Liberty Wallace (Linda Fiorentino) is the Vice President of Marketing for McCloud Industries, one of the largest gun manufacturers in the United States. She's the daughter of the company's founder, and married to the company's ruthless CEO, Victor Wallace (Oliver Platt). While Victor trafficks in international armaments, Liberty takes a break to have a romantic affair with Russell Williams (Martin Cummins), an actor.

The balance of their marriage of convenience shifts when a sniper, Joe (Wesley Snipes), targets Liberty in a busy Los Angeles park on the way to her affair. Joe calls Liberty on her cell phone, ordering her to shackle herself to a nearby vendor’s hot dog cart. Liberty has no intention of acquiescing to Joe's wishes, until he begins shooting. Convinced, she locks herself to the stand, only to learn that it is loaded with explosives. If she calls for help, hangs up the phone, mutes the phone, or fails to co-operate, the bomb will go off. Joe has also armed a bomb against Russell, backstage in his dressing room at the nearby theater.

Liberty realizes she can not buy her way out of the situation, and she is forced to consider Joe's demand for an anti-gun forum. It is revealed that Joe's daughter was fatally shot at school by a classmate, who used a gun manufactured by McCloud Industries. Joe has decided to show Liberty what it is like to be on the other end of the weapon, and the horrors of what she has had a blind hand in for years.

Victor and Liberty have even bartered illegal deals that have resulted in easier access to weapons for street dealers, including the ones who sold the weapon that killed Joe's daughter. Joe wants Liberty to use her political connections and this incident to spark a public debate on the Second Amendment. Despite his past, Joe no longer supports the unequivocal right to bear arms.

Joe tells Liberty that she is going to die, but that she can die as a hero if she exposes her company's shady business dealings and political connections before she's killed. As Joe monitors and records her every move, Liberty reveals secrets about her past, and business dealings.

When Victor, who is also having an affair, finds out that Liberty has been taken hostage, he is torn between protecting himself and allowing Liberty to be killed, or going to help her. At first, it seems that Joe, who is actually a former CIA agent, is using Liberty as bait to attract media attention, but then Joe guns down news reporter Bill Tollman (Jonathan Scarfe), who is also the son of a hawkish U.S. Senator. Joe expresses his belief that this act will cause the Senator to change his pro-gun stance.

Joe calls Victor on his cell phone as Victor is finally acting on his choice to get out of town. While Joe is shaming Victor for leaving his wife to die, Victor suddenly recognizes the voice on the phone as someone he knows personally. Following the phone conversation, Victor orders his car to bring him to where his wife is. When Victor finally arrives on the scene, Joe calls him on his cell phone again, and Victor addresses Joe by the name Alex. They discuss the time they met in Colombia and how Alex had saved Victor’s life there. Victor also apologizes for having won a military medal under false pretenses for whatever transpired while they were in Colombia. Joe/Alex then shoots and kills Victor in front of Liberty. Alex then tells Liberty that it is all up to her now before informing her that a key to her shackles is hidden in a box, underneath the hot dog cart. Liberty retrieves the key and releases herself, and then she runs to Russell's dressing room. Together, they helplessly watch the timer on his bomb count down to zero. When the bomb does not explode, they realize that it was a fake.

Meanwhile, a police SWAT team has figured out which building Joe is hiding in. Before they can get to Joe/Alex he shoots himself under the chin, and dies; but he has already forwarded Liberty's recorded confessions to several newspapers.

A former CIA agent and ex-Special Forces member Dean Cage (Wesley Snipes), is in a rehab program, haunted by a botched mission in Bosnia which resulted in the execution of his best friend Scott (Cristian Solimeno). While in a restaurant waiting for his girlfriend, Baltimore Police Detective Amy Knight (Jacqueline Obradors), who happens to be Scott's sister, he is mistakenly believed to be a CIA agent involved with a stolen military experimental truth serum. He is abducted by the real thieves and injected with the drug, which makes him relive the moments from the failed Bosnian mission and not able to discern who are his allies and who are his enemies. Amy has six hours to find the antidote and save Dean's life.

When the U.S. is tricked into targeting an 'armed' nuclear reactor captured by Chechen rebels, a Chechen leader is killed and rebel leaders capture the nuclear power plant. Enter Painter (Wesley Snipes), a US Special Forces operative, known as 'The Marksman'. Painter and his Spec-Ops team only have a limited amount of time to resolve the conflict before U.S. military forces wade in. However, when things don't go according to plan, Painter suspects that foul play may be afoot.

After professional thief Jack Tulliver and his crew pull off a meticulously planned armored car heist, they are ambushed in Bucharest by a group of Romanian racketeers. This rogue group, tipped off to the heist by an unknown turncoat, kills Tulliver's associate Bull and most of his crew.

Tulliver escapes with a mysterious sealed case that was the most valuable part of the stolen loot. After car-jacking Sgt. Kelly Anders' car, he makes a getaway through Bucharest, but leaves Anders under the suspicion of her fellow officers. Meanwhile, Tulliver tries to save a team member who has been captured by Alexie Kutchinov, a sadistic Russian millionaire gangster in charge of the Romanian racketeers that ambushed Tulliver.

Jack and Sgt. Anders are saved by Bull's brother Mikail Mercea, a Romanian mobster who shoots Alexie and the turncoat Suza to avenge his brother's death. During the aftermath, Tulliver and Anders learn that the sealed case contained an actual valuable painting that was originally believed to be a forgery.

Tony Stark, who has inherited the defense contractor Stark Industries from his late father Howard Stark, is in war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison, Lieutenant colonel James Rhodes, to demonstrate the new "Jericho" missile. After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded by a missile used by the attackers: one of his company's own. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings. Yinsen, a fellow captive doctor, implants an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep the shrapnel shards that wounded him from reaching his heart and killing him. Ten Rings leader Raza offers Stark freedom in exchange for building a Jericho missile for the group, but he and Yinsen know that Raza will not keep his word.

Stark and Yinsen secretly build a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power Stark's electromagnet and a prototype suit of powered armor to aid in their escape. Although they keep the suit hidden almost to completion, the Ten Rings discover their hostages' intentions and attack the workshop. Yinsen sacrifices himself to divert them while the suit powers up. The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave to find the dying Yinsen, then burns the Ten Rings' weapons in anger and flies away, crashing in the desert and destroying the suit. After being rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home and announces that his company will cease manufacturing weapons. Obadiah Stane, his father's old partner and the company's manager, advises Stark that this may ruin Stark Industries and his father's legacy. In his home workshop, Stark builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit as well as a more powerful arc reactor for it and his chest. Personal assistant Pepper Potts places the original reactor inside a small glass showcase. Though Stane requests details, a suspicious Stark decides to keep his work to himself.

At a charity event held by Stark Industries, reporter Christine Everhart informs Stark that his company's weapons were recently delivered to the Ten Rings and are being used to attack Yinsen's home village, Gulmira. Stark dons his new armor and flies to Afghanistan, where he saves the villagers. While flying home, Stark is attacked by two F-22 Raptors. He reveals his secret identity to Rhodes over the phone in an attempt to end the attack. Meanwhile, the Ten Rings gather the pieces of Stark's prototype suit and meet with Stane, who has been trafficking arms to the Ten Rings and has staged a coup to replace Stark as Stark Industries' CEO by hiring the Ten Rings to kill him. He subdues Raza and has the rest of the group killed. Stane has a massive new suit reverse engineered from the wreckage. Seeking to track his company's illegal shipments, Stark sends Potts to hack into its database. She discovers that Stane hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark, but the group reneged when they realized they had a direct route to Stark's weapons. Potts meets with Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D., an intelligence agency, to inform him of Stane's activities.

Stane's scientists cannot duplicate Stark's miniaturized arc reactor, so Stane ambushes Stark at his home and steals the one from his chest. Stark manages to get to his original reactor to replace it. Potts and several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents attempt to arrest Stane, but he dons his suit and attacks them. Stark fights Stane but is outmatched without his new reactor to run his suit at full capacity. The fight carries Stark and Stane to the top of the Stark Industries building, and Stark instructs Potts to overload the large arc reactor powering the building. This unleashes a massive electrical surge that causes Stane and his armor to fall into the exploding reactor, killing him. The next day, at a press conference, Stark publicly admits to being the superhero the press has dubbed "Iron Man".

In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury visits Stark at home, telling him that Iron Man is not "the only superhero in the world", and explaining that he wants to discuss the "Avenger Initiative".

On her walk to school, ordinary Kyoto High school student Motomiya Akane hears a voice calling to her from an old well in an abandoned historical estate. The voice is that of the oni leader Akuram, and Akane finds herself summoned into another world that resembles the city of Kyoto during the Heian Period (approx. 800-1200). Here she is asked to be the , a legendary figure who possesses the power of the gods. Akane is told that she must defend this world, called , from the encroachment of the before she can return home. Fortunately, her school friends Tenma and Shimon are on hand to help her out and along with six Kyou natives they become members of the , a group of specially chosen men who act as the Miko's protectors.

Jimmy’s family is settled on the Moon. Since Jimmy was born on the Moon, he is greatly accustomed to life and dangers on the Moon. Robutt, a robot-dog, was Jimmy’s companion. One day his father decided to bring a real dog from the earth. He hoped that a real dog is better than Robutt. However, Jimmy was not happy to get a real dog because he had become greatly attached to Robutt

The novel is basically without plot, instead episodically depicting the psychological changes in three LAPD officers caused by their police work, and particularly the nature of police work in poor minority communities of Los Angeles. The three officers, Serge Duran, Gus Plebesly, and Roy Fehler, are classmates at the police academy in the summer of 1960, and the novel examines their lives each August of succeeding years, culminating in their on-the-job reunion during the Watts riots of August 1965.

''The New Centurions'' is likely the most autobiographical of Wambaugh's novels. He provides a straightforward narration of events with little use of flashback. Each chapter is written in the third person from the point of view of one of the three protagonists. They have no contact with each other once they graduate from the academy, but their paths are similar and converging. Like Wambaugh, his protagonists move from a few years of uniformed patrol in minority districts to plainclothes assignments in juvenile and vice work, experiences which so affected Wambaugh that he returns to them repeatedly as plot elements in his fiction.

Wambaugh also explores the officers' private lives, noting adultery, alcoholism, racism, and suicide as rampant in the ranks of the LAPD. Police suicide, in particular, is a theme Wambaugh explores in nearly all of his books.

A major theme explored throughout the book is what traits characterize a veteran officer, and how a rookie acquires them. Wambaugh consistently compares the attitudes of the new officers (one is not considered a veteran in the LAPD until one's fifth anniversary on the job) to those of the older entrenched men.

The plots of the triplet sisters follow a definite pattern. Sometimes they play some prank or manage to annoy the Bored Witch, and, to punish them, she sends them into a classic tale, legend, or children's or adult's (such as ''Frankenstein'' or ''The Phantom of the Opera'') literary work. The main structure of the classic remains, but some twists (often hilarious anachronisms such as showing The forty thieves getting distracted from robbing a house by a camel race on TV or Dr. Frankenstein as a veterinarian) are introduced to favor each plot and define the sisters' personalities.

While traveling to Nome, Alaska, Roy Glenister (Gary Cooper) meets beautiful Helen Chester (Kay Johnson), who soon becomes his sweetheart. Glenister is one of several owners of a lucrative mine called The Midas. When he arrives in Nome, he discovers that his partners, Slapjack Simms (Slim Summerville) and Joe Dextry (James Kirkwood), are in the middle of a legal dispute with three corrupt officials: United States Marshal Voorhees (Jack Holmes), Judge Stillman (Lloyd Ingraham), and a politician named Alec McNamara (William "Stage" Boyd ). They have been engaged in a racket claiming titles to various mines, ejecting the miners, and then making McNamara owner of the disputed properties.

The three corrupt officials lay claim to The Midas. McNamara also steals money from Glenister, Dextry, and Slapjack, preventing them from enlisting legal help from the United States. When Dextry and Glenister plan a vigilante action, McNamara calls in a detail of soldiers to protect "his property". As Glenister and McNamara prepare for a gunfight, they are dissuaded by Helen, who suggests that the courts handle the dispute. Later, after jealous saloon owner Cherry Malotte (Betty Compson) lies to Glennister telling him that Helen and McNamara are conspiring to cheat him again, Glennister and McNamara settle their differences with a spectacular fistfight, with McNamara getting the worst. Afterwards, Glenister wins the hand of Helen.

Nome, Alaska, 1900: Flapjack and Banty come to town to check on their gold mine claim. Saloon owner Cherry Malotte is aware of the corruption all around, including that Bennett and Clark are out to steal the men's claim.

In on the crooked scheme is the new gold commissioner, Alexander McNamara, as well as the last word of law and order in the territory, Judge Stillman. So, the bad guys usually get their way.

Cherry's old beau, Roy Glennister, returns from a trip to Europe. He is attracted to Helen Chester, the judge's niece. Roy makes the mistake of siding with McNamara, damaging his relationship with his longtime partner, Al Dextry.

Roy realizes he's been deceived as McNamara and Stillman prepare to steal at least $250,000 while the mine's case awaits appeal. Helen is now in love with Roy, who begs Dextry's forgiveness and persuades him to rob a bank to take back the wealth stolen from them. Both Glennister and Dextry don blackface to disguise themselves.

The Bronco Kid kills the marshall, but Roy gets the blame. He is arrested and a plot forms to kill him, but Cherry comes to his rescue by breaking Roy out of jail. A fierce fistfight with McNamara results in Roy getting back his mine and his girl.

Struggling miners Flapjack and Banty go to the office of Alex McNamara, the new gold commissioner in Nome, Alaska, to complain about claim jumpers. He isn't there, so they drown their sorrows at Cherry Malotte's gambling house and saloon.

Cherry looks ready to steal the men's claim herself in Alex's office when he suddenly appears. He assures her Judge Stillman is on his way to Nome to review all legal matters regarding the mines.

When a ship arrives bringing her sweetheart Roy Glennister back to town, Cherry runs out eagerly to meet it, to the jealousy of Blackie, her croupier. To her anger, Roy is traveling with an attractive stranger, Helen Chester. An irate Cherry leaves in a huff with Roy's co-owner of a nearby mine, Dextry.

Roy insists he still loves Cherry, but she slaps his face. Alex and the newly arrived Judge Stillman set out to survey and inspect Roy's mine, insisting it will take weeks before any claims can be settled. Roy is shocked to observe that Alex, the Judge and Helen are all conspirators to steal the miners' claims.

Blackie shoots the town marshal and makes sure Roy is blamed and arrested for it. A jailbreak is arranged, but Cherry rushes to warn Roy of what she has learned from Helen, that as soon as he escapes, Alex is planning to ambush Roy and make it look like a lawful shooting.

A shootout between Alex and the miners ensues. Blackie dies, but not before confessing to the sheriff's murder, while Roy and Alex end up in a knockdown, drag-out fistfight. Cherry and Roy ultimately end up happily in love and in legal possession of the mine.

Alicia (Ana Claudia Talancón) is an apparently conservative girl that is about to marry, but her life takes an unexpected route when in the party before the wedding, she meets a stripper (Luis Roberto Guzmán) hired by Ana (Ana de la Reguera), a jealous friend of Alicia's boyfriend, to upset her on this very special day.

Surprising everyone (her conservative family, her own boyfriend and even Ana herself), Alicia still decides to follow the guy. The rivalry among Ana and Alicia is thus transformed into a strong friendship, and they both show themselves as very independent women.

In Flynn's previous novel, ''Memorial Day'', CIA counter-terror operative and assassin Mitch Rapp uncovered an Al-Qaeda plot to use a nuclear weapon obtained from abandoned Russian nuclear storage bunkers. The ultimate goal was the destruction of Washington, D.C., and Rapp was forced to torture the only man who knew the details of the plan: Waheed Abdullah. Rapp then faked Waheed's death to prevent the Saudi Government from learning of it and rescuing him, while preserving a useful source for himself. To keep Waheed from being discovered, Rapp puts him in an Afghan prison.

However, this plan backfires: Waheed's father, Saeed Ahmed Abdullah, a billionaire Saudi businessman and a jihadist himself, learns that Rapp has "killed" his son. Saeed beseeches Saudi Prince Muhammed bin Rashid for help. Rashid puts Saeed in contact with a former East German Stasi officer, Erich Abel, and Saeed puts a $20 million contract on Rapp's head.

Abel, through his contacts, approaches two assassins, a husband and wife team, Louis Gould and Claudia Morrell. For $10 million, they agree to kill Rapp. Claudia, who is pregnant, specifically asks Louis not to kill Rapp's wife, Anna, as she is also pregnant. Louis agrees, and both leave for America.

In Washington, Rapp is angered by the new Director of National Intelligence, Mark Ross, who authorized surveillance of Rapp's co-worker and friend, former Navy SEAL Scott Coleman. Ross sends the IRS to investigate Coleman, and requests Coleman's personnel file from the Navy. Ross has ambitions to the presidency and views his current position as a stepping stone to the White House. He has no respect for Rapp because of Rapp's reckless actions and, despite his contributions, wants to fire him.

Rapp decides to visit Ross to stop his investigation of Coleman, but he loses his famous temper when he finds a satellite photo of Coleman and discovers his friend was an active topic of interest. He physically holds the National Security adviser by the collar and slaps him with a folder holding Coleman's files. Rapp warns Ross not to interfere with the War on Terror. His words fall on deaf ears, though, and Ross decides that he must fire Rapp. Since Rapp has the president's full support, Ross decides he has to do it carefully.

Later, Rapp injures his left knee during a morning jog, and encounters the assassins Gould and Claudia, both dressed as bicyclists, examining his house. Rapp doesn't suspect anything and continues limping back towards his house. The next day, Rapp undergoes arthroscopic knee surgery. He and his wife Anna come home and as they settle down in their house, Louis detonates a bomb that kills Anna and throws a severely wounded Rapp into Chesapeake Bay where he is saved by a nearby boater. The CIA fakes Rapp's death and takes him to a safehouse to recuperate.

In a secret meeting with Irene Kennedy, Director of the CIA, President Hayes tells Kennedy that Rapp has his consent to kill any and all people involved in the murder of his wife.

Saudi Prince Rashid, who is visiting U.S., finds out from Director Ross that Rapp is in fact not dead. Ross carelessly informs Rashid of Rapp's safehouse location. Rashid orders his assistant, Saudi intelligence agent Nawaf Tayyib, to kill Rapp and Abel. Tayyib hires Latino gang leader Anibal Castillo to kill Rapp at the safehouse. Tayyib then goes hunting for the go-between Abel with two of his men, to sever the chain of contacts leading back to the prince.

Castillo and thirteen of his men attack the safehouse. Rapp kills all of Castillo's men, then wounds Castillo and brings him in to be questioned. Through different leads Rapp discovers Saeed was the one who put a bounty on his head.

Rapp goes to Afghanistan and gets Waheed out of prison, giving Waheed the impression that it is a hostage exchange. Rapp has Waheed unknowingly wear a vest full of explosives. As the released Waheed embraces his father in the street, Rapp pulls out a detonator and blows Saeed and Waheed and twelve of Saeed's bodyguards to pieces.

The CIA in the meantime has found out about Erich Abel's role in hiring the assassins and sends Rapp to Abel's office. There Rapp finds Tayyib torturing Abel's secretary for information on Abel's whereabouts. Rapp kills Tayyib's men, and he and Coleman capture Tayyib. A conscience-stricken Claudia is revealed to be the one who gave the CIA information on Abel.

Abel's secretary reveals to Rapp and Coleman that Abel is in Austria. Rapp flies there and captures Abel at his mountain retreat and tortures him for information. Abel reveals that Rashid was the mastermind behind the plot. He also gives information on the assassins. After hearing this, Rapp, who has become much more violent and vengeful after the killing of his wife, burns Abel alive inside the house.

Rapp travels to Spain where Rashid is staying. Coleman bribes Rashid's guards, who are British SAS sympathetic to Rapp, to let them in. Rapp completely covers Tayyib's body with explosives and drops him off in front of the mosque where Rashid is staying. Once Rashid's personal guards have Tayyib in custody, Rapp detonates the explosives, killing Tayyib and all the guards. Rapp finds Rashid and beats him severely before he puts a phosphorus grenade in his mouth and pulls the pin, melting Rashid's head.

In the epilogue, set nine months later, Rapp trails Louis and Claudia to Tahiti. Claudia has had her baby and Louis has retired. Rapp aims a gun at Louis's head, but once he hears that the baby was named after his deceased wife, he realizes she would not want her death avenged like this. He turns and leaves Louis, Claudia, and Anna unharmed. He then throws the gun into the ocean and continues walking down the boardwalk outside.

A wealthy playboy/private investigator named Cody Abilene is hired by a government intelligence operative to investigate a lead into who is selling computer technology to the Russians. While investigating rich socialites, amorous naked vixens, and an ex-con with a penchant for blackmail, and keeping it all from his sexy lady cop friend Beverly Mcafee, Cody puts himself in the crosshairs of the traitorous tech spies who will gladly kill to stay in business. The scope of the conspiracy is revealed after Cody and Beverly make love at a suspect's beach house, only to find a pair of hitmen gunning for them as they get dressed. Gunplay, car chases, and races ensue.

A Delta Force unit attempts to escape from a pursuing group of ninja in a foreign country but most are killed and the rest are captured. The secret Ninja Army is headed by Colonel Scarf Mulgrew) an ex-British policeman and anti-American who has joined with Shiekh Ali Maksood, a Muslim militant, who plans to bring a suitcase nuke to New York. Mulgrew threatens to burn the commandos alive and use the nuke unless he is paid a ransom of 50 million dollars. Agents Sean Davidson and Carl Brackston are sent on a covert mission to rescue the prisoners and defeat the terrorists.

Sean and Carl parachute in and meet their contact Pango. While gathering information from a local operative named Freddie, they are confronted by Mulgrew and the corrupt local police headed by O'Reilly. Freddie is killed by Mulgrew but Sean, Carl, and Pango escape. Pango takes them to Dr. Sarah a Peace Corps nurse who hides them from the police. Soon after ninjas attack, capturing Sean, Carl and Sarah alive while Pango escapes, and imprisoning them in an old British fort to be tortured by Mulgrew. Mulgrew assaults Sarah and later it is revealed Mulgrew killed her father.

Joe Armstrong, a special forces commando now working as a teacher with the Peace Corps, is finally persuaded to help rescue his friend, Sean, and the others. Joe convinces the local rebel group known as Sulphur Springs, a former penal colony led by Dr. Tamba, to join them and they steal engineering plans to the fort. Joe enters the fort stealthily and rescues Sean, Carl, Sarah and most of the commandos as they are being executed while Sulphur Springs also attacks the fort. Maksood's helicopter carrying the bomb is destroyed by Carl, Mulgrew is killed by Sean, and the Super Ninja is killed by Joe. Joe bids goodbye to Dr. Tamba and to Sean saying he will be at the school before walking away through heaps of dead ninjas and the debris of the destroyed fort.

The film opens in the year 1950. It's Halloween and an 11-year-old Harvey Pekar refuses to dress up as a superhero while trick-or-treating. The scene shifts to an adult Harvey (Paul Giamatti), walking the gritty Cleveland streets. Then real Harvey Pekar appears in a documentary-style setup.

The narrative picks up again in 1975, as a scratchy-voiced Harvey visits a throat doctor and exhibits hypochondria. Harvey's wife decides their "plebeian" lifestyle just isn't working for her anymore; without being able to speak, Harvey is powerless to convince her not to leave him. A few months later, a depressed Harvey is at his file clerk job at the VA hospital. Mr. Boats (Earl Billings) comes by to offer advice: the words of an Elinor Wylie poem.

In a documentary scene, the real Harvey Pekar talks about his years as a part-time used-record collector/salesman. The narrative flashes back to 1962. While searching for old records at a yard sale, Harvey meets shy greeting card illustrator Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). A friendship is formed over a shared love of jazz and comic books.

Returning to 1975, a now famous Crumb is back in Cleveland for a visit. His marriage over, Harvey is lonely and frustrated — he wants to leave a mark on the world. Afterward, a sobering moment in the VA hospital's "deceased" files section leads Harvey to try drawing his own stories, but his lack of drawing talent stops him. An incident at the supermarket revives him, as his animated subconscious goads him: "Are you going to stand there in silence, or are you going to make a mark?" Inspired, Harvey stays up all night writing. At a diner with Crumb, Harv makes a pitch for a new kind of comics. He shows Bob the scripts he's been working on, and Crumb offers to illustrate them for him.

A montage of classic Pekar quotidian moments culminates with Harvey proudly showing off ''American Splendor'' #1 to his VA co-workers. The narrative moves forward to 1984. Harvey has published eight issues of ''American Splendor'' to critical acclaim but little financial gain; he's still a "flunky file clerk." Harvey runs into Alice Quinn (Maggie Moore), a woman he briefly knew in college. They catch up on each other's lives and talk about Theodore Dreiser's novel ''Jennie Gerhardt''. Harvey leaves their encounter feeling more alone than ever before.

Meanwhile, in Delaware, Joyce (Hope Davis) is frustrated with her partner in the comic book store, who has sold her copy of ''American Splendor'' #8 out from under her. She writes to Harvey, he responds, and they discover they are kindred spirits. Joyce travels to Cleveland to meet Harvey in person. The date begins with a handshake and dinner at a local family restaurant. Back at Harvey's apartment, Joyce is overcome with a bout of nausea and vomiting. A concerned Harvey offers her chamomile tea. Charmed, Joyce suggests they "skip the whole courtship thing" and get married.

It's one week later, and Harvey sees his VA colleague Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander) sitting in his car eating White Castle sliders. Toby is on his way to Toledo to see the new movie ''Revenge of the Nerds''. Meanwhile, Harvey is on his way to Delaware to marry Joyce and help her move out to Cleveland.

Sitting alongside the real Harvey, the real Joyce Brabner talks about what it was like to become a character in Harvey's stories.

Now married, Harvey and Joyce go to a screening of ''Revenge of the Nerds'' with Toby. Joyce and Toby found the film inspiring, and Harvey found it insipid. Back at their apartment, Joyce struggles with feeling at home amidst all of Harvey's stuff. Their spat is interrupted by a message from a theater producer who wants to make ''American Splendor'' into a play. Harvey and Joyce travel to Los Angeles to see ''American Splendor: The Play''. Things are finally breaking Harvey's way. But his ascendancy is complicated by Joyce's emotional struggles. She wants a family. Her desires are put aside again because a producer calls to offer Harvey a chance to be a guest on ''Late Night with David Letterman''.

Almost despite himself, Harvey is a hit on the show and comes back for multiple appearances. Meanwhile, Toby becomes an MTV star. Back in Cleveland, a man recognizes Harvey from the Letterman show, but not for the "right" reasons. Harvey is angry and unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Joyce is looking for fulfillment of her own, as a creator and as an activist. Against Harvey's wishes, she goes away to a peace conference, leaving him at loose ends. One lonely night, Harvey discovers a mysterious lump on his groin.

Joyce is still away on her mission, and a scared and bitter Harvey makes another appearance on the Letterman show. He dons an "On Strike Against NBC" shirt and the show goes downhill from there, winding up in chaos. Joyce finally returns, but she discovers Harvey's lump. Harvey is diagnosed with lymphoma. Joyce suggest he make a comic book of the whole thing, but Harvey just wants to die. Undeterred, Joyce enlists Fred, an artist, to illustrate the experience. Fred brings along his daughter Danielle on their first brainstorming session, and Joyce is smitten with the girl. Harvey reluctantly agrees to participate in the comic, and asks Fred to keep bringing Danielle along.

Harvey's treatment is traumatic and tumultuous. One night, an addled Harvey wonders if he's real or if he is just a character in a comic book, and whether the story will end or continue if he dies. In one continuous take, Harvey wanders through a dreamscape, musing about other individuals he finds in the Cleveland telephone book that are also named Harvey Pekar.

One year later, Harvey and Joyce sign the completed ''Our Cancer Year''. Harvey is declared cancer-free. They adopt Danielle, and Harvey adjusts to being a parent. The real Harvey retires from the VA hospital, and the movie ends with a group hug.

Now US Army Rangers, Joe Armstrong and Curtis Jackson are sent to a remote Caribbean island to aid the Marine Corps in investigating the disappearance of many of its Marines. The commanding officer, "Wild Bill" Woodward briefs them on the situation: four marines were captured, but he doesn't know who or what they are since terrorism is out of the question. A boy named Toto is the only witness when he saw two soldiers get beat up by a gang and then taken by a group of men in black suits. Both men look at each other, realizing that they have been in this situation before.

Upon arriving, Charlie McDonald invites them to go water skiing. Tommy Taylor takes them on their boat to Mangrove Island, but sabotages it by unhooking the motor source. Everyone decides to swim, but Joe becomes suspicious, and wants to stay on shore. Shortly thereafter, he is attacked by ninjas but is rescued by Curtis. Their report back is discarded, nevertheless Woodward gives them a week to investigate. Tommy is told to lure Armstrong into a trap during a phone conversation with the Lion, and tells Joe where to meet him: at the Blind Beggar Bar. Joe is attacked by the same group of thugs from the beginning of the film, and proceeds to get little from Taylor about a drug dealer by the nickname of The Lion before he is killed by ninjas. Joe and Curtis inform Wild Bill, informing him that Taylor revealed a location in which the Lion conducts his experiments: Blackbeard Island. Wild Bill is all for it, but while awaiting for approval, he invites them to the governor's ball. They arrive, and Inspector Singh quickly accuses Armstrong of killing Taylor.

Wild Bill gives Jackson and Armstrong permission to rescue a girl named Alicia Sanborn after she is taken by local thugs after crashing the ball upon seeing that The Lion was there. Jackson and Armstrong (along with Charlie) follow them into the Blind Beggar's Bar and fight the local gang and escape. They pick up Wild Bill from the ball and make up a story about Armstrong disappearing to avoid being questioned by Singh. Armstrong tracks Alicia with the help of Toto, but are attacked by ninjas. He singlehandedly takes them out, before being rescued by a truck-driving Toto. One of the ninjas manages to get on the vehicle, but Armstrong makes both Toto and Alicia jump out of the vehicle before Armstrong himself jumps. The vehicle crashes into gas cans and a building, exploding the truck and killing the ninja. Joe and Alicia head on over to the boats, while Joe gives Toto a message to give to Wild Bill that they are on their way to Blackbeard Island. They have to wait awhile as patrol guards are in the water; they must wait until nighttime to travel. Alicia tells Joe about her father's plans of a scientific breakthrough to cure cancer before Burke (The Lion) bought his lab and had other plans. Jackson and the other marines have to wait on the base for a go-ahead from the ambassador, and that Armstrong is on his own for now.

Joe and Alicia reach the island and infiltrate the lab by donning ninja clothing, all while Burke is introducing his SuperNinja program. They rescue Professor Sanborn, who informs Joe where the captive marines are being held. Joe rescues the captive marines, but are caught trying to escape. All face off against a group of ninjas. Joe and the marines eventually gain the upper hand at first, but the ninjas eventually kill all but 2 of the marines. The marines stage an attack on the base, and reveal that the governor and Inspector Singh are also part of Burke's scheme. The governor is arrested by Wild Bill and his men while Singh's fate is unknown. The Professor confronts Burke and manages to destroy his SuperNinja program with a remote-control bomb, killing them both.

Joe Armstrong does one final battle with Tojo Ken (Burke's jonin, responsible for training the brainwashed marines in ninjitsu) and kills him. The marines leave the island and celebrate, while Jackson and Armstrong say goodbye to their friends as they head back to America.

Lee Reyes plays Hiro, Master Tetsu's grandnephew, who is the last of the true ninja. His granduncle sends him to apprentice under Joe Kastle, who is the American Ninja, to gain experience. Hiro cares only for his Game Gear and has little interest in the ways of the ninja. Joe in addition to being the American Ninja also owns a boat. In order to meet the American Ninja, Lisa "varnishes" his boat when in fact she was asked to "tarnish" it. While having dinner Lisa is kidnapped by 'Viper' and a host of multi-colored ninjas, and so the American Ninja and Hiro sneak onto a plane to Venezuela to save her. It is revealed that Lisa is the daughter of a scientist, under the employ of Glock, who is being forced to develop a nerve gas for a Latin American despot. Before the American Ninja and Hiro can rescue Lisa and her father from 'Viper', the mysterious ninja that appears and reappears with a puff of smoke, the American Ninja must reawaken the ancient ninja tradition within Hiro with a 5-minute training montage. 'Viper' is defeated in a climactic airplane battle scene, and Joe returns to South Florida to kiss Lisa on the bow of his boat.

In an island world called Volcano Island, a trio of crabs, led by the Wise Old Crab and his two assistants are gathering around a ritual at Summoner's Rock to summon 'The Nine' heroes to defeat their ancient enemy, the Mawgu. However, the Mawgu breaks the circle of summoning, scattering the nine heroes across the island. SpongeBob SquarePants and Danny Phantom end up right where the Wise Old Crab is. He tells them that he has summoned them here and tells them that the Mawgu has escaped from his prison and is seeking vengeance against the island. The Mawgu has created a terrible ooze corrupting everything and everyone that it touches. However, according to the crabs' legends, the "Chosen Ones" can rescue everyone from the Mawgu Ooze and defeat the Mawgu.

SpongeBob and Danny fight the Mawgu's minions, finding Timmy Turner, Danny's friends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley and SpongeBob's friends Sandy Cheeks, Squidward Tentacles and Patrick Star. They find one of Jimmy Neutron's communication devices, learning that the Mawgu's interruption of the ceremony left Jimmy back in his lab. Jimmy also reveals that the Mawgu had created a rift in time and space above the volcano which is siphoning energy from Retroville, Bikini Bottom, Dimmsdale, and Amity Park, to power himself; if this continues for too long, it will suck up their worlds and destroy the multiverse.

Using Jimmy's blueprints, Tucker sends the rest of the heroes to collect parts for a Rift Zipper, to seal the rift and stop the Mawgu. Once completed, the eight heroes enter the volcano and travel up into the rift, where the Mawgu awaits them. Sam, Tucker, Sandy, Timmy and Patrick keep the Mawgu busy while Danny, SpongeBob and Squidward ascend, through using the debris sucked in from the other worlds to the rift's core. The device drains the Mawgu of his strength, allowing the closing rift to seal him away forever.

After being congratulated by the Wise Old Crab and the denizens of Volcano Island, the heroes then depart through a portal open by Jimmy, so he can send them back to their respective worlds.

To commemorate the anniversary of his father's death, Commander Chakotay (Robert Beltran) takes a shuttlecraft to perform the ''pakra'' ceremony. Inadvertently straying into Kazon-Ogla space, he is attacked by a young Kazon, Kar (Aron Eisenberg), on his first mission. Chakotay destroys Kar's vessel, then beams him aboard.

Captured by a Kazon vessel soon thereafter, Chakotay learns from Kar that Kazon earn their titles through conquest or death, and he has robbed Kar of that opportunity by saving him. The vessel's commander Razik (Patrick Kilpatrick) speaks with Chakotay, explaining his disservice to Kar and that the young Kazon is scheduled for execution. When later presented with a weapon to kill Kar as a lesson to other Kazon youth, Chakotay holds Razik hostage in exchange for his shuttle. Kar, seeing no future or opportunities with the Ogla, flees with Chakotay. Unable to elude the Kazon, Chakotay beams himself and Kar to a nearby Class-M moon, a Kazon training ground. Kar, having eschewed an opportunity to kill Chakotay in his sleep, later explains how he has no options open to him and admits that Chakotay may be his only friend now.

Meanwhile, having tracked the shuttle's probable course, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Lieutenant Tuvok (Tim Russ), and Kes (Jennifer Lien) proceed to the moon's surface to rescue Chakotay. On the moon, they meet up with Razik and his men who offer to lead the away team to Chakotay. When Chakotay and Kar detect their approach, Chakotay offers to help Kar earn his name by becoming his prisoner. Coordinating with ''Voyager'' to prepare for resuscitation, Chakotay tells Kar to shoot him; Kar instead shoots Razik, earning his Ogla name of Jal Karden and promoting Razik's second-in-command, Haliz (Tim de Zarn). The Ogla allow the ''Voyager'' crew to leave, with Karden's promise that he will kill Chakotay if they meet again. Later, when performing his ''pakra'' ceremony aboard ''Voyager'', Chakotay prays to his father to watch over Karden.

''Letty'' is the protagonist of ''La Fea Más Bella (The Most Beautiful Ugly Girl)'', and as the title suggests, she is not particularly good-looking. The story begins with her going to an interview at ''Conceptos'', a famous Mexican modeling and advertising company, and being turned down for the job because of her appearance. The president of the company, Fernando Mendiola, however, calls her back. Though he is initially shocked at her appearance, he decides to hire her since she is obviously overqualified for the job. After receiving the job from an uncertain president, Letty tries to prove herself with the help of ''The Club of the Uglies'' or ''The Ugly Club'' (El Club de las Feas). She becomes Fernando's right hand, and soon develops a crush on him even though he is a womanizer and engaged to Marcia Villaroel. She is completely loyal to him and would do whatever he needed her to do. Fernando, knowing this, asks that she help him create a false company to put Conceptos in debt as opposed to the banks. Lety does as he asks, and this secret stays between her, Fernando, and the vice president, Omar Carvajal.

In order to keep up with the false company, Lety hires her best friend, Tomas Mora. Tomas is equally as ugly as she is, and they are like brother and sister. However, in order to keep her crush on Fernando a secret from her friends, she claims that Tomas is her secret crush. Fernando and Omar find out that Lety put Tomas in charge of finances of the false company, and then hear from her friends that she is in love with Tomas. Omar convinces Fernando that he needs to make Lety fall in love with him so that Lety won't hand over the company to Tomas out of love. Fernando begrudgingly agrees, but he feels guilt over tricking the person who always has his best interest at heart, as well as disgust at the thought of having to seduce Lety. Lety is completely surprised over the attention and affection that Fernando gives her, and although she is scared to love him she can't help it. Fernando feels like a disgrace because Lety is so good, and she gives herself to him, and he finds out that the only other love that Lety has felt before was also fake and due to a bet that some of the mean neighbors that she had. Though Fernando has been with plenty of women, he has never felt so loved and cared for her, and he soon starts falling in love with Lety. Marcia and Omar eventually leave to Germany for a work trip, and during their leave Fernando and Lety are in their little world. Then Lety discovers the truth behind their love.

Lety finds a letter written by Vice-President Omar Carvajal. The letter is a joke from Carvajal to Fernando teasing him about his bravery for seducing the ugly girl in order to protect the fate of Conceptos. Angered and broken-hearted by this, Letty uses the contents to her advantage. She makes Fernando scared by pretending to give Tomas romantic attention (in reality, Fernando feels jealousy more than fear for the company). However, Lety decides to end the game as no matter what she tries to do to hurt Fernando ends up hurting her as well, and after hearing that Omar and Fernando want to send her out of the country when they finish using her, she presents the letter at a quarterly meeting to Omar and Fernando and reveals the true financial state of affairs of the company to the company's council and former owners. They find out that she actually owns ''Conceptos'' herself through a dummy company, ''Filmo Imagen''. She resigns from her job during the meeting, leaving signed documents so that she has nothing to do with the company, and runs away to Acapulco with a friend named Carolina Ángeles who hires her for work.

There, she meets a part-time fisherman and chef named Aldo Domenzaín, who saves her (literally) and helps her realize her true potential. Fernando is devastated when she leaves, and loses a part of himself. He obsesses over her, wondering where she left to and if she will come back. Lety is adamant about not wanting anything to do with Conceptos, but she eventually has to come home and is forced by her father to fix the mistakes that she and Fernando made. When she returns to ''Conceptos'' as the full owner of it, she realizes she must get the company back to its former glory so she can finally leave for good without a guilty conscience. Aldo follows her home with the hope of winning her love, but struggles because Fernando refuses to give her up so easily. Fernando continues a relationship with Marcia, but only because he is not sure that Lety will accept him. He struggles in trying to convince her that he was really in love with her despite what the letter said, but Lety will not allow herself to believe him. She continues to love him, but she feels so betrayed by him that she ignores her feelings towards him.

As problems with the company begin again, she undergoes a dramatic appearance change, visits the wedding of a long-time enemy and a long-time friend, and acts on a television show dressed as a diva. Fernando has been suffering from his own transformation as he realizes the error of his womanizing ways and tries to convince Letty that he really did love her. He breaks up with Marcia, trades blows with Aldo, and works as ''Lety's'' assistant as a sort of penance and to show his father he's serious about his work. Lety's indecisiveness comes to an end as she realizes that though she loves both, Aldo has never hurt her, and most likely will never hurt her. Lety prepares for her wedding with Aldo, and things seem to finally be winding to a close with ''Conceptos'', financially (she puts Marcia in charge of the company because Marcia deserves the title for her hard work). However, when Fernando decides to go to Brazil, a way of running away from a world where the love of his life is with someone else, Letty realizes that the man she really loves, and wants to marry, is Fernando (and surprisingly enough, Aldo seems to be alright with that). The story ends with Fernando taking Aldo's place and the wedding and he and Lety marry, realizing that Aldo was an angel who helped them get back together.

Caith mac Sliabhin, condemned by the Sidhe in "The Brothers" for committing patricide, wanders along the river Guagach, accompanied and tormented by Dubhain, a mischievous pooka. Their journey takes them to Gleann Fiain where a beast from the river chases Caith up a hill to an isolated cottage. The occupants, twins Ceannann and Firinne, let Caith and Dubhain in and allow them to spend the night. Unbeknown to Caith, the birth of the twins 21 years ago set in motion a sequence of events that damned Gleann Fiain and cast a shadow over Faery.

The twins were born to Fianna, queen of Gleann Fiain in Dun Glas. But unbeknown to her husband, Ceannann mac Ceannann, Fianna was unable to conceive and had sought help from a wise-women, Moragacht. Moragacht struck a bargain with her, promising her twins if she lay down with a selkie, in exchange for one of the twins when they were born. But when the twins arrived (a human and a selkie) and Moragacht came to claim one of them, Fianna denied any knowledge of her, and mac Ceannann turned Moragacht away. From that day onwards, grief and misery struck the family, and mac Ceannann and Fianna were forced to vacate Dun Glas and flee with the twins to an abandoned hilltop fortress. But the loch beast, under Moragacht's control, found them there and killed them all, except the twins, now aged 14, who escaped to the cottage. The witch then seized control of Dun Glas from where she damned all of Gleann Fiain.

But the wards that had protected the cottage from Moragacht fall when Caith and Dubhain arrive. Riders from Dun Glas come and capture the twins. Caith and Dubhain (as a horse) give chase, but as they approach the riders, Dubhain is overcome by the witch's magic and falls into the loch, abandoning Caith. Caith and the twins are taken to Dun Glas where they are locked in cells bordering the loch. Caith lapses into a dream where he enters the loch to find Dubhain duelling with the loch beast. He draws Dubhain back to his cell, who in turn calls Nuallan from Faery, the bright Sidhe controlling their destinies. Nuallan gives Caith a silver key to unlock the iron cells and so lifts a spell enabling Nuallan to cast Caith, Dubhain and the twins out of Dun Glas. Moragacht allows her prisoners to escape because with her magic she now holds Nuallan, a bigger catch and her means to controlling Faery.

The twins lead Caith and Dubhain to the ruins of the hilltop fortress, their former home. There they make a fire with the remains of a staircase, but a ghost appears out of the smoke that transports Caith back to the night of the fall of the fortress and into the body of Padraic, head of mac Ceannann's household. There he relives the last few hours of the family until he is killed by the beast. Firinne retrieves one of the burning timbers from the fire as a keepsake, and the twins set off for the sea to search for their selkie father, with Caith and Dubhain in pursuit. Caith finds the selkie first, a whale floundering on the beach. But when the selkie shapeshifts to a man, he is killed by one of Moragacht's pursuing riders. In the ensuing confusion, Caith accidentally kills Ceannann. Firinne is devastated by the loss of her twin brother and gives Caith her keepsake from the fortress. Then, revealing her selkie birth, she changes into a whale and heads out to sea.

Caith rides Dubhain back to Dun Glas to free Nuallan. Once again Dubhain is weakened by the witch's spells and Caith has to enter the keep on his own. He sees Nuallan helpless in his cell, but Nuallan asks him to unlock it with the silver key Caith unknowingly still had all this time, the key that would have given Moragacht access to Faery. Nuallan takes the key and flees the keep, leaving Caith to fend for himself. Moragacht, furious at the loss of the Sidhe, prepares to deal with Caith, but he throws the charred piece of wood Firinne gave him into the fireplace which releases Padraic, the ghost from the hilltop fortress. In an act of revenge, it begins destroying Dun Glas and all in it. With the witch's spell now diminishing, Dubhain rescues Caith from the keep, while in the loch a whale from the sea turns on the beast. The shadow over Faery lifts and Caith and Dubhain resume their travels.

Judy and Peter Shepherd are two kids that found a board game called "Jumanji". Each turn, the two of them were given a "game clue" and then sucked into the jungle until they solved their clue. They meet Alan Parrish, who was trapped in Jumanji because he had never seen his clue. Judy and Peter would help Alan try to leave the game, providing the characters' motivation during the series. Also, Peter would sometimes be transformed into various animals whenever he cheated, sometimes using the abilities of whatever animal he becomes to an advantage. The kids also free another player trapped longer than Alan. Unlike Alan, he saw his clue but never solved it, but with the kids' help he solves it. He called himself the Master of Jumanji and tried to get other people to solve his clue for him, but once Alan points out that his clue (the Gateless Gate) is an illusion of Jumanji's and he accepts it, it solves his clue.

It's also revealed that like Judy and Peter, Alan would never have been able to survive his first day in Jumanji without help, as he possessed poor survival skills at the time. Ironically, his help came in the form of Judy and Peter from the future (to him anyway) who help him survive and teach him a few of the survival tricks they'd learned from him. In return, the 10-year-old version of Alan helps Judy and Peter return to their time, but later hits his head and forgets meeting them.

In the first episode, Alan reveals that there have been other players of the game throughout time, many of whom left their toys in the cave which is part of his home, but not all of them survived the game. In the final episode, using a crystal that shows the past, the kids and Alan find his clue by observing his roll and what the game said, and figure out why he never saw it: right after he rolled his mom called him to dinner and as he was leaving, the clue displayed while he had his back turned and he got sucked in. Once he knew his clue, Alan solved it with Judy and Peter's help and escaped Jumanji. Outside, the kids decide to destroy the Jumanji game now that Alan's free.

In the series, it is revealed that Jumanji is sentient to a degree and on occasion has sucked in Judy and Peter if they make it "angry".

Summer Pozzi (Lara Phillips), a Chicago-based flight attendant for an unnamed airline, is mentally preparing to quit her job and marry Jim, her soon-to-be airline pilot boyfriend. During a layover, she gets a phone call asking her to transfer to San Francisco. Then, Jim tells her he refused to take a final exam to be a pilot, unable to have the lives of many passengers on his shoulders. Shaken and disappointed, Summer decides to go ahead with the transfer, and promises herself not to fall for another man too quickly.

Once in San Francisco, she moves into a small apartment with three other flight attendants, one of them who was supposed to be moving out. There's Portia (Rachel Luttrell), a posh but insecure British girl undergoing an eternal makeover, Kate (Claire Rankin), who is very bitchy ever since Summer reprimanded her on a previous flight and Lucas (Michael Gilio), with whom Summer immediately has a one-night stand.

During a layover, she later meets Julian (Josh Randall), the captain of her dreams. She is immediately in love. He is based in Hong Kong, and meeting him every week in New York poses a challenge, which will come to an end very suddenly, as she realizes her actions cost one of her friends' job and maybe even someone else's life, and as she sees Julian as anything but the perfect man he once appeared to be.

Set in fictional towns of Georgia, Bo Duke is arrested for destructive driving in neighboring Chickasaw County. Luke Duke is arrested for blowing up illegal fireworks. Both of the teenage boys are paroled to the care of their Uncle Jesse in neighboring Hazzard County, sentenced to a summer of hard work on the farm.

Jesse is carrying on the family tradition of producing the best moonshine in the county. Bo and Luke quickly tire of farm work and take an interest in some of the local girls of Hazzard. Attempting to visit the Boar's Nest bar, they see Jesse meeting with Boss Hogg. Jesse is arranging for his regular bribe to the County Commissioner to look the other way from his illegal moonshine operation. The Duke boys inadvertently allow Hogg's prize pig to escape, and it falls off the roof and is injured. Furious, Boss Hogg demands a sizable amount of money from Jesse, due in two weeks, or he will foreclose on the farm.

Jesse believes his only recourse is his moonshine operation, but he cannot deliver enough in two weeks. Bo and Luke volunteer, and set off to find a fast car to do the job.

The boys enlist the help of their cousin Daisy Duke, who has just turned 18 but is somewhat of a wallflower who wonders why boys do not notice her. She takes them to the high-school shop class, where they meet Cooter Davenport, who gives them a fast engine. They go to the junkyard to find a suitable car, but do not like what they see. On their way home, they find some girls sunbathing next to Hogg's Ravine while Cooter and the Duke cousins are standing together at a ledge overlooking a swimming hole. From high atop their rocky cliff, Bo purposefully shoves Luke in to try to impress the girls. Immediately thereafter, Bo learns from Cooter that most people who jump in end up either "crippled, on life support, or brain damaged." Not seeing Luke surface after plunging into the water, Bo jumps in to save him. Instead, Cooter is seen dragging Luke onto shore, while underwater, Bo discovers an abandoned 1969 Dodge Charger and believes it would be the perfect car for them. They retrieve the car from the pond, already in the iconic orange color with the Rebel flag painted on the top. They clean, repair and repaint the car, and after adding their new engine, the General Lee is reborn.

The moonshine deliveries go well but before they raise enough money to pay off Hogg, the Boss declares Hazzard a dry county, and offers a $25,000 reward for anyone who uncovers an illegal moonshine operation. He will turn the Boar's Nest into an ice cream parlor.

Meanwhile, Daisy applies for a job at the bar to help raise the money. Hughie, the Boar's Nest bartender, says she is not the type of girl who should work there, and refuses her but she is smitten. She undergoes a makeover to impress him, cutting her jeans into very short shorts, wearing a shirt tied to show her midriff and letting her hair down. The bar patrons are all stunned by how good she looks and Hughie hires her immediately, and agrees to take her on a date.

Jesse then holds a large party to raise funds for the farm, but Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco arrest Jesse for illegal moonshine sales, and seize Jesse's assets. Daisy, Bo and Luke visit him in jail, and he tells them that Boss is as corrupt as anyone, and the best way to get Jesse off is to find evidence of this. Bo and Luke soon discover Hogg's plan. He wants to convince all the county commissioners in Georgia to ban alcohol, thus paving the way for a thriving ice cream business. More importantly, with all the ridgerunners in jail, Hogg will then be free to make a fortune selling his own illegal alcohol, turning the Boar's Nest into a speakeasy.

Boss Hogg wants the Duke family still, which produces the best moonshine in the county. When Daisy finds out Hughie is Boss Hogg's nephew and only dated her to find out about the family secrets, she is devastated.

The Dukes kidnap Boss and ride off in the General Lee with the police following in pursuit. They threaten to drive into Hogg Ravine unless he tells them his plan. He is too scared not to tell, and his confession is broadcast over the radio thanks to Daisy's manipulation of Enos at the station. The Dukes then jump the ravine anyway (their first jump), and catch Hughie delivering illegal moonshine into Hazzard. The Dukes make Boss pay them the $25,000 reward, which they use to buy back the farm.

Fed up with Hogg, the citizens demand he reverse his dry county policy and free all the people he had arrested for selling moonshine. Just as it seems the 112-year-old candidate who always wanted to run for county commissioner will finally win, he dies, leaving Boss as the only candidate, and he is re-elected anyway. Hogg summarily pardons himself for his misdeeds, but is forced to release Jesse and the other moonshiners. As payback to Hughie for using her, Daisy kicks him into his jail cell before removing her shirt and leaving. Bo finally gets a driving instructor who passes him despite his wild driving, and Luke finally meets a girl who likes watching stuff blowing up. The cousins hop into the General Lee, headed off on their next adventure.

The plotline describes two writers lamenting over the fact that they cannot come up with a great show for Channel 101's primetime. They, in connection with fellow writers, conjure the idea of gay robots. As they are about to turn in their new pilot, the Yacht Rock group intercepts them, and, in a West Side Story-est fasion, battle them in a musically underscored montage. We learn that the Yacht Rockers are on Channel 101's primetime panel for monthly screenings, and can rig the competition so that their pilots always stay in primetime.

As the gay robot pilot ends unsuccessfully, one of the writers, Jason, comes up with a new idea (not described to the audience at this time.) As the two main writers, Jason and Mike, go to the mailbox to turn in their new pilot, the Yacht Rockers intercept them again and tell them that the corrupt, always powerful ruler of Channel 101, Dan Harmon, wants to see them. In a musical number (I'm Dan Harmon and I Shit Gold) Dan Harmon tells Mike and Jason that he can't turn out a bad series (partly because he created Channel 101)

Mike gets captured while he's in Harmon's compound, and with the help of a friend, Jason still gets the new pilot into the screening room. Meanwhile, Jason and Dawn (a redhead from the Yacht Rock group) have secret, romantic meetings (mimicking Tony and Maria from West Side Story.)

In a number much like Telephone Hour from Bye Bye Birdie, several people use AIM, Live Journals and MySpaces to tell each other about Jason and Dawn. Dan Harmon finds out, and in an upbeat number (Oh, It's Time) uses the captured and brainwashed Mike to murder Jason, in fear that Dawn may reveal to Jason his evil plan of rigging the primetime slots.

Mike runs after Jason with a harpoon. Simultaneously, as everyone's out with Mike, Sarah Silverman, having been kept in a room in Dan Harmon's compound so she could be frequently used for cameos, escapes to warn Jason. She arrives, knocks out Mike with a frying pan, and sings about being free. Mike awakes, and kills her with a harpoon.

As this is happening, Jason's friend Wade who snuck into the Harmon compound, enters the primetime panel meeting as a pizza man and places their pilot in the screening pile.

Harmon finds out, captures Dawn, and as Jason and Mike come to her rescue, they find Harmon already dying from drinking water instead of vodka(having been switched by a vengful panel member, after having been slapped.) Harmon melts, and everything is reunited.

As the story concludes, we switch back into, apparently "real time", with Jason and Mike finishing their new pilot script, which is what the last four episodes were. The new show that Jason came up with in the beginning was, essentially, Channel 101 the Musical. It leaves you happy with a nice ending number, featuring Donny Most.

''Bone: The Great Cow Race'' screenshot, where Phoney Bone (left) is with a cow. The game starts up where ''Bone: Out from Boneville'' left off, with the Bone cousins' arrival in Barrel Haven just in time for the Spring Fair and annual Cow Race. In this third-person game, the player gets to control all three Bone cousins (using a technique similar to the one employed in the LucasArts adventure game ''Day of the Tentacle''). Fone Bone, smitten with the lovely Thorn, must find a way to impress her. Phoney Bone cooks up a scheme to swindle the townspeople out of their hard-earned eggs during the Cow Race, and enlists help from his happy-go-lucky cousin Smiley. Little do they know, the Rat Creatures are lurking nearby. Eventually, the Rat Creatures chase Fone on the race, and Phoney has no choice but to reveal his plan, as the Rat Creatures are gaining on them. In the end, Phoney is punished for his crimes.

A family is driving down a desert highway when they hit a deer. The dad gets out and comes back with half his face gone. The family is attacked by something.

In a lavish apartment, Trip meets with a dealer, Radford, who provides him with pills for a rave in the desert. When Radford leaves the room, Trip steals all of the pills. He meets with his friends Cookie, Nelson, Jack (who is blind), and Gretchen. The group then stops at a diner where Trip, not believing Jack is really blind, jokingly tricks him into using the women's restroom. When he realizes his mistake, Trip admits to Nelson that he stole the drugs he currently has, and Nelson reminds him how insane this dealer is, explaining he's even killed someone before. Trip simply passes it off as a legend. The dealer then calls Trip on his cellphone and says he is aware he stole the drugs because he caught him on his computer webcam and says he wants the drugs back, and Trip agrees to meet with the dealer at Area 52, Kelton in 2 hours or he is dead. The group then leaves the diner. The group notices an overturned car on the highway, which they dismiss as an abandoned accident.

Gretchen discovers that Trip is carrying drugs and stops the vehicle to kick him out. While parking at the side of the road, the group notices a short, but strong tremor. Gretchen agrees to take Trip back to the diner, which has been abandoned. The car runs out of gas and breaks down, so they decide to stay at the Halfway Motel next to the diner. Learning from the radio that the highway has been closed, Trip decides to walk down the road for help. Jack and Gretchen pitch camp outside. After a close call with the drug dealer Radford at another stop, Trip escapes and meets a man named Henry driving an RV, who is looking for his missing wife. He goes with Trip to the motel and sets up camp there. Trip doesn't tell his friends about his run-in with Radford, but warns them to be careful.

Looking for signal reception for his mobile phone, Trip releases from a rubbish skip the still-living head, torso, and arms of a truck driver, who then crawls away. Henry then meets Trip and discovers they both are seeing the dead people. While in his camper, Henry collapses, seemingly suffocating as a dark figure moves through the trailer. Still looking for reception, Trip is attacked on the roof by a hooded figure. Cookie is killed while sitting in an outhouse by being dragged into the hole.

Nelson is almost dragged under his bed, but pulls himself back up and jumps on top of the bed. He takes his sneaker off and drops it on the ground, watching as it is shredded. He then tries to escape by jumping through the window, but fatally cuts his throat on a shard of glass. Gretchen and Jack discover Nelson's and Henry's bodies, prompting Gretchen to look for Trip and Cookie. Jack encounters the creature but escapes when Trip, who has lost an arm, shoots at the figure with his gun. Trip is overpowered by the creature and dies.

In reality, an RV crashed into Gretchen's car after Trip stepped out to call for a ride, at the moment when they experienced the tremor. None of the group had noticed the RV, whose driver was Henry. His wife, Rose, explained to the officers on the scene that Henry suffered a heart attack and lost control. The car that the group saw leaving the diner was, in fact, their own.

Each of the deaths at the hotel were reflected by their own deaths in the car: Cookie died from internal bleeding; Nelson cut his neck when he was thrown through the windshield; Trip's arm was severed gripping the cell phone, and he died from blunt force trauma. Gretchen survived the crash because she was wearing her seat belt and Jack, despite receiving a massive head injury and a broken arm, also remained alive in the car. Radford, who had been stalking Trip, witnessed the accident and attempted to assist; hence the visions of him at the motel and highway.

In the final scene, Gretchen and Jack briefly discuss the fact that neither has any recollection of the accident, and no mention is made of the incidents at the motel. Jack comments that, for a moment in the crash, he thought he could see Gretchen, offhandedly mentioning the color of her eyes.

The story follows Jennifer Simpson, an orphan from the fictional Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen, Norway. She and other orphaned children named Laura, Anne, and Lotte are adopted in September 1995 by a wealthy recluse named Simon Barrows, who lives in a mansion known as the "Clock Tower", named after its predominant feature. After arriving at the mansion, Mary, the woman who brought the children to the mansion, leaves to find Mr. Barrows. When she takes an unusually long time, Jennifer offers to investigate. Upon leaving the room, she hears a scream coming from the main foyer. Jennifer returns to find the lights off and the girls missing. After finding either Laura or Anne killed, she finds herself being stalked by a murderous little boy with deformed features, wielding a huge pair of scissors, named Bobby Barrows, also known as the Scissorman in the game.

While exploring the mansion, Jennifer searches for Mary's true intentions. Depending on choices made by the player, Jennifer will either discover Simon Barrows trapped in a jail cell inside the courtyard, or her father's corpse in a hidden room. If the former happens, Jennifer will need to give him a piece of ham as food. If the latter happens, Jennifer will find his death letter that tells of his account concerning Mary Barrows and her twins, Bobby and Dan. It says that he was trapped there for three days, until his death on November 10, 1986. Jennifer then visits a small, occult-looking church. If the player has collected all the necessary items and clues, then she gains access to the catacombs of the mansion - using either the Devil Idol or the Sceptor, but the former is canonical as it appears in the sequel. Jennifer sees a cloaked figure walking ahead of her; this is Mary. She follows it, wearing a disguise to fool the guard dog using Mary's perfume, and a black cloak found in the mansion. If Lotte did not need to rescue Jennifer from the jail cell, she can be found dying at an altar, and tells Jennifer about the switches in the clock tower. Otherwise, she rescues Jennifer from the jail cell, but is shot by a threatening Mary.

Jennifer enters a room where she discovers Dan Barrows, a giant, gluttonous purple creature. Dan awakens from his slumber and chases Jennifer to a steep cliff. She successfully climbs over, knocking down a can of kerosene which splashes onto a nearby candle. This triggers an explosion that immolates Dan, while Jennifer rides an elevator out of the catacombs. She ends up defeating Bobby in the clock tower, and Mary as well in (or around, depending on prior actions) the clock tower. If Anne (or Laura) has not died yet, then this survivor reunites with Jennifer at the clock tower but is soon thrown down the tower by Mary. These actions would lead to one of Endings A, B, or C - any of these could be canonical according to the events of the next game. Because of the game's open-ended nature, the player can also discover other endings.

Set during World War II, just after Pearl Harbor, Stan (Stan Laurel) and Ollie (Oliver Hardy) try their hand at various business ventures. Their store opens and closes in various guises but without success. They finally open it as a bicycle store, but it goes bankrupt and they close it down to enlist in the army. They fail in every attempt to succeed in the military and return to their home town Huxton only to find out that their store now is open, with a man named Eustace Middling (Donald Meek) in charge, selling radios instead of bicycles. But Middling offers them to share the space in a joint venture. Stan and Ollie don't realize that Middling in fact is a German spy, using the shop as a front to cover a base for espionage on the US Military.

The pair decide to support the civil defense by becoming air raid wardens in Huxton. To complete their training, they have to take part in an advanced military drill, and Stan of course manages to get the wrong assignment—one that is far more complicated than they can handle. They set out on their mission, to rescue a very prominent banker, J.P. Norton (Howard Freeman), from a fire, but fail hugely, ending up burying the banker alive in a huge load of sand. Still, they are given one more chance to prove their aptitude as air raid wardens, involving the task of ensuring that all the town citizens turn off their lights at night. They get into a quarrel with one of the more troublesome inhabitants, Joe Bledsoe (Edgar Kennedy), resulting in a commotion and a rumor that spy activity is taking place in Joe's home. The boys are knocked out, and in the end they are finally dismissed from the corps altogether.

Back at their shop, they happen to overhear the spies speaking German, and follow them to a hide-out outside of town, where they find out Middling's real name is Mittelhause, and overhear him talking about blowing the town's magnesium plant to pieces with another spy, Rittenhause (Henry O'Neill). They try to send a message to the civil defense, but instead they are captured by the German spies. The boys manage to flee and alert the civil defense, who arrive at the plant just in time to stop the sabotage. Stan and Ollie also expose Middling as a German spy.

A king had a wife, Silver-Tree, and a daughter, Gold-Tree. One day they walked by a pond, and Silver-Tree asked a trout if she were the most beautiful queen in the world, whereupon the trout said that Gold-Tree was more beautiful. Silver-Tree took to her bed and declared she would never be well unless she ate Gold-Tree's heart and liver. A king's son had asked to marry Gold-Tree, so her father agreed and sent them off; then he gave his wife the heart and liver of a he-goat, at which she got up from her bed.

Silver-Tree went back to the trout, which told her Gold-Tree was still more beautiful, and living abroad with a prince. Silver-Tree begged a ship of her husband to visit her daughter. The prince was away hunting; Gold-Tree was terrified at the sight of the ship. The servants locked her away in a room so she could tell her mother she could not come out. Silver-Tree persuaded her to put her little finger through the keyhole, so she could kiss it, and when Gold-Tree did, Silver-Tree stuck a poisoned thorn into it.

When the prince returned, he was grief-stricken, and could not persuade himself to bury Gold-Tree, because she was so beautiful. He kept her body in a room. Having married for a second time, he would not let his new wife into the room. One day, he forgot the key, and the new wife went in. She tried to wake Gold-Tree, and found the thorn in her finger. Pulling it out, she revived Gold-Tree. Because of the wakened one's identity, the second wife offered to leave, but their husband refused to allow it.

Silver-Tree went back to the trout, who told her what had happened. Silver-Tree took the ship again. The prince was hunting again, but the second wife said that the two of them must meet her. Silver-Tree offered a poisoned drink. The second wife said that it was the custom that the person who offered the drink drank of it first. Silver-Tree put the drink to her mouth, and the second wife struck her arm so that some went into her throat. She fell down dead.

The prince, Gold-Tree, and the second wife lived happily thereafter.

''Spartacus'' begins with three young Roman patricians – Caius, his sister Helena and her friend Claudia, commencing a journey from Rome to Capua along the Via Appia a few weeks after the final suppression of the slave revolt. The road is lined by "tokens of punishment" – slaves crucified in the immediate aftermath of the revolt. During the first day of their travel the party encounter several representative individuals; a minor politician, a prosperous businessman of the equestrian class, an eastern trader and a young officer of the legions; all of whom give their respective perspectives on the rising. On arrival at a palatial country villa where they are to spend the night, the trio meet with other guests, both historical and fictional, who either played key roles in the events just finished or who have sufficient perception to analyze the significance of slavery as an institution within the Roman Republic.

From the encounters at the ''Villa Salaria'', the focus of the novel moves to occasions before and during the actual rising of the slaves. The emphasis is on Spartacus, his life in the mines and as a gladiator; his character, powers of leadership and dreams of a just society where exploitation and cruelty have been eliminated.

Spartacus had been born a free man in his homeland of Thrace, but he was captured as a young man and sold as a slave in the gold-mines of Libya. Eventually, he and several Thracian slaves, including his comrade Gannicus, are bought by a wealthy ''lanista'', Lentulus Batiatus, who owns and trains a large number of gladiators at a school near the Italian city of Capua. There, Spartacus and Gannicus meet other gladiators, a Gaul named Crixus, a Jew named David, and an African named Nordo.

Spartacus trains as a gladiator. He begins a relationship with a German girl named Varinia, who is one of several dozen female slaves that Batiatus keeps for the pleasure of his gladiators. Provoked by the death of Nordo when he turns against their Roman masters, the gladiators and slaves rise up in revolt. Led by Spartacus and Crixus, the rebels overwhelm their trainers and guards, force Lentulus Batiatus to flee, and destroy the city garrison sent to stop them.

Perry Mason is a distinguished criminal-defense lawyer practicing in Los Angeles, California, most of whose clients have been wrongly charged with murder. He is ably assisted by his confidential secretary Della Street and by private investigator Paul Drake. The innocent suspect is usually prosecuted by district attorney Hamilton Burger, though the prosecution is handled by a local district attorney when the murder takes place outside Los Angeles County. In the early seasons, the police investigation is usually led by the less imaginative homicide detective Lt. Arthur Tragg. (Later, other homicide detectives appear with increasing frequency.)

In a typical episode, the first half of the show introduces a client, who often hires Mason on non-murder related business, or becomes acquainted with him in some other way. The prospective murder victim and other important figures in the case are introduced, and then the client finds himself or herself wrongly accused of murder. Once the crime has been committed, while Tragg and Burger work to gather evidence against Mason's innocent client, Mason, Paul Drake and Della Street engage in a parallel investigation in order to exonerate him or her.

In the second half, Mason and Burger spar in the courtroom. This usually takes place during the preliminary hearing because Mason's technique is to clear a client before they are bound over for trial (based on novels). Jury trials are rarely seen, with "The Case Of The Terrified Typist" being an exception. As the courtroom proceedings advance, while Burger and Tragg often uncover new evidence or a new witness that would seem to seal the fate of the accused, Mason's team continue their parallel investigation in what seems to be an increasingly hopeless effort. As the investigation or examination progresses, Mason and sometimes Burger uncover the morally ugly or even illegal conduct of some of the witnesses or participants, thus complicating the moral and legal intrigue of the case.

Eventually, some detail is uncovered, a different interpretation of the evidence is found, or a remark is made inside or outside the courtroom which gives Mason the clue he needs to discover the identity of the real murderer. For example, in "The Case Of The Lazy Lover", the prosecution's case relies on a complicated set of footprints left at the crime scene. Mason notices that the prints left by a neighbor's dog were inconsistent with Burger's interpretation, leading Mason to realize that the neighbor's testimony was contrary to the truth. Armed with this new insight, Mason embarks upon a line of questioning that reveals the surprise perpetrator, often causing them to break down and confess to the crime in the courtroom. In the closing scene or epilogue, Paul and Della, and sometimes Burger and Tragg, ask Mason what gave him the clue he needed; after Mason explains, he or someone else makes a humorous remark.

Around 2200, the Empire on Earth sends colonists to space to seek resources for the now-depleted Earth. The first settlement is on Primus IV. Its colonists are applauded and praised for their bravery. The Empire then sets up colonies all over the galaxy. Suddenly, Primus IV is attacked by a reptilian race known only as the Mantai. Much of the colonist population is killed, but the Empire sends no help. The Empire forgets about Primus IV, as does the rest of the universe. After the colonists manage to fight off the Mantai to less inhabitable parts of the world, they begin to rebuild. Soon after, they discover a material known as SL-18. It is proven to be the perfect material to use in armor and metals: stronger than any other known material.

Once the Empire back on Earth hears about this, they are eager to trade with the colonists. The colonists themselves are not so willing. They trade SL-18 with anyone who'll pay for it, but the Empire sees this open trade as a danger to the SL-18 supply for Earth and its colonies. Earth sets up an outpost on Primus IV to make sure that they have sole control of the SL-18 supply.

Using the funds they obtain in selling SL-18, the colonists hire an experienced mercenary force, known as the WarMonkeys. They use these forces to retake Primus IV. The Empire is infuriated, and sends its own armies to reclaim the planet. Thus the war between the WarMonkeys and Imperial Forces begins.

Well-meaning and mild-mannered milkman Burleigh Sullivan (Kaye) meets Polly Pringle (Mayo), a beautiful, but out-of-work, singer, whilst on his rounds early in the morning. He tries to get her a job at the club where his sister Susie (Vera-Ellen) is performing, but gets the sack for his trouble. Whilst meeting Susie after the show, he sees her being molested by drunken boxer 'Speed' McFarlane and his bodyguard 'Spider'. In the fracas, Speed is knocked out and his manager, Gabby Sloan, is furious.

The newspapers pick up the story and photographers catch Burleigh 'knocking out' Speed again. In fact, as before, Speed is accidentally knocked out by Spider as a result of Sullivan's quick foot-work and propensity for ducking. Gabby decides to turn Burleigh into a fighter to turn the publicity to his advantage.

Burleigh goes on tour, but doesn't realize that all his fights have been fixed and his opponents have been asked to 'take a dive' to build up his image. He comes to think that he really is a great fighter, and develops a swollen head. Polly and Susie are not pleased with the turn of events. Meanwhile, Speed and Susie have become an item themselves.

Burleigh's contract is bought by Mr Austin, his former boss at Sunflower Milk, for $50,000, and he is set up to fight Speed for a charity fundraiser organised by socialite Mrs. E. Winthrop LeMoyne. Speed has accidentally been given an overdose of sleeping tablets and falls asleep during the fight, so Burleigh wins by default. Burleigh is reluctant to retire without having been KO'd, but Mrs. LeMoyne accidentally does just that. Now Burleigh can retire with a clear conscience. As promised by Mr Austin, he is given a partnership in the dairy company, with his former rival and new friend, Speed, as one of the district managers. But Gabby and Spider wind up working as milkmen.

Shedara, Forlo, and Hult, prepare to leave Coldhope Keep, but are attacked by shadow-fiends. The shadow-fiends outnumber them, and are losing as well as badly injured. Luckily, Eldako shows up and manages to kill the rest of the shadow-fiends. They decide to stay in Coldhope Keep until they recover. Later, the Fourth Legion of the Imperial League arrives, intent on arresting Forlo for desertion. Forlo claims he didn't desert, but they are still determined to arrest. Eldako and Shedara manage to escape via a magic levitation spell, by jumping down a cliff. However, Hult is afraid of magic, so he didn't manage to escape. Forlo didn't want the Fourth Legion to capture just Hult, as they would torture him since they wouldn't get himself, so he stayed with Hult and was arrested too. Hult and Forlo are taken back to the capital, Kristophan, and since Eldako and Shedara can't overpower so many minotaurs, they travel back to Armach-nesti to see if they can get help.

At the same time, Essana is in the jungles of Neron, and held captive by the Brethren who are trying to resurrect Maladar. The faces of the Brethren are scarred, and hidden behind hoods, just like Maladar. They want to resurrect Maladar because they believe that Taladas is declining due to war, famine, etc., and that Maladar will reestablish the empire of Aurim, bringing peace and prosperity. There are six of the Faceless Brethren; the Keeper, the Master, the Teacher, the Slayer, the Watcher, and the Speaker. She later learns that the Keeper is secretly a spy for the kings of the Rainward Isles. She is forced to watch them sacrifice elves of the jungle to Maladar.

Meanwhile, the scenario in Armach-nesti is even worse. Thousands of shadow-fiends have invaded the woods, and the elves are hard-pressed to keep them back. The city has been overrun, and it's basically a melee. She discovers that her brother only has sixty elves total in his force, but he still manages to spare some to help rescue Forlo and Hult.

Since Forlo "deserted", he's brought to Rekhaz, who is now the Emperor of the Imperial League. Rekhaz has no pity for Forlo, and declares his life forfeit. Forlo manages to call on his Imperial right of dueling in the arena, and so he and Hult are sent to fight a horax, and begin to lose soon after.

Shedara, Eldako, and the elves of Armach-nesti manage to sneak into Kristophan, rescue Forlo and Hult, and escape. Forlo kills Rekhaz in cold blood on the streets of Armach-nesti. The elves of Armach-nesti gives Hult a magical pendant of language, so that he can understand what other people are saying. Now reunited, they head north to the snowy fields of Panak, where they search for the Wyrm-Namer, a dragon that can name other dragons.

They arrive in Panak on a magical elven boat, and quickly meet the Wolf-clan, a friendly clan that Eldako has lived with before. On their way to the clan village, they are beset by a snow storm, and pursued by the Eyes, which are almost invulnerable evil creatures that kill any that venture into the snow storms. However, they can be held at bay by statues of the Patient Folk. They arrive at the Wolf-clan's village, and meet the seer, Tulukaruk. Tulukaruk lets a spirit-wolf take control of his body to communicate with them. They learn that the spirit-wolf will only tell them where and how to find the Wyrm-Namer only if they will agree to kill it when they're done. Forced with no choice, they agree. Angusuk, the lead hunter of the tribe leads them to the mountain of the Wyrm-Namer, where Hult uses his magical pendant to communicate with the snow-ogres that guard his lair.

They entire the Namer's lair, and discover that he's dying. Before he dies, he manages to tell them the name of the dragon, Gloomwing, who lives in the valleys of Marak, home of the kender. They head back to the village and discover that the shadow-fiends had massacred everyone there, and toppled the statues of the Patient Folk. They notice that some hunters may have escaped, so Angusuk decides to stay and look for the rest of his tribe. Shedara, Hult, Eldako, and Forlo head for Marak.

Essana and the Keeper attempt to escape through a tunnel, and Essana begins to miscarriage in the tunnel. They manage to exit the tunnel and get to the rendezvous point with the elves, although they are ambushed. Essana faints, and when she wakes up she discovers that she is chained. The Master shows her what happened to the Keeper, he's mutilated, and is being kept alive by a magic spell.

Meanwhile, the four arrive in Marak, and discover that Gloomwing left, though the kender are nearing extinction because the shadow-fiends capture kender, and take them to the Teacher, who arrives when the black moon is full to turn them into more shadow-fiends. Luckily (or unluckily), the black moon was full that night, so they attempt to ambush the Teacher. They capture him, and question him. After that, they desire revenge, so they kill him.

After that, they sail to Neron, and as soon as they arrive, Gloomwing decides to "meet" them. The four notice that the elves were gathering in the woods preparing to ambush Gloomwing, so Eldako decides to be a "dummy" for Gloomwing. Gloomwing dives at Eldako and breathes acid at him, and at the last second Eldako falls into the water. The elves meanwhile kill Gloomwing. They search for Eldako until it is dark, and are forced to leave and head for the elven village because mind flayers patrol the woods after dark. They meet the oldest elf in the village, the Grandmother. Grandmother tells them that a prophecy foretold that two humans and two elves would destroy the Brethren. She notices that they are missing Eldako, so she scries for him. They find out that the mind flayers captured Eldako, and that he was badly hurt by the dragon's acid. Eldako's right eye was gone, and his vision in his left eye is cloudy. His skin was melted by the acid, and his right leg was the only part of him untouched by the acid. They rescue him, and they assault the temple of Maladar. They manage to kill the Brethren, and Eldako manages to kill the Master by jumping to his death with the Master. They rescue Essana and Azar, Essana's son, who is already eighteen due to age altering magic. However, instead of Maladar taking over Azar, he accidentally manages to take control of Forlo, and he escapes to the Burning Sea where he will try to resurrect Aurim.

One day, during training, Joe was falsely accused of attacking his master, a crime for which the dog would be euthanised as punishment. However, the dog escaped before being killed and a $200 bounty was put on its head. Sgt. Corey believed Joe was innocent and joined the pursuit, hoping to find Joe before the authorities did.

During the show's second season, Sgt. Corey, having never found Joe (although he always came close), was called back to duty. Joe then teamed with a hiker, Josh McCoy (played by Chad States), and continued to help others, all the while still on the run.

The film follows Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones), a wealthy black anthropologist who is doing research on the Myrthians, an ancient African nation of blood drinkers. One night, while staying in Green's lavish mansion, richly decorated with African art, his unstable assistant George Meda (Bill Gunn) threatens suicide. Green successfully talks him down, but later that night Meda attacks and stabs Green with a Myrthian ceremonial dagger, and then kills himself. Green survives, but on discovering the body, drinks Meda's blood; he has become a vampire endowed with immortality and a need for fresh blood. He steals several bags of blood from a doctor's office, but finds that he needs fresh victims.

Soon, Meda's estranged wife, Ganja Meda (Marlene Clark), arrives at Green's house searching for her husband. Green and Meda quickly become lovers, and she moves into Green's mansion. When she unwittingly discovers her husband's corpse frozen in Green's wine cellar she is initially upset, but then agrees to marry her host, who turns her into a vampire as well. Ganja is initially horrified by her new existence, but Green teaches her how to survive. Soon he brings home a young man whom Ganja seduces and then kills. The two vampires dispose of the body in a field on Green's property.

Eventually, Green becomes disillusioned with this life and resolves to return to the Christian church headed by his chauffeur, Reverend Luther Williams (Sam Waymon). Returning home, he kills himself by standing in front of a cross. Ganja, though saddened by his death, lives on, presumably continuing her vampiric lifestyle. The film ends with the young man Ganja had earlier killed rising out of the water, naked but alive, and running toward her.

Laurel and Hardy establish an electrical goods store, Laurel and Hardy's Electrical Supplies, next door to Charlie Hall's grocery store. They go next door to introduce themselves.

Hall, still sulking and suspicious from their previous encounter with the liquor-spiked well water in ''Them Thar Hills'', mistakenly thinks that Hardy is trying to romance his wife (Mae Busch). While Stan and Ollie are out a customer helps himself to an electric clock, greeting them as he leaves.

An accident with a ladder and a raising platform in the pavement lands Ollie on Mrs Hall's bedroom window when he tries to replace light bulbs in their sign. Mr Hall confronts Ollie. Ollie complains to Stan that his character has been "smirched" and he goes to Mr Hall to demand an apology. He gets hit on the head with a spoon and Hall follows them back to their shop. He grabs Ollie by the nose with hot hair tongs.

The two business partners now leave their shop, again without closing its door, to retaliate in Hall's grocery. They spring lemon meringue pie into his face.

Meanwhile, the shoplifter (Bobby Dunn) continues to remove items from their electrical store, later taking more and more as their confrontations with Hall escalate. At first the thief openly carries items out by hand; but since Stan and Ollie are distracted by their conflicts with Hall and largely ignore him, the shoplifter begins using a wheelbarrow to take away merchandise. Ollie fills Hall's till with syrup: Hall uses the meat-slicer to take off the top of Ollie's bowler hat. They then stick a huge tin of lard onto Hall's head. Hall starts to wreak havoc in their shop. Stan and Ollie cover Hall with eggs.

A policeman finally arrives and halts all the personal assaults and retaliations, getting them all to shake hands. Laurel and Hardy return to their store and find it virtually empty. The shoplifter has returned yet again, although this time with a large truck to haul away all the remaining items. As Stan and Ollie watch in silent disbelief, the shoplifter greets them cheerfully and strolls out of their store carrying a lamp, which he puts in the back of the truck.

Private detectives Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy travel from their hometown of Peoria, Illinois to Mexico City in pursuit of an infamous female larcenist named Hattie Blake (Carol Andrews), who is publicly known as ”Larceny Nell”. Meanwhile, an American sports promoter, Richard K. Muldoon (Ralph Sanford) meets with publicity man ”Hot Shot” Coleman (Richard Lane), and his assistant (Irving Gump) to discuss an upcoming bullfight featuring famed Spanish matador Don Sebastian. But when Muldoon sees pictures of the bullfighter he becomes enraged; Don Sebastian looks exactly like Laurel. Hot Shot is confused until Muldoon tells him the story: Eight years earlier in Peoria, Laurel and Hardy both testified against Muldoon in a criminal case, and Muldoon was wrongfully convicted of the crime (the details of which were never specified) and granted a twenty-year jail sentence; However, after five years the true criminal confessed to the crime and Muldoon was released. But while in prison he lost his home, his wife, his fortune and his business and had to start all over in Mexico. He still holds a grudge against Stan and Ollie and vows revenge with a large knife for emphasis: "Someday I'll run across them again! And when I do, I'm going to skin them alive! First the little one, then the big one! ''I'm going to '''skin''' them '''BOTH alive'''!!"''

Meanwhile, Ollie and Stan confront Blake in an attempt to arrest her only for her to snatch the extradition papers that permit them to arrest her outside the U.S., followed by an egg-breaking tit for tat sequence before she escape. They run into Hot Shot who sees Stan's uncanny resemblance to the bullfighter while receiving a telegram that tells the real Don Sebastian's arrival is delayed because of passport trouble. After explaining Stan's resemblance to Don Sebastian to the confused Ollie and Stan and about the vengeful Muldoon's wrongful conviction, Hot Shot forces Stan to impersonate the bullfighter in the meantime, threatening to reveal his and Ollie's presence to Muldoon if he does not cooperate but promising them a very handsome payment for their trouble if he does. Stan reluctantly agrees, only because Hot Shot promises he will not have to fight bulls. Eventually, the real Don Sebastian's passport trouble turns out to be worse than originally feared and so Stan will have to take his place in the ring and fight bulls after all.

On the day of the fight Stan, nervous about fighting bulls, gets drunk. But then, unbeknownst to anyone, the real Don Sebastian has somehow miraculously contrived to making it to Mexico City just in time for the big bullfight. Ollie mistakes him for Stan and forces him into the arena. Stan staggers up, and Hardy sends ''him'' into battle. With two Laurels in the ring, the outraged spectators cry foul, especially Muldoon, who now recognizes "Don Sebastian" as Stan Laurel from Peoria who sent him up for twenty years and, in a livid frenzy, punches out Hot Shot, calling him a swindler. Every bull in the arena is then unleashed. Stan and Ollie try to escape the vengeful Muldoon, but not fast enough; Stan and Ollie, while packing for their flight back home and planning to sneak away to the airport, discover Muldoon hiding in their closet, his knife handy. Just as promised, he skins them alive; leaving them, except their heads, in bare bones. Ollie says his "another nice mess…" catchphrase to Stan. Stan whimpers before Ollie decides that they go back home to Peoria, "where we ''belong!"''

The protagonist of the book is Kurt Morgan, a crewman on the Alliance ship ''Endymion'', which was destroyed in a space battle with Hanan forces. Morgan evacuates the ship and lands on an alien planet, home of the ''Nemet'' race. Morgan is rescued by one faction of the Nemet and becomes embroiled in their political and military struggles. Morgan is not the first human stranded on the planet, however. His encounters with a previous female human castaway endanger the entire Nemet race when she reacts badly and threatens to unleash weapons of mass destruction on the planet.

Set in the mid-1960s, the story centers on ten-year-old Harriet Frankovitz, a lonely outcast who lives with her mother and older sister Gwen in a dilapidated North Carolina motel with cabins shaped like teepees her mother received as part of her divorce settlement. Harriet has a strong desire to escape her dull existence by means of any one of a number of creative ways - a magic carpet she tries to fly off the roof, on board a flying saucer she anxiously awaits in the schoolyard, through a tunnel she has been digging to China, or by attaching helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair. Mrs. Frankovitz is a bitter alcoholic with a propensity for driving on the wrong side of the road, while Gwen has sexual encounters with a series of men in vacant rooms. Terminally ill Leah Schroth is en route to an institution where she plans to admit her intellectually disabled son Ricky when their car breaks down near the motel, and the two stay there while waiting for the vehicle to be repaired. Mrs. Frankovitz is killed in an automobile accident, and Harriet discovers Gwen is her biological mother. The distressed girl and her new friend run away and set up house in an abandoned caboose concealed beneath dense foliage in the woods. When Ricky becomes ill, Harriet is forced to seek medical assistance for him. Once he recovers, his mother sets off with him to complete their interrupted journey, leaving Gwen and Harriet to learn to interact in their new roles of mother and daughter.

In 1892 Horace Lamb lives on an inherited estate with his wife, their five children, his extended family and a slew of servants including the butler Bullivant. Though Horace is wealthy through his marriage to Charlotte he insists on controlling her money in a miserly way. The ones who suffer the most from his economy are his children (in particular his eldest Sarah) who dress in rags and are constantly cold and hungry. Charlotte and Horace's cousin Mortimer, who is his dependent, plan to run away together. Before this can be accomplished Charlotte is called to visit her ailing father.

The children are taught by their great-aunt Emilia, however Horace is eventually persuaded to hire a tutor, Gideon Doubleday, for the elder children. After Gideon takes a casual invitation from Horace seriously he decides to return the favour by asking the Lambs to meet his mother, Gertrude, and sister, Magdalen. Gertrude takes an immediate interest in Horace while Magdalen develops feelings for Mortimer. The two families grow closer in Charlotte's absence and Gertrude hints to Horace that her daughter and Mortimer might marry some day which he finds appalling.

Charlotte abruptly returns and discovers her children well-clothed and fed and her husband repentant. Horace claims to have seen the error in his ways but reveals he is aware of the plot between Charlotte and Mortimer. Charlotte decides to stay with Horace, despite no longer loving him, in order to maintain family harmony. Horace reveals that he will only continue to pay for Mortimer if he marries Magdalen and moves elsewhere. With no other options Mortimer assents.

Mortimer discovers however that an intimate letter of Charlotte's that she sent to a letter drop-off run by a Miss Buchanan has gone astray. He learns that it was accidentally collected by Gertrude who gave it to Magdalen to return. Acting in her own interest Magdalen instead opened the letter and then dropped it in the Lamb household in front of Horace. Because of the deception Mortimer breaks off his engagement with Magdalen and instead goes to live in a boarding house recommended by Bullivant. Before he leaves he tells Bullivant that the letter incident has made him realize that Miss Buchanan is illiterate. He urges Bullivant to socialize with her which he does. However during fits of irritation Bullivant occasionally places Miss Buchanan in an awkward position by asking her to read. He later shares Miss Buchanan's secret with the cook, Mrs. Selden.

Despite the betrayal Horace misses Mortimer deeply. When he discovers that his two eldest sons conspired to let him die in an accident he is further distraught. Mortimer arrives just after Horace discovers the betrayal and persuades Horace to let him back into the house reasoning that it was Mortimer's relationship with Charlotte that inspired Horace to mend his ways and that he no longer loves Charlotte knowing that she will always put her children first.

Going for a walk to reflect upon his children's betrayal, Horace narrowly escapes death and blames his sons when discovering one of their pocket knives near the scene of the crime. However it is quickly revealed that George, a young servant who resents his position and who has been stealing from the family, conspired to hurt Horace. George is punished by Bullivant who hopes that he will repent, though this seems far from likely.

Horace grows sick from the cold and almost dies, causing the household to repent of their actions to him, and then makes a miraculous recovery. Miss Buchanan visits the servants and her secret is revealed by George, who then confesses he overheard Bullivant tell the cook. Though Miss Buchanan believes she will be illiterate until she dies, the teenage cook's assistant Miriam offers to teach her as she taught young children in the orphanage where she grew up.

Walter Melon and his assistant Bitterbug run a company as "heroes for hire". Whenever people get in trouble, go missing, or fall victim to a villains' latest scheme, Melon and Bitterbug (Lefuneste) take their places temporarily. In the show, Walter and Bitterbug replaced spoofs of characters from pop culture such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Kirk and Spock, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Tarzan, Mad Max, two of the Power Rangers, Jason Lee Scott and Billy Cranston, the Terminator, Fox Mulder, John Rambo, Little Red Riding Hood, Aladdin, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, Dr. Alan Grant, Marty McFly, Hercules and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Unlike most heroes, Walter is a dim-witted, overweight jolly French American time traveler with a large melon-shaped nose and a lot of luck, but nobody ever notices the apparent change in appearance, with his character's apparent weight gain merely being commented on immediately after his arrival and subsequently ignored. When he impersonates the heroes, he fights Sneero (le méchant), the main antagonist of the series who represents the main villain of the parody universe. Additionally, Walter is sometimes partnered with Amelia, a woman who represents the heroines, token female characters, female sidekicks, and love interests of the story. In the second season in order to make the show educational, Walter and Bitterbug would receive cross-time distress messages from historical figures such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Thomas Edison, Lewis and Clark, Georges Méliès, and the Apollo 11 astronauts, rather than fictional characters, unlike the first season.

The series was available on Jetix Play, but is not currently available through any other outlet, although many of the episodes are available on YouTube to view.

In 1933, David Barr is the manager and chief designer of Glasgow shipbuilding firm Burns, McKinnon & Co. He comes up with a radical new ship design that can carry 25% more cargo for the tonnage and use less fuel at a time when the industry as a whole is in recession. Barr decides to build not just one ship, as Lord Dean advises, but twenty (to bring the costs down to a manageable level). Manning, a rival shipbuilder Barr loathes, hears rumors and sends two men undercover to find out what they can. They manage to get themselves hired. Manning then offers to purchase either the design or all the ships they can build. Both offers are rejected.

With the support of June McKinnon, the chief shareholder, Barr proceeds, despite the opposition of Lord Dean and other members of the board. He receives a severe setback when the Government declines to give him a contract or pass a shipping bill, and is driven to use his own money to try to complete the ship. When he runs out and cannot secure a loan to cover the payroll, a rabble-rouser tries to stir up the men, but Barr convinces them to stick by him. June, having heard his rousing speech, offers to let him obtain a loan on the security of her trust fund.

Manning's men knock out the night watchman and blow up the ship being built; a man named MacLeod is killed. Bassett, a reporter, informs Barr that MacLeod was third officer on one of Manning's ships.

Now needing funds desperately, Barr forges Lord Dean's signature to obtain a loan when Dean, as a trustee of June's trust, refuses to cooperate (partly out of jealousy of Barr and June's developing relationship). Manning finds out and tries to blackmail Barr into selling the design, but Barr refuses to do so and is convicted of forgery. Later, however, Manning is sought for manslaughter, while Barr is present when June launches the first of the new ships, the SS ''David Barr''.

Colin Mudford, a 12 year old Australian, is sent to stay with his uncle Bob, aunt Iris and cousin Alistair in London while his brother, Luke, is being treated for cancer. In England, Colin, wanting to ask the Queen for good doctors, attempts to break into Buckingham Palace with Alistair, only for them both to get caught by the police.

After an unsuccessful attempt to sneak into the best cancer hospital in London, Colin meets a Welshman named Ted, whose friend Griff is also suffering from cancer. Ted introduces Colin to one of England's leading cancer experts, who then contacts Luke's doctors in Sydney and confirms that the cancer which Luke has is terminal. Colin then attempts revenge on the doctors by slashing the tires on their cars, including Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Audi, only to be caught by Ted. Colin then storms back to Bob and Iris's house distraught, where Alistair gives Colin the idea that a possible cure may be found in South America.

Colin convinces Alistair to stow away with him on a cargo ship to South America the next day. However, when Colin admits that he slashed the tires of several doctors' cars and that Ted caught him, Alistair warns Colin that Ted could be blamed for this, so Colin delays their trip to South America. The next day, Colin visits Ted at his home, and finds that he has been badly injured. Ted tells him that he was attacked by people in the street who disliked him, because he is gay. He then confesses to Colin that Griff is actually his lover, who is dying of AIDS.

As Ted is unable to walk due to his injuries, Colin goes to the hospital on his behalf to meet Griff, bringing him a letter from Ted as well as Griff's favourite food, tangerines. After enjoying a conversation with Colin, Griff asks him to visit him again. After Griff is taken back to his ward by a nurse, Colin finds a spare wheelchair in the hospital which he gives to Ted to allow him to leave his house. Colin then takes Ted to the hospital to see Griff and the couple thank Colin for reuniting them. Several days later, after Ted has recovered, Colin goes to visit the couple in the hospital, only to learn that Griff has died.

When Alistair confesses to Iris his and Colin's plans to travel to South America, she punishes both boys, and the house is fortified against any escape attempts. When Colin decides to accept Luke's fate, he asks Iris to let him return to his family, but she forbids it, saying that any attempt to escape will not work because they will not allow him on the plane with his return ticket, unless he is seen off by an adult guardian.

The next morning, with much difficulty, Colin sneaks out of the house and meets Ted at the airport. Ted signs Colin's forms and they say their goodbyes. Iris catches Colin trying to escape and conflict is created; Alistair stands up to her, which forces Iris to see reason and let Colin go. Colin travels back to Sydney to see Luke, who wakes up, happy to see Colin.

"A Friend of Dorothy's"

In the 1950s, Dorothy Nelson (Brittany Murphy) joins the United States Navy where she meets the Friends of Dorothy, a code name for a group of gay and lesbian sailors. Nelson meets Billy (Jason Priestley), who takes her to an interracial nightclub that tolerates gay people. However, the NIS raids the nightclub, and Nelson is among those servicemembers who receive a blue discharge for "sexual perversion." Returning to Homer, she tries to restart her life as a public school teacher, but her unfavorable discharge prevents her from getting a job. When her homosexuality becomes public knowledge, her mother expels her from the house, forcing her to seek shelter at a family friend's grocery store. However, the townspeople disapprove of this arrangement, and Nelson becomes homeless. An independent-minded woman named Janet (Helen Shaver) at the local diner defends her against the verbal harassment and advises Nelson to go to the bohemian Greenwich Village, a place where she might be free to be herself.

"Mr. Roberts"

The second story flashes forward to the town of Homer in the 1970s, towards the end of the Vietnam War. There a closeted gay high school French language teacher, Mr. Roberts (Steven Weber), has a student named Tobias Anderson, nicknamed Toby, (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) who is on the verge of coming out of the closet, and who he suspects wishes to confide in him. Roberts must keep his homosexuality a secret for the fear of losing his job, but his live-in boyfriend Gus (Scott McCord) pressures him to set a good example for the students by illustrating the importance of tolerance and justice. Toby visits a prostitute on the advice of his swimming coach, with the idea that she can help him "become a man", but rather instead gives him some good advice about being himself.

After Toby is sexually assaulted by bullies and is discovered by Roberts, Roberts then himself comes out to his students and lectures them on the evils of bias-motivated hatred. Toby graduates from high school and leaves Homer to attend college in the big city.

"Andy and Amos"

The final short story takes place in the present day (2000), when a father and the townspeople have to come to terms with the fact that two men will be getting married during a commitment ceremony to be held in the town. Ira (Ed Asner), the father, is planning to lead a protest march against the wedding, while his son, Amos (James LeGros), is nervous about getting married and going against the cultural stereotype of gay men. The film ends on a positive note, with father and son reconciling and the wedding taking place as scheduled.

After escaping from jail where they had "one more week to serve," Laurel and Hardy travel to Scotland as stowaways on a cattle boat, where Laurel (as "Stanley McLaurel") believes he is heir to his grandfather's fortune. As it turns out, Laurel has only been bequeathed a set of bagpipes and a snuff container. Use of the latter causes Hardy, trying to demonstrate to Laurel the proper way to use snuff, to fly off an old bridge. His clothes are soaked.

In the boarding house, Laurel swaps their overcoats for a large fish for dinner. In quick succession the fish "shrizzles" to about 1/10 its size, Hardy's pants are burnt and ruined, and an attempt to hide the still-hot stove results in the landlady throwing the two out and confiscating their luggage for non-payment of rent. Receiving an ad for a tailor's offer of a new suit, Laurel and Hardy accidentally go to the wrong floor and join a Scottish regiment of the British Army and travel to India, where they frequently run afoul of their Sergeant Major (Jimmy Finlayson), and help their friend Alan (William Janney) reunite with his love (and Laurel's cousin) Lorna McLaurel (June Lang).

Khan Mir Jutra is the local terrorist who is a grave danger to the regiment. Volunteers are sought for a dangerous decoy mission to his palace, while Colonel MacGregor leads a surprise attack from another direction. Finlayson "volunteers" Stan & Ollie, who remain blissfully ignorant of the danger until they are given pistols and ordered to commit suicide. Hardy instead shoots down a huge chandelier, and also leads their pursuers into a courtyard of beehives, which cause panic among the terrorists and their own arriving regiment.

A British rock and roll band from Liverpool descends on Hamburg, c. 1960. They form romantic liaisons with several townspeople.

A rash of spaceship disappearances around Earth results in a dearth of available transit, stranding Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer on Jinx away from his love, Sharrol Janss. While visiting the Institute of Knowledge he runs into his old friend Carlos Wu. Carlos is the father of Janss' two children, a fact that he found so embarrassing that he decided to leave Earth rather than face Bey upon his expected return. But Bey proves perfectly happy to hear about the children, as his albinism denies him a license to have children of his own, and he and Sharrol had agreed that Carlos should act as a surrogate.

Reconciled, Carlos mentions that he has been contacted by Sigmund Ausfaller of the Bureau of Alien Affairs, who has offered him a ride to Earth. Bey has had several run-ins with Ausfaller in the past; Ausfaller aims to protect human-alien relations in any way he can, and at one point he planted a bomb on Bey's alien-provided General Products' #2 hull to prevent him from stealing it and potentially causing a sticky diplomatic incident. Worried about what might happen to Carlos at Ausfaller's hands, he decides to accompany him on his next meeting.

Bey, Carlos and Ausfaller meet. Ausfaller explains that alien passengers were aboard some of the vessels that disappeared, and he has been given the job of finding out what is going on to avoid further issues. His ship, the ''Hobo Kelly'', appears to be a cargo and passenger ship, but in reality is a warship built out of a nearly invulnerable General Products' #2 hull, capable of 30G of acceleration, armed with guided missiles, an x-ray laser and smaller laser cannons. Additionally, of the eight ships that have disappeared to date, only two were incoming, the other six were outgoing. Their inbound mission should thus be safe.

This proves to be the case for most of the journey, but only moments before entering the outskirts of Sol the ship suddenly lurches and drops out of hyperspace. Examining the area they discover three small tugs at some distance, but nothing else of interest. They turn towards Sol and continue on their way home while Bey checks the ship to try to find out what happened. He discovers that the hyperdrive motor is completely missing from the hull. When he informs the crew, Carlos uses the ship's hyperwave communications to retrieve information from Elephant's databanks on Earth, looking up a number of black hole related topics.

When his inquiries are finally answered, he finds that one of bits of information was written by Dr. Julian Forward, a researcher Carlos has wanted to meet. Carlos calls him and they discuss the disappearing hyperdrive motor. Forward invites them to Forward Station to wait for a ferry to Earth. They agree to his plans, although Forward Station is right where the ships are disappearing. Ausfaller agrees that Carlos and Bey can go to Forward Station; he did not reveal himself during the conversation and the small ship would not give away the fact that there was a third crewmember.

After equipping for potential combat, Bey and Carlos ferry to the station to meet with Forward. He shows them his prize possession, the "Grabber", an electromagnetic assembly that lets him shake masses of neutronium to produce polarized gravitational waves, which he is attempting to use to establish communications with alien races who may not have discovered hyperwave. When Forward asks Carlos what he thinks has happened, Carlos explains that a black hole might have been able to do it - gravity is one of the few forces that can penetrate a General Products starship hull. When Carlos admits that he has heard of quantum black holes, Forward takes them both captive.

Forward explains that he found the Tunguska meteorite, which was actually a small black hole. Returning it to the station he fed it the sphere of neutronium he was previously using for his communications attempt, thereby increasing its mass, and then fed in the exhaust of an ion engine to give it a permanent electric charge. The hole could now be manipulated with magnets, and towed around by the tugs. The tugs move it into the path of incoming starships to disable them, and then pirate the now-defenseless ships.

When the tugs return to the station, Forward suddenly asks if someone else is aboard the ''Hobo Kelly'', a question that is answered when Ausfaller fires on the tugs, destroying two and causing the third to flee. The tugs drop the black hole, but Forward and his assistant Angel manage to catch it in the Grabber. However, by this time Bey has managed to free himself enough to cut through his bonds, which turns out to be the power cable feeding the Grabber, releasing the black hole once again. As the hole falls towards the station it hits the dome and cuts a hole in it, sucking Forward's assistant into it. Forward makes some adjustments on his control panel and is then sucked into the hole as well.

Ausfaller rescues Bey and Carlos, who explain what was happening. They speculate that Forward deliberately turned up the air pressure in his final moments in order to allow the two to live until Ausfaller returned. They watch as the quantum black hole collapses the asteroid and it disappears in a searing blast of light.

Vlad Tepes, the Prince of Darkness, resurfaces in Los Angeles with a new look, new life and new love. But with the new life comes an old nemesis who has waited an eternity to settle the score.

Five spoiled high-school students are kidnapped and held for ransom in a remote swamp area.

Earth is invaded by the criminal organization known as Makuu, led by Don Horror, who had first destroyed a space colony near Earth. Don Horror wants to dominate the whole universe, and the Earth represents an obstacle that he has to overcome by turning it into a domain for all evil. In response to Makuu's attack, Space Sheriff Gavan of the is deployed to Earth to defend his mother's home world. Gavan is helped by Mimi, the daughter of Commander Qom, and is given information by Qom, assisted by Marin on his home planet. Gavan goes to Earth to defend it against Don Horror and his devilish schemes. He settles on Earth ''incognito'' as Retsu Ichijouji, taking a job at the Avalon Youth Club in Japan to track Makuu's forces down.

Lieutenant Colonel Cletus Grahame has been an instructor at the Western Alliance military academy since a battle injury crippled one of his knees, and forced his retirement from active duty. He has completed three volumes of a planned twenty-volume series of books on military strategy and tactics, and believes his analysis can revolutionize military science, although many do not take his work seriously. Feeling he needs to get out in the field and try putting his theories into practice, he leaves the academy and arranges to be sent to the world of Kultis, where the Alliance is supporting the Exotic colony of Bakhalla in a war against the neighboring colony of Neuland, backed by the Coalition.

The heart of his military strategy, based in part on fencing, is what he labels the "tactics of mistake," enticing one's opponent into overreaching, and being ready to take advantage of the mistake. This description is an adaptation of a similar concept in the novel ''Scaramouche'' by Rafael Sabatini when the character Moreau studies at the salon of the Master of Arms.

On the first night out on the ship to Kultis, he deliberately antagonizes Dow deCastries, Secretary of Outworld Affairs for the Eastern Coalition, forcing deCastries to take notice of him. He also meets Colonel Eachan Khan, an officer of the Dorsai troops who have been hired by the Exotics, and Khan's daughter Melissa. Mondar, an Exotic official, is also present, and takes notice of Grahame.

Putting his theories to work, Grahame repeatedly entices deCastries and the Neulanders into attempting incursions, where he is ready to pounce on them. Finally, after conveniently getting his own uncooperative commander out of the way, he entices them to launch a major invasion. Using the Dorsai troops, who had been underestimated and little-used by the Alliance command, he actually wins the war, handing deCastries a humiliating defeat.

His victory has actually made him rather unpopular with his own command. Mondar, using the Exotic science of ontogenetics, recognizes him as a key mover of history, and tries to recruit him to join the Exotics, but he chooses instead to emigrate to the Dorsai, in order to begin building them into the kind of military force he envisions. It seems he possesses some of the advanced mental abilities of the Exotics, and with their help, he is able to heal his crippled knee.

Melissa wants her father to return to Earth, and the General's rank he had enjoyed in the Western Alliance, and to do so, she needs the influence of deCastries. Grahame forces Melissa to marry him to prevent Eachan's departure, as he feels Eachan is necessary to his plans.

Over the course of years, Grahame builds the Dorsai into the unique fighting force that becomes so famous in later years. With their advanced training and superior tactics, they can defeat larger forces and suffer far fewer casualties than any others, making them far more economical for other worlds to hire. Gradually, they reach a status where other worlds no longer need to depend on Earth for fighting forces to protect them, threatening Earth's control of the younger worlds through its system of client states.

To prevent this loss of position, the two Earth factions, the Western Alliance and Eastern Coalition, unite their forces under deCastries, and attempt to stretch the Dorsai forces so thin that they will be conquered. When Earth invades the Dorsai, there are no soldiers to defend it, but deCastries underestimates the power of the Dorsai people themselves. The final result leads to a totally new balance of power among the settled worlds.

(The actual battle for the Dorsai itself is given little coverage in this book. The ultimate battle for Foralie district, Grahame's home, ends up being between deCastries and Amanda Morgan, a woman in her late nineties who leads the home defense. In the novella, "Amanda Morgan", she is used as the ultimate example of the spirit of Dorsai.)

Dancing instructors Laurel and Hardy accept a phoney insurance deal from two gangsters posing as insurance salesman. At the same time, Grant Lawrence, a young inventor is working on creating a new invisible ray machine that will revolutionize jungle warfare for World War II. Trudy Harlan, Grant's girlfriend and one of Stan's dancing pupils, invites Grant and the boys to her house for tea when her parents are away. Trudy's father Wentworth Harlan almost discovers Stan and Ollie when he returns home but finds Grant and angrily confronts him. Grant is ordered to leave and never talk to Trudy again, while the boys narrowly escape being found by Trudy's parents once again.

The next morning, Stan and Ollie are confronted by their angry landlord Mr. Featherstone to pay the rent on their dancing school by twelve noon that day or else face eviction. When Ollie declares that he has not got the money to the pay the rent, Stan suggests paying the rent with Ollie's nest-egg money. Although he initially refuses, Ollie eventually gives in and reluctantly decides to draw the money out of the bank. On their way to pay the rent, however, the boys become sidetracked by an auction that they are passing. In a situation reminiscent of ''Thicker Than Water'', the boys keep bidding against each other for an antique grandfather clock, which they were merely initially wanting to purchase for a lady who had left her money at home. While crossing the street with the clock, Stan trips and his hat falls off. The boys lay the clock down in the middle of the street while Stan retrieves his hat, but the clock is destroyed by a passing truck.

Back home, Stan and Ollie decide to help Grant promote his invisible ray gun, by means of Stan posing as the inventor, an eccentric foreign scientist, and with Grant later revealing himself as the real inventor. Although the demonstration is a success at first, Stan forgets to turn the machine off after firing it and it explodes. Grant is dismayed at the destruction of his invention, but the demonstration has earned him the approval and respect of Mr. Harlan.

In desperate need of money, Ollie decides to inflict a series of accidents upon Stan (using the fake insurance document) in hopes of raising money, but these events backfire and Ollie ends up receiving the intended consequence. Meanwhile, Mr. Harlan disapproves of his friend George Worthing (whom he had at first hoped to marry Trudy) attempting to steal Grant's invention and orders him to leave their home. He also decides to finance Grant's inventions following the demonstration of the invisible ray gun, much to the delight of Trudy and Grant.

Ollie decides to cause Stan to have another accident after hearing from a hospital patient who had gained insurance money after standing up on a roller-coaster and suffering an injury. Stan and Ollie board a bus to the beach, but the bus driver and passengers flee from the bus mid-journey after a cake-eating (and apparently rabid) dog frightens them away. Stan manages to escape from the bus just outside a coastal amusement park and pokes his head through a target in one of the amusement games. However, Ollie has had his foot caught and is stuck at the top of the bus as it careers onto a roller-coaster track. Ollie rides the bus along the roller-coaster track (while Stan gets pelted at the target) before the bus careers off the track just before a sharp turn.

With his leg broken as a result of the bus accident, Ollie ends up in the hospital and is visited by Trudy, Grant and Stan. In the film's final moment, Ollie states that his foot has gone to sleep. Stan asks in a whisper if there is anything he can do to make Ollie comfortable. When Ollie asks Stan why he is whispering, Stan answers, "I didn't want to wake your foot up."

The official storyline, as quoted from the game's original press release, is as follows:

U.S. surveillance satellites detect activity onboard the decommissioned Soviet Bargration Missile Defense Station 4 off the east coast of Siberia. When the Russians deny the U.S. access to the facility, Department of Defense strategists suggest that a small, plausibly deniable reconnaissance mission be sent in to investigate. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is given the go-ahead for operation BLACKOUT, the insertion of a single expert Operator on Russian WMDs and launch facilities. Lt. Col. John Sullivan, callsign: Cipher is air dropped in, and what was supposed to be primarily a reconnaissance mission becomes a race against a terrorist threat; one with implications that will shake the foundations of American democracy and freedoms.

It is unknown to what extent the game's plot changed during development. As such, the synopsis outlined above may not be indicative of the final plot intended for the game.

An author of highbrow literary novels, Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton), is better known for the bestselling murder mystery suspense-thrillers he writes under the pen name "George Stark". Beaumont wishes to retire the Stark name and symbolically buries Stark in a mock grave.

However, Stark has mysteriously become a physical entity (also portrayed by Hutton) and begins terrorizing Beaumont's family and friends after he emerges from the grave. Stark then kills local photographer Homer Gamache and steals his truck. He also murders Thad's editor, agent, and his agent's ex-wife, and kills a man named Fred Clawson, who was trying to blackmail Thad for "being a con artist that should not have written books under a false name".

When the police suspect Thad of murdering Gamache, he tries to convince Sheriff Alan Pangborn of Castle Rock, Maine that he had nothing to do with it. After putting an all-points bulletin on Clawson, who was accused of the death of Gamache, the New York police find him castrated and his throat slit. They find a message on the wall, written in Clawson's blood, "The sparrows are flying again." Thad starts to think that he may have a psychic connection to the killer.

While in his office, Thad begins to receive messages from Stark, and begins to worry about the next victim. He and his family start to receive threatening phone calls from Stark. Pangborn initially suspects the phone calls are a prank by Thad himself until Stark begins to describe how he is going to kill Thad's family, disturbing Pangborn.

State Police find Homer Gamache's truck with Thad's fingerprints all over it. For some reason, Stark wants to live in the material world, after only appearing in a set of Thad's best selling books. Thad writes, but he is not alone in suspecting something strange: Sheriff Pangborn is equally suspicious and continues investigating. Thad begins to realize that Stark is, in fact, his parasitic twin brother who died at "childbirth."

His mother never told Thad about the twin, and he was completely unaware until a local doctor tells him that Stark was a fraternal twin that was living inside Thad's brain. (A scene in the film's start shows a developing fetus inside Beaumont's brain). Stark arrives, kills the doctor, and blames Thad for the crime. Thad's colleague Reggie realizes that Stark is an entity controlled by the books that Thad wrote and that Stark will do anything he can to stop Thad. Stark kidnaps Thad's wife Liz and his children, and makes a deal with Thad: finishing a book that depicts Stark living in the real world, or he will kill his family.

While writing the book, Thad notices Stark is healing himself with his writings, as George started to deteriorate due to Thad not writing anymore books, causing Thad to absorb his sickness. Thad and Stark get into a fight, which ends with Thad stabbing Stark in the neck with a pencil. Sheriff Pangborn arrives and unties Liz, who says that Thad and Stark are upstairs. However, a huge flock of sparrows inexplicably comes and tears Stark apart, taking him to the land of the dead. The sparrows are agents of Death, that come to collect souls and carry them to their final destination. Thad and Liz are spared, and they, along with Pangborn, watch as the sparrows disappear into the night.

A young Kermit the Frog enjoys a serene amphibian's life with his cool and smooth-talking best friend, Croaker the Frog, who is the best hopper in the swamp, and a shy and awkward friend of his, Goggles the Toad. Kermit wonders what lies beyond the swamp, but his companions do not think the same. The friends run into Dr. Krassman and his assistant Mary (Kelly Collins Lintz), intent on capturing frogs. Arnie the alligator saves them and warns them about the dangers lurking outside the swamp. The next day, they run into the bully Blotch, a huge bullfrog, who attacks Goggles. The fight spills onto a road, where the pair are taken by a pet store owner named Wilson (William Bookston), prompting Kermit and Croaker to venture forth on a quest to save their friends.

When Goggles and Blotch are taken into a pet store, Blotch's bullying causes the pair to be put in a cage with Vicki the snake, who intends to eat Blotch. Goggles saves him by goading Vicki to kill him and then using his poison gland. The other animals at the store manage to convince Goggles and Blotch in a lively musical number that being sold to someone as a pet leads to a luxurious lifestyle.

After getting run over by Wilson's truck and having tire tracks on his chest, Croaker is no longer able to hop and starts to lose his confidence. Kermit and Croaker meet a stray dog named Pilgrim (voiced by Cree Summer), who saves them from Krassman and Mary, then decides to help them find their friends. Kermit is able to find Wilson's truck by using helium balloons, but discovers they are no longer in the vehicle. But Kermit regroups with Pilgrim and Croaker again, and together they find Wilson's Pet Store. Croaker, filled with motivation, finally manages to hop again by hopping through the window and helps Kermit up the window, but they find out from Vicki that their friends have gone to George Washington High School. Kermit speaks to a star, who gives him advice that he won't give up hope, which reaffirms Kermit's determination to find Goggles and Blotch and he comes up with a clever plan for him and Croaker to break into George Washington High School, save Goggles and Blotch, and defeat Krassman for good.

The next day, Kermit and Croaker deliberately get caught by Wilson to get taken to the high school and escape upon arrival as the first step of Kermit's plan. They meet Pilgrim again, who followed them in order to save Goggles and Blotch as well. Pilgrim and Croaker, under Kermit's instructions, distract Wilson by asking them to capture them while Kermit to go to biology class and rescue Goggles, which is part of Kermit's plan. Kermit hitches a ride on a student's backpack. Krassman intends to dissect Goggles, but Blotch sacrifices himself to return the favor for rescuing him from Vicki. Krassman decides to dissect Croaker instead, when Wilson brings him into the class. Mary refuses to show the class how the dissection is done and leaves the classroom. Kermit manages to free Croaker from the dissection table and fight with Dr. Krassman using some swashbuckling techniques he picked up earlier at a movie theater, but Krassman is able to overpower Kermit, Croaker, and Blotch. Goggles finds the knife that Kermit dropped, but after he picks it up, Krassman sees him.

Despite the warnings that Kermit should never talk to humans, Kermit stops Krassman from attacking Goggles by talking and asks him to please release the frogs. This action leads Krassman to reveal that as a child, he was about to dissect his first frog when the frog begged him to stop, but the frog refused to say anything to everyone else in Krassman's classroom, which caused him to be humiliated. With the truth revealed that frogs can talk and Kermit's rescue plan as a success, Krassman frees all the frogs, dismisses the class and enables Kermit and his friends to return home. After a ride back to the swamp's border in Wilson's truck, Wilson adopts Pilgrim and the four friends head back home, where Kermit is hailed a hero for saving Goggles and Blotch and redeeming Krassman.

Harry Kim is aboard a shuttlecraft as it is shaking violently. As he contacts ''Voyager'', Captain Janeway attempts to beam him out, and he awakens on Earth in San Francisco next to his girlfriend, Libby, whom he had dearly missed. The date is the same as he remembered, but his life is completely different: Harry retains his memories of his time on ''Voyager'', yet there is no evidence he was ever aboard. Kim finds he was denied a posting on ''Voyager'' and then took an assignment working at the shuttlecraft development center at Starfleet Headquarters.

After he leaves a briefing with staff admirals because of "sickness", he looks for any explanation for his current situation. Harry uses his knowledge of ''Voyager'' s security codes to obtain classified information on his ship. Kim realizes he has somehow swapped places with his friend Daniel Byrd. While skimming through the crew manifest, Kim notices Tom Paris is not listed as part of ''Voyager'' s crew either. He learns Paris now lives in Marseilles, France, after his parole, and goes there to try to enlist his help in figuring out what happened. Paris tells Kim that he lost his "advisor's" spot on ''Voyager'' after Odo threw him in the brig for getting into a fight with a Ferengi prior to ''Voyager'' s departure — a fight Kim prevented in the pilot episode.

Upon his return to San Francisco, Kim is apprehended by security and taken to Starfleet Headquarters for questioning because of his unauthorized access to restricted files and his recent association with Paris. Kim is suspected of being a Maquis spy and is fitted with a security anklet to track his movements. He discovers that a shuttlecraft accident caused him to fall into a time-stream and enter a timeline where he was never a part of ''Voyager'' s crew. A time-stream alien tells Kim that if he recreates the conditions of the accident precisely, he might get back to his own reality, but there is considerable risk. Harry tries to tamper with his security anklet, but sets off the tampering alarm, which alerts Starfleet. Paris comes to Kim's aid and rescues him. They steal a runabout and recreate the accident moments before they are destroyed. Immediately Kim is returned to his own reality and is happy to find everything is as he remembers it.

Slipstream

Captain Erhardt Von Rheindars, a German fighter pilot who is disgraced for abandoning his Fw 190 after his wingman, Lt. Hartmann, is shot down by three enemy Spitfires during a night recon mission, is assigned to escort a captured American B-17 bomber flying to Peenemünde. The bomber is to carry his childhood sweetheart, her scientist father and a fearsome secret cargo - a Nazi atomic bomb - and for the mission, he is given a prototype Ta 152H1, following complaints about the high altitude performance of his Fw 190. The night before the mission, Rheindars's sweetheart begs him to let enemy planes destroy the bomber before "humanity sells its soul to the devil forever", even though she and her father will die with it. On the next day, after shooting down two of three attacking RAF Spitfires with his Ta 152, Rheindars allows the final Spitfire to destroy the bomber; afterwards he shoots down the Spitfire, and flies off declaring himself "the man who did not sell his soul to the devil".

Sonic Boom Squadron

On August 5, 1945, a Japanese squadron of Betty bombers, each carrying an Ohka and escorted by A6M2 Reisen fighters, attempts a raid on an American aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific Ocean. As the raiders are attacked by American carrier-based aircraft, Ensign Nogami, a young Ohka pilot, demands to be launched in his Ohka, even if it means he misses his target, but his Betty's crew refuses, and he is knocked out and tossed off the plane with a parachute. He awakens in time to watch his fleet explode before his very eyes. He returns to base, where he meets the crew of the Betty who will fly him on a mission the following day, as well as two surviving Reisen pilots who vow to help him succeed in his mission if it costs them their lives. On board the American carrier, the pilots receive news from their captain that the attacking Betties were carrying Ohkas which are much faster than their own F6F Hellcats.

The next day, August 6, the Japanese attempt a second raid on the same battle group. An intense aerial dogfight ensues as the American carrier aircraft attempt to thwart the raiders from launching their Ohkas. Nogami begs his crew to cut him loose, but the plane isn't close to the American fleet just yet and holds off on letting him go. A US Navy Hellcat pursues Nogami's bomber, and inflicts serious damage, but the latter is saved by the intervention of one of the Reisen pilots, who crashes his aircraft into the Hellcat, destroying both planes. This enables the Betty to get within visual range of the battle group, and Nogami is launched in his Ohka just before the wing of the bomber disintegrates and explodes. He flies through a wall of anti-aircraft fire thrown up by the escorting vessels and crashes into the American Essex-class aircraft carrier. Just before the carrier's superstructure explodes, the battle group's commander receives word that an atomic bomb has just been dropped on Hiroshima.

Knight of the Iron Dragon

In Leyte, Private Kodai and Private Utsunomiya attempt to reach an air base in order to fulfill a promise despite the fact that it might have been rendered moot in the reality of war. The Japanese soldiers make their way by motorcycle, and along the way are ambushed by a captured Kawasaki Ki-61, but the American pilot loses control and crashes. The soldiers continue on while Utsunomiya hides the fact that he was shot by the captured Ki-61. Later, they are attacked by an American soldier riding a motorcycle. Kodai treats this as a race and makes the soldier crash. When the air base is on the horizon Kodai kicks Utsunomiya off the motorcycle and declares that he is going to cross the finish line. Private Kodai races towards the base and is gunned down by American soldiers. Utsunomiya dies of his wounds and the American soldier that attacked them on a motorcycle remarks "if that was a race he would have been the winner but in a real race no one shoots at you at the finish line".

Principal cast

Jimmy Shannon (Buster Keaton) is the junior partner in the brokerage firm of Meekin and Shannon, which is on the brink of financial ruin. A lawyer (whom they dodged, mistakenly believing he was trying to add to their woes) finally manages to inform Jimmy of the terms of his grandfather's will. He will inherit seven million dollars if he is married by 7:00 p.m. on his 27th birthday, which happens to be that same day.

Shannon immediately seeks out his sweetheart, Mary Jones, who readily accepts his proposal. However, when he clumsily explains why they have to get married that day, she breaks up with him.

He returns to the country club to break the news to his partner and the lawyer. Though Jimmy's heart is set on Mary, Meekin persuades him to try proposing to other women to save them both from ruin or even possibly jail. He has Jimmy look in the club's dining room; Jimmy knows seven women there (the chances of the title). Each turns him down. In desperation, Jimmy asks any woman he comes across. Even the hat check girl rejects him. He finally finds one who agrees, but it turns out she is underage when her mother spots her and takes her away.

Meanwhile, Mary's mother persuades her to reconsider. She writes a note agreeing to marry Jimmy and sends the hired hand to deliver it.

Unaware of this, Meekin has his partner's predicament (and potential inheritance) printed in the newspaper, asking would-be brides to go to the Broad Street Church at 5 p.m. Hordes of veiled women descend on the place. When they spot Jimmy (who had fallen asleep on a pew), they begin to fight over him. Then the clergyman appears and announces he believes it all to be a practical joke. Infuriated, the women chase after Jimmy. While hiding, he gets Mary's note. He races to Mary's house, pursued by furious females. Along the way, he accidentally starts an avalanche, which drives away the mob.

When he gets to Mary's home, Meekin shows him his watch; he is minutes too late. Mary still wants to marry him, money or no, but he refuses to let her share his impending disgrace. When he leaves, he sees by the church clock that Meekin's watch is fast. He and Mary wed just in time.

14-year-old Marcus Frederick (Brendan Sexton III) resides in Manhattan's Lower East Side with his grandmother, Lucy (Lynn Cohen). His mother, Joanna (Edie Falco), has spent the last nine years of Marcus's life in prison for smuggling undocumented aliens into New Mexico. Presumably, Marcus's father died in a car accident when Marcus was five. Lucy owns and operates her own establishment called Lucy's, where she works as a bartender, giving Marcus a lot of unsupervised time to spend with his four friends Chip (David Roland Frank), Benny (Carlo Alban), Louis (Mtume Gant), and Harold (Antoine McLean). The group spends the majority of their time committing petty theft and hanging around in their underground clubhouse near the waterfront. Chip has grown tired of the small-time crime and wants to move into more serious theft, such as robbery.

Marcus has aspirations to move back to his home state of New Mexico and live on a ranch with his uncle Billy who had promised to mail Marcus an airplane ticket. However, Lucy doesn't believe Billy was being serious.

Later that day, Marcus sells stolen merchandise to children during recess at the local elementary school while Chip serves as a lookout. There, Marcus meets 14-year-old Melena (Isidra Vega). Marcus invites Melena to his fifteenth birthday party, although she declines claiming her abusive father, Paco (Shawn Elliott), a tow truck driver, doesn't approve of her staying out late.

That night, Melena sneaks out of her apartment and meets Marcus in front of the bar where she gives him her ski mask as a gift before leaving. The next morning, Marcus receives the flight ticket to New Mexico in the mail and relays this information to Lucy. Mack (L.M. Kit Carson), a regular patron at the bar, reveals to Lucy he actually sent Marcus the ticket (under the guise of Billy) believing it would do Marcus good if he left the city.

Marcus, Benny, and Louis are subsequently introduced to Justin (Damian Corrente) and Shane (David Moscow), Chip's drug dealing friends from Miami. Marcus tells Melena about his plans to move to New Mexico and offers her to join him. Melena declines, knowing her father would never approve and not being able to afford the price of the ticket.

Afterwards, Marcus gets caught by a plainclothes officer named Kramer (Jose Zuniga) after he continues to sell stolen merchandise to the elementary school children and is hauled off to the police station. Marcus is interrogated by Kramer and another detective named Hank (Richard Petrocelli) who threaten to charge him with commercial burglary and inform him that his mother is in prison for murder, not smuggling undocumented aliens like she had told him (it is implied that Joanna killed his father.)

Marcus visits his mother and tells her about his meeting with Melena and the two of them planning to travel to New Mexico. Marcus then reveals that he knows she's in prison for killing his father. Joanna explains that his father was abusive towards her and Marcus and didn't know how to tell Marcus without him being upset. She also admits that she isn't up for parole until another four years, but promises Marcus they will go to New Mexico once she is out. Marcus is clearly done with her promises and leaves.

Later, Marcus returns to the clubhouse where he is surprised by Mack who is a wanted fugitive hiding out from the police. Marcus sympathetically gives his ticket to Mack in hopes that it will help him with his dilemma. The following day, Marcus tells Melena and friends his decision to remain in New York in order to straighten his life out.

At the clubhouse, the group reveals to Marcus they plan on breaking into a policeman's (Leslie Body) apartment and stealing his valuables. Marcus refuses to get involved after his run-in with the police. Paco drives to the clubhouse's location where Melena and Marcus congregate regularly. When Paco starts to get rough in disciplining Melena, Marcus intervenes before Paco shoves him into the lake and leaves with Melena. A vengeful Marcus rides his bicycle to Melena's apartment building and coldcocks Paco.

Marcus and Melena leave and camp out in a tent for the day. They plan to meet at Penn Station at noon the next day to catch the train after coming to a consensus that they will travel to New Mexico. In order to procure the amount of money it costs for the train fare, Marcus joins his friends in the robbery plot.

In the apartment, Harold finds and secretly steals the officer's gun before the group departs and returns to the clubhouse. Meanwhile, in his search for Melena, Paco sneaks inside the clubhouse and looks around. When he hears the group approaching, he hides in the closet.

Chip insults Harold's ability to play darts which results in Harold pulling out the stolen gun and shooting the target on the dartboard to show off. Unknowingly, Harold has shot and killed Paco (through the closet door the dart board was hanging on) whose corpse falls from the closet. Unable to lift the body, Marcus takes the keys to Paco's tow truck from his pocket, and uses the crane on the tow truck to lift Paco and release him into a shallow grave. Harold feels guilty and Marcus fears that he may go to the police. He warns Benny to not let Harold talk before telling him he changed his mind and he is resuming his plans to go to New Mexico, though promises he'll return in two weeks.

On the day Marcus and Melena are supposed to leave for New Mexico, Marcus visits the ruins of a building where he keeps a hidden stash of cash, only to find that it's missing along with the loot from the robbery. While Marcus is riding his bicycle downtown, he notices Chip showing off his brand new Diamondback bicycle to a crowd of onlookers. Marcus punches him in the face, accusing Chip of stealing the robbery loot and his stash of cash to pay for the bike. Justin and Shane accost Marcus before Justin reveals he stole Marcus's money. Justin, Shane, and Chip then mercilessly beat Marcus to the ground before leaving.

Immediately after, Marcus returns to the clubhouse and takes the gun before noticing an unmarked car and police cruiser pull up and it's revealed that Benny had reported Paco's murder to the police. Meanwhile, two police officers question Lucy on Marcus's whereabouts. Soon after, Chip is arrested by the police.

Running out of time and desperate for cash, Marcus enters a convenience store and holds the cashier, Duane, at gunpoint. Duane (Terry Alexander) hands over the cash and Marcus promises to pay him back. Marcus races to Penn Station where he reunites with Melena. The two board the train and Melena, not knowing her father is dead, remarks that her dad is going to kill her when he finds out she ran away. Marcus, knowing full well Paco won't be able to anything of the sort, doesn't respond.

The film revolves around the fictional court-martial of 1st Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Strode) of the 9th U.S. Cavalry in 1881. At the time, the United States Army maintained four colored regiments, including the 9th Cavalry. His defense is handled by Lt. Tom Cantrell (Hunter), who is also Rutledge's troop officer. The story is told through a series of flashbacks, expanding the testimony of witnesses as they describe the events following the murder of Rutledge's Commanding Officer, Major Custis Dabney, and the rape and murder of Dabney's daughter Lucy, for which Rutledge is the accused.

Circumstantial evidence suggests that the first sergeant raped and murdered the girl and then killed his commanding officer. Worse still, Rutledge deserts after the killings. Ultimately, he is tracked down and arrested by Lt. Cantrell. At one point, Rutledge escapes from captivity during an Indian raid, but later, he voluntarily returns to warn his fellow cavalrymen that they are about to face an ambush, thus saving the troop. He is then brought back in to face the charges and the prejudices of an all-white military court.

Eventually he is found not guilty of the rape and murder of the girl when a local white man, Chandler Hubble, breaks down under questioning and admits that he raped and murdered the girl.

The novel is written as a first-person narrative, the memoir of a mathematician named Peter Hogarth, who becomes involved in a Pentagon-directed project (code-named "His Master's Voice", or HMV for short) somewhere in the Nevada desert, where scientists are working to decode what seems to be a message from outer space (specifically, a neutrino signal from the Canis Minor constellation). Throughout the book Hogarth—or rather, Lem himself—exposes the reader to many debates merging cosmology and philosophy: from discussions of epistemology, systems theory, information theory and probability, through the idea of evolutionary biology and the possible form and motives of extraterrestrial intelligence, with digressions about ethics in military-sponsored research, to the limitations of human science constrained by the human nature subconsciously projecting itself into the analysis of any unknown subject. At some point one of the involved scientists (Rappaport), desperate for new ideas, even begins to read and discuss popular science-fiction stories, and Lem uses this opportunity to criticize the science fiction genre, as Rappaport soon becomes bored and disillusioned by monotonous plots and the unimaginative stories of pulp magazines.

ian edition cover. Before Hogarth's arrival, the scientists were able to use part of the data to synthesize a substance with unusual properties. Two variations had been created: a viscous liquid nicknamed "Frog Eggs", and a more solid version that looks like a slab of red meat called "Lord of the Flies" (named for its strange agitating effect on insects brought into proximity with it). There is some speculation that the signal may actually be a genome and that "Frog Eggs" and "Lord of the Flies" may be a form of protoplasm; possibly that of the alien creatures that presumably sent the signal. This theory, like all the project's theories about the signal, turns out to be unverifiable.

For a short time, Hogarth suspects that the message may have a military use, and is faced with an ethical dilemma about whether and how to pursue this angle. "Frog eggs" seems to enable a teleportation of an atomic blast at the speed of light to a remote location, which would make deterrence impossible. Hogarth and the discoverer of the effect decide to conduct further research in secret before notifying the military. Eventually, they conclude that there is no military use after all (which Hogarth sees as a proof of the Senders' far-sightedness), since the uncertainty of the blast location increases with distance. The two scientists face ostracism from their colleagues, some of whom consider their conduct unpatriotic.

Some of the scientists pursue a theory that the neutrino signal might have had the effect of increasing the likelihood that life would develop on the planet eons ago. They are forced to consider whether alien beings sent the signal for this very reason. In the end, they find no certain answers.

There is much speculation about the nature of whatever alien beings might have sent the signal. They must have been technologically superior, but no one can be sure whether they were virtuous or evil. Indeed, as the signal must have been sent long ago, no one can be sure whether they still exist.

The theories the scientists come up with all seem to make some progress toward deciphering the signal; however, as is stated in the few first pages of Hogarth's memoirs, for all their efforts, the scientists are left with few new, real discoveries. By the time the project is ended, they are no more sure than they were in the beginning about whether the signal was a message from intelligent beings that humanity failed to decipher, or a poorly understood natural phenomenon.

In the end, the many theories about the signal and the beings who might have sent it say more about the scientists (and humanity) than about the signal (and the beings who might have sent it). The comparison between the signal and a Rorschach test is made more than once.

Ding-on is an orphaned blacksmith working in Sharp Foundry, which is run by his master, a friend of his deceased father. The master's daughter, Ling, who narrates the movie, is romantically attracted to both Ding-on and his colleague, Iron Head. One day, Ding-on and Iron Head see a monk fending off a group of thugs, who later ambush and kill him in revenge. Iron Head is so furious that he identifies himself as someone from Sharp Foundry and taunts the thugs to fight him. The master is angry when he hears of Iron Head's reckless behaviour so he punishes him. Iron Head holds a grudge against Ding-on for telling their master about the incident. He becomes even more unhappy when their master announces his decision to make Ding-on his successor.

That night, Ding-on overhears a conversation between Ling and her grandmother, and learns that his father died while saving Ling's father from Flying Dragon, a notorious heavily-tattooed assassin. Ding-on desires to seek revenge so he takes his father's weapon, a broken sword (the titular ''Blade''), and bids his master farewell. Ling tries to catch up with him but runs into trouble with the thugs. Ding-on hears Ling's screams for help and returns to save her. He fights with the thugs but loses his right arm and falls off a cliff.

Ding-on is saved and nursed back to health by a peasant called Blackie. Seeing that he is now crippled, Ding-on abandons his quest for vengeance, buries his father's sword, and tries to lead a normal life with Blackie. At the same time, Ling and Iron Head venture out in search of Ding-on, whom they believe to be still alive. During this period of time, Ling gradually becomes more disillusioned with life and people, especially after she witnesses Iron Head taking advantage of a prostitute whom he saved earlier.

Meanwhile, Ding-on endures humiliation while working in a restaurant. One day, he sees Flying Dragon and feels very frustrated because he can no longer take revenge. One night, a gang of bandits burn down his house, tie him upside-down, and beat him mercilessly. Later, Blackie finds a martial arts manual hidden by her parents and passes it to Ding-on. Ding-on becomes excited and tries to learn the techniques in the book, but cannot afford a good weapon so he uses his father's broken sword. Owing to his handicap and the book's incompleteness, Ding-on's efforts turn out to be futile initially. However, when driven to rage by his frustration, he suddenly makes a breakthrough and develops a devastating spinning movement which allows him to compensate for his lack of an arm and his broken weapon.

Ding-on kills the bandits who burnt down his house and saves Ling from danger but does not reveal himself to her. At the same time, an evil man called Skeleton recruits Flying Dragon to help him destroy Sharp Foundry and kill everyone there. A battle breaks out between Flying Dragon and Sharp Foundry's blacksmiths. While his master is struggling to defend himself, Ding-on returns in the nick of time to save his master, and he kills Flying Dragon after a long fight. Skeleton and his men flee after seeing that Flying Dragon is dead. Ding-on then turns his back on Sharp Foundry and leaves with Blackie. In the final scene, an aged Ling imagines herself embracing Ding-on and returning to the happier times in the past.

In a quiet neighborhood outside of Oakland, California, the residents are being held hostage with terror when a serial killer armed with a crossbow begins to stalk and kill the residents from their rooftops.

''Spring Forward'' is the story of the burgeoning friendship between two very different men, Murphy and Paul, who work for the parks department in a quaint New England town. Paul is a short-tempered ex-convict recently released from prison for armed robbery, who is exploring his spiritual side hoping for atonement and a second chance. On his first day working in parks maintenance he is partnered with Murphy, a veteran groundskeeper, facing his advancing age and impending retirement. The day gets off to a rough start when Paul clashes with a condescending local business heir over a materials donation, loses his cool, announces he is quitting, and stalks off into the woods berating himself for always ruining everything. Murphy follows him, defuses Paul's outburst and convinces him to stay.

Against the backdrop of the changing seasons the relationship between the men strengthens and develops more as father and son, poignant in contrast to Murphy's relationship with his dying homosexual son, whose impending death causes Murphy to doubt his past as a father and a man. Working together through mundane days and personal crisis they share their lives, hopes, ambitions and regrets, as Paul learns to find stability and calm in his life and Murphy achieves acceptance and forgiveness for his mistakes.

The film ends with Paul presenting Murphy with a hamsa as a retirement gift and to signify the "helping hand" that Murphy has provided him through the past year.

In the backwoods southern town of Rockwood, a vampire and a werewolf in a run-down old truck come across Gil's All Night Diner, a 24-hour restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Nearly out of gas, they stop in at the diner only to discover it is the target of zombie attacks, hauntings, and occult activity.

The manager of the diner, Loretta, offers them a job helping her out around the diner, and maybe helping solve her zombie problem. They accept.

''Repentance'' is set in a small Georgian town. The film starts with the scene of a woman preparing cakes. A man in a chair is reading from a newspaper that the town's mayor, Varlam Aravidze (Avtandil Makharadze) has died. One day after the funeral the corpse of the mayor turns up in the garden of his son's house. The corpse is reburied, only to reappear again in the garden. A woman, Ketevan Barateli (Zeinab Botsvadze), is eventually arrested and accused of digging up the corpse. She defends herself and states that Varlam does not deserve to be buried as he was responsible for a Stalin-like regime of terror responsible for the disappearance of her parents and her friends. She is put on trial and gives her testimony, with the story of Varlam's regime being told in flashbacks.

During the trial, Varlam's son Abel (Avtandil Makharadze) denies any wrongdoings by his father and his lawyer tries to get Ketevan declared insane. Varlam's grandson Tornike (Merab Ninidze) is shocked by the revelations about the crimes of his grandfather. He ultimately commits suicide. Abel himself then throws Varlam's corpse off a cliff on the outskirts of the town.

At the end, the film returns to the scene of the woman preparing a cake. An old woman is asking her at the window whether this is the road that leads to the church. The woman replies that the road is Varlam Street and will not lead to the temple. The old woman replies: "What good is a road if it doesn't lead to a church?"

As the film begins, a former criminal and drug dealer named Lucky (Wesley Snipes) is released from prison. He tries to lead a respectable life, despite his troubled past. However, Lucky once or twice reflects on the wisdom of his grandfather who supposedly told him "sometimes without bad luck, it would seem you don't have any luck at all." Shortly after his release from prison, Lucky tries to get back on his feet but inexplicably ends up a victim of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, and loses his newly found life.

After Lucky returns to New York, Lucky is dealt another blow when the government withdraws funds for his yoga and samba dance classes which he uses to try to keep kids off the streets. This unfortunate event leads to Lucky enduring the bad influences of two old friends from his past life as a criminal, who lure Lucky to a strip club under the false pretense of his friend's birthday. When a drug deal with some dangerous mobsters goes bad, and Lucky is now on the run with a feisty Puerto Rican stripper from the strip club, Angela (Jacquelyn Quinones), and over $500,000 in American currency, which is wired with marking dye.

Later that night, there are short cuts of an unconventional and troubled couple, unexplained and also known to the police as the "Sawtooth Killers". Chang (James Liao), an egotistical and maniacal accomplice to his old-fashioned girlfriend Cass (Cybill Shepherd), the mother of a mentally challenged man named Eugene (Mike Messier). Motivated by Cass's son Eugene's unpleasant experiences with society's rejection of mentally challenged individuals, the couple brutally kidnaps, tortures, and presumably kills their abductees, recording their exploits on video, possibly for future viewing.

Angela and Lucky find themselves caught up in the path of violence, and Lucky ends up an unlikely hero by saving the life of a would be victim of the Sawtooth Killers. Lucky saves Captain Davis (Mario Van Peebles) from Cass's son Eugene, who is armed with a shovel. Lucky chooses to have a positive outlook on the events by using perspective gained from his grandfather, characterizes the events as being "the luckiest day in an unlucky man's life." Lucky and Angela go on to receive a $200,000 reward which had been offered by the police for information leading to the capture, arrest, and or prosecution of the Sawtooth Killers.

Undercover CIA agent Sonni Griffith (Wesley Snipes) travels alone to Romania to expose an arms dealer and stop the sale of a nuclear weapon. When the arms dealer is tipped off to Griffith's identity, he lands himself in prison. Griffith is quickly released by the CIA, only to be given a new mission: to escort a beautiful Russian woman named Nadia (Silvia Colloca) back to the United States.

Griffith soon learns that strong-willed Nadia is being hunted by the very arms dealer that he intended to destroy, but this evil dealer will stop at nothing to get the information out of Nadia that he needs: the location of the $30 million she has hidden that will buy him a nuclear bomb. As the leak within the CIA continues to expose the location and identity of Griffith and Nadia, they must fight the arms dealers to the death to save themselves and the world!

Book 1

After the events of ''Mutineers' Moon'', the evil mutineer Anu has been defeated by the warship ''Dahak'', aided by its new captain, Colin MacIntyre. As the highest-ranking officer of the Imperium present, MacIntyre had elevated himself to the rank of "Governor of Earth" in order to absolve the loyalist mutineers of their crimes; he then unified the worlds' governments under his authority (backed up by his advanced Imperial armaments and Dahak) and set Horus the task of preparing defenses against the Achuultani scouts, which have been methodically advancing on the Sol system, detected by self-destructing Imperial sensor arrays. This gave frantic defenders under Lieutenant Governor Horus and his assistant, Gerald Hatcher, barely two years to pacify the holdouts to the new world order (such as the Asian Alliance), to modernize the world economy, and to construct and power a planetary defense shield, as well as construct and train a space fleet and the fortresses on the ground which will support the fleet; and then of course to defeat both the scouts and the main Achuultani incursion. The primary holdout to participation in the planetary defense plan was the Asian Alliance, a group of all Asian nations except Japan and the Philippines. It was effectively controlled by a Marshal Tsien Tao-ling. who is convinced to join by the obvious military imbalance (the moon having disappeared, and several Middle Eastern nations forcibly disarmed by Imperium technology-equipped troops) and by the promise of considerable local autonomy and control of four seats on the nine-person council advising Horus. Regardless, the military programs soon get underway. To withstand the Siege (as the coming attack on Earth has come to be called) the Earth's defenses consists of front line spaceships, constructed by "orbital industrial units" left behind by Dahak (clanking replicators, in other words); a planetary shield powered by a core tap;"It was ''Dahak'' s core tap, a tremendous, immaterial funnel that reached deep into hyper space, connecting the ship to a dimension of vastly higher energy levels. It dragged that limitless power in, focused and refined it, and directed it into the megaton mass of his Enchanach Drive." Pages 42 to 43. and all backed up by numerous hypermissile launchers built into "Planetary Defense Centers" (sheared off and embedded with armaments mountains around the Earth).

In the meantime, Colin and his new wife, Jiltanith (daughter of Horus), take ''Dahak'' and depart for the nearest known Imperial system to seek military aid from the Imperium; little is expected to come of this quest, as Dahak had been attempting to contact the Imperium via his FTL "hypercom", but failing completely."The Imperium proper lay far beyond that, yet despite the distances and the threat sweeping steadily towards his [Colin's] homeworld, they'd had no choice but to come, for only the Imperium might offer the aid they desperately needed to save that homeworld from those oncoming starships....But ''Dahak'' had been unable to communicate with the Imperium for over fifty thousand years. What if there no longer ''was'' an Imperium?" From page 14 of the Baen Books 1st paperback edition.

The first system they arrive at, the Sheskar system, is devoid of life, its inhabited planet shattered to pieces in what apparently was a civil war using gravity warping implosive "gravitonic warheads". Even worse, the system had not been reclaimed by the Imperium as it should have (due to its strategically vital location). Reluctantly, they proceed to Defram, where they find merely two barren orbs. Their next visit the planet Keerah in the Kano system; they reason that Defram was simply a Fleet base, and so perhaps a civilian system would have more answers or life.

In Keerah, they are attacked by an automated quarantine orbital system; after disabling it, Colin and his crew discover that the dead planet had fallen victim to a horrific biological warfare agent designed to be effective against all forms of life (by rapidly mutating until a successfully lethal form is obtained), which spread throughout the entire Empire (the form of government having changed in the ensuing thousands of years) too quickly to be contained, thanks to widespread use of a teleportation (or "mat-trans" as it was known) device. Colin makes the fateful decision to go straight to the Bia system and the planet Birhat- the military and political centers of the Empire. This decision means that it would be impossible for them to return to Earth in time to help defeat the scouts.

At Birhat, they discover an enormous number of installations in the system, such as a shield which protects not merely the planet of Birhat, but the entire inner system. After successfully picking his way through a labyrinth of emergency programming protecting "Mother" (the master computer overseeing the Fleet and the Bia system), Colin resorts to ordering Mother to implement "Case Omega"- an order which, unbeknownst to him, appoints the senior surviving Fleet official and civil servant as Emperor. This unexpected elevation has the happy side effect of granting Colin control of the Imperial Guard Flotilla: 78 planetoids, each vastly more powerful than ''Dahak'' (but also vastly stupider). The crew of ''Dahak'' immediately set to work reactivating and repairing the planetoids so they can return to Earth.

Book 2

Book 2 begins with a different point of view; the subject is now a minor Achuultani tactical officer named Brashieel, attached to the scout forces about to drop out of hyperspace and destroy Earth. However, the Achuultani warships are extremely slow in hyperspace, and the Earth defenders use their several hours of advance notice to prepare an ambush in the outer system. The ambush, while successful (because of the element of surprise and the generally superior Imperial technology), nevertheless sets the tone for the rest of the Siege by being extremely bloody on both sides.

During the months that Colin's crew in Birhat labor to get the Imperial Guard up and running, the scouts duel the Earth forces, hurling asteroid after asteroid at the shield while whittling down the fortresses and ships, all in preparation for their final blow: hurling the entire moon of Iapetus down the gravity well of Sol at high speed, and aimed directly at Earth. Seven months after the first battle, the "Hoof" (as the Achuultani term their immense kinetic weapon) is about to impact Earth, piercing through the weakened defenders "like a bullet through butter". At the last moment, the Imperial Guard arrives and as they drop out of hyperspace, blasts the Achuultani escort and the moon into dust using gargantuan gravitonic warheads.

Unfortunately, all is not well. Dahak recovers from some wreckage computer records about the main Achuultani force: some 3 million vessels more powerful than the scouting vessels, intended to back up the various scout forces. Somewhat fortunately, this invincible force has divided up into at least two fleets, and so Colin develops a plan to exploit the Enchanach Drive's somewhat awkward side effect of accidentally causing stars to go nova (due to the gravitonic shear stress of drive activation too near a star). With the Imperial Guard, they lay an ambush for the first fleet, having intercepted its courier, and lure it into an otherwise unremarkable star system. There they briefly engage the Achuultani (to ensure they are sucked far enough into the system, past the hyperlimit that they cannot escape, and to gather some more military information); the opposing fleet's having stepped into Colin's "mousetrap", the Enchanach Drives of 8 planetoids simultaneously activate, inducing a supernova which obliterates Sorkar's forces.

The second trap does not go as well. Like in the first, the Guard ambushes the second force (this time laying a dense field of hypermines, which account for a quarter of the million Achuultani vessels), but some of Sorkar's couriers had escaped and warned Hothan's fleet of the nova trap, so that stratagem was unusable. Instead, Colin traps Hothan's forces in normal space (again, using the Enchanach Drive's side effect to exploit the hyperdrive's limitation of being unable to work in a sufficiently deep gravity well). With a good deal of luck and a well-timed planetoid assault on the flank, the Achuultani command structure disintegrates and they are routed.

Once again, Colin's forces are elated by their success and what they believe to be a crushing victory ending the Achuultani "Great Visit", and once again Dahak discovers ominous news in the wreckage of the Achuultani command ship: the final segment of 200,000 vessels much more capable than the previous ones, had been held in reserve, and would shortly attack Earth (they having deduced its location from the timing of Colin's attacks) if the Guard did not stop them. The odds are against their depleted, battered ships lacking fresh supplies of hypermines, but they have little choice. The battle goes poorly, and they win thanks only to a suicide plunge by ''Dahak'', in which Dahak hacks into and kills the computer truly in charge of the Great Visit. This is so effective because it had been previously discovered that the explanation for the various Achuultani anomalies (their lack of females, the oddly inconsistent state and stasis of their technology, their constant war making and hyper-xenophobia etc.) was that their civilization had been greatly distorted many millions of years ago, and they had entrusted the survival of their species to a computer roughly the equal of Dahak. That computer turned out to have the personality flaw of ambition, and deliberately perpetuated the state of war it needed to justify to its programming its continued tyrannical control. With the death of ''Dahak'' and BattleComp, the Achuultani fleet panics, flees, and is destroyed or captured.

As it turns out, Dahak had successfully copied himself to another planetoid, and so survived in essence. And a message from Earth, explaining that Isis Tudor had decoded enough of the Achuultani genetic structure for an eventual prospect of cloning a female Achuultani — the first free female for millions of years. Against this hopeful note and the prospect of a war of liberation to free the rest of the Achuultani from the control of the master computer, the novel ends.

The Drawer Boy replays the adventures of a young actor from a Toronto theatre group who visits the rural Ontario home of two elderly bachelor farmers to "research" farm life for a new play. In doing so, he demonstrates the way in which a collective creation appropriated the lives of its subjects and changed their own interpretation of it. The two farmers, Morgan and Angus, have achieved a precarious balance in their lives together. Morgan, a tough-minded, stubborn man, cares for Angus, who has had brain damage and lost his memory during the bombing of London in the Second World War. Angus is initially identified as "the drawer boy" because he used to design buildings and has the talents of an architect. Morgan calms and reassures Angus by retelling their story - of the two tall women whom they loved, and who came to live with them in Canada. The young actor, Miles, learns, however, that this story is a fiction and that the truth is much sadder. It would, in fact, destroy their friendship. In the process of telling their story as play, however, he reawakens Angus's memory. Art becomes life. Miles is in effect the "drawer boy," delineating and creating an alternative reality. As he tells Morgan, "We're here to get your history and give it back to you." The Drawer Boy is fundamentally about the power of storytelling in creating and interpreting reality and how it can transform lives. There is much more in the play than a history of Canadian drama.

The Drawer Boy premiered in Toronto at Theatre Passe Muraille in 1999 and was subsequently produced by Ed Mirvish Productions at the more opulent Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto and the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg in 2001. The 2001/02 revival was a collaboration between the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and has toured to the major regional theatres: Hamilton's Theatre Aquarius, Edmonton's Citadel Theatre, and the Vancouver Playhouse. It has won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, a Chalmers Award, and a Governor General's Award.

The Drawer Boy received its London premiere at Finborough Theatre on 19 June 2012, with John Bett, Neil McCaul and Simon Lee Phillips, directed by Eleanor Rhode. The revival was produced by London theatre company Snapdragon Productions.

The story is narrated by a young rich man, heir to a huge sum of money. He devotes his life to an organization called "We Live Again" which investigates the reincarnation. People have souls that pass on to other individuals and give them their memories, usually alongside, but sometimes in place of their own memories.

The story focuses on Mallory Gabus, a recently reincarnated woman, and her integration into the new world. She recalls and narrates her experiences and memories of Hitler's victory, which allowed Hitler to bring his desire for an "Aryan" world to fruition, and realizes all that went wrong. The Nazis had won World War II and purged their empire of all non-whites, then rewrote history so as to say that Dachau, a concentration camp, was instead a battle with Adolf Hitler as its hero.

After Hitler's victory, the Third Reich is solely Aryan, the Aryans have killed all non-Aryans in their new empire. They now use A.D. to refer to After Dachau, the turning point in their civilization, and "A.D.-A.D." to refer to our A.D.

Mallory was (re-)born in 1922 A.D.-A.D. as an Afro-American woman in New York.

The Nazi purges in the Third Reich have started to have a cultural effect on the United States, and soon Jews are being executed. Blacks are being "repatriated", which means that they are being placed into concentration camps. Mallory hides out with her lover in the New York City underground and makes a life until their hiding place is discovered by police. At that point, they commit suicide rather than being taken alive or executed.

Jason Tull, the protagonist, in an attempt to publicize the story and the atrocities the Aryans committed, contacts a newspaper and other news media. His investigation gets him sequestered in an unknown location until he can write three words upon a chalkboard: "No One Cares", and, as it turns out, no one does.

The narrator explains that he cares, and he doesn't care if others don't care, he is still going to pursue this for his own personal interest. He opens an exhibit displaying relics from the old world, including works by Jewish authors such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.

The narrator receives a gift from his "uncle" (the man who imprisoned him), and expresses his intent to publish the gift. He opens a shop where he displays pictures of Africans that had been saved in Mallory's hideout.

Finally, one night, someone throws a brick through the gallery's windows, prompting the narrator to conclude that somebody "does care". The last line reveals that the gift is The Diary of a Young Girl, written during World War II, the ''Diary of Anne Frank''.

The film starts with a group of kids taking a hayride in the country on Halloween. They pay the local farmer to take them to a secluded area of the forest. The kids arrive and begin drinking, telling the farmer to come back after dark to pick them up. As the party wears on the group separates to find their own little love nests.

Meanwhile, the farmer has stumbled across a large tree stump which he proceeds to remove with the help of his tractor. Under the stump is a large wooden box with an ancient seal telling not to break open the box. The farmer breaks the seal and opens the box. Inside is the Bill Heinzman "Flesheater" who proceeds to eat the farmer making him a zombie in the process. Both zombies head towards where the kids are.

Two of the kids who retreated to the barn for some alone time are killed by the flesheaters. As the flesh-eater is killing the kids, two of their friends walk in and see what's happening then they run outside to warn the group at the party. Inside the barn the kids who were attacked become zombies and head out of the barn for fresh victims back near the party and one of the girls is attacked in the woods by the zombies. It tears a chunk of shoulder away but the girl is saved by her boyfriend who hears her screams and tackles the flesh-eater.

The remaining kids retreat to the old "Spencers Farm" a dis-used farmhouse in the woods. They proceed to nail up the windows and doors. They manage to phone the police but the call is cut short when a zombie outside rips the phone line out.

Meanwhile, the two kids who escaped from the barn have caught up with the group (who refuse to open the doors in case of an attack) so the two kids hide in the basement and lock the door. Upstairs the girl bitten on the shoulder dies and returns as a zombie. Just as she gets up the zombies outside break in and the remaining group are slaughtered, each becoming a zombie and heading into the woods for more victims.

A police car then turns up at Spencer's farm responding to the cut-short phone call. The police officer is attacked by a group of zombies and left for dead. The kids in the basement open the door and see the body of the policeman. They take his gun and kill his half remaining zombie corpse and escape into the night.

Some of the zombies find their way to a residential street where they proceed to eat a local family inside their home turning them into zombies in the process. The two kids find a local stable where they try to warn the owner about the coming attack. He goes inside the house to find that his wife has become a zombie. More zombies appear and the man is cornered and eaten alive and the kids flee again.

They find a large barn where a Halloween party is being held. The kids try to warn the group about the undead but they laugh it off as Halloween nonsense. Soon the zombies arrive and slaughter the party-goers. The two kids who survived the basement find a hiding spot inside the framework of the barn.

Back in town, the police department are assembling a posse after hearing of the officer who was killed at Spencer's farm. As daylight approaches the posse have arrived at the woods. They find zombies emerging from the woods and proceed to kill the creatures. They proceed through the woodland killing zombies as they go. The posse arrive at the barn and find the party-goers are all zombies. The posse kill them as the zombie group come out of the barn. The two kids hiding in the barn hear the gunshots and think they are saved. They exit the barn and are shot on sight by a sniper (the same actor who shoots Ben in Night of the living dead).

The posse throws all the bodies inside the barn and barricade it shut. They set it on fire burning the remaining few zombies inside. The posse thinking they destroyed all the zombies head home. A few days later a police officer is checking out the remains of the barn when he is attacked by the original flesheater, who kills him and begins the outbreak over again.

In a flight simulator, an airliner experiences a sudden and complete loss of power, causing it to crash. The airline pilots protest to the examiner that such a scenario could never happen. He tells them, "It isn't a dream. It happened."( )

Two years earlier, on July 23, 1983, at Dorval Airport in Montreal, the ground crew of Canada World Airways struggles to convert gallons into liters and pounds into kilograms as they prepare to refuel a brand-new Boeing 767 bound for Edmonton. This is the first aircraft in the fleet to use the metric system and they make a terrible conversion error. Meanwhile, Beth Pearson (Mariette Hartley) drives her husband, Captain Robert Pearson (William Devane), to the airport, unusually anxious about hosting her in-laws later that day. Elsewhere in Montréal, First Officer Maurice Quintal (Scott Hylands) reluctantly agrees to cover for an injured colleague, leaving behind his terminally ill wife.

The two airmen feel uneasy about their 767 having an inoperative fuel gauge but are somewhat reassured to see the ground crew measuring the quantity of fuel in the tanks: 20,345 kg, or so they believe, more than enough to take them to Edmonton. Their Flight Management Computer will constantly indicate the quantity on board. After a delay, the passengers board flight 174, including Rick Dion (Winston Rekert), the airline's chief mechanic, as well as his wife and three-year-old boy.

After takeoff, Dion visits the pilots the flight deck. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by a series of beeps indicating a failure in one of the fuel pumps. After activating the cross-feeding valve between the tanks, the alarm stops. Later, another pump failure is signaled and the crew realizes that their problem is not with the fuel pumps, which are working. Quintal revisits the notepad used by the ground crew in Montréal and discovers they loaded 20,345 pounds (instead of kilograms) of fuel, less than half what they should have.

Pearson decides to divert to Winnipeg. The 767 is still far from that airport when an alarm suddenly sounds, indicating they are nearly out of fuel. It is followed by the failure of the two engines and the complete shutdown of the instruments. The aircraft becomes a giant glider and disappears from the radar screens of air traffic controllers, who cannot communicate with the pilots. The captain instructs the cabin crew to busy passengers with an emergency drill to keep them calm, but it becomes apparent to everyone how serious their situation is. Fortunately, a ram air turbine kicks in, restoring instruments, communications, and limited hydraulic power.

In another stroke of good fortune, Captain Pearson is a former glider pilot who has performed many deadstick landings. Quintal suddenly remembers a closer, unused airfield in Gimli and the crew decides to try to land there instead of attempting to reach Winnipeg. Pearson sideslips the plane to lose altitude. The crew briefly contemplates ditching in a lake before finally spotting the airfield. Pearson tells Quintal to lower the landing gear to create drag and further reduce their speed so they don't overshoot, but the nose gear fails to lock. Unknown to them, the airfield's abandoned runway is being used by a car rally, which they have to dodge. The nose gear collapses on landing, yet the pilots manage to stop their aircraft within a few meters of the end of the runway. As passengers evacuate, the pilots use extinguishers to fight a fire in the cockpit. Everyone survives.

Shūichi Kushimori (Kazunari Ninomiya) lives with this mother Yūko (Kumiko Akiyoshi) and younger stepsister Haruka (Anne Suzuki). One day, his estranged stepfather Ryūji Sone (Kansai Yamamoto) suddenly returns home and begins to freeload off his family. After Shūichi encounters what appeared to be Sone making sexual advances towards Haruka one night, he tries to get rid of Sone. However, Shūichi discovers that it is impossible to do so legally as Haruka is his daughter, and Yūko asks him to endure it until Haruka turns fifteen and can choose Yūko as her legal guardian.

After thorough research and experimentation on electrocution, he carries out his plan and kills his stepfather. The police declares that Sone had died of natural causes, especially as Shūichi was supposed to be in school at that time. His alibi checks out because his classmates saw him leave with a half-finished painting and return with it finished at the end of class. Later, at home, Haruka reveals to him that Sone had been dying of cancer.

Shūichi continues his everyday life and begins seeing classmate Noriko Fukuhara (Aya Matsuura). One day, Takuya Ishioka (Yosuke Kawamura), a classmate who skips school and causes trouble, goes to see him at the convenience store where he works. Ishioka, who figures out what Shūichi did and has the bag of the things he used to kill Sone, threatens to tell the police if Shūichi does not get him 300,000 yen (approx. $3,000 USD) in a week.

Although Shūichi regrets his actions, in order to keep Ishioka quiet, he fools Ishioka into staging a robbery at his workplace with a fake knife. Shūichi stabs him, making it look like an act of self-defense on the security cameras. However, police officer Masashi Kano (Baijaku Nakamura), who also met Shūichi at the time of Sone's murder, finds flaws in Shūichi's claims and actions.

While seeing Noriko home at the train station, Shūichi admits to her that he is a murderer. The police manages to uncover the truth of what really happened to Sone and Ishioka, but Kano lets Shūichi go home on the basis that he promises to willingly turn himself in the next day. After having breakfast as usual with his family, he visits Noriko at school before class starts. She confirms that she lied for him and will continue to lie for him in court. Shūichi leaves her a tape recording before he leaves.

Then he commits suicide, steering his bike into the direct path of a bus.

In his tape recording, Shūichi talks about his favorite things. Noriko stops coloring her drawing of a future Shūichi blue to listen.

On the planet Krypton, criminals General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) are sentenced to eternal banishment inside the Phantom Zone by Jor-El (Marlon Brando) for insurrection and murder, amongst other crimes. Thirty years later, Superman (Christopher Reeve) diverts a missile into outer space, unknowingly freeing them from the Phantom Zone.

At the ''Daily Planet'' in Metropolis, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) suspects that Clark Kent is Superman. She tests Clark by jumping out of a window, but Clark uses his powers to save her while appearing to have done nothing. Meanwhile, with the help of Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine), Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) escapes from prison, abandoning Otis (Ned Beatty). They find and infiltrate the Fortress of Solitude, learning of the impending doom brought by General Zod. Lex resolves to meet Zod, and begins tracking him. On the Moon, Zod, Ursa, and Non discover that they have superpowers due to Earth's yellow sun, and ruthlessly kill a group of astronauts.

Perry White (Jackie Cooper) has Clark and Lois pose as newlyweds to investigate a honeymoon suite scam at Niagara Falls. Superman's appearance and rescue of a small boy at the Falls renews Lois' suspicions, and she tricks Clark with a gun loaded with blanks into admitting that he is Superman. He takes Lois Lane to the Fortress of Solitude, where the two spend the night together. Meanwhile, Zod, Ursa and Non arrive on Earth and conquer a small town in Idaho. After learning that the U.S. military takes orders from the President of the United States, the Kryptonians fly to Washington D.C. and invade the White House.

Superman, unaware of Zod's release from the Phantom Zone and his subsequent rampage, decides to transform himself into a human and remove his super-powers by exposing himself to red Kryptonian sunlight in a crystal chamber. On their way back to Metropolis, Lois and Clark stop at a diner, where Clark gets beaten up by an obnoxious trucker and learns of Zod's conquest of the world. Realizing that humanity is helpless, Clark returns to the Fortress to reverse the transformation. Having anticipated this decision, Jor-El's artificial intelligence reveals it has been programmed to deal with this situation by sacrificing the remaining Kryptonian energy it needs to operate. To restore Clark's superpowers, it must be joined with him, fulfilling the Kryptonian prophecy concerning "the father becoming the son", resulting in the "death" of Jor-El and rendering the Fortress of Solitude inoperable.

Lex arrives at the White House. In exchange for Australia, he informs Zod that Superman is the son of Jor-El, and that he has the ability to find him. He takes the three Kryptonians to Metropolis to kidnap Lois as bait for Superman. Superman arrives and a fight ensues in and over Metropolis. After saving a bus full of civilians, Superman realizes he cannot win and flies to his Fortress, with Zod, Ursa, and Non in pursuit, bringing Lois and Lex with them. At the Fortress, Luthor shows the chamber that stripped Superman of his powers to Zod, who forces Superman to again undergo the transformation process. Superman, feigning defeat, reveals by crushing Zod's hand, that he has altered the process to expose everyone outside the chamber, removing the Kryptonian criminals' powers, while protecting himself. Zod, Ursa and Non are quickly dispatched. After destroying the Fortress of Solitude with his heat vision, Superman returns Lois to her apartment, where she wishes him a tearful goodbye, realizing she can never be with him. To undo everything, Superman spins the Earth in reverse, back in time, restoring the past few days and placing Zod, Ursa and Non back into the Phantom Zone. Clark returns to work the following day as Lois and Perry experience a slight case of déjà vu. Clark revisits the diner with the obnoxious trucker to teach him a lesson in humility.

Alain Getty is a Home Automation Engineer who accepts a job in the south of France to work on a small camera drone in a technology company owned by Richard Pollock, and moves to a suburb of Toulouse with his wife Bénédicte.

After three months, Richard invites himself and his wife Alice to dinner at Alain's house. They arrive late and create a scene with their marital problems; Alice is very rude to Bénédicte. Alain discovers a rodent lodged in the S-bend of the kitchen sink, which recovers after Alain retrieves it. A veterinarian identifies it as a lemming, a Scandinavian animal that does not live in France in the wild.

The next evening Alice visits Alain, working late at his office. She says that Richard once tried to kill her and that the only reason she is still with him is to see him die. She attempts to seduce Alain, who resists her advances, but doesn't tell Bénédicte about the incident. Alice visits Bénédicte alone, and alludes to having had sex with Alain, before saying she feels tired. Bénédicte shows her the guest bedroom, where she creates a mess and eventually shoots herself. Bénédicte feels an urge to spend the night in the guestroom where Alice committed suicide.

Despite Alice's death, Richard and Alain go on a business trip to Biarritz the next day. During the drive, Alain asks Richard if he had really tried to kill Alice. In response, Richard asks Alain if he and Alice had sex, which Alain denies. That evening, Alain calls Bénédicte, who initially doesn't answer, then abuses him. Concerned, Alain decides to drive home immediately, although it is late and he is tired. He finds Bénédicte sleeping and is unable to wake her. He hears noises coming from the kitchen, discovers it is full of lemmings and faints. Alain wakes up in a hospital; he crashed after falling asleep at the wheel, and the previous night's events were apparently a dream.

Upon Alain's release from the hospital, he and Bénédicte visit Richard's lakeside holiday chalet. Bénédicte continues to behave coldly. She asks why Alain hadn't told her about Alice's attempt to seduce him, using the exact words Alice used that night and asks Alain to call her "Alice". They have sex and Alain falls asleep. When he wakes, Bénédicte and their car are gone. Alain hitches a ride home and discovers that Bénédicte started an affair with Richard while he was in hospital and is about to move into his house. Alain uses his drone to observe Richard's house, and finds Bénédicte as expected. As Richard and Bénédicte are about to have sex, the camera fails. It appears that Alice has taken control of Bénédicte and resumed her life with Richard inside Bénédicte's body. Meanwhile, the vet returns the lemming to Alain's house. The lemming bites Alain and disappears in the house.

The next day, Richard confronts Alain at work with pieces of the drone he found in the garden. That evening, "Alice-Bénédicte" visits Alain to offer him a deal: If he kills Richard, he would get Bénédicte back. She gives Alain the key to Richard's house and leaves. That night Alain goes to Richard's house. He finds Richard and "Alice-Bénédicte" asleep in the bedroom, and smothers Richard with a pillow while "Alice-Bénédicte" watches. Alain carries Richard's body to the kitchen, where he operates the coffee-machine and the gas stove. "Alice-Bénédicte" follows him to the car in a trance-like state. Back at their house, "Alice-Bénédicte" goes straight to bed. When she wakes up, she is Bénédicte again—she says she dreamt of Alice, but doesn't remember any of the recent events.

The next day, the couple are in their garden when they receive news of Richard's apparent suicide by causing a gas explosion in his house. Bénédicte innocently asks Alain if he believes Richard committed suicide because of Alice's death. She then discovers the dead lemming and throws it away. The mystery of its origin is resolved by Alain in a voice over: Their neighbours' son had brought the animal from a family holiday to Finland; his upset father then flushed it down the toilet. Finally, Alain mentions that Bénédicte is pregnant.

Engineer Sam Merrit has been sent to the struggling colony planet Hestia to build a dam. Since the colony is placed in a large river valley and plagued by seasonal floods, the colonists believe that a dam is essential to enable them to escape the squalid conditions that have persisted there since the founding of the colony over a hundred years ago.

Upon arrival, Merrit finds that the reason the colony is confined to the valley and not making use of flood-safe lands is the presence of cat-like alien natives who attack anyone venturing outside the valley - but the dam will destroy the habitat of many of these natives. Pressured by the colonists to hurry the construction more than he considers safe, Merrit encounters and befriends a native woman, prompting some of the colonists to become hostile towards him as well. Merrit becomes increasingly convinced that ending the conflict with the natives would help the colony more than the dam.

Three men - Dr. Ken Tashiro, Dr. Jules Masson, and journalist Perry Lawton - are trapped in a bathysphere due to seismic activity. They are rescued by the crew of the supersubmarine ''Alpha'', captained by Craig McKenzie, who they learn is over 200 years old (and that the ''Alpha'' was launched in the early 19th century). McKenzie takes them to Latitude Zero to heal Dr. Masson's injuries. Along the way, they are attacked by a rival supersubmarine, the ''Black Shark'', captained by Kuroi, who works for a rival of McKenzie's, Dr. Malic. Using super-technology, McKenzie gives the ''Black Shark'' the slip.

The crew of the ''Alpha'' soon return to Latitude Zero, a super-advanced utopia hidden fifteen miles below sea level at the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line, populated by people from all over the world reported missing in accidents at sea. It has existed since the 19th century, as none of its inhabitants age or die, and greed and political divisions plaguing the surface world are unknown here. It also surreptitiously assists mankind's technological and cultural advancement. Malic, however, wishes to destroy Latitude Zero using superweapons and artificially grafted monstrosities like giant rats and anthropomorphic bats. He kidnaps a Japanese physicist allied with McKenzie, Dr. Okada, and his daughter Tsuruko, and forces Okada to assist him in his schemes. Moreover, after a cruel experiment grafting the wings of an eagle to a lion, he removes Kuroi's brain and places it in the creature as punishment for her failures.

Upon receiving an emergency signal from Okada, McKenzie organizes a rescue expedition. Tashiro, Masson and Lawton, Latitude Zero physician Dr. Anne Barton, and Kōbo volunteer to help. Equipped with James Bond-style devices and rendered resistant to physical harm by a special bath, they infiltrate Malic's island base, Blood Rock, fight their way to the enemy control center, and rescue the Okadas. As the team escapes, Malic enters the'' Black Shark'' and fires an onboard laser at them, but Kuroi turns against Malic and attacks the laser. The weapon collapses the island's cliffs onto the submarine, destroying it and killing everyone aboard.

Of all the visitors to Latitude Zero, only Lawton wishes to return home. He is picked up by a US Navy vessel and discovers that all his knowledge of Latitude Zero's existence has disappeared. Just as he is about to resign himself to the idea that his adventure never occurred, the ship receives a message stating that a cache of diamonds has been deposited in his name in a safe deposit box in New York City, and the ship is ordered to change course to Latitude Zero.

As Christmas season approaches, Ian is invited by his father, Richie, to join him for a skiing holiday in Park City, Utah. Ian persuades several of his friends to come along. There is Jon, who brings along his German girlfriend, Carla, but has competition for her from a German ski instructor, Hans. Another friend, David, is gay and wants to lose his virginity. Keaton discovers his sister Jane is pregnant and has no plans to tell the man who might be the father. Keaton also has issues with his friend, Lisa, who wants their relationship to become romantic.

A company of men meet for a hunt lasting several days at Castle Vogelöd, being hosted by Lord von Vogelschrey. Because of the rain they spend their time inside. An uninvited guest shows up: Count Johann Oetsch. He's suspected of having shot his brother Peter a few years ago. This rumour gets nourished by a retired Judge of the District Court. The widow of the murder victim also arrives, along with her new husband, Baron Safferstätt. Another guest is announced: Father Faramund, a friend of the deceased husband.

In the following days, Count Oetsch and the Baroness accuse one another of the murder. Flashbacks show that the Baroness' marriage wasn't harmonious. Her first husband became obsessed by spiritualism. She wished for something evil to happen to him, and their guest Baron Safferstätt shot him. She married the Baron, but they felt empty.

Father Faramund takes his false beard and his wig off, revealing himself as Count Oetsch, who now can justify his innocence. Baron Safferstätt shoots himself. The true Father Faramund comes to the castle.

In ''I, Lucifer'', God presents the devil with a chance of redemption by living a somewhat sinless life in a human body. Lucifer, not wanting redemption, takes God’s offer for a trial but instead takes it as a month's holiday. This story takes place in London and Lucifer lives in the body of Declan Gunn (an anagram of "Glen Duncan", the author's name), formerly a struggling writer who is suicidal. While in Declan’s body, Lucifer takes his body for granted and abuses drugs, alcohol, and sex. Not only does Lucifer still live a devilish life, but also he starts to realize what being a human is really like. He realizes there is so much going on in their lives and so much temptation, and people can’t simply do whatever they please. As Lucifer’s trial is coming to an end, he receives a visit from the angel Raphael, who attempts to help Lucifer head in the right direction. Raphael tells him the world is going to end so there’s no choice but to gain redemption from rebelling against God and be accepted back into heaven. Lucifer makes his decision. The whole story is permeated by the main character's versions of biblical episodes and his disparaging opinions about God and "Jimmeny" (Jesus).

The film follows a lonesome desperado known only as "Gold Bullet" as he arrives in a small western town 'Last Valley' populated by thugs, rogues, gunslingers and businessmen. "Gold Bullet" is in town for one reason only, to collect a debt owed to him by a former employer Henry Wynn. Will Wynn give up the money or will it all end in bloodshed?

In the summer of 1967, Marshall Stouffer is chased in Fort Smith, Arkansas, by his two older brothers, Mark and Marty; the brothers love using Marshall to film him in stunts, which he dislikes. Occasionally, Marty and Mark will show footage of their antics in their garage to all their friends. Marshall repeatedly and secretly gets even with his brothers by pulling revenge pranks of his own, like cleaning the toilet with his brothers' toothbrushes and filling their canteens with downstream river water into which they had been urinating.

Mark and Marty have a dream of filming dangerous animals around the country, and the dream starts when they find a rare, special camera in a shop where they have their films developed. Despite their father Marty Sr.'s insistence that they cannot afford the camera, he relents after their mother, Agnes, says she will give them her "vacation" money that she has been saving for several years. Marty and Mark purchase the camera & begin planning their trip. Their father is against this idea.

The three brothers start camping. First, they miss a shot at catching an eagle, then they go to film some alligators, and start by seeing a man who was attacked by an alligator. As they go in a swamp on a boat, Mark throws some bait, but it lands in the trees. Trying to retrieve it, his clothing gets stuck in a branch underwater and he starts to drown. Marshall and Marty drive the boat and try to save him, but it crashes into another branch, which sends Marshall flying into the water. Marshall gets a knife from Marty and cuts Mark loose, but Marshall is now dealing with a bigger problem: he and the alligator are face to face. However, Marshall is able to get back on the boat in time. When they get back to the hut, the alligator man (Strango) tells them about how back when he served in the Korean War, he befriended a fellow soldier named Phil. Strango and Phil would exchange stories about their wilderness adventures. Strango would talk about hunting alligators and Phil would tell tall tales about bears. This rouses Marty's attention and he asks about it. Strango states that Phil was talking about a cave full of hundreds of bears somewhere "out west."

The boys drive northwest until they reach Devil's Playground in Colorado, "the last home of the wild American wolf." Devil's Playground is located on government protected land. They catch footage of a wolf creeping up on a doe. Then, as the wolf is about to ambush the doe, there is a series of explosions. The brothers look up and see two F-4 Phantoms flying overhead. The pilots see the brothers and turn around, firing missiles at them, eventually hitting a giant boulder knocking the three down. As they get up, a herd of wild horses comes thundering towards them. They get in the truck just in time to film it. When the horses pass, Marshall sees an owl that looks a lot like his owl Leona. The three follow it and discover a cave. On the wall of the cave is an ancient Indian drawing of a cave filled with bear-shaped figures. Marty and Mark draw it on Marshall's chest and show it to an old Native American woman. The woman tells them that it is located near Arapaho Peak in Montana.

After a strange man saves Marshall after going down the stream, he too tells the brothers about the cave and where it is. During the journey, they meet a woman whose husband was killed by bears. When returning to their van, they discovered they had been robbed, but they still got the film. Mark breaks his leg after getting into a fight with Marty. Despite his injury, they continue seeking the bear cave. Upon discovering it, they begin filming while the bears are asleep, but the bears wake after some bat guano lands on one of the photography lamps. Luckily, the brothers know a song that puts the bears to sleep, allowing the brothers to escape with the camera. Upon returning home, Marshall learns his father never flew the plane and things start going downhill when the brothers' father gets injured and is in the hospital, causing the boys and their mother to do the work on their own.

The next day, Marshall flies the plane, but Leon jumps in and helps. After flying it, his father ends up being impressed with him. Later, they display their film at the school gym, and everyone claps, but when their adversarial affiliate DC makes a rude comment, their dad begins to applaud, having the crowd cheer and clap. DC, who had always been a "devil's advocate" from the beginning, becomes the only one who wants his money back, which he gets from Marty Sr., while everyone else compliments all of the brothers. Marshall and his father smile at each other.

Henry Harriston is a psychoanalyst whose patients are driving him crazy by constantly leaving him messages during his off hours. On a whim he places an ad offering up his apartment for a housing swap. Béatrice Saulnier (Juliette Binoche) a Parisian dancer responds to his ad and without meeting the two switch apartments. Béatrice is impressed with Henry's high-tech apartment which is both beautiful and spacious. Henry meanwhile is horrified when he arrives in Béatrice's apartment and finds it filthy and messy.

Meanwhile, Henry's patients, who Henry sees at home, begin coming to his apartment seeking therapy. Béatrice begins listening to their stories, and the patients accept her as Henry's temporary replacement.

At Béatrice's apartment Henry discovers a cache of love-letters written to Béatrice by various men. Béatrice's lovers also begin showing up in her apartment and talking to Henry about their love for her. When they begin calling the apartment telling Henry how helpful he was and how they want to talk to him again he turns tail and returns to New York.

Originally intending to simply pick up his mail, Henry notices that his patients keep coming in and out of his apartment and, when he tries to enter his apartment, is pushed out by Béatrice's friend who is posing as her receptionist. Believing that Béatrice is intentionally running a scam, he goes to confront her, posing as a fake patient, John. Instead of confronting her however, he keeps up the ruse of being a patient, but is unable to talk and the session consists of Béatrice and Henry saying "Yes" back and forth at one another. Despite this, the two find themselves attracted to one another and the session ends with Béatrice suggesting that Henry, as John, come back. Henry meanwhile is convinced that Béatrice really does mean well and decides to keep up the ruse and continue seeing her.

After a particular session in which Henry talks about his distant relationship with his mother, both Henry and Béatrice begin to think they've fallen in love with one another. Henry refuses to say anything, feeling too cowardly, while Béatrice's friend tells her she cannot be involved in a relationship with a patient. Béatrice and Henry become close and continue to feel strongly towards one another. During one of their sessions the light turns off and both secretly whisper love confessions in the dark, but neither hears what the other is saying. Henry's friend urges him to run to Béatrice or write her a letter but as these are all things that Béatrice's previous lovers have done that have failed, Henry refuses. He decides that the only way the situation will be resolved is if Béatrice confesses her love to him. Instead she calls him late at night to tell him their sessions must come to an end as she is returning to Paris. Henry tells Béatrice he loves her, but she hangs up before she hears what he has said.

Henry rushes to the airport hoping to get a last minute flight to Paris. Unfortunately, the plane is overbooked. Henry decides to wait on standby. He is able to get the last ticket as one passenger has not shown up, however that ticket belonged to Béatrice, so while Henry flies to Paris, searching the plane, looking for Béatrice, Béatrice stays behind.

Eventually arriving home, Béatrice realizes she cannot go to her apart as Henry is still in her apartment and goes to stay with her neighbour. On her neighbour's terrace she sees her plants which have flourished in her absence. She strikes up a conversation with Henry, who she cannot see through the plants. He disguises his voice so she will not recognize him. Talking to Henry through the plants Béatrice confesses that she came early because she had fallen in love with one of Henry's patients, John.

Realizing that Henry and John are one and the same person, Béatrice climbs over the terrace back into her apartment and kisses Henry, telling him she loves him.

Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer, half-dreaming, fitfully remembers events leading up to the moment he is shot with an ARM punchgun, a weapon best described as a large-caliber handgun. The recent events, and his memories leading up to them, keep replaying in his head, and Shaeffer realizes that he must be inside Carlos Wu's special autodoc, and that he must be terribly damaged.

When he finally awakens, Shaeffer learns he has been in the autodoc for four months and eleven days. He crawls out of the autodoc, feeling unbalanced, and finds himself on the same deserted island on which they had all landed, though he is alone. Moving to the center of the island, which is a shallow cone, he finds the corpse of a tall, headless man in the depression. It is not Carlos, Sharrol Janss, or Feather Filip. Shaeffer takes the boots, pants, and jacket, the latter torn front and back by a large hole. He finds a knife, a ration brick, some sunblock, and tannin pills in the pockets of the jacket. He barely manages to climb out of the cone’s depression then heads back to the autodoc to fix his ruined skin and feet; the yellow sun of Fafnir has ravaged his albino skin and the coral has cut his feet.

After falling asleep, Shaeffer dreams of the events leading up to him reawakening in the autodoc the first time. He and Sharrol had gone to a party held at Carlos’s home in the Great Barrier Reef. There they met Feather Filip. The party was to feature small dinner dishes and recreational sex. Once there, Carlos tells them that Feather is an ARM, part of the United Nations police. After a few hours of eating and sex, Feather activates a shield to keep them from being spied upon and gets to work, knowing that anyone who’d been watching would expect that Feather had something too kinky in mind to share over surveillance tapes. Carlos worries that the ARM will care what they’re saying, but Feather says they will dismiss it as “Feather coming down after a long week.”

Carlos and Feather intend to leave Earth for good. They want to go as a group, four adults and two children, to match the profile of a family on Fafnir that has fallen on hard times. They will provide the family, the Graynors, with transportation to Wunderland and funding once they are there, and under their names Carlos, Feather, Shaeffer, Sharrol and the kids Tanya and Louis will continue on to Home as Shashters (residents of Fafnir's one continent, Shasht). Sharrol is annoyed as she and Carlos had talked this over extensively, years before. Sharrol has Flatland Phobia, she cannot leave Earth, which Carlos knows. Their plan to work around that is that Sharrol, Tanya and Louis will travel in cold sleep to Fafnir then again to Home. Both Carlos and Feather have their reasons for going; Carlos is tired of the ARM supervising his every move, and Feather is about to retire and knows she will never be let off-planet and the United Nations will never approve a “schiz” (a paranoid schizophrenic) having children. Feather also tells Shaeffer the UN will never let him off Earth again as he knows too much about the Core explosion, the puppeteers and Kdatlyno, and Julian Forward’s work. Carlos told Feather he wanted to offer them the chance to come along, as they need a pilot, and Shaeffer can fill that need. They talk it over until Shaeffer and Sharrol are convinced.

After landing on Mars in the hyperdrive ship "Boy George", Shaeffer and Feather leave to retrieve the ship they will use to land on Fafnir. It is a stealth lander, used during the Fourth Man-Kzin War, and the ARM thinks it’s going to the Smithsonian Luna to be displayed as the ship that Sinbad Jabar landed on Kzinhome with to invade and destroy the Patriarch’s harem. Shaeffer reads up on life and lifestyles on Fafnir; it has a 22-hour day, and the locals move at their own pace. Shaeffer, Feather, and Carlos move Carlos’ massive autodoc into the lander, put Sharrol into the intensive care cavity to sleep throughout the trip, put Tanya and Louis in the cold sleep box together, then leave in the ''Boy George'' for the three-week trip to Fafnir. Shaeffer remembered it was an uncomfortable trip; Feather kept giving him strange looks, so he avoided her until the night before they reached Fafnir, when she turned up between his sleeping plates. They were both aroused, but the next day she was all business as they exited ''Boy George'' behind Fafnir’s moon in the lander while the ship traveled on alone, passing too close to an ARM base on an asteroid that Feather was not supposed to know about, but did, then changed course hastily and left in the direction of another ex-Kzinti world, Hrooshpithtcha, to throw off their trail.

In the lander, Shaeffer found a small island with no one around and used the lower jets to burn out the lamplighter nest in it, then sank the lander into the melting center. In the morning, when dawn gave them enough light, they inflated the boat, then Feather and Carlos used the gravity lift to put the freezebox with Tanya and Louis in it into it. Feather brought the lift to the autodoc and they moved it toward the boat as Feather called him. Turning toward her is the last thing Shaeffer remembers. Now, four months later, Shaeffer realizes that Feather did not just want to leave Earth, she wanted Carlos as well. But Carlos wanted Sharrol and his children, and Sharrol would not leave earth without Shaeffer. After they arrived, Carlos knew he was no longer useful to Feather. She shot Shaeffer to prove that she could and would take life, if necessary. But Shaeffer remembered seeing Carlos leaping into the boat just after he was shot.

Shaeffer hides the autodoc using the gravity lift to move it into the sea at low tide. The only time he would not be able to use it is during high tide. For the next week, Shaeffer lives at sea, scooping up sunbunnies and finding clutches of eggs. Finally, on the eighth night, he sees lights near the horizon. Using mag-specs, Shaeffer sees that it is a boat, but is not moving. Sending up flares, Shaeffer begins swimming toward the boat. He doesn't want anyone to know that's where he and Carlos' autodoc had been hidden.

The owners of the boat are siblings Wilhelmin and Toranaga, their boat is called the ''Gullfish''. They had both been recently separated from their mates. They replaced his torn jacket with a new one from a locker on their boat, after he cleans out his pockets. Shaeffer presented himself as Persial January Herbert, an identity he assumed as part of setting up his accounts on Fafnir and Home using money given to him by his oldest friend on Earth, Elephant. Shaeffer tells Wil and Tor a story of having lost his wife, Milcenta, in a boating accident, then being rescued and trying to find her but ultimately becoming depressed and drinking. When a torpedo ray hits his boat, Persial gives up and starts swimming. He then decides she might still be alive under a different name. Searching the records of Fafnir for either Sharrol or Feather, he finds Sharrol alive and safe under the name Milcenta, but not Feather. The tradition on Fafnir when rescued is to give your rescuers a life gift, a present expressing your value as perceived by yourself.

Twelve days after being picked up, they arrive at Booty Island. At the hotel, Shaeffer uses the styler and his rooms caller to check for Sharrol after establishing his identity as Martin Wallace Graynor. It found that Sharrol had been using autodocs, but had never made her way to Shasht, to find Carlos, Tanya, or Louis. Shaeffer thinks she may be grieving over losing him. Using a transfer booth to travel to Shasht, Shaeffer visits Outbound Enterprises, the iceliner company they were using to travel to Home. He explains that he is four months late because he’d been shipwrecked. His husband, John Graynor (Carlos) and their children Tween and Nathan (Tanya and Louis, respectively) had gone on to Home, but neither Milcenta nor Adelaide (Feather) had shown up either. However, John had left a message for Adelaide. Shaeffer persuades the clerk to read it then show it to him, so that he could know whether Milcenta was dead or not.

Shaeffer alters a transfer booth card to let him go on a random walk, as users flash from booth to booth in a local area every few seconds. There is a chance he’ll come across Feather rather than Sharrol, but he decides to risk it. He believes Sharrol has likely taken a job somewhere in Pacifica, since she has not gone on to Home or Shasht.

At Solarico Omni, he finds Sharrol. At first she is terrified of him and points Feather’s punchgun at him, which she kept. Keeping himself between her and a Kzin officer, Shaeffer tries to calm her fears. She recounts waking up on Fafnir, with everything feeling wrong, the light, the gravity, and Earth so far away. Then a booming sound and Shaeffer falling to the ground as Feather pointed her weapon at him. Carlos had jumped into the boat and roared away, while Feather screamed at him, Shaeffer looking dead to her. Sharrol jumped on Feather’s back and cut her throat. Feather was a trained ARM but she never took Sharrol seriously, which proved to be her last mistake. The tall, headless man on the beach was Shaeffer's corpse: He couldn't fit in the autodoc as it was designed for smaller humans.. So Sharrol could only put his head in there and hope for the best.

Shaeffer and Sharrol tape messages for their benefactors, Wil and Tor in Shaeffer’s case, and the crew of ''Hand of Allah'' in Sharrol’s. They present them with life gifts: Shaeffer gives Wil and Tor silverware service for a dozen, while Sharrol gives the crew of ''Hand of Allah'' red meat and vegetables. Wil and Tor have undoubtedly turned in the torn jacket to Fafnir police but they will never know if he was a murderer, as Shaeffer had presented a plausible reason for the tears in his jacket, and there was just no evidence otherwise. They then tape a message for Carlos as John Graynor with Ms. Machti, the Outbound Enterprises desk clerk, in mind as well, letting him know that Milcenta was safe and hinting that Adelaide was 'out of the picture'. Sharrol does not want to travel again anytime soon so they plan to stay on Fafnir for a while; being underwater is second nature for Sharrol, and similar to being underground for Shaeffer, if he doesn't look out a window.

Mikami, Kanji, and Satomi have been friends since they were children, having grown up in the same small town in Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. Now, all three are in their early 20s and have made their way to Tokyo for different reasons. Kanji is last to arrive, having gotten a new job in Heart Sports' sales department and transferring to the Tokyo office. At work, he meets a vivacious new colleague, Rika, as well as being reunited with his best friends from home — Mikami and Satomi. Mikami is Kanji's best male friend and Satomi is their platonic female friend whom both have had a crush on since high school. The situation becomes more complicated as Kanji sees Mikami forcibly kissing Satomi, which upsets Kanji deeply. But he heals his broken heart by developing strong feelings for Rika, who is energetic, funny, encouraging and caring. However, their relationship is a bit unstable because Kanji is dating her on the rebound, and Rika has been having a (not so) secret affair with her and Kanji's boss, Waga. The affair is de-emphasized in the TV series, but in the manga, the affair is much more important. Rika gets pregnant with Waga's child (not shown in the drama version). Meanwhile, Satomi thinks that Mikami was just playing with her when he kissed her, and so she rejects him. He turns to a medical school classmate, Nagasaki, and begins pursuing her. Eventually Kanji realizes Satomi's feelings, and he chooses her over Rika.

The 1911 season finds the Emersons planning to excavate at Zawyet el'Aryan, south of the great pyramids of Giza. David Todros has just been married to Lia, the daughter of Walter and Evelyn Emerson, and the happy couple will be joining the expedition after their honeymoon. The family's happiness is dimmed, however, by allegations that David has been making and selling fake antiquities under the guise of his late grandfather Abdullah's legacy. Ramses and Nefret take on the task of ferreting out the source of the rumors - and the fakes - with fears that the Master Criminal is behind it.

Meanwhile, Percy Peabody, Amelia's evil nephew, turns up as a member of the Egyptian Army and an intermittent pest. He has written a lurid (and completely false) memoir about his time in Egypt, keeps proposing to Nefret, and seems up to something, though he doesn't have the brains to be part of the plot the Emersons are investigating.

Two young Americans join the Emersons' dig, Geoffrey Godwin and Jack Reynolds, whose sister sets her sights on Ramses. Ramses is also investigating the illegal drug trade.

The novel takes place in 1914, as Ramses Emerson works undercover to gather intelligence for the British military, Nefret returns from studying medicine in Switzerland, and Percy Peabody returns to wreak revenge on the Emerson family for past events. The Emerson have acquired the ''firman'' for part of the Giza concession, but of course are distracted by the criminal element, and eventually by a startling revelation from the Master Criminal, Sethos himself.

In the Camargue a local young playboy named Frédéri (Jourdan) falls in love with a young woman from Arles. His family thinks she is unsuitable as a wife because she had a fling with a soldier. His entourage attempt to cheer him up but he intends to commit suicide.

''The Fosdyke Saga'' was the story of Roger Ditchley, a wastrel son of a tripe magnate, Old Ben Ditchley, who was deliberately disinherited by his father in favour of Jos Fosdyke. Roger, blinded by rage, seeks to regain his rightful inheritance over the next twelve years. His wicked plans are always thwarted, as he enlists the most inept allies and twisted methods to attain his goal.

The Fosdykes themselves pursue the tripe business in various ways, such as selling alcoholic tripe in the United States during Prohibition. The many Fosdyke children grow up and have adventures of their own, including joining the Royal Flying Corps during World War I.

Each book included bizarre settings, such as the rugby game between a Welsh choir and a lady's casual rugby team held in a Salford hotel (the stairs collapsed in the first half), the hunt for the Tripe Naughtee and the unforgettable "Brain of Salford" competition.

Brandon Ma (Brandon Lee) is a regular guy with a job and a girlfriend May (Regina Kent). He has two jobs, so he can support his girlfriend and his dream of owning a motorcycle. Brandon's best friend is Michael Wan (Michael Wong), an ambitious and murderous drug dealer. Michael also loves May and so he comes up with a plan using a corrupt police officer named Sharky (Lam Chung) that will win her for himself and get Brandon out of his way. It seems that the corrupt cop has been using his police connections to dominate the local cocaine trade, so Michael has him killed and uses Brandon as the fall guy. Brandon goes to jail and meets Hoi (Mang Hoi), although he thinks that he will be released soon thanks to the efforts of his good buddy Michael. However, after 8 long years, Brandon finally gets out of jail and vows revenge on Michael for betraying their friendship and stealing the love of his life.

Whilst out of prison he learns that May has had his son. With the help of Hoi, Brandon tracks down Michael. Whilst engaging his guards he learns that May is dead. After killing Michael's guards, Brandon confronts and kills his former friend Michael. The movie ends with Brandon bidding farewell to his friend Hoi (who aided him in fighting Michael's guards) and leaving with his son.

The novel details the lives of two very opposite Victorian women, Agnes and Sugar, and the linchpin on whom they revolve: William Rackham.

William, the unwilling and somewhat bumbling heir to a perfume business, is a businessman of moderate success and little self-awareness.

He marries the exquisitely doll-like Agnes, even though he barely knew her. Agnes, the consummate Victorian "female ideal" of naive and delicate femininity, has been kept completely in the dark on sexual matters. Her diaries express utter confusion over events like menstruation (which she believes is a demon who returns periodically to "bleed" her), pregnancy, sex, or childbirth: she does not even acknowledge her young daughter, Sophie, whom the household staff carefully keeps away from Agnes. Everyone treats Agnes as a mentally ill patient, and she is kept drugged and confined to her bedroom. Weekly visits from Dr. Curlew, who Agnes believes sexually assaults her during his "examinations" of her, keep her unbalanced. Outside of the house, few know of Agnes's madness (though knowledge of it spreads during the length of the story), as she generally presents herself as an inveterate hostess and socialite to the world during each season.

William soon becomes obsessed with a worldly young prostitute named Sugar, an unconventionally intelligent and strong-willed young woman who uses the affair with William to climb to a higher perch in the rigidly stratified class system of the time. William purchases Sugar from her madame (Sugar's own mother) and sets her up in a luxurious flat of her own, where he regularly visits her on his terms. Sugar has been a prostitute since the age of 13 and views sex as a living, not a pleasure, with no physical act too taboo. She is resentful of her reliance on William (and men in general) and indulges her fantasies about harming her and her fellow prostitute's clients in an explicitly gruesome novel of revenge erotica that she pens in her spare time as she works to maintain William's continued interest using both her body and her mind.

As William's fortunes climb with the help of Sugar's excellent business acumen, Agnes becomes increasingly eccentric (which the reader learns is due to a brain tumor but which those around her believe to be hysteria). William eventually moves Sugar into his household, hidden as a member of his staff. Sugar is designated as Sophie's governess and grows to genuinely love the girl as her own. All the while, Agnes's mind begins to spiral into hallucinations of angels, and William retreats to the man's world of his business dealings. Agnes catches sight of Sugar around the property and becomes convinced that Sugar is her angel come to take her to the Convent of Health.

The book culminates in William losing everything after having long neglected the needs of the two women. The day before Agnes is to be moved to an asylum on the orders of William, Sugar suggests to Agnes that she run away in search of the Convent of Health. This convinces Agnes that Sugar is indeed her angel, and Agnes runs off. A body is later found in the river Thames; William believes the body is Agnes, but Sugar has reason to believe it is not. After Agnes's supposed death, it is implied that William is considering courting another woman of his station rather than marrying Sugar. After Sugar discovers that she has become pregnant by William, she plans to end the pregnancy by falling down the stairs of the house. After going through with the plan, Dr. Curlew examines Sugar and discovers the pregnancy, reporting it to William. William dismisses Sugar from the household in a letter. Sugar, having grown fond of Sophie, takes Sophie with her when she leaves. The end, though left unclear, implies that William never finds Sophie, Sugar, or Agnes.

Other characters include Henry Rackham—William's pious older brother who obsessively wants but struggles to become a clergyman—and Emmeline Fox—Dr. Curlew's widowed daughter who works in the Rescue Society, which tries to reform prostitutes.

When Mara Cecova, the star of an avant-garde production of Verdi's ''Macbeth'' at the Parma Opera House, is injured after getting hit by a car outside the theater during an argument with the director, Cecova's young understudy, Betty, is given the role of Lady Macbeth. Despite her initial apprehension, Betty's performance proves a success. However, an anonymous figure finds his way into the opera house on the opening night, watching Betty's performance from an empty box. When a stagehand finds him, the figure murders him against a coat hook.

While at her boyfriend Stefano's apartment, the unseen assailant breaks in and overpowers Betty. He gags her with tape, ties her to a pillar, and forces her to watch him kill Stefano, taping a row of needles beneath her eyes to ensure she sees his death. Afterwards, the masked killer unties Betty and flees the apartment. Disturbed by a childhood recollection of the same killer murdering her own mother, Betty chooses not to go to the police and instead confides in her director, Marco, that the killer may know her.

The next day, Inspector Alan Santini questions the opera house staff about Stefano's murder, as well as an attack on the production's pet ravens, three of which were found dead after the show. Later that day, after Betty's costume is found slashed to ribbons, Betty meets with the wardrobe seamstress, Giulia. While repairing the dress, Giulia finds a gold bracelet with an anniversary date sewn onto it. The killer soon intervenes, again restraining Betty and taping needles under her eyes. He stabs Giulia, who swallows the bracelet, prompting him to cut her throat open to retrieve it. The assailant unties Betty and flees.

When Betty returns to her apartment, she comes across Santini, who promises to send Betty a detective to keep guard over her. A man identifying himself as Inspector Soavi arrives to look after her. Later, Betty's agent Mira arrives and tells Betty that she talked with a man in the lobby claiming to be Soavi. Unsure which is the impostor, Betty and Mira hide while the figure claiming to be Soavi receives a phone call and leaves. Mira answers a knock at the door and demands the visitor identify himself. As she looks through the peephole, she is fatally shot. After the killer breaks in and Betty comes across a mortally wounded Soavi, Betty escapes through a ventilation shaft with the help of a girl living in a neighbouring apartment.

Betty returns to the opera house and meets with Marco, who tells her he has a plan to identify the killer. The following night, Betty again takes the stage as Lady Macbeth. During the performance, Marco unleashes a flock of ravens into the audience. Recognizing the face of their attacker from the previous night, the birds swoop down on him, gouging out one of his eyes. The murderer, revealed to be Santini, attempts to shoot at Betty. Santini evades capture and abducts Betty from her dressing room, dragging her to another room.

Santini reveals that he was once the teenage lover of Betty's mother and murdered young women at her behest, but killed the mother due to her escalating demands; Betty witnessed the murder from behind a partly open door. Now, years later, Santini's desire to kill has been rekindled by Betty's appearance, which he sees as her mother's reincarnation. Blindfolding Betty and tying her to a chair, Santini stages his own death by setting fire to the room and apparently himself. Betty breaks free and escapes.

Betty and Marco leave Rome, traveling to Marco's house in the Swiss Alps. However, when Marco hears a television broadcast that the man thought to have been burned alive was not Santini but a clothed mannequin, he yells for Betty to flee. Betty runs into the nearby woods, with Santini in pursuit. Marco tackles him, only to be stabbed to death. Betty distracts Santini long enough to bash him on the head with a rock, after which the police arrive to take him away. Betty wanders through an empty meadow. Finding a lizard trapped in the grass, Betty frees it and tells it to "go free."

After a bank robbery, four criminals try to escape to the village of Santo Cristo in Acapulco, but they hijack the plane when a storm requires the pilot to start to turn around. They force the pilot to continue flying. After the copilot struggles with one of the hijackers, the plane's instrument panel is destroyed and it crashes. Most of the passengers and one of the hijackers die in the crash. The criminals gather the remaining passengers, killing those too injured to be of use, and force the rest to haul their loot through the swamp to the town they need to reach to finish their escape. While they gather the loot, a crocodile suddenly emerges from the water and eats the pilot. The criminals empty three guns into it, killing it.

As they travel through the swamp, they start falling prey to the dead crocodile's furious 30-foot mother (Flat Dog, the crocodile from the first film). As the passengers struggle to survive the crocodile, the only hope for rescue is in the hands of Zach, the boyfriend of one of the stewardesses and a tracker he runs into a bar that he hires to search for the crashed plane. Max (leader of the terrorists) forces the tracker to leave Mia (the stewardess) and Zach behind. But during the flight, Roland (the tracker) grabs Max's gun and shoots Max in the chest, killing him. When Roland tries to turn back, his chopper is grabbed by the crocodile. The crocodile leaves Roland to die in an explosion. Mia and Zach become the only survivors and kill the croc by using a life boat's gasoline and lighting it with her lighter, resulting in the croc blowing up.

At the end of the film, Mia and Zach are at a resort swimming. As Mia jumps in the water the crocodile appears, she then wakes up with Zach, realizing that it was just a dream. A loud roar is heard as the camera zooms out the swamp, foreshadowing another beast of some sort or perhaps that the crocodile survived.

Eight teenagers, including Brady (Mark McLachlan), Claire (Caitlin Martin), Duncan (Chris Solari), Kit (D. W. Reiser), Annabelle (Julie Mintz), Sunny (Summer Knight), Foster (Rhett Jordan), and Hubs (Greg Wayne) are going on a weekend boat trip on a remote lake in Southern California for spring break. As the group is about to depart on their boat, they are warned by Sheriff Bowman (Harrison Young) to be sensible and keep out of danger. After a day of partying, the group have a bonfire, where Kit tells them a local story about how in the early 20th century, ninety-six years ago, a hotel owner named Harlan featured a crocodile named Flat Dog at his hotel. Harlan eventually sets up a shrine to Flat Dog, believing her to be an avatar to the ancient Egyptian crocodile god (Sobek), creating a cult that worshiped the crocodile. The town eventually ran Harlan away because of his heathenism and torched his hotel years later when Kit was a kid. Close by, two local fishermen destroy a crocodile nest, only for them both to be attacked by Flat Dog, who devours them both.

The following day the teenagers continue to party. Annabelle's dog, Princess, runs away, leading the group to the crocodile's nest, where Duncan breaks an egg and Hubs hides one in Claire's bag. At night, Sunny becomes incredibly drunk and reveals Brady cheated on Claire with her, resulting in Claire breaking up with Brady. Hubs, who is also heavily intoxicated falls asleep at the bonfire while the rest of the group returns to the boat. Sometime later, Hubs attempts to return to the boat but is eaten by Flat Dog, while the boat becomes untied and begins to drift in the lake. In the morning, the friends find their boat has become stuck, leaving them stranded. While the rest of the group attempt to fix the boat, Brady and Sunny go to try to find Hubs. Sunny attempts to get Brady to go swimming, but she narrowly escapes an attack by Flat Dog. The pair rush back to the boat to warn the others. However, Flat Dog arrives and sinks the boat, killing Foster in the process.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Bowman finds the fishermen and Hubs remains before visiting Shurkin (Terrence Evans) and Lester (Adam Gierasch), two locals who take care of alligators. Shurkin sets out with the Sheriff to find Flat Dog — and kill her to avenge the deaths of his grandfather and father — while Lester is seen to be feeding the crocodile, but is eventually devoured himself. As night falls, the teenagers are still stranded in the woods searching for a road. Flat Dog returns, and ultimately Sunny is eaten. The rest of the group reach a small shop, where Brady attempts to phone the Sheriff, but Flat Dog breaks through a wall and devours Annabelle. As Kit escapes to start the truck outside, Brady, Claire, and Duncan fight off Flat Dog. In the chaos, a fire starts which causes the truck to explode, killing Kit and scaring away Flat Dog.

The next day, the Sheriff and Shurkin find Brady, Claire, and Duncan and pick them up on their boat. Soon after, Shurkin is knocked into the water and eaten, before the Sheriff is also killed. With the boat's engine broken, the survivors swim to land. Claire finally discovers the crocodile's egg in her bag, and the group uses it as bait to lure Flat Dog to them so they can kill it. As Flat Dog arrives, Duncan attempts to kill her. However, he is quickly swallowed whole, only to be regurgitated moments later. Claire gives the Flat Dog the egg, which hatches into a baby crocodile, before she returns to her nest, leaving Claire, Princess, Brady, and Duncan free to escape.

Reno Davis is an American writer who has recently retired from boxing. Now unemployed and broke in France, he encounters the wealthy widow of a French general. Anne de Villemont is attracted to Reno, and he to her, but she keeps him at arm's length. She also hires him to tutor her eight-year-old son Paul. The real reason she wants Reno is for protection.

Reno is led to believe that Anne's husband was killed in the Algerian conflict, and he is troubled by Anne's intense fear that Paul will be kidnapped. He then discovers the family has ties to a fascist organization that plans to take over all of Europe. He takes on the shady psychiatrist Morillon and mysterious family friend Leschenhaut, both of whom frighten Anne whenever they are around.

Reno is framed for his best friend's murder as he and Anne become the targets of the ambitious and maniacal schemers who wish to rule Europe. Reno and Anne are hunted around France while protecting Paul from being abducted. The chase ends at the Colosseum in Rome, where Reno and the villains engage in a showdown.

Cover of the 2002 re-issue by Baen Books.

The Lord Saukendar, Imperial sword master and stalwart supporter of the Emperor is betrayed, falsely accused of an affair with his childhood sweetheart Lady Meiya, now the Emperor's wife. Meiya is dead, and hostile forces have command of the Emperor's regency. Wounded, desperate and cut off from his supporters, Saukendar runs for the border.

In a homemade cabin high in the hills Saukendar survives crippled and alone, his warhorse Jiro and his regrets his only company, while the empire is bled by the rapacious warlords that are regent to the Emperor. Only occasional assassins dispatched by the Regent disturb his morose existence.

Taizu, a country girl from Hua locates him, demands he teach her sufficient swordsmanship to exact her revenge for her people's suffering. Despite his better judgment and strenuous efforts to discourage her, she forces him to take her on as apprentice swordswoman. Shoka, as he prefers to be known to his friends, becomes fond of the girl.

In the process of teaching her and supporting her cause, they become embroiled in the affairs of empire, becoming the spearhead of a revolt that rescues the Emperor from his Regent and his people from the clutches of the warlords.

''The Great New Wonderful'' is a series of vignettes of incidents taking place concurrently around Manhattan. The only other thing linking the incidents is the month in which they occur: September 2002. Recurring themes include frustration and sugar.

The vignettes include:

• An accountant (Jim Gaffigan) undergoing a therapy session in the office of a passive-aggressive psychologist (Tony Shalhoub).
• Two immigrants from India on security detail for a visiting dignitary.
• An ambitious pastry chef (Maggie Gyllenhaal) preparing a professional pitch that she hopes will make her the reigning doyenne of New York's competitive cake scene.
• A Brooklyn housewife (Olympia Dukakis) fixes her husband's dinner and then sits at the kitchen table making collages out of old magazines while her husband sits on the balcony, smoking a cigarette.
• Allison & David Burbage (Judy Greer, Tom McCarthy) struggle to keep their marriage together while coping with their increasingly difficult and strangely self-possessed 10-year-old son.

Plot in the Real World

The story begins in the year 1199, just before the beginning of the Fourth Crusade. Young Arthur de Caldicot, thirteen years of age at the time, is the second son of a knight living in Caldicot manor in the "Middle Marches" of the March of Wales. Most of the first book deals with the stresses associated with medieval life. Most important to Arthur is the fact that he is Sir John's second son, and thus ineligible to inherit land. To have a life of his own, he must become a squire and then a knight, and create his own manor and farmland. One challenge to overcome is his inadequate "yard-skills", especially jousting and swordplay. He is left-handed, considered a dangerous oddity in those days, but he must joust and fence with his off-hand. Another challenge is that his father would make him a scribe for his skill reading and writing. The obstacles disappear when he learns on his fourteenth birthday that his "uncle" Sir William de Gortanore is really his father; he becomes heir to a large manor. Unfortunately, it seems that his mother's husband was murdered by Sir William, who was jealous of him. And the revelation terminates the betrothal of Arthur and Grace, Sir William's daughter; as Grace is Arthur's half-sister they cannot marry. The novel ends with Arthur accepted as squire to the Lord of the Middle Marches, Stephen de Holt. ''The Seeing Stone'' (2006 paperback)

Plot in the Seeing Stone

The wizard Merlin gives Arthur de Caldicot the "Seeing Stone" early in the story, along with the warning it will cease to work if anyone else shares in its knowledge. Through the stone Arthur observes the life of legendary King Arthur until his rise to power as King of Britain. It begins with the marriage of King Uther and Ygerna. They conceive a child, who is named Arthur and is taken by Merlin to a foster family. Years later, when King Uther dies, Arthur comes to be king. Many specific people look similar to or exactly like people in Arthur's life. The most notable resemblance is between Arthur and young King Arthur himself, which leads de Caldicot to suppose that Arthur in the stone is himself in the near future. This belief is only accentuated when he learns on his birthday that his parents are only foster parents, as for young King Arthur. Eventually it becomes clear that King Arthur inhabits a parallel universe, with events in both worlds reflecting each other.

It is the 22nd century and protagonist Grant Calthorpe is a former sport-hunter collecting ferva leaves for the Neilan Drug Company, living near the Idiots' Hills with a parcat named Oliver. To evade stinging palms in the Ionan jungle, he rewards loonies with chocolate to collect the ferva leaves for him.

One day, suffering the native "white fever" and its "attendant hallucinations", Calthorpe follows Oliver to Lee Neilan, daughter of the owner of Neilan Drug, also affected by the fever. Each human believes the other a hallucination, until Calthorpe confirms her report of a newly built slinker settlement, whereupon he rescues her from the local slinkers. Having restored her health, he learns that she had crash-landed an aircraft against the Idiots' Hills while trying to reach Herapolis.

When a party of slinkers undermines his shack, Calthorpe and Neilan flee into the Idiots' Hills, hoping the slinkers cannot follow them into the rarefied atmosphere. In a narrow valley between two peaks, they find a deserted city, apparently built by more-civilized previous generations of loonies. When opposed by the modern loonies, the slinkers form a narrow, dense mob, which Calthorpe destroys with a "flame pistol". This attracts Lee Neilan's father Gustavus, himself in search of her, and effects reunion. In gratitude to Calthorpe for saving his daughter, Gustavus offers him charge of a ferva plantation near Junopolis; whereupon Lee proposes her own marriage to Calthorpe.

''The Isle of Dread'' is meant to introduce players and Dungeon Masters familiar with only dungeon crawl-style adventures to wilderness exploration. As such, the adventure has only a very simple plot, even by the standards of its time. The module has been described as a medium- to high-level scenario, which takes place on a mysterious tropical island divided by an ancient stone wall. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=UMY9AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover preview])

The characters somehow find a fragment from a ship's log, describing a mysterious island on which many treasures can be found, and set out to explore it. Typically, the characters will first make landfall near the more or less friendly village of Tanaroa and after possibly dealing with some troublesome factions in the village, set out to explore the interior of the island. In the course of their explorations, they may find a number of other villages of unfamiliar intelligent creatures, numerous hostile monsters and the treasures they guard, and a band of pirates. Many prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs, are prominently featured, especially in the original printing of the adventure. Near the center of the island is a hidden temple inhabited by monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as ''kopru''; the characters may stumble across it or learn that it is a source of problems for the other inhabitants of the isle, and the climax of the adventure typically consists of the characters exploring this temple, battling its inhabitants, and uncovering its secrets.

It is an exploration of how a film's form can influence audience perception of the content of film.

For this film, the footage comes from ''Apple Knockers and Coke'', a famous porno loop from the late '40s featuring Monroe look-alike Arline Hunter while the song "I'm Through With Love" by Marilyn herself is playing.

Supernatural phenomena and strange occurrences are no sweat for the Nanami Paranormal Investigation agency, headed by Asagi Nanami. As "freak" activity grows to a terrifying fever pitch, Asagi's assistants—Naoki, Tokiko, and Mahime—help to solve several major "freak" cases. Freaks are creatures with the ability to possess humans and prey on their weaknesses. However, Asagi and his gang are no ordinary humans; each is equipped with a special power to vanquish Freaks.

The story is about a horror movie actress named Raven Quinn (Debbie Rochon). After her marriage crumbles down, she wins the custody of her daughters and raises them alone. She feels fortunate that she finds a good neighbor named Wayne (Grant Kramer), who provides a much needed emotional support and agrees to baby-sit her two young daughters.

Little does Raven know that Wayne has had his share of murders while growing up and has now set his eyes to stalk her. Wayne has an altar that is full of Raven's pictures and a mannequin resembling Raven in his house.

Wayne feels cheated that Raven's co-workers are sharing her attention. Feeling jealous, Wayne murders Raven's co-stars one by one while dressed in a Santa Claus costume. His weapon of choice is a "claw".

Peacekeeping immortals living in clans inhabit a mythical mountain range called Zu, which is situated between Heaven and Earth. A demon called Insomnia desires to rule Zu and the world below, so it begins to destroy the various clans. In the Kunlun Mountains, Dawn sends away her apprentice, King Sky, because she believes that their emotional attachment to each other hinders their progress. She gives him her weapon, the Moon Orb, to help him train. He is to return only after he has attained a higher level. If she cannot be found, the Moon Orb will find her. Moments after they part, Insomnia attacks Dawn and disintegrates her.

200 years later, at Omei, Grandmaster White Brows senses darkness coming and despatches his student, Red, to investigate. King Sky joins Red and the Omei clan to fight Insomnia. White Brows engages and weakens Insomnia with his weapon, the Sky Reflector. Insomnia retreats into the legendary Blood Cave after its defeat with Omei's top warriors in pursuit. At the cave, King Sky notices Enigma, an Omei member who resembles Dawn. White Brows warns them that the cave is capable of draining the powers of those who venture near it. Red and King Sky risk their lives to battle Insomnia in the cave, and narrowly escape after White Brows sacrifices the Sky Reflector to save them. With Insomnia absorbing the cave's energy, White Brows orders Red to guard the cave entrance while the Omei members regroup and return to base.

White Brows tries to combine Enigma's Heaven Sword with Hollow's Thunder Sword, the two guardian weapons of Omei, to form a new weapon, the Flaming Sword of Thunder. Unfortunately, the fusion process fails and rebounds, causing Hollow to die and Enigma to be seriously injured. King Sky rescues Enigma. White Brows tells King Sky that Enigma is Dawn's reincarnation. He then appoints King Sky as the chief of Omei while he enters a new dimension to find a weapon to destroy Insomnia. Before leaving, he resurrects Hollow, who is renamed Ying, in the hope that the reborn Hollow can wield the Thunder Sword in their most desperate hour. However, when Ying turns out to be rather inept, King Sky tries to take his place and use the Thunder Sword himself, but fails and ends up being burnt to death. Enigma mourns his loss and buries his charred remains.

In the meantime, Red is possessed by Amnesia, a flower demon, while standing guard outside the Blood Cave. He returns to Omei, decimates the clan, and captures Enigma. Amnesia then destroys the rest of Omei. To the Omei survivors' frustration, Ying has yet to reawaken his past avatar and unlock his abilities. However, during a match against Thunder, an Omei swordsman, Ying suddenly recalls his past life and regains his powers. Concurrently, King Sky returns to life just in time to intercept and receive the new weapon found by White Brows. With the new weapon, King Sky joins Ying and the Omei survivors in confronting the possessed Red at the Blood Cave.

After Ying rescues Enigma, they return to Omei to stop Insomnia's final assault. King Sky exorcises Red, but the latter sacrifices himself to destroy Amnesia. At Omei, Enigma and Ying successfully fuse their swords to form a new weapon to defeat Insomnia. King Sky joins the duo and they weaken Insomnia. Enigma possesses Insomnia to prevent the demon from escaping, giving King Sky a chance to destroy it. Just as Insomnia is destroyed, Enigma remembers herself as Dawn and tells King Sky she is happy to find him again before disappearing. After the battle, Enigma is reincarnated as a new immortal and Mount Omei is restored. King Sky parts with the Omei to rebuild his clan.

Conan, having been exiled after a drought struck his Bamula tribe and murdering the high priest who blamed him for it, journeys across the savanna of Kush. He instinctively feels that something is watching him, but sees nothing. However, he is being followed by a pack of hungry lions. An hour later, an exhausted Conan has fought off three lion attacks and is out of arrows. He runs through the darkness, with a lioness lapping at his heel, as a beam of moonlight peeks out from behind the clouds. Soon, Conan realizes the lions have stopped their pursuit as the vast plain mysteriously ends. Suddenly, Conan finds himself within the center of a giant circle of dead vegetation. At the edge, the lions simply look on as Conan examines his surroundings.

Not knowing how long the lions will be kept at bay by whatever force is preventing them from crossing into the circle, Conan travels deeper into the dead area. Soon, he discovers a ruined castle. As a storm begins forming right above him, Conan realizes his only shelter is the crumbled and misshapen structure ahead of him. Conan makes his way inside the ruined building, noting the black onyx stone and bizarre architecture before him. In fact, the halls and stairs appear to be built for a creature larger than human-sized while strange carvings riddle the walls. Conan wonders if perhaps this was an ancient citadel of the long-extinct Serpent Men he has heard of in legends.

Conan sleeps peacefully as the storm passes overhead, frequently jerking awake with his sword at the ready, seeming to hear whispering voices. He becomes convinced that the shadows are ghosts unsuccessfully trying to devour him. He's unaware that in one corner of the castle, the shadows are converging into a sentient mass which is planning to consume him.

Meanwhile, a band of Stygian slave traders are searching the savanna for tribesmen to capture. Caught in a violent storm, the men spy the castle in the distance and make their way towards shelter. They burst inside and distract the shadowy black mass that was slowly approaching Conan. Conan, now awake and contemplating the horror he had finally noticed, hides in the shadows while watching as the Stygians eat, drink, and finally fall asleep, with one standing guard. As the sentinel stands, back to his sleeping companions, a hideous shape made from the spirits of a thousand dead souls appears in the center of their camp. The monstrosity, with a hundred heads and a dozen feet and arms, throws itself onto a sleeping Stygian and rips him to shreds.

The Stygians rise up and attack the beast to no avail, as it methodically kills one after another. Conan, still hiding, decides to leave the scene while the monster is distracted by climbing out a window. He finds the slavers' horses and begins to mount one, when a lone Stygian, driven mad by his experience, bursts out of the castle. Conan is forced to kill the man to end his insanity. Soon, Conan hears the shuffling of movement towards the door. He doesn't wait to see who or what comes out, swiftly taking the Stygian's armor and spurring his horse into a gallop far away from the cursed castle.

The story concerns the death and inheritance of old Cyrus West, a rich eccentric who felt that his relatives "have watched my wealth as if they were cats, and I — a canary". He decrees that his will be read 20 years after his death, at which point his relatives converge at his old family home, now a spooky old haunted mansion.

The will reads that his most distant relative still bearing the name of West be sole heir, provided they are legally sane. The rest of the night spent in the house calls into question the sanity of Annabelle West, a fragile young woman who is legally Cyrus West's heir.

The Amazing Joy Buzzards are a rock 'n' roll adventure band that battles evil in all forms. The group consists of Biff Ashby, Gabe Carlyle, and Stevo Vargas. Unbeknownst to the band, The Amazing Joy Buzzards are managed by Dalton Warner of the Creative International Artists Agency, which is really the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Warner uses the band's superstar status as a cover to get into places to which he normally would not have access. Dalton uses the band's knack for defeating supernatural evils to his advantage. The Amazing Joy Buzzards have the assistance of a Mexican Wrestling genie named El Campeon who assists people in their time of need. He can be summoned by a magic amulet and by shouting the words "Go El Campeon Go!".

Alanna of Trebond and her twin brother Thom may be twins, but are very different; Alanna is a tomboy who dreams of being a knight, and Thom wishes to become a sorcerer. Unfortunately, Alanna is shortly to be dispatched by their inattentive father to a temple in the City of the Gods, to learn to become a young lady—to her, a fate worse than death—whilst Thom is similarly destined for the royal palace, where he will train as a knight: his worst nightmare, as he believes that his destiny is to be a sorcerer.

To avoid their respective fates, Alanna and Thom hatch a plan; Alanna will disguise herself as a boy, call herself Alan, and take Thom's place as a knight. Thom will go to the City of the Gods, where he will be able to train as a sorcerer. After convincing their two caregivers, the healing woman Maude and the soldier Coram, that their plan will succeed, they set off.

At the palace, "Alan" trains as a page, meeting many friends, such as Raoul of Goldenlake, Gareth the Younger of Naxen, Francis of Nond, Alexander of Tirragen, and Prince Jonathan of Conté. She also makes an enemy during her first day in the palace: Ralon of Malven, who continuously bullies her. Rather than have her companions beat him, Alanna secretly trains with George Cooper, the King of the Court of the Rogue (i.e. King of the Thieves), a friendly thief and master of the capital city’s criminal underworld, until she can beat him herself. When she does, he leaves Court, vowing revenge.

During Alanna's page years, a fever, the Sweating Sickness, spreads within the capital city, Corus, and nowhere else. This disease is different than all other known diseases in that it drains healers of their powers to heal, and even kills them. There is talk that it was sent by a great sorcerer. Alanna has a powerful healing Gift, but is frightened to use it, so she doesn't tell anyone that she can heal. Due to this refusal of her abilities, Francis of Nond, one of her friends, dies.

When Prince Jonathan falls ill, Alanna, recognizing herself as the only undrained healer in the city, tries to heal him. She succeeds, but only through evoking the Great Mother Goddess and fetching Jonathan from the place in between Life and Death. In doing so, she unknowingly reveals herself as a female to Sir Myles of Olau, one of her mentors. Shortly after, Jonathan's powerful sorcerer cousin, Duke Roger of Conté, comes to live at the palace and teach the Gifted pages and squires magic.

Alanna goes to George Cooper's mother, a healer, after she has her first monthly period. She tells George the truth about her gender. Jonathan also discovers the truth during Alanna's last year as a page, when she comes on a trip for the squires on the behest of Prince Jonathan to Persopolis, the only city of the Bazhir, a race of nomadic desert people.

All the squires were warned to stay away from the Black City, a city just within view of Persopolis, by Duke Roger. However, Jonathan decides to ride for the city to defeat whatever evil lies there, and Alanna goes with him to help him in his quest. The two arrive at the city to find it completely deserted; that is, until they enter the large, central temple. There they find the Ysandir, beings who will not age or starve as mortals will, but that can be killed. Jonathan and Alanna begin to fight, but things began to go awry when one of the Ysandir magically removes Alanna's clothes to reveal her true sex. Jonathan saves his shock for later, as Alanna and Jonathan must combine their powers to defeat the Ysandir. With the help of her magical sword, given to her earlier by Sir Myles, Alanna defeats the last of the Ysandir, and Jonathan and Alanna head back to Persopolis.

The book ends at an oasis near Persopolis, where Alanna suggested that perhaps Roger had wanted Jonathan to go to the city. Jonathan said that yes, he had, but only so that Jonathan could rid Tortall of a great evil. When Alanna pointed out that perhaps Roger had not expected him to come back alive, Jonathan refused to listen. After this, Jonathan chooses Alanna to be his squire when he is knighted that year. He says he does not care that she is a girl, because she is the best page regardless.

While camping in the woods on her way back to Corus from an errand, Alanna's campsite, set up under a willow tree, is discovered by a small black cat whom she names Faithful. It does not escape Alanna's notice that his eyes are as purple as her own; she also finds out that Faithful can talk to her, although to others it sounds as if he is meowing. Soon after, the Great Mother Goddess, Alanna's patron, shows up at her campfire. She gives Alanna an amulet that allows the young woman to see magic being worked around her.

As she progresses into knighthood, Alanna's feminine side is nurtured as well. After a few visits with Eleni, George Cooper's mother, Alanna realizes that part of her wants to act like the ladies she sees in the Court. Eleni takes Alanna under her wing and secretly teaches her how to dress and behave like a woman. The change does not go unnoticed by George or Prince Jonathan, the only two friends with whom she has shared her secret about her sex. Jon and Alanna share their first kiss after he rescues her when she is kidnapped by nobles from Tusaine, and they become lovers soon after, although George made it clear to Alanna that he loved her before they went to war.

Alanna withstands the Ordeal of Knighthood and becomes a knight. Her twin brother, Thom, presents her with a shield featuring the crest of their home estate, Trebond. When he and Alanna are alone after the ceremony, he shows her that when she is ready to reveal to everyone that she is a woman, the Trebond crest will disappear, and in its place will be the picture of a golden Lioness rearing on a field of red.

Alanna discovers her long-time nemesis, Duke Roger of Conte, her prince's cousin, has a plan to kill the king, queen, Jonathan, and even Alanna herself in order to take the throne. After her knighthood, Alanna accuses Roger publicly and he demands a duel. During the duel, he accidentally slices through the special corset Alanna wears to keep her breasts flat, revealing to everyone that she is very much a woman. Her friends, including Jonathan and Myles, step up and tell the king that they knew beforehand that she was a female. Driven to rage at being challenged by a woman, Roger attacks and attempts to use an illusion to confuse Alanna. She uses the amulet given to her by the Goddess in the beginning of the novel and, spotting the deception, is able to defeat and kill Roger.

After her battle, Alanna decides not to stick around to deal with the initial uproar over her sex. With Faithful, her longtime manservant Coram, and her horse Moonlight, she has a tearful goodbye with Jonathan and sets off for the desert in the South, in search of more adventure.

The third book sees Alanna through her journey through the Bazhir desert, where she and her manservant Coram are adopted by the Bloody Hawk tribe of the desert people Bazhir. During their stay, Alanna duels with the Bloody Hawk shaman, a crazed wizard who is convinced Alanna is evil, and kills him. According to Bazhir law she must be the tribe's shaman until she trains a new one to replace her or someone kills her and takes her place.

Alanna selects three Gifted children of the tribe, Ishak, Kara, and Kourrem, and begins to train them in magic. She also inherits the former shaman's sword, with a crystal on the hilt, symbols that remind her of the dead sorcerer Duke Roger, and a terrifying amount of dark power. She keeps it because her old sword, Lightning, broke during a battle. She also teaches the traditional Bazhir to slowly lose some of their prejudice against women. During their training, Alanna sees glimpses of the shamans the girls will become, but the boy, Ishak, constantly attempts stronger, darker sorcery. In a sudden encounter, Ishak steals the crystal sword from Alanna and tries to master its power, but it consumes him and kills him. Devastated but determined, Alanna continues to train Kara and Kourrem.

Prince Jonathan and Sir Myles of Olau make a visit to the Bloody Hawk tribe, where Jonathan and Alanna renew their love affair and spend a passionate night together. When Jonathan asks her to marry him, Alanna is shocked and asks for time to think it over. During their stay, Jonathan is adopted by the tribe and takes up training under the Voice of the Tribes, an old friend of Alanna's and Jonathan's. When the Voice dies, Jonathan is made the new Voice, thus acting as a sacred link between all the Bazhir tribes. This status will help unite northerners and southerners when he eventually becomes King of Tortall. Also, Myles adopts Alanna as his daughter and heir to his lands. Jonathan, tired from the Rite of the Voice, wants to go home soon and assumes that Alanna will marry him though she has asked for time to think about it, and when he begins to make arrangements for her to return to Corus with him, they argue. She refuses to marry him, and he wounds her deeply by saying he'd rather marry a woman who knows how to act like a woman. Jonathan and Myles leave, and Alanna continues her training of Kourrem and Kara, who eventually pass the required tests and are made shamans for the tribe, Kourrem being the head shaman.

Their work with the Bazhir finished and with Alanna in need of distraction from her breakup with Jonathan, Alanna and Coram travel to Port Caynn to visit the thief-king George Cooper, who is putting down a Rogue rebellion there. While Coram woos George's cousin Rispah, Alanna begins a love affair with George, who has loved her for years, but when he wants her to return to Corus with him, she refuses to go with him. The two split, and Coram accompanies Alanna back to the desert, where the Bloody Hawk chief asks her to check on a sorceress, a friend of his, whom he has been having bad dreams about. When Alanna and Coram arrive at the sorceress' drought-stricken village, they see the starved, crazed villagers burning the sorceress, thinking the sacrifice will please the gods and provide them food. Alanna and Coram rescue her, but not in time, and the sorceress dies after leaving Alanna with a scroll to give to the Bloody Hawk chief. The chief tells them it is a map to the Dominion Jewel, a legendary stone that provides untold powers in the hands of Gifted or unGifted rulers. Alanna and Coram decide to go after it.

The first chapter of this book finds Alanna, Faithful, and Coram on a quest for the 'Dominion Jewel', which grants immense psychokinetic power to any monarch who owns it. In the town of Berat, Alanna befriends martial-arts champion Liam Ironarm, called the 'Dragon of Shang', who joins the quest. Liam begins training her in Shang fighting style, and the two become lovers. The party thence traverse the realm of Sarain, evading a civil war between the native 'K'miri' tribes and the ruler, Warlord jin Wilima, and acquire new companions in Princess Thayet, the Warlord's only child, and her K’miri protector Buriram Tourokom. At the mountain range known as the 'Roof of the World', Alanna becomes frustrated by the blizzards blocking their progress and her magical sense that trouble is occurring back in Tortall. She casts a spell on the group to keep them asleep and then ascends to the pass, where she undergoes a grueling physical trial to acquire the Jewel from its immortal guardian, Chitral. She succeeds in winning the Jewel and returns to the group, to find that Liam—who is afraid of magic—is angry at being bewitched by her. Their romantic relationship ends, though they continue as friends and colleagues.

Upon their return to Tortall, Alanna is met by her old friend Raoul of Goldenlake, who informs her of three key events that have occurred in her absence: the Tortallan monarchs have died; Prince Jonathan has been named King but not yet been crowned; and Alanna's twin brother Thom, to prove himself the most powerful sorcerer in the realm, has resurrected Duke Roger (killed by Alanna in an earlier book). Alanna hurries to take Jonathan's side and give him the Dominion Jewel, and Jonathan names her as his King's Champion. Elsewhere in Corus, Thom is being rapidly poisoned by his own magic, by its interaction with that of Roger. On the eve of the Coronation, Tortall's Great Mother Goddess warns Alanna that the ceremony will be a "crossroad in time", decisive of the realm's future. During the coronation, Roger’s plan comes to fruition: he causes a series of magical earthquakes using his and Thom’s joined power to bring down the palace, while insurgents loyal to Roger and his allies Lady Delia of Eldorne, Alex of Tirragen (Alanna’s childhood friend), and Claw, aka Ralon of Malven (Alanna’s former bully) storm the palace. Jonathan uses his Gift and unleashes the Dominion Jewel’s power to keep the earthquakes at bay, while Alanna‘s friends battle to protect Jonathan from assassination and Alanna goes in search of Roger. In the prolonged battle, Thom dies, drained of his life by Roger's magic. Alanna duels Alex and defeats him. She then kills Josianne, after the princess has killed Si Cham and Faithful. Roger awaits her in the catacombs, presiding over a Gate of Idramm. He reveals how he survived his death due to Sorcerer's Sleep, as well as his hand in Lightning's origins. Weary and temporarily Giftless, Alanna remains ready for battle. Roger summons Lightning toward him, and after resisting, she realizes the benefit of having the sword fly toward him. In less than the blink of an eye, Roger is impaled by the force of the sword's movement. Alanna emerges from the battle to find in the aftermath that Jonathan and her friends survived, the insurgents are defeated and captured, but Liam Ironarm was killed defending Jonathan.

Later, Alanna returns to the Bazhir (a Bedouin-like ethnicity of Tortall's southern desert) to recover from her losses. She learns that Jonathan has married Thayet—a match Alanna had given her blessing to—and appointed George a baron to guard Tortall's coast. George arrives in the desert to seek out Alanna, who professes her mutual love for him. The two head exit the tent to tell the Bloody Hawk tribe of their betrothal.

Category:1988 American novels Category:1988 fantasy novels Category:Tortallan books Category:Novels about cats Category:Atheneum Books books

In the early 1900s, actor Lon Chaney (James Cagney) is working in vaudeville with his wife Cleva (Dorothy Malone). Chaney quits the show and Cleva announces that she is pregnant. Lon is happy and tells Cleva that he has been hired by the famous comedy team Kolb and Dill for an upcoming show.

Cleva pressures Lon to visit his parents (whom she has never met) in his hometown of Colorado Springs. Lon is reluctant because his parents are both deaf mutes, a fact Lon has never shared. Cleva reacts with disgust and does not want to give birth, fearing that the child will also be a deaf mute and she doesn't want to be the mother of a "dumb thing."

Months later, the baby Creighton is born and it soon becomes clear that the child is not deaf. Despite this good news, Lon's and Cleva's marriage continues to erode over the next few years. Soon she takes a job as a singer in a nightclub, dropping young Creighton off to his father backstage at his theater before being driven to work.

Lon has developed a close but platonic friendship with chorus girl Hazel Hastings (Jane Greer). Hazel is happy to help look after young Creighton. After the child gets sick at the theater, Lon complains to Cleva's employer, who reluctantly agrees to terminate her.

When confronting his wife in her dressing room, Lon discovers that Cleva has been dating Bill, a wealthy patron. Cleva learns she has been fired at her husband's connivance and reacts by screaming, which causes Bill to enter the dressing room. Bill comforts her and then asks Lon who he is. Lon responds by telling Bill that he is from the collection agency, and that he is here to collect his wife. Bill looks at Cleva with contempt and walks away.

Lon returns to the theater, where he discovers Hazel being accosted in the corridor by a tall, thin man. Lon punches the man in the face and tells him to get up. Hazel explains that he can't and the man lifts up his trousers to the knee, revealing two wooden legs. He is Carl Hastings, her former husband, once rational, but now consumed with bitterness as the result of his accident.

Cleva enters the dressing room to find Lon with his hands on Hazel's shoulders. Cleva screams that she will not go back to being a "nurse maid" so that he can play around with a chorus girl. Cleva leaves home and vanishes. Days later, Lon is performing a dance routine in clown makeup at a matinee when a totally deranged Cleva walks on stage and swallows a bottle of acid in front of an audience, permanently damaging her vocal cords.

Cleva is hospitalized, but runs away once more. The scandal essentially destroys Lon's career in vaudeville. The state takes custody of young Creighton as they deem his home situation to be unsuitable, causing Lon to react angrily. On the advice of press agent Clarence Locan (Jim Backus), Lon moves to Hollywood to try his luck in the new field of motion pictures.

After starting as an extra, Lon's tireless work ethic, and his expertise at makeup, make him an in-demand bit player and later a feature player. Lon is cast in the silent film ''The Miracle Man'' (1919) as a man thought to be physically disabled who is seemingly cured by a faith healer. His success starts him on the road to stardom in such films as ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1923) and ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (1925).

As his career soars, Lon faces personal challenges. Although he marries Hazel and regains custody of Creighton, ex-wife Cleva reappears, seeking to spend time with Creighton (who has been told by Lon that she is dead). Hazel reveals the truth to Creighton, who leaves to stay with his mother, angry with Lon about the deception.

Lon becomes ill on the set of the sound version of ''The Unholy Three'' (1930) and is diagnosed with bronchial cancer. Hazel and Locan decide to (initially) hide the truth of his condition from him. Creighton (Roger Smith) reconciles with his father and they take a fishing trip at Lon's mountain cabin. After returning from his fishing trip, Lon collapses and is returned home to live out his final days.

On his deathbed, the dying Chaney (now unable to speak due to the cancer) reverts to the sign language of his childhood to express his love for his friends and family and to ask for forgiveness for unspecified transgressions. Lon signals Creighton to bring him his makeup box. He removes a stick of greasepaint and adds a "Jr." to his own name on the box, signaling to his son his desire for him to carry on his life's work. Creighton leaves with box in hand, ready to start his film career as Lon Chaney Jr.

The book is split into three parts.

Part I: The Grand Canyon

Halley and Scarlett Thomas live in directly opposite houses and both had jobs at Milton's Market.

At the beginning of the summer, Scarlett starts dating Michael Sherwood but they decide to keep it quiet, with only Halley really knowing, because Michael recently broke up with cheerleader Elizabeth Gunderson and he claims he didn't want her to get upset.

For the last two weeks of summer vacation, Halley is sent away to Sisterhood Camp against her will by her mother, who is having difficulties coming to terms with Halley growing up and changing. Then disaster strikes and Halley gets a phone call from Scarlett telling her about Michael's death. Scarlett asks Halley to come home and be with her.

Her mom, even though she is unhappy about this, brings her home.

On the day of the funeral, it is clear that no one knew about Scarlett and Michael, and Elizabeth Gunderson seems to be taking it very hard. On the ride home, it is raining heavily and as they are driving along they see Macon Faulkner, Michael's best friend, walking and they offer him a lift which he declines as he is clearly upset.

Going back to school on the first day, Scarlett states she feels ill. Halley goes to class and finds her new schedule is wrong so she goes to the guidance counselor's office to sort it out. There she gets talking to Macon who jokes around with her and teaches her the "Jedi Mind Trick" (using one's mind to move things). Halley is a bit surprised by his sudden friendliness. Later that day, she finds out they have P.E. together. She develops a crush on him as he fascinates her with his unpredictable and wild lifestyle.

Macon mentions a party, casually asking her out and she says "yes". She and Scarlett later go to the party, where Macon doesn't show up. When the party host, Ginny Tabor, throws everyone out, they go back to sit on Scarlett's porch and Halley talks about how she doesn't deserve him. He later turns up at her window and tells her he did go to the party but he was in the attic so it was all a misunderstanding. He kisses her. Halley's nerdy ex-boyfriend, Noah Vaughn, is watching from the kitchen window.

While she is doing her chore of mowing the lawn, Macon turns up with a giant mower to help which pleases her father but makes her mother angry as it is supposed to be her job to mow the lawn. Her mother becomes very nosy and keeps bugging Halley about who he is.

Part II: Someone Like You

Halley and Scarlett are working when Scarlett pulls Halley into the bathroom and tells her that she is pregnant.

They tell Scarlett's mother, who books an abortion appointment. On the day of the abortion, Scarlett decides against it and calls Halley to pick her up from the clinic. Halley asks Macon to drive her there and he does. When they have picked up Scarlett, Halley's mother sees them and assumes they are just cutting class. She tells Scarlett's mother, who then enlists Halley's mother's help to sort a compromise. Halley is then grounded.

Halley has a birthday dinner the next day with her family, the Vaughn family, and Scarlett. Later, she sneaks out with Macon. He takes her to the quarry where they passionately make out, leaving Halley feeling as though the girl she used to be has left her and she has been replaced by someone new.

The next chapters are focused on the changes that happen throughout Scarlett's pregnancy and the pressures of Halley's relationship with Macon, who is constantly asking her to have sex with him. Although she thinks about it a lot she isn't ready and they start to become distant, which isn't helped by his secretive lifestyle. Elizabeth Gunderson drops hints about him cheating on her. Her mother is forever asking her about Macon and she dislikes him despite never having met him. Halley is forbidden from seeing Macon. Everyone at school finds out about the pregnancy because Ginny, who can't keep secrets, overhears them talking in the bathroom.

When Halley decides to have sex with Macon at a New Year's Eve party, Scarlett tries to convince her not to, and they get into a major argument that leaves them not speaking. Halley gets drunk before she can do it. When she throws up and leaves, Macon is furious because he thinks she has been just leading him on. While he is driving her home, he is too busy shouting at her to watch the road and they get into a major car accident. Before going into the emergency room, Macon holds Halley's hand tightly and says, "I love you." Halley is seriously injured. Macon doesn't visit. Her mother is disappointed in her because she does not know the truth about what really happened.

Part III: Grace

After Halley gets out of the hospital, Macon comes to see her at her window. Halley having had enough breaks up with him which breaks his heart because he then realizes he's in love with her. Her mother comes down and starts to shout at her for seeing Macon. Halley explains what has just happened. She also tells her mother how she feels about all the restrictions she has put on her and they come to an understanding: both of them will try harder to get on.

Next is prom with Elizabeth now dating Macon. Halley goes to prom with the family-friend and former boyfriend Noah. Noah gets drunk and rips Halley's prom dress. She gets angry and is forced into the bathroom where she bumps into Elizabeth. Elizabeth tells her that Macon still loves her but they are interrupted by the announcement that Scarlett is in labor.

Halley, Scarlett, Scarlett's other friend, Cameron try to leave but the only transport to the hospital is Macon's car. Macon and his now girlfriend Elizabeth (who appear to be in a fight) take them to the hospital. Halley calls her mother, who comes down and helps her through the labor.

After the birth, Scarlett names the baby Grace Halley Thomas and everyone turns up in the waiting room. The school prom-goers and all Scarlett's mother's friends all come together in happiness for the birth. After everything has calmed down and everyone has gone home, Halley starts to walk home alone, but she is happy, thinking about Grace Halley's life ahead and what she could offer her in life.

In 1895, the Royal North Surrey Regiment is called to active service to join the army of Sir Herbert Kitchener in the Mahdist War against the forces of the Khalifa (John Laurie). Forced into an army career by family tradition and fearful he might prove a coward in battle, Lieutenant Harry Faversham (John Clements) resigns his commission on the eve of its departure. As a result, his three friends and fellow officers, Captain John Durrance (Ralph Richardson) and Lieutenants Burroughs (Donald Gray) and Willoughby (Jack Allen), show their contempt for his action by each sending him a white feather attached to a calling card. When his fiancée, Ethne Burroughs (June Duprez), says nothing in his defence, he bitterly demands a fourth from her. She refuses, but he plucks one from her fan.

Harry confides in an old mentor and former surgeon in his father's regiment, Dr. Sutton (Frederick Culley), that he now realises he did act out of cowardice and must attempt to redeem himself. He departs for Egypt. There, he disguises himself as a despised mute Sangali native, with the help of Dr. Harraz (Henry Oscar), to hide his lack of knowledge of the local languages.

During the army's advance, Durrance is ordered to take his company into the desert to lure the Khalifa's army away from the Nile so that Kitchener's army can sail past. Durrance is blinded by sunstroke, and the company is overrun. He is left for dead on the battlefield, while Burroughs and Willoughby are captured. However, the disguised Faversham takes the delirious Durrance across the desert and down the Nile to the vicinity of a British fort. As he is putting something into Durrance's wallet, Faversham is spotted and mistaken for a robber. He is placed in a convict gang, but escapes.

Six months later, the blind Durrance has returned to England. Out of pity, Ethne agrees to marry him. At dinner with Ethne, her father, and Dr. Sutton, as Durrance is relating the tale of his miraculous rescue, he pulls out a keepsake letter from Ethne, the only thing he had in his wallet during the "robbery". A white feather and his card drop out, revealing to the others that his rescuer was Harry Faversham. Nobody has the heart to tell him.

Burroughs and Willoughby are thrown into a dungeon in Omdurman with other enemies of the Khalifa. Still playing the addled Sangali, Faversham surreptitiously gives them hope of escape and passes them a file, but arouses the suspicions of the guards. He is flogged and imprisoned with the others. He reveals his identity to his friends and organizes an escape during Kitchener's attack. Faversham leads the other prisoners in overpowering their guards and seizing the Khalifa's arsenal, where they hold until the arrival of Kitchener's forces.

Durrance learns of Faversham's deeds from a newspaper account and realises it was Harry who saved him. He dictates a letter to Ethne, releasing her from their engagement on the false pretext of going to Germany for a prolonged course of treatment to restore his eyesight. Some time later, Harry attends a dinner with his friends and Ethne, where General Burroughs (C. Aubrey Smith), Ethne's father, acknowledges that Harry has forced all of them to take back their feathers—all except Ethne. Faversham playfully makes her take back ''her'' white feather by the courageous act of interrupting the General in the midst of his favourite war story about the Battle of Balaclava to correct his embellishments; the irritated Burroughs complains that he will never be able to tell that story again.

Billy, a shy young man looking for a date, meets the beautiful Jenny Smith at a nightclub. They enter a relationship where Billy is bashful to tell Jenny that he loves her due to fear of being "trapped", and both paramours receive advice from their respective friends. The couple engage in sexual encounters while using barrier devices; during these encounters Billy is unable to reveal to Jenny his affection.

Then, one year after their first meeting, Billy and Jenny decide to take a vacation, and (hastily) sleep together without condoms or diaphragms. Soon after, Jenny discovers that she is pregnant, and argues with Billy, who accuses her of trapping him into marriage. The couple take bad consultations from their coworkers. Eventually, Jenny decides to go to a clinic to abort her unwanted child. Billy comes to his senses and stops her from doing so, resulting in the two confessing their love for one another.

The film ends with Billy and Jenny getting happily married and celebrating the birth of their child.

Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate when the body of an Italian diplomat is discovered in the River Thames, his torso horrifically mutilated. Fearing the political repercussions - the diplomat being in London to initiate talks regarding a secret naval treaty between the two nations - the Government entrust Holmes with the delicate task of uncovering the truth behind the brutal murder. Events take a shocking turn, however, when a young solicitor is found slain in the East End, his body similarly mutilated.

Divorcee Martha Tierney awakes to a phone call from the headmistress of her son's school telling her that Jonathan, her son, is not at school. Martha, an alcoholic, is disoriented.

Jonathan sneaks out early in the morning for a secret meeting with his father at a doughnut shop at 8 A.M. Jonathan leaves the house early and stops by a neighbor who tells him that the chosen doughnut shop is closed and he will have to meet his father in the street.

Jonathan is stalked by Lawrence Miller, a former professor who has lost his job over accusations of child molestation. When Patrick fails to show at the doughnut shop, Lawrence pretends to be a friend of Jonathan's father and lures him off to the zoo, then on to an apartment that doubles as a film studio for child pornography movies.

Patrick, Martha, the neighbors, and investigating detective Sergeant Mooney all work together to hunt for the little boy. Jonathan uses all his courage and resourcefulness to escape the sexual abuse that he knows is coming.

Ted Barton, having left Millgate, Virginia several years ago, returns with his wife Peg to find his hometown strangely transformed. Street names and landmarks do not exist as he remembers them, and the inhabitants of the town are similarly oblivious to their contradictory past. Peg proves intolerant of her husband's interest and abandons him while he explores the town.

While in Millgate, Barton meets three sympathetic locals: Doctor Meade, a family physician; his daughter, Mary; and William Christopher, a town drunk. However, Mary has a menacing counterpart—Peter Trilling, the deceptively young offspring of the town's hotel owner. After Barton's departure from Millgate is blocked by a permanently jackknifed logging truck obstructing the only route out of town, he discovers that Christopher remembers the town's erased past.

Christopher recalls an event entitled "the Change", which occurred eighteen years beforehand, after Barton had left Millgate. In his previous life he was an electrician but is now working to revert Millgate to its previous state of existence. Dr. Meade and Mary have the same agenda, as Meade's "Shady House" patients turn out to be "Wanderers", incorporeal former inhabitants of the erased Millgate who can communicate with Mary and certain others. Barton is able to revert objects, as well as an erased park, at which point Mary discloses that she is also aware of the Change and the prior Millgate.

Mary and Peter are in fact engaged in a low-intensity supernatural proxy war against one another. She can only use bees, moths, cats and flies against his control over golems, spiders, snakes and rats, and initially seems to kill Mary through his servitors. However, even this traumatic event is not enough to cause Dr. Meade to abandon the comforting illusion of his false human identity. Two vast, supernatural entities loom over Millgate, however, and Barton realises that Meade is one of them, as Peter Trilling reverts to his own, malignant divine self. He uses his servitors to attack Barton, Christopher and the Wanderers, but is stopped as Meade remembers his past, and reassumes his own divine identity.

At the denouement, Millgate finds itself in the crossfire of a battle between the twin but diametrically opposed demigods, Ahriman (the "destructive spirit") and Ormazd (the "creator") of Zurvanism. Ormazd eventually triumphs, and Mary reveals her own true identity as Ormazd's messianic daughter, Armaiti, who arranged for Barton's exile and return to the town when it was time to overthrow Ahriman's false illusion. The former Millgate returns to solidity, Christopher resumes his career as an electrician forgetting the Change ever occurred, and Barton leaves the town, having restored the "true" nature of the community to what it was.

Two student filmmakers decide to follow Tom Green on a trip across the US to Canada but get more than they bargained for. The crew witness Tom receiving insults and documents Tom's loneliness due to his fading fame. When returning to his hometown near Ottawa, things are not much better as the public continues to torment him about his past.

Before Tom and his crew know it, they are getting in trouble all around North America and frightening events force them to flee from the law.

The story begins when a small alien named Lu-Lu was floating around in space, she gets hit by a meteor and falls to earth. Meanwhile, on earth, Mickey and Minnie Mouse were having a picnic when they discovered Lu-Lu. At first, they thought it was a mushroom, but then Minnie (if the player is playing as Mickey) or Mickey (if the player is playing as Minnie) climbs on her and started doing poses for the player character. Then, all of a sudden, Lu-Lu started floating away with the other mouse still standing on it. It was up to the player character to go after them and find them. Towards the end of the game, Mickey and Minnie finally help Lu-Lu summon a giant alien space ship. Lu-Lu floats up along the tractor beam of the ship, and Mickey and Minnie say good bye to her as she flies back home to outer space in the ship.

Donald Duck works as a security guard in the Ducklair Tower. He falls asleep and starts dreaming of Daisy Duck and his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie teasing him. He wishes he was a superhero. An artificial intelligence known as One agrees to help him. He is given a future technological weapon, a new voice, and the new name PK. Before PK can begin his training, they are alerted to the Evronians attack on Earth, prompting One to send PK out to defeat them as 'on the job training'.

Picking up quite a while after the defeat of Clayton, Jane and Professor Archimedes Q. Porter now understand Gorilla-language fluently and Jane is married to Tarzan. However, their lives are threatened once again by a brutal band of British explorers led by the unscrupulous Oswald Gardner, who becomes fascinated with Tarzan and strives to capture the ape-man and take him back to England as a media attraction.

In post-Glasnost Moscow, the KGB stumble across an old disused training facility recreating 1960s London. They soon discover that the purpose of the facility was to integrate KGB agents into British society. Two of these agents are still missing 25 years later. In fact, the two agents have become integrated into British society so well they themselves have forgotten the reason they were sent there in the first place. They are as British as the British as far as they are concerned. One of them, Jeremy Coward, has become a successful City financier with a string of girlfriends, a posh car and a studio apartment. The other, Albert Robinson, is a hard-working moderate trade unionist living in Eccles in the north of England, with a wife, children and a council house.

One day, Albert's daughter hears a strange noise coming from the attic. Looking for his daughter, Albert also hears the noise and discovers an old radio transmitter. He recognises the Russian radio transmission and suddenly realises that his old bosses are out to find him. Scared for his family, he goes away for a few days and manages to locate his associate.

The KGB also begin to take action to retrieve the two rogue agents and send Major Grishina—a darkly attractive female officer—to the United Kingdom in order to bring them back to the Soviet Union. Her arrival alerts the CIA and MI5 that something big must be happening for the KGB to send such a high-ranking officer to Britain. Her arrival also shakes up the Soviet representatives in the UK. The chief KGB officer in the UK is more decadent than the locals and is originally discovered watching an American baseball game on the TV.

The action unfolds as the KGB pursue the two errant agents across England—hotly pursued by the CIA and MI5.

In April 1967, the office of Marvin Kramer, a Jewish civil rights lawyer in Indianola, Mississippi, is bombed by the Ku Klux Klan, killing Kramer's five-year-old twin boys and leading to the amputation of Kramer's legs and his later suicide. Klansman Sam Cayhall is tried for murder in the bombing, and is eventually convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Twenty-nine years later, in 1996, Adam Hall, a young attorney at the Chicago law firm of Kravitz and Bane, seeks assignment to the firm's pro bono representation of Cayhall in the last weeks before his scheduled execution. Adam is Sam Cayhall's grandson, his family having since moved away from the South and changed their name, haunted and shamed by Cayhall's crime. Adam is motivated to take the case in a search for some understanding of the dark secrets of his family, which prompted the suicide of Adam's father the year Sam was sentenced to death (and whose body Adam found as a child).

Adam is sent by the firm to Jackson, Mississippi to take over the case and there reconnects with his aunt Lee Bowen, an alcoholic socialite who has managed to avoid public association with her infamous father, and who warns Adam about the dangers of dredging up the past. On death row, Sam remains a brusque, bitter, unrepentant racist who brags about his participation in the Klan bombing campaign of which the Kramer bombing was a part, though he denies that any of the bombings were intended to kill. He taunts Adam for his youth, legal inexperience, anti-racism, and the suicide of his father, but he agrees to allow Adam to represent him, though he forbids Adam from seeking clemency from Mississippi Governor McAllister, who had prosecuted Sam in his last retrial and had campaigned on that prosecution in his election to Governor. Nevertheless, as he begins to argue the case, Adam is approached by the Governor through an aide, Nora Stark, who suggests that the Governor might consider clemency if Sam provides information about unidentified co-conspirators to the bombing.

As Adam investigates, inconsistencies in the facts of the original case come to light, casting doubt on Sam's intent to kill and suggesting that he lacked the ability to make the bomb himself, and both Stark and the original FBI agent who investigated the case indicate that the bombing may have been the result of a broader conspiracy involving the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and White Citizens' Councils, which were active at the time of the bombing in opposition to civil rights. Sam refuses to authorize Adam to seek access to the Sovereignty Commission's files, sealed by order of the state legislature, fearing it would expose Sam's former associates in the Klan, as well allowing the Governor to obtain useful information on political enemies, which he indicates is the Governor's real reason for seeking Sam's cooperation in unsealing the files.

Adam continues to work through the courts, filing and arguing motions for a stay of execution, including on the grounds that Sam was legally insane and unable to tell right from wrong, due to his indoctrination into the Ku Klux Klan. At the same time, Lee, faced with the unearthed ghosts of the family history and having lapsed back into full-blown alcoholism, reveals to Adam that in the early 1950s, as children, she and Adam's father had witnessed their father murder the family's African-American neighbor, Joe Lincoln, during a fight that had started because Adam's father, Eddie, had wrongly accused Lincoln's son of stealing a toy soldier. Eddie had blamed himself for the murder, as well as Lee, for failing to stop Sam, the guilt of which was a factor in Eddie's later suicide and Lee's alcoholism. Lee also reveals how their father had been indoctrinated into the Klan as a child, showing Adam a historic photograph of Sam as a young boy attending a Klan lynching (which Adam uses in his arguments before the courts).

Adam and Nora secretly gain access to the Sovereignty Commission's sealed files, which prove a wider conspiracy to the bombing, and also indicate the participation of an accomplice. The former FBI agent resurfaces, and reveals to Adam that the FBI had identified the accomplice, Rollie Wedge, whom the FBI had never been able to prove responsible, but who has reunited with other Klan members to commemorate the bombing on the eve of the pending execution. Adam goes to the Klan reunion and is beaten by several Klan members, and threatened at gunpoint by Wedge.

Adam's persistence, the revelation of how much Sam's hatred had destroyed his family, and his impending execution begin to affect Sam, and he softens, reconciling with Lee and expressing remorse for his actions and the effect they have had on his family. Sam forcefully rejects the Klan when Wedge visits him in prison to encourage him to remain silent, and it is revealed that Wedge was the one who had built the bomb and set it deliberately to kill. Ultimately, Adam's motions for a stay are denied by the courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Despite Sam's finally authorizing the release of relevant Sovereignty Commission files, the Governor refuses to grant clemency, betraying him and Adam, while nonetheless using the files as political leverage (as Sam had predicted). Wedge, identified in the files, is finally arrested. Ultimately, Sam is executed in the gas chamber, though Adam remains a confidant and advocate for his grandfather up until his execution, and he and Lee embrace at the end, in the hope that maybe the ghosts of the past are gone.

Daine receives a summons from some old friends—the wolf pack from her old village, led by Brokefang and his mate Frostfur, who are unhappy with the nobles ruining the Long Lake, their territory. They send messengers to ask Daine for help and then disappear back into the night to hunt while Daine discusses this over with her teacher, Numair Salmalin.

Numair agrees to help the wolves, but he decides that he first must visit the nobles in Fief Dunlath at a party to further investigate after they find the burnt remains of the Ninth Rider Group.

Numair recognizes a battle mage at Fief Dunlath, who appears to be wooing Lady Yolane. After Daine boldly approaches them about the threat to the wolves and the area with a warning that if they don't change, things will happen, the nobles all laugh at her. She retreats with Numair back to their quarters and they stealthily leave in the night from Fief Dunlath.

Tristan Staghorn, the mage in Dunlath is a war mage from the Carthaki university where Numair studied to become one of the 7 most powerful mages in the world. Upon discovering Tristan was there, Numair realized that the situation in Dunlath was worse than they had thought. He creates a magical simulacrum (clone) of himself and plays on Tristan's knowledge of him back in Carthak, where he was a "book-bound idiot." He explains to Daine that people who are Black robe mages study books and learn nothing practical. Daine seems to think he relies too much on the enemy mage's stupidity.

Shortly after this, Numair decides to go back to the city where King Jonathan is and warns him of something afoot in Dunlath. Daine stays to sort out the mess with her friend Brokefang and Numair tells her not to do anything extreme or he will lock her in the deepest darkest dungeon he can find when he gets his hands on her again.

Throughout the book, Daine reaches the next level in the development of her wild magic as she starts to share minds with animals, a useful ability as she uses the eyes of squirrels and other creatures to spy. This ability soon translates to gaining certain characteristics of animals once she returns to her natural body.

Daine discovers she has the power to morph into animals after Maura, Lady Yolane's somewhat plain and much younger sister, runs away from Fief Dunlath. Shortly afterward, Rikash Moonsword the Stormwing appears to be fond of Maura and he makes Daine rethink her theory about all Stormwings being naturally evil. Maura tells Daine about Yolane's plans to become Queen—a deal with Emperor Ozorne of Carthak, who is also hinted at causing the siege at Pirate's Swoop in the first book. In the meantime, Daine meets a basilisk named Tkaa, who comes to be an important ally and a partial tutor to Kitten, her dragonet. Tristan creates a magical barrier to isolate fief Dunlath from help. Daine learns that Tristan and his mage friends Alamid and Gissa are going to dump a poison called blood rain into the river at the north of Dunlath to kill everything living within ten miles of the river.

Tristan tries to hurt Daine with his magic, and Numair turns Tristan into an apple tree with a word of power, also causing a tree somewhere in the world to turn into a human.

Daine is sent with a delegation that includes both Sir Gareths of Naxen, Alanna the Lioness, and Numair Salmalin, to the Emperor Mage of Carthak, in hopes that she can smooth the international relations by helping with his prized birds. All seems well in the elaborate court of the charming emperor, who continues to proclaim his innocence in stirring up troubles in Tortall and seems to truly care for his prized aviary. This soothes the nervous delegation, though the situation is complicated by Numair, who had to flee Carthak and Ozorne's ire several years before.

Daine makes several friends in Carthak, including Numair's former teacher and close friend Lindhall Reed, Ozorne's heir and nephew Kaddar, and a marmoset named Zekoi. She also is reunited with the Stormwing Rikash Moonsword, who seems to bear her no significant ill will and in fact warns her several times about the trouble brewing in the empire. Despite her best efforts, she gets caught up in not only the political situation, but a religious one as well. Emperor Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe has been neglecting the worship of the gods, primarily the chief Goddess of Carthak, the Graveyard Hag.

To Daine's surprise and later chagrin, she realizes that the Graveyard Hag has given her the ability to revive dead bodies, which leads to a series of mixed episodes which includes the revival of an only partly assembled Archaeopteryx skeleton and culminates in the revival of a whole nest of dinosaur eggs and nestlings. The reanimation of the nest results in Daine killing herself and having to get forcibly revived by the Badger god. During the time she is "dead," she gets a brief image of her mother with a mysterious horned stranger.

Daine fights her newly given "gift," which cannot be taken away except by the Graveyard Hag, who has supreme power in Carthak as the primary goddess. It is noted that the only one more powerful in Carthak is the Black God, god of death, but she is his daughter and he listens to her in matters involving Carthak. The Graveyard Hag urges Daine, as her vessel, to act by causing chaos with the revival of the human dead to get Emperor Ozorne to remember the gods once more. Daine is understandably disinclined to do so.

During her time healing the birds, Daine realizes that the birds illness is caused by metal paint that they are eating saying that it tastes good (it contains salt as well as lead) When she tells this to Ozorne, he congratulates her and gives her a drug to make her sleep in her food. Meanwhile, the Tortallan party is planning to leave Carthak, but Numair will not leave his "magelet" behind.

Daine is rescued from the dungeon by Zek, who is very fascinated by keys. She then meets up with Prince Kaddar. He tells her that Ozorne had Numair killed. Daine is overcome with fury. Using her power to revive dead beings to create an army out of the hall of bones. While looking for Ozorne, she meets with Numair's ex-lover. Daine tells her that Numair is dead. Daine finds the Hyenas and transforms into one. Using their excellent sense of smell, they hunt down Ozorne. They are about to attack him when he stabs himself with the Stormwing feather given to him by Rikash. Ozorne turns into a stormwing and flies away with the rest of them. Daine turns around to see Kaddar, Lindhall, and Numair. Losing her grip on her Hyena self, Daine transforms into her human, naked self. Numair gives her his robe and tells her that a Simulacrum of himself was caught and "killed" by Ozorne, not the real Numair. Then, the Graveyard Hag comes and takes the power of reviving the dead from Daine. Four days later, Daine wakes up to find Alanna at her side. She then goes to talk to His Imperial Highness, Kaddar. He tells Daine that she can have whatever she wants for saving his life (his uncle was planning to have him accused of treason of plotting against him). Daine asks that the people who have wild magic and the emperor's mutes must be released from slavery.

In this final book of Daine's story, she and Numair are teleported to the Divine Realms. Daine's mother, Sarra, is now the Green Lady, a minor goddess of healing and childbirth in the northern provinces. Although it has been hinted at before, Daine's father is revealed in this book as none other than the minor Northern God of the Hunt, Weiryn. Despite her happiness at being reunited with her long dead mother.

However, getting into the realm of the gods is much easier than getting out, so, aided by the badger god and the god of platypi, Daine and Numair must travel a very perilous road to the dragons, to petition them for help in getting back to the city of Tortall.

It is revealed that Numair Salmalin harbored very strong feelings for Daine, though she had not believed it to be anything serious. After saving her life from spidrens, Numair forgets himself and kisses Daine, admitting he loves her very much. Daine also loves him, but the two have doubts about a lasting relationship because of their age difference; Daine is sixteen, and Numair is twenty-seven (as quoted by Tamora Pierce through interview). Despite this, Numair asks Daine to marry him in the epilogue of the book. Daine does not agree yet, but it is revealed that they do live together in another one of Tamora Pierce's books, ''First Test''. In ''Daughter of the Lioness'', two other books of Tamora Pierce, they are married and have children.

They go through many perils just to reach the Dragonlands. Two dragons agree to bring them back. In the mortal realms, there is a major attack on the city of Tortall. In this fight, Daine defeats Emperor Ozorne. Daine then has to decide whether to stay in the mortal realms as a mortal or live in the Divine Realms as a minor goddess with her mother and father. With some discussion with her mother and Weiryn, her father, she decides her true home is the mortal realm. Her mother promises to visit when she can.

Category:1996 American novels Category:1996 fantasy novels Category:Tortallan books Category:Atheneum Books books

Oscar had a nightmare where he is being chased by a hungry shark. He was woken up by Mrs. Sanchez and is kicked out from her apartment by repofish as he didn't pay their rent to them. Oscar then has to save all the items from falling before they are destroyed. He then removes all graffiti that had messages making fun of him, only to find out that the fish were just making up that message for another Oscar who lives by the canals. Oscar then tells the fish to remove the graffiti before the police can arrive. Oscar later stages a dance party through the news anchor, Katie Current to prove that he can defeat sharks. As he is dancing, Sykes, Oscar's boss, arrives and tells him to be in the Whale Wash on time before he does, leading to a taxi chase all over the city. Arriving at the Whale Wash, he sees that Sykes has snuck in first and Oscar must avoid detection from the Whale Wash guards to get to work on time before he can get fired.

The four adult sons of Katie Elder – John, who is a famous (or infamous) professional gunman; Tom, a professional gambler; Bud, the youngest brother, in his first year at mining college; and Matt, an unsuccessful hardware dealer – reunite in their hometown of Clearwater, Texas, (107 miles east of Dallas in northeast Texas), in 1898 for their mother's funeral, sharing regret that none of them has lived up to her high expectations of them.

The townspeople and new deputy sheriff are unfriendly, to John and Tom in particular. Katie Elder, however, was loved by everyone in the community, who were all aware of her honesty, her poverty, her generosity and her undying love for the sons who neglected her. The brothers want to do something for Katie's sake, and after an argument about marble monuments ends in a brawl, they decide to send Bud back to college. However, Bud wants to emulate his eldest brother.

Morgan Hastings, a gunsmith and rising entrepreneur, claims ownership of the Elders' rich ranch and access to water for his Hastings Gun Manufactory, saying he won it from their father Bass Elder in a game of cards. Bass was shot in the back that same night; the killer is still unknown. The Elders suspect foul play and, anticipating trouble, Hastings has brought in a hired gun, Curley. However, at first Hastings hides his hostile attitude towards the brothers, claiming that he offered to compensate their mother for the loss, but she refused.

A rancher named Striker agrees to let the brothers drive a herd of horses from his ranch in Pecos to sell to the miners in Colorado, on credit, a deal he started with their mother. When the wise, much-loved sheriff, Billy Wilson, asks Hastings some pointed questions, Hastings shoots him, framing the Elders. A posse intercepts them on their way back from Pecos with the herd. Billy dies before he can name his assassin, and a mob assembles to lynch the Elders. The judge insists that the Elders be driven to Laredo for safety.

During the transport, Hastings arranges an ambush using the deputized townsmen in the escort, except for Deputy Sheriff Ben Latta, who, despite his hostility towards the Elders, remains dedicated to his duty. Curley plants dynamite under the bridge, and in the explosion, Matt is fatally impaled by a splinter; John kills Curley, Bud is seriously injured, and Hastings kills Ben when he tries to aid the Elders. John and Tom succeed in beating back the surviving ambushers; they return to town to get medical help for Bud and barricade themselves in the smithy. John tells the judge, now acting sheriff, that they can prove they were miles away when Billy was killed. The judge allows the doctor to tend to Bud and sends to Laredo for a marshal.

That night, Tom sneaks out to kidnap Hasting's weak-willed son Dave, but Hastings wounds Tom in the back. Hastings follows and shoots and mortally wounds his own son in order to prevent him from telling John the truth. In John and the judge's presence, Dave confesses his father's crimes before he dies. Now vindicated, John takes up arms in righteous fury and pursues Hastings to his gunsmith shop. After a gun battle, John shoots a cask of gunpowder inside the shop, blowing up the building with Hastings inside.

Rancher Taw Jackson returns to his hometown to settle the score with Frank Pierce, a corrupt businessman who, three years earlier, got him wrongfully imprisoned and appropriated his land to gain access to a recently-discovered deposit of gold. Jackson plans to steal an upcoming $500,000 -shipment of gold dust from Pierce's "war wagon", an armored stagecoach surrounded by guards on horseback, getting his information from Wes Fletcher, an elderly wagon driver employed by Pierce to transport dry goods. The third member Jackson recruits for his five-man team is Lomax, a gunslinger and safecracker who shot Jackson as part of Pierce's earlier plot.

The fourth team member is Levi Walking Bear, a Kiowa translator, who Jackson and Lomax rescue from a gang of Mexican bandits. Jackson then sends Lomax to pick up the final member, Billy Hyatt, a teenage drunkard and explosives expert. When the team first meets to discuss their plan, Fletcher brings his teenage "wife" Kate along and flies into a jealous rage when Hyatt gives her some coffee.

Jackson and Levi negotiate with the Kiowas and, because Pierce is starving the tribe so he can take their land once they leave, they agree to help. Meanwhile, Lomax rides into town and is approached in a saloon by Pierce, who offers him $12,000 to kill Jackson. Hyatt, drunk, enters, and Lomax knocks him unconscious and gets him thrown in jail for the night when he starts to brag about the upcoming robbery. Lomax tells Pierce that he accepts the man's offer.

In the morning, Jackson sends Hyatt to Fletcher's farm. Hyatt finds Kate alone, and she reveals that her poor parents had traded her to Fletcher. Fletcher returns and threatens Hyatt with a knife, but Jackson arrives in time to defuse the situation.

Hyatt says he wants to use nitroglycerin for his part of the heist, so he, Jackson, and Lomax sneak onto Jackson's old ranch to steal some from Pierce, who now lives there. Jackson keeps Pierce distracted by pretending to collect some of his old things, while Lomax and Hyatt crack a safe and take the explosives.

The next day, Hyatt rigs a bridge with bottles of nitro, Levi blocks the war wagon's route with a felled tree, Lomax and Jackson set up a booby trap in a narrow gorge, and Pierce and his guards set out with the gold in the war wagon. Kiowa warriors create a distraction that briefly draws off the wagon's mounted guards, causing them to be just far enough behind that they are stranded on the other side of a canyon when the bridge explodes behind the wagon. Some more Kiowa warriors attack the wagon to get the gold for themselves, but a newly-installed Gatling gun forces them to retreat.

The fallen tree diverts the wagon into the gorge, and Jackson and Lomax spring their trap, killing the drivers. Pierce shoots the last two of his men when they try to desert him, but the second shoots back as he dies, killing Pierce. The wagon crashes into a gulch, and Jackson's team hides the gold dust in some barrels of flour on Fletcher's cart. Kiowa warriors arrive and Fletcher is killed when he attempts to stop them from taking the gold, but Hyatt manages to use the last bottle of nitro to kill the chief and scare the remaining warriors away. The explosion spooks the cart horses and, as they run, the flour barrels fall off and break open next to a group of Kiowas who are leaving their land. Unaware that there is gold mixed in, they gather up the flour to feed themselves.

Jackson reaches the cart first and finds, in a hidden compartment, $100,000 worth of gold that Fletcher was going to steal from his partners. Thinking they have lost everything, Levi returns to the Kiowas and Lomax angrily takes Jackson's horse as payment. When Hyatt arrives with Kate, Jackson gives them a small amount of the dust. He hides the rest, which protects him after Lomax finds out about its existence (or, at least, will until after he, as planned, reunites the gang in six months to divide the loot).

A group of criminals, led by the ruthless Alexander Ward, hatch a plan to steal gold bars from a bank vault in Deadwood, South Dakota. Ward sends one of his henchmen, Marty Jones, to set an explosion in a nearby gold mine; the detonation will act as a diversion for their heist. Although Marty, accompanied by local barmaid Natalie, succeeds in setting off the explosion, he encounters a beast in the mine. The beast kills Natalie, but Marty escapes with his life.

The next morning, the explosive goes off as planned, and Marty and his gang succeed in stealing gold bars from the vault. Led by a local guide named Gil Jackson, they set off to a remote cabin, where they hope to be picked up by a plane. Gil is initially unaware of their plans, but he becomes suspicious when he hears reports of the robbery on the radio and discovers that they're carrying handguns. They reach the cabin without incident but, once there, a violent snowstorm delays the plane's arrival. Marty's "secretary" Gypsy is taken with the young Gil and tells him that Marty plans to kill him once the plane arrives. Gil and Gypsy take off back to town together.

Marty, who still carries unpleasant memories of his encounter with the beast, has all the while been concerned about being followed. He encounters the beast again during the trip to the cabin, but his companions think he's losing his mind. Eventually, however, they become convinced of the beast's reality when they see it attack Marty's other henchman, Byron. Despite their fear of further attacks, the gang is set on tracking down Gil and Gypsy before they reach town, so they head to a nearby cave. Another snowstorm forces Gil and Gypsy to take shelter in the cave as well, which turns out to be the lair of the beast. In the final struggle, the beast kills the remaining gang members, but Marty shoots it with a flare gun before he dies. Gil and Gypsy are left to watch as the monster burns to death.

In Burundi, a British forensic anthropologist is examining the corpses in a mass grave, claiming they were all killed in an identical manner. When the woman digs her shovel into what she believes is another grave, an unseen creature attacks and violently drags her into the river. The UN soldiers accompanying her fire into the water, but only her mangled corpse floats to the surface - before being devoured.

In a New York City newsroom, television journalist Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) is assigned by his boss, Roger Sharpe (Patrick Lyster), to travel to Burundi with Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton), a reporter who deals with animal stories and has become interested in Gustave, a gigantic, fierce crocodile known to have killed hundreds of people in Africa over the years. With the killing of the anthropologist, Gustave is suddenly a story of interest to the world. Tim doesn't want to go, knowing that Burundi is a war zone, but he has little choice because one of his stories turns out to have been based on falsified evidence. Tim and Aviva are accompanied to Burundi by Tim's cameraman and friend, Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones), and herpetologist Matt Collins (Gideon Emery), who are intent on capturing Gustave alive.

At the airport in Bujumbura they are met by a government official Hahutu Mkwesa who goes by Harry (Dumisani Mbebe), who tries to delay their departure by warning them of unrest in the bush, caused by a dangerous warlord who has nicknamed himself "Little Gustave." Tim manages to overrule Harry by faking a call to Roger, and the team departs the next day being accompanied by two soldiers. When the party reaches the village where the last attack occurred they meet their guide, a licensed hunter named Jacob (Jürgen Prochnow), and are blessed by the local shaman; the friendly villagers assemble a steel cage in order to capture Gustave and take the cage to a nearby swamp. The first attempt to capture Gustave, by placing a goat as bait, fails, but Matt manages to shoot a tracking dart into it.

The next day, Steven happens upon the shaman and his family being executed by men working for Little Gustave and films it. While the others debate airing the footage, "Jojo" (Gabriel Malema), a teenage villager who helped set up the cage, uses himself as live bait to capture Gustave. The beast arrives and tries to devour him, but disappears, as Tim, Matt, and Steven race to rescue him. Meanwhile, Aviva catches one of the soldier escorts stealing money from a tent. The soldier knocks her down and attempts to rape her, but Gustave arrives and kills him. Aviva escapes unharmed and catches up with the others. The remaining guard relays over his radio that the Americans videotaped the shaman's execution. Just as the group realizes that the soldiers work for Little Gustave, the remaining guards, believing Jacob videotaped the evidence, wound him; Jojo intervenes, and shoots him. While Jacob's wound is being treated, Gustave attacks the group. Jacob recalls the story of how his wife, Ona, was killed by Gustave, and that he swore revenge. Jacob produces a grenade and detonates it as Gustave grabs him in his jaws and devours him, but the grenade fails to kill the crocodile.

The next day, a helicopter arrives to airlift the survivors, but a truck arrives with two of Little Gustave's men, who fire a rocket at the helicopter. The group ducks, except for Matt, who runs after the helicopter to stop it from flying away. Matt is rammed by the truck and shot to death by the younger of the two militia members, a teenager performing what is clearly his first execution. When the driver of the truck notices the rest of the group, Tim yells for them to split up. In the ensuing chase, both of Little Gustave's men are killed: when the truck crashes into the river, the teenager is thrown out and dies on impact, while the driver is shot by Aviva when he tries to strangle Tim.

Steven stumbles upon Gustave and struggles to escape. While Aviva stays with the injured Jojo, Tim goes to look for Steven, but finds only his camera. As they are waiting for help, Tim remarks to Aviva that he now understands the shaman's earlier words that "we make our own monsters." Matt had earlier told the group that crocodiles frequently feed on carrion, and there is no limit to how large they can grow, given enough sustenance; it is the bodies from the civil war, floating in the river, that have given Gustave a taste for human flesh, and allowed him to reach such a gargantuan size as the years go by.

Harry arrives in a Range Rover, but Tim realizes that he is actually Little Gustave upon discovering the shaman's necklace in his possession. Little Gustave wants the video evidence of the shaman’s execution. Tim attempts to trick Harry by giving him the GPS tracker linked to the dart on Gustave, saying it will locate the computer with the video. Harry forces Tim and Aviva to lead them to the "computer." While Harry holds Aviva at gunpoint, Tim and one of Harry's men follow the tracking signal to Gustave's lair, where the crocodile is sleeping. Tim finds Steven's mutilated body, and a combat knife in the scattered human remains, and stabs the guard. At the same moment, Aviva splatters Harry with Matt's container of crocodile pheromones and runs. Gustave wakes up and smells the scent of the pheromones, ignoring Tim and Aviva in favor of devouring Harry.

Tim, Jojo and Aviva climb into the Range Rover, but Gustave attacks through the rear window. Tim stabs the crocodile in the mouth with a machete. Gustave roars in defeat as the others manage to escape. Tim, Aviva, Jojo, and Wiley receive medical treatment and fly back home to America, watching leftover footage of Steven on his camera. The end credits state that the Burundian Civil War ended with a ceasefire in 2005, but Gustave is very much alive and still killing people in the Rusizi River of Burundi.

Count Dracula is an old vampire who, because of his advanced age, is forced to host tours of his castle to get new victims. In an attempt to revive his long-lost love, Vampira, Dracula sets out to collect blood from the bevy of ''Playboy'' Playmates living at his castle. However, one of the Playmates whose blood is drained is black, turning the revived Vampira into a black woman.

Dracula enthralls the hapless Marc to collect blood from three white women in hopes of restoring Vampira's original skin color. Dracula transfuses the blood into her but she is unchanged; however, her bite turns Dracula black. Marc and his love Angela race to destroy Dracula but are taken aback upon seeing Dracula's new skin tone. Their surprise gives the vampires time to slip away to catch a flight to Rio for Carnival.

In the opening scene, a civil servant named Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyosin sits alone in his room smoking a pipe and contemplating marriage. He has hired a matchmaker (Fyokla Ivanovna), as was the custom in Russia at the time, to help find him a bride. As the two converse, the audience discovers that Podkolyosin has been in search of a bride for quite some time. The reason for his not being yet married, however, owes to his own indecisiveness rather than the lack of a suitable partner. In fact, Fyokla has found him a nice young woman named Agafya Tikhonovna.

When Podkolyosin's friend Kochkaryov unexpectedly pays a visit and finds Fyokla at Podkolyosin's home, he learns for the first time of his friend's search for a bride. The fact that Podkolyosin has not mentioned it to his friend provides further proof of his indecision. Kochkaryov becomes outraged at Fyokla because she also married him, and his wife and he are unhappy with the marriage. Kochkaryov, after cleverly getting Fyokla to reveal the location of Agafya's home, informs Fyokla that her services are no longer needed and that he will proceed with the matter on his own.

In the next scene, Agafya and her aunt, Arina, discuss the issue of marriage and the matchmaker walks in on them. She informs the two women that several suitors will soon be making appearances at the home. Presumably, Fyokla has just made the rounds of the town in hopes of beating out Kochkaryov and Podkolyosin, as she will not receive any money if the marriage should occur without her help.

Besides Kochkaryov and Podkolyosin, three suitors arrive. The first is Yaichnitsa (which can mean either 'fried eggs' or 'omelet'). Yaichnitsa is overly concerned with the dowry and appears skeptical as to whether Fyokla has told him the truth about it. The second suitor, Anuchkin is a man of refinement and wants a bride who speaks French, a language fashionable among the upper classes, even though he doesn't speak the language himself. The third, Zhevakin, a retired navy lieutenant, has a detailed story about the time his squadron spent in Sicily, where, amazingly enough, no one speaks Russian. He is often mesmerized by female beauty. At this point, Podkolyosin and Kochkaryov arrive and everyone sits down to chat. Yaichnitsa almost immediately demands that Agafya make a decision, which makes her so uncomfortable that she leaves the room.

All of the suitors wonder what happened. Once they are alone Kochkaryov tries to scare off the other suitors by calling Agafya ugly, unable to speak French and her dowry worthless. Kochkaryov later pays Agafya a visit in her room and convinces her to choose Podkolyosin over the others (she herself was indecisive about who she liked best). The other suitors all come back and Agafya and Kochkaryov together tell them off until only Podkolyosin remains. After a great deal of pushing on the part of Kochkaryov, the two become engaged. Actually, Kochkaryov had to propose because Podkolyosin was still indecisive and wanted to wait another month before proposing.

Kochkaryov insists that the wedding must take place immediately as he has already ordered all of the food and the guests are waiting at the church. The bride and groom begin to get dressed and Podkolyosin muses to himself about the splendor of marriage. However, he soon changes his mind again and jumps out the window. After only a short while, Agafya wonders where he has gone. Everyone searches for him, and eventually they discover that he has escaped through the window and called a cab to take him home. The play ends with Fyokla scolding Kochkaryov for his sub-par matchmaking skills. If the grooms escapes through the door the wedding can still be put back on track, she says, but if he jumps out the window it is all over.

In the previous book, ''Merlin Book 9: The Great Tree of Avalon'', the evil sorcerer Kulwych made a pure crystal of élano out of the water from the White Geyser of Crystillia. Élano is the most powerful substance in Avalon and is known for its power to create life. At the beginning of ''Shadows on the Stars'', the wicked spirit Rhita Gawr corrupted this pure crystal of élano and thereby transformed into an anti-matter-like version of itself, called vengélano, which destroys whatever it touches.

Facing this danger, the three young heroes, Tamwyn, Elli, and Scree, must push their abilities to their limit to save Avalon. Tamwyn must somehow find and relight the darkened stars of the constellation Wizard's Staff. Elli must seek the crystal of vengélano and destroy it. Scree must confront his greatest mistake, which nearly cost him his life and the staff of Merlin, to help defeat Rhita Gawr's army.

Tamwyn, accompanied by Henni the hoolah and the small, winged creature called Batty Lad, leaves Avalon's root-realms – the seven familiar sections of Avalon, home to the greatest diversity of lifeforms – and enters the trunk and is separated from his friends. He discovers, among other things, growth rings of the Tree that tell its history; places where giant termites dwell; and the Ayanowyn, whose once glorious society has become a dystopia. When living with the Ayanowyn, Tamwyn learns that if a wreath of mistletoe were to appear among them, the one to whom it appeared would become their leader. While leaving the Ayanowyn to continue his travels, Tamwyn finds such a wreath and leaves it with his former host.

Because, as a rule, humans think of trees as being wooden, the description of Avalon's trunk as being essentially made of stone and consisting of such topography as exists in our real world creates some ambiguity. In Avalon's tree-world, a knothole becomes a valley, and the outside of the trunk becomes similar to a cliff, or to Amara, though Avalon's surface is less steep than Amara's.

In or near Merlin's Knothole, Tamwyn meets Ethaun, a blacksmith and the sole survivor of his father Krystallus' expedition to the stars. Ethaun shelters Tamwyn, reforges Tamwyn's broken dagger, brings him to visit Krystallus' grave, and gives him a globular compass. Tamwyn eventually discovers the stars that illuminate Avalon, occupying the niche held by the Sun in our world, and the niche held by the stars of our night sky, are "doors of fire" that lead to other worlds including ours and the spirits' Otherworld. To rekindle the constellation Wizard's Staff, Tamwyn must shut the doors of which it is made.

Elli, accompanied by Nuic, Shim, Brionna, and a priest of the order to which Elli belongs, called Lleu, seek the aid of the water dragons. When the aid comes slowly, they leave via the portals that link the seven root-realms; mistakenly to the realm Malóch, where they learn that Elli's former tormentor Llynia is part of a eugenic, genocidal effort to impose human rule. Escaping from Llyina's clutches with the help of a gnome whose life Elli had saved in the previous book, they continue with greater urgency.

In a dream created by Tamwyn's magic, he and Elli meet on a cloud. There he gives her a half-finished harp in replacement of the one he broke. In exchange, they kiss.

Scree returns to Rahnawyn, the realm of his birth and learns eaglefolk clan called Bram Kaie is destroying other eaglefolk. Having experienced their cruelty firsthand, Scree attacks the renegade clan alone. He has previously met their leader, Quenakhya, who had seduced Scree to seize the magic staff Ohnyalei. When he understood this, Scree had fled. On returning, he watches as Quenakhya's son challenges and kills her for leadership. Scree immediately challenges and kills him. On her last breaths, the dying Quenakhya reveals that Scree is the father of the warrior whom he has slain. Ashamed of himself, but cognisant of necessity, Scree takes the leadership of Bram Kaie.

In Hawaii, L.E.A.T.H.A.L. agents Donna Hamilton and Nicole Justin are confronted by underworld businessman Kane. As retribution for damaging his organization Kane has devised a "game" to hunt and kill Hamilton and Justin using six teams of professional assassins. They call their superior Lucas who orders them to leave for Las Vegas and meet up with a contact for further instructions. From his headquarters in Honolulu Kane and his mistress Silk orders the assassins into action while they keep track of their every move with a tracking device secretly implanted into Hamilton's wristwatch.

The first team fires on Hamilton and Justin's Jeep from a helicopter as they drive to the airport. After jumping out and taking cover, Justin takes down the helicopter with a missile-firing walking stick. They pilot a small plane to Honolulu, don disguises, and catch their flight. At Barksdale Air Force Base Lucas meets with Capt. Bruce Christian and Col. Richard Estevez whom he has personally recruited to help him stop Kane.

Hamilton and Justin meet their contact at an RC air show outside of Las Vegas. He tells them an airplane is waiting for them at Henderson Airport and sends them off with a large-scale remote-controlled Huey helicopter.

However, Kane's second team has tracked their location and fire on them on their way to the airport. During an off-road desert car chase, Christian and Estevez join in and pursue the assassins in a dune buggy. Hamilton and Nicole are saved when Estevez fires a rocket launcher at the assassin's car. They all meet up at the airport and take off.

Kane is informed of the failure of the second team and begins to lose faith in his plan. While airborne Christian and Estevez contact Lucas and tell him, they will arrive in Louisiana by dawn. Lucas sets up a meeting at Big Pines Lodge for noon the next day. After a sultry performance, Lucas informs his country music singing girlfriend and fellow agent Edy Stark to get ready for their new assignment.

Hamilton and Justin split up and take a seaplane while Christian and Estevez drive to the meeting. Kane already has his third team at the lodge disguised as chefs. As they wait for Lucas and Edy, Hamilton mentions two additional agents, Shane and rookie Atlanta Lee, will be joining them. As lunch is served a cat meows at Justin's leg. She feeds it a piece of food and after one last meow, the cat falls dead from ingesting poison.

Exposed the assassins run into the woods. Lucas, Edy, Shane, and Atlanta arrive and join in the chase. The assassins attempt to escape by motorboat but before they can get onto the water, Hamilton and Justin, drop a grenade from their seaplane and blow it up. They are captured alive and arrested.

Kane arrives back at his headquarters and begins to reveal to Silk his larger scheme to manipulate the American stock market but is interrupted with news of the third team's failure. Lucas and the others start to suspect a mole in the group. He decides to take the agents to a secure lake house. While preparing to leave Estevez kisses Hamilton but she rebuffs his advances.

The next morning two men ride their dirt bikes on a dock. While pretending to fish one of the men assembles a sniper rifle, aims it at Agent Hamilton but misses. The fourth team attempts to escape while Christian and Estevez give chase on dirt bikes. The first assassin crashes and is shot by Christian while Estevez kills the second with a grenade disguised as a baseball.

Lucas, Edy, Shane, and Atlanta plan to leave early the next morning by boat to pick up rifles. While synchronizing their watches Hamilton lends hers to Edy. While headed back the fifth team thinking they have tracked Hamilton and Justin appear on jet skis and fire at their boat. Lucas and Edy using the new rifles kill the fifth team.

Lucas decides to move again to his home in Dallas. Estevez accuses Atlanta of being a mole. At the same time, Hamilton's wristwatch burns Edy as she turns on a microwave dropping it to the floor. Estevez picks it up and Justin discovers Kane's tracking device that has been revealing their every move.

Kane calls Lucas offering a final challenge of hand-to-hand combat between Hamilton, Justin, and his final team. Lucas hangs up. After a romantic night with Estevez, Hamilton calls Kane to accept his challenge. The next morning, they are ambushed in the woods by two ninjas. Hamilton and Justin run away but they catch up. Justin hits one of the assassins with a baseball bat while Hamilton throws a ninja star into the leg of the other.

Despite their injuries, the assassins track them to an outhouse and hear whispering inside. Instead of the agents it's two dummies with wigs and a tape recording of their voices. With Estevez controlling the remote-controlled helicopter Hamilton and Justin each fire missiles on the outhouse killing the final team. Kane watches helplessly as his computer informs him that he has lost his "game".

While celebrating Estevez and Lucas reveals how L.E.A.T.H.A.L. can now track Kane with Silk working as their informant. It is decided not to arrest Kane but to keep track of his whereabouts and continue to disrupt his operations.

While searching for lost lumberjacks in Maine, three members of a search-and-rescue team are killed by an unseen force.

In Washington D.C., Dr. Robert Verne accepts a job from the Environmental Protection Agency to write a report about a dispute between a logging operation and a Native American tribe near the Androscoggin River or Ossipee river in Maine. Dr. Verne's wife Maggie accompanies him on the trip. She is pregnant, but is apprehensive to tell her husband as he is against having children.

In the town, the local paper mill director, Bethel Isely blames the Native Americans, dubbed Opies (short for "original people") for the missing lumberjacks and rescue team. The Opies instead blame Katahdin, a vengeful spirit of the forest that has been awakened by the activities of the loggers, which Isely describes as "larger than a dragon with the eyes of a cat". The Vernes are disturbed when they witness a confrontation between the Opies and Isley's bodyguard, Kelso, which nearly results in the death of an Opie, John Hawks.

The Vernes see several signs of environmental damage: a salmon large enough to devour a duck; a deranged, vicious raccoon; plant roots growing on the surface; and a bullfrog-sized tadpole. Hawks and his friend Ramona ask Verne to include Opie perspectives in his report. They believe the paper mill operations are somehow causing grave danger to the environment and people alike. Hector M'Rai, Ramona's grandfather, claims to have seen Katahdin and describes him as "part of everything in God's creation". Verne and Maggie tour the paper mill to look for incriminating evidence. Although Isely insists the mill has excellent safety protocols, Verne notices that Maggie's boots have mercury deposits - a mutagen that causes birth defects, it is used in logging as a fungicide and does not show up in water purity tests because it sinks to the bottom. Verne needs more evidence and determines to take blood tests from the Opies.

That night, the Nelson family, who have set up a camp in the woods, are killed by Katahdin, which appears as a large bear with one of its sides containing horribly mutated skin. Isely and Sheriff Bartholomew Pilgrim believe Hawks and the Opies are responsible and try to arrest them. However, Hawks escapes. Verne, Maggie, and Ramona take a helicopter to the campsite to investigate the killings. Verne and Ramona find huge scratch marks on the trees, while Maggie finds two mutated bear cubs, one dead and one alive, trapped in a salmon poacher's net. Forced to spend the night in the woods due to inclement weather, they nurse the cub back to health inside one of Hector's tepees. A distressed Maggie explains to Verne about her pregnancy and that she has eaten contaminated fish. Isely and Sheriff Pilgrim arrive and, upon seeing the mutant cub, accept that Hawks and his men are innocent of any crime. Katahdin arrives and attacks the camp in search of her cub. Pilgrim is killed, but the others escape through tunnels beneath Hector's home.

The next day, Isely tries to reach a nearby radio tower to call for help, but is killed by Katahdin. Later that night, she attacks the truck in which the others are driving away then decapitates Huntoon while he is strapped to a stretcher. The survivors swim across a lake towards a log cabin as Hector M'Rai gets mauled on the shore while confronting Katahdin. Verne drowns the cub when it attacks Maggie. Katahdin crosses the lake. She kills John Hawks and knocks over the cabin; which injures Ramona and knocks Maggie unconscious. Verne stabs and shoots Katahdin repeatedly, forcing her into the lake where she drowns. The next day, Verne and Maggie are seen being flown away from the forest, unaware that another mutated bear (the cubs' father) is still active within the forest.

The story follows the events of ''Guardian Heroes''. After the Undead Hero was returned to his rest, the heroes were given the option of becoming the Sky Spirit's perfect warriors. The group was divided, with Nicole, Serena, and Valgar joining the Sky Spirit, and Han and Genjiro refusing. Randy escaped back to earth on his own, leaving Han and Genjiro to fight a losing battle against their former comrades.

Years later, Zur returns. He resurrects Kanon and uses the power of the Guardian Heroes to take over the world. The few remaining resistance forces call upon the power of the Undead Hero once again, with one young soldier giving up his body to serve as its vessel.

Throughout the game, the character fights the previous heroes and earns their power. Ultimately, it is revealed this is another attempt by the heavens to create the ultimate warrior. In the final battle against the ruler of the heavens, all heroes gather to defeat it and subsequently leave for the Other World.

The series is set in an industrial estate occupied by the Spottiswood & Company factory, a small manufacturing plant producing a wide range of goods ranging from cuckoo clocks to windmill money boxes. Each episode focuses on a machine called Bertha that can produce any item requested of her. In each episode, the factory experiences a crisis affecting its daily production schedule, which Bertha invariably solves with the help of her factory worker friends.

A year after having been reactivated, Helm receives a message from his ex-wife, asking for his aid, and soon finds himself fighting to protect his family from an enemy agent.

Chaplin plays a character quite different from the Little Tramp for which he would become famous. In this short Keystone film, Chaplin is instead a rich, upper-class gentleman (Lord Helpus) whose romance is endangered when his girlfriend (played by Minta Durfee) sees him being embraced by her maid and jumps to the wrong conclusion. She angrily sends Lord Helpus away, saying she never wants to see him again. Distraught, when Lord Helpus arrives home he is determined to end his life. He swallows what he thinks is a glass of poison and envisions himself being tortured in Hell. Not long afterward, the girlfriend's gardener and maid explain to Minta that Lord Helpus was not flirting at all. Minta quickly sends a note of apology to Lord Helpus. upon reading it, Lord Helpus flies into a panic and summons an ambulance to help him before he dies from the fatal dose of poison. There is no danger of Lord Helpus expiring: His butler had stealthily switched the liquid in the glass to harmless water.

Chaplin's romantic interest in this film, Minta Durfee, was the wife of fellow Keystone actor Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

'''''Part 1'''''

In San Francisco in 1898, countless Chinese girls are sold into slavery and brought to the American West to live as prostitutes among the miners and railway workers. Capt. Billy Fender (James Russo) arrives in San Francisco and purchases five Chinese girls to be sold as prostitutes in Idaho.

In southeastern Oregon, Prentice "Prent" Ritter (Robert Duvall), an aging cowboy, arrives at the Gap Ranch to inform his cowboy nephew, Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church), that his mother died. Estranged from her son years earlier after he left the family ranch to become a buckaroo, she left behind a brief impersonal note informing her son that she left everything in her will to her brother Prent. Uncomfortable with her unfair decision, and wanting to reconnect with his nephew, Prent tells him about his plan to transport 500 horses from Oregon to Sheridan, Wyoming, where he will sell them to the British Army. He offers Tom 25% of the profits if he joins him in the business venture.

After purchasing 500 horses from various ranches in the region, Prent and Tom head out east with the herd toward the Idaho border. Along the way, Prent sends Tom into a nearby town to purchase supplies. At the local saloon, he purchases three bottles of whiskey. When the bartender attempts to throw out an Irish fiddler named Heck Gilpin (Scott Cooper), Tom intervenes and punches out the bartender. He hires the fiddler to accompany them on their venture.

Back on the trail, they meet Capt. Billy Fender and his five Chinese girls. Fender asks if he can follow along and Prent agrees. That night, Fender offers the cowboys sex with one of the Chinese girls, but they decline. Later, Fender drugs the cowboys' whiskey, and while they sleep, he steals their money and saddled horses and escapes with one of the girls (later given the name of #4), leaving the other Chinese girls behind. The next morning, the men realize what's happened, and Tom rides off in search of Fender. He finds him in a drunken sleep after he's raped the girl. For being a horse thief and other transgressions, Tom hangs Fender from a tree and heads back to camp with the girl.

Meanwhile, Prent becomes acquainted with the Chinese girls who are taught to call him "Uncle Prent". Unable to bridge the language gap, Prent assigns numbers to the girls, naming Ghee Moon (Jadyn Wong) #1, Mai Ling (Caroline Chan) #2, Sun Fu (Gwendoline Yeo) #3, Ye Fung (Olivia Cheng) #4, and Ging Wa (Valerie Tian) #5. He first tried to name Ging Wa #4 but she protests that 4 is an unlucky number. When Tom returns with Ye Fung, she is given the unlucky name of #4.

The group then continues east across Idaho. As the oldest of the girls, #3 explains to the others that these men are good and will protect them. Along the way, Tom teaches #3 how to drive the wagon, and Prent teaches #5 how to ride a horse. One night, #2 develops a tick fever. While Tom watches over her during the night, she dies. The next morning, after they bury her, Prent speaks over the grave: "We're all travelers in this world. From the sweet grass to the packing house, from birth 'til death, we travel between the eternities."

Meanwhile, a hired killer named Ed "Big Ears" Bywaters (Chris Mulkey) rides into the town of Caribou City, Idaho where he meets up with "Big Rump" Kate Becker (Rusty Schwimmer), the woman who runs the city and its illegal activities. Fender was supposed to deliver the five Chinese girls to Kate, who provided him with the money. She offers to pay Ed to bring the girls back to her, but he is more interested in abusing one of Kate's former prostitutes, Nola Johns (Greta Scacchi).

Back on the trail, Prent and his outfit meet up with two strangers, one of whom Prent identifies as Smallpox Bob, and proceeds to gun him down. He orders Tom to kill his companion and his horse. Smallpox Bob infected thousands of Indians by selling them smallpox-infected blankets. Afterwards, they burn Bob and his companion and their horses and blankets. As the flames rise, the ghosts of their Indian victims dance over the flames. That night, #3 notices a hole torn in Tom's shirt, and she mends the shirt while he sleeps. A silent attraction has grown between the two.

The next day, Prent orders Tom and Heck to take the girls into the town of Caribou City and find someone who will take care of them. In town, after finding a room for the girls, Tom meets Lung Hay (Donald Fong) who is able to speak with the girls in their native language. Lung Hay explains to Tom that the girls do not want to leave Tom, Prent, and Heck—that they do not feel safe without them. Later at the saloon, Tom and Heck meet "Big Rump" Kate, who offers them one of her whores. After they decline, she demands that they hand over the Chinese girls whom she paid for when she hired Fender.

Back at the girls' room, three men break in and attack the Chinese girls wanting to rape them. Nola Johns hears the nearby screams and rushes in to help them, only to be hit in the face by one of the attackers. Tom and Heck rush in, throw one man out the window and beat up another. They throw the third man to the floor, and Tom shoots both of his thumbs off. Nola begs Tom to take her with them for her protection. As they all prepare to leave town, Kate and her henchmen approach, but Tom draws his weapon and guards his party as they leave. Kate vows to take revenge.

'''''Part 2'''''

Prent and his group recover from their ordeal, as Tom stitches the wound on Lung Hay's head, and Prent treats Nola's broken nose. They decide to spend several days resting the horses by the Snake River. Prent sees two men fly fishing and wishes he could try it someday. At night the men talk about the unfathomable mysteries of women, and they all enjoy listening to Heck's fiddle music. They begin to reveal more about themselves. Lung Hay left his wife in China many years ago to follow the promise of gold in America. Nola turned to prostitution after her husband killed himself. Heck was educated back east, but the prospect of adventure led him out west. Prent and Nola begin spending more time together, but Prent—whose memory of his dead wife and seven-year-old daughter still haunt him—is cautious about his feelings for her. Tom and #3 also spend time with each other, going for long walks together. No one notices #4, who had been raped by Fender and again during the attack at the hotel, growing more depressed and withdrawn. One afternoon on the trail, she steps in front of stampeding horses and is killed.

Prent and his outfit continue east through Wyoming, encountering a band of Crow Indians who demand payment to pass through their land. They demand two horses. Prent insists on only one, but gives the Indians a small carved horse figure he made as the second horse. Further on, Prent and Tom sense that they are being followed. That night, Prent sits alone by the fire while the others hide nearby. Ed and his gang ride into the camp. They were hired by Kate to bring back the Chinese girls and kill the rest. Pretending to be Smallpox Bob, Prent scares them away with the help of Tom and Heck providing cover.

After passing through Cody, Wyoming, Prent decides to head north through the Big Horn Mountains and over a steep pass known as the Whale's Back in order to avoid Ed and his gang. Tom wants to face the horse thieves and kill them, but Prent remains adamant. They abandon the wagon and, although the way is steep, they manage to make it over with the horses safely. Eventually, Prent leads his horses safely into Sheridan, Wyoming, where he closes out the deal with Malcolm, who purchases the horses on behalf of the British Army. Afterwards, Prent and the others relax, bathe, and enjoy a good meal at Malcolm's home. That night, Prent gives Tom his share of the profits plus a bit more so he can start a new life, squaring things between the two of them. Prent admits that he had to sell the farm to finance the horse venture but by giving Tom a generous amount, he also squares things between Tom and his late mother

The next day, after Tom rides off to gather in some strays, Ed and his gang show up in Sheridan and kill Heck. In the ensuing gun battle, Ed takes Nola, Lung Hay, and the girls hostage, forcing Prent to throw down his rifle. Just as Ed prepares to torture and kill Prent, the aging cowboy yells out an Indian cry as a warning to Tom, who has just arrived back at the ranch. Tom rushes to the scene, aims, and shoots the gang members and wounds Ed. As the burly killer takes aim at Tom, Prent takes a heavy mallet and clubs Ed to death.

Sometime later, Nola and the girls prepare to board a stagecoach to San Francisco. Tom says goodbye to #3 as a gentle snow falls over them. She hugs Tom and boards the stage, but at the last minute, overwhelmed by feelings of love for the young cowboy, steps down with her bags. As the stage pulls away, Tom sees her standing there, and he smiles.

Time passes and then, in 1912 at Siam Bend on the Snake River in Wyoming, Prent is fly fishing on his ranch when his longtime friend Lung Hay approaches with a letter from Nola, who has been corresponding with him for fourteen years. She writes that the girls are doing fine, that she is pleased with the name of the ranch (a reference to Prent's earlier statement to her that he would never be the king of Siam), and that her love for him has never wavered. An epilogue then reveals that in 1913 Heck's parents had his body disinterred and reburied in Richmond, Virginia. It is stated that Ging Wa (#5) studied medicine at Stanford University and moved to China with Ghee Moon (#1) to start a hospital but they were lost in Mao Zedong's revolution. It is also revealed that Tom Harte and Sun Fu married, and their grandchildren still ranch in Wyoming. The epilogue closes by stating that Nola Johns was buried at Siam Bend on the Snake River and that Prent rests at her side.

Jon Lansdale (Michael Caine) is a comic book illustrator, whose relationship with his beautiful wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) and daughter Lizzie (Mara Hobel) is in danger. While driving, Anne and Lansdale end up behind a slow-moving truck and an impatient driver behind them. In the heat of an argument, Anne accidentally pulls back too fast while Lansdale is waving down the truck driver, causing his right hand to be completely severed. Anne attempts to find the severed hand but cannot locate it.

Lansdale starts a painful adjustment to not having his drawing hand, while Anne deals with the guilt of having caused the accident and tries to get closer to her husband. Lansdale attempts unsuccessfully to recover the hand himself, though he does find his signet ring that Anne gave him. The couple move to New York and Lansdale is approached by his friend and agent Karen Wagner (Rosemary Murphy) to co-produce his comic with another artist, David Maddow (Charles Fleischer). Lansdale however, begins to show signs of a mental breakdown, and when he shows the test boards to Karen, they are all marked up. Karen retracts her offer and fires Lansdale, who cannot recall marking up the boards while questioning his daughter about the incident. In a fit of frustration, Lansdale loses his signet ring. Anne is unable to cope with Lansdale's increasingly erratic behavior and general instability. Lansdale becomes jealous of Anne's yoga instructor and begins his slow descent into insanity when an encounter with a homeless man (Oliver Stone) leaves the man dead at the "hand" of his former appendage. It is not entirely clear whether or not this was a real or imagined event. Lansdale begins having hallucinations about various inanimate objects, such as a shower faucet, coming to life as a hand.

After his final meeting with Wagner, Lansdale comes forth with his intention to take an offer to teach at a small community college in California. At the suggestion of his friend Brian (Bruce McGill), Lansdale rents out a cabin in the woods for the time being. While the majority of his students fail to show an interest in comic books, Stella Roche (Annie McEnroe) is interested, and she also takes a personal interest in Lansdale. Annie insists on staying with Lansdale during the Christmas season and he begins to have violent hallucinations about the hand strangling her. That night, the missing ring reappears on Lansdale's pillow.

Lansdale and Stella begin a romantic relationship despite the latter showing an interest in Brian. Not long after, Lansdale meets Brian at a bar, but is confused as he should be on a two-week vacation with Stella. He soon learns that Brian hasn't seen her since she last went to Lansdale's cabin. Lansdale picks up Anne at the airport, but soon realizes she has no real intention of staying as she previously claimed. He hallucinates the hand strangling her, causing the car to crash in a fiery explosion. While his wife and daughter are at the cabin, Lansdale confesses to Brian that he slept with Stella. Soon after, Brian is killed in his car by the hand.

That night, Lansdale awakens to see the hand trying to kill Anne. Lizzie overhears the commotion and calls the police, and Lansdale chases the hand outside into the nearby barn. The hand tries to attack him, but Lansdale stabs it. The hand crawls to a nearby spare tire and explodes into a puff of smoke, before wrapping itself around Lansdale's throat and causing him to lose consciousness.

Lansdale awakens to find his left hand around his throat while the police investigate. The sheriff, and his deputies attempt to ask Lansdale what happened. Discovering that Anne is still alive, Lansdale attempts to explain what happened when the officers notice a pungent smell permeating the area in the carport around the car, specifically from the trunk. Lansdale tries to prove that nothing is wrong by opening the trunk, only to be horrified by the sight of Stella and Brian's dead bodies stuffed inside.

At a local insane asylum, a psychologist (Viveca Lindfors) attempts to communicate with Lansdale. She wants him to remember and admit that it was him, not his severed hand, who killed all the victims. He says that the hand wants to kill her because it hates her. Suddenly, the hand (which apparently existed all along) appears from behind the psychiatrist and strangles her. Lansdale, completely taken over by the essence of the hand, looks at her dead body and starts to laugh. He loosens the restraint on his other hand and gets up, presumably to escape from the asylum.

John "J. J." Johnson is a rookie deputy sheriff in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Because of his inexperience and race, he experiences tension with his white colleagues as their first black deputy. Although he initially clashes with Deputy Deborah Fields, the department's first female deputy, they strike up a friendship. While on patrol, Johnson backs up Deputy Bono when he stops a black man, Teddy Woods, at a gas station. When Bono runs Woods' drivers license, he finds a warrant for his arrest. Woods reveals he has a stolen pistol in his car, and the police officers arrest him.

Deputy Fields is the second deputy to the scene of a murder, but Detectives Baker and Hall dismiss her observations. Mr. Greenspan says a black man murdered his wife in a botched robbery, and the detectives pressure Woods to confess after they trace his stolen pistol to the murder. Woods defiantly proclaims his innocence, frustrating his lawyer, James Locket, who advises him to show less attitude in court. At the same time, community activist Reverend Banks raises awareness of the death of a black prisoner whom he believes to have been murdered by the police while in custody. Johnson dismisses the concerns of his family and girlfriend, saying there is no evidence of this.

While coaching Bono on what to say at the trial, Johnson's commander, Clarence Massey, learns that Bono stopped Woods because of his race. Frustrated, Massey instructs him to come up with a better excuse. Bono suggests a traffic violation and later requests that Johnson back him up. Johnson agrees, and Massey praises him for his loyalty and dependability while chastising Fields for her refusal to fit in better. At the trial, Locket points out holes in the police testimony, making Johnson wonder if he made the right decision. Fields joins Johnson in investigating what really happened. With help from a whistleblower, they discover numerous cover-ups that involve Baker, Hall, and Massey.

As the trial progresses and Greenspan's testimony proves problematic, Massey has Baker murder Greenspan to prevent him from becoming a liability. Hall, sick from cancer, dies at the station. Tensions rise as Johnson and Fields continue pursuing their own investigation, and they become further paranoid when Johnson insists they were intentionally given faulty intelligence during a drug raid. After Fields is hospitalized following an assault, Johnson and Baker come to blows. Massey breaks them up and temporarily places Johnson in a jail cell. When released, he delivers incriminating evidence to Locket that implicates Baker in various crimes, including the murder of the black prisoner and framing Woods.

The jury can not reach a verdict. Facing a widespread investigation of police corruption that goes to the city council and mayor's office, the district attorney offers to drop the charges against Woods. Locket, with the reluctant backing of a city councilman, instead pushes for a new trial, which the judge accepts. Bono turns state's evidence and testifies against Johnson, admitting that the two committed perjury. Caught up in the probe, Johnson pleads guilty and receives a suspended sentence. After the sheriff's department is disbanded, Massey retires, Baker is sentenced to four years and is in an honor prison while appealing. The unit is disbanded and the other officers including Bono are reassigned.

A man wakes up in a small concrete space bleeding from the abdomen. He can barely move and has no recollection of why or how he came to be there. Crawling forward he eventually meets a woman and they try to piece together their past lives.

The plot revolves around the inception of an archivist named Optronix as leader of the Autobots after the death of their previous leader, Sentinel Prime, at the hands of Megatron. Optronix stands before the Council of the Ancients: a group of beings who maintain a psychic link with and interpret the wishes of the Creation Matrix. The will of the sacred life-force is clear: Optronix is to be the new leader, despite his protests that he is not suitable for the role. However, he is chosen anyway and renamed Optimus Prime, unaware that a group of Autobots led by Grimlock are considering overthrowing Prime if he turns out to be too weak. Prime silences those fears by single-handedly defeating a trio of Decepticon assassins during his inauguration ceremony, but then horrifies the assembled Autobots by declaring the war cannot be won, and that they should evacuate Cybertron. Meanwhile, Megatron has become aware of the potential of the Matrix as a source of power and plans to capture it to power Cybertron's planetary engines, turning it into an interstellar Warworld under his control. The Constructicons fire the engines, devastating Iacon while Shockwave leads an attack on what's left of the Autobots. Prime investigates the engines, but is attacked by Soundwave, Ravage and the Insecticons.

Prowl, realising they can't hold much longer, sends Grimlock to find Prime. Optimus has beaten his pursuers but is confronted by Megatron himself. They battle, and are sent deeper into Cybertron's depths by the ever-traitorous Starscream, who tries to seize command but is opposed by Shockwave. Both Prime and Megatron are pulled into the Matrix and given a glimpse of the future - the events on Earth in Dreamwave's G1 series. Grimlock's team try to shut the engines down as Starscream orders their activation, devastating much of the surface. Grimlock finds Prime and is grudgingly impressed as Prime fights Megatron, trying to prevent him from using the knowledge of the Matrix to cause more evil. Optimus seemingly defeats Megatron and leads a counterattack that routs the Decepticons. Prime resolves to stay on Cybertron and stop the Decepticons, while Megatron is pulled out of the rubble, minus his memory of the events he witnessed within the Matrix, and why he originally wanted it.

Bumblebee in the second War Within series Set an unspecified period of time after the first series, Prime and Megatron have disappeared in a Space Bridge accident - the Space Bridge they go through that is configured just for one user self-destructs as a result of two going through. Without their leadership, the Autobots and Decepticons have split into smaller factions. Prowl now leads the Autobots, but Grimlock has founded the Lightning Strike Coalition, while Springer has established The Wreckers. Shockwave has taken command of the Decepticons, while Starscream has created the Predacons and Ratbat has established the Ultracons. Into this factional warfare comes The Fallen, a mysterious and ancient Transformer, who joins with one of the smaller Decepticon factions, the Chaos Trinity under Bludgeon, offering to expand their mystical knowledge if they serve him. Meanwhile, the Wreckers and Ultracons clash, and Ratbat reveals his secret weapon: Devastator, the combination of the Constructicons and the first Combiner group ever created - Ratbat unleashes him in flagrant defiance of treaties banning their use by the various factions. The Wreckers are saved from annihilation by the arrival of the Protectobots' combination, Defensor, leading to a clash of the combinations, with the Protectobots seeking to prevent a bloody arms race as everyone tries to acquire Combiners. After a huge battle, Defensor, after Springer tries to make the Protectobots regain control of their combined form, separates; Devastator himself is separated against his will at the hands of the Protectobots using a plug transmission of a powerful shock into his body in a sabotage strategy, and the Ultracons, now foiled, retreat.

The Fallen, with the help of the Chaos Trinity, now begins his plans to acquire four Transformers for a mysterious ritual, manipulating the Autobots into attacking a new Decepticon mobile command base which turns out to be Trypticon, who decimates them with ease. Realising that someone is manipulating them, Jetfire calls a truce with Shockwave to compare notes. They are attacked by the Chaos Trinity, who dispatch Shockwave and capture Jetfire. However, Grimlock, believing that Jetfire has sold out his comrades, then arrives and cuts his way through the acolytes before being beaten senseless by the Fallen and acquired. As the Trinity prepare the ritual by capturing Hot Spot, the Fallen invades the Autobot base to capture Blitzwing who is in lockdown in a capture cell. While the Fallen, now with his four targets secured, prepares to break the Seal of Primus, Shockwave's Decepticons arrive and gun down the Trinity before allying with Prowl's Autobots to deal with the threat. Grimlock and Jetfire also form a truce to prevent the Fallen from completing his ritual and Primus himself kills the Fallen. The various factions agree to seal off the chamber together. Jetfire, however, believes that a bigger threat may appear... as the shadowed shape of Unicron appears in the far distance.

The series is set a short time after ''The Dark Ages''. The defeat of the Fallen has united the Autobots, with Ultra Magnus acting as overall commander. They have pushed back the various Decepticon factions, to the point where peace talks have been agreed between the Autobots and both the Decepticons and Ultracons. Starscream's Predacons are determined to disrupt the talks, attacking the ceremony and killing most of the High Council. However, the other three factions unite to drive them off, with Motormaster gravely wounding Grimlock as he takes a fatal shot meant for Magnus. Afterward, all of the factions are taken by surprise when they are attacked by a huge army of Seeker clones, commanded by none other than Megatron.

As Megatron reunites the Decepticon factions and punishes Starscream for stealing his thunder, Megatron's clones chase down every last Autobot. His forces begin to drill deep into the planet, uncovering a sentient computer network known as the Source, as Perceptor and several other escaped Autobots prepare to fight back. Megatron bargains with the forces who created his army as Nightbeat analyzes a captured clone. Meanwhile, Perceptor sends the Turbomasters to his lab, thinking they can locate the missing Optimus Prime. However Flash tinkers about with the equipment and is beamed to another world. Dreamwave's closure meant the series was halted at issue #3, but information and images released indicate that Flash would have found Optimus Prime and returned to battle Megatron.

In 1988 Brooklyn, New York, Bobby Green is the manager of the El Caribe nightclub in Brighton Beach, which is frequented by Russian mobster and drug lord Vadim Nezhinski and owned by Vadim's uncle Marat Buzhayev.

Bobby has distanced himself from his father, NYPD Deputy Chief Burt Grusinsky, and his brother, Captain Joseph Grusinsky. Bobby uses his mother's maiden name, Green, as his last name and stays on the sidelines enjoying a hedonistic life with his girlfriend Amada Juarez and best friend Louis "Jumbo" Falsetti.

When Joseph leads a police raid on El Caribe in hope of arresting Vadim, Bobby refuses to cooperate. The incident strains Bobby's relationship with his father and brother even more, and Bobby and Joseph come to blows.

The police are unsuccessful in making a case against Vadim, who decides to retaliate. The next evening, Joseph is shot by a masked assailant and his unmarked police cruiser is firebombed. Joseph survives the ambush and is hospitalized for four months. Vadim, unaware of Bobby's family ties, confides that the Chief will be the next victim. Bobby resolves to help the police and, without his father's knowledge, goes undercover inside Vadim's cocaine-smuggling operation with a police listening device hidden in a cigarette lighter. The device is discovered and Bobby narrowly escapes being murdered as the police raid the operation and arrest Vadim.

Bobby and Amada are placed in protective police custody and their relationship begins to deteriorate. When Vadim escapes custody while being transported to a hospital, Burt and the police prepare to move Bobby and Amada to a new location. During a torrential rainstorm the police convoy is intercepted by Vadim's men, and during a chaotic car chase Burt is fatally shot. When he sees his father's body, Bobby blacks out in the rain.

The police take Bobby and Amada back to their motel near Kennedy Airport. Bobby wakes up a few hours later and finds Joseph in the motel room. Joseph tells him that their father has been shot and killed. At the funeral, a colleague of Joseph's, Captain Jack Shapiro, gives him Burt's Korean War medal. Bobby is told that a Russian shipment of cocaine is arriving sometime in the coming week.

To avenge his father, Bobby decides to officially join the police force without the consent of Amada, who leaves him. After he is sworn into the NYPD, Bobby learns the true involvement of Jumbo and Marat. He and Joseph organize a final sting operation, set for April 4, 1989. During the raid, Joseph is emotionally incapacitated by the memory of his shooting and cannot continue. Vadim flees into the reed beds, and the police toss in flares to smoke him out. As the beds are engulfed in flame and smoke, Bobby runs in to find Vadim himself, ignoring the other officers' pleas that he wait. Bobby shoots Vadim in the chest, mortally wounding him.

Nearly a year after the raid on El Caribe, Bobby, now in uniform, graduates from the NYPD Police Academy to become a full-time police officer. Before the ceremony, Joseph reveals to Bobby that he has decided to switch to a job in the administration sector, since the shooting led him to realize that he needs to spend more time with his children. As the chaplain announces that Bobby is to give the valedictorian address, Bobby thinks he sees Amada in the audience, but it turns out to be an illusion. Bobby and Joseph express their brotherly love.

The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Taking place in Cambridge, England and in Prague, the play contrasts the attitudes of a young Czech PhD student and rock music fan, who becomes appalled by the repressive regime in his home country, with those of his British Marxist professor, who unrepentantly continues to believe in the Soviet ideal.

The play takes place over several decades from the late 1960s until 1990, ending with a concert given by The Rolling Stones that year in Prague. Recurrent references are made to a glimpse by one of the main characters of the young Syd Barrett performing ''Golden Hair''. Barrett's physical and mental decline also plays a role in the drama (Barrett in fact died during the play's run). The underground Czech group The Plastic People of the Universe are held up by another character as an ideal of resistance to Communism. The poetry of Sappho is another recurrent motif; its pagan sensualism is implicitly compared with the anarchic erotic force of Rock music.

One of the characters, a Czech writer, is named Ferdinand as an homage to Václav Havel. Havel wrote three plays with a protagonist named Ferdinand Vaněk, a stand-in for Havel himself. These plays were distributed by samizdat and became a symbol of the resistance. A number of Havel's friends then wrote their own Vaněk plays with Ferdinand Vaněk as a character. Stoppard continues in that tradition.

This play is one of several works in Stoppard's ''oeuvre'' concerned with artistic dissent against the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia: ''Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth'' also concerns this, as does ''Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'' and ''Professional Foul''.

The episode opens with the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard unit in Eastgate cinema. They are watching the film Conquest about Napoleon, in particular a scene where he says goodbye to Marie Walewska, his mistress.''Dad's Army: The Complete Scripts'' A panning shot moves across the faces of the platoon while they are watching, Mainwaring looking superior, Wilson looking bored, Frazer muttering "rubbish", Pike sucking his thumb, Godfrey asleep, Walker with his arms around a blonde girl, and Jones looking dreamy. After the film ends "God Save the King" begins playing, but the platoon all stampede out apart from Mainwaring who gets knocked over in the rush but struggles up to stand to attention while the anthem plays to a now empty cinema.

The platoon is next seen on the upper deck of a bus going back to Walmington-on-Sea. Mainwaring asks the platoon what they thought of the film. Sponge says they should have sat at the front as he could not see. Mainwaring says he was disappointed – he thought the film would have been about strategy and tactics but consisted of Greta Garbo being chased around a four poster bed. Walker replies that that ''is'' strategy and tactics.

Wilson and Mainwaring are given their tickets by an attractive bus conductress who Mainwaring takes a fancy to. When Walker, Pike and Jones start larking about then singing the ribald song "Roll Me Over in the Clover" Mainwaring stops them and apologises to the bus conductress. She is grateful and says he is "very gallant". Warden Hodges arrives, and teases the platoon for going to the cinema and not being ready for Hitler. Whilst buying a ticket he asks the bus conductress for a "tickle at the terminus". Mainwaring is furious and intervenes again, and is thanked by the bus conductress. He then instructs the platoon that after their disgraceful behaviour in the cinema, they are to let him go off the bus first and in an orderly fashion. When the bus stops at Walmington, Hodges lets him get halfway down the bus then shouts "It's closing time in five minutes", thus causing Mainwaring to get knocked over again in the stampede as the platoon rush for the pub.

Later, the platoon are on parade. Frazer gives a long rambling explanation of how he complained to the manager about the "sheer historical inaccuracies of the film", but eventually admits sheepishly that he got his money back. Mainwaring berates them for the two examples of bad behaviour. They apologise, but he responds by saying that "fine words butter no parsnips". This provokes a discussion in the ranks, about how you cannot get butter, or parsnips (with Walker offering to obtain both), until he says that the platoon will have to stand to attention whilst Sergeant Wilson plays the National Anthem on the gramophone 6 times. They stand to attention, but Wilson plays the German National Anthem "Deutschland Über Alles" by mistake, and is half asleep so Mainwaring has to shout at him to take it off. He and Wilson go to Mainwaring's office, where they find the vicar at his desk, who refuses to get out of the way for Mainwaring. Whilst Jones continues to play the National Anthem at an increasing speed, Mainwaring and the vicar have to stand, then race to sit on the chair, like musical chairs.

The next scene is in Mainwaring's office after the parade. Walker arrives and gives Sgt Wilson two bottles of Black Market stout, and presents Mainwaring with some similarly sourced cheddar cheese. Mainwaring excuses this to Wilson by saying it is for his vegetarian wife. He rings her to spring this 'toasted cheese supper' surprise on her, but she gets the wrong idea on the phone and says she has a headache and is going to bed. Mainwaring is disappointed, but Wilson suggests they eat the cheese between them. Mainwaring is touched, then Jones arrives and, tempted by the cheese, offers some kidneys if he can join them. Cut to the end of the feast, when Jones tells a wonderful rambling story about a native girl he nearly married in the Sudan. Mainwaring leaves to go home, suggesting that the bus conductress they met earlier would not have turned down a toasted cheese supper.

The next scene is in Mainwaring's Anderson shelter in his garden. He is having a restless night after eating the (rather indigestible) meal with Wilson and Jones. He takes some bismuth (indigestion) tablets.

The scene now shifts, and we see Mainwaring dreaming that he is Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. It features the rest of the cast in various roles, including Wilson as Wellington, flanked by Frazer as Gordon of the Highlanders and Hodges as a senior officer. Sponge is Marshal Ney, Walker is "Captain Gerald" in the cavalry, Jones is a French Corporal, Pike is a French drummer boy and Godfrey is a French artillery man. Many catch phrases and actions are used: "put those lights out", "you stupid drummer boy", Private Godfrey's upside down cakes, "Oi, Napoleon", and also some phrases from earlier in the episode, such as Sponge saying "we should have sat down the front, in the ninepennies" when Mainwaring complains that he cannot see the battle. At the surrender, Wilson acts very superior, for instance asking Mainwaring for his full name and address, and refusing to let Mainwaring borrow his pen. Mainwaring says farewell to his troops, with great comic effect. Hodges then tells the troops that the Duke will buy them all a drink, and in the stampede they knock Mainwaring over into the mud.

Mainwaring is next seen just before being exiled to Elba, standing next to the bus conductress, who is dressed as Marie Walewska. They exchange farewells, then Mainwaring wakes up, to find that he has overslept and he has a rude note from his wife complaining that he didn't come home last night.

When Dora and Boots are looking up at outer space, a flying saucer containing five aliens (Flinky, Inky, Plinky, Dinky, and Al) from the Purple Planet lands on Earth. However, the saucer falls apart, and Dora and Boots have to get the aliens back to the Purple Planet. Isa has a rocket ship that Dora and Boots can borrow, which is located on top of the Tall Mountain. To get there, Dora and Boots first need to cross the Turtle River, get past the Icky Sticky Sand, swing over Crocodile Lake, and climb up to the top of the mountain. When they reach the top of the mountain, Dora and Boots launch themselves into outer space. When Dora and Boots get to the Purple Planet, they receive a present from the aliens to fly back to Earth.

The story starts as the Princess Daphne is captured by the dragon Singe commanded by the wizard Mordroc. Dirk sees this as he is riding his horse, Bertram, and unsuccessfully tries to rescue her. Daphne is taken through a portal, but leaves behind an amulet that allows her to talk to Dirk as he works his way through the castle withholding her. Daphne explains to Dirk how the wizard has become extremely powerful and would be undefeatable without the help of the Dragon Essences: magical objects that grant their users abilities and are each guarded by the strongest beings in the castle. Dirk manages to find the princess and goes into battle with Singe, largely mirroring the original arcade's version of the fight. As the knight walks away with the princess in his arms, he notices a different reflection in a nearby crystal and drops her to find that she is really a dark alter-ego version of himself in disguise. The evil Dirk laughs at the hero for almost falling for his trap and goes on to explain how he is one of the beings holding an essence and that long ago, those who held the essences grew corrupt, thus a civil war between the forces broke out. Dirk defeats the alter-ego and goes onto gather the rest of the essences, but as he gains a magical set of arrows that are the only weapon capable of dispatching the wizard, Daphne begins to chastise Dirk for picking them up. Soon after, it is revealed that the Daphne speaking to Dirk up to this point was Mordroc impersonating her (much like in ''Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp''). Nevertheless, Dirk travels to where the princess is held captive and duels the wizard, who transforms into a dragon. Ultimately, he is defeated by the magical arrows and the knight saves the princess.

A story by Henry Lawson, was written in 1902 and included in Triangles of Life (1913). The story records the return home to his farm on New Year's Eve of a poor carpenter, who discovers that his three children and the household chores have been neglected by his neurotic and slatternly wife; after cleaning up and attending to his family during the night, the workman returns to his trade next morning. The setting of the story (Pipeclay), the fact that the foreign father's name is Nils, and the tension between the parents, suggest that the story is autobiographical.

The story begins on New Year's Eve, with a father pacing steadily and hopelessly through the smothering darkness. He arrives home to his cold and uninviting hut.

The man's oldest son emerges from the darkness. He had been feeling sick, he says. But he is better now. He would like to help his father with the cooking and cleaning, but has neither the knowledge nor the means to do so.

The man's wife, Emma, calls from her bedroom. She is currently ''"bad again in the head"'' and whines constantly about her husband's utter uselessness. Everything is his fault. The following morning, New Years Day, the man rises from his sleep and leaves for the farming town at which he works. But the new year brings neither hope nor relief- it is just the beginning of another bleak, unpromising cycle of life. ''"And the old year died as many old years had died."''

New Secret Service agent Mike Connelly, assigned to protect President-elect Jack Cahill, becomes uneasy having to protect a person who is having an affair with a friend's wife. Connelly feels even worse about it after preventing an assassination attempt aboard Cahill's plane where a flight attendant is accidentally killed in the process. Sensing Connelly's discomfort around Cahill, his boss reassigns him to the team that protects the "nuclear football" as soon as Cahill becomes president.

In the film, the "nuclear football" briefcase contains a high-tech laptop computer, which can only be operated through a two key system (one key operated by the president and the other by the agent on "football duty") along with thumbprint and eye retina scans from the President. In real life, the football still uses paper playbooks and an officer of the military guards/carries the football.

After the newly inaugurated president has been planning a meeting with Fung, the President of Taiwan, to discuss the strained relationship between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, one of the Secret Service agents returns home to find that his family is being held hostage by some men who are later revealed to be Fung's henchmen. They force him to participate in a plot to steal "the football". When Presidents Cahill and Fung are in Taiwan aboard Fung's ship, the latter insists that he feels that peaceful co-existence with mainland China may no longer be possible and that drastic action must be taken to ensure China does not invade Taiwan. Soon afterwards, Fung's henchmen begin killing all the other agents, leaving Mike Connelly as the only loyal Secret Service agent left.

Fung's men, along with Fung's girlfriend Iris, are successful in stealing the football, and Fung forces Cahill to activate it (by knocking him unconscious to get his thumbprint and eye retina scans), explaining that he will use the US's ICBMs to launch a nuclear strike on China. He hopes that this will lead a revolution among his people towards "a new beginning" of Taiwanese freedom, pointing out that since he alone controls all of the US's missiles, he would not have to worry about a mutually assured destruction of both China and the United States. Only the United States should worry when China retaliates.

Meanwhile, Vice President Valdez is informed of the situation and Fung makes a phone call to her explaining that he has seized control of the United States' nuclear missiles and will launch one against Beijing unless both China and the United States within 24 hours recognize Taiwan's independence and that the United States promises to use its full military might against China if it tries to invade Taiwan. Valdez insists that this would never be possible and later Fung follows through with his threat, launching a first strike against Beijing using an ICBM from Nebraska.

Valdez first contacts the President of Russia to assure that the missile is not targeted towards Russia. Then Valdez contacts Chairman Tzu of China to explain the situation and that the United States did not launch the missile and is therefore not responsible. She also offers to give Tzu the chance to shoot the missile out of the sky but Tzu angrily points out that this would be impossible. It is then that he gives the order to launch a retaliatory strike against the United States using one of China's ICBMs, which he calls "an eye for an eye". True to his word, the missile is targeted for Washington, D.C.

After Beijing and later Washington are destroyed, Tzu launches a second strike using several of China's missiles as further retaliation for the destruction of China's capital. Meanwhile, Iris is revealed to Agent Connelly to be an undercover Chinese agent whose assignment was to recover the football and return it to Beijing. But even she had no idea Fung would actually launch missiles against her country, and points out that China would no doubt retaliate against the US in response to the attack, thus she points out now they both have a common interest. Together they are able to escape Fung's ship and follow Fung and the still kidnapped President to Hong Kong. They are both ultimately successful in taking out all but one of Fung's henchmen, all of which are rogue elements of the People's Liberation Army. The last remaining one strangles Iris to death however and continues his search for Agent Connelly.

Meanwhile, Connelly finds President Cahill held at gunpoint by Fung who still has the football. Fung along with Agent Thornton orders Connelly to surrender or else either Fung or Thornton will kill the President. It is then Cahill says for Connelly to "remember your duty". Fung at first thinks he means the duty of protecting the President, but then Connelly points out that he is on football duty and that it's "some other guy's job" to protect the President. Connelly shoots the President in the leg which shocks Fung and distracts him just long enough to allow Connelly to take him and Agent Thornton out. Connelly and President Cahill now are in control of the football and begin the process of deactivating it. The last of Fung's henchmen however, is able to fatally wound the President before Connelly can take him out. But not before President Cahill is successfully able to deactivate the football. By doing so, Vice President Valdez and NORAD have regained control of the United States' nuclear arsenal.

Valdez gives this news to Chairman Tzu and says that he may now order the destruction of his missiles. Tzu refuses, thinking Valdez is bluffing. Valdez then gives the order to NORAD that "Stage One is a go", which Tzu is horrified to find out is in fact a launch of several of the US's ICBMs. Valdez warns Tzu has one minute to destroy his missiles, and if he does, Valdez will destroy her missiles and points out to Tzu that he does not want to know what "Stage Two" is. Just when it seems all hope is lost however, Tzu complies with Valdez's instructions and destroys all his missiles which soon afterwards Valdez does the same with hers. Thus a major nuclear war was narrowly averted. At the end of the film, it has been implied that Valdez was elevated to the presidency, giving a speech to the American people about the challenges that go with her new responsibilities. She reminds them not to lose hope.

The film details the story of the 17th-century social reformer and writer Gerrard Winstanley, who, along with a small band of followers known as the Diggers, tried to establish a self-sufficient farming community on common land at St George's Hill ("Diggers' Hill") near Cobham, Surrey. The community was one of the world's first small-scale experiments in socialism or communism, and its ideas were copied elsewhere in England during the time of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, but it was quickly suppressed, and in the end left only a legacy of ideas to inspire later generations of socialist theorists.

The story opens in the winter of 1799–1800 when "until three months before, [Hornblower] had been a prisoner in Spanish hands." He is the most junior of five lieutenants in the ship of the line HMS ''Renown''. The ship has just captured a French vessel, and one of the prisoners is recognised as Irish revolutionary Barry McCool. Admiral William Cornwallis gives Hornblower the distasteful task of arranging McCool's execution for desertion from the Royal Navy.

Cornwallis insists that McCool is to make no final speech before his execution, so that he cannot try to incite mutiny among the Irish sailors in ''Renown'''s crew. Hornblower is unwilling to prevent McCool speaking by gagging him. However, in return for a promise by McCool not to speak before he is hanged, Hornblower agrees to send McCool's only possession, a sailor's sea chest with his name "B I McCOOL" in raised letters on the carved lid, to his widow, along with a covering letter. He is prevented from immediately doing so when ''Renown'' has to put hastily to sea after McCool is executed.

While at sea, Hornblower discerns a message hidden in an oddly clumsy poem in McCool's letter. By moving the letters of the carved name in a sequence and in a manner revealed by the poem, a secret compartment forming the lid of the chest is revealed. The compartment is stuffed with currency notes and secret correspondence to other Irish rebels, in fact "Everything one would need to start a rebellion," as Hornblower comments to himself. Hornblower, revolted at the spectacle of McCool's execution and suspecting the money could be French counterfeits, decides to spare other Irishmen from the gallows and throws the chest overboard.

Later, "when the ''Renown'' lay in the Hamoaze, completing for the West Indies," he discovers that McCool actually left no widow, and the chest was intended to reach an Irish revolutionary society. As McCool's letter said, he had remained "faithful unto death," though to the cause of Irish independence, not a woman. Hornblower now throws McCool's final letter overboard too. The setting of this final action links it to the opening of ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' which begins in mid-1800.

Category:1950 short stories Category:Short stories by C. S. Forester Category:Horatio Hornblower Category:Fiction set in 1799 Category:Historical short stories

The novel opens with an elderly, weak, and depressed Michael Moran being taken care of by his daughters. Although they have busy lives and families of their own in Dublin and London, they have never really left the family home because they feel more important there. They have decided to recreate "Monaghan Day," an event Moran always seemed to enjoy, hoping that this will somehow reverse his failing health. Monaghan Day was a market day, when Moran's friend McQuaid used to visit and they would reminisce about the war. The family's story is told through the use of flashbacks as the women in Moran's life remember the past.

Moran was a once prominent Republican who fought for Irish independence in the 1920s. He is now a widower with three daughters and two sons. They live in a house called "Great Meadow" on a small farm in the west of Ireland. He thinks that his time in the IRA was the best of his life, and misses the security provided by the military's structure, rules, and clear demarcation of power. In his old age, however, he is bitter about the "small-minded gangsters" that are now in charge of the Republic of Ireland. For example, he refuses his soldier's pension because he feels that the government has betrayed the ideals that he fought for in his youth. He transfers the violent nature that served him well in battle to his dealings with his family.

Moran's controlling nature is shown from the very first flashback narrative. On a past Monaghan Day, Moran petulantly refuses to yield to McQuaid's authority, "an authority that had outgrown" his own. McQuaid leaves abruptly and ends their long friendship. This is a defining moment for Moran, after which he withdraws into "that larger version of himself,” his family, over which he exercises absolute authority. Through his influence, the outside world is kept at an "iron distance", and the family unite against it.

Moran marries a local woman called Rose Brady when his children are teenagers. Rose is in middle-age when she marries Moran. Despite her mother's warning that he is "one sort of person when he's out in the open among people – he can be very sweet – but that he's a different sort of person altogether behind the walls of his own house," she is determined to marry him. She becomes a mother to the children and is their mainstay. For example, she helps Maggie to leave for London to become a nurse. She often alleviates the disputes between Moran and the children. She is quietly tolerant of Moran's mood swings, even when he verbally abuses her.

Moran's personality becomes apparent in his dealings with his family, who all love and respect him despite his violent outbursts and his lack of apologies. His family are actually "inordinately grateful for the slightest good will." Although he can be tender towards his family, he is often obstinate and cruel and demands constant attention. For example, on his wedding day he is content because "he needed this quality of attention to be fixed upon him in order to be completely silent." He enforces his own view of the world on all those around him. He is a devout Catholic and makes sure that his family upholds all the values he fought for. He recites the Rosary daily, looking for religious help for his inner turmoil and the complications of his daily life. His violent nature stems from traumas he received as a guerrilla fighter in his youth. However, he thinks that the war was the best part of his life, because "things were never so simple and clear again."

He feels that he is losing his position as the centre of attention as he ages and the children start to escape from Great Meadow. He demands help and attention at inappropriate times as a way of focusing the others on his needs. Although he is mostly calm with his daughters, he is threatened by his sons as they grow up. Luke, the older son, leaves for London because of his father's overbearing authority and only returns once. Thoughts of Luke are painful to Moran, and the others refrain from mentioning him. Michael, the youngest child, hides behind Rose until he gains the courage to leave also. The only way that the children can assert any autonomy is through exile, thus tacitly rebuking Moran's ethos of family solidarity.

Moran dominates his daughter's lives and they regularly return to the family home despite their own busy lives. They yearn for his approval, yet fear his temper. He tells them that it is important that the family stick together: "Alone we might be nothing. Together we can do anything." They find individuality painful compared to the protection of the familial identity.

Moran's friendship with McQuaid is also recounted using flashbacks, and there is an account of an attack carried out on the British Army by the Flying Column to which they belonged. There is also a description of the argument between them that ended their friendship and left Moran with no male friends.

Moran dies at the end of the novel. He is buried under a yew tree, but his influence does not leave his family "...as they left him under the yew, it was as if each of them in their different ways had become Daddy."

In late 19th century Mexico, Federales capture Quintero (Fernando Rey), a revolutionary who attempts to rally those opposing the dictatorship of President Díaz. Before going to prison, Quintero gives his lieutenant, Maximiliano O'Leary (Reni Santoni), $600 ( ) with which to continue the cause. Bandit chief Carlos Lobero (Frank Silvera) demands that the money be used for guns and ammunition, but Max instead crosses the border in search of Chris Adams (George Kennedy): a legendary, American gunman whom his cousin had told him about. Max finally finds the laconic Chris, witnessing him free a man from a rigged trial, first by using his wits, then with the famed hair-trigger skill as a gunfighter.

Chris agrees to mount a rescue of Quintero and uses $500 of Max's money to recruit five highly trained combatants: Keno (Monte Markham), a horse thief and hand-to-hand combat expert (whom Chris saved from hanging); Cassie (Bernie Casey), a brawny but intelligent former slave, who can handle dynamite; Slater (Joe Don Baker), a one-armed, sideshow sharp-shootist; a tubercular wrangler called "P.J." (Scott Thomas), and Levi Morgan (James Whitmore), an aging family man who is doubtful of his worth, despite his incredible knife-throwing skills.

En route to Mexico, the motley band of Americans becomes less mercenary when observing the brutal treatment of the peasants. Their journey is marked by encounters with a political prisoner's little boy, Emiliano Zapata (Tony Davis) and a pretty peasant girl, Tina (Wende Wagner), who falls in love with P.J. When Lobero learns that Max did not buy guns with the $600, he refuses to allow his men to take part in Quintero's rescue. Realizing that he needs support, Chris frees a prison gang that includes Zapata's father, then trains them in military tactics.

Despite their superior fighting skills and strategy, Chris' men are outnumbered and their valiant effort to free Quintero appears doomed. At the last moment, 50 of Lobero's bandits, having slain their leader for his lack of patriotism, thunder onto the prison grounds and turn the tide of battle. Of the original seven, only Chris, Max and Levi survive. Before riding home, Chris and Levi leave behind the $600 the peasants had collected.

There is no real plot that runs throughout this documentary. Instead, each skater was placed into their segment to showcase their skills. Some of the skaters also incorporated a short story into their segments. Some of these story lines include McCrank looking for a job, Berra being killed by an unknown attacker, Reynolds hanging out with an orangutan, Kirchart and Klein's rampaging mayhem in the city and Lasek taking down Hawk so that Lasek can become the number one skateboarder.

A resistance force has developed in an alien-occuped Earth, and the player protagonist is sent to retrieve an anti-matter bomb in a military installation under the Appalachian Mountains. Alien forces arrive there force, and attempt to destroy the human invaders.

Montgomery "Monty" Capuletti is a hard-living, heavy-drinking, pot-smoking, gambling family man who makes his living as a baby photographer in New Dorp, Staten Island. He loves his wife Rose but has a very tense relationship with his wealthy, snobbish mother-in-law, Mrs. Monahan, who runs a successful department store chain and hates the way Monty acts and lives. There is an added ethnic rivalry between Monty and his wife's family, as he is Italian and they are Irish.

The irresponsible Monty cannot even pick up a wedding cake for his engaged daughter Allison without fouling up. He and his best friend Nicholas 'Nicky' Cerone are smoking marijuana while driving, and an accident destroys the cake. Allison's wedding to Julio goes off without a hitch, at least until the wedding night.

After Mrs. Monahan dies unexpectedly, his family is in for an inheritance. Attorney Scrappleton reveals that Mrs. Monahan left a stipulation in her will that if Monty is able to curb his vices for a year by going on a diet and giving up drugs and gambling, he will receive $10 million. If not, the family gets nothing. Monty's gambling and drinking buddies are also interested in whether or not Monty can really give up everything and bet whether or not he will make it.

Monty and Nicky go to the mother-in-law's department store and find awkward fashions, catering to a clientele which clearly do not include the likes of Nicky and Monty. Nicky argues that it may not be worth it to Monty if this is the kind of atmosphere he will be exposed to, but Monty points out he must tough it out to provide for his wife and daughters, not just him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Monahan's scheming nephew Clive Barlow does his best to undermine Monty's resolve so the money and department store can instead be left to him.

Monty ultimately reforms. When the entire year is up, he and the family celebrate aboard a boat. To his chagrin though, Mrs. Monahan turns up. She had faked her own death simply to persuade her slovenly son-in-law to straighten up. Ultimately though, she gives the money to Monty on the basis he upheld her stipulation. Now rich, Monty and his family live in a mansion. Still in control, Mrs Monahan denies Monty dessert and coffee then commands a beer she found in the refrigerator be thrown out. Monty gleefully agrees to each action then says he's heading out for a walk. Mrs. Monahan gloats about her actions and that she finally has Monty under control to her daughter's chagrin. However, Monty has actually proceeded to a hideaway under the house to join Nicky and his friends for pizza, poker, and beer.

Retired thief, Roy Egan (Harvey Keitel), comes out of retirement to help his youngest brother, Lee (Timothy Hutton), with a jewelry heist in Palm Springs. Along for the ride are hired muscle, Jorge Montana (Wade Dominguez), and wheelman, Skip Kovich (Stephen Dorff). The heist goes down the next day and, thanks to Jorge's scrambling of the police monitors and traffic signals, their getaway is successful.

In Skip's motel room, his girlfriend, Gena (Dana Barron), voices how little money he will be receiving from the heist. At the trailer park Lee and Jorge are having some beers and talking about how much each will make when Skip shoots them. Roy, who was in the bathroom, hears the gunshots, slams the door on Skip, and runs for it. Roy steals a car and heads to Los Angeles where he rents a room and starts plotting. He stops at Jorge's house along the way to inform his wife, Rachel (Famke Janssen), about her husband's death and to ask if she knows Skip's whereabouts. Skip employs Odell and his crew as protection against Roy, and proceeds to deal with his debt to loan shark Harvey (Elliott Gould). Harvey is connected with the Chinese mob and Skip convinces Harvey to use his connections to track down Roy, in exchange for more money on top of what he already owes him. Roy is found by two members of the Chinese mob and kidnapped but he frees himself, killing his captors in the process.

Rachel finds a bruised and bloody Roy lying in her yard. She cleans him up and Roy offers her $5,000 to take care of him. Once he recovers, Rachel asks for $100,000 instead. Roy refuses at first, but when she gives him Jorge's address book full of contacts – including Skip – he accepts. Rachel also tells Roy where the Chinese mob launders cash and gives him a Saint Christopher medal for protection. Roy attacks the man in charge, Uncle Luke (François Chau), and takes Skip's money, but unknowingly leaves his motel key behind. Uncle Luke tells Skip about the key Roy left behind. Chinese mobsters later attempt to kill Roy in his motel room, but Roy is waiting for them.

Skip kidnaps Rachel. He goes to a trailer where his girlfriend Gena finds that Odell has sent two of his guys to get the money Skip owes them. They take Gena hostage and Skip kills them both, purposefully killing Gena in the process. Skip and Roy plan to meet at a refinery and when Roy arrives, he gets into a gun fight with the mob who are after Skip. Roy takes them out, but is severely wounded, although still able to beat Skip to death with his bare hands. He rescues Rachel who speeds a barely conscious Roy to a hospital. When she returns, both Roy and her car are gone, but he has left her money in a duffel bag. Rachel and her children bury Jorge and relocate to Port Arthur, Texas. One day, the postman delivers a small package to her. She opens it and finds the religious medal she gave Roy, assuring her that he's alive.

Doug Madsen, Woody Stevens, Bobby Davis, and Dudley Frank are disillusioned middle-aged everymen in a Cincinnati suburb. Doug is a dentist with trouble bonding with his son Billy; Dudley is a single computer programmer afraid to talk to women; Bobby is a henpecked plumber disrespected by his wife Karen and daughters; and Woody is a wealthy lawyer married to a supermodel.

They escape their routine lives on weekends by riding in their motorcycle club, the Wild Hogs.

Woody's wife is divorcing him, rendering him bankrupt. He convinces his friends to take a road trip to California. At a bar they encounter the Del Fuegos, an outlaw biker gang headed by Jack Blade. Feeling disrespected by the Wild Hogs, Jack steals Dudley's bike, so he has to travel in a sidecar.

Woody suggests they return to the bar to get Dudley's bike back but no one joins him. He secretly retrieves the bike and cuts the fuel lines of the gang's bikes, falsely telling the others he threatened a lawsuit. The Del Fuegos attempt to pursue the Wild Hogs to no avail. Jack's dropped cigarette ignites the leaking fuel and burns the bar down. The Wild Hogs run out of gas and push their bikes to Madrid, New Mexico, where they are initially mistaken for the Del Fuegos. They learn that the Del Fuegos have been terrorizing the town, and Dudley falls in love with the diner owner Maggie.

Two Del Fuegos, however, spot them, reporting their location to Jack. He tells them not to harm the Wild Hogs until he gets there, leaving them unable to fight back when Bobby confronts the pair and scares them off. The Wild Hogs are hailed as heroes and celebrate into the night.

The next day, the Wild Hogs' departure is interrupted by the arrival of the Del Fuegos. Jack threatens to wreck the town unless the Wild Hogs pay for their bar. Woody admits to the others what he did to get Dudley's bike back, as well as his real reason for the trip - his bankruptcy. Jack and the Del Fuegos take over Maggie's diner and threaten to burn it but Dudley confronts them; he is held hostage.

After failing to rescue Dudley, the Wild Hogs then decide to fight four of the members; the Wild Hogs are badly beaten but refuse to give up. The townspeople band together and just as Jack threatens to take on the rest of the town, Damien Blade, Jack's father and the founder of the Del Fuegos, arrives. He lectures Jack for his behavior. He says the bar is heavily insured and says it is a good opportunity for the gang to ride the open road as intended.

Doug's and Bobby's wives arrive, and Doug reconciles with Billy. Karen orders Bobby to return with her, but he convinces her to let him finish the ride. The Wild Hogs arrive in Southern California where everyone except Dudley crashes into a surfboard. During the credits, it is revealed that the Wild Hogs called ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' to give the Del Fuegos a new bar. The Del Fuegos react in joy while the Wild Hogs watch the event on television.

The film follows the story of two Italian immigrant couples living in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the early 20th century; Teresa (Patrícia Pillar) and Angelo (Alexandre Paternost) and Pierina (Glória Pires) and Massimo (Bruno Campos). While the couples struggle for survival in their new country, an unexpected love between Massimo and Teresa emerges. They fight against family and cultural traditions and head to a new destiny, leaving their partners behind. ''Quatrilho'' is the name of a card game in which the player has to betray his partner to win. It is also a reference to the Portuguese language word ''quatro'', which means four. The film was also advertised as ''O Qu4trilho''.

''Millennium Snow'' focuses on Chiyuki Matsuoka, a high school girl hospitalized with a heart problem. Since birth her heart has been very weak and she was told that she would probably live to be only fifteen. However, one day she meets Tōya Kanō, a vampire, with the opposite problem: Tōya lives for about one thousand years. It's customary for a vampire at his age of eighteen to choose a human partner to be with for 1000 years who in turn would let him drink their blood and share his life span for the millennium.

Early in the series, Chiyuki offers Tōya her blood, so that she would be able to live longer, but Tōya refuses, claiming he dislikes the sight and taste of blood. In the beginning, he even looks down on humans, believing that they are weak creatures who will only die before him and leave him behind, but later on he, with the help of Chiyuki, starts to see the world in a different perspective.

Reality show contestant Kimberly is driving through the West Virginia backcountry searching for the location of her next project. While driving, she accidentally hits a teenager. She stops to help him, but he turns out to be an inbred cannibal, who bites her lips off. She attempts to escape but runs into Three Finger, who splits her in half with his axe before he and the cannibal Brother drag her body halves away.

Former U.S. Marine Colonel Dale Murphy is hosting a survival reality game show, ''The Apocalypse: Ultimate Survivalist'', in production at the West Virginia forest. With Kimberly's unknown absence, the show's producer Mara reluctantly takes her place to participate in the show with the other contestants: Iraq veteran Amber, lingerie model Elena, former football player Jake, skateboarder Jonesy, and graphic artist Nina. As the game starts, Three Finger and another mutant cannibal Pa murder the television crew and abduct Dale. Mara finishes a task and then enters a cabin to find a telephone as Nina follows her. While looking around the cabin, they hear the occupants return and hide in a bedroom. Mara and Nina witness a female cannibal, Ma, giving birth to a deformed baby. Her daughter Sister spots them in the bedroom, forcing the two to escape through the toilet pit. They run into the woods, but Mara is hit in the head with a hatchet thrown by Pa. Nina searches for the others as the cannibals collect Mara's corpse. At the lake, cinematographer M and Elena have sex before the former leaves and Elena stays to tan in her underwear. When she hears a noise, she starts to get dressed as Sister emerges and slashes her to death with a machete while Pa and Ma hijack the RV and capture M.

Dale manages to escape and battles Three Finger, ending the fight after Dale shoots the cannibal into the lake with a shotgun. He then enters the mutant family's cabin and finds the old gas station attendant, who reveals how the cannibals' mutations were caused by inbreeding and effluent dumped in the river from an abandoned paper mill 30 years ago. The man, who is revealed to be the guardian of Three Finger and the two other inbred mountain men who have been killed, attacks Dale to avenge their deaths. After a brief skirmish, Dale kills the old man by blowing him up with a stick of dynamite. Meanwhile, the three other contestants are eating some meat found by Amber and Jonesy when Nina returns to explain her story. They then realize that they have been eating Kimberly's leg and attempt to escape but Nina separates from the group while they're fighting Brother and Sister. Jake rescues Nina from a pit and they jump into the river to escape Sister.

After Amber and Jonesy are killed while searching for help, Nina and Jake enter the mill and find a garage with vehicles stolen from prior victims. They find the RV, and Jake enters it only to witness M being decapitated by Ma on a live feed monitor inside. Nina and Jake attempt to leave, but the cannibals capture them. The next day, while the two are held hostage, Dale sneaks into the compound to distract the cannibal family who were eating their dinner and manages to kill Brother and Sister with a dynamite stick attached to an arrow. He frees Nina and Jake, but is killed by Ma and Pa, who are incensed by the deaths of their children. Nina successfully escapes, but Jake wanders into a room fitted with a tree debarker, where he is attacked by Ma and Pa. Nina returns to the mill and kills Ma and Pa with the debarker. Nina and Jake find Kimberly's abandoned sportscar and drive away.

Meanwhile, Three Finger has survived and is seen raising the mutant family's baby, feeding it with a bottle of effluent and a human finger.

''Shiner'' explores three relationships in which some form of abuse is not only involved but savored. The central story involves Tony and Danny, two friends whose relationship changes once Danny discovers that he becomes sexually satisfied when Tony physically abuses him. Another storyline involves Tim, an out of work boxer who is being stalked by Bob, a shy loner who still lives at home with his mother. Third is Reg and Linda, who discover their sex life improves when they hit each other during the act.

The film starts in the 1940s, during another drought in the sertão, when ranch hand Manoel (Geraldo Del Rey) is fed up with his situation. His boss tries to cheat him of his earnings and Manoel kills him, fleeing with his wife, Rosa (Yoná Magalhães). Now an outlaw, Manoel joins up with a self-proclaimed saint who condones violence (at one point slaughtering a baby) and preaches disturbing doctrines. It is now Rosa who turns to killing and the two are on the move once again. And so it goes, the two running from one allegiance to another, following the words of others as they attempt to find a place in their ruthless land. Blending mysticism, religion, and popular culture in this symbolic and realistic drama, Rocha insists that rather than follow the external and obscure dogmas of culture and religion, man must determine his path by his own voice.

Screenshot from Mortyr Screenshot from Mortyr

In 1944, unexpectedly for the Allies, a German winter offensive results in over 80% of European territories falling to German control. No one really knows what Hitler and his generals did to bring forth this course of events, but the fall of London made it clear that the Allies had little chance of winning the war. Soon after, the destruction of Moscow and the taking of Washington D.C. ended the war.

It was hard to believe that it was the German military technique or their leaders' tactical skills. People started to talk about final development of the Wunderwaffe, especially that not many managed to flee from the battlefields to tell what they have seen - their reports were unclear and not explaining anything. Nevertheless, the world was unable to stop the Führer and his Reich.

In the year 2093, 148 years after the end of the war, the overwhelming Reich rules the Earth under totalitarianism, but Armageddon is nearing. The victory of German troops brought not only terror of Nazi dictatorship but also mysterious weather changes, which are seemingly leading the world towards destruction. General Jurgen Mortyr thinks that the Nazis are somehow responsible for the growing number of disasters and weather changes. The only way to prevent the destruction of mankind is to travel back in time to 1944. General Mortyr assigns his son, Sebastian, the mission to investigate and stop the events that could destroy the future of mankind.

In a decaying mansion overlooking the Hudson River, millionaire Cyrus West approaches death. His greedy family descends upon him like "cats around a canary", causing him to become insane. West orders that his last will and testament remain locked in a safe and go unread until the 20th anniversary of his death. As the appointed time arrives, West's lawyer, Roger Crosby (Tully Marshall), discovers that a second will mysteriously appeared in the safe. The second will may only be opened if the terms of the first will are not fulfilled. The caretaker of the West mansion, Mammy Pleasant (Martha Mattox), blames the manifestation of the second will on the ghost of Cyrus West, a notion that the astonished Crosby quickly rejects.

As midnight approaches, West's relatives arrive at the mansion: nephews Harry Blythe (Arthur Edmund Carewe), Charles "Charlie" Wilder (Forrest Stanley), Paul Jones (Creighton Hale), his sister Susan Sillsby (Flora Finch) and her niece Cecily Young (Gertrude Astor), and niece Annabelle West (Laura La Plante). Cyrus West's fortune is bequeathed to the most distant relative bearing the name "West": Annabelle. The will, however, stipulates that to inherit the fortune, she must be judged sane by a doctor, Ira Lazar (Lucien Littlefield). If she is deemed insane, the fortune is passed to the person named in the second will. The fortune includes the West diamonds which her uncle hid years ago. Annabelle realizes that she is now like her uncle, "in a cage surrounded by cats."

While the family prepares for dinner, a guard (George Siegmann) barges in and announces that an escaped lunatic called the Cat is either in the house or on the grounds. The guard tells Cecily, "He's a maniac who thinks he's a cat, and tears his victims like they were canaries!" Meanwhile, Crosby suspects someone in the family might try to harm Annabelle and decides to inform her of her successor. Before he speaks the person's name, a hairy hand with long nails emerges from a secret passage in a bookshelf and pulls him in, terrifying Annabelle. When she explains what happened to Crosby, the family immediately concludes that she is insane.

Alone in her assigned room, Annabelle examines a note slipped to her which reveals the location of the family jewels, fashioned into an elaborate necklace. She follows the note's instructions and soon discovers the hiding place, in a secret panel above the fireplace. She retires for the night, wearing the diamond-encrusted necklace.

While Annabelle sleeps, the same mysterious hand emerges from the wall behind her bed and snatches the diamonds from her neck. Once again, her sanity is questioned, but as Harry and Annabelle search the room, they discover a hidden passage in the wall and in it the corpse of Roger Crosby. Mammy Pleasant leaves to call the police, while Harry searches for the guard; Susan runs away in hysterics and hitches a ride with a milkman (Joe Murphy). Paul and Annabelle return to her room to search for the missing envelope, and discover that Crosby's body is missing. Paul vanishes as the secret passage closes behind him. Wandering in the hidden passages, Paul is attacked by the Cat and left for dead. He regains consciousness in time to rescue Annabelle. The police arrive and arrest the Cat, who is actually Charlie Wilder in disguise; the guard is his accomplice. Wilder is the person named in the second will; he had hoped to drive Annabelle insane so that he could receive the inheritance.

After the World War II, in the Brazilian sertão. A group of impoverished peasant mystics (''beatos'') gathered around Dona Santa (Rosa Maria Penna), a female spiritual figure, join in veneration of Saint George with an obscure figure named Coirana (Lorival Pariz). Coirana claims to have restarted the cangaço and seeks to take the revenge of Lampião and other cangaceiro martyrs, presenting the tale of Saint George and the Dragon in a contemporary class conflict context. They threaten the town of Jardim de Piranhas governed by ''Coronel'' Horácio (Joffre Soares) a blind and old cattle owner married to younger and attractive Laura (Odete Lara). Dr. Mattos (Hugo Carvana), the corrupt police chief of the town, hires Antônio das Mortes as a ''jagunço'' against Coirana and Antônio fatally wounds Coirana in a duel. However, Antônio is changed by his experiences with the poor, and so he then demands that the ''coronel'' distribute the food stored in a warehouse to the remaining cangaceiros. The colonel raged and sent Mata Vaca (Vinícius Salvatori) to kill Antônio das Mortes. But Antônio das Mortes with the help of his friend "Professor" (Othon Bastos) kills Mata Vaca and his jagunços. The ''coronel'' is killed by Antão (Mário Gusmão), the helper and possibly lover of Dona Santa in a scene reminiscent of Saint George slaying the Dragon iconography. The movie ends with Antônio das Mortes walking by the roadside, carrying on the struggle - in some ways hopeless or unending - which extends beyond the killing of the colonel and the expropriation of his land.

''O Sertão das Memórias'' is a black-and-white film that tells the story of two Sertanejos, the inhabitants of Sertão. Maria is the female reincarnation of Jesus, representing the strength of the Sartanejo women. She invites the Beatas (holy women) on a mission of prayer for which they journey through the countryside, witnessing social unrest among the population. Maria meets the hero of the peasants, the strong worker Antero whose history intermingles with hers. Through mythical dreams, visions, and stories heard along their journey, we witness the unfolding of Biblical prophecy in which Old Testament texts mingle with the folktales of the Sertão. The film aims to show how people try to find strength in myths, art, and religion when faced with the harsh realities of life.

A race of gelatinous creatures abandons their dying planet and travels to Earth, landing in San Francisco. They take the form of small pods with pink flowers. Elizabeth Driscoll, a laboratory scientist at the San Francisco Health Department, brings one of the flowers to her home. She awakens the next morning to discover her boyfriend, Geoffrey Howell, acting cold and distant. Driscoll's colleague, Matthew Bennell, advises her to visit psychiatrist David Kibner, who is giving a presentation of his new book. As Elizabeth and Matthew drive to the presentation, a hysterical civilian warns them of danger before being pursued by a mob and killed in a hit and run, with his body being observed by emotionless onlookers. At the bookstore, Elizabeth asks Kibner for help regarding Geoffrey, but he theorizes that Elizabeth is using the belief that Geoffrey is behaving differently as an excuse to interrupt their relationship. Meanwhile, Jack Bellicec, an aspiring writer and friend of Matthew, calls Matthew to investigate when a deformed body resembling Jack is found in his wife Nancy's mud parlor. Matthew goes to Elizabeth to warn her, but discovers a semi-formed duplicate of her. Matthew rescues Elizabeth and alerts the police, but the duplicates of Jack and Elizabeth disappear before their arrival.

Elizabeth deduces that the flowers are involved and examines it at the health department, failing to find records of it, while Matthew unsuccessfully attempts to alert several government agencies and discovers that several close friends and associates have been duplicated. At night, Matthew and his friends are nearly duplicated as they sleep. Matthew calls the police, but realizes that the department has been duplicated. Matthew destroys his own duplicate with a hoe before escaping with the others. The "Pods" – extraterrestrials who take the forms of sleeping humans as the originals crumble to ashes – set off in pursuit of Matthew's group. The duplicates emit a shrill scream when they discover a human being among them. Jack and Nancy create a distraction, allowing Matthew and Elizabeth to escape back into the city. Matthew declares his love for Elizabeth. Matthew and Elizabeth take refuge in the health department, where they take a large dose of speed, keeping them awake for several more hours. They are soon captured by Jack and Kibner, who were previously duplicated, and injected with sedatives whilst being informed of their intentions for survivability, though their previous dose of speed enables them to escape and kill Jack’s duplicate while locking Kibner in a refrigerated room.

Matthew and Elizabeth reunite with Nancy, who has learned to evade the Pods through hiding her emotions. The two follow her example, but their cover is blown when Elizabeth screams at the sight of a mutant dog with a human face. They separate from Nancy in their escape and quickly board a truck delivering the plants to Pier 70, where the Pods are growing them and intending to ship them overseas to other widely populated cities.

While Matthew scouts the area in an attempt to flee aboard a vacant ship, Elizabeth falls asleep and is duplicated before the former returns. Horrified and enraged, Matthew breaks into the docks’ warehouse and burns down the building, destroying several plants and killing many Pods, before hiding underneath the pier, with more Pods arriving in the area and searching for him, confidently asserting that he will soon fall asleep nevertheless.

Soon after, Matthew returns to work at the health department with the duplicated employees, including Elizabeth, and witnesses several schoolchildren being taken for duplication while more plants are being prepared for the remaining West Coast cities. Afterwards, Matthew heads towards City Hall and encounters Nancy, who has remained human. When she smiles and calls out his name, Matthew points at her and shrieks, revealing that he is now a Pod person. Nancy, now the only human in the city, screams helplessly.

Steve Malone, an agent from the Environmental Protection Agency, is sent to a military base in Alabama to test possible effects on the surrounding ecological system caused by military actions. With him is his teenage daughter from his first marriage, Marti, his second wife Carol, and Marti's half brother Andy. On their way to the base, they stop at a gas station. In the restroom, Marti is threatened by an MP member with a knife. When he notices her fear, he lets go of her, satisfied that she shows an emotional response. Before she leaves the room, he warns her, "they get you when you sleep".

Steve and his family move into their new home on the base, and Marti makes friends with the base commander's daughter Jenn. On his first day in day care, Andy runs away because he is recognized as an outsider among the other somehow conformist children. He is picked up and brought home by helicopter pilot Tim. Marti and Tim quickly feel attracted to each other. Meanwhile, while examining soil samples, Steve is approached by medical officer Major Collins, who asks him about psychological effects, particularly narcophobia (the fear of sleep), and their possible relation to toxication of the environment. Steve believes that a physiological reaction would be more likely.

In the evening, Marti and Jenn go to the bar attended by the station's military personnel, where they meet not only Tim but also the MP who threatened Marti at the gas station. He denies that they ever met before. That night, a group of soldiers can be seen picking giant pods from the river running by the base. When Andy wakes up and enters his mother's room, Carol's body crumbles to dust, while a naked soulless double emerges from the closet. Nobody believes Andy's story that his real mother is dead and the person pretending to be Carol is only an impostor.

The following night, Marti and her father are nearly "taken over" too by duplicates emerging from the giant pods. Carol attempts to convince Steve that the takeover is a good thing, claiming that it ends confusion and anger. She also claims that there's no place to go, as the events at the base are not an isolated incident. Steve is almost shocked and saddened into compliance, but Marti and Andy drag him out the door. Carol emits a shrill and mechanical scream that alerts other "pod people" to the presence of a human being. Now the majority in numbers, they swarm over the base chasing the remaining humans.

After hiding Marti and Andy in a warehouse, Steve enters Major Collins' office. The hysterical Major tries to call for help, but the line is blocked. While swallowing sleep-prevention pills Collins announces that it is too late to run; all they can do is fight. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of a group of pod people, led by base commander General Platt. While Steve hides, the pod people try to convince the Major that the individual is not important, and that only conformity can solve the world's problems. The Major shoots himself rather than live in such a world.

Steve returns to his children and tells them to follow him, claiming to have found a way out. They drive aimlessly through the military base, as loudspeakers shout out instructions for spreading the invasion by carrying out pods in trucks. Realizing that her father was replicated while he was away, Marti swerves the car to the side and tries to escape with her brother. Tim, who escaped his former comrades who tried to turn him into one of them, suddenly appears and Marti takes his gun and shoots the Steve duplicate. Pod Steve's body shrinks into a mass of seething, bloody goo.

Tim manages to get hold of a helicopter gunship, but Marti and Andy are taken away by the pod people. They sedate both of them and take them to the base infirmary where the remaining human beings are being systematically duplicated by pods. Tim is able to rescue Marti, despite her naked pod duplicate trying to seduce him. Incomplete, it dies when he pulls its connecting tendrils off Marti.

Marti and Tim leave the building, pretending to be pod people so they can get to Tim's helicopter to escape. However, they are spotted by Jenn, now a pod duplicate, who gets suspicious and tells Marti she saw Andy looking for her. When Marti reacts by displaying emotion, Jenn responds by giving out a pod scream to alert the other pod people. Tim and Marti manage to get in the helicopter and are joined at the last minute by Andy who runs up to them. But right after taking off, Andy, who is actually a pod duplicate, attacks both and tries to bring down the helicopter. After a short scuffle, a heartbroken Marti is forced to throw Pod-Andy out of the helicopter and he gives out a pod scream while falling to his death.

The ending of the film is an ambiguous one. Tim destroys the trucks filled with pods with the helicopter's rockets, while Marti confesses her profound hatred in a voice-over narration, thereby hinting at a loss of humanitarian quality. While they land on another base, the words of Marti's replaced stepmother earlier in the film can be heard, suggesting that the phenomenon may have already spread beyond the army base: "Where you gonna go, where you gonna run, where you gonna hide? Nowhere... 'cause there's no one like you left."

The film is based on the novel ''Memórias do Distrito de Diamantina'', written by João Felicio dos Santos (who has a small role in the film as a Roman Catholic pastor). It is a romanticized retelling of the true story of Chica da Silva, an 18th-century African slave in the state of Minas Gerais, who attracts the attention of João Fernandes de Oliveira, a Portuguese sent by Lisbon with the Crown's exclusive contract for mining diamonds, and eventually becomes his lover, rises into power and into the Brazilian high society of the time. Moreover, João quickly lets the intendant and other authorities know that he can be bribed, and gets onto their corruption scheme. Eventually Lisbon hears of João's (and Xica's) excesses and sends an inspector. José, a political radical, is another main character, who provides Xica refuge.

Junbao and Tienbo grow up together in a Shaolin Temple as monks, studying the martial arts and generally getting into trouble. They are both expelled from the temple after Tienbo impulsively almost kills a fellow student who cheats in a fight against him. Aided in their escape by their sympathetic teacher, they receive final instructions regarding the potential paths of their different personalities, with a specific warning given to Tienbo.

Junbao and Tienbo then go into the outside world to find their way in life. Meanwhile, a gang of henchmen are forcibly taking money from a local shop owner. A girl nicknamed Miss Li steals the money and returns it. Having noticed the money gone, the henchmen start to chase down Little Melon, who holds her own during the fight but soon gets outnumbered and into trouble. Junbao comes to her aid and defeats the gang, before Army reinforcements arrive to break up the fight and so the trio flee to escape capture. At this moment the eunuch governor Liu Jin travels through the town, roughing up the locals as he does so. Tienbo realizes that he wants to be as rich and powerful as the governor, but Miss Li warns him that the governor has "the heart of a viper".

Miss Li then shows the two sworn brothers to a pub for food. Inside the pub, they find a young woman named Siu-lin, who is searching for her lost husband, during which she supports herself by playing on a sanxian that said husband gave to her as a wedding gift. She finds him inside the pub as the new husband of the governor's sister, who picks a fight with Siu-lin. Siu-lin gets the upper hand in the duel, but the husband, eager to please his wealthy new wife, hits and injures Siu-lin on the head with a stool. Junbao comes to Siu-lin's rescue by fighting off the governor's sister's bodyguards before fleeing.

The next day, while Junbao and Tienbo are making money with their amazing kung fu skills, the governor's second-in-command spots them and is impressed with Tienbo's abilities (and his eagerness to kow-tow to authority). He offers him a position in the army, which Tienbo readily accepts. However, Junbao is more reluctant to do so and declines going with Tienbo, and so the two brothers part ways.

Later, some soldiers come to the pub to collect taxes (which have increased due to the governor’s greedy nature), but Junbao and the rebels (who have stolen great valuables from the governor to give back to the poor) fight and kill them one by one. One soldier escapes alive and starts off towards the army's camp to warn them about the rebels with Junbao in pursuit. Just in front of the army encampment, Tienbo kills the soldier before he warns the rest of the army about the rebels whereabouts. Tienbo warns Junbao to stay clear of the rebels as they'll get him into trouble. Now knowing where the rebels are hiding however, Tienbo takes this unique opportunity to gain a promotion. He sets a trap for Junbao and the rebels by telling them that the army is on patrol and when would be the best time to attack them.

Junbao and Siu-lin collect all the rebels from the region and go to the army camp (thus, falling for Tienbo's trap). A big battle occurs where most of the rebels die. Tienbo captures Miss Li and Siu-lin. In the end, the only escaped survivors are Junbao and a few rebels. Because of the trap, the governor promotes Tienbo to Embroidered Uniform Guard lieutenant. Tienbo kills Miss Li to prove his devotion to the governor, and with his new authority (and some poignant advice from the governor) holds Siu-lin as bait so that he can lure Junbao to defect. Junbao shows up to confront Tienbo and rejects his offer, and after a fierce fight manages to rescue Siu-lin. However, due to the injury he receives and the fact that his best friend betrayed him, Junbao's mind snaps and he goes crazy. While recuperating in the countryside safehouse with the help of Siu-lin, he has a sudden epiphany that regains his mental health, and begins using natural phenomenon as inspiration to create a new style of martial arts which uses "soft" movements to offset power, speed and strength.

While the governor is traveling to Beijing to see the empress, Junbao and Siu-lin intercept the convoy, defeat his sister and guards and captures the governor as a hostage, before going to the army camp to confront Tienbo. Due to his arrogance, Tienbo declines and starts to fight Junbao, thinking the latter is still the inferior fighter. To Tienbo's surprise, however, Junbao is now fighting using the heretofore unseen style, which he calls ''Tai chi'', and is able to fend off Tienbo's superior strength with ease. Out of frustration, Tienbo kills the governor in order to gain complete control over the troops surrounding them. Siu-lin intervenes and convinces them not to listen to Tienbo, as he just betrayed their leader. Seeing this (and also the brutal way Tienbo utilizes his troops as battle fodder), the troops back off and leave Tienbo's fate to Junbao. After a stunning series of parries and blows by Junbao, Tienbo is defeated and eventually killed when he falls upon a bundle of spears.

After the fight, Junbao parts way with Siu-lin, and returns Tienbo's ashes to the Shaolin Temple, before establishing his own school at Wudang Mountains.

Science professor John Butler and his family - wife Kim, teenage daughter Katie, young son Greg, and dog Digger - are on a rafting trip along the Amazon River in an uncharted river canyon when their raft hits a rock and capsizes. They are swept through a cavern and caught in a whirlpool.

Upon resurfacing, they find themselves in a mysterious realm where humans coexist with various prehistoric creatures, including dinosaurs. The Butlers meet and befriend a clan of Neanderthal cavepeople led by Gorok, his wife Gara, their teenage son Lok, and their young daughter Tana. Gorok and his family have a pet of their own in the form of a baby ''Stegosaurus'' named Glump. Gorok's family saved the Butlers' upon their first arrival.

Gorok's family aid the Butlers' efforts to find a means of returning home. For their own part, John and his family do what they can to make the Neanderthals' daily lives easier. Examples of such included introducing Gorok's family to basic technology, such as simple machines - particularly the lever and the wheel - sailboats and windmills.

Two boys from the same school are murdered. In their stomachs there are capsules containing scraps from a diary that describe the next victims. Suspecting there might be the possibility that a killer is at the same school, detective Chu Ja-young (Shin Eun-kyung), with her rookie partner Kim Dong-wook (Eric Mun) search the school to find identical handwriting that matches that of the diary excerpts. When they finally find the matching one, they're told that Jin-mo, the student who wrote the text, has died already in a car accident one month previous. As Ja-young and Dong-wook discover Jin-mo's secret diary, more clues are revealed concerning the next victim. They also discover that Jin-mo was bullied by his schoolmates, and that there is a darker secret to be revealed.

Working out of their van, Black (Master P) and Blue (Johnson) deal in TV sets and boomboxes, but then a driver mistakenly drops off a cell phone shipment. Business is on the upswing, but then the local crime boss, Roscoe, and his enforcer, T-Lay (Tom Lister Jr.), have a deal go sour and blame Black and Blue. Lorraine's boss Dalton and the FBI are also closing in.

Once upon a time, the peaceful and prosperous land of Cadacis and its people were almost at the brink of extermination due to the sudden emergence of a sorcerer named Gal Agiese, whose evil power brought a legion of monsters to invade upon the land and seeking to resurrect Az Atorse, a demonic god of destruction, to conquer the land of Cadacis and the world. When all hope seemed to be completely lost as the demons were about to take control completely, a young magician capable of many feats appeared and fought against the unleashed beasts, in addition to sealing both Gal and Az away into a collection of eight magical tomes. The young magician later became known as the "Magician Lord" after saving the world from evil, and several years went on with peace reigning supreme on Cadacis. However, the seal weakened with time and Gal Agiese escaped from it, resurrecting himself and stealing the eight magical tomes as a result, spreading destruction into the land once more and seeking to revive Az Atorse again. Elta, the last descendant of the "Magician Lord", goes on a journey to retrieve the eight magical tomes from Gal and his henchmen, before Az is completely resurrected. After defeating the demonic henchmen, Elta arrives at the tower where Gal Agiese resides, who managed to summon Az Atorse before being sealed once again by Elta and after defeating and sealing the god of destruction, peace returns to Cadacis once again and the legend of "Magician Lord" is reborn.

In Los Angeles, two rival gang leaders are also trying to be music producers. When DJ's (Mack 10) equipment shorts out and Lonzo (Fat Joe) is cut out of the action by a record producer, the two join forces, which also requires a tentative peace between gangs. With backing from Gator (CJ Mac), a smooth New Orleans drug king, DJ and Lonzo start drug dealing, organizing their gangs into pushers. Just as their finances are looking up, one of Gator's team pulls a double cross and two of DJ and Lonzo's gang bangers start a shooting war. Can the erstwhile music producers salvage anything of their bond or their plans?

Devlin Stonehand is an ex-metalsmith and ex-farmer from the conquered land of Duncaer. After losing his family to banecats, he decides to take the oath of the Chosen One, hoping for a quick death. Instead, Devlin solves the mystery of elusive bandits, and defeats a lake monster, to the growing annoyance and concern of his enemies. Attacks made against him, both mundane and magical, fail to stop him. Meanwhile, as the Chosen One continues to live, the common people of Jorsk begin to respect and worship him.

Nobles from around the kingdom seek Devlin out for help with local troubles and troubles to the kingdom overall. Helping those he deems sincere, Devlin seeks out the barony that is having no trouble, and investigates in his role as Chosen One. There he finds an oppressed populace, and confronts the baron with charges of treason. The arrested baron is sent back to the capital, Kingsholm, to be judged by the king.

When he finally understands the depths of the baron’s treachery, he returns to Kingsholm to uncover the rest of the conspiracy. When he arrives, he finds that the Marshal of the Royal Army, Duke Gerhard, is a main conspirator, and the accused baron has been released. Devlin challenges Gerhard to a duel, in which Gerhard is slain and Devlin almost dies. He recovers over time, and is named the new General of the Royal Army and given a voting seat on the king’s council.

Part one

''Smiley reflects on the end of the Cold War, and makes a rueful joke that, in one way, the world has changed, but in another, it has always been the same and the secret services are gradually waking up from their own deluded perceptions of it, and themselves.''

After a couple of years of training at the Sarratt Nursery, in the glens of Argyll and battle camps of Wiltshire, Ned is looking forward to his first overseas posting and is disappointed to be kept in London, as part of a team of watchers keeping an eye on a Middle Eastern royal family. In a famous Knightsbridge store, Ned becomes alarmed when he sees a suspicious Arab closely following the prince's wife at a distance. Ned prepares to incapacitate him with a martial arts blow, but his supervisor Monty grabs Ned and holds him back. Ned learns that the wife is a compulsive shoplifter and the man is not a fanatic assassin, but instead assigned by the prince to pay compensation and hush money to the stores she steals from. Monty comments, ''"That's the trouble in our job, Ned. Life's looking one way, we're looking the other."''

Part two

''Smiley informs Ned's students that no one on Earth is more adept at hiding his true feelings than the privately educated Englishman – "which is why some of our best officers turn out to be our worst, and our worst, our best, and why the most difficult agent you'll ever have to run is yourself."''

Ned returns to his flat in humiliation after the episode in Knightsbridge, and finds Smiley and the Circus's head of Personnel going through his belongings. Smiley informs him that Ned's best friend from Sarratt, Benjamin Arno Cavendish, disappeared just after starting his assignment in Berlin, and the East German network he was supposed to be running has collapsed. In Ben's flat, the Circus found a love letter written to Ned. Ned is shocked, as he had no idea that Ben was homosexual, much less so passionately attached to him.

After Smiley leaves, Ned tracks down Ben, hiding with his German cousin, Stephanie, in the Western Isles of Scotland. Ben confesses that, beneath his confident, derring-do exterior, he is always terrified of failure, especially when he feels he has to live up to the example of his father, who had an illustrious career during the Second World War as a mathematician, devising the Double-Cross System. While in Berlin, Ben was constantly harassed and patronised by his immediate superior, Haggerty, who despised Ben for replacing him due to his clean reputation. Before his first meeting with the lead agent in East Germany, Ben wrote a crib sheet with the agents' names and contact procedures, and took it with him when he crossed into East Berlin. As it turned out, he didn't need it, and his meeting with the agent went perfectly, but after he crossed back into West Germany, he realised he'd lost the crib sheet somewhere. Unable to warn the network before it collapsed, Ben secretly fled Germany and sought shelter with Stephanie. It takes a moment for Ned to absorb the ''"appalling banality"'' of Ben's story; ''"that you could lose a network in the same way you might lose a set of keys or a pocket handkerchief."''

Smiley has had Ned followed, and Circus agents arrive to take Ben in for questioning, shortly after he finishes his story. Ned later hears that he has been dismissed from the Circus.

Part three

''While one of Ned's students is quizzing Smiley about the 'secret' of conducting an interrogation, Smiley frowns and says that recognising the truth is far more difficult than spotting a lie. After all, spies are naturally suspicious people, and nothing is more suspicious to them than a completely innocent man who has nothing to hide.''

After his unwitting exposure of his friend Benjamin Cavendish, Ned is posted to Hamburg in Western Germany to run a network of Baltic sailors, led by a passionate Latvian smuggler named Brandt. Though surprisingly efficient, Ned is wary of his position due to his predecessor's hushed up departure after embezzling massive amounts of Circus funds and settling to Southern Spain with his boyfriend.

In the course of their operations, Brandt reveals his new girlfriend, Bella, who is said to be the daughter of a friend of Brandt's. Head of London Station, Bill Haydon orders Ned to inquire about Bella's credentials due to the fact that her sudden appearance in the network's inner circle appears suspicious. Ned eventually seduces (or rather, is seduced by) Bella and they begin an affair during Brandt's absence.

Later, Brandt's men walk into a trap at the coast of Narva in Estonia and the crew are taken by the Soviets. Brandt is taken to Sarratt for interrogation while Ned is summoned to London for debriefing. He is interviewed by Haydon, who was accompanied by his lieutenants, Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase along with George Smiley. Ned is interrogated about Bella's background and her story about being the daughter of a German soldier who had raped her mother when her "father" was fighting in the Second World War.

Though Ned answers reasonably, Haydon counters him with a photograph, depicting Bella as a language student in a Moscow Centre linguistics school that trains prospective undercover agents. Haydon's coterie, barring Smiley, take the photograph as genuine, as its source is London Station's Witchcraft Project. Ultimately, it's decided that Bella must have been the mole and Ned is ordered to bring her in to be interrogated in Sarratt. Eventually, the inquiry stagnates and both Bella and Brandt are released to settle in Canada and to resume smuggling, respectively.

Brandt refuses to take Bella back for then-unknown reasons, which gives Ned the impression that Haydon informed Brandt of Bella's infidelity, out of mischief. In 1989, during a lunch with Toby Esterhase, Ned learns that Esterhase and Peter Guillam were in Moscow as a part of an intelligence delegation. During their guided tour in Moscow Centre headquarters, they run into a familiar figure who is none other than Captain Brandt. It was Brandt who had betrayed the previous network, as well as the new one.

Part four

Ned reflects that every employee of the Circus of a certain generation can recall where he or she was at the time of "The Fall" – Bill Haydon's exposure as a KGB mole. Ned himself was in Rome, in the middle of a celebratory dinner after installing a wiretap against a Roman Catholic cardinal suspected of involvement with arms dealers, when he received the telex from London with the shocking news.

With Haydon's exposure, every Circus officer's identity must be considered compromised, and Ned is told that he cannot be posted anywhere outside of Western Bloc countries.

Part five

''Smiley muses that the most vulgar thing about the Cold War was that the Western societies learned to "gobble up [their] own propaganda." The West became so convinced of the righteousness of its own cause, and the evil of the Soviets', that it never stopped to examine the ethics of its actions. In the name of expediency, the Circus opened its arms – and its purse – to every petty thug and two-bit con man who called himself an anti-Communist.''

Ned's first post-Haydon posting is to Munich, as the Circus's liaison with various Eastern Bloc exile communities, quietly discouraging their crackpot schemes to foment anarchy in the Soviet Union, or encouraging whatever legitimate intelligence sources they have in their home countries. According to Toby Esterhase, the "star" of the Circus's Munich arm is Professor Teodor, a fugitive Hungarian academic. At first, Ned is dazzled by Teodor's passionate lectures on the evils wreaked on Hungary by the Allied Powers after World War I, but finds his opinions shallow when the Professor is quizzed on more current events. Giving Teodor the benefit of the doubt, Ned corresponds to his associates in the American intelligence fraternity, only to learn that they had come to realise that Teodor's intelligence work is completely worthless. Ned begins to see that the Circus has good reason for denying Teodor's repeated requests to be issued a British passport.

In the middle of the night, Ned is called to Teodor's home and introduced to a Hungarian man named Latzi, who says he has been sent by the Hungarian secret service to assassinate Teodor, but has refused out of admiration for the Professor and wants to defect. Before long, Esterhase and the American CIA are lauding the two Hungarians for their courage and arranging for Teodor's honourable retirement from intelligence work, including issuing passports. Ned's protests that "the whole thing's a con" are ignored.

Aside, Teodor's long-suffering wife confesses that Latzi is a "''bad actor''" and an old friend of Teodor, whom Teodor used as a go-between when he wanted to inform on his students to the Hungarian authorities. When Ned vents his outrage to Smiley back in London, Smiley regards the incident as an amusing farce, initially only remarking, "''Oh, Toby''." As Smiley later explains, "''all churches need their saints... and saints, when you get right down to it, are a pretty bogus lot''." Later, Teodor and Latzi are the "stars" of a highly publicized book tour throughout the United States, detailing Teodor's courageous work against communism and his harrowing escape from death.

Part six

''After delighting Ned's students with a lighthearted story about how the Circus recruited a South American diplomat with a secret passion for British model trains, Smiley sobers and reflects that intelligence officers usually remain aloof from the harsher realities of their work, but sometimes they are forced to confront it, and become a little more humble about the risks they ask their agents to take.''

The Circus receives a surprise message from a Polish agent who was thought to have been killed in the aftermath of Haydon's exposure. Despite the risks, Ned is sent to re-establish contact, posing as a Dutch businessman. Once he arrives, he finds that the whole thing is a trap; the agent is long dead, and Ned is arrested and brutally tortured by the Poles' ruthless counterintelligence chief, Colonel Jerzy. Despite this, he refuses to abandon his cover story or reveal any information. Then Jerzy takes Ned to the countryside and tells him that he wishes to spy for the Circus, but will work only through Ned – Ned's interrogation was a test, to make sure Jerzy had the right man as his handler. Over the next five years, Ned runs Jerzy, who provides copious amounts of information about the Polish intelligence. Throughout their correspondence, Ned tries to uncover Jerzy's motive for helping the British, eliminating many known motives such as money, disillusionment, and change of heart, but Jerzy remains opaque to Ned's prying. Ultimately, Jerzy reveals that his "motive" was simply the element of danger it introduced to his profoundly cynical and nihilistic outlook to life.

Years later, several weeks before the graduation dinner, Ned sees Jerzy on the television while watching the evening news about a Polish cardinal blessing his flock. Ned observes Jerzy, who seems physically drained and haggard after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is then summoned to the cardinal. To Ned's surprise, Jerzy kneels before the cardinal, who had wavered through an instinctive fear, and receives his blessing. Ned realises that the cardinal must have been one of Jerzy's many torture victims.

Part seven

''Smiley warns Ned's students that spies can encounter a mid-life crisis the same as any others do, and sometimes the effects are more severe, given the nature of their work and their inclination to keep their true feelings concealed from everyone, including themselves.''

Ned remembers his own middle-age crisis, in which his marriage had grown stale and he began to feel that he had reached his forties without any clear idea of what he had accomplished in his career. After gaining a reasonable amount of seniority and prestige, thanks to the kudos accruing from his productive running of Colonel Jerzy, Ned is appointed as a sort of roving troubleshooter, hopping around the globe to investigate random leads or smother minor crises.

One of his assignments takes him to Beirut, where the chaos of the latest fighting seems to mirror his own inner turmoil. While tracking a German militant named Britta, who had been involved with an Irish terrorist called Seamus, his first stop is a brief research post with a well-mannered officer named Giles Latimer. Despite his good nature and popularity, it is revealed that Giles had suffered a nervous breakdown and hid dozens of confidential files out of shame and guilt he felt towards a young girl he had fallen in love with.

Following this episode, Ned flies to Beirut in search of an informer and checks into a hotel, where he receives a phone call from an American woman who flirts with him but remains unknown despite Ned's inquiries to the hotel clerk. Ned's Lebanon trip ends with his encounter with a young American student, who was the sole survivor of a car bombing on a downtown restaurant in Beirut. The student, Saul, in his shell-shocked state of delirium, had written a call for peace. Ned sees whether he could find something sensible, but in his own state of personal crisis, scribbles his own thoughts as well and ends up burning the whole thing.

Part eight

''One of Ned's students argues to Smiley that professional journalists do the same job as spies do, and may even do it better, so why bother with intelligence services at all? Instead of disagreeing, Smiley says she has an excellent point – the trouble is, no government will ever trust advice from a journalist, no matter how sound. Smiley assures these future agents that their jobs will always be necessary, and always in demand.''

Ned is ordered to travel to Saigon to track down a Circus agent who has gone missing, a lapsed Catholic missionary named Hansen. Also half-Dutch, Hansen was born to an English mother who had provided him with Jesuit education. An accomplished polyglot from an early age, he had received religious training and was sent to the East. Along with his many accomplishments in the fields of archaeology, linguistics and various branches of humanities, Hansen also harboured an open secret about his sexuality, bedding young girls and boys alike.

Having been recalled to Rome for indoctrination and subsequently sent back to a harsh master of his Order, Hansen later went berserk on his colleagues due to his confinement and disappeared in Southern Asia. After a certain period, he presented himself to the British authorities, offering his vast knowledge of the Orient for espionage. Due to the unconventional and unmotorised guerrilla tactics of locals, Hansen's services were invaluable to the British, who had no material presence in the region, and sold his intelligence to the Americans who were knee-deep in conflict against the Viet Cong.

However, at some point Hansen disappears without notice and is later given up for dead, in view of the total eradication of hill villages in the region. Later, local residency catches sight of Hansen through one of their informants who had been working closely with the local head of station, Rumbelow. Despite his distaste for Rumbelow, whom he views as sleazy and thoroughly perfidious, Ned tracks down Hansen, who is working as the bouncer in a brothel.

Hansen recounts that he learned that he had an illegitimate daughter who was captured by a revolutionary band in Cambodia. Hansen allowed himself to be taken prisoner as well, intending to rescue her, but was horrified when she was genuinely converted to their ideals, and denounced him as a spy and a traitor.

After a hellish journey through the Cambodian jungle, Hansen eventually escaped after his daughter went missing from the band. She is now a prostitute in the brothel, her psyche damaged by her experiences in the jungle. Hansen wants nothing more to do with the Circus, with England, or with any political cause – his sole purpose in life is to watch over her. Despite Ned's offer of gratuity of $50,000, Hansen turns it down and chastises Ned – and by extension, all representation of Western imperialism - for their treatment of Asia. On his way back to London, Ned fancies the idea of sending Rumbelow, and in fact the whole Circus, Smiley included, on Hansen's trail for them to witness true and unfaltering devotion, as he regarded Hansen as the champion of his ambiguous and conflicted emotions about his calling in life.

Ned returns to London, having set his own misgivings to rest, finding them insignificant next to Hansen's suffering, and his single-minded devotion to his daughter. A few years later (during the events of ''The Russia House''), when "Barley" Blair betrays the Circus to save a Russian woman he has fallen in love with, Ned is unable to muster the same outrage as his superiors.

Part nine

''One of Ned's more amoral students is trying to get Smiley to agree that espionage gives its practitioners license to do anything, if it is necessary to get the job done. Smiley refuses to be pinned down, remarking that it is important for spies to feel conflicted about their own actions – and if any of them in the midst of an operation feel the impulse to act humanely, he hopes they will give it a fair hearing.''

After being relieved of his position as head of the Russia House, Ned is sent to the "Interrogators' Pool," a division not held in high regard within the service. In addition to supplying interrogators to debrief defectors or captured enemy agents, the Pool acts as a clearing-house for suspicious members of the public who believe they have relevant information for the government.

While browsing through the Pool's old files, Ned is excited to find an old record from Smiley's tenure there (after being relieved of his position as Chief at the end of ''The Honourable Schoolboy''). Smiley interviewed a retired British Army sergeant who wanted to know if it was true that his recently deceased son was actually a top-class undercover agent in Russia? The sergeant and his wife always believed their son was just a convict, but during the father's last visit, shortly before his son's death (apparently in a prison riot), the son claimed that his criminal identity was just a cover for his secret agent work.

Despite his inner scepticism, Smiley does his best to verify or disprove the boy's story. After an exhaustive search through the records of the Circus and other British government agencies, and a review of the boy's extensive criminal record, Smiley is forced to conclude that the boy was "''an irredeemable and habitual monster''," that his sordid death was no more than he deserved, and he has never had the slightest connection with the Circus or any other government service.

However, when the sergeant and his wife return for a second interview with Smiley, he tells them that, officially, the British government denies any knowledge of his son, while unofficially he gives them a set of superb gold cufflinks – one of the fanciful details of the son's story was that he and other top class agents were issued with special cufflinks instead of medals. The elderly couple departs the office, swelling with pride at their son's heroism.

Ned later learns that the cufflinks were an anniversary gift from Smiley's wife, Ann. At first glance, George's motives seemed clear: sentimentality, or spitefulness towards his unfaithful wife and the Circus that was rejecting him. But Ned's private theory is that Smiley, who was ambivalent at the best of times about the usefulness of the Circus's work, wanted to carry out an "intelligence operation" that clearly succeeded in achieving something good.

Part ten

''Smiley likens some interrogations to communions between damaged souls, referring to his debriefing of his old nemesis, Karla''.

During his tenure at the Interrogator's Pool, Ned receives an anonymous letter of denunciation against Cyril Arthur Frewin, a Foreign Office cipher clerk who had allegedly been keeping company with Sergei Modrian, a Soviet handler with whom Ned had a brush in the Russia House. After being briefed by Leonard Burr, the new Chief, Ned interviews Frewin's section head at the Foreign Office, alongside his associates from the Circus, for further information on Frewin. After learning of Frewin's annual vacations (and his constant disappearances from his hotel in Salzburg, Austria) Ned confronts Frewin.

Ned edges up Frewin's radio language courses in Russian and his Eastern Bloc contacts, attempting to verify the contents of the letter of denunciation he had received, aided by the findings of Toby Esterhase and Monty Arbuck, whom Ned had requested to make inquiries. After much deliberation, Ned has Frewin admit his collaboration with Sergei Modrian as a result of Frewin's participation in the Radio Moscow's Russian language course. After writing to the Radio Moscow programme a veiled account of his life, Sergei Modrian had shown up at Frewin's house as a "gift" for Frewin's "success" in his Russian language progress. Eventually, Modrian manipulates Frewin's solitude into betrayal as Modrian "regretfully" asked for intelligence material from Frewin's access to top secret and above.

However, shortly before Frewin's denunciation, Modrian returns to Moscow and reveals to Frewin that their relationship is over. Frewin becomes despondent and depressed, leading him to denounce himself in hopes of getting in touch with somebody who would replace Modrian in his life. Frewin reveals to Ned all his equipment provided by Moscow Centre, including a custom-made pair of opera binoculars that doubled as a covert camera.

Part eleven

''Smiley completes his lecture, preparing to take his leave from Sarratt, along with the secret world as well. His last advice to the new recruits is to leave the old timers – like Smiley himself – and find new people to look up to.''

A few days before his retirement from his tenure as Chief Leonard Burr's Secretary, Ned is given a last assignment. Burr orders Ned to negotiate with Sir Anthony Bradshaw, a venture-capitalist who had been enabled by former Circus chief, Sir Percy Alleline, to expand his financial empire while helping the Circus. However, after Alleline's disgrace and demise, Bradshaw began ferrying weaponry to various regions, such as the Balkans and Central Africa, to profit from the conflicts there. Ned makes his way to Bradshaw's sumptuous country estate and politely warns him to desist from his war-profiteering activities. Bradshaw is unfazed, as he knows more about the workings of the government than he's supposed to know. He defends his ferocious profiteering policies and Ned regretfully realises that despite his years in the secret world, he was not prepared for this "''wrecking infant in our midst''".

Ned closes his life in the Service in a kind of retirement in the country with Mabel. "''I think a lot. I’m stepping out with my reading. I talk to people, ride on buses. I’m a newcomer to the overt world, but I’m learning''."

Summary

''Danse Macabre'' appears to take place a few weeks after the events of ''Incubus Dreams'' and almost immediately after the events of ''Micah'', assuming that the series of serial killings that Anita's friend Ronnie refers to as occurring two weeks earlier are the killings Anita investigates in ''Incubus Dreams.''

Unlike the previous thirteen novels, neither Anita's role as a Federal Marshal nor her job as a zombie animator plays any part in this novel. Instead, Anita must juggle a series of problems arising from her own increasing power, Jean-Claude's vampire politics, and her own personal life, complicated in this case by Anita's apparent pregnancy. * First, Anita believes that she may be pregnant. This forces her to confront the difficult choice of whether to bring the child to term, as well as whether to inform the various potential fathers. (Richard, Nathaniel, Jean-Claude, Asher, and Damian). ** Richard and Nathaniel are the most likely candidates for fatherhood, since Micah had a lycanthrope vasectomy (silver clamps on the vas deferens) and, while vampires in this world are capable of fathering a child (either via sperm created prior to their death for the newly dead or if their body temperature is kept elevated for a long enough period of time to create new sperm) the likelihood goes down with age. A vampire over the age of 100 is not a likely candidate. ** Micah and Nathaniel are willing to rearrange their lives to take on the primary parenting responsibilities. By contrast, Richard proposes monogamous marriage and expects that Anita will stop being a vampire executioner and federal marshal. ** A child of Anita's would have a significant risk of birth defects. Previous books have mentioned "Vlad Syndrome", occurring in children of vampires, which in severe cases results in death of both the child and the mother. Anita is also at risk of "Mowgli Syndrome", which can occur when a shapeshifter has intercourse in animal (or part-animal) form. Not all details are discussed, but it is noted that the fetus can develop at the rate of the beast instead of human — which could put Anita past her jurisdiction's legal abortion threshold in only a few weeks or months, depending on the animal. * Second, Anita's increasing powers continue to lead to new problems. In particular, Anita is attempting to select a ''pomme de sang'' from a variety of candidates, leading to a series of conflicts between various persons who wish to join her harem of lovers. In addition, she discovers that her ''ardeur'' has been shaping both her own and her lovers' feelings and personalities, making Anita question whether her love for Micah and Nathaniel is real. Finally, Anita discovers that she may be a pan-were, and that in addition to being the dominant female of the local wolf and leopard pack, she may also become Regina, or Queen, of the local werelion pack, leading to a conflict between the lions eager to become her Rex, or lion king. * Third, Anita is involved in a variety of conflicts relating to vampire politics, largely relating to Jean-Claude's decision to invite a vampire ballet and several master vampires to St. Louis. ** Augustine, the master of Chicago, Illinois, attempts to force Anita to love him, and hopes to control the local were-lion pack by introducing a dominant were-lion of his choosing. ** Thea—who is not only the wife of the master of Cape Cod but a siren—wishes Anita to sleep with one or all of her three sons, in the hope that Anita can bring them into their power. ** Merlin, head of the vampire ballet, attempts to mentally dominate all of the master vampires and lycanthropes present at the performance, for reasons he will not reveal. ** Meng Die is becoming increasingly jealous of Anita's irresistibility to the men in their circle, to the point where she attempts to kill Requiem ** Both Belle Morte and The Mother of Darkness continue their attempts to dominate Anita. Ultimately, Anita resolves most of these conflicts: * After reluctantly deciding to have the baby, Anita ultimately learns that she is not pregnant, and that her positive test result was caused by her unique body chemistry. * Anita learns to accept that her love may be manufactured in part by the ardeur, particularly in the cases of Nathaniel and Micah, both of whom have had their personalities shaped by the ardeur to meet Anita's needs (and vice versa). She accepts that she possesses several metaphysical "beasts," and rejects Haven, a dominant were-lion that Augustine hoped to use to dominate the St. Louis pack. * Anita is also able to navigate most of the challenges raised by vampire politics. ** Using the ''ardeur'', Anita and Jean-Claude bind Augustine, increasing their own power. They also turn the tables on him by feeding not only on him, but on his entourage. (Although Anita now loves Augustine, she is sufficiently stubborn that this love does not gain him an advantage). ** Anita promises to sleep with Thea's oldest son to see if she can raise his powers through the ''ardeur''. ** Anita defeats Merlin's attempt to dominate the assembled vampires and shape-shifters, and questions him for information about the Mother of Darkness. ** The combined threat of Anita, Jean-Claude, and all of their vampires is enough to make Meng Die agree not to kill anyone for the night. ** Anita is able to evade Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness's attempts to control her, although she continues to fear them.

Unresolved plotlines

Due to the small amount of time lapsed in this novel (the events last only a day), Anita is unable to resolve any of the plotlines left open in ''Incubus Dreams'', and leaves several questions unresolved in this book as well. * Although the epilogue to ''Incubus Dreams'' stated that Anita intended to investigate the Stevie Brown murder soon, the narration does not reveal whether Anita has made progress in her investigation. * ''Danse Macabre'' does not reveal whether Gregory and Stephen have learned anything about why their father has reappeared, a plotline that was mentioned, but not resolved, in ''Cerulean Sins'' and ''Incubus Dreams''. * Anita mentions that Jean-Claude has bound a few of Malcolm's vampires to his own service, but there is no apparent resolution of the threat presented by the remainder of his vampires, none of whom have sworn blood oaths to anyone. * Anita does not appear to have made any progress on her hunt for Vittorio and his vampires. * Although The Mother of Darkness continues to make threats, it remains to be seen when she will actually awake, or what will become of Belle Morte's challenge for council leadership. * Anita has now promised to sleep with Thea's son in an attempt to raise his powers as a siren. * Although Anita has sent Haven back to Chicago, she nevertheless needs to select a lion to match with her inner lioness, and any lion of sufficient power to match her may threaten Joseph's hold on his pride. * Although Anita suspects she is now a pan-were, she has not yet shifted form, and doesn't know if she will assume the form of a single animal, all the species with which she is infected, or none of them. In addition, blood tests show that Anita has an "unknown strain" of lycanthropy, which she has not yet identified. And there is a possibility that she got an additional one with the blood transfusion at the end of the book.

The film tells the stories of three end-of-the millennium Cubans, whose lives intersect on the Day of Santa Barbara (the African Saint Chango, ruler of destinies). Mariana, a ballerina, ponders breaking chastity vows she made to land the coveted role of Giselle; Julia has fainting spells each time she hears the word "sex," and Elpidio, a musician, seduces a gringa tourist while Bebe, the narrator, takes the viewer for a taxi ride along the streets of Havana.

Accolades

''Life is to Whistle'' won the Grand Coral at the Havana Film Festival in 1998.

The year 3000 is approaching, and life continues as normal for most people. A few, however, are aware that the Protocol (the rules that determine how magic may be used) of the past thousand years is breaking down.

Shandie is battling the Caliph in Zark, and gains himself a new Signifier when Ylo saves the banner from falling. While they follow Imperial decrees and take the war to the elves, King Rap in Krasnegar receives a warning from the gods that he must lose one of his children. After his son sees a vision of a legionary, he realizes that this has to do with the upcoming millennium, he sets out for Hub, the capital of the Impire, to speak with his friend the Imperor.

Thaïle, a Gifted pixie in mysterious Thume, stands Death Watch over a neighbor, and receives her first Word of power. This earns her interest from the College, and Jain arrives at her parents' house to talk to Thaïle. He informs her she will be going to the College next year, and there is nothing she can do about it.

After suffering defeat from summoned dragons at Nefer Moor, the Legion retreats back to Qoble. Shandie and his inner circle decide to head to Hub to speak with the Imperor. Instead of traveling conventionally, they race to Hub to beat the message of their coming. On the way, a cloaked Pixie visits them and tells them of a preflecting pool at Wold Hall (putting your left foot in the pool shows you what you should seek, your right foot shows you what you should avoid). They detour to visit it, and each person's vision guides their actions afterwards.

Thaïle, despondent over not being allowed to meet a man and have her own Place, meets Leéb. They fall in love and find a Place far from home. Thaïle hopes that the College won't find her or care about her, but the College catches up with her just as her child is born. They spirit Thaïle away to the College and the Keeper.

Shandie and company arrive in Hub, and find the Imperor a deranged, drooling husk of his former self. Shandie immediately seizes administrative control, and plans on how to meet with the young man he saw in the pool (who turns out to be Rap son). Ylo's vision was a lovely women naked amid daffodils, and the woman turns out to be Princess Eshiala. When the Imperor finally falls into a coma and dies, preparations are made for the upcoming coronation of Shandie.

During practice, the Warlock Raspnex appears and tells the procession to crown Shandie immediately. Ylo takes charge and completes the ceremony just as the four warlocks' thrones are destroyed by magic. The group meets for a council of war, and go to Dr. Sagorn's house (the vision seen by Sir Acopulo). Rap has just arrived and meets the group at the doctor's house. As they try to puzzle out what is going on, Raspnex shows up and tells them that the evil sorcerer Zinixo is taking over all of the sorcerers in the world, and plans to take over all of Pandemia. After a short discussion, the house is attacked, and Raspnex uses magic to whisk the group away to safety.

Someone is killing wizards, and doing so apparently without the use of magic. Lord Darcy is sent to investigate. He must uncover the murderer and ascertain whether the whole business is a ploy to kill the king himself.

To complicate matters Darcy must investigate during the preparations for the investiture of Gwiliam, Duke of Lancaster (King John IV's younger son), as Prince of Gaul. To add international tension, the Crown Prince of Poland, His Majesty the King of Courland (Latvia), will attend the ceremony. (In this timeline, Poland is a great empire ruling most of Eastern Europe, and there is an ongoing cold war between it and Darcy's Anglo-French Empire).

In New England (a term which in this history includes the whole of our North America) an Azteque Prince is found dead on a stone altar.

Lord Darcy and Sean O Lochlainn are sent across the Atlantic to investigate. Darcy must identify the killer and determine whether the Azteques are returning to human sacrifice. Perhaps an attempt is being made by the rival Polish Empire to upset the balance of power between the Angevin Empire and the Azteques?

The Devil Star Imperial Forces have established a base on and invaded the Alpha Kentowry system. The Solar System Allied Forces have entrusted their Warrior, aboard The Astoro Raider, to attack the invasion force and destroy their mother ship.

Chariclea, the daughter of King Hydaspes and Queen Persinna of Ethiopia, was born white through the effect of the sight of a marble statue upon the queen during pregnancy (an instance of the theory of maternal impression). Another version attributes Chariclea's birth to Queen Persinna seeing a painting of a white woman, "brought down by Perseus naked from the rock, and so by mishap engendered presently a thing like to her." The painting shows Andromeda, an Ethiopian princess. Fearing accusations of adultery, Persinna abandons her baby daughter but leaves her with three gifts: an inscribed ribbon with Ethiopic characters, a necklace, and a ring. The ring has magical powers and is described as, "it is set with a jewel called pantarbe and inscribed with certain sacred characters (γράμμασι δὲ ἱεροῖς); it is full, it seems, of a supernatural and mystic property (τελετῆς θειοτέρας) which I think must have endowed the stone with the power to repel fire and bestow immunity from the flames on its wearer.” Sisimithras, a gymnosophist, finds the baby and takes her to Egypt. Sisimithras places her in the care of Charicles, a Pythian priest. Chariclea is then taken to Delphi, and made a priestess of Artemis.

Theagenes, a noble Thessalian, comes to Delphi and the two fall in love. He runs off with Chariclea with the help of Calasiris (''kalasiris''), an Egyptian who has been employed by Persinna to find Chariclea. They encounter many perils: pirates, bandits, and others. The main characters ultimately meet at Meroë at the very moment when Chariclea is about to be sacrificed to the gods by her own father. Her birth is made known, and the lovers are happily married.

Homesick for her family in Los Angeles, lounge singer Petey Brown (Ida Lupino) decides to leave New York City to spend some time visiting her two sisters and brother on the West Coast. Shortly she lands a job at the nightclub of small-time-hood Nicky Toresca (Robert Alda) where her sister Sally (Andrea King) is employed.

While evading the sleazy Toresca's heavy-handed passes, Petey falls in love with down-and-out ex-jazz pianist, legendary San Thomas (Bruce Bennett), who has never recovered from an old divorce. Variously helping to smooth over or solve the problems of her sisters, brother and their next-door neighbor, the no-nonsense Petey must wait as San decides whether to start a new life with her or sign back on with a merchant steamer.

The novel is a first contact story, following the generation ship ''But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!'' as it approaches the Destiny Star. Humans have been colonizing the 500 light-years around Earth for a few thousand years, and have never run into a sentient alien species — until now. The discovery of an Industrial Age alien race upsets the established protocols of the ship, leading to uncertainty and delays in habitation, which in turn leads to societal unrest and conflict aboard the ship.

The plot of the game was actually a twist on the usual "Save the World" story setting for many platform/adventure games. One evening, Hugh Tazmanian Devil was telling his three children (Taz, his sister Molly and his brother Jake) an intriguing tale: Once there were huge giant seabirds that laid giant eggs which could feed a family of Tazmanian devils for over a year. There are also legends that somewhere along the island of Tasmania, there is a Lost Valley, where the giant seabirds still nest. Taz becomes fascinated by the prospect of the potentially large omelet and leaves in search for one of those giant eggs. Thus, the player must direct Taz across various stages in search for the Lost Valley and its Giant Bird.

The world of ''Operation Luna'' has an alternative history, which mostly resembled our own until a great "Awakening" brought awareness of supernatural forces to the world at large. This Awakening led to drastic changes in society; industrial machinery was largely replaced by technology driven by magic, spells, and "goetic forces" instead of fossil fuels and electricity. For example, the main mode of transportation is broomsticks and magic carpets fitted with cabins for people to sit in; radios are called "runers," apparently activated by runes; and the propulsion behind space flight is achieved by a combination of mechanical technology, spelled crystals, and arcane materials such as mummy dust.

Steve helped in the construction of a spacecraft for Operation Selene, the United States' first attempt to send a manned craft to the Moon. However, a disaster caused by beings adverse to the mission destroy the vehicle and nearly kill the celestonaut, Curtice Newton, although Steve, in wolf form, saves her.

Afterward, Steve, Ginny, and a handful of people begin to investigate the disaster and make plans to put Operation Luna into effect, a smaller version of Operation Selene independent from NASA.

Since the identities of the entities behind the Operation Selene disaster remain somewhat veiled and mysterious, Steve and Ginny enlist the help of a number of people, including Balawahdiwa, a Zuni high priest; Fotherwick-Botts, an enchanted sword that can talk; and Fjalar, a Norwegian dwarf who forged Fotherwick-Botts.

Though the characters live in Gallup, New Mexico, the characters travel to various other locations in their investigations, including London, England, various parts of Norway, and even Yggdrasil, the legendary Norse site of the World Tree. The time period is roughly in the late 1990s.

Although vague, their initial investigations reveal that the malevolent spirits who collaborated with Coyote are Asian in origin, leading them to suspect a connection to Dr. Fu Ch'ing, a Chinese scientist, government agent, and thaumaturge. (The U.S.' largest competitor for space exploration in the novel is China rather than Russia.) Meanwhile, the F.B.I. suspects Ginny's brother, Will, an astronomer who helped in the planning of Operation Selene and who has an interest in Chinese culture and connections with people in the country. Steve and Ginny themselves worry that he may be possessed by an evil spirit, though tests reveal no trace of a foreign entity.