva stormed in and ask Marsia for an immediate battle, which Marsia won over. After beating all the elemental wizards, Marsia receive the Giga Plasma as her new collection of spells, and use it to destroy the Ice Wall. But by destroying the Ice wall, they released an ancient creature guarding the Gallery known as the Cliff Giant. Capable of creating ice golems and summon massive tornadoes makes this beast a hard-to-beat opponent. After settling the business, they took a shard of Eternal Ice and depart to find the final piece of relic.
The final piece of material, the Eternal Flame was located somewhere on North Sularto, but the guild doesn't know its exact location. The guild suggest that an amnesia merchant named Chongara (the same as Arc the Lad) knows its location. They set to find a cure of his amnesia and find it costs about 1 million gold. So they decided to find another way to cure his amnesia. Marsia thinks of a way and uses her Land Ax spell to cause a shock to his head, which restores his memory. According to Chongara, the smoking volcano cave on North Sularto is the house of the flame that never sleeps. When they reach the heart of the mountain, they found the Eternal flame on top of a mini volcano with unstable reaction that could cause it to erupt and spew hot magma any time. Cheryl had an idea of making a lava-hardening gun from the weapon society and something to house the flame to transport. When they arrive at the item society, it appears that the mysterious object they found on Forestamore has been fixed and given a propeller and a handle so it could carry at least one person. That solves the problem of how they would cross the lake of fire surrounding the flame. Meanwhile, as Elnan of the item society works on something to carry the flame, Alec's teams go on a search of a missing material needed to build the gun for hardening lava. They found out that Gudan of Gislem know the location of it and set to find him in danger dome. Alec agreed to give all his money and items as long as Gudan is willing to tell him where the material is. This makes Gudan wonders about the action and he presume that the second of the Great Disaster might happen if they didn't get the calm nut, so he give the information for free. They head to Kutao temple in search of the calm nut and found some monsters was holding it. After making short work of them, they return to the society village to collect their items of need and head to the lake of fire. Upon reaching the shore of the lake, as Lutz uncover the flying object he receive from Elnan, it turns out that the object was actually Diekbeck (what remained of him after the disaster). He agrees to help the young ones to save the world. After crossing the lake, Lutz climb the volcano as Cheryl use the Stone gun to temporary freeze the lava to protect Lutz. After getting the flame, a sudden eruption throw Lutz off the ledge and landed hard in front of his friends. Cheryl cry over him and pleaded him not to die, only to find that he was joking on them. When they were leaving, Lutz try to find Diekbeck and find him on the lava, unable to move. He told him that he was happy to help their cause and ask them to protect the world, but not before he gave them a monster card of himself and christen them "The Brave Ones".
Back at the guildmaster's office, the team was thinking to go and find Gogen and ask him the whereabouts of the guardians when suddenly Gogen himself appears before them. He told them that the guardians now resides upon a massive structure called the Ghost Dream Crystal in Eteru Isle. So, the team move to Eteru and once again head into the Trial Cave. At the crystal, a voice was heard that the one was going to talk to the guardians must leave their earthly body behind, with no guarantee to be able to return safely. Alec's boldness and kindness makes him step forward and stun his friends to the ground so they won't be able to stop him from going. After leaving his body and enter the Crystal Chamber, he was greeted by Arc and Kukuru, telling him that they had been watching his journey since he got his hunter's crest. The guardians then shows themselves before Alec and give him their blessing to create the ark. After several calls from his friends, Alec then returned to the material world and told his friends to lay the material in a line. Together, they watch anxiously as the new ark was magically created before their eyes.
Taking the new ark, they all return to the Guildmaster's office and prepare themselves for the final battle. The guild itself has received word from Elc that he has finished reassembling the Hien back and it is now ready to fly. Alec and Elc reach the sky castle. After fighting through the castle, they eventually defeat Seville and Galdo. As they reach the professor, he arrogantly shrugged off everyone's warnings and eventually releases the Dark One. The group used the new Ark against it but nothing happened. A joint effort by Sharon, a redeeming Lugwig and Elc pushes back the Dark One from escaping, leaving the remaining group to fight. After a fierce fight, the Dark One tries to tempt the group by offering its power to restore the world. None of them took its offer; they had resolved that they can rebuild their world by their own means and with that, the new Ark began to activate. Realizing what caused this and focusing on the good, the heroes managed to seal it in the new Ark once and for all.
In the aftermath, Lugwig acknowledges his flawed direction with the Academy; Sharon offered to help Lugwig make amends for the harm he caused. Each member of the group goes off to resume their lives: Anriette (if you take on a series of jobs related to her) returns home and now enjoys being more independent. Velhart visits his brother's grave, stating that the threat is over. Marisa returns to the Spell Institute and become a teacher. Theo goes to Lieza's ranch to work with the monsters there. Cheryl visits the new Eternal Tree, thinking about the hope of a new life in a new world. Alec and Lutz return home to Sasha Village as heroes.
Octavia, weary of her existence, bewails her misery. Her nurse curses the drawbacks which beset life in a Palace. The Nurse consoles Octavia and dissuades her from executing any revenge which she might be contemplating. The Chorus being in favor of Octavia, looks with detestation upon the marriage of Poppaea, and condemns the degenerate patience of the Romans, as being unworthy, too indifferent and servile, and complains about the crimes of Nero.
Seneca deplores the vices of his times, praises the simplicity of his former life, and offers his opinion that all things are tending to the worse. The philosopher warns his patron Nero but to no purpose. Nero stubbornly insists on carrying out his tyrannical plans, and appoints the next day for his marriage with Poppaea.
Agrippina appears from the underworld as a cruel soothsayer. She brings torches from the underworld to grace the wedding, and predicts the death of Nero. Octavia urges the populace, who are espousing her cause, not to grieve about her divorce. The Chorus however, does grieve for her sad lot.
Poppaea, being frightened in her sleep, narrates her dream to the Nurse. The Nurse treating the dream as nonsense, consoles Poppaea with a shallow interpretation. The Chorus praises the beauty of Poppaea. The Messenger describes the hostile mood of the populace concerning Octavia's divorce and Nero's marriage with Poppaea.
Nero, boiling over with rage on account of the tumultuous rising of the populace, orders the most severe measures to be taken against them, and that Octavia, as the cause of the rising, shall be transported to Pandataria and there slain. The Chorus sings regarding popular favor, which has been destructive to so many, and after that tells of the hard fates which have befallen the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Douglas 'Dougie' Whooly is a nine-year-old boy obsessed with a video game, in which he plays Satan's little helper. His sister Jenna comes home from college for Halloween, but things turn sour when Dougie finds out she brought her boyfriend, Alex, with her.
After a fall out with Jenna, Dougie wanders off and finds a man dressed in a cheap costume arranging a dead body on his lawn as if it were a decoration. Dougie naively believes the man is Satan, and asks him for help in sending Alex to Hell, which "Satan" nods assent to. In the meantime, Alex comes up with the idea of bonding with Dougie by dressing as Satan for Halloween. When Dougie comes back home, he tries to lure Alex into the basement where Satan is waiting for him, but fails. Dougie ends up changing plans to instead have Alex ambushed by Satan while he and Alex go out shopping for a Satan costume, where Alex ends up being left for dead.
Dougie brings Satan home, whom everyone believes to be Alex. Despite Satan becoming forcefully, physically intimate with Jenna and his unwillingness to speak, Jenna interprets these as Alex's devotion to his Satan costume. When Satan and Dougie leave to get Halloween candy, they end up shoplifting a market for candy and tools, where Satan subsequently kills a bagger who tries to stop them and the two engage in a brief physical assault spree with their shopping cart. On the way home, Satan engages in a combination of assaulting and killing several more people, including Alex's estranged dad, before he and Dougie are accosted by the police. Satan indicates to Dougie to run home while he confronts the police, who are later found to be dead. In the meantime, it is revealed that Alex has survived, who finds out from a babbling man that all the police on the island are dead and the police station is on fire. When Dougie comes back home, he tells Jenna about what he and Satan done. Still thinking that it is Alex in the Satan costume, Jenna begins to think that Alex is pushing the game too far.
After he comes home, his new personality starts to frighten her, she realizes he is not Alex. Dougie's father comes home, and Satan murders him. He kidnaps their mother, which makes Jenna and Alex go after him, only to think it's Alex's dad who is responsible, but are tricked by the killer repeatedly changing costumes and putting his old one on a victim. including a Jesus costume to trick Dougie into letting him into the house multiple times by saying that it is God coming to save him. In the end, Jenna and Mrs. Whooly accidentally kill Alex and are left at home with Dougie and a police man who spray paints a 6 on their home beneath their address, 66. It's the Satan Man. The movie ends in a cliffhanger.
The opening sequence explains that two siblings, Todd and Riley, lived in what used to be an orphanage with their birth parents' fate unrevealed. While cleaning the floors, they stumbled across a Fleemco comic book containing an ad for the Fleemco phone. They mail-ordered the ad and $1.98 for the phone—which allows them to replace any person or animal they desire—and in the process they got new parents: a British secret agent named Agent K and a professional daredevil named Dick Daring. Whenever Todd and Riley want to replace someone undesirable, they call Conrad Fleem on the Fleemco phone via a large button. Fleemco immediately replaces the person with someone whom the siblings prefer. The series follows their misadventures as they attempt to better their lives by replacing unwanted people, with said attempt usually backfiring and both learning a lesson about appreciating what they already have.
Having been told that the house is sinking and that an inspector is on the way, Michael tells George Sr. that he needs to move out of the attic. Having made a music CD with his puppet Franklin, Gob asks Michael if he heard it. Michael assures Gob that he did. Realizing that George Sr. doesn't want to leave the attic, Gob knocks him out with ether, and drives him in the stair car to the police station to turn him in. Seeing that the Franklin CD he made for Michael hasn't been opened, Gob makes it seem as if Michael drove George Sr. to the station. After signing an affidavit stating that he doesn't know where his father is, Michael is arrested after a security camera photo shows Gob holding a picture of Michael on his face, making it seem as if Michael had met with his father earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, George Michael and Ann protest the American remake of the film ''Les Cousins Dangereux'', in which two cousins fall in love. Maeby, who created the remake, is told by producers to cut down the movie into a mere 52 minutes. At home, George Michael and Maeby share a kiss on the living room couch, and after jokingly saying that they "didn't get swallowed up into hell," the house fully sInks. Gob arrives, wanting to retrieve his father who he put underground the house, only to realize George Sr. had escaped earlier in the day.
Earlier, George Sr., having escaped, knocked out his brother Oscar, shaved his head, and placed him in the police station's bathroom. He then witnessed Gob arriving outside the police station and starting a fight with Michael. George Sr., stopping the fight, stated that he was turning himself in, only to lead the cops into the bathroom where Oscar was located, which resulted in Oscar being arrested.
Having burnt his hands on the family ''Cornballer'', which erased his fingerprints, Oscar has trouble explaining to the cops who he really is. Having broken up with Lindsay, Tobias decides to quit his job at the Bluth Company and move to Las Vegas with his new girlfriend Kitty. Having arrived at Las Vegas, Tobias is told that his dream job has been filled in by a mysterious man, who happens to be George Sr.
The plot centers on the title character, a mad scientist who has kidnapped Mickey's dog, Pluto. Mickey tries to rescue him before the doctor can perform his experiment: putting Pluto's head to the body of a chicken in order to see if a puppy will hatch from an egg (that is if the end result will "bark or crow or cackle"). Mickey battles his way through booby traps and animated skeletons before eventually getting caught and strapped onto a table to get cut open by a buzzsaw, forcing Mickey to suck in his belly, trembling. The scene then fades to Mickey asleep in bed and suddenly woken up by a fly, whose buzzing resembles the whirring of the saw. Not yet realizing the events were only a nightmare, Mickey shouts for Pluto, who eagerly jumps onto Mickey's bed with his doghouse and chain still attached to his collar.
Max Fleming is a graduate student who has developed a powerful cloning machine for the egotistical Dr. Jonas. Jonas steals all the credit and leaves Max to toil in obscurity. One day, Max meets Kate Carson, a young and beautiful magazine reporter preparing a story on the cloning research at the university. During the interview, Kate accidentally cuts herself, and a few drops of her blood mingle with one of the cloning samples. Later that night, Max runs a test of the machine, and to his surprise he ends up with a replicant of Kate, which he names Repli-Kate.
Repli-Kate is fully adult (being exactly the same age the original Kate is), but she has no knowledge. Max and his roommate Henry thus set out to educate her, but with a male perspective. They want to turn her into the perfect woman: the beer-drinking, sport-loving, sexually aggressive girl of their dreams. She also becomes Max's girlfriend as result. However, when Max contemplates the resulting woman, he realizes that the girl of his dreams was Kate all along, not Repli-Kate.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jonas learns of the existence of Repli-Kate. He captures both her and the original Kate. He then decides to present the results of the human cloning in front of scientists from all over the world, with the aim of advertising "his" cloning machine. Max and Henry learn of Jonas's plan, and they formulate a rescue mission. Using a newly created Repli-Jonas, the pair are able to create enough confusion to save Kate and Repli-Kate.
Jonas and Repli-Jonas are sent to a cloning research lab as test subjects. Max inherits the university's cloning lab, and his cloning chamber brings him great fame and money. Max and Kate fall in love, as do Henry and Repli-Kate. Repli-Jonas manages to escape, and when Felix asks Max about what to do, he replies that Repli-Jonas is too dumb to go anywhere. The last image is Repli-Jonas, who is the new president. His discourse is just the word 'penis'.
Following the eruption of the bloody Clone Wars at the battle of Geonosis, both sides remain deadlocked in a stalemate that can be broken only by elite warrior teams like Omega Squad, clone commandos with terrifying combat skills and a lethal arsenal.
Deployed deep behind enemy lines, Omega Squad engage in sabotage, espionage, ambush, and assassination. But when the Squad is rushed to Coruscant, the war's most dangerous new hotspot, the commandos discover that they are not the only ones penetrating the heart of the enemy.
A surge in Separatist attacks has been traced to a network of terrorist cells in the Republic's capital, masterminded by a mole in Command Headquarters. To identify and destroy a Separatist spy and terror network in a city full of civilians will require special talents and skills. Not even the leadership of the Jedi generals, along with the assistance of Delta Squad and a notorious ARC trooper, can even the odds against the Republic Commandos. And while success may not bring victory in the Clone Wars, failure means certain defeat.
"Somewhere in the galaxy, millions suddenly perish—a disruption of the Force so shocking it is felt by Luke at his Jedi academy and by Leia on Coruscant. While Leia must deal with an assassination attempt, a rumored plot against the New Republic, and allegations that Han Solo is involved, Luke seeks out a former Jedi student who may hold the key to the mass destruction. But Brakiss is only the bait in a deadly trap set by a master of the dark side who is determined to rule as emperor. He's targeted Luke, Leia, and Leia's children to die. Then billions will follow, in a holocaust unequaled in galactic history."
Mass murder has always rattled the Force. In ''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope'', Obi-Wan Kenobi experiences the suffering of the deaths of millions from the destruction of Alderaan. In ''The New Rebellion'', Luke Skywalker will experience the same emotion.
Thirteen years after the Battle of Endor, the New Republic has defeated most of the Galactic Empire and many ex-Imperial star systems have joined the ranks. Moreover, corruption has spread throughout the ranks, which a series of antagonists are waiting to capitalize on.
Kueller, a Dark Jedi, destroys millions with his powers. Luke Skywalker feels this genocide, and is afraid that the destruction will continue. Meanwhile, an assassination attempt is made on Princess Leia Organa, which is blamed on Han Solo. However, this is quickly discovered to be Kueller's doing.
Luke decides to seek the aid of Brakiss, a former student. However, Brakiss is in on Kueller's plan, and Luke joins the spiral of death that is to follow. Eventually, Luke Skywalker is led to Kueller, though a wake of destruction is left behind.
A young boy, Ralph, and his sister discover a magical ability to travel the world, riding within postage stamps. Complicated by a series of rules, they are soon lost in such far-flung places as Australia and China. Ralph has a stutter, and the film is essentially a coming-of-age story wherein Ralph can speak fluently by the film's end.
Four terrorists cross the Canada–US border, and they attempt to attack the Blackriver Nuclear Power Plant (a mythical power plant in Howard County, Indiana) with a car bomb. After this fails, the remaining three escape, pursued by several police cruisers. Chief Rawlings (Chuck Connors), the Kokomo Police Department chief, is radioed, and he and the other officers join the chase. Two terrorists manage to survive and escape to Kokomo High School, where they hold the detention's students and teacher hostage. The Kokomo SWAT team surrounds the school, and Chief Rawlings attempts to negotiate the release of the hostages. Meanwhile, the terrorists kill several hostages that attempt to resist them. Chief Rawlings agrees to the terrorists' demand for a bus so they can get to an airport. The two terrorists drag a girl out with them, and they board the school bus. In the process, a boy running along the roof manages to jump on top of the school bus and tries to get in the bus as the terrorists lead the police on a high-speed car chase.
Eventually, the bus tips over. The lone surviving terrorist attempts to kill himself and the girl by pulling the pin on a grenade. The boy knocks him out, and he and the girl manage to escape from the bus before the grenade explodes.
right Scrooge McDuck is on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to the dry climate causing the banknotes in his Money Bin to shrink, resulting in the overall money level inside the bin decreasing. This makes him feel poorer and he begins to act more and more like a miser.
At this point, Donald Duck and his nephews arrive and ask him for a donation to help fund a club for children. Scrooge throws them away to the streets (through a concealed scaffold), and rebuts further attempts from Donald to get the donation by exposing Scrooge as a tightwad. However, when his three nephews learn from Scrooge's staff the real reason of his bad mood, they try to solve his problem by suggesting to him to blow hot air into the money pile. Scrooge gladly accepts the suggestion and states that he will give them the donation if their plan works out. Unfortunately, too much air is blown, causing the Money Bin to crack open. Scrooge collapses after hearing about the repair expenses (and an untimely comment about the promised donation) and is forced by his doctor to go on vacations.
Next, the ducks find themselves in a remote cabin in a valley, close to a small waterfall, where Scrooge is supposed to relax under the watch of his nephews. One of the ducklings starts reading to him ''The King of the Golden River'', which Scrooge scorns as an alienating fairy tale, stating that only hard work brings fortune (one of his main beliefs), not fantastic beings. As an example, he tells them that when he was young, he used to collect firewood so he could sell it to rich people at exorbitant prices. Suddenly, the nearby waterfall seems to have turned into a gold flow (like in the fairy tale). However, when the ducks reach it, they realize it's just plain water. Scrooge again turns grumpy and returns to the cabin, whilst the ducks decide to investigate further.
Donald and his nephews climb to the top of the waterfall where they find a hot spring by the shore, which issues not only hot water but also gold powder into the stream, which caused the "golden waterfall" effect. As they cannot claim the gold for themselves (as the whole area is owned by Scrooge), they instead learn how to control it and decide to use this artifice to obtain a donation from Scrooge.
Using a hollow log as a megaphone to amplify their voices, they convince Scrooge that a magic gnome controls the golden flow, and that Scrooge must be generous to the needy in order to deserve the gold. Scrooge, completely convinced, starts looking for strangers to be generous with, only finding a disguised Donald asking for the sum equivalent to the promised donation. Several funny situations follow, including a flow of frogs down the waterfall into a hopeful Scrooge holding a pan, when the ducks are unable to open the gold flow into the stream.
While the ducks realize they might have rendered the hot spring useless by their attempts to control it and lose their hope to swindle Scrooge, he quietly reflects that his attempts on generosity were not sincere but a "bribe" to the gnome in order to obtain profit from the golden river. He then sees one of the ducklings catching firewood (just like he used to do as a child), and touched by this scene he runs to him and states to the stunned duck family that he will build the club himself, instead of just donating a small sum. At this moment, to the surprise of all (but Scrooge) the waterfall starts to pour gold again. As the nephews race into it with pans, trying to explain Scrooge about the physics of the phenomenon, he calmly states that he believes (opposite to his former cynic and logic behavior) the gold stream to be controlled by the Gnome King, who will keep it flowing as long as he is generous to children.
Bastion, along with the aid of his newly constructed Prime Sentinels, is given approval to implement this plan, which is dubbed "Operation: Zero Tolerance".
Bastion captures Jubilation Lee and makes her his prisoner.
Returning from a mission in Hong Kong, a team of 5 X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine and Cannonball) are attacked mid-air by Prime Sentinels. All five are captured and exposed to Xavier to further humiliate him. Henry Peter Gyrich spins a false story that the X-Men attacked American authorities and their reaction was in self-defense.
Bastion is also able to seize control of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning (in the process gaining access to vital information regarding numerous mutants).
Over the course of the story, Jubilee is captured and mentally abused in order to access the secrets she knows.
The 5 captured X-Men make their escape from a compound of Operation Zero Tolerance and hide in the desert.
Cable infiltrates the X-Mansion after it was occupied by Operation: Zero Tolerance to free Caliban and destroy Xavier's files to prevent Bastion from getting access to them. The X-Mansion is stripped of its technology.
Cecilia Reyes and Marrow join the X-Men after confronting Bastion with Iceman. During this time, Iceman acts as a leader of the small splinter group he is traveling with (consisting of the previous mentioned Cecilia Reyes and Marrow as well as Sabra, who has been tracking Bastion and investigating the actions of the Operation: Zero Tolerance operatives). Despite initially being ambushed by numerous Prime Sentinels, they manage to locate the home of Rose Gilberti, the woman who cared for Bastion, in Connecticut. Upon their arrival, they are surprised by Bastion and the Prime Sentinels, who have been waiting in the home after having taken both Gilberti and a detective's son hostage. After hearing what Bastion has to say in regard to her mother, Marrow becomes enraged and tries to viciously assault the woman, claiming revenge for the fate that her mentor Callisto suffered as a result of her encounter with Operation: Zero Tolerance. This prompts Iceman to stop her, only to mount an attack against Bastion on his own. Iceman is able to catch Bastion by surprise, knocking him out of the house and onto a nearby shoreline. Despite initially having the upper hand against Bastion, Iceman halts his attack in an attempt to goad Bastion into killing him. As Bastion begins to relay orders to his battalion of Prime Sentinels to destroy the mutants, S.H.I.E.L.D. forces converge en masse to the shoreline, revoking the rights of Operation: Zero Tolerance to further act on American soil. Faced with the knowledge that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been given authorization to use necessary force to stop him, Bastion issues the command to his Prime Sentinels to stand down. Bastion is then arrested and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody at the end of the storyline.
Two brothers, Prosper and Boniface Hartleib, run away to Venice and are taken in by a group of street children who are led by a proud orphan named Scipio, AKA "The Thief Lord." The runaway boys' aunt and uncle figure out where they are and hire a detective, Victor Getz, to find them. While investigating the thief gang, Getz discovers that Scipio is actually the son of a successful doctor, Dr. Massimo, but the doctor is abusive and Scipio has run away from home.
A man calling himself the Conte asks the "Thief Lord" to steal a wooden lion's wing for him. The wing belongs to a woman named Ida Spavento. At her house, Ida tells them the wing is from a magical merry-go-round, which has the ability to change a person's age. She agrees to let them have the wing if they let her accompany them to the exchange. The gang, along with Ida, goes to make the exchange the next night, leaving Boniface and Caterina "Hornet" Grimani, the gang's only girl, to guard the hideout. When they return, they find Boniface and Hornet gone and discover the money they received for the wing is counterfeit. With Getz's help, they find Hornet and Boniface. While the others stay with Ida Spavento, Prosper and Scipio return to the Conte's island home to get the money they are owed. On the island, the Conte's sister, Morosina, catches them climbing the wall and locks them inside the stables.
The next morning, Scipio and Prosper meet the Conte and Morosina, who are now both young children. They tell him that the magical merry-go-round worked. Scipio demands a ride and comes off an adult. Just as Scipio gets off the merry-go-round, the gang's fence Barbarossa arrives, and also demands a ride. Barbarossa becomes a seven-year-old boy, but accidentally breaks the merry-go-round. Scipio and Prosper leave after promising the Conte that they will not talk about the merry-go-round. Barbarossa will be forced to give the Conte all the money in his shop safe.
The next day, Prosper, Scipio, and Barbarossa meet up with the gang again. They do not recognize Scipio or Barbarossa and Prosper cannot explain. Barbarossa is adopted by Prosper and Boniface's rich aunt Esther. Prosper and Boniface decide to live with Ida and go to school, along with Hornet. Esther catches Barbarossa stealing her jewelry and other possessions and sends him off to boarding school, where he becomes a menacing bully and takes over the title "Thief Lord". The adult Scipio works as Victor's assistant in his detective agency and is free from his father's envy and cruelty.
New York City detective and sex-crimes specialist Adam Rourke (Winston) has gone to Manila to help his friend, Inspector Miguel Ramos (Victor Diaz), investigate the murders of several young women. All have had their blood drained through identical 10 cm incisions on the inside of each forearm. Miguel suspects a homicidal maniac but has heard rumours that a "strange blood cult" is to blame. Adam goes undercover as a writer seeking the story of the latest victim, Maria Cortez, a hostess at the Barrio Club, owned by Mr. Calderone (Vic Silayan).
Adam goes to the club. He brushes off a pretty hostess, Theresa (Judy Dennis), and instead watches beautiful blonde Serena (Nielson) dance. He and Calderone discuss the article about Maria.
That night, Adam kills a man who attacked him in his hotel room. Afterwards, he is stopped by a seemingly homeless man who in reality is Herrera (Eddie Infante), an undercover officer with a prosthetic leg who is Adam's police liaison.
Sylvia (Henryk), Miguel's adopted sister, drives Adam into the countryside and dumps him there, accusing him of not taking the case seriously. As he walks to his hotel, he sees a drunken Theresa arrive home. Out of sight of Adam, she is jumped by a humanoid monster. At the club, Serena suddenly clutches her face and runs off the dance floor. She looks older than she had earlier.
Miguel contacts the police in Lima and learns that Calderone and Serena fled Peru two years earlier, after Calderone was implicated in the murders of several young women. Elena, another club hostess, is then kidnapped by the monster.
Adam is unaware of the monster but suspects that Calderone is the murderer. Serena disingenuously tells Adam that Calderone "is a maniac and he'll kill to protect his secret." She introduces Adam to Louisa, a new hostess. Louisa is actually Sylvia. She has fallen in love with Adam and wants to help him. She points out that Serena's wrist-to-elbow armbands are of Aztec or Inca origin.
The monster kills Elena in a secret chamber beneath the Barrio Club. He moves a bowl of her blood in front of Sylvia, who is seated in a chair with a brightly lit box behind her head. She throws powder into the blood. Smoke rises and when it clears Serena is young again.
Serena asks Adam to her home and tells him lies. She says that Calderone killed his wife and made it look like suicide, and that he forces her to dance at the club. Adam passes out from the drugged drink that Serena gave him. As this happens, Sylvia discovers the secret chamber and is grabbed by the monster.
Adam awakens tied to a tree. Serena explains that she was chosen "by her people" to become one of the "golden goddesses" but she must have the blood of other women to maintain her eternal beauty. The blood is mixed with the powdered roots of ancient trees and the "electrical energy of the sun harnessed in a small container." Serena removes an armband to show Adam her scar, identical to those of the murder victims. But just as she is about to stab Adam, she begins ageing rapidly and runs for the chamber.
Adam is freed by one of Calderone's men and calls the police. Adam takes Miguel to the chamber, where the monster is about to kill Sylvia. Instead, he attacks the men, inadvertently moving the bowl of Elena's blood in front of Serena. Miguel shoots the monster four times to little effect. The monster begins strangling both men, but Herrera hits him with his artificial leg. The monster falls and strikes his head. Adam and Miguel save Sylvia.
Serena throws powder into Elena's blood. When the smoke clears, she is a very old woman. She throws another handful and after the smoke dissipates only her clothing and armbands remain. The monster dies, revealing himself to be Calderone.
The case solved, Adam kisses Sylvia good-bye and heads home to New York.
The story surrounds the Diffendoofer School in the town of Dinkerville, which is well liked by its students, particularly the unnamed narrator, notably because of its many eccentric faculty members, especially Miss Bonkers, the narrator's teacher. However, the students must make a good grade on a standardized test (which turns out in the end to be a revising test on multiple subjects they regularly learn) lest Diffendoofer be demolished and they be sent to an adjacent school in Flobbertown, which requires uniforms to be worn and is incredibly dull.
Category:1998 children's books Category:Books by Dr. Seuss Category:American picture books Category:Books published posthumously Category:Random House books Category:Schools in fiction
Jacen and Jaina Solo are now five years old, and their brother Anakin is three, all at an age where they are easily manipulated.
On Munto Codro, Jacen, Jaina and Anakin are kidnapped by a man named Hethrir. Their mother Leia Organa Solo immediately dispatches a rescue operation. Meanwhile, Leia's husband Han Solo and brother Luke Skywalker go to Crseih Station on a supposed "vacation", and learn of a secret cult that influences the Crystal Star, which could possibly threaten the very existence of the galaxy.
Hethrir continues to manipulate the children for several days, as he leads the Empire Reborn, an organization looking to resurrect the Galactic Empire. Eventually, Leia and Chewbacca manage to rescue the children, but Hethrir is still connected to the events that transpire around the Crystal Star. After an intense series of events, Hethrir is killed, the Crystal Star explodes, Crseih station moves out of the area beforehand, and Luke, Leia, Han and the children are safe.
The Waller Empire destroys the planet Clin in search of water for its deity. Two Clinian children, Spielban and Diana, escape to Earth aboard the Grand Nasca. The two grow up during the long journey and don High Tech Crystal Suits to defeat the Waller who have come to Earth in search of more water. Spielban must avenge his dead mother Anna and his homeworld, and find his missing father Ben and older sister Helen. Unknown to Spielban at the start of the series his father and sister have been made members of the Waller against their will.
Monica invites an old school friend of hers and Ross' for Thanksgiving, Will Colbert (Brad Pitt). However, Will reacts very badly when learning that Rachel, who he hated in high school because of her bullying him, will be joining them for dinner. Rachel is immediately attracted to Will, unable to recognize him, but Will is openly hostile and this culminates in his proud announcement that he and Ross founded the "I Hate Rachel" club in high school and initiated a rumor that she was a hermaphrodite, which was spread throughout their entire high school. Rachel feels betrayed by Ross until Monica reminds her that ''she'' started a rumor of her own that Ross made out with the school's 50-year-old librarian, though a horrified Ross confirms it as true. Rachel demands that Ross recant the rumor by calling everyone from school, but Monica puts them both in their place by reminding them that Rachel's rumor put Ross on the social radar, that Ross and Will's rumor had no effect whatsoever on Rachel's queen bee status and that they have too much important history to fixate on the past. They agree to be civil and reveal to Will that they are now having a baby together. Will is completely dumbfounded by this revelation but takes pleasure in the fact that Ross got Rachel pregnant but is not going to marry her. He tries to give Ross a high-five to celebrate, but when Ross refuses, Phoebe, who has been crushing on Will the entire evening, takes the opportunity to hug him.
Because Phoebe is a vegetarian, Chandler hates Thanksgiving cuisine, Rachel has an aversion to poultry and Will is on a diet, they will not be eating turkey. Thus Monica tells a crestfallen Joey that she will not be cooking a turkey because it is not worth it for just 3 people. Joey admonishes Monica and demands the tradition, and so Monica obliges with a monstrous bird. Throughout the episode, Joey battles the enormous turkey, eventually changing into Phoebe's maternity clothing (which she was giving to Rachel earlier in the episode) to ease the strain on his stomach. The episode culminates in Joey finishing off the turkey and getting the meat sweats. Despite being extremely full, Joey still has room for pie.
Baron Victor Frankenstein, having survived the fire at the end of the previous film, lives and works in an insane asylum as a surgeon and is given a number of privileges, as he holds incriminating evidence on Adolf Klauss, the asylum's corrupt and perverted director. Frankenstein, using the alias of Dr. Carl Victor, uses his position to continue his experiments in the creation of man.
When Simon Helder, a young doctor and an admirer of Frankenstein's work, arrives as an inmate for the crimes of ‘sorcery’ and body-snatching, the Baron is impressed by Helder's talents and takes him under his wing as an apprentice. Together they work on the design for a new creature. Unknown to Simon, however, Frankenstein is acquiring body parts by murdering his patients.
Frankenstein's new experiment is the hulking, ape-like Herr Schneider, a homicidal inmate whom he has kept alive after a violent suicide attempt and on whom he has grafted the hands of a recently deceased sculptor. Since Frankenstein's hands were badly burned in the fire, all shabby stitchwork must be done by Sarah, a beautiful mute girl who assists the doctor, and who is nicknamed "Angel". Simon tells Frankenstein that he is a surgeon and the problem is solved. Frankenstein reveals that Sarah is Klauss' daughter and has been mute ever since he tried to rape her.
Soon new eyes and a new brain are given to the creature. When The Monster – lumbering, hirsute and mute – is complete, it becomes bitter and intent on revenge. It ultimately embarks on a killing spree in the asylum, with Klauss as one of his victims. Eventually, it is fully overpowered and destroyed by a mob of inmates. Simon is devastated by the loss of life and reports to Frankenstein; however, the Baron feels that it was the best that could happen to such a creature, and is already considering a new experiment with other involuntary donors. Simon and Sarah watch silently as Frankenstein starts tidying up the laboratory while pondering who should be first to "donate".
Angel Deverell is an imaginative 15 year old girl who longs for a luxurious life despite being born to a simple mother who runs a shop and having an aunt who works in service. After her mother discovers Angel has been telling stories about secretly being an heiress, Angel decides to weave her fantasies into novel form. Much to her mother's distress she abandons school and devotes herself to writing. After finishing her first novel, ''Lady Irania'', Angel sends it haphazardly to publishers. She is at last given an offer to publish it by Gilbright & Brace though the two publishers are divided. Brace believes the novel is overwritten dreck while Gilbert agrees but believes they can make money off of it. They are surprised when they finally meet the teenage Angel, but Theo Gilbright finds himself charmed by Angel and her total lack of irony about her work.
Angel's novel is published and becomes a sensation and best seller though she is shocked to find herself viciously savaged by reviewers. Determined to prove them wrong she immediately starts writing a new novel.
By the time Angel is in her early 20s she has achieved massive financial success through critical praise eludes her. She has her mother retire and moves them to the genteel countryside, a move which causes their parent-child relationship to be inverted as Mrs. Deverell becomes afraid of incurring her daughter's wrath. Angel begins to feel something is missing in her life and longs to fall in love. Shortly after she invites Lord Norley, a local patron, to tea and meets his niece and nephew, Nora Howe-Nevinson, a poet and fan who worships Angel, and Esmé Howe-Nevinson, an amateur painter. Despite their brief meeting Angel decides she is in love with Esmé and is disappointed when he fails to contact her again. In order to entrap Esmé, Angel mentions Nora in an interview as an inspiration to her work. Some months later, after her mother has died, Nora comes to pay her respects to Angel. She moves in as a companion for Angel, but nevertheless fails to materialize her brother.
When Angel is 30 she at last learns that Esmé, after years spent abroad in disgrace, has moved to London. She moves there temporarily and commissions him to paint a portrait of her. Despite Angel's wilfulness and vanity, Esmé correctly guesses that she is quite lonely. In contrast to her tendency towards opulence he paints Angel realistically. At the end of the summer he visits Angel at her country home. Together they visit Paradise House, the old mansion where Angel's aunt Lottie used to work and which spurred Angel's fantasies. Angel decides to buy the house and Esmé confesses his love for her. The two marry.
Though Angel fails to realize it, their marriage does not have an auspicious start. Near the beginning of World War I Esmé decides to enlist, much to Angel's disapproval. She begins writing anti-war screeds and for the first time her books begin to fail, landing her in financial difficulties. On a trip to London, Nora discovers that Esmé is back on leave but is having an affair which she keeps a secret from Angel. By 1918 Esmé, wounded in the war, returns to Angel and Paradise House, now deeply dispirited and unable to paint. He begins to gamble and falls deeply into debt. In order to save him Angel writes another fantasy novel which is successful. His marriage to Angel is cut short when he accidentally drowns.
Angel and Nora continue to live together in Paradise House, though Angel is unable to write and her books fall out of print. Angel and Nora fall into poverty and obscurity. Shortly after Nora's uncle, Lord Norley dies leaving her an heiress, Angel dies as well. Nora discovers a will written by Angel in which Nora receives her entire fortune. However, nothing is left and Nora resolves to leave Paradise House and let it fall into disuse.
''A night in winter'' ;[Scene 1] Aston has invited Davies, a homeless man, into his flat after rescuing him from a bar fight (7–9). Davies comments on the flat and criticises the fact that it is cluttered and badly kept. Aston attempts to find a pair of shoes for Davies but Davies rejects all the offers. Once he turns down a pair that doesn't fit well enough and another that has the wrong colour laces. Early on, Davies reveals to Aston that his real name is not "Bernard Jenkins", his "assumed name", but really "Mac Davies" (19–20, 25). He claims that his papers validating this fact are in Sidcup and that he must and will return there to retrieve them just as soon as he has a good pair of shoes. Aston and Davies discuss where he will sleep and the problem of the "bucket" attached to the ceiling to catch dripping rain water from the leaky roof (20–21) and Davies "''gets into bed''" while "ASTON ''sits, poking his [electrical] plug'' (21). ;[Scene 2]: :''The'' LIGHTS FADE OUT. ''Darkness''. LIGHTS UP. ''Morning''. (21) As Aston dresses for the day, Davies awakes with a start, and Aston informs Davies that he was kept up all night by Davies muttering in his sleep. Davies denies that he made any noise and blames the racket on the neighbours, revealing his fear of foreigners: "I tell you what, maybe it were them Blacks" (23). Aston informs Davies that he is going out, but invites him to stay if he likes, indicating that he trusts him (23–24), something unexpected by Davies; for, as soon as Aston does leave the room (27), Davies begins rummaging through Aston's "stuff" (27–28) but he is interrupted when Mick, Aston’s brother, unexpectedly arrives, "''moves upstage, silently''", "''slides across the room''" and then suddenly "''seizes'' Davies' "''arm and forces it up his back''", in response to which "DAVIES ''screams''", and they engage in a minutely choreographed struggle, which Mick wins (28–29), ending Act One with the "''Curtain''" line, "What's the game?" (29).
;[Scene 1] :''A few seconds later'' Mick demands to know Davies' name, which the latter gives as "Jenkins" (30), interrogates him about how well he slept the night before (30), wonders whether or not Davies is actually "a foreigner"—to which Davies retorts that he "was" indeed (in Mick's phrase) "Born and bred in the British Isles" (33)—going on to accuse Davies of being "an old robber […] an old skate" who is "stinking the place out" (35), and spinning a verbal web full of banking jargon designed to confuse Davies, while stating, hyperbolically, that his brother Aston is "a number one decorator" (36), either an outright lie or self-deceptive wishful thinking on his part. Just as Mick reaches the climactic line of his diatribe geared to put the old tramp off balance—"Who do you bank with?" (36), Aston enters with a "bag" ostensibly for Davies, and the brothers debate how to fix the leaking roof and Davies interrupts to inject the more practical question: "What do you do . . . when that bucket's full?" (37) and Aston simply says, "Empty it" (37). The three battle over the "bag" that Aston has brought Davies, one of the most comic and often-cited Beckettian routines in the play (38–39). After Mick leaves, and Davies recognises him to be "a real joker, that lad" (40), they discuss Mick's work in "the building trade" and Davies ultimately discloses that the bag they have fought over and that he was so determined to hold on to "ain't my bag" at all (41). Aston offers Davies the job of Caretaker, (42–43), leading to Davies' various assorted animadversions about the dangers that he faces for "going under an assumed name" and possibly being found out by anyone who might "ring the bell called Caretaker" (44). ;[Scene 2]
THE LIGHTS FADE TO BLACKOUT.
THEN UP TO DIM LIGHT THROUGH THE WINDOW.
''A door bangs''.
''Sound of a key in the door of the room''.
DAVIES ''enters, closes the door, and tries the light switch, on, off, on, off.''
It appears to Davies that "the damn light's gone now", but, it becomes clear that Mick has sneaked back into the room in the dark and removed the bulb; he starts up "''the electrolux''" and scares Davies almost witless before claiming "I was just doing some spring cleaning" and returning the bulb to its socket (45). After a discussion with Davies about the place being his "responsibility" and his ambitions to fix it up, Mick also offers Davies the job of "caretaker" (46–50), but pushes his luck with Mick when he observes negative things about Aston, like the idea that he "doesn't like work" or is "a bit of a funny bloke" for "Not liking work" (Davies' camouflage of what he really is referring to), leading Mick to observe that Davies is "getting hypocritical" and "too glib" (50), and they turn to the absurd details of "a small financial agreement" relating to Davies' possibly doing "a bit of caretaking" or "looking after the place" for Mick (51), and then back to the inevitable call for "references" and the perpetually necessary trip to Sidcup to get Davies' identity "papers" (51–52). ;[Scene 3] :''Morning'' Davies wakes up and complains to Aston about how badly he slept. He blames various aspects of the flat's set up. Aston suggests adjustments but Davies proves to be callous and inflexible. Aston tells the story of how he was checked into a mental hospital and given electric shock therapy, but when he tried to escape from the hospital he was shocked while standing, leaving him with permanent brain damage; he ends by saying, "I've often thought of going back and trying to find the man who did that to me. But I want to do something first. I want to build that shed out in the garden" (54–57). Critics regard Aston's monologue, the longest of the play, as the "climax" of the plot. In dramaturgical terms, what follows is part of the plot's "falling action".
;[Scene 1] :''Two weeks later [… ]Afternoon''. Davies and Mick discuss the flat. Mick relates "(''ruminatively'')" in great detail what he would do to redecorate it (60). When asked who "would live there", Mick's response "My brother and me" leads Davies to complain about Aston's inability to be social and just about every other aspect of Aston's behaviour (61–63). Though initially invited to be a "caretaker", first by Aston and then by Mick, he begins to ingratiate himself with Mick, who acts as if he were an unwitting accomplice in Davies' eventual conspiracy to take over and fix up the flat without Aston's involvement (64) an outright betrayal of the brother who actually took him in and attempted to find his "belongings"; but just then Aston enters and gives Davies yet another pair of shoes which he grudgingly accepts, speaking of "going down to Sidcup" in order "to get" his "papers" again (65–66). ;[Scene 2] :'' That night'' Davies brings up his plan when talking to Aston, whom he insults by throwing back in his face the details of his treatment in the mental institution (66–67), leading Aston, in a vast understatement, to respond: "I . . . I think it's about time you found somewhere else. I don't think we're hitting it off" (68). When finally threatened by Davies pointing a knife at him, Aston tells Davies to leave: "Get your stuff" (69). Davies, outraged, claims that Mick will take his side and kick Aston out instead and leaves in a fury, concluding (mistakenly): "Now I know who I can trust" (69). ;[Scene 3] :''Later'' Davies reenters with Mick explaining the fight that occurred earlier and complaining still more bitterly about Mick's brother, Aston (70–71). Eventually, Mick takes Aston's side, beginning with the observation "You get a bit out of your depth sometimes, don't you?" (71). Mick forces Davies to disclose that his "real name" is Davies and his "assumed name" is "Jenkins" and, after Davies calls Aston "nutty", Mick appears to take offence at what he terms Davies' "impertinent thing to say", concludes, "I'm compelled to pay you off for your caretaking work. Here's half a dollar", and stresses his need to turn back to his own "business" affairs (74). When Aston comes back into the apartment, the brothers face each other", "''They look at each other. Both are smiling, faintly''" (75). Using the excuse of having returned for his "pipe" (given to him earlier through the generosity of Aston), Davies turns to beg Aston to let him stay (75–77). But Aston rebuffs each of Davies' rationalisations of his past complaints (75–76). The play ends with a "''Long silence''" as Aston, who "''remains still, his back to him [Davies], at the window'', apparently unrelenting as he gazes at his garden and makes no response at all to Davies' futile plea, which is sprinkled with many dots ("''. . .''") of elliptical hesitations (77–78).
After having lived in the United States for six years, Teddy brings his wife, Ruth, home for the first time to meet his working-class family in North London, where he grew up, and which she finds more familiar than their arid academic life in America. The two married in London before moving to the United States.
Much sexual tension occurs as Ruth teases Teddy's brothers and father, and the men taunt one another in a game of one-upmanship, resulting in Ruth's staying behind with Teddy's relatives as "one of the family" and Teddy returning home to their three sons in America without her.See John Russell Taylor, "Pinter's Game of Happy Families", 57–65 in Lahr, ''Casebook''; cf. Franzblau; Esslin, ''Pinter the Playwright'' 141–61; Gordon, "Family Voices: ''The Homecoming''", 69–88 (chap. 4) in ''Harold Pinter: The Theatre of Power''.
The play begins in the midst of what becomes an ongoing power struggle between the two more dominant men: the father, Max, and his middle son, Lenny. Max and the other men put down one another, expressing their "feelings of resentment," with Max feminising his brother Sam, whom he intimates is homosexual, while, ironically, himself claiming to have himself "given birth" to his three sons.
Teddy arrives with his wife, Ruth. He reveals that he married Ruth in London six years earlier and that the couple subsequently moved to the U.S. and had three sons prior to this visit to the family home ("homecoming") to introduce her. The couple's mutual discomfort with each other, marked by her restless desire to go out exploring after he has gone to sleep, then followed by her sexually suggestive first-time encounter with her dangerous, and somewhat misogynistic, brother-in-law Lenny, begins to expose problems in the marriage. She strikes a nerve when she calls him "Leonard"; he tells her that no one, aside from his late mother, has ever called him that.
After a sexually charged conversation between Lenny and Ruth, she exits. Awakened by their voices, the patriarch Max comes downstairs. Lenny does not tell Max about Teddy and Ruth's arrival at the house and engages in more verbal sparring with Max. The scene ends in a blackout.
When the lights come up the scene has changed to the following morning. Max comes down to make breakfast. When Teddy and Ruth appear and Max discovers they have been there all night without his knowledge, Max is initially enraged, assuming that Ruth is a prostitute. After being told that Ruth and Teddy have married and that she is his daughter-in-law, Max appears to make some effort to reconcile with Teddy.
This act opens with the men's ritual of sharing the lighting of cigars, traditionally associated with phallic imagery after lunch. Teddy's cigar goes out prematurely, the symbolism of which is clear.
Max's subsequent sentimental pseudo-reminiscences of family life with his late wife, Jessie, and their "boys" and his experiences as a butcher also end abruptly with a cynical twist.
After Teddy's marriage to Ruth receives Max's blessing, she relaxes and, focusing their attention on her ("Look at me"), she reveals some details about her previous life before meeting Teddy and how she views America (pp. 68–69). After Max and his brother, Sam, exit, Teddy abruptly suggests to Ruth that they return home immediately (p. 70).
Apparently, he knows about her past history as "a photographic model for the body" (p. 73) and about which she reminisces when talking to Lenny alone after Teddy has gone upstairs "to pack" for their return trip to the United States. When he returns with the suitcases and Ruth's coat, he expresses concern about what else Lenny may have gotten Ruth to reveal. As Teddy looks on, Lenny initiates dancing "''slowly''" with Ruth (p. 74).
With Teddy, Max, and Joey all looking on, Lenny kisses Ruth and then turns her over to Joey, who asserts that "she's wide open"; "Old Lenny's got a tart in here" (p. 74). Joey begins making out with Ruth on the sofa, telling Lenny that she is "Just up my street" (p. 75). Max asks Teddy if he is "going" so soon.
He tells Teddy, "Look, next time you come over, don't forget to let us know beforehand whether you're married or not. I'll always be glad to meet the wife." He says that he knows that Teddy had not told him that he was married because he was "ashamed" that he had "married a woman beneath him" (p. 75), just before peering to look at Ruth, who is literally still lying "''under''" Joey.
Max adds that Teddy doesn't need to be "ashamed" of Ruth's social status, assuring Teddy that he is a "broadminded man" (75), and "she's a lovely girl. A beautiful woman", as well as "a mother too. A mother of three." Contrary to the concurrent action, even more ironically, Max observes that Teddy has "made a happy woman out of her. It's something to be proud of"; right after Max further asserts that Ruth is "a woman of quality" and "a woman of feeling", clasped in their ongoing embrace, Joey and Ruth literally "''roll off the sofa on to the floor''" (p. 76).
Suddenly pushing Joey away and standing up, Ruth appears to take command, demanding food and drink, and Joey and Lenny attempt to satisfy her demands (pp. 76–77). After Ruth questions whether or not his family has read Teddy's "critical works" — a seemingly absurdist non sequitur -- or perhaps just a jibe at her academician spouse -- the answer to which, in either event, is a foregone conclusion — Teddy defends his own "intellectual equilibrium" and professional turf (pp. 77–78). Ruth and Joey go upstairs for two hours but Joey, who comes down alone without her, complains that Ruth refused to go "the whole hog" (p. 82).
With Ruth still upstairs, Lenny and the others reminisce about Lenny's and Joey's sexual exploits. Lenny, whom the family considers an expert in sexual matters, labels Ruth a "tease," to which Teddy replies, "Perhaps he hasn't got the right touch" (p. 82). Lenny retorts that Joey has "had more dolly than you've had cream cakes", is "irresistible" to the ladies, "one of the few and far between" (p. 82). Lenny relates anecdotes about Joey's sexual prowess with other "birds" (pp. 82–84).
When Lenny asks Joey, "Don't tell me you're satisfied without going the whole hog?", Joey tentatively replies that "sometimes" a man can be "happy" without ''"going any hog"'' (p. 84). Lenny "''stares at him''". Joey seems to be suggesting that Ruth is so good at "the game" that Lenny ultimately gets the ''"idea [to] take her up with me to Greek Street"'' (p. 88).
Max volunteers that Ruth could come to live with the family, suggesting that they "should keep her" while she works for them part-time (as a prostitute). The men discuss this proposal in considerable detail, seemingly half-joking to irritate Teddy and half-serious (pp. 86–89). Sam declares the whole idea "silly" and "rubbish" (p. 86). Teddy adamantly refuses to "put" anything "in the kitty", as Max asks (p. 87), and Lenny suggests that Teddy could hand out business cards and refer Americans he knows to Ruth when they visit London, for "a little percentage" (pp. 89–90). Teddy does not decline outright but neither does he affirmatively agree to the idea. Teddy also says, in the play's only poignant turn of phrase, "She'd get old ... very quickly", which concern Max dismisses, citing the new National Health Service.
Ruth comes downstairs, "''dressed''". Teddy is still waiting with his coat on and their packed suitcases (p. 90). Teddy informs her of the family's proposal, without going into explicit detail about their intention to engage her in prostitution, saying euphemistically that she will "have to pull [her] weight" financially because they are not "very well off"; then he offers her a choice to stay in London with the family or to return to America with him (pp. 91–92).
Ruth understands exactly what is being proposed and appears very open to the proposal. She inflexibly negotiates her demands, including a three-room flat and a maid as the terms of a "contract" (p. 93) with Lenny, all of which must be finalized in writing with signatures and witnesses, leaving Lenny nonplussed but hapless. Ruth clearly is adept at getting what she wants (pp. 92–94) and Teddy prepares to return to America without her.
Having spoken up a few times earlier to voice his objections, Sam blurts out a long-kept secret about Jessie and Max's friend MacGregor, then "''croaks and collapses''" and "''lies still''" on the floor (94). Briefly considering the possibility that Sam has "dropped dead" and become a "corpse" (p. 94), the others ascertain that he is still breathing ("not even dead"), dismiss his revelation as the product of "a diseased imagination", and ignore him thereafter.
After a pause, Ruth accepts their proposal, conditionally: "Yes, it sounds like a very attractive idea" (p. 94). Teddy focuses on the inconvenience that Sam's unavailability poses for him: "I was going to ask him to drive me to London airport" (p. 95). Instead, he gets directions to the Underground, before saying goodbye to the others and leaving to return home to his three sons, alone. As he moves towards the front door, Ruth calls Teddy "Eddie"; after he turns around, she cryptically tells him, "Don't become a stranger" (p. 96). He goes out the front door, leaving his wife with the other four men in the house. The final tableau vivant (pp. 96–98) depicts Ruth sitting, "''relaxed in her chair''", as if on a throne.Interviewed by Campbell Robertson, in [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/theater/24best.html "In Search of Her Inner Kangaroo Suit"], ''The New York Times'', 24 December 2007, The Arts: pp. E1, 6; accessed 24 December 2007.
Eve Best, the actress who played Ruth in the 2007–08 Cort Theatre reproduction, concludes: " 'This woman becomes the queen, and there hasn't been a struggle .... Simply by discovering herself, she has ultimate strength. I love that.' " [E6].
Sam lies motionless on the floor; Joey, who has walked over to Ruth, places his head in her lap, which she gently caresses. Lenny, stands looking on and observing. After repeatedly insisting he is not an old man, and getting no reply from Ruth, who remains, as usual, tactically silent, Max beseeches her, "Kiss me" – the final words of the play. Ruth sits and "''continues to touch'' JOEY's ''head, lightly''," while Lenny "''stands, watching''" (p. 98). In this "resolution" of the play (its dénouement), what might happen later remains unresolved. Such lack of plot resolution and other ambiguities are features of most of Pinter's dramas.
Two astronauts explore the Moon and come across a space dumpster - when they open it, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa and her minions Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, and Finster are set free from a 10,000-year captivity. Rita decides to conquer the nearest planet: Earth, and rebuilds her palace on the Moon.
In the city of Angel Grove, California, five teenagers - Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, Trini Kwan, and Kimberly Hart - are hanging out at the Angel Grove Youth Center. The guys are working on karate, while the girls are practicing gymnastics. Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch (a.k.a. "Bulk" and "Skull") come to harass them, but end up making fools of themselves.
The teens are later sitting down to some fruit shakes from Ernie's Juice Bar when Rita causes an earthquake. In the Command Center, which is located in a desert area, Zordon, the wise wizard who once battled Rita many years ago, tells his robotic assistant, Alpha 5, to find and teleport to him five teenagers to safeguard Earth from Rita's schemes.
Jason, Zack, Billy, Trini, and Kimberly are then teleported to the Command Center. Zordon explains the situation and declares them as the first Power Rangers, giving them belt-stored Power Morphers that serve as the key to accessing their power. They refuse to believe or trust him, until Rita sends a team of her Putty Patrollers to attack them outside. They are soon overpowered by the Putties' numbers, but Jason suggests using their Power Morphers. They then instantly morph into the Power Rangers for the first time.
After Alpha 5 informs Zordon that the teens have morphed, Zordon has Alpha teleport the Rangers to Angel Grove City where Rita has sent down Goldar. There, the Rangers clash with Goldar and another team of Putty Patrollers on the city rooftops. Soon after, Rita uses her magic staff to enlarge Goldar for a giant-sized attack on the city. In response to this, the Rangers summon the Dinozords and then form the Megazord. After a few minutes of an evenly matched battle, the Rangers successfully force Goldar to retreat when the Megazord's Power Sword is summoned.
Back at the Command Center, the teens are finally convinced that they can save the world from Rita's evil and so decide to accept Zordon's request under his three conditions: * Not to use their power for personal gain... * Not to escalate a battle unless Rita forces them to do so... * And to keep their identities a secret - no one is to know that they are now Power Rangers. Zordon promises that he will be there to advise them whenever they need his wisdom and guidance.
Jake (John in the Japanese version) is hired as an apprentice magician by Zebediah Pong (simply referred to as Pong in the Japanese version). He is training when some strange people attack and kidnap his girlfriend, Allison (Yuu in the Japanese version). Jake goes on a quest to find out where they came from and why they wanted Allison. Afterwards, Jake discovers Allison's kidnapping was a feint to force Allison's father, a renowned scientist, out of hiding. Jake must not only save Allison's father, but ultimately battle an evil king who plans to lead a subterranean army in a battle against the people of Jake's world.
The Japanese and North American versions of the game are mostly the same, except for the characters. In the original 'Magic John', the main characters are two preadolescent, Japanese-style cartoon friends. In 'Totally Rad', they are redesigned into becoming two Californian adolescents who talk in "surfer" lingo from the 1980s.
In the year 2019, after a nuclear war, humanity is reduced to a few starving groups. A ruthless gang called "The Templars" constantly raid settlers in an attempt to exterminate everyone in order to purge the Earth. A former Templar, Scorpion, along with his allies, prevents a small band of religious colonists from being massacred by the Templars.
In 2005, the NDR series robot "Andrew" is introduced into the Martin family home to perform housekeeping and maintenance duties, and introduces himself by showing a presentation of the Three Laws of Robotics. The eldest daughter Grace despises Andrew but her younger sister Amanda is sympathetic to him, and Andrew discovers he feels emotions, and is drawn to spend more time with his "Little Miss". He accidentally breaks one of her glass figurines and is able to carve a new one out of wood, which surprises her father Richard. Richard takes Andrew to NorthAm Robotics to inquire if Andrew's creativity was part of his programming. NorthAm's CEO Dennis Mansky claims this is a problem and offers to scrap Andrew, but instead Richard takes Andrew back home and encourages him to continue his creativity and explore other humanities. Andrew becomes a clockmaker and earns a sizable fortune managed by Richard after they find that robots have no rights under current laws.
Time passes, and Richard encourages Dennis to give Andrew the ability to present facial expressions to match his emotions. About two decades from being awoken, Andrew presents Richard with all the money he has made to ask for his freedom. Wounded by this, Richard refuses to accept it but does grant Andrew his independence, on the condition he may no longer reside at the Martin home. Andrew builds his own home by the beach. In 2048, Richard is on his death bed, and apologizes to Andrew for banishing him before he dies.
Following Richard's death, Andrew goes on a quest to find other NDR robots that are like him, frequently communicating back to Amanda, who has since married and divorced, and has a son Lloyd and granddaughter Portia. Twenty years into Andrew's quest, he discovers Galatea, an NDR robot that has been modified with female personality and traits. Andrew becomes interested in how Galatea was modified by Rupert Burns, the son of the original NDR designer, and finds he has a number of potential ideas to help make robots appear more human-like. Andrew agrees to fund Rupert's work and to be a test subject, and is soon given a human-like appearance. Twenty years later, Andrew finally returns to the Martin home and finds that Amanda has grown old while Portia looks much like her grandmother at her age. Portia is initially cautious of Andrew, but soon accepts him as part of the Martin family.
Amanda eventually dies, making Andrew realize that all those he cares for will also pass on. He presents ideas to Rupert to create artificial organs that not only can be used in humans to prolong their lives but also to replace Andrew's mechanical workings. Andrew gains the ability to eat, feel emotions and sensations, and even have sexual relationships, resulting in him and Portia falling in love. Andrew petitions the World Congress to recognize him as a human as to allow him to marry Portia, but the body expresses concern that an immortal human will cause jealousy from others. Andrew returns to Rupert for one last operation: to change the artificial fluids driving his body into a blood equivalent. Rupert cautions him that the blood will not last forever, causing his body to age and will die eventually, a fate Andrew accepts. Several decades afterwards, Andrew again approaches the World Congress, with Portia as support, to appeal their past decision, wanting to be able to die with dignity.
In 2205, with Andrew's body deteriorating, he and Portia are both under life support monitored by Galatea, now with a human appearance. They hold hands and watch the World Congress as they recognize Andrew as a human being, the world's oldest at 200 years, and giving all rights confirmed by that, including validating his marriage to Portia. Andrew dies during the broadcast, which is confirmed by Galatea while Portia asserts that Andrew already knew the answer. After ordering Galatea to turn off her life support, Portia soon dies, hand-in-hand with Andrew as she whispers to him "See you soon."
''Lisbon Story'' is partially a sequel to Wenders' 1982 film, ''The State of Things''. The fictitious movie director in the previous film, Friedrich Munro, reappears, again played by Patrick Bauchau.
In ''Lisbon Story'' Friedrich has moved to Lisbon, Portugal (the country where ''The State of Things'' was set). The principal character, Philip Winter (Rüdiger Vogler), a sound engineer, receives a postcard invitation from Friedrich to come to Lisbon to record sounds of the capital city for his forthcoming film. On arriving at the house where he is staying, it finds it occupied with his film editing equipment, but the director is nowhere to be found. Some children who apparently work with him indicate he will return, but don't know when. This sets in motion Winter's quest to find the missing Friedrich.
The sound engineer doesn't meet up with the director until the end of the movie, when it materialises that, disturbed by the commercialization of images, he had set out to capture what he terms the "unseen image" of the city, one devoid of the subjective view (executed by strapping a rolling camera onto his back, or carried about unaimed in plastic bags with holes cut for the lens), and then shown to no one, lest the source of the photo "die" with their viewing. This is after giving up on a silent movie project using an early motion picture camera, what he calls "pretending that the whole history of cinema had never happened." After they part Winter leaves his own message for Friedrich using sound, his medium, and convinces him to continue his original project using the old-fashioned camera and his sound, together.
A semi-non-fictional aspect of the plot is the appearance of the internationally famous Portuguese folk music group Madredeus and Manoel de Oliveira, who at that time was the oldest living active film director in the world.
Leocadia ("Leo") Macías, missing her husband, Paco, a NATO military official who is in Brussels for reasons related to the Bosnian War, puts on some boots he gave her, but they are too tight, and she cannot get them off. Unable to contact her housekeeper, she tracks down her best friend, Betty, who removes the boots. They have dinner, and Betty suggests Leo, who is a writer, contact Betty's friend Ángel, an editor at ''El País'', and ask for a job writing about literature as a distraction. Ángel and Leo get along well, but when he asks her to review a new anthology of works by Amanda Gris, a popular writer of romance novels, she refuses and leaves his office.
Ángel calls Leo to tell her he has read the pieces she gave him as examples of her writing and wants to publish one of her essays. Excited, she wants to talk to Paco, but her call wakes him up and he accuses her of being drunk before she can relay her news.
Leo meets with her publishers to talk about her newest manuscript. They tell her it is unsuitably dark for an Amanda Gris novel and remind her that she has been contracted to write five romance novels each year with happy endings and without any social conscience, to be published pseudonymously, at Leo's request. The publishers threaten to sue her for breach of contract if she does not submit something in the required style, but she says she cannot write like that anymore. Frustrated, Leo writes an article belittling Amanda Gris and submits it to Ángel, who publishes it.
Paco comes home on what is supposed to be a 24-hour leave, but, when he arrives, he is aloof and says he has to leave in two hours to go to Split. Leo is upset, Paco accuses her of being selfish, and they have an argument, during which all of the problems in their relationship that they had agreed forget about until the conflict in Bosnia was over resurface. As Paco is leaving, Leo asks if there is any chance at saving their marriage. He says there is not. Left alone, Leo takes half of a bottle of tranquilizers.
Leo is awoken by the sound of her mother leaving a message on her answering machine. She vomits up the pills and wanders into the streets, where she bumps into Ángel. When she wakes up in his apartment the next day, she learns that, in her compromised state, she told him that she is Amanda Gris. He agrees to keep her secret, so long as she does not try to kill herself again.
When she gets home, Leo finds Betty waiting for her. Betty tells Leo that she and Paco have been having an affair, but she broke it off the night before when Paco came to see her after leaving Leo and she heard what happened. Leo's mother calls again to complain about Leo's sister, Rosa, with whom she lives, and say she is moving back to their old village, and Leo decides to go with her.
Leo spends some time resting and reconnecting with her roots. One day, one of her publishers calls to say how pleased the firm is with Leo's two newest Amanda Gris novels. Somewhat bemused, Leo calls Ángel to ask if he wrote and submitted the works on her behalf. He says he did and, later, agrees to write the rest of the books on Leo's contract.
Back in Madrid, after attending a dance performance created by Antonio, the son of her housekeeper, who danced in it with his mother, Leo returns to her apartment. Antonio comes to visit and tells her that he had taken advantage of her recent forgetfulness to steal some things to finance his show, among them a copy of her rejected novel, which is being made into a film. Leo, who had been worried she was losing her mind, like several of her female relatives before her, muses about the paradoxes of life and surprises Antonio by thanking him for giving meaning to her darkest months. Revitalized, she visits Ángel and, pretending it is New Year's Eve, they kiss.
The movie begins in Manhattan, three years after the first movie, where the Cheetah Girls have just completed their junior year and are performing at a Graduation Party for the Manhattan Magnet's Class of 2006 ("The Party's Just Begun").
Later while having a sleep-over/Chinese food night at Galleria's (Raven-Symoné), Chanel (Adrienne Bailon) tells the girls that her mother, Juanita (Lori Anne Alter), is planning a trip to Barcelona, Spain, where they will be visiting Luc (Abel Folk), Juanita's boyfriend. Chanel is bummed and does not want to see Luc, while the other girls are upset about being separated for the summer. Aqua (Kiely Williams) sees a shooting star and the girls make a wish together—to go to Spain with Chanel. At that very moment, a gust of wind flips one of the girl's magazines pages until it comes across an ad for a Barcelona music festival. Galleria enters the Cheetah Girls and the next day, her mother Dorothea (Lynn Whitfield), Juanita, and the Cheetah Girls all decide to travel to Spain together.
When the girls arrive in Barcelona, they do some shopping before resting in a Cafe. Soon they hear a guitar playing and meet Angel (Peter Vives), a mysterious guitar player who accompanies them around Barcelona as they sing to the entire city, and he becomes Galleria's love interest ("Strut").
The next day the girls audition for the festival and earn a spot ("Cheetah Sisters").
At breakfast the following day, they meet Joaquin (Golan Yosef), a count, Luc's godson, a handsome dancer who becomes a love interest for Dorinda (Sabrina Bryan). After Dorinda finds out Joaquin is a dancer, she goes to his studio, where he teaches her tango ("Dance With Me").
That night Joaquin takes the Cheetahs to The Dancing Cat, a local Spanish night club where all of the new artists perform their songs ("Why Wait")("A La Nanita Nana").
There they meet and befriend Marisol (Belinda), a Spanish pop star, beloved by all of Barcelona, and who will also compete in the Music Festival, and her manager/mother, Lola (Kim Manning). Lola appears nice and wins the Cheetah Girls' affection, but secretly plans a scheme to break up the Cheetah Girls, as they pose a threat to her daughter's chances in the competition. She starts making Marisol take Chanel away from The Cheetah Girls. Meanwhile, Aqua and Dorothea have been designing clothes with Dorothea's old friends, Juanita is trying to get a proposal out of Luc, Dorinda is teaching hip hop to Joaquin's class, and Galleria is the only one focused on the competition, as she is writing a song called, "''Amigas Cheetahs''", which they will sing at the competition ("Do Your Own Thing").
Galleria notices that everyone is getting involved in other activities except for her ("It's Over"), and eventually decided to take a train to Paris, where she can meet up with her father, Francobollo, and he will take her back home to Manhattan. While at a train station, the other three girls find Galleria and sing the starting sequence of "''Amigas Cheetahs''", and Galleria says she will only come back if they stay focused. While Chanel walked around the house, she overhears Juanita talking to Dorothea about how she believes that Luc doesn't want to marry her because Chanel doesn't like him. Luc later proposes to Juanita, after Chanel gives him permission, and she gladly accepts. Luc tells Chanel that she can stay in New York with her friends for her upcoming senior year. However, the Cheetah Girls' dreams are in serious trouble. After the Cheetah Girls finish performing at The Dancing Cat ("Step Up"), Lola convinces The Dancing Cat's manager to pay the Cheetah Girls money. The competition will only allow amateur performs to compete. Accepting payment from The Dancing Cat makes the Cheetah Girls professional performers. However, they gave the money back and Angel, who was present during the entire exchange, investigates.
Lola suggests that since the Cheetah Girls cannot perform as a group, Chanel should perform with Marisol instead since they can both sing in Spanish. Right before Chanel is going to get changed to perform with Marisol, the Festival Director informs that the Cheetah Girls are able to perform after getting a tip. Everyone is surprised when they see that the informer was his nephew, Angel. He informed that Lola tried to sabotage the Cheetahs, and his uncle reinstates the girls as the Cheetah Girls. Lola tries to dispute, but the Director will not hear it. Marisol finally tells off her mother, saying she is quitting the competition because she loves to sing and not to be famous, and her mother is just desperate to make her a star. The Cheetah Girls then perform "Amigas Cheetahs", and as a surprise, bring Marisol onto the stage (where Lola sees how happy her daughter finally is), along with Joaquin's dancing crew, Angel on the guitar and the Director on the trumpet. Their song is a hit with the crowd. An alternate ending concludes after this, where Juanita and Luc are having their wedding, and with everybody enjoying themselves ("Cherish the Moment"). (This scene is not shown in both TV or sing-along versions.)
As an apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi faced off against the leader of a Sith cult. A generation later, he and his own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, discover the cult still exists and it has plans for revenge that threatens the hearts of the Jedi.
Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is frustrated that Take Your Daughter to Work Day will force him to tone down his office antics. Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) and Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) bring their daughters, Sasha (Delaney Ruth Farrell) and Melissa (Jazz Raycole) respectively, Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) brings his fiancée's daughter, Abby (Haley Daniels), and Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) brings her son, Jake (Spencer Daniels). Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) is determined to befriend one child by the end of the day. She tries with Abby, who instead takes a liking to Jim Halpert (John Krasinski). Jim enlists Abby in helping him make sales, Sasha walks into Michael's office and plays with his toys, and after he jokes she becomes quite fond of him. Melissa develops a crush on Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) and repeatedly asks for his phone number. A jealous Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) alerts Stanley that something suspicious might be going on between Ryan and Melissa. Stanley, having misinterpreted Kelly's story as Ryan making advances towards his daughter, confronts him and furiously reprimands him for his "motives". Ryan, in a talking head, later describes the event as "one of the most frightening experiences" of his life.
Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) begins to read one of his childhood horror stories to the children, but Michael enters and insists that he stop upsetting the kids. Michael shows the children and the office a video of him as a child (Jake Kalender) during an appearance on a kid's show, where he revealed his dream was to "get married and have 100 kids, so I can have 100 friends, and no one can say 'no' to being my friend." He retreats into his office when he realizes that he never came close to that dream. Toby talks to Michael, who decides to start online dating (with the user name "Little Kid Lover"). After being tormented by Jake all day, Dwight upsets him with a childish insult, which quietly pleases Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey). Pam wins over Jake with the paper shredder. Jim leaves the office early to go on a date, to Pam's chagrin. Michael and Dwight end the party by singing "Teach Your Children".
Since the alien symbiote to which he was bonded was destroyed during his capture, Cletus Kasady is presumed powerless and jailed at Ravencroft Asylum. However, the symbiote mutated his blood before its destruction, enabling Kasady to generate a copy of the symbiote and break out. During his escape, Kasady—again calling himself Carnage—frees fellow inmate Shriek.
Over the course of their ensuing killing spree through New York City, they recruit Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Carnage dubs himself their "father", but in fact, they all despise Carnage and stay with the group out of devotion to Shriek. As the death toll increases, Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, the Black Cat, Nightwatch, Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Firestar all join the cause of stopping them, but the heroes are polarized between Venom's desire to stop Carnage at all costs and Spider-Man's refusal to use violent methods, and Spider-Man ultimately abandons Venom to Carnage's mercies. In addition, Shriek uses her psychic powers to turn the populace of New York City into a bloodthirsty rabble, allowing the killers to continue their rampage with impunity.
Carnage finally turns on the rest of his gang, and, in the ensuing battle, Shriek is distracted from using her psychic power. Taking advantage of the lull, the heroes acquire a device from Rand Corporation which projects feelings of love and hopes into the villains, overwhelming them. Carnage flees, faking his death by covering a victim in a mock symbiote costume, and the others are captured. Once the heroes are dispersed, Carnage ambushes Venom. The device has left Carnage frantic and confused, and Venom pounds him relentlessly before tackling him into an electrical generator. Carnage is knocked senseless and left to be incarcerated.
Dew (Anne Thongprasom) is a young computer programmer who meets Ton (Attaporn Teemakorn) in Chiang Mai during her distant cousin's funeral. They immediately become attracted to each other and start to date each other over the phone.
Back in Bangkok on Valentine's Day, Dew refuses to accompany her best friend, Ked, to a blind date because she is anxiously waiting for Ton's phone call. The consequence of this breaks Dew's heart as her friend is murdered by the blind date.
Dew immediately leaves for Chiang Mai and finds comfort in Ton. The two start a serious relationship and marry soon after. However, their new-found happiness is cut short when Ton dies of a brain tumor. Dew is again left alone.
Before leaving for Bangkok, she receives a mysterious letter, seemingly from her dead husband. As it turns out, Ton had written a series of letters prior to his death and arranged for them to be sent after his death to his widow. The letters help Dew through her grief. She finally is able to live without the love of her life and continues to live in Chiang Mai with their son, born after the death of his father.
On a world where aliens are commonplace, Kazuto Tokino decides on his own to run his grandfather's bathhouse despite the protests from his parents. Kazuto however lacks a lot of the skills needed to make such a venture successful and must get by on a sunny disposition. That alone might have made things hard enough for him, but an alien princess named Valkyrie destroys the bathhouse, and in the process mortally wounds Kazuto. However, she is able to save his life with a magical kiss, but that kiss costs her half of her soul and transforms her into an 8-year-old child, though when Valkyrie and Kazuto kiss, their souls connect allowing her to temporarily assume her adult form and wield the Key of Time, a powerful sword-shaped artifact. Princess Valkyrie is then stranded on Earth, unable to look after herself as the entire solar system is out searching for her. Over time, Kazuto and Valkyrie fall in love with each other.
The plot is virtually a retelling of the storyline of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''; however, as this is a sequel to the animated series ''Tales of the Wizard of Oz'', in which Dorothy and the gang went through an entirely different series of adventures, this adventure is new to them all. All of Dorothy's friends become trapped in the situations they were in when she first met them, meaning that they all must visit the Wizard as they did in the pilot for the TV series. Dorothy receives a letter from the Scarecrow, called Socrates in the special, as in the series, telling her that everyone is happy with the gifts the Wizard gave them and that they miss her very much. She goes to find her magic Silver Shoes and is instantly taken back to Oz again by another Kansas twister, this time not by house, but an apple tree. Once she arrives there, she is greeted by the Munchkins in Munchkinville. Glinda arrives to tell her that the previously melted Wicked Witch of the West has become reconstituted and is wreaking havoc again, having taken Socrates' diploma and burned it, destroyed the heart of the Tin Woodman, called Rusty, by turning herself into a Tin Woman, and dropping him into a pond where he rusted over again. She has also stolen the medal that belonged to the Cowardly Lion, called Dandy, and turned it into a daisy, and is planning to get Dorothy's silver shoes again.
Dorothy sets off to find her friends, without knowing the Wicked Witch is watching them in her Crystal Ball. She finds and oils Rusty who has rusted after the Witch tricked him. They find Socrates in a cornfield on a pole scaring crows again and get him down. They find Dandy crying, and after some unexpectedly cruel bullying from Socrates and Rusty, they cheer him up. After the four friends are reunited, they arrive at the Emerald City, only to be tricked by the Witch, who has captured the Wizard and taken over as the ruler of Oz. The Wizard, who in this continuity is not an Omaha huckster but an Ozite born and bred and the elected ruler of Oz, tells them to destroy her again and he will give them what they want. She arrives back at her castle just before Dorothy and her friends, but before they arrive she sends flying alligators to kill them. Socrates' quick thinking saves them as they hide under his straw (a method employed in more than one of the Oz books). Rusty saves them from a lightning bolt by sacrificing himself, which kills him, despite his being made of tin. Dorothy asks Glinda if she will help and a glowing ball brings him back to life. They arrive and are trapped by the Witch. She grabs Dorothy and tries to take her silver slippers. The gang (including the Wizard himself) tries to get her back from the Witch, who gives her and Dandy the slippers. Dorothy, who is being held upside-down from the window, tells Dandy that he will turn to stone if he takes them, but he takes them anyway without being turned to stone. The Witch takes them only to be turned into stone, crumble, and fall apart. The gang returns to the Emerald City, only to find out that the Wizard is, after all, a humbug, unable as he always was to return Dorothy home. Glinda appears to tell Dorothy the reason that her friends didn't turn to stone, because they had brains, a heart, and courage. She also explains that the Witch was cruel and heartless, brainless enough to think that evil could conquer good and cowardly in that she used slaves and suppressed others. Dorothy wishes to go back, and instantly, a Kansas twister whisks her and Toto back home to Aunt Em and Uncle Henry again.
The movie flips between following a group of gamers in a dorm immersed in a role-playing game, and their characters (played by the same actors) as they journey through a world of fantasy and wonder to defeat a being known as "The Shadow" and rescue a princess. The latter is theoretically a heroic quest, but while the game master attempts to foster in a narrative, the players tend to be more interested in their characters' tolerance for ale, trying to apply the sneak attack damage multiplier to siege weaponry, et cetera.
The movie both makes fun of gamer stereotypes and plays the discrepancy between an optimal RPG plot and the events of an actual RPG session for maximum absurdity. Characters attempting something dangerous freeze as dice clatter in the distance. The party thief picks the pocket of a bystander, then steals that bystander's pants—not because he wants the pants in any way, but solely to see if his skill statistics allow it. One character, while present, does not interact with the others for most of the game, as his player is absent. When an unlucky dice roll causes the death of one character, the other players' characters mourn him for a moment, and then immediately start squabbling over the items he was carrying. Characters spring to action, then keel over as their players forget and are reminded that the characters are asleep, players argue and make snack runs, and their game is frequently interrupted by a girl from the same dorm who demands they keep quiet so that she can study.
The Shadow is eventually defeated, after a long quest, and the characters find themselves in a strange tunnel. On the other side of the door, they hear voices—the voices of their players, who are narrating the action in the hallway outside. Bursting into the room (as dictated by the players), the characters slaughter the gamers, then begin picking over the room for treasure. They discover that their entire adventure has been documented by the "strange sorcerers" they have just slain via their character sheets. In the midst of these revelations, the "Princess" (the girl who needs to study and is constantly interrupted by the gamers' noise) bursts in and reads them the riot act, thinking their outfits to be mere costumes; after she leaves, the adventurers seem quite stunned that their beloved Princess has such a foul mouth and temper.
Val Gyrth, heir to the Gyrth family and their traditional vocation of guarding the famous Gyrth Chalice, is homeless and wandering the streets. After a mysterious chain of events, he is plucked out of danger by Albert Campion, who explains that a conspiracy of art collectors and criminals hopes to steal the treasure his family is charged with protecting.
Returning Gyrth to his family in the village of Sanctuary in Suffolk, Campion is shocked when Val's aunt Di, a bohemian who upset the family by being photographed with the chalice, is found lying dead in a spooky forest clearing, apparently frightened to death.
With Val's 25th birthday, at which a great secret will be revealed to him, fast approaching, Campion and the Gyrths smuggle the chalice to London, evading ruthless crooks. There, they find it is a fake, a replacement made a few hundred years ago, while the genuine, thousand-year-old chalice remains out of sight. A crook informs them that someone named "Daisy" is behind the chalice thieves; Val is left in the safety of Campion's flat, protecting the decoy chalice.
Back in Sanctuary, Lugg has been frightened by a monster in the woods, perhaps the same thing that scared Aunt Di to death. Accompanied by the Gyrths' neighbour Professor Cairey, a historian friend of Campion's, and a local woodsman, they trap the monster, revealed to be an aged witch of the village, protecting her slow-witted poacher son, descendants of a family of witches with the name Munsey. They further learn that she was encouraged to frighten Aunt Di by someone named Daisy, and the local woodsman tells Campion that a local stable owner, Mrs Shannon, whom Campion has met a few times already, is called Daisy.
Awaking after his long night in the woods, Campion learns that his flat has been attacked, the chalice taken and Val Gyrth vanished in pursuit. He rushes off, leaving instructions that a pouch be delivered to Gypsies staying nearby. Later, the chalice arrives by post, and Penny and Beth find Val in a field, bedraggled and exhausted but alive, with a White Campion in his buttonhole.
Campion strolls up to Mrs Shannon's stables, where he finds her playing cards with a band of well-known crooks, including a cat-burglar. Campion is locked in a room above the stables for a day, and visited by Mrs Shannon on the night of Val's birthday. Realising he knows too much, she pushes him through the floor into a stable with a wild, angry horse; he hides in a hay-feeder until rescued by Professor Cairey, who heard Daisy's name from the Munseys too. A gang of Gypsies, summoned by Campion's message, arrive and scatter Shannon's gang, but she escapes in a car. Campion follows on the wild horse, temporarily tamed by a gypsy.
Arriving at the Gyrth's Tower, he finds Mrs Shannon lowering herself from the roof to see into the window of a secret room, only lit up on the heir's birthday and rumoured to contain a fearsome secret that protects the chalice. Looking in, she goes white with fear, and falls from her rope to her death.
Campion reveals that he had found Val, knocked out by the crooks he pursued in London, and sent him home before heading to the stables. Next day a representative of royalty arrives to inspect the chalice, and Campion and the Professor are permitted to join the party; taken to the secret room, they see the chalice guarded by the skeleton of a giant, clad in armour, and the chalice, a beautiful bowl of red gold and rubies.
The story starts when General Plastro, the general of the Tan army, was captured by the Green Army and locked away during the events of ''Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2''. Brigitte Bleu observes this through a magic mirror and makes sinister plans to marry Sarge and get rid of Vikki Grimm, Colonel Grimm's daughter and Sarge's girlfriend. Brigitte decides that she is lonesome, and needs a king worthy of her magnificence, and says that Vikki is a treasure waiting to be buried.
After Vikki saves Sarge from attacking gingerbread men, she is reprimanded by her father, Colonel Grimm for putting herself in danger. As she leaves, a Green Army soldier gives her a package from an unknown person. Inside was a dinosaur egg and a letter, saying "the story of your career awaits you. Follow the map and seek out the one called Rage. Tell no one, leave now". Sarge walks up and tells her that her father’s rights about her being too adventurous for her own good. Vikki walks off in disgust, with Sarge commenting how that was a good start and how he’ll be buying plastic flowers for a week.
As she traverses the Lost Caves, she is ambushed by Rage (a WarBot, an evil toy robot; WarBots first appeared in ''Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2''), Brigitte's WarBot friend who will do whatever she says, and is forced to the prehistoric jungle toy world. That was also when she meets a lion, who was also forced to the same world as Rage destroys the portal. Vikki decides to befriend with the lion, whom she calls Leo and they both help each other to get home.
After enduring magic pillars, a pyramid, and magic air lifts, they come upon a volcano withanother portal. Once they step through, they end up in a medieval world. Vikki rescues a wizard named Merlin from a deadly chessboard. Merlin explains that he made a magic mirror that could see anywhere for Brigitte, thinking she would appreciate his mind. He directs Vikki to another portal, guarded by a ghosty barrier, an evil tree, and a moat dragon. When they reach the portal, they're captured by Rage and Tan Soldiers who appear to be minions of Brigitte.
Brigitte had lured Sarge into the dollhouse where she lived and wanted to marry him. She and her henchmen found an space-alien themed toy set, which acted as a portal to an Outer Space World. Brigitte acquired a love gun from some Martians, who lived in the Space World in exchange for the secret of the portals; she used the gun on Sarge, and he instantly fell in love with her.
Brigitte visited Vikki, who was being held in the dungeon, and told her that Sarge and she are going to get married. Brigitte leaves her mirror for Vikki to let her watch the wedding. As Vikki cries to herself, she's contacted by Merlin. He informs her that he left a few secrets in the mirror before handing it over. When Vikki asks about Sarge's situation, Merlin tells her only the kiss of his true love can apparently break the inducement. She asks if he’s kidding, which he isn’t. Meanwhile, in a toy store, Leo is being transported in a circus carriage, and is about to be burned in a microwave when he notices the bars are melting. He breaks out and travels to a portal that takes him back to the Medieval Castle.
He and Vikki head to the Space World to stop the wedding. Once they acquire a stolen key from a Martian saucer, Vikki breaks into the room and kisses Sarge, breaking the trance on him. A voice tells all Martians to report for battle. Vikki tells Brigitte to call off the attack. She tries, but some monitors show they're now attacking all the other worlds. They split up; Sarge goes with Leo to stop most of the aliens while Vikki heads to the Alien Brain room, where the Brain, a cyborgic-style creature resembling a Martian head on a robotic spider body, refuses to call off the attack.
After Vikki destroys the Brain, the attack stops. Sarge and Leo meet up with her, as Merlin congratulates Vikki for stopping the attack, and they head back to the Plastic World. At the Lost Caves, three lion cubs run up to Leo. Showing that he wasn't guarding the Portals, but protecting his family, he stays. Back at the Green Army Base, Vikki apologizes to Colonel Grimm and says that her home is wherever he is, with her father thanking her.
The game ends with Brigitte sharing a cell with General Plastro, who tells her that before she gets any funny ideas, the top bunk is his and he blows a raspberry. Brigitte yells out "Noooooo!"
Stanislaus Oates is being followed by a stranger, and runs into his friend Campion in the bizarrest of places. Campion is waiting for a client, Joyce Blount, the fiancee of his solicitor friend Marcus Featherstone, and when she arrives she clearly recognises Oates' stalker, but denies having seen him before. After Campion hears Joyce's story, of the disappearance of her Uncle Andrew on the way home from church, news reaches them that Andrew's murdered body has been found in a stream.
They head to Cambridge, where Campion meets Marcus and hears more about the family of Andrew, his imperious Great-Aunt Caroline and the clutch of feckless relatives who live off her, including Uncle William, who was with Andrew when he went missing, and about the body, found tied up and shot in the head. He meets William, and learns that Oates' mysterious stalker was Cousin George, who visits rarely and has some power over Great-Aunt Caroline.
Next morning, more bad news hits the family; Aunt Julia is found dead in her bed, poisoned by a surreptitious morning cup of tea. Campion heads to the house and meets the famous Caroline Faraday, who hires him to help them resolve matters. Oates analyses the teacup and finds traces of conium poison (hemlock, the poison that was used to execute Socrates, and one of the species in the carrot genus, including dill, and parsnip), while Campion finds a stash of weight-loss pills in Julia's room.
Uncle William approaches Marcus, telling him he has been suffering from blackouts, and Campion also finds the old man's service revolver is missing, along with some cord from the same (unused) room. Later, Campion finds William in the corridor, his hand badly cut; he almost faints, and Campion suspects mild poisoning. He and Oates inspect the scene where Andrew's body was found, but find nothing but an old hat, presumably swapped for Andrew's missing bowler.
Back at the house, there has been another scare; a mysterious symbol like a stylised letter B has been drawn in chalk on one of the library windows. Campion and Oates suspect it is a sign used by tramps to communicate amongst themselves. Great-Aunt Caroline reveals that Andrew had been writing to old girlfriends, and Campion has an idea which could solve the case. He finds Uncle William has an alibi, having been seen in a pub at the time of the murder, in the midst of an amnesia attack, and the inquest into Andrew's death returns a verdict of murder.
Cousin George arrives at the house, and denounces his family, claiming to know who killed Andrew and insisting he be allowed to stay in the house, threatening to bring scandal on the family. He gets drunk and is locked in Andrew's room by Campion and Marcus. In the night, Campion spots a man in the gardens, and tackles him; he is a large-footed tramp named Beveridge.
In the morning, Campion is missing, and George is found dead in his bed, with a strong smell of cyanide in the room. When Campion and Oates arrive, Campion explains all – Andrew, watched secretly by George and his friend Beveridge, bound and then shot himself, arranging for the gun to fall from the bridge. George hid the gun in a tree and Beveridge took Andrew's hat. Andrew had previously placed several booby-traps around the house, including the poisoned pill which killed Julia, a hidden blade which cut William, and a cyanide-stuffed pipe which killed George.
Campion leaves the house with everyone's gratitude, and some interesting gifts.
The device Uncle Andrew used is similar to one in a Sherlock Holmes story The Problem of Thor Bridge.
Emma Küsters (Mira), a working-class woman, lives in Frankfurt with her son and daughter-in-law. While she is doing outreach work assembling electric plugs, Frau Küsters learns that her husband Hermann (a tire-factory worker for twenty years) has killed his supervisor or his supervisor's son and then committed suicide. It later becomes apparent that Mr. Küsters had become temporarily insane after hearing layoff announcements.
A group of reporters take advantage of the grieving Mother Küsters to sensationalize the deaths. Finding no solace from her son Ernst (Meier), daughter-in-law Helene (Irm Hermann), who promptly go on holiday, or daughter (Caven), Küsters turns to Karl and Marianne Thälmann (Böhm and Carstensen), two members of what turns out to be the German Communist Party (DKP). They introduce themselves at Hermann's funeral, and invite her to their home, which Marianne had inherited.
The Communists see Küsters's husband as a 'revolutionary' and a misguided victim of capitalism, but she is initially unpersuaded; her husband saw communists as troublemakers. Her daughter Corinna advises her mother to have nothing to do with them, and points out the differing conditions enjoyed by the authorities and the people in the East. An article on the tragedy by Niemeyer (Gottfried John), a photojournalist who had earlier shown a particular interest in the family, appears in a magazine. Emma finds the article objectionable, but her daughter, who has embarked on an affair with Niemeyer, defends him on 'earning a living' grounds. At the factory, Emma Küsters finds that the company pension scheme will not apply in her case; the workers' council and the company board are at one on the issue. Her daughter leaves, and Ernst and Helene, newly returned from holiday, announce they are to set up home on their own. Helene, expecting a child, does not get along with her sister-in-law.
Emma Küsters now joins the Communist Party, having found Karl's newspaper article more sympathetic, but after Küsters speaks at her first DKP political gathering she meets a young male paper seller who claims to ''really'' have her interests at heart in clearing her husband's name. He gives her his contact details. She quickly grows impatient with the communists' passive tactics; they have to campaign in the forthcoming elections Karl explains. She connects with a small group of anarchists, who, though even smaller in number than the communists, claim to have more spirit.
There are two endings to the film: The anarchists' leading member, Horst Knab, demands to see Niemeyer at the magazine's offices but the secretary ('Lilo Pempeit', Fassbinder's mother) says he is unavailable. The editor suggests Küsters send in a letter which he might publish. The anarchists take the staff hostage at gunpoint, including Niemeyer, now living with Corinna, who arrives unaware how far the situation has developed. The anarchists demand the release of all political prisoners in West Germany, a Mercedes 600 to take them to the airport and a Boeing 707 to take them out of the country. Küsters looks horrified at the anarchists' demands but is killed in a subsequent clash with the police. Knab kills Linke (the editor) but Knab is also shot. (The last stages of the narrative are detailed with captions.) In another ending (primarily used for the American edition), Niemeyer is at the magazine offices but as the staff start to leave at the end of their working day, the two anarchists grow bored with the sit-down strike and leave with Küsters remaining. After being told by her daughter Corinna, clearly now living with Niemeyer who has 'phoned her, that she is making herself ridiculous, Emma Küsters meets the friendly janitor of the newspaper's offices, whose wife is dead. The widow and widower leave to have dinner together, apparently beginning a romantic relationship.
Fassbinder's film criticizes the bloodthirst of the 1970s German media in a similar manner to ''The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum'' (directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta). However, Fassbinder's film goes further by criticizing the overwhelming selfishness present in contemporary society. Nearly everyone who Mother Küsters encounters is self-serving and unconcerned with comforting her. Fassbinder also clearly criticizes the small German Communist Party's moderation and "armchair activism".
Eighteen-year-old Harry (Norman Reedus), is an innocent, bashful burger boy who lives with his overly attentive mother Kate. Harry's father left the family sometime before the events of the film, leaving Kate for another man. They live in a ratty old apartment, where Kate treats her son like a child, even going as far to draw his bath water and connect a wire to his reading lamp, shutting it off when Harry is busy to get his attention. One day, Arnie (Adrien Brody), Harry's oldest and best friend, goes to a strip club, where the boss owes Arnie's mob boss money. Harry watches as Arnie beats the owner, and snaps, releasing his rage out on the owner, pummeling him to the point where Arnie has to pull Harry off to avoid killing him. Outside, both are visibly shocked by Harry's outburst, but Harry is shocked and confused at the fact that he liked it. Not long after, Arnie's boss Abie Pinkwise, meets the two at a local diner, where he remarks how much potential Harry has in the mob business. He invites Harry to become his apprentice, and Harry accepts. After leaving, Arnie attempts a heist at a small store, but backfires when the clerk holds him at gun point, sending him to jail. When Harry is told to ditch a car (evidence in a homicide), by his bosses, he leaves evidence (a magazine with his name on it), and a witness. He is arrested but is proven to be loyal to his employers by keeping silent, despite being beaten by the police. Now trusting him, the bosses get him out of jail and take him out to celebrate at a brothel. When alone with one of the women, Harry is unaroused, and timidly asks the prostitute if he seems normal. When he answers that he doesn't feel that way for neither men nor women, she gently replies that she isn't the kind of professional he should be talking to. He goes home dejected, and when his mother smells perfume on him the first signs of her jealous tendencies begin to show.
As the months pass Abie shows Harry the ropes but when faced with killing someone, Harry hesitates, but ultimately does the crime, letting himself go as he did when beating the strip club owner. That night, upset by what he did, Harry goes to Louis Varga's house, only to find it empty, sans for Iris, his Hungarian maid. She offers him coffee, and it is here where Harry's alter-ego Madden (Holter Graham), appears. With Madden in control, Harry frightens Iris and thus causes her to quit. Angry, Mr. Varga makes Harry apologize to Iris, and makes Harry say he is in love with her to prompt her to come back under Mr. Varga's employment. Hesitantly, Iris accepts Harry's timid offer and the two begin dating, with Harry actually falling in love with Iris along the way, much to his mother's anger and jealousy.
When Harry finds a house that he likes, he is set on moving into it as a means to escape his mother's controlling nature, but when she moves with him, she decorates the house as a replica of their old apartment, much to her sons anger. Arnie is then released from prison, and Harry hopes to get him back in the game as their getaway driver for a new hit coming up. However, the hit goes awry when it is revealed far too late that the man to be killed by both Harry and Abie, is actually Abie's long-lost uncle. Devastated, Abie pauses long enough for the police to be called, which is where Arnie flees. Abie and Harry manage to escape. While Abie grieves at home, falling off the wagon after years of sobriety, Harry and "Madden" meet up again and this leads him to Iris' house, where the consummate their relationship. Arnie then comes forward with the promise of immunity, and flips on Harry and Abie. Both Abie and Harry keep quiet during the interrogation.
The mob has the three released, but now that it is clear that Arnie is a liability and cannot be trusted, Mr. Varga orders Abie and Harry to kill him. When Abie hesitates, still drinking and distraught over his uncle, Harry kills Arnie himself, despite his friend's pleading. Once again, in this blood-lust haze, Harry seeks comfort with Iris. At Arnie's funeral, Mr. Varga reminds Harry that when Abie drinks, he starts talking, and this makes him a liability. Mr. Varga hints that they may need to kill Abie to keep him silent. When Kate finds Iris' hair in Harry's underwear, he admits to having a girlfriend and Kate calmly says she would like to meet her. The stress puts a strain on Iris and Harry's sex life, and even "Madden's one-track mind" is of no use (during past sexual encounters, Harry has only had sex with Iris under Madden's persona). Worried for Harry's mental health, Iris resolves they really try, without Madden's help. The two go to a hotel, where they make love after Harry has her put on a mourning veil. At the family dinner where Iris was to meet Kate, things seem to be going well, until Kate has her son go out for ginger ale, leaving the two women alone. When Harry returns he finds Iris gone, his mother having driven her away in a jealous rage. Harry admits that he may be in love with Iris and is about to go after her when his mother stops him. Harry remains home and breaks off contact with Iris, his mother's hold over him stronger than ever.
Despite the fact that Abie has stopped drinking and is no longer a threat, Mr. Varga orders Harry to kill Abie anyway. Harry kills Abie with the same ice-pick he gave Harry earlier in the film, in front of a diner full of witnesses. More upset than ever, Madden is revealed again, and though he goes to first Iris, then a brothel for relief, he turns to his mother. It is revealed though flashbacks that Madden is truly Harry. Harry then has sex with Kate, who proclaims that she had waited "so long" for this.
The next morning is mundane, Harry takes his usual bath while his mother is in the kitchen. He hears a thud and goes to investigate, and there finds his mother hanging from the ceiling thinking she killed herself (Harry actually killed her, but his mental state won't let him notice). Mr. Varga calls Harry to inform him that they are relocating elsewhere, as Harry's act in the diner put them all under danger of arrest. Harry, clearly distraught from Kate's death, says that he will take his mother's corpse with him, and that she will "not get in the way" of their escape. Disturbed, Mr. Varga agrees to pick him up, only to attempt to kill him when Harry gets into the backseat. Harry draws his own gun and shoots both Mr. Varga and his henchman dead and takes the car to the bus station.
Iris, who had left the city for California to be with her brother, is delighted to have Harry going with her. They sit on the bus, overjoyed to breakaway from the city and the mob altogether. Harry looks away across the seat with a smile, and shows Kate's body bag resting casually in the seat.
Jerry is dating Melissa, a woman who is comfortable being naked in his apartment in nonsexual contexts. While initially amused by Melissa's quirk, he finds that certain commonplace actions, such as coughing and squatting, make her nudity repulsive. Jerry plans to make Melissa understand his revulsion by using a belt sander while naked, but Melissa objects to his nudity before he even turns on the sander. Jerry convinces Melissa to wear clothes more often, but the genie is out of the bottle: Jerry cannot stop picturing her naked, and Melissa cannot stop picturing Jerry naked.
George learns that his childhood friend Jason Hanke is a recovering alcoholic and, as Step 9 of Alcoholics Anonymous's Twelve Steps, is apologizing for all his misdeeds. George gets angry when Jason moves on to Step 10 without apologizing for embarrassing him at a party a few years earlier. George asked to borrow his sweater, and Jason refused, saying the neck would be stretched out, which made everyone else laugh. When George broaches the subject, Jason refuses to apologize, saying that his concern about his sweater was sincere. George petitions Jason's sponsor to intervene; his anger over the old embarrassment instead convinces the sponsor to enroll George in an anger management class. Jason goes to the anger management class after snapping at George and some teenagers at his job at an ice cream shop. He and George have another confrontation at the meeting.
After Jerry informs Kramer that his hour-long showers are not normal, Kramer attempts to reduce his time showering. He cuts it down to a half-hour, but only by not rinsing off the lather or drying off. Jerry gives him some pointers on more efficient showering, but refuses his request for a personal demonstration, and when Kramer tries observing in a public shower he is mistaken for a voyeur, given a black eye, and ejected. Frustrated at these failures, he decides that since he enjoys showers so much, he should go the other direction and spend all his time showering. He buys a waterproof phone, and installs a garbage disposal in his bathtub drain so that he can prepare meals in the shower.
Elaine notices her co-worker Peggy puts sanitary paper on a toilet only used by the two of them, yet she is clearly not a germophobe because she finishes off another co-worker's half-drunk water bottle. When Elaine confronts her about this, she says Elaine disgusts her because she is sexually promiscuous. Insulted, Elaine rubs Peggy's keyboard on her butt and her stapler under her armpit, and coughs on her doorknob. Peggy calls in sick the next day, but Elaine insists her illness must be psychosomatic. David Puddy agrees, and accompanies Elaine to Peggy's to convince her to come back to work. He reveals to Peggy that he is a recovering germophobe and persuades her that she is one too.
Elaine makes up with Peggy by inviting her over for a dinner cooked by Kramer. When Kramer reveals that he prepared the dinner while showering, they are all horrified. David has to go back to Germophobes Anonymous, with Peggy and Elaine now joining him.
At a cocktail party at the Reisner Institute, a Washington think tank, an invisible force drags a scientist named Devin into a nearby bathroom, where the force (implied to be a person) brutally throws Devin around for information. Devin mentions another scientist, Maggie Dalton, who knows the "formula" the invisible person is looking for. Apparently accepting this, the man releases him, warning him not to divulge information about this incident to anybody. As soon as the invisible man leaves (or rather, ''pretends'' to leave), Devin attempts to call someone on his cell phone, but the invisible man smashes the phone and slashes Devin's throat. The police arrive at the laboratory to conduct a murder investigation, but the laboratory's military supervisor, Colonel Gavin Bishop, insists it is an internal military incident and the police have no jurisdiction. Fearing attacks on the remaining scientists, the lab's owner, Dr. William Reisner, employs Frank Turner and his partner, Detective Lisa Martinez, to protect Maggie, but refuses to divulge any information on the nature of his work.
The two detectives stand guard outside Maggie's house. When Lisa opens the door to let the cat in, the invisible man sneaks past her into the house. Just as he reaches the study where Maggie is, Lisa tracks him down, and he strangles her with a lamp's power cord. Suddenly, armed military commandos appear and storm the house, using thermal goggles to target and corner the invisible man. Outside, Turner confronts Bishop, realizing that they used him and Lisa to lure the invisible man to the house. Several stun grenades go off around the house, incapacitating the soldiers and allowing the invisible man to escape in pursuit of Turner and Maggie. He almost catches up to them, but is struck and badly injured by a car, and flees.
Maggie is taken into protective custody by the police, where Turner's superior and friend, Captain Tom Harrison, has received orders to have her transferred to military custody. Frank helps Maggie escape from the police station and they flee in a stolen car. Bishop and Reisner, knowing their careers would end if Maggie talks, declare them fugitives.
Maggie later tells Turner that five years prior, a team of scientists figured out how to make humans invisible, but something went wrong, leaving only two survivors. A year after the original project was scrapped, the Reisner Institute restarted the experiments as a covertly Department of Defense-funded operation to create the perfect soldier, codenamed "Silent Knight", which attempts to render humans invisible. The resulting serum ''does'' turn human tissue invisible, but with adverse effects: as it allows light to pass directly through the subject, the radiation damages the cells and causes physical and mental degradation, slowly killing the person. Maggie developed a compound called the "Buffer" to counteract the effects of that particular radiation. A soldier named Michael Griffin volunteered, and the serum succeeded, but the Buffer failed and Griffin seemingly died, which in turn got Maggie fired. Maggie believes that Griffin faked his death so he could use his powers without restraint, but now needs the antidote to the radiation before he dies.
Maggie receives a message from a man named Ludlow, who has been in contact with her for weeks. Turner uses his contacts to find Ludlow, a soldier enlisted into the program after Sebastian Caine (the original guinea pig), but before Griffin. He had gone into hiding, but is now slowly dying from radiation. Ludlow has also been tracking Griffin, and reveals the true story to his supposed "death" and the program itself: Operation Silent Knight was ''never'' about national security, and neither was Griffin given the Buffer, since the Department used him to assassinate their political enemies.
Meanwhile, Griffin infiltrates Bishop's office and both get into a fight. The latter attempts to reason with him and then, getting desperate, stabs him, but not kills him, with a pen. Griffin impales Bishop with the same pen, and uses his computer to locate Ludlow. Arriving at the hideout, Griffin attacks Turner, but Ludlow intervenes, sacrificing himself to allow Turner and Maggie to escape. Griffin decides to make them return by capturing Maggie's sister. When they meet at the train station where he is hiding, Griffin silently catches Maggie and tries to turn her invisible so he can take her unnoticed, but Turner intervenes. After a short fight, Griffin escapes with Maggie, leaving Turner with the arriving Reisner and his guards. A short time later, Reisner pursues an invisible man, but is soon captured and held by him. Believing him to be Griffin, he offers to send for the Buffer. The figure, however, is ''Turner'', who used Griffin's discarded syringe to become invisible as well. Reisner, backing away, is hit and killed by a speeding car.
Griffin takes Maggie to her old college laboratory to create the Buffer for him. Griffin forces her to inject herself with it first, then injects himself with another dose. With his survival seemingly assured, Griffin tries to kill Maggie, but Turner (now invisible) intervenes and knocks him out of the laboratory window. Turner runs outside, where Griffin renders him unconscious. As Griffin slowly turns visible, Maggie reveals that both of them have been poisoned, as the vial contained rat poison; she loses consciousness. Enraged, Griffin takes a shovel and attempts to kill her, but Turner, having recovered, stops him and impales him with the shovel. He then carries Maggie away for medical attention, leaving Griffin's body outside in the rain.
A few days later, Maggie is recovering in hospital and is poised to be released. Heather tells her that Turner has not been found. Maggie insists that he will come back to her, as she knows that he needs her. Outside, they are being watched by a hooded invisible man, presumably Turner, who then walks away.
The film begins with a montage of wind blowing through a field of wheat and sunflowers. Next, an old peasant named Semen dies beneath an apple tree, attended by his son Opanas and grandson Vasyl. Elsewhere local kulaks, including Arkhyp Bilokin, denounce collectivization and declare their resistance to it. At Opanas's home, Vasyl and his Komsomol friends meet to discuss collectivization and argue with Opanas, who is skeptical about collectivization.
Later, Vasyl arrives with the community's first tractor to much excitement. After the men urinate in the overheated radiator, the peasants plow the land with the tractor and harvest the grain, in the process plowing over the kulaks' fences. A montage sequence presents the production of bread from beginning to end. That night Vasyl dances a hopak along a path on his way home and is killed by a dark figure. Opanas looks for Vasyl's killer and confronts Khoma, Bilokin's son, who does not confess.
Vasyl's father turns away the Russian Orthodox priest who expects to lead the funeral, declaring his atheism. He asks Vasyl's friends to give his son a secular funeral and "sing new songs for a new life." The villagers do so, while Vasyl's fiancée, Natalya, mourns him and the local priest curses them. At the cemetery, Khoma arrives in a frenzy to declare that he will resist collectivization and that he killed Vasyl. The villagers ignore him while one of Vasyl's friends eulogizes him. The film ends with a montage showing a downpour of rain over fruit and vegetables, after which Natalya finds herself embraced in Vasyl's arms.
Jane, Elaine, and Louise are suburbanites in Eugene, Oregon. These three women, friends since high school, are currently all struggling with money due to a turbulent national economy and high inflation. Jane is divorced, trying to cope with the man she is dating, Robert; her newly single father, who moves in with Jane after his wife leaves him for another woman; and her young children, who need dental work. Jane learns she is pregnant, which makes Robert unhappy since both he and Jane are nearly broke. Elaine's husband, an architect, has left her for a younger woman. He has also left her with no money, no credit cards, and many overdue bills. Louise owns an unsuccessful antiques store, and relies on funds from her veterinarian husband Albert to keep the store open.
After her electricity is shut off, a depressed Elaine gets drunk and her car is pulled over by police officer Jack. Elaine makes a pass at him, trying to get out of the ticket. When he accepts, he then reveals he is married, and Elaine smacks him with her purse. Meanwhile, Louise is served a court order and learns that her husband plans on suing her to force her into bankruptcy to wipe away the enormous debt she has incurred.
The women become desperate. Elaine has a yard sale to raise money, selling her husband's possessions, including his deodorant. At the peak of their woes, Elaine visits the local mall, where an acquaintance, Natalie, has coaxed her into helping out with staging a community pageant. Elaine stares at a large, clear ball soon due to hold thousands of dollars in a giant cash "give away" and formulates the idea of stealing the money. She calls Jane and Louise to the mall, where they scheme to steal the money by drilling a hole beneath the ball and sucking out as much cash as possible with a high-powered vacuum, then escaping via the river behind the mall. Despite getting caught by officer Jack in the act of stealing items needed for the heist, Elaine again manages to sweet-talk her way out of being taken to jail. As a test run to prepare themselves, the women drive to Medford where they appoint Jane to attempt an armed robbery at a Safeway, but the sheepish Jane's effort fails when the impervious cashier mistakes her pistol for a toy water gun she assumes Jane is purchasing.
On the evening of the heist, each woman has an unexpected distraction, but finally find their way to the mall. Jane and Louise go to work beneath the cash ball while Elaine readies herself to throw the switch to the mall's lighting controls, aiding their escape. Unfortunately, a minor occurrence nearly causes mall security to notice the noise caused by Jane and Louise stealing the money. With no other way to distract the guards and shoppers, Elaine begins to rant about the high cost of living and how so many things cost "the shirt off your back – and even ''that's'' not enough!" She begins an impromptu striptease, exposing her bosom to the crowd. An indoor light pole falls directly into the ball, sending cash flowing out into the mall, driving people into a frenzy to collect it. During the uproar above, Jane and Louise make their escape to the river with two large trash bags filled with cash, only to have their canoe tip over when Louise stands up. They both fall in, and Louise can't swim, leaving Jane to decide to save the cash or her friend. She saves Louise and the two bags float away.
Hours later, the sun is rising and both Jane and Louise are still on the bank of the river, crestfallen over the loss of the money, joined by Elaine, wrapped in a blanket. The three begin to argue, but Louise notices a bag floating by and all three of them dive in after it.
At the film's end, Jane has married Robert and gotten her father a condo in a senior's complex; Louise reopens her store and takes back her husband, whom she had left; and Elaine begins dating the officer, with enough secret money to bring her back to the lifestyle she had been accustomed to.
After his wife Lisa dies from an accidental electrocution, psychologist Cal Jamison relocates with his young son, Chris, from Minneapolis to New York City, where Cal begins working as a police psychologist for the New York City Police Department. The city has been plagued by a series of brutal, ritualistic child murders. The first victim is a young boy found murdered in an abandoned movie theater. A policeman named Tom Lopez frantically phones in the discovery of the body, and claims the crimes are being committed by members of a Hispanic cult practicing a malevolent version of brujería. Cal is appointed to examine Tom, who raves about the cult's powerful leader.
A second victim is found eviscerated on a makeshift altar beneath a dock in Staten Island. Cal begins to inquire about brujería to Carmen, his housekeeper and nanny, who practices a benevolent form of it, leaving protection charms in the apartment for Cal and Chris. The following day, Tom, paranoid and being followed by mysterious men, stabs himself to death in a diner. Later, Cal and his new girlfriend, Jessica, attend a party where a mysterious Caribbean man, Palo, attempts to steal a necklace from Jessica; shortly before, Jessica had left her compact in the bathroom, and unbeknownst to Jessica, Palo rubs the pad with his fingers. When Cal returns home, he finds Carmen performing a ritual on Chris, and angrily throws her out of the house, despite the fact that she assures him she is attempting to protect him.
Chris accompanies his affluent Aunt Kate and Uncle Dennis on a trip to stay at their country home. Meanwhile, Cal and Jessica consult Oscar Sezine, a friend of Tom's, who believes the cult is planning a ritualized murder for the summer solstice in four days time. Oscar performs a purification ritual in an attempt to ensure the safety of Chris, whom he worries may be targeted as a sacrifice for the solstice. The next morning, Jessica finds a boil on her face and falls ill. Before departing to reunite with Kate, Dennis, and Chris in the country, Cal receives a frantic phone call from police lieutenant Sean McTaggert. Cal arrives at McTaggert's apartment, finding it in disarray, and McTaggert seated with a gun, rambling in a paranoid manner. He shows Cal a photo and secret file he uncovered documenting elite businessman Robert Calder's ritual murder of his own son. Cal leaves with the file at McTaggert's insistence. After he leaves, McTaggert commits suicide.
Meanwhile, Jessica has a panic attack after the boil on her face bursts and baby spiders break free from the wound. While Cal tends to Jessica in the hospital, Kate leaves him a voice message that she has changed her plans and is going to return Chris to him, but the message is cut short. Unaware Kate has called, Cal departs the hospital with his friend Marty, who drives him to Kate and Dennis's country house. Upon arriving, Dennis tells Cal that Kate has gone to a 24-hour grocery store. In the living room, Dennis recounts he and Kate's travels to the Sudan when Kate was a graduate student, and how they witnessed the power of a human sacrifice after allowing their gravely ill son to be sacrificed to end a drought. Palo and Calder then enter the room, along with a number of other cultists, urging Cal to join, and stating that Chris has been predestined to become a sacrifice.
Cal flees the house through an upstairs window after finding Chris no longer in his room. In the boathouse, Cal finds Kate's dead body before he is knocked unconscious by Palo. Cal is driven to an abandoned factory, where Chris's ritual murder is to be carried out among the cult. Cal thwarts the sacrifice by stabbing Dennis to death, and Marty, who followed them to the warehouse, comes to Cal's aid, shooting various cultists from an upper landing. Calder abducts Chris and the two ascend to the top of the warehouse in a freight elevator. Marty is incapacitated with a blowpipe dart by Palo, but not before he severely burns Palo's face, blinding him. Cal manages to chase Calder into a storage room, stabbing him to death before retrieving Chris. Cal puts Chris down and a blinded Palo attacks Cal, but falls off the scaffolding when Chris coaxes him toward him and is impaled on rebar below. Cal carries Chris and they escape from the warehouse.
Some time later, Cal, Jessica and Chris are living happily on a farm in the country, and Jessica is pregnant. Following their barking dog to the barn, Cal investigates the barn loft and finds an altar adorned with religious icons, fresh produce, loaves of bread, and various sacrificed animals. Hearing sounds from below he sees Jessica has come in. She confesses to making the shrine saying "I did it for us. We'll be safe now." Cal stares in shock as the screen fades to black.
As described in a film magazine, Hermann, a Russian military officer with a limited fortune, is fascinated when he hears the story of Countess Fedotovna, who won her fortune by playing three particular cards, the identity of which she refuses to reveal. Hermann gains entrance to the countess's house through a flirtation with Lizaveta, ward of the countess. He confronts the countess with a revolver and demands to know the cards she played. The countess collapses, dead of fright. Remorseful, Hermann goes home. The next morning he seems to see the phantom of the countess, who tells him that the three cards are the three, the seven, and the ace. The first two nights he plays the three and the seven and is successful. The third night he bets all of his money, feeling sure that the card will be the ace. However, he finds his own card has become the queen of spades and he has lost everything. With the loss of his fortune he also loses his mind.
The Hundred Acre Wood was populated with characters from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh series of short stories.
Each character had lost an item of value to them and wanted the item returned. The player moves through the Hundred Acre Wood and collects the missing items then returns them to their rightful owners. Only one item can be carried at a time, so picking up one item means leaving behind of whatever item is currently being carried. Some screens have interactive sub-elements. For example: the player could "climb" Pooh's tree and see the limb where he kept his honey pots safely out of the reach of flood waters (a reference to a scene in the Disney animated movie ''The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'' and Chapter 9 of A.A. Milne's book ''Winnie-the-Pooh''). The game has no animation in the mode of a traditional Quest game such as King's Quest. Rather, the Hundred Acre Wood existed as a grid of connected static screens. Players move between the screen using the arrow keys and can only move North, South, East or West. The missing items are randomly assigned at the start of each new game to screens within this grid, although the various characters can always be found on the same screens. When an item is "dropped" on a screen in order to "pick up" another item, the dropped item stays on that screen until the user returns to retrieve it later, but not all items belong to one of the characters - for example, a board belongs to the bridge. "Dropping" an item also returns it to the character it belongs to; if the character is not correct the game will let the player know.
Reuniting a character with their item results in a celebration screen, and a congratulatory party takes place once all 10 items have been successfully returned.
At random points, the items can be lost if the player runs into Tigger (who bounces them and makes the player drop what they are carrying), or when the wind starts again, mixing up any remaining objects that haven't yet been returned.
The day he graduates high school, Bobby takes ownership of a tricked-out van that's like a bachelor pad on wheels. He's disappointed, however, to see that his best friend—who has better luck with the ladies—makes more use out of it than he does. He soon meets a shy girl and falls for her, but before he can win her heart, he has to win a drag race against a local bully.
You are Max Gardner (''Brandon Massey''), an American journalist in Paris, investigating a story about a big drug dealer who is covered by some influential politician. To get the dealer talking, you offer him incriminating photographs in exchange for some information. When Max arrives at the meeting point, the drug lord is dead and Max is mistaken for the killer.
While evading the authorities, Max continues his investigation and finds an ally in Adda - the murdered drug dealer's lover - and the two of them work to uncover the conspiracy behind the murders.
On a winter night, a mysterious mechanical lion came flying in front of a married couple, carrying a mysterious baby with it. As they took the baby in, the lion left them in confusion. About 7 years later, the space shuttle Spirits, in which high school astronaut Guy Shishioh is a passenger, collides with an unknown object bound to Earth. Despite being mortally wounded, he is rescued by the same mysterious lion and returns to Earth. In his hand, he holds a mysterious green jewel as Leo Shishioh uses it to revive Gai into a cyborg.
Two years later in 2005, the mysterious baby under the care of the Amami couple, now named Mamoru, is living his life normally. This until the mysterious group known as Zonders begin their invasion of Earth. As a response, the Earth Defense Brigade Gutsy Geoid Guard, or GGG, was organized to fight against the Zonders. In an attack by the Zonders, the mysterious boy encountered Guy, who is now a member of GGG. Equipped with the green jewel, known as G-Stone, he becomes the pilot of the lion robot that saved him. Named Galeon, he fuses with it alongside 3 assist vehicles created by GGG to become the giant robot GaoGaiGar. After the battle against one of the Zonders, GGG discovered that Mamoru can purify people who became Zonders and wondered about his origins and how it was linked to the appearance of the Zonders.
Lord Emsworth's sister, Lady Constance, has decided that Emsworth's grandson George needs a tutor to keep him in line over the summer holidays and chooses Rupert Baxter, Emsworth's former secretary. Emsworth is worried that Constance is trying to get the controlling and unpleasant Baxter reinstated as his secretary. George, who does not want to be tutored during the summer holidays, dislikes Baxter, and Emsworth sympathizes with George. Meanwhile, Lord Emsworth's niece Jane is engaged to George Abercrombie. Constance disapproves since Abercrombie does not have money or a job, and wants Jane to marry someone else. Lord Emsworth previously agreed to give Abercrombie the position of land agent at Blandings, but Constance pushes Emsworth, who just wants to be left alone so he can read Whiffle on ''The Care Of The Pig'', to rescind the job offer. This dismays Jane.
The butler Beach brings an airgun and a box of ammunition to Emsworth. The gun was confiscated from young George on Lady Constance's instructions. George shot Baxter in the seat of the trousers while Baxter was tying his shoes. Emsworth again sympathizes with George. He reminisces about a time in his youth when his sister Julia borrowed his airgun to shoot her governess, and Beach mentions that he also had an airgun when he was young. Later, Emsworth sees Baxter outside bending over to pick up a cigarette. Acting on an impulse inspired by his childhood memories, Emsworth shoots Baxter with the airgun through a window. Baxter angrily comes into the room, thinking that George shot him again. Constance, however, suspects that Emsworth shot Baxter. Jane saw Emsworth shoot Baxter and threatens to tell Constance unless he writes a letter to Abercrombie giving him the land agent job. Emsworth writes the letter for her.
Baxter eavesdropped on their conversation and knows Emsworth shot him. To keep Baxter from telling Constance, Emsworth reluctantly offers him his old job as secretary, which Baxter gladly accepts. However, Beach later delivers a note from Baxter in which he declines the job and says he will leave Blandings. Emsworth fears Baxter has decided to tell Constance after all, and Jane advises him to deny everything Baxter says. Furthermore, Beach announces he is resigning. Constance admits she shot Beach with George's airgun on an impulse. Though Emsworth had thought he remembered Julia shooting the governess, it had actually been Constance. Emsworth is alarmed about their indispensable butler resigning but relieved that Constance can hardly reproach him now.
In front of Constance, Baxter accuses Emsworth of shooting him, which Emsworth denies, and says he was willing to return as secretary until Emsworth shot him a second time, though Emsworth only shot him once. Constance wants Baxter to stay, but Emsworth insists that Baxter will go, and that Jane will marry Abercrombie as she wants to. Beach tells Emsworth that he is resigning because he acted on an impulse and shot Baxter (though Baxter mistakenly thought Emsworth shot him again). He is not resigning because of Constance and says her shot actually missed. Emsworth convinces Beach to stay by telling him that Baxter is leaving, and decides to test his aim by again shooting Baxter through a window. Baxter shouts and immediately leaves on his motorcycle. Beach raises a glass of port in a toast to Emsworth's success.
Ambitious Los Angeles reporter Alison Scott has just been given an on-air role with E! and lives in the guest house with her sister Debbie's family. Ben Stone is an immature and wise-cracking Canadian slacker who lives off injury compensation funds and sparsely works on a celebrity porn website with his stoner roommates. While celebrating her promotion, Alison meets Ben at a local nightclub. After a night of heavy drinking, they end up having sex without protection due to a misunderstanding. The following morning, they quickly learn over breakfast that they have nothing in common and go their separate ways.
Eight weeks later, Alison experiences morning sickness during an interview with James Franco and realizes she could be pregnant. After taking multiple pregnancy tests, she is shocked to find out she is pregnant. She contacts Ben for the first time since their one-night stand to tell him. Although abrasive at first, Ben says he will be there to support Alison. While he is still unsure about being a parent, his father is overjoyed. Alison's mother tries to persuade her daughter to have an abortion, but Alison decides to keep the child. Later, Alison and Ben decide to give the relationship a chance. The couple's efforts include Ben making a humiliating marriage proposal with an empty ring box, promising to get her one someday. Alison thinks it's too early to think about marriage, because she is more concerned with hiding the pregnancy from her bosses, believing that they will fire her if they ever found out. After a positive beginning, tempers flare in the relationship.
Alison is increasingly worried about Ben's lack of support and understanding, and has doubts about the longevity of their relationship. These thoughts are due to her sister's loveless marriage. Debbie's husband, Pete, works as a talent scout for rock bands, but he leaves at strange hours in the night, which makes her suspect he is having an affair. Upon investigating, she learns that he is actually part of a fantasy baseball draft, and that he has been doing other activities such as going to the movies on his own, which he explains he participates in to be free from Debbie's manipulative manner. This results in their separation, and when Ben expresses pride in Pete's deception, it leads to an argument with Alison as they drive to her doctor. Furious, she ejects him from her car and abandons him in the middle of a busy street. He tracks her down to her appointment and they both have another argument, leading to their own breakup.
Ben and Pete decide to go on a road trip to Las Vegas. Under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms, they realize their loss and decide to try and save their relationships. Simultaneously, Debbie drags a nervous Alison out partying with her, but they are refused admission to a nightclub by its sympathetic bouncer on account of Debbie's age and Alison's pregnancy; leading to Debbie's tearful laments about her life and her desire to have Pete back. They reconcile at their daughter's birthday party, but when Ben tries to work things out with Alison, she refuses to get back together. Alison's boss finds out about her pregnancy and sees an opportunity to boost ratings with female viewers by having Alison interview pregnant celebrities. After a talk with his father, Ben decides to take responsibility and goes to great effort to mature, including obtaining his own apartment, getting an office job as a web designer, and reading pregnancy books.
When Alison goes into labor and is unable to contact her doctor, she calls Ben, as Debbie and Pete are out of town. Ben discovers that Alison's gynecologist is at a Bar Mitzvah despite having assured them that he never took vacations and leaves him an abusive voicemail. During labor, Alison apologizes for questioning Ben's priorities. When Debbie and Pete arrive at the hospital, Ben sternly refuses to allow her to be at Alison's side, insisting that it is his place. Debbie is both incredulous and thankful that Ben took charge of the situation and begins to change her formerly negative opinion about him. The couple welcomes a baby girl (a boy in the alternate ending) and start a happy new life together.
Ashton's ''Cinderella'' is his own realised dream of a Petipa ballet and the ballet itself enacts the realisation of dreams, notably Cinderella's own. When we first see her she is a demi-caractere dancer dreaming of being a ballerina—that seems to be the balletic point of her solo with the broomstick in the kitchen—and it is as a ballerina that she magically enters the ballroom, stepping ''en pointe'' down the stairs and advancing in ''pas de bourree'' to the front of the stage. Back in the kitchen she recalls the slipper (or rather the pointe shoe) that she carries in her apron; the shoe is the clue to her dream and persuades her it was true. The Prince finds Cinderella, but in his arms she discovers her own identity as a ballerina and her dream of herself has been realised. Cinderella's mice design the gown.
Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) pack the belongings of Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) and Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), who have accompanied Erica (Anna Faris) to the hospital. Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) leaves Ross Geller's (David Schwimmer) bedroom after their apparent reunion in the previous episode. Erica gives birth to twins, much to the surprise of Monica and Chandler, who were expecting only one child. At his apartment, Joey shows Phoebe his house-warming gift for Monica and Chandler: a chick and duckling to replace the ones that died. Ross arrives and confesses to the pair that he slept with Rachel. Rachel emerges from her bedroom and, to his disappointment, tells Ross that their night together was "the perfect way to say goodbye".
Later at the Central Perk café, Phoebe convinces Ross to tell Rachel how he feels about her before she leaves for her new job in Paris. As he is about to tell her, Central Perk manager Gunther (James Michael Tyler) confesses his love for Rachel. Back at Monica and Chandler's apartment, Ross decides not to tell Rachel, for fear of rejection. She prepares to leave to catch her flight, but waits long enough for Monica and Chandler to return with the twins, named Erica (after their biological mother) and Jack (after Monica's father). After Rachel leaves, Ross has a change of heart, and Phoebe takes him in her taxi to follow Rachel to the airport.
Joey returns to his apartment to fetch the chick and the duck he was hiding, but finds they have become trapped in the foosball table. Chandler and Joey decide to break it open when they cannot find any other way of getting the birds out. Phoebe's reckless driving gets her and Ross to JFK Airport and, after buying a ticket to get past security, they search the information boards for Rachel's flight number. When they cannot locate her flight on any of the information boards, Ross calls and checks the number with Monica but discovers they are at the wrong airport; Ross and Phoebe drove to JFK, while Rachel was flying out of nearby Newark Airport. Phoebe phones Rachel, who has already boarded her flight, to stall her for time. When a passenger (Jim Rash) overhears Phoebe saying there is a problem with the fictitious "left phalange" of the plane, he gets off the plane, prompting everyone else to leave. Chandler and Joey, who are emotionally attached to the foosball table, find they are unable to break it open, but Monica does gleefully with a crowbar and mallet. After they retrieve the birds, Chandler suggests Joey keep them, and the two reaffirm their friendship with a long, tense hug.
Phoebe and Ross arrive at the airport as Rachel boards the plane again. Ross tells her he loves her, but she is unable to deal with his confession and gets on the plane anyway. A dejected Ross returns home and finds a message from Rachel on the phone. She explains her actions and as she does it, decides to get off the plane. At first a flight attendant is trying to force her to sit down. The message cuts off and Ross frantically tries fixing the answering machine, wondering out loud if she got off the plane. From behind him, Rachel appears and says she did, and they get back together for good. The following morning, the friends gather in Monica and Chandler's empty apartment and reminisce about how all of them had lived there at one point or another. With some time remaining before Monica and Chandler leave for their new house, the six all leave their keys to the apartment on the kitchen counter and decide to go for one last cup of coffee together, to which Chandler sarcastically and jokingly quips, "Where?" and they all laugh as they head down the hallway. The final shot shows the empty apartment, slowly panning around from the living space to the front door as Jefferson Airplane's "Embryonic Journey" plays.
Rayford Steele, Chloe Steele, Buck Williams and Bruce Barnes find themselves left behind. This group of believers, as well as others left behind but becoming believers, are otherwise known as "Tribulation Saints", to differentiate from the pre-Rapture designation of Christian. The question of what to do in response to this radical change in situation arises. They propose to fight the perceived threat that Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia poses in the form of eradicating all religion and establishing a single world religion. The dogma consists of the notion that "there is no heaven nor hell, just [the left-behind]."
Upon being demoted at the end of the first novel, Buck moves to Chicago for his new job. He considers a relationship with Chloe Steele, debating whether or not it is worthwhile at this point in history. This leads to a misunderstanding which is eventually resolved. Buck is invited to visit Carpathia at the United Nations in New York City, where he is instituting radical changes. He tells Buck he is planning to buy all media and wants Buck to head one of the newspapers. Upon his new assistant's (Hattie Durham) recommendation, Carpathia also manipulates Rayford to become his head pilot, wanting only the best. Both Rayford and Buck are present for the signing of the treaty between the UN and Israel.
Nicolae twists the message of world-famous rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah about Messiah, in order to point to himself as thus. Buck flies to Jerusalem to meet Ben-Judah and present him to the two witnesses (described in Revelation) stationed at the United Nations-blockaded Wailing Wall. He converts to Christianity, believing that Jesus is the one and only Messiah; thus disproving Carpathia.
During the prophesied eighteen months of peace following the covenant with Israel, Chloe and Buck are married, along with Rayford and new believer Amanda White, a friend of Rayford's first wife Irene. However, both Buck, who becomes publisher of Global Community Weekly, formerly Global Weekly, and Rayford, who is handpicked to pilot Carpathia's jet, are in the distressing position of watching Carpathia, now Supreme Potentate of the U.N. - now reorganized into the Global Community- strengthen his grip on the world, witnessing how he orchestrates World War III to bring the former world powers under his heel and how he bamboozles Israeli botanist Chaim Rosenzweig into giving the GC his illustrious Eden formula for a GC-guaranteed peace treaty with Israel, thus initiating the Tribulation. As World War III breaks out, the Tribulation Force suffers its first casualty in the death of their pastor, Bruce Barnes, who was killed in a bombing in the now-decimated city of Chicago.
The protagonist, an Istanbul lawyer named Galip, finds one day that his wife Rüya (the name means "dream" in Turkish) has mysteriously left him with very little explanation. He wanders around the city looking for his clues to her whereabouts. He suspects that his wife has taken up with her half-brother, a columnist for ''Milliyet'' named Celal, and it happens that he is also missing. The story of Galip's search is interspersed with reprints of Celal's columns, which are lengthy, highly literate meditations on the city and its history. Galip thinks that by living as Celal he can figure out how Celal thinks and locate both him and his wife, so he takes up residence in Celal's apartment, wearing his clothes and eventually writing his column.
Galip starts getting mysterious phone calls from one of Celal's obsessed fans, who displays an astonishing familiarity with the columnist's writings. After Galip's columns under Celal's name start to take the form of impassioned pleas to Rüya, a woman from Celal's past misinterprets the articles and calls Galip, thinking they are actually Celal's attempts to win her back. It turns out that Celal and the woman had an affair, and the fan who is calling Galip is the woman's jealous husband. In an eerie twist, it turns out that the husband has been following Galip around Istanbul in an attempt to find Celal through him, accounting for Galip's frequent apprehension that he is being watched. Galip finally agrees to meet both of them at a public location, a store called Aladdin's that figures in much of the narrative. Soon after, Celal is shot to death in the street. Rüya is found also shot in Aladdin's store. The identity of the killer is never discovered for certain.
The novel ends with the postmodern twist of the author revealing his presence in the narrative. The story is more concerned with exploring the nature of story-telling as a means of constructing identity than with a straightforward plot. As such, it is full of stories within the main story, relating to both Turkey's Ottoman past and contemporary Istanbul.
At a thanksgiving service in Woodstock church for the victory at Worcester (3 September 1651), the Rev. Nehemiah Holdenough was compelled to cede the pulpit, which he had usurped from the late rector (Dr Rochecliffe), to Joseph Tomkins, who, in military attire, declaimed against monarchy and prelacy, and announced the sequestration of the royal lodge and park by Cromwell and his followers. Proceeding thither, he encountered Sir Henry Lee, accompanied by his daughter Alice, prepared to surrender his charge, and was conducted through the principal apartments by the forester Joliffe, who managed to send his sweetheart Phoebe and dog Bevis with some provisions to his hut, in which the knight and his daughter had arranged to sleep. On arriving there they found Colonel Everard, a Roundhead who had come to offer them his own and his father's protection; but Sir Henry abused and spurned his nephew as a rebel, and at Alice's entreaty he bade them farewell, as he feared, for ever. On his way to the lodge he met his Royalist friend, Captain Wildrake, whom he was sheltering in spite of his politics, and determined to send him with an appeal to Cromwell to reinstate his uncle at Woodstock. On reaching Windsor, the captain, disguised as a Roundhead, obtained an interview with Oliver Cromwell, and a compliance with Everard's request, on condition that he would aid in securing the murdered king's son, in the event of his seeking refuge with the Lees.
Armed with the warrant of ejectment, the colonel and Wildrake, accompanied by the mayor and the minister, visited the Commissioners during their evening carouse, and took part in endeavouring to ascertain the cause of some startling occurrences by which they had been disturbed. Everard made his way alone to a dark gallery, in which he fancied he heard his cousin's voice, and suddenly felt a sword at his throat. Meeting Wildrake as he regained the hall, they hurried off to the hut where they found Dr Rochecliffe reading the Church service to Sir Henry and his daughter; and, after a reconciliation between uncle and nephew, the cousins were allowed a private interview, during which Alice warned her lover against betraying the king. Returning to the lodge they were told of other unaccountable events; and during the night Everard was ordered by an apparition to change his quarters. The sentinels also declared that they had heard strange sounds, and the Commissioners decided to retire to the village inn. Master Holdenough, too, confessed that he had been terribly shocked by the reflection in a mirror of the figure of a college friend whom he had seen drowned.
Woodstock Palace The following day Sir Henry Lee was induced to resume his post, and his son Albert arrived with one "Louis Kerneguy", whom he introduced as his Scotch page. Sir Henry having no suspicion who his guest really was treated him without ceremony; and while Dr Rochecliffe and the colonel were planning for his escape to Holland, the disguised Charles amused himself by endeavouring to gain Alice's love; but, in spite of a declaration of his rank, she made him ashamed of his suit. A quarrel, however, having arisen between him and Everard, she evinced her loyalty by preventing a duel they had arranged, at the risk of her reputation and the loss of her cousin's affection. A similar attempt by Tomkins to trifle with Phoebe was punished by a death-blow from Joliffe. The next evening Everard and his friend, and Holdenough, were unexpectedly made prisoners by Cromwell, who, having received intelligence of their knowledge of the king's sojourn at Woodstock, had brought a large force to secure him. Wildrake, however, managed to send his page Spitfire to the lodge to warn them, and while Alice acted as Charles's guide, Albert, in his dress, concealed himself in Rosamond's tower. Cromwell and his soldiers arrived soon afterwards with Dr Rochecliffe and Joliffe, whom they had seized as they were burying Tomkins, and, having searched all the rooms and passages in vain, they proceeded to blow up the tower. Albert, however, leapt from it just before the explosion, and Cromwell was furious when he discovered the deception. In his rage he ordered the execution of the old knight and all his abettors, including his dog; but afterwards released them, with the exception of Albert, who was imprisoned, and subsequently fell in the battle of Dunkirk (1658). Alice returned in safety, with the news that the king had effected his escape, and a letter from him to Sir Henry, approving of her marriage with Everard, whose political opinions had been considerably influenced by recent events.
Eight years later Wildrake arrived at Brussels with news for Charles. After Cromwell's son Richard abdicated, the Protectorate was abolished and the country descended into chaos. Order was restored when George Monck, the Governor of Scotland, marched into the City of London with his army and forced the Rump Parliament to re-admit members of the Long Parliament excluded during Pride's Purge. The Long Parliament dissolved itself and for the first time in almost 20 years, there was a general election. The Convention Parliament assembled and voted for Charles' restoration. In his progress to London, Charles, escorted by a brilliant retinue, amidst shouts of welcome from his assembled subjects, dismounted to salute a family group in which the central figure was the old knight of Ditchley, whose venerable features expressed his appreciation of the happiness of once more pressing his sovereign's hand, and whose contented death almost immediately followed the realisation of his anxious and long-cherished hopes.
The ''Rasterscan'', a large damaged spacecraft, is drifting uncontrollably towards a nearby star. The ''Rasterscan'' can still be controlled and piloted to safety but only by a droid called MSB. Unfortunately, MSB is also damaged and (without help) can only repair toasters. The player needs to control MSB and, hopefully, use it to save the unfortunate spacecraft.
In 1994, a young boy attempts to escape from Cunningham Hall Mental Facility before getting hit by a car. Years later, psychiatric intern Clark Stevens arrives to Cunningham Hall to train before he can graduate to medical school. Inside, he meets some of the patients and is welcomed by Nurse Betty, who gives him keys to and a walkie-talkie before taking him to the director of the facility, Dr. Albert Franks. On the way, however, they are interrupted by a patient named Carl, who claims that he "shouldn't be here," and that reformed patients are held as prisoners.
In Dr. Franks' office, Clark finds a book titled ''Psychology and the Paranormal'', which implies connections between mental stability and the paranormal. Franks arrives and converses with Clark about the facility before introducing him to Dr. Morton and Dr. Douglas. Sara, a nurse, takes Clark on a tour of the facility. As they leave, mental patient Alice sits watching a window, where she sees a sinister-looking boy. Sara talks privately with head nurse Annabelle Hendricks before finishing the tour with the basement cells, where the most dangerous patients are kept- a place nicknamed "Madhouse." One of the patients attacks Clark with a shard of glass but is beaten down by Drake, a security guard. That night, Clark witnesses a young boy on the grounds of the hospital. Later, he observes Alice being physically abused by Nurse Hendricks. Clark sees the boy again and pursues him to the Madhouse but only finds Dr. Morton, who recalls a patient from Cell #44 who escaped but apparently died. Before Clark can continue, Hendricks arrives and gives him the task of cleaning a mess in the rec room.
Sometime later, Clark retells the Cell #44 story to Franks, who curtly dismisses him. When Clark leaves the office, he overhears Franks arguing with Nurse Hendricks about how "[she] knows." Soon after, Sara is requested at the nurses' station for night duty. In the nurses' station, Sara and Hendricks hear a mysterious sound. Hendricks, equipped with her stun-gun, investigates the source and is attacked by a cloaked figure who electrocutes her to death with a defibrillator.
The following day, Hendricks's body is discovered, and Franks assigns staff to interview patients about the murder. Clark is sent to the Madhouse to Cell #44, where the patient- who identifies himself as Ben London- implies the killer could be Franks. Sometime later, Clark asks Grace, the nurse in charge of medicine, about Ben's prescriptions. Grace replies that everyone in the Madhouse are on the same drugs, and Clark takes a bottle for examination. Sometime later, Clark attempts to confront Sara with some questions about the facility but is unable due to a nurse discovering Carl has hung himself.
In a meeting led by Clark and Sara, Alice discusses her visions of the young boy. Afterwards, Clark witnesses Drake having sex with a patient in an open room. Waking up the next morning, Clark gets a phone call from Sara that Drake is the murderer and has been arrested by the police. Taking Ben's advice, Clark discovers that Franks has been using placebos on patients and embezzling the hospital's funding. Meanwhile, the same figure that killed Hendricks kills Dr. Morton with an axe. The next night, Clark confronts Ben again and is only told "The truth is right in front of you." Clark confides in Sara, who gives him drugged coffee that causes him to fall asleep. While dreaming, Clark is haunted by Ben's voice and visions of the little boy, before having a revelation that Sara is the killer.
Clark awakens and fights the effects of the drugs long enough to get back to the Madhouse to speak to Ben, only to realize that Ben is not actually there, and that he and the small boy have been figments of Clark's imagination. It is revealed that Clark— who is in fact Ben London— was a patient in the hospital as a child, and was presumed dead when Franks hit him with his car during an escape attempt; Ben impersonated Clark, a deceased medical student, in order to infiltrate the hospital. Ben goes to Franks' office and finds him destroying evidence of his embezzlement. Ben reveals his identity to Franks before butchering him with an axe. Sara witnesses the murder and flees to the Madhouse. Once inside, she pleads with Ben for her life, but he corners her and murders her, too.
Sometime later, Ben— again formally dressed— enters another unnamed psychiatric hospital.
After suffering personal and professional misfortunes, boat designer Alan Haldane (Jack Hedley) decides to take a trip to Crete after 30 years away. Now a widower and having sold his business, Haldane wishes to find a new meaning, and rediscover the sense of belonging such as he'd experienced there during World War II. Back then, Haldane fought with the Andartes against the occupying German army; his skill and determination earned him the honorary name of "Leandros" and his exploits subsequently slipping into local legend. He'd also enjoyed an affair with co-partisan Melina Matakis, from whom he temporarily parted when repatriation took place. Once back in England his letters to Melina went unanswered; hence, this temporary parting became permanent.
Now at a loose end, Haldane is met by many a mainly positive welcome, many remembering the exploits of the one they called Leandros. On reaching the area where he was based with Melina, a local homeowner, Annika, approaches. As glances are exchanged, this pretty and successful businesswoman and Haldane unconsciously form an immediate rapport. Annika had divorced her husband—an action in opposition to the values of Crete—however, this strong woman and Haldane get on so easily and both recognise a need for each other which grows ever-stronger each time their paths cross, which in time will become understandably frequent.
Haldane at last manages to meet up with his Greek 'brother' from whom he was almost inseparable during the war, a lawyer named Babis Spiridakis. Haldane is pleased to see Babis, but the latter merely acknowledges Leandros' presence after an admittedly long time apart. But they talk and as facts are eased out into the open both men are in for a few surprises. It turns out both Melina and Haldane wrote letters to each other, which neither received. Haldane discovers Melina died four years ago. That might have been that, but Babis goes on to explain that Melina was pregnant with his child, a daughter, who with her husband runs a taverna. They have now gone on to bear him what is his grandchild. And if that's not enough, the magical bond between Haldane and Annika gets immediately complicated when Babis tells Haldane that Annika is actually the sister of Melina, therefore his daughter's aunt.
Leandros determines to get to know his daughter and grandchild without any of them knowing. And he can never tell Annika, with whom he is falling deeply in love, because what he knows would tear everyone's world apart. In addition, those who still hold age-old vendettas plot against Leandros, such as Annika's matriarchal mother, Katerina. The stage is set for a Greek tragedy, in which all parts were cast many years earlier, to play right out to the bitter end.
Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who travels to Earth from a distant planet. Landing in New Mexico, he appears as an Englishman. Newton has arrived on Earth on a mission to take water back to his home planet, which is experiencing a catastrophic drought. Newton swiftly uses the advanced technology of his home planet to patent many inventions on Earth. He acquires tremendous wealth as the head of an Arizona technology-based conglomerate, World Enterprises Corporation, aided by leading patent attorney Oliver Farnsworth. This wealth is needed to construct a space vehicle with the intention of shipping water back to his home planet.
While revisiting New Mexico, Newton meets Mary-Lou, a lonely young woman from Oklahoma who works an array of part-time jobs in a small town hotel to support herself. Mary-Lou introduces Newton to many customs of Earth, including churchgoing, alcohol, and sex. She and Newton move into a house together which he has built close to where he first landed in New Mexico.
Dr. Nathan Bryce, a former womaniser and college professor, has landed a job as a fuel technician with World Enterprises and slowly becomes Newton's confidant. Bryce senses Newton's alienness and arranges a meeting with Newton at his home where he has hidden a special X-ray camera. When he takes a picture of Newton with the camera, it reveals Newton's alien physiology. Newton's appetite for alcohol and television (he is capable of watching multiple televisions at once) becomes crippling, and he and Mary-Lou fight. Realizing that Bryce has learnt his secret, Newton reveals his alien form to Mary-Lou. She struggles to accept his true form. She flees in panic and horror.
Newton completes the spaceship and attempts to take it on its maiden voyage amid intense press exposure. However, just before his scheduled take-off, he is seized and detained, apparently by the government and a rival company. His business partner Farnsworth is murdered. The government, which had been monitoring Newton via his driver, holds Newton captive in a locked luxury apartment, constructed deep within a hotel. During his captivity, they keep him sedated with alcohol (to which he has become addicted) and continuously subject him to rigorous medical tests, cutting into his human disguise. One examination, involving X-rays, causes the contact lenses he wears as part of his human disguise to permanently affix themselves to his eyes.
Toward the end of Newton's years of captivity, he is visited again by Mary-Lou. She is much older, and her appearance has been ravaged by alcohol and time. They have mock-violent, playful sex that involves firing a gun with blanks, and afterwards occupy their time drinking and playing table tennis. Mary-Lou declares that she no longer loves him, and he replies that he does not love her either. Eventually Newton discovers that his "prison", now derelict, is unlocked, and he leaves.
Unable to return home, a despondent and alcoholic Newton creates a recording with alien messages, which he hopes will be broadcast via radio to his home planet. Bryce, who has since married Mary-Lou, buys a copy of the album and meets Newton at a restaurant. Newton is still rich and young-looking despite the passage of many years. However, he has also fallen into depression and continues to suffer from alcoholism. Seated on the restaurant's outdoor patio, Newton inquires about Mary-Lou, before collapsing in a drunken stupor on the chair.
The film opens with war footage from World War III ending with a nuclear attack.
Long after the nuclear war, the last human survivors are divided into three tribes. Robert (Clarke) and Ruth (Field) are about to be married in the ruins of a post-apocalyptic New York City during a brief interlude in ongoing hostilities between their tribe (the Norms) and the rival tribe (the Mutates). The Mutates try to adhere to the tenets of the Christian Bible, but it is rejected by the Norms.
However, raiders from a third tribe, the Upriver People, attack through the Hudson River Tunnel and capture Ruth and several other women because they desperately need fertile females. The warring tribes must put aside their differences to rescue the women, a joint effort that unfolds quite quickly in the short film.
Ultimately, the Upriver People are defeated and are trapped in the tunnel as it is flooded. The women are recovered, and there are improved prospects for more peaceful relations among the tribes as the film concludes.
''The Dark Side of the Sun'' takes place on the Greek island of Rhodes. The story combines elements of supernatural Gothic romance with the contemporary conspiracy thriller. There are themes of telepathy and hypnosis, and a secret society, descended from the Knights Templar, holding clandestine meetings on the island.
The historical back-story is linked to the suppression of the Templars, and seems also loosely inspired by the overthrow of Foulques de Villaret, 25th Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. His former stronghold at Lindos was one of the main filming locations. The Templar conspiracy theory element in the modern plot-line shows some influences from ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'', which had been published the previous year.
In this game Buffy discovers that Ethan Rayne is at the center of a great struggle with the First, literally the first incarnation of evil the world has ever known. She and the gang must face an undead army of vampires, zombies, and demons to keep these nefarious villains from casting the world into permanent darkness. The plot involves different alternate realities bleeding into Buffy's own reality, leading to the reappearance of deceased enemies and the appearance of evil versions of allies. With the help of Sid the Dummy and Ethan's ancestor Cassandra Rayne, Buffy and her friends defeat the First in its own dimension and, though it can never be killed, they disperse it across multiple realities for centuries.
The story is set during the television series' fifth season. Due to certain plot points mentioned and character styles, the game takes place some time after Forever (since Joyce's grave is seen), but before Tough Love (since Tara has not been driven insane by Glory), presumably in between Intervention and Tough Love (since Spike is on more-or-less friendly terms with the Scooby Gang). Oddly, Dawn Summers is nowhere to be seen and is not even mentioned. The game also includes many references to previous episodes of both ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel'', including Faith being in jail and Giles' days as Ripper. The game extends an idea from a previous game: that of bringing back dead characters (the Master returned in a previous game), by bringing back Sid the Dummy, Kakistos, Adam and Anya's former demon self, Anyanka.
The story follows the adventures of a warband of orc soldiers, the Wolverines, led by Stryke, a Captain in the Orcish Horde. His lieutenants are Haskeer, a foul tempered and not too bright orc; Coilla, a clever female orc who is also the warband's newest recruit; Jup, a Dwarf mercenary, who is disliked by Haskeer due to his race (and the fact that Dwarfs fight for both sides); and Alfray, an old and wise orc who also acts as the warband's standard bearer and medic. The setting of the story is the mythical world of Maras Dantia, which is populated by Humans, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Centaurs, Faeries, Trolls, Dragons, Unicorns and many other staple creatures of the Fantasy genre. There is a war raging between the polytheistic Manis (who worship many gods) and the monotheistic Unis (who follow a religion analogous to Puritan Christianity). The orcs dislike humans, who have brought farming and industry to Maras Dantia, as well as the Uni religion. The presence of humans in Maras Dantia is also killing the land, every year the glaciers advance farther from the north, and the magic is literally draining out of the ground itself.
The story begins with the wolverines having been sent on a mission by an evil queen, Jennesta, (to whom they have been enslaved) to recover an ancient artifact from a human settlement. Along with the artifact, the orcs discover a stash of pellucid, a potent narcotic, and after the battle, Stryke, their leader, allows them to use some of it to boost morale. During the night, he dreams that he meets an orc female in a world where only orcs live, without humans or dwarfs. Due to their delay, the impulsive and insane Jennesta becomes convinced that she has been betrayed, and so she orders another group of orcs, aided by a dragon, to hunt them down and capture them.
Realising they are now being hunted by both sides, Stryke decides that the group must capture a similar artifact from another settlement to use as a bargaining chip for their lives. They set out to infiltrate a human settlement run by a Uni fundamentalist named Howbrow. Using a member of the group who is a dwarf to gain access to the town, the orcs are able to steal a second artifact, which they call "stars" due to their pointy shape, at the same time, they foil Howbrows plot to kill off all the non-human races in Maras Dantia using a poison created from plants being grown in the town's greenhouse, causing him to chase them with an army of his own.
Soon, the group learns that there are five "stars", that they can be fitted together so perfectly that they cannot be taken apart and that they grant those who possess them great power, although the nature of the power is not known. Stryke continues to have dreams where he meets the same orc female, and sees more of her world where orcs are the dominant species. The Wolverines decide that, to survive, they must acquire all the artifacts. One is in the possession of a Mani settlement, where it is revered as a religious artifact, another in the hands of a group of subterranean trolls, while yet another is owned by a group of centaurs, who agree to trade their star, or instrumentality, the name given to them by their creator, for the tear of Jennesta's equally evil sister, Adpar. This is due to the healing powers it would bestow, as the leader of the centaurs was crippled by Adpar's magic.
The group's quest to steal all the "stars" and evade capture by all sides, takes them across the land of Maras Dantia, with Jennesta's forces in hot pursuit. Eventually, after much hardship, and with many of the group killed, the orcs acquire all the artefacts, and learn that they will open a portal to many alternate versions of Maras Dantia, in each of which, the dominant species is different (dwarfs, humans, orcs), and that the fact that all species occupying a single plane of existence is due to a magical accident, as a result of which, the land itself is "dying" and magic is draining away.
In a Mossi village in Burkina Faso, Bila (Noufou Ouédraogo), a ten-year-old boy, makes friends with an old woman called Sana (Fatimata Sanga), who has been accused of witchcraft by her village, and has become a social outcast. Only Bila is respectful of her, and calls her ''yaaba'' (Grandmother).
When Bila's cousin, Nopoko (Roukietou Barry), falls ill, a medicine man insists that Sana has stolen the girl's soul. Sana undergoes a long and gruelling but ultimately successful journey to find a medicine to save Nopoko's life, but is still treated as a witch.
After Sana dies, the real reason why she is hated in the village is uncovered, but the love and wisdom she invested in Bila and Nopoko lives on.
The film begins with a quote from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insisting that Northern Ireland is part of Britain. It ends with one from a former British intelligence agent, stating, "There are two laws running this country: one for the security forces and the other for the rest of us."
In Northern Ireland, an Orange walk is held on The Twelfth, and an audio tape is handed to Paul Sullivan (Dourif), an American human rights lawyer and activist. When Sullivan arranges ro meet the person who made the tape, he is assassinated by a death squad. The gunmen retrieve the tape from Sullivan's body. It subsequently becomes clear that the killers are from the British security services.
British police investigator Peter Kerrigan (Cox), with the help of Sullivan's assistant, Ingrid Jessner (McDormand), investigates the death. The investigation leads them to Captain Harris, an ex-army intelligence officer now in hiding, who created the tape. He reveals it was a recording of senior military leaders and Conservative Party politicians discussing how they subverted democracy to facilitate Margaret Thatcher's rise to power.
Harris gives a copy of the tape to Jessner, after which British security forces kill Harris and blame his death on the IRA. Kerrigan is blackmailed into silence. Jessner has the tape, but without Harris to authenticate it, the recording is dismissed as a forgery.
Jack Scanlan is a union leader who returns to work after having a heart attack. His son Frank arranges a welcome back surprise party for Jack, which unfortunately does more than surprise him, as he has another heart attack and dies, because he was actually prone to panic attacks brought on by stress or excitement such as being startled (by things such as people yelling out the word "surprise"), which is apparently what caused his first heart attack. The members of his large, dysfunctional family are brought together and find themselves dealing with all of their emotional baggage.
Everybody's assorted issues are brought to light. The relatives include his children: eldest son Johnny, a tree surgeon who wants more adventure in his life; his brother Frank, a labor leader who wants to live up to his father's expectations; their sister Terry, a dancer; her ex-husband Boyd; an embalmer Peter, who is in love with Terry; and a younger sister Nora, who is a nun based in Latin America.
There are unfamiliar faces too, like a woman named Cassie who turns up at the funeral and may or may not have been their late father's mistress. It is a chance for everyone to get acquainted or reacquainted, and it's all in the family.
Basing his film on real events, Bruce Beresford tells the story of a vocal orchestra created by the women in a Japanese Internment camp, a classic survivors' tale about women's ability to survive hardship and atrocity through perseverance, solidarity and creativity. The film opens with a dance at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Wives and husbands, soldiers and socialites are enjoying a night of dancing, libations, and conversation. The scene is happy and carefree, but the film continues to unfold and it soon becomes known that a war is raging right outside the doors. ''Paradise Road'' is set during the time of World War II, and the Japanese forces have just attacked Singapore. When a bomb explodes right outside the club, it becomes known that the Japanese have advanced beyond defensive lines. The women and children are immediately collected and carried off by a boat to a safer location. A few hours out, the boat is bombed by Japanese fighter planes and the women must jump over board to save their lives.
Three women, Adrienne Pargiter the wife of a tea planter, Rosemary Leighton-Jones a model and the girlfriend of a Royal Malayan Volunteer, and Susan Macarthy, an Australian nurse, swim their way to shore. The place on which they land is the island of Sumatra. The women are found by a Japanese officer, Captain Tanaka, and ushered to a deserted village. They are then taken to a prison camp in the jungle. The three women are reunited with the rest of the women and children from the boat. At the prison camp, there are women of all nationalities including Dutch, English, Irish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Australian; and they all come from many levels of society. Some of the women are nuns, some are nurses, and some are socialites and mothers. The women are forced to bow to the Japanese officers and its flag. The women must endure torture and hard labour while trying to remain positive and level headed. Many believe the war would end soon and their husbands or soldiers will come looking for them. Nonetheless, the living conditions are brutal, and many face sickness and death. Needless to say, their spirits rapidly flag. Some of the women choose to work in a brothel for Japanese officers for better treatment and decent food.
The women have been at the prison camp for two years now. Adrienne Pargiter, a graduate from the Royal Academy of Music, and Daisy "Margaret" Drummond a missionary, decided to create a vocal orchestra in order to encourage the women. Some of the women fear for their lives because the Japanese officers, especially Sergeant Tomiashi "The Snake", who is made known for his cruelty and abuse, have prohibited any meetings whether religious or social. The orchestra finally performs for the entire camp, even the officers stop to listen to the vibrant music. However, the music only works as motivation for so long and the women continue to dwindle in numbers. After some time, the women are moved to a new location where they will remain for the duration of the war. The war ends and the women rejoice for their freedom. The film closes on a scene of the last performance by the vocal orchestra. The vocal orchestra performed more than 30 works from 1943 to 1944. The original scores survived the war and are the basis for the music performed in the film. In 1997, many of the survivors were still alive during the making of the film and contributed to the inspiration for ''Paradise Road''.
Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) is a single, always broke woman who cleans houses in Los Angeles to make ends meet. She is in a group of wealthy friends consisting of: Franny (Joan Cusack) – a stay at home mom with a large trust fund, Christine (Catherine Keener) – a television writer, Jane (Frances McDormand) – a fashion designer, and their husbands.
While the disparity in financial situations between Olivia and her friends creates some friction, each woman is facing her own individual struggles. Olivia can't seem to find love or money. Franny's inheritance sometimes causes tension between her and her accountant husband, who likes to spend it. Christine's marriage is falling apart. Jane is increasingly unpleasant because she's not growing old gracefully. Together, these women attend charity benefits, have lunch, lean on each other, and wade their way through life.
Set in the Appalachian Mountains at the turn of the twentieth century, a feud has been boiling for over thirty years between two influential mountain families, the Tollivers and the Falins. The character of Devil Judd Tolliver in the novel was based on the real life of "Devil John" Wesley Wright, a United States Marshal for the region in and around Wise County, Virginia, and Letcher County, Kentucky. The outside world and industrialization, however, are beginning to enter the area. Coal mining begins to exert its influence on the area, despite the two families' feuds. Entering the area, enterprising "furriner" (foreigner) John Hale captures the attention of the beautiful June Tolliver, and inadvertently becomes entangled in the region's politics.
Geologist Hale has a vision for the potential wealth of the natural raw materials, especially coal, that he intends to use as a means of creating a legacy for himself and the Gap. But he also has an eye for the young natural beauty of a mountain girl, June Tolliver, whom he feels compelled to free from the confines of mountain life and introduce to higher education.
The coming boom time for the region requires Hale to establish authoritative law and order that the two feuding clans refuse to recognize. It is this conflict between clans, who are used to settling their differences established by a century of tradition, and the principled Hale that threatens to destroy the budding romance between him and June, who then must choose between clan loyalties and the man she loves.
Lina and Gourry travel to the town of Acassi, known for its tasty octopus. However, the octopus meat is cursed, causing the person who eats it to only be able to speak takogo (タコ語, octopus language). Sorcerers and sorceresses cursed by this also cannot cast spells, since the spells have to be spoken in a common language in order for them to work.
Gourry just happens to eat one of the cursed octopuses (after fighting for it with Lina), which causes him to speak in takogo. This often creates awkward situations during the film (the phrase "how horrible" being spoken as "flat chested", which offends Lina greatly). But soon, everyone in town starts to speak takogo (including Amelia and Zelgadis, who had just arrived in town), despite the fact that they have not eaten any octopus. Xellos is also there, seeming to know some details about what is going on but is not divulging anything.
It soon becomes evident that the octopuses plan to use the accumulated anger from the villagers of Acassi to release a demon that was sealed many years before. Lina and her friends have to stop these plans before they come to fruition. However, it becomes complicated when Lina is infected with the takogo affliction, which negates much of her magic, including the Dragon Slave, her signature move.
Buffy Summers begins her first day at Berryman High School, where she meets Principal Flutie, Xander Harris, Willow, and the British librarian, Mr. Giles. After class, Willow and Buffy walk through the school. Buffy asks her about the librarian. Willow says that Mr. Giles is new, "from some British museum". Cordelia and her gang interrupt them, attempting to get Buffy to join them and leave Willow.
Two other school girls, Aura and Aphrodesia, talk about the new girl while preparing for gym class. They are interrupted by a body falling out of a locker. Once the news reaches Buffy, she finds Principal Flutie and asks to see the body. When she finds the two holes in the neck, she heads for the library.
Mr. Giles is unsurprised by the news; instead, he is surprised that Buffy seems to be rejecting interest in Slaying. She angrily tells him that she loved her life before she knew about her calling, but after losing everything she valued, she now wants nothing to do with it. Xander overhears the conversation in the stacks.
That night, Buffy meets a stranger, who warns her that she is living on a Hellmouth. He also gives her a large silver cross.
That night, Buffy asks Xander about Willow. Xander says that Willow has found a boyfriend. She quizzes Xander about the guy's appearance; when he mentions a 'Lionel Richie' look, Buffy runs off. Xander and Buffy hear Willow's scream from the auditorium. Buffy charges in, finds the blond vampire biting Willow, and attacks him. Two other vampires emerge. Xander and Willow attempt to escape, using a cross to scare the vamps. Buffy dispatches the vamps and announces she is "The Slayer". One vampire runs away, and Buffy is left to dispatch the blond vampire.
The next morning, Giles is unimpressed by Buffy's sloppy fighting and the fact that she allowed others to find out her identity as the Slayer. Willow and Xander defend her, but Buffy is unbothered.
The main icon Frank Sinatra discusses the movie's main narrative begins during high points in the solo careers of the Rat Pack: Dean Martin was doing well without the help of the Rat Pack posy Jerry Lewis; Sinatra's career never dwindled and was actually doing better than ever during this moment; Sammy Davis Jr., is recovering not only his career, but his health after a car crash in which he lost an eyeball, and standup comic Joey Bishop is attempting to get his foot in the door by doing opening comedy acts. The Pack merges into one whole unite with actor Peter Lawford, who has been ostracized since being caught in the public eye with Sinatra's ex-wife, Ava Gardner.
Lawford has married Patricia Kennedy. Abandoning a notion to seduce Pat for his own amusement, Sinatra becomes more interested in her brother John F. Kennedy's political goals. He sincerely believes Jack Kennedy would be a great president, but he also feels having a close connection in the White House could majorly benefit his own public image. Sinatra arranges for the entire Pack to perform at a JFK campaign fund-raiser. Sinatra also knows Kennedy's infatuation with the opposite sex and introduces him to Marilyn Monroe, who begins seeing Kennedy behind the back of her husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio.
Kennedy's pompous father, Joseph P. Kennedy, feels Sinatra's mob ties might hurt Jack's chances of defeating Richard Nixon in the election. He insists that Sinatra help the campaign from behind the scenes only; hypocritically, he also asks Sinatra to use those same mob ties to pursue West Virginia unions' support Kennedy's way. They go on to combine their stage acts for joint performances. They even parlay their friendship into a movie collaboration, ''Ocean's 11'', working and playing together at the same time.
Davis is sometimes secretly hurt by the racist jokes of their stage act, especially after his girlfriend, actress May Britt, insinuates that the rest of the Pack is laughing at him, not with him. Davis has a more serious brush with racism when he and Britt announce their engagement, which results in a mixed-marriage protest in front of Davis's hotel. Davis day-dreams about scaring the protesters away with a song and dance routine in which he wields a gun. But he concedes the possible political repercussions of an interracial marriage. He postpones the wedding to avoid hurting Sinatra, who had agreed to serve as best man. In the White House, President Kennedy seeks to renew his friendship with Sinatra. The two go sailing and plan for Kennedy to stay at Sinatra's Palm Springs residence during an upcoming West Coast presidential trip. Thrilled by the idea, Sinatra returns home and arranges for a guest compound to be built for Kennedy and his entourage.
However, the FBI finds a potential mafia link to the White House through a woman, Judy Campbell, who shared phone calls, and possibly affairs, with both Kennedy and mob boss Sam "Momo" Giancana after being introduced by Sinatra to each. Kennedy's brother, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, insists that the President cancel his stay at Sinatra's house and cut off all ties to the entertainer. This enrages Sinatra, who had sunk a lot of money and time into the renovation and had been at least partially responsible for Kennedy's being elected president. Sinatra takes out his wrath on Lawford, who as Kennedy's brother-in-law was Sinatra's direct link to the White House. Lawford finds himself repeatedly serving as a messenger between Sinatra and the Kennedys, including JFK's secret dalliances with Monroe, and he is sick of it. Lawford dreads delivering the news of Kennedy's decision to cancel his visit to Sinatra's house and stay instead with Bing Crosby, a Republican. A furious Sinatra physically throws Lawford out of his home and vows never to forgive him. The movie depicts this incident as the beginning of the end of the Rat Pack's influence in both politics and entertainment.
The film begins with the opening credits of a typical Star Wars fanfilm entitled "Bond of the Force". Gregory (Abe Peterka) plays Jacen Solo, and Jennifer (Rebecca Peterka) plays the offscreen voice of Jaina Solo. Jacen is on a forest planet searching for Anakin Solo, but only encountering a Sith Lord named Darth Katai, played by Zarth (Justin Whitlock). The two begin to duel, and it is an intense battle...until Greg misses his cue, incurring the wrath of writer-director Tom "Servo" Harrison (Chris Hanel). Tom gets into a fight with his friends, and they walk out on him. After a monologue based on ''High Fidelity'', with Star Wars in the place of rock music, Tom reflects back a few months to the genesis of the fanfilm project.
Tom, Greg, Jenny, and Zarth are seen hanging out at Excalibur Games, a hobby shop, playing the [http://www.guzer.com/jokes/starwarspantsjoke.php Star Wars pants game]. Tom is revealed to be an employee at the store, working for store credit while he has his money saved up for film school. He claims the only downside to the job is the trekkies—specifically, two irate, Star Wars-hating ones named James (James Kropa) and Stewart (Michael Mulherin). The two enter the store, arguing over a discrepancy between the film ''Star Trek Generations'' and the Technical Manual. While waiting for Tom to get their new Star Trek cards, Stewart accidentally spills soda on a set of comics that Greg's boss ordered. Tom demands they pay for the damaged goods, and the Trekkies overpay him before leaving the store in a rush. Tom realizes that they can sell the undamaged books to Greg's boss for full price and pocket the money from the Trekkies. At Greg's suggestion, Tom combines the money with his remaining store credit and buys model lightsabers, which prompts the idea in his mind of making a Star Wars fanfilm.
Tom, Greg, Jenny, and Zarth sit around discussing ideas for a plot for their fanfilm, deciding against a story about a mischievous not-good-but-not-evil Jedi, a story about a post-''Return of the Jedi'' Boba Fett (sitting on his ass watching Jerry Springer all day), a story about all the sith in the galaxy competing for the master-and-apprentice positions, and a rock musical. Tom doesn't want to do just another lightsaber duel film, which had become a cliche in Star Wars fan films by that point, but because no one can agree on any of the other ideas, they decide to do a duel after all, much to Tom's frustration. Tom approaches the reluctant Trekkies to do the visual effects, offering them ten percent of his store credit (which was all already spent on the lightsabers). Tom ends up spending all his money on preproduction for the film, and finds himself no longer able to afford film school. He has a nightmare about his film being terrible, with poorly-rotoscoped lightsabers and a soundtrack by Meco.
Back in the present, Zarth tells Tom he needs to "pull his head out". An irate Tom grabs a prop lightsaber, and the two enter a ''Matrix''-inspired lightsaber duel fantasy sequence. When Zarth beats Tom, he asks him, "Do you think that's a ''real'' lightsaber you're holding?" Tom realizes he's been taking himself and the film too seriously, and has lost any sense of fun.
On their way back to Excalibur Games, Tom and Zarth are stopped by Greedo. Greedo and Tom begin to play out a homage to Greedo's scene in ''A New Hope'', until Zarth interrupts and points out that the gag has already been done—in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20071109104800/http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/shortfilms/crapisode/ Crapisode One]''. Back at Excalibur, the gang shows Greedo the scene in question. He flips out, complaining that a lightsaber fight is so overdone, but one Greedo scene is done before and suddenly it's off-limits. Jenny explains that a lightsaber duel is a formula, and can be personalized, but they can't add anything to a Greedo scene, because "in the end, you always wind up dead," which Greg then proves by shooting Greedo in the head.
Later that night, the gang is eating pizza, and Tom apologizes to the others for his behavior. When it is revealed that Tom had dressed up as Darth Maul for the midnight showing of ''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'', Tom recounts the story in a soliloquy reminiscent of ''Jaws''. Tom then reveals how much he hated the movie, and how mad he was at George Lucas. Later, when he met his friends, he realized that no movie would have met his expectations. Now, he just wants to finish his fanfilm.
The gang finishes shooting the duel, and holds the premiere in the store. Everybody is excited watching the film. After everybody else goes home, Tom reflects on the point of making a Star Wars fanfilm—to have fun. Your film may not be perfect, but you shouldn't care what others think, because in the end, "it's only a movie."
Joe Connor is a teacher at the École Technique Officielle outside Kigali, run by Father Christopher. The school is also home to a company of Belgian soldiers under the command of Captain Delon, as part of the UN peacekeeping mandate. Joe is close to a girl, Marie, who Christopher believes has a crush on him. In early April 1994, they observe a number of events that cause Christopher some concern, including lists being made of Tutsi families, reports of Hutu mobs attacking Tutsis elsewhere in the country, and a suspicious interest shown by Christopher's government contact in the number of UN troops at the school.
On the night of 6 April 1994, distant explosions and gunshots are heard, and Delon hears that the President's plane has been shot down. He mobilises his men to guard the school perimeter, turning it into a military base. Refugees arrive at the gates, and Christopher, over Delon's objections, insists that they are let in. The next morning, Joe drives to Marie's house to fetch her, but the house is deserted save for a dog. He returns to the school to find that she has arrived through the rear entrance, as the front entrance is now guarded by a Hutu mob. The refugees organise themselves under the leadership of Roland, Marie's father. A number of European refugees also arrive, and, to Christopher's frustration, Delon arranges for them to be given better quarters. Christopher continues with church services as usual, while Joe attempts to help the refugees.
As a mob surrounds the school, Joe thinks it would help the refugees if their plight is televised and requests Delon's assistance to fetch BBC journalist Rachel and bring her to the compound. Delon is initially cooperative, but abruptly changes his mind and refuses when he hears that the Belgian soldiers guarding Prime Minister Uwilingiyimana have been massacred. Joe decides to leave anyway and get his friend François, who is a Hutu, to escort him instead, but François is not at home. Joe finds Rachel and her cameraman and persuades them to come to the school by telling them there are Europeans there. As they are returning to the school they are stopped at a roadblock and dragged from their vehicle at gunpoint. While Rachel tries to negotiate their way out, Joe is distraught to see a Tutsi man dragged off and hacked to death with machetes. He is further horrified to see that François is with the mob, holding a bloody machete. François arranges for Joe and the BBC team to be let through. The journalists seem much more dispassionate about the events than Joe, which he later discusses with Rachel, who is a veteran reporter with experience of similar events in Bosnia.
During an interview with Delon, Rachel asks him why his troops do not intervene to stop the killings and queries the UN mandate. Delon terminates the interview and tells her that he has requested a change to his mandate to allow him to intervene, without success. Christopher delivers the baby of Edda, one of the refugees, who names the baby after him. Christopher later leaves the school to find medicine for the baby and to visit a nearby convent, which he has heard has been attacked. At the pharmacist, he pays a bribe to get the medicine and angrily lies that the child is Hutu. When he arrives at the convent, he finds that the nuns have all been killed. Outside, the school's hurdles which he lent out as a favour are being used as part of the roadblock, something his government contact gleefully points out. On Christopher's return to the school, Delon tells him they will begin shooting the dogs scavenging nearby bodies. Christopher sarcastically asks if the dogs have been shooting at the UN troops, in reference to their limited mandate.
French troops arrive at the base but announce they are only there to take French refugees. After a furious outburst from Delon, they agree to take all the Europeans. Joe attempts to negotiate for Marie to take his place on the trucks but is rebuffed. Rachel leaves with the French, telling Joe he should leave too. A group of refugees, including Edda, try to escape through the rear of the school but are ambushed by a mob. Most of them are killed, but a few make it back to the safety of the compound. Edda initially avoids them by hiding, but her baby begins crying, alerting the killers to her presence. As Joe watches, she and her baby are hacked to death.
Delon eventually receives orders to withdraw from the school. While the Belgians are preparing to leave, Roland begs Delon to shoot the refugees, to spare them murder by machete, but Delon refuses. Joe decides he cannot bear it anymore and leaves with Delon. He encounters Marie as he is boarding the truck and cannot say anything but "I'm sorry". Christopher elects to stay behind, before realising he can smuggle children out in the back of the school truck. He takes a small group of children, including Marie, intending to return for more, but as soon as he leaves the school, the mob attacks and massacres the remaining refugees.
Christopher is stopped at a roadblock, which is led by his friend Julius. Despite Christopher's attempts to talk his way through and appeal to their relationship, Julius is openly hostile. When Christopher refuses to cooperate, Julius fatally shoots him. Marie, observing their conversation and fearing that the truck will be searched, meanwhile manages to slip away unnoticed with the children. Christopher sees Marie escape before dying.
Footage of Marie running is intercut with interview footage over the UN's reluctance to term the events in Rwanda a "genocide". In a brief epilogue, Marie tracks down Joe, who is now a teacher at Christopher's old school, and they briefly discuss their experiences.
The film closes with information about the genocide in Rwanda and the killings at the ETO in particular, with details of the personal experiences of some of the film crew during the genocide.
''Ready to Run'' is the story of 14-year-old Corrie Ortiz (Krissy Perez), an energetic girl who dreams of becoming a jockey in the predominantly male sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Although her father died in a racing-related accident, and her mother is against it, Corrie's spirited memory drives her to try to achieve her goal.
She also has the gift her grandmother calls the "confidence of horses". It allows Corrie to communicate with her horse, Thunder Jam (TJ), who lives dispiritedly in his sire's shadow. Though TJ is an excellent runner, he has an immense fear of the starting gates.
To conquer this fear, the team employs the strange tactic of placing headphones over TJ's ears. Surprisingly, the music works. TJ can now get through the gate with confidence. The headphones later become a trademark of Thunder Jam as he wins more and more races. B. Moody (Jason Dohring), an ex-circus rider, is picked up as the jockey, however, an accident caused by Thunder Jam's competition leaves Moody injured and unable to compete, thus forcing Corrie to step in and take his place.
At the final race of the season their toughest opponent is doing everything he can to see that he wins. He takes it up with the judges that the headphones on TJ's ears are stimulating the horse in some rule breaking manner and should be disallowed.
Dismayed, Corrie and TJ have to run the race without their signature item. After a rough start, Moody ingeniously puts TJ's music over the race course's loud speakers, and TJ, made confident by the familiar song, goes on to win the fictional Gold Rush Derby.
In an unnamed U.S. city, the corrupt mayor William Dudley has allowed an oil refinery to be built right in the center of town, far from any river, lake or reservoir. On one typically hot summer day, Herman Stover, a dangerously disturbed employee at the works, has been denied an expected promotion and in addition, finds himself fired after refusing a departmental transfer. He then decides to take his revenge against the works by opening the valves to the storage vats and their interconnecting pipes, flooding the area and sewers with gasoline and chemicals. It doesn't take long for this act of petty vandalism to start a fire, which starts a chain reaction that causes massive explosions at the refinery, destroying it and spreading a mushroom-cloud of flame that soon engulfs the entire metropolis. The drama focuses on a newly built hospital which, like the refinery and all civic buildings that went up during the mayor's crooked administration, is shoddily built and poorly equipped. There, head doctor Frank Whitman and his staff treat thousands of casualties from the fire while the city fire chief Risley keeps in constant contact with the fire companies fighting a losing battle against the fires, and Maggie Grayson, an alcoholic reporter, sees it as her chance to make it nationwide with her coverage of the story of the "city on fire".
A major subplot of the film involves Diana Brockhurst-Lautrec, a wealthy socialite (and widow of the late governor who is the namesake of the hospital) who is currently and secretly involved with Mayor Dudley to further advance her rank up the social circles. The womanizing Dr. Whitman also meets with Diana before the hospital's dedication ceremony, having known her previously. Herman Stover also arrives at the hospital during the dedication ceremony, having left the refinery before the explosion to stalk Diana, and having known her since attending high school. Diana finds herself, along with the mayor, assisting Dr. Whitman & head nurse Andrea Harper with treating the large number of casualties arriving at the hospital. No one ever finds out that Stover is the one responsible for the citywide fire, and Stover is not sane enough to understand or regret his actions.
When the hospital becomes surrounded by the fire, Chief Risley orders his son, Capt. Harrison Risley and his firemen to create a "water tunnel" composed creating a channel of firehoses across a burning street to evacuate the hospital. Despite some casualties of the hospital staff and patients, the evacuation is successful. Stover is one of the casualties when, distraught and in a daze after Diana rejects him, is killed by falling debris from a building. Nurse Harper is also killed when she attempts to rescue Stover. Diana, Mayor Dudley, and Dr. Whitman are the last ones to make it out of the hospital before it is consumed by the fire.
The final scene is set the following day at a quarry outside the city which is set up as a makeshift camp for the thousands of people rendered homeless by the fire as it is finally brought under control. There, Dr. Whitman and Diana acknowledge their love for each other, while Mayor Dudley gives a press statement that the real heroes are the people of the city. Maggie Grayson, still reporting from the studio, signs off her broadcast and leaves with her assistant Jimbo on a date for assisting her throughout her coverage. The final scene shows Chief Risley leaving his headquarters with his staff telling them that it takes only one man to destroy a city.
The series is set on a fictional medieval island where humans are plagued by , humanoid shape-shifters that feed on humans. A mysterious group, known as The Organization, creates human-Yoma hybrids to kill Yoma for a fee. These female warriors wear armored uniforms. The public refer to them as "Claymores", alluding to their claymore swords,''Claymore'' Vol. 1, Scene 3, or "Silver-eyed Witches", due to their silver eyes.
Yoma and Claymore warriors alike are powered by a demonic energy, , which allows shape-shifting and extreme strength. When warriors use too much Yoki, they "awaken", becoming a super-Yoma called an Awakened Being. The act of awakening is likened to the feeling of sexual climax, so while both male and female warriors existed in the past only the women proved to be successful warriors and so the creation of male Claymores stopped altogether.
The island world is divided into 47 districts, with one warrior assigned to each. Claymore warriors No. 1 through 47 are ranked on their baseline Yoki potential, strength, agility, intelligence, sensing and leadership. A warrior's rank rises and falls according to the warrior's strength in relation to other warriors. It is unclear whether the warriors strength comes from training/experience or if the potential lies within the warriors themselves.
In addition to all having different names, most warriors (usually high in rank) further their individuality by possessing a unique sword technique, fighting style, or Yoki ability. Examples of sword techniques are: twisting the arm around and thrusting for a drill-like strike, unsheathing and re-sheathing the sword faster than the eye can see, or vibrating the sword so quickly the enemy cannot tell where the blade is coming from. A few fighting styles include: stretching the arm, fighting with two blades, and releasing a burst of Yoki for a momentary burst of speed. For Yoki ability, there are several Claymores who can sense Yoki over vast distances and very accurately in close quarters. This appears to be, while not offensive, a very rare and valuable ability and the Claymores in the Organization with this ability are usually highly ranked. In addition, there are four Claymores that have offensive techniques that are Yoki based. The first is Galatea's ability to control her opponents' Yoki for brief periods during battle, usually to cause the enemy's attack to miss. The second is Teresa's: her ability to sense Yoki is so strong that she can sense it moving around her opponents' body and can therefore sense how and when her enemy will attack next, a technique later copied by Clare. The third ability is that of Rafaela who is able to manipulate the vision and movements of other Claymores. She is employed as an anti-training warrior.
The first arc introduces the protagonist of the series: No. 47, Clare, who saves a young boy, Raki, from a Yoma. The next arc flashes back to the time of Teresa, warrior No. 1 of her era. And the young girl she saves from Yoma—Clare. The arc ends with their tragic encounter with Priscilla.
Flashing forward to Clare's time, the Slashers arc introduces Miria (No. 6), Deneve (No. 15), Helen (No. 22) and Galatea (No. 3). The Gravestones arc introduces Ophelia (No. 4). The Witch's Maw arc introduces Jean (No. 9), Riful and Dauf. The Northern Campaign arc introduces Flora (No. 8), Undine (No. 11), Isley and Rigaldo. Raki and Priscilla reappear here.
The game centers around the adventures of Cornet, a girl who can talk to puppets and has a magical horn that grants wishes, and Kururu, a puppet that has the heart and soul of a human. The majority of the game is about Cornet and Kururu trying to save Prince Ferdinand (whom Cornet is in love with) after he has been turned to stone by the self-proclaimed "most beautiful witch in the world." The witch, Marjoly, also has a crush on the prince and meant to put him to sleep, but messed up the spell and accidentally turned him to stone.
Cornet Espoir (Sara Thomas /Kahoru Fujino ): Cornet is the cheerful heroine of the game. She can sing, play the horn, and even talk to puppets; which most people cannot do. Cornet dreams of a passionate relationship and despises toads. She longs for a prince to sweep her off of her feet. Kururu (Jody Fleischer/Maria Kawamura): She is a puppet and Cornet's best friend. She follows Cornet throughout the game, often making humorous comments on her behavior. She likes cherries, and dislikes anything sour. Unlike other puppets, Kururu can move around on her own without the powers of Cornet's horn, and she can talk to other humans besides Cornet. She hides a deep secret, but for the better. Her weapon of choice is a paper fan (she is only playable in the DS version). Cherie (Jody Fleischer/Maria Kawamura): Cherie is Cornet's mother, who is said to have been killed in an accident many years prior to the start of the game. Ferdinand Marl E. (Josh Synard/Toshiyuki Morikawa): The prince, and soon to be king, of Marl Kingdom. He often sneaks out of the castle to hunt or visit the city. Cornet has dreamed of him her whole life and falls in love with him after a chance meeting in the forest. Etoile Rosenqueen (Jody Fleischer/Yuri Amano): She is Cornet's arrogant rival. Etoile often makes sarcastic remarks about Cornet. She is from a rich background and loves being the center of attention. Marjoly (Carrie Gordon Lowrey/Michie Tomizawa): Marjoly is a sexy witch who is the main antagonist of the game, but is hardly the typical evil mastermind bent on world domination. She lies about her age and often calls herself the most beautiful witch in the world. Marjoly is actually not very smart and her lackeys often insult her rather openly. Gao (Rachel Quaintanes/Yayoi Jinguji): Gao is one of Marjoly's lackeys. It is said that she has the strength to fight a dragon with her bare hands. Many characters mistake her for a man, including Cornet. Crowdia (Jody Fleischer/Miho Yamada): Crowdia is another of Marjoly's lackeys. She is very beautiful, but very narcissistic. She has large black wings, like a crow, and fights with a sword. *Myao (Sara Thomas/Yukari Tamura): Myao is Marjoly's third lackey. She appears to be a child. She often acts childish and selfish, and she can cast powerful magic to summon dragons.
The events of the book, with the exception of the killer's identity and the player character, are closely retained in the game. The game begins with eight of the characters (all but the two servants) arriving at the fictional seaside town of Sticklehaven, where they are to be ferried to Shipwreck Island by Patrick Narracott (who is substituting for his brother who is "under the weather"). When they arrive on the island, the other two characters are introduced, but when Patrick returns to his boat he finds it sabotaged, forcing him to stay on the island. Later, Blore confesses to Patrick that he is the one who damaged the boat, believing Patrick to be his brother Fred, who he thought was a thief. At dinner that night, the guests discover that none of them have met, or are familiar with, "U.N. Owen", the enigmatic host who invited most of them to the party.
After dinner, a gramophone record accuses the ten non-player characters of getting away with murder. Moments later, Anthony Marston dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail. That night, Ethel Rogers dies of a drug overdose in her sleep. The deaths are initially thought to be suicides or accidents until, after the death of General MacArthur, Judge Wargrave determines that they are actually murders and that the host, U.N. Owen, is most likely the killer. Wargrave further speculates that Owen must be one of the remaining 8, and is following the pattern of the nursery rhyme over the fireplace, "Ten Little Sailor Boys". After each murder, one of the ten figurines in the dining room goes missing. Narracott is now established as the detective of the group since his presence on the island was not expected by the killer. It is also discovered that Lombard has brought a revolver to the island.
After the deaths of Thomas Rogers by axe and Emily Brent from anaphylactic shock from multiple bee stings, Lombard announces that his revolver has been stolen, and a search for it is fruitless. Narracott discovers he has been poisoned with the fictional drug Solidamide, but he obtains a remedy: a bottle of the fictional "Bellman's Universal Application", found near the site of Miss Brent's death. During a blackout after dinner that night, Wargrave is killed by a shot to the head. Later in the night, however, Wargrave's body goes missing along with Armstrong, whose drowned body washes up on the shore. Wargrave's body turns up later in the screening room, but looks to have been bludgeoned to death, rather than shot. Blore is also found to have been killed, his head caved in by a marble clock.
Narracott returns to the house to find that the killer is Emily Brent, who is really the famous actress Gabrielle Steele, a previous owner of the island who has been mentioned several times. Steele wanted Wargrave killed because he sentenced her love, Edward Seton, to death. She would torture him first by killing those around him first, all criminals who had gotten away with their crimes, and explains how she had faked her own death earlier, using an overdose of the Bellman's Universal Application found earlier to simulate a fatal allergic reaction to the bee stings.
There are four different endings depending on whether Vera and Phillip – one, both, or neither – are saved. If Phillip is saved, he will reveal that his name is actually Charles Morley, a friend of Lombard's who assumed his identity when the real Phillip Lombard committed suicide out of guilt for his past crime. If Vera is saved, she and Narracott return to Sticklehaven (with Morley, if he also survives), where Vera explains her innocence of the crime the gramophone accused her of. If either Vera or Morley (or both) are saved, their statements to the police will clear Naracott and his brother. If neither of them survive, the Naracott brothers make their escape from the police. If Vera survives, she and Naracott decide to get married.
Following the game's completion, the player is given one last challenge that will reward them with the original ending to the book, where Wargrave is the killer. Dying, he wants to mete out justice personally to criminals who have escaped punishment, who he has invited to the island. The alternate ending details the events of the book, ''And Then There Were None'', wherein all the guests on the island are killed by Wargrave except for the last two, Vera and Lombard. Vera then shoots Lombard, thinking him the murderer (since Wargrave has faked his own death), and then hangs herself. Wargrave then shoots himself.
The story is written from the first-person view of Homer Van Meter, a member of John Dillinger's gang, who says he wants to tell the story of how Dillinger got the scar on his upper lip. Following a gun battle with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at Little Bohemia Lodge, Van Meter, Dillinger and Jack Hamilton escape in a vehicle, though exchange gunfire with police from their vehicle some time later. The three men escape again, though Hamilton is shot. After ditching their damaged vehicle and stealing another from a passing motorist, the men take refuge in a rented room behind a bar, where they stay for the next five days. Hamilton's condition deteriorates, with it becoming apparent the bullet is lodged in his lung and the wound is turning gangrenous. Hamilton goes through periods of delirium. In a period of lucidity, he asks Dillinger and Van Meter to entertain him, by walking on his hands and doing "the trick with the flies" respectively, though Dillinger says he will do it later and Van Meter points out there are no flies around.
Dillinger attempts to get Dr. Joseph Moran to treat Hamilton, though returns insisting to Van Meter that Moran "was a crybaby" and he doesn't want such a man to treat Hamilton. He tells Van Meter he threatened Moran into giving him the contact details of someone else, and Moran contacted Volney Davis, a member of Ma Barker's gang. Dillinger and Van Meter take Hamilton to stay with Davis, his girlfriend "Rabbits" and Ma's son Doc, in Aurora, Illinois. Rabbits performs surgery on Hamilton and removes the bullet, though as expected the surgery is too late and his condition worsens. News that Moran has been arrested leads both Dillinger and Barker's gangs to believe he will inform the FBI of their whereabouts, though they all elect to not abandon the dying Hamilton. They agree to instead make a final stand, though the authorities never arrive.
When Hamilton's death appears imminent, Van Meter goes and catches flies with strands of thread, a skill he developed to pass the time when he was in prison. He catches several and shows them to an impressed Hamilton. Dillinger then entertains Hamilton by walking on his hands. While Hamilton is laughing at his antics, Dillinger's revolver falls out of his pants, discharging and injuring himself. The occupants realize Dillinger has only grazed his upper lip, shortly before noticing that Hamilton has died. Dillinger and Van Meter bury their friend, and Dillinger says he thinks his notorious run of good luck has ended and that he will be caught soon.
Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to report on the world's deepest oil well. That night two small, furry, bald-headed dwarf humanoids come up through the shaft and scare the elderly night watchman to death. Lois and Clark arrive at the oil well and find the dead watchman. Clark and the foreman explore the surrounding area for signs of foul play when Lois glimpses one of the creatures and screams. No one believes her when she tells them what she saw.
The medical examiner is summoned, and he later leaves with Lois. Clark stays behind to confront the foreman, who confesses that the well was closed for fear that they had struck radium and not oil. The foreman proceeds to show Clark ore samples that were collected during different stages of drilling; all of them glow brightly.
Meanwhile the two Mole Men innocently explore the town. The residents become terrified because of their peculiar appearance and that everything they touch glows in the dark (due to simple phosphorescence). Soon an angry mob forms, led by the violent Luke Benson (Jeff Corey), in order to kill the "monsters". Superman (George Reeves) stops Benson and the mob and saves one of the creatures in mid-air after it has been shot. He takes it to the hospital. The second creature returns to the well head and disappears down its shaft.
A doctor announces that the injured creature will die unless he has surgery to remove the bullet. When a nurse refuses to do so out of fear, Clark volunteers to assist. Benson's mob arrives at the hospital demanding that the creature be turned over to them. Superman stands guard outside the hospital. Lois stands at his side, but a shot is fired from the mob, narrowly missing her. Superman sends her inside and single handedly relieves the mob of their rifles and pistols.
Three more Mole Men emerge from the drill shaft, this time bearing a strange weapon. They make their way to the hospital. Benson and his mob see the creatures, and Benson goes after them alone. The creatures fire their laser-like weapon at him. Superman jumps in front of the pulsating ray, saving Benson's life, which Superman says "is more than you deserve!". Superman fetches the wounded creature from the hospital and carries him as his companions return to the well head. Soon after, from deep underground, the Mole Men destroy the drill shaft, making certain that no one can come up or go down it ever again. Lois observes, "It's almost as if they were saying, 'You live your lives ... and we'll live ours'".
A mysterious man sorts through pictures of random families on a computer until he chooses the Stevens family. Meanwhile, Louis Stevens interrupts his older sister Ren's junior high graduation with a remote-controlled beachball meant to be full of confetti, unaware that his sidekick Beans has filled it with spaghetti, which spills on the school's gym teacher Coach Tugnut as the beachball explodes. The next day, Ren's boyfriend Gil breaks up with her after taking a summer camp counselor job in Maine. She takes a job babysitting Beans get her mind off of him. After Ren and Louis get into a fight and accidentally hurt the stranger, who introduces himself as Miles McDermott, he talks the Stevens family and Beans into going on a vacation, which is the set of a new reality TV show called ''Family Fakeout''. It is set on the fictional island of Mandelino, which in reality is Catalona, only a short distance off the California coast.
The family is enthusiastically welcomed by a large ensemble of actors portraying island natives, but Louis accidentally destroys the sacred palace the family was meant to spend their vacation in, making the "natives" shun them. The family separates into two groups pitted against each other. Both groups encounter various situations, such as facing starvation and a "killer squirrel." Ren seeks solace with a native named Mootai and they fall in love. Mootai is actually an actor named Jason who is supposed to romance Ren merely to boost ratings, but he is genuinely interested in her, and can't bring himself to break up with her when he is scripted to do so. The "native" actors improvise and kidnap Jason, claiming Louis sold them out, leaving Ren vengeful.
Louis' best friend Twitty and girlfriend Tawny come to the island to rescue them. Twitty is caught by the show's staff, but he escapes and shuts down the equipment monitoring the Stevens groups. Louis and Ren's older brother Donnie finds Tawny, and the reunited family learns the truth. They join Twitty and Tawny to stop Ren from killing Louis. Ren corners him on a cliff, and despite the protests of the family and Miles, who tells her the truth, she pushes Louis off to his apparent death, much to the viewers' and Miles' horror. As Miles breaks down in guilt, a helicopter from another reality show, ''Gotcha'', appears with Louis safely in tow. The Stevens family had planned this charade to get back at Miles. Lance LeBow, the host of another reality show, ''Gotcha'', informs Miles that he is no longer a host of his own show because of his torments. The family chases Miles away.
Louis tells Ren that, though he loves playing pranks on her, he would never do anything to hurt her. He then suggests she start a relationship with Jason back on the mainland. Jason apologizes to Ren for stringing her along, but she forgives him, understanding it was his job as an actor. Jason confesses that his feelings for her were real. After the family returns home and Beans pops up to disrupt their dinner, Ren and Louis argue about who let Beans in the house. The film ends with The Twitty-Stevens Connection singing "Dream Vacation."
At the end of the 70s, the dysfunctional Kenneth Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) lives with his mother Frances (Roz Witt) and is obsessed with joining the police force. When his application is refused, his mother sends him to Los Angeles to live with his sadistic cousin Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro). Kenneth unsuccessfully tries to join LAPD, and Angelo convinces him to start a prostitution business with him. They force Erin (Jennifer Tisdale) and April (Jessica Allegra), two girls from Tucson to work for them, but when they intrude on the territory of another prostitution ring led by Ronnie (Damon Whitaker), their business is destroyed and their money is stolen. The frustrated Kenneth and Angelo decide on revenge against Gabrielle (Kent Masters King) the prostitute who put them into competition with Ronnie, and Kenneth strangles her, feeling a great pleasure with her death. The two cousins become addicted to death, initially killing prostitutes and then attacking single women, dumping their bodies on the hill.
Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) is an obsessive-compulsive and somewhat misanthropic writer of children's books. His illustrator and only friend, Rudy (Tom Wilkinson), dies after a fabulously successful collaboration on their series of children's books about "Marty the Beaver." Henry is under contract to produce another "Marty the Beaver" book for Christmas sales. His publisher, Arthur Planck (Bob Balaban), assigns penniless, lovelorn illustrator Lucy Reilly (Mandy Moore) to work with Henry. She's being wooed by her ex-boyfriend Jeremy (Martin Freeman), who dumped her two years ago but shows up apologetic, having dedicated his new book to her. Lucy and Henry go to their publisher's beach house to work on the book. Will love bloom amid the rocks, or is Henry a bump on Lucy's road to Jeremy? Rudy's voice, from the grave, gives Henry counsel.
One summer afternoon, Shawn goes for a drive with his parents and dog, Ace (Alf in the Japanese version), but the family car suffers a flat tire in front of an abandoned mansion. Ace is upset by something inside the mansion and leaps out of the car to investigate. Shawn's parents follow Ace, but fail to return. As Shawn tentatively approaches the dilapidated structure, the entrance door swings open, and he's drawn into a magical vortex. Reunited with Ace, Shawn must travel into the heart of the Deep Labyrinth to rescue his parents.
There is also a second story of another man who gets sucked into a warphole while talking on his cellphone. He finds himself trapped in a labyrinth. As he journeys through, he is forced to reconcile the past, and realize what it is that traps him in the labyrinth.
Each scenario has multiple endings based on the actions and performance of the player, as well as helpful items sequential playthroughs, to aid unlocking all the secrets of the labyrinth.
The title takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, though presenting a less serious take on the genre, compared to the harsher representations seen in role-playing games such as ''Final Fantasy VI'' or ''Fallout'', or movies such as ''Mad Max'' or ''Nausicaa''. The environment of ''Metal Saga'' seems to be relatively unscathed, with a generally healthy ecosystem and no apparent areas of radioactive contamination, perhaps since the apocalypse (referred to as the Great Destruction) happened in the first place in an attempt to destroy humanity to actually save the planet. Rather than focusing extensively on mutants and ruffians, many of the enemies encountered are merely machines gone haywire. As a result, scavenging such machines and using scavenged parts to build equipment appear to be common activities.
Additionally, the game includes a good dose of militaristic qualities, with most of the game's battles being fought from within tanks, or other tank-like armored vehicles. In essence, the game has very little storyline and mostly non-linear gameplay. Like its predecessors, one may choose to take on whichever informal quests one wants, or none at all, but cannot choose to slaughter the entire population of a town on a whim. The title features more than half a dozen possible endings, several of which can be obtained less than an hour into the game. One ending can even be obtained minutes into the game, making it the shortest possible RPG.
Players can organize a team of up to four characters: the main hero (the "Hunter"), a Mechanic, a Soldier and a mechanized dog. Players are free to choose their own party from the available characters and to switch between them during the game. There are two mechanics in the game, three fighters (one of these is hidden, and can only join during the later parts of the game) and four dogs. Most of the characters in the game have some unique dialogue and further story development during certain side quests.
During the game, players frequently have the option to purchase home furnishings and gifts which can be sent to both playable and non-playable (female) characters. These generally have no effect on gameplay.
Here is the list of the playable characters:
'''Syu''' (his name is not mentioned in the English version): The Hunter of the group, and also the main character. '''Misha''' (called '''Mika''' in the Japanese version): One of the Mechanics in the game. Can repair vehicles. She is Kiriya's little sister, although not blood-related. '''Kiriya''': The second Mechanic in the game. Can repair vehicles. He is Misha/Mika's big brother, although not blood-related. Kiriya's real father is the Disassembler, one of the bounties you fight during the game. If the player defeats him with Kiriya in party, a chain of events will occur, with Kiriya finding a picture of him as a young boy with the Disassembler, Kiriya leaving the party and going back to his home, and rejoining the party upon visiting him in his room. '''Charlene''' (called '''Shirley''' in the Japanese version): One of the Soldiers in the game. Specializes in firearms and can wield guns that other characters cannot use. '''Rashid''': The second Soldier in the game. Specializes in melee weapons and can wield swords and other cutting weapons that other characters cannot use. '''Alpha''': The third and hidden Soldier in the game. She is a cyborg. Cannot wield any weapons, but can use its internal weapons system to devastate almost any opponents encountered. If she dies in battle a certain number of times, she can be brought to Dr. Palm to be manufactured into a very powerful tank part.
Furthermore, there are four different breeds of dogs, each with their unique combat and non-combat abilities, such as beam weaponry and medical kits. The breeds are Shiba Inu, (nicknamed as '''Shiba''') St. Bernard, (nicknamed as '''Bernie''') Boston Terrier (nicknamed as '''Terry''') and '''Tosa'''.
While the game is mostly non-linear with multiple endings, the primary plot arc is revealed by travelling from the east side of the map to the west, culminating near the final fortress-city of Hell's Keep located in the western desert. During the journey, the protagonist, a newly-starting hunter (default name "Syu", though only mentioned in the Japanese version), encounters a legendary Hunter "Scarlett", who assists him with one of his early bounties and introduces him to bounty hunting. He also meets Rosa Beldaire, a wealthy heiress who collects tanks and becomes Syu's rival, and a mysterious man named Alex who, along with his cohorts Bonnie and Clyde, appear to be searching for something among several ruins in the world.
After reaching the frontier town of Alice One in the central region of the map, Syu's father Eddy, a famous bounty hunter, puts Syu in contact with Leon, a researcher who has discovered evidence of a pre-Great Destruction facility codenamed, "Ziggurat". Visiting Leon's office later results in Syu finding Scarlett searching Leon's room for information, but she accidentally injures Syu's arm in the encounter, requiring him to receive a cybernetic replacement. After the player visits a certain number of cities, Leon is attacked by Bonnie and Clyde, who ransack his house; he informs Syu that they took his information on Ziggurat, and gives Syu the facility's location near the city of Hell's Keep, in the world's western desert.
Syu travels to Ziggurat, revealing it to be a massive missile silo containing an intact ICBM from before the Great Destruction. Eddy, who arrived prior, reveals that Alex is attempting to re-activate the facility and launch the missile, but he has been injured fighting the tower's defenses, and tasks Syu with finishing the job. Fighting past Bonnie, Clyde, and the defenses, Syu manages to defeat Alex and destroy the missile as it is launching. Afterwards, Syu, his team, and Eddy return home to recover, where Syu may choose whether to continue bounty hunting, or retire, though afterwards he may elect to continue their adventures.
The story opens with a title card indicating a time setting of 1776, before switching to footages of the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Yorktown. The scene then transitions to the Battle of Bagle Heights, where Bugs, dressed as an American Minuteman, is defending a wooden fort against the red-coated Sam von Schamm (or Schmamm), the Hessian, attacking from a large stone fortress. Sam's fortress is heavily armored, bristling with artillery; by contrast, Bugs' defenses are rather pathetic, with only one cannon.
Even then, Sam is the only one manning his fort, which makes capturing Bugs' difficult, considering the rabbit is able to retaliate by capturing his simultaneously. Sam attempts to continue his bombardment, but Bugs is able to put up a defence by simply catching his opponent's cannonballs with his own cannon and firing them back. When Bugs tires of that contest, he fires a large cork to plug Sam's main mortar. Sam is shot in the face while trying to remove the cork.
Frustrated, Sam burrows his way under his base and into Bugs' base using a pickaxe. Upon surfacing, Sam lights a match, only to find himself in a room full of TNT. An explosion occurs in a shack where the room is, with Sam stumbling out, dazed.
As the last gambit, Sam uses a keg of gunpowder in an attempt to blow up Bug's base; unbeknownst to Sam, gunpowder falls into Sam's back pocket due to a hole in the keg, creating a trail of gunpowder. After Sam lights the fuse, Bugs, sitting on the powder keg and munching a carrot, calmly extinguishes it and nonchalantly lights the trail of gunpowder left by Sam. Fleeing from the inevitable trail, Sam runs away from the base and up an apple tree, which eventually explodes on him.
At this setback, a thoroughly defeated Sam admits that he is a "Hessian without no aggression," and decides to defect to the rebels by saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." To this, Bugs and Sam march side by side in a fife-and-drum march reminiscent of the Archibald Willard painting ''The Spirit of '76'', playing the song ''The Girl I Left Behind Me''.
Following a traffic accident that left him clinically dead for more than 80 minutes, a Southern California antique dealer named Hatch Harrison begins experiencing strange dreams and visions that connect him to a psychopathic killer who calls himself "Vassago". The killer believes that he is the human incarnation of one of the demon princes of Hell, and that if he murders enough innocent human beings and offers them up in sacrifice to his Master, he will be allowed to return to the afterlife and rule at Satan's right hand. He also has a strange condition that enables him to see in the dark, but also causes his eyes to be extremely sensitive to light.
Meanwhile, the accident gives Hatch and his wife Lindsey, an artist, a new lease on life as they struggle to rebuild their marriage in the wake of their son's death from cancer five years before. As the couple set about trying to adopt a young girl named Regina, Hatch continues to be tormented by visions, in some cases even seeing through Vassago's eyes. Making matters worse, Vassago slowly gains information about Hatch and his family in the same fashion, putting both Lindsay and Regina in danger.
It is eventually revealed that Vassago's real name is Jeremy Nyebern; as a teenager, he brutally murdered his mother and sister, then attempted to kill himself. His life was saved by the same doctor who miraculously resuscitated Hatch, Dr. Jonas Nyebern, Jeremy's father (thus facilitating the seemingly supernatural bond between the two men). Like Hatch, Jeremy was clinically dead for more than 30 minutes, and during that time, believes that he went to Hell and was later returned to do Satan's bidding. At the book's climax, Vassago's visions lead him to kidnap Regina and take her to his "hideaway" (an abandoned amusement park, where, as a boy, Jeremy committed his first murder). There, Hatch and Vassago get into a struggle that ends with Hatch beating Vassago to death with a crucifix attached to a flashlight, thus saving Regina and Lindsay. During the closing moments of this confrontation, Hatch inexplicably begins speaking in another voice and calls himself "Uriel" (whom Hatch later learns is an archangel mentioned in the Bible), thus implying that Vassago's beliefs about his demonic heritage and short-lived journey to the afterlife may not have been entirely delusional after all. Uriel/Hatch tells Vassago/Jeremy that instead of returning to Hell as a prince, he will be returned as a slave.
After Vassago's defeat, the Harrison family strengthen their bond to each other, with Regina now calling her adoptive parents Mom and Dad.
Inspired by his longtime love of drawing, and hoping to meet girls, Jerome enrolls at the Strathmore School of Art. His roommates are aspiring filmmaker Vince and closeted-gay fashion major Matthew. Jerome looks for love amongst the female students, but is unsuccessful until he falls for art model Audrey, the daughter of a famous pop artist.
Jerome forms a friendship with classmate and perennial loser, Bardo, a four-time dropout, who guides him through the college scene and introduces him to Jimmy, a Strathmore graduate who is now a failed artist and belligerent drunk.
As Jerome learns how the art world really works, he finds that he must adapt his vision to reality. Jerome slowly loses his idealism at art school and finds himself in competition with a mysterious student named Jonah for both Audrey's affection and artistic recognition. At the same time, a serial killer known as the Strathmore Strangler is on the loose near the campus, confounding the police and inspiring Vince to create a documentary about the murders.
In a wild attempt to win a prestigious art competition, Jerome asks for, and gets, Jimmy's paintings, unbeknownst to him are the Strangler's victims. Accidentally dropping a lit cigarette in Jimmy's apartment, he causes a fire that destroys the building, leaving Jimmy and all the other residents dead. The police arrest Jerome as the Strangler (who in fact was Jimmy).
Audrey realizes Jerome is her true love and that she was stupid to be interested in Jonah, who turns out to be an undercover police officer with a wife and baby at home. Jerome is sent to prison, but his paintings, particularly one of Audrey, become prized by collectors.
Vince scores a huge hit with his documentary about the Strangler called ''My Roommate: The Murderer''. In prison, Jerome continues to paint and sells his works at high prices, not caring that people think he is the killer as it has brought him financial success and recognition. Audrey comes to visit him in prison, and they share a kiss through the protective glass.
When a rock band at the top of their game suddenly loses their band leader/bass player, their musical direction becomes questionable. All the band members know is that the leader's clothes were found at the edge of a waterfront and he has not been seen since. To replace their missing leader, they hire a new bassist, Natalie (Alicia Silverstone), who shakes up their thoughts of the band. However, the biggest changes come when the band decides to go into seclusion to develop new songs and a new sound. They rent a mansion from an aristocratic couple, Lord (Peter O'Toole) and Lady Foxley (Joan Plowright), who are in need of money. When the staff hired to be on hand when the band arrives do not show, the couple decides to act as the butler, Benson, and the cook, Margaret. The obvious conflicts between the two cultures occur, but a respect for each other gradually follows. Meanwhile, the band's recording company is trying to trick them into signing a contract that obliges them to make the music as the company requires, denying their "creative control". Towards the end of the film, the status quo becomes further shaken when the original band leader shows up and admits that his disappearance had been a planned publicity stunt.
Sheila Rilo is a bank teller at Desert Savings Bank in a small desert town. Her boyfriend is Rick Becker, the bank manager who was informed by his superiors that he would be fired if the bank's ATMs were to be robbed just one more time. Sheila and Rick have spent several years in an on-again off-again relationship, in which he uses her between other flings. After Sheila pays for most of Rick's education, he leaves her for his tutor. Sheila decides to exact revenge on Rick by robbing the bank and getting him fired.
On the same night, Stuart and Jason, two other tellers from the same bank, have also decided to rob the bank. Stuart's plan is to steal $250,000 from the bank and bet the entire amount on one game of roulette in Las Vegas. Stuart, who is desperate for excitement in his life, is following the suggestion of his friend Max, even though the intelligent Stuart usually talks Max out of his hare-brained get-rich-quick schemes.
Jason is a nature lover who lives with an orphaned duck. He was promoted to assistant bank manager, a position with much more responsibility but only a $0.55 per hour raise. He feels the bank owes him for years of loyal and underpaid service and he decides to get even by robbing the safety deposit box of a mean-spirited local millionaire, Charles Merchant. Merchant, who got rich from making infomercials and selling videotapes on how to get rich quickly on the real estate market, is the person that shot Jason's duck's mother, therefore making easier Jason's decision to rob Merchant's safety deposit box.
Jason is not the only one with a plan for revenge against the local tycoon. A disgruntled clothing store employee, Shmally, takes her revenge against Merchant the same night by having her friend/roommate Carter help her throw eggs at Merchant's home. Carter, with the help of Shmally, is in the process of cleaning himself up for a job interview at Desert Savings Bank. He is hired and arrives at the bank on Monday morning for his first day, only to be turned away by Rick.
Ultimately, all three bank employees are successful in their individual robberies, with each being completely unaware of the other's plans. After Rick is informed of his firing, he approaches each of them to offer them the job as bank manager. One by one they quit, leaving Rick to offer employment to Carter as he leaves the bank.
In an epilogue, we learn that Carter worked his way up to the assistant manager position at the bank, Max and Stu moved to Las Vegas, Jason traveled south and was never seen again, and Sheila enrolled at UCLA.
The party led by Quenthel Baenre journeys to the drow city of Ched Nasad in hopes of learning more about Lloth's silence. The beginning of the book is mostly a running battle as Quenthel Baenre foolishly commands the party to travel through the domain of Kaanyr Vhok who immediately dispatches his Tanarukk soldiers (led by an Alu-fiend) to destroy the party. The Alu-fiend takes an interest in Pharaun Mizzrym early but continues to harry them. The party eventually makes it to Ched Nasad.
Once there, they realize Ched Nasad is in real danger. The city is very much in conflict as the lesser races have taken to the streets and violence is around every corner. One of Ched Nasad's noble houses has contracted with a Duergar mercenary band to attack the city (A plot which they believe will ultimately make their house rise to power). Unfortunately for the drow, the duergar do too good of a job with their stonefire bombs and in the ensuing battle Ched Nasad is destroyed. Quenthel's party fights at every turn to try and escape the doomed city and eventually they reach a portal (with the help of two new female additions to the party named Halisstra Melarn and Danifae). The book ends just as the drow party escape through the portal and the city's calcified web strands give out causing Ched Nasad to fall to its doom.
This book introduces the characters Halisstra and Danifae to the drow party, both of whom go on to become prominent in the rest of the series.
This is the third book in the War of the Spider Queen series. After emerging from the portal that they used to escape the city of Ched Nasad, the drow party plans its next phase of the mission. They decide to consult a priest of Vhaerun to see if any of the other deities know what has become of the drow goddess Lloth. Valas Hune knows where such a priest can be found and believes that this priest may help them in their quest.
Valas' friend is far away, however, and the last thing that the party wants is to travel a huge distance to get to them, so on Pharaun Mizzrym's advice they decide to shadow walk to get there. The journey has some minor battles but nothing this group can't handle. They end up back in the Underdark after their journey and in the Domain of the duergar. It becomes evident that to get where they are going, they must travel through the home city of the duergar and will need passports to get through unharmed. The group rests for days in the city while they search for means to obtain these documents.
Meanwhile, in Menzoberranzan, Gromph Baenre learns of an impending duergar invasion, and rushes to alert the ruling council until the lichdrow Lord Dyrr stops him. A duel is fought in Gromph's own sanctuary, but the lich prevails and imprisons Gromph in a glass sphere.
Eventually, Matron Triel Baenre does learn of the impending duergar attack (Nimor Imphraezl posing as a drow commander from House Agrach Dyrr informs them), and the decision is made to send Menzoberranzan's army to the Pillars of Woe to destroy the duergar. Nimor's trap is thus set.
The Army of the Black Spider is almost utterly destroyed in the ensuing encounter (and would have been if it were not for the ferocity of House Baenre troops). The army limps back to Menzoberranzan, leaving a token force behind to slow the duergar.
Quenthel Baenre's drow party eventually escapes the duergar city and makes it to Valas' contact (Halisstra Melarn is captured by surface elves during this journey). They are told by Valas' priest friend to journey to Myth Drannor and acquire a magical item. After an intense battle with devils and a beholder, the group finally returns.
The last part of the book entails the party's journey to the Abyss (in astral form, not physical) to inspect for themselves what has happened to Lloth. They come to a great barrier to Lloth's domain in the shape of a huge visage of a female face. They are powerless to get through the barrier and are about to give up when the god Vhaerun materializes and strikes the visage with his godly power. He is about to break through when the god Selvetarm (Lloth's guardian) materializes and fights him. The drow party realizes that the power of the gods is too much for them and must kill the priest of Vhaeraun to escape the Abyss. They flee the stronghold of the priest stunned and shaken.
Pharaun summons Jeggred's father, the demon Belshazu, and interrogates him to find a portal to the Abyss. Belshazu tries to escape, and during the commotion, Ryld Argith and Halisstra Melarn leave the party to pursue their own ends among the surface. Pharaun successfully binds the demon, and learns there is a demon ship that sails on the plane of shadow, and can take them to the Abyss. The party then journeys to an aboleth-filled lake to find this ship, and Quenthel Baenre and Pharaun both devise schemes to get rid of the other. Neither are successful, and they eventually find the ship.
Meanwhile, back in Menzoberranzan, duergar and tanarukks are attacking, led again by Nimor Imphraezl. Gromph Baenre awakens in a cave nearby, trapped in a small sphere, but with the help of his familiar escapes. He is captured by an Illithid, but by using his cunning drow intellect he is able to defeat the foe. He finds an amulet of light and binds it to Nimor, trapping him in the Shadow Plane.
Ryld and Halisstra are happy together, and she eventually converts to the followers of Eilistraee. It appears that Halisstra is a chosen one among Eilistraees followers, and is sent on a quest to recover The Crescent Blade, a sword that can sever the head of Lloth. She learns she must regroup with her old party to venture once more into the Abyss.
During a conversation between Gromph and Triel Baenre, Quenthel recounts her death (at the hands of Drizzt Do'Urden in ''Siege of Darkness'') and subsequent resurrection (by Shakti Hunzrin in ''Windwalker''). Quenthel is uncertain what this event means, but anticipates she has been chosen for some special quest by Lolth herself.
This book focuses on two rather large and epic events. First the wizard duel between Gromph and the Lichdrow Lord Dyrr. Gromph Baenre, after being transported by Dyrr to "Halfling Heaven" returns and is near victory over the lichdrow when Nimor Imphraezl interferes. The spell duel continues until Dyrr polymorphs himself into a Gigant and petrifies Gromph. Only with Triel's help does Gromph continue the fight and finally destroy the Lichdrow's physical body by breaking his staff, releasing a devastating magical discharge. Nimor flees from the battle after he is warned that Lloth is awakening.
The second major event in the book is the duel between Jeggred Baenre and Ryld Argith. Danifae sends Jeggred to kill Ryld using a portal. The battle takes place in a large swamp where Jeggred doggedly pursues Ryld even after being interrupted by many local beasts. The duo finally crash into a human logging camp where events become rather chaotic. Jeggred slaughters most of the loggers and uses their leader's enchanted axe to break Splitter. Ryld is killed moments later and a victorious Jeggred eats his heart in triumph.
The group consisting of Quenthel Baenre, Pharaun Mizzrym, Danifae, and Valas Hune make very little progress in their quest to travel to the Abyss. They spend most of their time on the ship of chaos feeding it and making it ready for their journey. But, they finally do begin their journey with the help of Aliisza. Halisstra Melarn it seems has fully turned from the worship of Lloth and moves forward with her intentions of destroying the deity with Eilistraee's sword.
Quenthel Baenre, Pharaun Mizzrym, Jeggred Baenre, and Danifae continue their journey in the Demonweb Pits without Valas Hune, who disappears shortly before the story begins. Halisstra Melarn, with her new faith in Eilistraee, the Dancing Goddess, journeys with Uluyara and Feliane to fulfill her destiny as the slayer of Lolth, the Spider Queen, Goddess of Chaos. As the journey continues, Both Quenthel's and Hallistra's groups are attacked by numerous beings along the way, soon coming into combat with each other. Quenthel's companions easily defeat Hallistra's, sacrificing the drow Uluyara to Lolth in the process. Danifae strikes Halisstra down in the battle and leaves, believing her former mistress to be dead. Hallistra awakens later, however, bitter and angry. In her rage over losing, and her rage at Eilistraee for allowing it to happen, she throttles Feliane's weak body and soon destroys the Crescent Blade. This turns her from Eilistraee's faith back to her faith in Lolth.
Quenthel's group later runs into a mercenary demon army, hired by Vhaeraun, the Masked Lord, in order to thwart his mother's plans and cause Lolth to die. Quenthel summons an extremely powerful demon, and Danifae summons a monstrous horde of spiders, which attack the assembled demonic forces. Halisstra, who followed Danifae, now attacks her in revenge for their earlier battle. Before either priestess becomes victorious, Lolth's tabernacle, the Spider Queen's inner chamber, opens, beckoning all three of her priestesses forth. Pharaun, magically paralyzed from a fight with a demon mage, is left on the ground to die at the hands of a host of spiders.
Danifae, Halisstra, and Quenthel enter Lolth's tabernacle and are confronted by Lolth, in the form of 8 giant black widow spiders. The eighth and largest spider grabs Danifae, sucks her empty, and is then slaughtered by the other seven spiders. Danifae is in fact the Yor'thae, or Chosen of Lolth. From the gore rises a new form, essentially a giant black widow body with Danifae's torso. The Spider Queen instructs Quenthel to return to her position as Mistress of Arach-Tinilith, and punishes Halisstra for her heresy. Halisstra, now the 'battle-captive', is transformed into the Lady Penitent, reborn to eternally hunt and kill worshipers of Lolth's daughter, son, and former consort. Before returning to Menzoberranzan, Quenthel sacrifices Jeggred to the resurrected Lolth as a gift, and as punishment for opposing Quenthel earlier.
Drizzt was born to the tenth noble House of Menzoberranzan, Daermon Na'shezbaernon (more commonly known as House Do'Urden). He was the son of Malice, the Do'Urden Matron Mother and her consort, Do'Urden weaponmaster (and sometime Patron) Zaknafein. As the third son, drow culture demanded that Drizzt be sacrificed to their goddess Lolth. However, the death of his older brother, and the first son, Nalfein, (incidentally, at the treacherous hand of the second son, Dinin) in the battle against House DeVir which raised Daermon Na'shezbaernon to the 9th ranked in the city during his birth, made him the second son and spared him.
Being a male in the matriarchal drow society, Drizzt Do'Urden suffered considerable abuse at the hands of his family, particularly his eldest sister Briza, in the first sixteen years of his life. His first ten years were spent as a page prince in the care of his sister Vierna; though she was far from kind, in his later years Drizzt would recall some affection for her, stemming from the fact they shared paternity through Zaknafein.
As a child, Drizzt displayed amazing reflexes and coordination. Consequently, Zaknafein was able to persuade Malice that Drizzt should become a warrior, instead of replacing Nalfein as the house wizard. Thus, at the age of sixteen, Drizzt began his weapons training. He began learning the skills that would lead him to become one of the most formidable swordsmen in both the Underdark, and Faerûn.
At twenty years of age, he went to the Academy, specifically Melee-Magthere, Menzoberranzan's warrior academy, where he excelled in his studies despite his resistance to the attempted brainwashing by the masters of the academy. When it was clear that there were none in Drizzt's class who could beat him, the masters of the academy matched him against students three years above him. Drizzt defeated that class easily. His time at the academy would have been perfect (by Drow standards) except for the graduation ceremony, where he disgraced himself by not taking part in a ritual, refusing the advances of two high priestesses, one of them his sister, Vierna, and damning Lolth. Vierna, angered by Drizzt's defiance, showed him what happened to those who defied the Spider Queen: she took him to a drider's lair. She started to leave him there, but Drizzt's mother interfered and saved Drizzt from certain death by the driders. She threatened to turn Drizzt into one of the hideous creatures if she heard of any more defiance from him. He graduated with honors, even though he did not participate in the ceremony. He believed that no one really noticed his absence from the ceremony because the others were wrapped up in the moment.
He began patrolling the Underdark with his assigned patrol group. He witnessed first hand the cruelty his race showed the other races of the Underdark. Not long after graduation, he took part in a surface raid in which he saved the life of a child of the most bitter enemy of the drow, the surface elves, by hiding her body underneath the corpse of her murdered mother. Zaknafein, having similar morals to Drizzt, believed he had killed the child, but Lolth knew he allowed the child to survive and House Do'Urden fell out of the Spider Queen's tenuous favor. Zaknafein, fearing that Drizzt had succumbed to the evil ways of the drow, fought with Drizzt, and was told the truth of the matter by his son. Upon hearing Drizzt say that he had no part in the murder of the surface elves, Zaknafein became ecstatic, and revealed that Drizzt was indeed his child. They planned to escape House Do'Urden and live in the caverns of the Underdark. Unfortunately, Matron Malice and her daughters, in a bid to find out why Do'Urden was no longer in Lolth's favor, were watching. They knew that the only way to rectify the situation was to offer Drizzt up as a sacrifice to Lolth. Malice informed Zaknafein of the plan to sacrifice their son, and to stop it from happening, Zaknafein offered himself to replace Drizzt. This was Malice's intention all along. She believed that once Zaknafein was dead that Drizzt would begin behaving like a proper drow noble, and would take the position of weapon master with pride. When Drizzt learned of his father's demise, he confronted Matron Malice. She told him, cruelly and with much delight, that Zaknafein had been sacrificed to Lolth in order to regain the Spider Queen's favor. She told Drizzt that he was to serve as the house's new weapon master. Drizzt refused outright and, using one of Zaknafein's weapons - an exploding ball of light - escaped into the Underdark.
Having lived in the Underdark for over forty years, Drizzt realized that neither he nor anyone around him would be safe, so he decided to travel to the surface. There he met with much adversity because of his race, but also found his true calling in life as a ranger, during his time with a blind ranger named Montolio. He eventually moved to Icewind Dale, where he joined with Catti-Brie, Bruenor Battlehammer, Regis the Halfling, and Wulfgar the barbarian.
The evil wizard Aballister has spent two years collecting and brewing a potion of power, as told to him by the imp, Druzil, sent by the Goddess of Poison, Talona. When he reveals it to his evil fellowship at the hidden stronghold Castle Trinity, the priest Barjin takes control of it and sets off to the major stronghold of the Snowflake Mountains — the Edificant Library. He finds an innocent, intelligent, and young, low-ranking priest, to open the potion, the Chaos Curse, which makes all who breathe it lose self-control. Cadderly must fight a memory-blocking spell in order to lift the curse and save the Library.
The protagonist of ''The History of Mr. Polly'' is an antihero inspired by H. G. Wells's early experiences in the drapery trade: Alfred Polly, born circa 1870, a timid and directionless young man living in Edwardian England, who despite his own bumbling achieves contented serenity with little help from those around him. Mr. Polly's most striking characteristic is his "innate sense of epithet", which leads him to coin hilarious expressions like "the Shoveacious Cult" for "sunny young men of an abounding and elbowing energy" and "dejected angelosity" for the ornaments of Canterbury Cathedral.
Alfred Polly lives in the imaginary town of Fishbourne in Kent (not to be confused with Fishbourne, West Sussex or Fishbourne, Isle of Wight – the town in the story is thought to be based on Sandgate, Kent where Wells lived for several years). The novel begins ''in medias res'' by presenting a miserable Mr. Polly: "He hated Foxbourne, he hated Foxbourne High Street, he hated his shop and his wife and his neighbours – every blessed neighbour – and with indescribable bitterness he hated himself". Thereafter, ''The History of Mr. Polly'' is divided in three parts. Chapters 1–6 depict his life up to age 20, when he marries his cousin Miriam Larkins and sets up an outfitter's shop in Fishbourne. Chapters 7–8 show Mr. Polly's spectacular suicide attempt, which ironically makes him a local hero, wins him insurance money that saves him from bankruptcy, and yields the insight that "''Fishbourne wasn't the world'' , which leads him to abandon his shop and his wife. Chapters 9–10, at the Potwell Inn (apparently located in West Sussex), culminates in Mr. Polly's courageous victory over "Uncle Jim", a malicious relative of the innkeeper's granddaughter. An epilogue then depicts Mr. Polly at ease as assistant-innkeeper, after a brief visit to ascertain Miriam's prosperity.
An outbreak of a mutant strain of mad cow disease infects the Irish countryside, turning people into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies. Caught amid this chaos are a young Spanish tourist and the local gravedigger. Together, this unlikely duo must fight for survival.
In 1948 Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is laid off from his job at Champion Aircraft and needs money to pay his mortgage. Easy's friend Joppy introduces him to DeWitt Albright, a White man looking for a missing White woman, Daphne Monet. Explaining that Monet's disappearance led her wealthy fiancé, Todd Carter, to drop out of the Los Angeles mayoral race, Albright pays Easy to find Daphne, who is known to frequent the juke joints along Central Avenue.
Easy begins his search at an illegal club where he sees the bouncer, Junior Fornay, eject a White man. Learning that his friend Dupree Brouchard's girlfriend, Coretta James, is a confidant of Daphne, Easy spends the night with Coretta and discovers Daphne is involved with gangster Frank Green. Albright arranges a meeting at the Malibu pier, where Easy is accosted by White youths before Albright viciously humiliates one of the boys at gunpoint. Easy tells him about Green, and is given another payment to continue his search.
Returning home, Easy is arrested by LAPD homicide detectives, who reveal that Coretta has been murdered. Interrogated and beaten before being released, he is approached by Matthew Terell, the remaining mayoral candidate. Terell is with a young boy, supposedly his adopted son, and inquires about Daphne, but Easy divulges nothing. After a nightmare about Coretta, he receives a call from Daphne herself. They meet at the Ambassador Hotel, and she asks him to drive her to meet Richard McGee, a White man from the club. They arrive to find McGee dead, with his house ransacked. Easy notices a pack of Mexican cigarettes, the same brand smoked by Junior. Traumatized after witnessing the grisly scene, Daphne panics and flees, driving off and stranding Easy.
Easy makes it home, but is threatened again by Albright and his partners, who demand that he track Daphne down a second time or face murder charges. Easy sends for his friend, Raymond 'Mouse' Alexander, and confronts Joppy for leading Daphne to him. He meets with Todd Carter, realizing that Albright actually works for Terell, and secures another payment to locate Daphne. Returning home, he is ambushed by Frank Green but rescued by Mouse. Frank escapes after the trigger-happy Mouse shoots him in the shoulder, and Easy misses a call from Daphne. Questioned again by the detectives, Easy is given until the following morning to clear his name.
Easy and Mouse confront Junior – the owner of the cigarettes – who admits to driving McGee home and being given a letter for Coretta to deliver to Daphne. They visit Dupree where, inside Coretta's Bible, Easy finds the contents of a letter and incriminating photographs of Terell with naked children. At home, Easy finds Daphne waiting, and she reveals that Frank is her half-brother: their mother was Creole, and Daphne's father was White while Frank's was black. Terell learned of Daphne's heritage, and the potential scandal forced Carter to abandon his campaign, but Daphne bought the pictures from McGee to blackmail Terell into silence. Hunting for Daphne and the pictures, Albright murdered McGee. When Coretta threatened to sell the pictures to Terell, Daphne sent Joppy to intimidate her, but did not expect him to kill Coretta.
Albright and his men arrive, subduing Easy and kidnapping Daphne. Joined by Mouse, Easy abducts Joppy at gunpoint, forcing him to take them to Albright's cabin in the Hollywood Hills. Easy and Mouse kill Albright and his men and rescue Daphne; returning to the car, Easy learns Mouse killed Joppy. Daphne pays Easy and Mouse $7,000 for the pictures, and Mouse returns home to Houston with his share. Daphne reveals that Carter's family paid her $30,000 to leave town, but she believes that the pictures will ensure Carter's victory and their marriage. Driving Daphne to meet Carter, who rejects her, Easy receives the rest of his payment in exchange for the pictures. Daphne and her brother leave town, while Carter's election is assured. No longer in trouble with the police, Easy considers starting his own business as a private investigator.
Chong-kwai welcomes his friends Ted, May, Kofei and April from Hong Kong to his home in Thailand. He shows them a book which describes a game of ten ways to see ghosts.
After Kofei goes missing halfway during the game after he relieved himself on a tree in the woods, April stays behind in Thailand to try to find him, while Ted and May return to Hong Kong. April disappears too later.
Back in Hong Kong, Ted and May continue to encounter ghosts. Chong-kwai returns to the shop where he bought the book and learns that he and his friends have been cursed and they need to finish the game.
Ted and May return to Thailand and play the last part of the game. They enter a ghostly dimension and finally find Kofei. They also meet April, who has committed suicide after thinking that Kofei is dead. Kofei stays behind with April while Ted and May attempt to escape, but they end up trapped in another ghostly dimension.
;The Ten Ways
The Specter Zone is a purgatory dimension set between heaven and hell, which is overseen by a shape-shifting being only known as the Gatekeeper, who forms a tournament for his own amusement and will bestow a second chance at life to any of the eight deceased fighters, all of which died in 1995.
Jeremy Capello (Robert Sean Leonard) is a typical American teenager from Houston struggling with getting himself a girlfriend. Although he has caught the eye of his school's head cheerleader Candy (LeeAnne Locken), he has his attention fixed on his classmate and band geek Darla Blake (Cheryl Pollak), who in turn is unnerved by his constant staring at her.
Recently, Jeremy has been having some weird nightmares about a strange woman trying to seduce him, and later he actually encounters that woman named Nora (Cecilia Peck), who makes an obvious invitation to him, while delivering groceries. His skirt-chasing friend Ralph (Evan Mirand) convinces him to take up the opportunity for a first erotic experience. But the encounter goes badly: First the woman bites him in the neck, then two strangers burst into the house, forcing Jeremy to run for his life.
The next morning, Jeremy looks pale and does not feel well, and he sees in his father's newspaper that Nora's house has mysteriously burned down. Also, throughout the day he notices a strange man observing him. This man pops into his bedroom the very next night, introduces himself as Modoc (René Auberjonois) and carefully attempts to relay to Jeremy that he is now a vampire (albeit a living one, not an undead). Jeremy is initially highly skeptical, but a sudden aversion to garlic, an increasing sensitivity to sunlight and craving for blood slowly convince him otherwise. His new vampire "life-style" hampers his attempts to start a relationship with Darla, who has finally become interested in him; otherwise Jeremy begins to adapt to the minor impacts the change has brought to his life. Modoc even gives him a guide book and explains to him that vampires are just like any other "minority group" that has been persecuted over the centuries.
Slowly, Jeremy's parents (Kenneth Kimmins and Fannie Flagg) notice that their son is behaving "most peculiarly" and begin to suspect that he may be a homosexual and that he is getting mixed up with bad company. To add to the ensuing confusion, the two men who had burst in on Jeremy's adventure are actually vampire hunters: Zealous professor Leopold McCarthy (David Warner) is determined to stop a "vampire armageddon" with the help of his feeble assistant Grimsdyke (Paul Willson). They are in the process of tracking their newest victim, but due to a mix-up they believe that Ralph is the vampire.
One night, when Jeremy finally begins to exploit his new capabilities and wins back Darla's trust, McCarthy and Grimstyke kidnap Ralph and intend to "free his soul" in a small chapel. Jeremy and Darla arrive in time to save him, but then Jeremy is recognized as a vampire, and only his new-found power of hypnotism and the timely arrival of Modoc and Nora, who has come back from the dead, manage to save the day. Since McCarthy remains unrelenting, Modoc's female consorts turn McCarthy into a vampire, making a friend out of an enemy.
The film ends with the Capellos assuring Jeremy that they love him and to "Just be happy with who you are." Jeremy then introduces Darla to his delightfully surprised parents, while Ralph just shakes his head at the whole hubbub.
In the 1940s, Leon "Bernzy" Bernstein is a freelance crime and street photographer for the New York City tabloids, dedicated to his vivid and realistic work and his unique ability to capture shots that nobody else can. He is very confident of his skills, declaring at one point, "Nobody does what I do. Nobody".
With a police radio under the dashboard of his car and a makeshift darkroom in his trunk, he quickly races to the scene of horrific crimes and accidents in order to snap exclusive photographs. He is so good at his job that he becomes known affectionately as the "Great Bernzini".
Bernzy meets a sultry widow, Kay Levitz, who owns a fancy nightclub. It seems the mob is muscling in on her due to some arrangement with her late husband. Kay asks if Bernzy could investigate an individual she considers troublesome. Generally unsuccessful with women, Bernzy agrees to help Kay, and he slowly begins to fall in love with her.
After talking to his contacts, including journalist friend Arthur Nabler, he tracks down Kay's man, only to find him murdered. But when he calls the police, he becomes a suspect in the man's death. The police and the FBI are also very interested in this case. Bernstein makes a connection with a local gangster, Sal, uncovering a conspiracy involving a mob turf war about illegal gas rationing, and the Federal government. His activities get Sal killed and place Bernzy's life in great danger as he waits in hiding at an Italian restaurant where a mob hit is about to take place.
An old man, Proog (voiced by Tygo Gernandt), guides the young Emo (voiced by Cas Jansen) through a giant surreal machine, in which the rooms have no clear transition to each other. After Proog saves Emo from flying plugs in a room consisting of a gigantic telephone switchboard, they run through a dark room filled with electrical cables and flee from a flock of bird-like robots. In the next room, Emo is tempted to answer a ringing phone, but Proog stops him and reveals a trap. The room is also occupied by a robot resembling a self-operating typewriter, which Emo appears to laugh at.
The next room is a large abyss from which metal supports appear from below; Proog nimbly dances across the abyss on the supports, while Emo casually walks along and does not seem to notice the stilts supporting him. Proog explains to Emo that the machine is like clockwork and could destroy them both if one wrong move is made. The two enter an elevator that is catapulted through a series of apertures by a pair of mechanical slats. Proog instructs Emo to close his eyes as they ascend to an empty dark void. Proog asks Emo what he sees, and is pleased by Emo's reply that he sees nothing as they plunge rapidly into the next room. A projector creates an image of a door from which music emanates. Emo asks to go through the door, but Proog insists that it is unsafe, and presses a button within his cane to enclose them both in a smaller room.
Proog asks Emo why he fails to recognize the beauty and perfection of the machine, to which Emo responds that the machine does not exist. Frustrated, Proog slaps Emo across the face, pushing the startled Emo to walk away. Emo mockingly imitates Proog's earlier tour to demonstrate the machine's absurdity and manifests the twisted versions of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (in the form of mechanical roots) and the Colossus of Rhodes (in the form of gigantic hands), which threaten to destroy Proog's constructed world. Proog knocks Emo unconscious with his cane and causes his creations to disappear, Proog desperately asserts to Emo that the machine exists.
Max, the leader of the Shining Force from the first Shining Force game, is chasing the witch Mishaela (servant of the devil king Darksol, from the same game). One of Max's companions, the robot Adam, is injured in battle with Mishaela. Max's party stops to help the robot, and only Max and his companion Ridion continue the chase. Max and Ridion never come back from the chase. Led by a man named Ian, Max's remaining companions set out to find them.[http://www.shiningforcecentral.com/?p=scripts&id=sfgfc English Translation of Game Script], Shining Force Central.
The following is a list of the more significant characters in the game:
Ian: The leader of the Shining Force. Max: The former leader of the Shining Force. A great hero who once fought and defeated the evil wizard Darksol and his awakened master, Dark Dragon. After Dark Dragon's demise, Max formed a new party and continued to fight evil, now following the track of Darksol's former servant, Mishaela. He disappeared when chasing Mishaela, and the first goal of the new Shining Force is to find him. Adam: A robot constructed by the Ancients who serves and fights alongside Max. He was badly injured when Max's group fought Mishaela's group on Parmecia, and became unable to fight. However, he is important as an advisor to Ian. King Galam: The righteous King Galam rules the kingdom with the same name. He gives Ian the legendary sword once wielded by Max to fight evil, the Chaos Breaker. In honour of Ian's victory, he later renames the weapon "Force Sword". Mishaela: Chief servant of Darksol. Was seemingly defeated by the Shining Force in the second ''Shining'' series game, but we now learn it was only one of her dolls that was defeated. Her plans are still unknown, but it's certain that she is involved in the disappearance of Max. She is a cunning, malicious, and arrogant woman with formidable magical ability. Odd Eye: A blind warrior in the service of the devil king Zeon (from ''Shining Force II''). Zeon is a great enemy of Darksol, so Odd Eye joins the Shining Force for a while to help them to defeat Mishaela. He wields a sword and possesses an attack called Odd Eye Beam, shooting rays by opening his blind eyes.
In ''The Terminator: Future Shock'', the story begins in 2015 with the player's character escaping from an extermination camp with the help of the resistance. Once the player fully escapes during the first mission the character is introduced to John Connor, the leader of the resistance, and a young Kyle Reese. After completing several missions for the resistance, the resistance HQ is infiltrated and attacked by T800 model Terminators. After assisting Connor and the rest of the leadership in relocating to a new HQ, the player begins to experience phenomena in the form of enemies 'spawning' seemingly randomly on screen. It soon transpires that Skynet has perfected time displacement and as a result of the success of the player's endeavors, its future self is actively manipulating time by placing its forces in key strategic locations in an attempt to thwart successful resistance maneuvers. The resistance learn that Skynet is using time displacement to transmit information to itself in 1995 in an attempt to increase the speed at which it will become sentient. The player is ultimately sent on a mission to stop this process but must battle time as the resistance HQ is besieged and Kyle Reese and Connor himself are seriously wounded.
Contrary to the timeline specified in ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', ''Future Shock'' depicts 1995 as the beginning of the nuclear war, not 1997. Throughout the game the player is surrounded by a post-apocalyptic environment. All around is death and decay, scattered with pockets of deadly fallout and the remnants of a shattered society.
The story starts when two experienced whalers decided to settle down in Reykjavík at the end of the whaling season. While there, they get into trouble and are thrown out of one establishment after another. When events escalated to violence, they break into a weapons shop and steal rifles to confront the police.
In ''Starless Night'', Drizzt decides to return to Menzoberranzan in an attempt to keep the evil drow from launching another attack on Mithral Hall. He gives Guenhwyvar to Regis and tells him not to tell anyone where he went. When Cattie-brie later questions Regis about Drizzt's disappearance, and she makes Regis tell the truth. Regis then gives her Guenhwyvar and she decides to follow Drizzt . She first stops at the city of Silverymoon to meet with Lady Alustriel and to procure supplies. Alustriel, who has feelings for Drizzt, gives Catti-brie horses with magic horseshoes and makes a dwarven attendant, Fret, accompany her to the entrance of the Underdark. Meanwhile, Drizzt meets several elves in the woods near the Underdark, and recalls the surface raiding party that he was a part of as a young drow when he saved a young girl by pretending to kill her. She meets Drizzt, and the elves send a guide, Tarathiel, to help him through the woods. The pair encounters a unicorn in the grove of Montolio and Drizzt is able to pet it. He takes it as a sign that Mielikki, the goddess of rangers, approves of his sacrifice. He makes his way into the Underdark several days later. Catti-brie also arrives at the entrance to the Underdark within two days of Drizzt, and Fret goes back to Silverymoon.
Drizzt goes first to Blingdenstone, the Underdark city of the deep gnomes, and stays for several days. Catti-brie also encounters a group of deep gnomes a day later and they show her a shortcut to Menzoberranzan. Then in Menzoberranzan, Drizzt is able to disguise himself for a little while as a slave driver on the Isle of Rothé, but is later found out. Catti-brie is near Drizzt at this point, and she witnesses his capture before being taken by Jarlaxle and held prisoner by the mercenary group Bregan D'arthe. Drizzt is taken to Matron Baenre's dungeon and tortured by one of Baenre's daughters, Vendes, the chief torturer. Entreri, somehow surviving the fall in the previous book, is now essentially the prisoner of Jarlaxle. He makes a deal with Cattie-brie in a bid to return to the surface and escape the evil drow city. He and Catti-brie steal a number of magical items from Bregan D'arthe and the sorcerer Gromph in order to free Drizzt from House Baenre during a ceremony involving all of the matrons of the eight ruling Houses of Menzoberranzan. Drizzt then kills Vendes, and in the daring escape out of the compound fights Dantrag Baenre, who was always considered the second-best to Zaknafein (and after Zaknafein's death, Drizzt). Drizzt is victorious, obtaining Dantrag's magical bracers, while Catti-brie chooses Dantrag's evil sentient sword Khazid'hea, who wanted to be wielded by Drizzt but could not (as Drizzt favors the scimitar). Catti-brie then explodes a section of the tunnel above the House Baenre compound, destroying most of the chapel dome and interrupting the ceremony of the Matron Mothers. Entreri escapes to the surface, and Catti-brie and Drizzt return to Mithral Hall, on the way stopping by the resting place of Wulfgar.
''Siege of Darkness'' tells the story of how the Time of Troubles, in which all magic is temporarily disrupted and many gods and goddesses are forced to take the forms of their avatars and walk the material plane, affects the drow and Drizzt and company. The Spider Queen, Lolth, plots to keep Matron Baenre in power and to ultimately take Mithral Hall. In-house fighting results in the destruction of the 3rd house, House Oblodra, with the exception of their kobold/ goblin army, and the 4th house, House Faen Tlabbar, being left leaderless. Matron Baenre, along with the favor of Lolth, forms a loose house alliance to attack Mithral Hall. Realizing that they cannot possibly stop a drow army, the svirfnebli, the deep gnomes, are forced to abandon Blingdenstone. The battle for Mithral Hall takes place on the surface as well as in the Underdark. The drow were defeated with a little help from an unlikely source, the balor, Errtu. Through trickery, all Baenre wizardry and spells are temporarily interrupted and the heroes take advantage of the opening, killing Matron Baenre and defeating the drow offensive. Lolth's plan all along was to bring about chaos and to rid herself of Matron Baenre.
''Passage to Dawn'' finds Drizzt and Catti-brie aboard the ''Sea Sprite'' six years after the events of the previous novel (''Siege of Darkness'', 1994), with the company of its captain, Deudermont, its wizard Robillard, and its powerful crew. The ''Sea Sprite'' is indeed a feared force on the Sword Coast, with few pirates choosing to attack its deadly wizard, drow ranger, panther, archer or ballista. They have been hunting pirates for the six years after the Battle of Mithral Hall. The balor, Errtu, who needs Drizzt to break his banishment; takes Deudermont's shape and it is unmasked when it hints to a mysterious island. Deudermont looks for the island to find out who sent the creature. The Sea Sprite crew goes to Mintarn in search of information about the mysterious Caerwich. They are attacked by pirates, but they manage to escape also because of the magical arrival of Harkle Harpell, who joins the crew. After a long and perilous journey, the Sea Sprite reaches Caerwich. There more dangers await the companions, but they eventually find an old hag who gives a riddle message to Drizzt and Catti-brie. The drow believes that the message implies that his father is alive and held by Lolth. The companions look for more information from a fiend of the Abyss, contacting it through a priest. On the journey back, the Sea Sprite is nearly destroyed by a storm and is saved by Harkle, whose spell magically transports the damaged schooner in Impresk Lake, near the residence of the priest Cadderly Bonaduce.
The companions go to Icewind Dale where Crenshinibon lies, the place where Errtu will more likely show up. In the meantime the crystal shard itself is found and taken by Stumpet Rakingclaw. Errtu is summoned by a wizard, but he breaks free and flies to Icewind Dale. He takes Crenshinibon from Stumpet, capturing her soul and using her body as a bait to lure Drizzt to him. Stumpet's body leads the companions to the Sea of Moving Ice. There they are attacked by Taers sent by Crenshinibon, and they beat the creatures because of the arrival of Revjak and his warriors. Berkthgar and his men, who were also following the companions, arrive as well and eventually the heroes make the barbarian realize his mistakes. The companions then proceed to their quest and they eventually reach Cryshal-Tirith, where battle with Errtu's minions ensues. Regis infiltrates the tower and, with cunning and willpower, he manages to lock Crenshinibon in a box from where its power can't escape. In the meantime the others are saved by the arrival of Kierstaad, son of Revjak, wielding Aegis-fang, taken from Bruenor's quarters. Errtu's prisoner, Wulfgar, breaks free and joins battle with his warhammer. The companions eventually defeat Errtu.
In ''The Two Swords'', Obould's horde has pressed the Companions to the very gates of Mithral Hall, where Bruenor and his clan launch a desperate, last-ditch effort to push the orcs back. A desperate rescue attempt succeeds, with Drizzt and Innovindil rescuing the latter's pegasus, which Obould had captured and chained as a trophy, and Drizzt is unexpectedly reunited with the Companions that he long thought dead. The only major plot line to be tied up in this novel is the question of what Drizzt will do about his relationship with Catti-brie.
Other than that, ''The Two Swords'' resolves a few minor plot threads. Drizzt and the surface elf Innovindil bring their quest for the captured pegasus to a conclusion. A few more characters meet their demise in this novel. Ultimately, the novel keeps the major plot lines active for future novels, and introduces several more.
Wulfgar and his new friend, Morik the Rogue, are convicted of the attempted murder of Wulfgar's old companion Captain Deudermont, a crime they did not commit. Morik the Rogue is an unscrupulous human who comes along as a traveling and drinking companion to barbarian hero Wulfgar, and is a close, but not necessarily trusted, friend. Wulfgar's mighty warhammer ''Aegis Fang'' is stolen and sold to a notorious pirate. They narrowly avoid the horrors of Luskan's prisoner's carnival, but through the intervention of the victim himself, they are spared. As the book progresses, Wulfgar slowly climbs out of his despair, finally setting out to find the life he thought lost to the darkness. After their eviction from the city, they set out to become bandits on the roads outside the city. They prove to not be very proficient at it, though, and soon become involved in the politics of a backwater town in which the peasant fiancée of the local lord bears an illegitimate child. Wulfgar is blamed, but is helped to escape, and adopts the baby girl as his own.
After regaining his confidence and will to live (lost in Paths of Darkness, when Drizzt Do'Urden seemed to have died without being defeated fairly by Artemis, thus apparently taking from him the ability to prove to himself that he was a better fighter), Artemis Entreri finds himself allied with the mercenary Jarlaxle as the drow's tie to the surface world. Caught in the plans of Jarlaxle's band, Bregan D'aerthe, Artemis finds himself back in Calimport, the city in which he became known as one of the greatest assassins in Faerûn. Without many ties to the city after spending his time in captivity to the drow, Entreri must once again make his name known while trying to survive against the guilds of Calimport and Jarlaxle's lieutenants, Berg'inyon Baenre, Raiguy Bondalek, and Kimmuriel Oblodra. At the same time Jarlaxle succumbs to the mental intrusions of the crystal shard, Crenshinibon, as it pushes Jarlaxle to fulfill his unending ambitions. This is also the third novel in the ''Paths of Darkness'' series.
In the final episode of this series, Jarlaxle and Entreri find themselves having to answer for their actions at Zhengyi's construct. Both the Spysong network and the Citadel of Assassins have lost associates at the castle and search for a hero.
Artemis Entreri finds himself uncharacteristically falling in love with the half-elf Calihye, the result of a magical flute given to him by Jarlaxle which forces the owner into a heightened emotional state. Entreri is betrayed by Calihye who still blames him for the death of Parissus. She attempts to stab him in the heart with a dagger while making love to him but is foiled by a kinetic barrier conjured by Kimmuriel.
Jarlaxle seizes control of Castle Perilous and is summarily attacked by an army led by King Gareth himself. He immediately surrenders and confesses that he made an open bid for power against the king in order to unite the people of Palishchuk under Gareth's banner, willingly playing the part of a common enemy. Despite the queen's insistence that Entreri and Jarlaxle be executed for treason, they are permitted, along with Athrogate, to leave the city with his life with the promise that they will never again enter the kingdom.
The trio head for Memnon, Entreri finally deciding to face his inner demons and confront the city of his birth. Entreri soon discovers that the city is in the iron grip of a corrupt high priest who impoverishes the people through fear demanding they pay indulgences in exchange for the promise that their dead children will go to a pleasant afterlife. Entreri learns that the high priest knew his mother intimately and might even be his biological father. Disgusted by the obscene luxury of the priest's palace and the resulting destitution of the city's non-clerical inhabitants, Entreri kills the high priest and orders the palace's second-in-command, on penalty of a similar fate as his superior, to redistribute the acquired riches among those who need it.
In the end, Jarlaxle admits that he gave Entreri the flute in the hope that, in embracing emotions he'd suppressed since his traumatic childhood, he would rediscover his heart and find a purpose in life other than power. The story ends with Jarlaxle and Entreri parting ways, the latter saying he wants nothing to do with him ever again.
The first two acts take place in November 1915, looking forward to the liberation of Ireland. The last two acts are set during the Easter Rising, in April 1916.
Residents of the tenement house: Jack Clitheroe: a bricklayer and former member of the Irish Citizen Army. Nora Clitheroe: housewife of Jack Clitheroe. Peter Flynn: a labourer, and uncle of Nora Clitheroe. The Young Covey: a fitter, ardent socialist and cousin of Jack Clitheroe. Bessie Burgess: a street fruit-vendor, and Protestant. Mrs Gogan: a charwoman. Mollser Gogan: daughter of Mrs Gogan, dying of tuberculosis. Fluther Good: a carpenter, and trade-unionist.
Additional characters: Lieutenant Langon: a civil servant, and lieutenant of the Irish Volunteers. Captain Brennan: a chicken butcher, and captain of the Irish Citizen Army. Corporal Stoddard: a corporal of the Wiltshire Regiment of the British Army. Sergeant Tinley: a sergeant of the Wiltshire Regiment of the British Army. Rosie Redmond: a daughter of "the Digs," and a prostitute. A Bartender. *The Figure In The Window: Unnamed but uses quotes attributed to Patrick Pearse.
The first act is a representation of normal working-class life in early twentieth century Dublin. The majority of major characters are introduced. The act opens with gossip from Mrs Gogan, a Catholic charwoman. Some other characters introduced are: Fluther Good, a trade unionist and carpenter; "the Young Covey", an ardent communist and fitter; Jack Clitheroe, the Covey's cousin and a former member of the Irish Citizen Army, at that time led by James Connolly. There is also Nora Clitheroe; Jack Clitheroe's wife. Later in this act, Captain Brennan knocks on the door of the Clitheroes' home and asks to see "Commandant Clitheroe", which surprises Jack Clitheroe, as he was not aware he'd been promoted. Nora begs him not to answer the door, but he does, and meets Captain Brennan, a chicken butcher and a member of the Irish Citizen Army. Captain Brennan hands Jack Clitheroe his orders telling him that he and his battalion are ordered to join General James Connolly at a meeting. Jack Clitheroe asks why he was not informed that he was made commandant. Captain Brennan claims he gave a letter to Nora Clitheroe explaining his new promotion. This is when Jack Clitheroe starts fighting with Nora because Nora burned the letter that told Jack Clitheroe he was promoted.
This act was originally a single-act play, called ''The Cooing of Doves''.
The setting is the interior of a public house. A political rally is in progress outside. From time to time an unnamed man is heard addressing the crowd. (He is traditionally identified with Patrick Pearse.) Rosie Redmond, a prostitute, is complaining to the barman that the meeting is bad for business. Peter Flynn, Fluther Good and Young Covey come in and leave again at intervals, having a quick drink during the speeches. Bessie Burgess and Mrs. Gogan also come in, and a fight breaks out between them. After they have left, Covey insults Rosie, leading to a row between him and Fluther. Jack Clitheroe, Lieutenant Langon and Captain Brennan enter the bar, in uniform and carrying The Plough and the Stars flag and a green, white and orange tricolour. They are so moved by the speeches that they are determined to face imprisonment, injury or death for Ireland. They drink quickly and leave again in time to march their respective companies away. Fluther leaves with Rosie.
This takes place on Easter Monday, the opening day of the Easter Rising. Peter, Mrs Gogan and the Covey discuss the fighting that is going on and the Covey informs Mrs Gogan that Patrick Pearse came out of the General Post Office with his men to read out the Proclamation of Irish Independence. Bessie gloats about the Rebels' imminent defeat but is ignored by the others. Nora shows up with Fluther after having searched for Jack in the midst of the fighting unsuccessfully. As Mrs Gogan leads her inside to lie down Bessie leaves to get some bread and comes back shortly informing the others that looting has broken out everywhere. A fashionably dressed middle-aged woman enters and asks the men to show her a safe route back to her home in Rathmines because the fighting has made it impossible to find a taxi or tram to take her back. Fluther tells her that any route is as safe as the others and leaves with the Covey to loot a nearby pub without helping her. Peter refuses to help her on the grounds that he might be shot and left with a limp and leaves her alone outside the tenement. Mrs Gogan attempts to leave the house pushing a pram until Bessie rushes after her claiming that the pram's owner left her in charge of it. The argument concludes with the two women agreeing to split the spoils. Brennan and Jack appear with a wounded rebel and Nora rushes to meet with them. She attempts to convince Jack to leave the fight and stay with her, telling him that she had gone out asking for his whereabouts when she hadn't gotten any news. Angered by her actions and the shame they brought upon him Jack ignores Nora's pleas and pushes her away roughly before leaving with his comrades. Nora then goes into labour.
This takes place later in the rising. Mollser, a local girl, has died of tuberculosis, while Nora has had a stillbirth. She is delirious, imagining herself walking in the woods with Jack. Brennan arrives and tells the others that Jack has been shot dead. Two British soldiers arrive and escort the men away — civilians are suspected of aiding a rebel sniper. Nora goes to a window, calling for Jack; when Bessie pulls her away, Bessie is shot in the back, mistaken for a sniper.
The Swallows intend to sail in the ''Goblin'' (as featured in ''We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea'') to Hamford Water and camp with their father, but he is called away on naval business. To compensate, he maroons them with a small dinghy on an island. Before he leaves, Father gives them an outline map of the area they decide to call Secret Water, and suggests they survey and chart the area before he returns to pick them up. For the first time, their small sister Bridget accompanies them on this adventure.
Titty and Bridget then find some mysterious footprints, which they think look as though they were made by a Mastodon; when nobody else seems to have any interest, they return to their camp, where they find a totem pole of an eel. They spot somebody escaping in a dinghy, and they track the person to his lair; it turns out that the footprints had been left by a local boy named Donald, whom they nickname the "Mastodon", wearing "splatchers" (mud-shoes), and he left the totem pole because he mistook them for the Eels, another family who camp in the area regularly. For a surprise, Father has arranged for the Amazons to come down from the Lake District and join them with another dinghy, named the ''Firefly''.
The Amazons then suggest that everybody becomes "blood brothers", which, after Bridget pricks herself from hunting berries, they do successfully. They take the Mastodon as their native guide, and they chart several islands. Later, the Eels arrive, and are initially hostile—to the point of kidnapping Bridget—but when they discover that the protagonists are now blood brothers of the Eels, they settle down for a friendly war, culminating with feast of the Sacred Eel, complete with "human sacrifice". The "sacrifice" is Bridget, who very nearly does not arrive at her party, as a result of being trapped in the middle of a ford by a rising tide with Titty and Roger. The danger is genuine, since high tide level would have been well above their heads. Just before they have to swim for the shore, they are rescued by the Mastodon.
It seems that due to the distractions of war and being cut off by the tides, the chart will not be completed. John is very disappointed about this, especially since the Swallows and Amazons have to leave the morning after the feast. However, early in the morning, two separate groups of children—Titty and Roger in their dinghy the ''Wizard'', and the Amazons in ''Firefly''—complete it.
The Ds have been invited to stay at Beckfoot at the start of the summer holidays while Mrs Blackett has gone with her brother, James Turner (whom they call Captain Flint), on a cruise for her health. However, when Great Aunt Maria finds out that the Blackett girls have been left at home, she decides to come and take care of them. She is unaware of the Ds' visit.
Nancy Blackett insists that the Ds' holiday will not be spoiled and that they will learn to sail the ''Scarab'', a dinghy their father has bought for them. So they move out to the Dog's Home, a small hut in the woods, and become secretive Picts while the Blacketts are martyrs to the Great Aunt. They are schooled in woodcraft by Jacky a local boy who brings them a rabbit to skin, gut and cook, and teaches them how to tickle trout. In the woods, Dick's ornithology comes to the fore. True to her character, Dorothea constantly romanticises their situation.
The Great Aunt attempts to civilize the Amazon pirates, for example by making them read aloud, recite poetry and perform their party-pieces on the piano. Despite these ordeals, they manage to accomplish a number of adventures. They succeed in escaping for a day to accompany Captain Flint's partner Timothy to the copper-mine previously discovered in ''Pigeon Post''. The Ds succeed in burgling Captain Flint's study at Beckfoot to commandeer some chemical equipment that Timothy needs. They are also introduced to sailing the ''Scarab''. The Great Aunt in fact suspects that the Amazons are meeting the Swallows. Near the end of her visit, the Great Aunt goes missing and there is a hue and cry and search for her. She has gone to make her own enquiries after the suspected Swallows, but is forced to admit that she has been quite wrong. The Ds find her on Captain Flint's houseboat where Timothy has been living in somewhat squalid circumstances. Despite being the very people who must not meet her, they deliver her back to Beckfoot in their boat in time to catch her train, and manage to avoid revealing their identities. They slip away before they can be questioned, and Nancy manages to save the Great Aunt some embarrassment for which she gets praised in a letter to her mother.
Johnny is hired by Gilbert to track down Marlow Brown. Upon finding him in an abandoned opera house, Brown is terrified of Johnny, and is shortly killed by a monster that appears from a portal. Johnny is saved by Shania, who was hunting the monster. Since the release of the dark energy Malice into the world during the events of ''Covenant'', Shania and her companion Natan help keep monsters spawned from Malice in check, along with hunting for those who destroyed Shania's tribe. Johnny and Shania team up and locate Gilbert at Arkham University, who reveals his true intentions to unleash Malice upon the world before escaping. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, a wanted criminal codenamed "Killer" escapes police pursuit and is fatally injured. He encounters a mysterious mute woman who kills his pursuers and gives him a "Kiss of Malice", healing his wounds. Grateful, he dubs the woman as "Lady" and stays with her.
As Johnny and Shania investigate—picking up Frank and Mao along the way—Lady makes her way across North America, seeking out concentrations of Malice. Shania identifies Lady as the being responsible for the attack on her tribe. At one point, Lady gives her Kiss of Malice to Gomez's girlfriend Edna, who is corrupted and turned into a monster Gomez is forced to kill; this leads him to join Johnny's party. They also rescue the vampire Hilda and Roger Bacon from Area 51. At the same time, Gilbert teams up with Lady and a reluctant Killer as Lady is drawn to several South American ruins, unlocking the seals on concentrated pockets of Malice. This summons a massive structure known as the Gate, from which Malice and monsters would pour into the world if opened. The group fail to stop them, and during one encounter Lady kisses Shania, infecting her with Malice.
To stop the Gate from opening, Johnny's group travels to Salar de Uyuni to locate an artifact imbued with the power of "Will", a blue light that counterbalances Malice. Killer arrives and attacks them, fatally wounding Johnny. Johnny transforms into a being similar to Lady and attacks the group, forcing Shania to release the Will and return Johnny to normal. This stalls the Gate's opening, but does not stop it due to Lady's presence there. Suspicious of his past, Johnny returns to his family home and discovers that he and his sister Grace died in a car crash. His father teamed up with Brown to steal the mystical Émigré Manuscript from Bacon and perform a resurrection ritual on Johnny and Grace using the combined energies of Malice and Will. The ritual went wrong, and Grace sacrificed her Will to preserve Johnny, turning her into Lady.
Johnny accepts the need for Lady's death and travels to the Gate with his companions. Before the final battle, Shania reveals that she may become a monster due to the Malice inside her. The group storm the Gate, fighting first Killer—whose death causes Lady to show emotion for the first time—then a Malice-mutated Gilbert. The party kill Lady, escaping before the Gate vanishes, and go their separate ways. After this point, two endings are unlocked. In the "Bad" ending, Shania is consumed by the Malice. In the "Good" ending, unlocked by obtaining an optional Fusion and maxing out Shania's powers, Shania is cleansed of Malice and works with Johnny at his agency.
The series revolves around Lucy Spiller and her best friend, the freelance photographer Don Konkey, who aids Lucy in her career as editor-in-chief of ''Dirt'' and ''Now Magazines'', which Lucy merges into a single magazine at the end of the second episode due to budget issues. Most episodes focus upon Lucy's never-ending quest to find new news stories regarding celebrities, with help of her staff of reporters and photographers, most notably Don and the young upstart writer Willa McPherson.
As the series progresses, more is learned about Lucy and Don's personal lives. Don is a man with schizophrenia, who regularly hallucinates and hears voices, which is often filtered through his sense of guilt over the questionable actions he takes in order to help Lucy land her stories and the fall-out that comes from exposing people's dark secrets. Lucy meanwhile is a secretly depressed person whose life is totally devoted towards the magazine, to the extent of forgoing any sort of social life whatsoever. Her relationship with her family is strained, in part due to the mysterious suicide of her father, which haunts Lucy due to the cryptic suicide note that he left her, which she kept from the rest of her family.
One of the main subplots of season one is Lucy and Don's relationship with Holt McLaren and the love triangle that erupts between Lucy, Holt, and Holt's current girlfriend Julia Mallory, a popular sitcom star who has begun breaking out into horrible movies while Holt's career has tanked after a series of movies he has done, flopped. In an attempt to convert Holt into a secret source for potential stories, Lucy offers to use the full resources of her magazine to revive Holt's career. In exchange, Holt reveals that Julia's best friend is pregnant after a one-night stand with a fellow actor. The actress overdoses (whether intentional or not is never fully revealed), then has a brain aneurysm and dies. Holt, feeling guilt after hearing of the actress' death, has a mini-breakdown while driving and gets into a high-speed car crash, nearly killing himself and Julia. Julia suffers severe injuries, which leads to an addiction to painkillers and eventually a full-blown drug addiction. To revive her career and gain public sympathy, Julia secretly obtains and leaks a copy of a sex tape of her and a co-star and falsely accuses her co-star of rape, though Lucy exposes her lies in her vault of secrets.
As Holt's star rises and his girlfriend's plummets, Holt and Lucy begin a relationship which is exposed to Julia by a rival magazine editor/friend of Lucy's. Julia ultimately realizes that Lucy has helped ruined her life and attacks her with a knife, leaving Lucy bleeding to death. Contacting Don, season one ends with Lucy ordering Don to take photos of her lying on the ground bleeding, in order to ensure that her magazine will be able to have the ugly photos for the story on the attempt on her life.
Season two opens with Lucy surviving the attempt on her life and Julia dying. Returning to work with a young idealistic male writer she met and hires during her stay at the hospital, Lucy finds the magazine floundering without her hard driving leadership. While Lucy's boss Brent arranges for the sale of the magazine to a womanizing, pill-popping foreign investor, Lucy blackmails a down on her luck pop star, Sharlee Cates, to hire Don (now back on his medication) as her personal photographer in order to keep tabs on her. This causes problems between Don and Lucy, as Don becomes friends with the singer, whose marriage collapses upon the revelation that her ex-husband is sleeping with his first wife and only married the singer in order to divorce her and take half her fortune. Lucy, on the other hand, wants to use his friendship with Sharlee to exploit her problems, including the cutting off of her hair, divorce, and her confrontation with a pop legend, Mia, at an awards show. Meanwhile, Lucy's new hire, Farber, begins a relationship with Willa, who betrays him in order to break the story involving a former child-star friend of her new boyfriend, who was caught soliciting sex from an undercover officer. After an awards show, Brent dies from carbon monoxide poisoning, caused by passing out in his still-running car.
Holt begins work on a new film project and struggles to deal with pretending to be in mourning over his deceased girlfriend while lusting after Lucy. Lucy begins to date a powerful studio executive, but it ends after he suspects Lucy would rather be involved with Holt. Lucy's mother dies during a botched plastic surgery procedure, Lucy agrees to Holt's ultimatum that they go public with their relationship after he completes work on his new movie.
The protagonist of the story is Maddie Pace, a timid and indecisive young woman who lives on a small island named Gennesault (or "Jenny"), off the coast of Maine. Maddie is both pregnant and a widow, having recently lost her husband in a fishing boat accident.
After a scattering of initial outbreaks, dead bodies all over the world begin to reanimate ''en masse'' and attack the living. The source of the phenomenon is eventually traced to "Star Wormwood", a bizarre alien construct orbiting above the ozone layer at the Earth's south pole. A space shuttle under joint American-Soviet authority visits the site and promptly meets with disaster. After further attempts to destroy the object fail, the zombie plague spreads and civilization collapses.
Jenny's inhabitants gather up all the available firearms to prepare for their own attack, which all too soon erupts from the island's small cemetery. The island's men are forced to destroy their undead loved ones as they crawl out of their graves. The still-moving pieces of the reanimated corpses are then burned with kerosene and the remains plowed underground by a bulldozer. Frank Daggett, the elderly man who did most of the organizing of the successful defense, suffers a fatal heart attack and has himself blasted to pieces so he won't reanimate.
While she is hearing about the battle at the cemetery from her neighbor, Maddie recalls her own confrontation with the animated corpse of her husband, come back to get her from the bottom of the sea. She succeeds in destroying him/it and faces the future, however grim, with renewed confidence and hope.
Hotel housekeeper Martha Rosewall shows her friend Darcy a novel published by her son Peter, which has a dedication that says he could not have done it without her help. Martha goes on to tell the curious Darcy exactly why this sentiment is true.
Many years earlier, a young Martha (pregnant with her husband Johnny's child) visits a bruja named Mama Delorme, who tells her to find the child's "natural father." Martha eventually decides that this "natural father" is Peter Jefferies, a prejudiced writer who often visits the hotel where she works. Martha consumes some of Jefferies' semen, which was left on his sheets, as part of what is implied to be a black magic spell orchestrated by Mama Delorme to pass on Jefferies' writing prowess to her unborn son. Mama Delorme also helps Martha with the problem of her abusive husband, giving her a mushroom that Martha squeezes onto Johnny's gun, which later explodes in his face and kills him during an attempted robbery.
Back in the present, Martha muses on the similarities between her son's novel and a novel published by Jefferies. She also shows Darcy the signatures and handwriting on her copies of both books, which are virtually identical.
King's notes at the end of ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes'' state that this story turned out to be a sort of trial for his later novel ''Dolores Claiborne'', and that it was partly written to explore the idea of why famous and talented people can sometimes be horrible in real life. In addition, a fellow housemaid of Martha's in "Dedication" is named Delores.
A very ordinary man named Howard Mitla, who has a strange aptitude for ''Jeopardy!'', is confronted by the bizarre sight of a human finger poking its way out of the drain in his apartment's bathroom sink. He tries to deny the reality of what is happening, but the solitary digit eventually proves to be infinitely long and multijointed, capable of attacking him, and smart enough to hide whenever his wife, Vera, would go to the bathroom. Eventually, while Vera's at work, Howard burns it with a bottle of heavy-duty drain cleaner, then chops it to bits with a pair of electric hedge trimmers before dropping the pieces in the toilet. After this is done, Howard starts thinking about the creature ''and the hand'' to which it was attached. As he realizes it probably has multiple digits ''and'' that there were several openings in an average bathroom, an ominous sound is heard from the toilet.
Investigating reports of noise coming from Howard's apartment, the police arrive to find him lying in a daze next to the toilet in a bathroom covered with blood. A police officer asks where the body is and he cryptically tells them, "If you have to go to the bathroom, I definitely suggest you hold it." Just then, the toilet lid starts to shake from the inside. The story ends with the officer deciding to lift the lid to "wager it all" after Howard, in a shocked daze, laughs and asks, "Final Jeopardy. How much do you wish to wager?"
Recording studio executive John Tell notices a pair of old dirty sneakers in an adjacent stall while using the restroom at work. He, at first, assumes that the shoes belong to a fellow employee or a delivery person. However, when he visits the bathroom again throughout the week, he notices that not only have the shoes not moved, they are now surrounded by the bodies of dead flies and other bugs. Eventually, Tell discovers that the shoes were the trademark of a dealer who supplied the local talent with cocaine, and who was killed in the bathroom stall during an apparent robbery. Tell finally confronts the man's ghost, who informs him that he was brutally killed by Jannings, Tell's boss, a drug addict who was heavily in debt to the dealer at the time. Jannings used the stolen cocaine to fund his rehabilitation and rise to executive management. This prompts Tell to quit his job, telling Jannings he is a "worthless bastard" before leaving. When he arrives home, he resolves to find other work, pulling out the want ads and reading them while doing his business on his own toilet.
Katie Weiderman is talking to her Grandma's sister on the phone one night. Her husband, Bill, a famous horror novel writer, is in his study trying to find inspiration for a new novel. Her children are arguing about whether or not to watch ''Ghost Kiss'', a gory TV adaptation of Bill's earlier novel.
Katie receives a second phone call. The incoming call is a sobbing and traumatized caller who sputters, "Take... please take..." before the line goes dead. Katie immediately assumes the call came from her daughter Polly, who is away at Indian boarding school in Delhi, but a call to Polly proves otherwise. Katie also rules out her Sister in law, but she cannot reach her sister Anamika. Katie and Bill rush over to Anamika's house; despite the appearance of forced entry, Anamika is all right and did not call. Assuming that someone must have dialed the wrong number, Katie forgets about the call. That night, Katie finds her husband slumped in his chair, dead from a heart attack. The story then jumps forward in time to Anamika's wedding day, Twenty four years to the day after Bill's death. Katie has remarried, but she still misses Bill. On the anniversary of Bill's death, Katie is in Bill's old Mansion and she finds an old VHS tape of ''Ghost Kiss'' and puts it into the player. She is immediately overcome with grief as she recalls the events of Twenty four years past. Insensate, she grabs the phone and dials her old phone number. She is startled when the phone is answered by herself Twenty four years previously. She tries to warn her younger self of the tragedy that is about to happen, and tries to say, "Take him to the hospital! If you want him to live, take him to the hospital! He's going to have a heart attack!" In her state of shock, she is only able to say, "Take... please take...," before the line goes dead. She realizes the truth of what happened that night, and the episode ends with Katie sobbing over her lost opportunity to save her husband and a close-up shot of the ominous-looking telephone.
The story recounts bizarre and inexplicable events that have taken place in a notorious house in the town of Castle Rock. The house seems to take on a life of its own as new wings are added, growing in a way that seems proportionate to the awful events that occurred there. The new wings added seem to be connected to the deaths of men who, as boys, were molested by the house owner's wife. The story also serves somewhat as an epilogue to ''Needful Things'', as stated by Stephen King himself.
Dr. Watson narrates a heretofore unreleased case in which he and Holmes are called by Inspector Lestrade on an unexpectedly rainy day to investigate the murder of the sadistic Lord Hull. Each member of Hull's family - his wife and three sons - has reason to murder him; his wife and bowlegged son suffered from constant abuse, while another son was doomed to never receive more than a pittance, due to his placement in the family line. Furthermore, Hull's family endured his treatment in the hopes that he would leave them with his considerable wealth; however, they had recently learned that Hull had rewritten his will so that none of them received a thing. Despite these motives, the family have effectively given each other alibis and the murder itself is effectively a locked room mystery; there is no place in Hull's study for anyone to hide without being seen, and all the doors and windows were locked by the lord himself.
Holmes is eager to solve this mystery, but is allergic to Hull's numerous cats. Watson, however, notices that a certain table in the locked study casts odd shadows on the rug. When he goes to check the table, he discovers an illusion and demonstrates that the table has been rigged. The bookshelf's lowest shelf is, in fact, a photorealistic painting. The murderer, Hull's artist son Jory, had perfectly rendered the bottom shelf, then pasted the results against the back table-legs. When his father announced the new will, Jory made into the study, crouched behind the table, and rushed out to stab his father at the right moment. A cursory glance would not betray the illusion on a dark day, but on a sunny one, the lack of shadows being cast by the table-legs would have been noticeable. To help make the illusion perfect, Jory had prepared shadows out of black felt, and laid them down at roughly the place where shadows should be. Unfortunately, he was "caught by shadows on a day when there should be none". Furthermore, Hull had time to scream before he died, arousing the attention of his servants and making it impossible for Jory to either collect his paintings or frame the murder as a break-in gone wrong. Instead, Jory stole and burnt the new will, guaranteeing that he and his family would receive their inheritance.
As Watson explains his insights, he slowly comes to the realization that Jory could not have executed the murder on his own and that, at the very least, everyone in the family knew of it and was lying for him. Holmes, who had already reached that conclusion while listening to Watson's narrative, gently chides him for his inability to understand the depths of human depravity. Watson also realizes that Holmes had understood everything not long from the beginning of Watson's story, yet deliberately kept his silence, letting Watson have his moment in the sun; rather than resenting his thunder being stolen, Holmes was genuinely impressed with the "deductive light" Watson demonstrated.
Holmes and Lestrade discuss the various sentences that the Hulls will receive if the case is brought before court; Jory is guaranteed an execution, whilst the other two sons would be jailed for life and the wife jailed for some time in a women's prison. They eventually decide that the world is, perhaps, better off without Hull in it, and thus conspire to conceal the truth of what has occurred; Holmes and Watson collect the painting and the shadows, while Lestrade unlocks one of the windows in the room; they leave, and inform the waiting police that Hull was murdered in an attempted break-in.
After a summer spent abroad, the four Bradbury children return to their home on Maple Street and discover that something is growing upwards through the house's walls from below, replacing wood and plaster with metal and machinery, counting down to some cataclysmic event. Although somewhat afraid of what this was, Trent, the eldest of the four, realizes they have an opportunity to rid both themselves and their beleaguered mother of the tyrannical Lewis "Lew" Evans, their hated and feared stepfather. As the countdown approaches its final minutes, they contrive to lock Lew in his study and leave him to his fate, escaping the house just in time to watch as it raises itself from its foundations and blasts away into the clouds. The story ends with the children waiting on the curb for their mother to return, shaken but glad to be free from Lew's oppressive rule.
An 11-year-old boy named George Bruckner is at home with his mother, Ruth, when the two find out that George's 13-year-old brother Buddy has broken his ankle playing baseball. George's mother must go into the city, 19 miles away, to pick up Buddy at the hospital, but someone must stay home to watch her own mother, a huge, cantankerous, ancient, bedridden woman. George reluctantly volunteers.
As George sets about the kitchen after his mother leaves, he begins to think about his "Gramma" and recalls the first time she came to the house. He had been six years old, and the old woman demanded that he come to her that she could "give him a hug". George was terrified by the idea and cried endlessly. His mother eventually pacified Gramma, promising that he would hug her "in time".
George waits for his mother to return. As the hours pass, strange thoughts—events he had witnessed earlier—begin to surface in his mind. He recalls overhearing his mother's siblings begging her to care for the old woman: "You're the only one who can quiet her down, Ruth." Eventually, Ruth was forced to leave San Francisco and move to Castle Rock, Maine to care for their mother. George also recalls that Gramma had been kicked out of her church, as well as dismissed from her position as a schoolteacher, for owning particular books. He finally remembers that the woman had been infertile for a long while, any pregnancies she did achieve ending in miscarriages or stillbirths and it was only after being excommunicated that she became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy child.
George suddenly hears a scraping sound on sheets; he imagines Gramma's long, ragged fingernails rubbing against her bed. He enters to check on her and watches the obese, white, almost formless woman for a few moments. Quite suddenly, he recalls other memories: his Gramma uttering strange words one night, and relatives dying the next morning. George abruptly realizes that his grandmother is a witch, having gained dark powers from reading the forbidden tomes.
As George makes this realization, he realizes that his Gramma has died. Though terrified, he holds a mirror before her nose, making sure. Once he is convinced, he prepares to make a phone call to the doctor, only to find that his neighbors are talking on the party line and he can't use the phone. George opts to wait for his mother to come home, and thinks of the praise he will gain for handling the situation so calmly, until he realizes that he did not cover his grandmother's face. He imagines his brother tormenting him endlessly for this "cowardly" lack of action.
Determined, George enters the dead woman's room and places a sheet over her flabby face. As he does, her hand suddenly wraps around his wrist and holds it for a few moments. George flees the room, injuring his nose in the process. As he tries to rationalize the movement, he hears groaning from the next room, as though the corpse was trying to get off of the bed. He then hears his Gramma calling him: "Come here, Georgie... Gramma wants to give you ''a hug''."
George is terrified and races from the room. He hears the enormous woman stumbling after him, and even guesses that as a witch, she waited until she was alone with him to die. His Aunt Flo calls, and he tries to explain the situation as Gramma enters the kitchen. Aunt Flo tells him that he must invoke the name of Hastur and tell Gramma to "lie down" in his name. Gramma knocks the phone from his hand, and George screams the phrase repeatedly: "You ''have'' to lie down! In Hastur's ''name!'' Lie ''down!''" Gramma wraps her arms around him.
The story jumps to an hour later, with George sitting calmly at the kitchen table. When Ruth returns, George runs to her, explaining that Gramma died. His mother fearfully asks if "anything else happened." George denies it and goes off to his room to sleep. It is implied that Gramma has possessed George, turning the boy into an evil warlock, as he used a spell to strike down his Aunt Flo with an aneurysm. The story ends with George grinning wickedly, imagining the kind of torture he will be able to inflict on his brother. It is not clarified if George has been possessed by the dead woman's spirit or has absorbed her evil powers to use as his own.
"Egypt in the year 1900". The mummy of Ra-Antef, son of Ramesses VIII, is discovered by three Egyptologists: Englishmen John Bray (Ronald Howard) and Sir Giles Dalrymple (Jack Gwillim) as well as French Professor Eugene Dubois (unbilled Bernard Rebel, who died three weeks before the film's UK premiere). Assisting in the expedition is Professor Dubois' daughter, and Bray's fiancée, Annette (Jeanne Roland), herself an Egyptology expert. All the artifacts are brought back to London by the project's backer, American showman Alexander King (Fred Clark), who plans to recoup his investment by staging luridly sensational public exhibits of the Egyptian treasures. Soon after arrival, however, the mummy revives and starts to kill various members of the expedition, while it becomes evident that sinister Adam Beauchamp (Terence Morgan), a wealthy arts patron whom members of the expedition meet on the ship returning to England, harbors a crucial revelation of the mummy's past and future.
The story mainly takes place in two Ontario locales. In flashbacks, the main character, usually but not always called Alan (he appears to have been alphabetized rather than named, and will answer to and identify himself as any masculine name beginning with A), and his brothers (also alphabetized) grow up outside of the remote town of Kapuskasing. The novel opens with Alan's purchase of a home in the Kensington Market neighborhood of modern-day Toronto.
There are two main plotlines. Alan befriends Kurt, a thirty-something punk who operates a dumpster-diving operation. Kurt uses computer components that he retrieves from the trash and turns them into Wi-Fi network access points. Kurt's goal is to blanket the entire neighborhood with free and secure Internet access by attaching his access points to buildings in a wireless mesh network with the permission of their owners. Kurt's plan doesn't really get off the ground until he forms a partnership with Alan, who puts a more professional face on the operation and sweet-talks many local owners into allowing the access points to use their space and a small amount of their electricity.
The second plotline features fantasy elements. Unbeknownst to most of the other characters, Alan and his brothers are not quite human. Their father is a mountain and their mother is a washing machine. Alan's eldest brother can see the future, his second-eldest is an island, his younger brother is undead, and his three youngest brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Alan is the most normal-seeming of his family. Outwardly, he looks human, but he heals at an incredible rate, and if part of him is cut off, it will grow back, and the cut off part can be made to form a new copy of him.
Another plot strand concerns Alan's neighbors, a household of students and artists which includes Mimi, a troubled young woman who like Alan is not quite human. Born with wings on her back and no family history, she lives with her abusive boyfriend Krishna, a musician/bartender who can spot beings like Alan and his family, and hates them. Krishna amputates Mimi's wings every three months; she stays with him because she believes he's the only one willing and able to make her "normal."
4 years after the events of the previous novel, a deep sea submersible, Proteus, is attacked by unknown creatures and destroyed while on a geological survey of the Mariana Trench's sea floor.
In Monterey, California, paleobiologist and former deep sea pilot Jonas Taylor is now working for his father-in-law Masao Tanaka at the Tanaka Oceanographic Institute studying the lone surviving Megalodon offspring alongside his friend Mac. The shark, named Angel, has grown into a 72 foot, 31 ton monster who draws crowds from all over the world to get a glimpse of its incredible size. In the 4 years since the opening of the institute, lawsuits filed by the survivors of the people Angel's mother killed has crippled the institute financially, forcing Masao to sell controlling interest to energy mogul Benedict Singer. Jonas and his wife, Terry Tanaka, are struggling with their marriage as Jonas is obsessed with trying to make sure Angel doesn't escape her tank as well as the strain of their first child being stillborn.
After the Proteus implodes in the trench, Singer insists on Jonas joining him aboard the Goliath, Singer's research ship, and help with the investigation of the accident. Jonas, plagued by nightmares where he and Terry die in the Trench, refuses the request, insisting that he remain at the institute to determine what damage Angel is doing to the steel doors keeping her in the lagoon. Masao is forced to go in Jonas' place and Terry joins him, finally confronting Jonas about her unhappiness with their marriage. Aboard the Goliath, Masao and Terry meet Singer and his protege Celeste, agreeing to stay until Singer's deep water laboratory, The Benthos, is able to send the sonar records of the accident. Back at the institute, 3 teen boys break into the underwater viewing gallery and pound on the glass, enraging Angel and causing her to ram the glass, flooding the gallery and devouring the boys.
After receiving news of the attack, Masao and Celeste return to Monterey to handle the fallout while Terry remains aboard the Goliath to finish the accident report. Unable to sleep one night, Terry goes for a walk and discovers a research lab hidden within the ship. She sneaks inside to explore it discovering an experimental fusion reactor. Terry is nearly caught, but manages to escape detection, wondering what Singer's true intentions in the Trench really are.
Back in Monterey, Jonas and Mac finally examine the gates and realize that Angel's head on collisions have nearly destroyed the hinges. While Jonas dives in the canal, he is attacked by several great white sharks. Angel rams the gate again, this time escaping into open ocean, but not before Mac is able to tag her with a homing device. While recuperating at the hospital, Jonas realizes that Angel is ovulating, explaining her more aggressive nature and the male great whites swimming outside the lagoon doors. Celeste asks Jonas to join her in following Angel and help recapture her. Jonas agrees and works out a deal for him and Mac, but Jonas really wants to get close to Angel so he can kill her with a grenade rifle. Jonas and Mac join Celeste aboard the William Beebe where they are accompanied by first mate, Harry Moon, submersible pilot Richard Diefendorf, and Michael Maren, a marine biologist who constantly antagonizes Jonas. The team follows Angel as she heads north along the Pacific coast following whales on their summer migration to the Bering Sea.
Aboard the Goliath, Benedict Singer, knowing Terry discovered his lab, manipulates her into joining him aboard the Benthos so she can analyze the records of the Proteus accident. While in the underwater lab, Singer allows his megalomania to take hold and he begins tormenting Terry, allowing his henchman, Sergei, to attempt to rape her, though Terry is able to fight him off. She finds an ally in paleobiologist Heath Williams, who promises to do his best to protect her from Sergei. While analyzing the sonar records, Terry realizes that the tapes have been edited, but submits a report saying the sub went down due to pilot error, knowing it's her only hope of Singer letting her off the Benthos. Terry accepts Singer's invitation to join the research sub Prometheus, but the sub is attacked by the same creatures that destroyed the Proteus, narrowly escaping when the Benthos arrives, the creatures being fearful of the size of the research lab.
Masao, having found out that Terry has entered the Trench against his and Jonas' wishes, suffers a heart attack.
While tracking Angel, Jonas and his team see an opportunity to trap the meg in Grays Harbor knowing she would after a gray whale calf named Tootie, a whale that Sea World saved and released before Angel escaped. Sea World helps trying to coordinate Tootie's rescue with Angel's recapture. However, after netting Tootie, Angel closes in and eats her, disabling the trawler's winch, which also causes the helicopter Mac and Jonas are in to crash. Angel attempts to escape the bay, but the gill nets put in place across the inlet have her trapped. Enraged by this, Angel attacks the Lady Washington, a replica 18th century tall ship and terrorizing the wedding party using the ship. Jonas, realizing that Angel is angry she's confined again, urges Celeste to retract the nets. Diefendorf enters the Abyss Glider to try and lure Angel away from the tall ship and back to the William Beebe to be harpooned, but Angel kills him and escapes back into the ocean. Following this, Celeste begins to attempt to seduce Jonas and tries to get him to disclose the top secret location, Devil's Purgatory, where he first encountered the Megalodon 11 years previously, but Jonas refuses to give the location.
Back onboard the Benthos, the mysterious creatures grow more bold in their attacks, disabling the Prometheus' engines after the sub unearths an immense fossil from the ocean floor. Heath inspects the fossil and discovers it is a subspecies of Kronosaurus, a marine reptile that has escaped extinction and the same creatures that are attacking the Prometheus and destroyed the Proteus. The Prometheus is ordered to the surface to be repaired and have bright underwater lights attached to the hull to repel the kronosaurs. Its sister ship, the Epimetheus taking its place in the Trench. Terry tries to escape via the Prometheus, but is prevented by Sergei. Terry senses a possible ally in the Benthos' captain and pleads with him to help save her life. He agrees and promises to meet her later that night. When Terry goes to meet him at the hangar, she discovers his throat has been cut by Sergei, who ambushes her. As he attempts to rape her, she fights back and knocks him out with a metal pipe. Securing the doors, Terry enters the hangar control room and starts flooding the chamber killing Sergei. Unfortunately, this results in a kronosaur swimming into the hangar to feed on Sergei's corpse and erasing any hopes of Terry's to steal the Epimetheus and escape.
In the gulf of Alaska, the William Beebe uses sea lions baited with drugs to try and lure Angel. Jonas and Mac are on watch at night when they decide to enact their plan to kill Angel. Mac takes to the air in his helicopter while Jonas is towed in a life raft ahead of the bait and uses underwater speakers to ensure Angel appears. When she finally does, Jonas takes his shot, but his rife won't fire. Suddenly his raft stops in the water, the line having been cut by someone Mac sees rushing back inside the ship. With the bait now on a collision course with him, Jonas jumps onto the bait and tries to maneuver it away from Angel. Mac lands back on the ship and reels in the bait, saving Jonas, but Angel attacks the ships winch and disables it before disappearing. Jonas goes into shock from hypothermia and awakens in a hospital. Jonas finds out he momentarily died on the operating table and decides he is done with megalodons, refusing Celeste's pleas to rejoin the hunt saying Angel is too big to recapture and wanting to start life anew with Terry. Celeste again tries to coax the location of Devil's Purgatory from him, but Jonas, remembering Mac's words of warning against trusting Celeste, again refuses.
Aboard the William Beebe, Mac kidnaps Dr. Maren believing he is responsible for Jonas' accident. Mac takes Maren in his helicopter and drops Maren off in the Alaskan wilderness, intending to leave him there. Maren pleads his case, admitting to removing the firing pin from the rifle, but insists he didn't cut the rope, revealing he was sleeping with Celeste at the time. Mac believes his story, but still leaves him in the wilderness miles from civilization. Back at the hospital, Celeste drugs Jonas and manipulates him into revealing the location of Devil's Purgatory. When Mac picks up Jonas, he tells Jonas about Maren's story and that there is still someone onboard who has it out for Jonas. He also reveals that Celeste left the ship after she returned from the hospital. When they are back on the ship, Jonas pleads with the captain and Harry Moon to take him to the Mariana Trench. An earthquake has made Jonas realize that Angel hasn't been following the whales, she's been using the Pacific Rim to navigate her way back to the Mariana Trench in order to breed. Later, Jonas and Mac confront Harry, deducing that he was responsible for cutting the line to his raft. Harry reveals that he is with the CIA and was assigned to make sure Jonas didn't reveal the location of Devil's Purgatory.
Finally determined to figure out what exactly Singer is up to, Terry uses Sergei's keycard to access the high security laboratory aboard the Benthos. She is quickly caught by Singer and he reveals that he's really after helium-3, a rare isotope he hopes to use to create the world's first fusion reactor. Terry deduces that because of the unique economic zoning the Mariana Trench falls into, Singer couldn't legally mine the gas, so he used the Tanaka Institute and built his fleet of submersibles to legally enter the trench under the guise of establishing unmanned drones to use as an earthquake detection system. However the problem Singer had been facing was he didn't know where to look for the manganese nodules that contained the isotope. He reveals that the true purpose of the Navy dives that Jonas was part of was to find the isotope. Now, with Celeste having gotten the location from him, the Benthos is finally on its way to the Devil's Purgatory.
Masao, having checked himself out of the hospital, flies to Guam to a U.S. Naval base and finds out that the U.S. government helped ensure the lawsuits against the Tanaka Institute went through and made sure they went bankrupt and were desperate enough to go to Benedict Singer for help. The CIA knew what Singer was up to and worked to plant agents within Singer's operation. One was killed aboard the Proteus as well as Heath Williams aboard the Benthos. They ask Masao to step in to get Terry back as well as their agent. Meanwhile, Angel arrives at the Mariana Trench and mates with a male.
Having arrived in the Devil's Purgatory, Singer sends the Epimetheus into the Trench to dig for the nodules, Terry joining the trek. Once again the ship is attacked by Kronosaurs, continuing to attack even when the ship is docked. Terry manages to escape the sub, but Singer orders the nodules brought on board. The Kronosaurs continue attacking, denting the hull of the Epimetheus enough to cause it to implode and the docking station to lose pressure killing several of the crew. Singer orders the Benthos to accend into the cold waters above, out of reach of the kronosaurs, but the creatures attack the habitat's ballast tanks stranding it on the sea floor.
Jonas and Mac arrive on the Goliath, greeted by Masao and Celeste who reveal that Terry was killed during the destruction of the Epimetheus. Jonas is shown a security video of the accident, but refuses to believe that Terry was killed. Celeste reveals their plan to use the Prometheus to rescue Benedict and the remaining crew. Jonas leaves with Mac and Masao, taking the video to the William Beebe. Back aboard the ship, Jonas watches the video over and over and he and Mac see where the video had been edited. Jonas concludes that Terry is alive and that he has to rescue her, using the deep water Abyss Glider.
On the Benthos, Terry, now locked in her room, desperately tries to figure out a way to escape the ship. Using an air duct, she sneaks into the adjoining room and dresses into a man's shirt, pants, and lab coat. Using locks of her hair, she fashions a disguise of sideburns and a mustache and makes her way to the docking station planning to hide in the bathroom utility closet. Her plan is thwarted by Celeste who catches her and has Terry sent to the hangar. Celeste joins Benedict on the observation deck where she drugs him and ties him to a chair. Celeste reveals that she knows Benedict murdered her mother when she was a child and bided her time, learning everything she could from Benedict. She leaves him tied to the chair in front of the window baiting in one of the kronosaurs who attacks and destroys the glass killing itself and Benedict in the process. Knowing the Benthos doesn't have much longer, Celeste goes to the hangar and radios Jonas in his Abyss Glider that she is setting the hangar doors on automatic so they will open when he arrives. She also finds out that Angel is closing in.
Jonas enters the Trench in his Abyss Glider and is quickly attacked by the pack of kronosaurs. The Prometheus makes a slow getaway, overloaded with crew and the nodules. Angel arrives and goes after the sub. Celeste radios Jonas and begs him to lure Angel away long enough for them to escape. Terry, knowing she's only minutes from death, undoes her bonds, but is unable to get back into the Benthos or into the control room. She attempts to climb into one of the sensor drones, but discovers the mutilated corpse of Heath. Jonas passes by the hangar sensors and the room begins filling with water. Terry manages to get inside the robot and seal the lid. Jonas leads Angel on a chase, but when Celeste mockingly tells him that Terry is still alive, he takes revenge by leading Angel right back to the sub. She attacks and rips off the observation pod causing the sub to implode.
Jonas makes it into the hangar. After it drains, he looks for Terry and realizes Celeste's plan. He finds the circuits that Terry ripped out of the robot to fit inside and discovers her still alive. Jonas and Terry are able to pry open the control room doors enough for her to slip inside and start the flooding process again. They get inside the Abyss Glider and escape just as the Benthos is destroyed. As they rise slowly in the escape pod, Jonas is faced again with his nightmare. As Angel rises to engulf the pod, a kronosaur suddenly snatches the pod. Before it can escape, Angel attacks the marine reptile allowing Jonas and Terry to escape.
Months later, Angel gives birth to 2 male offspring.
Rebecca Dark (née Penhallow) learns she is dying. A widow with no surviving children, she has been considered the unofficial head of the clan (the extended Dark & Penhallow families) for some time and is known to all of them as Aunt Becky. She has held periodic afternoon gatherings of her clan, which she calls levees, at her home over the years. The clan have a love-hate relationship with her levees, because they fear her sharp tongue, but derive a perverse enjoyment of seeing other members writhing under her digs and slams. She decides to hold a final levee where the reader meets the rest of the characters and learns a bit about them. She reads her self-written obituary to them, to their horror, followed by her will, which disposes of her possessions. Many of them are coveted by at least one member present, but very few of the announced recipients of each item are appreciative. The last item mentioned is the old Dark jug, an antique and prized family heirloom, although not of any great monetary value or artistic merit. She reveals the recipient will not be named now, but in a year's time and produces a heavily sealed envelope which has either a named person or a description of a person who best exemplifies what she feels are worthy qualities.
In the year that follows, Aunt Becky has died and the family members try their best to live up to what Aunt Becky would have wanted in an attempt to win the heirloom, and in the process, many achieve self-discovery. There are several intertwining stories, but the most important ones involve the following characters:
Young Gay Penhallow's fiancé, the shallow Noel Gibson, dumps her for Nan Penhallow, a devious and deceptive girl. Although she still pines for Noel, Gay's friendship with Dr. Roger Penhallow, 14 years her senior, deepens as Gay is matured by her grief. When Noel attempts to return to Gay, she realizes that her infatuation with him pales next to her love for Roger.
Donna Dark and Peter Penhallow, who have despised each other since childhood, suddenly fall in love. They immediately make plans to get married, but their rival families soon discover their relationship. Although Donna and Peter resist attempts to break them up, they argue while they are eloping and part in anger. Peter leaves for South America. The couple remain estranged until Peter, who has returned at the end of a year, saves Donna from a fire. They then get married and leave for Africa.
Joscelyn and Hugh Dark separated on their wedding night, when Joscelyn confessed that she was in love with Hugh's best man, Frank Dark. They remain separated for ten years until Frank returns and Joscelyn realizes that he was not worth the passion she felt for him. She regrets her decision to leave Hugh and is sure that he must despise her. After a confrontation with Hugh's mother, Joscelyn realizes that Hugh still loves her and she returns to him.
Margaret Penhallow, the family dressmaker and an old maid, agrees to marry Penny Dark in order to improve both of their chances of getting the jug. Although she is not very fond of Penny, Margaret longs for a home of her own. Penny, similarly, has doubts about the match as he enjoys being a bachelor. He eventually decides to break the engagement, and is surprised and chagrined by Margaret's joy over her "jilting". Margaret then sells a first edition of ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' that she inherited from Aunt Becky and uses the money to buy a house for herself and to adopt Brian, an illegitimate and lonely orphan who is largely neglected by the family.
In the end, Dandy Dark, the person in charge of the jug, confesses that his pigs have eaten Aunt Becky's final instructions. As the family prepares to argue over the jug, the Moon Man, the eccentric Oswald Dark, destroys it.
The central character lives in a pseudo-Gothic castle full of fake works of art. There he entertains several guests of equally bogus reputation.
The novels are set in a future dystopia Earth where a parallel world called Overworld reminiscent of the worlds featured in post-Tolkien secondary world fantasy has been discovered. The corporations that run Earth send actors into Overworld in order to provide the masses of an overcrowded world with virtual-reality entertainment.
Hari Michaelson is a famous Actor and son of a now-mentally ill libertarian professor. On Overworld, he is the assassin Caine, while his estranged wife Shanna is another Actor, playing the mage Pallas Ril. Actors who travel to Overworld through advanced technology and assume an alternate persona which they then use to carry out 'adventures'. Pallas is captured by Ma'elKoth, the Emperor of Overworld's human kingdom of Ankhana, on one of her adventures. Ma'elKoth's plan to rule Ankhana by wiping out a final resistance group is blocked by a spell that causes others to forget the existence of the resistance group's members. The remainder of the book plays out the conflict between Ma'elKoth, Caine and the resistance. Hari finds himself manipulated by both the powers on Overworld and the Studio on Earth, and must defeat them both in order to save himself and Pallas Ril from death.
At the beginning of the cartoon, the Big Bad Wolf is chasing Little Red Riding Hood. But then Little Red Riding Hood stops and points out that the two of them are in the wrong cartoon. The Wolf shoos her away and decides to go and meet Cinderella (played by Red from ''Red Hot Riding Hood''). He takes a taxi to her house and immediately falls in love with her upon seeing her, but she sternly rebuffs him. Eventually, Cinderella calls her Fairy Godmother to get rid of him and set her up for that night's ball. The second the Fairy Godmother hears that there is a Wolf, she rushes right over. The Fairy Godmother traps the Wolf, then gives Cinderella a red evening gown and transforms a pumpkin into a Woodie for her to go the ball, but tells Cinderella that she has to get home by midnight (just like in the classic fairy tale).
The oversexed Fairy Godmother then keeps the Wolf busy. She appears before him in [http://oldrags.tumblr.com/post/12465303686/mens-bathing-suit-1890s-1910s an old-fashioned 1890s] swimsuit ("Miss Repulsive 1898") and then an evening gown before trying to snuggle up to him on the couch. She chases him all around Cinderella's house, but the Wolf escapes when he gets the Fairy Godmother's wand, turning Cinderella's bathtub into a convertible. He leaves for the nightclub where Cinderella is performing, with the Fairy Godmother in pursuit. Soon after arriving, the Wolf accidentally kisses the Fairy Godmother, thinking she was Cinderella, which only further deepens her lust for the Wolf. Cinderella soon comes out on-stage and performs a show dance while singing the song "Oh Wolfie" (to the tune of "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!"). The Wolf howls and chases after Cinderella, but the smitten Godmother uses various methods (usually a mallet) to keep him in line.
When the clock strikes midnight, the Fairy Godmother warns Cinderella and she leaves, but not before the Wolf starts to pursue his chase. The Godmother once again tries to stop him, but this time, the Wolf uses her own methods against her and pursues Cinderella. Cinderella rushes home as the Fairy Godmother's transformation wears off, but she manages to make it home in time—it turns out that Cinderella is a Rosie the Riveter and that the reason she had to be home by midnight was so she would not be late for the night shift at Lockweed. Cinderella is relieved to be rid of the Wolf, but to her dismay and horror, it is revealed that the bus is full of wolves, who start wolf-whistling and catcalling at her as the cartoon ends.
Two poor sisters (played by top list models My Duyen and Bang Lang), living in a slum area in Ho Chi Minh City have found a malicious way to get money, usually by acting disabled. After they trick a man and put him to sleep they steal all his belongings and money. The sisters decide to go out to a fancy restaurant, and soon, meet the young owner. The younger sister eventually falls in love with him, even though the two sisters decided to kidnap him for ransom. In the end karma finds the sisters.
Category:2004 films Category:2004 in Vietnam Category:2004 crime drama films Category:Vietnamese crime films Category:Vietnamese drama films
The Black Fleet Crisis begins in a time of peace for the New Republic, and the first time a chance occurs for the Rebel Alliance to turn their attention to more personal concerns.
The outbreak of the Black Fleet Crisis ends a period of relative peace in the galaxy. Yevethan forces (former Imperial slaves who overthrew their masters) using captured Imperial ships begin a genocidal campaign to conquer the Koornacht Cluster by killing all non-Yevethans. The New Republic is forced to fight in its own defense, as well as to rescue hostages held by the Yevethans (including Han Solo). After obtaining an image of Han as a battered hostage, Chewbacca goes on a desperate rescue mission.
Luke Skywalker travels with Akanah Norand Goss Pell to seek out what he's told are mother's people, the Fallanassi, to learn about them. Luke finds that the Fallanassi are a mysterious and secretive sect of Force users who are total pacifists. Luke learns new Force techniques and philosophies from them, and gains their help to aid the New Republic in one battle.
Leia is the only person who doesn't have a chance to rest, who because of her fame, what others expect of her, and her sense of duty and obligation, she has become a prisoner of the Presidency. But she is far too tired, stressed beyond her limits, and emotionally fragile, and she is only two steps away from a serious personal crisis of her confidence. Nil Spaar, the Machiavellian Viceroy of the Yevethan Protectorate, sees that as an opportunity he can exploit and an opportunity to destroy the New Republic from within.
Although Michael has become a more mature individual since the first film and shows more concern for others, he still feels that, by birthright, he deserves to start at the top of his father's law firm. Michael's father does offer him a position at the law firm: a clerking job, and explains that only after thorough knowledge of the firm, a law school graduation, and passing the state bar will he ever be considered for a partnership.
Michael takes a summer vacation with Tommy to Australia. Michael has big plans to show his cousin Tommy a good time aboard a luxury yacht, until he discovers that the yacht he chartered is actually an old, rusty fishing boat. But when modern-day pirates chase the fishing boat, the boys are forced to jump ship, leaving them stranded on a desert island. The pirates are led by Frakes, who earlier had pick-pocketed Michael and discovered through his ID that he comes from a wealthy family. The pirates plan to kidnap Michael for a large ransom.
Meanwhile, Tommy and Michael struggle to find their way on the island to be met by the boat's captain, Jake Hunter, who scuttled the fishing boat to lose the pirates. He later admits he hated being a fishing boat captain and only stuck with it because it was his late-father's calling. After several days the pirates finally find the boys when Michael shoots a flare gun to get an airplanes attention. As they attempt to leave the island on their raft two of the pirates approach them. Michael and Jake swim away and leave Tommy who can't get his life jacket off behind, promising to rescue him later. Michael and Jake come up with a plan to get Tommy back.
Jake and Tommy outwit the pirates by absconding in their speedboat, Frakes attempts to shoot Michael, but fails due to his firearm being gunked up with quicksand he had gotten trapped in earlier while chasing Michael; leaving the villains stranded. As the boys escape they call the Australian Coast Guard for help. The pirates are arrested and their speedboat is seized.
During a lunch the boys have with Michael's father and Tommy's mom, Michael arrives and tells Jake and Tommy that due to asset forfeiture, Frakes' boat is now their property. Michael proposes using the speedboat, combined with the reward money, to launch a boat tour service with Jake and Tommy as his partners, and Jake captaining the boat. Michael also tells his father that he will begin the process for law school application, and accepts his dad's clerking job to help him prepare for that. Michael's father is proud of him for going into the business with him (but now with a more mature view), now realizing that there is no royal road to success.
For ten years, Michael Bluth had been waiting for his father, George Sr., to make him a partner in their family company. On the morning of his father's retirement boat party, Michael discusses the announcement of his promotion with his son, George Michael. The two of them are living in one of the Bluths' model homes, to show their support for the business. After dropping his son off at the frozen banana stand his father started, Michael goes to see his oldest brother Gob (an amateur magician), to ask for his check to cover party expenses. Gob tells Michael that their sister Lindsay had been staying at the Four Seasons for a month. Upset by both Lindsay's avoidance of him and her abuse of the company's largesse, Michael goes to tell his mother, Lucille, that the company checkbook is closing.
At the banana stand, George Michael's cousin Maeby plays a prank on him, taking advantage of the fact that he does not recognize her. The kids discuss how they never see each other, and Maeby suggests they kiss at the boat party to teach their parents that the cousins need to see each other more often. Back at the hotel, Lindsay's husband Tobias, believing that the boat party is pirate-themed because of a joke from Michael, begins trying on Lindsay's blouses. He mistakes a group of garishly dressed men for pirates, and boards a van full of homosexual protesters. Finally, George Sr. gives his retirement speech, and appoints the new CEO: his wife Lucille. The dismayed Michael decides it is time to move on. The family poses for a photo; Maeby goes through with her previous suggestion and kisses George Michael as the SEC raids the ship. George Sr. calls his secretary with instructions on what to do. Lindsay takes command of the boat and Lucille tells Buster, her youngest son, to find a channel to the ocean on the maps. Buster, despite his cartography lessons, can only offer certainty that the blue part of the map is land before a panic attack sets in. The SEC hauls George Bluth away, leaving the family in turmoil.
At the police station, Tobias joins up with the family and tells them he discovered that the men on the other boat with him were in fact actors from the local theater. Believing that a path has been shown to him, Tobias informs the family that he has decided to become an actor. Michael then informs the family that their dad is being kept in jail, and the SEC is putting a halt on the company's expense account. Lucille decides to put Buster in charge. This is too much for Michael, who accepts a job in Arizona with a rival development company. When Buster discovers his academic pursuits didn't prepare him for running a big company, the family turns to Michael, begging for his help. Michael rejects their imposition, but Lindsay says he should visit their father before leaving. Michael does indeed visit his father in jail, asking why he wasn't put in charge. George informs him that he put Lucille in charge because he believes they cannot arrest a husband and wife for the same crime. Michael tells him that is not true, and George curses the advice of his attorneys. At the model home, Lindsay is trying to steal some belongings that she can grab and sell when she comes across George Michael. He opens up his heart, saying he wishes the family could see each other more often, and when Michael sees this, he decides to stay in California and try to save the family business.
Having to share a room with his cousin Maeby, George Michael begins to feel awkward. Gob interviews for a job with the rival development company Michael interviewed for earlier, and at the county jail, George Sr. tells Michael that he's "having the time of [his] life."
The book begins with a note from the solicitor for Commander Malcolm Stevenson, who has died recently (in about 1930). The note was written by him in the months before his death.
Stevenson's narration begins with a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes, of which the only one that is readily sensible occurred during World War I, leading the last survivors of a sinking decoy ship, Stevenson managed to sink a German submarine, and with the British survivors wounded and with no way of taking prisoners, killed the Germans as they attempted to surrender. That incident still haunts him. Quite wealthy, he runs a flotilla of coastal steamers in a desultory but increasingly profitable way. He awakens, after having been taken, injured, from a damaged car, on a night on which he has been drinking heavily.
Still bearing the mental and physical scars of the naval encounter, he meets a dancer, Mary (Mollie) Gordon (whom he nicknames Sixpence), at a dance hall in Leeds, where she entertains lonely gentlemen by dancing with them or sitting out a dance and talking, at sixpence a dance. He has the best evening he has had in years with Mollie.
The police call in Stevenson to consult on guns they have found being smuggled into the United Kingdom, found near a burned-out lorry. Stevenson cannot identify the guns, but puts together something Mollie said, and something said by his cousin by marriage, pioneer aviator Sir Phillip Stenning, and realises Mollie's brother may well have been the driver of the lorry. He approaches the police. Rather than risk publicity from a police interrogation, they ask Stevenson to do the initial questioning himself. They tell Stevenson they are convinced the guns are being smuggled in for an armed uprising in connection with the upcoming General Election, although they have no idea who is responsible.
Stevenson returns to Leeds, and approaches Mollie at her employment. Through artful questioning, he confirms she would be able to identify her brother's lorry. Torn between the desire to help the police, and his own growing affection for Mollie, he invites her down to his home in Devon for a platonic vacation. She agrees.
The morning after their arrivals, he takes her to the police station in Newton Abbot, where the police await. Stevenson watches as through gentle, but deceitful questioning, they get her to identify the lorry. They lead her to believe her brother is dead. Stevenson's sense of fair play is outraged, and he takes Mollie away to consult with his solicitor. After consultation, she tells all to the police, but knows little of help.
Stevenson and Mollie track down her brother, Billy, in Leicester. Stevenson and Billy recognise each other. Stevenson is realising that he did not crash his car that night, but that, drunk, he went for a walk on the beach and was assaulted by men there, and the car crash was faked. Billy confesses involvement, admitting that he has been paid to take packages from a ship being landed on the coast to a barn. Sometimes, he would convey people as well. He little cared what he conveyed so long as he got paid. After Billy meets with Stevenson's solicitor, he is taken to the police. He can identify the destination of the goods, but what the police want is to interrupt the landing, catching the ship and everyone involved. Sir Phillip warns that this is a dangerous enterprise, but Stevenson allows Billy and Mollie to participate, and offers the services of one of his ships to help intercept the smugglers.
Billy is duly contacted by the smugglers for another run. As they prepare, Stevenson asks Mollie to marry him. She refuses him, until they have lived in the same house for a time and come to know each other better. As the police, Stevenson, and the others meet in his house, they are fired on. In seconds, Billy and one of the police are dead, and Mollie is wounded in the shoulder. Stevenson and Stenning go in pursuit of the gunmen, who try to escape by ship. Through expert ship handling and knowledge of the Channel tides, Stevenson manoeuvres the other ship into a position where she must run on to the rocks of "The Shackles" (probably his relocation of the genuine "Manacles" reef to a location off Dodman Point). Stevenson makes a token attempt to save the other vessel, but it fails (as Stevenson probably knows it would), and the ship sinks, killing the men aboard. Stevenson hurries to the hospital to see how Mollie is.
Mollie's wounds have become infected, and despite Stevenson sparing no expense for her care, her condition slowly worsens. After a night in which Stevenson remains by her bedside, pouring out his heart to her and telling her of his plans for them, she dies.
The gunmen's bodies are recovered, one Dutchman, one Russian (probably a Communist) and a recent Cambridge graduate. The embittered Stevenson tracks down the Cambridge man's contacts, and finds a female co-conspirator. They had smuggled guns and Communists into the country so that, at the proper moment, the plot could be exposed and blamed on the Labour Party, ensuring a Conservative victory. Stevenson, realising that the girl was present that night he was drunk and that she persuaded the others to spare his life, tells her of the deaths that have resulted from the actions, and leaves her to her conscience; first learning who was the brains of the conspiracy: a Cambridge political science don.
First taking precautions to ensure the story would survive his death, Stevenson goes to confront the don. The professor denies nothing, but attempts to defend his actions by telling his view of what must follow a Labour victory. Stevenson, realising the don lives in an ivory tower, gives the don an ultimatum: The story will be in the press, assuring a thumping Labour victory in the election now only days away (and the professor's arrest), unless the professor kills himself by Friday, four days before the election. The professor does so, falling "accidentally" from a high window, and Stevenson has little sympathy when told about how the professor's sister will be devastated.
Stevenson returns to his work on Monday, at least having assured that the election will not be influenced either way. He returns to his lonely road which he had shared with another for so brief a moment, and which will soon lead to his death.
A diary found with an unearthed skeleton casts new light on a lost piece of history from World War II. It belongs to a young German soldier who was stationed on the Eastern Front alongside a group of Romanian soldiers who always fought at night. Their true nature is soon revealed and when they change sides all Hell breaks loose.
Psychiatrist Isaac Barr treats Diana Baylor for obsessive–compulsive disorder. Diana suggests Isaac meet her sister, Heather Evans, who may be able to shed light on her neuroses. Heather tells him that Diana was sexually abused by their father after their mother left. She reveals to him that she is unhappily married to gangster Jimmy Evans. Isaac confesses that he finds her irresistible, and the two have sex. Afterwards, Heather divulges that their father died in a fire, which Diana was suspected of starting.
At a restaurant with Jimmy, Heather has an episode of "pathological intoxication" after drinking wine and is taken to the hospital. After recovering, she sneaks away with Isaac to an abandoned lighthouse. While climbing the stairs, she drops her purse and lets loose a metal dumbbell handle, which she claims she keeps for protection.
Isaac's friend, defense attorney Mike O'Brien, informs him that Jimmy is under federal investigation for several financial crimes, and warns him to stay away from Heather. Isaac nevertheless follows her and Jimmy to a restaurant and confronts Jimmy. Claiming she feels ill, Heather leaves the restaurant, and gets a ride home from Isaac. Later that night, she drinks cough medicine, which brings on another episode. As Jimmy forces a kiss on her, she grabs one of his metal dumbbells and hits him over the head, killing him.
Heather is arrested for murdering Jimmy. Isaac hires Mike to represent her, and enlists expert on pathological intoxication to testify on her behalf. Heather is found not guilty by reason of insanity. She is sentenced to confinement at to a psychiatric facility, where she will be evaluated. Isaac assures Heather she will be released soon.
Isaac listens to a colleague's speech on one of Sigmund Freud's patients who had persistent dreams of arranging flowers, the same dream Diana had described to him during a session; Isaac realizes that Diana fabricated those stories. He talks to a courthouse guard who recognized Heather before her trial, and he recalls that she had been a spectator in the courthouse whenever Isaac testified as an expert witness. Mike tells Isaac that Jimmy's brother recently died, making Heather the beneficiary of Jimmy's $4 million life insurance policy. Isaac goes to the hospital to confront Heather, who admits to the ruse and threatens to incriminate him with the dumbbell she used to murder Jimmy, which has Isaac's fingerprints on it. Police detective Huggins, who suspects Isaac of killing Jimmy, warns him that he is being watched. Isaac tells Heather that he has reported her crime to two assistant district attorneys who want to interview her. She agrees, confident that double jeopardy will protect her.
During the evaluation, Heather fabricates a story about Isaac killing Jimmy. At Heather’s request, Diana joins her, but fails to bring the dumbbell; the investigators, meanwhile, are revealed to be psychiatrists. Heather loses her temper and threatens both Isaac and Diana, and has to be sedated. Isaac meets with Diana, who assures him that she dropped the dumbbell into the bay, but Isaac does not trust her. Isaac enlists Pepe Carrero, a former client, to follow Diana when she visits her sister.
Although Heather wants Diana to deliver the dumbbell to Huggins, Diana is too nervous to go through with it. Heather coerces her to switch clothes in the bathroom, allowing Heather to escape the hospital as "Diana". Pepe follows Heather, and tries to steal the dumbbell, but she shoots him in the chest. She telephones Huggins and arranges to meet him at a marina. Before going to the hospital, Pepe directs Isaac to the marina, where Isaac takes the dumbbell from Heather. She kidnaps him and Huggins and forces the latter to drive away from the marina.
A rainstorm hits, and Huggins crashes into the ocean. Isaac escapes the sinking car and Heather follows him to the lighthouse. As she chases Isaac onto the balcony, he deduces that Heather was the one who was raped by her father, not Diana, and she must have started the fire that killed him. Huggins appears to arrest Heather, who tries to shoot him. Isaac pulls her over the edge of the balcony, however, sending her falling to her death. Diana is tried as Heather’s accomplice, but is found not guilty. She then goes on a date with a wealthy man, posing as Heather.
Smiley (Colin Petersen) is a mischievous boy who lives in the small country town of Murrumbilla (based on Augathella). His father is an alcoholic drover who is a poor provider for the family, his mother works as a laundress to make ends meet. Smiley is always getting into trouble with his best friend Joey (Bruce Archer). He decides to try to save up enough money to buy a coveted bicycle.
Smiley takes on various odd jobs, showing enterprise, hard work, and persistence in slowly accumulating the considerable sum (four pound) needed, despite getting involved in a number of pranks, including getting into trouble with the local law enforcement in the figure of Sergeant Flaxman (Chips Rafferty). Smiley unwittingly helps the local publican, Jim Rankin (John McCallum), sell opium to aborigines who live in a camp near the town.
Smiley's father steals his savings and loses it playing two-up. Smiley accidentally knocks him out and runs away to the bush, where he is bitten by a snake. His life is saved by a boundary rider, Bill McVitty (Guy Doleman). Rankin is arrested and the townspeople chip in to buy Smiley a bike.
A romantic subplot involves Rankin and Sergeant Flaxman vying for the affections of Miss Workman the new local schoolmistress (Jocelyn Hernfield).
Having learned swordsmanship from his father, the young country bumpkin d'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a king's musketeer. Unaccustomed to the city life, he makes a number of clumsy ''faux pas''. First he finds himself insulted, knocked out and robbed by the Comte de Rochefort, an agent of Cardinal Richelieu, and once in Paris comes into conflict with three musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel for some accidental insult or embarrassment. As the first of these duels is about to begin, Jussac arrives with five additional swordsmen of Cardinal Richelieu's guards. D'Artagnan sides with the musketeers in the ensuing street fight and becomes their ally in opposition to the Cardinal, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the king, Louis XIII. D'Artagnan also begins an affair with his landlord's wife, Constance Bonacieux, who is dressmaker to the Queen, Anne of Austria.
Meanwhile, the Duke of Buckingham, former lover of the Queen, turns up and asks for something in remembrance of her; she gives him a necklace with twelve settings of diamonds, a gift from her husband. From the Queen's treacherous lady-in-waiting, the Cardinal learns of the rendezvous and suggests to the none-too-bright King to throw a ball in his wife's honor, and request she wear the diamonds he gave her. The Cardinal also sends his agent Milady de Winter to England, who seduces the Duke and steals two of the necklace's diamonds.
Meanwhile, the Queen has confided her troubles in Constance, who asks d'Artagnan to ride to England and get back the diamonds. D'Artagnan and the three musketeers set out, but on the way the Cardinal's men attack them. Only d'Artagnan and his servant make it through to Buckingham, where they discover the loss of two of the diamond settings. The Duke replaces the two settings, and d'Artagnan races back to Paris. Porthos, Athos, and Aramis, wounded but not dead as d'Artagnan had feared, aid the delivery of the complete necklace to the Queen, saving the royal couple from the embarrassment which the Cardinal had plotted.
Captain Tréville eventually inducts d'Artagnan into the Musketeers of the King's Guard.
The film is set in a small coastal community in New Jersey where the only action in town is a nightclub called The Pavilion. The owner, Pete (played by Jackson Sims), can barely make the payroll so in an effort to bring in more business, he hires a sultry stripper named Danny Lee (Cathy Haase).
Danny Lee's act soon turns the head of Ralph, which is not good news for his bed-ridden wife Luanne (Loretta Gross). Luanne's nasty talent is her gift for gossip, and when she begins to suspect that Ralph has adultery on his mind, she starts spreading more ugly rumors that have just enough basis in fact to stick. Soon things spin out of control and a wave of violence begins.
Raymond Lembecke (Vincent Gallo) is an ex-con just out of prison after serving time for selling drugs for his boss Eddie Grillo (John C. McGinley). Lembecke was innocent, but took the fall for Grillo. Lembecke thinks Grillo owes him, so when his former boss gets him a measly job in a warehouse, he decides on revenge and plans to steal a million dollars' worth of drugs from him.
Lembecke plans the heist with Marcus Weans (Mykelti Williamson), who unbeknownst to them is an undercover DEA agent, and the disturbed trigger-happy Curtis Freley (Kiefer Sutherland). Lembecke's girlfriend Addy Monroe (Kim Dickens) also comes along. Curtis kills an undercover DEA agent (who's wearing a wire) during the heist. They decide to skip town and head to Las Vegas to sell the stolen goods; later they hope to make it to Mexico.
As they head out of the city they kidnap a couple who own a recreational vehicle. But soon, hostage Gordon Jacobson (Kevin Pollak) falls under the spell of the Stockholm syndrome and begins to emulate his kidnappers and wants to stay involved in their hunt. In addition to fleeing the police, the group must also now avoid an assassin named Sir (Martin Sheen) who has been dispatched by the mafia, because Eddie Grillo was merely working for the real Mob Boss in Las Vegas, Tony Vago (Rod Steiger) who they have just attempted to sell the drugs to. In effect they were selling Vago's own drugs back to him.
They visit Wayne, (Max Perlich ) a former jail mate of Lambecke, to try to make another connection to sell the drugs in New Mexico. This leads them to the empty home of Lembecke's brother in Truth or Consequences, NM to make the deal, where all forces convene against them.
Kyoji is a cook living in Macau. He works for a Thai restaurant in Hong Kong and has been having an affair with Seiko, the wife of his boss, Wiwat, who orders Kyoji to poison her. After the deed is done, Kyoji is ordered to leave Hong Kong. He consults with the mysterious Monk, who gives him money and advice to contact Lizard. Kyoji then boards a cruise ship, and is given a small, dreary cabin belowdecks, where nothing seems to work properly. In trying to find his way back topside, he gets lost. Finally, up on deck, he meets Noi. Noi has a baby named Nid, whom Kyoji finds hanging on the deck rail in a harness, where Noi left the child while she was swimming. Eventually, the ship reaches its destination, Phuket, Thailand, where real life-or-death adventures begin for Kyoji as he starts to put the pieces together about what he's done.
First-year student Mayumi Takahashi attends a junior high school called , where the penalty for any student (usually girls) making the slightest mistake is being sexually humiliated by the perverted, corrupt and misogynistic teachers running the school, the principal being a demonic, jester-like villain named "Toenail of Satan". However, before the teachers can take their sexual advances too far, Kekko Kamen steps in and delivers a sound beating to the teachers, and usually performs a finishing attack by jumping into the air and landing crotch-first onto her opponent's face.
Huddie Ledbetter leaves his father's house just barely into his twenties and arrives at a brothel on Fannin' Street ran by Miss Eula, who nicknames him Leadbelly and has him play at the bar. For a while, she takes care of him until the police arrive, breaking up a party. Leadbelly and an old man escape via a train and Leadbelly buys a twelve-string acoustic guitar from the old man. Seeking work, he takes a job picking cotton. He soon leaves on a train to Silver City where he meets Blind Lemon and they start playing shows together.
At one show, a drunken man tells Leadbelly to keep playing, and threatens him. Leadbelly responds by smashing his guitar onto him and is arrested. He escapes from jail and leads a normal life until he and two other men are on their way home after a night of drinking. One of the men mentions that the other man's woman had sex with Lead Belly during the evening. The man pulls out a gun to shoot Lead Belly but Lead Belly also pulls out his gun and is able to shoot the other man first, killing him. He is thrown in prison where he is forced to work in a chain gang. When he tries to escape, he is caught and put in a box. His father arrives and tries to bail Leadbelly out, but fails. Before leaving, he manages to convince the warden to get Leadbelly a twelve-string acoustic guitar.
After getting the new guitar, he plays a song for Governor Pat Neff who reassures Leadbelly he will be set free. After he leaves prison, he returns to Fannin Street, sees it has lost its former glory, and he is reunited with Miss Eula. He returns to his father's home only to find that a new family lives there. A group of men attack Leadbelly and slash his throat. Leadbelly happens to stab and kill a man in self-defense but is thrown back in prison. John and Alan Lomax visit the prison and interview Leadbelly, having him play all his songs for them. After he finishes telling his life story, they tell him they will see what they can do about getting him out of prison. The film ends with a title card stating that Leadbelly was released from prison and pursued his music career.
''The Legacy'' continues the plot-line of The Icewind Dale Trilogy, with Wulfgar and Catti-brie preparing for their marriage and Drizzt returning from the first of many visits to Lady Alustriel of Silverymoon. Drizzt returns to a disturbed Catti-brie and eccentric Regis, who has returned to Mithral Hall after a stint as master of Pasha Pook's thieves' guild. While Bruenor plans the wedding, Wulfgar's tribe settles the appropriately named Settlestone and begins to prosper. Wulfgar, on the other hand, is straining his relationship with Catti-brie, who feels his possessiveness is excessive and unwise. When Wulfgar unexpectedly attacks Drizzt and appears to have lethal motives, the tension builds, despite the drow defusing the situation.
Newly introduced is the dwarf battlerager, Thibbledorf Pwent. The dwarf, knocked unconscious during the invasion of Mithral Hall, pledges fealty to Bruenor. Among his personality quirks are a disgusting smell, and ungreased, ridged armor, which also serves as Pwent's primary weapon. Meanwhile, in Menzoberranzan, Drizzt's sister Vierna (Taken in by Matron Baenre after the fall of House Do'Urden) is preparing to recapture her brother. Vierna believes that this quest, if successful, will gain her the full favor of Lolth, the chief drow goddess. Vierna enlists the help of Bregan D'aerthe, the most prominent mercenary band in Menzoberranzan. Jarlaxle, Bregan D'aerthe's leader, briefly doubts Vierna's sanity and designs, but is convinced when Vierna turns her brother Dinin into a drider.
The story returns to Mithral Hall, with Bruenor preparing a detachment to investigate a goblin disturbance in Mithral Hall's unexplored lower tunnels. After the goblins are routed, tension builds between Wulfgar and Catti-brie. Wulfgar had wanted his fiancée to stay out of the fight, for reasons that didn't satisfy the woman. A patrol goes missing soon afterward, and Drizzt prepares to investigate. Oddly, Bruenor suggests that Regis accompany the drow. Drizzt, with a few second thoughts, allows the halfling to join him. The pair discover the patrol, slaughtered; Drizzt identifies the murderers as dark elves and leads a pursuit. After the battle with the drow, Drizzt questions Regis on his new-found combat abilities, and discovers that the halfling is actually Artemis Entreri, wearing a familiar magical mask. Drizzt had previously used the item to pass as a surface elf, and had not realized its capabilities. Entreri then turns Drizzt over to the dark elves, who escape to the Underdark.
Entreri then challenges Drizzt, attempting to settle their feud from The Halfling's Gem. Apparently, this was Entreri's price in the operation to recover the wayward drow. The assassin is informed that he cannot kill Drizzt in the duel, because Vierna intends to sacrifice her brother to Lolth. Meanwhile, Bruenor and Wulfgar realize Regis' deception and manipulation: Bruenor was charmed to allow Regis to follow the ranger on his expedition; and Wulfgar was persuaded that Drizzt had kissed Catti-brie. Catti-brie, Bruenor, and Wulfgar, together with Cobble (Mithral Hall's High Priest) and Pwent, move to rescue Drizzt.
The duel between Drizzt and Entreri begins slowly, Drizzt not wanting to give the assassin satisfaction. Entreri counters by successfully taunting the drow with the whereabouts and well-being of Regis. Jarlaxle and Vierna are impressed with the battle, allowing it to continue until Wulfgar and company arrive. In the meleé, Vierna crushes Cobble beneath a steel wall and Drizzt escapes, but violates his vow to never take a dark elf's life. The moral struggle inherently ends with a repudiation of the vow, if necessary to save the lives of those for whom Drizzt cares. Bruenor and his entourage also escape, and Entreri asks for an opportunity to pursue his nemesis. He kills his appointed escorts when alone and fails to find a hidden Drizzt. Drizzt's friends are also searching for him, as are Vierna and Bregan D'aerthe.
The parties of Bruenor and Vierna collide, with another raucous combat. Bruenor attacks the Drider Dinin. Pwent is separated from the group, falling down a pit after overcoming dark elf poison. Vierna summons a Yochlol, a demonic handmaiden of Lolth, which attacks Wulfgar, then wraps a tentacle around Cattie-brie's leg. Wulfgar, desperate, repeatedly strikes the chambers ceiling with his hammer, causing a collapse that kills both Wulfgar and the Yochlol.
Pryd Holding, where much of the story is set, is troubled by the threat of powrie dwarves, domination by other kingdoms and religious conflicts between the brutal Samhaists, led by the cruel and evil Bernivvigar and the seemingly more benevolent brothers of Blessed Abelle, to which Brother Bran Dynard belongs. Also complicating matters is that Prince Prydae, the last of his line, suffers an injury in battle that leaves him impotent. Brother Dynard has recently returned from the south, where he was sent to enlighten the people, but instead became fascinated and enlightened by the people, and took a wife, the beautiful Jhesta Tu mystic Sen Wi. Sen Wi has come to Pryd holding with Dynard to help explain the ways of her people to the brothers of Blessed Abelle.
One night, a beautiful young woman, Callen Duwornay, is sentenced to death for adultery. Forced to endure sexual humiliation as part of her punishment, she is stripped completely naked in front of the community, is bitten by a poison snake and then left for dead, hung over the road that is being constructed to connect Pryd Holding with the other kingdoms as a warning to others. Sen Wi and Dynard find her hanging naked and rescue her from the dwarves that are beating her. Sen Wi uses her training to heal Callen and they take her to Dynard's friend, Garibond, to heal. After recovering, an apparently still naked Callen leaves Garibonds home and disappears. Some time later, after changing her name, Callen gives birth to a daughter, whom she names Cadayale.
Brother Dynard and Sen Wi go before the brothers of Abelle, but they are appalled to find that he was "enlightened" by the "beasts of Behr" rather than enlightening them as he was supposed to. Additionally, the brothers refuse to recognize Sen Wi as his wife, referring to her instead dismissively as his concubine. Sen Wi realizes that she is pregnant and that her baby is suffering within her due to her having taken the poison and pain from Callen into herself. Sen Wi later dies giving birth in Garibond's home, using the last of her strength to save her son, whom Garibond names Bransen, combining his parents name. Dynard himself is later killed by a dwarf on the highway when he is sent to see the higher order of Abelle.
Adopted by Garibond, Bransen is a constant source of ridicule, mockery and abuse in the town by local bullies due to his disfigurement, shown kindness only by Cadayale, daughter of Callen. With old age overtaking him and suffering a terrible injury to himself due to the cruel machinations of Bernivvigar, who wishes to sacrifice Bransen, Garibond makes a deal with the brothers of Abelle to take in Bransen should he die. Garibond himself is later burned to death for heresy and for harboring the Book of Jhest, written by Dynard. After this, Bransen is taken in by the monks, but most of them treat him cruelly as well.
Bransen utilizes both sides of his heritage in the novel to overcome his crippled state and become the Highwayman. With help from a soul stone, the hematite, combined with his knowledge of The Book of Jhest, Bransen overcomes his physically weak form by centering his chi, which greatly increases his mobility. With his newfound ability, he rescues Cadayale from the bullies who wished to rape and beat her for helping him, killing the lead bully, Tarkus Breen. After weeks of robbing from the tax collectors to give back to the poor, becoming a local Robin Hood, Bransen risks everything to rescue Cadayale and Callen from Bernivvigar and Prydae, who sought to rape Cadayale to beget an heir, leading to the deaths of both men. Afterward, Bransen, Cadayale and Callen are banished from Pryd Holding by Bannagran, Prydae's closest friend and temporary ruler. With hope in their hearts, the three depart for the south to seek a better life.
In 2007, Matthew Hansen of Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers Productions adapted ''The Highwayman'' to a comic book.
In ''Trial by Fire'', a young Andacanavar embarks on one of his earliest adventures. With his Elven-forged blade and improbable allies, the ranger fights to save a world of magic from the ravages of a DemonWar.
The final novel in the first trilogy begins with the mopping up of Bestesbulzibar's army and the battle against the demon's spirit, which has possessed the highest levels of power within the Abellican Church. Again, it is up to Elbryan and Pony, along with their friends, to combat the corruption and attempt to end its terrible hold forever.
Mortalis tells of Pony's life after the war: her fight against the crushing grief of her husband Elbryan's death and her fight to stop a plague infecting the people of the kingdom. At the same time, the characters of Aydrian Wyndon, Elbryan's and Pony's child, and Brynn Dharielle, a To-Gai girl turned ranger, are introduced to the story.
The novel ''Ascendance'' begins the tale of Aydrian Wyndon, a tortured and lonely young man raised by the Touel'alfar to be a ranger even greater than his father and to, hopefully, be the salvation of the elves. The plans of the Touel'alfar go awry due to Aydrian's own arrogance, cultivated by a dark force. When he leaves the home of the elves, events occur which bring about great sorrow for himself, his mother and the kingdom.
On the small remote Scottish isle of Skua, Perdita has been branded "the witch's daughter" by islanders. They believe her mother died cursing the sea on which they depend for their livelihood (most of the men are fishermen). She lives in a tumbledown house by the loch, alone apart from the housekeeper Annie, never goes to school and has no friends. The house's owner, Mr Smith, is usually absent and expects Perdita to keep out of his way when he is there. The village children avoid or bully her, saying she's a witch like her mother.
One summer Janey, who is blind, and her elder brother Tim visit the island with their naturalist father who wants to find a rare orchid that might grow there. Another English tourist, Mr Jones, arrives at the same time and also stays in the hotel (a village inn with a few rooms). The children befriend the lonely girl Perdita, though she is at first very shy as she has only experienced cruelty from other children before. Mr Smith arrives to stay in his old house with Annie and Perdita. One evening Perdita overhears Mr Jones in the kitchen talking with Mr Smith.
Together they search for fossils (mostly Tim, who's very interested in fossils), explore the island's caves, investigate an old unsolved crime as well as a current one after Tim's father is assaulted, and find treasure.
They are threatened by the crooks calling themselves Jones and Smith (not their real names) who had stolen many valuable jewels from deposit boxes during a bank robbery a few years before and hidden them in the island's sea-caves, but eventually the children are unharmed and the thieves don't manage to get the stolen treasure back. The children find the hidden jewels and they are handed to the police for return to the bank.
Tim and Janey's holiday ends and their father is with them as they board the ferry to leave the island. Perdita comes to them just as the ferry is leaving with a bunch of wild flowers she has picked for Janey - they are the ones their father had been searching for, so it seems they might return to the island another time so that Perdita can show him where they grow. As Perdita is now something of a hero the local children stop being so mean to her; also she is expected to start attending school soon after the end of the story and will be less isolated.
Roswell G. Flemington, owner of a model ship company and formerly a serviceman of the United States Navy, grew up in a home where his mother required silence. Thus, as an adult, he makes as much noise as he possibly can, is obsessed with the Navy (a photo of him in his youth shows he had reached the rank of Seaman Apprentice), and behaves thunderously in response to any slight.
After twenty years, his wife has had enough of his obsession with noise and finally walks out on him. Now alone, he begins to hear every little noise – a drip of water, the margin bell on a typewriter – like an explosion or gunshot. He sees a psychiatrist who helps him understand that conflict with his wife has caused him to relive his resentment against his mother to the point that he internalizes his mother's affliction. He now realizes it is all in his head, all he needs to do is overcome the mental block with "mind over matter", and he does. The only problem is that when his wife returns to pick up her jewelry, he tells her about it and proceeds to "shut her out". Unfortunately, his solution proves too effective, and Flemington finds that he can hear nothing. Now desperate to hear anything, Flemington puts a record on, setting the volume at its highest setting. Although the scene is silent, the insides of his apartment vibrate from the sound of his stereo. As the episode ends, Flemington opens up the windows to the street below, and begs for noise.
Visiting a city, Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent witness a sudden rampage of the dragon army of the young Marlene and effortlessly repel the attack. Marlene's estranged father Lord Culvert then hires Lina to help stop his daughter's raids. But Naga, Lina's friend-enemy "greatest rival", decides to instead join Marlene's side for a bigger bid.
Lina and Culvert lead the human army for an assault on Marlene's castle. Meanwhile, Naga and Marlene's forces set out as well in the other way, leaving the castle vacant for Lina's magic to level. Naga and Marlene rush back and meet Lina and Culver's army. Marlene has a natural relationship with dragons and is able to command them easily, but her dragons flee after only hearing the very name "Lina Inverse" and Lina quickly defeats Marlene's warlord Thornfort. Lina and Naga meet for a personal duel, from which Lina emerges victorious. Marlene also challenges Lina with her Chaos Sword, but Lina manages to break it.
But then Marlene's other warlord, Gaizno, reveals his real form, transforming himself into a gigantic evil dragon that starts attacking both sides and the city itself. During the great battle, Lina and Naga work together, as Naga succeeds in distracting Gaizno with creative magical attacks long enough for Lina to overcome Gaizno's magic defenses and destroy him with her powerful Dragon Slave spell. Gaizno survives, but is reduced to his true form, that of a tiny green serpent.
Marlene and her father reconcile and end their war, which they waged only over the amount of her weekly allowance money. The land's dragons and humans are also going to live in peace and rebuild the city together. Lina and Naga leave for their new adventures, as always bickering and fighting each other on their way.
Hunting guide Mike Davis (Burt Lancaster) came across a cache of diamonds in a mining area located in a remote region of South West Africa. He was caught by the mine's police but refused to reveal the diamonds' location, even under torture at the hand of the diamond company's security chief, Vogel. He left South Africa for some time.
Davis returns to get the diamonds which he still expects will be at the spot where he found them. The mining company's owner, Martingale (Claude Rains), tries to find out where the diamonds can be found by guile rather than force. He hires a beautiful prostitute, Suzanne Renaud (Corinne Calvet), to seduce Davis and get him to reveal the secret location. Davis plans an illegal entry into the diamond mining area to retrieve the diamonds and plans to escape to Portuguese Angola. Meanwhile, Vogel is attracted to Suzanne and offers to marry her. But Suzanne is attracted to Davis who is more interested in his diamonds than Suzanne. Davis finds the diamonds but Martingale threatens to kill Suzanne unless Davis gives him the diamonds. Davis gives up the diamonds and ends up leaving the country with Suzanne, discovering that he loves her more than the diamonds.
An African sorcerer conjures up a flying horse, which he shows to the Caliph. When the sorcerer refuses to sell it for any amount of gold, the Caliph offers any treasure he has. The sorcerer chooses Dinarsade, the Caliph's daughter, to her great distress. Prince Achmed, Dinarsade's brother, objects, but the sorcerer persuades him to try out the horse. It carries the prince away, higher and higher into the sky, as he does not know how to control it. The Caliph has the sorcerer imprisoned.
When Achmed discovers how to make the horse descend, he finds himself in a strange foreign land, a magical island called Wak Wak. He is greeted by a bevy of attractive maidens. When they begin fighting for his attention, he flies away to a lake. There, he watches as Pari Banu, the beautiful ruler of the land of Wak Wak, arrives with her attendants to bathe. When they spot him, they all fly away, except for Pari Banu, for Achmed has her magical flying feather costume. She flees on foot, but he captures her. He gains her trust when he returns her feathers. They fall in love. She warns him, however, that the demons of Wak Wak will try to kill him.
The sorcerer frees himself from his chains. Transforming himself into a bat, he seeks out Achmed. The prince chases the sorcerer (back in human form) and falls into a pit. While Achmed fights a giant snake, the sorcerer takes Pari Banu to China and sells her to the Emperor. The sorcerer returns and pins Achmed under a boulder on top of a mountain. However, the Witch of the Flaming Mountain notices him and rescues Achmed. The sorcerer is her arch-enemy, so she helps Achmed rescue Pari Banu from the Emperor.
Then the demons of Wak Wak find the couple and, despite Achmed's fierce resistance, carry Pari Banu off. Achmed forces a captive demon to fly him to Wak Wak. However, the gates of Wak Wak are locked. He then slays a monster who is attacking a boy named Aladdin.
Aladdin tells of how he, a poor tailor, was recruited by the sorcerer to retrieve a magic lamp from a cave. When Aladdin returned to the cave entrance, the sorcerer demanded the lamp before letting him out. Aladdin refused, so the sorcerer sealed him in. Aladdin accidentally released one of the genies of the lamp and ordered it to take him home. He then courted and married Dinarsade. One night, Dinarsade, Aladdin's magnificent palace and the lamp disappeared. Blamed by the Caliph, Aladdin fled to avoid being executed. A storm at sea cast him ashore at Wak Wak. When he tried to pluck fruit from a "tree", it turned into a monster and grabbed him, but Achmed killed it. Achmed realizes the sorcerer had been behind this and is further enraged. He reveals to Aladdin that his palace and the lamp were stolen by the sorcerer because of his obsession for Dinarsade.
Then the witch arrives. Since only the lamp can open the gates, she agrees to attack the sorcerer to get it. They engage in a magical duel, each transforming into various creatures. After a while, they resume their human forms and fling fireballs at each other. Finally, the witch slays the sorcerer. With the lamp, they are able to enter Wak Wak, just in time to save Pari Banu from being thrown to her death. A fierce battle erupts. A demon steals the lamp, but the witch gets it back. She summons creatures from the lamp who defeat the demons. One hydra-like creature seizes Pari Banu. When Achmed cuts off one of its heads, two more grow back immediately, but the witch stops this regeneration, allowing Achmed to kill it and rescue Pari Banu. A flying palace then settles to the ground. Inside, Achmed, Pari Banu, Aladdin and the Caliph find Dinarsade. The two couples bid goodbye to the witch and fly home in the palace.
The sisters Chieko, a script girl working at a big film studio, and Aiko, a revue dancer, are daughters to anti-unionist father Gintaro. When the workers at a railway company, including the family's subtenant Seizo, go on strike, Chieko and her co-workers demonstrate their solidarity and call for strike as well to achieve financial security for the film studio's staff. Meanwhile, Aiko and her dancing troupe decide to get organised in opposition to the theatre's mean stage manager. When Gintaro is fired together with a large group of employees at his company, he finally gives up his reluctance and joins the unionists, impressed by their earnestness.
Seven years after the events of ''Heroes Die'', Hari Michaelson (also known as Caine) is a puppet executive on the Studio he used to work for. He is now a paraplegic and lives with his wife Shanna and her daughter Faith. He uncovers a plot by Earth's executives to infect Overworld with a plague of HRVP (an especially virulent form of rabies) that would clear the way for colonization of Earth's crowded population into the new world and an exploitation of its resources. In addition to Michaelson the story also details a number of other characters, including Hari's academy friend Kris Hansen, the former Overworld god Tan'elKoth (the former Ma'elKoth now exiled to Earth) and Raithe, a young Monastic adept obsessed with killing Caine.
Category:2001 American novels Category:2001 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:American fantasy novels Category:Del Rey books Category:Overpopulation fiction Category:Science fantasy novels Category:Novels about virtual reality Category:Dark fantasy novels Category:Dystopian novels
Rhys Mason, former monk of Majere, begins the novel trying to escape death knight Auseric Krell. Rhys, having retrieved the soul of the Dark Knight Ariakan imprisoned by Chemosh in a khas piece, hands the piece over to Zeboim. She sends Rhys and Nightshade back to Solace. Once there, the sheriff, Gerard, seeks others for counsel about the mounting Beloved situation. Rhys agrees with Gerard to stay in Solace and help in any way possible.
After an encounter with a Beloved, Rhys, Nightshade, and Atta (Rhys' dog) head after the creature, eventually ending up in New Port. Here, Rhys finally finds his brother Lleu, a Beloved introduced in the first ''Dark Disciple'' novel, who he has been tracking ever since. Elsewhere, Mina has been imprisoned in a new tower of magic in Istar, at the bottom of the Blood Sea. It has been newly erected by the dark god of magic, Nuitari. At a Conclave of Wizards meeting, Nuitari reveals to his cousins about his tower. The three agree to erect three Towers of High Sorcery again, one for each of them. Back in the Tower, Mina begins her task set before her by Chemosh of searching for the ''Solia Febalas'' (Hall of Sacrilege). Once she has found it, she is unable to take anything for Chemosh because she becomes so overwhelmed by the god-presence in the Hall. Finally, Nuitari returns and gives Mina over to Zeboim who had begun an assault upon the Tower.
Zeboim takes Mina first to New Port where Rhys and his brother are at to have them meet. While there, Mina has a vision of Rhys and insists he knows the truth about her. Rhys' brother also pleads with Mina to take his life as a Beloved because he wishes it no longer. Before Mina can answer, Zeboim gives her back to Chemosh, who is irate with Mina for not getting any artifacts for him. He has been growing increasingly agitated that the Beloved will only follow her command and resist any by him or Krell. Rhys again tails his brother and finally confronts him again along with New Port authority when his brother tries to kill a woman. The woman's child attacks the Beloved on behalf of his mother and the Beloved is instantly destroyed, leaving the child in a coma-like state. Krell decides it would be in Chemosh's best interest if Krell would kill Mina, who is now being imprisoned by Chemosh. As he tries to follow through with his plan, Mina does something extraordinary; she makes him a human again. Then, because she believes Chemosh would want it, she pulls the Tower of Istar from the sea bottom and places it on top on an island in the middle of the ocean. Passing out from such exertion, the novel ends with all of the major and minor gods showing up and pondering over the nature of the unconscious Mina. Majere finally reveals that Mina is in fact a god like them, one of light, who was swayed and corrupted somehow by the Dark Queen Takhisis.
The story centers on Charlie Asher, a "beta-male" (as opposed to "alpha-male") who leads a satisfying life as the owner and proprietor of a second-hand store in San Francisco. At the moment when his wife Rachel unexpectedly dies in the hospital shortly after the birth of their first child (Sophie), Charlie is chosen to be a "death merchant," retrieving souls of the dying and protecting them from the forces of the underworld, while he manages his store and raises his daughter. He only gradually realizes the ramifications of this business as clues and complications unfold, and the forces of darkness threaten to rise.
Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) competes on the television game show ''Jeopardy!'', which has temporarily moved taping to Boston for a special occasion. Cliff amasses $22,000 by the end of the Double Jeopardy! round, more than twice the score of the second place contestant, theoretically ensuring a win. For the Final Jeopardy! clue of "Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur" in the category of "Movies", Cliff responds incorrectly with "Who are 3 people who've never been in my kitchen?", signing the amount of his wager as "$22,000 Big Ones!" Having overconfidently wagered his entire score as revealed, Cliff loses all of his winnings and the match. Cliff objects and argues, demanding that his answer be accepted.
The show's host, Alex Trebek, later arrives at Cheers, tells Cliff that his response should have been accepted earlier, and announces to Cliff his resignation as the host of ''Jeopardy!''. However, Cliff convinces Trebek to remain as host by telling him how much the show and Trebek mean to him. After Cliff shares the news with others that he "saved ''Jeopardy!''", Norm Peterson (George Wendt) praises Trebek for doing this just to make Cliff feel better. However, Trebek says that he did not realize that Cliff was at the bar and that meeting him had been a coincidence. Trebek says that Cliff scares him and that the story about quitting the show was a fabrication to placate him.
Meanwhile, Sam Malone (Ted Danson) receives telephone calls from women whom he previously dated; they are angry with him for making dates, making them wear "French-cut panties and a miniskirt", and not arriving at a roller rink. He eventually discovers that his "little black book" has been stolen. Through detective work, Sam discovers that the thief has called Sam's women in alphabetical order, and that Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) is the next recipient on the list. Carla uses her bluff to blackmail the reluctant Rebecca into helping Sam capture the thief. The thief calls Rebecca, who asks him to meet her at the bar instead of the roller rink. Then the thief enters, turning out to be a teenage boy named Timmy (Greg E. Davis), who wants to become a "babe hound" like Sam. After getting his little black book back, Sam lets Timmy go, advising him to start as a "babe pup" and to call girls around his age, and gives him $25 for a haircut and a tip for a shampoo girl.
Chief Wiggum stops Troy McClure for reckless driving and notices his driver's license requires him to wear corrective lenses. Because of his vanity, Troy dislikes wearing his glasses. He visits Selma Bouvier at the DMV and offers to take her to dinner if she lets him pass the eye test. After dinner, paparazzi photographers see Troy leaving with Selma and the story hits the news. After winning for him the role of George Taylor in a musical stage adaptation of ''Planet of the Apes'', Troy's agent, MacArthur Parker, says that Troy can stage a career comeback if he continues seeing Selma. On his agent's advice, Troy asks Selma to marry him and she agrees.
The night before the wedding, a drunken Troy tells Homer that he does not love Selma and is only using her as a sham wife to further his career, with Homer only casually informing Marge after the fact (despite ample opportunity at the wedding). Marge and Patty try convincing Selma her marriage is a sham, but she accuses them of jealousy. She confronts Troy, who shamelessly admits that their marriage ''is'' a sham but claims she has everything she could want and will be "the envy of every other sham wife in town". Selma has her doubts but agrees to remain married to Troy because she fears being alone.
Parker thinks he can get Troy the part of McBain's sidekick in ''McBain IV: Fatal Discharge'' if he sires children. Troy and Selma prepare to conceive a child, but Troy is uncomfortable sleeping with women because of his "bizarre fish fetish"; rumors of his unconventional sexuality once squelched his career and prevented his comeback. Selma decides that bringing a child into a loveless marriage is wrong and leaves Troy. A tabloid TV show confirms that Troy has turned down the role of McBain's sidekick to direct and star in his own film, ''The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel'', produced by 20th Century Fox.
In a pre-credits scene, Ernest P. Worrell is showing off a new device he has bartered from a guy off the street. He called it a "changing coffin" that transforms the user into any disguise. Ernest enters the coffin as Vern flips a switch, then Ernest gets pulled in screaming.
Dr. Otto is a mysterious villain with a hand attached on top of his head. He is plotting world domination using his "gloom beam," an electromagnetic device that he uses to launch attacks on financial institutions to erase their contents and cause worldwide chaos. In a broadcast signal intrusion, Dr. Otto announces the "Riddle of the Gloom Beam:"
"When the money is scrambled to the very last cent,
riots and hatred soon will commence. When all the world's commerce will be put in a bind,
from the evil that lurks where the sun never shines.
It is I, Dr. Otto von Schnick-ick-ick-ick,
who has played on you this trick-ick-ick-ick.
'But who's Dr. Otto?' you may well ponder,
while all your magnetic cash is squandered.
It's he who had an eye, and yet couldn't see.
It's he who served bouillabaisse, when he was a she.
It's he who gambled with brains, and a gun.
It's he who had all, and yet had none.
And to stop this horrible twisted trick,
just exchange the poles of old Saint Nick.
And if that doesn't do to save the day,
put another quarter in and try another play."
Dr. Otto's first target is Cincinnati, Ohio, where a bank affected by the Gloom Beam decides to disrupt Dr. Otto's scheme before it can cause world chaos by sending in his archnemesis: all-American boy Lance Sterling, born on the same day in the same hospital as Dr. Otto. While Lance was a gifted child born to loving parents, Dr. Otto was the end result of a botched abortion, neglected by his parents (whom he later kills). To foil Lance, Dr. Otto uses a "changing coffin" and transforms himself into various characters in an effort to stop the heroes: Rudd Hardtack, Australian trainer of child militants; Laughing Jack O'Cockney, pirate captain; Auntie Nelda, the cantankerous elderly woman; and Guy Dandy, wealthy playboy.
Lance and his sidekick Doris Talbert escape each disguise in unusual ways: they survive Hardtack's game of Russian roulette; when Laughing Jack uses Lance as bait to catch a swamp monster, the monster turns out to be an old friend of Lance's, who lets them free; when Auntie Nelda drugs them into a trap, Lance is able to sway Tina (a woman Dr. Otto used as bait) into using Dr. Otto's transporter blanket to get them out; and they stumble into an elevator that leads straight to Dr. Otto's lair during a chase with Guy Dandy. Meanwhile, the gloom beam continues to cause chaos around the world, with comical effects: the President of the United States, for example, is overjoyed that Dr. Otto has effectively wiped out the national debt.
In a climactic showdown, Lance and Doris face off against Dr. Otto, all his disguises, and his robot henchman. In the end, it comes down to Lance choosing between a conspicuously labeled "Right Button" and "Wrong Button." He chooses the Right Button—which he realizes too late that it was not the right button (thus implying that was the subject of the "switch the poles" clue)—and, as massive electric bolts fire off in all directions, the lair self-destructs.
The scene then flash-cuts to Doris, Lance and Tina pushing their car down a road. At a gas station, they encounter Ernest, who informs them that they, have had no gas since the money went bad. As they all push the car down the road, Ernest takes his hat off to reveal Dr. Otto's third hand, as he says "Have a nice day, knowhutimean?"
Shrek is a repugnant, green-skinned, fire-breathing, seemingly indestructible monster who enjoys causing misery with his repulsiveness. After his parents decide that he must be sent out into the world to "[do] his share of damage", they (literally) kick him out of their swamp. Shrek soon encounters a witch, who, in exchange for his rare lice, reads his fortune: by uttering the magic words "Apple Strudel", he will be taken by donkey to a castle, where he will battle a knight and marry a princess who is even uglier than him.
Excitedly on his way, Shrek encounters a scything peasant from whom he steals and eats his pheasant, counters an attack from thunder, lightning and rain by eating lightning's fiercest bolt, and knocks out a dragon with his fiery breath. While resting, he is disturbed by a nightmare in which he is helpless to being hugged and kissed by a multitude of children. Awakening, he meets the donkey, who takes him to the castle.
Shrek confronts the knight guarding the castle; outraged by Shrek's demands to see the princess, the knight attacks him, to which Shrek responds with a fire blast that sends him into the surrounding moat. Inside the castle, Shrek is terrified when he appears to be surrounded by an army of similarly hideous creatures, but regains his resolve and self-esteem upon discovering that he is in the hall of mirrors. He finally meets the princess; mutually smitten by their shared ugliness, they marry and live "horribly ever after, scaring the socks off all who fell afoul of them".
Paul and Hélène, a wealthy Parisian couple, are preparing to go out for the evening. While driving, they see three men chasing a prostitute down the street. She begs them to save her by letting her into the car, but Paul locks the doors and drives away as the three men savagely beat her, leaving her unconscious in the street. He refuses to let Hélène phone an ambulance, afraid of being charged with not helping a person in danger (which is a crime in France).
Hélène cannot forget the incident, and the next day she goes to the hospital, where she finds the prostitute, Noémie, in a coma. Moved, Hélène stops work and leaves her family responsibilities to stay with Noémie throughout her recovery, aiding her as she regains mobility and helping her to communicate since she can't yet speak. When one of the pimps returns to threaten and beat Noémie again into submission, Hélène follows him out of the hospital, knocks him unconscious with a wooden plank, and leaves him for the police to find.
Meanwhile, Paul and Hélène's son Fabrice, a university student, is cheating on his girlfriend with another girl, who is pregnant. When his girlfriend discovers the truth, she destroys his apartment. He moves into Paul's apartment just as Hélène moves out, and the two girls follow him, much to Paul's chagrin.
When Hélène returns home for a day, one of Noémie's pimps goes to the hospital with a friend and removes Noémie under the pretense that they are relatives taking her for a walk. Noémie, who still cannot speak, is unable to protest. Realising what has happened, Hélène follows them, accosts the pimps on the street, and takes Noémie to Paul's mother's house. There, Noémie recovers her ability to talk, and explains her life story:
Her name is actually Malika, and she is a child of poor French-Algerian immigrants. At 17, her father attempted to sell her into an arrange marriage and she fled. She was picked up by a pimp, named Touki, on the street and he subsequently sold her into sexual slavery and had her hooked on heroin. She convinced Touki to move to Paris to speak to her step-mother and retrieve her passport. Her family kicked her out, and she formed plans to leave her life of forced prostitution behind. She sobered up and opened up an account with her sister, Zora's passport to put some money behind. She tried going to SOS Racisme for help, but she was dismissed. She moved to Geneva and seduced a rich man and conned him into giving her all of his money and jewelry, just before he died. She and Touki returned to Paris with the money. However, the rich man's family went to the press with claims that their money was stolen from the bank. Her pimps found out that she laundered the money for herself and beat her into signing a proxy. She escaped, with Touki and the other two pimps chasing after her, which was when Hélène and her husband came across her in their car at the beginning.
The two women plan Malika's freedom and revenge on her abusers. Hélène tells Malika that her husband was the one who locked the doors of their car during her attack, but Malika doesn't care. Later, she manages to distract Paul at the Basel airport, who looking for his Hélène, and has sex with him. All three manage to get on the same flight back to Paris, with Malika keeping her distance, in order to avoid the police. Hélène finally stands up to the selfishness of her husband and son. Paul falls madly in love with Malika, going insane when she doesn't call. Fabrice also meets and falls in love with her.
Hélène and Malika set up the pimps and their gang to be arrested by the police. Touki is shot after trying to escape. Malika returns to her estranged family and tells her sister, Zora, that she will be forced into marriage as soon as she's old enough, just as Malika was at her age. To save her from a life of patriarchal misery, she begs her sister to come with her to live in freedom, but she refuses, saying she loves them.
Malika meets up with Paul again and she takes him to his mother's house. When Zora is beaten by her sexist brothers, her father reveals that she will indeed be married to an older man soon. Malika and Hélène rush to Marseilles and stop Malika's father from sending Zora off to a forced marriage. Her father curses her and she replies that it is the first time he has ever given her anything. The film ends with Malika, Hélène, Zora and Paul's mother sitting on a bench gazing at the sun.
Dr. Watkins narrates throughout the cartoon. Dorlock Homes lives on Beeker Street in London. Inside their apartment, Homes is busily engaged in "deduction" — tax deduction, that is, hoping to write off such costs as "magnifying glasses and gumshoes" and "cab fares, to and from murders." Following a knock on the door, a telegram deliveryman falls into their flat. While Homes attributes it to curare, a type of poison, the deliveryman chides him for not fixing the step. Homes, angry, quickly snatches the letter from his hands and sternly informs him in no uncertain terms, "Just for that, you receive no gratuity." The telegram is from an infamous criminal known as the Shropshire Slasher, informing Homes that he has escaped from prison, and plans to resume "slashing" innocent citizens.
Homes and Watkins enter a pub the Slasher is known to haunt. Homes' attempts to gather clues land darts in his bill. When the Shropshire Slasher is finally revealed, Homes repeatedly attempts to arrest him, but the Slasher proves much stronger, and effortlessly defeats Homes. Watkins, on the other hand, speaks much more politely and reasonably to the suspect and he not only willingly divulges his identity, but is peacefully persuaded to turn himself back over to the police.
Just then, a kind, old woman arrives selling flowers. Homes accuses her of selling them without a license and threatens to arrest her. The Shropshire Slasher moans "Mother!" Before Homes has time to consider what has happened, the Shropshire Slasher grabs him by the neck and starts shaking him violently, causing an assortment of objects to fall from Homes' person. The Shropshire Slasher and his mother then leave, with him explaining to her that he promised "the nice gentleman" that he would give himself up, and her praising him for willingly doing so. Watkins asks a beat-up looking Homes in what school he learned to be a detective. Homes answers: "Elementary, my dear Watkins. Elementary."
A rising Hollywood starlet becomes "marooned" in a small desert town while on a roadtrip with her father. There, she gets to know the town's rather eccentric residents, including one whose hobby is pipe bombs and another who is trying to carry out his father's dream of building a waterpark in the desert.
At the funeral of their German-born grandfather Johann von Wolfhausen, half-wit brothers Jan and Todd Wolfhouse discover that family tradition demands that they travel to Munich at Oktoberfest to spread his cremated ashes at the Theresienwiese. There, the brothers unintentionally start an altercation that takes down an entire Oktoberfest tent. They then participate in Beerfest, an underground drinking game tournament run by Baron Wolfgang von Wolfhausen, where they discover that the von Wolfhausens are related to the Wolfhouses. The German team angrily denies the family ties, revealing that Johann was a stable boy who stole the recipe for "''ze'' greatest beer in all ''ze'' world" decades ago and ran away with his prostitute mother (the brothers' great grandmother), Great Gam Gam. Enraged by the mockery of their ancestors, Jan and Todd challenge the Germans to a drinking game. The brothers' defeat humiliates them in front of everybody, with Wolfgang pouring their grandfather's ashes on them and Jan gets punched in the eye.
Swearing to get revenge on the Germans, Jan and Todd return to Colorado where they recruit their drinking friends from college—binge drinker Phil "Landfill" Krundle, Jewish scientist Charlie "Fink" Finklestein, and male prostitute Barry Badrinath—to assemble an American Beerfest team, though they do not divulge this to Great Gam Gam. During the team's year of training, Jan and Todd find out that their grandfather did not steal the family beer recipe, but was actually the rightful heir to the family brewery in Bavaria. The team uses the rediscovered recipe to brew Schnitzengiggle Beer, whose delicious taste fills them with awe.
After the German team receive a bottle of Schnitzengiggle in the mail, the Wolfhausen clan goes to America to take the recipe back. Following a confrontation between the Wolfhausens and Jan and Todd, the Wolfhausens forge evidence that the brothers' restaurant has health issues to put them out of business. Fink quits the team, having been fired due to a slipping performance at the lab. Meanwhile, Landfill catches Great Gam Gam's caregiver Cherry stealing the beer recipe for the Germans. He overwhelms Cherry in a fight, but is pushed into a vat full of beer that drowns him due to the yeast ingredient submerging him. Minutes later, Jan discovers Landfill's body. Thinking Landfill committed suicide because of the strain that his involvement was putting on their marriage, the team decides to disband.
After the funeral, Great Gam Gam reveals that she knew about Beerfest the entire time. She then motivates the bereaved team with a rousing speech, and everyone except Barry change their minds. Barry explains that he cannot join due to a traumatizing incident years ago during a game of table tennis, in which the big end of a racket was forcefully shoved up his anus. Sympathizing with Barry, Great Gam Gam encourages him to rise above it, causing him to relent and join the team. Shortly after, Landfill's Southern twin brother Gil reveals himself to the group and offers to join the team, which they accept. Like his brother; Gil can drink copious amounts of beer, and he even invites the other members of the team to call him "Landfill" in his memory.
In Germany, the team uses an empty wooden keg as a Trojan Horse to get inside, where they emerge to boos and jeers. The Americans are allowed to participate after Jan and Todd show how uncannily they resemble the two Beerfest founders, thus convincing the crowd of their von Wolfhausen ancestry. In the finals (bootline chug), Cherry gibes Gil about the death of his brother, causing him to crack and the Germans to win. Jan offers the Germans a double or nothing opportunity. The Germans tell Jan they already have the recipe and thus no need for a rematch, but Fink points out that Cherry only stole a recipe for a low-carbohydrate strawberry beer, prompting Wolfgang to have Cherry killed. When one of the von Wolfhausens knocks off Fink's yarmulke, he enters into a state of purely concentrated rage which allows him to coach the team to victory, barely gaining the win when the German team's anchor fails to finish "Das Boot" (Boot of beer) by one drop.
On a snowy New Year's Eve, a woman enters a train station to retrieve a satchel full of cash from a coin-operated storage locker. Later that night, she drives into an empty parking lot and exits the car to place a call. As she anxiously smokes, she tells the other party she will wait only a few more minutes. After she gets back in her car, a man is seen in the rear-view mirror, in the backseat, unnoticed by her. When she catches sight of him, she is strangled, and her left ring finger is removed.
In New York City, struggling actress Katie McGovern (Mary Steenburgen) lives in a cramped apartment, with her out-of-work photographer husband, Rob Sweeney (William Russ). Her visiting brother, Roland (Mark Malone), makes the small space even more confining. The couple is behind on rent and other bills, and Katie feels the pinch to get an acting job which will help them financially.
Looking through a list of casting calls, Katie circles one: a vaguely-worded description for a lead actress, who must be available immediately, and willing to travel. At the open-call audition in a room full of other women aspiring for the job, Katie is called in to be interviewed by a Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall), who hires her immediately.
The pair drive upstate into the midst of a raging snow storm. When they arrive at the secluded home of Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubeš), he graciously welcomes her inside. Dr. Lewis is a paraplegic and uses a wheelchair. He gives her a cursory tour of the house, which features a number of trophies from his hunting days, including 2 massive stuffed polar bears. Katie asks to use the phone to call Rob, but finds it has no dial tone. Dr. Lewis surmises the storm must have downed the lines, and says Mr. Murray will drive her into town in the morning to make her call, if necessary.
Dr. Lewis explains that Katie has been hired to replace Julie Rose, an actress who had a nervous breakdown during a film shoot. She was picked due to her physical resemblance, as the plan is to still utilise the footage shot with Julie, with new film of Katie.
When Katie sees pictures of Julie Rose (also Steenburgen), she is stunned by the resemblance, exclaiming, "I could be her sister!" Dr. Lewis says a test-reel on videotape will be shot tomorrow, which the director will view when he arrives.
The following day, Mr. Murray tries to drive Katie into town to make her phone call, but his car will not start. Mr. Murray cuts and dyes Katie's hair to match the photos of Julie. Asked how they met, Mr. Murray explains that Dr. Lewis was his psychiatrist. The shoot goes well. Katie's lines all seem to eerily describe the attack seen at the film's beginning.
Mr. Murray sneaks out and reconnects the car's ignition. He drives to a house where a woman, whose face is never shown, watches him from her upstairs window. Mr. Murray slips the videotape through the mail slot. The unseen woman sits down, facing a screen, and watches the video of Katie. After the test footage ends, Dr. Lewis appears on the video to tell the anonymous woman they need to meet, and he will contact her soon.
The next morning, Katie finds a notebook with Polaroids of Julie's corpse. Horrified, she confronts Dr. Lewis, who explains that Julie's breakdown ended with her suicide. In the parlour, Katie is startled by a pop in the fireplace, where she sees her driver's license burning. Unable to retrieve it, she rushes to her room and finds all her ID is missing from her wallet. Katie flees the house without a coat. The weather is ferocious, and she ends up crawling to the top of a hill where, to her horror, she looks up to see Mr. Murray, who tells her Dr. Lewis is worried, and is waiting for her.
Back at the house, Dr. Lewis pretends her imagination is running wild. Katie realizes that Mr. Murray has drugged her hot chocolate. In her room, she barricades the door with furniture before she passes out. As she sleeps, Mr. Murray enters her room from behind a full-length mirror. Katie wakes up in a fresh sleeping gown with a bandaged hand. She peels off the bandages to find her left ring finger has been removed, and screams in horror.
Her barricade undisturbed, Katie quickly finds the secret door and a staircase to the attic, which has a working phone. She calls Rob and explains that they are going to kill her. Rob asks where she is, but Katie can only remember vague landmarks along the drive upstate. Rob orders her to call the police, which she does. As she collapses, she sees the body of Julie Rose. Mr. Murray arrives and rips the handset off the phone, taking her back downstairs to Dr. Lewis.
As Dr. Lewis redresses her finger, he explains that Julie was involved in a vicious family feud with her sister, Evelyn. As a radical therapy, Dr. Lewis had convinced her to blackmail her sister, theorizing that it would help her achieve a catharsis. He was pleased with Julie's progress, but did not expect Evelyn to kill her, ordering the hit man to take her finger as proof.
During his explanation, the police arrive. Katie is confused from a sedative and Dr. Lewis claims that she is his patient, so the police leave without much of an investigation. Meanwhile, Rob and Roland have begun to drive upstate, using the handful of clues they have to try to locate Katie.
Katie wakes to find Evelyn standing over her. Dr. Lewis offers her as proof that Julie is still alive, to continue the blackmail. Katie fakes an escape attempt, luring Dr. Lewis and Mr. Murray out of the house. She pleads with Evelyn to help her escape, but Evelyn is convinced that she is really Julie and attacks her. Katie kills Evelyn and poses as her to try to escape.
Mr. Murray realizes the ruse, but Katie stabs him in the neck. Dr. Lewis is also not fooled by the disguise and lunges at Katie from his wheelchair. Using a fireplace poker as a crutch, he follows her upstairs and eventually into the attic, where Katie manages to kill him. Rob and Roland arrive with the police, having convinced them to revisit the house.
''The Sea of Trolls'' is set in Anglo-Saxon England, Scandinavia, and the mythical realm of Jotunheim.
Jack Crookleg, the main character of the book, is being trained by a famous skald (bard) named Dragon Tongue, when he and his younger sister, Lucy, are captured by Viking raiders. The pair are to be sold as slaves to "Picts" as soon as they reach land. On board the Viking ship Jack meets and ultimately befriends Thorgil, a young would-be berserker, and Olaf, the leader of the raiders, along with Boldheart, the crow. The two captives are spared because Jack is a bard and because Lucy is to be given to the queen, a half-troll named Frith.
When they arrive at the court nothing goes as planned. Jack is sentenced to menial labor and made to clean the barn. There Jack encounters the deadly troll-pig, Golden Bristles, who is to be sacrificed to the goddess, Freya, by being placed in a wooden cart and left to sink in a bog. After singing Olaf One-Brow's praise-song for the Northman's homecoming, Jack inadvertently makes Queen Frith lose her hair. Queen Frith threatens to sacrifice Lucy (instead of the troll-pig) to the goddess Freya, because Jack set Golden Bristles free. However, Frith allows Jack a chance to save Lucy and their freedom if he can make her hair grow back, which is much more difficult than she makes it sound. Jack goes with Olaf and Thorgil to Jotunheim, land of the Trolls, to seek the mythic Mimir's Well, a well with magical water (song mead) which gives the drinker knowledge, at the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil. Olaf One-Brow is killed by a "trollbear," a gigantic bear native to Jotunheim. Jack and Thorgil are captured by a dragon, but Bold Heart tricks the dragon and enables Jack and Thorgil to escape. Thorgil slays the baby male dragon but gets some blood on her tongue, allowing her to speak with birds. On the way Jack also visits the queen of the Jotuns (Trolls), as he needs her consent to continue seeking Mimir's Well. He finds the tree Yggdrasil and Mimir's Well. Both he and Thorgil drink from the well, and Jack saves some for Rune, a skald (bard) who teaches Jack poetry. With the knowledge Jack gains from drinking from Mimir's Well, he returns to the land of the Northmen to restore Frith's hair.
Upon return, Jack and Lucy are summoned to the court. Jack explains to Queen Frith that she needs to cut off 1/3 of the hair from her troll cats but no more to restore her hair. She doesn't listen and cuts all of the cats' hair off. As a result, Frith's hair grows everywhere not just back on her head. She runs off crazed.
Later Olaf's oldest son commands the ship and takes Jack and Lucy back to their village. Jack finds his mother and learns that Dragon Tongue has been crazed ever since Jack and Lucy's kidnapping. He goes to see Dragon Tongue with Bold Heart and Dragon Tongue's heart stops beating. Jack gives Dragon Tongue the remaining mead from Mimir's Well and he comes back to life. Dragon Tongue tells him that he became a crow during the voyage.
At the beginning of the story, Fumihiko Matsumaru is outside a movie theater waiting for his date to arrive. When it becomes obvious that he has been "stood up", he crumples his tickets in frustration. As he is about to toss the tickets into a trash can, a girl approaches, and in the "voice" of the tickets, implores him to not waste them. Dumbfounded, he sees the movie with her, which is ''Roman Holiday''.
During the movie, he notices that the girl is reading the subtitles out loud. When he asks her about this after the movie, she says that she was practicing the lines, and that she wants to be Audrey Hepburn. At dinner, she explains that she is a 20-year-old novice voice actress. Going home, they find that they live in the same neighborhood before they part ways. (In the anime, she recites appropriate lines from ''Roman Holiday''.) Matsumaru goes to bed, but he cannot sleep. In the darkness, he hears the sounds of sirens; there is a fire in the neighborhood. When he goes to investigate, he discovers that the girl's apartment has burned down. Since she has nowhere to stay, Matsumaru asks her to stay at his apartment; she dazedly accepts.
The next day, Matsumaru learns at work that his marketing concept has been approved as the mascot of a snack product called "''Ha''" ("leaf"). Furthermore, Aka is chosen to voice Nekoki. They decide to keep their live-in relationship a secret from their employers due to Aka's worries about an appearance of impropriety. She also insists they are not a couple just from having slept together once in a moment of weakness, and that she will merely be lodging with him. The series is heavily concerned with the developing dynamic of their relationship.