FBI agent John Ripley investigates the three cases his murdered partner Zack Stewart was working on, thinking that one of them may reveal the identity of Stewart's murderer.

One involves wanted fugitive Joe Walpo, who has killed a gas-station attendant. Another concerns a department store fashion buyer, Kate Martell, who is being extorted by a man threatening to kill her daughter. A third has to do with a gang of thugs who hijack cars.

Ripley and his new partner trail Connie Anderson, a girlfriend of Walpo's, to his hideout, where Ripley shoots him. They tie up the car-jacking case and are then able to narrow down who the killer of the FBI agent must be.

They follow Kate to the "Hollywood" sign in the hills above Los Angeles, where she has been told to bring the money. There the extortionist is revealed to be a man named Milson who had shown a romantic interest in Kate, leading to a confrontation with Ripley.

''Jam & Jerusalem'' is set in the small West Country town of Clatterford St. Mary and is based around Sal, a local practice nurse. The surgery's indiscreet receptionist, Tip, is also her best friend, and both are at the centre of community life. Despite this, Sal is not a member of her local Women's Guild, but after the death of her husband, the local GP, and the loss of her job, she soon joins. Tip is married to a farmer, Colin. The chairwoman of the Women's Guild is Eileen Pike, who always wears her chains of office. Other members include lollipop lady Queenie, elderly church organist Delilah Stagg, and Rosie, a cleaner who has an angry and rude alter ego called Margaret. Delilah is absent from the second series except a brief appearance in the first episode. Wealthy Caroline and Susie are slightly separate from the rest of the Guild. Sal's family consists of James, her son, and his wife, Yasmeen. Sal's daughter, Tash, has a son of her own, Raph, and she has a boyfriend Marcus until the end of the second series. Tash's friend Samuel "Spike" Pike, a postman, is a fellow hippie who becomes her husband in the final episode of Series Two.

The player, playing as Ray, starts with a tree branch as their first melee weapon along with some rocks as projectiles. As the game progresses, better melee and projectile weapons can be found. Ray will encounter some other characters through the first half of the game; however, after a visit to the Cave of Time, Ray will repeat the game in an attempt to prevent some of the character's demises. There are several caves that can be accessed after revisiting areas that hide bonus items and even better weapons. The player will also gain access to a new flashlight that will allow them to use the two-hand melee weapons and the second time around Ray has to access to firearms. Some of the boss fights include the giant angry gorilla, one big worm, the giant spider, and the monster the island is named after, Beelzebub. The final battle is against a former human named Robert who is mutated into an insect-like in the movie ''The Fly''. Ray then makes his Escape from Bug Island after defeating the mutated Robert. The game will determine which ending the player receives depending on how well Ray does during the game. Both endings find Ray making his escape from Bug Island; however, whether or not Ray has company on his escape depends on the ending.

The adventure takes place on the border between the Gran March and the Kingdom of Keoland in the western Flanaess.Niles, Douglas. ''Against the Cult of the Reptile God'' (TSR, 1982) It is one of the most challenging of the early AD&D modules, featuring a mystery that leads to adventures in town, the wilderness and a dungeon. The scenario details the village and the dungeon caves inhabited by the cult.

The player characters arrive in the village of Orlane, where some villagers are friendly towards the characters, whereas some are distant and others are very distrustful, and the characters will need to find out what is wrong in the village. They find that Orlane is menaced by an evil cult, and the characters have to stop the cult. The module reaches its climax when the characters travel to the lair of Explictica Defilus, the self described "Reptile God", and slay the creature.

Hayate Ayasaki is an unlucky 16-year-old boy who has worked since childhood to make ends meet due to his parents' irresponsible behavior. On Christmas Eve, he finds out his parents have run away from home while shouldering him with a massive ¥156,804,000 debt. The Yakuza (from whom the money was borrowed in the first place) plan to settle the debt by selling his organs and various other illegal means such as selling him away as a slave. While running away from the debt collectors, Hayate meets Nagi Sanzenin, a 13-year-old girl and the sole heir of the wealthy Sanzenin estate, and her maid Maria. At first, Hayate plans to kidnap Nagi and acquire a ransom of over ¥150 million but due to a misunderstanding, Nagi thinks Hayate is confessing his love to her. After he rescues Nagi from actual kidnappers, she hires Hayate as her new butler.

Aside from performing his ordinary duties as a butler, Hayate must fight to protect Nagi from harm, a difficult task since her life is always in danger because she is the target of individuals who covet her family's fortune, and sometimes must deal with her extravagant requests, oblivious to Nagi's true feelings for him. Later in the story, Hayate must juggle the feelings of several other girls, Ayumu Nishizawa, his former classmate; and Hinagiku Katsura, the student council president of Hakuō Academy. Hayate had a romantic relationship with a childhood friend, Athena Tennousu, who is chairwoman of the board of Hakuō Academy.

Due to the events of Golden Week, involving Hayate and Athena, Nagi ends up forfeiting her inheritance. With the last of her savings, Nagi and Maria move with Hayate to an old apartment building called "Violet Mansion" owned by her late mother Yukariko, and rents its extra rooms for income: having Chiharu Harukaze, the secretary of Hakuō Academy; Hinagiku, Ayumu, Athena (in child-form), Kayura Tsurugino, an "elite otaku"; and Ruka Suirenji, a pop idol who also develops feelings for Hayate, as its tenants.

After a series of adventures with the tenants, Nagi manages to reclaim her fortune. On an excursion in America, Hayate finally pays off his massive debt, but decides to keep working as Nagi's butler, especially when the battle for the Sanzenin inheritance intensifies. Athena eventually regains full strength and Maria resigns as Nagi's maid. On Christmas Eve, the "misunderstanding" of Hayate and Nagi's relationship is exposed, creating a rift that leads to the final battle. Hayate rescues Nagi from the godly Royal Garden, but she decides to relinquish her status as an heir and concedes the rights to her cousin Hisui Hatsushiba, before firing Hayate to set him free. Two years later, a self-sufficient Nagi reunites with Hayate in the place they met for the first time, where he tells her that despite not being her butler anymore, he still wants to be with her, and that there is "something he needs to tell her", before locking hands and walking together under the starry night sky.

Set in Washington, D.C., this film documents an attempted power grab by White House Chief of Staff Jacob Conrad. Bobby Bishop is a special aide to the President of the United States who finds out about a plot to assassinate the President from a former professor. Bobby's old professor is murdered shortly thereafter and Bobby is left to try to uncover the conspiracy on his own. He recruits his journalist friend Amanda Givens to help him uncover the mystery and stop the assassination.

Father John X. Halligan is a Catholic Priest visiting Rome for the 1950 Holy Year. On the long voyage from New York City to Genoa, he makes friends with his cabin mate, Joe Brewster. Unknown to Halligan, Brewster is a career criminal wanted by American authorities; he faces a life sentence.

The ship docks in Genoa. When he sees police waiting, Brewster steals Halligan's clothing, cassock, hat and passport in order to evade arrest. Two priests appear to welcome  “Father Halligan”. When Halligan disembarks, wearing Brewster’s flamboyant clothes, he is arrested. The Genoa Commissario of Police believes his story when he chants a portion of the Mass.

Meanwhile, Brewster makes friends with an Irish priest and ends up staying with him in Rome, at the Monastery of the Three Saints. At a concert, he remembers his days as a choir boy.

Now dressed in borrowed clothes, Halligan reluctantly promises to aid the police. In Rome, he meets the cynical Commissario of Police. On the way to headquarters they stop for a procession. Halligan sees Brewster in it and says nothing. The Commissario tells Halligan that he will meet him the next morning at the Monastery of the Three Angels, where he is registered. Halligan, who actually has no place to stay, realizes that this must be Brewster and finds him there. Brewster asks for just one day. Halligan agrees—and prays for guidance. Once he is gone, Brewster follows suit.

The detective shadowing Halligan for his protection invites him home to supper, but they hear sirens. The Monastery of the Three Saints is on fire. Halligan runs back to rescue Brewster,  who is fine. A beam falls, and he rescues Father Halligan. They clean up in the fountain of Trevi, then go to the deserted Coliseum, where Halligan asks why Brewster needs the whole day. Brewster wants to earn the total indulgence proclaimed by the Pope for the 1950 Holy Year. He starts by making his first confession in 20 years to Halligan. The two then make their way to the sites, with Halligan —and the audience—learning more and more about Brewster.

Halligan is still debating what to do when police see them. He helps Brewster evade arrest by ducking through an ancient door Into a cloister where monks are working in the garden. In this order, the men remain enclosed for life and never talk to anyone except a superior. They are atoning for their own sins and the sins of the world. Brewster finds himself drawn to the place during his brief visit: “Where I was, you could feel the hate in the air, but here...“ As they leave, the abbot writes a note apologizing for everyone staring at them, but the iron latch that opened so easily for them has been corroded shut for 100 years.

Halligan and Brewster head to the train station while the streets fill with police. Once there, they become separated, and the Commissario finds Halligan. When he insists that Brewster is on a pilgrimage, the Commissario goes to the last stop, St. Peters, where they take him into custody and send him off in a van. Halligan, miserable at having inadvertently betrayed his friend, is convinced that the man is reformed: Then the news comes that Brewster has somehow escaped, which leaves Halligan unsure of himself and his judgement.

Retracing his steps, Halligan returns to the monastery. To his surprise,  Brewster is there, wearing monk’s robes. He asks the abbot: Did Brewster tell him his whole story? Is he a worthy penitent? The abbot nods. Brewster writes to Halligan: prison was all past and no future, and this place is all future and no past. He asks when the next Holy Year will be. Halligan answers: in 25 years, and promises to visit then. A bell sounds, and they shake hands. Brewster steps back into the cloister and bolts the gate. Father Halligan strides down the hill to join the throngs walking toward the heart of the city.

A teenager murders her stepfather, a sexually abusive man, after he teaches her how to use a gun. Through a misapplied school pen-pal assignment, she meets a prisoner, Howard, whom she seduces back into the world of guns. She marries Howard, and decides to show him the remains of her stepfather; Howard helps her dispose of the body. After they dispose of the corpse, Howard commits several homicides, although he was provoked in every instance.

''Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes'' plotline follows more closely to the first film, with townspeople angered over the local mortician stealing and selling the organs of their loved ones and then dumping the corpses in a swamp, rather than cremating them. When the townspeople find out, they have the old witch Haggis summon Pumpkinhead through the mummified body of Ed Harley (played by Lance Henriksen, who reprises his role from the first film). Pumpkinhead then proceeds to go on his killing rampage murdering all those responsible for the desecration, while Doc Frasier (Doug Bradley) hurries to murder those who summoned Pumpkinhead, which will effectively kill the demon in the process.

Two men on their motorcycles are driving away from Pumpkinhead. One of the men hits a tree branch in their path, falling from his motorcycle and allowing Pumpkinhead to catch up to him. As the man is being killed, the film cuts to a man in a log cabin who seems to share the pain inflicted by Pumpkinhead on the fallen man. The surviving man, named Dallas, rides to the log cabin, and the man who conjured Pumpkinhead, begging him to call the demon off. Pumpkinhead smashes through the window and Dallas attempts to fend him off by shooting him with a small pistol with little effect, and is clawed in the chest by the demon. When Dallas realizes that his bullets have no effect on Pumpkinhead, he swears to take the summoner with him, shooting the man and killing him, causing Pumpkinhead to vanish. Ed Harley then appears telling Dallas that Pumpkinhead will return and there will be no place to hide.

Five years later, it is shown that the family of the Hatfields' and McCoys' ongoing feud started because of a car in the 1930s. The Hatfields then trash a McCoy wedding. Jody Hatfield sneaks out to see her true love, Ricky McCoy. Ricky brings his sister, Sarah, to look out for him and Jody. The two then start to make out.

Jody's brothers find and kill Sarah by accident and try to kill Ricky. Ricky then finds his sister's body and goes to Haggis for help. Haggis tells him of the price it costs to summon Pumpkinhead, and Haggis is shown talking to Ed Harley's spirit. Haggis states that her choice does not matter in the end; only the summoner may make the decision to kill Pumpkinhead. The two invoke Pumpkinhead to kill the Hatfields.

Most of the Hatfields have been killed, as well as some of the McCoy family. Ricky realizes what he has done and takes Pumpkinhead with him to fall down a well.

Wilson is singing to himself in Mainwaring's office. Suddenly, Mainwaring enters, which is a shock to Wilson, as Mainwaring had gone to a Lodge meeting in London for the weekend. Wilson asks if it was cancelled, but Mainwaring admits he did not go after all as his wife, Elizabeth, doesn't like being in the house on her own during the air raids. He offers to inspect the men, but Wilson is a bit cagey.

Pike enters, not in uniform. He admits that his mother put it in the wash tub. Mainwaring is annoyed, but agrees to let it pass this once. He tells Wilson to ask Jones to call the roll, which he does. However, most of them are not there, and only Jones and Pike are on parade. Mainwaring is unimpressed, and asks Wilson where his men are. Wilson admits they are all in the pub, playing darts against Hodges' wardens. Mainwaring agrees to turn a blind eye, as long as Wilson brings the men back straight away.

Meanwhile, at the match, things are not going well for the Home Guard. The wardens are clearly winning. Suddenly, Mrs Pike enters and Hodges offers her a drink. While he is at the bar, Wilson arrives and tries to persuade the men to return. He then spots Mrs Pike and wonders what she's doing there. He is accidentally bumped by Hodges, who quickly makes his excuses and scurries off. Wilson leaves in a daze.

Mainwaring receives a phone call from Elizabeth, asking him to get her some off-ration oxtail for him. He tries to explain that it is against his principles, but Elizabeth refuses to listen. Mainwaring calls Jones into the office to ask him about the oxtail, and his wife's craving for it, but crossed wires result in Jones believing he will help to deliver Elizabeth's child.

Mainwaring is annoyed when Wilson returns, saying he thinks he has brought the men back, but this is not true. He and Jones will go with Wilson back to the pub and if they fail to bring the men back, Wilson can consider himself under open arrest.

At the match, things are going from bad to worse for the platoon. Things are made worse when Mainwaring, Wilson and Jones enter. Mainwaring tries to persuade the men to return to the hall, with little success. Wilson also tries to persuade Mrs Pike to leave, but it is no use. Mainwaring leaves, very hurt and ashamed of his men. As they leave, Godfrey confides in Walker and Frazer that he doesn't think they have done the right thing, and leaves. Walker seems on the point of returning too, but Hodges persuades him to play darts.

Back at the church hall, Mainwaring confides in Wilson that the parade is the highlight of his day. While drinking tea, he can feel excitement mounting inside him, but not any more. Wilson is distracted by Mrs Pike's interest in Hodges, and does not listen. They receive a phone call from the police, informing that an Irish Republican Army suspect has been spotted in Ivy Crescent. (This character's presence has led to the episode being irregularly repeated.)

They meet the lone police constable outside the house of the suspect, and prepare to grab him. However, the man they grab claims to be the suspect's twin brother. Mainwaring isn't convinced, and marches him back to the church hall.

The ARP Wardens win the darts match, and Walker is reluctant to stay any longer. He would prefer to go back to the church hall, because he didn't like the look on Mainwaring's face when he left. Hodges decides to come too, taking Mrs Pike with him.

Not long after the small group return with the suspect, Godfrey returns to the hall, unbeknownst to the men, and falls asleep. Suddenly, a rough man grabs Godfrey by the collar, and asks him where Mainwaring's suspect has been taken. Godfrey bluffs the three men into believing that he and Mainwaring are in the dressing room.

Godfrey informs Mainwaring of the predicament, and Mainwaring orders Pike to fetch the rest of the men. Godfrey informs Mainwaring that he's locked all the doors. The verger enters with an empty bottle, evidently panicking. In the heat of the moment, he ends up knocking out the suspect with the glass bottle.

The rest of the platoon return, and rush to attack the Irishmen, but with little success. Pike enters with a bleeding lip, and Mrs Pike persuades Wilson to sort them out. The door closes, and Mainwaring and Jones think that Wilson has received a good beating. They are, therefore, shocked when Wilson enters without a scratch on him. Hodges is terrified and leaves.

Some time later, Mainwaring forgives the men for their lapse in behaviour, and confirms to the platoon that Jones was wrong about Mrs Mainwaring. They 'have never been blessed in that way but in every other way it has been a most happy marriage, in fact, almost blissful'.

The events in ''Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear'' take place after the events in ''Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II''. The game features the knight warrior Kuros, "one of the bravest warriors ever to wield the IronSword" as well as the only person to defeat the evil wizard Malkil. After Malkil's defeat in ''Ironsword'', he went into seclusion for more than 17 years, in which nobody was heard from him during that time. Then, Princess Elaine disappears without a trace, in which Kuros believes that Malkil has captured her and imprisoned her in the dreaded Fortress of Fear, located in the woods of Zanifer. Kuros then ventures into the Fortress of Fear to stop Malkil from furthering his evil plans. However, many people have gone inside the Fortress of Fear, but none of them survived.

The locomotives themselves have personalities and talk in a manner reminiscent of what in real life would be the manner of the men who operate them. Human beings appear in the story only as seen from the perspective of the engines. The story relates a sort of rite of passage. A fast goods train was derailed by hitting a shoat (young pig) which got on the track, and ended up in a farm field. .007, a "sensitive", new, youthful engine performs in a heroic and manly way pulling the breakdown train, winning him the respect of his fellow engines. At the conclusion, the highest-ranking engine Purple Emperor, a "superb six-wheel-coupled racing-locomotive, who hauled the pride and glory of the road, the millionaires' south-bound express" inducts him into a fraternal organisation:

:"I hereby declare and pronounce No. .007 a full and accepted Brother of the Amalgamated Brotherhood of Locomotives, and as such entitled to all shop, switch, track, tank, and round-house privileges throughout my jurisdiction, in the Degree of Superior Flier, it bein' well known and credibly reported to me that our Brother has covered forty-one miles in thirty-nine minutes and a half on an errand of mercy to the afflicted. At a convenient time, I myself will communicate to you the Song and Signal of this Degree whereby you may be recognised in the darkest night. Take your stall, newly entered Brother among Locomotives!"

Mainwaring recently sent a letter to GHQ requesting the platoon's use of the local lighthouse as a guard house, and has just received permission to do so. Jones' section are the first to test this new guard house and prepare to move off that same evening. Walker is unable to attend because he is delivering some essential supplies, but the Lewis gun has been fixed, no questions asked.

They arrive at the lighthouse and set themselves up. They have been asked to stand guard from 8:00 in the evening to 2:00 in the morning, much to Godfrey's disappointment. He is suddenly taken short and has to go downstairs, as the nearest convenience is right at the bottom.

Jones asks Frazer to check on Godfrey, but he refuses. He tells the story of his school friend Wally Reagan... He had been asked to watch over a lighthouse and, one night, he heard a slithering and a moaning from downstairs. He had gone downstairs to investigate, but had been scared back up because the slithery thing was following him up the stairs. He locked the door, but the slithery thing was trying to get in... Suddenly they hear a knocking on the door and scream, but it is only Godfrey.

They try the telephone, but they've been cut off. Frazer panics, and Pike reckons it's the slithery thing coming to get them. Jones takes control, and pulls a switch. Suddenly, they hear a large moaning sound, and they realise they've turned the main lamp on, lighting up the whole town. They attempt to turn it off, hoping there isn't an air raid that evening - just as the air raid siren blares. They try to block out the light by holding a blanket up in front of it, but the heat from the lamp sets it on fire, forcing Pike to put it out with a fire extinguisher, coating Jones' trousers with foam in the process.

It is Wilson and a panicking Warden Hodges who discover the light, and inform Mainwaring and Mr Alberts, another ARP Warden, respectively. They discuss how to put it out, and Mainwaring suggests rowing out there. Mr Alberts says they will be dashed to pieces on the rocks, but Mainwaring doesn't care - until Mr Alberts says that there is no boat in the first place. Walker arrives with the Lewis Gun, and Hodges suggests shooting it out, but Mainwaring says it will kill the men in the lighthouse.

Walker suggests asking a friend of his at the power company to black out the entire county, but Mainwaring rebuffs the suggestion as it will draw too much attention, so instead they decide to put the nearby transformer out of action via the fuses, but only succeed in fusing the whole of the Jolly Roger Pier, but not the lighthouse. The disgruntled lighthouse keeper appears and informs them that it is powered by its own generator. As the telephone line to the lighthouse is cut off, Mainwaring rings the telephone exchange to try to get it reconnected, but struggles to make himself plain to the lady at the exchange.

Walker talks to her and convinces her to reconnect the line, as the previous lighthouse keeper was a contact of his during his pre-war smuggling activities. Mainwaring rings Jones, and tells him to go down to the generator room and turn off the lighthouse from there. However, they are taking a long time about it and Hodges soon hears the sound of German bombers approaching. He eventually persuades them to shoot the light with the Lewis Gun. Mainwaring declares that he himself will do it as they are his men and readies the gun, not knowing that Godfrey is in the way.

However, just as Mainwaring is about to fire, the generator is shut down just in time. Hodges remarks that they have not heard the last of this, and Wilson adds that they will all be a lot poorer once GHQ learns about it. Mainwaring assures him there is no evidence of their activities, until Walker points out the results of them attacking the transformer: a destroyed tin hat, three dirty uniforms and Mainwaring's cap falling apart.

The Elite, a team of super-powered vigilantes, gain worldwide popularity for confronting terrorists and other criminals using methods that are characterized by mass destruction and violent, summary execution. They are led by a powerful British telekinetic named Manchester Black, and include Coldcast, who can emit tremendous amounts of energy, Menagerie, who is symbiotically bonded with many demonic-looking beasts covering her body called symbeasts, and a magician named The Hat whose magical abilities are centered upon his fedora. Despite the 32% approval that the Elite garner from the public, Superman condemns their unlawful killing of criminals. After Superman neutralizes a group of alien invaders called the Klee-Tee, the Elite appear. When Manchester orders The Hat to kill the Klee-Tee, Superman assaults The Hat to prevent him from doing this, leading to an altercation with The Elite. During their next confrontation, which occurs in the middle of a city, Superman implores the group to move their imminent duel elsewhere, and the Elite obliges by transporting themselves and Superman to the Jovian moon Io, along with a group of hovering camera drones that transmit the ensuing battle back to Earth. Superman then endures a vicious beating at the hands of the Elite, one that appears to annihilate him. However, one by one, the members of the Elite are subsequently attacked by an unseen Superman, and apparently killed by him. Superman then uses his x-ray and heat vision to remove the mutated portion of Manchester's brain that gave him his telekinetic abilities, neutralizing him. As a terrified Manchester breaks down in tears over his impending demise, Superman reveals that the Elite are all alive, merely rendered unconscious by him, awaiting arrest by the authorities, and that the lobotomy he gave Manchester was actually the equivalent of a concussion whose effects are temporary. Superman explains that he created the illusion that he had crossed the line into brutal vigilantism to illustrate the danger and pointlessness of hatred and vengeance to the public. An enraged Manchester threatens retribution, telling Superman that he is living in a dream. Superman responds that dreams are what motivate people to transform themselves, and vows that he will never stop fighting until his dream of a world of dignity, honor and justice becomes a reality.

''Deed Poll'' tells the story of Ivy and Sean Poll, rich siblings and lovers. After Ivy has killed both their parents, they start kicking in the high gear on their inherited property. They hire a callboy, Nathaniel, to share their sexual fantasies, and their passion for drugs and cards. One night, Nathaniel has brought his mute brother Thor for a foursome, Ivy expresses her wish to have a new set of cards, handmade out of human skin. Nathaniel, on ecstasy, offers his skin and watches the Polls and his brother playing cards with it while he's passing away.

The game's story takes place in the far to the north of Bomberman's hometown, Peace Town, where it lies the modern metropolis Diamond City. There, the evil Carat Diamond and his cohort, scientist Dr. Mook, are holding a Robot Tournament with robots specially designed for their combat and offensive capabilities. They hope to steal Bomberman's advanced combat capabilities, Diamond has created a fake Bomberman to go to Peace Town and kidnap the real Bomberman. They're aware of Diamond's plot, Black Bomberman heads out alone to face the fake Bomberman. But Black Bomberman is defeated and his castle is taken. However, Black Bomberman escapes and seeks refuge with White Bomberman, and warns him of Diamond's evil plan. Later, hordes of enemy robots begin their advance toward Peace Town. The two heroes must join forces to defeat Diamond.

Duke Barrik's army and the goblin army are at war. The goblins are making a final push into Barrik's castle. However, before the goblin attack begins, the ground begins to shake, the sky tears open and both armies are sucked into a void.

Duke Barrik's castle is transported to a valley enclosed with impossibly tall cliffs and a brilliant red sun overhead (the "Eternal Sun" of the title). The goblins are nowhere to be seen, and the humans appear to be stranded in this new world. The Duke requests that the four player characters explore this strange environment to find allies.

The party discovers a beastman cave, but the creatures are not friendly. After fighting through the beastmen tribe, the party collects artifacts from their caves which they discover are from a different time period. With the assistance of the King's advisor, Marmillian, they are able to explore further into the caves and locate the swampland home of the lizardmen.

Although the lizardmen are hostile, the party acquires knowledge from them that helps them explore the caves in the North. This leads them to a jungle where the ancient Azcan race of people still thrive. Exploring their temple results in more bloodshed, but the party unearths items that they need in order to explore the volcano in the west and finally locate an ally.

While they are adventuring, an unseen force is slowly turning the Duke's people against the party. They grow increasingly insane and hostile throughout the course of the adventure. When the party returns to the castle with news of their success, they discover that everybody apart from Marmillian has disappeared. Marmillian explains that the townspeople went mad due to the influence of the 'Burrower', a creature brought to this world by the immortal Thanatos, to undo the works of Ka the Preserver, a god that collects species from other worlds and keeps them in this 'zoo' underneath the eternal sun. The party must unravel the final mysteries of this new world and use an ancient spell that summons Ka the Preserver to destroy the Burrower and return their people to safety.

Bugs Bunny is exploring Dark Africa. A short witch doctor ("Dr. I.C. Spots") wants to use him as a key ingredient in a prescription. Initially believing he is enjoying a hot bath, Bugs notices that he's being cooked and escapes, while Dr. Spots chases him. Bugs disguises himself as a Zulu native woman but this ploy fails. In the river, he finds and swims to a ferry boat. As Dr. Spots follows a crocodile eats him. Although the witch doctor is his enemy, Bugs demands that the croc "cough him up" and, when refused, wrestles the croc, finally emerging from the water with a crocodile skin handbag (Bugs having implicitly killed the animal and converted it to this form), from which Spots emerges, clad in crocodile skin attire. "Very becoming, short stuff!", Bugs nods, before making a face. "Gives you that, uh, New Look!"

The game follows the same plot as the film, only expanding it and showing the events and planning of the heist in more detail. The plot concerns eight criminals who undertake a jewelry heist, six of whom use aliases, Mr. Blonde, Mr. White, Mr. Pink, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, and the men responsible for planning the heist Joe and his son Eddie Cabot. During the heist, the cops arrive before the expected response time, indicating that one of the crew has tipped the cops off. Blonde, infuriated by this, goes on a shooting spree, almost jeopardising the mission. Mr. Pink manages to escape with the diamonds and hide them in a secure location. He then meets Mr. White and Mr. Orange (who has been shot and is severely bleeding) at a warehouse, as Brown was killed and Blue and Blonde are missing. After Pink and White argue about whether or not to take Orange to a hospital, Blonde arrives.

Blonde reveals that he has a tied-up police officer in the trunk of his car. After beating the cop to extract information, Eddie arrives before leaving with White and Pink to retrieve the diamonds and ditch the getaway vehicles. After the three depart, Blonde begins to torture the cop, slashing his face and slicing off his ear. He then attempts to set the cop on fire before he is shot dead by a still bleeding Orange. Orange reveals to the cop that he is an undercover cop and that backup is waiting for Joe to arrive at the warehouse before moving in. Earlier during the heist, Blue makes a last stand against the cops before being killed in a movie theater.

In the present, Eddie, Joe, Pink and White return with the diamonds and see Blonde dead. After killing the cop, Eddie confronts Orange as to why he killed Blonde, an old family friend who served four years in jail for his father's crime, accuses him of being the mole who set the job up, and threatens to kill him. White then threatens to kill both Joe and Eddie if they shoot Orange. Joe and Eddie aim at Orange while White aims at both Cabots, creating a Mexican standoff. They all fire, killing the Cabots and hitting both White and Orange. Pink, the only person who hasn't been shot, runs away with the diamonds. After White and Orange share a moment, Orange confesses he is a cop. White then points the gun at Orange's head, but police storm the warehouse before he can shoot. The police order White to surrender, but shoots Orange before being shot and killed himself by the police.

Kevin Matthews (Todd Eric Andrews), becomes a new pupil at Ralph Waldo Emerson High School. Rejected by the trendy Key Club, he instead joins the Science Club. There he accidentally discovers a number of vials that were made by former student Barney Springboro (from the original film) behind a hidden panel in the lab.

After drinking the contents, Kevin develops psychokinetic powers. He amuses himself by lifting girls' dresses and humiliating the Key Club jocks, becoming popular in the process. However, the Key Club plots a cruel revenge.

The protagonist of the film is Cabbar (performed by Güney). Cabbar is directed to support his crowded kurdish family - six children, a wife, and a grandmother - with the earnings from an old phaeton with two exhausted, half-dead horses. The family tries to survive in a damp and dingy living-quarters. Cabbar does not have a good run of business. He is indebted almost to everyone. His single hope is in the lottery tickets, which he continuously buys. He has bound his hope to these pieces of paper.

Life is, on the other hand, getting even harder day by day.One day a fancy car called Mercedes hits the horse, while it stands parking alongside sidewalk. In this traffic accident his horse dies. Cabbar is innocent but weak as well. This accident makes him see that the established order is accorded to the “poor and strong”. Even the police finds him guilty.

Henceforth he sells the few sticks, which he owns only. He scratches together some money to buy a new horse. In the meantime, the creditors sell the phaeton and the remaining horse, and shared the money according to the debts of Cabber between themselves.

Cabbar is plunged into despair. A friend of Cabbar, Hasan, has been inculculating the turning up a buried treasure into Cabbar. In his helplessness, Cabbar lends himself to illusions. After a preachers faith healing sessions they -Cabbar, Hasan, and the preacher- go on treasure’s way. In the second half of the film, this search for the unfindable treasure is narrated. This search is a natural continuity of the gradually worsening events, which makes Cabbar take refuge on the preacher, in whom he had no belief at all at the beginning.

As can be seen, Güney set down three alternatives for Cabbar: First, he goes after the preacher and searches the treasure; second, he continues to show attitude of expectancy in the lottery tickets; third, he takes part in an organized opposition with other phaeton drivers. However, Cabbar runs away from political and social activities and lastly he becomes a victim of empty promises. He escaped realities and looks for the shelter in fantasies. Güney could make Cabbar politically conscious, even make him the leader of this opposition, and lastly lead him to success or failure, but Güney chose to leave his protagonist blind.

The film finished with an interesting and striking scene. Cabbar, who left his wife, children, and mother desperate in the cause of treasure search, opens his hands to a God, whom he does not know, he begins to turn around in the middle of arid lands. He has gone mad.

Nan Woo is a clueless, naive and easy going girl. She has an easy life and no noteworthy problems. Her family is conformed by her mother (who is actually the father figure) and her uncle (the mother figure). Her friends tease her because she is unintelligent and clumsy which others find amusing. Nan Woo has always been in love with Ryu Seung Ha, the president of her class and prince of the school. He is a top student, athletic, charismatic, nice and attractive.

One day while doing her class duties, Nan Woo overhears the school's princess confessing her love to Seung Ha and to her surprise (and everybody's else) she is rejected in the most rude, unkind, cold and even a little aggressive way. Nan Woo can't believe her Prince Charming has this other, cruel side and tries to run - but naturally she bumps into a tree. Seung Ha, who was walking back to class, saw everything and helps her get up. He asks her if she heard what just happened. She admits she did, apologizes and tells him she actually would always love him no matter what he was like. Seung Ha is surprised but can't reply to her because a teacher calls him.

The next day Chan Gyu (a boy in their class that is always fighting with Nan Woo), tells his friends he is going to confess his feelings to Nan Woo after classes end. Seung Ha overhears him, he follows Chan Gyu to the bathroom and after a rather impolite threat, he locks Chan Gyu in the bathroom and leaves to look for Nan Woo. Once they meet, Seung Ha confesses he also has feelings for her and asks her to be his girlfriend. Nan Woo is so happy she thinks it's all a crazy dream. But the next morning, Seung Ha tells the entire class, who seemed shocked and angry, that he is dating Nan Woo.

Shortly after, Seung Ha tells Nan Woo that they will have a date next day. Full of excitement, she gets to the place where they are supposed to meet, but instead of the always neat, kind and charming Seung Ha, she finds an untamed, enigmatic, and extreme gangster. Nan Woo's life will never be the same. As the story unfolds, Nan Woo learns more about Seung Ha's life, and why he has such different personae. She realizes that using "masks" to hide his real self, is Seung Ha's way of coping with the pain he suffered when his mother left him as a kid. It's up to her, the funny, clumsy girl, to show him that she will truly stay by his side no matter what, and help him break out of his past.

The series also contains a Boys Love (Yaoi) story between Jae, Nan Woo's uncle, and Hyun-Ho, an acquaintance of Seung Ha.

Three youths gather in a cornfield to tell each other scary stories. One of them, Mitch, tells a tale about a boy named Lester Dwervick. Lester is a social outcast whose teacher demeans him for his living in a trailer park with his frequent drunken mother who often brings home drunks from the local bar. Lester is also constantly picked on and harassed by the student body at Emerald Grove High School. The only one who doesn't torment Lester is Judy Patterson, the local sheriff's daughter. Lester shows a drawing he made to Stephanie for choosing him to be her science partner and asks her to go to the prom with him, however his affection is met with scoff and ridicule. Lester trudges his way home to find his mother passed out from drinking. Since he has nobody to confide in and in order to give himself hope for the future Lester often draws pictures of birds.

Later Lester goes to The French Bulldog, the local fast food joint where he works. There, he is met with his usual torment. Judy stands up for him, but unfortunately when she brings it to the attention of Lester's boss, this only results in her getting thrown out.

Being driven home, Judy voices her frustration of her friend, Morgan's, attitude toward Lester, and angrily decides to walk the rest of the way. Later, Lester thanks Judy for standing up for him. That night he draws a bird of paradise as a form repayment. Morgan persuades Judy to come to a party, while Lester is at home being harassed by his mother's newest boyfriend. The drunk is dismissive about Lester's artwork and breaks the frame of the picture he made for Judy. Frustrated and angry, Lester goes to the party to meet Judy again where he sees one of his bullies drunkenly kiss her. Judy sees Lester, who runs away in grief.

Knowing there's nothing left for him anymore, the pressure of it all finally mounts and Lester unleashes all the rage, hate and anger at his mother's boyfriend. The drunk seizes Lester by the throat and forces him into the cornfields outside his home where he viciously strangles him to death then hangs him, making it look like a suicide, leaving his corpse near a scarecrow. Time passes, and even in death Lester's unpopularity continues as, apart from his mother, no one mourns or misses him.

Then, one night the drunken boyfriend is decapitated with a scythe wielded by the same scarecrow Lester's body was found near. Then another is killed by the scarecrow in the same cornfield Lester was. Stephanie reports the murder to the cops but her story is met with skepticism. Farmer Hayley finds blood on his scarecrow and on some corncobs, and the boy's body is later found by two locals. The next night two others are killed by the scarecrow who rams two scythes into their heads, then the bully who kissed Judy is killed when the scarecrow brutally shoves a corn cob through his neck. That night the scarecrow kills Lester's teacher by impaling her with a metal pointing stick, then comes home to his mother's trailer where he kills her latest boyfriend with a frying pan. He then explains how he came to be and that he no longer feels or cares about anything.

The scarecrow goes to The French Bulldog and kills his former boss by burning his face on a hot stove. The cops go to Lester's mother to find her in a state of shock then go to Famer Hayley who tells them that the town is haunted and a dwelling place for evil. Another one of Lester's tormentor's has his heart torn out through his back. That night the scarecrow kills the cemetery caretaker by decapitation with his own shovel. Lastly the scarecrow confronts Judy. In a fight between him, Judy and the two cops Judy manages to throw gasoline on the scarecrow before setting him on fire seemingly killing him.

Mitch, narrates that this only made Lester stronger and that he still haunts the cornfields. The two others ask what happened to those who survived: Stephanie went crazy and now resides at a mental institute away from Emerald Grove. Farmer Hayley found God and prays every day for Him to rid his fields of evil. Lester's mother became pregnant again and Mitch expresses hope that she will be a good mother. As for Judy, she enrolled in the College courses with Morgan. Morgan tells Judy the paramedics found her in a trance to which Judy confirms. Judy tells Morgan they should have a sleepover sometime. Later in art class Judy sketches a drawing of a human-bird hybrid implying she is possessed by Lester's soul. The two other youths say Mitch is going too far, however Mitch says he hasn't given them the surprise ending. Mitch then begins whispering "Lester" over and over. As the other two are about to leave, the scarecrow leaps down from the pole and kills them while Mitch laughs with macabre relish.

Botany professor Peter Morgan Jr. (Stewart) is sent to Manhattan to retrieve his playboy cousin Keith (Ellison) and immediately falls in love with nightclub singer Francey (Rogers). After a whirlwind one-day courtship, Peter and Francey get married, and they and Keith return to the Morgan family's home, where Peter teaches at the university run by his father Peter Morgan Sr. (Coburn). Mr. Morgan is known for being a proud, overbearing man, so Peter is afraid to tell him about the marriage. When they arrive, Mr. Morgan and Peter's high-society fiancée Helen (Mercer) initially take Francey for another of Keith's girlfriends. While Peter decides how to approach his father with the news, Francey stays at a women-only hotel, and Peter and Keith introduce her as a new botany student.

Peter mentions Francey to his father twice, but on both occasions, Mr. Morgan interrupts and ignores his son, and when Peter becomes insistent, his apparently ailing mother (Bondi) has a flare-up of her heart condition, making any further conversation impossible. For his third attempt, Peter decides to announce the marriage to his parents at the university's student-faculty prom. Keith brings Francey to the prom as his own guest, and Francey, still posing as a student, develops a friendly rapport with Mrs. Morgan, but gets into a nasty brawl with Helen in which Francey accidentally punches Peter's father.

Peter says nothing at the prom, but blurts the news to his father just as Mr. Morgan is about to give an important speech, resulting in another argument and another flare-up of Mrs. Morgan's heart condition. This prevents Mrs. Morgan from learning who Francey is, but she accidentally finds out from Francey herself during a conversation in Francey's apartment. Mrs. Morgan accepts the news happily, and admits to Francey that she pretends to have heart trouble any time her husband gets into an argument, but Mr. Morgan demands that Francey leave Peter, threatening to fire him if she doesn't. Francey agrees to leave, but the incident releases thirty years of marital frustration in Mrs. Morgan, who also decides to leave her husband.

Francey tells Peter she is leaving him. He vows that he can change his father's mind before her train departs. Peter's solution is to threaten the family with disgrace by getting drunk and otherwise misbehaving until his father relents, even if it costs him his job. Peter passes out before he can reach the train, which departs with both Francey and Mrs. Morgan aboard, but Mr. Morgan, having finally yielded to the combined pressure of his son and wife, stops the train by driving ahead of it with Peter and parking the car on the track. Both marriages are saved, and Peter and Francey finally have their honeymoon on the train.

Hollander plays Maximilian II (often called ''Junior''), the ignorant, vindictive and petulant ruler of a troubled (but unnamed) country. Maximilian has two main interests: enjoying himself and running his country's movie industry. The output of the nation's film studios under Maximilian is limited to terrible action-adventure schlock with names like ''Out For Vengeance 4''. While it is heavily implied that Junior is a childish sadist, it is conceded that his excesses are only bolstered by the encouragement of his beautiful, yet cruel, wife Josephine (Boyle) and the violence dealt by anti-government terrorists.

Ralph Fiennes plays Joe, a prison warder working at the prison where John Thorne is held at the beginning of the movie. During this early period, Thorne is a wreck, squatting in a shabby cell, enduring frequent beatings from the other guards and writing revolutionary slogans on the walls with his own feces. Joe comes to learn from Thorne and respect him for his bearing and intellect, if not his message. Maximilian, trying to quash spiraling dissent, takes the risk of letting Thorne out of jail, hoping to have him thus become not a great folk hero but another greedy, dishonest politician. Joe, too, is soon promoted to one of the guards at Maximilian's palace and a position in the country's elite military unit. After seeing Junior's madness first hand, it is he who betrays his master by letting Thorne and his followers into the palace's inner chambers while he and Josephine are engaged in a revolting sex game. Thorne shoots the pair, and becomes a ruler governing a country as absolutely totalitarian, if not more so, than the deceased Maximilian. Thorne also encourages separating children from their parents, imposes veganism, bans action movies and eliminates imported medicine all while sending the country's professional classes to grim re-education camps. Frightened females cower underneath burqa-like garments.

For his assistance in assassinating the dictator, Joe is hailed as a hero by Thorne. Nevertheless, as Joe realizes that his one-time friend is just as bad as, if not worse than, his predecessor, he refuses to ally with the new regime. For this, Thorne sends Joe to a re-education camp.

Subjected to numerous cruel beatings and isolation techniques, Joe continually refuses to sign his loyalty oath. At one point Thorne visits but does not recognize his old friend, even after Joe attempts to show him repeatedly who he is. Joe is also accused of being a member of a "hidden" conspiracy within the prison itself. One of his former co-workers, assumedly after being severely beaten, admits to the conspiracy's veracity and accuses Joe of being involved. Joe is quickly brought to the dreaded Room 12. It is there that the audience is revealed to a shocking twist: Joe is accused of never helping Thorne conquer the government, or being a commando in a covert-ops group, but rather a standard recruit in the armed forces discharged after the standard two years. During this, Joe seems to hallucinate heavily, his interrogators becoming characters dead and alive we have seen throughout the film, and is asked once again what is better than a big juicy steak (a recurring question with a wordplay answer, a slogan concerning the obligation of veganism). Throughout the scene it is suggested he may be being tortured mentally or is undergoing a paranoid or psychotic episode. His answer to any of the questions asked is never shown.

We then cut to Thorne being killed in his bath by one of his once loyal followers. The revolutionary government is quickly overthrown. Junior's in-laws and nephew are revealed to have escaped during Thorne's revolution and, having lived in exile, have returned to re-establish the old government (with an outside country's assistance). The head of the camp returns to being a doctor and denies having taken part in the tortures and excesses he ordered, while the tortured co-worker that accused Joe of conspiracy is given a government job. This ex-coworker makes a number of empty promises to get Joe out of the camp as soon as the "political climate" settles, but says that his confession to helping murder Maximilian makes him a sensitive case. For having destroyed the old government, but also never having 'played ball' with the new one, Joe is stuck in limbo, in a prison cell until the end of time. Twelve years later, we find Joe writing his memoirs in a white cell resembling that of a prison's or an asylum's, seemingly oblivious even to his daughter's visits. It is possible that he is insane, or that he is perfectly sane, but the woman that visited was an actor pretending to be his daughter to break him down. She leaves Joe writing his memoirs and exits his cell that is really located in some low end residential apartment complex implying that Joe is not a political prisoner but is under some sort of house arrest being taken care of by the State.

The United States' campaigns mirror Sherman's march to the sea as U.S. armies drive through the center of the Confederacy, while a second U.S. force drives into Virginia to capture Richmond. The horrific nature of war taints the main characters of the series, formerly wholly sympathetic, as virtually all of the beloved heroes of previous books resort to brutal war crime tactics nearly as horrifying as the other side's, but get away without punishment simply because their side is winning. The Confederacy (with some quiet help from the United Kingdom) manages to produce a fission bomb. The bomb is smuggled via truck into the ''de facto'' U.S. capital of Philadelphia, and detonated; however, the bomb explodes only on the city's outskirts west of the Schuylkill River. While causing horrific casualties, the bombing didn't damage any government buildings. In retaliation, the United States drops two nuclear bombs on Newport News, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. The Newport News bomb narrowly misses Confederate President Jake Featherston.

Texas declares independence from the Confederacy and signs a separate peace with the United States. Jake Featherston attempts to escape to the Deep South but his plane is shot down. He survives the crash landing, only to be sighted and killed by a black guerrilla fighter named Cassius. The fourth and presumably final war between the United States and Confederate States ends officially on July 14, 1944, at 6:01 p.m after an unconditional surrender is signed between General Irving Morrell and the new (and outgoing) Confederate President Don Partridge.

The United States commences a full occupation of the former Confederate States and Canada, though Texas apparently remains independent but still hosts American soldiers in its territory. For the first time in 83 years, the Stars and Stripes flies over the whole of the pre-1861 United States territory, and Americans express their determination never to let go of the former Confederate territories, after Featherston came so close to crushing them.

Meanwhile, American forces uncover the true horror of the genocide, known in the story as "Population Reductions," which the Confederate government has been perpetrating on its black population, discovering the concentration camps being used in their extermination. The United States government subsequently initiates crimes against humanity trials. Among those found guilty and hanged for participating in or inciting the black Holocaust are Confederate Attorney-General Ferdinand Koenig, Freedom Party chief propagandist Saul Goldman, Camp Determination commandant Jefferson Pinkard, and his aide Vern Green.

The Confederates are bitter and far from being reconciled to their fate; they constantly attack the occupying US forces, despite grim retaliations including the execution of civilian hostages. Though outlawed, the Freedom Party is still very much an active underground force.

Moreover, the United States itself - while dissolving the Confederate government and declaring its firm intention never to let it rise again - refrains from any formal annexation and (re)admitting Southern states back into the Union (with the exception of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Houston, which once again split from Texas), since any free elections would likely fill Congress with the United States' most staunch enemies. Rather, the former Confederate territories are left in the same legal limbo in which Canada has been since 1917,(being offered neither independence nor civil liberties) and kept under an open-ended, harsh military rule.

Despite the enormous victory won by the US, the war has not truly ended, but rather changed its form. To their chagrin, most of the soldiers and sailors conscripted "for the duration" are not discharged but set to occupation duty. The US is faced with the daunting task of keeping under indefinite harsh military occupation a vast satellite bloc with hostile populations, with the conquered Confederate Nations being added to the previously held Canadian ones, as well as the smaller Mormon Utah.

And at the same time, the Nuclear Age has been launched with the destruction of three cities in North America and six in Europe. The first city that Germany uses a superbomb on is Petrograd, which results in most of the city getting destroyed and Russia suing for peace. After the bombing, the Russian capital relocates to Moscow. The second city Germany uses a superbomb on is Paris, which results in most of the city getting destroyed and King Charles XI getting killed in the blast. Louis XIX takes the throne and sues for peace. The United Kingdom uses its first superbomb to destroy Hamburg. In response, Germany destroys London, Brighton, and Norwich with three superbombs. Luckily, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Oswald Mosley, and King Edward VIII are able to evacuate London before the bombing, knowing the Germans would strike back. After the three British cities are bombed, Britain builds a second superbomb. However, before the nuclear bomb could strike a major German city, it is shot down in German-occupied Belgium, where it explodes harmlessly somewhere between Bruges and Ghent. This results in Winston Churchill being ousted as Prime Minister in a no-confidence vote. Churchill's succeeded by Horace Wilson, who seeks a cease-fire with Germany. Oswald Mosley is also ousted as Chancellor of the Exchequer in a non-confidence vote.

The United States and Germany are determined in trying to prevent Russia and Japan from going nuclear, but these efforts are apparently doomed to failure; moreover, these erstwhile allies themselves seem likely to drift into a Cold War, glaring at each other across the Atlantic. Moreover, aside from the nuclear issue, Japan is presenting an unresolved problem to the US - having won the Battle of Midway, consolidated its hold on the Western Pacific and Eastern Asia and established a concrete threat to Australia. Having to deal with the Confederacy - either as a belligerent neighbor or as a rebellious occupied block of nations - the US can spare only limited resources for confronting Japan, and the idea of "an island-hopping campaign" across the Pacific is rejected out of hand by one character.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate Thomas E. Dewey and his running mate Harry S. Truman defeat Socialist President Charles W. La Follette and his running mate Jim Curley in the United States presidential election of 1944. Harold Stassen comes in third place, running as a Republican, carrying electoral votes from the four states of Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. However, because the Democratic victory being a surprise and a Socialist victory was expected, the ''Chicago Tribune'' had written out headlines the night of the election proclaiming "La Follette beats Dewey".

At his inauguration on February 1, 1945, President Thomas Dewey pledges to continue the occupation of the former Confederate States with the intent to integrate the southern states back into the Union. He also pledges to continue La Follette's policy of racial equality in the armed services. Addressing the international stage, Dewey proposes a continued partnership with America's ally, the German Empire. The "Dewey Doctrine" would allow the United States and Germany to police the world and prevent the proliferation of Superbomb technology to former enemies France, Japan, and Russia.

In a run-down Edo tenement, an elderly man and his bitter wife rent out rooms and beds to the poor. The tenants are gamblers, prostitutes, petty thieves and drunk layabouts, all struggling to survive. The landlady’s younger sister who helps the landlords with maintenance, brings in an old man and rents him a bed. Kahei, who dresses as a Buddhist pilgrim, quickly assumes the role of a mediator and grandfatherly figure, though there is an air of mystery about him, and some of the tenants suspect his past is not unblemished.

Sutekichi, thief and self-appointed tenement leader, is having an affair with Osugi the landlady, though he is gradually shifting his attention to her sweet-tempered sister. Okayo thinks little of him, however, which frustrates Sutekichi and sours his relationship with Osugi. Jealous and vengeful, Osugi seeks to persuade Sutekichi to murder her husband so she can turn him over to the authorities. Sutekichi sees through her plot and refuses to take any part in the murder. The husband discovers the affair, gets into a fight with Sutekichi, and is saved only through Kahei’s intervention.

Slowly, Okayo begins to see the good in Sutekichi and warms to his advances. Rokubei and Osugi beat Okayo, prompting the tenants to break into their house to save her. Sutekichi is enraged to learn how Okayo was treated and, in the ensuing chaos, accidentally kills Rokubei, and is then blamed by Osugi for her husband's death. Rather than defend himself, the enraged Sutekichi claims that she had goaded him into doing it. Okayo now believes that they have used her to provide an excuse for the killing. She will now have nothing to do with Sutekichi. Kahei, whose testimony could potentially have cleared him, runs away to avoid having to testify, adding substance to the suspicions that he had something to hide. Sutekichi and Osugi are arrested.

Other subplots, some of a comic nature, involve the occupants of the tenement: a nihilistic gambler who rejects the pilgrim's hopeful entreaties to the other denizens; an aging actor who has lost his ability to memorize lines; a craftsman who appears indifferent to the impending death of his ailing wife, yet becomes a broken man when she finally dies; a destitute who claims to be descended from a samurai family, only to have this claim refuted; and a group of partying drunks who seem to rejoice in the face of misfortune.

Mallory (Bonamy) is the head of an elite government-run strike force dedicated to combating the supernatural. Her team includes the drag queen Vena Cava (Ribier), an explosives expert; a mute, pre-teen telepath capable of possessing others named Talking Tina (Barès); and an armed governmental agent named Durand (Perkins-Lyautey). They are dispatched to protect a convent from an assault by a pack of undead monsters when they are attacked by an unknown assailant. The battle leaves Durand dead, Vena Cava injured, and Tina in a coma. Simultaneously, the newly elected pope (Spielvogel) is kidnapped by strange, masked attackers who resist the bullets of the pope's bodyguards. Mallory is approached to rescue the pope, a job she reluctantly accepts when she realizes there may be a connection between her team's assailant and the pope's kidnappers.

Tracking the kidnappers to a pocket dimension containing an entire village that had vanished off the map several years earlier, Mallory and her team are joined by Père Carras (Collado), a priest trained in the martial arts and one of the bodyguards present at the time of the pope's kidnapping. Their search for the pope eventually leads to Lady Valentine (Vargas), a centuries-old vampire who survived being beheaded during the French Revolution, and her mission to summon Abaddon, a fallen angel that will cover the world in darkness.

The Masters of Padmasa have started using a great new terror on the world of Ryetelth, not magic but technology; on the southern continent of Eigo they have begun building cannons that could break the military might of the Argonathi Dragon Legions. To help fight this new threat, the Argonath Empire enlists the aid of western kingdom of Czardha and their horse mounted armored knights. On the southern continent the combined armies find victory when they destroy the enemies’ cannons and factory, but at a very high price for the armies are nearly devastated. In pursuit of the Master Heruta they track him to his lair inside a volcano that erupts during the final battle. Bazil and Relkin survive, but are separated from the rest of the Legion in a strange land full of magic and terror.

Category:1995 American novels Category:Novels by Christopher Rowley Category:American fantasy novels Category:Roc Books books

Diane de Monx is an executive trying to negotiate a deal to acquire the rights to the productions of a Japanese anime studio, which will soon include three-dimensional hentai, for the French-based Volf Corporation. To facilitate the acquisition, she eliminates her superior, Karen, and assumes control of her portfolio, her business partner Hervé, and her assistant Elise. Elise, however, despises Diane and works to frustrate her negotiations at every opportunity. Diane and Hervé travel to Tokyo to close the deal, and they enjoy a sexual flirtation.

Having acquired the rights, the Volf Corporation attempts to enter into a deal for distribution with an American Internet company called Demonlover, represented by Elaine Si Gibril. Diane, however, has actually been a spy all along for Demonlover's main competition, Mangatronics, meeting with a mysterious handler on occasion to pass along information on the Demonlover deal. Meanwhile, Diane discovers that Elaine's company is a front for a website called the Hellfire Club, an interactive torture site on the dark web that broadcasts extreme sadomasochism in real-time. When confronted with these charges, Demonlover praises Hellfire Club but claims no ties to it whatsoever.

In order to seal the deal for Mangatronics, Diane is sent by her handler to steal data from the computer in Elaine's hotel room. Before Diane can download the information, Elaine enters the hotel room and notices Diane's presence. A violent struggle ensues, and Diane slashes Elaine's throat with a piece of broken glass before suffocating her with a pillow in a supply closet outside the room. Elaine briefly regains consciousness and bludgeons Diane, before dying due to blood loss. When Diane awakens, she is in Elaine's hotel room, and everything is completely cleaned up. There is no evidence of a murder, burglary, or struggle.

Diane subsequently meets with Elise, whom she drives home during a rainstorm. In conversation, Elise implies that Diane should be scared for her life before demanding to be dropped off on the side of the street. Returning to the Volf offices alone, Diane manages to log onto the Hellfire Club website, which displays disturbing footage and images of women being sexually tortured. Karen arrives at the office, and also gives Diane an ominous warning, confirming that Demonlover does indeed own and operate the Hellfire Club website. Karen leaves behind a camcorder tape for Diane to view, which shows Elise and several men cleaning up the crime scene from Elaine's murder, as well as carrying an unconscious Diane back to her room. Diane gleans that Elise is in fact a spy for Demonlover, working under Hervé, who is also a covert associate.

Elise uses Diane's murder of Elaine as blackmail against her, forcing Diane to acquiesce and become part of the Hellfire Club. She escorts Diane to a mansion in the country, where she drugs her. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Diane also murdered Hervé during a rape attempt after the two went on a date. Some time later, Diane and Elise are flown by helicopter to a desert locale, where Diane again loses consciousness. When she awakens, she finds herself in a dungeonlike room, on a mattress, dressed in a vinyl suit and with a wig. Beside the mattress there are pictures of Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel in ''The Avengers''. Diane attempts to escape, and is almost successful. However, upon driving her getaway car she is involved in a car accident. The escape fails.

Some time later, in the United States, a teenage boy logs onto the Hellfire Club with his father's credit card. He then fills out a detailed fantasy of what he would like done to the woman on the screen, who turns out to be Diane, bound and wearing in a bondage suit. The boy allows his fantasy to play in the background as he completes his science homework, while Diane stares helplessly at the camera from her chamber.

In the course of their assault they learn that the Weapon Plus organization has been ultimately responsible for the original installment of the Weapon X Program as well as other government super-human programs such as Operation: Rebirth (the program which created the original Captain America, a.k.a. ''Weapon I'').

The story starts by catching up with Cyclops, who has recently left the X-Men after his psychic affair with Emma Frost was exposed. Wolverine finds him drinking at the Hellfire Club, contemplating quitting the X-Men. Incidentally, Sabretooth is also dining at the facility. Wolverine is aggressive toward Sabertooth, but is unable to escalate an argument into a conflict because it is against the rules of the Hellfire Club for patrons to fight within the building. Fantomex arrives and convinces both Cyclops and Wolverine to join him in breaking into the Weapon Plus installation floating in orbit around the Earth.

On entering the complex, they find the station to be deserted. Fantomex explains in detail the agenda of the Weapon Plus program, detailing the list of candidates used for each of the Weapons. Wolverine uses the computer systems to access his personal file. He indicates that the files contain detailed information about his life before and during the Weapon Plus program. After setting a series of charges to detonate the station, Cyclops and Fantomex prepare to leave the facility. The station explodes with Wolverine inside, and the story ends with a cliffhanger regarding whether Wolverine survived the explosion.

The story opens with a Stormwatch escape pod, containing a scarred Flint, crash landing in New York City. The resulting rescue, retrieval and debriefing are witnessed by Grifter and Void. Upon hearing Flint's description of the aliens, Grifter mistakenly believes the creatures to be Daemonite and quickly gathers up the original WildC.A.T.S team sans Voodoo for a rescue mission to the Stormwatch space station, Skywatch.

Void teleports the team to the station where they quickly uncover a video log and security tapes depicting the events that led up to the alien attack. A mysterious asteroid was passing nearby and a Stormwatch science team was dispatched to take surface samples and to plant explosives that redirect it into the sun. Skywatch lost contact with the team but their ships automatically returned to Skywatch. They quickly found themselves out of their depths and dealing with an unknown Xenomorph. The Aliens ripped through the stations, slaughtering and infecting the majority of the crew. The Stormwatch superhuman team attempted to fight them off but were ultimately wiped out, yet there were indications of a small group of survivors hidden away on the satellite.

After watching the footage, the WildC.A.T.S continue to look for the survivors, eventually finding them hidden in their cryogenic lockdown section. The survivors included Jackson King, Christine Trelane, Winter and 96 crew members. With the help of Void, most of the crew and all of the WildC.A.T.S escaped, injured but alive. Winter, however, stayed behind to pilot the station into the sun, ensuring that the Xenomorphs were not able to spread to the Earth.

Pol is torn between anger and guilt at his father's death and relief that he can finally act out against the invading ''Vellant'im''. As he and his mother, Sioned, try to uncover more about the invaders, they discover hidden secrets within an ancient mirror that had belonged to Sioned's old friend, Camigwen. An ancient sorcerer, Lord Rosseyn, is trapped within the mirror. Rosseyn tells Pol of his past and teaches him more about his sorcerous heritage. Meanwhile, Pol's wife and daughters are attacked by the ''Vellant'im''. High Princess Meiglan and Rislyn are taken captive, but Andry, who had been travelling from Goddess Keep, saves Jihan.

The southern princedoms are slowly being reclaimed, although many lives are lost, including Prince Kostas of Syr and Rihani of Ossetia. The Dorvali resistance mounts raids on the enemy, preventing them from joining the forces on the Continent, and Kierst-Isel remains secure. Goddess Keep is guarded by the ''Devr'im'' in Andry's absence.

Other princedoms, such as Grib and Fessenden, have so far remained neutral, but ambitious and/or devoted Princes try to rouse their fathers and their people.

In Firon the sorcerers capture the royal seat in Balarat and control the princedom through young Prince Tirel. Idalain, Tirel's squire in the absence of the boy's father, tries to protect the boy, but is forced to pretend he is unaware that the princedom is being overtaken. Yarin, a sorcerer and Tirel's uncle, names himself Regent of Firon. In order to keep Idalain busy, Yarin orders the squire to teach his kinsman, Aldiar, swordplay.

As the ''Vellanti'' War continues, Pol, his family, and allies must hurry to discover a weakness in their enemies and must overcome past hatreds in order to work together.

Category:American fantasy novels Category:Dragon Prince series Category:Novels by Melanie Rawn Category:1993 American novels Category:DAW Books books Category:Books with cover art by Michael Whelan

As the death toll rises and Pol's list of allies grows ever thinner, he must work with people once thought enemies and join all the forces of the Continent together in order to defeat the ''Vellant'im''.

Pol discovers allies in the Sorcerers of the Old Blood, who will help him defeat the invading ''Vellant'im''. With this newfound strength and the knowledge gained from Lord Rosseyn in the mirror, Pol, Sioned, and the other Lords of the Desert begin to form a plan for their last stand. A ''ros'alath'', much like the one used previously at Goddess Keep, would be constructed by Pol and Andry with the aide of the Sunrunners of Goddess Keep. The main difference between the two walls being that this one would not kill. The ''diarmadh'im'' would be woven into the wall in order to withstand the steel blades of the enemies and protect the ''faradh'im'', though they refused to be wove by Andry due to the Lord of Goddess Keep's transgressions against them.

In Firon, Aldiar helps Idalian and Tirel escape. He then saves them and Prince Laric's entourage from a blizzard. During the journey to Balarat, Firon's royal seat, Aldiar discovers that Rohannon had become addicted to ''dranath''. With Arlis' permission, Aldiar purges the drug from Rohannon's system. Rohannon then discovers that Aldiar is in fact a sorcerer and a woman, Aldiara. After Rohannon's recovery, the group makes their way North to reclaim Laric's princedom.

To the South, Ostvel is able to infiltrate Meadowlord and secure the princedom from both the traitorous Chiana and the ''Vellant'im''. Tilal's army meets up with the remnants of his brother's army, now led by Saumer of Kierst-Isel, and together they head North into the Desert. Along the way they stop to retrieve the Dragon Tears, which were used to protect Faolain Riverport.

Prince Amiel of Gilad takes control of an army of physicians and aides whatever people he can. Prince Elsen of Grib, although crippled, rides to the aide of Goddess Keep, when it once again falls under attack. These Princes, along with other personages of power, joined the war at last, forsaking their Ruling Princes' stances of neutrality.

Back in The Desert, Sioned and the other ladies form a plan to diminish the ''Vellanti'' army and rid the invaders of their superstitious priests. The women pose as servants, while Ruala 'gives' Skybowl to the ''Vellanti'' High Warlord. The women then proceed to give the priests poisoned food. The priests die, but the women are caught and held captive.

The final battle begins. Pol is able to free Sioned, who is able to weave all the ''faradhi'' and ''diarmadhi'' minds that Pol calls together. Andry and his Sunrunners are also in the weaving. The ''ros'salath'' is formed, but a call for blood is heard and dragons enter the weaving. Andry wrests control from Pol, and the ''ros'salath'' begins to kill. Pol calls on more minds in an attempt to regain control. Aldiar (really Aldiara) offers Pol access to all the sorcerers' minds in Balarat - her kinsmen. With this new strength of ''diarmadhi'' minds, Pol is able to overpower Andry. The ''ros'salath'' stops killing; instead it renders nearly all the ''Vellant'im'' unconscious.

Seeing his army crumble, the High Warlord kills Meiglan. Pol, enraged, kills him. Andry, whose mind had been stretched between this weaving, Goddess Keep, and a dragon, is lost on the light. To the North, Aldiara, Rohannon, and her kinsmen are immobile. Prince Laric is easily able to reclaim his princedom.

In the end, the ''Vellant'im'' are all rounded up and shipped back to the ''Vellanti'' Islands, along with Chiana and her son, who had aided them. Ostvel is named Prince of Meadowlord and Chayla is named Lady of Goddess Keep. Pol is officially confirmed as High Prince, the ''Faradh'rei'' and the ''Diarmadh'rei''.

Malek, a 26-year-old man who suffers from sleep disorders, is obsessed with thoughts of his ex-girlfriend Zeina. Stuck in a traffic jam, Malek catches a fleeting glance of the beautiful Zeina the woman he loves. Tapping text messages into his mobile phone he desesperately tries to get through to her, but she no longer wants to see him. She vanishes into the throng of midday Beirut traffic. The young man has a syndrome which interrupts his breathing during sleep. Whenever he stops moving, he dozes off adding to his disorientation. His mother Claudia has still not accepted his father’s disappearance after 15 years. She stays at home should her husband return, Malek drives around the city alone in his car. Each of them trying to live with a void of lost love. But today may be the “perfect day” to lay their ghosts to rest. Malek is taking his hesitant mother to declare her husband officially dead in the “absence of a body”. She struggles on this day, because the courts will rule her husband officially a dead man since his disappearance more than 15 years ago, along with 17,000 other men who also disappeared during the Lebanese war. And that evening, in a trendy nightclub where the young of Beirut go to dance and forget their troubles, Zeina looks ready to give Malek a second shot at the love he so yearns for.

Santos Luzardo, a graduate lawyer of the Central University of Venezuela, returns to his father's land in the plains of Apure to sell the land but desists when he discovers that it is controlled by a despotic woman, Doña Bárbara, also known as the men's devourer; it is said that she uses seduction and pacts with demonic spirits to satisfy her whims and achieve power.

Santos Luzardo meets his cousin Lorenzo Barquero and discovers that he was a victim of the femme fatale, who left him bankrupt and a daughter, Marisela, whom she abandoned and who became quickly a vagrant. Lorenzo lives in poverty in a miserable house consumed by his own constant drunkenness.

Doña Bárbara falls in love with Santos Luzardo and, through an internal struggle, comes to abandon her evil ways. Luzardo, however, is charmed by Marisela, no longer living in abandonment and taken under Luzardo's care.

The novel ends with the “defeat” of Doña Bárbara, who is able to obtain neither the land nor Luzardo's heart, and finally departs to an unknown location.

The following paragraph is text from the game's introduction:

''Early afternoon in Dream Land... It's so peaceful that even the clouds are drowsy. And now it's Kirby's favorite time of the day: snack time! Today's yummy snack is a sweet, fluffy slice of strawberry shortcake! Time to dig in... WHOA! The cake Kirby was about to eat has suddenly vanished! That scrumptious, berry-topped slice of mouth-watering goodness... No doubt about it! This must be the work of that greedy King Dedede! Well, there's no time to waste! Gotta get that cake back! And that's how Kirby's latest fantastic adventure begins...''

At the end of World 1, after defeating an innocent King Dedede, Kirby finds out that the Squeaks - an infamous group of treasure-thieving mice - are the ones behind the robbery. Kirby follows the thieves on a journey that takes him all over Dream Land. At the end of World 6, a battle ensues between Kirby and the leader of the Squeaks, Daroach. Kirby wins the battle, and is about to get the treasure chest supposedly containing his cake when Meta Knight swoops in and snatches the chest away. Kirby chases Meta Knight to the end of World 7, where a duel between the two rivals ensues. Meta Knight is defeated and gives up the treasure chest, which Kirby is about to open when the Squeaks fly in and grab it from him. Daroach opens it, but the chest does not contain Kirby's cake, but a dark-colored cloud that ensnares Daroach and flies off into outer space. Kirby follows, eventually encountering and fighting Daroach, now named Dark Daroach, for the second time at the end of World 8. Once beaten, the darkness lets go of the Squeak leader and floats away in the form of a small, black-colored star. Kirby follows the star; it eventually transforms into its true form - Dark Nebula. It is revealed that Meta Knight was only trying to keep Kirby or anyone else from opening the chest and releasing Dark Nebula. Kirby defeats it and heads back to Dream Land, while still wondering where his cake went. After the credits, Kirby's cake has been put in a bubble following behind him as he flies off. The Squeaks then send him back his cake as an apology for the trouble they caused. A short while later, Kirby receives his cake, making him happy at last as he begins to eat it.

Bárbara is an attractive woman raised mostly on the rivers of Venezuela by her riverboat captain father. Her mother was an Indian woman who died while giving birth to her. She was madly in love with young Asdrúbal until tragedy smashed everything. Some of the men who worked for her father stole their boat and killed her father. The bandits then raped her and shot her boyfriend. This caused her to hate men, but at the same time sleeps with them to get what she wants. She becomes involved with Lorenzo Barquero, the owner of a cattle ranch, with whom she becomes pregnant and has a daughter named Marisela. Barbara later steals Lorenzo's home and fortune and kicks both him and their daughter out, leaving them to fend for themselves with absolutely nothing. Santos is the only remaining son of the Luzardo family, who had a feud with the Barqueros. He returns to his hacienda, Altamira, planning to sell it. Undeterred, Santos sets out to save his cousin Lorenzo and to educate young Marisela. After Barbara sees one of her old rapists and kills him she decides that in order to gain back the peace and happiness that was stolen from her that horrible night she must find and kill all five of her rapists.

''Doña'' Bárbara has a teenage daughter with Lorenzo Barquero, a former land baron that Doña Bárbara left broken and penniless. He is now an alcoholic. The girl, Marisela, is left to fend for herself, and Doña Bárbara has no interest in her, though Juan Primito, a servant of Doña Bárbara's secretly looks after her. Eventually, Marisela is discovered by Santos, who takes her and her father in, and gives the girl education.

Meanwhile, ''Doña'' Bárbara has become attracted to Santos, but when she finds that her own daughter is a rival for his affections, ''Doña'' Bárbara still looks for ways to ruin Santos.

The book begins precisely as ''Kidnapped'' ends, at 2 pm on 25 August 1751, outside the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The first part of the book recounts the attempts of the hero, David Balfour, to gain justice for James Stewart (James of the Glens), who has been arrested and charged with complicity in the Appin Murder. David makes a statement to a lawyer and goes on to meet William Grant of Prestongrange, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, to press the case for James' innocence. However, his attempts fail, as after being reunited with Alan Breck he is once again kidnapped, and confined on the Bass Rock, an island in the Firth of Forth, until the trial is over, and James is condemned to death. David also meets and falls in love with Catriona MacGregor Drummond, the daughter of James MacGregor Drummond, known as James More (who was Rob Roy's eldest son), also held in prison, whose escape she engineers. David also receives some education in the manners and morals of polite society from Barbara Grant, Prestongrange's daughter.

In the second part, David and Catriona travel to Holland, where David studies law at the University of Leyden. David takes Catriona under his protection (she having no money) until her father finds them. James More eventually arrives and proves something of a disappointment, drinking a great deal and showing no compunction against living off David's largesse. At this time, David learns of the death of his uncle Ebenezer, and thus gains knowledge that he has come into his full, substantial inheritance. David and Catriona, fast friends at this point, begin a series of misunderstandings that eventually drive her and James More away, although David sends payment to James in return for news of Catriona's welfare. James and Catriona find their way to Dunkirk in northern France. Meanwhile, Alan Breck joins David in Leyden, and he berates David for not understanding women.

Prodded thus, and at an invitation from James More, David and Alan journey to Dunkirk to visit with James and Catriona. They all meet one evening at a remote inn and discover the following day that James has betrayed Alan (falsely convicted of the Appin murder) into the hands of a British warship anchored near the shore. The British attempt to capture Alan, who flees with David and Catriona, now reconciled and shamed by James More's ignominy. The three flee to Paris, where David and Catriona are married. James More dies from an illness, and David and Catriona return to Scotland to raise a family.

It is a more permissive era, and life has become dull and boring for the world at large. Since everything is now permitted, nothing is exciting, and even the popular violent spectator sport of "rollerball" is treated as ''passé''. Jimmy Hill, who is now a very old man with a long beard, greets sports on his programme with the same level of boredom as the rest of the population.

The New Goodies, led by Bill Brooke-Taylor, want to add some excitement to the lives of the people, and to get them excited about something again. In the attempt to add more excitement to 'rollerball', Graeme Oddie (a leading competitor of violent sports), and some of his equally violent friends, modify the game to 'rolleregg', a combination of an egg and spoon race and 'rollerball'. Graeme Oddie is the leading competitor for 'rolleregg'.

Bill Brooke-Taylor wants to resurrect the ancient game of Cricket, with the idea that something, which is truly boring, might be enough of a novelty to be interesting to the population. He asks his father, Tim, about the MCC. Tim decides to take his son to the retirement home for old cricketers the "''MCC Sanctuary'''", where Bill and Graeme are now residing in their old age. To travel to the retirement home, both Tim and his son, Bill, wear automatic motorised shoes.

At Lord's Cricket Ground, Tim Garden finds a tiny urn full of ashes in a cupboard. Assuming that the urn was full of dust, Tim Garden empties the ashes onto the floor. Then, he finds a discarded cricket box, and, assuming that it is a hat of some sort, he places it on his head. Tim Garden also puts the stumps and cricket bat to a new and novel use.

With help from the former members of the MCC, cricket is revived, and the commentators for the match are Bill Brooke-Taylor, Tim Garden, and a robot. However, people who go to a cricket match to find out what it is like, become quickly bored — they have been reared on far more violent games. So a compromise is reached — the "rolleregg" side, led by Graeme Oddie, is pitted against the aging MCC members.

After being continually struck on the body with cricket balls bowled by the cricket players, the humiliated "rolleregg" players decide to use an enormous robot to bat from, but they are still defeated by the MCC members. After a final searing victory against Graeme Oddie by the aging Tim and Bill, the MCC members inherit the Earth and retain "''the Ashes''" — and the MCC members are still marching on – somewhere.

''Tale of Tales'', like Andrei Tarkovsky's ''Mirror'', attempts to structure itself like a human memory. Memories are not recalled in neat chronological order; instead, they are recalled by the association of one thing with another, which means that any attempt to put memory on film cannot be told like a conventional narrative. The film is thus made up of a series of related sequences whose scenes are interspersed between each other. One of the primary themes involves war, with particular emphasis on the enormous losses the Soviet Union suffered on the Eastern Front during World War II. Several recurring characters and their interactions make up a large part of the film, such as the poet, the little girl and the bull, the little boy and the crows, the dancers and the soldiers, the train, the apples and especially the little grey wolf ( , syeryenkiy volchok).

Yuri Norstein wrote in ''Iskusstvo Kino'' magazine that the film is "about simple concepts that give you the strength to live."

At a dinner party, Jadzia Dax toys with a piano and finds herself playing an unfamiliar tune despite having no musical training in this life nor in her previous ones. Later, she experiences odd mood swings and hallucinations of a masked figure. Bashir finds that these symptoms are linked to her symbiont. According to Dax's medical history, a previous host experienced similar symptoms when he went into a six-month coma. Sisko and Bashir take Dax back to her homeworld, where Doctor Renhol of the Trill Symbiosis Commission stabilizes Dax's symptoms. But Dax relapses, and experiences a new hallucination of Trill hospital guards accosting her. Frustrated, Sisko, Bashir, and Jadzia visit the caves where unjoined symbionts are spawned to consult the caretakers. A caretaker there believes that Dax's problems stem from memories of one of her symbiont's previous hosts.

Sisko and Bashir identify the musical tune Dax heard in her hallucinations as a composition by a Trill named Joran Belar. When Dax sees his photograph, she experiences another hallucination of the masked man murdering someone, and when she rips off his mask she sees Joran's face. She then goes into neural shock and is hospitalized. Doctor Renhol plans to remove the Dax symbiont, which will kill the host Jadzia. Sisko and Bashir revisit the spawning caves, but the caretaker there has been scared into keeping quiet. Bashir finds that the Trill government deleted information on Joran Belar from its records. However, they manage to contact Joran's brother, Yolad, who says that Joran was a candidate for being joined with a symbiont. According to the official report, Joran was rejected due to his violent temper and murdered the doctor who evaluated him, and was then killed by hospital security. However, Yolad doubts this story, because he remembers Joran telling him that he had been successfully joined. Sisko and Bashir deduce that Joran was one of Dax's previous hosts, and to cover this up Joran's files were altered and Dax's memories of him were suppressed.

Sisko and Bashir confront Doctor Renhol, and accuse her of letting Jadzia die in order to protect an even bigger secret. The Trill government claims that only one in a thousand Trill are physically and psychologically fit to be joined with a symbiont. If a symbiont is placed in an unfit host, both host and symbiont will die in days. Joran's psychological problems should have disqualified him, but the doctors failed to detect them and gave him a symbiont. By the time the doctors discovered their mistake, Joran had been carrying the symbiont for months when he ought to have been dead after a few days. This proves that the official criteria for being joined are excessively stringent. Renhol admits that nearly half of all Trill are in fact fit to carry symbionts, but if the truth came out the small supply of symbionts would be fought over fiercely, jeopardizing their welfare and destabilizing Trill society. To prevent this, the government pretends that only a tiny minority of the Trill population can be joined so as to artificially lower the demand for symbionts to a manageable level.

The only way to stabilize Dax's mind would be to allow her suppressed memories of Joran to resurface. Faced with Sisko's threat to expose the secret to the entire planet if she allows Jadzia to die, Renhol removes Dax's memory blocks and Sisko agrees to keep the truth secret. Dax recovers and must come to terms with her disturbing new memories.

The young, naïve Canadian biologist Tyler is assigned by the government to travel to the isolated Canadian Arctic wilderness and study why the area's caribou population is declining, believed to be due to wolf-pack attacks; amongst his orders to study them, he is also given a gun and required to kill one wolf and examine its stomach contents. Tyler receives a baptism of fire into bush life with a trip by bush plane piloted by "Rosie" Little. After landing at the destination, Rosie leaves Tyler in the middle of a sub-zero frozen Arctic lake. Tyler is at a loss of what to do about his situation until he is rescued by a traveling Inuit named Ootek, who transports him and his gear off the ice and builds a shelter for him.

Alone, Tyler divides his days between research and survival, while nights are fraught with nightmares of wolf attacks upon him. He soon encounters two wolves—which he names George and Angeline, who have pups, and discovers they seem as curious of him as he is of them. He and the wolves begin social exchanges, even urine-marking their territories, producing trust and respect between them. Noticing that they have not eaten any caribou and only mice, he begins a side experiment of eating only mice for protein sustenance.

Another Inuit named Mike encounters Tyler, sent by Ootek for companionship. Mike knows English and Inuit, translating between Ootek and Tyler. Ootek, the elder, is content and curious about Tyler, while the younger Mike seems not only more reserved but unhappy with the Inuit way of life, confessing to Tyler his social apprehensions, this is mainly due to the fact that Mike is missing nearly all his teeth as well as telling Tyler about the time he met a girl and how she was comfortable with him until he smiled. Tyler discovers that Mike is a wolf hunter, killing for pelts to sell to make a living. Tyler demonstrates a trick he has learned: by playing certain notes on his bassoon, he can imitate a wolf howl, calling other wolves in.

Autumn nears, and Tyler hears that the caribou are migrating south, which will provide an opportunity for him to study the concept his superiors want to confirm. Ootek takes Tyler on a three-day hike to where the caribou will be. The caribou show up as predicted and Tyler observes the wolves make several unsuccessful attacks. Tyler helps drive caribou towards the pack, which soon takes one down. Tyler takes a bone and samples the marrow, discovering the dead caribou to be diseased. It confirms that the wolves are not ruthless killers but rather their predation kills off only the weaker caribou.

One day, Tyler encounters Rosie with two hunter-guests, making plans to exploit the area's resources. Rosie insists on flying out Tyler, who refuses. Rosie then offers to extract Tyler from his research campsite in three days, the time it will take Tyler to hike back.

Tyler returns to the base to find things very still. He ventures into the wolves' territory and goes into their den, only to find the pups cowering in fear and the two wolves nowhere in sight. Rosie's aircraft approaches outside. Believing that Rosie killed George and Angeline, Tyler shouts at Rosie to leave, then shoots at Rosie's plane, which makes him fly away.

Tyler goes back to his camp to find Mike, whose nervous demeanor causes Tyler to suspect that it was Mike, not Rosie, who killed the two wolves. Mike confirms Tyler's suspicions by smiling with a full set of new dentures and leaves, hiking for home.

Some time later, as the first snow begins to fall, Tyler plays the wolf call on his bassoon, bringing in other wolves from George and Angeline's pack. He reflects on his time in the wilderness and how he may have helped bring the modern world to this place. The narration implies that Tyler will return to civilization and recover from his experiences here. Ootek has returned, and in the final scene he and Tyler break camp and trek across the fall tundra to the south, enjoying each other's company, along with the words of an Inuit song that Tyler translates:

I think over again my small adventures, my fears. Those small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing: To live to see the great day that dawns and the light that fills the world.

Crosby is cast in a romantic Hawaiian setting as Tony Marvin, a publicity agent for Imperial Pineapple Company. The atmosphere is captured from the start with a Hawaiian song over the opening credits and with Tony and his friend Shad, with pet pig "Walford", present at a native wedding ceremony where Tony joins in the song. In the boardroom of the Imperial Pineapple Company, the President, J. P. Todhunter, defends Tony against charges of neglecting his duty, pointing out that it was Tony who thought of the idea of the "Pineapple Girl" contest. The winner of the contest was promised "three romantic weeks" in Hawaii and her happy impressions are to be syndicated in the press for publicity.

Unfortunately it seems Georgia Smith, the girl from Birch Falls who won the Pineapple Girl contest, and her friend Myrtle are bored and intend to return home. The prospect of such adverse publicity enrages J. P., who tells Tony that he must do something to stop the girls from leaving. To give a little romantic colour, therefore, Tony sings "Blue Hawaii" outside the girls' bungalow helped by a Hawaiian chorus. When Myrtle opens the door he mistakes her for Georgia and is therefore unaware that it is Georgia he later meets at the dockside. Whilst helping to repair the heel of her shoe he accidentally tips her into the water; drenched and angry she, equally unaware of his identity, tells how she came to be in Hawaii and says that she could murder the one who got her into the whole mess.

When, shortly afterwards, she and Myrtle are about to board ship bound for home, a stranger thrusts into her hand a black pearl and asks her to get it through customs. Consequently, they are prevented from leaving and Tony and Shad arrive opportunely to offer help. Apparently the pearl is sacred and must be returned to a shrine on a smaller island from which it has been stolen; if not,, according to a native legend, the volcano will erupt and destroy the village. Kimo, a native, says the girls must themselves return the pearl and he takes the four of them in his boat. The whole business has been arranged by Tony to prevent Georgia from returning home; he has also written, in her name, glowing reports for press handouts. On the trip across to the island Tony and Georgia sing "Blue Hawaii". Meanwhile, J. P. receives a long-distance call from Georgia's fiancé, the dentist Dr. Quimby, who says that he is coming to fetch her. On the island Georgia offers to hand over the pearl but is told to await the arrival of the high priest.

While they are detained on the island, Shad and Myrtle become well acquainted and enliven the scene with comedy episodes involving Walford the pig. Tony, with Hawaiian chorus, sings "Sweet Leilani" to a little native girl. When the high priest arrives, the pearl is handed over and at a celebration ceremony Georgia sings "In a Little Hula Heaven", with Tony singing and whistling a few lines. Myrtle sings "Okolehao", the name for a potent native drink. While the volcano continues to rumble and smoke, the high priest announces that the pearl must be fake and arrests Georgia. The volcano"s activity is, at Tony's instigation, manufactured by natives maintaining the fire and flames. Tony helps Georgia escape and the four make for the boat. Tony and Georgia sing "Sweet Is the Word for You".

When Georgia returns to her hotel next day she finds Quimby and her uncle Herman awaiting her, and they explain how she has been tricked. Meanwhile Tony, regretting his actions, has called on J. P. and told him not to publish the articles Tony has written. When he calls for Georgia he tells her they will be married, but she is angry with him and says she will return home with Quimby and her uncle. When the three are ready to leave, Quimby is tricked by Shad into involvement with the police, which results in Quimby being arrested for assault. When, however, Shad tries the same trick on Uncle Herman, he himself is arrested. Tony boards the ship and in the next cabin to Georgia whistles "Sweet Is the Word for You", but she reports him to the purser and he is put off the ship. Myrtle arrives at the jail with Walford disguised as a dog and pays the fine to release Shad. Tony and Georgia are reunited after an old lady hired by Tony to pose as his mother visits Georgia aboard ship and persuades her that it is Tony she should marry. Over the closing credits a chorus sings "Blue Hawaii" and "In A Little Hula Heaven".

After an assassin named Khamel kills two Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed. She gives the brief to her law professor/lover Thomas Callahan, who in turn gives a copy to his good friend Gavin Verheek, special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Soon after, a car bomb kills Callahan, but Darby avoids the same fate, because the drunk Callahan refused to let Darby drive his car. Now realizing that her brief was accurate, she goes into hiding and reaches out to Verheek for assistance.

An informant calling himself Garcia contacts ''Washington Herald'' reporter Gray Grantham with information about the assassinations, but disappears. Darby also contacts Grantham, who verifies her information as accurate. Darby's computer, disks, and files disappear from her home. She is attacked at a hotel where she's hiding. She escapes the attack unharmed, but scared. She contacts and agrees to meet Verheek, but Khamel kills Verheek and impersonates him at the meet. Before Khamel can kill Darby, an unknown person shoots and kills him.

Darby agrees to meet Grantham in New York City, where she shares the theory expressed in her brief: the assassinations were done for oil tycoon Victor Mattiece, who intends to exploit the oil he found beneath Louisiana marshland that is habitat for an endangered sub-species of brown pelicans. A court appeal to deny Mattiece the drilling rights is expected to reach the Supreme Court. Darby has surmised that Mattiece, hoping to turn the case in his favor, is behind the justices' murders; these two justices differ in their opinions on everything except protecting the environment. As a generous contributor to the President, Mattiece expects that he would appoint justices that favor oil and gas exploitation over environmental issues while the next President may not do so. When Grantham tells her about Garcia, they discover that the man is Curtis Morgan, a lawyer in the oil and gas division at the Washington, D.C. law firm of White & Blazevich.

Darby visits the firm, pretending to have an appointment with Morgan, and is told that he had been killed in a mugging. Suspecting that his murder was related to the incriminating information, she and Grantham visit his widow, who eventually gives them a key to a safe deposit box. Darby visits the bank to retrieve the contents of the box. After barely escaping death via car bomb, they reach the ''Washington Herald'' building, where they review the documents and a videotape recovered from Morgan's box. The tape corroborates Darby's theory, as Morgan's documents verify that Mattiece ordered the Justices to be assassinated. With this evidence, Grantham writes his story. He gives the FBI a chance to comment and FBI Director Voyles confirms that Darby's "Pelican Brief" was delivered to the White House. He reveals the President ordered the FBI to "back off," and that the CIA is investigating Mattiece, with one of them killing Khamel to save Darby's life. A plane that the FBI arranges for Darby flies her away to safety under the witness protection program.

Sometime later, Darby is watching a TV interview of Grantham where it is revealed that Mattiece and four of his aides and lawyers have been indicted, the President's chief of staff Fletcher Coal has resigned, and the President (who received $4.2 million in contributions from Mattiece) is unlikely to run for reelection. Grantham deflects speculation that Darby is fictional, but does agree that she is "almost" too good to be true, causing Darby to smile.

At age seventeen, Don Miller is already an accomplished electronics technician, helping his uncle, Dr. Edward Simpson, with the testing of a new kind of submarine, the ''Triton I''. Accompanied everywhere by his dog Shep, a schipperke, he has assumed that he would be aboard the boat for its sea trials, though he mans the communications gear on the surface support ship during the submarine's first test run somewhere south of Puerto Rico. That test run is commanded by Dr. Oliver Drake, who designed the submarine's new nuclear propulsion system. The test run is successful, in spite of some problems with the control systems and stress on certain crew members that has made them believe that they have seen, on the television screens that give a view of the outside of the submarine, men encased in form-fitting bubbles.

For the full test run the ''Triton'' will descend into the Milwaukee Deep, north of Puerto Rico. Because the United States Navy has taken an interest in ''Triton'' and has partly funded her development, the commanding officer on the test run will be Admiral Robert Haller. Dexter, the president's science advisor, and Senator Kenney are to accompany the crew as observers. Another of the observers going along is Sid Upjohn, a reporter. As they descend they find that they are losing control of the boat and, further, that they are being rammed by a whale. Unable to maneuver, they come down on an undersea plateau, twelve hundred fathoms (7200 feet) below the surface. Again they catch glimpses of men encased in bubbles, something that should be impossible. Emerging from the submarine in a bathysuit, Don makes the necessary repairs and the ''Triton'' leaves the plateau to head for the surface.

Now the bubble-men attack openly in full force, cementing rocks to ''Triton'''s hull to drive her down again. Again the crew bring their boat down on the plateau where they had stopped for repairs. Again Don prepares to go out in the bathysuit to remove the rocks, but the bubble-men, which the crew have taken to calling Atlanteans, have sealed the hatch through which the bathysuit must emerge. As the crew watches helplessly through their closed-circuit televisions, the Atlanteans attach thick ropes to the submarine and then bring in ichthyosaurs that have evolved to breathe water to tow the boat off the plateau. As they pull ''Triton'' deeper, the Atlanteans envelope the boat in a forcefilm bubble, obliging the navigator, Kayne, to shut down the engines. Even with the boat being towed, without power, the helmsman, Paul Cavanaugh, continues to steer the boat to give them a smoother ride.

Three miles below the surface they come to a town of about 20,000 people that they call Atlantis. Lying under a larger version of the bubbles that enclose the people surrounding the submarine, the town is illuminated by some phosphorescent substance. There ''Triton'' is towed through the forcefilm dome that covers the town and into a pool large enough to accommodate her. Then the Atlanteans break into the boat and take the crew prisoner, knocking them out with some kind of electric stungun.

Don regains consciousness in a cell where he meets Muggins, an American whom the Atlanteans had rescued from a ship sunk in the war, fifty years previously. Muggins tells Don that the people call their town Mlayanu and he introduces him to K'mith, the president of Mlayanu. Don discovers that K'mith, his family, and several other Atlanteans speak English, having learned it from Muggins in order to read the books that they find in sunken ships and to understand the radio messages that they pick up occasionally through a floating antenna.

Because Shep resembles the dog-god that the more superstitious Atlanteans worship, it is decided that Don and Shep will live with K'mith and his family. In K'mith's home he meets K'mith's wife and twelve-year-old daughter and his nephew S'neifa, the son of his deceased older brother K'mayo, who had rescued Muggins. As Don gets settled into K'mith's house, S'neifa tells him how an outcast European tribe, some 28,000 years ago, made some accidental discoveries that enabled them to live underwater and develop the Atlantean civilization. Because he's under eighteen, the Atlanteans assume that Don is uneducated, but S'neifa suspects and then confirms the truth. He then gives Don a copy of a radio message that the Atlanteans have picked up: it tells Don that the garbled distress call from ''Triton'' had been misinterpreted and that the United States has accused another country of capturing the submarine.

Later Don goes for a walk with Shep and finds the building where the town's dome is created and controlled open and unguarded. Sneaking around inside the building, he discerns how the system works and he takes a discarded diagram as he leaves. That evening he takes the diagram to show to Dr. Drake and his uncle. Little can be gleaned from the diagram, but the men do discern that the forcefilm could protect a city from a nuclear attack. Returning to K'mith's house, Don tells K'mith of the discovery, but K'mith already knows about it. As for Don's plea to let the ''Triton'' and her crew return to the surface, K'mith shows Don another intercepted radio message: the United States and the country it had accused of taking the ''Triton'' have exchanged ultimatums and nuclear war is less than a week away.

That night S'neifa brings Don a bubble suit so that he can free the ''Triton'''s crew from the small bubble-dome in which they are imprisoned. At a certain signal S'neifa will activate the forcefilm bubble around ''Triton'' so that she can escape her confinement in Mlayanu. All goes well until several fights break out. Kayne and Senator Kenney reach the submarine, board her, and give the signal. S'neifa activates the forcefilm and Kayne takes the boat out of Mlayanu, leaving Don and the rest of the crew behind to be recaptured. Later Kayne and Kenney are brought into the jail, having been recaptured just after reaching the surface.

Kept in a cell separate from the rest of ''Triton'''s crew, Don asks Muggins to bring him some metal tubing and tools so that he can make a tin whistle to pass the time. He then makes an ultrasonic dog whistle, which he uses to call Shep. After several incidents when Shep comes at his call the dog is chained up and then begins to howl when Don calls him. An angry mob forces K'mith and the dome technicians to allow Don to designate the dome-control building as the dog-god's shrine. Don then uses a signal generator that he had retrieved from ''Triton'' to modulate the current creating the dome forcefilm, causing a loud hum and salt rain to come from the dome and terrify the mob. Don then discovers that K'mith has had his own agenda which meshes perfectly with what Don had intended: the Atlanteans have been unable to find any more of the crystals that they need and he had hoped that scientists on the surface world might be able to make more. Don assures him that they can and will. Thus Don and the crew of the ''Triton'' are released and the ''Triton'', fitted with a forcefilm that will allow the boat's engines to run when it is turned on, leave Myalanu with K'mith and S'neifa aboard.

Arjun Singh and the Srivastav brothers, Raghu and Shekhar, are neighbors in a gangster-prone area in Mumbai. When Arjun's union leader father is killed, the brothers urge him to avenge his death. They get a sword and find the killers and kill them. Arjun is the prime suspect in this homicide and the brothers get him to run to Delhi, where he begins a new life as a Real Estate Agent, Mohan Kumar Sharma. Years later, Arjun returns to Mumbai and is welcomed with open arms by Raghu and Shekhar, who are now leading gangsters in their own right. Arjun also renews his romance with the estranged Srivastavs' sister, Sanjana. Sanjana would like Arjun and her brothers to go straight, and Arjun agrees with her and he starts to work on Raghu - the more flexible of the two - and partially succeeds - especially since Raghu is romantically involved with a school-teacher, who will have nothing to do with him unless he gives up all criminal activity. Raghu is seriously considering going straight when Shekhar gives him the devastating news, that Arjun is not who he claims to be - but a plainclothes police officer, who is out to get them by hook or by crook.

While driving on a secluded mountain road, Ellen (Bree Turner) loses control of her vehicle and collides with an abandoned car on the side of the road. When checking to see if the other driver is all right, she finds a trail of blood leading into the forest. Following it, she encounters a deformed serial killer known as Moonface (John DeSantis), dragging the driver of the other vehicle. Narrowly escaping him, Ellen flees into the forest, with Moonface following her trail.

Through flashbacks spread throughout, she is shown receiving training from her survivalist husband Bruce (Ethan Embry), training her with both weapons and guerrilla tactics. She attempts to use these skills several times but despite her best efforts is still captured by the killer and taken to his workshop deep in the forest on a ridge overlooking a large waterfall.

After awakening in the basement—filled with the corpses of Moonface's previous victims—she encounters the delusional Buddy (Angus Scrimm), apparently insane but seemingly unharmed by Moonface. He speaks cryptically of the killer's methods and intent. Shortly thereafter, the killer comes downstairs, turning on a generator. Police sirens begin sounding as various lights around the room begin flashing. Lifting the other woman onto a large table—he uses a drill press to remove both of her eyes.

After Moonface leaves, Buddy talks Ellen into picking the lock on the chains binding her with a sharp object that had been jabbed into her shoulder. Buddy, who seemed to be tied up, suddenly stands up and begins shouting that Ellen is free. Moonface returns, and Ellen attacks Moonface and Buddy with a piece of wood. She runs upstairs where she is again attacked, but this time manages to overpower Moonface and knock him out a window. Looking out, she sees him dangling by a blanket several meters below, hanging above the waterfall. She watches as the fabric rips, turning away as he finally falls. Finding a gun, belt and boots, she leaves.

Returning to her car, she opens her trunk to reveal the body of her dead husband. In another flashback it is revealed that her husband had raped her during a brutal fight, shortly after which she strangled him with his own belt. Taking his body to Moonface's workshop, she removes his eyes and strings him up in the front yard in the same manner as Moonface's other victims. Before leaving she shoots Buddy, mimicking Moonface's "shh" gesture before killing him.

University student Walter Gilman moves to a very cheap room in an old boarding house. He hears shrill screaming and rushes to help his neighbor, Frances, to find that she was being chased by a large rat. He seeks assistance from the manager, but he refuses to help. One of the tenants, Masurewicz, asks Walter if the large rat had a human face. He becomes close with Frances the following week, and even lends her money to keep her in the boarding house.

While studying for his thesis, Walter finds Masurewicz praying and hitting his head on a chair. The old man advises Walter about that rodent with a man's face and a witch that would be after him. He warns Walter that the house is evil, relating that he, like Walter, moved in at a young age in the same room that Walter is currently renting. He states he is still in the house only to pray to stop her. Masurewicz offers a crucifix for his protection, but Walter rebuffs the gesture.

Frances gets a job interview and asks Walter to watch her son Danny. After she leaves, Danny begins to cry if he isn't in Walter's hands. Walter notices that Danny is wearing a large crucifix. When Walter falls asleep, a cloaked witch appears as a nude Frances and seduces him. He starts having sex with her, she begins to claw the skin off of his back mid-foreplay. Initially ignoring the pain, he becomes horrified when she suddenly transforms into an old witch and laughs devilishly as he screams in horror, making him wake up outside of Frances's room. He rushes back when he hears Danny fiercely crying. Frances returns and crossly questions him over why he left him, and upon explaining his dreams, Frances suggests for him to seek psychiatric help which he postpones for the confirmation or denial of his experiences by laying flour for tracking any potential footprints or pugmarks.

He goes back to his room, and it is revealed that the witch has indeed carved a pentagram into his back. An audible disturbance again wakes him up, he spots little pugmarks and a scratch in the flour leading under his bed. He peers down and suddenly a mysterious hand reaches out and after few seconds, grabs him, he struggles to free himself of its grasp but is eventually dragged inside. He finds himself in a dark corridor, with the rat on his shoulder. The rodent repeatedly implores him to "sign" and strongly chews his wrist, leading to his blood from veins pouring onto the book beneath as the witch informs that now he has to sacrifice an infant for her, namely Danny. Walter then finds himself up seated in front of an open book in the restricted access room of a library in Miskatonic University in which he sees diagrams about unearthly geometry and on following pages, infant sacrificing rituals involving other creatures as well as that witch and rodent. He isn't able to discern the title in non-Latin script from the book's cover as it is badly damaged, however it is revealed as "Necronomicon" by a furious warden who intercepts him there and, unconvinced by his quick replies that he doesn't know how he entered the room, goes outside to call for security, giving him a chance to flee. Having returned, Walter's attempt to warn Frances goes in vain as she repeats to him that now he must seek psychological help and asks him to stay away from Danny.

Masurewicz comes to check on Walter, telling him that his soul is in peril. Masurewicz reveals that he had killed children because of the witch. Though he tried to , no one would believe him. Masurewicz hands the crucifix over to Walter and leaves. Walter breaks through the wall in his room where the witch and rodent come through and is mildly interrupted by the manager outside who, upon seeing him steadily approaching with raised hammer in his hands, shuts the door to oneself and flees, he soon makes a big enough hole in the attic and brings his lamplight for aid in exploring. Failing to see much, he climbs up and finds the skeletons of past sacrifices. The rodent's voice can be heard reverberating across, stating "she's coming for you." Walter then finds the sacrifice chamber, with crying Danny caged up. The cloaked witch places a silver dagger into Walter's hand and commands Walter to kill Danny. Walter tries to resist but fails in avoiding to mark him by making an abrasion in his neck, thereby causing a bit of his blood to spill. The witch continues telekinetically forcing him to go for the kill, backed by the rodent's hypnotic cheering but Walter succeeds in redirecting the knife to her. This leads to a struggle where she steals the knife and it gets dropped to the floor—and Walter gouges her eyes out with his own hands, causing her own blood to pour out and eventually managing to strangle her with the crucifix.

He takes Danny and escapes, crash landing in Frances's room and takes a moment of relief. Danny starts fiercely crying again, and Walter notices that the growling rodent is chewing through Danny's neck and sucking his blood dry. Frances is locked out and desperately shrieks for Walter to open the door immediately, and gets even more anxious by seeing neon lights emitting from inside the room. Simultaneously, Masurewicz is in his room, praying and bleeding from having struck his head to the table numerous times. The manager and two police officers arrive and the former finally opens the door through his service keys to find Walter smudged by blood—with Danny's lifeless body in his lap. Walter is taken to a psych ward and in a session with his attending psychologist, continues to swear by his version of events but convinced that he is simply in denial of the crime he committed single-handedly, the psychologist diagnoses him with paranoid schizophrenia.

The CSI arrives and informs of the final forensic investigations into the recovered infant skeletons, some of which dated back 300 years, the knife, and Danny's autopsy. In addition to dispelling the prison officer's conviction that Walter murdered each of them, he eventually informs the officer and psychologist outside the ward of a newly discovered and unclassified DNA from Danny's animal bites (which the cop instinctively attributed to Walter before). They leave. Masurewicz hangs himself. Sometimes afterwards, neon lights appear in Walter's ward followed by the familiar growling of that rodent. Walter is then heard shrieking in agony, prompting an urgent visit by a nurse. Upon unlocking and entering his ward, he witnesses profuse external bleeding from tormented Walter and immediately calls for backup. The psychologist arrives and she asks of the matter by witnessing the pooling blood, the nurse lifts his top uniform to reveal that rodent jumping out of his colon—with wide wounds serving as the opening. It is seen immediately running out of the ward laughing and in the room at the nearest exit of the corridor, makes space for entering an incidentally opening door of the room by interjecting "boo!" to the warden and runs inside to its escape. Walter stops agonising and moving, laid back still to the wall, prompting psychologist to check for his pulse. She immediately determines that he died from blood loss. The film ends the same way it began, with a sign in front of the epitome "witch house" reading "Room for Rent."

In 2008, terrorists developed a biological weapon called "Blizz". They used this weapon in local weather patterns in the United States. As it falls from the sky, it will instantly burn any living thing it touches. At her seventh birthday party, young Peggy (Emily Graham) watched as her friends were killed by Blizz, while she, her sister, and her mother took refuge inside the house, refusing to allow anyone else shelter with them.

Ten years later, America has been ravaged by the effects of World War III. The death count continues to rise in this dark and bleak future and some states simply no longer exist. Peggy (Jessica Lowndes) is now almost 17, ignorant of the world outside her mother's diner. She has lost both her father and her sister, Anna, and now depends on her mother, Kate (Marilyn Norry). Business is slow, but Kate tells Peggy they're fine financially, as Peggy's father left them some money before his death in the war. One day, Peggy meets biker and drug addict Jak (Jonathan Tucker) and his two "friends", junkies Boxx (Ryan McDonald) and Celia (Lucie Guest). The three are into some shady dealings with a nightclub called The Doom Room, located in the grubby town of Muskeet.

Kate warns Peggy that "everything the people of Muskeet do is a goddamn trick", and although she's afraid to disobey her mother, Peggy sneaks out with Jak in the middle of the night to the Doom Room with Boxx and Celia. Muskeet, as it appears, is completely ravaged and the home to ravagers, sociopathic bikers, and teenagers. The Doom Room is a heavy metal bar run by an MC (Robert Englund). As Peggy and Celia watch the band Decree perform, Boxx and Jak go behind the stage to perform a business deal with the MC. They provide him packets of blood. The MC promises that he will pay them if their product is good enough for the next "performance". If not, he'll make them eat it.

At that point, Peggy witnesses what the performance is. The MC has collected the bodies of overdosed teens, called LUPs (Living Undead Phenomenon, or "loopies") injecting them with a drug that causes their hearts to beat twice as fast as normal resulting in convulsions and seizures. This drug was first discovered in the battlegrounds of the war, so the dead soldiers could get up and keep fighting. They are then pumped with blood and forced to dance, and those who can't move are shocked with electric prods. Peggy watches in horror as the MC brings out her own sister, Anna (Melena Ronnis).

When Anna falls off the stage, Peggy and Jak take her away from the Doom Room, to be followed by the MC and one of his goons. Peggy and Jak meet up with Kate, who has tracked them to Muskeet. The MC sheds some light on how he came to "own" Anna. When she was still alive, Anna was just like the other teenagers in Muskeet, and Kate was sick of having to drag her out of the Doom Room every weekend. Then Anna overdosed on drugs, so Kate decided to sell her to the MC, although she was still alive.

Kate is pistol whipped multiple times by the MC and tries to explain to Peggy that she sold Anna because she was always in trouble, and they had nothing, the money Peggy's father had allegedly left them is a lie, they have been living off the money the MC paid her for Anna. Furious at what her mother did, Peggy trades her for Anna and buries her sister, whom she considers her last remaining family. In the end, Peggy becomes another Muskeet teenager, now romantically involved with Jak, and watches as Kate's corpse is beaten with electric rods and forced to dance in the Doom Room.

Police officer Frank Spivey (Steven Weber) is eating lunch in his squad car when he happens upon a crazed man with a meat cleaver forcing a young woman (Carrie Fleming) onto the ground. When Spivey intervenes, the man tells Spivey that he "doesn't know what she is," forcing Spivey to shoot the man before he kills her. As he begins to console her, he first notices that although she has an attractive body, her face is horrifically disfigured. Despite his initial revulsion, when she cuddles into his arms, he finds himself affectionately drawn to her.

At the police station, his partner continues to joke about the whole situation, trying to get him to forget about the shooting and the woman. Still oddly drawn to her, Spivey excuses himself from his partner. That night at home, his wife Ruby (Brenda James) attempts to console him after learning of the shooting. As they begin to make love, he keeps picturing the woman and attempts to anally rape his wife, losing himself in his fantasy of the woman before his wife eventually forces him off her.

The next day, after a female detective interrogates the mystery woman, the detective tells Spivey that the girl's name is probably Jenifer, since it was on a note in the man's pocket, and that she is mute and most likely autistic. Spivey visits Jenifer at the mental hospital to check on her. A male orderly comments that she has been frightening the male staff. When Frank enters her room, she is still in the shower and runs to embrace him despite being completely nude. Frank takes her to his home because he cannot find anywhere else that will take her. That night he dreams of a non-disfigured Jenifer seducing him. When he awakes, he finds her standing in the room. Frank's wife and his son Pete (Harris Allen) react to meeting her with varying degrees of disgust.

Frank's wife issues an ultimatum that either Jenifer be made to leave or she will, so he goes out to search for somewhere for her to stay once more. This time, instead of looking, he is seduced by Jenifer in his car. When he brings her home, she frightens away Frank's wife and son, devours his cat, and murders and eats his young neighbor Amy (Jasmine Chan). Frank finally attempts to get a carny to kidnap her and put her in his freak show. When Frank arrives home, he finds Jenifer covered in blood and the carny's dead body in his refrigerator. Frank takes Jenifer and flees to an abandoned cabin in the woods, where he hopes he will hide her and she will not hurt anyone else because of it. Frank gets a job at a small market, and Jenifer's hold over him begins to lessen.

One day, Jenifer sees Frank with the attractive owner of the store. She follows the shop owner's teenage son to a party, lures him into the woods, and chokes him into unconsciousness. While looking for Jenifer in the cabin cellar, Frank discovers her devouring the boy's genitals and snaps. Frank ties Jenifer's wrists together with rope and drags her through the woods to kill her. Just as he's about to strike her down, a deer hunter shoots and kills Frank. The hunter moves to comfort Jenifer, and the cycle begins anew.

A divorced young man Jamie (Henry Thomas) who develops artificial flavorings begins witnessing and experiencing the sights, smells and sounds of a woman he's never met starting with the taste of chocolate in his mouth. Troubled by these sudden experiences, he soon witnesses the woman murdering her former artist lover by stabbing and slashing his chest. Determined to find his mystery mate, his search leads to Catherine (Lucie Laurier), a beautiful Canadian woman who is suspicious of his actions. They become closer until Catherine attempts to murder him due to the psychological and psychosexual experiences that she also feels and doesn't enjoy the fact someone she doesn't know can feel what she can. In an attempt to save himself, he suddenly sees through Catherine's eyes at the wrong moment, killing her when he randomly shoots her.

The entire episode revolves around Jamie's story of the circumstances to the cops that interrogate him of the events that led to the murder. He states that he "knew what it felt like to die" when Catherine did and that it all happened because his life was so empty and hers was so full.

In a lodge, several drunk truckers are finding respite in booze and women. One trucker leaves the lodge to urinate and overhears a fellow trucker screaming in pain inside a truck. He checks the truck but leaves after it goes quiet. Moments later, the door is kicked open.

Detective Dwight Faraday (Brian Benben) is a burned-out detective whose main priority is dealing with animal attacks. He and his partner, Officer Jacob Reed (Anthony Griffith), are sent to investigate a strange call about a possible animal attack. The officers are shown the truck from the opening sequence, and determine that the door was kicked out by something extremely powerful. Faraday then questions the locals and gets to know that the victim was last seen with a beautiful Native American woman before he died. Faraday realizes that the victim was trampled from the groin upward, and figures the man died in a state of arousal.

Elsewhere, a businessman encounters a beautiful silent Native-American woman (Cinthia Moura), who takes the man to a hotel. The businessman becomes the second victim. The same woman then seduces a blond Southern man. In the morning, Reed and Faraday go down to the morgue to examine the cadaver of the businessman, and the same markings found on the previous victim are noted. The team makes the perpetrator out to be a deer, and find out that the same woman was seen with him before he died.

On his way home, Faraday passes a Native American mural, where images of the Deer Woman are portrayed. Faraday and Reed travel to a casino on a local Indian reservation, where they learn from an Indian bartender about the Native American legend of the Deer Woman: a malevolent forest spirit resembling a beautiful young woman with deer legs, who sexually arouses and kills men just for the thrill of it. The open-minded Faraday believes the story, but the skeptic Reed doesn't and wanders off. Reed runs into the Deer Woman, and takes her home.

Faraday calls and informs Reed that he's found old news reports from over 100 years ago in which eleven loggers were found trampled to death in the woods. Reed tells Faraday that he's got a woman with him. Suspicious, Faraday asks Reed if he's seen her feet or legs. Reed suddenly realizes that the woman is the Deer Woman and yells to Faraday to send backup. The Deer Woman overhears and attacks Reed. Faraday races to Reed's apartment, but finds Reed already dead. Faraday then shoots the Deer Woman in the shoulder. Examining her body, he pulls up her long skirt to reveal deer legs. Reviving, the wounded and angry Deer Woman kicks him across the room and flees. Faraday gives chase in his car, catching up to the Deer Woman and ramming his car into her, pinning her to a tree. He shoots her several times, until she suddenly disappears without a trace. Faraday slumps down next to his totaled car, and mumbles "Animal attack," as other police arrive.

Tara (Lindsay Pulsipher), though a pretty and talented teenage girl, is not liked at her school and has no friends. Upon returning home one day, she is kidnapped and drugged. She awakens in a mansion in the company of a woman in a nurse's outfit, and attempts to reach out to her mother through telephone, but the latter seems strangely unfazed by her daughter's plight. After the call disconnects, the "nurse" starts asking personally invasive questions, like whether Tara has been baptized or whether she ever had sexual intercourse in her life.

After Tara notices that she has been taken far away from home and tries to run away, the "nurse" (Lori Petty) and her male partner (William Samples) lock her inside the basement, where Tara finds a young boy (Jesse Haddock) hanging from a noose, close to death. She saves him, and the two form a bond. The boy, Johnny, is sweet and kind but cannot talk; he has to communicate by writing in the dust. With Johnny's assistance, Tara uncovers cryptic warnings on the walls, such as "Beware the Fair-Haired Child!" The two discover a room with numerous backpacks and a bloody bathtub, showing that they are not the first victims.

Johnny begins to undergo a transformation from a normal boy into a hideous demonic creature, the "Fair-Haired Child" (Walter Phelan). Frightened, Tara hides from the creature until it turns back into Johnny. It is revealed that twelve years ago, Johnny died by drowning on his fifteenth birthday in a pond near the mansion. Desperate over the loss of their son, Johnny's parents (the kidnappers) made a deal with a demon, and performed a ritual that involves them providing a sacrifice of one virgin teenager (of the same age group as Johnny at the time of death) per year until the quota of twelve is reached. Tara is the last before Johnny can become human again, but Johnny is torn by his guilt over these sacrifices and has also come to care deeply for Tara. As he begins to transform again, instead of retreating, Tara embraces him until the "Fair-Haired Child" emerges and kills her.

Afterwards, Johnny's parents descend into the basement to find Tara's corpse covered in an old newspaper, with the words "I forgive you, Johnny," written on it in her blood. The couple then happily performs the final stage of the ritual, transforming Johnny back to his human self. Later, as they spend some time together, Johnny speaks for the first time, informing his parents that, in retaliation for Tara's death, he has struck a new deal with the demon: Instead of needing twelve souls to perform a resurrection, he has managed to narrow it down to two, and they don't have to be virgin teenagers. As Johnny smiles sadistically, Tara appears as a "Fair-Haired Child" and kills his parents.

Later, Tara, alive and well, awakes inside the mansion with a bandage on her arm. Johnny informs that he injected her with a medication to make her temporarily forget what had happened and soon afterwards, she will regain her past memory, including "some not pretty things". The two introduce themselves anew as he takes her for a stroll in the mansion's backyard towards the pond, walking past the graves of Johnny's parents in the garden.

Ida Teeter (Angela Bettis) is a shy entomologist who has a wide variety of insects all over her home, which caused her girlfriend to break up with her. Ida is introduced to the beautiful and strange girl Misty Falls (Erin Brown), and is drawn to her. A mysterious package arrives for Ida one day, containing a large unidentifiable mantis-like insect. Landlady Lana Beasley is concerned with Ida's "pets" and the effect that may be laid upon her ten-year-old granddaughter Betty, who likes to disguise herself as a ladybug. Betty in turn looks up to Ida, much to Beasley's dismay, and Ida promises to keep the insects under check. Later that night, she examines the new insect, which she fondly names "Mick", and informs her friend Max of the creature. Meanwhile, "Mick" escapes from his tank and attacks Beasley's pet dog, consuming the animal.

The next day, Ida asks Misty out. They go on a date, and Misty asks if they can watch a movie about "Texas Pixies" on Ida's DVD player, which Ida accepts. Misty is introduced to Betty and the apartment, though Ida keeps her away from the bedroom where all her insects are hidden. The two get closer until interrupted by Max. Ida returns to find Misty asleep on the couch. She returns with a pillow (that has Mick inside) to give to Misty. In gratitude for Ida allowing her to stay, Misty returns the favor by seducing Ida. Unknowingly, Mick's proboscis nips Misty's ear, which Misty dismisses.

The next morning, Ida awakens to find that Misty has discovered her secret bug stash and has a great interest in bugs. They spend more time together, although Misty becomes weak and begins displaying unusual tendencies. Misty later comes across the pillow with Mick in it, and discovers that she has strange urges to lie next to it; the insect invades her much-chewed and saliva-doused ear with its proboscis. Ida receives an almost apologetic letter from a mysterious source, which tells her that the insect could be dangerous. At home, she is pulled into a loving kiss by Misty right in front of Beasley and Betty. Disgusted, Beasley gives Ida and Misty one week to move out. Ida is horrified by Misty's strange behavior and crude remarks. Enraged, Misty yells at Ida and suddenly passes out.

Misty awakens and explains about a dream where she was a fairy and encountered Mick, who forced its proboscis into her navel, drawing blood and inserting "his juices" into her. Max calls Ida, and as she leaves, Ida notices how Misty has placed the pillow between her legs. When she arrives, Max explains the insect: It is known to inhabit the nests of birds and other small animals, where it behaves like a parasite, inserting its proboscis and drinking the animal's blood, while invading the host's reproductive DNA and making them carry out the insect's young. Ida is horrified to learn that Misty may have been bitten by Mick.

Mick inseminates Misty during another sexual intercourse. Beasley encounters Misty, who morphs two insectoid eyes and multiple tendrils, and the terrified Beasley falls down the stairway to her death. Ida arrives home to witness medics hauling away the corpse of Beasley, and Betty crying. Ida calls Max over and is convinced that the insect has infected Misty, who then reveals her own secret: Her father, Professor Malcolm Wolf and Ida's former tutor, sent the insect to Ida so it would bite her and make her repulsive to Misty, who has long been in love with Ida. Misty then undergoes metamorphosis into a bug-human monster. Responding to Ida's screams, Max breaks into the apartment, only to be killed by Misty. Mick scurries to the terrified Ida and inserts its proboscis into her ear, initiating the same insemination process with her.

Some time later, Ida and Misty are sitting with large pregnant bellies, joking about their condition, as Mick continues to inseminate them through their ears.

On a two-lane highway, two serial killers clash in a turf war: one is named Wheeler (Michael Moriarty) who kills hitchhikers he picks up in his truck, and the other is named Walker (Warren Kole) who is a hitchhiker who murders whoever gives him a ride. Stacia (Fairuza Balk), a recently divorced woman, falls in between the battle of wits.

After a transport bus breaks down, Wheeler and Walker kill the driver and passengers — save for Stacia, who left previously. Fascinated, Wheeler and Walker examine each other's victims. Wheeler murders a woman (Laurene Landon) and hangs her body in the truck, and pistol whips and decapitates a man with the sliding door of the luggage compartment. Walker garrotes the bus driver with a dead snake, shoots a passenger, leaves another passenger to die tied by her wrists to a tree and wrapped in barbed wire (whom Wheeler finds alive and taunts), slaughters a punk, and partially skins his girlfriend before killing her.

Later, at a roadside motel, the two psychopaths play head games with each other and Stacia, clashing over who will get to kill her. As she is leaving the motel, Wheeler offers her a ride then assaults her while driving, handcuffing her to the car. He finds Walker on the highway, standing in the lane, and brakes to a stop just before hitting him. Walker accepts a ride, and the two bicker and draw their pistols, ready to kill Stacia and each other. Stacia, sitting in the middle, slams on the brakes and sends the two murderers through the windshield onto the road and causes the truck's cab to fall on its side. Stacia unsuccessfully struggles to get Wheeler's gun, while the wounded Wheeler and Walker fight to determine who will kill her as an ambulance siren sounds.

In the end, Wheeler and Walker are side by side in the ambulance, still fighting and cursing at one another. Finally, they cease and declare a truce. Walker attempts to strike a deal with Wheeler as he points out how much fun the two of them could have with an ambulance, revealing that he still has his craft knife he used to torture the stoner's girlfriend. However, one of the EMTs rams syringes full of air into their chests, killing them both. The new killer tells the driver that he plans to save Stacia (bound and gagged in an upper bunk of the ambulance) for later.

Beginning

The story, set in the late 19th century, begins with a young man named Edward Ralston (Steve Bacic), coming to an old woman, Miz Carnation, who lives in an old cabin deep in the woods of upstate New York. Ralston asks Miz Carnation, a necromancer, to revive his recently deceased wife; she refuses, but then decides to tell him the story of Ernst Haeckel, and says that, if he still wishes to revive his wife afterwards, she will do as he asks.

Main story

The story mainly concerns Ernst Haeckel (Derek Cecil), who is trying to follow in the footsteps of Victor Frankenstein, but is unsuccessful with his attempts to create life. He learns of Montesquino, a necromancer, but believes that the man is a charlatan. Learning of his father's ill condition, he travels and encounters Walter Wolfram (Tom McBeath) and his wife Elise (Leela Savasta). Haeckel is oddly drawn to Elise and vice versa. Wolfram seems undisturbed by the attraction but when unearthly shrieks echo outside, Elise is drawn to them. Haeckel also notices that Elise is caring for a baby.

Elise finally goes outside and the despondent Wolfram notes that he can't satisfy his wife, although he has sold everything he has to take care of her. Haeckel goes after Elise and follows the shrieks to a nearby necropolis. There he discovers that Elise is having sexual consort with her dead husband and the other resurrected corpses. Wolfram has paid Montesquino to raise the dead so that they can satisfy Elise. When Wolfram tries to take her home, the corpses kill him. Haeckel confronts Montesquino and demands that he make it stop. The necromancer says that he cannot, and an angry Haeckel shoots him as he tries to escape. The dying Montesquino shoves Haeckel into a tombstone, knocking him out.

The next morning, Haeckel wakes up and returns to the cabin, where he finds Elise nursing the baby: a corpse-child, the son of her "true" husband. The baby rips out Haeckel's throat. The next scene takes place again at the necropolis, except it is the dead Haeckel with whom Elise now has sex.

Conclusion

Miz Carnation concludes her tale and a disgusted Ralston looks on in horror as he realizes that she is the older Elise, as the corpses of her first husband, Wolfram, and Haeckel stagger in and she brings out the zombie baby. Ralston decides against raising his dead wife and flees from the cabin into the night while Miz Carnation and the rest of her undead clan look on.

Christopher (Billy Drago), a Victorian-era American journalist, is traveling through Japan looking for Komomo (Itô), a lost girlfriend whom he had promised to rescue from prostitution and bring to the United States. Landing on an island populated solely by whores and their masters, he is solicited by a syphilitic tout (Yamada). He claims no knowledge of Komomo, but Christopher has to spend the night, requesting the company of a girl (Youki Kudoh) lurking back in the shadows, who joins him in his room.

Disfigured and disturbed, the girl claims a closer connection with the dead than the living. She tells him that Komomo was there, but hanged herself after her lover never came for her. Distraught, Christopher seeks solace in sake. Falling asleep, he requests a bedtime story. The girl recounts her past — her mother, a midwife, was forced to sell her to a brothel after her father died, and eventually she wound up on the island. Komomo was the most popular girl there, making the others jealous. When the Madam's jade ring was stolen, Komomo was tortured to confess. After suffering hideously — underarms burned, needles driven under fingernails and into gums — she hanged herself in torment, tired of waiting for her lover.

Christopher refuses to believe the girl's story, and he pleads for the whole truth. The girl starts again, and in the second telling, her family is no longer happy nor loving; her father was an alcoholic, her mother an abortion care provider. She was taken in by a Buddhist priest, who, presumably, molested her and inspired an obsession with hell. Her father never died of lung disease — she beat him to death for raping her. Again she tells of being sold into prostitution, but gives a new version of the dark fate of Christopher's beloved Komomo. Despite the kindness of Komomo, who befriended her, the disfigured girl stole the jade ring and planted Komomo's hairpin to frame her — and after Komomo was tortured, killed her. She explains to Christopher that she intended to save Komomo from hell: as Komomo would be doomed for having such an evil friend, only through betrayal could she sever the friendship and ensure Komomo a deservedly beautiful afterlife.

Christopher, losing control, is desperately convinced something has been left out. He begs for the whole truth. The woman then reveals a horrifying secret: a tiny second head in the center of a hand hidden beneath her hair — her "Little Sis", a parasitic twin, the woman's identity now partly revealed as that of a ''Futakuchi-onna'', a type of supernatural being. Her mother and father had been brother and sister; "Little Sis" was the fruit of their incest. It was "Little Sis" who commanded her to kill her father, and to steal the ring. As the hand begins to talk like Komomo in a high-pitched voice, Christopher is overcome by madness and threatens to shoot her and send her to hell. She informs him that wherever he goes, he will be in hell - a flashback implies that he was responsible for his sister's death. He shoots the girl in the heart and then the head. Before dying, the girl's body turns into Komomo.

The epilogue finds Christopher in a Japanese prison serving time for the murder of the girl. When he is given a water ration, he hallucinates the bucket contains an aborted fetus, and cradles the bucket while singing a lullaby, kept company only by the ghosts of Komomo and his dead sister.

Two children named Gracie Jenkins and Daniel Pender are best friends living on the island of Bryher. They enjoy sailing wooden boats that they make off the numerous beaches, but the tide carries their favourite one across to a forbidden bay. This is the home of a local hermit nicknamed the Birdman, whom all the children are forbidden to go near and whom none of the adults trust. This is partly due to him being born on a nearby island named Samson which all locals avoid, as they say it is cursed. On stormy nights he goes over to Samson and can be seen sending lantern signals out to sea.

Daring to go to the Birdman's beach, Daniel and Gracie find the missing boat on the sand with a message written in stones, left by the hermit. Daniel leaves a further message saying thank you and tells him their names. Later the Birdman leaves them a beautiful carving of a seabird and the children hide it at Gracie's house.

Life on Bryher is hard and very rustic. The villagers survive on fishing and growing their own produce. Daniel's father is a violent man who has to work extra hard in order to feed his large family of seven children. Gracie's parents, Jack and Clem, are kinder; Gracie is an only child as their parents have not been able to have more children. However, her father doesn't see school as important for Gracie in their lives as fishermen, while her mother wants her to have an education.

The local school is on a nearby island and ruled by Mr Welbeloved, who struggles to get the young pupils to study. He is worried over the coming war and warns children to be vigilant against any who might be sending messages to enemies.

Daniel and Gracie soon meet the Birdman in person, discovering that he is kind, gentle and profoundly deaf. They begin a secret friendship. Born as Mr Woodcock on Samson, he tells the children that, when he was a small boy, a group of narwhals were beached and slaughtered by the islanders for their valuable horns. The narwhals cursed them and the boat shipping the islanders and horns to the mainland was sunk, the Birdman's father among them. Next illness and death struck the island, then the plants began to fail, chickens stopped laying and all the islanders left except the Birdman and his mother. Mrs Woodcock had sworn she would not leave her husband's ghost alone, but when the well runs dry she is forced to leave. Before they do, the curse claims the Birdman's hearing, making him deaf.

Daniel asks the Birdman to teach him to carve, and soon begins to become expert.

One day he tells the two children about a large amount of valuable timber which has washed up on one of the island's shores. The islanders all gather to collect and hide this timber before the coastal authorities arrive and try to claim it for themselves. While searching the island they ask to see in Gracie's attic, where they find nothing except the carved seabird that the Birdman gave Gracie.

Jack asks where it came from and Gracie insists that Daniel made it. When Daniel shows several of his new carvings, Jack apologises and the seabird is proudly displayed in their home.

The First World War begins, and Gracie's father decides to go and fight in the Navy; as an experienced sailor, he feels it is his duty. As he’s the only man to go from Bryher, it leaves Gracie's mother in charge of feeding the two of them. Clem is unable to catch enough fish so Daniel and Gracie take the boat out themselves. Getting lost in a thick fog they accidentally land on Samson, discovering the dry well, the graves of the old islanders and one of the narwhal horns. When they arrive home, Daniel's father is furious as he insists that they have brought a curse back with them.

Days later a telegram comes saying that Gracie's father has been lost at sea and is presumed dead. Gracie sees it as the Samson curse and blames herself. The islanders gather around to comfort Clem and Gracie and the Birdman delivers gifts of produce, fish, honey and eggs. Clem suspects that the Birdman has been talking to the children but leaves well alone.

After a great storm, Daniel, Gracie and the Birdman discover a beached narwhal and attempt to get it back into the sea, but it is too heavy. The other narwhals gather in the bay and the Birdman knows that soon they will come to the beach themselves and then the curse of Samson will begin again on Bryher.

Daniel's oldest brother and some local boys set fire to the Birdman's cottage because they think he is signalling to the enemy, but he is actually stopping ships from getting beached on the dangerous rocks or getting caught by the curse. They see the narwhals and go back to the village. Soon the entire island comes to slaughter the whales but Daniel insists that they listen to the Birdman. Mr Woodcock finally tells them the true story of Samson and the islanders work together to get the whales back into the sea and away from the island.

Daniel leaves the Birdman watching the sea but returning in the morning he finds him gone, never to be seen again. He takes a boat over to Samson and discovers that the well is full again and that plants have started to grow.

Later that day, a naval boat arrives with Jack on board, found at last and not drowned. The curse is lifted by the islanders and Gracie, Jack and Clem return home celebrating their experiences.

The movie opens with a train robbery in Texas, but a group of Texas Rangers is waiting for the robbers, and stop them. Twenty years later, the head of the outlaw gang, John Henry Lee, is paroled on good behavior, but the same day he gets out, his brother Charlie Lee and he rob a bank of $20,000 in gold. Captain Oren Hayes, the Texas Ranger who arrested John and ensured his parole, goes after him once more, knowing that he will try to pull off the same robbery he bungled 20 years before. As John gathers his ''old'' gang to help him, Hayes does the same. Meanwhile, a group of young outlaws led by Cotton has their own plans for the gold the elderly outlaws have.

Homeless and penniless, the Goodies have no food and are sleeping on park benches. Graeme and Tim decide to sell their trandem, but Bill is devastated. Bill takes the trandem, which he has named "Buttercup", to the market the next morning, but all he receives is a tin of baked beans.

Tim empties the contents of the tin onto Bill's head, but Graeme decides to plant one of the beans — 'just in case'. To the Goodies' surprise, a giant-sized beanstalk shoots up behind them. The beanstalk crosses the English channel and continues to grow along the ground until it reaches the foot of Mount Everest. Bill borrows a flute from a snakecharmer — with the beanstalk then climbing up the side of the mountain and disappearing into some clouds at the top.

Tim notices an ad in a newspaper for competitors for ''It's a Knockout'' — part of the competition being to climb the beanstalk. With nothing to lose, the Goodies decide to represent Britain. Other countries being represented include Germany and Italy, whose contestants meet a gruesome end.

At the top of the beanstalk, a castle can be seen in the distance. Gaining entry into the castle, the Goodies discover a room with several gold eggs. When they leave the room with as many gold eggs as they can carry, they find themselves in a very large room with a very high ceiling, a giant-size coffee mug and an enormous recipe book, with a recipe for "Shepherd's Pie" (beginning with the instruction 'first peel two shepherds'). Then, hearing the words "Fe, Fo, Fi, Fum", Bill comments that it must be the Giant. The Goodies try to hide, with Bill climbing into the giant's mug.

The 'giant', who turns out to be surprisingly small in size, promises the Goodies that they will be paid in gold eggs (created using a formula he had developed when he was a zookeeper), if they remain in the castle and work for him. However, the 'giant' is very demanding and all the Goodies want to go home again. Imitating the Marx Brothers (with Graeme as "Groucho", Tim as "Harpo", and Bill as "Chico") and singing "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?", they pretend that riches do not interest them. Then, while the 'giant' is asleep, they collect their sacks of gold eggs and leave the castle — causing the birds to protest loudly at the theft. Waking from his sleep, the 'giant' orders his birds to go after the Goodies and chaos ensues as the birds take their revenge.

When they are at last able to return to the base of Mount Everest, the Goodies discover that the magic bean tin has one more surprise for them.

Too insecure to approach the girl of his dreams, Danny (Jack Ryder) takes a job at his local movie house where she works, only to learn his first day is her last. After his initial efforts to woo her fail, he resorts to drastic measures by enlisting the help of the chief projectionist, a man who no longer knows the difference between the real and the film worlds.

Karel Novak (Lederer), an incredibly naive Czech immigrant, arrives in New York with $58; but now he must have $200 or be sent back. Novak escapes from the ship and is rescued by dock workers; but he loses his money. He wanders the streets and eats food left by chorus girls. Sylvia Dennis (Rogers) questions him. He refuses money but wants a job. Two women suggest an institution for Sylvia's brother Frank (Jimmy Butler), because he missed two days of school. Sylvia says no. Sylvia gives Karel blankets to sleep on the roof, and she explains about the Depression. Frank shares his job selling newspapers with Karel and takes over after school. Karel does not admit he was fished out of the river and so does not get his $58 back. He asks the police officer Murphy (J. Farrell MacDonald) if someone could get in trouble for helping someone if they didn't know he was an illegal alien.

Karel shows Sylvia his taxi; but she says her show has closed. He is glad to be the head of the house for his friend. Karel comes home early because of a strike and helps Sylvia with the washing. She hopes to marry a rich man; but he kisses her. The two women ask the landlady if Novak is living in Sylvia's apartment. Sylvia goes to court for Frank. The judge (Oscar Apfel) says she is 19 and asks about Novak, who explains the situation is innocent. The judge says Sylvia must give up Frank to an institution until she is married.

Frank packs; Karel walks out, and Sylvia cries. Karel goes to Murphy and asks how to get married. Murphy says he only needs $2 and maybe his naturalization papers. So Karel goes to attorney Halsey J. Pander (Arthur Hohl), who asks for $50 and promises to make him a citizen right away. Karel goes back to drive a taxi even though he gets beat up because of the strike. Sylvia tells Karel that she and Frank are leaving. Karel asks her to marry him. Sylvia says no but changes her mind. A man comes to take Frank. Karel tells Sylvia he is in the country illegally but expects to be made a citizen. Karel is arrested, as Pander is turning him in for money. Murphy intervenes, and the police sergeant (Sidney Toler) makes calls to arrange a marriage license and to hire a minister (Donald Meek). Murphy arrests Pander for speeding and calls a friend in Immigration. At the police station, Pander's arraignment for drunk driving and assorted other made-up offenses, the over-the-phone immigration paperwork, filling out the marriage license, and a doctor's physical examination and vaccination of Karel, and the wedding itself, all take place simultaneously, with comic pauses and interruotions. The ceremony is at last completed, and Karel and Sylvia are married.

Born on a splinter world, Lysaer and Arithon are half-brothers raised apart in enmity. Cast through a Worldsend Gate, they arrive in Athera, the ancient world of their ancestors cloaked in the fog of the malicious Mistwraith. Found by the Fellowship of Seven and urged to fulfill a prophecy which will free Athera from the Mistwraith and allow the clans of the Old Bloodlines to rule again.

Putting aside their differences in the new world, the brothers find common cause and through paired gifts of light and shadow, succeed in binding the Mistwraith with help from the Fellowship. Unbeknownst to the brothers and their Sorcerer guides, one wraith escaped containment and seeks retribution against the two. During Arithon's crowning as Athera's first High King in more than five hundred years, the wraith binds Lysaer into irrational hatred of his half-brother, a curse he transfers to Arithon after the botched ceremony. Rather than succumb to the curse, Arithon flees into a winter storm, finding solace in the outlawed clans dwelling in the forest.

Lysaer gathers an army to follow Arithon, led by the vicious bounty hunters who capture, kill and sell members of the clans. Though initially resistant to the idea of leading a guerilla war against the army, Arithon reluctantly assumes command upon realizing it is the only alternative to the extinction of the clans. The battles that ensue exact horrific slaughter on both sides, eventually resulting in a stalemate that forces Lysaer to withdraw without killing his brother. Arithon in turn has his mage-gift crippled through guilt. While Lysaer returns to the cities to muster a greater army and more support for his fratricidal war, Arithon becomes apprenticed to Athera's Masterbard, departing the clans in disguise.

The film opens with birds flying around the "Witch Rock", as a singing voice starts to recount the legend relating to it as told in the storybooks. Hansel and Gretel wander the woods and stumble upon a village of dwarfs. They are welcomed in until a witch comes and takes them away on her broom to her candy house. The witch watches them eat the house and invites them inside the house, which is revealed to be filled with cages and handcuffs, with ugly animals.

The witch turns Hansel into a spider and chains him to a post. She takes a potion from the fireplace, throws it on a noisy cat, and turns the cat into stone. She takes Gretel and tries to turn her into a rat, but Gretel smashes the potion. The witch then locks Gretel beneath the floor. The dwarfs come to the rescue of Hansel and Gretel, and save the children.

While the witch is fighting the dwarves, Hansel and Gretel use an antidote to turn the animals back into children. Finally, the witch falls from her broom and into her cauldron from the sky and turns into stone, turning into the Witch Rock.

In Kansas 1938, little person Rollo Sweet lives in a homeless shelter while waiting for an offer from Hollywood with bus fare to California. Other residents crowd around a wireless receiver, but reception is poor. Rollo climbs to the roof to fix the antenna, then slips and falls from the roof.

In Culver City, California near Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, a diverse group of people check into a hotel. Among the hotel guests are Annie Clark, a longsuffering employee at MGM; an Austrian duke, duchess, and their Secret Service escort Bruce Thorpe; Nazi secret agent Otto Kriegling; Kriegling's Japanese contact Nakamuri; a large group of Japanese photographers; and 150 little people, including Rollo Sweet, who have been cast as Munchkins in MGM's ''The Wizard of Oz''. The hotel itself has been left in the hands of the owner's incompetent nephew Homer while the boss himself is out of town on business.

The characters' lives intertwine through various cases of mistaken identity. Kriegling incorrectly assumes his contact from Tokyo must be one of the photographers. Nakamuri, knowing only that his Nazi contact is a little person, believes he must be hidden among the Munchkins. Nazi military maps are smuggled into Annie's copy of the screenplay for ''The Wizard of Oz''. An assassin on the trail of the Duke and Duchess kills one of the Japanese tourists instead. Homer assumes Kriegling to be one of the Munchkins and carries him bodily off to the studio costume and makeup shop. Meanwhile, the Munchkins' constant drunken antics make life difficult for everyone.

Finally, Krieger and Nakamuri corner Annie, Thorpe, the Duke and the Duchess in a hotel room, where the assassin makes one last attempt on the Duke's life. As he draws his gun, Nakamuri points his camera at the assassin. A bullet fires from the "camera" and the two shoot each other dead.

Krieger points his sword at Annie's throat demanding to have the map, whereupon Thorpe tells him the map is hidden in a locket on the Duchess's dog's collar. Krieger runs out of the hotel front door after the dog, which runs onto the movie studio lot where it, Krieger, and the pursuing crowd of Munchkin actors disrupt the filming of ''Gone With The Wind.'' Krieger gets the locket and tries to get away in a vintage bus, with Sweet pursuing him in a horse-drawn carriage. The chase ends as the two crash.

Sweet wakes up back in Kansas. As in ''The Wizard of Oz,'' the whole story was a dream, populated by characters based on the other homeless people in the shelter. A bus full of little people pulls up to take Sweet to Hollywood.

Ruby Monahan has gone missing and her family recruits Spike to track her down. It seems Ruby (a half-demon) has been checked into "Mosaic Wellness Center", a rehab facility designed to cure the demonic. Evidence shows Ruby is instead being tortured severely inside Mosaic so Spike agrees to infiltrate.

Whatever is going on, many of the clients do want to murder Spike, having a history with him, and are willing to hurt his newfound encounter-group friends to do so. And just where is Ruby anyway?

A talking dog named Cho Cho teams up with a police detective named Peter Fowler to solve the murder of his owner Chin Li.

''No Job for a Lady'' revolves around Jean Price, the newly elected, somewhat rebellious Labour MP for an inner-city constituency, and her life in the House of Commons. She is married to Geoff Price, who is a public defender and takes care of many of the household chores so that Jean pursue her new career. The show follows Jean while she balances her personal life with parliamentary duties, including "woman's issues," which Jean alternately fights for and is frustrated by, as other MPs think she cares about nothing else as she's a woman. She often is surprised by other MPs duplicity and hypocrisy, holding them to a higher standard.

The Commons' chamber is never seen, with scenes alternating between Jean's office, which she shares with her Scottish colleague Ken Miller, the lobby, and various lounges of Westminster. Other characters include the whip Norman, and the Conservative MP Sir Godfrey Eagan, various visiting constituents, and Jean's secretary, Marc.

In Whoville each Halloween, a "Sour-Sweet Wind" blows and a chain of events causes the Gree-Grumps and Hakken-Krakks to arouse the Grinch into descending to Whoville in his paraphernalia wagon and wreaking havoc in the town in "Grinch Night." All of Whoville dreads the smell of the wind as an omen, and everyone retreats to their home as the whole village goes into lockdown.

Euchariah, a young Who with astigmatism, goes out to the "euphemism" and blows away. He runs into the Grinch as he is picking brickles out of his fur, the result of a failed attempt to hunt down the last Wuzzy Woozoo. After giving Euchariah a brief spook, the Grinch decides the young boy is too small to waste time on and resumes his trek to Whoville.

Euchariah decides that he must stall the Grinch in order to save Whoville. Catching up to the Grinch's wagon, the irritated Grinch decides to give Euchariah the "spook's tour," and Euchariah is drawn in to a surreal nightmare with spooks and monsters in all directions. Euchariah endures the spooks just long enough for the Sour-Sweet Wind to die down, forcing the Grinch to abandon the trek and return home. His dog Max, visibly depressed and nostalgic throughout the special, refuses to return with the Grinch and follows Euchariah home where he is greeted as a hero; the Grinch laments that he will "miss that Grinch Night Ball" but finds solace in "that wind will be coming back, someday; I'll be coming back, someday!" and then ends this promise with a sinister laugh.

The film opens in the nave of a cathedral. People cry out in awe as a blind woman's lost sight is restored. A procession forms, including many pilgrims and nuns. They pass through the cloisters, chanting.

Among the nuns there is one younger and more beautiful than the rest, named Beatrix. Among the pilgrims is a handsome knight. The two are attracted to each other during the service in the cathedral. Disturbed by her weakness, Beatrix struggles to control her emotions.

Gradually the knight overcomes Beatrix's resistance, aided by the Spirit of Evil, a sinister apparition that makes its appearance several times throughout the story. It in turn is countered by a second apparition that appears as a beautiful nun, the Spirit of Good.

When worshippers leave the cathedral after vespers, Beatrix throws down her robe and keys and flees with her handsome knight. The building is now empty and silent, with light falling on the motionless statue of the Virgin. Then the miracle happens. The statue of the Madonna comes to life, and steps down from her throne. She picks up the garment discarded by the infatuated nun, and takes up her place before the barren altar.

The other nuns return notice that the statue of the Virgin has vanished. Assuming it has been stolen, they turn upon the woman they think to be Beatrix, and are about to lead her with execrations when the Madonna rises slowly from her feet into the air, and stands before them.

In the second half of the drama deals with the adventures of the nun in the world. We see her gradual degradation physically and spiritually as she goes from one lover to another. The Spirit of Evil urges on her degradation and uses her as a pawn to destroy the souls of others she encounters.

At last, the Spirit of Good appears and leads a worn out Beatrix back to the gates of the cathedral. She sneaks inside afraid and ashamed. She finds the cathedral empty except for a single figure, which stands motionless before the empty altar. Beatrix goes forward to throw herself upon the mercy of the solitary watcher—and then the figure turns, and the Madonna reveals herself to the nun whose place she has taken.

Beatrix is about to run in fright when the sanctuary gates close miraculously, and she finds herself imprisoned in the cathedral. She prostrates herself upon the ground. A smile of pity comes over the face of the Virgin Mother. She stretches out her hand and raises Beatrix up. She then returns to her throne, leaving the pardoned penitent Beatrix to take up the pure life once again. Beatrix is now tranquil. A shaft of sunlight breaks through the cathedral windows and illuminates the scene.

After complaining about the decline of the British film industry, the trio purchase Pinetree Studios (for £25) in the hope of making some good films. They then fire all the directors, whom they consider to be making films which are either "very boring or extremely pretentious in many cases both" and decide to make a film themselves.

Their attempt to remake Macbeth with less violence and more family interest is a complete failure, and leads to the three Goodies falling out with each other and attempting to make their own films, separately. Tim wants to make a Biblical epic — while Graeme wants to make a violent Western, and Bill wants to make a silent black and white comedy (believing that to do this he has to paint everything monochrome, and not talk). Bill comments: "Buster Keaton must have spent three weeks painting the whole town black and white. And then a ruddy great building falls on him, and he doesn't make a sound."

Arguing over which type of film should be made, Graeme comments to Tim: "At least I can act which is more than I can say for some people present." Feeling hurt, Tim asks: "And what's that supposed to mean?" to which Graeme replies: "Well lets face it darling, you're no Glenda Jackson are you?"

Later, they start filming in an overcrowded studio outside, but wherever Tim, Bill and the other casts and film crews go, they keep running into Graeme's film set which is bigger than the others, as well as running into each other's sets. Bill joins up with his favourite legendary comedians Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Then the battle of the Goodies begins when Tim's film crew bump into Graeme's film crew and all three extras fight alongside the Goodies. But the fight doesn't go well as the Goodies get hurt by their own extras. So they flee around the studios arguing and running about in the theatre. When the Goodies reunite, on stage, they are still arguing - until the huge word "The End" appears to drag the Goodies up in the air as they call for help.

The film opens with Ai, an 11-year-old young girl, moving into the Animal Village during the summer. After being put to work by Tom Nook to deliver goods, Ai befriends four of the village's residents: Bouquet, Sally, Albert, and a human boy named Yū, participating in several activities. Ai begins to find a series of anonymous messages in bottles that state that a miracle will occur during the upcoming Winter Festival if pine trees are planted in specific points of the village. Ai complies with the messages and begins planting the trees, half-believing that the messages may have been placed by aliens.

During autumn, Bouquet scolds Ai for not attending Sally's farewell party, which comes as a big surprise. Ai becomes heartbroken, learning that Sally has moved away to embark on a career in fashion design. Ai ends up at the museum café, and ends up crying when K.K. Bossa plays, as the song reminds her of Sally. Bianca scolds Ai, and tells her that she should be happy as a friend for Sally. Ai then responds by saying that she is happy, but she is instead sad that Sally never told her anything, and leaves the café. Sally sends a letter of apology to Ai, explaining that a goodbye would have been too upsetting, and encourages her to embark on her own personal journey. Bouquet apologizes to Ai for her harsh reaction.

Winter comes, and all the pine trees that Ai has planted have fully grown and are decorated with Christmas lights. A spaceship crash-lands in the middle of the forest, and Johnny, a seagull, emerges. Johnny, who had planted the bottles in order to make an entrance dressed as an alien, asks the villagers to help locate some of the pieces that broke off his ship during the descent. Ai, Bouquet, Yū, and Albert head towards a cave, where Yū claims to have seen one of the pieces fall. The entrance, though, is blocked up by a large boulder from a recent event. Though the team tries to move the boulder, it eventually turns out it is too heavy for them to move. Sally then appears and helps unseal the cave.

The five retrieve the missing piece and return to Johnny, who they discover had already obtained them all. The missing piece turns out to be an injured UFO, one of a larger group that was attracted to the village due to the pattern formed by Ai's lit-up pine trees. The injured UFO reunites with its group, and as they depart, create a constellation in the night sky resembling Ai. Ai then wins the Winter Festival contest for the best decoration, leaving her feeling for the first time as a true member of the village.

The Goodies head west (to Cornwall) to search for gold. Graeme, arriving from a dig, comments: "You'll never guess what I've just found in an old tin mine." Tim asks: "Gold?!" to which Graeme replies: "No, old tins ... and this!" Tim, curious, asks: "What?" and Graeme answers: "Gold ore!" Tim asks: "Ore?", to which Graeme replies: "Or something else!"

Graeme takes things easy, while getting Tim and Bill to do all the work. When Bill complains, saying: "Now listen, we've been doing all the hard work, and you've just been sitting around all day!" Graeme says soothingly: "Lads, lads... somebody has to sit around all day."

The Goodies strike cream in an old mine – and Graeme files the claim for the cream in his own name, forsaking the other two, who are about to leave Cornwall broke and dejected. Tim and Bill then strike strawberry jam and scones. When Graeme finds out, he offers them a poker game, winner-takes-all, using pieces of toast rather than cards, and stakes taking the form of biscuits and later layered cakes (it is revealed that Graeme is cheating – he is using a toaster to pop slices of toast up into his hand).

Things reach a climax in a western-style shoot-out, but with tomato sauce rather than guns – and "The Ballad of the OK Tea Rooms" can then be heard: "For if you double-cross a friend, you'll get squirted in the end".

The narrator, a Bostonian, returns after a brief visit a few summers prior, to the small coastal town of Dunnet, Maine, in order to finish writing her book. Upon arriving she settles in with Almira Todd, a widow in her sixties and the local apothecary and herbalist. The narrator occasionally assists Mrs. Todd with her frequent callers, but this distracts her from her writing and she seeks a room of her own.

Renting an empty schoolhouse with a broad view of Dunnet Landing, the narrator can apparently concentrate on her writing, although Jewett does not use the schoolhouse to show the narrator at work but rather in meditation and receiving company. The schoolhouse is one of many locations in the novel which Jewett elevates to mythic significance and for the narrator the location is a center of writerly consciousness from which she makes journeys out and to which others make journeys in, aware of the force of the narrator's presence, out of curiosity, and out of respect for Almira Todd.

After a funeral, Captain Littlepage, an 80-year-old retired sailor, comes to the schoolhouse to visit the narrator because he knows Mrs. Todd. He tells a story about his time on the sea and she is noticeably bored so he begins to leave. She sees that she has offended him with her display of boredom, so she covers her tracks by asking him to tell her more of his story. The Captain's story, of his sea-travels and the strange journey he once had which he believes points to the existence of a geographic link between this world and the next in the Arctic Circle, cannot compare to the stories that Mrs. Todd, Mrs. Todd's brother and mother, and residents of Dunnet tell of their lives in Dunnet.

The narrator's friendship with Mrs. Todd strengthens over the course of the summer, and the narrator's appreciation of the Maine coastal town increases each day. Soon, Mrs. Todd brings the narrator out to Green Island, in order to meet her elderly mother, Mrs. Brackett, who is well-respected by all in town and the surrounding farms. Attending to her on the island is William, Mrs. Todd's brother, a solitary and shy older man who helps his mother tend the garden and catches fish for them in the surrounding waters. Although initially reluctant to meet new people, and clearly intimidated by his sister's large personality, William comes to appreciate the narrator and shows her all around Green Island. By the end of the visit, the narrator feels deeply welcomed by the Bracketts.

In July, Mrs. Todd anxiously prepares for a visit of unknown length from her old friend, Mrs. Fosdick, and the narrator worries that Mrs. Fosdick's arrival and stay in the house will disrupt the daily regularity she's become accustomed to, and alienate her from Mrs. Todd. But it turns out that all three women get along quite well, and spend evenings talking of friends and acquaintances in town, present and past. One of these tales centers on "poor Joanna," a girl they grew up with who, when left by her beau for another woman who lived further up the bay, retreats in sadness and penance to Shell-heap Island, a small deserted spot owned by her deceased father. Joanna ends up living the rest of her life on the island, fixing up the small cottage her father had built there, keeping chickens, tending a small garden, and harvesting clams on the shore. The Dunnet community doesn't know what to make of this, with some writing her off and others distressed and trying to convince her to come back to town. Eventually her way of life is accepted, as if she were an anchorite living in hermitage, and some of the townspeople pass by the island and throw things like warm clothes, tools, and extra foodstuffs up onto the shore, but without disturbing her. Later in the book, the narrator impulsively asks Captain Bowden, who is escorting her in his boat near Shell-heap, to steer closer so she can go ashore. The narrator finds that only the stone foundation of the cottage still exists, yet there is a worn path through the field, which leads to Joanna's gravestone.

After Mrs. Fosdick has left, the narrator accompanies Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Blackett on a day-long trip to the Bowden family reunion, a grand event in the lives of people in Dunnet and the surrounding countryside, as most of them are related to the large Bowden clan by blood or marriage. The trip and reunion are the high point of the narrator's summer, and where she is fully accepted by the general community. After this, there are moments when the narrator begins to display a keen insight into the residents, especially when she befriends Elijah Tilley, an old fisherman lonely and widowed, who she had previously found taciturn and forbidding. Invited to his house one afternoon, she learns about his dearly loved dead wife, and as Elijah shows her around the house, the narrator feels she understands the story of their lives together and the depth of the dead woman's decency and character.

At the end of the summer, the narrator must depart, fearing she will find Boston a harsh, bitter place after her sojourn in Dunnet. Mrs. Todd is too moved to say a proper goodbye to her, and after saying a solitary, tender farewell to the schoolhouse and the town itself, the narrator boards the steamboat which will take her away. From its stern she looks back at Dunnet until the entire town disappears from view.

The film opens with an infomercial, given by Dick Dupre (a parody of Don Lapre) played by John C. McGinley, which Larry (Danny Masterson) and Rico (Ronnie Warner) are watching. Larry and Rico are two stoners who live in a one-room apartment, and after watching the entire infomercial, they decide to start a "tiny classified ads" business. This is a running gag throughout the film. Each time they explain their new "business," someone asks, "Ads for what?", and they respond confidently, "That's not the point! It's complex" or "The ads themselves... they generate income", simply quoting the infomercial.

After the two are locked out of their apartment by their landlord Lance (Jonathan Banks) for being late on rent, the two are stuck for a way to get cable television so they can watch ''The Shawshank Redemption'' during a 24-hour marathon on TNT. Larry, in despair because his car won't start and they will miss "the Shank," remembers a rehab brochure he picked up, and decides that he had reached "his bottom", and needs to go to rehab. Rico decides to go with him after he sees in the brochure that the clinic has basic cable.

In rehab, the two stoners quickly find themselves out of place among the hard drug addicts there, not to mention the counselors. Beside this, they also find out that the brochure was false, and they only have eight channels and no TNT. After spending their first night messing with junkies and each having a one-night stand with the women in rehab, the two are kicked out. They decide to go to see Big Daddy (Mekhi Phifer), a wealthy acquaintance of theirs.

Big Daddy thinks that Larry and Rico are two guys his girlfriend Elise (Ashley Scott) has set up for his sale of an expensive collection of antique Indian Head pennies. The buyer is an aspiring rapper named Cool Crush Ice Killa (Terry Crews), who wants to meet Larry and Rico at a bus station with the money. They forget the coins in Larry's car, and in a panic they run from the bus station with the money, with Ice Killa chasing them. They go back to Big Daddy's, where Ice Killa, who has a great fear of dogs, is chased up a tree by Big Daddy's trained guard dog. Larry, Rico, and Big Daddy then find out that Elise and Ice Killa were trying to steal the coins. Big Daddy then asks Larry and Rico to work for him in his investment in beachfront property in Nicaragua. At the airport, they run into Dupre, whose infomercials turned out to be a scam, and is now also investing in Nicaragua.

The movie ends with another infomercial, this time featuring Dupre, Larry and Rico. Back at the apartment, two new stoners (Jaleel White and Paulo Costanzo) are being told off by Lance for being late on rent, when Larry and Rico appear on the TV telling of their new fortunes. The new tenants hail them as brilliant, yelling "Nicaragua!" victoriously. In complete disbelief, Lance decides to inhale from their joint.

The film tells a story about the Tulsa, Oklahoma oil boom of the 1920s and how obsession with accumulating wealth and power can tend to corrupt moral character.[http://www.allmovie.com/work/1:51201 Tulsa Plot Synopsis] (accessed June 7, 2010). The tale begins with the death of rancher Nelse Lansing, who is killed by an oil well blowout while visiting Tanner Petroleum to report that pollution from Tanner's oil production has killed some of his cattle.[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=26005 Tulsa (1949) Synopsis] (accessed June 7, 2010). Lansing's daughter, Cherokee, initially in an effort to punish Tanner for her father's death, acquires drilling rights on her land; she meets Brad Brady, a geologist, who wants drilling to be limited to minimise oil field depletion and preserve the area's grasslands.

Jim Redbird is a native American who has long been drawn to Cherokee and, being persuaded by Brady that cattle men can live and work alongside oil men, buys into her oil business and becomes wealthy. As Cherokee succumbs to power and greed, and becomes a partner of the ruthless Tanner, Jim renounces his holdings. Overcome with anger after a humiliating meeting with Tanner, Cherokee and some of their legal and governmental associates, Jim accidentally starts a fire in a derrick trailing pool. The film received its Oscar nomination for the resulting impressive scenes of the rampaging flames. In its aftermath, in recognition of the destruction caused by improper oil drilling, and how money and power can corrupt even those who love the land, the oil drillers and the geologist vow to start over and to ensure conservation is their top priority.

Edwin Paine was murdered at his boarding school in 1916, after which he went to Hell, where he was stalked by an unseen menace through a long corridor for several decades. During the ''Season of Mists'' storyline, published in December 1990, Hell was emptied of its residents. As a result of this, the boarding school was overrun by the souls of its past teachers and pupils who have escaped Hell. Charles Rowland was the sole living student at the school during these events, as all the other students had gone home for the holidays. A few of the teachers who stayed behind were supervising him, but one by one they fell victim to various horrors. Paine aided Rowland in avoiding most of the dangers, such as a murderous gang of students. Ultimately, however, Rowland did not survive. He next appeared as a ghost and decided to forego going to the afterlife with Death in preference for prospective future adventures with Paine.

The two ghosts next appear during the ''Children's Crusade'' crossover. In this story it is revealed that they have been studying the school's library books and films (mostly children's adventure fiction) in the hopes of learning how to become detectives. In their first case, they are hired by a young girl to discover what happened to the children of a small British town ("Flaxdown") who have all disappeared. This storyline connects to various other Vertigo titles, such as Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and Black Orchid. They were briefly seen tracking down the magician Tim Hunter whilst he was hiding out at one of the Inns Between the Worlds, but were captured and supposedly returned to Death's domain by a coachman - although the coachman actually promised to allow them to escape as he didn't force any spirit to return to death against its will.

In the 2001 limited series ''Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives'' the two ghosts investigate the mystery of why and how numerous corpses of homeless children had begun washing up on the shores of the Thames.

A regular United States Navy officer in the Pacific theater is assigned to command an operation to seize a group of strategic islands from the Japanese.

The novel opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor which catches the US Navy unaware. Captain Rockwell Torrey is in command of a heavy cruiser known only as ''Old Swayback'' (an obvious reference to the ), which is off the Hawaiian coast near Pearl Harbor, running another set of exercises in a long string of them.

Lieutenant (junior grade) William "Mac" McConnell is assigned as Officer of the Day aboard a destroyer, USS ''Cassiday'', tied up in Pearl Harbor, not far from Battleship Row. When the attack comes, Lieutenant McConnell takes his ship out of the harbor, leaving his captain and executive officer behind, and eventually joins a scratch task group assembled around Torrey's cruiser. Torrey leads his task group on a seek-out-and-destroy mission. When the ships approach the end of their fuel, Torrey orders them to steer a straight course. That makes the group vulnerable to attack. A Japanese submarine scores two torpedo hits on ''Old Swayback'' before ''Cassiday'' can sink the sub with depth charges.

Back at Pearl Harbor, Torrey is relieved of his command and faces a Board of Inquiry that could lead to a court-martial, but when Admiral Chester Nimitz arrives to take command in the Pacific theater, he makes sure that Torrey will have a position on his planning staff. Torrey's officers scatter to various points in the Pacific theater, with his old exec, Paul Eddington, assigned to an unrewarding post at an old Free French base on the island of Toulebonne. Torrey drifts into a romance with a Navy nurse named Maggie Haynes; this romance is interrupted only briefly by the alert ordered during the Battle of Midway. Eventually, Torrey and his roommate, Captain Egan Powell, USNR, are invited to dinner at Nimitz's house, where Nimitz personally presents Torrey with the pair of Rear Admiral (lower half) stars that Nimitz had worn before taking command as Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC) and announces that he is to go into the Pacific theater to take personal command of an operation, called Mesquite, that has ground to a halt because of the inept micro-management by the area commander.

Torrey lands on the island of Gavabutu, about west of Toulebonne (where the area commander is headquartered), and immediately makes the area commander his enemy by planning an operation to drive the Japanese off Gavabutu immediately. This operation succeeds, and Torrey turns his attention to his next target: Levu-Vana, a much sought-after island having a central plain large enough to build runways for B-17 bombers. He learns that the Japanese want to stay on Levu-Vana.

Torrey's repeated attempts to get more materiel for his mission end in failure, largely because the Navy is sending most of its heavy tonnage to the Solomon Islands to support General Douglas MacArthur. Torrey presses on anyway; during the battle, enemy fire sinks his ship, and falling wreckage strikes him and knocks him unconscious. He wakes up aboard a hospital ship under the care of his lover, Maggie Haynes, initially believing that he has lost the battle and sacrificed his ships to no good purpose, until the general commanding his landing forces informs him that he is in control of Levu-Vana, that Torrey's battle was a success, and that no less than Admiral Ernest King has praised him highly for his efforts. Torrey submits to the ministrations of Maggie Haynes—who, in the last scene, prepares to shave his face using his prized seven-blade set of German straight razors, which his rescuers preserved and returned to him.

After refusing a demand for anal sex from an aggressive customer named Buck, naïve prostitute Clara Wood is evicted from the town brothel by the madame, Miss Hattie. Clara makes her way to the decrepit Starlight Hotel, located deep in the remote swampland of rural Texas, where she encounters the hotel's mentally disturbed proprietor, Judd. Suffering from his own demented sexual frustrations, Judd attacks Clara with a pitchfork, then chases her outside, where she is attacked and eaten by his pet Nile crocodile that lives in the swamp beside the hotel.

Some days later, a fractious couple, the well-dressed, pill popping Faye and her disturbed husband Roy, arrive at the hotel, along with their young daughter and apparent polio victim, Angie. Shortly after their arrival, the family dog, Snoopy, is brutally attacked by the resident crocodile, which sends little Angie into shock. In retaliation, Roy goes out to kill the carnivorous swamp creature, but is stabbed and killed by Judd, who is wielding a large scythe. Judd then violently beats and straps Faye onto her bed and attempts to grab Angie, but she is able to escape and hides under the hotel's porch.

Later, Harvey Wood and his daughter Libby also arrive at the Starlight Hotel, seeking information on the now-deceased Clara, who is Harvey's runaway daughter, but they leave when Judd denies having seen her. Accompanied by Sheriff Martin, Harvey and Libby question Miss Hattie, who also denies ever seeing Clara. Harvey returns to the creepy swamp hotel alone, while Libby goes for dinner and drinks with the sheriff. After Harvey discovers a captive Faye in her hotel room, Judd murders him, once again utilizing his large scythe.

Meanwhile, after being kicked out of a bar by the sheriff, scummy Buck and his underaged girlfriend Lynette venture to the Starlight, much to the annoyance of Judd. When Buck hears screams coming from Faye and Angie crying under the porch, he tries to rescue the little girl, but is pushed into the swamp by Judd and devoured by the crocodile. Lynette runs outside and is spotted by Judd. She runs into the woods screaming, and he pursues her. However, the fog causes Judd to lose sight of her, and Lynette is saved by a man in a passing car.

Later, Libby arrives back at the hotel and manages to untie Faye from her bed and retrieve Angie from under the porch. Consumed with madness, Judd chases the three survivors into the swamp, where he is finally attacked and killed by his own pet reptile.

The Mangler, in Gartley's Blue Ribbon Laundry service, is a laundry press owned by Bill Gartley (Englund). The trouble starts when Gartley's niece, Sherry (Pike), accidentally cuts herself on a lever connected to the machine and splashes blood on the Mangler's tread while trying to avoid being crushed by an old ice box some movers are clumsily carrying past. Sparks and light streams occur when both the blood and the ice box come into close contact with the Mangler. Later, Mrs. Frawley, an elderly worker, struggling to open a bottle of antacids, spills them on the moving tread. When she attempts to collect them, the safety shield inexplicably lifts up and traps her hand inside, followed by her entire body getting pulled into the machine, crushed and folded like a sheet.

Police officer John Hunton (Levine), with the help of his demonologist brother-in-law Mark (Matmor), investigates the incident and others that soon follow. As the plot progresses, Mark tries to convince Hunton that the machine may be possessed, especially after seeing the possessed ice box, and the only way to stop the deaths is to exorcise the machine to dispel whatever demon is inhabiting it. They also come to learn Gartley and the town elders have all sacrificed their virginal daughters to the machine on their 16th birthdays in exchange for wealth and power, with Gartley planning to do the same to Sherry to complete his end of the bargain.

With Sherry's help, the two men attempt to exorcise the demon – which also kills Gartley, his lover and protégé Lin Sue and the laundry's foreman Stanner – by reciting a prayer and administering holy water. The machine gives one last groan and shuts down. As the three sigh with relief, Hunton takes some antacids, admitting to Mark that they belonged to Mrs. Frawley. Mark suddenly realises that the key ingredient in the antacids is deadly nightshade, also called "the Hand of Glory" as outlined in his occult book. Since the machine was accidentally fed the same antacids, Mark realises that not only was the exorcism useless, as the demon is still alive, it is now stronger than ever. The machine bursts to life and now appears to have a mind of its own, shedding pieces of metal and rising up like a wild beast. The three run through the warehouse, chased by the now-mobile Mangler. The Mangler tears Mark apart, killing him, while John and Sherry descend a flight of stairs, where Sherry attempts to give herself to the Mangler to stop it, but John stops her. In their hurry to escape, they fall through a large manhole into the sewer below, the machine struggling to get to them. Suddenly, something falls from the machine into the water and a mechanical wail ensues. The machine draws back and becomes still, and John and Sherry escape.

While waiting to hear news of Sherry, John receives a letter from his departed friend and confidant, photographer J.J.J. Pictureman (Crutchley), who warns him not to trust anyone in the town missing a body part as they are possessed by the Mangler. Time passes and John drops in on her. However, to his great dismay, he discovers the machine has returned to its place on the floor and resumed its duties as a speed ironer and Sherry, now missing her ring finger from her encounter with the Mangler, has taken her uncle's place as the new tyrannical owner of the Blue Ribbon Laundry. He throws away the flowers he brought her and leaves the factory for good.

Background context

At the height of his career, celebrated ecologist and environmental campaigner Professor Alan Russell announced a Biosphere 4 project in 1990 in the Ecuadorian slopes of Mount Chimborazo as a follow-up to the Arizonian Biosphere 2. According to Russell, it would be a "enormous sealed environment, capable of identifying current research into the processes of our ecosystem". As lead of the Russell Group, he soon announced that he aimed to use the facility to develop a new type of vegetation called Bio-Engineered Synthetic Hybrids (Synths) that would combat the rising levels of . Russell's outlandish statements were ridiculed by the press, and to the world the plans were shelved when in 1992 Russell pulled the plug and abruptly resigned in order to avoid his public commitments and instead work on "the one key issue we now face". The Russell Group was in the process of pushing Sanctuary Initiative legislation to save the oceans, but to the world at large, it seemed that without their leader the group lost influence and momentum. By abandoning and sabotaging the project, Russell caused a scandal. In actuality, Russell had retreated to Mt Chimborazo and began to commence work on the biodomes, and lobbied the government to aid this project.

In 1995, it was reported that top secret construction work was happening around the biosphere location, protected by local government forces, and by August 1996 the three primary biodomes were sealed. Russell's attention turned to his project Biosphere 4 - an accelerated evolution biodome to house the Synths - and despite his reservations decided to sell to Subtech to ensure its completion. It was officially announced that Sam Devlin would become the sole funder of the Biosphere 4 research facility when his company Subtech, a subsidiary of Subsea Technologies Corporation, bought out the project. Devlin and Russell had previously been Subtech's employees in the 1970s, but when it was revealed their project to allow people to live at ocean depths for months was to allow the mining of Earth's seabeds, Russell left while Devlin stayed. By buying him out, Devlin now compromised Russell and effectively removed the last obstacle in their way. The Biosphere 4 'popped' to become a sealed environment in 2000, and Russell began the second phase of his project, to create Synths. This became his singular project, to the point where he almost eradicated the rainforest biodome due to a fungal outbreak. In 2003, Russell shared his research regarding the Synth4 plants to his colleague Sarah Parish, and asked for her help with the research. However, in 2005 he became too accustomed to the quick feedback loop of the biodome, and let the latest variant - Synth8 - be planted into the Biodome despite warnings from Sarah regarding their instability. After discovering that the Synths began attacking their babies within the growth chamber, Russell feared that he should have heeded Sarah's warnings though noted that oxygen could defeat the strongest of Synths. He pumps oxygen in killing his creations, and he fears what he has unleashed.

In the lead-up to the 10th anniversary of the Biosphere 4, Russell sent Devlin his proposed speech which pushed environmental issues. This angered Devlin who noted that he owned the project and Russell, and that it was seen as his baby at Subtech, so he would reassert his power if need be. In 2006 Devlin emailed Russell about that workers were arriving to construct a leisure resort complex in the advanced evolution biodome called Club Eden, which Russell was not happy about due to putting an end to his Synth experiments. When Devlin sent Russell a blackmailing video detailing how Russell had orchestrated an assassination of a colleague, Russell noted that Biosphere 4 was his home and that he would do anything in his power to protect it. The act of welding is turning oxygen into and the workers began to notice a change in the ecosystem, causing the air to become unfit to breathe and making workers suffer from respiratory issues and exhaustion. The workers began hearing and seeing weird things (the Synths), and Russell begins making trips to the biodome spraying fire extinguishers to lure out the Synths. Devlin instigates a policy where if the project wasn't completed, the workers would be sealed into the dome. Devlin also disconnects power from the biodome to the main control centre so Russell can't interfere. On December 10, 1997, the biodome wired up to the terminal so they could regulate their own atmosphere, taking the power away from Russell. Soon enough, a worker is killed by a Synth. On December 12, 2007, Devlin removed the ladder leaving to the cave out of the Biodome, effectively trapping the workers. On December 16, 2007, Russel issues his last warning and on December 20, Devlin tells the workers that everything's going to be okay. On December 23, 2007, two more workers disappear. Each of these deaths causes to be turned into oxygen. On December 24 during a Christmas party, Russell leaves a frantic message to the workers about the Synths, before a fire breaks loose which decimates the biodome. It is implied that Russel did this in an attempt to flush the biome clean by pumping oxygen in to kill all the Synths, as relayed in an audio recording. There aren't enough extinguishers to put out the fire. Russell shows up to help and the leader of the workers, who had previously been skeptical of Russell, attempts to follow him to safety but he and the rest die (accelerated by the alcohol). Russell barely escapes and passes out once he returns to the rainforest biodome, suffering from amnesia, which is where the game starts, on December 25, 2007.

Devlin sends Russell a video message saying that he knows Russell is responsible for the fire, and that he is furious and will destroy his life.

Upon the player nearing completion of restoring the atmosphere of Biosphere 4, Devlin sends Russell a final message detailing that thanks to Russel's efforts, Club Eden is ready for its first consignment of tourists, and that Subtech will kill Russel and posthumously ruin his reputation as the murderer of the Subtech worker crew and for being complicit in the assassination of his partner. Russell successfully escapes by un'popping' Biosphere 4, though the experiment proves that colonies can be created on other planets like Mars. While police wish to speak to him regarding the fire and assassination, Russell disappears without a trace. Meanwhile, Club Eden opened as planned and patrons noticed their partners going missing, which Devlin put down to administration error. Devlin is later killed by a Synth, and the Synth spores spread out into the human world.

The game's perspective

The game follows the protagonist Professor Alan Russell and is set inside the fictional ecological facility Biosphere Four which was built by the Subtech Corporation,. Russell awakes in what first appears to be a rainforest but is actually one of four artificial biomes. The player initially has to maintain Russel's survival inside this environment and begin to unravel the mysteries behind this facility and the character's current predicament (Russell is suffering from amnesia). The ultimate goal of this real-time adventure is for the player to restore the natural balance in four artificial biotopes and escape.

The plot closely follows that of the film, although it expands on some minor events that were not present in the original film, or shows them from a different character's point of view. For example, it follows Queen Amidala (Grey DeLisle) and Captain Panaka's (Jeff Coopwood) journey on Coruscant during Anakin Skywalker's (Jake Lloyd) interview in the Jedi Temple—something that is never shown or mentioned in the film since the film follows Anakin's point of view. It mainly surrounds Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (James Warwick) and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Scott Cleverdon). The story features several boss fights, such as a Tusken Raider Chieftain, Jabba's Pit Beast, and Sith Lord Darth Maul (Gregg Berger).

The Trade Federation, led by Viceroy Nute Gunray, has established a blockade of the planet Naboo in the midst of an intergalactic trade dispute. Hoping to resolve the conflict peacefully, the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, Finis Valorum, sends two Jedi, master Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to negotiate with the Viceroy. However, after they arrive on Gunray's ship, the meeting room begins to fill with poisonous gas. Realizing that Gunray plans to assassinate them, the Jedi escape the room and fight their way through the ship, battling the Trade Federation's army of battle droids. They reach the hangar bay and escape in separate ships to the swamps of Naboo.

There, Obi-Wan meets with Jar-Jar Binks, an exile of the Gungan city Otoh Gunga, who reunites him with Qui-Gon. Upon travelling to Otoh Gunga, Jar-Jar is imprisoned, leaving Obi-Wan to navigate through the city to rescue him while Qui-Gon attempts to negotiate for his release with Gungan leader Boss Nass. Qui-Gon manages to convince Nass to spare Jar-Jar's life and they depart for Naboo's capital, Theed, where Obi-Wan is again separated from Qui-Gon and Jar-Jar, forcing him to navigate his way through the Gardens of Theed. Upon doing so, he finds Qui-Gon and Jar-Jar with Queen Amidala and her entourage. He is then required to safely escort the group through the city as an invasion commences. Along with Captain Panaka, they flee the besieged capital and make an emergency landing on the desert planet of Tatooine.

Qui-Gon scours the market of Mos Espa for the vital ship parts needed to escape the planet and encounters child slave Anakin Skywalker, who helps him find the parts in return for help finding components to fix his racer. Following a deal struck with crime lord Jabba the Hutt, in which he had to kill one of Jabba's beasts in exchange for a sum of money, Qui-Gon uses it to make a bet with Anakin's master Watto and wins his freedom.

As Qui-Gon escorts Anakin back to the ship, he is attacked by a mysterious Sith warrior, Darth Maul, who was seen earlier watching Qui-Gon prior to the pod race in which Anakin's freedom is won. Qui-Gon fights him off and escapes with Anakin. The group returns to Coruscant so that the Queen can meet with her ally Senator Palpatine and plead Naboo's case to the Chancellor and the Senate. After Panaka escorts her through the dangerous under-belly of Coruscant (foiling several attempts by bounty hunters to capture her in the process), she decides to return to Naboo and retake Theed while Palpatine arranges for the Chancellor to be removed from office when he proves unable to handle the crisis.

During the attack, Darth Maul reappears. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan duel Maul, pursuing him into the generator complex, while the Queen and Panaka invade the throne room and defeat Gunray. Obi-Wan becomes separated from Qui-Gon and Maul, allowing the Sith to impale Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan then attacks him and finally defeats him, killing him atop a scaffold above a pit (in contrast to the film, in which Kenobi cuts Maul in half). Qui-Gon makes Obi-Wan promise to train Anakin as a Jedi before he dies of his wounds. Like the film, the game ends with the celebration on Naboo.

Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson) and his bombardier/navigator and best friend Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPherson (Christopher Rich) are flying a Grumman A-6 Intruder during the Vietnam War over the Gulf of Tonkin towards North Vietnam. They hit their target, a 'suspected truck park', which actually turns out to be trees. On the return to carrier, Morg is fatally shot in the neck by an armed Vietnamese peasant. Landing on the USS ''Independence'' with Morg dead, a disturbed Jake, covered in blood, walks into a debriefing with Commander Frank Camparelli (Danny Glover) and Executive Officer, Commander "Cowboy" Parker (J. Kenneth Campbell). Camparelli tells Jake to put Morgan's death behind him and to write a letter to Sharon, Morg's wife. New pilot Jack Barlow (Jared Chandler), nicknamed "Razor" because of his youthful appearance, is then introduced.

Lieutenant Commander Virgil Cole (Willem Dafoe) arrives on board and reports to Camparelli, who later tells Jake's roommate Sammy Lundeen (Justin Williams) to take Jake, Bob "Boxman" Walkawitz (Tom Sizemore) and "Mad Jack" (Dann Florek) to fly into Subic Bay the next day and help Jake unwind. Jake goes to see Sharon, but she has already departed. He runs into a woman named Callie Troy (Rosanna Arquette), who is packing Sharon's things, and they have a small, tense encounter. After an altercation with civilian merchant sailors in the Tailhook Bar, Jake runs into Callie again. After they reconcile, dance and spend the night together, she reveals her husband was a Navy pilot himself and was killed on a solo mission over Vietnam.

Jake returns to the carrier, where Camparelli confronts him regarding the bar incident, and Cole reports in Jake's favor. Cole and Jake are paired on "Iron Hand" A-6Bs loaded with Standard and Shrike anti-radiation missiles for SAM suppression. During the mission, after a successful strike, they encounter and manage to evade a North Vietnamese MiG-17.

Jake suggests to Cole that they bomb Hanoi, which would be a violation of the restrictive rules of engagement (ROE) and could get them court-martialed. Cole initially rejects the idea. On the next raid, Boxman hits the suspected target, but is shot down by another SAM and killed. The North Vietnamese in Hanoi gloat on TV over the downing of U.S. aircraft. Cole then agrees with Jake's plan to attack Hanoi, deciding to hit "SAM City," a surface-to-air missile depot.

To secure their mission, they coercively enlist the aid of the Squadron Intelligence Officer, who has been caught urinating in the commander's coffee decanter, being the Phantom Shitter who's secretly repeated this deed throughout the first half of the movie. He warns Jake and Cole that there's no chance of succeeding in their mission, but he is soundly ignored.

Sent to bomb a power plant in the vicinity of Hanoi, they drop two of their Mark 83 bombs, keeping eight for the missile depot and set a new course for Hanoi for their independent bombing mission. Arriving at SAM City, on their first pass, their armament computer malfunctions and they are forced to bomb 'by hand' (guesswork), and after barely surviving a barrage of enemy fire, their bombs fail to release. The two come back around, rerun the route, successfully drop their bombs and manage to obliterate the missile depot in a spectacular display of secondary explosions. Upon returning to the carrier, Camparelli angrily chastises the pair for their independent mission and informs them of their impending court martial at the U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay. During the preliminary hearing, Cole and Grafton are criticized for their actions, and informed that their naval careers are essentially over.

The charges are dropped the next day when Operation Linebacker II is ordered by President Richard M. Nixon, and the unauthorized mission is covered up. The next day, Camparelli grounds Jake and Cole while the rest of the carrier's A-6 and A-7 crews conduct a daylight raid to destroy anti-aircraft emplacements: the tangible, lucrative targets they've longed to attack. Camparelli is hit by a ZSU-23-4 ''Shilka'' AA tank and crash lands, his bombardier dead. Sammy Lundeen is hit and has to head for the ocean. Razor is ordered by Camparelli to disengage and obeys. Jake and Cole, defying orders, man their Intruder, launch and fly one more time to assist Camparelli. They destroy the ZSU, but are forced to eject from their heavily damaged aircraft. After bailing out, Jake lands near Camparelli's crashed Intruder and runs to cover with Camparelli. Separated from Jake, Cole is mortally wounded in hand-to-hand combat with an enemy soldier. On the radio, he lies to Jake, telling him he has already gotten away. Moments later, a pair of U.S. Air Force A-1 Skyraiders ("Sandy") appear and provide cover.

Cole instructs the lead Sandy to drop ordnance on the spot he has marked with smoke. He is killed along with a few dozen NVA soldiers. Cole's final voice transmission to Sandy is: "Alpha Mike Foxtrot"! Jake and Camparelli retreat into the woods, pursued by a sniper. A "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter picks up the two men, and the Skyraiders make one final napalm run to finish the job.

Later, recovering from his injuries, Jake joins his crew and Camparelli, all in their Navy whites, on deck to prepare for entry at a port of call. Jake and Camparelli reconcile their differences, and the movie ends in rolling credits.

One year after the Buggers (Formics) were defeated and the Battle School children have returned to Earth, Ender is still unable to return with them because there would be wars over which country would keep Ender to use for its own ends. Ender is offered the Governorship of the first human colony to be planted on one of the Buggers' former worlds, a planet that will eventually become known as Shakespeare. His sister Valentine decides to accompany Ender on his journey because she is sick of being controlled by her older brother, Peter, and because she wants to restore the relationship with Ender that she had lost when he left to go to Battle School.

On their way to the Shakespeare colony, Valentine begins writing her History of the Bugger Wars books while Ender has an unspoken power struggle with the captain of the ship, Admiral Quincy Morgan. There is also a romance between Ender and a girl named Alessandra. Once the ship lands on Shakespeare, Ender, who had spent much of his trip learning the names and lives of the colony's residents, takes charge of the colony and wins the colonists over.

Ender serves as governor of Shakespeare for a few years. Near the end of his time as governor, Ender and a young boy from the colony named Abra go to find a site for a new shipment of colonists. Ender wants the new settlement to be far enough away from the other settlements that there will not be competition between them right away, and so they can develop separately.

In the process of finding a location for the new settlement, Ender stumbles upon what seems to be the equivalent of a note from the Buggers. It is a structure made to look like a game he used to play in Battle School. When Ender investigates, he finds the living pupa of a Bugger Hive Queen that is fertilized and prepared to make hundreds of thousands of offspring upon its maturation.

The find leads Ender to write his first book as the Speaker for the Dead. The book, titled ''The Hive Queen'', tries to look at the Bugger wars and their eventual destruction from the point of view of the Buggers. Later, Peter Wiggin, nearing the end of his life and knowing that Ender wrote the story, asks him to write one for him for when he dies. This book becomes known as ''The Hegemon''.

After this, Ender resigns as governor and leaves the colony for another called Ganges. The leader of Ganges is Virlomi. Here he encounters Randall Firth, who believes himself to be the son of Achilles de Flandres, and even refers to himself by the name Achilles.

Randall spreads propaganda accusing Ender of xenocide in an attempt to discredit Virlomi and get revenge against Peter Wiggin, who he believes is responsible for his father's defeat. Randall tries twice to meet with Ender and discredit him somehow. On the second visit, his plan is to cleverly provoke Ender into killing him so that people will see how violent and dangerous he is, but Ender does not attack.

Instead Ender tries to convince Randall that he is not Achilles' son, but that he is in fact the son of Bean and Petra; hence where he gets his gigantism from. Eventually, Ender manages to convince Randall of his parents' identity by allowing Randall to brutally defeat him in a one-sided fistfight, the entire time asserting that he could never hurt his friends' child. Randall ends up changing his name to Arkanian Delphiki amidst his guilt for Ender's horrifying wounds.

After Ender heals a bit, he, Valentine, and the Hive Queen pupa board a starship to go to a new place.Card, Orson Scott. ''Ender in Exile''. New York. Tor Books. 2008.

Christie Ryder (Dickey), a telephone linewoman and aerobics instructor, is possessed by the evil spirit of a fallen ninja warrior Hanjuro when coming to his aid. The spirit uses her body to carry out his revenge on the police officers who killed him. One of them is Billy Secord (Bennett), who catches Christie's eye yet cannot explain her preoccupation with Japanese culture nor help her with her sudden blackouts. Out of options, they turn to a Japanese exorcist Miyashima (Hong), who manages to summon the ninja within her. The exorcist reveals he cannot force the spirit out of Christie, but that "only a ninja can destroy a ninja". Christie and Billy are forced to seek the aid of Goro Yamada (Kosugi), a ninja hunting the assassin within her for killing his clan. The three force the ninja out in a dangerous gambit that results in the spirit repossessing his own dead body and fighting Yamada to a fight to the death, finally freeing all three of the curse of the black ninja.

The play opens with Rose having a "one-person dialog" with her husband Bert, who remains silent throughout the whole scene, while serving him a breakfast fry-up, although the scene appears to occur around evening. Rose talks mostly about the cold weather and keeps comparing the cosy, warm room to the dark, damp basement and to the cold weather outside. She creates a sense of uneasiness by the way she talks and acts, always moving from one place to another in the room, even while sitting, she sits in a rocking chair and rocks. Her speech is filled with many quick subject changes and asks her husband questions, yet answers them herself.

With a few knocks and a permission to enter, Mr. Kidd, the old landlord, enters. He asks Bert many questions regarding if and when he is leaving the room. The questions are answered by Rose while Bert still remains silent. The dialog between Rose and Mr. Kidd consists of many subjects that change very frequently. At times each one of them talks about something different and it seems they are avoiding subjects and aren't listening to each other, creating an irrational dialog. At the end of the scene Bert, who appears to be a truck driver, leaves to drive off in his "van".

Afterward, Rose's attempt to take out the garbage is interrupted by a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sands. She invites the couple in and they tell her they are looking for a flat, and for her landlord, Mr. Kidd.

A blind black man, named Riley, who has purportedly been waiting in the basement according to the Sands and Mr. Kidd, becoming a source of concern for Rose, suddenly arrives upstairs to her room, to deliver a mysterious message to Rose from her "father". The play ends violently when Bert returns, finds Rose stroking Riley's face, delivers a long sexually-suggestive monologue about his experience driving his van while referring to it as if it was a woman, and then beats Riley until he appears lifeless, possibly murdering him, after which Rose cries "Can't see. I can't see. I can't see".

Cole, a Mercenary and veteran of the Angolan Bush War, completes his ninjutsu training in Japan. Cole goes to visit his war buddy Frank Landers and his newlywed wife Mary Ann Landers, who are the owners of a large piece of farming land in the Philippines. Cole soon finds that the Landers are being repeatedly harassed by Charles Venarius, the wealthy CEO of Venarius Industries, in order to get them to sell their property because, unbeknownst to them, a large oil deposit is located beneath their land. Cole thwarts the local henchmen Venarius has hired to bully and coerce the Landers.

Cole and Frank infiltrate Venarius' base, and defeat a number of his henchmen. In the aftermath, Frank gets drunk and confesses to Cole that he is impotent. Mary Ann comes to Cole that night and they have an affair. Venarius, learning that Cole is a ninja, hires a ninja of his own to eliminate Frank and Cole - Hasegawa, who is a rival of Cole from their old training days.

Hasegawa strikes the Landers' estate at night, killing Frank in front of Mary Anne, then abducting her to Venarius' martial arts arena. Cole enters, and picks off the henchmen one by one before ultimately killing Venarius. Hasegawa releases Mary Ann, and the two ninja engage in a final battle. Cole defeats Hasegawa, who begs to be allowed to die with honor, Cole agrees and beheads him.

The play is set in 1943 for the original (or shortly after the end of World War II in the rewrite) in the living room of the vicarage at the fictitious village of ''Merton-cum-Middlewick '' (merging various actual village names, such as Merton and Middlewick, both in Oxfordshire.

The lead character is Penelope Toop, former actress and now wife of the local vicar, the Rev. Lionel Toop. The Toops employ Ida, a Cockney maid. Miss Skillon, a churchgoer of the parish and a scold, arrives on bicycle to gossip with the vicar and to complain about the latest 'outrages' that Penelope has caused. The vicar then leaves for the night, and an old friend of Penelope's, Lance-Corporal Clive Winton, stops by on a quick visit. To dodge army regulations, he changes from his uniform into Lionel's second-best suit, complete with a clerical 'dog-collar' to see a production of "Private Lives" (a Noël Coward play in which they had appeared together in their acting days), while pretending to be the visiting vicar Arthur Humphrey who is due to preach the Sunday sermon the next day.

Just before they set out, Penelope and Clive re-enact a fight scene from "Private Lives" and accidentally knock Miss Skillon (who has come back unannounced) unconscious. Miss Skillon, wrongly thinking she has seen Lionel fighting with Penelope, gets drunk on a bottle of cooking sherry and Ida hides her in the broom cupboard. Then Lionel, arriving back, is knocked silly by a German spy on the run, who takes the vicar's clothes as a disguise. To add to the confusion, both Penelope's uncle, the Bishop of Lax, and the real Humphrey unexpectedly show up early. Chaos quickly ensues, culminating in a cycle of running figures and mistaken identities. In the end, a police sergeant arrives in search of the spy to find four suspects, Lionel, Clive, Humphrey and the German, all dressed as clergy. No one can determine the identity of the spy (or anyone else for that matter) and the German is almost free when he is revealed and foiled by the quick work of Clive and Ida. The scene calms down as the sergeant leads the spy away and Humphrey leaves. Miss Skillon emerges from the closet, and she, the Bishop and Lionel demand an explanation. Penelope and Clive begin to explain in two-part harmony, getting up to the scene from "Private Lives," when Miss Skillon again manages to catch a blow in the face. She falls back into Ida's arms as the curtain falls.

It follows a few days in the lives of the Harringtons, who are at war. While the husband and wife fight each other, the son and daughter are on the same path. Then, when a music teacher comes in, things begin to change for the better, until other things start to threaten the peace.

In the animated fairy tale kingdom of Andalasia, Narissa, the corrupt and ruthless queen and a dark sorceress, schemes to protect her claim to the throne, which she will lose once her stepson, Prince Edward, finds his true love and marries. She enlists her loyal servant Nathaniel to keep Edward distracted by hunting trolls. Giselle, a young woman, dreams of meeting a prince and experiencing a "happily ever after". She, her chipmunk friend Pip, and animals from the forest work together to make a homemade statue of her true love she saw in a dream. Edward hears Giselle singing and sets off to find her. Nathaniel frees a captured troll to get rid of Giselle, but Edward rescues her. She and Edward are instantly attracted to each other and plan to be married the following day.

Disguised as an old hag, Narissa intercepts Giselle on her way to the wedding and pushes her into a well, where Giselle is magically transformed into a live-action version of herself and transported to New York's Times Square Manhattan in our real reality. Giselle, frightened and confused, quickly becomes lost and homeless. Meanwhile, Robert, a single father and divorce lawyer, prepares to propose to his girlfriend Nancy. Robert and his young daughter Morgan encounter Giselle on their way home, and Robert begrudgingly allows Giselle to stay the night in their apartment at the insistence of Morgan, who believes Giselle is a princess.

Pip and Edward embark on a rescue mission to the real world, where they too are turned into live-action versions of themselves. Pip, now a real chipmunk, no longer has the ability to speak, and only communicates through squeaks. Narissa sends Nathaniel to follow and impede Edward. Narissa appears to Nathaniel and gives him three poisoned apples that will put whoever eats one to sleep until the clock strikes twelve, after which they will die. Meanwhile, after Giselle summons birds, insects and vermin to clean Robert's apartment, Nancy arrives to take Morgan to school. She meets Giselle and leaves, assuming Robert was unfaithful. Robert is initially upset but he spends the day with Giselle, knowing she is vulnerable in the city. Giselle questions Robert about his relationship with Nancy. She helps the pair reconcile by sending Nancy flowers and an invitation to a costume ball at the Woolworth Building.

Edward locates Giselle at Robert's apartment. While Edward is eager to take Giselle home to Andalasia and marry her, she suggests that they should first go on a date and get to know each other better. Giselle promises to return to Andalasia after the ball that night, which Robert and Nancy also attend. Narissa decides to come to the real world and kill Giselle herself after Nathaniel fails twice to poison her. At the ball, Robert and Giselle dance romantically with each other. Giselle and Edward then prepare to depart, but Giselle feels depressed at leaving Robert behind. Narissa appears as the old hag and offers the last poisoned apple to Giselle, promising that it will erase her sorrowful memories. Giselle takes a bite, falls unconscious, and is plunged into a sleep with mere minutes to live.

Narissa attempts to escape with Giselle's body but is confronted by Edward. Nathaniel, seeing that Narissa never cared about him, reveals her plot. Robert realizes that true love's kiss is the only force powerful enough to break the apple's curse. Edward's kiss fails to wake Giselle, and so he and Nancy prompt Robert to kiss her instead. When Robert kisses her, she awakens. Infuriated, Narissa transforms into a dragon and takes Robert hostage. Giselle takes Edward's sword and pursues Narissa to the top of the building as the dragon intends to drop Robert to his death. Pip comes to support Giselle and helps defeat Narissa by causing Narissa to fall to the streets below with his weight, and explode into dust. Robert almost falls as well, but Giselle manages to catch him, and they share another kiss on the roof.

A happy new life unfolds for everyone, showing Edward and Nancy falling in love and marrying in Andalasia while Nathaniel, who stays in New York, and Pip, who returns to Andalasia, each write successful autobiographies based on their experiences in the real world. Giselle starts a very popular fashion design business and forms a happy family with Robert and Morgan in New York.

(Japanese animation version)

The Robinson family consists of the patriarch Ernest Robinson, a doctor by profession, Anna Robinson, the matriarch who is a housewife grew up and belong to a farmer family, the oldest son Franz who aspires to be a musician, the middle child Flone, a tomboy, and the youngest son, Jack. The family receive a letter from Dr Robinson's English friend in Australia, Dr Elliot, who wishes for Dr Robinson to treat people in Australia due to the lack of doctors. This is an issue for the children, as the family will be permanently settled in Australia. Franz disagrees since he realizes there is no way he would be able to study music in Australia due to lack of appropriate music institutes. Flone is initially excited since she wants to play with kangaroos, however soon she realises their family maid Marie would not be able to make it since she is taking care of her ill auntie. As a compromise, the family decide to have their relatives over, to take care of Franz while the rest of the family move to Australia. On the day of the voyage, though, Franz changes his mind at the last moment and jumps onto the ship.

At the Blackburn Rock ship, Franz met a girl named Emily who he befriends. The rest of the family interact with various people on the ship, such as the time when Dr Robinson has to assist a pregnant woman give birth. One night, on the day of Christmas presentation, a storm rages on the ship for five days. Dr Robinson and his family are not able to make it into the lifeboat as they were busy trying to tend to the injured. The captain ties Franz onto a log of wood which saves him from drowning, and the rest of the family prepare a makeshift raft to make their way into an uninhabited island before the ship sank. They arrive at an uninhabited island, (in 155°East Longitude and 10° South Latitude based on estimation of Mr. Morton) where they found the body of the ship captain of Blackburn Rock on the shore. On the captain's burial, they found the Blackburn Rock ship sinking with animals within.

They set up camp at the shore of the beach but are soon forced to relocate and make a house on a treetop due to the presence of jackals/striped wolves. They have John the dog who was the pet of the captain, and they befriend a petit baby cuscus and they name it Mercer. They also rescue some chickens and donkey from the ship and goats living solitarily at the island. Dr Robinson and Franz spend most of the day exploring and doing carpentry work, while Anna prepares food and does farming. One time, they saw a ship coming and try to fire a rifle to signal it, but they fail to catch its attention. They spend their days mostly surviving and building boats/ships and doing household chores and for the children, studying. Once heavy rain and wind set, they set out to find a water-proof home, and they come across a cave. They found a skeleton in the cave with a diary near it, as they read they realise the man, whose name was Eric Bates, never made it off the island and died, presumably from malaria. They give him a proper burial. As Flone explores the cave and fetching water, she sees a silhouette of a boy running but the family assume that it is a wild animal although they, especially Flone have a hunch that there are other people living in the island. The next day, Flone finds a boy stealing melon from their garden. The boy, whose name is TomTom, an orphan Australian Aborigine who survives in the sunken boat. They find that he lives with an injured ship captain, Mr Morton. Anna is initially repelled by him due to his rude nature and after he tried to get Jack to smoke an improvised leave cigarette, but soon warms up to him after she read a letter founded by Ernest on the canoe requesting for possible ship to rescue the Robinson family and after realising he had good intentions at heart. Like Ana, Franz as well does not like Mr. Morton. TomTom initially refuses to interact with the Robinson family as his family was subjected to slavery at the hands of Europeans but warms up to Flone and the rest of the family soon. One day, Tamtam with Mr. Morton went to the treehouse with the ostrich that they caught, Mr. Morton slapped the ostrich to run so that Robinsons siblings will be able to leave the house to catch the running ostrich. While Franz, Flone, Jack and Tamtam are chasing the ostrich. Mr. Morton climbed the tree and enter the treehouse and stole a rifle, magnifying lens and some of Robinson's family accessories. That night, He left Tamtam without a word sleeping on the cave. The next day, Tamtam went on the Robinson family to see if Mr. Morton was with them, The whole day, He spent each hour on the shore hoping Mr. Morton will return. That night, while Robinson family is sleeping, Tamtam left the Robinsons and return to cave and Ana notice that Tamtam gone that morning. Flone while looking for Tamtam entered to the cave and notice that the underground water was warm. While Tamtam was with Robinson's family, the animals on the island began to behave strange. That night, while the Robinson family is sleeping, an earthquake occur twice. On his return at the island, Mr Morton asks the family to build another ship as soon as possible, to leave and find their way to Australia after they find out the island is actually a volcanic island which may erupt soon, further there were frequent earthquakes. After staying on the island for over a year, they finally leave to Australia on the boat they built with. The voyage takes much longer than expected but they finally make it, barely alive. They landed at the north of Sydney in winter and travelled by train to Melbourne. The family is greeted by Dr Elliot who provides them with a nice house to stay in, while TomTom stays with the Robinsons until Mr Morton finds another ship. They find out that Emily made it alive and was training to be a nurse, hence after a short reunion, she decides to leave for England to study medicine and become a nurse for three years. It happens to be the same ship Mr Morton and TomTom were sailing in. The Robinson family say their goodbyes and the anime ends.

''Dalamar the Dark'' is a novel that tells the story of Dalamar the elf wizard.

The film features Kerns, a Canadian rock musician famous for his work with Age of Electric, as a heroin-addicted artist and rocker named Ryland Yale. Delilah Miller (Ferguson) is looking for an anchor in her life, and turns to Ryland as a stabilizing force. However, she soon finds that he is possessive and undependable. The film portrays the life and death struggles that ensue as Kerns faces addiction and Miller, a bisexual, tries to distance herself from Yale while also exploring her own emotional hangups.

Every high school baseball team's dream is to go to the legendary Koshien Stadium Tournament. For the first time in years, Seido High School has a chance- star player Gorilla Matsui has finally given the team an opportunity to succeed. Most delighted at this prospect is Principal Kocho. However, the Head teacher reveals to him that the first game will be played against the Gedo High School, infamous for brutally killing all their opponents. Kocho instantly loses all hope, both for his students' lives and winning the tournament.

Seido's bumbling catcher Megane, or "Four Eyes," named such for his glasses (Atsushi Itō), is fetching a wayward ball and ends up cornered by a gang of expelled students. Newly transferred student Jubeh (Tak Sakaguchi) appears on the scene and defends Four Eyes from the gang. Kocho witnesses as Jubeh engages the dropouts leader Bancho (Japanese for "boss" or "leader") in a round of "fighting baseball" and prevails. Impressed, Kocho begs for Jubeh to join the baseball team, but Jubeh refuses as he took a vow. However, Bancho reappears and joins the team, thanks to Jubeh's punches curing the injuries that prevented him from playing.

When confronted by Four Eyes, Jubeh musically laments his pitching skill, explaining how he became so skilled he was a danger to himself and others. Jubeh accidentally killed his father with a baseball pitch to the head, causing him to vow not to play baseball again. Four Eyes says he loves the sport as he keeps playing despite his lack of talent and hiding from his baseball-hating mother and insists Jubeh has this love. Touched, Jubeh joins the team.

However, when the game against Gedo starts, Jubeh is nowhere to be found, and Four Eyes wanders off to find him. Jubeh arrives only to find Seido already slaughtered, and an exploding decoy kills him. In the afterlife, Jubeh finds his father, who tells him to embrace his skills and defeat Gedo for the good of everyone. Inspired, Jubeh returns from the grave, as does Bancho, who also met Jubeh's father in the afterlife and was given the mitt that can stop Jubeh's pitch.

Four Eyes' mother finds out he plays baseball and locks him in a cage. Jubeh comes to the rescue and fights her, and as he gains the upper hand, he asks why she hates baseball. As she tells that her father died to a baseball and Four Eyes' brother disappeared, Jubeh realizes the two are his family. In jubilation, their mother gives Four Eyes permission to play. Jubeh, Four Eyes, Bancho and Kocho form a new Seido team. Head Teacher and Gorilla, now cyborgs, one of the school's cheerleaders, and Four Eyes' mother also team up to defeat Gedo.

Ultimately, all except Jubeh and the Gedo coach have been knocked unconscious. After a duel, Jubeh is knocked down, and the coach prepares to stab him with a poison-injecting baseball bat. Four Eyes sacrifices himself to intercept the coach's attack. Jubeh, furious at the loss of his brother, leaps up and bitterly attacks the coach. However, before he can kill the coach, the Gedo players plead for his life, explaining how he brought them out of orphanages and became like a father to them. Jubeh allows the coach to live.

A crowd gathersDuring various points in the film, a crowd of people appears, usually engaging in spontaneous celebration or watching some event. Among the crowd is a schoolgirl dressed in a traditional ''sailor-fuku'', an injured man with a cast on his arm, and a nude man with his crotch covered by a fig leaf. According to the audio commentary included on the DVD release, the nude man is played by director Yudai Yamaguchi.Another recurring element in the film is a drunk man, usually seen laughing uproariously at whatever event has just occurred. He is always accompanied by his dog. At the end of the film, it is revealed through narration that the drunk died of alcohol poisoning during the final confrontation between the antagonists and protagonists. He also states that the drunk was "[his] master", implying that the dog has been the narrator of the entire film. Andy Klein of the ''L.A. City Beat'' called this the film's "best joke". as the coach gains a newfound respect for life and gives Jubeh the antidote for the poison. However, one of the Gedo players emerges and guns down everyone on the field except Jubeh. Looking around in outrage, Jubeh sheds a tear. As cherry blossoms fall, everyone on the field returns to life before Jubeh attacks the bandaged gunman, literally knocking the muscles off his bones.

Joyously, the crowd celebrates, and the narrator (who turned out to be the bleacher's drunkard's dog) states that they lived happily ever- including the one person on the field that day not resurrected by Jubeh's tears.

The animated series is loosely derived from the book and introduces new material and characters. The series begins with the introduction of the March family happily living near Gettysburg (the nearby town of York in the English version), until one day during a picnic, Mr. March notices Confederate scouts at a riverbank. As an officer of the Union Army on leave with a broken arm, Mr. March hesitantly leaves his family to inform his superiors and to prepare for the upcoming battle. Meanwhile, his family endures the Confederate occupation and even helps an escaped slave named John from being forcibly recruited to fight for the Confederacy.

Eventually, Union forces arrive and in the ensuing battle the March family home is destroyed and their investment (which had also been their savings) stolen. With no other options, the family leaves Gettysburg to Newcord, where they hope to be taken by an estranged aunt of father. Upon arriving in Newcord, they are coldly received by the old woman and even less so by David, an egotistical nephew who constantly asks for loans and antagonizes the family. Despite the reception, Aunt March allows the family to stay at home until they can get back on their feet.

Determined to have a sense of normalcy and persevere their hardship, Meg finds work as a Governess while Jo alternates between being a companion to Aunt March and Author. During a sales pitch to sell a short story to a local newspaper, her work and her character are presumptuously criticized by Anthony, a local reporter. Upset and resolute, Jo throws herself into her writing ultimately earning the respect of Anthony and forms an amicable relationship.

In time, the March family moves into a new home and the events that follow begin to reference the plot of the original novel: The 18th episode is based on Chapter 3 and follows the first part of the book. The storyline from Chapter 1 (Christmas 1863) begins in episode 21.

Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by showman Dr. Diabolo (Burgess Meredith). Having shown them a handful of haunted house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra. Their curiosity gets the better of them, and the small crowd follows him behind a curtain, where they each view their fate through the shears of an effigy of the female deity Atropos (Clytie Jessop).

• In '''Enoch''', a greedy playboy (Michael Bryant) takes advantage of his dying uncle (Maurice Denham), and falls under the spell of a man-eating cat.
• In '''Terror Over Hollywood''', a Hollywood starlet (Beverly Adams) discovers her co-stars are androids.
• In '''Mr. Steinway''', a possessed Bechstein grand piano by the name of Euterpe becomes jealous of its owner (John Standing)'s new lover (Barbara Ewing) and takes revenge.
• In '''The Man Who Collected Poe''', a Poe collector (Jack Palance) murders another collector (Peter Cushing) over a collectable he refuses to show him, only to find it is Edgar Allan Poe himself (Hedger Wallace).

In an epilogue, the fifth patron (Michael Ripper) goes berserk and uses the shears of Atropos to "kill" Dr. Diabolo in front of the others, causing them to panic and flee. It is then shown that he is working for Diabolo, and the whole thing was faked. As they congratulate each other for their acting, it is then revealed that Palance's character had not run off like the others, and he too commends their performance, sharing a brief exchange with Diabolo and lighting a cigarette for him before leaving (using the same lighter he borrowed in his vision, implying that the events actually happened). Diabolo puts the shears back into the hand of Atropos, and then breaks the fourth wall by addressing three words to the audience, thereby revealing himself actually to be the devil.

"I've been all over the universe with you, Doctor, and Earth in the nineteenth century is the most alien place I've ever seen."

England, 1887. The secret Library of St. John the Beheaded has been robbed. The thief has taken forbidden books which tell of mythical beasts and gateways to other worlds. Only one team can be trusted to solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.

As their investigation leads them to the dark underside of Victorian London, Holmes and Watson soon realise that someone else is following the same trail. Someone who has the power to kill with a glance. And they sense a strange, inhuman shape observing them from the shadows. Then they meet the mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor—the last person alive to read the stolen books.

While Bernice waits in 19th-century India, Ace is trapped on a bizarre alien world. And the Doctor finds himself unwillingly united with England’s greatest consulting detective.

Susan Foreman, the First Doctor, the Third Doctor, and the Fourth Doctor have cameo appearances.

While out at a pub with friends, Yoko Okazaki misses a call on her cellphone, but the caller ID says it's from herself. She and her friend Yumi Nakamura listen to Yoko's voice message, dated two days into the future, where she says it's starting to rain, followed by a horrendous scream. Two days later, Yumi receives a call from Yoko and realizes that Yoko is on the same routine as the voicemail. Yoko screams as she is violently thrown off an overpass onto a speeding train; her severed hand is seen dialing a number. Although authorities assume suicide, her schoolmates recall similar deaths that were preceded by voicemails. Yoko's boyfriend Kenji Kawai tells Yumi he got a voicemail from himself dated two days after. Kenji dies and a red jawbreaker candy falls out of his mouth as his phone dials another number by itself.

Yumi meets Hiroshi Yamashita, a detective who has been investigating the curse that also claimed his sister Ritsuko. Yamashita shares that the next victim is called one minute after the previous death, and that the victims have red jawbreakers in their mouths. Their investigation leads them to a hospital which has since changed its building and number. Yumi recognizes a sound she heard before Kenji's death: a spritz from an asthma inhaler. They trace the autopsy records to a girl named Mimiko Mizunuma who had died from an asthma attack, with her mother Marie going missing. Ritsuko's journal shows that whenever Mimiko had an attack, her sister Nanako would suffer some injury at the same time. They suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, where a parent purposely makes a child sick so she can take care of her and be praised for it. Yumi's friend Natsumi also becomes a victim and dies. Yumi gets the cursed voicemail and reveals to Yamashita that her mother abused her as a child.

At an orphanage, Yamashita meets Nanako, who is unable to talk, but has a teddy bear that plays the same song as the ringtone. At the abandoned hospital, Yumi is haunted by the spirit of Mimiko. Her cell messages her that she will die in one minute. Yamashita finds an arm clutching an active cellphone, and stops its call. After the minute elapses, Yamashita uncovers a crate holding Marie's body. It comes to life and Yumi sees her own abusive mother in Marie. She tearfully embraces her, apologizing for leaving, and Marie's body returns to a corpse.

Yumi goes home and Yamashita visits Nanako at the orphanage. The Mizunuma videotape that Yamashita found reveals that Marie did not abuse her children; instead, Mimiko abused her sister. The tape shows her cutting Nanako, then suffering an asthma attack. Marie found out the truth and rushed Nanako to the hospital, leaving Mimiko to die. Nanako tells Yamashita that she would get a candy from Mimiko if she stayed silent. Yumi is haunted by Mimiko in her home, playing out the same events her voicemail showed. When Yamashita arrives, he finds Yumi normal, but is stabbed by her when they embrace, and sees Yumi appearing as Mimiko in the mirror. After a dream where he helps the dying Mimiko with an inhaler, he wakes in a hospital where a possessed Yumi feeds him a candy with her mouth and smiles, revealing that Mimiko has found "a new Nanako" in Yamashita to care for.

''Endymion Spring'' has a double storyline. The first story follows two children in current day Oxford, Blake and Duck Winters. Blake is twelve years old and his sister is a few years younger. The two happen to come across a strange book in a library in St Jerome's College on St Giles' (based on Somerville College), which is entitled Endymion Spring. After finding out that it leads to a book of all the knowledge in the world, all the knowledge Adam and Eve tried to obtain from eating of that forbidden tree of knowledge but lost, they then embark on a quest to find it. However, when they do, the story then becomes a battle against the Person in Shadow, a person whose heart has turned black with evil and desire for the knowledge and power of the book. The second story line follows the journey of Endymion Spring, a young printer's devil who works in Gutenberg's workshop, from his hometown in Mainz, Germany to Oxford, which was then a settlement of monks. The two story lines are about 600 years apart, with Spring's story taking place at the epoch of the printing press in 1453, and Blake's taking place in the late 20th or early 21st century.

Major themes

There are several themes throughout ''Endymion Spring''. The first and foremost resonates throughout the book in the words "Bring only the insight the inside brings." These words appear to communicate a theme regarding knowledge, and how it should be used.

Irith Hardey's life is out of control.

The world's climate is in chaos. Rising seas have flooded out half a billion people. Hundreds of millions of refugees are pouring into the west, the global economy is collapsing and democracies are being crushed by the anti-refugee Yellow Armbands. But there is worse to come. In a desperate attempt to avert the coming ice age that will wipe out civilisation, the Great Powers have agreed to embark on the most monumental gamble of all time ''100 Days to Save the World''.

Climate scientist Irith Hardey is sure they've got it wrong. The U.S. President's pet scheme isn't going to save the world, but ruin it. Searching for the awful truth behind the 100 Days project, Irith is tormented by the Yellow Armbands, then hunted from blizzard-struck London to the Scottish Highlands and across the wild North Sea.

In a United States terrorized by gun-toting militias trying to bring down the President, Irith is forced to confront the worst nightmare any 21st-century woman can face, as she struggles to uncover the ghastly secret of the Life Lottery before 100 days are up.

This is a moving story told in letters between two great poets, the Russian Marina Tsvetaeva and the Austrian Rainer Maria Rilke. They never met but their fiery relationship lasted for several months. At that time Rilke was severely ill with leukaemia and had already not written for two years. However the letters of Tsvetaeva returned him to poetry. The love of Tsvetayeva for Rilke's poetry grew to the love of him as a person. She was ready to come and meet him in real life, but when her last letter to him was written, Rilke was already dead. As a background to this story, two other pairs of poets were added: the Ancient Greek poets Sapho and Alcaeus, and the 8th-century Japanese poets Otomo no Yakamochi and Lady Otomo no Sakanoue.

Nils Holgersson is a 14-year-old farm boy, the son of poor farmers. He is lazy and disrespectful to others. In his spare time he enjoys tormenting the animals that live on his family farm.

One Sunday, while his parents are at church and have left him home to read the day's homily in the family Bible, Nils captures a ''tomte'' in a net. In exchange for his freedom, the tomte offers Nils a large gold coin. Nils rejects the offer, and so the tomte transforms Nils into a tomte himself, shrinking him and his pet hamster Carrot to a tiny size and granting him the ability to talk with animals. The farm animals are delighted to see their tormentor reduced to their size and become angry and hungry for revenge. Meanwhile, wild geese are flying over the farm during their spring migration, and they taunt a white farm goose named Morten (whom Nils has also tormented by typing a rope around his neck). Morten decides he wants to join the wild flock. Escaping from the angry animals, Nils scrambles onto Morten's back with his new friend Carrot, and they join the flock of wild geese flying towards Lapland for the summer.

The wild geese, who are not pleased at all to be joined by a boy and a domestic goose, eventually take him on an adventurous trip across all the historical provinces of Sweden. They encounter many adventures and characters such as Smirre the fox. Nils's adventures, as well as the characters and situations he encounters, teach him to help other people and not to be selfish. In the course of the trip, Nils learns that if he can prove he has changed for the better, the tomte might be disposed to change him back to his normal size.

The main character of the story is Dave Mitchell, a 14-year-old boy who is growing up in mid-20th century in New York City. Dave lives with his father and his asthmatic mother and her attacks worsen when Dave and his father have their frequent arguments. Dave's refuge after a clash with his father is with Kate, an elderly neighbor whose apartment is filled with the stray cats she loves. Dave adopts one of the stray cats, names it "Cat" and takes him home. "Cat" brings both joy and adventure into Dave's life. Dave Mitchell lives in the middle of New York City. Dave Mitchell takes the bus or the subway.

Cat's presence brings Dave into contact with several new people, including a troubled college-aged boy named Tom and his first girlfriend, Hilda. While documenting Dave's growing maturity, the book also provides glimpses of a few of New York's neighborhoods and attractions, from the Fulton Fish Market to the Bronx Zoo and Coney Island.

Mrs. Spoon Pepperpot lives in a small little village with her husband Fork. She wears a small magical teaspoon around her neck which every now and then shrinks her to the size of her teaspoon which does not shrink as well, and she must drag it along with her on her back when she gets shrunk. She always changes back to her original size after a certain amount of time. This special condition had its advantages — she can communicate with animals and enjoy wonderful adventures in the woods. This way she wins new and interesting friends on a regular basis. She is a good friend of Lily, a mysterious little girl who lives in the forest alone, she is also friends with a mouse family. She can not reveal her secret or show herself in the shrunk condition, which sometimes gets quite difficult. Her husband eventually finds out his wife's secret later on in the series.

The film is set in Australia 1919, just a year after World War I. Australia begins to question the value of continuing as an outpost to the British Empire. Since his sister's death years ago, Jack Dickens has raised his niece Sally, aided by his sharp-tongued maid Hannah. Sally's father, Alexander Voysey, abandoned her after her mother's death and took off for the bright lights of the city, ostensibly making a name for himself as a literary critic and writer in London. Jack and Sally have sacrificed their own hopes and dreams to run the farm while Voysey disports himself in the city. Despite the claims of success, Voysey is a self-centered, self-aggrandizing, pompous windbag with no visible means of support beyond leeching off his brother-in-law's labours on the farm.

Voysey has remarried a younger woman, Deborah, who has come to regret her marriage. Voysey subjects Deborah to cruel behavior from him, such as fetching things he's dropped at his whim and making advances to other women right in front of her. Deborah is deeply unhappy, and feels that she has wasted her youth and squandered her life in marrying Voysey. Both Jack and the town doctor are soon smitten by Deborah, while Sally pines for the town doctor herself. The true natures, characters, and hopes and dreams within the family are revealed as things fall apart.

The story takes place far in the future. Earth has become an uninhabitable wasteland of biological warfare. After fleeing Earth decades earlier, a contingent of humans returns to find a small band of beings, now not quite human, still fighting an enemy which has long since been annihilated. The title refers to the planet's surface, which has become a swirling mass of blue goo, a result of the biological agents acting and reacting one with another.

Sammy awakens in a lane one morning after a two-day drinking binge, and gets into a fight with some plainclothes policemen, called in Glaswegian dialect "sodjers". When he regains consciousness, he finds that he has been beaten severely and, he gradually realises, is completely blind. The plot of the novel follows Sammy as he explores and comes to terms with his new-found disability, and the difficulties this brings.

Upon being released Sammy goes back to his house and realises that his girlfriend, Helen, is gone. He assumes that she took off because of the fight they had before Sammy last left his house, but makes no attempt to find her.

For a while, Sammy struggles with the simple tasks that blindness makes difficult. Soon, Sammy realises he will need something to indicate his blindness to other people. He cuts the head off of an old mop and, with the help of his neighbour, Boab, paints it white. He also purchases a pair of sunglasses to cover his eyes.

Eventually, Sammy finds himself at the Central Medical waiting to get checked out for his blindness. He is instructed to the Dysfunctional Benefits floor and is questioned by a young lady who asks Sammy questions about his blindness. Sammy tells her about being beaten up by the cops, but immediately regrets telling her this and tries to take it back. She informs him that she cannot remove his statement from the record, but he can clarify if he wishes to. This upsets Sammy and he leaves the Central Medical without finishing filing for dysfunctional benefits.

Once home Sammy decides to calm down by taking a bath. While in the bathtub Sammy hears someone enter his flat. When he goes to investigate he is cuffed by police and taken to the department. They question him about the Saturday before Sammy went blind, and about the Leg (an old friend/associate). Sammy cannot remember much about that Saturday but admits to having met up with his friends Billy and Tam. Sammy says he can remember nothing else, so they throw him in a cell.

Later Sammy is released for his doctor's appointment. The doctor asks Sammy a series of questions about his vision, and in the end, refuses to diagnose Sammy as blind. Upon leaving the doctor's office, a young man, Ally, approaches Sammy. He seems to know all about how the doctor will not give out diagnoses and persuades Sammy that he should be his representation for a commission payment.

Bored at home Sammy decides to go down to Quinn's bar, the bar Helen worked at. Sammy gets his neighbour, Boab, to call him a taxi to take him to the city centre. At the door of Quinn's bar, Sammy is told by two men that there is a promotion going on inside and Sammy cannot go in. Sammy gets upset at this and asks about Helen. The men tell Sammy that no one by the name of "Helen" has ever worked there. Upset, Sammy walks to Glancy's bar—his favourite hang out—and is approached by his old friend Tam. Tam is upset because Sammy gave his name to the police and now his family is being affected by it. Angry, Tam leaves Sammy who wonders what is going on.

Later, Ally sends over Sammy's son, Peter, to take pictures of the marks Sammy has from being beaten by the police. Peter arrives with his friend, Keith, and offers to give Sammy money. Sammy refuses the money but Peter keeps pestering him about it. Eventually, Sammy agrees to take the money and meets with Peter and Keith at a nearby pub. After Peter leaves Sammy takes the money, flags a taxi, and leaves.

After a run-in with a hot exotic dancer one wintry night, straight-laced student James (Julian Morris (actor)) will find himself on the ride of his life. Risking his future, he follows this mysterious woman to New York city, ditching school, dodging cops and partying at hot nightclubs along the way. Based on a true story, Whirlygirl, is a 'Risky Business' for the 21st century; a fast-paced, sexy, adventure about trusting your instincts and pushing life to the limit.

Sources

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364745/combined

Alexander narrates the story of having a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day. From the moment Alexander woke up, he noticed the bubble gum that was in his mouth when he fell asleep had now gotten stuck in his hair. Then, when he got out of bed, he tripped on his skateboard. In the bathroom, he accidentally dropped his favorite sweater into the sink while the water was on. At breakfast, his brothers, Anthony and Nick, find prizes in their breakfast cereal boxes, but Alexander only finds cereal in his box and no prize at all. Alexander resolves that he is going to move away to Australia.

In the carpool on the way to school, Alexander has to sit in the middle between two other kids in the back. He complains about how uncomfortable he is and that he will get carsick unless he gets to sit at the window, but no one listens. At school, his teacher Mrs. Dickens disqualifies Alexander's picture of the "invisible castle," which is just a blank sheet of paper, preferring Paul's picture of a sailboat. At singing time, she criticizes Alexander for singing too loud and at counting time, she mentions that he has skipped “16” when the class counted from 1 to 20. After being told, he retorts that no one needs "16" and again laments how bad his day is.

At recess, Paul tells him that he is no longer his best friend and will only play with him occasionally now. Paul has decided to choose Phillip as his first best friend and Albert his second best friend, therefore Alexander has been brought down to third best. Alexander's response is that he hopes Paul sits on a tack and when he gets an ice cream cone, the ice cream will fall off and land somewhere in Australia. Then at lunchtime, all the close friends show off their desserts, except for Alexander. Respectively, there are two cupcakes for Phillip’s dessert, a chocolate bar with almonds for Albert, and Paul has a jelly roll with coconut sprinkles. But since Alexander's mother forgot to include one, there is no dessert with his lunch. Once again, Alexander laments having a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day".

After school, Alexander's mother takes him and his brothers to the dentist. At the appointment, the dentist, Dr. Fields finds Alexander is the only one with a cavity. Dr. Fields announces that he will call Alexander in next week and fix it, to which Alexander repeats his plan about moving to Australia for good. Alexander then recalls other bad things on the way back to the car. First the elevator door closed on his foot and outside Anthony pushed Alexander into a mud puddle. Then, as Alexander cried, Nick called him a "cry baby". Finally, when started Alexander hitting his brother for calling him names, his mother scolded him for getting dirty and starting a fight.

At the shoe store, Alexander wants blue sneakers with red stripes, but they are sold out, so his mother buys him plain white shoes, which are the only shoes available in his size. Alexander states that the store may sell them to him but he refuses to wear them. When his family comes to pick up his father at the office, Alexander gets in trouble for making a mess and playing with the following things in the office: the copy machine, the stack of books, and the telephone (which he wanted to use to call Australia). This culminates in the father asking the family not to pick him up anymore.

That night, the family has lima beans for dinner which Alexander hates; he also hates seeing kissing on TV. During Alexander's bath, the water is too hot, he gets soap in his eyes, his marble is lost in the drain, and then he is forced to wear his "railroad-train" pajamas which he hates as well. Lastly at bedtime, his nightlight burns out, he bites his tongue, Nick has taken back a pillow he said Alexander could keep and the cat decides not to sleep with Alexander, but with Anthony.

The running gag throughout the book is Alexander saying that he wants to move to Australia because he thinks it is better there. His mother reassures him that everybody has bad days, even those who live in Australia. While the American version of this book has Alexander say he wants to move to Australia, the Australian and New Zealand versions has him say he wants to move to Timbuktu instead.

Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller), a scientist, has his home laboratory in the castle owned by his wife Muriel (Barbara Steele). Arrowsmith finds her having sex with a gardener, David. He attacks and disfigures David with a hot poker and burns Muriel's face with acid. Before electrocuting both of them, Arrowsmith is told that he is not Muriel's heir, but that the estate has been willed to her stepsister, Jenny (also Steele), who is mentally unstable. Arrowsmith removes David's and Muriel's hearts and hides them in an urn. He uses their blood to rejuvenate his aged servant, Solange (Helga Liné).

Sometime later, Arrowsmith marries Jenny, planning to have the rejuvenated Solange drive her insane. Jenny begins having nightmares, which include the sound of beating hearts and Muriel's voice urging her to murder Stephen. Arrowsmith brings Dr. Derek Joyce (Marino Masé) to the castle to treat Jenny, who becomes convinced that supernatural forces are at work. Joyce discovers the hidden hearts of Muriel and David. The murdered dead return as ghosts. Muriel burns Stephen alive while David reduces Solange to a skeleton by draining her blood. Dr. Joyce then burns the disembodied hearts and leaves the castle with Jenny.

Benny and the Doctor land on Earth in the late 30th century, in order to find out more information about a missing alien space ship. They are eventually arrested for murder by Adjucator Roz Forrester and her partner/squire Chris Cwej. The Doctor discovers that the person behind his arrest, and also responsible for supporting the Earth Empire, is none other than Tobias Vaughn, the former head of International Electromatics and collaborator with the Cybermen. Just prior to his "death" (in ''The Invasion''), Vaughn transferred his memories and consciousness into a robot body. Since then, he has been manipulating Earth history in order to trap the Doctor and gain the secret to time travel. The Doctor manages to trap Vaughn in the TARDIS, cutting him off from transferring his mind to a new body; he later removes Vaughn's brain crystal and installs it in a food machine. Roz and Chris, now framed by corrupt Adjucator officials, agree to travel with the Doctor rather than face trumped-up charges.

Various residents of a high-rise apartment building are watching a film being broadcast on television. The film's story follows several teens who trespass into a city that was deserted and walled-off due to the Demon outbreak from the first film. Finding the demon's corpse, one of the teens revives it accidentally when blood drips from a scratch into the demon's mouth.

In reality, a young woman named Sally celebrates her birthday at a party with her friends. When one of her friends receives a call from a boy named Jacob and invites Jacob to the party, she flies into a rage, screaming she does not want to see Jacob and demands everyone leave. As she sequesters herself in her room, she watches part of the film on television. Suddenly, the demon on the television looks at her through the television. The demon pushes through the television and attacks her. She is unable to escape, as her friends have locked the door, so they could prepare her birthday cake in secret.

As her friends present Sally with her cake, she transforms into a demon and attacks them, turning all but two of them into bloodthirsty monsters. The creatures' bile seeps through the building, burning through the ceiling and into other apartments and shorting out the electrical system. In one apartment, a dog licks up the bile and transforms into a vicious beast that attacks and kills its owner. In another apartment, a young boy left alone by his parents avoids Sally and her rampaging demon friends, but is poisoned by the bile and becomes a monster.

The demon boy attacks Hannah, a pregnant woman waiting for her husband to come home. She kills the demon boy, but a smaller, flying demon bursts out of his body to further terrorize her. Her husband, George, has been trapped in the elevator with another woman. As they escape through a service hatch, a security guard who turned into a demon after being scratched in the face by Sally bursts through the elevator door and infects the woman. She pursues George through the ceiling of the elevator cab. As he climbs the suspension cables above the cab, he kicks the demon away before entering his and Hannah's apartment in time to kill the flying demon with an umbrella.

Meanwhile, a group of bodybuilders led by a gym instructor named Hank have barricaded themselves in the building's underground car park, along with a group of tenants. Unable to break down the garage doors, they defend themselves against the demons with shotguns and makeshift weapons, such as Molotov cocktails. The demons eventually force their way in. Although they outnumber the demons, the uninfected are either turned into demons themselves or killed.

The infected start making their way back up the building. George causes a leak in the gas pipes that kills all the infected except Sally in an explosion. Hannah and George enter Sally's apartment, finding the two hidden partygoers. The four make their way to the roof but are stopped by Sally. She infects the two partygoers, but George dispatches them. George and Hannah lower themselves to the roof of an adjacent building, fighting and wounding Sally as they go. Inside the neighboring building, which is a television studio, Hannah gives birth to the couple's child. A blinded Sally appears and collapses, apparently dead. However, an image of Sally appears on several television monitors, running towards the viewer and presumably trying to attack them through the television as Sally herself was originally attacked. George smashes the monitors and he and Hannah exit with their newborn child.

Young urban professionals Jesse McLaughlin (Arye Gross) and his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) move into an old mansion that has been in Jesse's family for generations. They are soon joined by Jesse's goofy friend Charlie Coriell (Jonathan Stark), who brought along his diva girlfriend Lana (Amy Yasbeck), in the hopes of being discovered by Kate, who works for a record company.

Jesse has returned to the old family mansion after his parents were murdered when he was a baby. While going through old things in the basement, Jesse finds a picture of his great-great-grandfather (and namesake) in front of an Aztec temple holding a crystal skull with sapphires in the eyes. In the background is a man Jesse learns is Slim Reeser, a former partner of his great-great-grandfather turned bitter enemy after a disagreement over who would get to keep the skull.

Reasoning that the skull must be buried with him, Jesse and Charlie decide to dig up Jesse's great-great-grandfather in the hopes of procuring the skull. They unearth the casket only to be attacked by the corpse (Royal Dano), who then shows himself to be friendly when Jesse reveals his identity as the senior Jesse's great-great-grandson. Jesse and Charlie take the cowboy zombie, nicknamed "Gramps", back to the house, where he is horrified to learn that the skull has not rejuvenated his body as he had hoped.

Gramps and Charlie go out drinking and driving, and later the boys listen for hours to Gramps' stories of the Old West and his outlaw life. Gramps explains that the house was built using stones from the Aztec temple, and that its rooms act as a hidden doorway across space and time, with the skull acting as a key. He charges Charlie and Jesse with defending the skull against the forces of evil, who are drawn to possess the skull.

During an impromptu Halloween party thrown by Charlie, Gramps makes an appearance (though he is overlooked as it is a costume party), Kate leaves Jesse (taking Lana with her) after he is seen with an old girlfriend by her smarmy boss John Statman (Bill Maher), and Jesse and Charlie pick up two new pets in the Jurassic era, a baby pterodactyl and a caterpillar-dog that's dubbed a Cater-Puppy, after a barbarian/caveman arrives at the party and steals the skull.

Bill Towner (John Ratzenberger), an electrician and "part-time adventurer", arrives to inspect the house's old wiring. While seemingly a buffoon, he pulls a short-sword from his tool case and leads the boys through "one of those time-portal things...you see these all the time in these old houses." In the mystic past, the three fight off a group of Aztec warriors and rescue an Aztec virgin who was about to be sacrificed.

Eventually, a zombified Slim Reeser makes his appearance. Still after the skull, Slim shoots Gramps who then gives Jesse his guns and reveals that it was Slim who shot and killed Jesse's parents when he was a baby. Jesse jumps through a window into the Old West, and eventually succeeds in killing Slim by blasting off his head with a rifle (or, maybe, a shotgun). Gramps, who has been mortally wounded, begins to pass away. Gramps says goodbye to Jesse and tells him he is so happy to have met his great-great-grandson. Gramps then gives a final warning about the power of the skull, encouraging Jesse to get what he wants from the enchanted object and then get rid of it. As Gramps passes, Jesse embraces him.

The film ends with the revelation that Jesse used the skull to travel back into the Old West, where he, Charlie and the rest of their friends drive off in a wagon on a new adventure, leaving the crystal skull behind, marking Gramps' new grave.

The plot of the novel is Drogo's lifelong wait for a great war in which his life and the existence of the fort can prove its usefulness. The human need for giving life meaning and the soldier's desire for glory are themes in the novel. Drogo is posted to the remote outpost overlooking a desolate Tartar desert; he spends his career waiting for the barbarian horde rumored to live beyond the desert. Without noticing, Drogo finds that in his watch over the fort he has let years and decades pass and that, while his old friends in the city have had children, married, and lived full lives, he has come away with nothing except solidarity with his fellow soldiers in their long, patient vigil. When the attack by the Tartars finally arrives, Drogo gets ill and the new chieftain of the fortress dismisses him. Drogo, on his way back home, dies lonely in an inn.

Detective Lucas McCarthy finally catches serial killer "Meat Cleaver Max" Jenke and watches his execution. McCarthy is shocked to see the electric chair physically burn Max before he finally dies promising revenge. Max has made a deal with the devil to frame Lucas for his murders from beyond the grave. Max scares the McCarthy family (who have moved into a new house) and the parapsychologist Peter Campbell they hired. Campbell tells Lucas that the only hope of stopping Max for good is to destroy his spirit.

As the family move in, Donna searches the basement to find their missing cat Gazmo. The furnace turns on and the door flings open; apparently Max's spirit is inside the house and focused on the basement. Lucas starts having hallucinations that lead him to behave erratically. Bonnie goes to the cellar to secretly meet her boyfriend Vinnie, who is later killed by a physical manifestation of Max with a cleaver. The next night, Bonnie tells Scott to come with her to look for Vinnie, while Lucas goes to the basement and angrily calls for Max to stay away from his family. Bonnie returns to the basement and finds Vinnie's body for which Lucas is suspected of the murder.

Max kills Scott with the meat cleaver, transforms into Bonnie and decapitates Campbell before holding Donna hostage. Lucas escapes from questioning and goes into the cellar to fight Max. Lucas sends Max to the electric machine where his arm gets stuck, Lucas and Donna use the chair to shock Max causing him to appear back in physical form in the house where Lucas shoots him dead.

The next day the McCarthy’s are moving out with Scott still alive. Bonnie goes into the basement and runs outside to find Gazmo in a box. The family takes a photo as the screen freezes and fades to black.

"Steps in the Dance"

: by Eric Flint

Anne Jefferson and Harry Lefferts pose for Rembrandt as part of a complex political situation.

"Collateral Damage"

: by Mike Spehar

Hans Richter's flying instructor is still heartsore over his loss. He volunteers to fly a special mission to Paris targeting the unsuspecting Cardinal Richelieu.

"Euterpe, Episode 1"

:by Enrico M. Toro

Composer Giacomo Carissimi is directed by Cardinal Mazarini (Mazarin) to visit Grantville, and finally obtains adequate funds.

"The Company Men"

:by Christopher James Weber

The ambassador from the powerful Mughal Empire of northern India is held captive in Austria, but Grantville does not have enough troops to rescue him. Instead, Mike Stearns hires a mercenary troop run by an Englishman and an Irishman.

"Just One of Those Days"

:by Leonard Hollar

A string of mishaps keeps a Finnish cavalryman from action against the Croats attacking Grantville's high school, while an uptime German is uniquely positioned to pick off attackers.

"God's Gifts"

:by Gorg Huff

Down-time German Lutheran pastor Steffan Schultheiss in Badenburg is wary of the citizens of Grantville shortly after its appearance due to their modern views on religion; in which he warns his flock against Grantville in order to keep their modern progressing influence from corrupting his congregation. However, Schultheiss's religious warnings were not heeded due to politics and economics, which both made Grantville attractive to Badenburg. Schultheiss continued to condemn Grantville's practices until his outcries infuriated his wife, who has a positive view on Grantville. Eventually, with guidance from his wife, Schultheiss changed his stance on Grantville and becomes more tolerant of the Americans' ideals, including freedom of religion.

"Bottom-Feeders"

:by John Zeek

The story is a police procedural that follows two policemen Jurgen Neubert, a down-time farmer and former mercenary soldier turned cop, and Marvin Tipton, a long service cop, through a murder case.

"An Invisible War"

:by Danita Ewing

"An Invisible War" is a short novel that was the first serialized piece of longer fiction that spanned this and the next Gazette in their e-published versions—though the whole (110 pages) was published in the hardcover release of ''Grantville Gazette II''. The tale set mostly in 1633 after Grantville has had time to settle-in and look beyond immediate survival issues. It deals with public health and integration and dissemination of medical knowledge efforts during the end of the Confederated Principalities of Europe and early United States of Europe period, for the various Mike Stearns-led administration's have been repeatedly reminded by and Melissa Mailey how vulnerable populations are and were to diseases in the seventeenth century era—so the up-timers have been both strategically aware and taking steps from the outset within their capabilities and resources to mitigate any preventable health problems beginning in the novel 1632. To add impetus and urgency, as time goes by in the experience of Grantville, some of the historical research conducted in the two libraries reveals that plague outbreaks occurred locally in OTL in diverse regions during 1632, 1634, and 1635 saw a large epidemic-size outbreak. Worse, the historical record might also indicate other outbreaks, which were poorly documented.

The story is one of Grantville's medical personnel meeting head-on with down-timer University practices, prejudices and a college curricula based in large part on the Classics and Theological studies. The town establishes the Lahey Clinic hospital near the Grantville High School and establishes a local nurse training program in 1631–1632, and by the summer of 1633 has reached out to the faculty of the University of Jena, but the only spareable medical manpower to head up a college of medicine are... women!

Thuringia, Germany, in the early 20th century. A group of young girls are brought up in a college amid dark forests and gloomy dull lakes. Young Hidalla and her friends Irene, Vera, Blanka, Melusine and Rain are brought up in an isolated world: the girls know nothing about life beyond the college's high walls. They play near a beautiful waterfall and are ordered not to make contact with the servants, who are categorized as inferior people and wear masks to cover their faces. The girls are instructed in dance and music. Years later, Irene and Hidalla embark on a romantic relationship and are caught kissing in the school grounds by the servants. Vera begins to think that she is descended from royalty and attempts to unravel her origins, but finds that she was wrong. The six girls attempt to escape from the school but are confronted by guard dogs that attack and kill Melusine.

The girls are informed that they are going to hold a ballet presentation for a Prince. The best performer will be released from the school. A messenger arrives, ostensibly to check the girls' strength, but in reality she gropes them. Blanka is chosen as prima ballerina, but Irene, feeling Hidalla rightfully deserves the position, reveals to the Headmistress that she is sexually involved with another student, which turns out to be true after she stumbles upon them. After this, Hidalla is chosen as the prima ballerina.

When the ballet is finally held, the Prince becomes aroused by Hidalla's performance and tosses a rose at the stage. Intrigued, Hidalla continues strongly with her performance, and a terrified Irene commits suicide minutes before the final act. Shocked and enraged, Hidalla sets fire to the theater during the final act and is carried out by the Prince. The Headmistress is told that she is given the choice of a janitorial position and social ridicule and exile by peers at the school, or "the honorable decision" (her own death); while waiting in an official's office, she has a small glass of scotch and shoots herself in the mouth with the gun that was provided on the table. Hidalla is taken to the Prince's palace, where he brutally rapes her. The next morning she escapes the palace, only to stumble upon the school. She screams as she realizes her fate and the fate of the other girls: to become concubines and/or sex slaves for wealthy men, mostly the Prince. The last shot is a horse carriage, possibly carrying young baby girls to the school, coming through the gate, with the doors slamming behind it.

Following the events of the Second Korean War, the Mercenary and their technical support advisor Fiona Taylor leave Executive Operations to work independently. Three years later, the Mercenary is referred to a contract in Venezuela by Blanco: a Liberian who the Mercenary had worked with in Dakar. Blanco introduces them to Ramon Solano - a billionaire software entrepreneur with family ties to drug trafficking. Using his connections, Solano had convinced General Carlos Carmona and large portions of the Venezuelan Army to overthrow the government. However, General Carmona had since been captured by loyalist army units - leading Solano to hire the Mercenary to rescue him.

Upon rescuing Carmona and returning him to Solano, however, the Mercenary is betrayed and Solano attempts to execute them, shooting them in the butt as they flee his mansion. Humiliated and penniless, the Mercenary watches as Solano overthrows the Venezuelan government in a coup d'état, then decides to take revenge and set up a PMC of their own.

Waylon Smithers learns that he is not included in Mr. Burns' will, the main beneficiary now being Burns' pet giant tortoise. When he confronts Burns, he tells Smithers he only respects "self-made men". Dejected, Smithers tries to cheer himself up by going to "The League of Extra Horny Gentlemen", a gay bar, but is denied entrance because he is not as attractive or fashionable as the rest of the clientele. Stopping by Moe's Tavern instead, he notices how slow business is and proposes to Moe that they refurbish his bar and make it into a gay bar, with the encouragement of other gays who were not accepted into the other lookist bar. Smithers hopes to earn Mr. Burns' respect by building a successful business in addition to having a place in which he can feel accepted. They turn Moe's into an ultra-trendy gay bar called Mo's. Mo's new patrons come to believe that Moe too is gay, a misconception he encourages for fear of losing their business. He becomes more popular than Smithers, so popular with the local gay community that they push Moe to run for the city council to become the first "openly gay" council member.

Smithers attempts to "out" Moe as straight while Moe is announcing his candidacy by demanding that Moe kiss him. Puckering his lips, Moe leans into Smithers, but at the last minute cannot and announces that he was lying. Moe asks for forgiveness and hopes that they understand his need to be accepted; he also points out that if they do not support him, his ultra-homophobic, latent opponent may win. The crowd is nevertheless disheartened and angry, and leaves. Before Moe leaves, he grabs Smithers and kisses him, afterward saying "Like frisbee golf, I'm glad I tried it once". The credits end as Mo's is renovated back to the old Moe's Tavern again.

Meanwhile, Principal Skinner tries to date the substitute music teacher, Calliope Juniper (Kristen Wiig), and sets her daughter Melody (Alyson Hannigan) up with Bart as an excuse to spend time with her. Even though Melody idolizes Bart, he cannot stand her and eventually breaks up with her. Ms. Juniper quits her job and she and Melody move out of town. She asks Skinner to come with them and he accepts. He returns three months later, saddened by the end of the relationship but content that he was able to maintain it for as long as he did.

;Act 1 – "Kesa" and "R Shomon" In medieval Japan, Kesa plans to kill her lover, Morito ("Kesa"). Morito arrives, and they make love. Kesa divulges to the audience that "[her] husband knows [their] secret" and draws a knife out of her kimono and raises it to stab Morito at the height of her climax, but a blackout leaves the outcome unknown.

The scene shifts to New York City in 1951, where a murder has taken place. The janitor of a movie house is being interrogated by an unseen policeman. He explains that when he left work in the late night/early morning he took a shortcut through Central Park, where he found "the scarf, the body, the blood" ("The Janitor's Statement"). He slips when he refers to the weapon as "his knife", indicating that the killer is a male, but then he claims that the police had mentioned this to him.

A thief, Jimmy Mako, is also being interrogated ("The Thief's Statement"). He boasts about committing the crime, and a flashback begins as he describes how Lily looked at him on the street after leaving the movies with her husband Louie ("She Looked at Me"). The thief follows the couple to the nightclub where she flirts with both Louie and, discreetly, the Thief ("See What I Wanna See"). The Thief decides that the only way to get a chance at Lily is to get the Husband out of the way. He convinces Louie to go with him to the park to dig up "Big Money" that he knows is hidden there. After a few drinks, Louie agrees, and Lily is also persuaded to come along. The Thief knocks out the husband, ties him up and rapes Lily, who tries vainly to defend herself with a knife ("The Park"). The Thief snaps - he's infatuated with Lily and is convinced that she wants him too, vowing "You'll Go Away With Me". Lily orders the Thief to fight her husband for her ("Murder"). He does, killing Louie; but Lily runs off into the night. Back at the police department, the Thief calmly states that he will "take the chair."

The Janitor explains to his interrogator his philosophy about witnessing strange situations in New York City: "Best Not To Get Involved", but he admits to remembering Lily - "how could you forget a woman like her?" The Wife enters the interrogation room to explain her version of the story ("The Wife's Statement"). After the Thief raped her, she blacked out and awoke to find her husband, Louie, glaring at her, blaming her for the rape, and feeling they no longer had anything left to live for. She begs him for his love and forgiveness ("Louie"). He indicates that they should kill themselves together. She begins to comply ("Louie guide my hand, I will honor you") but at the last second, as he pushes the knife towards her, she panics and turns it towards him, killing him and running away.

Back in the interrogation room, the Janitor recalls an adage that "only the dead tell the truth." A Medium arrives and explains that the spirit of the Husband entered her during a seance. She summons his spirit again ("The Medium and The Husband's Statement"). The Husband's story is that his wife became enraptured with the Thief and turned on the husband ("You'll Go Away With Me" (Reprise)). The rape becomes passionate love-making, and the Husband attempts to block it out of his mind by recalling that the marquee of the movie house screening Rashomon was missing the "a" in the title. The Wife orders the Thief to bind the husband. She assaults her husband verbally, relishing her new-found power, and telling him everything she has kept bottled up during their marriage; she will take "No More". She orders the Thief to stab the Husband. Surprisingly, the Thief instead cuts the bonds of the Husband and holds the knife to the Wife's throat, asking, "Do you want me to slash her throat and save you the trouble later?" Louie just stares, and the Thief eventually releases the Wife, tossing the knife to the Husband. The Husband, seething with rage, chases his wife away and is left alone. He decides that the honorable thing to do would be to kill himself ("Simple as This"). The Medium and the Husband perform an elaborate ritual reminiscent of traditional Japanese Seppuku (stomach-cutting). His last memory is of "someone" removing the stiletto from his abdomen and his blood flowing into the grass.

The Janitor is still in the interrogation room, exhausted. He describes the beauty and the horrors of New York City in 1951 ("Light In the East"). Again he walks home through Central Park that night. He finds the Husband, pulls the knife out of the body and flees the scene. Everyone appears as a collage of voices, telling their statements, sometimes in unison but often interjecting with their own skewed perspectives on the truth.

;Act 2 – "Morito" and "Gloryday" Back in feudal Japan, Morito, Kesa's lover, tells wistfully of their final night together ("Morito"). Morito has planned to murder Kesa just as she has plotted to kill him, but the audience is left in doubt as to who was the successful killer, the scene ends with Morito strangling Kesa as she reaches for her knife. Reality and truth depend on whose perspective one believes. Kesa sees murdering Morito as a way to cleanse herself of her guilt and shame, while Morito believes he is bringing justice to Kesa and renewing his honor.

In New York City in 2002, the meek priest Michael is in confession with his Monsignor. The Priest has lost his faith in the wake of "the tragedy" (alluding to, but not directly referencing the September 11 attacks), having failed to bring comfort to his flock ("Confession/Last Year"). He reminisces about the first time he realized his calling to become a priest, telling his Aunt about it. The Aunt is a spitfire communist and an atheist. She reminds the Priest of all the flaws and wrongdoings in the world and berates him for being "a gullible dope", falling for "The Greatest Practical Joke" of humanity: religion.

The Priest walks through Central Park to clear his mind, where he conceives a great hoax. He decides to stage a false miracle in the park. He posts fliers around the park emblazoned with the message: "In three weeks, on Tuesday, at 1 p.m. sharp, a miracle will occur here in Central Park... from the depths of the pond Christ will appear, believe and be free" ("First Message"). He meets a former C.P.A., a filthy wild man in tattered business attire. The C.P.A. becomes inspired by the Priest's message ("Central Park"). He tells of his former life as an adultering, lying, disgustingly wealthy accountant. Worried that God "doesn't see [his] life", he goes to the park, where he discovers his true calling, "to live free and wild". Yet, he remains desperate for a life with purpose, where God sees him as special and unique.

The Priest meets an Actress named Deanna as he posts new fliers in the park ("Second Message"). She is jittery, jumping from one subject to the next. She seduces the Priest, and the two have sex behind a bush in the park. Visibly distraught, she explains that she is struggling with cocaine addiction. She had found success in a coffee commercial, which she calls "residual heaven" ("Coffee"). To celebrate her success, her soap opera-actor boyfriend and she binge on cocaine and vodka and go for a drive in their Jaguar through Beverly Hills. The car flies off a cliff, and the actress breaks her neck, legs, nose and arms: "ouch right?". Her wrecked face draws bad press, and her coffee commercial is withdrawn. She consoles herself with morphine and barbiturates. She tells the Priest that she hopes the miracle occurs, because she could use some hope in her life.

The Priest visits his Aunt Monica again and discovers she is dying. The TV news program she is watching shows the hordes of people gathering in Central Park for the "Gloryday". The Priest goes to the park to see what he has created. He enters a bar across the street from the park where he meets Aaron, the Reporter on the news program. The Reporter mentions that he has met the Priest before, on the day of "the tragedy". He was running away from the disaster, while the Priest was running toward it. The Reporter says that he, like the Priest, is looking for answers ("Curiosity"). The other characters appear, lighting candles and praying as the Priest emotionlessly "admires [his] handicraft" ("Prayer").

With one hour left until the miracle the Priest giddily points out souvenir salesmen, religious groups and celebrities ("Feed the Lions"). He is grabbed by The CPA who says that he knows The Priest's secret...he is an angel. Deanna finds the Priest and thanks him for giving her hope. Finally, the Priest sees his Aunt, who, despite being in great pain, has made her way to the park. She confesses that she has lied all these years: she knows that there is a God, and she knows that "There Will Be a Miracle". She falls asleep on a park bench, telling her nephew to wake her when the Gloryday arrives. With a few minutes left, the crowd joins in "Prayer" for forgiveness, and the Priest has a change of heart. He runs around screaming that it was a joke and that everyone should go home. Now Deanna, the CPA, the Reporter and Aunt Monica describe the scene: The sky goes black, a harsh wind picks up, lightning flashes, mist hangs in the air, the earth trembles, and a tornado hits the lake. Everyone flees, pulling coats over their heads to protect themselves from the dust and debris. The Priest tries to stop them, but he is left standing alone. Looking back, he sees something "Rising Up" from the pond, and he sobs as he sees the Glory. In rapture, he races around, but no one else has seen it. The Reporter, the C.P.A. and Deanna are angry. He wakes Aunt Monica and tells her about it, asking if she believes him. She replies, "If you say so baby, why not?"

Back in the confessional, the Priest tells his Monsignor that he put the collar back on a month later at Aunt Monica's funeral, but he is still confused about his faith. He created a lie for the masses that became a truth for only himself, and he doesn't know what to do. Everyone repeats "the truth" as church bells chime.

A king had a daughter named Anne, and his queen had a daughter named Kate, who was less beautiful. (Jacobs' notes reveal that in the original story both girls were called Kate and that he had changed one's name to Anne.) The queen was jealous of Anne, but Kate loved her. The queen consulted with a henwife to ruin Anne's beauty, and after three tries, they enchanted Anne's head into a sheep's head. Kate wrapped Anne's head in a cloth, and they went out to seek their fortunes.

They found a castle of a king who had two sons, one of whom was sickening. Whoever watched him at night mysteriously vanished, so the king offered silver to anyone who would watch him. Kate asked for shelter for herself and her "sick" sister, and offered to watch him. At midnight, the sick prince rose and rode off. Kate sneaked onto his horse and collected nuts as they rode through the woods. A green hill where the fairies were dancing opened to receive the prince, and Kate rode in with him unnoticed. The prince danced with the fairies until the morning before rushing back.

Kate offered to watch the prince a second night for gold. The second night passed as the first but Kate found a fairy baby in the hill. It played with a wand, and she heard fairies say that three strokes of the wand would cure Anne. So she rolled nuts to distract the baby and got the wand, then cured her sister.

The third night, Kate said she would stay only if she could marry the prince, and that night, the baby played with a bird, three bites of which would cure the sick prince. She distracted the baby with the nuts again to get it. As soon as they returned to the castle, she cooked it, and the prince was cured by eating it. Meanwhile, his brother had seen Anne and fell in love with her, so they all married — the sick brother to the well sister, and the well brother to the sick sister.

The film deals directly with the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson and his cabinet members. The starting events portrayed begin in January 1965 with LBJ at the Inaugural Ball and ends on March 31, 1968, when he announces to the nation that he will not run for re-election.

At the start of the movie, President Johnson (Michael Gambon) is focusing on his "Great Society" which is a series of new laws and programs addressing social issues in the United States. These include civil rights, poverty, and education. In a cabinet meeting, he is pressured by General Earle Wheeler (Frederic Forrest) into sending combat troops into South Vietnam as attacks against the American advisors there has been increasing. There is general consensus in the room except for George Ball (Bruce McGill) who argues that the North Vietnamese will only continue to escalate the attacks. Johnson, believing that the addition of combat troops will make South Vietnam more secure, approves the request.

Johnson is still trying to focus on his "Great Society" including meeting with George Wallace (Gary Sinise) on the problems with African American voter registration, and with Martin Luther King Jr. (Curtis McClarin). He asks King to ease up on his civil rights protests until after they deal with the situation in Vietnam. King does not grant Johnson's request to pause his work in the civil-rights movement, saying civil rights shouldn't have to wait for any change in Vietnam.

General Wheeler continues to argue for additional troops and further escalation of the war. Johnson asks Clark Clifford (Donald Sutherland) to attend a meeting as he had been an advisor to President Kennedy. In the meeting Clifford supports Ball and points out that if the North Vietnamese send in just 100,000 men, the USA will need to send in 1,000,000 to achieve the 10 to 1 ratio needed in a guerilla war. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (Alec Baldwin) is extremally confident that the additional pressure will force the North Vietnamese to negotiate a peace.

After each escalation, General Wheeler and General William Westmoreland (Tom Skerritt) state that victory is close and with additional troops it can be achieved. Westmoreland submits a plan which calls for big increase in troops and the start of bombing of North Vietnam. Johnson has a meeting where Clifford argues against escalation stating that Johnson has been elected by a huge majority and withdrawing now cannot hurt him. McNamara argues that if the USA pulls out now, the country's prestige with our Allies will suffer. He is still confident that the increase of troops and the start of bombing will lead to a negotiated peace. Johnson is convinced and approves the escalation and the start of bombing.

McNamara has his confidence shaken when he watches a man, Norman Morrison, pour gasoline on himself and set himself on fire. Previously he thought the North Vietnamese would act in a logical way and realize that peace is the better alternative, now he understands some people won't consider logic. With the bombing campaign underway, McNamara tells Johnson that he can no longer hide the cost of the war in the budget. Johnson eventually gives his approval but insists that as much as possible should still be hidden. Johnson and his advisors get a CIA briefing on the impact of the bombing has had on North Vietnam. The CIA briefer (J.K. Simmons) reports that the bombing has had little impact. If a bridge is bombed they can have it rebuilt in less than a day. He explains the North Vietnamese teenagers have grown up with war. He tells that teenagers on a first date might fill in a bomb crater. General Weaver insists that the problem has been the bombing needs to be expanded to include Hanoi and Haiphong. This would mean a higher chance of civilian casualties. Johnson is surprised when McNamara isn't sure the expansion is a good idea but that Clifford states the President made the decision to have a policy of expansion six months ago. Johnson orders the expansion.

The opposition to the war grows in the US. Johnson gets upset when he hears any criticism of the war by Robert F. Kennedy, who he thinks will run against him for president in 1968. He thinks that the war will overshadow all the work he accomplished with the Great Society. The number of Americans killed continue to grow, and Johnson hand signs every consolation letter for each death. It's reported that the expanded bombing has had little impact as the North Vietnamese had distributed their resources rather than leave them concentrated. General Wheeler asks for a continued expansion stating they are still being restricted from bombing targets in population centers. Johnson again approves.

With the bombing causing casualties but having little impact on the war, McNamara is increasingly despondent. In January 1968 the North Vietnamese start the Tet Offensive which includes attacks on the American Embassy and most of the main South Vietnamese cities. The Americans defeat all the attacks, so that the Generals consider it a victory. However the fact that there was such a big offensive means the war isn't close to being over as the Army had predicted. McNamara testifies before Congress that the bombing expansion will include targets smaller than his corner gas station and implies he is against it. When Johnson hears this, he works out a plan to have McNamara move from Secretary of Defense to head the World Bank. McNamara learns about this from the newspapers. Johnson presents McNamara with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. While receiving it, McNamara can only think of the casualties. Clark Clifford is made the new Secretary of Defense. Clifford tells Johnson that unless he stops the war he won't be reelected in 1968. Johnson begins ranting about how all the holdovers from the Kennedy era betrayed him. Clifford replies that those people were advisors and Johnson himself made the decisions.

The film ends with Johnson giving a televised speech stating that he will restrict the bombing and ask for negotiations. He says that he will concentrate on that and will not accept the nomination for President in 1968. A scrawl states that the war continues under Nixon and 58,000 Americans and 2,000,000 Vietnamese were killed by the time it ends.

The film tells of six central characters, their failures, obsessions and darkest desires. Set at a U.S. Army post in the South in the late 1940s, it features Major Weldon Penderton and his wife Leonora. Other central characters are Lieutenant Colonel Morris Langdon and his depressed wife Alison, the Langdons' houseboy Anacleto, and Private Ellgee Williams.

Major Penderton assigns Private Williams to clear some foliage at his private officer's quarters instead of his usual duty of maintaining the horses and stables. Penderton's wife Leonora prepares to go horseback riding with Lt. Col. Langdon. Their affair is revealed, as well as Leonora's strong bond with her horse Firebird. Williams is shown to be sympathetic to all the horses in the stable. One day while riding, Langdon, Leonora and Penderton see Williams riding nude and bareback on one of the military horses. Penderton is critical of this to Leonora but his secret interest in the free-spirited Williams is clear.

Leonora and Penderton have an argument that same night, in which Leonora taunts Penderton and strips naked in front of him. Williams watches them from outside the house, and from then on spies on them. He eventually breaks into the house and watches Leonora sleep at night, unbeknownst to Penderton as they have separate bedrooms. As he continues this practice, Williams starts to go through Leonora's belongings, especially her lingerie and perfume.

Penderton takes Firebird and rides wildly into the woods, passing the naked Williams at high speed. Penderton falls off, catching his foot in the stirrup, and is dragged for a distance. In a fit of uncontrollable rage, he viciously beats the horse and begins to sob. Williams appears, still naked, and takes the horse. As Penderton stands mute in the woods, Williams brings the horse back to the stable to tend its wounds. Penderton returns to the house, locked in his room while Leonora hosts a party outside. Upon finding out about her horse's injuries, Leonora interrupts her party and in front of the guests repeatedly strikes her husband in the face with her riding crop. Penderton becomes infatuated with Williams and starts to follow him around the camp.

Alison Langdon mutilated herself while deeply depressed after the death of her newborn infant. Her only bonds now are with her effeminate Filipino houseboy Anacleto and with Capt. Murray Weincheck, a cultured and sensitive soldier who is being harassed out of the army by his superiors. Aware of her husband's adultery, Alison decides to divorce him. However, after witnessing Williams in Leonora's room, she becomes traumatized. When she tries to leave him, Langdon commits her to a sanatorium. Langdon tells Leonora and Penderton that Alison was going insane. Soon, Penderton is informed that Alison died of a heart attack. Anacleto disappears soon after her death.

One night, Penderton looks out his window and sees Williams outside the house. He thinks Williams is coming to see him, but watches the younger man enter his wife Leonora's room instead. Penderton turns on the light to find Williams fondling his wife's underwear and shoots him dead. The film ends with the camera wildly veering back and forth among the dead body, the screaming Leonora, and Penderton. The opening line of the novel and the film is restated: "There is a fort in the South where a few years ago a murder was committed."

Roman (Lucky McKee) is a lonely young man who yearns to find love, happiness and companionship. Tormented by his ungrateful co-workers and trapped in a life of tedium as a welder in a local factory, Roman's one pleasure is his obsession with the elusive beauty (Kristen Bell) who lives in another apartment in his building complex. When a chance encounter with the young woman goes horribly wrong, a moment of frenzied desperation triggers a chilling turn of events leading to the girl's murder. As he teeters between deranged fantasy and cold reality, Roman's struggle to hide his grisly secret is further complicated by an eccentric neighbor named Eva (Nectar Rose) who develops an unlikely attraction to Roman and forces herself into his dark and tortured world.

The player characters must foil the plan of the cultists of Tharizdun who have again occupied the temple. The cultists are attempting to restore each of four elemental nodes and release the Princes of Elemental Evil to bring destruction and chaos to the surrounding area. By doing so, the Princes would weaken Tharizdun's bonds. To summon the Princes, Tharizdun's followers operate within the cult of the Elder Elemental Eye.

History of the temple

The temple was originally established 25 years prior to the events of the module by worshipers of the gods Lolth, Zuggtmoy, and Iuz. Cultists of Tharizdun manipulated them into constructing it over a source of great power intended to release Tharizdun. Zuggtmoy and Iuz then created the Orb of Golden Death, which could draw power through elemental nodes from the four elemental planes. Three years after construction, however, the temple was sacked for the first time by neighboring armies.

Nine years later, cultists of the Elder Elemental Eye occupied the temple again and began gathering an army, only to be overthrown once again by adventuring bands based out of the nearby town of Hommlet. This time, the adventurers destroyed the Orb of Golden Death, banished Zuggtmoy, and sealed the underground levels of the temple, cutting off access to the cult's elemental nodes.

The course of the adventure

At the module's beginning, the cult of Tharizdun has begun to gather force once more at a new temple called the Temple of All-Consumption. They aim to excavate the collapsed lower levels of the Temple of Elemental Evil in order to restore the elemental nodes that would release the Princes of Elemental Evil. Their activities have gone almost completely unnoticed by local leaders and military forces, so they have been operating unopposed.

The adventurers begin in the town of Hommlet, which near "the moathouse", an active excavation site where the cult is working to restore a shrine. Investigating the moathouse, along with discovering the presence of cult spies undercover in the town of Hommlet, gives them clues to visit the ruined, original temple in the nearby abandoned town of Nulb. These two encounters point the way to the Temple of All-Consumption, which is near the hamlet of Rastor. Investigation of this temple occurs in three increasingly difficult stages: the Crater Ridge Mines, the Outer Fane, and the Inner Fane. After reaching the interior of the Temple of All-Consumption, the adventurers return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, which by then has been fully restored by the cultists, to stop their final plans.

Dr. Kuroda, a celebrated neurosurgeon, expresses severe doubt when a patient named Tetsuro Mukoda is admitted, complaining of increasingly long dreams, although his assistant, Dr. Yamauchi, believes there may be some truth to Mukoda's complaints. Another patient at the hospital, Mami Takeshima, who was admitted for treatment for a benign tumour, begins experiencing a heightened fear of death, and has a harrowing encounter with Mukoda, who wanders the halls at night, too afraid to sleep.

Though he continues to believe Mukoda's symptoms are just hallucinations, Dr. Kuroda agrees to admit him, and decides to study his symptoms in detail. Using an EEG machine, Kuroda discovers that when Mukoda sleeps, there are brief periods when he enters rapid eye movement sleep, spanning just a few seconds at a time. During this period, his brainwaves become erratic and his eyes thrash about wildly, only to suddenly stop. In that brief moment of REM, he is in the depths of his condition.

With each passing night, the perceived length of Mukoda's dreams seem to be increasing, from months, to years, to decades and then to centuries, and often the experiences he suffers while dreaming are extremely unpleasant. As his dreams continue to lengthen, Mukoda begins to experience amnesia when he wakes up, often having to be reminded by Kuroda as to why he was admitted to hospital. His mannerisms and intonation also begin changing, as if he was speaking as a person from a different century. Mukoda becomes pale and gaunt over time as his illness worsens. Mukoda continues to suffer from his long dreams, and eventually undergoes extreme physical mutations as his dreams become several millennia long within his mind; it is as if Mukoda is really living the length of time he perceives his dreams are, somehow experiencing evolution while still alive.

The psychological effects of his condition have also only continued to worsen, to the point that he can no longer differentiate his dreams from reality. Believing that Takeshima is his wife from within the dream world, a severely-mutated Mukoda accuses Kuroda of trying to interfere in their 'relationship' upon waking, and accosts Takeshima. Shoving the doctor aside, Mukoda runs to Mami's room with Kuroda in hot pursuit. Terrified, Mami accuses Mukoda of being death, before Kuroda manages to intervene. Mukoda comes to his senses, and asks "What happens to the man who awakens from an eternal dream?"

Mukoda's mutations continue to worsen, and eventually he barely resembles a human at all. One night, while Kuroda continues to study him, Mukoda enters REM sleep again, and finally experiences an eternal dream. Kuroda, who had himself fallen asleep due to fatigue, awakens to see the result; with his spirit fleeing his body, Mukoda crumbles away into dust, leaving behind strange red crystals.

Shortly afterwards, Takeshima confides to Yamauchi that her fear of death is lessening, but that she too is starting to experience long dreams. Theorising that the illness Mukoda suffered from is contagious, Yamauchi consults Kuroda on the matter, who explains that he had been using the crystals on Takeshima in secret, having realised they were the secret to Mukoda's condition. Yamauchi is horrified by this, stating that it desecrates the souls of the dying, but Kuroda reasons that humanity will have no reason to fear death if they have the option of having eternal dreams instead.

Film ending

In the television drama, the conclusion of the story continues beyond this point, and is significantly different to the ending of the story on which it is based.

Eventually, Takeshima, experiencing a similar mental breakdown to the one Mukoda experienced, murders a nurse at the hospital, then promptly commits suicide.

Yamauchi takes matters into his own hands, and sneaks into Kuroda's office at night to see if he can find any information about the nature of Mukoda and Takeshima's long dreams. He finds a set of video tapes surrounding the case, and then discovers Kuroda's dark secrets. By testing the crystals on Takeshima, Kuroda intends to find a way to enter the dream world, trying to reunite with the spirit of his deceased lover and former patient, Kana Sakurai, who died from an accidental overdose of phenobarbital administered by Kuroda during her treatment at the hospital, a few years prior to the events of the film. Kuroda, having experienced visions involving Kana throughout the film, has also been surreptitiously administering the chemical crystals on himself.

Kuroda suddenly appears in the office, and Yamauchi, horrified by what he has just learned, asks Kuroda just why he would do such a thing. Kuroda reasons that humanity never need fear death again if they had the option to go into an eternal dream. Disgusted, Yamauchi replies that this would desecrate the spirits of the dying. Kuroda breaks down, and reveals that despite taking the crystals, he is now unable to dream at all. Yamauchi comments on the poetic irony of the situation, and prepares to leave, only for Kuroda to bludgeon him to death with a framed photograph of Kana. After a final encounter with Kana's spirit, who bids him farewell, the Doctor turns around to find that horrifyingly, the whole incident had been captured on a set of cameras. By administering the crystals to himself, he has now become infected by whatever caused Mukoda and Takeshima's condition.

Beset by powerful delusions and hallucinations, Kuroda descends into madness (all documented on the cameras), before suddenly waking up in a hospital bed to find Yamauchi - his death having been just another hallucination - and three other doctors taking notes. Much like how Mukoda had been seen scrawling gibberish onto the walls of his room on the ward, Kuroda had repeatedly written Kana's name on the wall multiple times. After Yamauchi asks if Kuroda is feeling okay, the doctor-turned-patient looks down at his mutated hands, and begins weeping as he finally goes insane, bearing mutations similar to those Mukoda had displayed.

Bugs Bunny, asleep in a cotton field, is picked up by his cottony tail (which a worker mistakes for actual cotton) and bundled into a shipment put on a riverboat going down the Mississippi River (setting sail for Memphis, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Cuc-amonga).

After seeing a steward forcibly eject a ticket-less passenger, Bugs acquires some clothes and presents himself to the steward as a top-hatted gentleman. His self-assurance so clearly suggests that he belongs on the boat that the steward hesitates to even ask for a ticket, but rather than browbeat him with his presumed superior station, Bugs gives the man a ticket.

At this point Bugs could simply relax and enjoy the unexpected trip, which must eventually take the boat back to its starting point and so allow him to disembark, but he prefers to try seeking out an adversary with whom he can match wits. He finds one in the Yosemite Sam-esque Colonel Shuffle, a neurotic riverboat gambler. After Shuffle's gunplay clears out the customer base in the casino when another player tops his hand of three Queens with one of four Kings, Bugs remains as his only challenger in a poker game. Beginning with a hundred dollar stake (which amounts to only half a white coin), Bugs soon wins all of Shuffle's money including the original white half coin when he tops the cheating Shuffle's hand of five Aces with six Aces. Literally beaten at his own game, Shuffle challenges Bugs to a pistol duel, with Bugs stepping back as Shuffle steps forward, resulting in Shuffle getting a kiss and an exploding cigar from Bugs, leaving Shuffle in blackface and Bugs leads him in a dance to "De Camptown Races" off the ship into the river.

Shuffle is casually lifted back onto the ship by its paddle wheel, and he comes up behind the laughing Bugs (casually asking "Why for did you splash me in the Mississippi mud?") and makes a failed attempt to shoot Bugs with a waterlogged pistol (water flows out with a bullet sporting a sail). Bugs then tricks Shuffle into buying a ticket to see "Uncle Tom's Cabin", only to fall back into the river, and casually get lifted back on the ship by its paddle wheel again. Shuffle again tries to shoot Bugs ("''Why did you dunk my poor old hide in Old Man River, when I bought a loge[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loge] seat?''"), only to be reminded, "''Ah, ah, doc! It's full of water!''" Shuffle points the pistol at himself, only to get blasted in the face. Shuffle chases Bugs down to the boiler room, only to end up in the boiler himself and get set on fire, and thus having no other option than as to get change from Bugs for a cup to get water, only to shoot at Bugs when he puts out his fire.

Bugs dons southern belle garb and beats up Shuffle with an umbrella, with Shuffle frantically apologizing until he recognizes Bugs and the chase resumes. Still in the belle garb, Bugs appeals to another passenger to rescue "her" from Shuffle, whom the passenger throws overboard. However, after realizing that the "lady" he has assisted is a rabbit, the dumbfounded man has a nervous breakdown and steps overboard himself. Bugs, unfazed, simply comments "Ah well, we almost had a romantic ending" as the cartoon ends (though it is never revealed if there actually was a romantic ending).

Moses's mother, Jochebed, saves her baby from the edict of the Pharaoh that all newborn male Hebrew children must die by placing him in a basket on the Nile River. He is found by Pharaoh's daughter Bithia and adopted into the royal house.

Some time later, Bithia gives birth to a son Menerith, and they are raised as brothers. Moses grows up knowing that he is not the blood brother of Menerith, but is shown his true heritage (something he knows nothing about) at about the age of 10: he is re-introduced to Jochebed, his father Amram, his brother Aaron, and his sister Miriam.

Years later, Prince Moses and Menerith inspect a building site. While Menerith leaves for a task, Moses continues his inspection only to witness an Egyptian overseer attempting to rape the wife of a Hebrew laborer. Moses manages to rescue the Hebrew couple by killing the Egyptian overseer and hiding the body. When the body is discovered, Pharaoh orders Moses' arrest, but he is able to escape with the aid of Menerith.

After traveling days through the desert, Moses arrives in Midian and saves the seven daughters of Jethro from tribesmen. In gratitude, their father gives Moses the choice of one of them to take for his wife. He refuses but is later convinced by Zipporah to marry her.

Moses, still wanting to know why God allows the Hebrews to be enslaved, climbs Mount Sinai (Mount Horeb) and is confronted by God in the form of a bush that burns but is not consumed. God tells Moses that "I am who I am", gives Moses his powers, and endows him with the knowledge to free the Hebrews.

Because Pharaoh Ramesses refuses to free the Hebrews, Egypt is struck with ten plagues. Only after the final one, during which Pharaoh's beloved son dies, are the Hebrews freed. However, Pharaoh's heart is hardened once more due to him being unable to accept his son's death, and decides to try to re-capture them.

The Hebrews are guided to the Red Sea by a cloud. When the Egyptians' chariots get near, God blocks their path and Moses parts the Red Sea, providing the Hebrews an escape route. When the Hebrews make it to the other side, Moses closes the separated waters, drowning the pursuing Egyptians — including Menerith. The Hebrews witness Moses weeping over Menerith, whom he later gives a proper burial.

Moses climbs the mountain to receive God's commandments in the form of two stone tablets. However, when he descends, he finds that many of the Hebrews have built a golden calf and created an orgy. Moses destroys the tablets and the idol in a fit of rage and orders the deaths of the wicked revelers. After a brutal fight that leaves many dead, the survivors plead to receive God's commandments and Moses climbs up the mountain again. After Moses reads the commandments, the tablets are placed in an ark.

Sometime later, an elderly Moses lives his life as a hermit on a mountain slope and is seen looking at the promised land, which he is not allowed to enter due to an unspecified previous disobedience to God.

The story follows Jake Gray (Jensen Ackles), a young man who's been having bizarre visions of murder and self-mutilation, and his experience with a live roleplay-like online game called "The Pathway" (a similar roleplaying as seen in ''The Game'').

Following the deaths of his friends Conrad (Teach Grant) and Dakota (Dominique Swain), who introduced him to the game, Jake soon learns that "The Pathway" is actually being run by a man named Aiden Kater (Martin Cummins) and his band of Devil-worshippers. They've been using it to look for a specific person, even as they manipulate others into killing. As their final acts, the victims of "The Pathway" commit suicide in various gruesome ways.

With help from Marisol (Shannyn Sossamon), a new friend who dabbles in the mystic occult, Jake learns from a man called Ivan Reisz (William Sadler) that his wife, Anne Kilton, and their unborn child were taken by Kater and sacrificed to the devil. Soon after, he tracks down Kater and learns that Anne was not in fact sacrificed to the devil, that she gave birth, and that her child was stolen by mortals, and raised as a human. He is that child, the person whom "The Pathway" was created to find, and Anne is really Satan (devil) herself.

Ultimately, Jake confronts his birth mother (who has killed his adoptive parents) in the very place where he was stolen from her, he then learns that Marisol was, in fact, Satan/Anne. Following his rejection and attempted murder of her, Jake is shown a vision of the night he was born. He awakens covered with blood on the ground the next day, only to be arrested for the murder of his parents. The movie ends with Jake wondering if everything (including Pathway itself) really was not created by his imagination and if he had committed all those murders.

The Prestons are an apparently happy household made up of wife Amy (Yvonne Mitchell), husband Jim (Anthony Quayle) and teenage son Brian (Andrew Ray), living in a cramped flat on a London housing estate. On a Sunday morning she lovingly prepares his cooked breakfast but he announces he has to work.

However, tensions soon become clear. Though she has a breezy, loving character, Amy is a disorganised housewife. She finds it difficult to concentrate enough to tidy or cook properly. Jim is having an affair with a colleague, Georgie (Sylvia Syms), who threatens to break it off unless Jim divorces his wife and leaves his family. He promises that he will do so, and eventually demands a divorce. Amy is shocked and distraught, but vows to improve herself. She borrows ten shillings from her son (who is in his first job) and pawns her engagement ring for three pounds. She then gets her hair done and buys a half bottle of whisky for Jim. She has phoned Jim at work and told him to bring Georgie home. Her plan is foiled when heavy rain starts and ruins her new hair. She gets home looking worse than ever. She pulls her best dress out of storage but rips it putting it on. Her neighbour arrives and they start drinking the whisky. Amy gets drunk and ruins the table.

Brian finds her drunk and becomes angry with his father when he brings Georgie to the house. Jim slaps Brian and he leaves.

After a confrontation she orders Jim and Georgie out of the flat. Jim leaves, but has second thoughts, he tells Georgie it won't work and returns to his wife who is lovingly packing his case. She vows to get rid of her dressing gown.

Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, Jaq, and Gus host a picnic to celebrate Cinderella and the Prince's first wedding anniversary. Since marrying the Prince, Cinderella's stepmother, Lady Tremaine, has been forcing her stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia to perform Cinderella's old housework. Anastasia grows distracted while daydreaming about her own happy ending and stumbles upon the picnic, discovering that Fairy Godmother's magic helped Cinderella meet the Prince at the ball. When Fairy Godmother drops her magic wand, Anastasia retrieves and shows it to Lady Tremaine, who is only convinced once Anastasia accidentally turns the Fairy Godmother into a statue.

Reveling at the opportunity to restore her own fortunes at Cinderella's expense, Lady Tremaine uses the wand to travel back in time to the day the Grand Duke fitted the glass slipper on Cinderella. With Cinderella still locked in her bedroom, she enlarges the slipper so that it fits Anastasia's foot, forcing the Grand Duke to declare her the Prince's bride. When Cinderella finally escapes, Lady Tremaine destroys her other slipper, hence eliminating any remaining proof that she had danced with the Prince the night before. Determined to reclaim her happy ending, Cinderella pursues her stepfamily to the palace, with Jaq and Gus.

When the Prince and Anastasia are finally introduced, he initially insists a mistake has been made until Lady Tremaine magically tricks the Prince into forgetting about Cinderella and proposing to Anastasia, leaving Cinderella hurt and confused when the Prince fails to recognize her. Delighted to meet Anastasia despite her bawdiness, the King gifts her a seashell that belonged to his late wife. Anastasia begins to feel guilty about deceiving them, while the Prince starts to realize he does not truly love Anastasia.

The mice warn Cinderella that Lady Tremaine has been using Fairy Godmother's wand to manipulate the Prince. Cinderella steals the wand from Lady Tremaine's bedroom, but she is seized by palace guards before she can reverse the spell, briefly grazing the Prince's hand as she is apprehended. The Prince begins to recognize Cinderella, who Lady Tremaine has ordered be exiled from the kingdom via ship. Jaq and Gus explain the situation to the Prince, eventually showing him Cinderella's other glass slipper, which has since been repaired. Despite his father's protesting, the Prince pursues the ship and professes his love for Cinderella, who agrees to marry him.

Upon returning to the palace, the Prince and Cinderella explain the situation to the King who orders the Tremaine family's immediate arrest, but they escape. As Cinderella prepares for her wedding, Lady Tremaine returns with Anastasia, who has been magically transformed into a Cinderella doppelgänger, although Anastasia is visibly reluctant. Lady Tremaine traps Cinderella and the mice in a pumpkin carriage driven by their cat, Lucifer. Cinderella, Jaq, and Gus defeat Lucifer and free themselves from the carriage before it rides over the edge of a cliff, returning to the palace on horseback. Cinderella arrives in time to see Anastasia refusing to proceed with the wedding at the altar, deciding she would rather earn her own true love without taking it from someone else. Enraged, Lady Tremaine transforms the King and guards into various animals as they pursue her. She is about to attack Anastasia and Cinderella, but the Prince uses his sword to deflect the spell, turning Lady Tremaine and Drizella into toads.

After returning herself to her true form, Anastasia offers to return the seashell to the King but he refuses, reminding her that everyone deserves a chance at love. Cinderella and Anastasia reconcile and together restore the Fairy Godmother. She offers to undo Lady Tremaine's change of events, but sees that Cinderella and the Prince's love has grown stronger thanks to the adventure and decides to leave them be.

During the credits, Anastasia moves into the palace with Cinderella and reunites with the Baker from ''Cinderella II''. Drizella and Lady Tremaine are placed in the cellar and restored to their human forms, but are both now dressed in Cinderella's old rags, much to their horror.

The story is about a young woman living in Paris, in the Bastille neighborhood, who has lost her cat. Through the pursuit of the cat, the film lets the spectator discover the contrasts of the district, which is evolving from a typical Parisian district to a modern and young district and the contrast between its inhabitants, among them a nice simpleton and the old women who are bored. In fact it is the story of a village in a large city, Klapisch shows once again the behaviour of an individual inside a group, as he did in ''Le péril jeune'' or ''Riens du tout''. This time he has succeeded in joining together actors, theatre actors and residents of the district, creating a credible atmosphere that is probably the reason for the success of this film outside France.

The Goodies are surprised because everyone is against them. When they go to the local police station, they are informed that they are 'Baddies'. Indeed, while they are in the police station, talking to the Police Sergeant, the Goodies are simultaneously committing offences all over England. When the Police Sergeant accuses the Goodies of the crimes and disruptions, they point out to him that it could not have been them because they were there with him when the offences happened. The Police Sergeant eventually agrees with them.

The Goodies are not the only 'nice' people involved in offences. Many other nice people are also simultaneously committing similar offences, and all of the people involved are contestants in the "Nicest Person in the World" competition.

The Goodies investigate and find that a mysterious Dr. Petal is behind the occurrences. Graeme recognises him as Doctor Wolfgang Adolphus Ratfink Von Petal. Dr Petal, after complaining about his treatment from other people, then imprisons them in an alligator-sulphuric-acid-based death trap. The Goodies, however, escape. Dr Petal then imprisons them again in a bomb-poison-gas-based death trap. The bomb, explodes, sending the Goodies flying towards the "Nicest Person in the World Competition"

Despite Dr. Petal's attempt to pass them off as his androids, he exposes himself when Bill suggests they "screw their heads off" ("You'll do no such thing. I spent hours putting them together."). After a prolonged chase, where the android Goodies are tied to a tree, the Goodies win the award. But when Dr. Petal steals the award, it is revealed that Bill and Graeme are the impostors, who knock Tim out.

Competitors

David Hemmings Julie Andrews Hughie Green Spiro Agnew The Goodies Jimmy Young Liberace Tony Blackburn Moira Anderson Kenneth McKellar *Six Nuns

Three Archbishops The Salvation Army band Two Nannies Three Boy Scouts Lovelace Watkins Dr. Wolfgang Adolphus Ratfink von Petal Ned Sherrin David Frost (who phones to add, and bet on, himself) Miss Muriel Slack The Bishop of Lanchester

Ramon Salazar finds a black pearl so beautiful that his father is certain Ramon has found the fabled Pearl of Heaven. This find will bring renown to their town, and to the Salazar name.

The story for the TV series picks up from where ''Tremors 3: Back to Perfection'' left off. It follows the residents of Perfection Valley attempting to co-exist with an albino Graboid (''El Blanco'') while dealing with problems caused by failed government experiments, mad scientists, or ruthless real-estate developers. When initially-aired by Syfy, the episodes were shown out of order, with Episode 1 ("Feeding Frenzy") and Episode 6 ("Ghost Dance") shown on the premiere night. The second episode produced, "Shriek and Destroy", was the final episode shown. This out-of-order airing required the re-editing of various episodes. Changes included a new opening sequence for Episode 5 ("Project 4-12"), which aired as the eighth episode. This episode also introduced the character Cletus Poffenburger (played by Christopher Lloyd). The re-edited episode explained Cletus' appearance in a flashback sequence, occurring prior to Episode 6/"Ghost Dance", which had actually aired as the second in the series.

In 1918 during World War I, the United States Navy submarine ''AL-14'' is sent with the rest of Submarine Flotilla 1 to Taranto to fight in the Adriatic Sea. The submarine's commander was wounded on its last cruise, and Lieutenant Thomas Knowlton (Robert Montgomery), his second in command, expects to be promoted and take his place. However, Lieutenant Commander T. J. Toler (Walter Huston) shows up and takes over.

Toler orders his officers to attend a ball. The young men dread having to dance with the wives of admirals, but Knowlton and his close friend and shipmate, Lieutenant Ed "Brick" Walters (Robert Young), are pleasantly surprised to discover the beautiful Joan Standish (Madge Evans) among the attendees. When an enemy air raid forces everyone to take shelter, Knowlton takes Joan to his apartment. Though she insists on leaving, he can tell she is attracted to him. However, before anything can happen, Toler shows up to collect his daughter.

On its next patrol, the ''AL-14'' torpedoes an Austro-Hungarian minelayer. After the Austrians abandon ship, Toler sends Brick and three sailors to search the sinking vessel for code books. When enemy biplane fighters attack, Toler fights them off, but the arrival of a bomber forces him to order the ''AL-14'' to submerge and leave his boarding party behind. Knowlton disobeys his order and remains on deck, manning a machine gun. "Mac" MacDougal (Eugene Pallette) has to knock him unconscious and carry him below. Brick and his men are killed by the fighters.

Upon returning to port, Knowlton goes to see Joan at the hospital. There he encounters patient Flight Commander Herbert Standish (Edwin Styles), who turns out to be Joan's paraplegic husband. Knowlton departs, but Joan follows him and confesses she loves him.

Back at sea, Toler tries to get Knowlton to break off the relationship, to no avail. Toler is ordered to map where new minelayers, now escorted by destroyers, are planting their mines. However, when Knowlton spots Brick's boat through the periscope, he imagines he sees his friend still alive. He countermands Toler's orders and attacks. Though several enemy ships are sunk, the sole surviving destroyer forces the ''AL-14'' to dive to the sea bottom, below its maximum safe depth. After a while, Toler decides to surface, preferring to die fighting rather than suffocate. However, a crucial pump will not work. When it appears that they are doomed, one crewman commits suicide. Repairs enable the submarine to surface, to find the enemy gone. Eight crewmen are "down" as a result of Knowlton's actions.

He is court-martialed and discharged from the Navy in disgrace. He and Joan plan to run away together, much to Toler's disgust. When Knowlton goes to the hospital to inform Joan's husband, he learns that a successful operation makes it likely that the man will recover fully. Knowlton puts on an act for Joan and her father, pretending to be so callous that she is repulsed.

Toler is given an extremely hazardous mission. To block Durazzo, the only port in the Adriatic from which Austro-Hungarian submarines can operate, the ''AL-14'' is loaded with explosives and sent to ram a fortification beside the narrowest point in the channel out of the port. The rubble would block the exit. When Knowlton sneaks aboard, Toler lets him stay. Under cover of a battleship bombardment, the ''AL-14'' surfaces and heads in. The rest of the crew abandon ship as planned, leaving only Toler and Knowlton. Toler orders Knowlton over the side, but he pushes Toler overboard instead and steers the ship to its target, sacrificing his life.

A pair of swimsuit models are out in a boat to stage a publicity stunt by appearing to be stranded. They discover a mysterious galleon shrouded in mist and board it. One of the models' roommates, a fellow model who has a lesbian crush on her friend confronts the owner of the modeling agency, who hired them out to her friend; a wealthy and unscrupulous businessman behind the publicity stunt. The roommate is taken hostage when she discovers that her friend has gone missing and is raped by one of the businessmen's henchmen. The businessman, the head of the modeling agency recruit an eccentric scholar to assist them in their search for the missing models and their boat, taking the roommate with them as they can not allow her to reveal the truth about the incident to the public.

The phantom galleon carries the coffins of the Knights Templar, eyeless mummies who hunt humans by sound. The two models are killed before the rescue party arrives. The rescue party also board the galleon, then discover their ship has vanished. The abducted girl is captured and dragged into the depths of the ship to be dismembered and eaten, while the rest of the group is locked in an unnatural sleep. The survivors struggle to repel and combat the spectral knights with what little knowledge they have of them.

A daughter and her mother fight to survive in Rome during the Second World War. Cesira, a widowed Roman shopkeeper, and Rosetta, a naive teenager of beauty and devout faith.

When the German army prepares to enter Rome, Cesira packs a few provisions, sews her life savings into the seams of her dress, and flees south with Rosetta to her native province of Ciociaria, a poor, mountainous region famous for providing the domestic servants of Rome.

For nine months the two women endure hunger, cold, and filth as they await the arrival of the Allied forces. But the liberation, when it comes, brings unexpected tragedy.

On their way home, the pair are attacked and Rosetta brutally raped by a group of Goumiers (Moroccan allied soldiers serving in the French Army), apparently part of Marocchinate. This act of violence so embitters Rosetta that she falls numbly into a life of prostitution.

In his story of two women, Moravia offers up an intimate portrayal of the anguish and destruction wrought by war, as devastating behind the lines as it is on the battlefield.

Their lives are torn apart due to the devastating war. Bomb explosions are routine. They are left with nothing to eat, but a mother wants to make her daughter feel comfortable, and wants to protect her daughter as with an iron shield. She wants to protect her against bomb explosions, starvation and men's hunger for sex. In one of the many explosions, their house, shop and everything gets destroyed. Cesira goes to see a coal businessman. The businessman is married, but still Cesira becomes attracted toward him and the two fall for each other. But when Cesira was returning, the businessman follows her, which decent Cesira doesn't like. She believes and she says that she isn't anyone's possession, that she is a self-respected and independent lady. She couldn't find any safe shelter in the city and so she decides to stay in her village until the war ends. She sets out for her village, but when she reaches there, she finds that food is scarce in the village, too. The villagers are dependent upon bread and wine, which is accessible only with difficulty. The mother-daughter duo moves on with a number of difficulties.

The game is set in the mythical world of The Arabian Nights. Some time ago, the Evil One plagued the peaceful kingdom of Shahariyard. In order to save the King - who, by sorcery, had been transformed into a monkey - a group of heroes must find the Jewel of Seven Colors and release the evil hex. However, formidable monsters are lurking along their path.

Prince Rassid, Princess Lisa, Sinbad and Afshaal, each armed with their own special magic and powers, set out on the quest for the Jewel of Seven Colors. Suspenseful battle scenes, skillful sword fights and a "magic lamp," which fells all enemies in a single blow, await the players. Their adventure to restore peace to the kingdom now begins. The game ends when the player has recovered the Jewel of Seven Colors, saved the King (making him human, in the process) and restored peace to Shahariyard.

The poem describes a spider's ultimately successful attempts to entice a fly into her home, apparently with iniquitous motive. The Fly is constantly warned by spirits of the Spider's previous victims, but she does not listen.

The Fly, initially hesitant, is eventually won over by flattery; "'Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead!'", and is eaten by the Spider.

Simpleton bachelor Fred Chaney (Goldthwait) inherits a buck-toothed horse named Don and one half of a stock brokerage firm from his dead mother. He discovers Don is a talking horse (who can also speak the language of several other animals) that belonged to his deceased father. His stepfather Walter Sawyer (Coleman) offers to buy out Chaney's share of the business for a paltry sum, but Chaney refuses.

Instead, Chaney returns Don to his talking horse family in the countryside and claims his place as partner at the firm. Chaney takes over an office and begins working as a broker, much to the chagrin of Sawyer. Don the horse overhears a stock tip and calls Chaney, presumably using his teeth to dial the phone. Chaney acts on the investment advice and becomes wealthy overnight.

Chaney rents a fancy penthouse apartment and buys a sports car. Don the horse returns to the city and feigns illness. Chaney feels sorry for him and the two become roommates in the apartment. Don's father dies, but not before impressing upon Don the importance of producing an heir to the 'chosen' line of talking horses. Conveniently, Don meets a beautiful white horse named Satin Doll at the stables soon after and develops a crush on the mare. Inconveniently, Satin Doll is a recent gift from Sawyer to his girlfriend.

Chaney's successes continue, and Sawyer asks his secretary Allison (Madsen) to find out Cheney's secrets. She and Cheney go on an awkward date where a smitten Cheney naively reveals that Don is the source of his investing prowess. She assumes he is being facetious. Cheney insists Don can speak and returns to his apartment with her. Don refuses to talk.

Don throws a wild party at the apartment with several species of animals in attendance; the apartment is damaged. Chaney becomes angry with Don and their relationship begins to sour. After eating delicious oats, Don suggests Chaney buy stock in the company. Despite being upset, Chaney takes Don's advice once again. The stock tip is a bust, the oats are contaminated, and Don becomes ill. Sawyer learns of the oat company's impending collapse before Chaney and locks Chaney in the office bathroom before he can unload the doomed stock. Chaney is financially devastated.

Allison learns of Sawyer's actions and quits her job in protest. As she leaves the office, Don speaks to her for the first time. Realising Chaney was telling the truth about Don, Allison transports the horse to reunite with Chaney. The three work together to get revenge on Sawyer. The plan is to enter Don in a horse race against Sawyer. Chaney goads an arrogant Sawyer into betting his horses against Don.

Victory will win Cheney all of Sawyer's prized equines, including Don's love interest Satin Doll. Unable to find an adequate jockey, Don (having entered the race from the "Pepperidge Farm" Stables) will be ridden by an inexperienced Chaney. While having second thoughts the night before the race, Don is visited by his father who has been reincarnated as a horse fly.

Despite informing Don that "it sucks" being in his new form, Don's father delivers a rousing pep talk and Don's confidence is restored. Don is slow out of the gate but miraculously catches up to his competitors. He then fast-talks all but one of the other horses into abandoning the race through a series of ruses.

The exhausted Don now trails a final challenger named Lord Kensington, the horse of Sawyer. Chaney struggles to motivate Don to overtake the leader. Finally, Chaney's promise of getting Don's teeth cosmetically capped spurs extra speed out of the horse and Don wins in a photo finish. The judges note that Don stuck his teeth out over the finish line to come in first.

Sawyer is humiliated. As winners both Don and Chaney "get the girl" (Satin Doll and Allison) and the film finishes happily with Don gets his teeth capped and closes by say Porky Pig's catchphrase "That's all folks".

Against a background of dockside poverty in Casablanca, populated by a loose gang of over 20 homeless and uneducated male youths under 15, Kwita (Maunim Kbab), Omar (Mustapha Hansali), Boubker (Hicham Moussaune) and Ali Zaoua (Abdelhak Zhayra) leave the group becoming 4 independents. Ali, with plans of becoming a cabin boy on a ship, leads this exodus from the gang — led by Dib (Saïd Taghmaoui). Early in the film and almost accidentally, Ali is killed by members of the gang. His 3 outsider friends decide to give him a proper funeral. Kwita is treated badly by military, by police and by well-off children because he is "not devout", cannot pray, is unclean, smells like dead meat and is a glue sniffer, and Omar attempts to return to Dib's gang. Boubker, the smallest and most irrepressibly buoyant of the boys, temporarily despairs, but recovers. Against all odds, the three boys manage to arrange Ali's funeral to pay respect to their friend in the main story of the film.

The plot changed in every episode, but common themes involved a romantic bandit, just and good-natured, the ''guerrilla'' against the French troops during the Spanish War of Independence, love stories, battles against injustice, in addition to comedic episodes.

Breezly Bruin (voiced by Howard Morris) is a comical, resourceful, polar bear, much like Yogi Bear himself. His friend is Sneezly Seal (voiced by Mel Blanc), a droopy green seal with a perpetual cold whose sneezes pack devastating power. They live in an igloo in the Arctic. Many of their episodes deal with Breezly's ambitious yet ultimately doomed plans to break into the local army camp for various reasons while trying to stay one step ahead of the army camp's leader Colonel Fuzzby (voiced by John Stephenson).

De Coster gives Thyl a girlfriend, Nele, and a best friend, Lamme Goedzak, who functions as a comedic sidekick - both of whom are not attested in the original folktales. The novel follows many historic events in the Eighty Years' War.

Thyl Uilenspiegel is born in Damme, Flanders as son of the charcoal burner Claes and his wife Soetkin. He is brought into this world on the same birthday as Philip II of Spain. As a child Thyl already exhibits the naughty behaviour he will become infamous for as an adult. As a youth, he is several times apprenticed to various craftsmen, but never remains long with any of them - especially due to his habit of taking commands literally, with hilarious and sometimes disastrous results. In all, he does not take up any regular profession, but rather spends his time playing tricks and practical jokes, particularly on especially corrupt Catholic priests.

Meanwhile, Uilenspiegel's Flanders suffers increasing oppression as Emperor Charles V launches an intensive campaign to root out the Protestant "heresy". Uilenspiegel himself is caught out, having incautiously expressed in public the opinion that masses said for the dead benefit no one but the clergy paid for saying them. Due to his youth he gets off with a relatively light punishment - he is sentenced to three years' exile and must get a pardon from the Pope in Rome. Thereupon, he embarks on a meandering route through the Low Countries and the German Holy Roman Empire, perpetrating his tricks and practical jokes wherever he goes. Sometimes he indulges in elaborate confidence tricks, for example getting Jewish and Gentile merchants in Hamburg to pay him considerable sums for supposed magical amulets which are in fact made of animal excrement. Uilenspiegel's love for his sweetheart Nele, whom he left behind, does not prevent him from dallying with every attractive woman he meets. One of his fleeting sexual encounters is mentioned as resulting in the birth of a German bastard, who would be named Ulenspiegel and whose own tricks would in later times be confused with those of his sire. In many places along the way, Uilenspiegel manages to gain free board and lodging by the simple expedient of shamelessly flattering the beauty of female innkeepers. Eventually, he gets to Rome and obtains the required Papal pardon, through a combination of an Uilenspiegel trick played on the Pope in person and a bribe paid into the Catholic Church's coffers.

Thereupon, Uilenspiegel returns from exile - to find a grim and tragic situation at home. His father Claes had been arrested for his Lutheran sympathies, having been turned in by the family's odious neighbor - a fishmonger, who hoped to gain part of his victim's property under the Spanish policy of rewarding informers. Uilenspiegel's tricks are of no avail against the humorless and relentless Inquisition, and his father is duly declared a heretic and burned at the stake. Afterwards, Uilenspiegel himself and his mother, Soetkin, are arrested and tortured horribly in each other's presence, to make them reveal the location of Claes' hoard of coins - which is now legally the Emperor's property. They stand the torture, being determined to deny the fishmonger his "share" of the money - but soon afterwards the heartbroken Soetkin dies. Thyl collects his father's ashes and puts them in a bag he wears on his chest. From that moment on he is destined to fight back against the Spanish oppression.

Uilenspiegel does not entirely change his way of life. He still wanders the Low Countries, playing various tricks and practical jokes, and frequents the inns, low joints and brothels of cosmopolitan Antwerp - but now there is a grim purpose behind it all. Uilenspiegel has become an utterly devoted spy and agitator in the service of the growing Dutch Revolt. He attaches himself to William the Silent, the rebel leader, and performs for him many dangerous missions behind enemy lines, in the Spanish-occupied land. Traveling on the back of a donkey, or on boats and barges with rebel-minded crews ranging the country's canals and rivers, Uilenspiegel carries secret messages and letters. He provides funds and instructions to the underground network of hidden rebels, who conduct secret Protestant preaching at night, publish and disseminate Protestant Bibles and revolutionary tracts, and produce arms and ammunition for the rebels. In secret gatherings, Uilenspiegel sings songs he had composed himself, calling the people to arms against the cruel Spanish governor, The Duke of Alva.

With the revolt having been blocked on land, Uilenspiegel and his companions turn to the sea and join the rebel fleet of the Sea Beggars (Geuzen), where Uilenspiegel is eventually promoted to become the captain of a ship. He exults with the growing success of the revolt, following the Capture of Brielle in 1572. Despite his bitter grudge against the Catholic Church, he is strongly opposed to the summary execution of nineteen captured Catholic clergy and makes a great effort to save them - which nearly results in his being hanged himself by an irritable rebel commander. Uilenspiegel is saved by the loyal Nele, whose willingness to marry him there and then under the gallows secures his pardon under an ancient Medieval law. Thereafter, Thyl and Nele sail together in the rebel fleet, and he seems to be completely faithful to her.

Eventually, the Dutch Republic emerges effectively free from the oppressive Spanish rule - but the Eighty Years War would drag on long past Uilenspiegel's lifetime. Moreover, Uilenspiegel's own beloved Flanders is doomed to remain under Spanish rule and Catholic Church dominance for centuries to come. Uilenspiegel rails against the half-hearted - or altogether traitorous - Flemish aristocrats, who in his view brought about this sad result. No longer young, Thyl and Nele are assigned a guard tower on what has become the border with the Spanish-occupied land, from there to sound an alarm should they see enemy troops approaching.

At the book's conclusion, Thyl and Nele experience at night a magical vision, with mythical beings uttering to them a prophecy about a future time of reconciliation between North and South (i.e. what would become The Netherlands and Belgium). In the aftermath, Uilenspiegel lies cold and unmoving, as if dead. The grieving Nele gets him buried, and a Catholic priest gloats "Uilenspiegel, the Great Geuze, is dead!" when suddenly the sandy grave is heaving, and Uilenspiegel emerges alive and hale. The priest flees in panic, while Thyl and Nele depart singing to yet further adventures.

Marina and Jed are both teenagers whose parents have joined a millennialist movement whose members call themselves "The Believers". When the cult's leader, Reverend Beelson, proclaims that the world will end on July 27, 2000 and only 144 of the faithful can go to the top of Mount Weeupcut in Massachusetts and be safe from the fiery wrath of God that will rain on all nonbelievers below, Marina is taken by her mother with her six siblings (with her father left to be "fried") and Jed comes with his father (with his sister Alice refusing to come with) to the mountaintop compound. With both parents distant and distracted, and the rest of the cultists preparing for Armageddon, Marina and Jed meet and fall in love.

Neither Marina nor Jed firmly believes that the world is going to end, though Marina finds comfort in the religion while she mourns for her left behind father. As the date of Armageddon grows nearer, none of the 144 Believers in the camp is allowed to leave, while a group of distressed relatives and Believers who missed the 144-person cutoff and want to be saved (known as "LMCs" - Last Minute Christians) grows outside the camp. Police are stationed outside to monitor the situation. As the story progresses, Jed comes to hate and fear "The Believers" for not allowing family members to visit members and the stockpile of weapons he discovers.

On the morning of Armageddon, Reverend Beelson hands out white robes to symbolise the members of the cult being angels. The entire compound gathers in the main hall, with Beelson preaching to the crowd, as armed men guard the doors. Suddenly, the door bursts open and a horde of the LMCs rush in. Chaos erupts. Jed's father shoots a woman who is attacking Jed, who flees outside to get help. After discovering the murdered police and their shot-out radios outside the broken-down compound gates, Jed uses his laptop (snuck in under a technology ban in the camp). Marina, meanwhile, gathers and rescues all the children she can find.

At the end of the story, it is revealed that 20 people out of 144 were killed (including Reverend Beelson and Jed's father), along with numerous LMCs and police officers. There is a close symbolism between the Armageddon that Beelson promises and the Armageddon that the believers experience.

Picking up where the previous novel ended, Waakzaam the Great has attacked Ryetelth again, this time striking against the Sinni, the golden beings sometimes mistaken as the Ryetelth gods, who have been fighting against Waakzaam on the Sphereboard of Destiny from time immemorial. Waakzaam has taken control of an army of the Masters of Padmasa, who have been unable to reorganize themselves since the death of the Master Heruta Skash Gzug and has begun a full-scale invasion of the Argonath. To defeat the evil wizard, Relkin and Bazil must journey across time and space to battle a giant golem on the Sphereboard of Destiny. Once they accomplish this task, by taking control of giant constructs designed by the Sinni just for them, Waakzaam is finally defeated and oppressed peoples across the Sphereboard rise up in liberation. They then leave the Legions with Eilsa to finally begin their dream of owning their own land together.

Trapped and alone on the dark continent of Eigo, Bazil and Relkin learn to fight and live off the dinosaurian wildlife that inhabits the land. During their journey of survival they encounter Lumbee, a female member of the tailed Ardu race. When they find her tribe, Relkin discovers he is in love with the tailed woman, a state that causes great distress to the members of her tribe. He is betrayed by the Ardu and sold to slavers who carry him off to the city of the Elf Lords, Mirchaz. To save his dragonboy, Bazil leads the Ardu in an attack on the slaver’s base, then marches on Mirchaz itself. Relkin has been trapped in a dream world created by an evil Elf Lord. When Bazil comes to the dragonboy’s rescue the pair manages to bring down the Great Game that occupies the Elf Lords and end their rule of Mirchaz. After their victory they return to Argonath from Og Bogon bearing much treasure from an appreciative king.

Category:1997 American novels Category:Novels by Christopher Rowley Category:American fantasy novels

It is lunchtime in Walmington-on-Sea. Mainwaring, Wilson and Pike are in the British Restaurant, ordering their lunch. Wilson orders toad in the hole, and Mainwaring and Pike order the fish and potato pie, but when they find out that the fish is snoek, they soon change their minds. Walker enters and gives the dinner ladies knicker elastic in exchange for a steak.

As they sit, Jones enters in his old Sudanese uniform, and informs Mainwaring that he's off to the 42nd annual reunion for the veterans of the Battle of Omdurman. He gives Mainwaring and Wilson a gory account of the battle, spreading mothballs everywhere, and putting Wilson and Mainwaring off their food. Mainwaring is even further put off when he eats one of the mothballs, which landed in Walker's pickle pot.

That evening, Frazer brings in a new recruit for the platoon, Mr George Clarke. He's very loyal and trustworthy, as he stood Frazer several pints in the bar at ''The Anchor'' last Thursday. Clarke tells Mainwaring that he joined the army in 1897 and, like Jones, served at the Battle of Omdurman. Wilson and Mainwaring are shocked at the coincidence, especially when Clarke mentions that he was in the Warwickshire Regiment (the same as Jones) and gives an accurate description of Jones. Mainwaring decides to wait until tomorrow to see if it is the same man.

Jones arrives, tired, the next evening, and Frazer, Pike and Walker follow him into the office, where Godfrey is fitting Clarke with his uniform. Clarke immediately recognizes Jones, and seems very civil until his tone of voice turns hostile. Mainwaring quickly organises the parade, and Frazer announces his suspicions about their relationship.

Later, Frazer rings someone on the telephone, and tells them that after a couple of pints, Clarke told him that he and Jones were captured by the "Fuzzy Wuzzies". He then told Frazer that Jones managed to escape, and left Clarke to die. The rumour soon spreads, and Walker is torn between his friendship with Frazer and his friendship with Jones.

Jones, meanwhile, receives malicious letters that contain two and a half white feathers, and saying that he should not have left Clarke in the desert, and that Walmington-on-Sea is no place for a coward. Jones has had enough and leaves on a mysterious errand. As he leaves he says to himself "I've got to do something I should have done a long time ago. I've got to do it, it's the only way."

At the next parade, Mainwaring is determined to get to the bottom of the incident. Clarke tells Mainwaring that they were captured and Jones begged for mercy, and after he allegedly left Clarke in the desert, a native rescued him. Clarke remarks the native must have saved his life, even if he did pinch his wallet. Jones creeps into the office, and tells the true story of what happened. This is shown as a flashback to Sudan in 1898 where the ''Dad's Army'' characters play similar characters in Jones's story.

Jones explains that a few days before the Battle of Omdurman, he and Clarke were part of a patrol sent out by General Kitchener to find out the strength of the Mahdi's army. It was led by Colonel Smythe (Wilson), with a young raw second Lieutenant called Franklin (Pike), who was the Colonel's nephew. There was also Sergeant Ironside (Mainwaring), "a nasty, coarse fellow who kept giving us the rough side of his tongue", and a young merry joking Cockney, Private Green (Walker).

As they travelled through the desert, they met an old fakir (Godfrey), who warned them that when the sun sets, they would all be dead. When Ironside gave him "a mouthful of coarse abuse", the fakir was outraged and said something to them in Arabic. Jones didn't understand it at the time, but later he learned "it was a curse upon us all".

Suddenly, a fusillade of shots rang out, and the patrol were quick to respond. They took cover behind a large rocky hill and an enemy cavalry charge began. When Franklin was injured after falling off his horse, Smythe suggested that two men should go for help. Jones volunteered, and Smythe told him to take Private Clarke with him. By morning, their water bottles were empty. They stopped for a rest, and were captured by two Dervishes (Frazer and Hodges). Jones was about to attack when Clarke begged for mercy. They pegged him out in the desert and took Jones with them.

When the Dervishes stopped and began to cook a meal, they had an argument and started fighting between each other, giving Jones the chance to free himself. One of the Dervishes ran off, and the other (Hodges) was scared by a burning branch that Jones thrust in his face, and the Dervish begged him, in Arabic, to "put that light out" (which is Hodges' catchphrase in real life). Jones put on his robes and took his horse. By the time he returned, Clarke was unconscious from the heat and thirst. Carrying him on his horse, they met up with a large relief column.

Returning to the present, Jones says that Clarke was sent to a military hospital and he never saw him again. Mainwaring is puzzled as to why Jones didn't tell them the truth before. Jones reveals that when he returned to Clarke, he thought he was dead. Whilst searching through Clarke's wallet to send home among his personal effects, Jones found a photograph of the Colonel's wife meaning that she and Clarke had been having an affair. Jones tells them that he could not have told them this before for fear of slurring the Colonel's name.

He has recently been in London at Somerset House; he now knew that the Colonel and his wife were dead, so he could tell all, and burn the letters that she and Clarke sent to each other. Mainwaring is upset that Jones has been treated as a coward and is incensed at Clarke, so he decides to confront him. Upset for their treatment of Jones as well, the platoon are also angry at Clarke. However, Wilson reveals that Clarke went outside. As they go after him, Hodges arrives, and tells them that Clarke has resigned and left by train and will post his uniform back. Jones proceeds to burn the letters with Walker's cigarette lighter, and Hodges screams at him to "put that light out".

Set in Berlin, the film opens in 1987 to show a group of radicals battling police, but soon moves to the modern day to present the same radical characters brought together once more by an act they carried out in their anti-establishment heyday.

In 1987, the main characters of the film are anarchists squatting in an abandoned building in Kreuzberg and making propaganda films. In one of these films, they demonstrate how to make a homemade bomb out of a pressure cooker and chemicals available over the counter, and they plant the bomb in a vacant villa in Grunewald. However, the timer sticks, and the bomb does not go off until 12 years later, when it is jostled by a real estate broker and a potential buyer. They are injured in the blast, and the police are pressured to hunt down the "terrorists" responsible.

Two of the original anarchists, Tim (Schweiger) and Hotte (Martin Feifel), still live in the original building and engage in anti-police graffiti, anti-gentrification protests and petty theft. The current owner of the building, a nouveau riche Turk named Bülent, cannot evict them, because Hotte is disabled, having lost his legs. (It is later revealed that they were crushed by a water cannon during a riot.) While Tim is out, the police raid the building in a sweep for clues to the bombing and confiscate their cache of old films, including the incriminating bomb-making film. They cart the films off to the fortresslike police headquarters, a former Prussian military barracks. One by one, Tim and Hotte visit the former members of their group to warn them of the bust. They are distressed by the news, having gone on with their lives: Nele (Nadja Uhl) is a single mother of two young children; "Terror" (Matthias Matschke) is an attorney; Maik (Sebastian Blomberg) runs an advertising agency that exploits radical imagery; and Flo (Doris Schretzmayer), Tim's former lover, has evidently gone bourgeois, although her circumstances are never fully explained, and is about to get married. They balk when Tim and Hotte propose breaking into the police headquarters and destroying the evidence, but Terror's counter-suggestion that they should turn themselves in is met with even stronger disagreement, and finally the former radicals devise the plan of infiltrating the headquarters by pretending to be a television news crew.

A rift within the police department makes their plan possible: Manowsky (Klaus Löwitsch), an old-school Berlin cop, wants to use aggressive tactics and avoid press coverage, while Henkel (Devid Striesow), a technocrat from Bonn, prefers more modern, less intrusive methods and is eager to earn good public relations for the department. Henkel gives the "TV crew" a tour of the police headquarters, including the evidence room where the films are stashed. Manowsky interrupts the tour, and the former radicals barely manage to slip away.

To destroy the films, the radicals decide to smuggle a second homemade bomb into the evidence room as a Trojan horse: all the evidence is stored alphabetically according to the street where it was found, so they need only plant the bomb in a suspicious-looking crate in their old building and entice the police into picking it up. What the other radicals do not know is that Hotte intends to smuggle himself into the evidence room inside the crate along with the bomb, to make sure it's placed correctly. Hotte, without his wheelchair (he uses a dolly), is trapped in the evidence room when the emergency exit door is jammed. Frantically, he uses the phone in the room to call his compatriots, but they are all away from their phones. In desperation he calls Bülent, who at that moment is trying to talk Tim into abandoning their apartment and accepting a payoff for their few remaining goods. Tim rushes to Hotte's aid. The others eventually get Hotte's message and come to rescue him as well, but meanwhile, Manowsky intercepts Hotte and Tim in the evidence room. After a taunting lecture on their inability to let go of past ideals, Manowsky prepares to arrest the two, but the others arrive just in time to distract him. Tim seizes Manowsky's handcuffs and shackles him to the evidence cage. He threatens to leave the bomb in Manowsky's lap, but the others persuade him not to commit outright murder. Tim tosses Manowsky the handcuff keys, and the radicals flee as an alarm sounds.

Pursued by police through the headquarters, the former radicals stumble upon a water cannon and use it to drive back the police and escape. As Manowsky and Henkel observe their flight, Henkel confidently predicts that the evidence will lead to their capture. However, Manowsky moved by the radicals' compassion, by his annoyance with Henkel and by reflection on his own long-held ideals has left the bomb in the evidence room, and it destroys the evidence.

The group of friends walk through the streets of Berlin and end up on the floor of an S-Bahn car. Tim then pulls the incriminating film out of his bag, holds a lighter to it, and asks aloud: "What do you do if there's a fire?", and the friends answer, "Let it burn!"

The film contains mild nudity, mild drug use, and mature language.

Pong is one of the greatest football players Thailand has produced and he's a star in England's FA Premier League. But when there's an opening for coach of the Thailand national team, Pong returns in hopes he'll be named for the job. Instead, he is passed over in favor of a Brazilian coach.

His Aunt Ming, a football fan and inveterate gambler, has just won the lottery and had intended on donating her winnings to the Thai team. However, when her nephew is passed over, she decides to give her money to a regional rival, the struggling team in neighboring Arvee. And she's able to convince the team officials to hire her nephew.

So Pong is named coach of the Arvee side. He sets about filling the team's vacancies with players who display various talents. A man who catches watermelons becomes the goalkeeper. The town's aggressive dogcatcher becomes an attacking midfielder. A veteran striker, banned from the game because of his temper, is lured back in.

Coach Pong whips the players into shape. His methods include having the team train inside a freezer container in order to acclimate themselves to playing in colder climates.

For their part, the Arvee players are eager to conform to their ideals of the Western world, dying their hair – including their armpit hair – blond, in an effort to look like the European soccer players they idolize and will possibly play against.

The team at first doesn't follow the coach's strategy, and they lose. Then they listen, and they win. But for their final match, against archrival Thailand, they find their strategies no longer work. So they must revert to their earlier ways and play however they see fit.

At times Coach Pong is conflicted between loyalty to his native country and his desire to see the team he is coaching win.

Morris Applebaum, an eccentric, celebrated stage actor of Jewish origin summons by letters his three adult children to his Manhattan apartment for the celebration of his 90th birthday and a special event they'll never forget; when the party's over, Morris plans to take his "final exit". He is healthy and not unduly depressed although he's missing his wife, but he just wants to go out the way he's lived, on his own terms and as a performance. Now it's up to his hilarious offspring – Flo, Ted, Barry and his daughter-in-law and her teen son and daughter – to put aside their own excessive baggage from childhood and convince Morris that he touched many people and changed their lives. But Morris escapes from his apartment by hiring a taxi cab and, assisted by the NYC geriatric psychiatrists Dr. Sheldon Henning, the adventure begins.

The story is set in New York City and revolves around the relationship between two childhood best friends: Joel (James Bond III), who is raised by his religious grandmother after both of his parents were killed in a car accident, and K (Kadeem Hardison), who abandons his religious upbringing and moves to New York to become an actor.

Joel, a minister like his deceased father (Samuel L. Jackson), becomes disillusioned with Christianity and decides to take a trip to New York to visit his friend, K. While awaiting Joel's arrival, K visits a bar and meets the Temptress (Cynthia Bond)—who is really a succubus seeking blood and vengeance against unfaithful men.

Her first victim is a bartender and her second victim is a married man named Norman, whom she has given AIDS and back slashes to. Her third victim is a gay man named Jonathan. K's friend Dougy (Bill Nunn), a police officer who deals in supernatural cases, notices the men's disappearances after they leave with the Temptress.

While awaiting Joel's arrival at the bar, K meets the Temptress; they spend most of the night together at the bar. K, who refuses to go home with the Temptress, returns home in time to help Joel get settled in, saving his life. K catches up with Joel, telling him about the Temptress.

The next night, Joel and K go to the bar. While K goes to the bathroom, Joel meets the Temptress, who pretends not to have met K before, leaving K confused and suspicious. Dougy tells K the woman gives him "strange vibes".

The next morning, Joel prepares to go out on a date with the Temptress, who arrives at the house, still pretending she does not know K. K, frustrated over having his feelings manipulated, calls her out over the pretense until he notices she doesn't have a reflection in the mirror. The Temptress then grows hostile towards K. Joel and the Temptress leave, leaving K scared and certain of what he has seen.

At the bar, K tells Dougy about his suspicions. Dougy tells K he believes his suspicions about the Temptress. They review past cases Dougy has worked on, showing K the men who leave with the Temptress are never seen again. K and Dougy go and see Madam Sonya, a fortune teller who reveals the woman is a succubus who murders men who are tempted by her. The Temptress possesses Sonya, and threatens K and Dougy.

K decides to tell Joel about his earlier meeting with the Temptress at the bar, and that she is not who she says she is. Joel refuses to believe the accusations and K tells Joel to go home for his safety. K then calls Joel's grandmother and informs her of the situations that have occurred and asks her to come to New York to save Joel.

Meanwhile, K and Dougy go to the bar, where the Temptress is, and tell the bartender to put blessed holy water in her drink and then to get away fast. The Temptress has a reaction to the drink. K and Dougy run out of the bar, noticing K's car is gone, and split up. Dougy is chased by a car, then gets into the backseat of another car, which is driven by the bartender, who has been turned into a demon. Dougy is attacked by another demon in the backseat.

Meanwhile, at his house, K is sucked into his television. Blood and viscera explode from the screen, leaving K stuck and screaming inside the television.

Joel visits the Temptress' house, where she drugs him. Joel dreams about his father walking into his bedroom and seeing the Temptress naked in his bed. Joel, knowing his father is dead, wakes up as his grandmother enters the room to be attacked by the demon. Joel grabs a cross and rebukes the succubus, killing her. Joel and his grandma then hug, happy to have survived the attacks.

Later, Dougy arrives at the bar in a limo driven by K. Dougy sits down at the bar, where a woman light his cigarette for him. Quoting an earlier suggestion by the Temptress, he is revealed to now be an incubus. The film ends with a recurring dream sequence of Joel running through smokey streets of New York.

When Andrew Sterling, a successful black urbanite writer, buys a vacation home on a resort island in Massachusetts, two of his new neighbors, the Gillmans, mistake him for a burglar as he sets up his new stereo. The neighbors have no idea that the former residents of that home had moved and soon call the police.

As the police move in, Andrew's car alarm goes off and with keys in hand, he goes outside to shut it off; where he is met with gunfire. The reporters arrive and interview Chief Tolliver, who speaks to Andrew over the phone and realizes his mistake. To avoid the bad publicity, the Chief offers a thief in his jail, Amos Odell a deal.

The Chief orders Amos to break into Andrew's home, hold the writer hostage, and give himself up, in exchange for free passage out of town. Armed with the shotgun given to him by the Chief, Amos enters the house under the Chief's direction and ties up Andrew. Andrew believes Amos is an assassin sent to kill him due to his published views against "white America".

As the press piles up outside of Andrew's home, the Chief calls Amos to release Andrew as soon as the press is in place, promising to leave Amos's name and face out of the news. While Amos waits, he turns on the news to see he has been betrayed, with his name and face all over the television. With his deal broken, Amos steps outside and demands a ransom for the famous author.

The Chief comes in the back door demanding Amos's surrender and reveals his lack of concern with Andrew's well-being, stating his opposition to Andrew living on the island. During a scuffle, Andrew hits the Chief unconscious with his frying pan and goes for the shotgun. Amos takes the gun back and tells Andrew he will remain his hostage.

With the Chief's handcuffs, Amos cuffs himself to Andrew and runs through the backwoods behind the home and hole themselves up in the Gillmans' home. The Gillmans return home and Amos takes them hostage as well. The Chief, now free from captivity, once again demands Amos surrender, believing he is still somewhere in Andrew's home. When the Chief tells Amos he is not concerned with Andrew's safety and intends to prosecute him for assaulting him with the frying pan, Amos reveals his two new hostages, and repeats his ransom demand.

Awaiting the ransom, Amos and Andrew watch the Gillmans' news interview, explaining how the incident started because they had seen a black man inside of the house and assumed he was up to no good. A pizza Amos ordered arrives at the Gillman home, and Amos gives the pizza girl the Gillmans' and the Chief's interview tape to give back to the press. Back in the Gillmans' home, Amos finds the key to the Gillmans' car and invites Andrew to join him as his partner in crime, which disgusts Andrew.

Andrew's home is set on fire during a scuffle between the police and the crowd. The pizza girl returns the interview tape to the reporters. The Chief sends out a man with his two bloodhounds to find Andrew, and Amos, as he is chased through a field, rescues Andrew and the two watch as Andrew's home burns in the distance.

Still upset at the Chief, Andrew uses the Chief's wallet, which Amos had taken from him and sics the bloodhounds on the Chief using the new scent. In the middle of the news interview, the reporters reveal they know the truth about the incident. As the Chief realizes he no longer possesses the tape of his interview, the two bloodhounds chase him from the scene.

Amos and Andrew are shown having boarded a barge, now on the other side of the island, where Amos and Andrew meet up with Andrew's wife. Amos drives away as Andrew and his wife hug, and the two part ways as friends. The last scene shows Amos at a stop sign, apparently headed toward Canada, who then turns onto Interstate 95, unknowingly going in the wrong direction.

A terrified mother and her young son are packing to flee when an unseen attacker kills the whole family.

Five years later, the Solomon family from Chicago moves into the house, near a small town in North Dakota. Roy Solomon hopes to start a sunflower farm. Everyone has issues: their teenage daughter, Jess, is unhappy about moving, their son Ben has been traumatized ever since a car accident when Jess drove while drunk with him as a toddler, and crashed the car. Seriously injured, Ben endures extensive treatment, recovering only to be mute. Their parents, Roy and Denise, don't trust their irresponsible daughter, and are broke from all the medical expenses. Roy believes moving to the farm will help heal the family.

Ominous events begin to occur. Flocks of crows are constantly swarming the home. Some attack Roy but are driven off by a drifter named John Burwell, whom Roy hires as a farmhand. Ben can see ghosts of the mother and the children. Jess sees a woman in the sunflower field. Jess follows her into the barn. She can hear the woman say "help me". Jess says "what do you want from me" as someone crawls across the floor behind her. Jess sees the little boy crying in the corner. She asks him what is wrong and gasps at the eerie sight of him. He jumps at her as she screams. She goes to the hospital and her parents think she is inflicting her own wounds. Roy and Denise argue and Jess runs away. Bobby picks her up and they ride into town.

Back at the house, a huge flock of crows circle the barn and fly at John attacking him. While Denise puts Ben to bed she sees a lady coming out of the wall.

Jess goes into town with Bobby to investigate the house's background. At a local store, she sees a newspaper clipping of the family, revealing the father to be none other than her dad's new farmhand. Burwell is actually John Rollins, the man who, in a fit of madness, murdered his entire family (as shown at the beginning of the film). Shocked, Jess and Bobby rush back home to warn her family. All of John's memories come rushing back and he sees Denise rushing to leave. He asks her "where are you going, Mary?", thinking she's his wife and attacks her. She runs into the cellar with Ben and slams the door. Bobby and Jess arrive looking for her mom and Ben when they get attacked by something unseen. John knocks Bobby out. Jess runs to the cellar finding Denise and Ben. Denise is sorry for not believing her about the ghosts. Jess makes it pitch black in the cellar as John knocks the door open, telling his family, "you are not leaving me". Roy gets home to find Bobby knocked out, asking him where are they. He goes into the cellar where John stabs him in the back with a pitch fork. After a struggle with Jess, she knocks John into the mud yelling, "we are not your family". John struggles to come up out of the mud as his dead family pulls him under. John grabs Jesse's leg and begins pulling her in. Roy grabs her hand and with Denise's help, pulls her out. Alerted by Bobby, police and paramedics arrive shortly after. As her dad is put in the ambulance, he and Jess have a moment. Awhile after, everything returns to normal and their happiness is restored. The crows no longer attack, ghosts stop appearing, and Ben starts talking again.

Players of the original game are never told the hero's name, but are instead asked to enter their own. The default name of "Roger Wilco" — a reference to the radio communication, "Roger, Will Comply" — became the ''de facto'' name of the hero in the later games of the series.

Roger is a janitor on board the scientific spaceship ''Arcada'' within the Earnon galaxy which holds a powerful experimental device called the "Star Generator" (a thinly-veiled reference to the ''Genesis Device'' from ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''). Roger emerges from an on-duty nap in a broom closet to find that the ship has been boarded and seized by the sinister Sariens. Using a keycard that he finds on the body of a dead crew member, he finds his way to an escape pod and escapes the ''Arcada''.

After crash-landing, he finds himself in the dry and barren wasteland of the planet Kerona, hunted by a spider-droid dispatched by the Sariens. Roger makes his way through the desert and a system of caves and is greeted by a mysterious disembodied head, he is tasked with killing a monstrous creature called Orat in exchange for transportation. After succeeding in this task and in the evasion of the hunter droid, he returns to the alien head with proof of his success in the form of a piece of Orat's flesh. As a reward, he is allowed into an underground complex inhabited by other aliens of the same species, and is provided with a skimmer, a small hovercraft (a direct reference to the landspeeders in ''Star Wars'').

Roger travels to a Ulence Flats (a direct reference to Star Wars' Mos Eisley), a desert town, in order to find a way off the planet. Roger wins enough money to buy a spaceship and a navigation droid by playing slot machines in a cantina.

He overhears from a bar customer the location of the Sariens' spaceship, the ''Deltaur'', and flies to its coordinates. He then infiltrates the ship by, but not limited to, utilizing his jetpack, dodging a droid, climbing inside an air vent, locking himself in a trunk, getting put inside a washing machine, disguising himself as a Sarien by wearing one of the Sarien uniforms, and other tactful, creative methods. He then finds his way to the Star Generator and programs it to self-destruct, escaping the ship just before it explodes.

At the end of the game, Roger's efforts are rewarded when he receives the Golden Mop as a token of eternal gratitude from the people of Xenon (a reference to the planet from ''Blake's 7'').

In this installment, Roger embarks on a time-travel adventure through ''Space Quest'' games both past and future. A reborn Sludge Vohaul from ''Space Quest XII: Vohaul's Revenge II'' chases Roger through time in an attempt to finally kill him. Roger also visits ''Space Quest X: Latex Babes of Estros'' (whose title is a parody of Infocom's game ''Leather Goddesses of Phobos'') and ''Space Quest I''; in the latter, the graphics and music revert to the style of the original game and Roger is threatened by a group of monochromatic bikers who consider Roger's 256 colors pretentious. None of the gameplay takes place in ''Space Quest IV''. In fact, the "actual" ''Space Quest IV'' is only seen briefly in the introduction.

A comic is included in the manual to explain to the player what events have occurred since ''Space Quest I'', when Roger became Hero of Xenon. The player also learns of the villain Sludge Vohaul, who was behind the original Sarien attack of the ''Arcada'', and how he was driven mad.

Despite his newfound status as hero, Roger is transferred to the Xenon Orbital Station 4 and promoted to Head (and only) Janitor. After some time he is abducted by Sludge Vohaul.

As Roger is being transported to the Labion labour mines as punishment for thwarting Sludge's original plan, the prison ship crash-lands in a nearby jungle upon the planet. He manages to escape his pursuers and the dangers of the Labion jungle and soon reaches Sludge's asteroid base, where he must stop Vohaul's evil plan to eradicate sentient life from Xenon by launching millions of cloned insurance salesmen at the planet.

Upon reaching Vohaul's control room, Roger is captured, miniaturized and kept in a glass jar. After escaping his glass prison, he manages to shut down Vohaul's life support system by getting inside the machine, thereby killing his enemy and restoring himself to full size.

At the end of the game, before blowing up Vohaul's asteroid and saving the world, Roger is left in cryo sleep inside a capsule floating in space, setting up the sequel, ''Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon''.

The game starts with a dramatic opening and Roger mid-mission on his ship: he is then revealed to be playing in a flight simulator, shaped suspiciously like the Millennium Falcon, at the StarCon Academy. Roger cheats to pass an aptitude test, and he's then given his own command — the garbage scow ''SCS Eureka'' — which looks (and functions) like an oversized vacuum cleaner. (Eureka is also a brand of vacuum cleaners.) The game involves several small missions, similar to ones seen in typical ''Star Trek'' episodes. Some missions are: * Roger is hunted, alone, on a jungle planet by W-D40, a homicidal gynoid (the apparent sister of Arnoid the Annihilator, an Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike from ''Space Quest III''). The gynoid has an invisibility device and a laser very similar to the plasma caster of the Predator. Her ship also resembles a Klingon Bird of Prey. Roger is being pursued for failing to pay for his Labion Terror Beast mating whistle from Space Quest II (a continuity error also found in Space Quest III, as in the second game it is shown on the order form that the whistle is free). * While visiting a "space bar", Roger must free his chief engineer Cliffy (a parody of Scotty from the original ''Star Trek'') from the brig, where he ended up after starting a fight triggered when he overheard a rival ship's crewmember refer to the ''Eureka'' as a garbage scow. This parodies the bar fight scene in the famous ''Trek'' episode "The Trouble with Tribbles"—except that in this case, as Roger points out, the ''Eureka'' actually ''is'' a garbage scow! This is parodied further when Roger, noticing a warning not to immerse his free pack of space monkeys which he got from a "salesbeast" in alcohol, places them in his drink, causing them to multiply indefinitely (although the "space monkeys" are significantly larger than the sea monkeys they are a parody of). * At one point Roger is in the process of being teleported when a fly buzzes into the beam. The teleporter malfunctions, and Roger ends up in a tiny fly body with a human head. He then must find a way to restore his body, while the fly, in Roger's body with a fly head, acts rather stupidly (even by Roger Wilco standards) and jumps into garbage piles. This is a parody of science fiction/horror movie The Fly.

Roger's son from the future saved him at the beginning of SQIV, and later he shows a hologram of Roger's son's mother. Roger meets this woman in SQV and must protect her, or else his son would not exist, and thus neither would Roger.

The main plot is to stop a mutagenic disease that is spreading through the galaxy by discovering its source, and fighting everyone that got infected. In the end, the disease infects the crew members of the ''SCS Goliath'', the StarCon flagship, whose toupee-wearing commander, Raems T. Quirk (a rather blatant spoof of Captain James T. Kirk), subsequently attacks the ''Eureka''. In the end, Roger sacrifices his ship to get rid of the plague - and suddenly, if temporarily, becomes the commander of the fleet's flagship.

Roger is presented in a more positive light than usual. He's still a bungler and flies a ship that's falling apart at the seams, but along the adventure he gains the genuine respect of his crew and gets the girl in the end.

The game begins with Roger Wilco being court martialed for various humorous reasons (all of which Roger, being the idiot that he is, cannot defend properly). He is demoted back to his position as second class janitor aboard the SCS DeepShip 86 (a parody of ''Deep Space 9''). Among the reasons for Roger being simply demoted and not expelled from StarCon is the "safe return of the SCS ''Eureka''". This is a continuity error in that the ''Eureka'' was in fact destroyed in ''Space Quest V''.

Later, on the DeepShip, Commander Kielbasa (named after the kielbasa sausage and a parody of the Kilrathi from the ''Wing Commander'' series of video games) announces that, as reward for their excellence in "A Glitch In Time Saves Gamma Nine" (a parody of "a stitch in time saves nine"), they are to be given shore leave on the planet Polysorbate LX ("LX" pronounced "sixty", after the preservative). Meanwhile, an extremely old and wrinkled woman named Sharpei (after the dog breed of the same name, also noted for its wrinkles, and voiced by Lucille Bliss) is revealed to be plotting Roger's demise. It is later revealed that she is the subject of "Project Immortality", which was supposed to prolong life indefinitely.

Roger's adventures throughout the game have him dealing with a T-1000 like "endodroid" (a reference mostly to the replicants from ''Blade Runner'', including an "endodroid runner" giving Roger the assignment and speaking with a New York accent), entering cyberspace (mostly a desert canyon like area, an "office" resembling Windows 3.1, and a seemingly endless room of file cabinets known as the "file manager"), and venturing into Stellar Santiago's digestive system (for which humor is added through Gary Owens' narrations providing scientific detail of everything within each area, as if from a textbook).

Roger and Stellar develop a relationship that almost attracts Roger to the point of enamoration for her. This was designed as a way to potentially create another love interest for Roger. A running gag in the game is the inclusion of a rotting fish in Roger's inventory which he cannot seem to get rid of. It is revealed in an anticlimactic end that the fish is the only way to destroy Sharpei, who by the end of the game has become a virus infecting Stellar Santiago.

The game ends on a cliffhanger, with Stellar saying that Roger "is going to like his next mission". Despite this, ''Space Quest 7'' never came to fruition, and the cliffhanger was never resolved.

A former family man and pianist studying at Juilliard music school, Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson), now suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and lives in a cave in Inwood Park, New York. He believes that a man named Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant is controlling the world with rays from the top of the Chrysler Building, and that his mind is inhabited by moth-like seraphs. On Valentine’s Day, he discovers the frozen body of a young man, Scotty Gates (Sean MacMahon), left in a tree outside his cave. The police, including Romulus's daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis), dismiss the man's death as an accident. However, a homeless ex-lover of Scotty tells Romulus that he was murdered by the famous photographer David Leppenraub (Colm Feore). Determined to discover the truth behind Scotty’s death and prove his worth to his daughter, Romulus manages to get an invitation through a former friend to perform one of his compositions at Leppenraub’s farm. What unfolds thereafter is a twisted tale of mystery, deception, and a man's struggle against his own mind.

Roger Wilco's escape pod from the end of ''Space Quest II'' is floating in space until it is picked up by an automated garbage freighter. Finding a derelict spaceship amongst the freighter's garbage, Roger sets out to repair the ''Aluminum Mallard'' and leave the scow.

Roger visits a variety of locations, including a fast food restaurant called Monolith Burger and a desert planet called Phleebhut. At the latter, he encounters trouble, as ''Arnoid the Annihilator'' (an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like android terminator) persecutes him for not paying for a whistle acquired in ''Space Quest II''. From information he picks up there and at Monolith Burger, Roger eventually uncovers the sinister activities of a video game company known as ScumSoft, run by the "Pirates of Pestulon".

Pestulon, a small moon of the volcanic planet Ortega, is covered in soft, moss-like vegetation, and dotted with twisted tree-like growths throughout. Elmo Pug, the CEO of ScumSoft, has abducted the Two Guys from Andromeda and is forcing them to design awful games.

Roger manages to sneak into the entrance of the supposedly impregnable ScumSoft building (an homage to the secret entrance of the shield generator from Return of the Jedi) and rescue the two programmers. He is discovered, and must battle Pug in a game that combines giant Mecha-style combat with Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. After winning, Roger and the Two Guys escape. After fighting off several ScumSoft space ships, the trio realize that the warp drive is broken. After tinkering with it and no warp course set in, the trio are warped into a parallel dimension. In the game's conclusion, Roger delivers the two game designers to Sierra On-Line's president, Ken Williams, on Earth, before Roger departs the planet after being turned down for a janitorial job.

The reader is introduced to Veralidaine, (who goes by Daine), a thirteen-year-old girl who can speak to animals. Daine meets Onua, the woman in charge of the horses for the "Queen's Riders", (the group of warriors who ride with and for the Queen), and is hired to help bring up a group of new ponies to the capital of Tortall.

Along the way, Daine and Onua are attacked by strange creatures called Immortals, which are mystical beings including monsters such as spidrens, (huge, carnivorous spiders with human heads), and Stormwings, (metallic birds with human faces that feast on the dead). They later learn that nearly all of Tortall, Scanra, Galla, Tusaine, Maren and Tyra are being plagued by these Immortals, despite the fact that they were supposed to have been locked away years ago.

As it turns out, the Immortals that attacked them had been on the chase of a hawk, which Daine rescues using her powers. With the help of Alanna of Trebond, Daine turns him back into a human, and he turns out to be Numair Salmalin, the most powerful mage in Tortall and one of the few black-robe mages in the world. Upon reaching Corus, she continues as the assistant horsemistress, teaching Rider trainees such as her friends Miri and Evin and learning more about her own powers of "wild magic" from Numair, who becomes her teacher. She discovers the true depth of her power and learns of its advantages and dangers.

During a journey to Alanna's home, Pirate's Swoop, Daine tells Onua and Numair about how she had lost her mind after the murder of her family and joined a pack of wolves to kill the bandits who had killed her family. The townspeople of Snowsdale then realized what was happening and tried to kill her, so she fled. After a time spent wild with the wolves, she regained her humanity and sanity with the help of Cloud, her pony. Relieved that her friends still like her after her confession, and after Numair enacts a spell so she will not lose her mind once again, she begins to hone her powers and soon learns to heal animals.

She is visited frequently by the male badger god, who tells her that he promised her father he'd look after her. The badger god gives her a claw to wear around her neck that will allow him to contact her, and is very angry after she nearly kills herself by accidentally stopping her heart in order to hear dolphins. She finds out that she is able to talk to certain Immortals as well, and manages to convince several griffins not to harass the people of Pirate's Swoop.

Towards the end of the book, she saves Pirate's Swoop from an attack of pirates and Immortals who are under orders from Carthak, a neighboring country. She defeats them by calling a kraken from the far away ocean floor. She's also left in charge of a dragonet, whose mother Flamewing has died in the battle to help save Tortall. Daine names the dragonet Skysong the name her mother Flamewing passes on to her before she dies, and raises her like her own.

The Hero, is a young boy who wishes to join the upcoming Monster Scouting Tournament taking place in the Green Bays island cluster. Having been imprisoned for attempting to join without permission, Joker meets with Warden Trump, his father and leader of CELL, a secretive monster research organization. Trump gives Joker permission to join the tournament, but only to spy on the proceedings. After choosing his first monster, the Hero heads for Domus Isle. after being told that the opening ceremony has been postponed, the Hero heads for Infant Isle to take the Scout's Pledge. After reaching the peak of the mountain, Joker witnesses a female scout attempting to scout a canine monster. The monster, who, unlike other monsters, can speak the human tongue, derides her attempt to tame him and escapes. The girl introduces herself as Solitaire.

After taking the Scout's Pledge and attending the opening ceremony, presided by Dr. Snap, the head of the Monster Scouting Organization, the Hero heads for Xeroph Isle, the desert island. After falling through quicksand into a cave, the Hero witnesses the monster that Solitaire tried to tame falling unconscious after being attacked by an orc. The Hero defeats the orc and takes the wolf to the island scoutpost to be healed, but the staff are unable to do anything due to never seeing him before. Strangely, Dr. Snap appears and heals the creature. Joker overhears Dr. Snap talking to the wolfpup about the Incarnus, a legendary creature that once saved Green Bays from destruction. After Dr. Snap leaves, the creature asks the Hero if he would accompany him to a shrine on the island, which he had been attempting to enter when Joker found him. The Hero agrees and the beast, Wulfspade, joins him.

The Hero and Wulfspade find the shrine and enter the innermost chamber where, after defeating a guardian Golem, Wulfspade transforms into a featherless avian creature, Hawkhart. After the Hero agrees to give Hawkhart the Scout's Mark, the prize for winning the tournament, Hawkhart joins him permanently. They travel to Palaish Isle where, after finding the island's shrine and defeating its guardian, Hawkhart transforms again into a primate creature, Cluboon. It is here that the creature reveals to the Hero his true identity: the Incarnus. He has appeared again at the sign of a great catastrophe, which he is trying to stop, and each transformation grants him greater power to do so.

After this, the Hero travels to Infern Isle, a zombie-infested island where a great disaster once took place, and from there to Celeste Isle, a large island with two great towered temples: the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon. The shrine on Celeste Isle is in a seemingly unreachable place, but the Hero is able to solve the puzzles of the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Moon and open the way to the shrine. He and the Incarnus then battle another guardian: afterwards, the Incarnus transforms again, this time into a reptilian creature known as a Diamagon.

The Heroes next destination is Fert Isle, a jungle island. While traveling to the shrine, the Hero notes that Fert Isle is alarmingly close to CELL HQ. He proceeds to escort the Incarnus to the highest level of Fert Isle's giant tree, where the island's Nexus Chamber is found. After defeating another guardian monster, the Incarnus assumes a new form called Wulfspade Ace, which could be described as a more powerful version of the Wulfspade form. He then tells the Hero that he is ready for the tournament.

The Hero competes in the tournament and wins. When he goes to receive the scout's mark, Dr. Snap gives him a fake and then corrupts the Incarnus, revealing his motives: he plans to open the gate to the dark world, and is going to use the Incarnus to do so. Having a negative premonition about Dr. Snap's plan and determined to purify the Incarnus somehow, the Hero pursues Dr. Snap to Fert Isle. When he obtains the Baryon Sphere from Warden Trump, a disaster strikes Infern Isle, presumably Dr. Snap's doing. The Hero arrives at Infern Isle and starts scaling up the volcano. Near the entrance to the inner volcano, the Hero must battle the Ace of Spades. After defeating the Ace of Spades, Joker uses the Baryon Sphere, purifying the Incarnus. The Hero arrives at the peak of the volcano. There awaits Dr. Snap, who tries to corrupt the Incarnus again, seeing he is back to normal, but Snap runs out, and preoccupies Joker with a buffalogre and a mohawker to defeat, to prevent himself from being stopped. The Hero defeats both monsters, and at that time Snap has collected enough dark matter to corrupt the Incarnus, but clumsily lets all the dark matter fall on him, transforming him into a monster, and attacks the Hero, beginning the final battle. After the Hero wins the battle the Incarnus seals the portal, takes the mark, transforms into its true form and disappears. Later on, after the Hero is advised by Solitaire to go back to Infant Isle, the Incarnus reappears at the Scout's Stone and rejoins the Hero.

'''Isabel Dalhousie''' is a philosopher in her early forties and lives alone in a large aging house in the south of Edinburgh. Thanks to a large inheritance left to her by her late mother, she is able to work for a nominal fee as the editor of the ''Review of Applied Ethics''. Her closest friends are her niece '''Cat''', a young attractive woman who runs a delicatessen; her housekeeper '''Grace''', an outspoken woman with an interest in spiritualism; Cat's ex-boyfriend '''Jamie''', a bassoonist to whom Isabel has been secretly attracted ever since they met; and '''Brother Fox''', an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden.

During a trip to the theatre, Isabel sees a young man fall to his death from the gods. As the young man falls, she catches his eye, and sees an expression of shock of his face, which suggests to her that the police's verdict of suicide is wrong. She decides to find out what really happened.

Gervais plays Clive Meadows, the main character who has a David Bowie obsession. Clive Meadows is the 32 (or 37, he is somewhat unclear) year old co-owner of 'Video Zone', a video rental company based in Reading. The show follows Clive as he prepares for his appearance on the ITV talent show ''Stars In Their Eyes''.

Laurel and Hardy are Dealers in High Grade Fertilizer according to their door.

Ollie is sitting at a desk smoking a fat cigar, he asks his assistant to fetch the General Manager, Mr Laurel. Laurel says he has been in the "sampler room". He dictates an acceptance speech to Laurel, which tells us that he is standing for mayor. Ollie is confronted at his office by an old flame (Mae Busch) who threatens to publish an old photograph of herself on the shoulders of Ollie at the beach if she is not paid off. Ollie agrees to meet her that evening to make a settlement. The woman is hastily concealed in the bathroom when Mrs. Hardy (Thelma Todd) arrives to remind Ollie that they will be hosting a dinner party that evening. Mrs. Hardy spots the white ermine fur belonging to the first woman and Ollie says it is an early Christmas present. She leaves with the fur. The blackmailing woman leaves demanding Ollie goes to her apartment that night. Ollie recruits employee Stan to go to the woman's apartment while Ollie attends the party. They phone Stan's wife to explain he will be late but she does not accept this. She tells Ollie she will break Stan's arms if he is late but ollie simply tells Stan he can be out as long as he wants. Stan goes to the blackmailer's apartment with a bunch of flowers. The woman demands Ollie's telephone number, and she calls him during his dinner party, touching off a variety of misunderstandings and suspicions of unfaithfulness between the boys, their wives, Ollie's butler and Mrs. Laurel's gossipy friend.

The woman eventually makes it to Ollie's house, despite Stan's efforts; Ollie passes her off as Mrs. Laurel to avoid suspicion. After the guests leave, Ollie threatens to kill the woman and then himself, causing her to faint. Mrs Hardy says she will arrange the guest bedroom for Mr and Mrs Laurel to stay in. Stan looks worried. The real Mrs Laurel arrives armed with a hatchet and Stan flees.

Legend has it that in the abandoned medieval town of Berzano, at the border between Spain and Portugal, the Knights Templar (a fictionalized version of the real-life order that was dissolved in the 14th century following charges of witchcraft and heresy) leave their tombs at night and come back from the dead as revenants. The reanimated corpses are blind, because their eyes were pecked out by birds while their hanged bodies rotted on the gallows.

While on vacation nearby with her friend Roger Whelan, Virginia White reconnects with her dear college friend Betty "Bet" Turner, who relocated in the area and now runs a mannequin factory. Roger immediately takes a liking to Betty and invites her along for a train journey, provoking Virginia's jealousy, as the two women had a romantic relationship years prior. Angry at both, Virginia jumps off the train. Wandering through the country, she comes upon the ruins of Berzano, where she decides to camp overnight. The knights rise from their tombs and attack her, ultimately biting and ripping her flesh. Her corpse is found in a field the following morning by the returning train conductor.

The next morning, Betty and Roger retrace Virginia's steps, trying to find out what happened to her. They hear about the legend from some locals and meet two police investigators who inform them about Virginia's horrible fate. Later at the morgue, next to Betty's laboratory, Virginia's corpse comes back to life and kills a custodian, then flees to the lab and is only stopped by Betty's assistant, who manages to set Virginia on fire inside the mannequin factory.

In the meantime, Betty and Roger are investigating the legend with the help of Professor Pedro Candal, who indirectly send them to find his son Pedro, who lives near Berzano as a small-time smuggler and is suspected by the police to be the one who killed Virginia as a way to instill fear in the locals. Once they have located Pedro and convinced him to help them prove the knights are real, Betty and Roger return with Pedro and his lover Nina to Berzano, to confront the knights once and for all.

Upon their arrival, they are confronted by the knights, who kill Roger, Pedro and Nina. The knights find Betty through her heartbeat, and she flees from Berzano with the knights in pursuit. She boards a passing train, hiding in a cargo of coal. The knights take charge of the train, killing the conductor and cannibalizing passengers on board. The train arrives at the station shortly thereafter, and Betty, speechless, is helped by a station attendant. As several passengers go to board the train, they scream in horror at the sight inside.

The film opens with a flashback to 13th century Bouzano, Portugal. A peasant mob has captured the Knights Templar and is preparing to burn them for witchcraft and murder. One of the captured knights (Luis Barboo) swears revenge on the village. The villagers (in a break from the first film) burn the knights' eyes out with torches before burning them to death.

The film flashes ahead to the present, where the village prepares for a festival celebrating the 500th anniversary of the defeat of the Templars. The village idiot, Murdo (José Canalejas), watches the preparations until being attacked and stoned by a pack of children. The children are run off by Moncha (Loreta Tovar) and Juan (José Thelman), romantically involved locals.

Back in the town square, firework technician and former military captain Jack Marlowe (Tony Kendall) meets Mayor Duncan (Fernando Sancho), his assistant Dacosta (Frank Braña) and his fiancee/secretary Vivian (Esperanza Roy). It is revealed that Jack and Vivian have a personal history, establishing a tension between the four characters. Jack and Vivian take a walk, where she reveals that she purposely hired Jack to rekindle their romance. Their walk takes them to the abbey graveyard where the Templars are buried. Their romantic interlude is interrupted by peeping Murdo, who proceeds to warn them of the Templars' impending return. After Jack and Vivian depart, Murdo murders a young townswoman that he has kidnapped as a blood sacrifice.

While the festival is in full swing, the Templars rise, awakened by Murdo's sacrifice. At the festival, Jack convinces Vivian to leave with him. Their interactions raise the ire of Duncan and Dacosta, who are a keeping a close eye on the pair.

Back at the graveyard, the Templars ride down Murdo (but leave him alive) and head toward town. On their way, they come across Moncha's house, where she is in the midst of a sexual rendezvous with Juan. Juan is killed but Moncha escapes on an undead Templar horse. She stops for help at the rail station, where she persuades the station manager (Francisco Sanz) of the danger by revealing her zombie horse. She runs off, as he tries to call the mayor.

While the phone rings in his office, the mayor dispatches Dacosta and his henchmen to assault Jack. The beating is finally interrupted when the call from the station manager gets through. The mayor is skeptical, and believes the manager to be drunk. He sends Dacosta to the station to take over. The Templars arrive at the station and kill the manager.

Meanwhile, Jack and Vivian leave in Jack's car. They encounter the traumatized Moncha in the middle of the road and bring her back to town. Dacosta and another of Duncan's goons, Beirao (Ramón Lillo), encounter the knights as they approach the train station. They hurry back to the village and warn the mayor of the oncoming horde.

The mayor calls the governor (Juan Cazalilla) to request help, but his pleas fall on deaf ears as the governor assumes Duncan to be drunk and reprimands him. The governor is the third person (after the station manager, and then the mayor) to ignore warnings of the coming Templars, assuming the messenger to be drunk.

The knights descend on the village and the festival turns into a massacre. Jack organizes Dacosta and some of the villagers into a defense force, as Duncan scrambles to gather his valuables and then looks on from the balcony. Eventually, Jack and Dacosta clear an escape for most of the villagers. Jack, Vivian, Dacosta, Moncha and Duncan are all left behind. They try to get away in Jack's car, but are overwhelmed by zombies and escape into the church, where Beirao and his wife Amalia (Lone Fleming), are holed up with their daughter (Maria Nuria). Once inside the church, the group finds Murdo hiding out.

The survivors begin fortifying the church against the undead siege, but before long, unity begins to erode. After failing once again to convince the governor of their plight, Duncan persuades Beirao to make a break for the car. He is killed in the attempt. Meanwhile, Murdo persuades Moncha to come with him into the tunnels beneath the church to escape. After Beirao's failed attempt, Duncan tries to escape using Beirao and Amalia's young daughter as bait. He is killed and the child is left in grave peril among the Templars. Jack and Amalia manage to save her, with Amalia sacrificing her own life in the process.

Down in the tunnels, Murdo is decapitated by the knights as he climbs out to the surface and Moncha is subsequently pulled by her head through the opening and killed.

Back in the church, Dacosta catches Vivian alone. Resigned to a grim fate, he attempts to rape her before the Templars kill him. Jack rescues Vivian, and Dacosta is impaled on a spear in the ensuing scuffle.

As the night wears on, Jack and Vivian decide to chance escaping. They convince Amalia's daughter that the zombies and her mother's death were both part of a nightmare and then blindfold her as they attempt to silently creep through the square full of blind dead. As they slip past the Knights, the little girl peeks out of her blindfold and screams as she sees the zombies surrounding them. However, the Templars make no move, and then crumple to the ground in the breaking morning light. Jack, Vivian and the child walk away from the village as the credits roll.

The film starts in medieval times, when a young couple is attacked by the Knights Templar. The man is instantly killed, and the woman is carried away to the Templars' castle, where she is sacrificed.

The story then continues in the 20th century. Doctor Henry Stein (Víctor Petit) and his wife Joan (María Kosti) are moving into a very primitive coastal town, where they are met with distrust and hatred from the locals.

It does not take long before the doctor and his wife find out that the town harbors an ancient evil: Every seven years, undead Templars rise from the sea for seven consecutive nights to demand the sacrifice of a young maiden. The doctor and his wife then try to save one of the maidens, Lucy (Sandra Mozarowsky), from her horrible fate, aided by the local village idiot, Teddy (José Antonio Calvo).

Gemma Doyle, the series' protagonist, is forced to leave India after the death of her mother to attend a private boarding school in London.

On her sixteenth birthday, Gemma and her mother stroll through the Bombay market when they encounter a man and his younger brother. The man relays an unknown message to Gemma's mother about a woman named Circe, and Gemma's mother panics and demands that Gemma return home. Angry at her mother's secrecy, Gemma runs away, and has a vision of her mother committing suicide while searching for her, which she later learns is true. Gemma becomes haunted with the images of her mother's death.

With her mother dead and her father's addiction to laudanum growing stronger, Gemma's family ships her off to a finishing school in London: Spence Academy for Young Ladies. At first, Gemma is an outcast at the school; however, she soon finds the most popular and influential girl in school, Felicity, in a compromising situation that would ruin Felicity's life. Gemma agrees not to tell Felicity's secret and the girls soon form a strong friendship, along with Gemma's roommate Ann, and Felicity's best friend, Pippa. But Gemma is still tormented with her visions and is warned by the young man she had met in the market, Kartik, a member of an ancient group of men known as the Rakshana, dating all the way back to Charlemagne, that she must close her mind to these visions or something horrible will happen.

During one of her visions, Gemma is led into the caves that border the school grounds. There, she finds a diary written 25 years earlier by a 16-year-old girl named Mary Dowd who also attended Spence Academy and seemed to suffer from the same visions as Gemma, along with her friend, Sarah Rees-Toome. Through this diary, Gemma learns of an ancient group of powerful women called the Order and becomes convinced that her visions are linked to it. Members of the Order could open a door between the human world and other realms, help spirits cross over into the afterlife, and also possessed the powers of prophecy, clairvoyance, and what was considered the greatest force of all, the ability to weave illusions. Gemma, Felicity, Pippa, and Ann decide to create their own Order in the caves to escape from the monotonous lives that they are expected to lead.

As the girls read further and further into the diary of Mary Dowd they realize that the actual Order existed at Spence Academy and that Mary was a part of it along with her best friend Sarah and the original Headmistress Eugenia Spence, who all died in a fire at the school in the East Wing. Gemma tells her friends the truth about her powers and together they travel to the realms. There Gemma finds her mother alive and well, and the girls find that they can achieve their hearts' desires. Gemma wishes for self-knowledge, Felicity for power, Pippa for true love and Ann for beauty. The girls continue to sneak out to the caves in the middle of the night and visit the realms. However, Gemma's mother warns them not to take the magic back into their own world, for if the magic leaves the realms, the evil sorceress Circe will be able to find Gemma and will kill her, leaving the realms unguarded.

After Gemma confronts her mother, she confesses that she was once a member of the Order and escaped the fire thinking the others had died, she also discovers that her mother was Mary Dowd and Circe was her friend Sarah Rees-Toome. In Mary Dowd's diary, Mary says that she has sacrificed Mother Elena's little girl to get back the decreased power of Sarah, after reading this, Gemma thinks of her mother in a different way and hates her for what she had done. The only way for her to ever be at peace is for Gemma to forgive her. When Gemma and the other girls go back to the realms, they realize that something has changed. Before they can leave, the creature that killed Gemma's mother appears. Frightened, Pippa runs off and Gemma does not have time to bring her back. Gemma takes Ann and Felicity back to Spence, leaving Pippa trapped underwater. As the three friends awaken, they see Pippa seizing on the ground. They run to get help from the headmistress and Kartik. After, Gemma goes back to the realms to save Pippa, but Pippa chooses to stay in the realms because Pippa does not want to marry the husband her parents chose for her, she wanted to be with the true love she meet in the realms, her prince. While attempting to save Pippa, Gemma defeats the creature and destroys the runes. In the end, when Gemma returns, Pippa is dead.

''The Hollow Kingdom''

''The Hollow Kingdom'' is the October 2003 first book in ''The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy'' by Clare B. Dunkle. The protagonist is Kate, a young woman who is forced to marry the goblin king, Marak.

This story takes place in 1815 on a country estate called Hallow Hill. For thousands of years, young women have been vanishing from the estate and nearby village, never to be seen again. Now Kate and Emily, young girls of refinement, have come to live at Hallow Hill. Brought up in a civilized age, they have no idea of the land's dreadful heritage until they meet the goblins who live underground in Hollow Hill. One of the first goblins they meet is Marak Sixfinger, the goblin king who intends to make Kate, the older of the sisters, his wife. Kate isn't the first person he's married, but his first wife went mad. He took a more strategic approach with Kate, trying to get to know her before actually kidnapping her. After much resistance, Kate offers herself to Marak in exchange for his help in rescuing Emily from their cousin who has kidnapped her. Marak enacts revenge on Kate's cousin for kidnapping Emily by casting a spell that will only allow him to walk on the ceiling. After the revenge and rescue, both girls are taken by the goblins to their kingdom.

The wedding ceremony between Kate and Marak is performed, during which it is revealed that Kate is part elf. Elves are thought to be extinct and the addition of elven blood into the King's line is greatly celebrated. Amid the many parts of the wedding ceremony which makes Kate the King's Wife, she is given The King's Wife's Charm, a magical charm which will protect her. When the King's Wife is not in danger the charm appears to be a tattoo of a golden snake which wraps around Kate's neck and down her arm. Kate and Emily adjust to their new home and find happiness there. After some time has passed, trouble strikes the Hollow Kingdom when a goblin is kidnapped. This is followed by a sickness which attacks several of the remaining goblins, one by one putting them into a living sleep. Kate must leave the kingdom and find a way to save them. She awakens the King's Wife's Charm, names her simply Charm, and working with Charm, go to London where they confront the sorcerer who had used the goblin he kidnapped to steal the spirits of other goblins. They defeat him and rescue the goblins. Kate also finds a human baby the magician had in a cage. She takes the baby and Charm names her Matilda (Til) after one of her favorite Kings' Wives. The book ends with Kate giving birth to her son and the next goblin king, Catspaw. As is normal for King's Wives, Kate begins to sob at the first sight of her son, because he has the forearm of a lion.

''Close Kin''

''Close Kin'' is the second book in ''The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy'' by Clare B. Dunkle. Its protagonists include Seylin, the goblin who looks like an elf, Emily, Kate's younger sister also known as M or Em, and Sable, a scarred and abused elf.

This book takes place eight years after the previous one, in 1822. Emily is now old enough to marry. Unfortunately, when her friend Seylin proposes, she doesn't pay attention and refuses him. Devastated, Seylin leaves to find his own people: the elves. His search leads him to Sable's band of elves. Thorn, the self-proclaimed leader, treats Sable badly because she scarred herself to get out of marrying him and dying in childbirth. He plans on marrying Irina when she turns eighteen. Other members of the band include Rowen, an elf man who lost his wife, Laurel, in childbirth and Willow, a young elf boy. Seylin tries to fit in with them but cannot because he is so different from them and because he cannot stand the horrible way Sable is treated.

Emily finds out Seylin was trying to propose to her after he leaves to find the elves. She sets out to find him and is forced to bring her former teacher, Ruby, with her. In her search for him, Emily accidentally awakens long-dormant prejudices. They learn more about elf culture and find a mistreated goblin child, Richard, along with the twins he is trying to raise, Jack and Martha. They plan on taking them back to the Hollow Kingdom with them. Emily finds Seylin just as he is about to leave the elves. There is a confrontation and goblins sent by Marak to watch Seylin knock Thorn, Rowan, and Willow out. They take Sable and Irina with them to Hollow Hill. Tinsel marries Sable and Thaydar marries Irina. Emily and Seylin also marry and Seylin finally accepts that though he looks like an elf, he is truly a goblin.

''In the Coils of the Snake''

''In The Coils of the Snake'' is the final book in ''The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy'' by Clare B. Dunkle. It follows Miranda, the daughter of Matilda (Til), the baby found at the end of ''The Hollow Kingdom''.

After the death of Marak, the king of the goblins, Miranda becomes betrothed to his son, Catspaw. The engagement is broken when a mysterious elf lord called Nir shows up with his tribe of elves. Nir offers Catspaw an elf bride in exchange for peace. The new goblin king reluctantly accepts. Miranda is devastated. All her life, Marak had groomed her to be a King's Wife. Now, without him there to guide her, and the future he planned for her gone, she decides to commit suicide. Nir finds her before she can do it and brings her to his camp where he performs a spell on her called the Seven Stars. This spell keeps Miranda under Nir's control. Catspaw is furious when he finds out what Nir did with Miranda but cannot do anything because of the truce.

In the Hollow Kingdom, Catspaw marries the elf woman Nir allowed him to take in exchange for peace, Arianna. She runs from him at every chance she gets. Her behavior gets her sick with exhaustion, forcing Catspaw to restrict her to her bed so she can get some rest. Arianna confides in Kate that she's afraid Catspaw is going to deform her. Kate tells Catspaw, who clears it up. He and Arianna start getting along. She tells him about Nir and how his magic killed his first wife. Nir and Miranda start getting along too as they live together and tell each other about their pasts. Miranda falls in love with him and refuses to take an opportunity to escape because she wants to stay with him. Sable badmouths Nir to Miranda, which makes the elf lord treat her harshly. Sable returns to the goblin kingdom and, upon reaching there, apparently dies. Nir tells Miranda he plans to marry her as soon as she turns eighteen. Then he leaves for two weeks to perform a spell to protect his people.

While Nir is gone, Catspaw comes to the elf camp to get revenge for Sable who is being kept alive by magic. To keep Catspaw and the other goblins from hurting Nir, Miranda agrees to go back to living with them. However, she cannot go back into the kingdom because of the Seven Stars spell so she has to stay in an old elf prison with an elf guard, Hunter, and a goblin guard, Tattoo. Her guards become friends. Seylin visits her and gets her to tell him everything she knows about Nir. From that information he realizes Nir is not just an ordinary elf lord, but an elf King, the line of which had been thought dead and gone. Nir comes back to find Miranda gone. He immediately plans on attacking the goblins to get her back. Nir and Catspaw fight but neither can hurt the other because they are both the kings of their races and like brother kings. Seylin explains this to them and Miranda is returned to Nir. The elves and goblins develop friendships following the struggle.

After a jewel called Rubian causes the destruction of the kingdom of Sharenian via an ancient evil, it is split into four parts. Each playable character comes to acquire a piece of it and each sets out to unite with one another in order to recreate the jewel and expose and destroy the ultimate evil.

After the Aaron Echolls trial, he is interviewed by press and cheering fans. Veronica tells Keith (Enrico Colantoni) that the Manning father has offered $20,000 for the capture of Woody. Veronica talks to Wallace (Percy Daggs III) about Jackie (Tessa Thompson) leaving. Keith visits Vinnie (Ken Marino) in prison, and they agree to track Woody down together. Veronica and Keith learn that Woody was treated for chlamydia. In a dream, Veronica shares a happy family breakfast before her graduation, meeting Wallace for the first time that day before meeting Lilly (Amanda Seyfried). Veronica makes a fake call as Gia to Woody's lawyer, and he reveals that Woody was living at the Quail Creek Lodge under the name Mr. Underhill. At Veronica's graduation, Keith says that he's going to chase Woody, and Mac (Tina Majorino) tells Veronica that she is going to a hotel with Beaver that night. Just before he can graduate, Weevil (Francis Capra) is arrested for the murder of Thumper during the ceremony. Veronica graduates and says goodbye to Principal Clemmons (Duane Daniels).

Keith surprises Veronica with plane tickets to New York. Alicia Fennel (Erica Gimpel) tells Veronica that Wallace has left for Paris to track Jackie. Veronica calls Jackie and tells her that she knows she was never accepted to the Sorbonne and asks her to meet Wallace in New York. At Woody's hiding place, Keith attacks and tasers him. However, Woody denies crashing the bus. Veronica sees a little league team picture in Woody's restaurant which suggests that Beaver was on Woody's baseball team and thus connected to the crash. Veronica dashes to the after-graduation party. Beaver and Mac are about to have sex, but while she is in the shower, Beaver reads a text from Veronica to Mac warning her, and Beaver texts Veronica to meet "her" on the roof. Aaron Echolls threatens Veronica in the elevator. Beaver meets Veronica and puts a gun on her. Veronica explains her hypothesis—that he killed Marcos and Peter so they would not spill the news of their molestation, that he got explosives from David "Curly" Moran, convinced the PCHers that Curly destroyed the bus before killing Curly himself, also writing Veronica Mars on his palm.

Veronica asks Beaver how she got chlamydia—Woody had it, and Beaver transmitted it to her the night she was raped (revealing that he, not Duncan, raped her). Beaver is about to blow up the plane that has both Woody and Keith on it. Beaver pushes a button, and there is a flash in midair. Beaver tases Veronica before Logan appears, having read the text to Mac. The two steal Beaver's gun, and he ends up committing suicide instead of facing the consequences of his actions. Aaron and Kendall (Charisma Carpenter) are in bed, and while she is in the shower, Clarence Weidman (Christopher B. Duncan) appears and shoots him in the head. The scene moves to Australia, where we learn that Duncan organized the murder. Jackie meets Wallace and tells him that she had to go back to New York, where she is actually from, in order to care for her two-year-old son, whom she left with her mother, when she came to Neptune to reconnect with Terrence. Veronica learns that Keith is alive—he was not ever on the plane, but Woody was. Kendall receives $8 million, as Cassidy basically gave her the money as part of her plan. Veronica and Logan (Jason Dohring) rekindle their relationship. Kendall makes Keith a business proposal, and as a result, he misses their plane flight to New York.

The book opens with a scene showing a couple of farmhands who are entrusted with disposing of a diseased cow. However they instead take it to a nearby slaughter house and sell it.

The story then moves to the protagonist Dr. Kim Reggis who is going through a bad divorce. On a night out with his daughter Becky, he takes her to the nearby fast food chain, Onion Ring Burgers. There she eats a rare steak burger. The beef in the burger is revealed to have come from the cow mentioned at the start of the book. The next day Becky begins having loose motions and severe body pain. Kim and his estranged wife Tracy rush her into the emergency care unit of the hospital he works in. However he is ignored there which infuriates him. The doctors confirm that she has been infected by ''E. coli'' s renegade strain O157:H7 which is resistant to most antibiotics. Becky's condition begin to deteriorate rapidly.

Feeling helpless at his inability to save his daughter's life, Kim makes it his mission to trace out how she contracted the disease. He first makes a visit to the restaurant they ate at, only managing to create a ruckus there. However he learns that the beef came from Mercer Meats. He traces the slaughterhouse and manages to take the U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector in his confidence. The next day Becky dies of multiple organ failure leaving him in sorrow and strengthening his resolve for justice. He infiltrates the slaughterhouse with the help of his ex-wife by changing his appearance to make him look like a jobless Punk rocker. He accepts a job as a janitor. On his first day at work, he gets into the records room and finds out the truth about the diseased animal. They are attacked by an assassin. Tracy appears and kills the assassin. They then escape from the slaughterhouse and flee the country after making public the malpractices committed by the slaughterhouse.

Charlie Collins, a mild-mannered Gotham City accountant, is coming home from a bad day at work when he curses at a bad driver after other drivers have pushed him aside — who turns out to be the Joker. He tries to escape, but the Joker follows him and he is forced into the woods, where his car stops. He gets out, thinking he has escaped, but the Joker suddenly appears. Pleading for his life, he promises the Joker he will do anything if only he lets him go. Joker agrees to let him go and makes Charlie promise to do him a favor in return, taking his driver's license.

Although Charlie moves to another town and changes his name, the Joker tracks him down and calls him two years later to obtain the favor. He goes to the airport, where Harley Quinn is waiting for him. The favor is as follows: Charlie must go to a testimonial dinner for Commissioner Gordon and open a door. He agrees, but anxiously sets up a makeshift Bat-Signal before the testimonial starts. When he opens the door, Harley brings in a cake in which the Joker is hiding, and deploys nerve gas to immobilize the police. Emerging from the cake, the Joker places a bomb on the Commissioner's chest, then bids farewell to Charlie, who is trapped with his hand glued to the door handle. Batman arrives just in time to get rid of the bomb, which destroys the Joker's getaway van. A small fight ensues between Batman, his goons and Harley before he faces off with the Joker, who tries setting off another bomb. Batman is able to throw the bomb underground before it detonates.

Joker escapes in the commotion, only to bump into Charlie in an alleyway. The Joker laughs this off, but is surprised when Charlie belts him in the gut, knocking him into some garbage. In rage, the Joker repeats his threat, but Charlie produces one of Joker's bombs he has obtained and appears mad, and threatens to blow them both up to protect his family. Batman arrives just in time, and tells Charlie to stop, but he says if the Joker is jailed he'll just escape. Terrified, the Joker gives up all of the information that he has on Charlie to stop him. Charlie insists and throws the bomb at the Joker, who hides behind Batman. However, the bomb turns out to be a fake gag. The scene ends with Charlie saying "Gotcha!". Batman laughs and tells Charlie to go home as he arrests the Joker. Charlie then walks away happily.

While walking her guard rounds in the country, Doris Lang, the orphaned daughter of a deceased werewolf hunter, is attacked and bitten by Count Magnus Lee, a 10,000-year-old, long-lost vampire lord (also known as a Noble) for trespassing in his domain.

Doris later encounters a mysterious vampire hunter, known only as D, and hires him to kill Count Lee to save her from becoming a vampire as she is infected from Count Lee's bite. While in town with Dan (her younger brother) and D, Doris is confronted by Greco Roman (the mayor's son) about the Count's attack and D, and he promises to help her if he has Doris for himself. When Doris refuses, Greco reveals what happened to the entire town, including Dan. D requests that the authorities, including Greco's father, the town sheriff, and Dr. Feringo, should hold off Doris’ incarceration at the local asylum until he kills Count Lee which will cure Doris's vampire infection.

That night, Doris's farm is attacked by Rei Ginsei, Count Lee's servant and L'Armica, Count Lee's daughter, who is highly prejudiced against humans and dhampirs. D easily defeats Rei, but before he can finish Rei off, Rei reveals he has the ability to twist space around him and is able to redirect D's death blow onto D. Before Rei can finish him off, D reveals he has recovered from the redirected attack in seconds showing he is a dhampir and after efficiently reflecting L'Armica's attacks, orders both of them to leave with a warning to Count Lee. The next day, D travels to Count Lee's castle and attempts to confront the Count. Aided by the symbiote in his Left Hand, D holds his own against the Count's monstrous minions, including Rei and his companions Gimlet, Golem, and Chullah. While in the castle's catacombs, he is ensnared and captured by the Midwich Medusas. Doris is then kidnapped by Rei and brought to the Count. Using his vampiric powers, D kills the Snake Women, rescues Doris before she can be killed by L'Armica, and escapes the castle.

Greco overhears a meeting between Rei and a messenger from Count Lee in town. The latter gives the former a candle with Time-Bewitching Incense, a substance powerful enough to weaken anyone with vampire blood in their veins. Rei takes Dan hostage to lure D out into the open, and D comes to his rescue, cutting off Rei's hand in the process and discovering that the candle is a fake. Meanwhile, Dr. Feringo, himself a vampire in league with Count Lee, leads Doris into a trap but is confronted and killed by L'Armica when he begins requesting to share Doris with the Count. Greco, who stole the candle from Rei, then appears, using the Time-Bewitching Incense to severely weaken L'Armica and cause Doris pain (likely due to her own infection), but is shot at by Dan and falls down a cliff. Afterwards, Doris, who has by now fallen for D, tries to convince him to live with her and embraces him. This offer starts to trigger D's vampire side, but he forces her away from him, unwilling to bite her.

The next morning, Greco is confronted and killed by Rei, who uses the real candle to weaken D, allowing him to mortally wound the vampire hunter with a wooden stake. Doris is then captured and taken back to the castle. L'Armica tries to persuade her father not to allow a human into the family, but Lee reveals that there is no harm in doing so, as L'Armica's own mother was a human - making her a dhampir instead of a full-blooded vampire, and L'Armica is restrained by Count Lee when she becomes hysterical at the revelation. Rei requests that the Count give him eternal life as a member of the Nobility, but he is coldly rebuffed for his past failures leaving Rei in a rage.

As a mutant attempts to devour D's comatose body, his Left Hand revives him just in time for him to kill the monster. As the processional for the Count and Doris’ wedding takes place, Dan, having infiltrated the Count's castle, attempts to attack Lee but is repelled by Lee and falls into a chasm before being saved by Rei, who has switched sides. Rei confronts and attempts to weaken the Count with the Time-Bewitching Incense in retaliation for not fulfilling his request. However, Lee, too powerful to be overpowered by the Incense, destroys the candle with his telekinetic abilities then kills Rei with the same powers. Before Doris can be bitten by the Count, D appears and engages in battle with Lee. D's attacks are futile due to Lee's psychic and telekinetic abilities and almost kills D before D unleashes his own telekinetic abilities and breaks from Lee's telekinetic hold, and succeeds in fatally stabbing the Noble in the heart with his sword. At the same time, Lee manages to seriously wound D with a dagger. A weakened Lee attempts to influence Doris into killing D, but she is broken out of the trance by Dan, who arrives with L'Armica. With Lee dying, his castle begins crumbling. While lamenting his defeat and looking at a picture of the first Vampire, Count Dracula, Lee notices D is Count Dracula's child and, therefore, the son of the legendary Ancestral God of Vampires to both Lee's and L'Armica's astonishment. D attempts to persuade L'Armica into living as a human, but she chooses to die as a member of the Nobility with her father and stays in the castle as it collapses.

D, Doris, and Dan escape the collapsing castle. D then sets off under a now clear blue sky. Doris, now recovered from her bite, and Dan, bid D goodbye as he looks back briefly at them and smiles.

Following Grantville's alliance with Gustavus Adolphus and their military successes, texts of modern-day history books of the seventeenth century have become very popular among the powerful personages of Europe and made dramatic effects and turmoil on the continent. Among those that are affected are the Holy Roman Catholic Church with their religious holdings. Father Lawrence Mazzare started the controversy by allowing Father Fredrich von Spee to read his own entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, thereby stiffening the Jesuit's resistance to the Inquisition. Also Mazzare provided copies of the papers of the Second Vatican Council and other documents to Monsignor Giulio Mazarini, which led Pope Urban VIII to request a summary of Catholic theological reforms over the following centuries in the original timeline.

The newly formed USE acts to open a trade corridor with the Middle East via Venice to insure supplies of materials unavailable within Western Europe; gaining political allies within these regions; and religious allies to spread the doctrines of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Michael Stearns selects Lawrence Mazzare to lead the delegation to Venice because of his current fame (or notoriety) among Catholics. Mazzare asks Simon Jones, the Methodist minister, to accompany him as a sign of religious tolerance and Father Augustus Heinzerling. Jones goes along as Mazzare's assistant. Stearns also sends Tom Stone and his family to assist with the production of pharmaceuticals, Sharon Nichols to aid in medical education (and to give her something useful to do while she is grieving over Hans Richter's death in ''1633''), and Ernst Mauer to advise on public sanitation. Lieutenant Conrad Ursinus is sent as the naval attaché and advisor on shipbuilding and Scottish Captain Andrew Lennox is assigned as the military attaché and commander of the Marine Guard. Lieutenant Billy Trumble is sent as XO of the Marine escort as well as sports advisor. However, the delegation is opposed by the French embassy in Venice led by Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux, who is given orders by Cardinal Richelieu to disrupt trade negotiations between the USE and Venice.

Following the events of ''1634: The Galileo Affair'', Pope Urban VIII has been won over to the actions of the Americans after being saved from his attempted assassination and his subsequent pardon of Galileo Galilei. However, Pope Urban's relations with the Americans and their allies earns the scorn of his historical enemy Cardinal Gaspar Borja y Velasco, who had been loudly critical of the actions, or inactions, of the Holy See in regard to Gustavus Adolphus, Galileo, and now Cardinal Larry Mazzare, and had been briefly banned from Rome by Urban.

Cardinal Borja returns to Rome, though living in the outskirts of the city, and having cultivated allies with the Spanish element of the Vatican and acquiring the aid of Francisco de Quevedo y Villega, a mercenary agent provocateur, is ordered by King Philip IV of Spain to stir up trouble within Rome with the efforts of discrediting Urban and turning him into a lame duck pope after Urban failed to support Spain in her war against the United States of Europe (USE). Borja exceeds these orders, orchestrating a military coup to overthrow Urban, which also caused the deaths of Urban's political allies including his cardinal-nephew Antonio Barberini, and replace him with a Spanish puppet. Urban escapes from his second attempted death with the help from the American Roman embassy, leading to Borja being declared an Anti-Pope, with only Spain and its satellites recognizing his authority as the new Pope.

Three riders arrive at the Shamesey town gates to inform border rider Guil Stuart that his partner, Aby Dale and her nighthorse Moon, were killed in a truck convoy accident on Tarmin Height. The accident, they say, was caused by a rogue nighthorse. Stuart heads up the mountain to hunt down and kill the rogue. Danny Fisher, a junior rider and friend of Stuart, follows him. Another rider, Ancel Harper, who blames Stuart for the earlier death of his brother, also pursues Stuart. With winter approaching, journeys up the mountain at this time of the year are ill-advised and dangerous.

Stuart first goes to the industrial town of Anveney where he meets businessman Lew Cassivey. Dale had been working for Cassivey, and her last job, escorting the truck convoy down the mountain, included delivering a shipment of gold to him. The truck that crashed had the gold in it, and Cassivey wants Stuart to retrieve it and pays him in advance.

In Tarmin village, in the highlands near Tarmin Height, 13-year-old Brionne Goss responds to the of a nighthorse in the Wild by going out the village gates on her own. It is a rogue nighthorse and it finds and adopts Brionne. During her absence, riders go out looking for her, and her older brothers, Carlo and Randy, are arrested in the village for the death of their father, the blacksmith. Their father had belittled and abused the boys for most of their lives and when he now accuses them of pushing Brionne out the gate, Carlo shoots him. Later Brionne and the rogue return to the village and her mother insists that the gates be opened to let her daughter in. Tarmin is then overrun by swarms of predators and scavengers and everyone in the village is killed, except for Tara Chang, a rider out of the village at the time, and the Goss brothers who are locked in jail.

Fisher arrives at Tarmin to find the gates wide open! The village is decimated, but Fisher finds and frees the Goss brothers. Stuart reaches Tarmin's gates (now closed) where he is shot at by Harper who is waiting near the gates to ambush him. Stuart retreats to a rider shelter and is later joined by Chang who is lost after the fall of Tarmin. Then the rogue with Brionne on its back arrives at the shelter. The rogue, whom Stuart recognises as Dale's horse Moon, has found Stuart in the ambient, recognising him as Dale's partner. Stuart tricks Moon by approaching her as a friend and then shoots the horse dead. He rescues Brionne, but the loss of "her nighthorse" causes her to slip into a coma.

Stuart realises that Moon could not have died with Dale and went rogue only after her rider fell off the cliff. Moon must have sent images to the ambient of Moon and Dale together in the gorge below because that is what Moon would have wanted. What the other riders saw and reported were Moon's sendings.

Then Harper arrives at the shelter and shoots and wounds Stuart. Chang responds by shooting and killing Harper, and Harper's nighthorse runs away, riderless and another potential rogue. Fisher and the Goss boys leave Tarmin village to search for Stuart and find him at the shelter. Because of the danger Brionne now poses if she wakes up with another rogue in the vicinity, Fisher agrees to escort her and her brothers to another village further up the mountain. Stuart and Chang remain behind in the rider shelter because Stuart cannot ride and needs to recover from his injury.

Fisher and Cloud escort the Goss children halfway up Rogers Peak to Evergreen village with Harper's riderless nighthorse, Spook, in pursuit. Fisher tells the local riders about the fall of Tarmin village and the presence of Spook, but does not reveal the arrest of the Goss brothers nor the role Brionne played in Tarmin's demise. Fisher is lodged in the rider camp, the unconscious Brionne with Darcey Schaffer, the village doctor, and Carlo and Randy with Van Mackey, the village blacksmith. The news of Tarmin's fall is devastating to Evergreen because all its supplies come from there, but many of the villagers see the disaster as an opportunity to seize and occupy the vacant property in Tarmin village in the spring.

One night Spook enters the ambient and disturbs the horses and riders in the rider camp. Fisher knows that Brionne has woken up and is . The next morning Ridley takes Fisher out the gates to find Spook, but when they are some distance from the village, Ridley points his rifle at Fisher and demands the truth. Fisher is relieved to be able to finally unburden himself and tells Ridley everything he knows.

Earnest Rigs, a miner, arrives at the doctor's house for treatment and sees and is entranced by Brionne. That night Schaffer and Brionne are awoken by a noise on the roof and a banging at the door. The next day, Schaffer finds blood splattered outside her house, and Rigs is missing. A crowd gathers, including the Goss boys and the village marshal. Carlo is accused of murdering Rigs and, scared that his arrest in Tarmin will become known, runs away. The marshal orders that Carlo be stopped, and a group of miners pursue him. When Carlo reaches the village gate, his only escape is out the village.

Spook finds Carlo in the Wild and immediately adopts him. Fisher and Cloud begin searching for Carlo and see him riding Spook. Suspecting that Spook may have gone rogue, Fisher pursues them. When he catches up with them he sees a threatening shadow in the trees above them and shoots it. At the same time, Stuart and Chang, out looking for Fisher and the Goss children, find Fisher and Carlo. They search for the creature Fisher shot but find instead a large nest in which appear to be human bones. No creature of this size and ability had ever been encountered before, and they conclude that it must have come from the unexplored side of the mountain, probably attracted by the noise in the ambient from the swarm that overran Tarmin. Then the riders hear Evergreen's bells calling for help, and set off for the village.

At Evergreen, the breakthrough bells are ringing and the riders enter the village to investigate. They find the gate man ripped to shreds in his watch tower and track the intruder to the houses. When the riders hear Brionne they realise that she is controlling the beast. They go to Schaffer's house where, through the door, they try to persuade the doctor to drug the girl. Inside Brionne opens the underground passage door to reveal a huge ape-like creature. It picks up Brionne and when Schaffer tries to intervene, it hurls the doctor against the wall, killing her. Like a rider and a nighthorse, Brionne and the beast connect. They climb to the roof and disappear over the wall.

All the riders spend the rest of the winter in the rider camp and discuss their plans for the spring. Stuart reveals the presence of the gold in the crashed truck, and Fisher and Carlo agree to go to Anveney to request supplies from Cassivey to retrieve the gold. Stuart and Chang take on the responsibility of escorting villagers down to Tarmin. Of Brionne and the beast there is no sign, not even in the ambient. Clearly they have returned to the other side of the mountain.

The musical is presented in real time as the final concert of the national "Raise the Praise" tour staged by the five-member group the Altar Boyz. Four of the group's members, Matthew, Mark, Luke and Juan, apparently are named after the authors of the four canonical Christian Gospels. The fifth member is Abraham, who, the group explains in the show's opening number, is Jewish. The members of the group address the audience directly and refer to the venue and location in which the performance is taking place. The Altar Boyz perform their songs, with choreographed dancing in the style of boy bands, and present several scenes concerning the group and its origins, as well as each member's strengths and demons, as part of the concert.

During the show, the Altar Boyz repeatedly turn to a machine on stage, the "Soul Sensor DX-12," which has a display that they explain shows the number of burdened souls in the theatre. Their goal is to reduce the number on the machine to zero by the end of the concert.

Jose Martinez is a poor young man living in East Los Angeles who is in love with the girl next door. He encounters a strange man eyeing him and runs away, and throwing his wallet with his last $20 to escape. When cornered in the alley he is given back his money where the man measures his body frame. This man is Gómez who introduces himself and then whisks Martinez off to a run-down bar. There he meets two other similarly-sized Latinos, Dominguez, a wandering guitar player, and Villanazul, a burgeoning philosopher and speaker for the people.

Barely letting the dust settle, Gómez shows them that they all have the same measurements, height, and weight. It is at that moment that Gómez shares his vision. The most beautiful, exquisite, vanilla-ice-cream-white summer suit is for sale at the downtown suit emporium. It is one of a kind and costs only $100. Alone, none of them have enough to purchase the suit, but by combining their money, they may be able to own the one-of-a-kind suit together. Each of the four has only $20, leaving them with $80 – just $20 short. They need one more person to complete their dream. In their haste, they choose to go along with an unwashed bum outside, Vámonos, who has the last $20 they need.

Once they buy the suit, they work out a system to decide who will wear it. Each partner will get to wear it for the entire night, one night a week. However, on the first night, they will each wear it for one hour, then return to the bar. Dominguez goes first, and stirs up a parade with his guitar playing, inspiring those who hear it to ''¡Muévete!'' Villanazul is second, and during his hour he interrupts a politician on a soapbox to perform a poem he has written. Martinez, third in line, returns to the balcony where he first saw the girl next door. While she had previously not noticed him (because she did not have her glasses on), this time the bright white suit attracts her attention and Martinez gets her name: Celia Obregon.

Gómez is next. Acting on an earlier hunch that Gómez's plan was a scam to get the money from the others to buy the suit and then leave town, Villanazul reminds Gómez to "go with God." This was indeed the plan all along, but on the way to the bus station, Gómez encounters a mural of five men, each resembling a member of their group. Gómez decides not to leave, and returns.

Finally it is Vámonos's turn. Gómez is infuriated that the filthy Vámonos did not get clean before it was his turn. Along with the others, they force Vámonos to take a bath, something he hadn't done in years. Once clean, Gómez lays down a series of rules, aimed at keeping the suit clean: no eating juicy tacos, drinking wine, smoking cigars, even standing under trees with birds. Furthermore, he insists that Vámonos avoid meeting with a woman named Ruby Escadrío, whose boyfriend, Toro, would ruin the suit in a fight. Vámonos heads off to a club. He is followed by the other four members, who watch him ignore every one of Gómez's rules.

Ruby Escadrío shows up, and she and Vámonos dance. Toro, predictably, is angry. The others protect Vámonos from Toro, Gómez even going so far as to insist Toro hit him instead of Vámonos. The fight ends after Toro hits Vámonos with his car. His leg is broken, but Vámonos insists that they quickly take off the suit before the ambulance arrives, because the paramedics would cut the suit off and ruin it. They do, and Vámonos is rushed to the hospital.

In the final scene, Dominguez has ironed the suit and placed it on a mannequin. As the scene continues, it becomes apparent that the suit is one of the few things the group has left: they are sleeping on a rooftop, with only a few hammocks between them. Vámonos is fine, though his leg is still in a cast. Martinez contemplates that if they were rich, they would never have had the great time they have spent together, before Villanazul tells him to get some sleep.

Uuno Turhapuro (played by Vesa-Matti Loiri) is searching for a job and takes a correspondence course in tour guiding. Eventually he gets a job in a small travel agency and takes a group of Finnish tourists to Marbella, Spain. Unfortunately Uuno's father-in-law Tuura (Tapio Hämäläinen) is in the group, too, with his wife (Marita Nordberg) and daughter, Uuno's wife Elisabet (Marjatta Raita). Tuura tries to get a signature to an important paper from a minister who's having a holiday in the area. Meanwhile, Uuno just relaxes and enjoys the sun.

In 1903, American seaman Henry Adams is stranded penniless in Britain and gets caught up in an unusual wager between two wealthy, eccentric brothers, Oliver and Roderick Montpelier. They persuade the Bank of England to issue a one million pound banknote, which they present to Adams in an envelope, only telling him that it contains some money. Oliver asserts that the mere existence of the note will enable the possessor to obtain whatever he needs, while Roderick insists that it would have to be spent for it to be of any use.

Once Adams gets over the shock of discovering how much the note is worth, he tries to return it to the brothers, but is told that they have left for a month. He then finds a letter in the envelope, explaining the wager and promising him a job if he can avoid spending the note for the month.

At first, everything goes as Oliver had predicted. Adams is mistaken for an eccentric millionaire and has no trouble getting food, clothes, and a hotel suite on credit, just by showing his note. The story of the note is reported in the newspapers. Adams is welcomed into exclusive social circles, meeting the American ambassador and English aristocracy. He becomes very friendly with Portia Lansdowne, the niece of the Duchess of Cromarty. Then fellow American Lloyd Hastings asks him to back a business venture. Hastings tells Adams that he does not have to put up any money himself; the mere association will allow Hastings to raise the money that he needs to develop his gold mine by selling shares.

Trouble arises when the Duke of Frognal, who had been unceremoniously evicted from the suite Adams now occupies, hides the note as a joke. When Adams is unable to produce the note, panic breaks out amongst the shareholders and Adams's creditors. All is straightened out in the end, and Adams is able to return the note to the Montpelier brothers at the end of the month.

The story is about a youth club member, and aspiring singer, Nicky (Cliff Richard) and his friends, who try to save their youth club in London's West End from an unscrupulous millionaire property developer Hamilton Black (Robert Morley), who plans to tear it down to make room for a large office block.

The members decide to put on a variety show to raise the money needed to buy a lease renewal. The twist in the story is that Nicky is Hamilton Black's son, something he keeps secret from his friends until some of them try to kidnap Black, to prevent him from stopping the show. Although he is fighting his father over the future of the youth club, Nicky cannot allow them to harm him, so he attacks the attackers and frees his father.

Meanwhile, Hamilton Black has realised that his son is the mystery singer that all of London is talking about, after the youth club members have done some pirate broadcasts to promote their show. So, although he has just bought the theatre where the show is to take place, in order to be able to stop it, the proud father decides that the show must go on. At the end, he joins the youth club members on stage, dancing and singing, after having promised to build them a new youth club.

An opening narration presents the film as footage recovered from the home of the McPherson family, who disappeared in the Fall of 1997, interspersed with contributions from experts and officials linked to the case.

Teenage Tommy McPherson films his family at Thanksgiving dinner. A power cut interrupts festivities; Tommy and his older brothers Kurt and Brian go outside to investigate. After finding the smouldering fuse box, they head into the woods to investigate a transformer which is throwing sparks.

They find a strange object in a nearby field. As they watch from afar, two aliens exit the object and use a ray-gun on a cow. The three men are spotted. One of the aliens raises its weapon and burns Brian's hand. They run back to the house and try to convince their incredulous family to flee while there is still time. They see lights in the sky and a furtive figure outside a window, but the family refuses to believe the brothers' story until Tommy plays them the tape. Suddenly, a high-frequency screech incapacitates everyone but five-year-old Rosie. When it stops, Kurt plans to evacuate everyone in his truck only to find its battery has melted.

Noises are heard from the roof and Tommy sees an alien entering an open attic window. Kurt leads the way up the stairs with his shotgun. Tommy takes the opportunity to go into his bedroom and change his soiled pants when he is ambushed by an alien. It puts him in a trance, investigates his camera, and slips away, leaving Tommy with no memory of the encounter. Tommy is awakened by the shouts of Kurt, who has trapped an alien in an adjacent room. They are greeted by a laser shot and Kurt responds with his shotgun. They retreat downstairs.

A ball of light enters the house and puts Renee into a coma. Kurt and Brian go outside to try to swap out the truck battery in a final attempt to get the family to safety and take Renee to a hospital. Minutes later, gunshots are heard outside and the lights begin to flicker. Those who remain experience a series of vivid auditory and visual hallucinations to which Rosie seems to be immune. Tommy puts the camera down, and in a moment when she is left alone, Rosie removes the shells from the remaining shotgun. Later, everyone but Rosie feels a burning sensation on the backs of their necks where they discover triangle-shaped burns.

The group becomes hysterical as more shots are heard. They go outside where Tommy discovers a couple of mangled shotguns, but not his brothers. Strange lights and two approaching figures appear in the woods. The family race back into the house and barricade themselves in. The camera is dropped and goes black. Tommy then gives a tearful testimonial and wonders if he will live to see tomorrow. He searches through all the rooms and suddenly comes face-to-face with an alien. Tommy drops the camera and stands frozen in a trance-like state as the tape stops.

Alternate ending

The family re-enters the house and, after the death of Renee, gather around the table to eat in order to keep up their strength and spirits. Rosie calmly walks offscreen, claiming she has something to attend to. Seconds later, aliens enter the house and place the family in a trance. An alien disables the camera as the family is seen following the aliens out of the house.

Tim has developed a crush on Olivia Newton-John, whose portrait has replaced that of Queen Elizabeth II on his wall. His obsession prompts him to emulate the mannerisms, hairstyle and fashions exhibited by Newton-John's ''Grease'' co-star, John Travolta, in ''Saturday Night Fever'', although he admits to not having seen the latter film because of its X-rating. Tim visits a disco but is promptly ejected. He returns home and confides in Graeme and Bill that he is visiting discos in the hope of finding a date.

Graeme and Bill offer to accompany Tim to a disco. Bill wears a tail-coat with ridiculously long tails and tap shoes with actual taps on them. Graeme wears a pink dress, parodying the pink ladies of ''Grease''. When Tim confesses his inability to dance, Graeme teaches him the ''Disco Heave'', part of which involves miming vomiting induced by hearing a Max Bygraves record. But, once the teachings done Graeme was utterly revolted by the prospect of "snogging when the impatient Tim gets carried away with his smutting behaviour and hot-headedly decides to go out dancing by himself (using his "smoky urban charm" for some "choreographed canoodling, heavy petting and I'm gonna do it my way!").

At the disco, mixed dancing is forbidden. Tim is arrested for touching a girl when attempting to dance with her. Bill sets up his own disco, called "Disco Billius", which is so exclusive that even celebrities are denied entry. Graeme visits Bill to seek help to bail Tim out of prison. Bill is more interested in organising a mixed dancing competition to be televised by the BBC, which will provide prize money of £5,000. Bill surmises that no one will be willing to perform mixed dancing before a camera, so the competition will be declared void and the prize money will therefore go to him as organiser. Graeme bails Tim out of prison 'on account', and they enter the 'Panorama Disco Dancing Championships' hosted by Robin Yad (a spoof of Robin Day). With Graeme dressed as Newton-John's Sandy Olsson and Tim as Travolta's Danny Zuko from ''Grease'', they perform ''You're The One That I Want''. At the end of their winning performance, Bill removes Graeme's Sandy wig, revealing him to be a man. Bill tries to claim the money by default, while Tim delivers an impassioned speech in defense of mixed dancing, which prompts all present to dance together to ''the Tennessee Waltz''. The police intervene to stop the mixed dancing and then give chase to the three Goodies. Ensuing chase sequences spoof ''the Hustle'', ''West Side Story'', the Village People's ''In the Navy'', ''The Wizard of Oz'', an Indian rain dance, ''Singin' in the Rain'' and the Hawaiian hula, culminating a choreographed brawl that spoofs the orchestrated ultra-violence of ''A Clockwork Orange''.

The book follows Dennis Gossen, an economist whose career and life are cut short by the Harvard Promotion and Tenure Committee and an apparent suicide. When two members of that committee are killed, Gossen's fiancee, Melissa Shannon, finds herself indicted for murder. Once again, Henry Spearman, Professor of Economics at Harvard, finds himself on the track of a murderer and once again Marshall Jevons presents his readers with a captivating murder mystery riddle. Was it Morrison Bell, mathematics star, inventor of devices to defeat the squirrels in his birdfeeders? Or was it owl-like Oliver Wu the distinguished sociologist who harbors deep resentments? Was it Valerie Danzig, supposedly former "item" with Dennis Gossen? Or maybe Foster Barrett, gourmet Harvard classicist? What about Cristolph Burckhardt, infatuated employer of Gossen's fiancee? Or Sophia Ustinov, Russian emigre, lover of American poetry and Borzoi hounds? Three lives come to an end. And when Spearman begins to piece it together, the murderer and Henry find themselves face to face on a luxury liner in a storm at sea in the fourth and final Fatal Equilibrium. For the reader who follows the clues, the solution to this conundrum is, as usual in the best of this genre, elementary. The difference in this case is that it is elementary economics.

''The Fatal Equilibrium'' is a mystery novel that provides a grasp of basic economics on the way to finding out whodunnit. Its predecessor, ''Murder at the Margin'', has already achieved a cult following. In a review of Jevons' earlier book, ''The Wall Street Journal'' remarked that "if there is a more painless way to learn economic principles, scientists must have recently discovered how to implant them in ice cream."

''Darna Zaroori Hai'' interweaves six stories into one film. Five children get lost in the middle of a forest, where they find a deserted house. Inside, they meet an old woman who agrees to tell them six scary stories, and they will all compete on who is able to sit through all six stories without getting scared.

Opening Story – Uncredited

;Written and directed by Sajid Khan

The first story is about a young film buff named Satish, who lives with his mother. Satish has a habit of watching a Bollywood movie in theatres every Friday, on the last show of the day. He decides to watch the film ''Darna Mana Hai''. His mother warns him not to take the graveyard shortcut because it's Friday the 13th, a new moon night, and witches might appear. He pays no heed to his mother and takes the shortcut. He safely arrives at the cinema, buys his regular snacks, gets some change back, watches the movie, and returns home. On his return, he once again uses the graveyard shortcut. Walking through the graveyard, he hears clinking footsteps and begins to run. He sees a witch and falls to the ground in fright. His fear leads to his death. It turns out the footsteps were actually the coins jingling in his pocket as he walked and the witch he saw was actually a poster for a movie, ''Darna Zaroori Hai''.

Official Stories

Story 1 – Imaginary Ghost

;Directed by Ram Gopal Varma

Five children arrive at a haunted house. The resident of the house, an old woman, decides to tell them six scary stories. The children decide to have a competition to see who gets scared first. The first story is about a professor, Sunil Khanna, who is giving tuition to one of his Biotechnology students, Altaaf, at home. Every minute, the professor points out something (or someone) in his house, once in the kitchen, once in the dining room, and once on the sofa. The annoyed student decides to leave when the professor warns him not to leave the house, or the ghost will go after him as well. Curious, the student asks the professor about the ghost and the professor tells him that the ghost is an exact lookalike of himself, except he has a hollow face with a hat. The frightened student tries to run, but the professor takes him in front of the mirror and points at his reflection. The professor's reflection in the mirror looks exactly like the ghost he talked about.

After the story, one child, Nisha, goes down to the washroom, only to come back as a ghost without revealing her real identity. Nisha sits down with the rest of the kids with a bowed head.

Story 2 – Spirits Do Come

; Written and directed by Prawaal Raman

The second story is about a photographer, Kunal, who finds a strange house when his car breaks down. There, Varsha invites him in and claims that she has been lonely for the past few years since her husband Rahul died. He tries to make a phone call, but is confronted by Rahul. He gets scared and says that Varsha opened the door, but gets astonished on listening that Varsha is the one who had died two years ago, and not Rahul. They then confess to a scared Kunal that they were playing a prank on him. The two explain to Kunal that Rahul has been trying to summon spirits and bring them down to earth. When Kunal interrupts by saying that he is in a hurry, Rahul plays as if he is summoning the spirit of a mechanic. After a few moments, the three hear a door knock. Rahul goes outside to check, and then he screams for Varsha. Rahul and Varsha find the corpse of Kunal on the driving seat of his broken-down car. Just then, Kunal walks out and declares in a chilly voice that spirits do come, whenever they are called, but sometimes sending them back becomes very difficult. He continues to laugh in a chilly voice.

After this story, another child, Rohan, goes to the washroom, but he too returns as a ghost.

Story 3 – Accidents are Never Predicted

;Directed by Vivek Shah

The third story revolves around a couple, Vishwas and his wife, who live with their son, Chintu. One day, the three are visited by an insurance agent Prabhakar Panditwho, who keeps warning them about the risks of life and that accidents are never predicted. Vishwas kicks him out of the house and their doorbell suddenly rings. They open the door, but find no one there. They go back inside the house, but the bell rings yet again. It is the agent again, who claims that it is raining outside and he has left his umbrella inside. He takes out many things such as a knife, a rope and a gun, which all represent different ways to die in life. Vishwas gets tired of him and asks him to leave. The agent then takes out the gun and threatens Vishwas and his family. Vishwas gets into a struggle with the agent, which results in the agent being accidentally shot. Before he dies, as if confirming his statement, he says, "See sir, accidents are never predicted!"

After the story, another child, Aditi, leaves the room to get water, but she comes back meeting the same fate as the two previous ones.

Story 4 – Ghostly Audition

;Directed by Jiji Philip

A film director, Karan Chopra, decides to make a horror film. On the way to the sets, he gives a lift to a young woman, Riya, who pretends to be a ghost. Karan thinks she is just playing a prank, and Riya also claims later that she was just joking. When stormy weather hits, Karan takes Riya to his mansion. The electricity and lights go out and Riya's face starts to gore with blood. Karan still thinks that she is playing a prank, but when her voice turns ghostly, he falls to the floor and dies in shock. Riya takes off her mask, which was stained with fake blood, and a microphone that changed her voice to make it sound ghostly. It is revealed that she really was only playing a joke on him. She says that she was trying to audition for his new horror film, but it is too late now since Karan has already died.

After this story, another child leaves the room to get water, but he too returns after becoming a ghost.

Story 5 – A Bride's Revenge

;Directed by J.D. Chakravarthy

The fifth story centres on Ajay, a young man driving on the road. He finds a young woman standing on the highway. When he approaches her, he becomes frozen after seeing her burnt face. Shortly after, he wakes up in a jail and is accused of murdering a man. A police officer brings the mother of the murdered victim to the police station. But the mother is shocked to find that Ajay is possessed by the spirit of a woman, who turns out to be her daughter-in-law, Sandhya. It is revealed that the mother-in-law, her husband and her son had immolated the newly-wedded bride and her spirit has returned for revenge. Sandhya's spirit reveals that it possessed Ajay to dismember the son. The spirit possesses the police officer and shoots her mother-in-law. After the spirit leaves the officer's body, he realizes what has happened and secretly buries the body. Ajay is released and is driving back when he sees Sandhya's ghost in the backseat. She says that her father-in-law is in Pune on a business trip and she must fulfil her revenge. She assures him that she will not possess him; all he has to do is drop her to Pune.

Story 6 – The Ending

After all of the stories are over, one boy, Ashu, claims that he is still not scared. The old lady smirks as the lights of the house suddenly turn off. The stunned boy looks around him. The lights turn back on immediately and he sees that he is the only one in the room: as if no one was ever there. The lights go off and turn back on again, this time to reveal his friends, all of whom are now ghosts, giving him eerie smiles. The old woman appears back on her chair, giving him a witch's smile. Realizing what is going on, the boy tries to make a frantic escape out of the house, but finds all the doors to be jammed and locked. Just as the boy looks back at the upstairs room to see if he was being followed, he sees the old lady right beside him, smirking. The old lady's hair is snow-white and scattered; her frightening smile gives the boy a heart attack and he dies at the scene. The next morning, the house is swarming with policemen and the media. The police clear away the bodies of the dead children. The old servant of the house tells the police officers that a long time ago, the house belonged to an old lady who loved children, but unfortunately, she had no children of her own. He explains that once he had left her for hours to get her some medication (just as the old lady had told the children), and when he returned, he found her dead. The film ends with a reporter reading the tragic story of a camping trip-turned-nightmare for the five children. He says that the exact cause of death of the children is still unknown and will most likely never be known, however, one thing is for certain- all the children died of cardiac failure or in simple words — fear.

Kirth Gersen's short-lived relationship with Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay, a woman he had rescued in the previous novel of the series is nearing an end, as she cannot understand why Gersen, made extremely wealthy by his epic defrauding of Interchange, still feels the need to personally exterminate the remaining Demon Princes who killed his family.

Gersen notices a newspaper article announcing the forthcoming execution of a prominent Sarkoy venefice (poison maker), Kakarsis Asm, for selling poisons to the Demon Prince Viole Falushe below a Guild-mandated price floor. He accordingly hastens to Sarkovy, a planet famous for its poisons. In return for arranging a swift and painless execution, he learns that Falushe visited Sarkovy at the beginning of his criminal career with a shipload of slaves. He sold two female slaves to Asm. While on Sarkovy, Gersen's relationship with Alusz Iphigenia finally ends, though he ensures that she will be financially comfortable.

After visiting his new financial advisor, Jehan Addels, to check how Addels' investment of the titanic proceeds of his swindle is proceeding, Gersen locates a surviving slave, whom he buys and frees in exchange for further information. He learns that Falushe was born Vogel Filschner, an Earth boy of disgusting appearance and habits who, to satisfy his obsession with a female classmate, Jheral Tinzy, had kidnapped the entire girls' choral society at his school. But by chance, Jheral had not attended choir practice that day.

Gersen follows the trail to "Rolingshaven" in the Netherlands, to people who knew Filschner as a youth. The mad poet Navarth was Filschner's mentor and later enjoyed a brief relationship with Jheral. After the kidnapping, she had attracted a share of the blame for having teased and flirted with Filschner and turned to Navarth for comfort. However, she was later abducted by Falushe. Navarth has custody of an 18-year-old girl, variously known as Drusilla Wayles and "Zan Zu from Eridu," who was given to him as a child by Falushe to nurture and protect. She resembles the young Jheral to a disturbing extent.

With the erratic assistance of Navarth, Gersen tries to engineer a meeting with Falushe. To this end, he buys the failing, but respected ''Cosmopolis'' magazine, disguises himself as a journalist, and authors a lurid article that paints the young Falushe in extremely unflattering terms. He is able, through Navarth, to contact Falushe by telephone and secures an invitation to Falushe's legendary Palace of Love, a hedonistic playground, in return for writing a more flattering article.

On Falushe's planet, Gersen sees that the Demon Prince has built an entire civilization acknowledging him as its supreme ruler. The female inhabitants pay "tax" to him by working in state brothels and by giving their first-born children to him (the most beautiful going to staff the luxurious Palace, the others being sold as slaves). In the company of a party of invitees including Navarth, Gersen visits the Palace. Eventually, he discovers Falushe's lifelong ambition: to create a clone of Jheral Tinzy brainwashed into loving him. Navarth's Drusilla Wayles was bred parthenogenically from the original Jheral, and there are at least two others on the planet. Jheral herself killed herself some years into the forced breeding program.

Gersen, guessing correctly that Viole Falushe is one of his fellow guests so that Falushe can try to win Drusilla's affections. He finally identifies his target with the aid of a critical error by Falushe: he has an implanted in-ear telephone, which can be heard quietly ringing when Navarth calls him. Gersen rescues two Jheral copies. They and Drusilla Wayles leave no doubt that they find Falushe repellent. As Gersen is about to throw him out of an airboat hovering ten thousand feet above the sea, Falushe breaks his bonds, but falls to his doom.

Gersen frees the enslaved servants at the Palace, informs the planet's inhabitants that they need pay "taxes" no more, and entrusts the various clones to Navarth's eccentric care. Some months later, he chances to meet yet another, more mature clone and makes her acquaintance.

'''Monday:''' Catwoman and the Riddler take a trip to Rome, travelling incognito as Selina Kyle and Edward Nygma (or 'Eddie', as Selina refers to him). During the flight Selina falls asleep and has a vivid nightmare involving Batman, the first of several such dreams which she experiences over the following days. On arriving in Rome, she and Eddie meet Christopher Castillo, 'The Blond', a hitman who sets up a meeting between Selina and a local crime boss, Don Verinni. Selina decides to scout out Verinni's villa in costume as Catwoman, and in doing so comes face-to-face with the mafia kingpin. She explains that Selina (to preserve her secret identity she pretends 'Catwoman' and 'Selina' are separate people) is in Rome for information about Carmine Falcone's past, but before she can give any more details Verinni drops dead, having been poisoned with the Joker's distinctive venom. Catwoman is blamed, and is promptly chased out of the villa by Verinni's goons.

'''Tuesday:''' Selina, Eddie and the Blond are almost killed when Selina's hotel room is set on fire by the mafia, and the trio escape to the Blond's yacht at Anzio. Verinni's son Guillermo tracks them down and attacks the yacht, using Mr. Freeze's freeze gun to encase Catwoman in a block of ice, but the Blond manages to fend off the attackers and pilot the yacht out to sea, while Eddie rescues Catwoman from the ice.

'''Wednesday:''' The Blond informs Selina that she might be able to buy Guillermo off by acquiring for him a priceless ring which has immense symbolic significance for the mafia and is currently held for safekeeping by the Vatican. Eddie plots out a way of stealing the ring, but is then required to return to Gotham City (where he attends the Hangman trial conducted by Two-Face during the parallel events of ''Batman: Dark Victory''). In his absence Catwoman carries out the plan he has drawn up, successfully stealing the ring from St Peter's Basilica, but she is then ambushed by the Cheetah, who knocks her out and ties her up in the ruins of the Colosseum.

'''Thursday:''' Catwoman manages to escape her bonds, overpower the Cheetah and recover the ring with the help of the Blond, and the pair then return to the latter's yacht, where they are joined by the Riddler, newly returned from Gotham.

'''Friday:''' Using the ring as bait, Catwoman and the Blond lure Guillermo Verinni into a trap, and Selina forces him to disclose the current whereabouts of Carmine Falcone's widow, Louisa, who it transpires is now living as a nun at a fortified convent in the mountains. Catwoman infiltrates the convent and speaks to Louisa, explaining that she believes herself to be a long-lost daughter of Carmine and Louisa, but the latter denies that she has any daughters other than Sofia. After Catwoman leaves, Louisa orders the Blond - who is revealed to be her godson - to kill Catwoman and recover the mafia ring for her.

'''Saturday:''' As Catwoman ponders her situation, back on the Blond's yacht, she is seemingly attacked by Batman. However, by now she has realised that the nightmares she has been having all week about the Dark Knight are actually hallucinations brought on by the Scarecrow's fear gas. The Scarecrow is in Italy and in cahoots with the Riddler, who has been surreptitiously dosing her with the fear gas in the hope that while hallucinating she would inadvertently blurt out the answer to what he considers to be the greatest riddle of all - Batman's secret identity. In order to give himself maximum opportunity to get the secret out of her, he has been engineering events to prolong their stay in Rome, first by colluding with Guillermo to murder the latter's father and then by hiring the Cheetah to hijack Catwoman's Vatican heist; moreover it was he who supplied Guillermo with the Joker poison and the Freeze gun. With the secret out, the Riddler attacks Catwoman together with Guillermo, the Cheetah and the Scarecrow, but she manages to defeat them with the aid of the Blond, who has decided to betray Louisa because he has fallen in love with Selina.

The Blond reveals to Selina that Louisa was lying when she said she only had one daughter - she and Carmine had a second daughter after Sofia but gave her up for adoption while she was still an infant. Selina and the Blond go on a romantic holiday to Palermo and plan to return to Gotham together, but before they can do so the Blond is murdered by Louisa in revenge for his betrayal. Unaware that the Blond is dead, Selina waits for him at the airport, and when he fails to show up she assumes he has got cold feet and leaves Italy alone, taking with her the priceless mafia ring.

'''Sunday:''' In a brief epilogue, identical to a scene from ''Batman: Dark Victory'', Catwoman bids farewell to Carmine Falcone at his grave, convinced that he is her father but still unable to find conclusive proof.

''Shining City'' is a ghost story which recounts the visits of John, a widower, to Ian, a therapist, claiming he has seen his dead wife in their house. Ian is a former priest who has just started his therapy practice, and is struggling with his loss of faith. Ian and his girlfriend Neasa have a child, but Ian leaves her in a search for another life. The play charts the parallel trajectories of the two men in their struggle to understand what's happening.

A young man named Jiron Amos is found in the desert by a group of bandits known as the Sand Rats (Rag, Blume, Dyke and Chill). Jiron hopes to steal the Walker Machine Xabungle from the local trader Carrying Cargo to use it to take revenge against the Breaker who killed his parents, Timp Sharon. After kidnapping Carrying's daughter, Elchi, she agrees to help them steal a Xabungle from her father's landship, the Iron Gear. Timp convinces a rockman named Groggy to attack the Iron Gear, and during the attack Carrying is killed. Elchi takes charge of the Iron Gear and possession of the transporter's license that belonged to her father. Her father's top Breaker, Kid Horla hopes to marry Elchi and gain the license, but she rejects him and he flees.

Following orders from the Innocent, Timp recruits several other Breakers and traders to defeat the Iron Gear including Gavlet Gablae and Bigman but they all fail and are killed. Running low on supplies, the Iron Gear heads to an Innocent dome to exchange blue rocks, a form of currency, for supplies. Although they are initially rejected, an Innocent overseer named Biel appears and agrees to make the trade. Jiron and his pursuit of Timp leads to multiple battles inside the dome and during one such attack Jiron ends up destroying the dome, forcing Biel and the others to depart. During the battle, Timp fakes his own death causing Jiron to believe he has gotten revenge.

The Iron Gear comes under attack from Kid Horla, now working for Biel and in possession of a landship. Following passage over the Mud Sea, where the Iron Gear is confronted by the mysterious Hanawan, Elchi leaves the Iron Gear, falling in love with a man named El Condor who is soon killed in a battle with Horla. Rag also leaves the Iron Gear and falls in love with a subordinate of Horla's who also dies. Timp tricks a trader named Karas Karas to battle the Iron Gear and he is eventually killed although his wife Greta makes it out alive. The Iron Gear battles Biel, now living in another Innocent dome, and Jiron steals the Walker Machine Gallier, which he pilots for the rest of the series.

Jiron meets a woman named Toran Milan, and through her influence the Iron Gear and its crew start working with an organization named Solt that rebels against the Innocent. Around this time Elchi is captured by the Innocent. Biel delivers her to a fellow overseer named Billam, but is demoted and abandoned. Elchi is put under an intense level of brainwashing by the Innocent, who cause her to desire the Iron Gear's destruction and Jiron's death. Solt's power continues to grow, although Jiron frequently clashes with its leader, Katakam. Katakam's methods are not respected however, and when everyone believes him to have been killed, he disappears from view, enabling Jiron to take on leadership of Solt.

The Innocent continues to send Breakers after the Iron Gear, including Greta, Kid Horla, the returned Timp, and even Elchi herself who is provided with a land ship identical to the Iron Gear. During an attempt to rescue Elchi, Biel is killed, but not before revealing the truth about the Innocent to Jiron and the others. The Innocent have created the civilians as a race that will be able to live in the harsh environment on their planet. Jiron and Solt hope to meet up with Innocent leader Arthur Rank, although his influence has been significantly reduced through the efforts of the villainous Kashim King.

Jiron and the others are able to capture Arthur Rank, who agrees with them that it is now time for the Innocent to relinquish their control of the planet. He broadcasts this message to all of the Innocent. Kashim continues to attack the Iron Gear and Solt, hoping to kill Arthur. Elchi is captured by the Iron Gear and with the sacrifice of Arthur her original personality is restored. The Iron Gear and Solt lead one final attack on the Innocent's stronghold, X Point. During the battle Kashim launches a series of missiles that cause heavy damage to Solt's forces. However, the Iron Gear smashes through the dome and Elchi attacks Kashim in the Xabungle. Kashim fires off a missile that causes a chain reaction when another missiles topples over. Kashim and Billam are crushed. The resulting explosion blinds Elchi. Jiron has one final battle with Timp, who flees. With Kashim dead, the Innocent's grasp on the planet has ended. Elchi runs away, thinking she will be a nuisance to everyone, but Jiron catches up with her and convinces her to return.

In ''Xabungle Graffiti'' (the compilation movie for the series), Arthur Rank, who had died before the end of the series, returns (in new footage) on a hover bike to sweep Elchi up and take her away, leaving Rag to claim Jiron herself.

A serial killer-vigilante known as the "Party Crasher" telephones the police, notifying them that he is about to kill another person at a night club, daring them to stop him. Police converge on the night club, but the officers, including cynical NYPD Lieutenant John Moss, are unable to stop the murder of a local drug dealer. The Party Crasher brazenly flees in ensuing chaos, and Moss, who quickly climbs the truck's door, is thrown off a car while trying to stop him. While Moss has his injuries tended to, he makes obscene comments to the media.

In Hollywood, Nick Lang is a pampered and capricious movie star who is best known as "Smoking" Joe Gunn, the Indiana Jones-like title character in a series of highly popular action films. In order to be taken more seriously as an actor, he is vying for the leading role in the heavy cop drama ''Blood on the Asphalt'', which he believes will be a more realistic role. Nick vows to "prepare" for the role by attempting to act as an actual police officer with the rest of the NYPD. After seeing Moss's outburst on television and being impressed, Nick pulls strings with New York City Mayor David Dinkins to be assigned as Moss's new partner. Moss, uninterested in show business, wants no part of the deal, but is forced to comply by his captain, who is a Nick Lang fan. To make matters worse, looking after Nick means that Moss will have to be removed from the Party Crasher case under penalty of being fired if he disobeys.

Moss defies orders by continuing the investigation and repeatedly trying to ditch Nick, whose constant questions and attempts to mimic Moss's movements infuriate Moss. Nick wants to know what it feels like to be a cop, while Moss constantly reminds him that this is not a movie. Meanwhile, Moss is also trying to juggle a new romance with Susan, a single mother. The divorced Moss is unable to communicate with her or open up, and Nick offers advice to him on how to interact with people. Moss is embarrassed even further when Nick, as Ray Casanov, appears at a pizza parlor and is a hit with Bonnie, Susan's daughter, who dislikes Moss.

Moss tries to have a Nick-free day to keep on investigating by shackling Nick to his bed while placing a paper sign ordering him to stay. When Nick is invited by Susan through a phone call to eat out Nick goes after somehow unshackling himself from the bed while still carrying the handcuffs in his hand. After riding the subway Nick mistakenly believes Susan is becoming infatuated with him. He later risks his life by posing as a cop to a group of delinquent juveniles. Moss, who goes to the subway station and manages to arrest the perps, has decided that he no longer cares about the consequences and gets increasingly frustrated with Nick’s presence in his life.

Having chosen to finally teach Nick about cop duties, Moss takes Nick to a dark building to catch a perp, ordering him to stay put and giving him a real gun in case of an emergency. Nick, however, enters the building and shoots a man who he believes is a criminal chasing Moss. The man appears to be a bystander, leaving Nick terrified. Moss agrees to cover up the act, and urges Nick to leave town immediately. Feeling guilty, Nick returns from the airport to the police station to confess, only to see that the "dead man" is actually a cop who is making fun of Nick with the rest of the police. Nick confronts Moss, who admits he choreographed the stunt to get Nick out of town, stating that Nick's panic, self-doubt, guilt, and anger are all part of being a "real" cop. Nick, enraged with Moss for the ruse and Moss’s overall attitude, punches Moss and furiously leaves.

Nick however stumbles into a confrontation between Moss and The Party Crasher, during which he saves Moss's life. The Party Crasher is wounded by Moss and is taken to an ambulance, but he kills several people and escapes. Nick briefly captures The Party Crasher and radioes their location before The Party Crasher knocks out Nick. After Moss is visited by Susan she states that his unstable life as a cop will never allow them to have a secure relationship and therefore has decided to break up with him. Moss is then visited by Nick, who predicts that The Party Crasher will follow typical revenge protocol and will seek out Moss's loved ones in the third act of their story together. Nick is right, and Susan is abducted by The Party Crasher. Moss and Nick confront The Party Crasher on a billboard, after correctly guessing The Party Crasher’s cryptic clues. They go to the billboard advertising Nick's latest movie ''Smoking Gunn II'', and a brawl ensues between Nick, Moss, and The Party Crasher. Nick save Susan and Moss from being shot, but in turn he is shot in the chest. Moss eventually garners enough strength and throws the Party Crasher off the roof to his death. Moss tries to comfort Nick as he is taken to the hospital.

Several months later, Nick has recovered and filmed ''The Good, the Badge and the Ugly''. Moss, now married with Susan, attends the movie's premiere with the rest of the department as honored guests. He is annoyed to discover that Nick's best lines in the film originally came from him, while he himself receives no credit.

The Kingdom of France faces bankruptcy from King Louis XIV's wars against the Dutch, causing French citizens to starve. As the country moves toward revolution, King Louis prepares for war. At this point, the four musketeers have gone their separate ways; Aramis is now a priest, Porthos is a womanizing drunkard, and Athos has retired to his farm. Only D'Artagnan has remained loyal to the musketeers and is now the captain.

Athos' only son, Raoul, aspires to join the musketeers. At a palace festival, Louis sets his eyes on Christine Bellefort, Raoul's fiancée. He immediately plots to send Raoul to the battlefront, where he is killed soon after. Aware that Louis orchestrated his son's death, Athos renounces his allegiance to the king. After an assassination attempt on Louis by the Jesuit order is foiled by D'Artagnan, Louis instructs Aramis to hunt down and kill their leader. In response, Aramis summons Porthos, Athos, and D'Artagnan for a secret meeting in which he reveals he is the Jesuit's secret leader and has a plan to depose Louis. Athos and Porthos agree to join him, but D'Artagnan refuses. Athos brands him a traitor and threatens him with death should they ever meet again. Meanwhile, Louis seduces Christine, who later begins to suspect his part in Raoul's death.

The musketeers infiltrate the Île Sainte-Marguerite prison and free a prisoner wearing an iron mask. The prisoner is taken to the countryside, where Aramis reveals he is Philippe, King Louis' brother. Their mother, Queen Anne, gave birth to identical twins. Louis XIII, to avoid dynastic warfare between his sons, sent Philippe to live in the countryside and grow up without knowing his true identity. When Louis XIII died, he revealed Philippe's existence to Anne and Louis XIV. Anne wanted to restore Philippe's birthright. Instead, Louis was too superstitious to have his brother killed and, to preserve his power, imprisoned him in the iron mask to conceal his identity, an act that Aramis executed. Aramis wishes to redeem himself and save France by replacing Louis with the more benevolent Philippe. The musketeers tutor Philippe in courtly life and how to behave like Louis. Meanwhile, Athos develops paternal feelings for Philippe.

At a masquerade ball, the musketeers lure Louis to his quarters and subdue him. They dress Philippe in Louis's clothes and return him to the festivities while taking Louis to a waiting boat in the dungeons. D'Artagnan, however, sees through the ruse after Christine publicly accuses Philippe of Louis's role in Raoul's death. He forcibly escorts Philippe to the dungeons. Musketeer soldiers intervene before Athos, Porthos, and Aramis can escape with Louis. The king is rescued as the three musketeers get away, but Philippe is captured. Though Louis is prepared to kill Philippe, D'Artagnan, upon learning Philippe's true identity, begs that he be spared. Louis instead orders Philippe back to the Bastille and into the iron mask. Soon after, a grieving Christine commits suicide.

D'Artagnan contacts the musketeers to help rescue Philippe from the Bastille. Louis, suspecting an attempt, ambushes them at the prison. Louis offers D'Artagnan clemency in exchange for surrender. D'Artagnan refuses, privately telling his comrades that he is Louis and Philippe's father from an affair with the Queen, and that that was the reason for his loyalty to Louis. As they charge one final time at Louis and his men, they are fired upon; their bravery compels the soldiers to close their eyes before firing, and all miss. Louis attempts to stab Philippe but fatally wounds D'Artagnan. Philippe nearly strangles Louis to death, but D'Artagnan's dying words halt him. D'Artagnan's top lieutenant, Andre, angered by his mentor's death, swears his men to secrecy and sides with Philippe. They switch the twins again, and Philippe orders Louis locked away. He then names Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as his closest advisors.

At a small graveside service for D'Artagnan, Philippe tells Athos that he has come to love him like a father, which Athos reciprocates. Philippe later issues Louis a royal pardon and confines him to the countryside to live in seclusion, while he goes on to become one of France's greatest kings.

Nominally set during World War II, the film begins with a Japanese attack on an Allied military camp, which a map reveals to be somewhere in Canada. After four Allied Generals, including one who introduces himself as Abraham Lincoln, are taken hostage by the Japanese troops, Lieutenant Don Wen (Jimmy Wang Yu) is called in to organize a rescue effort (rejected candidates for the job include Roger Moore's James Bond, Snake Plissken, Rocky Balboa and Karl Maka's character from the Hong Kong film ''Aces Go Places'').

With promises of a huge reward, Don Wen rounds up a group of misfits for the job, which includes two kilt-wearing soldiers, a hobo (Old Sun), a supposed escape artist (Greased Lightning), con artist Billy, and the femme fatale Lily (Brigitte Lin), who sports knee-high red leather boots and a bazooka. En route to the Japanese base where the kidnapped Generals are being held (apparently located in Luxembourg according to the film), the group encounters two small-time crooks, Sammy and Emily (Jackie Chan and Ling Chang), who follow them in hope that they will lead them to a cache of money.

As they continue on, Don Wen is seemingly killed in a surprise ambush by spear-wielding tribesmen, and soon the group is captured by a tribe of cannibalistic Amazons led by an effeminate man in a tuxedo. After obliterating the Amazon tribe the group spends the night in a haunted house full of jiangshi before reaching their goal.

Once there they find the Generals held hostage gone and the base littered with the dead bodies of Japanese soldiers. Before the group can figure out what has happened they are attacked by sword and axe-brandishing Japanese Nazis riding in 1970s-era muscle cars.

Here the plot takes a turn for the melodramatic as the group is wiped out one by one by a machine gun, with another killed by a sword in the buttocks. In the end, with only Sammy and Emily left standing, Don Wen arrives, executes Old Sun, one of the rescue team members, and explains that he planned the whole thing from the beginning so that his rescue team and the Japanese soldiers would kill each other off, leaving him alone to collect the reward. Aiming to silence the last witnesses, Don Wen shoots Emily and Sammy is forced to fight him one-on-one.

After a long martial arts fight scene Don Wen is defeated as Sammy detonates explosives hidden in the main building, obliterating it. The Generals soon show up and demand to know why they were not rescued earlier, but all Sammy does is dismiss them with the line, "I don't know any Generals. To me you look like clowns!"

The film ends with a wounded Sammy and Emily driving off together in a jeep, and the Generals chase after them.

In the story of With Your Destiny, the Supreme Beings Yetzirah and Tzfah joined forces to create a world where mankind could triumph. In this plan, two great rival kingdoms disputed the dominion of the continent of Kersef: Hekalotia and Akeronia. While the realms were distracted by endless battles, a confrontation between the deities threatened to annihilate all Kersef. In this raid, players must master new skills and weapons and form powerful guilds to face the greatest of all threats: the fury of two supreme gods.