In a small hotel room on the 26th floor of the Holiday Inn in downtown Wichita, Kansas, three representatives of an industrial lubricants firm prepare to host a convention hospitality suite. One is Phil, a recently divorced account manager in his mid-50s who's begun to question his purpose in life and work. Another is Larry, about 40 and energetic—the embodiment of confident salesmanship but far more than just another glad hand. The third is Bob, early 20s, a fresh recruit from the company research department—brought into the affair (and out of his element) to represent the company's technical expertise. He is fresh out of school, recently married, affable, inquisitive, and religious. Larry and Phil have a singular hope for the evening—to make the acquaintance of Dick Fuller -- CEO of one of the largest manufacturing firms in the Midwest and, as such, a potential savior of their ailing company... a man whom they invited but have never met or seen.
As the three prepare the room and themselves to host the evening's festivities, the conversation tacks into delicate issues not often discussed in a business environment—including religion, where the stark differences between Larry and Bob come to light and subtle battle lines are drawn below the surface.
Late that night, when the last of the partygoers has downed his last drink and left the room, Phil and Larry are desolate because Dick Fuller didn't show. Larry had even left the room to search for him earlier in the night but was unable to hunt him down. All seems truly lost until, by a slip of the tongue, they realize that Dick Fuller did show up and that Bob unwittingly talked to him at length about a lot of issues unrelated to industrial lubricants, including religion—a fact that accentuates the battle lines and brings Larry's blood to a low boil. Bob is sent on a mission to find Dick Fuller at another party down the street and relay Larry and Phil's desire to speak to him about lubricants.
Later still, as Phil and Larry wait for Bob, the questions bugging Phil about life and purpose make themselves known—cutting through the veneer of their relationship and exposing both to their true feelings about each other. When Bob returns and reveals that he found Dick Fuller but that he could only bring himself to talk to him about Jesus, the gloves come off, and no one is left unscathed.
Seven Cambridge students (Andrew, Brian, Cornelius, Deaver, Eli, Frederick, and Grant) comprise a hedonistic poetry group called The Devil's Alphabet Society. Upon their 1876 graduation, Grant proposes an oath to meet on All Souls' Day every year without excuse, not even death. The others agree to the oath, though with the amendment that a meeting may be cancelled by a simple majority vote. When Deaver commits suicide twenty years later, the surviving members discover that they are indeed bound by their oath, as evidenced by the deceased signing his name to the register and consuming a drink.
The following year, prior to the meeting Andrew is found hung from the ceiling with no perch from which he could have committed suicide. With this macabre death souring the mood, the surviving members vote to cancel the year's meeting. Moments after, Grant is also hung from a ceiling. Brian and Eli board a carriage whose driver takes off at a dangerous speed. The carriage is engulfed by flames, consuming them.
The surviving members, Frederick and Cornelius, reunite the next year, reasoning that the previous year's events seem to indicate that they are doomed to meet an unholy death whether they meet or not, and the Devil's Alphabet no longer has enough living members to legitimately cancel a meeting. However, Cornelius finds he lacks the courage to face the ghosts of his brother members, and commits suicide. Frederick attends the meeting with six ghosts. He proposes that the Devil's Alphabet Society be dissolved. The seven members reach the required unanimous vote to dissolve the society and release them from their oath. Though relieved to be freed from this burden, Frederick concludes that in all likelihood the seven of them face eternal damnation.
The story follows Dave Saunders, a seventeen-year-old kid desperate to prove his manhood. After being teased, belittled, and ''disrespected'', The protagonist decides that the only way he can make things right is by buying a gun. One dead mule, fifty dollars of debt, and an angry boss later, Dave is challenged to finally prove that he's a man once and for all.
The story begins with the protagonist Dave Sanders walking home from work, irritated with the way he has been treated. Dave works for a farmer on a cattle farm and as he walks across the fields he begins thinking of ways that will prove to the other workers that he is a grown up. He decides that the perfect way to prove that he is a grown up is to purchase a gun. Instead of going home, he goes over to a local store to have a look at the guns in a Sears Roebuck catalog. When he enters into the store, Dave encounters the owner Fat Joe. Dave requests the catalog, leading Joe to ask him if he is planning on buying something. Dave responds with a “yessuh,” so Joe then inquires whether or not Dave's ma is letting him have his own money now, to which Dave responds with a “[s]hucks. Mistah Joe, Ahm gittin t' be a man like anybody else,”! Joe asks what exactly it is Dave is planning on buying; a question Dave is reluctant to answer unless Joe promises not to say anything. Joe promises and Dave tells him he's looking to purchase a cannon ball; Joe states that Dave “ain’t nothing but a boy,” and that he does not need a gun, but if he's going to buy one he might as well buy it from him and not from some catalog. Joe offers to sell Dave a left-hand Wheeler, fully loaded and in working order for only two dollars if he can get the money from his ma. With his excitement and interest aroused, Dave leaves the store vowing to come back for the gun later.
When he gets home his mother awaits him, irritated because he has kept supper waiting. Dave sits down at the table with the borrowed catalog until his mother takes it from him, threatening to make it outhouse material if he does not get up and wash. After explaining that it was not his she gives it back to him only to have him fumble through it all throughout dinner. Dave was so infatuated with the catalog that he did not even notice his food was in front of him, or that his father had spoken to him. He determines that if he was going to get the pistol that he had better ask his mother for the money and not his father because his father would instantaneously say no, whereas his mother might be a little easier to persuade.
Upon the completion of supper, Dave finally builds up enough tenacity to approach his mother with his inquiry. He starts the conversation by asking if his boss, Mr. Hawkins, had paid her for the work he had accomplished on the plantation. His mother responds that she has received the money but that it was to be saved in order to buy clothes for the winter. Dave presents to her his proposition and she responds by saying, “[g]it outta here! Don yuh talk t' me bout no gun! Yuh a fool!" Dave persuades her by stating that the family needs a gun, and that if he bought it he would surrender it to his father. Despite her better judgment, Mrs. Sanders agrees to give Dave the two dollars he needs as long as he promises that as soon as the pistol is in his possession he will bring it straight home and turn it over to her.
Dave runs out the door with the money and purchases the pistol from Joe. On his way home he stops in the fields to play with the gun, only he is unsure of how to use it so he just points and pretends to be shooting imaginary objects. When he arrives at his house he breaks his promise and does not surrender the gun, instead he hides it under his pillow, and when his mother comes to retrieve it he claims to have hidden it outside. Dave wakes and with the gun in his hands thinks to himself that he now has the power to “kill anybody, black or white.” He ties the pistol to his leg with a piece of flannel and leaves the house early so he can go unnoticed and not have to give up the gun.
Dave arrives at work early so Mr. Hawkins tells him to hook up Jenny, the mule, and go plow the fields located near the woods. Dave is delighted with the request because it meant he would be so far away from everyone else that he could practice his shooting and no one would hear. When he gets out to the woods, Dave plows two rows then takes his gun out to show Jenny, he waves the gun around then closes his eyes and take his first shot. The gun flies back in Dave's hand and scares away the mule. When he catches up to her he realizes that Jenny has been shot and he tries repeatedly to plug the hole with handfuls of “damp black earth.” Jenny eventually dies.
By sunset, Jenny's body is found and Dave is questioned by both his parents and Mr. Hawkins about what happened. Dave lies about the incident stating that something was wrong with Jenny causing her to fall on the point of the plow. His mother knows this is a lie and insist Dave tell the truth. In tears, Dave confesses, but lies yet again when asked what he has done with the gun. Mr. Hawkins tells Dave that although it was an accident he will pay two dollars a month until he has paid fifty dollars to replace the mule.
That night, Dave feels annoyed at having to pay back Mr. Hawkins for the next two years, and even more annoyed with the fact that people view him as a child more now than ever before. He decides to leave his house and retrieve the gun in which he had buried, not thrown in a river like he claimed. He forces himself to fire the gun with his eyes open until he empties it. In the distance, Dave hears a train, which he approaches and hops in the hopes that this will at last prove he is indeed a man.
It is March 1966. Rosemarie Miletti is taking singing lessons with aspirations of becoming a professional opera singer. However, she struggles to keep up with her studies as she is an oldest child and must care for her family, in particular her sister Mary, who is ill with leukemia. Mary makes Rosemarie promise that when she becomes a big opera star that she won't forget her. Rosemarie denies she'll become an opera star but Mary is insistent. That night, Mary sees a shooting star and makes a wish for Rosemarie.
After grocery shopping, Rosemarie finds the house empty and a note telling her Mary is in the hospital. There, Mary tells Rosemarie to follow the music and she'll see something. Rosemarie heads down the hall, which becomes a different hospital hall as she proceeds. She walks outside and sees a newspaper, which reads March 22, 1986. She hails a cab and asks to go to the Met. The performance, starring herself in ''La traviata,'' is sold-out.
After the performance, Rosemarie gets backstage by telling the guard she's Mary Miletti. Rosemarie stands at the dressing room door and listens to her future self talk with her sister Dorothy. Her future self instructs Dorothy to leave the door open when she leaves. As she puts on a pendant with Mary's picture in it she looks back at the open door and remembers herself from not long ago. 1966 Rosemarie hears Mary's voice calling her from the hospital and hurries back to her own time. Mary gives Rosemarie a pendant with her picture in it and says that it was her wish that Rosemarie would become a big opera star. Mary dies and Rosemarie mourns with the rest of the family but knows that her destiny as an opera star awaits.
"Miriam" is about a 61-year-old widow named Mrs. H. T. Miller who wants to spend the remaining years of her life alone in her apartment near the East River after the death of her husband, H. T. Miller. She is very lonely, has no friends to speak of and does not keep in touch with any of her relatives.
One day, going into a movie theater, she meets a young, intelligent girl named Miriam. Mrs. Miller is intrigued that the girl's first name is also Miriam. Miriam asks Mrs. Miller to buy her a movie ticket because the usher will not let her in. She gives Mrs. Miller 25 cents (two dimes and a nickel) to buy her a ticket. They part as Mrs. Miller goes in search of a seat. When the movie ends, Mrs. Miller returns home. The following week, there is a knock on Mrs. Miller's door. When she answers it, she finds out it is Miriam, the girl she met at the movie theater. Mrs. Miller asks Miriam to go home, but Miriam refuses and asks Mrs. Miller to make her a jelly sandwich. After Miriam agrees to leave if given the sandwich, she goes into Mrs. Miller's bedroom and finds a cameo brooch that was given to Mrs. Miller by her deceased husband. She asks Mrs. Miller if she can keep it, and Mrs. Miller, despite her desire to stop her from taking it, relents in helplessness. Miriam then goes back to the couch and finishes her sandwich.
Before leaving, Miriam asks Mrs. Miller for a kiss goodnight, but Mrs. Miller refuses. Miriam walks over to a nearby vase and smashes it on the floor, tramples the bouquet, then leaves. The next morning, Mrs. Miller leaves her apartment to spend the day shopping at various stores around New York City. Upon arriving home, Miriam returns, insistently ringing the doorbell while Mrs. Miller refuses to open the door. After the doorbell ringing ends, Mrs. Miller goes to her door to see if Miriam has left. Miriam has not, and rushes inside the house before Mrs. Miller can close the door. Miriam perches upon the couch and tells Mrs. Miller to bring in the large box she brought with her. Out of curiosity, she does. While commenting on the cherries, almond cakes, and white flowers that Mrs. Miller bought while she was shopping, Miriam tells Mrs. Miller to open the box. All she finds are clothes and a second doll similar to the one Miriam was holding. Miriam then tells Mrs. Miller that she is going to live with her.
A frightened Mrs. Miller goes to the apartment downstairs where a young couple lives. Mrs. Miller tells them that a young girl keeps on appearing and will not leave her alone. She convinces the man living there to check upstairs while his wife comforts Mrs. Miller. The man returns downstairs and says that there is no girl upstairs. Mrs. Miller asks if there was a large box, and the man says that there wasn't. Mrs. Miller goes back upstairs to find no one is there. Scared more than ever at the startling emptiness of the house, she slumps onto the couch, drained. She closes her eyes and calms down, reminding herself that she is Mrs. H. T. Miller, the woman who lives alone and does everything for herself. She then becomes aware of another sound, the sound of a silk dress ruffling. She stiffens and fearfully opens her eyes to see Miriam staring at her. The last line of the story " 'Hello,' said Miriam" is ambiguous, in that it is unclear which Miriam is speaking.
The film is a fictionalized account of the career of the 1930s racehorse Seabiscuit (1933–1947), with a subplot involving the romance between the niece (Temple) of a horse trainer (Fitzgerald) and a jockey (Lon McCallister).
After a mysterious, extraterrestrial object crashes in the mining town of Salena, Arizona, the government dispatches a team of Marines to contain the possible threat. Meanwhile, a group of death row inmates ambush their prison bus and take the guards hostage. The criminals include Brando, from the Italian Mafia, Colburn, an African-American gangster, Alano, a Hispanic gang member, and a Neo-Nazi skinhead named Albany.[http://www.buried.com/moviereviews/horror.php?id=2349 Alien Invasion Arizona (2007) - Horror Movie Reviews - Horror of Buried.com - Everything That Is Horror] Arriving in the seemingly deserted town, they come across Special Ops Captain Bradley, the sole survivor of a horrible carnage that decimated the rest of his unit. With time running out, the group puts their differences and racial prejudices aside to combat the threat of the savage aliens hunting them in the mining tunnels below and the peril above from a squad of fighter planes sent to bomb the town to oblivion.
In New York City in 1853, 8-year-old Dimples is a Bowery busker living with her pickpocket grandfather "Professor" Eustace Appleby. She is hired to entertain at a soiree in the Washington Square Park home of wealthy widow Caroline Drew. Mrs. Drew is so charmed by Dimples she opens her home and heart to the child, providing her a life of comfort and plenty.
Mrs. Drew's nephew Allen, a theatrical producer, abandons his sweetheart Betty Loring for haughty actress Cleo Marsh. His family is scandalized, but Allen pursues his goal of staging a brand-new play, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', with Dimples portraying Little Eva.
During rehearsals, Dimples longs for her grandfather and returns to his humble dwelling, refusing to budge without the old man in tow. Mrs. Drew traces Dimples to the Bowery and a solution is found to the impasse. Allen realizes he loves Betty and is reunited with her. Dimples ultimately appears in New York City's first minstrel show.
Alan Desland (Rupert Frazer) is an English antique dealer who specializes in ceramics. A solitary man, he is a bachelor with no romantic ties. On a business trip to Copenhagen, he hires a German-born secretary, Karin Foster (Meg Tilly), to do some clerical work—she is fluent in English, Danish, and German. Alan's attraction to Karin is immediate, and over the coming days, he falls deeply in love with her. Karin is an attractive, sensuous, and mysterious woman who reveals little about herself. Her actions reflect both a quiet sensitivity (crying during a classical concert) and a dispassionate coldness (breaking the neck of an injured seagull). During a conversation about Karin's unmarried friend Inge and her child, Alan makes an offhand comment that he would have trouble marrying a woman with a child—the remark clearly upsets her. Before leaving Copenhagen, Karin expresses her love for Alan, who responds by proposing marriage, and Karin accepts.
Alan returns to England and meets with his mother, who expresses concern that they know very little about Karin's family or background. When Karin arrives, Alan begins to notice her strange behavior—frightened by the sound of children and fearful of the dark. As they prepare for their wedding, Karin states she cannot be married in a church. Karin's playful sensuality, however, overwhelms and enchants Alan. Alan and Karin soon travel to the United States on holiday and get married in a civil ceremony in Florida, where they spend their honeymoon. While swimming in a lake, Karin sees a body beneath the water, but Alan confirms it's only an old log.
When Alan and Karin return to England, she continues to captivate him and their entire social circle, engaging in discussions of philosophy and religion. At one dinner party, she asks Alan's best friend and vicar, "Can anything be forgiven?" He tells her yes, if a person truly wants to be forgiven. Alan suspects there is something deep and troubling in her—some dark secret or hidden guilt.
One day at an auction, Karin bids on an odd lot that contains a rare statuette of a girl in a swing. Overjoyed at the find, Alan authenticates the piece at Sotherby's which estimates its value at over £200,000. He becomes even happier when the initial impotence of his wedding night gives way to an unbridled sexuality between the two. In conversations with Alan and the vicar, Karin explores the connection between spiritual love and physical love—a notion she believes is absent in Christianity but embraced by pagan cults. Soon after, Karin tells Alan she is pregnant.
Alan's initial joy is offset by strange events and apparitions. He sees a green tortoise toy appear and then disappear, and he hears a child's voice on the phone—something Karin also hears. Karin tells Alan she wants to receive Holy Communion. At Mass she is disturbed by the vicar's sermon on the commandment against killing, and then at the communion railing, she takes the eucharist in her hand, but does not receive it, and soon collapses. At home Alan tries to reassure her that whatever's past is past, but she says, "Nothing is past." Karin continues to hear a child crying in the garden.
When Mrs. Taswell comes to deliver letters, Alan also hears the child crying in the garden. They go to investigate and find a doll faced down in the water fountain. Alan returns to find Karin hysterical. Realizing she knows what is causing these strange events, Alan shuts all the doors and windows, and closes the drapes, but the cries continue in the garden during a violent storm. Alan sees the green tortoise toy again in the bedroom.
The next day, Karin asks Alan to take her away. Before leaving, he discovers the receipt for the green tortoise toy and realizes to his horror that she bought it for her daughter just before killing her, out of fear that Alan would reject her with a child. Realizing the damage caused by his "careless words" in Copenhagen, Alan cries out, "May God have mercy." They drive to the beach, where she walks into the surf. She pours water over her head in a gesture of baptism, and he tells her he knows what she did. She takes her clothes off, hands him her wedding ring, and they make love on the beach. As the waves roll over them, she faints in his arms.
At the hospital, Alan watches over her, hearing her last words in German, "I had no pity." The next day he is told she died during the night. The doctor confirms she had an ectopic pregnancy, and that she had previously given birth. At an inquest hearing, while giving testimony, Alan sees an apparition of Karin in a hooded cloak at the back of the courtroom. When he realizes it is just an apparition, he breaks down in tears. Haunted by his careless words, Alan understands that his "need for a tidy life" resulted in the tragedy. When he returns home, he hears Karin in the garden, and walks out to find her on the swing.
''Almuric'' is a planetary romance penned in the Burroughsian style. Its hero is Esau Cairn, an old-fashioned boxer hopelessly incompatible with the modern American society. When a crooked politician tricks him into complicity, Cairn is overcome with blind rage and thrashes the politician to death. Realizing there is no future for him on the planet Earth, Cairn asks help from a scientist friend, who teleports him to the recently-discovered alien planet of Almuric, a savage but habitable world in another universe.
Lone and naked, Cairn must gather and hunt his food and battle various bizarre animals. Eventually he stumbles upon the native people of Almuric, the Guras, who are hairy, ape-like men with a violent but pragmatic way of life. They live in great fortified cities and wage endless wars against each other, carbine and sword being their weapons of choice. Cairn begins to enjoy this new, simpler and truer existence, and his strength and fighting prowess earn him the nickname Ironhand.
The Gura women are not apish at all, but resemble human women; for the male Guras endure all hardships and evolved to be powerful and animalistic, while female Guras are shielded from hardship and evolved to be soft and beautiful. Cairn falls in love with a beautiful Gura female Altha, whose temperament and worldview are the most human-like of all Guras.
Yagas are a black-skinned race of winged men, and sempiternal enemies of the Guras. Every now and then they raid Gura cities in the search of new slaves to torture and cannibalize. Cairn and Altha are captured by Yagas and taken to their "black citadel of Yugga, on the rock Yuthla, by the river of Yogh, in the land of Yagg". The Yaga queen Yasmeena attempts to seduce Cairn, who declines and escapes. Discovering a secret tunnel unknown to most Yagas, Cairn returns to the Guras and persuades them to stop infighting and unites them against a common enemy.
Cairn leads a combined army of Gura warriors to Yugga through the secret tunnel, taking the Yagas by surprise. Seeing her people defeated, Yasmeena unleashes "the ultimate horror", a monstrous slug with dozens of spark-emitting and flame-flashing tentacles, but Cairn manages to defeat the abomination. The surviving Gura warriors, as well as 50,000 freed slave-women, return to the Gura homeland. Cairn takes Altha as his wife. The two decide to do what they can to pacify the quarrelsome Gura, making life on Almuric somewhat more civilized.
John Lomax is an ex-Special Forces trainer whose sister is attacked and murdered by serial killer Martin Kagan. Kagan represents himself at trial, calling in testimony from Dr. Alice Barnes that the murders were committed by Martin Mirman, one of Martin Kagan's other personalities. He is nevertheless sentenced to electrocution. John Lomax breaks into the prison where Kagan is being held to seek his own justice at the same time that Kagan is conducting a prison break of his own.
A father and son go hunting in the mountains. Before they can begin hunting, which the son does not want to do anyway, they are killed by flying jellyfish-like creatures, which penetrate their skin with needle-tipped tentacles.
Some time later, four teenagers, Tom, Greg, Beth and Sandy, hike in the same area, ignoring the warnings of local truck stop owner Joe Taylor (Jack Palance). A group of Cub Scouts is also in the area; their leader (Larry Storch) is also killed by the alien creatures, while his troop runs into an unidentified humanoid and flee.
The teenagers set up camp at a lake, but after a few hours, Tom and Beth disappear. Sandy and Greg go looking for them and discover their bodies in an abandoned shack. They drive away in their van, while being attacked by one of the jellyfish which tries to get through the car's windshield. After they get rid of it, they arrive at the truck stop. Greg tries to get help from the locals, but they do not believe him, except for Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs (Martin Landau), who is a mentally ill veteran. Meanwhile, Sandy encounters the humanoid and flees into the woods, where Joe Taylor finds and returns her to Greg.
While they discuss the situation, the sheriff arrives, but Sarge shoots him and begins to become more paranoid. Greg and Sandy leave with Taylor, who reveals he has been attacked by the humanoid before and secretly keeps the flying jellyfish as trophies. They search for the shack and once there, Taylor goes inside to only find the bodies of Tom, Beth and the cub scout leader. They discuss waiting for the creature when Taylor is attacked by another "jellyfish". The young people run once again, leaving him behind as ordered. They stop a police car and get into the back seat, but find Sarge driving. He abducts them, believing them to be aliens. Greg plays along, telling the deranged man that an invasion force is on the way, thus distracting him enough to toss him aside, run away with Sandy and jump from a bridge.
They make it to a house where they find new clothing and try to relax. In the night, Sandy wakes up and goes looking for Greg, only to discover that he has been killed by the alien, who is still in the room. She flees to the basement and the creature is about to get her when Taylor arrives and saves her. On the way to the shack, he tells her about the creature: it is a tall extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) who hunts humans for sport to keep as trophies, using the living creatures as living weapons against its prey.
They wait at the shack to ambush the hunter with dynamite when Sarge shows up, almost spoiling their plan. He and Taylor fight, and Sandy is about to hit Sarge from behind when the alien arrives and kills Sarge. Taylor then shoots the creature, with little to no effect. Realizing the last chance of success, he lures it to the shack, which is then blown up by Sandy. She alone survives the horrible night.
Francis Warren (Errol Flynn) appears to have a normal life handling investments, but secretly he writes lurid detective novels under the pseudonym F.X. Pettijohn. His other career is unknown to wife Rita (Brenda Marshall) or to anyone but Inspector Mason (Alan Hale), who mocks the books, insisting that true crime is much more difficult to solve. A man named Leopold Fissue (Noel Madison) turns up, wanting Francis to help him turn uncut diamonds into cash. Otherwise, he will reveal Warren's other life to the public!
Fissue is then found murdered on a yacht. The trail leads Francis to burlesque dancer Blondie White (Lee Patrick), who becomes his prime suspect. But her dentist, Dr. Davis (Ralph Bellamy), gives her a solid alibi. Rita becomes sure that Francis is having an affair. Blondie turns up dead after asking Francis to retrieve a satchel from a locker. Rita thinks Francis must have killed Blondie, while her husband believes just the opposite to be true. The diamonds are in the suitcase. Francis concludes that only one man could be behind all this—Davis, the dentist, who promptly tries to kill Francis before the police can figure things out.
Born into a taboo relationship that neither of her grandparents supported, having a Jewish father and black mother who divorce before she is two, Oreo grows up in Philadelphia with her maternal grandparents while her mother tours with a theatrical troupe. Soon after puberty, Oreo heads for New York with a duffel bag to search for her father; but in the big city she discovers that there are dozens of Sam Schwartzes (her father's name) in the phone book, and Oreo's mission turns into a humorous picaresque quest. The ambitious and playful narrative challenges accepted notions of race, ethnicity, culture, and even the novelistic form itself; its quest theme is inspired by that of the Greek tale of Theseus. In the end, Oreo witnesses her own father's death as he falls from a window.
Ross uses the structure of the Theseus myth to both trap Oreo and allow her to reinvent it.
The game is set in 2019. In a surprise attack, aliens decimate Earth's military forces. Mankind's only hope is the surviving orbital space carrier UNSF Omaha and its squadron of F-177 pilots. As the young and inexperienced member of the squadron, it is the protagonist's job to drive the aliens from the planet.
The player's character, a rookie named Lieutenant J. "Wildcard" Adair, destroys the attacking aliens in various locations around the world, rescues a downed ally, retrieves oxygen supplies for the Omaha, and ultimately attacks the brain of the alien mothership with the assistance of an onboard AI named ICE. Aboard the Omaha, Commander Crane and Major Alaina Stewart interact with the vessel's fighter pilots and crew, most prominently Dr. Lawrence as he uncovers that they are actually fighting robotic vessels harvesting humans and incubating eggs, with the true alien invasion yet to come. If the player's fighter is destroyed in a mission, the doctor patches Wildcard up before Stewart sends them out again to retry the mission. Upon exhausting all of a player's lives, Wildcard flatlines.
The "Operation Jumpgate" expansion is set in 2026. Stewart has assumed command of the Omaha on an expedition through Earth's solar system fighting aliens on Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and an asteroid leading to the alien jumpgate. Wildcard, Stewart and ICE are the only returning characters aside from some reused footage. At the conclusion of the final mission, Stewart grows impatient waiting for a science team to arrive at the jumpgate and attempts to destroy it, resulting in the heavily damaged Omaha drifting into the jumpgate and disappearing.
When 16-year-old Loren (Nina Dobrev) and her family greet a new neighbor, Jared (Peter Stebbings), a good-looking single guy and his dog, she senses something mysterious and dangerous about him. Her suspicions become further aroused when some of the locals begin disappearing one by one. As Loren becomes obsessed with her neighbor's behavior, she is unaware that he is monitoring her just as closely as a hungry wolf stalking its prey at night. Because Loren reminds her neighbor of his young and deceased wife, Melissa, he claims her as his territory and kills her friend Angie, who seems to be close to her. With the help of local TV hunting show personality Redd Tucker (Kevin Sorbo) and a delivery boy with a secret crush on attractive Loren, the unlikely trio prepare for a full-moon showdown against an immortal creature with insatiable bloodlust. Jared also has Loren's brother locked inside a freezer. It's her brother's life for hers.
Vulgnash delivers Fallion to Lord Despair, who tortures human beings and then endows Fallion with a rune of compassion from each person, effectively transferring their pain to him. In a flashback it is revealed that when Yaleen shattered the world, all of the Bright Ones traced the rune of compassion on her cheek, punishing her. This pain eventually broke her, converting her into Lord Despair. However, Fallion refuses to break; to prevent him from using his flameweaving skills, Vulgnash keeps him nearly frozen. Meanwhile, the wyrmling, Cullossax, is charged with delivering an unruly wyrmling girl, Kirissa, to Vulgnash so he can feed on her soul, but instead he helps her to escape—eventually giving his life to stop her pursuers. Daylan Hammer takes the leaderless humans of Caer Luciare to the world of the Bright Ones for a brief respite, but it is more fraught with danger than they'd imagined. It is revealed that Daylan was banished for teaching rune lore to the inhabitants of shadow worlds. Despite this, the humans manage to forge an alliance with some of the Bright Ones, led by Erringale, after revealing that the True Tree and an Earth King are found on Fallion's shadow world. The Bright Ones warn them that killing another person damages your soul, no matter what your motive was for taking their life. Some of the humans begin taking endowments, including Talon and the Emir (who many fear will become a new Raj Ahten). Talon steals some sunstones from the Bright Ones' habitation. On the shadow world Rhianna flies to the Courts of Tide, seeking an alliance to prevent the wyrmlings from reaching a mountain of blood metal, but they attack her. So she seeks help, instead, from the horse sisters, who welcome her and grant her endowments, turning her into a runelord. The horse sisters capture Kirissa and learn from her where Fallion is being kept. On their way to rescue Fallion, the horse sisters take over Beldinook. Lord Despair also begins taking endowments, from his human prisoners, and must also grapple with the benevolent influence of the Earth Spirit. To spite the Earth Spirit, he chooses the most evil of his followers for the Earth; he also chooses Fallion so he can keep track of him. Despair also brings awful creatures, called the Thiss, from another world to help him in his conquest of all the shadow worlds. However, he is low on blood metal because the Fang Guards at Caer Luciare have Rhianna's rune staff and have decided to rebel against Lord Despair. Vulgnash is sent to subdue them, which he quickly and easily does. When Talon and the Emir return to their shadow world, the Emir begins to develop his abilities as a flameweaver. Erringale comes with him and he and the wizard Sisel set out in search of the True Tree; when they find it they are dismayed to see that it has been cursed and is dead. Talon and the Emir meet up with Rhianna and the horse sisters. Kirissa agrees to go back so that Rhianna can track her to where Fallion is being held. However, in their attack on the wyrmling stronghold they are tricked by Despair—the Earth had warned him they were coming—and only Rhianna escapes. Determined to go back and rescue Fallion and the others, Rhianna realizes that she must evade Despair's Earth senses by not harming any of the wyrmlings he has chosen for the Earth. In this way she is able to re-enter the wyrmling keep, free her friends, and help them to escape. As soon as Despair realizes what has happened, he sends Vulgnash after them. The wizard Sisel confronts Vulgnash, but rather than destroy him he turns Vulgnash mortal. Nevertheless, Fallion realizes he's been chosen by Despair and so cannot truly escape—Despair will always know where he is. So Fallion exchanges endowments of wit with the Emir, promising to teach him the rune for binding worlds, and then subjects himself to Vulgnash who takes him back to Despair. Despair opens a rift in the fabric of the world, letting in thousands of Darlking Glories.
Loosely based on Mark Twain's 1889 novel ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', the cartoon begins with Bugs Bunny, who is reading a book on the Knights of the Round Table under a hairdryer. While reading, an apple falls and hits his head and he is somehow transported to the time of King Arthur. When he wakes up, he finds himself at the pointy end of a knight's lance. Bugs asks him: "What's up, Duke?" and the knight commands Bugs to surrender as a prisoner of his lance. The knight identifies himself as "Sir O of Kay, Earl of Watercress, Sir Osis of The Liver, Knight of the Garter, and Baron of Worcestershire." Ready to take Bugs' challenge to tilt with him for the insult of Bugs' friends, the Duke of Ellington, Count of Basie, Earl of Hines, Cab of Calloway and Satchmo of Armstrong who the knight never heard of and called them "upstarts and rogues", the knight offers Bugs a too heavy sword, then begins to charge at him, during several comedic attempts by Bugs to get the sword off the ground. At the last second, Bugs puts his leg out tripping the knight's horse. The horse falls and the knight pole vaults on his lance over the castle wall and into a high window of a castle tower, falling loudly to the bottom inside the tower.
Bugs is later chased by a fire-breathing dinosaur-type dragon. ("My, what big horny toads they have here.") He manages to defeat him by spraying seltzer into his mouth. With his fire lost, the powerless dragon whimpers and flees.
Bugs later goes to another castle, the residence of a warlock (or wizard) named Merlin of Monroe. Merlin changes Bugs into a pig with some "magic powder", but as Merlin laughs, Bugs simply unzips the "costume" into his normal self. He later tricks the warlock (or wizard) into becoming a horse. Merlin tries hard to change himself back to normal by also "unzipping", but only ends up with the same horse appearance, then continues to keep unzipping the same costume no matter how many times he unzips the costume until he fails. To try to return to the present, Bugs Bunny throws an apple in the air to hit him on the head ("Well, why not? After all, they've laughed at the man when he discovered penicillin"); he is successful in this attempt. Walking down the country road, he approaches a farmer tending to a horse who looks exactly like the one he turned Merlin into. He walks on by, convincing himself that it is not the same horse, proclaiming "Nah, impossible. Couldn't be him". The farmer then says "Alright, Merlin, giddy up, get along now", to which Bugs does a surprised double-take to the camera, ending the cartoon.
It is set in the early 1960s and revolves around George (a Yorkshire farm labourer involved in a production of the ''York Mystery Plays'' who withdraws from the production), John (the production's shy assistant director who tries to convince him to come back), the love affair between them, and the clash between regional and London culture.
Casimir Fleetwood lives in Merionethshire, North Wales, on a large estate near Cader Idris in the early to mid-eighteenth century and is brought up as an only child. While on the grand tour, he visits his father's old friend, Monsieur Ruffigny, in Switzerland, who is a thinly disguised portrait of Rousseau. While he is there, his father dies, and Ruffigny decides to accompany Casimir back to Wales and tells the story of his life and how he became friends with Casimir's father during the journey. At 45 years old, he marries Mary Macneil, whose family have all died in a shipwreck. Casimir finds it difficult to adjust to married life and his wife is much younger. He invites his distant cousins, Kenrick and Gifford. Casimir is unaware that Gifford's aim is to discredit his brother, and to become Casimir's heir. Mary becomes pregnant by the time the men come to stay, but Casimir imagines she is having an affair with Kenrick, prompted by Gifford's insinuations. Casimir frequently alludes to Othello in his account of this affair. After acting as a go-between for Kenrick and her friend, Louisa Scarborough, Mary is accused of adultery and is divorced by her husband, who goes to France. Kenrick and Casimir arranges to meet Gifford in Paris. As he approaches the city, however, Casimir is set upon by men who drag him from his carriage. Louisa's father arrives, denounces Gifford and reveals that Kenrick rescued Casimir from the attackers and Gifford was the shooter.
Scarborough has proof that Kenrick and Mary are innocent. Casmir forgives Kenrick and is introduced to his baby son. He makes a will, giving his wife his possessions, Kenrick an estate worth £18,000, and says he plans to live in the Pyrenees on £400 a year. Mary arrives and they are reconciled. Gifford is executed in France as a highwayman and a swindler. Kenrick and Louisa marry.
Naeka Fujiwara is the granddaughter of a billionaire and the heir to his fortune. She is pursued by those who desire her inheritance. In order to protect her from harm and ensure her proper upbringing, the amazing and fearsome Kogarashi, the masked Maid Guy, is summoned.
The setting is the English court during the reign of Charles II of England (reigned 1660–1685). A discussion play, the issues of nature, science, power and leadership are debated between King Charles II ('Mr Rowley'), Isaac Newton, George Fox and the artist Godfrey Kneller, with interventions by three of the king's mistresses (Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland; Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth; and Nell Gwynn). The short second Act involves Charles in conversation with his queen, Catherine of Braganza.
''Oro, Plata, Mata'' traces the changing fortunes of two ''hacendero'' or sugar-estate-owning families on the island of Negros during World War II. The Ojeda family is celebrating Maggie Ojeda's (Andolong) debut. In the garden, Trining (Gil) receives her first kiss from Miguel Lorenzo (Torre), her childhood sweetheart. Don Claudio Ojeda (Ojeda) and his fellow landowners talk about the impending war and some of the young able-bodied men decided to enlist for the war. The celebration was cut short by news of the sinking of SS Corregidor by a mine. As the Japanese invasion force nears the city, the Ojeda family accepts the invitation extended by the Lorenzos, their old family friends, to stay with them in their provincial ''hacienda''. Nena Ojeda (Lorena) and Inday Lorenzo (Asensio) try to deny the realities of war by preserving their pre-war lifestyle. Pining for her fiancé, Maggie goes through bouts of melancholy. Miguel and Trining turn from naughty children into impetuous adults.
Two more family friends, Jo Russell (Valdez) and Viring (Villanueva) join them in the refuge. As they witness the burning of the city and the enemy in advance, the families evacuate to the Lorenzo family's forest lodge. A group of weary guerrillas arrive and Jo tends to their injuries. The guerrillas leave Hermes Mercurio (Lazaro) behind. Miguel endures more comments of the same kind when he fails to take action against a Japanese soldier who came upon the girls bathing in the river. It is Mercurio who kills the Japanese. Maggie comforts Miguel, who decides to learn how to shoot from Mercurio. Later, Viring's jewelry is stolen by Melchor (de la Cruz), the trusted foreman. He justifies his action as a reward for his services. He tries to break the other servants' loyalty by telling them to join him, but they did not force Melchor to leave. Later, Melchor and his band of thieves return and take revenge on them. They raid the food supplies, rape Inday, and chop off Viring's fingers when she does not take off her ring. Trining unexpectedly goes with the bandits despite all the crimes they had committed against her family. These experiences committed Maggie and Miguel closer together. Miguel urges the survivors to resume their mahjong games to help them cope with their trauma. Miguel is determined to hunt the bandits down and bring Trining back. He catches them in an abandoned hospital, but his courage is replaced with bloodlust, driving him to a killing spree. An epilogue follows the violent climax where Miguel and Mercurio finally killed Melchor and their remaining men.
At last, in 1945, the Americans have liberated the Philippines from Japan. A party is held in the Ojeda home to announce Maggie and Miguel's betrothal. The survivors attempt to reclaim their previous lifestyle, but the war has changed the world, just as it has forever changed each of them.
A small group of terrorists have seized the British ambassador to the fictitious country of "Scandinavia", and are holding him hostage in his residence. Scandinavia's head of security, Col. Nils Tahlvik (Sean Connery), wants to take an uncompromising position, but he is overruled by the governments of both Scandinavia and Britain, who insist that all of the terrorists' demands be met.
A passenger aeroplane arriving at the airport of Scandinavia's capital city is hijacked by another small group of (purported) terrorists, led by Ray Petrie (Ian McShane). The aeroplane ends up parked on an isolated taxiway, and Petrie demands that he be put in touch with Martin Shepherd (John Quentin), leader of the group holding the British ambassador hostage. Petrie, who is known by Shepherd, convinces Shepherd that his group and his hostages should leave on the hijacked airplane, not on a military plane as originally planned.
Tahlvik and his group of military commandos make several attempts to thwart the terrorists' plans, but nothing seems to work out for them. At the last minute, Tahlvik figures out that the "terrorists" on the airplane are actually British secret operatives intent on capturing Martin Shepherd, and that the British officials have been misleading the Scandinavian authorities and undermining Tahlvik's efforts to capture the two terrorist groups. He boards the aeroplane alone just before it is to take off, precipitating a shootout between the two groups that leaves both Shepherd and Petrie dead.
When Ted rejects Barney's attempts to reconcile with him, Robin is confused as to why he is more mad at Barney than her for their one-night stand. Lily reasons that it is because Ted is more focused on his relationship with Stella. After two months, Ted wants to take things to the next level, but she is reluctant and tells Ted a secret: she has not had sex in five years. When Stella comes over on the night that she is meant to have sex with Ted, Marshall and Lily accidentally reveal they know her secret. Stella is upset that Ted betrayed her trust and says she cannot trust him. When Ted asks Stella if she is looking for a reason not to sleep with him and whether it scares her that things between them are getting serious, Stella storms off without answering.
Stella comes to Ted's house and admits that Ted is right: she ''was'' looking for a reason not to get too close, but has realized that she is ready to take the next step with him. Ted and Stella's relationship goes even further than expected as Ted meets Stella's daughter and gets to know her. Stella tells Ted that her sister is still in town and can take care of Stella's daughter. Stella and Ted rush to a motel, where they consummate their relationship. When Ted jokingly picks up the phone to tell Marshall and Lily about it after the deed is done, Stella pushes him off the bed in a lighthearted manner.
Barney tries to find a "rebound bro" to whom he can be a wingman to help him get casual sex with women. He puts applications up on his blog and receives few responses except for an enthusiastic proposal from his colleague Randy. After unsuccessfully resorting to calling up old friends and previous wingmen, he decides to be the "bro" to Randy and give him a chance. Randy has not had sex in thirteen years and Barney is repeatedly unsuccessful at getting him together with a woman, since Randy is uncomfortable with talking to women, and gets nosebleeds whenever he gets an erection. Barney then enlists Robin's help to make Randy comfortable with small talk with women, telling Robin that he may have a sex tape with her to convince her. After another bad attempt, Robin points out that Barney is trying to fill the void left behind by Ted by rushing into wingmanship with Randy as a rebound bro. Barney agrees and tells Randy it is not working out, but when Randy admits he was a police officer, but was fired for incompetence, Barney, knowing being in the "force" impresses women, finds a woman who takes Randy home with her. However, he gets emotional when Robin tells him that Ted does not know what he is missing.
John (James LeGros) is an unemployed young man, living alone and trying to pay hospital bills for his brother and only family. The film is told as a narrative delivered by John under the pessimism of the early 1990s. A misanthropic shut-in, he deals with his personal issues through a series of disjointed and sometimes imaginary encounters with television personalities, dead relatives, a former liberal turned investment banker, drug users and the unemployment office. Each chapter is bears a varying degree of social commentary. The film climaxes as John loses hope, and his search for meaning turns to self-destruction. John is finally rescued by the charity of an old friend, then resolving to leave Los Angeles and start his life anew.
Stephen, whose father was bodyguard to his Lord of Suffolk, is under taken into the Lord's household when his stepfather remarries and his sister enters a convent. Stephen is keen to learn and to enter the University at Oxford under the patronage of his Lordship's chaplain, but he becomes embroiled in some mild political intrigue when he believes he has let a copy of an indiscreet letter fall into the hands of his Lordship's enemies.
Troels Rolff, a young architect (played by Lau Lauritzen Jr.), is questioned as a suspect for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl. He pleads his innocence, and yet he is unable to explain what he was doing the day of the murder. Rolff's world breaks apart as those closest to him – his wife, his father, his pastor and his friends—react to his arrest with varying degrees of suspicion. Even when cleared of the charges, the question remains if he can ever return to his former life of joy and innocence.
On the way home from a conference in Paris, Mr. Johansen accidentally finds himself in possession of an insignificant little French book. He has no idea where the book came from or what it concerns, but he decides he should secretly smuggle it through customs. Thereafter, the book passes through the hands of 5 different people, and causes unexpected conflicts, suspicions and misunderstandings for each of them.
Stefanos is the frontman, guitarist, and soul of the incredibly popular rock band Alter Ego. In recent years, the band has had groundbreaking success, and their potential surpasses those of international standards. However, a twist of fate changes their path on their journey to fortune and fame, and the group is ultimately rocked by a heartbreaking tragedy, especially Stefanos who needs to find the will and determination to move on.
One summer mid-afternoon, Antoine (Darroussin) leaves his insurance firm job to meet up with his wife Hélène (Bouquet), as they are to fetch their kids (somewhere distant, but it is not explained as to exactly where they are or who they’re with), and then head on to his in-laws in the ‘Basque Country’ for two weeks vacation, and he wants to beat the traffic (and the two million cars that will be on the road). They arrange to meet at a local bar, but she is late arriving and it gets on his nerves. When she does arrive, it’s clear their relations have been strained for some time.
She wants to go home to shower and have a quick cold dinner, so they do, further frustrating him. They finally get on the road, but after a while the horribly jammed traffic gets to him, and he decides to get off the highway and take ‘the back way’, at least to Tours anyway. He’s tired, but won’t let her drive, and they bicker. He stops several times along the way to grab a drink or two at local bars, while she sits in the car. He becomes slightly inebriated, further causing tension and argument among them. Her breaking point is reached when he stops again, and she threatens to drive on without him, telling him he can take the train and meet up with her later. He takes the car keys and goes into the bar, where, as he drinks, he sees a news item on the TV about a man who has escaped from a nearby prison. When he eventually leaves the bar and returns to his car, Hélène is not there, having left him a note: “I’m taking the train.”
Somewhat frantic, he drives to the train station nearby to look for her, but the last train of the night has left. He drives on to the next train stop, but is delayed along the way at a police check-point, where they’re looking for the escaped convict. After arriving after midnight and twenty-five minutes too late at the train station, he yet again goes into a bar to drown his sorrows. He tries to strike up a conversation with a large, quiet man, who is not particularly interested in chatting and leaves while Antoine is not looking.
Eventually leaving the bar, Antoine finds the large man outside, asking to hitch a ride on to Bordeaux, which Antoine allows. After being on the road awhile, Antoine realizes the man (Vincent Deniard) is the escaped convict, but this thrills him more than causing any fear. Antoine even openly admires the thug for his 'independent' spirit, and they even manage to get through another check-point.
Antoine stops to buy gasoline, and manages to get a small bottle of whiskey too, downing it almost completely. The convict is annoyed at his drinking, but soon falls asleep, when Antoine, now drunk, runs off the road causing the car’s tire to go flat. The convict demands he change it, but Antoine passes out, so the convict does. The convict slaps Antoine awake, and they get back on the road to Bordeaux. Not much later the convict turns off the road, causing them to argue, and the convict beats Antoine. When he comes to, he finds the convict dragging him from the car out in the woods, likely to be killed and left there. Antoine says, "Make it fast and clean; I don't want to suffer." While the convict retrieves the tire jack from the car to use as a weapon, Antoine manages to hide. The convict finds him and they struggle, Antoine getting hold of the jack, which he uses to beat the convict to death.
He tries to leave, but manages to disable the car, and eventually hitches a ride into town. After making arrangements to get the car fixed, he makes more than a dozen phone calls attempting to locate his wife. Finally succeeding, he discovers she is in hospital after being wounded in an ‘incident’ at the train station in Poitiers. He goes to the hospital where she is, whereupon police lieutenant Levet (Jean-Pierre Gos) notifies him his wife was beaten, robbed, and raped by the dangerous convict, whose body has now been discovered. Antoine explains to the lieutenant what had happened between himself and Hélène, but leaves out his subsequent ‘adventure’, of course. The lieutenant may suspect Antoine, but the issue is not pushed any further.
Antoine suffers a flashback nightmare as Hélène is recovering, realizing the terrible things he has done. Antoine finally gets in to see Hélène, and apologises for everything. They reconcile and express their love for each other. After another day, leaving the hospital to fetch their kids, the last scene is the two of them driving happily and quietly down a country road.
The viewer is in an intergalactic spaceship named the ''S.S. Attenborough'', run by a small green alien.
Earth during the Cambrian.
The documentary visits asteroids and talks about the possibility of panspermia seeding solar system with life.
The next world visited is a high gravity planet home to many insect-like aliens who have adapted to 1.5 times Earth's gravity. High gravity means a thicker atmosphere (the planet in question having an atmosphere 15 times as dense as Earth's) and therefore easier flight.
The documentary visits the science fiction world of Helliconia, which was created by Brian Aldiss. It's a binary system and they show how life can adapt to having two suns.
The documentary visits the science fiction world of Sulfuria, which was created by Dougal Dixon. It's a sulfur rich world that is similar to Io.
The next world visited is Epona, an imaginary ecosystem created by group of scientists and science fiction writers called [http://www.eponaproject.com/ The Epona Project] and begun by Martyn J. Fogg.
Epona is an offshoot of the Contact - Cultures Of The Imagination, a bi-yearly conference, where scientists and Science Fiction authors come together and discuss how the human race may progress in space. The 2012 event program is here. James Funaro is a guest on the Space Show Blog #3466 and describes one year's conference. The contact idea came from an original premise by Joel Hagen and James Funaro, instructor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College, Palo Alto. Two groups of COTI Attendees are provided with simulated planetary conditions, then have to devise a species to fit in that ecology and that develops spaceflight and has "First contact" with one another, one race may be human. The process was described in This later developed into COTI - the roleplaying half simulating "first contact" and "The Bateson Project" - which is the strictly scientific disciplines come together. Science Fiction authors involved include Karen and Poul Anderson.
[1] http://www.contact-conference.org [2] http://www.contact-conference.org/c12d.html (On the wayback internet archive).
The documentary then visits the science fiction world of Greenworld, which was created by Dougal Dixon. It is an Earth-like planet filled with lush rainforests.
On Greenworld, the ship encounters an artificial lifeforms from a robotic cube ship. It uses solar panels to gather energy and mines asteroids to get resources to grow. It even sends down a probe resembling a metallic centipede to Greenworld to explore it. At the end of the film, the narrator is revealed to be a little green man-like female alien.
Jerry Logan, a cab driver in Las Vegas, picks up a nervous passenger who offers him $100 to get to the airport as quickly as possible. Unknown to Jerry, the man has stolen $1 million from Al Chambers, a mob-connected casino owner. Chambers himself skimmed the money from mob boss August Gurino. Knowing that Gurino will kill him if he notices the missing money, Chambers sends assassins to recover it. Although they kill the thief, Logan escapes with the cash. Desperate, Chambers hires an expensive hitman, David Eckhart, who tracks Logan to his house. Logan escapes with the money and flees the city on a train. Before he leaves, he confides in a friendly waitress, and Eckhart intimidates her into revealing Logan's destination. Eckhart kills the waitress and follows Logan.
In Salt Lake City, Eckhart captures but loses Logan at the airport as he boards a flight for Los Angeles. Eckhart contacts his associate, Derek Mills, who pays off all the cab drivers at the Los Angeles airport. With no other choices available, Logan chooses Mills' cab. Mills kidnaps him at gunpoint and, at his house, burns Logan's feet in boiling water to make escape impossible. However, Mills underestimates Logan, who overpowers him and flees with the money. When Logan collapses unconscious on the street, he is taken to the hospital, where he meets nurse Chris Altman. Altman treats his wounds and covers for him when Eckhart comes looking. Mills, who is in the same hospital, overhears that Altman has taken Logan to a hotel for safety, and he alerts Eckhart.
Although Logan encourages Altman to leave, Eckhart bursts in before she can. The two escape together and head for Altman's house after depositing the money in a safety deposit box. At her house, Logan and Altman have sex. When Logan wakes in the morning, Eckhart is waiting for him in the kitchen. Logan proposes a deal: he will split the money with Eckhart, and, in return, Eckhart lets both him and Altman survive. Eckhart accepts the deal and leaves for Las Vegas, where he kills Chambers and his wife on the orders of Gurino. When Eckhart returns to Los Angeles, Logan attempts to ambush him but fails. Frustrated by Logan's reluctance to produce the money, Eckhart orders Mills to beat Altman. Logan reveals that he has hidden it in the basement, and Eckhart kills Mills when Mills offers to retrieve it.
Eckhart and Logan proceed to the basement. Logan disarms Eckhart, who only becomes more excited by the heightened tension. Although Eckhart briefly considers killing Altman to flush out Logan, he instead engages Logan in hand-to-hand combat. Armed with a knife, Eckhart stalks Logan in the dark, taunting him as he scores hits. Although Logan briefly surprises Eckhart, Eckhart easily overpowers him and goes for a killing blow. Before Eckhart can finish him, Logan strikes Eckhart with a wooden plank. Both men are surprised when a nail in the plank impales Eckhart, killing him. Now more careful, Logan and Altman leave the country under assumed names and pay cash for their tickets.
Under the name Genghis, the protagonist unites the Mongol tribes, finally defeating the last alliance against his rule. After the killing of the Khan of the alliance, the defeated shaman decides to tie his fate to that of the new Mongol nation.
Genghis orders all of the tribes to assemble the following summer in the pastures around the Black Mountain.
The following summer sees the tribes gathered, waiting for Genghis to lead them where he will. They are anxious to be off, but he is determined to wait for the Khan of the Uighur to show up with the five thousand soldiers he wishes to have. While stuck in one place, the new Nation becomes impatient and tempers flare. In one incident, Genghis' brother Khasar is forced to defend his honour against the sons of a lesser Khan. He is helped by the young Tsubodai, who is rewarded later in the book. When his brother, Temuge, tries to intervene, he is forced to his knees. Genghis shows up on the scene, and tries to sort out the situation. Almost everyone has their honour satisfied, except for Temuge, who complains that he was made to kneel. Genghis uses his sword to cut the Khan's thighs, so he cannot stand in return.
Close to the end of the summer, the Uighurs arrive. Their Khan submits privately to Genghis, which is taken as even more binding than the public oaths the entire Mongol nation takes under a ceremony presided over by the shaman. As the price for this support, Genghis promises the Khan of the Uighars that he will march against the Xia, and the Uighars will receive the assorted libraries of the conquered people. As well as military support, Genghis negotiates that his shaman and his brother Temuge be taught to read and write.
The entire Mongol nation then begins to march southwards, to take the kingdom of the Xia. Facing them is the arduous crossing of the Gobi desert.
Having crossed the desert the Mongol hordes attempt to take the kingdom of Xi Xia, the Mongols inexperience in siege craft shows when they are held at bay by the walls of Xi Xia, the division between the kingdom of Xi Xia and the Chin empire is also highlighted at this time. Eventually the Xia kingdom capitulates and Genghis wins a princess of the city as his bride as well as many other spoils of war.
From this point on, there is tension between Borte (Genghis' first wife) and Genghis' second wife. Also highlighted in this book is Genghis' estrangement from his eldest son Jochi (whose legitimacy Genghis doubts) and the strife within Genghis' family that this estrangement causes.
Khasar and Temuge are also featured greatly in this book as they take a trip with a captured Xi Xia officer down the Yellow River to a Chin city to find masons to help them break city walls. On their adventures they come across the leader of the Blue Tong (a criminal fraternity), who helps Ghengis' brothers in exchange for a promise that he will be leader of his city after it is conquered by the Mongols.
Another character of note introduced in this book is Kokchu, a shaman who smells of blood and is very self-serving. He gains Genghis' trust and starts to teach Temuge the ways of a Shaman. During the course of Temuge's lessons, he becomes addicted to Opium, which Kokchu provides for him.
Joe Bell (John Garfield) becomes embittered after he is jailed for 16 months for something he did not do. Later, he gets into a fight with a crook (played by an uncredited Ward Bond) and is sentenced to a work farm for 90 days. There, he becomes friends with Mabel Alden (Priscilla Lane), which displeases Charles Garreth (Stanley Ridges), her stepfather and the farm's foreman. The two men fight, and Joe knocks Garreth out. Panicking, the young couple flee and get married, only to learn that Garreth has died and that Joe is wanted for his murder.
Constantly on the move to avoid capture, Joe finally gets a break. He is in the right spot to take pictures of a bank robbery in progress. He uses them to get a job as a photographer at a newspaper run by Mike Leonard (Alan Hale). When the leader of the outfit tries to get the negatives, Joe saves Mike's life. Unfortunately, his own picture is put on the front page of various newspapers as a result. Joe tries to flee once more, but Mabel turns him in to the police, convinced that running away is the wrong thing to do.
At the trial, despite a parade of character witnesses in Joe's favor, the prosecutor (John Litel) seems to have the upper hand. Defense attorney Slim Jones (Moroni Olsen) calls Mabel to the stand. She convinces the jury to declare her husband innocent.
Rabbit lives in a forest in England with his children: Lucy, Peter, and Emily. Wolf, who has been driven out of Canada by the Brotherhood of Wolves, moves in next door with his sons Barry and Simon. Although Wolf has a strong desire to eat Rabbit, his children develop close friendships with Lucy, rejecting traditional dietary preferences.
In this novel, the main character Fallion returns to Castle Coorm in Mystarria, following his defeat of Shadoath. There he finds The One True Tree reborn, but it is surrounded by a twisted Seal of the Inferno. Fallion tries to heal the rune, only to discover that it was a trap left by the Queen of the Loci, in the form of Shadoath. The only thing he can do to save himself is to combine his world with the other linked to the Seal of the Inferno. The two worlds crash together with some unexpected results. For example, some people who happen to be standing in the wrong place recover from the melding of the two worlds to discover that they have a vine growing through their hand. Others combine with the version of themselves from the other world to produce a hybrid, but those whose other self has died or was never born are weakened.
In this new world, a race of men who are several feet taller than the men from Fallion's world are locked in a mortal struggle with a race called wyrmlings. The wyrmlings are light-sensitive, and are approximate to the Inkharrans from Fallion's world and they carry parasitic wyrms inside them (like the loci of Fallion's world). They are led by Death Lords and Knights Eternal, undead creatures that perform the will of the Queen of the Loci. The battle between wyrmlings and men is at an uneasy truce because each holds a captive of the other race—the wyrmlings hold the prince Areth (the equivalent of Fallion's father, Gaborn, the Earth King) and the men hold the princess of the wyrmlings, Kan-hazur.
Even though the Knights Eternal are rumored to be impossible to slay except in daylight, Fallion and Jaz manage to kill one before they are taken captive by one named Vulgnash. This earns them the respect of the warrior men of that world. Those men, led by High King Urstone (who is the equivalent of Fallion's grandfather on this world), mount a rescue of Fallion and his companions.
The legendary Daylan Hammer is present on this new world and he convinces the King to try to exchange hostages with the wyrmlings because it is immoral to keep the princess hostage. The wyrmlings pretend to make the exchange and then ambush the men. This is followed by an all-out attack on the main fortress of the men, Caer Luciare. During this battle the High King is slain, as well as Jaz, and Fallion is again taken by the Knight Eternal, Vulgnash. The wyrmlings make a deal with Prince Areth to spare his people if he'll accept a wyrm. The Queen of the Loci accepts him as her host and then he uses his new power as Earth King to Choose all of the wyrmling horde for the (twisted) Earth.
The film follows the true story of Dr. Dennis Slamon (played by Harry Connick, Jr.), who helped develop the breast cancer drug Herceptin, over the course of 8 years from 1988 to 1996. Dr. Slamon is a physician scientist at UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles), where he has developed the experimental drug Herceptin, which he believes will become a treatment for breast cancer. However, when the drug company stops funding the research, philanthropists, including Lilly Tartikoff (Angie Harmon) and Ronald Perelman help him continue drug reseach. Funding was done with an initial donation from Perelman's Revlon charity, and continued over the years with the "Fire and Ice Ball" organized by Tartikoff.
Eventually the drug company funds the research and the drug goes through three trials before gaining approval from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Prior to the trials, the drug undergoes a preclinical animal trial. Nicole (Tammy Blanchard), a young mother with stage 4 cancer, receives the drug first. Although her mother Elizabeth (Swoosie Kurtz) pleads with Dr. Slamon, Nicole is not included in the subsequent trials as she does not meet the trial requirements. The women in the trials, particularly the first trial, band together. They handle their disease and drug trial, with humor—Tish (Jennifer Coolidge), or with alternative therapy—Tina (Trudie Styler). The stories of Barbara (Bernadette Peters) and Ellie (Regina King) are followed throughout, as they go through the trials and eventual recovery. Some patients involved in the tests die, but ultimately Slamon's work with the drug changes the course of breast cancer treatment.
In Disney's animated adaptation of Prokofiev's masterpiece, in which every character is represented musically by a different instrument. The apparent setting is Russia. A young Peter decides to go hunting for the wolf that has been prowling around the village. Along the way, he is joined by his friends Sasha the songbird, Sonia the duck, and Ivan the cat. All the fun comes to end, however, when the wolf makes an appearance.
Laird Cunningham is a rich man who enjoys travelling to distant worlds in search of bizarre life forms. On the trip told in this story, Cunningham overhears the plotting of his two assistants to loot the ship. To avoid this, he forces a crash landing on an unnamed planet, sabotages the ship and escapes, leaving his assistants in the ship.
Cunningham goes exploring and finds that the planet is very strange and orbits one of the fiercest suns in the galaxy (Deneb). The planet itself is quite similar to Earth's Moon, being airless and of a similar size, but due to the daily heating by its sun, the terrain is very different and appears strangely windswept. Cunningham also investigates the local life forms which include plants, herbivores, and carnivores. He dissects a few of the animals and finds that they have liquid metal for blood and that their eyes are more like noses, in that their eyes function as pinhole cameras with respect to the local gas molecules, which in the near vacuum travel in essentially straight lines like light rays. Cunningham realises that the animals navigate mostly by smell, since the extremely bright, undiffused sunlight would hamper an optical sense.
Taking refuge in a cave, Cunningham watches his ship and his assistants as they attempt to repair it, welding up cracks in the ship's hull. However, they only work during the day and return to the inside of the ship at night. By night, Cunningham kills animals and collects their blood in grooves in the cave floor. The blood freezes in the cold of the night and he attaches the resulting small bars of metal to the remaining cracks in his ship's hull. The next morning, his assistants emerge to continue welding, which melts the bars of blood. The smell attracts many local predators, and Cunningham makes his way onto the ship in the commotion. Although the assistants easily fight off the alien animals, Cunningham locks them in the airlock as they attempt to return to the ship. He then sends out a distress call and sits back, as rescue will arrive in several hours.
In 1818 Hampstead, the fashionable Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is introduced to poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) through the Dilke family. The Dilkes occupy one half of a double house, with Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) occupying the other half. Brown is Keats' friend, roommate, and associate in writing.
Fanny's flirtatious personality contrasts with Keats' notably more aloof nature. She begins to pursue him after her siblings Samuel and Toots obtain his book of poetry, "Endymion". Her efforts to interact with the poet are fruitless until he witnesses her grief for the loss of his brother, Tom. Keats begins to open up to her advances while spending Christmas with the Brawne family. He begins giving her poetry lessons, and it becomes apparent that their attraction is mutual. Fanny is nevertheless troubled by his reluctance to pursue her, on which her mother (Kerry Fox) surmises, "Mr. Keats knows he cannot like you, he has no living and no income."
It is only after Fanny receives a valentine from Brown that Keats passionately confronts them and asks if they are lovers. Brown sent the valentine in jest, but warns Keats that Fanny is a mere flirt playing a game. Fanny is hurt by Brown's accusations and Keats' lack of faith in her; she ends their lessons and leaves. The Dilkes move to Westminster in the spring, leaving the Brawne family their half of the house and six months rent. Fanny and Keats then resume their interaction and fall deeply in love. The relationship comes to an abrupt end when Brown departs with Keats for his summer holiday, where Keats may earn some money. Fanny is heartbroken, though she is comforted by Keats' love letters. When the men return in the autumn, Fanny's mother voices her concern that Fanny's attachment to the poet will hinder her from being courted. Fanny and Keats secretly become engaged.
Keats contracts tuberculosis the following winter. He spends several weeks recovering until spring. His friends collect funds so that he may spend the following winter in Italy, where the climate is warmer. After Brown impregnates a maid and is unable to accompany him, Keats finds accommodation in London for the summer, and is later taken in by the Brawne family following an attack of his illness. When his book sells with moderate success, Fanny's mother gives him her blessing to marry Fanny once he returns from Italy. The night before he leaves, he and Fanny say their tearful goodbyes in privacy. Keats dies in Italy the following February of complications from his illness, as his brother Tom did.
In the last moments of the film, Fanny cuts her hair in an act of mourning, dons black attire, and walks the snowy paths that Keats had walked many times. It is there that she recites the love sonnet that he had written for her, called "Bright Star", as she grieves the death of her lover.
Sang-hyun is a Catholic priest who volunteers at the hospital, providing ministry to the patients. He is well respected for his unwavering faith and dedicated service, but he secretly suffers from feelings of doubt and sadness. Sang-hyun volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus (EV). Although the experiment fails, and Sang-hyun is infected with the seemingly fatal disease, he makes a complete and rapid recovery after receiving a blood transfusion.
News of his marvelous recovery quickly spreads among the devout parishioners of Sang-hyun's congregation, and they begin to believe that he has a miraculous gift for healing. Soon, thousands more flock to Sang-hyun's services. Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo, Sang-hyun's childhood friend, and his family. Kang-woo invites his old friend to join the weekly mahjong night at his house, and there, Sang-hyun finds himself attracted to Kang-woo's wife, Tae-ju. Sang-hyun later relapses into his illness and wakes in dire need of shelter from the sunlight, having become a vampire.
At first, Sang-hyun feels a newfound vigor but soon he is aghast to find himself drinking blood from a comatose patient. After attempting to kill himself, Sang-hyun finds himself irresistibly drawn to human blood. To make matters worse, the symptoms of EV return and only seem to go away when he drinks blood. Desperately trying to avoid committing a murder, Sang-hyun resorts to stealing blood transfusion packs from the hospital.
Tae-ju, who lives with her ill husband and overprotective mother-in-law, Mrs. Ra, leads a dreary life. She is drawn to Sang-hyun and his physicality, and unable to resist odd desires for him. The two begin an affair, but when Tae-ju discovers the truth about Sang-hyun, she retreats in fear. When Sang-hyun pleads with her to run away with him, she turns him down, suggesting that they kill her husband instead.
When Sang-hyun's superior at the monastery requests some vampire blood so that his eyes may heal and he may see the world before dying, in disgust Sang-hyun flees from the monastery. He moves into Mrs. Ra's house so that he may secretly bed with Tae-ju. Sang-hyun notices bruises on Tae-ju and assumes her husband is the cause, a suspicion she sheepishly confirms. Sang-hyun decides to kill Kang-woo during a fishing trip with the couple. He pulls Kang-woo into the water and claims to his superior that he placed the body inside a cabinet in a house at the bottom of the lake, putting a rock on the body to keep it from floating to the surface. Sang-hyun's symptoms return so he kills his superior at the monastery and feeds on his blood.
A police investigation ensues. Mrs. Ra drinks often after her son's death, sinking psychosomatically into a completely paralyzed state. Sang-hyun and Tae-ju are haunted by terrifying visions of Kang-woo's bloated corpse. When Tae-ju lets slip that Kang-woo never abused her, Sang-hyun is enraged because he only killed Kang-woo to protect her. Teary-eyed, she asks Sang-hyun to kill her and let her return to her husband. He obliges by snapping her neck, but after feeding on her blood, decides he does not want to be alone forever and feeds her corpse his own blood. She awakens as a vampire. Mrs. Ra, knocked to the floor by a seizure, witnesses everything.
Tae-ju quickly shows herself to be a remorseless monster, killing indiscriminately to feed, while Sang-hyun acts more conservatively, only killing when necessary. Their conflicting ethics result in a chase across the rooftops and a short battle. Some time later, Mrs. Ra manages to communicate to Kang-woo's friends that Sang-hyun and Tae-ju killed her son. Tae-ju quickly disposes of two of the friends, and Sang-hyun appears to eliminate the third. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Sang-hyun tells Tae-ju that they must flee or be caught. Before leaving with her, he makes a visit to the camp of worshipers who consider him the miracle EV survivor. He makes it seem like he tried to rape a girl, leading the campers to chase him away, no longer idolizing him.
Sang-hyun then places Mrs. Ra in his car, and with Tae-ju, drives into the night. Back at the house, the third friend escapes, whom Sang-hyun only pretended to kill to protect her from Tae-ju. Upon waking from a nap in the car, Tae-ju realizes that Sang-hyun has driven to a desolate field with no cover from the imminent dawn. Realizing his plan to have them both burn when dawn breaks, Tae-ju tries to hide but Sang-hyun foils her every attempt. Resigning herself to her fate, she joins him on the car hood, and both are burnt to ash by the sun, as Mrs. Ra watches from the backseat of the car.
Søren Qvist, a village minister with a short-temper, is accused of murdering his unlikeable servant when the man disappears after an argument. Erik Sørensen, the local judge, reluctantly investigates but he is conflicted because he is happily betrothed to the minister's daughter, Mette. The judge becomes distraught as more and more witnesses offer evidence against the minister. The minister, although he doesn't remember any murder, believes the evidence is undeniable and decides to confess—condemning himself to death. The judge is forced to pass sentence—the pastor is beheaded—and Judge Sørensen's relationship with the woman he loves is destroyed. Twenty years later, the murder victim returns to the village. He reveals his alleged murder was a cruel hoax constructed by his brother as revenge for his rejection as a suitor for Mette.
The 'Subbies' live in the suburbs of Silverdale, a large fictional city, whereas the 'Chippies' live in the run-down city. The subbie children like to go out 'chippying' (visiting nightclubs in Rawhampton). This prompts adverts on TV about the dangers of chippying.
Zoe is friends with Tabitha, the daughter of a very wealthy real estate developer. She encourages Zoe to go chippying with her in the company of Ned and Larry. Ned drives them to the Blue Moon nightclub, where Daz is as well. In order to leave the suburb, they tell the guard on duty that they are visiting Zoe's cousin in the next suburb and are made to show their ID cards to the bouncers who guard Silverdale.
Zoe and Daz fall in love when they first set eyes on each other, although, at first, Zoe thinks it may be the 'lobotomizer' (coke, rum and 'a couple of other ingredients') that she has been drinking.
Larry spots an attractive chippy girl and subtly tries to call her over to him. She smiles out of embarrassment, but he thinks she fancies him. Eventually he shouts out to her loudly, his outburst coinciding with a pause in the music. Her boyfriend picks up a chair and goes over to Larry. A policeman steps between them. The chippy throws the chair, which Larry deflects with his arm. Daz comes over to rescue Zoe, taking Larry by the arm and telling the group to run and save themselves.
When Zoe gets back to Silverdale, she realises that she had fallen in love with Daz and started pining for him. Her Grandma tells her a story of how she once fell in love with Gordon Payne at her young age, but he never noticed her. She warns Zoe that Subbies and Chippies are not meant to be together.
''Kings'' is set in the fictional Kingdom of Gilboa, a modern absolute monarchy. Gilboa is ruled by King Silas Benjamin, who originally formed the United Kingdom two decades before from the three warring countries of Gilboa, Carmel, and Selah. He believes that he has been divinely anointed king, and he often cites the day when a swarm of monarch butterflies once landed on his head in the form of "a living crown" which called upon him to form the Monarchy and Kingdom.
All is not well for Silas. His policies and actions are being manipulated by his queen's brother, William Cross, who holds substantial control over the royal treasury and also appears to be the major stakeholder as CEO/Chairman of Crossgen (which appears to have a large stake in the economy of Gilboa). The heir apparent, Prince Jack, is a closeted homosexual who is constantly reminded that the rules of succession have yet to be set. Silas himself has a secret mistress with whom he has a young son.
Events of the series are set into motion when young David Shepherd, a Gilboan soldier in a war against the Republic of Gath, single-handedly rescues a captive soldier from behind enemy lines and destroys a "Goliath-Class" tank with a shoulder fired missile launcher. The captive soldier is Prince Jack, and David not only becomes an instant star in the national media, but he also earns the gratitude of King Silas, much to the chagrin of the prince.
King Silas brings David into the capital city of Shiloh where he is promoted to Captain and then maneuvered into the plum position of military liaison to the media. He soon finds himself in the midst of royal court politics with little initial awareness of the forces acting behind them. He also develops feelings for Silas's daughter, Princess Michelle, which she privately reciprocates.
Queen Rose runs the royal household with an iron fist and does her best to keep the warring factions of the family from destroying the monarchy. She is the one person to whom the King will listen, while he will not hesitate to turn his back on or even order the death penalty for his own children. Queen Rose, in many ways, rules the Kingdom from behind the scenes.
In the pilot episode, David, much like Silas years before, is set upon by a living "crown" of monarch butterflies, as Silas witnesses the event from a discreet distance. Silas has already been told that God no longer supports his reign, and this then implies that David is the divine choice as his successor. This troubles the King so much that he initially plots to have David killed. David, however, soon comes to interpret the appearance of the monarch butterflies as an omen that he is meant to serve King Silas, and the sovereign accepts this, progressively drawing David deeper into his court. Through the series, David and Michelle's romance blossoms, first secretly and then publicly when Michelle informs King Silas. Silas falsely accuses David of being a traitor because David lied to Silas about his relationship with Michelle. During David's imprisonment, Michelle learns that she is pregnant with David's child.
The intervening episodes continue to use symbolism and images to add depth to the basic story line, such as casting shadows in the shape of a cross on David and other characters, historical and biblical stories being intertwined in the plot (David defeating the seemingly invincible Goliath tank), return of a prodigal son (or nephew, in this case), and King Silas making promises and pleas directly to God that are answered, but not always as he had hoped. There also are references to more modern themes, such as the Cold War, encroachment of technology in our lives, companies that perpetuate wars to make money, and national policy being influenced by holding the nation's treasury hostage.
In the two-part season finale, William Cross orchestrates a coup with the intention of placing Jack on the throne as his puppet. Silas is shot twice, but survives. Although Silas has framed David for treason, David helps return him to power. Reverend Samuels, Silas' long-time spiritual advisor and confidant, is killed under William's orders but appears in posthumous visions to David, the Princess, and Silas (none of whom is aware that Samuels is dead), confirming to them that God has chosen David to be the next king. David flees to Gath on Samuels' advice, and Michelle is sent into exile to bear his child in secret. Silas declares that he is now God's enemy as dark storm clouds loom above his troubled kingdom.
Charles "Chick" Miller (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is a hobo released from jail for vagrancy, along with fellow drifter "Scrap Iron" Scratch (Guy Kibbee). The two men walk to the local railroad station to hop a train out of town. Through a series of chance encounters at Union Depot, Chick becomes, in his words, a "Gentleman for a Day" (the name under which the film was released in the United Kingdom).
At the depot Chick finds in a public washroom a suitcase left by a drunk passenger. In the suitcase are toiletries and a nice double-breasted man's suit with cash in one pocket. After changing into the suit, Chick uses the money to buy a much-needed meal at the depot's diner. Soon he meets Ruth Collins (Joan Blondell) sitting on a bench in the terminal. She tells him she is an out-of-work chorus girl and is desperate to raise $64 for train fare to Salt Lake City, where a job is waiting for her. Initially, he thinks she is a prostitute, although he begins to believe her after she shows him a telegram with her job offer. She then confides to him that she is worried about a "madman" following her, a Dr. Bernardi (George Rosener), who resides in the same boarding house she recently left. She adds that the strange doctor has "bad eyes" and once paid her to read to him in the evenings. Now feeling sorry for Ruth, Chick tells her he will give her the money she needs "with no strings attached".
Back inside the depot, a crook named "Bushy" Sloan (Alan Hale) is impersonating a German musician and is carrying a violin case full of counterfeit money. Bushy checks the case into the station's temporary storage for baggage, but a pickpocket soon steals his wallet, which contains the baggage-claim ticket. The pickpocket discards the wallet in an alleyway after removing its cash. While waiting for Chick outside the depot, Scrap Iron finds the wallet with the ticket. Later he gives the ticket to Chick, who reclaims the violin case. Initially, Chick plans to pawn the case until he opens it and is stunned to see it is full of money, not realizing it is counterfeit. He hides the case and most of the bogus cash in a small coal bin near the depot, and he instructs Scrap Iron to guard it while he leaves to ponder what to do. Chick sees Ruth again and gives her some of the counterfeit cash to buy new clothes at a shop in the station. She too is unaware that the money is not genuine.
While Chick is away, Dr. Bernardi sends Ruth a passenger ticket and a message to meet him in the train's designated compartment. Believing the ticket is from Chick, Ruth goes there and begins screaming when she sees Bernardi. Chick hears her and breaks through the train car's locked door, but Bernardi escapes. As the doctor runs across an adjacent railroad track, he is struck by a passing train and killed. Meanwhile, the dress shop clerk who sold clothes to Ruth becomes suspicious of the cash she used and takes it to the station master. Both Ruth and Chick are then taken into custody by government agents searching for criminals exchanging phony money. Unfortunately, the investigators have no description of Bushy, but they believe Ruth might be his associate. To clear her, Chick goes with another agent to retrieve the hidden violin case. The men are followed by Bushy, who shoots the agent and flees with the case. Chick chases and catches the crook. All is reconciled and Ruth has a bittersweet parting from Chick as she boards the train to Utah. The film ends with Chick and Scrap Iron walking together along a railroad track, away from Union Depot and back to their lives as hobos.
We see three tough-looking men renting an office in one of the better buildings of Claybourne City. Soon "The Creamery Betterment Association" appears on their door. They intend to force every dealer in the city to sign as members, dues to be one cent on every quart of milk sold in the city; and the dealers are to get this back by raising the price of milk three cents a quart.
Then comes the technique for getting members; the vicious means resorted to in "stubborn" cases. Only one dealer, John Paige has the courage to hold out. He cooperates with the police, but weakens when his family is threatened. Police persuade him to wait, replace all his drivers with detectives, who arrest the gangsters when they do attack the trucks. Finally, the police surround members of the gang who are waiting in ambush to drill Paige's trucks with a "tommy" gun. This provides sufficient evidence, and the gang is arrested and sent to prison for 50 years.
The opening of the film uses the music of "Pop Goes the Weasel", which already indicates that this "epicurian epic" will entail much comedic content.
The scene starts as Matthew E. Smudge calls his wife, Chloe, to inform her that he's bringing his boss and a customer home for dinner. Unstressed, Chloe enters the kitchen, expecting to tell the cook there will be two more for dinner; she finds a note. Apparently, her constant high-maintenance demands have caused "her culinary queen to quit." Chloe haplessly attempts to fix dinner herself.
An hour has transpired and Chloe has burnt the roast beef, dropped a flour bucket on the dog (to which the narrator remarks, "Gosh, it ain't a fit night for man nor beast."), and ultimately turned the kitchen into a complete disaster. Pete Smith, as narrator, asks sobbing Chloe the whereabouts of a telephone. He decides to make a personal call to Prudence Penny, advice columnist for the ''Los Angeles Examiner''. With 35 minutes before the husband and company arrives, Penny shows doubtful Chloe how to prepare a full course, mouth-watering meal with what is left in the icebox as well as applying unusual housewife remedies to salvage some of Chloe's cooking.
The meal is prepared just in time for the arrival of Mr. Smudge, boss and customer. Chloe greets the guests as Smith whispers to Smudge, "Psst, your cook left this morning." Smudge's countenance drastically changes and is now in a dither about dinner; he knows how Chloe cooks.
Smudge is surprised by the quality and taste of the courses Chloe has presented to him and his guests. Smith interjects that the entire course only cost Smudge a grand total of $2.83. As Penny secretly sneaks away, Smith also lies to Smudge saying Chloe cooked the entire meal herself. Of course, Chloe emphatically nods in agreement, much to her dog's disbelief.
Set in a small waterfront town in coastal Maryland, ''Swimmers'' is a film that focuses on Emma Tyler, a fiercely intelligent and observant 11-year-old who develops an ear problem requiring surgery that the Tylers can ill afford. Emma's father, Will, drinks a lot and lives hand to mouth as a waterman. Her mother, Julia, has become a miserable soul, trying to keep a household together on meager funds. She also suspects that Will is having an affair.
Grounded, literally, from her favorite pastime, swimming, Emma is forced to look for alternative ways to pass those lazy summer days. When no one seems to be very interested in talking to Emma, she finds friendship with a troubled young woman, Merrill, who has returned to town looking to deal with her past. The sweetly innocent Emma allows the world-weary Merrill in some ways to reconnect with her own lost innocence, while Merrill, for her part, provides an oasis for Emma, who feels invisible at home in the eyes of her struggling parents. Added to this volatile mix of domestic strife is a love story desperately trying to emerge between Merrill and one of Emma's older brothers Clyde. However, Merrill's ugly past and pathologic need to be used threatens to resurface and destroy her newfound sense of purity.
Will and Julia love their daughter immensely, but suffer from the financial woes of a poor fishing season, the sudden loss of Will's boat and Will's fierce pride in not having to ask for handouts.
Playing himself, and having filmed the final scene of his most recent movie, Jose Mojica Marins gives an interview discussing his plans for his next film. After an interviewer asks Marins about the true existence of Coffin Joe, Marins replies “Coffin Joe does not exist”. A camera light then explodes. He states he will leave for vacation at the country home of his friend Alvaro to write the script for his next film, which he plans on calling “The Demon Exorcist”.
He arrives at Alvaro's. He is met there by Mr. Julio, father of Alvaro, tending his flowers. Marins is taken to the house and greeted by Alvaro, his wife Lucia, and their three daughters: Betinha, Luciana, and Vilma. Vilma is soon to be married to her fiancee Carlos.
Soon odd things occur around the house and property such as winds blowing and horses being frightened, and that night Mr. Júlio frightens everyone when he begins tearing off his shirt and declaring in a frenzied voice that has come to collect a debt. Marins investigates the house that night and finds a locked hallway, but is attacked by flying books and the lights turn off. Betinha sees tarantulas and a snake in the Christmas tree. During these events the scene cuts to a strange woman who carries a white cat and is surrounded by occult figurines and symbols, and has a framed portrait of Coffin Joe behind her on the wall.
Lucia admits to Marins that Vilma is promised to a local witch in the marriage to Eugenio, who is the son of Satan. Vilma is actually the daughter of the witch, but Lucia obtained her as a newborn due to her husband's infertility and faked the pregnancy with the promise to raise Vilma and return her as an adult for the marriage to Eugenio. The recent occurrences in the house are the result of the witch's anger at Vilma's engagement to Carlos.
Carlos is injured in a mysterious car accident and Lucia faints fearing it to be the action of the witch. The scene then shows the witch biting the head off a rooster as a sacrifice. Marins then returns to his room and hears Vilma moaning in the next room. He finds Vilma wandering naked and she strikes him on the head.
Marins wakens in a room with a black mass in progress. He sees the red-gowned hooded figures of Luciana, Mr. Julio and the witch, as well as Vilma and Eugenio side by side. The constant sounds of tortured screams fills the room. After the dancers raise their arms, some sparks fly and Coffin Joe appears. Marins is shocked to see his creation in flesh and blood, shouting rants and pronouncements typical of Coffin Joe, such as “''may the blood of those who don't deserve to live burst out of their bodies!''”, and “''may lightning burn the scum!''”.
Coffin Joe walks up a staircase of human bodies to witness the festivities, mainly topless women dancing exotically to the constant screams of torture and terror that fill the background. When the wedding starts, Coffin Joe places the rings on Carlos' and Vilma's fingers, announcing “''may pain and blood spread among us!''”. The scenes that follow are a series of vivid depictions of torture, mutilation, dismemberment, and live cannibalism. After forcing Marins from the room, the ceremony takes place, Marins hearing it from the next room. When Marins hears the screams of the youngest daughter Betinha being taken to the ceremony in order to be sacrificed, he returns with a crucifix he found fallen from the wall, and brandishes it saying “I believe in God!”, preventing Betinha's murder. He then uses the crucifix to quickly exorcise the family members of their influence from Coffin Joe.
Marins and Coffin Joe struggle. After Marins is knocked to the ground, a transparent image of Coffin Joe is seen leaving Marins' body. The witch and Eugenio both die as results of Marins' impromptu Christian pronouncements.
Marins wakes in his room clutching the crucifix. He goes to check on the family members and sees Mr. Julio setting the table for Christmas dinner, Vilma and Carlos in a loving embrace, and Betinha and Luciana opening presents. Marins silently takes his leave as they sing Christmas carols.
The film ends with a shot of Betinha's face with a serious expression. The camera zooms in to the reflection in her eye which shows Coffin Joe who is laughing amid the sounds of tortured screams.
''Daddy's Home'' deals with a family where the father, Pete, is a copywriter who works out of his home office and is a stay-at-home dad to his son Elliot, while his wife Peggy is out in the working world. Events occurring in the comic strip are usually humorous and involve Pete and Peggy trying to make sense out of their living arrangements and finding time for each other, Elliot's own adventures with his best friend, next door neighbor Maria, and Pete trying to write on his computer, which is sentient and able to talk back to him as he deals with writer's block. Launched in April 2008 and with a combined circulation of more than 10 million readers, "Daddy's Home" is considered to be one of the most rapidly growing comic strips in the world.
Nancy Drew and her friend George are in Japan to attend the wedding of their Japanese friend Midori Kato. The twist is that Midori appears very upset on the eve of her wedding and disappears during the commencement of her wedding with Ken Nakamura. It's indeed very surprising to note that Nancy is able to understand and read a bit of Japanese as well. This pulse-pounding novel also shows us some highly dangerous events occurring with Nancy while she's investigating the case. Also added are Mick's and Nancy's old romance which provides us some great moments of reading.
Months after a school shooting at an elitist prep school in small-town Massachusetts leaves fifteen students and faculty dead, Spenser is hired by the grandmother of one of the alleged killers, a rich old lady who firmly believes in her grandson's innocence: she is convinced that he is not the one of the two shooters who never lifted his ski mask in front of their victims and who somehow managed to disappear in the crowd without being identified. Both suspects are now in custody but unwilling to talk to anyone.
Wherever Spenser turns, people are reluctant to co-operate with him, if not outright hostile. The local police chief considers the case closed as both perpetrators are under arrest, awaiting trial and have already confessed to the crime. The head of the school is concerned with the school's reputation, bans Spenser from the school premises, and prohibits students to talk to him should he accost them anywhere in town. Even the boys' parents and their respective lawyers do not wish to throw any more light on the matter. For Spenser, however, three decisive questions have not been answered yet: where the two youngsters got the weapons from and how they were able to pay for them; where and from whom they learned to shoot; and why they planned and carried out the massacre in the first place.
The pupils Spenser meets at one of their hangouts, however, are thrilled to disobey their head teacher and collaborate with a private eye. This is how Spenser learns where the less fortunate youngsters in town who attend the local public school usually meet, that a young man of mixed ethnicity supplies them with drugs, and that he might also have sold weapons to the shooters. Spenser is soon able to answer his first two questions, but for the time being he sees no way to find a good reason why two 17-year-olds with no criminal record should go ahead and cause a bloodbath. Gradually, however, he realizes that the motive is more to do with parents and teachers than anyone is prepared to admit.
In ''School Days'', Spenser's close friend Hawk does not appear but is mentioned. Susan Silverman is away at a conference and only returns at the end of the novel to celebrate the successful conclusion of the case. Pearl, however, having been left behind by her mistress, is constantly present.
The narrative follows the story of twelve-year-old Adeline Mueller as she moves with her mom and five-year-old brother to Canada from their German home to move in with her father to start a new life. Adeline has not seen her father since she was eight and she is expecting a great and wonderful life in Canada from the description in the letters she has received from her father. But Adeline's relationship with her father has been strained ever since he left her and the rest of the family to move to Saskatchewan.[http://www.coteaubooks.com/reviewpgs/AdelinePrairieFire.html Donna Gamache's review of Adeline's Dream] Her father worked in a bank in Germany and then, after being fired, decided to find a better life for the rest of the family in Saskatchewan. Finally Adeline's father had reported that he has started a splendid new life for the family. The book begins with Adeline, her mother, and her brother Konrad traveling by steamship and then by train from Germany to Saskatchewan. The family then arrives at Qu'Appelle. When Adeline arrives, the truth is revealed.
Adeline's father now works on a farm bagging flour and doing the accounts which does not make enough money to provide a home. So the family lives in a soddle made of grass and earth. All her life Adeline had dreamed that one day she would be a singer but she feels that because her father has brought her into these horrible conditions, that her dream will be ruined making their relationship even more strained. Adeline soon learns that the richer townspeople do not take kindly to the immigrants that move to the area. But through all the prejudice, Adeline makes two friends, Kat and Henery, who are also immigrants. Kat helped Adeline fight off prejudiced bullies at their school.
One day the farm where her father was employed is burned down and her father is forced to get a new job. Kat's family moves and Adeline is left to fight the bullies, especially a girl named Sarah: a girl who sings just like Adeline and takes her solo in the Christmas play. By the time of the play, Adeline has begun to get along with her father and Sarah allows Adeline to have the solo at the play and Adeline's dreams start to come true.
Vitório Palestrina is a playboy millionaire who passes his days sleeping with, abusing, and discarding women in a small village. After seducing a young woman named Silvia, he brutally rapes her, biting off one of her nipples in the process. He keeps the nipple in a glass case as a trophy. When his actions become public knowledge, he is actually admired for what he has done, while his victim is ostracized and tormented by the townspeople.
Palestrina is acquitted of rape on the grounds of insufficient evidence and laughs at the victim when the judge gives the verdict. He commemorates his triumph with a party at which he proudly displays the severed nipple to his guests. Palestrina continues to seduce other young women until he develops a passion for Veronica, a beautiful young medical student who is not as susceptible to his charm.
To obtain Veronica's love and loyalty, Palestrina must endure a more traditional courtship: Veronica requires him to proclaim love and propose marriage before she relents. When he finally does, Veronica allows Palestrina to consummate their affair with a long, passionate episode of lovemaking. As he settles into a peaceful post coital state, Veronica calmly reaches into her purse and removes a surgical knife with which she castrates him. She then has flashbacks which reveal that Veronica is Silvia's sister.
Naked and covered in blood, Veronica slowly bandages Palestrina's wounds and says, "You promised me everything. I accepted." All the while, she envisions future times of bliss with her beloved sister.
Henry Carson (Van Johnson), a schoolteacher before the Civil War, shows up in a rural region of the Missouri hills. He spends the night with a family consisting of Gill MacBean (Thomas Mitchell), his wife Sairy (Selena Royle), and two of their children, Lissy Anne (Janet Leigh), and youngster Andrew (Dean Stockwell). Another son, Ben (Marshall Thompson), had run off to fight in the war; the family's hope that he will someday return is gradually waning.
Gill does not welcome the stranger, unsure of his allegiance, but the others like the good-natured young man, especially Lissy Anne. Henry offers to help with the farming; the MacBeans desperately need more hands, but Gill remains very suspicious of his motives. A band had been burning the barns of those still loyal to the defeated Confederacy; the MacBeans had been the latest victims. Henry, however, proves to be a hard worker.
When storekeeper and unofficial banker Cal Baggett (Guy Kibbee) visits the family to ask about repayment of a loan, Henry talks him into hosting a "play party", inviting everyone, regardless of affiliation, to help heal the rift in the community. Gill is strongly opposed to it, but Henry tricks him into bringing his family.
At first, the two groups do not mix, but Sairy talks Northern sympathizer Dan Yeary (Russell Simpson) into dancing with her, breaking the ice. Soon, everyone is having a very good time. However, an argument breaks out about the playing of a tune associated with the North. To forestall a fight, Cal calls for a vote. Unfortunately, it is a tie. Gill calls upon Henry to cast the deciding vote. Henry is finally forced to reveal that he fought in the Union army. After that, the party quickly breaks up, much to the secret delight of John Dessark (Charles Dingle) and his son Badge (Jim Davis).
Henry is no longer welcome at the MacBeans. He does not leave the area though; he starts building a schoolhouse.
Eventually, Lissy Anne can no longer bear to be apart from Henry. She walks away into the night with him, without her father's knowledge but with her mother's approval, after Henry escorts her brother home from the schoolhouse where he had walked to attend class. Gill tracks them down with a bloodhound, intending to shoot his would-be son-in-law. When five masked nightriders approach, Henry strikes Gill unconscious and seizes his rifle. The horsemen start shooting to kill. Taking cover Henry kills four and captures the fifth after a lengthy footchase and fistfight at a burnt-out dwelling. It is Badge Dessark. He confesses that his father is behind the raids, not out of loyalty to the South, but simply for financial profit. With the Dessarks hanged, the community starts to heal.
Finally, Henry reveals why he sought out the MacBeans. In a flashback, it is revealed that he first met Ben as they were walking across the hills to enlist in the war. As they traveled together singing and laughing, they became good friends. Approaching the turn-off signpost they decided in jest on a foot race to see who could be the first to reach it. Henry ended up on the north branch, with Ben on the south. They were momentarily silent on the choice that each had made. Henry proposed that they "take a five minute rest". Henry ultimately persuaded Ben into going north. Two days before the war's end, Ben was killed suddenly. Before dying, he made Henry promise to help the family with the crop harvest. After hearing Henry's quiet testimony of their deep trust and friendship, a teary-eyed Gill gives Henry and Lissy Anne his blessing to get married. Sairy reaches out to touch Gill's arm, offering agreement. As the wagon rolls down the road with Lissy Anne and Henry aboard, Andrew and the dogs climb in the back, to indicate that the picture is once more complete.
Set in 1911 and the growing protest against British rule in Ireland, young John Cassidy (Seán O'Casey)[http://www.dublin-info.co.uk/Sean_O_Casey.html Sean O'Casey] on Dublin Info page. is a labourer by day and a pamphleteer by night. When the pamphlets he has written incite riots, Cassidy realizes he can do more for his people with the pen than with the sword. He writes a new play, ''The Plough and the Stars'', which he submits to the Abbey Theatre (which had already rejected another of his plays, ''The Shadow of a Gunman''), and is surprised when W. B. Yeats, the founder of the Abbey, accepts and produces his new play. The opening of the play causes the audience to riot, and he loses many friends; but he is undeterred and is soon acclaimed as Ireland's outstanding young playwright.
''The Morning Gift'' tells the story of Ruth Berger, whose family is part of the Jewish Intelligentsia in Vienna. When the Nazis take over, the Bergers organize a student visa for Ruth to be sent ahead to England, not realizing that she will not be allowed to leave Austria because of her political leanings as a Social Democrat. When her father is suddenly arrested by the Gestapo, he is told to leave Austria within a week and while his family is able to escape to London, Ruth on a separate transport is stopped on the border by the SS and sent back to Vienna. Quinton Somerville, an English professor and scientist who worked with Professor Berger in the past, arrives in Vienna for an award ceremony and learns that Professor Berger has been dismissed. Trying to contact the family, he visits Bergers' home and discovers Ruth, who is desperate to find a way to escape to England. Several attempts to get a valid visa for Ruth fail and Quin realizes that the only way to get her out of the country quickly is through a marriage of convenience. The marriage has to stay a secret until Ruth receives British citizenship, but once safe in London, the annulment of the marriage takes much longer than expected.
Ruth and her family try to re-establish their life in the world of refugees, using their humour to keep the terror and desolation at bay. When the university that Ruth is set to attend is forced to transfer her, the Quakers enrol her into Quinton's University. She ends up being lectured by her own husband by coincidence, alongside the snobbish and clever Verena Plackett, who has ambitiously set her sights on Quinton. Unaware of Ruth's marriage of convenience, her real fiance Heini, a talented pianist from Budapest, escapes to England, and the unfolding events put Ruth and Quinton's secret marriage of convenience on the verge of being discovered and betrayed. Desperately trying to cling to their moral values, Ruth and Quin deny their growing attraction for each other - then World War II breaks out and personal intentions become insignificant.
;''Loneliness'' (Thai title - เหงา, ''Ngao''; directed by Youngyooth Thongkonthun) Pin, a young woman stuck in her apartment due to the cast on her leg, communicates with the outside world via cell phone and text messages. She complains to her boyfriend, Puak, who went on a camping trip in Chiang Mai, that she feels so lonely. Every night, Pin exchanges text messages with a stranger, who asks to befriend her and seems friendly enough. The stranger says that he is in somewhere "cramped" for 100 days and is oddly only able to be contacted at night. After sending the mysterious stranger her photo, Pin asks for one in return and is sent the same photo. When she questions him, he says he is in the picture next to her. A ghostly face is slightly visible next to Pin's smiling face. As she researches recent deaths, Pin discovers that the son of Princess Sophia of Virnistan died and was buried with a cellphone so he can communicate with his mother or connect to someone else whenever he feels lonely. Pin then gets a text from the stranger, saying that he will come to her place now. All of the lights begin to go out and Pin cries in fear. She is then assaulted by the ghost and is thrown out of the window to her death. A scene from the past shows the prince receiving a text message from his girlfriend ending the relationship which causes him to commit suicide by walking in front of a taxi cab causing an accident, the same accident that was the cause of Pin's broken leg as she was inside the cab.
;''Deadly Charm'' (Thai title - ยันต์สั่งตาย, ''Yan Sang Tai''; directed by Paween Purikitpanya) A nerdy student named Ngid sees his school friends take some drugs, and he is beaten to death. One of the gang's member, Pink, is worried but fails to stop her friends from bullying Ngid. Unfortunately, when he is beaten, he curses his friends on a deadly charm, which requires a photo of a dead person with his/her eyes open. Things get worse when everything keeps moving by itself when ordered by Ngid's soul, and one by one the drug addicts start dying. Even though Pink did not beat him, Ngid's soul decides not to spare her too because she had seen it all yet had not do anything to help him. In the end, a police officer comes by to warn her not to go outside, and is shocked to see Pink laughing after having gouged her own eyes; because the curse requires the victim to see Ngid, he cannot harm her anymore now that she has gotten rid of her ability to see. It is revealed that the person in the photo Ngid used to practice the charm is Pin, the disabled young woman in the first story who died with her eyes open.
;''The Man In The Middle'' (Thai title - คนกลาง, ''Khon Klang; directed by Banjong Pisanthanakun) Four friends, Aey, Ter, Shin, and Phuak, go river rafting in a lonely jungle in Chiang Mai. That night while camping, Aey tells his friends that if he were to die, the person who sleeps in the middle will be the next to die along with him. The next day, as the four friends negotiate the river rapids, Aey is thrown from the raft and cannot be located. After many hours of searching, the three remaining friends give up and decide to stay and camp overnight. Shaken by Aey's death tale, the three friends fight over who has to sleep in the middle, eventually coming to an arrangement where none of them need to. Later that night, Aey arrives at the camp and enters the tent, but ongoing strange events make his friends suspicious. Ter, Shin and Phuak leave the tent for a "smoke" and Shin then finds Aey's body. Horrified, Ter, Shin and Phuak run into the woods where they are shocked to find their own dead bodies floating in the river. It is revealed that all four had drowned when the raft tipped over in the rapids, but only Aey accepted his death, while the rest continued to ignore the fact that they had died. In the end, the four friends bond together as spirits.
;''Flight 244'' (Thai title - เที่ยวบิน 224, ''Thiao Bin 244''; directed by Parkpoom Wongpoon) Flight attendant Pim is secretly having an affair with Prince Albert of Virnistan. One day she is ordered to go aboard an airliner on a charter flight for Princess Sophia, the wife of the Prince. Her fellow stewardess, Tui, is unable to attend the flight as her brother Ter had been found drowned in Chiang Mai. What was supposed to be an ordinary flight turns into something tragic when the princess forms an allergic reaction to Pim's lunch as it contains shrimp to which the princess is allergic to. After the royal house of Virnistan requests that her corpse be sent back immediately for cremation, Pim is required to remain on the plane and escort the body - the only passenger - for the return flight. As the Princess tries to get out of her shroud, Pim's worst nightmare begins. When the plane lands, Pim's body is found lying on the floor, under the feet of the intact enshrouded corpse of Princess Sophia.
A man and his talking donkey take a young boy, Tal, on an adventure. The man has been chosen to tell a story on an occasion of great importance and it must be the very best story possible. The man has chosen Tal to travel with him, thinking that the boy will be able to help him choose the right story. Each day they travel through different lands and meet new characters, and each night the man shares a new story with Tal. He is expecting that, by journey's end, Tal will choose the best story.
David Owen, a New York lawyer, is constantly plagued by noise, particularly car alarms, but also burglar alarms and backup beepers. Despite putting up with the noise for years, including the formative years of his daughter, he finally breaks into a car to shut off its alarm, and is arrested by police. Owen and his family try living in the countryside for a weekend, but it only replaces one set of noise problems with another. Despite attempting to legally deal with the constant barrage of noise, he makes no progress, and continues to resort to vandalism, resulting in higher and higher court penalties and straining his relationship with his wife, who finally asks him to leave.
While living on his own, Owen continues to destroy alarms, and progressively damages cars based on the number of violations. During this, he meets and begins a relationship with Ekaterina, a Russian student. She confronts him with the fact that he is "The Rectifier", a vigilante personality, complete with monikered stickers, that Owen has adopted. After falling in with him, Ekaterina convinces Owen to start a ballot initiative. While initially slow, the measure garners explosive popularity. Despite this, it is shut down by Mayor Schneer, who disdains the Rectifier and believes supporting the measure would encourage vigilantism.
After being shut down through a loophole that prevents the ballot measure from appearing, Owen outfits a car with numerous alarms and much louder horns. He then parks in front of city hall and sets off his alarms, citing the various laws that so frustrated Owen initially when city hall security demands he turn them off. After enraging a nearby tenant, Judge Kornreich, his vehicle is attacked and the judge is mistakenly arrested as The Rectifier. Kornreich sues Owen for pain and suffering damages, and Owen goes to court. During his cross-examination of Kornreich, Owen intentionally alludes that his actions could be considered assault and battery, establishing a legal precedent. Owen is found guilty, though Kornreich obviously intends to be lenient on him. Having won a legal victory, Owen reunites with his wife. Walking out of the courthouse, an activist approaches Owen about blowing up a billboard TV that has been causing accidents and is an eyesore of the cityscape. A dual ending is provided, one in which Owen flees with the activist, and one where he politely declines to accompany her and gets into a cab with his wife.
For 500 years, the secret society of the Midnight Sun has been waiting for the homunculus, the man-made man, to rise, and now the evil Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais are going to throw Cass and Max-Ernest to the sharks unless they tell them where he resides. After going on an excursion with their science teacher, the two are tricked by Dr. L after receiving a note from Pietro saying he will meet them on a ship, from which they barely escaped. After finding out their teacher is really Owen, the accent changing member of the Terces Society, they are introduced to the great magician himself, Pietro, who gives them a mission. The mission is to find the homunculus before the Midnight Sun does. Max-Ernest also finds out that 'Terces' is "secret" backwards. Cass is grounded when she returns home, because she was missing for too long. While on the Midnight Sun ship, Cass and Max-Ernest discovers a strange ball (also called the sound prism), which enables her to hear all types of sounds by putting it to her ear and makes wonderful music when thrown in the air carefully. Cass also discovers a birth certificate. The name is unrecognizable, thus making Cass wonder if she was the wrong girl that the Terces Society wanted. She ignores it, even though it pains her, and continues her mission. Later Cass finds out she is really adopted and was delivered in a box on her grandfathers' doorstep.
This time teaming up with a new classmate named Yoji (who prefers to be called Yo-Yoji), the three need to escape the grasp of their parents, and find the alchemist's grave. Cass convinces her grandparents to take her, Max-Ernest, and Yo-Yoji camping to find the homunculus. When they find the homunculus, they take it back to Terces, but it runs away when he finds out they don't have good food. Meanwhile, Amber gets to meet the Skelton Sisters, who are in cahoots with Midnight Sun, and they ask her to do something for her. Later that night, Amber is hidden in Cass' bushes, and Cass hears noises. She goes outside and plays the Sound Prism, thinking it's Mr. Cabbage Face. Amber records the song from the sound prism, which attracts the homunculus, and gives it to the Skelton Sisters. They play it at a concert, and end up trapping the homunculus and Cass. They end up back near Whisper Lake, where they went camping. The Midnight Sun took there because Lord Pharaoh's, the nasty man who created Mr. Cabbage Face, the homunculus, grave is there, and with it, all of his alchemist things, which is what Ms. Mauvais and Dr. L want in order to help their mission in receiving immortality. The Midnight Sun and Terces Society members engage in combat because the Midnight Sun had captured Cass and Mr. Cabbage Face, in the while Max-Ernest and Yo-Yoji are up on a mountain, with the Sound Prism and a whip. Their plan is to create a sonic boom with it, and make the mountain avalanche onto the Midnight Sun and seal the coffin in the ground. When a huge boulder falls off the mountain from the sonic boom, Cass and Mr. Cabbage Face, now freed, are trying their own efforts to put the coffin back in the grave, but Mr. Cabbage Face screams to Cass to get out of the way, because the boulder was heading towards her. He pushes her out of the way, and Mr. Cabbage Face gets crushed into the ground with the coffin. The homunculus dies, due to, and is sealed with his maker in that grave forever. Midnight Sun members disperse, not before Dr. L can have a nice chat (surprisingly) with his brother/old friend. At the end, Max-Ernest, Cass and Yo-Yoji take the Oath of Terces, created by the Jester, the homunculus' only friend 500 years ago, and Cass' real great, great, great, great... great grandfather.
The plot of the story is largely the same as Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', but with a few twists in the tale. The story centres on Ophelia and her views on the activities taking place in Denmark and how they affect Hamlet. The author turns the story on its head by making Ophelia the heroine of the story. She is the one who comes up with the plans to save Hamlet. She is the one who proves to be brave while Hamlet appears weak and is left to follow.
The novel is a retelling of ''Hamlet'' from Ophelia's point of view.
''Legacy of Blood'' is an adventure in which one of the player characters has inherited rulership of Fenholm, and must deal with the challenges this brings.
The player character's cousin Rolph is dead, and as his heir, the player character was willed his dominion: Fenhold. The Deep Swamp is threatening to engulf all of this new holding. People are seeing ghosts, disappearing without reason, and crops are suddenly blighted. The farmers don't like the swampdwellers, the swampdwellers don't like the farmers, and no one likes the halflings. It is the player character's task to make all this shipshape once again.
The half-Apache Chato is racially abused in a bar by the sheriff. He shoots the sheriff dead in self-defense and rides out of town on his Appaloosa. Former Confederate Captain Quincey Whitmore dons his uniform and gathers a posse of former Confederate soldiers and sympathizers. Chato, staying one step ahead, fires on the posse from a hilltop drawing them into a difficult ascent while he descends the other side and scatters their horses. He kills a rattlesnake and wraps the rattle in the snake's skin. Tensions begin to create divisions within the posse. They come across a set of empty wickiups and gleefully burn them.
Chato greets his wife at their hogan and gives his son the rattlesnake toy he fashioned earlier. Chato resumes his life breaking horses during the day. The posse discovers his home, and Elias, Earl, Hall and Lansing brutally gang rape Chato's wife, and then hogtie her naked outside the hogan as bait to lead Chato into a trap. Chato devises a plan with his full Apache kinsman, who creates a diversion allowing Chato to rescue his wife. Chato's kinsman is wounded and the posse hang him upside down and burn him alive. Whitmore, disgusted, shoots the burning man in the head.
Chato abandons European dress and dons native moccasins and loin cloth. He lures the posse members into individual traps, starting with Earl Hooker, who is fixated on Chato's wife. Finding Earl's dead body staked out in the desert, the posse grows more fractious, and they begin to turn on each other. When two of the posse turn back, Elias kills one and chases the other, but both are killed by Chato. Jubal kills Whitmore when he objects, inciting the last two members of the posse, Malechie and Logan, to beat Jubal to death with rocks. Chato kills Malechie and allows Logan to flee without supplies, alone and horseless, deeper into Apache territory as Chato watches impassively from his horse.
Without ever having met and 5,000 kilometers apart, Marilyn Vine and Ria Lynch, trade houses. They're both looking for an escape from their grieving and martial crises. By running away, both come to discover about themselves and to face their problems at home.
Living in suburban Connecticut, upper middle class Marilyn and her college professor husband Greg Vine are grieving over their fifteen year old son Dale’s recent death in a tragic motorcycle accident. Unable to cope, Marilyn views her marriage as collateral damage.
Dublin residing Ria learns from her property manager husband Danny Lynch that not only does he not want to have another child with her as she does, but that he has fallen in love with another woman who is pregnant with his child.
Rather than a planned Hawaiian getaway with Greg, Marilyn tries to contact Danny, who Greg had met long ago at a business function. She wants to arrange a two month house swap with someone in Dublin, as she feels she needs to go somewhere to be alone. She actually contacts Ria, who also needs to get away from her own situation. So, she agrees to the house swap on the spot, whose two children, teenage Annie and adolescent Brian, will stay with Danny for the first month before joining her in Connecticut.
Complete opposites, reserved Marilyn keeps Dale’s death from everyone in Ireland, including Ria and Ria feels the need to tell everyone in the States about Danny leaving her. Neither Marilyn or Ria know what to expect in their new surroundings.
There are unofficial welcoming committees on each side of the Atlantic, composed of Marilyn and Ria's closest friends. Both Marilyn and Ria make a special connection with someone in the other's life. Marilyn finds solace in Ria's garden and becomes friends with restaurateur Colm Maguire, who is tending to Ria's garden in her absence, and Ria gets a job cooking, and has a date or two with Greg’s brother Andy. Beyond these connections, each of Marilyn and Ria's lives at home continue without them.
Meanwhile, Ria's husband Danny’s economic and personal problems seem to bring ruin to those close to him. Thanks to Marilyn working with his mother, they find a way to save the house on Tara Road.
The two women’s new experiences help them view their life changes slightly differently than before and they are able to move ahead as stronger people.
The series focuses on three generations of the Grant family working on an unnamed Great Western Railway branch line. The first section, entitled ''Permanent Way'', depicts the construction of the line in the reign of Queen Victoria, the second, entitled ''Clear Ahead'', shows the line in operation in Edwardian times, and the third, ''Fire on the Line'', is set during the Second World War.
Since the series was made for children, each part of the story focuses on events from the perspective of then younger members of the Grant family. The same characters reappear as adults as the story progresses, but in incidental roles.
"God's Wonderful Railway" was a nickname for the pre-nationalisation Great Western Railway.
As with his previous work ''Fitzpatrick's War'', ''The Martian General's Daughter'' borrows heavily from classical history; in this case, the setting is reminiscent of the Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and his son, Commodus. Unlike ''Fitzpatrick's War'', Judson provides little background to explain how the world evolved into the shape set forth in the novel. The story takes place in the late twenty-third century, in which much of the Northern Hemisphere, as well as extraplanetary colonies on Mars and Jupiter, are dominated by the Pan-Polarian Empire, which is implicitly descended from the United States of America (though this is never expressly stated, references are made to the "old capital" near Maryland.) Pan-Polarian society is based on that of Imperial Rome, including an imperial cult and a variety of polytheistic and monolatric religions that have largely replaced the major religions of our time, including the cults of "El Bis" and the goddess Marilyn. The Empire's primary rivals are Persia and China, but which also fights against a number of enemies in Africa and South America. A nano-engineered plague has been released by one of the warring parties which causes metal to corrode and become useless; as a result, advanced technology is beginning to fail and the world is quickly degenerating to pre-industrial technology. The setting alternates between chronicling the career of General Black (and his daughter's career as his aide-de-camp) during the 2270s and 2280s and his attempt to seize the Imperial throne in the 2290s during a multi-party struggle resembling the Year of the Four Emperors and the Crisis of the Third Century. General Black makes his career fighting under philosopher-emperor Mathias the Glistening, who perishes when his cybernetic implants become infected with the nano-plague. Mathias is succeeded by his sociopathic son, Luke Anthony, whose behavior becomes increasingly erratic over time. Justa relates the excesses of Luke's regime, including his execution of perceived enemies, financial corruption, sexual perversion, etc. General Black is made governor of Anatolia but is periodically recalled to provide various services to Luke. As a result of personally witnessing the Emperor's madness, General Black becomes more and more disillusioned and his health begins to suffer. Ultimately Luke is murdered and a struggle ensues between various short-reigned barracks emperors. By this time General Black and Justa are stationed on Mars, but when one of Black's political rivals seizes power, kills Black's family on Earth and infects Mars with the metal-eating nanoplague, Black's troops (many of them Boers, who are described as largely nomadic in the twenty-third century) declare him emperor and he leads an invasion force back to Earth. Although victorious in battle, the nanoplague renders the conflict moot as technology will no longer support an empire as large as the Pan-Polarian state, which crumbles into a myriad of ethnic and regional successor states. Ultimately, Justa and her father settle in Amsterdam, which has regained the prominence it enjoyed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is the center of a prosperous successor state, where Justa marries, has children, and assiduously avoids politics.
Reclusive author Arlen Faber wrote a best-selling spiritual book, ''Me and God'', but rejects the celebrity it has brought him and lives anonymously in Philadelphia. He jealously guards his identity and refuses to cooperate with his publisher, who wishes him to help publicize the 20th anniversary of the book's release. However, his identity is gradually revealed to a mail carrier, bookstore owner Kris, and chiropractor Elizabeth.
Arlen is reluctantly drawn into relationships with Kris and Elizabeth each of whom has their own problems. Kris is an alcoholic who is just out of rehab and who is troubled by the impending failure of his bookstore and his father's persistent alcoholism. Elizabeth and her seven-year-old son were abandoned by her husband, causing her to be overprotective of the boy. She has moved to Philadelphia to open a chiropractic clinic and start her life anew.
A back injury causes Arlen to crawl to the clinic for help. Elizabeth fixes his back problem and the two of them begin awkwardly dating. She is reticent to become involved because of her concern for her son and having been left by her husband. He is an emotional mess, largely because of the death of his father from Alzheimer's. Despite writing a spiritual book about conversations with God, he is spiritually adrift and seeks answers to difficult questions. He charms her, but he also says inappropriate, abrasive things that almost doom the relationship.
Kris and Arlen make a deal where they trade books for answers to questions. Each day, Arlen gives books to Kris to sell and allows him to ask him a single question about spiritual matters.
Arlen's newfound relationships come to a crisis when Kris's father dies and he shows up at Arlen's house for solace while Elizabeth is there. She comforts Kris, but Arlen is emotionally blocked and unable to provide sympathy, which appalls Elizabeth.
The crisis impels Arlen to change. He arranges to have his book's new release held at Kris's bookstore seemingly saving it from bankruptcy. At the book's release, he reveals the impact of his father's death to both Elizabeth and fans of his book. He tells them that he does not speak with God, that he had many questions after his father's death and did his best to come up with some answers. Elizabeth is touched by Arlen's revelation, but she still does not trust him and runs from the bookstore. Arlen pursues her and they have an emotional reconnection. They agree to make a new attempt at a relationship and are last seen walking down the sidewalk together.
Episode one questions whether the "nazi who said sorry", whose actions were the most far reaching and significant of the trial, was a troubled soul seeking forgiveness of the German people or the mastermind of a cynical strategy that fooled the world?
The film begins with re-enactment of Speer's arrest, which US prosecutor Henry King says came as a surprise to the aristocratic Architect who became Hitler's armaments minister. Following arrest he is indicted of war crimes and transferred to Nuremberg Prison with Hermann Göring and other senior Nazis. Speer is confronted with full crimes of the Nazis and says he will admit common responsibility against the advice of his Defence attorney and US Army intelligence psychologist Capt. Gustav Gilbert takes an interest.
Chief Prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson is concerned about the public trial and expresses the value of a single witness willing to accept culpability. Fellow defendant Fritz Sauckel incriminates Speer in the importation of slave labour. Speer admits to giving little thought to the legality or morality of this. Professor Richard Overy proposes that Speer saw his only chance in salvation was to establish a relationship with the Western prosecutors.
Speer's defence put forward their client's countermandment of Hitler's scorched Earth orders and plot on the Führer's life breaking the Nazis' common front and infuriating its leader Göring. Speer explains to Gilbert his plot to gas Hitler which US prosecutor Whitney Harris admits was risky but half-hearted. Gilbert realises Speer can be used by the prosecution, and on his advice, isolates Göring who prison guard Emilio Di Palma says was worshipped by the other defendants.
In the dock, Göring launches a devastatingly successful defence against cross-examination and Speer begins to waver. Jackson agrees to cross-examine Speer himself and according to Overy gives the defendant an easy ride. Harris says Speer gave the prosecution what they needed by freely acknowledging his individual responsibility and denouncing the crimes of Hitler and the Nazi regime. As a result, Sauckel is sentenced to death while Speer gets only a 20-year prison sentence.
US Army intelligence officer John Dolibois concludes that Speer used his charisma very effectively, persuading a lot of people and pulling the wool over their eyes.
Episode two questions whether Hitler's chosen successor could succeed where he had failed by re-igniting Nazi pride from the witness box.
The film begins with a re-enactment of the press conference organised following the surrender of Hermann Göring at which he expresses surprise that he is to be indicted for war crimes. The regime's top soldier had a fun loving public image that concealed the brutality of the founder of the Gestapo. US Army intelligence psychologist Capt. Gustav Gilbert hears from the prisoner how he knows he will hang but first will convince the German people that what he did was for them
The suicides of Hitler and Himmler have left Göring the highest-ranking Nazi survivor and Prison Commandant Colonel Burton Andrus confides in Gilbert that without him they have not got a case. Prison guard Bud Jones tells of the extraordinary procedures put in place following the suicide of Robert Ley. Gilbert is assigned prisoner liaison to watch over the inmates and Göring confides in him his wish to be remembered as a great man.
As the trial begins the defendants, led by Göring, are initially jubilant but US prosecutor Whitney Harris tells that a film on the camps brings home to them their crimes. Chief Prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson's cross-examination of Göring collapses into farce thanks to the defendant's glib responses which Professor Richard Overy reveals put the future of the trial in doubt. Radio Journalist Harold Burson explains British Prosecutor David Maxwell-Fyfe rescued the trial by changing tack and putting Göring on the ropes.
Harris explains that the belated capture of Auschwitz Commandant SS Lt-Col. Rudolf Höss finally revealed the true extent of the crimes and led to the defendants giving up the fight. Overy explains that Göring's united front collapsed as one by one the defendants denounce Hitler and even Göring himself. Göring is subsequently sentenced to death by hanging. He lodges an appeal against the hanging, preferring a soldier's death by shooting, but this is denied. The night of his execution he takes his own life with a cyanide capsule.
Overy concludes that with Göring sentenced and the myth that Hitler destroyed the Third Reich was finally laid to rest.
Episode three explores the mind of one of the most fanatical of all Nazis and the insight that gives into the psychology of dictatorship.
Hess is brought to Nuremberg from the UK where he had flown 4 years earlier much to the bemusement of the British. Overy explains that they must have quickly realised he was not normal. In the intervening time Hess's mental state has further deteriorated and when interviewed by Chief Interrogator Colonel John Amen proclaims amnesia. Chief Interpreter Richard Sonnenfeldt explains that they brought in Göring to confront Hess but that he too failed to make an impression.
The prosecutors fear Hess may be unfit for trial and Prison Psychiatrist Major Douglas Kelley is assigned to assess him. US Army Intelligence officer John Dolibois recalls that Kelley concludes from a Rorschach Inkblot test that Hess is not a true amnesiac but may have even convinced himself. US prosecutor Whitney Harris explains how after the trial begins with Hess pleading "Nein" the defendant claims to have been faking all along. However Sonnenfeldt points out that as the trial continues Hess's behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre and paranoid.
Psychopathologist Prof. Edgar Jones proposes Hess's behaviour patterns may be his way of escaping reality as he is forced to face the extent of the atrocities and choose between accepting his part of the blame or forsaking his Führer. However, as history Professor Robert Gellatel explains it is difficult to construct a case against Hess as he was imprisoned in England when the worst of the atrocities were carried out so British Prosecutor Mervyn Griffith-Jones must argue a conspiracy charge linking the pre-1939 persecutions to the post-1939 atrocities and a crimes against peace charge proving the flight to Scotland was merely a ruse.
Meanwhile, an increasingly unstable Hess is preparing to make an explosive revelation. Prisoner liaison Gustave M. Gibert discovers what this may be in Hess's British medical records where he talks of being hypnotised by a secret Jewish drug. In his final statement Hess makes a long rambling speech, which Gilbert explains blames the Jews for their own elimination, ending with his exultation of the Führer. Hess is consequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
In prison Hess drafts a letter proclaiming himself Führer of the Fourth Reich and becomes an icon of the neo-Nazi movement.
Beth is a successful pop music singer and a devout Protestant Christian from Texas, United States. She and her boyfriend Steve both belong to a group known as the "Cowboys for Christ", who travel to "heathen areas" of the world to preach Christianity. They travel to Glasgow, Scotland, hoping to save some souls once there. However, they are shocked when they receive a very negative reception, Beth even being set upon by a large dog.
After performing a concert at a local cathedral, the duo are approached by Lord Lachlan and his wife Delia, aristocrats from the small village of Tressock in the Scottish lowlands. They invite Beth and Steve to come back with them to Tressock in order to preach.
Meanwhile, Detective Orlando is sent to Tressock, posing as the local police officer, in order to secretly investigate reports of a pagan cult.
Beth and Steve decide that they shall begin their preaching at the May Day celebrations in the village. Meanwhile, Orlando discovers that the people of the village worship the ancient Celtic goddess Sulis.
In an attempt to impress the locals, Steve and Beth agree to becoming the local Queen of the May and the Laddie for the festival. In this role, they must split up for the day, and it is during this that the Laddie is devoured by the locals on an island in the middle of the river Sulis. Beth discovers this, and tries to escape, but is captured and embalmed.
In an effort to curb her wild antics, the parents of Zig (Tricia Leigh Fisher) send her to the Ogilvy Academy, an elite boarding school in Greece, along with her well-behaved fraternal twin sister Jennifer (Lisa Lörient). Determined to be expelled at the earliest opportunity, Zig will go to extreme lengths to have her way.
Bayonetta, a witch who was revived twenty years ago from the bottom of a lake, has no memories of her past. Owning one-half of the "Eyes of the World," Bayonetta leaves for Vigrid when the informant Enzo informs her of rumors that the other half is there.
Afterward, Bayonetta confronts another Umbra Witch named Jeanne, who seemingly has ties to Bayonetta's past, and a young man named Luka, who blames Bayonetta for his father's death. Eventually, Bayonetta discovers that Jeanne is associated with the angels somehow, and fights her again. Afterwards, she meets a lost child named Cereza, who believes Bayonetta to be her mother and starts following her. Returning to the human world, Bayonetta continues her search for the Right Eye, journeying to an island named Isla del Sol with Luka and Cereza.
Bayonetta is confronted again by Jeanne, who explains Bayonetta was a child born from an Umbra Witch and a Lumen Sage, a forbidden union. Bayonetta defeats Jeanne, who reveals the reason Bayonetta possesses the Left Eye is because she has accepted her fate. Bayonetta hands Jeanne the gem she had been carrying, making her remember she is Cereza, and that Jeanne was once her friend; it was Jeanne who sealed her away, giving Bayonetta the gem to protect her and the Left Eye. After Jeanne then sacrifices herself to save Bayonetta, she continues through the tower with Luka and Cereza.
At the top, Bayonetta meets Balder, the last of the Lumen Sages. Balder reveals he is Bayonetta's father, and plans to reunite the three universes by resurrecting Jubileus, the Creator. He also reveals that Bayonetta herself is the Left Eye, but for her to awaken it, she had to regain her memories. For that reason, he brought Cereza, who is Bayonetta as a child, from the past, to awaken her memories. Confronted by Luka, he throws him to his death, revealing he was the one behind the death of Luka's father, and further reveals that he had mind-controlled Jeanne to do his bidding. Bayonetta fights and seemingly kills Balder, and saves Luka.
After returning Cereza to the past, Bayonetta returns to the present. However, her actions have caused her to awaken the Left Eye, and she collapses. Balder, who had survived the fight, transports himself and the unconscious Bayonetta towards the statue on top of the tower, beginning the resurrection of Jubileus. As the statue launches into space, Jeanne, who had survived, reappears, free from Balder's control. She ascends the launching statue on her motorcycle; reaching Bayonetta, she saves her, but Jubileus comes alive, consuming Balder. Bayonetta defeats Jubileus by summoning Queen Sheba, who punches the deity's soul into the sun. As Jubileus' physical body plummets towards Earth, Jeanne and Bayonetta destroy it.
The epilogue, mirroring the start of the game, shows Jeanne and Bayonetta continuing to battle against the angels.
The 16th (Service) Battalion (2nd Salford), Lancashire Fusiliers was one of the Pals battalions that had been created to allow friends and colleagues to fight side by side. On 21 June 1916, Cpl. Stephen Sharples quells the fears of Pte. Walter Fiddes and best friend L/Cpl. Thomas Mellor that the war would be over before they could see action with the announcement that their battalion would soon take part in the ''big push''. The three men were among the volunteers that had joined up in 1914 in response to Lord Kitchener's call to make up the bulk of the British Army. To relieve the French at Verdun, an Anglo-French diversionary attack is to be launched at the River Somme. German divisional commander Gen. Baron Franz von Soden relies on the experience of veterans such as Cpl. Friedrich Hinkel against the biggest British military deployment in the war thus far. The British go over-the-top at on 1 July expecting little resistance after a 7 day's artillery bombardment of enemy positions but are met by machine-gun fire within minutes.
Cpl. Hinkel faces the 36th (Ulster) Division, which is quickly forced into retreat while away Capt. Thomas Tweed leads the 2nd Salford Pals' B-Company in an attack on the Thiepval Plateau that sees the death of Mellor. The Ulster division regroup to take the stronghold of the Schwaben Redoubt and Maj-Gen. Sir Edward Percival recommends committing the reserves to secure the position and take Thiepval from the north but corps commander Lt.-Gen. Sir Thomas Morland rejects the new plan. With two-thirds of his company dead or wounded Tweed takes refuge for two hours behind a bank in no-man's land. Sharples disappears attempting to capture the enemy machine gun nest and Fiddis is wounded taking a message to battalion requesting withdrawal. Moorland, some from the front, follows the failure of the first and second attacks on Thiepval by sticking to the battle plan and ordering a third. The more adaptive German commanders retake the Redoubt rescuing Hinkel's position and forcing the Ulstermen into a bloody retreat.
The bloodiest day in British military history ends with and devastating communities like Salford but this was just the beginning of a battle that would last for four months. The British learn from their failures and over the following month they make steady gains along the front, by removing inflexible commanders like Morland and delegating to officers on the spot such as Brig-Gen. Herbert Shoubridge, who commands the 26 September attack on Thiepval spearheaded by Lt-Col. Frank Maxwell V.C. The artillery fires the new ''creeping barrage'' with the 12th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment following immediately behind, easily to overrun the first German trenches but failing to keep up; Maxwell's men comes under fire from Infantry Regiment 180. A slaughter is averted when British tanks arrive, forcing the terrified Germans into retreat only to be ditched and disabled a short time later.
Soden is distracted by an official visit from the Kaiser's adjutant Gen. Hans von Plessen and when communication lines are cut he is rendered helpless. Meanwhile, the British Generals are kept up to date by reports from artillery observers and air observations, allowing them to order re-bombardment of enemy held positions. Maxwell moves forward with his men to set up a command post at the Thiepval Chateau from where he controls the attack. With the infantry rapidly running out of officers it is left to the initiative of men from the ranks like Pvt. Frederick Edwards to secure a British victory. Plessen waits for six hours at Soden's HQ for news of the attack, by which time it is too late to order a counterattack and Thiepval is lost. The victory allows the British to secure all their objectives from 1 July and the French at Verdun are able to launch a counter-attack to push back the Germans. Thiepval is now the site of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme commemorating the the casualties with no known grave including Sharples, Mellor and Fiddes.
Olivia, is young, beautiful, brilliant, and effortlessly charming. She is a dedicated charity worker, responsible for establishing free clinics across the country for poor women. When she meets millionaire Danny Keegan, the pair soon form a relationship and he falls for her. However, it soon becomes clear that not everyone admires Olivia. Danny’s college friend, Melanie, a photo journalist for the ''Los Angeles Post'', thinks that there is something suspicious about Olivia and soon wants to learn more about the mysterious woman.
With the help of her assistant, Finn, Melanie discovers the truth about Olivia, finding out that her Ph.D. is fake, that she is responsible for many acts of embezzlement and that she has another lover on the side. Then she discovers Olivia’s numerous identities, the multiple marriages that have left her very rich, and the suspicious deaths of each of her husbands. Soon enough, Olivia realizes that Melanie is on to her and begins to take action against her. She will do anything to protect herself, even if it comes to murder.
In the end, after much difficulty, Melanie manages to expose Olivia as the evil woman she truly is to everyone, including Danny, and Olivia gets her well-earned comeuppance when the arriving police shoot her to death after Olivia mindlessly attempts to shoot them. Afterwards, Melanie successfully publishes Olivia's story for the ''Los Angeles Post'', and she and Danny begin to start a friendship.
''Eleventh Hour'' follows Dr. Jacob Hood (Rufus Sewell), a brilliant biophysicist and Special Science Adviser for the FBI who is brought in to investigate crimes of a scientific nature that other agents may be unable to solve. Hood is the government's last line of defense, and it is his mission to keep scientific advances out of the hands of those with nefarious intentions. Special Agent Rachel Young (Marley Shelton), of the FBI's executive protection detail, is assigned to protect Hood. Both Dr. Hood and Special Agent Young are assisted by Special Agent Felix Lee (Omar Benson Miller), towards the end of the series.
The game's story is about Bill Gilbert who applies to work at the royal palace. After passing a few trial tests, he is introduced to the King Mark as Royal Treasure Searcher. From that point, he starts ascending. First, he chases bandits, collects taxes and does simple delivery tasks.
A plot twist occurs once he is tasked to bring a powerful artifact, known as Rage Chest, from the wizards to the King. While transporting the artifact, he cuts himself by it and gets bound with the spirits, thus making him unable to give the chest to the King, instead allowing him to use it for himself.
The film opens with a surreal sequence of dancing women, monkey-like figures fearing lightning, and native Brazilian drummers. An old man begins chanting over a closed coffin. The coffin opens and a man rises. He appears with a top hat, cape, and long fingernails.
In an isolated inn called "''Hospedaria dos Prazeres''" (Hostel of Pleasures), the mysterious proprietor advertises for employees to serve his guests while they stay the night of a tempestuous storm. As the storm gathers and night falls, various people begin to show up. The proprietor (Marins) allows some to stay while informing others that there are no vacancies, to their obvious displeasure because of the severity of the storm. A wealthy patron who is turned away vows to get the police. The guest book is already filled with the names of the permitted guests before they arrive; they include a group of drunken and promiscuous bohemian motorcyclists, an adulterous couple, a suicidal man, an amorous couple, a group of thieves who just finished a robbery, and some gambling businessmen preparing a deal to bankrupt a competitor. The number of guests is twelve.
As the night passes, the guests continue with their assorted activities. In the early morning, they all notice that their watches all display midnight and wonder how time has stopped. When they question the proprietor, they are all presented with gruesome scenes of their dead bodies, revealing that their deaths occurred prior to midnight in the storm. The motorcyclists are shown as dead and mutilated victims of a massive drunk-driving accident. The thieves are shown shot dead by police after the robbery. The corrupt businessmen are charred victims of arson. The proprietor informs them that the clocks all turning to midnight was part of their eternal torment, as the absence of time is one of the key aspects of their punishment. The proprietor then warns the guest not to anger him, as it would unleash his dark side (the Coffin Joe-esque figure scene at the start of the film).
The scene switches to daytime, and the wealthy man returns to the site of the hostel with the police. Rather than the hostel, there is a cemetery with a funeral in progress. Laughing off the incident as confusion, the man and police leave. The coffin is the same from which the hostel proprietor rises at the beginning of the film. The movie itself ends with the proprietor walking in the graveyard. He ultimately turns to the camera as the image shifts quickly to a skull wearing the same hat as the proprietor. As blood flows from the empty eye sockets, the film ends.
Gordini Malvezzi is a family of the Romagna gentry. The nuclear family is composed of siblings Elena, Vittorio, and Camillo. Countess Elena is an attractive middle-aged woman who plays the part of a matriarch and indulges herself in sexual relationships with common men of the town but avoids further rapport because she is afraid they are just after her money. Count Vittorio is a secularist professor who has pursued fruitless efforts to launch a political career. On the other hand, Camillo is a seventeen-year-old seminary student who is in constant struggle with his aristocratic background and Catholic upbringing and finds a symbolic revolt in adopting a hardline Maoist political line.
Vittorio is in love with his accountant-secretary Giovanna but, although sympathetic with him, repelled by Vittorio's meek and impotent attitude, she rejects his advances and runs a relationship with Carlo, the young and ambitious accountant who also happens to be the treasurer of the local Unified Socialist Party branch. Carlo makes a plan to marry into the rich landed gentry through Elena and the party offers Vittorio a candidacy for the local administration elections. When Vittorio eventually drops his restrained support to Camillo's 'organisation' for the sake of his socialist candidacy, Camillo starts to subversively target his brother's campaign.
An enchanting tale of the conflicts assailing Helena, a lovely woman in her forties who must choose between her solid marriage and a flaming passion from the past. This movingly poetic tale portrays life through its female characters, showcasing the secrets and simplicity of love and the difficulties of relationships.
Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman returned to Earth as a hero, travelling the globe, giving speeches on Mars, and supporting a return voyage. Now six years later, Waterman gets to return to his beloved red planet, and to the mysterious dwelling in the Valles Marineris region. However, the second voyage has sponsorship not from governments, but from corporations, most notably from millionaire Daryl Trumball, whose son is sent on the mission to make his father proud... and money. Now, Jamie finds himself locked in a war between Trumball's wishes of exploiting the planet, his job as mission director, and his own desires to explore the cliff dwelling that could hold the key to discovering the planet's past inhabitants.
Spike (McLaglen) travels the world as the mate of a schooner. He has a little address book full of sweethearts, but everywhere he goes, he finds that someone has been there before him, leaving behind with each girl a heart-shaped charm with an anchor inscribed on it. In Central America, he takes a dislike to another sailor, Salami (Armstrong), but before they can settle their differences, they brawl with the police and are thrown in jail. Then Spike notices that Salami has a ring shaped like a heart with an anchor inscribed. He has finally found his nemesis. When they are released, they look for a private place to fight, but accidentally fall into the water. Oddly, Spike cannot swim, so when Salami rescues him, they become the best of friends. Inseparable, they sail the seas on the same ships.
Just before they reach Marseille, Spike tells Salami he has finally saved enough money to buy a house and some horses, cows and chickens, but Salami scoffs at the idea. When they dock, Salami has to stay aboard due to a toothache and worries the Spike will get into trouble without him. At a carnival, Spike becomes entranced by the high diver "Mam'selle Godiva" (Brooks). When the barker signals her that Spike gave him the most money to watch her performance, she latches onto him. He is so in love with her that he asks her if she would like to settle down with him; she leads him on so she can get the rest of his money.
When Spike first introduces Salami to her, Salami recognizes her. She was his girlfriend at Coney Island until he left her. She makes it clear that she would very much like to renew their relationship, but he is not interested, nor does he want to hurt Spike by telling him the truth. One night, she sends Spike on an errand so she can visit Salami, whom she finds asleep in bed. She tells him that she has gotten most of Spike's savings and is about to drop him. Salami refuses to take her back; he gets dressed and goes to a bar to get away from her. However, Spike returns to their lodgings and finds her there. He also spots Salami's unmade bed, so he assumes the worst. Meanwhile, Salami gets into a fight with two other sailors and yells for his friend's help. Spike knocks the two men out, then does the same to Salami. After thinking over all the fun they had together, however, he asks Salami if he betrayed him. When Salami says no, they become friends again.
Benjamin Franklin 'Benny' Linn and Timothy Aloysius 'Tim' Dunnovan are two sailors assigned to the same ship. Tim spends some inheritance money he received to purchase a race horse named Little Aaron. Tim’s division officer considers that an ill-advised action and orders Ben to go help Tim get his money back.
Ben and Tim go ashore to seek a return of Tim's money, but it's not a simple matter, as Tim had already hired a team to train Little Aaron. They also discover that Little Aaron has a history of weak ankles and can't run very well. However, they also learn that Little Aaron has an identical twin, Little Shamrock, who has good ankles and can run fast.
Ben and Tim decide they might be able to work things out, so that they can switch the horses and make a lot of money in a horse race. They find themselves trying to juggle the expectations of their division officer, the former owner of Little Aaron, a car hop named Miss Jane, some local mobsters, and their fellow sailors, who all want in on the action.
There’s lots of confusion leading up to the horse race, risks to the participants depending on the outcome, and some unexpected results that follow.
The novel starts with the birth of Fluke, a dog who soon realizes that he used to be a man, the book follows Fluke's efforts to find out what happened to him and why he is a dog. Soon he starts to remember bits of his previous life and remembers he had a wife and daughter. The story follows Fluke's journey to reunite with his family. Along the way, he makes friends with a red dog named Rumbo. Rumbo is killed when a car in a scrap yard the dogs live in falls on him. Fluke appears in numerous Herbert novels. Rumbo started life as a human, like Fluke. Towards the end of ''Fluke'' Rumbo comes back as a Red Squirrel, he later appears in the James Herbert Novels ''The Magic Cottage'' and ''Once''.
In the present, a mysterious Taiwanese fisherman, Muo Sei, lands in the town of Cuyo, Palawan beside the sea where he immediately looks for someone named "Ploning". In a flashback to some years ago, Ploning is known as a hardworking and thoughtful woman who, despite her age and beauty, decided not to marry. She had loved a man named Tomas fourteen years ago who left for a better life in Manila leaving her heartbroken and pining for his return. Despite this, Ploning continues her roles as a dutiful daughter to the town patriarch Susing and to Tomas' grieving mother Intang, a compassionate friend to outsider Alma, and a caretaker of the invalid Juaning, whose son Digo she has taken under her care as well.
Ploning however, decides to leave their peaceful life to look for Tomas in Manila. Digo, overcome by grief, seeks help in the town guest, the nurse Celeste, whom they learn also had a lover named Tomas back in Manila. Due to her deep devotion, Ploning rejects the notion that this Tomas and her Tomas are the same person. On the day Ploning disappears, rain falls on Cuyo who has been suffering a dry season. Muo Sei is later revealed to be Digo, and the townspeople who are leading the town are the people Ploning helped back then.
A down-and-out Hollywood screenwriter and director named Marvin Landisman (Robert Wuhl) is working on cheaply made instructional videos when his years-old script is read by Jack Roth (Martin Landau), a has-been producer who offers to help Marvin find investors for his movie.
Three men willing to put up the money are found — the ruthless businessman Evan (Robert De Niro), the disturbed war veteran Carmine (Danny Aiello) and the eccentric millionaire George (Eli Wallach). But each has a mistress he insists be cast in the film in exchange for his financial backing. The women are the highly talented Beverly (Sheryl Lee Ralph), the alcoholic flight attendant Patricia (Jean Smart) and the perky but talentless Peggy (Tuesday Knight).
Marvin repeatedly is asked to compromise his standards and change his script to accommodate these backers until the script becomes almost unrecognizable from its original form. The project also puts a strain on the marriage of Marvin and his long-patient wife Rachel (Laurie Metcalf).
Marvin's screenplay is a bleak one about a painter who commits suicide, and was inspired by the case of an actor named Warren (Christopher Walken) who abruptly committed suicide by jumping off a building in the midst of the making of a film Marvin had been directing. Roth brings in young Stuart Stratland (Jace Alexander) to adapt the script for the investors' mistresses, but not only does Stuart constantly enrage Marvin with his suggested changes, he falls in love with Peggy and they have an affair.
When Marvin's wife demands he grow up and move with her to New York, where she is opening a restaurant, he breaks up with her instead, giving his loyalty to a film that, as she puts it, nobody wants to see. On the verge of signing contracts, everything falls apart, when Beverly discovers that the role she expected to play has been drastically reduced in Peggy's favor.
Marvin is left alone, a broken man, done with Hollywood for good. Or at least until the next time Jack Roth gets in touch.
Joseph is a retired NYPD cop and Holocaust survivor. He travels to Nuremberg to visit his son Ronnie years after turning his back on him for rejecting a promising career in the NYPD and marrying a local artist, Anna. No sooner does Joseph attempt to heal the rift with Ronnie than he swears that an elderly man living in Ronnie's building, under the false name of Shrager, is the Nazi SS Commander who slaughtered his entire family during World War II. With little hope of seeing him stand trial, Joseph talks Ronnie into exacting justice - and vengeance - and together they set out to kill him.
Flashbacks reveal the teenage love of Young Joseph for a heroic Polish girl, Kashka, and his narrow escape from the massacre, leading to the film's climax.
''A Perfect Spy'' traces the life story of Magnus Pym and his career in British intelligence and as a double agent. The series recounts Pym's childhood with his con-man father, his early years at school and university, his encounters with long-time friend and Czech spy Axel, and his final downfall.
In 2912 a war rages on earth and is escalating out of control. If the Central Galactic Control Computer on Earth is destroyed then all life on the planets will perish with it. The council of Sages give Dexter, an android expert in dangerous missions, and Scooter his trusty Podocephalus, the mission to infiltrate the computer centre and copy the memory in order that Galactic life can continue.
Makabe Rokurota (Hiroshi Abe), a loyal retainer of Princess Yuki (Masami Nagasawa), has been commissioned to transport Yuki and Akizuki's ample treasury of gold bars safely to the politically stable Hayakawa. They disguise themselves as humble firewood peddlers, hiding the gold bars inside the logs they are carrying so as to pass safely through roadblocks set up by Yamana, which is under the control of Takayama Gyobu (Kippei Shiina), whose attire bears a striking resemblance to that of Darth Vader.
Along the way, Rokurota comes across Takezo (Jun Matsumoto) and Shimpachi (Daisuke Miyagawa), who have escaped from forced labor in a gold mine. Takezo and Shimpachi first frown on joining the journey, but eventually agree to help out in the hope of escaping Yamana's oppression and cashing in on the gold reward Rokurota offers them.
In 2006, Ari Folman meets with Boaz, an old friend who tells Ari he is being haunted by a recurrent nightmare in which 26 rabidly angry dogs run toward his home through the streets of Tel Aviv, destroying everything in their way. Boaz explains that, during the 1982 Lebanon War, the other soldiers in his unit knew he would not be able to shoot a human, so they gave him the job of shooting the dogs when they infiltrated a village at night so the animals would not alert the villagers to their presence, and he vividly remembers each of the 26 dogs he killed. Ari is surprised to find that, although he had also fought in the conflict during his stint as an infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, he recalls nothing of his deployment. Troubled by this, later that night he has a vision of his younger self and two other soldiers bathing at night in the water just off the coast of Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city. He recognizes the vision as being connected to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, but he cannot remember enough to put this fragment in context.
Early the next morning, Ari rushes off to see a childhood friend, who is a professional therapist. His friend advises him to seek out others who were in Beirut at the time of the massacre to gain a better understanding of what happened and, hopefully, revive his own memories. The friend further explains that, given the nature of human memory, the vision might not be an exact record of what actually occurred, though it certainly deals with matters of great importance to Ari's inner world.
Ari interviews friends and other soldiers who served in the war, as well as a psychologist specializing in PTSD and Israeli TV reporter Ron Ben-Yishai, who was in Beirut covering the war when the massacre took place. Eventually, Ari's memories start to come back into focus, and he remembers that he "was in the second or third ring" of soldiers involved in the massacre, as his unit fired flares into the sky at night in support of the Israeli-allied Lebanese Christian Phalange militia while they perpetrated the massacre. While he did not know what the militia was up to until after they were finished, he concludes that the holes in his memory were a defense mechanism, since his younger self had felt as responsible for the massacre as those who actually carried it out. The film ends with the animation dissolving into actual news footage of the aftermath of the massacre.
Undercover cop Nick Dunbar's (Arliss Howard) brother Matt (Loren Dean) is accused of killing his teacher, Mr. Bradwood (Mack Harrell) at Adlai Stevenson High School. Nick loses his temper with Hechtor (Larry Pine), the detective in charge, and gets suspended. Nick's partner Ed (Seymour Cassel) pretends to be Nick's dad to enroll him as a student. Matt gives Nick pointers to get people to talk to him. Nick deals with bullies, girls with crushes on him, teachers and staff who range from quirky to bizarre, and a teacher, Robin Torrence (Suzy Amis), to whom he is attracted who thinks he is a teen. The turning point in his popularity (and therefore his ability to get information) happens in the classroom metaphor scene, in which E.E. Cummings' poem ''she being brand new'', is used in its entirety.
Along the way, Nick and Ed narrow the probable motives down to jealousy (Bradwood was trading grades for sex with Dawn-Marie Zeffer (Alexandra Powers), the girlfriend of Kyle Kerns (Peter Dobson), the leader of the bullies) or self-preservation (Bradwood was blackmailing some staff about running a real estate scam on the other teachers). Nick's identity is discovered by Jane Melway (Diane Ladd), one of the con artist's gang, and it all comes to a head at the Pagan May Fest (the school's mascots are the Pagans). Nick and Ed find out that they are probably on the wrong track - Chet Butler (George Wendt), one of the gang's members is missing and an emotional confession from Melway points to Butler as the murderer - not to stop the blackmail, but because Bradwood was engaged to Melway, with whom Butler used to have an affair and whom he still loves. Bradwood also found the love letters in which Butler claims to have killed Melway's husband.
Butler appears and implicates himself with words and actions. A chase ensues, ending with Nick being cornered finding the evidence that cements Butler's guilt. Nick is saved twice in quick succession, once by a schoolmate's opportune distraction, and once by an excellent shot of Ed's at the perfect time. Nick makes a date with Robin Torrence, who now knows he is an adult, and the real-estate scammers are arrested. Hector looks very foolish. Matt is released from jail and can't wait to get back to school.
The story is framed as a one-sided conversation between two people, with Charley doing all of the talking. Charley recounts how he had fallen into a similar conversation with another man in a bar years before, and that man had told him to go to Acme Travel Bureau, a small travel agency located on the 200 block of West 42nd Street in New York City, and hint to the proprietor that he would like to "escape" from Earth and its ever-growing list of problems.
Charley seeks out the travel agency and strikes up a conversation with the proprietor, who remains nameless. After taking some time to assess Charley, the proprietor of the travel agency confides that "just as a sort of little joke," he had printed up a travel brochure for a supposedly fictional planet named Verna, whose inhabitants had evolved some time prior to humans, but were physically very similar to humans. As opposed to the warlike ways displayed by humankind through the years, the Vernans had advanced to a peaceful society on an idyllic forested planet.
When the Vernans discovered Earth, they observed it for an unstated period of time, even going so far as to put one of their people on Abraham Lincoln's cabinet. In 1913, just before World War I erupted, they chose to go from passive observation to active intervention, picking a small number of humans over time to invite to Verna. In discussing the Vernans' motivations, the proprietor reasons to Charley, "If you saw a neighbor's house on fire, would you rescue his family if you could? As many as you could, at least?" Over time the Vernans opened branches of Acme Travel Bureau in every major city and invited people from all over the earth, including Ambrose Bierce and, speculates Charley, Judge Crater.
When Charley asks him, "when does it stop being a joke?", the proprietor tells him, "Now. If you want it to." He gives Charley a bus ticket and asks him for whatever money he has on him — "two five-dollar bills, a one, and seventeen cents in change" — as payment, saying that he wouldn't need it on Verna and that it would help to pay the light bills and rent for Acme Travel. When Charley questions the price, the proprietor says that an identical ticket had sold earlier for $3,700 and another for $.06. The proprietor then directs him to Acme Depot, from which a bus will take him to the departure point. He arrives at a small bus station "on one of the narrow streets west of Broadway" occupied by a few other people. They all board a decrepit bus and drive out to rural Long Island, where they are deposited at a dilapidated barn and told to wait for departure to Verna.
As he sits and waits in the dark barn, Charley descends into a rage after he concludes he has been played for a fool. He storms out of the barn, but just as he crosses the threshold, he looks back and briefly glimpses, in a flash of light, the planet Verna through the back window of the barn before the barn door slams shut. By the time he gets the barn door back open, the people he left in the barn are gone, taken to Verna. Returning to the travel agency some time later, Charley is greeted by the proprietor, who hands him his money and says, "You left this on the counter last time you were here. I don't know why."
The story ends with Charley telling his new acquaintance how to find Acme Travel, what to say, and how to act. He then emphasizes to the other person not to back out at the last minute, since no one gets another chance to emigrate to Verna, no matter which branch of Acme Travel they go to, because, in his words, "...I've tried. And tried. And tried."
''Kingdom of the Wicked'' focuses on Christopher Grahame. As a young child he was bedridden and to amuse himself began writing stories centered around an elaborate fantasy world named Castrovalva. As he grew older, he eventually abandoned Castrovalva and its population of made-up friends. (The new prologue shows how, after Chris left, a monster in the shape of a boy arrived to begin terrorizing the populace) After marrying and having his first child, Chris began to write stories again to amuse his daughter. His wife collected them and, without his knowledge, sent them in to be published. Now, several years later, he is known as the greatest children's writer in the world, besieged by offers of movie rights, sequels, art galleries, and the like.
At a press event, Chris begins having a series of blackouts, finding himself back in the world of Castrovalva. However, Castrovalva is now a war-torn landscape, where his childhood friends are fighting a war similar to World War I against a figure known as "the Great Dictator". The Great Dictator was the monster-child from the prologue, the "spitting image" of Chris. Chris sees his friend, teddy bear Sergeant Fuzzbox, get killed by going over the top and another friend, tin soldier Captain (now Colonel) Flashheart be murdered by an agent of the Great Dictator.
In the real world, Chris' wife and his doctors realize the reason he has been having the blackouts is due to a parasitic twin that failed to develop in pregnancy, and has attached itself to Chris' central nervous system. In Castrovalva, Chris has been manipulated into entering the Land Under the Bed that serves as the Great Dictator's headquarters, where the Great Dictator explains much the same thing. He was only able to look out at the world from Chris' senses, being otherwise incapable of anything. When Chris abandoned Castrovalva, the Dictator moved in, finding it a fully made world that he would actually be able to inhabit and live in. However, after tiring of toying with its imaginary inhabitants, he lured Chris back in through the blackouts in order to kill him and possess his real brain, therefore becoming the "real" Chris.
Chris manages to stop the Dictator's attempts by realizing that Castrovalva is his territory, and that he can make the rules there. At the same time in the real world, Chris undergoes surgery to remove the fetus from his skull. However, Chris takes pity on the Dictator, and absorbs his essence into his. A brief afterword states that Chris took nine months to regain consciousness, and never told anyone of the events. However, the final page shows him working on a script entitled "Kingdom of the Wicked", implying his next book will be based on what he saw, and the final panel shows Chris and the Dictator, both as small boys again, running through a restored Castrovalva to play with Fuzzbox, Flashheart, and the other friends who died in the war.
Three days before the game's event, the fictional Varrigan City became a target for a group of terrorists called "The Organizers", who severed the island city's transportation and communication ties with the rest of the world. They released a virus onto its population that would kill them in less than a day. However, the Organizers informed the populace that any person that killed another would receive the vaccine.
The city was quickly transformed into the stage of a recurring game show called "DeathWatch", with announcers Howard "Buckshot" Holmes (Greg Proops) and former DeathWatch fighter Kreese Kreeley (John DiMaggio). The remaining citizens of Varrigan City and new hopeful ones become the show's contestants, hoping to become the top-ranked fighter in the game and win a large cash prize.
Jack Cayman (Steven Blum), a man with a chainsaw attached to his prosthetic arm, enters the games and manages to gain sponsorship from "Agent XIII" (Jim Ward). The game's organizers, led by Noa (Dwight Schultz), know Jack's motive is more than just to win, and learn that Jack works with someone on the outside. They come to learn that Jack was a former marine, police officer, and rogue agent, but now seems intent on a mission. Noa surmises that Jack is after Naomi Ann Boris (Kate Higgins), the mayor's daughter working in the city. While they plan to kill Jack, they realize he became an audience favorite, with many sponsors and viewers betting on his success.
Meanwhile, Jack meets Leo Fallmont (Danny Cooksey), a hospital doctor who was unwittingly trapped in the city but managed to obtain the vaccine. After telling Leo to stay low, Jack continues the mission. When Jack finds Naomi, he learns that she is the one watching the games and not getting in crisis. Jack leaves and continues to solve the case about the city's abnormal situation.
Meanwhile, the Organizers realize Jack as the reigning champ, who quit the games by signing on to the Chasers. As Jack nears the last battle against the reigning-feigning champ, the Black Baron (Reno Wilson), Agent XIII reveals himself to be Lord Gesser, an influential figure in politics and knows that the DeathWatch games were created to cause the attack, but admits that this particular incarnation of the games is solely driven by someone's greed, and passes on the name of Springvale to Jack and the Agency, which quickly recognizes the name as a pharmaceutical company and that they were the silent hand that had built (in anticipation of DeathWatch) much of the sets for the games as soon as the Organizers had released the virus.
After defeating the Black Baron at the end of the games, Jack blames Noa, who is shot and killed by Leo. After dealing with the armed forces, Jack disables the communication link with the Chasers and interrogates Leo. Leo tells Jack that his father was the president of Springvale Pharmaceuticals, who created both the virus and the vaccine, and was planning to use the televised DeathWatch event to show the effect of the virus as to blackmail anyone to pay for the vaccine under the outbreak. Leo admits that the company went bankrupt in the last presidential election and saw this route as the easiest way to recoup their losses. He is also at the games to be close to the action, fascinated by sports. Jack throws Leo off the tower to his death.
While the announcers complain about the irrelevance, Jack leaves Varrigan City.
24 hours in the bitter life of a frustrated divorced teacher who stays in the vicious circle of his numerous obsessions.
The solicit described the series as "Chopra's original story of an American businessman who is propelled across dimensions and into an adventure like no other. While traveling in India with his family, his wife disappears, he will stop at nothing - and go literally anywhere - to save her." The following issue will continue the journey of Michael (the protagonist) in his search for his wife Anna.
''Egoboo'''s story revolves around the capture of Lord Bishop, the king of Bishopia. He was taken away by the evil Dracolich for unknown reasons, and brave adventurers have risen up to try to rescue him. The Dracolich hid in the Abyss, which is only accessible through secret Catacombs. The Catacombs are sealed, however, and can only be unlocked by the Legendary Sporks of Yore. Characters must progress through the five Palaces in order to retrieve the Sporks so that the Catacombs can be opened.
The story describes the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota, in which three characters are intangibly connected. Horace is an old man who spends his afternoons in the local coffee shop with other old men, shaking dice to see who pays for coffee, and talking about politics, religion, and memorable Owl football teams of the past. Mitch is a stoic high school backup quarterback who is depressed for no apparent reason. Julia is the newest resident of Owl. She moved to the small town to teach history and spends much of her free time at the local bars (where she meets local celebrity Vance Druid). The town has about 850 residents and is semi-isolated from 1980s music and culture. As a climax, the three main characters are caught in a sudden blizzard — Horace and Julia stuck in their cars and Mitch outdoors.
Yuri, yearning to leave Ropesk, contacts Nia and pawns an Epitaph he believes to have been his father's to buy a ship. Kira is kidnapped by Ropesk's leader to force Yuri to return, but instead Yuri breaks Kira free, then learns that his Epitaph was stolen from the pawn shop by the pirate Valantin. Yuri and a growing crew of Zero-G Dogs go on the hunt for Valantin, ending up caught in the political struggles surrounding the aggressive expansion of the Lugovalian Empire into the SMC. He also runs into Cico, who allies with him during a difficult battle. Despite multiple battles, the Lugovalian Empire conquers the SMC, destroying the most powerful fleets and prompting other powers to surrender. Yuri allies with a sympathetic nation within the LMC, but their attempt to hold off the Lugovalian forces ends in failure when the Lugovalians use a weapon to send a nearby sun into supernova, destroying all surrounding ships and the Void Gate connecting the two galaxies. Nia, whose family and planet were brutally conquered by the Lugovalian Empire, sacrifices herself in an attempt to kill Taranis so Yuri can escape to the LCM.
Ten years later, Yuri is in prison, put there along with all SMC refugees by the Federation as part of a cover-up surrounding the conquest of the SMC. Yuri escapes and slowly rebuilds his crew, ultimately surrendering to the sympathetic nation of Regeinland. The Lugovalian Empire finds a new Void Gate and restarts their invasion of the LMC, causing civil conflict between Federation factions over the response. Yuri spearheads efforts by Regeinland to unite Federation members against rival factions and the Lugovalians. During this period, Yuri discovers an ability to manipulate Flux Sectors and consequently control reality within them. Under Yuri's leadership, the Regeinland-led fleets first establish their military presence by quashing rebellions and civil unrest, then unite the LMC's Federation planets in an assault on the Empire's military which successfully beats them back and forces a peace accord with support from Cico. Ships begin disappearing within Void Gates, and Adis claims responsibility. Arriving to exact retribution, Yuri encounters Bogd and learns that the planetary destruction is being caused by the Overlords, a god-like species who gifted humanity with their technology and have been repeatedly destroying and recreating the universe.
Yuri is revealed to be an artificial human called an Observer created by the Overlords, explaining his possession of an Epitaph and power over Flux Sectors, with Kira being a Tracker android sent to monitor him. The Void Gates were designed to track and record events for the Overlords to use in a subsequent cycle of creation. Taranis, an Observer similar to Yuri, started his conquests intending to unite humanity against the Overlords. When Kira attempts to access the Overlords' network and discover their weakness, she is erased and leaves only her android skeleton behind. The Overlords' organic Phage ships begin appearing, destroying large sectors of known space. Yuri learns that the only way to stop the Phages is destroying the one Void Gate that links to the Overlords' realm, located in the original Solar System. Valantin—revealing himself to be a Tracker like Kira—returns to aid Yuri, and ultimately sacrifices himself so Yuri can reach the Solar System. In a final battle, Yuri's fleet holds off the Phage as Taranis sacrifices his ship to destroy the Overlords' Void Gate. A post-credit scene shows Yuri steering his ship into a Flux Sector and using his powers to restore Kira as a human.
The book begins roughly 5 months after the events of Evil Genius. Cadel is now living with foster parents in a state of legal limbo, not knowing where he was born or his true father. His life is made even worse due to his foster brother "Mace" (real name: Thomas) is constantly bullying him. With no school to attend due to his questionable legal status, Cadel spends his time either on the computer, idling or visiting Sonja. The police and the FBI also occasionally turn up to question him on what he knows about Dr. Darkkon, Prosper English and the Axis Institute. During these questionings Cadel meets Saul Greeniaus, a detective who is now in charge of his case. His style puts him in conflict with Cadel's social worker, Fiona Currey. On his second visit to Sonja he is confronted by Trader Lynch and Judith Bashford. Trader and Judith attempt to convince Sonja and Cadel to join Genius Squad, An organisation formed to take down GENOME [a corporation founded by Darkkon] which is funded by Rex Austin, an American billionaire who suspects the company murdered his son, Jimmy. The book ends with Cadel being told that a man named Chester Cramp is his father. He is offered a spot in Fiona and Saul's family
While Saul and Fiona initially object, they relent after a particularly heated confrontation with "Mace". Cadel arrives at the youth home, where Saul and Fiona help him move his belongings. Cadel is introduced to Devin and Lexi Winiecki, Hamish Primrose, Dot[the sister of Com from Evil Genius] and the rest of the adult staff. While Genius Squad works away, trying to avoid notice by Cadel's various bodyguards, they uncover a web of deceit, crimes and cerebral implants. During this time, "Mace" finds the address of the Genius Squad foster house and attempts to frame Cadel for theft by planting a stolen watch on him (a plan which ultimately fails and leads to Mace's arrest). Cadel also finds that Gazo Kovacs has made contact with GenoME, unaware of their sinister intentions. Unfortunately, GenoME manages to spring Prosper from jail and he immediately moves to kidnap Cadel. Cadel is taken to the house of Judith, one of the other members of Genius squad. From here, Prosper flees to a private air strip to leave the country after Cadel attempts to contact Saul for help. Saul gets a group of police officers down to the airport in time to save Cadel, but Prosper manages to get away. At this point, paternity tests show that Prosper English isn't really Cadel's father, even though he thought he was. Cadel's real father is Chester Cramp, who runs Fountain Pharmaceuticals, another Darkkon corporation. However, with Chester sitting in an American Jail. Cadel agrees to being adopted by Saul and Fiona, who happened to be getting married.
Saul finally finds out about Genius Squad, and though he is very upset that Cadel lied to him for so long, he agrees to let Genius Squad live on. His reasoning for this, is that he believes that Genius Squad might just be their best chance of finding Prosper and bringing him down once and for all.
After the death of his mother, Diogo Bernardo Furlong visits Ireland to scatter his mother's ashes on the grave of his father. His father had died some years before in a boating accident on Lough Allen, and he was raised by his mother in Alentejo, Portugal. His only clue to his father's grave is a postcard that his mother gave to him with a picture of a church.
Leaving behind his fiancée Claudia, he arrives in Dublin and is met by an acquaintance and music promoter David Daly (Garrett Keogh). He persuades Diogo to take a musical tour Ireland and, promising to help Diogo find his father's grave, he also persuades Diogo to take a musical tour Ireland with he and his daughter Margaret (Orla Fitzgerald), an aspiring filmmaker, who reluctantly agrees to manage Diogo. A backup band is hired and, joined by Margaret’s boyfriend John Ford (Simon Keogh) and his friend Sean Flanagan (Domhnall Gleeson), Diogo and The Fandango’s begin a tour of Ireland’s graveyards and other hisoric locations and venues in Ballymore Eustace, Roscommon, Strokestown, Ballaghderreen, Ballagh and Westport.
The show centered on a Portuguese man seeking clues regarding his parent. After the death of his mother, Diogo Bernardo Furlong visits Ireland to scatter his mother's ashes on the grave of his father. His father had died some years before in a boating accident on Lough Allen, and he was raised by his mother in Alentejo, Portugal. His only clue to his father's grave is a postcard that his mother gave to him with a picture of a church.
Leaving behind his fiancée Claudia, he arrives in Dublin and is met by an acquaintance and music promoter David Daly (Garrett Keogh). Promising to help Diogo find his father's grave, Daly persuades Diogo to take a musical tour of Ireland with him and his daughter Margaret (Orla Fitzgerald), an aspiring filmmaker who reluctantly agrees to manage Diogo. A backup band is hired and, joined by Margaret's boyfriend John Ford (Simon Keogh) and his friend Sean Flanagan (Domhnall Gleeson), Diogo and The Fandango's begin a tour of Ireland's graveyards and other lesser-known legendary venues, including Ballymore Eustace, Roscommon, Strokestown, Ballaghaderreen, Ballagh and Westport.
Young Tristen Waters, her brother Troy and his friend Ricky go to their father William's holiday home, spending most of their time alone while William works as a policeman to pay off the damage caused by the gambling problem that ended his marriage with Tristan and Troy's mother. While there, the three of them start to spy on their neighbours and soon notice that one of their neighbours is hiring prostitutes who go into the house but never come out. When the man discovers they are filming him, they hide in the flat, only to be found and tied up by the murderer later. William shows up and a fight ensues, causing him to be knocked out. He later awakens and tells the killer "I thought I told you to wait till their mother was here" before shooting him to death.
Frantic, William prepares to kill his children, only to be stabbed to death by his ex-wife. It is then revealed that his ex-wife is the killer of the prostitutes and has been filming the murders after the bodies were supplied to her by the pimp. She finds a text sent to her saying "I C U." She notices a camera in the room, one of the many cameras that are planted all over the hotel, and seems to recognise the person operating them. The person operating the cameras is left unknown.
In the Nineteenth Year of Kannei (1642), a rebellion by the Hori clan against Katō Akinari, the ''daimyō'' of Aizu, has been suppressed through the intervention of the Tokugawa shogunate. Placed into the custody of the Seven Spears, Katō's brutal group of personal enforcers, the Hori men are dragged to the Tōkei-ji "Divorce Temple" at Kamakura where the Hori women had been hiding. Despite a law passed by the former shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu forbidding men to enter the temple, the Seven Spears force their way in and brutally slaughter the Hori women before their husbands and brothers, before proceeding to murder them too. The massacre is stopped only by the intervention of Princess Sen, the Tōkei-ji Temple's guardian and older sister to the reigning shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Unfortunately, though the Seven Spears agreed to depart, only seven of the Hori women survived.
In retribution for the violation of Tōkeiji Temple and those who she had taken under her care, Princess Sen sends a message to the famous monk Takuan Sōhō to locate one person who can train the seven Hori women in the arts of ninjutsu to seek their revenge. The one chosen is Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, son of Yagyū Munenori and former instructor to the shogun. With Jubei's instruction and guidance, the Hori women begin their war against the Seven Spears and ultimately Katō himself.
The novel begins in Rwanda. The protagonist is a priest named Terry Dunn. It is a few years after the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus.
Father Terry lives in Rwanda with his girlfriend Chantelle. He doesn't have qualms about substituting punishment for penance. If that means killing four Hutu murderers who slaughtered his Tutsi congregation, so be it. After being an instrument of divine wrath, Dunn breaks camp and heads for Detroit. He wants to raise money for 'Pagan Babies' — the children orphaned during the genocide.
Dunn's brother Fran specializes in lawsuits for personal injuries. He is helping Debbie, a woman who spent three years in jail for deliberately hitting her ex-husband Randy with a Ford Escort. Debbie is trying to have a career as a comedian. In the meantime we learn more about Terry's past and his problems with the IRS, which was the reason for his fleeing to Rwanda to help his uncle.
Debbie's ex-husband Randy now owns a restaurant and is involved with some of the same gangsters that Terry once knew. Debbie and Terry begin a relationship. Randy stole sixty-seven thousand dollars from Debbie and now it's only a matter of time before Debbie's desire for cold, hard cash and Terry's fundraising for Rwandan orphans join forces in a carefully plotted financial assault on Randy. They want to receive a donation of 250,000 dollars from Tony Amilia, the local wiseguy, for the 'Pagan Babies'. In Randy's restaurant all of the local wise guys, hit men, and scam artists twist and twirl around each other for the money and for their lives.
During the Second World War, Jimmy Bancroft (Niall MacGinnis), a fighter pilot just released from hospital, and his nurse (now his girlfriend) Hazel Broome (Rosamund John) are on a walking tour through the countryside. They arrive at the (fictional) village of Lipsbury Lea and, being keen birdwatchers, discover that a pair of tawny pipits, which are rarely seen in England, are nesting nearby.
News of the rare discovery spreads and groups of twitchers arrive from the cities to try to see the birds.
Jimmy and Hazel enlist several locals to protect the nesting site until the eggs hatch. The villagers do so with great enthusiasm, led by the fiery retired Colonel Barton-Barrington (Bernard Miles) and the Reverend Mr. Kingsley.
The field where the nest is located (known locally as the pinfold) is due to be ploughed by order of the county's War Agricultural Executive Committee (the "War Ag"), and a delegation to the Ministry of Agriculture in London fails to get the order rescinded. The minister was Barton-Barrington's "fag" at his public school, Marlborough, and personally intervenes to save the field from being ploughed.
During the period the village is visited by a female Russian soldier campaigning for public support during the German occupation of Russia. She says that Russia also respects the countryside and farming. The colonel presents her with a sniper rifle.
The eggs duly hatch, but not before a plot to steal them on behalf of an unscrupulous dealer is foiled by an alert army corporal (a professional ornithologist) who is serving nearby.
At the end the village give thanks in the local church while a Spitfire flown by Jimmy tips its wing in a low level flight over the village. The plane has been renamed "anthus campestris" (Tawny Pipit).
''The Butcher's Boy,'' not to be confused with Michael Robb's "The Butcher's Boy - The Ballad of Billy Badass," features a professional hitman (whose real name is not given but who uses the alias Michael Schaeffer in sequels) as its protagonist. Murder is a craft for the "Butcher's Boy," a reference to his foster father, "Eddie the Butcher," who raised him to follow in both of his two trades: the cold-blooded killer with a gimlet eye, and an actual butcher for a cover life. When Eddie dies an unnatural death, his adoptive son continues in his footsteps, but leaves the butcher shop behind. After dispatching an innocent union member and a U.S. Senator, he arrives in Las Vegas, Nevada to pick up his fee. Instead of a payoff he finds himself on the wrong end of a murder contract. His reputation as a non pareil professional killer has always ensured he would be paid, even by men who think no more about murder than scratching an itch, men who nonetheless would not risk creating such an adept enemy. The story brings that scenario to life as the Butcher's Boy seeks to collect the debt by terrorizing the Mafia—lifelong source of his freelance jobs and current nemesis—into backing off.
Meanwhile, the initial hits completed by "The Butcher's Boy" have attracted the attention of U.S. government specialists on organized crime. Elizabeth Waring, a bright young, unmarried analyst in the Justice Department, begins to see a pattern in the killings. As the violence escalates around the United States, her colleagues and superiors suspect internecine warfare among the bad guys, though Waring deduces the fact that one man on a mission may be the key. As she works her way closer to his identity, she and the reader come to admire his audacity and remorseless, creative efficiency in staying one step ahead of the Mob's death sentence.
The point of view switches back and forth between Waring and the killer, whom readers come to root for as the ultimate David to the Goliath of organized crime. Readers are drawn into rooting for the Butcher's Boy to succeed in evading both his Mafia pursuers and the government agents. And indeed he does, only to find himself in similar circumstances one, and then two, decades later in ''Sleeping Dogs'' and ''The Informant'', where both he and Waring have also aged historically, and share the knowledge and context of the earlier stories. Together the trilogy makes for a brilliant virtuoso fugue on the concepts of predator/prey, the affinity between detectives and killers, and the greater morality of what a true survivalist might be like, at the top of his game.
Perry has gone on to a prize-filled career as a consummate crime writer with a score of eclectic novels, another irresistible, unique protagonist named Jane Whitefield (novel series), and the reputation as a "capo di tutti capi" of crime writers.
The story takes place in a fictional world full of monsters and adventurers called Monster Hunters, who, as their name implies, hunt the monsters. The plot revolves around a young Monster Hunter, Shiki, who was taken in as an apprentice to a Monster Hunter named Greylee as a child. A few years after Greylee's death, which was due to a gunpowder incident, he returns to his master's residence, Akamaaya Town, to join the guild there. In that guild, he meets a girl called Ailee and after a series of events, he finds that she is the daughter of his master. From this point onwards, they form a party to find the legendary Myo Galuna, which was Greylee's lifelong ambition.
A TV news documentary discusses Scrooge's rise to prominence, ending with how he suddenly retired in 1942 and has spent the years since in seclusion in a palatial mansion on the outskirts of Duckburg. Five years later, Scrooge invites his nephew Donald and his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie to his mansion after their stay at his cabin on Bear Mountain (shown by Barks in FC-178 "Christmas on Bear Mountain", 1947). When Donald dismisses him as just another miser who spent all his money on the mansion, Scrooge takes his nephews to his Money Bin, where he shows them his personal fortune - three cubic acres of cash, the money he had earned personally during his travels. Unfortunately, Scrooge and his family were followed by Blackheart Beagle and his Beagle Boys, all disguised as sidewalk Santas.
The Beagle Boys take Scrooge's Number One Dime and several sacks of his money, and lock Scrooge and his nephews in a closet while they escape on sleighs. Provoked by Donald dismissing the contents of his old travel trunk (containing his old gear from his world travels) as "junk", Scrooge takes his old mining pick to break out and chase the Beagle Boys, with his nephews hauling the trunk on the Beagles' other sleigh. Showing off the skills he had learned in his youth, Scrooge reclaims the dime and his lost money, and turns the Beagle Boys over to the police. Re-energized by meeting his nephews (and rewarding Donald with a kick to his tailfeathers, as Donald had given to him in "The Empire-Builder from Calisota" 17 years earlier), Scrooge decides to sell his mansion and return to work, and promises to take his nephews on his next adventures.
When Scrooge visits his Money Bin to see his progress on becoming the richest man in the world, Matilda and Hortense, tired of being left to watch the office while he goes globe-trotting, demand that he either stay in Duckburg to run his business empire, or let them accompany him on his next trip. He reacts to his new secretary Emily Quackfaster with shock and allows Hortense's fiancé Quackmore Duck the position as office manager only on the pretense that "his greedy hope for an inheritance will keep him honest".
Hearing of prime land for diamond mining in Africa, Scrooge takes his sisters with him there and down the Mumbo Jumbo River, where he purchases mining lands from a local tribe for a mere quarter-dollar. This shocks his sisters, to which he responds by dismissing how honest he was in the past due to how long it took for him to get rich, saying that he has "decided to develop '''new''' methods".
Scrooge goes to purchase more valuable land for rubber tree plantations from a voodoo tribe, but their chief, Foola Zoola, refuses to sell, angering Scrooge and getting him kicked out in front of his sisters. Humiliated, Scrooge returns with hired mercenaries to burn down the village and tricks Foola Zoola into signing the deed giving him their land, committing the one dishonest deed in his life. He returns to his campsite, only to find that his sisters have returned to Duckburg. Scrooge tries to justify himself with his hardships, but then he hears his deceased father Fergus talking to him about self-respect. Scrooge is ridden with guilt and hopes to make amends, but bumps into a zombie named Bombie, sent by Foola Zoola as his revenge. However, Scrooge is able to escape when Bombie is confused by his real appearance.
Scrooge goes to a railroad to follow his sisters home, but the next train back home won't leave for another week. He takes a cheaper ride by boat to Europe, where he spends a year increasing his profits. At the polar ice cap, he tries to finance Robert Peary's expedition so he can buy the North Pole, but is turned down. He then comes across Bombie again, and during another attempt to fool him with his appearance, Bombie falls into a crevice and gets sealed in ice. Later, Scrooge receives a telegram from Saint Petersburg inviting him to the palace of Czar Nicholas II of Russia, where he buys Fabergé eggs in bulk; Nicholas points Scrooge to the Candy-Striped Ruby that inspired the eggs, and Scrooge retrieves it from bandits in the Asian steppes.
Scrooge begins to return home on the , it crashes into an iceberg containing Bombie, freeing him. As the Titanic sinks, so does Bombie, and Scrooge escapes on a boat, during which he realizes that a lot of cargo and treasure had gone down with the ship. Seeking opportunity, he delays his return home again to search the Titanic for treasure and continue his worldwide expedition. He begins to use a train to ship his collected money home. In Baghdad, he is attacked by bandits and shoved off a cliff, but lands inside one of the train's loads of money, and he develops his famous "money swim". He also tries this with a load of coal, only to wind up with a smashed noggin.
Years later, in the South Pacific, Scrooge makes an offer with a village chief for their coconuts, during which he comes across Bombie once again. He pays the chief his Candy-Striped Ruby in exchange for having the witch doctor cast a spell that will bind Bombie to their island for at least 30 years, freeing Scrooge to continue his global journey.
After 27 years of buying properties and increasing his profits, Scrooge finally returns home to a newly-grown Duckburg, now a cold, hard man. He rejects the key to the city (smashing it over the mayor's head) and blows off a large group of beggars in front of the Money Bin. He comes home to a welcoming gathering from his family, including Hortense and Quackmore's children Della and Donald. However, he ignores them too and orders Quackfaster to install booby traps outside for the beggars and give him an audit of the money in the Bin. Hortense yells at Scrooge for blowing them off, but he refuses to listen. Sickened by this, his family leaves, and Donald kicks him in the tailfeathers. After remembering his childhood, Scrooge is overwhelmed and goes to apologize, but he then finds out from a letter that he has passed the Maharajah of Howduyustan and finally achieved his life's goal: he is now the richest person in the world. The comic ends with Scrooge letting out a loud cackle in triumph as Matilda laments that now he only has "money and all that money can buy".
The first three Junior Woodchucks are expelled from their former headquarters, the ruins of Fort Duckburg, recently bought by Scrooge McDuck. To reclaim the fort, they appeal to a "higher authority" by wire, which turns out to be an all-ears U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt:
'''Attorney General William Henry Moody''': They say a billionaire from Scotland has seized a military installation on the coast!
'''Roosevelt''': Great jumping Jehoshaphat! The three dangers that I campaign strongest against - big business, foreign interference, and military threats to our shores - all rolled into one! Egad!
At the same time, the Beagle Boys - Blackheart Beagle's sons, recently released from jail - invade the Fort to steal Scrooge's barrels of money, but they are interrupted when the Fort is surrounded by the entire United States Army and Navy, as well as the Rough Riders, led by a furious Roosevelt in person.
After an enduring battle fought pretty much against Scrooge alone, eventually the President's troops fold against the infamous temper of Scrooge's sister Hortense. Roosevelt charges through the gate alone, only for he and Scrooge to recognize each other from their meeting in Montana years ago and fondly share a weenie roast inside the fort, which Matilda glumly says is not what she and Hortense had in mind when they imagined their newly wealthy family being invited to dine with the President.
When the McDuck siblings first arrive in Duckburg to inspect the property, Hortense also meets her future husband, farmer's son Quackmore Duck (Donald Duck's father).
Having struck it rich in the Klondike Gold Rush (see chapter 8, ''King of the Klondike''), Scrooge goes home to Scotland. He tries to settle in Dismal Downs with his family, but after realizing that he doesn't fit in very well in Scotland any more, he hires Scottie McTerrier to look after the McDuck castle for him, while Scrooge and his sisters leave for a small, unseeming town called Duckburg located in Calisota, United States. Scrooge had recently bought a plot of land there from the founder's grandson while he was a sourdough in Alaska. The morning Scrooge and his sisters leave the McDuck castle, their father Fergus dies, joining his late wife and the rest of the Clan McDuck.
Scrooge has travelled back to Scotland to help his family save the McDuck castle. During his dramatic fight against the clan's nemesis, the Whiskervilles, Scrooge again gets some help from the ghost of Sir Quackly McDuck, however, this leads to Scrooge falling into the moat and becoming unconscious. He dreams that he has died and gone to "McDuck Heaven", where his forefathers are playing golf on clouds. They decide to give him another chance in life. When he wakes up, Scrooge can't get up as he is weighed down by a suit of armor. He uses his first coin to unscrew its bolts. He then chases off the Whiskervilles, and pays the overdue taxes on the castle with the ten thousand dollars he got from selling a mine, just before coming back to Scotland.
At morning, Scrooge and his father looks out over Dismal Downs, where a rainbow is, and Scrooge decides to make his fortune again.
Fifteen-year-old Teenager Scrooge is traveling to the American West by train. During a conversation with a man who owns some square eggs, the train is robbed by Jesse James and his gang. Scrooge fights them, but falls off the train himself. He comes across some cowboys led by Murdo MacKenzie, transporting cattle and joins them, receiving his own horse, which he names after his sister Hortense, since they have the same bad temper.
He is placed in charge of security of a prize-winning bull, which is then stolen by the McViper brothers. Scrooge follows them to the badlands, where he meets Theodore Roosevelt who tells Scrooge about the satisfaction of earning wealth instead of simply inheriting it. They successfully rescue the bull and return it. Scrooge is then employed by MacKenzie as a cowboy on his farm.
Abby wants very much to be in her own fairy tale. Elmo takes an interest in Abby's wish and tells her the story of "Alice in Wonderland". For a second Abby falls asleep and she opens her eyes to see that she is wearing a blue dress and blouse and Elmo has turned into a rabbit and is in a great hurry.
Abby follows Elmo down a tunnel. At the bottom she loses her wand to Elmo, who disappears at the end of the tunnel. Abby notices there is a small door, but its locked. She finds the key to the door on a table that just appeared. She unlocks the door, but she's too big to fit through the little door. With that she closes, locks the door and puts the key back on the table. Then Abby notices there is a bottle that just appeared. Before Abby can drink it, the bottle tells her not to drink him, but say things that rhyme with 'drink'. Abby does and she shrinks to the right size to go through the door, but she recalls she locked it and left the key on the table, where it is out of her reach. Abby finds a cookie who tells her to say things that rhyme with 'eat'. Abby says so many rhymes, she grows pretty big, but she manages to balance her size, grab the key and shrink herself to a small size. Abby takes Bottle and Cookie with her as she unlocks the door and enters a flowerbed.
Further in the flowerbed, Abby meets Counterpillar and his partner Little Rose-Ita, but does not want to join in their counting game. With Cookie's help, Abby restores herself to her regular size. Just then Elmo rushes past and Abby runs after him, passing Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, who mention, that they are actually not in this story. Abby bumps into a tree and hears some munching. She sees a pair of eyes and the Cheshire Cookie Cat appears. He points Abby in the direction of a tea party.
At the tea party are seated the Mad Hatter, Elmo and Mousie. To Abby's surprise, the Hatter doesn't serve tea, but letters 'T' in the cups. The Hatter shows Abby his collection of hats. After that Abby asks Elmo for her wand, but with the hole in his pocket, he dropped it somewhere. The Cheshire Cookie Cat appears, guzzles up all the scones and cookies and scares away Mousie.
Abby walks down a path in the search for her wand until she sees the path forks into four directions. As Elmo comes to talk with Abby, she sits down in despair of being lost in this wonderland. Soon Elmo rushes off to attend the King's Croquet Game. Abby follows him and finds a door in a tree. The door takes her to the messy castle of the king, "The Grouch of Cards". The king has Abby's wand thinking it's a new royal scepter. Abby tries to retrieve her wand, challenging the king to a game of croquet, but he cheats. Elmo protests at the king's decision to keep the wand. Before his grouchlings can throw out Abby and Elmo, they both use Cookie to grow large. They scare the grouchlings and the king away. Once Abby and Elmo restore themselves to their original size, Abby reclaims her wand. Abby is unable to magic herself back home, but Elmo reminds her she's still dreaming.
Back in Sesame Street Elmo shakes Abby awake. Although Abby sort of got her wish to be in a fairy tale, she thinks she's better off being in a fairy tale when she's a little older. With that Abby and Elmo go off to play.
Pubescent Voula (Tania Palaiologou) and her five-year-old brother Alexandros (Michalis Zeke) want to see their father, whom they have never met before. Their mother tells them he lives in Germany and so Voula and Alexandros one day secretly leave their home to find him. They go to the Athens Railway Station and try to use the Germany Express, but are removed from the train for not having a ticket. A police officer takes them to a distant uncle, who convinces the officer that the children do not have a father in Germany. He informs him that their mother lied to them, to prevent them from knowing the truth: that they have different fathers and are simply the results of one-night stands. Although Voula and Alexandros eavesdrop on the conversation, they still believe their mother and believe the uncle is lying. When a blizzard suddenly hits the village and no more attention is paid to them, the children manage to escape.
They continue their journey on foot and eventually meet a young man named Orestis (Stratos Tzortzoglou), who broke down with his bus. He offers to take them with him, and the children accept the offer. Orestis is the driver of a traveling theater troupe playing a piece about Greek history. Recently the troupe has been struggling with declining audience numbers, due to people searching for easier distraction.
As the path of Orestis splits from theirs, the children leave the troupe and look for different means of transportation to Germany. They manage to find a truck driver (Vassilis Kolovos), willing to take them with him. Later, while Alexandros is asleep, the driver rapes Voula, and flees afterwards, shocked by his own actions. Alexandros and Voula soon reach another train station, where they again try to travel by train. When they spot the ticket inspector, they escape just in time before being caught. They bump into Orestis again, who takes them with him on his motorcycle. Meanwhile, Orestis' theater troupe breaks up and the members begin to sell their various requisites. Orestis takes Voula and Alexandros to an empty beach cafe and they walk the promenade with him. Suddenly, the children witness a huge marble hand held by a helicopter emerge from the sea. The index finger of the hand is broken off.
Due to his impending military service, Orestis is forced to sell his motorcycle. He later meets the buyer again in a bar, and it is implied that he has sexual relations with him. Voula is disappointed in Orestis, having developed a crush in him herself, and the children leave again. Orestis later searches for them, and finds them on a deserted, newly constructed highway section. He takes Voula into his arms and starts consoling the crying girl: "The first time, it's always as if you're dying." They break up with Orestis again, this time for good. At another train station, a soldier gives Voula money to buy train tickets and the children again board a train for Germany. They exit shortly before the passport control at the border. Outside, they realize that the border is formed by a river, and use a small boat to cross it. Suddenly, shots are fired by border guards and a tree begins to emerge from the fog. As the fog begins to clear, Voula and Alexandros run for the tree and embrace it.
Rosie Richardson works in marketing at a publisher, when she starts dating Oliver Merchant, and falls in love with him. Oliver is the host of the TV show called ''SoftFocus'' where they tackle mostly cultural and political topics. Their relationship is formed by his erratic behaviour, like one day telling her he loves her and then not calling for days.
When Rosie has to go to Nambula on a business trip, the poverty and general environment shock her into the realisation that she wants to spend her life doing something meaningful. So she breaks up with Oliver and leaves to go to Nambula and work at a refugee camp, organised by ''Sustain''.
Four years later, she is running the camp and feels attracted to a new doctor, Robert O'Rourke. Unfortunately, rumours about a locust invasion spread and about the shipping of food that will be late.
So Rosie decides that she has to take matters into her own hands. She flies back to England and gets in touch with Oliver and his circle of famous friends to raise funds. After some convincing, the stars and Rosie fly to Nambula for a one-hour fundraising show. In the meantime, Oliver attempts reuniting with Rosie, who refuses him.
After they handle some catastrophes, the show airs and is a full success. Food is delivered, the stars fly back and Rosie gets together with O'Rourke.
The film stars Craig Conway as 'Malky', a nightclub doorman with a violent character. However, during the course of the film Malky finds himself attending confession, but rather than for past crimes, he seeks redemption for an act he has yet to commit.
Prison officer Raymond Lohan prepares to leave for work, cleaning his wounded knuckles and checking his car for bombs. At the Maze prison, he puts on his uniform and ignores his comrades.
A new IRA inmate, Davey Gillen, is admitted and categorised as a "non-conforming prisoner" for his refusal to wear the prison uniform. He is sent to his cell naked except for a blanket. His cellmate, Gerry Campbell, has smeared the walls with excrement from floor to ceiling as part of the no wash protest. Gerry's girlfriend sneaks a radio in by wrapping it and storing it in her vagina.
Prison officers forcibly and violently remove the prisoners from their cells and beat them before pinning them down to cut their long hair and beards, grown as part of the no-wash protest. The prisoners resist, with prisoner Bobby Sands spitting into Lohan's face. He responds by punching Sands in the face and then swings again, only to miss and punch the wall, causing his knuckles to bleed. He cuts Sands' hair and beard; the men throw Sands in the bathtub and scrub him clean before hauling him away again.
Later, the prisoners are taken out of their cells and given second-hand civilian clothing. The guards snicker as they hand the clothes to the prisoners, who respond, after Sands' initial action, by tearing up the clothes and wrecking their cells. A large number of riot police enter the prison on a truck. The prisoners are hauled from their cells and forced to run the gauntlet between the lines of riot police, during which they are beaten with batons. Lohan and several of his colleagues then probe prisoners' rectums and mouths, using the same pair of latex gloves for each man.
Lohan visits his catatonic mother in a retirement home. He is shot in the back of the head by an IRA assassin and dies slumped onto his mother's lap.
Sands is visited by Father Dominic Moran and discusses the morality of a hunger strike. Sands tells the priest about a trip to Donegal where he and his friends found a foal by a stream. It had cut itself on the rocks and broken a back leg. Sands tells the priest that he drowned the foal and that although he got into trouble for it, he knew he had done the right thing by ending the animal's suffering. He says he knows what he is doing and what it will do to him but refuses to stand by and do nothing.
Sometime later, Sands is well into his hunger strike, suffering from weeping sores, kidney failure, low blood pressure, and stomach ulcers. While Sands lies in a bath, a large orderly comes in to give his usual orderly a break. The orderly sits next to the tub and shows Sands his knuckles, which are tattooed with the letters "UDA". Sands tries to stand on his own and eventually does so with all his strength, staring defiantly at the UDA orderly but crumples to the floor with no strength left to stand. The orderly carries him to his room. Sands' parents stay for his final days, his mother being at his side when he dies, 66 days after beginning the strike.
A textual epilogue reveals that Sands was elected to the United Kingdom Parliament as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone while he was on the hunger strike. Nine other men died with him during the seven-month strike before it was called off, and paramilitaries killed 16 prison officers during the protests. Shortly afterward, the British government conceded in one form or another to virtually all of the prisoners' five demands despite never officially granting them political status.
Tom Llewyllyn and Somerset Lloyd-James (the latter by mistake) have been engaged to write the script of a movie version of the ''Odyssey'', to be shot on Corfu. After some wrangling they ask Fielding Gray to help, since he is a man with knowledge of Greek and the classics in general. The shooting has many comic turns since the movie team wants to do a sexy story while the foundation supplying the money demands something more radical that will substantially alter the story. Left-wing actress Sasha Grimes, who is to be the foundation's "watcher" during the shoot, suggests, for example, that Odysseus give away his land to the poor.
Gray works hard to keep the original story and even starts a sexual relationship with Grimes to be able to control her better. Max de Freville and his friend Lyki are also engaged in the movie and make visits during the shooting. They also bring Angela Tuck, suffering from terrible obesity in later years. When Angela, in a deal with Fielding, watches him having sex with Sasha, she has a heart attack and dies. Fielding, thinking about old age, is trying to blackmail producer Foxy Galahead for £50,000 to continue to keep Sasha Grimes under control. Galahead, Max, Lyki and director Jules frame Fielding and he is arrested by Earle Restarick during a trip to Zurich. Restarick and his thugs keeps Fielding prisoner in Athens and since the film team told them another story Restarick believes that Gray once again is digging in the things told in ''The Judas Boy''. Restarick threatens to turn Fielding into a junkie to make him confess.
Galahead throws a Christmas party for a number of guests, among them Lord Canteloupe, Somerset Lloyd-James and Captain Detterling. When Galahead brags to actress Elena about how he framed Fielding, she tells the three Englishmen at the party, and they decide to rescue Fielding. Canteloupe, infuriated by the thought that an Englishman be kept prisoner in a country of no importance (like Greece), bursts into the villa where Fielding is (officially) being nursed after a "mental breakdown" and takes him home to England. When Fielding arrives home Harriet is not there. At peace, he begins on a number of new commissions given him by Gregory Stern.
Category:1972 British novels Category:Novels by Simon Raven Category:Fiction set in 1970 Category:Novels set in Greece Category:Corfu Category:Novels set on islands Category:Blond & Briggs books
The film begins with five children (Robert, Cyril, Jane, Anthea and The Lamb), whose father has gone to fight in World War I. Consequently, the children must meanwhile stay at their eccentric uncle's house with his housekeeper Martha, and unpleasant son, Horace. While exploring the house, Robert finds a locked door in the forbidden greenhouse and brings the other children. They manage to open the door, which leads them through a secret path to the beach surrounding the house. There they discover a large shelled creature, which reveals itself as a "psammead crustacean decapodlium wishasaurus," or sand fairy for short. The children, befuddled by this confusing name, refer to the creature simply as "It." It seems rather mischievous and Cyril doubts whether the children should trust him, but upon confirming that It can grant wishes, the children wish for all the house chores on their list to be done by magic. When they return to the house, they see dozens of copies of themselves doing the chores and wrecking the house in the attempt.
Suddenly, everything disappears in clouds of golden dust. They are then forced to tidy up the mess themselves. When they return to It and ask why their clones disappeared, It explains that at sunset, all wishes fade away. The children blame It for the mess, but It responds by saying that wishes bring valuable lessons.
The children need money to fix all the broken items, so they wish for buckets of gold and go off into town to buy some items. The children aren't able to buy anything because the owners will not accept gold, believing it is fake. They manage to purchase a car, having nothing else to do with the gold, and end up crashing it during a test drive. Mr. Peasemarsh, the owner, becomes furious and causes a scene with the children as the authorities and their aunt both appear on the scene. When Mr. Peasemarsh tries to reveal the children's "stolen gold", it vanishes just before he can show it to the officers, who take him away, believing he is out of his mind.
Horace, meanwhile, is becoming suspicious of the children, and when they refuse to tell him what secret they're hiding, he manages to catch them in a room and locks it, telling them he won't let them out until they come clean. Robert, who was not with the rest when Horace trapped them, goes to It and wishes for wings so they can go off to France and find their father. The other children fly out the window when they discover their new wings, and Horace eventually decides to let them out only to discover them missing and the window open. While flying, the children are almost killed by heavy aircraft, but they just barely manage to escape danger. With sunset drawing near, they have no choice but to go home. During their return trip, their wings begin to fade, and it appears they will fall into the sea, but It's face appears among the clouds and blows on the children, sweeping them through the air back to shore.
When the children's mother returns, the children learn that their father has gone missing. Robert talks to It that night, and falls asleep next to It on the beach. Horace, having followed Robert, captures It and brings him to his basement. The next morning, Robert confronts Horace but is unwilling to act, as Horace has his father's compass. Seeing that Horace plans to dissect It to find out how he works his magic, Robert suggests Horace wish for something instead. Interested in the idea, Horace wishes for his fossilized dinosaur egg to hatch. The children arrive in time to see Horace's dinosaur standing high above them and threatening to eat them. After trying to calm it down, It makes the dinosaur vanish. Shocked, Horace passes out, and Robert takes him to their mother, while the other children wish for their father to come home. He appears on the beach and talks to the children, but only minutes later he vanishes as sunset hits the beach. Robert, having just nearly missed returning to see him, is devastated.
The children go to Horace, and they talk about what happened in the basement. Horace, surprised at the secret, becomes agreeable, and the children settle their differences, and agree to share the secret of Its existence together. On It's birthday, the children wish It a good future and prepare to return home. When their car breaks down, they are forced to stay in the house and Horace suggests a game of hide-and-seek. As Robert counts, his father appears. When Robert realizes that its really their father, he and the children are overjoyed, joined by their mother. Finally reunited with their father, the children prepare to go home. In a post credits scene, It contemplates a sequel "It and Five Children".
Flannery is a station manager who carries out all his activities based on his company's manual. However, everything changes when he receives a shipment of two guinea pigs. Because the box calls them "guinea pigs", he is confident that the animals in the shipment are indeed pigs, so he demands that the receiver of the box, McMorehouse, pay him 48 cents to send them to him. McMorehouse considers this an exorbitant price for a box of pets and refuses to pay. Flannery sends a message to the head office to inquire about the status of the guinea pigs, i.e. whether they are officially considered pigs or pets. However, when he had not yet received a reply, the guinea pigs start having lots of offspring and in just a few days, they overrun the whole station. At the company headquarters, a "zoologist", with his facts, came to the exact and correct conclusion that guinea pigs are not real pigs, so the 44 cent rate applies. So when the company sent the reply to Flannery, he travels to McMorehouse's house to give the guinea pigs to him, but McMorehouse has moved away. There was nothing in the manual to cover the case, so Flannery sent a message telling the company that the final decision is up to them. When the company decided to have the guinea pigs sent back to the main office, thanks to a suggestion from a worker at the office, Flannery transfers the animals to the station's head office. When he exits, he finds out that the animals were admitted to the circus! At the end of the short, Flannery made this vow; "No more will I be a fool. Whenever it comes to livestock, blast every single rule! If the animals come in singles or if they come in sets, if they got 4 feet and they're alive, they'll be classified as pets!".
A young Israeli soldier, Cohen, is kidnapped by a group of Palestinian fighters who hold him as a hostage during the conflict. The 1982 FIFA World Cup happens to be on during the invasion, and their mutual love of association football, and in particular the Italy national football team, helps break down the barriers of nationalism and the historical baggage that the two bring. A kind of alliance is forged between the two men. Their relationship heads for a tragic ending as the Italian team, along with the goal scoring Paolo Rossi, make their march toward winning the 1982 FIFA World Cup Final.
The episode begins with a scene of Izzie, Cristina, Meredith, and George in the shower together. It's George's dream. George wakes up to find that Meredith refuses to go to work as she has this feeling that she will die. George and Izzie cannot get her out of bed; they have to call in Cristina. Once all 4 are at the hospital, the premonition seems to have some validity. At the same time that Dr. Bailey returns, solo, to have her baby at the hospital (she tells them that her husband is on his way by car), a severely injured male trauma victim and his hysterical, screaming wife are brought in by paramedics; one of the paramedics, Hannah (played by guest star Christina Ricci), has her hand inside the victim's chest cavity to stop the bleeding. They are whisked to the surgical wing with Dr. Burke attending. Alex is ordered to stay and calm the wife, which he accomplishes by screaming back at her, shocking her into sense, and soon discovers that Hannah's hand is not the only thing inside of this patient; after firing a homemade bazooka, the husband has a piece of unexploded ammunition inside of him. The hospital goes on Code Black, for bomb in building, which essentially shuts down the surgical wing—save for the one operation that has already begun: Derek and Cristina operating on the brain of a man who they discovered is Bailey's husband. Meanwhile, Bailey refuses to have her baby until her husband arrives, not knowing he already had and was in surgery. Bailey's husband got into a car accident trying to get to the hospital on time. The interns discover this when George calls the husband's phone at Bailey's request, and Izzie picks it up out of the man's belongings. They opt not to tell Bailey until Derek is clear on prognosis. The bomb squad, led by Dylan Young (played by guest star Kyle Chandler), wants to clear out the ORs of all unnecessary personnel. Derek, Cristina, and Meredith all insist on staying. Shortly after, Izzie and George chat about being "doers versus watchers" (they feel Cristina and Meredith are the "doers"), and then Izzie decides to ignite things with Alex—in the supply closet. Richard is trying his best to keep the hospital in some sort of order amidst the chaos, but he's having a tough time. In the surgical wing, the anesthesiologist quietly trains Hannah in providing airflow for the patient and then flees the OR, leaving Hannah alone with the patient and the bomb while all the other doctors are strategizing with Dylan. Meredith finds Hannah having a nervous breakdown, about to pull her hand out and potentially put them all in danger (and kill the patient, whose bleeding she is suppressing). Hannah does pull her hand out and flee the scene—but not before Meredith can take her place as the person with her hand in the patient.
Dr. Bailey is in labor, and without her husband Tucker Jones (who is undergoing neurosurgery) by her side, she refuses to push. George works with Addison to convince Bailey to have the baby. He finally gets through to Bailey by giving her the motivation that she needs, and ultimately he holds her while she delivers the baby. Izzie and Alex have sex again. Chief Richard Webber is under a lot of stress from everything that's been going on, and it is believed that he is having a heart attack, which lures his wife Adele to the hospital. Dr. Bailey's husband goes into cardiac arrest. Meredith finally removes the explosive from the patient, and Dylan, the leader of the bomb squad, carries it away. Meredith steps out of the operating room into the hallway, curiously watching Dylan walk away with the explosive, and at that moment, the bomb explodes, killing Dylan and a second bomb squad member. Meredith is knocked unconscious by the explosion. There is a revival of the "shower scene" from the first part, but with a more serious tone: the fully clothed Izzie and Cristina wash blood off of a stunned Meredith as George looks on. Both Dr. Bailey's husband, and the man who had the explosive embedded in his body, survive. At the end of the episode, Preston and Derek become friends, overcoming their initial rivalry in the series beginning, and call each other by their first names. Cristina says "I love you, too" to a sleeping Preston. Derek comes to visit Meredith and says, "You almost died today," and Meredith tells him that she can't remember their last kiss. Derek recalls the kiss for her, telling her that she "smelled like some kind of flower," which Meredith says was lavender, and then he leaves.
The show revolved around two young couples, the Hatfields and the McCoys. Paul Hatfield (played by Strauli) and his wife Marsha (played by Franklyn), married for three years, and up to then living with Paul's mother (played in the first two series by King and then by Sanderson in the third), finally find their ideal home. However, they are unable to meet the mortgage repayments, so they invite Murray McCoy (played by Capron) and his girlfriend Diana (played by Forbes), who are also in the same situation, to join them and move in with them, contributing to the payment of the house. In the final episode of the series, the McCoys are married, and they have a baby.
Two blue-collar Easter Bunnies get fired and try their hand at an assortment of odd jobs, failing at each. Fighting depression, debt and eventually each other, their lives start to unravel until they realize that without their job they are nothing.
As the series progresses, it becomes clear to Nantucket's government that sitting back and adopting isolationism will only profit those renegades who, under the leadership of ex-Coast Guard lieutenant William Walker, have fled the island to exploit the Bronze Age peoples of Europe and the Middle East. Walker—who is as capable as he is callous—exploits the "magic" of gunpowder, iron-forging, and the spinning jenny to build up an empire of his own, one that threatens to conquer the entire world unless the people of Nantucket build an army, a navy, and a web of foreign alliances to take the fight to Walker.
''Against the Tide of Years'' takes place approximately 10 years after the events of the first book. The leadership of the Republic of Nantucket has invested a great deal of time and effort into building up a substantial military force, both a deep-water navy and a Marine Corps, but the bulk of Nantucket's population are more interested in commerce and exploration than in bringing the renegade Walker to justice. A sneak attack on Nantucket itself by the nation of Tartessos, led by an ally of Walker, unites the factions of the Republic behind an all-out effort to topple Walker's growing empire, centered in Achaea (Greece), in a two-pronged campaign, attacking Tartessos and opening a second front in the Middle East (through an alliance with Babylon, the Hittite Empire and Mitanni).
Closer to home, the Nantucket islanders embark on some North American colonization, particularly in Long Island - causing terrible havoc and dispossession to the local Native American tribes, and anticipating by thousands of years 17th century colonization of the same area. However, since the Europe of this time is thinly populated and there are no land-hungry masses ready to emigrate across the Atlantic.
After making an alliance with Babylon, Hatti, and Mitanni, the Republic of Nantucket is ready to defeat Walker (who now controls Great Achaea, i.e. Mycenean Greece) and his allies. They are, however, too late to save the beleaguered Troy. While Nantucktar forces are tied up in defending an isolated outpost in the mountains, this history's version of the Trojan War comes to an end without the subtle ploy of the Trojan Horse. Rather, Walker's modern weaponry overwhelms the Trojan defenses, and the city's inhabitants suffer a gruesome sack. Still, retribution is not far off: Walker is finally brought down by the Nantucktars – not in frontal attack, but in a Machiavellian trick. Walker's regent of Great Achaea, Odikweos, embittered upon learning that Walker, by changing history, has robbed him of the undying fame that was to have been his (as Odysseus), aids the Nantuckers in tricking Walker's security chief, an odious former operative of the East German Stasi, into poisoning Walker; his sadistic fellow American turncoat and lover, Dr. Alice Hong; and all but one of his children.
In the aftermath, Odikweos, who turns out to be every bit as crafty and resourceful as Homer depicted him, gains control of Great Achaea and ends the war with Nantucket. Things look well as the alliance with Babylon is cemented, the Babylonian king getting at his side an American queen who also commands the modernized Babylonian army, and an American doctor married to a Babylonian healer starts on building up the new University of Babylon. Moreover, the Nantucktars seek to extend their influence into Pharaonic Egypt – with whose forces they had a clash in contested Canaan, following which work started on subverting captured Egyptian generals and bringing them into the Nantuckar fold. Meanwhile, in the Western Hemisphere, the prosperous Republic of Nantucket – getting an increasing number of new immigrants – prepares to plant a new colony in what would have been Argentina.
Still, dangers lurk on the horizon. Walker's surviving teenage daughter - already exhibiting both her father's intelligence and his ruthless determination – escapes with faithful retainers into the depths of Asia, there to bide her time and plot revenge on the hated Islanders. South of Egypt, in what would have been Sudan, another American renegade - a staunch Black Nationalist – is building a power base of his own. Moreover, Tartessos, under its own wily and resourceful ruler, is determined to emulate and rival Nantucket and build its own global maritime empire. The Tartessians have been defeated both in a head-on invasion of Nantucket itself and in an effort to steal a march and build a hidden power base among the Native Americans of California, and for the time being they are willing to keep the peace – but their imperial dreams are far from shelved.
The nobleman Lanseloet is in love with the young maiden Sanderijn. He tries to seduce her, but she does not want to get involved because of her own low standing fearing she would not come to marry Lanseloet.
Lanseloet's mother wants to end this affaire and imagines that Lanseloet's love would soon disappear once he has possessed Sanderijn. She thinks of a plan to make Lanseloet promise her he will let Sanderijn go forever after one night with her. Lanseloet agrees. Sanderijn feels humiliated and betrayed and leaves the court. After many journeys she meets a noble knight who marries her even though she has been dishonoured.
Lanseloet now understands how shamefully he has treated Sanderijn. He is still in love with her and sends his manservant Reinout to find her. When he does, she tells Reinout she would never leave her husband for Lanseloet.
Trying to spare his master from suffering he tells him Sanderijn has died. At first Lanseloet distrusts this message, but after seeing evidence of their meeting he knows Sanderijn will be lost to him forever. Lanseloet dies of grief and unreciprocated love.
Elizabeth Holland and her best friend Penelope Hayes rule Manhattan's social scene. But when Elizabeth learns her family's status is far from secure, suddenly everyone is a threat to a golden future. Elizabeth is forced into an engagement to Henry Shoonmaker, a man she barely knows, with a terrible reputation as a ladies man, who happens to be the person Penelope is in love with.
To complicate matters Elizabeth's headstrong little sister Diana also falls head over heels in love with Henry, who develops feelings for her as well. Meanwhile Elizabeth is secretly in love with her childhood friend Will, her family's coachman... but so is Elizabeth's maid Lina who will do anything to win Will's love.
Mitch (McShane) is a London con-artist. When he witnesses a gangland hit, he is forced to lie low whilst trying to carry out his own various schemes. The film offers a portrayal of early 1970s west London.
"Time Has Come Today" opens to a voice-over narration from Dr. Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) about the rapid passing of time. Dr. Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) has a mental collapse after the loss of her fiancé, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), as she refuses to deal with the repercussions of her decision to leave the internship program, by lying on the bathroom floor. Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Dr. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) and Dr. George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) support Stevens during her grieving, becoming influential in her recovering. Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd (Kate Walsh) finds Grey's underwear in Dr. Derek Shepherd's (Patrick Dempsey) shirt, and finds difficulty in conceiving a future for their already troubled marriage. Grey unwillingly finds herself in a love triangle involving Shepherd and Finn Dandridge (Chris O'Donnell). Dr. Richard Webber's (James Pickens Jr.) wife, Adele Webber (Loretta Devine), gives him an ultimatum after spending the night in his office, giving him a choice between his career as a surgeon and his marriage to her. Dr. Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) faces the aftermath of being shot, which leads to him experiencing hand tremors that could lead to his giving up cardiothoracic surgery.
An infant with a severe heart condition is admitted in neonatology, and is revealed to have been abandoned in a schoolyard by his biological mother, whose identity lies between four pre-adolescents. Montgomery quickly becomes emotionally involved in the case, reliving the feelings she went through after aborting the child conceived with Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane). Shepherd and O'Malley get quarantined after an outbreak at the hospital, due to a patient suspected of having the plague. Their incapacity to leave the hospital leads to numerous confessions between the two, including Shepherd's reveal of his desire to divorce his wife and reconcile with Grey. Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) takes a leave of absence from the hospital, in a continuous attempt to bond with the grieving interns, who do not approve of her relationship with O'Malley. When a patient, Giselle Toussant (Elizabeth Goldstein), is admitted to the hospital, and ultimately dies in Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson)'s care, she begins to question her abilities as a surgeon, due to the guilt over the death of both Toussant and Duquette, whom she also performed surgery on. At the conclusion of the episode, Stevens overcomes her grief and gets off the floor, which metaphorically expresses her desire to move on.
"I Am a Tree" opens to a voice-over narration from Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) about impulses, the episode's main theme. Having undergone surgery following the shooting in the season two finale, Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) received an unanticipated visit from his parents, Jane Burke (Diahann Carroll) and Donald Burke (Richard Roundtree). It is revealed that the main reason for their unannounced arrival is meeting Preston's love interest, Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh). Due to the Burkes' overprotective attitude and strict moral beliefs, Yang initially fails to impress them, determining a negative outlook on their romantic relationship. Following the exposure of his affair with his former love interest Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) begins considering and ultimately decides on divorcing his wife. Facing the devastating news, Addison Montgomery Shepherd (Kate Walsh) abandons her hospital duties for the day, turning to alcoholism as a means to deal with the depression.
Feeling guilty for being the reason her marriage had initially failed, Montgomery begins questioning her ability to interact with men. Having made up his mind on divorcing Montgomery, Shepherd attempts at becoming romantically involved with Grey once again. Aware of Shepherd's plans, Grey begins to question her feelings for Finn Dandridge (Chris O'Donnell), with whom she had previously began a relationship. Unable to decide between what she wants and what she needs, Grey unwillingly stirs a rivalry between the two men. Now being unemployed, Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl) tries to move on after the death of her fiancé, Denny Duquette (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Realizing that she is unable to do so, she starts using baking as the way to overcome the grief. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) realizes her decisive role in Duquette's death, and begins experiencing strong guilt. Influenced by the recent revelations, Bailey tries to convince Stevens to reenter the internship program, which she had left as a result of her actions leading up to Duquette's death. Ultimately, Stevens chooses to attempt at returning to work at the hospital.
Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) learns that Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) is living in the hospital basement, leading to her relocating with George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) in Grey's house, much to the displeasure of his roommates. A teenager patient with a large branch protruding through his abdomen is admitted into the hospital, and is revealed to have been thrown into a pile of tree clippings while street luging unprotected. The boy's distressed father Jeffrey Hernandez (Javier Grajeda) uses violence in order to make his son realize the danger he has gotten himself into. Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) is assigned to the patient and unwillingly becomes emotionally involved in the case, banning further interaction between the two. Shepherd, Bailey and Yang treat a patient admitted in the neurosugical service, who has a tumor pressing against his frontal lobe. His condition forces him to verbally express each thought passing his mind, without being able to control it in any way. Realizing her inability to choose between the two men in her romantic background, Grey decides on dating both, therefore attempting to compare their dedication towards her. At the conclusion of the episode, Shepherd visits Montgomery in her hotel room, in order to share his final thoughts on their upcoming divorce, but is shocked at the revelation that she had sex with Mark Sloan (Eric Dane).
After a break-in at the San Francisco headquarters of a company, the police are called in. One of the executives has been murdered, and the security guard has been bludgeoned. It is not a simple robbery, as the executive was killed by shots from two different guns, nothing was stolen, and there are several other unexplained facts.
Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) is contacted by the group which committed the break-in and stole four million dollars' worth of heroin. They are urban revolutionaries who explain that the company is a front for drug-dealing. They had hoped the break-in would lead the police to investigate the company itself and want to use the heroin to get to the leaders of the organization. Tibbs arrests the security guard to question him, but the guard is murdered while sitting in the police car.
Tibbs agrees to help the group if they co-operate with him. One member of the group is hunted down and beaten by the drug pushers and another is murdered. Tibbs himself comes under suspicion from his superiors when the narcotics division tie him to the stolen drugs, whereupon he is removed from the case and suspended.
He persuades one of his colleagues to help him with information on the bogus company behind the drug traffic. One of the revolutionaries, Juan, contacts the drug dealers and offers them the drugs back for $500,000. He sets it up smartly, proposing to exchange the first half of the drugs for half the money, using identical suitcases in a very busy square.
Once the exchange takes place one of the other revolutionaries 'robs' the suitcase containing the money. The drug dealer shoots a policeman and tries to get away but is tackled by Juan and arrested. Juan notes the license plate on the car of the criminal executive who had come to supervise the deal. The revolutionary escapes with money, pursued by some of the gang through the construction site for the unfinished Montgomery Street Station.
Tibbs goes to the house of the wife of the security guard. When Tibbs' colleague arrives, Tibbs confronts the wife, accuses her of being a runner for the gang, shows heroin in a package she has just brought home, and tells her she can choose between prison or being killed by the mob like her husband. She gives in and identifies the two chiefs of the organization.
The chiefs are arrested by a large group of police officers, including Tibbs. When they are taken to the police car, a mob hit-man takes them out before they can talk. Tibbs now sees that he won a battle but is losing a war.
The plot is set in 1935, during the Depression. Max Brown (Bud Cort) is an urban east-province Canadian fresh from college who travels to Western Canada to accept a teaching position at a one-room rural schoolhouse in the fictional settlement of Willowgreen, Saskatchewan, because there are no other jobs available.
He decides to live in the school's basement, having to adapt to teaching in the Depression-era rural setting, especially given the bleakness of the settlement. His students at first are rebellious, but it eventually changes to a connection between student and teacher as Max gets into a love for Alice Field (played by Samantha Eggar), going to him for emotional support.
Max barely gets paid and he suffers through the paltry winter of Willowgreen, especially suffering given his physical and emotional isolation in the town, only finding solace in Harris Montgomery (played by Gary Reineke) and Alice Field, who both try to use him to solve their problems of political socialism and her being a war bride of Britain.
Max eventually begins to understand Willowgreen and the rural struggles, as the inspector (Kenneth Griffith) comes in to look at his work, which does not end too well. The school year ends as Max is getting on a train back east, but before the credits roll, he tells us he returned the following September to teach another year at Willowgreen.
16-year-old Alison Fairweather and her family are living in a not-so-distant future when they are taken from their homes and forced to stay in a penal colony, Habitat W, for five years because of a crime against WOGPO, the World Government. Within a month, Gordie Fairweather, Alison's 8-year-old brother, starts having dreams about "Xanadu", a paradise he believes existed behind the walls of their prison. Gordie succeeds in finding Xanadu, and Alison follows him.
In Xanadu, Gordie and Alison meet Jay, the supposed leader of Xanadu. Alison finds that all of Xanadu's inhabitants, besides Jay, are young children. At first, the children do not approve of Alison because of her age, but they become familiar with Alison, and accept her.
One day, when Alison and the children are eating dinner, Alison catches sight of a wild-looking young woman her age. She discovers that the woman is Kristin, her long-lost friend, who was among the inhabitants of the Habitats. Kristin was not accepted as part of the "Xanadu Family", and has been living in Xanadu, but as an outcast. Kristin does not like Jay, so she and Alison try to follow Jay into his underground home, which he stays in at night.
Kristin and Alison find that Jay was the one calling the children to go to Xanadu, and for each child he named the paradise differently. They also find out that Jay was the one who had the idea of Xanadu, which was originally the "Botany Bay Project". Jay catches Kristin and Alison, but still lets them stay in Xanadu, both as regular inhabitants.
The children living in Xanadu learn to adapt, and Jay is pleased. Also, Jay reveals to Alison and Kristin that he is really a psychologist. As soon as everyone in Xanadu learns to become a real community, Jay leaves to tell WOGPO that everyone in the prison has died. Xanadu is therefore renamed "Jay's World".
The novel follows Timmy, Barry, and Doug, three friends looking forward to summer vacation. They initially spend their time playing in the cemetery where Barry's father Clark works as a caretaker, unaware that it houses a ghoul. Clark has been hiding the ghoul's murders and even kidnaps a woman to serve as its sexual partner. As the murders and disappearances continue the town grows suspicious, particularly after some local boys go missing.
The boys investigate the events and grow suspicious of Clark. Barry and Doug also bond over revelations that each is being abused by a parent; Doug experiencing sexual abuse from his mother while Barry is physically abused by Clark. While trying to escape his mother's abuse by going to a friend's house, Doug discovers Clark with the ghoul. He is then kidnapped and taken to the ghoul's underground lair.
Barry and Timmy stage a rescue attempt that ends with the gruesome discovery that the ghoul has killed Doug. They also find the kidnapped woman, who they free. In the ensuing struggle Clark is crushed by dirt falling from a backhoe and the ghoul melts in the sunlight due to it pursuing the fleeing woman and Barry.
In the epilogue, occurring twenty years later, Timmy's father is being buried in the cemetery and Barry is the caretaker. Barry's son has bruises consistent with abuse, and Timmy realizes the ghoul was not the only monster in the cemetery.
Hannah is a recent college graduate living in Chicago who works as an intern at a production office during the summer. She falls for Matt and Paul, two screenwriters she works with. While coasting from relationship to relationship, Hannah attempts to find a direction for her life.
A young mouse called Paul is so shocked to learn that "mouse noses on toast" are served at a fancy restaurant that he gathers a ragtag group of activists to investigate and protest.
Emily Brown has a floppy gray stuffed rabbit, Stanley, that she loves very much. They go on adventures every day, such as scuba diving, going to outer space, and other things like that. They have much fun together, until one day, they hear a "Rat-a-tat-tat at the kitchen door". It is the Queen's Footman, who wants to have Stanley (whom he calls Bunnywunny) for the Queen in exchange for a brand-new golden bear. Emily says no, but the Queen keeps sending more of her officers to offer her more and more toys, but since Emily keeps refusing, they steal Stanley from her in her sleep. The next morning, Emily marches up to the castle, where she finds out the Queen put him in the laundry and turned him pink, and also he has been filled with stuffing and had his mouth sewn up so he looks miserable. Emily takes the rabbit and goes home, but before that she gives the golden teddy bear to the sad Queen and tells her to do everything with that bear, to go on adventures and sleep with him at night, until he becomes real. A while later, Emily gets a letter from the Queen that says "Thank you" and has a picture of the Queen holding her smiling bear.
Corby Flood is an average girl in an average family. They are on board the SS ''Euphonia'', a giant cruise ship that used to be "the Empress of the Seas" but has since been reduced to a cargo ship with some passengers. The people aboard include her family, the captain, Lieutenant Letchworth-Crisp, a third engineer, Mr. and Mrs. Hattenswiller, The Man from Cabin 21, and the mysterious Brotherhood of Clowns. The Floods are traveling to Harbor Heights to start a new school for the children and, for Mr. Flood, a job designing umbrellas, as he was an engineer but had a "great disappointment" when a bridge he built collapsed. Corby must handle the annoying, smarmy Lieutenant who is overly interested in her older sister, cope with the antics of her four older brothers, and figure out the connection between the Brotherhood of Clowns and a sad, mournful tune – and she must make it back to the ship after getting shipped to a strange and foreign place wearing a bumblebee costume.
Also some (if not all) the characters names are taken from names of fonts such as Garamond, Franklin Gothic, Times Roman and Palatino. Most font names were notably among the Brotherhood of clowns.
Fergus Crane is a young boy, who lives in the Archduke Ferdinand Apartments with his Mother Lucia. A mysterious little flying box arrives at his house three different times which has letters in it from his 'long lost uncle Theo', warning him that he is great danger and is sending help. After this, a flying horse arrives at his window and takes him to a magnificent mountain chalet, where his adventures begin.
Mathilda or "Matty" (Barbara Sarafian) is a bitter 41-year-old postal worker in Ghent, Belgium. She finds herself drifting through life, waiting for her husband Werner (Johan Heldenbergh) to decide if he wants to leave his current 22-year-old lover Gail and return to Matty and their three kids.
One day after shopping at the supermarket, Matty backs into a yellow highway tractor in the parking lot. The owner of the truck is 29-year-old Johnny (Jurgen Delnaet). They have an explosive argument over whose fault it is. Johnny rips into Matty and tries to put her in her place, but Matty gets the best of him and earns his respect. The police show up and they file a report. Johnny memorizes Matty's number from the police report and pursues her. He calls several times and one day shows up at her apartment, offering to fix the trunk of her car. At first she acts as though she's annoyed, but she secretly feels amused. After he fixes her car, she invites him to join her family for dinner. They have a good time and after dinner he proposes they go out for a drink. Unwillingly, Matty accepts, assuming it will be harmless. However, during the date, he relentlessly tries to persuade her to spend the night with him. She eventually gives in.
The night they share together rejuvenates her. When Werner learns about Matty's affair with Johnny, he asks a friend at the police station to run a background check. They find out that he did time for an incident wherein he brutally attacked his wife and put her in the hospital for two weeks. One night at dinner, Matty's teenage daughter Vera asks Johnny if the charges are true and he shamefacedly says yes. Disgusted, Vera leaves the table and Matty tries to break things off with Johnny, but he explains that he had had too much to drink that night and after his ex-wife admitted she had been having an affair for three months, he went into a rage. Matty tries to resist his charm but can't, and things continue as though nothing has happened.
Jealous that he might lose Matty, Werner tries to get her back. The three end up having dinner together. Johnny and Werner have an argument at the table, and both leave while Matty hides out in the laundry room. She realizes that Werner is the one making her unhappy and makes the decision to try having a relationship with Johnny. While they are out celebrating her decision, Johnny and Matty run into Johnny's yuppie ex-wife and her lawyer lover. At this point, Johnny is sloshed, having had a few too many drinks. All four end up in a heated argument, and Johnny ends up throwing a beer keg at the lawyer's car, shattering the windshield. Matty is disgusted at Johnny's lack of restraint and leaves. She tries to rekindle her romance with Werner, but there's no passion. A while later, Vera invites Matty to a karaoke bar, where they run into Johnny. He tries to serenade her, but she becomes disgusted again and leaves. She later goes back to try to find him before he departs for Italy.
The novel tells the story of a seventeenth-century girl named Coriander. Coriander Hobie is born the daughter of a wealthy merchant living on the Thames a few years before the English Civil War. The Novel is told in her voice of what she remembers of her early childhood. She pays little attention to the political intrigue around her, only to her mother's special medicines she gives to the neighbours, and to the fairy stories her mother tells her in her room full of murals of golden creatures. She is happy until she receives a present of silver shoes which her mother forbids her to wear and stores above a wardrobe with a stuffed alligator which scares Coriander into leaving it alone for sometime. True to any mischievous child's antics, Coriander slips on the pair of silver shoes. The first time she wears them she experiences hallucinations and disappears on a bridge with the family servant only to reappear shaken minutes later. Her mother insists that the shoes be put out of her reach, though Coriander begs for them back. On Coriander's ninth birthday her mother gives in and lets Coriander have the shoes. Shortly after, an evil raven flies into their house and though Coriander does not understand why, shortly thereafter her mother dies. While her father grieves it is hinted at that her mother may not have been from the human world, and possessed a magical fairy relic that might have saved her life. He hides this relic beside the stuffed alligator where Coriander's shoes were once kept.
The neighbours start talking as the wheels of the world continue to turn and Coriander's father is branded a Royalist and his late wife a witch so to avoid scrutiny falling on Coriander, he remarries. The woman he chooses is a rotund devout Puritan woman named Maud Leggs who immediately begins to change Coriander's life. Though her stepmother brings the child of her previous marriage, Hester, who dearly loves Coriander, it is not enough to make up for Maud's cruel treatment of Coriander. Coriander's father is away longer and longer on business as Cromwell comes to power and a warrant is put out for his arrest. To escape the Roundheads, he flees to France and she is left with her stepmother and stepsister. Without Coriander's father there to protect her and the household. Maud takes total control and sells all their nice furniture, scrubs all the paintings from Coriander's room and invites a cruel Puritan Preacher to live with them. The preacher and Maud continue to abuse Coriander and tell her she must take on a more Christian name, Ann. They beat her whenever she refuses to use the name. They soon dismiss Coriander's favourite servant who apart from Hester, had been her only remaining friend. After Coriander hides a doll in the cupboard, her stepmother is furious with her and cuts her hair. The preacher(Arise Fell) and Maud unleash their fury and lock Coriander in a red chest in the hopes that she will suffocate.
Coriander is instead transported to the Fairies' world where she is helped along by an old man(Medlar) who claims to have known her parents. Coriander travels in the Fairy world as a little blue light invisible to all others but the old man who shows her that her mother was really the Fairy Princess, daughter of the Fairy King. Before her mother fled the Fairy world for the human world, her father remarried a dark fairy who became Queen Rosemore and sought to steal her mother's fairy shadow, her source of her power. Now Rosemore schemes for her daughter to marry a fairy prince, Tycho who wants nothing to do with her. Coriander inadvertently meets Tycho and tells him to resist Rosemore and fight back, despite the threat that Rosemore will turn him into a fox and have giants hunt him if he refuses.
All too soon for Coriander's taste she wakes up from Fairy World in the chest in her father's house to find the police and a once sympathetic neighbour coming to find what they think will be her bones. In the human world years had passed, though Coriander felt she was only gone for a little more than a day. Coriander is liberated from the house and now lives with the neighbour, a kind tailor and his apprentice who is in love with Hester, but they were unable to save Hester at the time. Coriander barely has time to adjust to the new world she has woken up in a teenage body much bigger and different than the one she was used to, and she is afraid for Tycho, with whom she has fallen in love, when the tailor's apprentice warns her that Maud and the preacher are on the verge of killing Hester as they once tried to do to Coriander.
Coriander disguises herself as a boy and breaks into her own home with the tailor's apprentice to rescue Hester, only to overhear the Queen Rosemore meeting with the preacher and Maud, angry that Coriander is not dead yet and her mother's shadow is not hers. They escape with Hester but Coriander resolves to go back for her shadow.
Once Hester recovers somewhat, Coriander agrees to write down her story as Hester cannot read or write and in much the same way that Coriander is writing her own story of the book, she writes Hester's account of her miserable childhood.
Coriander decides she will not let Rosemore win, and must go back to the house to claim her mother's shadow that was rightfully hers. She returns to the house in her disguise and finds that the stuffed alligator has come to life with her mother's magic and is guarding the shadow from the preacher and Maud. Coriander is able to approach the alligator without fear and when she takes her mother's shadow she is transported to the fairy world again. She is there in the dead of winter now, and Tycho has become a fox, still on the run from the giants for refusing to marry Rosemore's daughter. Coriander finds him, impaled with arrows and spends the night in a barn crying over his body. When morning comes she awakes to find the fox gone, but Tycho has been restored as a human for the day, albeit shaggy and bedraggled as he will once again become a fox.
Coriander faces Rosmore and does not give up the shadow.Tycho becomes fully human again and confesses his love to Coriander and invites her to stay with him in his kingdom.She loves him but she refuses as she feels it is her duty to return to her father.In the human world a year has passed and Hester has a child.Edmund Bedwell proposes to her but she refuses as she is still in love with Tycho.She is miserable without him.One day when she goes out for a walk she sees him and rushes into his arms.
''The Whispering Road'' documents the stories of Joe, a young, orphaned boy who loves to tell fantastical stories, and Annie, his younger sister who can contact the dead. Since their mother left them on the front step of the local workhouse, Joe and Annie have been searching for her, but to no success. At the beginning of the novel, they work for a cruel master and mistress, whose chores they complete. An abusive old man named Old Bert supervises them constantly and punishes them for the least mistake. Old Bert forces Joe and Annie to sleep in the chicken coop, and threatens to kill Joe if they wake him up. After Annie becomes cold, Joe, angered at the people of the farm, makes the decision to run away; he tries to catch one of the chickens. Joe's perturbed efforts wake up most of the chickens, attracting Old Bert, who Joe hits over the head with a shovel. Young Bert sends the farm owner's hounds upon the siblings, who make for the nearby fence separating the estate from the woods. It is assumed that they escape and fall asleep somewhere in the woods, thus, when they wake up, they are greeted by a hobbit-like man who seems warm and kind. He names himself as Travis, and tells them many stories about his adventures in the woods, such as meeting Dog-woman, an outcast angel. Joe and Annie travel far and wide searching for their mother. Soon they meet other outcasts in a traveling circus. Joe sells Annie and sets off for Manchester, where he meets a street gang. He becomes a member and stays with them for a while. They taught him about Manchester and he taught them how to use a sling. Suddenly, an epidemic spread through the gang. A member, called Lookout, becomes sick and soon dies.
This film tells the story of two renowned actors of the Fascist cinema, Luisa Ferida and Osvaldo Valenti, who were supporters of the Italian Social Republic. Accused of collaboration and torture, they were shot by the Partisans on 30 April 1945, after the country was liberated.
The movie was included in the "uncategorized" group at Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
Mr Mackie, the teacher, assigns the homework to the class: to write a poem. Sam wants to write his poem about Davey. Alex, his ex-best friend, mocks him for doing so. Sam quotes: "I want to write my poem about Davey. Because now he's gone And I can't get him out of my head!"
Davey, or 'Fizzy Feet', is a new boy. Everyone hates him. He has holes in his jumper, and strange ideas fill his mind. Sam, the school bully, makes fun of him. He dislikes Davey at least as much as everyone else until Davey saves his life by pulling him from in front of a speeding vehicle. The two soon become friends.
Davey's way of looking at life begins to seem fun. Sam learns that Davey has an allergy to dairy, and Davey tells him to keep it a secret to avoid a fuss. In front of the bully, Alex, he accidentally lets it slip. Alex, as a joke, offers Davey a part of his sandwich, with a cheese slipped inside. Davey immediately has an allergic reaction, and Mr Mackie is forced to use the epipen. Davey regains consciousness and is whisked to hospital. Davey begins to avoid Sam after letting his secret slip. He loses his eccentric imagination.
Davey and Sam should have gone to the park to go Cloud Busting together and become best friends again, this time not in secret.
What actually happened was Sam Cloud Busting alone. Davey, telling no one, slipped away and left Sam alone thinking hard.
Soichi Negishi is a shy young musician who dreams of a career in pop. Dreams do not pay the bills, so he has ended up as the lead singer and guitarist of a blackened death metal band, "Detroit Metal City." In his stage costume, he is Johannes Krauser II, rumored to be a terrorist demon from hell, to have killed and raped his parents, to wield his giant death penis with abandon, and other menacing tales being told about him after each public performance. The songs of DMC often encourage the audience to engage in immoral and illegal behavior, such as rape or murder, or tell of Krauser's exploits with similar actions, in a parody of the genre.
Negishi despises DMC and all that it stands for, but he cannot walk away from his role as the band's psychotic frontman. Under his meager exterior, Negishi is a rageaholic and also is very skilled at guitar playing. Furthermore, he feels obligation to the rest of the band and his label and is always roped back in by the manager of the band's label. The Krauser persona also functions as an outlet to vent his frustration over his failing personal career, which has not advanced beyond being a street musician. Playing his music in the street earns him nothing but the disapproval of bystanders for his cheesy pop songs.
Negishi is envious of the popularity DMC and his Krauser persona enjoy in contrast to the music he actually wants to play being ridiculed; his Krauser persona begins to emerge more often, which leads to Krauser's popularity growing. The series explores the futile attempts of Negishi to break this vicious circle, escape his DMC persona, and become a successful pop musician.
In 1942, the story of the heroism of an airman was introduced in the April 28 Fireside Chat by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The story relates to the life and career of Hewitt T. Wheless as an bomber pilot in the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Beginning when Wheless, working as a ranch hand in Texas, joined the Army Air Corps in 1938, the account follows through theoretical and practical training in courses at Randolph Field, Texas. He later graduated as a pilot, receiving his wings at Kelly Field, Texas.
Qualifying as a bomber pilot, Lt. Wheless was stationed in the Philippines with the 19th Bombardment Group. On December 14, 1941, in the first weeks of World War II, Wheless was the pilot of a four-engine Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber assigned a bombing mission to attack Japanese warships and transports in the harbor at Legaspi, Philippine Islands.
While Wheless was able to successfully complete his mission, his bomber was attacked by 18 enemy fighters. During the running aerial battle, three gunners were wounded and a fourth killed while seven fighters were reportedly downed. Wheless was able to return to base and land the aircraft safely in the dark with three flat tires.
In his nationwide address, President Roosevelt praised the pilot's extraordinary heroism and noted that Wheless had received the Distinguished Flying Cross. In a tribute to the remarkable strength of his B-17 bomber, Captain Wheless later gave a speech at the Boeing factory in Seattle, thanking the workers.
This story is told in free verse. The novel centers on 16-year-old Clare, who has dreamed of becoming a dancer all her life and has worked hard to achieve her dreams. She hopes to be selected for City Ballet, a program for very skilled dancers, although there are only sixteen positions available. After a growth spurt, she is judged too tall for professional ballet and advised to take a dance class for adult amateurs. It seems her dream is crushed, but when her grandfather has a stroke, losing the ability to talk and move his right side, her perspective alters.
Grandfather and his dog Roo accidentally win their old ship, the ''Unsinkable'', in an auction and go on a fishing trip. However, the ship sinks and they are cast away on a desert isle. They find some treasure and rescue their ship.
Eleven-year old Margaret Walters, better known as Midge, is sent to stay with her Uncle Brian at Mill Farm in Somerset, England while her mother is on tour with the orchestra. She stumbles across secrets and things that have been kept from her about her childhood, which makes her wonder about where she came from. While exploring, she comes across a small winged horse named Pegs, which is trapped and injured in a barn, which is her first introduction to the hidden world of the "Royal Forest", an impenetrable thicket on a hill within the farm boundaries. Midge manages to rescue Pegs and nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, all the tribes who live in the forest, the Ickri, Naiad, Wisp, Troggles and Tinklers, unite to send a group to search for the missing horse, Pegs. The adventures of the group demonstrate the dangers posed to the Various by the Gorji world, as humans are called by the tribes, and one of them, Lumst, is killed by a ferocious tomcat named Tojo.
While Midge is accepted by the ickri Queen Ba-betts and her advisers as the savior of Pegs, despite the news she brings of her uncle's plan to sell the forest land. Meanwhile, an archer captain, Scurl, believes that she is herself a danger to the tribes and intends to kill her. Scurl and his archers, Snerk, Dregg, and Fitch, attack Mill Farm when Midge and her cousins, Katie and George, are home alone. Maglin, an ickri steward serving under Ba-Betts, finds out of Scurl's scheme and banishes him and the other archers from the royal forest.
Midge senses another presence, which is linked to a picture of her Great-great Aunt Celandine, who was around her age when she was said to be mad because she saw the Various, which nobody else ever knew about. Celandine's experience with the Various, nearly seventy to ninety years before the main story takes place, is told in ''Celandine'', the sequel to ''The Various''. Midge and Celandine's close bond is explored in ''Winter Wood''.
The film shows in parallel the historical drama of the Indian princely state of Awadh (whose capital is Lucknow) and its Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah who is overthrown by the British, alongside the story of two noblemen who are obsessed with shatranj, i.e., chess.
Amjad Khan plays the ruling Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. He is a languid artist and poet, no longer in command of events and unable to effectively oppose the British demand for his throne. Parallel to this wider drama is the personal (and humorous) tale of two rich, indolent noblemen of this kingdom, Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Roshan Ali. Inseparable friends, the two nobles are passionately obsessed with the game of ''shatranj'' (chess). Both effectively neglect their wives and fail to fight the takeover of their kingdom by the East India Company. Instead, they escape their harangued wives and responsibilities, fleeing from Lucknow to play chess in a tiny village untouched by greater events. Ray's basic theme in the film is the message that the self-centredness, detachment and cowardice of India's ruling classes catalysed the annexation of Awadh by a handful of British officials.
The role of Captain Weston, so British in his ways, but in love with Urdu poetry, is also worth noting.
In the last scene, after which Mir shoots at Mirza and complains out loud "(If you die) I won't have a partner to play chess with", Mirza responds to him "but you have one in front of you!" (thus making him understand that he forgives him). He finally concludes that "after nightfall, we will go back home. We both need darkness to hide our faces."
After a box of toys is abandoned at a park, the intervention of some friendly mice helps the toys go on with their lives. One of the dolls, the Countess, has trouble adapting.
Around 1880, two young British officers arrive to join a regiment in India. One, Lieutenant Drake (Michael York), from a middle-class background, is extremely eager to fit in while the other, Lieutenant Millington (James Faulkner), the son of a general, is keen to get out as soon as possible and deliberately antagonizes his fellow officers. The two newcomers learn the traditions of the regiment, one of which is a mess game in which they chase a wooden pig on wheels, attempting to pierce its anus with their swords.
Mrs Scarlett (Susannah York), the flirtatious and attractive widow of a captain who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, is a constant presence in the regiment. One night at a mess dance, Millington gets drunk and tries to seduce Mrs Scarlett in the garden. She repels him, but moments later runs back into the mess wounded and in shock, claiming the culprit was Millington. An informal court martial – more a mock trial than anything else – is organised with Drake ordered to be Millington's defending officer. Although Drake is pressured by his superior officer to plead guilty for Millington and close the case quickly, he begins to challenge the orders in order to give the defendant a fair trial. Drake learns from an Indian servant that another widow suffered a similar attack with a sword six months earlier, before he and Millington joined. After irrefutable evidence, Mrs Scarlett finally admits it was not Millington who attacked her but will not say who the culprit is. Millington, now indisputably proved innocent, is welcomed back by his brother officers; but Drake, disgusted by the truth he's uncovered, resigns. One officer knows who the culprit is and, hiding Drake in the shadows so he may witness what is to take place, confronts the guilty man privately in the final scene.
A gang of outlaws, led by Judge McQuade (William Robertson), are committing crimes and blaming it on the Cisco Kid (Cesar Romero), in McQuade's attempt to drive the settlers off the land and buy it himself. The Cisco Kid and Gordito (Chris-Pin Martin) eventually stop the scheme, and the Kid falls in love with widow Emily Lawrence (Evelyn Venable).
The widow of a heroic officer is assaulted by an unrevealed comrade in arms and an investigation takes place to determine his identity. A kangaroo court is convened, as the regiment doesn't wish to have itself dishonored in public. A second lieutenant by the name of Edward Millington is accused of the assault by Mrs Hasseltine, the victim and, at first, everyone is prejudiced against him. Millington himself has no interest in remaining in the army, even though his father was a decorated official. Millington's friend and comrade Arthur Drake is given the duty of defending Millington, much to his initial displeasure. But as events begin to unfold, Drake realizes that Millington is in fact not guilty, and slowly manages to convince everyone else as well. But the question remains... who is guilty?
At the behest of her mainstream conservative fiancé Warren, scatterbrained five-pack-a-day chain smoker and clairvoyant Daisy Gamble attends a class taught by psychiatrist Marc Chabot for help in kicking her habit. She becomes unintentionally hypnotized and manages to convince Chabot to attempt to cure her nicotine addiction with hypnotherapy. While undergoing hypnosis, it is discovered she is the reincarnation of Lady Melinda Winifred Waine Tentrees, a seductive 19th century coquette who was born the illegitimate daughter of a kitchen maid. She acquired the paternity records of the children housed in the orphanage where her mother had to send her and used the information to blackmail their wealthy fathers. She eventually married nobleman Robert Tentrees during the period of the English Regency, then was tried for espionage and treason after he abandoned her.
As their sessions progress, complications arise when Chabot begins to fall in love with Daisy's exotic former self and Daisy begins to fall for him, and his university colleagues demand he either give up his reincarnation research or resign his position with the school. While waiting for Chabot in his office, Daisy accidentally hears a tape recording of one of her sessions and when she discovers Chabot's interest is limited to Melinda, she storms out of the office. When she returns for a final meeting with him, she mentions fourteen additional lives, including her forthcoming birth as Laura and subsequent marriage to the therapist in the year 2038.
In Daisy's life her ex-step-brother Tad shows up and she's thrilled to see him. It's clear to see that they have an easy rapport. Whereas Warren never asks or listens to her opinion and often tells her what to do, what to wear, and what to say. One day Tad is on the roof of Daisy's apartment building where she gardens and tells Warren that he thinks Daisy should marry him instead as he can make her happy and he's rich. At the end of the film Daisy breaks up with Warren and it's implied that she connects with Tad.
The story begins with Evangeline Harker, an associate producer of the television news program, ''The Hour'', and the daughter of a rich Texan magnate. Harker is tasked with investigating the notorious Eastern European crime lord Ion Torgu in Romania, to see if there is a story for ''The Hour'' there. She reluctantly accepts and travels to Transylvania where she meets Clementine Spence, a fellow American who tries to warn her about things beyond natural comprehension.
After meeting with Torgu, Evangeline is convinced to accompany him to a remote hotel. While Evangeline encounters horrors at the hotel, she goes missing in the eyes of the world. Meanwhile, mysterious tapes are delivered to the offices of ''The Hours'', infecting the entire audio system with a strange noise.
Professor Bumper, introduced in the previous volume, is on the trail of another lost city, this time the lost city of Kurzon, somewhere deep in Honduras. The Professor has come into some documents which he thinks will help him locate the city, and the documents make mention of a huge idol made of solid gold. Professor Bumper would very much like Tom Swift to accompany the expedition.
As circumstances would have it, Professor Bumpers rival, in the form of Professor Fenimore Beecher, is also on the trail of Kurzon. Unfortunately for Tom Swift, Professor Beecher is also trying to win the heart of Mary Nestor, Tom Swift's sweetheart! Envy, rather than fame or fortune, drive Tom to finally accompany the expedition to Honduras, as Tom hopes to prevent Professor Beecher from discovering the idol and presenting some of the gold to Mary Nestor as a betrothal gift.
The film begins where the first one left off, with a flashback to Robert "Rob" Schmadtke's suicide (Daktari Lorenz), whose corpse Monika (Monika M.) retrieves from a church's graveyard after the opening credits. This introductory scene establishes that Monika is not simply the local gravedigger. The body snatcher is depicted with a particularly feminine appearance: red nail polish on her fingernails, pencil skirt and polka dot blouse.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 Monika apparently evades notice while carrying Rob's corpse into her apartment, where she unwraps him from his body bag. Images of tabloid headlines inform viewers of the source of Monika's knowledge of Rob and his activities.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 Meanwhile, Mark (Mark Reeder) heads to his as-yet-unspecified job, and the film then cuts back to a scene of Monika undressing Rob. Mark's job is thereupon revealed to be dubbing porn films, and this scene foreshadows the next, in which Monika has sex with Rob's corpse. Betty (Beatrice Manowski), Rob's ex-girlfriend from the previous film, is then briefly introduced as she discovers, to her disappointment, that Rob's grave has already been robbed.
Monika fails to have an orgasm and the sex scene ends with her running to the bathroom. She is disgusted, and about to vomit. The implication is that "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak".Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 Once Monika has cleaned Rob's corpse, she takes photos with him using her camera's self-timer. She is seen cuddling the corpse in the photos.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 Mark, meanwhile, makes plans to meet a friend (Simone Spörl) at the movie theater. Mark's friend, however, is late, and Mark offers his ticket instead to Monika, a stranger who happens to be passing by.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 Monika and Mark hit it off and soon go on a carnival date, after which point Monika decides to break up with Rob. She is apparently attempting to live a normal life with a real boyfriend.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90
She tearfully saws the corpse of Rob into pieces and putting them into garbage bags, saving just his head and genitals. She then disposes of the garbage bags. She keeps the genitals in her fridge.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90 The next scene depicts Monika and Mark in her apartment. She is showing him a photograph album, containing images of several dead relatives, sometimes in their coffins. The two end up having sex, though the experience is less than satisfying for Monika. Mark subsequently spends the night at Monika's, and, through a morning raid of her refrigerator, Mark discovers Rob's genitals. This discovery, combined with Monika's desire to photograph Mark in positions that make him appear dead, plants doubts in his mind about the relationship. He does not dare express these doubts to her.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90Halle (2003), p. 294 Consequently, Mark consults first his perennially tardy friend and then a drunk in a bar regarding his relationship with the perverse Monika.
Soon thereafter, Monika and her fellow necrophiliac friends have a movie night at Monika's apartment, suggesting that she is part of a network of people with similar interests. The film they are watching depicts the dissection of a seal. Positioned on the coffee table during their viewing experience is Rob's severed head.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90Halle (2003), p. 294 Mark unexpectedly drops by, bringing a pizza. This brings the movie night to a premature end, with Monika hiding the severed head and her friends leaving. When Mark insistently asks what Monika and her friends had been doing, she reluctantly shows him the seal video. The images both disgust and enrage Mark, who says it's perverse to watch such a thing for fun, leading to a quarrel.Kerekes (1998), p. 76-90
The couple later speak on the phone and makes plans to meet at Monika's and discuss the matter. In the meantime, Monika makes a trip to the ocean, where she contemplates what course of action to take. When Mark arrives the next day, they have makeup sex, during which Monika severs Mark's head and replaces it with Rob's severed head. In addition, Monika is finally shown climaxing, which suggests that she has chosen the correct lover.
Finally, in the last scene, a doctor congratulates Monika on her pregnancy.
In ''Il mattino'' (The Morning), Parini writes about the beginning of a young man's day. It begins with his waking up and continues with the breakfast and the choice of it. The young man can choose between several drinks, from chocolate (if he needs to digest the dinner of the last night) to coffee (if he tends to become fat). It continues with some welcome and unwelcome meetings, the ''toeletta'' and the reading of some letters. Then he gets out to meet his lady (aristocratic ladies of this period of time had both a husband and a gallant, called a ''cicisbeo'', to pass the day with).
The young man, on arriving at the lady's house, eats with her and meets the husband of the lady, who appears bored and frigid, but not in the least resentful of the presence of the lover (he probably has a mistress of his own somewhere). Lunch is followed by coffee and games.
The young man and the lady meet friends and wander about the streets with a carriage while they speak about several things.
The two lovers go to a meeting. In this phase the author describes people in the hall and makes some comments about them. Then, all the people play cards together and at the end of this, the day of the young man is concluded. He will go to sleep at the dead of night to get up late the following morning.
They hadn't pictured themselves as the sort of people to take up Eastern spiritual practice, but on their first visit to a zen center, two women discover something that speaks to them on a level deeper than their everyday experience, and they begin to make a new plan for their lives. They begin to consider giving up their suburban comforts and build a house beside a monastery in the mountains. As the walls of the house go up, the two women make and re-make plans, wrestle with a chainsaw, learn to make windows, and set up a computer powered by the sun. Their spiritual practice transforms their vision of the house, and the building of it transforms them both.
Category:1993 American novels
In the beginning of ''Ombria in Shadow'', Royce Greve, ruler of Ombria, has just died and his mistress Lydea is being thrown out of the castle by the ancient, evil, and powerful Domina Pearl who wishes to gain control over the court by acting as regent for Royce's young son Kyel. Lydea flees through the dangerous night-time streets and eventually, with some aid from a mysterious source, reaches the tavern of her father. Meanwhile, beneath Ombria, Faey, a sorceress who can wear any face she likes, and her assistant Mag, who helped Lydea survive her flight from the castle, work on magical potions and charms for the wealthy of the city, including Domina Pearl.
In the castle Ducon Greve, Royce's bastard nephew, tries to support Kyel against the machinations of Domina Pearl in an increasingly paranoid climate. Various nobles, unhappy with Domina's ruthless rule, attempt to convince him to work against her and set himself up as the new prince of Ombria. Unwilling to go down such a dangerous route and concerned that it could have dire consequences for Kyel, Ducon manages to foist them off, escaping through the vast network of secret passageways and rooms that permeate the castle.
Faey is hired by one of Ducon's enemies to kill him; she makes a magical piece of charcoal that is imbued with poison. Mag, who has been observing Ducon, does not want him to die and searches for a way to undo the spell. However, she becomes trapped in the castle, eventually freed by the historian Camas Erl on the promise that she will bring him to meet Faey, who has been alive for ages, and whose history is entwined with the city's.
Ducon uses the charcoal to sketch a man who looks just like him, who seems to come to life. Pursuing him, but delirious from the poison, he inadvertently falls into Faey's lair. Lydea, there to seek Faey's help, insists that Faey cure him. With Ducon and Faey's help, Lydea is able to return to the castle where she works as Kyel's tutor alongside Camas Erl, who is obsessed with discovering the secret to Ombria's shadowy underworld. After being introduced to Faey, Camas wanders the underworld, trying to find out about the Shadow City and how Ombria has been changed in the past by its manifestation.
Mag is given a pendant by Faey, which had been left with her as a baby on Faey's doorstep. Using the small piece of charcoal that she finds inside, Mag begins to draw random shapes. The drawings are able to destroy various parts of Domina's body. Domina, enraged by what she considers Faey's betrayal, captures Ducon and Lydea along with Mag, bringing them to the secret room where she keeps her regenerative bed, the reason that she has lived so long. Faey leaves the underworld, and the stirrings of the incredibly powerful sorceress are the trigger for the manifestation of the Shadow City. While Ducon fights Domina, Lydea escapes with Kyel by running through a rift into the Shadow City shown to her by the same mysterious man seen earlier by Ducon. Ducon kills Domina, and then meets the man who looks like him - His father. From Ombria's reflection, years ago he fell in love with Royce's sister, and tarried with her long enough to get her with child. The shadow transition eventually finishes, and Ombria has changed. No one has memories of the previous Ombria but for Faey and Mag. Ducon is now Prince and Lydea his love, Kyel is his heir and Mag is Kyel's tutor. All is happy.
Two years after the defeat of Galactor and the apparent death of Condor Joe, a cruise ship is attacked by Leader X, killing nearly everyone on board. One of the survivors, a young girl, is captured by X and rapidly aged into the bizarre, masculine-voiced villainess '''Gel Sadra'''. Though she has the appearance of an adult, Gel Sadra is not immune to throwing childish tantrums and behaving immaturely.
In the midst of the revival of Galactor, the Science Ninja Team is called back into action, with a shady man known as '''Hawk Getz''' acting as the replacement for Joe. Getz is quickly revealed to be a Galactor agent in disguise (and had killed the actual Getz who was to join), and winds up killed by a mysterious feather shuriken. After hints spread in the first three episodes, Joe reappears in the fourth episode, having somehow survived his fatal injuries at the end of the first series, and rejoins the team. It is later revealed that he was rescued by an ex-Galactor scientist at the brink of his death, and was the subject of various cybernetic augmentations.
Later in the series, a female scientist known as '''Dr. Pandora''' is introduced, who had lost her husband and daughter in the cruise ship disaster. Unbeknown to her, her daughter Sammie survived and is in fact Gel Sadra.
With the new series, the characters were given new mecha and weapons, the space-worthy '''New GodPhoenix''' and individual mecha all given a noticeable bird motif. The New GodPhoenix is larger than the original, and equipped with "Pima" a robot pilot. There were also minor design changes to some characters, to go along with the new animation style (Jun's hair became shorter and straighter, in one example). The characters also advanced two years in age, Jinpei now approximately thirteen years old.
After two weeks of being back at Waverly for almost being expelled, Jenny Humphrey has now become the new it girl (first it was Tinsley Carmichael). At the upcoming Halloween masquerade Jenny decides to dress up as Cleopatra and beats Tinsley for the best costume award. Meanwhile, Callie attempts to win back Easy in a Cinderella costume with a secret proving that she's a good person. But it backfires when Callie's costume reminds Easy of the snobby princess she is. After Easy tells her off, Callie runs away to a "health spa" set up by her mom. During the masquerade, Brett and Jeremiah reunite after Brett lies to him about Kara, her very ''friendly'' friend. After the masquerade, Easy climbs and accidentally collapses an oak tree, leaving first floor Dumbarton residents (like Kara) homeless. Tinsley, being the "angel" that she is, gives Kara a home, creating a very awkward rift with Brett in the room.
Meanwhile, Callie finds out that the supposed health spa her mother set up for her is actually some kind of rehab-work camp. Luckily, through group confessions, she learned to get over, and let go of Easy. Easy, in an attempt to get over Callie and be able to stay in Waverly, searches for an extracurricular activity, but instead finds himself in Heath's club, Men of Waverly. While Callie's away, Jenny will play, with Drew that is, her supposed savior who paid for her re-admittance by paying off the owner of the burned barn. While going through Callie's things, Jenny finds out that it was ''Callie'' who paid for the burned barn fiasco. Once Jenny realizes it was Callie who saved her, she sees that Callie is a good friend after all. She leaves Drew and hides trying to stay away from her room. Meanwhile, Tinsley has just gotten an email from Callie telling Tinsley where she is and that she needs help. Tinsley, feeling lonely and desperate now that she's a nobody, decides she needs to go rescue Callie but she can't do it alone. On her way out she bumps into Jenny and they formulate a plan putting their differences aside to help Callie. By getting Sebastian's car, Drew's roommate and also the guy Brett is supposed to tutor, Tinsley and Jenny head off to Maine. Heath and Kara have broken up when he told everyone about Brandon's baby blanket because Kara feels that he is insensitive and said it reminded her that he used to tease her.
At the next Boy of Waverly (BoW) meeting, Heath is still trying to get over his breakup with Kara. Jeremiah and Brett later show up to the meeting and Jeremiah soon finds out the truth about Brett and Kara. Jeremiah then breaks up with Brett saying that it's for good. While on the drive to Maine, Sebastian's car breaks down leaving Jenny and Tinsley stranded. Jenny takes out her cell phone and texts Easy telling him what a good person Callie is. Easy, once getting the message, takes a charter plane straight to Maine to rescue Callie. At the rehab facility Callie has been trying to get over Easy and was put on a survival test out in the woods which turned out to be only fifty yards from the campus. Easy finds her and takes her back to the airport where they make up and get back together. But their reunion is short lived because when they get back the principal and Easy's guidance counselor are waiting for them. Easy broke his probation by leaving the school grounds without permission and the author makes it unknown if Easy will get expelled. Tinsley and Jenny go to sleep in Sebastian's car and when they wake up, they find that they were right next to a country club. It is later shown in the last instant messages of the book that on the trip that the two become friends.
Tarzan and Jane have left Africa, married and settled in London. Their pre-teen son, Jack, dreams of jungle adventures like his father's, but is discouraged by his parents. He sneaks away to see a trained ape called Ajax (in reality, Akut, an old friend from Tarzan's youth) the ape's trainer is really Ivan Paulovich, an old enemy of Tarzan's, who is looking for a way to enact vengeance. He kidnaps Jack and takes him to Africa.
Jack escapes with Akut and survives on his own in the wild much like his father did before him. He is given the Ape name Korak, which means "Killer" in their language. Korak rescues Meriem, a young French girl held captive by Arab slave traders and they grow to adulthood in the jungle. Paulovich hopes to receive a ransom from her wealthy parents for her return as well and attempts to capture both of them.
Eventually Paulovich lures Jane to Africa in order to extort a ransom, but Tarzan soon follows. Tarzan and Jane, living at their African estate, find Meriem and informally adopt her. They discover her parentage and send for her father. The film climaxes with a battle pitting Korak against Paulovich, his henchmen and the slave traders. An elephant rescues Korak, who is bound to a stake and he and Meriem are reunited with their parents, and all sail for England.[http://www.tarzan.cc/silverscreen.html Tarzan.cc]
Roseanne Rogers (Susan Douglas Rubeš) trudges from place to place, searching for another living human being. A ''Mountain News'' headline reports a scientist's warning that detonating a new type of atomic bomb could cause the extinction of humanity.
Rosanne eventually makes her way to her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael (William Phipps) already living there. At first, she is too numb to speak and slow to recover. She later resists Michael's attempted sexual assault, revealing that she is married and also pregnant.
Two more survivors arrive, attracted by the smoke coming from the house's chimney. Oliver P. Barnstaple (Earl Lee) is an elderly bank clerk who is in denial about his situation; he believes that he is simply on vacation. Since the atomic disaster, he has been taken care of by Charles (Charles Lampkin), a thoughtful and affable African American. They both survived because they were accidentally locked in a bank vault when the disaster happened. Roseanne was in a hospital's lead-lined X-ray room, while Michael was in an elevator in New York City's Empire State Building.
Barnstaple sickens, but seems to recover and then insists on going to the beach. There, they drag a man named Eric (James Anderson) out of the ocean. He is a mountain climber who became stranded on Mount Everest by a blizzard during the atomic disaster. He was flying back to the United States when his aircraft ran out of fuel just short of land. Meanwhile, Barnstaple dies peacefully.
Eric quickly sows discord among the group. He theorizes that they are somehow immune to the radiation and wants to find and gather together other survivors. Michael, however, is skeptical and warns that radiation will be the most concentrated in the cities Eric wants to search.
The newcomer later reveals himself to be a racist; he can barely stand living with Charles. When Charles objects, he and Eric fight, stopping only when Roseanne goes into labor; she gives birth to a boy, delivered by Michael. Afterwards, while the others work to make a better life, Eric goes off by himself. Maliciously, he drives their jeep through the group's cultivated field, destroying part of their crops. Michael orders Eric to leave, but Eric produces a pistol and announces that he will leave only when he is ready.
Later one night, Eric tells Roseanne that he is going to the city (Oak Ridge). Wanting to discover her husband's fate, Roseanne agrees to go with him, as he had hoped; he insists that she not tell Michael. After stealing supplies, Eric is stopped by a suspicious Charles; in the ensuing struggle, he stabs Charles in the back, killing him.
Once they reach the city, Eric begins looting, while Roseanne goes to her husband's office and then to a nearby hospital's waiting room; there she discovers her husband's remains. She wants to return to Michael, but Eric refuses to let her go. When they struggle, his shirt sleeve is torn open, revealing signs of advanced radiation poisoning. In despair, he runs away.
Rosanne begins the long walk back to the house, but along the way, her baby dies. Michael, who has been searching for Rosanne, eventually finds her. After burying her son, they return to the house. Michael silently resumes cultivating the soil, and Rosanne joins him.
Ted Barry, a jazz band leader and songwriter, has just died and is entering heaven. He is not recognized by St. Peter and has no references. He sings one of his hit songs and an angel, Joy, recognizes him from her time on earth. Barry wants to be admitted into the Hall of Music, made up of famous classical composers such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Wagner, Bach, and others. The composers have never heard of the boogie woogie or dixieland styles of music that Barry is known for, so he must audition for them. His audition melody has been borrowed from the Nutcracker Suite, and Tchaikovsky recognizes it and becomes angered. Barry points out that the same theme was also stolen from Wagner and Brahms, proving that he has a good knowledge of the classics.
Beethoven says that Barry must also prove that he has musical ability, giving him ten minutes to compose an original song. In frustration, Barry is going to quit, but Joy helps him write a song by becoming his muse. He writes and performs the song for the committee, but is denied and told he should return in 200 years to see if his music can stand the test of time. Joy speaks on his behalf, saying that his melody is beautiful, and could be played in any style. She asks several composers to play the melody in the individual classical and romantic styles of Chopin, Liszt, Rimsky-Korsakov, Strauss, and Beethoven. The committee decides to accept Barry into the Hall of Music and they all play his song together in a jazz style, and Gabriel enters playing jazz trumpet.
Professor Tsuchida, a leading expert on archaeology, goes on an unauthorized expedition into the unknown lower levels of the Great Pyramid of Giza with his assistant Kōji Kuroe. They soon realize that the underground ruins is full of death traps when the excavator they hired is decapitated by a thin metal wire. Professor Tsuchida, unwilling to back down, goes outside the pyramid to lure a Japanese tour group nearby to act as his human shield. Inside the pyramid, one by one, the members of the entourage become subject to Khufu's punishment for their faults, but the professor insists on heading deeper into the complex despite knowing the fatal dangers of the environment.
This part of the sequence revolves around the life of Somerset Lloyd-James but tells in part also the story of Captain Detterling and Leonard Percival, who investigate the death of Lloyd-James. When the story opens on 10 May 1972, Captain Detterling arrives at Somerset Lloyd-James's to discuss the health of Lord Canteloupe, since the Minister of Commerce seems broken down by his heavy work routine. Dolly, the housekeeper, who is in a state of shock, shows the captain the body of Lloyd-James in a bathtub filled with blood. Everything seems to indicate a suicide. The police explain to the captain that the affair officially will be regarded as a suicide caused by exhaustion. The government don’t want the police to look too deeply into the matter since some scandal may be revealed. However, the police agree to let Detterling be part of a silent investigation to find the truth about why Lloyd-James killed himself.
In the evening the captain has a rather boozy dinner with his distant cousin Canteloupe who seems to be in rather good health, despite the rumours, but drinks more than ever. Detterling suggests that Canteloupe make Peter Morrison his new under-secretary. At the time of his death Lloyd-James helped Canteloupe to sell a new kind of light metal for a British company and also planned how to blacken the name of competing companies. Detterling talks the always "moral" Morrison into accepting the job. Detterling and Leonard Percival, who suffers from stomach ulcers, attend the funeral of Lloyd-James and start their investigation right after the service. During this investigation a number of people are visited by the couple and the first is Maisie Malcolm (whose surname is revealed here for the first time), the prostitute frequented by Lloyd-James for many years. She has nothing to tell, except stories of a sexual nature. After this, they go to Corfu to interview Max de Freville and also see the grave of Angela Tuck, turned into a bizarre mausoleum by the heartbroken Max.
Detterling and Percival discuss many issues during the investigation and for the first time Captain Detterling reveals why he, after so many years in the army, never reached a higher rank than that of captain. During the war, he had signed an order for gasoline, without checking the number of gallons. Another officer had apparently sold much of this gasoline on the black market and, through his negligence, Detterling became a suspect when this affair was revealed. Eventually he was let off the hook but in reality his career came to a halt. After this story they visit Lloyd-James's mother, who mentions that she hadn’t had "real" connection with her son since he was twelve even though he visited her once or twice a year. Roger Constable, provost of Lancaster, is the next person on the list and he reveals a story about how Lloyd-James stole the contents of an essay he was given a prize for from an unpublished essay written some 20 years earlier. However, nothing could be proved. Tom Llewyllyn, who lives with his odd daughter "Baby" at the college, also discusses this essay. When Detterling and Percival visits Fielding Gray he talks about the party that took place in 1945 which ended with Lloyd-James being sick and passing out.
During a pause there is held a memorial (and, indeed, memorable) dinner for Lloyd-James with nine guests: Carton Weir, Tom Llewyllyn, Peter Morrison, Jonathan Gamp, Gregory Stern, Kapten Detterling, Lord Canteloupe, Fielding Gray and Maisie Malcolm. During this dinner Peter Morrison reveals a story he has just been told by old schoolmate Ivan Blessington who heard it from Lloyd-James himself recently: after the infamous party in 1945 the mean Lloyd-James had left half a crown instead of the ordinary five shillings for cleaning up. The outraged housekeeper, a young woman, had gone searching for Lloyd-James and found him sleeping. As it turned out the two of them had sex and she became pregnant. Lloyd-James didn’t know of this until recently when she wrote to him, telling him she had born him a son (officially with another) in 1946. She was now a widow and lived in poor circumstances and therefore asked Lloyd-James for some help. According to Blessington, Lloyd-James had been happily surprised and had been looking forward to meet his son.
Percival and Detterling trace the woman in question, Meriel Weekes, and visit her. It was her shop that Lloyd-James had been visiting on his last day. Her son is living with her and this young man, James Weekes, has become physically disfigured and mentally retarded after a car crash. Before that he was involved in crime, and crashed when he was chased by the police. Meriel Weekes tells Detterling and Percival about how shocked Lloyd-James had been during the meeting though he had provided them with some money. In the last discussion between Detterling and Percival they understand how the somewhat religious Lloyd-James had been broken down by what he considered to be a cruel joke on God’s part.
Category:1974 British novels Category:Novels by Simon Raven Category:Fiction set in 1972
The player arrives at Camp spirit as a rookie cheerleader on Wolf squad, a squad that doesn't have high ratings. As soon as they get there, another cheerleader challenges them to a cheer challenge and then they meet up with spiteful cousin, Becka. Becka challenges them to a night time cheer challenge after curfew, but she doesn't show up. They end up getting in trouble for sneaking out after curfew. The next day, they are assigned a punishment and soon begin cheer events and competitions against other squads. Jayden, one of the squad mates, finds out that Becka tricked them and decides to take revenge on Becka's squad, Tiger squad. Jayden finds the Wolf squad spirit stick missing, and assumes that Tiger Squad stole it, so in retaliation to this she sneaks into the Tiger Squad dorm and steals their spirit stick. However, it turns out the captain of their squad, Kieko, just took their stick to a camp council meeting so Jayden asks them to sneak into the Tiger Squad dorm after curfew and return the stick. They successfully return the stick, but Kieko comes back from the meeting and they get into trouble. Jayden blames the whole thing on them, and they are assigned another punishment next day. Jayden feels bad and admits that she stole Tiger Squad's spirit stick. Kieko refuses to lift the player's punishment, and Jayden tells the cheer council about it. The council decides that they showed true spirit by taking the blame for Jayden and Kieko didn't because she didn't lift the punishment. The player is promoted to captain of Wolf Squad in Kieko's place. They are harsh on their squadmates and they start to get upset. That night, they and Jayden here a noise coming from another dorm and Jayden asks them to go and investigate. The player sneaks out and find Becka having to work out all night without food in Tiger Squad's dorm by her captain, Brianna. The player brings Becka cake and she starts being nice. The next day is the last day of cheer camp. Becka nominates the player for camp champ against Tiger Squad leader Brianna. The next day, they challenge her, but she ends up winning, earning herself the title of Camp Champ for the third year in a row. The player competes in a few more events and challenges more cheerleaders to get patches for their journal, and end up winning the last cheer event.
Christmas Eve in a lonely desert in the Southwestern United States: Three riding cowboys have just bought out Christmas presents from a store, although they actually don't need them. One of the cowboys says that he just had the feeling that he should buy gifts to give them to someone. The cowboys see a flashing star in the distance, which they ride over to investigate. The star is actually a second hand star, used by the Italian-American Nick Catapoli for his little motel in the desert. A mysterious hitchhiker appears at Nick's motel who states that he just wants to come in from the cold for a little while. Nick and the Hitchhiker have a discussion about Christmas. While the hitchhiker tries to explain the true meaning of Christmas with love, goodwill and brotherhood; Nick opposes the holiday: He thinks that people behave badly during most of the year, but then try to behave in a fake-friendly way at Christmas. Nick shows the hitchhiker his motel customers as examples: Miss Roberts complains about the noise of Christmas carolers; the businessman Mr. Dilson is furious about the shirt-cleaning service that Nick uses and a traveling couple demands to get extra blankets for their room.
A young Mexican-American couple, Jose and Maria Santos, arrives at the motel hoping to get lodging. There are no cabins available, so Nick's wife Rosa accommodates them in a small shed next to the hotel. Maria is expecting a baby and is in a somewhat critical condition without a doctor. When the motel lodgers find out about Maria's approaching birth they try to help her. The lodgers forget their selfishness and now react in a social way: For example, the businessman who was angry about the poor work of the laundry on his "expensive shirt", now insists that his shirts be torn up to make bandages for the delivery when none can be located ("These will make the best bandages in the world!"), tearing up the first one himself, the couple demanding extra blankets use them for the baby while the woman complaining about the chorus singing carols asks what she can do to help. After the successful birth, the three cowboys appear at the motel and give their presents to the child. Nick learns that there is still goodness in the world and is now positive about Christmas. He even gives the hitchhiker, who observed the situation, a cup of coffee and his coat. He wishes "Merry Christmas" to the hitchhiker who now leaves the hotel. At the end, Nick sees how much the birth of the child in his shed resembles the Nativity Story and cries.
The film starts with footage showing the 19-year-old Unity Mitford at the 1933 Nuremberg Rally where she is said to have become obsessed with Adolf Hitler. Unity and Hitler are said to have had a close relationship for five years and are even rumoured to have been engaged.
Newsreel footage from January 1940 shows Unity return to England from Nazi Germany in a stretcher. Contemporary newspapers speculate that her relationship with Hitler had resulted in her either poisoning herself or being shot by Hitler after a tiff. In truth she shot herself in the head on the day war was declared only to miraculously survive. There were public calls at the time for her to be interned. Recently released documents show that the head of MI5, Guy Liddell, agreed. According to the film, Unity's father persuaded Home Secretary Sir John Anderson not to do so. Furthermore, despite her having had a close relationship with Hitler, she was not even interrogated. Unity was allowed to retire quietly to the English countryside. The documentary suggests that Hill View Cottage, where she stayed, was often used as a maternity home, suggesting the possibility that she may have given birth to Hitler's baby. A niece of midwife Betty Norton is interviewed and claims that Unity had secretly given birth to a child at Hill View Cottage in Wigginton, Oxfordshire, rumoured to be the son of Hitler.
Biographers explain Unity's difficult upbringing as the younger sister of prettier, more clever, more successful sisters and her adoption of fascism as a way to rebel and make herself distinct. In 1932, Unity's elder sister Diana begins an affair with British fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Against her father's wishes, Unity meets with Mosley and, according to Oswald's son, becomes a member of the party. The following year, Diana and Unity go to the Nuremberg rally as part of the British delegation, where Unity becomes obsessed with the Führer. Unity returns to Germany in the summer of 1934 and proceeds to stalk Hitler until she is eventually invited to his table at the Osteria Bavaria Restaurant in Munich. Hitler feels a mystical connection with the girl and she is subsequently invited to party rallies and state occasions. Bright visits the Oxford registry office in search of birth records.
Records of numerous births at Hill View Cottage at the time corroborate claims that it was a secret wartime maternity hospital, but none is registered to Unity. Biographers report that Hitler and Unity had become very close and that Hitler would play Unity off against his new girlfriend Eva Braun until the latter attempted suicide. Unity learned from this that desperate measure were needed to capture the Fuehrer's attention and had written a virulently anti-Semitic open-letter to ''Der Stürmer'' which concluded "P.S. please publish my name in full, I want everyone to know I am a Jew hater." Unity summers at the Berghof and discusses a possible German-British alliance with Hitler, going so far as to supply lists of potential supporters and enemies. These dreams are shattered, however, at the Bayreuth festival in 1939 when Hitler warns her of imminent war and urges her to return to Britain. She refuses and, on the day war is announced, takes the gun Hitler had given her and attempts suicide. Surviving the attempt, she is visited in hospital by Hitler who arranges for her return to England. Back in England, Bright finds apparent confirmation that she did indeed go to Wigginton. A life-time resident of Wigginton confirms to Bright that Unity stayed at Hill View Cottage, but only to recover from a nervous breakdown. In 1948 the bullet, still lodged in her brain, became infected and she died en route to hospital.
Biographers maintain that the obsessive relationship between Unity and Hitler was strictly platonic.
A nostalgic look is taken at an abandoned one-room school somewhere in rural America, seen in the then-present day with its windows boarded up and in disrepair. In flashback, a day in the life of its teacher, the spinster Miss Turlock, is seen, along with various students.
The end of the film shows the school's eventual closure, brought on by improvements in transportation and the rise of central school districts. Miss Turlock's students, now all successful adults, return to the school before its closure to throw a retirement party for Miss Turlock.
Whitney "Cam" Cameron (Joseph Cotten) arrives at a hospital to be with his widowed sister-in-law Lynne (Jean Peters), whose stepdaughter Polly has died under mysterious circumstances. A doctor cannot determine the cause of the child's death.
Cam has great affection for his young nephew Doug (Freddy Ridgeway). He begins to fear for the boy's life when Maggie Sargent (Catherine McLeod), the wife of his lawyer, Fred (Gary Merrill), mentions that the dead girl's symptoms sound suspiciously as if she had been poisoned.
Fred reveals that the will of Cam's brother, who also died from unspecified causes, put all his money into a trust for the boy. Lynne would inherit it all if anything happened to Doug.
Police, prodded by Cam, exhume the girl's body. Poison is found and Lynne is brought to court, but a judge dismisses the charges for a lack of evidence against her.
A desperate Cam cannot think of any way to keep Doug safe, particularly once Lynne decides to take the boy away to Europe for at least a year. Cam surprises them by turning up on the ocean voyage. He begins romancing Lynne, all the while plotting to poison her.
He slips a tablet from her belongings into a cocktail. Lynne goes to great lengths to castigate Cam for his suspicions and demonstrate that the tablet contained nothing but aspirin. Cam leaves her stateroom, but a few minutes later Lynne's life is saved by the ship's doctor, proving that she did indeed possess poison. A court soon sentences Lynne to prison for life.
With a million dollars cash in the vault, Jim Osborne (Joseph Cotten), a long term bank employee who has advanced to assistant bank manager in Los Angeles, is tempted to steal from his own bank and flee the country. Doing research at the library, he learns that Brazil has no extradition treaty with the United States. If he steals the money at close of business on a Friday, he will have time to travel to Brazil before the theft is discovered on Monday's opening. But the season when the bank opens on Saturdays is about to begin, so he must take action the same week or else wait for months.
He tells his wife Laurie (Teresa Wright) that the bank is sending him to Rio de Janeiro on business and he wants her and their daughter to travel with him. It is a great opportunity for his career, he says, and he has been given it in preference over the person who would normally be sent, so he cautions her not to talk to anyone about it. Laurie is delighted with the news, but insists their daughter stay at home with Laurie's mother. Jim decides he can send for her after Laurie knows they are staying in Rio.
With his inside knowledge and trusted position, the theft from the bank vault is simple enough, though time-sensitive and stressful; but the travel logistics are difficult. Because of the late timing the direct flights are full, and passports and visas are needed on a rush basis. The Osbornes face a series of issues and delays and ultimately miss a connection at New Orleans. At this point an airline employee, made suspicious by Jim's urgent manner and very heavy baggage, tips off a customs officer. Customs checks his baggage on the possibility he is illegally exporting gold, and the $1 million in cash is discovered.
Unreported large cash transactions are not illegal in 1952, but the customs man knows it is not normal for a bank to send only a single employee with so much cash on commercial travel. Though he suspects some wrongdoing, he cannot reach Jim's boss by telephone before the Osbornes' flight is called, and as there is no customs violation and Osborne threatens to sue him personally for his business losses, the officer lets them go. However, they are on standby and the flight is full and leaves without them. They will not be able to reach Rio on Sunday. Now fearing arrest, Jim checks into a hotel using a false name. Laurie hears the desk clerk call Jim by this other name and finally realizes the truth; she confronts him. When he admits what he has done, she wants no part in it; she leaves the hotel and flies back home to Los Angeles.
Within hours Jim realizes that his wife and daughter are far more important to him than his dreams of wealth. Laurie was too upset to tell anyone why she had suddenly returned. Jim calls her with a plan to return the money before the bank opens and as he has used only their money for the travel expenses the bank's money is intact. Jim flies back and just manages to replace the money in the vault before the bank opens. He is so emotionally drained that his fellow employees send him home sick where he reunites with Laurie.
With summer approaching, 16-year-old América has two issues, or so she thinks. She hates school and her aunt Carolina's alcoholic husband, Joey. She passes the days shoplifting, hanging out with her friends and trying to avoid Joey.
After a life-changing event, América, whose Spanish is limited, is sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina to live with her reclusive and anti-American grandmother, Lucía América Campos. In Argentina, América struggles to find her place with a grandmother she has never known and to hold onto a friendship with Sergio, a neighbor twice her age.
A neighboring country's kind king has fallen ill and can no longer rule, so his son, Good Prince Dudley, has taken his place on the throne. However, Prince Dudley vanishes during one of his travels, and the shady Lord Drash has assumed control in his absence. Lord Drash's first act as ruler was to launch an unprovoked and devastating attack on the surface fleet. Enemy ships have sunk all the ships in the fleet – except the lone battleship under the player's command. The player must locate Prince Dudley and restore him to power.
The greenhouse effect is threatening the earth. Two rival industrialists, Dan Randolph and Martin Humphries believe that the key to earth's survival is to mine the asteroid belt and move earth's heavy industry to space.
Millionaire Dan Randolf is going bankrupt, since his aerospace company, Astro Corp, is out of work due to the "greenhouse cliff" putting Earth at a higher priority than space. Cold-hearted multi-billionaire Martin Humphries shows Randolph a fully laid-out plan to reach the Asteroid Belt and mine it for its abundant metals. Randolph immediately takes up the idea, putting his entire life savings into the plan. Humphries donates much of the funds from his own pocket, planning to use that leverage later, after Randolph has put in all of his own work, to destroy Randolph, take over Astro Corp, and have a monopoly on all metals arriving from the Asteroids Belt.
While Dan Randolph wants to distribute the Asteroids' resources fairly at a very modest price to aid in the restoration of Earth's climate system, Martin Humphries intends to take over the company and use the monopoly to his own financial gain.
Roger Thesaurus has a problem. His two best friends are worst enemies. Dusting, who is rough and disgusting has forced his way to become Roger's best friend but Roger already had a best friend, Millicent, who is bossy. The two best friends constantly fight for Roger's attention, while he copes with parents who have decided to separate.
KEY AWARDS AND FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:Banff World Television Festival (2003)and nominated for a BANFF and Screen Producers Association of Australia (2003) and nominated for an AFI Award (Best Children's Television Drama 2003)
A mother and daughter, Maureen and 35-year-old Caitlin, live through the last few months of Earth's existence. Maureen and her late husband Harry are described as having substantial astrophysical intelligence. Caitlin, an astrophysicist herself, has been involved with the recent discovery of the Big Rip, a field of dark energy that is essentially tearing the universe apart. With the Milky Way out of sight and the Andromeda Galaxy approaching, scientists have observed that the effect will soon near Earth, unbeknownst to the general public. On March 15, Caitlin participated in a BBC Radio 4 discussion about the discovery, thus revealing it to the public.
On June 5, amid their search for extraterrestrial intelligence as part of the Rip, distinctly shaped signals were detected, possibly caused by phantom energy. Caitlin reveals that she was invited to a shelter made by the University of Oxford which can make humans potentially outlive Earth using special equipment.
The morning of October 14, the Sun gradually darkens within minutes. Maureen joins Caitlin in their pergola. Caitlin reveals that earlier, she, Bill, and the kids celebrated Christmas early; after the lunch, Bill put blue pills that had been distributed to everyone by the National Health Service in the kids' respective lemonades, and they fell asleep. Bill then took his own pill, and allowed Caitlin to leave, as she "always wanted to see it through to the end." She also declined the Oxford invitation. She gives Maureen a silicon sphere with instruments inside; Maureen is instructed to "keep recording until the expansion [of the universe] gets down to the centimeter scale, and the Rip cracks the sphere open, [then] the expansion reaches molecular scales", all of which should take a microsecond. They embrace as an earthquake reigns. Suddenly, Caitlin asks regarding interstellar messages Maureen claimed redundant to be decoded. As a violent wind blows, Maureen again replies that they do not need to be decoded – it is obvious to her the messages must have been variations of "goodbye".
The player assumes the role of Howard Bowie, the heroic soldier of the El Sharia Military Nation's foreign legion and commander of the unit known as "Team Undead". It is 100 years in the future and weapons of mass destruction have been banned from the field of war. Fighting is now done with the futuristic power armor known as the New Age Power Suit (NAP). Howard is assigned to use his K-19 Phantom NAP to infiltrate enemy territory to Point A-46K Bloody Axis and destroy the sole remaining weapon of mass destruction.
Two teenage boys, Marty and Steve, live in a colony on the Moon, "The Bubble", in the year 2068. Exploring outside the dome of "The Bubble" is strictly controlled. The boys grow bored and decide to borrow a lunar vehicle. They discover someone has forgot to remove their key, which makes it possible for them to explore beyond proscribed boundaries without restriction. They go on a journey to an old and abandoned base, where they find the diary of Andrew Thurgood, a missing early lunar settler. The diary contains coordinates to a place Thurgood claimed he saw something that looked like a huge flower, and the boys decide to go there and do some investigating themselves. They crash through the Moon's surface into a series of caverns containing fluorescent plants, many of them able to move, which is a part of and controlled by a single intelligent alien life form. They also meet a man, the missing settler from 70 years earlier, who has become enthralled by the alien. He does not seem to have aged during all those years. The boys are torn between staying in the caves, within which the alien provides an idyllic life fulfilling all their needs, and escaping. The longer they stay, the more their minds are affected. They eventually escape, but the man decides to stay, having lost any desires beyond worshipping the alien.
The story is narrated by a rat who wishes he could live the life of a proper pet. He visits several friends who are proper pets, including a chinchilla and a cat. However, he doesn't like the way any of them live. In the end, he puts up signs, asking if there is any one who wants a rat as a pet, and goes to a pet store. He is finally taken home from the store by an old man with poor eyesight who sees him in the display window and mistakes him for a cat. In the end, the rat says that he doesn't mind pretending to be a cat and that he likes his life as a pet.
Miya helps her grandfather, Michael McLeod, become interested in computers. Michael comes up with the idea to trace their ancestors back to the 18th century; while working to do that, they discover a story written by their great-great-great-great-great grandfather.
In the story, their great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Robbie McLeod, talks about his childhood. After being orphaned, his cruel uncle had looked after him; to escape the abuse, Robbie ran away into the woods. He found a male wolf pup who, similarly, had also been orphaned, and looked after him, naming it Charlie. A few days later, Robbie and Charlie made their way to America in hopes of a better life, but they were disillusioned; in America, there had been a war between the redcoats and the rebels. They encountered life-threatening situations.
As the years passed, Charlie's temperament naturally became wilder and more animalistic. Robbie noticed the change in Charlie and, reluctantly, let him go. He built a farm next to a lake where he occasionally saw Charlie. A couple years later, Robbie got married and had a son named Alan. The last time Robbie saw Charlie, Charlie had also started a family of his own.
After reading the story, Miya and her grandfather decide to travel to America to see where Robbie and Charlie lived.
Quiet and unassuming Yura Onozuka lives in the shadow of her famous parents - Yukari, a beautiful and talented actress, and Takayuki, the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award. When Yukari coldly announces that she and Takayuki are getting divorced, and Yura learns that Yukari has been sleeping with her best friend and crush, Shinsuke, Yura feels abandoned and left alone by everyone around her.
Yura decides to become an actress with the goal of becoming better than Yukari so that she can show everyone that she is worth something as an individual, and not be judged a disappointment because she is continuously compared to her parents. Keiichi Mizorogi, a professional manager formerly employed by Takayuki, scouts Yura and aids her in her quest.
Yura gradually develops the confidence to land the lead role in an upcoming television drama series. Along the way, she also gains the interest of two rising male idols - composer Q-Ta Minamitani, who first meets Yura when she is running away from her hotel during her parents' divorce, and his twin brother Haruka, a member of popular band Knights and the male lead of the drama Yura will star in.
A bride-to-be and her four bridesmaids travel to an exotic Caribbean island for a bachelorette party. After arriving at the luxurious resort, the women take a boat ride to a secluded island, where they can bask in sun and sand. The captain of the boat forgets to pick the girls up, leaving them stranded on the island, forcing them to use a deserted house as a makeshift shelter. That quickly turns into a nightmare when the women begin to disappear one by one.
The story takes place in Venice during the autumn of 1973. Detterling, Fielding Gray and Mr. and Mrs. Stern take part in a meeting of the International PEN Club. Tom Llewyllyn and his daughter "Baby" are also attending. Right after the conference the company are told of the death of Lord Canteloupe, Minister of Commerce. Since the lord has lost his son (as told in Sound The Retreat) and his male siblings are dead, Captain Detterling will inherit the title being the closest male relative. Peter Morrison succeeds Canteloupe as minister of Commerce.
Tom Llewyllyn mentions that he is waiting for Daniel Mond but does not reveal that Mond is dying and wants to spend his last days in Venice. The company also meets Max de Freville and Stratis "Lyki" Lykiadopolous, who are about to open a casino in the city. With them is a young Sicilian by the name of Piero. Max and Lyki live in Palazzo Albani which they are renting from the absentee owners. Detterling arranges so Tom and Daniel can live in the tower of the palazzo. During a dinner the company discusses the family portraits of the house, including one of an unknown young man. Captain Detterling brings Baby back to England and they become friends. Together with her aunt Isobel, Detterling helps Baby into a school more to her taste. Isobel and Gregory tell Detterling the story of how Baby's mother Patricia ended up in a mental hospital.
Piero, who has become friends with Daniel, makes small trips with him, at one time to a monastery on the island called San Francisco del Deserto. While there, Daniel recognises one of the Franciscan friars as former undergraduate Hugh Balliston (from Places Where They Sing). Balliston deeply regrets his actions of 1967 and has become a monk. Meanwhile, Lyki and Max have troubles with rich Arabs who play with high stakes in their casino, which means the partners must have much money at hand. Piero finds an old manuscript from the late 18th century, with part of the story about the Albani family. Fielding Gray discovers that the young man on the painting is a certain Englishman by the name of Humbert FitzAvon. After having found another manuscript Fielding realises that FitzAvon, who in 1797 was hanged by a mob of peasants, was son of the first Lord Canteloupe. He had corrupted the Albani family and married a peasant girl he had made pregnant before being lynched. Gray understands that if male descendants of FitzAvon and the girl still live, one of them is really the rightful Lord Canteloupe. With Tom and Piero Fielding heads off to the place where FitzAvon is buried and meets Jude Holbrook, who lives in the area with his mother. With the help of Holbrook the company finds a living male descendant, an imbecile little boy by the name of Paolo Filavoni. No-one wants to reveal the secret since this would mean trouble to Detterling but Piero eventually tells Lyki. Fielding uses the story in a novel but changes the facts radically.
Daniel, who has been investigating a tool that has been used in the casino, dies. Piero talks to Hugh who agrees to their burying Daniel on his island. A magnificent funeral procession by boat for Daniel ends the story. The major characters are all participating, except for Fielding Gray and Leonard Percival, who watch the procession from a bridge. Many people from the life of Daniel (and the novel sequence in general) attend too: Robert Constable, Jacquiz Helmut, Balbo Blakeney, soldiers Chead and Bunce, journalist Alfie Schroeder and even Mond's old nemesis, Earl Restarick. During the procession Lyki tries to blackmail Detterling about his title since he needs money. Detterling reveals that Daniel had found out that the instrument he was studying is used for cheating in the casino. Detterling promises to keep quiet about this if Lyki does the same. The funeral ends and the participants strike up small conversations in their boats on the way back. Only Piero, who is about to become a friar himself, notices a black stain spreading across the water of the lagoon.
Category:1976 British novels Category:Novels by Simon Raven Category:Fiction set in 1973 Category:Novels set in Venice Category:Blond & Briggs books
The story is centered on a 15-year-old high school student named Hideo Aiba (Atsushi Ninomya), a member of a school club called the Roman Club. (ROMAN here is a rendering of romance, vernacular fiction; the club's supposed purpose is the search for ghosts, UFOs, and the paranormal.) The story centers around his quid pro quo relationship with a girl named Kurumi Sahana (Akane Suzuki). Most of the events begin as an outing of the Roman Club. Occasionally, Hideo will be out on his own with Kurumi. This is usually at night, serving to contrast the playful daytime events.
Thomas Maddison (played by Jeffries) had spent 40 years living in the deepest Cornwall countryside, and hen-pecked at that; his late wife banned him from smoking, drinking, and even casually looking at other women. Upon becoming a widower, Maddison, unable to wait to break free from the shackles that had bound him for so long, heads off to the bright lights of London, where his son Richard (Dick) (played by Ogilvy) lives with his wife Harriet (played by Forsyth). Suffice to say, his rather primitive manners, his disgusting habits, and his womanising creates havoc for his son and his daughter-in-law, both of them being well-manicured executives; him in advertising, her in magazine publishing. However, in the second series, Harriet conceives and (in a rather speedy nine months) delivers Richard a son and Thomas a grandson.
Jane Jones, a speech pathologist, has been married to Oliver Jones for almost twenty years. Together, they have a teenage daughter named Rebecca. Oliver is a world-renowned marine biologist. However, Oliver has a history of behaving emotionally abusive and emotionally unavailable. After a heated argument that culminated in Jane slapping Oliver, Jane calls her brother Joley, who is living and working on an apple orchard in Massachusetts. Through a series of letters awaiting the mother-daughter duo at designated post offices, Joley guides Jane and Rebecca across the country until they are reunited, while Oliver begins to obsessively track them down.
The orchard is owned by Sam, who employs and lodges his friend, Hadley, as well as Jane's brother, Joley. Soon into her stay at the orchard, Jane and Sam begin an affair, and a relationship develops between Rebecca and Hadley. This is controversial, as Hadley is 25 and Rebecca is 15, while Jane is 35 and Sam is 25. Jane is worried about her daughter, and is able to persuade Sam to chase Hadley away. Sam agrees to do so reluctantly.
Eventually, Oliver is able to track Jane and Rebecca to the apple orchard. Oliver arrives with the intention of bringing the women back to San Diego. However, Rebecca, afraid of being separated from Hadley, runs away to his mother's house, where he resides. The pair are discovered one morning atop a mountain by Oliver, along with Sam, and a park ranger. Hadley, startled and attempting to run falls from the mountain to his death. Sick with pneumonia from spending the night outside, Rebecca has no choice but to return to the orchard.
Confronted with the consequences of leaving her husband and travelling across the country, Jane returns home to San Diego with Oliver and Rebecca.
Spenser is approached by a beautiful blonde widow who wants him to find the identity of the murderer of her late husband. He agrees, but this case will take him away from Boston to Arizona and the resort town of Potshot. Questioning all of the victim's acquaintances yields little information. However, the couple had just recently moved from Los Angeles, so Spenser heads there to talk to their old neighbors. His visit there is very fruitful, but raises as many questions as it answers.
Returning to Potshot, Spenser follows-up on what he found out from old neighbors in LA. Meanwhile, he is investigating a band of thugs that live on the outskirts of town in an area called "The Dell". Everyone is convinced that they killed the victim, and had publicly threatened him.
"The Dell" gang is led by a man who calls himself The Preacher. He organized the gang from a ragtag group of drunks and junkies. Now, with leadership, they are bullying the townspeople and extorting protection money from local businesses. After a public confrontation with the gang, the town's leaders ask Spenser if he can rid the town of the menace.
They agree to pay a healthy sum for the service, so Spenser forms a small private band of mercenaries composed of several associates, most of them criminals or people with criminal backgrounds. But he hires them for their shooting skills, which will be needed for the coming battle.
The further Spenser digs, however, he finds that all is not what it seems in Potshot and the killing of the widow's husband may just be part of a much larger conspiracy.
The story follows Donald, a man who is being courted by a new company which has the ability to bring dead people back to life as the "living dead". The premise is that the "living dead" can be sold as a cheap and reliable work force. Donald is not sure that will work out too well, so the company sends an agent named Courtney (his former lover) to convince him of the idea. As they visit different locations around the city Donald begins to see the repercussions of an all-"living dead" work force.
In December 1775, Cletus Moyer (Avery Brooks) is a free black Northerner in colonial America, working with a pre-Underground Railroad network to help slaves escape captivity. In the days just prior to Christmas, a group of bounty hunters led by Hattie Carraway (Kate Mulgrew) captures Moyer near the Parker plantation in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Because of his capture, dozens of slaves who have already left their plantations in escape attempts are in danger of being captured as well. Moyer implores two slaves from the nearby Reynolds plantation to take his place: Kunta Kinte (Burton), a Mandinka in his mid-twenties who was captured in what is now the Gambia, and Fiddler (Gossett), an elderly man who was born into slavery. Kunta is eager to help (and to escape himself), but Fiddler is unwilling, fearful of the consequences if they are caught.
After an unsuccessful slave revolt elsewhere in the colony, Moyer and two slaves are hanged by Carraway's men on Christmas Eve, prompting Fiddler to set aside his fear and help Kunta lead the runaway slaves to freedom. Although the pair successfully leads the runaways that night to their next stop on the escape route (a boat waiting at the river) there is only room for one of them, and since neither one wants to go without the other, they both decide to stay. That choice forces them to return to the Parker plantation and manufacture an excuse for their temporary absence. Nevertheless, Kunta and Fiddler are left with the satisfaction of knowing that they helped to give a group of fellow slaves the best Christmas gift of all: freedom.
One stated meaning of the "gift" mentioned in the title is freedom. When Kunta visits Cletus in his cell to bring him food, the captured freedman offers him a word of wisdom in return: "I will give you a Christmas gift. 'Live free or die.'" Another interpretation is the chance for a new life, symbolized by the birth of a child on Christmas Eve. When Kunta and Fiddler arrive at the river crossing with the runaway slaves, a woman in their party goes into labor. After the baby girl is born, Kunta lifts the swaddled child up to the night sky and says "Behold the only thing greater than yourself." These words reference a scene in the 1977 miniseries, when an older Kunta, played by John Amos, tells his newborn daughter Kizzy the same thing against a starlit sky.
College professor Jude (Donovan) becomes smitten with a student named Sofie (Ward). The two enjoy a brief time together, only to find that numerous obstacles, both tangible and intangible, prevent them from moving forward. Their conflict begins to expose parallels with the themes Jude covers in his literature class.
The film opens with the Teale family moving west on a wagon into Indian Territory. They reach their home, and plan to go into the cattle business. The father, Jacob, rides out to get the cattle, promising to return in a month. However, he is killed along the way when his horse falls over on him, and he bleeds to death internally.
Meanwhile, a stagecoach passes by the Teale farm; Evie Teale agrees to work for the stagecoach by feeding customers who come by. One of the men on the stagecoach warns Evie of a man named Conn Conagher, who he says is a fierce gunfighter. One day, Conagher does stop by for food, along with his partner Mahler. The Teale farm later comes under attack by Indians. The stagecoach arrives again in the middle of the gunfight, and the drivers and the passengers defend the farm. The Indians retreat in the morning.
Conagher, meanwhile, drifts out in the wilderness. Mahler and he meet an old rancher, Seaborn Tay, who hires both of them. Conagher proves to be a hardworking cowhand, but the ranch comes under threat by the Ladder Five gang, led by Smoke Parnell. Mahler deserts the ranch after an argument with Conagher and joins the Ladder Five. Conagher saves the ranch and Tay's cattle twice from the Ladder Five, both in a series of quick gun battles. He also visits the Teale farm regularly, and Evie and he grow fond of each other and he becomes a father figure to her children.
One day, when Conagher is out herding Tay's cattle, he is ambushed and shot by the Ladder Five gang. The wounded Conagher hides out during the day, and at night returns and holds the Ladder Five, including Parnell, at gunpoint. Weak from his wound, Conagher eventually collapses and passes out, but not before he demands the Ladder Five to clear off of the land. Parnell knows now that he can finish Conagher, as his gang has sworn to do, but instead orders his man to take Conagher to Seaborn Tay. The next day, the Ladder Five gang clears off the land.
Evie Teale writes anonymous poems and ties them to tumbleweeds. Conagher chases tumbleweeds all over the prairie through most of the film, but he does not guess she is the tumbleweed poet until the end.
When Conagher recovers, he tells Tay he feels like drifting again. Tay says he can stay and own part of the ranch, he has earned it, but Conagher has always been a drifter and he feels he needs to move on. He stops in the saloon in town and sees the stagecoach manager, who buys him a drink. Conagher tells him he has "tumbleweed fever" and the stagecoach manager laughs and says, "you, too?" Apparently, cowboys all over the county have been finding the notes tied to the tumbleweeds, and wondering about the woman who wrote them. The conversation shifts to Mrs. Teale, and the stagecoach manager says the family had a hard winter, but they made it through. He tells Conagher he should go visit, but Conagher says he feels like heading north.
However, in the next scene he rides up to the family's cabin. He has brought some groceries as a gift and Mrs. Teale asks him to stay for dinner. He ends up staying for a few days and helps fix the roof and do other chores. Mrs. Teale and he are sitting in rockers in front of the house and it seems like he may be about to say something romantic when Mahler rides up. Apparently, he has been courting Mrs. Teale, although she is not very interested. Conagher and he have a quiet argument about the Ladder Five gang in front of Mrs. Teale, and when Mahler sees that she believes Conagher, he turns and rides away.
Evie asks Conagher what he was about to say when Mahler rode up, but he says he cannot remember. He tells her it is time for him to be moving on, and he gives her some money to buy more groceries, saying he would like to be able to come back, but he does not want to be an imposition. She gets mad at him for giving her the money, but says he is always welcome. He rides off, telling himself he is a fool, but he does not think he is worthy of Evie.
In town, he plans to get drunk and then drive north, but he finds a drunken Mahler in the saloon. The two argue again, and Conagher challenges Mahler to a fist fight. Mahler starts out beating up Conagher; Conagher finally gains the upper hand. Evie arrives at that moment where she tells Conagher, "It's time for you to come home now." Conagher is physically hurt, but asks her why she came back. She tells them they all felt lost without him. He takes one of her tumbleweed notes out of his pocket and asks her if she wrote them. She said she did. She was just so lonely she had to talk to someone even if no one was there to hear. He says, "There was, Evie, there was me." They kiss, and he says they can start a new life together. She smiles and they walk out the door together.
Middle-class couple Michel (Laurent Lucas) and Claire (Mathilde Seigner) are taking their three daughters, Jeanne, Sarah, and Iris, on a trip to see Michel's parents. The car has no air conditioning and the children are feeling sick, so the family decides to make a rest stop and turn back. At the rest stop, Michel runs into Harry (Sergi López), a high school acquaintance of Michel's who he hasn't seen for years. Harry is doing very well for himself, and is traveling with his girlfriend Plum (Sophie Guillemin) to show her Switzerland. Harry asks if he and Plum can come back to Michel's house for a drink, and Michel accepts.
Michel's summer home is a run-down house that the family plans to fix up. Michel finds that his father has renovated the bathroom without his consent. At dinner, Harry reminds Michel of a poem he had published in a school newspaper, as well as a science fiction story, ''The Flying Monkeys''; he then offers to help the family out however he can, claiming money is no object. The next day, after Michel tries to fill in a deep well in the front yard, the family car dies in the middle of the road, but Harry purchases a new one for them, despite Michel and Claire's protests. Amidst all this, Michel hears from his parents, who insist on coming to his house instead; Michel's father is not supposed to drive, so Michel insists on picking them up. When he brings them to the house, Harry and Plum are there, and Harry sees the pressure they put on Michel.
Harry and Plum leave to stay in a hotel for the night. But Harry sneaks out, steals a van, and goes to Michel's parents' house, claiming Michel is in trouble and they should follow him. They get in the car and follow him, but Harry tricks them into driving off the road and over a cliff, killing them both. Michel is distraught to learn his parents are dead, and the family attends their funeral. After the funeral, Harry gives Michel's brother Eric a ride home. Eric insults Michel and makes fun of his poem. Harry arrives back at the house on his own, claiming Eric thumbed a ride; Michel's daughter sees Harry trying to hide Eric's corpse in the back seat. Harry disposes of the body that night.
Amidst all this family tragedy, Michel feels inspired to start writing ''The Flying Monkeys'' again but flies into a rage when Claire interrupts his writing. Harry tells Michel that he believes Claire is holding him back. The family has dinner with Plum and Harry again, and Harry tells Plum that Michel insulted her. She runs to the bathroom, crying; Michel goes up to apologize, and Plum kisses him while Harry leaves. Michel apologizes to Claire and is inspired by Harry's favorite food to write a more personal story called ''The Eggs''. In the night, Harry returns, killing Plum and enlisting Michel for help disposing of her body in the well. When Michel realizes Harry plans to do the same to Claire, he stabs Harry with a knife and drops his body down the same well.
Michel stays up all night filling in the well, surprising Claire, who also tells him that she read ''The Eggs'' and thinks it is brilliant. The film closes as the family goes on another trip in the car Harry bought them.