The film takes place in Palestine and portrays the lives of freedom fighters trying to free their village from the control of the Israelis. Ahmed (Omar Sharif) is an Egyptian freedom fighter who ends up in this village. There, he meets Salma, a girl from the village. Together they try to save the Palestinians and always escape danger. Their friendship evolves into a love relationship and they marry each other.

On 23 November 1977, during Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship, Claudio Tamburrini (Rodrigo de la Serna), a goalie for a minor league soccer team in Buenos Aires, is abducted by members of the Argentine secret military police. He is taken to a detention center known as Mansión Seré: an old dilapidated house in the suburban neighborhood of Morón on the suspicion he is a guerrilla man who opposes the dictatorship.

Blindfolded, Tamburrini is tortured daily by his jailers, who demand information he does not have because he is not a political activist and never was. Tamburrini discovers an acquaintance nicknamed ''El Tano'', whom he has met twice in his life, has lied under torture and falsely implicated him, claiming he has a mimeograph. On New Year's Eve, Huguito, the lead captor, teases Tamburrini by implying he is about to be released. Instead, he is taken to another room with more men. When Huguito insists Tamburrini remove his blindfold and look at him, Tamburrini understands he will never be released alive.

He attacks Tano, who really is a member of a radical group. Tano claims he had no choice but to implicate Tamburrini after his name was discovered in Tano's address book. He insists that since Tamburrini is really innocent, he will be released eventually, but Tamburrini knows better. A new captive, Guillermo (Nazareno Casero), arrives and admits that he was really the one with the mimeograph, which he used to make fake papers for Tano. Tamburrini hopes that now he will be released, but Guillermo tells him that to have any chance of saving himself, he will have to implicate someone else, which Tamburrini refuses to do. Tano and a dozen other captives are told they are being transferred to prison but in reality are drugged and handed over to the Argentine Air Force, presumably being executed on a death flight.

Tamburrini expects to be killed by the ruthless guards at any time. After four months of imprisonment, and many sessions of torture, Tamburrini and his fellow captives Guillermo, Vasco and Gallego dive out a window during a thunderstorm. The four, naked and with nothing but their senses, begin a desperate flight to freedom. After a night hiding in the suburbs, the four men get ahold of some money and clothes and part ways; three of them leave the country, including Tamburrini, whom years later writes the book in which the film is based on.

In 1869, anxious to be more than a tramp telegraph operator, Edison travels to New York at the prompting of an old friend, Bunt Cavatt. He goes to work for Mr. Els. He tries to persuade financier Mr. Taggart to fund the development of his inventions, but Taggart has no interest in financing “green electrical workers”. However, General Powell, the president of Western Union, does.

Edison eventually sells his invention of an improved ticker tape machine to Taggart and Powell for $40,000, enabling him to get married and open his own laboratory at Menlo Park. In the next few years, he invents the phonograph with the help of his devoted staff.

Trouble arises when Bunt brags to reporters that Edison has invented the electric light. Since he hasn't yet, he is condemned by the scientific community (encouraged by Taggart, whose gas stocks are threatened by the announcement). Edison “leaves science behind”, and with a Herculean trial-and-error effort, finally succeeds in inventing a practical electric light. His subsequent plans to light New York are again hindered by Taggart, who arranges it so that Edison is only given six months to complete the entire task. Nevertheless, Edison finishes the job just in time.

At the start of the film, Kim Yoon-seo, an Inspections officer (police inspector) is seen at his home where his brother has been beaten almost to death. His family wants to submit a false appeal to the king accusing the family of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Lim family. The Lim family had by the past submitted a false appeal against Yoon-seo's family. However Yoon-seo does not wish to submit such an appeal, much to the anger of his elders.

He returns to the court where the King hands him an important assignment. The King's concubine, Jung-bin, had a painting she had drawn mounted, but it was replaced by an exact copy, she only realized because of the lack of a scribble she had drawn on the back. The King would like Yoon-seo to find the culprits. Yoon-seo is impressed by the talent of the artist who made the fraudulent copy. Jung-bin is in turn impressed by Yoon-seo's knowledge on the subject and invites him to talk to her some more about art some day.

Yoon-seo teams up with Lee Gwang-hun, an inspector who likes to torture people in his dungeons, to try to hunt down the culprit. They enter a shop in their search for the criminal. In the basement Yoon-seo encounters an old man transcribing an erotic story book. Back upstairs a group of men from the village enter the shop and engages in a fight with Gwang-hun, who beats them away with his truncheon, however Yoon-seo is knocked out so Gwang-hun takes him back to his house with him. When Yoon-seo awakes he admires Gwang-hun's painting artwork. Back at the shop the old man confesses to Yoon-seo that he does not wish to protect the mounter either, but that one of his friends is involved and he does not wish to betray him. After Yoon-seo has promised to protect his identity, the old man gives him an address he may go to. Out of curiosity before he leaves he reads few verses from the book the old man is reproducing. He is at first outraged by the content (pornography being illegal at the time), but when the old man says the whole city is waiting for the book he shows some interest and perhaps embarrassment about never having heard of the author. He reports later to the King that he found the culprits and had each flogged fifty times.

Jung-bin invites him around for tea, to thank him. When a bee lands on her he violates all protocol risking his death, by going beyond the curtain and brushing it off her shoulder. Jung-bin however does not report his attitude, and thanks him instead. She also appears to be very fond of him.

Yoon-seo writes an indecent book himself and returns to the shop to present to the shop keeper, asking him to read it. The shopkeeper, Hwang is impressed and they decide to copy and sell his work. His book becomes a best seller.

To get his books to sell better he asks Lee Gwang-hun to illustrate them for him. At first he is outraged but in the end accepts. Meanwhile, Jung-bin sends him an embroidered kerchief, by means of her eunuch, who asks him to not accept the present, or else Jung-bin will be wanting to meet him. He does accept though, and later meets Jung-bin, in private. They start to cuddle, but Yoon-seo leaves when she attempts to kiss him.

The illustrator has trouble understanding some of the things he is supposed to draw, so next time Yoon-seo meets Jung-bin, he has him hide behind a wall, and spy on them while they have sex. Yoon-seo writes about his affair with Jung-bin in his next book. When she forces the one of her maids to tell her, she goes to the shop and confronts Yoon-seo. She tells him to divulge the name of the illustrator Gwang-hun. However he refuses to betray him.

Jung-bin has Yoon-seo sent to the town prison, the prison for which Gwang-hun the illustrator is responsible. In the presence of Jung-bin, Yoon-seo is tied to the ceiling and severely beaten with sticks.

Gwang-hun wishes to stop but Jung-bin decides to call the matter to the King's attention. They tie Yoon-seo to a contraption, and Gwang-hun turns the handle until the bones of his legs snap in half. The King is satisfied with the torture but Jung-bin wants to continue, after their meal. During meal time Gwang-hun removes him from jail, so he can escape with the help of the book publisher, the shopkeeper. However Jung-bin's eunuch follows them and a fight ensues in between the people from the shop and a group of warriors the eunuch brought along. The shopkeepers are no match for the warriors, however Gwang-hun does put up a good fight. In the end he is beaten but is forced to leave with the people from the shop while the eunuch takes Yoon-seo back to his jail. Gwang-hun is left alive because Yoon-seo threatens to claim the eunuch as the illustrator, which would be possible because he did come with Jung-bin to all their meetings. On the way back the eunuch becomes more worried about what Yoon-seo may say and attempts to kill him. One of his warriors however chops off his hand to avoid him stabbing Yoon-seo. The eunuch is shocked and the warrior asks him why he disobeyed an order. The eunuch tells him he had an order from his heart also (he is secretly in love with Jung-bin, and became a eunuch to stay with her); at which point the warriors shoves his dagger through the top of his shoulder and down through his heart.

Yoon-seo is brought back to the palace and to Jung-bin and the King. Jung-bin decides she has had enough. The King asks her about her sudden change of mind. Then he tells her he knows that what she had wanted Yoon-seo to say all along was not the name of the illustrator, but that he loved her. The King can not understand why he did not lie and say he loved her.

The King tells the servant to castrate him and make him a eunuch so he may be with Jung-bin for the rest of his life, even though the operation may kill him due to his age. Jung-bin intervenes and takes all the blame saying she used her influence to seduce him. Yoon-seo then confesses his love to her. Jung-bin says she will wait till they meet again in the next life. The King is overcome by anger and grief, as he was most in love with her, and at first wants to personally kill both Jung-bin and Yoon-seo. He decides against this though, as he realizes that it would be useless as they would just be reunited in the afterlife, and leaves them both alive.

At the end Yoon-seo is sent to live in exile on an island, where he continues to write. Jung-bin remains at the palace "to rot." Later it is revealed that the words "indecent" were branded on Yoon-seo's forehead as part of his punishment.

The film ends with Yoon-seo, Gwang-hun and the shopkeeper walking along the shore, talking about future works, which include their first homosexual male erotic story, and even the discovery by Yoon-seo of the basic principles of animation or "moving pictures."

Michael McGill, a burned-out private eye is hired by a corrupt, heroin-addicted White House Chief of Staff to find a second "secret" United States Constitution, which had been lost in a whorehouse by Richard Nixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its seedier side along the way. McGill is joined by surreal college student side-kick, Trix, who is writing a thesis on sexual fetishes.

McGill has to deal with strange events sometimes unrelated to his adventures – he describes himself as a 'shit-magnet', with weird phenomena following him wherever he goes.

Baron von Rhoneberg, a former World War II German general, sacrificed his daughter as the war ended. He did so because his family was placed under a terrible curse; the first-born female of every generation was to become a succubus. Many years later, he tells the story to a reporter who wishes to write an article about it and take pictures of his castle. However, the Baron opposes any photographs being taken. Despite his protests, the young woman goes up to visit the castle and takes pictures but is killed when a dry thunderstorm suddenly rolls in while she is in close proximity to it. Her body is taken back to the town, where it is discovered she has a burn in the shape of a cloven hoof on her arm, which is confirmed as the Mark of the Devil.

Sometime later, a group of tourists become stranded when the bridge they have to cross has been destroyed in a flood. They meet Satan in the guise of a strange-looking man who recommends that they take the ferry boat, but they arrive too late to catch the last ferry of the day. They are then directed to an old castle that offers room and board. When they arrive, one of the doors opens by itself, and a piece of the façade breaks off, nearly killing one of the tourists. Hans, the butler, greets them and shows them to their rooms, giving them a briefing of the history of three of the rooms, one of which bears the same cloven hoof mark on the floor tiles in front of the fireplace. After the guests have been accommodated to their rooms, Hans goes down to a laboratory basement and informs the Baron who is practicing alchemy. Over dinner, the Baron explains his family's history to his guests. His ancestor made a pact and sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his services. Satan demanded that the eldest daughter of each generation become a succubus. When asked if he ever had a daughter, he shakes his head no.

A young woman named Lisa Müller also comes to stay at the castle and proceeds to seduce each tourist according to their own personal weaknesses, then kills them, using their own sin against them. Each tourist is a representative of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Matt Ducard represents Gluttony and dies by choking to death while gorging on food and wine. Nancy dies representing Greed by drowning in a hidden treasure hoard of powdered gold. Howard, representing Envy, is killed when he is guillotined, and Corrine, embodying Lust, is murdered when she is trapped inside an iron maiden while they are in the middle of an adulterous tryst. Short-tempered old Mr. Mason represents Wrath and dies when he is thrown out of a window and is impaled on an iron fence below. Regine dies as Sloth when a snake kills her in her sleep. Only the seminarian, Alvin Sorelle as Pride, seems immune to Lisa's seductive charms. When six of the seven tourists are dead, Satan appears to Alvin. Alvin offers his soul if Satan returns the dead tourists to life, to which Satan agrees. The next morning, Alvin awakes to find that the dead tourists have indeed been returned to life as though the previous night's events never happened and are having breakfast before they set out to continue their trip. Even Alvin himself remembers it as only a dream.

The Baron is wounded that morning in a fencing accident with Hans, and Alvin waits with him for an ambulance. The Baron confesses to Alvin that he lied; he did have a daughter and killed her in her cradle. After a conversation with Martha, the housekeeper, Alvin learns that the child the Baron stabbed was not the succubus. Lisa is Martha's daughter from an affair with the Baron's brother, Rudolph von Rhoneberg, and Lisa is the eldest daughter. Alvin dismisses Martha's claims that Lisa is subsequently a succubus. Alvin chooses to remain at the castle with Lisa while the other tourists go on. As Alvin and Lisa watch the tour bus heading back to the main road, the bus suddenly swerves to miss a funeral wagon driven by Satan and goes over a cliff, killing everyone aboard. Alvin enfolds Lisa in his arms. Lisa and Satan smile at each other, knowing they have claimed their souls once again.

A mother and daughter drive along a deserted country road at night while having an argument and crash their vehicle. The mother goes out of the car to check the engine but disappears. The daughter calls out for her but her call is repeated from the woods by a soft whispering voice. The daughter attempts to call the police, but is strangled to death.

The next day, Clémentine passes the crashed vehicle. That night, she is awakened by music outside. She investigates with her boyfriend Lucas and see that their car has been moved away from the house. As Lucas approaches it, the car is driven off. Lucas then finds the TV on and the tap running. He swings a poker at an intruder and shatters the door glass, his leg getting impaled by a large shard in the process. He and Clémentine lock themselves in the upstairs bathroom. Clémentine climbs into the attic to find an escape route. One of the intruders grabs her but she pushes him off a balcony. The couple flee from the house, locking the second intruder inside.

The pair limp into the woods only to encounter a fence. Due to his injury, Lucas cannot climb over it. He hides in the bushes as Clémentine heads for help. She sees the light from two flashlights and realises the intruders are catching up to her. She finds her car but is confronted by the intruders. Lucas hears Clémentine's screams and finds the car. He kills one of the attackers and discovers it is a teenage boy. He follows her screams and finds a manhole. In the sewers, Clémentine is being tortured by another teenager while a younger boy sits nearby, telling the torturer to stop. Lucas kills the teenager and with the younger boy's help, the two escape through the sewer system. The boy then turns on them and Clémentine watches in horror as Lucas is dragged away. As she is about to kill the boy, he asks, "Why won't you play with us?" Clémentine is also dragged off.

The film ends with a group of four hooded children emerging from the woods and running for a bus. On-screen text explains that the bodies of Clémentine and Lucas were found five days later and that the murderers were children aged 10–15. Upon interrogation, the youngest of the group explained that night's events as "''They'' wouldn't play with us."

Horace and Claudio are two friends who plan to spend a fun weekend with two ladies (Marcela and Silvana), of which are pretenders. Are installed in the Aunt of Horace, called Lucrecia, a millionaire who is traveling in Europe. A lender is presented in the residence, asking the two friends had money that they borrowed and never returned. All of this comes George, a friend of Horace and Claudio also asks for money he gave them a loan because you want to bet on a horse. Urgently need the lender will extend the time to pay, so they can borrow money and Silvana Marcela to meet its commitments. The lender will access only the length of time if you ask Aunt Lucretia, which does not know. Because of this, the friends decide to dress like Aunt Lucretia Jorge, and get what they wanted. But the lender falls for "Lucretia", and make it impossible to conquer, creating comic situations.

A man is snatched from the streets of his home city (London) and transported to an unknown destination. Held in a tiny cell with no access to legal representation, he is cut off from the outside world. Advanced interrogation techniques are used to break him down. His life is deconstructed with such manipulation that even he begins to question his innocence. He is transported again, in a small jet marked only 'N379P', to the searing heat of an unspecified locale where interrogation is quickly replaced by sophisticated torture. No reason is offered for his detention and no timetable is set for his release. No governments are mentioned, no radical factions named, no fingers pointed. There is nothing for him to hang onto. The man has fallen out of the world, and only questions remain. Returned without explanation to the UK many months later, he is left to pick up the pieces of a shattered life in a world he no longer recognizes.

The movie opens during a thunderstorm in a house called Orchid Villa. The house has been empty for a long time and sets the setting for a couple on their honeymoon. The couple, Tengku Mukri and Tengku Zaleha are accompanied by the former's good friend, Dr. Tengku Aziz. The night is interrupted when Tengku Zaleha is awoken by a voice calling out her name and upon searching, she encounters a dark figure by the window. Startled, she screams and faints, awaking her husband and Dr. Tengku Aziz. Both men search the premises but find nothing to explain Tengku Zaleha's situation. The dark figure walks home and is confronted by his cousin. His name is Ghazali and as explained in the conversation with his cousin, he has made numerous trips to Orchid Villa. That was the home of Tengku Zaleha, who we now learn, is dead. As he looks on in the rain, he tells the story.

Tengku Zaleha and Ghazali met on rainy day when her car got stuck in the mud. Upon her return to Orchid Villa, she is questioned by her father as to why she is soaking wet and when she told the story, she is reprimanded for socialising with people below her status. He reiterates of their royal lineage and how shameful it would be for her to even be seen with non-royal people. Tengku Zaleha then has a birthday party, to which Ghazali and his friends have been hired as the band. An attraction develops between them and when her father isn't home, Tengku Zaleha takes the opportunity to leave the house and meet Ghazali. During the turn of events, Ghazali is hired as the piano teacher for Tengku Zaleha. Their affection for each other grows but due to their differing social standings, she has to meet him in secret. One night, she is caught and is violently taken away whilst Ghazali is horribly beaten. Tengku Zaleha is presumed dead whilst Ghazali survives the assault but is burdened by the guilt of her murder and loss of the woman he loves.

Back in the Orchid Villa, Tengku Zaleha is persuaded to play the piano but finds that one of the keys is out of tune. Tengku Zaleha suggests getting a piano tuner to repair it. When he is called upon, Ghazali is then forced by his cousin, Sudin, to take the job. He is perturbed by the sight of Tengku Zaleha who doesn't seem to recognise him as he enters the house. He finishes the job and as he is about to leave, Tengku Zaleha starts playing the song he had taught her when she was taking piano lessons. Sensing something amiss, Dr. Tengku Aziz decides to do a little investigating the following day and drops by Sudin's house to find out more about Ghazali. Sudin then tells him the whole story of how Tengku Zaleha was killed which drove Ghazali into the deep depression he was suffering. That night, Tengku Mukri is called away to Singapore and asks Dr. Tengku Aziz to keep an eye on Tengku Zaleha. She sneaks out in the middle of the night and is careful not to wake Dr. Tengku Aziz up but he sees her anyway and keeps quiet. She runs to the last meeting place she had met Ghazali before they were horribly separated and there, she finds him again. At first, she keeps up the pretense but then she begins to tell him the story of the night they were separated. After she had been brought back to Orchid Villa, her brother and father had given her something, an injection by a doctor to render her unconscious. When she awoke, she found herself in Singapore with her family. This time, her mother tries to fight for her but is killed by her half-brother and he is subsequently arrested, tried for the murder and sentenced to death. These turn of events had driven their father insane and he is then hospitalised in a mental asylum. Afterwards, she is visited by another Tengku and friend of her father who tells her that she had been promised marriage to Tengku Mukri by their fathers. He shows proof of the contract they made which left Tengku Zaleha without much choice but to go through the wedding.

After the wedding, she is asked by Tengku Mukri if she wanted to get away citing places as far away as Paris and Tokyo. But Tengku Zaleha said the only place she'd like to go to is Johore Bahru, which is where Orchid Villa is located. In another scene, we discover that Tengku Mukri is actually having an affair and intends to divorce Tengku Zaleha once he is able to steal all of her money away. After he returns to Orchid Villa, he is persuaded by Dr. Tengku Aziz to divorce Tengku Zaleha because he feels it is only right that she and Ghazali be together. Tengku Mukri agrees on condition that the man Tengku Zaleha marries is of noble blood like he is. When he finds out that it is Ghazali, of non royal blood, he refuses and throws Dr. Tengku Aziz out of the house because he feels that Dr. Tengku Aziz has insulted him for not having the same opinion of royalty as he does. He wants him to go back to Singapore and drives him off but then causes a road accident and tries to drive him off the road. When that fails, he shoots him and Dr. Tengku Aziz disappears in the bushes. He then takes his gun and hunts Ghazali down, intending to kill him but is stopped by first, Ghazali's mother and then Tengku Zaleha. He tries to shoot again but the gun jams and taking the opportunity, Ghazali pounces upon him and tries to wrestle the gun out of his hands. A shot goes off in the air and Tengku Mukri falls to the ground. With all of their resistances out of the way, Tengku Zaleha and Ghazali are at least able to be together.

The book concerns the investigation into the death of Jonas Fairlie, who was murdered on a train while on his way to consult Solar Pons. To solve the mystery, Pons and his companion, Dr. Lyndon Parker, travel to Fairlie's home town of Frome, Somerset and from there to Scotland (Pons only), Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and finally to a remote area on the coast of Wales.

The novel's main character, Nadia, is a spoiled young woman, whose parents are divorced. Their divorce has led to a strong relationship between Nadia and her father. Her father tries to move on with his life and meets a new woman, Safia, who he quickly falls in love with. Nadia, who feels the loss of her father's love, deliberately tries to ruin his relationship with Safia. Nadia is willing to control others lives and change them just to keep her life the way she wants it. She decides to set up her father with one of her friends, a seductive and promiscuous woman. Her father falls in love with the lady, who is actually having an affair. Meanwhile, Nadia is stuck with a man who is older than she is.

Unable to afford the tuition needed to fund her private school education, Rayanna or Raya (Rutina Wesley) returns to her family home in the city while reluctantly re-evaluating her future. Upon learning that the top prize for an upcoming step-dancing competition is $50,000, Raya uses her impressive moves to earn a coveted slot in her good friend Bishop's (Dwain Murphy) predominantly male JSJ crew. Isolated from the local women due to jealousy and separated from her fellow dancers by her sex, the ambitious dancer is subsequently kicked off the team for showing off during a preliminary competition. Now, if Raya has any hope of realizing her medical school dreams, she will have to either earn back Bishop's trust or organize her own dance crew and start over from scratch. In the end, she eventually learns "how she move".

The film centres around a ''Will-they won't-they'' romance. Wealthy Jack Cromwell from Long Island runs off to New York City on account of his fiancee's relentless flirting. He attends an Independence Day block party where Molly Carr, from Yorkville, Manhattan, falls in love with him. Comic relief is provided by grocer Eric Swenson, above whose shop Molly and her flatmate, Bea Nichols, live.The Times, December 30, 1929, ''New Gallery Cinema "Sunny Side Up"'' Gaynor performs a charming singing and dancing version of the song "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" for a crowd of her neighbors, complete with top hat and cane. Later in the film, a lavish pre-Code dance sequence for the song "Turn on the Heat", including scantily clad and gyrating island women enticing bananas on trees to abruptly grow and stiffen, with the graphic metaphor lost on no one, occurs without Gaynor's participation.

A new country family comes to live among established wealthy neighbors.

Ex-opera singer Helen Lorfield Winter (Jeanette MacDonald) rents a house in the small town of Brushy Gap, in the hills not too far from the Smokies, Blue Ridge, and Atlanta Georgia with her dog, Lassie, after the tragic death of her son. There she befriends Jerry, a young orphan (Claude Jarman Jr.). Growing attached to Jerry, but not wanting children so soon after the death of her own son, Helen leaves Brushy Gap to resume her singing career. While she is away, Jerry is caught in heavy rain returning Lassie home and develops pneumonia. Helen returns to Brushy Gap to find the owner of the house, Thomas Chandler (Lloyd Nolan), nursing Jerry back to health. Soon after Jerry has recovered, the orphanage catches on fire, and Lassie and Tom both rescue Jerry from the blaze. Helen then decides to adopt Jerry and remain in Brushy Gap.

In New York City, Jaret Oktar's antiques shop fails. Actress Elizabeth Cheney attends the auction of his stock, just to pass the time and sit down, while concert violinist Morris Rosenberg shows up after it ends. All three are out of work and homeless. Otkar offers Rosenberg half of a bed Napoleon slept on (the only unsold item); they take it to the park on a pushcart and sleep on it outside under the stars. Meanwhile, Cheney sleeps on the subway.

While Otkar looks for a more permanent place for the bed, Rosenberg decides to practice. Cheney happens along and offers to pass the hat afterward. He is insulted at the thought of playing for pennies, but after she leaves, he swallows his pride. After a performance, street sweeper Mr. Sweeney expresses his desire to learn how to play a particular tune; seizing the opportunity, Otkar offers him lessons from Rosenberg for a place to put their bed. Sweeney has a tool room in a stable in the park.

After they settle in, Otkar goes looking for food. While trying to steal a cooked chicken from a fancy restaurant, he runs into Cheney, who has purloined some celery. Eventually, she persuades him to take her in. Rosenberg objects, but gives in.

The next day, Otkar has Rosenberg distract a zoo attendant with music so he can steal some of the meat intended for the lions. Afterward, Sweeney takes Rosenberg to the bank where his wife works and where they have their savings. Rosenberg envies Mr. Sheridan, the bank president, unaware that Sheridan has his own troubles: the bank is in danger of failing.

That night, Sheridan unsuccessfully begs an associate for help before the bank examiners check his books the next day. Sheridan's bank does indeed close, taking the Sweeneys' savings with it. The banker tries to drown himself, but the water is too shallow, and Otkar pulls him out of the mud. Otkar and Cheney persuade him to go back, face his depositors and try to salvage something.

The trio make it through the winter. When spring comes, Rosenberg has exciting news. He has gotten work with a symphony orchestra out of town. When he leaves, Otkar decides it would not be right for an unmarried man and woman to live together, so he decides to head south and leave the place and the bed to Cheney. Then Sheridan shows up. The government is going to bail out his bank, and the Sweeneys will not lose their savings. Furthermore, he wants to buy the bed. With the proceeds, Otkar finally has something to offer Cheney; he calls her "darling" for the first time and embraces her.

The seduction plans of novelist Malcolm Niles go awry when actress Vivian Herford brings along her mother to a candlelight dinner in his New York apartment. When they talk of marriage, Malcolm decides to make a tour promoting his new book, and in a small southern town meets Nancy Briggs at an autographing session at the local bookstore. Nancy is getting married that night, but her fiancé, working in New York, doesn't come back for the wedding, so her family gives her the fare to go to New York to find him. At the same time, Malcolm gets a wire from his publisher and friend, Robert Hanson, telling him to come home because Vivian has left town. Traveling to New York on the same train, Nancy proves to be a pest who Malcolm hopes to avoid once they arrive, but when Nancy can't find her fiancé, she goes to Malcolm, since he's the only one she knows in the city. He is about to kick her out when Vivian returns, so he uses Nancy as an excuse to get rid of Vivian. Further comedy ensues.

1945

Part of the book takes place in 1945 the Netherlands, during the last part of World War II. The story centers on two Dutch men codenamed Tamar and Dart, who are agents of a covert military group called the Special Operations Executive, or SOE. In this point in time the Netherlands is occupied by the Nazis, and the Dutch resistance is "a bloody shambles". Tamar and Dart, his WO (wireless operator), are sent into the Netherlands to organize the different resistance groups into a more cohesive unit. This is Tamar's second time in the Netherlands as an SOE agent, and he is sent to recover his old alias, Christiaan Boogart. When he arrives he reunites with the woman he fell in love with the first time he was in the Netherlands, Marijke. As the novel continues Dart begins to spend more time with Marijke, and begins to fall in love with her, oblivious to the fact that she and Tamar are in love.

After realizing that Tamar and Marijke are involved Dart is described as feeling furious and comes to the conclusion "that it was not her fault. She had been seduced, cynically and deliberately, by the man [Tamar] who should have been protecting her." Slowly he begins to hate and distrust Tamar. Meanwhile, a group of the resistance led by Koop de Vries open fire on a Nazi vehicle. One of the men they shot turns out to be the "head of Nazi internal security in Holland" SS Lieutenant General Hanns Albin Rauter. Rauter is rushed to a hospital and dispatches his deputy to execute the number of Dutch prisoners (known as ''toteskandidaten'', death candidates) as there are bullet holes in his car, 243. When Tamar hears about this, and the executions begin, he tracks down Koop and confronts him, telling him "I know where to find you."

As the story continues, Koop and his group are ambushed by the Nazis at their hideout, and everyone is killed except for Koop, who manages to run. At the asylum where Koop receives medical treatment he reveals to Dart that he believes Dart and Tamar have betrayed the resistance. Dart believes he gains Koop's confidence by telling him "I believe you. I think Tamar betrayed your group." The two create a plan to get rid of Tamar. Their plan goes smoothly, they kill Tamar, but Koop attacks Dart, and is shot by Marjke. When she sees Tamar's body "she [throws] her head back and [begins] to howl like an animal." Eventually Dart convinces Marijke that it is too dangerous to stay in the Netherlands, and the two flee to England.

1995

In the prologue of the novel, before Tamar is born, her grandfather, William Hyde, requests her father Jan to name her Tamar. The novel then fast forwards to when Tamar is fifteen years old in London, in 1995, and lives with her mother after her father, Jan, disappears. Her grandmother, Marijke, is slowly going mentally downhill, and speaks more Dutch than English. Tamar and her mother accompany her grandfather to the assisted living center where her grandmother will be staying. Her grandmother rejects the company of her grandfather and insists on riding only with Tamar: "I'm not going with you! I'm staying with Tamar, here with Tamar." Shortly after her grandmother is sent to the living center, her grandfather commits suicide. Tamar takes his death hard, and waits months to go and visit her grandfather's flat with her mother. Once at the flat, she finds a box lying on her bed labeled Tamar. Inside the box lie many clues leading to her grandfather's past. She takes the box to her distant cousin Yoyo (Johannes van Zant), who decides they should follow the clues and see where they lead.

In the middle of the plot, during Tamar and Yoyo's adventure along the Tamar river, they slowly start to fall in love with each other, despite their age differences. As the novel continues, Tamar and Yoyo explore the river just as Tamar's father happens upon them, "And I couldn't look at him, because I was watching the other man's face and he was watching mine", and invites them into his home. After settling everyone down, Tamar's father begins to unravel the secret he has kept hidden since the day he left Tamar and her mother. He tells Tamar and Yoyo that her supposed grandfather, William Hyde, is not actually her grandfather. Her real grandfather is Tamar (Christaan Boogart), who was killed in World War II by a man named Koop de Vries, and was led to do so by William Hyde, or Dart as he was known during that time. It takes Tamar awhile to take all this in; "I couldn’t imagine how he could have kept all that stuff dammed up inside him all this time without being at least three parts crazy", and she even forgives Hyde. In the epilogue, she ends up marrying Yoyo.

Two city clerks, Sid Turner (James) and Vic Evans (Spinetti), abandon the nine-to-five to run a small farm out in the country. A recurring theme throughout the two series was Sid's love of his Friesian cow "Fanny".

From TCM.com: “Kay Brannan (Janet Gaynor) is so bored with her life that she can barely tolerate her family and prospective suitor Elmer (James Stewart). A traffic diversion brings hundreds of Yale-Harvard football players through town. One of them, Robert Dakin (Robert Taylor), a socially prominent surgeon from Boston, asks her for directions to a popular roadhouse and takes her there to join in the fun.

Later Bob becomes so drunk that he insists that they have a justice of the peace marry them. Kay is not quite so drunk, but she agrees, eager for any escape from the tedium. The next morning, Bob's parents (Lewis Stone, Nella Walker) like Kay, but are shocked that Bob, who was to marry socialite Priscilla Hyde (Binnie Barnes) in two weeks, would be so foolhardy. To avoid a scandal, Bob suggests to Kay that they pretend to be happily married for six months and then quietly get a divorce. Although hurt, she agrees, and after a staged "honeymoon" aboard the Dakin family yacht, they return to Boston. Gradually, they begin to fall in love, but they still keep each other at arm's length.

When Priscilla returns from a European holiday, she and Bob begin seeing each other secretly. One night, Kay gets a telephone call from Bob's clinic urgently summoning him to perform emergency brain surgery on Jimmy, a young patient. When Priscilla refuses to let her speak to Bob over the phone, Kay goes to Priscilla's apartment to fetch him. Bob starts the operation, but is not sure that he is sober enough to save Jimmy, so he has his colleague Dr. Underwood complete the delicate surgery.

At home, Bob feels like a failure. Kay hesitatingly starts to tell him about her feelings, but Priscilla calls and she leaves. She tells Bob's parents that she is returning home, and a short time later, the local newspaper mentions that Bob is rumored to be leaving for Reno for a divorce. Kay takes a walk and meets Elmer, who proposes, but just then Bob drives up. After telling Kay that he has lost his way to Reno and never wants to find it, they drive off together.”

Communications satellite TVR-17 is destroyed after Captain Black infiltrates ground control and alters the spacecraft's flight path, causing it to prematurely re-enter the atmosphere and blow up. Re-creating TVR-17 and its crew, the Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) lock the satellite on a collision course with Cloudbase. It is shot down by Symphony Angel (voiced by Janna Hill) on the orders of Colonel White (voiced by Donald Gray) despite the protests of Captain Scarlet (voiced by Francis Matthews), who questions whether the satellite was really under Mysteron control.

When the Mysterons threaten to assassinate him, White realises that TVR-17's run at Cloudbase was targeted at him personally and decides to leave the base to protect its personnel. He appoints Captain Blue (voiced by Ed Bishop) acting base commander when Scarlet, still indignant at White's decision to destroy the satellite, refuses the role. After White departs, the wreckage of the original TVR-17 is discovered and Scarlet, realising that he was wrong, regrets his earlier behaviour. He asks Lieutenant Green (voiced by Cy Grant) if he knows White's destination, but Green replies that he has been ordered to remain silent.

Posing as a deep-sea fisherman called Robert Snow, White takes up quarters on the World Navy submarine USS ''Panther II''. As the submarine moves out to sea and prepares to dive, Ensign Soames gets his foot caught in a chain on the open deck and drowns as the ''Panther II'' submerges. Soames' Mysteron replacement is made White's steward and enters the colonel's cabin with a gun. After a struggle, he fatally shoots the occupant, but with a last effort his victim returns fire and guns down Soames. It is then discovered the man in the cabin is not White, who is found tied up and gagged in a storage locker, but Scarlet, who was killed while disguised as the colonel.

Back on Cloudbase, the revived Scarlet tells White that he pulled rank on Green to obtain the colonel's whereabouts, used his Spectrum ID to get through navy security and stowed away on the submarine before it left its base. White sentences Scarlet to death for gross insubordination but immediately grants him a reprieve, ruefully noting that the captain's indestructibility would make his execution pointless.

The movie opens on what appears to be another average day in Hoagie's Alley (which, for the purposes of this story, has apparently been relocated closer to Beverly Hills) for Top Cat and his gang, who are today posing as Boy Scouts, out doing good deeds in the hopes of getting rewards. During the course of this, Benny the Ball saves the life of a bag lady. Unbeknownst to Benny, it is revealed afterwards that she is actually a rich woman named Gertrude Vandergelt, who plans to leave her fortune to her missing niece, a 16-year-old teenager named Amy.

Meanwhile, Officer Dibble arrives to put an end to T.C.'s shenanigans after an unsuccessful attempt by Brain to wash his police car's windshield. Just when Dibble is about to arrest the gang, though, he gets a call saying that his application for retirement has been approved, so he can now retire from the police force, and thus he drops the charges against T.C. and the gang.

A few days later at a gypsy store, Benny receives news from Mrs. Vandergelt's lawyer, Sid Buckman, that she has died and put his name in her will. Upon hearing of this, T.C. and the rest of the gang accompany Benny to the Vandergelt mansion, where Dibble is now working as a security guard. At the mansion, they meet the conniving butler Snerdly, and his Muttley-esque wolfhound Rasputin. Buckman reads the will, which states that Benny inherits her fortune (seeing how the true heiress to the fortune, Amy, is nowhere to be found), provided that nothing bad happens to him within the next two days. This upsets Snerdly, for he had hoped to obtain the fortune himself, so he and Rasputin plot to do away with Benny. T.C. and the gang move into the Vandergelt mansion with Benny.

After several failed attempts at murdering Benny, Snerdly realizes that to get to Benny, he'll have to get rid of the protective T.C. To do this, Snerdly calls up a femme fatale cat named Kitty Glitter, telling her that he has fixed her up a date with a handsome rich cat, as he describes T.C. Kitty is eager to have a rich cat for a husband (to the point that she puts on a wedding dress for the date), but this plan is foiled when she mistakes Brain for T.C. It's only when Snerdly calls her again, demanding to know where she is, that she realizes she's made a mistake.

That night, Snerdly throws a costume party, making Benny wear a bulldog mask and then calling up the local dogcatcher and his pet doberman Dobey to say that there's a mutt roaming around the Vandergelt estate. Sure enough, the dogcatcher arrives and captures Benny. It doesn't take long for T.C. and the rest of the gang to realize that Benny is missing, so they go looking for him. Thanks to a tip-off from Dibble, T.C. finds out that Benny has been taken to the pound, so they take the limousine there and break Benny out. Just as they escape, though, the dogcatcher takes off after them in hot pursuit.

As it turns out, the missing Amy has been working at a car wash as part of Snerdly's evil plot. While on the run from the dogcatcher, T.C. and the gang turn up in the car wash and recognize Amy from a portrait hanging in the mansion, so they decide to bring her back to the mansion so that the inheritance can be rightfully given to her. They arrive too late, as it is now midnight and Snerdly has just inherited the Vandergelt fortune, but Sid Buckman is then revealed to be Gertrude Vandergelt, alive and in disguise, which means that she, in fact, faked her death as part of a scheme to unmask Snerdly's crookedness. In their attempt to escape, Snerdly (who attempts to disguise himself using the aforementioned bulldog mask) and Rasputin are caught by the dogcatcher.

In the end, T.C. and the gang return to their old lifestyle in Hoagie's Alley, and Dibble rejoins the police force. Kitty Glitter reappears, still wanting to be wed to the rich cat she believes T.C. to be, but she dumps him when Brain lets it slip that they're broke. Afterwards, Amy visits the alley to have a picnic with Top Cat, the gang and Dibble.

Despite his vanity about his own talents, Bill Owen is a nondescript armchair detective. A balding, watery-eyed, mild-mannered little man in violently checked tweed, he haunts a corner of the ABC Teashop on the corner of Norfolk Street and the Strand.

His listener and protégé is the attractive young journalist Polly Burton. Polly brings him details of obscure crimes baffling the police, which he helps her to solve. She is fascinated by the unlikely unravelings she hears, but despite her sarcasm and pride in her own investigative talents she remains the learner, impressed in spite of herself.

Although The Old Man does not hide his upper class attitudes, he sometimes feels sympathy for the criminals.

The Old Man's cases include a wide range of sensational and complex detective puzzles: * murder ("The Tremarn Case"), * blackmail ("The Murder of Miss Pebmarsh"), * perfect alibis ("The Case of Miss Elliott"), * and thefts ("The Affair at the Novelty Theatre").

The episode begins at London Airport with the unveiling of ''Skythrust'', a luxury airliner claimed to be the safest aircraft ever built. Brains (voiced by David Graham), the designer of ''Skythrust'' s unique safety system, attends the press launch under the alias "Hiram K. Hackenbacker". At the same time, Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia Anderson) is in Paris, where she has agreed to model in a fashion show that will be held at the salon of leading designer François Lemaire. This event will showcase Lemaire's latest invention: "Penelon", a super-compactible and creaseless fabric named after Penelope. When Penelope finds that Lemaire's office has been filmed from a nearby rooftop and extensively bugged, presumably by industrial spies, she proposes that the venue be changed to ''Skythrust'', which will be travelling from Paris to London for its maiden flight.

''Skythrust'' takes off from Paris and Lemaire begins his show, with Penelope and two house models, Deirdre and Madeline, sporting various Penelon outfits to an enthusiastic response from a group of buyers. All is well until the final approach to London, when Madeline and a steward called Mason hijack the plane, holding the crew and passengers at gunpoint. Madeline and Mason are the criminals who have been spying on Lemaire and are intent on stealing the Penelon collection. Madeline orders Captain Ashton and his co-pilot to divert to a remote location in the Sahara, where she and Mason will rendezvous with their associates Ross and Collins and offload the Penelon.

Penelope uses a transmitter in her ring to alert International Rescue on Tracy Island. Jeff (voiced by Peter Dyneley) dispatches Scott (Shane Rimmer) in ''Thunderbird 1'' followed by Virgil and Alan (Jeremy Wilkin and Matt Zimmerman) in ''Thunderbird 2''. Scott intercepts ''Skythrust'' but Madeline warns him off. Virgil and Alan fly into the plane's path in an attempt to force the hijackers' surrender, but Madeline is undeterred and threatens to shoot Ashton, giving them no choice but to back down.

At the recommendation of Brains, who is still at London Airport, Virgil and Alan fire an inert missile into the belly of ''Skythrust'', damaging the plane's undercarriage. With a desert landing now out of the question, Mason grudgingly orders the pilots to fly back to London, where ''Skythrust'' can make an emergency landing. Reaching the airport, ''Skythrust'' hits the runway hard and catches fire, prompting the pilots to activate the special feature that Brains designed: an ejectable fuel tank, which the control tower remote-detonates in mid-air to prevent an explosion on the ground. Madeline and Mason are arrested; meanwhile, Virgil and Alan fly to the Sahara and deal with Ross and Collins by using a live missile to blow up their desert vehicle. Back in London, the International Rescue team, Lemaire and the airport authorities celebrate their success with a champagne party.

Following a second stage separation failure, Sentinel Base aborts its newly-launched Telsat 4 rocket at orbital coordinates designated safe by International Space Control (ISC). Unknown to the authorities, the rocket is in the vicinity of KLA, an unregistered pirate radio satellite manned by DJ Rick O'Shea and his technician Loman. The detonation of Telsat 4 cripples KLA, which begins to fall out of orbit.

Discovering that the brake parachutes are inoperable, Loman conducts a spacewalk to assess the damage but ends up trapped outside the satellite after the inner airlock door fails to open. O'Shea is unable to repair the fault from inside, and with Loman's oxygen running out goes back on the air to broadcast a distress call. International Rescue space station ''Thunderbird 5'' fails to pick up the transmission as it has been taken offline while astronaut John Tracy and his brother Gordon install a new component. However, Tin-Tin Kyrano (voiced by Christine Finn) is tuned in from her bedroom on Tracy Island and alerts the rest of International Rescue.

Jeff Tracy (voiced by Peter Dyneley) dispatches Alan and Scott (Matt Zimmerman and Shane Rimmer) in ''Thunderbird 3'' to rescue O'Shea and Loman, with Virgil and Brains (Jeremy Wilkin and David Graham) providing aerial support in ''Thunderbird 2'' as KLA re-enters the atmosphere. Alan and Scott pull alongside KLA and Alan spacewalks over to extract the unconscious Loman from the airlock. With Loman safely aboard ''Thunderbird 3'', Alan goes back with a plasma torch to cut through the door and rescue O'Shea.

As KLA starts to break up, ISC informs Virgil and Brains that the satellite's descent puts it on a collision course with the Middle East oil refinery A'Ben Duh. To avert disaster on the ground, Virgil and Brains realise that they must shoot down KLA while it is still in the air. They prepare to fire ''Thunderbird 2'' s missile gun, but suddenly hear O'Shea's voice on the radio and infer that he is still aboard the satellite. With ''Thunderbird 5'' non-operational, Virgil and Brains are unable to radio base to confirm that O'Shea is safe. Reluctant to shoot down O'Shea, but aware that the destruction of the refinery would cause much loss of life, Virgil and Brains move beneath KLA and initiate a roll, catching the satellite on ''Thunderbird 2'' s wing in an effort to change its trajectory. They have trouble shaking off the satellite and almost hit the refinery themselves, but KLA finally breaks away from ''Thunderbird 2'' and crashes harmlessly in the desert.

Virgil and Brains return home fearing they have killed O'Shea, but Jeff reveals that the DJ is very much alive. Alan reveals the truth: after he cut his way into the satellite, O'Shea, who suffers from vertigo, refused to leave with him. Panicking, O'Shea inadvertently pushed a switch that played a pre-recorded transmission – the one heard aboard ''Thunderbird 2''. In the end, he had to be rescued against his will. When O'Shea appears on TV sporting a black eye, Alan admits that he was forced to punch the DJ in the face to gain his cooperation.

On Tracy Island, Christmas has arrived and the area surrounding the Tracy villa is miraculously covered in snow. As well as Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia Anderson), International Rescue are hosting a special guest for the holiday – a young boy called Nicky. Jeff (voiced by Peter Dyneley) recalls the events that led up to this day...

Jeff's flashback begins at Coralville Children's Hospital, which is looking for ways to raise money to build a new solar therapy wing. In collaboration with rocket manufacturer Saunders Automations and Harman's department store of New York, the hospital board devise a Christmas publicity stunt to benefit all involved: a Saunders rocket, loaded with Harman's toys and launched from the store's roof, which will overfly Coralville and parachute-drop its cargo into the hospital car park – thus providing a Christmas present for every Coralville child. Instead of a toy, one of the children will win a very special prize: Christmas Day on Tracy Island.

On Christmas Eve night, shortly before the rocket launch, criminals Scobie and Straker break into the deserted Harman's. Using drills to remove a portion of wall, they penetrate the property next door – the high-security vault of the Second National Bank – and set about stealing $10 million in gold bullion. To avoid touching the vault's alarmed floor, they shoot a cable into the opposite wall and use it like a Tyrolean traverse, Straker holding the line taut while Scobie, suspended from a harness, loads the gold into a sack. As they prepare to escape with their loot, they accidentally knock a pencil to the floor, setting off the alarm. To evade security guards, they lock themselves in what turns out to be the rocket's cargo compartment, which is being transferred to the launch pad in a freight elevator. By the time Scobie and Straker's pursuers realise where they have hidden, it is too late to stop the launch and the rocket blasts off with the robbers trapped inside. After the rocket drops its cargo over Coralville, the hospital staff open the compartment to find Scobie and Straker unconscious amid the gold and boxes of presents, having been knocked out by the g-forces. The hospital hands the robbers and gold over to the police and receives enough reward money to fund its new wing. Having flown out in ''Thunderbird 2'', Virgil (voiced by Jeremy Wilkin) collects Nicky, the prize winner, and flies him to Tracy Island to spend Christmas with International Rescue.

In the episode's subplot, festive preparations on Tracy Island are under way when Brains (voiced by David Graham) hears Virgil expressing regret that the chances of a white Christmas in the South Pacific are extremely low. Brains has an idea and secretly builds a machine in the roof of the Tracy villa. In the closing scene, set after Nicky's arrival, Brains asks everyone to shut their eyes and then activates the machine: a snow-making system. Opening their eyes, Nicky and the International Rescue team are delighted to find the villa and its surroundings under a blanket of snow.

Jan (Melora Hardin), Michael (Steve Carell), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Jim (John Krasinski), and Karen (Rashida Jones) attend a cocktail party hosted by Dunder-Mifflin's CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley). Jan and Michael bring along signed documents disclosing their relationship. With the branch managers away, the remainder of the office goes to happy hour at Poor Richard's Pub. Pam (Jenna Fischer) asks that Roy (David Denman), as her boyfriend, attend as well. Roy shows up along with his brother, Kenny.

At the party, Karen plays a joke on Jim by identifying many people at the party as ex-boyfriends. Dwight takes it upon himself to give the house a thorough inspection, and spends the night critiquing the layout and materials. Towards the end of the evening, David invites Jim to play basketball in the backyard.

Michael takes relish in being able to freely proclaim his relationship with Jan to his bosses, making Jan uncomfortable. She eventually pulls him aside and tries to get him to have sex with her in the bathroom. Michael refuses and she becomes angry. As they drive home together, Jan hypothesizes that she only enjoyed being with Michael because their relationship was undisclosed and therefore unethical, and that disclosing it was a mistake. Michael is hurt and upset at this, and Jan takes back her comments to keep him from crying.

At Poor Richard's, Pam tells Roy she wants a fresh start in their relationship and tells him about the "Casino Night" kiss with Jim. Roy reacts by yelling at her and throwing his glass at the bar mirror. Furious, Pam calls their relationship "over" and walks out. Roy and Kenny begin destroying the bar. Kenny uses the money he made from selling his jet skis to pay off the bar for damages, and Roy swears vengeance against Jim.

Navajo Tribal Police Officer Bernadette Manuelito investigates an abandoned vehicle in Apache County, Arizona. She finds the body of Thomas Doherty in the truck. She identifies seeds on his clothing and shoes when checking that he is dead, seeds not from plants nearby. Awaiting an ambulance, Manuelito collects seeds for her garden, placing them in an old tobacco tin she finds nearby. When the body is moved, it becomes clear he was murdered, and the FBI steps in. Manuelito gives the tobacco tin to her boss, now that the area is a crime scene.

Sergeant Jim Chee contacts retired police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn for advice on how to resolve the problem of the old tin, now evidence removed from a crime scene. This renews Leaphorn's interest in a case involving Wiley Denton, a Gallup oil and gas magnate who shot and killed Marvin McKay. McKay was bringing evidence to Denton of the location of the old Golden Calf gold mine, to earn money from Denton. Denton served time for the killing, claiming self-defense. Denton contacts Leaphorn to find Denton's wife, who disappeared the day of the shooting. After questioning Denton, Leaphorn agrees to search for his wife. First, Leaphorn visits the scene where Doherty's body was found, discreetly replaces the tin with its sand / gold contents, and then points it out to Cowboy Dashee, the officer at the site.

Manuelito finds the place of Doherty's murder, based on the seeds and the ashes from the 1999 fire, and sees old Placer gold mining artifacts. A bullet whizzes past her head, but she sees no shooter. Later, the empty hogan nearby is found to belong to Hostiin James Peshlakai, who is arrested by the FBI, as the shells match his gun. Leaphorn interviews Peggy McKay, drawing a new profile of McKay and his encounter with Denton. Peggy was not believed by the investigators at that time. McKay's personal effects, still in police storage, do not match the story of the killing as told by Denton. Specifically, McKay's jacket has no pocket large enough for the gun Denton said McKay carried and no blood stains, and the map in his briefcase shows a different place than Denton reported to Leaphorn. Peggy says now and said then that he never carried a gun. Retracing McKay's steps the day of his death, Leaphorn finds that a woman waited in his car as McKay sought materials from the archive at Fort Wingate. He said the woman was his wife, but his wife was not with him; McKay called her to give updates of the time he would arrive home. Leaphorn searches McKay's car to find blonde hairs, the lens of eyeglasses and a receipt for tools. It begins to look like premeditated murder by Denton. Two events occurred the day McKay was murdered, on a past Halloween; the second was a report of a woman wailing, heard by four high school students who were crossing Fort Wingate army munitions depot, a vast place with a long history, used for archives in the bunkers. Leaphorn interviews two of the students who reported the wailing sound and the faint sound of music. Teresa Hano at the archives tells him that Doherty had been there looking at records related to gold mines, as had McKay years earlier.

Professor Bourebonette researches the ownership of the land where Doherty was killed, learning that it comes up for sale at the start of September. Denton has an option to buy it. Leaphorn ends his connection with Denton, because Denton lied to him. Denton persuades him to meet again, trying to take over the encounter in Leaphorn's car with a gun. Leaphorn, who knows the true sequence of events five years earlier, remains in charge by driving to the bunker where they find the mummified body of Denton's wife Linda, and her love note as she waited for him to rescue her. Denton killed McKay so quickly that he gave McKay no chance to mention where Linda was being held hostage, as Denton did not believe that threat. The music she played that night, heard by the passing students intermingled with the sound of the wind, was dismissed as a Halloween prank when police could not find the source. Chee and Manuelito arrive at the bunker, preventing any use of his gun by Denton. Chee arrests Denton for the murder of Doherty. Denton had killed the two who might have spread knowledge of land with the Golden Calf coming up for sale. He lost his wife by his obsession. He involved the unaware Peshlakai in murder charges. Chee and Manuelito each spent time during this case considering the other. Leaphorn encourages Manuelito to tell Chee that she likes him. The horrors of the ending drive her to consider leaving the police, to find a position where she can help people directly.

Ah Wah (Alex Fong Lik-Sun) and Bo (Stephy Tang) are a newly married couple living happily together. One day, Ah Wah was promoting his "Pets Funeral Service" on one of the busy streets in Causeway Bay, and he saw Josephine (Pace Wu) who was his former tutor. They met up again. Josephine was abandoned by her boyfriend, and Ah Wah was trying to help her to get through her hard times. Soon they fell in love.

Soon after, Bo wants to go to Japan to see snow and for a trip. The trip was on a special discount. Ah Wah did not want to (it was too expensive) since Bo has a debt to Ah Wah's parents. Ah Wah suggested to go to Shenzhen, but Bo was too mad. She ran out of the travel agency. It was at that moment that their once "perfect" love started to fade.

Ah Wah followed Bo home where they had another argument. Ah Wah was chased out to the street, and he did not want to be homeless. Therefore, he went to Josephine's house.

In Josephine's house, Ah Wah drank bottles and bottles of beer, while Josephine told Ah Wah how much she loved him. Then they slept with each other.

Bo was furious; she moved to one of her friend's house to stay. When she was on her job, as a manager in a karaoke place, she met Philip (Philip Ng). Philip was "stealing" toilet paper — actually he was doing a study of toilet paper quality. Bo followed him to a restaurant, where she heard Philip explaining his studies over and over. Despite that, Bo and Philip became good friends.

Next, Ah Wah's parent visited the newly married couple. Ah Wah and Bo pretended they were in love, but it was too difficult for them. Finally, they had an argument. And said they want to be divorced. Everyone was shocked.

Once, the couples met in the elevator hall. Ah Wah was with Josephine, while Bo was with Philip. They had a short chat.

Finally, Bo decided to work outside of Hong Kong. However, there was no taxi for her. Ah Wah comes along and promises that if there is no way he could provide taxi for Bo, then they will divorce. Ah Wah did not want to end his marriage. He recalled how he had a lot of fun and happy times with Bo. Ah Wah called for a taxi on his cell phone at least four times. Each time, he begged the taxi driver about his story, and how Bo will act if there is no taxi. For the last time, Ah Wah had tears in his eyes, but it was no use.

Bo saw how Ah Wah was serious about their marriage and burst out in tears. The couple reunited.

Bo and Ah Wah went to Japan with a discounted price for their make-up honeymoon. They took pictures and displayed them in their living room. They seemed happy.

However, at the end of the film, the director reveals that Josephine and Ah Wah, and Bo and Philip are still communicating. Josephine text messaged Ah Wah, and Bo wrote a note on a piece of purple tissue paper to Phillip. Ah Wah was afraid that Bo might see him sending SMS (cell phone message), so he deleted after replying to it. Bo was afraid that Ah Wah might see her contacting Philip, thinking they're together, so she closed the door, and the story ends there.

The peaceful planet of Jillucia, in the Andromeda galaxy, has been conquered by the steel-skinned warriors of the Gavanas Empire, who have turned the planet into a military fortress. Kido, leader of the tribes of Jillucia, sends out eight Liabe Seeds to seek help in liberating their planet. Kido's granddaughter, Princess Emeralida, and the warrior Urocco follow the seeds into space. The Gavanas, on the orders of Emperor Rockseia XXII, pursue the Jillucian's space-galleon as it flees the planet.

Meanwhile, space hotrodders (called 'roughriders') Shiro and Aaron are spotted by a young, spoiled aristocrat, Meia, as they race each other through an asteroid belt. Notified by Meia's chauffeurs, Patrolman Fox pursues the duo to their planet Milazeria. The three ships all crash after stunt-flying through rocky canyons and tunnels. Examining their spacecraft, the roughriders find Liabe seeds, and wonder what they are and how they got there.

At the Milazeria military base, General Garuda mourns the mandatory deactivation of Beba-1, his faithful robot. He orders a rocket to launch its remains into deep space. Garuda's commanding officer condemns this as a waste of a valuable rocket; the General, disillusioned, decides to retire and leaves the base with his new robot servant Beba-2. Later, while drinking heavily inside a busy tavern on Milazeria, Garuda finds a Liabe seed in his drink.

Within the tavern, Shiro and Aaron are pressured by Jack to repay the money they borrowed to fix their ships, which he in turn had borrowed from gangster Big Sam. Jack has found an unusual seed in his tomato, which the friends recognize as the same kind as the ones they found.

Meia agrees to help Shiro and Aaron with their financial problems if they take her to a quarantined (forbidden) section of the asteroid belt where she can view 'fireflies' (a radioactive phenomenon). Shiro and Aaron are willing, but Jack warns that Meia is going to get them into trouble.

While traveling towards the asteroid belt, the pilots find the wreckage of the Jillucian space galleon with Emeralida and Urocco inside. The Gavanas' spacecraft-carrier arrives, forcing Jillucians and humans to flee. The Gavanas destroy both the Jillucian galleon and Patrolman Fox's ship.

The survivors return to Shiro and Aaron's home on Milazeria, where Police spacecraft, alerted to danger by the destruction of Patrolman Fox's spacecraft, fill the sky. Jack loudly blames Emeralida and Urocco for the trouble they are in; a fight ensues, but is abruptly ended when the three Liabe seeds fall to the floor. Emeralida sees them and immediately recognizes that Shiro, Jack and Aaron have been chosen by the Liabe seeds. Urocco is skeptical.

Garuda, sleeping nearby, is awakened by the fighting. He sees the men's Liabe seeds, comes out of hiding with Beba-2 and shows Emeralida his seed.

Emeralida explains that the Liabe have divinely selected eight to liberate their planet. The others are sympathetic but unwilling to get involved in a war. Garuda hands his Liabe seed to Emeralida and leaves. Beba-2 follows Garuda, trying to change his mind.

Urocco exhorts Emeralida to find the others chosen by the Liabe seeds, while Meia pushes Jack, Aaron and Shiro to help the Jilutians. Jack announces that the other recipients are 'wolf-hunters', and offers to lead the Jilutians to them.

Jack leads Urocco and Emeralida to the home of a wizened old crone; she examines the Liabe seed, and names wolf-hunters she had seen with the same seeds. Emeralida stays in the home while the others go on a dangerous night search, with a guide, Hikiroku. Hikiroku's robe conceals his face and hands, and he does not speak but only growls. As they leave, the old woman hands Jack and Urocco cups of drugged liquor.

Walking in the darkness through the mountains, Urocco becomes dizzy and disoriented. Jack hits him on the back of the head with a rock. Urocco, dazed and drugged, tries to raise his sword. Their "guide" shoots him, pushes his body into a gulley, and hands Jack a satchel with money, his payment for the betrayal. Jack finds the Liabe seed in his pocket; he hurls it away.

Hikiroku returns to the old woman's home; she tells Emeralida that Urocco won't be coming back, and that she bribed Jack to give Emeralida to her for her son, Hikiroku, who is revealed as a lizard-man mutant. He disarms the horrified Emeralida, but is killed when a brigade of Gavanas troops enter the crone's home and capture her and the princess. Urocco, alive but injured, wakes and learns of her capture.

Back at Shiro and Aaron's house, Meia, still thinking they're helping the Jillucians, dances happily around the room with Jack. Aaron and Shiro are silent and glum. Urocco bursts in, sword drawn and tries to attack the men, but falls down unconscious.

Jack confesses his guilt to Meia, but tells her that Shiro and Aaron were in on the plan. All three point that Meia's father grew rich profiteering from war. Aaron and Shiro hurl their Liabe seeds through a window. Meia angrily flies away in her spacecraft. She hears a rattling behind the cockpit and finds a Liabe seed glowing orange.

Aaron, Jack and Shiro are plagued by nightmares about the Gavanas killing Emeralida and the Jillucians. After they awake, Shiro and Jack's Liabe seeds come back through the window into their hands, glowing orange, but Aaron's seed has not returned. Meia returns, showing her seed, and three of them rejoice; Aaron is upset that his seed has not come back.

At the Gavanas' base headquarters on Jillucia, Rockseia points out to Emeralida that the planet could have remained fertile and rich, but brought desolation when they refused to surrender. Rockseia's men wheel in the old crone on a gurney. Using a mind probe, Rockseia extracts images of Earth landscapes and wildlife until the old crone dies. Using huge engines built into the planet, Jilutia is propelled towards Earth, the Gavanas' next conquest.

The Gavanas overcome Earth's defenses and give Earth three days to surrender and become a tributary planet. The Chairman of Earth Council, Earnest Noguchi, appeals to his old friend, General Garuda, to go to Rockseia as Earth's Special Envoy, hoping to buy time for a renewed defense. At first, Garuda refuses, but then finds a Leyabe seed in his drink, this time glowing orange. Realizing that his destiny is to defend the Earth, he agrees to go to Rockseia.

Jack and the other roughriders decide to go to Jilutia as well. Aaron continues to sulk over his missing Liabe seed. The Gavanas space carrier appears over their house and Jack is captured by the ship's tractor beam. Aaron rescues him, and finally finds his Liabe seed on the hull of his ship.

Urocco, Jack, Shiro and Aaron fly to Jilutia, with Shiro and Aaron's ships mounted on Meia's ship. As they near their destination, Meia's Liabe seed explodes, causing the ship to crash on a planet in the Bernard system. There they find what appears to be a Gavanas warrior without a metallic skin, and wearing a Liabe seed around his neck. The warrior introduces himself as Prince Hans, the rightful heir of the Gavanas' throne. He explains that Rockseia killed his royal parents and took the throne for himself.

Garuda arrives at Jilutia as the Earth envoy and greets the Emperor and Empress. Rockseia brings in Jack, who begs Garuda to save him. Garuda challenges a nearby warrior to a duel, but the warrior fires before he has taken the required 10 steps, and Rockseia kills him in disgrace. Rockseia dismisses Garuda's request for time to prepare Earth's population for surrender, and destroys Earth's moon as a warning. The Empress expresses fear that the Garuda, a Liabe-seed chosen one, might be dangerous.

Garuda, Jack and Beba-2 leave Jilutia but then turn around. All three parachute to the surface. In the meantime Meia's ship approaches Jilutia, making the 'chicken run' approach used earlier by Aaron and Shiro. The pair separate their ships near the surface, and the three ships pull up and fly through a rocky canyon, simulating a meteor impact. The ships then re-connect and land. Urrocco finds the Jilutian survivors hiding in the hull of a space galleon. Urrocco and the others meet Jack, Garuda and Beba-2. They realize there are now six Liabe warriors, but wonder who the other two might be.

Kido lays a wreath formed with eight additional Liabe seeds on a pool of water. The wreath then shows a vision of tunnels leading to the reactor furnaces. If these are destroyed, the Gavanas' base will be destroyed too, along with Jelutia. Shiro and Aaron boast that they can fly their spacecraft through the narrow tunnels. The Jilutians are resigned to the destruction of their world, but Urocco is horrified and runs away.

Later, the group is captured and led back into the Gavanas' base where Rockseia, addressing them using a giant hologram, tells the prisoners that he has learned of their plans from Urocco.

Urocco angrily decries their hopeless resistance, and their plan to destroy the planet. He lifts his rifle to fire on them, but just then the Liabe seeds begin to glow, and Urrocco turns on the Gavanas. The Jilutians rise up against their captors, while Prince Hans draws his sword against the Gavanas warriors. Urrocco is mortally wounded but lives long enough to find a glowing Liabe seed in his wreath, learning as he dies that he is the eighth Liabe warrior.

Prince Hans tells the Jilutians to evacuate in their ship. Meia, Shiro and Aaron get back to their ships and leave, avoiding the attacking Gavanas fighters. The Jilutians storm the space galleon and seize it. Meanwhile, Prince Hans fights his way into the throne room. He fights Rockseia, and stabs him in the forehead; the energy from Hans' sword surges into Rockseia, throwing him through the window of his tower. As he dies the entrance to the reactor tunnel opens.

Shiro and Aaron fly their ships into the tunnel, outmaneuvering Gavanas fighters. They destroy the reactor, and then fly to the surface as the planet begins to break up.

Garuda, Beba-2, Jack, Prince Hans, Emeralida, and all the Jilutians climb aboard the last Galleon. Kido decides to die with Jilutia. The space galleon then launches and is joined in flight by Meia, Shiro, and Aaron. The trio launch a suicide attack against the Gavanas space carrier, causing it to explode and crash in flames. The planet detonates.

Shiro, Aaron and Meia awake on board the space galleon, surprised to be alive. Emeralida explains that it's a miracle of the Liabe seeds. Earth offers the Jilutians asylum, but the survivors set off to find a world of their own.

With the money she got from her lawsuits in Washington, Kitty has decided to take some time off from her radio show. Inspired by Thoreau and his experiences at Walden, she rents a cabin and begins to write a book, although she has a hard time focusing.

During Kitty's vacation, Cormac drives up to her cabin with an injured Ben and tells Kitty that he had called Ben to help with a werewolf hunt. Ben was attacked and infected by one of the werewolves, who Cormac then killed. They mend Ben the best they can while Ben makes it clear that he would rather be dead than a werewolf. Kitty decides that she is going to show Ben that he can live with lycanthropy. She takes him in, then finds that the only way to make him safe is to create a new pack of the two of them, which makes her alpha. She is with him for his first change on the full moon.

While Ben is being tended to, Kitty tells Cormac about the dead animals that have been left on her door step along with small barbed-wire crosses. He thinks that these objects are part of a curse and makes some calls. The objects begin to get worse as a circle of crosses are left surrounding Kitty's cabin and skinned animals are left hanging in the trees. Cormac continues to look into the curse, until he finds Ben and Kitty sleeping in each other's arms. Upset, he gets in his Jeep and leaves.

A few nights later, Tony Rivera shows up at the cabin, called by Cormac. He tells Kitty that he can find out who is attempting to use magic on her. He traces the magic back to Alice and Sheriff Marks, but it backfired and drew dark energy to the region rather than repelling it. The locals agree to break the curse on Kitty. As they are about to lift it, the use of magic draws the attention of the skinwalker that had been involved in the attack on Ben. Kitty tries to fend it off, but it pins her to the ground and attacks. Cormac arrives in time to injure the skinwalker, who shifts back to Miriam Wilson, and then he kills her.

Despite the killing being self-defense, Cormac is arrested. Ben and Kitty work to prove his innocence by driving to New Mexico, where Ben had been attacked, to try to find evidence that Miriam was a skinwalker. Though the local attorney believes in skin-walkers, he is being pressured by Sheriff Marks to press charges, and Cormac has too much of a record of skirting the law to not prosecute. Cormac takes a plea-bargain of four years in prison. Kitty ends her vacation after Cormac's trial, and goes back to her show, "Kitty and the Midnight Hour." She also finishes her book.

The story focuses on the main character Sayori, who is a modern high school girl. She finds a mysterious pendant while out helping with an archeological dig (she's in the high school history club, so she is forced to attend), and later has a strange dream—it seems that the scene is from about a hundred and fifty years ago, during the last days of the samurai, and she sees Hatsuhime, princess of the Mochizuke clan, assassinated!

It gets even more strange when the scene changes, and Sayori realizes that she's in Hatsuhime's body; that she has somehow seen how things were, and the situation has somehow "reset", giving her the chance to avert the princess's terrible fate.

Loser Ben Harris (Eli Wallach), an alienated Greenwich Village mailman, decides to get a girl the only way he can—by kidnapping her. Putting his plan into operation one rainy night, he spots an attractive young woman. He races ahead of her and prepares an ambush. However, his would-be target finds shelter from the downpour and he ends up pulling a bag down over Gloria Fiske (Anne Jackson) instead. When he carries her back to his basement apartment and removes the bag, he is dumbfounded to find he has captured a middle-aged housewife. With no alternative, he makes do with the person he has caught, but she proves to be not quite what he envisaged.

With Weir (Torri Higginson) incapacitated, Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) is forced to take command of Atlantis. McKay (David Hewlett) determines that the power conduits are damaged, preventing Atlantis from completing its jump to the planet M12-578. While teams are sent to patch them up, the shield starts to collapse, resulting in the deaths of one team. McKay later decides to collapse the shield to cover the central tower in order to conserve power, and give Zelenka (David Nykl) time to patch up the conduits. However, the city approaches an asteroid belt, and the only way to go through without using up the power is for Sheppard to lead a fleet of Puddle Jumpers and clear a path. Although inexperienced, the pilots succeed, but impacts from the stragglers damage the stardrive control crystals, and they have to fix it before jumping again.

In the midway station, Colonel Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Bill Lee (Bill Dow) are contacted by the ''Apollo'', informing them Atlantis did not arrive. Carter and Lee eventually decide to find the city by using the ''Apollo'' to perform small jumps along the city's path and augment their sensors to increase the chance of finding Atlantis. Dr. Keller (Jewel Staite) exhausts her medical expertise to save Weir, and asks McKay to reprogramme the nanites Weir was infected with in "The Real World". Against Sheppard's orders, McKay goes ahead with it.

In space suits, Sheppard and Zelenka reach the controls and repair them, but in the process Zelenka is injured by a micro-asteroid. By then, Atlantis has lost too much power to jump again. Furthermore, Sheppard learns McKay has disobeyed his order and angrily tells him to deactivate the nanites. Weir, having apparently fully recovered, regains consciousness. When she learns the nanites are keeping her alive, she warns Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) that saving her this way is a bad idea. McKay apologises to Sheppard, and they continue working. In the end, McKay decides to use an experimental Jumper with a hyperdrive he worked on since "Tao of Rodney" and use it to steal a Zero Point Module from the Asuran homeworld.

To ensure the mission to steal a Zero Point Module is a success, Dr. McKay (David Hewlett) proposes to use Dr. Weir (Torri Higginson) and her nanites to access the Asuran collective and guide them; should the Asurans take her over, McKay would activate a kill switch on the nanites, which would also effectively kill Weir. With their experimental jumper ready, Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) leaves Teyla (Rachel Luttrell) in command of Atlantis. The jumper's hyperdrive works and they arrive over the Asuran homeworld (M7R-227). With Weir's access, Sheppard and Ronon (Jason Momoa) easily steal the Zero Point Module. McKay then finds a code that will cause the Asurans to attack the Wraith and convinces Sheppard to upload a programme to reactivate this dormant code.

McKay initiates an anti-Replicator field to protect them from the Asurans, but Oberoth (David Ogden Stiers) discovers this and sends a wave to override the field. Weir leaves McKay, confronts Oberoth and uses his power to freeze all the Asurans, even tricking him into believing that he has captured the team, all to buy Sheppard enough time to upload the programme. However, Weir struggles to keep Asurans frozen, and when Sheppard finds her just as she loses control, she orders him to leave her behind as the Asurans unfreeze and capture her. The team escapes without Weir, but end up trapped as they lack the power to make it to hyperspace. They are unexpectedly assisted by the ''Apollo'', who have found Atlantis with Colonel Carter's (Amanda Tapping) help. The ''Apollo'' lays down covering fire long enough for the team to land in the fighter bay and carries them back to Atlantis. However, the ''Apollo'' is unable to lock onto Doctor Weir and beam her aboard. Now fully powered, Sheppard sends the city to M35-117, a back-up planet, and makes a rough landing onto its ocean. Whilst the team mourns the loss of Weir, McKay regains contact with Stargate Command. Dr. Zelenka (David Nykl) announces that the Asurans have begun their attack against the Wraith, meaning Weir's sacrifice was not in vain. Carter tells Sheppard that they will miss Weir, though Sheppard vows to find her again.

The game starts with a young boy standing by an old tree humming the game's theme, "Rainbow Smile". He then hears a female voice telling him that she liked the song he was humming. The boy looks around the tree and finds a young girl with a book sitting on its roots. The reader offers to tell the boy a story about Dewy, to which the boy agrees.

Dewy lives in a mythical fairytale world protected by the Tree of Seven Colors. One day the evil Don Hedron attempts to cover their world in darkness. However, Don Hedron and his Dark Water are repelled by the Tree and the fairies of the land. After a long period of peace, Don Hedron returns one day. The Tree of Seven Colors soon becomes ill and is unable to protect the land as he once did. With hope fading, it puts all of his remaining strength into Dewy, the only one who will be able to free the world of the evils presented by Don Hedron, like he did 1000 years before.

After finding the six fruits of the tree of seven colors, Dewy gains access to Don Hedron's space. While fighting minibosses in act 1 and bosses in act 2, Dewy finds a door leading to Don Hedron. The little drop encounters the villain and his pet, which resides on his arm and moves its head in diagonal ways. A fight ensues with Dewy emerging victorious. Don Hedron, however, is not done with him. He transforms into his true form, a large purple octopus with branch like "Hair". Dewy has the upper hand, until Don Hedron spits out some pink balls of goop, knocking Dewy out. Hordes of Don Hedron's minions proceed to finish him off, but the Eau arrive just in time to save Dewy. The final sequence involves the player flicking the wiimote up with the Eau every time they jump. This makes Dewy recover after some time. He leaps in the air and, using the power of the seven colors, transforms into a large gold ball and presumably sacrifices himself to transform Don Hedron into a magnificent tree. One of the Eau looks up at the tree then the credits roll. The song during the credits is "Rainbow Smile".

After the credits, the boy who was hearing the story wakes up and finds the ribbon the reader had. The final scene is a drop of water in a branch singing Rainbow Smile, hinting that Dewy survived his battle with Don Hedron.

The Turner family moves from Baltimore, Maryland, to the small town of Franklin Falls in Tazewell County, Virginia, hoping to start a new life. The move creates problems for everyone, especially 13-year-old Matt (Tom Guiry), who feels lost and alone in his new surroundings, and still has not come to terms with his father Steve's (Jon Tenney) remarriage to Laura (Helen Slater) after his mother's death. But with the help of a stray Collie dog named Lassie that the family takes in, Matt learns to adjust to his surroundings and his family's situation. After Lassie saves Matt's life from an aggressive gray wolf one night, the two form a bond.

However, as his father’s planned job falls through, Matt, with help from his grandfather, Len Collins (Richard Farnsworth), helps convince the family to start a sheep farm, which had been his mother's dream. While the Turners get to work, a ruthless neighbor and wealthy sheep farmer, Sam Garland (Frederic Forrest), will stop at nothing to prevent them from succeeding, because it means that they will be occupying some grazing land that he's used in the past. In addition, Sam has two sons, Josh (Clayton Barclay Jones) and Jim (Charlie Hofheimer) who attend school with Matt. Both boys dislike Matt, but Josh's hatred mainly stems from jealousy because a fellow student, April Porter (Michelle Williams), whom Josh likes, is more interested in Matt.

Eventually Sam, with the help of his sons and henchmen, steals the Turners’ new herd of sheep, and kidnaps Lassie. However, she manages to escape, and she and Matt get their sheep back. However Josh and Jim catch up to them, and in the ensuing scuffle Josh finds himself struggling in a raging river, heading for massive rapids and a waterfall. Matt manages to rescue him, but is unable to save himself. Lassie then rescues Matt, but ends up going over the waterfall herself, to Matt's horror. Sam, after learning that Matt had saved Josh's life, apologizes to the Turners for his actions and for the loss of Lassie. The Turners hold a memorial for Lassie at a nearby tree where Matt's mother had carved her initials years before, and Matt carves Lassie's name above his mother's initials. However, Lassie manages to survive the waterfall, and although injured, she returns home shortly afterwards and is reunited with Matt at his school.

A string of serial killings among the children of Mexico City is sending shivers through the community. The story follows a child who holds key to solving the murders and is in danger.

In Springberry, Alabama, 1946, young Dewey Cox accidentally cuts his brother Nate in half with a machete. The trauma causes Dewey to lose his sense of smell. Dewey meets a blues guitarist who discovers Dewey's life experience instilled in him a natural affinity for playing blues music.

In 1953, Dewey performs at a school talent show and drives the crowd wild with his song "Take My Hand," and his father kicks him out of the house, calling it the "Devil's music". A 14-year-old Dewey leaves Springberry with his 12-year-old girlfriend Edith; they soon marry and have a baby. Working at an all-African American nightclub, Dewey replaces singer Bobby Shad onstage and impresses Hasidic Jew record executive L'Chaim. While recording a rockabilly rendition of "That's Amore", Dewey is berated by an executive. A desperate Dewey performs "Walk Hard," a song inspired by a speech he gave Edith, which restores the executive's belief in Judaism and rockets Dewey to superstardom.

The song quickly becomes a hit and Dewey becomes caught up in the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. He soon performs his first concert as the following act to Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper. Dewey is introduced to marijuana by his drummer Sam and becomes unfaithful to Edith. Dewey's father informs him that his mother has died while dancing to Dewey's song and blames Dewey's music for her death. Distraught, Dewey finds Sam using cocaine and partakes, resulting in a cocaine-fueled punk rock performance. Choir-girl Darlene Madison enters Dewey's life, and he produces several sexually suggestive hit records amid their courtship. He weds Darlene while still married to Edith, which leads to both women leaving him, after which Dewey purchases drugs from an undercover cop. After he serves time in prison and in rehab, Darlene returns.

They move to Berkeley, California in 1966 during the counterculture movement. Dewey's new singing style is compared to that of Bob Dylan, which Dewey angrily denies. On a band visit to India, Dewey takes LSD with the Beatles, leading to a ''Yellow Submarine''-esque hallucination. Dewey becomes consumed with creating his masterpiece ''Black Sheep'' (a homage to Brian Wilson's ''Smile''). The band resents his insane musical style and abusive behavior and breaks up; Darlene, also unable to deal with Dewey, leaves him for Glen Campbell. During another stint in rehab, Dewey is visited by the ghost of Nate, who ridicules his self-pity and tells him to start writing songs again.

In the 1970s, Dewey now hosts a CBS variety television show but is unable to compose a masterpiece for his brother. Nate reappears and urges Dewey to reconcile with their father. Dewey and his father wind up dueling with machetes; despite having trained years for this moment, Dewey's father cuts himself in half, forgives Dewey for Nate's death, tells him to be a better father, and dies. Dewey breaks down and destroys almost everything in his home.

Dewey is approached by one of his illegitimate children and decides to reconnect with his many offspring. In 1992, a divorced Darlene returns to him. Finally realizing what is most important to him, Dewey regains his sense of smell and remarries her.

In 2007, L'Chaim's son Dreidel informs Dewey of his popularity with young listeners through rapper Lil' Nutzzak's sampling of "Walk Hard." Dewey learns he is to receive a lifetime achievement award. They want him to sing a song at the ceremony, but Dewey is reluctant, fearing his old temptations. However, with his family's support, he reunites with his band and is finally able to create one great masterpiece, summing up his entire life with his final song, "Beautiful Ride."

A title card reveals that Dewey died three minutes after this final performance, which then also reads "Dewford Randolph Cox, 1936–2007." A post-credits scene is a short black-and-white clip of "the actual Dewey Cox, April 16, 2002" (still played by Reilly).

Composer Peter Bretter is in a five-year relationship with actress Sarah Marshall, who stars in a ''CSI''-like television show titled ''Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime''. One day, as Peter stands stark naked in their apartment, Sarah abruptly announces that she is breaking up with him. Devastated and unable to banish his grief through one-night stands, Peter, against the advice of his ex-stepbrother and best friend Brian, takes a trip to Hawaii and stays at Turtle Bay resort. However, the vacation is ruined when he learns that Sarah and her new British rock star boyfriend Aldous Snow are also guests of the resort. Taking pity on him, hotel concierge Rachel Jansen offers him an incredibly expensive suite for free in exchange for cleaning up the room himself.

Peter begins spending time with Rachel and starts to develop feelings for her. Meanwhile, the relationship between Sarah and Aldous begins to falter. Much of the discord is triggered by the news that Sarah's TV show has been cancelled and that Aldous is about to embark on a world tour with his rock group, Infant Sorrow, for 18 months. During a day of surf and sand, Aldous and Peter run into each other and begin talking. Inadvertently, Aldous informs Peter that he and Sarah began having sex a full year before she broke up with Peter. When Peter confronts Sarah, she tells him she began feeling disconnected emotionally from him, and she couldn't do anything to make their relationship work. Further exacerbating the situation is Sarah's obvious jealousy of the budding relationship between Peter and Rachel, while Peter (through observing Sarah's relationship with Aldous) begins to realize that his relationship with her wasn't as great as he remembered.

Sarah, Aldous, Peter, and Rachel share an awkward dinner. After dinner, Peter takes Rachel back to his hotel room, and they begin to have sex. Sarah hears them through the wall and initiates sex with Aldous, moaning loudly for the benefit of the couple next door, and Rachel and Peter turn the situation into a competition and become even louder. When Aldous realizes Sarah is clearly putting on a performance to provoke a reaction from Peter, he pushes her off and tells her the trip was a mistake as she's clearly not over Peter. They bicker furiously, prompting Aldous to announce that the relationship is over and that he has been cheating on her. The next day, Peter encounters Aldous and learns that he and Sarah have broken up and that he is returning to England alone. He and Peter part on good terms. Peter goes to Sarah's room to console her, where she admits she still is in love with him and tries to rekindle their romance. The two start to engage in sexual activity, but Peter gets ambivalent feelings towards Sarah realizing that he has become much happier with Rachel and berates Sarah for treating him badly in the first place. Peter immediately goes to Rachel to confess what happened, but she is hurt and demands that he leave and never contact her again. Before leaving, Peter takes down a naked picture of Rachel at a local bar and returns it to her, despite enduring a beat-down from the owner.

He flies back to Los Angeles and, after a period of sadness and self-loathing, begins working on his Dracula puppet comedy-rock opera, ''A Taste for Love''. He sends an invitation to Rachel for the opening night performance. Although hesitant at first, Rachel eventually decides to attend. After the successful performance, Rachel congratulates Peter and tells him she's looking into attending college in the area. She leaves so Peter can bask in the success of his show, but quickly returns to Peter's dressing room to tell him she misses him, where she finds him stark naked, just as he was when Sarah dumped him. The film ends with a mid-credits scene showing Sarah starring in a new television show titled ''Animal Instincts'' where she plays a character who can read animals' minds.

Dale Denton, a process server and marijuana enthusiast, visits his drug dealer, Saul. Dale and Saul smoke the rare "Pineapple Express" strain together before Dale leaves to resume working. He arrives at the home of Ted Jones and witnesses Ted and police officer Carol Brazier shoot and kill an Asian man. While fleeing, Dale throws his roach containing Pineapple Express, which Ted identifies and he sends his henchmen Budlofsky and Matheson to Red, a drug dealer who tells them about Saul.

Back at Saul's apartment, Dale learns Ted is a local drug lord and could trace the roach as only Red and Saul have the Pineapple Express strain. Dale and Saul decide they must flee the city. They attempt to hide in the woods where Dale's car battery dies. Dale and Saul visit Red, who after a fight, reveals that Ted knows who they are and intends to kill them. Budlofsky and Matheson torture Red for information and both shoot him in the abdomen. Believing his high-schooler girlfriend Angie to be in danger, he and Saul travel to her home where they are removed at gunpoint by her father. Budlofsky and Matheson arrive at the house but Dale and Saul depart before they can be captured and Angie's family goes to a hotel.

Dale and Saul then sell Pineapple Express to raise bus fare but Dale is arrested by police officer Bobbra. Dale tells Bobbra that he witnessed Brazier and Ted murder a man. Bobbra has long been suspicious of Brazier's corruption and says she will investigate; Saul, thinking he is rescuing Dale, hijacks the police car. Brazier hears on police radio of Dale's arrest and pursues Dale and Saul in a high-speed chase but they escape. After Dale and Saul argue and split up, Saul is kidnapped and is held in Ted's lair. Dale breaks up with Angie over the phone after she talks about marriage. Dale then enlists an injured Red to help to rescue Saul but Red backs out at the last minute and Dale is captured. While Dale and Saul are waiting to be killed, they reconcile their friendship and plan an escape.

Ted's rivals, a Korean drug gang, attack the lair to avenge their fellow gangster's death. Dale and Saul free themselves but are caught by Matheson. A brawl and shootout ensues; Matheson kills Budlofsky for refusing to kill anyone. Red reappears and drives his car through the barn, killing Matheson and saving Saul but is shot by Brazier. A member of the Korean gang sets off a bomb killing Ted and setting fire to the barn. Red's car explodes and lands on Brazier, killing her. Dale carries Saul from the burning lair and Red, severely wounded, also escapes and reconciles with them. They talk about their adventure over breakfast at a diner before Saul's grandmother picks them up and takes them to the hospital.

Prologue

Lew and Kennard Alton have been absent from Darkover for three years, since the events of the Sharra Rebellion (see ''The Heritage of Hastur''). Despite numerous attempts, Terran medics were not able to restore Lew's hand. However, he is slowly recovering his mental and emotional control.

Book One

Regis Hastur is now 18 years old and has recently completed his training in the Guard and is attending sessions of the Cortes. His paxman, Danilo Syrtis, heir to the Ardais Domain, has spent the previous winter doing so in the Hellers. The young men meet in Thendara and spend the evening in a tavern, debating the future of Darkover.

Lew and Kennard arrive on Vainwal. They meet Diotima Ridenow, who is on holiday with two of her brothers, Lerrys and Geremy. The first meeting between Dio and Lew is awkward, but they eventually fall in love.

Dio reveals that she is pregnant, gives birth prematurely and the baby dies. She has a nervous breakdown, and Lerrys, Dio's brother, decides to take his sister away from Vainwal and from Lew. Lew, believing that Dio has rejected him, decides not to follow.

Kennard receives a message from Dyan Ardais: he must go back to Darkover to prevent the Comyn Council from granting the Alton Domain to Gabriel Lanart. Kennard dies before they can return. In his last living instant, he sends a strong telepathic order, with the full Alton gift, to Lew: "You must go back to Darkover, fight for your brother's rights and for the honor of Alton and the Domain."

Book Two

The Comyn Council proposes granting the Alton Domain to Gabriel Lanart. Two challengers appear: Marius Alton and Jeff Kerwin (née Damon Aillard-Alton and called Ridenow; see ''The Bloody Sun''). Lew Alton arrives in the Crystal chamber to claim the Alton domain.

The mentally unstable Prince Derik announces that he has arranged a marriage agreement between Keeper Callina Aillard and Lord Beltran Aldaran, in an attempt to reunite the Aldaran Domain to the Comyn. Callina does not want to marry Beltran, but the older isolationist members of the Council (especially Danvan and Dyan) believe that reuniting the Comyn will help them repel Terran colonialism.

Regis Hastur visits Callina Aillard in the Comyn Tower. Callina asks Regis to persuade Lew Alton to bring the Sharra matrix into the Comyn Tower and place it under the safeguard of the ancient keeper, Ashara Alton. Just before Regis' departure, he learns that Beltran has started his journey to Thendara at the head of a massive army.

Lew goes to the Comyn Tower to visit Callina, hoping to discover how to destroy the Sharra matrix. During their discussion, Callina tells Lew that she is afraid of Ashara and that the Council is trying to pressure her into the marriage with Beltran. Lew and Callina realize that they have very strong feelings for each other.

Regis discusses the political situation with his paxman, Danilo, and Dyan Ardais. Dyan wants to resolve the Alton succession by having Lew abdicate in favor of a mysterious Alton child that he knows about (see ''Exile's Song''). Moreover, Dyan wants to ally with Beltran so that the Council can threaten the Terrans with the Sharra matrix, forcing them to leave Darkover.

Regis arrives at the Crystal Chamber for the start of Council. Danvan Hastur calls in Beltran Aldaran to represent the seventh domain. Lew tries to convince the Council that Beltran is dangerous. Callina asks Beltran if he has sworn allegiance to the Compact, the most sacred of Comyn laws. He says that he will accept the Compact once he has been accepted in the Comyn and he plans to give his Terran weapons to his promised wife, Callina, as a wedding gift. Suddenly, a giant fire form of Sharra appears in the Council. Beltran and several other Comyn lords flee the room. Lew learns that Sharra's illusion was created by Regis as a warning, despite the telepathic dampers.

Lew is plagued with thoughts of Sharra and finally goes to Callina in the Aillard apartments, where he also finds Linnell and Regis. Callina asks Lew to meet with Ashara.

Ashara explains that Sharra is a goddess and the matrix is a door through which she can reach our world. The only weapon that will defeat her is the Sword of Aldones, a weapon kept in the ''rhu fead'', the holy Chapel at Hali. To reach the sword, Callina and Lew must penetrate the defensive spells, which require a person who is of Comyn blood and was not reared on Darkover. Ashara explains that a Cherilly duplicate (or unrelated twin) might be able to defeat the defenses. Callina and Lew use a giant matrix screen to teleport to Darkover a Terran named Kathie Marshall, the young nurse that took care of Dio on Vainwal, who is the identical double of Linnell.

On the morning of the Festival, Regis learns from Dan Lawton that the Terrans are seeking the arrest of Robert Kadarin. He threatens to send the spaceforce police to Thendara if the Comyn fail to turn over Kadarin. On his way back to the Castle, Regis stops to see Beltran offering his Terran weapons to Callina. In a strong telepathic rapport with Dyan Ardais, Regis destroys all of the weapons. Through this experience, Regis learns that Dyan has the Alton gift.

In Comyn Castle, Regis meets Lew, and learns of the existence of Lew's daughter, Marja, a six-year-old child who is already ''laran''-aware. Lew leaves Marja in the care an Alton retainer, and goes to find Callina.

During the Festival ball, Lew sees Dio. They quarrel about Dio's departure from Vainwal, and Lew discovers that Lerrys lied to both of them in order to separate them. Just before the moonlight dance, Lew sees a strange man dressed as a harlequin.

Danvan Hastur celebrates the marriage between Callina and Beltran. At the end of the dance that closes the handfasting, Lew suddenly recognizes Kadarin. Thyra and Kadaran attempt to compel Lew to join them, but Regis uses his newly emerged ''laran'' abilities to rescue Lew. The Sharra matrix kills Linnell. Kadarin and Thyra use the matrix to teleport out of the Comyn Castle.

Book Three

Guardsman Gabriel Lanart-Alton arrests Beltran. Regis discovers that Prince Derik has died as a result of Sharra. Regis is now Heir of the Domains.

Regis seeks Dyan's assistance, and finds him in the Aldaran apartments, having a discussion with Beltran. Dyan reveals his plans: he wants to use Sharra against the Terrans to expel them from Darkover. Regis flees the Aldaran apartments to avoid revealing that Dyan, himself, has the Alton gift and can therefore operate Sharra.

Lew, Kathie and Callina retrieve the Sword of Aldones from the ''rhu fead''. They are attacked by Kadarin and Thyra waiting. Kadarin's attack is repelled by the sword, but Thyra attacks and wounds Lew.

Regis authorizes Dan Lawton to send a helicopter to Hali to rescue Lew, Callina, and Kathie. When the helicopter returns, Lew is nearly dead, but Regis takes Sword of Aldones and transforms into Hastur, Son of Light. He heals Lew instantaneously. Lawton arrests Kadarin and Thyra, but they escape.

With Callina's help, Regis tries to cleanse Lew's matrix but fails; the bond with Sharra is too strong. In the forecourt of Comyn Castle, Thyra and Kadarin wield the Sharra Matrix against Regis, who has the Sword of Aldones. Dyan arrives and frees Lew from Sharra. Regis strikes the Sharra matrix with the Sword of Aldones. Kadarin and Thyra disappear with Sharra, but this action results in the accidental death of Dyan Ardais and Callina Aillard. Lew realizes that Callina was almost entirely possessed by Ashara, and was willing to marry Beltran in order to escape Ashara's domination. Regis' hair has turned completely white.

Epilogue

After the death of so many Comyn, Darkover needs to change: it is going to become a full member of the Terran Empire. Lew goes into voluntary exile with his wife Dio and their daughter Marja. He is going to be the first representative from Darkover to the Imperial Senate.

The following plot summary is translated from the home versions' manual:

''Somewhere in Hong Kong, two martial artists face each other in a vast courtyard. The challenger is a stout man in brown skin. The ground has been tainted with blood. However, his crescent blade has not touched his opponent yet. It was a one-sided battle. He was already exhausted and it will not be long before he　would fall. "Fool, you will become one of my family" resounded the opponent's voice, as the challenger crumbled to the floor and was turned into sand.''

''The Fighting Instinct Tournament, or FIST, is a tournament as fierce as its name suggests. There was no shortage of martial artists who entered the tournament seeking fame, and yet there were many who left the tournament as corpses. The last challenger who remains in this lawless tournament gets to challenge the organizer of the tournament, the Head of the Huang Financial Clique, for the chance to win the massive prize money. The martial artist who can manage to defeat him will obtain the honor of truly calling him or herself the strongest. However, none of the martial artists who were chosen to challenge the champion in a private final match have ever come back alive. Nobody knows when exactly the tournament is held, since only an avaricious will was spiraling over there. The sponsor is actually an evil spirit who possessed the body of a modern man from Hong Kong who has established a selection system to amplify his dark powers. The FIST tournament has gathered numerous participants from around the globe and another sacrifice will be chosen this year.''

Main characters

Most characters in the game take inspiration from ''Street Fighter II''. The original ''Breakers'' features a roster of eight playable characters and a single boss character who is playable only in the home versions. Additionally, each of the playable character has a differently named palette-swapped alter-ego that each character face during the single-player mode instead of the usual clone. ''Breakers Revenge'' introduces one new character and turns the boss into a playable character as well.

• • The lead character. A young karate exponent from Japan who is pursuing strength. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', he was known as .
• • Sho's rival and senior. A young Korean who practices a Chinese martial art called the "Empty Fist." In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', he was known as , and wears a slightly different outfit.
• (voice actor: Minako Arakawa) - A female fighter in a red leotard and headband famous for her kicks. Her name in the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'' was '''Shelly Tarlar''', which was given to her clone counterpart in ''Breakers''. Her prototype version wears a slightly different outfit. Tia joins the tournament to find her older brother, a talented fighter who disappeared in strange circumstances. If she wins, she finds him alive.
• • An Italian nobleman who fights with a fencer's weapon (most likely an épée or rapier) and the power of lightning. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', his name was spelled as '''Pierre Montalio''', with the "l"'s and "r" switched.
• • A Native American fighter who uses a powerful grappling style. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', he was known as '''Red Gigars''', a name given to his clone counterpart.
• • A stocky Arabian man who fights with a scimitar and uses fire projectiles, but can also inflate himself like a balloon. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', he was known as .
• • A wild-hearted protector of the wilderness and forests of the Amazon who attacks with her claws and speed. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', she was known as '''Virgo Sandra''', which was given to her clone counterpart in ''Breakers''.
• • An undead ancient Egyptian with rubber-like limbs who uses electric and poison attacks. Unlike other characters, in the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', his main name is the same name in ''Breakers'', and was neither changed to a different name, nor given to his clone counterpart.
• • The game's final boss. Supposedly the world's strongest martial artist, he is an evil spirit who killed Dao-Long's father and possessed his body. In the 1994 prototype ''Crystal Legacy'', he was known as '''Dostov'''.
• • A ninja who seeks revenge on Bai-Hu for the slaughter of his clan. His attacks use fire and various animals. He is the only new character in ''Breakers Revenge''.

Clone characters

During the single-player mode, instead of fighting a clone of their character, the player will face a differently named, differently colored alter-ego. Even though these alter-egos have different names and back-stories, they are otherwise palette-swaps of the regular characters. * - Sho's alter-ego, named after a certain game company employee. A karate master who is Sho and Dao-Long's senior. A big fan of the band group TUBE. * - Dao-Long's alter-ego, although he has no connection with him. A young Chinese who aspires to become a voice actor. He resents his girlfriend for leaving him. * - Tia's alter-ego. A female kickboxer who fought Tia's brother in the past and is a local celebrity in her hometown. She possesses the so-called "Gem of Water". * - Pielle's alter-ego. A Frenchman who was once robbed during a trip to Italy and has harbored a hatred for Italians ever since. * - Condor's alter-ego. He is a distant relative of Condor whose clan shares a common ancestry with Condor's. He possesses the so-called "Gem of Earth". * - Maherl's alter-ego. A cheerful butcher who uses his butchering blade as a combat weapon. * - Rila's alter-ego. A woman who was entrusted to the "forest tribe" as an orphan and was raised by a giant snake. She possesses the so-called "Green Gem". Her surname, "Sandra", comes from the village where she lives. * - Alsion III's alter-ego. A fan of ancient civilization who dresses up like a mummy. When he is in this form, he can use the techniques of the "Pharaoh Taijutsu" style. In reality, he is a descendant of Alsion III. * - Saizo's alter-ego. Like his counterpart, he appears only in ''Breakers Revenge''. It is uncertain whether he is a real ninja or just a fanatic dressing like one.

Wheelchair-bound mad scientist Dr. Durea, the last descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, takes to murdering young girls for experimentation in hopes of perfecting a blood serum of his own creation with help from his mute, simple-minded assistant Groton. Durea hopes the serum will heal his crippled legs and cure Groton of his condition. Count Dracula comes to the scientist, promising to help him revive the Frankenstein Monster (which he has exhumed from its secret grave in nearby Oakmoor Cemetery) in return for Durea's serum, which he hopes will grant him the ability to go out in the sunlight, thus making him invincible.

As a cover, the duo works out of a secret laboratory hidden behind the Creature Emporium, a haunted house exhibit and a throwback to the old sideshow days located on the boardwalk amusement park in Venice, California. They bring the Monster back to life, and Durea sends him and Dracula out to exact revenge on the man who both discredited him and crippled him in a laboratory fire, Dr. Beaumont. Las Vegas showgirl Judith Fontaine has also previously arrived, looking for her missing sister Joanie who was last seen hanging out with a group of hippies led by Strange. Judith has gotten no satisfaction from Sgt. Martin. She says she is going to investigate on her own and does so, attracting the attention of biker Rico and his gang. Rico slips her some LSD at a dive bar with the bartender's help and Judith, while on a trip due to the drug, is taken by Strange and his girlfriend Samantha, who have just finished attending a protest, to the home of aging fellow hippie Mike Howard who agrees to help her find Joanie. Judith, Mike, Samantha, and Strange go to the Creature Emporium (which Joanie had been known to go to many times), and Judith shows Durea a picture of Joanie, asking her if he has seen her, but he says that he has not.

More girls turn up missing. The Monster kills a couple of police officers while trying to kill a girl for Durea's experiments. Groton goes to the beach with an axe and kills Rico and his gang, who were attacking Samantha, then Groton takes her into Durea's laboratory through a trap door with a ladder that leads to the beach below the Creature Emporium. Judith and Mike go to the Emporium, discover the trap door and the laboratory and confront Durea. He explains that the girls who were killed (including Joanie, whom Judith finds preserved naked, unmoving, and seemingly neither dead nor alive, in a glass-fronted box in the laboratory, along with Samantha, who is in another identical box, in a similar state) were frightened before their deaths. This created a special enzyme in their blood, which is the main ingredient for his blood serum. He also tells Judith that, after he has Mike (with whom she has fallen in love and he with her) killed, her fear upon seeing Mike's death will help him complete the serum at last. Durea sends Groton and a dwarf named Grazbo, the ticket taker at the Creature Emporium, after the couple. Grazbo falls through the laboratory's trap door to the beach and onto an ax that he had dropped beforehand while holding on to the ladder, which kills him, and Groton goes after Judith. Sgt. Martin and Strange arrive with the police, and Martin shoots Groton from the rooftop of the building from which he falls to his death, while Durea falls from his wheelchair into a guillotine display in the Emporium while attempting to escape and is beheaded in it.

Dracula meets Judith, hypnotizes her, and binds her with rope to a railing. He then confronts Mike, who shoves a lit car flare in the Monster's face, forcing him to briefly turn on Dracula in his pain. Mike unties Judith, and they run away, but as they do so, Dracula blasts Mike with fire shot out from his one-eyed demon-headed ring, burning him to ashes.

Judith faints upon seeing Mike's death and slowly awakens to find herself bound with rope again to a chair in an abandoned and desecrated church in a forest area outside of Venice where Dracula's coffin is hidden. Dracula is about to drink her blood and turn her into his vampire bride, but the Monster, who has fallen for her beauty, turns against Dracula. The Monster forces Dracula out of the church and into the surrounding forest (but not before removing Dracula's ring from his finger), where a fierce battle ensues between the two monsters. Dracula tears off the Monster's arms and head, but gets caught in the sun's rays before he can make it back to his coffin and disintegrates into dust. Judith manages to free herself and sees Dracula's ashes and clothing. She then picks up Dracula's ring at the church's door but, after a brief flashback of all that has happened to her before, drops it and flees in fear.

Starring Paolo Bonolis, Sergio Rubini and Stefania Rocca, the film mocks the Italian political class and its hypocrisy. The zealot politician Massimo (Paolo Bonolis), proponent of a law about the defense of family, has a secret love affair with Martina, a young emerging actress (Elena Santarelli). To divert any suspicions, he brings his family on holiday to Paris and tasks his driver, Mariano (Sergio Rubini), with looking after his beloved. After photos portraying Mariano and Martina as lovers are published in local gossip magazines, Mariano's wife faints, is hospitalized and leaves him. Massimo comes back to Rome thinking to be out of danger, but Massimo and Martina take revenge on him. The happy ending comes on Christmas's eve when the truth surfaces.

Mona is in a love triangle with Adel (Omar Sharif), an airplane pilot who she loves, and Rushdi (Kamal Al-Shennawi), a family friend of Mona, who she has rejected on several occasions.

On the day of Adel and Mona's engagement party, Adel is bringing Mona's friend, Hoda, but there is a car accident on their way. When Mona telephones Adel to see why he is late, Hoda replies, consequently Mona thinks Adel is having an affair with her. She agrees to marry Rushdi, but after their marriage, he treats her badly. She conceives but after learning she has become pregnant, Adel hits her, thus making her miscarry.

Hoda meets Mona secretly and tells her the truth. Shocked by the truth, she asks Rushdi to divorce her. Rushdi plans to murder Mona, but he fails, and his plan is discovered. Mona spares Rushdi from any charges in return for their divorce. She is reunited with Adel.

Luke tells the story here. Jesus ascends to heaven after 40 days, and Judas is replaced by Matthias. The holy spirit comes to Jerusalem, after which the disciples begin to proclaim the gospel with great boldness and fruitfulness. Despite numerous arrests and increased persecution, the gospel continues to spread throughout Judea and Samaria. After the apostles encounter trouble with Saul, he eventually converts to the faith after experiencing a personal encounter with Christ on his way to Damascus. He changes his name to Paul and begins to proclaim the gospel and plant churches throughout the Roman world, and finally, Rome.

The book's main character, Albert Corde, a meditative academic who faces a crisis, accompanies his Romanian-born astrophysicist wife to her Communist-ruled native country, where they deal with the death of his mother-in-law. This sojourn allows Corde to observe the workings of a totalitarian regime in particular and the Eastern Bloc in general, a perspective which provides him with insight into the human condition.

Clara Velde is a successful fashion writer in New York City and the star of the story. The book's title refers to the disappearance of Clara's prized emerald ring. Clara associates the ring with her love for the Washington, D.C. politico Ithiel and with her own professional and personal power. The ring's apparent theft leads Clara into a series of psychological crises and forces her to confront a long-buried complex of interpersonal issues. Among these is the fact that—despite her four marriages—Ithiel remains her ideal, her best friend, and her ever-uncaptured love. The theft of the ring implicates the young Austrian au pair, Gina, whose Haitian boyfriend, Frederic, must have stolen it. On being accused, Gina resigns and moves from Clara's Upper East Side apartment to East Harlem, a move Clara supposes is an heroic attempt to help recover the ring. How does this practical young woman, Gina, who's going to marry an Austrian banker (following her NYC fling) regard her former employer, Clara? And why should this matter so much to a worldly, successful woman such as herself? Everything hinges on her self-judgment. Despite the scattered miscellany of her marital lives; her very-much-part time commitment to parenting; and the ever-uncertainty of her relationship with Ithiel, her soulmate as she seems to believe, the younger woman sees Clara as somehow coherent: "I believe you pretty well know who you are." With the ring returned, and peace made with Gina, Clara, her messy biography notwithstanding, is prepared to see herself as "one in a xillion" who actually do know who they are.

Late in the reign of Elizabeth I of England, Spanish noble Don Juan de Maraña is repatriated from London to Madrid, following a diplomatic scandal caused by his dalliance with the British fiancée of a Spanish nobleman. The Spanish ambassador in London, Count de Polan, an old family friend, sends a letter of recommendation to Queen Margaret of Spain.

He requests that she provide an opportunity at the Spanish court for the rehabilitation of Don Juan's reputation from the swirling gossip and scandal that have followed him around Europe in the wake of his many illicit love affairs. Accepting her old friend's suggestion, Queen Margaret thus appoints Don Juan as a fencing instructor to the Royal Spanish Academy, where he is a great success. During his time at court, he secretly falls in love with the Queen but remains a staunchly loyal subject to her and her irresponsible and weak husband, King Phillip III.

Don Juan discovers a treacherous plan by the Machiavellian Duke de Lorca, who is holding the loyal Count de Polan as a secret prisoner. The Duke is plotting to depose the monarchs, usurp their power over Spain, and declare war on England. With the support of his friends at court, Don Juan heroically defends the Queen and the King against de Lorca and his henchmen, finally defeating his plan in a duel to death, saving Spain.

The queen professes her love for Don Juan, now seeing his many virtues. Despite loving her deeply, more than any other woman in his life, he says that they could never be happy or survive such scandal. Both her subjects and Spain would fare poorly under the sole rule of the king. They both have a higher duty that must be served. Since the queen is the one woman he truly loves and can never rightfully have, he asks that she allow him to leave court and to continue his life elsewhere. She painfully grants him his wish, and he leaves the palace forever to continue his journeys in Spain.

Like most of Bellow's fiction, the story centers on the lives of a group of passionate and anxious people living in Chicago. Harry Trellman has formed a friendship with the fabulously wealthy Sigmund Adletsky. Sigmund aims to bring Harry together with Harry's childhood sweetheart, Amy Wustrin.

The novel parallels several real events in Roth's life, including the publication of his 1969 novel ''Portnoy's Complaint'' and the hoopla which surrounded Roth in the wake of that novel's fame. By analogy, in ''Zuckerman Unbound'', Zuckerman has achieved meteoric acclaim and notoriety with ''Carnovsky'', a coming-of-age sex romp that differs remarkably from Zuckerman's previously Jamesian fiction. The extent to which the details of the Zuckerman character can be safely compared to those of Roth has been a subject of zealous debate among Roth's readers. Roth himself has weighed in on the debate, both in interviews and within his fiction.

A woman's infidelity leads her into a web of larceny and danger in this noir-flavored independent thriller. Mia DuBois (Monica Calhoun) is a behavioral psychologist who until recently worked with the police department, counseling the survivors of victims of violent crime. While Mia has entered into a successful private practice, she's persuaded by her former colleagues to take on new client, Tammy (Chrystale Wilson), who is still dealing with the recent murder of her husband. As Mia helps Tammy with her problems, Mia finds herself thinking about her own marriage to Victor (Kristoff St. John), which has hardly been happy lately. As Mia begins wondering if she has other options, she visits a mysterious nightclub, Pandora's Box, where she meets the sexy and mysterious Hampton Hines (Michael Jai White). Mia soon begins having an affair with Hampton, unaware that Hampton is actually working with Victor and Tammy; Mia is soon to inherit $20 million, and Victor is determined to get his hands on the money. Hampton soon shifts his alliances to stay with Mia, but Victor and Tammy are not giving up their shares of the fortune quite so easily.

Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby, a close friend of Henry Huggins, is perpetually infuriated by the imaginative antics of her younger sister Ramona, who frequently insists upon exhibiting imaginative habits and eccentricities such as wearing her beloved homemade paper rabbit ears while pretending to be the Easter Bunny, dragging a string along behind her pretending to lead an imaginary lizard named Ralph, and being read an irritating children's book about an anthropomorphic, disgruntled steam shovel called Scoopy. Beezus is also commonly exasperated by actions on her disrespectful sister's part such as writing in a library book, inviting her classmates to a house party without the permission of her parents, and wreaking havoc during Beezus's painting class. Beezus, however, is haunted frequently by the guilt of her animosity towards Ramona and the uneasy sisterhood that they share as opposed to that displayed by her mother and Aunt Beatrice, and is finally prompted to reveal this during her tenth birthday celebration after Ramona has ruined a pair of birthday cakes intended for the party. However, after learning about memories from the childhoods of Aunt Beatrice and her mother, both of whom used to fight much like Beezus and her sister, Beatrice accepts that she can love (but may not always like) Ramona.

Nomax, whose girlfriend has left him and who is without money, finds Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe, and Little Moe emerging from his 1930s-style radio to comfort him. They sing the hit songs of songwriter and saxophonist Louis Jordan, whose new slant on jazz paved the way for rock and roll in the 1950s.

Moominpappa becomes dissatisfied with his life in Moominvalley, so he organizes for his family to set off on a journey to find a lighthouse in the sea. Upon arriving, they find the island a desolate and lonely place, inhabited only by a very unfriendly fisherman.

Moominpappa wants to become lighthouse keeper, but gives up when he can't figure out how to fix the lighthouse's lantern. He resorts to other projects like building a pier, fishing and research a small lake, only to fail at all of these endeavors.

Meanwhile, Moominmamma grows more and more melancholy as her dream of planting a garden never works out and her longing for home grows stronger. Eventually she starts painting the walls of the lighthouse with flowers until she's drawn all of Moominvalley. Moominmamma finds she can walk inside the painting to be at peace.

Moomintroll explores the nearby woods and finds a meadow he eventually moves into. He's disappointed to find it already inhabited by ants, and asks Little My for help with getting them to move elsewhere. Little My solves the problem by exterminating the ants with petroleum, much to Moomintroll's dismay.

At night, Moomintroll looks for the seafillies whom he admires greatly. The fillies are selfish and mean to Moomintroll, but he doesn't care. As he tries to attract them by waving his lamp he instead finds he's attracted the Groke. Every night, Moomintroll tries to call for the seafillies, but only ends up being accompanied by the Groke. However, slowly he starts growing a fondness for her, and when the lamp ultimately runs out of petroleum the Groke is no longer cold.

As the story draws to a close, the once disjointed family slowly grow close again. Together they confront the sea and save the lonely fisherman. When they find out his birthday is coming, they invite him to a party at the lighthouse, which he reluctantly attends, only to slowly realize he is the original lighthouse keeper. Moominpappa and the fisherman find a new sense of purpose in their lives through their joined experience as the novel draws to a close.

Set in the final days of autumn and the approach of winter, various characters begin to experience a change within themselves and decide to travel to Moominvalley where they can visit the Moomins. First amongst them is Toft, a small orphan who lives alone in a docked boat under the tarpaulin, and who has often dreamed about the Moomins despite the fact that he has never met them. Secondly is Fillyjonk, a woman who is usually obsessed with everything being neat and tidy, but who has an epiphany after suffering an accident and decides to "see people. People who talked and were pleasant and went in and out and filled the whole day so that there was no time for terrible thoughts". The Hemulen similarly begins to question his lifestyle, realising that his life as a collector and organiser of things simply isn't necessary, whilst a senile old man who cannot remember his own name but who calls himself Grandpa-Grumble decides to go to the "Happy Valley" that he remembers from the past. Alongside these figures, Mymble also decides to visit the Moomins in order to see her sister Little My whom they have adopted, and Snufkin also returns, realising that the valley is the place where he can gain inspiration to write a song.

When they all arrive, they discover that the Moomin family have left their house, and so they all settle in to wait for their return. Soon, their conflicting personalities begin to cause friction, with the Fillyjonk trying to tell the others what they should do:

:Suddenly Fillyjonk shouted: 'You musn't touch old leaves! They're dangerous! They're full of putrefaction!' She dashed to the front of the veranda with the blankets trailing behind her. 'Bacteria!' she screamed. 'Worms! Maggots! Creepy-crawlies! Don't touch them!' The Hemulen went on raking. He screwed up his stubborn, innocent face and repeated loudly: 'I'm making the place look nice, for Moominpappa.'

Toft finds an old microbiology textbook, and misinterpreting it as a story, creates a monster in his imagination known as the Creature, which appears to develop a life of its own. Meanwhile, Grandpa-Grumble becomes obsessed with both fishing in a nearby stream that he insists is actually a brook as well as with meeting the Ancestor, a three-hundred-year-old Moomin who he is told by Mymble hibernates in the stove. After becoming terrified that there are insects in the house, Fillyjonk locks herself in the kitchen and, in an attempt to be more like Moominmamma and therefore liked by the others, cooks for them and tries to look after the motherless Toft, who is enlisted by the Hemulen into helping build a treehouse for Moominpappa, whom he is increasingly admiring.

Grandpa-Grumble gets a stomach ache and refuses to take his medicines till the others throw him and the Ancestor a party. At the party, each of the characters performs an act of entertainment; the Hemulen recites a poem that he has written, Toft reads from his book, Mymble dances accompanied by Snufkin's music, and Fillyjonk cooks Welsh rarebit and performs a shadow puppet show about the Moomin family returning home. However, the Ancestor does not appear, as Grandpa-Grumble had mistaken his own reflection in a mirror upstairs for the Ancestor, to whom he makes everyone give a toast.

The morning after the party, Fillyjonk organises the cleaning of the house, though it soon begins to snow, and she decides to leave, finally on good terms with the Hemulen. Meanwhile, Grandpa-Grumble comes to the conclusion that the winter ages people and so decides to go into hibernation in the clothes cupboard like the Ancestor. The treehouse that the Hemulen was building collapses, and so instead Snufkin takes him sailing in his boat, though the Hemulen realises that he gets sea-sick, and after the trip leaves to go home.

After discovering the last five bars he needed to write his song, and finding them to be "more beautiful and even simpler than he ever hoped they would be", Snufkin packs up his tent and leaves the valley. Toft, left alone to wait for the return of the Moomins, finally realises how the view of the family which he had developed in his imagination is too perfect to be real, and comes to accept that even Moominmamma, who he hoped will be his mother, has problems and times of anger just like everybody else. Seeing that "the boat [upon which the Moomins are returning] was a very long way away", he walks down to the jetty to wait for them.

The residents of the Diamond County Home for the Aged prepare for their annual fair, a summer celebration at which they sell their crafts and produce to the people of the nearby town. The fair is at first rained out, and the young prefect, Conner, turns the "inmates" against him by arguing with the noble Hook (94 years old, a former teacher with strong religious beliefs). After the rain clears, some residents fling small stones at Conner. The novel examines the political and religious dialectics that exist among its characters and their respective generations.

Captain Black (voiced by Donald Gray) breaks into the Culver Atomic Centre but is discovered by security guards. While making his escape he is forced to enter a radioactive area, where he is exposed to an isotope that renders him detectable on long-range Geiger counters for the next 48 hours. In a bid to capture the Mysteron agent, Spectrum search the surrounding area using a fleet of Detector Trucks aided by the Angel fighter squadron.

Trapped inside the search area, Black murders a filling station mechanic to steal the hidden Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle that he is guarding. When Captains Scarlet and Blue (voiced by Francis Matthews and Ed Bishop) arrive to requisition the SPV, they encounter the Mysteron reconstruction of the mechanic, who pulls a gun on them but is shot dead by Scarlet. The Detector Trucks pick up Black's trace as he speeds down a highway in the SPV. Captain Ochre (voiced by Jeremy Wilkin) sets up a roadblock to stop him. However, the Mysterons (voiced by Donald Gray) warn Black and order him to return to the atomic centre, where the background radiation will make him undetectable to Spectrum. Sighting the SPV from the air, Symphony Angel (voiced by Janna Hill) lands her fighter. She is captured by Black, who uses the SPV to crash the atomic centre's gates and takes Symphony deep into the complex.

The Spectrum forces converge on the atomic centre. Black attempts to kill Symphony by exposing her to increasing levels of radiation, but ultimately chooses to spare her life. He instead forces the Angel, who is now radioactive herself, to drive out of the complex alone in the SPV. Thinking that Black is the driver, the Spectrum forces begin a pursuit. The entrance to the complex is left unguarded, and Black decontaminates himself and slips away. Symphony crashes the SPV and Spectrum discover too late that they have been tricked. After Colonel White's (voiced by Donald Gray) debriefing, Lieutenant Green (voiced by Cy Grant) discreetly asks Symphony why she did not alert the Captains of her presence during Black's escape; she admits that she had never driven an SPV before and did not want to bypass the opportunity.

The story takes place in 21st Century Japan (approximately at the end of April 2010). The main character is a perfectly ordinary high school student, who tries to do as little as possible everyday, and sleeps though most of his classes, only ever to be woken up by his friend . They believe they are living in a peaceful time, where no large wars are occurring.

However, these peaceful days are destroyed, when a number of large ships disappear at sea, almost instantly, and with no explanation as to why. A strange woman named suddenly appears and attacks Souichi... however Souichi also has his share of secrets.

Edward Tulane is a china rabbit given to a ten-year-old girl named Abilene by her grandmother in the 1930s. He enjoys a pleasant but vain life with his young mistress, who treats him with the utmost love and respect until an unfortunate incident finds him falling overboard while vacationing on the ''Queen Mary''. Edward spends 297 days on the ocean floor, until a storm frees him from the seabed and a passing fisherman and his buddy pull him from their fishing net. The man takes him home to his wife where he is referred to as female and wears dresses.

Edward is passed from hand to hand of a succession of life-altering characters, such as a hobo and his dog and a four-year-old girl with tuberculosis and her brother. Edward's journeys not only take him far from home, but even farther from the selfish rabbit he once was. Eventually, Edward is cruelly broken against a counter top edge, repaired and then offered for sale in a doll store for several years. He is finally bought by Abilene, his original mistress, now married with a daughter of her own.

The nights of Tokyo are disturbed by mysterious deaths involving the 'Reborn Dead', people who disappear at night and suddenly reappear during the day as a corpse. Also, as corpses are sent to the morgue to be autopsied, they disappear again leaving signs showing that they escaped themselves.

To fight these 'Reborn Dead' and to prevent more deaths, mysterious transfer student, Tatsuma Hiyuu, and delinquent student, Kyouichi Houraiji, stay up every night to fight the demons and discover the cause. They are joined by rest of the final year students at the Magami Academy who all have supernatural powers. They must fight not only the demons, but the powerful beings controlling them who are bent on destroying the city and the people within it.

Retired Captain Rider Sandman is summoned to the office of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth. A portrait artist named Charles Corday has been sentenced to death for the murder of the Countess of Avebury and Corday's mother has petitioned for his pardon. Lord Sidmouth makes it clear that he has no doubts that Corday is guilty, and regards Sandman's job as an empty formality. His task is simple: to visit Corday and obtain a confession.

The Countess's husband, the Earl of Avebury, commissioned a boudoir painting of his wife. The Countess was sitting for Corday in her London house when she was brutally stabbed to death, and her clothes were torn off, suggesting that she had been raped. Corday’s palette knife was found on her body. The Countess's maid, Meg, was in attendance, but did not appear at his trial.

Sandman discovers that it wasn’t the Earl who commissioned the portrait of the Countess, but instead a men's club in London, the Seraphim Club. At the Club's premises, Sandman is met by the young Marquess of Skavadale, who claims to have no idea what Sandman is talking about. Sam Berrigan, an ex-army sergeant who is now the Club doorman, tells Sandman that the Seraphim Club is made up of young, aristocratic rakes who commit crimes just for the fun of it. Sandman develops a theory that one of the Seraphim Club killed the Countess.

Christopher Carne, the Earl of Avebury's son, supports the theory that his father did the murder. His father, he confides, hates him because Christopher's grandfather decided to pass over his son and entail his estate onto Christopher, meaning he will inherit a vast fortune when his father dies, while his father is merely living off the income. The Earl himself insists he didn’t kill his wife, and doesn’t know who did, but he hated her all the same. She spent all his money, and was unfaithful to him, so he turned her out of the house and ordered her allowance cut off. She laughed it off, telling him she was supplementing her income through blackmail of her various lovers.

Sandman's one-time fiance, Eleanor Forrest, tells him that her maid saw Meg taken away from the house in a coach belonging to the Seraphim Club. When Sandman mentions Skavadale, Eleanor excitedly tells him that Skavadale's family is close to bankruptcy, but, as the heir to a dukedom, he has managed to become engaged to the wealthiest heiress in England. To both of them, it seems obvious: Skavadale was one of the Countess's many lovers, and he killed her when she attempted to blackmail him and likely killed Meg.

Sandman and Berrigan travel to Skavadale's estate and find Meg, still alive. In the presence of the Home Secretary, Meg confesses: Lord Christopher is the killer. His own stepmother seduced him and then blackmailed him, with her eye on the earldom's vast fortune. He came to the house, begging her to return his love letters; she mocked him, and he lost control and stabbed her with his pocketknife. Meg discovered him, as did Skavadale when he arrived shortly thereafter. Lord Sidmouth writes a hasty pardon while ordering horses and a police escort to speed Sandman to Newgate. Sandman arrives just in time to save Corday, while his police escort seizes Lord Christopher.

As winter approaches Toad, Adder, and the hedgehogs go into hibernation, while the rest of the animals prepare for winter. However the winter is harsh and kills most of the field mice and voles, while making it difficult for the rest of the other animals to find food. Whistler and his mate help Fox, Vixen, Weasel, and Badger by bringing them fish; while the Great White Stag brings hay for the rabbits, hares, field mice, and voles.

Badger decides to go seek out other animals in White Deer Park to see if they know how to cope with the cold. On the way Badger meets a hungry stoat eating a rabbit who tells Badger that this winter is likely to half the population of White Deer Park. Badger then decides to meet with the Great White Stag but falls and injures his leg. The Warden finds him and cares for him while he is injured. While in the Warden's cottage Badger convinces the Warden's cat Ginger to send a message to his friends so that they know he is not in any danger. Ginger finds Mole and relays Badger's message, but Kestrel thinks Ginger is trying to attack Mole and attacks Ginger with his talons. Though Fox and Vixen care for the injured Ginger he leaves while Fox and Vixen are out hunting so he can get home sooner.

When Badger is well he leaves the Warden and tries to convince the rest of his friend that the best way to survive is to live with the Warden. When they reject this idea Badger returns to the Warden alone. When the Warden refuses to let Badger back into the cottage Ginger explains that the Warden only looked after Badger while he was injured and now that Badger is well the Warder expects Badger to live in his natural environment. Badger then returns to his friends feeling very foolish. On the way back Badger meets Kestrel and saves him from Ginger who wants revenge for Kestrel's earlier attack on him. Once Badger returns the animals then decide to search for food by human houses.

While out foraging they witness two foxes steal two chickens. However the owner of the chickens chase and shoot both foxes, along with the injured chickens. They then put the dead chickens in a shed. Fox then steals the chickens from the shed but wakes the dog while doing this. The humans check only the chicken coop for foxes and assume that because it is undamaged the fox was scared off. While returning to the park Fox comes across the two dead foxes and realises that he has the chickens only because the two other foxes died.

By having Tawny Owl, Kestrel, and Whistler bring waste food from the houses to the park the animals are no longer at risk from starving to death. One night while eating this food they hear the cry of a hare and find that the stoat Badger met earlier has killed one of Hare's leverets. Though unhappy about this they accept that this is the law of nature and do not punish Stoat.

During the winter the Warden becomes ill so both he and his cat leave the park. However, in his absence two poachers with shotguns enter the park and start hunting the white deer. Fox is able to defeat the poachers by 'chasing' the deer near a frozen pond, when the poachers run onto this pond the ice breaks and they lose their shotguns while trying to climb out. However the poachers return with pistols and start shooting every fox they see. This time the deer save the foxes by charging en masse at the poachers.

When the Warden returns to his cottage the animals assume that the poachers will not return, but the poachers are unaware the Warden is back and decide to hunt foxes in areas where the deer are not present. Fox then lures the poachers to the Warden's cottage while Tawny Owl tells the Great White Stag about the poachers. The deer then prevents the poachers escaping while the Warden and his guest the Vet detain them.

Spring arrives causing Toad, Adder, and the hedgehogs to come out of hibernation. Due to his mating instincts Toad tries to return to Farthing Wood pond but he and another toad are captured, and put in a jar by some boys. Though Whistler is able to break one jar and free the toad inside Toad is still trapped inside another jar. Vixen recommend that Whistler takes the jar to the Warden, who opens it and frees Toad. Kestrel learns that the toad that Whistler freed is a female called Paddock who is returning to White Deer Park to breed. She is introduced to Toad and the two of them go off to mate. Fox wonders if Vixen would have been impressed if he had been so direct with her.

At the end, the surviving animals of Farthing Wood all gather together and celebrate still being alive.

After a fall-out with her recent boyfriend Ethan (Bobby Tonelli), Ali (Tan Kheng Hua) a single mother finds herself broke, desperate and homeless. In an effort to care for her blind son Jonah (Dickson Tan), she reluctantly seeks out the only living relative she knows, her father Tan (Mako Iwamatsu). To earn enough money to be on her own she accepts a job in her father's bird shop, but not without the resistance of the shop's manager Liz (Zelda Rubinstein), a manipulative and protective middle-aged British woman.

While Liz and Ali clash at every glance, Tan begins to bond with his new grandson, teaching him about the beauty of Singapore's traditional songbird culture.

For the first time, Jonah crawls out of his shell and finds a connection with the outside world, drawing him further from his mother's hold, and deeper into Tan's world. Ali's soon finds herself caught in a double-edged scenario, as she realizes her father has a powerful and profound effect on her son.

After great deliberation, Ali decides to let Tan and Jonah bond, but just as she feared, Tan mysteriously becomes cold and distant. As a result, Ali's feelings of childhood rejection resurface, sending her into a quest for the truth of their past.

But the truth is not always easy to face, as her father's explanation of why he left the family is revealed; a dark secret of 20 years past is exposed, changing Ali's view on life forever.

The fictional events of the game begin when the Serpent King Orochi created a rift in time and space. By creating a twisted new world and bringing together warriors from the Three Kingdoms era of China and the Warring States period of Japan (more than 1,300 years apart in history), Orochi wished to test the might of the warriors of these two eras.

The story is told in four separate but related subplots. Each subplot starts the player with three characters. More characters are unlocked as the player progresses through the story or satisfies certain conditions in certain stages. Each subplot is named after one of the Three Kingdoms, and one from the perspective of the Samurai Warriors characters. Characters from different factions band together in each subplot to confront Orochi. Because of the storyline, most of the characters have split from their respective factions in the original games and have been forced into other scenarios. However, the character selection screen still places all the characters in their original positions.

Shu story

In the Shu Han story, the Shu forces were in shambles after their battle with Orochi. Many Shu officers were captured by Orochi, went missing, or joined other forces. Zhao Yun was captured by Orochi's forces and held prisoner in Ueda Castle. He is later rescued by Zuo Ci, Yoshihiro Shimazu and Xing Cai. Zuo Ci revealed startling news to Zhao Yun, which led him to embark upon a quest with help from unexpected allies.

Wei story

In the Kingdom of Wei story, Cao Cao had disappeared in his battle against Orochi's forces. His son, Cao Pi, took up leadership of the Wei clan and allied himself with Orochi, under the offer sent by his strategist, Da Ji. There were a few Wei officers who refused to surrender, or ended up joining other forces opposing Orochi. Under the new alliance, Orochi orders Cao Pi to suppress all those who oppose him. Though Cao Pi obediently obeys Orochi's every command, he has an ulterior motive that he is planning as the story progresses.

Wu story

In the Kingdom of Wu story, Orochi uses the captive Sun Jian and other Wu officers to blackmail the Sun family into servitude. Orochi demanded that rebel leaders and officers be turned over in exchange for the release of the captives. Sun Ce is the first to rebel against Orochi, under the guidance of Sakon Shima, and much to the disapproval of his siblings, Quan and Shang Xiang.

Samurai story

In this story, Nobunaga Oda, Shingen Takeda, and Kenshin Uesugi each maintained a resistance force against Orochi's army. Even in this most dire of circumstances, the three ''daimyōs'' refuse to work together against Orochi. Each of them were focused on assimilating smaller resistance forces spread throughout the land into their own forces.

Orochi Army

The Orochi Army consists of pale-skinned troops that behave similarly to regular troops of the protagonist forces. Several major characters from both ''Dynasty Warriors'' and ''Samurai Warriors'' either aligned themselves or were subverted by Orochi, fighting in his name. Orochi's main headquarters is at Koshi Castle, where the final confrontation takes place for all four stories in the game.

In the original Japanese version, the Orochi officers are named after various legendary monsters (youkai) in both Chinese and Japanese folklores, while the English version has them named after various species of snakes (using their common names) as a pun to Orochi being the Serpent King. The Orochi officers all share the same character model, and are unplayable enemy characters.

In 1973, 1st Sgt. Jack Falen (Hopper) returns from the Vietnam War to the United States to escort a friend's body for a hometown burial. Once in the US, Jack travels across the country via train (hence the film's title), where he meets the mysterious Mark (Stockwell) and the alluring university student Stephanie (Power). During the trip, Jack falls in love with Stephanie, but destroys the relationship through constant flashbacks to combat.

In 1922, in an unnamed country south of Mexico torn by revolution, Emmet Keogh, an Irish patriot and political assassin, is coerced into transporting a truckload of Scotch whiskey for Englishman Jennings. Along the way, he helps American Catholic priest Oliver Van Horne, who has a flat tire. However, when Keogh reaches his destination, the man he was to deliver the cargo to is dead, killed by Colonel Santilla's men. The men are also about to have their way with a mute Aymara Indian woman named Chela. When Keogh tries to stop them, they hang him. Van Horne shows up just in time and proceeds to kill Santilla's men with a machine gun. Van Horne, Keogh and Chela flee, but are caught.

After subjecting Keogh, Van Horne and Jennings (who was smuggling arms, not whiskey) to a mock execution by firing squad, Santilla offers to spare them if they will assassinate Tomas de la Plata, who lives in a well-protected region with his mother. He offers them equal shares of $53,000, found in Van Horne's suitcase. Santilla has already wrangled an invitation for Keogh and Jennings, posing as mining company employees, as de la Plata is anxious to reopen a silver mine. On the way, Keogh is reunited with Chela, who gives him a necklace. Unbeknownst to Keogh, the Aymara are a matriarchal society, and women choose their husbands; they are now married.

De la Plata, however, hates priests, and several have been killed in the town of Mojada, which is under his control. He spares Van Horne once at his religious mother's insistence, but forbids him to perform any priestly functions. Van Horne sets about cleaning the church, assisted by choirboy Pablito. Keogh and Jennings pretend to inspect the mine, while Van Horne comes along to bless it. There is a cave-in, and the three men rescue Senora de la Plata and several miners.

Van Horne defiantly declares that he will hold a mass the next morning to lure de la Plata into an ambush, but when Senora de la Plata shows up for the mass, he aborts his plan. Once again, Senora de la Plata shields him from de la Plata's hatred. It is revealed that de la Plata's father was brutally murdered and his sister and mother violated by Santilla's men, while the corrupt local priest stood by and did nothing.

Van Horne tries again, announcing that he will hold a procession at 9 am the next morning. He also tells the townspeople he will perform marriages and baptisms and hear confessions that night, hoping that they will be grateful enough to join the trio into taking up arms against de la Plata. (It turns out that Van Horne actually was a priest, and a devoted one at that, until a corrupt bishop embittered him.)

The next morning, some of de la Plata's men are killed, but their leader is only wounded. He takes hostages, including Chela and Pablito, and threatens to shoot them, one by one, until Van Horne comes to him. Jurado, de la Plata's second in command, brings Pablito into Mojada and shoots him down in cold blood before Van Horne's eyes. Van Horne, who was about to flee, changes his mind and gives himself up. He manages to kill someone he thinks is de la Plata, but it is only a double. However, Keogh and several Aymara men sneak in; the Irishman blasts the main entrance with grenades, weakening the doors enough for Jennings to drive Van Horne's car through them. The townspeople follow. In the ensuing fight, Jennings blows himself and Jurado up with a grenade. De la Plata is about to kill Keogh, when he is shot by his own mother. He stumbles out and collapses near the stone cross Van Horne has been tied to. Van Horne manages to topple the cross onto de la Plata, killing him.

''An Acquaintance with Darkness'' is the story of 14-year-old Emily Pigbush who lives with her mother in Washington, D.C., in 1865. Emily's father died during the Civil War while fighting for the Union. Now the Pigbushes' final servant, Ella May, has left because she was freed, leaving Emily to care for her mother alone. However, Emily sometimes has the help of her close friend, sixteen-year-old Annie Surratt and Annie's brother Johnny a twenty-year-old, whose mother runs the boarding house across the street.

Emily's mother is near death, and Emily hopes to go live with Annie afterward her mother dies because her father has died in a battle of Charleston. Emily's mother's only wish is that Emily at all costs ''not'' live with her uncle, Dr. Valentine Bransby, after her death. Soon, Emily's mother dies after hearing that the Civil War was over. But then, on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in Ford Theatre. Mrs. Mary Surratt, Annie's mother, comes under suspicion of the authorities, as she may have harbored Booth; Johnny Surrat is also wanted by the police for possibly being involved in the assassination. On Annie's advice, Emily reluctantly goes to live with her uncle, Dr. Valentine Bransby.

Living with Uncle Valentine, Emily learns that Valentine is actually quite a talented doctor who strives for more discoveries in the medical field with the changing times. Emily meets Valentine's assistant, Marietta, his housekeeper, Maude, and Maude's dwarf husband, Merry. She also meets Robert deGraaf, Valentine's medical student. As Emily later figures out, Valentine, Marietta, Robert, and Maude are involved in body snatching (cadaver theft) in Washington.

Emily is at first disgusted by Valentine's deeds. However, after helping obtain an illegal body for her uncle for medical purposes, Emily realizes that her uncle is stealing bodies with the purpose of helping advance the medical field and saving more lives. Meanwhile, Mrs. Surratt, is publicly hanged along with several other accomplices, and Valentine, Robert, Annie, and Emily attend the execution. Annie sells her house and flees Washington, changing her name, and leaving Emily behind. In the end, Emily tells Robert that she would like to become a nurse one day and he replies that she can not only become a nurse, but a doctor instead.

The film starts off with Left Eye Watkins (Brown) and his gang attempting to bully Sheriff Shoeshine Michel (Louis Mandylor) into giving them gold and women. A female member of the gang is extremely enthusiastic about the women and sets out to rape a can-can girl in the middle of town. While resisting, the can-can cuts the female gang member who in turns shoots her in the middle of the road.

The can-can girl happens to be the sister of Rachel (Calhoun), the protagonist. Rachel, a religious, reformed bad girl, rounds up her former gang members, Maria (LisaRaye), Zang Li (Makito), Chastity (Lil' Kim), Kim (Dash), and Harolda (Wilson) to seek revenge. They are followed by a blacked haired lady (Gray) who is also seeking revenge upon Chastity.

Captain Briggs (Arthur Margetson) and Captain Morehead (Clifford McLaglen) are best friends. Capt. Morehead is in love with Sarah (Shirley Grey). He brings Briggs to New York to meet her. Briggs himself falls in love with her. Sarah also falls in love with Briggs. Both men propose to her the same day. Sarah chooses Briggs. Sarah and Briggs open their marriage plans to Morehead and he gets furious with jealousy. He's also mad with Briggs for going behind his back. But Briggs tells him that he will marry Sarah even if that means the end of their friendship.

As the couple plans to sail, the husband, Briggs, is short on crew. He asks Morehead to forgive him and help. Morehead agrees and sends a man, Volkerk Grot (Herbert Cameron), not to help, but to do something to the ship. Briggs also recruits some other men, including Anton Lorenzen (Béla Lugosi) who is a sailor who has suffered a lot and is about to break down.

As the sail begins, the crew realizes that there is a murderer among them who is killing them off one by one. Meanwhile, a crewmember tries to rape Sarah, but Lorenzen saves her by killing the man. But then he cries because he can't stand the pain of killing a man.

Soon, everybody has died or disappeared except 1st mate Bilson, Lorenzen and a third crewmember, Ponta Katz (Gunner Moir). They decide that one of them is a killer.

Katz realizes that Lorenzen could not kill, he was too soft, so he runs after Bilson. Bilson shoots Katz and then celebrates with Lorenzen on becoming the new captain of ship, making plans for future.

Lorenzen gets mad and tells Bilson that it is he who was shanghaied 6 years before, on the same ship. And he was doing all this to get revenge. Then he shoots Bilson and throws him into the sea. Just after killing Bilson, Lorenzen is hit on the head by the boom. He runs everywhere on ship in hope of finding Bilson, and in his madness, he jumps off the ship.

The ship drifts with the wind until it is spotted by another ship. The ship is totally abandoned except for a black cat.

A final scene shows Morehead handing money to his man Grot, commenting "I am thinking of Briggs and her, dead!"

It is 1780, in the midst of the American Revolution, in Camden, South Carolina, and fourteen-year-old Caroline Whitaker, her step mother Sarah and her bratty older half-sister Georgia Ann are confined to one small room of their spacious Southern plantation home. Caroline is the light-skinned daughter of the plantation's owner and a slave who has been raised by Mama Sarah. British soldiers, led by Colonel Rawdon are occupying the place. The Colonel is also courting Georgia Ann.

Caroline and her Negra caretaker, who is also her grandmother, Miz Melindy, travel to get her 'almost' brother Johnny. He converts into an American patriot, after being whipped and spanked by a British officer for not handing over his second most prized horse- Grey Goose, aside from the most thoroughbred blooded mare in all of St. Mark's Parish, Fearnaught. Johnny's horses make many conflicts throughout the novel, including Caroline's sore wound over Kit's dab and dabbing.

Category:1998 American novels Category:1998 children's books Category:American children's novels Category:Children's historical novels Category:Novels by Ann Rinaldi Category:Novels set in South Carolina Category:Fiction set in 1780 Category:Novels set in the 1780s Category:Kershaw County, South Carolina Category:Novels set during the American Revolutionary War Category:American historical novels

In 1958, the Anti-Prostitution Law is about to be implemented. A young maiko named Tokiko works at Fujinoya Geisha House under Madam Satoe with the geisha Terucho, Kimiryo, and Somemaru. Over the course of her daily errands she witnesses Terucho becoming angry with Kimiryo for sleeping with one of her clients at the Momoyama Hotel and sees striking workers at Hinod Taxi being beaten by hired thugs.

The tailor Mr. Yoshikawa, who has been Madam Satoe's patron for ten years, stop visiting her at the request of his wife and daughter. Mr. Yoshikawa's son and his friends visit the geisha house and are entertained by Terucho. They explain to her that Mrs. Yoshikawa is the heiress to her family's wealth and may cut him off but Terucho tells them that Mr. Yoshikawa should continue to pay Madam Satoe 200,000 yen each month if he really loves her.

Tokiko visits her home and finds that her sister Fujiko has left school in order to work with her mother, while her unemployed brother Sadao simply drinks without searching for work or helping his family. Yamashita, who is working at the sawmill while on break from his school, visits. He and Tokiko eat rice cakes together in town while they discuss their respective futures.

Mr. Yoshikawa's son visits Terucho again and they have sex. When Mr. Yoshikawa finds out, he slaps Terucho and severs ties completely with Madam Satoe. His son tells Terucho that it was part of his plan to get his Mr. Yoshikawa to leave Madam Satoe, then rapes her. She later tells him that she has filed a report with the police and is taking him to court, which his father fears will hurt his reputation because he is already engaged to someone.

Michiko, a bar owner, borrows money from Madam Satoe to lend to the father of her young son Ichiro, but he disappears and returns to his hometown. Michiko does not know where it is, even though she has been his concubine for 15 years.

The geisha madam Hanaman offers to help with the 5-million-yen expenses for Tokiko's new kimono and debut party as a maiko in exchange for half of the 3-million-yen fee from her first client and sponsor, the wealthy 78-year-old Mr. Tamura, before a patron is found later. Madam Satoe sells her body to a new patron in exchange for the remaining 1 million yen that she needs. Hanaman gives Tokiko the geisha name "Omocha", meaning "toy", and she makes her debut and keeps her appointment with Mr. Tamura.

Ibuke Shinsuke is the son of a miner working at Chikuo coalfield at Mt. Kaharu northwest of Tagawa, Fukuoka. In 1938, his father Ibuki Juzo takes his lover Tae her from her patron Hanawa Ryugoro, boss of the Hanawa yakuza gang, and the two fight until Yabetora stops them. A while later Juzo and his team plan to fight Hanawa and his men until they hear that the mine has been flooded and Juzo orders everyone to assist in the rescue efforts. Juzo is killed in an attempt to blast part of a tunnel to save some Korean miners who had been by the company.

In 1944, Tae kicks Shinsuke out when he and his friends gang up on a Korean boy named Kumana so he later visits Kumana alone and challenges him to a duel that ends in a draw. Kumana's father Kanayama Shuretsu, whose real name is Kim Chu-ryol, tells Shinsuke and Tae that Juzo saved him in the mine collapse and gives them a large portion of meat as a gift. Tae develops feelings for Mr. Kanayama, who is drafted into the war.

When the war ends, the miners tie up a mine manager, who confesses that soldiers shot miners trying to escape from the collapse years earlier. Mr. Kanayama returns from the war and meets with Tae. Hanawa lets Shinsuke ride on the back of his Harley Davidson motorcycle with him, then gives Tae some money and invites them to live with him in Iizuka, but Tae refuses. She also rejects an offer to become the mistress of one of her superiors at the mine.

The Korean miners enter the mine office and demand equal pay to the Japanese miners. When the police are called in, a riot ensues. Hanawa, now owner of the mine, brings in additional men to fight the miners and Mr. Kanayama injures Mr. Hanezawa during the fight, then hides in Tae's house. When the other miners come to turn him in to the police, Tae gives him the gun that Juzo left for Shinsuke, allowing him to escape. Tae begins coughing up blood from working in the mine so Hanawa helps her and Shinsuke move to Iizuka, where he attends school and she is put in a hospital.

In 1950, Shinsuke is scouted by the baseball coach Mr. Hirano as he is about to enter high school. In 1952, Shinsuke's childhood friend Orie and her mother visit Tae in the hospital. Shinsuke arrives on a motorcycle given to him by Hanawa, but instead of letting Orie ride with him he takes his teacher Ms. Azusa to a record store in Hakata.

In 1953, Hanawa offers to marry Tae but she rejects his proposal. Ms. Azusa quits and returns to Tokyo. Shinsuke visits Orie where she is now working at a cabaret in Kokura. His motorcycle is stolen so he and Orie stay at a hotel where she sometimes brings clients and she takes his virginity, then encourages him to leave his past behind and go to university in Tokyo.

Hanawa is shot in the knee and his gang suspects that the Korean miners are responsible. Chota attacks them alone and shoots at them but is captured. Mr. Kanayama tells Hanawa and Shinsuke that the Koreans did not shoot Hanawa as the two take Chota back with them. Shinsuke decides to go to Tokyo and Tae dies that night. He writes a goodbye letter to Hanawa and rides away.

Iwaida of the Nishiwaki Group is sent by his boss to collect a debt. He does not find the debtor so he rapes the debtor's wife Haruko while her husband and young son Takashi hide secretly in the closet. The husband later gets drunk during the daytime and gets into a fight with some street thugs who beat him to death. His older son Hideshi encounters them and kills one of the thugs by stomping on his skull.
30 years later in Kyoto a hired killer shoots three men protecting Iwaida in a lift. The aging Iwaida, now head of the Mutsumi Group, recognizes him by a scar on his left cheek before he is shot dead by the killer. A nurse witnesses the killing but the killer lets her live. Two men later question Mr. Yoshikawa, a witness who saw the nurse on the roof at the time the murder of Iwaida was committed, but they gain no information. They manage to get an image of the killer's scar from the camera footage and identify him as "Lightning Takeshi", the most famous killer in Japan.
While driving to a crime family meeting in Yokohama, the wealthy criminal Hideshi Miwa notices another vehicle with a Kyoto license plate following him and has security at his house beefed up by his man Kono. The host calls the meeting to order and first hears from the Kanto Block. The woman running the block, Hisako, says that things are set up so that the newspapers and TV stations will be on top of the matter of corruption within the Ministry of International Trade and Industry when the time is right. The host then calls upon Omaeda of the Osaka-Kobe block to speak. After that Hideshi explains that profits are 10% less than in the previous year but he is expecting counterfeit money from the Philippines, which will mean a total of 360 billion yen for the family. Finally, Omaeda announces that the secret code word name of the organization, "Japan Mafia", has been leaked to the outside. Hideshi explains that there is either a traitor in their midst or else someone from another group deliberately leaked the code word from negotiations.
After the meeting, Hisako shows Hideshi a photo of the killer with the scar that the Mutsumi Group is distributing around Tokyo. Hideshi recognizes the killer as his younger brother Takeshi but feels that Iwaida needed to die. Hideshi asks if the boss asked for his younger brother to killer Iwaida and Hisako admits that he did because Iwaida was a thorn in the side of the crime family. Even though they could crush the Mutsumi Group, the boss wishes to avoid an all-out war so Hisako asks Hideshi to find his brother before the killer goes into hiding. She also asks if he would like to have sex with her but he merely leaves.
Hideshi's younger brother Takashi is also an underboss in the crime family. He and Hideshi visit their mother at a care home but she is suffering from Alzheimer's and claims not to know anyone named Takeshi. The nurses recall that Takeshi visited earlier in the month, the day before the murder of Iwaida, and that he would not be able to come back for a while so he made arrangements to have money sent to her but did not leave any address. Hideshi and Takashi split up, with Hideshi searching Kyoto and Takashi combing Kobe and Osaka.
At the police station Detective Kakuta questions the nurse Rie Ishibashi. She denies that the man in the photograph is the killer, claiming that the killer did not have any scar on his cheek. One of the men searching for Takeshi bribes Detective Kakuta at a pachinko parlor. Katuka gives Rie Ishibashi's name and explains that no one called for a nurse. Takeshi tracks down the girl working as an escort role-playing a nurse.
Takashi speaks with Hatanaka at Rakuhoku University, a fellow student of Takeshi's from his study of medicine, who says that Takeshi spoke with him two days after the murder. At that time Takeshi said that he was cursed and that his enemies were watching all of the roads and flights, preventing him from leaving the city, but when he ran out of money he planned on hitting the headquarters with guns blazing to die a noble death. He then says that he spoke with Takeshi again earlier that morning, when Takeshi said that he had been reunited with the love of his life, his "angel in white", and was leaving Kyoto with her.
Takashi receives a call from Kenmochi, head of the Mutsumi group, who has kidnapped Takashi's wife Mariko and demands that he hand over "Lightning Takeshi" before the week is over. Takashi drives through the gates of their headquarters with a tank so Kenmochi quickly rapes Mariko while he has time. Takashi and Hideshi beat up Kenmochi's men and find Mariko as she is being raped by one of the henchmen, whom Takashi shoots.
Takashi and Hideshi meet with their boss, who explains that Kenmochi has leaked photos to the police of Takashi and Hideshi from the murder. He asks if they have found Takeshi. Takashi says that they have. He plays Hideshi a phone message he received from Hatanaka saying that Takeshi contacted him and told him that he was in Nagano. They hide Mariko with Mr. Shao, a Chinese friend living in Chinatown. Mariko grew up in China and feels close to him. He agrees to take in Takashi as well so Hideshi leaves Takashi and Mariko with Mr. Shao to seek out Takeshi alone.

The early part of the film follows the experience of a late 19th-century journalist from Woking, known as "the writer", involved with the landing of a Martian invasion spacecraft. When the crashed cylinder opens, the Martians start killing anything that moves with a "heat ray" weapon. The writer discovers his house is in range of their heat ray and decides to rush his wife and servant to her cousins' home in Leatherhead; once there, he returns in order to return the borrowed cart to its owner, unaware that the invading Martians are now on the move.

The Martians have built tall tripod "fighting machines" and begun a destructive rampage across southern England. The film also details the adventures of his brother, a student in London, who accompanies two ladies to the east coast of England in order to escape from the slaughter and destruction wrought by the Martians.

When the writer tries to get back to his wife in Leatherhead, he is confounded and beset by many problems as a result of the chaos brought by the Martian invasion.

The wealthy businessman Korijima of Uwazoko-ya declares bankruptcy, leaving a 10-million-yen contract unpaid to Shosuke Umemoto's printing shop and thereby leaving Shosuke's brother Chusuke unable to repay a 9-million-yen loan to the loan shark Shoko. Shosuke plans to kill himself in his car through carbon monoxide poisoning but stops to assist a man from a nearby homeless village who has been injured by members of the Seiryu mob for threatening to tell the police about their illegal dumping of trash in the village. In return, the members of the village make use their various ingenious resources as they embark on a complex scheme to blackmail Korijima.

The liquidator arrives and take everything in Shosuke's printing shop apart from Shosuke's father's prized Heidel printer. The liquidator leaves Shosuke 1.3 million yen and schedules the pickup of the office supplies on the evening of the 27th. The homeless village's Mayor borrows 600,000 yen from Shosuke. The village's Deputy Kuwata, a former postal worker, gives it to Mr. Okajima to buy 100 shares in Dango Construction, a company with close ties to the Department of Public Works. When Shoko demands the repayment of Chusuke's loan, the Mayor secretly reveals himself to Shoko as Kiyota the Hitman and convinces Shoko to forgive the debt and give him ten blank checks, which Shosuke uses to forge bank drafts using Dango's seal. They leave the drafts in a wallet at an ATM. When the wallet is discovered by a man, they suggest to the man that he should have the newspaper write a story about it in order to ensure that he gets a reward for finding the bank drafts, thereby ensuring uncertainty among investors and lowering the share price.

Kiyota's former lover Mari, who is still struggling to make ends meet in the city, has become pregnant by her new lover yet still lends Kiyota money to accomplish his scheme. Seisuke and his wife leave his children and his elderly mother with his brother and run away to the homeless village before the liquidator comes.

They use the Heidel printer to create four-color flyers advertising a fresh fish festival on the front but with pictures on the back of Korijima's 8.3-billion-yen private assets discovered by Ume, a former private detective now living in the village. They extort 20 million yen from Korijima in exchange for the flyers, plates, photos, and negatives. Dango's share price has dropped significantly in the meantime, allowing the men to buy stock cheaply. News reports that the CEO of Dango has a mistress who is 40 years younger than he is gives investors renewed confidence in his health, causing a rush on shares and driving up the share price. When the share price doubles, they sell all their shares and make a fortune, but the residents of the homeless village decide to give all of the money to Shosuke and his wife to enable them to pay their employees' salaries and return to their life in the city.

The play opens in a small village somewhere in Lincolnshire with the shepherd Tyterus informing his daughter Gallathea of Neptune's demands. Every five years, the village must sacrifice the fairest virgin to Neptune, or he will drown them all. This demand is payment for the destruction of Neptune's temples many years ago. Upon her selection, the virgin is tied to a tree in the woods where Neptune's terrifying monster Agar shall appear. Gallathea is one of the fairest maidens in the village and Tyterus believes she will be the chosen sacrifice. To save his daughter, Tyterus decides that she should adopt male attire and hide in the woods. The shepherd Melebeus also has a beautiful daughter, Phillida, and is equally worried she will be this year's sacrifice. He concocts the same plan as Tyterus and informs Phillida that it is the only way to avoid being sacrificed. Phillida agrees to the plan, even though she is skeptical of whether she can successfully pass as a boy, explaining the disguise "will neither become my bodie nor my minde" (1.3.15). Both girls are instructed to hide in the nearby woods until the day of sacrifice has passed. Meanwhile, Cupid encounters one of Diana's nymphs in the woods. After several flirtatious attempts, she refuses his amorous advances due to her vow of chastity, which infuriates the god. He resolves to cause mischief for the goddess Diana and her chaste, virginal followers.

The audience are also introduced to Raffe, Robin and Dicke, the three Miller's sons who are shipwrecked in Lincolnshire. This is the beginning of an amusing subplot that continues throughout the play.

Act II begins with Gallathea and Phillida wandering the woods in their male disguises. The two girls struggle with how they should act as boys, and have taken the names Tyterus II and Melebeus II respectively. Their speech is remarkably similar, using identical metre and vocabulary. The two meet and are immediately attracted to one another, unaware that the other is female. The confusion is heightened by the arrival of Diana. The play relies on the characters confusion for humour; only the audience is aware that Gallathea and Phillida are both female. There is also a lot of pun-based humour: Diana states she is hunting deer which Gallathea confuses as "dear", worrying that Diana seeks out Phillida and that she must compete with the goddess for Phillida's affections. By this time, Gallathea and Phillida are completely in love with each other. Each has a soliloquy where they complain about how unfortunate it is that they have fallen in love with one another.

Cupid informs the audience that he will disguise himself as a nymph and join Diana's hunting party. Once he has infiltrated the group, he plans to make the nymphs fall in love with Gallathea and Phillida. Neptune appears on stage, furious that the shepherds have disguised the fairest virgins as boys. He vows revenge and enters the woods. The nymphs Ramia and Eurota fall in love with Gallathea while Telusa falls for Phillida. Diana is furious when the nymphs' romantic feelings are revealed. She admonishes them all, declaring that Diana's Chase will not become Venus's Court. Cupid's trickery is discovered and Diana threatens him with her displeasure and punishment unless he undoes the love spells.

By Act IV, the confusions begin to resolve. Diana forces Cupid to reverse the spells and free the nymphs from their infatuation. Gallathea and Phillida become more enamored with each other, although each does come to suspect that the other is actually a girl in disguise. In the meantime, Raffe, Robin and Dicke encounter three different characters: the Mariner, the Alchemist and the Astronomer. Each tradesman offers the brothers advice. Raffe is the most confident and intelligent of the three, and the audience sees how he reaches his own conclusions from the advice given to him. The three brothers frequently break out into song, which humorously details their position in life.

Back in the village, Tyterus and Melebeus accuse one another of having a fair daughter, worthy of being sacrificed. However, both deny the existence of their daughters: Tyterus claims he doesn't have one, and Melebeus claims Phillida died in infancy. With neither man admitting to hiding their daughters, the villagers choose another sacrifice. Hebe is brought out as a substitute. She bemoans her tragic fate and her plain visage in the longest speech of the play. However, Neptune's monster does not appear, thus refusing Hebe as a sacrifice. In a comedic twist, Hebe complains how unfortunate and unlucky she is; in death she would have been remembered as the most beautiful but now she must live with the shame that she is not fair enough for Neptune. The villager Ericthinis delivers the crushing judgement that it would have been better for everyone if Hebe had been more beautiful.

The confusion is finally resolved in Act V Scene III. Neptune rages about the stage threatening the village, the shepherds, Diana and her followers for conspiring against him. Diana appears and challenges him, although she is quickly followed by Venus. Venus is angry that Diana has been keeping Cupid captive. The two engage in a debate over chastity and love. Finally, a truce is brokered; Diana hands Cupid over and Neptune revokes his call for virgin sacrifices. Gallathea and Phillida are revealed to be girls, at which they feign horror. They still profess their love for each other, to the confusion of Diana and Neptune. Venus declares that she "Like[s] well and allow[s] it," and that she shall turn one into a boy so that they can continue to love one another— although in a heteronormative fashion. Venus does not specify which girl will be turned into a boy. Raffe, Robin and Dicke arrive onstage. They claim to be fortune tellers, meaning that they can tell the assembled audiences of their adventures in the woods. Their experience pays off and they become minstrels who will sing at weddings. However the wedding and transformation of one girl into a boy are never shown, a deliberate refusal of the heteronormative ending. Instead, the play concludes with an Epilogue which asks ladies to yield to love, insisting that love is infallible and conquers all things.

When Lord Asano draws his sword and injures Kira, he is sentenced to death by seppuku. That night rioters raid the Asano house to steal his belongings. Twenty days later, the Asano samurai meet and vow to take revenge, but Ōishi Kuranosuke makes them wait a year to see if the Asano clan can be restored through appeals. Meanwhile, he divorces his wife and sends her away to her father's house with their younger children as he whiles away his time in the companionship of geisha to lull his enemies into a sense of security. When all hope of restoring the Asano clan is lost, Ōishi gathers the men in Kyoto to prepare for their vendetta.

Tamiya Iyemon saves Oume when she is being accosted on her way to the shrine and earns the gratitude of her grandfather Ito Kihei, steward to Kira, but the Asano clan members refuse to accept his money. He then has poison sent to his wife Oiwa, claiming that it is medicine from Iyemon. The poison disfigures her face and causes her to have a miscarriage. She grabs a knife to murder Ito but accidentally stabs herself to death with it while struggling to get free from her admirer Takuetsu. When Ito confesses his actions, Iyemon agrees to marry his granddaughter Oume in return for being recommended for a position with Lord Kira. Ito introduces him to Shimizu Ichigaku, Kira's bodyguard. Iyemon returns home and kills Takuetsu, then Ito's men dispose of the bodies in the river for him.

On his wedding night, Iyemon sees a vision of Oiwa and strikes at her with his sword, killing Oume. Shimizu covers up the murder, blaming it on robbers, and promises Iyemon that he will still recommend him to Kira. In return, Iyemon agrees to assassinate Ōishi. He sneaks to Ōishi's house and announces his intention to kill Ōishi, causing Horibe and the other ronin to attack and kill him.

As a half-dead ghost, Iyemon watches as Oishi and the Asano clan raid the inn where Kira is staying. Oiwa's ghost assists them by using the power of storms to kill several of Kira's men, including the men who put her body in the river. Hazama Jujiro finds Kira's hiding spot and Ōishi instructs Jujiro to behead Kira. When he does, it severs Iyemon's ties to the world of the living and his death is complete. Iyemon's ghost and Oiwa's ghost gaze once more upon the Asano clan and the ghosts from the Ito household before wandering away.

Kanzaki, Shiba, and Imura are a trio of robbers who commit a series of bank robberies, making off with hundreds of millions of yen. They lay low for a year until Imura falls into serious debt and begs to be a part of another robbery. Shiba introduces them to Kadomachi, the young owner of a rock club. Following Kadomachi's plan, they rob an armored car expected to be transporting 200 million yen from a hotel at Lake Tōya to a bank in Sapporo. When they discover that the armored car was only carrying 50 million yen, Imura attempts to rob the others at gunpoint but is overcome with guilt and drops the gun. Kadomachi grabs the gun and shoots at the others, killing Imura before stealing the money and blowing up the safe house with dynamite. Kanzaki and Shiba are injured but Kanzaki's girlfriend Misato arrives and drives them away.

Kadomachi sneaks into Shiba's home and meets up with Shiba's young girlfriend Mai, with whom Kadomachi was supposed to split the money. Disappointed that the haul is less than expected, she steals the money and hides it away from Kadomachi.

Kanzaki visits Kadomachi's club, where he learns about Kadomachi's relationship with Mai and his debt to a loan shark named Yoshida. Kanzaki forces his way into Yoshida's office and learns that Kadomachi promised to pay him the next day. Yoshida sees a news report about the armored car robbery and realizes where Kadomachi got the money. Yoshida hires the hitman Tatsuo to kill Kanzaki and Kadomachi so that he can take all the money as well as the club.

Kanzaki hires Dr. Sakagari, a quack plastic surgeon, to remove the bullet near Shiba's heart. Imura's widow calls and asks to speak with Kanzaki. Misato gives Kanzaki 1 million yen and is dropped off at a resort, where she two bikers attempt to assault and rob her before she slashes their faces with a razor blade, causing them to fall into the water. Kanzaki visits Imura's widow and gives her the 1 million yen so that she can pay that month's payment of 800,000 yen to a loan shark to whom Imura owed money. She tells him that Imura was actually a Korean named Kim, then puts on lipstick and leaves for an appointment.

Mai calls from a payphone and lures Kanzaki outside. There is a gunfight between Mai, Kanzaki, and Kadomachi until Mai uses Kadomachi's flashy red car to ram Kanzaki into the water. Kadomachi shoots into the water several times, then leads the police on a car chase before losing them. Kanzaki survives and returns home to Misato and Shiba, who awakens and dies. Misato later quits her job as a maid for a wealthy family.

Kadomachi convinces Mai to retrieve the money from the bank. Yoshida wants the money brought to his office so that he can steal it and take over the club, but Kadomachi insists on exchanging the money for the deeds in public in Hakodate at his club. Before anyone arrives, Kanzaki causes an explosion in front of the club using a homemade bomb. Police surround the club to investigate, so when Yoshida brings his men and Tatsuo there they do not initially enter. Kadomachi arrives with Mai and sees Kanzaki as well as Yoshida, so he flees and leads them on a car chase. When they lose Yoshida and his men, Kadomachi empties the bag of money and fills it with Mai's clothes, then tells her to take the money back to the club. She evades the police in his car while Kadomachi hijacks a bus. Tatsuo shoots the driver and jumps onto the bus, which Kadomachi crashes into a construction site. Kanzaki and Yoshida arrive, followed by Mai, who is being chased by the police. Mai fires a machine gun at the police before being shot by Tatsuo. Kadomachi and Kanzaki shoot Tatsuo dead, then Kadomachi carries Mai back to his car and drives away. Yoshida and his men search the bus for the money but only find Mai's clothes before being arrested by the police.

An up-and-coming band plays at the club's opening night to a crowd of excited fans. Mai dies in the car before Kanzaki rams into it, turning it over. Kadomachi attacks Kanzaki with a knife but Kanzaki stabs him in the neck and drives off with the money. A young policeman asks Kadomachi who stabbed him, but Kadomachi simply tells the young man that he should be ashamed for wearing a policeman's uniform. Kanzaki rams his car through the police barricade and crashes it into the water as the money floats to the surface. The next day, Kanzaki and Misato are shown riding a bus through a new city laughing while looking at all of the banks to potentially rob.

In late 1930s London, debonair safecracker Eddie Chapman pulls off a series of heists but is caught and convicted while vacationing on the channel island of Jersey, where he is imprisoned. Months later, war commences and Jersey is occupied by German forces. Chapman offers them his services. Because of his unique qualifications, they accept. After faking his execution, the Germans smuggle Chapman into occupied France where, working closely with his handler, Col. Baron von Grunen, he is trained as a spy. He becomes romantically involved with a colleague known only as the Countess. But he is closely watched by ex-policeman Col. Steinhager, von Grunen's immediate subordinate.

On his first mission, Chapman is told he will be parachuted into England, but this turns out to be a test of his loyalty. Afterwards, he is dropped again, this time for real, on an actual mission in England. After landing, Chapman heads straight to the British authorities. After convincing them his story is true, they accept his offer to operate as a double agent for Britain in exchange for a full pardon. Meanwhile, his German superiors radio him an order to "Blow up Vickers" (referring to an aircraft factory). However, the British use dummy explosives and camouflage to convince the Germans Chapman has accomplished his mission.

In fact, upon his return to France, he is awarded the Iron Cross. Then in 1944, on his next mission to England, Chapman assists the British in feeding the Germans false information in order to divert their V-1 "buzz bombs" from falling on well-populated or strategic military targets. VE Day soon follows, and Chapman is awarded his pardon.

Moomintroll is taking milk back home to his mother, Moominmamma when he meets The Mymble who is searching for her missing sister Little My. Together the pair go looking for her.

Ronald Colman and Madeleine Carroll in ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' In June 1897, English gentleman Major Rudolf Rassendyll (Colman) takes a fishing vacation in a small country somewhere between Vienna and Bucharest (unnamed in the film; Ruritania in the novel). He is puzzled by the odd reactions of the natives to him. Rassendyll discovers why when he meets Colonel Zapt and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim. Zapt introduces him to the soon-to-be-crowned king, Rudolf V (Colman again), a distant relative who looks just like him (except for the Englishman's beard). The king, astounded and amused by the close resemblance, takes a great liking to the Englishman.

They celebrate their acquaintance by drinking late into the night. Rudolf is particularly delighted with the bottle of wine sent to him by his half-brother, Duke Michael, so much so that he drinks it all himself. The next morning brings a disastrous discovery: the wine was drugged. Rudolf cannot be awakened, and if he cannot attend his coronation that day, Michael will try to usurp the throne. Michael is bitter that he, though older than Rudolf, is not the heir to the throne because his mother was not of royal blood. Zapt convinces a reluctant Rassendyll to impersonate Rudolf for the ceremony.

With the coronation accomplished, Rassendyll returns to resume his real identity, only to find the king has been abducted by Rupert of Hentzau, Michael's chief henchman. Rassendyll is forced to continue the impersonation while Zapt searches for Rudolf; however, Michael cannot denounce the masquerade without incriminating himself.

Rassendyll meets Rudolf's betrothed, Princess Flavia, at the coronation and becomes enamored of her. She had always detested her cousin Rudolf, but now finds him greatly changed, very much for the better in her opinion. After spending time together, they fall in love.

Help finding the king's whereabouts comes from an unexpected quarter. In order for Michael to secure his claim to the throne, he must marry his cousin Flavia. Antoinette de Mauban, Michael's French mistress, does not want this and promises to help rescue the king in exchange for Michael's life. She tells Rassendlyll that Rudolf is being held in Michael's castle near Zenda. Since the king would be executed at the first sign of a rescue attempt, Antoinette insists that one man must swim across the moat and hold off his would-be assassins until loyal troops storm the castle. Rassendyll decides that he is that man, over Zapt's strenuous objections.

Their plans go awry when Michael discovers Rupert trying to seduce his mistress. In the ensuing struggle, Rupert stabs Michael to death. A heartbroken Antoinette blurts out enough to alert Rupert to his danger. Rassendyll kills two guards, but must fight a prolonged duel with Rupert, while at the same time attempting to cut a rope to lower the drawbridge for Zapt and his men. When he finally succeeds, Rupert flees.

With King Rudolf restored to his throne, Rassendyll tries to persuade Flavia to leave with him. Both confess their love for each other, but her devotion to duty is too great, and their parting is bittersweet.

Jairam is a son of a rich widow whose husband was killed by the Pakistanis in the war. As usual, she neglects her son and is busy in earning money for him in the business. Jai is a brilliant student who possesses high moral values. He falls in love with Farah, whose father teaches him boxing. Jai's mother holds the Indo-Pak Boxing Match. India loses the match, and the Pakistan champion challenges Indians saying that even after 56 years of independence, Indians cannot stop Pakistanis from butchering the Indian army members. Jai challenges that he will win them in 56 days. The twist in the tale is that the Pakistani boxer is none other than the ISI member sent by Lashkar-e-Taiba Chief Maulana Masood Azhar. When young Jai challenges them, he started his training and he gained punch weight up to 75kgs which was high compared to his opponent, then Pakistanis started trouble with Jai when he's upon training they rushed into fight and thrown stone to Jai's chest and crushed his right hand by their knee, Afterwards, Jai got rescued and admitted to hospital. The doctor reports that his ligament got teared and ribs got fractured and it caused Pneumothorax which it leads against boxing challenge to put him on hospital for 6 months. But Jai doesn't want to give up and started testing himself by punching the pillow but it caused his hand teared severely and blood was dropping from his hand. After, doctor warns him if he does like that again it leads to lose his hand. So he started his training by using only his left hand. But Pakistanis also troubled his trainer and he got admitted but his son was ready to train him instead of his father. After 15 days, he attends the boxing match but got hit to his chest and it leads getting points to Pakistan but Jai never give up and started punching even by using his right hand which was injured when it bleeds he doesn't care about it and started punching his opponent. After his opponent got knocked, blood is shown dripping from his ear, showing that Jai defeated him with his broken fist chanting 'Vande Mataram'. After India won the boxing challenge and proved that they defeated Pakistan.

Gowtam is youngest of three sons of Collector Shambhu Prasad. His wife Chaya Rani is a professor, eldest son Manoj is a doctor, second one Neeraj is a businessman, and his daughters-in-law are also in a well-to-do status. But his last son fails to go beyond S.S.C.. Gowtam is more close to his neighbors Dr. Bhanu and Kondal Rao than his family. He is not respected in the family and doesn't have a clear goal in life. He also builds a strong friendship with tutor Janaki, who teaches his brother's kids. Though Mr. Prasad ignores his son's small gaffes, he doesn't spare him when he discovers that Gowtam forged his signature. Enraged, he throws him out of the house. Now homeless, Gowtam is taken by Janaki to her house and falls in love with her. There, he starts working as a mechanic repairing vehicles. He gets inspired by the words of Bhanu and plunges himself into automobile repairing. He invents a carburetor that gives a mileage of 120  km per liter and makes his brother as the patentee for his apparatus. He saves his eldest brother from a conspiracy of hospital management and also fixes the marriage of his sister with her lover. In spite of doing all good to his family, he never lets his father know about these things as his father always wishes to see his third son as an I.A.S. officer. He strives for that and his love is also not informed of his efforts. The movie ends with sharing his triumph with his father.

Venu, a college student, falls in love with Anu. But it takes time lot of effort before he can get her to reciprocate his feelings. Before he can get her hand in marriage, there is a minor matter of dealing with another guy who likes Anu, Amit. The two guys have a hockey match to decide who should be with Anu. By the end of the story, true love triumphs!

In June 1897, English gentleman Rudolf Rassendyll (Granger) takes a fishing vacation in Ruritania, a small kingdom in the Balkans. While there, he is puzzled by the odd reactions of the natives to him. Rassendyll discovers why when he meets Colonel Zapt and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim. Zapt introduces him to the soon-to-be-crowned king, Rudolf V, who turns out to be not only his distant relative, but also looks just like him (except for the Englishman's mustache). The king, surprised at first, takes a great liking to the Englishman, and invites him to stay at the royal hunting lodge.

They celebrate their acquaintance by drinking late into the night. Rudolf is particularly delighted with a bottle of wine given to him by his scheming half-brother, Duke Michael (Douglas), so he drinks it all himself, and he soon passes out. The next morning brings a disastrous discovery: the wine was drugged. Rudolf cannot be awakened, and if he cannot attend his coronation that day, Michael will try to assume the throne as Regent. It is revealed that Michael is bitter that, because his mother was not of royal blood, the younger Rudolf is the heir to the kingdom. Zapt is able to convince a reluctant Rassendyll to impersonate Rudolf for the ceremony.

Rassendyll meets Rudolf's betrothed, Princess Flavia (Kerr). She had always disliked her cousin Rudolf, but now finds him greatly changed, very much for the better. As they spend time together, they begin to fall in love.

With the coronation accomplished, Rassendyll returns to resume his real identity, only to find the king has been kidnapped by Rupert of Hentzau (Mason), Michael's charmingly amoral henchman. Rassendyll is forced to continue the impersonation while Zapt searches for Rudolf. Michael cannot denounce the masquerade without incriminating himself.

Help comes from an unexpected quarter. To be king, Michael must marry his cousin Flavia. Rupert sets a trap for Rassendyll and arrives with 2 other men to kill him. But before Rupert arrives, Antoinette de Mauban (Greer), Michael's jealous French mistress, slips in and reveals to Rassendyle that (1) it is a trap to kill him, and (2) that the king is being held in Michael's castle near Zenda and promises to help rescue him. Since Rudolf would be executed at the first sign of a rescue attempt, she proposes that one man swim the moat and hold off his would-be assassins, while loyal troops storm the castle. With the help of Antoinette and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim, Rassendyll escapes

After meeting with Rupert where he offers Rassendyll 100,000 pounds to leave (and having Fritz and Col Zapt killed), Rassendyll, Fritz, and Col Zapt plan a rescue. Rassendyll decides that he is that man to swim the moat, over Zapt's strenuous objections.

Their carefully laid plans go awry when Michael finds Rupert trying to seduce his mistress. After Rupert kills him, a heartbroken Antoinette blurts out just enough to alert Rupert to danger. Rassendyll fights and kills the guards, but must engage in a prolonged duel with Rupert while at the same time trying to lower the drawbridge to let Zapt and his men inside. When he finally succeeds, Rupert flees.

Rudolf is restored to his throne. Rassendyll tries to persuade Flavia to leave with him, but her devotion to duty is too great and their parting, while loving, is bittersweet.

In the final scene, Zapt and von Tarlenheim escort Rassendyll to the border, where Fritz tells him, "Fate doesn't always make the right man King," and Colonel Zapt salutes him, saying, "You're the noblest Elphburg of them all," as Rudolf rides over the border.

Serge is in therapy, coping with the fact he has turned 44. At first he goes on a religious awakening, but then decides to make a comeback...by killing as many people as possible in unusual and disturbing ways. As he does this, hurricane season is in full force, and Serge follows hurricanes like others follow sporting events. Unfortunately for him, another serial killer calling himself "The Eye of the Storm" is following him, and trying to upstage him. The newly freed Agent Mahoney doesn't believe that the killings are the work of two serial killers, but that Serge's unstoppable zeal for life has caused him to snap in two. But that won't stop Serge, and his brain dead friend Coleman, from enjoying every minute of hurricanes A-I.

Luke Twain is a drifter who finds a small settlement where everyone has been killed. Trying to do the right thing and solve the gruesome mystery, he finds himself taking a journey into fear and death.

The episode opens with a flashback to Bruce Wayne's past, when he was training under the pseudonym John Smith with the magician Zatara, learning the skills of an escape artist in preparation for his future as Batman. He has a flirtatious relationship with Zatara's daughter, Zatanna, who he calls 'Zanna', though he appears to leave without acting upon their mutual attraction.

In the present day, Bruce Wayne is attending a performance by Zatanna, who has become a successful stage magician herself. Her performance involves having the money in the Gotham Mint vanish and reappear and is watched over by a debunker of magic named Montague Kane. After causing the money to vanish successfully, Zatanna finds herself unable to make it reappear, and she is arrested for its theft. Refusing to believe that she could be guilty of such a crime, Bruce begins to investigate as Batman.

Batman breaks Zatanna out of her police transport and the two travel to the scene of the crime. Along the way Zatanna questions why he would go to such lengths to prove her innocence. She asks if they have met before; Batman brushes off the question, answering her questions about having met by stating that he simply 'has one of those faces'. Upon exploring the stage on which she performed, Batman and Zatanna discover that the money was never there in the first place, and that somebody has enacted their own illusion on top of Zatanna's in order to frame her. Suspecting Montague Kane, the two proceed to his estate. Kane is not present, though they do find evidence to implicate him, as well as signs that indicate that he is attempting to flee Gotham on his personal jet.

Racing to the airstrip, Batman and Zatanna board the plane and, after a pitched battle with Kane and his henchmen, are able to bring them to justice. When Batman calls Zatanna 'Zanna', she realizes that he was Zatara's apprentice so many years ago. The two part as friends, with the implication that they could someday be something more.

The play is performed as a backer's audition by Bud Davenport and Doug Simon, the authors of a musical about Johannes Gutenberg, which they are pitching to producers who might put their show up on Broadway. Because the minimally-talented and starry-eyed authors don't have a cast or an orchestra, Bud and Doug play all of the roles themselves, wearing hats with the characters' names on them and frequently switching said hats to indicate different characters. Minimal props, such as a cardboard box, pencils, and a chair, are used as well.

Since Bud and Doug's research into the life of Gutenberg (aka a quick Google search) revealed that information on his life is "scant", they take a historical fiction approach, by which they mean that they just made stuff up.

In the play-within-a-play, Johann Gutenberg is a wine presser in the medieval German town of Schlimer, a happy and cheery place except for the fact that the town is horribly dirty and depressing and no one except Gutenberg can read. Intent on saving the townspeople from their own ignorance, Gutenberg turns his wine press into a printing press (he accomplishes this in one night). His beautiful (but dim) assistant Helvetica is in love with him, but Gutenberg is unaware of her feelings. Meanwhile, the show's villain, Monk, an evil monk who worships Satan, attempts to keep ignorance alive so he can control the townspeople through inaccurate readings of the Bible and seeks to destroy the printing press. The inept show-within-a-show parodies various musical theater conventions, such as the cheery opening number, a high-octane rock song for the act one finale, kicklines, emotional ballads and an irrelevant "charm song" about biscuits sung by two supporting characters.

Despite their ineptitude, Bud and Doug's high-energy and optimistic performance of their show may be enough to launch their dreams of stardom.

The inhabitants of the isolated Scottish island of Todday in the Outer Hebrides are largely unaffected by wartime rationing until 1943, when the supply of whisky runs out. As a result, gloom descends on the disconsolate islanders. In the midst of this catastrophe, Sergeant Odd returns on leave from the army to court Peggy, the daughter of the local shopkeeper, Joseph Macroon. Odd had previously assisted with setting up the island's Home Guard unit. Meanwhile, Macroon's other daughter, Catriona, has just become engaged to a meek schoolteacher, George Campbell, although Campbell's stern, domineering mother refuses to give her approval.

During a night-time fog, the freighter SS ''Cabinet Minister'' runs aground near Todday in heavy fog and begins to sink. Two local inhabitants, the Biffer and Sammy MacCodrun, row out to lend assistance, and learn from its departing crew that the cargo consists of 50,000 cases of whisky. They quickly spread the news.

Captain Waggett, the stuffy English commander of the local Home Guard, orders Odd to guard the cargo, but Macroon casually remarks that, by long-standing custom, a man cannot marry without hosting a '' ''—a Scottish betrothal ceremony—in which whisky must be served. Taking the hint, the sergeant allows himself to be overpowered, and the locals manage to offload many cases before the ship goes down. Campbell, sent to his room by his mother for a prior transgression, is persuaded to leave through the window and assist with the salvage by MacCodrun. This proves fortunate, as Campbell rescues the Biffer when he is trapped in the sinking freighter. The whisky also gives the previously teetotal Campbell the courage to stand up to his mother and insist that he will marry Catriona.

A battle of wits ensues between Waggett, who wants to confiscate the salvaged cargo, and the islanders. Waggett brings in Macroon's old Customs and Excise nemesis, Mr Farquharson, and his men to search for the whisky. Forewarned, islanders manage to hide the bottles in ingenious places, including the ammunition cases that Waggett ships off the island. When the whisky is discovered in the cases, Waggett is recalled by his superiors on the mainland to explain himself, leaving the locals triumphant.

''Two Bad Mice'' reflects Potter's deepening happiness in her professional and personal relationship with Norman Warne and her delight in trouncing the rigors and strictures of middle class domesticity. For all the destruction the mice wreak, it is miniaturized and thus more amusing than serious. Potter enjoyed developing a tale that gave her the vicarious thrill of the sort of improper behaviour she would never have entertained in real life.

The tale begins with "once upon a time" and a description of a "very beautiful doll's-house" belonging to a doll called Lucinda and her cook-doll Jane. Jane never cooks because the doll's-house food is made of plaster and was "bought ready-made, in a box full of shavings". Though the food will not come off the plates, it is "extremely beautiful".

One morning the dolls leave the nursery for a drive in their perambulator. No one is in the nursery when Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca, two mice living under the skirting board, peep out and cross the hearthrug to the doll's-house. They open the door, enter, and "squeak for joy" when they discover the dining table set for dinner. It is "all ''so'' convenient!" Tom Thumb discovers the food is plaster and loses his temper. The two smash every dish on the table – "bang, bang, smash, smash!" – and even try to burn one in the "red-hot crinkly paper fire" in the kitchen fireplace.

Tom Thumb scurries up the sootless chimney while Hunca Munca empties the kitchen canisters of their red and blue beads. Tom Thumb takes the dolls' dresses from the chest of drawers and tosses them out the window while Hunca Munca pulls the feathers from the dolls' bolster. In the midst of her mischief, Hunca Munca remembers she needs a bolster and the two take the dolls' bolster to their mouse-hole. They carry off several small odds and ends from the doll's-house including a cradle, however a bird cage and bookcase will not fit through the mouse-hole. The nursery door suddenly opens and the dolls return in their perambulator.

Lucinda and Jane are speechless when they behold the vandalism in their house. The little girl who owns the doll's-house gets a policeman doll and positions it at the front door, but her nurse is more practical and sets a mouse-trap. The narrator believes the mice are not "so very naughty after all": Tom Thumb pays for his crimes with a crooked sixpence placed in the doll's stocking on Christmas Eve and Hunca Munca atones for her hand in the destruction by sweeping the doll's-house every morning with her dust-pan and broom.

The tale opens with an illustration of a wide-eyed kitten: "This is a Pussy called Miss Moppet, she thinks she has heard a mouse!" The following illustration depicts a mouse wearing a pink bow tie and green jacket "peeping out behind the cupboard, and making fun of Miss Moppet. He is not afraid of a kitten." Miss Moppet darts at him, but misses and bumps her head on the cupboard. She hits the cupboard very hard and rubs her nose. The mouse scurries to the top of the cupboard and watches her.

Miss Moppet ties a duster about her head and sits before the fire on a red hassock. The mouse's curiosity is piqued; he thinks she looks very ill, and comes sliding down the bell-pull. "Miss Moppet looks worse and worse." The mouse creeps nearer. Miss Moppet holds her head in her paws and peeks at the mouse through a hole in the duster. "The Mouse comes ''very'' close." Miss Moppet jumps and snags him by the tail.

"And because the Mouse has teased Miss Moppet—Miss Moppet thinks she will tease the Mouse; which is not at all nice of Miss Moppet." The kitten ties the mouse up in the duster then tosses it about like a ball. The mouse peeks from the hole in the duster. In the last illustration but one, Miss Moppet is seated upright on her rump and staring at the reader. The duster lies opened and empty in her paws. "She forgot about that hole in the duster", and the mouse has escaped. He dances a jig safely out of Miss Moppet's reach atop the cupboard.

The plot of the ''Rabinal Achí'' is that of a real conflict that took place between the Rabinaleb and the Kʼicheʼ people. The main action of the play explains that four cities were destroyed by Kʼicheʼ Achí, the Prince of Kʼicheʼ, who then tries to kidnap the children of Rabinaleb. Because it is such a serious crime, Kʼicheʼ is caught, at which time Rabinaleb reminds Kʼicheʼ of all of his feats, both bad and good. Kʼicheʼ is tried, and it is ultimately decided that he should be sacrificed. He reminisces about his native land, but submits to being executed, bringing justice back to Rabinal.

The book explores Albright's childhood as a Catholic, as converted to the Episcopal faith at the time of marriage, and late in life discovered her Jewish roots. In the book, it discussed the personal traumas that marked her life. However, the sudden departure of her husband of 23 years for another woman, the death of her father, the stillbirth of a child, and the discovery by the media in the 1990s of the fact that three of her grandparents were Jewish and had died in Nazi camps.

The story concerns Charles, a fifteen-year-old boy who is suffering from a severe illness. The local doctor diagnoses it as scarlet fever, but Charles protests that his hand has "changed" and is no longer under his control. He claims that he has been infected by microbes that are not only causing illness, but literally taking over his body and forming a new being. The doctor, however, assures Charles's parents that this is all in his imagination—a fever dream brought on by his illness.

Charles continues to lose control of his body—first his other hand, then his legs—but the doctor continues to assure him otherwise, and gives him antibiotics to deal with his problems. After Charles tries to choke himself, he is restrained to the bed by his parents. One night, Charles begins to lose control of his body, and he feels himself being taken over by the microbes.

The next morning, Charles appears fully recovered. He is pronounced completely healthy by the astonished doctor, whose hand Charles vigorously shakes. After the doctor leaves, however, Charles brushes his foot over a swarm of red ants on the floorboard in the carriage, killing them on contact. It appears that he has, indeed, been taken over by the microbes in his body.

Characters

'''George Henderson:''' The county attorney (originally played by Michael Hulgan)

'''Henry Peters:''' Local sheriff and husband of Mrs. Peters (originally played by Robert Conville).

'''Lewis Hale:''' Neighbor of the Wrights and husband to Mrs. Hale (originally played by George Cram Cook).

'''Mrs. Peters:''' Wife of the sheriff (originally played by Alice Hall).

'''Mrs. Hale:''' Neighbor of the Wrights and wife of Lewis Hale (originally played by Susan Glaspell, and later by Kim Base).

'''John Wright:''' The murder victim and owner of the house.

'''Mrs. Minnie Wright:''' John Wright's wife and his suspected murderer.

Summary

The play begins "in the now-abandoned farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright". On command from the county attorney, Mr. Hale recounts his visit to the house the previous day. He found Mrs. Wright behaving strangely and her husband upstairs dead, with a rope around his neck. Mr. Hale notes that when he questioned her, Mrs. Wright claimed that she was asleep when someone strangled her husband. While the three men are searching the house for evidence, "the women begin to explore the domestic space on their own. As they interact with the stage environment, the two women discover clues to the couple's personalities as well as potential evidence in the case". Although Minnie and John Wright are not physically present they "become vivid figures for us via the dialogue and actions of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters". Through evidence, the wives soon realize that Mr. Wright killed his wife's pet bird, and that led to Mrs. Wright killing her husband. Although the men find no evidence upstairs in the Wright house that would prove Mrs. Wright guilty, the wives piece together that Mrs. Wright was a victim of abuse by her husband. They understand how it feels to be oppressed by men. After the women discover the truth, they hide the dead bird, knowing that it would otherwise be used to make the case against Mrs. Wright. Whether Mrs. Wright's conviction is neither confirmed nor denied at the end of the play.

The film is presented as several fictional events set on the eve of the Korean War ceasefire, introduced by General Mark W. Clark. At Panmunjom, two American war correspondents quarrel over whether the peace negotiations will produce an end to the hostilities; jaded elder writer Powell criticizes younger journalist Bateman for his idealism, while Bateman condemns Powell's cynical outlook.

On the field of battle, Army Lieutenant Thompson of Easy Company receives word of the peace negotiations, but reminds his men their mission will continue until a final agreement is reached. He selects thirteen soldiers for a special reconnaissance patrol, including Elliott, with whom he has a fractious relationship, the jolly One Ton, black soldier Mayes, Bad News, whose presence is believed to be unlucky by the other men, and Korean scout Kim. Kim's wife is due to deliver their first child, and he sends word through a friend to his wife he expects to come home soon.

The patrol is tasked with the capture and investigation of Red Top, a strategic point overlooking a large valley with unknown enemy activity. Their initial approach is masked by friendly artillery fire, but Elliott is concerned that stopping the fire to let them through will alert the enemy of their presence. Agreeing, the Lieutenant routes them through a narrow treacherous canyon periodically harassed by enemy bombardment. They find two British soldiers, one of them injured; the senior of the two agrees to help them through an unmarked minefield in return for assisting the injured man. Tragically, one of the patrol's men is lost to the mines when he slips down an embankment.

As peace negotiations continue, Bateman hears of Powell's hopes being dashed in previous wars, and begins to understand his perspective. Meanwhile, the patrol comes under attack as they approach Red Top; Elliott and One Ton manage to outflank and kill two Korean soldiers manning a machine gun emplacement, but the battalion commanders radio the patrol that 300 Chinese soldiers are on the way. The patrol splits into a support group and an advance team, and their final assault on Red Top meets terrific resistance, knocking out their radio. Unable to establish contact, the commanders are nevertheless able to send Army tanks and Navy and Air Force air support to attack the Chinese brigade as the advance team closes in on the summit. In the battle the Lieutenant is injured by gunfire and Kim is killed trying to rescue him, but the patrol is able to hold the hill. They only learn of the newly declared cease-fire as they bring back Kim's lifeless body.

Back at Panmunjom, both Powell and Bateman are elated by the news of peace, while in Kim's village, his wife delivers a healthy new baby.

A Frenchwoman in Manhattan, in danger of being deported because of her relationship with a recently arrested drug offender, enters into a marriage of convenience with a stranger that is arranged through an agency. But even though the two are not supposed to even meet, her new husband starts taking his faux wedding vows entirely too seriously.

The plot is a parody of the Three Little Pigs, told from a Second World War anti-German propaganda perspective. In this cartoon, the danger is from Adolf Wolf (Adolf Hitler), who is set on invading the pig's nation of Pigmania. The pig who built his house of stone, "Sergeant Pork" (an homage to ''Sergeant York)'', take his precautions and outfits his house with defense machinery, but the two pigs who built their houses of straw and sticks claim they don't have to take precautions against the wolf because they signed a non-aggression pact with him.

Adolf Wolf invades Pigmania, despite the two pigs protesting that he signed a treaty with them. He destroys their houses, the straw house with "Der Mechanized Huffer Und Puffer" and the stick house with an artillery shell, forcing the pigs to take shelter in the third pig's house, prompting a battle between the two parties. Towards the end of the cartoon, Adolf Wolf is blown out of his bomber plane by the pigs' artillery shells, fired from their multi-barreled "secret weapon" and filled with Defense bonds, and plummets down to Earth followed by a bomb from his own plane, which promptly blows him to Hell upon impact. There he realizes he is dead and says: ''"Where am I? Have I been blown to... ?",'' whereupon a group of devils adds: ''"Ehhhh, it's a possibility!''", in reference to a then well-known catchphrase by Artie Auerbach on the Al Pearce radio show.

Uraz (Omar Sharif), the son of Tursen (Jack Palance), the stable master and retired buzkashi player for a feudal lord, is a master horseman who lives by a primitive code of honor. Uraz's family honor is damaged when he breaks his leg playing the game, which is the Afghani equivalent of polo. His father, who lost a lot of money betting on his son, will barely speak to him. To regain the family honor (and wealth) he must somehow re-learn how to ride – after his injuries cost him his leg below the knee. In the face of great obstacles, and despite the derision and treachery of others, he gains the chance to play in the games given by the king of Afghanistan.

When your roommate dies from an allergic reaction to fruit and the rent is due and you don't have the cash to cover it, there's no time to mess around picking a new roommate. So it goes that our hero in this short comes to share his home with a ninja. Then another ninja wants to be his roommate. Conditions for disaster, fulfilled.

Act One

''My Boy Jack'' begins comically, with 15-year-old Jack Kipling trying on a pair of pince-nez. He is unable to see well without correction, but his father, Rudyard Kipling, wants him to wear the pince-nez to take his vision exam; it will make Jack's vision troubles look less serious. Jack fails the test, however; he cannot read the eye chart, without the pince-nez, from farther away than about a metre.

Jack, at home again, talks with Elsie, his sister. He explains that he wants to leave in order to get away from "this house and everything", and Elsie becomes angry with Jack — not because he wants to leave her, but because he could be killed at war. Kipling comes into the room, and Elsie hides behind a chair. Kipling then tells Jack that he will get Jack into the army, somehow. After Kipling leaves, Elsie emerges, furious.

The act ends with Jack leading his men into battle. In the theatre, there is then an interval.

Act Two

This part of ''My Boy Jack'' deals with the Kipling family receiving the news of Jack being declared Missing In Action. During an argument with Carrie, Kipling reveals his guilt and responsibility helping Jack enlist in the army. Elsie reveals that Jack went to war, not out of patriotism, but to get away from his family, particularly to escape the shadow of Kipling's fame.

There is then a flashback to a time when Jack was only seven, showing Jack and Elsie with their father.

It is now 1924, and Elsie is marrying George Bambridge. Her parents, though still missing Jack, are beginning to move on; they are happy for Elsie. Kipling has been interviewing soldiers from Jack's regiment of Irish Guards. One of them who served under Jack recalls his last moments. Jack had been leading a charge against the German trenches, continuing the attack while the other soldiers dropped off in fear. Jack was killed by machine gun fire just as he reached enemy lines. Kipling received some bittersweet solace in knowing that his son died heroically.

The play then jumps forward nine years, to 1933. It has been twenty years since ''My Boy Jack'' first began, in 1913. There are rumours of war, again, and Kipling wonders why the Great War was even fought. What was the point of his son's death, if there will just be another war?

''My Boy Jack'' ends with Kipling reciting his poem, ''My Boy Jack''.

When a Canadian diplomat and her chef husband move into the Canadian High Commission in Delhi, they threaten to derail the schemes of the longtime cook Stella (Seema Biswas) who has been skimming off the top for years.

The lonely Toffle leaves his home to look for friends, eventually finding the Miffle and rescuing her from The Groke.

On his thirtieth birthday, Conrad Stevens, a small-time writer, becomes disenchanted with his immature lifestyle and begins to wonder if there's more to life than partying and casual sex.

Tom is an elf who lives with his tribe in the woods away from the "demons" in the city. He is treated with contempt due to his clumsiness and poor hearing. Tom is aware his hearing and sight appear to be going. He almost allows a group of demons to discover the tribe and fearful runs away to the demon city, which is in fact a city of humans and is soon discovered by a young "demon" named Anna. Tom begins to quickly resent the girl, thinking that she is stubby, loud, stupid, and dumb. Also, he cannot understand Anna's attachment to her family and pet, Sophie. In essence, Anna represents everything the elves are not: ungraceful and loving. Tom, like all of the other elves, does not care about other people or animals, but simply about surviving. Later, when Tom meets Anna's half brother, Joe, things grow worse. The emotionally hardened and distant Joe sees to testing Tom's abilities. At first, Joe just tests Tom's weight and body temperature, which is under freezing. But, Joe then becomes fascinated with Tom's elfin ability to become invisible by calling on the stars. When Joe forces Tom to try to become invisible while Tom is in a weakened conditions, the tool shed Tom has been living in bursts up in flames. Tom flees, but does not get far. He is found by Anna and Joe's snooping neighbor, Edie. Edie takes Tom into her home, though he resents her help. She puts up charms to keep the murderous Tribe from Tom. Despite her protection, Tom still feels that he is going to die. Each day he finds himself growing weaker and more unlike himself. With help from Anna and Joe, Tom is able to escape from Edie's home, but he then feels back into the forests of the elves. He is met by his elfin father, Larn. Larn pierces him with a spear. Anna, Joe, and Edie find Tom dying in the woods. Edie seems aloof to this fact and tells Anna and Joe to forget about him. Joe, fascinated by an elf woman nearby, does nearly this. Anna, on the other hand, stays by Tom and tries to help him get better. It is her persistence that saves Tom from dying and helps Tom turn completely human. In the end, Edie turns out to be Tom's once-elfin aunt, Edrin. She was an outcast just as Tom was and tries to help him understand why he was different from the other elves. Anna and Joe also stay by and try to help Tom learn to be human. In the end, Tom seems accepting of the fact that he has given up the beauty of the elf world for the closeness of the human world.

Returning from an errand to buy bread, a boy finds a menacing dog blocking his way through the alley he must pass to get home. Frightened by the dog's barking, he asks various passers-by for help but no-one pays him any attention, and he must find a solution all by himself: he throws the dog a piece of bread and, while the animal is devouring it, he continues on his way home. when the boy with the bread finds the way to treat the dog, then there is another boy with the bowl of yogurt encounters the same dog that is barking. The solution which is worked for the first boy cannot be applied for the second boy. This is how Kiarostami shows the unique experience of each person.

It is Summer 1921, and Georgina, James, Diana Newbury and Captain Robin Eliott, decide to hold a fancy dress "Freedom Party" while Richard and Virginia are away in Geneva on League of Nations business. Shortly after the Party has started, Miss Treadwell, Alice and William's new Governess, arrives at Eaton Place. Later in the evening, Georgina and Robin are upstairs in the nursery talking and Robin asks Georgina to marry him. When she says no, Robin says that he will kill himself if she does not as he can not live without her. She does not believe him and walks out of the room. Not long after, Miss Treadwell finds that Robin has shot himself just outside the nursery. Hudson, who arrived seconds after Miss Treadwell found the body, reads a letter that Captain Eliott had written on the back of a drawing from the nursery. It read "My dearest Georgina. You will never know how much I loved you. My life would be unbearable without you. God bless. Robin". Hudson screws this up before James and Georgina arrive. The following morning, Georgina carries on as normal merely saying "it did rather spoil the party, didn't it?".

Meanwhile, Edward suggests to Daisy that they emigrate to Canada, but Daisy reminds him how lucky they are compared to many others. Diana Newbury and James talk about her marriage to Bunny, and she shows little affection for him.

When Tom, James McMartin, suffers a bad eye injury his boxing career comes to an end, and his marriage begins to suffer. After a chance encounter at the gym, Tom is offered a job working as a door man for the same run-down night club as Paul (Paul Barber), a tough-looking man who likes to use his knuckle duster.

Paul is a volatile man with a history of violence. After learning of Tom's background in boxing he takes him under his wing to teach him the ways of being a door man. Tom soon falls in love with the barmaid for the club and his loyalties are put to the ultimate test as Paul gets increasingly more in trouble with violent gangsters from the area.

A civil servant at the Ministry of Finance, Mahmad Firuzkui, is accused of taking bribes, at the same time as his marriage is crumbling and his wife is threatening to leave him.

The film can be split into two halves. The first deals with corruption in collection of property taxes in Iran's Ministry of Finance, where junior administrators demand bribes from the public, drinking tea rather than doing productive work, and carry on an active night life in drinking establishments and gambling dens/casinos. (The movie includes a pub conversation among regular folks about the importance of being honest and being respected for money earned honestly.)

The second half of the film deals with the family life of Firuzkui, a corrupt young clerk in the Ministry of Finance. He's married to an attractive, caring wife (Shohreh Aghdashloo), whom he dominates. He has a very young daughter, whom he seems to love but who is cared for primarily by his wife. His wife and he bicker about money continually. An order of eviction is served on them, and his response is, "The law says that they can't evict us for at least two years"; there is no sense that he might actually pay the rent. Eventually they have such an intense argument that she threatens to leave and packs her suitcase; he tells her to take their daughter, but when she does he changes his mind and grabs her. While the little girl cries, he drags his wife into another room and beats her up. He then takes the girl to the car and drives to a store where he can get a beer, leaving her in the car while he drinks. When he returns to the apartment, he discovers his wife passed out, having taken an overdose of pills. He drives her to the hospital, where a doctor reassures him that the pills won't kill her; he stays in the room by her comatose body and looks out the window into the winter night, while his daughter stays in the cold car below.

Qassem Julayi (Ghāsem Jolā'i), played by Hassan Darabi, is a football-obsessed 12-year-old in the small city of Malayer, who would rather compete in the alley of his impoverished neighborhood after school than do his homework. His illiterate mother constantly berates him, but Qassem has long since learned to invent excuses for his poor school performance. In one early scene, we see him arriving late to school after going out of his way to purchase a football fan magazine. He appears with a bandage around his head, feigning a toothache. A few moments later, Qassam's skeptical teacher spots the magazine and snatches it away (only to start reading it himself). The boy resolves to travel by himself to Tehran, a 150-mile bus ride away, to attend an important game. Bus fare, however, is 10 tomans. The penniless Qassem pilfers 5 tomans that his mother has hidden, but the next day she discovers the theft and promptly reports it to the school principal, who not only berates her for raising a "monster" but canes Qassem's hands for refusing to admit guilt. That afternoon, Qassem and his friend Akbar roam the storefront vendors, attempting to sell small items to raise funds, but find no takers. The friend suggests selling an uncle's old box camera, but Qassem rejects one offer and instead hatches the scheme of pretending to take pictures of younger kids after school, collecting 5 rials for each "sitting." In a famous sequence, he issues directions to his "subjects" while snapping photo after photo with the empty camera. Onscreen, we see a succession of children posing for portraits that will never materialize. Still lacking sufficient cash, Qassem resolves to sell his team's soccer ball and goals, even though they are group property. Finally he has collected enough for his journey.

Late that evening, Qassem counts down the time in his squalid bedroom, then climbs down a drainpipe and runs through the dark streets to catch the bus to Tehran. Next morning, after the boy waits in a long queue to purchase admission to the stadium, the supply of tickets runs out as he's about to hand over the fee. Wandering among ticket scalpers, he tries to haggle but ends up paying an exorbitant price to finally gain entry. As the stadium seats fill up, he learns from the middle-aged man next to him that three hours remain until the game starts. Impatient, he has the man save his seat, and leaves to explore the athletic complex by himself. After small talk with a laborer, some clambering on a scaffold, and a wistful glimpse of an indoor swimming pool, Qassem lies down for a brief nap in the shade. His dreams are troubled by images of his own guilt and punishment. When he finally wakes, he finds the stadium empty and strewn with litter, the game long over.

''Where Is the Friend's Home?'' depicts the simple story of a young boy who travels from Koker to a neighbouring village to return the notebook of a schoolmate.

''Life and Nothing More'' follows a father and his young son as they drive from Tehran to Koker in search of the two young boys from ''Where Is the Friend's Home?'', fearing that the two might have perished in the 1990 Iran earthquake that killed 50,000 people in northern Iran.

''Through the Olive Trees'' examines the making of a small scene from ''Life'', forcing the viewer to witness a peripheral drama from ''Life'' as the central drama in ''Olive''.

''Giraffe'' is based on a true Czechoslovakian story, which Ledgard discovered while working as a journalist in the Czech Republic for ''The Economist'' in 2001. In 1975, on the eve of May Day, Czechoslovakian secret police dressed in chemical warfare suits sealed off the zoo in the small Czech town of Dvůr Králové nad Labem and orchestrated the slaying of the zoo's entire population of forty-nine giraffes - the largest captive herd in the world. No reason for the action was ever given, and discussion of the incident was suppressed. It remains a state secret in the Czech Republic. Ledgard recounts the story of the giraffes from their capture in Africa to their deaths far away in the Eastern Bloc.

Two boys watch a cartoon film about various kinds of animals and one of them claims repeatedly that he can do the same things he sees the animals doing. But then the sight of birds flying plunges him into confusion: the film ends with the shot of an aeroplane circling the skies overhead.

During breaktime, Dara and Nader have a fierce argument about a torn exercise book that the former has given back to the latter. There are two possible outcomes, which the film shows one after the other. One is that Dara wants to get his own back, and the two boys start a violent fight; the other is that they work together to mend the exercise book with a little glue.

Each episode follows an adventure in the woodland world of Nutwood, England. The characters go between Rupert's cottage, the friends' tree house, Ping Pong's colourful pagoda and the ocean, where Miranda lives.

Iran, October 1980. Young Mohammad-Reza Askari, whose father and grandfather both wear dentures, rarely finds time to brush his teeth as he often runs late in the morning. At school this makes him a bit of a pariah: shunned by his classmates due to his bad breath, unfit to participate in sports activities on account of his nascent toothache, eventually unable to attend school because the pain is now so excruciating that all he can do is whimper. He needs to go and get his teeth checked by a dentist at the local public dental clinic. While a dental surgeon works on Mohammad's teeth, the serious-faced chief dentist delivers a thirteen-minute direct-to-camera monologue on proper dental hygiene and explains how tooth decay occurs. His lecture is punctuated by brief animations, moving charts, a sequence showing how to brush one's teeth properly, off-camera screaming and moaning as well as shots of Mohammad suffering and being treated. Once the treatment is finished and the pain is gone, Mohammad is able to return to his daily activities which now include regular tooth brushing.

During World War II, Kay Walsh (Goldie Hawn) signs up to work in an armaments factory in California while her husband Jack (Ed Harris), a U.S. Naval seaman, is overseas in naval service. Lonely and vulnerable, Kay falls for the charms of another man, a musician named Lucky (Kurt Russell), and befriends her embittered neighbor Hazel (Christine Lahti), a former singer. The three of them enjoy their time together until Kay's husband comes home and realizes what has occurred.

This story takes place in an impoverished district outside Buenos Aires and follows a group of teenage delinquents and misfits: the not-so-bright Megabom (Alejandro Pous), the asthmatic Pablo (Jorge Sesan), the nerdy Frula (Walter Diaz), and Sandra (Pamela Jordan), the pregnant girlfriend of El Cordobés (Héctor Anglada). All of them are squatters living together in the same house. The group wanders the city and steal in order to survive. After letting go of their former employer, a crooked taxi driver who paid them a cut of what they could steal from his passengers, Frula and Cordobés steal from a crippled street vendor, which ultimately leads to Sandra being arrested.

Sandra, because of her pregnancy, starts to think about her future and the life she can make for her expected baby. When she is released from jail after a short time inside, she makes Cordobes promise he'll straighten up and find a decent job instead of stealing again. In the meantime, she stays with her abusive father. Aided by his friends, Cordobés starts looking for more profitable scores, so he can move to Uruguay with Sandra.

Frula arranges a job with his contact, Rubén which involves stealing a fancy restaurant with unreliable guns. Rubén drives them to the spot which turns out to be an ordinary place. The stickup goes sloppily and the alarm goes off, urging the five robbers to escape. Rubén cuts ties with the others after paying Cordobes a misery for his job.

Running out of time, the group decides to rob a local nightclub. Pablo and Cordobes get back in touch with the cab driver, only to beat him up and steal both his money and his guns. However, they grow fond of the passenger, a middle aged woman from Cordoba, and let her arrive to her destination safely. Immediately after being let out of the car, the woman discreetly calls the police, who begins tracking the stolen cab. Back at the nightclub, Pablo, Frula and Cordobes get past the bouncer and proceed to hold the ticket workers at gunpoint while Pablo acts as a diversion, with Megabom as lookout outside the club. The bouncer, however, barely manages to notice Pablo and Megabom switching guns, so he begins acting more suspiciously. While the others start taking the money, Megabom notices a policeman following them, and proceeds to bother him and damage his motorbike in order to create a distraction. When Cordobes gets out of the ticket office, gun in hand, he is shot in the chest by the bouncer, who is then killed by Pablo. Hearing the screams and gunshots inside, the policeman attempts to enter the nightclub, but begins to beat down Megabom after he hits him in the back. When Frula, Cordobes and Pablo get to the cab, Frula catches a glimpse of the bloody and bruised Megabom. Enraged, he draws his gun at the officer, but is quickly shot down. Pablo manages to escape carrying a badly wounded Cordobes and steals another car. He drives him to the docks and gives him the money, so he can leave with Sandra, while staying behind to turn himself in.

Crawling, Cordobes manages to get to the docks, where he realizes he won't make it to the boat. Reunited with Sandra, he is forced to confess he didn't make good on his promise, and tells Sandra she should go alone, for the kid's sake. They kiss farewell, and a dying Cordobes manages to get a final look at Sandra while the boat departs. When the police arrive, they find his dead body and inform the station via radio.

An unnamed serial killer is eager to kill again following his release from prison, driven by a desire to see the fear in the eyes of his victims. He stops by a diner, where he is tempted to attack two girls sitting at the counter but is unable to act on this inclination in public. In a taxi afterwards, he prepares to kill the female driver but is forced to flee when the driver becomes suspicious and stops the car. The killer comes across a house during his escape and breaks in. Inside, he finds an intellectually disabled man who uses a wheelchair. He mistakes the killer for his own father. Soon, the man's mother and sister arrive at the house, and the killer hides before eventually attacking them, taping the daughter to a doorknob and strangling the mother. He ties up the mother before dragging the son to the upstairs bathroom and drowning him in the bathtub.

The killer then returns downstairs to find that the mother is dead or near death. The daughter pleads with the killer to give her mother her medication; the killer complies, wishing to prevent the mother from dying before what he had planned. His attempts to revive her are futile and he pushes the wheelchair she is in into a wall in a rage.

The killer finds the daughter attempting to escape and chases her down. He stabs her to death, drinks her blood, and vomits on her (the blood having acted as an emetic). He wakes up on her body the following morning, partially undressed and covered in blood. He decides to leave in the family's car and take the bodies with him in the trunk, intending to show the bodies to his new victims to frighten them (he also brings the family's dog, alive, in the passenger seat). The killer rear-ends another car during his frantic escape, and there are several witnesses to the incident.

He returns to the diner, the same patrons from earlier there once again, and as he feeds the dog, he is apprehended by the police, who ask for his registration. He then willingly opens the trunk of the car, reveling in the fear the sight of the bodies causes in the onlookers. The film ends as a voice-over of a medical record declares that the killer was driven by a sadistic tendency caused by his unstable childhood.

Small-time pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson travels cross-country with his partner Charlie to challenge the legendary player Minnesota Fats. Arriving at Fats' home pool hall, Eddie declares he will win $10,000 that night. Fats arrives and he and Eddie agree to play straight pool for $200 a game. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game; Fats agrees. He sends out a runner, Preacher, to Johnny's Bar, ostensibly for whiskey, but really to get professional gambler Bert Gordon to the hall. Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after Bert labels Eddie a "loser". After 25 hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves half of the remaining stake with a sleeping Charlie and leaves.

Eddie stashes his belongings in locker at a bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic who is supported by her father, attends college part-time, and walks with a limp. He meets her again at a bar. They go back to her place but she hesitates at letting him in, saying he is "too hungry". She asks "Why me?", and he gives up, leaving her with the bottle he'd brought. Eddie moves into a rooming house and starts hustling for small stakes. He finds Sarah at the bus terminal again and this time she takes him in, but with reservations. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie realizes he plans to challenge Fats again. Eddie learns that Charlie held out his (Charlie's) percentage and becomes enraged, believing that with that money he could have rebounded to beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "lay down and die by yourself".

At Johnny's Bar, Eddie joins a poker game where Bert is playing and loses $20. Afterward, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings; Eddie refuses.

Eddie humiliates a local pool , exposing himself as a hustler, and the other players punish him by breaking his thumbs. As he heals, Sarah cares for him and tells him she loves him, but he cannot say the words in return. When Eddie is ready to play, he agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "25% slice of something big is better than a 100% slice of nothing".

Bert, Eddie, and Sarah travel to the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be three-cushion billiards, not pool. When Eddie loses badly, Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted, and crippled"; he refuses. Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel. Bert comes back to the hotel later that evening after the billiards game and discovers that Sarah has overdosed on heroin and then slit her wrists with a razor on the sink.

Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands half of Eddie's winnings and threatens to have him beaten unless he pays. Eddie says he'll come back to kill Bert if he survives, shaming Bert into giving up his claim by invoking Sarah's memory. Instead, Bert orders Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again. Eddie and Fats compliment each other as players, and Eddie walks out.

Catalina of Aragon's arranged marriage to the English crown prince Arthur secretly develops into a loving relationship where they share plans to rule England side-by-side. However, Arthur succumbs to the sweating sickness three months into their marriage. In his deathbed, he convinces Catalina to deny consummating their marriage so she can still be considered a virgin and eligible to marry his younger brother Harry to carry out their plans. Arthur's father, King Henry VII, desires Catalina and refuses to betroth her to Harry. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Henry offers his own hand in marriage. Catalina accepts, but later insists on marrying Harry as she realizes the duties of a queen will go to Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort and her only role will be to bear Henry's children (who will be behind Harry in the line of succession). She pressures Henry to betroth her to Harry, which he eventually allows.

Years after her betrothal, Catalina and her retinue live in poverty as Henry refuses to sponsor her until her parents, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, pay the second half of her dowry while her parents believe the English crown should pay for Arthur's widow. After Isabella's death, Catalina hears rumors that Henry set aside her betrothal years ago and is arranging a marriage between his children and the children of Catalina's sister Joanna of Castile. Catalina's father commands the Spanish ambassador to return the dowry he had sent, but makes no mention of saving Catalina. Fortunately, Catalina's prospects improve when Henry dies of sickness and Harry marries her despite his father's warnings. Catalina is restored to a position of wealth and respect and manipulates Harry to remove Margaret's power in court so she can act as queen. They are crowned King Henry and Queen Katherine.

Catalina's first pregnancy isolates her for months until she comes to accept that the fetus was miscarried. Upon her return to court, she eventually realizes that the news of a scandal between two courtiers was actually a cover-up for Harry taking a new mistress during Catalina's lying-in. Harry's mistress, a verified virgin, leads Harry to question Catalina's virginity as she acted differently on their marriage bed, but Catalina lies and they reconcile. Their second child, Henry, is made Duke of Cornwall, but his death two months later strains their marriage. Catalina begins to see Harry as childish and demanding, and manipulates him to make her Spanish Ambassador and unites him with her father to invade France together. During his absence, the Scots declare war on England and Catalina successfully leads the English army to victory when the Scots attempt to invade England. She sends Harry a cryptic message hinting at another pregnancy.

Years pass, and Catalina admits to herself that her actions are for her own interests as much as Arthur's. Out of all of Catalina's children, only Princess Mary survived, leaving the fate of England unstable. Harry had more mistresses, all of whom she tolerated quietly as Harry eventually grew bored of them all and were never a threat to her. But his latest mistress, Anne Boleyn, is the most ambitious and is trying to take her spot as queen. Catalina vows to keep her promise to Arthur and proudly decides to fight for her right as queen. The novel ends, with Katherine entering a court hearing about her marriage to Harry.

The film consists of five long takes set by the ocean. As in a typical Ozu film, the camera never moves, zooms or pans. There is no dialogue, and only one shot includes people.

Five sequences : 1) A piece of driftwood on the seashore, carried about by the waves 2) People walking on the seashore. The oldest ones stop by, look at the sea, then go away 3) Blurry shapes on a winter beach. A herd of dogs. A love story 4) A group of loud ducks cross the image, in one direction then the other 5) A pond, at night. Frogs improvising a concert. A storm, then the sunrise.

On a rainy day, Heathcliff (Mel Blanc) recalls his past exploits to his three nephews (and a mouse), through a compilation of episodes originally broadcast on the TV series.

Stories

• "Cat Food for Thought" - Heathcliff becomes a TV star after getting rid of his competition.
• "Heathcliff's Double" - There's a new cat in town called Henry who looks exactly like Heathcliff, and everybody mistakes him for Heathcliff.
• "The Siamese Twins" - There are two new cats in town that are ruining Heathcliff's reputation, making everyone think Heathcliff is the cause of their troubles.
• "An Officer and an Alley Cat" - In a loose parody of ''An Officer and a Gentleman'', Heathcliff goes to obedience school in order to qualify for a contest where the first prize is a lifetime supply of cat food.
• "The Catfather" - In this parody of ''The Godfather'', Heathcliff collects gifts for the Catfather, oblivious to the fact that the Catfather is the scare of the town.
• "Boom Boom Pussini" - Hector gets Heathcliff into a challenge to wrestle the famous cat wrestler Boom Boom Pussini who cheats to win matches.
• "Pop on Parole" - Heathcliff's conman father has gotten parole for jail time, but Heathcliff believes he broke out and the cops are chasing him.

After Heathcliff is finally finished telling his stories, his nephews angrily throw him out of the house. The movie ends with Heathcliff saying "Those are my boys!" and laughing.

Patricia and Émile meet at night in the middle of nowhere. While reading, listening to the radio and discussing the information they are retrieving, they develop mutual beliefs.

The film is divided into ten scenes, each of which depict a conversation between an unchanging female driver (played by Mania Akbari) and a variety of passengers as she drives around Tehran. Her passengers include her young son Amin (played by Akbari's real life child, Amina Maher ), her sister, a bride, a sex worker, and a woman on her way to prayer.

The first vignette of the film is a conversation between Amin and his mother, as he is being driven to the local pool. Over the course of their conversation, the driver raises her voice to him and tensions escalate as he yells over her. It is revealed that, due to the limited rights women are given the court system, the driver obtained a divorce from her husband Mortaza, by falsely telling the court he was a drug addict. After their conversation erupts into a fight, Amin abruptly exits the car.

The second vignette features the driver's sister who works as a teacher. They discuss the heavy burden and expectations children place on their parents. Both of their children have accused the women of not being good mothers. They eventually pick up a birthday cake for Mortaza. The driver's sister advises her regarding Amin's rude behavior and tells her to let Amin live with his father, who will be able to "set him straight".

During the third vignette, the driver picks up a pious old woman who goes to the Mausoleum three times a day to pray. She reveals that her husband and 12-year-old son have both died. She goes to the Mausoleum to pray for them. She has sold her possessions in order to go on a pilgrimage to Syria and has given away her other possessions to people who are less fortunate than her. Their conversation ends as the driver drops the old woman off at the Mausoleum after she is unable to convince the driver to go in and pray herself.

The fourth vignette starts with a sex worker who mistakes the driver for a male client and gets into her car. The driver continues to drive around with the unnamed woman and persists in asking her personal questions. The sex worker, in turn, ends up lecturing the driver. She tells the driver that many of her clients are married men that get calls from their wives while they are with her. She admits to the driver that she feels bad for women who are idiotic enough to cling onto men and who actually believe that men are truthful. The sex worker was engaged to a man once until she realized she was "foolish". The conversation ends as she is dropped off and immediately picked up by a client.

The fifth vignette features a woman whose relation to the driver is unclear. The woman is picked up just after she has prayed at the Mausoleum. The two women discuss religion and whether or not they are believers. The passenger confesses that she had not been a believer in the past, and now she is not so sure. The passenger tells the driver that she was supposed to get married and she now prays at the Mausoleum with the hope that the man she is dating will propose soon.

In the next vignette, the driver picks up Amin from Mortaza, who has been taking care of him. She and Mortaza each stay in their cars, leaving Amin to cross a busy traffic-filled street. The driver asks permission to keep Amin overnight and he eventually agrees. Amin disagrees with his mother over a shortcut to his grandmother's house, but eventually realizes his mother is going the right way. Amin tells his mom that his father has been watching porn at home alone at night.

The driver next picks up her crying sister who is distraught over her husband leaving after 7 years together. As she cries, the driver tells her, "It is wrong to cling to him." The driver is reciting almost exactly what the sex worker had told her the night before. The driver is very frank and harsh with her sister. She tells her to toughen up and stop being so weak.

During the eighth vignette, the driver is with Amin again. She says a woman told her that Amin is a man and therefore needs to live and learn from a man. The driver agrees that Amin should go live with his father, and they have a conversation about Mortaza finding a new wife. Amin says that his new wife would be better than his mother by obeying her husband, doing more housework, and coming home earlier. They disagree again over a shortcut and soon their argument escalates to the point where Amin abruptly gets out the car again.

The ninth vignette features the same woman from vignette five. She tells the driver that her boyfriend does not want to marry her, despite her hopes that he will. She feels jealous over the fact that he is thinking of another woman and that is what hurts her the most. The driver asks her passenger why her veil is so tight, and it is revealed that the passenger has shaved her head.

The final vignette is the shortest. The driver picks up Amin from the father. The film ends as the driver is taking him to his grandma's house.

It is Autumn 1921, and following the death of his aunt Kate, Lady Castleton, James uses some of the money he has been given in her will to buy himself an Avro 504 aeroplane for £375. He has been taking flying lessons at Brooklands. On a clear, sunny day, James invites Virginia to go to Brooklands with him and he will take her flying. However, Richard wants her sit in the Strangers Gallery in the House of Lords while he delivers an important speech, and then to go to tea with him and some friends afterwards. However, Virginia decides to go with James, and Richard is visibly annoyed with this decision, and with his son's use of money.

At very short notice, Lady Prudence instead accompanies Richard to the Lords'. When they return to 165, Eaton Place at 6.15pm, James and Virginia are still not home. Not long after, Richard rings Brooklands, who then tell him that the two are missing. By 8.00pm that evening the news has reached the front page of ''The Evening News''. The article suggests that there is something going on between James and Virginia. Lady Prudence insists on staying with Richard, and both sleep in the Morning Room. In the morning, Richard is told by telephone that the two are safe and well. Their plane landed on mudflats at Poole Harbour last night having gone the wrong way, and had to spend the night in the plane. In the morning, they had walked to Bournemouth and reported the accident. The same day they return to London by train, and Richard and Virginia make up.

The story starts at Stonehenge, where Lord Ombra was seemingly destroyed in ''Peter and the Shadow Thieves''. Though weakened, he has regenerated his consciousness, using his power to possess others to gather himself together so that he can return to Rundoon.

Meanwhile, warriors of the Scorpion tribe plan to invade Mollusk Island. Warned by Peter, Fighting Prawn prepares for war. Eventually, however, he is forced to surrender to the overwhelming force of the invaders and the Mollusks are enslaved.

Molly and George travel to Oxford, where they discover some vital information about Peter's parents which suggests Peter himself is in danger. And indeed Lord Ombra and his fellow shadow creatures have decided that capturing Peter could help their plans. Lord Aster sails to Mollusk Island to warn and protect Peter, unaware that Molly and George have stowed away aboard his ship.

Peter, wounded by the Scorpions, is kidnapped by Captain Hook along with the Lost Boys, but soon they are all captured by Lord Ombra and taken to Rundoon. There they are imprisoned in the dungeons of King Zarboff III, a cruel and vain despot in cahoots with the shadow beings.

Tinker Bell joins Lord Aster in a rescue mission, but he is captured by Zarboff's men. Tink returns to the ship to warn Molly and George, but finds them trying to steal a camel and being chased by the owners. She tells Molly to use the starstuff in her locket to make the camel fly, and so they escaped and went on to find Peter, Lord Aster, and Bakari on their flying camel.

Zarboff reveals his plan – to shoot rockets into space to make starstuff fall. The first attempt is successful, and he plans another, using the new starstuff to send the rocket even further. He does not know that the shadow beings intend the second rocket to rupture the fabric of the universe and cause it to collapse into nothingness. It falls to Peter to prevent the rocket from reaching its destination.

By chance, the huge load of starstuff falls onto a ship stolen by George and the Lost Boys, causing it to float. The flying ship, expertly handled by Captain Hook, takes the whole party back to Mollusk Island, when Shining Pearl, Fighting Prawn's daughter, has joined forces with the pirates to repel the invaders.

The book ends with the Lost Boys deciding to return to London with Leonard, while some new boys, former St. Norbert's orphans enslaved by Zarboff, decide to take their place as the new Lost Boys. Molly and Peter share a kiss and then go their separate ways.

The episode begins with the pair in Lily Linneker's (Lisa Maxwell) Love Bureau as they watch the dating videos the two made earlier. Eddie's video is typically boisterous and frisky, showing his backside to the camera and telling viewers to "come and get it". Richie's is characteristically nervous, which starts with a nervous "hello" and suggestion of "Lovely weather". At the end of the video, he suddenly enthusiastically lies, claiming to be the wealthy Duke of Kidderminster. The manager matches Richie with the third Viscountess of Moldavia, Lady Natasha Letitia Sarah Jane Wellesley Obstromsky Ponsonsky Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Oblomov Boblomov Dob (Helen Lederer). Meanwhile, Eddie turns down a date with Sarah Ferguson with great disgust, suggesting he would rather leave the agency office to maintain his "dignity".

Preparing on the night of Richie's date, Richie informs Eddie that he must be "Jives", his butler, for the evening and speak in a stereotypical accent. Richie reveals that he sold a kidney for £300 to pay for the evening, but is dismissive of the loss of a bodily organ, claiming that he will buy another kidney after marrying the Viscountess and selling off some of her property.

Whilst preparing food for the date, Richie mistakes bowls of caviar for unwashed dishes, and throws them away. Richie also notices that Eddie has not mashed the potatoes. Eddie explains that their potato masher is missing after being borrowed by a friend by the name of Harry "I'll Do Anything For Half A Pint" Grundy. Annoyed by this, Richie repeatedly slams Eddie's head into the saucepan containing the potatoes, thus mashing them with his head and calling it 'squashed potatoes'.

After a false alarm with a female charity collector (whom Eddie assaults, then relieves of her collecting tin adding it to a cupboard where they have collected many others), Richie's date arrives. Richie nudges Eddie to take her coat, Eddie staggers over to her with his face still covered in squashed potatoes. After removing her wrap and lowering his glasses, he looks at her breasts, causing Richie to become enraged and beat him repeatedly with an umbrella. The Viscountess expresses her delight to Richie, that she has at last finally met some "genuine" aristocracy rather than another faker.

Richie then escorts the Viscountess to the "polo lounge" (in reality just their usual snug section of the flat with a decorated plate of Polo mints on the table). Richie goes on to state that this flat is simply his "London ''pomme de terre''", and that his main castles are scattered all over the country as he never knows where he is going to be.

Returning to the kitchen for dinner, Richie repeatedly finds unintentional ''double entendres'' in what Eddie is saying while he serves the food. After several comments from Eddie to the Viscountess, Richie thinks Eddie is referring to sex and fights viciously with him behind a curtain in the kitchen. The first fight sees Eddie win, only for them to fight again so Richie ends up as the victor.

After dinner, a bedazzled Richie asks the Viscountess to marry him. She eagerly accepts, but Richie does not hear her explanation – that she needs to marry quickly or be impoverished forever. An increasingly excited Richie asks her if she believes in sex before marriage. After some convincing, he finally accepts that he is indeed to lose his virginity that night.

While Richie prepares in his bedroom, a suspicious Eddie wonders why the Viscountess really wants to marry Richie. The Viscountess reveals that her family has lost their entire fortune in a Moldavian civil war and that she must marry the "first stupidly wealthy aristocrat" she can find, otherwise her entire family shall remain penniless, and she despises poor people. Not caring for Richie's feelings, Eddie makes a pass at her. After tossing some loose change over his shoulder, he claims he has a "few quid laying about the place" and that if it is stupidity she is looking for, then "There's nobody more stupid then the Hitlers!" – after which he smashes a dinner plate on his forehead. The Viscountess rejects Eddie's advances but goes on to tell Eddie, "If anything should happen to Richie, I will be onto you and up your trouser leg like a whippet!" After Eddie faints, she goes to join Richie in the bedroom.

After he excites himself by reading ''More Joy of Sex'', Richie's big moment finally arrives. The Viscountess tells Richie to unzip the back of her dress, which Richie has some difficulty with as his hands suddenly stop working. The Viscountess strips before him and climbs into his bed. However, before he can join her, Richie appears to suffer a heart attack, collapsing with a "Just typical..." expression on his face.

Richie awakens in an ambulance with Eddie, who tells Richie that he passed out because the cheap surgeon who removed his kidney reattached his urinary system incorrectly and caused it to backfire. Eddie also accidentally lets slip how he and the Viscountess passed the five-hour wait for the emergency services, but Eddie tries to console Richie by saying she was "crap" in bed. The episode ends with an enraged Richie zapping Eddie on the head with a heart defibrillator.

The game begins as Colonel Flag Gilgister of the Lagoon Empire Army of the East attempts to awaken the Dark Genie, a legendary evil creature, whom Flag wishes to use to control the world. Upon summoning the Genie, Flag orders him to attack the West. However, prior to the attack, Simba, the Fairy King, casts a protective spell around the land, sealing the buildings, objects and people inside magical orbs called "Atla". Due to the power of the Genie's attack, the orbs are scattered.

Meanwhile, Toan, whose home village of Norune has been destroyed, although he survived the attack unhurt, encounters the Fairy King, who gives him a magical stone called the "Atlamillia", and tasks him with finding the scattered Atla and transforming back into its original form. Toan sets about restoring Norune, and in a nearby cave meets a man named Seda, who defeats him in a duel when Toan attempts to protect a nearby cat. As a reward for his kindness, Seda gives Toan a "changing potion", which he uses to transform the cat into a "catgirl" named Xiao, who joins him on his quest. Toan and Xiao soon find Dran, guardian of Norune, who is possessed by the Genie, and who attacks them. They defeat him, releasing him from the Genie's control, and he tells them of the legend of the "Black Demon" that nearly destroyed the world, until it was defeated and imprisoned by the Moon People. He suggests they seek out the Moon People, telling them to visit a sentient tree called Treant in nearby Matataki Village.

In Matataki, Toan and Xiao are joined by a local boy named Goro, and the trio set about rebuilding the village. Treant tells them how to get to the Moon People, and they make their way to Brownboo, a village unaffected by the Genie's attack, and home of the Moon People. Toan asks them if they can seal the Genie again, but they explain they have forgotten how to use magic. The Moon People who live on the Moon can still use magic, and so they decide to head there, using the Moon Ship, which can be activated by the Moon Orb, but they discover the Orb is missing, having been accidentally traded with a batch of Moon Fruits.

The party travel to the town of Queens, which has also been attacked by the Genie. While searching a shipwreck for the Orb, Toan finds a lamp that releases a friendly genie, Ruby, who joins them. They eventually find the Moon Orb, but are unable to summon the Moon Ship. As such, they head to the Sun and Moon Temple in Muska Lacka, where the Moon Ship is located. There, they meet a sand warrior named Ungaga, who joins them and helps them activate the Moon Ship. They travel to the moon city of Yellow Drops, and meet Osmond, a Moon Person who asks for help in collecting the scattered pieces of a giant battle robot called the Sun Giant, which the Moon People believe can destroy the Genie outright. When the Sun Giant is complete, the party and a crew of Moon People travel to Dark Heaven Castle, where the Genie now resides.

They attack and defeat the Genie, only to learn that they were actually fighting a transformed mouse that had absorbed a fraction of the real Genie's powers. The true Dark Genie has possessed Flag, and destroys the Sun Giant. The Genie's power proves too great for Flag's body, and he dies, leaving the Genie without a host. Toan and the crew are rescued by Dran, and the party pursue the Genie into the castle, where they encounter Seda, who tells them he is responsible for the existence of the Genie. He reveals he was King of the East, and was losing a war to the West. He was approached by a dark wizard, who offered him the power to win the war. However, after winning, the dark power remained in his body, and after a tragic loss, it was released in the form of the Genie. Seda learned the only thing strong enough to defeat the Genie was Atlamillia. No Atlamillia would exist for another 400 years, so he opened a portal to the future. He tells Toan the only way to stop the Genie is to prevent his birth in the past, and opens the Gallery of Time to allow the party to travel back to the past. As the Genie attempts to repossess Seda, Seda kills himself.

In the Gallery of Time, the party learn the tragic loss suffered by Seda was the death of Sophia, his fiancée, at the hands of an assassin seeking to kill him. The party are unable to prevent Sophia's death and the subsequent birth of the Genie, but they face the Genie's original form, and are able to defeat it. Toan then expends the Atlamilla's powers to revive Sophia, reuniting her with the Seda of the past, and preventing the birth of the Genie. Upon doing so, the party is returned to its own time, and the Fairy King informs them the Genie is gone, for now.

Hornby adapted the book for the screen and fictionalised the story, concentrating on Arsenal's First Division championship-winning season in 1988–89 and its effect on the protagonist's romantic relationship. Firth plays Paul Ashworth, the character based on Hornby, a teacher at a school in south Hertfordshire and his romance with Sarah Hughes (Ruth Gemmell), a new teacher who joins Ashworth's school. The film culminates with the real life events of Arsenal's match against title rivals Liverpool in the final game of the season on 26 May 1989, with a last-minute goal by Michael Thomas giving Arsenal the 2–0 win they needed to secure the title.

''Little Athens'' follows a whirlwind day in the hapless lives of small town youth caught in a dead-end post-high school void. The journeys of four groups of late teens/early twenty-somethings unfold through four different storylines, their separate trails converging at an explosive house party.

The film is seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, Harry (Matías del Pozo), who does not know that Argentina's 1976 coup d'état is impacting his life.

After witnessing the "disappearance" of dissident friends, a human rights lawyer (Ricardo Darín) and his research scientist wife (Cecilia Roth) flee the city and hide from the military police in a vacant summer house. With them are their two kids: Harry, who is fascinated with the escape artistry of Harry Houdini, and ''El Enano'', his little brother. (Translated as "Little Guy" in the English subtitles, played by Milton de la Canal. The literal translation would be "dwarf".) The family adopts new identities and attempts to lead a normal life. Later, they are joined by a student who is using the alias ''Lucas'' (Tomás Fonzi).

Their new life is difficult, but a visit with their estranged grandparents (Fernanda Mistral and Héctor Alterio) reveals that they are still a close-knit family. Subtly hinted, however, and used as a metaphor, is the mother's constant smoking and ''El Enano's'' renewed bed-wetting. Both serve to show how stressful and precarious their situation is.

Set in a retro-futuristic universe, the game concerns Polly Spark, the bratty daughter of an apparently very wealthy inventor, and her attempt to alter history so that her inane answers to a history quiz she failed will be correct. To do this, she sends twenty-five reprogrammed robots back in time and, with her father conveniently away on a business trip, she takes over Mystery Mountain, the literal "mountain mansion" where she and her father live. The goal of the game is to help Botley, the robot assigned to keep Polly under control, save the world by retrieving each of the twenty-five robots and bringing them back to the present.

Twenty years after the events of the original series, a Japanese girl by the name of "K" is arrested in New York for beating 11 policemen. Although held in a straight jacket, she escapes by dislocating her own shoulder and tries to exit the facility, but a moment of kindness to comfort a little girl gets her captured again. K is then informed by Japanese inspector Kazutoshi Kira that her mother will be deported to Japan for brutalizing a mugger and living illegally in New York, unless K accepts to work for them in the reactivated Sukeban Deka program.

After accepting, not without hesitating for her strained relationship with her mother, K is given a hi-tech steel yo-yo weapon and a new name, "Saki Asamiya," and is ordered to infiltrate an elite high school in Japan. The school, Seisen Academy, is suspected to be the source of a website called "Enola Gay" that rallies juvenile suicide bombers across the country. She is also briefed that another Sukeban operative was sent earlier only for her to commit suicide too, and that a counter for 72 hours has just appeared on the website.

Upon arriving the school, Saki learns that the entire school is dominated by a girl named Reika Akiyama and her henchwomen, and she immediately saves a bullied student named Taie "Tae" Konno from them. Saki looks into the chemistry club, which the former operative was investigating before her death, and is forced to struggle to save two suicide bombers, Amaki and Higashiyama, who try to use Tae as a human shield. Asamiya captures Higashiyama, while Amaki is saved from her bomb by the school janitor Jirou Kimura, who had become friends with Saki earlier.

Kira interrogates Higashiyama and informs Saki that the Enola Gay website is run by a user named Romeo, but Higashiyama is then abducted by a gang of thugs, despite Asamiya's efforts to fight them off. Afterwards, Tae tells Saki that she and a fellow bullied schoolgirl named Kotomi Kanda used to run together an anti-bullying website until Kanda snapped and tried to commit suicide by bombing, being left catatonic in a hospital and leaving their site to be replaced by Enola Gay. Moreover, Reika interrupts them and reveals that Kotomi fell in love with a man who compelled her to blow herself up. Going to the hospital, Saki and Tae visit Kotomi, who gives the name of Jirou Kimura. Now revealed to be Romeo, Kimura kidnaps Saki and ties her to a bomb, which she is left to escape from.

Meanwhile, Reika reveals herself as Romeo's lover and hosts an assembly on the school in front of all the students and teachers in order to celebrate his ideology. At the same time, Romeo and his gang capitalize on the event to rob a bank in Tokyo. Tae is brought in and strapped to another bomb, but after some dramatic exchanges she is saved by the returning Saki. The latter chases Reika, who still has Tae as her hostage and is attempting to reach Romeo, and ends up facing her in a singles duel. It's then revealed that Reika is a former operative of Tokumei Keiji, a police program similar to Sukeban Deka, and that she has her own armed yo-yo, which sports blades. Although the less experienced Asamiya is initially overpowered when trying to user her weapon, she defeats Reika by burying her under metal pipes.

Saki then confronts Romeo and his gang, who have seized Tae, Amaki and Higashiyama as bomb-strapped hostages, and manages to take the villains out thanks to a bulletproof uniform. Eventually Romeo, who wears a bomb strap as well, disables her yo-yo by slicing the string with his katana, but she still knocks him out. Saki takes the artifacts off the hostages but leaves Romeo's to explode, killing him.

At the end, Saki calls her mom, who is implied to be the first ever Saki Asamiya from the original series. After bidding farewell to Tae and Kotomi, Saki is informed by Kira of a new mission for her.

When a man calling himself Chris Hale arrives at the doorstep of her Ashton, Ohio house, asking to see his childhood home, widow Mrs. Brentman gladly invites him in. The unemployed Chris then accepts Mrs. Brentman's offer of a room and takes a job in the shipping department of the Corelli shoe factory. One night, Chris wanders into the Ashton country club and meets Elaine Corelli, his boss's beautiful but paralyzed daughter. Speaking of the days when he used to deliver newspapers to her door and adored her from afar, Chris amuses and fascinates the once-vibrant Elaine. The next day, Chris is called in to see Elaine's father A. J., who tells him that Elaine was so taken with him that she asked that he be given a better job in sales. Chris declines the offer, but assures Corelli, who is devoted to his daughter, that he will explain his decision to Elaine. As promised, Chris, a confessed gambler and drifter, shows up at the Corelli home to talk with Elaine. Although Chris's explanations are vague, his self-deprecating humor relaxes Elaine, who is finally able to joke about the skiing accident that left her paralyzed.

The next morning, Chris flies to another city for a rendezvous with petty criminal Whitey Lake, who calls him "Steve." Chris and Whitey then rob gambling house owner Bowen of $200,000 in cash, knowing that the crime will never be reported. After splitting the money and advising Whitey to "disappear," Chris returns to Ashton and accepts an invitation for a double date from co-worker Ray Healy. When he then runs into Elaine, however, Chris breaks the date and takes the reluctant heiress to a working class nightclub. Chris's jilted date, Gwen, is also at the club and denounces him in front of Elaine. Although Chris wins a joking bet with Elaine that he can get Gwen to dance with him, Elaine grows despondent watching her would-be rival dance. Sure that Chris will come to resent her paralysis, Elaine leaves suddenly for Florida. When she returns at Christmas, however, Chris resumes his pursuit, and by New Year's Eve, the two are deeply in love. Chris's newfound happiness is short-lived, however, as Whitey shows up, broke and scared. Chris insists that Whitey, who is being chased by Bowen, stay locked up in Mrs. Brentman's house until he can figure out an escape plan. Whitey's nerves are soon frayed, and he begins tearing apart Chris's room in search of Chris's share of Bowen's money.

Then, after he learns that Chris is sending Mrs. Brentman to see her son's grave in Arlington Cemetery, Whitey, who takes afternoon walks in defiance of Chris's orders to stay indoors, becomes convinced that his friend intends to kill him during her absence. Chris finally calms and reassures the now-hysterical Whitey, and sees Mrs. Brentman off at the airport. As he is driving home, he realizes that he is being followed by two men, but manages to reach Elaine's without detection. Chris confesses all to an understanding Elaine, who advises him to return the money. Elaine also reveals that, as she moved to Ashton as a teenager, she knew all along that he was lying about his past. By the time Chris returns to Mrs. Brentman's, Whitey has been killed and the money, reclaimed. The killers then take Chris to see the vengeful Bowen, who, while riding in a car with his prisoner, suggests they both rob Elaine of her fortune. Disgusted, Chris tries to take Bowen's driver by surprise, but is shot by Bowen in the ensuing struggle. The car crashes, and Chris winds up in a police hospital. As the recuperated Chris is about to be transferred to prison, Elaine visits and vows to wait until his release, when he will finally need her the way she has always needed him.

Sir Philip Kimberly, the former chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service who defected to Russia, is given plastic surgery and assigned back home by the KGB to retrieve vital intelligence documents. Once back in the United Kingdom, he escapes his Soviet handlers and sets out for business on his own, leading MI6 and the KGB on a hunt for him and the documents.

A tragic accident occurs when a bus hits a high power line. The incident has claimed the lives of all on board, except for one Dan McCormick, who survives because he is, surprisingly, immune to the deadly electricity. McCormick does a sideshow exhibit as ''Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man'' and is taken in by Dr. John Lawrence, who wants to study him. However, Dr. Lawrence's colleague, mad scientist Dr. Paul Rigas, desires to create an army of electrobiologically-driven zombies. He gives McCormick progressively higher doses of electricity until his mind is ruined and left dependent on the addicting electrical charges. This temporarily gives McCormick the touch of death, making him capable of killing anyone he touches by electrocution. After accidentally killing Lawrence, Rigas ensures McCormick's conviction to see what will happen if he is sent to the electric chair. McCormick survives, and with a super charge in his glowing body encased in a protective rubber suit he kills several people, including Rigas, before becoming entangled on a barbed wire fence which tears his rubber suit, causing the electricity to drain out into the wire and McCormick to die.

''Note: The story is explained here in its chronological order, rather than as it is presented in the film.''

Facing an upcoming audit that will reveal his embezzlement, finance executive Andy Hanson decides to escape to Brazil. To raise the necessary funds, he enlists the aid of his brother, Hank, a divorced father who needs money to pay child support and tuition. Hank has been having an affair with Andy's wife, Gina.

Hank is well-meaning but easily dominated by Andy, a ruthless schemer. Andy, in turn, resents his younger and more attractive brother, whom their parents favored. Andy plans to rob their parents' jewelry store, to which Hank reluctantly agrees. Andy argues that he cannot go himself because he has been seen in the neighborhood recently. They assume that only Doris, an elderly employee, will be there, necessitating only a toy gun, and ensuring that insurance will make it a victimless crime. Andy plans to fence the jewelry via a New York City dealer his father knows, and expects to net about $120,000 from the robbery.

Without consulting Andy, Hank hires Bobby Lasorda, an acquaintance who is an experienced thief, to help him. Bobby reveals a real gun and commits the robbery himself while Hank waits in the car. The brothers' mother Nanette happens to be filling in for Doris, and while Bobby is distracted, Nanette grabs a hidden pistol and shoots him; he shoots her back, mortally wounding her, before she kills him with a second shot. She dies a week later in the hospital. Unsatisfied with the police investigation, her husband Charles becomes obsessed with finding information about the crime. Shortly after the botched robbery, Bobby's brother-in-law Dex confronts Hank and demands financial compensation for Bobby's widow, Chris, threatening to either turn him over to the police or kill him if he does not come up with the money.

While Andy is away from his office, his superiors repeatedly try to contact him regarding irregularities revealed by the audit. At Nanette's wake, Andy and Charles have a complex and emotional exchange. Charles states he loves Andy despite their long-standing differences. Andy, who feels like an outsider, questions his biological heritage, and Charles slaps him. Andy and Gina immediately leave. On their drive home, Andy has an emotional breakdown over his relationship with his father. At home, Gina tells Andy his boss has been trying to contact him. She expresses her frustration with their marriage and Andy's growing coldness. Andy, preoccupied with his problems, hardly reacts when Gina announces she is leaving him or even when she reveals her affair with Hank, and instead he gives her money for her departure when she asks for some.

Charles, searching for information about the robbery, visits the same fence Andy contacted. After an acrimonious exchange indicating a longstanding, mutual dislike, the jeweler reveals that Andy recently came looking to fence some jewels. Charles immediately goes looking for Andy. Andy decides to resolve Hank's blackmail situation by robbing a heroin dealer whom he frequents and then escaping abroad.

At the dealer's apartment, Andy and Hank overpower and rob the dealer. Hank is shocked when Andy kills the dealer and a client who happened to be present. The brothers meet Dex to pay him off, but Andy impulsively kills him to prevent continued blackmail. Andy appears ready to kill Chris, but Hank objects after hearing Chris' baby crying in another room. Andy turns the gun on Hank, revealing that he knows about Hank and Gina's relationship. Hank begs Andy to kill him. As Andy pauses, Chris shoots Andy in the back with Dex's gun. Horrified, she orders Hank to leave, and he guiltily leaves some of the money behind for her before fleeing.

After leaving the fence, Charles tails Andy. He follows Andy from his apartment tower, watches as he goes to Hank's apartment, then follows his sons to their meeting with Chris; Charles sees Hank fleeing the apartment and calls out to him, but Hank continues running, and escapes. He finally follows Andy to the hospital, where he is taken by paramedics. Andy breaks down and apologizes to his estranged father. Charles appears to accept his apology. Charles attaches Andy's heart monitor to himself and suffocates his son to death with a pillow. As medical staff rush to help Andy, Charles walks away.

Eddie is a white bear with a mask that lives on Rabbit's Island. One day little Ghost tells him that he is a bear and about the Island of the Bears. He leaves in a balloon with his friend Max (a rabbit) in search of the Bear's Island.

Flashbacks

In his flashback, Sayid is a chef in a restaurant in Paris. He is summoned onto the portico by an Iraqi named Sami (Shaun Toub), who compliments the meal Sayid cooked for him, and offers him a job as a chef in his new restaurant. Sayid later arrives at the restaurant, and meets Sami's wife, Amira (Anne Bedian). She has burn scars on her arm, but their introduction is cut short when the woman confirms that Sayid is "him". Sayid is suddenly attacked and knocked unconscious. He is chained up in the basement of the restaurant. Sami explains that his wife was tortured by the Republican Guard, and she recognized her torturer to be Sayid. Sayid denies this passionately. Sami's wife is brought before Sayid as Sami begins to brutally beat him, trying to get him to admit that he tortured his wife. Sami reaches for an iron bar, but his wife stops him. The following day, Sayid is visited by Amira. She explains that she rescued a cat from torture by street kids (which bears a striking resemblance to the cat at the Flame station), and while it sleeps with her and loves her, it also sometimes attacks her, because it sometimes forgets that it is safe. She forgives him for this, because she also knows what it is like to never be safe, because of Sayid. Sayid admits that he remembers her, that her face has haunted him since he left Iraq. He breaks down in tears and emotionally apologizes, over and over. Amira forgives him. Moreover, she says she will tell Sami that she has made a terrible mistake, that they have found the wrong person, so that Sami will let him go.

At the Flame Station

In the jungle, John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Sayid, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) stumble across a farmhouse with a satellite dish on its roof. Its inhabitant (Andrew Divoff) is revealed to be the mysterious one-eyed man whom Sayid, Locke and company saw on The Pearl's monitoring video in an earlier episode. Rousseau decides not to get involved, so she leaves as the rest of the group proceeds to the farmhouse. Sayid approaches unarmed (noticing a mysterious cat whose name is later revealed to be Nadia after Nadia Comăneci), but as he nears, the one-eyed man appears with a Mosin–Nagant rifle in his hands. He shoots Sayid in the shoulder, screaming that he didn't cross the line, and that they had a truce. After Sayid tells him about the plane crash, the one-eyed man emerges. Kate and Locke rush out from hiding to disarm him. The one-eyed man reveals his name to be Mikhail Bakunin (the same first and last name as the famous Russian anarchist), and claims that he is the last living member of the DHARMA Initiative.

While treating Sayid's gunshot wound, Mikhail tells the survivors about how he came to the island, after responding to a newspaper advertisement for the DHARMA Initiative. He has been on the island for eleven years, staying in the station called The Flame, where he communicates with the outside world. Mikhail tells Sayid that several years ago, the DHARMA Initiative launched a purge against "the hostiles," but Mikhail did not participate in it. As a result, the hostiles let him live, provided he did not cross the line around his house. He also states that the dish on the roof has not worked for years, and that the hostiles were on the island long before the DHARMA Initiative. Meanwhile, Locke finds a computer running a chess program. He plays and begins a losing streak. Sayid realizes Mikhail is an Other, not a member of the DHARMA Initiative, and almost certainly is not alone.

Mikhail explains that the station is connected to an underwater beacon to guide submarines to the island. When Sayid taunts Mikhail about killing one of the hostiles, Mikhail attacks him and Kate, but is overpowered. They tie him up. Sayid reveals a hatch hidden under a rug. Kate and Sayid descend into the hatch while Locke keeps watch over the unconscious Mikhail. The basement is wired with explosives. Sayid finds several DHARMA manuals. Upstairs, Locke is distracted by the prompting of the chess game. He finally manages to beat the chess computer, after which the screen changes to a video of "Dr. Marvin Candle" / "Dr. Mark Wickmund", which tells him to enter number codes for communication. Since the satellite and sonar have been rendered inoperable, Dr. Candle says, "Has there been an incursion of the station by the hostiles? If so, enter 7-7." Locke is about to enter the code when Mikhail appears behind him and holds a knife before his throat. In the basement, Kate is attacked by Bea Klugh (April Grace), but Sayid comes to her defense. Kate retaliates, punching Klugh in the face after recognizing her as one of the Others from the Pala Ferry dock when they were kidnapped, and tells Sayid that she will know where Jack is. They take her upstairs. Locke is outside, being held at gunpoint by Mikhail. There is a lot of arguing in Russian between Klugh and Mikhail, and then Mikhail shoots Klugh. Locke struggles for the gun, and Sayid manages to knock Mikhail to the ground. Mikhail begs to be killed, but Sayid lets him live.

Locke watches Dr. Candle's video again, pausing at the "Enter 7-7" part. Sayid shows Mikhail a map that shows a cable running from The Flame to a place called "The Barracks." Mikhail doesn't tell him about this place on the map, but warns that the moment Sayid's guard is down, he will attack. Danielle agrees with this. "You have a map," she says, "Why keep him alive?" Sayid refuses to kill him. Locke emerges and says that he beat the chess game and found out why Mikhail hadn't wanted him to beat it. The farmhouse blows up. Once again, one of Sayid's hopes of being able to communicate with the outside world has been taken away by Locke. As the group turns to leave, Sayid catches sight of the cat.

On the beach

The episode starts off with James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) noticing Paulo (Rodrigo Santoro) with one of his magazines; he explains that "they share things now." After seeing that the castaways have set up a ping-pong table, Sawyer decides to challenge someone to a game to retrieve his "stash". Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) decides that if he loses, he has to give up using colorful nicknames for a week.

The ping-pong match begins between Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Sawyer. Sawyer loses badly, but Hurley takes pity on him and returns some of his magazines. At this point, Hurley reassures Sawyer that Kate will be safe while with Sayid and Locke.

Arthur Seaton is a young machinist at the Raleigh bicycle factory in Nottingham. He is determined not to be tied down to living a life of domestic drudgery like the people around him, including his parents, whom he describes as "dead from the neck up". He spends his wages at weekends on drinking and having a good time.

Arthur is having an affair with Brenda, the wife of an older colleague. He also begins a more traditional relationship with Doreen, a beautiful single woman closer to his age. Doreen, who lives with her mother and aspires to be married, avoids Arthur's sexual advances, so he continues to see Brenda as a sexual outlet.

Brenda becomes pregnant by Arthur, who offers to help raise the child or terminate the unwanted pregnancy (as abortion was not legal in Britain at the time of the film). Arthur takes her to see his Aunt Ada for advice. Ada has Brenda sit in a hot bath and drink gin, which does not work. Brenda asks Arthur for £40 to get an abortion from a doctor.

After Doreen complains about not going anywhere public with Arthur, he takes her to the fair where he sees Brenda. Arthur pulls Brenda aside, and she reveals that she has decided to have the child. As Arthur clings to her, she wriggles free because she is at the fair with her family. Arthur follows her on to an amusement ride and gets in a car with her. Brenda's brother-in-law and his friend—both soldiers—notice her enter the ride and follow her, shocked to see Arthur riding with his arm around Brenda. Arthur escapes the ride, but he later is caught and beaten.

Arthur spends a week recovering and is visited by Doreen; they later have sex. After recovering, Arthur returns to work and realizes his affair with Brenda is finished after her husband tells him to stay away from Brenda. Arthur decides to marry Doreen. The film ends with Arthur and Doreen discussing the prospect of a new home together, with Arthur showing that he still has mixed feelings about settling into domestic life.

The princess Elisa and her eleven brothers live in peace and happiness until their father marries again and brings home a new queen. She turns out to be an evil witch. With her magic, she tries to curse Elisa, but Elisa's good heart repel the curse. Instead, the queen resorts to blackening Elisa's face and dirtying her hair, making her unrecognisable. She also attempts to turn the eleven princes into black, ugly birds, but because of their good hearts, the curse is only partly successful: they turn into beautiful white swans.

The queen chases them out of the castle, and the next morning, Elisa is chased out as well because her father didn't recognise her. Left with nothing, she sets out to find her brothers. After many years, she finally finds them, and after learning from a crow that the curse can be broken by herself, she has to knit eleven sweaters out of tall, burning nettles, and has to take a vow of silence until the last sweater is finished and not be distracted.

While she works on the sweaters, she meets a king who falls in love with her and lets her live in his castle. However, an archbishop conspires with the King's fiancé, his (the archbishop's) niece, to get rid of her by making people think she is a witch. She is almost burnt on the stake, but at the last second, her brothers come to the rescue. She throws the sweaters over them, the curse is broken, and she is able to tell her story and return the king's love.

The film starts with Doug (Colin Hanks) seeking out his next prey. He becomes obsessed with a woman named Amy (Ana Claudia Talancón), and sneaks numerous spy cameras in her apartment. By doing this, he is able to learn details of her life, and what he learns about things like her musical and film tastes he uses to seduce her.

He meets her at a coffee shop a few times and strikes up conversations with her. The two become friends, but it seems as though Amy isn't interested in continuing the relationship further. Using what he learns about her through the cameras, he gets her fired from her job by breaking into her car, stealing her computer and stops her burgeoning relationship with a co-worker.

When he visits her apartment, Amy's friend is suspicious of him, especially when she asks him about a section of Seattle—where he says he's from—that doesn't even exist. She becomes so suspicious of Doug that she begins asking around about him.

Doug, sensing that the truth about him might be uncovered, murders the roommate, and then comforts Amy as she's grieving. The two begin getting romantic one night and are about to have sex, but Doug can't get an erection. By the time he says he's able to perform, Amy tells him she can't because she doesn't want to wind up hurting his feelings.

Amy then discovers that Doug installed a spy camera in her bedroom when he makes a remark about her masturbating. After a struggle, Doug eventually kills Amy. The film ends with Doug seeking out his next prey.

A yakuza gang member seeks revenge after his boss is murdered by an assassin.

Set in 1761 in London, the film focuses on events at an asylum for the mentally ill, a fictionalized version of Bedlam (the Bethlem Royal Hospital). After an acquaintance of Lord Mortimer dies in an attempt to escape from the asylum, Master George Sims (a fictionalized version of an infamous head physician at Bethlem, John Monro), appeases Mortimer by having his "loonies" put on a show for him. Mortified by the treatment of the patients, Mortimer's protégée Nell Bowen seeks his aid, then seeks the help of Whig politician John Wilkes to reform the asylum, threatening Sim's corrupt practices.

Mortimer and Sims conspire to commit Nell to the asylum, where her initial fears of the fellow inmates do not alter her sympathetic commitment to improving their conditions as she tends to the comfort of her fellow inmates. Alarmed by Bowen's imminent release, following legal pressure from Wilkes, Sims plans to apply his most drastic "cure" to her, but his attempt is thwarted by the inmates whom Nell has helped. Sims is deposed, and Nell escapes and is reunited with her Quaker friend Hannay, who counselled her through the whole process.

Secret U.S. military interrogations of suspected terrorists are being conducted on an American World War II-era ship in the Persian Gulf. After mysterious sounds are heard on the ship, an unexplained force kills the crew. When contact with the ship is lost, the U.S. military sends a team of Marines and two scientists to investigate. When they land on the ship, they discover that almost all the crew have been killed. The team, led by Col. John Willets (Lance Henriksen), cannot make contact with command, while the ship drifts toward Iranian waters. Willets interrogates one of the scientists and learns that the mysterious force is the ghost of a Nazi officer who was created to be a secret weapon. The ghost, which has strong psychic powers, is trapped on the ship and the two scientists were sent to try to capture it. Meanwhile, the supposed terrorist being interrogated onboard turns out to be an MIT-educated decoy (who was forced to impersonate a terrorist). He aids in the efforts to destroy the ghost, before being killed by it.

''You Ruined My Life'' is about 11-year-old Minerva (Soleil Moon Frye), a girl who lives in a Las Vegas casino with her Uncle Howie (Allen Garfield), who spoils her by giving her everything she wants. Minerva gets into trouble and her strict Aunt Hermione (Edith Fields) threatens to take her away. Dexter, a clever Mathematics professor,(Paul Reiser) finds out a foolproof way to cheat and win in blackjack, but he is caught. Dexter is burdened with a gigantic gambling debt. Uncle Howie makes sure Dexter tutors Minerva so she can gain admissions into a private school. It takes a while for this arrangement to work out between Dexter and Minerva, but finally they make great strides and Minerva amazingly learns everything very quickly. She runs away by herself to take the exam and pass. Meanwhile, Dexter and Uncle Howie's assistant Charlotte played by Mimi Rogers fall in love.

Manga and Sory are two young men in love with each other. Manga tells his widowed mother of the relationship, and Sory tells his father. Both parents forbid their sons to see each other again. Sory marries and has a child. Manga's mother turns to witchcraft to cure her son, and he unsuccessfully undergoes a lengthy form of aversion therapy. He meets and becomes engaged to a white woman called Oumou. Both men try to make their heterosexual relationships work but are ultimately drawn back to each other. Manga's mother eventually gives her blessing to the pair and the end of the film sees Sory and Manga driving off together towards an uncertain future.

Foots Pulardos is a mobster who intends to flee to Mexico with his moll Sugar Pye. In the meantime, he applies for a Diners Club charge card that is mistakenly approved by a meek clerk named Ernie Klenk, who is told to retrieve it from Foots.

Ernie arrives at Foots' gym that Foots uses as a front for his racketeering operations. Foots finds out that they share a unique physical similarity, which gives him an idea: he will burn down the gym, with Ernie in it, and change identities to fool the law.

Complications ensue, and the more involved that Ernie gets with Sugar, the more jealous his girlfriend Lucy becomes. And when Foots and Sugar head for the airport, Ernie must stop them.

The player takes the role of two convicts, Rinser and Cassalana, escaping from an execution in intergalactic prison. To buy their freedom, the convicts must collect tokens to open later levels by destroying the big end of level bosses. There are 16 levels, with a choice of "open" levels when one is completed. First level, Arcturus, is always the first level to be played. The last level is called ''Zybex''. Two players can play simultaneously in all versions.

The film starts with girls playing a game of netball in a school playground. Jo and her mother then move across Manchester on a bus.

The story is set in a run-down, post-industrial area of Salford. Jo (Rita Tushingham) is a 17-year-old schoolgirl with a self-centred, promiscuous, alcoholic mother, Helen (Dora Bryan). The two of them frequently argue, and rarely stay in one home for long, since the mother runs up rent arrears, and is either evicted, or elects to abandon the property without settling any debts.

As they move into a shabby new flat, a young black sailor called Jimmy (Paul Danquah) sees Jo struggling with her suitcases and gives her some help. Helen brings a new man home after a night in the pub but her love life is curtailed because she has to share a bed with Jo.

A while later Jo badly grazes her knee in a fall as she is walking home from school. Limping along, she goes past the Manchester Ship Canal, where Jimmy happens to be coming off his ship. He sees Jo and invites her onboard to attend to her knee. They go dancing and on the return to his ship they kiss for the first time. This turns out to be the start of a brief romantic relationship, but Jimmy's ship soon sails and they part. Relations between Jo and her mother become further strained when her mother courts Peter Smith (Robert Stephens). Jo trails after them on a weekend in Blackpool. Peter gives Helen an ultimatum saying she must choose him or Jo and she sends Jo home alone. Helen remarries and moves to a suburban bungalow with Peter and leaves Jo to fend for herself. Jimmy is waiting when she returns to Salford and they spend a night together before he boards his ship in the morning. She watches him sail off.

Rejected by her mother, Jo leaves school, starts a job in a shoe shop and rents accommodation in an old workshop on her own. She meets a gay textile design student, Geoffrey Ingham (Murray Melvin), and invites him to live with her. Together they make the workshop more liveable. When Jo discovers she is pregnant by Jimmy, Geof is supportive, even offering to marry her, saying "You need somebody to love you while you're looking for somebody to love".

With Jo heavily pregnant, Geof tracks down Helen and tells her Jo is pregnant. Within minutes of reuniting the two of them have a row - calling each other whores. Helen offers Jo her home but Jo declines. However, after a few weeks her mother reappears - by now her rocky marriage has broken down and, ever needy, she is intent on moving in with Jo and pushing out Geof, with whom she has a shouting match. Geof leaves quietly. Helen says Geof has just popped out.

Despite her best instincts, Jo is amenable to her mother staying - with the birth imminent she has become frightened and feels a need for female company and know-how. She begrudgingly agrees to her mother moving in, but only on the basis that Geof remains. While Jo sleeps, however, Geof decides he can no longer stay at the workshop, and with Helen looking on approvingly, packs his bags and leaves a goodbye note for Jo. When Jo wakes up, she finds Geof has gone and she goes outside in the hope of catching him but sees only her mother, returning from the off-licence with some bottles of beer. Geof is seen hiding in the shadows beneath the stairs. He is hoping to have a chance to talk to Jo alone, but, seeing Helen returning, he is crestfallen and walks off. The film ends with Jo standing in the street watching a group of children singing "The Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley Oh", and because it is bonfire night, a small child gives her a sparkler.

This episode begins with the pair doing a crossword. They get bored so Eddie tears up the paper. They then argue about whose fault it is that the television has been repossessed. Richie said that Eddie went to Rumbelows with the money to pay the rent, but instead gave the money to a strange and wizened old man in return for five magic beans. Eddie responds that Richie was going to the rental shop as he saved up the rent money every week for the past three month when they are only £86.23 behind, but instead went five doors down to Dr. O'Grady's personal organ enhancement clinic, and lose a mere £85 for having his personal organ enhanced (which turned out to be a scam).

Richie complains about his boredom, and then suggests playing 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'. However, since there is nothing in the flat to play with, they end up playing 'put a bit of Sellotape on the fridge', in which Eddie wins. After this, Eddie suggests that they have a 'see how much custard you can fit in your underpants' competition, in which Richie wins after Eddie sits down, splattering his custard all over the room.

After cleaning up, they try to play with Richie's antique chess set that his Great Aunt Dorothy left him. Richie puts on a smoking jacket, which is actually his Mac, turned inside out. Richie tells Eddie that the chess set is the one that Wellington played with on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo. Here, it is made clear that Eddie has been stealing the valuable ivory chess pieces and selling them. Because there are only five pieces left, they have to play chess with different objects as the missing pieces such as frozen prawns (in place of pawns), a potted cactus, a tomato ketchup bottle, a large Spider-Man figurine and a toy skeleton. They also create cocktails using Pernod, Ouzo, marmalade and salt as ingredients, naming their creation the Esther Rantzen, as it 'pulls your gums over your teeth'. Just as they are about to start playing, Richie tells Eddie he does not know the rules of chess.

The episode then cuts to a few hours later; it is now 5:00am and Eddie has been up since 10:00pm telling Richie the rules of chess 124 times. They have been through the Ouzo, Pernod, Old Spice and all three litres of the industrial strength floor cleaner. By now, Eddie's nerves are frayed and he furiously forces Richie to begin the game. Having learned nothing over the previous seven hours, Richie acts out a war situation with his pieces, destroying half of them in the process and Eddie – realising that Richie still does not have a clue about the rules – moves his queen around the board several times in one go to confuse Richie, and then drags Richie's pieces over to his side, before declaring checkmate. Richie retaliates with a punch and they have a massive fight, in which Richie gets his feet crushed with a table, has a chair broken over his head and his head slammed in the fridge, but not before ramming the spike of an umbrella into Eddie's groin. Eddie talks to the viewer about how 'they say television encourages violence, well I'm smashing his face in and we haven't got one!' only for Richie to pull the television from behind the fridge and explain that it had not been taken; he had hidden it to see what a night without television would be like. He also hoped it would 'get a bit of interaction going'. Eddie obliges by smashing the television set over Richie's head.

A year after the end of the television series, Buffy and Xander now lead command-central, which is situated at a citadel in Scotland. At their disposal are a wide array of psychics, seers, witches, and Slayers, along with a vast amount of technology, revealed to be the result of Buffy robbing a Swiss bank to acquire the funds. There are 1,800 Slayers worldwide according to Buffy, almost 500 of whom are working with the Scoobies, separated into 10 squads. Squads include Andrew's in Southern Italy, Giles' in England, Vi's in New York City, Robin's in Cleveland, Ohio, and another led by Rona in Chicago, Illinois. For Buffy's protection and because her name is feared worldwide, two decoys are put in place: one partying in Rome and one on a mission in demonic caverns. Buffy now relies heavily on Willow, whose character arc sees her under the tutelage of a powerful demon called Saga Vasuki. Under Saga Vasuki, Willow's power has grown phenomenally; for example, she can now fly and cast extremely complicated and large-scale spells.

In the wake of Sunnydale's destruction, elements within the U.S. government view the expanded Slayers and the Scooby Gang as international terrorists and characterize Buffy as a "charismatic, uncompromising and completely destructive" leader. General Voll, a member of a mystically aware Initiative-like government project, describes fear of their resources, power, and ideology. The government has teamed with Sunnydale survivor/powerful witch Amy Madison and Season 6 villain Warren Mears in the hopes of bringing Buffy down. Simultaneously, an evil British socialite Slayer called Lady Genevieve Savidge plots to usurp Buffy's place in the Slayer hierarchy, and a shrewd cabal of Japanese vampires scheme to reverse the global activation of Potential Slayers in "Chosen". The appearances of these villains are connected to "Twilight", the enigmatic Big Bad of the season, a masked person who views the expanded ranks of Slayers as a threat to humanity and wants to destroy them, and bring about an end to all magic on Earth. It later transpires that like Amy and Warren, Buffy's ex-boyfriend Riley Finn is also loyal to Twilight, though Riley turns out to have been Buffy's double agent.

Halfway through the season, ditzy vampire Harmony Kendall rises to fame as a reality TV star and ushers in a new pro-vampire, anti-Slayer world order. Under attack from Twilight and other demons as well as militaries across the world, the various Slayer squads (including Faith) reconvene in retreat from their enemy. Because Twilight can now track the group through their use of magic, Buffy and her friends relocate to Tibet to learn from Oz how to suppress magical natures for witches and Slayers alike. Giles and Buffy are both concerned with the extent to which they rely on Willow, worried she may go overboard again as in Season Six; Buffy's fears are in part justified by her visit to the future (a crossover with the Whedon miniseries ''Fray'') where she was forced to kill a future Dark Willow. Following the fray with Twilight, in which many Slayers were killed, Buffy developed abilities similar to those of Twilight.

A subplot involves the repercussions of Dawn's college relationship with a boy named Kenny (described as a "thricewise"), whom she cheated on, losing her virginity to his roommate. Consequently, Dawn has been cursed with mystical transformations: first into a giant, then a centaur, and finally a living doll until she apologizes to Kenny and breaks the spell. Among the core group, Buffy is for a time romantically drawn to another woman: a Slayer named Satsu, and Xander to Slayer Renée; Willow's relationship with the core group is more estranged, while she protectively withholds Kennedy from her friends. Kennedy is unaware of the sexual aspect of Willow's relationship with Saga Vasuki. Giles and Buffy, at odds, stop speaking with one another. Giles works with Faith to prevent more Slayers from going rogue. Although Buffy comes to feel that her only compatible mate is Xander, and is upset to learn that he truly loves Dawn, she and Angel succumb to their desires for one another upon their reunion, though the extent to which they were in control of their actions is uncertain.

In the series' penultimate arc, Twilight is revealed to be Buffy's former lover, Angel. Angel attempts to explain that his Twilight persona was used to unify the anti-Slayer movement, thus limiting the potential destruction they could have caused working independently. His secondary goal was to push Buffy's development so that the two of them could reunite romantically and ascend to a higher plane of existence, itself called Twilight. However, whatever magical effect Angel was under seemed to wane after Buffy realised she was needed back on Earth to assist her friends as demons poured in from other dimensions to destroy the old universe. At the last moment, Buffy's other love, Spike, arrives in a futuristic ship to announce he has a solution to the problem at hand. In the final arc, "Last Gleaming", Spike's information leads them to the source both of magic and of Twilight's power, a mystical "seed" buried beneath Sunnydale. Giles plans to destroy it, but Twilight possesses Angel and compels him to kill Giles by snapping his neck. Distraught, Buffy smashes the seed herself. Twilight is stopped but magic is also removed from the universe. Though Slayers and vampires retain their powers, witches for example are left entirely powerless. Subsequently, Willow breaks up with Kennedy and Faith inherits Giles' estate and attempts to begin Angel's rehabilitation. A pariah in the community of Slayers and former witches, Buffy moves to San Francisco where she lives as a houseguest at Dawn and Xander's apartment, and resumes her former duties as Slayer: patrolling at night for vampires.

The Fur follows the late high school and early university years of the protagonist Michael Sullivan in an Alternate Reality version of Western Australia in the late 1990s following a meteor strike carrying an infectious and lethal fungus-like plague ('The Fur'). The entire state is under forced quarantine by Commonwealth and UN military forces.

The novel revolves largely around Sullivan's struggles with his religious beliefs and dilemma on whether or not to attempt to break quarantine and start a new life in the uninfected Eastern States of Australia, at the risk of death and certain cost of abandoning his family and friends forever.

The court jester Hop-Frog, "being also a dwarf and a cripple", is the much-abused "fool" of the unnamed king. This king has an insatiable sense of humor: "he seemed to live only for joking". Both Hop-Frog and his best friend, the dancer Trippetta (also small, but beautiful and well-proportioned), have been stolen from their homeland and essentially function as slaves. Because of his physical deformity, which prevents him from walking upright, the King nicknames him "Hop-Frog".

Hop-Frog reacts severely to alcohol, and though the king knows this, he forces Hop-Frog to consume several goblets full. Trippetta begs the king to stop. Though Trippetta is said to be a favorite of his, he pushes her and throws a goblet of wine into her face in front of seven members of his cabinet council. The violent act makes Hop-Frog grind his teeth. The powerful men laugh at the expense of the two servants and ask Hop-Frog (who suddenly becomes sober and cheerful) for advice on an upcoming masquerade. He suggests some very realistic costumes for the men: costumes of orangutans chained together. The men love the idea of scaring their guests and agree to wear tight-fitting shirts and pants saturated with tar and covered with flax. In full costume, the men are then chained together and led into the "grand saloon" of masqueraders just after midnight.

As predicted, the guests are shocked and many believe the men to be real "beasts of ''some'' kind in reality, if not precisely ourang-outangs". Many rush for the doors to escape, but the King had insisted the doors be locked; the keys are left with Hop-Frog. Amidst the chaos, Hop-Frog attaches a chain from the ceiling to the chain linked around the men in costume. The chain then pulls them up via pulley (presumably by Trippetta, who has arranged the room to help with the scheme) far above the crowd. Hop-Frog puts on a spectacle so that the guests presume "the whole matter as a well-contrived pleasantry". He claims he can identify the culprits by looking at them up close. He climbs up to their level, grits his teeth again, and holds a torch close to the men's faces. They quickly catch fire: "In less than half a minute the whole eight ourang-outangs were blazing fiercely, amid the shrieks of the multitude who gazed at them from below, horror-stricken, and without the power to render them the slightest assistance". Finally, before escaping through a sky-light with Trippetta to their home country, Hop-Frog identifies the men in costume:

Tom Merrick (Van Dien) is a TV reporter filming a live segment on a fire at a power plant. He spots a creepy-looking man (Richings), causing him to move away from his crew. This accidentally saves his life as the crew is killed in the partial collapse of a building. After the accident, Merrick gives up his job as a reporter and begins working for a magazine.

In June 2000, while researching catastrophes, Merrick finds several pictures of the man from the power plant, who appears to turn up in different disasters (sinking of ''Titanic'', Hindenburg disaster and Hurricane Hugo), but who still looks the same in all the pictures. Merrick's boss Eleanor books him a flight to Washington, D.C. to get the original photographs. On the plane, he spots the man from the power plant and photos and checks his luggage. He finds a flyer and discovers a future enterprise – Thrill Seekers – will make time travel possible in the year 2070 and will sell trips to the past to allow travelers to visit a catastrophe before it occurs, but are able to travel back in time again before they get killed. Merrick finds out that the flight he is on will be involved in a mid-air collision, killing everyone on board.

Merrick forces the pilots to change course, which saves the plane from crashing. The mysterious man disappears before landing. Merrick is arrested by the FBI on the charge of aircraft hijacking. Agent Baker is sure about the hijacking attempt while his partner, Agent Stanton, believes Merrick's story. The averted disaster causes changes in the future, so Grifasi (Sheen), the head of Thrill Seekers, sends agents Cortez and Felder to the past to stop Merrick. The agents kidnap Merrick, but he is able to escape and hide.

Merrick contacts his colleague Elizabeth (Bell) for help. They head to the Chicago subway where, according to the future itinerary, the next catastrophe will take place. They spot the man from the previous events and board the same train. Merrick confronts the man and takes his time-travel device. The engineer appears unconscious, and the train accelerates uncontrollably. Merrick manages to disconnect the locomotive from the rest of the train, but the time traveler remains behind and is killed. Cortez and Felder are informed by Grifasi that the prevention of the train wreck has had a huge impact on the future. The agents, whose own time lines are protected by a containment field around the time machine in the future, are warned that these changes may even prevent them from returning to their own time.

While checking the time-traveling device, Merrick learns of another catastrophe: a fire at Copps Coliseum that will kill over 11,000 people, including his ex-wife and son. Unable to convince them not to go, Merrick tells the FBI about the coming disaster. While Baker is still suspicious, he decides to be cautious and has firefighters dispatched. They manage to put out a fire in the stadium restaurant which was the probable cause of the disaster.

Felder and Cortez are now informed by Grifasi that the timeline has been severely altered and the world they know no longer exists with millions of people in California being killed when a nuclear reactor melted down 22 years earlier in the new timeline. The agents are also unable to return because they learn that one of the surviving passengers from the averted plane crash killed the inventor of the time travel device in a car crash before he could invent it. The only way to reset the timeline is to make sure the Copps Coliseum fire occurs in order to prevent the timeline from altering too much to be recoverable and then to travel to the past to prevent Merrick from saving the lives of the people who will go on to cause the California disaster in the future.

The agents pursue Merrick and blow up his car with Elisabeth in it, then travel to the stadium and plant multiple explosive devices. The explosions kill Merrick's ex-wife and son. Merrick uses the time-travel device and returns to the time before Elisabeth is killed. Merrick and Elizabeth manage to partially evacuate the stadium before the agents set off the explosions. Felder, who now regrets his actions, kills Cortez but is then killed by falling rubble. As he dies, Felder recognizes Stanton as the inventor of the time machine and tells him not to invent it, but Stanton appears not to understand the warning. Merrick, along with Elizabeth, his ex-wife, and son survive the accident. Merrick and Elizabeth share a kiss while a group of time travelers watch the scene.

After murdering his father, wealthy Vincent Towers decides to fake his own death. He plants a car bomb in an attempt to kill a nearly identical half-brother, Clay Arlington, after persuading Arlington to switch identities with him.

Arlington survives, but requires facial reconstruction and also has lost most of his memory. Dr. Renee Descartes is there during his recovery. Towers resurfaces and tries once more to eliminate him, but is killed himself. Arlington makes a decision to make his new identity a permanent one.

In the dingy vestry of St. Matthew's Church, Paddington, two bodies have been found with their throats slashed. One is an alcoholic vagrant, whereas the other is Sir Paul Berowne, a baronet and recently resigned government minister. Poet and detective Adam Dalgliesh investigates one of the most convoluted cases of his career.

''The Evil Hour'' takes place in a nameless Colombian village. Someone has been placing satirical pasquinades about the town, outlining the locals' shameful secrets. Some dismiss these as common gossip. However, when a man kills his wife's supposed lover after reading of her infidelity, the mayor decides that action is called for. He declares martial law and sends soldiers (who are actually armed thugs) to patrol the streets. He also uses the 'state of unrest' as an excuse to crack down on his political enemies.

Sierva Maria de Todos Los Angeles is the twelve-year-old daughter of the Marquis and his wife Bernarda. Her hair has never been cut, and was promised to the saints when she was born with the umbilical cord around her neck. She was raised by the slaves, fluent in multiple African languages, and familiar with the customs. In the beginning of the book she is bit by a rabid dog. Even though she shows no signs of rabies, she is subject to multiple "healing" methods, which can be considered torture. She is sent to the convent of Santa Clara to receive an exorcism, which many people have died from. She receives attention from a priest, Father Cayetano, who is kind to her and initially believes she does not need to be exorcised. Father Cayetano falls in love with Sierva Maria and declares her his love; he soon begins visiting Sierva in her cell in secret, climbing up from the sewer (that in future is fixed). They eat, sleep, and recite poetry together, even though it does not appear that they are sexually involved. Later Father Cayetano is sent away to a leper hospital where he hopes to get the disease but never does. Sierva Maria in the meantime is last summoned to be exorcised and she eventually dies 'of love' wondering where Father Cayetano is and after having her hair cut. After her death, her hair magically grows back on her skull.

An ashik wants to marry his beloved, but her father opposes since he is poor and he expects rich prospects for his 'daughter from heaven'. She vows to wait for him for a thousand days and nights until he comes back with enough money to impress her father. He sets out on a journey to gain wealth and encounters many difficulties, but with the help of a saintly horseman, he returns to his beloved on the 1001st day and they are able to marry.

In 2050, the moon was mysteriously terraformed after a great moonquake. Fifty years later, the moon is now populated with humans and has become a popular tourist destination. After a boy named Daichi arrives on the moon for summer vacation, he accidentally meets an old witch, V-Mei, and her granddaughter Guri Guri. Both of them are members of the endangered Long-Ears race, currently at war with the evil Jadou Clan, who are also planning to take over Earth. V-Mei gives a magic gun to Daichi and reveals that he is the chosen Madou Warrior destined to save the Long-Ears race and their land Rabiluna from the Jadou Clan.

With the magic gun, Daichi can summon Granzort, a giant robot called a Madou King with the elemental power of Earth, to fight against the monsters of the Jadou Clan. During their travels, Daichi, V-Mei, and Guru Guri are later joined by two other Madou Warriors, Gus and Rabi. Gus's magic bow summons Winzart, the Madou King of Wind, while Rabi's magic top summons Aquabeat, the Madou King of Water.

Anna (Jacqueline Gadsden) cannot bring herself to tell her professional magician husband, The Great Phroso (Lon Chaney), that she is leaving him. Her lover, an ivory trader named Crane (Lionel Barrymore), informs Phroso that he is taking Anna away with him to Africa, and when an argument ensues, Crane pushes the distraught husband away from him so forcefully that he falls over a railing and is crippled, losing the use of his legs.

After leaving the hospital, Phroso learns to get around the neighborhood by propelling himself on a small wooden platform. After a year, he learns that Anna has returned from Africa apparently because Crane tired of her and threw her out. He finds his wife dead from starvation in a church, with a baby beside her. He swears to avenge himself on both Crane and the child. He adopts the child and moves to Africa with her.

Eighteen years later, Phroso (nicknamed "Dead-Legs" Flint) rules over a small outpost inhabited by "Doc" (Warner Baxter), Babe (Kalla Pasha), Tiny (Tiny Ward) and a native named Bumbu (Curtis Nero) in the depths of the African jungle. Through his magic tricks, Phroso dominates the local natives who call him the "White Voodoo". He has his men steal ivory repeatedly from Crane by having Tiny dress up as an evil voodoo spirit to frighten away Crane's black porters. Meanwhile, Phroso sends Babe to bring back a blonde prostitue named Maizie (Mary Nolan) from the "lowest dive in Zanzibar", where for years Phroso has had her raised. She is told only that she will finally get to meet her father.

When she arrives, Phroso denies being Maisie's father (to her great relief), but refuses to tell her why she has been brought there and treats her with undisguised hatred. The first night, she witnesses a gruesome tribal custom: when a man dies, his wife or daughter is burned alive on the same funeral pyre. As the days go by, Maizie gradually wins the perpetually drunk Doc's heart. However, Phroso purposely turns her into an alcoholic.

Phroso then sends word to Crane where he can find the people who are robbing his ivory. When Crane shows up and sees Maizie, Phroso tells him that Maizie is his daughter. To Phroso's surprise, Crane breaks out in laughter. He informs Phroso that Anna never went with him to Africa because she hated him for paralyzing her husband. Maizie is actually Phroso's child! Before he can absorb the news, the next step of his plan unfolds; the natives shoot and kill Crane. Now that Crane has been killed, custom demands that his daughter Maisie be burned with him on his funeral pyre.

Realizing now that she is actually ''his'' daughter, Phroso uses a magic trick to try to save Maisie from being burned alive. With the natives watching, he puts her in an upright wooden coffin with a secret exit in the back and closes the lid. When he reopens it, there is nothing but a skeleton inside. Meanwhile, Doc, Maizie and the others flee down to the river and escape by boat. However, the natives do not believe Phroso's claim that an evil spirit has taken Maizie; they realize he has tricked them. The screen fades to black as the natives close in on Phroso. Later, a native fishes a medallion out of the ashes of the funeral pyre, the same medallion that had hung around Phroso's neck.

Paul Lavond (Barrymore), who was wrongly convicted of robbing his own Paris bank and killing a night watchman more than seventeen years ago, escapes Devil's Island with Marcel (Henry B. Walthall), a scientist who is trying to create a formula to reduce people to one-sixth of their original size. The intended purpose of the formula is to make the Earth's limited resources last longer for an ever-growing population. The scientist dies after their escape.

Lavond joins the scientist's widow, Malita (Rafaela Ottiano), and decides to use the shrinking technique to obtain revenge on the three former business associates who had framed him and to vindicate himself. He returns to Paris and disguises himself as an old woman who sells lifelike dolls. He shrinks a young girl and one of his former associates to infiltrate the homes of the other two former associates, paralyzing one.

When the final associate confesses before he is attacked, Lavond clears his name and secures the future happiness of his estranged daughter, Lorraine (O'Sullivan), in the process. Malita isn't satisfied, and wants to continue to use the formula to carry on her husband's work. She tries to kill Paul when he announces that he is finished with their partnership, having accomplished all he intended, but she blows up their lab, killing herself.

Paul tells Toto, Lorraine's fiancé, about what happened. He meets his daughter, pretending to be the deceased Marcel. He tells Lorraine that Paul Lavond died during their escape from prison, but that he loved her very much. Lavond then departs, to an uncertain fate.

The narrative focuses around Moz, Zahler, Pearl, Alana Ray and Minerva, in an apocalyptic New York. Odd occurrences are taking place, the sewers are gushing black water, the earth shakes, and people are inexplicably going mad.

In the midst of it all, two friends begin to see their dreams realized. Moz and Zahler have been friends for six years, playing their guitars without any clear direction. They have always dreamed of forming a band, but have never managed to quite get it done. Moz meets Pearl, a mysterious girl with a knack for music, who he teams up with to save a guitar that a crazy woman throws out of her window. When they begin learning more about one another, the image of a band becomes clear. With Pearl at their head, the band begins to recruit new members and take form.

As the band becomes more and more real, new members join. Alana Ray, a skilled drummer and street performer with a mysterious condition that is never quite made clear (although is most likely to be some advanced form of synesthesia), joins them under the condition that Moz pays her. However, Moz keeps this deal secret from Pearl to gain something resembling control over the band.

Alana Ray has the ability to see colored lights, which she considers to be hallucinations at times, and realistic at others. She often mentions that she is able to "see" the music they play. Pearl also convinces Minerva, her long-term friend, to join the band as their lead singer. Minerva was in a band with Pearl previously, but they broke up when Minerva contracted the parasite causing the madness in the city and begins to hate all the people she once loved, and she begins to hate her boyfriend, another member of the band, causing her to break up with him, thus breaking up the band.

Minerva's parents have hired a woman, Luz, who believes in natural means to fight the parasite instead of the artificial means of modern doctors. Minerva uses these traditional methods such as garlic and rosemary to keep off the worst effects of the parasite, taught to her by Luz.

Zahler eventually changes over from his position as lead guitarist to playing the bass, due to the fact he normally plays lower parts regardless and his fingers are suited for the larger instrument. Initially, he is unhappy that Pearl and Moz had devised this plan without his consent. However, he soon grows used to the bass. Meanwhile, Moz and Minerva begin to date in secret, causing the parasite to be passed on from Minerva to Moz.

The band soon receives a recording contract with Astor Michaels, a man who is a carrier, who is known for having discovered a new type of music called "New Sound". He has been searching for a new type of music which involves a member of the band being infected, creating quite a unique effect. Because of Minerva, and soon the newly infected Moz, Astor Michaels soon believes he has discovered the perfect band. The five are still struggling to agree on a name for their band, but otherwise their band seems to be making its way quickly to fame.

Moz begins playing in the subway to help raise money for the band, until things turn strange one night. A giant worm lurks in the nearby tunnels, and Moz is instinctively drawn to it, all of his instincts screaming to kill it. Before he gets the chance to attack it, the "Angels" - seemingly defenders of the city against the people who have lost their minds - jump down to fight the worm. They soon reveal themselves to actually be carriers of the parasite from the New Watch (featured in ''Peeps''), including Cal and Lace from ''Peeps''. They attempt to bring Moz to New Jersey to treat his parasite, but he runs away, fearing letting down the band by missing their first gig.

The band plays for its first time in a club at night, but it does not go perfectly as planned. Zahler freezes up in the beginning, although he eventually overcomes his stage fright and starts the song. But Minerva's song causes another giant worm to break through the ground, killing many people in the process. The New Watch comes to defeat the worm, and rounds up the whole band to take them to the New Jersey lab, but not before Moz smashes his beloved guitar because of the parasite.

Moz receives treatment for the parasite in New Jersey, and when he has almost completely recovered, he and the rest of the band members visit the Shrink, a character included in ''Peeps''. The Shrink believes that Minerva's singing has called up the worm, and that she can use this ability to help defeat them. Even the Nightmayor, centuries old, can barely remember this ancient talent as it was used in the previous resurfacing of the worms. None of the previous bands employed by Astor Michaels were able to achieve this same result because one member was infected, but not the lead singer. The New Watch recruits the band to sing to cause the worms to surface all around the country, thus allowing the New Watch to fight them on their own terms.

The band goes on tour, travelling wherever they are needed, and Pearl finally comes up with the perfect name for the band: The Last Days. They become heroes of sorts, and finally achieve their dreams of fame, although not in the way that they originally planned. In the end, the worm attacks have ended, and civilization is rebuilding itself. Moz and Minerva are revealed to still be together, although they have broken up and gotten back together numerous times. Pearl has become a politician and is running for mayor of New York "again", leaving the fate of the rest of the characters unknown.

A district attorney Jim Stowell (Warren William) realizes that his own wife (Gail Patrick) might be having an affair while he is prosecuting a cuckolded murderer.

Attorney Paul Held is defending his friend, Walter Bernsdorf, who has been charged with the murder of his wife Lucy in Vienna. By Walter's account, Lucy was unfaithful to him during their marriage. After a court hearing, Paul returns home to his wife, Maria, and watches her as she applies make-up at her vanity. The scene reminds him of the one Walter described leading up to Lucy's murder. When Paul attempts to kiss Maria, she rebuffs him, criticizing him for ruining her make-up. She then leaves their home.

Paul follows Maria through the streets of Vienna, and observes her meeting with a male lover. This enrages Paul, and he fantasizes about murdering Maria; he also becomes obsessed with vindicating Walter of killing Lucy, hoping to prove in court that Walter's extreme love for her drove him to a crime of passion. Despite the parallels between the circumstances of Lucy's murder and Maria's current liaison, she still continues to visit her lover.

Paul insists that Maria be present during the final day of deliberations in Walter's trial. He makes an impassioned closing statement, which he concludes by revealing a gun and pointing it at Maria in the audience. She screams in horror and loses consciousness, after which Paul finishes his speech. While the jury deliberates, Paul meets Maria in his office, where she reacts in terror. She insists she still loves him despite her affair.

Walter is ultimately acquitted, and warns Paul against killing Maria, which he says he will regret. Paul heeds his advice, and asks Maria to leave the courthouse. Upon returning home, Paul angrily smashes Maria's vanity mirror. Maria appears behind him, and the two embrace.

The play is in two acts, set in Wishwood, a stately home in the north of England. At the beginning, the family of Amy, Dowager Lady Monchensey are assembling for her birthday party. She is, as her doctor later explains, clinging on to life by sheer willpower: :...........I keep Wishwood alive :To keep the family alive, to keep them together, :To keep me alive, and I keep them.

Lady Monchensey's two brothers-in-law and three sisters are present, and a younger relation, Mary, but none of Lady Monchensey's three sons. Among other things they discuss the sudden, and not to them wholly unwelcome, death at sea of the wife of the eldest son Harry, the present Lord Monchensey. Neither of the younger sons ever appears, both being slightly injured in motoring accidents, but Harry soon arrives, his first appearance at Wishwood for eight years. He is haunted by the belief that he pushed his wife off the ship. In fact Harry has an alibi for the time, but whether he killed her or not he wished her dead and his feelings of guilt are the driving force in the rest of the play. Lady Monchensey decides that Harry's state warrants the discreet observation of the family doctor, who is invited to join the party, ostensibly as a dinner guest. Mary, who has been earmarked by Amy as a future wife for Harry, wishes to escape from life at Wishwood, but her aunt Agatha tells her that she must wait:

:...........You and I, Mary :Are only watchers and waiters, not the easiest role,

Agatha reveals to Harry that his father attempted to kill Amy while Harry was in her womb, and that Agatha prevented him. Far from being grateful, Amy resented and still resents Agatha's depriving her of her husband. Harry, with Agatha's encouragement, announces his intention to go away from Wishwood, leaving his steady younger brother John to take over. Amy, despairing at Harry's renunciation of Wishwood, dies (offstage), "An old woman alone in a damned house", and Harry and his faithful servant, Downing, leave.

Tyler Craden is disbarred by the legal profession after destroying evidence against his client, gangster Mardeen, following the murder of a cop.

While on vacation, Craden ends up in a town in which a murder trial is taking place. He is impressed by defense attorney Joan Carroll and gets her a job with a firm run by Roberts, a corrupt pal.

Bradley Kent, an honest prosecutor, is a rival and a suitor to Joan. She rejects marriage proposals from Kent and Craden but joins the district attorney's office to fight crime. Mardeen turns up and tries to blackmail Craden, who shoots him. The district attorney arrests Craden and Roberts, which frees Joan to continue her work and to marry Kent.

Clint Belmet (Gary Cooper) is a bit of a firebrand and is sentenced to at least 30 days in jail, but his partners, Bill Jackson (Ernest Torrence) and Jim Bridger (Tully Marshall) talk a sympathetic Frenchwoman named Felice (Lili Damita) into telling the bumbling, drunken marshal that Clint had married her the previous night. Clint is released so he can accompany Felice on the wagon train heading west to California.

A short time later, Felice finds out that Bill and Jim had lied to her; she did not need a man in order to join the wagon train. In a short stopover in a town, they learn that the Indians are causing trouble, so Clint offers to guide the wagon train through the dangerous trails ahead. On the journey, Felice's wagon runs out of control downhill and Clint rescues her. Felice starts talking about marriage. Clint has always been free and wants to stay that way, so he leaves.

He later finds out that Indians (Kiowas and Cheyenne who have been talked into the warpath by crooked traders) are planning to attack the wagon train. He, Bill and Jim rush back to save the day. The Indians attack at a river crossing. Clint helps save the day with some barrels of gunpowder but his friends are killed. The survivors continue on to California.

Evan Anthony Hyde tells the story of his last few months at St. John's College Sixth Form (now Junior College) in which he receives a scholarship from the local embassy to study at Dartmouth. After enduring threats from a Jesuit teacher who dislikes Hyde and wants to take his scholarship away despite his academic performance, the eighteen-year-old leaves Belize for Dartmouth. While there, he makes new friends and learns much more than he would have wished about the world outside of Belize. After two years and many adventures, Hyde makes a decision that affects his life irrevocably.

A young man must deal with several generations of madness and familial intrigue. Charlie Kilworth is a young man whose mother, Lily, is the daughter of Frederick Wyatt, the owner of a well-known piano manufacturing company. Lily is also a free-spirited and unstable woman, who bore Charlie out of wedlock, has had a number of lovers over the years, and has an unsettling fascination with fire. Lily's mother Ede has put her daughter in a mental hospital on several occasions, and is considering having Lily lobotomized. Charlie, meanwhile, has had affairs with a number of women but has never settled down with anyone; working as an events coordinator at a resort hotel, Charlie becomes infatuated with Alex Lamont, the singer in a dance band Charlie has booked into the ballroom. Lily urges her son to get married and raise a family, but Charlie isn't so sure he's ready for a lifetime commitment, and Alex becomes frustrated by Charlie's inability to take their relationship seriously. Meanwhile, Ede and Frederick have decided that Lily needs to be permanently committed to an institution; Charlie insists that they send her to a comfortable private facility, but then discovers that a mysterious benefactor has been supporting Lily for years, and Ede and Frederick have decided if Lily is to be in a private institution, then the generous stranger must be the one who pays for it.

Wandering around in the darkness, an amnesiac (Walter Abel) has the feeling that he's murdered someone. He reads that a theatrical producer has been killed and he thinks that he's guilty. However, unemployed actress Marie Smith (Margot Grahame), whom he meets while wandering around the park, isn't convinced, so she helps him reconstruct the clues and find the killer.

Jamie (Andrew Lincoln) and his wife, Molly (Holly Aird), are lying on the grass, discussing footballers and multiple orgasms. Molly notices Jamie staring at a pretty girl nearby, Sophie (Eglantine Rembauville). When he is challenged about it, he pretends he was looking at the book the girl was reading, ''L'Etranger'' by Albert Camus. Immediately seeing through his lies, Molly questions Jamie about the book; Jamie claims it is a western about a man who eventually becomes sheriff. To embarrass Jamie and expose him as a liar, she then approaches Sophie to question her about the book as well. Molly Tell Jamie they are leaving walking away bemused. Sophie being a cocktease offers a shocked Jamie to have a voyuerstic gaze at her underwear.

Iris (Eileen Atkins) and Eddie (Benjamin Whitrow), an older couple, meet on a park bench, and start talking about London's skyline and wondering about the couple to whom the bench is dedicated. They discover that they both come to the same bench on different days of the week. They are both widowed. In talking about their past, they also discover that, nearly fifty years before, they had met romantically at that spot and that is why they both kept coming back. They walk off to climb to higher ground, bemoaning the difficulty with climbing hills as they get older. They are bemused by the irony of meeting again, and have mixed feelings as they no longer represent an idealised partner in each other's minds. Eddie talks about seeing each other again, but Iris decides to visit her former husband's grave, now appreciating more their time together. Eddie feeling rebuffed says he will stick to coming to the bench on Thursdays also implying there are other opportunities.

Anna (Sophie Okonedo), a disturbed young woman with extreme mood swings, is crying and arguing with her boyfriend Ludo (Nick Sidi), who eventually walks off breaking up with her. She is then approached by a young man, Noel (Tom Hardy) who, in a confused way, asks after her welfare and tries to make her laugh. She asks to be left alone, but he sits next to her and appears to meditate. His weird behaviour interests her and they strike up a conversation, but she becomes annoyed with him. She suddenly orders him to have sex with her right away but subsequently leaves him with his pants around his knees. Noel re-appears in the film several times as he chances upon other characters.

Gay life-partners Billy (Ewan McGregor) and Brian (Douglas Hodge) are also lying on the grass, discussing other gay men and ''The Good Life''. Billy has trouble giving up casual sex with other men, while Brian wants him to be faithful to him. They later talk about adopting children, which Billy wants but Brian doesn't. Billy promises to give up casual sex when the two adopt children, which convinces Brian to think about it. However, seconds later Billy runs off in pursuit of an attractive man who passed them.

Peter Brian Maxwell (Adrian Lester) and Sara Louise Williams (Catherine Tate) meet on a different bench. It transpires that they have just divorced amicably and have a seven-year-old daughter, Eve (Elle Mckenzie). However, they have mixed feelings about this because they still love each other and finally decide divorcing was the best thing.

Louis (Mark Strong) meets Esther (Polly Walker) and discusses Louis' father's funeral. Louis presents Esther with tickets for a holiday in Barbados. They discuss a variety of issues like a traditional couple, but in the end it transpires that Esther is an escort and is paid for her time with Louis but never had sex with him stating that was never the arrangement.

Gerry (Hugh Bonneville) and Julia (Gina McKee) sit on a rug enjoying some red wine and cheese. They stumble over modern terminology for ethnic minorities and not being, or appearing to be, racist. They talk about former relationships and children and, as they are both in their early forties, Julia worries that she will no longer be able. The two are on a blind date together – Julia's first. They seem to be getting along well until Julia's attention is briefly drawn towards Louis, who comes in her line of sight. Overly sensitive and Insulted Gerry decides to leave abruptly muttering to himself leaving Julia surprised.

The play takes place in 16th-century Rome. Castiglione, the son of a duke, becomes engaged to his cousin Alessandra, inciting the jealousy of his father's ward, the orphan Lalage. Lalage meets Politian, the Earl of Leicester, and, after some flirtation, convinces him to take revenge on Castiglione. In the drama, Politian recites the poem "The Coliseum", which Poe had previously published in 1833.

The story is set in an alternative year 2007. After the fall of Communism, Eastern Europe has descended into anarchy. Out of the chaos comes a mysterious virus that eventually kills everyone who is exposed to it. The virus eventually reaches the United States through Boston, and the city is quarantined. A wall is built, cutting Boston off from the "mainland." All foreign immigrants are barred from entering the US since they may be carriers of the virus. The only people allowed out of the city are those with special passports, only available to those working with a government agency or through the black market.

Officer Delon (Henstridge) is a mother who desperately needs to get away from the quarantined city. She is about to give her son a black-market passport to the safe-zone when she is called in to duty.

A gang has been slaughtered by some kind of creature and the police are investigating. The monster has superhuman abilities including speed and strength. The team of police officers, including Delon and Lemieux (Lambert), are sent into the sewer system to capture or kill the creature. Slowly, the team is killed off one by one until only Delon and Lemieux remain. Delon stumbles across a team of scientists sent to kill the creature themselves. They know the creature is the source of the deadly virus and if it is not killed, it will "explode" and spread the virus all over Boston. Delon is then captured by the creature, along with two others. Delon eventually manages to kick the creature unconscious in order to gain enough time to break her restraints, grab a pistol, and kill it with numerous shots.

Delon is later rewarded with two passports to the safe-zone, one for her and for her son.

Betsy Taylor—former model, newly unemployed secretary, 30, and still single—wakes up after being flattened by a Pontiac Aztek in a tacky coffin wearing cheap knock-off shoes. Her mother is glad she is back, albeit as a vampire, but her stepmother is enraged that Betsy has reclaimed her designer-shoe collection. With a wealthy best friend and a newly acquired doctor pal who is not susceptible to her formidable allure, she sets out to right wrongs but is abducted by Nostro, a tacky 500-year-old vampire who rules the undead roost. It seems that Betsy is an anomaly: a vampire who doesn't burn in sunlight, can fight the urge to feed, and is not repulsed by religious articles, all of which may make her the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. Teaming up with gorgeous vampire Eric Sinclair, who is in her opinion a major pervert, she takes on Nostro and his minions.

The novel has two prologues. The first prologue relates how the devil, out of boredom, possessed a "not very nice" woman and gave birth to a daughter; however, the devil soon returned to Hell, since she preferred it to living with a newborn. The devil's daughter, Laura, was given up for adoption by her biological mother, Antonia, for whom the possession was like a fugue state. Ironically, Laura is adopted by a Presbyterian minister and his wife, the Goodmans. The second prologue introduces the recently turned vampire Betsy Taylor, the heroine of the Undead series of paranormal romance novels, as she crashes a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, where she hopes to learn techniques to control her thirst for blood. The two prologues are related because Laura is Betsy's half-sister, sharing the same father; the not-very-nice Antonia is Betsy's stepmother.

This third novel of the series has thirty-five chapters and, as usual, is told from the point of view of Betsy (first-person narrative). The early chapters introduce Betsy, who has become the Queen of the Vampires through odd circumstances, and her circle of friends/roommates. Her best friend is the very cool and very wealthy Jessica, whom she's known since the seventh grade; Jessica is patient with Betsy and supportive. Another close friend and confidante is Marc Spangler, an emergency-ward physician. Other major human characters include Betsy's father and stepmother Antonia ("the Ant"), who are expecting a baby, Betsy's professor mom Elise (a Civil War historian) and a policeman, Nick Berry. On the vampire side, Betsy is betrothed to the earnest Eric Sinclair, now King of the Vampires; although Eric is smitten with her, Betsy is not enthusiastic.

The novel is framed by a minor story, a wedding between a vampire and a human, Andrea Mercer and Daniel Harris, who are friends with Betsy. Such marriages are almost unheard-of because vampires had traditionally viewed human beings as "sheep", that is, as food rather than romantic partners. In an early chapter, Betsy is asked to preside at the wedding; she does so in the final chapter, quoting from ''Romeo and Juliet'': "what love can do, that dares love attempt". Throughout the novel, Betsy reminds herself that she needs to prepare for the wedding; Betsy's distractions are also highlighted by noting when she forgets about the upcoming wedding.

The plot begins in earnest when Betsy receives a non-invitation to her stepmother's baby shower; the shower is scheduled for daylight hours, making it impossible for vampires to attend. To reinforce the snub, Betsy's weak-willed father visits Betsy at home to ask her to stay away, where he lets slip that the new baby is Antonia's ''second'' child. Betsy and her friends confirm this revelation from Antonia herself, who describes unwillingly how she woke up with no memories of the preceding ten months, and dropped the baby girl, Laura, off at the hospital.

Much of the novel revolves around the search for Laura and getting to know her. Laura turns out to be a beautiful but bashful girl just beginning college, and eager to do the right thing for everyone. She's very sweet-natured and wholesome, always seeking peaceful solutions, and making friends with everyone, even people with difficult tempers. Getting to know Laura, Betsy likes her (although she envies her beauty) and can't bring herself to tell her about her sordid vampiric life or that Laura herself is the "spawn of Satan" and destined to conquer the world.

Before finding Laura, Betsy is frustrated by not knowing enough and resolves to read the Book of the Dead, a holy relic for vampires analogous to the Bible. The Book was written by an insane vampire who could see the future; unfortunately, it also drives anyone reading it insane. Throwing caution to the wind, Betsy reads the Book for several hours. The Book describes Betsy's ascension to Queen of the Vampires and her marriage to Eric, and also predicts that her half-sister Laura is fated to take over the world. Unfortunately, the book drives Betsy insane or, rather, changes her into a traditionally thinking vampire, as shown by the novel's first-person perspective. In that state, she attacks her human friends Jessica and Marc, indulges unbridled passions with her consort Eric, and tries to kill his vampire assistant Tina, who defeats her handily. She wakes up with a bruised head, a recovered sanity and much remorse – and also a new power, to awaken before sunset, which she uses to take Laura to Antonia's baby shower, so that Laura can meet her birth mother. Throughout the remainder of the novel, she tries to recover her friends' trust, particularly Jessica's, and also make amends with Eric.

The novel's climax occurs in a nightclub, '' Scratch''. Betsy inherited the club, but the vampire staff are unhappy with her non-traditional changes, including not allowing them to drink blood from humans or kill them. The staff form a union and strike to demand better "working conditions". As their bargaining chip, the staff kidnap Betsy's half-sister Laura, mistaking her for an ordinary human girl. Unfortunately for them, they handle her too roughly and, despite her dislike of violence, Laura begins killing them with weapons formed from hellfire. Eric joins them and the three together win the fight with the vampires. Laura reveals that she'd known all along about Betsy and about herself, but she was waiting for Betsy to trust her enough. Laura is convinced that she can overcome her demonic heritage and be a good person, although she also displays a touch of temper. Later, Betsy meets the Devil herself—resembling a wonderfully dressed Lena Olin—who reveals that Laura will indeed take over the world.

The novel is also marked by several minor stories that contribute to characterizing Betsy and her friends. It opens with a semi-serious discussion between Marc and Betsy about his recovery from alcoholism. Also near the beginning, Eric and his long-time assistant Tina return from a trip to Europe; Eric gives Betsy a little shoe necklace, playing on Betsy's well-known weakness for shoes and characterizing how much he cares for her. Betsy's compassion is highlighted by her treatment of "George", one of the Fiends she inherited from another vampire vanquished in an earlier novel. Fiends are vampires that have been driven insane, unable to speak or reason, by denying them blood. Most of the Fiends are being tended to by Betsy's vampire friend Alice, but George continually escapes and makes his way to Betsy's house. Betsy begins to feed him her own blood, and George begins to recover his sanity by learning to crochet.

The series centers around María Guadalupe, María Paula and María Fernanda, identical triplets (all played by Lucero) with non-identical, complex personalities. When they all were very young, they were victims of a car accident that killed their parents.

As a result of the accident, María Guadalupe is presumed dead when she disappears after falling into a river. Instead, she suffers from amnesia and forgets she has a family and two sisters. Ana Salas, who is going through a tragedy coping with her own mother's death, raises María Guadalupe as her own, even after becoming aware of her true identity.

María Fernanda is a sweet girl who hopes to find her sister, but as a result of the accident is left blind. María Paula is different from her sisters in that she's glamorous, selfish and extremely jealous; however, she also harbors a devastating secret about the accident.

After an illness brings María Guadalupe and Ana to México City, María Guadalupe falls in love with Nicolás, a cab driver and good-hearted man, who had just moved to México to live with his grandmother. Living in fear that someone may recognize her daughter, Ana restricts María Guadalupe's actions, but Nicolás's grandmother learns Ana's secret without saying a word.

The girls' grandmother, Mercedes, and their uncle, Eduardo, have been searching for missing María Guadalupe for years, and the story inches closer and closer to the revelation of the truth as the ties of love eventually draw the three sisters together, weaving through the lives of those that surround them in unexpected ways.

The story is set in a research facility (known as the "farm") involving two groups of people. The first group contains several teenagers with IQs above 150. These teenagers (Greg, Mikki, Lesley, Gordon, Gretel, Katie and Chris) call themselves the "Think Tank". However, this group is merely a smokescreen for the real subjects of the research - five seven-year-olds who are able to communicate telepathically, known as the "Babies". The Babies are called Pep, Ricardo, Ian, Rachael and Myriam. The Babies were all born around the same time in the same hospital.

When the members of the first group are "contacted" by the Babies, they learn of the researchers' exploitation, and, with the help of compassionate workers at the facility (Susan and Erik), investigate the reason for the Babies' condition. The Babies need help as the head researcher, Larsen, will stop at nothing to solve the mystery. The Think Tank, as well as researcher Susan and young orderly Erik, provide this help.

They trick the head researcher, John Larsen, so they can escape. The story ends with the Think Tank six years into the future. They turned the think tank into 'Think Tank Inc.', a company worth three million dollars. The Babies, Think Tank and newlyweds Erik and Susan all live together. Greg and Mikki are also married.

The title, "A Cage of Butterflies" refers to the fact that Larsen and the research staff keep both the Babies and the think tank under constant supervision and keep them "caged" or "prisoners" since they do not allow them to move around freely.

Five Middle Eastern captives fight to retain their sanity and dignity in the face of their American interrogators, who in turn struggle with demons of their own.

Flashbacks

The episode opens with a Claire Littleton flashback. Claire finds herself in a ruined car. She sees her mother, Carole Littleton, lying in the road, badly injured. At the hospital, Claire's Aunt Lindsey confronts Claire about her being cleaned up. A doctor tells Claire all her mother's medical expenses have been taken care of by an anonymous person.

Later, Claire discovers her mother has a visitor, Dr. Christian Shephard (John Terry). She realizes he is the one paying the hospital bills, and asks who he is. Reluctantly, Christian admits that he is her father, meaning Jack and Claire are half-siblings.

Later, Christian explains over coffee with Claire that he had a fling with her mother which resulted in Claire's birth. However, Claire's mother did not like that he had another family and told him to stay away. He reveals that the reason he wanted to talk with her is that he wants Claire to think about ending her mother's life. Claire gets angry, believing that Christian is there to "correct a mistake" he made by having Claire with her mother. She tells him paying the bill does not make him noble and leaves, after telling him she does not even know his name, and does not want to know it.

Back in Sydney, Claire visits her mother, who is still in a persistent vegetative state. Although still in a coma, Claire reveals to her mother she is pregnant but giving away the baby. She tearfully apologizes for the accident and for all the terrible things she said to her in the car before it happened.

At the beach

Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) suggests that Charlie should go boar hunting. Claire sees a glint in a flock of seagulls. Claire realizes that the birds migrate, and that they may be tagged. She decides to capture a bird and attach a note about the crash of Flight 815 and the survivors, hoping that someone will find and read it.

After explaining her plan, Jin-Soo Kwon (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) help Claire set up a trap to capture one of the birds. Just as Jin is about to spring the trap, gunshots ring out and scare the birds away. Desmond emerges from the jungle, claiming he was on the trail of a boar. Claire knows it somehow involves Charlie. She confronts Charlie about his and Desmond's strange behavior. Although Charlie struggles with whether to tell Claire about Desmond's prediction, he instead says her plan will only give people false hope. Claire is angry and asks Charlie to leave her alone.

Claire, after seeing an argument between Desmond and Charlie, follows Desmond. He picks up a seagull from a rock and explains to Claire how he's seen that if Charlie had gone to get the bird, he would have died after falling into the sea. Claire takes the bird to Charlie and tells him she knows of the visions. Charlie and Claire release the bird, with a note explaining the circumstances of the crash.

In the jungle

Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) and the captured Other Mikhail Bakunin (Andrew Divoff) learn from Mikhail that the implosion at "The Swan" station sent an electromagnetic pulse which wiped out an underwater beacon. This makes it impossible for the island to be accurately located, or for anyone to return to the island. Kate asks Mikhail why the Others stay on the island if they have a way off it. Mikhail says that Kate, Locke and Sayid would not understand because they are flawed. They are not on the "list" because they are angry (looking at Locke), and weak and frightened (looking at Sayid). The list was made by a "magnificent man" who brought all the Others there. When Kate tells Mikhail that Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) is not all that great, Mikhail replies that he is not talking about Ben. Mikhail also reveals he knows their full names and begins to reveal his knowledge of Locke's paraplegic condition, but Rousseau interrupts him when she spots an endless ring of cement pylons that disappear into the jungle as far as the eye can see. Sayid believes that this is a security perimeter. Kate starts to walk through, but Sayid stops her, as he believes the sensors would be triggered. Mikhail claims the system has not worked for years, just like everything else on the island, but Locke simply grabs Mikhail and shoves him between two of the pylons. Then an odd, electronic sound rings out, trapping Mikhail, who says "thank you" to Locke. The amplitude of the sound jumps up and Mikhail begins twitching and trembling, blood drips out of his ears and saliva foams at the corners of his mouth. He falls over and spasms violently, appearing to be killed by cerebral hemorrhaging.

Sayid angrily confronts Locke about pushing Bakunin through the pylons. Locke replies that he had no way of knowing that the Others had a "sonic weapon fence." They argue about Locke's decision to enter 7-7 resulting in the destruction of the Flame station. Locke retorts that he might not have done it if Sayid had bothered to mention that the entire station was rigged with C-4. Kate asks for the axe so they can climb a tree and avoid the sonic trigger. Sayid gets the axe out of Locke's bag and discovers inside a brick of C-4 from the Flame station. Sayid immediately questions Locke's motives, asking if he really came to rescue Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox). Locke states there is no other reason for him to be there than to rescue Jack. They finish the tree bridge and Kate volunteers to climb up first. She climbs over the Pylon and reaches the other side safely. She checks Mikhail, and confirms he is dead.

Kate, Sayid, Locke and Rousseau reach the barracks where the Others are staying. Expecting to see Jack in some sort of hostage situation, Locke, Sayid and Kate are shocked to instead see him laughing and throwing a football around with Tom Friendly.

Gendo Ikari, commander of a special agency named Nerv, summons his son Shinji to the city of Tokyo-3. Sachiel, third of a series of mysterious enemies known as Angels, approaches a Japanese city underwater as a Japan Strategic Self-Defense Forces tank battalion awaits it on the shoreline. Shinji, who recently arrived in a nearby town, has remained above ground waiting for Misato Katsuragi, head for the military department of Nerv, who is due to pick him up. The Japan Strategic Self-Defense Forces air force begins to attack the Angel with missiles. Shinji is nearly killed in the ensuing battle but is rescued at the last moment by Misato, who arrives in her car.

The Japan Strategic Self-Defense Forces, admitting their ineffectiveness, transfer responsibility for the Angel's destruction to Gendo and Nerv. Elsewhere, Shinji and Misato in a car train descend deep underground into a Geofront. Shinji is taken to the hangar of a giant mecha named Evangelion, where he is shown Unit 01, the first test type of the Eva series, as Gendo appears above. Shinji learns he has been summoned to pilot Unit 01 into battle against the Angel. He confronts his father and protests at his treatment, believing he has no chance of completing the task, but Gendo tells him to pilot the craft or leave. Shinji initially refuses, and Gendo sends for his other pilot Rei Ayanami, who is seriously injured. Confronted with the sight of Rei's injuries, Shinji agrees to pilot the Evangelion, which is then launched from the Geofront into the path of the Angel on a road on the surface.

Pilot Shinji Ikari prepares to face an enemy named Sachiel, third of a series of beings called Angels, in his mecha Evangelion 01. Shinji manages to move his Eva, making it try a successful first step. But as he attempts to take a second step, the Eva trips, falls over and lands face first on the ground. Eva-01 is left helpless as Sachiel advances on it; Shinji is frozen with fear, and fails to defend himself as the Angel proceeds to pick up the Eva by the face, and then damages its left arm and right eye. The pilot's signal is lost, and the Eva powers down. Suddenly, a confused Shinji wakes up in a hospital room the next day; the dramatic battle having been resolved off-screen. Meanwhile, his father, Gendo Ikari, head of the special agency Nerv, meets with the organization's mysterious benefactors, the Human Instrumentality Committee. The Chairman of the Committee, Keel Lorenz, instructs him not to let the reappearance of the Angels allow a process named the Human Instrumentality Project to fall behind schedule. Shinji sees his fellow pilot Rei Ayanami at the hospital. He also has a brief encounter with his father, but the two of them don't talk. Nerv's captain Misato Katsuragi shows up to check up on Shinji in the aftermath of the battle. When she learns that Shinji is going to live alone, she decides to take him in to live with her instead.

Misato and Shinji arrive at Misato's apartment. Later that evening, Shinji lies alone in his new bedroom. As he does so, sounds from the battle are heard and images of nerve cells as viewed through a microscope flash across the screen. In a flashback, Shinji remembers that Eva-01 was rendered inoperative by Sachiel's attack, with Nerv losing control of the Eva. Eva-01 reactivates and begins to act on its own. It launches a vicious attack upon the Angel, succeeding in damaging its face. A second attack by the Eva is blocked by a barrier named A.T. Field, but the Eva erodes it with another A.T. Field. Once the barrier is down, Eva-01 soundly defeats Sachiel by shattering the downed Angel's core. Sachiel wraps itself around the Eva and self destructs; Eva-01 emerges from the explosion with little apparent damage. As Nerv regains control of the Evangelion, Shinji comes to in the cockpit. The damaged helmet sloughs off, and Shinji can glimpse the Eva's face reflected in the windows of a building. As he looks on, the Eva's eye regenerates and focuses straight at him. Shinji begins to scream and the flashback ends. Shinji slowly curls up in bed after recalling the battle. Misato comes to his door and praises him for piloting the Eva and saving the city.

Keiko (called "Mama" by the other characters), a young widow approaching 30, is a hostess at a bar in Ginza. Realizing she is getting older, she decides after talking to her bar manager, Komatsu, that she wants to open her own bar rather than remarrying and dishonoring her late husband to whose memory she is still devoted. To accomplish this, she must secure loans from some affluent patrons who frequent her bar, but has little success.

Meanwhile, Yuri, a former employee, has opened up her own bar nearby, consequently taking away most of Keiko's former customers. She scouts locations for her own bar with a confidant of her bar, Junko, undecided as to where she will open up. While Keiko has lunch with Yuri, whom she believes is doing well in her enterprise, Yuri reveals that she is deep in debt and cannot afford to pay off her creditors. She tells Keiko she plans to fake a suicide to keep her creditors at bay. Keiko is shocked to learn the next day that Yuri has actually died, and that she had either planned her death all along or had misjudged the amount of sleeping pills to take. She is shocked to see Yuri's creditors dunning her family for money while still in mourning.

After Keiko is diagnosed with a peptic ulcer, she retreats to her family's home to recover. It is revealed that she must give them money to keep her brother out of jail while also paying for an operation that her nephew, who was crippled by polio, needs in order to walk again. Keiko tells them she can not afford to give them money as she must keep up appearances with an expensive apartment and kimono but reluctantly agrees, realizing this will forestall any plan to open her own bar.

After Keiko returns to her bar to work, a man she briefly entertains proposes to her. When he turns out to be a fraud, she sets her sights on Fujisaki, a businessman interested in her. While promising to give her money after sleeping with her, he tells her he has been transferred to Osaka for work and cannot abandon his family. Keiko is given a stern lecture by Komatsu, who loves Keiko but has made no previous attempt to express this due to his respect for her reverence for her dead husband and her resolve to not to sleep with other men. He asks Keiko to marry him and open a new bar together. However, she declines, saying that a marriage like this could not work since "they know each other too well", and, though she can't bring herself to say it, loves the married Fujisaki. Still in love with Keiko, Komatsu quits the bar after she refuses his marriage proposal. Keiko returns again to work, ascending the stairs, pretending to be happy.

''The Atheist'' is a satirical play about catching the perfect front-page headline, whatever the cost. The play follows the story of a cynical US news reporter, clawing his way up the journalistic hierarchy from trailer trash roots to notoriety and celebrity.

Central character Augustine Early drinks Bourbon and recounts his story like a "how to get famous quick" help book. He is both revolting and charismatic – a cartoon take on the tabloid journalist. Augustine Early self-divulges his story of how he perverted the justice system and preyed on a vulnerable politician in his amoral quest for fame.

As theatre critic Natasha Tripney explains:

Early is an antihero par excellence, an amusing guide through Ronan Noone's skilfully written world of American tabloid-hackery, sex scandals and trailer parks. His dark-hearted monologue is an occasionally filthy, but more importantly, in places it's laugh-out-loud funny; the writing is sharp and novelistic, the characters skilfully sketched. Early's quest for journalistic gold (and perhaps, just perhaps, a sliver of redemption) sees him encounter a wannabe actress whose tastes in the bedroom tend towards the energetic, a church-going society wife, a rapist and an English newspaper editor.

Oso (Julio Chávez) is sent to prison for a robbery and a murder. After seven years, he is released from prison, and in a flashback, the robbery is seen that led to his arrest. His daughter, Alicia (Agostina Lage), was a year old on the day of the robbery. As a consequence, Alicia never got a chance to get to know her father.

Oso returns to his hometown, a depressed suburb of Buenos Aires, fully aware that his wife, Natalia (Soledad Villamil), is living with another man, Sergio (Luis Machín). Oso is determined to establish a relationship with Alicia, and to collect money owed him by a sleazy crime boss known as the Turkish (René Lavand). In the meantime, the Turkish wants Oso to be the getaway driver on one last big job. For her part, Alicia seems fascinated with her father and makes him promise never to go away again.

On the death of her husband Harry, a Los Angeles businessman, American Nancy Belasco and her son Jake are insolvent. Much of his money is invested in St Maud's College at Cambridge University, a university he loved. So Nancy, who was born in Cambridge as the child of a GI bride, and Jake decide to go and live in Cambridge. Using her late husband's clout, Nancy gets a job as an assistant bursar, persuading the master of the college, Sir Dickie Hobhouse, to admit Jake on a sports scholarship. This leads to clashes between Nancy and Professor Simon Latimer, who knows Jake doesn't have the academic prowess to warrant his place. Meanwhile, in a culture clash romance, Jake becomes involved with the aristocratic Hon. Lucy Courtney.

The half-Korean yakuza Arata Kunisada's father figure Yoshikatsu Sanada is brutally murdered by a member of the Otaki Group. Hijikata, Head Kanbu of the Bando Family, has agreed to mediate a truce between the groups, while Makajyo and Komuro, members of the Otaki group secretly conspire with Kugihara, Sanada's successor in the Sanada Group, to have their leader Chairman Otaki murdered by an expendable member of the Sanada Group in "retaliation". Kugihara suggests to Kunisada that a truce would not enable the Sanada Group to save face and Kunisada takes the bait and sets out to murder Chairman Otaki.

Kunisada and his best friend Eiichi Shimatani give severance payments to the junior yakuza Hiroshi Fujiwara, Saburo Sawada, and Tomio, telling them not to follow. Hiroshi and Saburo refuse to leave the Group and choose to remain loyal, while Tomio accepts the payment and retires from the Sanada Group. Kunisada finds Chairman Otaki at a hospital and kills him. However, members of the Otaki clan show up afterwards to kill Chairman Otaki's mistress and bodyguards. At the mediation, it is agreed between the leaders of the groups that Kugihara will allow Kunisada to be killed by members of the Otaki Group as a condition of the truce. Kugihara's right-hand man Iguchi calls Kunisada and lures him to a location to be ambushed but Kunisada and Shimatani kill the attackers. The two men send away Myung-hyung and Sung-hee, Korean prostitutes who have been tagging along with them.

Police detective Asai explains to Kunisada that the murders of Sanada and Otaki were part of a plot by Makajyo to rise to power. Already having paid them to kill Sanada, Makajyo once again hires the killers Mr. Su and Tabata to attack the Sanada Group and kill Kunisada. The killers first torture Hiroshi and Saburo, who know nothing and are killed. Kunisada shoots Igushi dead in a gambling den then fires a rocket into Bando headquarters. After Kunisada kills Makajyo by firing a rocket into his office, Mr. Su and Tabata hunt them down but fail to kill them. The films ends with the retired yakuza Tomio living a normal life doing his laundry at a laundromat.

The film tells of seventeen-year-old Juan (Walter Quiroz). He lives with his parents and spends time with several intellectuals who are interested in photography. The girlfriend of the group's money person is Ana (Maria Luísa Mendonça), and Juan is attracted to her.

Ana spent two years at a mental institution because she was considered "crazy", yet Juan sees Ana often.

Juan is training as a door-to-door salesman, but when a photographer gives him a viewfinder, it changes his life. He's put on the path to his later success as a Hollywood director.

Mr. Kaito, head of the Kaito Group of over 2,000 soldiers under the umbrella of the Tenseikai Syndicate, seeks to absorb the 500 soldiers of the Shirane Group as well as the 400 soldiers of that group's rival, the Yokomizo Family, and become the largest group in the syndicate in order to ensure that he will be chosen as the successor to the hospitalized leader of the syndicate. Kaito enlists the aid of Mizushima and Muroi of the Shirane Group, promising that Mizushima will thereby take over as leader of the Shirane Group. Muroi hires Shinozake, who assaults hostesses on Yokomizo turf and is then killed by the Higuchi Gang. Higuchi is reprimanded by the Yokomizo Family but Mizushima and Muroi hire an outside assassin named Numata to kill the leader of the family, Yokomizo Takanori, and claim that the assassin was an overzealous Shirane soldier seeking revenge.

Mr. Kaito mediates on behalf of the Tenseikai but Tsuchiya of the Yokomizo does not accept the initial offer. Mizushima and Muroi offer to bring their leader Shirane Kozo to a place at a specific time where Yokomizo soldiers will be able to kill him so that Mizushima can take over the Shirane Group, after which Mizushima and Tsuchiya will swear brotherhood under Kaito, who will then be able take over the Tenseikai Syndicate. Kunihiko Kenzaki of the Higuchi Gang is sent to kill Shirane Kozo and completes his mission without interference, leading him to suspect that the hit was set up from the inside. The Higuchi Gang cuts ties with the Yokomizo Family just before Mizushima and Tsuchiya swear brotherhood under Kaito.

Kunihiko and the members of his Kenzaki Squad kidnap Muroi and beat him until he confesses the entire plan on tape. They blackmail Tsuchiya with this information, threatening to release it if their boss Yoichi Higuchi is not made head of the Yokomizo Family, but Yoichi is not interested and has already resigned himself to the fact that the Yokomizo and Shirane are now part of the same organization. Instead, they trade Muroi back to the Shirane in exchange for 50 million yen, but afterwards Yoichi is shot dead by Numata.

Mr. Torii is named the new head of the Higuchi Gang and tells Kunihiko that they are accepting Tsuchiya's invitation back into the Yokomizo Family. Kunihiko disbands the Kenzaki Squad and gives his men 20 million yen to divide between themselves, then kills Mizushima at a barber shop. Muroi's taped confession is heard by the members of the Executive Committee of the Yokomizo Family, who expel Mr. Hirata for his involvement. The Higuchi Gang is also suspended from the Yokomizo Family until further notice.

Numata kidnaps Kunihiko's soldier Sakuraba, explaining the Kunihiko killed his son years ago. Kunihiko comes to save Sakuraba and he and Numata run through the woods shooting at each other. Kunihiko's loyal soldiers Otomo, Yoshio, and Hitoshi rush to his aid. Numata kills Yoshio while Hitoshi whimpers helplessly, then Kunihiko and Otomo face off against Numata, who has a gun pointed at Sakuraba but says that he only wants Kunihiko. Kunihiko throws down his weapon in exchange for Sakuraba but Numata kills Sakuraba anyway. He then shoots at Kunihiko but Otomo jumps in front of him and is shot dead instead. Kunihiko then shoots Numata dead. In the final scene, Kunihiko and Hitoshi, the only survivors, drive through the gates of the yakuza headquarters with a lit stick of dynamite.

Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen has crossed swords with the establishment before - and lost. From the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome counting paperclips, to which he has been exiled through political fallout from the Aldo Moro kidnapping and murder, he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia. Unbeknownst to him, favours have been called in and words have been whispered into ears. He is to take over a kidnapping case involving one of Italy's most powerful families, with control of a business empire at stake. The missing head of the family is a big benefactor of one of Italy's main political parties and pressure is being applied. Zen contends with local power politics and troubled relationships with his mother and girlfriend, while employing some distinctly unorthodox methods and skirting the borderline of the permissible in a race to get results before he is removed from the case through political pressure.

Moonlighting, Italian police detective Zen had arranged a winter posting to his run-down home city of Venice. This is in order to investigate the disappearance of American millionaire Ivan Durridge (born in Yugoslavia as Durič) on behalf of his American ex-girlfriend. He needs the extra money to set up home with his new girlfriend Tania in Rome with room for his ageing mother.

At a time when people in authority all over Italy are being prosecuted for corruption, there is a justified suspicion that Enzo Gavagnin, the head of the local Drugs Squad, is implicated. Zen therefore looks for a different case to explain his presence in Venice. He finds it in the complaints of the half crazy countess Ada Zulian that intruders are breaking into her mouldering palazzo, where his mother used to do the cleaning when he was a child. The culprits are her two nephews, anxious to develop a piece of advantageous property that the countess owns. Zen outwits them and is then outwitted by Ada Zulian. She had only wanted their attendance on her needs in old age and now refuses to prosecute them.

Zen is staying at his family's old flat in the Cannaregio district, which has been cleaned up for him by his mother's friend Rosalba. At a family dinner he meets Rosalba's daughter Cristiana Morosini and soon starts an affair with her. Cristiana is the estranged wife of Dal Maschio, leader of the secessionist party Nuova Repubblica Veneta, which has risen in the wake of the Liga Nord and now looks close to success in the coming elections. For reasons of expediency, Cristiana must still appear with her husband on political occasions, however.

The discovery of Gavagnin's body in a cesspit, where he has been drowned after torture, allows Zen to stay on in the city after the successful conclusion of the Zulian case. Following up clues, he finds the skeleton of the missing Durridge on the cemetery island of Sant' Ariano, where it had been dropped from a helicopter. Flushed with success, Zen is planning to move to Venice permanently and set up house with Cristiana when a series of revelations following one after the other destroys his complacency.

He is visited by Maschio, who confesses to having helped carry out the kidnapping of Durridge as a political favour to colleagues in newly independent Croatia. The likelihood of Maschio becoming the new mayor of Venice makes him untouchable and, besides, he has engineered Zen's expulsion in disgrace from Venice. In the meantime he had been using Cristiana to keep an eye on Zen. In revenge Zen tries to turn Maschio's lieutenant Tomasso Saoner against him on the strength of their childhood friendship but only succeeds in driving his former schoolfellow to suicide.

In the final hours, older mysteries dating from World War II are solved. Ada's sanity had first been unhinged by the disappearance of her daughter Rosetta at that period. It now appears that Rosetta had committed suicide and that a Fascist neighbour had buried the body and arranged for the escape of the Jewish Rosa Coin under Rosetta's identity in order to save himself. Then, just as Zen is leaving, an old friend of his father Angelo – who had been reported as killed while fighting in Russia – tells Zen that he had met Angelo in Poland two years before. His father had deserted, stayed behind there and married again.

Thoroughly disillusioned, Zen continues to the train station and, when asked for directions, replies, “I'm sorry, I’m a stranger here myself”.

Under a cloud again, Italian police detective Zen thinks he has found himself a backwater sinecure in Naples, Italy, where he can coast towards retirement. He is prepared to tolerate all manner of scams in return for a quiet life with pastries and a cappuccino on his desk every morning, not the least of which is a brothel on the top floor of the police station of which he is nominally in command. But corrupt politicians, shady businessmen and eminent ''mafiosi'' are disappearing off the streets at an alarming rate and although Zen's commitment to his work is at an all-time low, he finds himself reluctantly embroiled.

Category:1996 British novels Category:Novels by Michael Dibdin Category:Novels set in Naples Category:Faber and Faber books

Aurelio Zen gets a posting to Sicily, where he is asked to report to Rome on the work of the Direzione Investagitiva AntiMafia (DIA). Carla, his adopted daughter is there too, setting up police computers, and discovers that someone has a backdoor into the data there. She is also enjoying a flirtation with Corinna Nunziatella, an elaborately guarded woman magistrate who is also investigating the Mafia. Before this can proceed far, they are ambushed on a mountain road and their car is bombed.

Zen has meanwhile been called back to Rome by the news of his mother's approaching death. This, coupled to news of Carla's death, temporarily puts him out of action, and when he returns to his headquarters in Catania he is given a clue that not everything is as it seems by a file that Corinna had sent him, supposedly as a birthday gift for Carla. This points to irregularities in the investigation of the murder of a Mafia chieftain's son and a possible Roman "third level" aiming to destabilise the powers of the old clans.

Zen is more than usually at sea in the Sicilian atmosphere of double-cross and ambiguous messages in which it looks as if his own side is out to kill him. Finally he risks being taken for cross-examination by the Don of a declining clan who suspects Zen of murdering one of his henchmen. He convinces Don Gaspare that the actual murderer was a police agent who Zen had later shot. On his way back to Catania the police take revenge by blowing up the car in which he is riding.

Aurelio Zen is back, but nobody's supposed to know it...After months in hospital recovering from a bomb attack on his car, Zen is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent high profile Mafia trial. He has clear instructions: to sit back and enjoy the classic Italian beach holiday. But Zen is getting restless, despite a developing romance with a mysterious and alluring occupant of a nearby sunbed, as an alarming number of people seem to be dropping dead around him. Abruptly, the pleasant monotony of beach life is cut short as the word comes and he finds himself transported to a remote and strange world far from home...where he belatedly comes to appreciate both the reach of those who want him dead and that the corpses were all supposed to be his.

As ever in the Zen chronicles, the real story turns out to be much more complex. Confronted by an unexpected and unconsidered adversary, he resolves the immediate situation at the cost of involving his new girlfriend in a plot to dispose of an inconvenient corpse.