Roberto and Aurelia are ten-year exiles from Castro's Cuba, now residing in New York City with their 17-year-old daughter Aurelita. Roberto has become the super of the building in which he lives, with the troubles of his tenants and his overall discontentment with his current living situation driving the plot of the film. He and his wife have trouble understanding their daughter, who smokes pot and likes to disco dance; this is further compounded by the problems she gets into during the latter half of the film, including a pregnancy scare with potentially multiple men.

Roberto spends the majority of the film conversing with other exiles, such as Pancho, a fellow Cuban, and Cuco, an exile from Puerto Rico; he also tries to find a way to move to Miami to escape from New York, as he feels that, despite the escape from Cuba, that this was a waste of his past ten years and seeks to live out the remainder of his life in peace. After Roberto makes his wish come true by finding a factory job in the area, he celebrates both his wife's birthday and the family's moving out with a grand party; the ending of the film has Roberto desperately laughing in the dim basement, playing further into the isolation he's felt in the past decade.

Dogs and cat are together again. Three dogs and one cat are now good friends and they continue their adventures while they are following their owner, a forest ranger (played by Petr Shelokhonov). This time the cat becomes the leader of the four friends. Cat Svetofor together with three dogs: Bubrik, Fram, and Toshka are going on a winter journey, they follow their owner on an airplane flying North. The four animals travel to a nursery where New Year trees are grown. There four animals help people to stop the fire and save New Year trees. Then, together with their owner, the four friends join children for celebration of the New Year.

The film is about an apartment in Tehran and its various tenants.

Ahmed Bazargan (an Iranian) leads the team of diplomats who descend to the planet World. On his team are Dieter Gruber, a geologist; Ann Sikorski, a xenobiologist, and David Campbell Allen III, a graduate student in xenology. Their mission is to learn as much as possible about World, the Worlders and their culture, particularly the peculiar phenomenon of shared reality, which causes "head-pain" to those holding, or in the presence of someone holding, views contrary to the majority. This has had the drawback of limiting science, technology and progress; Worlders, though a far older species than Terrans, are somewhere around the Renaissance in terms of its technology. Bicycles are the cutting edge in personal transportation, each produced by artisans and individual craftsmen. On the other hand, there has never been a war on World; even the average barroom brawl causes intense head-pain. World's religion focuses on flowers; they believe that their people were created by the First Flower, which descended into the Neury Mountains, and much of their ceremony, both religious and every-day, involves blossoms. The sacredness of the mountains themselves is maintained by a wasting sickness inflicted on any who enter it.

The Terran contingent was delivered by the ''Zeus'', a warship in the rather piecemeal Solar Alliance Defense Network. The diplomatic mission is merely a cover story for the military objective, which is headed by Colonel Dr. Syree Johnson (ret.), a soldier and military physicist. The true objective involves "Orbital Object #7", one of World's seven moons (known as "Tas" by the locals). It is in very low orbit, is clearly artificial, and was created by the same unknown progenitor race that created the space tunnels. Johnson's mission is to analyze Orbital Object #7, decipher its use, and discover if it can be used as a weapon. Whether it can or not, it is about nine times too large to fit through the tunnel, and Johnson and her team can think of no way to safely disassemble it.

Orbital Object #7 has fourteen bumps on the outside, each labeled with a number of their own dots: one, two, three, five, seven, eleven, and thirteen. The ancient builders' love for prime numbers is well-known; the space tunnels are marked with primes as well. It is theorized that the bumps are activating studs, and manipulating both bumps of one integer (they are on opposite sides, to avoid accidental activation by, say, a passing meteor) will trigger the artifact. When Orbital Object #7 is tested on setting one, it sends out a spherical wave that causes all nearby material higher than atomic number 75 (rhenium) to go radioactive—not by irradiating them with energy, but by manipulating the heretofore-untouchable strong nuclear force. Johnson and her team are still deciding what to do when a Faller scout craft (a "skeeter") emerges from Space Tunnel 438. The ''Zeus'' attempts to engage using particle beam weaponry, specifically a directed proton weapon, and are shocked when the beam passes through it instead of destroying it. (This has nothing to do with the strength of the weapon; proton beams utilize particles accelerated to a high percentage of the speed of light. Were the skeeter to land a shot on the ''Zeus'', she would be destroyed as thoroughly as if vice versa. The advantage of a larger ship like the ''Zeus'' is in higher-ranged weaponry: it attacks the skeeter hours before the Faller can counterattack.) Johnson comes up with a theory that the proton beam is subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and is simultaneously composed of waves and particles until it is "observed" by someone - specifically the ship it shoots - at which point it resolves into a stream of particles and destroys whatever has just observed it. Evidently, the Fallers have discovered a way to alter the beam's "phase complex" to prevent the beam from resolving; essentially, the skeeter chooses not to "observe" the proton beam and is thus unaffected by it. The skeeter, having thus proven that ignorance is bliss, performs a close fly-by of Orbital Object #7 and then departs.

On World, Bazargan struggles particularly with David Allen, who is entranced by the forced altruism of shared reality and wishes to splice it into the human genome. He also liaises with the head of a rich trading family, Hadjil Pek Voratur, who sees plenty of chances for profit in the Terrans' advanced technology. He and his team, especially Pek Sikorski, are generally attended by Enli Pek Brimmidin, a household servant who picks up English with surprising speed. Enli, a point-of-view character, is a spy in the employ of the "Reality and Atonement" branch of World's government; her task is to gather information that will shed light on the question of whether Terrans are "real"—that is, subject to shared reality. This is not an idle concern: those few Worlders who are born without the ability or cannot socialize to it are quietly euthanized. Enli herself has been declared unreal, having murdered her brother, and has been assigned this task as atonement. Bazargan and Ann Sikorski eventually strike a bargain with Voratur, trading the secrets of antihistamines (for Worlders, flower-sickness is sacrilegious) for a chance to perform a "Lagerfeld" brain scan on him. They agree only after Voratur takes a dose of antihistamine himself (having commissioned Enli to steal it) and survives. One of the Worlders testing the first batch of home-made drug dies from it. The Lagerfeld scan is unable to pinpoint a specific place in the Worlder brain where shared reality nests, and Ann concludes that it did not evolve and is not genetic; David Allen refuses to believe this, and begins to suspect a conspiracy between Bazargan and the high priests of World.

Aboard the ''Zeus'', Johnson and the other crew make the decision to push Orbital Object #7 out of orbit and towards Space Tunnel 438, in the hopes of breakthroughs during the five-day journey. She informs Bazargan of the action, including that, if necessary, they will destroy the artifact, possibly creating a destabilizing wave that could affect World. Bazargan goes to inform Voratur of this, only to have Voratur discover that Bazargan did not know that his mission was a cover story. This is binding proof: Terrans do not share reality. Their lives thus endangered, the Terrans, along with Enli, flee to the Neury Mountains, where no one will (or can) follow them. They are protected by environmental suits from the radiation, but they are still subject to a bizarre phenomenon: a slowing-down of the brain, a neurological phenomenon that only Enli remains unaffected by. Deep in the mountains, Gruber discovers a second alien artifact, similar to the one found in space but much smaller (perhaps 25 meters in diameter). It appears to have crash-landed on the planet millions of years ago (precipitating a mass extinction) and is putting out prodigious amounts of radiation. However, the radiation field is in the shape of a torus (a doughnut), and when the team moves into the "hole" of the field, Enli is not afflicted with the head-pains normally associated with unshared reality. Gruber theorizes that the field they passed through alters probability; this allows it to have an effect on human brain tissue because the release of neurotransmitters is a quantum-level event and thus susceptible to probability (indeed, nerve cells do not always release neurotransmitters, even when stimulated with exactly the same amount of voltage).

Speeding towards Space Tunnel 438, the ''Zeus'' is confronted by a Faller cruiser, and detaches from the artifact, which continues on at over 4,000 kilometers per second. The engagement is largely inconclusive until Orbital Object #7 actually enters the tunnel. Just prior to this, Dr. Johnson receives a transmission from the diplomatic team containing Gruber's theories on the probability field, and realizes that this could explain the Fallers' new shield. However, her speculation is short-lived; when Orbital Object #7 enters the tunnel and is subsequently destroyed by it, it fires off a destabilizing wave at its maximum setting (revealed in the sequel ''Probability Sun'' to have a range of about 6 billion kilometers, and to somehow be not susceptible to the inverse square law), which destroys the ''Zeus'' as well as all Faller craft, irradiates an outer planet in the World system, and then proceeds onward to World itself.

David Allen abducts Enli and drags her out of the mountains, passing through sections of high radiation to do so. Enli, wearing one of the team's four e-suits, is protected, but David takes thousands of rads. (Back with the team, Ann speculates that David is suffering from grandiose paranoid schizophrenia). The two then descend back down to civilization, where they proclaim to be real and explain that a "sky sickness" is coming. David teaches Worlders the proper techniques to shelter against radiation, and, having proclaimed his reality by dying for the sake of others, convinces the Worlders that Terrans ''do'' share reality. Meanwhile, Bazargan, Dieter and Ann receive the final transmission from the ''Zeus'' (having traveled 54 light-minutes to reach them), only to discover that Dieter's artifact reacted to the destruction of Orbital Object #7 ''when it was destroyed'', once again implying macro-level entanglement. World is ultimately unaffected by the destabilizing wave, for reasons that are not revealed until the sequel. Armed with new hypotheses, the team is retrieved by Terran forces a few days later.

Category:2000 American novels Category:2000 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Works by Nancy Kress

The Quests are hindered by Jeremiah Surd and the Men in Black of General Tyler, who plan to misuse the technology.

A young archaeological apprentice named Doug Adler (David Charvet) is dragged into a perilous expedition deep beneath the timeless sands of Egypt. He and a group of others encounter ancient monsters and escape death traps, but through the expedition, they discover a secret older than time and a danger beyond imagination. However, the "sleepers" have awoken, the gods have risen and the countdown to the end of the world has begun. The Voyagers must find a way to stop the mummy named Al Khem Ayut (Cedric Proust) and escape from the pyramid before time runs out.

Fanny Hill (Rebecca Night) begins telling her story as a young woman who was born to poor but honest parents. She became orphaned after her parents died of smallpox. She has become alone on the streets knowing nobody, and with nowhere to go. She stumbles upon her friend Esther Davies (Emma Stansfield) while at her parents grave, who brings her to join a group of "working girls" under the madam, Mrs. Brown. Fanny naively accepts. When she arrives, she meets Phoebe (Carli Norris) with whom she experiences her first sexual encounter and where she discovered her interest in being a woman of pleasure. Fanny soon discovers she has her first client, Mr. Croft (Philip Jackson), who she expected to be young, handsome and rich. Upon meeting him, she discovered that he was rich, but she also found he was old, repulsive, and forcing himself onto her virtue. To no avail, Mr. Croft left in a storm of dust, demanding his money back. It is then that Fanny fully understands her purpose and the value of her virtue at Mrs. Brown's.

At a party later that afternoon, she becomes the center of attention because she had something that no other girl still had, her maidenhead. She meets Mr. H (Hugo Speer) for the first time, who was seemingly uninterested at the time because of her lack of experience. She was whisked away quickly, but not before being spotted by Charles Standing (Alex Robertson) who was immediately in love with Fanny and offered to take her away. After a night of dreaming of Mr. Standing, Fanny goes searching for Charles only to find him asleep downstairs. She accepts his offer to take her away, and they leave immediately.

While at his family's lakeside lodge in northern Wisconsin, six-year-old Peter van Cleese witnesses his grandfather mysteriously become overtaken by an apparent supernatural force while fishing on the dock. He falls into the lake, and his body is never recovered.

Seventeen years later, Peter, now a recent college graduate, has inherited the lodge. He decides to travel there with his group of friends—Ann Colbert, Kiersten, Rodney, and Finner—for the first time since his grandfather's disappearance. The group arrive during "Muskie Madness," an annual fishing festival in the local community. At the lodge, the group are met by Wayne Duerst, a neighbor hired by the Van Cleese's to look after the property since Peter's grandfather's death. Wayne and his paranoid Vietnam veteran grandson, Evelyn, are hostile toward the group.

While Peter and his friends visit local restaurant that evening, middle-aged tourist Sheila Swain is attacked on a nearby dock by an assailant who entangles her with a large fishing line, and pulls her into the lake. The next day, Rodney and Tom become acquainted with young mother Beverly Duerst—Evelyn's wife—who helps to organize the fishing festival. Rodney visits a local fishing shop run by Leory Leudke. Leudke tells Rodney a story about how Peter's grandfather and Wayne used to catch trophy fish by reeling them to shore and shooting them, but stopped after Wayne accidentally shot Peter with a bullet. Meanwhile, Peter grows increasingly unnerved being near the lake where his grandfather drowned. Ann tries to comfort him, and believes him to be experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rodney takes a boat out on the lake by himself, and is attacked by an unseen assailant, who castrates him with a large fishing hook before dragging him into the water with the fishing line. Police find the blood-soaked empty boat floating on the lake, and Peter insists that Evelyn is responsible. The local sheriff, however, attempts to stymie the investigation to prevent any disruption of the pending festival. A distraught Kiersten decides to relax by floating on the lake, but a large hook is thrown in her direction. Meanwhile, Finner and Beverly spend the afternoon together, and become romantic.

That night, while the locals hold a contest for who has caught the largest muskie, fisherman Denny Dobkins is stranded on the lake when his boat motor malfunctions. He sounds an emergency horn for help, but is gored by a large fishing hook cast at his abdomen, and pulled into the lake. Shortly after, Beverly goes for a swim alone, and is also attacked with a large hook and dragged beneath the surface. Peter and Ann attempt to locate Kiersten. A ranting and raving Evelyn confronts them, informing them that Bev is also missing. Meanwhile, an intoxicated Finner takes a boat onto the lake, playing music loudly from a boombox. The music, combined with the incessant chirping of cicadas, drives Leudke mad in his nearby bait shop—the sound penetrates through a metal plate in his head, which he had implanted after suffering a brain injury in the Korean War. In a rage, Leudke casts a fishing hook at Finner, and tears off his ear. Finner jumps into the water, but is accosted by a raving Leudke, who dismembers him and grinds his limbs to be used for fishing bait.

A panicked, exhausted Kiersten finally returns to the lodge, and tells Peter how she was attacked with a large fish hook, and managed to elude it by swimming to the other end of the lake, where she became lost in the woods. Peter, a music major, eventually surmises that that sound of the cicadas combined with certain musical notes can create what is known as the "Devil's tritone," a frequency that has the ability to drive some people insane. Evelyn suggests that the metal plate in Leudke's head could amplify these sounds, which would become overpowering, a phenomenon he witnessed amongst his fellow veterans. Peter and Evelyn investigate Leudke's shack, where they find jars of human organs.

While Peter and Evelyn rush back to the lodge, Ann is attacked by Leudke while sitting alone on a dock playing music, and he manages to capture her and bring her back to his bait shop. She tries to reason with him to no avail, and he locks her in a refrigerator. Wayne teams with Evelyn and Peter to stop Leudke. The next morning at the fishing festival, when Leudke wins the contest, Wayne publicly accuses him of being the murderer, but the sheriff disbelieve shim. That night, Peter faces off with Leudke at this shack, severely injuring him with a treble hook, but Leudke manages to incapacitate Peter. Peter awakens in Leudke's shack, and manages to free Ann. Leudke prepares to stab them both to death, but flees when he hears police sirens.

At dawn, Peter and Ann leave town. Wayne and the sheriff search the woods for Leudke, but cannot locate him. The sheriff surmises he will likely die of blood loss due to his injury.

Clayton has finished his Skybax training when his friends Hyla, a human female, and Krekor, a Hadrosaur, inform him of a threat to Dinotopia. A band of pirates are stealing and hiding ''Tyrannosaurus'' eggs all over the island, attempting to draw the creatures from their nesting grounds so they can search for an artifact of some sort. Clayton is given a Sunstone Prod, a device similar to a staff, to use against the pirates as he hunts for the eggs.

As the game progresses, it becomes apparent that the pirates are after the Timestone, a mythical artifact said to slow time around whoever holds it. Clayton must race to find all of the remaining eggs and locate the Timestone before the pirates do.

Each level takes place in a different part of Dinotopia. After three sections of each level, Clayton faces an extra challenge, usually a boss to fight, and then must return the eggs he recovered to the Tyrannosaur nesting area without getting killed before proceeding to the next level.

Louis Salinger, an Interpol detective, and Eleanor Whitman, an Assistant District Attorney from Manhattan, are assigned to investigate the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC), which funds criminal activities such as money laundering, terrorism, arms trading, and the destabilization of governments. Salinger's and Whitman's investigation takes them to Milan, where the IBBC assassinates Umberto Calvini, an arms manufacturer and Italian prime ministerial candidate. The assassin diverts suspicion to a local assassin with political connections, who is then promptly killed by a corrupt carabiniere. Salinger and Whitman get a lead on the second assassin, but the carabiniere confronts the two and orders them out of the country. At the airport, they are able to check the security camera footage for clues on the whereabouts of the bank's assassin, and follow a suspect to New York City.

In New York, Salinger and Whitman are met by two New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives, Iggy Ornelas and Bernie Ward, who have a photograph of the assassin's face. Salinger, Ornelas, and Ward locate Dr. Isaacson to whose practice the assassin's leg brace has been traced, and they are able to follow him to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Jonas Skarssen, the chairman of the IBBC, reveals to his superiors White and Wexler that Calvini was killed so that they could have his sons buy missile guidance systems in which the bank has invested. Since the bank knows that Salinger and Whitman are close to finding their assassin, they send a hit team to kill him, while Wexler is arrested by Ornelas. As Salinger and Ward speak to the assassin and attempt to arrest him, a shootout at the Guggenheim erupts when a number of gunmen attack them. Ward is killed in the chaos, and Salinger is forced to team up with the assassin to fight off the gunmen. However, the assassin is mortally wounded during their escape and dies of his injuries.

When Salinger goes to interrogate Wexler, he reveals that the IBBC is practically untouchable due to its connections to terrorist organizations, drug cartels, governments, and powerful corporations, though Wexler indicates a willingness to help Salinger take down the IBBC. Meanwhile, Salinger persuades Whitman to let him continue alone.

In Italy, Salinger tells Calvini's sons of the IBBC's responsibility for their father's murder, prompting them to cancel the deal with the bank and order White to be killed. Salinger then accompanies Wexler to Istanbul, where Skarssen is purchasing the guidance systems from their only other manufacturer, Ahmet Sunay. Salinger attempts to record the conversation so that he can obstruct the deal by proving to the buyers that the missiles will be useless, but he ultimately fails. Both Wexler and Skarssen are then killed by a hitman contracted by the Calvinis to avenge their father's murder. Salinger is left stunned, his investigation, pursuit, and determination to bring down the IBBC having led to nothing.

Afterwards, the bank successfully continues its operations despite the death of Skarssen, as he had predicted to Salinger before he was killed. However, with the new and more aggressive chairman, the IBBC's increased expansion and aggression ultimately lead to greater scrutiny, leading to a United States Senate investigation headed by Whitman.

Long ago, a demon fell in love with a woman and conjured up a bed on which to make love to her. The woman died during the act, and, in his grief, the demon wept tears of blood which fell on the bed and caused it to come to life. While the demon rests, the bed's evil is contained, but once every ten years, the demon wakes, giving the bed the power to physically eat human beings. Only one man, an artist identified as Aubrey Beardsley, was spared, as the bed condemned him to immortality behind a painting, where he must forever witness the bed taking victims. The bed passed from owner to owner until the present day.

Breakfast

A young couple trespass into the building and discover the bed. They make love on the bed, and the bed devours them. The artist mocks the bed for its stupidity. Enraged, the bed telekinetically destroys most of the house except for the room it is in.

Lunch

Three women discover the now-destroyed house. The bed eats one of the young women, but reacts to one of the other women by bleeding in agony. The artist realizes that the bed reacts with pain to the woman because she resembles its "mother" (the woman whose death caused the bed's creation). Elsewhere, the brother of one of the women goes out looking for her.

Dinner

One of the two remaining women sleeps on the bed. She wakes as the bed begins eating her, but as she tries to escape, the bed snares her in its sheets and drags her back to be eaten. The last woman unsuccessfully tries to save her. The brother locates the surviving woman, only to have the bed trap them both. The brother attempts to rescue the previously eaten woman, only to have his hands eaten to the bone by the bed.

Just Desserts

The demon that created the bed falls asleep, which renders the bed powerless and allows the artist to communicate with the woman. The artist describes a ritual that will destroy the bed. The woman carries out the ritual, which teleports the bed out of the room and revives the bed's real "mother," but at the cost of killing the surviving woman. The bed's mother completes the ritual by having sex with the brother, causing the bed to burst into flames and die, allowing the artist to finally pass on.

Five years ago, Newton Graceland, a researcher of a world exactly opposite to the world of reality called the Reverse World, built a device to absorb the abilities of the Pokémon Giratina, the ruler of the Reverse World, to travel freely between the two worlds. He canceled the project upon learning that the process would kill Giratina. The blueprints were deleted but Newton's assistant Zero never forgot them.

Later, time and space, two dimensions that should never have been in contact, collided and unraveled. Dialga, the Pokémon which rules over time, and Palkia, which controls space, then fought each other in Alamos Town, both believing the other to have violated their territory. The distortions in time and space have defiled the Reverse World with pollution, angering Giratina.

Giratina captures Dialga and drags it into the Reverse World. Shaymin, a hedgehog-like Pokémon which bears flowers, gets caught on Dialga’s back when the portal opens. A frightened Shaymin uses its powers to escape through a portal back to the world of reality. Dialga follows Shaymin after it disables Giratina's ability to venture to the world of reality by trapping it in an infinite time loop.

Shaymin runs into the Pokémon trainers Ash Ketchum, Dawn, and Brock, who agree to take Shaymin to the Flower Garden in the mountains, so it and others of its kind can migrate and grow a new garden, through a process called flower bearing. A portal to the Reverse World opens and swallows Shaymin, Ash, and Dawn.

In the Reverse World, Ash and Dawn encounter Giratina but are rescued by Newton. Giratina, who wants to use Shaymin's power to come into the world of reality, targets Shaymin, prompting Newton to send Shaymin, Ash, and Dawn back to the world of reality. Zero, who is also seeking Shaymin's power, attacks the kids with his army of Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone, forcing them to escape onto a departing train. On the train, Shaymin makes contact with a Gracidea flower and transforms into its Sky Forme, altering its appearance to a deer-like state and allowing it to fly. Ash, Dawn, and Brock board a ferry to the Flower Garden, but are sucked into the Reverse World again, followed by Zero and his Pokémon. Giratina attacks the group after Shaymin provokes it. When night falls, Shaymin transforms back to its normal form. Zero captures Shaymin, forcing it to open a portal for Giratina to return to the world of reality, freeing it from the time loop. Shaymin panics, opening a portal which sends Ash and his friends to the Flower Garden in the world of reality.

Giratina returns to the world of reality and is captured by Zero. Zero uses Newton's device to absorb Giratina's abilities with the intention of becoming ruler of the Reverse World. Newton shuts down the device, releasing Giratina. However, Zero has already absorbed all of Giratina's abilities and Girantina collapses from exhaustion. Shaymin heals Giratina. Zero flees to the Reverse World to cause damage to the world of reality, causing the mountain's glacier to start moving towards the Flower Garden. The Pokémon Regigigas is awakened and along with a herd of Mamoswine, slows the glacier down.

In the Reverse World, Shaymin opens a portal, dragging Zero back to the world of reality. Zero's ship crashes into the glacier. Dawn's Buneary and Swinub freeze the ship, causing the Zero to lose all of the data about Giratina's abilities. Giratina restores the damage caused by Zero, and gives Ash a ride back to the world of reality. It then leaves on its own to track down Dialga. Shaymin and the others of its kind perform flower bearing, before migrating. During the end credits, Newton rescues and reconciles with Zero who is then arrested, whilst Ash, Dawn and Brock send bouquets of flowers to their respective families as an expression of gratitude.

Antoine, a egocentric would-be writer, is abruptly left by his latest girlfriend Solange for another man. Wounded in his pride, Antoine tells his troubles to the lonely Jean, an elderly publisher and bookseller. Jean proposes that Antoine should get his revenge on Solange by writing a book. He is to pick a woman at random, make her fall in love with him, and then leave her. At the same time, he will keep a detailed journal of the experience, which Jean will publish as a novel. Dubious at first, Antoine agrees to the plan if Jean will define each step he is to take. After putting an ad in the local bakery for a typist, in his favourite café he interviews the demure Catherine, who he finds unattractive. Jean convinces him that this very aspect will make her a good candidate and that he is to progress gently, keeping his distance to see what moves she will make.

When she says she goes swimming every week and invites him to join her, he ridicules the idea. When she suggests a boat trip on the Seine, he is appalled at her provincialism. Following a visit to the cinema together, where he sneers at the film, he takes her to an expensive restaurant. After a couple of large cocktails she says she will be his and, going back to her room, they make love. Antoine tries to go home, but the building is locked for the night. Back in bed with Catherine, she tells him about an affair with her previous employer's husband and how she used to earn extra money in a brothel catering for special tastes.

Feeling that he can no longer go on with the project, Antoine dumps his journal at Jean's office. Furious, Jean gets his revenge by handing it to Catherine as she leaves Paris to go and stay with her parents in the country. She is devastated by the treachery of both men, but has the strength of mind to write Antoine a dignified goodbye letter.

The film ends with Antoine sitting in his favourite café, writing away. An attractive young woman on her own is looking interestedly at him, but he is oblivious.

Mischievous Tom Sawyer snacks on jam and is caught by his stern Aunt Polly. She threatens to punish him, but he tricks her and escapes. In town, Tom encounters Alfred Temple, a "model boy" in fancy clothes, who snubs him. A fist-fight ensues, witnessed by Huckleberry Finn, "the juvenile pariah of the village," who wears rags, smokes a pipe and spends his days fishing. The next day, Aunt Polly commands Tom to whitewash the fence outside their house. Tom successfully fools his friend, Joe Harper, into picking up a brush by pretending the work is actually great fun. Several other boys join in and soon the fence is finished. Becky Thatcher, a new arrival in town, catches Tom's eye and he is instantly smitten. At Widder Douglas' Sunday School, Tom plans to impress Becky by collecting a new Bible for the hundreds of verses he has supposedly learned; actually, he makes shrewd trades with his classmates to amass the number of tickets required to claim the prize. When Judge Thatcher asks Tom to name the first two disciples appointed by Jesus, Tom responds, "David and Goliath," and everyone ridicules him. The next morning, Tom is tardy for school after stopping to talk with Huck. The schoolmaster makes Tom sit with the girls, which allows Tom a chance to flirt with Becky. Tom proposes engagement to Becky and she accepts with a kiss—until Tom lets it slip he was previously engaged to Amy Lawrence. Becky is furious and refuses to have anything to do with Tom. After Aunt Polly blames Tom for breaking the sugar bowl that was actually destroyed by Tom's goody-goody half-brother, Sid, Tom has had all he can take; He decides to run away. Joe Harper, who also feels depressed, joins him, and the two seek out Huck, who has access to a raft that can take them to Jackson's Island. That night, the three sail to the island, intending to be pirates. The town is in an uproar when it's discovered the boys have disappeared. Their raft drifts away and is found by a boat captain, who reports to Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper that the boys must have drowned. The women are heartbroken. Meanwhile, the runaways are swimming, fishing and enjoying their new-found freedom. Huck lights his pipe and blows a cloud of smoke at Tom, tempting him to try smoking. Tom and Joe enjoy their first pipes and plan to surprise their friends with their new skill when they return home. But they eventually make themselves nauseous, much to Huck's amusement. That night, Tom sneaks back to his home and overhears Aunt Polly and Mrs. Harper discussing plans for a funeral service on Sunday. Tom, Huck and Joe make plans to attend the funeral and, when they appear, everyone rejoices. The Widder Douglas takes an interest in Huck, but he manages to slip away from her. Becky reconciles with Tom and the congregation celebrates.

The story follows an American pilot, Hoke, who lives alone in the streets, constantly hidden and on the run from a gang of diseased and terminal Blackshirts, afflicted with the 'Slow Death', who attempt to capture him to use his blood to save their leader, Lord Hubble, via a blood transfusion.

Desperate to capture Hoke as his life draws nearer to its end, Hubble sends his entire force out to capture the American pilot. Hoke escapes thanks to the aid of three fellow 'ABneg' survivors – two women and a German navigator, shot down over Britain long ago.

Hoke, being used to three years alone, detests his saviours and, corrupted by propaganda, is almost unable to contain himself in the presence of the German even though the war has long since ended.

The play concerns orphaned Jerry Artminster, who blackmails a criminal named Jock Masters by promising he will not reveal his identity if Jock agrees to impersonate the boy's mother in the Reading, Berkshire, (England) hotel where the boy lives. Others involved are Mr. Booker, the gay hotel manager who fancies the boy, and Janice, a black woman who works in the hotel.

Huguely's finished product was a story about an over-the-road truck driver with the handle "Mean Machine" who receives a CB call from an individual claiming to be a truck driver. Identifying himself as "The White Knight," he broadcasts that there are no "smokeys" (police officers) in sight. Truck drivers regularly relied on each other to watch for such "smokeys" so they could circumvent the still widely unpopular National Maximum Speed Law, which limited all drivers to , so they could cover more distance in a given time than the law allowed.

Unfortunately for the song's hero, The White Knight is an undercover member of the Georgia State Patrol who uses the CB radio to pretend to be a trucker himself to lure rig drivers into a speed trap. After driving for some time at high speed and listening to country music on the radio, he hears a driver going the other way warning him of a patrol car equipped with radar ahead. The Mean Machine dutifully slows down to the speed limit until he is past the patrol car (whom he mocks by calling him "Super Trooper" and noting "there's that crazy Smokey over there with a CB of his very own."). The White Knight then goads the Mean Machine into speeding to catch him by insulting Mean Machine's rig, inferring that he can't keep up. As he goes ever faster, the Mean Machine is soon surprised to see a patrol car's lights in his mirrors, and he is dismayed to learn that the "Super Trooper" patrolman and the White Knight are one and the same. The main hero is left to exclaim "Bubblegum-machine done hit the jackpot" as he is being pulled over for going "40 miles over the speed limit" (i.e., , although the singer only attests to going ). The Mean Machine is taken to jail to join eleven of the White Knight's other victims, and his truck confiscated.

The "White Knight" appears in a cameo in the follow-up single, "Kentucky Moonrunner." While the singer in "The White Knight" attempts to speed only when he believes no cops are present, the titular Kentucky Moonrunner simply outruns them with superior speed, recorded at over 150 miles per hour. The White Knight catches the Kentucky Moonrunner when he crosses into Georgia from Tennessee, with no explanation of how he could do so when the Tennessee cops could not.

The film stars Elizabeth Alexander as Jessica Simmonds, who returns home from London to discover the street she grew up in being torn down by developers for high rise developments. Her father (Alexander Archdale), a vocal opponent of the developers, is killed in a suspicious fire and Jessica takes up the cause of the local residents. She joins forces with Jeff Elliot (John Hargreaves), a union leader. As they probe further into the background of the development they unearth sinister connections between the development group and organised crime.

The story begins with Simon Robinson arriving in a small seaside community to take over as teacher at the local school. He makes the acquaintance of siblings Jenny and David Abbott (Alexander and Waters, respectively), and Jenny's daughter Sally, who live on the island estate of Summerfield. The discovery that his predecessor vanished without a trace and, that Sally has a rare blood disorder lead Simon to try to uncover the truth behind the mystery.

After the death of his mother, Richard Herncastle (Colin Firth) is offered a job by his uncle, his mother's brother. Nick Ollanton is a stage conjurer in variety theatre and Richard joins the act where he meets the other members of the team and the rest of the acts on the bill as they travel around Britain appearing at the Empires, the old variety theatres that have since vanished. He becomes our eyes as he experiences the last few months of peace before World War I breaks out and changes the world forever.

During the course of the seven episodes (eight hours), Firth's character, young Richard Herncastle, sees the "whole wide world" from backstage at the music hall variety shows with which the magic act travels, just as his uncle Nick (John Castle) has promised—hilarity, beauty, love, lust, fear, despair. Richard comes of age just as the world enters the fateful year of 1914—the outbreak of World War I, when the greatest of all disappearing acts becomes imminent: the disappearance of millions.

The series has the second to last appearance of Olivier as a fading comedian named Harry Burrard, who has long since lost his audience and his comic abilities. Harry should have retired years before, however he has nowhere else to go and his brain is collapsing into paranoia. The role is a sort of older version of Olivier's Archie Rice, from ''The Entertainer'' (1960).

Neang Nhi (Ampor Tevi), a woman neglected by her abusive husband, Manop, is working in the fields one day when she accidentally loses her hoe in some shrubbery and encounters a giant python. The snake speaks to Nhi, and says he will return her hoe if she agrees to have sex with him. That night, the snake transforms into a man (Tep Rindaro), brings back the hoe, and has sex with Nhi, a union that results in Nhi's pregnancy.

Manop eventually finds out that it was the python who impregnated his wife, so he beheads the python and then stabs his wife in the stomach. Nhi is killed by the blow, but dozens of small snakes pour out of her abdomen and into a nearby stream. Manop chases after the baby snakes, killing each one, but slips on a rock and is killed.

A surviving baby snake transforms into a human infant, who is then found by a wandering monk. The monk names the baby girl Soraya and raises her. She grows into a beautiful teenage woman (Pich Chanbormey), but has living serpents instead of hair. The monk, however, is able to fashion a magical ring that allows her to keep the snakes at bay and appear to have normal hair.

One day, Soraya is bathing at a waterfall when she encounters a young man, Wae-ha (Winai Kraibutr), who has fallen into the pool after a fight with another man over a woman. Wae-ha is nursed back to health and he and Soraya fall in love. Wae-ha then takes Soraya back to his home to meet his family. One of Wae-ha's friends attempts to rape Soraya, during which her ring comes off and the snakes appear in her hair and bite the man, killing him with their venom.

It is further revealed that if Soraya's virginity is broken, she will permanently turn into a snake.

;Promise The brother and father of Reiko, a teenage girl, died not long after she was born. She must cope with her mother neglecting her, including her mother's decision to remarry. Reiko begins skipping school and she often meets by chance a boy who had helped her when she was little. He helps her get used to her new situation.

;They Were Eleven Ten young space cadets are put onto a decommissioned spaceship as their final test. If they pass this test, their lifelong dreams of being valued people in their respective societies will come true. They find upon reaching the ship that they have an eleventh member. The crew suffers hyperthermia because their ship is too close to a star, and they must find out which of their number is the spy.

;The Changeling In the distant future, Lin is employed to check up on Earth's terraforming efforts. She runs across a peaceful-seeming world, but her ship is nearly sabotaged.

;Since You've Been Gone An unfaithful husband is with his lover as an earthquake devastates his home. His wife refuses to be evacuated, as she wants to find a purse with "deep sentimental value".

Roro (Fares Fares) and Måns (Torkel Petersson) who are best friends, work at the park management and get to do all the menial jobs - clean up duck ponds and pick up dog poop. Roro's Swedish girlfriend Lisa (Tuva Novotny) wants to be introduced to his family but he refuses for a long time because of his Lebanese family traditions. When Roro finally decides to introduce Lisa to his family, he walks into the apartment full of relatives who are planning a marriage with the Lebanese girl Yasmine (Laleh Pourkarim).

Lee Gang-sik (Cha Seung-won) is serving a life sentence for robbery and murder. For the last 15 years, he has been on his best behavior, and now his wish has finally come true. Gang-sik has been granted a one-day leave to visit his family, and as the day draws closer and closer, he is overcome with both excitement and nervousness. There is so much he wants to say to his eighteen-year-old son Jun-seok (Ryu Deok-hwan), whom he hasn't seen since incarceration when the boy was three years old, but the feeling isn't exactly reciprocated. Forced to grow up at an early age, his son has had a tough life, taking care of his elderly grandmother with dementia on his own, and in his eyes, he sees not a father, but a stranger, a criminal. How can Gang-sik make up for 15 years with just one day's time? But the father's genuine feelings gradually open his son's heart. To enjoy every second given to them, the father and son hang out together all night until they must once again part ways the next morning.

''EE'' is mainly a history of the Ecotopian independence movement. The main characters are Vera Allwen, the leader of the Survivalist Party, and Lou Swift, a teenage physicist, along with their families and friends. Other characters are shown briefly as each one decides independently to break with the American status quo and begin living in an Ecotopian (low-tech, sustainable) fashion.

Bolinas, California, high school student Lou Swift finds a way to generate electricity cheaply from seawater in a solar cell. However, she doesn’t understand how the cell works. She refuses to publish her results until she understands the science. Because she is determined to make the cell design freely available, she spurns corporate and academic offers to buy the cell design. Meanwhile, spies and burglars try to obtain her notes.

Vera Allwen is a California state senator. Angered by an Eastern food corporation’s announcement it would stop selling fresh produce, she and other politicians, artists, and professionals form a new political party. It is decentralized, environmentalist, and populist. They create a platform and name it the Survivalist Party. As the book proceeds, they spread their ideas, coalition with like-minded people, and become a regional political force. Vera’s speeches are reprinted within the text. Some of their ideas come from a short novel called ''Ecotopia'', and the Party publishes a paper called "The Survivalist Way to Ecotopia." The Party creates a think tank for environmentalist policies. When the Pacific Northwest states pass a special tax on cars to reduce car use, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns it; public outrage along the Pacific coast helps tip the people of the region toward supporting the Survivalist Party.

When the Quebec government offers to establish diplomatic relations, the Party starts thinking about independence. A nuclear accident gives them the governorship of Washington State, and Northern California's refusal to keep supplying Southern California with water leads to the state splitting into two. An ardent secessionist claims to have planted dirty bombs in New York City and Washington, DC, and threatens they will explode if the U.S. attacks the region. Bolinas declares itself independent of other governments. The Survivalist Party has infiltrated local units of the National Guard, which are now sympathetic to the secessionists. The U.S. is too busy with a war in Brazil to send troops to pacify Bolinas and its supporters. In a lucky coincidence, the U.S. helicopters massing on the Nevada border and preparing to attack the region are suddenly recalled to deal with a crisis in Saudi Arabia, and secession seems likely to proceed.

Meanwhile, in the future Ecotopia, individuals move the local economy toward a more sustainable model. A collective sets up a solar remodeling business; a young man uses goats to mow lawns. Berkeley creates car-free zones; other cities adopt them. A suburban tract is replanted as an orchard. Rural residents build a lightweight, cheap horse-drawn buggy, and stills to distill alcohol from farm waste. Eventually, a large part of the public is car-free and ready to take the final steps to a sustainable economy.

Lou finally discovers the key chemical that makes her solar cell work. She publishes her paper and people start building their own cells. With this breakthrough, the region will no longer be dependent for energy on the rest of the U.S. for imported fossil fuels or nuclear power. With this energy independence, the future nation of Ecotopia becomes a practical possibility.

These events occur against economic and political breakdown in the U.S.: corporate concentration, slashed government budgets, and military adventurism abroad, aided by a compliant corporate media. The automobile habit has essentially bankrupted the U.S. Refusing to develop alternative energy sources, “oil-hungry America lurched toward some unseen economic catastrophe.” At the end, the Saudi oil refineries have been bombed, and the U.S. military is caught up in a war in the Middle East.

The Ecotopian storyline ends with the Party making Lou’s solar cell technology available to the public, and a constitutional convention where the region decides to secede from the U.S. following the Quebec-Canada model.

The book ''Ecotopia'' begins about 20 years after secession, when the new nation is securely established. Neither book describes events in between, such as the political difficulties of secession, the economic dislocations and outmigration from the region, and the Helicopter War with the U.S. (referred to in ''Ecotopia'').

Apple's story begins in a village in northern France. Her father has left and her mother works both as a barmaid and prostitute and they live in a noisy roadside apartment. We meet her again at age 18, living with her mother in a suburb of Paris and working at a hair salon near St. Lazare train station. At night mother and daughter watch TV or Apple reads romance novels and magazines. Her first friend in Paris is Marilyn, a 30-year-old redhead who is unsuccessfully modeling her life after a romance novel. She tries to make Apple more like herself, gets her to drink whiskey and wear makeup, but she begrudges Apple's simplicity and the friendship doesn't survive the entrance of Marilyn's next boyfriend.

Marilyn abandons Apple while the two friends are vacationing in Cabourg. Apple is left eating an ice cream at a tea shop when Aimery de Béligny shows up. Aimery is initially fascinated by Apple's simplicity. An intellectual from a respectable family, he is different from Apple in every way. Her docile sincerity charms him at first; they live together in his studio in Paris where she expresses her devotion through continuous housework. But such humble tenderness only irritates the student, who thinks the intellectual gap between them is too profound. He breaks up with her and leaves. Apple takes off her rubber gloves, puts away her cleanser and leaves without complaint. She returns to her mother's convinced that she is unworthy and ugly and she loses what interest she had in life. She stops eating and ends up in a mental hospital.

Apple is surrounded with characters who believe they know how to express themselves, while she remains mute. Her silent suffering is the central light of the book, like the candle in Vermeer's painting.

Marie (Gina Manès) was an orphan adopted by a bar-owner and his wife in the port of Marseille, and now she is harshly exploited by them as a servant in the bar. She is desired by Petit Paul (Edmond van Daële), a thuggish layabout, but is secretly in love with Jean (Léon Mathot), a dockworker. Marie is forced to leave with Petit Paul, but Jean follows them to a fairground where the two men fight. In the brawl a policeman is stabbed and, while Petit Paul escapes, Jean is arrested and gaoled. A year later, Jean rediscovers Marie, now with a sick baby and living with Petit Paul, who spends all their money on drink. Jean tries to support Marie, aided by a crippled woman (Marie Epstein, credited as "Mlle Marice"), who lives next door; but Petit Paul, warned by gossiping neighbours that Jean is seeing Marie, returns for a violent confrontation, this time armed with a gun. In the ensuing struggle, the crippled woman obtains the gun and kills Petit Paul. In an epilogue, we see Jean and Marie finally free to love each other, though their faces suggest that experience has taken its toll on their lives.

Bukowski uses his own life as the basis for his series of articles, and characteristically leaves nothing out. The different stories range from hooking up with the wife of a stranger who invites him over for dinner to admire his work, to Bukowski's versions of "debates" with other writers at "Open City". Bukowski goes through life and each event without caring about the consequences of his actions. He is almost always alone aside from the occasional prostitute that he invites over. A few times, generous people who admire his writings will allow him to stay with them rent free, though he does not understand why people enjoy his writings so much. As soon as he starts to get too close to these families or hosts he will leave without notice and go on to find a new place to stay. However, he does mention that he does not want readers to feel sorry for him, which is why he includes crude comedy along with each story. He always has some type of alcohol with him that allows him to be as carefree as he is. Whether he is drinking while writing his stories and poetry, or showing up to work and meetings already drunk, every story incorporates his vigorous drinking habits.

Conan has joined a band of warriors from the northern country of Asgard while taking part in a raid against the Hyperboreans living east of the region. Eventually, Conan is captured and enslaved by the ape-like Hyperboreans. However, he doesn't remain a prisoner for long.

After escaping from his chains and slaying his captors, Conan makes his way south. Soon, he is pursued by a pack of hungry wolves. Armed only with a broken length of chain, Conan manages to fight off the starving wolves until he finds refuge near a range of hills. Inside one of the hills, he discovers the entrance to a buried crypt. After hiding within an ancient chamber, into which the wolves are strangely unwilling to follow him, Conan lights himself a fire. Suddenly, he discovers a grisly occupant.

Enthroned on a square boulder of black stone is the large mummified corpse of a man, apparently a great warrior or chieftain from ancient times. Noticing an iron sword which lies across the dead man's knees, Conan steals the weapon and claims it for himself. Exulting in his new-found sense of power, Conan hears the sound of a dry creaking and turns to face the mummy as it begins rising from its throne, having been raised from the dead by Conan's warcry. It advances on the young barbarian, but Conan, though frightened of the creature, stands his ground and engages in a desperate battle against the walking corpse. Finding that the wounds he inflicts are not enough to kill an undead creature, he eventually manages to hurl the mummy into the fire, utterly destroying it.

Not wanting to spend all night inside the haunted crypt, Conan emerges with his new weapon and, seeing no sign of the wolves, continues on his journey.

During an attempted robbery of a museum, the fire opal that contains the Djinn is accidentally released by a stray gunshot. One of the burglars, a young woman named Morgana Truscott (Holly Fields), steals the gem and is forced to abandon her boyfriend during the escape. The Djinn escapes and kills the remaining burglar when he accidentally wishes he'd never been born. As the police enter the museum, the Djinn finishes forming into full size, revealing the Djinn (Andrew Divoff). The Djinn assumes his Nathaniel Demarest persona and surrenders to the police. Demarest is put in a holding cell, where he kills a fellow prisoner who wishes to get out of the cell. Meanwhile, Morgana has been having dreams where she sees glimpses of the Djinn in his true form. Later Morgana goes to Church to visit the priest tending the church, a man named Gregory (Paul Johannson), a former lover of Morgana's. In prison, Demarest is confronted by Butz (Rhino Michaels) and his two henchmen, the Tiger brothers (James Kim and Simon Kim). Butz runs all "underground business" at the prison, and gives Demarest a "friendly" warning that he is going to be watching him. Eventually they meet again, with Butz wanting to join forces with him, but Demarest rejects the offer. Believing Demarest to be a dealer, he asks for his drugs, any drugs on which he can 'get wasted...stomped into the ground'. Demarest grants the latter and Butz is savagely beaten by his own underlings. Soon Demarest is temporarily sent to solitary, suspected of instigating a spate of recent troubles.

Meanwhile Morgana continues to have her nightmares before she does research on Persian mythology, particularly the Persian deity Ahura Mazda, who bound the Djinn. Gregory arrives at her loft, to check in. Morgana opens up just a little, telling Gregory she hasn't been sleeping well, and has nightmares about a voice telling her to "fulfill the prophecy", and confesses to the robbery and the murder of the guard. Morgana goes to the prison to visit Demarest. She demands to know why he confessed to the robbery, and he says it was so she wouldn't have to, and admits to not having to be in prison long, before showing his true form, driving Morgana away. As she continues to do research, she learns more on the legend of the Djinn, and the threat he poses. Morgana goes to see Gregory the next day to tell him about her findings. Gregory rides to the prison with Morgana and confronts Demarest, demanding he leave Morgana alone. Demarest turns the tables on Gregory by duplicating Morgana's voice, speaking seductively to Gregory.

Later that evening, Morgana begins undergoing a number of rituals aimed at purifying her soul, as only someone pure of heart can banish the Djinn back into his prison. Back at the prison, Demarest kills the prison warden, and escapes with a Russian inmate he befriended named Osip (Oleg Vidov). Osip brings Demarest to Pushkin, a Russian-American mob boss whom Osip despises, and tells him that Demarest is a Wishmaster who can give Pushkin anything he wants. But Pushkin brushes them off, but as he is leaving, Demarest asks if Pushkin has any enemies he would like to see eliminated, and a rival crime boss named Moustafa is brought up. The mere mention of Moustafa's name sends Pushkin into a rage. Carelessly, fueled by his anger, Pushkin wishes to have Moustafa's head, unexpectedly gaining his appearance, thus rendering Pushkin nonexistent, and Osip takes over as the ruler of his criminal empire. Morgana rushes into the club room, shooting Demarest, but she and Osip freeze in horror as this only causes the Djinn to assume his true form, as he mocks her foolishness.

Gregory finds Morgana praying feverishly at the church altar, and sobbing inconsolably. She confesses to Gregory that she tried to kill Demarest and then saw the Djinn's true face. She laments that her guilt, the blood of the innocent man she killed at the art gallery heist, can never be washed away, and so she can never hope to fight the Djinn. Gregory patiently counsels her, that God is on their side. It turns out Morgana is invulnerable when she attempts suicide so the Djinn can not grant her the three necessary wishes. Gregory has compiled more notes, including the incantation used by the alchemist who imprisoned the Djinn. Morgana has doubts in their plan, but as Gregory says it is the only one they have. Despite his initial reticence, Morgana and Gregory end up having sex.

In Vegas, the Djinn begins granting wishes to the casino patrons in order to collect the remaining required souls. As Morgana and Gregory ride a cab through Las Vegas to the casino Demarest is operating out of, the Djinn stands in his office in his true form where he claims the souls everyone gave up through their wishes. Noting that Demarest has left the fire opal on his desk, Gregory quietly inches toward it while Demarest is speaking to Morgana. Demarest catches him and Gregory wishes for the Djinn to be sent back to hell. The Djinn grants his wish - with the caveat that they come along with him - and they're transported inside the fire opal where Gregory is crucified and killed after Morgana wishes for him to be released. Morgana angrily wishes for a world without evil; the Djinn says without evil, good cannot exist. He warns her that he is losing his patience with her. Morgana tries desperately to resist the Djinn's will. Morgana's fears suddenly quiet and she asks the Djinn the meaning of fulfilling the prophecy. The Djinn impatiently recites the prophecy to her, that the one who wakes the Djinn shall have three wishes; upon the granting of all three, the race of Djinn will reign over the Earth. Due to a slip of the tongue, Morgana realizes the meaning of the prophecy, and wishes for the guard she killed to be alive again. After receiving a vision of the guard alive and well, her pureness of heart restored, she takes the Djinn's fire opal and intones the alchemist's chant, "Nib Sugaroth Baheim". The Djinn is again banished and all the victims returned to life.

Savage and Akira meet − seemingly for the first time − by Savage being dispatched by a Joyce Stone to liberate her sister, Rachel, whom Akira is guarding ''against'' that eventuality. Their brief clash triggers off memories of a previous meeting, where each believed he saw the other die in the course of a prior mission of protection together; memories that are quite obviously false, but that both believe to be entirely real. The two join together to uncover a string of other falsified memories, taking Rachel Stone with them – thus fulfilling both protectors' missions; Savage's to retrieve her, and Akira's to protect her.

This is a phenomenon that Savage identifies as ''jamais vu'', a familiar situation not recognized by the observer (this is considered the opposite of ''déjà vu''). In the book, the occurrence of this phenomenon is explained by the discovery of evidence of brain surgery performed on both men, entailing a scarring of the temporal lobe of the brain, or the amygdala hippocampal area by an electrode inserted through the skull -– a process similar to that used to treat epilepsy – while both men were subjected to a series of hypnosis and dramatic re-enactments of the false memories.. The process served to 'delete' Savage's and Akira's memories, and supplant them with falsified ones.

For the third time, the evil Wishmaster returns to wreck the lives of more innocents. This time, his victim is a beautiful, innocent and studious teenage girl named Diana Collins who accidentally opened up the Djinn's tomb (a strange box with a jewel inside) and released him. After gaining his freedom, the Djinn is asked by Professor Barash to let him be the one who makes the wishes. The professor wishes for two of the world's loveliest ladies to be in love with him.

However, as soon as the Djinn grants this wish, the women kill the professor; the Djinn takes the face off of the dead professor and is able to steal his identity. He then kills a secretary by her wishing for "files to burn up" but instead of the files, she burns. He takes the student file of Diana in an effort to find her and force her to fulfill her three wishes. While Diana is on the run, she must endeavor to prevent the Djinn from subjecting the entire world to Hell's wrath. She goes to a church for safety, but the Djinn is there instead of the priest. Her friend Ann, who is now the "professor's Teaching Assistant" makes the wish of "wanting to lose a little weight", to which she pukes up her guts in pain. Diana uses her first wish for her to stop having pain, but of course to the Djinn, that means killing Ann.

Diana, noting that she is in a St. Michael church, uses another wish to summon the archangel Michael who possesses the body of her boyfriend, Greg (it was about to be her body, but Greg pushed her away as the spirit went into him). A fight ensues with the Djinn actually somewhat winning, but Michael and Diana escape into a stage theater. As the Djinn tries to follow them, he goes a different way and encounters a female student named Elinor who puts the moves on him, and then wishes for him to "break her heart", which he literally does resulting in her death. Next, the Djinn goes into Diana's room where her friend Billy is. Billy is killed by telling the Djinn to "blow him"; he blows his body into a wooden head of a bull, and the horns pierce into his body. The Djinn then picks up a photo of Diana and her friends, and threatens to hurt Katie unless Diana makes her third wish. Michael has revealed to her that only by using his sword can she kill the Djinn. She isn't ready, and when he does try to give her the sword, it severely burns her arm, but Michael heals it.

Katie happens to find the dead body of Billy and finds herself being pursued by the Djinn into a science room, where the Djinn tricks her into thinking she could successfully hide from him. When she wishes "for a place to hide", he sticks her head into a cage of lab rats that bite at her head, resulting in her death.

A second battle ensues between Michael and the Djinn, resulting in the Djinn's hand briefly being cut off by the sword, but it grows back. Michael escapes with Diana in a car, but the Djinn runs to the car, jumps on top of it, and tries to hurt them. Diana drives his side into another car, thus making him fall off. She then careens into an information post and the car is flipped, mimicking how her parents had died years earlier.

In the end, Diana's attempt to commit suicide by jumping off a building actually gives her the ability to wield Michael's sword, and she kills the Djinn with it, but is fatally injured when they both fall in the process. Michael heals her wounds before returning to Heaven, and Diana is finally able to admit she loves her boyfriend, who has returned to normal.

As in the previous films, an evil genie is released from his prison and must grant three wishes to the person who awakens him in order to release the race of Djinn from Hell and allow them to take over the Earth.

Painter Sam and his girlfriend Lisa have just moved in together, when he has a terrible accident that leaves him paraplegic when the bones in his lower legs are fractured. Due to his condition, Sam grows ever more distant from Lisa, ruminating on his and Lisa's inability to have sex, and believing that she is having an affair with their lawyer Steven.

Sensing Sam's growing distance from Lisa, Steven offers Lisa a jewel he found hidden away in an antique desk. The jewel, unknown to Steven, is the Djinn's cell. Lisa inadvertently awakens the Djinn, which secretly kills Steven and takes his form. The Djinn/Steven begins making advances on Lisa to trick her into making wishes.

She first wishes for the case on Sam's condition to be won. The Djinn calls the opposing attorney and forces him to torture himself until he signs a settlement for 10 million dollars. The Djinn next takes Lisa out to a restaurant called The Palace to celebrate the winning of the case, asking her what she wishes for the most. When she says she wishes Sam could walk again, the Djinn grants this wish, enabling Sam to walk, but not repairing the injuries that left him paralyzed. They next go to Steven's place where they share champagne. While getting more for them to drink, the Djinn hears Lisa wish she could love "Steven" for who he really is.

Aware that his true form will lose her forever, he is unable to grant the third wish right away. The Djinn spends much time trying to decipher human love in order to "make" Lisa truly love him, and in the process he develops feelings for her.

An angel attempts to kill Lisa to prevent the third wish from being granted to her, which would cause the release of all Djinn and an ensuing armageddon. However, Steven arrives and sends her away to safety. The angel and the Djinn fight, with the Djinn eventually winning the battle and killing the angel. Steven later arrives at Lisa's house and they have sex in the living room. Lisa realizes she has missed having sex but does not love Steven. Steven asks Lisa very emphatically if she "truly [loves him] for who [he is]" in an attempt to make her grant the third wish; however she is taken aback and somewhat repulsed by his pushiness.

The Djinn brethren make their presence known, forcing Lisa to flee. Using his magic to make the upstairs a looping maze, Steven brings Lisa back to the bedroom and reveals his true form to her, offering Lisa a choice: take his hand as the second in command when the Djinn race takes over the world, or to be cast down to another dimension of Hell.

Sam returns and tries to save the day with the angel's sword, but is stabbed by the Djinn. While the Djinn is still attempting to convince Lisa to take his hand, Sam signals Lisa to push the Djinn through the blade, which is sticking out of Sam. Lisa does so, and both the Djinn and Sam perish. Lisa makes it out of the house and looks back at it, remembering the happier times that she and Sam shared.

While on assignment in Nigeria, covert operative Michael Westen learns that he's been "burned". For a spy, it is the equivalent of being fired. A burned spy is blacklisted from all government agencies and resources; his bank accounts are frozen and his credit is trashed. Michael barely escapes Nigeria and wakes up, battered, in a motel in Miami, Florida. In order to survive and fund his own personal investigation, Michael enlists the help of the only two "friends" he has: Fiona Glenanne, an ex-IRA operative who also happens to be an ex-girlfriend, and Sam Axe, a washed-out military intelligence contact who has been under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He is also forced to deal with the family he went halfway around the world to get away from—particularly his mother, Madeline Westen, who could not be happier to have her son back in town.

Through former spy-turned-security consultant Lucy Chen—whom Michael helped learn the trade—he gets a lead on a small investigation job: a caretaker of an estate, Javier (David Zayas), has been accused of stealing valuable art from his employer, Graham Pyne (Ray Wise). All evidence points to it being an inside job and Javier, with very little money to offer, has nowhere else to turn. When Michael begins to dig around, he quickly discovers that it was in fact an inside job: Pyne orchestrated the robbery and framed Javier in order to collect insurance.

Michael confronts Pyne with the incriminating evidence. When Pyne and his bodyguard come after Javier and his son, Michael is already a step ahead of them and has set up a trap at Javier's house. After the smoke clears, Pyne has accidentally shot his bodyguard, and Michael has enough evidence to send both of them to jail for conspiracy to commit kidnapping. With the mounting evidence hanging over his head, Pyne agrees to clear Javier's name and provide financial support to Javier and his son.

Meanwhile, Michael keeps trying to get in touch with his old government handler, Dan Siebels (Dan Martin), who will not accept his calls. Deciding to get creative, Michael resorts to mailing Siebels a fake bomb in order to get his attention. The ploy works, and Michael finally gets to confront Siebels about the burn notice. Siebels believes Michael has probably been framed and there is nothing he can do to help him, but that he still has allies within the Agency. He tells Michael not to leave Miami, unless he wants a FBI manhunt after him. To top it all off, Michael returns home to find his door open and the floor covered with surveillance photos. It is not the FBI, but whoever it is, they have been tracking his every move. And they have left a message: "Welcome to Miami."

Clara, (Sylvie Testud), works in a birdshop. She is concerned about her deaf-mute daughter Anna, (Camille Gauthier), whom she is bringing up on her own. She has never spoken a single word. Clara herself is illiterate. Ever since her grandmother Baba, whom she adored, had been the victim of an attack when she was reading her a story, she has always refused to learn to read and write. Now that the silence of her daughter Anna is causing her to be bullied by her peers, Clara feels obliged to withdraw her from her school, and to enrol her in a school for the deaf-mute, run by Vincent, (Sergi López). Vincent, the principal, suggests giving his new pupil particular classes to teach her Sign Language, and so facilitate Anna's integration.

While the human race struggles at war with the Fallers, an advanced alien race, an artifact is discovered which might be the key to a lost science, be a weapon itself, or a doomsday device.

The film tells the story of Lara, who grows up as the daughter of deaf parents, Martin and Kai. Lara herself is hearing and is fluent in sign language. Even as a young child, she serves as an interpreter for her parents in many situations, such as credit negotiations at the bank as well as her own parent–teacher conference, although not always completely truthfully.

Lara receives a clarinet for Christmas from Clarissa, her father's sister and an enthusiastic musician. Lara discovers the world of music, where her parents cannot follow her. In the years that follow, she is discovered to be a talented clarinet player. When 18-year-old Lara wants to study at a music conservatory in Berlin, the family seems to break apart. Lara finds love in Berlin with a teacher of deaf children.

After Kai is killed in a bicycle accident, Lara's grieving father feels abandoned. Lara bounces from her family home, to her aunt's, to her uncle's before returning to her childhood home. The ending seems to reconcile it all: Martin tries to understand the love of music that his daughter feels, and the film comes to a careful reunion between him and Lara.

Captain Robert Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame. While icebound, the crew spots two dog sleds, one chasing the other. A few hours later, the crew rescues one of the sled drivers, a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton.

Victor begins by telling of his childhood in 1793. Born into a wealthy family in Geneva, he grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends. Weeks before he leaves for university in Germany, his mother dies of scarlet fever. At university, he develops a secret technique to imbue inanimate bodies with life with electricity.

After bringing a deceased dog back to life he decides to create a life using parts of the dead. He succeeds but is repulsed by his work: he flees the room, and the Creature disappears. Collapsing from pneumonia brought on by overwork and emotional stress, he is nursed back to health by his friend, Henry Clerval and Elizabeth. He returns home to find his brother William murdered. Certain this is the work of the Creature, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The Creature finds Victor and tells him how he had become afraid of people and spent the first year of his life alone, learning to speak and read through his observation of a family whose shed he lived in. After approaching the blind grandfather, who responded to him in kindness, the Creature was physically attacked by the old man's son and ran away. Traveling to Geneva, he met a little boy — Victor's brother William — outside the town of Plainpalais. Wanting to keep the boy from yelling, the creature accidentally killed him. Even though this was accidental the creature took this as his first act of vengeance against his creator. The Creature concludes his story with a demand that Frankenstein create for him a female companion like himself promising that if Victor grants his request, he and his mate will vanish into the uninhabited wilderness of South America.

Victor reluctantly agrees. Clerval tries to talk Victor out of his mission. Horrified by the idea that creating a mate for the Creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of creatures, he abandons the project, destroying the notebook in which he had recorded the method by which he had brought the male Creature to life and then setting fire to the not-yet-living Bride. Furious, the Creature swears vengeance against Victor, promising to "be with him on his wedding night," and, shortly after, murders Clerval. Victor is imprisoned for the murder and suffers a mental breakdown. After being acquitted, and with his health renewed, he returns home with his father. Once home, Victor marries Elizabeth, but on the evening of the wedding, the Creature sneaks into the bedroom and strangles her to death. Victor's father goes mad with grief. Victor vows to hunt down and destroy the Creature. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole.

After hearing Frankenstein's story, Walton relents and agrees to head for home. Frankenstein begs the captain to finish off what he could not, as the creature cannot be left alive. Close to death, he sees the ghost of his beloved wife beckoning to him, and dies shortly after. Walton soon after discovers the Creature on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the Creature's misguided reasons for his vengeance as well as expressions of remorse. Frankenstein's death has not brought him any peace. Rather, his crimes have increased his misery and alienation; he has found only his own emotional ruin in the destruction of his creator and feels once again abandoned. He vows to kill himself on his own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of his existence. Walton watches as the Creature, carrying his creator's body, wanders off into the icy wastes of the arctic never to be seen again.

While looking for his beloved acorn, Scrat encounters a female flying saber-tooth squirrel named Scratte, whom he falls in love with. But when he finds Scratte holding a acorn he gets greedy and steals it from her. Scratte then starts to cry making Scrat give back the acorn, but due to his obsession with acorns, refuses to let go. While doing so, he accidentally throws her off the cliff. He jumps to save her, but she tricks him and steals back the acorn while he falls from the cliff. Meanwhile, Manny and Ellie are married and expecting their first child. Manny is determined to make life perfect and safe for both Ellie and the baby, as he doesn't want them to suffer the same fate as his previous family. At the same time, Diego debates whether he should leave the herd because he thinks that he's losing his edge as a hunter and isn't meant for the family life. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own and adopts three apparently lost eggs that he finds in an icy cave. Manny tells him to put them back, but Sid ignores him and looks after the eggs, which hatch into baby ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' the next morning. Meanwhile, Scrat manages to grab Scratte's tail and try to steal back the acorn but fall into a tar pit. However, they manage to survive by getting into a tar pit bubble, Scrat and Scratte race to get the acorn. Scrat wins and later falls into the icy cave.

Although Sid tries his best to raise the three dinosaurs, their rambunctious behavior scares away all the younger animals and ruins the playground Manny built for his child, angering Manny. Not long after, a female ''Tyrannosaurus'', whose eggs Sid stole, returns. When Sid refuses to return the babies, she carries both Sid and her young underground, with Diego in pursuit. Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie follow as well and discover that the icy cave leads to a vast subterranean jungle populated by dinosaurs thought to be extinct. Here, an angry ''Ankylosaurus'' threatens The Herd despite Diego's efforts to fend it off. Then they are saved from a further crowd of angry reptiles by a deranged, quick-witted, one-eyed weasel named Buck.

Buck reveals that he has been living in this jungle for quite some time and is fighting Rudy, a huge fearsome, ill-tempered and hostile albino ''Baryonyx'' feared by the inhabitants of the jungle, intending to avenge the eye he lost to him years prior during an ill-fated encounter. He agrees to lead The Herd through the jungle's perils to Lava Falls, where the mother T-Rex has kidnapped Sid and her babies. In the meantime, Scrat continues his battle of getting his acorn back from Scratte, resulting in a chase in the Chasm of Death and a tango dance battle. As Scratte tries to fly away with Scrat's acorn, Scrat manages to grab Scratte's tail and hang from a cliff with lava at the bottom. Scrat later uses a fainted Scratte to save each other and the acorn from the lava. Scratte later falls into Scrat's arms and the two fall in love with each other and share a kiss. Meanwhile, Sid and the mother ''Tyrannosaurus'' try to outdo each other in feeding the offspring; Sid loses this contest but is welcomed into the family regardless. The next day, however, Sid is separated from the ''Tyrannosaurus'' family and is attacked by Rudy. He is knocked onto a loose rock slab that is floating on a river of lava and about to plummet over the falls.

As the herd moves toward the lava falls, Ellie suddenly goes into labor and a pack of ''Guanlong'' attack them, causing a rock slide that separates her from Manny and Diego. While Manny makes his way up to her, Diego assists in the delivery and fends off further attacks. Meanwhile, Buck takes Crash and Eddie to rescue Sid. Just as he goes over the falls, the trio swoops in on a commandeered ''Harpactognathus'', narrowly saving Sid's life. Manny reaches Ellie just in time to hear the cry of a newborn baby girl. The couple agree to name the baby "Peaches". Sid is sad at the fact that he never had a chance to say goodbye to the T-Rex children as he returns to The Herd and learns of Peaches' birth. Scrat and Scratte have some romantic moments together, both forgeting about the acorn.

Before they can leave the jungle, they are ambushed by Rudy. Working together, Manny, Sid, Diego, and Buck manage to trap Rudy by ensnaring him in vines. However, he quickly breaks free and resumes his onslaught. The herd is saved by the timely arrival of the mother ''Tyrannosaurus'', who charges at Rudy and knocks him off a cliff where he falls to his presumed death. As she and her children wish Sid well, Buck, now without a purpose in life since Rudy is gone, decides to join The Herd and live on the surface. However, a distant roar tells him that Rudy is still alive. Because of this he changes his mind and sends The Herd home, blocking off the path to the underground jungle by severing the vines supporting a skeleton bridge that causes a cave-in at the same time. Manny and Ellie welcome Peaches into their frozen world and Manny admits to Sid that he did a good job looking after the baby dinosaurs. Diego decides to remain with the herd, while Buck stays underground, happily battling with Rudy. Meanwhile Scrat and Scratte decide to live in the jungle together. Unfortunately, Scrat's greed for his precious acorn overcomes his newfound romance with Scratte, and he ultimately chooses the acorn over her (along with getting tired of her bossy ways). The two battle once more for the acorn, which results in Scrat being accidentally launched back to the surface while Scratte falls back in the dinosaur world, making it her new home. Scrat taunts her about the acorn, but once again loses it after a large piece of ice knocks it out of his hands, much to his frustration.

Summary

Following the losses of the harsh winter in White Deer Park, the animals face a new danger when they are treated with hostility by many of the Park's residents, including the territorial fox, Scarface.

Detailed

The book begins with the birth of Vixen's four cubs: Bold, Friendly, Charmer and Dreamer. Shortly afterwards an old scar faced fox, who is referred to as Scarface, approaches them. He tell them that his family has lived on this land since before it became a nature reserve and he does not like foxes from outside. Later Scarface watches Fox and Vixen training their cubs to hunt. Annoyed by how competent Bold is, Scarface attacks them and tries to kill Bold, but is beaten back by Bold and Vixen while the other cubs run away. Though Scarface is forced to retreat, Dreamer is later found dead, her body having been brutally mauled, and Fox has no doubt that Scarface was the culprit.

Fox and Vixen then accompany their cubs at all times while they hunt, but Bold resents this and demands greater freedom. Upon being granted this freedom he leaves the part of White Deer Park where the Farthing Wood animals live, despite his father telling him to not leave this area. While exploring he meets Adder who warns him that Scarface patrols this area; then Ranger, one of Scarface's sons and Scarface then suddenly appear and attack Bold. Though Bold evades Scarface and Ranger, Scarface calls upon a dozen nearby foxes who encircle Bold.

Adder tells Hare that Bold has been captured, and Hare informs Fox and Vixen. Fox then calls the Farthing Wood animals together and everyone heads off together to rescue Bold. Fox, Vixen, Friendly, and Charmer go on ahead to face Scarface while the other animals remain behind. Bold then suddenly appears and tell everyone that he was able to escape from Scarface's foxes by tricking one of the guards and outrunning the rest. When told by Kestrel that Fox is trying to rescue him Bold regrets his rash actions. The animals head towards Fox and find that the Great White Stag is mediating the conflict between Fox and Scarface, resolving it without any fighting. The animals later realise that Adder asked the Great White Stag to be the mediator.

Later, Scarface kills Hare's mate, and Fox decides that Scarface has to be killed. As Scarface is the main threat and has no successor Fox is confident that killing Scarface will cause their problems to end. While Fox wants Adder to kill Scarface he knows that asking Adder directly will not work, so he has Bold and Friendly go and hint to Adder that killing Scarface is vital for everyone's safety. However Bold is not cunning enough to fool Adder and after mentioning that Hare's mate has been killed Adder promises to 'even the score'. Adder then poisons one of Ranger's cousins and returns to Fox only to learn that Fox wanted him to kill Scarface. Fox is angry with Bold for not passing on the message correctly, but Adder does accept part of the blame so Bold is not punished so harshly.

Fox has his family, Badger, Tawny Owl, and Weasel act as guards during the night; while Scarface decides to hunt down the snake that killed his relative. Charmer and Ranger meet one night and start to fall in love. Friendly learns of this but decides not to tell anyone else. Meanwhile, Adder decides to hide and wait for Scarface, however due to the cold weather he has to leave his shelter and bask in the sunlight. Ranger spots Adder and tells his father. Scarface sneaks up on Adder and tries to kill him but only manages to bite off the end of Adder's tail. Adder retreats down a hole and waits for Scarface to leave. Scarface tries to determine whether Adder was the one that killed one of his foxes, but Adder refuses to tell him so he leaves. Due to being maimed Adder is annoyed with himself for helping Fox and plots revenge against Scarface. Meanwhile, Charmer is put on guard duty and fails to meet Ranger. Ranger finds her, but they are discovered by Bold. This causes Fox and Vixen to find out about Ranger and Charmer's relationship and Fox and Bold oppose it.

After his failure to kill Adder, Scarface decides to launch an attack on the Farthing Wood animals with a dozen foxes. Ranger goes to warn the Farthing Wood animals but runs into Scarface who is testing the lie of the land. Thinking this is why Ranger is here Scarface praises him and they go hunting together. Ranger tries to persuade Scarface to call off the attack, but this annoys Scarface and he calls Ranger a coward. The next day Scarface's group of foxes is seen by Kestrel who informs the other animals. The hares hide in the rabbits' warren, the squirrels hide in trees, and the rest of the animals hide in Badger's set. Finding the woods empty and seeing Kestrel overhead Scarface realise that the animals have been warned and has Ranger track them down. Ranger follows the scent of Charmer, then leads the rest of the foxes in the wrong direction so they lose the scent. Unfortunately, Mole thinks the foxes are his friends and tunnels upwards to see what is happening. Fortunately he is able to retreat before the foxes can eat him.

After much searching, Ranger finds and enters the set where the animals are hiding but plans to tell his father than this set is empty. This impresses Fox, but unfortunately Scarface knows they are in the set and demand they come out or be starved to death. Fox emerges from the set and challenges Scarface to single combat, which Scarface accepts. Though Scarface puts up a fierce fight, Fox eventually gets the upper hand and severely injures him, but lets him live. When the Warden suddenly arrives all the foxes flee. As a result of his defeat, the other foxes will no longer follow Scarface.

When Scarface has regained his strength, he makes a solo raid on Farthing Wood territory, killing most of the voles and fieldmice, four rabbits, and a single squirrel. In the morning, Fox regrets not killing Scarface and decides to tell the Great Stag what has happened. Whistler then points out that because the animals have tried to build a new Farthing Wood in the park this has caused them to be isolated from the other animals. He recommends that like him the other animals should choose a mate from the animals in White Deer Park. Meanwhile, Scarface takes a drink from a stream, but Adder ambushes him, and bites him in the leg, releasing all of his venom into him. Scarface dies, and Adder later tells his friends about his triumph. After celebrating, the animals of Farthing Wood decide to try to find mates among the inhabitants of White Deer Park.

Bold then leaves the reserve to seek out new adventures. Ranger finds his older brother Blaze and his mother trying to hunt down the snake that killed Scarface. To protect Adder Ranger claims that he killed it, then he and Charmer leave to build a new earth. Friendly tries to convince Russet, one of Scarface's relatives, to be his mate. Mole falls in love with a female mole called Mateless, who Badger renames Mirthful. Weasel, Kestrel, Hare, and Leveret (Hare's son) also find mates. However, Tawny Owl and Badger remain bachelors.

Each episode was set in an unsuccessful pub in London's East End. At the end of each episode, a disaster, visit from royalty, angry mob etc. destroys the pub. The pub is run by brothers, the nervous Barry and the idiotic Garry. The only regulars of the pub are Bob and Dodgy Phil. Every episode revolves around one of Dodgy Phil's plans to improve the pub, a plan which Barry always has doubts about. The doubts are often confirmed due to the pub's destruction at the end of every episode. One of the running jokes in the series is that, as the pub is next to a zoo, unusual animals are often found inside it. The plot often follows the same formula; The pub is destroyed or needs rebuilding, and Dodgy Phil produces a scheme to re-launch the pub, which Barry disputes. Dodgy Phil telephones a friend, such as 'Mock Tudor Mick' or 'Logistical Nightmare Len', who arrives immediately to rebuild the pub, together with a set of characters represented by sound effects, and often Edith Piaf. The work is then finished in a short sound effect (often to the sound of Je ne regrette rien). The plan is flawed, and the pub is destroyed or closed down at the end of each episode.

In a live news report, a high-speed car chase comes to an end in the Nevada desert. Assuming it to be a kidnapping, police pull the female passenger from the car and place her into the protective custody of a police vehicle. The driver, Patrick Crump (Bryan Cranston), is pushed to the asphalt and handcuffed. The woman, his wife, begins violently banging her head against the police car window. As the news chopper catches all of this on film, the woman's head explodes, sending a spray of blood across the window.

Mulder and Scully get wind of this bizarre car chase as they're doing work in Buhl, Idaho investigating possible domestic terrorism. Mulder coerces Scully into taking a detour to Elko, Nevada on a hunch that this may be an X-File. Crump, who has started to develop symptoms of a sickness, is put in an ambulance. Mulder, wishing to speak to Crump, follows the ambulance and ends up being kidnapped by Crump, who has escaped from the police.

Mulder realizes that Crump is suffering from a painful sensation of pressure building in his head and that the only way to alleviate this pressure is to drive west. At first, Scully believes that Crump is suffering from some sort of infection; she takes a hazmat team to investigate the Crumps' home and finds a dog suffering the same symptoms and dead birds on a neighbor's property, but on noting that the neighbor herself, who is deaf, was unaffected, she then discovers a U.S. Navy antenna array emitting ELF waves stretches beneath their property. Scully deduces that an abnormal surge in these waves somehow caused a rising pressure in the inner ear of the nearby inhabitants. Westward motion and an increase in speed seem to be the only thing to help ease the pain of the increasing pressure.

Initially, thinking that the FBI agent is part of a government conspiracy, Crump forces Mulder at gunpoint to drive, infuriating him along the way with antisemitic slurs. Eventually, Mulder and Crump make amends and attempt to work out a solution before it is too late. Mulder explains to Crump that Scully will meet them at the Pacific Coast, the end of the highway. There she will insert a needle into Crump's inner ear, hopefully relieving the pressure. Unfortunately, when Scully arrives, Crump has already died.

While in the middle of fighting, the Gekirangers and Mere are teleported to Hong Kong, along with Rio and various other martial artists around the world. Just as Rio and Jyan were about to fight, they meet the mysterious Lao Fan before seeing others brought to the island as well. They all then meet Miranda, the secretary to Yang, a media mogul who brought them all together for the to prove who's the strongest of them all. The first round of fighting leaves the Gekirangers, their Rinjūken rivals, Lao, Barnard Koyama, and Big the Goto as the winners. At the banquet hall, Ran, Retu, Rio, and Mere meet Yang Lo himself while Jyan follow Lao Fan and learns she's actually a member of the Hong Kong police who is investigating Yang, who founded Mechung Fu and used his tournament to gather strongest fighters as part of his plan to rule the world, finding the ideal Ki he needs: from the Jūken users. Geki Blue, Geki Yellow, Rio, and Mere attempt to fight off Miranda as Yang takes his leave, finding Jyan and Lao in his base of operations before they restrained him. However, the Ki Miranda collected before she died transfers to Yang's computer, transforming Yang into a cyborg Beastman before he starts absorbing more Ki to become a supreme being. The Gekirangers battle Yang Lo, refusing to give up in spite of him being stronger than them. Evading his defeat, Yan activates his giant robot Mechannon to terrorize the city. When GekiTohja proves no match for Mechannon, Rio and Mere take offense to Yang's comments on the Jūken style and are forced to help the Gekirangers by summoning Rin Lion and Rin Chameleon to combine with GekiTohja to form GekiRinTohja to destroy Mechannon, killing Yang in the process. Once the fight is over, in spite of the Gekirangers' amazement at the power of the united Jūken schools, Rio takes his leave with Mere telling them that nothing changed between them. The next day, Lao thanks the Gekirangers as they were about to leave for Japan when Miki, Natsume, and Xia Fu arrive for a vacation in Hong Kong.

Background

Economic upheaval around the world in the early 1990s becomes an opportunity for France and Germany to consolidate their power in Europe through an alliance called the European Confederation or EurCon. However, it is a continental partnership in name only; France provides the political power with the Germans carrying the economic muscle. The instability and the countries' political differences with the United States causes the dissolution of NATO in 1996.

Story

The main plot takes place in 1998. Because North African immigrants are flooding Europe looking for work, riots in France and Germany prompts both countries to force a number of former Warsaw Pact nations to accept them in various factories. The first of these is a Eurocopter plant in Hungary. To further ensure subservience to EurCon, military governments are installed in several countries. The Russian army launches a coup in Moscow as well and put the incumbent Russian president under house arrest.

Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia stand up against EurCon, which gradually deploys combat troops to their borders. France also negotiates with Russia to stop natural-gas shipments to Poland. The United States comes in to support Poland by sending an LNG tanker to Gdańsk; French covert operatives, however, blow it up in the harbor. The U.S. Navy starts sending armed convoys to force a breakthrough of the Baltic Sea and keep the supply lines open.

French oppression in Eastern Europe comes to a head in May 1998 when a people's uprising in Budapest results in the puppet regime's collapse. Seeing the turmoil as a potential harbinger for unrest, France orders military forces to subjugate the Hungarians days later; however, the Hungarian Army slows down the French assault.

The French and Germans invade Poland two months after the attack on Hungary. Because of heavy opposition, the Poles figure out that the EurCon armies plan to envelop Polish forces in a pincer movement and pull them out to safe havens in Eastern Poland. Meanwhile, the US convoys in the North Sea are still on track for Poland. EurCon mobilizes their air forces to stop the Americans, who have laid a trap. Much of the EurCon strike force is destroyed, and a last-ditch attempt to destroy the U.S. fleet with ASMP nuclear-tipped missiles is thwarted. The failed nuclear attack forces the US to launch Operation Counterweight - a concerted strike on enemy facilities in France and Germany proper. A B-52 raid levels French resupply facilities in Metz while a surgical strike destroys France's S3 IRBM silos in the Plateau d'Albion, Vaucluse. Some EurCon planes in the Polish front are sent home for local defense.

Behind the scenes, the French seeks Russian intervention against the anti-EurCon forces, which are fighting delaying actions to buy time for the American troops disembarking in Gdańsk. CIA operatives make contact with loyalist Russian officers and learn that the EurCon-Russia treaty will both lead to a massive Russian invasion of Europe and French support for an ultra-nationalist plan for Russia to forcibly re-create the Eastern Bloc; the CIA agents are shocked when the lead loyalist officer bluntly says that the treaty can be killed off by wiping out the top conspirators before they can send enforcement orders from Moscow. Although the negotiations are complete, the assassination team successfully eliminates emissaries from both sides before the orders are transmitted. The Russian President is also rescued and Russian forces assembling at the Polish frontier waiting for the attack signal are ordered to withdraw instead.

The EurCon offensive is finally stopped when elements of the US 101st Airborne Division hold the line in a wooded area near the town of Swiecie in time for other US armored units to reinforce them. Angered at the lack of reconnaissance of the US lines, French commanders consider redirecting part of the other EurCon forces in Hungary to join the push north. A German colonel already angry at the French holding back their troops while German forces are left to die as cannon fodder leads fellow troops in deserting the French. The Germans fight off a French attack on their command post. Word of the attack and the revelations about the Franco-Russian negotiations leads Germany to sever their ties with EurCon; the German chancellor who negotiated the country's membership is forced to resign. With US assistance, Belgium and the Netherlands declare war on France, which finds itself bereft of allies when the other EurCon member-states desert as well.

The French Fifth Republic also falls; French President Nicolas Desaix, who engineered the establishment of EurCon, is arrested and petty thugs hired by the DGSE kill him in his cell. The murder prompts the newly established French Sixth Republic to finally take action against the DGSE and its associated organizations. With the war finally over, the United States hosts an international free-trade summit in London. US troops in Poland also return home.

Saul, a brave warrior, was crowned king of Israel at the request of the people and consecrated by the priest Samuel, who anointed him in the name of God. Over time, however, Saul turned away from God and ended up doing various acts of impiety. Then Samuel, by order of God, consecrated a humble shepherd as king: David. He was called to the court of Saul to appease the king's soul with his song, and there he succeeded in obtaining the friendship of Jonathan, son of the king, and the hand of the young daughter of Saul, Micol.

However, David generated a strong envy in the king, who saw in him a usurper and at the same time saw his past youth in it. David was persecuted by Saul and forced to take refuge in the lands of the Philistines (and for this accused of treason).

The story of the Saul narrates the last hours of the king's life and sees the return of David, who as a brave warrior rushed to the aid of his people at war with the Philistines, despite knowing full well the risk that this could entail for his life. David is ready to be killed by the king, but first he wants to be able to fight with his people.

Saul seeing him wants to kill him, but after listening to him he is convinced to give him command of the army. David at one point, however, makes a mistake, speaking of "two lambs" in Israel, and this generates Saul's murderous delirium towards the young man. Saul then explains to Jonathan the harsh law of the throne, according to which "brother kills brother". Before the king comes the priest Achimelech, who brings divine condemnation to Jonathan and informs him of the coronation of David. The king has the priest killed, and from there he will go more and more towards delirium.

In the last act, Saul foresees in a nightmare his own death and that of his sons and with a vision full of blood he awakens, and grasps the reality of the facts: the Philistines are attacking them, and the Israelite army is unable to defend itself. At this point Saul finds himself again, and by killing himself he regains the integrity of a man and a king.

Bob Maconel is an insignificant office worker who fantasizes about murdering his coworkers. On one particularly bad day, Bob is about to go on a murderous rampage when his coworker, Ralf Coleman, beats him to it, shooting up the office and killing several people. Bob shoots Coleman dead with the gun he planned to use on the others. He finds Venessa, a pretty executive he has never had the courage to talk to, wounded on the floor, and saves her life. The former invisible nobody is suddenly thrown into the spotlight of public notice, and he is considered a hero by those he wished to murder. His boss, Gene Shelby, promotes Bob to "VP of Creative Thinking" and gives him all the perks of higher management. Meanwhile, he visits Venessa, who is now a quadriplegic; at first she curses him for not letting her die, and then she asks him to put her out of her misery.

Venessa asks Bob to let her roll down a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Bob debates whether or not to go through with it, scrawling "should I finish what Coleman started?", on a piece of paper. Bob initially agrees, and takes Venessa out for one last night on the town before letting her end her life. At the crucial moment, however, he cannot bring himself to let go of her chair, as he has fallen in love with her. They then discover that she can wiggle her little finger, providing hope that she may recover, and they become romantically involved. Bob is still trapped by the demons of his past, however, and fears that as soon as Venessa recovers, she will leave him. He becomes especially insecure when he finds out that Venessa and Shelby were once lovers.

The company psychiatrist, Maurice Gregory, reveals that he knows Bob wrote the note about Coleman, and that Bob was only promoted so management could keep an eye on him. Bob flies into a rage, gets into a fight with two coworkers, and storms out. He returns home to find Shelby visiting Venessa with gifts, further igniting Bob's jealousy. Once Shelby leaves, Bob demands to know what the two of them were doing; Venessa replies that Shelby has become concerned about Bob's behavior and stopped by to check on him. However, Bob opens Shelby's gift and finds photos of Shelby and Venessa together. Bob has a mental breakdown and goes back to the office, bringing his gun with him.

Finally, it is revealed that Bob has been hallucinating all of the events since just before the initial shooting. This time, he is in the same position as Coleman was, only instead of killing his coworkers, he shoots himself in front of Venessa. The last scenes show police searching his house to find a note that reads "you may ask why I did what I did... but what choice did you give me? How else could I have gotten your attention?" In the news, reporters interview his neighbors, who say that "he was a quiet man."

The game centers on an astronaut, who newly arrived to Moon Base One. The playable character is a male referred to by his title: "Miner". The period wherein the story is set is a hypothetical 2030 future in which mining robots, settlements and advanced vehicles are on the Moon. The current version of the game allows the player to compete in two adventures aimed at mining the lunar Regolith to find minerals, build additional mining robots, and complete adventures for other characters.

The story is set in Europe between April 1938 and July 1939, a time of ever-increasing fear and apprehension throughout the continent. ''Nicholas Morath'' is an expatriate Hungarian in his forties and the co-owner of an advertising agency in Paris. His uncle, ''Count Janos Polanyi'', is a high-level functionary at the Hungarian embassy in France. Morath is in fact an amateur spy, sent on one dangerous mission after another at his uncle's behest (laundering money through the Antwerp diamond industry, or spending a week in a Romanian jail, for example). Polanyi tells his nephew little about the reasons for or the results of these excursions, and friction often rises between the two men. But after Polanyi disappears mysteriously, Morath continues his perilous work alone.

In one part of the video, the geek's parents get into an argument over the father creating a MySpace online profile for himself. The mother intends to, in turn, create one for herself, after becoming infatuated with Paisley after seeing him performing the song. "And he can sing!", she says to the father. "I can't sing?" the father inquires. "No!" she snaps back. The father then acts hurt, a tongue-in-cheek reference to William Shatner's own long-mocked music career. Later on, during the final scene of the music video, the mother tells Paisley "marching band music makes me...hot", to which Paisley stares at the camera in horror.

Novelist and playwright James Barrie (Ian Holm) meets the two oldest Davies boys, George and Jack, during outings with their nurse Mary Hodgson (Anna Cropper) in Kensington Gardens. He entertains them, especially George, with his fantasy stories, some of which include a magical young boy who shares a name with their infant brother Peter.

Barrie and his wife Mary (Maureen O'Brien) meet the boys' parents Sylvia (Ann Bell) and Arthur (Tim Pigott-Smith) at a dinner party, and he forms a friendship with the mother and her sons. The Barries and Davies socialize, but Mary and Arthur each quietly resent Barrie: Mary for neglecting her, and Arthur for imposing upon his family. Sylvia and Arthur have two more sons, Michael and Nico, whom Barrie adds to his circle of young friends. He writes a play inspired by them: ''Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'', which is a great success for him and his producer friend Charles Frohman (William Hootkins).

Arthur is struck by a disfiguring and ultimately fatal cancer. Barrie steps in to support the Davies family, attempting to be a friend to Arthur in his final days but alienating Jack with his interference. With George away at school, sensitive Michael becomes the centre of 'Uncle Jim's' attention. Tired of her husband's indifference toward her, Mary falls in love and has an affair with Barrie's young colleague Gilbert Cannan (Brian Stirner). When Barrie finds out, Mary refuses to end the affair, and he reluctantly grants her a divorce. Meanwhile, Sylvia has fallen ill with cancer, and dies a few years after her husband. Barrie claims they were engaged.

The boys continue to live in the Davies's London house with Mary Hodgson, and Barrie becomes their guardian, following Sylvia's wishes. As the years go by, George becomes an adult confidant to Barrie, while Jack joins the Navy. When World War I breaks out, George and Peter enlist. George is later killed in combat. Jack returns to London to marry. Barrie gives the newlywed the Davies's house, and Michael and Nico move in with him in his flat which prompts Mary Hodgson to resign. Peter returns from the War with a morbid outlook on death. Michael spends increasing time with his school friends and chafes at Barries's desire to keep him close; he drowns short of his 21st birthday. In later years, Barrie suffers loneliness but takes some measure of enjoyment in the company of the young son of his secretary, Lady Cynthia Asquith (Sheila Ruskin).

''Sonic Disruptors'' depicted a futuristic America ruled by a theocratic military dictatorship, where the only source of resistance is a pirate radio station broadcasting from orbit.

The story revolves around the young and talented natural gifted Torero Juan Gallardo (Christopher Rydell). Juan wants to be popular in bullfighting. One night, Juan takes the cousin of his love Carmen (Ana Torrent) with him for a bullfighting competition. They successfully earn some level and skills in the arena, but something goes wrong. As the bull charges at Juan, his friend saves Gallardo at the cost of his own life.

Juan then leaves, and meets a beautiful rich woman named Doña Sol (Sharon Stone), the daughter of a wealthy landowner. Lady Doña Sol offers Juan an opportunity to join her company as a worker of her fields and lands, but Juan insists on becoming a superstar as a bullfighter in his country. As Juan leaves her home, a security guard tells him to join the bullfighting trainer Nacional (Albert Vidal). Nacional trains Juan until he is able to join the national bullfighting competition. Another one of Juan's friends named Garabato (Guillermo Montesinos) also joins him. Juan displays brilliant skills in his first appearance of national league and his popularity rises.

Juan then marries Carmen, and his popularity increases weeks after weeks. Juan soon develops a crush on Lady Doña Sol, which starts a dramatic twist in the movie. As time passes, Juan falls deeply in love with Lady Doña Sol and offers to marry her, but Lady Doña Sol isn't interested in marrying him. Carmen finally visits Lady Doña Sol to talk about Juan, but instead, Lady Doña Sol shows where Juan is hiding.

That night, Juan goes to a midnight bar. Against the advice of Nacional, Juan gets drunk and hangs out with some bar girls. Nacional advises Juan to focus on the competition for the next day. In response, Juan kicks Nacional and asks him to leave; an angry Nacional complies and storms out of the bar.

Juan and Lady Doña Sol go to a popular city hotel, where Juan's rival, Pepe Serrano, is present. Juan angrily punches Serrano after he tries to make a move on Lady Doña Sol, but Serrano takes her anyway.

The next day, Juan drunkenly goes to the office of his manager Don Jose, accompanied by two girls. Nacional admonishes Juan again, and in response, Juan slaps him hard; Nacional gives up on teaching Juan.

To make amends for cheating on Carmen, Juan calls Carmen and apologizes, but Carmen does not forgive him.

The next day, the bullfight commences; Juan begins failing to control the bull. At the same time, Carmen and Juan's mother pray for him, while Juan's brother-in-law Antonio advises Carmen to go help Juan and forgive him.

As Carmen enters the stands, Nacional sees her and runs to Juan, telling him that Carmen has come to watch him. Before Juan begins the competition, he throws his cap to Carmen as an apology. Juan gives an outstanding performance, but in the final move, where he is about to kill the bull with his sword, the bull suddenly charges towards Juan, goring him in the stomach. The bull then throws him to the ground several times. Paramedics arrive and immediately take Juan to the emergency trauma room. Concerned for Juan, Carmen and Nacional follow them; Juan dies from the trauma and blood loss, and Carmen and Nacional walk away weeping.

Back in the arena, Serrano defeats the bull, winning the competition, and he is escorted out of the arena.

When inventor Mariko Tanaka (Hiroko Yakushimaru), who works for Hitachi appliances, accidentally re-engineers a washing machine for time travel, the Japanese government then convinces her to go back in time to prevent the passage of a fictitious law that would prevent the usage of real estate as collateral for loans, which was a major cause of the bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble. However, when contact is lost after she goes back in time, the government then sends Isao Shimokawaji (Hiroshi Abe), who works for the Finance Ministry's Emergency Response Bureau to convince Mariko's estranged daughter Mayumi (Ryōko Hirosue), to go back in time to investigate (other ministry officials tried to use the time machine but all they ended up with were faded socks).

Some knowledge of such things as the presence of electronic turnstiles in the Tokyo subway is helpful with some sight-gags.

The film is also notable for the cameo appearances of celebrities who rose to prominence in Japan in the early 90s, including actresses Ai Iijima and Naoko Iijima, announcer Akiko Yagi, and soccer star Ruy Ramos. Each actor portrays a younger version of themselves.

Player assumes the role of a Q, an all-powerful being who is anxious to reign most clever amongst a bevy of other Qs. By utilizing collectible pieces from ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', the player manipulates the galaxy, hoping to outwit the competition and emerge victorious.

Player starts off with a predetermined set of pieces, constructed from a group of more than 150 characters, weapons, and ships, each with varying abilities and value. Player uses their pieces to gain control of the planets in their quadrant, as well as to attack and fend off their opponent's pieces. A player wins by seizing control of the challenger's home planet and capturing the Q or by holding off an opponent long enough to rack up the necessary points.

Ten years prior to the story's beginning, Kurohime brought an end to a massive war fought to own and rebuild the Tower of the Gods, which once completed would allow the builder to become a god themselves. Upon completion, Kurohime destroyed the tower and entered the realm of the gods to slaughter them, as they were the ones who started the war in the first place. Through a combination of deception and brutality, the gods captured her and then split Kurohime into two beings, one representing her rage, and the other representing her compassion.

The being representing her rage, in a form of a small girl named 'Himeko', seeks to regain her body and powers, and attempt to take down the gods again; however the curse can only be undone with love. Throughout the course of the manga, Kurohime is able to regain her ability to love through her relationship with Zero, causing her to evolve into different incarnations throughout the various story arcs.

Con man "Candy" Johnson (Clark Gable) and his friend "Sniper" (Chill Wills) flee town using quick wits and magic tricks. They catch a train to Yellow Creek, Nevada, where a gold rush is in progress. Aboard, he meets Elizabeth Cotton (Lana Turner); she takes an instant dislike to him. When they arrive, Candy is amused to discover she is the daughter of "Judge" Cotton (Frank Morgan), an old acquaintance of his. Elizabeth is unaware of her father's crooked past and present.

Later that night, Candy, Sniper and the judge go to the local saloon. There, Candy finds another old friend of his, "Gold Dust" Nelson (Claire Trevor). She points out to him the owner (and sheriff), Brazos Hearn (Albert Dekker). When a gambler claims that the saloon is crooked, Candy takes his side. He forces Brazos into a game of Russian Roulette with him. The sheriff gives up after the fourth round and gives Candy $5000 to end the contest. Candy later reveals to Sniper and the judge that he had palmed the bullet; the gun was unloaded.

When Candy brings the judge home, Elizabeth berates him for getting her father drunk and being a bad influence. Candy overhears a hotel guest, Mrs. Varner (Marjorie Main), the widow of a preacher, say there is no church in the town. Candy gives her $1,500 to build one. Before leaving, Candy manages to kiss Elizabeth three times before being slapped. Mrs. Varner asks her why she did not stop him at the second. Candy opens a rival saloon and gambling den, which becomes more popular than Brazos'. Gold Dust becomes jealous of Elizabeth and tells her not to expect a wedding ring. Undiscouraged, Elizabeth gets Candy to marry her by first getting him drunk.

When Candy tells his new father-in-law, Cotton confesses to Elizabeth that he and Candy are both cheap crooks, and there is no hope of reforming either one. Elizabeth refuses to give up hope. That night, she locks Candy out of her bedroom in order for them to have a "proper courtship", infuriating him. He breaks down the door only to tell her "goodnight" and then storms off to have a "private" dinner with Gold Dust. Elizabeth shows up and makes up with Candy.

The next morning, she persuades him to leave his guns at home. Brazos, seeing he is unarmed, sends one of his men to shoot him. Candy turns out to have a concealed weapon, and kills the man. Brazos tries to call it murder, but the townspeople disagree. When Candy learns that Brazos had appointed himself sheriff, he gets himself elected as his replacement. He soon controls the town and amasses a huge fortune through various underhanded means. Even Brazos joins him.

When Elizabeth announces that she is pregnant, Candy is overjoyed. Upon hearing the news, the judge asks Elizabeth how Candy acquired the wealth to build her a mansion. When she replies that she doesn't care about Candy's method, only the results, Cotton tells her that she did not change Candy, he changed her.

Candy's men pressure him to dispose of the judge, who is telling the townsfolk all he knows about Candy's setup. To save Cotton's life, Candy puts him on a train out of town, but the judge returns and is shot in the back by Brazos during a town meeting. When she hears of her father's death, Elizabeth falls from her carriage, losing the baby and nearly her own life. Following her life-saving operation, a distraught Candy decides to leave Elizabeth, as he is no good for her.

Before he can, Candy learns of an armed confrontation between the townspeople and his men barricaded in city hall. Candy goes inside. He shoots it out with Brazos, who has taken over, and kills him. Then he lies to the crooks, telling them the governor has dispatched the militia to attack them (when in actuality, the corrupt governor offered Candy the militia to put down the rebellious townspeople).

The crooks all flee. Candy and Sniper brazen their way out of town and end up at a hotel in Cheyenne. Sniper sends Elizabeth a telegram telling her where they are. She follows and is reunited with her husband.

In 20th century Mexico, newly wed couple Felipe (Mauricio Garcés) and Margarita (Luz María Aguilar) are visited by Margarita's father, Don Gerardo Montes (Carlos López Moctezuma), who tells them the story of La Llorona.

In 16th century Mexico, an Indian and Spanish woman named Luisa is visited by an upper class Spanish conquistador named Don Nuño de Montesclaros (Eduardo Farjado). She falls in love with the man so much so that she leaves her life to start anew with Don Nuño. Don Nuño and Luisia have a boy and girl. However, Don Nuño leaves, as he must go on missions. Days later she is visited by one of Nuño's fellow conquistadors. He tells her that Don Nuño will not return home for a long time due to his duties. Suspicious, she follows the conquistador and comes to a palace where she finds Don Nuño. He explains that he will marry a new woman since Luisa is not fully Spanish. Enraged and heartbroken, she curses Don Nuño and his descendants that all his bloodline's firstborn will be murdered violently. When she returns home, she stabs her own children to death. The entire town finds out and Luisa is sentenced to death.

Gerardo finishes the story and says that Margarita's brother was murdered violently when he was four because he was a firstborn. Felipe passes the story off as just a folktale but the house is then visited by a woman in a black cloak who is taking up the job of a nanny for Felipe and Margarita's newborn baby. Luisa (under the alias "Carmen Asiul") is accepted but secretly plans on murdering the baby. She tries killing the baby many times but is unsuccessful with each attempt. Gerardo is suspicious of the new nanny since he feels he has seen her before but cannot make out where.

One night Felipe and Margarita decide to go out, leaving only Luisa and Gerardo home. Luisa is prepared to kill the baby using the very dagger with which she killed her own children. Gerardo realizes that it is Luisa and rushes to the baby's bedroom. Luisa is somehow pulled back and as Gerardo opens the door, he finds that Luisa has vanished and the dagger is impaled on the ground. With the baby safe, the parents home, and Luisa's ghost gone, Gerardo burns the dagger and the drawing of Luisa in a fire. He realizes that the curse under which his family had suffered for years is finally gone.

A Grinch-like thief retreats to her hometown in Connecticut after a con goes bad and gets stuck baby-sitting her niece and nephew until their parents can make it home for Christmas. She spends most of her time devising ways to even the score with Clive, her partner in crime, until the spirit of the holidays can help put her priorities back on track.

The film is set in a small town, where an Egyptian cat god manifests in the form of a cheap statue. He turns cats into human women, and directs them to procreate with and thereafter kill human men, and take over the world. Ralph, a bumbling hitchhiker, and Warren, a "cat exterminator", join forces against the cats, but Ralph inadvertently falls for Cleo, one of the cats turned into human form.

The film revolves around the lonely Wally, a Trojan skinhead whose only friend is his beloved Dalmatian Neechee. One day while walking her, Wally accidentally becomes involved with a strange deal gone bad when he bumps into a fleeing stranger being chased by a group of mob thugs. When he gets tangled up in Neechee's leash and frantically kicks the dog, Wally proceeds to beat him up and gets arrested by passing police officers. The dealer gets away and Wally spends a night in jail.

Upon being released, he learns that his dog has been kidnapped by the mob thugs, who are convinced Wally's holding the drugs that have been taken from them. Although he quickly proves that he's innocent, the mob's still not letting him off that easily: either he'll have to do some work for them, or both he and the dog are dead. Reluctantly, Wally agrees to run some illegal errands. When the errands are a bust and he's almost arrested, Wally flees and the mob puts a hit on both him and Neechee (who has managed to escape from the criminals' hideout). Enlisting the help of a young veterinarian, Wally attains an arsenal of firearms and is ready to exact his revenge on the ruthless kingpins. All he wants is his dog back.

The film's plot combines several elements from these original films. Starrbooty (RuPaul) is in the middle of a major karate fight when she receives a phone call informing her that her adopted niece Cornisha has been kidnapped. With the help of fellow crime fighter Agent Page Turner, Starrbooty learns that her nemesis Annaka Manners is using her billion-dollar cosmetics company as a front for kidnapping prostitutes and selling their organs on the black market. Starrbooty also discovers that Annaka is actually her long-lost sister, making Cornisha Annaka's daughter.

Page and Starrbooty go undercover as prostitutes (as Pepper and Cupcake, respectively) and in order to be convincing enough to infiltrate Annaka's inner sanctum, they go "all the way" (this includes numerous sex scenes with explicit male nudity, generally designed for laughs). When Starrbooty finally confronts Annaka she discovers that Cornisha was in on the plot all along, and has become Annaka's lover. Informing them that they are actually mother and daughter, Starrbooty reveals Annaka's plans to double-cross Cornisha by selling her clitoris to a wealthy socialite (in one of the more memorable jokes, Annaka is also planning to sell Starrbooty's long legs to a "famous female rapper," quipping, "I guess they won't call her 'Lil' anymore!").

A final showdown between Starrbooty and Annaka leaves Annaka dead, and they are able to salvage Cornisha's genitals by taking Annaka's (a perfect biological match). Thus everyone who deserves to lives happily ever after.

After three thieves steal an armored truck and kidnap a witness, the abandoned building they use to transfer the cash to another vehicle happens to be the home of Moe, a penniless saxophone player, who is being visited by his small-time criminal brother Jack. While good-natured Moe only wants to save the hostage, Jack wants to steal some of the money in the truck for himself. Meanwhile, two of the thieves plan to betray the third, not knowing that he too has a plan of his own.

The series is set in the late 19th century, as well as the early 20th century, in the American West. There the coyote leaders of a local United States Army fort, one Colonel Kit Coyote (voiced by Kenny Delmar impersonating Theodore Roosevelt) whose name is an obvious parody of Kit Carson, and his right-hand man Sergeant Okey Homa (voiced by Sandy Becker impersonating John Wayne) who is rarely called by his name, which is a send-up of the State of Oklahoma. They make attempts to secure the town of Gopher Gulch by wiping out the last two surviving Gopher Indians (depicted as anthropomorphic gophers): Running Board (voiced by George S. Irving) and Ruffled Feather (also voiced by Sandy Becker). However, the Gophers prove to be very clever and always manage to foil the plans of Colonel Coyote and Sergeant Oakey Homa.

Whenever they came up with an idea to stop their adversaries, Ruffled Feather would break into gibberish (ostensibly the Gopher Indian native tongue) as he explained it and Running Board would understand, ask about some detail of the plan, then laugh and say "Woopie doopie! We have fun!" and/or "You-um genius!". They are also aided by Colonel Coyote's own incompetence and ineptitude and also by his constantly ignoring the advice of Sergeant Homa, who is much more perceptive. In one episode, they actually mention that they need Colonel Coyote to stay in charge so that they can continue living in Gopher Gulch, worrying that any other replacement will prove to be impossible to deal with and might succeed in his mission to remove them. Another common statement is done when the Sergeant says: "Begging the Colonel's pardon", and also a common statement take place when the Colonel, who ignores the Sergeant reads his book of army regulations, and pays the price for it. Most episodes end with the Sergeant telling the audience at home "don't miss our next adventure", often saying that their plight will be solved by then.

Some episodes feature General Nuisance (voiced by George S. Irving) who is the commanding officer of the Colonel and Sergeant. General Nuisance would have the Colonel and Sergeant use the plans provided by Washington D.C. to deal with the Gopher Indians. These plans would often be thwarted by the Gopher Indians which often ends with General Nuisance having the Colonel and the Sergeant thrown in the guard house. Some episodes also featured Corporal Crimp (voiced by Sandy Becker) who would sometimes try to strike a deal with the gophers for his own personal gain, such as buying root beer from the gophers (which the gophers spiked with Indian Hiccup Drops) for water.

Some episodes would be multi-part stories. For example, in the episode "The Raw Recruits", the Colonel enlists Ruffled Feather and Running Board into the army. But despite his best efforts, the gophers turn out to be impossible to train. This story continues through the episodes "Tenshun", "Cuckoo Combat" and wraps up in the episode "Kitchen Capers", in which the Colonel, finally tired of their antics, discharges the gophers from the army.

While Bugs is sitting in Central Park, he looks through the wanted ads, finally focusing on a job as a Hurdy-Gurdy (actually, a street organ), thinking at first of 'the masters - Beethoven, Brahms, Bach' (pronounced by Bugs as 'Beat-hoven,' 'Brammz,' and 'Batch'), but soon, while playing "Artist's Life" on the organ, is thinking of all the money his monkey assistant was able to get from the various apartments he visited. When the monkey tries to stiff Bugs, Bugs chases him off ("Ya' can't trust no one!", he sneers), suddenly thinking '''he''' can do the same job as the monkey - but quickly finds out that people willing to give a monkey money aren't willing to give Bugs anything (except a bucket of water on the head).

The monkey runs to the zoo, where he tells a gorilla about what happened (the only intelligible words being Bugs' line "What's up doc? What's up doc? What's up doc?"). The monkey dramatizes being kicked by Bugs, which sends the gorilla in a frenzy. The gorilla breaks out of his cage and confronts Bugs. Bugs tells the gorilla that he's working, but the gorilla threatens him by punching a hole in the wall. Bugs is able to outwit the gorilla by asking the gorilla if he can inflate himself with his finger, causing the gorilla to literally inflate and float away from the ledge. Bugs tells the gorilla that what he's doing is too immature: "You're a big boy now. Take your finger out of your mouth!". The gorilla obliges, but falls many stories down from the apartment building. At one point, the gorilla gets tricked into unsuccessfully attempting to bounce off, only to crash into, the shaded entryway, falling through the basement and comes up an elevator, holding a newspaper and with his arm through a subway window. Bugs, acting as a conductor, orders the gorilla to "push in, plenty of room in the center of the car!", pausing to tell the audience "I used to work on the shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central", before pushing the gorilla back underground again where the train crashes into the gorilla off screen. Then, aping Ralph Edwards' famous declaration on ''Truth or Consequences'', he says to the audience: "Ain't I a ''devil''??".

Bugs then encounters the infuriated gorilla again ("Oh, back again, eh? Well, if you can't take a hint, I'll have to get tough. And another thing...STOP BREATHING IN MY CUP! I'll bet this kid won't take much more of this guff.") A chase then ensues, and Bugs tries getting away from the gorilla on the outside of the building by climbing up and down a ladder while the gorilla keeps pulling the ladder in the opposite direction (once using the Groucho Marx line: "I've seen you before, I ''never'' forget a face. But in ''your'' case, I'll make an exception."). Bugs eventually makes his way into one of the apartments, literally assembling a brick wall into a window to trap the gorilla and put an exploding cigar into the gorilla's mouth. After the exploding cigar explodes, the gorilla breaks out of the brick wall, then Bugs puts in a door where both the window and brick wall were, and tells the gorilla "There he goes, Doc! Out that Door!", thus tricking the gorilla into falling again. However, he's soon cornered by the gorilla, who is all bandaged up and then chases him into a back room.

Bugs spots a violin, and noting that "they say music calms the savage beast", he starts playing "Artist's Life" on the violin (about as well as Jack Benny might sound), which causes the gorilla not only to calm down, but to start dancing around. That gives Bugs an idea.

Moments later, as the monkey from earlier cranks the musical organ, the gorilla visits the apartments, raining piles of cash down on Bugs. Bugs counts all the money coming, noting to the audience: "I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this!" (a then-topical gag referencing the president of the American Federation of Musicians, which was on strike in 1948 when the short was copyrighted).

The king's daughter is sick while the kingdom is occupied by monsters. The king needs the player, who happens to be the offspring of the great warrior Mars, to investigate the cause of these incidents. The dark forces seek to conquer the world and the player must prevent it.

A son is born to a young couple in pre-war Italy. The child opens his eyes for the first time to see his loving mother and suckles on her breast. The father is motivated by jealousy, and believes the child will take away the love of his wife and send him back into the void. The soldier takes the baby into the desert to be abandoned, at which point the film's setting changes to the ancient world of Greece. The child is rescued and taken to the King of Corinth Polybus and Queen Merope of Corinth and raised as their own son because they are infertile. The child is given the name Oedipus.

Oedipus (Franco Citti) grows up believing that he is the biological son of Polybus and Merope. One day while cheating at a sports game an angry classmate calls him a ''foundling'' which enrages him. This torments and confuses him on the inside and plagues him with bad dreams and a feeling of ill omen. He asks his parents to visit the Oracle of Delphi in order to find out the opinions of the god Apollo. He travels to the Oracle alone. The Oracle tells him that his fate is to kill his father and make love to his mother. She laughs at him and tells him to begone and to not curse people with his presence. Oedipus runs away from the Oracle in anger. He decides he can't return to Corinth and wanders aimlessly in the desert. As he is walking down the sacred road of Apollo he is stopped by a wagon and some armed soldiers. The king named Laius who is riding on the wagon orders Oedipus to leave and treats him as a beggar. Oedipus hurls a huge stone breaking the legs of one of the soldiers. He runs off to the desert where he faces each soldier one by one and kills them before returning to the wagon where he kills king Laius and the wounded soldier. One of the king's escorts runs off to the desert to avoid being killed and survives.

Oedipus continues down the road where he comes across roving bands of displaced people fleeing the Sphinx. The Sphinx has terrorized the country of Thebes. It has caused so much death that Queen Jocasta has promised to marry anyone who can kill it. Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx. He casts the sphinx down into the abyss while the sphinx warns him of the abyss that is within him. Oedipus is given his reward and is married to Queen Jocasta who is unbeknownst to him, his biological mother. After Oedipus is made king, a plague occurs and kills much of the city. Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to the Oracle to receive news about how to stop it. Creon returns and tells him that for the plague to end, King Laius' killer must be brought to justice.

Oedipus sends for the blind prophet Tiresias to find out the name of the killer. Tiresias is reluctant to speak because he knows it will cause injury to both himself and Oedipus. Oedipus prods him to continue and Tiresias tells him that Oedipus is the killer. Oedipus banishes him from the city believing that his brother-in-law Creon put him up to it in order to steal the throne. Jocasta reveals to Oedipus that Laius was killed at the crossroads of Apollo's sacred road. She also tells him that the Oracle has been wrong before. The Oracle predicted Jocasta's son would kill his father so she sent for him to be killed in the desert.

Oedipus realizes with horror that the Oracle's prophecy has been fulfilled and that Jocasta and Laius were his birth parents. The old servant who brought Oedipus to the desert is called for and admits to him the truth. Jocasta commits suicide by hanging and Oedipus blinds himself. The scene then changes again to modern Italy where Oedipus and Angelo roam from town to town playing the flute. Oedipus returns to the meadow where he first opened his eyes as a child and finds peace.

The film begins in 1906 at the Baltimore Waterfront, where 11-year-old George Herman Ruth Jr. is taken away by Brother Matthias from George's abusive father to St. Mary's. When George is 18, his incredible baseball talent gets him hired to play for the Baltimore Orioles, and during the interview, he gets his "Babe" nickname.

Babe becomes a successful baseball player and is soon sold off to play for the Boston Red Sox. After a bad game, Babe wonders what went wrong at a bar, until he is told by Claire Hogsdon that when he pitches his curveball he sticks out his tongue. He continues his success, landing a new $100,000 contract. He finds Claire, but she gives him the cold shoulder. During one game, Denny, a sick paralyzed child, and his father watch Babe Ruth play. When Babe says "Hiya, kid" to the boy, the child is miraculously cured and stands up.

Babe soon becomes a player for the New York Yankees. During one game, he accidentally hurts a dog and decides to take the dog and the dog's young owner to the hospital. After Babe argues with the doctors that a dog is the same as a human, the dog is treated, but because Babe left a game to do this, he gets suspended from the Yankees. A depressed Babe Ruth finds himself at a bar, and amidst the crowd giving off negative vibes, he starts a fight and gets arrested.

Soon, he decides to play Santa Claus at a children's hospital, where he runs into Claire again, visiting her nephew. She tells him that his actions affect the children of America, and Babe decides to keep that in mind. Miller Huggins, the same man who suspended Babe, fights to bring him back to the Yankees as the team has had a bad season. Babe is soon brought back, and the team wins the World Series thanks to him. With this, he and Claire get married. Soon after, Huggins dies from pyaemia.

During Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe gets a call from the father of a dying child and promises the father that when he goes up to bat, he will call the third shot and the ball will land at a certain spot; all of this will be for the boy. During the game, Babe does exactly that, and the boy hears the news and starts to get better.

Babe retires from the Yankees at the age of 41, and takes a management position with the Boston Braves, even though they want him to play in the games despite his age. During one game, Babe gets stressed out and can't continue playing, and retires from baseball after that game. Sadly, this means he goes off contract by retiring during his time with the Braves and is fired from anything related to baseball.

Later, Babe complains of neck pain and soon learns that he is dying of throat cancer. The news of this leads fans to send letters telling Babe that they care. The doctors decide to try a treatment on Babe with a chance that he'll survive. As Babe is taken to surgery, the narrator gives words of encouragement to baseball fans, crediting Babe Ruth for America's love of the sport.

Quimby Falls, much like many American small towns, loves football with passion. When the Buzzard team owner moves the team to another town, a few die-hard fans formulate a drastic plan to bring the team back home again.

''Radia Senki'' begins as the protagonist gains consciousness in a forest, suffering from amnesia. Rescued by Darus, a wandering mage, the hero and his ally witness the crash of a plane and find the unconscious Lefis. When she comes to, it is revealed that her stepbrother Gadiss seeks world domination and is currently looking for the keys to the sacred Radia Tower. She also comments on the fact that the hero's name (chosen by the player) means "Guardian of Light". Meanwhile, Nova, a lackey of Gadiss and the leader of the country Samara, has begun to destroy forests. During this time, Baru, a bandit, Haman, a knight of Lefis, and Saria, a mysterious woman from Samara, join the hero and Darus. Duke Necrude, the leader of the country Zenobia, was put under the control of Samara and kidnaps Lefis. When rescuing her, the heroes learn that Gadiss has finished building the Fitzcarraldo, a powerful airship. Aboard the ship, the party finds Lefis and she reveals that the hero really is the legendary guardian from Ark's legend, but Nova appears and explains that Saria is his daughter and spy. Nova also suggests the hero is the key to opening the Tower, but the hero refuses to help.

Gadiss and Nova seek to open the Tower, which will give them the power to reshape the world, called Lemuria, as they see fit. To open the Tower, they need to collect eight magical items, many of which they already possess. The heroes collect the rest, but the items are stolen by Nova and Saria. Nova opens the Tower and explains that it is only half of Radia. In order to get to the real Radia, both the Tower of the Moon and the Gate of the Sun must be opened. Nova almost kills the heroes, but Saria stops him and sends them to Elfas, the first town from the beginning of the adventure, where the people are descendants of Ark. At the Gate, the heroes defeat Gadiss and open Radia Tower, or Ark Castle. Outside, a person resembling the hero appears, claiming to be the Master of Dreams appears and kidnaps Lefis. The heroes enter the Castle and confront the Master of Dreams, who explains that Lemuria is merely a dream that he has created. He created monsters in order to make the dream world into a nightmare, but the Nightmare Monster devours him and then attacks the party. After the Nightmare is defeated, the hero remembers that he is from the real world and that this world is only a dream. Lefis, who has fallen in love with the hero, begs him to stay, but he is teleported out of Lemuria.

Bret starts suffering body image issues after Murray accuses him of being small during a photo session. He then gets visited in a dream by a Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie (performed by Jemaine, whose resemblance is acknowledged by Bret) telling him not to worry about his body image and advising him to get an eyepatch.

Murray announces that he has arranged a meeting with a company who are interested in using one of the band's songs in a musical greeting card. Jemaine visits Mel and asks her to cheer Bret up complimenting him next time she sees him. Later Jemaine tries to cheer Bret up himself by singing him a song he has written, "Bret, You've Got It Going On".

After Bowie's eyepatch suggestion causes accidents, Bret is visited again in a dream, this time by Bowie dressed as he appears in the "Ashes to Ashes" music video. Bowie advises him to do something "absolutely outrageous" when the "time is right". The next day they see Mel on the street who compliments Bret profusely at the expense of Jemaine who now starts to doubt his own body image.

At the greeting card meeting the owner, David Armstrong (played by John Hodgman), tries to explain the workings of the audio card to technically challenged Murray, Jemaine and Bret. When Armstrong says that he feels that the band are not really interested in the opportunity, Bret sees it as the cue to do something outrageous. He leaps onto the manager's desk and exposes himself, featuring "lightning bolts down his wanger." On the bus ride home, Murray and Jemaine express their disappointment with Bret for ruining the business opportunity and Murray becomes depressed that his management skills were not good enough to prevent the incident or spin it well.

That night Bret gets visited again. This time it is Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King from the movie ''Labyrinth''. A disappointed Bowie tells Bret that he is out of advice and has lost confidence in his ability to help people. The scene ends with a song and music video, ''"Bowie"'', that mimics various performance styles and roles from David Bowie's career.

Later, Bret drinks a cup of coffee with Jemaine and Dave (Arj Barker) outside of Dave's pawn shop, where he concludes that if even David Bowie sometimes loses self-confidence, then he should not have to be so insecure about his body image. Murray arrives and tells them that despite the disastrous meeting, the greeting card company decided to produce the card anyway, but because the chosen design is "Happy 80th Birthday, Son" very few cards are made and the band ends up earning only 50¢.

Mark Christopher is a successful 35-year-old Hollywood screenwriter who has suffered from partial writer's block since winning an Academy Award and has been unable to produce a decent script. One Christmas Eve, he receives an unexpected and very unwanted surprise present.

Vice Squad Sergeant Sam Hanlon brings 17-year-old Susan Landis to Mark's luxurious apartment. Susan had been abandoned by her mother and was arrested for vagrancy and hitting a sailor over the head with a beer bottle. Not wanting to keep her in jail over the holidays and aware that Mark was interested in writing a script about juvenile delinquency, the kindhearted cop decides to bend the rules (much to the disapproval of his partner). Hanlon suggests that Susan stay with Mark until her arraignment the day after Christmas.

Mark is naturally appalled, but is eventually persuaded to take the girl in. This does not go over too well with his longtime fiancée, Isabella Alexander, the demanding daughter of a senator. Isabella's jealousy grows when Susan develops a crush on Mark. Mark's secretary Maude Snodgrass, his best friend Virgil, and his lawyer Harvey Butterworth do their best to keep the situation under control.

When Harvey lets slip that Susan will likely stay in a juvenile detention facility until she is 18, Mark impulsively takes her to Las Vegas and marries her. The marriage, he explains to his friends, will last for just long enough to convince the judge that Susan has made good. To avoid consummating the marriage, he takes Susan out dancing until she collapses with fatigue.

Mark then slips away to a cabin in the Sierra Nevada mountains to work on his script with Maude. The marriage is reported in the newspapers. Enraged, Isabella confronts Susan, but is hauled away by Hanlon and his partner.

Some weeks later, Isabella finds Mark in the cabin. She has calmed down, but Mark says he thinks they are not really suited to each other. Susan also arrives, determined to win Mark over to a real marriage. She is encouraged and supported by Maude, who still regrets leaving her childhood love behind to attempt an acting career in Hollywood. Susan refuses to sign the annulment papers, while Mark still refuses to consummate the marriage.

When Susan is seen eating strawberries and pickles, Mark's friend assumes that she is pregnant and tells Mark. Mark thinks Virgil is responsible, so he hits Virgil in the face. Susan eventually explains to Mark that she ate strawberries and pickles because she just likes it. Mark has his own explanation: he is in love with Susan but is worried about their age difference. Susan tells him all the reasons that they should stay married. Mark keeps talking about their age difference as Susan leads him to the bedroom.

A sidewalk fruit vendor, Sinjay (Aziz Ansari), refuses Bret and Jemaine service due to the fact that they are New Zealanders. He disinfects the fruit they touch, and they leave empty handed.

They visit the consulate for a band meeting, where Bret is clearly upset about the incident. There they meet Jessica (Joan Hess), the pretty blonde tech support lady who is upgrading the consulate's computers from aging Commodore VIC-20s to newer IBM PCs. After she leaves, Murray tells the band that he is in love with her. Bret asks Murray about his wife, Shelley, and Murray reminds them that they are separated. Bret receives a package from home — his favorite cardboard box — and Murray lends them a tape of New Zealand TV shows that he received from his mother.

At their apartment, the pair discuss the incident while they watch some of the recorded shows on Murray's tape. One of the shows is episode six of a children's program called ''"Albi The Racist Dragon"''. Bret, still upset about the vendor's attitude, watches from the comfort of his cardboard box.

At Mohumbhai & Son, Bret and Jemaine consult Dave about the racism they experienced. Dave informs them of the great amount of "prejudism" against the English that exists in America. Ignoring their insistence that they are not English, Dave admits that even he hates them sometimes. A montage of scenes follow in which we see Jemaine and Bret being jostled on the street, being denied entry to a nightclub, getting cheated by a hot dog vendor, and being forced to ride at the back of a bus.

They try once more to buy fruit from Sinjay but are chased off again. The frustrated pair ride off on their bicycles singing ''"''Mutha Uckas''"''.

At another band meeting, Murray fakes a computer problem in order to see Jessica again. He asks the band to help him with a love song he is writing for her (so far he has written one word — "Hi" — which Jemaine admits is better than he expected).

Back at their place, Bret, Jemaine and Dave try to come up with ideas for dealing with Sinjay. Dave suggests that they frame him for murder by poisoning his fruit, but settles for merely teaching Bret and Jemaine how to "flip the bird".

After Sinjay escalates the conflict by nailing a kiwi fruit to their door, the boys storm to his fruit stand to confront him. They furiously flip him the bird and chastise him for his racism. However they soon realize that he has New Zealanders and Australians mixed up, and it is actually Australians that he hates. Realizing his mistake, the vendor apologizes and gives them some free fruit.

Back at the consulate, Murray learns from Greg that Jessica is gone, as her upgrade work is complete. A despondent Murray sings "Leggy Blonde" to his lost love.

Over the end credits, we see shots of Bret, Jemaine and Sinjay flipping the bird to the guard at the Australian consulate.

The narrator states his wish to reveal all he can of Yue-Laou and the Xin.

He describes how he met his friend, Godfrey, at a gold-shop, where Godfrey showed him a golden chain. In the middle of the conversation they notice a strange creature is crawling in Godfrey's pocket. Godfrey says:

Another friend arrives at the shop, a secret agent named Barris, who tells them that gold is a composite metal that can be made artificially, and that a large number of people have been making it.

A few days later, the narrator, Barris, and Godfrey leave for Cardinal Woods by Starlit Lake on a hunting expedition. Barris wanders off to explore the area.

While hunting, the narrator stumbles on a hidden fountain in the middle of the forest, where he meets a woman named Ysonde. They talk, and the narrator learns that she comes from the fictional city of Yian. She suddenly disappears. He believes that she was just a phantom, and returns to the hunt. He meets Barris, who describes the progress of his operation to catch the gold-makers. At night, the narrator sees a Chinaman, whom others have previously seen in the region. He is disturbed that he cannot find the fountain where he met Ysonde, even though he knew exactly where it was. He resigns himself to the possibility that she does not exist. Then he finds her again, and is thrilled. He asks her more about her origins. She frequently mentions the city of Yian, but not in great detail. After he returns to his cabin, the narrator becomes ill. After he recovers he asks Barris where Yian is. Barris denies the existence of the city, but under pressure he recants.

Barris says that it is the center of Yue-Laou—the Maker of Moons—and his sorcerers, the Kuen-Yuin. Barris once lived there. He describes how he was tricked by Yue-Laou: the Maker provided him with a lovely woman with whom he fell in love, and then he took her away from Barris. Barris believes that Xangi, who "is God", is greater than Yue-Laou and that he shall bring him again to his beloved.

The narrator searches for Ysonde (who is speculated to be Barris's daughter from the woman he lost) again. Evading hordes of fleeing animals, he finally finds her. They witness in horror as Yue-Laou brings forth the monstrous Xin. Barris arrives and shoots at Yue-Laou, but his body is never found.

The story ends with the note, "Ysonde bends over my desk--I feel her hand on my arm, and she is saying, "Don't you think you have done enough to-day, dear? How can you write such silly nonsense without a shadow of truth or foundation?," casting doubt on the credibility of the narrative.

Set in the 1830s, the story centers on Rosina da Silva, the sophisticated eldest daughter of a wealthy Jewish Italian family living in a small enclave of Sephardic London Jews. When her father is murdered on the street and leaves behind numerous debts, she refuses an arranged marriage to an older suitor, declaring that she will work to support her family, even if she has to take to the stage like her aunt, who is a renowned singer. She decides to use her classical education and advertise her services as a governess, transforming herself into Mary Blackchurch - a Protestant of partial Italian descent - in order to conceal her heritage. She quickly accepts a position as governess for a Scottish Launded Gentry,family living on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides. Patriarch Charles Cavendish is a man of science intent on solving the problem of retaining a photographic image on paper, while his pretentious wife flounders in a sea of ennui. Their young daughter Clementina initially resists Mary's discipline, but eventually finds in her a friend and companion.

Mary, well-educated and unusually curious in an era when a woman's primary focus is keeping house and attending to the needs of her family, surprises Charles with the depth of her interest and ability and becomes his assistant. He is delighted to find a kindred spirit in his isolation, and the admiration she feels soon turns to passion that he reciprocates. While secretly observing Passover in her room, she spills salt water onto one of Charles' prints, accidentally discovering a technique that preserves the image. The next morning she rushes to the laboratory to tell Charles, and their excitement spills over into making love for the first time. But he becomes increasingly consumed with the race to publish their new process, while she is captivated by the beauty of the photographs they create.

Complications ensue when the Cavendishs' son Henry returns home after being expelled from the University of Oxford for smoking opium and being caught with a prostitute, and he becomes obsessed with Mary. While searching through her belongings, he uncovers evidence of her true background, and although he confesses to her he knows about her past, he promises to keep it secret. But eventually Henry tells Charles that he is in love with Mary, and Charles ridicules his affection and disparagingly remarks that Mary is "practically a demimondaine", refusing his consent and further alienating his son.

One day she leaves a gift for Charles, a nude photograph that she took of him asleep in the laboratory after lovemaking, and he begins to shun her. When a fellow scientist visits he claims sole credit for the technique she discovered. Angered by his rebuff and betrayal, Mary at first takes it out on Henry, but then decides to leave the island and return to London. On her way out, conspicuously dressed as a Jew once more, she presents to Mrs. Cavendish at their dinner table the picture of her naked husband.

At home again, she embraces her true identity and becomes a portrait photographer noted for her distinct images of the Jewish people. Her sister announces her next sitter and when Charles appears, she quietly proceeds to take his portrait. When she has finished he asks her if they are done, and she says yes, "quite done," dismissing him. She muses to the audience in closing, "I hardly think of those days at all. No, I don't think of those days at all." But his portrait remains foremost among the scattering of prints in her personal studio.

A man wants to kill his wife, and in order to do so, he begins inputting her data into the cooking robot so she will be the ingredients for the next night's dinner.

;"The Record of Peter Kürten" :Peter Kürten, a former prisoner-of-war, forms an idealistic couple with his wife and is a devoted unionist at meetings. In actuality he is a sexually perverted serial killer nicknamed the Vampire of Düsseldorf who taunts the police with escalating murders. After one of the murders, the police force a fake confession from another man, causing Peter to angrily reveal the truth to his wife, who gives him up to the police. At trial it is revealed that Peter is actually a criminal with a history of incest, bestiality, arson, and murder. When his lawyer tries to defend him by claiming madness, Peter angrily exclaims that his actions are revenge against the bourgeois. Peter is executed by guillotine. (Tezuka based the story on the work of Shunsuke Tsurumi)
;"Sensual Nights" :A wealthy Japanese playboy visits Vietnam to seduce a woman who has supposedly stopped aging while waiting for her sweetheart who was taken away by soldiers. As he is in the middle of preparing to have sex with her, his contact tells him that the woman's man was taken away by the Japanese army during the Pacific War, causing a deep hatred of Japanese people in her. He panics, but recovers when the woman reacts by offering him her body. When she fights back against his attempts at intimacy, he tells her that her lover is likely dead and forces himself on her. The man then sees a sight of a wrinkled old woman that startles him so much he jumps out of the window. The woman he had seduced was actually the daughter of the unaging woman and her sweetheart, and his contact was her fiancé. ;"The Suspicious Lord Mogami" (Lord Iechika Mogami) :Piipii, a meager farmer, dreams of being a samurai so he can support his wife and their four children. One day he is employed by a lord to be his double, and Piipii's family is secretly killed. Piipii trains to be a lord, grooming and dressing himself to be the spitting image of the lord. As a test, the lord tells him to give the order to open the castle gates. Piipii rides back to visit his family, only to learn about their deaths. On the lord's wedding day, his double is supposed to replace him during the wedding ceremony to protect him from any attempts on his life. During the switch, Piipii murders the lord and consummates the marriage with the lady Sasa instead. When she learns of his identity, the lady has an affair with a syphilitic beggar, and kills herself. The disease spreads to Piipii and Sasa gets her revenge. ;"Lady of the Rhine" :A Japanese woman accompanies her husband on a business trip to Düsseldorf. She catches him having an affair, and when she confronts him, he leaves her. As she desperately searches for him in the streets, the woman is hit by a car and is hospitalized for a month. When she recovers, she visits her benefactor Lady Rathwood, the owner of a castle they had visited earlier. As she lives with Lady Rathwood, the woman learns of her hatred for men and her hatred for her husband is kindled. One day she discovers that the car she was hit with belongs to Lady Rathwood and she witnesses Lady Rathwood taking off the disguise of the woman who seduced her husband. Lady Rathwood calls her husband to the castle and gives the woman a knife, telling her to take her revenge. The woman refuses and goes back to her husband. ;"The Thief Akikazu Inoue" (The Mountain of Fire) :

Laura and Steven Harding (Barbara Eden and Don Murray) move with their children to the town of Stepford, Connecticut where Steven had lived with his first wife who had died mysteriously. While Laura is occupied with passing the bar exam, Steven is disturbed by their children, athletic but unfocused David (Randall Batinkoff) and free-spirited, music loving Mary (Tammy Lauren). Steven joins the Men's Association, which is still assimilating their wives into robots. This time, they have begun to turn their out-of-control teens into robots as well. Once they are assimilated, the children are obedient, homework-loving, accomplished droids, but with little personality.

The Hardings befriend the Gregsons: Laura with sloppy and high-spirited mom, Sandy (Sharon Spelman), and David dates their sly-humored daughter, Lois (Debbie Barker), with whom he shares a love of motorcycles. Laura is confused when the principal discourages her plans to establish a PTA, and Mary feels unnerved by her passive classmates as well as (unknowingly) the methods used to collect her image, hair, and body information. At the school's Parents' Night, Laura becomes aware of the disconnection between her and Steven's parenting styles. She allows the children space, while he has become obsessed with a perfect image.

On the night of a dance, David, Mary, and Lois become suspicious when Sandy seemingly has changed, having become obsessed with cleaning and bundt cakes. They make the best of the dance, playing rock music over the local choice of big band and easy listening/beautiful music, but cause a riot as the children dance awkwardly (never having been programmed to dance freestyle). The kids are arrested, but then released on Steven's and Mr. Gregson's vows to do something about them.

Lois calls David, upset, asking him to help her as all the men in town have gathered at her house and are "coming for her". They escape on their motorcycles, but Lois crashes when a car tries to run them off the road. David goes to the hospital where Lois lies entirely wrapped in bandages. When he sneaks into her room, he sees one of her limbs is missing in an unnatural manner as well as her vacant eyes, and he runs in fear.

The next day, Lois appears back to normal—but she is now a mindless double who dates a boy she previously had dismissed. David and Laura visit the Gregsons where she witnesses the change in Sandy as well. Next, Laura finds that Mary has also changed after an evening's "shopping trip" with Dad, losing all her individuality and even doing some ironing. Laura digs open the grave of Steven's first wife and finds an android in the coffin. Returning home, Laura learns Steven has taken David out for a "shopping trip" just before Mary's duplicate attacks her with a knife, but Laura is able to thwart the duplicate; as she throws it to the floor, it malfunctions.

Laura goes to the Men's Association to find David; while investigating a greenhouse, she discovers the true Mary strapped to a table. They are surrounded by Steven and the other Men's Club members, as well as the bodies of the town's children, who are going through a bizarre bio-organic process to make them into docile drones. They are then replaced by their robot doubles during the procedure. Having escaped from his father earlier, David bursts in on his motorcycle and causes a diversion, allowing Laura and Mary a reprieve.

As the Hardings escape, damage to the machines causes an explosion, which destroys the Men's Association, its members (including Steven), and the half-processed children, although two of them survive the explosion. Laura and the kids race out of town.

The story tells about Zuri Barlev, who moves with his father, who was fired from the ministry of education, to a city in the southern part of Israel called the NRV (Nuclear Research Village), where technology is much more sophisticated than everyday technology. NRV residents have different colored tags, going from blue to green and red - the highest level, only given to administrators and researchers. The village was started during Moshe Dayan's years, when Dayan and Noah's father found a portal in the Negev, and began researching it. Before Noah's father died, he gave a special "key" to his son, and told him to hold onto it, because it is the world's only surviving artifact from the Earth's first years.

Zuri afterwards discovers that some NRV residents had a relative, who died two months before they moved in. Afterwards, he and his friends discover it was Noah who killed these people, in order to bring them to the NRV. Some time later, Zuri arrives to the "-5" floor, where he finds the portal, enters it, and discovers the spaceship (Gachnect Americofabish). The spaceship contains a dangerous combination of various gases, which cause people to go insane and lose control of their actions, but it somehow has no effect on Zuri. Later on, he discovers that the alien owners of that spaceship, used to throw their criminals onto our "jail" planet using the portal. However, the special alignment and ingredients of the atmosphere, caused the criminals to obtain "super-powers". Therefore the locals called them "Ha'Nephilim" – "The Outsiders".

Several days later, Zuri discovers he is one of them, when the computer's hologram, a female "human" (Yamit Sol (linked to Hebrew article)), shows him a video recording of the past spaceship commander. Some time later, he enters the spaceship with Noah, which disables the force field, set by the previous commander, to stop other "unique people" from using their abilities. Noah succeeds, and suddenly a lot of people discover their abilities, ranging from freezing, controlling people and putting them to sleep through dreams, to super-speed, super-strength, super-stretch (whose effect is rendered horribly), duplicating, starting fires by mere thought, and more. Due to this, a person named Assaf, which discovered his abilities as super-strength and shield creation, teams up with Noah to find the other outsiders and take control of the spaceship, as it can control the entire planet it's facing.

Four thieves attempt to make the richest score in history.

Teenage outcast and football player Johnny Rourke (Aidan Quinn) falls for upper-class cheerleader Tracey Prescott (Daryl Hannah). She's officially dating his teammate Randy Daniels (Adam Baldwin). A random draw at the high school 'Tin Can-Can' dance pairs Johnny and Tracey.

Worlds collide and opposites attract as they connect on the dance floor. Jealous Randy picks a fight with Johnny, the coach intervenes, and Johnny leaves in a huff. Tracey follows, and he offers to take her out on his motorbike. He shows her his lookout spot, and they talk about their future plans.

The next day at school Johnny gets a call from the mill, as his dad is too drunk. It causes him to be late to practice, so the coach berates him. When he doesn't divulge why, he's kicked off the team. Arriving home in a belligerent mood, he argues with his dad, who smashes his stereo and throws him out.

At home, Tracey talks to her mom lamenting that she's considered to be the perfect daughter. She tears out of her drive and down the road. Johnny detects her inquietud, follows closely, then he gets her to stop so he can man her car.

They sneak into the high school. Reading his file as anti-social and potentially dangerous since his mother's abandonment, Johnny and Tracey go on a rampage. They strew file contents throughout the halls, freeing the animals and creatures in biology, smash trophy cases, strip and jump into the pool, where he kisses her, Finding the place he's been sleeping, they finally are intimate.

Johnny wakes up alone, so he seeks Tracey out at her house, as she's meant to be alone for the weekend. He pushes his way in, and although she weakly resists at first, she caves in. They are woken up in her parents room by her younger brother Davey, who explains her family came back early. He helps sneak Johnny out.

At the pep rally that night, Johnny asks to speak to her. She arrives very late to his look out. He reiterates how he needs to leave, unintentionally scaring her. For a few days she avoids him at school. He gets called in to the factory again, but this time to clear out his dad's locker.

After the funeral, which Tracey attends from afar, Johnny tries to go through his dad's things. Finding keepsakes of his mother who abandoned them, he sets fire to them and the whole place.

Hopes dashed, future prospects dim and the omnipresent American Steel mill looming large in the background of this one-industry-town, Rourke comes to grips with his estranged mother and recently deceased father (Kenneth McMillan).

Johnny turns up to the careers fair, wanting to speak alone with Tracey. She is forced to decide between her stable longtime boyfriend Randy and Rourke. Johnny declares his love for her, and they drive off together on his motorcycle to Davey's cheers.

The story focuses upon Chad, a young half-boy, half-chimp, developed by scientists as part of a top secret government operation. However, Chad becomes aggressive, strong and uncontrollable, with the inability to communicate on a human level, escaping from the lab, brutally killing several nurses and scientists in the process. The hunt is on to find and capture Chad before the public encounters this strange and dangerous creation. During Chad's escape, he wrestles with his natural child tendencies after befriending some local children and trying to control his wild primal inner instincts.

The central characters in ''Bless the Beasts and Children'' are six adolescent boys, whose preoccupied parents send them off to the Arizona Box Canyon Boys Camp for the summer. John Cotton (Barry Robins) leads this bunch of "misfits" who are all, to varying degrees, emotionally or psychologically disturbed. Cotton's group, composed of rejects and outcasts from the other cabins, is known as the "Bedwetters" and the boys are constantly demeaned and ridiculed, which inevitably crushes what little self-esteem they might otherwise have possessed in the first place.

Cotton, through trial and tribulation, becomes the leader of this tight-knit group, and he sets out to mold his followers into a unit that commands respect rather than derision. His is obviously a formidable task in view of the fragile psychological state of the small group, which includes two warring dysfunctional brothers who are known as "Lally 1" and "Lally 2". Lally 1 reacts to threats against his emotional security by throwing violent temper tantrums, often directed at his younger brother Lally 2, who in the face of these attacks plunges himself into a fantasy world that is filled with tiny creatures he calls "Ooms", and seeks solace in the scorched foam rubber pillow he always carries.

Lawrence Teft III (Billy Mumy) is shown in the film as quiet and sullen, but whenever he is confronted with authority, he turns rebellious. Before he came to camp, one of Teft's favorite adventures had been stealing cars, but because of the "connections" of his father, Lawrence Teft Jr., he was never arrested for any of his offenses. Hoping that he will learn some self-discipline which will make him worthy of attending Exeter or Dartmouth, his parents enroll him in the camp.

Cotton's group also includes Sammy Shecker, an overweight, paranoid Jewish boy, whose father is a successful comedian who trades upon the Jewish stereotype. Sometimes to the annoyance of the other boys, Sammy mimics his father's routines, he compulsively bites his nails, and he is loud, nervous, and obnoxious. The designation "Bedwetters" applies especially well to Gerald Goodenow, the sixth member of the group, who often wets the bed at night – a behavior that had resulted in his having been ejected from two cabins before Cotton takes him in tow. Bedwetting, however, seems to be the least of Gerald's problems, as he suffers from a phobic reaction to school, which results in several unsuccessful sessions with a psychiatrist. Goodenow is also handicapped by a heavy-handed stepfather who is determined to make a man out of him, by physical force if necessary.

Kramer and his screenwriter Mac Benoff decided to compromise Swarthout's time sequence by having the entire film set in the present with flashbacks into the past of all the boys, to explicate their presence at the camp. Whereas Swarthout's novel – thematically powerful though it is – is episodic and difficult for some sixth-graders to follow, the Kramer film flows almost faultlessly to its tragic conclusion. The plight of the American buffalo and any other endangered species is at the center of the film's focus. Almost predictably, the dysfunctional group, under Cotton's guidance, set out to free a large herd of the bison after they witness their perverted macho camp counselor, "Wheaties", shooting the animals in a festive (and deeply disturbing) western lottery, which is given validation as a proper method to thin out the large numbers by eliminating the "weak" or "sick" buffalo. The buffalo are not the only targets of this destructive urge, as the Bedwetters – similarly – have also been "tamed", "penned" and crushed in spirit. As a result of their parents' neglect or abuse, they have all been reduced to psychological misfits. Ridiculed and rejected by the other boys in the camp, they are forced to cling even more strongly to their deviant behavior. The boys' pilgrimage to free the buffalo is also an allegorical search for their own freedom.

Cotton perceives that success will free the boys of psychological crutches and allow each to stand alone in defense of self. Cotton sacrifices his life not only for the buffalo but for the boys he has led to this one miraculous triumph. The implication at the end of the film is that the remaining boys are no longer "dings" or "weirdos", as they have all gained a sense of pride in their abilities and have saved themselves, as well as the buffalo, from extinction. The title of the film (and novel) exemplifies the dual yet unified nature of the theme. Both beasts and children need to be free to roam, to develop and to discover, but the freedom that is given to the buffalo at the film's conclusion is worthless because their very natures have been altered by man. Outside the fence of the preserve, the tame buffalo will never find wild plains and grasslands on which to roam and their natural habitat, along with their natural spirit, has been destroyed. The children, however, have regained their spirit and independence and eventually they will triumph over the fear instilled in them by their parents and society. But it is conspicuous that they will require the love and compassion of others.

Susy Conner accuses former employer Gary Fitzgerald of harassment and unfair dismissal for failing to comply with his sexual demands. Relating the incident to conciliation lawyer Marion Lee, Susy comments that the trauma experienced should entitle her to a compensation payment of $40,000.

Millionaire publisher Richard Trainor (Robert Culp) is celebrating the success of his new calendar, featuring twelve beautiful nude women. However, the party is ruined when Miss January is pushed off a building. Later in the evening, Miss February is knifed to death. Police Lieutenant Dan Stoner (Tom Skerritt) is assigned to the case and he immediately strikes up a friendship with photographer Cassie Bascomb (Sharon Stone). While Dan investigates the case, Cassie is attacked. What connection might she have to the case, if any... and will the murderer be caught before he/she reaches Miss December?

Fifteen-year-old Sam Franks has returned from a Melbourne boarding school to his hometown in Victoria. He has an obvious affection towards a local girl, Silvy, who has a disability affecting her legs which requires a brace and prevents her from walking freely. This does not stop the two friends from enjoying each other's company, and they are virtually inseparable. Sam's mother has died, and his stern father provides the young boy with little comfort or love, so his relationship with Silvy is all that matters to him. She reads to him regularly out of her beloved poetry book, showing him a world of beauty and harmony within words that he comes to enjoy.

One night, Sam and Silvy decide to go for an aimless ride, and end up at a river. Sam jumps in the water and removes Silvy's leg braces, and together they "dance" in the water. They share a kiss and stare into the stars — everything seems perfect for them. Sam lets go of Silvy's hand to point to a shooting star. After closing his eyes and making a wish, he looks around to find Silvy no longer with him. After a frantic search as he struggles against the current, Sam returns to Silvy's home to tell her parents what has happened. Her body is not found until much later, in an underwater cave.

Twenty years later, 35-year-old Sam (Guy Pearce) is teaching psychology at a Melbourne institute when he must return to his hometown to bury his recently deceased father. On the train, Sam briefly meets a pleasant woman who introduces herself as Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter). Sam leaves the compartment to talk to the conductor about his father's casket. When he returns, the woman is nowhere to be seen. That night, in a massive downpour, Sam sees a woman fall from the bridge into the river below. He rescues the woman and finds that it is Ruby. She has lost her memory and can't remember her own name. The woman's behavior and speech patterns remind Sam of Silvy.

Sam hypnotizes her, and the woman describes being pulled down, lower and lower into the cold, and feelings of panic, followed by a sensation of warmth and comfort. Sam believes that Silvy has come back from death in the form of this woman. The next day, she asks to be taken to her "real home". Sam carries her because her legs are failing her once more; he senses that she will not be with him much longer. Safe and warm in her old bed in her abandoned childhood home, Sam reads her the last few lines from her favorite poem, T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock": "Till human voices wake us, and we drown." She dies with a smile on her lips. Sam places her in a boat and releases it onto the river. He swims with it for a while, and when he looks into it, all that remains is his coat that he had draped over her. He climbs into the boat as it drifts away.

Daffy is not going to fly south for the winter like other ducks. He manages to convince the rather simple-witted dog, Leopold, to let him stay for the winter by pretending to have saved Leopold's life. Unfortunately, Leopold's master is a mad scientist who needs the wishbone of a duck for his experiment.

Daffy is insulted by the scientist's requirement and tries to get rid of him, while Leopold interferes to save his master. At one point, Daffy throws a baseball bat at the scientist from behind, and Leopold grabs it, but cannot stop it in time from hitting the man. The scientist misunderstands, taking the bat away and calmly scolding Leopold while breaking the bat into many pieces with his bare hands before going to sleep. Daffy's assassination attempt fails and the scientist turns the tables, trying to kill Daffy with numerous booby traps around the house. Meanwhile, Leopold feels left out of the cartoon.

Daffy finally leaves, but the master decides a dog's wishbone will do, so Leopold flees as well. As Daffy starts to try to con his way into another house, a grey duck (with a Joe Besser-like personality) who is already occupying the place kicks Daffy into the sky, southbound. On his flight, he is surprised to find he has company - Leopold, aided by a fan strapped to his back, is flying south too.

The film opens with an archaeologist looking at some artifacts he has dug up from an Indian burial ground. Among these items is the skull of an Indian chief, Skeleton Man appears through a portal and kills the archaeologist. Skeleton Man then chases the archaeologist's assistant to a power plant, killing her and the two men working there.

Skeleton Man, now on horseback, kills a soldier and chases his partner. Before being killed, the second soldier manages to record a video and send it back to his bosses. They receive it and send in Delta Force to deal with this unknown threat.

As they advance, a female soldier falls behind and is impaled through the chest. The team finds an old Indian man who tells them that Skeleton Man, known as Cottonmouth Joe, was a genocidal warrior who killed the old man's tribe and is now stalking the soldiers. The team pays him no heed.

Meanwhile, Cottonmouth Joe slaughters the workers at an oil pumping station. That night, two sentries are also killed (but are technically MIA as their bodies are never found). The team's scout (Casper Van Dien) also disappears.

The next day, the team encounters Cottonmouth Joe. The heavy weapons specialist charges him but is killed and the team opens fire to no effect. A support helicopter of Citizen's Militia is also destroyed. One man goes to recover the heavy weapons specialist's body but finds it missing. The squad then discovers the team scout, whom they accidentally shot in the firefight (Cottonmouth Joe having captured him and put him in a location to be shot). The team tries to lure their adversary into a trap, but run out of ammo. Another trooper is killed, as is the team sharpshooter who has her skull crushed by a tomahawk.

The two remaining troopers (Captain Leary (Michael Rooker) and Lt. Scott (Sarah Ann Schultz)) again try to lure Cottonmouth Joe into a trap to no avail. Skeleton man ends his pursuit of them and heads to a nearby chemical plant where he kills several workers, two guards, the manager and several scientists. The two remaining soldiers arrive and find the place surrounded by law enforcement. Captain Leary takes a sheriff's Armsel Striker and goes to confront the undead adversary. After a cat-and-mouse chase through the chemical plant, Captain Leary lures Cottonmouth Joe into a generator room and blows him up with electric current.

As the film's credits begin to roll, they suddenly reverse and show Skeleton Man back on his horse in the woods, thus indicating that he has survived.

Captain Karl Taylor is sent to investigate mysterious alien signals from the Moon, but the sights and sounds of the alien “city” he encounters are entirely incomprehensible to human perceptions. Taylor thus orders his people to open fire, apparently fearing that they are under attack. This is the start of a war between the alien Myloki and PRISM, the secret organisation created to fight the invaders. The Myloki attack by transforming ordinary human beings into their puppets; most are merely drone-like zombies known as Shiners, but two are different. One is Captain Taylor, who is sent back to Earth as a walking, indestructible, reanimated corpse, an emotionless killing machine. The other is Captain Grant Matthews, who is killed and duplicated while on a routine escort mission; however, his duplicate is caught and deprogrammed of his Myloki conditioning, and, like Taylor, is found to be literally indestructible.

The Doctor and Storm trace Verdana to a private hospice in Barbados, where his body is slowly wasting away, perhaps due to the hours he spent monitoring the Myloki’s unfathomably alien signals during the war. He is bitter that he’s been condemned to this slow death while Matthews, a jumped-up clerk and chauffeur, became immortal; this is why he wrote the book exposing PRISM. He refuses to help track down Matthews, but when he makes a snide comment about Matthews’ rich friends, Storm deduces where Matthews must be. Storm offers to put Verdana out of his misery, but Verdana refuses, determined to cling on to life until the bitter end. As the Doctor and Storm leave the hospice, Storm admits to the Doctor that he was a mercenary for hire before the war; Bishop freed him from a Polish prison and gave him the authority to kill whoever he had to defeat the Myloki.

John Sharon, once the wild child of the Sharon family, is now working as a doctor for an isolated tribe in a tropical rainforest. A nearby village was recently struck by a blast from the Myloki grid, and the Doctor chips in to help John tend to those affected by the blast; like everything else touched by the Myloki, however, their bodies have been warped by contact with the alien energy, and the Doctor knows that he can do nothing to save the victims’ lives. John eventually explains to the Doctor that the people of the world turned on Matthews, fearing what he had become, after Verdana’s exposé revealed his secret; Matthews turned to Buck for help, and he agreed to let Matthews hide out on the Sharons’ private island. As far as John knows, Matthews is still there. However, John is torn by conflicting emotions regarding his family and his inability to live up to their shining example, and when the Doctor sees that the photographs of John’s beloved family members have been repeatedly defaced, he realises there’s nothing he can do to help the unfortunate man.

Two and a half years after the previous film, Dennis Mitchell (Justin Cooper) is worse than ever. At the beginning of the film, he goes over to the Wilsons' house to offer George (Don Rickles) some pets as gifts for his birthday. They include frogs, lizards, snakes, insects, tarantulas, scorpions, mice, exotic mammals, and even a baby alligator. This ordeal ends with George unintentionally riding down a flight of stairs in Dennis' red wagon and accidentally getting his birthday cake thrown in his face by Martha (Betty White).

Soon after this incident, Mr. Johnson, Dennis's grandfather, Alice's father, and Henry's father-in law (George Kennedy), shows up and announces that he is moving in with the Mitchells. Dennis starts spending more time with him than George.

George, upset that he's getting older, gets tricked by two crooked con men, the Professor and his assistant, Sylvester (Brian Doyle-Murray and Carrot Top), who try to talk him into buying a "rare" root used to make tea to make people younger. He is about to pay $10,000 when Dennis comes by. Dennis then reveals that he owns one of the same kind, which he says he found on a place where those abound.

Soon afterward, the Professor and Sylvester return and sell George a machine that allegedly makes people younger. Suddenly, the attitudes of him and Mr. Johnson reverse as the latter feels the former's pain of living in the same neighborhood as Dennis, while he starts to feel youthful and happy. While Dennis is trying to clean up a pile of garbage that he accidentally threw on Mr. Johnson's car while taking out the trash, he accidentally destroys George's machine with cotton candy mix that he mistook for soap. As a result of this, George declares that he and Martha will be moving away to be away from Dennis for good, whereupon Mr. Johnson decides to move into their house, although no one seems to really want to carry out this plan.

Overhearing everything, the Professor and Sylvester decide to use George's plan as an opportunity to get more money from him. Dennis helps the police (unintentionally) catch them (as they pretended to be several different workmen at the Wilsons' house when they were planning to move, attempting yet again to drain his bank account by stockpiling a hoard of his as yet uncashed checks by claiming that the house needed several repairs before it could be sold).

The police return the uncashed checks, and George decides not to move after Dennis begs him not to do so. Mr. Johnson, however, announces intentions to get his camper back, having promised to take Dennis to the Grand Canyon, also because of everything he has put him through.

The film ends as Dennis and Mr. Johnson are in his camper in the Grand Canyon and Dennis, wanting to take a rock home to George as a present, accidentally takes the one from under the camper, causing it to roll down the incline it is parked on top of with Mr. Johnson still in it. While enjoying the Christmas season, George and Martha see on the news what has happened as Dennis explains to the camera and Mr. Johnson is being airlifted to safety. Dennis gives a shoutout to George, which leaves him so flabbergasted that he mutters to the viewers "He's a menace!".

When a passenger plane crashes near the top of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, greedy Christopher Teller (Wagner) decides to go and rob the dead. However, he has no hope of getting to the crash site without the help of his older brother Zachary (Tracy), a highly skilled mountain climber. Zachary wants to leave the dead in peace, but Chris hounds him until he finally gives in.

When they reach the downed plane, they find one badly injured survivor, an Indian woman (Kashfi). Chris wants to leave her there to die, but Zachary insists on bringing her down the mountain.

On the descent, Chris, ignoring Zachary's warning, tries to cross an unsafe snow bridge and falls to his death. When Zachary gets the woman to his village, he tells everyone that he went up the mountain to rob the plane and forced his brother to go with him, but his friends (Trevor, Demarest) know better.

In 1279 A.D., the downfall of the Chola dynasty seems imminent as the Pandyas drive the Chola people out of their kingdom in southern India. To escape them and save the life of his successor, the Chola emperor sends his son, his royal advisor (Raja Guru), and the remaining Chola people to a secret territory. The refugees take along an idol sacred to the Pandyas, angering them. To capture the escaped Cholas and the stolen idol, the Pandyas extend their invasion to unexplored territories, but are unable to find them.

Centuries later, in 2008, Indian archaeologists are searching for the secret land of the lost Chola group using clues left by the ancient Pandyan warriors, but the searchers always disappear. After the sudden disappearance of archaeologist Chandramouli, the government organizes a search expedition led by the cruel and arrogant officer Anitha to find him and what became of the Cholas. She is assisted by a detachment of the Indian army led by Ravisekharan. They recruit Chandramouli's estranged daughter, the aloof and quiet archaeologist Lavanya. She supplies crucial documents about the Chola dynasty prepared by her father, which contain route information. Anitha also employs a group of porters headed by Muthu, who she and the army continually ill-treat.

The expedition arrives at an island called Min-gua, on the borders of Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. There they face seven traps set by the Cholas: sea creatures, which they flee from; cannibals, who cannot eat them as long as they do not look them in the face; warriors whose land they invade and who they brutally kill; snakes; hunger; quicksand; and a village. Many porters and soldiers die, Anitha forcing the porters, who she had not warned of the dangers, to carry on and emotionally manipulating Muthu into not retreating by insulting his masculinity.

Muthu, Anitha and Lavanya then become separated from the others. They reach a ruined village, where they realize that someone is following them. Under the influence of black magic, they are almost driven mad, and surrender to the follower, who reveals himself as the aged Raja Guru, the royal advisor who was sent away 800 years ago. The Chola people have become an ethnically isolated primitive Tamil group ruled by Rajendra Chola III. They are living in poverty and suffering from drought while awaiting the arrival of the messenger who, it is foretold, will lead them back to their motherland of Thanjavur. When Muthu, Anitha, and Lavanya strip in front of themselves in front of the Raja Guru, a tattoo of a tiger is revealed on Muthu's back.

After Muthu, Anitha, and Lavanya are revived to consciousness by the Raja Guru, other priests and physicians. Consulting the gods for omens, the king and priests are told that one of them is a Chola, one is a Pandya, and one is a commoner. The king and Raja Guru hypnotize Muthu, attempting to have him reveal himself as the messenger, but the king rejects the possibility because of Muthu's appearance and his incoherent babbling, and orders all three to be burnt alive as sacrifices.

At this point Anitha suddenly pricks herself and uses her blood to perform black magic. She tells the king that she is the messenger. All the Chola people are ecstatic. Muthu and Lavanya are enslaved.

Unbeknownst to the Chola people, it is revealed to the audience that Anitha's account of her ancestry reveals her true identity as a descendant of the Pandya Dynasty. On glimpsing the Pandyas' sacred idol, she cries out. The minister sponsoring the expedition and Army officer Ravishekaran, who escaped the traps and is the sole survivor of the expeditionary force, are also revealed to be Pandyas. Anitha attempts to seduce the king and to persuade him to march immediately to the homeland so he can be formally crowned there, but he grows suspicious since her actions do not match the traditions about the messenger. The prophecy was that on arrival, the messenger will be beaten, it will rain, and finally, he will console the destitute. Giving up on persuading the king, Anitha attempts to kill the Raja Guru and poisons the wells, then hypnotizes a Chola girl into passing information to Ravishekaran, who returns with reinforcements. The king, horrified that he ever believed in her, realizes that Muthu is the true messenger. The Raja Guru gives all of his magical powers, including invisibility and invulnerability, to Muthu and dies.

The Cholas fight bravely against Ravishekaran's troops but are overwhelmed by modern technology. Rajendra Chola III and his people are taken prisone, their women raped by the soldiers. The king dies, and the remaining enslaved Cholas drown themselves in the sea with his body. Muthu then breaks free from his shackles, and saves the king's son, the last remaining heir of Chola dynasty. Using the powers given to him by the Raja Guru, he escapes from Anitha and the army with the Chola prince, presumably to India, thus fulfilling the prophecy that the messenger will take the seed of Chola dynasty to their homeland.

Mao, son of the netherworld's Overlord, has not once attended class since the beginning of school. His ambition is to overthrow his father and claim his title (along with claiming revenge for having his gaming systems destroyed). After reading a few volumes in his manga about the Super Hero, Mao resolves to become a hero, convinced that it is the quickest way to gain enough power.

Eventually, Raspberyl, Mao's childhood rival, learns about his goal, and realizes that if Mao became a Hero, it would endanger her position as the academy's top delinquent. She makes up her mind to stop Mao's plan to sustain her title. However, since Raspberyl is a demon delinquent, she tries to solve the problem without violence and talk him out of it instead. Almaz, a meek hero fanboy from Earth on a mission to protect princess Sapphire by defeating the overlord who he believes is targeting her, misunderstands the situation and tries to save the day. Mao accepts the challenge and defeats him, stealing Almaz's title and giving him the title of "Demon". Almaz slowly starts becoming a demon, but he sticks with Mao, who claims he is his slave now, to defeat the overlord.

Visiting the "Heart Bank", in which demons store parts of their heart and memories to be less feeling, they make several attempts to open up Mao's heart, where the hero title is stored, but are unsuccessful. Geoffrey, Mao's butler, is unhappy with Almaz's meddling. At one point, Mao comes across his sealed memory of him contributing to his father's demise by telling the Super Hero Aurum his weak spot. Aurum later clarifies this by revealing that the Overlord intentionally lost in order to protect Mao from his ultimate attack.

Eventually, all the freshmen become delinquents, being brainwashed by the Senior class. After fighting them, Mao learns that Geoffrey orchestrated the plan. Actually the Super Hero Aurum in disguise, Geoffrey attempted to raise Mao to be the ultimate overlord so he could eventually destroy him. Mao tries to get revenge by destroying the human world, but the words of his friends convince him not to release the evil in his heart, and he instead goes after Aurum, who is disappointed to see Mao has not succumbed to evil. Aurum initially dismisses Mao as weak, but Mao uses the power of a hero to defeat Aurum. The ghost of his father gives Mao the Overlord title and he runs the Evil Academy henceforth.

Crippled trapeze aerialist and former star Mike Ribble sees great promise in young, brash Tino Orsini. Ribble, only the sixth man to have completed the dangerous triple somersault, thinks that his protégé is capable of matching the same feat, but only if he provides him with rigorous training. However, Orsini is distracted by the new third member of their circus act, the manipulative Lola. Tensions rise as a love triangle forms.

In 2092, humanity has conquered mortality through the endless renewal of cells. The world watches in fascination as the 118-year-old Nemo Nobody, the last mortal on Earth, edges towards death. No record can be found of his past and his memories are confused, so Dr. Feldheim, a psychiatrist, uses hypnosis to help Nemo remember his life. Curious to know about the world before quasi-immortality, a journalist also interviews Nemo, whose recollections primarily come from three points in his life: age 9, age 15, and age 34. Nemo makes contradictory statements, describing events from his past as having unfolded in multiple different ways, and explains that, before birth, children remember everything that will happen in their lives. At the moment of conception, the Angels of Oblivion erase the children's memories, but he says the Angels forgot about him, allowing him to "remember" different possible futures for himself.

At age 9, after his parents' divorce, Nemo says he was forced to choose whether to leave with his mother or stay with his father, and he describes what happened both when he managed to catch and board his mother's train at the last second, and when he failed to do so and was left behind.

Life with his mother

Nemo moves with his mother to Montreal. When he is a rebellious teenager, a new girl, Anna, comes to his school, and he is immediately smitten. One day at the beach, Anna asks if Nemo would like to swim with her and her friends. He insults her friends and they hardly see each other again.

In an alternate timeline, Nemo admits to Anna that he cannot swim, and the two spend time together. Nemo learns that Anna is the daughter of his mother's new boyfriend, and then husband, Harry, and the step-siblings begin an affair, pledging their lives to one another. When Harry and Nemo's mother get divorced, Anna goes to New York with her father, and the teenagers lose touch. Years later, Nemo, who still hopes to someday see Anna again, works as a pool cleaner. One day, he and Anna pass at a train station and the pair immediately recognize each other. After a passionate reunion, Anna announces she is not ready to immediately resume the relationship. She gives Nemo her number and asks him to call her in two days and meet at a lighthouse in a local park, but he loses her phone number when a sudden downpour makes her note illegible. Nemo waits at the lighthouse every day, but Anna does not come.

In one possible life, Anna and Nemo are married with children. Nemo works at a television studio narrating educational videos. One evening, while returning home, he hits a bird, loses control of his car, plummets into a lake, and drowns.

Life with his father

Nemo stays in England with his father, who later becomes disabled. As a teenager, he works in a shop and spends his free time writing a science fiction story about a journey to Mars. At a school dance, he meets Elise and falls in love. A few days later, he goes to her house and sees her with her 22-year-old boyfriend. Frustrated, Nemo speeds away on his motorcycle, has an accident, and is hospitalized in a vegetative state. Though he cannot move or speak, he can perceive the world through his senses and detects his parents' reunion at his bedside. He imagines his fingers are on the keyboard of his typewriter and continues to work on his story.

In an alternate timeline, Nemo speaks with Elise at her house. She tells him that she is in love with her boyfriend, Stefano, even though she knows he does not love her, but Nemo does not back down. He keeps assuring her of his feelings, and Elise eventually gives in. A few years later, she and Nemo get married. In one version of this timeline, Elise dies on their wedding day in an explosion. Nemo, in a reality mirroring his sci-fi story, takes her ashes to Mars and spreads them on the planet's surface, which he had promised to do when they were teenagers. Aboard the spacecraft on the way back to Earth, he meets Anna, but, before they can say much to each other, the ship is destroyed by asteroids. In another version of this string of events, as an adult, Nemo works at the same television studio as he does in the timeline where he married Anna, and one of his coworkers drowns in the lake. The coworker's widow is Anna, whom Nemo feels he has seen before. Another timeline has Nemo and Elise married with three children, but their marriage is unhappy, as Elise suffers from borderline personality disorder and chronic depression. She has attacks of hysteria and, despite Nemo's attempts to save their marriage, ultimately leaves him to pursue Stefano.

Alternately, after being rejected by Elise, teenage Nemo resolves to marry the first girl who will dance with him at the next school dance, who turns out to be Jean. Though he and Jean marry and have two sons and he becomes rich, Nemo grows unhappy and bored with his life, so he puts all of his assets in Jean's name and leaves his family. Now making all of his decisions randomly via coin toss, he goes to the airport and tells a chauffeur that he is Daniel Jones, the man the chauffeur is waiting for. He is taken to a hotel, where he is murdered while taking a bath, and his body is dumped in the woods by the assassins, who question whether they have killed the right man.

As well as the many paths that Nemo's life could take or has taken, adult Nemo is also seen to repeatedly awaken in an artificial, surrealistic environment dominated by argyle patterns. Following clues that he finds scattered throughout this world, he arrives at a dilapidated house, where he finds a DVD player hooked up to a television. In a strangely interactive video, 34-year-old Nemo is told by 118-year-old Nemo that this is a universe where Nemo Nobody was never born and his consciousness is stuck in some sort of limbo. The old Nemo states that he is experiencing the story from the end and the adult Nemo must stay alive until 5:50 a.m. on 12 February 2092.

Epilogue

Before his death, old Nemo tells the journalist that neither of them exist—they are figments of the imagination of 9-year-old Nemo at the train station as he struggles to choose between his parents. This is an impossible decision, but he knows it will define his life from then on, so the young boy is trying to determine which is the correct choice by tracing various potential outcomes of each. Ultimately, he takes a third option: he leaves both parents and runs away towards an unknown future.

On his death bed, Nemo recalls a reunion with Anna at the lighthouse. The calculated time of his death arrives, and his last word, "Anna", is broadcast to the world. The universe ceases to expand and begins to contract. The flow of time having reversed, old Nemo comes back to life and begins to cackle joyously. The other dead Nemos also come back to life, and Nemo's parents get back together. 9-year-old Nemo reverse-runs to 9-year-old Anna and reverse-skips rocks with her.

The childhood friendship of Devdas (Phani Sarma) (who is from a wealthy family) and Paro (Zubeida) (whose family is not as well off) blossoms into love as they grow up. Devdas' father does not approve of the relationship due to differences in their families' status in the village and of their castes. (Devdas is of the Brahmin caste and Paro of the Merchant caste.)

Devdas realizes he cannot live without Paro and seeks her out, but she has already been married off to an older man with children. Devdas falls into despair and drinks to excess; then he meets a courtesan, Chandramukhi (Mohini), who falls in love with him and looks after him. During his alcohol-instilled dreams, he frequently dreams of Paro and Chandramukhi. The two women replace each other in his dreams, so it is left unclear, if, in the end, Devdas overcomes his love for Paro and finds some peace by falling in love with Chandramukhi. Devdas returns to meet Paro, but dies at her doorstep before seeing her.

When their mother died, Olive and Boadicea were sent to live with their mother's sister, Caroline, and her husband Jasper Hemingford on Old Manor Farm. The farm is remote with few neighbours and while Aunt Caroline would have made a wonderful mother, the girls do exactly as they want and have her twisted completely round their thumb. Jasper is a distant figure, spending most of his time in his museum room with his nose stuck in a book or studying his collection and muttering to himself in Latin.

It was hardly surprising then that Olive, the elder of the girls, sought to find herself a rich husband who would whisk her away from the lonely farm to the highs of London society, and this she did three years earlier, marrying Sir Baldwin Jefferys, a middle aged gentleman of wealth and position.

The story starts in June 1835. Olive has been the subject of society gossip after spending too much time in the company of Lieutenant Jack Carrington of and her reputation has suffered as a result. Sir Baldwin knows the Lieutenant is incapable of vulgar intrigue but Olive has given him the full charm offensive. Enraged as his wife's behaviour, Sir Baldwin has insisted that she must leave London mid-way through the season. Olive in turn accuses him of insane jealously and she agrees, only on the condition that she can spend the month at her childhood home in Thanet.

After accompanying his wife to the farm for the first time since their wedding, Sir Baldwin is about to leave when he runs into Cousin Barnaby in the hall. Barnaby bemoans the addition of another female to the household and declares that he is spending all his time avoiding women and sailors, for HMS ''Dolphin'' has just put into Ramsgate harbour.

Sir Baldwin suspects this might be the reason why his wife was so amenable to leaving London, even though he doesn't want to believe her capable of such duplicity. He decides to stay until the evening, so he can talk to Olive and flushed with rage he goes to catch up with his friend Mr Culpepper for a couple of hours to calm down.

After he has left there is then an almighty commotion from outside as a stranger starts shouting that a young girl is in danger, this followed by Boadicea's entrance – crashing through the loft skylight while clutching some owl eggs. The eggs are smashed by the fall, which is a source of great amusement to the stranger – who soon turns out to be none other than Lieutenant Jack Carrington.

Aunt Caroline is delighted to see the son of her old friend Mamie Carrington and invites him to stay for supper. While waiting for Olive to come down, Jack starts to tease Boadicea, holding her hands and kissing her on the cheek and neck while she protests and gets redder and redder. Olive catches them like this and with a disapproving look tells Jack to leave Boadicea alone as she looks like a bedraggled chicken. Jack realises he has made a grave mistake by paying attention to another woman in Olive's presence, even if that attention was meant purely in brotherly kindness Embarrassed by Olive's comments about her appearance, and upset by the way Jack acts when her sister is in the room, Boadicea produces a passionate outburst about how she hates mincing 'ladies' with their white hands and chicken livers and storms out of the room.

When Olive and Jack are left alone it becomes apparent that she is the one pushing the relationship, Jack does not want to get involved with a married woman, even one as beautiful as Lady Jefferys and he spurns her advances. She then demands that he must return her letters later that evening.

Olive is looking forward to supper, as Jack's presence will surely teach her husband a lesson. However, Sir Baldwin shows no reaction when he returns to find the Lieutenant in the house, and worse still for Olive, Boadicea comes down to supper dressed and acting like a charming young lady, tomboy manners put to the side. Her complete change in appearance and demeanour means that it is Boadicea rather than Olive who is the centre of attention, and in a fit of pique Olive accuses her of throwing herself at the Lieutenant and suggests she should be sent to boarding school for a year.

Sir Baldwin finally leaves for his estate racked with jealousy and not without reason, for at 10pm when all are in bed, Olive tiptoes downstairs to meet Jack, who has promised to return her letters. Jack is bewildered to find the house is in darkness. Having carefully engineered the situation, Olive moves in to kiss him, and asks him to tell her that he loves her – Jack is almost about to relent when he hears a noise – Boadicea is standing outside the door. Olive accuses her of eavesdropping but Boadicea is adamant that she came down because she saw a second man arrive on horseback and the next moment Sir Baldwin is banging on the front door demanding to be let in.

Sir Baldwin is furious to find Jack with his wife while everyone else is in bed and forcefully demands an explanation from Olive, waking the whole house. Olive's answer to her predicament is to insist that she was playing gooseberry for Boadicea and the Lieutenant claiming her sister had set up the rendezvous and that she had heard the child leave her room and followed.

Boadicea cannot understand why her sister is telling such lies about her but accepts the role she has been forced into, even though it could mean public disgrace. This she does because she loves her sister and she understands that Olive is in grave danger from her husband. Sir Baldwin insists that he does not believe the story and Jack then tells him that he came to ask for Boadicea's hand in marriage. Realising that she might as well go the whole hog, Boadicea confirms the story is true and announces that she has accepted.

Over the next month Jack spends most evenings at the farm and before long he has fallen madly in love with Boadicea and she with him, this is obvious to everyone but the self-obsessed Olive, who still thinks the engagement is a farce that will be broken off as soon as the Lieutenant has returned to sea. Her illusions are shattered however after Cousin Barnaby starts complaining about young love birds, and having realised that her plans are not working out as expected Olive spins a web of lies, splitting the young couple up and inflicting misery and pain on both of them.

This movie is about a blonde, blue-eyed, "All-American" 18-year-old girl named Jesse Brenner and her experiences as a college freshman. While she moves away to college for her first year, Jesse struggles with drinking and often finds herself giving into the pressures of her peers. She becomes enamored with the same party lifestyle that her female peers have all taken a liking to and gradually starts paying more attention to partying than she does schoolwork and athletics. As a result, her relationship with her mother suffers, as well as her grades. She finds herself lying, sleeping with different men, drinking and driving, and pushing away the people who care about her.

Angry and concerned, her mother warns Jesse that if she continues to drink and behave carelessly, she will be out of school. Affected by the warning and realizing what's best for her, she stops drinking for a while, and directs her attention back to school; until she goes to San Diego, CA. On her trip, she gets really drunk and faces the world - topless, on a TV program similar to ''Girls Gone Wild''. Following this wild vacation, Jesse receives a call from her sister, letting her know that some guys at school were making fun of her for seeing her topless on spring break. Sadie, Jesse's younger sister, shows their mother the video, who consults her best friend about her daughter's erratic and extreme behaviors. Her friend then remarks that Jesse is a binge drinker. Her mother saw the tape and plays the tough mom card. She also warns Jess, she will be no longer going to pay her tuition, if she doesn't straightened herself out and doesn't get her grades up. That is when they became estranged. Jess was partying in a frat house and moved a car, hit a fire hydrant. Luckily no one was hurt and got probation from the college. She and her mother reconciled and mostly her mother was sorry for playing the mom card and wants to help her get through this. Jess straightened up her life and got back in track in college and got her grades up.

On the last day of the semester, Jesse's roommate Shanna goes to a college party after drinking on the roof of the building. Jesse stays the night at her boyfriend's house and returns to her dorm in the morning. Upon arrival, Jesse realizes that Shanna is gone and is still at the frat house where she spent the night. When Jessie finds Shanna she tries to wake her up and realizes that she is not just sleeping; she is dead. Shanna's lifeless body lay on the couch, unbeknownst to her peers, who were with her the night before and assumed she was just sleeping. The college holds a candlelight service after Jesse tells Shanna's parents how it all happened. After the service, life continues on as usual, but Jesse learns a lot and keeps in mind the dangers of binge drinking and what happened to her good friend. It ends with her playing the recording of Shanna's voice while going for a jog.

The novel is somewhat unconventional and non-linear in its construction. It begins with a group of travelers disembarking on a small island in the Irish Sea after their ship runs aground. There they stumble upon a house inhabited by Professor Kreutznaer, his assistant Licht, and an unnamed character who figures centrally in the novel and who is referred to only as "Little God." It is later revealed that Little God can be identified with Freddie Montgomery, the narrator of ''The Book of Evidence.'' Much of the latter half of the book focuses on Montgomery's account of his experiences after having been released from prison, his reflections on the crime (the murder of a young woman) he committed, and his continuing struggle with the ghosts of his past and the nature of his perceptions.

Kreutznaer's relationship to a painting entitled ''The Golden World'' by a fictional Dutch artist named Vaublin plays a central role in the novel. The fictional painting is based to a large extent on The Embarkation for Cythera by Watteau. The narrator mentions "Cythera" several times and, to a certain degree, the characters are modelled on those in the painting. It is revealed that Kreutznaer and one of the travellers—a man named Felix—are acquainted with one another, and that Felix had been involved in art forgery. The novel ends with the travellers re-embarking and leaving the island, with many of the central issues and tensions left unresolved.

The plot derives from the experience of a child's parents. Paloma's father, an anarchist, fought in Madrid against Francisco Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He was deported to a concentration camp, then fought for the French Resistance. His wife, with two young children, never gave up hope of seeing him again.

Screenshot of the Master System version. The evil witch Magica De Spell has stolen Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime and kidnapped his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Donald Duck embarks on a mission, traveling around the world to save his three nephews and recover Scrooge's lucky dime.

Two young adults, Mitsuru and his girlfriend, Maki, kidnap a little girl and hold her for ransom to pay off a drug-related debt. As they hide out at an abandoned school, they attempt to call the girl's parents only to find out from her parents she has been dead for a year. Mitsuru's friends also arrive, with ulterior motives of their own.

Soon, members of the group are brutally killed by an unseen force. Is the mysterious little girl responsible, or is something far more sinister at work?

The book starts with the departure of the Germans from the camp. The sick were left on their own after the healthy ones were taken on a death march away from the approaching Red Army. As all the services have left the camp, exploration journeys begin in search for food and essential items.

When they arrive the Red Army is shocked by the state of the people in the camp and they provide basic medical aid. All remaining inmates are taken to a hospital in the main camp.

After the protagonist has regained some strength, he starts a long journey. First to Kraków, then to Katowice where he stays for some time and works as a pharmaceutic assistant.

The journey continues after weeks eastwards to Tarnów, Rzeszów, Przemyśl and into Ukraine: Lviv, Ternopil, Proskurov, Zhmerynka. The plan was to go south to Odessa but instead he had to take the train northwards and arrives at Slutsk (Belarus). From there he walks and rides in a horse cart to Starye Dorogi where he lives inside ''Krasny Dom'' ("Red House") and works as a medical assistant.

Then, after weeks, a Russian Marshal, Semyon Timoshenko, came to the displaced persons camp and declared that they can make their way back home now. By train the journey continues southwards and then westwards: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany. After 35 days of travel since leaving ''Krasny Dom'' he arrives in his home town Turin, which he had last seen 20 months ago.

Shelby Barret is a stable hand who rides show horses for snobbish wealthy widow Mrs. Nicholas, nicknamed Nicko. She meets Johnny Wyatt, the destitute son of a once-wealthy Long Island family who plays polo for Nicko. Nouveau-riche Gene Fairchild, a horseman who rides his own entries, is in love with Shelby, while Nicko is in love with Johnny, who has curried her favour. However, despite their efforts, Shelby and Johnny fall in love, and Nicko and Fairchild are jealous of their budding relationship. Nicko fires Shelby, which only encourages Johnny to leave her employ, and they elope to marry. Johnny brings Shelby home to Wyattville, the town named for his family, but his snobbish family does not approve of Shelby and treat her frigidly. They frown even more when the newlyweds start a business handling the horses of wealthy neighbours. Shelby had been expecting a loan from her grandfather in Kentucky to start the business, but when he is unable to provide the money, Shelby borrows from Fairchild without telling the proud but broke Johnny. Nicko soon shows up and starts gossip against Shelby, which does not help matters.

When Johnny is away Fairchild invites Shelby aboard his yacht to help him entertain a wealthy client. She tries to contact Johnny, but when that fails she accepts the invitation. The client and his female companion, chorus girl Olga, show up drunk. Olga accidentally falls overboard and drowns, and Fairchild is accused of her murder. He intends to keep Shelby out of the case although it looks bad for him, while Shelby is afraid of scandal. While the case is in progress, with one of the ship's officers saying that he saw Fairchild leaving the ship with a mysterious "woman in red," the Wyatt family talk about the case. Shelby snaps and confesses that she is the woman in question. She shows up at the court at the last minute to provide witness. The Wyatt family also comes to the court to defend her, if only to protect the family name. Shelby tells the court it was her, and thus she saves Fairchild. She knows that in making her confession she is risking her marriage, and wonders whether Johnny will understand and forgive her, although she has done nothing to be forgiven for. Eugene proposes that Shelby divorce Johnny and marry him, but Shelby admits she still loves her husband. In the end, Shelby and Johnny are reconciled, and Johnny chooses her love over his family acceptance.

In 1940/50, world peace is threatened when the "United States of Europe" comes into conflict with the "Empire of the Atlantic States". The former comprises Europe, India, the Middle East, Canada, Africa, and Australasia. The latter is a combination of the United States and South America.

In the film the prohibition era in America extends to 1940 and the tension is initially caused by bootleggers crossing the borders between territories. One such incident leads to a shoot-out between border guards in which both sides suffer casualties. War looks likely, but the pacifist Peace League intervenes. Meanwhile, we learn that the tension is in fact carefully orchestrated by a sinister terrorist group financed by arms manufacturers. They blow up a rail tunnel under the English Channel. The President of Europe orders a mass enlistment and mobilisation, fearing that the Atlantic States are preparing a sneak attack.

Dr. Seymour, leader of the Peace League, desperately attempts to avert war. His daughter Evelyn seeks to convince her boyfriend Michael, commander of the European air force, not to fight, but he insists he must do his duty. Evelyn says she will leave him.

The European council are divided, but the president decides on war, saying that he will announce the outbreak of hostilities on television.

The terrorists try to kill Dr. Seymour by bombing the Peace League, but Seymour survives. He tells Evelyn to make another effort to stop Michael ordering the airforce to attack, while he appeals directly to the President. Pacifists led by Evelyn demonstrate ''en masse'' at the airfield. Michael is uncertain what to do, but Evelyn convinces him to delay the attack. Seymour confronts the President, but is forced, despite his pacifism, to shoot him to stop him making the broadcast.

Little Pablito is the ten-year-old stepson of a cruel horse trainer. The trainer is responsible for training a Mexican general's horse to jump for the grand race. The trainer's methods cause the horse to become afraid of jumping and the general orders the animal's death. Pablito runs away with the horse, becoming a fugitive. He travels throughout Mexico encountering several fugitives and a priest who tries to help.

Nicki and Vicki, two librettists who also happen to be brothers, are presently in collaboration with composer Toni. All too aware of Toni's amorous escapades, Nicki and Vicki try to keep the existence of their pretty sister Hedi a secret. Suffering from an acute case of writer's block (he has yet to find an inspiration for his next production), Toni throws a huge party, which is boycotted by his friends and associates so that he'll keep his mind on his work. The only guest who does show up is uninvited—and surprise, that guest is sweet little Hedi, who turns out to be inspiration enough for ten operettas.

Richard and Karl are German prisoners of war in Siberia. Since escape is almost impossible, they are unguarded and live an almost idyllic existence running a ferry. Richard misses his wife Anna greatly; he literally counts the days since he's seen her and tells Karl about her and their home in detail. When he decides to escape, Karl comes with him. While crossing a desert Richard collapses. He asks Karl to go on without him, but Karl refuses to leave his friend and carries him. But when Karl leaves to get water, Richard is recaptured and sent to work in a lead mine.

Karl makes it back to Hamburg, where he meets Anna and occupies a spare room in her flat. Soon friendship deepens, and both he and Anna have guilt feelings about their attraction.

Meanwhile, the war ends, and Richard returns just in time to witness Karl and Anna's first kiss. After his initial anger, Richard goes to Anna's bed. She cries; he takes her in his arms; she returns his embrace; but when he begins to make love to her, she refuses his advances. Richard returns to the room where Karl pretends to be asleep. He takes a pistol and prepares to kill Karl; but as he holds the gun to Karl's head, he recalls his friend's carrying him across the desert and puts the pistol away.

Realizing that "Nobody's to blame," Richard leaves Karl and Anna to each other and returns to his other great passion, life at sea on one of the great freighters that sail from Hamburg.

''Mordum'' is a home movie shot by serial killers Peter Mountain, his sadomasochistic girlfriend, Crusty, and her depraved man-child brother, Maggot. After Peter walks in on Crusty and Maggot having sex, an argument erupts between him and Crusty. It is quelled when Crusty sexually arouses Peter and herself via self-mutilation with a piece of glass. The two then break into a crack house, where Peter beats the owner to death with a hammer.

Crusty films the filth-encrusted building and the decaying corpse of an overdosed addict. When Peter starts stripping the body of the house's owner, claiming it will be easier to dispose of without clothes, another fight breaks out between him and Crusty when she questions his motive for undressing the body, accusing him of being "a faggot."

Crusty demonstrates her love of self-harm to Maggot and a friend, cutting her scarred arm with a knife. Crusty and Maggot remove a bound and masked woman from a box they have been keeping her in for "a long time." Maggot rapes the woman while Crusty cheers him on and taunts the victim. When Maggot is finished, he then lets a male captive out of another box, and he and Crusty force him to perform a penectomy on himself with a pair of cuticle scissors, then seal him back up. Crusty mimics oral sex with it, then uses it to violate the female victim.

The trio of killers go to town, where they torment a shopkeeper, eat fast food, and wander around. Maggot and Peter then watch and masturbate to Crusty torturing two women, sexually abusing and repeatedly vomiting on them while a male corpse rots in the corner of the room. Eventually, the women are killed. Maggot disembowels one, chewing on her spilled innards and masturbating with them, while the other is beaten to death by Crusty and Peter, the latter dragging the body away to presumably have sex with it. They get drunk, and afterward, Maggot is found in the bathroom by Crusty, shaving and cutting himself to "look beautiful" for her.

The trio are next shown playing in the snow, attending a concert, meeting up with friends, raping a woman, and going to a piercing shop, where Maggot receives a nose ring and gets into a fight with Peter over his relationship with Crusty. The group then visit another serial killer, who shows them the contents of his shed; mutilated bodies, dying victims, and a headless and maggot-covered toddler, which Maggot eats a chunk of. Later, while the others are asleep, the new killer borrows their camera, and films himself taunting and slitting the throat of one of his female captives.

The trio attacks a family, killing the father first by hanging him. While Peter tortures the mother, Crusty watches Maggot have sex with the corpse of the young daughter in a bathtub. The three get into a fight, which escalates to Peter slitting the throat of the wife, while abusing Maggot with her blood, followed by the film cutting to static. Later, a cat is shown killing and eating a mouse.

The main influence in fourteen-year-old Will Burrow's life is his father, Dr. Burrows, and together they share an interest in archaeology and a fascination for the buried past. When Dr. Burrows begins to notice strange 'pallid men' where they live in Highfield, and then promptly goes missing, Will and his friend Chester go search for him. They discover a blocked passageway behind bookshelves in the cellar of the Burrows home and re-excavated it, finding the passage leads to a door set into the rock, and beyond the door is an old lift that takes them down to another set of doors. A cobblestone street lies beyond, lit by a row of orb-like street lamps; houses that appear to be carved out of the walls themselves flank the street.

They are soon captured by the police of the underground community, known as the Colony. In prison, Will is visited by Mr. Jerome, and his son Cal. They reveal Will was actually born in the Colony, and that they are his real family; Mr. Jerome his father, and Cal his younger brother. Will is eventually released from the prison and taken to the Jerome's home, where Will and Cal's Uncle Tam are delighted to see him and inform Will that his adoptive father, Dr. Burrows, was recently there, and had willingly traveled down into the Deeps — a place even deeper in the Earth than The Colony. Will learns that the Styx, the religious rulers of the Colony, are either going to enslave Chester or banish him to the Deeps to fend for himself. Will refuses to abandon his friend, and Uncle Tam formulates a plan for him to rescue Chester and to take him back to the surface.

Will and Cal attempt to rescue Chester before he is sent to the deeps on the 'Miner's Train', but the Styx arrive and they are forced to leave Chester behind. During the botched escape attempt, it is revealed that Rebecca, Will's adoptive sister, is actually a Styx implanted in his family to monitor him. The boys head through a series of tunnels to the Eternal City, an old stone city, estimated by Will to be from Roman times, where the air is filled with deadly bio-toxins. They avoid the Styx soldiers, who patrol the city with their vicious stalker attack dogs, and eventually emerge on the bank of the Thames. Will makes for his home in Highfield, but there Will's health deteriorates, so Cal helps him to his Auntie Jean's flat where he recovers. Soon they return underground to find Will's adoptive father and attempt to rescue Chester once again. They encounter another Styx patrol, and Uncle Tam kills a member of the Styx, whom he calls Crawfly, but is mortally wounded in the fight, and the strong-willed Uncle Tam chooses to stay behind to give the boys time to escape. With the help of Imago Freebone, a member of Uncle Tam's gang, Will and Cal escape to a small hiding place halfway between the Colony and the Eternal City. There, they rest and mourn for Uncle Tam; and are told by Imago that Chester's train to the deeps will pass directly under their hiding spot shortly. They jump down into the train through a hole in the floor of the hiding spot and find Chester. Together they ride down to the Deeps. In the book's epilogue, Rebecca kills Imago, who was hiding on the surface, by poison.

The film begins with Mario on his way to La Paz. As the bus moves through the countryside, we see flashbacks of Mario's memories of his wife, and of his son, who lives in Miami. Mario tries to get a Visa of the United States in order to go there and visit his son, and eventually stay and live in that country. At first the process seems to go well. Mario gives his papers to the US embassy, where he is told that everything is in order and that he can return in a week to obtain his Visa. Thinking the Visa is secured, he buys a ticket to Miami. Then, returning to the hotel where he is staying, he meets Blanca, an exotic dancer, who lives there as well. He tells her that he is going to the US to live with his son, but she tries to convince him to stay in Bolivia because she does not believe in the "American Dream." Nevertheless, despite their vastly different dreams, the two share an immediate attraction, and they quickly fall into a promising relationship.

After a week he returns to the embassy, and discovers his visa has been denied. An official tells him that he should say that he would not try to stay in the United States, which is something he can not do. Naturally Mario is angered, and he is forcibly removed from the office. Outside the embassy, a woman gives him the business card of a company that might help him with the visa. Visiting their office, he discovers that the company will charge him $5,000 for providing a visa. This is, of course, an amount that he does not have.

He continues his relationship with Blanca while thinking about the possibilities for getting the money. When he sells some gold to a woman in a shop, he thinks of a plan. For days he watches the store and follows the courier after the shop closes. He finds out that the owner of the shop has several businesses of the same type. After a time he decides to rob the owner in order to get the money he needs. Meanwhile, Blanca has fallen in love with him. Eventually Don Mario breaks into the owner's home to rob him, but during the theft, Mario is discovered and in the ensuing fight with the owner, Mario strikes him, knocking him to the floor. At this, Mario thinks he has killed him, and returns to the hotel, lamenting what he has done.

The next day, Mario contacts the document broker and buys the visa. He discovers that the US embassy official, a corrupt man without scruples, is the source of the visa. After receiving the visa, he plans his visit to his son, but the man whom he assaulted has other plans, sending two of his workers to abduct him and rake him into the countryside to interrogate him. When they realize that Mario no longer has the money, they give him a beating and throw him off a cliff.

Luck is with Mario, however. He is not killed, but is taken to a hospital, where he is reunited with Blanca. After recovering, he postpones his plans to travel to Miami and goes with Blanca to visit her village.

The game loosely follows Season 4 of the original series. After finishing the Skidbladnir in Carthage, the Lyoko Warriors set off to explore the Digital Sea. They discover numerous Replikas, in which they first use Code: Chimera to destroy them. After discovering that the Replikas are connected to supercomputers on Earth, Jeremie creates a process where the gang can transform into specters on Earth and keep their powers. This is later on used to destroy the five supercomputers. At the end of the game, Aelita and Odd destroy the Volcano Replika's supercomputer and rescue William from XANA's clutches.

'''''Johnny Makeover''''' Johnny's show is requested to have a makeover by the hosts of a TV series, ''Cartoon Makeover''. Johnny goes with the changes, which include new outfits and robot neighbor. The changes end up with poor results. '''''Back on Shaq''''' When flirting with a girl at basketball player Shaq's big game, Johnny accedently bumps into Shaq (who's having a bad luck streak). Right when Johnny hits Shaq, Shaq makes the basket. He finds out Johny is good luck and straps him on his back. Then one player straps his new charm on his back to compete. When Johnny has to use the bathroom, Shaq shoots the basket, despite Johnny's absence. He makes the shot and decides he no longer needs Johnny to win.

Running away from his reserve after burning down a church, 14-year-old Stryker (Kyle Henry) ends up in North End, Winnipeg.

Becoming involved in a turf war, he is stuck between joining either the Indian Posse, led by an Indigenous lesbian named Mama Ceece (Deena Fontaine), recently released from jail; or the Asian Bomb Squad, a Filipino gang headed by Omar (Ryan Black), who is part-Indigenous.

The film is an autobiographical account of Tony Ayres' life at age eight, however the names have been changed. The story is narrated by Darren Yap as an adult Tom typing the story on a computer and reflecting on the story "which defines them, which shapes who they are." His mother Rose Hong was a nightclub singer in Hong Kong in 1964, where she met Bill, an Australian sailor, and married him to seek a better life in Australia, taking her daughter May and son Tom. An opening montage of scenes shows Rose making several unsuccessful attempts to establish herself with Chinese partners before moving in with Bill again.

The story begins seven years after their initial migration to Australia, with the family returning to Bill's house in Melbourne. Bill's mother, Norma, who is disapproving of the family, has moved in. When Bill leaves on a tour of duty, Rose and Norma struggle for control over the house. Soon, Rose begins to have an affair with Joe, the son of the local Chinese restaurateur, who is in his twenties. He moves in with Rose, who tells Norma he is her aunt's son. Rose and her children are eventually kicked out when Norma finds Joe in Rose's room.

Rose settles in with Joe after renting a place from a Chinese man. Their relationship begins to break down, and Rose attempts suicide, however May and Joe discover an affinity for each other which develops into a friendship. Rose, believing that May is trying to take Joe away from her, beats her and curses her. May, as a result, also attempts suicide and Rose also ends up in despair. However, the mother and daughter are reconciled in forgiveness as Rose tells May the story of the difficulties and traumatic experiences in her childhood, where she was forced into a marriage and lost her first two daughters.

The relationship between Rose and Joe collapses, and the family once again returns to Bill's home, with Norma moving out. One afternoon when Tom is walking home with his classmate they encounter Rose in the front yard, and upon overhearing a conversation between two of his classmates bagging out Rose and her clothing, Tom blocks himself from his mother completely. Rose, in the meantime, has had her dream shattered, and is contemplating returning to Hong Kong when Tom abruptly tells her his apathy.

The film culminates in the adult Tom narrating, "Of all the things I remember about my childhood, this is what I remember the most." The eight-year-old Tom wakes up early in the morning to see the light to the backyard shed on and enters to find that Rose has hanged herself. Although she does not die initially, Bill receives a phone call later on confirming her death.

The epilogue to the film shows the adult Tom and his sister May with her family (who happen to be Ayres' real life family) returning to Bill's home. He narrates again, recalling how he never shed a tear for his mother, but instead, wrote the story fully to understand what has shaped him.

The real Tom, Tony Ayres, and his sister stayed with Bill after their mother's death. May ends up marrying the teacher who became their guardian soon after Bill's death.

During the 1800s in the Wild West, a gunman by the name of Chance is hired to escort emotionally challenged people across the desert safely.

After the 1991 peace agreements, ''Sieha'', a doctor, returns from Paris, France to volunteer his services at a clinic in Siem Reap. The two of them performed surgical operations on patients injured by land mines. ''Sieha'' stays in a house with ''Dara'', who is a teacher in the village. Her husband ''Sok'' is disabled because of the war. ''Dara'' tries to court ''Sieha''. Meanwhile, ''Sieha'' marries ''Neari'', a nurse. After relieving her anger, ''Dara'' moves to Phnom Penh. ''Neari'' and her sister, who works in a factory producing prostheses, agree to take care of ''Sok''. Despite this, ''Sok'' commits suicide. The aggrieved ''Sieha'' decides to join a de-mining team and died in a mission.

Go Byung-hee (Go Hyun-jung) is a 33-year-old woman working as a reporter for a third-rate magazine, but with the heart of a 24-year-old virgin girl. She frequently finds it hard to cope with the unexciting aspects of her life. She dreams of someday working for a company that she can be proud of, and of finding the man of her fantasies: someone her age who has a good educational background and is financially stable, who'll provide warm support when she needs it, and who'll go with her on a world tour in a campervan. One day, she gets into an accident with her friend Seung-hye's younger brother, Chul-soo (Chun Jung-myung), and begins to see him in a new light. Park Chul-soo is a 24-year-old high school graduate working as a mechanic at a car repair shop. Although Chul-soo does not seem to have much, he is filled with maturity and enjoys life by doing the things he loves: working as a mechanic and traveling. How many people actually find the love they dream of? Until they realize that true love is just around the corner, this couple continues to pursue this unique romantic relationship of "dating a friend's brother" and "dating my sister's friend."

Padmavati, the princess of the Singhal kingdom, is close friends with the talking parrot Hiraman. Her father disapproves of their closeness, and orders the parrot to be killed. The parrot flies away to escape the punishment, but is captured by a bird catcher, and ultimately ends up as a pet of the Chittor ruler Ratansen.

Inspired by the parrot's description of Padmavati's beauty, Ratansen decides to visit the Singhal kingdom. Joined by his 16,000 vassals and princes, and with the parrot as his guide, he reaches Singhal after crossing the seven seas. There, he tries to win Padmavati by performing austerities in a temple. Informed by the parrot, Padmavati visits the temple and returns without meeting Ratansen, although she begins to long for him. Meanwhile, at the temple, Ratansen decides to commit suicide for having missed her. The deities Shiva and Parvati intervene, and Shiva advises him to attack the fortress of Singhal.

Disguised as ascetics, Ratansen and his followers attack the fortress, but are captured by Gandharvsen. As Ratansen is about to be executed, his bard reveals his identity. Gandharvsen then marries Padmavati to Ratansen, and also arranges 16,000 ''padmini'' women for his companions. (''Padmini'' is best among the four types of women, typically found only in Singhal.)

As Padmavati and Ratansen consummate their marriage in Singhal, Ratansen's first wife Nagmati longs for him in Chittor. She uses a bird to send a message to Singhal, following which Ratansen decides to return to Chittor. Ratansen has excessive pride in being married to the most beautiful woman on the earth, for which he is punished by a sea storm during the return journey. He and Padmavati are rescued by the Ocean, but all their followers die in the storm. Lakshmi, the daughter of the Ocean, tests Ratansen's love for Padmavati by appearing before him disguised as Padmavati. Ratansen passes the test, and is rewarded with gifts by the Ocean and Lakshmi. With these gifts, he recruits a new entourage at Puri, and returns to Chittor.

In Chittor, Padmavati and Nagmati vie for Ratansen's attention. Initially, he placates them by spending nights with them alternately, but then establishes peace by reprimanding them. Meanwhile, he banishes the Brahmin courtier Raghav Chetan for fraudulently winning a contest. Padmavati gifts Raghav her bangle in order to placate him.

Raghav goes to the court of Alauddin Khalji in Delhi. When asked about the bangle, he describes the unmatched beauty of Padmavati. Alauddin then besieges Chittor, and demands Padmavati for himself. Ratansen rejects the demand, offering to pay a tribute instead. Alauddin rejects the offer, and the siege continues. Finally, as part of fresh terms of peace, Ratansen invites Alauddin as a guest inside the fort, against the advice of his vassals Gora and Badal. Alauddin deceitfully catches a glimpse of Padmavati, captures Ratansen, and returns to Delhi.

Padmavati asks Gora and Badal to help her free Ratansen. The two men and their followers enter the fortress of Delhi, disguised as Padmavati and her companions. They free Ratansen, but Gora is killed fighting during the escape, while Badal takes Ratansen to Chittor.

During Ratansen's absence, the Kumbhalner ruler Devpal proposes marriage to Padmavati. On his return, Ratansen learns about this insult, and decides to punish Devpal. In the ensuing single combat, Ratansen and Devpal kill each other. Meanwhile, Alauddin's army reaches Chittor. Facing a certain defeat, Nagmati and Padmavati along with other women of the fort commit suicide by jauhar (mass self-immolation), while the men fight to death. Alauddin captures an empty fortress, thus denied his prize.

Alauddin reflects on his Pyrrhic victory, and the nature of insatiable desire. He picks up the ashes of Ratansen and his wives Padmavati and Nagmati, lamenting that he "wanted to avoid this". Alauddin continues, "Desire is insatiable, permanent / but this world is illusory and transient / Insatiable desire man continues to have / Till life is over and he reaches his grave."

The plot involves a charming Las Vegas hotel owner named Neil Chaine (Hudson) who gets fired by his superiors from the hotel-casino where he operates. Determined to seek revenge on his former employers in a subtle way, Chaine uses his severance pay to purchase a decaying casino next door to his former hotel to turn it into the Strip's top attraction. Help for Chaine comes from an assortment of people who include Sarah Shipman (Stone) a young casino hostess who tries to help him gain a gambling license, as well as Jack Madrid (Jones) a flamboyant sports promoter who is asked to hold a boxing match at Chaine's hotel, while Madrid may or may not be on Chaine's side... depending on where the money should be.

Toward the end when Chaine's new hotel looks like it will be closed down because of various debts having rung up during his opening of the place, he decides to settle his debts by playing high-stakes roulette and craps at his former partners hotel to get the money the honest way and not through various and less-than-legal means.

British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday wartime job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the chemical plant where it is being manufactured.

However, his contact is arrested before he can arrange for a job in the factory. Tartu is instead assigned work as a foreman at a munitions factory, where he is issued a German uniform. He is billeted in the house of Anna Palacek (Phyllis Morris) and her daughter Pavla (Glynis Johns), who works in the plant; also living there are German Inspector Otto Vogel (Walter Rilla) and the lovely Maruschuka Lanova (Valerie Hobson), who lives well by making herself popular with the German officers.

That day Pavla shoots a German who earlier had had the man she loved executed. Tartu provides her with an alibi, winning her trust, and then reveals himself as a secret agent. Needing to get into the chemical plant, he asks her help to contact the Czech underground, and is surprised when she contrives for him and Maruschuka to go on a date. They talk guardedly but make it clear they are both working against the Nazis.

At work the next day, Pavla is seen attempting sabotage. She whispers to Tartu to protect himself by denouncing her. He does, and she is summarily executed. The factory manager rewards Tartu by arranging the transfer he wants, to the chemical plant.

The same day, Maruschuka contacts Dr. Novotny (Martin Miller), the leader of the local resistance group, and says she trusts Tartu. However they have already concluded that he had saved Pavla as a trick to win the confidence of the underground and order him killed. To arrange this while avoiding the execution of 200 Czechs by the Nazis in retribution, Maruschuka returns home and comes on seductively to Vogel. She tells him she's sure Tartu is a spy and Vogel says he will call the Gestapo. But she suggests Vogel advance his career by taking the initiative and killing Tartu himself. Vogel wants evidence, so she goes out again with Tartu that night, so that Vogel can overhear them talking. But they are interrupted before this can happen.

The next day, Tartu goes to work for Dr. Willendorf (Percy Walsh), the head of the chemical plant. He is dismayed to learn that the first shipment of gas is scheduled for the following night. Desperate to reach the resistance, he pretends to get drunk in a bar and brags that he knows of six Czech resistance members about to be arrested and killed. His idea works: he is abducted by the underground, and with a great deal of effort, finally convinces them they are on the same side. Working all night, they manufacture enough miniature bombs to demolish the plant if properly placed.

At the Palacek house, Vogel checks up on Tartu's credentials and happily informs Maruschuka that Tartu is indeed a spy. She believes Vogel and, trying to stop him telling anyone else, accidentally kills him. She hurries to the chemical plant to warn Tartu that he is in danger. He sounds an air raid alarm and runs through the plant setting the bombs in their places. The Germans quickly realize he is a saboteur, but he just manages to complete his task and escape from the heavily guarded plant, which blows up as he is driven away.

Finally he, Maruschuka, and a pilot steal a German bomber and fly to safety as he proposes "just a simple little wedding".

The story focuses on Dr Plonk, a scientist and inventor who, in 1907, determines that the world will end in 101 years. However, he is ridiculed for his beliefs and so invents a time machine in order to collect evidence from the future to prove his case. But each visit he makes to 2007 only causes him more problems, and he eventually becomes a wanted man...

The series explores the lives and relationships of two record store employees, an "object of perfection" greeter at the American Eagle store across the way, as well as a slightly psychotic girl who works in a lingerie store, and a bad-boy poseur from the requisite mall juice bar.

In the magical land of Coventry, Queen Miranda is in King Aron's study speaking to his portrait how much she misses him. She exits the room followed by a shadow, waves her hand and a wall conceals the opening. In the Earth dimension, Camryn makes a mess when she tries to magically put dishes into a dishwasher. Alex is living with them because she is going to Waverly University. Karsh and Ileana show up and announce they are getting married and that Miranda wants to see them. Alex does not go because she does not want to miss her first day of classes, so Camryn goes by herself, she then meets a handsome man named Demitri. She believes him to be a prince, but he is a powerless kitchen servant. At school, Alex meets Marcus, who is Camryn's ex-boyfriend. He mistakes her for Camryn until Beth tells him otherwise.

Alex and Camryn receive clues that their father is alive in the Shadowlands. Miranda believes that Thantos is becoming powerful again, and wants the girls to use a vanquishing spell during an eclipse, when their powers will be at their strongest. If they perform the spell, everything in the Shadowlands will be destroyed, including their father Aron. Alex does not want to do it, but Camryn finishes the vanquishing spell. Alex finds a possible way to bring Aron from the Shadowlands but brings back Thantos. He goes off to destroy Aron's Shadow, who was the shadow present on Earth. Camryn and Alex follow, and when Thantos takes Aron back to Coventry, everyone is locked out. Demitri helps them get into the castle. When asked how, he reveals that Miranda returned his powers to him. Together as one, Camryn, Alex, and Miranda bring Aron back and he defeats Thantos, who falls down a portal, sending him to the afterlife.

Karsh and Ileana marry. Everyone is there: David and Emily, their housekeeper, and even Beth and Marcus. Camryn and Demitri share a loving look. Then she waves to Beth while Marcus and Alex wink at each other. Marcus whispers to Beth: "I can't believe you're not more freaked out about this." Beth replies, "What's there to be freaked out about? I'm just jealous she's got this much room in the back of her closet." Karsh and Ileana exchange rings and Aron and Miranda pronounce them husband and wife. They kiss and have the reception. The twins, Ileana, Karsh, Miranda and Aron, are all chanting, "Go Twitches, Go Twitches!"

The name "Section 8" is derived from an old United States military discharge regulation for reason of being mentally unfit for service, and also refers to the 8th Armored Infantry in the game because of their participation in near-suicidal missions.

''Section 8'' takes place in the future after the human race has discovered interstellar travel and has colonized across the galaxy. At the time of the game, a group called the Arm of Orion, has begun to 'disconnect' the outermost frontier planets from the main governing body, taking them over while keeping their presence hidden from the government. As space travel is slow, it often takes weeks to communicate with or travel to a frontier world, affording the Arm with enough time to seize worlds and build their base of power, ultimately preparing an ambush for the government forces that will eventually respond. The government then discovers the Arm of Orion, and sends in the 8th Armored Infantry, including Alex Corde (the player), on a mission to investigate, and presumably fight, the Arm invasion.

TimeGate Studios cited ''Aliens'' and ''Blade Runner'' as major influences for the game.

ZOS is a fictional drama that follows Sean Kuzak, a UN military observer along with her co-workers, in a Sarajevo-like setting. It is not actually Sarajevo and it has only two primary factions, Christians and Muslims - though they are not always monolithic in intent. Throughout, the attempts by the U.N. team to maintain the peace are thwarted by both sides, and at times, even the peace-keeping force from the UN. Their own lives are in peril, even as they are attempting to protect the lives of individuals from each party. In some cases, the peacekeepers have to deal with violence directed at them, requiring them to confront their own personal conflicts throughout the series.

ZOS: Zone of Separation aired its first episode on The Movie Network on January 19, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET and on Movie Central at 9 p.m. PT.

The middle-class Baxter family enjoys a comfortable and placid life until the summer when their neighbors, the Parcher family, play host to an out-of-town visitor, Lola Pratt. An aspiring actress, Lola is a "howling belle of eighteen" who talks baby-talk "even at breakfast" and holds the center of attention wherever she goes. She instantly captivates William with her beauty, her flirtatious manner, and her ever-present prop, a tiny white lap dog, Flopit. William is sure he has found true love at last. Like the other youths of his circle, he spends the summer pursuing Lola at picnics, dances and evening parties, inadvertently making himself obnoxious to his family and friends. They, in turn, constantly embarrass and humiliate him as they do not share his exalted opinion of his "babytalk lady".

William steals his father’s dress-suit and wears it to court Lola in the evenings at the home of the soon-regretful Parcher family. As his lovestruck condition progresses, he writes a bad love poem to "Milady", hoards dead flowers Lola has touched, and develops, his family feels, a peculiar interest in beards and child marriages among the 'Hindoos'. To William's constant irritation, his ten-year-old sister Jane and the Baxters' Negro handyman, Genesis, persist in treating him as an equal instead of the serious-minded grown-up he now believes himself to be. His parents mostly smile tolerantly at William’s lovelorn condition, and hope he will survive it to become a responsible, mature adult.

After a summer that William is sure has changed his life forever, Lola leaves town on the train. The book concludes with a Maeterlinck-inspired flash-forward, showing that William has indeed survived the trials of adolescence.

The novel primarily follows the story of a white teenager and an African-American man on their journey down the devastated Mississippi River.

Although the focus of the novel is the journey of the two main characters, there are dozens of side-stories and parallel plot lines throughout the book. Some of which are: a preacher who leads his flock to believe that the end has come, a Sheriff (and KKK member) who begins a program of genocide against the people left homeless by the disaster, a technician struggling to keep a Louisiana nuclear power plant from melting down, and an Army Corps of Engineers commander trying to curtail the devastation wrought by the failure of the levee system.

The author also plays on actual historical events and personalities such as Huey Long, the uprising at the Sobibor concentration camp, and the Jonestown incident.

Set in Prague during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the film follows Dr. Braun, a Jewish doctor forbidden to practice medicine. He instead works for German officials, cataloging confiscated Jewish property. All Braun wants to do is survive, but his pragmatic mentality is challenged when an injured resistance fighter stumbles into his apartment building. A quest for morphine leads Dr. Braun through his tortured city, where fear eats away at the social structure.

Superficially, the city might appear to be normal, but hallucinations, awkward outbursts, and nervous, self-conscious behavior make it clear that society is falling apart. Although images of the Holocaust are never seen, its devastation is understood through an overarching sense of destitution and fear. As Dr. Braun travels through the seedy undergrounds of Prague and back up to his apartment building—where a long winding staircase connects the lives of all his eccentric neighbors—a wide variety of personalities are introduced to the screen, each of whom appears equally as tortured.

With minimal dialogue and a creeping pace, the sense of impending doom never leaves the screen. Crying babies, heavy shadows and broken records set a consistent tone of nightmarish anxiety. Drawn frenetically from the dancehall, where beautiful young couples bob and empty Champagne glasses litter the tables, to the apartment building of a former piano teacher that is stacked high with sheet music and out onto the empty cobblestone streets, the audience is never allowed to feel at ease.

The film is scored with discordant piano music and full of expressionist cinematography. At the beginning, the camera follows Dr. Braun through his work, where exaggerated shots lend themselves to symbolic interpretation. For example, in one scene, Dr. Braun stands silently in front of a wall full of ticking confiscated clocks. Clocks serve as a symbol for time; and the Jews who lost their clocks also had their time on Earth taken from them.

Later, short choppy shots of the doctor's home work act as exposition. A small pile of books and an empty jar of milk hint at poverty and intellect. His neglected violin suggests passion and creativity that has been suppressed; and his small bedroom window, which shows a solitary smoking chimney, subtly alludes to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Towards the end of the film, a voice from the radio, declares in a monotone voice, "The longer the war lasts the greater is our faith in the final victory." Not a voice of hope, Brynych's film sends out a message of despair.

The tale relates the encounters of a musically talented, novice Buddhist monk named Tum and a girl named Teav. During his travels from Ba Phnum, Prey Veng province, to the province of Tbaung Khmum, where he has gone to sell bamboo rice containers for his pagoda, Tum falls in love with Teav, a very beautiful young lady who is drawn to his beautiful singing voice. She reciprocates his feelings and offers Tum some betel and a blanket as evidence of her affections. Upon returning to his home province, Tum is consumed with longing for Teav and soon returns to Tbaung Khmum. Soon afterward, he is recruited by King Rama to sing at the royal palace, and he leaves Teav once again.

Teav's mother is unaware of her daughter's love for the young monk, and in the meantime she has agreed to marry her daughter off to the son of Archoun, the powerful governor of the province. Her plans are interrupted, however, when emissaries of Rama—equally impressed by Teav's beauty—insist that she marry the Cambodian king instead. Archoun agrees to cancel his son's wedding arrangement, and Teav is brought to the palace. When Tum sees that Teav is to marry the king, he boldly sings a song that professes his love for her. Rama overcomes his initial anger and agrees to allow the young couple to marry.

Enraged, Archoun commands his guards to kill Tum, who is beaten to death under a Bo tree. Grief-stricken, Teav slits her own throat and collapses on Tum's body. When Rama hears of the murder, he descends upon Archoun's palace, ignores the governor's pleas for mercy, and orders Archoun's entire family—including seven generations worth of relatives—be taken to a field and buried to their necks. An iron plow and harrow are then used to decapitate them all.

Actress Yulia Martynova (Natalya Sayko) is starring in a new film, but in the middle of the film production she is suddenly hospitalized with a serious illness. The film director (Leonid Filatov) is emotionally involved; he becomes frustrated, but the actress comes back from her hospital bed to the studio to continue her work in post-production. Yulia cannot imagine her character speaking with the voice of another actress, so she deals with her condition, taking drugs to overcome her pain, in order to contribute her original voice to the film. The cast and crew members help the star to overcome, and her original voice brings new depth and meaning to the film after her death.

Eberlin (Laurence Harvey), a Cold-War British intelligence operative, has a problem. His superiors have ordered him to find and assassinate a KGB agent named Krasnevin, believed to be responsible for the recent murders of British agents. Summoned to a meeting at a country estate, he is presented with film footage of the suspected Krasnevin. He turns out to be Eberlin's go-between with Russian double agents.

To accomplish his assignment, Eberlin is partnered with a ruthless, cynical, and sociopathic British agent, Gatiss (Tom Courtenay), who openly distrusts and dislikes him. Mia Farrow plays a London-based photographer with whom Eberlin has an affair. Much of the film takes place in West Berlin, where Eberlin, as part of his mission, attempts to cross the Berlin Wall to the East. His attempts are frustrated by his partnership with Gatiss and by the Soviet authorities, who are keen to retain the identity of the assassin.

The plot summary of ''Gekirindan'' is explained through supplementary materials. In the year 3195, a time machine is created on Earth and is promptly stolen by an unidentified mechanized being known as "Huge Boss". This evil entity uses the device to travel back in time and rewrite 3000 years of human history. The only resistance Huge Boss faces is a group of six fighter pilots from multiple eras who aim to stop him, although some of them have their own motivations other than saving mankind.

A plague in the form of a toxic viral gas is unleashed at major sporting events across the United States. The gas turns its victims instantly "into an immediate rage of insanity and violence". Controversial Los Angeles talk show radio host Logan Burnhardt and his production team are caught up in the middle of the chaos. Only blocks away from the explosion site, they begin to receive reports of rioters in the streets and listeners continue to call in reports of their first hand experiences. In addition to those infected by the virus, the terrorists responsible for the attacks, led by Abir, attempt to make their way to Logan's studio and kill anyone in the way.

A group of seven senior students (Jackie, Elizabeth, Kate, Karen, Susan, Adelle, and Rosemary) at the all-girls Catholic Trinity College are sent to spend four days cataloging a large art collection in the now-empty Welles mansion, the contents of which have been bestowed to the college. The mansion has had a longstanding reputation for being haunted by a vengeful female ghost.

The elderly Sister Urban oversees the project, and is surprised upon arrival to be met by Dr. Robert Fisher, who presents himself as a prospective buyer of the home. On the first day in the house, Jackie finds a diary dating back to the 1930s of Jennifer Welles, a Trinity College alumnus and the niece of Tyler Welles, the home's original owner. In the diary, Jennifer makes reference to Sister Urban, and writes of her longing to become a nun herself. When Jackie brings up the name to Sister Urban during dinner, she recounts to the young women how the orphaned Jennifer was killed at the mansion in an accident.

That night, all of the girls, aside from Jackie and Adelle, propose that they hold a seance in an attempt to contact Jennifer's spirit, which ends in apparent poltergeist activity. After everyone else has gone to sleep, Jackie and Elizabeth find a large portrait of Jennifer in the parlor, which bears a striking resemblance to Jackie. Unable to sleep, Jackie continues reading Jennifer's diary, and learns that, while staying in the mansion, Jennifer was subject to sexual advances from her uncle Tyler, and that the two eventually engaged in an incestuous relationship.

The next day, an unnerved Jackie and Elizabeth attempt to conceal the portrait from the others while cataloging items in the house. Sister Urban begins feeling ill, and spends the remainder of the night bedridden. Meanwhile, Rosemary is murdered with a meat cleaver by an unseen assailant while riding in a dumbwaiter. The others assume Rosemary is playing a prank when she fails to meet them for dinner. Karen goes searching for her in the basement, and finds her body stuffed in the dumbwaiter before she too is killed. Kate is subsequently murdered outside when she is dragged into a pond by a rotting, decomposed hand.

Shortly after, Jackie's boyfriend, Paul, and his friend, Bruce, arrive at the mansion, startling Susan. While Paul locates Jackie, Bruce is run over and killed by Paul's car outside. Meanwhile, Sister Urban becomes progressively ill, and Elizabeth and Susan, who have been standing vigil at her bedside, grow worried. Susan is lured into the attic, where she is locked inside and electrocuted to death, causing her body to become incinerated. Jackie and Paul begin searching for Adelle and Bruce. While searching outside, Paul is stabbed to death with a pitchfork by the killer, posed as a sculpture donning a babydoll mask.

Jackie, unable to locate anyone, stumbles upon Sister Urban in the hallway, and finds her in a confused, feverish state. After putting Sister Urban back to bed, Jackie goes into the basement, where she finds all of her classmates' corpses (save Elizabeth, who has been kidnapped and is still alive) seated in chairs before a ceremonial altar. She is met by Dr. Robert Fisher, who is in fact Tyler Welles, seeking to marry Jackie as he believes her to be a reincarnation of his dead niece. Meanwhile, Sister Urban manages to summon Jennifer's spirit, which possesses Jackie, allowing her to enact revenge on her Satanic uncle Tyler, killing him by gouging out his eyeballs, avenging her murder by him decades prior. Jackie, Elizabeth, and Sister Urban manage to flee the house in an ambulance. As they drive away, an apparition of Jennifer looks down from an upstairs window.

The Dragon Emperor Ariakas devises a plan to corrupt the Knights of Solamnia and sends Dragon Highlord Kitiara uth Matar to tempt a power-hungry knight, Derek Crownguard, with the location of a Dragon Orb, which Ariakas believes the Knights will not be able to control. A disguised Kitiara convinces Derek that Dragon Orbs can be used to help the Knights resist the invasion of their homeland, so Derek, along with fellow knights Brian Donner and Aran Tallbow, sets out to the former seaport of Tarsis to find more information about the Dragon Orbs.

Kitiara then travels to the city of Haven to investigate the possible involvement of her friends and family in the death of the Dragon Highlord Verminaard. Kitiara quickly confirms that her former lover, Tanis Half-Elven, and her half-brothers Raistlin and Caramon Majere were involved in Verminaard's death. Kitiara also learns that Tanis is traveling with his former girlfriend, the incredibly beautiful elven princess Laurana, and consumed by jealousy, becomes dangerously obsessed with Laurana.

Kitiara travels to Icewall Castle and a rivalry is formed between her and the dark elf wizard, Feal-Thas, the Dragon Highlord of the White Army. She insists Feal-Thas allow the Dragon Orb under his care to be taken by the knights when they arrive, and Feal-Thas insists she first defeats the horrible guardian of the Orb. Kitiara does so and then travels to the city of Tarsis to seek out her former companions.

Derek and his companions are also in Tarsis. There, Brian falls in love with an Aesthetic named Lilith, who directs them to the kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot who helps the knights decipher a book that confirms that there is a Dragon Orb being kept in Icewall Castle. Before the knights can do anything with this knowledge though the city of Tarsis is attacked by the Red Dragonarmy.

The Companions, who are also in Tarsis, are split up when the Dragonarmy attacks the city. Tanis Half-Elven, Caramon, Raistlin, Tika Waylan, Riverwind, and Goldmoon travel with Alhana Starbreeze to the Elvish kingdom of Silvanesti (their journeys being described in detail in ''Dragons of Winter Night''). Kitiara meanwhile has located the remaining Companions consisting of Sturm Brightblade, Flint Fireforge, Tasslehoff Burrfoot, Elistan, Gilthanas, and Laurana. After secretly observing Laurana, Kitiara decides the elven princess is much too beautiful a rival to let live and orders her forces to attack the Companions while she ambushes Laurana.

Kitiara attacks Laurana from behind, taking the elfmaid by surprise. Kitiara expects an easy victory over a rival she dismisses as just a pampered princess, but Laurana fights back ferociously, and it is only with the help of the sivak draconian, Slith, that Kitiara is finally able to subdue Laurana. Meanwhile, the rest of Kitiara's forces are being defeated by Elistan and Sturm. Kitiara and Slith drag Laurana off into a nearby alley, but before Kitiara can kill Laurana, she is driven off by the arrival of Derek Crownguard's group of knights and Elistan. Derek's knights then join with the rest of the Companions to seek the Dragon Orb from Icewall Castle (the details of which are only briefly discussed or alluded to in ''Dragons of Winter Night'').

More is learned about the bitter rivalry between Sturm Brightblade and Derek Crowngaurd, the latter of which is the main reason Sturm was unable to complete his trials to become a knight. Aran and especially Brian begin to sympathize with Sturm.

Kitiara is tormented with dreams of the dark Goddess Takhisis and a death knight named Lord Soth. Little does she know, at the time, that Takhisis is attempting to gain the service of Soth in the Dragonwars, and Soth will only serve a Dragon Highlord with the courage to spend one night in his castle. He makes her return to the Dragon Army command in the city of Sanction.

Suspicion spreads about Kitiara's possible role in the death of Verminaard and her connection to the Companions. Emperor Ariakas fears she may be attempting a power-grab, and has her investigated. Kitiara is found guilty, due in part to the testimony of Feal-Thas, and imprisoned.

For the first time, Kitiara prays to Takhisis and promises to do anything, even confront Lord Soth, if her life were spared. She is overheard, via scrying, by Ariakas's other lover, Iolanthe. Iolanthe frees Kitiara and binds her to her promise regarding Lord Soth, feeling Kitiara would ultimately triumph in the power struggle with Ariakas.

Sturm, Derek, and the rest of the company meet the natives of Icewall and ask for their help in defeating Feal-Thas. Laurana devises a plan to use Elistan's magic to help them attack Feal-Thas's stronghold, Icewall Castle, and the Icefolk agree to help. The Icefolk also give Laurana a Frost Reaver, a magic battle axe made of ice, for the upcoming battle.

The Companions and their Icefolk allies successfully attack Icewall Castle and confront Feal-Thas. Aran and Brian fall to Feal-Thas's wolves but then Laurana uses the Frost Reaver to slay Feal-Thas. As detailed in ''Dragons of Winter Night'', the Companions find not only the Dragon Orb, but a frozen good dragon and a broken dragonlance.

Kitiara makes her way to the castle of Lord Soth, battles many of his guardians, and stands up to him before falling unconscious. Lord Soth is impressed, gives her protection from his guardians as she sleeps, and agrees to join Takhisis's army under the command of Kitiara.

Hector Kipling is an artist who is famous for his ovarian paintings of big heads. When one of his closest friends is found to have a brain tumor, Hector finds himself longing for someone close to him to die, as being the one left behind would make him the subject of sympathy.

Hector's girlfriend Eleni leaves for her native Greece after her mother is injured in a kitchen accident. Meanwhile, Hector's own father has ended up in hospital as well: the money his mother spent on a replacement settee, after Eleni and Hector stained the old one during sex, is too much for him to handle.

At an exhibition, an assailant badly damages one of Hector's paintings. To make up for the damage, the assailant Monger will buy an expensive settee from Hector's parents to get his father out of hospital. He does so, but also robs Hector's parents of £15,000 and kills their pet dog.

Eleni returns home to tell Hector that her mother has died, but leaves in anger after she finds him with an American punk poet named Rosa Flood. Monger ends up killing Rosa and Lenny Snook, one of Hector's friends. Hector shoots Monger with the latter's gun and heads for the Tate Britain, where he paints the words "The simplest act of surrealism is to walk into a crowded street with a loaded revolver, and open the fire at random." He then does just that.

After his arrest, Hector is charged with killing Rosa and Lenny, but has decided to let it go. Hector's father has died in hospital upon hearing of his son's deeds, and his mother has committed suicide by throwing herself into the Irish Sea. He never hears from Eleni again.

Kal-El's rocket is diverted from Earth to Apokolips, and Superman is raised by Darkseid. Superman becomes an eager participant in the destruction of New Genesis and a willing disciple of Darkseid. Ultimately, he discovers his true origin and leads the New Gods into battle against Darkseid, freeing Apokolips.

In this series, he wears black and red armor similar to that of Darkseid's son Orion. This armor has a unique Superman logo on it. It is two thunder bolt-shaped S's that form another thunder bolt-shaped S (reminiscent of the logo of the Schutzstaffel aka the SS).

When a wagon crashes into a ravine, prospector Ben Rumson (Lee Marvin) finds two adult male occupants, brothers, one of whom is dead and the other of whom has a broken arm and leg. While burying the dead man, gold dust is discovered at the grave site. Ben stakes a claim on the land and adopts the surviving brother (Clint Eastwood) as his "Pardner" while he recuperates.

Pardner is innocent and romantic, singing a love song about an imaginary girl ("I Still See Elisa"). He hopes to make enough in the gold rush to buy some land and is suspicious of the fast-living Ben. Ben claims that while he is willing to fight, steal, and cheat at cards, he will never betray a partner. Ben will share the spoils of prospecting on the condition that Pardner takes care of him in his moments of drunkenness and melancholy.

After the discovery of gold, "No Name City" springs up as a tent city, with the miners alternating between wild parties ("Hand Me Down That Can o' Beans") and bouts of loneliness ("They Call the Wind Maria"). The men become frustrated with the lack of female companionship, and the arrival of Jacob Woodling (John Mitchum), a Mormon with two wives, is enough to catch the attention of the entire town. The miners persuade Woodling to sell one of his wives to the highest bidder. Elizabeth (Jean Seberg), Jacob's younger and more rebellious wife, agrees to be sold based on the reasoning that whatever she gets can't be as bad as what she currently has.

Still drunk, Ben winds up with the highest bid for Elizabeth. Ben is readied for the wedding by the other miners ("Whoop-Ti-Ay"), and is married to Elizabeth under "mining law," with Ben being granted exclusive rights to "all her mineral resources." Elizabeth, not content to be treated as property, threatens to shoot Ben on their wedding night if she is not treated with respect. While she believes Ben is not the type to truly settle down, she views their arrangement as acceptable if he will build a proper wooden cabin to provide her with some security for when he inevitably leaves. Ben, impressed by Elizabeth's determination, enlists the miners to help him keep this promise, and Elizabeth rejoices in having a proper home ("A Million Miles Away Behind the Door").

News comes of the pending arrival of "six French tarts" to a neighboring town via stagecoach. A plan is hatched to divert the stagecoach under false pretenses and bring the women to "No Name City" ("There's a Coach Comin' In"), thus finally providing the other miners with female companionship. Ben heads up the mission and leaves Elizabeth in the care of Pardner. The two fall in love ("I Talk to the Trees"), whereupon Elizabeth, saying she also still loves Ben, convinces them that "if a Mormon man can have two wives, why can't a woman have two husbands?" The polyandrous arrangement works until the town becomes large enough that civilized people from the East begin to settle there. A parson (Alan Dexter) begins to make a determined effort to persuade the people of No Name City to give up their evil ways ("The Gospel of No Name City"). Meanwhile, Ben and a group of miners discover that gold dust is dropping through the floor boards of many of the saloons. They tunnel under all the businesses to get the gold ("The Best Things in Life Are Dirty").

A group of new settlers is rescued from the snow and the strait-laced family is invited to spend the winter with Elizabeth and Pardner, who is assumed to be her only husband. Ben is left to fend for himself ("Wand'rin' Star"). In revenge, he introduces one of the family, naive young Horton Fenty (Tom Ligon), to the pleasures of Rotten Luck Willie's (Harve Presnell) saloon and brothel. This leads to Elizabeth dismissing both Ben and Pardner from the log cabin, and Pardner takes to gambling in Willie's ("Gold Fever"). During a bull-and-bear fight, the rampaging bull falls into the tunnel complex dug by Ben and the others and knocks out all of the support beams, causing the streets and buildings to collapse. Eventually, the town is destroyed entirely. Ben departs for other gold fields, commenting that he never knew Pardner's real name, which Pardner then reveals: Sylvester Newel. Elizabeth and Pardner reconcile and plan to stay, while musing about Ben's next great adventure.

In 17,000 B.C., the Primes (the original Autobots) got their energy from sun harvesters, machines that destroy stars to harness their energy. The Primes vowed never to destroy a star that sustains life. One Prime attempted to violate this rule by building a sun harvester on Earth, for which he was imprisoned by the other six Primes, becoming "The Fallen", the original Decepticon.

In 2009, two years after the battle of Mission City, the Autobots and the humans have formed the Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty (NEST), a classified international task force meant to eliminate the remaining Decepticons who are hunting the Autobots. They defeat two Decepticons, Sideways and Demolisher, in Shanghai, but the latter tells them the Fallen is coming before being killed. Meanwhile, the Decepticon Soundwave hacks into a military satellite. The Decepticons steal the last known piece of the AllSpark shard from a Navy base and use it to resurrect Megatron's body while tearing off parts from one of their own members to provide necessary repairs to his body. The Fallen sends Megatron and his second-in-command, Starscream, to capture Sam Witwicky alive and kill Optimus.

Sam, now a college student, has been seeing Cybertronian symbols since holding a smaller AllSpark shard; Megatron believes the symbols will lead the Decepticons to a new Energon source. The shard brings many of the kitchen appliances to life and they try to kill Sam and his parents; Bumblebee rescues them. Sam gives the shard to his girlfriend Mikaela Banes, who later captures the Decepticon Wheelie as he attempts to steal it. After being attacked by Alice, a Decepticon Pretender posing as a college student (whom they manage to kill), Sam, his roommate Leo, and Mikaela are captured by the Decepticon Grindor before Optimus and Bumblebee rescue them. Megatron then kills Optimus (but not before he kills Grindor) and the Decepticons launch devastating, simultaneous attacks around the world, while Megatron and Soundwave hijack Earth's telecommunications systems, which allows the Fallen to send a message to the humans, demanding that Sam be handed over to him.

Sam, Mikaela, and Leo then find alien expert and former Sector Seven agent, "Robo-Warrior" Seymour Simmons, who reveals the Transformers visited Earth eons ago and the most ancient, known as Seekers, remained hidden on Earth. With help from Wheelie, they track down an elderly Decepticon turned Autobot Seeker named Jetfire at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. They use their shard to revive Jetfire, who teleports the group to Egypt. Along with Jetfire, Wheelie sides with the Autobots, and Jetfire sends them to locate the Matrix of Leadership, the sun harvester's key, which could also be used to revive Optimus. The group finds the Matrix, whom the Primes that punished the Fallen sacrificed themselves to hide, in Petra, but it disintegrates into dust.

Meanwhile, NEST forces and the Autobots land near the Giza pyramid complex and are attacked by the Decepticons. The Constructicons combine to form Devastator, who destroys one of the pyramids to reveal the sun harvester inside before he is killed by the navy. A majority of the Decepticons are killed, mostly with multiple airstrike from the Navy and the Air Force, but Megatron kills Sam. Near-death, the Primes speak to Sam, saying that the Matrix must be earned, not found and that he has now earned the right to bear it by fighting for Optimus. They revive Sam and grant him the Matrix, which he uses to revive Optimus. The Fallen steals the Matrix from a weak Optimus and uses it to activate the sun harvester. After Jetfire (who was wounded by Scorponok, but was able to kill his attacker) sacrifices himself to allow his parts to be transplanted to Optimus, Optimus Prime destroys the harvester and kills the Fallen; Megatron and Starscream retreat. The Autobots and their allies then return to the United States, and Leo and Sam return to college.

After the New Alcatraz massacre, long time inmate Twitch (Kurupt) gets himself transferred to another. He claims it's to be closer to his lady but his real motives are a bit more grandiose than that.

There he crosses paths with Burke (Bill Goldberg) a bulky prisoner who is unfriendly and doesn't want to talk about anyone. Twitch, despite being less muscular, is just as mouthy and is pretty much the same. But there is a gang war brewing between the Black and Hispanic inmates that explodes into a hostile takeover of the prison when the Blacks' gang leader is shot dead and the finger points at Burke. But the situations worsen when the real killer and leader of the Hispanics, Cortez (Robert Madrid) takes Twitch's girlfriend (Angell Conwell) and Burke's daughter (Alona Tal) hostage as well, betraying his comrades to escape. Eventually things get more complicated as Twitch's real reason for his transfer is to find the gold from the heist, organized from the fellow New Alcatraz inmate Lester McKena.

Cortez demands a helicopter out of state or otherwise the hostages are dead. Burke and Twitch eventually catch up to Cortez and after a long fight with Burke ending up wounded, Cortez is knocked out and transferred to another prison.

Twitch is given parole after his actions that could have seen him wait even longer before he actually gets out, with Burke having to serve only a few more weeks rather than years. Twitch and his girlfriend find the gold and, as a favor for Burke, set up his account with 80 million dollars along with a plan to help Burke's daughter for college, surprising Burke himself.

Adrian Monk and Natalie Teeger take Julie to the hospital after she breaks her wrist during a soccer game. Monk sees his old assistant Sharona Fleming working as a nurse. She explains that after leaving Monk's employ to remarry her ex-husband, Trevor Howe and move to New Jersey, a friend of Trevor's from Los Angeles sold his landscaping business to Trevor. They moved to Los Angeles and took over the business. However, one of his clients, Ellen Cole, was found bludgeoned to death with a lamp in her house. Evidence suggests Trevor killed Cole when she caught him stealing her jewelry. Sharona has no trouble believing this in light of Trevor's addiction to get-rich-quick schemes, so she and Benjy have moved back to San Francisco, with Benjy staying with Sharona's sister Gail. Sharona would like her old job with Monk back, and there is hostility between her and Natalie. Moreover, after visiting Trevor in prison Natalie is convinced that he is innocent and that he sincerely reformed prior to remarrying Sharona. To save her job, she pressures Sharona and Monk to travel to Los Angeles and investigate Trevor's case.

Julie is inspired to rent the space on her cast to local businesses, a marketing technique which she dubs "cast-vertising". A pizzeria, Sorrento's, purchases her cast space and even agrees to pay her a sales commission if enough customers mention the offer printed on her cast, which gives them a discount if Julie is in Sorrento's at the time.

Monk, Natalie and Sharona meet Lieutenant Sam Dozier of the Los Angeles Police Department and visit Cole's house. Monk examines the scene and concludes that Trevor is innocent. He notices several clues that suggest Ellen Cole's killer was waiting for her, meaning that the murder was premeditated. They question some of the people closest to the victim, but Monk is convinced none of them is the killer. Monk, Natalie and Sharona head down to a bookstore to question the person who found the evidence to convict Trevor, LAPD consultant Ian Ludlow. Ludlow is a household name, writing his Detective Marshak novels at a rate of one every three months. While they are at the bookstore, Natalie buys a few of Ludlow's books, including his latest, ''Death Is the Last Word''. The saleswoman at the bookstore mentions that Ludlow cannot pass a store without doing a book signing.

Stumped on who might have killed Cole and increasingly discontent at their exposure to Los Angeles smog, Monk insists on returning to San Francisco. Sharona remains behind in Los Angeles to do some asking around.

Joseph Cochran, a firefighter Natalie dated during a different investigation, informs Natalie that someone has stolen his fire company's hydraulic rescue equipment. Natalie recognizes that he is just looking for an excuse to begin seeing her again, and proposes that they not tell Monk about the stolen equipment and instead open a non-committal sexual relationship.

That Friday, when Natalie is leaving the house, her car starts leaking oil. Monk and Natalie are called by Captain Stottlemeyer and Lieutenant Disher to Baker Beach. A 37-year-old shoe salesman named Ronald Webster has been found dead, his midsection ripped open. The medical examiner determines the time of death to be sometime the night before, but cannot be more precise, given the body's immersion in water. The wounds on his body are not fatal. Monk concludes he was attacked by an alligator, since the teeth marks reflect uniform teeth and alligators kill their prey by holding them underwater until they drown, not ripping them apart.

With Stottlemeyer unable to mobilize a homicide task force until the medical examiner completes his autopsy, Monk and Natalie go to the shoe store where Webster worked, which is in Natalie's neighborhood. They talk to one of Webster's coworkers, who tells them Webster never talked about his background, and that his priest called because he did not appear at morning mass, a rarity for him. Monk and Natalie speak to Father Bowen, Webster's priest. Monk figures that Webster had committed a serious crime that caused him to attend daily mass and avoid talking about his background, and persuades Bowen to break the sanctity of confession. Bowen tells them Webster confessed to a hit and run.

Disher identifies Webster's victim as Dr. Paula Dalmas, an orthodontist in Walnut Creek. Even though she has no alibi for the night of the murder and even admits she can recognize Webster, Monk insists Dr. Dalmas is innocent, assured that an orthodontist could not possibly be a murderer.

The autopsy is completed: Webster was attacked by an alligator, but drowned in bath water, with his body moved to the beach post mortem. Natalie asks if the alligator bite could be faked, and Disher mentions that a character in ''Death Is the Last Word'' tried to make murder look like an alligator attack. Webster had his last meal (pizza) less than a half hour before he was killed. They check out Webster's apartment. Monk notices streaks on the floor, hydraulic fluid, and a drop of blood in the bathtub, suggesting this is where Webster was killed. They find a pizza box from Sorrento's with a receipt dated Thursday night, and Natalie wonders if she and Julie encountered Webster there.

Natalie gets a call from Joe Cochran. Monk presses her for information, and when she reveals the theft that happened at Joe's firehouse on Wednesday, he insists on investigating. At the firehouse, Joe and Fire Captain Mantooth explain that while their crew was at a car fire in Washington Square, someone stole one of their Jaws of Life kits. The power unit is powered by gasoline, and the Jaws have a cutting force of 18,000 pounds per square inch. Monk concludes that Ian Ludlow started the car fire to lure the firemen out of the firehouse so that he could steal the Jaws of Life. Ludlow attached alligator jaws to the inside of the spreader to make the alligator bite look authentic. He claims Ludlow also murdered Cole, believing that Ludlow murders random people he meets at book signings and frames someone else for the crime just to get ideas for his novels. Stottlemeyer dismisses this theory as ludicrous (apart from the fake alligator attack), and Sharona and Natalie are outright furious at Monk for not taking the case seriously.

Minutes later Stottlemeyer brings Monk, Natalie and Sharona to Natalie's house, which is being searched by police. Ludlow accuses Sharona of murdering Ellen Cole and Natalie of murdering Ronald Webster. Sharona wanted to rid herself of her ne'er-do-well husband, and pressured Natalie to kill Webster as a distraction by threatening to take her job as Monk's assistant. The one person who could set up an eBay account in Trevor's name and plant the stolen goods in his truck was Sharona. Sharona never called Monk in to investigate, because Monk would have inevitably discovered she was the killer. Inspired by ''Death Is the Last Word'', Natalie ordered an alligator jaw online the day before stealing the Jaws of Life. Natalie's credit card record proves the purchase, witness statements confirm Natalie is Joe's lover (and therefore would know about the Jaws of Life), Webster's pizza receipt shows he got the Julie discount and therefore proves Natalie was in the same place as Webster within a half hour of his death, and forensics has evidence matching Natalie's car to clues found in Webster's apartment. Stottlemeyer arrests both women.

Natalie and Sharona spend a night together in a holding cell, where they finally bond. The next day, Monk calls a meeting to present new evidence. He hypothesizes that Ludlow looked over Natalie's shoulder when she was entering her credit card number to purchase his books, used it to order the alligator head, and swiped it off Natalie's porch before Natalie got home. Ludlow claims that all of the events described happened before he arrived in San Francisco on Friday, but Monk says Ludlow's knowledge of the Julie discount suggested to him that Ludlow also was at Sorrento's Thursday night. He then found proof: the bookstore across the street from Sorrento's has a copy of ''Death Is the Last Word'' signed by Ludlow on Wednesday. Ludlow again could not pass a bookstore without doing a signing.

Ludlow is arrested, and Trevor (along with five other convicts that were caught with Ludlow's assistance) is set free. Monk reveals that Ludlow also signed stock at two other bookstores in San Francisco - one in Washington Square and one out at Baker Beach. Exonerated, Sharona and Natalie reunite with their families. Sharona returns to Los Angeles with Trevor and Benjy, leaving Monk in Natalie's hands, and giving Monk the loving goodbye she never said the first time.

On the first day of high school, best friends Virgil (Jason Dolley), Derek (Steven R. McQueen), and Stephanie (Chelsea Kane) each decide to try out various activities around the school. However, while Derek tries football and Stephanie tries cheerleading, Virgil's high school career takes a turn when young genius Charlie Tuttle (Luke Benward) interrupts football practice as he tears across the field on a rocket car. As the football team begins harassing Charlie, Virgil comes to his defense only to get bullied as well. Virgil and Charlie are forced to dress like cheerleaders and are hung from the school mascot's statue by their underwear.

Three years later, Virgil and Charlie are outcasts because of the incident despite Derek claiming that he had tried to stop the bullies from humiliating them. Charlie informs Virgil that he has invented a time machine. After enlisting grease junky Zeke (Nicholas Braun) for his mechanical skills, the time machine is built, and they test it out by attempting to purchase a winning lottery ticket in the past. Forgetting that they are underage, they ask a local street performer to buy it for them but are forced to return to the present early. This, in turn, causes the street performer to win the lottery using the numbers they provided. After this failure, Charlie comes up with a plan to only use the machine to undo embarrassing mistakes made by their classmates. The group asks classmate Jeanette (Kara Crane), who has a one-sided crush on Charlie, to oversee the time machine whenever they travel to the past, and she provides them with white snowsuits to protect them from the portal's freezing temperatures.

The trio soon become known as the "Snowsuit Guys" (though they themselves prefer to be called the "Minutemen") and are named local heroes by the students, but labeled as troublemakers by the vice principal (J.P. Manoux) because of them accidentally breaking his diorama of the school. Virgil, Zeke, and Charlie soon realize that the behavior of the teenagers they saved have changed, as the formerly bullied have become bullies themselves. Charlie reveals that in order to get the time machine to work, he had to hack and steal files from NASA. To avoid attracting unwanted attention, Charlie warns Zeke and Virgil to refrain from using the time machine for a while. Virgil later sees Stephanie with a broken leg due to a cheerleading injury that caused her to lose her scholarship to her dream college. Despite Charlie's protests, Virgil convinces the group to travel back in time and prevent Stephanie from getting injured, revealing his identity to her in the process.

After Derek experiences a humiliating loss at the state championship, Stephanie asks Virgil to change the past so Derek can win; in turn, the former friends are reunited. After hanging with the popular kids, Virgil begins to abandon Charlie and Zeke in favor of Stephanie and Derek. However, Stephanie eventually learns that Derek is cheating on her with his tutor Jocelyn. Derek pleads with Virgil to change the past so Stephanie never finds out, but Virgil is reluctant, having realized he has his own feelings for her.

The FBI comes to town after monitoring suspicious activity and interrogates Charlie, Zeke, and Virgil. The trio bitterly disbands due to Virgil's repeated use of the time machine to help his own popularity. After consulting with the government's top scientists, Charlie learns that their trips to the past have damaged the space-time continuum, thus creating a black hole. With only hours to live, the trio reunites and is forced to venture into the hole and close it.

Once they have entered the black hole, they are transported back to their first day of high school, as the key component from the time machine was in Charlie's rocket cart. Virgil realizes that he can undo the events that caused him to lose his popularity. Charlie admits that although Virgil hates this day, it's his favorite as it's the day he finally got a real friend. Charlie and Zeke leave Virgil to make a decision, but as Virgil watches the incident unfold, he discovers that Derek didn’t defend him at all. Instead, he had betrayed him in favor of gaining popularity by suggesting to also put lipstick on the two. Having come to his senses, Virgil picks up the rocket car and reunites with Charlie and Zeke.

The trio race back to the black hole just as it closes. They are then thrown back in time to the day they first time traveled. As they walk through the school, nobody suspects a thing and have no clue of the group’s heroic actions. Virgil stands up to Derek for his treachery and wins Stephanie's heart, while Charlie reciprocates Jeanette's feelings for him. Charlie comes up with a new scientific idea involving teleportation and Virgil and Zeke drag him away as he rambles about his plan.

Government officer Sameer Niyogi is sent to Rajasthan to take inventory of items in the abandoned ''haveli'' (mansion) of the long-deceased Maharaja Param Singh. When he arrives in Rajasthan, he meets his old friend Shafi who is a tax collector in the area and lives with his wife Sharda.

En-route his journey to Jasor, Sameer begins seeing what he thinks could very well be visions of another time and place, visions that he is shown by a beautiful woman he encounters by the name of Reva. She keeps appearing and disappearing during his stay in Jasor. The mysterious appearance and disappearance initially shakes Sameer but reassurance that spirits exist from an expert on the field gives him an unknown inner motivation to find out the truth behind Reva and his own self, as well as find out the reason he is connected with this story. According to the story revealed by Reva herself, she is a spirit stranded in a period of time, attempting to cross the desert to meet her long lost sister Tara. The older sister, Tara, comes to Maharaja Param Veer's palace for a singing and dancing performance one night. The Maharaja eyes her malevolently and orders his men to not let her go out of the palace that night so he can rape her.

Ustad Miraj Ali, the musical maestro in the king's court, who also happens to be Tara and Reva's music teacher, learns of the king's plan. He warns the father of Tara and Reva and advises them to run away from the town by crossing the desert. The King learns of this and imprisons Miraj Ali and Reva in the castle dungeons while Tara's camel runs ahead in the desert but is never heard of. The cruel Maharaja also orders Tara and Reva's father to be lashed till he bleeds to a near-death condition and then orders his men to put him on a camel's back and send him into the desert.

The lecherous King then turns his attention to Reva. He would wait until she would grow into a young woman. Rewa spends 8 years in captivity and one day the King wishes to sexually gratify himself with her. Ustad Miraj Ali along with the help of one of the king's servants hatch a plan to help Reva run away from prison to save herself from the King. We learn that Rewa narrowly escaped the clutches of indulgent King Param Singh. Her mentor Ustad Miraj Ali gives an oath of the Quran to one of his acquaintances, Mehru, who is supposed to help Reva cross the desert. But in the attempt to cross the desert, Mehru is caught by the King's men and punished by lashes and dropped to his village in a near-dead condition. Reva is killed in a severe desert sandstorm. She gets frozen in a moment of time. As events unfold towards the end, we come to know that Sameer is the rebirth of Mehru and that Rewa's elder sister, Tara successfully managed to cross the desert when her camel ran ahead. Tara is now older and has a daughter named after her dead, lost sister, Reva. Ustad Miraj Ali also is alive and at Tara's house although he is very old. As soon as Sameer reaches Tara's house with the news about Rewa, Ustad Miraj Ali recognises him as Mehru and dies in his arms. Sameer also discovers a skeleton of Raja Param Singh in the castle dungeons. The 2 gold teeth in the skull help establish the identity of that skeleton as belonging to King Param Singh. It remains a mystery how King Param Singh died in the castle dungeon and how Ustad Miraj Ali managed to escape.

Sameer eventually ends up fulfilling his commitment to help Reva's spirit not only cross the desert but also liberate her from the period of time in which she was stranded.

The main protagonist is Xan Meo, a well-known actor and writer, who is the son of Mick Meo, a violent London gangster who had died in prison years previously. Xan is severely beaten, apparently for mentioning the name of Joseph Andrews, one of his father's gangland rivals, in a book. Brain damage from the beating affects Xan's personality, and he becomes increasingly estranged from his wife, Russia (an academic who studies the families of tyrants), and two young daughters. Andrews is also conspiring with Cora Susan, who wants to take revenge on Xan because Mick Meo had crippled her father (who was sexually abusing Cora).

Using the pseudonym of Karla White, a porn actress, Cora lures Xan (her uncle) to California and tries to seduce him, with the intention of wrecking his marriage, but fails. Xan confronts Andrews, who is also living in California, and learns that Andrews is his biological father. Xan confesses this to Cora, who reveals her own identity and confesses that Xan's refusal to have sex with her, coupled with the fact that he is not really Mick Meo's son, has undermined her plans for revenge against the Meo family.

Henry IX is the reigning monarch in this book. His 15-year-old daughter, Victoria, is about to become involved in a scandal when a videotape of her in the nude is released to the press. It transpires that Joseph Andrews has conspired with Henry's mistress, He Zhizhen, to obtain the tape and blackmail the authorities into allowing him to return to Britain without being arrested. Andrews returns, still intending to use his henchman, Simon Finger, to intimidate Xan by assaulting Russia Meo. The king and princess decide to abdicate, effectively abolishing the monarchy.

Clint Smoker, a senior reporter with a downmarket tabloid newspaper, is writing a series of articles of Ainsley Car, a maverick footballer with a history of assaults upon women. Despite his macho image, Clint is sexually dysfunctional, and responds hopefully to a series of flirtatious text messages from someone named "k8". Upon discovering that "k8" is a transsexual, Clint, who has talked with 'Karla White' in California, becomes enraged and drives to confront Andrews (whom Clint appears to blame for his ill-fated meeting with "k8"). Clint kills both Simon Finger and Andrews, but is blinded in his struggle with the latter.

Throughout the novel, reference is made to the arrival of a comet, which is to pass dangerously close to Earth. An airliner experiences a number of problems on its journey to New York from London, and is obliged to make an emergency landing at the moment the comet arrives.

In this novel Lanny Budd's marriage to Irma breaks down after he imposes on her to help smuggle a revolutionary named Trudy out of Germany. Her husband Ludi had been arrested and vanished into the Gestapo prison system. Months later Lanny, at a séance, hears that Ludi is dead. He persuades Trudy that Ludi is dead and they secretly marry.

Meanwhile, Lanny gets interested in Spain, and is in Barcelona for the Socialist People's Olympiad, in competition to the Berlin games. The Spanish Civil War breaks out. The son of Lanny's English friend Rick enlists in the Republican cause. In the climax at the end of the novel the son has been captured by the Nationalists and Lanny undertakes a dangerous attempt to spring the son from captivity and send him home to England.

Visiting New York in 1937 to see paintings for sale, Lanny runs into his old mentor from the Paris Peace Conference, Professor Alston, who is working in the Roosevelt administration. Upon hearing that Lanny's wealthy European customers include top Nazis Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Josef Goebbels, and that Lanny's father Robbie has started a military aircraft Company in Connecticut, but is finding only Nazi customers, Alston suggests a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR is impressed with Lanny’s grasp of the situation in Europe. Lanny agrees to gather information in Europe as a confidential agent.

In Germany, Lanny’s old school friend Kurt is rising as a German agent. In England, schoolmate Rick is a leftist writer of political analysis. Lanny's American heiress ex-wife Irma is looking to marry into the English aristocracy. The English upper crust, including Lanny's ex-lover Rosemary (back from the Argentine, her husband's scandal having blown over), and the wealthy DeBruyne family of Lanny's deceased French ex-lover Marie, all fear a "Red" Spain and see Hitler as preferable to Stalin.

In Paris, Lanny finds his secret wife Trudi has vanished, as have others working in the anti-Nazi underground. He seeks help from his “Red” uncle Jesse. His Spanish friend Raoul may be able to reach Trudi’s old underground contact Monck, who is fighting against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. Lanny believes Trudi may be imprisoned in the walled, guarded Chateau Belcour outside Paris. Lanny manages get himself, Monck and a locksmith into the chateau dungeons, where they find Trudi has already been taken to Germany.

Trying further to rescue Trudi, Lanny steps up his mingling in Nazi society as an art dealer and by posing as a convert to Nazism. Hitler purchases Detaze paintings and asks Lanny to spy on wealthy Austrians in Vienna. Lanny learns Hitler is preparing to force the Anschluss; he notifies FDR. By a device involving an occult séance, Lanny maneuvers Nazi Rudolf Hess to reveal that Trudi died at Dachau Concentration Camp.

Lanny again reports to FDR on Nazi terrorism and aims of domination. In New York City, Lanny witnesses a fascist rally of the Christian Front (United States). Back home on the Riviera, Lanny discovers that his sister Marceline's husband, the Italian fascist officer Vittorio, has stolen Marcel Detaze paintings from the home of Lanny's mother Beauty; Lanny allows Vittorio to avoid arrest by leaving France permanently. Shortly thereafter, a pregnant waitress threatens to sue Vittorio for child support; upon learning of the affair, Marceline divorces Vittorio. Marceline becomes a professional dancer.

Back in Germany, Lanny sees Czechoslovakia partially dismembered "in the name of peace" at the 1938 Munich Conference. The Krystallnacht pogrom erupts all over Germany. Discouraged by the failure of England and France to arm themselves against Hitler and the political difficulties preventing FDR from acting, Lanny considers resigning as a Presidential Agent, but he stays on. Lanny sees the future holds a fateful struggle of Roosevelt against Hitler.

Early 1939. Lanny Budd, dilettante art dealer and secret FDR agent, is home on the Riviera. Monck arrives on his way to rejoin the German underground. Barcelona has fallen and Madrid cannot hold. Partying among Cape society, has-been Winston Churchill rails against the Nazis and admits he was wrong on Spain; no one listens, except Lanny. Beauty receives a wealthy Baltimore family and their eligible daughter Lizbeth. Wall Street financiers now control Budd Gunmakers; Robbie is now selling Budd-Ehrling warplanes. Goring has bought some planes, but cheated on his deal; Robbie and Lanny, in Paris, navigate the minefield of French high politics, where rightists oppose arming as they want accord with Hitler.

In Berlin, Goring promises to investigate alleged patent and licensing violations. Lanny thinks about Laurel Creston, an antifascist American writer living in Berlin whom he met at an opening; Creston says Lanny is a political "troglodyte," but she suspects something about the handsome American. Robbie, seeking payback, sets Lanny to steal a model of Goring's new supercharger. Monck manages to pose as the unsuspecting Laurel's chauffeur; they drive a stolen supercharger device out of Naziland. Nazi troops occupy Prague. To Rick's disgust, Chamberlain stands down. Earl "Ceddy" Wickthorpe, husband of Lanny's ex-wife Irma and stepfather to Lanny's daughter, is starting to suspect Hitler; he agrees with Lanny that Hitler's cessions of certain Czech land to Hungary show accommodation to Stalin. The UK upper class still prefers Hitler over Stalin; Lanny advises FDR “that is the key to the understanding of all political events in Europe.”

FDR chafes under the U.S. Neutrality Acts. Lanny meets with Nazi sympathizers and art customers in Detroit including Henry Ford and Father Coughlin. Lizbeth and family buy an interest in Budd-Ehrling. Lizbeth is kind, beautiful and rich, but Lanny seeks a marriage of minds. Robbie and Lanny are summoned to D.C. by Professor Alston, who pretends he hasn't seen Lanny for twenty years. He tells Robbie all new warplanes must now be sold to the U.S. military, to be paid via the WPA, nominally a work-welfare agency. Robbie asks Lanny to explain to Goring, whose business Robbie may seek in the future. In Berlin, Monck warns of a Nazi-Stalin pact, and says Laurel is too openly anti-Nazi. Laurel calls, on the run from the Berlin Gestapo. Lanny drives her to the Berghof in Bavaria, where she poses as a psychic to the superstitious Nazis. She pulls it off and may actually have psychic ability. At a private seance, Hitler sexually assaults her. Lanny whisks her to safety in Switzerland, then meets the irresolute Daladier in Paris. In London, Chamberlain accepts the need to back Poland, but the democratic countries cannot nearly match Hitler's spending for arms. The Left is shocked by Stalin's pact. Rick wants to help the UK pro-war effort, but socialist writers are not trusted.

One million German soldiers invade Poland. FDR asks for intel on French and English reactions. American support for neutrality, long unshakeable, is now in turmoil; in England, Ceddy and Irma cease open support for Hitler. Irma asks why England is turning against the upper class; Lanny feigns bewilderment. Churchill is back in Admiralty. Rick's son Alfy is flying Spitfires. Ceddy confides that British intelligence has heard of a plan against Norway; suddenly Norway is occupied. Denmark is also taken, another easy Nazi victory. Churchill's star rises amidst division in England and France. Lanny sees folly; Rick sees poisonous capitalism. Monck says the invasion of France is imminent. Raoul arrives from the Pyrenees; 100,000 anti-Franco soldiers are being held in French concentration camps, but pro-Nazi ministers in the French cabinet block any action. Finally the dreaded blitzkrieg hits France: airfields are bombed, "merchant" ships docked in port spew Nazi troops who are directed by local spies; paratroopers land at key points. German tanks cut the French and British forces in two. Lanny's informally-adopted stepson Denis arrives from Sedan, wounded. He says his officers stood down to allow German "liberation" from France's own leftists. In Paris, Laval confides he will assist Petain with a new pro-German government. The French fascists encourage England to join in capitulation, but new Prime Minister Churchill puts the country on war alert as one million French and British troops retreat to the North Sea. Rick and Lanny sail in a convoy of hundreds of vessels of every description to Dunkirk, to rescue wading soldiers off the beach.

After six exhausting days and nights of rescue, Lanny climbs onto a makeshift pier and heads ashore, hoping to contact German soldiers. His plan is to reach Kurt, and Hitler, to learn Nazi intentions on invading England. He finds an abandoned apartment in Dunkirk, cleans up and puts on fresh clothes. Showing no fear and in crisp German, he heils advancing soldiers and manages to make his way to Kurt and Hitler, who says he will invade as soon as France is taken. Lanny reaches Paris ahead of the advancing armies as De Gaulle and Churchill in London endorse a union of the two countries in the hope of preventing a French capitulation, which fails. France is entirely defeated in a few weeks. At the Tomb of Napoleon, Lanny watches Hitler in deep contemplation and wonders when the world will be free of dictators.

The three short stories that form this cycle are as follows.

Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts

The story is set in Victorian London, where Prince Florizel of Bohemia and Colonel Geraldine roam in search of adventure. They dine incognito in a London oyster bar where they are surprised to be accosted by a young man distributing cream tarts for free. Intrigued by this idiosyncratic behaviour they invite him to dinner where he reveals the existence of the Suicide Club, for men who want to end their lives, but are not capable of doing that, or do not want to shock their relatives by their suicide. Florizel and Geraldine claim to want to end their lives too, and become members. It turns out that during each gathering of the club two members, excluding the president, are selected at random: one who will be killed, and one to do the killing; the president then instructs the person to be killed where to go, and the killer how to do the killing in such a way that it looks like an accident. Florizel and Geraldine are appalled by the first killing since their membership, and even more by the fact that the second time Florizel is selected to be killed. Geraldine saves him and arranges that servants of Florizel capture the club members. Florizel decides to help the club members to become happy, but also to dispatch the president abroad in the custody of Geraldine’s younger brother, to be killed by the latter.

Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk

The second story in the cycle is set in the Latin Quarter of Paris where an American tourist finds himself embroiled in a dastardly plot.

In the story, while lodging in Paris naïve young Silas Q. Scuddamore is lured away by a beautiful young lady who promises a secret assignation but fails to appear. Returning to his hotel dejected he is shocked to discover a dead man in his bed. Kindly neighbour Dr. Noel arranges for Scuddamore and the body (concealed in a Saratoga trunk) to be smuggled to London in the company of Prince Florizel. Once in London, Florizel discovers the plot and reveals the victim to be Geraldine’s younger brother who has been murdered by the President of the Suicide Club in his escape from custody.

The Adventure of the Hansom Cab

The third and final story in the cycle is set in the gas-lit streets of Victorian era London where a retired British soldier looks for adventure.

In the story, former Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich is beckoned into the back of an elegantly appointed Hansom by a mysterious cabman who whisks him off to a party. There the host continuously assesses his various guests and asks them to depart until only a handful are left. The host then reveals himself to be Colonel Geraldine and invites Rich to join him on a secret mission. They travel to a discreet location where Prince Florizel, with the assistance of Dr. Noel, has finally ensnared the President of the Suicide Club. The Prince challenges the President to a duel to the death and emerges victorious.

Two young people in love, musician Chad Bixby and Sarah "Salome" Davis, are forced apart despite Salome's pregnancy and marry others, but are then brought together again by chance. A downtrodden blues singer mothers Bixby while guiding his career.

Kimihiko Onizuka (Sadao Abe) is a salaryman infatuated with maiko (apprentice geisha) and whose greatest goal in life is to play a party game called yakyuken with one. Upon being transferred to his company's Kyoto branch, he dumps his coworker girlfriend Fujiko (Kou Shibasaki) and makes his first ever visit to a geisha house. However, when the realization of Kimihiko's lifelong dream is rudely interrupted by a professional baseball star named Kiichiro Naito (Shinichi Tsutsumi), he vows revenge by becoming a pro baseball player himself. Meanwhile, Fujiko decides to become an apprentice geisha. A rivalry between Kimihiko and Naito ensues in which they try to out-do each other at baseball, K-1, cooking, acting and even politics.

"An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" is a fictional essay surveying the following works, written by fictional deceased Irish author Herbert Quain:

''The God of the Labyrinth'' (1933), a detective story in which the solution given is wrong, although this fact is not immediately obvious ''April March'' (1936), a novel with nine different beginnings, trifurcating backwards in time ''The Secret Mirror'', a play in which the first act is the work of one of the characters in the second act (à la ''The Waltz Invention'') ''Statements'' (1939), eight stories which are deliberately calculated to disappoint the reader; ''The Circular Ruins'' is supposedly an extract from the third story, "The Rose of Yesterday"

Nine-year-old Anna de la Mesa weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris. Her Spanish-born lawyer father Fernando is inspired by his sister's opposition to Franco and by Salvador Allende's victory in Chile; he quits his job and becomes a liaison for Chilean activists in France. Her mother, Marie, a ''Marie Claire'' journalist-turned-writer documenting the stories of women's abortion ordeals, supports her husband and climbs aboard the ideological bandwagon. As a result, Anna's French bourgeois life is over. She must adjust to refugee nannies, international cuisine, and a cramped apartment full of noisy revolutionaries.

A gang of teenage youngsters is running riot on the streets. Responsible for a number of burglaries and car thefts, the police are at their wits' end trying to put a stop to the gang's activities. Terror and hatred have become part of everyday life for local residents and, just when it seems things cannot get any worse, the gang targets Shelby House – an old people's home. Supervisor Veronica Porter, her two staff and the nine elderly residents become the gang's most vulnerable victims yet as the thugs conduct a hate campaign against them, sending abusive mail, daubing graffiti on walls and shattering windows. The intimidation escalates until Veronica's own father is dragged into the scene of terror when, disturbing some of the gang members burgling his house he is put into a coma. But enough is enough. The senior citizens of Shelby House decide to take the law into their own hands and fight back.

Borges gives an enigmatic description (or at least, assertion of the existence) of a secret society dating back to ancient times, the members of which "resemble every man in the world" and whose membership consists simply of the performance of a strange ritual.

Benny Fikus decides to cash in on his business' fire insurance by committing arson. Benny plans to have Sherman, who is in a mental hospital believing that World War II is still being fought, escape and burn down Benny's failing clothing store which he has made Sherman believe is a Nazi military headquarters.

During a vacation trip with Marion, Benny has a heart attack, and his sons Ezra and Russell take over the store. The low self-esteemed Russell wants to expand the store and marry his girlfriend, while Ezra needs money to adopt an orphaned 6'8" African-American teenage boy named Booker T (Byron Stewart). Ezra needs Booker T. to play on the high-school basketball team he coaches because he has won a total of two games in seven years as a coach and is in danger of losing his job.

Russell discovers that his father is bankrupt, with his only asset being the surrender value on the store's fire insurance policy. Russell cashes in the policy and splits it with Ezra, using the money to buy more stock. Back at home, Benny is practically comatose after his heart attack. An "in denial" Marion is told by house painters helping with a home redecoration project that her husband is "very sick" which she interprets as Benny being already dead. She then decides to change redecoration plans to prepare for funeral services.

Meanwhile, Sherman has escaped and is on his way to burn down the "Nazi headquarters" (as he believes the store is). Benny recovers from his heart attack, and informs Russell that Sherman is on his way to burn down the store so they can collect the fire insurance that they no longer have.

Hilarity ensues as Ezra has his wife run his basketball team while he and Russell attempt to stop Sherman from his quest to fight the Huns "by any means necessary".

At the mysterious Fossil Island, three visitors have come for a visit. Newspaper Reporter Rock, Songwriter Kodama, and manga artist Osamu Tezuka. On the island are many rocks shaped like human people. When each one of them witness a different rock, each with their own name on them, the three enter into a dream like world. In Rock's dream world, he finds himself partnered with the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Together, they race against the French master thief Arsene Lupin for a sculpture that has been hidden away. In Osamu Tezuka's dream world, the consumption of ancient foods take him to a world where humans and animals have switched brains. Now the humans all act like animals, while the animals all act like humans.

For Kodama, she finds herself robbed of her own body by Eros, the God of Love, who is in the form of an old man. Without her body, her spirit ascends to Heaven and to an amazing adventure. Two more stories follow after these, ending with the introduction of one of Tezuka's stars from his Star System: Pippy.

Tetsuo "Tecchin" Utsuki is a normal, everyday junior high school student. Without much willpower, he is often shy and unable to assert himself. His life changes one day when, on his way back from school, he finds the body of a dead girl lying in the street.

Rushing off to get the police, Tetsuo brings them to the spot where the girl was, only to find that she has disappeared. Instead, a strange, human-sized doll has taken the girl's place. Curious, Tetsuo takes the mysterious doll home and finds that a small bit of it is broken and repairs it. Instantly the doll transforms into the girl that Tetsuo had seen earlier.

Once active, the girl informs Tetsuo that she is a "Grand Doll". At first, a Grand Doll looks like a kind of ordinary, blank doll, but when the back of the neck is rubbed, the doll can take on the form of a human or a horse. Scratching the back of the neck turns them back into their doll forms.

However, the doll also informs Tetsuo that he himself is a Grand Doll. The dolls are part of an alien plot to invade Earth by secretly replacing human beings with dolls. Learning this, Tetsuo decides to take up the fight against the aliens. With his newspaper reporter father, and his friend Yoko Kashiwa, Tetsuo is determined to stop the alien threat (even if he's one of them, himself).

In 1982, the Edo Shoji Corporation is a large Japanese trading company that has created a new branch in the fictional country of Cannibalia (or Kanivaria depending on how you transcribe it). Executive Director Yabushita assigns Hitoshi Himoto to be the head of the new South American office, which is an exceptional promotion for Hitoshi. Having joined the workforce after his days of being a sumo wrestler, Hitoshi finds himself rapidly climbing the corporate ladder.

However, not long after he is assigned to South America, Director Yabushita suddenly resigns from the company. Apparently he was involved in a scandalous affair with a woman and forced to leave after news of the affair had leaked. This severely affects Hitoshi as he is then demoted and transferred to a different location in South America.

Hitoshi finds himself assigned to the city of Esecarta in the Republic of Santalna, a South American country that is in a state of political turmoil. Each day, the government soldiers fight with a rebel group of guerrillas in the streets. However, while reading some information at the Japanese embassy, Hitoshi learns of a certain metal that is indispensable to the manufacturing of electronics. This rare metal is mined at Mt. Montetombo in the Fego Province of South America. However, the mountain serves as the stronghold for the rebel guerrillas, led by the fearsome José García.

Hitoshi attempts to make a name for himself in a dangerous land, working together with the people that know him as the "Gringo". Political and corporate intrigue and drama are all around in Tezuka's last manga.

In this children's manga, Punch and his sister Pinko are approached by a strange man calling himself the God of Gum. Looking like a kind of eccentric scientist, he explains that the gum he has is special as it will allow the gum chewer to create whatever they want with the bubbles they blow. However, since Punch and Pinko are still young, they have not mastered the ability to blow bubbles.

Seeing as this might be a problem, and to prevent the children from potentially misusing the gum, the God of Gum assigns his disciple, Gum Gum, to stay with the children. Together, the three explore the many possible uses of the magical chewing gum and get into mischief.

The series focused on the adventures of three animal friends: two kittens named Tango and Ricky and a puppy named Charlie. Tango and Ricky live in their own house in the country side while Charlie lives in a small cave in their backyard.

The three meet up every day and play together at the backyard of Tango and Ricky's house. Tango and Ricky's backyard also has a large tree which is the home of an absolutely massive bird named Flap, who is a good friend of the main characters and easily eight times their size, and visits them frequently.

Along the series the main characters spend most of their time making up games and stories to act out and learn about life and friendship.

The story starts off in a theatre in a city only known as 'Grand Theater'. Valerian is performing a magic trick using Boy's talent to fit into small spaces. Boy is Valerian's slave (Valerian calls him his 'famulus'). He is treated cruelly by Valerian. Boy, after the show, is sent to a pub to collect something from an acquaintance of Valerian's. This something is a music box, which the increasingly distracted Valerian assures Boy that he needs.

The acquaintance, an ugly man named Green, walks to the toilet; Boy follows. The man is killed (although it is not clear what killed him, since the killer was shielded by purple smoke) and Boy takes the music box and leaves the pub, running into Willow. Willow had found out the Theater Director, Korp, is dead, killed by a mysterious beast named the Phantom. Both of them are coated in blood because of the deaths that night. They are both arrested and accused of the murder of the director.

Valerian breaks into their prison and gets them out, taking both Boy and Willow to his home. Boy gives him the music box. Valerian plays it but is unable to discern the meaning. Willow gains his trust by working out the music box spells a name because of Willow's perfect pitch. She identifies the notes as 'G-A-D-B-E-E-B-E', the name of a man who had died. They search the largest cemetery in town for his grave; it is not in a single one. Valerian is attacked by people who owed money and buried alive. Boy and Willow manage to dig him out and drag him home, Valerian now increasingly more desperate and with a broken arm. They have to go and see the director of funerals. Valerian sends Boy alone while he and Willow visit Kepler, Valerian's old rival and associate. They believe Kepler has gone mad, as he has made bizarre patterns all over his basement, with one phrase written in Latin by it: "The miller sees not all water that goes by his mill". Boy is unable to get a meeting with the Director, but he sees that he is a madman who tries to put together mutilated pieces of dead animals together and bring them back to life by looking through the dome over his workspace. Valerian, Willow and Boy return there and manage to get the information they want, by using Kepler's electricity to fool the Director, and leave the city to find the grave, buried in a town called Lindon.

Buried with Gad Beebe, is the mysterious Book of Dead Days, that apparently holds the answer to everyone's biggest question. Boy and Willow later find out that Valerian had fallen in love with a woman and he gave up the last 15 years of his life for one night with her, but she rejected him despite the enchantment, the reason Valerian fought with Kepler.

The three get arrested (again) for their fruitless efforts digging up Beebe's grave, and are stowed away in dungeons. They escape through the city's underground channels, which were the patterns Kepler had traced in his basement. They find out Kepler had the book, and it is a race against time to find it. Boy pushes Kepler overboard into the channel.

Valerian finds the book and opens it, Willow reads over his shoulder and screams for Boy to run that Valerian will kill him in place of himself. Valerian knocks out Willow and after chasing Boy through the underground, takes Boy home. In Valerian's tower a swirling vortex opens up. Valerian is about to sacrifice Boy, when Kepler and Willow arrive. Kepler reveals that Boy is Valerian's son and that Boy was made that night 15 years ago, when Valerian bet on his life. Valerian, shocked, willingly walks into the vortex, and the demon claims him. Boy questions Kepler about his real father, and Kepler says that Valerian is not really Boy's father, that he just said that to save Boy. The book ends with Boy and Willow returning to the City with Kepler.

Doris Duke, the famous real-life billionairess, is seen going over her life as she prepares to die. Her life includes the early death of her loving father, being raised by a cold mother, two marriages and numerous affairs that still leave her hungry for love, a fascination with mystics and reincarnation, and a disastrous adoption late in life. Even now as she is dying, her roller-coaster life has one last bump in it: her butler, Bernard Lafferty, is suspected of arranging her death so he can get all her money.

The book begins with her as a confident and sexually adventurous senior PR worker. On a business trip to Peru she decides to have sex with a fat and unattractive man. After she loses her job and is deceived and robbed of her savings by her Spanish boyfriend Jaime, she decides to become a call-girl to pay off her debts. The book then deals with the internal politics of the brothel, the other girls and the various clients. Tasso finds the experience an interesting one, despite a few scrapes, unpleasantness of some of the other girls and ruthlessness of the manager, Manolo.

Having made the sum of money she set out to make, she falls in love with a client, Giovanni, and decides to leave the business. Ultimately her relationship with Giovanni does not last.

The film tells the story of Matt Clark (Aaron Smolinski), a male hockey player who dies in a game due to an accident made by the angel Allan, (Brendan Beiser) that caused the hockey player to die when he was trying to get to a choking man. As four days have passed where Matt has been pronounced dead, cremated and buried on national television, Allan is instructed by his boss Peter (Alec Willows) to put Matt in a suitable body. Matt comes back to life as Sara Bryan (Nicholle Tom), a female figure skater who fell into a coma who just passed into Heaven. Both share the dream of competing in the Winter Olympics. The male hockey player specified that if he returned to earth, he wanted to have a chance to win an Olympic Gold medal on ice, leaving the detail that he wanted to be on the hockey team implied. With time running short, Matt in Sara's body has to get skating lessons from Sara's one-time rival (Tara Lipinski) if he wishes to earn gold.

Undercover San Francisco narcotics cops Sean Kane (Norris) and Dave Pierce (Terry Kiser) head into a dark alley to meet up with an informant named Tony Montoya (Mel Novak), who promises to break their big investigation wide open, by providing the name of the oriental drug ringleader. Minutes later Pierce is dead, after having been shot, hit by a car, and burned. Kane gets into trouble with his boss, Captain Stevens (Roundtree), for sending one of the killers flying out a third-story window to his death in view of the public. Rather than face discipline, and told to keep his distance by his superiors, Kane decides to quit the force, and sets out to exact vengeance.

Dave's girlfriend, reporter Linda Chan (Rosalind Chao) is also angry, and vows to bring the drug gang down herself, by way of investigative reporting and public exposure. However, when Linda uncovers the secret that Kane and Pierce never found, she too is killed. Kane sets out for revenge, as does Linda's grieving father James Chan (Iwamatsu), and Linda's close friend, news editor Heather Sullivan (Cooper). Kane asked his friend and fellow detective Tom McCoy (Clark) to keep him informed about the case, but Stevens takes charge of the case, and all the larger aspects of the case go through him.

Kane and Chan are attacked by hitmen connected to the drug cartel. With Heather's help, Kane sees Montoya near a ship in one of Linda's televised news reports. Linda's boss and mentor, editor-in-chief Morgan Canfield (Lee), offers Kane's support to find the killers. Kane finds Chan confronting Nicky LaBelle (Stuart Pankin), Montoya's boss. LaBelle reluctantly reveals Montoya's location. After Kane and Chan confront Montoya, he reveals that he was bait, because the drug dealers were on to them. Before he can revealed names, the same hitmen who killed Linda open fire and kill Montoya. Kane suspects a mole is helping the dealers remove any loose ends.

When Heather's apartment is trashed, Kane suspects the people who killed Linda are looking for a tape that Linda discovered. Heather tells Kane the ship where Linda was doing her interview was a freighter called the ''Sulu Sea''. Kane checks the cargo hold of the ''Sulu Sea'', and finds that the drugs are imported inside fireworks transported from Hong Kong. After being spotted, Kane sets the fireworks on fire, and escapes as Stevens and his fellow officers watch in the distance.

Heather finds Linda's tape in a locker at the train station, with a key hidden in her shoe. She leaves a message for Kane to meet her at the news station. He meets McCoy there and they go to Canfield's office. The tape contains the phone conversation between Canfield and the dealers, which reveals Canfield as the ringleader, and McCoy reveals himself to be a traitor. As Canfield and his hitmen take Heather with them, Kane is about to be killed, when Chan arrives and takes down the assailants. Kane confronts McCoy over his involvement with Canfield, who tells him was in it for money, and that he wasn't the one who drove that car that killed Dave. McCoy chases Kane on the roof, and is killed during a fight with Kane.

Kane and Chan go to Canfield's estate, where he is meeting with the other drug dealers. When the truck carrying the drugs is spotted by Stevens and the SFPD, Kane and Chan fight Canfield's men as Stevens and the cops fire at them. Chan confronts the assassin who killed Linda known as The Professor (Professor Toru Tanaka), but is incapacitated by the Professor's brute strength. Kane then fights the Professor, and after a brutal fight, finally takes down The Professor by kicking him through a glass coffee table.

Canfield then arrives with Heather as a hostage. Kane remembers seeing Canfield's dog in the car that killed Dave, and realizes that Canfield was driving the car. When Chan distracts Canfield, Kane overpowers him as Stevens and the cops arrive. Stevens reveals that he knew about McCoy and Canfield's involvement, but couldn't move in without evidence, and now that they have the drug shipment, they can convict Canfield. With encouragement from Heather and Chan, Kane lets go of his revenge and finds Linda's tape on Canfield. He gives the tape to Stevens, and Canfield is taken into custody. Kane and Stevens part ways amicably, and he leaves the estate with Heather and Chan.

The plot involves a depressed witch who is 'summoned' by a pair of children, named Small and Tender, who are upset at not being able to scare anyone on Halloween. The witch turns them into a werewolf and ghost (previously their Halloween costumes), and their babysitter Bazooey into a Frankenstein's monster. The witch then takes them to the Halloween party-in-progress at her isolated mansion on the edge of town. However, the citizens of the town get offended at the thought of real monsters in their town, and form a mob, under the leadership of the strait-laced 'Goodly'. The witch loses her magic wand, which gets attached to a woman named Malicious, and is unable to turn Bazooey and the kids back to humans. The group of supernatural beings is chased through the town and forest by the mob, eventually losing them. Malicious and her partner, Rotten, misuse the wand's powers, which causes a lot of damage to the town, but also summons the witch and the kids to their location. Regaining her wand, the witch uses its power to turn Malicious and Rotten into monsters (though she turns them back soon after), while turning the Frankenstein monster, ghost and werewolf back into Bazooey, Tender and Small. Eventually, the witch uses her powers to restore everything to normal, showing the town that she is not evil. The town quickly accepts the witch, and she starts turning people into what they want to be for Halloween.

A disco song entitled "Witch Magic" was sung in this film.

Liz (Tina Fey) has become very happy since dating Floyd (Jason Sudeikis), and their relationship together is going strong. Don Geiss (Rip Torn), the CEO of General Electric, speaks to Jack (Alec Baldwin) about his career, and points out that Jack is the only executive at his level to be unmarried. Geiss takes away Jack's role as the head of the Microwave Oven division, which makes Jack become extremely depressed. Liz decides that she wants Jack to meet Floyd at dinner, although Jack becomes obsessed with Floyd and becomes a third wheel in Liz and Floyd's relationship. Liz, extremely bothered by Jack's obsession, tells Jack to leave Floyd alone. Jack agrees, and he tells Liz that he has begun a relationship with Phoebe (Emily Mortimer), a Christie's auction house art dealer who has Avian Bone Syndrome and on their third meeting still greets Liz with "Hi, I'm Phoebe, I don't know if you remember me..." Jack asks Liz's approval in his relationship with Phoebe, and when Liz grants it, he immediately proposes to Phoebe.

Meanwhile, Tracy (Tracy Morgan) tries to get Don Geiss to finance his film, ''Jefferson'', which is based on Thomas Jefferson's life. However, Geiss is not interested in Tracy's $35 million project, even after Tracy uses NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer), Grizz Griswold (Grizz Chapman) and "Dot Com" Slattery (Kevin Brown) to put together a trailer for the film. After failing to convince Geiss, who would rather see him do a sequel to one of Tracy's previous films, ''Fat Bitch'', Tracy decides that he will make ''Jefferson'' on his own.

A young doctor named Larry Forbes (Shepperd Strudwick) arrives in a French village in order to wed the niece of prominent local doctor, Dr. Renault (George Zucco). Dr. Forbes learns from the innkeeper that a storm has washed out the bridge to Renault's house and he ends up spending the night at the inn. There he meets most of the film's main characters including Dr. Renault's strangely deformed man servant, Noel (J. Carrol Naish). It is during the night that the first of the murders occurs. Another tourist takes the room meant for him and is killed mysteriously.

The next day, Forbes travels to the house of Dr. Renault, where he is reunited with Renault's pretty young niece, Madeline (Lynne Roberts). A sequence of strange events, including an incident in which Noel is viciously attacked by a stray dog that Madeline picked up, convinces Forbes that there is something unusual about Noel, but he does not know what it is. Also, it quickly becomes clear that Noel is interested in Madeline as well.

After Madeline's stray dog is killed, Renault confronts Noel and it is revealed that his man servant is actually an experiment - an animal given the physical and mental characteristics of a man. Fearing for Forbes' life (as well as his own), Renault locks Noel in a cage, but the former animal is able to use his strength to escape and follows Forbes and Madeline to a carnival. There he is heckled by a pair of villagers, who are promptly murdered in their homes.

Forbes' suspicions increase and he sneaks into Dr. Renault's laboratory. There he finds a book detailing the experiments Dr. Renault carried out to transform Noel from an ape into a man. Renault catches Forbes reading his notes and threatens to kill him if he reveals the truth to anyone, but Noel sneaks up on the both of them and attacks and kills Dr. Renault. In the closing sequence, Madeline is abducted by her gardener, an ex-convict named Rogell (Mike Mazurki), and Noel pursues them. After a lengthy chase, Rogell shoots Noel. Before succumbing to his wounds, Noel strangles Rogell.

''The Sentinel'' is an adventure in which the player characters stop a skulk from terrorizing a village, and then seek a magical gauntlet. The characters try to find out what happened to Kusnir and why.

''The Gauntlet'' is an adventure in which the player characters are instructed by a magical glove to seek its evil mate, which is worn by an ogrillon residing in the Keep of Adlerweg.

DryCo has sent two operatives, retired African-American general Luther and his white bodyguard Jake, to post-communist Moscow, where rival multinational corporation Krasnaya dominates Russian society through consumer capitalist mass production of products. However, Luther and Jake discover that Krasnaya has two highly advanced quantum physicists under duress, Oktobriana Osipova and Alekine. The two Dryco mercenaries manage to abduct Oktobriana, but their escape sends them back to 1939 in a conservative alternate history.

In this world, Abraham Lincoln was killed by a Baltimore pro-slavery mob in 1861 CE, so the American Civil War never happened, and Theodore Roosevelt abolished slavery in 1907 due to European pressure on J.P. Morgan, who feared loss of his European financial assets. On February 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara assassinated Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill died from a car accident in 1931. As a result of Roosevelt's premature death, it is noted that John Nance Garner proved to be a fiscal conservative, leading to a situation where much of the western United States had to threaten civil war to obtain economic relief from the ongoing Depression. As the novel progresses, Alekhine, actually a Krasnaya operative, abducts Joseph Stalin from Moscow, to be transferred to Krasnaya custody and kept in a dacha, in a future which has abandoned communism and uses the image of "Big Boy" as nostalgic consumer iconography.

When this world eventually does undergo its World War II, it is assumed that there will be no effective opposition to Nazi Germany from its Soviet Union or United Kingdom as a result. However, as is disclosed in the novel's sequel, ''Elvissey'', this is an incorrect assumption.

Luther and Jake make the acquaintance of Norman Quarles, an African American doctor and his wife, Wanda, but their presence attracts the suspicions of (unseen) J. Edgar Hoover, who sends FBI agents in pursuit. During the chase, Norman is killed, and Oktobriana contracts Dovlatov's Syndrome, a mutated influenza virus that emerged in Irkutsk, Siberia in 1909, and led to the deaths of Queen Alexandra, US House Speaker William Dean Howells, Charlie Chaplin, Christy Mathewson, French Premier Clemenceau, Claude Debussy, Guillaume Apollinaire and Amedeo Modigliani, amongst others, during the ten year space of this epidemic. Ultimately, Luther and Wanda return to Dryco's future, while Oktobriana and Jake are lost in the interdimensional void. Luther and Wanda spend the rest of their lives together, with a coda that takes place several decades later, just after her death.

As an aside, Luther notes that there are sects described as the Albigensian Church of Jesus the Light, Reformed and the Valentinian House of God in this world, which implies the survival of gnosticism has occurred in this timeline. Amongst the books cited in the Albigensian Bible are the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but this gnostic bible also includes the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, and the Hymn of Light. The latter revelation will play an important role in Womack's next novel, Elvissey.

''Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff'' provided a set of adventuring materials that expanded on the original three modules. The full text of G1, G2, and G3, were included, along with details of eighteen new adventure sites in Geoff, linked together as an integrated campaign. The new material in the 96-page book was written by Sean K. Reynolds.

On 13 March 1943, Henning von Tresckow puts a bomb on Hitler's plane, but the bomb fails to explode. On 21 March 1943, Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff intends a suicide bombing attack on Hitler in an exhibition, yet Hitler leaves prematurely. A similar attempt by Axel von dem Bussche fails as the event is canceled due to allied air raid on Berlin.

Last hope is on Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg who, being in charge of Operation Walküre, has access to Hitler for reports. The bomb detonates on 20 July 1944 in Hitler Headquarter Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg. After returning to Berlin, he orchestrates the July 20 plot which fails after rumors, reports and finally confirmation about Hitler's survival become known. Four officers are executed immediately, many more after staged Volksgerichtshof trials.

In this novel, DryCo is facing problems from a mass religious movement centered on the premise that Elvis Presley was a semi divine figure, who performed miracles for believers in his sect. It decides to resolve this problem by retrieving a younger alternate history Elvis, and bringing him to present day New New York to discredit the posthumous reputation and mythology that now surrounds Elvis.

The retrieval team are a married couple, Iz and John. Iz is actually an African American, although cosmetic surgery has led to an uncomfortable masquerade as a "Caucasian" woman in the chosen alternate history. It turns out to be that of ''Terraplane'', the previous novel in the DryCo quartet, where Abraham Lincoln was prematurely assassinated in early 1861, the American Civil War never took place, and slavery was only abolished by Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Therefore, this world is backward when it comes to the civil rights movement and racist segregation is still widespread there.

In ''Terraplane'' (1989), it was hinted that the assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933, Winston Churchill's death in a car accident in 1931, and the abduction of Joseph Stalin would lead to a Nazi victory in its World War II. However, this envisaged outcome did not transpire. Instead, Leon Trotsky takes advantage of the power vacuum in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union, returns from exile in Mexico, and assumes power in his stead. Therefore, there is still a Nazi-Soviet Pact, but Operation Barbarossa does not occur because the USSR rearms to the same extent as Nazi Germany. Moreover, Trotsky declares war on Nazi Germany before it can launch Barbarossa to its east and betray the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1941. In the Pacific theater, the United States defeats Japan in 1946, but they do so through dropping fourteen atomic bombs on the Home Islands, which reduces the nation to an irradiated wasteland. Meanwhile, Hitler is assassinated in 1944, and the new Chancellor Albert Speer signs an armistice with the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union, which leads to an unstable multi polar world due to the inconclusive result of World War II in this world.

In its 1954, the alternate Elvis turns out to be a sexual predator who has already murdered Gladys Presley when John and Iz encounter him for the first time. He then tries to rape Iz, much to John's anger, and displays symptoms of psychosis and latent schizophrenia. His poor mental health is not assisted by his strong religious beliefs and an unexpectedly early divergence point in this world's past, where Valentinian gnosticism survived and became the dominant belief system in this alternate Southern United States instead of evangelical Christianity. This was noted in passing in Terraplane, with mention of an Albigensian Bible and a Valentinian House of God as background detail, alerting aware readers to the survival of Gnosticism in this timeline.

The dualist religious philosophy of this belief framework worsens Elvis' mental illness; as a Valentinian gnostic, his core religious beliefs are not based on messianic criteria as are those of orthodox Christianity, and he is horrified at the demand of DryCo that he become a virtual messiah that they can use to manipulate the Elvisian faith. He comprehends this as prompting that he become an instrument of the demiurge, the evil and flawed creator of the material world in his gnostic world view. Due to this psychological pressure, his psychosis escalates after he is transferred to Dryco's homeworld. However, his masquerade collides with scepticism at a London "ElCon" (Elvis Convention) religious gathering and there is a riot. Iz, John and Elvis use bootleg DryCo time travel technology to travel back to London in the alternate world's forties and Elvis loses himself amidst the debris of St Paul's Cathedral.

However, Elvis is relatively psychologically healthy and morally sane compared to the intense anti-human pathology of DryCo's world; in the end he risks everything to escape it.

DryCo's plan has failed. Although John and Iz are sacked from DryCo Central, DryCo Europe offers Iz a position within their local hierarchy. John commits suicide in the bath, and is persuaded by Iz (frightened for her own life, and that of her fetus) that she intends to join him moments later; she does not. Dying, John becomes aware that she deceived him and intends to remain behind and continue living during his last cognizant moment. He communicates non-verbally that he understands, although whether he believes in the end that the child is his own is unclear. Iz has survived, but at great personal cost.

This films follows Pak Belalang, a lazy man who loathes hard work. He has a young son named Belalang, who is smarter and more hardworking than his father. During his way home from work one day, Belalang encounters two thieves, Badan and Nyawa, who were just on their way back from stealing two cows. Using his wits, he scares them away and takes the cows back with him. He tells his father about it who panics and tells him to return the cows to their rightful owners. Belalang retorts that without knowing who they were, they couldn't do the right thing even if they wanted to. He then suggests that he would go to the mayor's house to seek out the rightful owners who would presumably go to report the loss of their cows to the mayor. Belalang could then tell them to come and see Pak Belalang who could pretend to be psychic and tell them the cows' whereabouts. Pak Belalang agrees and all goes as planned with a reward in place for both of them.

And then the thieves strike again, this time at the royal palace. It was then announced that anyone who could retrieve the stolen items would be greatly rewarded by the king, Sultan Shahrul Nizam. The mayor then excitedly goes to the Belalang's house in the middle of the night to bring him to the palace so he could help retrieve the stolen items with his psychic powers, as he had previously done with the cows. Pak Belalang is caught off guard and fails to bluff his way out of it, angering the king who gives him 3 days to retrieve the stolen items or be sentenced to death for his deception. The mayor is seen as a conspirator and is also promptly arrested causing him to faint when hearing the news. Pak Belalang returns home in a hurry to pack his belongings and tells Belalang that he will hide it out for the next three days. Belalang informs him of a perfect hiding place of a cave at Bukit Tunggal (Sole Hill) and Pak Belalang then tells him to bring food to him whenever he can. When Pak Belalang arrives at the cave, he overhears some people talking and discovers the two thieves trying to divide the coins from a gold chest they had stolen from the palace. He pretends to be a hunched back wise old man (Penunggu Gua) and scares them away. Once they run away, he gleefully places all the coins back in the chest and chants how lucky he is at having found exactly the same thing which he had been ordered to do.

In the meantime, Belalang was on his way to bring his father the promised food when he is intercepted by officials from the palace who bring him back to the palace. He is then interrogated on the whereabouts of his father and he tries to manipulate the conversation, thus angering the king who threatens to behead him. Pak Belalang then appears and reveals his discovery of the stolen palatial chest of gold. But he tells them that to retrieve it, they have to crawl on all fours, which they reluctantly adhere to. When the chest of gold is indeed found by the king, he decides to appoint Pak Belalang as the 'National Healer'. During the official appointment ceremony, the princess, Puteri Sri Bujur Sirih, takes a liking to Pak Belalang and in his first official task, he is called upon when she has a fainting spell (pengakit angau). She had actually just wanted to meet him; pretended to faint to get Pak Belalang to see her and then persuades him to arrange so that they could meet in secret. After the king and queen are called back in, he goes on to prescribe 'midnight air' for her fainting spells. Bewildered, the king agrees to it anyway.

When the princess and Pak Belalang meet at midnight, they reveal their affections for each other and she declares to call him 'Kanda Satria' from then on. The next morning, he meets her again but this time in his official capacity as the 'National Healer'(ahli nujum) and prescribes water which he had blessed. As Sultan Shahrul Nizam revels in his newfound relief that his daughter is in good health again, he and his ministers are met with thunderous sounds. Just then, a palace messenger arrives to inform the king that a rival kingdom's fleet belonging to the King of Masai has been spotted approaching their shores. He tells them to cautiously receive them and to strike back if met with hostility. The King of Masai is welcomed and promptly goes to the palace to present himself to Sultan Shahrul Nizam. He reveals that instead of waging war, he instead wanted to seek peace by waging a war of wits with their two National Healers. Pak Belalang was to be presented with a set of questions by the National Healer of the Kingdom of Masai to which he must answer all correctly. If he does, the Kingdom of Masai loses the wager and it relinquishes its rights, title and land to the Kingdom of Beringin Rendang. If Pak Belalang fails to answer all of the questions correctly, the land of Beringin Rendang would be forfeited to the Kingdom of Masai. Pak Belalang puts on a brave front but then rushes home to flee the country persuading his son to seek out a boat they could escape in. As he does, he inadvertently lands in a boat occupied by the Kingdom of Masai's king and accompanying officials. He quickly hides himself and listens on as The Masai National Healer was persuaded to tell the rest of the party the answers to his questions. He had, up until then, kept them all a secret to himself and once the Masai contingent had alighted the boat, he swam to shore to inform his father of his discovery.

After the three days are up, the royal parties meet again and Pak Belalang was able to answer all the questions correctly thanks to Belalang overhearing everything on the boat. The Kingdom of Masai's National Healer was so convinced that he would win that he collapsed after Pak Belalang answered the last question correctly. The King of Masai then asks for another chance stating that it could be that he had been deceived by his National Healer himself. Pak Belalang tries to refute the demand and reminds them that the original agreement consisted of only three questions but he is then ordered by Sultan Shahrul Nizam to do it. Pak Belalang panics and calls out for his son, Belalang, who had been the one who persuade him to take the challenge and go through with the wager. It turned out to be a lucky guess as the King of Masai was holding a locust (called Belalang in Malay). Pak Belalang, who had been afraid, quickly recovers his composure and joins in the joy of Sultan Shahrul Nizam as they celebrate their victory.

Badan and Nyawa, the two thieves who had stolen the cows and the palatial chest of gold, arrives at the palatial boat of the King of Masai. They demand an audience with the Sultan of Masai, claiming to be his brother in law. They then tell the King that they have a plan for him to regain his country back and ask him to follow them. Having nothing to lose, the Sultan complies and he and his officials are taken to the same cave Badan and Nyawa had used when they stole the palatial chest of gold. Badan and Nyawa cast a spell on the palace putting everyone into a deep sleep and they then abduct the princess and take her back to the cave. The Sultan of Masai had never known Sultan Shahrul Nizam to have such a beautiful daughter but is puzzled as to how her being there could help him get his kingdom back. Badan and Nyawa then told him that once her disappearance is discovered, her father will issue a decree promising a reward to anyone who could return the princess unharmed. The prime minister then persuades him to instead use the services of their National Healer, Pak Belalang. In the meantime, the Sultan of Masai tried to charm his way with the princess but to no avail. When called upon, Pak Belalang is threatened with death if he failed to use his powers to find the princess. By some miracle, when he blessed the water, it gave apparitions of the princess and all those connected with he disappearance including the King of Masai. Pak Belalang quickly made his way there and rescues the princess. Pak Belalang and the princess lock in an affectionate embrace but is interrupted by the king and queen. He puts all the perpetrators under arrest and orders the immediate wedding of Pak Belalang and the princess. As all are brought away, Belalang is seen entering the cave and when asked why he was there, he tells his father that he had asked for hi own room and never got one. Now that they are to be married, he would have no place to sleep. The movie then ends with the theme song.

The film begins during a thunderstorm in 1505, as Luther is returning to his home. For fear of losing his life in the storm, Luther commits his life to God and becomes an Augustinian monk.

Two years later, Luther is a monk at St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt. During his time at the monastery, he is constantly troubled by viewing God as a God of hate and vengeance. Martin is encouraged by Johann von Staupitz, an elder monk who is his supervisor and mentor. Staupitz tells Luther to look to Christ instead of himself.

Later, Luther delivers a letter for Staupitz to Rome, where he becomes troubled by the wicked lifestyles of those in the city. He also views the skull believed to be that of John the Baptist and purchases an indulgence. It is during this time that Luther begins to question the veracity of indulgences. Returning to Germany, Luther is sent to Wittenberg, where he begins to teach his congregation that God is not a God of hate, but a God of love. Luther begins to emphasize the love of God instead of his judgment.

In 1513, Pope Leo X becomes the new Pope of the Church, and commissions Johann Tetzel to go throughout several communities, including Luther's town, where he scares people into buying indulgences, which would be used to rebuild and renovate St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and to recover the Hohenzollern bribes to the Holy See, advanced by Fugger, for the investiture of Archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg. In his church, Luther denounces the indulgences, calling them "just a piece of paper". He then posts his 95 theses on the door of the church, calling for an open debate regarding the indulgences. For this act, Luther is called in 1518 to Augsburg, where he is questioned by Cardinal Cajetan among other church officials.

After his excommunication, Pope Leo X orders Luther to be delivered to Rome, but Prince-elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony becomes his protector. Frederick and Charles V decide that Luther will be tried at the Diet of Worms.

At Worms, Luther is brought before Charles V and the Cardinals for trial. The Cardinals demand for him to recant of his teachings, and Luther requests more time to give a decent answer, which is granted. The next day, Luther comes before Charles V and the Cardinals, who demand him to recant, and Luther refuses. After his trial at Worms, Luther is forced into hiding by Frederick the Wise who protects him by moving him into Wartburg Castle, while his former professor, Andreas Karlstadt, encourages the Great Peasants' Revolt against the oppressive nobles. Luther, shocked by the revolts, encourages the princes to put them down. Meanwhile, Luther translates the Bible into German.

After Luther marries Katharina von Bora, a former nun, Charles V summons the evangelical Princes of the Holy Roman Empire to the Diet of Augsburg, so he can force them to outlaw Protestantism and the German Bible. The nobles refuse, and Charles is forced to allow the nobles to read their Augsburg Confession.

The film ends with the following words:

What happened at Augsburg pushed open the door of religious freedom. Martin Luther lived for another 16 years, preaching and teaching the Word. He and Katharina von Bora enjoyed a happy marriage and six children. Luther's influence extended into economics, politics, education and music, and his translation of the Bible became a foundation stone of the German language. Today over 540 million people worship in churches inspired by his Reformation.

The game draws heavily from Welsh, Celt, Christian and Roman mythology, with characters named Arawn, Arthur, Epona, Llŷr, Morgan, Pwyll, Rhiannon, and Taliesin. Set in a Late Antiquity–inspired fantasy setting, story starts on an island, Erin (or Hibernia, as shown on an in-game map), on the west border of the Holy Empire.

The prologue is centered around the precognition-gifted priestess of the Gael tribe, Rhiannon. She is kidnapped by a rogue priest of the Holy Empire, Drwc, to be used as a sacrifice in a ritual meant to resurrect the Demon King Arawn and put Drwc in his favor. As a response the Gael people burn their village and swear to bring Rhiannon back or exact revenge on the Empire. In the middle of the ritual, as the Gael people attack Drwc's soldiers, Arawn is resurrected and offered Rhiannon. At this point, he kills Drwc, frees Rhiannon, and proclaims no intention of wreaking the havoc which the legends attributed to him. Instead, he shows interest in Rhinannon's brother Arthur, the First Warrior of his tribe. Rhiannon, on the other hand, falls in love with Arawn, and by declaring her decision to marry him, makes him the chieftain of the Gael tribe (her and Arthur's father was the previous chieftain, but Arthur could not assume the title due to being the First Warrior).

As the prologue ends, the point of view is switched from Rhiannon to Arawn, revealing him to be the protagonist of the game, and the story continues with the exodus of Gael tribe to the neighboring island of Albion (or Insula Britannica, as shown on an in-game map) in hope of eluding the Empire.

The poor trio of best friends Do, Re and Mi live in a simple treehouse in the forest, where they work together collecting, cutting and selling firewood at the local marketplace. After they were driven out from their treehouse by the land owner they walked in the forest then in the night they hear a voice calling for help in the forest. Although they are scared that it is a spirit trying to trick them, they follow the voice and discover that it is coming from a bamboo tree. The bamboo tree is wounded, and asks them to pull out the spear that is stuck in it. They comply, and the bamboo transforms into a fairy princess, who explains that she is the Tuan Puteri Buluh Betong (Giant Bamboo Princess). When Do asks her whether she is related to Anak Buloh Betong (a character of S. Kadarisman's film ''Anak Buloh Betong''), she explains that he is her father. She thanks them and gives them each a magical item. Do receives a magic carpet that can fly, Re receives a telescope that can see anything the viewer asks of it, and Mi receives a harmonica that can give them any wishes they want.

The trio decide to use their items to find their fortune. Re uses the telescope to find that the Sultan of their kingdom is looking for brave men to become his Admirals. The trio attend the competition that is being held to find the bravest and strongest men. Mi uses his harmonica to give the trio superhuman strength, and they win the competition easily. The Sultan, impressed by their feats, makes them his Admirals.

As part of an assignment, the Admirals are sent to an ally neighbouring kingdom, Pasir Dua Butir (lit. 2 Grains of Sand) that is under attack by Fasola, a former Minister of Defense turned traitor after his proposal to the sultan's princess, Princess Puncak Mahligai was rejected. In an act of retaliation, he and his army sack the entire kingdom, rape young girls, butcher loyal civilians and going as far as raze the palace to ground, an act that is considered ''brainless''. He also hold the princess captive in his hiding place. After seeing his princess' distress through Re's telescope, the sultan then promises to marry his princess to anyone who slays Fasola. The excited Do, Re and Mi then sets out on their rescue missions.

They then defeated whole of Fasola's army, some of it by using Mi's wish-granting harmonica with comical result (make them dancing, for instance). They then confront Fasola. After being insulted by Do, in a fit of rage he defeats them single-handedly with little effort. He and Do then have a sword fight. When it seems that Do gets the upper hand by stabbing Fasola, it is revealed that Fasola is magically impervious to any attack. By using Re's telescope to seek Fasola's weakness, it is revealed that Fasola can only be killed by stabbing a sharp bamboo to his sole. Mi then uses his harmonica to provide them with a sharp bamboo. Seeing the sharp bamboo in Do's hand, Fasola is frightened and he even begs Do to spare his life but Do nonetheless kill him and thus ends the traitor's life.

They free the Princess, whom all three fall in love with. When Do, Re and Mi fight over her, the Princess declares that she will marry all three of them, which three of them agreed, although stunned at first. (The princess reason that if men are able to practice polygamy, why don't women as well?) Do, Re and Mi return to their sultan in triumph. The sultan, like the trio, also falls in love with the princess. When the sultan finds out their odd situations, he then remind them the tale of the legendary Malay Admiral, Hang Tuah who presents Tun Teja, the princess of Pahang to his sultan as sign of his undivided loyalty, despite Hang Tuah and Tun Teja deeply love each other. Then, why don't the Admirals Do, Re and Mi emulate him? The princess, impressed by the sultan's wisdom, agreed. The sultan then announce his wedding to the princess and the entire court give their full approval. Of course, the three Admirals disappointed but the sultan offers to reward them with three palace handmaidens as their wives, whom the sultan claimed are very beautiful. However, it turns out the handmaidens are ugly, old hags. The sultan jokingly tells them the three Admirals are their future husbands! The handmaidens are thrilled and start chasing the Admirals, while the entire court laugh. The Admirals, don't wish to end up marrying old hags, flee with their magic carpets and sending them itchy all over their bodies with Mi's harmonica. Do, Re and Mi laugh at the helpless hags and then flies to an unknown destination.

Puteri Nora Mat Jidin is a young factory worker living in a rented apartment with her best friends in Kuala Lumpur. Despite being a tomboy, Nora has always dreamed of escaping poverty and becoming a princess. Following the success of a popular local reality show called 'Chasing Dream', Nora sends in her application with the hope that her dreams will come true for at least a short period of time. Her application is successful and she is called to the TV station.

Nora is given a makeover and she is given the chance to stay at the most luxurious penthouse suite of one of the most expensive hotels in the city for a week. The only letdown of the experience is the show's cameraman, Zulfikli has to follow her around the entire time to record her experience. The two do not get along very well since Zul loves to make fun of Nora's naive attitude. To add to her misery, the show's producer, Miss Nancy Lee tries to control her every move to get higher ratings. Nora starts to realize that the show is not as fun as she had expected it to be.

As the week comes to an end, Nora is made to go horse riding with Zul by her side as one of her last activities for the show. When her horse losses control, she is saved by Tengku Faizal, a real life prince. The two develop a friendship as Faizal is attracted to Nora's simplicity and humility. Zul starts to become jealous and warns Faizal to stop playing with Nora's feelings. However, Faizal surprises everyone by proposing to Nora.

To prove to everyone that he is serious about Nora, Faizal takes her to meet his mother, the Queen. Realizing that this can boost her show's ratings even more, Nancy starts treating Nora kindly. However, Nora can see through Nancy's intentions and confronts her about her hypocrisy. Meanwhile, Zul starts to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Nora and can no longer stand her being around Faizal. As a result, he requests that he be transferred to another show. He is then replaced with Kuman, another cameraman. Nora also starts to miss Zul now that he is no longer with her.

In the end, Faizal decides to take Nora with him to America to meet his father who is there for work. However, as they are about to leave the hotel for the airport, Nora sees Faizal and realizes that royal life is not for her. She has always been happier as a commoner and she decides to make her own living. She leaves Faizal and returns to her friends.

Mrs. Bentley, a Protestant minister's wife, writes journal (or diary) entries on a regular basis; the time span is just over a year (from 8 April 1939 to 12 May 1940, if the weekday noted with each entry is assumed to be correct). The couple has just moved to yet another small town, "Horizon". Mrs. Bentley, whose first name we never learn, despairs of Philip (her husband), who is becoming ever more remote. As she records her feelings, it is clear she, as she suspects of her husband, has nothing but contempt for her husband's flock. Mrs. Bentley sees herself and Philip as frustrated artists; she has a passion for music and, in her youth, entertained dreams of success as a pianist, and he spends much of his time sketching and painting.

Her journal tells mostly of her efforts to win her husband's affections, yet he appears to withstand her efforts, which are conflicted and subtly evasive. She strikes up a friendship with Paul, a local schoolteacher and philologist, while Philip engages the affections of Judith. They attempt to adopt a Catholic child, Steve, who seems to fulfil Philip's desire for a child that Mrs. Bentley cannot apparently deliver, but this arrangement falls apart. Eventually, putatively under pressure from an increasingly hostile congregation, they prepare to move to a city. However, it is plain that the congregation and town are nothing like as philistine as Mrs. Bentley insists—neighbourhood boys admiringly lurk outside the manse listening to her practise the piano and the audience for her recital in the church hall is vastly appreciative—but Mrs. Bentley is unmoved in her contempt for them and scornful of their applause for her bravura piano performance. Assuming that they are moving to a mid-sized prairie city in the middle of the Great Depression, Mrs. Bentley's dream of establishing a second-hand bookstore there as a means of escape from their unappealing life in a small town is patently absurd. Judith, who mysteriously has become pregnant, dies shortly after giving birth and the Bentleys adopt her child.

During a reconnaissance flight taken by Rachel, Ax, and James, the Animorphs learn that the Yeerks are herding people into the subway system. The subways have been redirected to the Yeerk pool complex, where humans are being infested en masse.

Back at the Hork-Bajir valley, Rachel makes her report to Jake. Marco comes up with a plan to use the subway system to destroy the Yeerk pool by loading one of the pool-bound trains with explosives and detonating once the train reaches its destination. Despite some resistance from Cassie, the Animorphs agree to carry out the plan.

Later that night, Ax sneaks away from the camp with the zero-space transmitter constructed by Marco's father. Ax contacts the Andalite military and tells them of the Animorphs' plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. The Andalites do not support the plan and feel that the war for Earth is lost. Ax is ordered to sabotage the Animorphs' operation to destroy the Yeerk pool so that the Yeerks will continue concentrating the majority of their forces on Earth, allowing the Andalites to wipe them out more easily.

The next morning, the Animorphs finalize their plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. During the meeting, Cassie announces that she and her parents will not be going on the mission, since they cannot face risking so many Controllers' lives. She gets into an argument with Rachel over it, and then another with Jake. With Rachel, Cassie is accused of essentially giving up in the fight against the Yeerks, which makes Cassie admonish Rachel for how horrible her attitude has become, even to the point where even Rachel's own mother cannot stand to be in her presence. With Jake, who initially tries to defuse Cassie and Rachel's dispute, Cassie derides him for being so willing to risk human lives, adding that she had previously thought that she had known him better than that. However, Jake fires back that Cassie had acted as though she had thought that she had known what was best for him and everybody on the team, subtly referring to her actions with Tom two books prior. As a result, the stress of the arguments causes Cassie to break down and confess that it was she who allowed Tom to escape with the morphing cube. Despite the shock and anger at this realization (as well as Rachel attempting to punch Cassie before being stopped by Tobias, who is in his human morph at this time), the other Animorphs forgive Cassie for her actions and continue planning the operation, with the exception of Ax, who feels a cold hatred towards Cassie for letting Tom take the cube.

After the meeting, Ax pulls Cassie aside and asks her to justify her actions. He reminds her that regardless of her reasons, she betrayed the memory of his brother, Elfangor, by giving up the one thing he had given the Animorphs to give them a fighting chance against the Yeerks. Cassie feels incredible guilt when she realizes this, also realizing that she has hurt Ax in the process, but still remains firm in her convictions. She recalls Aftran 942 and the Yeerk Peace Movement, and speculates that the morphing technology could give the Yeerks a means to abandon their policy of infesting sentient beings and instead morph new bodies. Ax concedes that he encountered a Yeerk who planned to do this on the subway mission, though he also speculates that the Yeerk could have been lying. After speaking with Cassie, Ax talks with Tobias, who voices his support of Cassie's reasoning, even if he did not necessarily agree with her actual actions. As a result of their talk, Ax decides to disobey the orders he was given and not sabotage the plan to destroy the Yeerk pool.

The next night, Ax leads the other Animorphs' parents through the woods towards a National Guard base, where the Animorphs hope to steal the explosives they need for their operation. Upon reaching the base's perimeter, the parents pose as lost campers in need of medical attention. The National Guardsmen load them into a truck and drive towards the base, with Marco clinging to the back of the truck in gorilla-morph. The other Animorphs follow as either fleas on Marco or in various bird-of-prey-morphs.

Upon reaching the National Guard base, the Animorphs begin searching the various warehouses for the explosives. Once they are found, they begin loading the explosives onto the trucks commandeered by Rachel's mother, Naomi, and Cassie's father, Walter. On their way out, the Guardsmen, alerted by an alarm, halt the trucks. Rachel initially tries to run them down, but is stopped by Ax. Jake and Naomi speak with the Guardsmen's commander, Captain Olston, and explain the situation. The Guardsmen agree to assist the Animorphs in their operation.

The Animorphs' parents all return to the Hork-Bajir valley, while several National Guard troops drive the trucks into the city, where the Animorphs themselves, along with the troops, disable the Yeerk forces guarding the subway station. The Animorphs are forced to fight with several morph-capable Controllers, with several using wolf-morphs (the same battle morph as Cassie). The Guardsmen kill several of the wolves, making Ax fear that Cassie has been killed in a friendly fire incident. Fortunately, Cassie survives the battle and Ax silently reconciles with her. Marco, Ax, and Cassie volunteer to accompany the train to the Yeerk pool, now loaded with explosives.

Ax keys the detonator so that the explosives will go off five minutes after reaching the Yeerk pool, giving the Controllers and hosts there time to escape. The subway train jackknifes into the Yeerk pool. Ax, Cassie, and Marco survive due to being in various insect-morphs during the collision. They demorph and warn those in the pool of the situation, and then begin freeing caged hosts. Visser One briefly emerges to do battle, but leaves after Marco tells him of the impending explosion. Ax, Cassie, and Marco leave the doomed Yeerk pool complex just as the bombs detonate.

The Animorphs survey the devastation. The destruction of the Yeerk pool destroys a large area of the Animorphs' hometown. Jake privately thanks Ax for his participation, and Ax silently pledges his continued support to his prince.

Setting

During the events of the first game, Lloyd Irving and his companions embarked to a journey that led to the merging of the twin worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla. After the lands became one, however, maps were rendered useless and the climate went through many vast changes: desert towns became frozen wastelands and lakes dried up into valleys. All of this stems from an overlooked factor in the unification of the worlds: the spirit of the old Kharlan Tree, Ratatosk, still exists somewhere, and its slumber has sent the world into chaos. To complicate matters, tensions have quickly escalated between the people of the two worlds. The Tethe'allans look down upon the Sylvaranti due to their inferior technology, and the Sylvaranti fear the Tethe'allans for their power. Two years have passed since the worlds were first merged, and Sylvaranti dissidents have created an insurgency, known variously as the "Sylvaranti Liberation Front" and the "Vanguard," with which to rise against the Church of Martel and the Tethe'allans.

Synopsis

The game begins when the Church of Martel goes to war with the Vanguard, and Sylvarant's city of Palmacosta is caught in the crossfire. Countless innocent lives are lost and the city is consumed in flames. This event comes to be known as the "Blood Purge," a massacre allegedly led by the same Lloyd Irving who helped unite the worlds two years before. Emil Castagnier, a Palmacostan boy, is forced to watch as his parents are killed by Lloyd. At the same time, a girl named Marta Lualdi is fleeing the Vanguard with Ratatosk's Core, an orb which contains the essence of the sleeping spirit; cornered by Vanguard soldiers, she appeals to Ratatosk for help, and awakens to see Emil standing over the foes' bodies.

Six months later, Emil now lives in Luin with his aunt and uncle, who abuse him physically and emotionally; he is also bullied by the people of the city, who view Lloyd as a hero due to Lloyd's efforts two years ago to rebuild the town. As a result, Emil is timid, retiring and often unwilling to speak, much less express his true thoughts. However, while investigating local meteorological disturbances, he encounters Marta, who helps him defend himself from some monsters and then flees from her pursuers, both Vanguard and the enigmatic Richter Abend. Richter is a source of confusion to Emil: he speaks brusquely but encourages him to stand up for himself. Richter is attempting to retrieve Ratatosk's Core, which has bonded physically to Marta and is visible only as a glyph on her forehead. Caught between the only two people who have been nice to him in a very long time, Emil decides to help Marta. With the aid of Tenebrae, a Centurion Spirit who serves Ratatosk, Emil pledges himself as a "Knight of Ratatosk," gaining a direct link to the Summon Spirit and a second, hyper-aggressive personality which aids him in battle.

After the three have escaped, Marta explains her plight: she is a former member of the Vanguard, who want to use Ratatosk's power for their own nefarious ends. Ratatosk is also the cause of the weather problems plaguing the world: Tenebrae, as well as seven other Centurions, are supposed to be regulating the flow of mana via the world's monsters, but ever since the Giant Kharlan Tree was destroyed four thousand years ago they have remained dormant. To restore balance to the world's environment, all of them must be awoken from their Cores, Ratatosk last of all; and to strengthen them, Emil must recruit monsters, as recounted above. Emil and Marta pledge to do so, though Emil also has a secondary motive: he wants to find Lloyd Irving, who slew his parents, and get some answers... or at least some vengeance.

As the two travel the world, it becomes clear that neither task will be as easy as it sounds. For one, not only are the Vanguard, led by the sadistic Alice and self-absorbed Decus, attempting to collect the Centurion Cores, but so is Lloyd Irving. For two, the pair frequently run into former party members from ''Tales of Symphonia'', all of whom vouch for Lloyd's character whilst simultaneously befriending Emil and Marta, often lending their prowess as temporary player characters. Emil is left in the uncomfortable position of realizing that his hatred of Lloyd must be misplaced, as his associates are of impeccable character; simultaneously, Lloyd's friends admit that, though they believe in him, his current methods are clearly extreme. For three, Emil continues to encounter Richter, with whom he has a rather confusing relationship; Richter encourages his personal growth, even giving him his catchphrase--"Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality"—but simultaneously insisting that one day he will attempt to remove Ratatosk's Core from Marta's forehead by lethal force. And finally, Emil must deal with his secondary personality, which he calls "Ratatosk Mode." Ratatosk Mode is brusque, selfish, insensitive and prone to dismiss Marta as an annoyance—which Marta, whose budding attraction to Emil is anything but subtle, does not take very well. Even worse, Ratatosk Mode begins to take over, remaining present even while out of battle and often verbally refusing to relinquish control of his host body.

The first of these mysteries is finally unraveled when Lloyd seizes not just the core of Glacies, Centurion of Ice, but its owner, Seles Wilder, sister of Tethe'allan Chosen Zelos Wilder. Zelos notices that Lloyd is using an especially cloying cologne, which Marta realizes is the same scent Decus uses. Decus has been impersonating Lloyd and is the true perpetrator of at least some of his atrocities. Richter's insistence on defeating Ratatosk begins to unravel when he refers to Emil as "Aster," a name Emil also begins to hear when he visits the college town of Sybak. Aster was a former scholar who began to investigate Ratatosk after the two worlds were combined, with the half-elf scholar Richter by his side. A series of flashbacks reveal that Ratatosk, awakened to the state of the world and the death of the Giant Kharlan Tree which was his to protect, lashed out in anger, slaying Aster without remorse. Richter, furious, swore revenge, despite the fact that Ratatosk now wears Aster's face: when Marta begged Ratatosk for help, he manifested himself as a human, grabbing the nearest body to hand, and creating a fake personality for himself to fill in the gaps, becoming Emil.

The largest complication arises from Richter's agenda. He has traveled to the Ginnungagap, the gate that separates Niflheim, the realm of the demons, from the mortal world, and made a devil's bargain to slay Ratatosk, who sustains the gate with his life, in exchange for Aster's revival. Lloyd has caught wind of this and is gathering up the Centurions' Cores to prevent his success; his unwillingness to explain himself to his friends is characterized as a ploy to protect the new World Tree they planted two years ago. Now aligned in purpose, Emil, Marta and the ''Tales of Symphonia'' characters advance to the Ginnungagap to stop Richter from laying all of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant bare to the depredations of demons. Once defeated, though, Richter reviles them for their shortsightedness: he had already made plans to double-cross the demons, using himself as a new barrier, prepared to suffer eternal torment for the sake of his innocent friend. Emil also attempts at this point to display his own self-sacrificial tendencies, trying to goad his friends into slaying him to shore up the demon gate, as well as atone for Ratatosk's murder of Aster. In the end, the gate is re-sealed by the combined efforts of Richter and Lord Ratatosk, but ''Emil's'' precise fate depends on the player's choices throughout the game: he may slay himself after wounding Marta through his play-acting; be imprisoned along with Richter; or be released, through the urging of both Tenebrae, Aqua, and Richter, to live out his life with Marta.

As an unnamed Animorph lies on the brink of death, the Ellimist appears and recounts his origins as Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-One (Toomin) the Ketran and his transfiguration into the Ellimist (his homeworld gamer tag) as a final request to the dying Animorph. The Ketran race was virtually extinguished by the Capasins, who had seen transmissions of violent virtual Ketran games that had been broadcast into space and mistook them for a violent species that meddled with other ones. A Ketran named Toomin was one of the few survivors. These survivors became space nomads, seeking a replacement for their home planet. Toomin became the leader of this group and was the only survivor when it crash-landed on a mostly aquatic moon. His mind was absorbed and kept alive at the bottom of the sea by a moon-spanning entity known as Father that absorbed the information from the minds of every corpse that landed on its watery surface. After defeating Father at music, Toomin began to grow too intelligent for Father, defeating it on other levels of intellect and incorporating all the memories of corpses on the moon, eventually becoming a blending of minds.

After he defeated Father he began to wander the universe without purpose until he started to resolve conflicts and crises under the name Ellimist. The Ellimist influenced the universe like this for several thousand years until he encountered a being named Crayak, who existed to destroy all life in galaxies, a strong antithesis to what the Ellimist had come to stand for. Crayak engaged Ellimist in games that had entire planets at stake, not unlike the game "Alien Civilizations" from his homeworld. Ellimist did not fare well and lost far more often than he won. Losing motivation to continue fighting Crayak, the Ellimist temporarily retreated to the Andalite home planet, possibly beginning his worship as an Andalite god. The Andalites at the time were not the advanced civilization but a primitive collection of tribes.

By living on the planet as an Andalite, the Ellimist learned that the key of survival was to create as many offspring as possible. Although so many die, with repeated efforts life could multiply faster than Crayak could wipe them out. With a renewed vigor, the Ellimist fought Crayak, creating the Pemalites, creators of the Chee, who spread quickly throughout the galaxy (until they were destroyed by Crayak's own creations, the Howlers). Although Crayak eventually caused his death, the Ellimist found he had become a part of space-time itself. Soon, both the Crayak and the Ellimist recognized direct combat to be much too dangerous for themselves and space-time itself. To prevent such catastrophic damage, Crayak and the Ellimist agree to construct the intricate "game" they are seen to play in the ''Animorphs'' series.

In the epilogue, it is hinted, though not confirmed, that the Animorph to whom the Ellimist told the entire story was none other than Rachel, who would be killed in battle in the final book of the series. She asks a final question about whether or not she mattered or made a difference in the war. The Ellimist says that she did. The final sentence confirms Rachel's cessation of existence and ultimate death with: "A small strand of space-time went dark and coiled into nothingness."

Category:2000 novels Category:Animorphs books Category:Novels about consciousness Category:Novels set on fictional planets Category:Prequel novels

In the Earth year 1968, Aldrea and her family come to live on the Hork-Bajir homeworld after her father – formerly Prince – Seerow, is relieved of duty by Alloran and many other Andalites in 1966, who feel he is no longer fit to command them. This is mainly due to his peaceful philosophy towards the Yeerks, which has resulted in the Yeerks' enslavement of many other species.

On the Hork-Bajir homeworld, two Hork-Bajir, Dak Hamee and his friend Jagil Hullan make contact with Aldrea's family, and Aldrea makes friends with Dak. Dak is a seer, meaning he possesses intelligence greater than most others of his species. Aldrea's mother, a biologist, is fascinated with the reptilian, tree-dwelling, peaceful Hork-Bajir, as well as with the other life on the planet. Aldrea herself begins to learn more about Hork-Bajir culture from Dak, and he in turn learns about Andalites.

But then tragedy strikes in the form of a Yeerk invasion. Aldrea's entire family is killed, but she escapes—barely—along with Dak. Dak is sickened by his first taste of violence when they are forced to fight Yeerks and Gedd-Controllers. The Yeerks arrive at the enormous tree where the other members of Dak's tribe live, and proceed to enslave every single Hork-Bajir they find.

Aldrea and Dak, meanwhile, continue to flee the Yeerks, and they journey down into Father Deep, a huge chasm (the Hork-Bajir believe they were born from Father Deep and Mother Sky). There they meet the Arn, a powerful but arrogant race who created the Hork-Bajir, as well as many other creatures that inhabit their planet. Aldrea convinces the Arn that it is in their best interest to fight back against the Yeerks. Aldrea also urges Dak to round up the remaining Hork-Bajir and train them to fight.

Eventually, Dak does so, and he and Aldrea then lead their Hork-Bajir army, along with various monsters and terrifying creatures created by the Arn, against the Yeerks on the ground. In the ensuing bloodbath, Aldrea is disgusted by the carnage, and Dak blames Aldrea for turning his people from innocence and peacefulness towards violence. Dak becomes more distant with Aldrea.

After many months, an attack force of Andalite ships appears, though not enough to fight off all the Yeerks. The Andalites, including Alloran, now a powerful leader, join Dak and Aldrea on the ground and take part in their campaign of guerilla warfare against the Yeerks. As their numbers began to dwindle, Alloran becomes desperate and finally resorts to using a biological weapon, a virus which will kill all Hork-Bajir, from the Hork-Bajir-Controllers (whose bodies are being controlled by Yeerks) to all the free Hork-Bajir still alive on the planet.

When Aldrea realizes what is about to happen, she betrays Alloran and her fellow Andalites in order to help Dak destroy the virus before it can be employed. In the resulting conflict, the virus is accidentally released into the environment. Aldrea, who had morphed into a female Hork-Bajir (who is actually Delf Hajool, the wife of Jagil Hullan) during the struggle, willingly stays too long in that form and is thus trapped as a Hork-Bajir ''nothlit''. She and Dak realize their love for each other, and the two become a mated pair. They eventually produce a son named Seerow and go to live in the deep valleys, where the toxin will not reach for some time. At least one of their descendants will eventually become a founding member of the small Hork-Bajir colony on Earth.

About 30 Earth years later, Jara Hamee, Dak and Aldrea's grandson, tells the story of the Yeerk invasion of the Hork-Bajir homeworld to Tobias. Sitting around a campfire at night with other Hork-Bajir, Jara reveals at the end of his story that he and his ''kalashi'', Ket Halpak, have named their daughter Toby after Tobias. Responding to Tobias' comment that it is a strange name for a Hork-Bajir, Jara comments that Toby (like her great-grandfather) is ''different''. As Tobias begins to fly away the next morning, he pauses to ask and Toby (still only four feet tall at this point) replies to him "Yes, Tobias, friend of the Hork-Bajir. Yes, I am ''different''." Tobias is happy to know that she is a seer just like Dak Hamee. (Note: Dak and Aldrea's story would later be extended somewhat further in Animorphs #34, The Prophecy.)

Watching TV, Daffy Duck is excited by an episode of the hunting show called "The QTTV Sportsman Hour" in which the host, voiced by Mel Blanc somewhat in the manner of actor Frank Nelson, offers $1,000.00 for the first viewer to bring a rabbit to Station QTTV. Attempting to convince Bugs Bunny to come to the station, Daffy first tries a ruse with TV show tickets, but Bugs immediately suspects Daffy is up to no good and declines. Daffy then grabs a gun from Bugs' fireplace and tells Bugs to oblige or be shot.

At the scene of Station QTTV, Daffy has Bugs at gunpoint when they see a parade of prizes coming out of a studio (car, boat, fur coat, refrigerator, "Key to Fort Knox", etc.), and they see people going into the show ''People Are Phoney'' starring Art Lamplighter. With dollar signs in his eyes, Daffy locks Bugs in a telephone booth and runs into the studio. Bugs receives a call in the telephone booth from an announcer who tells Bugs if he correctly answers a question, he will win a jackpot. Bugs answers the math question and the jackpot dispenses through the coin return slot. The announcer then asks Bugs how he knew the answer so quickly. Bugs says, "One thing we rabbits know how to do is multiply."

Meanwhile, Daffy appears as a contestant on ''People Are Phoney'' (starring Art Lamplighter) where his task is to help a little old lady across the street while on camera. Things backfire in a hurry when the old lady starts belting Daffy with her umbrella, belligerently declaring she does not need help crossing the street. Daffy staggers, is missed by a speeding truck ("Nyaah, ya' missed me", he gloats, sticking out his tongue), then gets hit by a motorcycle. Lamplighter tells the hysterical audience that Daffy did not quite make it, and that it goes to show that "People Are Phoney."

Sorely mad, Daffy comes back to the telephone booth where Bugs is counting the jackpot. Bugs says he got a call in the phone booth, which Daffy does not believe. Bugs says at any time now an announcer might call again. Bugs makes the sound of a ringing phone and cons Daffy into thinking they want another contestant. Daffy pushes Bugs out of the booth, telling Bugs to let him have it. Daffy grabs the "receiver" - now a stick of dynamite - and it explodes as Bugs walks away. He shrugs and says: "So I let him have it."

Looking for Bugs, Daffy asks a studio usher (actually Bugs in disguise) if he saw a rabbit. Bugs points him to a door, and Daffy is sent into the show ''Were You There'' (a takeoff of the show ''You Are There'') which happens to be reenacting "Indian Massacre At Burton's Bend." Daffy then comes out with his head having been scalped by Indians as he mutters "All right, where's the wise guy?" slapping his scalp back onto his head.

At the end, Bugs is disguised as a producer and he tells Daffy that he is suddenly wanted for ''Costume Party'' (a reference to the real ''Masquerade Party''), tricking him into donning a rabbit costume. The show he is sent to is the QTTV Sportsman Hour to which Daffy intended to bring Bugs and Bugs collects the fee Daffy wanted for himself. When Daffy protests that he is no rabbit but a duck, the host declares it is now duck season, and a bunch of hunters shoot at Daffy. Bugs shrugs off Daffy's plight, noting: "Eh, they always shoot blanks on TV," Daffy, his beak full of bullet holes, mutters: "'Blanks', he says." Emptying a stack of buckshot from his mouth, he offers them to Bugs: "Have a handful of blanks! Sheesh!"

Fedora Garcés (Sonya Smith) is a woman who had everything, a husband she loved, two small daughters and a perfume factory with which she and her family had a comfortable life. An ambitious and ruthless woman named Octavia Alarcón (Frances Ondiviela), out of sheer envy, snatched away everything she had.

Octavia's husband murdered the husband of Fedora and got Fedora to appear as the culprit of that murder. Octavia snatched her perfume factory, her fortune and snatched her daughters leaving Fedora locked in prison for that murder she did not commit.

The daughters of Fedora were given to an older woman who raised them by making them believe that they were her granddaughters by naming them Diana and Gaby. Octavia and her family, the Irazabal, became a rich and powerful family thanks to what Octavia stole from Fedora.

Years later Fedora is released by a pardon and begins to work like singer under the nickname of "La Gaviota", but with the idea to recover what they snatched away from her and get revenge on the Irazabal family.

Meanwhile, the daughters of Fedora, Diana (Alejandra Lazcano) and Gaby (Mariana Torres), who have grown up humbly with their adoptive grandmother, come to work at Octavia's house. Gaby as a servant and Diana as Octavia's mother-in-law's nurse. Their paths cross with the two sons of Octavia, Maximiliano (David Zepeda) and Larry Irazabal (William Levy).

Gaby falls in love with Larry and Diana of Maximilian, two loves that, although they are reciprocated, are impossible by the obstacles that begun by Octavia and are owed to Gaviota.

Pete (George Peppard) is a former advertising executive living a Beatnik–Bohemian life, as part of a commune in a New York City loft. Since living in the commune, Pete has turned into a cynical, misanthropic artist. The members of the commune are seemingly aimless, indolent or melancholy while waiting for the world to end; one member (Gillian Spencer) lives her life in a burlap sack, with only her bare feet protruding.

One day, a wayward toucan arrives at the loft. The toucan, which stowed away on a Greek banana boat from South America, carries a unique and highly contagious virus. The virus causes intense feelings of giddiness, happiness, and kindness in anyone affected by it.

Pete initially catches the virus and in an outbreak of euphoria, suddenly senses a purpose in his life. Pete's girlfriend Liz (Mary Tyler Moore) is initially horrified at his behavior change. When she learns from nearby police about the bird's virus, she tries to warn him, but he has already shaved his beard off and proposes marriage and conventional living. Pete plans to trick her and the other residents of his loft into getting infected, by pretending to be the nihilist German philosopher leader of a doomsday cult popular in the commune, and spreading it through close facial contact with them. In his disguise, he convinces Liz to let him kiss her, but he is soon revealed as himself.

The now upbeat collective keep the toucan, nicknaming it "Amigo". They then decide to spread the virus to as many people as they can in New York City, disguising themselves in conventional dress. Liz is physically immune, but the positivity she encounters from her friends leads her to respond in kind. When authorities show up to catch the bird, Pete and Liz spirit him away by Liz hiding him in her dress and pretending to be pregnant, though the ruse is complicated when "nice" police take the couple to a hospital to give birth.

The virus is quickly spread across New York City. Rude telephone clerks are suddenly polite and understanding. Those immune to the virus are also nice, as almost everyone else acts nice to them. Pete returns to his job as an advertising executive, but insists, however, that all the ads be honest. This initially gets him fired, but when his fellow executives are later infected, he is rehired and given a raise.

Government leaders determine that the spread of the virus threatens the economic lifeblood of New York City; residents suddenly stop buying alcohol, tobacco or drugs, and the stock exchange and business districts are threatened with collapse if everyone is happy and nice to one another.

J. Gardner Monroe (Dom DeLuise) is sent by the government to New York to stop the outbreak. He arrives wearing a space helmet. After several attempts, the toucan is intercepted and a cure is found. The vaccine is spread around the city via gasoline and industrial exhaust fumes. Cured New Yorkers return to their nasty ways, but those immune to the virus, and who only acted nice because others were, remain nice.

Pete, now "cured", returns to the loft, while Liz declares she can no longer live in such a way, and liked Pete better when he was "sick". Liz plans to return to her hometown, and visits a zoo where the toucan is now caged to say goodbye. Pete shows up independent of Liz and almost misses connecting with her, but the bird escapes from its cage and as he follows it, is reunited with her. They catch the bird, Liz pretends to be pregnant again to rescue Amigo, and they all escape from the zoo.

Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart), a lonely, eccentric millionaire who owns a baseball team, the Brooklyn Loons, takes a liking to a dog-chasing stray cat (played by Orangey), and takes him into his home. He names the cat "Rhubarb," which is baseball slang for an on-field argument or fight.

When the man dies, it is discovered that his last will and testament made Rhubarb his sole beneficiary; hence the cat inherits the baseball team. Team publicist Eric Yeager (Ray Milland) is named the cat's guardian. His fiancée Polly Sickles (Jan Sterling), daughter of the team's manager (William Frawley), is terribly allergic to Rhubarb, causing many problems.

Banner's spoiled, greedy, and unhappy daughter Myra (Elsie Holmes) files a lawsuit, contesting the will. And when the team's players discover they are owned by a cat, they stage a protest until Yeager persuades them that Rhubarb brings them luck.

Brooklyn begins winning and will play the powerful New York team for the championship. But a bookie who stands to lose big if Brooklyn wins decides to kidnap the cat. Brooklyn's fortunes turn for the worse while the search for Rhubarb goes on, until the cat finally escapes from his captors and races to the ballpark to save the day.

Rick is a young American who suffers from a rare skin disease that prevents him from exposing himself to any kind of light, especially sunlight, and is mostly seen as an expert motorcyclist, entirely clad in leather. After having tried several cures without success, his father takes him to a village in Croatia where they meet a healer, who is supposed to save him. But the treatment does not work and when a young American actress falls for him Rick decides to forget about his illness and enjoy life, feeling the sun on his skin for the first time. The disease takes its course but his father understands the choice he made.

Two young men hit the road to Hollywood, CA to look for money, fame, and the wild life in this youthful comedy. Tucker "Downer" Downs tires of his boring job as a clerk in a women's fashion outlet and heads West. He also hopes that he will find his father, who disappeared 24 years before. En route, Downs hooks up with wasted video addict/hustler Nash. Together they have many adventures during their trek to Tinsel Town.

The film is a black comedy of failed expectations and disillusion. Ultimately both men must confront the reality that dreams often do not come true.

A brilliant professor invents a complex computer program meant to better society by altering the bad behavior of its test subjects. However, this sometimes causes the personal belongings of these subjects to transform into deadly metal pinballs that attack people, as one unfortunate burglar discovers. His shut-in daughter also uses the machine like a video game, unaware or uncaring of its real world effects on nearby machinery turning against their users. She also owns a strange puppet named George which may be alive, helping her make decisions about her life.

In league with a mysterious man, the professor's psychotic assistant gets hold of the program and manipulates it to warp people's minds and turn them into murderous weapons. She selects three young college girls as her victims and invites them to the professor's house for a weekend of torture and diabolical experiments. Accompanying the young women are a pair of local sleazy barflies who are looking to score with the college girls.

Over the course of the weekend, freakish and sexy hijinks ensue while the college girls are subjected to the machine's weird effects. Meanwhile, the shut-in daughter contemplates the meaning of falling in love after turning to George for advice.

The plot of the show was centered on three thieves, who all participated in crimes that brought no legitimate suffering to others. They were captured by a secret agency that forced them to use their abilities on the agency's behalf to combat criminals who were a threat against the American way of life, under threat of going to prison themselves.

Jacques Bonnard is a prize-winning photographer who travels the world. He returns to his 1920s French-Canadian village, after five years away, seeking the happy time of his childhood. His cantankerous but lovable father (Grandpere), two brothers and their wives, and their children all welcome him ("He's Back"). His stories of his travels have a profound effect on his nephew Bibi, who is having trouble at school and going through an especially rough puberty, inspiring the boy to want to live life to the fullest. Jacques goes to a nightclub and takes Grandpere and Bibi, where they are entertained by the dancers (Six Angels) ("Catch My Garter"). After their night on the town, Bibi begs Jacques to "Please Stay".

When Bibi takes Grandpere's "naughty" pictures to school and is discovered, his stern father Philippe forces him to apologize to his school-mates. Bibi is embarrassed and upset and tries to cajole Jacques into taking him away when he leaves. Although Jacques at first agrees, thinking that Bibi will be a companion, he quickly realizes that this would not be good for Bibi.

Meanwhile, Jacques finds it difficult to commit to his former sweetheart Laurie ("I Don't Remember You"). The couple finally realize that they have opposite ideas about life and the future ("Seeing Things"), with Laurie understanding that Jacques is emotionally a boy, like her students. Grandpere, Jacques and Bibi playfully sing an ode to "A Certain Girl". Jacques finally realizes that he returned home searching for family and love ("Running"), and understands that he must set out alone again.

The world of ''Innocence'' is divided between the "divine" world of Devaloka (divided between the regions of Sensus and Ratio) and the lower human world of Naraka. As Devaloka needed human souls to survive, the Sensus general Asura decided to use the Manifest, an artifact created by the ancient Primordial Giant, to merge Devaloka and Naraka. This plan was opposed by many, leading to war between Sensus and Ratio. Asura was aided by the Devalokans Inanna, Orifiel and Sakuya; his sentient sword Durandal; and his dragon companion Vrtra. Asura eventually won, defeating the Ratio general Hypnos in battle. Before he could use the Manifest, Inanna betrayed and stabbed him with Durandal. He kills her before he dies, leaving the unification of Devaloka and Naraka unfinished. Most of Devaloka's population is killed in the process, with the others eventually dying years later. In the present, Naraka is governed by the imperial capital of Regnum and the western country of Garam, who are in a state of war. Added to this is the emergence of "avatars", Devalokans reincarnated in human form who hold supernatural powers. They are hunted and inducted into Regnum's military and used for experimentation or as front line troops in the war.

The story begins when Ruca Milda, the reincarnation of Asura, encounters another avatar Illia Animi, an avatar of Inanna. She is being chased by agents of Regnum. Ruca decides to protect her, awakening his supernatural powers. The two are eventually captured and forced to become fighters on the front lines along with swordsman Spada Belforma, the reincarnation of Durandal. During their time as prisoners, Ruca develops a relationship with Chitose Cxarma, who is a reincarnation of Sakuya and retains her former self's deep love for Asura. Ruca, Illia and Spada eventually escape, briefly encountering the mercenary Ricardo Soldato, who is a reincarnation of Hypnos. The three are eventually joined by Ricardo, along with Ange Serena and Hermana Larmo, the respective reincarnations of Orifiel and Vrtra.

As they travel across the war-torn land, they are confronted by avatars in the service of multiple nations, and Arca - a cult made up of avatars led by a woman known as Mathias. Chitose joins Arca to further their cause of a utopia for avatars, and tries to persuade Ruca to join, causing a rift between them. The conflicts between the groups is further inflamed as more people regain their memories as warriors of Sensus or Ratio, sparking old conflicts. In their adventures, the group works to end the fighting and learn about their past lives. When the full truth is revealed, they decide to fulfill Asura's wishes and unite the two worlds. This brings them into conflict with Mathias, who is revealed to be the incarnation of Asura's wrath at being betrayed, and now wishes to destroy both Devaloka and Naraka. Chitose, consumed by Sakuya's love for Asura, helps Mathias in her task. The party confront Mathias and Chitose in Devaloka's ruined capital, where the Manifest is hidden. They defeat Mathias, and Chitose kills herself in a fit of despair. Ruca then proceeds to use the Manifest to merge Devaloka and Naraka, nullifying the avatars' powers and lessening the chance of future conflicts. The group then returns to their normal lives.

''Innocence R'' mostly preserves the story of ''Innocence'', while adding two further characters: a spearwoman named QQ Selezneva, and a spellcaster named Kongwai Tao. These two belong to different worlds, and enter the world of ''Innocence'' through the so-called "Triverse Gate". Kongwai came to "save" two souls (Chitose and the antagonist Hasta Ekstermi, a reincarnation of the demonic spear Gaebolg), while QQ is an archeologist who comes to investigate the world of ''Innocence''. Each enters and leaves the world while leaving the main events mostly unaltered. While they appear to be on friendly terms, a second playthrough reveals that they are bitter enemies who have been playing a "friendship game" while in the world of ''Innocence''. As they return to their world, they part ways, with QQ swearing to kill Kongwai the next time they meet.

Characters

• is a merchant's son living in the capital city of Regnum. A student with high school grades, he is naturally shy and often teased by his classmates. He is the reincarnation of the Devalokan , general of the Sensus army. Ruca is voiced by Akiko Kimura, and Asura is voiced by Rikiya Koyama.
• is an honest and independent village girl who was forced to flee from the Regnum authorities after her powers awaken. She is accompanied by Coda, one of a race called "Myusu" who follows her in order to eat nice food. Illia is the reincarnation of , a former ally of Asura. Illia is voiced by Yuko Sasamoto, and Inanna is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka.
• is a swordsman from Regnam, a former noble who was rejected by his family. Spada is the reincarnation of Asura's sentient sword and companion . Both characters are voiced by Yuji Ueda.
• is a marksman and mercenary who is initially forced to fight Ruca, Illia and Spada. Raised in the middle of war, he is a professional type who takes his job seriously. He is the reincarnation of the Ratio general . Both characters are voiced by Hiroaki Hirata.
• is a priestess who takes in and cares for avatars, using her powers to heal the sick and wounded, earning the nickname of "saint". She acts as an older sister figure to Ruca. She is the reincarnation of , a strategist who defected from Ratio to Sensus. Agne is voiced by Kaori Nazuka, and Orifiel is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita.
• is a street urchin who looks after war orphans in Regnum's sewers. Despite her deprived upbringing, she holds a positive outlook on life. She is the reincarnation of , an ancient dragon who raised Asura. Both characters are voiced by Yuki Matsuoka.
• and are two characters introduced in ''Innocence R''. Both traveled from other worlds. While Kongwai is a reserved spellcaster on a secretive mission, QQ is an outgoing, self-proclaimed archeologist fascinated by the technology of ''Innocence'' s world. Kongwai is voiced by Kenji Nojima, and QQ is voiced by Saki Fujita.

Setting

The fictional world of ''Blue Wing Blitz'' is composed of floating islands, and usage of aircraft is widespread. Most of the islands are owned and ruled by the expansionist Ordia Empire, which possess superior aircraft. One of the independent states is the Esk Republic, a rich agrarian nation which supplies food to other countries, such as the United Federation of Roggina or the Kingdoms of Mackai and Peag. At the beginning of the game, Trund, the Prime Minister of Esk, assembles a rebel force to reclaim territories menaced by Ordia.

Characters

On the ground from left to right: Keid, Blore, and Poty. On the aircraft from left to right: Rayetta, Payer, Sersh, and Roster. The players controls the members of Esk's rebel force, who each have a distinct aircraft. The main character of the game is a sixteen-year-old pilot trainee named Keid, from Tadaga Village, while the second playable character is Payer, a female senior pilot of the same age. She volunteers to defend Tadaga from enemy armies and meets Keid, who becomes enlisted in the rebel force as an officer. The third playable character, Havilan, is a veteran piloting a flying gunboat.

Other playable characters include notably Blore, a strategist and devoted pilot of the royal air force of Mackai; and Rayetta, his younger sister and bomber pilot. Roster, an ally of Ordia who secretly leads the Roggina Spirit resistance also joins the player's party; as does Poty, the fourth prince of Peag and bomber pilot, and his female guard Sersh.

Trial by Fire

John Connor leaves Crystal Peak a year after the death of his wife, Kate Brewster. Thinking about how Skynet won and mankind was wiped out, he goes to Los Angeles, California, meeting humans and a man named Uncle Bob.

A dark coming-of-age film, ''Samson'' follows its Jewish protagonist (Serge Merlin) from an anti-Semitic private school to a prison, then into a Jewish ghetto, and finally over the ghetto wall to the outside world. Wajda uses this journey as a means to explore expressionist cinematography and the weighty issues facing the Jewish people.

The construction of the Jewish ghetto is communicated through a single, stationary shot. A shabbily dressed mass is clustered in front of the camera, and a pair of hands with a hammer and nails secures one board at a time, until the shot of people has been replaced with a shot of a wall. Through minimalism and simplicity, Wadja establishes a separation between the world of the impoverished Jew and the world outside the ghetto. The viewer looking on as the ghetto walls block the view of what happening inside, is made to feel detached from the horror inside.

One question Wajda raises is that of Jewish solidarity and the guilt of being saved while one's brethren are suffering. Samson escapes from the Jewish ghetto but immediately wants to return. Although he could enjoy a comfortable life of cocktails and women, he'd rather be in the ghetto, collecting corpses off the streets. Samson argues that his place is with the Jews, that he should suffer alongside them. A fake-blond beauty offers a different take. She confides to Samson that she's Jewish and has been concealing her roots in order to avoid the ghetto. Although she argues passionately, Samson's emotional strength inevitably inspires her to accept her fate as a Jew.

When Samson is bruised and exhausted, lying on the ground, he is encouraged by a close friend who says, "one man can suffer such blows and rise again." For Wajda, this is the greatness displayed in Jewish history. Samson is a scrawny, haggard young man, who says very little and might almost border on boringly average; but he has the ability to rise again despite any blow, proving his strength of spirit.

''High'' is the story of a dope-dealing university dropout (Lanning Beckman) and his strait-laced girlfriend (Astri Thorvik) whom he corrupts and leads down a path of petty crime and uninhibited sex. Considered Larry Kent's best film, ''High'' is a tough-minded vision of the anarchic and violent underside of the 1960s culture of free love and ‘do-your-own-thing.’ The frank love making scenes and dope smoking led to a wide theatrical release in the U.S. and a ban by the censor boards in Ontario and British Columbia.

In Coats Grove, Michigan, a teenager with anger management issues named Bobby Rich gets into an argument with his stepfather Phil about yard work. Bobby eventually darts into a nearby orchard to evade Phil, but the latter gives chase. Later, Bobby's mother Patti enters into the orchard and finds Phil dead, his body almost entirely buried in a mud puddle. A terrified Bobby is next to the body.

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate the crime. Scully believes that Bobby killed his stepdad by luring him into a pit trap. Patti repudiates this hypothesis, arguing that when she arrived it looked like Bobby was trying to help Phil rather than harm him. Mulder and Scully meet with Bobby's therapist, Karin Matthews, who tells them that the boy has been physically abused. Despite the evidence to the contrary, Mulder begins to believe that Bobby is innocent.

Bobby meets up with his classmate Lisa Baiocchi. Just like Bobby, Lisa attends therapy sessions with Matthews as her father Eugene is abusive, Bobby tells Lisa that she should not take any more abuse from Eugene. When Lisa returns home her father angrily tells her to stop seeing Bobby. Suddenly a mysterious arm-like appendage bursts through the window and yanks him outside. The next day Scully examines the body and concludes that he was pushed out of the window. Mulder however, thinks he was ''pulled''.

While examining Eugene's corpse Mulder finds a splinter in his neck, the wood of which matches the trees outside his house. While they continue to investigate the crime Mulder and Scully are approached by a mysterious man who claims that a "bad man" is killing the area's trees. While this is happening, Matthews takes Lisa to her house claiming that she is protecting her. After Lisa overhears Matthews arguing with a man she journeys into Matthews' root cellar where she finds a corpse. When she tries to leave she finds she has been locked in.

Mulder later discovers that Matthews' father was retrieved from a mud puddle twenty years before the events of the episode. He begins to suspect her of wrongdoing suspicion that is furthered after he digs up her father's empty coffin. Later the mysterious man from earlier tells Mulder that Matthews' father's death ended a blight that had been killing trees in the town.

Lisa's aunt journeys to Matthews' house to retrieve her niece, but is killed by Matthews who is revealed to have a split personality engendered by abuse from her own father. This has also given her power to control the trees in the area. Mulder and Scully later search Matthews' house and find the mysterious corpse in the basement who they realize is the body of Matthews's father as well as an unharmed Lisa. Meanwhile, Matthews goes to Bobby's house and chases him into the orchard. The agents show up soon thereafter and both Mulder and Bobby are nearly drowned in mud. The mysterious man suddenly appears and cuts Matthews' head off with an axe, ending her power over the trees.Meisler, pp. 112–24.

The Raven travel to a new continent in search of mages to help rebuild the ruined college of Julatsa. However, they find themselves in the midst of a cursed plague that threatens to wipe out the elven race.