The Doctor and Lucie follow the criminal time traveller Nick Zimmerman to a decaying spaceship in the Time Vortex, where he is planning to sell time travel technology to the highest bidder. After escaping the Tar-Modowk, aliens who have been attracted to the ship, they chase Dr. Zimmerman to a garden party, where Dr. Zimmerman appears to have aged 30 years. The Doctor guesses that the party is in a time loop, and confronts Zimmerman, only to learn that Zimmerman has settled down, married a woman called Rachel and rejected a life of crime. The Doctor informs Zimmerman that he must close the loop before the Tar-Modowk enter the real universe, but Zimmerman refuses as his time loop is the only thing keeping Rachel alive. The Tar-Modowk, riding Vortisaurs, break through into the universe and begin killing guests, so Zimmerman agrees to close the loop. Rachel dies, but before The Doctor leaves, The Headhunter appears and kidnaps Lucie.

'''Part 1'''

In the TARDIS the Doctor is given a time ring by a Time Lord to rescue Lucie. Meanwhile, Lucie starts her new job at Hulbert Logistics, an office in Telford, believing that her travels with the Doctor were all a dream. The Doctor arrives at the office and restores Lucie's memories. She realises that this is the job she was meant to start before she was taken by the Time Lords. He decides to investigate and finds the staff working on military tactics. Lucie is fired from the job and is ejected from the office with another member of staff, Karen. The office is revealed to be the interior of a giant war machine on an alien planet, where they find a small group of other ex-employees.

Meanwhile, the Doctor finds a dimensional corridor in the human resources department, which leads to an office on Earth run by a man called Hulbert, who explains that he helps aliens fight wars by brainwashing humans to run the war machines. Believing the Doctor to be his latest 'client', he takes him to a conference on the alien planet to demonstrate his company's effectiveness as the current targets of his corporations have been hunted to near extinction. Believing Hulbert's plans to be unjustified, the Doctor sabotages the conference's defensive systems, only to discover that the war is being fought against Cybermen, who storm the conference room.

'''Part 2'''

Hubert agrees to work with the Cybermen, against the Doctor's advice. The Doctor learns that these Cybermen are an earlier version of the Cybermen he will encounter on Telos, having not recognised the name of the planet. Lucie and the ex-employees meet the Headhunter, who explains she was hired by Hubert to track Lucie down in case a rival company was trying to reverse-engineer his brainwashing techniques. As she has no desire to see the Cybermen win, she agrees to help them.

Lucie returns to the office with the other ex-employees and regains control. Meanwhile, the Cybermen have summoned the office as it has a 100% success record, and they also intend to use the dimensional corridor to invade Earth. The office attacks the Cybermen whilst Lucie sneaks out and rescues the Doctor. They re-enter the office where Lucie shows the Doctor a device which she found in the office, which he recognizes as a Quantum Crystalliser, a device which alters possible future timelines to ensure the best possible outcome for the user. They both go in the TARDIS to talk to another Time Lord who explains that the war had been engineered by the Celestial Intervention Agency to try to eliminate the Cybermen.

The Time Lord also explains that the CIA predicted that Lucie would become a dictator who would interfere with mankind's progress, so they also used a Crystalliser to alter her past to prevent this, but eventually they had to pull her out of time into the TARDIS, as contact with another Crystalliser would lead to her timeline becoming dangerously unstable. Realising that the Time Lords have manipulated her life Lucie takes the Quantum Crystalliser and runs back to the office. The Doctor realises that the Time Lords mistook Lucie for Karen when they pulled her out of time due to them both having job interviews on the same day, and Karen is the one destined to become a dictator.

The Headhunter tries to talk Lucie into using the Quantum Crystalliser to get revenge on the Time Lords. The Doctor arrives and explains the situation to her. She gives him the Crystalliser, but is shocked when he gives it to the Cybermen. However, the Cyberman who uses it instantly suffers total systems failure and is killed. The Doctor explains that the Quantum Crystalliser has been programmed to ensure that the Cybermen are defeated, so he increases the range on it, causing all of the Cybermen to be killed, and rendering the device itself useless. Whilst the Time Lords return the office workers home and Karen decides to become the Headhunter's new assistant, the Doctor and Lucie leave to new adventures.

''Hey, Stop Stabbing Me!'' is the story of Herman Schumacher (Patrick Casey) and his new post-collegiate life. After school ends Herman finds life a lot harder than he thought. He needs to find a place to live, a job, and new friends. The first two are solved surprisingly easy when he unknowingly moves into a house with a serial killer to fill one of the many vacancies and then gets a job as a "World Historian" which mainly consists of digging holes in an empty field. Throw in crazy roommates and a sock stealing monster for good measure and wackiness ensues.

''Hall of Mirrors'' concerns a young, desperate gambling addict who is plummeted into financial ruin. A strange, anonymous caller (who happens to know every intimate detail of the protagonist's life) offers a unique solution to his situation. Lured by the promise of easy money and the beauty of an enigmatic woman, he enters an underworld of counterfeiters and con artists, where he becomes a pawn in a scheme far more elaborate and ruthless than he could have ever imagined.

Heidi is five years old when her aunt Dete, who has raised Heidi since her parents' deaths four years earlier, takes Heidi to live with her formidable grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Dete has found a promising job in Frankfurt, but cannot leave while still Heidi's guardian, nor can she take Heidi with her. The only relative left is Heidi's grandfather, and in Dete's opinion, he should take some responsibility. Alm-Onji, as Heidi's grandfather is commonly known, has a fearsome reputation with the villagers of Dörfli, as rumors claim that in his youth he killed a man. Now he lives a solitary life with his dog Josef in a cabin halfway up the mountain. However, Heidi quickly wins her way into his heart with her enthusiasm and intelligence, firmly establishing herself in his life. She spends her days on the mountain top with the goatherd Peter, whose responsibility it is to take the villagers' goats to the high mountains for pasture, and her winters occasionally visiting Peter's grandmother, a blind old woman whose dream is to one day hear her cherished book of psalms read to her (which Peter cannot do since he failed to learn to read). Alm-Onji's misanthropy and seclusion prevents Heidi from going to school, of which she has no experience anyway, ultimately leaving her illiterate.

Heidi continues to live happily in the mountains until Aunt Dete returns from the city, excited about a good opportunity for Heidi. A wealthy German businessman, Mr. Sesemann, is searching for a companion for his wheelchair-using daughter Clara. Thwarted by Alm-Onji, Dete tricks Heidi into accompanying her, ostensibly to get a present for Peter and her grandfather. Promised that she can return at any time, Heidi is taken to Frankfurt. There, Dete abandons her to the "care" of Miss Rottenmeier, the strict, no-nonsense governess in charge of Clara's welfare. Heidi and Clara quickly become friends, and Heidi quickly turns the household topsy-turvy with her escapades and well-meaning faux pas. Clara is enchanted by Heidi's stories of the Alps, which paint a picture of a life completely different from the sheltered and lonely one she is accustomed to. Her father is mostly away on business, and Clara's only constant companions until now are the servants and her pet canary.

Heidi's longing to return home and occasional attempts to escape are punctuated by the occasional distractions of new friends. She smuggles a small kitten into the house, and she and Clara care for it until Miss Rottenmeier discovers it and has it thrown out, until Sebastian, the kindly butler, is able to leave the kitten with a friend. Clara's doctor befriends her, and occasionally keeps a benevolent eye on her, but it is Clara's grandmother that has the most impact. On one of her rare visits to Frankfurt, she and Heidi become fast friends. Under her kindly tutelage, Heidi finally learns how to read, to the astonishment of the tutor who has struggled for months to do the same. However, the old woman's departure home again proves a turning point for Heidi. Forbidden by Miss Rottenmeier to ever mention or even think of the Alps again, Heidi rapidly goes into a decline, eventually becoming a sleep-walker, whose passage through the hallways is mistaken for that of a ghost, terrorizing the household.

Summoned home to deal with the haunting, Mr. Sesemann, with the aid of the doctor, catch Heidi in the middle of the night. The doctor diagnoses Heidi's condition and persuades Mr. Sesemann to send the girl back to her Alps before she dies of homesickness. Clara is only reconciled by the promise that she will be allowed to visit Heidi in her mountains. Under the care of Sebastian, Heidi embarks on the long trip home, finally returning to her grandfather, Peter and his family.

Heidi's return and her newfound enjoyment of reading prompt Alm-Onji to partially restore a ruined house down in the village, where they retire the following winter so that Heidi can start going to school. Over the course of the season, Heidi and Alm-Onji become friendly with the villagers, and Peter builds his own sled and wins a local race. The subsequent spring, they return to the mountain in the Alps, bidding farewell to their new friends. In Frankfurt, Clara, who has been longing to see her friend again, reminds her father of his promise to her, but he reminds her that the conditions in the Swiss Alps may be too harsh for her to handle. The doctor is sent to the Alps in her place, to inspect the area and determine whether it is an appropriate environment for a disabled, sick young girl. Heidi, Peter, Alm-Onji, and the limitations of the terrain convince the doctor that this may be just the place for Clara to try her legs again.

In due course, Clara comes to the Alps with Miss Rottenmeier, who shows a clear disapproval of the rustic conditions, an open fear of animals, and distress at the potential for accidents on the mountain. However, Clara's grandmother soon arrives, and after seeing first-hand the vast improvement in Clara's condition, sends Miss Rottenmeier home, commending Clara to the Alm-Onji's care before departing herself. After having established that Clara's legs are capable of functioning, the children and Alm-Onji begin to work on Clara's physical therapy. Eventually, Clara is able to walk without assistance and returns home with her father and grandmother, promising that she will return the following spring to be with her friends again.

The novel picks up soon after where ''Tarzan of the Apes'' left off. The ape man, feeling rootless in the wake of his noble sacrifice of his prospects of wedding Jane Porter, leaves USA for Europe to visit his friend Paul d'Arnot. On the ship he becomes embroiled in the affairs of Countess Olga de Coude, her husband, Count Raoul de Coude, and two shady characters attempting to prey on them, Nikolas Rokoff and his henchman Alexis Paulvitch. Rokoff, it turns out, is also the countess's brother. Tarzan thwarts the villains' scheme, making them his deadly enemies.

Later, in France, Rokoff tries time and time again to eliminate the ape man, finally engineering a duel between him and the count by making it appear that he is the countess's lover. Tarzan deliberately refuses to defend himself in the duel, even offering the count his own weapon after the latter fails to kill him with his own, a grand gesture that convinces his antagonist of his innocence. In return, Count Raoul finds him a job as a special agent in the French ministry of war. Tarzan is assigned to service in Algeria.

A sequence of adventures among the local Arabs ensues, including another brush with Rokoff. Afterward Tarzan sails for Cape Town and strikes up a shipboard acquaintance with Hazel Strong, a friend of Jane's. But Rokoff and Paulovitch are also aboard, and manage to ambush him and throw him overboard.

Miraculously, Tarzan manages to swim to shore, and finds himself in the coastal jungle where he was brought up by the apes. He soon rescues and befriends a native warrior, Busuli of the Waziri, and is adopted into the Waziri tribe. After defeating a raid on their village by ivory raiders, Tarzan becomes their chief.

The Waziri know of a lost city deep in the jungle, from which they have obtained their golden ornaments. Tarzan has them take him there, but is captured by its inhabitants, a race of ape-like men, and is condemned to be sacrificed to their sun god. To Tarzan's surprise, the priestess to perform the sacrifice is a beautiful woman who speaks the ape language he learned as a child. She tells him she is La, high priestess of the lost city of Opar. When the sacrificial ceremony is fortuitously interrupted, she hides Tarzan and promises to lead him to freedom. But the ape man escapes on his own, locates a treasure chamber, and manages to rejoin the Waziri.

Meanwhile, Hazel Strong has reached Cape Town where she meets Jane and her father, Professor Porter, together with Jane's fiancé, Tarzan's cousin William Cecil Clayton. They are all invited on a cruise up the west coast of Africa aboard the ''Lady Alice'', the yacht of another friend, Lord Tennington. Rokoff, now using the alias of M. Thuran, ingratiates himself with the party and is also invited along. The ''Lady Alice'' breaks down and sinks, forcing the passengers and crew into the lifeboats. The one containing Jane, Clayton and "Thuran" is separated from the others and suffers terrible privations. Coincidentally, the boat finally makes shore in the same general area that Tarzan did.

The three construct a rude shelter and eke out an existence of near starvation for some weeks until Jane and William Clayton are surprised in the forest by a lion. Clayton loses Jane's respect by cowering in fear before the beast instead of defending her, but they are not attacked and discover the lion dead, speared by an unknown hand. Their hidden savior is in fact Tarzan, who does not reveal himself due to anger at seeing Jane still with Clayton. Tarzan renounces any dealings with other humans, abandons the Waziri, and rejoins his original ape clan. Jane breaks off her engagement to William.

Later Jane is kidnapped and taken to Opar by a party of the Oparian ape-men who were pursuing their escaped sacrifice, Tarzan. The ape man learns of her capture and tracks them, managing to save her from being sacrificed by La. La is crushed by Tarzan's spurning of her for Jane. After searching for Jane, Clayton is incapacitated with a fever and Thuran abandons him to die. Thuran discovers the other survivors from the ''Lady Alice'' who came to shore only a few miles away. He tells them that he is the sole survivor of his lifeboat.

Tarzan and Jane return to Jane's shelter, along the way encountering Busuli and a group of Waziri who have been searching for their king since he disappeared. At the shelter, Clayton is at the point of death. Before he dies, he reveals to Tarzan and Jane that he knows Tarzan is the true Lord Greystoke. Tarzan and Jane make their way up the coast to the former's boyhood cabin so they can bury Clayton alongside his aunt and uncle. Here they encounter the remainder of the castaways of the ''Lady Alice'', who have been recovered by D'Arnot in a French navy vessel. Tarzan exposes Thuran as Rokoff and the French arrest him.

Tarzan weds Jane and Tennington weds Hazel in a double ceremony performed by Professor Porter, who had been ordained a minister in his youth. Then they all set sail for civilization, taking along the treasure Tarzan had found in Opar. The Waziri receive gifts from the French and reluctantly accept the departure of their king.

The novel spans the time period between September 903 and December 904, beginning shortly after the murder of a Deryni lord named Rannulf. Unable to locate Rannulf's murderer, King Imre Furstán-Festil issues a decree ordering the deaths of fifty human peasants unless the murderer is identified. The peasants are tenants of Earl Camber MacRorie of Culdi, a respected Deryni master who formerly served Imre's father.

Meanwhile, the Healer Rhys Thuryn attends the final hours of an elderly patient. Before his death, the patient confides that he is really Prince Aidan Haldane, the sole survivor of the Deryni coup that overthrew the Haldane kings eight decades earlier. He begs Rhys to seek out his grandson, Prince Cinhil Haldane, who is the last remaining member of the former royal bloodline. Rhys recruits the assistance of Father Joram MacRorie, and the two of them determine that Cinhil is one of five monks living in seclusion in various religious houses throughout the realm. Before continuing their search, they seek the counsel of Joram's father, Earl Camber.

In the capital city of Valoret, Lord Cathan MacRorie, Camber's eldest son and heir, continues to request mercy for the imprisoned peasants. Although a close friend of the king, Cathan is unable to persuade Imre to revoke his decree. However, Imre permits Cathan to save just one of the peasants, forcing him to personally choose from among the doomed commoners. Unable to prevent the executions, Cathan nearly goes mad with grief.

Rhys and Joram continue their search for the Haldane prince, but it is Camber and Rhys who eventually discover Cinhil, who is living the peaceful religious life of a monk in a secluded abbey. Unwilling to compromise Cathan's position at court, they do not tell Cathan of their discovery, but Cathan's position is already being undermined by his ambitious brother-in-law, Lord Coel Howell. Coel continually sows mistrust between Imre and Cathan, and eventually succeeds in framing Cathan for the murder of another Deryni lord. Convinced that Cathan has betrayed him, Imre murders his friend. Racked with grief and self-loathing, Imre seeks comfort in the arms of his sister, Princess Ariella, and soon begins an incestuous relationship with her.

Cathan's body is returned to his father, who decides to immediately move forward with his plans to overthrow Imre. After dispatching Joram and Rhys to retrieve Cinhil, Camber and his daughter, Evaine, meet with the Michaelines, a militant religious order who has agreed to provide military support for the upcoming coup attempt. Soon thereafter, Imre's suspicions grow to include the entire MacRorie family, and he soon orders their arrest. However, the MacRories manage to escape capture, and the entire Michaeline order goes into hiding to elude Imre's wrath.

Rhys and Joram manage to abduct Cinhil, but the prince is unwilling to abandon his religious life. Although Camber and his allies attempt to convince Cinhil that he must become king for the greater good of the realm, the anguished prince is haunted by his conscience and his heart-felt vocation as a priest. Nonetheless, Camber continues to prepare Cinhil for the throne, attempting to teach him about the secular world that he abandoned. Camber eventually convinces Archbishop Anscom, the Archbishop of Valoret and one of Camber's oldest friends, to support their cause. Anscom absolves Cinhil's religious vows, acknowledges him as the legitimate heir to the throne, and presides over his marriage to Camber's ward.

After several months of working with Cinhil, Camber becomes convinced that Cinhil has the unique ability to acquire Deryni-like powers. Assisted by several members of his family, Camber performs a ritual designed to bestow Deryni powers on the prince. Although they believe the ritual to be successful, Cinhil refuses to display any indication of his new abilities for several months. However, at the baptism of his son several months later, Cinhil's powers become clearly evident. When his son is poisoned by an unwitting assassin, the furious prince uses his powers to locate and kill the murderer. From that point on, Cinhil becomes dedicated to avenging his slain son, vowing to overthrow and kill Imre.

In December, the coup is finally launched. Using several Transfer Portals, Camber, Cinhil, and their Michaeline allies infiltrate the royal palace in Valoret in the middle of the night. Their forces quickly overcome the guards, and soon burst into the royal bedchamber. While Imre is captured, his sister escapes through a secret passage, bearing her brother's child in her womb. Imre lashes out with his powers at Cinhil, but the Haldane prince uses his own powers to withstand the attack. Realizing he cannot win, Imre commits suicide rather than submit to imprisonment. As the fighting comes to an end, Camber crowns Cinhil as King of Gwynedd.

The books follow Karl Sten, a young man born and raised on the dangerous factory world of Vulcan and saved from life as an outlaw by the head of Imperial Intelligence, Ian Mahoney. Mahoney takes Sten from the terrible world of his birth and enlists him in the military. Sten is thrust into a world of espionage, covert military actions, and galactic politics. His original training is in the super-secret covert ops group known as Mantis. The missions and actions taken are usually known only to a select few. A series of crucial missions ensures that Sten rises swiftly in rank until he becomes a troubleshooter and friend to the Emperor himself.

The series of eight books are set three thousand years in the future. A vast empire, limited only by the galaxy itself, is ruled by the Eternal Emperor, a man who appears to be in his thirties but is in fact over three thousand years old. He has mastered death in a way no one has guessed since the beginning of his rule. The source of his power is a powerful fuel called Anti-Matter Two (AM2). It is what fuels everything from the star ships that link the Empire, to industrial factories, to camping heaters. Only he controls its supply and price. And only he knows where to find it. It is only for this reason that he is able to rule.

Norman Bates has spent the last two decades locked up in a mental asylum after the events in the first novel. His psychiatrist, Dr. Adam Claiborne, has spent the last two decades working with Norman and has hopes of one day becoming famous by curing him. His plans come crashing down after Norman strangles a visiting nun with her rosary beads, then steals her outfit and walks out. Norman gets in the van with the other visiting nun and kills her with a tire iron, then rapes her dead body. As he drives away, Norman spots a hitchhiker and picks him up with plans to kill him and use his body to fake his death.

Later that night, the police find the van on fire with the charred remains of the nun and an unidentified man presumed to be Norman. Since this happened at the same time as a massive car pile up, they are exhausting their resources trying to identify the victims to notify their next of kin and can not get around to positively identifying Norman's remains.

Meanwhile, across town, Sam and Lila Loomis are murdered by an assailant with a knife. Claiborne is convinced that Norman faked his death and proceeded to kill them, but the police are skeptical. As they are surveying the crime scene, they see a news article talking about a movie being made based on Norman's life. Claiborne is convinced that Norman is going to Hollywood to kill everybody involved in production, so he heads out there to stop him.

Fearing the worst, Claiborne gets a job as a technical consultant on the film to keep an eye on everything. He gets introduced to the cast and crew, including director Vizzini, who is the spitting image of Norman twenty years previously. Claiborne keeps thinking that something bad is going to happen, but nobody believes him until the movie's producer gets decapitated with a meat cleaver.

At the scene of the crime, Claiborne and screenwriter Ames find out about Vizzini's past: his mother was raped and murdered when he was a child. Meanwhile, Vizzini calls the actress playing Marion Crane to the movie studio where the shower scene is going to be shot under the guise of rehearsing the scene, but he is really planning on raping and murdering her. It turns out that his childhood trauma has affected his sexual morality.

Claiborne gets a bad feeling about Vizzini and heads over to the movie studio to try to stop him. Moments after he leaves, the phone rings and Ames answers it only to be in touch with the officer investigating Norman's disappearance. They have conclusively identified the charred remains in the van as Norman's. It turns out while Norman planned on killing the hitchhiker to fake his death, the hitchhiker actually overpowered Norman and killed him in self-defense. He had a criminal record and was worried about going back to jail, so he burned the van to hide the evidence and went into hiding. However, the hitchhiker really thought he was killing a nun instead of a disguised Norman. The thought of killing a nun weighed on his conscience and he eventually turned himself in. Ames concludes that if Norman is dead, Vizzini must be the murderer and he requests officers to go to the movie studio.

Meanwhile, Vizzini tries to rape the actress. However, she fights him off and kicks him hard enough to send him into the prop shower behind the curtain. Vizzini screams loudly and emerges with a large stab wound before dropping dead. The assailant then takes the knife and approaches the actress. However, before he can stab her, the police show up and shoot him. As he falls, he is revealed to be none other than Dr. Claiborne. He survives the shooting and ends up committed to the very asylum that Norman spent twenty years in.

Claiborne's colleague deduces that he put so much time and energy into Norman Bates, that when Norman died, Claiborne realized he would never get the fame he wished for and the trauma of this reality gave him Norman's split personality. This split personality killed Sam and Lila, Vizzini, and the producer. Now, his colleague is hoping that he will one day be cured, but he is not very optimistic.

Mainwaring is organising a drinks party at his house, despite his wife's fears that he and his men will "get drunk and smash the house up". He informs Wilson he may call him George at the party, something Wilson takes great delight in. However he sternly tells him he cannot call him "George" during work hours and turns down Mr. Pike's request to also call him "George" at the party.

The party starts off with Jones' section in attendance and clearly very uncomfortable. The stilted conversation remains until the arrival of Walker, with his girlfriend Shirley, which immediately throws George off kilter. He serves them a small amount of beer and sandwiches, which they quickly wolf down, after which George gives them a guided tour of the room, while Walker gets down to business with Shirley on the sofa.

Much excitement is generated by the imminent arrival of Mrs Mainwaring, but an air raid warning sees her scurrying to the shelter before being introduced or even being seen by any of the platoon members (or audience). Mr. Hodges arrives, and a few moments later bombs land on the allotments, the taxi garage and the bank. Alarmed, Mr. Mainwaring and his men hurry round to the bank to salvage the money. They secure it and carry it back to the church hall where they plan to count it. Mainwaring orders the other section to guard the money, but they refuse out of spite as they weren't invited to the party, forcing Mainwaring to promise to throw them a party next week.

After a very long night, they eventually total it up. They then attempt to carry it to Eastgate using a horse and cart supplied by Walker and their own bicycles. A short way into the journey, the money starts blowing out of the hamper used to carry it. Trying to alert Mainwaring's attention to this, Pike fires his rifle, only to frighten the horse and send it charging off into a field with the platoon following close behind on their bikes.

The body of Danny Sorenson is found in a shallow grave. Sipowicz gets a new partner, a son of his old nemesis. Together they track the mafia members who killed Sorenson. Valerie becomes pregnant with Baldwin, but she loses the baby and Baldwin has doubts as to whether it was a miscarriage or an abortion.

Stephen Torcelli lives with his partner Danny Russo in New York City. When Stephen's parents call to announce a surprise visit for his father's birthday, Stephen and Danny scramble to conceal their double lives. The Torcellis already know that Stephen and Danny are gay; they don't know that they're enforcers for the Patrizzi crime family. Stephen's father is an undercover FBI agent and if he learns of their criminal affiliation he'll be obligated to report them. Stephen and Danny have told them that they run a catering company, even though neither of them can cook.

Meanwhile, Don Patrizzi's daughter Jenny has announced her engagement. Even though her fiancé is not Sicilian, Don Patrizzi decides to throw her a lavish engagement party which gets combined with the birthday party for Mr Torcelli. Mrs Torcelli suggests that the boys cater the party, sending them into a panic. One of Don Patrizzi's sons is an excellent chef - and the other is a master decorator - so the Patrizzi boys take care of the food and the decor. As a special treat for Jenny, Don Patrizzi forcibly "invites" a U.S. Senator under his control to the party.

It is this guest who is of the most interest to the Jenningses, the parents of Jenny's fiancé. They run a militia group which has declared war on the United States government and they want to take the opportunity to hold the Senator, a representative of that government, hostage.

Oblivious to this threat, Don Patrizzi's soldiers have been enlisted to serve as waiters for the party. Reasoning that a catering company owned by a gay couple would have gay employees, they recruit a flamboyant friend of the Danny and Stephen's to give them a crash course on gay (including such vital information as the correct order of Elizabeth Taylor's husbands and the proper use of the expression "puh-''lease''!").

At the party all is going well until the Jenningses and their militiamen strike. They take the guests hostage and force the Senator to record a message for the media. Stephen and Danny, fearful that the tape will lead to police action and a deadly shootout, neutralize the militia with the help of the newly gay-acting Patrizzi soldiers and some random drag queens that were brought to the party for a vaguely defined purpose. With their cover blown, Stephen and Danny tell Mr Torcelli that they're ready for him to turn them in. However, the birthday he's celebrating is his 60th, meaning that he's been mandatorily retired and is no longer with the FBI. In other happy news for Don Patrizzi, Jenny's fiancé turns out to be adopted and he was actually born Sicilian after all.

After escaping from the railroad police after stowing away on a train, the Stooges befriend a champion wrestler named Ivan Bustoff (Harrison Greene). His trainers, who are part of the mob, have a large bet placed on Bustoff to win the big match. But Bustoff likes to go out drinking, and after a wild night out with the boys, Bustoff downs a mixture made of "a little tequila, vodka and cognac", which he believes is not alcohol and a different kind of drink, then passes out from drinking the mixture. The mobsters hire/force the Stooges to become Bustoff's managers and get him to the ring sober. In the locker room at the arena, the boys are trying to wake Bustoff up, but end up knocking him out with dumb bells and causing the locker to fall on him. Bustoff remains unconscious.

In fear, the Stooges substitute Curly, who possesses a tendency to get violent in reaction to the smell of Wild Hyacinth perfume. Moe and Larry realize that this can be used to their advantage. But the subsequent wrestling match is not a good time for Curly as he performs poorly. Moe then spots a woman spectator holding a bottle of Wild Hyacinth and gets it from her. By this time, the mobsters get wind of Bustoff's non-participation and are threatening the Stooges with harm if Curly does not win as planned. The Wild Hyacinth is then applied to Curly, and soon the challenger is knocked out cold along with nearly everyone else in attendance as Curly goes on a rampage using the match bell as a cudgel. The bell then slips out of Curly's hands and flies up in the air, only to land back onto his head and knock him out as well.

A postal worker named Fred Bentson unwittingly becomes a portal between two worlds and two cities. A living link between Dakota, home city of the Milestone heroes, and Metropolis, home of Superman. Eventually Bentson loses control of his powers and transforms into Rift, a cosmic being capable of manipulating and reconfiguring matter on a subatomic scale. The heroes of the two universes come together to stop him and seal the dangerous crack in reality between their worlds.

The Stooges started out as homeless thieving beggars and are put on trial for stealing chickens. After being acquitted on a charge of chicken stealing, the Stooges attempt to catch a live fish from a pet store aquarium tank. A beat cop (Bud Jamison) catches them in action and gives chase, forcing the boys to pose as plumbers to avoid being incarcerated.

The Stooges manage to destroy the entire plumbing system in the home in grand fashion. Curly attempts to repair what he believes is a leak in the upstairs bathroom and ends up constructing a maze of pipes that traps him. Larry digs up the front lawn in fruitless search of the water shutoff valve. In addition, Moe and Curly end up connecting a water pipe with another nearby pipe housing electrical wires, leading to water exiting every electrical appliance in the mansion, resulting in much comedic suffering for the mansion’s bewildered chef (Dudley Dickerson). When a hostess invites her guests to watch Niagara Falls on her new television set, the whole company gets doused with water (therefore leading to the invention of 4-D television).

The homeowner arrives to see his house in shambles and accidentally undoes the Stooges' convoluted repair work. As they are about to reprimand him, it becomes clear that the homeowner happens to be the judge who found them innocent a few hours earlier; in the last scene the Three Stooges are running away while being chased by the Judge, his butler and the police.

Betty rejoins ''MODE'' as Daniel's assistant and he gives her an overview of her official job duties, reminding Betty that they are a team. Daniel then meets with Bradford, who tells Daniel that as the editor-in-chief, he should take charge of "the Book"—the mock-up of the upcoming issue before it hits the stands. Daniel announces to the staff that he will personally review the Book from now on, much to Wilhelmina's displeasure.

The upcoming ''MODE'' issue is set to feature movie star Natalie Whitman, who has gained weight from her latest film role. Natalie is dismayed to see how much the ''MODE'' editors plan to edit her images, but Wilhelmina claims that fashion is about aspiration, not reality. Natalie asks for Betty's opinion and after a warning look from Daniel, Betty defers to Wilhelmina's opinion. Afterwards, Daniel tells Betty that she needs to follow the opinion of the room, regardless of her true feelings. At the cafeteria, Betty complains to her co-workers about the excessive editing on Natalie's photos, but they shrug it off as part of the business. Natalie stops by their table and partakes in Betty's empanadas, much to the jealousy of the other ''MODE'' employees. Back at her desk, Betty notices her pink stuffed bunny is missing from her desk and she begins to receive messages depicting her bunny being destroyed in various ways. Meanwhile, Wilhelmina slips in Natalie's unretouched photos into the Book, confident that Daniel will sign off on the Book without looking at it.

In the evening, Daniel leaves the Book on his desk to go on a date with Amanda. Betty takes it upon herself to take the Book home, where her neighbor Gina Gambaro confronts her, demanding $4,000 to replace the television that Betty broke. Gina notices the Book and steals it from the Suarez household. In the morning, Betty realizes the Book is missing and finds Gina's ransom note. She and Hilda attempt to steal the Book back from Gina, but fail. Daniel calls Betty to check on the Book and sends a town car to pick her up. Betty compliments him on deciding to keep Natalie's unretouched photos and Daniel realizes that Wilhelmina is trying to sabotage him. En route to ''Mode'', Betty calls Christina to fret about how to get the Book back. The chauffeur overhears her conversation and texts Wilhelmina, who sends Marc to pick up the Book from Gina.

At ''Mode'', Betty confesses how she lost the Book and Daniel angrily reminds her that they cannot keep secrets from each other. They return to Queens to get the Book from Gina, who informs them that she already gave it to someone else, though she admits she would have not have done so after getting a chance to admire Daniel. Betty sees Walter installing Gina's new TV set and he assures Betty that he still has feelings for her. On TV, they see a report from Fashion TV about Natalie's unretouched photos. Defeated, Betty and Daniel return to ''Mode'' and she suggests that he tell the truth. Daniel admits what happened to Bradford, who is impressed with Daniel's honesty. However, Natalie's publicist is furious about the public learning Natalie still has not lost weight.

In the elevator, Betty runs into Natalie. She tells Natalie that while the fashion industry may consider Natalie to be ugly, regular women wish they could look like her. This inspires Natalie and she announces to the ''MODE'' editors that she wants her unretouched photos to be kept in the magazine and for Betty to keep her job. Natalie makes the official announcement on Fashion TV, saving ''MODE'' from embarrassment. Wilhelmina pretends that the Book was returned by an anonymous source and Daniel finally reviews the Book before the issue is published. Betty's stuffed bunny is finally returned to her by Amanda, who admits to being the thief. Betty informs Amanda that while her bunny may be worse for wear, it and Betty are not going anywhere.

Meanwhile, Bradford meets with Steve, a private detective who tells him when Fey Sommers' estate sale will be held. Steve offers to break into Fey's apartment in order to remove incriminating evidence on Bradford's behalf. Bradford declines in favor of doing it himself. In Fey's apartment, he steals a music box and burns a photo of himself with Fey. The mysterious masked woman calls Daniel and warns him to be careful around Bradford.

The Prime Minister's special advisor, Sir Mark Spencer, meets with the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Arnold Robinson, in 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister wants an Integrated Transport Policy, the implementation of which would be a political minefield - it would be popular with the public, but an overall vote loser for whoever attempted to implement it. The role had already been declined by the Secretary of State for Transport, and the civil service simply wish to make it appear that something will be done. Sir Arnold therefore proposes to appoint someone who can create "lots of activity, but no actual achievement", and concludes that Jim Hacker is the ideal candidate.

Recognising that Hacker's Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby would advise against him accepting the role, they brief Hacker alone and flatter him with a new title 'Transport Supremo', describing the post as 'an honour' and highlighting all the positive aspects of the position. They further outline the current system's deficiencies which the policy should address: rationalisation of the road and railway networks to avoid duplication, the absence of links between Heathrow airport and the Great Western Main Line, lack of coordination between the railways and bus services, lack of single tickets that can be used on both mainline rail and the London Underground, and lack of combined bus and railway timetables (including bus timetables in railway stations). They decline to mention any of the problems in achieving these, and pressure him to agree immediately without consulting with Sir Humphrey, which he does.

Hacker goes back to his office to tell Sir Humphrey and Bernard the good news. Sir Humphrey immediately baulks at the idea, then outlines the many disadvantages of this new role, which, it turns out, has been circulating around Whitehall for weeks. He explains that if a policy favours one sector, it will infuriate those that it sidelines: a ruling that favours the road services will upset the railways; if it supports the railways then the Road lobby will 'massacre [him]', and if it upsets British Airways' investment plans, "they will call a devastating press conference that same afternoon". He further points out that the seemingly-flattering title 'Transport Supremo' is rendered within the service as "Transport Muggins".

Sir Humphrey proposes to illustrate this by arranging a meeting for the Minister with three under-secretaries, from the Roads, Rail, and Air Transport divisions. At the meeting, it becomes clear that there is little scope for agreement, as each wants to expand their own branch's contract at the expense of the others. Hacker then tells them that he wants to reduce the overall transport budget, at which point there is an implied agreement by the three under-secretaries that this would be met by devastating strike action across all three transport sectors.

Hacker subsequently asks Bernard why these three civil servants appeared to be fighting their own corners instead of supporting the government. The Principal Private Secretary explains that this is how the civil service works: each department is controlled by those that it is supposed to be controlling. By way of example, he explains that comprehensive education was adopted in the United Kingdom as a result of lobbying by the National Union of Teachers who were the most powerful sectional interest and had a long term close relation with the Department of Education. He then explains that this arrangement worked across all government departments.

Hacker now concludes that the task is impossible, and asks Sir Humphrey for advice on how to get out of the commitment. Together, they decide that a few "local repercussions" of the policy, specifically impacting the Prime Minister's own constituency with job losses and unwanted development, would do the job nicely. Humphrey then suggests that if a journalist – such as the one he's about to have lunch with – got hold of the document, there would be a national outcry, and, as they have to circulate copies to every department, it would be difficult to track down the source of any leak that might occur. Sir Humphrey has lunch with Peter Maxwell, a journalist from ''The Times'' over which he outlines the negative implications of the policy on the constituency and then he 'accidentally' leaves a copy of Hacker's memo for the journalist to retrieve.

A few days later, Hacker is called back to Number 10, where Sir Mark Spencer informs him of the PM's displeasure after their confidential report had appeared in ''The Times''. Furthermore, another report has appeared in the PM's local paper, scotching rumours of any unfortunate side-effects to the policy, and forcing Hacker to rethink his proposals. Hacker is suspicious about where this second leak came from, but Sir Mark is adamant that "the PM's office does not leak."

Meanwhile, Sir Humphrey has already prepared a Plan B which is wildly expensive and will upset HM Treasury. The plan proposes a new 'British Transport Authority', with a staff of 80,000 and a budget of £1,000,000,000 per year. They consider leaking this as well, knowing that it will most likely lead to a leak inquiry. Bernard is worried about that prospect, but the others assure him that such inquiries are only ever for 'setting up', and never actually report. This is due to both the difficulties in blaming either civil servants or politicians, and the fact that, that in most cases, most leaks do in fact come from 10 Downing Street. As Sir Humphrey remarks, "the ship of state...is the only ship that leaks from the top".

Later, both Hacker and Sir Humphrey are brought in to discuss the latest leak with Sir Mark and Sir Arnold. Sir Mark tries to intimidate Hacker and Sir Humphrey by suggesting he could track down where the first leak came from (and thereby implicate them). However, Hacker replies that he could likewise find out where the leak for the PM's opposition to their plan originated, pointing out that a leak from the PM's office would, in terms of security, be more serious than one from a Cabinet Minister's private office. Hacker further points out that the inevitable public outcry over the leaks would make his job impossible, especially as all his proposals have been effectively denied. Beaten into a stalemate, Sir Mark and Sir Arnold agree to send the policy back to the Ministry of Transport, and to set up an immediate leak inquiry.

The Reverend Samuel D. Whitehead, ex-Marine, bricklayer, and recent seminary graduate, is ecstatic to receive his first "calling," or assignment as Pastor of his own church. But the Church of the Redeemer in Wood Falls, Kansas, will prove a challenging assignment and nearly his undoing.

The trouble begins almost immediately after he drives into town with his family. A political rally connected with the upcoming mayoral campaign has erupted into a no-holds-barred, knock-down, drag-out brawl, which the sheriff will not stop. Sam attempts to intervene and succeeds only in getting struck in the face, so he drives on to see the church. There he learns that the church sorely needs major renovation, which has not been done in decades because the two founding families, the Sinclairs and the Greshams, have been running a feud for decades and cannot agree on the simplest decision that would benefit the church (or on anything else, either). Worse yet, Sam delivers his first sermon by preaching against physical violence—only to discover most of the brawlers in attendance, including one who blames him for making him vulnerable to someone else's assault.

Thereafter Sam spends most of his time trying to improvise to provide for the church needs, speak out on various problems in the community, and, ever more frequently, to run interference between the Sinclair and Gresham families. Each of these endeavors brings him trouble. First, his project to secure a new organ for the church leads to a confrontation with the church board when two town gossips witness him obtaining the organ from a house of Burlesque. Sam's brother-in-law, called "Bubba," offers to help the caretaker repair the superannuated boiler—but unknown to Sam, the two men turn the boiler into a still and start producing raisin jack, a variety of moonshine. Next, he takes his children out of school after seeing the appalling conditions there—which prompts his Bishop to warn him not to interfere in town affairs. Finally, he performs a marriage between a Sinclair and a Gresham—and when the secret gets out at a church social (after "Bubba" spikes the church punch with some of his raisin jack), Sam must physically restrain the heads of the families from brawling in the church fellowship hall, and then send everyone home. Not long afterward, the Bishop informs him that he is removed from his pastorate.

In one final attempt to save his situation and the community, he persuades his one remaining friend, Attorney Art Shields, to run for mayor as a write-in candidate, with the election two days away. That leads to a confrontation along the main street among three different political parades, including Art's. Then the church's old boiler explodes, and the church burns down to its foundations as a result—and the attempt by the fire department to fight the fire turns pathetic when the fire hose springs multiple leaks. When the Sinclairs and the Greshams argue yet ''again'' about who was responsible for the faulty equipment, Sam roars at them to "go someplace else, yell your heads off, and let this poor church die in peace!"

The next day, the Whiteheads are moving out—when Art Shields joyously announces that he is trouncing the opposition in the election and will definitely be the next mayor. Art offers Sam a job with the town, but Sam declines, saying that he needs to find another church. But as he is about to leave town, Will Sinclair and Axel Gresham—reconciled at last, and at the head of a procession of building-material trucks—intercept him, tell him that they intend rebuilding the church, and beg him to stay on.

The early life of William Thornhill is one of Dickensian poverty, depredation and criminality. After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is sentenced to death for stealing wood, however, in 1806 his sentence is commuted to transportation to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a death sentence. However, there is a way for the convicts to buy freedom and start afresh. Thornhill then gets sent to Sydney on a boat, by himself. After 9 months, Thornhill is finally able to reunite with his family in Australia. Sal becomes Thornhill's master, and Thornhill obtained a ticket of leave, one year later, after he demonstrated good behaviour. His son, Willie is already five years old, and Willie could not recognize his father, after being away from him for so long. Thornhill now also has another son, Richard, whom he called Dick.

During his first night in this new land, Thornhill encounters an Aboriginal man and struggles to communicate with him. The following weeks, Thornhill went to work as a lighterman for Mr. King. Thornhill then brought the alcohol, which he got from Mr. King, back home, to set up his own bar, named the "Pickled Herring." Scabby Bill was a regular customer, who would entertain the customers, by dancing for money.

Three years later, and Thornhill quits his job and works for Thomas Blackwood, a former convict who is attempting to reconcile himself with the place and its people. Blackwood lived on the Hawkesbury River, with his boat, "the Queen". Thornhill also met Smasher Sullivan, a man whose fear of this alien world turns into brutal depravity towards it.

Thornhill soon realises that the Aboriginal people of Australia have a different concept of land ownership, as compared to the white settlers, and notices that many of the Aboriginals were stealing his corn. Thornhill realises that Blackwood has an Aboriginal wife, and son. Shocked, he goes on to tell his wife about it. He also gave the black people names, to tell them apart easily, and renamed some of them as "Whisker Harry", "Long Bob" and "Black Dick". Thornhill was also shocked to see his son, Dick playing with the Aboriginal people, and he beat up Dick. As Thornhill and his family stake their claim on a patch of ground by the river, the battle lines between old and new inhabitants are drawn.

Soon after, Saggity, a friend of Smasher Sullivan was killed after a raid on his farm by Aboriginals, it is Saggity's death that leads to the battle with the Aboriginals. Blackwood tries to stop the fighting, but gets whipped by Smasher. In the battle between the settlers and the Aboriginals many casualties are sustained on both sides, Whisker Harry kills Sullivan, while he gets shot in the stomach, and long Jack gets shot in the head. Though Thornhill is a loving husband and a good father, his interactions with indigenous inhabitants are villainous. Thornhill dreams of a life of dignity and entitlement, manifested in his desire to own land. After befriending Blackwood under his employ, Thornhill finds a patch of land he believes will meet his needs, but his past comes back to haunt him. His interactions with the Aboriginal people progress from fearful first encounters to (after careful observation) appreciation. The desire for him to own the land contrasts with his wife wanting to return to England. The clash is one between a group of people desperate for land and another for whom the concept of ownership is bewildering.

A decade later, and William Thornhill becomes the wealthiest man in the area. He builds his own house, but he has always felt that something felt off. He also bought a new boat, named "Sarah" and renamed "Darkey's Creek" to "Thornhill's Point." Long Jack continued to stay, at Thornhill's Point, when all the other natives had fled. Thornhill's son, Dick, leaves him to live with Blackwood, and Thornhill's friendship with Blackwood also deteriorates, which leads Thornhill to have a sense of guilt of his actions.

At 9:15 pm EST on March 17, 1998, a circular region, including the island of Nantucket and the United States Coast Guard cutter ''Eagle'' sailing nearby, are transported by an unknown phenomenon (called "The Event") back in time to the Bronze Age circa 1250s B.C. (corresponding to the late Heroic Age of the Trojan War).

As the truth of what has happened sinks in, panic grips the island. Chief of Police Jared Cofflin is given emergency powers and begins organizing the people to help produce food for the island so they can feed themselves. Meanwhile, Captain Marian Alston takes the ''Eagle'' to Britain, with Classics historian Ian Arnstein and astronomer (and Lithuanian-speaking) Doreen Rosenthal as interpreters, where they trade Nantucket-made goods with the Iraiina for grain. (The Lithuanian language is very conservative among European languages and even in its modern version possesses identifiable links to proto-Indo-European.) The Iraiina, whose name translates as "noble ones," are a "Sun People" tribe that has been steadily invading Britain. As a gift, the Iraiina chief gives Marian a slave, Swindapa, a captured female "Earth People" warrior. Swindapa is freed and decides to stay with Marian. The ''Eagle'' leaves for Nantucket, but takes with them Isketerol, a wily Tartessian merchant who hopes to learn from the Americans. Ian Arnstein and Isketerol are able to communicate because both can speak versions of ancient Greek.

While the people of Nantucket work for their survival, the ambitious and ruthless Lieutenant William Walker of the ''Eagle'' decides that with modern technology he could become a king. With the help of Isketerol and others, Walker convinces some naive environmentalists to steal a ship and kidnap Cofflin's wife, so they can give the benefits of modern culture to Native Americans. Meanwhile, Walker and Isketerol steal another ship and return to Britain to recruit soldiers for their eventual takeover of Greece. Marian decides to rescue Cofflin's wife and saves her after defeating an Olmec army. The bloodthirsty Olmecs proceed to gruesomely kill the modern Americans who sought to help them.

Walker solidifies his control over the Sun People, while Nantucket creates a new government and prepares to take down Walker. Marian returns to Britain with a small army and uses Swindapa, who has become her lover, to convince the Earth People to fight with them to defeat Walker. Both sides meet at the Battle of the Downs. Though Nantucket and its allies are victorious, Walker manages to escape with his followers to Greece.

The film begins with Seth and Marcie shoplifting times from a dollar type store. The two crooks crash into each other and soon a friendship ensues. After giving Marcie a ride to her weekend job, Seth goes home to his abusive and somewhat mentally unstable father.

The next day Seth is at a different store where he runs into Marcie. After driving over to her home and picking up some of Marcie’s personal items, they begin a drive north to Canada in pursuit of a black Barbie styling head for Marcie.

On their drive north, Marcie is unable to hide her tics. At one point, she has an outburst in a parking lot and attacks a guy who was shouting insults to Seth. From this point on, the only things that keep her tics and behaviors at bay are sex and alcohol.

In desperation to get her hands on an antipsychotic, they attempt to rob a pharmacy. The pharmacist catches them and shoots Seth in the leg with a shot gun. The two get away, but one of the car tires is hit in the process and eventually Marcie crashes the car.

An old man named Walter tows their truck to his place and helps take care of Seth’s wound. Over the course of a week, he teaches the two how to shoot and catch fish.

After a local deputy comes by asking Walter if he’d seen the pair, Marcie has a severe outburst and beats Walter. Seth and Marcie take off in Walter’s truck.

The pair make it to Canada and find the Barbie head. The only available black Barbie head is a display model that the store manager refuses to sell. Marcie again has a violent outburst and the cops are called. When the police arrive, she grabs the gun from one police officer and the other surprises her from a side aisle and shoots her dead. Seth is arrested.

Later, we see Walter reading an apologies letter with $20 from Seth. Seth narrates the happy ending that did not happen, as Walter reads his letter.

During the last half of the eighteenth century, in what was then New France (now part of Canada), Daniel "James" Bulain, son of a French ''habitant'' and of an English schoolmaster's daughter sees his world turned upside-down as his family and the people of the neighbouring ''seigneurie'' are massacred by a war party of Mohawks. In his escape into the wilderness he is united with the unrequited love of his childhood, Toinette Tonteur, daughter of the local ''seigneur'', when they are captured by a war party of Senecas, brought to their hidden village far to the west in the wilderness and eventually adopted into their tribe. In the spring following their first winter with the tribe, believing that Toinette, now his wife, has been killed while he was absent from the village, James escapes and joins the French forces under Montcalm and three years later is gravely wounded at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. Cared for by the nuns of the General Hospital, James rises from unconsciousness almost a month later and is reunited with his wife and discovers he has an infant son, after wandering about the battle-scarred town obsessed with finding the three-legged dog he saw pass between the French and English lines just before the battle, which so resembled his own Odd ("Odds and ends"), whom he had last seen in the Seneca village with his wife.

In this continuation of Hadon's adventures in the ancient Africa of 12,000 years ago, the last-ditch defense of the High Priestess he and his allies mounted against the tyrannical King's evil schemes segues into a perilous chase through various exotic cities, seas and islands. Hadon undertakes to take his mate, now pregnant with his child, to safety at his native city of Opar, but is pursued by members of a dark cult in the service of the king.

The book ends as the war just gets seriously going, and with only tantalizing glimpses given of various interesting locations. Hadon's beloved clearly appears destined to a crucial future role which is never quite reached. Plainly, Farmer provided for further sequels which were never written. He has stated that he intended to have Hadon's son emigrate to the south in the wake of the catastrophe that would ultimately destroy the Khokarsan civilization in which the series is set, there to found the city of Kor that would afterward become the setting of H. Rider Haggard's fantasy novel ''She''.

In the opening scene, Phoebe tells Joey that her stepfather is unable to get a day release from prison to walk her down the aisle for her wedding. She then asks Joey to substitute for him and walk her down the aisle, telling him how much he has been like a father to her. He enthusiastically agrees, and then spends most of the episode acting tense and weird to everyone else.

Monica drives Phoebe insane by planning the wedding and barking orders military style, complete with headset. At the rehearsal dinner, Chandler and Ross find out that they are not included in the wedding and complain to Phoebe, who tells them they were next in line. When one of Mike's groomsmen is unable to make it, Mike lets Phoebe decide who gets to be in the wedding, a job she passes to Rachel as a "bridesmaid job". During a rehearsal toast, Phoebe becomes upset with Monica for rushing her and making sure everything is spotlessly perfect even if no one likes it, and yells at Monica for not being able to give her the simple wedding she always wanted. She then finishes her angry speech off by firing Monica on the spot.

The next day, Phoebe is going through hell doing Monica's job, having items turning up in the wrong places and not knowing the technical name for orchids. Ross manages to convince Rachel to choose him as a groomsman by promising to always be on his best behavior but later Chandler also wins her over by relating to her his feelings about always being left out of important events in his life. However, she is unable to tell Ross she changed her mind, and after he and Chandler encounter each other with misgivings, they both confront her. With Rachel again unable to decide, Mike decides to have his dog, Chappy, as the missing groomsman. Unable to cope with planning her own wedding, Phoebe rehires Monica, wanting her to be "Crazy Bitch" again.

However, Joey informs the others of a giant blizzard, which has caused huge traffic problems and a major power outage to most of the city. As the snow begins to subside, Phoebe and Mike still want to get married, so they decide to do the simple wedding service in the street outside Central Perk with Monica's blessing. With the snow, Chappy cannot walk on his own, so Ross and Chandler both volunteer to hold him. Ross gets the job because Chandler is afraid of dogs, but Ross soon regrets it when the dog smells. With the minister cut off in the snow, Joey takes over because he is still ordained from Monica and Chandler's wedding. Chandler then substitutes for Phoebe's father, and as he walks her down the aisle, Phoebe refuses to wear a coat even though it is freezing, choosing to be her "something blue". Phoebe and Mike get married with almost no problems; after being pronounced as husband and wife, Phoebe complains about being cold, so Mike puts his jacket on her to keep her warm.

The story opens with a description of a statue on the grounds of the United Worlds organisation raised to Richard "Dick" Altmayer. It displays a quote and three dates, which correspond to the three days upon which he was arrested for his beliefs. The first is in the year 2755 of the "Atomic Era" (corresponding to 4700 AD in Asimovean chronology).

Altmayer and his friend Geoffrey Stock have opposing positions when conscripted into military service for a war between human-occupied star systems. Stock willingly reports for military duty, whilst Altmayer protests, believing that the various interstellar nations of humanity should be united against the Diaboli, an intelligent non-human race that also occupies several planetary systems in the galaxy.

Over a 45-year period, Stock reaches high military rank and then political office, whilst Altmayer is imprisoned and kept under house arrest several times for his radical idealism. He starts political parties and protest movements, all of which fail to achieve their objectives of uniting humanity.

Ultimately, Altmayer's desire for a united humanity is achieved after a war against the Diaboli. This unity, however, has been realised only through Stock's political manipulations rather than Altmayer's idealistic actions. Stock asks his one-time friend to be one of the delegates from Earth to a peace conference, but realizes that history will not record his own participation in the unification of humanity, but will instead vilify him as a cruel and short-sighted politician.

The game's story is divided into two campaigns; human and dragon. The human campaign loosely follows the plot of the film, with significant differences. Meanwhile, the dragon campaign chronicles the early years of the human/dragon war up to the game's present timeline. The dragon campaign features an alternative ending in the final mission.

Human

The human campaign begins with the player taking the role of 'The Kid', a new recruit to the Kentucky Irregulars. Hailing from the former United States, The Irregulars are a group of paramilitary dragon slayers and are led by Denton Van Zan. The Irregulars defend The Fort, an old castle in Northumberland that houses a population of survivors led by Quinn Abercromby. The Irregulars are tasked with warding off attacks, firefighting, and rescuing civilians.

Like in the film, Van Zan concludes that all dragons thus far have been female, and that there must be a single male that is key to reproduction. To prove his theory, Van Zan leads the Irregulars to the ruins of a coastal military base in Dover, now used by the dragons as a nesting ground. Upon arrival, Van Zan sends The Kid alone to retrieve dragon eggs while the majority of the brood is away. The Kid manages to successfully retrieve enough eggs before escaping the returning dragons with the Irregulars. Van Zan confirms his theory and leads the Irregulars to London, intending to kill the sole male dragon, known as The Bull.

Once in London, the Irregulars face heavy resistance from the dragons. Van Zan devises a plan to lure out The Bull by destroying several dragon nests. The plan is successful and The Bull arrives. Quinn distracts The Bull while The Kid, Van Zan, and the remaining Irregulars concentrate fire on The Bull, eventually critically injuring The Bull's wings. Van Zan sends The Kid to finish off The Bull deep in dragon territory. After a long and difficult battle, The Kid kills The Bull, ending the dragon threat.

Dragon

In the dragon campaign, the player assumes the role of a young dragon with above average intelligence, evident by her ability to adapt and exploit situations tactically and strategically. The campaign begins during the early years of the human-dragon war, in which organized human resistance is still significant, but waning. The player dragon assists her sisters in assaulting the Tower of London, the last human stronghold in the city. The dragons are victorious, obliterating the Tower and a nearby warship, pushing the humans out of London.

Some time later, the player dragon attempts to rescue captured dragons from an armoured train heading to a large coastal military base in Dover (the same base featured in the human campaign). The player dragon rescues her sisters and destroys the train, before following the tracks to the base. The base is heavily defended, with the base's array of large-calibre artillery posing a significant threat to the dragons. The player dragon sneaks into the base from the ocean port, annihilating coastal guns, anti-air defences, warships, and finally the superguns. With their last line of defence destroyed, the human military presence in England is broken and the remaining survivors scattered.

The game jumps forward to the year 2020. The player dragon, now fully mature, repeatedly clashes with the Kentucky Irregulars and the survivors in The Fort. The player dragon causes chaos by disrupting Irregular operations and destroying The Fort's food supply. The final mission also presents an alternative ending, in which the dragons assault The Fort with the assistance of The Bull. Despite heavy resistance, the dragons wipe out the defenders and destroy The Fort, permanently establishing dragons as the dominant species.

Roadkill takes place in a fictional US county named "Hell County" after a deadly disease nicknamed The Rot broke out before the events of the game and proceeded to wreak havoc across the world. Law and order collapses and gangs roam free to engage in warfare using vehicles armed with guns and explosives throughout every community. The county is split into three cities; Lava Falls, Blister Canyon, and Paradise City.

In the aftermath of the chaos, a survivor named Mason Strong, a drifter who joined the Sentinels led by Axl who made Mason his second in command, the Sentinels proceeded to take over Paradise City and became its draconian leader with a bigger goal of eliminating the gangs in the other cities and enslaving survivors in the wastes. However, Axl was too greedy to share his newfound power and noticing Mason's increasing influence. Attempts to have Mason killed only for him to barely survive. Now out for revenge, he washes up on a beach outside Lava Falls hotwiring a car he finds work for the Daredevils, a clown-themed punk gang composed of Scottish and British immigrants led by the psychotic pimp Uncle Woody. After being accused of snitching to a rival Hispanic gang, the Gauchos. Mason ends up having to kill Woody and escape his amusement park.

The Gauchos open the way to Blister Canyon and Mason finds a new employer the flamboyant Section Eights led by General Warwick, a former military officer along with his right-hand man Gunny. Mason helps Warwick and Gunny in their war against the Talons. After killing Drake, the Talon's head lieutenant, defending Warwick's businesses, and entering an unlikely alliance with the Daredevils. Mason participates in an operation to take out Gordon Grim and his remaining Talons, making his way through the sewers and into Paradise City to join the football-themed gang South League. Mason fights their rivals the Dreg Lords and rescues their leader, Knox, from the Sentinels who teams up with Mason to take down Axl.

Mason races the Dreg Lords leader, Sage, who loses and dies. With the Dreg Lords dealt with. South League drives their full attention on to the Sentinels, weakening their defences Mason devises a plan to destroy the Sentinels' generators that power Axl's propaganda broadcasts with bomb-planted RC cars. Axl loses influence on the city. Mason heads to city hall and confronts Axl personally before engaging in a climactic battle, with Axl using a customized monster truck. Mason wrecks Axl's vehicle. Thinking Axl's dead, Mason walks away from the wreckage only for Axl (now on fire) to crawl from the wreckage where he tries to shoot Mason, only to be run over by a bus. With Axl overthrown and the South League now in control of Paradise City, Mason hears a distress call from another faction of survivors, pleading for help when learning about his reputation for "setting things right". Mason then drives away from Paradise City to points unknown to assist them.

Orville, the oldest orphan at the Hideaway Orphans Home, accidentally hides inside a truck headed to a top-secret laboratory. There he is placed under the supervision of lab worker Lester to help load supplies onto an experimental rocket ship. While on board with Lester, Orville flips the ignition button and the rocket ship blasts off, flying across the country and eventually landing outside of New Orleans, where Mardi Gras is in progress. Lester and Orville, dressed in their spacesuits, witness the grotesquely costumed celebrants and conclude that they have successfully landed on Mars.

Meanwhile, two escaped convicts, Harry the Horse and Mugsy, stumble upon the rocket ship, don another pair of spacesuits and head to New Orleans to rob a bank. Lester and Orville are wrongly accused of the crime and rush back to the rocket ship, where Mugsy and Harry force them to launch into outer space.

The rocket ship lands on Venus, where the four men are quickly captured by female guards and brought to Queen Allura. She informs them that Venus is inhabited only by women, as men were banished a long time ago. She takes more than a liking to Orville, however, and decides that he can stay if he is true to her. Orville agrees, and has Harry and Mugsy imprisoned. But Mugsy convinces one of the female guards to flirt with Orville to prove to Queen Allura that he cannot be trusted. Disillusioned with Orville, the Queen orders the men to leave Venus.

Upon returning to the Earth, the men are lauded as heroes in a parade, but Allura, who is watching the celebration from Venus, sends a spaceship to Earth that drops a cake on Orville's head.

Tommy's father, Stu Pickles, invents what he calls the Play Palace 3000, which is a giant expanding tower filled with rooms for the children to play in. Stu leaves to go buy the finishing touches, duct tape and paperclips, and asks Lou to watch the kids. But as always, Lou falls asleep. The babies begin to play on the Play Palace 3000, but Kimi notices that Angelica is at the top of the tower. Angelica assumes control of the palace as queen and steals the babies' toys to force them to obey her. Chuckie immediately submits at first, but Tommy convinces him and the others to climb the tower to retrieve their belongings.

After reaching the top tower and fighting Angelica, the babies successfully defeat her and force her out on a slide and into a mud pit. With Angelica deposed, the babies can now peacefully play in the Play Palace 3000 all they want.

thumb The player controls Erik the Viking, and when his family is kidnapped by the evil Dogfighters, it becomes Erik's task to find them. In the first part of the game, Erik is on the mainland. He makes preparations for sailing, finds his weapons, and gathers together a crew, which includes Blind Thorkhild, Sven the Strong, and Ragnar Forkbeard.

Most of the game is set on the sea, with Erik steering his ship, the ''Golden Dragon'', through the northern seas. He visits a number of different islands to collect the necessary items and meet the necessary characters to rescue his family and win the game. These characters include an enchantress in a cave hidden in a forest, the wizard Al Kwasarmi on a stone quay, and the enchanter's daughter Freya. The enchanter's study contains a list of the items that Erik needs to complete the game, and Al Kwasarmi makes them into the ribbon that Erik needs to rescue his family. A dragon may also interrupt Erik's quest.

The barn dance of the title is the occasion which brings together Minnie Mouse and her two suitors: Mickey and Peg-Leg Pete. The latter two and their vehicles are first seen arriving at Minnie's house in an attempt to pick her up for the dance. Mickey turns up in his horse-cart while Pete in a newly purchased automobile.

Minnie initially chooses Pete to drive her to the dance but the automobile unexpectedly breaks down. She resorts to accepting Mickey's invitation. They are later seen dancing together, but Mickey proves to be a rather clumsy dancer as he repeatedly steps on Minnie's feet. She consequently turns down his invitation for a second dance. She instead accepts that of Pete, who proves to be a better dancing partner.

Mickey then attempts to solve his problem by placing a balloon in his shorts. That apparently helps him to be "light on his feet" and he proceeds to ask Minnie for another dance. She accepts and is surprised to find his dancing skills to have apparently improved. Pete soon discovers Mickey's trick and points it out to Minnie. Minnie is visibly disgusted by this attempt at deception. As a result, she leaves Mickey and resumes dancing with Pete, leaving Mickey crying on the floor.

The cartoon starts with the opening of a theater and Mickey Mouse sweeping and using the broom as an instrument and a dance partner. Mickey is then faced with a large show goer, who must be deflated in order to fit through the doorway. The band takes over, with a large variety of short gags occurring throughout. Following, Mickey becomes the star of the show, taking on the multiple roles of a vaudeville star. The cartoon ends with a humorous fight between himself and a piano and a stool. Mickey's interactions are highly stylized in order to capture the essence of what a vaudeville performance should be.Barrier, Michael. ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age''. OUP Oxford, 2003 pg. 59.

Peg-Leg Pete is depicted as a leading soldier of the former army, and Mickey as a conscript of the latter one. Before joining the army, Mickey has to pass a physical examination. This scene depicts Mickey becoming the subject of physical and emotional abuse. After passing the examination, he is given a machine gun and is sent to battle. Mickey's combat efforts are comical in depiction but prove effective enough in forcing the enemy to retreat. In the end, Mickey smacks a line of advancing soldiers on the head with a mallet, and is hailed as a hero by his fellow soldiers.

As the title implies, Mickey is depicted as a farmer alongside Minnie Mouse. He is first seen with his horse while plowing a field. Then Minnie comes along with her cow. She has Mickey milk the cow for her. As he does, the cow starts licking him in an apparent sign of affection. Mickey does not seem pleased and replies by rolling up its muzzle with its own tongue.

Mickey eventually manages to present Minnie with a full bucket of milk and proceeds forcefully to kiss her. Minnie's reply to this sign of affection is knocking his head with the bucket. At some point the horse is stung by a bee, panics and starts galloping. By the time the horse calms down again, the plow has been broken. In the finale, Mickey resorts to using a pig as a plow.

House's ketamine treatment has worn off, which means he has to resort to the use of his cane as a walking aid. He has to diagnose Dr. Ezra Powell (played by Joel Grey), a 71-year-old renowned pioneer in the field of medical research who collapsed while studying cancer in lab rats. House puts Powell through diagnostic rigors, but the team is unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis, and Powell's health continues to deteriorate. Becoming increasingly debilitated, Powell ultimately demands that the team stop the litany of medical tests and euthanize him. House strikes a deal with him and asks for one day to do tests on him.

When House fails to diagnose Powell in one day, he visits him in his room to give him a lethal morphine dose. Instead of killing him, House puts Powell in a coma, so that he can do his diagnosis in peace. Cameron becomes disgusted with House for acting against the wishes of the patient and for tricking him just so that House can solve his puzzle. House says to Cameron that "you can either save a patient or you can let him die, but you cannot do both". House also asks Cameron to read a particular medical journal. It is later revealed that Dr. Powell had performed radiology treatment as an experiment on many babies without the consent of their parents (which Cameron learns after reading an article in a journal that House subtly suggested). House notices that Powell has lost reflex capabilities in his right arm, and wakes Powell from his coma to find that Powell has also lost sensation in his abdomen and right leg. He sends Cameron to get skin for a biopsy, which she does after discussing Powell's lack of regret for what he did involving the radiation treatment.

House ends up diagnosing Powell with amyloidosis and Chase finds that it is of sub-type AA, and is therefore a terminal illness. The following morning, Cuddy informs House that Powell died at 2:30 am, although had been declared stable at 2:00 am. House then goes to Cameron, who is crying in the hospital chapel, and tells her that he is proud of her, indicating that Cameron had overcome her fear and helped to end the life of the patient according to his wishes.

Lando (Rizky Hanggono) was a photographer whose fiancée had just left him. In his distress, he met a busway ticket counter girl called Kalin (Dian Sastrowardoyo). Lando's passion for life was revived, but it didn't last long. Without apparent reason, Lando left Kalin, who became very angry and heart-broken.

As time passed, Lando, still in distress, found that Kalin had become a supermodel, and saw her presence everywhere.

Lando yearned to see Kalin again and explain why he had left her. He finally got the opportunity and met Kalin, but this encounter again ended tragically as Kalin ran into an accident and turned blind. Later on, Kalin obtained a cornea donor that enabled her to see again, but she could not seem to find Lando, whom she was actually very much in love with.

Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of Victorian romance novels featuring a character named Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious stories, he writes a manuscript for a new novel that he hopes will launch his post-''Misery'' career. While traveling from Silver Creek, Colorado, to his home in New York City, Paul is caught in a blizzard and gets into an accident, rendering him unconscious. A nurse named Annie Wilkes finds him and brings him to her remote home.

Paul regains consciousness and finds himself bedridden with broken legs and a dislocated shoulder. Annie claims to be his "number one fan" and talks at length about him and his novels. She offers to look after him until the telephone lines are re-connected and the local roads re-open following the blizzard. Out of gratitude, Paul lets her read his new manuscript. She is angered by the profanity in his new work, disturbing him, but apologizes. When she reads the latest ''Misery'' novel and discovers that Misery dies at the end, she flies into a rage, revealing to Paul that nobody knows where he is and that she had never informed any kind of authority or his agent that she had rescued him, effectively holding him prisoner in her secluded home.

Annie forces Paul to burn the only copy of his new manuscript. When he is well enough to get out of bed, she forces him to begin writing a new novel titled ''Misery's Return'', in which he brings the character back to life. One day, when Annie is away, Paul begins stockpiling his painkillers. He tries poisoning Annie during dinner by spiking her wine with crushed painkillers but fails after she accidentally knocks over her glass. He later finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Annie's past. Annie was tried for the deaths of several infants in the hospital where she worked, but the trial collapsed due to lack of evidence. Annie had quoted lines from his ''Misery'' novels during her trial. When Annie discovers that Paul has been sneaking out of his room, she breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to prevent him from escaping again.

The local sheriff, Buster, is investigating Paul's disappearance. Clues lead him to pay Annie a visit but she fatally shoots him when he finds Paul drugged in the basement; she then attempts to kill Paul in a murder-suicide, but Paul, concealing a can of lighter fluid in his pocket, convinces her to let him live long enough to finish the novel in order to "give Misery back to the world."

When the manuscript is done, Paul asks for a cigarette and champagne, to which Annie complies. He sets the manuscript on fire. As Annie rushes to save it, Paul strikes her with the typewriter and they engage in a violent struggle, with Paul suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder from her revolver. He trips her, causing her to hit her head on the typewriter, then crawls out of the room, but Annie attacks again. Paul grabs a metal doorstop and bashes her in the face, finally killing her.

Eighteen months later, Paul, now walking with a cane, meets his agent, Marcia, in a restaurant in New York City. The two discuss his first post-''Misery'' novel, and Marcia tells him about the positive early buzz. Paul replies that he wrote the novel for himself as a way to help deal with the horrors of his captivity. Marcia asks if he would consider a non-fiction book about his captivity, but Paul—who suffers psychological trauma from the experience—declines. Paul then sees Annie approaching him, only to realize that he is hallucinating. In actuality, the figure he sees is a waitress, who tells Paul that she is his number one fan, causing Paul to meekly reply "That's very sweet of you."

More and more people flock to Tamír's cause as they find out that she is Skala's promised Queen and that only by putting her on the throne will everything be put aright once more.

Tamír is much loved by the people and very popular, but she faces problems of her own. Ki, whom she loves, does not feel physical love in return, while Brother is back with more power than ever, introducing himself with only this line: "The dead do not rest until they have had vengeance." With every day that the two opposing could-be-future monarchs of Skala (Korin and Tamír), the soldiers become more and more restless, itching for a fight.

However, Tamír doesn't want to fight her beloved cousin and tries to delay the battle as much as she can. She also does not relish the prospect of a civil war in which the people of Skala will fight and kill each other - so soon after Skala's hereditary enemies from Plenimar had landed a devastating blow.

Category:American fantasy novels Category:Fictional queens Category:2006 American novels Category:Voyager Books books

The film starts off with a man, named Schlomo (Lionel Abelanski), running crazily through a forest, with his voice playing in the background, saying that he has seen the horror of the Nazis in a nearby town, and he must tell the others. Once he gets into town, he informs the rabbi, and together they run through the town and once they have got enough people together, they hold a town meeting. At first, many of the men do not believe the horrors they are being told, and many criticize Schlomo, for he is the town lunatic, and who could possibly believe him? But the rabbi believes him, and then they try to tackle the problem of the coming terrors. Amidst the pondering and the arguing, Schlomo suggests that they build a train, so they can escape by deporting themselves. Some of their members pretend to be Nazis in order to ostensibly transport them to a concentration camp, when in reality, they are going to Palestine via Russia. Thus the Train of Life is born.

On their escape route through rural Eastern Europe, the train sees tensions between its inhabitants, close encounters with real Nazis as well as Communist partisans, and fraternization with the Roma, until the community arrives just at the frontlines between German and Soviet fire.

Its ends with the voice-over of Schlomo himself, who tells the stories of his companions after the arrival of the train in the Soviet Union: Some went on to Palestine, some stayed in the Soviet Union, and some even made it to America. As he is telling this, a cut to a close-up of his face happens as he says, "That is the true story of my shtetl...", but then the camera makes a quick zoom-out, revealing him grinning and wearing prisoner's clothes behind the barbed wire of a concentration camp, and he ends with, "Ye nu, ''almost'' the true story!"

At City Hall, Herc stumbles across Mayor Royce receiving oral sex from his secretary. Concerned for his career, Herc approaches Carver for advice about the situation, but Carver says the problem is beyond his pay grade and suggests they take it to Major Stan Valchek, who has more experience with politics. Valchek meets with Herc and reassures him that he could climb in rank if he keeps quiet about the incident, and can use the information against Royce if the mayor moves to punish him. Wilson visits Carcetti's house and finds him playing Battleship with his daughter, having assumed he has already lost the race for mayor. Carcetti meets with members of the Fraternal Order of Police, who admit that they are reluctant to endorse him with Royce leading in the polls. Carcetti convinces them to hold back their active support for Royce. As they leave, Valchek tells him that he achieved the best outcome possible under the circumstances. Wilson urges Carcetti to prepare for his debate with Royce, but the candidate remains pessimistic. Royce considers moving Herc out of his security detail and checks with Parker to see if he has friends high up in the department.

In prison, Namond and his mother De'Londa visit his father Wee-Bey, who asks how Namond's work with Bodie is progressing; De'Londa threatens to withhold money for Namond's school supplies if he doesn't commit himself to Bodie. Back in the neighborhood, Namond and Michael ask if the latter and his younger brother can work for Bodie to earn money for school supplies. When Bodie refuses to employ them both, Namond suggests that Michael could take his job until he has the funds he needs. Carver and Bunk drive up, still looking for Lex; Bodie promises to contact them if he sees Lex, knowing that he is probably dead. While Namond and Michael meet their friends, Stanfield lieutenant Monk Metcalf arrives and hands out money. When Michael refuses to accept the money, Marlo confronts Michael and is impressed by his defiance. Donut pulls up in a stolen SUV, but the boys are spotted by Carver and forced to flee. Randy is caught by Officer Eddie Walker, who confiscates his money for school. Carver warns the boys against stealing more cars. Namond returns home to find that his mother has laid out new clothes for him despite her threats.

Bunk pressures Lex's mother to give up her son's whereabouts, believing that Lex has fled from the police. Back at Homicide, Norris investigates what turns out to be the murder of a state's witness; Sergeant Jay Landsman informs Valchek about the case. At the MCU, Freamon prepares to serve subpoenas on political figures in connection with the Barksdale investigation. Sydnor and Pearlman are both worried that the move will hurt their careers. Pearlman realizes that Freamon played her by holding the investigation until now and that he lied when he said it was pushed back by fresh cases. Freamon serves developer Andy Krawczyk and State Senator Clay Davis, which are delivered by Greggs and Sydnor respectively. Davis and Krawczyk threaten to withhold financial support from Royce, who in turn puts pressure on Commissioner Ervin Burrell. Burrell and Deputy Commissioner William Rawls realize that Freamon is the cause of the problem, with Rawls resolving to find a way to remove Freamon from the MCU. Freamon and Greggs catch Marlo's voice on the wire and, knowing that his crew has not been linked to any violence, wonder why they hear what sounds like target practice in the background.

At his gym, Dennis "Cutty" Wise continues to train one-time drug dealer Justin, who is preparing for an upcoming bout. Cutty is approached by the mothers of multiple students who hope to get a date with him. Cutty pays special attention to Michael, who fights with Justin after he interrupts his time using the heavy bag with Namond. Cutty breaks up the boys and offers to personally train Michael, but he declines. Meanwhile, Bubbles and his young protégé Sherrod continue to make their living selling goods from a shopping cart. Sherrod struggles to add up the price of their wares and Bubbles criticizes him for his poor math skills. Bubbles tries to hide his drug use from Sherrod, who is worried about Bubbles' criticism and tells him that he is willing to go back to school. In preparation for the school year, Prez cleans up his classroom and meets with the other teachers to discuss maintaining class rules. Assistant Principal Donnelly tasks one of her students, Crystal Judkins, to deliver secondhand school supplies to Dukie. Bubbles and Sherrod come to the school to discuss possible enrollment for Sherrod; Bubbles has a moment of recognition as he passes Prez.

Despite being distracted, Carcetti is able to come up with effective answers as part of his debate preparation. He gets a visit from Valchek and is told about the death of the witness, giving him useful ammunition against Royce. During the televised debate, both Carcetti's campaign team and the Homicide unit watch as Carcetti rebuts Royce's assertion that Baltimore's crime rate has fallen by bringing up the murdered witness. Royce's response is labored, defensive, awkward, and evasive; Carcetti's team is pleased while Royce's people seem worried. Burrell and Rawls become nervous about their failure to inform the mayor about the murder.

Set in 1968 Junction City, Kansas sometimes called "Junk Town" reflect on the history of "East Ninth Street" during the 1940s when famous jazz musicians played the nightclubs. In 1968, the area has deteriorated into strip clubs and cheap bars where Vietnam War draftees from nearby Fort Riley stop and drink. People in the group include a drunk (Don Washington) who lost a leg in World War II, a taxi dispatcher (Isaac Hayes), a saloon owner (Queen Bey), and a crazy bag lady (Kaycee Moore). (Nadine Griffith) who is trying to get out of the business, but is forced to work by a malicious boy friend (Byron Myrick) and the fact that she has to provide for her baby (Meagan Cordero). Martin Sheen also stars as a white preacher who likes the people in the area better than his own congregation.

Sydney Carton, an alcoholic English lawyer, discovers that Charles Darnay, a man he once defended, is a French aristocrat trying to escape the French Revolution. While he envies the man over the love of a woman, Lucie Manette, his conscience is pricked and he resolves to help him escape the guillotine.

The story begins with Jack Baker and Jamie Gillis telling jokes as they watch porn and talk about women. They fantasize how their lives would be better if they were pimps with women working for them. They discuss opening an escort service featuring "new wave bitches" who would become aroused after they hear new wave music. They fall asleep to TV static, and much of the remainder of the film depicts the two men dreaming about different sexual encounters with women who become sexually receptive after listening to new wave.

The main plot revolves around the Yamata Empire's plan to destroy all the galaxy's negative karma using a massive technological reactor called the Nāga Generator. Unfortunately, negative karma cannot simply be destroyed, it must be ''atoned for''. However, the leader of the powerful mystic Buddhist Fuze Clan plans to stop the destruction of the negative karma which will end up creating the nine-headed Nāga and destroy the world if not the whole universe. To help in stopping the creation of the Nāga, the clan summons Susano, the Shinto warrior god of Destruction. The powerful, arrogant, and homicidal god faces challenges. These include the Empire and the clan leader's own daughter, the bratty sorceress Seska, who is possessed by the power of negative Karma and a powerful magic formula. At the beginning, the Clan steals a secret magical formula which contains the power to control the Nāga.

Fuze's leader, Maître Fuzen, begins the ceremony when his rival, Dr. Hebime, leads troops to Fuza's shrine to arrest him and his clan. Seska, newly arrived from a starship, is nearly arrested herself and dashes ahead of the troops. She bumbles into the summoning ceremony, and is forced to "wear" the secret diagram to save it. Dr. Hebime and his troops arrives in time to kill Maître Fuzen and his followers as they complete the summoning ceremony of warrior god Susano Orbatos. Susano warns the troops and is angry that he had no proper offerings. Seeing Seska with the diagram on her body, he swallows her whole. Dr. Hebine forces his troops to attack him and has military HQ fire powerful forbidden spells at Susano. The weapons strike him and disable him. This infuriates him further and he destroys the Fuze mountain temple as Hebine escapes. Susano resurrects Maître Fuzen and has him witness what happens when a god is angered. He then goes on a rage destroying a good chunk of the capital city. Dr. Hebime summons Hanuman (the monkey god) who also fails to stop Susano.

Susano and Maître investigate the palace and discover that Princesse Kushinata is to be sacrificed to the Nāga Generator. They go and fight off the palace's defenses. Meanwhile, Seska is revived by the power of the negative karma and dedicates herself to avenge her father's death and to save her clan by gaining an audience with Emperor. By becoming a royal adviser to Emperor she begins to activate the Nāga Generator and uses the secret scroll which can banish Susano. Ultimately, the Nāga Generator is activated and both Susano and Seska clash. The Nāga Generator creates a monstrous nine-headed Nāga which becomes so bloated with Galactic Empire's negative Karma its becomes a planet-sized Octopus type Nāga. Seska, after beating up Susano, banishes him. As Nāga grows, she becomes fascinated in ruling the Galactic Empire itself.

However, Susano returns, summoning himself, rendering Seska's ability to stop him useless. He enters the Nāga and finds the Princess at center of the generator holding the Nāga force together. He breaks her control of the Nāga and disrupts it. The giant Nāga splatters over the world like water, flooding it. The Great Yamato Empire (what is left of it), sinks under the waves with few survivors. Susano and the princess leave the mortal survivors of Empire behind wishing them luck. Seska is restored back to normal and is reunited with Commander Ronnel. What remains of Yamato Empire appears to become Japan and the world is, in fact, Earth. However, the story alludes that the Nāga will return.

The fictional Yamata Empire is based on an expanded continent of what would become the Pacific Ocean, drawing from the ancient mythology of the continent of Mu.

On a sunny day in an affluent suburb in Connecticut, a fit and tanned middle-aged man in a bathing suit, Ned Merrill, drops by a pool party being held by old friends. They offer him a cocktail while nursing hangovers from the night before. As they share stories, Ned realizes there is a series of backyard swimming pools that could form a "river" back to his house, making it possible for him to "swim his way home". Ned dives into the pool, emerging at the other end and beginning his journey. Ned's behavior perplexes his friends, who apparently know worrisome things about his recent past which he seems to have forgotten.

As Ned travels, he encounters other neighbors. He meets 20-year-old Julie, who used to babysit his daughters (whom he repeatedly refers to as "at home playing tennis"), and reveals his plan to her; she joins him. They crash another pool party and sip champagne. While chatting in a grove of trees, Julie reveals that she had a schoolgirl crush on Ned. After she tells him about two incidents of sexual harassment in her workplace, Ned begins talking about how he will protect her, making plans for the two of them. Discomfited by his intimate approaches, Julie runs away.

Ned meets a wealthy, nudist, older couple, who are unbothered by his eccentric behavior but also unimpressed by his posturing. He then encounters Kevin, a lonely young boy, whom he tries to teach how to swim. They use an abandoned, empty pool, which Ned urges the boy to imagine is filled with water. The boy warms to this method, and soon is "swimming" the length of the empty pool. As Ned takes his leave, he glances back and sees the boy bouncing on the diving board over the deep end of the empty pool. He rushes back to remove him from the diving board, then departs.

Ned fails to make more than a superficial connection with the people he meets, being obsessed with his journey, and becoming increasingly out of touch with reality. The neighborhood consists of judgmental, well-heeled people intent on one-upmanship, and Ned is confused by hints that his life might not be as untroubled as he believes.

Ned walks into another party where the hostess calls him a "party crasher". He encounters a bubbly girl named Joan, who does not know him. Ned asks her to join him, and Joan is intrigued until his speech becomes more fantastical. A friend leads her away from him. Ned jumps into the pool, making a big splash which grabs the attention of the guests. When he emerges from the water, he notices a hot dog cart that used to be his. Ned gets into a spat with the homeowner, who claims to have bought it at a white elephant sale.

Ned shows up at the backyard pool of Shirley Abbott, a stage actress with whom he had an affair several years earlier. His warm memories of their time together contrast with her own experience of being "the other woman". Unable to reconcile his feelings with the pain he caused, Ned wades into the deep end of the pool.

Ned trudges barefoot alongside a busy highway, then reaches a crowded public swimming pool. After being treated demeaningly by the gatekeeper, he encounters a group of local shop owners who derisively ask him "How do you like our water?" They indicate surprise at his appearance at such a plebeian location and ask him when he will settle his unpaid bills. When some of them make vicious comments about his wife's snobbish tastes and his out-of-control daughters' recent troubles with the law, Ned flees.

The skies darken and rain begins falling. Amid a downpour at sunset, a shivering, limping Ned staggers home; the tennis court where his daughters were supposedly playing is in disrepair, and his house is locked and deserted, with several windows broken. Anguished, Ned repeatedly tries to open the door, before slumping to the ground in the doorway.

Jon Katz faces a midlife crisis. His wife moves out because he was growing too distant, their daughter Emma has moved to a place of her own, and he is left in the house with their two labrador retrievers and a severe case of writer's block. A dog breeder who has read his books convinces him to take in an abused and hyperactive border collie named Devon – and his crazy new life begins.

''Infinite Undiscovery'' takes place in a world where the Dreadknight Leonid and his Order of Chains bound the world to the Moon from all regions. The Main Chain is attached to the castle in the fallen Kingdom of Cassandra (formerly the kingdom of King Volsung) - wherein Leonid's headquarters lies. Any region bound with a Chain suffers blight consequences: crops wither and animals die. Thus, Sigmund the Liberator goes forth, alongside his Liberation Force, to unchain the world. An unwitting young man, Capell, is fatefully thrown into this conflict, of which he wants no involvement. Inevitably, these chain of events will change his life and those around him, forever...

The story opens with the four child-mages and their teachers at the end of a caravan. Rosethorn, Briar's teacher, stops to examine the tree-litter and while she does this, Daja catches a glimpse of a forest fire miles off. Tris, Briar, and Sandry all turn to look at the fire while Rosethorn asks their local guide when the last time was that they had a forest fire. However, their guide only laughs and says their mage, called Firetamer, takes care of all their fires, just like his father did. The caravan moves on, but Daja still has an uneasy feeling about the huge fire, noting how fire could be her friend and enemy.

The caravan stops in a small town to study magic and assist the Duke of Emelan with the drought. As Daja is working in the smithy, a woman, a wirok, a scorned Trader who negotiates with lugsha, tradesmen, stops by to talk to the smith. As she notices the blank cap on Daja's Trader staff which signifies her exile status, the Trader refuses to talk to her.

Moments later, Daja loses control of her magic because of her anger, putting energy into a clump of melted iron. Soon, it turns into a branch and the Trader is stunned. Throughout the book, Daja and the Trader converse in a bargain for the 'living metal'.

All of the student's magic is so strongly combined that Sandry is forced to create a map of their magic, which she can use to separate their twined magic. Their teachers first noticed the mixed magic when Briar and Sandry used lightning by accident.

While Daja is on her way to the privy, she releases a stream of hot water from within the earth, which spills out onto the stones before her. She and Briar investigate, finding that one of the hot springs leads to an area of ice/glaciers. Melting the water would refill the drying lake, saving one of the town's problems. They also discover a vein of copper which could be used to replenish the town's supply and stimulate trade.

While all the teachers and students are at a watch tower, a huge fire erupts, utilizing all the mast that had built up in the years that Yarrun Firetamer had been suppressing all the fires. After the conceited fire tamer dies in an attempt to stop the fire, the rest of the people try to stop it. Daja is caught in the middle, though, and has to first convince the caravan she is riding with to listen to her, and then stop heading for the fire. She saves the caravan by thrusting all of the fire into a vein in the earth which leads to the glacier.

Lastly, Daja creates a living metal leg with the copper which is now a part of her for the wirok, restoring the wirok's ability to work with horses, her original job.

Daja is a trangshi, a Trader word which literally means "doesn't exist" or "bad luck". In the end, however, she becomes a Trader again because she had gained enough ''zokin'', or honor, by saving the Tenth Caravan Idaram from the huge forest fire.

Now aging and ailing, the one-time celebrated author Leonard Schiller has been forgotten by his readers, literary colleagues, and critics during the decade he has struggled to complete what he knows will be his final novel. When the brash, ambitious Brown University graduate student Heather Wolfe approaches him with a request for access to his thoughts and recollections for the Master's thesis she hopes will reintroduce the public to his work, he initially refuses to cooperate. But the young woman is relentless, and he finally agrees to weekly meetings in which he slowly begins to open up to her as he reluctantly recalls his past.

Slightly suspicious of Heather's motives is Leonard's daughter Ariel, a former professional dancer who supports herself by teaching yoga and Pilates. Rapidly approaching forty, Ariel has stopped using birth control with her boyfriend Victor without telling him about her determination to have a baby. When he learns about her plan, she ends their relationship; at the same time, Ariel's former lover Casey Davis returns to New York City after a five-year absence. He and Ariel had reached an impasse in their relationship because of his refusal to have a child, and as they begin to see each other again, he is quick to let her know his position hasn't changed.

The film focuses on these four individuals and their evolution as they are thrust out of their comfort zones and into arenas that force them to examine their lives and decide how much they are willing to compromise and sacrifice their own desires in order to accommodate the demands of others.

Sang-do (Ryoo Seung-bum) is a fast talking crystal meth dealer who considers himself more of a businessman than a criminal. Sang-do has been involved in the drug business all of his life. His uncle was a drug dealer (Kim Hee-ra), specializing in manufacturing crystal meth. Sang-do's mother died when one of his uncle’s meth labs blew up in an accident.

Do Jin-kwang (Hwang Jung-min) is a hard-nosed cop who doesn't always play by the rules. Do's partner died four years ago, while trying to take down the top drug dealer Jang Chul (Lee Do-kyeong) in Busan. Since his partner's death, Do has been driven to arrest Jang Chul and this time he plans to use Sang-do to finally take him down.

While the husbands stand outside on the terrace, drinking and boasting; their wives are inside talking about those husbands (and laughing). In this black comedy, Colin and Stephanie have invited Tony and Maddy to lunch in Ealing. As the men uneasily try at conversation, the laughter of their wives, which seems so uninhibited in comparison with the men's struggles at communication, is a constant interruption. The women finally join the men, and a confrontation results. The play contains a second act, where these positions are reversed. Colin and Tony are now behaving freely, while the women feel more constrained. The play moves from a garden party to the grounds of a mental hospital.

The film is told entirely in retrospect, from a veteran of the American Civil War who may already have been executed. During the war, his job was to play music for a general who decided, in the soldier's words, "where hundreds of men would die." He has come home from the war skeptical about the meaning of life (or that there is a meaning), and trying to search for answers. He attempts to express his thoughts and doubts to his wife Becky, but she remains unconvinced that life is horrible and thinks he is crazy and going to hell. Convinced that people have come to have too much influence over art, he tries to play music not written by people by drawing music lines on his glasses and playing the stars as if they were notes. He also tries to get in touch with God, but, not wanting to be intrusive, he merely hangs about outside the church and whispers through the windows, "God...hey, God...what're you doin'?"

Finally, after many hints, it is revealed why he is sentenced to death: he fought in the war because a rich man paid him to fight in his (the rich man's) place. When the rich man showed up to see how he was fighting, he found the soldier standing and playing the concertina during a battle. The rich man gave him a gun and started yelling at him, so in frustration the soldier shot the rich man instead of the Confederates, picked up the concertina, and left him lying in the field. "He killed the wrong man in the war."

As he is about to be executed, the soldier has an epiphany: "My God...I wasted my whole life thinking about this stuff. I should have just gone fishing! I should have had a sandwich, or had a few laughs! ''Now'' I get it!" His illumination is cut off by the firing squad.

He, perhaps in some sort of spirit form, walks through a graveyard and muses, "I'm gonna miss being alive." The credits follow.

The novel's hero is Spenser, a private investigator in Boston. Spenser, who served as an infantryman in the 1st Infantry Division during the Korean War and as a former State trooper, is hired by Boston aristocrat Loudon Tripp to investigate his wife's murder, and Spenser soon uncovers upper-class scandals and a corpse who might not be dead after all.

Trestkon, a retired intelligence agent, is called back to duty by the government because of a missing moderator, Deus Diablo. They believe Trestkon is the only person who can be trusted, as Trestkon has been removed from the politics of the city for a few years. As soon as he arrives to Forum City, Trestkon is faced with the decision of which faction to side with: the moderators of PlanetDeusEx (PDX) who summoned him or the megalomaniac Scara B. King, CEO of WorldCorp (WC). Depending on the player's choice, the story changes radically. If the player joins PDX, Trestkon will continue his search for the missing moderator with his friends. Should the player choose WC, Trestkon will instead help Scara exploit the weakened government to gain world dominance while fighting against PDX. The choice is made through interaction with Silver Dragon, a local cultist who vandalized WC property and is trapped in the basement of the WorldCorp building. Choosing to rescue him will help PDX, while choosing to kill him will help WC.

If the player chooses to work with PDX, Trestkon is sent to spy on their primary suspect for the abduction, WorldCorp. This puts them on to the existence of an old device that may be able to lead them to Deus Diablo, buried in the ruins of the city that Forum City was literally built on top of, Deus Ex Incarnate. After dealing with an incident of sabotage by WorldCorp, Trestkon delves into the ruins and retrieves the device, known as the "Firestaff". Trestkon then returns to Forum City where he must promptly deal with an ambush by WorldCorp mercenaries who have attacked the city in a desperate stalling move. Back at PDX headquarters, the Firestaff reveals that Deus Diablo is located on a previously unknown space station orbiting Forumplanet. Trestkon is sent to rescue the only independent helicopter pilot in the city from the clutches of a terrorist organisation (whom he may either annihilate or forge a truce with) so he can get to Aunt Betty Industries, a clothing factory outside the City which is a front for a space research facility. There, Trestkon secures a shuttle that takes him to the space station.

If the player chooses to work for WorldCorp, he is immediately told about the Firestaff, its purpose, and its location. Unfortunately DXI is closed to the public, including WorldCorp agents, so in order to gain access, Trestkon must acquire the highly guarded admin password for the city. Following a failed blackmail attempt and a dangerous loyalty test, Trestkon finally manages to steal the password from PDX's high-security server complex and goes into DXI to retrieve the Firestaff. In this storyline too, Trestkon emerges into an ambush, but this time set up by PDX. When the Firestaff reveals Deus Diablo's orbital location, he is sent to steal a helicopter and interrogate its pilot to obtain the codes to its navigation system. As a final obstacle before he can go to Aunt Betty Industries for their space shuttle, Trestkon is forced to infiltrate an air-control tower to lift an electronic lockdown detaining the helicopter.

In either storyline, when Trestkon reaches the space station, he is faced with the final decision of what faction to support. The options available to the player are based on previous decisions, such that not all options are accessible at any time:

• PDX ending: Trestkon takes over the station and bans Scara. This puts PDX in total control of Forum City and indeed all of ForumPlanet, and enables the moderators of each city to establish real democracy.
• WorldCorp ending: Trestkon destroys PDX using a laser powerful enough even to kill the otherwise immortal moderators. He then takes over the station and either makes Scara the omnipotent ruler of ForumPlanet, getting control of Forum City in return, or bans Scara and rules the world himself.
• Ryan ending: Trestkon sides with the eccentric owner of Aunt Betty Industries and destroys the space station, negating all the power of the government. This also kills all communications and electricity, rendering WC useless. Forum City is ruled by anarchy.
• Narcissus ending: a hidden ending in which Trestkon discovers that he is actually in a game and, with the player's help, learns to accept his role as a computer game character.

This book tells readers about a family vacation in Penobscot Bay, off Maine Island. The girl describes every day as a great adventure, and how amazed she is by the forces of nature. Her time on the island is spent living in the moment, exploring the rocks which magically transform into a castle. The girl continues to explore, going under the sea and finding wonderful worlds and animals that people often do not notice. The girl describes Maine Island as a magical place where the stars at night look like a pair of eyes watching her. The girl plays with her sister and her dog enjoying the fog of the mornings and the smell of grass, as well as the power of the sheer wind brought by a hurricane that destroys everything in its way. But even after the storm, everything returns to calm, and at the end of her time on the island, she is ready to return with her family to the big city and face the routine again. In the illustrations of the book by McCloskey, the girl is always happy, playing and exploring her surrounding on Maine Island.

Mathayus aims to avenge the death of his father at the hand of Sargon, now king of Akkad, by taking service in his Black Scorpions squad. After completing his training he is tasked by Sargon to kill Noah, Mathayus's own brother. He saves him and escapes the city, but a magic arrow follows them and kills Noah.

Mathayus boards a ship to Egypt, accompanied by his childhood friend Layla. He intends to get the Spear of Osiris in Egypt, which he believes will be able to pass through Sargon's black magic protection. A fellow traveller, Greek poet Aristophanes (Ari), tells Mathayus and Layla that the Spear only kills Egyptian creatures, but the Sword of Damocles will work. The trio travels to Greece, where they can enter the Underworld to retrieve the Sword of Damocles. On the way, they fall into a cell and are surrounded by men left as sacrifices for the Minotaur. Some of the sacrifices are mercenaries who owe allegiance to Mathayus' father, so they help him and Layla to defeat the Minotaur, with help from a Chinese captive named Fung.

The enlarged group travel to the Underworld, where they are attacked by the goddess Astarte. Layla and Astarte fight, while Fung and Ari search for and find the sword. Astarte tries to send Layla to hell, but Mathayus frees her, and they all escape to the human realm.

Astarte orders Sargon to get her sword back, and he asks for more dark powers. The group reach Akkad, where Sargon turns on a machine that dumps oil into the water supply. The oil and water begin to flow through statues into the city, which is then set on fire.

Using the Sword of Damocles, Mathayus fights through to Sargon but finds his own father, who turns out to be Sargon in disguise. Sargon uses the confusion to disarm Mathayus and they begin fighting. Ari picks up the sword then hands it to Sargon, revealing that he had been bribing Ari with riches. More chaos and fighting ensues in the city and we learn that the sword that Ari gave Sargon was a fake and easily shattered. Ari bursts in and gives Mathayus the real sword. When Sargon states Mathayus owes him his loyalty as a black scorpion, Mathayus burns off his scorpion tattoo with the sword as Sargon retreats into the shadows.

Sargon turns into a giant near-invisible scorpion and continues his attack. Mathayus impales the Scorpion King Sargon with the Sword of Damocles. Layla manages to put out the fires while Fung fights and eliminates several of Sargon's soldiers. Astarte tells Mathayus that she will show him no mercy, but Mathayus tells her that she will have him one day. Mathayus awakens in a bed after being nursed by Layla, who then tells him that he has won the right to be king, but he decides for now to head off on a life of adventure, knowing one day he shall be the Scorpion King.

''White Knight Chronicles'' begins in the kingdom of Balandor, where Princess Cisna is having a coming-of-age banquet. Leonard, the main protagonist; his childhood friend, Yulie; and the Avatar (a new employee at Rapacci Wines, where the three work), are tasked with delivering wine for the party. Once the delivery is completed, they decide to stay for the party, which is soon raided by an evil organization called the Magi. In the ensuing commotion, King Valtos, Cisna's father, is killed by a man in dark armor, causing a shocked Cisna to regain her voice (which was "lost" when her mother, Queen Floraine, was assassinated). Leonard grabs the distraught Cisna's hand and leads her to safety in the castle's lower levels. There, they find a giant suit of armor, an "Incorruptus"; and a strange gauntlet called the "Ark". Using the Ark to merge with the armor, Leonard becomes the White Knight, which can the combat the Magi. After eliminating a large monster from the castle, Cisna is kidnapped by the Magi. Sarvain, the royal advisor, tasks Leonard to rescue the Princess with the White Knight; Yulie, the Avatar, and a "humble traveler" named Eldore join him.

The motive behind the kidnapping is Cisna's ability to unlock sealed Knights, of which she is unaware of at first. The leader of Magi is a general called Dregias, the man who killed Valtos. All that is known about him is that he is capable of transforming into the winged Black Knight, Ebonwings.

A circus is being set up just above Bugs' rabbit hole, causing much noise and vibration. The lion cage is set up directly above the hole, and the lion takes deep sniffs (alternatively yanking Bugs towards the hole or throwing him back) to determine that the animal below is Bugs. When the lion (whom Bugs eventually refers to as "Nero") roars again, Bugs comes to the surface to see what's going on, riding an elevator that makes twists and turns. Bugs tries to reason with the lion, but soon makes a hasty escape when Nero takes a swipe at him.

Nero manages to get out of his cage, and chases Bugs around the circus grounds. Bugs at one point ducks into a dressing room, coming out as a clown trying to convince Nero to laugh, which he eventually does — until Bugs takes some whacks at the lion with a wooden board. The lion then chases Bugs into the big top, where they swing around acrobat swings. Eventually, Bugs tricks Nero into a cannon and sets the cannon off, causing Nero to do a hula in his 'skirt', plays the ukulele. ("We're also available for picnics, lodge meetings, children's parties, and smokers!")

American travel journalist Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) joins a small group of tourists on a crocodile-watching river cruise in Kakadu National Park of Australia's Northern Territory, led by wildlife researcher Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell). Toward the end of the cruise, Everett (Robert Taylor) spots a flare in the distance and the group head up river to investigate. They eventually come across a half-sunken wreck when something crashes into their boat, splitting the side.

Kate manages to steer the boat ashore a small island in the middle of the river. Kate realises they are in the crocodile's territory and explains they must leave the island by nightfall, as the tide will start to rise and the island will be submerged. Moments after, Everett is pulled into the water by an unseen predator and is killed. Two locals, Neil (Sam Worthington) and Collin (Damien Richardson), arrive at the island but the beast upturns their boat; Neil swims to the island while Collin is killed.

As night falls, Neil carefully swims to the riverbank in order to string a rope between two trees, creating a zip-line to allow the group to cross the river. Everett's wife Mary Ellen (Caroline Brazier) crosses first, only to freeze in fear halfway across. Allen (Geoff Morrell), becoming impatient and aggressive, attempts to get himself and his daughter Sherry (Mia Wasikowska) across with Mary Ellen still on the line. While trying to secure the rope, Neil is attacked and killed by the beast. The tree holding the rope breaks and the three on the line fall into the water. They manage to swim back to the island, but as Allen crawls up the shore, the beast lunges out of the water and throws him back into the river, where he is dragged under.

Later that night, Pete suggests hooking the beast while everyone else swims to the riverbank; Neil's two dead birds replace Kate's dog named Kevin, the initial bait idea. After a long wait, the anchor is suddenly pulled and the group make a break for the far shore. The beast eventually lets go of the bait, seizes Kate and drags her underwater. Pete hurries across the river with Kevin in tow and into the bush behind the others.

As day breaks, Pete is forced to chase Kevin into the bush after he runs off. He falls down a narrow chute into a large cave, where he discovers Neil's partial corpse. The cave is the beast's lair and the dog leads him to a badly injured Kate. Pete attempts to carry her out but Kevin runs off to the head of the cave, where it is heard being seized by the beast. After several attempts on them both, the beast takes a chunk out of Pete's hand. Pete eventually props a large broken log against a boulder, with the sharp end pointing outwards, so when the beast lunges at him, it is impaled and dies. Pete escapes from the cave with Kate and finds the tourists and paramedics.

As the credits roll, the camera focuses on a newspaper article detailing Pete's heroic battle with the beast and rescue of Kate.

The movie starts out with a meeting between the rulers of Baekje, Silla, Tang China, and Goguryeo. They are arguing why the Korean southern kingdoms have to pay tribute to China, even though Tang is only 50 years old. The king of Silla sides with the Emperor of Tang. The movie flashes forward to the scene in which Baekje soldiers rush to the king with ill news of Silla and Tang allying together, bringing an army of 50,000 soldiers. The Baekje council discusses battle plans. But in the end, all of the officials run away out of cowardice. The king of Baekje calls for the great warrior, Kyebaek. He accepts the offer to protect his country after three glasses of wine. Kaebaek is forced to kill his family in fear of something worse happening to them. Soon, Gyebaek engages the Silla forces in so called "battles" where the opponents insult the others with Gyebaek winning in the beginning of these battles.

Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson

The story, told partly in flashback and narrated by Clem Miniver, commences on VE Day as Clem and Judy return home from war service and Toby returns from a foster family in the United States.

Judy, a corporal driver, is loved by Tom Foley, a captain in the Royal Engineers, but she is besotted with a general (Leo Genn) married but separated and twice her age. Kay Miniver has also conducted a brief, platonic affair with an American colonel.

Clem is now restless and dissatisfied; he successfully applies for a design contract in Brazil. But Kay, unknown to him, has developed a major cardiac condition and has one year at most to live. Despite this, she persuades the general to return to his wife, leaving Judy free to marry Tom.

The wedding goes ahead. Clem decides to stay in London and brings Tom into his architectural practice, and soon after he's made aware of his wife's illness. Satisfied that her family are safe and happy, Kay dies.

No mention is made of the eldest Miniver son Vincent who appeared in the earlier film, possibly because Greer Garson and Richard Ney (the actor who portrayed Vincent) had married and been divorced (1943–1947) by the time ''The Miniver Story'' was produced in 1950.

Cassie and the Animorphs discover from Ax and Tobias that the Yeerks have set up a dummy logging company, called Dapsen Logging Company, in the woods. The Yeerks want to destroy the forest in order to find the "Andalite bandits," whom they believe to be living there. The Animorphs go to check it out, but are discovered, chased away, and shot at. Cassie and her father later find an injured skunk, that was hit by a Dracon beam in the fighting. Cassie's father finds that there is a good chance that the skunk had recently given birth, and Cassie is stricken with guilt.

Cassie suggests to the others that they need to find out how the Yeerks got permission to cut trees in a National Forest. If they didn't have permission, the news media would bring attention to them, something they surely did not want. The group decides to go back and enter the logging camp to find this information. Tobias notices that there are termite tunnels in the building, and they decide to morph termites to get in. Jake causes a distraction by morphing into a wolf while the others (excluding Tobias) morph and enter the building. There is a brief episode where they are controlled by the termite queen's orders and lose control of themselves. Cassie kills the termite queen to free her friends and herself from the queen's control, but felt much guilt by it. The Animorphs get the information they need, disable the Yeerks' defenses, and escape unnoticed.

The Animorphs find out that there is a committee of three people who must decide on giving the logging operation a go. One has already voted yes and one has voted no; the other, a man called Farrand, was due to make a visit to the camp in order to make his decision. The Animorphs decide to intercede when Farrand makes his visit, as the Yeerks will surely turn him into a Controller at that point to ensure an affirmative vote. Meanwhile, Cassie is still concerned with the skunk babies and decides to look for them. Tobias is able to tell her where the litter of kits is, having found five and eaten one. Cassie rescues them and the Animorphs take over tending the kits, with Tobias doing much of the skunk-sitting while the other Animorphs are in school. Marco ends up naming the skunk kits after members of The Ramones, such as Joey, Johnny, Marky and C.J.

In the final showdown, the Yeerks capture Cassie and Farrand, but she morphs into a skunk and sprays all of the Controllers and Visser Three. Ax makes a bargain with Visser Three, offering information on how to get rid of the skunk smell in return for the release of Farrand. Visser Three agrees, and Farrand is transported to a hospital. As soon as he can, Farrand makes a phone call to vote against the logging, and he will likely bring litigation against the company. In return for the release of the human, Ax tells the Yeerks that grape juice will remove the stink (instead of tomato juice, which at best masks the smell), and Tobias later reports that a pool of grape juice was made for Visser Three to soak in. Visser Three hasn't gotten rid of the skunk smell, and in addition is a "lovely, attractive shade of purple."

'''Morphs'''

The cartoon begins with the voice of an apparent Hollywood gossip queen named "Lola Beverly" (patterned after newspaper and radio columnist Louella Parsons, infrequently known as "Lolly"; note the next sentence) talking behind the camera as it pans across Beverly Hills, settling in on Bugs Bunny's "mansion", which is actually a rabbit hole with fancy trimmings such as columns and a swimming pool. Lola (or "Lolly" as Bugs calls her familiarly, also effecting her hoity-toity manner of speech) coaxes a biographical story out of Bugs, and he talks about growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (presumably accounting for his accent). He is seen tap-dancing down the streets of the Big Apple and singing "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady" (a song written in 1917 by Walter Donaldson and Monty C. Brice).

Most of the story involves Bugs being repeatedly assaulted by a "street gang" consisting of a pack of stray dogs, led by a tough-talking but none-too-bright bulldog who wears a bowler hat and turtleneck sweater (and also resembles Hector, a bulldog which appeared in a number of Sylvester/Tweety cartoons starting in 1948). There are at least two references to real-life New York City landmarks. In one scene, Bugs smacks the bulldog with pieces of pie purchased at the Automat; in another, he tries to escape through the Stork Club (spelled here "Stork Klub," wherein real storks are the patrons). Bugs then tries to hide in a rooftop billboard for "Egyptian" cigarettes, a play on animated billboards in Times Square. At one point, the bulldog finds himself hanging by one "hand" from a clothesline. Bugs, on an adjacent line, plays Tweety's time-honored "this little piddy" game (even talking in something close to Tweety's voice), peeling the clumsy canine's "piddies" from the line one by one. When he "runs out of piddies" and the dog falls, Bugs reverts to his normal voice, and his regular aside to the audience, "Gee, ain't I a stinker?"

Bugs thinks he has dispatched the dogs, saying "that's '-30-' for today!" He goes back to his tap-dancing and singing, and suddenly finds himself in a blind alley next to a newsstand. The gang of dogs reappears and marches in on Bugs menacingly. Bugs grabs a book and threatens to hit them with it in his "last stand". The dogs' eyes open wide when they see the book, and they turn around and race to, and across, the Brooklyn Bridge. The puzzled Bugs looks at the book and sees that it is the then-recent novel, ''A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'', which was obviously the inspiration for the cartoon's title.

Bugs says to himself and the audience, in a rare quiet and reflective moment, "Ya know, maybe I oughta read dis t'ing!" As the underscore reprises an instrumental bar of "Rosie O'Grady", Bugs is seen walking away from the camera and toward the city's skyscrapers, while reading the book and humming along until the scene irises out.

In a theatre, auditions are being held for a new musical production titled ''The Land Around Us''. Director Bernie Dodd watches a number performed by fading star Frank Elgin and suggests that he be cast in the leading role. This is met with strong opposition from Philip Cook, the show's producer.

However, Bernie insists on the down-on-his-luck Frank, who is living in a modest apartment with his wife Georgie. They are grateful for the opportunity, though not entirely certain Frank can handle the work.

Initially Frank leads Bernie to believe that Georgie is the reason for the decline in his career. Bernie strongly criticizes her, first behind her back and eventually to her face. What he does not know is that the real reason why Frank's career has ended is his insecurity. When their five-year-old son Johnny was hit by a car and died while in Frank's care, he was devastated. Partly using that as an excuse to cover up his insecurity, Frank has been reduced to a suicidal alcoholic.

Mealy-mouthed to the director's face, Frank is actually a demanding alcoholic who is completely dependent on his wife. Bernie mistakenly blames her for everything that happens during rehearsals, including Elgin's requests for a dresser and a run-of-the-show contract. He believes Georgie to be suicidal and a drunk, when it is actually Frank who is both.

Humiliated when he learns the truth, Bernie realizes that behind his hatred of Georgie was a strong attraction to her. His anger melts away and he kisses her. She tells him that it does not mean that anything has changed.

Elgin's performance is a success on opening night. Afterward, he demands respect from Cook, which he and his wife had not been given before the opening. Previously Georgie had said that if only Frank could stand on his own two feet, she could get away from him. At a party to celebrate the play's opening, Bernie believes Georgie will be free to leave Frank, and tells her that he loves her. Later Frank tells them he has noticed their longing looks, and all three talk. Shortly after, Frank leaves the party. Georgie says goodbye to Bernie, and he tells her he appreciates a woman who is loyal. She kisses him lightly and goes to catch up with Frank.

John Lucker, a psychotic man who killed and raped the bodies of eight women, falls into a coma after trying to slit his own throat while being moved from one mental institution to another. Lucker is placed in a private clinic where he awakens, murders an orderly and takes the man's clothes. Lucker exits the clinic and hijacks the orderly's car after killing the man's girlfriend and having sex with her body.

The next morning, Lucker listens to a radio broadcast discussing his escape, and Cathy Jordan, a survivor of Lucker three years ago. Lucker abandons his stolen car and walks into town while having flashbacks to his time with Cathy, which excite him to the point of prompting him to disembowel a female jogger in a parking garage.

Using a public phonebook and map, Lucker pinpoints Cathy's current address, which he gains entry to by soliciting a prostitute who lives there. Once in the building, Lucker shackles the hooker to her bed, stabs her in the throat and takes up residence in her apartment, which he spies on Cathy from.

A month later, Lucker has sex with her severely decomposed corpse, cuts it up, places the pieces in garbage bags and goes to throw them out. On the way out, Lucker runs into Cathy's boyfriend whom he strangles and bludgeons while two women, Carolyn and Sharon, enter the building to visit the prostitute. After disposing of Carolyn and capturing Sharon, Lucker goes to Cathy's apartment and captures her as well.

While Lucker rants and thrashes about, he guts Sharon in front of Cathy, who escapes her binds and stabs Lucker in the back with his own knife. The wounded Lucker pursues Cathy throughout the building and is seemingly killed when Cathy pushes him down an elevator shaft. However, as the credits roll, a fully recovered Lucker is shown leaving the building.

A bald magician named Ala Bahma is nailing self-promoting posters everywhere, including a tree in which Bugs is living. Bugs protests having his home encroached and his right to private property compromised, until the magician apologizes and offers Bugs a blackberry pie. The rabbit's expression momentarily changes to joy as Ala Bahma magically brandishes a blackberry pie from underneath his cloth, then suddenly splatters it in Bugs's face. As the magician walks away laughing, "What a dumb bunny!", a now-incensed Bugs decides that it is time for payback and says: "Of course you realize this means ''war''!"

Bugs exacts his revenge against Ala Bahma through a series of public humiliations during his performance at the Bijou theater. First, Bugs replaces himself with a carrot during Ala Bahma's hat-trick and gets into his outfit. Despite Ala Bahma's objections, Bugs says he wants to help the magician. He goes into his hat and repeats Ala Bahma's hat trick and accepts applause. Bugs gets into Ala Bahma's hat as he attempts to grab, then kisses the magician as the audience awws and ties up his mustache. When Ala Bahma unties his mustache, he sees a sign posted by Bugs to tempt him with a carrot. Next, Bugs grabs Ala Bahma's mallet, hits him as he grabs the carrot, and eats it. Ala Bahma puts his hand in the hat, only for Bugs to pull the magician in. As Bugs emerges, however, Ala Bahma grabs him and after a brief fight off-screen, the magician barricades his own hat with wood planks and nails to make sure that Bugs does not get out.

Later, Ala Bahma does an Indian Basket Trick performance with Bugs posing as a volunteer. During his trick, he puts the swords in the basket. When Ala Bahma discovers that Bugs has snuck out from behind him while feigning pain, Bugs runs and attempts to jump into his hat but hits it on the barricade. Ala Bahma charges at Bugs to kill him, but Bugs plays a statues game on the magician. Once Ala Bahma gets close enough, Bugs dresses up as a fencer for Ala Bahma to fight him. Bugs escapes to the balcony to heckle Ala Bahma ("What a performance, D'Artagnan, what a performance!"). Realizing his mistake, Ala Bahma uses a shotgun and fires at Bugs. However, Bugs appears from Ala Bahma's hat and places a cigar in his mouth and lights it up, causing it to promptly explode, stunning him. After kissing Ala Bahma, Bugs brandishes his own blackberry pie. He says to the audience, quoting Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid", "If I dood it, I get a whippin'...I DOOD IT!" and splatters the pie in Ala Bahma's face. Bugs ends his performance with "Aloha 'Oe" on a ukulele as he descends into the hat and the cartoon irises out.

The story starts with Visser One, in the body of Marco's mother, Eva. She leaves the house, saying goodbye to her husband and Marco, and heads out to her sailing boat, intending to fake her death so she can leave Earth and become Visser One. She takes her boat out to the ocean, and has a Bug Fighter that is waiting to pick her up to ram the boat, capsizing it. She leaves Earth, and everyone simply assumes that she drowns.

In the present day, Edriss is on trial for treason by the Council of Thirteen. She is still inside Eva, and is currently being held in the Yeerk Pool under the city where the Animorphs live. The Council of Thirteen informs Edriss of her charges, which are five charges of treason, four containing the death penalty. Visser Three, her longtime enemy, is her prosecutor and the one who brought the charges against her. The Council of Thirteen orders her to tell her story of the events.

At the start of her story, Edriss was stationed on a moon in between the Hork-Bajir homeworld and the Taxxon homeworld. Her task is to search for a Class Five species, which is a species that is powerful, extremely abundant and easy to take over. While training a group of new recruits, she receives information that a Class Five species has been found. This particular species were humans. Two humans were kidnapped by the Skrit Na, and then rescued by Andalites and taken by them to the Taxxon homeworld. A Yeerk Sub-Visser saw them and reported them to Edriss (these events are detailed more in ''The Andalite Chronicles''). Unfortunately, as soon as she receives this news, Edriss is informed she would be transferred to the Taxxon homeworld and be given a Taxxon host. Edriss, along with a fellow Yeerk named Essam 293, steal a Yeerk ship and go looking for the human home world.

Back in the present, Visser Three demands that they view a memory dump (a recording of her memory) of Edriss's trip to Earth. It starts with Edriss and Essam finding the planet, and they land on it during the events of the Gulf War. Edriss infests an Iraqi soldier, and finds out from him that the most powerful country on Earth is America. They dispose of the host and fly their ship to Hollywood. There, Edriss infests a drug addict called Jenny Lines who is a struggling actor, and Essam infests a television producer named Lowenstein. At this point the memory dump ends. Garoff, a member of the Council of Thirteen, accuses Edriss of underestimating the humans, and Edriss says the only reason the humans haven't been taken over is because of Visser Three's incompetence. Visser Three says Edriss never had to deal with the "Andalite Bandits" when she was on Earth, and Edriss asks why Visser Three still hasn't defeated the Andalite bandits. At that point the Andalite bandits attack, however, Visser Three and his troops makes short work of them. Edriss realizes that they were simply animals, not the Andalite bandits, and Visser Three just had them brought in to trick the Council into thinking that he did kill the Andalite bandits.

The Council of Thirteen is fooled by the demonstration and Visser Three has a lot more credibility. Visser Three then says he has testimony from a witness who was with Edriss during the time that Edriss did not make any memory dumps. He says it is Essam, however, Edriss says that can't be true since Essam is dead. Visser Three's guard bring in a homeless man named Hildy Gervais, who is revealed to be a former host of Essam. He says that he and one of Edriss's hosts, Allison Kim, fell in love, and so did their Yeerk captors. Eventually they had two children, twins. Edriss says this is true, and Visser Three claims this is proof of Edriss sympathizing with humans.

Edriss continues her story, telling how eventually she disposed of Jenny Lines and infested Allison Kim, a scientist. Essam also infested Hildy Gervais. Edriss tells how Allison Kim was a far more intelligent, powerful host than Jenny Lines, and Visser Three demands this is proof that she admires the humans. Visser Three and Edriss get into an argument about whether slow infestation or all-out war is a better way to enslave the humans. Visser Three claims that the only reason Edriss doesn't want all out war is because she doesn't want the humans to actually be taken over, and Edriss argues that all out war would never work. Eventually Visser Three demands that Edriss is given a live memory dump, so they can view exactly what happened. Garoff agrees, and they enter her memory at a point a fair while after Edriss had infested Allison.

Garoff demands they view various memories, all showing Edriss enjoying different aspects of human life, her falling in love with Essam/Hildy Gervais, and the birth of her children. Garoff claims that Visser One had become addicted to humans. Garoff ends the live memory dump, and demands Edriss continue the story. Edriss says the children were given up for adoption, and then says she needs a break to eat. Garoff agrees, and the trial is adjourned. She is taken by Visser Three's troops to the lunchroom of the Yeerk Pool, where she sees a Controller talking on her cell phone. Realizing the phone can work this far underground, she purposely bumps into the Controller and steals her phone. She heads to the toilets and calls Marco, her current host's son. She tells him she needs him to attack the Yeerk Pool, so the Council will realize the last attack was a farce constructed by Visser Three. Reluctantly, Marco agrees, and then Edriss heads back to the trial.

Garoff asks her to continue her story. Edriss says that after a year, the shipboard Kandrona was running out, so she contacted the Empire. When she told them she had found a Class Five species, they dropped all charges against her. During this time, she had created a group called The Sharing, a boy scouts/girl scouts style club crossed with a cult, which was used to recruit voluntary Controllers. She sent a tape of the first human-Controller to the Yeerk Empire. When Edriss told Essam they were returning to the Yeerk Empire, he got angry, and tied Edriss up, forcing her to infest another host and taking off with Allison Kim and the children. Edriss takes after him, telling the Council that her intention was to kill him.

At this point, Visser Three interrupts, saying that the real reason Edriss went after him was to get the children back. Edriss claims she didn't care about the children. In response, Visser Three brings one of her children, Darwin, in. Visser Three demands Edriss to kill him, to prove she doesn't care about him. Edriss stalls, unable to kill the kid, and suddenly the Animorphs attack. They knock out Edriss and take her outside to a part of the Yeerk Pool that is hidden by one of the Chee's holograms. Marco demands Edriss leave his mother's body, and she does. For a while she lies alone in the darkness, thinking the Animorphs will kill her, until she is suddenly put back into Eva's head. Looking for her memories, she sees that Eva convinced Marco to keep Edriss alive, because Edriss was the only one pushing for a slow infiltration, which is the only way the Animorphs can win. At that point, they knock her unconscious again, to make her capture look authentic.

Eventually she is found unconscious, and is taken back to the trial. Garoff asks her to continue her story. Edriss talks about how she found Essam at a hospital. He was dying from Kandrona starvation, and eventually he died within Hildy Gervais's head, causing part of Essam's body to become fused with Hildy's brain. Hildy started screaming about the aliens that had infested him, and was taken away to an asylum. Allison escaped, but soon returned for the children in disguise. Edriss killed her. The children were left in the hospital, and eventually adopted. She then killed Lore David Altman, the host she used to create the Sharing, infested Eva, and eventually left Earth to become Visser One.

Garoff says that she has given enough information, and the Council retired to consider their verdict. After a while they returned, minus two Council members who did not agree with the verdict, and say that Visser One and Visser Three have both been sentenced to death by Kandrona starvation. However, the sentences were suspended, and both of them would be free of all charges if they completed the tasks the Council of Thirteen set for them. Visser Three has to complete the invasion of Earth. Visser One had to take another planet, the Anati homeworld. If either of them fail, they will be killed; however, both Visser One and Visser Three are released from custody, meaning Edriss (and Marco's mother) survive. As she is about to leave, Visser One considers telling Visser Three the truth about the "Andalite bandits", but decides against it.

As a child, the Prince of the Great Kingdom was sent away by the power-hungry wizard Garth, to be raised by peasants. This turns out to be Garth's greatest mistake as one of the peasants is a retired hero who trains the Prince to be a master fighter using magic as a weapon. In the years after Garth's conquest, the kingdom had fallen into ruin and despair, with no hope of returning to the times of happiness and prosperity. Garth ruled with an iron fist and terrorized the population with undead creatures. The prince battles through badlands, castles, dungeons, caves, forests and finally to the Great Kingdom itself, with Garth's army of undead creatures attacking at every turn. After a confrontation between the Prince and Garth and after killing the evil wizard, the prince's destiny is fulfilled, having freed the kingdom from the Dark Ages of fear and tyranny. The prince assumes his rightful place as the peaceful King and Leader of the Kingdom. The Great Kingdom is once again free to prosper and grow without fear.

Hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" and his dummy Hugo perform before a packed audience in London. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and Hugo, who Vorelli keeps in a locked cage between performances. American reporter Mark English is assigned a story on Vorelli, and solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn, a wealthy heiress, to go with him to another show.

At the show, Vorelli asks for a volunteer. Mark encourages Marianne to go up. Vorelli hypnotizes her and makes her dance the Twist. During Vorelli's ventriloquism act, Hugo gets up from his chair and walks around, seemingly under his own power. Mark, wanting a closer look at Hugo to determine how this trick is performed, gets Marianne to invite Vorelli to her aunt's charity ball.

While Vorelli performs his ventriloquism at the ball, Hugo takes a knife from the buffet table and tries to stab Vorelli, only stopping when Vorelli focuses all his will. The guests assume this is part of Vorelli's act. Mark secretly examines Hugo, and finds he is a simple dummy, without clockwork mechanisms, a space for an operator, or any other feature that might allow him to walk on his own. The night of the ball, Vorelli stays at the mansion of Marianne's aunt, where he rapes Marianne after using his power to subdue her will. Hugo appears in Mark's room and pleas "Help me... 1948... Berlin." before disappearing.

Marianne falls into a semi-coma that the doctors cannot alleviate. In one lucid moment, she tells Mark that "He keeps calling me" and "Make him stop". Mark realizes her state is the result of being hypnotized by Vorelli, and begins an investigation into Vorelli's past. Through a colleague, Mark discovers that Vorelli was a medical doctor who dabbled in Eastern magic and was disbarred. The colleague guides Mark to a former assistant of Vorelli's who lives in Berlin, named Mercedes. She tells Mark that another assistant, Hugo, worked for Vorelli in 1947, and was hypnotized into a state where he could not feel pain as part of their act. Mercedes would catch the two in strange conferences. One night, Vorelli stabbed Hugo on stage, and this time Hugo reacted with pain. Hugo was comatose for three months, during which Vorelli transferred Hugo's soul into the dummy, resulting in his death. The death was ruled an accident, and no one believed Mercedes's story, despite a theatre worker testifying he saw the dummy move immediately after Hugo screamed in pain.

Mark suspects Vorelli deliberately hypnotized Hugo to die from the knife wound, but his concerns over Vorelli are greatly assuaged when he hears that Marianne has awoken from her comatose state.

Vorelli's current assistant and lover, Magda, is outraged at his rape of Marianne and threatens to go to the police. Vorelli taunts Hugo into murdering Magda with a knife when Vorelli is visiting with stage crew elsewhere. Vorelli then hires a new, younger assistant whom he also puts under his hypnotic control.

Vorelli visits Marianne in her home and hypnotizes her into agreeing to marry him. Vorelli confides to Hugo that he plans to marry Marianne in Spain and transfer her spirit into another doll before letting her body die and inheriting her wealth. He opens Hugo's cage, intending to discipline him due to his recent rebellions. Instead, Hugo smashes the face of the doll intended for Marianne, and attacks Vorelli. The two struggle, their two souls interacting, until Vorelli finally locks Hugo back in his cage. Mark enters the room. Vorelli speaks in Hugo's voice and tells Mark that Hugo has now transferred his soul into Vorelli's body and vice versa and that Marianne's hypnotized state is broken. From Hugo's former puppet body, Vorelli begs for help from Mark, whose response is not shown.

In the first quarter of the 18th century, Blackbeard, otherwise Edward Teach was seen as the most notorious and dangerous seafaring pirate of all, plying his trade around the West Indies and the eastern coast of England’s North American colonies in his ship ''Queen Anne's Revenge''. Blackbeard wreaks havoc looking for Captain Kidd's treasure, and his dark presence causes controversy in the port town of New Providence, especially for Governor Charles Eden and his adopted daughter Charlotte, who is being wooed by Lieutenant Robert Maynard.Vincent Terrace, ''Encyclopedia of Television Miniseries, 1936-2020'' (2021), p. 23

The story, a Communist re-telling of the 1726 novel ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Jonathan Swift, is about a young boy who dreams of himself as a version of Gulliver who has landed in Lilliput suffering under capitalist inequality and exploitation.

The pioneer Petya Konstantinov (Vladimir Konstantinov), as an award for the best young OSVOD member of Artek, receives his favorite book — ''Gulliver's Travels'' by Johnathan Swift. Together with other pioneers who repaired the sailboat "Artek" with their own hands, he goes on for a walk to the Adalara's islands which are near the summer camp. There, during vacation, children ask the leader to read them aloud Petya's book. Petya falls asleep while reading and finds himself in the world described in the book.

In the dream, Petya travels by ship, but during sailing, his vessel is attacked by pirates. Together with three captives, the boy fights with them and wins, but at this moment, the pirate ship crashes into the rocks. The teenager recovers ashore, surrounded and tied up by Liliputians. He is put to sleep with a potion. At this time in the parliament, there is a debate on what to do with the new Gulliver. Ministers on behalf of the king make the decision to use Gulliver for military purposes. The boy is transported to the city by means of 15 tractors and a special platform. Petya is awoken by the king who puts a sceptre up to his nose. He learns about the decision which was made by the parliament, but disagrees with it. After that under his feet a military parade passes.

At this time, somewhere in cellars, a meeting of workers passes. Strike is appointed next day. The workers decide to find out who he is and find Petya's notebook on Russian language from which they learn that he is for the mighty union of workers from all around the world.

Petya is fed from the conveyor, with a crane being used to feed him. The whole Royal Court is present, and the corps de ballet performs. When they start singing to him how well people live under the leadership of the wise king, Petya interrupts the singer and starts singing the pioneer song. It is picked up by workers in the cellars. The court disperses in horror.

The police chief decides to kill Petya, and instructs employees of the underground plant to make a batch of weapons. The workers warn him, and the police learns about it immediately, but at this time, strike already begins. Workers take over the arsenal. The police tries to poison the boy, but he doesn't swallow the poison and spits it out, having pretended that he has died. Military operations begin. Insurgents are thrown to the sea by armed forces of Liliputia, but Petya goes into action, he seizes the royal ships. Workers on the earth develop success, undermine land mines and tanks. The guard and the court runs away. The king does not manage to hold on to the tower and, when falling, seizes an arrow of the tower clock. Petya blows in the horn which inexplicably appears in his hands, removes the bell from the city tower belfry and then shakes it in a manner of a hand bell. Then he proclaims: "The meeting of free Liliputiya I declare open!" and wakes up from the laughter of companions as he said the last phrase aloud.

The Lone Power, suspecting that a new threat is rising to its dark abilities, creates a surge of Dark Matter, called "the Pullulus", to eclipse the universe. Because of the way that the Pullulus affects the universe's structure, the Senior Wizards lose their wizardry and only wizards before adulthood are still able to fight. Ponch uses his tracking abilities to lead Nita, Kit, Ronan, and the wizardly tourists from Wizard's Holiday Filif and Sker'ret across the galaxy to try to find and activate an instrumentality that they are told is the only way to stop the Lone Power. Dairine and Roshaun take a trip back to the Motherboard from High Wizardry to consult the mobiles before joining the others. They find out that the 'weapon' is actually the Hesper, a version of the Lone Power who never fell.

The group finds the world the Hesper is on. Unfortunately, the world is one that is 'lost', or devoted to everything the Lone Power represents. Despite this, Nita, Kit, and the others go down to the planet and start searching for the Hesper, after adopting disguises. With Ponch's help, they find the Hesper, and Nita starts teaching her concepts about 'self' and 'choice', concepts that she had no previous understanding of.

Nita ask the Hesper to make a choice to fight the Lone Power, but before she can choose, they are captured by the Lone Power, who suppresses all wizardry in the area roughly analogous to cutting a Jedi off from the Force. Ronan sacrifices himself to free the One's Champion, who resides inside him, to give the Hesper a final chance to make her choice. The Champion holds the Lone Power back and restores wizardry to the area, allowing the Hesper to become embodied. As the Hesper assumes her position, the Lone Power is defeated, and the wizards are free to go, as Ronan is near death and the Pullulus is advancing towards Earth and Filif's home.

The wizards head back to Earth, except for Filif, who returns to his planet to fight the Pullulus there. They arrive on the moon and find a gathering of all Earth's remaining active wizards, working on a spell to stop the Pullulus. The group joins in to gives energy to the spell, which at first seems to work in pushing the Pullulus back, but then fails due to a lack of power. As the Pullulus comes closer, Roshaun uses his ability to work with stars to directly channel some of the sun's matter to burn the Pullulus, which works for a period until the power drain becomes too great for a single wizard.

While the remaining wizards prepare to make one last stand to destroy the Pullulus, Kit tells Ponch to take Carmela and Kit and Nita's parents away from Earth. Ponch starts to obey, but is caught between doing what he is told and staying with his master and friend. He decides to do neither, he completes the canine Choice, which had been held in abeyance because of the long-ago dogs' loyalty to their human partners. The Pullulus takes on a wolf-like shape and Ponch becomes a canine incarnation of the One. The wolf of darkness clashes against the hound of starlight, and it is the wolf that is beaten. Because Ponch has incarnated as a Power, much like the Hesper, he can no longer be with Kit. As he leaves Kit, however, Ponch says that some things will still stay the same.

As Nita, Kit, Dairine, and the others pick themselves up, they realize that the Pullulus is gone, and they head home with Ronan healed and without Roshaun or Ponch. The book ends with school starting again, Dairine resolving to discover what had really happened to Roshaun, and Kit finding Ponch in a "stray" sheepdog that had just shown up on his street.

Wade Corey (Andrew McCarthy) is on his way to a friend's wedding in New York City when his car burns up in Utah, leaving him stranded. Without options, he hops a freight train where he's pulled onto a moving boxcar by Doyle Kennedy (Matt Dillon). Doyle tells Wade about himself and convinces him to accompany him to a small town in Kansas where Wade can get help and they can attend a local festival.

What Wade doesn't know he soon finds out: Doyle is planning to use the festival as a chance to rob the local bank. The two walk into the bank, and before Wade knows what's happening, there's a gun in his face. Doyle demands Wade help him. Doyle holds up the bank, knocking out the police watchman and tying up the bank attendant. Wade piles the money into a bag, and no one witnesses his part in the robbery. In their effort to get away the pair get split up. Wade successfully hides from sight with the money while Doyle is chased across the countryside

While the robbery is unfolding, the governor - who'd been giving a speech at the festival, sends his young daughter home with an aide after she gets a touch of heatstroke. The car gets a flat beside an old steel bridge where - high on adrenaline, Wade is busy tucking away the cash under the bridge. An eager cop comes speeding down the road in pursuit of the robbers and doesn't see the governor's car, hits it, and sends it into the river with the daughter inside. Forced by his conscience to help, Wade jumps from the bridge and carries the girl to shore, saving her from drowning. Nordquist, a local reporter (Alan Toy), snaps a photo of the moment, but the image doesn’t clearly show Wade’s face, and Wade runs off into the woods to avoid being identified.

Needing to hide out, Wade takes a job on a local ranch where he becomes romantically interested in the ranch owner’s daughter, Lori (Leslie Hope), though she has a boyfriend. Doyle goes through a series of scams and schemes to stay in the area; he doesn't want to be too high-profile but is bent on finding Wade and the money. He eventually signs on as a ride operator with a carnival traveling through town, where he finally spots Wade.

The two agree to meet the next night and reclaim the money, though Wade lies about the money’s exact location. Wade misses the meeting because he loses track of time while having sex with Lori. Doyle searches for the money by the bridge and is unable to find it.

Doyle hunts Wade down on the farm he's working at. Wade agrees to give Doyle the money but says he now wants an even cut as opposed to the one-third Doyle offered him. Doyle agrees and lights the barn on fire to force Wade to make their new meeting. The fire draws the local news and Nordquist, the reporter who snapped the photo of the 'Unknown Hero.’ He sees Wade and recognizes him, leading to him being identified and celebrated by the entire town as a hero. As the town prepares a large celebration in Wade’s honor, Doyle calls and threatens him, telling him that he better show up to their next meeting. Wade feels increasingly guilty about his role in the robbery and anxious about what Doyle may do to those on the ranch. He confesses to Lori about his involvement in the robbery. She believes him when he tells her that he was forced by Doyle to participate and thinks others will believe him too.

Doyle breaks into Nordquist’s house who, after recognizing Wade, wrote the story about him being a hero. Doyle tells him that Wade was involved in the robbery and ran off with all the money in an attempt to ruin the life Wade established for himself at the ranch. Nordquist refuses to believe Doyle but upon going through the pictures he’s taken, discovers a photo of Wade and Doyle together at the festival just before the bank was robbed. He begins to write a story revealing Wade’s involvement in the robbery.

Wade meets with Doyle as planned, and the pair go to the bridge to retrieve the money. Doyle is upset to discover that Wade lied to him about the actual location of the money and goes to shoot him. Wade knocks the gun away and the two fight. Eventually, Wade gets the gun and points it at Doyle as he picks up the bags filled with money. Doyle dares Wade to shoot him, but he instead throws the gun into the river, letting Doyle leave with all the money. Wade returns to the ranch.

Doyle is recognized by police as the bank robber at a local gas station as he makes his escape. After he drives off, he discovers the police have formed a blockade, forcing him to turn around in the middle of the road. Doyle is met by more police cars blocking the other end of the road and drives at them as they shoot at the car. He decides to let them kill him, and the car flips after he is shot repeatedly, wrecking on the side of the road. Doyle crawls out of the car covered in blood and dies.

As part of the town’s celebration for Wade, he is to receive a medal honoring his bravery from the governor. Just as the ceremony is about to begin, Lori’s father calls it off, telling the governor that Wade is not coming—he and Lori have run off together. The reporter, Nordquist, is also at the ceremony and learns of this and as everyone is leaving, is told by an officer that Doyle was apprehended and killed. The officer tells him that Doyle had all the money stolen from the bank. After the officer walks away, Nordquist pulls the draft of the story revealing Wade’s involvement in the robbery out of his jacket. He smiles as he shreds it, now knowing that Wade is of good moral character.

Lori drives Wade to the train tracks so he can return home, and they discuss the possibility of their romance. Lori tells Wade that it can’t work if he is going to be leaving all the time. A train drives by and Wade jumps aboard, waving goodbye to Lori. He realizes that he can’t leave her and jumps back off the train. Lori rushes to Wade, and the two kiss.

In Norco, California, four men plot a bank robbery using heavy weapons to intimidate the public and the police force. However, one employee activates the silent alarm in the police station, and the criminals are chased by the police and L.A. SWAT. In despair, in Lytle Creek, the robbers fire about 2,000 rounds, kill one policeman, hit eight others, and damage many cars and one helicopter. In the end, the one survivor was sentenced to life without parole.

The novel spans a time period of one and a half years, from June 905 to January 907. It begins as the allies and supporters of King Cinhil Haldane prepare to meet the invasion of Princess Ariella Furstána-Festila, the sister and lover of the deposed King Imre Furstán-Festil. Although Imre died in the coup that placed Cinhil on the throne, Ariella escaped to the neighboring kingdom of Torenth, where she has sought refuge with her relatives. Having given birth to Imre's bastard son, she now seeks to return to Gwynedd and retake the throne. She has been using magic to influence the weather, hoping to flood the plains and rivers of Gwynedd to facilitate the invasion of her army.

Cinhil's closest advisors are preparing to meet the invaders, but the king himself has become aloof and withdrawn since his ascension to the throne. He has become convinced that he sinned against God by giving up his priestly vows to become king, and he displays increasing hostility and antagonism toward Earl Camber MacRorie of Culdi, the Deryni adept most responsible for placing Cinhil on the throne. Throughout the preparations for battle and the march to the battlefield itself, Cinhil constantly clashes with the Deryni closest to him, lashing out angrily as his resentment toward Camber in particular and Deryni in general continues to grow. Although Cinhil seems to place slightly more trust in Alister Cullen, the Deryni Vicar General of the Michaelines, even Cullen is rebuffed when he makes overtures of friendship to the king.

The Gwyneddan army meets Ariella's invaders on the plain of Iomaire, and the two forces clash the following day. Despite being outnumbered, Cinhil's army emerges victorious and wins the day. Following the battle, Camber and his son, Joram, discover the scene of Ariella's final stand. While attempting to flee the battle, Ariella had been confronted by Alister Cullen and the two fought a brutal battle that claimed both of their lives. Camber soon realizes that Cullen's death will only further alienate the king, as Cullen enjoyed more of Cinhil's trust than any other Deryni. Without Cullen to temper Cinhil's growing mistrust of Deryni, Camber fears that an anti-Deryni backlash might sweep through the kingdom. Camber then convinces Joram to help him switch shapes with the slain Cullen, believing that he can do more to help Cinhil and the kingdom as Alister Cullen than he can as Camber MacRorie. Joram initially resists the idea, but eventually concedes to his father's wishes. He helps Camber switch appearances with Cullen and then returns to the royal camp, bearing the body of a slain man bearing the appearance of Camber MacRorie. With the exceptions of Joram and Camber's son-in-law, Lord Rhys Thuryn, the rest of the world believes that Camber has died and Cullen has lived.

As the army returns to Valoret, Camber does his best to act out the role of the new persona he has adopted. Although he managed to retrieve some of Cullen's memories, his inability to assimilate those memories in safety is beginning to affect his health. Shortly after returning to Valoret, Camber is able to begin the process of assimilating Cullen's memories with the assistance of Rhys, Joram, and his daughter Evaine, but the procedure is interrupted by Cinhil. Unable to stop the procedure, Camber's disguise briefly slips away and the king witnesses the momentary change. Shocked and confused, Cinhil orders that nobody speak of the incident and flees the room.

Once in full possession of Cullen's remaining memories, Camber settles into his new identity with increased confidence. However, his former squire, Lord Guaire d'Arliss, remains despondent over Camber's supposed death. Taking pity on the man, Camber sheds his disguise and visits Guaire late one night, convincing him to cease his mourning. Guaire believes the visit is just a dream, but he takes heart from it and immediately asks to enter the service of the man he knows as Alister Cullen.

Camber must next deal with a matter of conscience. Cullen was due to become Bishop of Grecotha before his death, but Camber knows that he will be breaking ecclesiastical law by pretending to be a priest. The night before Camber's consecration as a bishop, Joram convinces him to legitimize his status and be ordained as a priest. Camber reveals the truth of his identity to his old friend Archbishop Anscom, and Anscom agrees to perform the ceremony. The following morning, the newly ordained Camber is consecrated as Bishop of Grecotha.

Camber spends much of the next year in Grecotha and Valoret. The friendship that Cullen offered Cinhil is finally accepted, and the king and the bishop become very close. Believing he is finally free of Camber's influence, Cinhil finally seems to resolve his inner conflict and soon begins to evolve into an independent king. The potential that Camber observed in Cinhil before the Restoration is finally realized, and Cinhil starts to take an active role in governing the realm. Camber's desperate gamble appears to have paid off, as Cinhil shows more and more signs of becoming the true king of the realm.

However, much to the surprise of Camber and his family, Camber's supposed death has resulted in more of a public impact than they ever expected. Grateful to Camber for his central role in the Restoration, some people have begun to venerate his memory, with some going so far as to form small cults dedicated to the belief that Camber had been a saint. Fully aware of the depth of their deception, Camber and his kin are horrified by these developments. Nonetheless, they cannot risk discovery of the truth by opposing such beliefs too vehemently or publicly. In an effort to ensure that their secret remains hidden, Joram and Rhys move Cullen's body out of Camber's tomb in August 906.

Archbishop Anscom assures Camber that he will not allow any efforts to canonize Camber succeed, but Anscom died in September. The following month, Anscom's successor, Archbishop Jaffray, receives a formal request to canonize Camber MacRorie. During the ecclesiastical court that follows, Camber and his family are forced to remain silent, unwilling to reveal the truth that Camber is actually sitting in the very room where the court is determining his sanctity. Guaire relates the tale of Camber's visit, but he now believes that the event was actually a miracle. When Camber's tomb is revealed to be empty, Joram attempts to provide a legitimate excuse. However, his efforts to end the court are unsuccessful, and his father's empty tomb is also classified as a miracle.

That night, Cinhil confesses to Camber that he has been secretly performing the rites of his former priestly vocation, even going so far as to celebrate Mass in private. Although stunned by this revelation, Camber realizes that Cinhil's illicit actions have served to soothe the king's tortured conscience, giving him a peace of mind that has enabled him to grow and develop as a ruler. Feeling that he has already inflicted too much misery upon Cinhil, Camber ultimately forgives Cinhil and promises to keep the king's secret.

The following day, Cinhil is called as a witness before the ecclesiastical court. Although unwilling to get involved in the procedure, Cinhil reluctantly describes seeing Camber's face come over Bishop Cullen shortly after Camber's death. Unable to provide a logical explanation for the event, the court can only agree that Camber MacRorie somehow returned after death to help Alister Cullen. Believing it has evidence of three miracles, the court soon canonizes Camber MacRorie. Camber himself is helpless to stop the chain of events, and can only watch in silence. The novel ends shortly after the new year, as Cinhil and Camber examine a statue of "Saint Camber" that has been erected. As Cinhil leaves, he is still unaware that the man at his side is actually Camber MacRorie.

Corrupt NYPD narcotics detectives Fred O'Connor and Bob Carvo have spent their illegal earnings on a Park Avenue apartment, viewing it as a sort of long-term investment. However, friction starts forming between them, as Carvo feels guilty about their scams and wants to abandon their association, asking O'Connor to pay him his share of the apartment so he can sell it, despite O'Connor's reluctance. Carvos's wife Lenore, a journalist critical of the police and a former fling of O'Connor's, begins to suspect her ex-partner's corruption, but is unable to prove it.

O'Connor begins to notice a stalker, a young man with tinted sunglasses who follows him to and from his secret apartment. After several confrontations on the street, the young man confronts O'Connor inside the apartment, claiming to be the perpetrator of a string of murders against members of the Narcotics Division, dubbed by the media as the "Copkiller". O'Connor quickly dismisses the young man's assertions due to his small stature and apparent physical weakness, quickly overpowering and subduing him. The seemingly disturbed man gives his name as Fred Mason, but O'Connor is unable to match the name to any on-record description. Mason threatens to go to the authorities about O'Connor's apartment, thereby exposing his corruption. An equally culpable Carvo insists on letting Mason go, and O'Connor seemingly agrees, paying Carvo his share of the apartment.

In fact, O'Connor keeps Mason captive in his apartment bathroom, binding him and reinforcing the door with an external deadbolt. Hoping to intimidate Mason into keeping silent, he tries to garner him into revealing details about his personal life, but a seemingly insolent Mason refuses to cooperate. Mason claims that his wealthy grandmother is looking for him, and his discovery and O'Connor's exposure is inevitable. Based on news reports, O'Connor determines that Mason's real name is Leo Smith, and tracks down his grandmother Margaret on Staten Island. Margaret, a wealthy heiress, tells him that Leo came under her care after his parents sudden death, but felt guilty about the wealth he was now entitled to, and developed a self-loathing complex that led him to compulsively confess to heinous crimes he had no involvement in, seeking retribution over his self-inflicted guilt. O'Connor uncovers a secret tape recording by Leo that states his intention to confront O'Connor, thus revealing his location.

O'Connor returns to the apartment and destroys the incriminating tape, but is confronted by Carvo who has become wise to his scheme. Holding him at gunpoint, Carvo demands he release Leo, but O'Connor responds by striking him and knocking his head on a nearby toilet seat. Telling Leo that he's still alive, he unties him and orders him to help transport his unconscious body to Central Park. Reiterating Leo's earlier claim to be the Copkiller, O'Connor orders him at gunpoint to slit Carvo's throat and kill him, making his death look like another one of the Copkiller's victims. Leo insists that he has never killed anyone, but eventually relents, only for O'Connor to pull the trigger. The gun misfires, and Leo takes the opportunity to escape on foot. O'Connor realizes that his partner's gun was unloaded.

O'Connor goes to work the next day wrought with guilt and paranoia, as investigators are baffled by the unusual circumstances of Carvo's death. Upon returning to the apartment, he is confronted by Leo. As Leo was seen fleeing the scene of the murder, he is now suspected as either a witness or accomplice. With little recourse, O'Connor allows Leo to stay in his apartment indefinitely. O'Connor's mental state further deteriorates as he descends into alcoholism, seeking comfort in the presence of Lenore, who still has feelings for him after her husband's death. Leo meanwhile, sneaks out of the apartment to purchase a serrated knife identical to the one used by the Copkiller, and hides it in O'Connor's kitchen.

Leo angrily chastises O'Connor for seeing Lenore, claiming that his feelings of guilt make a confession to her unavoidable. The two plot to murder her, Leo goading him by threatening to go the police. While O'Connor goes to Lenore's house, Leo dresses as a picture of his father and retrieves a hidden gym bag from a subway station locker. At her apartment, O'Connor is unable to go through with Lenore's murder. He gives her Carvo's gun and confesses to the secret arrangement between the two, while falsely claiming that the apartment is far away from Central Park.

Upon returning to the apartment, a disheveled O'Connor finds the phone line cut and Leo bound and gagged in the bathtub. Untying him and trying to find the intruder in the house, he's instead confronted by a grieved Lenore who berates him for lying to her and accuses him of killing Carvo. Leo emerges and claims that O'Connor is the Copkiller and held him hostage, and planned to kill both him and Lenore. She goes outside to call the police, while Leo reveals himself as the true Copkiller, having manipulated the corrupt O'Connor from the very beginning to frame him. He gives O'Connor the knife and tells him to finish it, before dumping his killing paraphernalia from his gym bag into the closet. With nowhere to run, O'Connor slits his own throat just as a horrified Lenore and police backup burst in. He collapses to the floor dead, and a poker-faced Leo stares out at the skyline.

Set in the aftermath of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States, the book chronicles the investigations of Carl Landry, a reporter for the ''Boston Globe''. As the story unfolds, Carl attempts to uncover the events leading up to the war, while at the same time running from those who would have the truth buried.

The story begins in 1972, ten years after a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviets, which was precipitated by the Cuban Missile Crisis. Washington, D.C., New York, Omaha, San Diego, Miami, and other U.S. cities, principally those surrounding military bases, have either been destroyed, damaged, or rendered uninhabitable by Soviet nuclear attacks. Philadelphia is now the capital of the United States, and although the Mexican-born President George W. Romney is nominally in office, the U.S. is effectively under martial law. The Soviets have been utterly devastated by U.S. nuclear strikes. Cuba is an atomic ruin, with Spain responsible for relief efforts aiding what is left of the island's population.

One consequence of the war is that America's embroilment in Vietnam is abruptly curtailed. U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam (and indeed across the world) are withdrawn in order to stabilise the US in the aftermath of the Soviet missile and air strikes. The People's Republic of China has also collapsed, with numerous regional warlords waging a civil war against each other.

U.S. nuclear strikes on the Soviets led to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, and also to the release of a massive fallout cloud over much of Asia, killing further millions after the destruction of the Soviets. As a consequence, the U.S. has become a pariah in the eyes of much of the world. Many governments regard members of the U.S. Air Force as war criminals, and its servicemen are advised not to travel abroad. After the 1962 war, nearly all the remaining countries of the globe have renounced possession of nuclear weapons. The United States alone retains an atomic arsenal.

Western Europe survived the war largely unscathed. NATO collapsed almost as soon as hostilities commenced, and France and a reunited Germany now preside over the continent. The United Kingdom and Canada remain allies of the U.S., and actually assist in post-war reconstruction efforts in U.S. states hit hardest by the war. The British, in the period after 1962, have managed to regain much of their pre-1939 colonial confidence in the vacuum left by the destruction of the Soviet Union and the emasculation of the U.S. in world affairs. The policy of decolonialisation has been halted and even reversed; some newly independent nations even return to the remaining British "Empire" in the new, uncertain world created after the "Cuban War". While British aid is welcome, there is also a sense of resentment among the American population over excessive dependence on the British. The large presence of British and Canadian military personnel in the U.S. is also a source of contention, with some Americans wondering whether their allies possess ulterior motives.

The story covers two parallel plotlines. The first involves Landry's attempts to discover what happened in Washington, D.C. in October 1962. U.S. military propaganda accounts maintain that the Cuban war broke out because of John F. Kennedy's recklessness and incompetence; these claims are generally believed. Kennedy and his officials are regarded as butchers and war criminals and the only senior surviving member of JFK's inner circle, McGeorge Bundy, is imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth. In contrast, U.S. military commanders (notably the Chief of the Air Force, General "Rammer" Curtis, based on the real-world General Curtis LeMay) are portrayed as the saviors of the nation. During the course of the novel Landry gradually discovers that it was Kennedy who sought to prevent the crisis over Cuba from escalating into war, and that last-minute attempts to achieve a deal with Nikita Khrushchev to end the crisis were deliberately sabotaged by Curtis and other generals.

The second plotline concerns British-U.S. relations. Landry and a British journalist, Sandy Price, discover that elements within the British government and security services are plotting a military takeover (or ''anschluss'') of the U.S. This plan is underway near the end of the novel, and is called off at the last minute.

In 1948, Rev. Desmond Spellacy is a young and ambitious Roman Catholic monsignor in the Los Angeles archdiocese. His older brother Tom is a hard-working homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. They are fond of each other, but spend little time together.

Des is the pride and joy of aging Cardinal Danaher because of his skill at developing church projects while keeping down costs. He cuts a corner now and then, overlooking the shady side of construction mogul Jack Amsterdam, a lay Catholic who uses his ties to the Monsignor for the congregation's benefit but mainly for his own.

One day in Los Angeles, a young woman is found brutally murdered, her body cut in two in a vacant lot. Tom Spellacy and his partner, Frank Crotty, are put in charge of the case. The woman, Lois Fazenda, is labeled "the Virgin Tramp" by the local press for apparently being a Catholic as well as a prostitute, turning it into a sensational case.

Tom Spellacy's investigation leads him to a local madam, Brenda Samuels. Tom was well acquainted with Brenda years earlier while working as a bagman for Amsterdam, whose corruption extends to the local prostitution ring.

Brenda has called the police to report the death of a Catholic priest while he was having sex with one of her prostitutes. While there, Brenda reproaches Tom for doing nothing for her while she was sent to prison for running one of Jack's whorehouses. Tom later believes the dead girl appeared in a stag film and obtains a copy. He and Frank notice that one of the girls in the movie was present at Brenda's brothel on the day they came to retrieve the philandering priest.

Tom now wants Brenda's help in tracking down the girl who made the movie with the murdered girl. Frank spots the girl a few days later being taken into the jail entrance after a roundup. They learn that the dead girl was a favorite of a local porno movie director named Standard because of her tattoo. Tom learns that Standard did his filming in a deserted army post in the foothills outside Los Angeles.

At lunch with his brother, Tom provokes Amsterdam with secret facts about Amsterdam's dark side, which makes the Monsignor increasingly uncomfortable. Des tells the Cardinal the time has come to cut church ties with Amsterdam for good. Des discusses "getting rid of Jack" with his cronies who remind him that such a thing would not be easily done. Sonny, a corrupt local city council member and local mortician, proposes that they give Jack a salutation dinner.

Tom Spellacy's anger builds as his brother organizes a Catholic "layman of the year" banquet for Amsterdam as a gesture of appreciation before ending the church's relationship with him. Tom walks up to Amsterdam at the banquet and pulls off his sash while asking him loudly: "Were you wearing this when you were banging Lois Fazenda?" Jack attacks Tom and they scream obscenities at each other.

Tom goes to Standard's "studio" and finds the floor and a bathtub covered with dried blood. He also finds Chinese food, which the medical examiner doing the autopsy had found in her stomach. Tom and Frank go looking for Standard but learn that he had been killed in a car accident twelve hours after the murder.

Tom wants to drag in Amsterdam for questioning simply to humiliate him in public but Frank talks him out of it. Tom starts digging around and discovers that the dead girl had been having sex with several community leaders.

Amsterdam's lawyer, Dan Campion, subtly warns the Monsignor that his brother the cop had better lay off unless they want it revealed publicly that Des, too, knew the murdered girl. She met the Monsignor only once in passing, whereas she had a sexual relationship with both Amsterdam and the lawyer. But the simple fact that Des had any kind of involvement in such a lurid case could permanently stain his reputation with the church.

Tom Spellacy won't be talked out of it. His determination becomes complete when Brenda is found dead, an apparent suicide. He decides to have Amsterdam picked up and taken to headquarters, which in turn leads to the Monsignor being treated the same way.

His rising career curtailed, Des asks to be relocated to a remote parish in the desert, the same place to which his mentor in the diocese had been exiled, the location where the movie begins and ends, where Des and Tom meet after years apart. By the time Tom comes to see him, Des is dying. Tom feels everything is his fault, but Des is at peace and absolves his brother of any and all blame.

After the suicide of her best friend, wheelchair-user heiress Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) arrives at her estranged father's estate on the French Riviera. Her stepmother (Ann Todd), whom Penny has only just met, informs her that the father has been called away on business. She cannot say when he will return or why he left when he was expecting Penny's arrival. Although the stepmother has made the place comfortable for Penny, the young woman does not trust her. That night she believes she sees her father's corpse in the guest cottage. When others respond to her hysterical screams, the corpse is not there. The stepmother tries to convince Penny that her recent tragedy is causing her to hallucinate, and the family doctor (Christopher Lee) cites Penny's history of neurotic behaviour to support that view.

The family chauffeur (Ronald Lewis) meets Penny privately to say he believes Penny did see something unusual, even if not a corpse. He offers to help her investigate. As they proceed, Penny begins to wonder if he is really an ally or if he is leading her away from the truth. When a police detective begins his own investigation, he suspects that Penny may have secrets of her own.

The book begins with Tally, the main protagonist, as a Pretty debating what to wear to a bash. While attending the bash, at which she is to be voted into the "Crims" clique, she is followed by someone who appears to be a "Special", a member of Special Circumstances. She soon finds him and discovers that it is Croy, a Smokey she knew before she turned pretty. He tells her that he left a note for Tally in Valentino Mansion. Real Specials arrive, so he leaves and Tally tries to follow him by jumping off a balcony with Peris, who is wearing a bungee jacket. They bounce, though Tally is hit in the head hard enough to make her bleed, and is voted into the Crims because of her “bubbly” stunt.

Tally returns to her carefree life as a Pretty. Her peace is disrupted when Zane, the leader of the Crims, asks her about David, whom she loved while she lived in the Smoke. Zane and Tally kiss and fall in love.

Zane had once known Croy and had been determined to escape to the Smoke before his surgery. He regrets that he didn't go into the wilderness then. Zane is eager to accompany Tally to find the object Croy has hidden for her. They face strenuous, dangerous physical challenges in order to locate the item, which is accompanied by a letter from Tally to herself, written before she was turned pretty. The letter explains to her future self why she became a Pretty – to test two pills that will cure her from the foggy-headed life of a Pretty. Tally was afraid to take the pills alone, so she and Zane split them right before Special Circumstances arrive. They are fitted with cuffs similar to interface rings, but they can't come off.

After taking the pills, Zane starts getting bad headaches, but he seems to be more cured than Tally. One day the Crims pull a bubbly trick by using alcohol to melt a hovering ice rink and crash a soccer game, causing the clique to become famous. Later that night at the bonfire, Shay and Tally get into a huge fight, causing Shay to turn on Tally. Afterwards, Dr. Cable offers Tally a job as a Special, which she immediately turns down.

One day, Tally and Zane are found by Sussy and Dex, two uglies who helped Tally and David back when she was a Smokey. While in Uglyville, they find out that Shay has started a clique with Crim rejects called Cutters, where they cut themselves to cure the lesions. Zane has a headache attack, and Tally takes him to the hospital under the guise of an injured hand.

Zane and Tally soon get to decide to escape the city with a few other Crims. Fausto helps Zane and Tally get the cuff off, and they soon escape the city by hoverboarding out of a hot-air balloon. Peris, Tally's friend from her Ugly days, decides in the balloon that he does not want to go to the New Smoke, but he agrees to stall for Tally. Tally’s hoverboard crashes, and she falls into a reservation with rather primitive people who seem to be very violent. She is considered a god there because of her beauty. There she meets Andrew Simpson Smith, the village holy man, who is the only one who speaks her language, which they call the language of the gods, with significant fluency. Andrew tries to help her reach the Rusty Ruins, though he says that they are beyond the end of the world. Through their travels, Tally comes to deduce that the villagers are living in a forcefield-protected reservation where Specials and Pretty Scientists conduct experiments about violence and ways to reduce mankind's violent nature. During this time, Tally starts to wonder if Dr. Cable's words to her have some truth - perhaps the Pretty operation that clouds everyone's minds is the only way that humans can live in peace, without destroying each other or the planet.

Tally steals a hovercar from the visiting scientists to escape to the Rusty Ruins. When she calls, she sees someone coming down on a hover board and is shocked to find that it is David who has come to take her to the New Smoke. When she arrives, Maddy tells her that the pills she and Zane took separately were meant to be taken together. Zane’s pill contained the nanos that were supposed to eat away the lesions, but they ate more of Zane’s brain tissue than the lesions because they needed the pill that Tally took to stop them. Tally, in fact, cured herself, since the pill that she took only stopped nanos; it did not contain nanos itself to heal the lesions.

They soon discover that, when Zane went to the hospital, a tracker chip was put in his tooth. Tally decides to stay with Zane instead of escaping with David. David believes that she only wants to stay with Zane because he is a Pretty. To make David leave and not get caught himself, Tally tells him to "get his ugly face out of here". It has the desired result and he flees. She stays with Zane which leads to her getting caught by the Specials along with Fausto. She discovers Shay has been turned into a Special. The book ends with Shay saying 'face it Tally-wa, you're special'.

The third novel in the Uglies series begins two months after events in Pretties, when Tally Youngblood has become a member of an elite group of "Specials" - surgically enhanced super-humans - called the Cutters. The Cutters were founded by Shay, who invented the use of ritual self-harm to become "bubbly" and clear-headed in spite of brain lesions used to make her pretty-minded. All of the specials in this group were able to get rid of the brain lesions on their own, and now live in the wild. They were adopted into Special Circumstances and given enhanced senses, strength and reflexes, and are among the youngest agents working for Dr. Cable.

The Cutters disguise themselves as Uglies in order to crash a party in Uglyville and search for members of the New Smoke. Tally successfully finds a girl giving out pills which cure the pretty lesions, which she encourages the Uglies to take to the Crims - Tally and Shay's old clique. The Cutters attempt to capture the girl, but she escapes on a hoverboard with David's help. Giving chase, the Cutters are ambushed by Smokies with unusually advanced technology, including infra-red masking sneak suits and electrical weapons. The Smokies kidnap Fausto, one of the Cutters, and leave Shay and Tally injured.

Hearing that the pills are intended for Zane, Tally insists on going to see her boyfriend, who suffered brain damage in New Pretty Town and has been hospitalized since Tally turned Special. Tally discovers that while Zane is free of the pretty lesions, his brain has been damaged and his physical infirmity now disgusts her.

She begins to wonder if she received a brain operation when being made Special which has given her feelings of superiority.

Eager to show Dr. Cable that Zane is cured so that he will be made Special, Shay and Tally break into the city Armory to steal something to cut off Zane's tracking necklace. They succeed, but in the attempt, they accidentally destroy much of the Armory, putting the city on high alert. Then, they begin to secretly track Zane and the Crims as they journey to the New Smoke, although the pair split up when Tally receives a guide to the New Smoke from her friend Andrew Simpson Smith, an escapee villager from a reservation of primitive culture. Shay follows the guide straight to the Smoke, but Tally insists on staying with Zane.

On the journey, Zane notices Tally and confronts her about her reasons for following him. The pair kiss, but Tally is still repulsed by Zane's tremors and runs away from him. Tally continues to follow the group to the New Smoke - a city called Diego, which accepts runaways freely, having widely adopted the pretty cure and rejected the rules about surgery, allowing anyone to look how they please rather than following the international standard. Tally is amazed by this, but horrified to hear that Diego is beginning to expand into the wild, clear-cutting forest like the Rusties did.

Tally finds Fausto at a party for newly arrived runaways, but realizes his Special brain surgery has been cured. He had given informed consent before he became special to take a "cure" for having a special brain. Tally only just escapes being forcibly injected. Her escape attempt leaves her helpless, as she jumps off a cliff with only crash bracelets to catch her fall. She is picked up by Diego's authorities and locked up for her lethal strength and weapon-sharp teeth and fingernails, which they insist on removing. The doctors inform her that she has received brain surgery to give her flashes of anger and euphoria, along with feelings of superiority, although they will not change this without her consent. With Shay's help, Tally escapes just before the surgery begins.

Shay and the other Cutters have all been cured by Fausto, but they want Tally's help to protect Diego from imminent attack by Dr. Cable, who is blaming the so-called New System for the attack on the armory. Tally assists in the evacuation of the hospital, but learns after the attack that Zane, having just received surgery to cure his tremors, died of complications during the confusion of the attack. Grief-stricken, Tally leaves immediately to tell Dr. Cable the truth about the attack on the armory. Just before she reaches the city, she meets David, who took a helicopter to talk to her in time. He tells her that he still believes she can think her own way out of her brain surgery, but gives her an injector full of the cure so that she has the option of curing herself.

Arriving at Special Circumstances headquarters, Tally finds that Dr. Cable and the Specials have taken control of the city. Dr. Cable knows that Tally was responsible for the attack, but has chosen to use the attack as a way to seize control over both this city and Diego. Tally tricks Dr. Cable into stabbing herself on the injector, and is imprisoned underground for a month, watching the feeds as Dr. Cable slowly loses her grip on the city and the cure begins to spread. Diego publishes scans of Tally's Special body, calling her a "morphological violation," and the world is outraged by Dr. Cable's "secret" experiments on unconsenting teenagers.

Eventually, Tally is taken as the last remaining Special to be "despecialized," but she resists the surgeons and breaks out with Dr. Cable's help, becoming the only true Special left. She returns to David, still waiting at the Rusty Ruins, and realizes that her other friends have all found their places in the New System. She decides that she wishes to remain in the wild, free from surgery, and with David she will form the "New Special Circumstances," ensuring that nature is protected from humanity's excesses.

Phyllis Saroka is a P.E. teacher at Sunset Park High School in New York City, who reads a flyer that her school is looking for a new boys basketball coach. Looking for more money to pursue opening a restaurant on St. Croix, Virgin Islands, she decides to give the job a shot despite knowing nothing of basketball. She contacts the correct people and is given the job.

She shows up for her first day on the job and the team is already skeptical of her. When she walks in, she lets basketball players run the team, calling their own fouls, running their own plays, and basically allowing them to be carefree. During a game, she makes some bad decisions which irks some of the players on the team. This inspires her to learn more about the game with the assistance of her players. They help her and the team begins to slowly find success.

The team also has to deal with outside forces that threaten the team. Tyrik "Shorty Doo-Wop" Russell is on probation and eventually gets into more trouble. Spaceman is also on probation, is constantly using drugs, and has trouble with a teacher. Busy-bee got shot during the season and misses several games.

Several other players are having academic trouble and some don't even get along with each other. The team also find out that the coach only plans to stay with them one season and then leave to open a restaurant.

The team eventually comes together despite their differences and troubles. They end up with very successful season, and get into the city championship. They go to Madison Square Garden to face their opponent (Washington Heights) and lose by a small margin. Afterward, the coach informs them that they should be proud of themselves and that she will return next season.

Portia is beautiful, gracious, rich, intelligent, and quick-witted, with luxury lifestyle and high standards for her potential romantic partners. She is bound by the lottery set forth in her father's will, which gives potential suitors the chance to choose between three caskets composed of gold, silver and lead. If they choose the right casket – the casket containing Portia's portrait and a scroll – they win her hand in marriage. If they choose the incorrect casket, they must leave and never seek another woman in marriage. Portia is glad when two suitors, one driven by greed and another by vanity, fail to choose correctly, although she demonstrates tact to the Princes of Morocco and Arragon, who unsuccessfully seek her hand. She favoured Bassanio, a young Venetian noble, but is not allowed to give him any clues to assist in his choice. Later in the play, she disguises herself as a man and then assumes the role of a lawyer's apprentice (named Balthazar) whereby she saves the life of Bassanio's friend, Antonio, in court.

In the court scene, Portia finds a technicality in the bond, thereby outwitting the Jewish moneylender Shylock and saving Antonio's life from the pound of flesh demanded when everyone else including the Duke presiding as judge and Antonio himself fails. It is Portia who delivers one of the most famous speeches in ''The Merchant of Venice'':

Despite Portia's lack of formal legal training, she wins her case by referring to the details of the exact language of the law. Her success involves prevailing on technicalities rather than the merits of the situation. She uses the tactics of what is sometimes called a Philadelphia lawyer in modern times and in so doing demonstrates that she is far from powerless, irrespective of her earlier lack of choice in the marriage. However, the concept of rhetoric and its abuse is also brought to light by Portia – highlighting the idea that an unjust argument may win through eloquence, loopholes and technicalities, regardless of the moral question at hand – and thus provoking the audience to consider that issue. Shylock leaves the trial with both his life and his job intact but retains only half of his money and is deprived of his identity on being forced to convert to Christianity, while his daughter Jessica and her Christian husband Lorenzo with whom she had previously eloped are found in Portia's castle, not, it is implied, in complete happiness. Portia and Bassanio, on the other hand, continue to live together along with the former's lady-in-waiting Nerissa and her husband Gratiano.

''The Love Machine'' tells the story of ruthless, haunted Robin Stone and his life and career in the cut-throat world of 1960s network television. Handsome but promiscuous, the latter earning his nickname the Love Machine after he describes television with the same sobriquet, Robin is loved beyond all reason by three women: Amanda, the beautiful but doomed fashion model; Maggie, the beautiful but headstrong fellow journalist escaping a cruel society marriage; and Judith, the beautiful but aging wife of fourth-network founder Gregory Austin.

As Robin rises and falls (both in and out of his bedroom), many people cross his path. They include Christie Lane, the vulgar but vulnerable comic/singer who becomes an unlikely TV variety star with an equally unlikely family-friendly image; Ethel Evans, the homely but athletic "celebrity fucker" who lusts for Robin but can't have him; Danton Miller, the dapper, desperate network executive who fears Robin and the exposure of his own private life; Austin, powerful and daring, but vulnerable in his own way; Jerry, an advertiser and sponsor who's equally fascinated and confused by Robin's emotionless lifestyle; Sergio, the loving but pragmatic companion to Robin's mother, the beautiful but ailing Kitty; Lisa, Robin's suspicious sister; Ike Ryan, a producer who befriends but is befuddled by Robin; Dip Nelson, a failed actor-turned-successful producer whose loyalty to Robin is sorely tested; Alfie Knight, a too-clever-by-half actor and scene maker; Cliff Davies, a network lawyer who mistrusts Robin and has his own agenda; and various prostitutes---with one of whom an unexpected encounter forces Robin to face his past and, in time, his future---fading actors, psychotherapists, and the like.

The film begins with Donald Duck, flush with the contemporary patriotic spirit present with the United States' full entry into World War II, dancing to a patriotic song. A radio announcer tells about the new patriotic spirit and asks Donald if he is willing to do his part. Donald fervently asserts his loyalty and begs to know how best to show it. His enthusiasm fades when the radio announcer advises he pay his income tax promptly. However, the announcer changes Donald's mind by stressing the country's need for resources to aid the war effort.

Now that Donald is motivated once again, the announcer, along with the help of a talking dip pen, inkwell, blotter, and note pad, show Donald how to properly fill out his simplified [https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040a--1941.pdf Form 1040 A]. After this the announcer urges Donald to mail his payment to the Federal government at once, and Donald enthusiastically races across the nation to Washington, D.C. to deliver it in person.

The film concludes with a montage of images to illustrate to the audience the wartime necessities the money is needed for such as munitions and combat vehicles to defeat the Axis powers. With a final images framed in a sky lined with red, white and blue, the announcer repeats The Four Freedoms and reminds the audience that taxes are essential for victory and will keep democracy on the march.

''The Hollow'' tells the story of Ian Cranston, a high school teen who has just found out he is the descendant of Ichabod Crane. With the help of his girlfriend Karen, a local bully named Brody, and the old cemetery caretaker Claus Van Ripper, Ian now must stop the newly resurrected Headless Horseman.

England is in the midst of a depression with crushing unemployment. Bob and his best friend Tommy engage in all manner of schemes to make money - including stealing sheep to sell to local butchers, tearing up sod from government buildings to re-sell, and cleaning out bathroom pipes. Bob's wife Anne also tries to help, but doesn't have marketable skills (being kicked out of a seamstress factory for not knowing how to sew). Despite their best efforts, they are unable to make any job stick or get ahead of their debt. Despite their tenuous financial condition, Bob plans to buy a brand new outfit for his daughter Coleen's First Communion even though doing so is prohibitively expensive.

Eventually, Bob secretly gets a loan so he can afford Coleen's outfit and a party. He's unable to pay it back, so the lender sells the debt to a vicious local loan shark. The loan shark forces his way into the family house while Bob is out, steals Anne's jewelry, and makes numerous threats that he will injure Coleen if he's not paid soon. When Bob gets home, he's outraged at the trauma the loan shark inflicted on his family. He confronts the loan shark in a parking garage outside of a bar. The pair get into a fight and the loan shark beats Bob up and threatens to do even worse. However, as the loan shark begins driving off, Bob smashes his windshield with a wrench. This causes the drunken loan shark to lose control of the vehicle and smash into a column, killing the loan shark. Bob grabs the notebook of all accounts from the loan shark's pocket and flees into the night.

Bob runs to the local church where he tells the Priest what's happened and vows to turn himself into the police. The kind-hearted Priest tells Bob not to turn himself in. The priest notes that Bob didn't kill the loan shark himself and, indeed, many good people's lives will now be better off. He commands Bob to pray for the loan shark's rotten soul and burns the account book.

The next day, Bob attends Communion as Coleen is adorable in her new outfit. Despite it being a wonderful day, Bob is shown being withdrawn and nervous, still feeling guilty about what he's done.

The film opens with three teenage boys pulling up to the house of Ruben Borchardt (Peter Coyote) early on Easter Sunday in 1994. They break into Ruben's house armed with a shotgun, intending to kill Ruben on the promise of payment. Gathering at the top of the basement steps where Ruben sleeps, the boys draw their shotgun and shoot Mr. Borchardt as he makes his way up the stairs. Having carried out their deed, the three boys flee the scene.

Prologue

The film cuts to seven months before the shooting, during the Fall of 1993. Diane Kay Borchardt (Ann-Margret) is a seemingly ordinary schoolteacher with a normal life. She has a loving husband, three children, and a lovely house. However, it quickly becomes apparent that she harbors deep mental instability and possible psychosis. While she dotes on and spoils her daughter Regan, she is emotionally and physically abusive towards Ruben and his two children, Brook (Hedy Burress) and Chuck (Tobey Maguire). Ruben married Diane fourteen years prior after his beloved wife Susan (Cynthia Lynch) died in a car crash when Brook and Chuck were young. Realizing his children needed a mother figure in their lives, Ruben married to Diane, only to find himself in a loveless marriage in which Diane constantly abuses him.

One day, Ruben goes to a neighbor's house to help him remodel his kitchen, as he is a work-at-home carpenter. There, he gets reacquainted with Claire Brown (Leslie Hope), whom he works together with to remodel the kitchen. During the remodeling, Ruben and Claire share their personal stories with each other, becoming increasingly close friends as the project goes on.

Later that day, Ruben drops by Diane's clothes shop on account of the fact that Diane failed to pay for Chuck's new glasses, as she had spent it on new shoes for Regan despite previously agreeing to buy the glasses. Diane then accuses Ruben of spoiling his own children and neglecting Regan, and says that he ought to be making more money. Ruben tries to reason with Diane, when suddenly, without provocation, Diane hits him in the head with a label gun. Ruben later admits to Claire that his marriage was a mistake. Claire also reveals that she and her husband have also grown apart in recent years. When the project is finished, Ruben admits his true feelings for Claire, and kisses her on impulse. He then leaves her confused, only to return, and this time, the two proceed to kiss each other passionately. Upon realizing their feelings for each other, Claire and Ruben start meeting each other secretly, and contemplate leaving their spouses in order to marry. Although Ruben is a devout Christian who opposes divorce, his feelings for Claire remain strong and says he believes they can make it work. Claire agrees to make a decision when she is ready.

The Divorce

Later, Ruben and the family go to the annual Christmas party at the Church. While Diane is away, Ruben runs into Claire at the dance and the two steal the dance floor, and Claire accepts Ruben's proposal. Diane witnesses this and confronts her husband at home, where he admits he no longer wishes to be married to Diane. Diane makes excuses for her lack of empathy towards Ruben, but Ruben is convinced that their marriage is irreconcilable. Diane drives him away and vows to get even with him. Ruben tells Chuck and Brook about his decision, and the kids admit to their father that Diane has treated them as badly as she treated him, much to Ruben's distress. Ruben goes forth with the divorce proceedings against Diane's wishes.

Meanwhile at school, Diane feigns sadness in front of her students to gain sympathy from them. It becomes apparent that she maintains a close relationship with her students in order to get them to do her bidding when she feels fit. One of her closest students, Doug Vest (Christian Campbell), comforts her and Diane lies that her husband physically abuses her in front of their children, and is turning them against her. Diane hugs Doug in her drive for sympathy, saying that Ruben would not do this to her if he knew she had him. After school, Doug meets with his friends Josh Yanke (Jonah Blechman), Cory (Michael Scott Campbell), and Elgin (Aeryk Egan) to discuss "messing up" Mr. Borchardt. Doug, whose estranged father was physically abusive towards his own mother, says that Ruben's behavior is inexcusable.

One day, Ruben invites Claire to his house while Diane is away, and presents her with a necklace as a token of his affections. Unbeknownst to the couple, Cory and Elgin photograph them in the house, and when Diane shows the pictures to Shannon Johnson (Alanna Ubach), another one of her students who assists her in the shop, she declares that she wants Ruben dead. During Christmas break, Diane coaxes Doug into her car, and lets him take it for a spin. She shows him the house and says she'd be willing to let him have the car. She goes on to explain her situation with Ruben, lying to Doug about the true nature of their divorce. She then says that if she were to have Ruben killed, it would have to be someone she trusted, and to his distress, she refers to him.

Later, Diane's lawyer informs her that Ruben is seeking sole custody of the house, much to her outrage, even though he is the original proprietor. In retaliation, Diane informs the pastor of their church that Ruben has strayed from the church and violated the sacredness of their marriage. Ruben is informed by the pastor that he is not to take communion at the church for committing adultery. After New Year's Day, Ruben learns that Diane is seeking custody of Chuck as part of her ploy to secure the house, prompting Ruben to confront her. Diane reacts violently and proceeds to physically beat Ruben while Chuck and Brook struggle to stop her.

At the divorce proceedings, Ruben gains custody of Chuck and Diane gains sole custody of her shop and Regan. However, to her outrage, Ruben gains custody of the house. Diane is to vacate the property within one month, and silently promises to enact revenge on Ruben.

Later in March, Diane commissions another student, Tim (Johnny Strong), to do away with her husband, telling him that the one person she still trusted let her down. Tim tells this to Doug, who immediately feels guilty for turning his back on Diane. Tim also admits that Diane may be contemplating the murder of her husband. Diane later accuses Ruben of stealing her jewellery, when in reality, she plans on paying it to Doug to kill her husband. She also tries to secure title to Ruben's life insurance policy. Later that night, Diane approaches Doug and tells him she wants him to kill Ruben, much to Doug's horror. Once again, she makes out Ruben to be the guilty party, claiming that he is taking everything from her. She bribes Doug with her jewellery and cash to carry out the murder, and he gives in to her demands despite his reservations.

Doug later commissions Josh and his cousin Michael Maldonado (Freddy Rodriguez) to help him carry out the murder. Michael rejects the proposal, insisting that he receive higher pay to carry out the deed. Diane begins to harass Claire for stealing Ruben away, going so far as to threaten her with death. Claire becomes uneasy as the harassment persists, and insists Diane is dangerous, but Ruben insists he can handle her. At school, Diane again insists that Doug carry out the murder, and lays out her plan to kill Ruben. Doug refuses to do it, until Diane bribes him with $20,000 from Ruben's life insurance policy. Doug gives in to her demands and agrees to pay Josh and Mike part of it and they agree to help him.

The Murder

While Diane is packing, Ruben confides to Brook that he has a stash of emergency cash for her and Chuck should anything happen to him, and Diane listens in. She also picks a fight with Ruben when she intends to sell Susan's sewing machine, to which Ruben objects. Diane then punches Ruben and beats him when he refuses to fight back. After grabbing her arm in an attempt to disarm her, Diane uses the marks on her arm to claim to the police that Ruben hit her. Ruben denies this and the police tell the couple to separate temporarily. Having planned on this, Diane agrees to leave the house for Easter, and has made plans to stay at Susan's parents' house with Regan. She also takes the family dog away by force. Before leaving, Diane forces Ruben to kiss her in front of the cops, and whispers to him "You're dead".

On the eve of Easter morning, Ruben is wary of Diane's death threat. He tells Claire that should anything happen to him, she is to find another man to make her happy, while insisting that all will be well. Throughout the night, Shannon contemplates warning Ruben of the impending danger, but fails to make the call. In the early morning hours of Easter Sunday, Doug and his two friends break into the house while Ruben prepares for Easter service. They gather at the top of the stairs, where they face Ruben as he goes to wake his son. Mike pulls out a shotgun and fires two rounds into Ruben, fatally wounding him. The boys then flee the scene and dump the shotgun into a vacant lot. Chuck soon wakes up to find his father bleeding to death on the stairs, and calls 911 while Ruben calls Claire. As Ruben fights for his life, he proclaims his love for her and leaves his children in her care. Ruben is rushed to the hospital where the family gathers to learn of his condition. Claire soon shows up to see Ruben, only to discover that he has died.

As the family mourns their loss, Diane also learns of the murder, and feigns shock and sadness in front of Sue's parents. They become suspicious of her when she fails to ask any questions about the murder. Meanwhile, Detectives Burstyn (Cliff De Young) and Pike (Dean Norris) are assigned to track down Ruben's killer. When Diane refuses to talk to the police after the murder, she becomes the primary suspect. In the days that follow, Diane deals further insult to her grieving family by threatening to sue the funeral home for proceeding with Ruben's service without her consent, as she had not been present to arrange it. Brook accuses her of killing her father, a charge Diane immediately denies.

The funeral soon takes place and the family pays their final respects to Ruben as he is laid to rest. Once again, Diane feigns sorrow in front of the open casket to preserve her innocence. Claire watches the burial from nearby, and soon collapses from shock.

The Investigation

The police soon discover that the murder weapon was a shotgun, and deduce that the shooter was an amateur, as the gun was of a cheap design. They are later tipped off about the photographs taken by Cory and Elgin, and question the boys about their activities. They learn that Diane shares her personal problems with her class, and is thus able to manipulate them to do as she pleases.

Meanwhile, Doug struggles to acquire the money promised to him by Diane. Due to her increasingly suspicious behavior in the case, Diane is denied access to Ruben's life insurance policy. Having grown impatient with Doug, Mike threatens Diane at knife-point and demands that she pay up. Frantic, Diane searches her husband's bedroom for the money he had hidden away, and soon finds a package containing $6,000. She gives $1,500 to the boys, who are still not satisfied with their payment.

As the case remains at a standstill, Brook meets Claire in the hospital and pleads that she come back to them, as she was more of a mother to them than Diane ever was. Claire blames herself for Ruben's death, but Brook tells her that he was more alive with Claire than he had ever been before. Upon hearing this, Claire is soon able to overcome her personal guilt and becomes an adoptive mother to Chuck and Brook. Meanwhile, Brook has moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where she starts over without Diane in her life. Eventually, she meets a boy named Nick at her new job, and the two soon fall in love. After a night in bed, Brook discovers she is pregnant with Nick's son, and the two agree to marry each other.

Doug soon realizes that Diane will never be able to pay up, and informs his friends that he cannot obtain any more money. Meanwhile, Mike admits to his best friend Jeb (Andrew Kavovit) that he had a hand in Ruben's death, albeit without any noteworthy remorse. Jeb is unable to bring himself to confess to the police.

Five months after the murder, it becomes apparent to Diane that the cops are on to her, and tries to conceal her guilt. Shannon meets with Doug, and forces him to confess his role in the murder so that she can turn in all evidence to the cops before she commits suicide, making herself out to be the killer in an effort to protect Diane. Diane dissuades her from doing this as it will only lead the police back to her regardless. By the time school restarts, the boys are frustrated by their lack of payment, and struggle to conceal the truth about Ruben's murder.

Arrest and Trial

Six months into the case, Jeb breaks down and admits to his friend Jay that Mike and Doug were responsible for Ruben's murder. Rather than force Jeb to turn in his best friend, Jay goes to the cops himself and implicates Doug as an accomplice. Doug is brought in for questioning, where he accidentally lets slip that he was in fact involved in Ruben's murder. When Burstyn confronts him on this, Doug makes a full confession, and provides him with the names of his accomplices. Mike and Shannon are arrested, and the two detectives rush to the high school. There, amidst the air of shock and outrage among the students, the police arrest Josh and Diane, with the latter desperately protesting her innocence as she is dragged away in handcuffs.

Six months later, Diane has been set free on bail as the court proceeds with the trials. Doug and Mike are both charged with first-degree murder as adults, and face life imprisonment. Josh pleads guilty to his crime in exchange for his testimony, and Shannon is charged with perjury. Josh admits his role in the conspiracy, as well as Doug's role in organizing the attack. Doug reveals the full details of the murder before the trial, and after his testimony, he is sentenced to life imprisonment. Diane is soon rearrested and brought forth to face a series of witnesses, who implicate her as the mastermind of the plot against Ruben. Among these witnesses is Shannon, who feels betrayed by Diane's reluctance to come forth to her defense. Doug also testifies against Diane, admitting that she commissioned him to carry out the murder.

After the conclusion of the testimonies, the jury makes its final verdict. To Diane's horror, she is found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, and breaks down in front of the courtroom as her daughter Regan looks on in despair.

Having finally received justice for their father, the Borchardt family, along with Brook's husband and newborn son Ruben, visit Ruben's grave along with Claire. The family reflects on the better days of Ruben's life and welcome Brook's son, named in honor of his grandfather, into their family.

In the final scene, Diane is interviewed for a True Crime Documentary, from jail. Now having completely lost her mind due to her conviction, she admits not to know what she's supposed to have learnt 'from this' and that her main concern is whether Ruben had 'time to repent or is he lost forever?'

Epilogue

The end of the film is followed by an epilogue outlining the sentences faced by the conspirators:

'''SHANNON JOHNSON''' is found guilty of perjury, and receives an eighty-day jail sentence along with two years probation.

'''JOSHUA YANKE''' pleaded no contest to second-degree intentional homicide and is sentenced to eighteen years in prison.

'''MICHAEL MALDONADO''' is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served fifty years of his sentence.

'''DOUGLAS VEST JR.''' is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served twenty-five years of his sentence.

'''DIANE BORCHARDT''' is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and will not be eligible for parole until she has served 40 years of her sentence, by that time being no less than eighty-six years of age.

After a short live action performance by the Royal Samoans, Bimbo appears on screen playing a ukulele while riding in a motorboat. The motorboat goes faster and faster, until it crashes into a tropical island. Bimbo flies into the air and lands in another boat with a topless (except for a strategically placed lei) and dark-skinned Betty Boop in it.

Bimbo and Betty, after nearly falling down a waterfall, are flung from the boat into a clearing surrounded by hostile trees, who torment the two. A group of Samoans appear, but Bimbo disguises himself by painting his face and sticking a bone in his hair, a form of blackface. Bimbo is treated as an honored guest, and Betty dances the hula. A sudden rainstorm washes off Bimbo's disguise, and he and Betty are chased by the Samoans until they reach Betty's canoe and take off down the river. When it seems that they are alone, the two proceed to kiss in private behind an umbrella (with a convenient hole).

Crime boss Jesse Starkraven leads his gang in an attack on a drug den not cooperating with Starkraven's demands; the assault quickly turns into a hostage situation when police arrive. Renegade DEA agent Jack Ryan arrives and attempts to negotiate with Starkraven, however this fails when Starkraven recognizes Ryan as the officer who killed his brother Harlan during a crime some time prior. Starkraven kills several hostages including Ryan's partner before he is finally captured. Subsequently, Starkraven is convicted of killing a cop and sentenced to death.

While awaiting his sentence on death row, Starkraven is kidnapped by government agents under the guise of a prison transfer. He is taken into the custody of the "Anti-Terrorism Group" and converted into a cyborg alongside several other test subjects. Now dubbed "Spartacus" by the scientists, he is meant to lead the army of cyborg soldiers. Meanwhile, Ryan learns of Starkraven's apparent escape and begins conducting an investigation to find him against the orders of his boss, Captain Salerno. He collaborates with former sheriff Sam Pickens, who is still well respected in the community even after being removed from office for looking too far into the ATG's activity.

During a party to celebrate the success of the project, head scientist Dr. Owns takes a woman into the room where Spartacus and the other cyborgs are awaiting activation. While they have a romantic encounter, Spartacus suddenly awakens and attacks them, killing the woman while taking Owns hostage. Spartacus seizes and destroys all but one control bracelet, which he keeps for himself to give himself control over the other cyborgs. He has the other cyborgs kill everyone at the party by burning down the building before leaving in a truck with Owns held hostage for a second facility, where more cyborgs are being created.

ATG project leader Liz McDowell arrives the next day to review the incident and attempts to track down Spartacus quietly. However, Ryan's investigation brings him to her attention. She sends agents to follow him, but he swiftly dispatches them. Later, he breaks into an ATG office to gather information. He is detected by dogs and confronted by security guards, but escapes after discovering proof that Starkraven was taken by the ATG for conversion into a cyborg. Meanwhile, Spartacus and some of the other cyborgs travel to a gas station to steal fuel for their recharging generators. Ryan arrives and saves a woman and young boy from them, but is defeated by Spartacus and nearly killed, but he survives when authorities arrive and critically damage Spartacus, forcing the cyborgs to retreat. Ryan is arrested and brought before McDowell, who warns him not to interfere with the ATG. He subsequently escapes from her men and travels to Pickens' home in order to prepare for an assault on Spartacus's headquarters.

Spartacus announces his intention to conquer cities and convert all humans into cyborgs, establishing an empire with himself as the leader, and dispatches two cyborgs to kill Ryan. Ryan manages to defeat and destroy them, but not before they kill Pickens. McDowell arrives and is convinced by Ryan to team up with him, providing the weaponry necessary to destroy Spartacus. The two arm themselves and travel to the facility where the cyborgs are hiding, destroying a number of them on their way to the lab. Once they get there, Spartacus appears on a video screen and reveals that he has taken Ryan's son hostage. The cyborgs bring Ryan and McDowell before Spartacus, who tells them he will turn Ryan's son into a cyborg before converting them as well. Ryan overpowers the cyborgs, frees his son and fights Spartacus, managing to steal the control bracelet and deactivate the other cyborgs. Spartacus is dropped into electric cables by a magnet, and is killed when Ryan pours liquid onto him, electrocuting him. Ryan, his son and McDowell flee the facility before bombs they set earlier detonate, destroying it.

Ex-DEA officer Jack Ryan has quit his job following a terrible shoot-out. Jack Ryan receives a message for help from his brother Phillip, who had been employed for a dangerous military mission in the Caribbean. He is unaware that his brother is being used for an unprecedented scientific experiment: Professor Joachim Kessel has developed a technique to turn any soldier into a Cyborg - a half-human, half-robot creature - virtually indestructible. Thanks to his army of Cyborgs, Kessel wants to take over the Caribbean, and Jack will become a kind of "Cop of the Cyborgs" to stop the man.

The platoon is energised by the arrival of a Tommy Gun, or 'Chicago piano' as an excited Pike prefers to call it. While the men combatively discuss who is to have first turn of it, Godfrey reveals he has a problem. In the office, assisted by Jones, he reveals the truth. More than forty years before, as a 'dandy young buck' he had become involved with a friend, a young woman working as a servant in a nearby great house. At first Mainwaring is naturally baffled as to the relevance of all this, but it turns out she had later married a farmer, and was now a widow, her fields needed harvesting (100 acres of wheat).

Mainwaring, inspired by a burst of patriotic fervour, decides to harness the platoon to help with the harvest. They quickly drive out to the farm to offer their assistance. Meanwhile, Warden Hodges has had a life-changing experience, having narrowly survived a bombing raid. He reveals that the German bomb had knocked the pint glass out of his hand, but not exploded. He attributes this to some form of higher destiny, and is now resolved to love his enemies, though "not Hitler of course", and having sought guidance from the Vicar, he decides to assist Captain Mainwaring in his work.

Corporal Jones is acquainted with the machinery, and demonstrates it to the rest of them as best he can. Walker and Wilson appear more interested in three land girls. With an uncharacteristic unity the wardens and Home Guard work together, in the process managing to overcome a number of problems and incidents, including Jones falling into the hopper and losing his trousers. After finally completing the job, they are delighted with their work. After consuming large amounts of potato wine in celebration, the platoon and wardens head outside for the Vicar to bless the harvest. However, the drink has turned them belligerent, and it descends into a mass brawl.

During a typical day at Swallows Bank, Mainwaring complains about Pike's unprofessional talk with customers and insists that Wilson and Pike continue to use the door to enter his office (despite the fact that bombs have destroyed most of the building and the door is pretty much the only part of the wall left intact). Jones comes in to deposit £500 that has been raised by the local shopkeepers for the servicemen's canteen (Jones is the treasurer) and faints in shock when it turns out he accidentally brought a packet of sausages instead.

Jones becomes obsessed with finding the money, annoying the rest of the platoon as they stay up all night to help him remember. Frazer offers to hypnotise Jones (which causes the Verger to think Frazer is practising satanism) and, under hypnosis, Jones remembers that he may have put the money in a chicken instead of giblets. The platoon rush to the house of Mr Blewitt, who bought the chicken, and demand to inspect it, much to the old man's confusion (Jones asks Mainwaring not to mention the lost money to keep Jones' good name untarnished). Unfortunately, a very confusing search is unsuccessful.

Back at the bank the next day, Jones decides to pay the amount out of his own money, despite the fact that this will bankrupt him. Just then, however, Mr Billings comes into the bank to reveal that Jones gave him the money instead of the sausages the previous day by mistake, leaving the matter happily resolved (although Mainwaring will have to explain the 'mysterious' disappearance of the sausages, which he ate himself).

The episode opens with a General briefing two others in the War Office building in 1941: the General briefs the others about a weapon called the High Explosive Attack Device Propelled by Ultra High Frequency (HEADPUHF) and the test called "Operation Catherine Wheel". Several local Home Guard units will be roped in to help during the test and the smarmy Captain Stewart tells them he will get the Walmington-On-Sea brigade to do the dirty work.

When Captain Stewart arrives in Walmington-on-Sea to recruit the platoon, Captain Mainwaring misinterprets his hesitancy in describing what exactly they are required for to mean 'special duties' – Stewart allows him to believe this to get his co-operation. Mainwaring debriefs the platoon down in the church crypt to maintain secrecy, but ARP Warden Hodges barges in. Deciding they cannot trust him to keep quiet, they take him with them to the base where the test is taking place – Hodges is highly amused when it turns out that their 'special duties' include peeling potatoes.

Private Pike gets bored and sneaks out back to Jones' van with Private Walker. It's revealed that Pike has built a kit radio and brought it along, so they try to tune in to the comedy programme ''Hi Gang!'' Unknown to them, the signals from the radio interfere with the control signals for the secret weapon – a giant rocket-propelled wheel – and make it go berserk. It rolls out of the base and the Walmington-on-Sea platoon find themselves having to pursue it – if they don't stop it, it will explode and the town will be destroyed.

The chase is a shambles, with the wheel repeatedly chasing the platoon's van and even appearing to ambush them – then they run out of petrol. When Walker suggests they could use Pike's radio to lure the wheel, Mainwaring is infuriated about Pike's secret radio, but they follow Walker's plan, with Mainwaring, Hodges and Pike taking off on a commandeered motorcycle. Knowing the only way to stop the wheel is to knock out its antennae, Lance-Corporal Jones suggests they head to a nearby railway bridge. As Pike and Mainwaring lure the wheel under the bridge, Jones is lowered down and manages to cut the antennae off with a pair of shears. The platoon gather around the fallen weapon as Jones reports "Mr. Mainwaring... I've killed it" and hang their heads in respect.

Mainwaring and Wilson are enjoying a relaxing morning coffee at the Marigold Tea Rooms. Walker comes in and asks Mainwaring to go outside and tell him if the police are about. This is because Walker has to bring some (obviously unauthorized) things in for the shop. Mainwaring refuses to be part of Walker's black market business. After Walker leaves, Pike and Jones burst in announcing that a Luftwaffe pilot is stuck hanging from the roof of the town hall after bailing out. Gathering together the rest of the platoon, they head straight for the town hall.

When they arrive they find the ARP and Warden Hodges marshalling a large crowd of spectators, watching the stranded German hanging from his parachute, which is caught on the clock tower. Mainwaring brusquely pushes Hodges aside and takes over command of the situation himself. He leads his men (except Godfrey, who stays behind and watches from outside) up a ladder to the tower, to try to rescue the German. The ladder is a makeshift one made out of several ladders to replace the tower's old staircase that was destroyed by a fire bomb the previous year.

After a number of failed attempts to rescue the pilot, with his non-understanding of English not helping matters, they eventually manage to reach him using a pole found by Corporal Jones. Unfortunately the pole had been holding up the ladders to the tower, which collapse, leaving them stranded. While Mainwaring puts the German pilot under close arrest, he and the rest of the men try to find a way to get back down. Meanwhile, on the ground level, a sneering Hodges mocks their predicament, enraged because it was he who had erected the ladders in the first place. Mainwaring and Pike drop a note in a glass bottle to the ground asking for help, but Hodges just writes in chalk "How are you going to get down?" on the pavement, prompting Pike to throw a second bottle down at him in annoyance. The Vicar and the Verger arrive, and after being told of the platoon's predicament, the Vicar has an idea, and leaves to fetch something.

The platoon suggests various ideas of getting down. Pike and Jones suggest using the German's parachute; the former says they could float down with it, while the latter says they could tear it up and "plait" it into a rope. Fraser tells a story of two lighthouse keepers who were trapped in a lighthouse and decided to get out by dismantling it as they had gone mad from the isolation. Wilson tells a story his nanny told him: a Prince rescued a beautiful Princess trapped in a tower by firing an arrow into the tower; attached to the arrow was a piece of thread, attached to the thread was a piece of twine and attached to that was a rope which the Princess used to escape. All of this is just to much for Mainwaring. Eventually, Walker comes up with something: he suggests using a rope with a weight on the end in the tower to get down. Mainwaring claims he already noticed the rope and was just waiting to see if anybody else would.

When the men try to free the rope, they accidentally start up the clock tower. After Jones gets caught up in (and rescued from) the clock automatons twice, and several of the men's finest hats are ruined to silence the large bell in order to avoid a false invasion alert, an arrow loosed by the Vicar strikes the tower – a note wrapped around it states that there is a piece of thread attached to the arrow; attached to the thread is a piece of twine and attached to the twine is a piece of rope, just like in the fairy tale Wilson's nanny told him.

Odile (Azéma), a business executive, is married to weak, furtive Claude (Arditi). In the past Odile was close to successful businessman Nicolas (Bacri), now married with kids and returning to Paris after an eight-year absence. She is looking for a new, bigger apartment from estate agent Marc (Wilson). Her younger sister Camille (Jaoui), has just completed her doctoral thesis in history and is a Paris tour guide. Simon (Dussollier) is a regular on Camille's tours because he's attracted to her, although he claims to be researching his historical radio dramas. Camille has fallen for Marc, and they begin an affair. Nicolas is also looking for an apartment, since he hopes to eventually have his family join him in Paris.

The most original feature of this "musical" is that characters break into songs as sung by the original artists, i.e. depending on the circumstances, a female character may all of a sudden start singing in a male voice and vice versa. The judicious choice of songs and variety of styles make for some very funny surprises, considering the complete and voluntary absence of transitions between the talking and singing. The film's debt to Dennis Potter is acknowledged with a dedication in the opening credits.

The game's story is divided into two portions. The main portion is the game's single-player campaign, which puts the player in control of Sam Fisher three years after the events of ''Splinter Cell: Double Agent''. The "Prologue" portion of the game, meanwhile, is accessed through the multiplayer co-op mode, which puts two players in control of agents Archer and Kestrel 10 days before the campaign starts.

Prologue

Third Echelon agent "Archer" and his Russian partner, Voron agent "Kestrel" are deployed to Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, Russia to halt rogue elements of the Russian military from selling advanced warheads on the black market. Intelligence from criminal Andriy Kobin points to drug and human trafficker Valentin Lesovsky as the broker for the sale, and Archer and Kestrel are tasked with terminating Lesovsky and his associate, Boris Sychev, as well as gaining Lesovsky's contact list.

Having completed their mission, Archer and Kestrel are then deployed to the Russian embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan to gather intelligence on an arms deal conducted by former Russian GRU Colonel Leonid Bykhov. They observe the deal and witness Bhykov betray his associate, Tagizade, ordering his men to kill him. Archer and Kestrel prevent the destruction of the weapons crates, learning that the weapons Bhykov was going to sell were Block II JDAM missile guidance kits. They interrogate Bhykov, learning that he is working with Major General Kerzakov, who is in the Yastreb Complex, an underground fortress situated underneath Moscow's Red Square.

They infiltrate the complex and learn the location of the EMP warheads. They render the JDAM kits inoperable by using their portable EMP devices, and download data from multiple servers to trace the EMP devices to the Mozdok Proving Grounds. Sneaking aboard a supply truck, they infiltrate the Proving Grounds and secure the EMP devices with the help of Kobin. During their extraction, Third Echelon director Tom Reed contacts Archer and orders him to kill Kestrel; concurrently, Kestrel reads Archer's OPSAT device, forcing him to act in self-defense. Whilst either player can die, the canon ending has Kestrel fatally shooting Archer; overcome with grief and unaware of Kobin’s presence, Kestrel is shot in the head.

Main game

Private military company Black Arrow interrogates Sam Fisher’s former Navy SEAL squadmate Victor Coste, who begins to recount the events of the last few days.

After quitting Third Echelon, Fisher heads to Valletta, Malta, to investigate rumors that the hit-and-run death of his daughter, Sarah, might not have been an accident. Suddenly, Anna "Grim" Grímsdóttir, Sam's former colleague, contacts him and warns him of an imminent attack by a group of hitmen. Sam neutralizes them and goes after their contractor, Kobin, who was the true culprit behind Sarah's death. He infiltrates Kobin's mansion, kills his guards, and begins to interrogate him, but a Third Echelon Splinter Cell team subdues him before he can extract anything useful.

Grim and Black Arrow bring Sam to Price Airfield in Virginia, where they are to interrogate him. However, Grim releases Sam, revealing that she is working undercover for U.S. President Patricia Caldwell, investigating suspicious circumstances concerning Director Reed, Black Arrow, and the stolen Russian EMP technology. She reveals that Sarah is still alive and helps Sam escape the airfield.

Sam then contacts and arranges to meet with Coste at the Washington Monument to receive some equipment. He also learns that Lucius Galliard, CEO of Black Arrow, has tasked them to provide security for White Box Technologies, his recently purchased R&D company specializing in EMP technology. Sam infiltrates White Box Technologies and witnesses Black Arrow mercenaries purging scientists that are no longer needed. He hacks a high-security White Box computer and retrieves strategic data about an operation involving EMPs for Grim's analysts to study. He escapes the facility after fighting through more Black Arrow mercenaries, triggering an EMP to cover his tracks. Later, President Caldwell directs him to the Lincoln Memorial to eavesdrop on Reed and Galliard. The conversation and the subsequent interrogation of Galliard reveal that a group called "Megiddo" funds and organizes the operation, which is to take place in 24 hours. However, a hitman shoots Galliard dead before running away; Sam gives chase, but a car bomb ultimately kills the assassin.

Sam then heads to Third Echelon headquarters where he receives a set of advanced sonar goggles from Grim's friend Charlie Fryman, and raids Reed's office for information. However, Sam finds Kobin there and interrogates him. Kobin reveals that Reed works for Megiddo, and is planning to activate three massive EMP devices in Washington DC and assassinate Caldwell in the ensuing chaos, allowing Vice President Calvin Samson to take over the presidency. Reed would then get a promotion in return. Kobin also reveals that it was Grim who gave him orders to fake Sarah's death. Grim confirms this by playing an audio recording of deceased former director Irving Lambert where he reveals that he discovered a mole in Third Echelon who was plotting to threaten Sarah's safety and use her as leverage against Sam. Although Lambert successfully staged Sarah's death to foil this plan, he was unable to identify the mole. Grim urges an enraged Sam to destroy the EMP device in the Michigan Avenue Reservoir, as Sarah's apartment is within its blast radius. At this time, the Third Echelon building's self-destruct protocol activates, and Sam escapes before the building explodes.

With the aid of Coste, Sam attacks the Michigan Avenue Reservoir. After fighting through the Black Arrow mercenaries defending the site, Sam marks the EMP generators for Coste to destroy from the air. Sam is then extracted by Coste and reunites with Sarah before the two remaining EMPs are activated, destroying most of the electronic defenses in the city and causing chaos. Shortly afterward, a surface-to-air missile takes down Coste's helicopter, but all three survive. While Coste takes Sarah to safety, Sam journeys through downtown Washington to make his way to the White House, which has been overrun by Black Arrow mercenaries and Third Echelon operatives. After he confronts and incapacitates the corrupt Vice President, Sam regroups with Grim.

As Grim and Sam must enter the Oval Office without alarming Reed, who may kill the President, Grim shoots Sam in the shoulder and pretends to detain him at gunpoint, allowing them to enter the Oval Office safely. Reed prepares to execute Sam and the President, revealing that Caldwell was going to shut down Third Echelon after Lambert's death. Reed then plans to frame Sam for assassinating Caldwell as supposed proof that Third Echelon is still needed. Sam and Grim then spring into action, disarming Reed and killing his escorts. Sam interrogates Reed while United States Army soldiers extract Caldwell. Reed finally reveals himself to be the very mole Lambert was investigating. At this point, Sam or Grim executes Reed depending on the player's choice. Canonically, Grim executes Reed.

As Coste begins to wrap up his story, he states that Sam, in his last conversation, promised to protect him just as he would his brother. At that moment, the interrogators hear an alarm, followed by an explosion and gunfire in the background. They abandon the interview and leave Coste behind.

Betty, an attractive California girl, takes a coming-of-age sojourn, embarking from San Francisco on an Italian freighter bound for ports in El Salvador, Panama, Venezuela, Spain and Italy. Among several other passengers, including, to her dismay, Ted, an old boyfriend who infuriates her by introducing himself as her "fiancé", a notion of which she immediately disabuses both him and her fellow passengers.

Betty develops an attraction for and engages in a mild flirtation with Mik Finsch, an older, mysterious man-of-the-world, but when she accepts an offer of drinks in his cabin, his amorous advances get way out of line and Betty find herself hard put to fend him off. Ted bursts into Finsch's cabin and the two start fighting; by the time the captain breaks them up, Ted has thrashed Finsch, who claims he was "just warming up".

Betty tells Ted she could have handled the situation herself and she still has no interest in marrying him and wished he had not come. Another passenger tells Betty that Finsch's pride has been wounded and he will get revenge on Ted somehow. That night, Ted goes missing and a typewritten suicide note is found. There are suspicions, but no proof. When another "suicide" involving Finsch and the wife of a shipping agent leaves no doubt in Betty's mind that Finsch is a murderer, the two are pitted against one another, with Finsch seemingly holding all the cards.

Category:1985 American novels Category:Novels by Jack Vance Category:American mystery novels

It begins with a brief biography of Bruce Lee, and shows scenes from four of his childhood films, ''Bad Boy'', ''Orphan Sam'', ''Kid Cheung'', and ''The Carnival'', each sepia-toned and given a fully new soundtrack with dubbed English dialogue and a disco soundtrack such as an instrumental version of ''Devil's Gun'' by ''C. J. & Company''.

Next, there is a three-minute highlight reel of Lee imitator Bruce Li.

Finally, there is a feature-length Korean martial arts film titled 최후의 정무문, ''Choihui Jeongmumun'' (lit. "Last Fist of Fury"). The film is a spinoff of the Bruce Lee film ''Fist of Fury'' (1972) in which Japan has invaded China and started putting shame to the glorious past of the House of the Dragon kung-fu school. When they kill one of the pupils in an uneven match, a fellow fighter named Yǒu Lóng (龙友) who is also from the school has put his own life at risk after swearing to avenge his murdered kung-fu brother against every last foreign oppressor from Japan. The film stars another Bruce Lee imitator known as Dragon Lee.

Porky is looking all over the big city for a hotel room, but due to a convention there are no vacancies. Porky takes the only available vacancy at one hotel, but will have to share with Daffy Duck, who is a very loud, obnoxious and annoying sort. Daffy introduces his invisible kangaroo friend "Hymie" (a reference to ''Harvey''), but Porky denies the kangaroo's existence despite evidence from Daffy getting inside Hymie's 'pouch', becoming partially invisible, and Hymie jumping around with Daffy riding in it.

Daffy spends the rest of the night annoying Porky: pestering him with questions, shaking the bed, spilling water from a glass, hogging the blanket and finally literally sending the both of them flying off the bed when Daffy kicks, and startles, Porky with his literally frozen feet. Fed up with his antics, Porky stuffs Daffy in a pillow case and drops him out of the window. As Porky goes back to sleep, Daffy returns bandaged, but shakes the bandages off and prepares to get revenge.

Daffy tricks the half-asleep pig into stepping out of a window thinking he's boarding a train. Daffy pulls down the blind saying it's "too gruesome" to watch. Suddenly he hears train noises, and behind the shade, sees the still-drowsy Porky pulling away on an actual train and waving goodbye at Daffy. Daffy finds this silly, saying that he should've bought Porky some magazines to read on his trip. Then he bounces all around the room, "Hoo-Hoo!"-ing wildly.

''The Karnival Kid'' is broken into two distinct segments. The first segment features Mickey selling hot dogs at a carnival. The second segment is set later that night and features Mickey, accompanied by two cats, in a moonlight serenade.

The short opens to the scene of a bustling carnival. After a few initial sight gags, the action quickly focuses on Kat Nipp, a barker at the carnival who is enticing a crowd to see Minnie, "the Shimmy Dancer." Mickey stands nearby, selling hot dogs and taunting Nipp. Nipp briefly gets into a dispute with Mickey over a dancing doll scam. And Mickey was saying his first words "hotdogs hotdogs". However, Minnie soon notices Mickey and calls him over to order a hot dog. She takes a coin out of her stocking to pay, but Mickey, who is clearly attracted to her, refuses to accept the coin and gives it to her for free. When she bites into the hot dog, it screams and runs away. Mickey catches it and spanks it, concluding the first segment. Much of the humor in this segment comes from the interaction between Mickey and his hot dogs, with the latter tending to act like actual dogs in relation to their owner/trainer.

In the second segment, Mickey attempts to draw Minnie's attention by playing a guitar outside her window and singing ''"Sweet Adeline"'', joined by two alley cats who imitate the monotone delivery of vaudeville comedy team Shaw and Lee. The sound delights Minnie but awakens an irate Kat Nipp, who had been resting in a nearby trailer. Nipp starts throwing things at the three annoyances in an attempt to silence them. The short ends as Mickey is hit with an entire bed and knocked dizzy.

Stalling's score for ''The Karnival Kid'' features two notable themes. During the "Shimmy Dance" sequence, a monkey, performing as a one-man band, plays the Snake Charmer song, the common name for The Streets of Cairo. During the moonlight serenade segment, Mickey and the cats perform a rendition of the barbershop standard Sweet Adeline.

The film starts in 1936 as a barber tells a patron the story of the infamous Sweeney Todd 100 years ago.

Sweeney Todd (Tod Slaughter) is a barber with a shop near the docks of London. One day, as the mercantile ship The Golden Hope readies to leave, Todd watches Johanna Oakley (Eve Lister) and Mark Ingerstreet (Bruce Seton). They are in love, but Mark is shipping out and laments that he is a poor man unable to win the approval of Johanna's father, Governor Oakley (D. J. Williams). Nearby, Johanna's servant Nan (Davina Craig) asks Mark's fellow sailor Pearley (Jerry Verno) to buy her various luxury goods while he's away. Pearley points out he hasn't the money to buy them. Simultaneously, Todd watches all his potential customers and thinks of the money he can make.

Back at the barbershop, Todd has been sent a new apprentice: the orphan Tobias Ragg (John Singer). Next door is a meat pie shop run by Mrs. Lovatt (Stella Rho). She has a large cellar that connects to Todd's. In addition to being a barber, Todd buys a share of Oakley's shipping company and hopes to marry Johanna.

Using his charm, Todd lures wealthy, respectable customers from the docks into his barbershop at Fleet Street, where he sits them in a "special" barber's chair. Before shaving a man, he always sends Tobias to Mrs. Lovatt's for a meat pie. When Todd pulls a lever, the chair flips over and dumps the unsuspecting victim head-first into the basement. Mrs. Lovatt then disposes of the bodies for a share of the stolen money. She is, however, increasingly annoyed with Todd for robbing the bodies preemptively and taking more than his share of the money.

The Golden Hope returns to London, with Mark a newly wealthy man. Todd lures him into his barbershop. Mark foolishly talks about his love for Johanna and shows off his new riches. Todd sends Mark down the chute but Mrs. Lovatt quickly hides him in a cupboard. When Todd comes down, he is surprised to see that the body is gone. However, he isn't worried because he already took Mark's fortune and is sure that young man is poor once again and won't be allowed to marry Johanna. Mrs. Lovatt secretly helps Mark escape.

Vowing to bring Todd to justice, a disguised Mark returns to the barbershop. He sends Tobias to tell Johanna where he is. Todd fails to recognize Mark and while he gets ready to shave his new customer, Pearley sneaks into Mrs. Lovatt's cellar. Todd pulls the lever, but Mark expects the chair to flip and holds on tight. Pearley helps him down safely and they leave the same way Mark originally escaped.

Todd is angry to find another victim missing and accuses Mrs. Lovatt of letting him escape. She admits to having let Mark go before.

Todd readies himself to go on the run. He puts together his collection of stolen goods and begins stacking up hay and wooden furniture in the basement. Johanna comes to his door, worried that Mark has been captured and harmed. Todd knocks her unconscious, puts her in a closet, sets the building on fire and then leaves.

Nan informs Mark and Pearley that Johanna went to Todd's shop. They hurry to save her.

As the barbershop burns down and a crowd gathers around, Todd watches from a nearby alleyway. When Mark go inside to save Johanna, Todd follows and attempts to slash his throat. Mark manages to knock Todd unconscious and gets out with Johanna. On the street Johanna and Mark kiss. Beside them lies Todd's bag of riches in the alleyway.

Todd regains consciousness. As he attempts to escape, his special chair flips him into the fiery cellar.

Returning to 1936, the barber's terrified patron runs out of the shop while still wearing a full face of shaving cream.

Charlie Colburn (Nate Richert) is a video game tester with a troubled past. One day, he receives a new console to test in the mail. This system, the Gamebox 1.0, is like no other system he's seen before: by tapping into the cerebral cortex of the brain, it literally immerses the player in a virtual reality world. The game draws on his memories, so the heroine is modeled after his dead girlfriend (Danielle Fishel), and the villain is the dirty cop (Patrick Kilpatrick) who murdered her. He has to play through three different games to win: ''Crime Spree,'' ''Zombie Land'' and ''Alien Planet''. The only catch is, if Charlie doesn't win this game it will cost him his life.

After being blackballed from Hollywood because of his drunken antics, Danny Roane, a washed up TV actor, sobers up to direct his first feature film. As the pressure builds, Roane turns to the bottle again and attempts to finish his movie about drug and alcohol abuse. But in his drunken madness, he decides to make the film a musical.

Although based on the New Testament story, the film does not follow the Biblical text, critically passing the blame of John the Baptist's death wholly upon her mother.

In Galilee, during the rule of Rome's Tiberius Caesar (Cedric Hardwicke), King Herod (Charles Laughton) and Queen Herodias (Judith Anderson) sit on the throne and are condemned by a prophet known as John the Baptist (Alan Badel). Herodias resents John's denunciation of her marriage to the king, her former husband's brother, for which John labels her an adulteress. The king is not pleased with the Baptist condemning his rule, but fears he will face the same fate his father, the elder Herod, suffered after ordering the murder of firstborn males when Jesus was born. The prophecy states that if a king of Judea kills the Messiah, he will suffer an agonizing death. The king believes John the Baptist is the Messiah because of the mistaken belief of some peasants.

After Marcellus, nephew of Caesar, petitions his uncle to marry Salome, he receives a message stating that he is forbidden to marry a "barbarian." Salome is also sent a message stating that she is banished from Rome for seeking to rise above her station, and will be escorted back to Galilee, despite having lived in Rome since childhood. When Marcellus does nothing to protest Caesar's decree, she declares that she shall never love another Roman.

On the boat escorting her home, Salome meets Claudius, a Roman soldier assigned to the palace of Herod. He is amused by her haughty behavior and thwarts her attempt to order him around when she demands to use drinking water instead of sea water for her bath aboard the ship. When he brings sea water instead, she slaps him. He interrupts her angry tirade by stealing a long kiss, which shocks her.

Queen Herodias greets her daughter warmly when she arrives at the palace, and becomes aware of the lecherous intentions of the king, who marvels at the beauty of his stepdaughter/niece. The queen sends Salome away and consults with her advisor, who agrees that the queen can use the king's desire for Salome for her own benefit. Meanwhile, Salome sneaks into the marketplace with several servants to hear John the Baptist speak. When he calls her mother an adulteress, she repudiates him, inadvertently revealing her identity. She is then is spared from the angry crowd by John the Baptist, who calms them and denounces violence. Salome returns to the palace, upset by what she has heard. She implores her mother to leave Galilee with her for her safety, but Herodias claims that she is trapped in a loveless and potentially deadly marriage to the king because she wishes to preserve the throne for Salome's sake. Although Salome does not care about the throne, Herodias insists on its importance, and exaggerates her fear of being stoned to death by John the Baptist's followers. Knowing of Claudius's feelings for her, Salome seductively beguiles him in an attempt to have him arrest John the Baptist to spare her mother's potential death as an adulteress. When he refuses her request, she exits the room in anger.

Shortly after, the king decides to arrest John the Baptist, ostensibly for treason but in reality to protect him from the actions of his wife, who has attempted to have him assassinated. The trial ends with the king imprisoning John the Baptist. Salome hears that the prophet has been arrested; she thinks that Claudius did it for her, and apologizes to him for her behavior the night before. After she leaves, Claudius rushes to the king to plead for John the Baptist's release, but is unable to persuade him. He then rushes off to Jerusalem on horseback to seek his release.

The king visits Salome, who bids Claudius farewell from the balcony, and is irritated that she pays him attention. Herod attempts to gift her a necklace, and suggests she "find pleasure in the moment." Knowing the implications of his gift, she rejects it, reminding him that his queen is her mother. Claudius meets with Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, who refuses to release the Baptist because he preaches against Rome, which is treasonous. He dismisses the Baptist as a threat, and tells Claudius there are many such prophets in the land, mentioning a miracle worker in Jerusalem. Claudius confesses he is a follower of the Baptist and the religion he preaches, and attempts to persuade Pilate to join him as a champion of this new religion. Pilate relieves him from his post and forbids Claudius from returning to Galilee, but does not arrest him because of their friendship.

Exiting their meeting, Claudius learns of where the miracle worker is located, and travels to see him. He then returns to the palace, where Salome runs to greet him with a tearful embrace. During his departure, Herodias has manipulated Salome into thinking that the only way she can save her mother's life is by dancing for the king. Salome is appalled by this suggestion, as it would mean surrendering her will and body to Herod, and becoming his possession. She pleads with Claudius to take her from Galilee, but he tells her that he needs to reveal something to her before they can leave. He then leads Salome to John the Baptist's cell, where she discovers he is a Christian convert. Claudius tells them both of the miracle worker, whom John recognizes as his kinsman, the Messiah. John's faith and words move Salome, who resolves to save his life.

Claudius and Salome both rush off to try to put their plans to save John into action. Claudius clashes with the palace guards in an attempt to free John from his cell. Against Claudius's wishes, who knows what happens to those who dance for the king, Salome dances a wild, enchanting dance in which she removes layers of clothing, which she knows will please Herod. At the end of her dance she will ask him to set John free. Herod, enthralled by her dance, offhandedly muses that he would give half his kingdom for Salome. Seated beside him, Herodias quickly seizes the chance to ask him to order John's death, and John is beheaded before Salome finishes her dance. Horrified, she renounces her mother Herodias, who planned and ordered the execution, and like Claudius, becomes a Christian convert. The last scene shows Salome and Claudius listening to Christ (whose face is not shown) delivering the Sermon on the Mount.

In the distant past, Druids have stopped the rise of Satan's son using six magical rune stones that create light to vanquish the darkness. While the Druids perform a ritual upon a woman Satan has selected, they are attacked by Christians who feel their work is Satanic. Most of the Druids die and the rune stones are scattered.

In the present, Kenny Travis and Samantha Ellison, a young man and woman, are in love but are having relationship issues. Their parents are Druids; while Samantha's father Ted Ellison is a priest and has neglected his responsibilities as a Druid, Kenny's father Will Travis kills Kenny so he can rise again with the aid of Druid magic to become a Druid warrior.

Elsewhere, Amanda Sloan, a young woman has possession of one of the rune stones due to it being passed down through her family. Amanda wears the stone to impress her date, but, as she looks out her kitchen window at the lunar eclipse, she rapidly becomes pregnant and gives birth to the Warlock, Satan's son. After the Warlock is reborn, he kills Amanda and then communicates with his father Satan. Using Amanda as a conduit, Satan tells the Warlock to find the other five rune stones. These have the power to summon him to Earth, but he has precisely six days to do this. The Warlock peels the flesh from Amanda's stomach and makes it into a map, enabling him to track the other runes.

Kenny is destined to be a Druid warrior, learns how to use his powers, and it is not long before his girlfriend Samantha joins him. They suffer persecution from the villagers but are protected by Ted. Meanwhile the Warlock gains the other rune stones to raise Satan from his prison to rule the world, murdering various people along the way.

Kenny and Samantha, who is wearing the final rune stone, fight the Warlock but he defeats and imprisons them and gains the runes which he uses to open a portal to Hell. As Satan rises, Kenny and Samantha use their powers to turn on the lights of a nearby truck. The Warlock screams in terror as he is killed and Satan is sent back to Hell, the two of them defeated by evil's ultimate enemy, light.

Flashbacks

Locke is a member of a commune in Humboldt County, California. He considers its members his new family. One day Locke picks up a young hitchhiker, named Eddie Colburn (Justin Chatwin), who tells him he is leaving home. Eddie joins the commune, but after six weeks, he asks Locke why he is never allowed to know what is going on in a greenhouse (into which he sees an exceptional amount of fertilizer going). Eddie expresses his discontent with being kept out of the secret and affirms to Locke his desire to be in on "whatever you guys are trying to blow up". Locke laughs and says he will talk to the commune leaders, Mike (Chris Mulkey) and Jan (Virginia Morris).

Upon entering the greenhouse some time later, in which marijuana is grown, Locke finds Mike and Jan in the midst of a frantic preparation to flee. They blame Locke for bringing Eddie, whom they have discovered is an undercover police officer. Locke promises to fix the situation. He takes Eddie hunting and holds Eddie at gunpoint. Eddie says that Locke was chosen because his psych profile said he would be "amenable for coercion". Eddie walks away, stating that Locke will not shoot him because he is "a good man," though Locke insists that he is a hunter, not a farmer.

On the Island

John Locke wakes up in the jungle and sees a naked Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) run by, but Locke cannot speak. Mr. Eko's (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) stick falls from above nearly hitting him. In the frame of Eko's church, he builds a sweat lodge and convinces Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) to stand guard. Locke takes a hallucinogenic drug and enters the lodge in order to "speak with the Island". There, Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) appears to help him "find [his] way again, so that [he] can bring the family back together". Locke (mutely) apologizes for the day Boone died, and he accepts the apology, however, in a taunting and seemingly sarcastic manner. Locke's hallucination takes him to Sydney airport. Boone wheels Locke through the airport where he tells him someone is "in serious danger". Locke sees his fellow survivors, and is told by Boone that he must "clean up [his] own mess". Locke finds Eko's stick covered in blood and Boone tells him "they have him, you don't have much time". Upon exiting the sweat lodge he sees a flash of a polar bear. He recovers his ability to speak and tells Charlie that he is going to save Eko.

Locke and Charlie track Eko, who Locke believes has been captured by a polar bear. They pause at a large pit in the ground where the hatch imploded. They encounter Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia), who tells them that Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were kidnapped by the Others, and that "Henry Gale" is their leader. While continuing back to the camp alone, Hurley finds Desmond naked and lends him a tie-dyed t-shirt. Desmond says the electromagnetic anomaly may have been destroyed, and Hurley questions why Desmond was not destroyed. Desmond mentions Locke's speech and his plan to save Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, and James "Sawyer" Ford. However, Hurley responds, "What speech?", as Locke has yet to give any such speech. Desmond seems confused, and drops the whole matter.

Locke finds the polar bear's cave and rescues Eko from the polar bear. While Charlie fetches water from a stream, Locke apologizes to an unconscious Eko for his lack of faith. Eko appears to briefly awaken and tells Locke that he must rescue Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Upon arriving at camp, Hurley informs the camp that Jack and the others have been captured. As an explanation, Locke announces to the survivors that he plans to rescue Jack, Kate, and Sawyer, as Desmond indicated to Hurley earlier. Hurley mentions to Charlie a sense of déjà vu.

Flashbacks

Sawyer is in prison, trying to befriend Munson (Ian Gomez), a man who has hidden ten million dollars. He warns Munson that the warden (Bill Duke) is trying to con him out of his money. Eventually, Munson, worried that his wife will find where he has hidden the money, enlists Sawyer's help in moving the stash. Sawyer then reveals this information to the warden in exchange for a reduced sentence and a part of the money, which he puts in a bank account for Clementine Phillips, a baby that previous con victim Cassidy Phillips (Kim Dickens) has told him is his daughter. The warden sarcastically congratulates Sawyer on lying and cheating his way out of prison.

At Hydra Island

As Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer watch, the Others carry a critically injured Colleen (Paula Malcomson), who was shot by Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) the night before. Sawyer realizes that the injury was inflicted by someone back at camp, and then devises a plan to break out from the cage; he intends to electrocute an off-guard Danny Pickett (Michael Bowen) using a puddle he created outside his cage. However, Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) overhears him via surveillance and switches off the electricity prior to visiting him. When Sawyer attempts to carry out his plan, Ben knocks him unconscious and has him carried into the Hydra station.

Sawyer wakes up to find himself strapped to a table, where Ben, Tom (M. C. Gainey) and two other Others watch over him. Sawyer is gagged before having a large hypodermic needle inserted into his chest. When Sawyer awakens, Ben and Tom come in, Tom carrying a rabbit in a cage; he shakes the cage vigorously, causing the rabbit to suddenly collapse, presumably dead. Ben informs Sawyer that they fitted him, like the rabbit, with a modified pacemaker; should his heart rate reach 140, his heart would explode. Ben threatens to implant one in Kate if Sawyer should tell her of his ordeal.

Meanwhile, Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) begs Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) to help operate on Colleen. Upon arriving at the operating theatre, Jack notices some x-rays, but Juliet informs him that they are not Colleen's. During the surgery, Jack tries to save Colleen, but she eventually dies. Later, Jack informs Juliet that there was nothing they could do with Colleen, and then asks about the x-rays, which Jack knows belong to a 40-year-old man with a very large spinal tumor, and asks whom he is there to save.

Danny, aware that the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors are responsible, takes his anger out on Sawyer by violently beating him; Sawyer refrains from fighting back. Kate pleads with him to stop; Danny ceases only after Kate admits to loving Sawyer. Afterwards, Kate notices a gap in her cage, and manages to climb through. She tries to free Sawyer, but he bitterly refuses, remembering Karl's escape and bloody capture. Kate returns to her cage, insisting that she would not abandon him, and tells Sawyer that she lied about loving him so that Danny would stop.

The next day, Ben takes Sawyer for a walk to high ground. Sawyer learns that he has no pacemaker; it was merely a con to prevent Sawyer from leaving, and Ben shows him the same rabbit from the day before, which had been merely sedated. Ben reveals to Sawyer that they are on a completely different island approximately twice the size of Alcatraz that overlooks the main island; escape is impossible. Upon asking why he was conned, Ben tells Sawyer that in order to gain a con artist's respect, they must be conned themselves.

At the beach

Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) offers to fix Claire Littleton's (Emilie de Ravin) roof, but takes it back after Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) offers to do this himself. Desmond then uses one of Paulo's (Rodrigo Santoro) golf clubs to build a lightning rod next to Claire's hut. As a storm brews, waking up Aaron, then lightning strikes the golf club instead of Claire's hut, Charlie looks on in amazement, as, again, Desmond seemed to have had a glimpse of the future.

The two twins, Jacek and Placek, start out as cruel and lazy boys whose main interest is eating, eating anything, including chalk and a sponge in school. One day they have the idea of stealing the Moon; after all, it is made of gold. : "If we steal the moon, we would not have to work" : "But we do not work now, either..." : "But then we would not have to work ''at all''".

After a few small adventures, they manage to steal the Moon. Immediately a gang of robbers notices the little thieves and captures them. The two regain their freedom, and one of the twins devises a plan to enter the "City of Gold". The plan works, but when the robbers try to collect the gold, they turn into gold themselves. The twins escape and then run home and promise to help their parents with their work as farmers.

An animated version of the film was also produced in 1984, with virtually the same plot.

The musical track from the 1984 animated film includes music by the popular Polish rock group Lady Pank. The film has been compared to the Beatles' involvement in ''Yellow Submarine'', as they were both designed to boost said groups' popularity.

The film follows scenes from the life of the writer-adventurer Jack London (Michael O'Shea, who somewhat resembled London) who was, among other things, oyster pirate, hobo, sailor, prospector and war correspondent. The film begins and ends with footage from 1943 of the launch of the liberty ship Jack London. In Oakland in 1890, after an accident involving a female colleague at the factory where he works, the young London quits and borrows money to buy a boat in which to illegally harvest oysters. The boat is soon impounded by police, one of his partners killed, and he is left without means. London signs on as an able seaman on a five-month trip to the Bering Sea, during which he begins to write. A brief stay at university proves frustrating as his stories are dismissed as "raw" despite London's defence of them as observed occurrences. He moves to the Yukon where he writes a story about a bar singer. Snowed in for months he writes Call of the Wild, which he sells to a publisher, who compares him to Rudyard Kipling, one of London's idols. The publisher introduces him to Charmian Kittredge (Susan Hayward). By the turn of the century London's career has taken off. He is asked by a newspaper to cover the Boer War, but on arrival at Plymouth, the war has already ended. London returns to Charmian.

Despite a promise not to leave Charmian again, London is given another foreign correspondent assignment, this time to Japan, where he is told of the start of the Russo-Japanese War. In Korea, an army captain reveals the Japanese aim to sack Manchuria and then Mongolia for raw materials as part of a long-term plan to conquer China, and then dominate the US and England. London's coverage of the taking of the Yalu River proves a scoop. However, he is arrested on charges of spying for Russia, and in a brutal prison witnesses the murder of his fellow inmates by the Japanese, who are portrayed as barbaric. Eventually, London is freed after the intervention of the White House. Back in the US, London attempts but fails to sell articles attesting to his view that there is a coming threat from Japan.

The story begins 1 year after the end of the previous novel (#9, ''Tarzan and the Golden Lion'') which would place it around 1936 which would make Tarzan around 47 years old. His son Korak, now at about 23 has a verbal child, the grandchild of Tarzan.

Tarzan, the king of the jungle, enters an isolated country called Minuni, inhabited by a people four times smaller than himself, the Minunians, who live in magnificent city-states which frequently wage war against each other.

Tarzan befriends the king, Adendrohahkis, and the prince, Komodoflorensal, of one such city-state, called Trohanadalmakus, and joins them in war against the onslaught of the army of Veltopismakus, their warlike neighbours.

He is captured on the battle-ground and taken prisoner by the Veltopismakusians, whose scientist Zoanthrohago conducts an experiment reducing him to the size of a Minunian, and the ape-man is imprisoned and enslaved among other Trohanadalmakusian prisoners of war. He meets, though, Komodoflorensal in the dungeons of Veltopismakus, and together they are able to make a daring escape.

Spanish actor/Tarzan lookalike Esteban Miranda, who had been imprisoned in the village of Obebe, the cannibal, at the end of the previous novel, ''Tarzan and the Golden Lion'', also appears in this adventure.

Deeply religious April Epner, a 39-year-old Brooklyn elementary school teacher, finds her life derailed by a series of events over which she has no control. Her husband Ben abruptly leaves her, her abrasive adoptive mother Trudy passes away the following day, and shortly after she is contacted by Alan, a representative of Bernice Graves, the flamboyant host of a local talk show, who introduces herself as April's biological mother.

Although intrigued by Bernice's claim she was fathered by Steve McQueen, April initially resists her efforts to forge a relationship. At the same time, she finds herself attracted to Frank, the divorced father of one of her students, as the two get to know each other via lengthy telephone conversations. For their first date, he escorts her to a party at Bernice's apartment.

Complications arise when April discovers she is pregnant, the result of a quick and clumsy coupling with Ben on the kitchen floor just before he left her. April has longed to have a child all her life and is delighted with the news. She is confused and upset by Ben's sudden return, Frank's hasty departure (when he discovers April and Ben had a "quickie" after visiting the gynecologist), and Bernice's insistent attempts to create a bond between them. Not helping the situation is the discovery Bernice voluntarily put her up for adoption a full year after her birth and not three days later at the urging of her parents, according to the scenario she initially presented.

When April miscarries, her brother Freddy tries to counsel her. Ultimately, she must rely on her deep-rooted faith to deal with the betrayals she has suffered not only at the hands of those she trusted but by the God she worships as well. Eventually she offers reconciliation and forgiveness to Bernice, if Bernice will agree to "buy" a baby for her. Bernice agrees, and then Frank forgives April when she goes to him to apologize for her behavior. Later, April could not have the baby which Bernice paid for, so she adopted another child.

After a brief introduction to the principal characters, the film follows Asterix as he is ambushed by a group of Roman legionaries in the forest. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Asterix leaves the Romans beaten and bruised. Their state upon their return to camp prompts the leader ''Phonus Balonus'' to seek the secret behind the Gauls' superhuman strength. Phonus selects a volunteer (by means of a single round of musical chairs) to pose as a Gaul in order to infiltrate the village; the unlucky loser is a short, slack-tongued misfit named ''Caligula Minus''. He is dressed in a wig, false moustache and traditional Gaulish dress and led in chains through the forest as a prisoner, awaiting rescue by the Gauls. Sure enough, Asterix and Obelix free Minus and believe his flimsy cover story that he is a Gaul from Lutetia.

Once inside the Gaulish village, Minus goads Asterix into sharing the secret of the magic potion with him; he goes on to use the same tactic against Getafix in order to try the potion for himself. Before he has a chance to steal some of the potion to take back to the Roman camp, Minus' cover is accidentally blown during a traditional dance; Asterix pulls off Minus' moustache. Still empowered by the magic potion, Minus makes good his escape, with the Gauls powerless to stop him.

Minus is debriefed by Phonus Balonus, who on learning of the magic potion orders his legionaries to capture Getafix and bring him back to the camp. Getafix is later ambushed by the Romans while he is out collecting mistletoe, but refuses to divulge any of the secrets of the magic potion to Phonus. When Getafix fails to return to the village, Asterix goes into the forest to look for him where he encounters a slow-witted merchant with a dilemma over his oxen. After benefiting from Asterix's common sense the merchant agrees to take him to the Roman camp on his cart, hidden in a pile of hay until nightfall. Having infiltrated the camp, Asterix hears Phonus plotting with his Decurion ''Marcus Sourpuss'' to overthrow Caesar. Asterix locates Getafix and forms a plan to free him. He seemingly surrenders and convinces the Romans that he and Getafix will co-operate at the prospect of being tortured; Getafix is then escorted by legionnaires as he collects the required ingredients for the potion in the forest. Unable to locate strawberries (since they are not in season), Getafix orders the Romans to search far and wide for them. When an exhausted legionnaire returns with a basket of them from Greece, the Gauls proceed to eat them all and request that some more be obtained. This drives Phonus to despair; Getafix quickly relents and prepares the potion without strawberries.

Believing that the potion Getafix has made is the same as that which gives the Gauls their strength, the Romans drink it and discover, much to their dismay, that it is in fact a hair-growing formula. The entire legion is soon at the mercy of Getafix as their hair and beards grow out of control, rendering them practically helpless. Getafix claims that he can reverse the effects of the first potion by making another, knowing that the effects will wear off soon anyway; with the Romans distracted he collects the ingredients for the real magic potion, which he makes just for Asterix, and an "antidote", in reality just vegetable soup. Just as the pair begin to overpower their captors, Phonus receives a surprise visit from Julius Caesar who – dismayed by the state in which he finds the camp – asks to meet the Gauls. Asterix reveals that Phonus planned to use the potion to overthrow Caesar, who relieves Phonus of his duties and awards Asterix and Getafix their freedom, though he tells them that they will meet again.

Asterix and Getafix return to the village where Obelix spots them coming. The whole village celebrates with a huge banquet.

Involved from early childhood in the theatre, the Athenian-born Nikeratos grows into a successful actor through his performances in tragedies. During his formative period, he meets the philosopher Plato and Dion, a respected politician from Syracuse and brother-in-law to the city's tyrannical ruler Dionysios the Elder. Nikeratos frequents Plato's Academy and grows to appreciate his wisdom, though he also discerns that Plato and Dion are somewhat more idealistic than practical in their views on humanity and government.

Nikeratos sails for Syracuse as a member of a theatre troupe, but upon arrival receives the news that Dionysios, their patron, has just died. Nikeratos chooses to remain in Syracuse despite the dangerous political climate, and meets and makes a favourable impression upon the city's new ruler, Dionysios the Younger. While Dionysios is not the brutal tyrant his father was, he is dissolute and politically inept, and Dion invites Plato to serve as a teacher to Dionysios; the two hope to mould him into a philosopher-king ruling according to Platonic ideals.

While Dionysios wants Plato's approval, he makes only half-hearted efforts to reform either his own luxurious lifestyle or the Syracusan government. Part of this is due to his own nature, but other factors also inhibit reform, such as Syracuse's large and oppressive mercenary force, who are necessary to counter Carthaginian aggression, and the Syracusan people themselves, who have become politically enfeebled under Dionysios the Elder's long rule. Dion is eventually exiled due to the machinations of his rival Philistos, a loyal but corrupt supporter of Dionysios.

During these years Nikeratos enjoys a prosperous and successful career acting in Syracuse and mainland Greece. He becomes a lifelong friend and mentor to a promising young actor named Thettalos while keeping informed about events in Syracuse and Plato's life there.

After Dionysios confiscates Dion's estates and gives his wife to another man, Dion returns with an army and captures most of Syracuse while Dionysios' loyalists hold out in the island citadel of Ortygia. In the ensuing fighting Syracuse is brutally ravaged before Dion gains the upper hand. Philistos is killed by the vengeful citizenry and Dionysios flees to live out his remaining years in exile. Dion is initially welcomed as a liberator by the Syracusans, but his attempts at reform prove unpopular and he is eventually assassinated. He is succeeded by Callippus, an ambitious and unscrupulous pupil of Plato.

In the novel's final chapter, a dozen years after Dion's downfall, Nikeratos encounters the young Alexander the Great and wistfully regrets that Plato never had the chance to tutor Alexander, who might have pursued Plato's social ideals with far greater success than Dionysios the Younger did.

Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through the boarding school and college years—where Andy goes on to excel at Yale and law school, while Melissa flunks out of a series of "good schools". While Andy is off at war Melissa marries, but her attachment to Andy remains strong and she continues to keep in touch as he marries, becomes a successful attorney, gets involved in politics and, eventually, is elected to the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, her marriage in tatters, Melissa dabbles in art and gigolos, drinks more than she should, and becomes estranged from her children. Eventually she and Andy do become involved in a brief affair, but it is really too late for both of them. However Andy's last letter, written to her mother after Melissa's untimely death, makes it eloquently clear how much they really meant, and gave to, each other over the years—physically apart, perhaps, but spiritually as close as only true lovers can be.

Axel Heyst, the novel's protagonist, was raised by his widowed father, a Swedish philosopher, in London, England, and never knew his mother. The atmosphere of Heyst's home, with his father's ruthless pursuit of truth and pessimistic view of humanity, warps Heyst's mind, and after his father dies, he leaves England and becomes a rootless wanderer. This eventually leads him to the Southeastern Asia, especially to what is now Indonesia, including Surabaya—a port in the then-Dutch colony of Java.

Eventually, however, human feelings are awoken in Heyst by the plight of Captain Morrison, who faces the confiscation of his ship, and loss of his livelihood, because he cannot pay a fine levied by the Portuguese authorities. Heyst intervenes with a loan for a paltry sum, which establishes a relationship, and Heyst is unable to break this bond. This eventually leads to the establishment of The Tropical Belt Coal Company, of which Heyst becomes the manager, although he has no interest in this enterprise. Morrison subsequently visits England where he dies. Soon after the coal company goes bankrupt. Heyst however, remains at the site of the derelict coal mine, on the island of Samburan. There he lives the life of a hermit, with his Chinese servant, Wang.

Later Heyst's compassion is aroused again when he encounters the young woman Lena in Surabaya on the Island of Java, where she is playing in an all-woman orchestra. Lena is being mistreated by the orchestra's conductor and his sadistic wife, and threatened with sexual violence by Schomberg, the owner of the hotel, where the orchestra plays. Heyst, with the aid of Schomberg's down-trodden wife, absconds with Lena, to Samburan.

Schomberg's jealous rage at losing Lena, along with his fear of a mysterious trio of visitors, Mr Jones, Martin Ricardo, and Pedro, lead him to suggest to this trio that Heyst caused the death of Morrison, and has great wealth hidden on Samburan.

Taken in by Schomberg's lies, the trio set out for Samburan, but get lost at sea and barely make it to the island. They plan to kill Heyst after they discover where his money is hidden. Only Ricardo is aware of Lena's existence and Jones has a pathological hatred of women. Soon after they arrive, Martin Ricardo attacks Lena, but she is stronger than him, causing Ricardo to fall in love with her. In order to try and protect Heyst, Lena encourages this infatuation. This eventually leads to her accidental death, when Jones realizes that Ricardo is double-crossing him and attempts to kill Ricardo. In despair, Heyst commits suicide. Jones kills Ricardo and then drowns after being shot by Wang.

Pudgy misanthropic boy genius Grady Jacobs wins a scholarship to participate in rainforest research and conservation. Upon discovering that our Grady is only thirteen, Dr. Carter, the scientist in charge, relegates him to the position of camp drudge. A healthier diet and menial labor transforms Grady both physically and emotionally, making him a better and more balanced boy.

During the course of his duties, Grady somehow discovers a way to communicate with trees. This fantastic power eventually comes in handy when it is discovered that Dr. Carter's project would in fact lead to the destruction of the rainforest.

Julius Chancer, young assistant to the historical researcher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey, becomes embroiled in an adventure to discover the lost Rainbow Orchid, largely due to the machinations of scheming Daily News reporter William Pickle. He is accompanied by silent film actress Lily Lawrence, her American agent Nathaniel Crumpole, and Tayaut, a French stunt-pilot. The search for the orchid is opposed by the devious Evelyn Crow, right hand associate to scheming businessman Urkaz Grope.

The adventure leads them up the Indus Valley and into Chitral, where they encounter the Kalash people, before heading further into the Hindu Kush. Eventually, they find themselves within a lost world, which may hide the secret of a forgotten super-weapon.

The story opens with the narrator in a frenzy about an apparent tragedy that has just befallen his household. His wife has apparently died, as he makes repeated references to her being laid out on a table, presumably lifeless. The narrator proceeds to make an attempt to relate the story to the reader in an effort to make sense of the situation.

The narrator is the owner of a pawnshop, and one of his repeated customers was a young girl of sixteen who always pawns items to earn money to advertise as a governess in the newspaper. The narrator could see that she was in a dire financial situation, and he often gave her much more for her pawned items than they were reasonably worth. The narrator slowly develops an interest in the girl.

The narrator investigates the girl's background, and finds that she is at the mercy of two greedy aunts. The aunts were arranging her marriage to a fat shopkeeper who previously beat both of his ex-wives to death. Once the shopkeeper proposed marriage to the girl, the narrator countered with his own proposal. The girl decides, after some deliberation, to marry the narrator.

The narrator's marriage started out nicely, but his miserly and reserved ways are taxing to his young wife. A dearth of communication and disagreements about how the pawnshop should be run eventually result in arguments, though the narrator insists that they never quarreled.

The narrator's wife begins to make a habit of leaving during the day, and eventually it is discovered that she is visiting Efimovich, a member of the narrator's former regiment. The narrator's wife eventually confronts the narrator with the details that she learned from Efimovich: details about the narrator's shameful departure from his regiment. The narrator is unfazed, at least externally, and his wife continues her visits to Efimovich. One time, the narrator follows his wife to Efimovich, bringing a revolver. He listens in delight to a verbal duel between his wife and Efimovich, at whom she laughs; and eventually he bursts in and reclaims his wife.

The narrator and his wife return home. They retire for the night separately. In the morning, the narrator opens his eyes to see that his wife is standing over him with the revolver pointed at his temple. He simply closes his eyes again, and he is convinced that he conquered her with his readiness to accept death. She does not shoot, and the narrator buys her a separate bed that day. That same day, she becomes ill.

The narrator spares no expense for his wife's medical care, and she slowly recovers. Throughout the entire winter the narrator watches his wife furtively, and a watershed moment happens when she begins to sing in his presence. The narrator kisses his wife's feet and promises to be a changed man. He recounts the story of his shame in the regiment, and he promises to take her to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Several days later, the narrator leaves the house to make arrangements for passports.

When the narrator returns home, he is met with a crowd of people outside his house. His wife has committed suicide: she has jumped out of the window while holding an icon. The narrator is convinced that he was only five minutes too late, even though it was ultimately his narcissistic love that drove his gentle wife to suicide.

The Space Cruiser E-89, crewed by Captain Paul Ross, Lt. Ted Mason, and Lt. Mike Carter, is on a mission to analyze new worlds and discover if they are suitable for colonization. While orbiting a planet, Mason sees a metallic glint in the landscape. He conjects that this might be a sign of alien life, but the pragmatic Captain Ross disagrees. Nevertheless, the Cruiser prepares to land next to the mysterious object.

After landing, the men find that the gleaming comes from the wreck of a ship exactly like their own. Inside the craft, they discover their own lifeless bodies. Mason and Carter go numb with shock. Ross, struggling for an explanation, decides they have bent time in such a way as to get a glimpse of the future. He says to avoid their fate they must refrain from taking off again. Mason and Carter fiercely object to this plan, especially once they find that atmospheric interference prevents their contacting anyone for help, and that the frigid night-time temperatures of the planet will force them to rapidly exhaust the ship's energy reserves on heat. Ross pulls rank to make them comply.

While looking out the viewport, Carter is transported back to a country lane on Earth. There, he encounters people from his past. He runs to the house that his wife and he shared, and finds it empty except for a telegram notifying her that he has died in the line of duty. Carter is wrenched from his vision by Ross; as Carter describes what he has just experienced, he realizes that the people he encountered are dead. Ross insists it was a delusion. The two then find Mason has vanished. He is having an emotional reunion with his wife and child. When Ross pulls him back, Mason is enraged and wants to be allowed back, maintaining that his encounter with his family was real. From Mason's pocket, Ross pulls a newspaper clipping about the death of Mason's wife and child. The captain then posits a new theory about what is going on: The planet is inhabited by telepathic aliens who are using illusions to keep them from reporting back to Earth, thus averting colonization of their home. Ross says that if they take the E-89 back up to space, that should break the spell.

The men take E-89 back in orbit. Mason and Carter admit that Ross may have been right about the aliens. Ross then insists on landing the craft again to gather foreign samples to bring back to Earth. When they land again, the wreck of their craft is still present. The successive disproving of Ross's theories, combined with an intuitive knowledge of their condition, brings Mason and Carter to the realization that they already crashed and are dead. Their afterlife visits were real, and their current situation is the illusion. Ross refuses to accept this. He rejects his crew's pleas to be allowed to embrace their deaths and be reunited with their loved ones, and says that they will "go over it again and again" until he figures out an alternative explanation.

In compliance with Ross's order, the men are returned to the moment where Mason first spotted the E-89's wreckage, doomed to relive the past several hours of investigation over and over.

Gas station attendants Chuck Murray and Ferdie Jones aspire to better jobs. They get work as temporary waiters at Chez Glamour, a high-class nightclub where Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters perform, but quickly are fired for causing a scene. Ferdie dreams of having his own nightclub one day.

Back at the service station, gangster "Moose" Mattson, brings his car in for gas and cleaning. When he is spotted by the police, he speeds off with Chuck and Ferdie trapped inside the vehicle. During the chase, Matson trades shots with the police and is killed. According to the gangster's unconventional will, which states that whoever was with him when he died will inherit his estate, the boys inherit Mattson's rundown tavern, the Forrester's Club. Mattson had also given a cryptic clue about a hidden stash of money, stating that he "kept his money in his head," but its existence remains questionable.

Mattson's attorney introduces the boys to an associate, Charlie Smith. Chuck and Ferdie are unaware that Smith is a member of Moose's gang and seeks the money. Smith has arranged for a wildcat bus to drop them off at the Forrester's Club, but the unscrupulous bus driver abandons them and three unrelated passengers—a doctor, a radio actress, and a waitress—at the tavern during a heavy rainstorm.

As the night progresses, strange things happen. Smith disappears while searching the basement, and his corpse turns up unexpectedly several times. The water in the tavern tastes foul. Ferdie discovers his bedroom is rigged to transform into a casino with hidden gambling equipment. The girls are scared by what appears to be a ghost. Two detectives show up, but vanish soon after starting their investigation. While Ferdie examines a map to find the quickest route back to town, candles on the table move mysteriously and scare him.

Ferdie inadvertently discovers Moose's treasure hidden inside the stuffed moose head above the fireplace. A disgruntled member of Moose's gang appears and demands the money at gunpoint. The boys manage to knock him out, but other gang members appear. Chuck and the doctor fight off two of them, while others chase Ferdie, who has the loot, through the tavern. Ferdie scares off all the gangsters by imitating the sound of a police siren. The doctor announces that the tavern's unsavory water has valuable therapeutic properties, and Ferdie and Chuck transform the place into a posh health resort. The boys hire Ted Lewis and The Andrews Sisters to headline, and the maitre d' who fired them from Chez Glamour turns up as a temp waiter.

Schlomo, an Ethiopian boy, is placed by his Christian mother with an Ethiopian Jewish woman whose child has died. This woman, who will become his adoptive mother, is about to be airlifted from a Sudanese refugee camp to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984. His birth mother, who hopes for a better life for him, tells him "Go, live, and become," as he leaves her to get on the bus. The film tells of his growing up in Israel and how he deals with the secrets he carries: not being Jewish and having left his birth mother.

Blackadder and Baldrick are discussing the latter's latest feeble cunning plan: namely, Baldrick carving his name on a bullet to get around the fact that "there's a bullet with [his] name on it". Lt. George enters and provides Blackadder with a copy of the propaganda magazine ''King and Country'', which Blackadder uses for toilet paper, and a new service revolver. Blackadder deduces from these ominous signs that an advance against the Germans is imminent, one which they will probably not survive. Baldrick suggests that they take up cooking at HQ to get out of the assault but Blackadder shoots down the idea, highlighting Baldrick's extremely poor cooking skills: among other delicacies, his "cream custard" is actually cat's vomit.

Shortly afterwards, Blackadder is called to the office of General Melchett for a special mission: Field Marshal Haig's supreme tactical plan (where the men climb out of their trenches and walk slowly towards the enemy, a plan they have used eighteen times before) is weakening the men's morale and he is in search of a way to raise their spirits. After Blackadder jokingly suggests Haig's resignation and suicide (which Melchett takes literally and notes down), he is told that they need new inspiring artwork for the front cover of ''King and Country''. Blackadder is uninterested until he learns that the artist needs to leave the trenches for Paris, and attempts to paint a work of art by himself. He and Baldrick both fail, but when George reveals he can paint surprisingly well, Blackadder gets him to paint a picture of a British soldier (resembling Blackadder) standing next to the body of a dead nun in a ruined French village.

When Melchett and Captain Darling arrive to inspect their work, Blackadder displays his own painting "War" in place of George's. The General rejects it; George tries to protest, but he and Baldrick are only to speak when given permission by Blackadder, which the Captain refuses to grant. The next painting, Baldrick's "My Family and Other Animals", depicts vomit and is also rejected by Melchett. Blackadder proceeds to take credit for George's painting, earning himself the position of war artist.

Melchett then reveals that the ''King and Country'' cover story was just a ploy: instead of Paris, the chosen artist will in fact go into No-Man's Land and draw the enemy positions. With debatable help from George and Baldrick, he returns with a sketch illustrating immense but fictional enemy defensive capabilities, including a large number of elephants. Darling and Blackadder suggest that the push should be cancelled. Melchett responds by saying that would be exactly what the enemy would expect and therefore what they will not do, in order to make the Germans think that the British intelligence is rotten. Melchett orders the attack anyway, which Blackadder, George and Baldrick avoid by dressing up as Italian chefs and substituting themselves for Melchett's chef. After serving Baldrick's vile cuisine to Melchett and Darling, the three escape back to the trenches, where Blackadder asks Baldrick how he managed "to get so much custard out of such a small cat".

Taro Yamada, or lives in the town of Corja in Japan with his mother, eccentric father and younger sister Alyssa; the family moved there after his father changed jobs. He received his Combat Armor by accident during their house-warming party, when he ordered pizza from 'Sensational Cafeteria' or SECA and instead received the suit. After realizing the suit gave him incredible strength and that he is required to pay for the armor, Taro decides to become a hero for hire, performing various heroic tasks and odd-jobs for the townspeople of Corja.

Blackadder is feeling bored, so George suggests a Charlie Chaplin film to cheer him up, but Blackadder declines, citing his hatred of Chaplin. Baldrick gets a newspaper reporting that the Russian Revolution has started and the Russians have pulled out of the war as a result. George is initially delighted, until Blackadder reminds him that the Russians were their allies, and Blackadder is dismayed, since it will mean "three-quarters of a million Germans leaving the Russian Front and coming over here with the express purpose of using my nipples for target practice!" Blackadder decides to desert, but is stopped when General Melchett arrives in the trench as he ironically needs Blackadder to help him shoot some deserters. Melchett, reminding Blackadder of the French army mutinies the previous year, and the recent Russian uprising, is determined to prevent the same thing happening in the British Army. To prevent an uprising, he asks Captain Blackadder to organise a cabaret to boost the men's morale, something that Blackadder eagerly accepts when a possible tour is mentioned (which would allow him to leave the trenches). Melchett also asks his driver, Corporal "Bob" Parkhurst, to aid Blackadder. Blackadder immediately notices that "Bob" is a girl in disguise, something of which Melchett remains entirely unaware; however, Bob persuades Blackadder not to reveal the truth.

The show, which features Baldrick's Charlie Chaplin impression (featuring a dead slug called Graham as Baldrick's "moustache"), which Melchett thinks is a slug-balancing act, and Lieutenant George's drag act, "Gorgeous Georgina", is a success on its first night, but unfortunately Melchett falls in love with "Georgina", takes her to the Regimental Ball, and proposes to her. Worst of all, George accepts because he feared he may have been court-martialled for disobeying a superior officer.

Blackadder is called to Melchett's office and it is revealed the marriage is to take place that Saturday and the General wants him to be his best man. Consequently, he informs Melchett that there is something wrong with Georgina. At first Melchett is worried she may be Welsh, but Blackadder then informs him of Georgina's "death" from stepping on a cluster of landmines. At first, Melchett mourns deeply for his "perfect woman", but seconds later, he recovers by saying "Oh well. Can't be helped. Can't be helped". He then refuses to continue the show, citing that Georgina was "the only good thing about it", but Blackadder says he has already found a new leading lady. These words place Blackadder in "the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun."

All of George's suggestions as to who to replace him as leading lady are rejected as being "too short", "too old" or "too dead". Baldrick offers to take up the role, but Blackadder quickly dismisses the idea (in truth, Baldrick's plan was to marry Melchett and be a Trojan Horse – or "frozen horse" as he refers to it as – to bring down the aristocracy). He then realises he has had a leading lady in his presence all the time and replaces George with Bob. In spite of Bob's more convincing and better received "drag" act, and Baldrick's now seemingly "feeble impression of Buster Keaton", Melchett proclaims the second night's show a "disaster", recognising Bob and still not realising she is a female, and immediately stops any possibility of a tour (and Blackadder leaving). He instead declares that with the arrival of the Americans into the war, morale will be boosted by "endless showings of Charlie Chaplin films" (with Blackadder as projectionist at a personal request from Chaplin himself, much to his annoyance). Captain Darling revels in Melchett's displeasure with Blackadder, causing Blackadder to offer him a "liquorice allsort" (Baldrick's slug), which he accepts.

''Special Studies Film II'' is a short film about two men (Hall and Miller) who discover a doll in the woods. The men have been drinking alcohol and start to laugh at the doll. The doll sits up and proceeds to murder the men.

The year is 220X. Technology has advanced rapidly since the age of the internet, leading to the creation of new and more efficient modes of transportation, as well as the construction of futuristic cities, all linked together by three satellites orbiting the Earth—Pegasus, Leo, and Dragon. The satellites accomplish this by maintaining a network of EM waves around the planet's atmosphere, thereby powering the invisible EM Wave World. The human population carries portable devices called Transers to interface with the EM Wave World and other electronic devices. Problems caused by criminals and EM Wave Viruses manipulating the EM Wave World are commonly dealt with by the Satella Police.

Original series

A proud warrior of the FM Planet, Omega-Xis, betrays his kind and escapes to Earth where he makes contact with Geo Stelar. Like his fellow extraterrestrials called FM-ians, Omega-Xis is capable of initiating a process known as "Electromagnetic Wave Change," which transforms ordinary humans of the same frequency as themselves into "EM Wave Humans," allowing them to freely operate in the EM Wave World. With these new powers, Geo becomes known as Mega Man, a hero of Echo Ridge. However, Omega-Xis holds the key to accessing the weapon Andromeda, capable of destroying planets. As such, many FM-ians pursue Omega-Xis with the intent of retrieving the key in their goal to destroy the Earth. Meanwhile, Omega-Xis also knows the secret to the disappearance of Geo's father in a catastrophic space accident months ago.

The first half of the series focuses on the FM-ians hunting Omega-Xis for the Andromeda Key. Eventually, they succeed, but by using Star Force, Mega Man is able to sustain Andromeda and destroy the key. In the latter half of the series, the FM-ians band together, taking the guise of their original human counterparts, and seek a way to energize a new Andromeda Key. Eventually, Gemini Spark takes the reins of the operation and succeeds in reviving Andromeda, but the FM-ian king Cepheus descends onto Earth to put a stop to all of the chaos. Geo also has an encounter with his father Kelvin who reveals that he has become an EM wave being and is still exploring space, and that Geo's place is on Earth, fighting for justice as Mega Man.

Tribe

The second series follows the events of the second game focusing on the lost continent of Mu. The ancient civilization vanished ages ago, and a few of its remnants still exist as myths and legends called UMAs (Unidentified Mystery Animals similar to FM-ians that also have the ability to fuse with humans). The UMAs begin merging with humans in order to search for the treasures of Mu, the powerful OOPArts, which will give them the power to revive Mu. After Geo and Omega-Xis encounter several unusual enemies, they meet a professor named Doctor Vega who sends them on a quest to find the OOPArts and stop the UMAs. Using the OOPArts, Mega Man is able to take new forms, primarily the sword-wielding Thunder Zerker form. Near the end, Geo discovers that Doctor Vega and her accomplice Hollow are manipulating Geo to use the OOPArts for the revival of Mu and the devastating force known as Le Mu. But Mega Man combines the three OOPArts together, forming Tribe King, and uses this new power to stop Le Mu and seal Mu once more. The series premiered November 3, immediately after the original series' conclusion, and concluded March 29, 2008.

When porn star Roxy Doujor is denied entrance into the afterlife, she is given one last chance to help some poor soul on Earth. She finds Rudy Gerner working at a summer river resort. Roxy is given the task of helping Rudy lose his virginity in order to be allowed into the afterlife.

Ricky Wade is the hottest waterskiing instructor around, and he has just been rehired by his former employer/camp to whip up attendance. However, the camp is in serious financial trouble and the owner of a rival, more popular, camp wants to buy them out. Thus, the two camps engage in a winner-take-all competition that will settle the rivalry once and for all.

The film attempts to chronicle Bruce Lee's career from his ''The Green Hornet'' days up to the time of his death. The film opens with a pre-fame Bruce Lee (Bruce Li) delivering newspapers in Seattle, Washington. Lee then becomes a martial arts teacher. Lee competes in a martial arts tournament and wins. After the match he is offered the role of the Kato in ''The Green Hornet''. He marries Linda Lee Caldwell and they have 2 children together.

Later, Lee goes to Hong Kong. He turns down a contract from Shaw Brothers due to a pay dispute. The wife of director Lo Wei offers Lee a contract at Golden Harvest which he accepts. Lee makes his first film which becomes very successful at the box office. At a celebration event Lee meets actress ''Betty Ting-Pei''. The two later fall in love. Bruce does his second film which is another success at the box office. Lee turns down Lo Wei's next film offer and opts to direct his next film himself. While on set Lee begins to experience severe headaches. Betty reveals to Bruce that she is pregnant. Later Linda arrives in Hong Kong to visit Bruce. Bruce decides to get a divorce and be with Betty. One night while Betty is making dinner Bruce suffers a headache and Betty tells him to take a nap. Later when Betty tries to wake Lee she finds him dead.

A young alien named Stu, is inside a spacecraft taking an alien abduction test. He must snatch a sleeping farmer named Ernie under the watchful eye of his impassive examiner, a gelatinous blob named Mr. B. Working from memory, Stu is expected to use an array of thousands of identical unlabeled toggle switches for this purpose; Mr. B's neutral expression gives no hints of which ones to use.

Stu's hesitant flicks of the switches turn out to be wrong, causing Ernie to bump into the walls and ceiling, albeit without waking him up. As Stu grows increasingly frustrated, Stu yells and swipes randomly at the array. Ernie bounces randomly around the room like a pinball, knocking over the furniture in the process but remaining asleep. Eventually, after checking his notes, Stu does succeed in maneuvering Ernie out the window and up into the ship, but he shuts off the tractor beam without closing the cargo hatch. As Ernie plummets toward the ground, Mr. B takes over and catches him, he then pushes Stu far away from him and starts working the switches with incredible speed to put him back in his bed and clean up the mess Stu created.

Dejected over his failure, Stu struggles to hold back tears. With a sigh, the sympathetic Mr. B allows him to launch the spaceship for the trip home. Stu cheerfully grabs the steering yoke and begins to maneuver; a moment later the ship slams to the ground, crushing Ernie's house. When it lifts off, its underside is covered with dirt and debris, and nothing is left of the house except a tall pillar of dirt in the center of a crater, cut out by the open cargo hatch. Atop this, Ernie is still sound asleep in bed.

As the end credits run, the sound of Ernie's alarm clock is heard, followed by his yawn, a scream and a thud – indicating that he has fallen into the crater.

Bert Harris works for a hotel as a bellboy. One day, he meets Anne Roberts, who signs up as a chambermaid. He takes a fancy to her and lets her in on his racket, conning people out of money. They arrange for married hotel guest A. Rupert Johnson Jr. to be caught in a compromising position with Anne and get $5000 to keep a (fake) policeman from taking him to jail. From there, they leave town and embark on ever grander crooked schemes.

Anne falls in love with Bert, but he does not realize it until it is too late. By the time he proposes to her, she has transferred her affections to the respectable Joe Reynolds and marries him. Bert travels around Europe for a year. When he returns to the United States, he is no longer interested in crime.

However, Anne tracks him down and asks him for $30,000. It turns out that Joe has embezzled that amount from his employer. Bert does not have that much, but he comes up with a plan. He gets Joe to give the keys to the office and the combination of the company safe. He will break into the safe and steal what is left. Everyone will assume that he also took the $30,000 in negotiable bonds. However, Joe double crosses him; he has the police waiting. Bert manages to speed away in his car, but is shot and captured. When Anne comes to see him in his cell, she informs him that she found out what Joe did. Bert persuades her not to reveal everything to the police, telling her it would not help him anyway. She vows to be waiting for him after he serves his sentence, cheering him up.

The game for the most part takes place within the dream world of Chopin, with brief segments in the real world, where Chopin is on his death bed. The story is divided into eight chapters, with each chapter being represented by one of Chopin's compositions, and being related to events within his historical life. The story begins with a small group of characters wishing to meet with Count Waltz of Forte regarding the mineral powder, but eventually evolves into a far-reaching tale, with political espionage and rebellion being a commonly explored theme. Escapism is also a large theme in the game, one dealt with explicitly in the ending.

It starts with Polka, a young girl that has magic, which means she is going to die soon. One day, after being rejected by the citizens of Ritardando, because average people think the magic disease is contagious, she decides that she wants to do something with her life before it ends. The initial party wants to find out why the mineral powder is so cheap compared to the floral powder and to stop the mining of Mt. Rock to acquire it because the mining damages Agogo Forest. As they progress, the party learns that the mineral powder has fatal side effects that would aid Forte's insurrection against its enemy, Baroque. Realising this, the party heads for Forte, but are stopped and taken into the Forte dungeon because Forte was alerted to the planned arrival of the rebellion group, Andantino. Shortly after escaping, the party unites with Andantino and are spotted by the same Forte personnel south of Fort Fermata (which is a short walk from Forte), and fall off a bridge into a river. Half of the party, along with Andantino, go through poisonous swamps to Andante, the hideout of Andantino. The other half of the party were saved by Prince Crescendo of Baroque, with his ship. They encounter pirates and defeat them shortly thereafter. After getting safely into Baroque, the party discuss the situation. Forte is threatening a war, but Baroque wants peace. Crescendo thinks of the plan to assassinate Count Waltz of Forte, but the plan is quickly discarded.

In the PlayStation 3 version, that half of the party, along with Prince Crescendo and Princess Serenade, are then warped into Lament Mirror. The party discovers the history of Baroque and Forte. They find out that they were also once at a similar situation of threat to an all-scale war.

That half of the party returns to Ritardando to reunite with the rest of the party. As they do, Allegretto leaves the reunion to retrieve Polka from her village. The full party then heads for Baroque and decide to explore Aria Temple, where they uncover a part of the mystery. When the party returns to Baroque, they find Crescendo and Serenade missing. It is discovered that they left for Forte to turn themselves in to prevent war. The party heads for Forte, and on the way (at Mt. Rock), they encounter Crescendo, Serenade and subsequently, Count Waltz. They battle, but Count Waltz completes a potion which turns his partner, Legato into a giant monster. Legato then rips a portal in the air and disappears with Waltz. Realizing that the entire world, not just Baroque is in danger, the party follows them to the city of the dead, Elegy Of The Moon, where souls lost to the mineral powder dwell. The party advances past Xylophone Tower and the Noise Dunes to Double Reed Tower, where Legato made another portal. There, the party defeats them and finally fight Chopin as the final antagonist, for him to complete his destiny. Realizing that it is the only way to save the world, Polka jumps off a cliff and is reborn younger, but then becomes older again and embraces Allegretto. Finally, back in the real world, Chopin's spirit rises out of his body and he plays his piano one last time, in a blooming sea of nocturnal flowers 'Heaven's Mirror', composing a song that was inspired by Polka.

Characters

All of the characters in ''Eternal Sonata'', with the exception of real-world people such as Chopin, are named after musical terms.

• : Main antihero, age 39. He is a renowned composer and pianist. In the world of his dreams he meets Polka, a young girl with an incurable illness, who is the same age his younger sister Emilia was when she died of tuberculosis. Chopin adventures with his companions in search of answers in a world which is slowly becoming his new reality.
  ''Voiced by:'' Mitsuaki Madono (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)
• : Age 14. She has powerful magic abilities, which means she is doomed to die. Faced with this sad fate, she nonetheless refuses to give up hope and uses her magic for the benefit of others. Although she is reviled and shunned because of her illness, she holds within her a burning desire to save the people she loves.
  ''Voiced by:'' Aya Hirano (Japanese); Erin Fitzgerald (English)
• : Age 16. A young man standing up to the contradictions of the world. Though Allegretto is poor, he has a good heart. He is a thief who steals bread in order to feed children who are not able to feed themselves. However, he knows that this is not a solution to the underlying problem. He has decided that he must do something in the hopes that someday no one will go hungry.
  ''Voiced by:'' Hiro Shimono (Japanese); Sam Riegel (English)
• : Age 8. Beat is a young boy who lives with Allegretto in the port city of Ritardando. His greatest treasure is a camera which was given to him by his father. He has a cheerful personality and can immediately get along with almost anyone he meets.
  ''Voiced by:'' Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese); Mona Marshall (English)
• : A 26-year-old shepherd the party meets in the countryside. She's a tough talker and being slightly older than the others in the party, can handle herself. She has a pet named Arco, who tags along with the group.
  ''Voiced by:'' Hoko Kuwashima (Japanese); Megan Hollingshead (English)
• : An 8-year-old guardian of the Agogo Forest with her sister. The party meets her when they were imprisoned in the Forte Castle dungeons. Salsa thinks hats are the best treasure in the world. She is quite brash, outspoken, energetic and very competitive towards Beat.
  ''Voiced by:'' Mika Kanai (Japanese); Amy Gross (English)
• : The other guardian of the Agogo Forest; Salsa's twin sister. She tends to be the more reasonable one of the two, making her a sharp contrast to Salsa. March appears to be mature and gentle.
  ''Voiced by:'' Chiwa Saito (Japanese); Amy Gross (English)
• : Jazz is the 27 year old, leader of the revolutionary group Andantino. Quiet and serious, he worries about the damage Count Waltz might be doing to the people with the mineral powder and the processes needed to mine it.
  ''Voiced by:'' Joji Nakata (Japanese); D.C. Douglas (English)
• : Jazz's lieutenant in Andantino, she's perceptive and tough, and inwardly dislikes Claves. Falsetto is 22 years old and has known Jazz since childhood.
  ''Voiced by:'' Tomoe Hanba (Japanese); Julie Ann Taylor (English)
• : Jazz's 24-year-old girlfriend and another soldier of Andantino. A spy for Forte, but soon regrets it. Murdered by Forte's Rondo because of treason, but can be revived further into the game.
  ''Voiced by:'' Mie Sonozaki (Japanese); Tara Platt (English)
• : The young prince of Baroque. Crescendo replaces his father for leading Baroque into the future war between Forte due to a sickness his father is suffering on. He rescues Polka, Beat, Frederic, and Salsa after they fell into Adagio River. He is 29 years of age. Crescendo is only playable in the PlayStation 3 version.
  ''Voiced by:'' Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese); Cam Clarke (English)
• : The fiancée of Prince Crescendo. She is 23 years of age. Spy for Forte—revealed by Claves—but leaves Forte to join Baroque. Serenade is only playable in the PlayStation 3 version.
  ''Voiced by:'' Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh (English)

'''Part I. The Man and the Brig'''

Young Tom Lingard is the owner and captain of a sailing ship, the Lightning which lies becalmed at night, somewhere in the Malayan archipelago. With his chief mate Shaw he discusses the problems that women can cause. Suddenly they are approached by a search party in a boat seeking help for a yacht which has become stranded on mudflats on a nearby island.

Carter, the commander of the boat is interrogated in rather a hostile and suspicious manner which leaves him puzzled, but his boat is put in tow. When they reach the island Lingard handles his brig skilfully, but it transpires that he was heading for the island himself. He fires a warning shot into the interior, then joins the stricken yacht.

'''Part II. The Shore of Refuge'''

The story backtracks to explain how Lingard first came into contact with the Wajo leader Hassim, and their instant bond of friendship. Lingard goes to visit Hassim, but is warned off by Jaffir, who reports that Hassim is now a fugitive in a civil war. But Lingard takes a long boat on shore to rescue him, and the sortie is a success.

Lingard begins trading in arms and saving money to help Hassim in the re-conquest of Wajo. He is followed around by Jorgenson, an old sea-captain whose life has been ruined. When Lingard explains his plans to Jorgenson, the older man warns him against taking action, and offers his own life as an example of failure. But in the end, with no future prospects, he agrees to join in the venture, along with his prematurely aged native wife.

Lingard has previously visited local chief Belarab to ask for help, and offers him guns in exchange for manpower. Lingard feels that since he has saved Hassim's life, he is tied to him in some mysterious way. He buys the old schooner Emma and runs it aground close to Belarab to use as a weapons store, placing Jorgenson in charge.

'''Part III. The Capture'''

When Lingard arrives on the stricken yacht he is met with hostility from its owner Mr Travers, who thinks he is a vulgar adventurer, intent on profiting from salvaging the yacht. Lingard sees the yacht and its passengers as merely annoying obstacles who have come between him and his plans.

The passenger d'Alcacer is in flight from Europe following the early death of his wife and is friendly with the owner's enigmatic wife Edith Travers. Whilst Lingard and Travers trade insults with each other, d'Alcacer takes an instant liking to Lingard and tries to mediate. But the dispute is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Hassim and his sister Immada.

Mrs Travers is fascinated by Immada's attractiveness, but the girl and her brother reproach Lingard for recently neglecting them, and leave with him when the interview comes to a fruitless conclusion.

On her own after dinner on the yacht, Mrs Travers reflects upon the failure of her romantic dreams. Suddenly, Lingard rows up alongside to talk to her, telling her he feels completely detached from his British roots and more at home with the Malaysians.

He wants her to help him by pretending to be frightened on the yacht, so that they will have no alternative but to accept Lingard's offer to house them on the brig. He tells her the whole background story, which touches her romantic sentiments. She feels existentially elated by his frankness and emotional honesty. She is preparing herself to act on his behalf when she is told that her husband and d'Alcacer have been kidnapped whilst walking along the shore.

Back on the brig, Lingard reads a letter he has received from Jorgenson describing disquiet amongst the natives who want to attack the stranded yacht. The letter warns of a threat from rival local leader Tengga to seize the arms stored on the Emma.

The letter goes on to describe the arrival of Sherif Daman, who also wants the arms for the recapture of Wajo. Lingard receives Carter on board as emissary from the yacht. Carter cannot understand Lingard's or Mrs Travers' motivation in the affair. Then chief mate Shaw protests against Lingard's plans – because he appears to be siding against fellow white men on the yacht.

'''Part IV. The Gift of the Shallows'''

Lingard nevertheless goes ahead, and takes Mrs Travers from the yacht onto the brig. He is overawed by her attractiveness and the knowledge that she understands him. He appears to be falling in love with her, but is not aware of it himself. She asks him to rescue d'Alcacer and her husband.

Hassim arrives on the brig with his sister and reports on his visit to the camp where the two prisoners are being held. Lingard decides to recapture the prisoners single-handedly, and he puts Carter in charge of the brig. Immada protests that he is putting himself at risk, whereupon Mrs Travers declares that she will go with him, much to the consternation of Carter, whilst Shaw is outraged at being left with no clear orders.

When Lingard and Mrs Travers reach the Emma Jorgenson is truculent and hostile . Lingard questions Mrs Travers somewhat jealously about d'Alcacer, whilst she in her turn thinks that Lingard is enamoured of Immada, by who they are joined on board with Hassim.

'''Part V. The Point of Honour and the Point of Passion'''

Travers has been rescued and Mrs Travers has adopted native dress on board the Emma. Travers delivers an embittered and pompous lecture to his wife, criticising her behaviour. They argue about Lingard, about whom Travers is arrogant and snobbish.

Travers and d'Alcacer have been released temporarily into Lingard's care. Mrs Travers has had further heart-to-heart conversations with Lingard, and is deeply impressed by his character and his personality. She too appears to be falling in love, but doesn't want to admit it to herself. She would like to share what she knows about Lingard with d'Alcacer, who she regards as a good friend – but she doesn't.

The story backtracks to describe Lingard's arrival at Daman's stockade to negotiate the temporary release of Travers and d'Alcacer. The manoeuvre is successful because of Lingard's high prestige in the locality.

On board the Emma Lingard and Mrs Travers exchange confidences about their earlier lives until they are joined by d'Alcacer, who has been observing their growing intimacy. After dinner d'Alcacer quizzes Mrs Travers about Lingard, who he calls 'the Man of Fate'. They wonder what will happen to them, and d'Alcacer guesses that Lingard will be heart-broken over Mrs Travers. He asks her to give him a sign if she thinks they are about to die.

Lingard calls Mrs Travers into his room where they interrogate each other and verbally admit their mutual attraction. Lingard has received a letter from Carter saying that (with good intentions) he has attacked some of the natives from on board the Lightning – which automatically puts Lingard's plans into jeopardy.

Lingard has despatched Jaffir to find Hassim and Immada, and Jaffir has suggested that the only solution to the problem will be to return the two prisoners to Daman. Lingard and Mrs Travers agree that this must be done quickly. She gives d'Alcacer the warning signal he has requested.

d'Alcacer braces himself philosophically for what he thinks will be certain death, whilst realising that Mr Travers is ill with some sort of fever. When it is time for them to go, Travers claims that his wife is in the grip of some sort of fashionable craze, but it is he himself who is clearly delirious. After a heated departure from Mrs Travers, Lingard takes the two men on shore to deliver them up.

'''Part VI. The Claim of Life and the Toll of Death'''

On board the Emma, Mrs Travers regrets the quarrelsome way she and Lingard parted. Jorgenson meanwhile appears to be making fuses for some sort of explosions. As signs of fighting start up on shore, Mrs Travers wants to join Lingard.

Hassim abandons negotiations with Belarab and is heading back to the Emma when he is intercepted by Tengga's fighters. Jaffir runs to the ship with Hassim's ring and reports to Jorgenson. Mrs Travers is then persuaded to take the ring as a signal to Lingard..

Mrs Travers is rowed onto shore and reaches the stockade bearing a torch, where Lingard is there to receive her. Because she distrusts Jorgenson and does not realise the significance of the ring, she does not pass on to Lingard the message it represents.

Lingard, d'Alcacer, and Mrs Travers talk to each other in turn around a fire. The Spaniard is mainly concerned with the possibility of being murdered the next day, whilst Lingard thinks Mrs Travers could not help herself but join him. She accepts his devotion and tells him nothing, so as not to disturb him. Meanwhile an envoy from Tengga fails to persuade Jorgenson to leave the Emma.

Two days later, following an explosion of some kind, Lingard is on the Lightning where Carter relates rescuing Jaffir. Lingard recalls in flashback awakening alongside Mrs Travers and being summoned to see Belarab.

Belarab has been informed through spies of all elements of Daman's and Tengga's machinations. In the morning mists there appear to be attacks imminent, but when a flotilla of canoes surrounds the Emma, Jorgenson blows up the ship, whereupon Belarab releases the prisoners.

Jaffir's story continues with his escape from the Emma. He tells Lingard about the ring, then dies. Lingard takes Carter as mate on the Lightning then invites Mrs Travers by letter to meet him on shore.

Next morning d'Alcacer rows Mrs Travers out where she meets Lingard. She wants to confess about the undelivered ring, but he already knows the truth and tells her it would not have made any difference. She departs, returns to the yacht, and throws the ring into the sea. The yacht and the Lightning depart in opposite directions.

''Introduction:'' At the beginning, we see the Road Runner ''(Boulevardius Burnupius)'' giving Wile E. a "come on" to chase him, and the camera moves to Wile and freezes to show his Latin name, ''(Dogius Ignoramii)''. The chase continues until the coyote stops to read a sign in the road: ''"'''WARNING:''' The Surgeon General has determined that chasing Road Runners may be hazardous to your health."'' He dismisses this sign as cheesy and laughs at it, before the Road Runner pulls up behind him and beeps the coyote into an overhanging outcropping, and consequently into another headache. With his head smashed through the outcropping, Wile recovers and sees another sign posted at the very end of the outcropping: ''"It's not cool to laugh at the Surgeon General."''

1. Not deterred by this one bit, the coyote continues his dastardly plans: he leaves the Road Runner a free snack on the edge of a cliff while he sneaks up behind his prey and tries to eat him. However, sensing the danger, the Road Runner extends his neck all the way around the screen and beeps in the back of the coyote. To explain this, he displays a sign that says "Road Runners are extremely flexible" and leaves the scene, while Wile E. falls back onto the cliff and is left looking like an accordion.

2. In a similar scheme to one used in the previous cartoon, Wile now locks and loads an ACME Giant Mouse Trap and leaves it in the road for the Road Runner to trip. When the trap snaps, the coyote jumps out to capture his opponent, but surprise, surprise - he finds a giant mouse who is rather displeased with getting his tail caught and returns the favor to Wile's tail.

3. Still trying to make this gadget work, despite his failures with it, the coyote loads himself into a spring attached to a rock and lets go as the Road Runner passes. Voices of Spring plays on the music track as Wile E. ends up being carried across the plateau. Wile E. eventually moves into thin air, and soon catches on to the situation, gulps, and falls. As the spring unfurls through the air like a Slinky, the Road Runner ducks as the rock just misses him and dives all the way through the spring, ultimately landing on Wile, displaying a '''"HAVE MERCY"''' sign, just as he recovers from his massive fall. The coyote leaves this with a flattened head, his neck also coiled up like a Slinky.

4. With these newer cartoons come more ludicrous products, such as ''ACME Instant Road'', which Wile E. rolls out across an arch and down the straight slope in an effort to get the Road Runner to follow him, until he runs out of road and he is left staring at the ground. He can only display a sign that says "In heaven's name - what am I doing?" (seen in the previous cartoon as well, but in distinctly older style) before he is overtaken by gravity and displays a "BYE!" sign.

5. Returning to conventional chasing and gags, the coyote tries to launch himself with a bow to chase the Road Runner, but the bow simply freezes without firing. He hangs in midair for a couple seconds before he realizes this, and attempts to fix it by playing dulcimer to the melody ''"Those Endearing Little Charms"'' on the bowstring, until it activates and Wile spears a cactus. However, this gives the coyote a new idea, displayed by a lightbulb changing from "IDEA" to "CACTUS" repeatedly.

6. The ACME Trick-or-Treat Cactus Costume has arrived, and Wile puts it on, suffering rather discomfiting pain in the process. Finally, he gets it on and hops out into the road while the Road Runner is passing him. However, he fails to grab the Road Runner and wraps his arms around himself, causing massive pain due to the spines. After Wile escapes from the costume offscreen, he kicks its box into the desert out of frustration.

7. As the Road Runner pulls up to another outcropping and signals to the coyote, Wile attempts to see-saw his way over to his rival with a rock and board. However, when the rock lands on the other side, it causes the board to smash into the coyote, and the rock then lands on the thin edge of the board, resulting in it wedging the edge of the outcropping away. This falls to the earth, with Wile, the board, the rock, and two smaller rocks located next to the see-saw following it. As the board looms over the coyote, Wile heaves it into the air before a rock hits the ground, then the outcropping edge, followed by the coyote on the right and the other rock on the left. This causes the coyote to be thrown upwards and bump his head directly on the falling board before he drops on the right side of the outcropping edge and jumps the second rock onto himself, as the board wedges just to the right.

8. Another rather ludicrous ACME product: ACME Lightning Bolts (with rubber gloves) - takes up the remainder of the cartoon. With the safety gloves, the coyote grabs a lightning bolt and successfully sizzles an appropriately labeled "Practice Cactus". He throws a second one at the Road Runner, who stops and takes stock of the situation, and turns the other way as the electricity chases him. The bolt and bird chase all over the mountains until the lightning overtakes the Road Runner, who beeps at the lightning to get it to reverse. The chase returns the way it came until the Road Runner escapes to safety up a mountain slope, while the lightning continues on its normal course - back to its thrower! Wile E.'s eyes pop out and clash with each other in reaction before following the rest of him on the run from the lightning. The hapless coyote is repeatedly prodded with white-hot lightning across the landscape and towards the setting sun.

A rash of horrific murders has terrorized London and baffled police. While returning home from a pub, newspaper reporter Bruce Adams finds one murder victim, a prominent doctor. The next day, two American policemen, Slim and Tubby, who are studying London police methods, respond to brawl at a women's suffrage rally in Hyde Park. Reporter Adams, young suffragette Vicky Edwards, Slim, and Tubby are all caught up in the fray and wind up in jail. Vicky's guardian, Dr. Henry Jekyll, bails Vicky and Adams out, while Tubby and Slim are kicked off the police force. Unknown to anyone, however, Dr. Jekyll has developed an serum which transforms him into Mr. Hyde—the "monster" responsible for the recent murders. Dr. Jekyll, who is secretly in love with Vicky, is angered by Vicky's and Bruce's mutual attraction. He injects himself to transform once again into Hyde with the intent of murdering Adams.

Meanwhile, Tubby and Slim realize that if they capture the monster they will be reinstated on the police force. Walking down a street at night, Tubby spots Hyde (whom Slim at first mistakes for a burglar) and the boys trail him into the music hall where Vicky is performing and Adams is visiting. A chase ensues, and Tubby manages to trap Hyde inside a cell in a wax museum. By the time Tubby brings the police inspector, Adams and Slim to the scene, however, the monster has reverted to the respected Dr. Jekyll, and Tubby is once again rebuked by the police inspector. The "good" doctor, however, asks Slim and Tubby to escort him to his home. While Slim and Tubby snoop around Jekyll's home, drinks a potion which transforms him into a large mouse. Slim and Tubby bring this extraordinary news to the inspector, but the inspector refuses to believe them.

Vicky announces to Jekyll her intent to marry Adams, but Jekyll does not share her enthusiasm and transforms into Hyde right in front of her and attacks her. Adams, Slim and Tubby save her in the nick of time, but Hyde escapes. During the struggle, Jekyll's serum needle falls into a couch cushion, which Tubby accidentally falls onto, transforming him into a Hyde-like monster. Another madcap chase ensues, this time with Adams chasing Jekyll's monster and Slim pursuing Tubby's monster, who they believe are Jekyll. Reports of the monster seemingly being in multiple places at once frustrate and confuse the London police.

Adams' chase ends up back at Jekyll's home, where Hyde falls to his death from an upstairs window, then transforms back into his true identity. Meanwhile, Slim brings Tubby, who is still in monster form, to the inspector's office. Tubby bites the inspector and four officers, then reverts to his true self. Before Slim and Tubby can be reprimanded, however, the inspector and the officers transform into monsters. Slim and Tubby dash through a wall and out of police headquarters to escape.

The series features a young boy named Jarek and his anthropomorphic tiger companion Koj. They encounter the swashbuckling pirate Serra, a fox thief named Rikk, his companion in crime Hawke, Brad the dragon, Tom a turtlish-wizard, and many other mysterious entities. The heroes strive to unravel the mystery behind Jarek's origin and escape the attentions of a mad boy-wizard named Malesur who is seemingly bent on Jarek's destruction.

Jarek has a powerful genie at his control, who is limited to defending Jarek only. Jarek tends to throw himself between his friends and danger so the genie is forced into battle.

The series features shadow-hopping ninja frogs as enemy cannon fodder. In fact, many of the citizens of this realm are anthropomorphic animals, though there are many others who are full-human, such as Hawke and Serra.

About midway through, the series takes a break from Koj and Jarek to focus on Hawke and Rikk in an adventure in a levitating city which is held down by chains.

The heroes band together to stop Malesur, the boy-wizard, once and for all. During the latter part of the series, Jarek suffers a severe injury, requiring him to wear an eyepatch for some time.

Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all Mexico, races against the Road Runner, the Texas road burner, in the USA - Mexico border zone. During the race, Sylvester the Cat and Wile E. Coyote join forces in an attempt to catch their speedy opponents, with predictable results. Often they mistakenly end up injuring each other in comical fashion.

1. As the race starts, Wile E. chases after Road Runner, only to run into a cloud of dust and fall off the cliff (reusing animation from Zoom and Bored). Sylvester tries the same thing, only to find Speedy on the other side of the cliff, before Road Runner scares him off the cliff.

2. As the racers are coming, Wile E. and Sylvester catapult rocks to flatten them, but this backfires when the rocks crash into each other and land on Sylvester and Wile E. instead.

3. The duo then places iron pellets under bird seed and leaves slices of cheese; while the racers eat, the two attach a grenade to a roller skate with a magnet, but only the magnet part of the roller skate leaves and when Wile E. checks it, the grenade blows up in his face (A scene reused from Wild About Hurry).

4. More reused Wild About Hurry animation is seen as Wile E. rolls a flat rock to flatten the racers, but the rock does not move - it stays on the edge of the cliff. Wile E. attempts to make it drop, but it still does not move. Sylvester comes to help and they both jump up and down on it, then the rock finally drops the two of them off the cliff.

5. The duo decide to blow a culvert as the racers are coming, but as Wile E. is placing the dynamite it explodes. This reuses a gag from Hopalong Casualty.

6. One more idea from Wild About Hurry finds the duo using a rocket car to chase Speedy Gonzales and the Road Runner, but they zoom past them and technically finish first to win the race, however, nobody gets the trophy. They then fly into the air and the rocket car explodes into a firework as the end card fades in.

The story takes place in the mid-1930s, and details the fight between the United Airmen and their merciless foe "The Doom". The Doom and his men attack Pearl Harbor and invade and takeover Japan until being defeated by the United Airmen, leaving a power vacuum in the Pacific.

In the story in DHP, set 2 month's later, Crash and his friend encounter air pirates using left over Doomsmen planes, while the Soviet Union takes advantage by taking over Japan.

After becoming involved with the ex-fiancée of a business acquaintance, lawyer Federico Fendi (Omar Sharif) becomes consumed with suspicion that his new wife Carla (Anouk Aimée) may be moonlighting as a high-class prostitute. His attempts to entrap her lead to disaster.

After graduating college in her teens, Barbara Gordon hoped to follow in her father into law enforcement, but is derailed by his over-protectiveness and society's prejudices. This leads Barbara to adopt the vigilante persona of Batgirl.

Masquerade

Barbara relates the Greek myth of the prophet Cassandra, who wore a mask to hide her shame from those who ridiculed and ignored her prophecies, even after they came true.

When she asks her father and Gotham City police captain James Gordon for permission to join the GCPD, he forbids it out of concern for her safety. Barbara applies to be a FBI field agent, but is dismissed for her youth and stature, despite her obvious aptitude.

Barbara finds inspiration in costumed vigilantes, particularly the superheroine Black Canary. Using information stolen from her dad’s office and the assistance of computer hacking friends, Barbara breaks into the headquarters of the Justice Society of America, leaving a note asking for Black Canary to mentor her.

Future Tense

Barbara arrives at a rendezvous point expecting Black Canary, but finds JSA member Wildcat. He tells her that he didn't give Barbara's letter to Black Canary because she wouldn’t be interested, and advises Barbara to give up. After Barbara leaves, Doctor Fate predicts "triumph and tragedy" in her future.

Disheartened, Barbara falls into a slump for several days. Her father invites her to a masquerade ball for police officers and Gotham's elite. Barbara shows up in a modified Batman costume, poking fun at her dad’s controversial dealing with the vigilante. But before she can make her presence known, the ball is interrupted by novice villain Killer Moth, who attempts to kidnap Bruce Wayne.

Captain Gordon intervenes and is knocked unconscious. Barbara engages Killer Moth, letting Wayne escape to don his Batman costume and calls his sidekick, Dick Grayson, aka Robin.

Barbara chases Killer Moth into a forest but he escapes via helicopter, leaving her to be met by Batman and Robin.

Afterglow

Batman demands to know who she is and tells her she has no right to wear his symbol. Killer Moth returns in a helicopter and opens fire with a machine gun, taunting Batman, Robin, and "Batgirl". The three scatter and Killer Moth is chased away by police.

When her father and a young officer named Jason Bard check on her at home, she pretends to have been too ill to attend the ball. Her father leaves an obscured photograph of Batgirl and a scrap of her costume from the ball, leaving Barbara to wonder if he suspects more.

She builds on the Batgirl persona and foils minor crimes around Gotham. After buying new equipment, Barbara decides to test a rappelling rope by swinging off of a skyscraper, unaware Batman and Robin are watching her scale the building.

A disgraced Killer Moth tries to convince mobster Tony Bressi to employ him as muscle, but is dismissed for getting publicly beaten by a girl. It is revealed that Killer Moth's true identity is bankrupt ex-millionaire, Cameron Von Cleer, who owes money to Bressi.

Cave Dwellers

Barbara leaps off the skyscraper and her rope snaps mid-descent. Robin swoops in to catch her, admitting that Batman cut her rope with a batarang since the rope she was using would have sliced her hands off or dislocated her arms once it went taut. Incensed, Barbara tries to attack Batman but is knocked out with sleeping gas.

Barbara wakes up in the Batcave and Robin gives her a tour. After successfully completing an elaborate combat simulation, Barbara tell them she is as capable as them. When Batman asks about her motivation, she is unable to give a clear answer- except that she simply can and believes Gotham needs all the help it can get. Unimpressed, Batman has Robin knock her out once more with sleeping gas.

Barbara wakes in front of her house without her cowl on. She realizes this means that they know who she is and frets they might tell her father. Later, Barbara receives a package from Robin containing crime fighting equipment, including the correct rope for swinging off buildings and a note assuring her Batman will come around.

Moth to a Flame

Rejected by Gotham’s underworld and his own henchmen as a laughing stock, Killer Moth is approached by pyromaniac Garfield Lynns. Looking for an outlet for his sadistic tendencies, Lynns offer to help Killer Moth exact revenge on Batgirl and form a criminal partnership. Lynns adopts the persona of "Firefly", complete with a flamethrower. The duo’s first act is intimidating Bressi into hiring them.

Bird of Prey

Bressi attempts to frame Firefly and Killer Moth by sending two henchmen to abduct Captain Gordon while wearing Killer Moth and Firefly costumes, and they shoot Officer Bard in the process. As they take Gordon to a secluded greenhouse to kill him, Bressi calls the real Killer Moth and Firefly to the location, and then alerts the police.

While investigating her father's abduction, Barbara bumps into Black Canary who also wants to save him. Believing Batgirl to be an ‘official’ associate of Batman, Canary offers to go to the greenhouse with her.

The pair arrive at the greenhouse and Bressi’s henchmen take Gordon and flee. On the way to the greenhouse, the real Killer Moth and Firefly spot their impersonators being chased by Black Canary and Batgirl. The imposters lead everyone to Bressi’s home, where the real Killer Moth and Firefly ambush them.

Hearts Afire

Firefly deduces Bressli’s plans, incinerates the impersonators, and causes an explosion. In the confusion, Barbara evacuates her father and the costumed villains escape. Leaving Black Canary to watch over Gordon and Bressi, Barbara walks home as her motorcycle has been destroyed.

Gordon calls for a meeting with Batman, only to be met by Robin, who assures him that Batgirl has nothing to do with them. Gordon warns Robin that Batman needs to stop Batgirl or he will do it himself.

Barbara visits Officer Bard in the hospital and he reveals he will need to leave the force because of his injuries.

Robin presents her with a new Batcycle and invites her on an emergency call in Gotham's subway network.

Seasoned Crime-Fighter

Batgirl and Robin arrive at a subway platform and arrest novice criminal, the Condiment King, for harassing passersbys. Robin tells her that he was just a detour — the real emergency is a hostage situation on a train. Robin suddenly kisses Barbara and they continue towards a runaway train.

Aboard the train they find Blockbuster, a deformed behemoth, terrorizing passengers. Barbara baits Blockbuster into fighting her while Robin evacuates the passengers to another car. Barbara’s narrowly survives the fight when Blockbuster is knocked out by a concrete overhang.

After delivering Blockbuster to the police, Robin tries to kiss Barbara again but she pushes him away. Captain Gordon finds a lock of Barbara’s red hair in Blockbuster’s hands which causes him to rush home.

Out of costume, Barbara is confronted by her father who had been searching her room. Before either of them can say anything he receives an emergency call and leaves the house. Barbara follows him and sees GCPD Headquarters set ablaze by Firefly and Killer Moth. Barbara decides to suit up as Batgirl once again.

Ashes & Blood

As Killer Moth and Firefly escape, Batgirl tethers herself to their helicopter as it flies off. Unable to ground the villains without killing them or Batgirl, Batman and Robin wait to see what she can do.

Barbara forces the helicopter to crash on a rooftop while she falls into a rooftop pool. Killer Moth and Firefly are apprehended by Batman and Robin as Barbara watches from a distance.

Days later, she is invited by Batman to the Batcave where she battles simulations of his most dangerous enemies. Batman warns that if she continues being Batgirl, this will be her future. After she completes the challenge anyways, Batman takes her to the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne and reveals his identity, allowing Barbara to understand the reasons behind his mission and symbol. Barbara swears to uphold Batman's ideals, but asks a favor in return.

On the roof of GCPD Headquarters, Batman and Batgirl meet Captain Gordon. Batman tells Gordon that he wishes to take Batgirl under his wing and asks for his approval, but is rebuked. Their meeting is interrupted by Barbara entering the roof. As Batman and Batgirl disappear, Barbara asks her now confused father who he was talking too. The ‘Batgirl’ Gordon saw turns out to be Robin in disguise.

Barbara helps Jason Bard set up an office where he plans to work as a private investigator, and she reveals an interest in politics.

As Batgirl, Batman, and Robin fight Scarecrow together, Barbara narrates that while she could keep worrying about her future, she rather focus on the now.

The book starts with Travis McGee meeting Nina Gibson, sister of Mike Gibson, an old friend of McGee's. Travis described a story of being on leave while Mike stayed behind. When McGee returned, Mike Gibson was severely injured. McGee feels guilty that this happened to Mike when it should have happened to him and he helps Nina out of that guilt. Nina's fiancé, Howard Plummer, has died and with a fair amount of money. McGee plans to track this down and return it to Nina.

The book runs fourteen chapters and does not mention the phrase, "Nightmare in Pink," although that phrase refers to McGee's experience on the hallucinatory drugs that he is given while inside a mental institution trying to foil the plot.

The main character of the series is Suzuko, a normal Japanese school girl from modern times, but has a strange memory of being trapped in a burning house when she was little. One day, as she is walking home Shuhei, her neighbour's child who has recently had his appendix removed, a huge gas explosion occurs.

When Suzuko wakes up, she finds herself in a post-battlefield, in civil war era Japan, with dead bodies all around her. Some men find her in the field, and attempt to rape her.

However, a young man named Shukumaru comes to Suzuko's rescue. After Suzuko is saved, Shukumaru takes Suzuko back to his village. He's the village thief/protector. Upon their arrival there, Shukumaru gives his little sister, named Suzu, a bell. He also claims he will marry Suzuko.

Shukumaru tells Suzuko that she needs to change her clothes, and at this point, Suzuko comes across Shuhei's shirt. She then realizes that Shuhei must have traveled back in time with her. She tries to find him, but can not locate him.

The villagers tease Shukumaru over his not having bedded Suzuko yet, and he is terribly offended. One night, he gets drunk and goes to Suzuko's hut, but all he does is fall asleep.

Suzuko soon realizes that she is in fact the little girl in the village named Suzu, and that she was born in Shukumaru's time. She is very worried about this, as she has fallen in love with Shukumaru, and cannot marry him if they are siblings. When the village is burnt, she sees her past self disappear to the future, where she will be adopted and raised as a modern girl.

Shortly after this, the leader of the invaders attacks Shukumaru, and Suzuko saves him by disappearing to the future, where she realizes that fire allows her to travel through time, and that is how she survived the house fire she remembers being in when she was little, and how she got to modern times.

When back in modern times, Suzuko takes Shukumaru home to take care of his wounds and notices he has a scar on his stomach that is ''exactly'' like Shuhei's appendix scar. Suzuko realizes that Shukumaru is Shuhei, and he must have been separated from her in mid-time switch earlier. Shukumaru is Shuhei from the present, and he had been found and raised in the past all along, thus he is not her biological brother. Suzuko doesn't feel guilty about what happened to Shukumaru, however, when he tells her how much he's enjoyed his life in the past. From there, Suzuko and Shukumaru use the same gas explosion that sent them back in time once before to travel back to Shukumaru's era again, and the story ends as Shukumaru announces they have a wedding to attend to.

The Crystals have returned again after numerous defeats against humanity. The VCD immediately launches a new model of the Raiden fighter, the Fighting Thunder ME-02 Kai, to stop the Crystals from taking over the Earth.

Two communities of settlers from Earth set out for the planet of Salt, but once on the planet, which has minimal natural resources, the two colonies – the Senaar and the Als – descend into war over old tensions. The events of the novel are alternately narrated by Barlei, a military dictator beholden to the Senaar's strict hierarchy, and Petja, an Alsist who grows to resist the Senaar military campaign.

In 1805 England, eligible bachelors are scarce on Quality Street. Twenty-year-old Phoebe Throssel (Hepburn) becomes very hopeful when one of the few, Dr. Valentine Brown (Tone), tells her he has something important to say to her that day. Both she and her older sister Susan believe he will propose. However, he informs her that he has enlisted in the army to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. Phoebe hides her devastation so well that Dr. Brown never suspects she is deeply in love with him. She gives up hope of ever marrying. By contrast, the Throssels' servant Patty, though she is a decade older and aware she is no beauty, is confident that she will get a man.

For the next ten years, the Throssels run a school for young boys and girls. Then, with the wars over, Brown returns as a captain. When he comes to invite the sisters to a ball, he is taken aback by how much Phoebe's looks appear to have deteriorated. Hurt by this, Phoebe declines.

To lift her spirits, Phoebe sheds her drab everyday clothes and dresses up in a beautiful gown. When Brown returns unexpectedly, Patty thinks quickly and identifies her as Phoebe's niece Livy. Taken in completely, Brown invites her to the ball. She accepts, planning to make him eventually fall in love with her, then when he proposes, reject him.

At the ball, she is quickly surrounded by admirers, much to Brown's annoyance. In the days that follow, she flirts with all the men. Finally, at a party, Brown approaches Livy. To her shock, instead of asking for her hand in marriage, he merely lectures her on her behavior and reveals that he is in love with Phoebe.

The next day, the Throssels have to fend off their neighbors, the Willougbys, who suspect that Livy and Phoebe are one and the same, particularly elderly Mary Willoughby. When Brown comes calling, the Willoughbys mention their suspicions. He eventually corners Patty and gets the truth from her. With the help of the sergeant who first recruited him, he puts clothes around a large seat cushion and puts "Livy" in a carriage to return home, all in sight of the snooping neighbors. He tells the sergeant and Patty to get rid of the "niece" and not to return until much later. The couple are delighted to spend time together. Brown goes inside and embraces Phoebe.

The film opens at an 18th-century ball, where Baron Hieronymus von Münchhausen is propositioned by a young woman who is engaged to another man. He graciously rejects her advance, and as she leaves, she asks him to turn on the light. The camera follows his hand to a modern light switch, and the young woman drives off in an automobile. The next day, the Baron, out of his costume and in modern dress, regales the young woman and her fiancé with stories of the famous Baron Münchhausen, to whom his guests think he is distantly related.

He begins in his home town of Bodenwerder, back from an adventure with his trusted servant Christian Kuchenreutter, who has invented a gun that can shoot accurately at a distance of 100 miles. The sorcerer Cagliostro visits, and asks the Baron to join him in a quest to take over the throne of Poland. The Baron declines, explaining that he has no interest in power, just in adventure.

In St. Petersburg, the Baron joins the court of Catherine the Great. She offers to appoint him to be her general aide-de-camp and install him in a room below hers, with a secret elevator between the two so that they can carry on their affair. He agrees to stay until one of them wants more freedom. While in her court, the Baron clashes with Prince Potemkin. The pair fight a "cuckoo duel" in a darkened room, where one party is obliged to call "cuckoo" while the other aims and fires a pistol at the sound of his opponent's voice. The Baron is wounded in the duel and he goes to Cagliostro, who has recently arrived in St. Petersburg, to tend to the wound. While there, the Baron warns Cagliostro of his impending arrest. After healing the Baron, Cagliostro asks him what he desires most of all, since money and power do not interest him. The Baron answers that he wishes to be as young as he is at that moment, for as long as he desires. Cagliostro grants his wish.

On the Turkish front, Potemkin lights a cannon while the Baron sits astride it. The Baron rides the cannonball over to the Turkish palace, where he is enslaved along with an Italian princess. After two months as a slave, the Baron is reunited with Kuchenreutter and his runner, Der Läufer, who can cover hundreds of miles in a matter of minutes. He makes a wager for his and the princess's freedom with the king, wherein his runner must retrieve some Tokay wine from Vienna within an hour. After winning the bet, the king tries to pass off a counterfeit princess on the Baron. Incensed, he slips on a ring that makes him invisible and absconds with the princess.

The pair escape to Venice, where her brother is offended by her dalliance with the Baron. He challenges the Baron to a duel with rapiers. The Baron humiliates the brother, leaving him suicidal. The Baron and Kuchenreutter escape in a hot air balloon, which takes them to the Moon. On the Moon, they marvel at how time moves so swiftly: while Münchhausen does not change at all, Kuchenreutter ages rapidly. They meet two inhabitants of the Moon, one of whom moves about as a disembodied head. She explains to the Baron how no Earthlings can last more than a day on the Moon before they dry up in smoke and blow away. However, before the Baron can leave the Moon, Kuchenreutter has a heart attack and dies in his arms, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

As the Baron finishes his tale, his guests correct him on some of its historical inaccuracies, citing the fact that the real Baron died before some of the events took place. This prompts the Baron to confess that he is in fact the same man as the legend, and that he has been married happily to his wife for 40 years. Unnerved by his admission, the guests quickly leave. The Baron's wife begs him to flee, as he usually does when his escapades get out of control, upset that he has confessed the truth. The Baron refuses to go, and instead, he revokes Cagliostro's gift. He immediately ages to match the advanced years of his wife.

The film follows a man, who has an intellectual or mental disorder, living alone on a farm in rural Belgium. He demonstrates bizarre behavior from the beginning, such as fastening doll's heads to pigeons, collecting his feces in glass jars and beheading a hen for his own amusement. He is also obsessed with a sow who lives on the farm.

We see him gleefully rolling around in the manure with the sow, and then he rapes her, which his behavior suggests he sees as an intimate and mutually agreeable act. Later, the sow gives birth to a litter of piglets. The man attempts to spoon-feed milk to the piglets, but the piglets prefer to drink directly from the milk bowl. In general, the piglets prefer their mother's company, repeatedly scorning the man's advances. Taking this rejection as an unforgivable personal slight, the man hangs the piglets and leaves their bodies strung up in the open. When the sow discovers the remains of the piglets, she runs madly around the farm squealing. The sow slips into a deep patch in the mud and drowns there.

The man searches for the sow, and becomes visibly distraught when he discovers her dead. He drags the body from the mud, buries it on the farm grounds, and crudely attempts to bury himself on a patch of ground nearby. He gets up, and his grief turns to rage. He rushes around the farm scattering and smashing his belongings from the house, including his jars of waste.

He prepares and vigorously consumes a "tea" made of feces and urine, determinedly climbs a ladder in the barn and hangs himself with a rope. The final scene depicts his spirit floating skyward.

A lime-burner named Bartram and his son hear a disturbing roar of laughter echo through the twilight in the hills. Soon thereafter, Ethan Brand arrives at the lime kiln and is questioned by Bartram. Brand says that he used to keep the very same kiln before he went off in search of the "unpardonable sin", which he claims to have found. When asked what the unpardonable sin is, Brand replies, “It is a sin that grew within my own breast. A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin of an intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with man and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its own mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of immortal agony! Freely, were it to do again, would I incur the guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution!" Bartram doesn't understand, and mutters to himself that Brand is a mad man.

A group of townspeople arrive at the scene to gawk at Brand. In the course of his interactions with them, Brand is disturbed by their coarse behavior and begins to doubt whether he really found the unpardonable sin. When the townspeople compare Brand to another so called "madman" named Humphrey, Brand recalls a victim of his search, Esther (Humphrey's daughter), who left the province to become a circus performer and who subsequently became the subject of Brand's psychological experiment. Brand remembers that the research, "wasted, absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, in the process," and so he is again convinced that he found the "unpardonable sin".

The Wandering Jew, carrying a diorama on his back, joins the assembled near the kiln after dusk. The children of the town flock to the Jew to see his images. When Brand looks into the diorama, he sees something that disturbs him. He orders the Jew to get into the furnace or leave.

A village dog chases his own tail. The villagers head home, and Brand is left with Bartram and his son. Brand offers to tend the fire overnight, so Bartram and the boy go home.

Brand decides that his "task is done, and well done," and he climbs into the furnace to his death. Bartram and his son, after a night of fitful sleep and dreams full of maniacal laughter, awake to find the landscape populated by heavenly atmospheric phenomena. When they realize that Brand is gone, and that "the sky and the mountains all seem glad of it," they look into the lime kiln and find Brand's skeleton, transformed into lime. Inside the rib cage is a chunk of lime in the shape of a human heart. Bartram pokes the fragile artifacts and they crumble to dust.

The book opens with a boy called Jarred, a friend of Prince Endon. After the death of King Alton and his queen, Endon is proclaimed King in his father's place. To consummate this, a magical steel belt, the Belt of Deltora, is set around Endon's waist. The Belt recognizes Endon as Deltora's rightful king. Jarred goes to the library and learns that the evil Shadow Lord, a Sauron-like intelligence located in the Shadowlands, once tried to seize the land in which is the kingdom of Deltora. Because the people of those days were divided into seven tribes, the Shadow Army soon overwhelmed much of the land. Jarred learned that a blacksmith named Adin gathered the sacred talismans from each tribe and attached them to a chain of steel medallions. The people's trust in Adin, channeled through the gems, was powerful enough to drive back the Shadow Army into its own dark home, the Shadowlands. Adin later became king of the united land called Deltora; yet he never forgot that the Enemy was not destroyed. He therefore never let the Belt out of his sight. With every generation, the Belt was worn less and less, diminishing its effect. The kings and queens also let their power go to the administrative council, diminishing its power.

Jarred, learning of this, urges Endon to put on the Belt and revive the custom of Adin. Before he can explain in detail, Chief Advisor Prandine, who is ugly and evil, enters and accuses Jarred of treason. Jarred escapes Prandine and finds that the city has fallen into disrepair, and Deltora has become a virtual dystopia. Jarred then becomes apprentice and successor to Crian the blacksmith, later to marry Crian's granddaughter Anna.

Seven years later, the gems of Deltora were stolen by the Ak-Baba under the Shadow Lord and were scattered throughout the land. This also allowed the Enemy to enter the land. Jarred helps King Endon and Queen Sharn (Endon's pregnant bride) escape the invasion through a secret tunnel.

Sixteen years later, the Shadow Lord tyrannically rules Deltora. A person identified as Jarred's son and apprentice, Lief, has been born during this time. He has been raised to reject the Shadow Lord, but never to show any obvious opposition. On his birthday, Lief's father sends his son, accompanied by a soldier named Barda, to find the lost gems from the Belt and restore them to the belt to defeat the evil shadowlord.

The nearest gem, the golden topaz, is to be found in Mid Wood, which is one of three perilous Forests of Silence. While travelling to the forest, Wenns capture them and take them into First Wood as an offering to the predator known as Wennbar. Before being eaten, a wild forest-dwelling girl of Lief's own age, called Jasmine appears. Jasmine, after a brief reluctance, rescues Lief and Barda, later to leads them to the Dark in the heart of Mid Wood. There, they discover a wall made of steadfastly cultivated vines, enclosing a clearing in the very center of the forest. In that center grow three flowers called the Lilies of Life, whose nectar possesses healing properties and makes you live forever. The wall of vines was guarded by a Jalis knight called Gorl, who sought to drink of the Nectar of Life and become immortal. Over the years, Gorl's body has rotted away, leaving nothing behind but his memories and his intentions. He captures Lief and Barda.

Under their questions, Gorl narrates all, while Barda strives to break the psychokinetic control held by the knight over their bodies. Barda breaks the grip, but is given a mortal wound by Gorl's sword. As he is about to kill Lief, Jasmine persuades a tree to drop a limb onto Gorl, thus destroying him and breaching his wall. Sunlight enters the Dark, and the Lilies of Life bloom at last. Jasmine and Lief use their nectar to heal the dying Barda. As the Lilies fade, Jasmine takes the last of the nectar into a jar, so that she might use it on future injuries.

Lief takes the topaz from its position as the pommel of Gorl's sword and fits it into the Belt of Deltora. The three relax and recuperate, while animals from all over Mid Wood enter the breach in Gorl's wall and devour the vines. Later, Barda and Lief re-embark, with Jasmine and her animal companions Kree and Filli in company.

In ''The Forests of Silence'', the topaz had been retrieved by Lief, Barda, and Jasmine. They continue on their way to the Lake of Tears, to retrieve the ruby. They learn that the land surrounding the Lake of Tears is controlled by the evil sorceress Thaegan, who has 13 monster children. As the companions travel through the countryside they rescue a man named Manus from the Shadow Lord's servants, Grey Guards. Manus is from the city of Raladin. 100 years ago, Thaegan put a spell on Raladin that caused them and all of their offspring to never be able to speak. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine also learn that Thaegan put a spell on the city of D'Or and turned it into the Lake of Tears. The companions, with Manus, escape from the Grey Guards only to be captured by Jin and Jod, two of Thaegan's children. They eventually defeat Jin and Jod and journey to the city of Raladin, where Manus hopes to find his people. Upon arrival, they find the city empty. Only when the Ralad people hear the companions, they come out of hiding. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine tell the Ralads that they must journey to the Lake of Tears, despite the Ralads pleas, but they do not tell them they are going in quest of one of the gems of the Belt of Deltora. Manus agrees to be their guide.

When they get to the Lake of Tears, the monster Soldeen attacks them. Soldeen is a giant fish-like creature who is very deadly and has the ability to speak. Using the power of the topaz, Lief persuades Soldeen to give them the ruby. As Soldeen agrees, Thaegan appears and threatens to kill them all. The ruby flies out of Lief's hand and into the depths of the Lake as Thaegan uses her magic to harm them. Just as Thaegan is about to kill them all, Jasmine's bird Kree comes and kills Thaegan by drawing blood. All of Thaegan's spells are broken: the Ralads can now speak and the Lake of Tears turns back into the city of D'Or. Soldeen is a man named Nanion and gives the three companions the gem and wishes them well on their quest. The Belt now holds the topaz and ruby and now they journey towards the City of the Rats.

Fran and Miriam, female lovers, are shot to death in bed at a rural English country house. Resurrected as vampires, the couple proceed to carry on by luring unsuspecting people to the dilapidated estate, where they can feed on their blood.

Young couple John and Harriet drive past Fran while traveling through the English countryside. Afterward, John and Harriet decide to camp out in their caravan near the country house for several days. Harriet is perturbed by the locale, and tells John she saw another woman (Miriam) hiding behind a tree when they passed by Fran. That night, during a rainstorm, Harriet sees lights inside the home, and is startled by a figure looking into the caravan. John investigates, but finds nothing.

In the morning, a middle-aged man named Ted passes through the area, observing a single-car accident with a male decedent. Fran, again posing as a hitchhiker, gets a ride from Ted to the house. She invites him inside, where the two have passionate sex. In the morning, Ted finds a gash wound on his arm, which he attributes to a broken wine glass. After failing to locate Fran, Ted stops at John and Harriet's parked caravan, where they invite him in for coffee and bandage his wound. Ted returns to the house, waiting for Fran's return in his parked car. She returns at dusk, accompanied by Miriam and a young man, Rupert, whom the women have also lured there. That night, after Ted falls asleep, Fran joins Miriam in murdering and feeding on Rupert. After hiding the body, the women shower together. Miriam implores Fran to murder Ted soon, fearing she may become too emotionally invested.

Curious about Fran and Miriam, Harriet follows the women the next morning as they walk into the woods and pass through a church graveyard. Meanwhile, Ted departs in his car, and stumbles upon another road accident scene, but is startled to see the victim is Rupert. Rattled, Ted returns to the house and inadvertently locks himself in the wine cellar. That night, Fran and Miriam return to the house and find Ted in the cellar. Fran begins feeding on his arm wound as he lies submissively. Miriam enters the room and also begins to feed on Ted's wound, followed by the women having sex as Ted lies beside them.

Harriet eventually enters the house, and finds both Fran and Miriam sleeping in darkness in the wine cellar. John confronts Harriet and ushers her out of the house, worried they will be cited for trespassing. Ted, who has lain weak with anemia in Fran's bedroom, hears the women depart and return to the house, again with a new suitor, this time a self-assured playboy. They bring him to the cellar, where they stab him to death. Meanwhile, Ted garners enough strength to stumble outside to John and Harriet's caravan. John attempts to drive to safety, but is murdered by Fran and Miriam in the car. Upon going to investigate, Harriet is attacked by Fran and Miriam, who drag her into the wine cellar and slit her throat.

At dawn, Ted stumbles back to his car in a daze. He is awoken by a realtor who assumes Ted to be a drunkard and orders him to leave. As Ted drives hurriedly away, the realtor approaches the estate with an elderly American couple interested in purchasing it. The realtor comments that the real estate agency has had trouble selling the property, as it is believed to be haunted by two women who were murdered there.

Following the adventures of the legendary outlaw hero and his team, this series tells all new tales pitting Robin, Little John, Marion, and Tuck against the forces of oppression and greed. Similar to other fantasy-action shows at the time, such as ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and ''The Adventures of Sinbad'', this version incorporates fantasy elements into the Robin Hood mythos, the most notable addition being the wizard Olwyn, who acts as a mentor to Robin. Among the recurring elements are enchanted weapons ("Robin and the Golden Arrow", "Devil's Bride"), monsters ("Nightmare of the Magic Castle", "Return of the Giant"), and time travel ("Return to Camelot", "The Time Machine").

When Marcus Didius Falco discovers a corpse hidden under the floor of his new bath house, he starts to track down the men responsible - Glaucus and Cotta. He also receives a commission from the Emperor Vespasian. A building project for the British Chieftain Togidubnus is running late and over-budget. The first phase of construction had gone smoothly - the first buildings on site were granaries, providing a supply base for the Roman army, constructed in the early part of the conquest. But progress had stalled on the stone-walled house and bath suite that would be Togidubnus's residence. Suspecting that the men he seeks have fled to Britain, Falco accepts the mission and travels there with his wife, two baby daughters, their nurse, and his two brothers-in-law Aelianus and Justinus.

Falco arrives at Fishbourne and starts by investigating corrupt practices. However events quickly take a turn for the worse when the Chief Architect is found murdered in the bath-house of the British King. Falco takes over the project and investigates the killings.

Richie is routinely physically abused by his father, a drunk who works in the construction industry. Richie adores his elder brother James and leads a life of petty crime and childhood dares with his friends. At the age of eight, he is molested in a cinema by a man who persuades him to come home with him. From this point, Richie regularly runs away from home and finds that this has the effect of stopping the abuse from his father. He experiments with a friend, Pip, whose prostitution excites and disgusts him in equal measure, and he begins to work as a rent boy. Richie is raped twice: once by an older cousin in the British Merchant Navy, and a second time by a pair of men. At fourteen, falls for Mike, but Mike prefers girls and so their relationship is long-lasting but doomed. The novel ends with Richie at age fifteen, considering moving to London to make his living as a rent boy.

George (Jake Weber) is a highly-strung professional photographer who is starting to unravel from the stress of his work with a Manhattan advertising agency. Needing some time away from the city, his wife Kim (Patricia Clarkson), and their 10-year-old son Miles (Erik Per Sullivan) head to Upstate New York to take in the winter sights, though the drive up is hardly relaxing for any of them.

George accidentally hits and severely injures a deer that ran onto the icy road. After George stops to inspect the damage, he's confronted by an angry local named Otis who flies into a rage, telling George that he and his fellow hunters had been tracking the deer for some time. An argument breaks out, which leaves George feeling deeply shaken. When George and Kim arrive at their cabin, they discover that a dark and intimidating presence seems to have taken it over.

The next day, when they stop at a store in a town near the cabin, a shopkeeper tells Miles about the legend of the Wendigo, a deformed beast from Native American folklore who changes from a human to a hideous beast after engaging in cannibalism. The shopkeeper also tells him that the Wendigo also has supernatural powers and the ability to change its appearance at will. The shopkeeper then gives him a small figurine of a Wendigo. Miles can't help but think the Wendigo has something to do with the dark forces at work in the woods near the cabin.

Later that day, while sledding together, George suddenly falls to the ground, leaving Miles alone and lost in the woods. Frightened, Miles approaches his dad when he is chased by the Wendigo and passes out. He is awakened later by a frightened Kim, who went looking for her family once they didn't come home.

Kim and Miles begin a trek deep into the forest, until they end up at the house, where they find a bloody George crawling towards the car claiming Otis shot him. Frantic, Kim and Miles put George in the car and drive to the nearest hospital. It is revealed that George and Miles were sledding near a shooting range and Otis shot George in the liver with a hunting rifle. George undergoes emergency surgery and Miles walks into the hospital, hallucinates that his father is being assaulted by the Wendigo and faints. He awakens only to find that George has died.

Otis is confronted by the local sheriff, but he kills the sheriff and drives away into the night, being stalked by the Wendigo until he crashes into a tree and runs away into the forest, eventually ending up on a road where he is hit by the deputy sheriff's squad car. The movie ends with Otis being carted into the emergency room of the hospital, and being followed by the Indian shopkeeper while Miles watches it all, caressing the Wendigo figurine.

The book tells the story of two children named Katy and Carl. They are going to their grandmothers farm in Red Hills, Pennsylvania. This is the first time the children have the opportunity to spend Easter with their relatives from this part of the country, so they get to meet four of their cousins. The next morning the children wake up early to participate in the Easter egg hunt.

Katy has trouble finding the eggs in this new and unexplored environment, so she decides to explore inside the house. In the attic looking around Katy finds six beautifully painted eggs that she takes to her grandmother immediately. The grandmother expresses her joy by saying, "Katy may not have found the most eggs, but she found the most beautiful eggs."

Then the grandmother decides to decorate a tree with the eggs using them as an ornament. All the kids get inspired because of Katy's discovery and the grandmother's joy so they all decide to put special emphasis on their own decoration of the eggs. They decorated a large tree, and the next year one that was even larger.

Detective Rita Rizzoli (Whoopi Goldberg) an undercover narcotics police officer, stages an undercover buy with drug dealer Tito Delgadillo (Fred Asparagus). During the bust she sees her friend and informant Charlene (Cathianne Blore) being dragged out of the bar by her pimp and runs to her aid, thus alerting Delgadillo of her being an undercover cop. After saving Charlene and shooting the pimp, Rizzoli notices all the money used for the buy is missing. Delgadillo retreats to a warehouse in Los Angeles where a family of Asian immigrants is preparing plastic envelopes of imported cocaine stamped with the gang's brand name "Fatal Beauty". One worker, however, has been sampling too much of the drug and, in his intoxicated state, prepares envelopes with a fatally high concentration of cocaine and a misaligned stamp. Delgadillo discovers the error but before they can correct it, the house is attacked by two small-time hoods, Leo Nova and Earl Skinner (Brad Dourif and Mike Jolly) who kill everyone within including Delgadillo and steal the lethal product.

Back at the police station, Rizzoli is chewed out by her boss, Lt. Kellerman (John P. Ryan), for ruining the bust. He receives a call saying Rizzoli is needed at the warehouse where the drugs were being made. At the warehouse Rizzoli identifies Delgadillo (the only victim authorities weren't able to identify because his face was mutilated during the attack) by pointing out the diamond pinkie ring on his finger bearing his initials that he showed Rizzoli earlier that evening. Rizzoli also discovers traces of "Fatal Beauty" and Charlie Dawson's body, which was stuffed in a van labeled "Kroll Enterprises". The next morning Rizzoli receives a call from Charlene, asking for money. When Rizzoli refuses, Charlene offers some information about the drug-related murder the previous night, hoping to sway Rizzoli to give her the money. Charlene tells Rizzoli that there is a goon squad looking for the killers. She also tells her that the person, to whom all the drugs belonged, drove a "Rolls." That prompts Rizzoli to pay a visit to Conrad Kroll (Harris Yulin), whom she accuses of drug dealing.

After leaving Kroll's home, Rizzoli hears a call for assistance over the scanner involving a police standoff. Realizing that Charlene lives there, she immediately rushes to the location. At the location a man who is hopped up on drugs emerges from Charlene's house and shoots Rizzoli's fellow officer, Shigeda (Steve Akahoshi) in the arm, wounding him. The assembled officers all open fire on the man, but due to the drugs in his system, he doesn't go down right away. After the man finally falls to the ground and dies, Rizzoli runs into Charlene's house, where she attempts to resuscitate her with no success. Rizzoli is told by a boy at the location that both Charlene and the man who was shot, "Big Bubba" were both taken out by the new drugs and that they got it from Charlene's new pimp, "Jimmy". Rizzoli and her partner Detective Jimenez (Rubén Blades) find him in a restaurant, where Rizzoli places him under arrest; when he tries to escape, she shoots him in the buttocks. After hanging him up in the freezer and threatening more bodily harm, Rizzoli gets him to reveal that he purchased the drugs from a buy house from a man named Rafael. Rizzoli heads to the buy house the pimp told her about and is greeted by a man named Epifanio, who tells her he will get her what she wants. She is able to get Epifanio to take her to Rafael, but a hood from the night she staged the bust with Delgadillo recognizes her as a cop and immediately alerts Nova and Skinner. Rizzoli is able to get locked in a room with Rafael, where she gets Rafael to admit he is fronting for Nova and Skinner right as two of his crew members shoot their way inside. Rizzoli dives for safety, but Rafael is killed in the crossfire. Rizzoli shoots down one of the thugs, but the other gets the drop on her, but she is saved by the timely arrival of Mike Marshak, Kroll's bodyguard (Sam Elliott) who shows up at the buy house to help Rizzoli, and admits that he has been following her around since the night before by using a transmitter concealed under her bumper. After taking out the rest of Rafael's gang, Rizzoli and Marshak come close to apprehending Nova and Skinner when a section of the a roof collapses on Rizzoli; Marshak immediately runs to her aid, letting Nova and Skinner escape.

Rizzoli is taken to a nearby hospital, Vista Verde where Marshak goes to visit her. Upon walking into Rizzoli's room, Marshak sees Rizzoli and Jiminez going over the mug shots of Nova and Skinner and Jiminez immediately leaves after Marshak's arrival. When Jiminez goes toward the elevator he notices Nova from the mug shot carrying a package and orders him to freeze. Nova pulls out a shotgun from the package and fires at Jiminez, missing him. After getting into an argument about what Marshak's boss Kroll is allegedly doing, Rizzoli agrees to let Marshak drive her home. Rizzoli notices her cat on the roof and explains to Marshak about her cat's fear of heights and her front door being open. They both go into her residence see Zack Yeager (James LeGros) asleep. Yeager tells Rizolli that all his friends have died from using Fatal Beauty. This is further confirmed when he, Rizzoli and Marshak arrive at the home of one of the kids who threw the party and finds them all lying dead in the living room. Yeager tells Rizolli he got the drugs from his mother, Cecille (Jennifer Warren). When Rizzoli goes to Cecille in an attempt to get information about where the drugs came from, the two get into a physical altercation until Marshak arrives to break it up and takes Rizolli home. At home, Rizzoli invites Marshak into her house for some coffee and receives a phone call that four young children had died from using Fatal Beauty; Rizzoli then has a breakdown and tells Marshak that she is a recovering drug addict, having quit after her daughter got into her drug stash and drowned in a swimming pool. Rizzoli takes a shower, during which she receives a call and notices Marshak has left, and that he went through her police files of the suspects she was after. At the point Rizzoli learns that Kroll had sent Marshak not to protect Rizzoli, but to spy on her to find out who ripped him off.

Rizzoli receives a call from Cecille learning that Zack had cut his wrist and was in the hospital. Cecille asks Rizzoli to meet her at the hospital where she reveals who she bought the drugs from and that her supplier, Denny Mifflin (Neill Barry), will be making a pickup from his suppliers Nova and Skinner at Kroll Plaza. Rizzoli and Jiminez head to Kroll plaza and are spotted by Kroll's security team. Rizolli and Jiminez are watching Mifflin and Rizolli orders Jiminez to get the drugs away from some kids that they spotted Mifflin selling to. When Jiminez gets the drugs from the kids he is knocked out by one of Kroll's security men. When Kroll is alerted to Rizzoli's presence, Marshak who is with Kroll notices Nova and Skinner entering the plaza. Kroll orders one of his men to take out Nova and Skinner and then orders Marshak to take out Rizzoli. Rizzoli meanwhile notices Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and his bodyguard, Frankenstein (Mark Pellegrino) meeting together in a mall store to discuss drug distribution and follows them into the store. Rizzoli is followed into the store by Kroll's security team with their guns drawn. Just as Rizzoli is about to bust Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and Frankenstein she is accosted by Marshak who warns her it is a wipeout in which all five of them are going to be killed. Rizzoli then punches Marshak, which frightens Nova, Skinner, Mifflin and Frankenstein. When running in the store, Frankenstein is grabbed by one of the security guards. He then stabs him in the stomach. The security guard falls to the ground knocking over a rack of clothes. Frankenstein then is grabbed by Kroll's bodyguard, Eddie and is shot three times in the stomach. Frankenstien slashes Eddie's arm with his switchblade, forcing him to back off, but dies seconds later while calling to Mifflin for help. Rizzoli then shoots Mifflin after he fires at her. Rizzoli and the security guards pursuit Nova and Skinner, who open fire in the mall, killing several guards and Eddie, and then retreat into a sporting goods store, followed by another of Kroll's men and three surviving guards. Nova and Skinner race to the back of the store and shoot the fuse boxes, cutting the main power to the store lights (but the emergency lights come on seconds after). Rizzoli cautiously makes her way through the store, but the security guards get the drop on her, but she is inadvertently saved by Nova and Skinner when they gun the guards down. A short gun fight ensues between Rizzoli and the two men, but she runs out of ammunition. Nova and Skinner try to move in and finish her off, but she manages to give them the slip long enough to break into a gun cabinet and get a lever action rifle and some bullets. After Rizzoli kills Kroll's other bodyguard who was poised to ambush her from above and takes his gun, the shelf he was standing on collapses on her and Skinner prepares to kill her; at the last minute, however, Marshak appears and guns him down. Nova wounds Marshak before he, in turn, is wounded by Rizzoli, and retreats from the store. Rizzoli pursues Nova and runs into Kroll, who is about to kill her when Nova jumps out of a hiding place and kills him. Rizzoli follows Nova into a parking garage and shoots him several times, apparently unable to injure him. After Nova reveals to Rizzoli he was wearing a bullet-proof vest this whole time Rizolli pulls out a gun she stole from the dead guard and shoots Nova in the throat, killing him.

Rizzoli meets the paramedics outside the plaza, where Jiminez is waiting along with Marshak, who muses to Rizzoli that he might be going to jail for a long time because of his connection to Kroll. Rizzoli agrees, but tenderly tells him that she'll be waiting for him when he gets out. She then gives him a kiss and tells him with a smile that he'll be fine.

Brothers John Solomon and Dean Solomon have bad luck with women, due largely to their sheltered upbringing. They were raised by their single father, Ed, at an isolated research facility in the Arctic, and did not move to civilization until they were grown men. Despite their social limitations, the brothers are generally good-natured, if naïve, and consider their father the most important person in their life, as they even followed in his footsteps with their geology career. However, their lives are thrown into turmoil when Ed falls into a coma.

The brothers decide that they may be able to get him to wake up by giving him a grandson, the one thing he has always wanted. To make this a reality, the brothers immediately set out to find a woman who can give them a baby. The brothers have disastrous results in their initial attempts. John proposes marriage to a woman on the first date and when Dean finds a woman who is willing to have a child for them, she is hit by a bus and killed. To keep a better eye on their father, they move him into their home. John is able to use this as an opportunity to talk to his neighbor, Tara, who agrees to watch over their father when they leave the apartment.

The brothers decide to expand their search to include adoption. However, due to the bizarre circumstances, the adoption agency denies the request. They try Craigslist next, and are able to find a surrogate mother named Janine. Janine is a suitable fit, but she has a clingy ex-boyfriend named James, and demands $12,000 for her role. Over the course of the next nine months, the brothers learn how to be responsible parents, and Janine begins to warm up to the bizarre duo. John continues to flirt with Tara, and convinces himself that she is interested.

After a birthing class, Janine realizes that she wants to keep the baby. She tells the brothers the bad news, which culminates in Dean revealing to John that he heard Tara insult John behind his back, thus forcing John to realize that Tara is not interested in him. The two have a major fight, but after a day, the brothers reconcile. The brothers attempt to get Janine to let them raise the child with her by paying for an exorbitantly long sky banner. Janine decides to raise the baby with the two brothers and John tells Tara that he is no longer interested in her.

Soon, the child is born, however it is obvious that the baby is James's, not Dean's. A year passes, and the brothers have gone into business with Janine and James, starting up a store called "Solomon Family Baby-Proofing", which sells safety equipment for new parents. In the corner of the store, their father is kept, still in his coma. After hearing the baby say "grandpa", Ed finally wakes up from his coma and sees his "grandson" for the first time. The brothers are convinced that their adventures led to their father waking up from his coma. Everybody celebrates as one big, happy family.

During the Civil War, the powerful landowner Carson had a beautiful young daughter with an innocent heart, Faye. As Faye enjoys an intense sexual relationship with her friend John and her servant girl Sophia, the end of her innocent days draws near. The mysterious Lord Mark has set his eyes on her and will stop at nothing to get her.

The film begins with Gayle, Becky and Judi performing in McCormick State College's Senior Talent Show in 1992. The three of them were the 'losers' and geeks in college but were always hopeful about their future. The next scene then jumps to 15 years later. Gayle is now a guide dog trainer for the visually handicapped. She asks her client out on a date but gets rejected after he touches her face. Becky is an office manager for Senator Hartmann. Judi and her fiance, William, go for relationship counseling and insist that there are no secrets between them. Becky returns home only to find her cat, Honey, dead. The three of them hold their usual 'make your own pizza party' and play their usual 'movie game'. They decide to go on a trip to Tempe, Arizona to the Wimmin's Music Festival.

Senator Hartmann announces to her team that she is the potential next vice president. In order to ensure success, she has to make sure that she has a good reputation and background. Ashley, her daughter, just broke up with her boyfriend because she is not slutty enough. In order to win him back and not disappoint her mother, she decides that she will be going to South Padre for her spring break. She wants her to think that she is 'just like her mother was back in the days' - the most popular girl in her sorority and 'always up for a good time'. In order to make sure that Ashley does not act out, Senator Hartmann sends Becky to go to South Padre to keep an eye on her. Throughout the trip, Gayle becomes very close to a group of girls called The Sevens who are Ashley's nemesis.

Judi returns home and discovers that William is actually gay and he ends up breaking off with her. Judi meets up with Becky and Gayle and the three of them decide to go to South Padre to relive the college days that they never had. Even though the girls are appalled with the state of the place, Gayle and Judi fit into the crowd easily. They spend the next few days getting wasted while Becky keeps to the main reason of her being there. Gayle and Judi eventually persuade Becky into relaxing.

One night at a foam party, Ashley finds out that Becky was actually sent by her mother and feels betrayed because she thought they were friends. They engage in a cat fight and end up in jail. That night, William goes to find Judi and asks for a second chance. Then Judi bails Becky and Ashley out of jail. She announces to everyone that she is going to marry William. Gayle declares that she's going to be in the All Girl Talent Show with The Sevens because she is finally going to win. This leads to an argument, and Judi leaves to get married, while Becky and Gayle prepare separately for the talent contest.

At the airport, Judi finally admits to herself that William is gay and tells him she can't marry him. Gayle falls out with Mason, the leader of The Sevens, just before they go on stage. Senator Hartmann appears backstage and wants to bring Ashley back home by force. They have a confrontation and Ashley begs her mother to let her compete in the show, and her mother relents. As the group begins to perform, the pianist passes out (drunk) and Judi returns just in time to replace her. They perform, with begrudged success. The film ends with the three of them back home, at their usual 'make your own pizza party' playing their usual 'movie game'.

The events of the series happen in the not so distant future. Starting December 28, 2000 as stated vaguely in the very first issue, ''The Death Ray'' (أشعة الموت), which was published in 1984. In that era a fictional ''Egyptian Scientific Intelligence Agency'' (ESIA) (المخابرات العلمية المصرية) is protecting Egypt from numerous threats.

The series begins when the main character, Nour El Deen Mahmoud (then a Lieutenant (ملازم)), is summoned by the High Commander of Scientific Intelligence for a secret mission to locate a newly developed death ray device which had been stolen from the agency. For this mission, Nour was assigned to head a team of scientists who would form the core team of main characters for the series: communications engineer Salwa, psychiatrist Ramzy, and radiation scientist Mahmoud.

For some time, the team is focused solely on solving mysteries which require them to draw on both their policing and scientific skills. As the series progresses, Nour and Salwa get married (Issue #13: Lost Time (الزمن المفقود)). They have a daughter, Nashwa, who becomes the team's computer expert after her growth is artificially accelerated to adulthood as part of an alien weapons' test (Issue #63: The Inflamed Ocean (المحيط الملتهب)).

A key milestone in the series takes place during a five-part storyline (Issues #76-80), in which the Earth is occupied by an alien warrior race from the planet Glorial (جلوريال). In the initial invasion (Issue #76: Invasion (الاحتلال)), Glorial's armies destroy nearly all of Earth's most significant military, scientific, and cultural assets and landmarks. Nour and his team lead an international resistance movement which, after a year-long campaign, liberates the Earth (Issue #80: Victory (النصر)).

The storylines following the liberation often focused on the struggle for power between different countries and factions in the aftermath of Earth's scientific and cultural devastation, with Egypt becoming the world's leader in science and technology. During this period, Egypt's Scientific Intelligence is re-constituted under a new High Commander, and Nour's team resumes its mystery-solving work. Another milestone in the series takes place when the team travels to the planet Arghoran (أرغوران) to help liberate it from Glorial's occupation. This was the fulfillment of a promise Nour had made to Bodon (بودون), an Arghorian who once tried to lead his planet to occupy Earth (Issue #58: Battle of the Planets (معركة الكواكب)), but later died in the effort to liberate Earth from Glorial's occupation (Issue #78: Struggle (الصراع)). While they succeed in liberating Arghoran and returning to Earth, the team disbands after Mahmoud apparently dies (Issue #100: Time = Zero (الزمن = صفر)), and Salwa becomes pregnant.

At the behest of the High Commander, Nour continues his work for Scientific Intelligence as part of a new, two-man team with Akram, a rogue fighter and ally of the team whom Nour and Ramzy first encountered in the aftermath of Earth's liberation (Issue #81: Symbol of Power (رمز القوة)). Shortly thereafter, however, the original team, absent Mahmoud, was re-constituted with Akram as the newest member. It also became increasingly clear to the team members that Mahmoud had not died, but that his consciousness was trapped in an unknown dimension from which he occasionally managed to communicate with and assist his former comrades. In its current form, the team continues to solve increasingly complex scientific mysteries, often involving time travel, as well as interstellar and inter-dimensional travels and encounters.

Set in Alabama during the 1950s, Polly Whittier, an orphan who is sent to live with her aunt Polly Harrington, who is a descendant of the founding family of a small Southern town (also called Harrington) during the segregation era. A key point in dividing the town is a ravine which has an unrepaired bridge which burned down many years ago, and no one knows how it started and is suspicious of everyone else. Polly is able to convince people to look at the bright side of things, but tragedy strikes when Polly falls two stories from a tree, suffering a spinal injury.

''Polly'' proved to be a ratings hit and a sequel, ''Polly: Comin' Home!'', followed in 1990. Both of these films are available on DVD exclusively from the Disney Movie Club and Disney Movie Rewards.

A king offers his daughter's hand in marriage to the wealthiest suitor in the kingdom. She is wooed by the despicable wizard Ali Kazam, but falls for a pauper boy with a yo-yo. The boy is kicked out of the palace by the king's men, whereupon the diminutive magical creature Nicky Nome appears to help him, giving him a flying carpet to travel to a valley of jewels. When Ali Kazam attacks on a vulture, Nicky gradually transforms the carpet into a Chevrolet motor car.

TV reporter Adolph Caesar is outside Madison Square Garden before the start of a martial arts tournament that will apparently determine the "successor" to the legacy of Bruce Lee. He interviews martial arts promoter Aaron Banks, who says that Lee was actually killed by a kung fu move called "The Touch of Death." Banks describes the move as being effective in "three to four weeks." The segment contains a sequence of flashbacks to Bruce Lee ostensibly supporting Banks' assertion.

From inside Madison Square Garden, Caesar discusses the competitors. He talks about the legacy of Bruce Lee, and shows what he describes as "interview footage" he did with Lee shortly before his death. Then, Caeser flashes back to earlier in the day, where action star Fred Williamson seen having to traverse through a number of obstacles to get to the tournament while being repeatedly mistaken for Harry Belafonte. Next, Ron Van Clief is also profiled and interviewed. Van Clief is then seen saving a woman from four hoodlums in a New York park.

The middle section of the film is devoted to "The Bruce Lee Story," a chronicle of Bruce Lee's early years in China, where he is depicted as being "karate crazy," much to the dismay of his parents. The footage from this section of the story is from the 1957 Bruce Lee film ''Thunderstorm'', which has also been redubbed. This act of the presentation purports that Lee was learning karate to live up to the legacy of his great-grandfather, who was "one of China's greatest Samurai masters" (an anachronism as China did not actually have Samurai, these were in fact Japanese warriors). The life of Lee's grandfather is also portrayed in this act at alternating points, in scenes lifted from ''Invincible Super Chan''. Later, Lee leaves home and lands a career as an actor. This segues into a scene of Bill Louie, dressed as Kato from ''The Green Hornet'', saving two female joggers from being raped by a gang near the World War II memorial in Battery Park in broad daylight. This segment ends after Louie apparently murders the last conscious gang member with a throwing star.

After Caesar announces the conclusion of "The Bruce Lee Story," the film transitions back to Madison Square Garden, where a number of performers are showcased. Caesar interviews Fred Williamson, who denounces the idea of a contest to determine Bruce Lee's successor.

The grande finale is devoted to a two-round kickboxing match, in which Louis Neglia reigns victorious. Adolph Caesar concludes the film with a final thought.

On the demonic Twelfth Plane, the demon Zdim Akh's son is drafted for a year's indentured servitude on the human Prime Plane, the demon society having an agreement to provide service to human sorcerers in return for supplies of iron, a raw material it desperately needs.

Zdim is duly summoned to the Prime Plane by the sorcerer Dr. Maldivius of Novaria. There he strives to do his duty, but his demonic literal-mindedness hampers him. Assigned to protect the Sibylline Sapphire from any trespassers, he promptly eats Maldivius' apprentice Grax when the latter intrudes.

Similar misadventures result in the disgusted Maldivius selling his contract, and the demon is passed from one master to another, from circus master Bagardo to the rich widow Roska of Ir, all the while doing his level best to figure out what the muddled humans truly wish of him.

Against all odds he becomes a hero when he recruits aid for the city-state of Ir after it discounts intelligence of an imminent invasion by the cannibal Paaluans. Returning to his home plane early and with extra iron, he resolves never again to leave the comforts of the Twelfth Plane — until he realizes how dull it is compared with the picturesque insanity of the human realm...

By internal chronology, ''The Fallible Fiend'' is the second story in the Novarian series, coming after the short story "The Emperor's Fan", which is set centuries before the others, and prior to the ''Reluctant King'' trilogy. (The Paaluan invasion of Ir is mentioned in the second and third books of the trilogy, ''The Clocks of Iraz'' and ''The Unbeheaded King'', respectively, as an event occurring either recently or some generations past.)

''Korg'' featured the adventures of a family of Neanderthals during the Ice Age. It was intended to be educational, and was based on the best then-current research about Neanderthal life; however, some situations had to be watered down for a young audience. Actor Burgess Meredith supplied the narration.

''Gradisil'' takes place over several generations of the Gyeroffy family, the novel's timeline spanning from 2059 to the first half of the 22nd century, circa 2130. On these generations hang the novel's basic plots – a murder story, a domestic story, a political story and a revenge story. The first involves Klara Gyeroffy and her father, an aeronautics hobbyist, in their establishment of the low Earth orbit settlement of the Uplands. With the advent of more efficient propulsion technology, space travel reaches a new level of attainability, the Uplands phenomenon being a product of direct access, for those wealthy enough, to the lower orbits. The Uplands has no legal or taxation systems, civic obligations, boundaries, politics or treaties.

In 2059 Klara's father Miklós flies Kristin Janzen Kooistra, a tenant who requires a hideaway, for their Upland lodging. Kooistra kills him during docking, it being later revealed that she is a serial killer at large. Klara, orphaned, flees to Jon, a neighbour in Canada, in distress. The pair soon remove Upland and organise a more permanent residence there, with other billionaire eccentrics of the neighbourhood.

The next portion of ''Gradisil'' is largely an exposition of the environment's domestic capacity, Roberts investigating the challenges and novelties of day-to-day Upland life, the question of zero-g as hindrance and boon, and ever-present logistics issues. Jon and Klara become sexual partners, but she soon tires of him and develops a relationship with Teruo Nakagomi, a shrewd businessman. After falling pregnant by him, Klara returns to Earth to deliver her child. Her daughter, Gradisil, is born in 2063.

''Gradisil'' is about Earthbound conflict as well as Upland conflict. United States-EU tensions of the previous century have become critical, with war finally erupting in 2065. Politically, the Uplands is still a non-entity and the pioneers remaining proudly aloof to "Downland" politics. Klara remains on Earth, supporting Gradisil.

In 2081 the first seizure of "EU houses" by the US takes place in the Uplands. The orbit settlement is now transformed into both a political and military battlefield, with the US anti-Upland and EU pro-Upland, and receives increasing coverage by Earth media over the coming years. Klara is appointed EU envoy to the Uplands in 2075. Two new narrators are introduced: Lieutenant Slater of the United States Upland Corps, providing insights into the exigencies and metamorphoses of that nation's military-industrial complex in the late 21st century; and Paul Caunes, Gradisil's second husband, who would later betray her to US authorities.

As the Uplands comes into its own as the first extraterrestrial country in human history, Gradisil consolidates her role of political activism and de facto media ambassador. Many Uplanders later address her as "President" during her household visits. She is embarked on a campaign to awaken in the rudimentary nation "matriotism"—a unique nationalism for a unique entity—which aims to preserve a default peacetime anarchy. In 2091 and 2093 Gradisil's sons, Hope and Solidarity respectively, are born, however Paul Caunes is the biological father of neither.

2099 sees the onset of the US-Upland war. Every logistical aspect of the war has been meticulously designed by the US to fulfil a new legal bureaucratic order (for instance, the war must officially conclude before the turn of the century and take no longer than 72 hours in all), Slater contending that the real war takes place in the courts. Gradisil and her young nation lie under siege for months, their supply lines cut off by USUC forces. All the while she has turned pregnant with her first child to Paul. Knowing that she cannot return to Earth without being captured, she sacrifices the foetus in orbit.

Gradisil waits for the opportune moment to launch a kamikaze attack on USUC orbital stations. It proves effective, and shatters the image of US unassailability that the European loss of the "war of '81" cemented. There occurs a realisation, both Down- and Upland, that the United States can never exercise any meaningful control over the territory. Upon embarking on the victory rounds, Gradisil and her retinue are soon led into a trap, she falling into US custody.

The novel leaps forward twenty years, to focus on an adult Hope, on business excursion to the Uplands, trying to secure an investment for a mining project on Mercury. However, his brother Sol is also at the hotel complex at which he's lodged, on an assassination mission, the target being Paul Caunes. Hope has a run-in with an undercover American agent, under the assumption that Hope conspires with his brother. Sol kills him, shortly secures his father and escapes with him and Hope. On board the escape ship, a kangaroo court is held in what turns out to be a makeshift Upland town hall. Caunes is sent into the vacuum to die, after telling his sons that he is "sorry".

Bike messenger Jace Damon attempts to live under the radar in Los Angeles with his younger brother (Tyler, who has an IQ of 168). The two are raised by their mother, who does her best to remain anonymous. When she falls ill Jace takes her to the hospital, making sure that he is not associated with her. The mother dies, and her children cannot claim her body. Instead, Jace takes his brother to find a new place, deciding that the Chinese community would be the best for them; eventually an elderly Chinese businesswoman (Madame Chen) takes a liking to the pair of boys and gives Jace a part-time job and a place to stay. He also takes a job as a bike messenger, since he can be paid in cash for it.

One night, Jace accepts a delivery just as he is about to go off-duty; it is a pickup from the office of one of L.A.'s sleaziest defense attorneys, Lenny Lowell. He is not happy about the late delivery since it is a wet miserable night, but the dispatcher tells him that everyone else has gone off duty, and he is the only one available. Lowell is extremely (despite his reputation) nice to Jace, giving him a good tip. When Jace approaches the delivery address, he finds an empty lot which makes him nervous, so he decides to abort the delivery. Before he can get away, a large black car comes racing towards him to run him down. He barely survives the collision and is forced to abandon his bike. On foot, he is able to elude his pursuer, but loses his delivery bag (but retains the package). Jace returns to the scene of the collision and is relieved to discover that he will only have to replace the wheel. He returns to Lowell's office, only to find it crawling with police; he learns that Lowell has been murdered. Jace does not trust police, so he leaves the scene.

In a city fueled by money, celebrity and sensationalism, the slaying of a bottom-feeder like Lowell won't make headlines. So when LAPD's elite show up, homicide detective Kev Parker (assigned to Lowell's case) wants to know why. Parker begins a search for answers that will lead him to a killer—or to the end of his career. Because if there's one lesson Parker has learned over the years, it's that in a town built on fame and fantasy, delivering the truth can be murder.

In South Africa in 1980, Patrick Chamusso, a young, apolitical man, is accused of carrying out a terrorist attack. Afrikaner police officer Nic Vos is in charge of locating the perpetrators of a recent bomb attack against the Secunda CTL synthetic fuel refinery, which is the largest coal liquefaction plant in the world.

Patrick is unwillingly swept into Vos's investigation due to his inability to provide a satisfactory explanation for his whereabouts at the time of the bombing (he was actually having an affair with a woman not his wife). Eventually Patrick, his wife, Precious, and his family are tortured by Vos and his subordinates. Desperate, Patrick says that he is willing to confess to a crime he did not commit to protect his family. Vos concludes that Patrick is innocent, and orders his release.

Fuelled by the anger at the injustices he and his family suffered, Patrick joins Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC (the African National Congress, South Africa's anti-apartheid movement) and becomes exactly what Vos had initially accused him of being. He attempts to execute a plan to attack Secunda, the oil refinery he used to work for, by first bombing its adjacent water supply facilities, and 15 minutes later triggering the main explosion within the refinery itself. This would allow the refinery's workforce to flee between the two explosions, and not be harmed. Also, the damage of the first bomb would reduce the possibility of successfully extinguishing the fire caused by the second, main explosion. Patrick succeeds in the first part, but the second bomb is discovered by Vos and deactivated.

Patrick is arrested and sentenced to 24 years in prison, after his wife goes to Vos and tells him where Patrick is, because she fell for a simple trick in which Vos left photographs of Patrick talking to a female member of the ANC. Due to her unjustified jealousy, she sells him out. He is released early due to the abolition of apartheid.

Precious, who has remarried, is waiting for him and apologizes, and Patrick forgives her and says he is sorry as well. Some time later, he sees Vos sitting out near a small body of water. He creeps over and sees that it is indeed Vos, and though a part of him wants to break Vos' neck, he decides that it is not worth it. He left Vos alone, and went on to remarry and take in over 80 orphaned children in South Africa to provide a home for kids who lost their families during the anti-apartheid struggle.

In the kingdom of Lamia, misguided fairy godmother Lucinda Perriweather bestows the “gift” of obedience on newborn Ella of Frell, causing her to instantly obey any command she is given. Some years later, on her deathbed, Ella's mother warns her daughter not to tell anyone about the gift, for fear that someone might use it to exploit Ella.

Years later, Ella's father Sir Peter marries wealthy socialite, Dame Olga, who dislikes Ella and treats her poorly. Ella meets Prince "Char" Charmont, who invites her to his coronation ball. Jealous, Olga’s daughters Hattie and Olive find out about Ella’s obedience and use it to humiliate her. Ella resolves to find Lucinda to undo her gift. Mandy, the household fairy, lends Ella her boyfriend, Benny, whom she accidentally transformed into a magic book. Ella learns that Lucinda is in Giantville and leaves to find her.

On her journey, Ella rescues Slannen, an elf who wants to be a lawyer rather than be forced to be an entertainer. They are captured by ogres but are rescued by Char. He joins them, intending to avenge the death of his father, and Ella opens his eyes to the cruelty of the laws oppressing elves and giants enacted by Char’s paternal uncle, the Regent Sir Edgar.

Ella and Char begin to fall in love. Edgar learns of Ella's gift from her stepsisters. Knowing his nephew is in love with her, Edgar orders Ella to murder Char at midnight and to keep this plan secret. Edgar reveals that he murdered Char's father, and the prince’s death will make Edgar king. Ella writes Char a letter, saying she must leave but cannot explain why. She has Slannen chain her to a tree, hoping to wait out Edgar's command, while Slannen recruits more elves and giants to protect Char.

Lucinda appears and Ella begs her to take back her gift. Offended, Lucinda insists that Ella remove the gift herself and unchains her. Forced back to the castle, Ella stumbles into the ball. Char whisks her away to a secret hall of mirrors, where he proposes. As Ella is about to stab Char, she sees her reflection and commands herself to no longer be obedient, permanently freeing herself from the gift. Char notices the dagger, and Edgar has Ella arrested before she can explain herself.

Benny reveals Ella is in the dungeon, and Slannen sneaks into the castle along with a band of elves, giants, and ogres, and frees her. Benny shows that Edgar has poisoned Char's crown, intending to kill him at the coronation. Ella and the others crash the ceremony and a brawl ensues. In the scuffle, Mandy manages to turn Benny human again. As Char and Ella fight off the guards, she confesses her love for him and reveals Edgar's plot. Edgar's talking snake, Heston, almost fatally bites Char, which Char takes as evidence of his uncle's guilt. Edgar attempts to proclaim himself king, but foolishly puts on the poisoned crown and collapses.

Soon after, Char and Ella are married, with Areida as Ella's maid of honor. Char toasts to a new era of equality among all citizens of the kingdom. Edgar is revealed to still be alive, but disabled. The cast performs a final dance number of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" before the newlyweds ride off on their honeymoon.

Similarly to The Sopranos (which the show has been compared to) White's personal life is intertwined with his business life. He lives in Northern England with his partner Cassidy, who is half his age, and their son, while in the process of divorcing his wife Beth (Barbara Marten). His oldest son Darren is his business partner, while his other two children with Beth also feature. Kenny Doughty also stars in 4 episodes as Cassidy's love interest.

In a woodpile on a farm in Payson, Utah, a rambunctious orange kitten named Banjo constantly makes mischief, to his family's dismay. After Banjo disobeys his father's warnings of learning to mind Banjo's little sisters and, after one of Banjo's stunts nearly gets his little sisters killed, Banjo's father prepares to spank the kitten and orders Banjo to retrieve the switch that will be used against him; Banjo instead runs away. He hitches a ride on a feed truck to Salt Lake City.

In the big city, Banjo finds excitement at first, but soon he causes a massive traffic accident. He eventually retreats to the alleys, homesick and hungry during a thunderstorm. Another cat named Crazy Legs discovers Banjo and offers to help him find his way back home. During their search one snowy night, Crazy Legs and Banjo come to a nightclub and enlist the help of more cats, including a singing cat trio (Cleo, Melina and Zazu). Later that night, while searching for the truck that could take him back to the farm, Banjo and Crazy Legs are chased by a pack of dogs. The pair barely escape and end up at the singing cats' home for the night.

The next morning, Banjo wakes up and hears the driver of the truck out in the street. The cats rejoice and say many goodbyes before Banjo gets on the truck and eventually reunites with his family, who are happy to see him home.

During World War I, the young lieutenant in charge of a small British mounted patrol in the empty Mesopotamian desert is shot and killed by an unseen sniper. This leaves the sergeant at a loss, since he had not been told what their mission is and has no idea where they are. Riding north in the hope of rejoining their brigade, the eleven remaining men reach a deserted oasis where they find water, edible dates, and shelter.

During the night, one of the sentries is killed, the other seriously wounded, and all their horses are stolen, leaving them stranded. They bury the dead man and put his sword at the head of his grave. One by one, the remaining men are picked off by the unseen assailants. During the course of the film, the men talk and reminisce and fight—and deal with their situation. In desperation, the sergeant sends two men chosen by lot on foot for help, but they are caught and their mutilated bodies returned. One man, Abelson, suffering from heat exhaustion, sees a mirage and wanders into deadly rifle fire. The pilot of a British biplane spots the survivors, but nonchalantly lands nearby and despite frantic warnings is killed. After dark, the sergeant takes the machine gun from the aircraft and then sets the plane on fire as a signal to any British troops. Sanders, a religious fanatic, goes mad and walks into deadly fire.

In the end only the sergeant is left and, thinking he too is dead, the six Arabs who have been besieging the oasis advance on foot. Using the machine gun from the aircraft, the sergeant kills them all. A British patrol which had seen the smoke from the burning plane rides up and the officer in charge asks the sergeant roughly where his men are. In silence, the sergeant looks toward their graves, six swords gleaming in the sun.

Two best friends from the province of Iloilo, Pearl (Pauleen Luna) and Jonathan (Gian Carlos), arrive in Manila to study at an Arts Academy. Jonathan himself secretly harbors romantic feelings for Pearl, known for her brilliance and wisdom. Upon enrollment, a clique of students led by Mimi (Iwa Moto) and her right-hand person Eva (Katarina Perez), takes an interest in them. Mimi is a pretty, rich, and popular girl who gets her way by bullying others. The clique also consists of basketball jock Joshua (Jason Abalos), film and photography major Jowee (Glaiza de Castro), and delinquent band frontman Hector (Ketchup Eusebio).

Mimi takes Pearl and Jonathan into her fold, befriending them in exchange for academic favors from the bright and studious Pearl. However, Pearl rebuffs the clique after realizing their deceptions, while Jonathan joins a prominent fraternity. Soon after, Pearl and Jonathan's close friendship becomes estranged.

One night, Pearl experiences strange paranormal occurrences on campus and has visions of a woman in white, referred to as the white lady, singing a folk lullaby. She and Jonathan learn from others about the story of a white lady rumored to have frequented the school grounds. A carpenter reveals to Jonathan a storage shed that burnt down and a vision of the said woman at the same spot. Pearl meets and befriends Tasya, a kindhearted Guimaras-born elderly woman residing in a house situated on the Academy's vast campus. Tasya tells the story of her granddaughter Christina (Angelica Panganiban), a simple girl also hailing from Iloilo and Guimaras, who was reportedly driven into hiding by Mimi’s pompousness. Pearl immediately feels an affinity towards Christina since both girls have been receiving Mimi's scorn.

The haunting worsens when Pearl lands the highly coveted lead role in the school play, which also earns her the brunt of Mimi’s ire since the latter wanted the part for herself. In another circumstance, a burgeoning relationship begins to kindle between Pearl and Robbie (JC de Vera), the rich, athletic, and most popular guy in school, whom Mimi also desires.

Flashbacks show Christina's story. Robbie befriends her after rescuing her from bullies and Mimi's gang. The two begin a relationship that his father opposes and forces them to separate and have Robbie choose Mimi. Soon after, Mimi's friends begin to torment her frequently. Christina shuns Robbie after having her way by his and the gang's actions. After the gang imprisons her in a storage shed, Mimi drugs a janitor to silence him and Robbie, under her influence, murders Christina by setting the shed on fire.

In a series of intense ghostly appearances, the white lady manifests herself to the clique, letting them experience her wrath. Each clique member is either killed or left incapacitated out of trauma from the encounter.

Pearl receives news during a Halloween feast that her mother has leukemia and reveals to Robbie that she is returning to Iloilo. Robbie grows overzealous and disoriented after seeing Christina's vision on his cellphone. Pearl escapes to a gypsy tent, wherein she encounters a vision that relives Christina's final moments. From here, she learns of Robbie's crime and shuns Robbie.

Robbie captures Pearl and drags her to the storage shed. Jonathan witnesses this and intervenes, only to be subdued by Robbie. To try and silence them, Robbie sets the shed on fire and flees the scene on a motorcycle. The white lady, now revealed to be Christina, appears and causes him to crash. He runs to a carillon wherein bells play the lullaby, and Christina causes Robbie to fall to his death. Pearl and Jonathan manage to survive and escape the shed fire unharmed due to Christina's soul diverting the flames. Later on, Christina walks to a light in a field, presumably the gate of Heaven.

Later on, Pearl returns to the province and visits Tasya, wherein she reveals that her mother has died of the ailment. As Tasya reveals that she sees Christina's soul departing for the afterlife, Pearl states that they vow to care for each other despite their losses. Christina's voice sings her lullaby as they comfort each other as she gazes down from Heaven with God on the two in the form of wind and sunlight.

Monsieur Dufour (André Gabriello), a shop-owner from Paris, takes his family for a day of relaxation in the country. When they stop for lunch at the roadside restaurant of Poulain (Jean Renoir), two young men there, Henri (Georges D'Arnoux) and Rodolphe (Jacques B. Brunius), take an interest in Dufour's daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille) and wife Madame Dufour (Jane Marken). They scheme to get the two women off alone with them. They offer to row them along the river in their skiffs, while they divert Dufour and his shop assistant and future son-in-law, Anatole (Paul Temps), by lending them some fishing poles. Though Rodolphe had arranged beforehand to take Henriette, Henri maneuvers it so that she gets into his skiff. Rodolphe then good-naturedly settles for Madame Dufour.

As Henri rows, Henriette expresses her enthusiasm for the countryside. Henri suggests that she could come visit again, on her own, by train if necessary, and offers to meet her. Henriette says that her father would never permit it.

Henri rows to a secluded spot on the riverbank which he refers to as his "private office". Henriette initially resists his amorous advances, but stops struggling after a moment.

A rainstorm that has been threatening all afternoon arrives, but the party's return to the inn is not depicted.

Title cards indicate that years have passed and that Henriette has married Anatole. One day, they end up at the place where Henri seduced Henriette. While Anatole dozes, his wife takes a walk, and encounters Henri. With tears in her eyes, she reminisces about their brief time together. Then, when Anatole wakes up, Henri hides until they leave.

The story features the interaction between the children of the household and the carved lions featured, who come to life and take care of them.

''Urbania'' follows Charlie (Dan Futterman) through a sleepless night. After an unsuccessful bout of masturbation to the sound of his upstairs neighbors having sex, he prowls the streets looking for a man he saw several months earlier. The implication is that he's had a one night stand with the man, cheating on his boyfriend Chris (Matt Keeslar). This is reinforced by several phone calls Charlie places, leaving messages on Chris' answering machine. As he's walking, he has momentary flashes akin to hallucinations or waking dreams: a man's mouth; a bottle breaking; a man with a blood-stained shirt.

After a series of encounters (with his upstairs neighbors, whom he tells about his masturbatory activities, and a potential trick), he meets the man he's looking for. His name is Dean (Samuel Ball) and it makes no sense either that he'd trick with Charlie or that Charlie would trick with him. Dean is unabashedly racist, sexist and homophobic. Nevertheless, Charlie, pretending to be straight, buys Dean drinks and smokes a joint with him. Dean takes Charlie to a gay cruising area looking for victims, but Charlie is able to warn away the intended target. Dean is now almost incapacitated by alcohol and drugs and Charlie gets him into Dean's car and drives him to a secluded marshy area.

As had been implied by Charlie's flashbacks, Dean and two of his buddies, several months earlier, had attacked Charlie and raped and murdered Chris in an apparent hate crime. Charlie's purpose is finally revealed: he wants revenge.

In a dreamlike conversation with Chris, Charlie relates what happened at the marshland. He pulled a knife on Dean and told him why he was there. Dean didn't remember him. Charlie forced Dean to drop his pants and was disgusted to see Dean had an erection. Charlie forced Dean to kneel and fellate the knife blade. Suddenly, Dean collapsed with an epileptic seizure. Charlie slit his throat.

Chris challenges Charlie, not believing that he killed Dean. Charlie admits that he wanted to but couldn't. Instead, he drove off in Dean's car, abandoning him in the marsh.

Charlie stands up from where he's been kneeling, at a makeshift memorial near where Chris was killed. He walks home and has one more hallucinatory flash. He sees himself on the street, cradling a dying Chris. He kisses Chris goodbye and passes by him. When he turns back, Chris is gone. Charlie makes it home and, finally, is able to sleep.

Charlie presents aspects of his story in the form of urban legends. The film references a number of urban legends, both by having characters describe them as they're depicted and by presenting random people experiencing them.

The story is about Dr. De Soto, a mouse dentist who lives in a world of anthropomorphic animals. He and his wife, who serves as his assistant, work together to treat patients with as little pain as possible. Dr. De Soto uses different chairs, depending on the size of the animal, or simply has the patient sit on the floor, using a stepladder or with Mrs. De Soto guiding her husband with a system of pulleys for treating extra-large animals. They refuse to treat any animal who likes to eat mice.

One day, a well-dressed fox with a toothache drops by and begs for treatment. Dr. De Soto feels pity for the fox and Mrs. De Soto suggests they risk it, so they admit the fox as a patient. They give the fox some anesthetic and proceed to treat the bad tooth. However, while under anesthesia, the fox unknowingly exclaims how he loves to eat mice (including with a dry, white wine). The De Sotos remove the bad tooth, and tell the fox to come back the next day to get a false tooth. On his way home, the fox notes that it is crass to try to eat the creature that had just relieved him of much pain, but still doesn't dismiss the idea. Later that night, Dr. and Mrs. De Soto, as she prepares the new tooth of gold, debate whether to readmit the fox. Dr. De Soto feels it was foolish to trust a fox, but Mrs. De Soto says she thinks the fox was reacting to the anesthetic in his comments. In the end Dr. De Soto vows, as his father taught him, to finish the job he started, but they formulate a plan to protect themselves.

The next day, the fox returns; he is much happier, out of pain, and anxiously awaits the installation of his new tooth. Dr. De Soto puts in the new tooth, but by now the fox has decided to give in to temptation and eat them. Dr. De Soto then introduces a new formula the couple created recently, and claiming that one application will prevent toothaches forever asks the fox if he'd like to be the first to try it, who, hating pain, readily agrees. The dentist takes his time and paints each tooth with the formula, then has the patient clench his jaws shut for a full minute. The fox is surprised to find that his mouth has been glued shut, as this is what the secret formula really is, but Dr. De Soto states that he "should have mentioned" that the formula needs time to permeate the dentin and as a result, the fox will not be able to open his mouth for a day or two. Stunned, the deceived patient can only reply with 'frank oo berry mush' and in a daze, leave with as much dignity as possible.

The book ends with the De Sotos triumphant at having "outfoxed the fox", and they take the rest of the day off.

The plot of the book bears many similarities to a fable by Aesop regarding a wolf and a crane; in both stories, a predator has trouble with their mouth or throat, and requires the aid of another animal to place themselves inside the jaws of the beast. In the original fable, the wolf simply decides that letting the crane live is reward enough, and the crane goes without payment. In this story the fox decides to eat the protagonist but is ultimately outsmarted.

The book deals with the early life of Tomie dePaola. He has just moved to a new house in Connecticut and the 1938 hurricane has just hit. Tomie expresses unhappiness for seeing ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' in the theatres.

As House and his team work on the diagnosis of Vincent, a man with a massively swollen tongue and a high temperature, a disgruntled former patient named Jack Moriarty walks into House's office and shoots House twice with a handgun. Vincent develops two additional symptoms: blood leaking into his left eye, causing it to swell outward (and eventually be removed), and a burst testicle. The symptoms appear to have no possible connection to each other.

Waking up from a coma two days later, House continues to treat Vincent from his hospital bed in the ICU with Moriarty, shot by hospital security and handcuffed to his bed, as his roommate. House wakes up Moriarty and asks why he wanted him to die. Moriarty replies that it was not his intention to kill House, and that he wanted to see House suffer. The reason Moriarty wanted to see House suffer was because his wife was a recent patient that House previously treated. While diagnosing her, House badgered Moriarty until he admitted that he had cheated on her. Despite this fact having no medical relevance to his wife's illness, House told her about the affair anyway. Moriarty's wife then committed suicide shortly after being released from the hospital. He tells House that he realizes that his affair led to his wife's suicide, however he feels that House should take part of the blame because there was "no reason" to tell her about it.

Since the shooting, House feels decreased pain in his leg. He finds out from his records that during the surgery to treat the gunshot wounds, a treatment of ketamine to induce a coma had been given to relieve his leg pain, but he experiences neurological side effects. It becomes clear that House cannot separate fact from fiction, as hallucinations begin to get a stronger grasp on his sense of reality, from hitting Wilson to eating tacos outside the hospital. He begins to question his own ability to diagnose, while hostility increases between him and Moriarty. As Vincent’s body begins to deteriorate, House struggles through his own self-doubts and must try to make sense of his life and world.

House is seen hallucinating sitting in the passenger seat of Moriarty's wife's car next to her as she commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning (by starting her car with the garage door closed). House comes back to his hospital room from his daydreams and with sincerity tells Moriarty "I'm sorry."

After several hallucinations, House determines that ''nothing'' he has experienced since the shooting is real, and in order to snap out of his hallucination, decides to kill Vincent with the facility's surgical robot. House theorizes that doing this will push his mind past the point of reality and force it to believe the truth - that he is hallucinating. This is further proven when House's team tries to stop him from even using the robot, seemingly knowing he is going to kill Vincent; something that would not be possible unless everything he is experiencing is in his own mind.

The surgical robot tears into Vincent and his vital signs disappear. At first, it seems House really killed him, but then Vincent drops a bullet he held in his hand. This is all the proof House needs that everything was just a hallucination, and he says "goodbye" before snapping back into reality. His theory proves to be true, and in the final minutes of the episode we see House being rushed into the ER moments after he was shot. Before the episode ends, House asks Cameron to tell Cuddy that he wants ketamine, which he supposedly received prior to the imagined events of the episode.

Miss Strangeworth is described prominently as a harmless old lady in the beginning of the story. Through conversations with the people in her town, it is evident that Miss Strangeworth often believes that she owns the town, never having left it for longer than a day, and has great interest in its townspeople. She also takes great pride in the orderliness of her house, as well as her family roses. However, Miss Strangeworth is not such a quiet figure in her town; she often writes anonymous letters to her neighbors, which are rarely based on fact and more on what gossip she has heard during her walks down the streets. When she is mailing some of them, one is dropped on the ground and one of her neighbors (whom she had once made a subject of her uncouth letters) notices, and, feeling kind, delivers it to the intended recipient (unaware the letter is meant to be anonymous). The next morning, Miss Strangeworth receives a similarly written letter, informing her that her roses, a source of her familial pride, have been destroyed.

Old House of Sumburgh Mr Mertoun and his son had arrived as strangers, and resided for several years in the remaining rooms of the old mansion of the Earls of Orkney, the father leading a very secluded life, while the son Mordaunt became a general favourite with the inhabitants, and especially with the udaller, Magnus Troil, and his daughters, Brenda and Minna. On his way home from a visit to them, he and the pedlar Snailsfoot sought shelter from a storm at a farmhouse, at Hafra, home of Triptolemus Yellowley agent of the Chamberlain of Orkney and Shetland, and his sister Barbara. The visitors were amused with the Yellowley's penurious ways, and encountered Norna, a relative of Magnus Troil who was supposed to be in league with the fairies, and to possess supernatural powers. The next day a ship was wrecked on the rocky coast, and, at the risk of his life, Mordaunt rescued the captain, Cleveland, as he was cast on the beach clinging to a plank, while Norna prevented his sea-chest from being pillaged. Cleveland was in fact a pirate, but they did not know this. The captain promised his preserver a trip in a consort ship which he expected would arrive shortly, and went to seek the udaller's help in recovering some of his other property that had been washed ashore. After the lapse of several weeks, however, during which the Troils had discontinued their friendly communications with him, Mordaunt heard that the stranger was still their guest, and that they were arranging an entertainment for Saint John's Eve, to which he had not been invited.

As he was brooding over this slight, Norna touched his shoulder, and, assuring him of her goodwill, advised him to join the party uninvited. Warned by his father against falling in love, and with some misgivings as to his reception, he called at Harfra on his way, and accompanied Yellowley and his sister to the feast. Minna and Brenda Troil replied to their discarded companion's greeting with cold civility, and he felt convinced that Captain Cleveland had supplanted him in their esteem. The bard, Claud Halcro, endeavoured to cheer him with his poetry and reminiscences of "glorious" John Dryden; and, in the course of the evening, Brenda, disguised as a masquer, told him they had heard that he had spoken unkindly of them, but that she did not believe he had done so. She also expressed her fear that the stranger had won Minna's love, and begged Mordaunt to discover all he could respecting him. During an attempt to capture a whale the following day, Cleveland saved Mordaunt from drowning, and, being thus released from his obligation to him, intimated that henceforth they were rivals. The same evening the pedlar brought tidings that a strange ship had arrived at Kirkwall, and Cleveland talked of a trip thither to ascertain whether it was the consort he had been so long expecting.

After the sisters had retired to bed, Norna appeared in their room, and narrated a startling tale of her early life, which led Minna to confess her attachment to the captain, and to elicit Brenda's partiality for Mordaunt. At a secret interview the next morning, Cleveland admitted to Minna that he was a pirate, upon which she declared that she could only still love him as a penitent, and not as the hero she had hitherto imagined him to be. He announced, in the presence of her father and sister, his intention of starting at once for Kirkwall; but at night he serenaded her, and then, after hearing a struggle and a groan, she saw the shadow of a figure disappearing with another on his shoulders. Overcome with grief and suspense, she was seized with a fit of melancholy, for the cure of which the udaller consulted Norna in her secluded dwelling; and, after a mystic ceremony, she predicted that the cause would cease when "crimson foot met crimson hand" in the Martyr's Aisle in Orkney land, whither she commanded her kinsman to proceed with his daughters. Mordaunt had been stabbed by the pirate, but had been carried away by Norna to Hoy, where she told him she was his mother, and, after curing his wound, conveyed him to Kirkwall. Here Cleveland had joined his companions, and, having been chosen captain of the consort ship, he obtained leave from the provost for her to take in stores at Stromness and quit the islands, on condition that he remained as a hostage for the crew's behaviour.

Stones of Stenness On their way they captured the brig containing the Troils, but Minna and Brenda were sent safely ashore by John Bunce, Cleveland's lieutenant, and escorted by old Halcro to visit a relative. The lovers met in the cathedral of St Magnus, whence, with Norna's aid, Cleveland escaped to his ship, and the sisters were transferred to the residence of the bard's cousin, where their father joined them, and found Mordaunt in charge of a party of dependents for their protection. When all was ready for sailing, the captain resolved to see Minna once more, and having sent a note begging her to meet him at the Standing Stones of Stenness at daybreak, he made his way thither. Brenda persuaded Mordaunt to allow her sister to keep the appointment, and as the lovers were taking their last farewell, they and Brenda were seized by Bunce and his crew from the boat, and would have been carried off, had not Mordaunt hastened to the rescue, and made prisoners of the pirate and his lieutenant. Norna had warned Cleveland against delaying his departure, and his last hopes were quenched when, from the window of the room in which he and Bunce were confined, they witnessed the arrival of the ''Halcyon'', whose captain she had communicated with, and the capture, after a desperate resistance, of their ship.

The elder Mertoun now sought Norna's aid to save their son, who, he declared, was not Mordaunt, as she imagined, but Cleveland, whom he had trained as a pirate under his own real name of Vaughan, her former lover; and having lost trace of him till now, had come to Jarlshof, with his child by a Spanish wife, to atone for the misdeeds of his youth. On inquiry it appeared that Cleveland and Bunce had earned their pardon by acts of mercy in their piratical career, and were allowed to enter the king's service. Minna was further consoled by a penitent letter from her lover; Brenda became Mordaunt's wife; and the aberration of mind, occasioned by remorse at having caused her father's death, having died, Norna abandoned her supernatural pretensions and peculiar habits, and resumed her family name.

The mime-styled, French supervillain Bomb Voyage attempts a bank heist in the fictional American city of Metroville, but Bob Parr, alias Mr. Incredible, guided by his friend, the ice-powered superhero Frozone (secretly Lucius Best), works to stop his plans. Meanwhile, the metamorphic heroine Elastigirl battles against Voyage's mime minions across the Metroville skyline stretch. Mr. Incredible captures Bomb Voyage in the bank when his fanboy, Buddy Pine, shows up. Mr. Incredible is dismissive of Buddy Pine, and Bomb Voyage sneakily plants a bomb on Buddy's cape, who flies away with his rocket boots to notify the police. Mr. Incredible fortunately notices the bomb on Buddy's cape and grabs hold of Buddy to embark on a wild ride above the city.

Mr. Incredible and the bomb both fall onto a rooftop, where the bomb detonates harmlessly as Bomb Voyage appears in a helicopter. Voyage attempts to kill Mr. Incredible with bombs, rockets and laser beams, but Mr. Incredible throws the bombs back at the helicopter, causing it to spin wildly out of control, heavily damaged. Bomb Voyage flees the scene, Mr. Incredible having defeated his madcap foe.

Fifteen years later, superheroes across America have been long-since sued and outlawed for causing too much public destruction and are forced by the US government (chiefly the CIA) to permanently remain themselves in their civilian identities and live normal lives in hiding. Mr. Incredible has married Elastigirl, who has become Helen Parr, and they have three children together: Violet (who possesses force-field and invisibility powers), Dash (a 190+ mph speedster), and Jack-Jack (who does not appear to have obtained any superhuman abilities).

After narrowly escaping an apartment inferno on an illegal heroic excursion with Frozone, Mr. Incredible is approached by a mysterious woman named Mirage, who tells him about a secret organization based on a remote South Pacific island called Nomanisan. Meanwhile, Dash is late for school and has to race through the Metroville traffic to reach his school on time.

The organization's latest invention, the Omnidroid Mark 08, is endangering the island and its personnel. After a rough beach landing on Nomanisan Island, Mr. Incredible encounters numerous hostile robots before he finds and destroys the Omnidroid during a volcanic eruption. The entire battle is witnessed by Mirage and her anonymous employer through the eyes a robotic bird. The shadowy employer remarks that Mr. Incredible's victory is surprising, and asks Mirage to issue him new assignments.

After weeks of rigorous training and having received an improved suit from superhero tailor Edna Mode, Mr. Incredible returns to Nomanisan well-prepared for another mission. When he reaches the conference room, he fights through numerous armed security guards, deadly robots and laser systems in the robot arena, but once he reaches the empty meeting room, an improved Omnidroid (the Mark 09), appears suddenly from behind a huge sliding wall and grabs Mr. Incredible, quickly overpowering and trapping him. The Omnidroid's creator, Syndrome, appears, who is Mirage's secret employer and reveals himself to be an adult (and very hostile) Buddy Pine. He reveals that he wants revenge on Mr. Incredible by killing off him and the world's other superheroes. Mr. Incredible is remorseful for his treatment of Syndrome, and escapes his clutches by jumping off the great falls. He evades Syndrome's life-sign scanner by hiding behind the skeletal remains of his superhero friend Gazerbeam (whom Syndrome had previously dispatched in an undersea cave). Unfortunately, he is later captured and imprisoned in Syndrome's base when he breaks into the villain's secret computer room, learning of Syndrome's plans to unleash his perfected Omnidroid (the Mark 10) on Metroville. Syndrome then intends to take credit for stopping the robot and saving the city, tarnishing the reputations of Mr. Incredible and his allies in the process, before he becomes the world's only super using his weaponized inventions.

Elastigirl flies to Nomanisan island to rescue her husband and safely stores a stowed-away Violet and Dash in a cave, sneaking into Syndrome's complex with the goal of finding Mr. Incredible. She works her way through the hidden base and into Syndrome's volcanic lair. The next morning, Violet and Dash accidentally activate a robotic cockatoo's alarm system and are forced to use their powers to escape from Syndrome's guards. After a 100-mile dash through the jungle and across the beaches and lakes of the island, and Violet's crossing of Syndrome's henchmen (thanks to the use of her invisibility), the two learn not to be ashamed of their powers and work together, combining their abilities to form the Incredi-ball. They battle henchmen and robots, eventually finding their parents, with Mirage having had a change of heart and freeing Mr. Incredible.

As the Incredible family finally meets up outside the secret lava labs, Mirage helps them activate and launch one of Syndrome's rockets from the rocket silo, which they use to reach Metroville, where the Omnidroid is wreaking havoc on the populace. The Incredibles and Frozone work together to destroy the robot, stop Syndrome and save the world. Syndrome escapes from the battle in the city, but is later killed offscreen when he attempts to kidnap Jack-Jack Parr as revenge. The Incredibles meet with their family friend and CIA agent Rick Dicker, who acquits and relieves them of their lives as superheroes in hiding, and they are loved by the public again for their efforts.

Eldon Fochs is a 38-year-old accountant and lay provost. He is happily married with four children. Feshtig works as a therapist in an Institute of Psychoanalysis funded and controlled by the church. Fochs is persuaded to go to Feshtig by his wife, who has a growing suspicion that her husband harbours dark secrets.

Fochs slowly reveals the contents of his dreams and his "disturbing thoughts" about children to Feshtig. He reveals two dreams; one when he strangles and dismembers a girl and another of a 12-year-old boy. In the dream, the boy comes into his office and Fochs brutally sodomises him. He frightens the boy with threats and forces him to admit to having been molested by an uncle, something that never happened. Fochs claims that in his dream he was guided by God.

In the chapters where Fochs is in the first person, he describes how he assaulted and murdered a 14-year-old girl. He also describes his ecclesiastical superior confronting him with allegations from two mothers that he has molested their boys. He denies the allegations, and his superiors choose to believe him.

Feshtig meets with one of the mothers and starts to counsel her son Nathan Mears, and he gradually uncovers the extent of the damage that Fochs has done to the young boy. As the abuse allegations reach the media, the pressure on the church mounts, but it does everything to protect itself and its reputation, going as far as to excommunicate the two mothers. The pressure on Fochs from his wife is more difficult to answer as she presses him on what he was doing the night the girl was murdered. Eventually he rams his car into a tree, having surreptitiously unclipped his wife’s seat belt. She is thrown through the window and killed.

Feshtig reveals his conclusions to the police, but their DNA tests are inconclusive. Protected by the church, Fochs still contrives to spend time alone with young boys in order to molest them. He is eventually transferred to a teaching position in another city, free to carry on his abuse.

As the novel ends, having assaulted his children’s babysitter, Fochs sinks to further level of depravity and starts a cycle of incest with his eldest daughter.

In the novel, Harley Hudson, the affable but inept vice president from ''Advise and Consent'', is now president and seeking a term of his own against a backdrop of Soviet-instigated war, as the Soviet Union backs rebel governments in Panama and in the fictitious African republic of Gorotoland. Hudson responds with U.S. troops in both countries, and the conflicts soon bog down. The election season soon turns on these foreign policy questions, with the media and others seeking a peace candidate — and finding it in the popular but weak-willed Governor Ted Jason of California. Having announced his candidacy late, Hudson announces an open contest for the vice presidential nomination, in which Secretary of State Orrin Knox, who supports Hudson's policies, opposes Jason. The media, who had supported Jason heavily when it looked like it would be a Knox-Jason race for the presidential nomination, continues its effort for a Jason victory by any means they can.

At the convention in San Francisco, extreme elements of the Left and Right combine to support Jason, and there are several violent incidents, including one in which Knox's daughter-in-law is brutally attacked. When it becomes clear that the convention is split down the middle in fights over the platform, Jason challenges Hudson for the Majority Party's nomination (the novels never use the proper names "Republican" or "Democrat" but the descriptions of Majority Party corresponds strongly to the Democrats of the 1960s). The media, meantime, spins merrily away, filtering what the country is allowed to see and hear from San Francisco. Ceil Jason, the Governor's wife, leaves him when her husband's lack of principle and willingness to tolerate the violence sinks in to her. Hudson wins narrowly, and Jason expects the vice presidential nomination since he commands the support of almost half the convention. Hudson seems amenable, and places Jason on the dais as he makes his acceptance speech. Hudson humiliates Jason by making it clear that he considers Jason a panderer, and states he will accept Knox, and only Knox, as his running mate. The convention duly nominates Knox, but almost half its delegates walk out, to the pleasure of the media commentators, who predict a third-party convention from among the disaffected delegates.

In 1857, after their attempts to smuggle contraband goods land them with a heavy fine from the British Customs, Captain Illiam Quillian Kewley and his crew of Manx sailors from Peel are forced to offer their ship for charter. The vessel is quickly hired by a party of Englishmen headed by an eccentric Vicar, the Reverend Geoffrey Wilson, who believes that the Garden of Eden is located in Tasmania and wants to mount an expedition there to find it. However, unbeknownst to the clergyman, one of his fellow travellers has an entirely different reason for journeying to the island. Dr Thomas Potter is a renowned surgeon who is developing a thesis on the races of man and hopes to find some interesting specimens there.

Running parallel with this story, but starting some 30 or so years earlier, are the recollections of Peevay, one of Tasmania's natives, who describes the devastating impact the white settlers had on his people, and the Aboriginal people' struggle to adapt to the cultural changes which were forced on them.

Many of the chapters alternate between the two different time periods, but when the Manx ship eventually docks in Tasmania, both strands of the story are brought together for the book's conclusion.

The life of shy, seventh-grader Spencer Griffith, who has a crush on a schoolmate named Michelle, changes one night when he sees a mysterious meteorite, as it crashes down into a nearby junkyard. Sneaking out of his house to investigate, he discovers the meteorite to actually be a small rocket carrying a "Cyborsuit.", a prototype exoskeletal-suit with AI (short for Artificial intelligence) from another galaxy. He decides to try it on and melds with it, but requires some time to adjust to the experience, including the new speed and strength, and then starts testing out the suit's various primary functions and abilities, deciding to call it "Cy". He proceeds to go around town doing whatever he wants, starting with getting back at a bully from school named Turbo, then saving Michelle and her friends from a damaged Rock-O-Plane and ordering food from a fast-food restaurant drive-thru. He also endures the hilarious antics of trashing part of his house after getting his head stuck inside of the refrigerator, discovering the unappealing way that the suit will allow him to eat his ordered drive-thru food, and finding a way to pee when Cy won't let him out to do it.

Meanwhile, Earth is visited by a Broodwarrior, a member of an alien race of world-conquering insectoids that are currently waging a war against the suit's creator, Tenris De'Thar, and his fellow Trelkins, who developed the suit as a weapon to turn the tide of the war, but was forced to launch it into space due to a Broodwarrior attack. The Broodwarrior's mission is to find and capture the suit so his race can analyze it. After first encountering the Broodwarrior, Spencer escapes, forces Cy to eject him out of the suit, and abandons it, afraid he might not "live to see his next birthday" if he "engages" the Broodwarrior. Back home, after looking over one of his comic books titled ''MidKnight Warrior'' and thinking about what the title character, in his situation, would do, he goes back out to find Cy. He unexpectedly finds himself accompanied by Turbo, who gradually becomes his friend, only to find the Broodwarrior has taken Cy. They head to the junkyard, where Cy is about to be taken off-world by the Broodwarrior, and create a plan to distract it long enough to allow Spencer to rescue Cy. Spencer retrieves Cy and begins battling the Broodwarrior.

During the battle, the Broodwarrior gets the upper hand, and the suit is bashed multiple times by the Broodwarrior's mace, severely damaging it, and forcing Cy to eject Spencer before it goes completely offline. Spencer covers it with scrap metal to hide it from the Broodwarrior, takes a piece of it, and continues to fight the Broodwarrior, who had started trying to chase down Turbo. Spencer confronts the Broodwarrior before getting chased himself and is suddenly cornered inside a junked ice cream truck. Just when the Broodwarrior is about to dispose of Spencer, Turbo finds a control panel and activates the car crusher the truck is sitting in, revealing the chase into it to be part of a trap. Spencer escapes while the truck is compressed into a solid metal cube, killing the Broodwarrior.

With the Broodwarrior now destroyed, the boys return to Cy but it appears that they were too late to save it. Just as Spencer begins to lose hope, Tenris De'Thar and a small group of Trelkin soldiers appear from a giant UFO orbiting Earth and quickly repair it, reviving it. After Cy and Spencer say goodbye to one another, the head alien soldier gives Spencer a badge for his bravery and courage before their departure back to their home-world, and the long, eventful night finally comes to an end. The next day at school, a now confident Spencer, encouraged by Turbo, starts up a conversation with Michelle.

After winning his party's nomination in ''Capable of Honor'', U.S. President Harley Hudson dies in a suspicious plane crash. William Abbott, the Speaker of the House, is reluctantly elevated to the presidency. The Majority Party immediately convenes its National Committee, torn between the supporters of California Governor Ted Jason and those of Secretary of State and former Illinois Senator Orrin Knox. Eventually Knox defeats Jason, but names Jason as his vice presidential nominee. At the conclusion of the novel, a gunman appears and opens fire on the two candidates and their wives.

The film presents five childhood friends in their twenties who have grown up together in the town Falkenberg. The movie chronicles what they call "their last summer" in the town, faced with the prospect that sooner or later they have to move up to Gothenburg. Their lives in Falkenberg currently circle around nothing and each other: Holger, who seems to be the central figure of the five, faces fears of moving away from his hometown and becoming clichéd; his brother John, grumpy and lazy; Jesper, the only member of the group who already attempted to move away from the town, but ends up coming back nevertheless; Jörgen, who is in the process of setting up a catering business, but without much prospect; and David, the sensitive loner and Holger's best friend, whose diary serves as a narration for the story. The film offers vignettes of the seemingly empty lives of the five: wandering in nature, dealing with the parental expectations, swimming in the sea and burglarizing homes (although more as a pastime activity opposed to a financial source).

At the climax of the movie, David wraps up his diary and mails it off to Holger. He then packs up a shotgun, goes out to the forest and commits suicide. Holger is initially distraught, but eventually, as David predicted in his diary, "life goes on" and the remaining friends settle back into their former routine of killing time and facing their inevitable prospects.

''Rock Me Baby'' is about a former exotic dancer, Beth, and a radio personality, Jimmy, who produce a child together, with most of the storylines of each episode revolving around the baby, Otis. Throughout the beginning of the series, Carl has a crush on Pamela and is rejected on every attempt to gain closure with her. Jimmy and Beth overcome a series of obstacles about being new parents and the phases of life.

During the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, Emperor Nero fiddles. Tigellinus informs Nero that he is suspected of starting the fire. Nero instead has the fire blamed on the Christians. In Rome, the Apostle Titus, Mercia, and Favius are apprehended by a mob for being Christians. Marcus Superbus, the prefect of Rome, arrives and disperses the mob allowing the Christians to go free.

News of Marcus's mercy towards the Christians spreads throughout Rome, including Empress Poppaea. At a fountain, Marcus meets with Mercia again; there, Licinius reads Nero's edict to Marcus reminding him of his duty to arrest Christians. Later that night, Titus sends Stephan, a young Christian man, to tell other Christians of the secret meeting at the Cestian Bridge. Shortly after, Marcus arrives at Mercia's home wanting to take her for himself, but Mercia decides to stay. Stephan is arrested by Licinius under suspicion of being a Christian. In a dungeon, Stephan is tortured, and reveals the location of the Christians' secret meeting.

After learning of Stephan's arrest and torture, Marcus races to the meeting hoping to save Mercia. Along the way, he crashes into Poppaea's carriage. She demands for Marcus to stay, but he leaves her and promises to be with her in the morning. At the meeting, Roman soldiers surround the Christians where Titus and some members of his congregation are struck dead by arrows. Marcus arrives at the meeting and saves Mercia, and takes her home, while the other Christians are arrested and sent into the prison chamber.

The next morning, Poppaea scolds Marcus for his affections to Mercia. Elsewhere in the palace, Tigellinus informs Nero of Marcus's disobedience to his edict, in which Nero accuses Marcus of betrayal. Jealous of Mercia, Poppaea influences Nero to sign an order for Mercia to be arrested from Marcus's home. At a feast in Marcus's home, he introduces Mercia to Ancaria, who performs an exotic dance. Outside of Marcus's home, Ancaria's performance is drowned out by the Christians' singing. Annoyed by the singing, Marcus sends his party away so he may be left alone with Mercia. He demands for Mercia to renounce her Christian faith so she may be with him, but she refuses. Shortly after, Licinius arrives to arrest Mercia, who is to be executed for treason amongst one hundred Christians in the arena.

Marcus returns to Nero's palace and demands for the emperor to spare Mercia, but Nero refuses. In the arena, the audience is entertained by several spectacles, including gladiator battles. When the time for the Christians' execution arrives, Mercia is told to stay behind by Poppaea's orders as she is to be executed alone. In the arena, the Christians are mauled to death by lions. Following the execution, Marcus again asks for Marcia to renounce her faith and be his wife. Mercia refuses once more, but she states that she loves him. Refusing to live without her, Marcus accompanies Mercia where they are both executed.

F.U.B. was once a catering officer with the Sector Marines. F.U.B. (which stands "Fat Ugly Boy") was once on a barren desert front during one of the relatively obscure skirmishes of the last 40 years. Not wanting to let "the boys" down and unable to find any meat, F.U.B., cooked his own legs and served them up in a rich broth. Despite it being the best dish he had ever created, F.U.B. was given an unconditional discharge and asked never to show his face again. F.U.B. replaces his legs with, hydraulic-powered replacements. He undertakes a radical appearance; wearing furry dice, smoking Havana cigars and painting a target on his portly belly.

The six playable characters have notable differences and derangements, but what they have in common is that they are all psychotic criminals who have been setup by F.U.B. and are now serving sentence on an inhospitable prison planet, the planet Raulf. F.U.B. has even taken on a new identity, working his way up the ladder by murder, and is now the warden of Raulf.

The player (or two of the game's six characters, in two player mode) must escape Raulf, chase F.U.B. and engage on a bloody odyssey across the strange worlds of the galaxy to exact revenge on F.U.B. The supervillain, however, sees it as a challenge, and to this end he creates a machine that can toy with the very fabric of the universe, manipulate matter, and even open doorways to other dimensions. With this machine, F.U.B. plans to hold the universe for ransom and sets up a prison break on Raulf to set things in motion. If he can defeat a group of the most feared individuals in the galaxy who are armed to the teeth and wanting revenge, he figures he can defeat anyone.

Playable Characters

'''Mamma''': A very large psychologically disturbed man with the mind of an infant. He wears a diaper, bonnet and bunny slippers and can only say "mamma". Mamma's weapon is the plasma gun and his bomb is the Ripple Grenade, used when Mamma creates a wave through the ground that instantly kills a large amount of foes around him. This attack can travel through walls and doors.

'''Fwank''': Featured on the cover of the game, Fwank is a man donning a bank bag over his face with the bag painted, making him resemble a clown. He carries around his teddy bear and a mood-shifting balloon (Green for "Chuckly", Yellow for "I Need Space", and Red for "I Wouldn't Ask If I Were You"). Fwank's weapon of choice is a cannon that fires Neutron Spheres, and his bombs are Homing Teddies, a floating armada of teddy bears that eviscerate nearby foes. This attack can kill enemies stationed directly behind a door, but can not travel through walls and doors. However, the teddies can follow Fwank and stay in use longer to attack incoming enemies.

'''Bounca''': A former bouncer turned mercenary. He is about as large as Mamma, wearing a muzzle and a tuxedo. His weapon is a missile launcher and his bomb is the Frag Missile, a randomly-moving burst of shrapnel. This attack can not travel through walls and doors.

'''Vox''': A female DJ that uses sound and music technology to kill foes in the game. She is the only female character in the game. Her weapon is the Hail Flail and her ultra bomb is the Sonic Blast, a burst of lethal sound waves. This attack can travel through walls and doors.

'''Butch''': A homely man that wears ladies' dresses in combat and dislikes those that find it funny. Butch's weapon is a flamethrower and his bomb is the Explosive Ring, the release of fireballs in all directions. This attack can travel through walls and doors. Instead of splattering enemies into a bloody heap, the flamethrower and the Explosive Ring actually chars enemies' bodies on contact.

'''Cap'n Hands''': A pirate-like character with freakishly large hands and forearms, but an exposed ribcage. His head is human, he is a bounty hunter with a cyborgnetic body that is old and out of date he chooses to keep it for unknown reason. His weapons are a pair of flintlocks and his bomb is the Vortex Bomb, a curtain of dark energy that shreds enemies to pieces. This attack can travel through walls and doors.

In Seattle, nine-year-old Luke Winfield (Elijah Wood) is the only witness to his father's murder at the hands of a rain-slicker-wearing killer with a cargo hook. However, the boy fantasizes the murderer as Captain Hook, in an escape from the traumatic reality. Detective T. Bass (Tom Skerritt), who is in charge of the investigation enlists child psychologist, Dr. Hollis (JoBeth Williams) whose failed marriage was caused by her inability to have children. While getting closer to Luke she has an affair with Bass. She also discovers some troubling family secrets ensuring she is next to be slain.

Barney Snow (Elijah Wood) wakes up in a hospital with no memory of why he is there. All he has is his name and some vague recollections of a car crash. He assumes that he is in the hospital for his amnesia and settles in to try to recover. He quickly realizes that all of the other residents of the youth clinic are all suffering from terminal illnesses.

Another patient, Mazzo (Joseph Perrino), asks Barney to play host for his visiting twin sister Cassie (Rachael Leigh Cook). Barney immediately falls for Cassie and strives to get better, if only to be able to see her in a setting outside the hospital. He is determined to learn about his past so that he can make her a part of his future.

In his explorations, both inside his shattered memories and through the physical rooms of the hospital, Barney starts to realize that there was no car crash. Doctor Harriman (Janeane Garofalo) induced amnesia in Barney to make him forget everything in his past. Barney demands to know why, and Harriman tells him he has cancer. The experimental procedure that Barney is undergoing is attempting to test the power of the mind in fighting cancer. Barney had volunteered for the treatment, hoping for a miracle cure.

The theory was that if Barney did not know he had cancer, the body might stop creating the cancer cells. The explanation Harriman gives comes from an old myth that, based on weight ratios to wing power and wind resistance, the bumblebees should be aerodynamically incapable of flight — yet the bumblebee doesn’t know that, so it flies anyway.

Torn between his hope for a cure and his desire to continue his budding relationship with Cassie, Barney is forced to choose whether to go through the amnesia procedure again or remain with the memories and knowledge he has thus far acquired.

A nine-year-old boy and an experienced fisherman dream to catch a barracuda known as Old Moe. However, when the fish is caught, the boy and fisherman regret their act and see that the fish's life has meaning.

Jinx Roberts, an arrogant but talented stunt pilot, and his assistants Blackie and Heathcliff, are fired from a carnival air show after a disagreement with the owner. Jinx decides to join the Army Air Corps, and he, Blackie and Heathcliff go to a nightclub to party one last time. Jinx falls for the club's singer, Linda Joyce. Coincidentally, she leaves her job to become a USO hostess at the same Academy where Jinx and her brother, Jimmy, are enrolled.

Jinx's instructor at the Academy turns out to be Craig Morrison, his co-pilot on a commercial aircraft years earlier, and the two still hold animosity for each other. Meanwhile, Blackie and Heathcliff persuade a colonel to allow them to join the Air Corps as ground crewman. They fall in love with twin USO hostesses.

Jinx hatches a plan to help Jimmy solo by abandoning him in mid-air. Jimmy is nearly killed landing the plane. Linda deplores Jinx for his ill-conceived actions and he, along with Blackie and Heathcliff, who have had several mishaps of their own, are discharged from the air corps. In an aerial display during graduation, Craig parachutes out of a plane but gets his chute caught on the tail end of the aircraft. Jinx, watching from the ground, confiscates an aircraft and flies to his rescue. For his heroic actions, Jinx is reinstated and wins back Linda's affections.

Prominent criminal attorney Amos Strickland checks into the Lost Caverns Resort Hotel. His murdered body is later discovered by the bellboy, Freddie Phillips, who is implicated in the crime. Casey Edwards, the house detective, tries to clear Freddie, but Inspector Wellman and Sgt. Stone keep him in custody at his hotel room 'on the state'.

Strickland's secretary Gregory Millford and seven of Strickland's former clients happen to be at the resort, and they are all suspects. These former clients are Swami Talpur, Angela Gordon, Mrs. Hargreave, T. Hanley Brooks, Lawrence Crandall, Mrs. Grimsby and Mike Relia.

The former clients gather for a meeting and decide that they must conceal their pasts and that Freddie must take the blame for the three murders. They trick Freddie into signing a confession, and then want him dead. Angela tries to seduce him, but the police stop her when they fear she's poisoned the champagne, then the Swami attempts to hypnotize him into committing suicide but his stupidity saves him. The bodies of Relia and the secretary Gregory Millford are found in Freddie's closet, and he and Casey try to move them and hide them.

Freddie and the two police officers, in an attempt to draw out the real killer, inform everyone that Freddie is in possession of a blood-stained handkerchief found at the murder scene. Soon afterwards, several attempts to kill Freddie are made, including gunshots at the window of his booby-trapped room, and locking him in a steam cabinet. Eventually Freddie hears a voice that calls him to bring the handkerchief to the Lost Cavern. There he meets up with a masked figure who offers to save him from the hole he has just fallen into in exchange for the handkerchief. Freddie makes the mistake of telling the mysterious figure that he left it in his room. He is left in the hole, but is eventually rescued by the two police officers.

Back at the hotel, everyone has gathered together and Sgt. Stone returns with some muddy shoes that belong to Melton, the hotel manager, which proves that he was the one in the caverns with Freddie. His motive for the murder was that he and Millford, Strickland's secretary, were blackmailing the owner, Mr. Crandell. What the blackmail was for is never explained. When Strickland found out he came to investigate, so Melton killed him with a gun he stole from Relia. Millford then sent down the former clients to use as decoys for the police, but Melton killed Relia and Millford to cover it all up. He attempts to escape through a window, but is caught by a booby trap previously set by Freddie.

Kim Rae-won plays Choi Seung-hee, a young director who just made a successful international film debut. Following his success in Australia, he meets the girl of his dreams, Lee Hye-su (Jung Ryeo-won), an aspiring musician. After spending a lovestruck romp on Australia, they planned to get married. Hye-su, however, discovers her mother does not approve of Choi. Driving to eat out one day, Seung-hee suddenly proposes to Hye-su, and while putting the ring on her finger, Seung-hee careens wildly on the road to get out the way of a truck. The accident causes Lee's death. Choi then spends the next three years in seclusion, drinking and holing himself up in his apartment.

Han Jeong-hoon (Park Si-hoo), who runs a film company, urges Director Kim to finish his grieving and to start working on film again. Choi pulls all his energy to push Hye-su out of his thoughts. On the day he decided to go out and to continue working, he sees a young woman at the sidewalk who looked exactly like his beloved Hye-su. Struck by the utter similarity, he starts to follow the girl to her hometown, which turned out to be a far-flung province. The girl, named Kim Bok-shil (also played by Jung Ryeo-won), realizing Choi had nowhere else to stay for the night, offers her home as an inn. Being poor, she considers all opportunities a chance to get good money.

After spending the night at the fake inn, the two also spends the morning together searching for fresh mountain water and encountering a wild boar in the process. Choi does not reveal his identity to Kim, and Kim mistakes him for a bum waiting to pass a long overdue exam. While walking on the countryside, Choi is inspired by the beauty of his surroundings and gets ready to prepare for his next film. He then returns to Seoul and later comes back to Kim's village to shoot. They see each other again, and Bok-shil realizes Seung-hee is a renowned director. Bok-shil then positions herself as a rice-server for the crew and comes to the set every day. By a stroke of luck, Han Jeong-hoon, also on the set, absent-mindedly offers Bok-shil a job at the film company. Jeong-hoon is also struck by the similarity of Bok-shil and Hye-su.

Bok-shil starts work in Seoul as an assistant for Director Choi. In the hopes of saving enough money for her mother's surgery, Bok-shil braves the demands of her work despite her clumsy and awkward ways. Seung-hee finds himself being attracted to Bok-shil because of her face, initially, and then later on because of her unique charm and humor.

Hye-su's family, by chance, sees Bok-shil and realizes she is the long lost sister of Hye-su. Hye-su's mother, determined not to lose another daughter, runs an investigation to find out Bok-shil's real identity. Proving that Bok-shil is really Lee Hye-rim, her lost younger daughter, she pleads Bok-shil/Hye-rim to leave her rural life and adopted mother to embrace her true lineage. Through Yoon Mi-hyeon (Kang Jeong-hwa), the film company's music director who turned to be her cousin, Bok-shil realizes she is the sister of Hye-su, Director Choi's former girlfriend. She is now conflicted on how to tell the truth to Seung-hee, who is now also falling for her. After the initial shock and confusion, Seung-hee was able to overcome his fears and admits he is in love with Hye-rim as Kim Bok-shil. Bok-shil's real mother, pained yet again due to her younger daughter's choice, becomes determined to put an end to the relationships. Her hate for the director has come full-circle, and Choi now has the chance to do what he wasn't able to do for Hye-su.