As described in various film magazine reviews, newly-married Robin Challoner (Minter) is upset by her husband Geoffrey (Chase) reading the newspaper at the breakfast table. Shutting herself in their bedroom, she begins to burn love letters from earlier in their relationship when her husband enters and offers to help her. Not realising that the letters are his, he is stricken with jealousy when Robin refuses to burn one particular package, and storms out of their apartment.

Meanwhile another couple, Mr. and Mrs. Craig, have been viewing the upstairs apartment. When Mrs. Craig (Shelby) leaves her wrap behind, she sends her husband Norman (Garwood) to retrieve it. He gets off the elevator on the wrong floor and enters the Challoner apartment by mistake, where Robin, mistaking him for a burglar, shoots at him. Mr. Craig faints from fright and Robin, thinking she has killed him, flees the apartment to seek a doctor. While she is gone, Geoffrey Challoner returns to find another man on the floor of his wife's bedroom. He refuses to listen to Robin's explanations, and decides to seek a divorce. Mrs. Craig, having also entered the apartment seeking her husband, declares that she too wants a divorce.

Judge Corcoran (Periolat), a friend of both couples, decides to intervene to help repair their relationships. He invites the Challoners to his country home for a visit, along with Mrs. Craig and another couple, the Doubledays. Mr. Craig decides to join them, but turns up somewhat the worse for wear, and falls asleep in Robin's room by mistake, where she screams upon the discovery that the man in her bed is not her husband. Meanwhile, Mr. Challoner has ended up in Mrs. Craig's room in error, and neither couple is any closer to reconciliation.

In the meantime, the Doubledays are plotting a fake jewellery robbery to cash in on an insurance policy. When some of the Judge's staff overhear them, they decide to steal the jewellery instead. While searching for clues to this robbery, the Judge finds the unburnt letters that Robin brought with her. Believing them to be a clue to the robbery, he places them in a drawer and announces to all present that he expects to see them exchanged for the jewellery before morning.

Eager to retrieve her letters, Robin plans to sneak into the Judge's study that night, as does her husband, who is still keen to know who wrote them. On her way to the study, Robin comes across the household staff, who are trying to escape with the jewellery. When the Judge is alerted, they admit to the robbery, but also reveal the Doubledays' planned fraud. Once the Doubledays have been expelled from the house, it is revealed that Geoffrey Challoner was the author of the letters all along, and both couples are happily reconciled.

In preparing for a secret raid on a German-held French coastal village, a British security officer (Reginald Tate) is chosen to monitor activities in England among army personnel of the 95th Infantry as well as civilians with whom they mingle. At the same time, German intelligence send Agents 23 (Mervyn Johns) and 16 (John Chandos) to England to obtain information from sources including conversations overheard in pubs, railway stations, shops and other public places. Agent 16 is caught, but 23 reaches his contact, Mr Barratt (Stephen Murray), a bookseller at Westport, who assigns him the job of infiltrating an ordnance depot. After he helps an ATS driver (Thora Hird) with a punctured tyre, she invites him to a dance. There, he learns the unit has top priority for special equipment. Agent 23 makes it his task to find out why.

In the meantime, Barratt forces his employee, Dutch refugee Beppie Leemans (Nova Pilbeam), to discover the activities of the 95th. She informs him that the 95th Unit is expecting to receive aerial photographs. Barratt sends Agent 23 to London to obtain the photographs. When Leemans realises the seriousness of what she has done, she stabs Barratt to death, but 23 returns unexpectedly and knocks her out. He then turns on the gas and makes it look like a murder–suicide. An agent manages to steal the briefcase containing an aerial negative, carelessly left unattended at a cafe by a wing commander. The officer believes his briefcase was taken by mistake and is relieved when it is returned to the cafe (after a photograph is developed). The photograph is smuggled to German intelligence and used to identify the 95th's objective. As a result, the Germans mobilize to ambush the 95th's commando raid on the French coast.

The raid is carried out and deemed successful, albeit with heavy losses. The film concludes back in England, as we observe two careless talkers (Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne) on a train, as they are monitored by Agent 23, who is seen taking notes.

In 1947 England, plastic surgeon Dr. Rossiter is wanted by police after performing a botched operation on socialite Evelyn Morley. However, believing himself to have brilliant abilities as a surgeon, he and his assistants, Martin and Angela, evade capture and escape to France. To avoid capture, Rossiter changes his name to Dr. Schüler. Schüler sees a girl scarred in the recent war, Nicole, and befriends her father, a circus owner named Vanet. Schüler performs a surgical procedure on Nicole to restore her face, and subsequently takes over the circus after a drunken Vanet is mauled to death by a bear who is part of his act. With the assistance of Martin and Angela, Schüler begins to recruit performers, seeking out lowly and disfigured criminals whom he offers to transform with surgery should they join him. In Paris, he encounters prostitute Elissa Caro robbing and killing a man in an alleyway. Schüler offers to transform Elissa's face—which is marked by a large scar—and provide her a new identity as a performer in his circus. She reluctantly agrees.

A decade later, Schüler's circus is a prominent act throughout Europe, touted for its aesthetically beautiful performers. When its members choose to leave, however, they meet a series of mysterious accidents. One performer, Magda von Meck, informs Schüler she wants to leave. During her farewell performance in Berlin, Magda is killed during a knife-throwing act, deliberately orchestrated by Schüler. Magda's death motivates a jealous Elissa to regain top-billing in the circus act. Later, Schüler is approached by Melina, a woman whose face has been disfigured by acid, and agrees to perform surgery on her with the intent of turning her into his new star performer. He soon falls in love with her, and intends to marry her.

Nicole, still performing in the circus, is met by Inspector Arthur Ames, posing as a journalist investigating the deaths that have occurred within the troupe. When he gains Nicole's trust, she confesses that, during her childhood, she underwent an operation from Schüler, whom she believes to be her uncle. Meanwhile, Elissa deduces that Schüler's real name is Rossiter, and attempts to blackmail him with this knowledge into restoring her top-billing in the circus. In retaliation, Schüler sets a python loose in Elissa's caravan, but she remains unwavering. Shortly after, Schüler has Elissa killed during a rope-swinging act, causing her to fall to her death.

When Schüler is mauled by one of his tigers, he instructs Angela and Martin to perform his own procedures on him. Later, Evelyn Morley, now married to Edward Finsbury, visits the circus. When she meets Schüler, whose face is half-bandaged, she faints. Angela and Martin insist they go into hiding, believing that Evelyn has recognized Schüler, but he insists the show must go on. During a lion taming act, Melina is mauled to death, traumatizing Schüler. As the guests flee in the melee, Evelyn insists to Nicole and Inspector Ames that Schüler and Rossiter are in fact the same man. Meanwhile, a deranged Schüler attacks Angela and Martin in their caravan, stabbing Angela to death. Martin eludes him, and sets a gorilla loose to attack Schüler. Police arrive, and Martin recounts the murders Schüler has committed. Meanwhile, Schüler escapes the gorilla, and attacks Inspector Ames and Nicole, before leading police on a chase through the circus grounds. He is stopped by Evelyn, who deliberately strikes him with her car. As he lay dying, Schüler's last word is "Melina."

The module is set in a world that borrows many elements from Forgotten Realms and other Dungeons and Dragons settings. The story takes place near the Keep of Cyan, a northern part of the world. The player's goal is to win an election and become the Lord of the Keep. In order to do so, the player character must persuade at least four of nine guilds to aid him. Only then will the character have a chance to fight his nemesis, the Masked Man, a mysterious mage who uses a small army of creatures to conquer the Keep. On his journeys, the player character also has to reveal the mystery of his own nature and past. An unknown ally of great power also helps the character by granting him a sentient magical weapon with a friendly personality. The player can enlist help from two of four NPCs who traveled with him before the beginning of the game.

The official BioWare page described the module as follows: "In a party with a cowardly Wererat, a scarred Nymph, an exiled Rakshasa, and a quick-tempered Azer, you seem to be the only normal one... but are you? Embark on a journey to face your nemesis outside the embattled ramparts of the Keep of Cyan. It is a journey that will test your loyalties and cause you to question the very bounds of life and death. Evil lurks in the war-torn keep and it's up to you to unearth it. To learn the truth, you must win the throne".

It is revealed later that the Masked Man is an Illithid, and the mysterious ally is the main character's grandmother, a demoness of great power who once fell in love with a man, thus making the player character part Tiefling. The Masked Man is also revealed to be the hero's brother. The game culminates with the player killing the Masked Man and realizing the truth about himself. After that, he becomes the rightful ruler of Cyan.

The game is set in Abaron, a setting specially created for the module. The Sarakhan Empire is the most prominent force in this world, being led by a divine emperor named Rakha who wishes to unify the whole world. However, the northern lands are not willing to enter the Empire. A mysterious Crimson Prophet is believed to be the leader of the resistance. The story takes place in Ghaarak, an imperial city located near the northern territories' border.

The module itself is named after the organization featuring prominently in the game. The player is the son of Ocaris, one of the city's leaders, who is finishing his student time in the academy. The game opens with a graduation ceremony wherein the player is asked to choose one of three magical symbols, each of which confers certain bonuses. After the graduation, the instructor tells the player that a man named Markius is looking for them.

It is soon revealed that the character is meant to enter a secret organization, the Shadowguard, which protects the Empire from various threats. The story leads the player through a series of tasks given by Markius, the leader of the Shadowguard, and his friends. The tasks involve the player taking down a slaver syndicate and other criminal elements. The city of Ghaarak slowly falls into chaos due to the arrival of the Crimson Prophet, a mage willing to destroy the Empire who steals powerful artifacts and kills Ocaris.

A full-scale assault on the city begins, carried out by the northern people under the Crimson Prophet's instructions. The player must escape the doomed city along with the members of the Shadowguard. Battling their way to the docks, they encounter the Crimson Prophet again, but they are unable to defeat him. The module's story ends with the character escaping the city with the Shadowguard on board a ship, the ''Voyager''. The story was meant to be continued, but no sequels were ever made.

The game starts as the player character (PC) awakens on a battlefield with no memories. A dying prince asks the PC to deliver to his father the message, "She is dead." Soon, the PC meets the Night Hag, a witch who is willing to help uncover the PC's past. She grants the PC passage to the Plane of Sorrow, a place where the living world collides with the world of the dead, Stygia. The Plane of Sorrow is inhabited by souls who are about to enter the world of undead, and Filchers, spirits notorious for their thieving nature. The player journeys through the world looking for answers, sometimes visiting the Plane of Sorrow. After several dangerous encounters, the player enters a dwarf village, Brogan's Arm. There, the PC discovers that someone has stolen the Cavanaugh Stone, a holy artifact of great importance. At the end of module, the player encounters a man named Caldrian, who finally reveals what happened.

The PC remembers that they were part of a witch hunter squad that battled a witch and apparently killed her. The squad was obliterated by her power, and the few survivors lost their memories. Just after the dialogue, a ghostly figure of a woman appears, writing a message: "The fields of battle lie in the hearts of men. . ."

A continuation module was planned but never made.

Two friends are driving to Las Vegas for the weekend, and one of the men, Lou (Johnson) who is driving, asks his friend Ryan (Fox) if one could get away with killing someone in the middle of nowhere. As they explore Zzyzx Road, Lou teases Ryan by almost hitting a pedestrian. As Ryan complains about Lou's behavior, Lou doubles back and sets a crash course for the man that they saw on the road. Ryan grabs the wheel in the hopes to stop Lou from hitting the man, but in the end they lose control of the car and hit the man. The man dies, only after whispering the words "Go home" into Lou's ear. Lou takes his identification and puts on his watch.

Lou and Ryan contemplate what to do next, now that the man has died. As a woman walks up the road towards their car, they grab the body and throw it into the back seat of the car. They talk to the woman, named Candice (Robyn Cohen), to find that she is the wife of the man they killed. She invites them into her husband's Winnebago, and they drink a few beers.

After they converse for a while, Lou and Ryan reveal more about themselves. Lou used to be in the Army, after going to Iraq and coming back, Ryan said he was never the same. Lou consistently derides Ryan, and calls him Mitch because it rhymes with bitch. Ryan is found to be a very introverted person. Lou and Ryan keep an eye on Candice to make sure that she does not find out they killed her husband.

They eventually get drunk, and they all take narcotics. Eventually, Candice and Lou end up making out, while Ryan tries to pull Candice off of Lou. Lou storms out of the trailer after this as he knows that Candice knows what happened. He throws the keys to the Winnebago into the desert. Candice finds the key to the car that Ryan and Lou drove into the desert, and she tries to steal the car. Much to her dismay, the car does not start. Lou tries to coax her out of the car, but he ends up getting stabbed in his cheek by Candice.

Ryan, thinking that Lou is to blame for the murder, helps Candice start the car. After Ryan fixes the car, Candice drives off while Ryan is still on the hood of the car, instead of driving off with him. Ryan, in retaliation, disables the car by ripping out some wires.

In the end, Ryan beats Lou to death with a golf club. He then proceeds to free Candice, and she offers to have sex with him in exchange. Afterward, Candice gouges out Ryan's eyes, and sets him on fire. She finds her husband's body and cuts his leg off, revealing that he had $100,000 hidden in a prosthetic leg. Candice walks off into the distance with the leg, after betraying all those around her.

Despite their reservations, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet allow their promising tennis player son, nineteen-year-old Nicky Garnet, to travel by himself to Monte Carlo to compete in a tournament. Mr. Garnet gives him some advice: never gamble, never lend money, and don't have anything to do with women. On the last night of his stay, he disregards all three: he wins a large amount of money at roulette and meets a beautiful woman named Jeanne, who borrows from him before he can react. Later, she repays him, then takes him dancing at a nightclub.

It is so late, his hotel has closed for the night. She offers to let him sleep on her sofa. Later that night, he awakens to find her stealing his winnings. He pretends to be asleep and sees her hide the money in a vase. After she leaves, he retrieves the money. The next morning, on the plane returning home, he counts his money and finds there is more than there should be. A friend suggests that Jeanne had stored her own funds in the same hiding place.

Upon his return home, his father laments to his friends that his son ignored everything he had told him and profited from it!

On George Bland's twenty-first birthday, his father, of the landed gentry, asks him what he intends to do with his life. George's answer is incomprehensible to his entire family: he wants to become a concert pianist. His family, who want him to succeed to his father's place and title, try to talk him out of it. Finally, his cousin Paula (who is in love with him) comes up with a compromise: he will study in Paris for two years, after which an impartial expert will determine whether he has it in him to reach his goal.

The two years ended, Paula gets Lea Markart, a world-famous pianist, to do the judging. After listening to George's recital, Markart tells him that, while his technique is excellent, he lacks the talent and inspiration of a true artist and could never be more than a good amateur.

George is killed later that day with a blast to the chest from a gun he was supposedly cleaning. His family is anxious that his death be ruled accidental, and, at the inquest, the coroner's jury returns such a verdict with clear consciences, since, in the words of the plainspoken foreman, the jurors cannot accept that a gentleman such as the deceased would have killed himself "just 'cause he couldn't play piano good."

Herbert Sunbury marries Betty, despite his overly involved mother's dislike for the woman. The newlyweds are happy, except for Herbert's lifelong enthusiasm for flying kites. Herbert and his father had designed and flown their creations every Saturday on the common since Herbert was a young lad. Betty considers it childish, so to appease her, Herbert reluctantly promises to give it up. However, the lure of his latest, giant, unflown kite proves too great for him. When Betty finds out, they have a fight and Herbert moves back in with his parents, much to his mother's delight.

Betty has second thoughts and tries to make up with her husband, but he refuses to go home with her. Out of anger, she destroys his new kite. Aghast, Herbert angrily refuses to give her any further financial support and is put in prison as a result.

A prison visitor is told his curious story. He arranges for Herbert to be released and advises Betty on how to save her marriage. When Herbert goes to the common, he discovers Betty there flying a kite.

A colonel's mousy wife writes a book of poetry under a pseudonym, but is immediately unmasked by the papers. The colonel does not read the poetry (although he says he has) and is surprised when a friend says it is "not suitable for children." Another friend says it has "naked, earthy passion", and compares it to Sappho. The book is a success and sells "like hot-cakes", becoming the talk of the town. Even the colonel's mistress has an interest in it.

After listening to much talk about how "sexy" the book is, the colonel finally asks his mistress to borrow her copy, then insists she tell him about it. The book is about a middle-aged woman falling in love with, and having an affair with, a younger man, told in the first person. After a torrid affair, the younger man dies. The mistress says it is so vivid that it must be based on a real experience, but the colonel insists his wife is "too much of a lady", and that it must be fiction. Still, he is tortured by the insinuation that it could be true but is too afraid to ask his wife about it.

Eventually, of course, sensing his unease, she tells him the passion was based on his love for her, as it was when they were young. She blames herself for the "death" of that love. They end in an embrace.

John Lewis (Sellers) is a poorly paid and professionally frustrated librarian and occasional drama critic, whose affections fluctuate between glamorous Liz (Mai Zetterling), and his long-suffering wife Jean (Virginia Maskell).

When a better paid job becomes vacant, Lewis is reluctant to apply, but is persuaded to do so by Jean. Then, he meets the obviously attractive Elizabeth Gruffydd-Williams (Liz), a designer with the local amdram company and wife of a local councillor.

Liz offers to intercede with her husband to help in getting Lewis the job, and makes it clear that she is attracted to him. Lewis is easily seduced into an affair, although it remains unconsummated.

Having been persuaded by Liz to leave the theatre's new production early one evening for an assignation, Lewis submits a bogus review to the local newspaper, but learns the next morning that the theatre burned down shortly after the play commenced. Jean thus learns of the affair and retaliates by encouraging her old flame Probert (Richard Attenborough), a self-important literary character and dramatist (who wrote the ill-fated play). Lewis also loses the friendship of his colleague and best friend, Ieuan Jenkins (Kenneth Griffith), who had a role in the play.

When Lewis is offered the better paid job, he realises that Liz will now use and control him if he lets her. Finally realising the price he has paid, he breaks off the affair and takes a job as a mobile librarian, in the hope that this will keep him away from predatory women. Jean is not so sure that he can resist them, and tags along to keep an eye on him.

Alice Adams (Katharine Hepburn) is the daughter of the Adams family. Her father, (Fred Stone), is an invalid employed as a clerk in a factory owned by Mr. Lamb (Charles Grapewin), who has kept Adams on salary for years despite his lengthy illness. Her mother, (Ann Shoemaker), is embittered by her husband's lack of ambition and upset by the snubs ensured by her daughter because of their poverty. Alice's older brother Walter (Frank Albertson) is a gambler who cannot hold a job and associates with African Americans, which, given the time period in which the film is set, is considered a major social embarrassment.

As the film begins, Alice attends a dance given by the wealthy Mildred Palmer (Evelyn Venable). She has no date, and she is escorted to the occasion by Walter. Alice, a social climber like her mother, engages in socially-inappropriate behavior and conversation in an attempt to impress others. At the dance, Alice meets wealthy Arthur Russell (Fred MacMurray), who is charmed by her despite her poverty.

Alice's mother nags her husband into quitting his job and pouring his life savings into a glue factory. Mr. Lamb ostracizes Mr. Adams from society in the belief that Adams stole the glue formula from him. Alice is the subject of cruel town gossip, which Russell ignores.

Alice invites Russell to the Adams home for a fancy meal. She and her mother put on airs, the entire family dresses inappropriately in formal wear despite the hot summer night, and the Adamses pretend that they eat caviar and fancy rich-tasting food all the time. The dinner is ruined by Alice's inability to keep up the lie, but she blames the situation on the supposed slovenly behavior and poor cooking skills of Malena (Hattie McDaniel), the maid hired by the Adamses for the occasion. Mr. Adams unwittingly embarrasses Alice by exposing the many lies she has told Russell. When Walter shows up with bad financial news, Alice gently expels Russell from the house now that everything is "ruined."

Walter claims that "a friend of mine got in a jam," and to help his friend, Walter has stolen $150 from Mr. Lamb. (The obvious implication is that Walter stole the money to pay off his own gambling debts.) Mr. Adams decides to take a loan against his new factory to save Walter from jail.

Just then, Mr. Lamb appears at the Adams house, accuses Adams of stealing the glue formula from him, and declares his intention to ruin Adams by building a glue factory directly across the street from the Adams plant. The men argue violently, but their friendship is saved when Alice confesses that her parents took the glue formula only so that she could have a better life and some social status. Lamb and Adams reconcile, and Lamb indicates that he will not prosecute Walter.

Alice wanders onto the porch, where Russell has been waiting for her. He confesses his love for her despite her poverty and family problems.

At the end of a raid on a cheese factory, Hubie determines to Bertie that, based on the amount of cheese the average mouse eats in a lifetime (12 lbs.), they have eaten enough in one night to have lived 2,000 years (48 tons). Claiming that they will ''never'' be able to even touch cheese again, and thus believing that they have nothing left to live for, Hubie and Bertie become suicidal and try to get eaten by Claude Cat. They open the sleeping Claude's mouth, step into it, and then close it with them still inside. The cat wakes up, thinks "SOMETHING ROTTEN IN DENMARK" (with a white sign with "SOMETHING ROTTEN IN" and an arrow in red over Denmark, under Norway and Sweden), and the mice beg him to eat them. Claude says that he must be dreaming and sticks himself with a pin to wake himself up, screaming in pain. Commenting on what a horrible dream he had, Claude laughs it off and tries to go back to sleep. Hubie and Bertie again enter Claude's mouth and beg him to eat them. Realizing that is is not a dream, the cat cringes in fear in a corner and asks the mice what he ever did to them. When Hubie and Bertie insist that all they want is for him to eat them, Claude says that he does not want to eat them. When he offers the mice a hunk of cheese, they recoil and tell him to take it away. Confused, the cat consults a book called ''Mental Illnesses: Their Cause and Cure''. He finally finds the page he is looking for, folds it into a three-cornered hat and assumes a Napoleon pose.

Realizing they have to get tough with the cat, the mice, carrying a hammer, find Claude inside a glass bottle, building a model ship from the outside (Claude breaks the fourth wall and says to the audience that it is said that a hobby sometimes helps). Smashing the bottle, Hubie asks Claude if he is going to eat them or not. When the cat refuses, he brings the hammer down hard on Claude's foot, angering him enough to grab them and try to eat them. When he realizes the danger of this, the cat spits the mice out one at a time and runs out the front door, slamming it behind him. Claude finally concludes that he will ''never'' again be able to eat mice, that ''he'' has nothing left to live for, and also decides to commit suicide. Claude heads outside and punches a bulldog in the front yard, who runs out barking in anger. Then he looks back and sees Claude waiting for him, blindfolded and smoking a cigarette. Confronting Claude, he asks, "Hey cat, what gives? Why don'tcha run? Don'tcha know I'm gonna massacre ya?", to which Claude says, "Yes", and asks him to do it.

The bulldog tells Claude to not give him any trouble. When Claude continues to beg the bulldog to "massacre" him, the bulldog thinks "SOMETHING DECIDEDLY FISHY HERE" (with a wooden sign with "SOMETHING DECIDEDLY FISHY HERE" in red pointing to a fishbowl with three goldfish), and the mice come running out of the house and once again beg Claude to eat them, the bulldog asks Claude if cats eat mice, which he denies ("No!"), and asks Herbie and Bertie if mice eat cheese, which they also deny ("Cheese? Ahh! Don't mention that word!"). The bulldog tries to figure out why Claude no longer wants to eat mice and the mice do not want to eat cheese anymore. Finding out, using an adding machine, in the end that "It just don't add up!", he runs after a passing dog catcher truck, now wanting to get committed ("Hey, wait for me! Wait for baby!"), with Claude ("Hey, wait for me! You gotta massacre me!") and the mice ("Wait, you cowardly cat!") following after him, all three of them still wanting to end their ''own'' lives.

In the 21st century, World War III has recently ended. To prevent a fourth war, individuals with violent tendencies get a chance to kill in "The Big Hunt", the most popular form of entertainment in the world, which also attracts participants who are looking for fame and fortune. It includes ten rounds for each competitor, five as the hunters and five as the victims. The survivor of ten rounds becomes extremely wealthy and retires.

Caroline Meredith is a huntress who has just killed her ninth victim and is looking for a tenth. To maximize financial gain, Meredith wants to get a perfect kill in front of the cameras as she has negotiated a major sponsorship from the Ming Tea Company. Marcello Poletti is assigned as the victim; his winnings from six kills have already been spent by his mistress, Olga, and his ex-wife, Lidia.

Caroline goes to Rome and impersonates a reporter whose assignment is to study the sexual preoccupations of Italian men. She requests an interview with Marcello at the Temple of Venus. Suspicious, Marcello arranges for Caroline to be eaten by a crocodile before the cameras of a competing television company, but she escapes. Caroline lures Marcello to the beach and convinces him that she is in love with him. She drugs Marcello and hauls him back to the Temple of Venus.

Caroline shoots Marcello in front of the television cameras, but Marcello survives because he has loaded the gun with blanks. He then shoots her but she is saved by her bulletproof armor plate. Marcello and Caroline decide to escape from the Big Hunt and go on a plane, where they decide to get married. The movie ends with the pilot shooting flowers to the two.

It concerns several Dutch resistance fighters 35 years after World War II who have sworn revenge on a Dutch SS officer who shot their friend during the Netherlands' resistance to Nazi occupation. Upon finding the man, they discover that he is now paralysed and would suffer more to stay alive than be killed.

Jérôme Martinaud, a wealthy, influential attorney in a small French town, falls under suspicion for the rape and murder of two little girls. He is the only suspect, but the evidence against him is circumstantial. As the city celebrates New Year's Eve, the police, led by Inspector Antoine Gallien, who is investigating the double rape/murder case, brings the lawyer in for questioning. At first politely, and then less so, the interrogation team consisting of Inspectors Gallien and Marcel Belmont chips away at the suspect's alibi. They interrogate him for hour after hour while Martinaud continues to maintain his innocence. We learn all about the evidence; we meet Martinaud's wife Chantal who tells Gallien about the rift between them and the origin of it, which may be an eight-year-old girl (Camille) Martinaud was in love with. In the face of overwhelming evidence, and feeling let down by his wife, Martinaud confesses to the two rapes and murders. However a fresh corpse is discovered inside the boot of a car that was reported to be stolen, and the car's owner turns out to be guilty of the crime - exonerating Martinaud. Martinaud leaves the police station and finds his wife, who has committed suicide.

Farmers Billy and Ethel Hoss are terrorized in the middle of the night by a giant figure that kills their dog and leaves large footprints in their yard.

The next day, paraplegic wheelchair user Preston Rogers goes to a secluded cottage in the woods with his home care nurse Otis. A group of women named Karen, Michelle, C.J., Tracy, and Amanda arrive to stay in the cabin next door for a bachelorette party. Otis departs for town and night falls. Preston observes as Karen steps outside, but does not notice as something abducts her. He sees her cellphone lying on the ground and correctly surmises something has happened to her. He then notices a telephone pole has been knocked over, preventing him from being able to call anyone. Using his binoculars, he looks into the woods and sees a pair of large eyes staring directly at him. Terrified, Preston goes back inside and turns off all the lights. Otis returns and Preston tries to tell him what he saw, but Otis does not believe him.

Elsewhere, Billy and his friends Ziegler Dane and Buddy are out hunting for the same monster, which they believe to be a Bigfoot. Dane finds a cave and discovers a mortally wounded Karen. The beast returns and drags Karen back into the cave while Dane runs back to the group. They attempt to attack the creature but are all killed.

Preston tries to contact the police to inform them of the creature via email. Though Deputy McBride wants to check on Preston despite disbelieving his claim, his superior Sheriff Halderman is flippant and refuses to allow him to do so. Preston sees that the remaining women are looking for Karen and asks Otis to go over and tell them what he saw, but Otis refuses. Preston then watches as Tracy is killed by the creature. Preston becomes hysterical and Otis attempts to sedate him, but Preston gains control of the syringe and tranquilizes Otis. Preston then looks out the window: the creature appears, roaring at him. Preston faints in terror. Sometime later Preston wakes up to a still-sedated Otis and the creature gone from the window. He receives a dismissive email response from Halderman, and then screams out the window to warn the remaining women next door. Shortly after the beast invades their cabin. Michelle and C.J. both fall victim to the monster, but Amanda is able to make it to Preston's house.

Preston comforts Amanda, and tells her that he only recently became a wheelchair user. Several months earlier Preston and his wife were rock climbing when their cables snapped. His wife fell to her death while Preston survived. Amanda and Preston formulate a plan to trap the creature and escape. The power goes out and the Bigfoot breaks into the cabin, forcing them to escape down the balcony with rope. Preston makes it to the ground but Amanda is taken by the creature. She is then saved by Otis, who strikes the creature in the back with an axe, causing it to drop Amanda. The attack does not kill it, and the enraged beast kills Otis. Amanda and Preston make it to the car, but the creature causes them to crash. Amanda is ejected from the vehicle and knocked out. Preston then drives into the creature, ramming it into a tree, causing the axe from Otis' attack to impale it.

Preston crawls over to Amanda as the creature dies, and the two head off down the road. Deputy McBride finds them and calls in his fellow officers and paramedics. Preston and Amanda are then taken to safety in an ambulance, while the police head back to the cabins. At the cabins, McBride discovers the creature has vanished, while Halderman leads the rest of his men into the woods. They hear noises and see multiple Bigfoots hiding in the trees growling at them.

On a ship in the 1930s sailing from Alexandria to Marseille, Édouard Binet, a French adventurer, meets Nemrod Loktum, a shady Egyptian businessman, and Sylvie Baron, a Belgian exotic dancer. Nemrod takes the Étoile du Nord train to Brussels, on which he is robbed and killed. Édouard then takes a room at the boarding house in Charleroi of Madame Baron, Sylvie's mother, with bloodstained clothes and a lot of money that he hides. Despite the suspicions of her younger daughter Antoinette and the other lodgers, the frosty Madame Baron is gradually charmed by the suave Frenchman and believes his stories. The police learn of his presence and, after trial, he is sent to the infamous Île de Ré for transportation to the penal colonies. Madame Baron is among the grieving relatives who wave goodbye.

The game's hero, , is a young ninja who lost his father to a mysterious half-man half-beast creature. The plot of ''Ninja Spirit'' is based on the quest of his way to avenge his father in an alternative feudal Japan.

As described in a film magazine, Marie Dubois (Reed), deserted by her lover before the birth of her child, marries Flambon (French), who is cruel and heartless. When her daughter Claudine (Hope) reaches womanhood, Flambon forces her to sing in his cafe and then endeavors her to marry one of his creditors. Marie interferes and Flambon takes hold of her by the throat. Claudine, fearing for her mother's safety, kills him. She is arrested and taken before the grand prosecutor, who discovers that Claudine is really his own child. During the trial he enforces the same rigidity which have characterized his other trials, but in the end confesses that he is the girl's father, resigns his position, and places himself at the mercy of the public. He is allowed to go free and solemnly promises to make up to his wife and daughter what they have missed.

Ferguson plays Crawford Mackenzie, a Scottish hairdresser who, while being filmed as part of a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary, is invited to the World Hairdresser International Federation annual contest. The documentary team (with Chris Langham playing the interviewer) follows Crawford to L.A., where he discovers that his invitation is to be a member of the audience rather than a competitor. He eventually weasels his way into the contest and produces the greatest creation of his career.

Conscious humans cannot travel through space because of an effect called the "Great Pain of Space", which eventually causes death, so space travel is possible only in artificial hibernation. Ships are crewed by "habermans", convicted criminals who have undergone a surgical procedure to sever almost all sensory nerves, rendering them unable to hear, smell or feel, although they can still see. A haberman monitors and controls his bodily functions via a box of electronic instruments implanted in his chest, and communicates by writing on a tablet. In space, habermans are supervised by Scanners, people who have voluntarily undergone the same surgery. Unlike habermans, Scanners are widely honored for their self-sacrifice which makes space travel possible.

Martel is a Scanner who is, unusually, married to a normal woman. He has just "cranched", a process which temporarily restores his senses to a state of normality. The Scanners' leader Vomact calls an emergency meeting of all Scanners, and requires Martel to attend, even though his cranched state would normally excuse him from a meeting. Vomact reveals that a scientist named Adam Stone will soon make public a method to circumvent the Great Pain of Space and allow space travel for normal humans. Since this will make the Scanners redundant, he proposes that Stone should be killed. After lengthy discussion, the Scanners vote to do so.

Martel and Martel's friend Chang object to this plan, but Chang refuses to defy the vote. He tells Martel that another of Martel's friends, Parizianski, has been chosen to kill Stone. Martel travels to Stone's apartment to warn him. Parizianski appears, and Martel reluctantly kills him. Over time, the Scanners are surgically restored to normality and become spaceship pilots, retaining their guild and prestige. The failed murder plot is covered up by explaining that Parizianski died because he neglected to monitor his bodily functions due to his joy in learning of Stone's work.

It is Valentine's Day and the Pink Panther is lonely and has no money (except for seven cents). After receiving another person's Valentine gift package by mistake, he goes to the messenger service for a job but messes his rehearsal up. He then goes to a store, buys a cassette player and pre-recorded cassettes with the seven cents he had left and goes back to the messenger service miming to Enrico Caruso's version of "Vesti la giubba", an aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera ''Pagliacci'', and gets hired as a messenger.

Antics on the job entangle the breezy cat with a jealous husband (after stealing the heart of his housewife whilst miming a 50s-ish sounding ballad), a snobby classic violinist (after using a Stradivarius violin like an electric guitar; the Panther had the wrong recording on at the time), a priest (whom the Panther had delivered the wrong present to) and a crime boss named Big Joe and tough gangsters (their present was a bomb).

Finally, after warding off Big Joe and his gang with a cassette containing excerpts of a police radio show, our hero is sitting alone and discouraged on a park bench when he finally meets the pantheress of his dreams, the ideal feline valentine.

The closure of a mental institution threatens to leave the elderly Lillian homeless. Her wealthy nephew Hugh takes her in, putting additional strain on his wife Harriet. Gradually, an awkward friendship develops between Harriet, on the verge of a nervous breakdown herself, and Lillian, who has spent fifty years as a mental patient.

The story follows the adventures of a somewhat unusual ping-pong club: the players are indeed more focused "on panties" and obscene jokes than on the game. The arrival of Iwashita, the new head of the club, makes it possible to change things, the latter somehow managing to interest his undisciplined players in ping-pong. A difficult mission as the temptations of the outside world are great for our protagonists.

''Polly'', is a wealthy wife neglected by her husband ''James Benson''. When a business engagement causes ''James'' to miss their wedding anniversary, ''Polly'' goes with admirer ''Curtis Wilbur'' to a cabaret, and later she decides to go live with her father. ''James'', who is desperate for reconciliation, kidnaps ''Polly'' while she's with ''Wilbur'' and takes her to his lodge in the mountains. ''James'' is shot by a drunken servant and when he falls, he knocks over a lamp and sets the place on fire. ''Polly'' drags him out of the lodge to safety, and the couple is reunited.

The plot of ''The Harrowing of Gwynedd'' spans seven months, from early January to early August 918. The novel begins as Father Joram MacRorie and his sister, Lady Evaine MacRorie Thuryn, discuss the recent death of their father, Camber MacRorie. As time passes and Camber's body shows no signs of decomposing, they are forced to consider the possibility that their father may not be truly dead. Evaine believes he attempted to work a final spell just before his death, but Joram wonders if Camber may truly be a saint.

Throughout Gwynedd, the Deryni attempt to flee to safety as the Regents of young King Alroy Haldane continue their violent suppression of Deryni across the kingdom. Desperate for any slim chance to save even a few of their people, the Camberian Council begins making final preparations for a dangerous deception. They plan to develop a new religious cult, led by their ally Revan, which will preach the possibility of washing away a Deryni's powers through ceremonial baptism. By placing a Deryni Healer who is capable of blocking Deryni powers within the cult, the Council hopes to remove the powers of willing Deryni subjects, thereby protecting them from the wrath of the Regents and the Church.

Meanwhile, in Valoret, the king's twin brother and heir, Prince Javan Haldane, strives to maintain the secret lines of communication with his Deryni allies. As Javan's own magical powers continue to grow and develop, he is well aware that the very powers he may need to survive may also result in his quick death if the Regents ever discover them. Nonetheless, he continues to funnel information to the Council and even assists Ansel MacRorie and Tavis O'Neill when they sneak into Valoret to block the faint Deryni powers of Ansel's immediate family.

Over the following months, Javan's strengthening powers enable him to mentally probe and influence his squire, his brother, and even Archbishop Hubert MacInnis. To further keep the attention of the Regents away from him, Javan convinces Hubert that he has a growing religious vocation, allowing him greater access to the archbishop's mind. The Royal Court moves from Valoret to Rhemuth, and Revan sets out to start his baptizer cult after finishing his final preparations with the Camberian Council. Evaine and Joram reveal the truth about Camber's supposed death to Dom Queron Kinevan, enlisting his aid in their efforts to restore their father from his limbo state. Evaine succeeds in establishing regular contact with Javan in Rhemuth, but most her time is spent researching ancient Deryni lore with Joram and Queron.

By early summer, Revan's baptizer cult is growing in size and popularity. To further convince Hubert that he is genuinely considering a religious life, Javan travels to Valoret to study with the archbishop. After Hubert's brother informs him of Revan's cult, the archbishop and the prince travel to the river to observe Revan's actions for themselves. Although two known Deryni are apparently stripped of their powers before their eyes, Hubert remains skeptical, even after both subjects are tested with ''merasha''. Javan volunteers to submit to the ceremony, and proceeds to do so even after Hubert forbids him to do so. Hubert later has the prince flogged for his disobedience, but Javan once again uses his powers to manipulate Hubert's mind. Gambling that Hubert will not kill him as long as the archbishop believes he is serious about becoming a priest, Javan agrees to take temporary vows as a lay brother, hoping that a religious house will provide the protection and education he will need to survive until he comes of age.

After several important breakthroughs and discoveries, Evaine finally feels ready to attempt to free her father. She makes final preparations for the ritual, then briefly visits Javan to provide him with the subconscious knowledge of his magical Haldane heritage. Two days later, as Javan formally makes his vows, Evaine, Joram, and Queron attempt to free Camber from his stasis. In a powerful and mystical ritual, Evaine briefly leaves the mortal plane and communes with several higher beings. She discovers that Camber failed to work his last spell properly, forever trapping him in a state between life and death. Realizing that she must sacrifice herself to free her father, Evaine pours her very life energy into her father's spell, shifting Camber's soul into a state in which he may freely cross the boundaries of life and death. When the process is completed, Queron can only watch helplessly as Evaine's soul departs her dying body.

The novel returns to Wendy Darling, her brother John, and Nibs, Slightly, Tootles, the Twins and Curly, who were once Peter Pan's Lost Boys. The six boys were adopted by Mr and Mrs Darling at the end of ''Peter and Wendy''.

John Darling has been having visions about Neverland. The former Lost Boys and Wendy have been having similar dreams, and Wendy realises that bombs from the Great War have punched holes through their world into Neverland, and dreams and ideas are filtering back. Wendy tells the former Lost Boys, now known as Old Boys, that they must find a way to return to Neverland to help Peter Pan restore both worlds to normality. In order to fly, they need fairy dust, so Wendy finds a baby and waits for its first laugh. They come across the fairy Fireflyer, a lying fairy who tells them that in order to get back to Neverland, they must go back to being children. To do this, they must wear their children's clothing. Tootles turns into a girl because he only has daughters. Nibs decides not to join them because he would miss his children too much.

Peter has been dreaming of the Darlings as well, but when they and their Newfoundland puppy (a descendant of Nana from the first book) return to Neverland, he seems indifferent. He does not notice that Nibs is absent, nor that Michael Darling is dead (apparently having died in World War I). He is concerned only with having the best adventure in the world. When the Neverwood catches fire, Peter and company escape the island by way of the ''Jolly Roger'', renamed the ''Jolly Peter''. While on board, Captain Pan discovers the late Captain Hook's second-best coat and finds a treasure map of Neverland in the pocket. Sensing an adventure, he immediately wants to head to the mountain of Neverpeak to claim James Hook's treasure. Peter allows the mysterious circus master Ravello, whose circus has been destroyed in the fire, to join his crew as his valet. Ravello urges Peter to wear the red coat.

During the journey, Peter grows irritable. He develops a harsh cough, and it seems that whenever he wears the coat he is grouchiest. He banishes Fireflyer for eating up the food supply. When he finds that Slightly is growing older, he banishes him as well to Nowhereland, home of all the Long Lost Boys whom Peter has banished in times past.

The hike up Neverpeak is arduous. When the band finally reaches the summit, Peter is impatient to get at the treasure, because he has a feeling there is something inside he wants ''so much''. Inside the treasure chest, each child finds what they have been wishing for on the way up, including Tinker Bell, wished up by Fireflyer, but the gang is puzzled to discover Peter wished for Eton treasures. He looks like a young version of Captain Hook, complete with long black hair and Eton tie. Peter is horrified that he is no longer himself, at the same time that Ravello reveals his true identity as James Hook, who has survived being swallowed up by the crocodile.

Hook seeks revenge and reveals that he served as Peter's valet in order to make the boy be transformed like him when Peter wears Hook's old pirate coat. Hook says that since he is a grown up, he is no longer able to wish, so he needed Peter to wish for the treasures that Hook has wanted all his life. He cut off Peter's shadow so the boy could not fly, combed the imagination out of his hair, and choked him with the white Eton tie. Peter refuses to believe he has become Hook and is horrified. The band is shocked by the revelation.

Hook tries to trick Peter by asking him what he wants to be when he grows up, when Slightly suddenly appears. Slightly, who has been dogging the band's trail all along, warns Peter not to answer, because if he does, he will have betrayed childhood and "looked ahead" to adulthood. Peter feebly banishes Hook to Nowhereland, but to no avail. The league is stuck on the mountain in a blizzard, with no fire and no way to get down. Suddenly Fireflyer appears and, to impress Tinker Bell, plunges into the brush and starts a fire.

Peter has cast off the hated coat, but become cold and ill in his flimsy tunic. He falls to the ground in a coughing fit, and is soon close to death. Tootles insists they need a doctor, so Curly Looks Ahead, growing up and becoming a doctor. He makes an incision over Peter's chest, and draws out a long dusty strand. Peter died from a strand of common London fog brought in on the children's clothes - with the offending item removed, Peter's health is restored.

Warmed by the fire and heartened by Peter's renewed health, the league finds the courage to descend the mountain. Peter is confronted by the banished Long Lost Boys at the foot of the mountain, where he, John, and Wendy are thrown in quicksand. They manage to pull themselves out, but Ravello has returned with his circus animals. The animals are about to devour Peter and the Explorers, when a band of warring fairies descend and smother the animals. Hook is enraged, and vows to fight the weaponless Peter; the boy is saved by the puppy, which attacks Hook. The latter is about to die, when Wendy sees that he can be healed by sleep. She gives him a goodnight kiss, and tucks him under his tattered red coat.

The children escape without harm, and find a way home with help from Mr. Smee. Peter unwillingly remains on the island, unable to fly until his shadow grows back. Wendy says, "I think your mother only shut the window to keep out the FOG!"

Unbeknown to Peter, sleep restores Ravello as James Hook. The story ends with Hook recalling the Past and anticipating revenge.

In Summon Night: Swordcraft 2, the player is an orphan from the Colthearts clan raised by a Craftknight (a smith/warrior). The character aspires to be a Craftknight as well. The player character, either Edgar Colthearts or Aera Colthearts, who are Edge Fencers, find themselves at the site of an abandoned ruin, where a violent Summon Beast named Goura is awakened. In order to protect their new family, Edgar/Aera is bound to a wild Summon Beast (stray summon) and embarks on a journey to reseal the ruins.

As the new swordcrafter and his/her Summon Beast goes on their adventure, they start to learn more about the ruins, the monster inside, and most important, his/her father's past, along with a mysterious power infused in his/her body and soul. Fighting monsters, going to strange and exotic places and meeting all sort of creatures, humans and spirits, the quest starts shaping the character to maturity and courage.

In the early 1960s Professor Adam Laar tested his own experimental brand of LSD on himself, releasing superhuman powers. He assembled a group of superpowered hippies but the dark side of the era emerged in the form of a Charles Manson figure and a final battle ensued.

Fifteen-year-old Ella Brown of Fridesia, now known as Princess Cynthiana Eleanora, is engaged to Prince Charming and living in the palace preparing for the wedding day and life as a princess. For the most part, she finds life at the palace to be dull, soon discovers the prince seems to be lacking in both charm and brains and laments the fact that noblewomen have virtually no power whatsoever. She despises Madame Bisset, who is in charge of her training, but makes friends with Mary, a young servant girl, and Jed Reston, who is standing in for his father (who had a stroke) as her history teacher. It is through him that Ella learns the rumors surrounding her engagement involving a fairy godmother and a pumpkin coach, and she tells him the truth.

Ella was forced into servitude to her stepmother, Lucille, and stepsisters, Corimunde and Griselda, after the death of her father. They receive news that the king and queen are holding a royal ball. Despite Lucille forbidding her from attending and giving her more than enough housework to keep her busy, Ella planned to go, mostly as a way to spite her, as well as search for a potentially better job than a housemaid. She managed to attend by wearing her mother's old wedding dress and glass slippers she won in a wager with the town's glassblower and getting a ride from a friendly coachman. Although Prince Charming was enamored by her, Ella had to run from the ball at midnight because it was the only way to catch a free ride home, though she lost one of her glass slippers as she left. The prince finally found her through the shoe fitting, although Ella did not realize Jed was also there assisting the prince, so he knew of her origins long before she told him. They have a falling out, however, when she thinks that he is using her to try and realize his dream of a camp for refugees of the Sualan war.

Increasingly dissatisfied with her life at the palace, and learning that she was chosen to be the prince's bride to keep the family lineage beautiful as opposed to true love, Ella brings up the possibility of breaking the engagement. When she does not back down from her request, however, she is thrown in the dungeon in an attempt to break her spirit. Madame Bisset also posts a monstrous jailer named Quog to keep guard over her, warning Ella that if she refuses to go through with the marriage after the wedding day, he will be allowed to do with her as he wishes. With the help of Mary, Ella digs her way out of the cell through the hole that serves as a toilet, steals some supplies and her father's books from Lucille's house, and makes her way to Jed's refugee camp, which he was given permission to build after Ella's imprisonment so he would not learn what happened to her. Upon arriving at the camp, Jed proposes to Ella, confessing that he was in love with her since they met but said nothing due to her engagement. She tells him to wait six months, however, so that she has time to sort things out and ask again. She works at the camp as a doctor, and then camp leader when Jed's father dies and he has to return to the castle. He writes from the palace saying that right after her escape, Madame Bisset suggested they use one of Ella's stepsisters in place of her for the wedding to make sure the incident does not get out. The prince went straight to Lucille's house and took Corimunde to marry him, and now they and her sister and mother are living happily at the palace. He also mentions that he does not want his father's position and may escape like she did, but wants to wait and see if he can use whatever power he has to end the Sualan war before he does. The book ends with Ella wondering about her future, the true meaning of beauty and happy endings, and realizing her feelings for Jed.

When a traveling vaudeville show becomes stranded in the Middle East, their singer, Hazel Moon, takes a job at a local cafe. Two of the show's prop men, Peter Johnson and Harvey Garvey, are hired as comedy relief, but their act unfortunately initiates a brawl. The two men, along with Hazel, wind up in jail (where Abbott and Costello perform the "Slowly I Turned" routine with a crazy derelict with '''Pokomoko''' as the trigger word). They encounter Prince Ramo), a sheik, who offers to help them escape if they agree to help him regain the throne that his Uncle Nimativ had usurped with the aid of two hypnotic rings.

After escaping jail, Peter and Harvey join Ramo and his desert riders and hatch a plan to have Hazel seduce Nimativ, as he is quite vulnerable to blondes. Once Nimativ is distracted, Peter and Harvey plan to retrieve the hypnotic rings to facilitate Ramo's reclamation of the throne.

Peter and Harvey enter the capital city, posing as Hollywood talent scouts, and meet up with Nimativ. He is quickly enamored with Hazel and manages to hypnotize Peter and Harvey, who then reveal their plans. They are imprisoned (and encounter once again the derelict, who this time introduce them to an invisible friend named Mike with clear sound effects from a door, a piano and a broken glass), while Hazel is hypnotized into being one of Nimativ's wives. After Ramo helps the boys escape, they enlist the aid of Teema (Lottie Harrison), Nimativ's first wife, by promising her a movie career. Harvey then disguises himself as Teema, while Peter dresses up as Nimativ. They manage to steal the rings during a large celebration and turn the rings against Nimativ, who abdicates the throne. Ramo again becomes ruler, with Hazel as his wife, and the boys return to the United States with the derelict as the driver.

In 1959, Vivian Bell, a 35-year-old English professor at Columbia University in New York City, travels to Reno to establish residency in Nevada (a process that takes six weeks), in order to obtain a quick divorce. She stays at a guest house ranch for women who are waiting for their divorces to be finalized. The ranch is owned by Frances Parker.

Soon after her arrival in Reno, Vivian meets Cay Rivers, a young, free-spirited sculptor. Frances was the longtime mistress of Cay's late father, Glenn, and raised Cay after her biological mother (Glenn's wife) abandoned her. Cay is employed as a change operator at a casino in Reno, and is ending a relationship with Darrell, her controlling boss, saying that she was "attracted to his attraction" to her. When Vivian arrives, Cay takes an immediate interest in her; the proper, elegant Vivian is taken aback by Cay's lack of concern for what others think of her, as Cay has had relationships with women in the past. Frances, dismayed by Cay's lesbianism but frightened by the possibility of Cay leaving her alone, becomes resentful as Cay and Vivian grow closer.

After they attend an engagement party for Silver, Cay's best friend and co-worker, Cay takes a mildly inebriated Vivian to see Pyramid Lake at twilight and kisses her. Vivian returns the kiss passionately, but then becomes apprehensive and asks Cay to take her home. When they return to the ranch early the next morning, Frances angrily kicks Vivian out and accuses her of seducing Cay. Deeply hurt, Cay leaves the ranch immediately as Vivian transfers to a hotel near the casino for the rest of her stay.

Later, Cay arrives at Vivian's hotel room, where they initially clash but ultimately consummate their love after Cay removes her clothes and invites Vivian to bed. With the impending finalization of Vivian's divorce, the two struggle with the future of their relationship. At Silver's wedding, Cay attempts to reconcile with Frances, stating that Vivian "just reached in and put a string of lights around my heart," directly quoting Frances's own description of how she fell in love with Glenn.

After Vivian's divorce has become finalized, she packs up and boards a train to return to New York City. Cay still refuses to commit to leaving Nevada, but boards the train at the last minute as it begins to move away, agreeing to accompany Vivian until they reach the next station.

It is June 1940. Working class Len Westbourne, an inexperienced fighter pilot, falls in love with Stella Gardam, a more worldly radar operator. Stella's friend Maddy is killed in a bombing raid and Len's squadron colleague, Polish pilot Tad, dies in a flying accident.

Told in alternate chapters from the perspectives of Len and Stella, ''That Summer'' is a love story told against the background of the Battle of Britain. Len is injured when his Hawker Hurricane crashes and goes off to recuperate with Stella in the countryside.

Kwirk and his girlfriend Tammy were both out "painting the town red" when they decided to explore the unnamed city's subterranean labyrinth below. While down there, Tammy suddenly disappears and Kwirk, with his Veggie Friends, now has to find her in the labyrinth and bring her home.

In 1999, a terrorist organization known only as DAGGER (Ragnarok in the Japanese release) has occupied the city of New York where they have hacked into military defenses world-wide, established their own military command and gained access to nuclear missile silos. They hold the world hostage in this position and promise to cancel their threats of destroying the Earth only until the world's governments relinquish their power to DAGGER.

A Special Forces Air Unit is called in to attack DAGGER and cripple their strongest defenses and headquarters in New York. Until then, the city remains silent.

American-born Agnes Keith and her British husband Harry Keith live a comfortable colonial life in North Borneo with their young son George in the 1930s. Keith is the only American in Sandakan.

Borneo was strategically important to Japan as it is located on the main sea routes between Java, Sumatra, Malaya and Celebes. Control of these routes was vital to securing the territory. Japan needed an assured supply, particularly of oil, in order to achieve its long-term goal of becoming the major power in the Pacific region.

Worried about the rumours surrounding Japanese invasion in 1941, Harry suggests that Agnes move back to the United States along with George. Agnes refuses and she and George remain.

The Imperial Japanese Army invade Borneo and intern the small British community in a camp on Pulau Berhala island off Sandakan. Later they are sent to the notorious Batu Lintang camp near Kuching, Sarawak, where the men and women are separated.

During the Japanese invasion of Sandakan, Agnes has a miscarriage.

These camps are under the charge of Colonel Suga. Col. Suga is fluent in English and has read a book on Borneo written by Mrs. Keith. He treats Agnes well.

When Col. Suga visits Agnes at Batu Lintang camp and asks her to autograph a copy of her book as she had agreed to back in the earlier camp, Agnes signs the book with a personal message.

The camp guards are cruel and oppressive, as seen when they shoot down a group of Australian men who try to cross the wire fencing during a bit of flirtation with the women.

One night a Japanese guard attacks Agnes in an attempted rape when she runs outside in the night to bring in the washing being blown around in the strong winds. Later she complains to Col. Suga, who asks Lieutenant Nekata to investigate. Unfortunately Agnes is not able to identify her assailant as it was too dark. Nekata insists she identify the assailant by presenting her with a written statement for her to sign. She refuses to do so as she is aware that to make an unsubstantiated accusation against any Japanese soldier is punishable by death. In an effort to get her to sign the statement while Col. Suga is away she is tortured by Nekata's junior officers (after he has left the room, to avoid being a witness to the beating) and threatened with further torture if she says anything to anyone. In great pain she tries to keep her injuries from her fellow captives. Eventually she agrees to withdraw her allegation.

In September 1945 Japan surrenders and Agnes learns from Col. Suga that all his family was killed at the end of the war. They used to live in Tokyo but his wife was so fearful that they moved to Hiroshima where she thought they would be safer. Col. Suga sees George and two other children eating from a paint can, and he invites them into his house, where he serves them a feast and then breaks down crying.

At the end, Allied troops arrive at the camp abandoned by the Japanese and the Keith family finally reunites.

The Davidson family adopts Aleasha, a black, white, and tan colored Australian shepherd puppy from a farm. Aleasha loves her new family and really feels happy playing with their young son, Nick though he is not very thrilled about the new dog since he would rather have a little brother or sister.

One day after returning from the vet's office, Aleasha sees herself in the mirror and realises that she is not an actual human member of the family, but a puppy. She decides to physically transform into a human girl so she can fit in better with the Davidsons.

Aleasha begins by practicing walking on her hind legs and trying to speak. She eventually manages to walk across the kitchen on two legs, but has trouble forming words due to the still canine shape of her mouth. One day, she surprises Nick by saying his name to him. He also discovers subtle changes in Aleasha's physical appearance—her ears are shorter and her muzzle is shrinking. Nick decides to keep this a secret until a later day.

One day, Nick surprises his mother by showing her and Dad Aleasha's new verbal skills. Mom and Dad Davidson are amazed with Aleasha, but accept her changes. In the meantime, they decide to keep Aleasha away from the outside world until she completes her transformation. To cover up for the soon-to-be absent dog, the Davidsons begin telling people that they gave away their puppy and plan to adopt a little girl.

As time passes, Aleasha begins to struggle with her shift from canine to human. She eats meals with the family, but dislikes eating vegetables (until Mom tricks her by dropping stir-fry ingredients on the floor, knowing Aleasha's dog instincts would cause her to eat the food as it fell). When Aleasha is allowed to go trick or treating on Halloween, disguised as a werewolf like Nick, she gives in to her canine side by howling in fear upon being spooked by a man pretending to be a scarecrow at one house. At the same time, Aleasha is beginning to look like less like a dog and more like a furry child, leaving her in a very awkward halfway point through her transformation. By Christmas, Aleasha begins to gain more human abilities such as color vision. However, she is also no longer able to communicate with the family cat, Miss Kitty, as Aleasha's ears are now more human than animal.

By the spring season, Aleasha has finished her physical change and is now a seven-year-old girl with black hair and yellow-colored eyes. However, she still possesses some canine instinct. At a baseball game with dad and Nick, she catches a foul ball with her teeth. Few physical hints of her past canine form are also apparent—Aleasha will always have pointy teeth and ears, as well as very strong toes. However, she learns that no one ever completes changing throughout life, and also keeps one secret from her family—Aleasha can still smell love.

The game follows a single season boxing championship run. There are five fictional fighters competing: Dynamite Joe - The Miracle Fighter, Fernando Gomez - The South American Eagle, Kim Nang - The Korean Comet, King Jason - The Black King, and The Detroit Kid - The Invincible Black Panther.

Takeyama wrote the story wanting to give young readers hope after defeat in WWII by emphasizing the traditional Buddhist ideal of altruism, embodied in a soldier hero, Mizushima. Captured by the British led Indian forces, following the Surrender of Japan in July 1945, Mizushima is a harp-playing Japanese P.O.W. who volunteers to persuade a resisting Japanese unit to surrender. His attempt fails and in the ensuing battle he is left behind, assumed dead. Mizushima takes the clothes of a Buddhist monk, but then reappears as the monk to his former comrades. His comrades, led by Captain Inouye, gift the monk a blue parakeet trained to say "Mizushima come home", but Mizushima elects to stay behind in Burma to bury the dead.Keiko I. McDonald - From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films 1315292394 2016 " Among them was Michio Takeyama's Biruma no tategoto (The harp of Burma). Published in 1946, this novel's mission was frankly didactic: to inspire youth with hope for the future of a nation struggling to survive defeat in war. Takeyama sought to do this by emphasizing the traditional value system, the Buddhist ideal of altruism, as embodied in his soldier hero, Mizushima. ... The title of the book comes from the saung, the musical instrument adopted by the soldier. The novel is more open than the 1956 film about Japan's responsibility for the war. In Takeyama's novel one of the soldiers talks of the "terrible trouble" which Japan has brought to Burma, and the hero soldier-become monk Mizushima criticizes Japan's colonial ambitions as "wasteful desires" and the Japanese having "forgotten the most important things in life", a perspective which is downplayed in the film.Philip A. Seaton Japan's Contested War Memories: The 'Memory Rifts' in Historical ...- 2007 1134150059 -"Mizushima volunteers to persuade a group of Japanese soldiers who are still resisting to surrender. Mizushima's attempts fail, so the British launch an artillery assault. Mizushima is wounded, but the British think he is dead and leave him behind. He recovers with the help of a monk before stealing the monk's clothes and returning to the vicinity of the POW camp. But Mizushima does not reveal his identity to his unit: having seen all the bodies of soldiers scattered around the Burmese ...

During the year 1985, reminiscent of an era of turmoil in Punjab, an army officer (Nihal Singh) falls in love with a local village girl named Prasinn Kaur. Their romance ultimately leads to a marriage but the fate has tragedy in store for them. Nihal's unit is dispatched to Siachen Glacier and he has to leave his pregnant wife under the care of a couple who are his neighbours. However, due to an unfortunate incident, Prasinn dies after giving birth to a baby girl. Her neighbour, who is desperate to become a mother steals the child. From here the misery of the army officer starts. A twist in the story sends him to prison for serving a life term. After completing the sentence his search for his daughter starts again. This story is all about love, passion, hatred, betrayal and romance. Motivated from a true incident, which the director came across in 1996, the film brings out various facts of human behavior in a true Punjabi flavour and spirit.

There are five major story arcs: the first is "Head", consisting of four issues. The second is "Going Down", which consists of five issues. The third saga, "Wet" also contains five issues. The fourth story arc "Around the World" contained five issues as well. The series was canceled with the final arc, "Sixty-Nine", in issues #20–23.

Head (issues #1–4)

The first story arc "Head" introduces the main character Adam Chamberlain, a 21-year-old Christian preacher promoting sexual abstinence until marriage. Adam is proud of his virginity and his engagement to his girlfriend Cassie, currently on a peace corps mission in Africa; he believes she was chosen by God to be his wife. After being taunted with a stripper by his cousins, Adam flees to the home of his stepsister Cyndi. While watching television he learns that Cassie has been killed and beheaded by terrorists.

Adam and Cyndi flee her home when two men enter looking for her and open fire with pistols. Adam then finds his younger brother at home, about to have sex with a girl. They have a confrontation and then Adam informs his mother and stepfather that he is going to Africa to find out what happened to Cassie. He and Cyndi fly to South Africa, where Adam sees Cassie's body and has a breakdown.

Adam finds out there was semen in Cassie's body and decides to find out the truth. He hires a mercenary named Mel who says he can find the answers he wants. The trio go on a search across Africa and along the way Adam attempts to introduce Christian values to the natives. Throughout the journey, Adam has erotic visions of Cassie and finally succumbs to masturbation. Finally, they are able to find one of the men involved in Cassie's murder and he and Adam have a violent confrontation that ends in the perpetrator's death.

Going Down (issues #5–9)

"Going Down" begins with Adam returning home. Cyndi returns to her apartment, where the drug dealers who had previously tried to kill her are waiting. They hold her at gunpoint, but Mel saves her, knocking the men out. Adam delivers the eulogy at Cassie's funeral but has another breakdown and a highly sexual vision of a naked Cassie rising up from her coffin. Afterwards he is propositioned by a young woman who wants to lose her virginity with him, but he refuses. Mel appears and tells him that he has found information on the mastermind behind Cassie's murder.

Adam, Cyndi and Mel travel to Australia, where they continue Adam's book tour. They stay with brother and sister: Deacon and Clauda. During this time period, Adam discovers that Deacon is gay. Outside one of Adam's speeches, he has another strange encounter with a transgender reporter, who mocks him. Adam speaks of the reporter, Alex, in his speech and reduces her to tears. Afterward Mel shows up with video of Cassie's execution. Adam views it and has another vision of Cassie.

Adam finds the executioner at a gay sadomasochism club and goes undercover to get him to confess. After taking Adam with him to the dungeon, the killer discovers who Adam is and threatens to kill him if they ever meet again before making his escape. Adam flees but discovers from his agent the next day that he has been seen and outed as a homosexual.

Adam becomes distraught over people thinking he is gay and has a revealing conversation with Deacon that examines both Deacon's thoughts on God and Adam's thoughts on homosexuality. Adam then learns that Mel has had a personal score with the same terrorists who killed Cassie and has been using him the whole time for information. He confronts Mel outside the hotel room that the killer is staying and knocks him unconscious. Adam then tries to finish the job of the executioner himself. He cannot bring himself to do it, however. He almost ends up dead, if not for Mel arriving at the nick of time and shooting the killer in the head. Adam and Cyndi then take a flight home, but their plane crashes into the ocean.

Wet (issues #10–14)

The first issue of this story arc deals with Adam's past and ends with his revelation that Cassie may not have been the girl God intended for him. The second sees Adam returning to his ministry in the aftermath of the plane crash. He begins to search for the other girls he believes God may have intended for him to be with, which leads him to his uncle's mansion, where he is forced to join in one of his uncle's sex games and meets the first girl on the list.

After that he has a talk with his stepfather about the pornographic film he did in his younger years. When they get to the hospital to visit Cyndi, they find that she has been taken and they must find her. Before he is able to start looking his brother Levi shows him the second girl on his list and discovers that she is not his "soulmate". Back at his house he finds that Cyndi was not taken, but saved by Mel from the people looking for her. Adam finds out that this is because she stole a porno tape she had made to prevent its release.

Adam returns to the pageant, where he sees the woman that he thought had saved him from the plane crash, working there. Cyndi and Mel are in the pool house kissing when she tears open his shirt to find that Mel is transgender and was born a woman, just before a hurricane arrives and knocks over the pool house building. The hurricane also knocks down the pageant hall before they can get started, but not before he sees another vision of Cassie telling him in fact that Vanessa was not actually on the plane but was a vision from God telling him who his soulmate was. He then decides to join Vanessa on a tour around the world so that she can find herself.

Around the World (issues #15–19)

Around the World begins in Rio de Janeiro where Adam and Vanessa have gone for Carnival. After Carnival Adam goes to the beach only to see that Vanessa is topless. This deeply disturbs him, causing him to run off to call Cyndi. Unbeknownst to him, she is currently having sex with Mel, because Cyndi has decided she loves him even though he is transgender. Adam and Vanessa next go to Japan to stay with Vanessa's college roommate and go to the Festival of the Iron Phallus, a festival dedicated to the penis which Adam sees as obscene but eventually comes to realize that different cultures have different taboos. When they arrive in Bangkok, Adam books a hotel room for him and Vanessa, breaking Vanessa's rule to not spend money on anything, so she storms off angrily. Adam calls home for advice and Mel tells him to go and see a tattoo artist in Bangkok. While getting the tattoo Adam has a vision, in which he and Cassie finally have sex. Later on Adam decides to have his first real sexual experience with Vanessa, deciding that she is his real love, not Cassie.

Sixty-Nine (issues #20–23)

''Sixty-Nine'' is the last story arc in the series. In this series, Adam returns to his home and informs his parents that he has married Vanessa. His mother is furious at this announcement and proceeds to have the marriage annulled when she finds out that Adam has not consummated his marriage yet. In the midst of all this, his stepbrothers manage to locate his biological father in Cuba. Adam, his mother Mamie, wife Vanessa, stepsister Cindy and Mel go to Cuba in order to confront his original father. On reaching Cuba, it is learned that Mamie's father had threatened to kill Adam, thus forcing Reydel (the biological father) to abandon Mamie and head back to Cuba where he is now a priest. Mamie has a heart attack and is moved to a hospital.

In the meantime, Adam is married formally in a chapel to Vanessa by his father. Before he is able to consummate his marriage, Mel kidnaps him and takes him to the Dominican Republic where he plans revenge on the terrorists who killed his girlfriend and Adam's original girlfriend Cassie. Mel is injured and it is up to Adam to exact the revenge, though he is loath to do so. The lead terrorist instigates Adam to open a suitcase which purportedly contains a video showing the beheading of his girlfriend. Adam takes the bait, only to result in an explosion which flattens the entire building site. Rescuers locate Adam under the debris and ask his name. He tells them his name and dies while uttering "I am a virgin" in the last scene: a shockingly tragic end to what can be considered a story which is mainly humorous in nature.

As described in a film magazine, after her sweetheart Jan Drakachu (Garwood) emigrates to America, Katinka Veche (Luther) falls into the hands of Victor Dravich (Brownlee), a man of despicable character who takes her from one place to another before finally coming to Arizona. Jan has become a successful mining engineer and is sent to Arizona to look after the firm's mining interests. One night when he is intoxicated Jan is brought to Katinka's shack and, realizing her past, she does not reveal herself to him. Jan returns to New York City and, after the death of Dravich, is where Katinka also goes. When they meet Katinka discovers that she has nothing to fear and that Jan loves her as much as ever.

The story in 1997 Brooklyn, when a series of unfortunate events causes the disappearance of Steve "Steep" Gonzales' brother. Years pass and Steep is now in high school. He does fairly well, but does not have any friends in school as he spends much of his time caring for his ill mother and drawing. He keeps out of trouble and even holds down a job at a convenience store. He often entertains the idea of being truly free from the daily grind and anxiety of isolation.

However, his whole outlook on life is changed when a Traceur steals a Snapple from the store. Steep pursues the thief, but is astounded when the Traceur runs through the urban span with such speed and agility that Steep has to give up. The next day, he is confronted by Liza, an attractive girl Steep has never associated with before. She convinces him to meet her after school where she takes him to the outskirts of town. There Steep meets a group who call themselves the "GCC" or "Gravity-Challenged Crew." He is also surprised to see Deezy, the Traceur who stole the Snapple from the convenience store.

After Steep learns that the group have been watching him for some time, they attempt to recruit him and turn him into a full-fledged Traceur or as they say in North America, Free Runner. Thus begins Steep's initiation into the world of Free-Running.

The film depicts the adventures and the exploits of notorious English thief and prison-breaker Jack Sheppard in 1720s London.

The ending of the film is ambiguous, and suggests that Sheppard may have survived his execution and escaped to the Americas.

The 74-year-old Mr. Geiser is bored in his Ticinese house during torrential rains. He is so bored that he tries to make a pagoda out of crispbread and categorizes thunder types into a taxonomy (rolling thunders, banging thunders etc.). His sole companion is his cat as his wife had died not long ago.

There is a report of a landslide caused by the deluge, cutting off the valley. Fearing a large slide that would bury the village and man's knowledge, Geiser reads in his encyclopedia, the Bible, and history books. At first he makes notes and tacks them to the walls; later he cuts paragraphs from the books and tapes them instead, noting sadly that the front sides of the encyclopedia's pages are visible, but the back sides unfortunately are dissected and destroyed.

Despite the weather, he hikes outdoors along diverging paths. While wandering, he notes his physical limits, and the limits of man's knowledge and importance.

He notes man's insignificance and meaninglessness (man's appearance in the Holocene era is a very recent event in evolutionary terms). The old man is exposed to the cycle of life and his mortality.

Geiser has to admit that „der Mensch bleibt ein Laie“ (man remains an amateur). He slowly loses his memory. He wonders if memory was necessary – "the rocks do not need my memory or not". Towards the end, Geiser suffers cerebral apoplexy that attacks his memory.

Special Air Service patrol Bravo Two Zero is inserted into Iraq by helicopter to locate and destroy Iraqi Scud missile launchers. En route they find an unexpected group of Bedouin tribesmen and hide until they are noticed by a shepherd and exchange fire with armed fighters. They escape and return to the initial landing point but there is no helicopter waiting for them. While attempting to make contact, the patrol accidentally splits into a group of five soldiers heading to the road to hijack a vehicle and a group of three soldiers heading through the desert. Several days of travel later, seven of the soldiers have either died of hypothermia, been killed or been captured. Corporal Ryan journeys 180 miles to the Syrian border to escape.

The story takes place in Spain during the presence of Napoleon's army. The heroine is the young romani girl, Paquita. Unbeknownst to Paquita, she is really of noble birth, having been abducted by romani people when she was an infant. She saves the life of a young French officer, Lucien d'Hervilly, who is the target of a Spanish governor who desires to have him killed by Iñigo, a roma chief. By way of a medallion she discovers that she is of noble birth, being in fact the cousin of Lucien. As such, she and the Officer are able to get married.

Act 1

A 50-year-old business man Léopold (Bernard Giraudeau) arrives home with 20-year-old Franz (Malik Zidi), whom he has just met. Franz is not quite sure why he agreed to come home with Léopold as he is supposed to be meeting his fiancée Anna, but he accepts drinks from Léopold and they begin to get to know each other. Franz tells Léopold that he is not sure whether or not he loves Anna, that he does not really enjoy sex with her, finding more pleasure in books, theatre and life in general. Léopold asks him if he has ever slept with a man. Franz says he has not, but describes a dream where a man comes into his bedroom in an overcoat and has sex with him. Léopold says that although he once lived with a woman for seven years, he has always found sex with men more exciting. They kiss, and Léopold tells Franz to get undressed and into bed. He then appears beside the bed in an overcoat ready to re-enact Franz's dream.

Act 2

Six months later, Franz is living happily with Léopold. He stays at home while Léopold goes on business trips. When Léopold returns, Franz tends to his every need and has become very passive. Léopold has become very domineering. The two men spend a great deal of time arguing and Franz worries about Léopold leaving him, but they still have a satisfying physical relationship. One night, Léopold, feeling melancholic, confesses that he believes he has driven one of his customers to commit suicide. Franz, unsure how to comfort Léopold, seduces him, and they perform the role-play from their first night together, this time with roles reversed.

Act 3

Franz and Léopold are still enjoying sex together, but the animosity between them is growing. Franz threatens to leave, but he does not. When Léopold is away on business, Franz is bored and depressed. He finds a gun and imagines shooting himself. One day his ex-fiancée Anna (Ludivine Sagnier) visits. She sees how unhappy he is and tells him that she still loves him and wants to be with him. They kiss, and Franz acts out the man-in-the-overcoat sequence with her.

Act 4

Franz and Anna have been sleeping together in Léopold's apartment for two days. She has convinced him to leave and happily talks about the children they will have together. Although he still loves Léopold, Franz agrees that he should leave. Léopold returns from work early and finds them packing. When Anna tells him that Franz is leaving, Léopold just laughs and tells Franz to get them some coffee. Léopold's ex-girlfriend Véra (Anna Levine) arrives and Léopold introduces her, explaining that she is a trans woman. Véra is still in love with Léopold. He then tells them that Véra used to like being tied up, and that Franz likes it too. Franz, angry at being humiliated by the older man, says they are leaving, but Anna wants to stay. Léopold wants them all to have fun together. Léopold starts ordering the two women about. They are excited and start getting him whatever he wants. Franz is disgusted. Léopold tells him that although he does not need Franz, Franz needs him. When Léopold and the women go to the bedroom. Franz goes to join them but changes his mind. He fantasises about murdering Léopold. In the bedroom, Véra realises that the other two do not need her and leaves them to it.

She finds Franz lying on the floor crying. She tells him that she is Léopold's "creature", that after he stopped desiring her, she had a sex change operation for him. This worked for a while but Léopold eventually left Véra. Franz tells her that she is still beautiful, and they make love. Despite the fact that they both love Léopold, she suggests that they get together. Franz tells her that it is too late. He has taken some poison and is dying. He says that he is Léopold's creature too.

Franz dies. When Véra tells Léopold, he seems unconcerned. Anna is shocked and upset to lose the father of her future children, but when Léopold tells her to get back into bed, she does. Léopold asks Véra to join them in bed, telling her that although he does not need her, she needs him. She tries to jump out of the window, but cannot open it.

Deborah Ballin, a feminist activist, inspires the wrath of the misogynistic psychopath and serial killer Colt Hawker on a TV talk show. He attacks her, but she survives and is sent to County General Hospital.

Colt begins stalking her. Deborah befriends the nurse Sheila Munroe, who admires her devotion to women's rights. Colt murders an elderly patient and a nurse. He overhears Sheila's opinions on Deborah and "that bastard" who attacked her. Colt decides to focus his attention on Sheila, stalking her and her children at home.

Colt courts a young girl, Lisa, and then brutally beats and tortures her, despite being unable to rape her. The next day, Deborah discovers that the patient and the nurse have been killed, so she suspects her attacker is back to finish the job. She tries to convince her boss, Gary Baylor, and Sheila that she is not safe, but they both think she is paranoid.

Colt visits his father, who was disfigured years ago when his abused wife fought back and threw hot oil in his face. This event resulted in Colt's hatred of self-defending women. He tries to kill Deborah again but is thwarted by her security. A frantic Sheila is paged and finds Lisa, whose wounds she had treated, waiting for her. Lisa says she knows the identity of Deborah's attacker, and where he lives.

Before she can alert anyone, Sheila receives a phone call from Colt, warning her that he is in her house with her daughter and babysitter. She sends Lisa to warn Deborah, then rushes home and finds her daughter and babysitter safe in bed. She places a call to Deborah, but Colt springs forth to stab Sheila in the stomach and pushes her to the ground. He places the phone to her ear to torture Deborah from hearing her in pain. He moves toward Sheila's daughter. Sheila can only scream in terror as he walks out, leaving her to die.

Colt goes home, where he devises one last plan to kill Deborah. He breaks a beer bottle underneath his arm, wounding himself badly. Gary and Deborah have an ambulance sent to Sheila's house. Still alive, but badly wounded, she is rushed to the hospital. Gary accompanies the police to Colt's apartment, where they discover the photos of his previous victims, as well as Deborah and Sheila's. They also learn that the wounded Hawker has been taken to County General.

Sheila is taken into the emergency room and Colt is wheeled in. After being bandaged and medicated, he sneaks away to find Deborah and attacks her. She flees to an elevator. In the basement, she goes into a radiography room, finding a helpless Sheila, all alone, waiting for X-rays.

Realizing she must lure Colt away to protect Sheila, Deborah leaves and deliberately gives her location away. Colt approaches the curtain she is hiding behind and Deborah stabs him with a switchblade, killing him. Sheila is wheeled to safety while Gary comforts Deborah.

In 1974, Rod Blue is a surfer with shoulder-length hair in Sydney, Australia who also stages rock concerts, unsuccessfully most of the time. Needing a big idea, he decides to fly to Los Angeles, make himself more presentable and try to persuade Frank Sinatra to come to Australia to sing.

Sinatra takes a liking to the kid, overhearing him express why Sinatra's music means so much to him and to everyone. With his lawyer Mickey Rudin and right-hand man Jilly Rizzo in assent that a trip like this would be a good thing at this point for the singer's career, Sinatra agrees to go.

At the airport in Australia, members of the media ask blunt and impolite personal questions as soon as Sinatra and his companion, Barbara Marx, step off their private jet. One of the prying reporters is Hilary Hunter, who angrily claims that Sinatra or someone in his entourage spat on her as they went by.

Rod and his new assistant, Audrey Appleby, who has known him since their youth and long had a crush on him, do their best to make Sinatra's party comfortable in the penthouse of a Sydney hotel. Audrey strikes up a fast friendship with Barbara, who praises Sinatra as a lover but doesn't wish to rush him into marriage.

Before going to Melbourne for the tour's first show, Rod suggests to Sinatra that the Australian press can be very sensitive to criticism, so the singer should try to avoid the subject. Doing it his own way as usual, Sinatra proceeds to further insult the woman reporter from the airport, calling her nothing more than a "two-dollar whore." A restaurant needs to be his way, too, with its chef insulted by Barbara's meddling about how Frank's food needs to be prepared.

Trade unions instantly react. Banding together, they decide to cut off all services to Sinatra immediately, including food, drink and maid service at his hotel. Newspapers mock the singer with headlines like "Frankie, Go Home," but even that is problematic, inasmuch no one is willing now to supply fuel for his jet, either.

An apology is demanded, but the best Sinatra is willing to do is permit Rudin to try to work out a satisfactory compromise with Bob Hawke, the trade union's leader (and Australia's future prime minister). Audrey, meantime, becomes furious at finding Rod kissing reporter Hilary, after which Rod gets into a bloody fistfight with Sinatra's sidekick, Rizzo, who refuses to release tapes of the concert that Rod has already pre-sold.

It is ultimately proposed that Sinatra will do a benefit concert for the trades people, but as soon as he gets back on stage, rather than apologize for calling the reporter a two-dollar hooker, he says: "I overpaid." Enjoying himself nevertheless, the singer calls Barbara up to the stage, introducing her to Australia as "the girl I'm going to marry."

An orphan boy wanders through Delhi looking for a job. When selling balloons, he sees a girl whose name is Amrita and gives her a free balloon. A few days later, during a storm, Amrita finds the boy getting drenched and gives him an umbrella. The umbrella is swept into a place nearby, where Amrita's parents are headed. The boy stops their car and tells them about the dangerous path ahead destroyed by the storm. As the boy has rescued Amrita's parents, they adopt him and name him ''Athidhi''. One day, while driving Athidhi to a hostel, they are stopped by a psychopath teenager who mugs them and shoots the parents. In his rage, Athidhi lunges after the teen and manages to grab the gun. However, The police see Athidhi with a gun and Amrita's dead parents and arrests Athidhi. Amrita also thinks that Athidhi killed her parents and starts to hate him.

14 years later, Athidhi is released from prison and goes in search of the psychopath and Amrita. Athidhi becomes a hurdle to the local goons, as he impedes their illegal operation. Once, he runs across a girl named Amrita chased by stalkers from her college. Amrita and Athidhi meet many times and soon starts to like Athidhi, but has to go back to Hyderabad before she can confess her feelings. When she tries to tell him that she is leaving, Athidhi realizes that the goons are after him, he continuously tells Amrita to leave and slaps her, when she doesn't listen. Amrita runs away crying. Later, Athidhi goes to Amrita to apologize, but only finds her friend Madhavi. She tells him that Amrita just wanted to tell him that she is leaving. They go to the cemetery to look for her.

Madhavi explains Amrita's origin to Athidhi, who leaves for Hyderabad to find her. Athidhi arrives in Hyderabad and decides to stay with Amrita's family, he learns about a dreaded gangster named Kaiser. Later, Athidhi realizes that Kaiser was the psychopath who killed Amrita's parents. Athidhi stops two attempts by Kaiser to murder Amrita. Meanwhile, Inspector Ajay Shastri is trying to track down Kaiser but Ajay dies in an explosion in his house, which was planned by Kaiser. Athidhi figures out that Ajay is actually Kaiser himself. Before Kaiser's house blew up, Kaiser managed to escape and MLA Maccha Srinu realizes that Ajay and Kaiser are the same person and succumbs to shock and dies from a heart attack.

Athidhi manages to kill Kaiser's men. Kaiser kidnaps Amrita and her younger sister, and he kills the sister. Kaiser leads Amrita to a dungeon, where he calls Athidhi, and tells him that he will kill Amrita if Athidhi does not rescue her in 12 hours. Athidhi kidnaps Kaiser's brother and agrees to trade him for Amrita. However, Kaiser kills his brother since, according to him, Kaiser should not have any weakness. Kaiser then reveals that he killed Amrita, to which Athidhi kills all Kaiser’s henchmen in rage. He beats Kaiser, and Kaiser then reveals that he didn’t kill Amrita, but she is on the verge of death. Amrita is severely cut in the nerves and stuck in a certain air tank, but is rescued, and Kaiser is killed. Thus, Athidhi and Amrita (who realizes that Athidhi is not her parents's killer) unite in the end.

Andrew Greig has rewritten ''John Macnab'' by John Buchan for the late 20th century.

The plot follows the original closely. In ''John Macnab'' (1925), three bored successful friends in their mid-forties turn to poaching, under the collective name ‘John Macnab’, set up in the Highland home of a war hero and prospective Conservative MP.

In ''The Return of John Macnab'' three rather downcast friends (a copywriter whose wife has died suddenly on a plane flight; an ex-Special Forces soldier with a marital crisis; and a jaundiced left-wing joiner) decide to revive Buchan’s novel. They target an estate owned by a Moroccan, another rented by a Dutch corporation, and the third, Balmoral, traditional home of the British royal family in Scotland. The modern-day Macnabs are hijacked by Kirsty Fowler, a hard-living reporter and singer with a murky past.

In 1748, the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese are fighting over India.

Back in England, Robert Clive (Colman) fires and misses in a duel; his opponent walks up to him, points his pistol at Clive's head and demands he retract his accusation of cheating. When Clive refuses, the other man declares him "mad" and leaves. Later, frustrated with the boredom of being a clerk, Clive recalls firing a pistol at his own head and having it misfire twice, only to have his friend fire it without a problem. This causes him to wonder if he is "destined for something after all."

He is sent to India in disgrace, still a clerk (for the East India Company at Fort St. George). He is fascinated by a picture of a beautiful woman in the locket of his friend and fellow clerk Edmund Maskelyne. He discovers that she is Edmund's sister and declares he wants to marry her, even though they have never even met. He later brazenly writes to her, asking her to come to India, a year-long journey.

When the French attack, Clive sees his destiny, as a soldier. The army is poorly manned and led. He persuades Edmund into transferring to the army as well. When the British are besieged in Trichinopoly, Clive sneaks out through the enemy lines without orders to confront the British Governor Pigot and his council. Finding they have no idea what to do, he offers to lift the siege, even though they can raise only 120 men, by attacking Arcot, the "capital of southern India". They agree. Clive sets out immediately with his small force, captures Arcot and raises the siege. In less than a year, he conquers all of southern India.

Margaret arrives, but is intimidated by his great success. His plans are unchanged, however, and they get married. They return to England to a magnificent London mansion. He wins a seat in Parliament, then loses it. Clive loses all his money showering (unwanted) luxuries on his wife and contesting elections. Fortunately, the East India Company wants him to return to India.

Colonel Clive demands the unconditional release of 146 British prisoners, but King of "Northern India" Suraj Ud Dowlah throws them into the "Black Hole of Calcutta"; only a handful survive the ordeal. Enraged, Clive makes a secret treaty with Suraj's uncle, Mir Jaffar, despite lacking the authority to do so. Royal Navy Admiral Watson refuses to sign the treaty, but Clive forges his signature.

Advancing against the enemy, Clive hesitates to cross a river, soon to be made impassible by the annual monsoon rains, without a firm commitment from Mir Jaffar. The governor and Edmund Maskelyne advise caution, and he reluctantly orders a retreat, but a supportive letter from his wife changes his mind, and Clive boldly leads his small army across. After much initial success, his men are about to be routed by Suraj's war elephants at the Battle of Plassey when Mir Jaffar finally commits his forces, ensuring victory.

Clive sails home to England to enjoy retirement on a country estate with his wife. However, Picot arrives with dire news: India is in chaos, all those Clive placed in power have been replaced by corrupt men, and Mir Jaffar has been deposed. Pigot offers Clive absolute authority to set things right. Clive accepts, but his decision comes at the cost of a rupture with his wife, who refuses to go with him.

Clive not only restores the situation, he expands the territories controlled by the British. However, all the men he got rid of travel to England and accuse him of accepting bribes. Clive defends himself, but to no avail. At this dark time, his wife returns to him. The Prime Minister himself brings the news: the verdict is not in his favour, but he will most likely be allowed to retain his wealth and honour. The Prime Minister also passes along the private praise of King George.

Danny exacerbates a small electrical fire, altering an experimental crystalline semiconductor material Professor Bullfinch was evaluating. Prof. Bullfinch is able to use this altered material to create '''ISIT''' (the '''I'''nvisibility '''S'''imulator with '''I'''ntromittent '''T'''ransmission), a dragonfly-like probe which could be piloted with a telepresence helmet and gauntlet gloves.

The trio each tries out the device. Irene uses ISIT to birdwatch. Joe uses the device to observe a beehive from the inside. Danny discovers a bully nicknamed "Snitcher" cheating by copying the word list to the school spelling bee and dishonestly winning himself a boombox. The ISIT is outfitted with a speaker which is subsequently used by Danny as a means to pretend to be the bully's conscience, in order get Snitcher to confess to his father.

However, ISIT also causes problems, as soon afterwards Prof. Bullfinch is visited by General Gruntel. The general reveals (in very authoritarian language) he wishes to use ISIT as a tool to spy not only on enemy governments, but against Americans as well. General Gruntel attempts to seize the unit, but is rebuffed by Doctor Grimes. While going to get authorization to seize the ISIT, he leaves the professor's lab under guard.

Danny, Irene, and Joe decide to take matters into their own hands and stealthily break into the lab to recover the probe. The probe's absence is realized which leads to Colonel Twist, the commanding officer of the two guards, to delusively believe the device has been stolen by a foreign power. As he is being confronted by Twist, the Professor realizes the trio of friends are responsible. He informs Danny that without destroying his notes detailing the creation of ISIT, either the Soviet Union or the United States military could still recreate it. While the local National Guard arrives to secure the house against foreign spies, Danny and the Professor make their way to the probe's controls and use it to cause a fire that destroys both the notes and probe.

Dr. Grimes arrives with orders from the Governor for the military personnel to stand down and leave the Bullfinch residence. Bullfinch informs Grimes that the device and his notes have been destroyed, leaving him the only man to remember the blueprints by memory. Professor Bullfinch also tells Dr. Grimes and Danny that he will not recreate ISIT until the world is ready for it.

During the North African Campaign in the Second World War, Captain Douglas (Michael Caine) is a British Petroleum employee seconded to the Royal Engineers to oversee incoming fuel supplies for the British Eighth Army. Colonel Masters (Nigel Green) commands a special raiding unit composed of convicted criminals, and after a string of failures he is told by his commander, Brigadier Blore (Harry Andrews), that he must have a regular officer to lead a dangerous last-chance mission to destroy an Afrika Korps fuel depot, otherwise his unit will be disbanded. Despite Douglas's objections, he is chosen for his knowledge of oil pipelines and infrastructure. Douglas is then introduced to Cyril Leech (Nigel Davenport), a convicted criminal rescued from prison to lead Masters' operations in the field.

The next day, Douglas and Leech are provided with armed jeeps and lead six other men out into the desert disguised as an Italian Army patrol. They endure a long and arduous trek across the desert: encountering hostile tribesmen, sandstorms and a booby-trapped oasis, among other dangers. Unknown to Masters, Blore has sent a regular army raiding party overloaded in wheeled trucks with the same objective 2 days behind Masters, but they are wiped out in a tracked vehicle German ambush. While Leech and his men are often insubordinate towards Douglas's command, they eventually reach their objective, only to discover that the depot is fake.

Due to an injured man who needs medical care, Douglas captures a German ambulance in which they discover a German nurse, who is forced to tend to the injured man. The men eventually try to rape the nurse but are prevented from doing so. They then head to a German-occupied port city, hoping to steal a boat and escape; Douglas sees the fuel depot there and convinces Leech that destroying it would aid their plan. Meanwhile, Masters is confronted by Blore with aerial photographs of the supposed depot intact — confirming the mission's failure. Having lost contact with the men for some time, Masters is ordered to leak intelligence on the team to the Germans; the British Army is now on the offensive, and it wishes to keep any enemy fuel depots intact for capture.

Under the cover of night, the men don German uniforms and sneak into the port depot to plant their explosives, but one of them sets off a trip flare and they are quickly surrounded; an officer on a loudspeaker calls each of them out by name, revealing Masters' betrayal. The men scatter as the depot is detonated; Leech and Douglas manage to slip away, while the rest are caught and killed. After taking shelter, Leech admits to Douglas that he is being kept alive only because Masters is paying him £2000 for his safe return.

The Eighth Army arrives the next morning; Douglas and Leech (still wearing their German uniforms) decide to surrender to the British. Unfortunately, a trigger-happy British soldier opens fire, killing them before they have a chance to speak.

Hell's Kitchen on Ash Wednesday, 1983: As rumors are flying that Francis Sullivan's (Edward Burns) younger brother Sean (Elijah Wood) who has been presumed dead for three years, appeared out of nowhere. It was afraid that the old killers might take a second stab at Francis's and Sean's life. An upstart approaches the local mob boss, who is Francis's protector for a hit job. Sean's wife, Grace (Rosario Dawson) believed she was a widow all these years until Sean came back for her. The parish priest who was deceived initially, is feeling anxious. As bad guys with guns are closing in, Francis should get Sean and his wife out of the city. Can Francis avoid a war between rival factions, and hold onto a new found morality? Will the cross of ashes on his forehead protect him?

At the end, Francis helps Sean reunite with Grace and his son, Sean Jr., as they head out of the city together in the back of a van. But Francis decides to stay back to stop Moran (Oliver Platt). The film closes with Francis wiping the cross of ashes from his forehead. The final credit consists of Francis being shot dead, while stepping outside the pub as the sniper leaves the scene before the police arrives.

A mysterious young woman moves into deserted Crawhill cottage on the estate of Sir Simon Elliot in the Scottish Borders. He fears she is the daughter of his mistress: "If it wasn't the child, Sim wondered, who was she and what the hell was she doing moving into Crawhill? And if it was her, what had she came back for, why had she not come to see him? Instead she had taken up residence in the cottage and waited. What did the lassie want with Davy?"

The novel is based around a set of antique plates that the young woman brings with her, depicting the Border Ballads, "Twa Corbies" and "Barbara Allen".

Sylvester awakes on Christmas morning to find presents under the tree, but is disappointed when his gift is just a rubber mouse. When he hears singing coming from what appears to be a gift-wrapped birdcage and sees that it is labeled for Granny, he looks inside and sees Tweety. Deciding he wants Tweety as his present, he switches the tags on the gifts just as Granny comes downstairs.

Granny gives the cage to Sylvester and opens the box with the rubber mouse. Believing it to be a mix-up, she goes to give Sylvester his box and correct the mistake, but once she sees a satisfied Sylvester hiccup Tweety's feathers, she immediately gets wise and makes the cat spit up the bird. After a thorough scolding, Granny insists that Sylvester kiss Tweety under a sprig of mistletoe, but the now-sulking cat eats Tweety again instead, leading to another forced regurgitation.

Granny places Tweety's cage on a pole where she thinks Sylvester won't be able to reach it, but the cat is determined to get his meal. On his first attempt, Tweety points out a huge present waiting under the Christmas tree. Sylvester immediately abandons the bird in his greed, runs to the package and opens it with relish, only to find it is Hector the Bulldog, who promptly eats Sylvester. Granny immediately forces Hector to spit out Sylvester and drags him out of the room.

Meanwhile, Sylvester resumes his attempts to get to Tweety with the following tricks all ending in failure:

• First, he tries reeling in Tweety's cage with a toy steam crane at the top of the staircase landing. An angry Granny, armed with a broomstick, is waiting on at the end of the claw instead and chases Sylvester off with it.
• From the attic, the cat saws a hole in the floor and then uses a hook to grab the latch at the top of Tweety's cage. Tweety, observing, "That puddy tat sure doesn't get discouraged," replaces himself in the cage with a stick of lit dynamite, which detonates just seconds after the cage is pulled into the attic. After replacing the wrecked cage, a dazed and blackened Sylvester stumbles down the stairs.
• During a Western-style showdown with Tweety, Sylvester-as-Geronimo sneaks up the Christmas tree and snickers as Tweety (playing Hopalong Cassidy) points a pop gun at the cat and says, "Stick 'em up, Geronimo!" ... only for the gun to blast a real gunshot in the cat's face when the stopper is pulled out ("Okay, Hoppy, I'm pullin' ya cork!"). An irritated Sylvester uses his bow and arrow to capture the bird, but seconds before he can consume his prize, Granny shoots a toilet plunger over the cat's mouth ("You didn't count on Pocahontas, did you, Geronimo?").

In the final gag, Tweety is playing on his new train set in the living room when Sylvester sneaks in with some spare train tracks and sets them up to point the train toward his open mouth, then sets the train in reverse. After devouring Tweety in one bite, Sylvester, in turn, is eaten whole by Hector. An outraged Granny makes both the dog and cat spit up their respective prey and, having had enough of their carnivorous pursuits, declares in her rage that she will ensure that there will be peace in the house once and for all as she drags both of them out of the room.

The cartoon ends during the evening with Granny (while playing the pipe organ) and Tweety (the only one of the animals who has behaved) singing a variation of the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". On Tweety's right and left are Sylvester and Hector, both with giant Christmas tree stamps taped all over their mouths to prevent anymore trouble from them.

The novel alternates between present-day Orkney and the 1930s in the dying days of the British Empire in Penang, British Malaya in South East Asia.

After a near-fatal illness, Edward Mackay decides to find out more about his late father's mysterious past. Dr Alexander Mackay's secret is gradually revealed by his son's findings. On the sea voyage to the East, the young doctor meets an eclectic crowd including the Simpson sisters, who are of unattainable social class, "both beautiful, one a gazelle". The doctor is gradually accepted into Penang society, and makes regular visits to the sisters, one of whom is married. Following a mysterious accident and a secret holiday in the Sumatran highlands, he leaves the island under a cloud of scandal.

Edward's investigations in the modern day are assisted by a trail of clues including a Buddha figurine and a double-one domino, and by an old lady, a blonde woman he bumps into in London, and an Orkney woman called Mica.

Category:2004 British novels Category:Novels by Andrew Greig Category:Scottish novels Category:Novels set in Orkney Category:Novels set in Malaysia Category:Novels set in the 1930s Category:Weidenfeld & Nicolson books

A children's baseball team (consisting of anthropomorphic animals) encounters a talent scout from outer space named Irwin (voiced by Phil Silvers), who offers them the chance to play against a team from another planet. They later discover that they are playing in a championship game, and that the opposing team has never been defeated because making up one's own rules — which Earthlings call "cheating" — is a common practice in interplanetary baseball.

During the first few innings, the Earth team (no doubt hamstrung by the fact that there are only seven of them) is not doing well against their opponents, and some of the players suggest that they should cheat as well; the team's leader, however, insists that it would be wrong because "cheaters never prosper" (an assertion that provokes laughter from the entire stadium).

The Earth players start anticipating their opponents' tricks and countering them without breaking the rules; the spectators are thrilled by this unexpected turn of events, and the home team actually enjoys having a genuine challenge to face despite the fact that the Earthlings are now winning. Irwin, who had bet heavily against the Earth team, tries to put the odds back in his favor by entering the game himself, but it is no use; the Earthlings win the game.

The film's hero, played by Ayres, falls in love with a Mexican girl, much to the anger of a rival suitor.

The Charles Bukowski Tapes are an altogether more than four hours long collection of 52 short-interviews with the American cult author Charles Bukowski, sorted by topic and each between one and ten minutes long. Director Barbet Schroeder ''(Barfly)'' interviews Bukowski about such themes as alcohol, violence, and women, and Bukowski answers willingly, losing himself in sometimes minute-long monologues. Amongst other things, Bukowski leads the small camera team through his parents’ house and his former neighbourhood, but the largest part of the interviews takes place in Bukowski's flat or backyard. The documentary includes a scene in which Bukowski reacts violently toward his wife Linda Lee.

Germany, 1927: Beautiful Russian spy Sonja Baranikowa seduces Colonel Jellusič into betraying his country (an unnamed eastern European one) for her employer, Haghi, a seemingly respectable bank director who is actually the diabolical mastermind of a powerful crime organization. Jason, head of the German Secret Service, gives the task of bringing the mysterious Haghi down to a handsome young agent known only as Number 326, who believes his identity is a secret. Haghi, however, is well aware of him and assigns Sonja to worm her way into 326's confidence; Sonja convinces him that she has just shot a man for trying to rape her. He hides her from the police.

Haghi does not anticipate that the couple will fall in love. Unwilling to betray 326, Sonja quietly slips away after they spend the afternoon and evening together. He trails her to Jellusič, whom he mistakes for her lover (she is actually paying him off). Haghi suspects Sonja's feelings for 326 and when she refuses to act against him, Haghi confines her to a room in his secret headquarters.

Haghi seeks to steal a secret Japanese-British peace treaty, which will prevent "war in the East" unless it is exposed, before it reaches Tokyo. He blackmails Lady Leslane, an opium addict, into betraying what her husband knows of the negotiations. Akira Matsumoto, the Japanese head of security responsible for the treaty's safekeeping, crosses paths with 326. When 326 seeks out Sonja, he finds her apartment stripped bare; Matsumoto finds him drowning his sorrows in a bar and informs him that he would have arrested the woman as a spy.

Matsumoto gives three couriers a sealed packet each to deliver to Tokyo; he informs them that a copy of the treaty is inside one of them. Haghi obtains all three packages and finds only newspapers, but he has one more card up his sleeve. Matsumoto pities Kitty, a young woman he finds huddling in a doorway during a rainstorm and takes her in. When he prepares to leave for Japan with the treaty, she begs him to spend a few hours with her. He gives in, attracted by her beauty but when he wakes up later, she is gone with the treaty; disgraced, he commits ritual suicide.

326 tracks Jellusič down in his home country, but is too late: Haghi has already betrayed him and when confronted by his superiors, Jellusič shoots himself. 326 wires the serial numbers of the bank notes used to pay Jellusič, which Jason passes on to agent No. 719, working undercover as a circus clown named Nemo, to trace. On a train trip out of the country in pursuit of the stolen treaty, 326 is nearly killed in a trap set by Haghi. While he is sleeping, his car is detached and left in a tunnel. He awakens just before another train smashes into it. Sonja, who had been tricked into being the one to smuggle the treaty out of the country by Haghi's promise not to harm 326, learns of the crash, races to the site and is reunited with her love.

326 gives orders for Haghi's bank to be surrounded, then sends Sonja away with his trusted chauffeur, Franz, while he and his men search for Haghi. Haghi captures Sonja and Franz and sends 326 an ultimatum: clear the building within 15 minutes or Sonja will die. Defiant, 326 continues searching, even after incapacitating gas is released. Franz is able to free himself and hold off Haghi's assassins until 326 can find them. Haghi's minions are captured, but there is no sign of the mastermind himself. A clerk interrupts to complain to 326 and Jason that the serial numbers he was given to trace do not match the bank notes. The two realize that 719 is Haghi. When Nemo/719/Haghi goes on stage to perform his clown act, he sees that he is surrounded by armed agents and shoots himself in the head. The audience, believing it is all just part of his act, applauds.

Los Guys, a rockabilly band, has developed a racket playing loud music on the streets of France and accepting payment for them to stop playing. While at a nearby restaurant counting the proceeds from their latest "gig," two lead band members meet a gypsy storyteller. She tells them the story of ''The Corsican Brothers''.

The story begins with the birth of two superfecund twin brothers, Louis and Lucien (played by adult Cheech and Chong as babies, children and adults), each by a different aristocratic French father; the two fathers end up dead in a botched duel over their partner's infidelity, with the twins raised as orphans. At age nine, their trait of feeling pain from the other's injuries becomes apparent (it becomes the film's predominant running gag); they accidentally burn down their house while playing with this power, and they decide to split up.

At age 30, they reunite: Louis (now Luís) wound up in Mexico working low-end jobs (though he claims to be a wealthy businessman) and Lucien, who stayed in France, has grown resentful of the royals' harsh treatment of peasants in the country, particularly that of the queen's regent, the sadistic (in more ways than one) Fuckaire, who usurped the king after his disappearance. The cowardly Luís is reluctant to help his brother's revolutionary plans, but both find themselves drawn to two of the queen's daughters (played by Cheech and Chong's real-life wives). The crux of Lucien's scheme is to disguise themselves respectively as a gay Spaniard hairdresser and Nostradamus, who are prepared to visit the queen with the Marquis du Hickey. Despite a setback in which they are temporarily imprisoned because Lucien would rather fight outnumbered than flee from danger as Luís wanted, Lucien manages to escape. At Luís's execution, Lucien and the peasants storm the festivities, Luís is freed and Fuckaire is deposed. As Luís prepares for the dual wedding between the brothers and princesses, he suddenly fears for their future, and Lucien sweeps in to rescue him as they both leave the princesses at the altar, resolved to cross the globe and start a revolution in America.

After their saga concludes, Los Guys resume playing in an outdoor cafe, covering Chuck Berry's "Nadine," to an indifferent audience.

Much of the film's humor comes from anachronisms: ''The Corsican Brothers'' is set in the 1840s (in the film it is portrayed closer to 18th-century, pre-revolution France), but Nostradamus, who lived and died three centuries prior, makes an appearance, and Luís is said to have spent time in a modern-day Mexico.

Taking place during the Bakumatsu of the Edo period when the foundations of the Tokugawa shogunate have begun to sway, a young writer named Momosuke wishes to write a book of 100 ghost stories.

While researching old myths and legends, he comes across a mysterious trio who call themselves the Ongyou. They are detectives who are investigating the legends to reveal their truths, and bring those in the wrong to justice. Each time Momosuke meets the Ongyou, he must face horrible truths and battle with his morals, and he's seeing things he shouldn't be seeing....

A torchbearer runs through Olympia all the way to Atlanta to light the Olympic cauldron. The flame is revealed to contain an alternate universe known as the Torch World. As Izzy plays basketball, George (Izzy's father) scolds him by advising that Torch World citizens do not compete in the Olympic Games.

A doctor uses the sperm of a dead man to impregnate a prostitute. The resultant child then grows up only to turn against the man who created her.

Prologue

The narrator, Stewart Meade (nicknamed "Stew Meat"), meets a strange man named Thaddeus Blinn in a carnival tent and notices something unusual about him. Stew Meat sees that there are three children in the tent who he recognizes as Polly, Rowena, and Adam. Blinn sells each of them a card with a red spot in the middle, for only 50 cents each, explaining that all they have to do is to press their finger on the spot, make a wish out loud, and it will come true – exactly as they word it.

Jug-A-Rum

Polly, an 11-year-old girl loves to play with bullfrogs and her only two friends. She wishes to be popular, and have the school's two most popular girls, Agatha and Eunice, to like her and invite her over for a tea party in which they would pretend to talk like real ladies. Her wish is granted, but now she croaks like a frog when she says vain, mean words about other people. Her sudden croaking in the middle of class causes her to become the center of attention – amid much grins and guffaws – at school. Agatha and Eunice invite her over, but she learns during her visit that they are snobbish and unlikable people, and they only invited her to ridicule her for her croaking. She realizes that her habit of gossiping and talking about her classmates behind their backs has kept them from befriending her.

The Tree Man

Rowena wishes that Henry Piper, a traveling salesman she is infatuated with, but only sees two times a year, will "set roots down in Coven Tree and never leave again!" Her wish is fulfilled word-for-word: his feet become literally rooted to the ground, and he gradually transforms into a sycamore tree. Rowena finds out that he never really loved her, but only pretended to so that her father would like more of his items. She also develops a liking for the family's farmhand, Sam Waxman, who helps her throughout the situation with Henry.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Adam lives on a farm that requires water to be trucked in every few days, so he wishes for it to be covered with some as far as the eye can see. The next day, he is taught dowsing and finds the dowsing rod reacting at every turn. When he digs through the soil, a huge geyser shoots out which initially causes his parents, Edward and Sarah, to be joyful. But soon the geyser grows out of control, flooding the entire farm.

Epilogue

Adam, Polly, and Rowena run to Stew Meat, asking him to fix their wishes, since he has the only other wishing card in Coven Tree. He accepts, and he grants all their wishes. Polly no longer says mean things about other people and thus never croaks again; Henry is restored to human form, but Rowena forgets him and dates Sam instead; Adam travels around the world to dowse.

Three young women between the ages of 18 and 20 have been diagnosed with cancer. In the days between Christmas and New Year, the three girls manage to deal positively with the situation thanks to the company of each other.

Axis chooses to leave the mortal world with his wife Azhure, leaving his son Caelum to rule as the Starson.

Matters worsen when Caelum finds himself engaging in affair with his sister Riverstar, who eventually becomes pregnant and threatens to blackmail her brother with this fact. The ancient and deadly WolfStar also returns to the world of Tencendor; seeking to cause the rebirth of his lover Niah within a powerful body. He selects Zenith as the perfect host, displacing her soul and replacing it with Niah's. However, WolfStar is not the only one to return; the newly empowered Faraday arrives and aids Zenith in expelling both Niah's soul and WolfStar's child from her body.

Meanwhile, Drago discovers an odd oasis in the universe outside the Star Gate, containing an insane Icarii woman, many children with the likeness of hawks and five dark and dangerous beings known as the Timekeepers who offer great power. This promise proves false however, when they steal Drago's life force and use it to shatter the Star Gate and destroy most of the world's magic in the process.

After a stint in prison, small-time Milanese gangster Ugo Piazza is immediately harassed by his old associates, led by a powerful American launderer known simply as "The Americano" (or "The Mikado" in the English dub), who believe that he stole 300,000 US dollars during a handover, shortly before his arrest for robbery. Piazza emphatically denies the theft, even under coercion from The Americano's volatile right-hand man Rocco. His girlfriend, go-go dancer Nelly Bordon, also believes he stole the money, as does the police commissario, who unsuccessfully attempts to turn him informant.

Piazza meets his former godfather Don Vincenzo, now a blind old man, and his sole remaining capo Chino. Though Rocco mocks Vincenzo's authority, they still hold a begrudging respect for Chino, who has refused to leave his godfather even after everyone else has. The Americano gives Piazza an ultimatum to return the money and resume working for him, but he still insists he doesn't have it and doesn't know who does. Paranoid about more, similar thefts, Rocco begins killing off his money couriers.

Piazza is sent on an exchange of $30,000, happening in a bowling alley. The exchange is crashed by a mysterious assailant in a white scarf (who has been stalking Piazza since his release), who kills their client and steals the brown leather bag containing the money. The Americano sends Rocco and Piazza to kill the men he believes responsible, but when they arrive they're revealed to be Chino and Don Vincenzo. Piazza refuses to slay his former godfather, but Rocco coldly shoots the old man, while Chino narrowly escapes. The Americano has Piazza beaten for his insubordination and is about to have him killed. However, Piazza’s is spared when he convincingly argues that Rocco and the crew were behind the theft of the $30,000.

The Americano rechieves to a rural estate with his bodyguards, including Piazza, but is shot and killed in an ambush by a vengeful Chino. Piazza turns his gun on the Americano's men and finishes them off, before Chino dies of his injuries.

Piazza travels to an abandoned church off Milan and retrieves a blue bag with the $300,000 - revealing he had stolen the money from the Americano years ago and orchestrated everything to get him killed. However, he's picked up by police for driving with an expired license and forced to go to the station for an interview.

While in the waiting room, Piazza runs into Rocco (who's being questioned for the shootout at the Americano's house). Rocco, seeing the bag containing the money, shows no animosity and offers the two become partners. Piazza turns him down and is released. He heads to Nelly's house with the money, planning for the two to run away together. Nelly is with Luca, one of Rocco’s crew and the man in the scarf who was behind the theft of the $30,000 at the bowling alley. Nelly had conspired with her secret lover Lucato get the $300,000 from Piazza for themselves.

Luca shoots Piazza, but he manages to kill Nelly with a single punch before expiring. Rocco, who had followed Piazza home, bursts in and beats Luca to death in a fit of rage for his betrayal and disrespecting of Piazza's criminal stature. The police, who had in turn followed Rocco, drag him away from Luca’s bloodied corpse.

Upon arriving through the Star Gate, the Time Keeper Demons begin 'feeding' by expelling a grey miasma from their mouths which spreads across the land, corrupting and maddening any being not sheltered. They depart the vicinity of the now destroyed Star Gate and travel through the woods to Cauldron Lake. Meanwhile Faraday uses her new powers to bring Drago back to life.

The newly resurrected Drago, Faraday, and Zenith then join Caelum's army in the woods surrounding the Barrows and set plans. Despite a pledge to help Caelum however possible, Axis, Azhure, and Caelum remain distrustful and loathing towards him with Axis even stabbing Drago.

Axis, Azhure, Caelum, and a small contingent from the army resolve to travel to Star Finger to search through the ancient texts there for an answer. Zared is left in command of the combined armies tasked with preserving what he can of the land. Faraday and Drago leave on a pair of white donkeys with a feathered lizard from the woods to attempt to beat the demons to Cauldron Lake. There the voice that spoke to Faraday during her transformation, Noah, awaits.

Isfrael and Shra confront the demons as they pass through the forest. Their combined power is a match for the still weak demons, but one of the newly acquired demonic mounts sneaks behind them and disembowels Shra. The demons are the first to arrive at Cauldron Lake and proceed to drain/kill it to expose the craft of the Enemy and a crystal forest. Surviving the reflective trap, the demons find a pool of blood and throw StarLaughter's dead child into the blood. It emerges as a toddler and possessing the warmth of the greatest of the demons, Qeteb. After their departure but still sensed by them, WolfStar comes forth from the waterways and places his own dead child in the blood with similar results.

Drago enters the craft and meets a dying Noah, the last of the Enemy. Noah tells Drago of how the Enemy separated Qeteb and journeyed through space to find a place to store the component parts. When they discovered the constituent parts of Qeteb could not be destroyed, four craft fled across the universe with them. Noah informs Drago that Qeteb must be reconstituted before he can be destroyed, that Tencendor must be destroyed before it can live again. Drago also learns that the land is highly magical and magic still exists for those who know how to find it. He also is informed that a Sanctuary exists somewhere in the waterways that can hold Tencendor's population when the land is destroyed.

Drago sends the Lake Guard to scout out Sanctuary, Zared's army to Carlon to gather the Acharites, StarDrifter and Zenith to Star Finger to collect the Icarii, and extracts a half-promise from Isfrael for the Avar. As he instructs the leaders, it dawns on them that Caelum is not the StarSon mentioned on the Maze Gate, but Drago is. Isfrael helps the army construct cloth for portable tents so they can venture across the plains and the groups separate.

Zenith still suffers hesitations about her relationship with StarDrifter. While a relationship between grandparent and grandchild is acceptable in Icarii culture, she cannot cope the idea of StarDrifter being her lover. They arrive at the Minaret Peaks to find the magic-reliant Icarii in dire straits, not only from the Demonic Hours, but a lack of food and basic survival skills.

When Caelum and company enter an ancient tunnel to quickly transverse the Fortress Ranges, they fear a trap in the making. Only too soon are they prove right as the Hawkchilds kill the sentries behind them. The demons create an illusion of the hunt dream Caelum suffers from that Axis, Azhure, and Caelum all fall for. They survive to find all the others in the party destroyed and the Alaunt further ahead after running from the horror.

Zared's army travels towards Carlon, but an army composed of animals and men that were maddened has been marshalled by the brown and cream badger. When the animals attack, Zared's army survives only thanks to two mysterious white figures that drive off many of foes. Unnoticed until later, the discontent Askam and four hundred men desert during the night. Unfortunately for them, the badger set up a trap and they are all dragged from under the shade into the demonic miasma to become like the mad animals. Under control of the badger, Askam and his men rejoin Zared's force as they ride. Although no other attack is forthcoming, when the last of the army is entering Carlon, Askam abducts Zared's wife Leagh. When the next Demonic Hour falls, she too is driven insane.

Drago and Faraday travel north to Gorkenfort to meet their "ancestral mother." On the way, Drago expresses his love for Faraday. Although she knows that she loves him, she denies it as she fears that it would mean she would need to be sacrificed again. She also worries about the dreams of a girl calling for help that are trying to draw her to Star Finger. On the path, they find a senile white horse that Drago recognizes as Belaguez, Axis's old warhorse. They also discover that they are immune to the demons' feedings. The demons feel the resistances but cannot identify them. Although later confronted by a Hawkchild speaking for the demons, they do not connect the resistance with Drago. They are confused by him being alive, but are diverted from killing him as the white donkeys (revealed to be extremely powerful magicians and those that previously saved the army) destroy Askam's force and return Leagh to Zerad.

Caelum, Axis, and Azhure are taunted by the Hawkchilds continually as they travel the mountain paths to Star Finger. Eventually, the Hawkchilds stage an attack and nearly destroy who they believe to be the StarSon. The former Star Gods and Alaunt manage to stave off the attack and get the wounded party to Star Finger.

Drago and Faraday arrive at Gorkenfort. Shortly afterward Urbeth the icebear arrives to reveal that she is the being known as the Enchantress and the Mother of Races. Although she mothered the Acharites, the Charonites, and the Icarii, her eldest (the Acharite forerunner) rejected magic and she cast him out of her life. However, both he and the Acharites do have innate magic but it now can only be accessed if they die and are brought back to life. Drago and Faraday leave towards Star Finger but leave Belaguez for Urbeth who then transforms him into the star stallion and sends him south.

Meanwhile, a mourning Zared is convinced to send part of the army and the whole Strike Force to the Murkle Mines where some 20,000 men, women, and child are holed up. When their ships are destroyed in the bay, the remains of the men convince the refugees to head towards Carlon. The demons learn of this progress and set a trap on the path that eventually drives all of the refugees into the madness of Demonic Hours. Only Theod survives and rides to Carlon on the reborn Belaguez to tell the tale.

The demons arrive at the Lake of Life and kill it to access Qeteb's breath, DragonStar now gaining the body of an adolescent and breath. Again, WolfStar follows their example with the Niah-corpse and slips away. After giving StarLaughter a small amount of power, the demons decide to investigate Sigholt. When Rox crosses the bridge, it transforms into a spider-like shape and devours the demon releasing nighttime from terror. The demons and StarLaughter flee towards Fernbrake Lake.

The Lake Guard have figured out the mystery of Sanctuary determining it must be a magical keep. As the other lakes each have a keep, Fernbrake's keep must have sunken to the waterways and show the way to Sanctuary. Some of the Lake Guard, StarDrifter, and Zenith travel to Fernbrake. There they not only discover the way to the keep, but that the Star Dance can be accessed through dance. When StarDrifter attempts to cross the bridge to Sanctuary, it rejects him as he is not 'he who is true.' They depart on the waterways to find Drago.

At Star Finger, Axis, Azhure, Caelum, and the former Star Gods find a mysterious girl in the lower levels holding a book titled Enchanted Songbook. Unfortunately no one can reach her until Drago and Faraday enter the chamber. Caelum, who has now realized that he is only a decoy for the real StarSon, keeps Axis from killing Drago and sends them all from the room. When they are alone, Caelum asks for Drago's forgiveness for their past. More specifically, for Caelum framing Drago for RiverStar's murder. Caelum and RiverStar were secretly lovers and he killed her when she revealed she was pregnant. Drago, Faraday, StarDrifter's party, and the Alaunt depart on the waterways to Sigholt and then Sanctuary. At Sigholt, Drago retrieves the Wolven and the keep's cat population and learns of another way to access the pattern of the Star Dance, through hand movements. They open Sanctuary and begin the evacuation of the Icarii.

Drago, Faraday, and the girl Katie travel to Carlon via Spiredore only to discover it besieged by the animal army and of the loss of the 20,000. With the help of the lizard and Katie, Drago removes the demonic madness from Leagh, in essence returning her from the dead and giving her access to her magic. They leave for the site of the ambush of the 20,000 and gather them together. Drago cures Goldman, Theod's wife Gwendylyr, and DareWing FullHeart of their madness and dispatches the rest so the demons cannot use them anymore.

WolfStar appears at Fernbrake Lake only to be captured by StarDrifter and Isfrael to await trail. When the demons arrive, they free WolfStar only to torment him and hold him captive. They shatter Fernbrake and summon the craft to the surface as StarDrifter, Isfrael, and Goodwife Renkin mourn the death of the Mother. The demons invest both DragonStar and Niah with the movement of Qeteb and leave for Grail Lake and the Maze.

Caelum departs for the hunt and for Drago to summon him. He has learned that the Enchanted Songbook shows dances to access magic and more or less successfully used one to destroy a Hawkchild. As he waits, he visits with Urbeth and her two daughters, the white donkeys turned icebear.

The animal army stages an attack led by the patchy-bald rat and his minions from the sewers that leaves the population of Carlon in panic and the city on fire. With the help of his new magicians, Drago evacuates the remaining Acharites through Spiredore to Sanctuary. He sends the magicians off to the rest of Tencendor to collect the remaining populations which turn out to include animal and insect as well. Faraday confronts Isfrael with his stance that the Avar should keep to themselves by showing a vision of Barsarbe doing the same. The Avar and the rest of Tencendor descend into Sanctuary, but not before the Mother reveals herself to Faraday urging her to let herself love Drago. Mother then retreats to the Sacred Grove and closes the pathways.

Drago enters the Maze and races on Belaguaz to the Dark Tower within. There he opens a gate and travels to Caelum to bring him to Spiredore and the hunt. The demons pass through the maze and fully resurrect Qeteb in the body that was once DragonStar. Malice sweeps across the land, destroying everything not already corrupted save for Caelum, Urbeth, her daughters, and the wooden bowl given to Faraday by the silver-backed Horned One. Qeteb starts the hunt and they eventually corner Caelum who they still believe to be the StarSon. However, rather than cowering in fear and then pain, Caelum dies with a smile on his face as all he sees is a field full of flowers.

The book opens in Mexico City in the future, where sometime assassin Axl Borja is about to try to make one last hit, which goes drastically wrong when he takes three rounds to do the job. Losing his gun in the process, he is caught by the police, and throws himself on the mercy of the Cardinal Santo Duque - his former boss, a minister of the Vatican, and someone given to unusual methods of revenge. The Cardinal agrees to grant clemency if Axl returns to his service, an offer he can't refuse but one with serious consequences.

Axl's mission is to track down the late Pope Joan (specifically, a data-holding bracelet of hers), who drained the Vatican's immense assets to buy aid and other kinds of support for the Third World before being apparently dismembered by a horde of the people she helped save. The Cardinal is interested in tracking down what remains of his organisation's money, but there's one problem; the only lead is in space, on the refugee-only space habitat Samsara. As a man responsible for much of the ringworld's population, the Cardinal can't send an agent officially, so he tortures and seriously injures Axl - fitting a ceramic neural-interface port into his head, removing both his eyes, and running him through a set of SQUID probes designed to pillage what's left of his memories.

Axl's gun, a mostly-sentient Colt armed with explosive flechettes, incendiary phosphorus rounds, and all-purpose ceramic smart rounds and capable of full battlefield analysis and giving tactical advice when needed, has since changed hands a number of times, from a pimp to a gutter-boy to a voodoo priest to a cleric to the Cardinal himself. With his assistance its AI is uploaded to the networks and thus to Samsara, where it has to earn the favour of resident AI Tsongkhapa if it can help Axl in his mission.

One of the most interesting features of the book is its soundtrack. Axl has a Korg music synthesiser implanted in his brain, capable of generating pretty much any kind of music, precisely tuned to what he experiences; it will create heavy basslines and drum 'n' bass music to go with a gunfight, for instance, while going completely silent in moments of great suspense and working out signature riffs for people Axl meets. This device, inactive at the start of the book, is fixed about halfway through and is used to add a sense of pacing to the action scenes towards the novel's end.

Another recurring theme is battlefield medicine, reminiscent of the use of superglue in the Vietnam War. Axl's eyesockets are filled, first by a "plug-and-play" Red Cross-issue eye, so cheap it only works in black and white and very low-res; and later by a more complex eyeball capable of night-vision and with a digital counter in the corner to remind him of his deadline.

Category:2000 British novels Category:2000 science fiction novels Category:Victor Gollancz Ltd books

Airos is smelling like crud...really bad.Anyway,Mr. Chopsticks announces a new burger called the Burrito Burger,and it's all for just $12.99...cheap.Story tells him on the intercom TV that while the convention is getting started,she invented(Nosferatu did actually.)a machine called the R.O.B.The ROBOTIC OPERATING BUDDY,anyone who crosses path with ROB will get shocked,making ROB say:"LET'S CLEAR THE AREA".it was built for $999.99...very Expensive.Soon,Mr. Chopsticks shows the Burrito Burger to all,and not only that,but their mascot,Fillmore (Cars) was all the creator.So,Mr. Chopsticks releases the Buffalo to the wild.While he is doing that,Airos,Darunia,Story,Rigel,Scarlet,Psyme,and Fred Fredburger are grossed out because of Airos's odor.They are in the Arctic,and Airos soon learns he stinks..really bad. R.O.B,The Security Bot.His famous line:"LET'S CLEAR THE AREA".
20px '''Declined'''. Your article appears to be a joke. It might be a wonderful entry in [http://www.uncyclopedia.org Uncyclopedia], a wiki where jokes and parodies are highly encouraged. However, Wikipedia requires a stodgier, more factual tone in its articles, and your comedic efforts cannot be rewarded here. Tiptoety ^talk 15:50, 21 February 2008 (UTC) |- | style="text-align:center;" | ''This is an archived discussion. '''Please do not modify it.''''' | }

Airos is smelling like crud...really bad.Anyway,Mr. Chopsticks announces a new burger called the Burrito Burger,and it's all for just $12.99...cheap.Story tells him on the intercom TV that while the convention is getting started,she invented(Nosferatu did actually.)a machine called the R.O.B.The ROBOTIC OPERATING BUDDY,anyone who crosses path with ROB will get shocked,making ROB say:"LET'S CLEAR THE AREA".it was built for $999.99...very Expensive.Soon,Mr. Chopsticks shows the Burrito Burger to all,and not only that,but their mascot,Fillmore (Cars) was all the creator.So,Mr. Chopsticks releases the Buffalo to the wild.While he is doing that,Airos,Darunia,Story,Rigel,Scarlet,Psyme,and Fred Fredburger are grossed out because of Airos's odor.They are in the Arctic,and Airos soon learns he stinks..really bad. R.O.B,The Security Bot.His famous line:"LET'S CLEAR THE AREA".
20px '''Declined'''. Your article appears to be a joke. It might be a wonderful entry in [http://www.uncyclopedia.org Uncyclopedia], a wiki where jokes and parodies are highly encouraged. However, Wikipedia requires a stodgier, more factual tone in its articles, and your comedic efforts cannot be rewarded here. Tiptoety ^talk 15:51, 21 February 2008 (UTC) |- | style="text-align:center;" | ''This is an archived discussion. '''Please do not modify it.''''' | }

On New Year's Eve, dying Salvation Army Sister Edit has one last wish: to speak with David Holm. David, a drunkard, is sitting in a graveyard, telling his two drinking buddies about his old friend Georges, who told him about the legend that the last person to die each year has to drive Death's carriage and collect the souls of everybody who dies the following year. Georges himself died on New Year's Eve the previous year.

Gustafsson, a colleague of Edit, finds David, but is unable to persuade him to go see her. When his friends try to drag him there, a fight breaks out, and David is struck on the head with a bottle just before the clock strikes twelve. David's soul emerges from his body as the carriage appears. The driver is Georges.

Georges reminds David of how the latter once lived a happy life with his wife Anna, their two children and his brother, until Georges led him astray. As shown in a flashback that follows, David was jailed for drunkenness. Before being released from prison, he was shown his brother, who had been sentenced to a long term for killing a man while drunk. When David went home, he found the apartment empty. Furious, he became determined to track Anna down and have his revenge.

During his search throughout Sweden, David arrives at a new Salvation Army Mission on New Year's Eve. Maria does not want to answer the bell, as it is very late, but Edit lets him in. Despite his rudeness to her, she mends his coat while he sleeps. The next day, she asks him to return in one year; she had prayed that the first visitor would have good fortune for that period and wants to know the outcome of her prayer. He agrees, but before he leaves, he tears out her patches.

Georges informs David that the promise has to be fulfilled and takes him against his will in the carriage to Edit. In another flashback it is shown how Edit once found David in a bar with Gustafsson and another man. Edit persuaded the other man to go home with his wife and gave Gustafsson an advertisement for a Salvation Army meeting. At the meeting, Gustafsson submitted himself to God, but David remained completely unrepentant. Anna was at the meeting, but David did not recognize her. Later, Anna told Edit who she was, and Edit tried to effect a reconciliation. At first, the couple were optimistic, but soon David's behavior drove Anna to despair once again. One night, Anna pleaded with him not to expose their children to his consumption (the same fatal disease Edit caught from him). When he refused, Anna locked him in the kitchen and tried to flee again with their children, but fainted. He broke through the door with an axe, but did not physically hurt her.

When Georges goes into Edit's room, she begs him to let her live until she sees David again. She thinks she is the one to blame for his magnified sins, as she brought the couple together again. When David hears this, he is deeply moved. He kisses her hands, and when Edit sees his regret, she can die in peace. Georges does not take her, saying others will come for her. He then shows David that Anna, afraid of leaving her children alone after she herself dies of consumption, is planning to poison them and herself. David begs Georges to do something, but Georges has no power over the living. Then David regains consciousness in the graveyard. He rushes to Anna before she can act. With great difficulty, he convinces her that he sincerely wishes to reform.

Hyun-woo (Ji Jin-hee) is released from prison after spending 17 years behind bars. During his college days he was involved in the student-led anti-government protests that swept across Korea in the early 1980s. Now that he is finally free, Hyun-woo travels back to the town where he spent a few precious months immediately prior to his arrest.

Seventeen years ago, Hyun-woo fled into the rural area of Korea, hiding from the government that was trying to quash his anti-government group. He found sanctuary in the home of Han Yun-hee (Yum Jung-ah). She was a former sympathizer to the anti-government cause, but now living a modest life as a teacher in a small rural community. The couple quickly became intimate, Hyun-woo able to provide the spark that was missing from Yun-hee's simple life.

Unfortunately, while Hyun-woo was still hiding in Yun-hee's home, he learned that most of his fellow anti-government protesters were captured and imprisoned. Even though the government now has Hyun-woo high on their wanted list, he feels ashamed that he is living peacefully, while his friends are imprisoned. Thus, he makes the difficult decision to leave Yun-hee and go back to the movement centered in Seoul. What he would later learn is that he left behind the sole person that would stay faithful to him throughout his 17-year imprisonment and also the woman that was carrying his baby.

The interstellar scout ship ''Diogenes'' has discovered an ancient, deserted alien outpost on an airless planet. The most puzzling object at the outpost is a featureless black sphere resting on a concrete pedestal that instantly drains all power from any device that is exposed to it. The sphere is impervious to all attempts to study it, and when the crew of the ''Diogenes'' attempt to lift it off its pedestal with a levitation machine, it shorts out their ship's main generators. Repairing the generators will require weeks, and morale is already low when the ship's biologist hypothesizes that the sphere is actually a sentient entity which is actively resisting them. The captain thinks this unlikely, but decides that they will have to remain on the planet until they understand what the sphere is. In the meantime, to raise morale, the captain orders the crew of the ''Diogenes'' to get roaring drunk.

During the party, the ship's planetographer drunkenly complains to the captain that an electrical apparatus he was working on blew out when they were trying to lift the sphere. This leads to a moment of drunken clarity for the captain: the sphere, he realizes, is actually a power broadcaster. It absorbs energy of all sorts, including potential energy (which is why it can't be lifted), then converts it with near total efficiency to electromagnetic radiation, broadcasting at a frequency of 30,000 hertz, which happens to be the frequency the planetographer's apparatus was set to receive.

The captain also realizes that they can move the sphere into the ship by simply rolling it off its pedestal onto a levitator and carrying it, as long as they make no attempt to lift it against the planet's gravity. Once it is in the ship, they can surround it with energy receivers and feed the energy it broadcasts directly into the ship's engine, which should give the ship enough power to move it. Once the scientists on Earth work out the sphere's operating principles, they will be able to duplicate it and use it to power Earth's civilization.

The film begins with a scene in which the Palestinians and Jews are both snapping their fingers, similar to the opening scene of ''West Side Story''. The two parties head to their own family-owned falafel stands (Hummus Hut and Kosher King) where they sing "Our People Must Be Fed/Our People Must Be Served". During the day, Hummus Hut employee Fatima and Israeli soldier David are daydreaming about each other (in the romantic duet, "When I See Him"). When Fatima rushes to give a customer his forgotten leftovers, she has a chance encounter with David, and they realize their mutual attraction.

Upon returning to the shop, Fatima's brother shows her that the Kosher King Jews have a machine that encroaches a few inches onto their property. The head of Hummus Hut throws a rock into the machine, making it malfunction, provoking a standoff between the two families (resolved by David and Fatima). Ariel, head of the Kosher King, decides he is going to build a wall. After they leave, David and Fatima stay, and David indicates he'll come to her balcony that night.

The construction begins, and the Palestinians plan to end it abruptly ("We're Gonna Build It"). As such happens, David goes to Fatima's house ("This Moment Is All We Have"), wanting to kiss her, but Fatima refuses, saying it will only escalate the conflict. They head over to stop the fight. As they do, it is revealed to Fatima's family that they are in love. The following fight tips over a canister of gasoline, causing the entire stand to catch fire. David goes to warn the Israelis, who celebrate - until an ember reaches the Kosher King, which proceeds to catch on fire. As the Hummus Hut denizens celebrate, Fatima points out to everyone that they are only making their lives worse.

The next morning, expectant falafel customers are oblivious to the fire, and still want food. Ahmed and Ariel have nothing, but David and Fatima scrape together some of the remaining food, merging the two falafel stands. After the others are working, David and Fatima kiss. At the very end, Fatima asks what will happen if their families cannot stop fighting. David says he will "take you to a place called... Beverly Hills", alluding to the song "Somewhere" in ''West Side Story''.

After Manhattan publishing magnate Sam Peterson apparently dies of Ondine's curse, a condition in which seemingly healthy middle-aged men die in their sleep of respiratory failure, his younger wife of six months, Catharine, inherits his estate. Several months later, Catharine relocates to Dallas, Texas, posing as a Southern belle named "Marielle." She seduces Ben Dumers, the owner of a toy company, and the two marry. Shortly after, she poisons a bottle of expensive liquor, which kills him. After Ben's death, his sister Etta unsuccessfully attempts to contest his will, but is silenced by Catharine's gift of $500,000.

Meanwhile, Alexandra, a Justice Department agent in Washington, D.C., takes note of the similarities in both cases and begins investigating them. Through photographic comparisons of the men's brides, Alexandra determines it to be the same woman. Catharine moves on to Seattle, where she presents herself as a poised sophisticate named Margaret, and begins studying ancient history, especially Pacific Northwest native culture and Roman coins. At a local museum, she impresses William Macauley, a wealthy curator, with her knowledge, and buys her way onto the board of directors. She and William begin dating, and begin a whirlwind romance that leads to marriage. Catharine takes note of William's allergy to penicillin.

Alexandra begins interviewing the friends and families of Catharine's victims, first Sara, Sam's assistant, and next, Etta. Presenting her research to her superior, Bruce, Alexandra convinces him to send her on an investigative trip to Seattle, where she has tracked Catharine, who is now living with William at a rustic home on Bainbridge Island. Alexandra poses as a freelance reporter at the museum, claiming to be writing a story on powerful women, and inquiring about his wife, Margaret. William tells her his wife is private and will likely decline an interview. Shortly after, Catharine goes to the doctor complain of recurring bouts with tonsillitis, and is prescribed penicillin, which she mixes into William's toothpaste. The penicillin triggers a fatal heart attack, but his autopsy shows nothing unusual.

Determined to bring Catharine to justice, Alexandra trails her to Hawaii, where she fled after William's death. In Hawaii, Catharine, going by the name Renni Walker, seduces Paul Nuytten, a French hotelier. Alexandra, posing as "Jessica Bates", enrolls in a scuba diving class Catharine is taking, and the two partner during lessons. Alexandra ingratiates herself to Catharine, and the two become friendly. However, after Catharine observes Alexandra and Mr. Shin meeting in public, she grows suspicious. Catharine subsequently learns from Sara that Alexandra interviewed her several months prior in New York.

Several days later, Alexandra and Catharine go diving together, and Catharine saves Alexandra when her scuba gear apparently malfunctions. Catharine confides in Alexandra that she amassed her wealth from marrying rich men. She also encourages Alexandra to pursue Paul, whom she suspects has a crush on her. While Alexandra and Paul spend an afternoon alone at Catharine's encouragement, Catharine breaks into Alex's apartment and hires Shin to stalk her; he soon takes photos of Alexandra and Paul kissing. Confronting Alexandra with the photos, Catharine pretends to be upset. A short time later, Paul and Catharine are married.

Alexandra arrives at the wedding and accuses Catharine of manipulating her. She gifts Catharine a black widow necklace. Catharine responds by kissing her. Later, Catharine visits Shin and, holding him at gunpoint, forces him to poison himself to death. In Shin's office, police find the photos of Paul and Alexandra. While Catharine goes on a trip to San Francisco, Alexandra confronts Paul with her investigation against Catharine. Paul informs Alexandra that his will declares that his entire estate go to the Cancer Foundation. When Paul subsequently dies, police arrest Alexandra after finding poison Catharine planted in her apartment.

At the reading of Paul's will, his attorney reveals that, because his legal state of residence was Florida, his bequest to charity is invalidated because it was made in the past six months. Catharine visits Alexandra in jail and taunts her. Moments later, Sara enters the visiting area, followed by Paul, who is in fact not dead, having faked his death to entrap Catharine. Catharine attempts to kiss him, but he refuses her, after which she is arrested.

In response to the suicide bombing of a New Caprica Police (NCP) ceremony, the Cylons order a crackdown against the insurgency. Many resistance members start to disagree about the legitimacy of the suicide bombings, but leader Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) continues to orchestrate them. Meanwhile, in an attempt to get Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) to love him, Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie) presents her with a toddler named Kacey (Madeline Parker), of whom Leoben claims Starbuck is the mother, as a result of her time on Caprica in "The Farm". Leoben leaves her alone with the toddler, but Starbuck refuses to play with her. When she leaves Kacey unattended, however, Kacey injures herself falling down the stairs. As Kacey is recovering, Starbuck has a change of heart and prays to the Lords of Kobol not to let her die.

In a move against the insurgency, the Cylons decide to have the NCP arrest 200 civilians they believe to be affiliated with the resistance. Headed by Jammer (Dominic Zamprogna), a former ''Galactica'' deckhand and resistance fighter, most of the arrests take place during the night. Those being arrested include Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), Tom Zarek (Richard Hatch) and Cally Henderson Tyrol (Nicki Clyne). Learning of Cally's arrest, Jammer attempts to get her released by Boomer, but Boomer is unable to help. After another suicide bombing at a power station, the Cylons decide to have the prisoners executed, but require President Gaius Baltar's (James Callis) signature. When he refuses to sign, an Aaron Doral (Matthew Bennett) copy forces him to at gunpoint. Caprica-Six (Tricia Helfer) attempts to stop him, but Doral shoots her in the head. Baltar signs the document. Meanwhile, Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) learns from Cavil (Dean Stockwell) that he only released her husband Saul (Michael Hogan) because the Cylons know he is leading the resistance. He informs Ellen that unless she tells the Cylons where the resistance leaders will be meeting next, he will imprison Saul once more. Reluctantly, Ellen discovers where the resistance plans to meet with members from the colonial fleet.

On board ''Galactica'', Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) appoints their Cylon prisoner Sharon Agathon (Grace Park) a Colonial officer and sends her to the planet to liaise with the resistance. When she arrives to meet with resistance members, Centurions attack, having learned of the meeting place from the intelligence Ellen provided. Simultaneously, the 200 human prisoners are being transported to a location by the Cylons and NCP. A masked Jammer, realizing they are to be executed, saves Cally by releasing her in secret and telling her to run. As she runs away, the sound of gunfire is heard.

The events of ''King Javan's Year'' span a period of approximately sixteen months, from June 921 to October 922. As the novel begins, the dying King Alroy Haldane commands that his twin brother, Prince Javan Haldane, be summoned to Rhemuth immediately. Although Alroy's former Regents seek to prevent the king from talking with his heir before his death, Alroy's youngest brother, Prince Rhys Michael Haldane, risks their wrath by sending a small party of knights to retrieve Javan from the abbey where he has spent the past three years. The Healer Oriel manages to keep Alroy alive until Javan's arrival, and the two brothers share a final conversation before the young king finally dies.

The lords of state immediately attempt to pass over Javan in favor of Rhys Michael, believing the younger brother will be a more biddable king. However, Javan succeeds in disproving their claim that he took permanent religious vows, and he is proclaimed the legal heir during an Accession Council that afternoon. Javan is surprised to discover that several young knights and nobles at Court have already allied themselves with him, including his former squire, Sir Charlan Morgan, and two secret Deryni, Etienne de Courcy and his son Guiscard. The following night, Guiscard sneaks Javan out of Rhemuth to meet with Father Joram MacRorie and several other Deryni allies. Shortly thereafter, Javan's Haldane potential is fully activated by Joram, Dom Queron Kinevan, and Javan's old friend, Tavis O'Neill.

Over the next month, Javan attempts to secure his position and establish his strength without revealing his magical abilities or overtly provoking the lords of state. By the end of June, Javan and Joram succeed in creating a new Transfer Portal in the castle. Javan's official coronation occurs on July 31, but the ensuing celebration is marred by an old rivalry between two powerful lords. Earl Hrorik II of Eastmarch accuses Earl Murdoch of Carthane of murdering his brother, an event that occurred three years earlier at Alroy's and Javan's thirteenth birthday. The two nobles engage in a duel to the death the following day, and Hrorik mortally wounds Murdoch. Before his death, Murdoch urges his allies to move against Javan, believing the king is becoming too powerful to control.

Several weeks later, Javan discovers his brother dallying with Lady Michaela Drummond in the castle garden. Javan orders Rhys Michael to stay away from Michaela, fearing that any child of Rhys Michael's will only weaken his own position on the throne since the lords of state will be more willing to attack him if the royal line is secured for another generation. Although Rhys Michael dislikes the great lords, he refuses to believe they present as great a threat as Javan believes. Nonetheless, he agrees to stay away from Michaela.

At the end of October, while traveling as a deputy with one of Javan's legal commissions, Rhys Michael is attacked and abducted. Although the culprits are publicly identified as Ansel MacRorie and other Deryni bandits, the prince has actually been kidnapped by knights under the command of the great lords. After being "rescued" several days later, Rhys Michael is taken to Culdi to recover from his wounds. As planned by the great lords, the prince is reunited with Michaela, and the two are soon married by the end of November. By the time Javan discovers the plan by reading Archbishop Hubert's mind, he is far too late to prevent the marriage. When Rhys Michael and his new wife return to Rhemuth in early December, Javan can do nothing but acknowledge his new sister-in-law and welcome her to the family.

Over the following months, Javan continues his potentially lethal dance of power with the great lords. In March, the former Regents command one of their Deryni collaborators to murder Oriel. Oriel survives the attack, but both Javan and Guiscard are forced to employ their arcane powers to defend the Healer. As the incident is investigated further, the great lords become increasingly suspicious of the king. Although he repeatedly attempts to free former Deryni Ursin O'Carroll, Ursin is murdered before Javan can succeed. The king decides to take the families of the deceased Deryni collaborators to Master Revan, hoping that the secret Deryni working with Revan will block the families' Deryni powers and they will be allowed to go free.

Javan departs Rhemuth in early May, leaving his brother in command of the royal castle. The king's party arrives at the river several days later, but tragedy quickly erupts as the great lords make their final move against Javan. Episcopal soldiers disguised as renegade Michaelines attack both the cult and the king's party. When Tavis uses his powers to protect a young girl, the surviving Willimites realize that Revan's baptismal ceremony has been a fraud, and they quickly turn on their former leader. Revan and Tavis are slain almost immediately, but the Willimites themselves are struck down by the false Michaelines. Javan and his party fight bravely, but they are soon outnumbered by both the false Michaelines and the great lords who have betrayed the king. Guiscard falls first in the battle, but both Javan and Charlan are eventually killed.

At the same time in Rhemuth, the remaining great lords launch a coup against Rhys Michael. Several lords and knights are quickly slain as Rhys Michael is captured, and special care is taken to ensure Oriel's death. The prince is informed that he will do as he is told and follow orders or he and his wife will be killed. The shock of the coup causes Michaela to go into premature labor, but their first son is stillborn. Over the next several months, Rhys Michael is constantly drugged to ensure his compliance with the wishes of the great lords. Javan's body is returned to Rhemuth, and Rhys Michael is formally crowned as King of Gwynedd. Eventually, the new king is reunited with his wife and informed that he must soon provide a royal heir or someone else will perform the action for him. Resigned to their fate, Rhys Michael and Michaela agree to start having children, but they secretly maintain the desperate hope of one day being free of the great lords.

1880

''"It was an uncertain Spring."''
Colonel Abel Pargiter visits his mistress Mira in a dingy suburb, then returns home to his children and his invalid wife Rose. His eldest daughter Eleanor is a do-gooder in her early twenties, and Milly and Delia are in their teens. Morris, the eldest brother, is already a practising barrister. Delia feels trapped by her mother's illness and looks forward to her death. Ten-year-old Rose quarrels with twelve-year-old Martin and sneaks off by herself to a nearby toyshop. On the way back she is frightened by a man exposing himself. As the family prepares for bed, Mrs Pargiter seems at last to have died, but she recovers.

At Oxford it is a rainy night and undergraduate Edward, the last Pargiter sibling, reads ''Antigone'' and thinks of his cousin Kitty Malone, with whom he is in love. He is distracted by two friends, the athletic Gibbs and the bookish Ashley.

Daughter of a Head of House at Oxford, cousin Kitty endures her mother's academic dinner-parties, studies half-heartedly with an impoverished female scholar named Lucy Craddock, and considers various marriage prospects, dismissing Edward. She is sitting with her mother when the news is brought that Mrs Pargiter is dead.

At Mrs Pargiter's funeral Delia distracts herself with romantic fantasies of Charles Stewart Parnell and struggles to feel any real emotional response to her mother's death.

1891

''"An Autumn wind blew over England."''
Kitty has married the wealthy Lord Lasswade, as her mother predicted, and Milly has married Edward's friend Gibbs. They are at a hunting party at the Lasswade estate. Back in London, Eleanor, now in her thirties, runs her father's household and does charity work to provide improved housing for the poor. Travelling to London on a horse-drawn omnibus she visits her charity cases, reads a letter from Martin (twenty-three and having adventures in India), and visits court to watch Morris argue a case. Morris is married to Celia. Back in the street, Eleanor reads the news of Parnell's death and tries to visit Delia, living alone and still an avid supporter of the Irish politician, but Delia is not at home.

Colonel Pargiter visits the family of his younger brother, Sir Digby Pargiter. Digby is married to the flamboyant Eugénie and has two little daughters, Maggie and Sara (called Sally).

1907

''"It was midsummer; and the nights were hot."''
Digby and Eugénie bring Maggie home from a dance where she spoke with Martin, who has returned from Africa. At home, Sara lies in bed reading Edward's translation of ''Antigone'' and listening to another dance down the street. Sara and Maggie are now in their mid-twenties. Maggie arrives home, and the girls tease their mother about her romantic past.

1908

''"It was March and the wind was blowing."''
Martin, now forty, visits the house of Digby and Eugénie, which has already been sold after their sudden deaths. He goes to see Eleanor, now in her fifties. Rose, pushing forty and an unmarried eccentric, also drops in.

1910

''"...an English spring day, bright enough, but a purple cloud behind the hill might mean rain."''
Rose, forty, visits her cousins Maggie and Sara (or Sally), who are living together in a cheap apartment. Rose takes Sara to one of Eleanor's philanthropic meetings. Martin also comes, and so does their glamorous cousin Kitty Lasswade, now nearing fifty. After the meeting Kitty visits the opera. That evening at dinner Maggie and Sara hear the cry go up that King Edward VII is dead.

1911

''"The sun was rising. Very slowly it came up over the horizon shaking out light."''
The chapter begins with a brief glimpse of the south of France, where Maggie has married a Frenchman named Réné (or Renny) and is already expecting a baby. In England Colonel Pargiter has died and the family's old house is shut up for sale. Eleanor visits her brother Morris and Celia, who have a teenaged son and daughter named North and Peggy (another son, Charles, is mentioned in a later section). Also visiting is Sir William Whatney, one of spinster Eleanor's few youthful flirtations. There is gossip that Rose has been arrested for throwing a brick (this was a time of Suffragette protests).

1913

''"It was January. Snow was falling. Snow had fallen all day."''
The Pargiters' family home is being sold and Eleanor says goodbye to the housekeeper, Crosby, who must now take a room in a boarding house after forty years in the Pargiters' basement. From her new lodgings Crosby takes the train across London to collect the laundry of Martin, now forty-five and still a bachelor.

1914

''"It was a brilliant spring day; the day was radiant."''
The time is one month before the outbreak of the First World War, although no hint is given of this. Wandering past St Paul's Cathedral, Martin runs into his cousin Sara (or Sally), now in her early thirties. They have lunch together at a chop shop, then walk through Hyde Park and meet Maggie with her baby. Martin mentions that his sister Rose is in prison. Martin continues, alone, to a party being given by Lady Lasswade (cousin Kitty). At the party he meets teenage Ann Hillier and Professor Tony Ashton, who attended Mrs Malone's dinner party in 1880 as an undergraduate. The party over, Kitty changes for a night train ride to her husband's country estate, then is driven by motorcar to his castle. She walks through the grounds as day breaks.

1917

''"A very cold winter's night, so silent that the air seemed frozen"''
During the war Eleanor visits Maggie and Renny, who have fled France for London. She meets their openly gay friend Nicholas, a Polish-American. Sara arrives late, angry over a quarrel with North, who is about to leave for the front lines and whose military service Sara views with contempt. There is a bombing raid, and the party takes its supper to a basement room for safety.

1918

''"A veil of mist covered the November sky;"''
The briefest of the sections, at little more than three pages in most editions of the novel, "1918" shows us Crosby, now very old and with pain in her legs. She hobbles home from work with her new employers, whom she considers "dirty foreigners", not "gentlefolk" like the Pargiters. Suddenly guns and sirens go off, but it is not the war, it is the news that the war has ended.

Present Day

''"It was a summer evening; the sun was setting;"''
Morris's son North, who is in his thirties, has returned from Africa, where he ran an isolated ranch in the years after the war. He visits Sara, in her fifties and living alone in a cheap boarding-house, and they recall the friendship they carried on for years by mail.

North's sister Peggy, a doctor in her late thirties, visits Eleanor, who is over seventy. Eleanor is an avid traveller, excited and curious about the modern age, but the bitter, misanthropic Peggy prefers romantic stories of her aunt's Victorian past. The two pass the memorial to Edith Cavell in Trafalgar Square and Peggy's brother Charles, who died in the war, is mentioned for the first and only time.

Delia, now in her sixties, married an Irishman long ago and moved away, but she is visiting London and gives a party for her family. All the surviving characters gather for the reunion.

In the fictional town of Cloverdale, Massachusetts, optometrist and self-proclaimed Christmas expert Steve Finch wants his family to have a great Christmas, filled with traditions such as using an Advent calendar, taking Christmas card pictures in matching sweaters, and buying a large tree.

In the middle of the night on December 1, new neighbors move in across the street: car salesman and electrical engineer Buddy Hall and his trophy wife Tia, both whom Steve and his wife Kelly meet the next morning. Later that day, Kelly and her daughter Madison and son Carter go to the Hall house, where they meet the Halls’ teenage twin daughters, Ashley and Emily. Tia and Kelly immediately become friends, as do Ashley, Emily, and Madison.

Buddy goes to work as a used car salesman, where he manages to sell a car to the owner of the dealership, giving him a promotion. That night, Buddy complains to Tia that while he can sell anything, he gets bored easily. After discovering that the neighborhood can be seen on satellite photos via a website called MyEarth (seemingly a parody of Google Earth), but that his house is not visible, Buddy decides to make it visible using Christmas lights. As his display grows bigger, including live animals, it gets Buddy known around town, angering Steve and threatening his position as the “Christmas guy.”

Steve’s envy towards Buddy increases; in various incidents, Steve's Christmas-card photo is ruined when two of Buddy's phonophobic feral horses get startled by the sleigh bells and take Steve for a wild ride, his car doors are ripped off during one of Buddy's light shows, and his private Christmas-tree lot is destroyed by a fire when Buddy accidentally spills gasoline with his chainsaw. Eventually, Buddy's house is completely lit, and even synchronized to music. Steve manages to sabotage Buddy’s lights by filling his fusebox with snow, but a backup generator foils his plan. Buddy discovers the sabotage and retaliates by stealing the town's Christmas tree, putting it in Steve's house, and "buying" him a car.

Buddy and Steve make a bet: if Steve beats Buddy in the WinterFest speedskating race, then Buddy removes the lights, and if Buddy beats Steve, Steve pays for the car. Buddy wins, causing Steve to yell at Buddy for being a nobody, since his house is still not visible from space. Hurt, Buddy compensates by buying a huge amount of programmable LED lights, which he pays for by hocking Tia's expensive heirloom vase, and Tia and the girls depart.

Having had enough, Steve buys various fireworks including The Atomic Warlord, a large, illegal, military-grade rocket from a gangster and tries to destroy the Hall house. The rocket misfires, setting the town Christmas tree on fire, and Steve's family leaves, but not before Kelly scolds Steve for ignoring his children to focus on Buddy.

Steve discovers Buddy has been stealing the former’s power for the latter’s lights. However, after seeing Buddy taking down his lights, a remorseful Steve forgives Buddy. The two forget their rivalry and build a winter wonderland with all of Buddy's lights. They lure Tia, Kelly, and the kids home and all sit down to a nice meal made by both Steve and Buddy.

Soon, the whole town arrives at Buddy’s house to help put Buddy's lights back up in time for a story about them on MTV. They do not work, and everyone sings carols and uses their cell phones as flashlights. As they sing, Steve accepts Buddy’s offer to be his friend, and Carter notices that the lights did not work because one of the plugs is not plugged in properly. He tightly plugs it in, causing the lights to shine brightly through the night. SuChin Pak, doing the MTV report, gets confirmation from MyEarth that the house is indeed visible from space, and the crowd celebrates.

Raging at the escape of the StarSon, Qeteb has the Hawkchilds scour the remains of Tencendor. Although they don't immediately find Sanctuary, a Hawkchild does find and return the wooden bowl given to Faraday by the Mother, though they do not know how to use it. Unaware of this oversight, the Mother, Ur, and the Horned Ones wait in the Sacred Groves, slowly dying. Meanwhile, at sanctuary many are discontented and impatient, finding it more of a prison then a sanctuary. Axis walks to the bridge and begins talking to it, though halfway through it begins screaming and it dies, and Axis nearly falls into the chasm below until Drago saves him, and though Axis notices a some sort of power in him, he still stubbornly refuses to forgive him for Caelum's death, thinking he is still the malevolent man he was when he was a baby, who always wanted Caelum's inheritance. Drago then talks to Azhure, who also recognises he has some sort of power, and on departure recognises him as Dragonstar, not Drago.

Batman and Robin return to Gotham City one year following the events of ''Infinite Crisis''. It is revealed that Batman, in his absence, entrusted the safety of Gotham City to former district attorney Harvey Dent, better known as Two-Face, who has undergone plastic surgery and overcome his split personality.

Upon returning, a string of mysterious killings involving some of Batman's rogues gallery; the KGBeast, the Magpie, the Ventriloquist occurred. They were all killed with a double-barrelled gun once used by Harvey Dent. The gun was subsequently found with Harvey Dent's fingerprints on the gun. Surveillance footage also showed Harvey talking to the KGBeast, the Magpie and the Ventriloquist. A fourth villain, Orca, was also detected in the surveillance footage.

Meanwhile, Batman, realising that his nocturnal activities prevented him from conducting investigations during the day, put private investigator Jason Bard on a retainer to assist him. Jason was asked to dig into Orca and found that before she became a supervillain, she was married to Terry Capshaw. Terry confirmed that Orca was associating herself with the KGBeast, the Magpie and the Ventriloquist and revealed they were all working for the Penguin, but were convinced by Harvey to switch sides and act as Dent's spies. Terry was killed by the Tally Man before he could reveal anything more to Jason.

Batman confronted Harvey with the murders of his spies and his prints on the murder weapon with the intention of wanting Harvey to clear up the misunderstandings. Harvey refused and blew up his apartment instead. He struggles with the Two-Face persona that is still deep within him, leading Harvey to toss a coin, and ultimately decides to revert to Two-Face.

Two-Face then takes over the Gotham Zoo, killing four cops and crippling one other before releasing all the animals, except for a male and a female of each species in the zoo. Batman and Robin confront and defeat Two-Face, and Robin successfully defuses a bomb Harvey planted at the zoo.

Batman figured out that it was Warren White, a.k.a. the Great White Shark, who had framed Harvey Dent for the murders and was the secret crime boss of Gotham City.

Also in this story, Batman and Harvey Bullock agree on a new, working relationship, indicating that there is a "clean slate" between them.

At the end of the series, Bruce Wayne decides to adopt Tim Drake as his son.

The story begins with a corrupt Member of Parliament (Micallef) shutting down a country town's main source of employment in the local meatworks. This leaves Wally Norman (Harrington) out of a job, until drunk politician Willy Norman accidentally writes the wrong name on the parliamentary nomination form.

Wally is at first apprehensive about running, until he realises it is the only way to save the meatworks. Throughout the film Wally is coached by Willy Norman and assistant Myles Greenstreet (Nathaniel Davison) in how to best appeal to the voters, as well as overcome his fear of public speaking.

Meanwhile, Myles is attracted to Wally's daughter, and a wombat's career skyrockets.

Much of the film's humour comes from wordplay, such as naming the town Givens Head, and the foreman of the meatworks being named George. Shaun Micallef said he had to insist that his own moniker was modified from F. Ken Oath to F. Ken Oats to soften one of the film's less subtle attempts at punning.

In the year 2054, chaos spreads over the globe as global warming finally exacts its toll on Earth: the ice caps quickly melt, causing a tremendous series of cataclysms and for entire nations to disappear under the sea. The near apocalyptic setting and the quickly depleting resources of the remaining dry lands force nations into constant war, eventually culminating into World War III; all efforts by the United Nations to cease hostilities are thwarted by a seemingly endless supply of technologically advanced weaponry being sold to each side of every conflict. After investigation, the source is tracked back to EVAC Industry co. ltd, an arms dealer who's been reaping tremendously high profits from the situation, at times directly intervening to fuel the hostilities with utter disregard towards human lives; any attempt to negotiate with the board of directors has utterly failed, the earnings having proven high enough for the company to build its own cities, shipyards, defensive emplacements and even a private airport, to the point of assembling its own army of extremely well equipped mercenary troops.

Being unable to enter the fray officially, the UN sets up a strike team of four pilots, each pair given one of two advanced helicopters: the plan is to simulate a rebellion within EVAC forces and bring down the company's headquarters, where research on a series of tremendous warmachines is taking place; for this reason, the planes both bear EVAC insignia and callsigns and are built according to stolen prototype blueprints - by no means, in success or failure, must the operation be traced back to the United Nations.

However, for all this secrecy to be effective, even in victories the assault choppers will have to be destroyed... and the pilots killed. However, to compensate for their sacrifice, the UN shall fulfill one of their wishes, no matter what it is. And this, on board a stolen EVAC carrier plane, is how the story begins...

The powers of darkness converge to claim the soul of a young girl who may have made a deal with the devil, who has come to collect. As a result of a devastating car accident that claims the life of her father, Michelle wakes up in a hospital in a state of amnesia—and her face is completely destroyed from the crash. With no recollection of the supernatural events before the accident that took her father, she has to figure out why people around her are mysteriously dying; she must try to remember if she has any chance of saving herself and her loved ones from this dark force. After her doctor perfectly reconstructs her face using family pictures as a guide, Michelle is discharged from the hospital and sent to a home that lodges young offenders, as she was deemed a delinquent before the car crash. On the very day she leaves the hospital, the janitor is murdered.

Michelle is troubled by a series of hellish nightmares and the Mephistophelean force that is killing the people in her life who seem to be committing suicide. A police detective named Joyner suspects that she is somehow responsible for the murders. Michelle desperately attempts to solve the mystery of her malevolent past in order to save herself and those around her before it is too late. Despite her gallant efforts, the legions of the damned eventually take her away.

''Knights of the Nine'''s quest begins as the player approaches the Chapel of Dibella in Anvil. The Anvil Chapel had recently been desecrated and everyone present had been killed. The quest proceeds as the player consults a prophet near the scene of the attack who indicates that the one responsible for the destruction is Umaril, an ancient Ayleid sorcerer-king, who escaped from his prison in the realm of Oblivion in order to destroy Cyrodiil. The prophet reveals that Umaril can only be defeated by a "Crusader" favoured by the gods and bearing the relics of Pelinal Whitestrake, the knight who had originally slew Umaril and banished his spirit to Oblivion.

The player must then make a cleansing pilgrimage to nine shrines across Cyrodiil to show their devotion to the Nine, the gods of Cyrodiil. Upon completing the pilgrimage, the player receives a vision from Whitestrake, who reveals the location of his tomb beneath a lake surrounding the Imperial City. Upon travelling to the tomb, the player discovers the Crusader's Helm, one of the Crusader relics which had belonged to Whitestrake. The player also finds the corpse of Sir Amiel, a Knight of the Nine, a member of an order dedicated to protecting the Crusader relics. Sir Amiel's diary, found on his body, reveals the location of the Priory of the Nine, which houses the Crusader Cuirass.

Upon arriving at the priory, the player must prove themselves worthy by defeating the ghost of the each old Knight of the Nine in single combat. Upon completing this trial, the player is given access to the Crusader Cuirass, and the ghosts then reveal clues about the last known location of each of the remaining relics. After collecting all eight Crusader relics, representing each of the original eight gods, the prophet gives the player the blessing of Talos, the ninth god, indicating that the blessing will allow him to completely destroy Umaril rather than simply re-banish him to Oblivion. The player, joined by new NPCs who have offered their assistance and now make up the new Knights of the Nine, attack Umaril's stronghold. The player then duels Umaril in the physical realm, before using the blessing of Talos to pursue Umaril into the spirit world and destroy his spirit. The player then wakes up in the priory among the new Knights of the Nine, who reveal that they had found the player's corpse in Umaril's stronghold. It is concluded that the Nine had resurrected the player, and the quest is complete.

''Cythera'' is set in a near future Earth following an unsuccessful Third World Children's Crusade against the West, with children being subject to increasing levels of censorship. Film-maker Flynn has been imprisoned for making the subversive Dahlia Chan films, along with his leading lady Jaruwan. Thanks to the increasing power of the Net sentient 'ghosts' of media images have crossed from Earth 2 to Earth 1, and the novel follows the affair between human Tarquin and Dahlia Chan, their efforts to rescue Jaruwan and their ultimate quest for the freedom of mythical Cythera.

The Baum family—father Moe, mother Rose and son Lee are trying to cope during the Great Depression of the 1930s. They were wealthy but lost their money during the Depression. They are forced to move from their home in Manhattan to live with relatives in Brooklyn. Lee wants to be a writer (and narrates the play).

Characters

• Theodore K. Quinn
• Lee Baum
• Rose Baum (Lee's Mother)
• Arthur A. Robertson
• Clarence, a shoeshine man
• Fanny Margolies (Rose's Sister)
• Sidney Margolies (Fanny's son)
• Lucille (Fanny's daughter)
• Grandpa (Rose's Father)
• Frank (The Baums' Chauffeur)
• Dr. Rossman
• Jesse Livermore
• William Durant
• Arthur Clayton
• Tony (Speakeasy Owner)
• Diana Morgan
• Henry Taylor (A Farmer)
• Irene
• Banks, a black veteran
• Judge Bradley
• Sheriff
• Isaac
• Moe Baum (Lee's Father)
• Brewster
• Doris Gross (Sidney's wife)
• Stanislaus

Somewhere in the distant future, The Girl is living alone in a bunker. She continues to fight with the generations-long war with the assistance of a group of antiquated robot helpers and soldiers.

Her only connection to her people is a collection of recorded journal entries made by the scientist who cared for her as a baby. His is the only friendly human face she’s ever seen. These entries gradually disclose the fall of mankind: escalating war that destroyed Earth's atmosphere, human reproductive abilities, and all hope for future. The Girl is revealed to be a clone, created as a last attempt to restore the humanity's dwindling numbers.

The regular radio transmissions from her enemy's leader are always filled with threats and taunts. The girl responds with attacks of her own, carried out by her mechanical soldiers on the contaminated surface where no human can survive.

After a transmission is used to intercept control of the robots, the girl decides to launch a full-scale assault on the enemy base, and does so, succeeding by hiding inside one of the machines (using it as an exoskeleton). Upon defeating the enemy remnants, she is told by dying enemy leader that they are the last people on the planet, rumors of prosperous nations being just myths.

The girl is put before a choice to either spare the enemy leader, or kill her. Believing that she lies, the girl executes the last of her foes. This activates the large EMP generator, however, which the enemy never used before (as using it would doom themselves too). All machines and bunker life support cease to function, leaving the girl alone, trapped within the enemy base, with no way out. The film ends with her calmly staring in the illuminator.

Peter Ibbetson (Reid) is an orphan raised by his uncle, Colonel Ibbetson. When the Colonel insults his dead mother, Peter attacks him and is ordered from the house. Then the young man runs into his childhood sweetheart, Mimsi (Ferguson), and their romantic feelings are rekindled.

Unfortunately, Mimsi has married, but they carry on a love affair in their dreams. Their dream-affair continues over the years, even after Peter kills her husband, the Duke of Towers, and gets a life prison sentence.

Part one

In the end of the previous episode "Precipice", 200 humans are facing a Cylon Centurion firing squad. A few hours prior, Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas) receives the list from a source, and gathers a group of armed resistance members to the execution site and are able to destroy the Centurions before the execution takes place. Former ''Galactica'' deckhand Jammer, who led the police forces and helped Cally Tyrol escape, barely escapes with his life. Meanwhile, Sharon Agathon (Grace Park), Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) and other resistance members are under fire from another group of Centurions, but are rescued by marines Sharon posted. Afterwards, Sharon discusses with the resistance her plan to rescue those on New Caprica from the Cylons; she is to go into the Cylon compound in the city to gather the launch keys for the ships on the ground while ''Galactica'' will distract the Cylons so the humans can escape. Anders finds the rendezvous map on one of the dead Cylons that Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) claimed to have burned. He confronts Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) about his wife's betrayal. Ellen confesses to her action, but claims to be doing it to keep Tigh alive.

Meanwhile, D'Anna Biers (Lucy Lawless) has a nightmare and visits an oracle, who hints that Hera, the Cylon-Human baby who was born and supposedly killed in "Downloaded" is still alive, and D'anna "will know true love" again and hold the child in her arms. Later, Sharon infiltrates the Cylon compound and acquires the launch keys, but is stopped by D'anna, who recognizes her immediately, and tells her Hera is still alive. However, Sharon refuses to believe it. To prevent D'anna from warning the Cylons, Sharon incapacitates her by knee-capping her. Having heard the launch keys have been retrieved, Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) starts preparation for battle. He instructs his son Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) to wait for 18 hours. Should Adama fail to arrive in time, Apollo should lead the remainder of the fleet to Earth.

Part two

Battlestar ''Pegasus'' rams a Basestar Having been warned by Anders that Ellen will be executed for treason unless he kills her himself, Tigh sits down with Ellen to talk about her actions. Tigh hands her a drink, which is tainted with poison. After Ellen succumbs to it, Tigh grieves. Meanwhile, ''Galactica'' arrives in far orbit above New Caprica and sends raptors to launch drones, hoping to fool the Cylons into thinking two Battlestars are coming. On the surface, the resistance start their uprising by detonating several explosions to destroy critical infrastructures across the settlement. As Centurions are guarding the parked ships, ''Galactica'' jumps into the upper atmosphere, free-falling into the lower atmosphere to launch Vipers virtually on top of Centurion posts. ''Galactica'' jumps back into space, while the overall disturbance creates a distraction for the human survivors. The atmospheric free-fall causes considerable damage to ''Galactica''. Adama discovers that four Basestars are surrounding them, two more than previously anticipated.

The Cylons believe they have lost control of the situation and plan to evacuate in a Basestar then detonate a nuclear weapon in the settlement. They offer Gaius Baltar (James Callis) the chance to join them; however, Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) takes out a gun and threatens to kill him. With these two and Caprica-Six (Tricia Helfer) alone, Gaeta realises there is a nuke and tells Baltar he has one more chance to redeem himself by preventing it from being detonated. While searching for the bomb, Baltar and Caprica-Six find a crying Hera lying with her foster mother Maya (Erica Cerra), who was killed during the evacuation. D'anna also finds her and holds the baby in her arms. Caprica-Six persuades Baltar to allow this as D'Anna would no longer detonate the bomb once she found Hera. Anders breaks out the prisoners from the Cylon compound and finds Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), who rescues Kacey (Madeline Parker) from Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie) by killing him. At the same time, Laura Roslin leads forces that reclaim the abandoned ''Colonial One''.

''Galactica'' is overwhelmed by bombardment from the Basestars. As it is facing destruction, ''Pegasus'' makes a timely arrival, destroying a Basestar. Apollo, having disobeyed Adama's orders by bringing ''Pegasus'' into the fight, buys the crew of ''Galactica'' time to repair their faster-than-light (FTL) drives. In a last stand, Apollo evacuates ''Pegasus'' after setting a collision course with a Basestar. The ship rams into one, destroying both ships, with the debris causing the destruction of another Basestar. After the fleet is reunited, Starbuck prepares to announce Kacey as her daughter, but is dismayed to find another woman (Emilie Ullerup) recognising Kacey as her own daughter who was kidnapped by the Cylons. Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) learns from her aide Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) that Maya and Hera did not make it off the planet. A crowd gathers to celebrate Adama for rescuing them.

Lily is attempting to seek refuge amidst an apparent gender-based civil war in which men and women are systematically killing one another. On a rural road, she encounters men executing women by firing squad, and flees with her car into the woods, following an overgrown road. There, she encounters a flock of sheep gathered around their shepherd, who has hanged himself from a tree. She later comes across a group of women donning military gear and torturing a young man. She abandons her car, fleeing on foot, and falls asleep in a meadow, where she hears the flowers beneath her crying in pain. Moments later, she witnesses a brown unicorn pass by, followed by a woman on a horse, and a number of naked children who begin herding a pig.

Lily trails the man to an apparently abandoned château located beyond overgrowth on a hill. While exploring the house, she finds it fully furnished, but inhabited by numerous animals. Upstairs, she finds an elderly bedridden woman chastising her pet rat, Humphrey. The woman proceeds to attack Lily before contacting an unknown person on a transistor radio, making cruel observations of Lily's appearance and revealing details of how Lily arrived there that she should have no way of knowing. A number of alarm clocks inexplicably go off, and the old woman tries to strangle Lily. When Lily slaps her, the woman dies.

Outside, Lily's attention is diverted by a man singing in the garden. Via telepathy, he communicates to her that his name is also Lily. His sister, also named Lily whom Lily had mistaken for a man earlier, arrives on horseback. Lily attempts to explain to Brother and Sister Lily that their mother is dead, but they are impervious and refuse to speak to her. When she follows them upstairs, she witnesses the old woman return to life before Sister Lily breastfeeds her.

Brother and Sister lock Lily in the room with the old woman, sending Lily into a rage. While exploring the room, she eats a piece of cheese and looks through a photo album containing pictures of the old woman, whilst the old woman continues to make observations about her to the unknown person on the radio. To the old woman's anger, Lily looks out the window and again sees the unicorn. Lily climbs out the window and down the wall, and chases the unicorn around the sprawling property as it continuously eludes her. She is horrified when she stumbles upon the corpse of a female soldier. Brother picks the corpse up and buries it in a grave. The unicorn appears again, and Lily chases it until she trips over the pig and is set upon by the band of nude children. The unicorn once again appears to Lily, and tells her she is mean. The unicorn also tells Lily the old woman upstairs is not real.

In the house, Lily observes Sister serving the children dinner. Upstairs, Lily tries to comfort the old woman after another fight with Humphrey, and agrees to breastfeed her. Later, Lily plays ''Tristan und Isolde'' on the parlor piano. The children sing along, while Sister paints Brother's face and the two reenact the opera. At dawn, Lily finds the old woman has disappeared. A hawk flies into the house, which Brother decapitates with a sword. Brother and Sister then battle one another in the garden as Lily watches from the window. Brother beats Sister with a stick, and Sister bashes him in the face with a rock as sounds of gunfire emanate from the woods. Lily climbs into the old woman's empty bed and tries unsuccessfully to use the radio, after which a snake slithers onto the bed. Outside, a large crowd of sheep and turkeys surround the house. After falling asleep, Lily awakens to find the unicorn seated in front of the fireplace. Lily prepares to breastfeed the unicorn.

Johnnie Byrne, a cynical and burnt-out Yorkshire Labour MP, whose career has seemingly stalled due to his ostensibly leftist leanings, is re-elected with the victorious Labour Party after a general election. Bitter not to receive an invitation to join the Government, his left-wing wife leaves him, and he accepts an invitation to lead a conspiratorial group of MPs working against the centrist government. Mary, the single woman upstairs, adores him, but they never quite become a couple.

Johnnie falls in love with a 20-year-old student/model Pauline, and misses making an important speech against the Government's militaristic plans because he is in bed with her. His conspirators turn against him and cause his local party to attempt to deselect him. He suffers a humiliating vote of no-confidence at a meeting of his Constituency Labour Party, but is put on probation. He then goes in search of Pauline, who has ended their relationship, still in love, but knowing it is not the right relationship for her.

He goes back home, to find his wife who wants to try again, and she gives him her phone number to call if he decides he wants her back. Meantime the Prime Minister offers him a junior post, and reveals that the reason Johnnie was not offered one before was due to his wife's communist connections. Johnnie tears up the paper with his wife's phone number and embraces his role in government.

Tara is outgoing and impulsive and likes to write, while Elizabeth is shy, quiet and prefers writing poetry and also has to deal with an emotionally abusive father. Even so, they are best friends.

When Tara moves to Ohio, the girls continue their friendship through letters back and forth to each other. They have to do this by writing, because Elizabeth's father does not like Tara, and Tara's parents think it is expensive to talk on the phone. The letters detail the changes in their lives – Tara must cope with moving, making new friends and dealing with her mother's pregnancy, while Elizabeth's family begins to fall apart. Tara makes another best friend in Ohio, whose name is Hannah. Tara calls her Pal Indrome because her name is the same spelled backwards as forwards. It becomes her new nickname and everyone calls her "Pal". Tara also gets a boyfriend, Alex, who kisses her.

Elizabeth's father starts to scare her when he is coming home later than usual, drinking, and going overboard on his credit cards after he loses his job and has no money. Meanwhile Tara is making new friends, joining clubs and getting involved in school activities. When Elizabeth's family has to move to an apartment because of money problems, her dad decides to leave, and separates from her mother.

It is through their alternating letters that readers learn how Tara and Elizabeth grow and change – and how they keep their friendship strong, even if it is long-distance. This book shows how hard a friendship can be when a person can't see her friend, but suggests that for someone who truly cares about something and works hard for it, anything can happen.

After a year of snail mail following, long-distance friends Elizabeth Richardson and Tara*Starr Lane are ready for the more immediate gratification of e-mail. Because the emails take so little time to send, the two have an even closer relationship. Now in eighth grade, the girls send emails to each other about their fast-changing lives.

Tara* Starr is getting used to having a baby sister, Scarlett, in the house, who was born prematurely and becomes a source of worry to the family, and how a social studies project ruined her relationship with her boyfriend Bart. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's father has returned, to the disappointment of Elizabeth's entire family. However, the family is deeply affected when Elizabeth's father is caught in a fatal car crash. Elizabeth comes to realize that a chapter of her life has closed, but another is still beginning. In the process, the girls' friendship improves, despite their distance.

''Eleven Kids, One Summer'' continues the story of the children of the Rosso family as they summer on a beach on Fire Island. The story also reveals that the youngest child, who had yet to be born in the previous book, is a boy named Keegan according to Mrs. Rosso's naming scheme.

Each chapter entails a story featuring a child of the family as they find some sort of adventure during their vacation. The children are: Abigail (Abbie), Bainbridge, Calandra (Candy), Dagwood (Woody), Eberhard (Hardy), Faustine and Gardenia (Dinnie) (the twins), Hannah, Ira, Janthina (Jan) and Keegan.

Shirley Basini is in fourth grade. Her scholastic performance is poor because she is dyslexic (which is why the title spells "Truly" as "Turly"). Her disability makes reading difficult for her. She ends up struggling with feelings of inferiority and fears of disappointing her parents, especially since her older brother is intellectually gifted. To hide her inner anxieties, she horses around in class, much to the displeasure of her strict teacher. To add pressure to the situation, if she does not do well in school this year, she will probably be held back.

When Shirley's parents decide to adopt a Vietnamese baby boy as their own, Shirley is mildly happy that her parents' attention will no longer be focused upon her. When a mix up results in the possibility of having a slightly younger sister instead, Shirley becomes excited with the prospect of being able to teach and help someone learn how to speak English and help educate her about the American culture.

Shirley's new younger sister, "Jackie", soon becomes devoted to Shirley. Jackie is eager to learn from her older sister and they become fast friends. When Jackie ends up excelling in school and moves from the regular third grade class to an advanced one, Shirley begins to feel threatened and jealous. She fears that Jackie will no longer need her. For example, during a spelling bee Shirley is angered by the fact that Jackie can spell the required words, while Shirley struggles.

When she stops making an effort at school, an unexpected challenge arises in the two sisters' relationship and forces Shirley to come to terms with her role as Jackie's sister and beginning to understand her own strengths. With extra help from the school resource room, Shirley begins to succeed in school in her own way.

Eleanor Roosevelt Dingman (Ellie) is an 11-year-old girl who lives on Witch Tree Lane, in Spectacle, New York. Along with the other people who live on the street, she is hated by the other children in school. Holly and Ellie have been given a hard time by the popular girls in their school (the Sparrows), but since the recent death of the late president John F. Kennedy, it has temporarily stopped. Ellie's life is turned upside down when her mother, the self-proclaimed "Doris Day" Dingman, decides to go into show business. Overcome with grief for the newly widowed mother, Jackie Kennedy, Doris realizes that life is short; she goes to New York to "become established" and leaves her children and husband to fend for themselves.

Ellie discovers she has more power than she thinks and can change her life no matter what the situation. Doris's move to New York forces Ellie to take care of her family and deal with the absence of her already distant mother and a father who, though hard working and loving, is often absent. When Doris decides to move to Hollywood, Ellie has finally had enough. Ellie's father finds a better job with more pay and better hours, allowing him to spend more time with Ellie and her siblings.

The novel revisits ''The Doll People'' protagonists Annabelle Doll and Tiffany Funcraft as they get into trouble trying to hide from their owner, Kate Palmer. They hide in her backpack and get taken to school. There, they explore and eventually get into a backpack they think is Kate's. It turns out it is really the backpack of a different child, named BJ. The dolls are taken to BJ's house where they meet Waterfall, Melody, Yvonne, Penny, and Beth, the toys of BJ's sister. The dolls there are being terrorized by a doll named Princess Mimi (called by the toys Mean Mimi). Mean Mimi tries to boss them around too, but Annabelle and Tiffany escape back into BJ's backpack. They plan to return to school and get back into Kate's backpack and then home to their worried families. They are unaware that Mean Mimi has followed them.

At the Palmers' house, Mimi pretends to cry and tricks the Dolls and the Funcrafts into letting her stay with them. What they do not know is that Mimi is trying to torture them, too. Mimi tries to wake up Kate so she will know about the mess she made and blame the Annabelle and Tiffany. Nora, Kate's little sister, sees Mean Mimi jump off Kate's bookshelf in a stunt to expose the life of the other dolls. Due to this, Mimi goes into Permanent Doll State, which causes dolls to be unable to return to life due to their risk to all dollkind. The story concludes with Mean Mimi, still in Permanent Doll State, being taken back to Kate's school where she ends up in the lost and found.

Part 1

Squirrel is a mixed-breed dog who lives in a shed behind the summer home of a wealthy family, there, she lives with her mother, Stream, and brother, Bone. Squirrel and Bone were the only two puppies to survive out of a litter of five. While living in the shed, Their mother teaches Squirrel and Bone how to hunt and find food, as well as to avoid being seen by humans. When Stream dies suddenly, Squirrel and Bone set out on their own. Bone is very adventurous and Squirrel follows him through the woods and from town to town in search of food and shelter. The puppies are eventually picked up by highway travelers named Marcy and George who consider adopting them. They take them home for the night before George decides not to keep the dogs and throws them out of a car window in a mall parking lot. Squirrel and Bone are injured and Bone is taken away by other shoppers immediately after being tossed from the car, leaving Squirrel alone. Squirrel and Bone never see each other again.

Part 2

Alone and hungry, Squirrel meets another female stray, Moon, by the road. The two dogs became fast friends together for warmth and searching for food in garbage cans and trash in the woods.

Part 3

One day, a truck hits Moon and kills her. An animal across the road made them run and scared squirrel. They were trying to get to the other side. Squirrel and Moon are taken to the vet by the family who hit them. There, the veterinarian announces that Moon died, and Squirrel's leg is broken by the truck. Squirrel is by herself, again. Squirrel is spayed and her broken leg is treated. She is renamed Daisy and is adopted by the family for the summer. Squirrel lives in the garage and plays with the family's children every day. In the autumn, the family leaves their summer home and Squirrel is abandoned. She wanders for years until she finds herself back at the mall parking lot where she and Bone were separated. Squirrel follows a scent that reminds her of Bone through the woods, but she does not find him...

Part 4

Squirrel, now an old dog, takes cover from the weather in a shed in the back yard of an old woman named Susan. Squirrel tries to gain Susan's trust. Susan also tries to gain Squirrel's trust by leaving food out and feeding Squirrel on the porch before Susan tries to coax Squirrel in when the weather turns cold. Susan had a dog named Maxie in the past, so she knew how to take care of dogs. When she finally gets Squirrel inside, Susan decides to keep her and renames her "Addie." Susan and Squirrel spend their days running errands in town and cuddling up on the couch. The two spend the rest of their lives together.

The central character, Kamilla Whitlock, who is known as "Kammy" or "Kams" lives with her father, Robert Whitlock, and a housekeeper named Andrew Croswell, in a sleepy east coast town. Kammy's mother Annie died in a car crash when Kammy was four. Eight years later, her father has remarried. His new wife, Kate, who is nineteen years younger than he is, has a three-year-old daughter named Muffin and an unnamed son called Baby Boy. There are conflicts, and Kammy's father and stepmother offer to send her to summer camp at Camp Arrowhead. Kamilla is reluctant but ends up going anyway. While she is at camp, she meets new friends. One of her best friends is Emily, a girl that has been to the camp a few years. She also unfortunately meets a new archenemy, Susie, who considers herself "Miss Perfect," and tries to outstrip everything that Kammy does. But Susie alone can't ruin Kammy's summer-her summer turns out to not be so bad after all.

The pre-credits sequence begins in Nottinghamshire, England 1192, with the character Allan-a-Dale being caught poaching deer by mounted soldiers. The leader of the group threatens to cut off Allan-a-Dale's hand, in response Alan pleads that he has a pregnant wife to feed. As the soldiers prepare to remove a finger (to which Allan-a-Dale had agreed in return for not being arrested) Robin stops them by shooting arrows around the hand of the man holding the axe. He then convinces the men that he has them surrounded. However, after they begin to leave, Much (Robin's best friend and former man servant) comes out of hiding, and from his taunts the soldiers realise there are only the two opponents. The pair proceed to run for their lives.

After the opening credits, Robin and Much jump into a covered hole underneath a tree, before they come out of hiding. The two walk off, thinking back to their time in the Holy Land. They meet a weaver, and Robin decides to spend some time working for him. However, Robin is seduced by his daughter, and Much attempts to distract the weaver to no avail. The weaver and Robin fight before he escapes again.

The duo finally arrive at Locksley. They meet Dan Scarlett, also a carpenter, who "built half of Locksley". He explains how he chose to have his hand cut off to protect his two sons, who had been caught stealing. Sir Guy of Gisborne, the current ruler of the area, arrives, where Robin announces his return. Robin makes himself at home once more and proclaims Much a free man after his bravery in the Crusades. Much has something to eat and a bath, but soon gets out when Robin tells him he is off to visit the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Robin and Much receive a hostile reception from the former sheriff, Edward. They learn he is no longer Sheriff, and he and his daughter, Marian, tell them to leave. Robin finally arrives at the castle and sees no one has enough money for Wednesday market. He confronts the Sheriff at the Council and suggests that he abolish taxes, though the Sheriff bites back. Robin also learns the Carpenter's sons, Will and Luke Scarlett, have been caught stealing once more. Robin enters the dungeons to learn they will be hanged, and also meets Allan again, exposed as lying about his wife. Robin meets Edward secretly at night, learning how Prince John appointed the new Sheriff, and is also warned not to interfere.

The next day, the brothers and Allan are due to be hanged, and Robin has to read out their sentence. In case he reneges, the Sheriff also has Much held by two soldiers at a great height. A priest interferes by saying he and the Bishop are protecting the men by invoking the benefit of clergy, but is revealed to be a friend of Robin's, a juggler and a performer that Robin had asked to come and help, and the Sheriff promptly orders his arrest. With the men dangling and his plan failed, Robin finally realises what to do, kicking down a soldier and cutting the ropes with their arrows. He also throws a sword to free Much. A soldier attempts to kill Robin, but Marian throws one of her hair pins at him, though only Robin notices. Robin, Will, Much, Allan and the juggler escape on horseback, where it cuts to Sherwood Forest. Allan and Will join Robin and Much as part of Robin's gang. Will goes to get some kindling. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, where Robin, Much and Allan are confronted by Little John and his men.

Michael Martin Plunkett is a child genius who comes from a broken home: His father is a hustler and his mother is an alcoholic and drug addict who engages in a series of one-night stands. After his parents divorce, Plunkett takes solace in a series of disturbing fantasies in which he re-assembles his classmates' body parts. The fantasies lead Plunkett to becoming a peeping Tom, and from the time he is seven until he turns eleven, he spends all of his free time spying on his neighbors and observing people having intercourse. Before he can graduate junior high, Plunkett's teachers, having noticed his withdrawn nature in class, send him to the school psychologist, who identifies Plunkett as disturbed but nonetheless passes him to high school after Plunkett emotionally manipulates him into a fit of rage.

In high school, Plunkett, now realizing that there is something different about himself after his session with the school psychologist, seeks out some means of grounding himself psychologically. He becomes obsessed with a series of comic books and fixates on the main villain, "Shroud Shifter," a jewel thief obsessed with becoming invisible. Plunkett comes to the conclusion that his own goal should become "invisibility" in the sense that he can move through life as nondescript as possible.

Plunkett steals from his mother to finance a series of wardrobes which will allow him to blend in with as diverse a number of people as possible; she punishes him, and in retribution, he switches her muscle relaxers with massive quantities of amphetamines. She suffers a psychotic break and slits her wrists; Plunkett drinks her blood and then calls an ambulance, reporting the suicide. He is placed in the foster care of an LAPD officer, whom Plunkett sets about manipulating in order to gain knowledge of how to become a good criminal. He begins committing a series of fetishistic burglaries in which he breaks into women's homes, kills their pets, and steals from them after watching them engage in intercourse.

Following the Tate/LaBianca Murders, Plunkett attempts to meet Charles Manson, only to improperly identify a generic hippie as Manson and break into an apartment where he is having sex. The hippie apprehends Plunkett, and Plunkett is sentenced to a year in prison.

In prison, Plunkett works to perfect his body while studying under other criminals and learning their techniques. Doing janitorial work as a trusty, he encounters the recently incarcerated Manson; furious that the rambling, barely coherent Manson is being held up as a paragon of evil, Plunkett resolves that upon his release he will become the kind of killer truly worthy of that distinction.

Upon his release from prison, Plunkett delves further into his fantasy life, which begins to spill over into his waking life as Shroud Shifter appears to him in a series of schizophrenic visions, encouraging him to commit more violent crimes. Finally, one night, Plunkett abruptly lashes out and kills a girl and her boyfriend who had invited him to their apartment to smoke marijuana. Plunkett successfully covers up his crime by making the murder appear to be the work of drug dealers; now fully entrenched in a version of his fantasy life that overlaps with reality, Plunkett embarks on a road trip across the western United States, picking up hitch hikers and brutally mutilating and murdering them, then selling their belongings to fences to finance his lifestyle.

As time progresses and his body count rises, Plunkett perfects his techniques, outfitting a Dodge van with a series of hidden compartments and living amenities so that it can act as both his mobile home and murder factory.

After hastily killing a man in the snow, Plunkett is apprehended by Wisconsin State Police Sergeant Ross Anderson, who reveals himself to be a serial killer responsible for three (later seven) brutal rape/murders of young coeds. Anderson and Plunkett become romantically involved and Anderson uses his influence to protect Plunkett as his own murders increase in number and brutality.

FBI agent Thomas Dusenberg is tasked with identifying and apprehending Anderson and Plunkett. He eventually captures Anderson, who gives up Plunkett in exchange for immunity from the death penalty. After Plunkett sees his own photo on wanted posters, he reasons—using a chain of paranoid logic—that Anderson's family identified him as a serial killer. Plunkett goes to Anderson's house, where he violently mutilates and murders his entire family. In the course of killing the last member of Anderson's family, Plunkett experiences a moment of lucidity during which he realizes that Anderson's family had no role in his being identified. Plunkett nevertheless desecrates all of Anderson's family's corpses, then goes to a motel where he identifies himself to the manager and waits to be turned in.

Eventually, Dusenberg arrives with a strike team, and Plunkett surrenders. He only confesses to crimes in non-death-penalty states, assuring via an immunity deal that he will never be executed. He is sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, and placed into solitary confinement in Sing Sing Prison. Remaining in a catatonic state for an extended period of time, he finally breaks his silence by contacting a publisher and asking for assistance writing his memoirs (which make up the bulk of the novel).

Dusenberg, troubled by Plunkett's motiveless murders, seeks solace in his family, only to discover that his wife has been having an affair. When he confronts her about it, she attempts to rationalize it before begging for forgiveness, all the while attempting to shift blame off of herself. Dusenberg sells his diary to Plunkett's agent for use in Plunkett's book, then commits suicide, leaving his entire estate to his children.

In Sing Sing, Plunkett finishes his memoirs. Believing that he has reached the pinnacle of human existence, and robbed of further murder opportunities, he announces his intention to commit suicide by using his mental prowess to will himself into a state of brain death.

Han, a young runaway, and Chang, an over-the-top teen, are close friends. Chang is a foulmouthed, womanizer while Han is a quiet and humble virgin. As they venture into the streets of Garibong-dong and jump from apartment to apartment, they encounter a young hooker, Lan, and Seri, a paint-sniffing young woman who finds comfort in the hands of Han. And this forms the unlikely group of teenagers facing the hardships of street life.

In 1960, in the aftermath of the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, uninvited guests interrupt the wedding ceremony between Nozawa, a journalist and former student radical of the 1950s, and Reiko, a current activist. They accuse the couple and assembled guests of forgetting their political commitments, invoking a tortured exploration of unresolved conflicts of a decade ago, when they were swept up in the student demonstrations. In flashbacks, personal and political wounds are reopened, focused on Nozawa's subjective experiences in both 1950 and 1960. Two characters, one dead by suicide, the other now a Stalinist politician, are the subject of greatest scrutiny. The memory of Takao, a young student who committed suicide after letting a "spy" free, is reconstructed as a criticism of the authoritarian leadership of the Zengakuren of 1950. Nakayawa, former student leader now Communist functionary, is castigated for his role in the tragedy and his possession of Misako, a much desired female student. Other forgotten comrades from 1950 and fresh from the bloody demonstrations of 1960 are invoked as political and personal challenges. In the end, night and fog envelops the guests as they stand immobile to the stilted speech of the unchanged Nakayawa: memory has been invoked, but it is unclear whether or not anything has changed.

The book begins in 1539, after the death of King Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour. Henry is looking for a new wife and chooses Anne of Cleves, daughter of John III, Duke of Cleves, whom he has only seen from portraits sent to him by her brother, a minor duke.

Jane Rochford is summoned to court by the Duke of Norfolk to be a lady-in-waiting at the court of King Henry VIII. Jane has unpleasant memories of court, because she is the widow of George Boleyn and sister-in-law to Henry VIII's second wife, Anne. George and Anne Boleyn were both executed in 1536 for "adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King."

Katherine Howard is a fourteen-year-old girl (the cousin of Anne Boleyn) living with her grandmother at Lambeth Palace, where she has grown accustomed to a lax, licentious lifestyle. She has taken a lover, Francis Dereham, and the two have sworn to be married. Katherine's uncle informs her that she will go to court if she can behave herself and she swears to herself not to let anything, including Francis, get in her way of success of the throne.

Anne, who has heard of the fates of her predecessors, is not sure about being the queen of England but is eager to leave her family, as nobody really cares for her. Her arrival in England goes well until she is surprised by a drunken man (actually Henry VIII in disguise), who plants a sloppy kiss on her; she responds with an angry shove and curses him in German. Although she tries to make amends once she is aware of his identity, the King holds a grudge for the duration of their marriage because of this. Henry is also put off by Anne's looks, since her German style of dress is bulky and unflattering, and she physically seems to appear nothing like her portrait. Despite his misgivings, Henry goes ahead with the marriage, but he is already looking for a way out. Anne is at a great disadvantage during the first months of her new life as she hardly speaks any English or Latin, the diplomatic language of the time. Due to her strict religious upbringing, she has not been taught how to play an instrument, sing or dance, and her mother has not made her aware of the facts of life. Despite this, Anne quickly befriends Jane Rochford, who is one of her ladies-in-waiting. Jane is as surprised as anyone at Anne's plain appearance and ill proficiency at English, but Anne is an honest, sweet young woman who wins over the English people, if not her husband. She makes an effort to befriend Prince Edward, and the princesses Elizabeth and Mary, even when it enrages her husband, and makes a point to learn as much English as possible. A few months after their wedding, Henry decides to rid himself of his new wife. Fearing for her life, Anne agrees to sign an annulment saying that she was previously betrothed to Francis of Lorraine and that her wedding was not consummated. She is given the title "Princess" and receives land, money, and the treatment reserved for the king's own sister.

Meanwhile, Henry has noticed the beautiful fourteen-year-old Katherine "Kitty" Howard, who has becomes one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, thanks to her uncle, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Infatuated, Henry quickly divorces Anne and marries Katherine, his "rose without a thorn". Katherine has, in turn, fallen in love with one of the king's favourite courtiers, Thomas Culpepper. At first, Katherine enjoys the perks of being a queen but finds the condescension of her stepdaughter, Mary, irritating. (Mary is almost ten years older than she is and finds her frivolous). However, she quickly becomes aware of the drawbacks of being married to the King. Henry is no longer young and handsome; he is nearly 50 years old (her grandfather's age), weighs approximately 300 pounds, and has a festering ulcer on his thigh that permanently weeps pus and blood. Katherine's infatuation for Thomas Culpepper becomes harder and harder to hide. Encouraged by the Duke of Norfolk and Jane Rochford, who want Katherine to bear a child for the king (whom they now believe to be completely impotent), she begins an affair with the young courtier.

However, young Katherine's life goes wrong when her past returns to haunt her in the shape of her former betrothed Francis Dereham, who arrives, sent by her grandmother, who asks that he be given a post in her household. She agrees but does not like him being so close. When her affair with Culpepper is exposed by her family's enemies, her friends and family desert her to avoid being implicated too and her previous affairs are used as further evidence of adultery (which is now a treasonous offence). Although Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, tries to help her by telling her to confess that she was engaged to Dereham, making her marriage invalid. Katherine is now so frightened and hysterical that she cannot understand him and continues to state that there was no engagement. She is found guilty of adultery and treason and is executed at only sixteen, along with her beloved Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham. Jane tries desperately to get out of execution by feigning insanity but cannot escape the king's wrath this time. Henry changes the law so that anyone guilty of treason can be executed, mad or not. Jane is found guilty and is beheaded along with Katherine. Anne of Cleves, after being cleared of any blame, remains in her new home in England and outlives not only her supplanter, but Henry himself.

''Waiter'' tells the story of Edgar (Alex van Warmerdam), a waiter with a flair for the unfortunate. His wife, Ilse (Sylvia Poorta) is sick is overly rude to him. Customers at work constantly bully him and his neighbors make his life impossible. Fed up with the way his life is going, Edgar goes to the house of Herman (Mark Rietman), the scriptwriter who invented Edgar and is currently writing his story. Edgar complains about the events in his life that keep getting worse and begs for some positive events in his life, including a decent girlfriend. Herman decides to create Stella (Line Van Wambeke), but soon Edgar realizes that Stella will only complicate his life more. Meanwhile Edgar is pestered by his pushy girlfriend Victoria (Ariane Schluter), who constantly tries to be with him. Driven to insanity by Herman and his obnoxious girlfriend Suzie (Thekla Reuten), Edgar constantly tries to interfere with his story. Herman decides to make the story more extreme and violent and finally ends the story out of desperation with Edgar's death.

Fatty is the head chef at the "Bull Pup" restaurant where Keaton serves as the head waiter. One evening while service is in full flow Keaton and Fatty entertain the crowd with their dancing (despite breaking most of the plates and bottles in the restaurant in the process). The fun is soon spoiled when a vagrant (St. John), referred to as "Holdup Man" in the film's credits, comes in and begins ruining everyone's good time and dancing with the waitress (Alice Lake) against her will. Fatty, Keaton and the manager are no match for Holdup Man but he is subsequently scared off by Luke, Fatty's dog. Later, Fatty and Keaton join a pair of gentlemen in the restaurant for a big plate of spaghetti, not being able to replicate the correct way of eating it they resort to their own methods of eating one string at a time and cutting the pasta with scissors to make it shorter.

The next day Fatty plans a fishing trip with Luke while Keaton simultaneously takes the waitress on a date to the amusement park. Fatty takes a shortcut through the park and knocks several people out with his exceptionally long fishing rod before arriving on the beach. The waitress gets separated from Keaton and is chased around the park by Holdup Man and ends up falling off the top of a roller coaster, falling into the sea. Holdup man is chased off by Luke yet again and Fatty and Keaton attempt to rescue the waitress but find that the key to a flotation device is "in a courthouse one mile east". Acting fast, they grab a rope to throw to the waitress but Keaton falls off the pier still holding the rope and drags Fatty in with him.

During a field trip in a museum exhibit about the human body, 6-year old Ian Alston is found to have bloody diarrhea. Meanwhile, at charity Casino Night at Princeton-Plainsboro, House, Wilson, and Cuddy are engaged in a game of Texas hold 'em poker when Cuddy receives the news about her new patient. She dismisses it as dehydration and gastroenteritis, but House, recognizing the symptoms and thinking this could be more than what she suggested, decides to drop out of the game (folding a pair of Aces to Cuddy's bluff) and take the case behind her back.

With his suspicion, House tests Ian's coordination by asking him to reach out and grab his cane, which takes Ian multiple grasps until he actually touches the cane. House concludes Ian has ataxia and begins to assume Ian has the same disease as a former patient from 12 years ago, 73-year old Esther Doyle, who died under House's care and was never correctly diagnosed. House then drags Cameron, Foreman, and Chase out of the party to perform a differential diagnosis. Drawing up a list of all of Esther's symptoms, House is able to predict what will happen to Ian next, as well as how long it will take him to get there.

House first suspects it is Erdheim–Chester disease and orders a colonoscopy, but tests are negative. House, knowing the next symptom that will develop is kidney damage, orders a kidney biopsy, which turns out to be negative. The rest of the team, annoyed, tell House that all Ian has is a stomachache due to some bad food. But after discovering Ian's urine catheter bag full of brown urine, they realize that Ian's kidneys are indeed failing and that they are already far too damaged to be saved. The team is forced to do another differential diagnosis, however many of the diseases proposed, House already tested for 12 years ago.

Next the team postulates it is lymphoma and tries more tests. To keep Cuddy busy and off the case, House calls Wilson and has him stall her in the poker game. However, tests are negative for lymphoma. Unable to determine what disease afflicts the two people, House orders immediate treatment to protect Ian's liver, which was the next symptom Esther developed. His plan succeeds and Ian does not develop liver damage, but instead skips the next two symptoms and goes into respiratory distress.

Thinking it could be cancer, House includes Wilson in the differential. Wilson suggests Kawasaki disease, but before the team begins tests, they discover a mass in his heart. Postulating that Ian, being younger than Esther, has a stronger immune system and can last longer while under assault from this unknown disease, House orders a heart biopsy on Ian. Wilson, recognizing House's ongoing grapple with Esther's case, warns him not to become obsessed, using Moby Dick as an allusion.

During the biopsy, as House collects the sample from Ian's heart, the catheter induces cardiac arrest in Ian, prompting an enraged Cuddy to pull House off the case and ban him and his team from performing any more tests on Ian. However, House refuses to give up, stating that they still have the mass obtained from the biopsy and can perform the tests on that.

The team suggests seven likely diseases, but only has enough tumor mass to perform three tests. First the team tests for Histiocytosis, but it is negative. Next they test for Tuberous sclerosis but that is negative also. Desperate and with only one remaining test, House wanders the hospital trying to think of his next move, when he hears from Wilson that he won the poker tournament. Wilson won only because he had kept his hole cards, two aces, hidden the entire game, prompting House to have an epiphany. He realizes that the disease also remained a secret until the end because they biopsied the colon before the disease had reached the Gastrointestinal tract.

House then orders his team to perform the final test on the first disease suggested: Erdheim–Chester disease. In dismay, the team pleads, telling him they cannot waste their sample on a test for a disease they know he's negative for. House explains his reasoning about the disease not reaching the GI tract and orders the test anyway. The once-skeptical team is pleased when the test turns out positive, Ian is saved, and House finally discovers what killed Esther. The episode ends with House and Wilson playing poker and joking as they did in the beginning of the episode.

Originally titled ''New Orleans Frolic'', the story centers around Margie (played by Marjorie White), a singer on a showboat who, when she hears that the showboat is in financial trouble, travels to New York City in an effort to persuade all the boat's former stars to perform in a show to rescue it. She is successful and the stars all fly to New Orleans to surprise the showboat's owner, Colonel Billy Blacher, with a grand show, the proceeds of which will go to rescue the showboat.

Catalina (María Adelaida Puerta) is a young, beautiful girl living in extreme poverty with her brother, Bayron (Andrés Toro) and her mother, Hilda (Patricia Ércole), in Pereira, Colombia. Catalina becomes obsessed with getting breast implants in order to escape poverty and gain social status and money. She abandons her boyfriend, Albeiro (Nicolas Rincón) and, is guided by her best friend, Yésica (Sandra Beltrán), a ruthless pimp who has also involved Catalina's friends into the business, Ximena, Paola and Vanesa, to get to drug traffickers who pay for sexual services.

As the story progresses, Catalina becomes obsessed with gaining more and more money. She even puts her life, Yésica's life and her mother's life in jeopardy by threatening a prominent drug dealer, Titi (Marlon Moreno) that she would snitch on him. Eventually Catalina marries Marcial Barrera (Fabio Restrepo), another drug trafficker and starts a life full of luxury, corruption, bribing and killings. Her brother Byron has strayed as well, having become a hitman. Meanwhile, her former boyfriend Albeiro and her mother Hilda, apparently the only characters in the story that keep their integrity up to the end, start a relationship behind her back. Catalina has lost her integrity entirely by treating otherwise atrocious actions (paid murders, blackmailing, bribing) as casual events needed to gain status and money.

Catalina snitches Titi to the Police in order to earn the $1 million award and prepares to leave Marcial as soon as he secures a financial support for her in his will. However she faces serious implications from her low quality breast implants, undergoes several surgeries to replace them and she is eventually obliged to remove them, having been warned that she will die unless she abandons all the breast implant business for at least two years. Yésica, realizing that Marcial will soon get bored of Catalina, takes the opportunity and betrays her, getting romantically involved with Marcial herself. She eventually persuades Marcial to marry her and abandon Catalina without money.

At the end, Catalina realizes how miserable her life is since she became a call-girl. The fact that her ex-boyfriend Albeiro and her Mother were having a relationship behind her back, the death of her brother Byron (who was shot down by the police after having murdered a target as a hired killer), the loss of her implants, her kicking out of Marcial's home and the betrayal of her best friend, Yésica, all these events cause Catalina to lose the will to live, and, not having the courage to commit suicide, she decides to seek revenge and kill Yésica for betraying her. She hires killers to murder Yésica by inviting her to a café and giving them directions that Yésica is dressed a certain way and sitting at a table by herself reading a book. The killers kill the girl by shooting her, later to be shown that the girl killed is actually Catalina, who had a change of mind and she instead decided to plot her own assassination by disguising herself as Yésica. The story ends with a somewhat more mourning form of the title song, "El Agujero".

In 1905 William Crichton is the efficient butler in the London household of the Earl of Loam and his family. Crichton knows his place in the highly class-conscious English society. The Earl insists that all men are equal, and to prove it, he orders his daughters to treat the staff as guests during an uncomfortable afternoon tea. Lady Brocklehurst arrives and strongly disapproves of the arrangement, as does Crichton.

When Lady Catherine (Mercy Haystead), one of the Earl's daughters, is arrested at a suffragette protest, Crichton recommends the family take a trip on the Earl's steam yacht to the South Seas until the scandal dies down. When the yacht's motors explode during a storm, all are forced to abandon ship. By the time Crichton rescues the still sleeping "tweeny" maid Eliza, the lifeboats have already departed. They jump into the water and are picked up by the wrong boat, the one reserved for the upper class.

Crichton, Eliza, the Earl, his daughters Mary, Catherine and Agatha (Miranda Connell), the clergyman John Treherne and Ernest Woolley land on a deserted island. The aristocrats prove to be helpless in their strange new surroundings. It is up to Crichton to start a fire, provide shelter and find food.

When the abandoned yacht appears and drifts into an offshore rock formation, Crichton swims out to salvage what he can. Upon his return, the others order him to pick up unnecessary luxuries rather than vital supplies on his next trip. He reluctantly complies, but at dinner, he insists he must take charge. The Earl instead discharges him. Eliza throws in her lot with Crichton, and the two depart. The Earl and his party soon realise that they cannot do without Crichton and capitulate, Mary being the sole exception. She is eventually forced to give in as well.

After two years, the social order has been completely upended: Crichton, now affectionately known as "the Guv", is in charge, while his former betters are his servants. In fact, the aristocrats have toughened up admirably and are quite content with their lot. Romantically, the situation is in disarray, as everyone waits to see whether Crichton will choose Mary or "Tweeny" (as Eliza is now called), both of whom are deeply in love with him. All three of the other men are smitten with Tweeny.

Finally, Crichton chooses Mary. However, just as they are exchanging wedding vows, a ship is sighted. Mary begs the others not to light a signal fire, reminding them how happy they have been on the island, but in the end, Crichton does so. When a rescue party lands, he has put on his butler's uniform and resumed his servile duties, much to the discomfort of the others.

The castaways return to London. Woolley writes a book of their experiences, one that portrays him as the saviour of the group. Lady Brocklehurst, suspecting that the work is full of lies, insists on questioning all of the party privately. Crichton tells the truth, but in such a way as to conceal everything. After Lady Brocklehurst leaves, Crichton tenders his resignation. When the Earl offers financial assistance for his plan to start a business, Crichton shows him a bag of valuable pearls acquired whilst on the island. Mary begs him to return there with her, but Crichton tells her they cannot fight civilisation. Tweeny offers to go with him, and is ecstatic when he accepts.

Spoiled socialite Doris Worthington (Lombard) is sailing the Pacific with her friend Edith (Merman) and her Uncle Hubert (Errol), while being courted by Prince Michael (Milland) and Prince Alexander (Henry). She is bored, however, and finds entertainment in verbal sparring with one of the sailors, Stephen Jones (Crosby). During one of their battles, Doris slaps Stephen, who retaliates by kissing her and gets fired. In a drunken accident, Uncle Hubert runs the yacht onto a reef in the fog. Stephen rescues the unconscious Doris as the others flee the capsized ship, and everyone makes it to the tropical island although the princes claim credit for Doris's rescue. Unfortunately, the only person with any survival skills is Stephen, and the socialites are quick to demand that he gather food and build shelter. Stephen attempts to divide up the work but the haughty passengers snub his leadership so he fends for himself. The smells from Stephen's dinner of mussels and coconuts soon entice the hungry passengers to gather their own food; all except Doris, who tricks Stephen to get his food and gets slapped in turn. The group is forced to cooperate, although Doris remains indignant and infuriated.

Doris discovers that there are other people on the island when she falls prey to a lion trap in the jungle: zany Gracie (Allen) and scientific husband George (Burns) live on the other side of the not-so-deserted isle. She refuses their offer to stay in favor of getting even with Stephen. Doris arranges for some tools and clothes to float past Stephen, who is elated at his "discovery" and quickly builds a house. The couple admit their love that evening but feel mismatched.

Two rescue boats arrive. In the hubbub, Stephen finds out that the clothes and tools came from Doris and is angry at being the butt of the joke. Stephen takes a different boat than Doris. As Doris watches the princes resume their womanizing ways on board ship, she realizes she misses Stephen. She changes ships to join him, for better or for worse.

The events of ''The Bastard Prince'' span a period of approximately six months, from late May to late December of 928. The novel begins after the invasion of Prince Marek Furstán-Festil, the bastard child of the last Deryni ruler of Gwynedd, King Imre, and his sister, Princess Ariella. Supported by his Torenthi relatives, Marek has occupied the town of Culliecairn and slain Earl Hrorik II of Eastmarch. Word of the invasion is quickly sent to Rhemuth, where King Rhys Michael Haldane has spent the first six years of his reign as an imprisoned puppet of his lords of state. When a Torenthi herald arrives at Rhemuth to challenge the king, the great lords realize that they must permit Rhys Michael to go to Eastmarch and personally respond to the invasion.

Disguised as one of Queen Michaela's serving maids, Rhysel Thuryn quickly learns of the king's plans to accompany his army to Eastmarch. Rhysel meets with members of the Camberian Council and attempts to convince them to activate the king's Haldane potential before he leaves the following day. Despite his own objections, Father Joram MacRorie, Rhysel's uncle, eventually agrees to her plan. That night, Joram and Tieg Thuryn, Rhysel's brother, infiltrate the castle and meet with the king. Tieg unblocks the Deryni powers of both Michaela and her brother, Sir Cathan Drummond, and Michaela then assists Tieg, Rhysel, and Joram in activating Rhys Michael's arcane powers. After the ritual, Joram and Tieg capture Master Dimitri, a Torenthi Deryni collaborator who has been working for the great lords. The Camberian Council alters Dimitri's mind with their own set of commands before returning him to Rhemuth.

The next day, Rhys Michael departs the capital with army, accompanied by Cathan, Earl Manfred MacInnis, Earl Rhun von Horthy, Lord Albertus, and Father Paulin Sinclair. Before departing the city, Constable Udaut is killed when Dimitri secretly uses his powers to spook Udaut's horse. Later on the journey, a swarm of bees mysteriously attacks the royal party and nearly kills Albertus. Several days later, Albertus questions Rhys Michael about the incidents, concerned about the rumored magical powers of the Haldane family. He orders Dimitri to probe the king's mind, but the Deryni is still under the compulsions of the Camberian Council. To protect the king, Dimitri kills Albertus and later allows himself to be implicated in the death. When Paulin attempts to confine Dimitri, he lashes out with his powers and destroys Paulin's mind before being overcome. Dimitri is tortured for several hours before he is killed by a mental death-trigger in his own mind.

The royal army arrives at Lochalyn the next day, where it is joined by the levies of Duke Graham of Claibourne, Earl Sighere of Marley, and Earl Corban Howell of Eastmarch. In a private conversation, Lady Sudrey, Hrorik's Deryni widow, offers Rhys Michael her support and the use of her limited powers. The following morning, Rhys Michael agrees to meet with Prince Miklos of Torenth, who claims to have led the invasion on Marek's behalf. Accompanied by Sudrey, the king parleys with Miklos briefly, but Miklos breaks the peace by attacking Sudrey. Rhys Michael uses his own powers to protect himself and kill Miklos, but Sudrey is killed in the battle and Rhys Michael is wounded when a horse steps on his hand. Afterwards, the king claims that it was Sudrey who used magic in the battle, and later realizes that Miklos' companion was actually Marek himself.

After Miklos' death, Marek withdraws his forces and returns to Torenth. Rhys Michael asks the northern lords to help him break free of the great lords, and Graham and Sighere agree to become Regents for the king's son, Prince Owain, if anything should happen to the king. Cathan prepares a codicil to the king's will, and all parties involved succeed in signing it without alerting Rhun or Manfred. The king departs for Rhemuth the next day, but the progress of the army is slowed by the worsening condition of his injury. The army is eventually forced to stop at Saint Ostrythe's Convent when the king becomes too ill to continue. Dom Queron Kinevan rushes to the king's side, but he does not arrive in time and Rhys Michael soon dies from poor medical treatment.

As the army returns to Rhemuth with Rhys Michael's body, the Camberian Council informs the northern lords of the king's death and offers their assistance in securing the rights of the new Regents. In Rhemuth, Cathan is drugged and imprisoned, but Michaela and Rhysel succeed in activating Owain's Haldane potential. Over the next several days, the northern lords ride toward Rhemuth, eventually arriving on the morning of Rhys Michael's funeral. Accompanied by Queron, Tieg, Ansel MacRorie, and a band of armed men, Graham and Sighere confront the great lords inside the royal tomb. Rhun kills Manfred and flees with Owain, while Earl Tammaron takes Michaela hostage. As Cathan pursues Rhun, Michaela uses her powers to slay Tammaron. Cathan catches Rhun atop a tower and the two engage in a brief fight before Rhun is killed.

Several months later, Michaela visits her husband's tomb in the royal crypt. Owain has been crowned as King of Gwynedd, and Cathan now serves on the Regency Council with her, Graham, and Sighere. Of the former Regents, only former Archbishop Hubert MacInnis remains alive, but he has been stripped of his office and imprisoned for his crimes. Although he did not live long enough to see it, Rhys Michael's actions succeeded in freeing the crown of Gwynedd for his heirs.

The story's main characters are a pair of casual paranormal researchers who are experimenting with the idea of astral projection. One night, one of them inadvertently succeeds in projecting his spirit from his body, which is then taken possession of by a malevolent entity in his absence. His partner receives a vivid sensation of him calling out for help and rushes to his residence, only to find him absent and the place in shambles. The researcher continues to search for his partner and learns that he has perpetrated a series of violent incidents around London. He seeks the aid of a medium, who channels his partner's spirit and finds that he has fallen down a well and subsequently been abandoned by the possessing entity. They locate the well and rescue him, after which he recounts the story of his possession.

''Fly Away Peter'' is an Australian novel set before and during the First World War. The first part of the novel is set on the Queensland Gold Coast, and the second part on the Western Front.

The central character of the novel is Jim Saddler, a self-contained young man with a profound understanding of the bird life of an estuary near his home. Ashley Crowther has recently inherited the farm which includes the estuary; despite the divide of class and experience, the two young men form a close bond when Ashley offers Jim a job as a warden, recording the comings and goings of birds in their 'sanctuary'. Jim also befriends Imogen, an older woman whose photography captures the beauty of the birds in the sanctuary; in particular the Sandpiper. This is an idyllic world of Sandpipers, plovers and ibises, but not without the seeds of change and disturbance.

When the First World War breaks out, Jim feels obliged to join up, and travels to the Western Front, where his unique and sensitive perception gives the reader a window to the horrific experience of trench warfare. Malouf's description of the all-consuming 'system' of war and the gruesome realities of living and dying at the front are gut-wrenching in their detail. After an uneventful arrival at the front, a shell lands unexpectedly among Jim's friends behind the lines. Jim is coated by the blood of his friend Clancy, who is blown out of existence. Subsequently a young recruit Eric loses both legs.

Jim sees many other friends die. He crosses paths with Ashley, who is an officer in a different division. He confronts his own sense of violence when assaulted by another man, Wizzer, who later dies in a shell-hole. He also sees the local farming communities trying to keep making their livelihood amid the mayhem, including an old man planting in the dirt of a blasted wood. Jim begins again to make a record of the crows as their barely interrupted migration patterns continue above the front.

At the end of the novel, the reader enter Jim's subjectivity as he goes 'over the top' in an attack, is wounded and dies of his wounds. His exact point of death is not made explicit; his journey out of life is dream-like and poetic.

On the Queensland coast Imogen grieves Jim's death, and reflects on the meaningless but beautiful continuity of life.

Dukie, Randy, Namond, Michael, Donut and Kenard discuss Lex's disappearance. Namond, Donut, and Kenard believe that Partlow is turning his victims into zombies. At school, Prez offers prizes to students who exhibit good behavior, while the most disruptive students get detention. Prez gives Michael and Namond detention for not attempting their work, and sends Namond to the office when he swears at Prez.

Colvin believes the students in the school can be split into two broad groups: the better-behaved "stoop kids" and the disruptive, street-acclimated "corner kids". Colvin believes that by accepting the latter into Parenti's in-school program, both groups could do better. After discussion with Grace Sampson and Dr. Parenti, Sampson suggests that the key is coming up with a program to benefit the corner kids. They encounter Namond in the halls on his way to the office and he swears at Parenti. Donnelly suggests that Colvin and Parenti begin with ten children.

Prez learns that Michael cannot make detention since he needs to walk Bug home, and tells him to talk to him if he is unable to make detention. Prez gives Dukie some of his lunch and a hall pass and change to get something to drink. When Dukie leaves the room, Crystal explains that Dukie is not wearing the new clothes Prez gave him because his family steals his possessions and sells them for drug money.

After school, Randy talks to Dukie about his fears of Partlow coming for him and confesses his role in Lex's murder. Dukie tries to convince Randy that Partlow is simply murdering his victims in the vacant rowhouses, explaining that he saw one killing from his bedroom window. Dukie takes Michael and Randy to one of the vacant buildings Partlow has used and shows them a body interred there. Randy is forced to face up to Partlow's victims being truly dead.

Politics

Major Stan Valchek visits Tommy Carcetti at his campaign offices. He gives Carcetti the news of Detective Norris being reassigned from the murdered witness case and replaced with homicide rookie Kima Greggs. After Valchek leaves, Carcetti discusses how to use the information with Norman Wilson and Theresa D'Agostino. Wilson suggests giving the story to Councilman Anthony Gray to allow him to press the mayor over the witness case and draw off more of his votes.

Mayor Clarence Royce shaves off his beard, hoping that a return to the image he wore when first elected will improve his polling. Royce's Chief of Staff Coleman Parker is impressed with the change of image.

Meanwhile, Carcetti campaigns hard, giving out fliers in the early morning. Wilson reports that Gray has accepted their offer for a meeting. At the meeting, Gray sees through their motives for giving him the information but decides to use it regardless, knowing that it will help him as well. Wilson tells Gray that at this point he cannot hope to win and should consider reconciling with Carcetti and gearing up for another position.

Royce has a strategy meeting but is interrupted by Parker, who has noticed the media reporting on the witness story. Royce angrily confronts Commissioner Ervin Burrell about this new problem from his department. Royce lists Burrell's problems and berates him for his overzealous efforts to slow the witness case, finally ordering him out of the office. With Burrell gone, Royce questions his deputy commissioner, William Rawls. Rawls claims that he is loyal to Burrell but knew he was making a mistake. He tells Royce that he could handle the pressure of Burrell's position. Royce then asks Rawls to make this incident go away, claiming he won't forget what Rawls has done.

Watkins confronts Royce over the mayor's use of multiple campaign tickets, with one ticket endorsing Eunetta Perkins and another endorsing Marla Daniels. Watkins also chides Royce for his decision making regarding the witness killing. After Royce stands firm, Watkins says he will sit out the election and storms out of the office. Royce declines to chase after Watkins, despite Parker's pleas to do so.

Rawls discovers that Watkins has broken from the mayor and tells Carcetti, who immediately goes to Watkins' office with Wilson to pitch for Watkins' support. Carcetti indicates that he would be more dependent on Watkins' help than Royce if elected, and declares that the polls are closer than Royce admits.

Western District

Lieutenant Charlie Marimow meets with Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman and Western district commander Major Cedric Daniels to discuss executing a series of warrants in the Western district. Daniels obligingly provides Marimow with the extra manpower he will require. Pearlman warns Marimow that he is wasting his wiretap on low-level targets that she will refuse to litigate against and refuses to accept responsibility for any mistakes he makes.

Marimow briefs his own men along with Daniels's DEU squad and flex squad and tries to convince them of the importance of the raids. After the briefing, Ellis Carver questions Thomas "Herc" Hauk about the logic of attempting street rips against Marlo Stanfield's people and advises Herc to take an interest in Royce's continued success because Royce will be unable to advance Herc's career unless he retains his position as mayor. Pearlman discusses her career with Daniels. With Marimow in charge of the major crimes unit and the subpoenas issued against Royce fundraisers, she has lost hope in her work and begins thinking where she can beg Demper to be reassigned.

Marimow's raids are disastrous: stash houses from the wiretap have long since moved and very few arrests are made. Marimow believes that the drug dealers are stupid and claims they must have been tipped off, and diverts the blame onto his sergeant by insisting that he find out more about Marlo. Carver steps in with some information about Marlo: he holds court in the same open area but otherwise moves around. Marimow tells Herc to come up with an investigative plan using this tip. Herc, Officer Kenneth Dozerman and Detective Leander Sydnor set up a concealed surveillance camera at Marlo's meeting place, but their efforts are noticed by a Stanfield soldier. Herc believes that the camera will build a case for them if they can find someone who can read lips to tell them what Marlo is saying and dismisses Sydnor's questions about the legality of the approach. Herc spends the morning making campaign calls for Royce. His direct approach has some success with the voters.

Stanfield Organization

Marlo and Chris discuss how to deal with Omar after his robbery of Marlo at a card game. Marlo wants to go straight after Omar through placing a bounty on him, but Chris reminds him of Avon Barksdale's failed efforts to track down Omar and convinces him that a subtle approach will be more likely to succeed and would prevent Omar from targeting them in return.

At their next meeting, Chris reports that Slim Charles approached him to organize a second meeting between Proposition Joe and Marlo. Old Face Andre arrives to talk to Marlo, who tells him that his store is going to be robbed again and instructs him to identify Omar as the culprit when reporting the crime to the police. Andre worries that Omar will seek revenge, but Marlo tells him Omar will not return from being arrested.

Chris later enacts the robbery of the store with Snoop, killing a delivery woman and pistol-whipping Andre before reminding him to blame Omar. Chris reports in to Marlo that the robbery was a success. Marlo tells him about the surveillance camera and asks him to take him to the meeting with Proposition Joe.

At the meeting, Joe tells him that he has a network of sources that provide him with information about activity on the street and within the justice system. He shows Marlo warrants for a drug kingpin named Charlie and is non-committal about helping him, since he is outside of the co-op. Marlo asks Joe about the video surveillance and finally agrees to work with the co-op in exchange for information about those investigating him.

Homicide

Bunk Moreland and Lester Freamon scour Baltimore for bodies they can tie to Marlo in the hope of finding Lex. They check with the coroner's office, in the sewers and Leakin Park. Freamon recalls coming to the park to look for a body as a cadet and being warned to only take an interest in bodies matching their description or they would spend all day finding various other bodies. When they return to the office empty-handed, Bunk convinces Freamon to turn his attention back to investigating real murders.

At the office, Detectives Ed Norris, Vernon Holley, Greggs, and Massey watch Gray talk about the witness case on television. Greggs is later called in to meet with Sergeant Jay Landsman. Landsman tells her that Norris is back on the Braddock witness case. Rawls plans to claim that Norris and Greggs were always working the case together. Greggs is dismayed that she is being humiliated a second time. Landsman tells Greggs that she must be more ready to play the political side of the spectrum now that she is in the high-profile Homicide unit. Finally, Landsman insists that Greggs must attend a press conference about the investigation.

Crutchfield and Holley catch the case of the woman murdered in Andre's store. When they interview Andre, he is quick to identify Omar.

Bubbles

Bubbles spots Sherrod working for a drug dealing crew and chastises him for truanting. Sherrod's customer takes exception to Bubbles's interruption and attacks him for his money. When Sherrod returns to their squat that night Bubbles tells him that must leave in the morning unless he attends school the next day.

Mohei is an apprentice to Ishun, the wealthy grand scroll-maker of Kyoto. Ishun makes nightly sexual forays into the maid Otama's room, but she resists his advances, despite offers of goods and property, claiming to be engaged to Mohei. Mohei refuses to go along with the deception and tells Otama to accept the rape because they are both there to serve the household. As two adulterers are paraded through the streets on their way to be crucified, Mohei proclaims that they should not have betrayed morality.

When Ishun's brother-in-law asks for a loan, Ishun's wife Osan, knowing Ishun will refuse, seeks help from Mohei. Mohei begins forging a receipt attempting to obtain a loan in Ishun's name, but is caught. Ishun threatens to summon the authorities, but Otama asks him to forgive them, claiming that it was she that had asked for the money. Ishun uses the opportunity to blackmail Otama to get rid of a romantic rival and unwanted employee. Ishun orders Mohei imprisoned and brought up on charges in the morning.

When Osan thanks Otama for trying to help, Otama informs her of Ishun's behavior. Hoping to confront him, Osan switches rooms with Otama for the night. To her surprise, Mohei, who has escaped, sneaks into the room to thank Otama before fleeing. Osan attempts to persuade Mohei into staying but the two are interrupted by Sukeyemon, the head clerk, who, having learned of Mohei's escape and attempting to alert the head of the household, had uncovered Otama instead.

Mohei is chased away, and Ishun encourages his wife to commit suicide to protect his name. Osan flees the house only to again encounter Mohei. They later discover that Ishun has alerted the police. However, Mohei is only charged for forgery, rather than adultery, as Ishun is more concerned with their own reputation. Osan and Mohei decide to commit suicide together. They change their minds when Mohei professes his love for Osan.

They continue to flee on foot, having momentarily convinced Ishun that the suicide had been successful. Ishun sends Sukeyemon to recover the bodies and bring Osan's back so they can continue covering up the adultery. Unfortunately, a traveling chestnut salesman notifies Ishun's house of the whereabouts of the two lovers. Osan and Mohei reach the home of Mohei's father where he reluctantly feeds and shelters them. Ishun's men arrive and browbeat Mohei's father into giving them up. Mohei is bound and left for the police to find the next day while Osan is taken to her family home in route to Ishun.

Isan, a rival scroll maker, conspires with Sukeyemon to reveal Isan's deception. While Osan refuses to return to Ishun's house, Mohei arrives at her family home, having been freed by his father. Osan's brother sneaks off to fetch Ishun and his men while their mother tries to convince Mohei to turn himself in. Just as Ishun's men arrives, the lovers escape one last time. They are captured by the police and confess to adultery.

The Shogunate Deputy erects a public notice declaring Ishun guilty of deceiving the authorities and is therefore banished from town, his property and wealth confiscated. While the servants are packing to search for new employment, they talk about Sukeyemon also being banished for his failures in not only keeping a better eye on the property, but also not reporting Ishun's negligence in his refusal to report the affair. Soon the servants hear another parade going on and head outside. The servants see Osan and Mohei holding hands as they are being ridden on horseback on their way to crucifixion and death. The other servants watch the parade and note that Mohei and Osan look happier than ever before.

At the beginning of the Second World War, before Germany invaded Norway, a ukulele player in a British dance band playing at a Bergen hotel, is found shot dead during a radio broadcast of the band's show. It turns out he was a British agent keeping an eye on the band leader, Mark Mendes (Garry Marsh), who is suspected of being a German agent passing on information about British shipping to German U-boats, using a code concealed in the radio broadcasts.

When Mendes calls a musician's agent in London for a replacement, British Intelligence tries to send another agent in his place. However, through a series of mistakes in a blacked out Dover, ukulele player George Hepplewhite (George Formby), who is on his way to Blackpool, is put on the boat to Bergen instead of the new agent. When he arrives, the receptionist at the hotel, Mary Wilson (Phyllis Calvert), who is another British agent, makes contact but eventually realises the mistake. George, however, is totally unaware and starts working with the band, although Mendes is suspicious of him. Eventually Mary tells George what is going on, and together they manage to find what the code is and alert the Royal Navy.

When Mendes discovers that his code has been broken, he gives George a cup of coffee containing a truth serum, and George reveals that he and Mary are British spies. George, drugged, is left in his room, where he dreams of flying to Germany and giving Hitler a right hook. Eventually, he flees to join Mary on board a ship, but it has already left. So he hides in a motorboat which takes Mendes to a German U-boat, with the intent to torpedo British troop ships as well as the ship that Mary is on. George manages to get on board and alert Mary's ship over the U-boat's radio. After a series of chaotic incidents on board, where George accidentally launches the U-boat's torpedoes and thus tells the British Navy where to find it, he hides in one of the empty torpedo tubes. So when Mendes tries to torpedo Mary's ship, he shoots out George instead, who flies through the air and lands on the ship deck, thus reuniting with Mary.

This short spinoff relates the adventures of Foxy Croquette O-Gin after she mysteriously disappeared from Nagatachō, Tokyo, as seen in ''Tachiguishi-Retsuden''. She actually left Japan after the incident that occurred during 1960 Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty (Anpo), to move to the Middle East and fight there as a guerrilla.

Palestine guerrilla turned Foxy Croquette O-Gin, aka AK Ginko, could be the mysterious Young Lady of Fate (少女, ''shōjo'') featured in ''The Red Spectacles'' as both characters are performed by Japanese model and actor, Mako Hyodo which is dressed like ''Little Red Riding Hood'' in both films.

In a world where, until a few years ago, the streets were rocked by battles between colorfully clad men and women with astounding metanormal powers, the people have declared all-out war against these modern-day titans. Following the destruction of the city of San Francisco in a super-battle gone bad, the federal government has issued an executive order outlawing not only the use of super powers, but also the very people who possess them. For the beings known as Metanormals, it doesn't matter whether they were once superheroes, supervillains, or neither; if they commit crimes, save lives or just try to live normal lives without ever using their powers; they're all regarded as public enemies, and as such the legal prey of the murderous LAPD division G Platoon (presumably after SWAT's designation of D Platoon) known more familiarly as the Metanormal Tactical Unit, or "MTac."

The main character is Soledad O'Roark, a rookie MTac whose single-minded hatred of the Metas is extreme even by the obsessive standards of her profession. Soledad earns the hated nickname "Bullet" on her first call, when she uses an O'Dwyer Variable-Lethality Law Enforcement gun to blow away a rampaging pyrokinetic in the act of frying her squad. Soledad herself modified the high-tech gun, which comes complete with color-coded bullets designed to exploit the individual weaknesses of various common Metas. The gun saves her life and the lives of several of her partners, but the department brass still demotes her, and considers filing charges, for her failure to follow official procedure by using the unregistered weapon. Soledad's lawyer, Gayle, suspects a conspiracy.

Michelle, an angelic winged woman who possesses a mysterious ability to either avert disasters or bring back the dead, lives in hiding with her telepathic husband, Vaughn, and a mentally disabled metal manipulator named Aubrey. When Michelle reveals herself in order to save the lives of an entire construction crew during a deadly street collapse, Soledad shoots the winged woman dead, dismissing the horrified reaction of one witness with a shrugged "She's not an Angel. Angels don't bleed. She's just another freak."

The grieving Vaughn succumbs to his anger, which his gentle wife held in check for so long, and declares war against the MTacs.

''What Fire Cannot Burn'' continues to follow Soledad and fellow MTAC officer Eddi Aoki as they go undercover to investigate a serial killer targeting metanormals hunts in Los Angeles, a serial killer who might work for the police.

The plot revolves around G.I. Joe, America's "daring, highly trained special missions force". The Joes have just perfected a new technology: Mind Interface Remote Control (MIRC), which allows soldiers to flawlessly command vehicles from a safe distance. The title refers to the fact that the two opposing forces, the G.I. Joe Team and Cobra, make use of spies to achieve their objectives. Cobra sends Zartan, to infiltrate G.I. Joe headquarters posing as Shipwreck, and steal the MIRC technology. The Joes send Shipwreck and Snake Eyes to the enemy's camp, after learning about what happened. The Joes then organize an assault on Cobra Mountain and successfully regain the technology, destroying Cobra's base and chopper in the process.

The film begins with King Richard the Lionheart planning to attack the Saracens and defeat their leader, Sultan Saladin. Little does Richard know, though, the Castelaine knights who are supposed to follow him have other plans of their own. Giles Amaury, a Castelaine supporter, sets up an assassination attempt of the King using a poisoned Saracen arrow in hopes that the arrow will kill the King, frame the enemy, and allow Giles to promote one of his own to overtake the Saracens and be the victorious ruler of the land. The assassination attempt fails, and King Richard is discovered to still be alive, just before a new leader is about to be named. At this time, Sir Kenneth of Huntington enters King Richard's camp, blaming Giles and the Castelaine knights for the assassination attempt. Kenneth announces his loyalty to the King, but the King dismisses his thought that his own knights would assassinate him. The King then sends Kenneth to lead the Queen's caravan as a scout to prove his loyalty to the kingdom.

On his scouting voyage, Kenneth crosses paths with a Saracen, and the two begin to duel. This does not last long though, as the two come to a chivalrous agreement to end the fighting and discuss their intentions of crossing through the desert. At this time, Kenneth learns that this Saracen is a physician named Emir Ilderim, sent by Saladin to heal King Richard. He says Saladin offers a truce until Richard is healed, because he would like to speak with him in person about the affairs of the nation and the war. Kenneth helps Ilderim get to Richard safely, and King Richard accepts the terms of Saladin's truce and the help of his physician to return to full health.

Ilderim successfully heals King Richard, but not without stirring up trouble in the King's camp first. After his return, Kenneth is given another chance to prove himself to King Richard by guarding the English flag that flies at the outskirts of the camp. At the same time, Ilderim is speaking with Lady Edith Plantagenet, Richard's relative and Kenneth's love interest, and suggests to her that a marriage between a beautiful Christian woman (Edith) and a Muslim leader could bring peace to the land, without war. Kenneth sees this proposal and gets jealous, leaving his post at the flag to confront Ilderim. At this time, we see the Castelaine knights re-enter the story and knock down the English flag that Kenneth is supposed to be guarding. King Richard enters and sees Kenneth speaking with Edith and the flag on the ground. Richard becomes furious and sentences Kenneth to trial by combat. At the trial, Richard gains the upper hand, knocking Kenneth unconscious, but before he kills him, Ilderim asks the King to spare Kenneth's life, stating that he will take him back to the Saracens and Kenneth will no longer be allowed in the English kingdom. The King, respecting the chivalry of Saladin to send Ilderim, agrees and banishes Kenneth from England.

When Kenneth awakes from the battle, he is in the Saracen camp being healed by Ilderim and living like royalty. Despite these gifts and Ilderim's kindness to save his life, Kenneth can only think of Edith and how he is going to return to her. Ilderim then explains to Kenneth that he is banished, but that he needs his help. Ilderim reveals to Kenneth that he is actually Saladin, ruler of the Saracens, and that he has found who is trying to overthrow King Richard, the Castelaine knights. Kenneth returns to King Richard in disguise to warn him about the danger he is in.

The Castelaines overhear Kenneth warning Richard of their plan. They then steal away Edith and attempt to return to the Castelaine castle and defend themselves from there. Because of the mutual interests in Edith by Richard, Kenneth, and Saladin, the three unite to defeat the Castelaines. After a successful battle and chase across the country side, the Castelaines are defeated, Kenneth and Edith plan to marry, King Richard forgives Kenneth, and Saladin rides away safely back to his kingdom.

This film is the story of a group of unruly teenagers whose parents send them to a rehabilitation boot camp to turn them around. The camp collects each child individually, then delivers them to the boot camp facility owned by Dr. Arthur Hail, on a remote island in Fiji. There are no walls to stop the teenagers from leaving, but escape is impractical due to the surrounding sea. On arriving at the camp, the teenagers are forced to wear cuffs with sensors around their ankles—if they attempt to escape, security will be alerted.

The main teenagers featured are Sophie, her boyfriend Ben, Danny and Trina. As time passes on the island, Sophie rebels against Dr. Hail and once Ben joins her, the two escape to a nearby island. However, they are recaptured and Ben is told he will be sent home. One morning, while on a run, Logan has the male teenagers go swimming. However, Danny, who can't swim, drowns and Logan tries to get Ben to help cover it up by threatening him with solitary confinement, but Ben refuses.

Meanwhile, Sophie discovers that Logan has raped Trina and when Logan is put before the camp to admit responsibility for Danny's death, she reveals this to the rest of the teenagers, many of whom also were offered yellow shirts by Logan in exchange for sex. As the teenagers surround Logan, Sophie turns the attention onto Hail, at which point Ben announces to the shocked teenagers that this isn't the first death to occur on a camp run by Dr. Hail.

The teenagers run amok and burn down the entire campsite. In addition, they go after Logan, who dies when his Toyota Land Cruiser crashes into a burning building. At this point they turn their attention solely to Hail, who tries to shoot them in the hope that he can restore order. However, after finding out his gun wasn't loaded, he is thrown into solitary confinement, to be left for the police to arrest. As the film fades out, we see images of the teenagers celebrating freedom and swimming in the ocean. A message also appears on screen stating that since the 1970s, when these type of camps were introduced in real life, over 40 deaths have occurred.

Cal (John Lynch) is a young member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1970s Northern Ireland. He acts as a driver on a nighttime murder of a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which takes place at the victim's home in view of his father, who is also shot.

One year later, Cal learns that a librarian, Marcella (Helen Mirren), to whom he is attracted, is a Catholic and the widow of the victim. Cal wants to leave the IRA, but is pressured to remain. He and his father live in the city, where they feel threatened by Orange Order marches and are harassed by Loyalist gangs. Cal is offered work in Marcella's Protestant husband's family farm, where she lives. Initially he works as a hand and, after he and his father are burned out, moves to a semi-derelict cottage on the farm, without telling the IRA his new location.

Marcella is unhappy, feeling suffocated by her domineering mother-in-law and sick father-in-law. Marcella confesses that her marriage was not a happy one. Over time, Cal and Marcella begin a love affair—with Marcella unaware of Cal's role in her husband's death.

While Christmas shopping for Marcella and her child, he is abducted by the IRA, who are unwilling for him to leave them. The car is stopped at a British Army checkpoint and tries to get away. In the ensuing crash, Cal escapes and makes his way to Marcella's home, where he declares his love for her and hints at his involvement in her husband's murder. He has been pursued to the house by the RUC and is arrested and taken away.

Most of the movie was filmed in Drogheda in locations around the town, including Barrack Street and St. Finian's Park.

In North Africa, CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) briefs an agent. A suicide attack kills the agent and 18 civilians; the target was high-ranking police official Abbas-i "Abasi" Fawal (Yigal Naor), a liaison for the United States who conducts interrogations with techniques amounting to torture, but Fawal is unharmed.

Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), a chemical engineer living in Chicago with his mother, his pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), and their young son, is believed linked to known terrorist Rashid by records indicating several calls to Anwar's cellphone. Returning from a conference in South Africa, Anwar is detained by American officials and sent to a secret facility near the earlier attack, where he is interrogated and tortured.

Isabella is not informed of her husband’s whereabouts, and all official evidence of his being on the plane at Cape Town International Airport is erased.

Freeman, assigned to observe Anwar’s interrogation by Fawal, is doubtful of Anwar’s guilt, but CIA superior Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) insists such treatments are necessary to save potential victims of terrorism.

Isabella travels to Washington, D.C. to ask friend Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin), to find her missing husband. Smith informs Isabella that Anwar failed to board the plane in Cape Town, but she shows him her husband's credit card purchase at the in-flight duty-free shop, confirming he was on the flight. Smith pieces together details of Anwar's detention but is unable to convince Hawkins or Whitman, who ordered the rendition, to release Anwar or acknowledge his imprisonment.

Hawkins tells Smith to let the matter go, as public debate on extraordinary rendition would complicate the senator’s bill before Congress. His sympathetic secretary tips Isabella off that Whitman will be visiting. Isabella confronts Whitman and Hawkins before being led out by security, only to go into labour in the hallway.

Under torture, Anwar eventually confesses that he advised a man named Rashid on chemicals to enhance explosives and was promised $40,000. Freeman suspects a false confession, confirmed when the names Anwar gives are traced by Interpol and draw a blank. A quick Google search reveals the names belong to an Egyptian soccer team. Freeman approaches the Minister of the Interior with this finding, questioning why a man with a $200,000 salary would risk his life for $40,000. Freeman quotes Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'' on the value of intelligence gathered through torture:

'''I fear you speak upon the rack, Where men enforced do speak anything.'''

Freeman persuades the minister to release Anwar, sending him back to America via a clandestine ship to Spain, ignoring Whitman's frantic orders to hand Anwar back to Fawal and knowing he will probably be branded as insubordinate. Meanwhile, Smith similarly disregards Hawkins' advice and leaks the torture details to the press, igniting a worldwide scandal and likely ending his political aspirations. Anwar returns home and shares a tearful reunion with Isabella, his son, and their newborn baby.

Sub-plot

In a parallel storyline, Abasi Fawal's daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) runs away with her boyfriend Khalid (Moa Khouas). Abasi learns Khalid's late brother was an inmate at his prison.

Fatima learns that Khalid belongs to a terrorist group, and discovers a notebook with pictures: Khalid and his brother brandishing AK-47s; a grief-stricken Khalid standing over his brother's corpse; her father; and a statement that Khalid will avenge his brother.

Realising that her father, responsible for the death of Khalid's brother, is about to be assassinated by Khalid, she runs to the town square and confronts Khalid. He hesitates, and is killed by the attack’s organizers; he releases the dead man's switch, and Fatima is killed in the explosion from the beginning of the film.

Abasi rushes to Khalid's apartment and discovers Khalid's grandmother grieving the loss of her grandsons and Fatima. Abasi realizes his daughter died trying to protect him.

Theory

The phone record implicating Anwar remains unexplained. It is mentioned that phones are often passed off to avoid tracing; the DVD extras explain a subplot on this concept that was cut from the film. Director Gavin Hood stated in an interview that the ambiguity of Anwar’s involvement was deliberate, to let the viewer decide whether the possibility of his guilt justified kidnapping and torture.

Oliver Beresford is a controlling and uncompromisingly rigid father. When shameful stories about his daughter Judith surface, he bans her from his house. Her brother David is training for the ministry at his father's insistence, but he has secretly wed Nan Higgins, the stepdaughter of an odd-jobs man, and has fathered a child. Oliver Beresford, learning the truth, buys the silence of the odd-jobs man who then evicts the pregnant Nan from his home. Nan travels to New York where she becomes a prostitute after the baby is born. Seeking a career, Judith also goes to New York where she finds Nan and her baby just as the young woman is dying. Judith decides to raise the child, and later she returns to New England, on the day that David is to be ordained, and confronts him with the child in front of the congregation.

In the absence of Gaius Baltar, Tom Zarek has become President of the Colonies. Knowing that the military will never support him as President, he agrees to stand down in favor of Laura Roslin. He will re-convene the Quorum of Twelve, nominate Roslin as Vice President, and then resign once she is confirmed. He asks Roslin if he can still play some part in the new government, to which Roslin offers him the Vice-Presidency.

Zarek secretly authorizes a group called "The Circle", consisting of Colonel Tigh, Chief Tyrol, Samuel Anders, and three others to judge and execute those whom they unanimously find to have collaborated with the Cylons during their occupation of New Caprica. There is no formal trial; instead, the Circle reviews the available evidence, votes, and then offers the convicted a chance to plead their case. At least thirteen people are executed, including the spacing of flight deck specialist James "Jammer" Lyman. Jammer had once been a resistance fighter, but changed sides to the NCPD. He was also responsible for the death of the son of one of the Circle. Though Jammer reveals his rescue of Cally, Tyrol ultimately agrees that it doesn't exonerate him for his other sins and reluctantly allows the execution.

Felix Gaeta is brought to the ''Galactica'' CIC to repair its communications system and is verbally abused by Tigh for being a collaborator. Kara "Starbuck" Thrace later criticizes Gaeta over lunch. He claims to have explained repeatedly that he was funneling information to the resistance, but no one believes him. Starbuck appears traumatized by her long captivity with the Cylons, causing further rifts in her marriage to Anders.

The Circle begins to discuss Gaeta's possible execution, but Anders quits during the deliberation, not wanting to continue to judge any more cases. Tigh replaces Anders with Starbuck, who votes for Gaeta's execution. Tigh and three others vote along with Starbuck and then eventually convince Tyrol to vote with them. The Circle then abducts Gaeta and prepares to execute him. An angry Starbuck demands that he beg for his life and attacks him, reminding him of what he told her in the mess hall, including the dog bowl dead drop. Chief Tyrol realizes that Gaeta had been the resistance's source and sets him free. Stunned by the revelation that they almost executed an innocent man, the Circle quietly disbands.

Roslin and Admiral Adama finally learn of The Circle. Zarek tells Roslin that any public trials would only lead to unacceptable infighting within the fleet. After Roslin takes her presidential oath of office, she announces a general pardon and announces the formation of a truth commission to reconcile the fleet.

Meanwhile, Baltar is held prisoner on a Cylon Basestar; the Cylons are debating whether they should have brought along a human. Of the seven models taking part in the decision, the issue is deadlocked three for and three against. The final decision rests with Number Six. Caprica-Six visits Baltar and ends their relationship, at first leaving his fate uncertain. Finally, it becomes clear that the Cylons have decided to spare his life.

The story begins with successful Los Angeles businessman and hunter named Madec, who hires Ben, a college student, to help him find bighorn sheep in the nearby Mojave Desert after receiving a rare permit to hunt them. Ben has experience working in the desert, as he is studying to be a geologist, but he is also low on money, so he accepts.

Things take a deadly turn when Madec accidentally shoots an old prospector. Madec does not want to report the shooting, but Ben insists that they must. Madec threatens Ben with his rifle, and orders Ben strip down to his shorts, then leaves him in the desert to die of exposure, planning to report that Ben went insane, shot the prospector, and wandered off into the desert alone. Madec is certain Ben cannot survive, as they are in a hot desert 45 miles from the nearest highway, but just to make sure, he watches Ben from a distance, using the scope on his rifle. Ben is shot at multiple times as Madec tries to dissuade Ben from searching for water with one shot going through Ben's arm. Time is running out as he begins to hallucinate, suffering from dehydration, hunger, sunburn, gunshots, and heat. However, Ben finds enough water to survive, and also finds a wrist-brace slingshot and some buckshot that had belonged to the prospector. He practices with the slingshot, then uses it to overcome and capture Madec.

When they return to town, Ben's story is not believed, especially as he has no physical evidence to back it up. Madec's claim that Ben shot the prospector and tried to frame Madec is regarded as more credible. Ben is saved from facing false charges when the town's doctor offers forensic evidence that Ben's version of the story is true and that Madec's was a lie.

Kaoru has Xeroderma Pigmentosum, a medical condition that forbids its bearer from being exposed to direct sunlight. She sleeps during the day, and is active at night. She busks every night in front of a station, playing the guitar. Outside her bedroom window, she spots a high school boy with a surfboard. She watches him and his friends visit the ocean every morning before going to sleep. One day, she introduces herself to him without letting him know about her medical condition. The man identifies himself to be Kōji Fujishiro. When her friend drags her home, they sit by her window, while they watch Kōji meet his friends. Kaoru explains everything, and her friend notes that she probably goes to the same school as him, and offers to spy on him for her.

The next evening, she sits by the bus stop. Kōji arrives on his scooter. Both embarrassed, they start talking, with Kōji eventually promising to meet her, and listen to her sing another night, at the start of the school holidays. When they meet up, another obnoxious street performer has taken her spot. Kōji decides to take her to the city, where after seeing the sights, she starts playing in a square. A substantial crowd gathers to hear her sing. Afterwards, they watch the ocean, and Kōji asks her out.

Their date ends abruptly as the sun rises and Kaoru rushes back home. Kōji is soon informed of Kaoru's condition, and is taken aback. For a while, Kaoru stubbornly refuses to see him. Kōji learns of a recording studio, where Kaoru could record her debut single, and takes up small jobs to earn the money and pay for it. Her father, out of concern, invites Kōji over one night. At dinner, Kōji reveals his plans for Kaoru's CD. As they walk home that night, the two begin to talk, and Kaoru slowly realizes how much Kōji truly cares for her.

As her medical condition begins to worsen over time, she loses feeling in her hands, and is unable to play guitar. She assures Kōji that she still has her voice.

In the studio, she asks her family and friends to leave. She asks them to wait for the CD.

Some time later, as promised, Kōji brings Kaoru to the beach to watch him surf. The protective suit she had left hanging for years is finally used. By now, she is in a wheelchair. She complains that the suit is getting hot. With a painful expression that fades quickly, Kaoru's father tries to convince her that if she takes off the suit, it cannot bother her anymore, and that she could run around freely. She declines, and while struggling to stand up, she limps weakly toward Kōji. As she walks, she trips over the sand, and Kōji rushes to tend to her. She catches herself at the last minute, revealing that it was a feint, and giggles at his surprised face.

Later, Kaoru succumbs to her medical condition and eventually dies. She is laid to rest in a coffin full of sunflowers. Kōji and Kaoru's friends and family listen as Kaoru's CD is finally released. In the final scene, Kōji rushes towards the waves with his mind replaying her voice.

''Melting Stones'' follows Evvy, the young stone mage introduced in ''Street Magic'', who accompanies her guardian Rosethorn on a mission to Starns Island to study a mysterious plant die-off. With her magic—and the help of Luvo, the heart of a mountain—the girl discovers a threat far greater than anyone could have imagined. Preventing disaster may cost Evvy her life.

Evvy sulks about being aboard a ship to the Battle Islands; she is only there because she used her stone magic to damage some rich boys studying at Winding Circle for bothering her friends, and the alternative punishment was house arrest at Discipline Cottage. Her power is suppressed by being separated from stone by fathoms of water, repelled by the power of the sea. She is accompanied by Luvo, the animated heart of a mountain that started to accompany Evvy when Rosethorn, Briar, and Evvy traveled in Gyongxe. Evvy first feels the earth move when she is on the ship. She rejoices at the feel of the earth being close to her, however on land this causes violent tremors. Protective of Rosethorn because they survived the war together, Evvy warns the traveling party about feeling the earth move more than once, often preceded or echoed by Luvo. The third member of their party is Dedicate Myrrhtide, often referred to by Evvy as Dedicate Fusspot, an older, fully accredited water mage. He warns the other two that the reception on the island may not be warm, despite the fact that the island called for help. He also notes that the Battle Islands were only recently purged of the pirate menace. The dedicates have been asked to examine Starns Island because trees are dying with no obvious cause. After the boat docks, they meet two men who guide them to the village that called for their help. One of them is named Oswin, who is known throughout the island for being able to fix things, because he observes what mages do besides magic. Oswin has taken in children who were left behind when the island was cleared of pirates, because he attempted to place them in other homes but was not entirely successful.

Rosethorn and Myrrhtide both examine the island cautiously with Evvy in tow. She is strongly compelled to go underground in her magic form by power deep underneath her feet. Upon arriving there, she meets two fire spirits, who she names Flare and Carnelian. They drag her around an underground chamber where there resides thousands of fire spirits, draining her magic along the way. She barely escapes with her life, and when she comes back into her real body, she is very weak. She tells the villagers upon her return that the spirits want to break out of the chamber, and Flare and Carnelian will show them the way eventually. Rosethorn and Myrrhtide realize that these spirits precede a volcano eruption; the death of the life on the island is consistent with that conclusion, given the poison that Evvy describes as smelling like rotten eggs. The villagers, however, mistrust Evvy because they think that her story is fabricated to get her out of being beaten by Rosethorn. When Evvy convinces the village mages to show the village council the truth of her story, the village finally believes her. She wakes up two days later having slept so long from exhaustion, while evacuations are progressing. Evvy wants to leave, because the Winding Circle group have already confirmed the impending volcano. However, Rosethorn insists that they stay to help and Evvy is sent to Oswin's house. Charged with giving a little girl a bath, she frightens the girl into taking the bath after finally convincing Flare and Carnelian to break themselves into little pieces and put themselves into crystal, where they will be trapped for a long time. Because Evvy recognizes that if they break out, they will be so powerful that they may destroy the island, Luvo changes the maze to become like a Möbius strip, with no end to give the humans more time to escape. As evacuation of the island proceeds, Oswin suggests a plan that could save the entire island. She then offers the plan to Rosethorn without success.

Master assassin Duke Togo—codenamed "Golgo 13"—is hired by an American crime syndicate to kill Chou Lei Fang, a powerful member of the syndicate's Hong Kong branch who has been selling their drugs through his own channels. At the same time, he has to keep an eye out on Smith, a hard-boiled Hong Kong detective who is hell-bent on taking down Chou and his drug-manufacturing organization.

One night, an undercover officer named Lin Li follows Chou and infiltrates his drug factory, but she is shot and captured by his henchmen. The next day, Smith locates Chou's factory after a group of children find Lin Li's communicator, but Lin Li is killed during a shootout and the factory is destroyed. By this time, both Chou and Smith have been made aware that Golgo is in Hong Kong. Smith has a personal vendetta on Golgo, who assassinated a foreign diplomat he was assigned to protect a year earlier. Because of this, Smith urges the police chief to issue a warrant to arrest Chou before Golgo gets to him first. The next day, during a ceremony to open a public swimming pool funded by Chou, Golgo prepares to shoot the drug lord from a nearby building, but a female Caucasian assassin named Leika gets to Chou first. While Smith and his men presume it was Golgo that killed Chou, Golgo suspects someone in Hong Kong higher than Chou ordered the hit. The American syndicate offers Golgo an extra US$100,000 to track down the mastermind. Shortly after Chou's funeral, his widow Li Hua and Leika are killed by Golgo while attempting to trap him and put him down.

Golgo travels to Japan to follow Poranian diplomat Polansky, who had strong ties with Chou. There, he discovers that Polansky is seeking U.S. asylum from the FBI in exchange for vital information related to Chou's drug trafficking network. At the same time, Smith follows the trail and manages to arrest Golgo when the assassin returns to Hong Kong. Smith attempts to interrogate Golgo, but to no avail, as the assassin is released after police discover that it was Leika who assassinated Chou. On his way to the U.S. Embassy, Golgo is ambushed by a hitman named Schilz, but he kills Schilz, despite being shot in the leg. Meanwhile, Smith and his team discover that Polansky has been receiving drug shipments from all over Southeast Asia, but the police cannot touch him due to diplomatic immunity. Golgo recovers from his wound and heads for Sekirei Island, where Polansky is hiding. Despite having no jurisdiction, Smith and his men raid Sekirei Island. Polansky attempts to escape via helicopter, but Golgo - who is hanging by the side of a cliff, guns him down, sending him out of the helicopter and crashing into the ocean. His body and the briefcase containing evidence of his involvement with Chou's assassination are recovered by Smith's team.

The next day, Golgo and Smith meet again at Kai Tak Airport. Smith punches Golgo, vowing to lock him up should he ever return to Hong Kong.

The storylines of the eight installments follow the rise and fall of the tragic hero Tarnum. His initial rise to power is chronicled in the "Warlords of the Wasteland" installment, set prior to the events of ''Heroes of Might and Magic III'', with all of the other installments occurring after the events of ''Heroes of Might and Magic III''. Half of the installments featured self-contained storylines, while the two downloadable titles "The World Tree" and "The Fiery Moon" shared a storyline and the last installment, "The Sword of Frost," served as a direct sequel to the fourth installment "Clash of the Dragons." Tarnum would reappear in ''Heroes of Might and Magic IV''.

In the early stages of their involvement in World War II a squadron of American bombers are en route to England. Due to an air raid their destination, a new base, is unavailable and they have to divert to a nearby base, RAF Lytchmere. News then reaches the inbound crews of unserviceable RADAR equipment and because of which the squadron is almost attacked by Archie Bunting. The personnel infrastructure leads to the overcrowding at RAF Lytchmere with the arrival of the Americans and various petty conflicts arise. The series is loosely based on an idea for a novel by Earnest Maxim, which was to be entitled ''Buddy & Chum'.'

Olivia Hallinan plays an intelligent schoolgirl named Julia Jekyll who makes a special drink called an elixir for a science project, but two school bullies named Nicola and Sharon known as "The Blister Sisters" ruin her experiment by placing all kinds of dangerous things in her drink including a hair restoring formula. When Julia sips the drink during a demonstration, she turns into a huge hairy monster named Harriet Hyde that scares the living daylights out of most of the people around her, even though she is harmless and friendly to most. Julia's parents are fond of Harriet and believe she is Julia's friend, not knowing that Harriet and Julia were the same person. However their next-door neighbours, Jason and Mona Jitter, a neurotic couple who spent most of their time at a therapist's, were terrified of Harriet and had numerous unfortunate encounters with her. The Blister sisters repeatedly plot to get rid of Harriet but usually end up on the receiving end of her wrath, mostly being flung headfirst across the room.

The effects of Harriet Hyde usually wear off after a while but unexpectedly keep coming back. Julia's best friend and fellow student from Rocket Academy, Edward Knickers is the only one who knows her secret and she has hard work trying to hide it from her parents, next door neighbours, the teachers and all the other fellow students whilst she tries to find a cure. Julia can often recognise when she is about to transform into Harriet and manages to hide away from everyone else (for example by pretending she is going to be sick and having to leave the room). Teachers at the Rocket Academy were the jolly hippie headmaster Memphis Rocket, his doting elderly mother who is a horrendous cook, and Lester Blister, the Blister sisters' cruel and scheming uncle who wishes to take over the school.

On Skaro, Davros is brought before the Daleks on a trial basis. The Daleks have been failing in their conquests and a schism has arisen; they need Davros to help. He thinks back to his teenage years during the Kaled/Thal war from ''Genesis of the Daleks''...

Davros is a sixteen-year-old Kaled from a wealthy family. His father, Colonel Nasgard, wants him to join the military, but his ambitious mother, Calcula, wants him to become a scientist. She has arranged for Tutor Magrantine to give him extra-curricular lessons. Davros is not pleased, preferring to spend his days at Drammankin Lake near the family home, studying the life-forms there. His older sister, Yarvell, is soon to join the Military Youth and considers Davros spoiled.

Nasgard is killed by a mysterious bomb. This is blamed on the pacifist Major Brogan, who is scapegoated as a Thal spy. Magrantine confronts Davros during lessons - Nasgard was indirectly responsible for the death of Magrantine's son. He attempts to kill Davros in revenge, but Davros locks him in a radioactive chamber.

It is revealed that Nasgard is not Davros' father - he's the result of an affair between Calcula and Councillor Quested. Davros kills Quested upon finding out, much to his mother's relief. As the flashback comes to an end, a Thal missile attack begins on the city.

Back in the present, the Daleks point out that Davros was an inferior being at this point, a mere child. Davros asserts he was more of a man than his fellow Kaleds and it would be years before he would be recognised by the 'spineless' Kaled government.

Eurth

The series begins with the formation of the planet Eurth by the Shaper of Worlds under the supervision of the Living Tribunal, Eternity, and Infinity. Their purpose is to create a planet that is an alternative version of Earth in order to further understand the heroes that inhabit that world.''Avataars: Covenant of the Shield'' #1. Marvel Comics.

Covenant of the Shield

The overall plot involves the kidnapping of St'vaan Jr., the son of Captain Avalon (this reality's version of Captain America) by forces employed by the Dreadlord (this reality's version of Baron Zemo). Various heroes become involved in the rescue efforts, most of them being members of the Champions of the Realm (this reality's version of the Avengers).

A police officer finds a baby in a trash can, and Mrs. Lippett, the cruel matron at an orphanage where children are made to work, names her "Jerusha Abbott" (she picks "Abbott" out of a phone book and gets "Jerusha" from a tombstone). The orphan, who comes to be called Judy, does what she can to stand up for the younger children, frequently clashing with both Mrs. Lippett and the cold hearted trustees. At one point she leads a rebellion against being served prunes with every meal and at another, steals a doll from a selfish rich girl to lend to a dying orphan.

Years later, wealthy Jervis Pendleton, a mysterious benefactor, pays to send Judy, now the oldest and most talented child in the orphanage, to college. He insists, however, that Judy must never try to contact him in person. Judy calls him "Daddy-Long-Legs," and writes to him, however. Judy proves popular with her wealthier and more "aristocratic" classmates, and writes a successful book to repay "Daddy-Long-Legs" the money he spent on her. She is generally happy but misses not having any real family members to take pride in her accomplishments. Judy also finds herself caught up in a romantic triangle with the older brother of a classmate and an older man (who is, unknown to her, her mysterious benefactor). She eventually chooses the older suitor and is delighted to learn that he is her "Daddy-Long-Legs."

The plot of ''King Kelson's Bride'' spans a period of two and a half months, from late June to mid-August 1128. The novel opens in Torenth, where Princess Morag Furstána, Duke Mahael II of Arjenol, and Count Teymuraz of Brustarkia discuss the marriage prospects of both King Liam Lajos II and King Kelson Haldane of Gwynedd. At the same time, the Camberian Council also discusses Kelson's potential brides while also worrying about Kelson's upcoming journey to Torenth.

In Rhemuth, Kelson meets privately with Princess Rothana of Nur Hallaj after attending the wedding of his former squire. Despite professing his continuing love for her, Rothana once again refuses to marry the king. In her place, she urges Kelson to marry his cousin, Princess Araxie Haldane. In addition, she tells Kelson of the growing attraction between Prince Rory Haldane and Lady Noelie Ramsay. Although heartbroken by Rothana's refusal, Kelson agrees to consider her advice.

Two days later, Kelson departs for Torenth. For the past four years, Kelson has held King Liam Lajos II of Torenth at his court in Rhemuth, both to protect the young king from his ambitious family and to teach him the art of statecraft. However, Liam has now reached his legal majority and must return to his own land to take up his throne. Kelson is accompanied by Duke Alaric Morgan of Corwyn, Duke Dhugal MacArdry McLain of Cassan, Bishop Denis Arilan of Dhassa, and Liam's uncle, Count Mátyás. The royal party stops briefly in Coroth, where Morgan's wife, Duchess Richenda, urges Kelson to abandon his pursuit of Rothana. The next day, the royal party progresses to the court of the Hort of Orsal, where both Kelson and Liam are attacked by a pair of mind-altered assassins. Although slightly wounded, neither king is seriously injured in the assault. Later that night, Kelson meets with Araxie and the two are formally engaged.

As the royal party continues toward the Torenthi capital of Beldour, Liam confesses to Kelson that he is worried about the loyalty of his uncles Mahael and Teymuraz, though he is trusts Mátyás completely. Once in Beldour, Liam's trust is confirmed when Mátyás informs Kelson and Morgan that his brothers plan to kill Liam during the young king's coronation and place Mahael on the throne. Kelson agrees to help protect Liam, and Mátyás arranges for Kelson to take part in the magical ritual that will confirm Liam's power. For the next several days, Kelson practices the ritual with the assistance of Prince Azim, a relative of Rothana's and a member of the Camberian Council. When the ceremony finally occurs, Mátyás' prediction comes true and Mahael and Teymuraz attack Liam. However, Kelson and Mátyás successfully protect the young king, aided by Morag and the Torenthi Patriarch. Liam rips Mahael's mind and orders the traitor be impaled. During the conclusion of the ceremony, Kelson renounces his title of Overlord of Torenth and releases Liam from his vassalage, making the Kingdom of Torenth a sovereign and independent state once again. Afterwards, Teymuraz escapes from custody, and the lords of Gwynedd and Torenth later gather to discuss the threat he poses. That night, Morag captures Earl Sean O'Flynn of Derry and activates a latent magical link in his mind, allowing her to view his thoughts and experiences.

Concerned about Teymuraz, Kelson decides to return to Rhemuth immediately through the use of Transfer Portals. After a brief stop to retrieve Araxie and her family, most of the royal party transports to Rhemuth that night. As the search for Teymuraz continues over the next several weeks, Kelson turns his attention to more domestic matters. When the Ramsay family arrives for the marriage of Sir Brecon Ramsay and Princess Richelle Haldane, Kelson seeks to further secure the Mearan alliance by arranging a marriage between Rory and Noelie. Although initially reluctant to approve the marriage, Noelie's parents agree after Kelson follows Araxie's suggestion and grants them the Duchy of Laas. Shortly thereafter, Kelson establishes a new home for the Servants of Saint Camber in Rhemuth, and Araxie proves to be instrumental in healing old wounds within the royal family. She persuades Kelson's uncle, Prince Nigel Haldane, to accept and acknowledge the presence of his grandchildren at Court, and later convinces Rothana to remain in Rhemuth and allow her son to be raised as a royal prince.

In Torenth, Teymuraz attempts to plead his case to Morag. When she rebuffs him, he attacks her and rips her mind before killing her. With the knowledge he acquires from Morag, he gains control of the mental link with Derry. Several days later, he uses that link to wreak havoc in Rhemuth. After the double wedding of Brecon and Richelle and of Rory and Noelie, Teymuraz takes over Derry's mind and forces him to attack Mátyás. Araxie attempts to stop Derry, but Mátyás is severely wounded. Teymuraz once again escapes, but Morgan and Dhugal successfully Heal Mátyás' wound and save his life. Azim, Kelson, and Araxie remove the last foreign traces from Derry's mind, and Azim quickly leaves to pursue Teymuraz. One week later, Kelson and Araxie are married, and Araxie is formally crowned Queen of Gwynedd.

''Ellie Parker'' is the story of an Australian actress struggling to make it in Hollywood. Ellie is young enough to still go to auditions back and forth across Los Angeles, changing wardrobes and slapping on makeup en route, but just old enough that the future feels "more like a threat than a promise". She lives with her vacuous musician boyfriend (Mark Pellegrino), who leaves her just about as dissatisfied as any other part of her life, and has a loose definition of the word "fidelity". Helping make sense of their surreal and humiliating Hollywood existence is her best friend Sam (Rebecca Rigg), another out-of-work actress trying her hand at design, who attends acting classes with Ellie to stay sharp. When Ellie gets into a fender bender with a guy who claims he is a cinematographer (Scott Coffey), her perspective on her work and the dating world starts to change. Chevy Chase also makes an appearance playing Ellie's agent.

In ''Clade'', the Ecocaust, an environmental disaster, causes major problems such as rising sea levels and additional strains on human resources. Although civilization recovers from this disaster, they do so at the expense of their previous freedoms. "Polycorps" develop from governments and corporations. The wonders of biotech introduce a new class system where human beings have been socially engineered at the molecular level through a process called "clading." This "clading" process places entire socioeconomic or ethnic groups made to be biologically predisposed to live in particular communities. If a person enters a community that they have not been claded to, the consequences could be devastating, resulting in sickness or death. Although it is not intentionally racist, businesses and retail outlets using this clading process to keep away the riffraff, will simply screen out clientele below a certain prosperity level. Therefore, a black market exists enabling people to buy the right biotech to inhibit the "pherions" in their systems to be placed in a certain clade.

The protagonist is a man named Rigo, a Latino from the San Jose clade who wants to move up in society. Rigo accepts a job at a biotech firm that develops special vegetation for a planned orbital colony. Although his friends look down on him with contempt for selling out, he still maintains a close relationship with his mother, lawless brother, and Anthea, his troubled girlfriend. At work, after Rigo fears being exposed to some dangerous pherions, he finds to his surprise that the company he works for eagerly wants to send some of the plants they've been working on into space; and they want Rigo to supervise the transfer. Something about the haste of the company leaves Rigo feeling fishy. The secrets of this story unravel one after another, leading to holes in the plot.

The story takes place in Japan in the 1860s, a time of cultural assimilation. Two samurai, Munezo Katagiri (Masatoshi Nagase) and Samon Shimada (Hidetaka Yoshioka), bid farewell to their friend Yaichiro Hazama (Yukiyoshi Ozawa), who is to serve in Edo (present-day Tokyo) under the shogunate of that region. Though the position is desirable, Katagiri voices his concern that a man of Yaichiro’s character is likely to get into trouble. His doubts are confirmed when the married Yaichiro expresses an intention to indulge in Edo’s sensual pleasures while stationed there.

During dinner that evening, Katagiri’s mother reminds Samon of the financial hardships the family has endured since the death of her husband (who committed ritual suicide after financial improprieties were discovered on a construction project). She desires a match between Samon and Shino (Tomoko Tabata), Katagiri’s sister. Also present is Kie (Takako Matsu), the Katagiri’s housekeeper, who is literate and schooled in etiquette. In a voiceover, Katagiri hints at his affection for Kie, but then relates that around the same time Shino married Samon, Kie married a man of the merchant class and left the Katagiri household.

Three years pass, during which Katagiri's mother passes away. While walking through town, he sees Kie in a kimono shop where she assures him that she is well. Months later, however, Shino tells Katagiri that from the start of her marriage, Kie has been forced to perform all manner of duties to the point that she is little more than a slave to her new family, and that she is gravely ill. Concerned, Katagiri visits Mrs. Iseya (Sachiko Mitsumoto), Kie’s mother-in-law, and finds Kie incoherent with illness. Outraged, he demands that Kie’s husband file divorce papers, and then carries her to his own house to recover.

The changing times have forced Katagiri and his fellow samurai to learn the techniques of Western weaponry, which the elder members of the clan disdain. Word arrives from Edo that government officials thwarted an uprising against the shogun and that Yaichiro, Katagiri’s friend, was involved. After being brought back to the village in a prisoner's cage, Yaichiro is denied the honor of ritual suicide and must live out the remainder of his days in a cell. Believing that Yaichiro’s friends are complicit, Hori (Ken Ogata), the clan’s chief retainer, demands that Katagiri identify them, but he refuses, citing his honor as a samurai, and he is dismissed.

Meanwhile, Kie has since recovered and is once again Katagiri’s housekeeper. Though their fondness for one other is evident, Kie and Katagiri are keenly aware of the difference in their social class and act accordingly. Nonetheless, gossip prompts Katagiri to send Kie back to the countryside to live with her father. Shortly after, Yaichiro breaks out of prison and takes a family hostage. Hori demands that Katagiri dispatch him.

Knowing that Yaichiro is the better swordsman, Katagiri visits their former teacher (Min Tanaka), who is now a farmer, and learns a dangerous maneuver that involves turning one's back on the enemy. The next day, Katagiri arrives on the outskirts of the village and attempts to persuade Yaichiro to surrender. When the latter refuses (accusing Hori and the other leaders of incompetence), the two engage in one-to-one combat during which Katagiri uses the new technique to deliver a severe wound. Yaichiro attempts the same maneuver, but is gunned down by foot soldiers hiding in the woods. Knowing that this manner of death is a dishonor to a samurai, Katagiri is dismayed. Upon returning to the village, he encounters Yaichiro’s wife (Reiko Takashima), who reveals that she paid a visit to Hori the night before and exchanged sexual favors for his promise to keep Yaichiro alive (a promise that was never fulfilled). Bound by an oath to commit suicide should Yaichiro die, she takes her own life.

Unsure of his fealty, Katagiri approaches Hori with his treachery, to which he crudely admits. Realizing that the Hazamas were victims of a corrupt system, Katagiri avenges them by stabbing Hori in the heart with a thin blade (the technique known as “the hidden blade”, which leaves almost no trace of blood—in the original Japanese version the technique is actually called "the demon's claw/scratch" as the entry wound it leaves is so small that it appears to be caused by a nonhuman perpetrator). Katagiri buries the blade at the Hazama’s grave as a form of atonement and relinquishes his samurai status. Resolved to become a tradesman, he leaves the village for the island of Ezo (modern-day Hokkaido), but not before visiting Kie. With difference of social status no longer an obstacle, Katagiri proposes marriage and Kie accepts. The film ends as they hold hands sitting on a hilltop, envisioning their future together.

When someone at South Park Elementary defecates in a urinal, Mr. Mackey searches for the boy responsible. Cartman begins to rant that it was a conspiracy, just like 9/11. When the police decide they can provide no further assistance, they hire the "Hardly" Boys. A running gag featured in the episode has Mr. Mackey trying to get one of the boys of South Park Elementary to admit to the defecation in the urinal while making unintentionally funny euphemisms (e.g. "squeeze out a chocolate hot dog"), causing everyone to laugh and infuriating Mr. Mackey even more.

Cartman researches 9/11 online, and delivers a presentation to his class where he claims the true culprit behind 9/11 was Kyle. Despite the absurdity of Cartman's claims, he nonetheless convinces everyone that Kyle is guilty. Kyle enlists Stan's help, and they leave South Park to find an organization that can prove Kyle's innocence. The group they find, however, believes that the United States government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. A SWAT team attacks and takes Kyle, Stan, and the leader of the conspiracy organization to the White House where U.S. officials, including President George W. Bush, reveal that the government ''really is'' behind 9/11. Bush murders the conspiracy leader and decides to kill Stan and Kyle as well, but they flee, as Dick Cheney misses the boys with his hunting rifle and triggers the fire alarm.

Stan and Kyle intend to travel back to South Park and tell everyone what they've learned, but as they walk along a street in Chicago, they spot the conspiracy leader, discovering that he was not actually killed. The boys chase him to a dead end, where he begs for mercy. Suddenly, a man shoots the leader and tells the boys to follow him to his house. There, he reveals that he is a detective, the father of the Hardly Boys. In the course of investigating the urinal in South Park, his sons followed "clues" (their erections) that led them to determine that the 9/11 conspiracy theories were actually spread by the government; in other words, the 9/11 conspiracy is itself a government conspiracy. President Bush and his staff appear, and after failing to persuade Kyle that they were behind 9/11, Bush explains that the government uses conspiracy theories to scare gullible citizens into believing that the government is more powerful than it really is. The Hardly father asks Bush how he knew their location. Stan points a gun to Kyle and reveals that he was the one who defecated in the urinal (his reason for doing so was that the stalls were full and he did not want to miss recess). He decided to blame the government for the urinal deuce, and the government was happy to take the blame, just as with 9/11. Kyle then asks who was ''truly'' responsible for 9/11, and Stan replies it was "a bunch of pissed-off Muslims."

Back in school, Stan is punished by being forced to clean the urinal. Mr. Mackey lectures him, and unintentionally makes him laugh.

''Happily Ever After'' dissects the viability of fidelity via the story of three buddies and their tumultuous relationships with the opposite sex.

The film opens with the central characters, Vincent (Yvan Attal) and Gabrielle (Charlotte Gainsbourg) capriciously flirting in a bar. Vincent appears to win the affection of Gabrielle over many other potential courters, but the entire exercise is a ruse; they are actually married with a child.

The rest of the film explores the nature of romance, marriage, happiness, expectations in life, how love and sex interrelate, and ultimately, why no one can feel fulfilled.

Three young girls, Jisook, Misun and Eunkyoung take a trip to the mountainous Kangwon Province of South Korea. Jisook has just broken up with another married man, and she is lonely and unhappy with her current situation. They meet a young policeman who shows them around and after a meal where they all get drunk together, Jisook ends up passing out with the policeman in her bed, but not having sex. He is married, but Jisook returns another day to see him and they end up falling-over drunk again.

The second half the film then follows the situation of Sangwon, the married man that Jisook has just broken up with. In a typically symmetrical fashion, after a repeat scene where it becomes apparent that both of them are on the same train, Sangwon also visits the Kangwon Province with a friend and the paths of the two characters cross without them ever meeting there, both of them encountering a couple involved in a murder investigation.

As the film begins, Sangwon, an aimless and indecisive college student on school holiday after final examinations, avoids walking together with his older brother by instead taking a side street, where he finds a former girlfriend, Yongsil, working at an optician's store. Unsure of his own emotional preparedness in rekindling the relationship, he decides to watch a play while waiting for her to complete her work shift, delaying the decision to meet her later in the evening. The final words of anguish in the play, uttered by a desperately ill child unable to be comforted by his mother, would later be echoed by Sangwon from the rooftop of his parents' apartment after his own failed act of despair. In the film's corollary chapter, Tongsu, a struggling, rootless, and inscrutable filmmaker who has become obsessed with a short film directed by his former classmate - and in particular, the devoted and obliging woman in the film - encounters the young actress in person and begins to ingratiate himself into her company, acting out his projected image of her by imitating gestures and revisiting locations from the film in an attempt to realize his own created image of her.

In the dreary and rigid city of Seoul, Gyung-soo is an actor who's fairly well-known on stage. He has trusted a director he knows well and acted in his movie, but it flops. He insists on receiving his actor's fee, but all he gets is a mere grand's worth. He also misses out on his chance to act in director's next movie. The future looks cloudy for him.

Gyung-soo goes down to Chuncheon to meet an old friend who's a writer, Seong-wu. They go out to the town and Gyung-soo's friend introduces him to a pretty dancer named Myung-sook. After having a drink with Gyung-soo and his friend, she suddenly hits on Gyung-soo and on the spur of the moment they hit it off and go to a motel. But Gyung-soo doesn't know that Seong-wu has long had feelings for Myung-soo, even though he has never revealed his true feelings for her. Gyung-soo's relationship with his friend turns sour as Myung-sook becomes obsessively infatuated with Gyung-soo.

Gyung-soo tries to put his bad memories of Chuncheon behind him and gets on a train headed for Gyeongju. Sitting next to him on the train is a woman named Sun-young who entices him after recognizing his face. After she gets off the train, he chases after Sun-young and stops her, but she gives him mixed signals. Gyung-soo follows Sun-young to her house and on the next day he works up enough courage to knock on her door. This time Gyung-soo becomes falls in love.

The plot revolves loosely around two old friends: Lee Mun-ho (Yoo Ji-tae), a university art teacher and Kim Hyeon-gon (Kim Tae-woo), a graduate from an American film school who has recently returned to his home country. While having dinner in a restaurant, Kim convinces Lee to arrange a meeting between them and Kim's old girlfriend Park Seon-hwa (Sung Hyun-ah). Unbeknownst to Kim, however, Lee had become involved in a relationship with her after Kim's departure to the United States. The three meet for a night of drinking, as past tensions and attractions reemerge. In the end, both self-centered men abandon Park as they had years ago.

Film director and screenwriter Kim Jung-rae asks his friend Won Chang-wook to drive with him from their homes in Seoul to the resort town of Shinduri, on the western coast of South Korea. Chang-wook initially resists, but accepts the request on the condition that he can bring Kim Mun-suk, a composer and aspiring singer whom he describes as being his girlfriend. Jung-rae is writing a treatment for a film titled "About Miracles," concerning the mysterious connections that secure everyday life—themes that play a major role in the work of Hong Sang-Soo.

During the journey, Mun-suk quickly makes clear that she does not consider herself Chang-wook's girlfriend, and she finds herself and Jung-rae increasing drawn together. As the three drive on, Mun-suk discusses her years living abroad in Germany and reveals that she has had a number of relationships with Europeans, a fact that greatly disturbs both Chang-wook and Jung-rae. Mun-suk is particularly disappointed in Jung-rae's reaction, claiming, "You're not like your films." Nevertheless, Mun-suk and Jung-rae later kiss on the beach and then sleep together in a low-rent hotel room. The next day, as the three drive back to Seoul, Jung-rae pulls back from his intimacy with Mun-suk.

He returns to the beach alone two days later. Missing Mun-suk despite his actions, Jung-rae hits on two women, one of whom vaguely resembles Mun-suk, by introducing himself as a film director and asking to interview them for his screenplay. Jung-rae proceeds to seduce Choi Sun-hee in much the same fashion as he had Mun-suk just a few days prior. While sleeping with one of the women, Sun-hee, in the same beachside motel where he'd been with Mun-suk, Jung-rae is surprised to find that Mun-suk has returned to Shinduri, found his room, and started banging on the door loudly and very late at night. Jung-rae sneaks Sun-hee out of his room through a separate exit.

The next morning as Mun-suk sleeps at the foot of his door with a terrible hangover. Jung-rae attempts to reconcile with Mun-suk and lies about his night with Sun-hee, although his lie is increasingly transparent to all concerned. Having alienated Mun-suk and left Sun-hee without a goodbye, Jung-rae returns to Seoul with a creative breakthrough on his screenplay.

While Hercules (Hargitay) is away, his village is plundered and his wife is killed by the army of Ecalia, a country ruled by King Eurysteus. Licos (Massimo Serato), chief minister to the king, sees an opportunity to seize the throne himself. Licos knows that Hercules will come to Ecalia for vengeance; as the first part of his plan, he murders the king, planning to claim he died in battle to ensure that he does not bring ruin on Ecalia by resisting Hercules. While consulting an oracle, Hercules learns of the murder of his wife from a survivor and seeks vengeance. The newly-crowned Queen Deianira (Mansfield), daughter of the king, offers her life to Hercules in order to spare Ecalia, as Licos anticipated. Hercules offers mercy, but by law, the Queen and Hercules must participate in a rite to appease the goddess of justice. Deianira is bound to a wall as Hercules throws axes toward her, attempting to sever her bonds. He succeeds, proving her innocence to her people. Licos hatches another scheme to wed Deianira and rule through her.

Hercules admires Deianira and her bravery. While escorting Deianira back to her capital, they come across a band of peasants who have been attacked by a monster. As Hercules seeks the monster, their cattle are stampeded and Hercules kills a wild bull with his dagger. Arriving in the city, Hercules discovers Deinaira is betrothed to a man named Acheloo, whom Licos has sent to the couple, expecting Acheloo to challenge Hercules and be killed, therefore alienating Deianira. The plan nearly succeeds, but Deinaira successfully begs Hercules to stay his hand. Hercules decides to leave Ecalia and Deinaira behind him.

Licos follows through on the plan anyway, ordering Acheloo's murder with the dagger Hercules left behind in the bull; he does not expect Hercules to return to defend himself. Licos is foiled again, however, when one of Hercules' companions finds him on the road and informs him that he is accused of the murder; Hercules decides to clear his name. Licos sends the actual murderer, Philoctetes, into hiding beyond the gates of the Underworld. Licos intends for Hercules to follow Philoctetes to prove his innocence, and for both men to be killed by the monstrous Hydra. Believing that his plan is working, Licos attempts to convince Deianira to marry him, but she is hesitant.

Philoctetes is killed by the Hydra. Hercules kills the Hydra, but their battle weakens him into unconsciousness. He's rescued by Amazons loyal to Queen Hippolyta (Tina Gloriana). Hippolyta turns her lovers into living trees after growing tired of them, but Hercules is only interested in Deinaira. Angered that he is interested in Deinaira but determined to make Hercules her lover, Hippolyta's advisor suggests the only way she can gain the attention of Hercules is to change her face and body through magic to resemble Deianira (Mansfield with red hair). Meanwhile, Deianira discovers Licos' scheming and he has her imprisoned. Hercules manages to escape with his life due to the intervention of the Amazon, Nemea (Moira Orfei), at the cost of her own life, while Hippolyta is crushed to death by one of the trees. Hercules is informed of Licos' treachery and returns to Ecalia at the head of an army to overthrow him.

Defeated in battle, Licos tries to escape Ecalia with Deianira as a hostage, but he is strangled to death by the monster, Alcione, who is in turn killed by Hercules as he rescues Deianira.

The game begins with Rayman taking a nap, only to be captured by insane Rabbids who lock him up in a cell. When Rayman comes to his senses, he notices his hands are missing. With the help from his friend Murfy, he retrieves his hands, rescues Globox and the Teensies, defeats a large, mechanical version of a Darktoon (an enemy from the first Rayman game) created by an intelligent Rabbid named Pink, and escapes the prison.

Soon, Rayman's fairy friend Ly appears and tells him about the Rabbids. According to her, they used to be a peaceful race of creatures who lived happily in the Glade of Dreams. Their kind and docile nature led the other creatures to make fun of them, take advantage of them, and always give them a hard time. Resentful and suffering, the rabbids then fled underground, and have only now resurfaced to have their revenge against everyone. Rayman is the world's only hope to stop them.

While sitting underneath an apple tree in the forest one day, Rayman is captured by The Rabbids. They have decided to invade our world, and now Rayman is their toy, a prisoner gladiator to entertain them.

Rayman's only chance at freedom is to face the Rabbid Droid, but to do that, he must win enough trophies and fight other champions. The version's plot is based on the console versions.

The film takes place in April 1961, prior to the proposed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Two soldiers, LeRoy Beecher (Judge Reinhold) and Chaz McClain (Ken Wahl), are just finishing a two-year Infantry tour in the Army in Panama. They hitch a ride on a military C-47 back to their home state, Florida after bribing the pilot with a gift of LP records. LeRoy has stolen a footlocker full of surveillance equipment in-particular an infra-red camera (punishable with time in Leavenworth). During the flight to Florida the plane makes a brief stopover on some secret Caribbean island base. While at the island LeRoy, goofing around, unwittingly uses the infra-red camera to take photographs of the base and of Chaz (thereby identifying him). He leaves the tear-off part of the negative on the C-47's floor. The plane then continues to Florida, where Leroy and Chaz disembark and workers (presumably anti-castrist Cubans) sweep up the aircraft and find LeRoy's camera tear-off. The workers take the negative to two superiors (John Saxon and Bradford Dillman), who are planning an invasion of Cuba from the secret island base. They develop LeRoy's negatives and now can visually identify Chaz.

The anti-Castrists know the plane was heading to Florida and now think that LeRoy and Chaz are spies sent to give away the secret of the island base and presumed invasion. Saxon and Dillman assemble a large number of armed men and proceed to search for and locate LeRoy and Chaz throughout the Florida Everglades. When Chaz and LeRoy return home they try to re-adjust to civilian life. They thumb a ride with a teenage boy who is on his way to school and drives a souped-up hot rod car. The boy, who has fantasies of joining the army himself, gives Chaz and LeRoy a crazy high-speed ride through the back country, dropping them off in town.

Afterward, they go to a diner where the latest music Del Shannon ("Runaway") and Ronnie Dawson ("Decided By The Angels") is playing on a jukebox and they encounter two young high school girls with a station wagon. One of the teenage girls shows LeRoy a new dance called ''The Twist''. The boys go to a secluded spot with the girls and "score" with the girls before they go off to school. However, the boys have not been off the plane for long before Saxon's armed men, having identified them in the diner, are chasing and shooting at them in the night. LeRoy makes it out of the first ambush and gets back to his parents' home. Chaz loses contact with him but survives the ambush.

The next morning Chaz is searching for LeRoy when a fancy convertible driven by an attractive, rich young woman named Sallie Mae stops to give him a lift. She at first refuses to take Chaz to LeRoy's parents' house, and he threatens to cut up her car seats with a razor blade if she abandons him on the road. Sallie Mae consents to take Chaz to LeRoy's parents' house deep in the Everglades swamp, where her car breaks down in the driveway. LeRoy, Chaz and Sallie Mae are reunited. It is revealed that LeRoy's father "Pa" Beecher (Lonny Chapman) runs an illegal moonshine operation. The Beechers, Pa and Ma, have been out shopping and return to encounter Chaz and Sallie Mae who helps Ma Beecher with the groceries. Pa Beecher's temper hits the roof when he sees Sallie Mae's broken down convertible in the driveway, as it easily gives away the location of his home and that he's running an illegal liquor operation. The soldiers track Chaz and LeRoy to LeRoys' parents' home after spotting Sallie Mae's car.

A shootout occurs at the Beecher home. Pa Beecher is angry that his moonshine secret is out, and curses his son LeRoy. LeRoy, along with Chaz and Sallie Mae, steal one of Mister Beecher's airboats and an exciting long chase continues through the swamp. Chaz later returns to his own father's (Pat Hingle) house and encounters his old girlfriend Robin. Robin, seeing Sallie Mae, thinks that Chaz has impregnated Sallie Mae. Sallie Mae also returns with Chaz to her parents' (who are vacationing in Europe) palatial estate and the two clean themselves up. After much adventure eluding Saxon, Dillman and their men, LeRoy and Chaz eventually overcome them. A romance has developed between Chaz and the wealthy Sallie Mae.

The film is set in Bandaria, a Middle Eastern country whose absolute ruler, Abdullah (Gregory Ratoff), lives a life of great luxury, surrounded by lovely women. When Ronnie, a beautiful English model (Kay Kendall), arrives, Abdullah falls for her and offers her great riches. She resists his advances as she is more interested in Ahmed (Sydney Chaplin), an officer in the King's army. While this is going on, Abdullah is unaware of the growing discontent among his subjects which threatens to overthrow him.

Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh) is married to Alexei Karenin (Ralph Richardson), a cold government official in St Petersburg who is apparently more interested in his career than in satisfying the emotional needs of his wife. Called to Moscow by her brother Stepan Oblonsky (Hugh Dempster), a reprobate who has been unfaithful to his trusting wife Dolly (Mary Kerridge) once too often, Anna meets Countess Vronsky (Helen Haye) on the night train. They discuss their sons, with the Countess showing Anna a picture of her son Count Vronsky (Kieron Moore), a cavalry officer.

Vronsky shows up at the train to meet his mother, and is instantly infatuated with Anna. He boldly makes his interest known to her, which Anna demurely pushes away – but not emphatically so. At a grand ball, Vronsky continues to pursue the married Anna, much to the delight of the gossiping spectators. But poor Kitty Shcherbatsky (Sally Ann Howes), Dolly's sister who is smitten with Vronsky, is humiliated by his behaviour and leaves the ball – much to the distress of Konstantin Levin (Niall MacGinnis), a suitor of Kitty's who was rejected by her in favour of Vronsky. However, after a change of heart, Kitty marries Levin.

Boldly following Anna back to St Petersburg, Vronsky makes it known to society that he is the companion of Anna – a notion she does nothing to stop. Soon, society is whispering about the affair, and it's only a matter of time before Karenin learns of the relationship. Outwardly more worried about his social and political position than his wife's passion, he orders her to break off with Vronsky or risk losing her son. She tries, but cannot tear herself away from Vronsky.

Leaving Karenin, Anna becomes pregnant with Vronsky's child. Almost dying in childbirth (the child is stillborn), Anna begs Karenin for forgiveness, which he coldly grants. Karenin, being magnanimous, allows Vronsky the notion that he may visit Anna if she calls for him. Embarrassed by the scandal, Vronsky tries to shoot himself, but fails.

Anna tries again to live with Karenin, but cannot get Vronsky out of her head. She leaves Karenin for good, abandoning her child to live in Italy with Vronsky. But her doubts over Vronsky's feelings for her grow, and she eventually pushes him away. Realizing that she has lost everything, Anna walks onto the railway tracks and commits suicide by letting the train hit her.

The action is set in 1848. Two caravans of expatriate unite in Kansas and travel 2,000 miles west to start a new life in Oregon. The leader of the settlers is the elderly father and natural authority Wingate. Scouts are the headstrong Sam Woodhull and the kind-hearted and talented Will Banion. But Banion has a secret around a crime he is said to have committed in the army. Along the way, they suffer a number of hardships such as hunger and bad weather. In addition, Sam Woodhull, embroiled the settlers in clashes with Indians and later aroused the gold fever in some when news of gold discoveries reached the settlers. A dispute ensues and many leave the caravan and move to California.

Time and again Sam Woodhull causes problems, who got involved with Will Banion in a power struggle for the leadership of the caravan and also for the favor of the young Molly Wingate. Fortunately, Banion is by his old friend William Jackson, but in the end he also leaves the caravan shortly before Oregon for California to seek his luck there, as Molly's father forbids a connection with his daughter. Woodhull, who is spurned by Molly because she continues to love Banion, wants to get rid of him in California. He plans to shoot him from ambush. Fortunately, Jackson watches the scene and in turn shoots Woodhull on his back. With his news that Molly is expecting him in Oregon, Will Banion and his wealth are on their way to Oregon and can finally take Molly into his arms.

''Kaaterskill Falls'' spans two years (summer 1976- summer 1978) in the life of a small community in upstate New York. Most of the characters are summer residents, Orthodox Jews whose lives center around the local Orthodox synagogue. Others are year-round residents, both Christians and secular Jews, whose local roots run deep and who coexist in uneasy symbiosis with the summer people.

Elizabeth Shulman, a thirtysomething wife and mother of five daughters, is growing restless with her prescribed role as a woman within the strict Kirshner sect. She conceives the dream of opening a kosher grocery to serve the summer residents of Kaaterskill. Her store is a smashing success, but Elizabeth's perceived laxity in adhering to its rabbinic certification earns the distrust of Isaiah and Rachel Kirshner. Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns that she is pregnant for the sixth time. Elizabeth experiences a closing in of boundaries as Rabbi Isaiah Kirshner withdraws his permission for her grocery store and a new baby binds her once again to home. Ultimately, she takes a job as an assistant at a grocery store in Washington Heights (where the Shulmans live for most of the year) in order to learn the business.

Another plot line revolves around strife within the Melish family. Middle-aged Andras Melish struggles with a sense of distance from his young, lively, somewhat dictatorial wife, Nina. He forges an unlikely clandestine friendship with the reclusive Una Darmstadt-Cooper. Meanwhile, teenage Renee Melish rebels against her mother's expectations for her and forms an unsuitable friendship with a gutsy Syrian girl, Stephanie Fawess. Renee also attracts the attention of a local boy, Ira Rubin.

Still another plot line concerns the Kirshner rabbinic succession. The elderly, widowed Rav Kirshner is afflicted with Parkinson's Disease but remains reluctant to hand the reins of power over to his faithful but plodding son Isaiah. Isaiah's ambitious wife, Rachel, resents this, just as she resents her father-in-law's deep affection for his brilliant elder son Jeremy, who left the Kirshner sect to become a college professor. Rav Kirshner dies mid-way through the novel and Rabbi Isaiah launches a vigorous crackdown on perceived laxities within the sect.

The film's plot has Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attempting to recover a stolen necklace, formerly worn by Cleopatra, from Professor Moriarty. Holmes tries to convince the police that the professor is a criminal, but they are disbelieving.

A human colony world of Volga is populated by ex-Russians, Americans, and Germans. While there is a government of sorts on the planet, most disputes are settled Wild West style. All males own a weapon since there are plenty of bandits. Life is chaotic and, at the same time, simple. Everything changes when prospector Roman Savelyev (his personal blaster has the words "Death or Glory" engraved) finds a strange black box with a big red button in one of his mines. After musing on how clichéd his situation is, he cannot help himself and presses the button. The box disappears the morning after. Several days later, a giant starship suddenly appears and enters Volga's atmosphere to come to rest above the island where the box was found. Not long after the races of the Alliance trace the heavy gravitational tracks of such a huge ship having penetrated the Barrier and showing up in orbit. The aliens assume that the ship belongs to a disappeared ancient race they call the Departed Ones. They are followed by an armada of Imperishables who are also interested in the strange vessel.

The Alliance dares to investigate the ship and use it as a weapon. However the results are disappointing: ship's only controls are "biosuits" — organic structures wrapping an organism to perform a full contact — and they are designed only for humans. Pressed for time as Imperishable are soon to arrive, the Alliance comes to a plan of capturing as many humans as possible and using them to defeat the attack. But although it's easy to destroy the planet, to capture human "savages" proves to be a difficult task: humans are able to hold off the invaders whose orders are to capture the homo not kill them.

Eventually though, most humans are captured and brought to the strange ship. Alliance scientists use their captives to reactivate the ship's systems, especially weapons to use against the Imperishables. However, the humans are able to take over the ship using the neural connections of the "biosuits" and obliterate the alien fleets. Volga is destroyed in the same battle, and the alien ship jumps into deep space.

On the ship, dubbed ''Volga'' by the humans for their destroyed colony, some parts of the crew (mostly the former colony administration) begin plotting against their captain (Savelyev) and his command crew for the control of the ship. As it turns out, the ship selects the command structure based on the person who pressed the red button who becomes captain. Those closest in mindset to Sevelyev are given high command positions. Most bureaucrats and thugs have very different personalities from the captain and are assigned to low positions (something they do not like). At the same time, Savelyev is attempting to figure out the ship's true nature, as he is the only one with unrestricted access to ''Volga'''s systems. Once the attempted coup is put down, Savelyev reveals to his friends that the ship is a parasite, adapting its controls to whoever calls to it. Each time a person uses a biosuit, they experience euphoria, but ship also takes something of the person. Eventually, the ship consumes the crew and begins to seek out a new race to command it. The origins of the ship are unknown. Savelyev speculates that it is either a product of some ancient race or of the galaxy itself to act as an antibody against invaders, in this case the Imperishables.

Eventually, the Alliance catches up with the ship and propose a deal: humans help them drive the Imperishables out of the galaxy, and the Alliance "uplifts" all humans (whom they now call a latent race) to the status of full members of the Alliance. Savelyev, as the human representative, agrees to it, ensuring a place for humans among the stars.

The three other novels which take place in the same universe are called ''Black Relay'', ''Legacy of Giants'', and ''No One but Us'' (the latter two are usually published together as ''War for Mobility'').

On a great day for fishing in Spoonerville, Goofy and his son Max go out to the sea. While fishing, they see a huge pirate ship heading towards Spoonerville with Pete and PJ kidnapped. Goofy tries to catch up with the ship, but doesn't succeed until the ship lands on the pirate's island.

Upon landing on the island and defeating a group of pirates, Goofy and Max learn that the pirates have mistaken Pete for their captain, Keelhaul Pete, who had been swallowed by a whale a long time ago. As Goofy and Max explore of the island and fighting more pirates, Pete and PJ keep up the misconception, as Pete enjoys being the pirate king.

Eventually, Goofy and Max reach the pirate's ship, and see what appears to be Pete. Goofy attempts to save him, but accidentally knocks him out. Max then realizes that the person they assumed to be Pete is actually the real Keelhaul Pete, having returned after the whale spat him out. Concerned with the safety of their neighbors, Goofy and Max infiltrate the pirate ship, climaxing with another run-in with Keelhaul Pete. After defeating him, they find Pete and PJ about to be fed to an alligator, and they promptly rescue them. Suspending Keelhaul Pete over the alligator in their place, Goofy, Max, Pete, and PJ return to their fishing trip.

The film opens in a bar in Nunavut when hitman Brand Hauser (John Cusack) shoots and kills three men at the bar. He takes pictures of the men with his phone, sends the pictures, and then throws the phone into a burning garbage can.

Hauser is then seen on a plane getting directions and life advice from the on-board navigation system, Jerry (Montel Williams). He turns on his screen to receive a video call from the former Vice President (Dan Aykroyd) who gives him his next mission: to terminate Omar Sharif (Lyubomir Neikov), the CEO of the oil company Ugigas in Ugigistan. He tells Hauser that he will be working under the Viceroy, whose identity is still being withheld until further notice. He also tells Hauser that his cover will be a trade show host, working with Tamerlane, a huge corporation that specializes in advertising. He must produce a trade show and a gala wedding as a finale, and still manage to kill Omar Sharif before he makes his plane back to Ugigistan.

He is taken by a car to the safe Emerald City within the fictional war-torn desert country of Turaqistan. In the Tamerlane building, he meets Marsha (Joan Cusack), his assistant for the mission. Once inside the building, he notices a reporter, Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei) attempting unsuccessfully to get inside the Tamerlane building. Natalie attempts to find out why she can't get into Tamerlane, and after asking him several questions, is rushed out of the room by Hauser who doesn't want to reveal any personal details about himself. He does arrange for her to have drinks with him which she accepts. Hauser visits the Viceroy in a secret location hidden in a Popeye's restaurant, who tells him what he needs to do. The Viceroy (who cannot be seen, but only heard with an altered voice) informs Hauser that the grand finale of the Trade Show he's supposed to prepare will be a wedding for Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff), an oversexed, Central Asian pop star. He meets briefly with her and her fiancé, Ooq-Mi-Fay (Sergej Trifunović).

Later, Natalie meets Hauser at a restaurant where he gives her an all-access pass to the Trade Show. She arrives at the rehearsal and is greeted by Hauser and Marsha, who quickly go to watch Yonica's rehearsal. Her oversexed appearance and slight attraction for Hauser make him throw up on Natalie's coat and he walks out. After talking to Jerry in his car, he drinks some hot sauce and then has a flashback. He sees himself telling his fellow hitman Walken (Ben Kingsley) that he is tired of killing and wants to quit. He and Walken engage in a brief struggle in which he shoots Walken and leaves him for dead in the back of a garbage truck.

After receiving a delivery from a dry-cleaner in Germany, Hauser returns Natalie's now-clean coat to her at her hotel. He asks her out for coffee and confesses his habit of drinking hot sauce when he's nervous. She then confesses that she doesn't despise him at all, and the two build up a small friendship. He is later visited by Yonica in his office. She tries to seduce him, but he rebuffs her. He later sees her when he is in a restaurant with Sharif and Natalie. Hauser takes Natalie home, where she kisses him. Embarrassed, she quickly rushes out of the car. She sees him the next day and asks for a pass out of the Emerald City. He gives her a card that he received earlier by videomakers who are ''big in the Arts Community'', and might give her a good lead. Hours later, he visits Yonica and listens to her sing a beautiful ballad; from here on out, he develops a paternal affection for her.

Meanwhile, Natalie buys the cover for a pornographic video that the videomakers were going to shoot on Yonica's wedding night, and leaks it to the American press. After a confrontation with Ooq-Mi-Fay (who was involved in the making of this video), Hauser decides that the only way to continue with the wedding peacefully is to blame everything on Ooq-Mi-Fay's friend Bhodi Bhundhang. Bhodi hunts him down and tries to kill him in a big house that Yonica is supposed to do an interview in. There, Hauser reveals his past to Natalie and Yonica, and how his wife was killed and his daughter was kidnapped. He is interrupted when he hears a gun and rushes to another room, where he is forced to fight Bhodi. He kills Bhodi in front of Natalie and Yonica, who flee the house, horrified. They rush off into a cab, where Yonica asks Natalie to be her bridesmaid; Natalie accepts. Six hours before the wedding, Hauser receives a ransom video from what appears to be a gang of terrorists, who have taken Natalie hostage. Hauser travels to a nearby city named Fallaf, saves Natalie, and makes it to Room 1101, where he had planned to meet and kill Sharif. Hauser has a change of heart and lets Sharif live, and in return is informed "the ultimate chicken-hawk is nearby". Realizing what this means Hauser goes to the Viceroy's secret location, and breaks down the glass to reveal the man behind the screen. The Viceroy is actually Walken — the man who killed Hauser's wife and kidnapped his daughter.

Hauser asks Walken what he did with his daughter, and finds out that Yonica was actually his daughter all along. He rushes to tell Yonica at the wedding, and arrives there right before Walken destroys the building, accidentally killing himself in the process. Fortunately, Hauser, Natalie, and Yonica survive, and rush off to a plane that Yonica and Ooq-Mi-Fay were supposed to fly off in. Once they are airborne, and have presumably escaped, we see a trailing missile about to strike the aircraft. The Vice President reveals his next plan to attack neighboring Ugigistan, blaming them for the bombing of the Emerald city, and terrorist incidents in Turaqistan.

The pilot

Inspired by the original 1897 novel by H.G. Wells, the pilot film depicts Daniel Westin working for a company called the Klae Corporation, which is doing experiments in teleportation. He discovers the side effect of his work is the ability to turn objects invisible, and tries to find medical applications for his invention. He discovers that objects that are made invisible reappear after a few hours, and on living test animals the collars they wear re-appear before the living cells themselves. Obsessed by his invention, Westin decides to become invisible himself, in part to prove that a human can survive the process, and also to test a serum he has developed to reverse the invisibility.

He reveals the process to his boss, Walter Carlson (Jackie Cooper), who is initially unimpressed by what he sees as millions spent on a nuclear disintegrator, but he becomes more interested when he realises that the pen Westin disintegrated is actually still there ("Do you know what you've got here?" "An invisible pen..." "Cute. No, invisible armies..."). He wants to back the project for military purposes, and in the course of the argument it is revealed that the Pentagon has provided the funding for Westin's research; in effect the military already own the process. Westin tries to destroy his invention by sneaking into the lab after hours and deleting his research. In order to make his escape he becomes invisible for a second time, before triggering an overload and destroying the apparatus. But it appears that after all the process is unstable, and he becomes only briefly visible before turning permanently invisible; he cannot return to his visible state any longer, and the serum is ineffective. He goes to his friend, Dr. Nick Maggio (Henry Darrow), a skilled plastic surgeon who creates a disguise for him in the form of a face mask and a pair of gloves using a special material called Dermaplex that has the same properties as human skin, which enable Westin to appear in public. The Dermaplex side effect is that Westin has to remove the mask from time to time because, as Dr. Maggio states, "The beard will be your enemy, and the itch will drive you crazy."

By the conclusion of the pilot, the process' lack of stability renders it effectively useless for commercial or military applications, and the Klae Corporation is persuaded to re-employ him in his research capacity despite his condition, and thus the series begins from this point. Westin seeks to perfect his work and at the same time find a cure — a means of restoring his visibility.

The series

There were differences between the pilot and the series. The pilot depicts Westin as a tragic figure, the "victim" of the invisibility process; despite his continued efforts, he essentially remains invisible all the time and must use technology to "fake" being visible.

The series was lighter and more humorous, featuring invisibility-related gags and scenarios (in the case of the latter, many of these were depicted in the opening title sequence — such as a telephone receiver rising unsupported off its hook and a Jeep driving itself, to name but two), and ignoring the tragic side of Westin's predicament. The first post-pilot episode indicates that Westin and his wife Kate have been working as agents for some time. Indeed, the character's invisibility was utilised as the Klae Resource of the show's introduction; an invisible man can go places and do things that the visible cannot accomplish.

Another difference is in the area of casting; in the pilot, Jackie Cooper portrayed Westin's superior, Walter Carlson, but for the series, the role was recast with Craig Stevens playing the part. The character was also altered to be more sympathetic and closer to the Oscar Goldman archetype.

Like its late 1950s predecessor, ''H.G. Wells' Invisible Man'', the episodes featured sequences of the camera taking on Westin's point of view, showing whoever and/or whatever the character himself was seeing at the time.

The Invisible Man featured episodes that were episodic in that, save the pilot, the series episodes could be viewed in any order. However, the show was canceled after one season due to low ratings before the underlying arc of Westin curing his invisibility and returning to normality could be resolved. For the following season, NBC did however commission a near-identical series in terms of premise, entitled ''Gemini Man''.

The play is set in 1937 in Memphis, Tennessee, in a segregated hospital and its surrounding grounds.

The character of Bessie Smith is only referred to in Albee's play and does not appear on stage. In early performances, Albee did not even allow music or pictures of her to be used.

''The Invisible Man'' is both an action show and a comedy with buddy cop elements.

Episodes were generally of two types. Many centered on cases given to Fawkes and Hobbes by The Agency. These usually dealt with assassinations or government experiments that had run amok. During the first season, The Agency was given a nemesis agency called Chrysalis which was often behind the week's conspiracy.

Alternatively, episodes dealt with Fawkes' quest to have the gland removed from his head and/or to reduce his dependency on the counteragent. His unorthodox methods included reviving the mind of his dead brother and periodically contacting Arnaud DeFehrn, one of the gland's creators, though these encounters usually ended with one of the two in pain. The agency considered the gland too great an asset to remove so Fawkes' personal quest usually brought him in direct conflict with those in power.

Episodes usually begin with a voice-over by Fawkes who would open with a famous quote and comment about what he was currently thinking. The voice over would reemerge at the end of the episode to sum up Fawkes' opinion on the mission or allow him to voice lingering questions.

At the conclusion of the series, Fawkes had been given a new counteragent that permanently cured him of quicksilver madness — his body having become gradually immune to the standard counteragent — but after briefly returning to his old thieving career and another stint at the FBI, he returned to the Agency to continue fighting Chrysalis.

Beginning where the previous film left off, Mark and Sarah leave the burning waxwork. They board a taxi but the severed hand from the zombie exhibit also escapes, follows Sarah home, and kills her stepfather with a hammer. Shortly after, Sarah is on trial for the murder and, much to the dismay of her defense attorney, tells the skeptical jury about what happened at the waxwork. Mark rashly tries to corroborate her story from the spectators gallery but is removed from the courthouse.

Desperate to help their situation, the two visit the late Sir Wilfred's home, where they find a film reel of Sir Wilfred speaking of his and Mark's grandfather's adventures and of the supernatural artifacts they collected together. A secret switch in Sir Wilfred's chessboard opens a door to a room full of objects where Mark and Sarah find a small compass-like device. The device is revealed to be Solomon's Locket, which was used by both light and dark angels to travel through another universe called Kartagra. According to Sir Wilfred, the many worlds of Kartagra comprise the plane where the cosmic eternal battles between good and evil occur. Each victory or failure is reflected in the real world as peace or natural disasters. Most but not all of these worlds consists of fictional stories that have become realities, including: Frankenstein, The Haunting, Alien, Godzilla, Nosferatu, and Dawn of the Dead among others. Much like the waxwork exhibits, whenever Mark and Sarah arrive in a new world they take on the persona of characters in those stories, sometimes having their personalities taken over by those characters until they regain their senses. Those who remain in Kartagra to take up the fight against or for evil are referred to as time warriors.

Mark plans to gather evidence of the reanimated dead to bring back to their world as proof of Sarah's story in court. After jumping from one world to another making little progress, they arrive in a medieval world where Sarah is the sister of the evil sorcerer, Master Scarabis. After foiling Scarabis' plans to take over the thrown of England by transmogrifying into the visiting king, he and Mark engaged in a sword fight. When Solomon's Locket is accidentally opened, the two fight through various worlds. In one world where a zombie invasion is happening in a mall, Mark slices off a zombie's still animate hand and keeps it to use as evidence for Sarah's trial. The two wind up back in Scarabis' castle where Mark gets the upper hand, causing the sorcerer to violently die at the hands of a woman who was turned into a grisly panther creature during a ritual to give him his powers.

When Mark and Sarah attempt to return to their universe, the doorway is smaller this time, only allowing one to enter. Mark reasons that Sarah must go and clear her name, adding that she would never be happy staying in Kartagra. Even though she resists, claiming she would be happy as long as she is with him, Mark sends her through the portal and the two bid a tearful farewell. Sarah returns in Sir Wilfred's secret vault with the zombie hand in tow. She happens upon a partially covered painting she saw earlier and finds it is of Mark, dressed as an armored time warrior.

At the conclusion of her trial, Sarah's incredulous evidence proves her innocence. When leaving the courthouse, a courier delivers her an antiquated package containing Solomon's Locket and a parchment from Mark that reads: "Join me." Sarah happily boards a taxi as the crowd outside watches her disappear in a flash of light.

The story, told in first-person narrative, is set in 1985 and chronicles the misadventures of student Brian Jackson in his first year at an unnamed university. A somewhat obsessive collector of general knowledge, Brian has been a fan since childhood of the television quiz show ''University Challenge'' which he used to watch with his late father, and on arriving at university, he seizes upon the opportunity to join its ''University Challenge'' team. He is initially unsuccessful, but is selected after one of the other team members is forced to drop out because of ill health. The TV show's catchphrase – "Your starter for 10" – gives the book its title.

Brian promptly falls for his glamorous teammate, Alice Harbinson, although the attraction is not mutual, and he may have more in common with a counterculturalist chum, Rebecca Epstein. Additionally, Brian finds himself caught between his new life, amongst the middle-class university set, and his old, with his working-class family and friends in the seaside town of Southend, Essex.

Eric Walker (Tim Taylor) along with his oldest brother Donte Walker (Kurt Matthews) and their friend Loco (D.C. Scorpio) are drug dealers who have a small-time operation selling crack on the corners of Talbert Street in their Anacostia neighborhood in Southeast, D.C. On the street corners, they have to worry about muggers such as 11:30 (a mentally-deranged stick-up kid who's served time in St. Elizabeths Hospital and who's fascinated with killing street thugs and then hurrying home to watch the aftermath on the 11:30 nightly news.)

Eric's youngest brother Michael (Jerry Cummings) is different from the older brothers and is more focused on perfecting his skills in hip-hop and go-go music, along with having dreams of receiving a major record deal. Their mother (Henri Edmonds) is very protective of Michael and doesn't want him going in the same direction as his two older brothers (Eric and Donte) who have become entrenched in the extremely violent drug-infested streets, during a time when D.C. was labeled the "Murder Capital of the United States". As a result, she keeps him on a very tight-leash, so overbearing that Michael feels like he's imprisoned.

Tammy (Taraji Henson) is an unmarried single-mother working as a hairdresser at "Hair Quarters", who neglects her young son. Instead, she parties heavily at the clubs and dates drug hustlers promiscuously. She doesn't believe there are any good men left in the world, and has chosen to live for the moment.

Her mother (Bunny Dorsett) encourages Tammy to straighten up her life and provide motherly guidance for her son; else she'll report her to the Child Protection Services for child neglect. Tammy eventually turns away from the fast-paced chasing-drug hustler's lifestyle and seeks counseling from the Max Robinson Community Center after thinking long about her mother's advice.

Since "streetlife" is what Donte knows best, he wants to leave the 'nickel and dimes' dealings and use his street knowledge to maximize their presence beyond their neighborhood and into other profitable neighborhoods in the city (including Raymond's lucrative territories in Northwest, D.C.) Donte is irritated by outsiders like Raymond (Sidney Burston), a drug lord who comes into their neighborhood and make millions of dollars selling crack off of their street corners. Donte convinces Eric and Loco that it's time to go big and expand their footprint into Raymond's territory.

In time, Donte has an unexpected run-in at a crack-house with Raymond's girlfriend Tiffany (an all-girl's prep school educated drug-addict). She came looking for cocaine, since Raymond refused to give her any. Donte offers to provide her cocaine in exchange for sex, which she agrees. After sex, Donte tries to get inside information of Raymond's drug operation. Tiffany instead gives up Raymond's daily whereabouts, including the weekly haircuts every Wednesday at 10:00 AM at Charlie's barbershop.

Donte uses the information to attempt an assassination of Raymond. Donte and Loco go to kill Raymond at the barbershop. However, they mistakenly kill the wrong person. Raymond (who was in the backroom witnessing) recognized Donte and immediately plans retaliation for "The Walker Boys". Members of his crew kidnap Michael and bring him to Raymond, where he's executed. This enrages Donte and Eric as they seek vengeance against Raymond, which climaxes into an all-out bloody street war between Donte, Raymond, and other neighborhood rivals.

The game's storyline concerns Richard Osmond, who is flying in a space shuttle to a Moon base with his newly wed wife Claudia, who he will spend his honeymoon with at their resort destination. A supernatural force causes the shuttle to crash during landing, killing many and releasing their ghostly spirits upon the base. Richard awakens and, discovering that he is alone, decides that Claudia might be elsewhere. The game centers around finding her, while also putting to rest the uneasy souls that roam the base.

Shortly after arriving on the base, Richard encounters a strange man whom seems to know him. He follows the man back to his room, which is painted to resemble a field. Every time Richard frees a spirit, the spirit's picture is painted on the walls. The man reveals that he is an android who enjoys painting. He also knows Claudia, saying that she is skilled in engineering.

Richard continues to explore the base, freeing various spirits. He frees employees, passengers and a team of astronauts. When viewing various recordings, Richard learns of the facility's chief, whom discovered a strange red stone. Though he initially wanted to mine it for its high oxygen production, he later discovers that it grants wishes at the costs of life. He used it on his close friend, Kenneth, and wished that the facility would be successful. When the oxygen was being harvested from the mineral, the resulting fog escaped and filled the base, causing pain to the souls. Richard also discovers that the chief had a relationship with Claudia.

Near the end of his journey, the android reveals that he is Kenneth, and that his picture would be finished soon. After freeing all the souls, Kenneth tells Richard that the stone was what started the whole thing and is what he will be faced with in the end. He asks Richard to come back to his room one last time, saying that his picture is done. If the player returns to the room, Richard finds that Kenneth has become part of his painting. A keycard on the desk takes an elevator to the B2 level. There, Richard finds a mummified corpse, which is the chief of the facility. He finds a ring and a letter on the table next to him, saying he was in love with Claudia.

Richard proceeds to the observatory, where he finds the specter of Claudia. She used the red stone to kill herself and wished that she would see Richard again. She then offers Richard the stone. Depending on the choices made, the ending will be different.

• If Richard did not obtain the letter from the B2 room and accepts the stone, Claudia says "he" died, but has no regrets. She fades away in a bright flash. Richard looks behind the statue she was in front of and finds her dead body. Richard looks at the ceiling and holds the red stone up. He then stabs the sharp end of the stone into himself and falls to the ground, staring at Claudia's corpse before the screen fades black.
• If Richard did not obtain the letter from the B2 room and does not accept the stone, Claudia says that they have the same thoughts and was happy that she knew him. She thanks him as she fades away in a bright flash. Richard finds her body behind the statue and carries it to the main hub. There, he sets it down and stares at Earth through the skylight.
• If Richard did obtain the letter from the B2 room, he gives it to Claudia, who reveals that the chief was actually the real Richard Osmond and that the player is an android created by her. If the player accepts the stone Claudia says he looked just like the real Richard and said she wished he was the real Richard before fading away. Richard finds her corpse behind the statue. He looks at the ceiling and holds the stone up before the screen fades black. His fate is unknown.
• If Richard did obtain the letter from the B2 room and refuses the stone, Claudia says that she can return to earth with Richard inside her and thanks the player, saying she loved him as well. She fades away, with Richard discovering her corpse behind the statue. The game then shifts to a cutscene that shows Richard carrying her body into a funeral chamber. He pauses briefly to look at the portrait of himself on the wall. It is after that moment that you can see the Android Richard's face inside his helmet. He places Claudia in a coffin at the front of the chamber and places a ring on her finger (it is unknown if this is the ring he possessed at the beginning of the game or the one from the B2 room). The coffin is then blasted out into space, where the Earth's reflection is seen on it. Richard returns to the hub and gazes at Earth through the skylight before the screen fades black.

Lawrence Jameson is a refined, elegant con artist living in the French Riviera town of Beaumont-sur-Mer, where he masquerades as the deposed prince of a small European country, seducing wealthy women into donating money and jewellery to his revolutionary "cause". Meanwhile, Corporal Freddy Benson is a small-time operator in the US Army stationed in Germany, conning his way into the hearts (and wallets) of young women with sob stories about his sick grandmother. His attempt at seducing the daughter of a local Burgomaster (A Mayor) backfires when her father arrives home early, but Freddy is able to blackmail his colonel into giving him an early discharge.

On a train to Beaumont-Sur-Mer, Freddy cockily displays his skill as a conman to Lawrence, whom he believes to be a henpecked husband. Lawrence, believing Freddy's "poaching" will endanger his own activities, attempts to distract him into leaving town, and when that fails, arranges for his arrest. Lawrence has him released and buys him a plane ticket to America. Unfortunately, one of Lawrence's former conquests is on the plane and gives away Lawrence's deception. Freddy returns and blackmails Lawrence into taking him on as an apprentice.

Freddy is taught to play The Prince's mentally challenged brother Ruprecht, a tactic to scare women away from trying to marry the prince. They are successful, but when Lawrence refuses to pay Freddy until he can acquire the culture necessary for Lawrence's style of con, Freddy decides to set out on his own. Lawrence believes that there is not enough room in Beaumont-Sur-Mer for both of them, so the two make a bet: The first one to steal $25,000 from a selected mark will stay, and the other must leave forever.

They choose Janet Walker, a naïve American heiress, as their target. Freddy poses as a soldier who is suffering from psychosomatic paralysis. He wins Janet's affections with a sad story and convinces her that he needs $25,000 to pay for treatment by a celebrated Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Emile Shauffhausen. Lawrence then masquerades as Dr. Shauffhausen, agreeing to treat Freddy's "condition" with the stipulation that Janet pay the $25,000 directly to him. The two battle for Janet's affections, ruthlessly sabotaging each other, with the worldly Lawrence mostly coming out on top.

Lawrence discovers that Janet is not wealthy after all, but merely a contest winner, and that she intends to sell off the remainder of her winnings to pay for Freddy's treatment. Since he only preys on wealthy women who can afford it, Lawrence attempts to call off the bet. Freddy refuses, but suggests that they change the bet: the first to get her into bed will win. Lawrence refuses to try to seduce Janet, but bets that Freddy will fail to do so.

Freddy has Lawrence kidnapped by some paratroopers whom he fools into believing Lawrence is trying to steal his girl (Janet). He then convinces Janet of his love by "conquering" his paralysis and walking. Lawrence has been present the whole time, and he now declares that Freddy is cured. Lawrence explains that he told the soldiers he had been a British Army paratrooper during the war, and filled them in on Freddy's lies. The angry soldiers keep Freddy occupied until Lawrence puts Janet on a train. However, as the train is departing, Janet receives a telegram stating that Dr. Emil Shauffausen has been dead for over 40 years. Confused and distraught, she returns to her hotel room, where she finds Freddy, who apparently succeeds in seducing her.

Lawrence gracefully accepts defeat, but Freddy surprisingly has had a change of heart: he could not take advantage of Janet, and realises that his feelings for her are genuine. Instead, he marries her, goes straight, and they return to America. Lawrence reflects that, in the end, Freddy is happier than he, but as he sees his next mark, a ravishing and extremely wealthy blonde, concludes that "a man must learn to live with his misery".

From 800 years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity. Those coming through it have been tasked with taking the alien 'Maker' back to its home civilization in the Small Magellanic cloud. Once these refugees are safely through, the gate itself is rapidly shut down because something alien is pursuing them. From those who get through, agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by pernicious virus known as the Jain technology. This raises questions: Why was Dragon, a massive bioconstruct of the Makers, really sent to the Polity; why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone who could do the most damage with it? Meanwhile, an entity called the Legate is distributing toxic Jain nodes ...and a renegade attack ship, The King of Hearts, has encountered something very nasty outside the Polity itself ...

Setting and boxers

''Victorious Boxers'' is set in Tokyo, Japan. The story unfolds via cut scenes set in either the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, the fictional boxing gym of the main characters, or the waiting rooms of the boxing arenas. The gameplay takes place in boxing arenas, some of which are based on locations in Japan and include Korakuen Hall, Ryogoku Sports Arena, and the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. Other locations include the mountainous area around Niigata, and an outdoor boxing ring set in post-World War II Tokyo, Japan.

The game features forty-four playable boxers—forty-two boxers and two duplicate characters that have handicapped abilities. The protagonist is Ippo Makunouchi, but the story shifts to his friends and fellow contenders as well. The game features most of the boxer up to the 53rd volume of the manga, including Ryuichi Hayami, Ryo Mashiba, Vorg Zangief, Kazuki Sanada, and Ryuhei Sawamura. Excluded are, Itagaki Manabu, Makino Fumito, Hama Dankichi, and Rally Bernard. The different boxers span five different weight classes; most boxers have a special move derived from the manga series.

The two duplicate characters are Ippo and Mamoru Takamura. The two characters are weaker than their normal versions and are embodiments of parts of the original story. The weaker Ippo is the first version of the character available. He wears sweats and a T-shirt rather than the boxing trunks the other characters wear. This version is based on when Ippo began boxing and was training to fight his rival, Ichiro Miyata. The weaker Takamura has less muscle mass and looks ill. He is based on a fight in the manga when Takamura overdid his weight management.

Story

The game begins with a sparring match with Ichiro Miyata, which is actually a rematch from a previous sparring match with Miyata that took place in the manga series.Ippo Makunouchi vs Ichiro Miyata Fight, ''Hajime no Ippo'' manga, Volume 2. pp 34–112. Kodansha Limited. After winning, Ippo take his professional boxer exam to begin his boxing career. He then enters the East Japan Rookie Champion Tournament, and after succeeding, he faces the West Japan Rookie Champ, Takeshi Sendo. Ippo later enters the Class A tournament where he wins his chance to challenge the Japanese Featherweight Champion, Eiji Date. After losing to Eiji Date, Ippo climbs the ranks again to the featherweight championship, where he faces Sendo, who has become the new champion. After becoming the champion, Ippo then defends the title five times.

The story then shifts to one of Ippo's senpai, Masaru Aoki, who has been boxing for a number of years before Ippo. He enters the Class A Tournament, but loses. Afterward, he begins his comeback and rises through the Lightweight division to win the Lightweight Championship against Katsutaka Imae. Aoki's story differs from the manga in that Aoki lost several of the fights, and achieved a draw in the Title bout. After Aoki's story arc, the game shifts again to another of Ippo's senpai, Tatsuya Kimura, who began boxing with Aoki. His story is very similar to Aoki's in that he also enters the Class A Tournament and loses. Afterward, he begins his comeback that eventually leads to winning the Junior Lightweight Championship fight against Ryo Mashiba. Kimura's story is also different than the manga in that he lost several of the fights and did not become the Junior Lightweight Champion.

The story switches again to Mamoru Takamura. His story is the most similar to the manga in that he is the only character in the series to have never lost a fight. It begins with Takamura as the Japanese Middleweight Champion, defending his title against the Class A Tournament winner. After winning, Takamura and the others go to a lodge in the mountains to train. While there he encounters a mountain bear that he knocks out. After having a successful boxing career in Japan, Takamura aims for a world title and receives a challenge from the World Junior Middleweight Champion, Brian Hawk. Takamura begins a strict weight management program to drop to Hawk's weight class. When they eventually fight, Takamura is victorious and becomes the new Junior Middleweight Champion of the world.

After the main boxers have been played, Ippo visits his coach, Genji Kamogawa, at the mountain lodge. While there, he learns about Kamogawa's history as a boxer via a flash back story. Kamogawa and his longtime friend and rival, Ginpachi Nekota, were both boxers before World War II. After the war, they boxed in exhibition matches. The two boxed each other often and once they met Yuki, a young girl from Hiroshima, their rivalry grew. While boxing, Kamogawa severely injured Nekota, but Nekota hide it because of their friendship. One day, Ralph Anderson, an American soldier stationed in their area, challenged and beat up the local boxers to show American dominance over Japanese boxers. Nekota challenges Anderson, but loses due to developing punch-drunk syndrome from his fight with Kamogawa. During the fight, Anderson used an illegal punch on Nekota that worsened his condition. After Nekota's defeat, Kamogawa begins intensive training to defeat Anderson. Through his training, he develops an "iron fist" technique. He then challenges Anderson, who because of his near loss has also trained extensively. After defeating Anderson, Kamogawa vows to pass on his boxing spirit to his students in order to show his boxing to the world.

The novel is set against the backdrop of a fictional Australian bush town, Angel Rock, during the late 1960s. The story concerns the investigation of two seemingly separate incidents: the disappearance of two young brothers (of who only one has returned home safely), and the suicide of a teenage girl in a derelict house in Sydney.

During the course of investigating the teenage girl's death, the detective chooses to go to the town and begins to believe that the two incidents might be linked in some way and he is forced to confront memories from his own past.

Flashbacks

The episode begins with Charlie Pace, as a child, receiving a new piano. His family wants him to use his musical talent to "save" them and get them out of their current impoverished circumstance, but his father, dressed as a butcher, appears, saying, "He ain't savin' no one, he is," and cuts the head off of a doll with a cleaver. Later, Charlie, an adult, is seen in a hospital, where Karen, his brother Liam's girlfriend, has just given birth to a daughter, named Megan after Charlie and Liam's mother. However, Liam's increasing drug habit is causing problems: it prevented him from showing up at the birth, and is interfering with the brothers' band, DriveSHAFT. When Karen throws him out, Liam turns up on his brother's doorstep, but abuses Charlie's hospitality by secretly selling his piano, defensively claiming that he needed the money in order to travel to Australia to get a job and enter rehab, "for his family."

On the Island

Hearing a baby's cries, Charlie looks towards the ocean and sees Aaron's cradle floating away. He swims out to save the baby and brings him back to the beach, where Claire and Charlie's mother, dressed as angels, repeatedly call out to Charlie that he must "save the baby." Hurley also appears, dressed as John the Baptist. Charlie awakens from his dream, finding that he is holding Aaron on the beach, but with no memory of how it happened. A frantic Claire runs up and takes her baby back from Charlie and slaps him across the face.

When Charlie tells Eko about his dreams, Eko says that the dreams might mean that Charlie needs to save the baby, but Charlie misunderstands him. He goes to Claire to express his concerns about Aaron being in danger, meaning that they must baptize him, but Claire no longer trusts him after he repeatedly lied to her.

Charlie heads to his hidden stash of heroin-filled Virgin Mary statues, but Locke follows him and confiscates them, despite Charlie's protests that he was going to destroy them himself. Locke then stores the statues in the hatch, in the same room where the guns are being secured.

Later that evening, Charlie starts a fire as a diversion and steals Aaron from his crib. However, Claire notices him, and chases him to the ocean. Charlie tries to baptize him, and is reluctant to give Aaron back. He tries to convince the group that he was just trying to "save the baby." Eventually Locke persuades Charlie to give Aaron back, and hands him back to Claire. He then punches Charlie in the face three times, leaving him breathless and bloody. With him lying in the water, the surrounding crowd lingers for a moment and leaves without offering to help him.

Despite everything that happened, at the end of the episode, Claire seeks out Eko herself. At her request, he baptizes both her and Aaron.

In the 1880s, followed by bill collectors, the Healy Dramatic Company arrives in Cheyenne to play at the west’s grandest theater. Tom Healy's troupe includes performers Angela Rossini, Della Southby, Lorna Hathaway and Doc Montague. After a creditor arrives, Angela risks herself and the night's receipts in a poker game with gunslinger Clint Mabry but loses.

After the company leaves Cheyenne, Mabry joins them and kills three attacking Indians. In their haste the team leaves their cart and other belongings behind. After a long trek, they reach the mountains. Angela confesses to Tom that she lost herself to Mabry in a poker game, and Tom is upset that Mabry claims her as his property.

A gunman hired by a man named De Leon shoots Tom, thinking that he is Mabry. When Mabry finds the gunman, he learns that De Leon has placed a contract on his life. De Leon had originally hired Mabry to kill three men in Cheyenne for $5,000.

The group reaches a nearby city but Tom has a high fever. He breaks up the company and tells Angela to go back to her own place and that after selling the horses he will send her share of the money.

Mabry asks Angela to help him recover the $5,000 from De Leon. She collects the money and waits in Bonanza for a suitable time when Mabry can join her. Mabry tells her to keep what she had lost in the poker game. De Leon instructs his two spies to follow her. Angela purchases a theater with the $5,000 and names it Healy’s Theater.

After recovering from his wounds, Tom and the other team members come to Bonanza. They are surprised to see the theater. They share a happy reunion and stage the drama ''Mazeppa'' to great success.

Mabry arrives to claim his money from Angela, and she confesses that she spent it all on the theater, but because of the success of their production, she is able to pay him. Mabry is noticed by De Leon's henchmen, and Tom aids his escape.

In the empty theater, Tom waits for Angela, who is missing along with Mabry. When she arrives, she assures Tom that she has settled with Mabry by mortgaging the theater and tells him that she signed the contract as Mrs. Thomas Healy. Tom takes her into his arms and they happily depart.

In 1907, a widowed Princess Olympia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has been banished from the Imperial Court to her late husband's country estate. The bored Princess spends her time improving her rifle marksmanship by using flowers, statues and the postman as her targets. When she tires of that, being an expert equestrienner as well as an expert markswoman, she rides a wild stallion to her hunting lodge. On the way she is thrown from her mount by the appearance of an automobile driven by a visiting American mining engineer Charlie Foster. She feigns injury to get to know Charlie better as she keeps her royal heritage a secret from him, for Charlie believes her a peasant. Treating her with his first aid expertise, Charlie gives her his own pyjamas but mistakenly gives her a sleeping pill with a glass of wine that sends Olympia into a deep sleep.

Waking in Charlie's pyjama top, but not the bottom, Olympia fears the worst has happened and flees back home where news as arrived that she is able to return to the Imperial Court in Vienna. Olympia is greeted by the news by her mother that she is to be married to Prince Ruprecht of Prussia. She is also reunited with Charlie who has come to see her father Prince Philip about mining and refining bauxite in the Empire. Her rival Countess Lina is determined to ruin Princess Olympia's life by informing the Imperial Chamberlain Count Sandor of Olympia's scandalous conduct with the American.

The film recounts the misadventures of a beautiful and temperamental village girl Isabella (Sophia Loren) and an ill-tempered Spanish prince, Rodrigo (Omar Sharif). The prince is a risk taker, avoiding his parents' wishes for him to marry.

One day while riding a horse in the countryside, he is thrown and walks to a hill where he sees a man floating around above laughing children. The man gives him a donkey and some flour, telling him someone will make him seven dumplings. On the way back, he meets Isabella. He is very much attracted to her, but she rejects him.

The king of Spain orders Rodrigo to choose a wife among seven Italian princesses within seven days, and for that he arranges a gathering, despite his attraction to Isabella. She joins the cooking team for the seven-day function while the prince searches for her in the countryside. With the help of witches and saints, Isabella finally conquers the heart of her prince and marries him.

In the late 1990s, Durval (Ary França) is a middle-aged man who owns a record store in the first floor of his overbearing mother's (Etty Fraser) house. A typical hippie, Durval refuses to sell CDs despite the decline in customers. He notices his mother is not giving as much attention to cooking and house chores as she once did, and suggests they hire a maid, a task which is tricky since they are only willing to pay 100 reais. A young woman (Letícia Sabatella) finally appears willing to take on the job, but disappears after one day. They soon discover that she left a little girl called Kiki and a note asking them to take care of her for a few days. Durval and his mother become attached to Kiki, but soon discover she is actually the daughter of a wealthy family from the countryside who has been kidnapped.

A college student discovers her dorm was once a notorious asylum. According to Winthrop's campus newspaper, The Johnsonian, a group of college freshmen with troubled pasts and nightmares are at Richard Miller University for orientation a couple of weeks prior to the beginning of classes. They stumble into an old restricted area and awaken the spirit of a mad doctor, who then proceeds to torture and torment the students in the same way he tortured the patients in 1939 at Burke Asylum. During the film, first String is killed, then Maya, followed by Tommy, school's caretaker Mackey, and Ivy. All are killed by the Doctor. In the end The Doctor chases Madison and Holt through a tunnel, an abandoned factory, and the woods until Madison kills him by stabbing him in the head, causing him to lose all his power and the souls that he has taken. The movie ends with Madison and Holt walking out of the forest finally being able to have closure with their pasts.

The show centers around the antics of Albert ( ) de Parmagnan, a new member of the Musketeers (the series takes place after the Siege of La Rochelle, and therefore after D'Artagnan has become a musketeer, but before Milady's death). While the other four musketeers are portrayed as bumbling and incompetent, Albert is quick-witted and clever, creating many inventions to get the others out of trouble.

He and the other Musketeers have adventures as they fight with the guards of Cardinal Richelieu and attempt to thwart his plans to take over France.

In total there were 26 episodes, which aired in 1994. The show was later translated into English, Dutch, Swedish, French and Russian and shown in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Thailand, the Netherlands, United States, South Africa, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Hong Kong, France and Russia.

The film opens with footage taken by the victorious German Army following the Battle of France in 1940 and aerial shots, including Adolf Hitler surveying conquered territory from an aeroplane. Cut to the interior of a landing craft on D-Day, filled with as yet unidentified characters, young soldiers. A blurry image of a soldier running, alone and falling, shot dead, dissolves to a man running down an English lane to his home. This is Tom and the film follows this everyman through his call up to the East Yorkshire Regiment, his training, his meeting a young girl, his journey to France and his death on D-Day at Sword Beach.

The story begins as Desmond finds a naked woman asleep on the couch in his seaside mansion. Rarely receiving visitors, he is confused about how she entered his home. Awakening, she tells Desmond that she is Claire from Toronto. Confused, Desmond decides that Toronto must be a planet in a nearby galaxy, and that Claire is an alien. Her spaceship must have crashed into the nearby ocean, and she is on his couch seeking refuge. He tells the young "alien" that she may stay with him until she is ready to return to her home planet. Claire moves in, and starts helping Desmond with chores and running to the store so that Desmond never has to leave the house. Desmond does not receive visitors, except for his mother (who frequently shows up unannounced snooping for uncashed checks).

The narrative continues in flashbacks, revealing aspects of Desmond's childhood, including his brother Danny and abusive father. Danny was their father's favorite. Their father's deep interest in everything Danny did often causes Danny to give up hobbies, as the pressure overwhelmed him. Desmond, however, tries hard to please his father, without success. Their father was a musician when he was younger, and had a single hit on the radio. As such, he pushed both of the boys into music. Danny quickly grew bored of it and quit, unlike Desmond, who tried to learn every instrument he could in hopes of receiving his father's approval.

Though Danny grew tired of other interests, he loved "going fast". He begins engaging in risky behavior, such as riding down big hills on his bike. After he is caught stealing a car, he is sent to a military school. While Danny is at military school, Desmond learns to play many instruments. After returning home, Desmond tries to bond with Danny by encouraging them to sing together. While Danny works on his car, Desmond would encourage him to sing with him. The pair soon write their first song about Danny's car, called "Torque, Torque." Their father hears them playing and pushes them to start a band, declaring himself their manager. While scouting for someone to help mix their music, they meet "Fred the Head". Fred is passionate about mixing songs, and shows Desmond how to do it. Desmond spends hours locked away with Fred, mixing songs. Their father finds a record label that signs the boys, and they release their first song, which quickly rises to the top of the charts.

Their father then decides that the boys need additional band members who fit the "California look". He puts out an ad for teenage musicians. As the band rises to stardom, the boys start doing drugs and drinking heavily. The majority of the band members also engage in promiscuous sexual activity with the groupies who follow them. Desmond, on the other hand, never preoccupies himself with women. Instead, he prefers to just drink, do drugs, and play music.

Flashbacks reveal that Desmond married Faye, a groupie. While married to her, Desmond stopped his heavy partying and acquired an office job where he wrote songs all day. One day, he went home and found Faye in bed with their mutual friend, Farley O'Keefe. He kicks Faye out, and begins his voluntary seclusion - staying home, drinking, and getting high.

Danny, while driving drunk, plunges off a cliff. This proves to be Desmond's last straw. He completely withdraws from the outside world, refuses to leave his home, and no longer allows visitors. His drug habit worsens as he avoids reality. The drugs damage his short-term memory. As his isolation continues, he begins experiencing vivid hallucinations. He spends all of his time on his passion project, writing "Whale Music" for the whales that often swim by his seaside home. It is the only thing that brings him joy.

In the present day, he finds Claire. Things go well with Claire until she invites Desmond's friends over for dinner. Desmond gets angry at Claire and reminds her that he does not allow visitors into his home. They get into a fight until finally, Desmond backs down. He tells her that he is going to the studio to work on Whale Music, promising he will be back in time for dinner. When he eventually returns, dinner is over, and he and Claire fight again. Claire walks out, and Desmond goes back to Whale Music. Later, realizing that Claire hasn't returned, he decides to go after her and steps out of his house for the first time in years. Outside, a small dog runs at him and he kicks it across the yard. The dog returns, and Desmond apologizes. Desmond promises to give the dog a steak if he follows him into town.

Desmond and the dog go to a nearby bar to look for Claire. A man offers to take Desmond to a strip club where he says he saw Claire. She is on the stage, and Desmond jumps up and demands that she return home with him. A security guard approaches, trying to kick Desmond out. Ignoring the guard, he continues trying to persuade Claire to go with him. The security guard calls out Desmond's name. Stunned, he realizes that the guard is O'Keefe. Desmond runs at Farley to punch him, but before he makes contact, the guard is already on the ground. Farley starts screaming because the dog has bitten his leg. The police are called, and Desmond and Claire are both arrested.

Desmond's record company provides him with a lawyer, and Farley agrees to not press charges. Desmond asks about Claire, but is told that she is in the country illegally and will, therefore, not be released. Desmond lies to the officer, saying they are engaged, and she is released into his care. In the parking lot, Farley approaches Desmond to ask why he's so mad at him. Desmond tells Farley that it's because of his infidelity with Faye. Farley claims that it was Danny in bed with Faye, not him. Desmond's memories then flood back. He remembers the fight and how he kicked Danny out that day, refusing to speak to him. He mourns that Danny died before he had the chance to forgive him.

Upon finishing Whale Music, Desmond has a party at his house to celebrate. They line huge speakers all over the property, pointing them towards the ocean so that the whales can hear. Desmond and Claire sit on the rocks beside the ocean, hoping for whale sightings, though none appear. Claire asks Desmond for the name of a particular song that she hadn't heard before. He tells her the song is called "Have You Guys Seen Danny?" She begins to cry, and asks Desmond why he can't be happy. Desmond replies that he wrote the songs because he never got the chance to forgive Danny.^[1]

'''1930: Exile''' This is the story of the Manrique, a provincial family that moved to Bogotá after one of its patriarchs decided to try his luck in the city. He ended up founding a criminal organization by accident and decided to strengthen it. Then, he tried to reintegrate into society but tragically succumbed after having created an illegal world.

The decade of the 30s brought a radical, violent, and armed political conflict to the country. Tomás Manrique, a man of class and wealthy family, had to flee his home town with his wife Josefina and his son Pedrito. During the night, an armed group unexpectedly barges into a party, killing every male they found to be in the opposing political party. When this war that Tomás had decided not to be a part of had begun, he moves to the capital with his family helped by a worker from the railway station. The worker, Pascual Martinez, leads them to a small inn owned by Magnolia, a woman dedicated to witchcraft. However, Pascual, in complicity with Magnolia, breaks into the family's room and steals their money, after Pascual decides he can be cheated. When Tomás confronts him, he is brutally beaten, but when he recovers from his wounds, Tomás takes revenge by stealing Pascual's gold cuff links from his room. Later, both men settle their differences and go to a brothel owned by Deborah, Pascual's lover. The brothel becomes a haunt for both of them. Helped by Pascual, Tomás accepts a job in a factory that manufactures screws.

One afternoon, a group of thieves enters the factory. Tomás accidentally ends up being the hero when he immobilizes the criminals, winning the respect and trust of his boss Facundo, who allows Tomás, dandy by nature, to enter and desire his wealthy lifestyle, full of luxury and commodity. But Tomás knows that collecting such a fortune means many years of hard work, and he is not willing to wait that long. He decides to rob his boss's house with the complicity of Pascual, a thief and new friend. In order to get the guns for this, they made a deal with a mobster who, in return, asks for part of the loot and takes Pedro, Tomás's son, as a guarantee. Tomás accepts the deal, but things get complicated, and he ends up accidentally killing his boss and also later killing the mobster who lent them the guns, thereby not sharing any of the loot. He rescues his son and gets home with a feeling of having done the right thing.

This marks the beginning of a world of crime in the life of Tomás, and little by little, the Manriques rise to the point of a stable income and well-being through legal and illegal businesses. Tomás's dream of becoming a well-established, honest businessman and gentleman never come true, and he slowly resigns himself to work in the underworld.

'''1940s: The Legacy'''

Ten years later, Pedro has become 20. Pedro falls in love with the daughter of the man who killed the men of his village. Pedro plays poker with the man and with help from Pasqual he gets all of the man's money. His daughter hated Pedro when she found out that her father lost the money she made a deal. The deal was if she could beat him she would get the money back for her father. If she lost she would have sex with him. He almost lost but, wins he tells her he is better than that and that if she wants him to condone her father's debt she has to marry him. Which she accepts.

Mexican bandit Jose Esqueda resents settlers in the Brownsville, Texas region, and conducts raids against them. He threatens to burn down their homes, and has burned down the ranch house King Cameron has just built for his wife Cordelia.

Rio, raised like a brother to Esqueda, joins forces with him at first. But in time he forms a partnership with Cameron instead, and even saves his life, although Cordelia continues not to trust him.

Complications arise when Cordelia's distrust turns to desire. Cameron must save both his property and his marriage after Esqueda goes on a rampage, robbing Brownsville's bank and killing the sheriff.

Shot several times by Esqueda and close to death, Cameron is once again saved by Rio, who confronts Esqueda in a final gunfight. Cameron forgives Cordelia for her feelings toward Rio.

Special agent Al Simmons is tricked by his military team and assassinated. After being sent to Hell, Simmons makes a deal with the demon, Malebolgia, to get revenge by leading Hell's army to, and on, Earth. However, the deal is twisted, and Simmons becomes a minion of Hell, stripped of his name and rank, and now referred to only as Spawn. Rather than accept this fate, Spawn searches for the opportunity to free himself from his misguided deal. This leads to the rebirth of Spawn (with Violator as well) as in the chapters of the comic books by Todd McFarlane. The story completely revolves around Spawn and the growth of his power.

Cervantes and his manservant have been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, and a manuscript by Cervantes is seized by his fellow inmates, who subject him to a mock trial in order to determine whether the manuscript should be returned. Cervantes' defense is in the form of a play, in which Cervantes takes the role of Alonso Quijano, an old gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant. Quijano renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza.

Vincent Malivert is the head of a prestigious jewel broker's firm on the exclusive Place Vendôme. Hampered by debt and implicated in trafficking of stolen jewels, he commits suicide, leaving his wife Marianne to pick up the pieces.

Marianne, who has spent the last few years in and out of a clinic recovering from alcoholism, discovers a set of perfect cut diamonds in her husband's safe. Although she knows the diamonds are probably stolen, she decides to use this opportunity to rebuild her life and sets about trying to find a buyer for the hidden jewels. Unwittingly, she is drawn to a shady dealer named Battistelli, the very man who drove her into a disastrous and loveless marriage.

After a young man named Ethan Daniels is thrown out of the bar in the town of Pennystown, he meets a mysterious, naked and injured woman out on the street. He takes her to his home, and after he tries unsuccessfully to get information from her, they have intercourse. He leaves her in his house the next day to report the situation to the local police officer, running across his ex-girlfriend Taylor in the process. They return to Ethan's home to find that the women he took in has laid eggs that hatch into full-grown identical copies of her. The Girls attack any other females they come across, forcing the townspeople to initially hide in their homes. The situation is complicated by a giant sperm-like monster in a cornfield and the discovery of an enormous reflective dome separating Pennystown from outside aid and from escaping. The townspeople are further stressed when the bridge collapses, killing many of them and demolishing almost all of the town's vehicles.

The townspeople are then attacked again and escape to a nearby farmhouse where they take advantage of the homeowner's hospitality by eating all of the food and running down the generator, much to her frustration. One of the men, Lester, is left behind at the bridge but later manages to make his way to where everyone is hiding. He initially tells everyone that he was attacked by the women but soon confesses that he had been injured by a moose and actually had sex with several of the Girls. This prompts Ethan to suggest that the Girls could lay eggs after intercourse, revealing that he had sex with the one he had taken home. This horrifies many of the women and upsets Taylor, who insisted that the two had been on a break rather than broken up. Tensions continue to rise, prompting the women and men to take sides based on their gender.

The men in the group end up taking some of the Girls prisoner, which ends up angering the women, who believe that they should be killed. This further alienates the women from the men, especially after it is discovered that one of the men had sex with one of the Girls. During a scuffle over the discovery, one of the men ends up striking his pregnant wife. This prompts one of the women, Nancy, to shoot his ear and lock most of the men into the shed after first killing the Girls. Some of the men, including Nancy's husband Kenny, escape into the woods. Kenny ends up having sex with several of the Girls and later tries to kill his wife when she discovers his wrongdoings after she and the others had been forced to leave the farmhouse.

Everyone eventually converges and it's discovered that the Girls had only been interested in the men for their semen. If they could not or would not copulate with them, the Girls would try to kill them as they did the women. This comes as a blow to many of the men, who had not taken the threat the Girls posed as seriously due to the idea that they would never be attacked. The book ultimately ends with the remaining townspeople killing off the rest of the Girls, which prompts the sperm monster to break the dome and shoot a beam into space. The surviving townspeople then mourn their dead friends and family as well as celebrate their survival as rain pours down on them. The scene then cuts to outer space, where another sperm monster is seen carrying another Girl to another planet.

The opening prologue of ''Raiden Fighters 2'' hints at a plot from this game. The protagonists are at war against an army headed by a dictator. ''Raiden Fighters 2'' indicates that its story takes place four years after the events of this game.

By the year 2050, mankind begins the colonization of multiple planetary systems in the search for habitable planets. While the colonists establish original cultures and scientific studies, many of them begin feuding with each other. Armed conflict breaks out among them and the Earth. One rebel faction rises to great power and makes Earth their primary target. Earth's response is Operation Viper Phase 1: to combat the rebels using advanced space fighters built from downed enemy ships.

Louise Graham witnesses the murder of a crime boss and flees the city to hide out in Glacier National Park. She is followed by two men, Matt Hallett and Paul Adams, one of whom is a federal agent charged with protecting her, the other a ruthless killer determined to murder her.

A police sergeant and a parole officer endeavor to stop a rapist-on-parole before he can follow through his threats on five women who testified against him years earlier.

When Jack Robinson (James Keach) gets a new job in Australia, he decides to take his wife Anna (Jane Seymour), sons Shane (John Mallory Asher) and Todd (Blake Bashoff) and daughter Elisabeth 'Lizzy' (Jamie Renée Smith) by sailing a yacht from Hong Kong to Sydney. Elisabeth begins keeping an online journal of their trip. Jack's employer Sheldon Blake (David Carradine) gives him a gun for protection before the trip. The first part of the journey goes smoothly and the family is enchanted by the beauty of the sea (except for Anna who is violently ill).

However, one night they find themselves followed by a strange ship. It turns out that Sheldon is the leader of a band of modern day pirates who are using Jack and his family to smuggle a cache of money and jewels. They order the Robinsons to turn over the yacht and leave in the lifeboat. A fierce gun battle ensues and the family manages to escape. However a storm causes them to run into a reef and they find themselves shipwrecked and marooned on a deserted island

Salvaging parts of the boat, the Robinsons learn survival skills and build a shelter. Shane also discovers Francoise (Yumi Iwama), a French-speaking Asian girl who is also living on the island. She captures him and the two soon fall in love. Francoise is an airplane crash survivor who has been living on the island since her airplane crashed and lives a semi-feral life with two orangutans. Upon the Robinsons being formally introduced to Francoise, she later teams up with the family where Anna gives her a shower and some new clothes. Francoise has a maturing effect on Shane who wishes to marry her. The family even adopts an orangutan to whom they give first aid. The pirates return in one final showdown. Using their newly learned skills, the Robinsons are able to outwit them and escape back to civilization.

Aaron Silverman is part of a group of young, idealistic students at a top Boston law school who open a legal aid center, the "Neighborhood Law Office," to help the poor. As these young students have not yet been admitted to the bar, they receive guidance from established Boston lawyer David Barrett.

Jason, a disciple of Socrates, is asked to help defend Polemides, infamous in Athens as the man who assassinated Alcibiades. Predisposed to despise Polemides for his actions, Jason is taken by the man's graciousness, his open admission of his crimes, and the parallels between his and Jason's service in the war.

Aged nineteen at the outbreak of the war (431 BC), Polemides enlists in the Athenian army sent to hasten the end of the siege of Potidaea. Alcibiades, also a common infantryman, makes an early name for himself with a bold action that saves the relief force from an ambush by the Corinthians.

Through the course of his career as a mercenary, Polemidas comes into contact with most of the pivotal figures of the era, including Socrates, the statesmen-general Pericles and the politician Nicias, and Spartan general Lysander. Polemidas describes his travels: his upbringing in Sparta and his family estate outside Athens, his time in Athens during the Plague, the mutilation of the sacred hermai in Athens on the eve of the Sicilian Expedition, sailing with the Athenian marines during the disastrous expedition, and Athens' eventual defeat at the battle of Aegospotami.

However, it was the character of Alcibiades who loomed most large over the narrative, just as he had the greatest impact on the Peloponnesian War. Undefeated during his career as a general and admiral, Alcibiades’ life played itself out like an epic tragedy with the tensions between his genius and the hubris that was his ultimate downfall.

The political shifts that occurred during the war, manifesting through partisan public opinion, act almost to make Athens herself a character in the novel.

While most of the dialogue is Pressfield's own creation, for long speeches and character development he used many ancient sources, particularly adapting quotes appearing in Thucydides in the ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' and to a lesser extent several of the Socratic Dialogues of Plato.