A princess of the northeast kingdom, suddenly possessed by the spirit of an ogress, turns to an evil spirit to find the raw food and fresh blood that must be provided in a banana leaf for a sick spirit. This has occurred over the centuries, with several generations of princesses in terror.
Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg (Heinrich George), a man much beloved by his Swabian people is crowned Duke and swears an oath to obey the laws of the duchy "according to the traditional Württemberg loyalty and honesty." However, the Duke soon becomes frustrated because the Württemberg Diet (the provincial council) refuses him the funds needed to maintain a lifestyle comparable to his neighboring sovereigns; in particular, he wants a personal bodyguard, an opera company, and a ballet company. Lacking funds even to purchase coronation gifts for the Duchess (Hilde von Stolz), the Duke sends a courtier to Frankfurt to borrow money from Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian). Süß shows the emissary jewels and jewelry that are obviously beyond the Duke's means and then says that it would be his honor to provide the Duke with jewelry at a substantial discount. However, Süß insists on presenting the items to the Duke personally despite a ban against Jews (''Judensperre'') entering the city that has been in force for over a century. Armed with a pass from the Duke, Süß cuts his hair, shaves his beard, and dons "Christian" clothes so that he can enter Württemberg disguised as a Christian. As his carriage is involved in an accident, Süß gains a lift from Dorothea Sturm (Kristina Söderbaum) to the city.
The Duke is delighted with the jewelry, and Süß willingly defers payment. Süß offers to provide financing for the Duke's bodyguard, opera, and ballet as well. Eventually, the Duke discovers that he owes Süß 350,000 thalers, but Süß demurs, saying that all he wants in "payment" is the authority to maintain the roads and bridges of the duchy for 10 years—and the right to levy tolls for their use and upkeep. The Duke will receive a percentage of the proceeds, thereby freeing him from the financial limits imposed by the council.
The new tolls cause the price of food and other essentials to rise, enriching both Süß and the Duke. Süß gains the authority to levy taxes on salt, beer, wine, and wheat as well. He also assists in procuring local women for the Duke, thus engaging in the corruption of their morals. The increase in the price of basic necessities causes the people of Württemberg to suffer great privation.
The oppressive taxes and brutal collection methods incite sporadic rebellions that are suppressed harshly. Süß goes so far as to destroy half of a blacksmith's house to prove his power to punish those who refuse to pay their taxes. When the blacksmith attacks Süß's coach with a sledgehammer, Süß has the blacksmith hanged on the grounds that an attack on the Duke's minister is tantamount to an attack on the Duke himself.
After some initial resistance, the Duke yields to Süß's request for the repeal of the law prohibiting Jews from living in Württemberg; a horde of dirty, disreputable Jews are then shown moving into the city. Süß enables them to enrich themselves at the expense of the populace. The aged rabbi Loew (Werner Krauss) criticizes Süß for his excessively opulent lifestyle as the Duke's finance minister and warns that it could be his downfall, warning that, “The Lord punishes Jews who forget who they are!” but Süß pays him no heed.
Süß relentlessly pursues Dorothea Sturm and schemes to marry her but his plans are frustrated when her father, the council chairman (Eugen Klöpfer), intervenes. Dorothea and her fiancé, Faber (Malte Jaeger), marry in secret. Süß then has Dorothea's father imprisoned—on the grounds that he is a leader of the conspiracy against the Duke.
When the council objects to the Duke's increasing usurpation of power and abrogation of the constitution, Süß suggests to him that this challenge to his authority can be suppressed by dismissing the council and restructuring the government so that the Duke can reign as an absolute monarch. Süß tells the Duke that he can accomplish this by hiring mercenaries and that, as a sign of their gratitude, the Jews of Württemberg will provide all the requisite funds. Süß argues that he would be most effective if the Duke were to give him a letter granting him immunity from the laws of Württemberg. The Duke refuses at first, but ultimately grants Süß's request.
As part of an attempt to thwart the Duke's planned coup d'état, Faber is sent on a mission to get help from outside the city but is arrested as he tries to leave the city. Despite being tortured, he refuses to reveal the identities of his co-conspirators. Dorothea goes to Süß to beg for her husband's release but Süß demands that she have sex with him as the price for her husband's freedom. Süß rapes Dorothea, who then escapes and drowns herself. Süß keeps his promise to free Faber who subsequently discovers his wife's drowned corpse.
Süß suggests to the Duke that the two of them go to Ludwigsburg on the pretext of meeting the emperor's emissary and return to Württemberg only after the planned coup has established him as an absolute monarch. However, before the foreign mercenaries arrive to effect Süß's coup, the people of Württemberg rise up under the leadership of Obrist Röder. The Württemberg soldiers refuse to fire on their fellow citizens and several of the townspeople go to Ludwigsburg to confront the Duke and Süß. As they are presenting their grievances, the Duke suffers a fatal heart attack. Süß is taken into custody by the rebels and subjected to a lengthy trial on charges that include treason and financial improprieties. However, he is ultimately convicted primarily on the charge that he had sex with a Christian woman. Süß is executed, pleading to the last that he was nothing more than a "faithful servant" of the late Duke. All the other Jews are then given three days to leave Württemberg. As the film draws to a close, a citizen of Württemberg, observing the Jews leave, comments, "May the citizens of other states never forget this lesson."
The novel tells the story of a Jewish businessman, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, who, because of his exceptional talent for finance and politics, becomes the top advisor for the Duke of Württemberg. Surrounded by jealous and hateful enemies, Süß helps the Duke create a corrupt state that brings them immense wealth and power.
In the meantime, Süß discovers he is the illegitimate son of a respected nobleman, but decides to continue living as a Jew, as he is proud of having achieved such a position despite this. Meanwhile, the Duke finds out about Süß's hidden daughter and, trying to rape her, accidentally kills her. Süß is devastated. He plans and executes his revenge. He encourages and then exposes the Duke's plan to overthrow the Parliament, thus infuriating the Duke to death, Subsequently, Süß realizes nothing will bring back his daughter, and apathetically turns himself over to authorities. Accused of: fraud, embezzlement, treason, lecherous relations with the court ladies and accepting bribes, he is adjudicated. Under the pressure of the public, the court sentences him to death by hanging. Despite being given a last chance for reprieve if he reveals his noble origins or converts to Christianity, he dies reciting the Shema Yisrael, the most important prayer in Judaism.
An orphaned 18-year-old New Zealand girl marries a much older wealthy businessman. Strains soon develop between them, at great emotional and physical toll on them and those around them, from family and servants, to business and trade associates and clientele.
She proceeds to cultivate a game with him in which she reads to him and also hypnotizes him. While he is under hypnosis she feeds him chloroform, thus gradually poisoning him. He finally dies and she is arrested and accused of poisoning him. Although chloroform is found in his stomach, there is no proof that she was involved, so she is acquitted. She then leaves New Zealand with his brother George, whom she loves.
The film ends by stating that her story was "based on a real character, crime and trial" and that it was assumed that they had emigrated to America to begin a new life. She was 19 years old.
In post-reconstruction United States, black sheep Ashby Corwin returns to his native Kentucky on a steamboat. He encounters young Lucy Lee, ward of Dr. Lake, and is struck by her beauty.
In court, Judge Billy Priest, who is a candidate for reelection to his post, adjudicates a number of cases, including finding a job for "Uncle Plez" Woodford's idle nephew, U. S. Grant Woodford. Ashby learns that while old General Fairfield is said to be the grandfather of Lucy, he denies it. On the street, after Lucy is the subject of insults by Buck Ramsey about her true heritage, Ashby gets into a whip fight with Buck before the judge comes by and puts a stop to it.
Lucy eventually discovers who her real mother is: a prostitute recently returned to town. Meanwhile, the daughter of Rufe Ramsuer is assaulted and young Woodford is blamed and arrested, causing racial tensions to rise and a large lynch mob to form. Violence seems imminent until Judge Priest confronts the mob at the jailhouse and defuses the confrontation with an eloquent and brilliant argument. Later, Rufe's daughter points to Buck as being her true attacker.
It is election day. Those in the lynch mob realize that Judge Priest has saved them from themselves, and they vote for him en masse, producing a tie with the other candidate, Horace K. Maydew (played by Milburn Stone). It is pointed out to the judge that he hasn't yet remembered to cast a ballot himself, so he wins reelection by a single vote: his own.
634 A.D.:Though General Amdar is able to win the Siege of Damascus for his ruler Khalid, he is made an enemy of the State. Amdar escapes and steals a scimitar made of Damascus steel. He leads an alliance of Sinbad without his ship, Aladdin without his lamp, Sheherazade, and Ali Baba and his 40 thieves to depose Khalid and win the heart of Princess Zafir.
The film, based on pre-Christian Finnish mythology and Sami shamanism, is set in Finnish Lapland and centers on a young woman, Pirita. In the snowy landscape, Pirita and reindeer herder Aslak meet and soon marry. Aslak must spend time away for work, leaving his new bride lonely. In an effort to alleviate her loneliness and ignite marital passion, Pirita visits the local shaman, who indeed helps her out; but in the process turns her into a shapeshifting, vampiric white reindeer. The villages' men are drawn to her and pursue her, with tragic results.
The film is about Melissa (Erica Roby), a young woman living in Los Angeles, who works for a large corporation.
One night, there is a freak meteor shower. The next morning, Melissa goes about her day but as time passes, slowly becomes aware that those around her have changed since the meteorites fell. It's as if their minds are no longer their own. For example, Melissa's supervisor Samantha seduces her into a passionate lesbian encounter, even though Samantha had never shown any signs of being a lesbian.
Melissa soon realizes that the townsfolk have been replaced by a race of aliens known as Pod People. The aliens grow in large seed pods and gradually take the form of a particular person, eventually taking over their bodies once the growth process is complete. The Pod People try to take control of Melissa, but she flees the town to warn humanity of the invasion in progress.
Four boys and a girl want to get away from their parents and their country because they are afraid of an atomic war. They plan to use a boat to get to an idyllic island. When they realise their savings aren't sufficient they feel it was justified to obtain the required money by committing a crime.
Maisie Potter tries out for the wrestling team in her junior high to get close to a boy she likes, but she soon finds out that what she really loves is the sport of wrestling.
Maisie initially wants to be on the cheerleading squad, but she did not make the cut during tryouts. She is infatuated with a boy at her school, Eric Delong, and will do anything to be near him. Because he tries out for the wrestling team, Maisie decides to try out too. She makes the team but discovers that wrestling is a lot harder than she initially thought. She wins some of her matches but most of her opponents forfeit because they don't think it's right for a girl to wrestle a boy. She has to decide if she should do things that other people want her to do or things that she truly wants to do and is good at.
In February 1141 Hugh Beringar, Deputy Sheriff of Shropshire, returns with the survivors of the Battle of Lincoln, bringing news of a disastrous defeat. King Stephen has been captured, and the future of England is uncertain. Sheriff Gilbert Prestcote has been taken prisoner by Welshmen allied to Empress Maud.
Two days later, Sister Magdalen, from the nearby convent at Godric's Ford, reports a raid by Welshmen returning from Lincoln. They were driven off, leaving a young man as prisoner. He pretends not to understand English but Brother Cadfael, sent to treat his wounds, easily catches him out. The prisoner identifies himself as Elis ap Cynan, a cousin to Owain Gwynedd. Hugh Beringar dispatches Cadfael into Wales to negotiate an exchange of prisoners: Elis for Gilbert Prestcote.
At Tregeiriog in Gwynedd, the holding of Tudur ap Rhys and where Owain holds court, Cadfael meets Tudur's daughter Cristina, betrothed to Elis, and Eliud, Elis's foster-brother. He overhears them arguing, and concludes that Cristina is jealous of the close friendship between Elis and Eliud. Back in Shrewsbury Castle, Elis meets Prestcote's daughter Melicent, and they fall completely in love. Melicent believes that her father will never consent to their marriage.
Einon ab Ithel, one of Owain's captains, brings Prestcote from Wales. Eliud accompanies them, as Einon's groom and as the hostage to remain in Shrewsbury while Elis returns to Wales. Prestcote is ill and wounded, and is taken to the infirmary at Shrewsbury Abbey. While almost everyone in the Abbey is at their midday meal, Elis tells Eliud of his love for Melicent and his plan to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Elis goes to Prestcote's room, only to be ejected from the ward by Brother Edmund, the Infirmarer. As Einon prepares to leave, Eliud asks Cadfael to go with him to recover Einon's cloak, which he left behind in Prestcote's room. They find Prestcote dead, smothered in his sleep.
Einon will not ransom a live man with a dead one. Eliud, Elis and six others of Einon's party must remain as suspects. After Einon departs for Wales, Melicent accuses Elis of murdering her father, as only he was known to enter the room. As Elis protests his innocence, Cadfael recalls that an ornate gold pin which had fastened Einon's cloak was missing when Prestcote was found dead. Elis does not have it, so others must have entered the room. Elis and Eliud share a cell in the Castle under their parole of honour not to leave. After her father's funeral, Melicent departs for Godric's Ford with Sister Magdalen, sorting out her own feelings.
Cadfael closely examines the body of Prestcote and recovers richly-dyed woollen threads and some gold thread, which came from the cloth used to smother him. No cloth within the Abbey matches them. Suspicion next falls on Anion ap Griffri, a lay servant recovering from a broken leg. Prestcote had ordered his half-brother to be hanged for his part in a fatal brawl, providing motive. Anion flees.
Hugh Beringar takes half of his armed men to join forces with Owain Gwynedd to deal with raids by Ranulf of Chester in the northern part of the county. In his absence, men from Powys gather for another raid. Cadfael takes the news to Tregeiriog, where Owain Gwynedd and Hugh Beringar will meet. There, Cristina tells Cadfael that her father has freed her to marry whom she loves. Cadfael realises his earlier mistake. Cristina and Eliud are in love with each other, but Eliud never spoke of his love from loyalty to Elis.
At the evening meal, Anion appears, as his father asks that this son be recognised as his heir. He is wearing the gold pin taken from Prestcote's room. Einon accuses him of theft but Anion explains that he thought the pin was Prestcote's and gave it to his father as galanas for the half-brother Prestcote hanged.
Before dawn, Hugh Beringar arrives with news that the raiders from Powys are nearing Godric's Ford. In the bustle of getting fresh horses, Cadfael sees Einon's ornate saddlecloth and realises it was the murder weapon. He now knows who the murderer is, but tells no one. He asks Owain Gwynedd whether atonement for Prestcote's murder requires another death, pleading that atonement by penitence would be preferable. Owain agrees, holding that guilt is considered in degrees.
At Shrewsbury castle, Elis overhears the news of the raid on Godric's Ford. Frantic for Melicent's safety, he breaks his parole and makes his way there on foot. Hugh Beringar's lieutenant, Alan Herbard, sets out to intercept the raiders. He takes Eliud with him, under sentence of death if Elis proves false. As the raiders arrive to attack the convent, Elis confronts them, saying in Welsh that they are shameful to attack innocent holy women. A Welshman looses an arrow at him, but Eliud throws himself in front of Elis and the arrow pins them together, wounding both of them. Beringar and Herbard arrive, and the raiders are routed and flee into Powys.
Eliud confesses Prestcote's murder to Cadfael. Before he met Elis at the Abbey, Eliud went to Prestcote's chamber to recover Einon's cloak, with Einon's saddlecloth on his arm. Desperate to prevent Elis returning to marry Cristina, he smothered Prestcote with it, regretting it even as he acted. It was for naught, as he learned minutes later, when Elis confessed his love for Melicent. Eliud left the cloak behind and later asked Cadfael to accompany him to the room to ensure that the death was discovered. Melicent overhears the confession.
Hugh Beringar charges Eliud for Prestcote's murder. Hugh sends the six Welshmen who are still at Shrewsbury to carry Elis back to Wales. Elis and Melicent conspire to substitute an unconscious Eliud for Elis, thus removing Eliud from Hugh's jurisdiction. Cadfael and Sister Magdalen look the other way.
Beringar cannot press any charge against Elis. Elis will return to Wales when he is healed, and court Melicent in proper form. Eliud and Cristina are reunited in Wales, where justice lies with Owain Gwynedd. Cadfael observes to Hugh Beringar that even God, when He intends mercy, needs tools to His hand.
Figaro, a singing barber, gets caught by some bandits who use his abilities to attract travelers and assault them. To escape justice he joins the army where he meets none other than the bandits. They are shipped to Puerto Rico and fight pirates, returning to Spain with acclaim. Now he will know the rich salons and the bright side of life.
On the day of the Presidential inauguration Secret Service agent Pierce, a member of current President Simon's personal detail, receives a phone call from an unknown caller who goes by the name "Semper"; Latin for "always" or "ever". He warns that the President is in danger and that someone at the top has compromised the Secret Service warning that "tyrants are everywhere".
Shortly thereafter, dozens of hostiles, although dressed like civilians, are all armed with AKs and speak Spanish, attack the Lincoln Memorial where President Simon is shot. After taking down several RPGs, President Simon is extracted to Walter Reed Medical Center.
Then reports of bombs planted in the Capitol building with over one hundred civilians trapped in the cross fire. Agent Pierce enters while another agent, Doyle, provides updates on situation. After Pierce disarms bombs the bomb squad is killed when they enter the building. He rescues a group of senators and questions the Speaker of the House about the vice president-elect, and learns that the president-elect and vice president-elect were political enemies.
Doyle then updates that the bombs were a setup for CVX bombs that would decimate D.C. and they originated from the fictional island of Costa Sentava; a military dictatorship led by a man named Vargas, who had used CVX gas before on his people during a revolt and also announced it was no longer in production. Doyle tells they had an inside man to not only get the gas in the country, but in the Capitol as well.
The soon to be US vice president is also leading the US delegation at the South American summit being held in D.C. Doyle and Pierce discuss about how they need to get to the White House to expose what's happening, Semper interjects implying the top level people he's going to talk to, could be the same top level people who could be behind the attacks.
Agent Pierce enters a network of tunnels that lead to the White House fighting the terrorists and the tunnel's automated defences. En route to the White House, Pierce is told to stand down on orders of Special Agent Kauffman, the man in charge of the Secret Service Protection Division, but later on while still in the tunnels, Pierce learns that President Simon died from his wounds. Doyle tells him that the President-elect detail has gone quiet as well.
After preventing an explosion in the tunnels, Pierce enters Secret Service-held territory. Pierce must fight, non-lethally, through Secret Service agents ordered to stop him because he has been classified as a rogue agent. After exiting the train depot chamber, Pierce eventually reach the White House, though he has to fight his way, both lethal and non-lethal, through both Costa Sentavans and the agents who, for unknown reasons, are with them. He also comes in radio contact with the loyal agents holed up inside the Oval Office with both the President-elect and Vice President.
When Pierce speaks to President-elect, Richards, and the Vice President William H. Fritz in the Oval Office, the Costa Sentavans attack the White House at night and Pierce must work with the remaining loyal agents to defend the complex before leaving for Andrews Air Force Base with the President on board Marine One, with the exception of the Vice President who has left behind to draw off enemy fire to allow the President to get away.
While on board Air Force One, Pierce is on the phone call with Semper that Davies is their main suspect as he was the ambassador to Costa Sentava for eight years before transitioning as a Senator. This proves true as Davies takes the President hostage with the rogue agents backing the corrupt Senator. Kauffman authorises Pierce to use lethal force against the agents in order to rescue the President and even remotely turning back Air Force One before terminating Davies for good.
Pierce and Doyle are both commentated by the President for all of their hard work and courage and they are hailed as heroes in their lives. Epilogue, Pierce and Semper contact once more and, though Semper decides not to reveal his own identity, he tells Pierce that he will be in touch soon.
Duncan McLeod (Derek Bond), a gentleman artist and former Naval officer, assisted by his crewman Lefty Brown (Michael Balfour), engages in smuggling contraband liquor between France and Britain across the English Channel. Duncan and Lefty store the liquor at "The Quiet Woman", a local pub in a coastal town on the edge of Romney Marsh in Kent, only to find one day that its complicit owner has moved away without telling them, and the pub is now being run by Jane Foster (Jane Hylton) and her maid Elsie (Dora Bryan). Jane makes clear that she does not approve of activities that break the law, and demands that Duncan and Lefty remove their cache of contraband liquor from her property immediately or she will contact customs officials. Duncan and Lefty are attracted to Jane and Elsie respectively, and try to court them. The women are initially cold, but over time become more receptive to them. Unbeknownst to Duncan, Jane was unhappily married to criminal Jim Cranshaw, who is now serving a prison term. Jane is keeping her past a secret while trying to build a new, law-abiding life.
Two new arrivals in town take rooms at the pub: Bromley (John Horsley), an artist and a former Navy colleague of Duncan, and Helen (Dianne Foster), an artist's model and former girlfriend of Duncan who has come in response to his request for a model to pose for his latest painting. Helen unsuccessfully attempts to rekindle the romance between herself and Duncan, who is not interested in her and is pursuing Jane. Bromley is supposedly on holiday, but in reality is a customs inspector tasked with secretly investigating Duncan's smuggling activities.
Jane's former husband, Jim Cranshaw (Harry Towb), suddenly appears at the pub, having escaped from prison several days earlier, and demands that Jane hide him and arrange with Duncan to transport him across the Channel to France. He threatens Jane that unless she helps him, he will tell authorities that she has been hiding him ever since he escaped, making her look complicit. Under pressure, Jane agrees to hide Jim, but refuses to tell Duncan or involve him in the matter. Meanwhile, a newspaper runs a story on the escape revealing Jane's past involvement with Jim. Helen jealously reveals the story to Duncan and Jane in an attempt to break up their relationship, and makes clear that she suspects Jane of being involved in Jim's most recent escape. Fed up with Helen's interference, Duncan fires her from the model job and tells her to leave town. Duncan then learns via Lefty and Elsie that Jane is hiding Jim in the pub's attic. In order to protect Jane, Duncan and Lefty secretly move Jim from the attic without Jane's knowledge, and spirit him away aboard Duncan's boat for transport to France. As a result, when the local police come to the pub searching for Jim, he is gone, but Helen, who has not left town as directed, hints that he went to Duncan's house. Bromley chases after Duncan's boat and sees that Duncan and Jim are on board, but Jim then draws a gun on Duncan, causing the two men to fight and fall overboard. Bromley and Lefty rescue Duncan, but Jim is struck by Bromley's boat and killed. Bromley, who has become aware of Duncan's love for Jane, says he will tell police that Jim stowed away aboard Duncan's boat and that Duncan should go along with the story as it would be best for Jane. Duncan returns to a waiting Jane, who is now free to love him.
An English woman asks for help from a visiting American detective to London to find out who has killed her brother.
When stage actress Judy Carroll testifies on behalf of her former lover, accused embezzler Al Howard, she loses custody of Elizabeth, an orphan she had planned to adopt. Her devoted manager Antonie "Tony" de Sola urges her to travel to Europe with her alcoholic mother Snooks to alleviate her emotional pain. While there she reads a play entitled ''Rockabye'', which eerily resembles recent events in her life. Despite Tony's qualms, she is determined to star in a Broadway production.
Playwright Jacob Van Riker Pell is certain the sophisticated Judy will be unable to portray convincingly his heroine, a tough girl from Second Avenue, until she confesses she was raised there herself. The two hit it off and Judy convinces Tony to produce the play. On the verge of divorce, Jake proposes he and Judy wed as soon as he is free.
Jake fails to appear at the opening night party for ''Rockabye'', and his mother tells Judy her daughter-in-law has just had a baby and asks her to forget her son. When Jake finally arrives and assures her he still wants to marry her, Judy insists he return to his wife and newborn child. Devastated, she is comforted by Tony, who finally reveals his feelings for her.
Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertrude are five sisters growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in 1912. The book follows them through a year of their childhood, as they deal with mundane chores, find joy in eating candy in bed and collecting used books from their father's junk shop, recover from scarlet fever, and celebrate Jewish holidays such as Purim and Sukkot as well as the Fourth of July. They also inadvertently help their father's friend Charlie solve a mystery from his past and, in the end, welcome a new family member.
Set at the end of the Edo period, the series depicts Cloud's family with his wife, Turtle, their 11-year-old son, and 8-year-old daughter. The Clouds are always ignoring work and playing. Cloud is notorious for womanising.
An ambitious, historic attempt to explore and document an untamed American frontier unfolds in this rousing adventure drama. In 1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, with President Thomas Jefferson's blessing, embarked on the government-sponsored Lewis & Clark Expedition – an attempt to discover a water route connecting St. Louis, Missouri, with the Pacific Ocean. After meeting the Shoshone woman Sacagawea in what has since become the state of North Dakota (but which was at the time unexplored territory) their trek takes them through the magnificent, danger-filled territory of the Pacific Northwest, with guidance from Sacagawea.
Tomoki Sakurai is a perverted teenage boy whose motto is "Peace and quiet are the best", and often has dreams of meeting an angel. He finds it difficult to live in comfort when he has to put up with Sohara Mitsuki, his next-door neighbor with a killer karate chop; Eishiro Sugata, an eccentric pseudo-scientist bent on discovering the "New World"; and Mikako Satsukitane, their school's sadistic student council president. One night, while he was witnessing a strange anomaly in the sky, a UMA (Unidentified Mysterious Animal) crash-landed nearby. Tomoki discovers that what fell from the sky is a winged female humanoid named Ikaros from an unknown world of Synapse, who soon declares herself to be Tomoki's servant. From then on, more creatures known as "Angeloids" arrive; with this, he loses his peace and quiet, but at the same time finds pleasant things the Angeloids bring him, and fight the forces that fall upon Earth.
Paul Pearson's alibi for seeing his mistress Diana is with his friend, but when this friend is found murdered, Pearson is arrested for the crime, condemned by his own alibi and sentenced to hang. Fortunately, his story is believed by Sandy Thorpe, a diligent crime reporter, who helps to fight Pearson's case.
Terry, a small-time hoodlum, is the driver in a successful bank robbery. He gets his share of the loot and is told to lie low. Instead, he goes on the town with Della, a gorgeous, but greedy, party girl. Terry is questioned and released by police. Bernie Shelton, the gang boss, kidnaps the only witness. Then he sends his goon (Linders) to kill Terry, but Linders gets shot instead. With police after him, Terry seeks shelter in Della's apartment. When Della learns that Shelton, a man who spurned her, was behind the raid, she promises to run away with Terry, if he'll confront his boss at gun-point to get the rest of the loot
A photo submitted to a newspaper for a competition attracts the attention of crime reporter John Deering (Donald Houston). It shows the getaway car used in a robbery which lead to the unsolved murder of a policeman, and a glamorous woman (Junia Crawford) waving to the car's driver. Deering undertakes to find the woman, believing she may hold the key to the killer's identity. However, the murderer is also alerted and attempts to silence the girl in the picture.
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) asks Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) to accompany him to the Six Sigmas Retreat in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, following his Bush administration and CEO debacles. There, Jack meets with the Six Sigmas, six men who each embody a core feature of Six Sigma: teamwork, insight, brutality, male enhancement, hand-shake-fulness and play-hard. They disapprove of Liz's antics during the team building exercises and demand that Jack distance himself from her if he wants to succeed, which he does. Before his dinner speech, Jack psyches himself up in the men's room, completely forgetting that he is wearing a microphone and that everyone can hear him. Liz quickly takes the stage to draw attention away from Jack's embarrassment and finally ends up ripping her blouse open and dancing in front of everyone. She succeeds, and is banned from the retreat forever.
Meanwhile, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) employs method acting for her upcoming role as singer Janis Joplin, thus allowing Frank Rossitano (Judah Friedlander) to take advantage of her. He tells her to do her research on Joplin on Wikipedia, then edits the page contents with nonsense when Jenna goes off to read it. Jenna, however, believes what she reads and proceeds to imitate all the "facts" on the page to the amusement of everyone. When she finally confronts Frank, they end up having sex and Jenna is affronted when Frank wants to keep it a secret from their co-workers. She reveals their fling in front of the other ''TGS with Tracy Jordan'' writers to the dismay of Frank. At hearing this, Katie (Elizabeth Rouse), the show's hair dresser and Frank's girlfriend, ruins Jenna's hair and face making her look like a witch.
At the same time, NBC page Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) tries to help Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) understand how diabetes affects him after Dr. Leo Spaceman (Chris Parnell) told Tracy that he is at risk of getting diabetes. Kenneth tells him a story of how a wicked witch will come and take him away if he continues to consume his unhealthy eating habits but Tracy does not believe him. Tracy gets disgusted when Kenneth tries to scare him by dressing as a witch but suddenly Jenna comes running in screaming and looking like a witch complete with a broomstick in hand. This scares both Kenneth and Tracy who fearfully vows to change his eating habits immediately.
10-year-old Elin lives with her mother Sohyon in the kingdom of Lyoza. They live in territory governed by the Aluhan, the Grand Duke. Their village raises Toda, dragon-like creatures ridden by the Aluhan's army. Sohyon, who is from a secretive nomadic tribe called the Ahlyo, is the head Toda doctor. One night, the Toda under her care mysteriously die. Sohyon is blamed for their death and sentenced to be eaten alive by wild Toda. On the day of the execution, Elin attempts to save her mother, but Toda surround them before they can escape. Sohyon warns Elin that what she is about to do is a mortal sin: She whistles to the Toda, and for a moment they become calm. She places Elin on the back of a Toda, and it carries Elin away while the remaining Toda devour Sohyon.
Elin washes ashore in land governed directly by the Yojeh, the divine ruler of Lyoza. An elderly beekeeper named Joeun adopts her. He teaches her how to play the harp. One summer, Joeun and Elin take their bees deep into the mountains. They see wild Royal Beasts, dangerous and majestic creatures that are symbols of the Yojeh. When Toda attack a Royal Beast cub, the cub's mother whistles, causing the Toda to tamely submit while the mother slaughters them.
Elin turns 14. She enrolls at Kazalumu Beast Sanctuary to become a beast doctor. She meets Leelan, an injured young Royal Beast. Leelan has refused to eat since her injury and is near death. Elin begs the headmistress Esalu to be allowed to care for Leelan. Esalu agrees. When Elin uses her harp to imitate the sounds of wild Beasts, Leelan eats. Elin begins raising Leelan like a wild Beast. She refuses to use the Silent Whistle, which protects Beast doctors by paralyzing the Beasts, or to give Leelan tokujisui, a potion required by the Royal Beast Canon. Leelan becomes unusually attached to Elin, allowing Elin to approach and even touch her.
When Elin is 18, Leelan learns to fly, a skill unheard of in captive Beasts. An Ahlyo approaches Elin. He tells her that communicating with Beasts is a mortal sin, and he warns her that allowing Leelan to fly will cause unspeakable disaster. That winter, an injured wild Royal Beast named Eku is brought to Kazalumu for treatment. Eku mates with Leelan, who becomes the first captive beast to ever become pregnant.
Elin graduates at the top of her class. So that she may continue to care for Leelan, she becomes a teacher at Kazalumu. Leelan bears a cub, Alu. The elderly Yojeh Halumiya visits Kazalumu to see Alu. When the Yojeh and her adult nephew Damiya approach, Eku moves to protect his cub. Everyone sees Elin calm Eku with her harp. Damiya tries to convince Elin to move herself and Leelan to Lazalu Beast Sanctuary, near the capital, but Elin refuses.
As the Yojeh returns home, Toda riders ambush her. Elin rides Leelan into battle. Leelan slaughters the attackers, but the Yojeh suffers a concussion. When the Yojeh recovers, she asks Elin to protect her with Leelan. Elin refuses. Alone with the Yojeh and the Yojeh's bodyguard Ialu, Elin explains that the Yojeh's ancestor designed the Royal Beast Canon so that beasts would never fly, bear young, or become friendly with humans. She retells the story the Ahlyo told her. The Yojeh decides that she does not need Leelan's protection, but she dies suddenly upon reaching home. Her granddaughter Seimiya becomes the new Yojeh.
The Aluhan is the only person who commands Toda troops, so he is widely suspected of having ordered Yojeh Halumiya's assassination. When Yojeh Seimiya rejects his peace offerings, he sends his eldest son Shunan. Shunan, who has been in love with Seimiya for years, delivers an ultimatum: In four months, Seimiya must either marry him or meet him in battle on the plain of Tahai Azeh.
Damiya demands that Elin train an army of Beasts and threatens to kill Esalu if she does not. Elin says she is the only one who can talk to the beasts. As proof, she attempts to teach Ohooli, the head of Lazalu Beast Sanctuary, to calm beasts with her harp. He fails.
Damiya attempts to assassinate Ialu, who hides with Elin in Leelan's stable. When Damiya comes searching for Ialu, Elin hides him under Leelan's wings. That night, Ialu explains that he has been investigating Damiya and that Damiya was behind Yojeh Harumiya's assassination.
Elin secretly vists Seimiya. She recounts the story the Ahylo told her: The king of Ofahlon, threatened by his neighbors, asked the Toga mi Lyo tribe to raise an army of Toda. The victorious king built an empire, but the remorseful Toga mi Lyo rebelled. The king fled. He formed an alliance with a young priestess from a Beast-riding tribe. When her army invaded Ofahlon, the Toda and Beasts did not stop fighting until Ofahlon had been annihilated. The Toga mi Lyo swore to never again reveal how to control Toda and Beasts, and they became known as the Ahlyo. The repentant priestess became the first Yojeh and wrote the Royal Beast Canon. Elin concludes by accusing Damiya of assassinating Seimiya's grandmother. Seimiya promises that Elin will not need to fly into battle.
The Aluhan's forces assemble on Tahai Azeh. The Yojeh asks her servant for a flag of surrender, but Damiya wrenches it away. Ialu shoots Damiya's hand with an arrow, and Seimiya raises the flag. The Aluhan and Shunan halt their troops, but the Aluhan's younger son Nugan slays his father. Seimiya pleads with Elin to save Shunan. Elin rides Leelan to Shunan. Since Leelan can carry only one, Elin gets off Leelan's back so that Shunan can mount. She is struck by an arrow and crumples to the ground. Leelan, having delivered Shunan, returns. She delicately lifts Elin in her mouth and, purring, flies away from Tahai Azeh.
While Dunkirk is in the midst of its Carnival, Larbi, tired of working for nothing for his father, decides to pack it in and re-make his life in the sun of Marseille. When he is waiting for the first train which is to leave in the early hours of the morning, he makes the acquaintance of Béa (Sylvie Testud), who is with her drunk husband. He is straight away captivated by the young woman and she carries him along with her in her passion for the Carnival.
The film captures well the character and mad ambience of the extraordinary Dunkirk Carnival. The opinions of the Carnival's friends however remain divided. Some find the picture given here of the Dunkirk Carnival too negative, while others appreciate the film, which was shot in the midst of the Carnival.
A group of Greek youngster in the early 1960s, lead their lives ignoring their parents. Three of them are: Rea (Zoe Laskari), whose parents do not pay much attention to the carefree way of life she leads, Costas (Nikos Kourkoulos), Rea's boyfriend, who comes from a broken home and is secretly engaging in love affairs with other girls and Petros (Vangelis Voulgaridis), who is a kind and gentle person and is also in love with Rea. Their main concern is the same as most of the 1960s youngsters, i.e. going to parties where we can see the decadent way in which they have fun (passionate dancing, kissing, striptease etc.). A few days later, Rea learns about Costas' promiscuous life, dumps him and decides to have an affair with Petros. Costas, in order to get his revenge, arranges a meeting in a park where he abandons her naked. After humiliating her like that, he has an affair with her sister, Lena (Mirka Kalantzopoulou). Rea gets furious and wanting to protect her sister from that evil person, kills him. She is led to court, where her attorney is her own father, and after a very long trial, Lena reveals the true reason the crime took place, an action that helps Rea get a lighter sentence.
Farmer's daughter Jane Budden (Myrna Loy) sells her entire pig herd and moves to Brooklyn to find a husband. On the way to the home of her cousin, Garnet Allison (Molly Lamont), Jane runs into Hiram Maxim (Don Ameche), an eccentric inventor who is her cousin's neighbor. Jane scandalizes local society by saying she will not marry for love; she merely wants a rich husband who can give her the life of ease and culture she has long dreamed of.
Amused by Jane's announcement, Hiram visits Jane and tells her she can forget about marrying him. Jane is attracted to Hiram, but angered at his effrontery. She is amused when one of Hiram's inventions turns out badly and Hiram is publicly humiliated. Jane goes to a dance, where Hiram makes negative comments on each of her suitors, especially rich real estate developer and attorney Josephus Ford (Richard Gaines). Jane agrees to marry Josephus. Hiram gate crashes Jane's engagement party, where Jane is dismayed to learn that Josephus wants her to sign a prenuptial agreement and believes Jane should be frugal, silent, and matronly. When Jane learns that Josephus has just invested in a pork-packing plant, she breaks her engagement, rushes to Hiram's home, and proposes to him herself.
Hiram and Jane marry. Even though Hiram's inventions are only marginally profitable, the couple is happy. Jane gives birth to a son, Percy (Bobby Driscoll), whom Hiram raises in an unusual, freestyle manner to encourage his creativity and confidence. With Jane's constant encouragement, Hiram finally begins inventing things which meet practical needs and bring in a sizable income. A local organization decides to honor Hiram for his inventions by asking him to sit for a portrait. Hiram refuses. Jane, pregnant with a second child, hires the eccentric artist Magel (Rhys Williams) to paint the portrait anyway. Shortly thereafter, Percy tries to be amusing by adorning his dog Skipper with a baby bonnet, which Jane had received as a gift for the expected new arrival. When Percy and his mother chase the dog to retrieve the bonnet, Jane moves a piece of furniture and jeopardizes her pregnancy. Her physician fears she may lose the baby and her life, and Percy feels extremely guilty, thinking he has caused his mother to nearly die. Jane does recover and gives birth to a healthy son. An ecstatic Hiram has the entire family sit for Magel and a portrait.
A whaleshark guide named Daniel (Sid Lucero) falls in love with the beautiful but mysterious tourist Teresa (Angel Aquino). The two individuals are nursing their own heartaches but find themselves hopelessly drawn to each other; Daniel was left behind by his girlfriend for a rich man, Teresa a widowed breast cancer patient.
Fidel (Bembol Roco), Daniel's father, is an illegal fisherman and was caught by the police coast guard. This created friction between the relationship of Daniel and the ''kapitana'' of the town who provided jobs for them as a ''Butanding Interaction Officer'' or BIO.
Matsutarou Sakaguchi is lazy and quick tempered. As a result, he is stuck in middle school even though he is an adult. One day he gets in a fight with a sumo wrestler and they take the fight to a sumo ring. The attending sumo stable masters are impressed by Sakaguchi's strength and convince Sakaguchi to come to Tokyo. Sakaguchi has an ulterior motive though. A teacher he has a crush on, Reiko Minami recently moved to Tokyo and the sumo stable is close to her home. Sakaguchi begins training and competing in sumo while dreaming of the day he can marry Reiko.
Florence, spring of 1925, the young typographer Mario moves to the Santa Croce district, in via del Corno, to be closer to his sweetheart, Bianca, thus becoming in turn a "crowsman" (pun between the name of the inhabitants of the via del "Corno", but also the croaking "crows") and finding themselves sharing the daily events of the inhabitants of that small popular world in the dark years of the rise of Fascism.
His landlord is the farrier Corrado, known as Maciste, a well-known anti-fascist and formerly Ardito del Popolo like his friend Ugo, a street vendor of fruit and entertainment. The small street is also home to a couple of convinced fascists: the accountant Carlino Bencini, a legionary from Rijeka and an insurance employee; and his colleague, friend and roommate Osvaldo. Among the other neighbors, the cobbler Staderini; Ristori, owner of the small hotel that houses some prostitutes, including Elisa, the mistress of Nanni the "admonished"; Clara, Bianca's friend and constantly tormented by her boyfriend because she agrees to marry him; Alfredo Campolmi, owner of the grocery store and fresh husband of Milena.
Immobile in bed but constantly informed of what is happening in the street thanks to the little servant Gesuina, "the Lady", a maitresse, establishes a dense network of relationships and binds everyone to herself through the loans she grants.
The quiet coexistence in via del Corno is dramatically broken when Alfredo, just married and determined to make his business prosper, refuses to pay the contribution to the local section of the Fascist Party and suffers a brutal beating, which leaves him so heavily marked in the body that having to go to the sanatorium and give up the grocery store.
The play's five scenes are set across the span of a year, from April to March. It charts the love affair between Laura Jesson, a housewife, and Alec Harvey, a married physician. The location is the refreshment room of "Milford Junction" railway station.
In the first scene Myrtle, who runs the station buffet, rebuffs the attempts of Albert, the ticket-inspector, to flirt with her. Laura is waiting for her train home after shopping. She is in pain from a piece of grit that has been blown into her eye. Alec introduces himself as a doctor and quickly removes it for her. She thanks him and goes to catch her train.
Three months later Alec and Laura are once more in the refreshment room. It becomes clear that after their first meeting they encountered each other a second time by chance and have enjoyed each other's company to the extent of arranging to lunch together and go to the cinema. There have been several such meetings. Laura is beginning to wonder about the propriety of meeting him so often, but Alec reminds her that he too is married, with children and other responsibilities.
In the third scene, set in October, Albert and Myrtle continue their slightly combative flirtation. Alec and Laura come in, and over coffee they admit that they are in love with each other. They are both determined not to upset their happy marriages, but will meet secretly. They make arrangements to meet at the flat of a friend of Alec.
By December they are both agonised by guilt and agree that their affair must stop. Alec tells Laura that he has been offered an attractive medical post in South Africa and will accept it unless she asks him not to.
The fifth and final scene is set in March. Albert seems to be making progress with Myrtle. Alec and Laura enter. He is leaving to take up his new post in South Africa, and she has come to see him off. They are prevented from having the passionate farewell they both yearn for when Dolly, a talkative friend of hers intrudes into their last moments together, and their final goodbye is cruelly limited to a formal handshake. He leaves, and Laura remains, while Dolly talks on. Suddenly, as the sound of the approaching express train is heard, Laura suddenly rushes out to the platform. She returns "looking very white and shaky". Dolly persuades Myrtle to pour some brandy for Laura, who sips it. The sound of their train is heard, and Dolly gathers up her parcels as the curtain falls.
Charlie is a soldier who suffers the scorn of his paratroop unit because he accidentally kills one of their own men. The film is set in World War II in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.
A family's mountain vacation near Reno, Nevada interrupted by the arrival of a disheveled man hauling a trailer behind an old Cadillac. Pop, as he calls himself, tells the family a tall tale about the son he lost to illness. The family feels sorry for him and befriends him, not knowing the danger that is soon to come to them. In reality, his son Bernie is crazy, deranged and dangerous and kept straitjacketed and chained up in Pop's trailer. Pop lets Bernie out only to stalk and harm campers while Pop helps himself to their belongings.
Not far away, a group of young people are preparing for two weeks of wilderness training. The camp is run by Regis, and his crazy girlfriend, Marcie, who tells them that P.J., a new camper has disappeared. We find out that the P.J., is dead.
Meanwhile, the police are trying to piece together what happened to the tourist family when an old police officer, Taylor, shows up. He recognizes Pop, remembering how Bernie went on a murderous rampage years ago. Unable to convince the others, he heads for the wilderness camp on his own. By the time he arrives, it is too late. Bernie has already done his dirty work. As Taylor hunts for Bernie, it is a heart-stopping and frightening game of kill or be killed.
Matthew (Emory Cohen) is a teenage boy in New York who attends therapy with his father Frank (Steve Schirripa) because of their troubled communication. During a session, Matthew runs away. Angela (Sharon Angela), his mother, is worried. Frank, however, is more concerned with his radio show, and whether his techs got his vodka. He proceeds to use cocaine as well before the show begins. Matthew goes to a park where a lot of homeless people are congregated. He meets a couple who give him alcohol and drugs. Later, the woman has sex with Matthew while the man watches.
Nadia (Aunjanue Ellis) abandons her room because she is a month late with her rent. She reconnects with an old friend from a yoga school, has sex with an old boyfriend, then leaves her yoga center friend's house when her friend becomes upset by her story of her relationship with Gus (Nick Sandow), her most recent lover. She has a meal on the stairs of a house. The woman living there comes home and tells her to leave, but Nadia refuses. The woman throws a bucket of water over her, and Nadia puts the bucket on the woman's head and beats on it.
Gus is just getting out of a ninety-day drug rehabilitation stint. He immediately goes out and gets drunk with an old man he meets in a restaurant. He calls Nadia again and again, but she will not answer his calls. He meets a woman, Lisette (Bess Rous), who has been in the same meditation class which he and Nadia attended. He succeeds in unnerving, and then seducing her, but instead of following through on that, he tells her to go home.
Matthew calls his father, who refuses to pick him up because he is in the middle of his show. Instead, Matthew's uncle, Joey (Joe Caniano), picks him up. Once home, Matthew will not say what happened, even though Angela assures she will not be angry. He tries to kill himself, but Angela and Joey head up to the mountains with him to help him work out his distress.
Once Frank learns what has happened, he heads to the mountains on a train, where he meets Nadia, who is fleeing the city. He begins to suffer chest pains, and Nadia calls for help. He is taken to a hospital. She is waiting for him when he comes out of the emergency room, and during a meal together, she encourages him to come to a meditation class with her. Lissette is in the class, but she and Nadia do not know each other. Frank begins to relax as the teacher leads them through guided breathing exercises. Gus, having taken an overdose of pills, arrives, causing distress to Nadia and Lisette by his presence. He sits next to Nadia, who obviously does not want him there, but with a blissful smile, he lies down on the floor and closes his eyes.
Set in the rural Pacific Northwest, a mysterious character named Silas Hendershot takes refuge from a severe thunderstorm in a farm owned by Tom and Gillian Grady. He claims that he should stay and that they should watch after each other. Tom starts to dislike Silas and becomes suspicious of him and his past.
Tom travels to the town police station to look for records regarding Silas after he finds a newspaper clipping about his father and him in the attic. The whole town is deserted, with only flyers announcing a mandatory evacuation due to the storm. Tom is attacked by two deranged men after finding an article showing Silas as the actual killer of his father. Tom manages to fight the two men off and escape back to the farm.
The news article reveals that Silas' father lost the farm because he was drunk, and this enraged Silas so much that he hung him from a tree and left him there for days. When a bank foreclosure agent came by to foreclose on the house, Silas slit his throat, as well. Silas is shown to have been in prison for the last 20 years related to the two deaths. Tom, after finding his wife in the bathroom with Silas soaking in the tub, kicks him out at gunpoint and tells him never to return.
That night, Silas does return, however, and starts a fire as a distraction outside, which makes Tom run out to look for Silas. Silas wraps a rope around Tom's neck and drags him up in the tree to hang, just like he did with his father. Silas then goes into the house to talk to Tom's wife and try to persuade her to become his new wife. Tom's son comes to his rescue and cuts Tom down from the tree moments before he loses consciousness. A battle then ensues between Tom and Silas. Tom burns Silas alive by pushing him into the fire Silas created as the distraction.
After the battle, Tom and his family notice that the stars in the sky start to glow and then disappear just as depicted in the Bible. Throughout the movie, Silas makes several references to the upcoming "end of the world", as well as the "rapture", as an explanation to the disappearance of the town's population and the fact that armed looters roam it. Just before the end credits role, the entire universe is shown glowing very brightly, then disappearing, signifying the world's end.
After an affair with a young woman named Sylvia the Frenchman Pierre Martel leaves Paris and goes to Algeria because he wants to start over. His wife refuses to follow him. Dismayed about all this he decides to join the French Foreign Legion. As a soldier he runs into a look-alike of Sylvia.
Doctor Howard Latimer answers what he believes to be a request for a favour from an American friend by picking up a famous German actress from London Airport. He goes in the company of a journalist Geoffrey Windsor who tags along after failing to gain an interview with Latimer about recent medical research. As Latimer is already late for a date with his fiancée at the Royal Festival Hall, he lets Windsor take the actress to Claridges Hotel.
When her body is later discovered in Latimer's flat, with absolutely no trace of Windsor, he is faced with questions from the police. DI Dane is initially sympathetic but as the evidence mounts up it increasingly seems as if only Latimer could have committed the murder. Latimer has the added problem of Mrs Ambler, a patient referred to him by his colleague Doctor Kimber, who keeps changing her suspicious story. With the evidence looking as though he will be charged, he goes to stay at his friend Kenneth Palmer's house where he hopes to avoid the police. While there he encounters the mysterious "Robert Brady" who shows a strange interest in a matchbook given to Latimer by the German actress.
When Mrs Ambler's dead body is found suspicion again points towards Latimer. However DI Dane appears to believe in his innocence. When Latimer is approached by Windsor demanding £4,000 in blackmail - not from Latimer but from Doctor Kimber - the police reveal that they know more about the case than they had been letting on. Latimer is introduced to the man he believed to be Brady who is in fact Major Harrington who works in Intelligence. Harrington reveals that the case revolves around a passport-forging ring led by an Englishman at its head. Latimer then works with the police to help unmask the criminal amongst his acquaintances.
The protagonist, Matthew Fuller, is a research assistant for physics professor Jonathan Marsh at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 2057, when he builds a calibrator to supply one photon per unit of time. When he presses the reset button, the box unexpectedly disappears for one second. When he presses the button a second time, he finds it disappears for about 10 seconds. The third time, it disappears for a bit less than three minutes. Fuller deduces it is traveling forward in time at intervals approximately 11.8 times the previous interval and he further deduces how to bring other objects, such as himself, along. On the seventh press of the button, Fuller and the box are taken 39 days into the future and unexpectedly land on a busy road. He is arrested on suspicion of murder but is bailed out of jail by an anonymous person he comes to believe is himself from the future. He continues forward, 465 days, then 15 years, when he is greeted by Professor Marsh who tracked Fuller and calculated the theoretical physics behind time travel.
Unsatisfied, Matt travels to 2252 where he learns that the Second Coming of Jesus has occurred and resulted in the One Year War. Society is now governed by a theocracy led by Jesus and shuns technology. Jesus had anticipated Fuller's appearance at the Massachusetts Institute of Theosophy, where he is appointed to be professor with a female student named Martha assigned to be his assistant. As Fuller tries to scientifically rationalize Jesus's seeming omnipotence, Jesus orders Fuller to destroy the time machine but he instead flees, along with Martha, and lands in the year 4346 outside of California. There they find a society where all of humanity is wealthy and satisfied to a point of apathy. It is here that they encounter an artificial intelligence, named La, that controls Los Angeles. La is curious about her own mortality, and having learned about Matt's time machine from historical records, wishes to join him on a journey to the end of time (heat death of the universe) to discover if she can die.
Matt and Martha begin to receive messages in their dreams from beings that appear to Matt as future versions of himself and to Martha as Jesus. He/they warn Matt and Martha of La's willingness to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of her goal, and advises them to stall for time to allow them to catch up. Matt and Martha, accompanied by La in a spacecraft, begin to travel further into the future, discovering evermore unfamiliar species of life, including androgynous evolutions of humanity and a race of intelligent bears. Time travelers are not always welcome - some future societies having been devastated by diseases brought from the past by such travelers for which future humans had no immunity, and therefore regard them as a dangerous threat.
After a confrontation where they narrowly avoid being killed by La, they meet the people who have been sending them subliminal messages. These beings tell Matt and Martha that the future becomes ever more alien and unpleasant, and offer to send the two back in time, while allowing La to continue jumping forward in time. The beings can specify either the exact time or the exact location to which Matt and Martha will be sent, but not both (this limitation is similar to the uncertainty principle). Concerned about the couple possibly materializing in the middle of the ocean or inside of a mountain, they opt to be specific about location and send them to MIT.
When they arrive, they find that it is the late 19th century, and the main MIT campus in Cambridge has not yet been built. Having no other option, they live in this society, where Matt studies and teaches physics, aided significantly by his advanced knowledge both of physics and historical events. However, he takes care not to change history – for example, he does not anticipate Albert Einstein in "discovering" the theory of relativity, as he could have easily done; rather, he takes care to appear a talented but not outstanding professor. Matt and Martha have several children, and the end of the book reveals that Professor Marsh (Matt's MIT professor in the mid-21st century) is actually Matt's descendant.
Mina, a beautiful, care-free salesgirl for a milliner's shop, is robbed by two urchins while she is enjoying a Sunday morning swim. The lottery ticket she had in her purse ends up being bought by a charming, penniless young musician, and eventually wins the lottery. The two engage in a legal battle for the lottery money, but end up falling in love.
The play is set in autumn 1860 in the drawing room of the Featherways family's house in Kent. The family, all dressed in mourning, have returned from the funeral of the paterfamilias. The group comprises his five children, Jasper, Lavinia, Richard, Harriet and Emily with, except for the unmarried Lavinia and RIchard, their spouses. Warmed by glasses of madeira poured by their much-loved old butler, Burrows, they reminisce. An old toybox is produced, as is an old musical box; old songs are remembered and more glasses of wine are drunk. Suddenly Lavinia, her reticence overcome by wine, denounces the old man: "I hated Papa, so did you … He was cruel to Mama, he was unkind to us, he was profligate and pompous and worse still, he was mean". She then astonishes the others by telling them that the will read to them that morning, leaving the Featherways fortune to the family, was not the old man's final will: a week before he died he made a new one, leaving them nothing but giving large sums to his various mistresses and the rest to pay for a new church containing a grandiose memorial to himself. It was witnessed by Lavinia and Burrows. Minutes after the old man's death they burned it, leaving the old will to be acted upon. Questioned by Jasper, Burrows says his deafness is getting worse and he will never be able to hear questions about the will. They invite him to join them for a glass of madeira, and, to the tune of the musical box, they dance round him, hand in hand.
Every year, on Good Friday, a procession takes place in a small provincial village. This year the women of the village are unable to choose a girl who can play the Madonna. A local squire, with the intention of publicly mocking the curate Don Vincenzo, ensures that a young prostitute, Maddalena, receives this assignment.
Magdalene accepts because she wants to take revenge with the Virgin for the loss of her daughter, who died in boarding school during her first communion, due to a trivial fire of the veil. The women of the village do not accept that a foreigner interprets the Madonna, but the curate defends her choice, even though he does not know who Magdalene really is.
During a rehearsal of the procession, Magdalene faints and is invited by the priest to rest. But, passing by the church, he meets a woman in prayer who sees her and, believing that Magdalene is an apparition of the Madonna, invokes her to have her son healed from a serious illness.
Magdalene tries to escape, but she is credited with healing the boy and she stays for the Good Friday procession. The squire, however, takes revenge by telling everyone who the girl really is. Faced with this confession, people attack Maddalena and start stoning her.
There are some ski school instructors who ally with an evil land developer to try to sabotage the ski patrol and convince the forest service to cancel the owner's lease on the ski area. At the end, though, the leader of the forest service wises up to the evil ski school's scheme and everything backfires.
Tessibel Skinner is a young woman in a squatter village on the coast, where she lives with her father, a local fisherman. Towering above the village is the estate of Elias Graves, a wealthy man who hopes to use his influence to remove these squatters from his land. When his lawyer is unable to so directly, he instead enacts a ban on net fishing, removing the livelihoods of many people in the village, including Tess and her father.
Despite the ban, some continue to fish illegally, though they are soon confronted by men sent by Graves. In this confrontation, one of Graves’ men is shot and killed. Tess’ father is wrongfully accused of the murder and arrested. Meanwhile, through these altercations Tess meets Frederick Graves, Elias’ son, who is home on a break from his theological studies. Before long, the two begin a forbidden romance. Also on break with Frederick is Dan Jordan, a friend from his fraternity, who simultaneously falls in love with Frederick’s sister, Teola.
Soon after Dan and Frederick return to college, Teola learns that she is pregnant and struggles to decide if she should tell Dan. Her decision is made for her soon enough, as she receives a letter informing her that Dan has died heroically in a fire at the fraternity. Unable to confide in her very stern father, Teola is distraught and turns to Tess for support. Once the baby is born, Tess agrees to take the child and bear the social stigma of having a child out of wedlock.
Upon his return, Frederick is forced to shun Tess for her sin despite his remaining love for her. Soon, however, Teola’s baby falls ill and Tess decides to take him up to Elias’ church to be baptized. Disgusted by Tess and the child, Elias refuses, shaming them publicly. Teola, having witnessed her father’s anger, decides to step forward and admit the truth about her child. Tess is forgiven and it is decided that Teola will die with her son. Meanwhile, the true murderer is found, allowing Tess’ father to be released from prison.
The film opens with April, a self-centered, alcoholic singer, performing at the nightclub Club Indigo where she works.
On the other side of town, Madea and Joe Simmons catch Jennifer, Manny, and Byron breaking into their house. After hearing the children’s troubles, Madea welcomes and feeds them. Manny tells Madea that they're living with their grandmother Rose, whom they haven't seen in four days and their mother is deceased. They tell her that their only other relative is their Aunt April.
April shares her home with her shady abusive boyfriend Randy who's married with children. The next morning, Madea brings the kids to April's house, but April doesn’t want to be bothered. Meanwhile, Pastor Brian sends a Colombian immigrant named Sandino to her house for work and a place to stay. April puts Sandino in her basement and wants to lock him down there because she doesn't know him that well. While working around the house, Sandino surprises April by cleaning himself up. When Randy arrives, he sees April with the kids and Sandino and heckles him while making not-so subtle advances at Jennifer.
Shortly afterward, Pastor Brian and Wilma, a church member, come to inform April that her mother Rose died from a fatal brain aneurysm while riding on a city bus and was cremated. April is devastated by the news and seeks comfort from Randy. However, he is sleeping and shrugs her off. Later, Sandino comforts April as she tells him about her mother's death and the last time she spoke with her. Shortly afterwards Jennifer, Manny, and Byron return to April's after searching for their grandmother and April dejectedly tells them the news.
Depressed, Jennifer goes to Madea wanting to know how to pray. Inexperienced with prayer, Madea attempts to instruct her in a scene that plays out comically.
Later that night, Tanya, Club Indigo's bartender, sings "''I Can Do Bad''". Before singing the song, Tanya strongly confronts April about her attitude. She says that April must change her selfish ways and think about the safety of Byron, Manny and Jennifer. Tanya declares she loves April but says she can’t help her unless she helps herself.
Over time, Sandino and April become good friends. Sandino fixes a ruined bedroom in her house. This makes Manny and Byron happy, but upsets Jennifer, who feels April does not want them there. While on a date, Sandino tells April he doesn't understand why she is with Randy and asks if she loves Randy. He tells her what true love is to him. One Sunday morning, Sandino eagerly knocks on April's bedroom door to get April ready for church, but Randy threatens to kill Sandino if he continues to spend time with April.
Late the next night, Manny needs his insulin shot and Jennifer goes to the kitchen to get it. As she prepares the shot, Randy approaches and attempts to rape her, but Sandino fights him off. April walks in on the fight and Randy claims Jennifer offered him sex for money. April pretends to believe him and sends Randy to take a bath. When he is in the tub, April threatens to electrocute him with a plugged-in radio. Sandino arrives and tries to stop her, but April is enraged, as she explains that she was sexually abused by her step-father Lee, who then lied about it to her mother, thus causing April to lose her faith in the people that cared about her. Once this is revealed, it is then known why April became an alcoholic due to her step-father lying to her mother for years over the sexual abuse and why April chose to live a life without bearing children and resenting her step-father for what he did to her. After twice asking "Do you want me to put it down?!", she drops the plugged-in radio into the water, giving Randy a severe electric shock. Randy barely jumps out just in time and Sandino orders him to leave in three minutes.
April goes to Club Indigo for a drink and blames herself for not seeing the signs, just like her mother didn't see the signs with her. Sandino tries to stop her from drinking while mentioning that Randy has moved out, but she pushes him away. She then asks Sandino if he is a child molester because of all the attention he gives the children. Sandino tells April of his childhood as a child laborer and explains that he loves the children so much because he sees himself in them. Feeling hurt at her unfair accusations, Sandino says farewell to the children and leaves.
Jennifer and April begin to get along and connect after April tells Jennifer about her bad experience as a child. Jennifer tells her that she should recognize Sandino as a good man. Eventually, Sandino returns and April apologizes to him and admits that she loves him like a friend. Sandino tells her that she can't love anyone until she learns to love herself. He tells April that he is in love with her but he wants April to love him back the same way he loves her. He shows her by kissing her.
Eventually, April and Sandino get married. April and Sandino then hold a block party for their reception with Tanya singing "Good Woman Down", dedicated to April, then the new couple is shown embracing and sharing a passionate kiss.
Gangster boss Vic Luca (Rip Torn) is scheduled to appear in court and so hires a hit man/shoe salesman Chris Caleek (Lance Henriksen) to kill the witnesses. He has a mole in the police force who tells him names and locations of the witnesses. Unfortunately, during the last hit, the professional killer enters the wrong house. When owner Jack Collins comes home, he finds his pregnant wife unconscious in the kitchen, his friend dead in the living room and his son kidnapped. Wanting Luca to believe he has the real witness' son, the authorities take Collins into custody. But Collins manages to escape and takes things into his own hands.
In ''The Fire Within'', David Rain is a tenant of Elizabeth (Liz) Pennykettle (a potter who makes clay dragons) and her daughter, Lucy. However, there is something mysterious about Liz, the house, and the dragons. As for what it is, David can't figure out. Meanwhile, David is trying to help Lucy find a missing squirrel named Conker. Conker, unlike the other squirrels, does not leave after the tree he lived in was cut down, his eye is badly injured and the doctors try to rescue him, but unfortunately he dies. While he tries to unravel the dragon mysteries and save the squirrel, David writes a story for Lucy about Snigger (another squirrel), Conker and Lucy's other squirrel friends. However, the story begins to mirror real life. Whatever is going on, it has something to do with his special writing dragon Gadzooks, whom Liz made as a housewarming gift. But when Conker's life is threatened and Gadzooks appears to be in trouble, David is forced to believe the impossible if he is going to save them. Meanwhile, he finds himself drawn to an attractive wildlife rescuer.
In ''Icefire'', Lucy creates a new dragon named G'reth. He is a wishing dragon that can grant wishes that would benefit dragon kind. David becomes the owner of this dragon because he was the one who named him (with Gadzook's help). But fate seems to be dictating an unusual course for David when his college tutor, Dr. Bergstrom, sets him an essay on the existence – or not – of dragons. The tantalising prize is a fully funded research trip to the Arctic, which seems just within his grasp. David starts to research the subject and soon discovers a connection between dragons and the Arctic. Then, evidence begins to mount that somewhere in the neighbourhood is a polar bear. Beginning to wonder whether it is only a coincidence or could deeper forces be at work, David begins to uncover more about the dragons. He finds himself drawn to a time when dragons really did exist, and their secrets were guarded by the polar bears of the Arctic. David must open his mind to the legend of dragons if he is going to have any chance of winning the research trip. Meanwhile, the evil sibyl, Gwilanna, appears with an evil plot, and the secret of the dragons is revealed. If she is to be defeated, David must discover the link between an ancient legend about the fire tear of the last dragon, Gawain, and the frozen north. The keys to solving the puzzle are his new girlfriend, Zanna, and Dr. Bergstrom, who proves to have more mysteries than meets the eye.
In ''Fire Star'', Gwilanna, the evil sibyl that first starred in ''Icefire'', returns. She plans to reincarnate the last dragon, Gawain, and use him to open a portal to the dragon dimension Ki:mera. If she succeeds, the concentrated fire of all those dragons will be released onto an unstable Arctic, already threatened by global warming and in no need of any more heat to push it over the brink. The wishing dragon G'reth is whisked to another dimension by mysterious forces and brought back with an entity that calls itself the Fain. Meanwhile, David and Zanna are on the trip they won to the Arctic, and David is writing another book, an epic book about dragons, polar bears, and a mysterious fire star. But when the book, like the one he wrote before, starts to mirror real life, and when Zanna is kidnapped and presumably killed by polar bears, the expedition is cut short. Back at home, he arrives to find Lucy has been kidnapped by Gwilanna for a ritual to raise the last dragon Gawain. Zanna is proved to be alive and learning the ways of the Inuit in a small village. Then, Gwillana's plans are revealed by a twist of fate that reunites Liz with her former husband Arthur, who is using a powerful relic of Gawain to affect the flow of time. In the dramatic climax, David, Zanna, Arthur, the Pennykettles and the clay dragons have to side with a polar bear army to stop Gwilanna, as well as a darker evil from the past of Ki:mera and Earth. There is however, a final twist, David is stabbed by one of the Ix controlled humans on the expedition with a shard of ice and supposedly 'dies.'
In ''The Fire Eternal'' it has been five years since David, now a cult author, mysteriously disappeared in the Arctic. Life in Wayward Crescent has settled to relative normality. But as the weather grows wild and the ice caps melt, all eyes turn north, where bears and the souls of the Inuit dead are combining to produce a spectacular solution...a solution with its focus on David and Zanna's child, Alexa. By this time, Lucy has grown to about the age of 16, and meets a reporter named Tam Farrell who is doing an article on the author David who supposedly went missing in the arctic. At the end, David reveals that he, in fact, was not dead, but combined with the dragon, Gawain, and his fire tear.
In ''Dark Fire'' David is ordered by the elder dragons of Ki:mera to seek out and destroy a spark of dark fire, even though doing so will mean sacrificing the beloved housework dragon, Gwillan. Also, David's first girlfriend, Sophie, died in Africa while David was there trying to stop a mutation called a darkling from destroying the entire facility. He uses Gwillan's and Grace's fire tears to attempt to revive the fallen clay dragons back to their original selves. As David struggles to reach a compromise, dragons all over the world begin to wake, and the Earth enters a new Dragon Age. But just as this is to happen, the dangerous Ix:cluster reverse the Fire Eternal during an epic battle between the dragon queen and our heroes, and the villainous Ix:cluster, and in a single moment, Gadzooks ends with writing the word 'sometimes' in dragontongue, the language of the dragons.
In ''Fire World'', a 12-year-old boy named David lives in Co:pern:ica. He and his friend Rosanna spend their days in the librarium, a museum for books, with the curator, Mr. Henry, and the mysterious firebirds that roam the upper levels. When the two friends accidentally injure one of the firebirds, they find themselves on a remarkable and dangerous adventure. The evil Ix have found a way into Co:pern:ica from their home planet and have taken over a firebird, turning it to the side of darkness. The firebirds have a secret, though: they know about dragons. With the help of David and Rosanna, the firebirds must reach across the universe to call on the dragons for protection. But will the dragons arrive before the Ix destroy everything? WARNING: Alternate timelines may occur. Read at your own risk.
The entire series is resolved with a seventh novel named ''The Fire Ascending''. The novel reveals that the entire universe is made up of the word and symbol Oomara, meaning sometimes. This last book shows Alexa's part in the series. It also shows how Alexa came to be. This entire series is ended with the final battle: the polar bears and the dragons vs. the Ix and the darklings.
Three young adults named Arthur, Lucy and Elizabeth were traveling to meet Rupert Steiner, who had received a note from Gadzooks. The word "Scuffenbury" was written in Dragontonge, which is the name of one of the barrows which are said to contain a dragons. Back in their home town, Wayward Crescent, David asks Zanna, David's girlfriend, for more information about Gwilanna. This is where Gwillanna is threatening to hand over the Dark Fire Tear to IX. She had the choice to sacrifice her husband while being threatened, but Zanna was used for David's place. The summoning of the dragon Ghislaine, Gwilanna summoned a darkling. David and Zanna get home one night and discover their neighbor, Henry Bacon, is in the hospital due to a stroke. Liz and Lucy are at the hospital and David gets a letter. He learns about the Scuffenbury. David goes with Liz to visit Henry in hospital, and Henry dies during their visit. After Henry dies, Gwilanna, attends the funeral and gives a warning to David that she will do anything to get her hands on the obsidian and the Dark Fire. The group meet Henry's sister Agatha, a powerful sibyl. They also discover that Henry has left Liz and Lucy $50,000, and left David his collection of Arctic memorabilia and Zanna his house. The will also says that the Arctic would be left in place. After this, Agatha(a Sybil) teaches Zanna healing magicks and suggests that she make her peace with David.
Zanna goes into town with Alexa and Gretel to open her shop, but on the way the group are attacked by the semi-Darkling flock and are rescued by Tam, who destroys them with the spirit Kailar. Zanna was hurt, but uses her new healing knowledge to mend the wound. Tam talks to David about Rupert Steiner, who has come to him with a story about translations of the dragontongue found on the Glacier expedition. Lucy told David that Sophie emailed her, trying to talk to him, and David leaves for Africa. Lucy then receives a phone call from an old friend, Melanie Cartwright, who has seen a video of a Pennykettle dragon moving on TV and is concerned over her own “special” dragon, Glade. David gets to Africa and finds Sophie's wildlife sanctuary on fire. Grockle extinguishes the fire. Sophie was killed and Grace is preparing to cry her Fire Tear. The semi-Darkling which began the fire is still alive. He was planning on inverting Grace's tear to create dark fire. Pieter, Sophie's fiancé, tries to kill it, but it kills him instead. David then distracts the Darkling with the dark fire he already has, captures it and sends it back to the IX with a warning to leave the Pennykettle dragons alone. Mutu, one of Sophie's college roommates, tells David that he saw a woman dancing in the flames. David then leaves Africa, taking with him Grace's stone body. Her Fire Tear was caught by Groyne during the struggle.
When he returns home. David informs Zanna that Alexa is a new species. She is an angel, a bridge between dragons and mankind and when the dragons are revealed, people everywhere will want to be like her. He also tells her that the people will travel to Ki:mera. This is the Fain's home world.
In the Dragon's Den, David gathers the dragons in an attempt to convert the dark fire and return it to Gwillan. Gollygosh will extract the dark fire from the obsidian, Groyne will mix it with Grace's Fire Tear and some icefire to neutralize it, and G'reth will wish for Gwillan and Grace to be reanimated. However, while David explains what will happen, Gollygosh is momentarily corrupted by the dark fire, and releases it early. The Dark Fire then enters Liz and her baby and she is knocked out. While Zanna tends to her, He then sends Lucy with Tam to Scuffenbury. Not noticing that, in the Dragon's Den, Gwillan is draining Grace's auma into himself.
Lucy and Tam travel to Scuffenbury. On the way, Lucy reads the article about the last meeting of dragons. This is how eleven of the last twelve dragons shed half of their fire tears, then went into stasis, while the twelfth, Gawaine, ingested all eleven tears and planned to use them to defeat the Ix. Lucy and Tam arrive at their guesthouse, which is run by Hannah and Clive, and has one other guest, Mrs Gee. They climb Glissington Tor, the dragon's burial site, that evening, and that night Lucy has a nightmare about a cat, which she encountered earlier in the day, bringing her a semi-darkling.
In the Crescent, Liz is comatose, but unharmed. When Gwillan suddenly wakes up, Melanie Cartwright comes to visit with her mother, Rachel, and dragon, Glade, who can sense moods. Gretel puts the humans to sleep so they don't get in the way, and Glade goes upstairs to try and check on Liz and the baby. She finds that Liz is all right, but the baby's body is in stasis, and its auma has been transferred to Gwillan. The Cartwrights leave, and David contacts G'Oreal, informing him that Grockle is destroying the semi-Darklings.
Early next morning, Tam and Lucy climb Scuffenbury Hill to see the unicorn. While they are there, cairn stones, the remains of a monument on Glissington Tor, begin to rise from the earth and rebuild the cairn, revealing more chalk carvings - a unicorn's horn. Mrs Gee, a sibyl, has rebuilt the cairn to try and wake the unicorn and the dragon, but Hannah, who claims to know all the Tor's secrets, warns her that this legend is false, and waking the dragon requires a red-haired girl, touched by the spirit of a dragon. She also explains that the dragon in stasis is Gawaine, who came to Scuffenbury looking for the unicorn Teramelle's healing to help her give birth, and offers to help Mrs Gee claim the dragon in return for one of its scales.
Gwendolen, left in the hotel to watch for the mysterious cat, is shocked to discover that not only is the cat real, it can do magic, and communicate. It tells her it is truly a girl called Bella, who was turned into a cat by Mrs Gee. The TV news is showing pictures of dragons being freed all over the world, and Hannah tells Lucy that she can wake the dragon if she touches it and sings - and that there is a tunnel under the cairn which will let Lucy touch the dragon.
At Wayward Crescent, Zanna is puzzled by e-mails Lucy is receiving, which David tells her are from other daughters of Guinevere. He also gives her Tam's article, telling her that Gawaine, the dragon in Scuffenbury and the one chosen to fight the IX, was Gawain's mother, and her plan to destroy the IX was to draw the IX to her, then sacrifice herself in the Fire Eternal, a plan which the new Wearle has adopted.
Tam and Lucy travel through the tunnels to wake Gawaine, but as the dragon stirs, Hannah betrays them. Tam is trapped underground, and Lucy captured by Mrs Gee, but Bella helps her escape. In the chaos of the dragon's awakening, Mrs Gee, Hannah and Clive are all killed and the hotel collapses. Meanwhile, Melanie and Rachel Cartwright are attacked by the last surviving semi-Darkling, who injures both of them before taking Glade. Glade sends a distress signal to the Pennykettles, which is intercepted by Gwillan.
Lucy calls David for help, and he sends Grockle. With his help, Lucy places some of her tears in Glissington cairn, although Bella tries to stop her. The tears reflect moonlight onto the unicorn's horn, bringing it to life, and it frees Gawaine. However, as Zanna discovers through an email Bella sent Lucy, Gawaine was betrayed and one of her children murdered by a sibyl disguised as a red-haired maiden, and when she sees Lucy, she attacks. Grockle fails to defend Lucy, but, as Lucy is Gawaine's kin, the flames do not harm her, and Gawine is distracted for long enough that David can arrive to help.
Meanwhile, the last surviving semi-Darkling ingests Lucy's auma from the tears she left at Glissington Cairn. It uses the power in the tears to renew itself, and call the Ix towards it, and a full Darkling is born, with the ability to self-replicate, which it does until there are four Darklings. Realizing the danger, David gives Lucy the narwhal tusk talisman which he thinks is Groyne so that she can be transported home, not realizing that the tusk is in fact Gwillan, who has taken Groyne's abilities, and Lucy has only been moved across the valley.
Gawaine and G'lant - the combined force of David and Grockle - begin to fight the Darklings. One invades Gawaine's mind before she destroys it, but G'lant restores her before permanent injury can occur. One then distracts G'lant while the remaining two attack Gawaine. One destroys her wing and poisons her blood, although it is near-fatally injured in the attempt, and falls to the ground near Lucy, who has been joined by Bella. As it attempts to attack the girls, Tam emerges from the ground and destroys it. Zane contacts Agatha Bacon but instead Gwilanna arrives at Wayward Crescent, and Zanna leaves for Scuffenbury after . She arrives near Gawaine, who is gravely injured, and begins trying to heal her with Teramelle's help. The unicorn warns her to hurry, as Scuffenbury is the site of a portal to the Fire Eternal, and the portal will soon open. Meanwhile, Gwilanna, who wishes to deliver Liz's child. She refuses to listen when Arthur explains that Gwillan now possesses the child's auma. She uses a spell to trap Arthur in an armoir and, with the use of Gawain's iscoscele, draws the dark fire out of Liz. The dark fire turns Gawain's isoscele black, then proceeds to kill Gwilanna before traveling to Scuffenbury. Alexa, who was locked outside by Gwilanna, grows full wings and is then taken by G'Oreal of the New Wearle to Scuffenbury.
At Scuffenbury, G'lant continues to fight the two remaining Darklings. Gwillan traps one, purifying its auma and turning it into a dragon, which is no longer any threat. At the sight of Gwillan, the Ix lend all their power to the remaining Darkling, and it overpowers G'lant, but Gawaine drags it into the Fire Eternal, sacrificing herself to save G'lant and fulfill the task the Old Wearle entrusted her with - eradicating the Ix. Teramelle, invaded by the dark fire, follows her.
In the chaos which the dark fire causes, David, Zanna, Alexa and Gadzooks come together, and Gadzooks begins writing a word. David reassures Zanna that everything will be all right, but things will be different. Then David, Lucy, Tam, Zanna, Bella and the assembled dragons disappear. The book ends with the word Gadzooks was writing, "sometimes".
In the city of Tōjō, news reporter Kita is first insulted by local boss Onishi and later threatened by gangsters after an article on corrupt businessmen, officials and authorities. Bureau chief Sagawa withdraws Kita for his and his family's protection and instead sends a group of colleagues to Tōjō to investigate. Aided by a group of organised young people and formerly intimidated citizens, who are weary of the ongoing corruption and violence, the reporters can finally expose the schemings. In the closing voice-over, the narrator cautions the audience to stay attentive to prevent a return of the depicted violence.
Jake Lever (Adam Kaufman) is a successful cardiologist living in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. When he dozes off at the hospital where he works, he dreams that his brother, Benjamin, tells him that they are okay. Jake is confused and is baffled after receiving a phone call later that day from his mother informing him that his brother has died suddenly. He feels guilty for not having kept in touch with his brother for several years. After Ben's funeral held in Brooklyn, Jake finds out that because his brother's wife Leah (Lauren Ambrose) has been left without children, they must perform a ceremony called ''halizah'' to release them both from the religious obligation to conduct a levirate marriage.
Jake and Leah agree, but Jake changes his mind after seeing that Leah is wearing a necklace with exactly the same ''hamsa'' that his brother gave him. Dating from before Benjamin left home for college, the amulet reminds Jake of how much he loved his big brother. He pulls Leah aside and tells her that he doesn't want to deny his brother's existence, which is what he believes the ''halizah'' vow requires of him. After deciding that she wants to leave her mother's home, become independent, and start college, Leah agrees to Jake's alternate offer to marry him and move with him to Washington but maintain a platonic relationship. Jake is constantly busy with work at the hospital, his girlfriend Carol has little patience for his new "wife" and Leah adjusts to finding her way around a new city. But eventually, true love arises, and the two find that the greatest gift Benjamin has left them is each other.
Ratko Volvic (Efren Ramirez), the son of an affluent Eastern European dictator (Adam West), enrolls for the freshman semester at an American university. His exotic accent and hedonistic lifestyle soon establish him as the most colorful character on campus. But when Ratko falls hard for student activist Holly (Katrina Bowden), he begins to question his father's true character and where all his wealth actually came from.
''Prologue: One Perfect Morning, With Jackals'' In Kenya, a son argues with his father whether it is possible to adopt European conveniences and customs and still be a true Kikuyu, the dominant native tribe. The father will be the ''mundumugu'' (witch doctor) for the new Kikuyu society on a terraformed planetoid named Kirinyaga. On the way to the spaceport, they detour to see a pair of jackals hiding behind a bush in an area that will become a nature preserve.
''Kirinyaga'' Koriba kills a newborn child because traditional beliefs dictate that it is a demon. He must then convince Maintenance, the people who maintain the environment and regulate the orbit of the planetoid Kirinyaga, not to interfere with their traditions, no matter how much they dislike them.
''For I Have Touched the Sky'' A girl finds a falcon with a broken wing and asks the mundumugu to heal it. "Once a bird has touched the sky," Koriba explains, "he can never be content to spend his days on the ground." She persists. In the course of doing chores in exchange for help treating the bird, she discovers Koriba’s computer and the knowledge it can share. This creates conflict with the role held by women in the traditional Kikuyu society.
''Bwana'' Koinnage, the paramount chief, hires a hunter to reduce the hyena population. The hunter’s idea of utopia differs radically from Koriba’s. The mundumugu must demonstrate that, although the Kikuyu are a farming society, they are not powerless against predators.
''The Manamouki'' A married couple immigrate to Kirinyaga. Although they try to assimilate, they bring modern ideas that conflict with traditional Kikuyu culture. Can a utopia evolve?
''Song of a Dry River'' A grandmother refuses to be cared for in the traditional manner and sets up residence near the mundumugu, who lives apart from the village. The mundumugu threatens a drought unless she follows tradition.
''The Lotus and the Spear'' Three young men have died in unusual circumstances. The mundumugu must find and overcome the cause.
''A Little Knowledge'' Koriba is training Ndemi as his successor. Eventually he begins to instruct him on the use of the computer. But, as in the Garden of Eden, knowledge is a dangerous thing.
''When the Old Gods Die'' "It is said that from the moment of birth, even of conception, every living thing has embarked upon an inevitable trajectory that culminates in its death... Yet this knowledge does not lessen the pain of death." For a man intent on maintaining the traditional ways, cultural change may not represent life but the death of the old gods.
''Epilogue: The Land of Nod'' Koriba returns to Kenya. There, the old ways don’t mesh well with modern city living. When he visits a cloned elephant that is to be killed in a few days' time, Koriba realizes that they are both anachronisms, and that their fates are intertwined.
The movie opens with a distressed woman being chased through a tropical forest by an unknown pursuer. It is soon revealed that the woman is attempting to escape from Frank Lane, an American running an illegal child sex ring operation in Brazil. Upon being recaptured, she is taken back to Lane's home and executed in front of the other slaves, as punishment for her actions.
Meanwhile, kickboxing champion David Sloan and his trainer Xian arrive in Rio de Janeiro for a championship bout. Though Xian is mostly interested in training for the upcoming fight, David dismisses the idea in favor of relaxing in the city. While eating lunch, their camera is suddenly stolen by a young thief, and David gives chase. After fending off a pair of drunken assailants, he catches up to the boy who then brandishes a knife, but David easily disarms him and takes back the camera. When the boy, Marcos, follows him back to the restaurant to reclaim the knife, Xian invites both him and his beautiful sister Isabella to join them for lunch, and they eventually become friends.
At a charity kickboxing event, David is asked to be the cornerman for another young fighter in an exhibition match against Eric Martine, an Argentine kickboxer managed by Lane, who also happens to be David's opponent for the upcoming championship fight. However, the aggressive Martine brutally beats the young fighter, prompting David to physically intervene on his behalf. As a result, David's bout with Martine is billed as a grudge match. Lane apologizes to David for Martine's actions and invites him to a party he is hosting.
David attends the party with Marcos and Isabella as his personal guests. Upon meeting her, Lane becomes infatuated with Isabella. When David parts ways with the children for the night, Lane secretly sends out a group of men to kidnap her. In a panic, Marcos asks for David's help. They file a police report, but with an overwhelming backlog of unsolved cases on their hands, the authorities do not consider their case a priority and advise them to simply forget about Isabella.
Undeterred, David and Xian launch their own investigation, which ultimately leads to their arrest. Lane bails them out in an attempt to cover his tracks, but the two continue their search. They purchase guns from an arms dealer and infiltrate a mansion owned by a pimp named Branco, eventually discovering that Lane is behind the child sex ring operation. They confront him in his home but are ambushed and taken prisoner. Lane forces David through a series of grueling exercises designed to weaken him before his match with Martine, such as hiking with a backpack full of rocks and water-skiing without skis. He then releases both men back to their hotel, with the condition that if David doesn't show up for the fight, Isabella will disappear forever. With Marcos' help, Xian is able to create and administer a cure for David's fatigue.
At the fight, David manages to defeat Martine, and Xian is successful in rescuing Isabella before Lane can flee the arena. Lane, who wagered his entire estate upon Martine's victory, is left bankrupt. Upon being reunited with Marcos, Isabella tells him about the other girls Lane has imprisoned, and David resolves to free them as well. In retaliation, Lane pulls a gun on David, but Marcos suddenly appears and stabs Lane in the stomach with his knife.
In the end, the police sergeant decides to cover up Lane's murder, and David arranges for Marcos and Isabella to attend school. Upon realizing that they have missed their flight back home, David, Xian, and the police sergeant decide to go out for drinks together.
Negaal is a South African former kickboxer turned promoter who is gearing up to start his own kickboxing organization. When American champion David Sloane refuses to join, Negaal sends his men Moon, Bull, and Pinto to eliminate David. David manages to break Moon's leg but is ultimately killed by Bull and Pinto.
Matt Reeves is a former kickboxer turned martial arts teacher. As a friend of David's, he is shocked to learn of his death. That night, his one-time student Johnny Styles is competing for the now vacant United States Championship. When Johnny wins the title, he is approached by Moon, Bull, and Pinto to join the Negaal Kickboxing Federation. Johnny decides to meet with the trio, but Matt is suspicious. When his friend Charlie informs him that the three men also talked to David just two days before he was found murdered, Matt races to find Johnny. Johnny refuses the offer from Negaal and is forced to fight Bull and Pinto, who overwhelm him and break his back. Matt arrives to fend them off, but he is too late to help Johnny.
When Negaal gets word of what has happened, he wants Matt dead. Bollen, Negaal's right-hand man, recruits Paul Croft, a former member of Negaal's organization who is freed from prison on the condition he kills Matt. That night, Matt is confronted by Paul, who, instead of killing him, warns him about Negaal. Matt decides to head to Johannesburg, South Africa to find Negaal. Paul finds out Matt is on the plane, and the two end up sitting next to each other. When they arrive at the airport, Moon is awaiting Paul, who hides Matt in an attempt to prove he did his job. However, Paul attempts to escape and is confronted by Negaal's thugs until Matt arrives to help. Shocked by the turn of events, Moon escapes as does the thugs. Matt and Paul part ways, and when Matt finds an address, he goes there to find a regular shop. When he inquires the shopkeeper about Negaal, Bollen just happens to be there, and both he and his men attempt to go after Matt. Returning the favor from the airport incident, Paul arrives to help Matt. It is also revealed that it was Bollen who sent Paul to prison in the first place, and Paul wants revenge. The duo fight off the thugs, but then find themselves arrested for causing trouble at the shop when Bollen forces the shopkeeper to rat on them.
Meanwhile, Negaal has been presenting champions from all over the world with an ultimatum: join his federation or die. Fearing for his life, the French Champion reluctantly joins. After the two incidents involving Matt and Paul, Negaal confronts Moon, Bull, and Bollen and proceeds to shoot Bull in the head with a hunting rifle. When the German Champion refuses to join the federation, he challenges Negaal to a fight on the lawn. Negaal kills the German Champion with the "Tiger Claw", an illegal strike that he had used on the Dutch Champion years ago when he was a kickboxer, resulting in him getting a lifetime ban from the sport.
With the help of fellow prisoner Joseph, Matt and Paul escape when one of the guards was revealed to be one of Negaal's men. The trio make their escape and separate, with Matt and Paul catching up to Angie, who is revealed to be Paul's younger sister. She is wondering what is going on and is unhappy when it is revealed that Negaal is the reason. While Paul served his prison sentence, the patriarch of the Croft family had died. Matt and Paul convince Angie that they must stop Negaal once and for all if they are to ever be happy again. Both men begin to train with Matt discovering a way to counter Negaal's Tiger Claw when he breaks an arrow using his neck muscles to show that a fatal blow can, in fact, be countered. As they learn Negaal is planning a major party, they decide to crash it along with Angie, who defies Matt and Paul and goes undercover as well.
When Paul finally confronts Bollen in the backyard, Matt sees Negaal at the roulette table and begins to win, angering Negaal. When Negaal learns that the man who is winning is the one he's been after this whole time, Matt finally exposes Negaal to everyone for who he really is. The goons arrive, and Matt defeats them all and finally is ready to take on Negaal. As the two begin their fight, they go from Negaal's office to the lawn. When Negaal attempts the Tiger Claw to Matt's neck, Matt uses his counter technique and unleashes a Tiger Claw of his own, hitting Negaal right in the heart. Negaal falls, and Matt proceeds back to the office, where he grabs the United States Championship belt. Negaal returns to take the belt back. Matt's Tiger Claw finally takes its effect, and Negaal finally dies. Matt retrieves the belt as he, Paul, and Angie walk off as police sirens are heard.
L.A. Detective Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi), struggling to emotionally survive his previous big case (from in the first ''Relentless'' film) is unwillingly paired with a shady FBI agent Kyle Valsone (Ray Sharkey), during a case tracking another serial killer (Miles O'Keeffe), who kills seemingly at random. But every time Dietz gets a lead, Valsone gets in the way and somewhat throws off the investigation. Suspecting more than meets the eye, Dietz goes around the law to learn the identity of the killer and find out what Valsone is hiding and his connection to the killer. Meanwhile, Dietz's wife Carol (Meg Foster) now estranged from him due to his long hours, tries to deal with her current situation and their uncertain future.
The protagonist Sujatha abandons her studies to provide for her young sister Prema after the death of their mother. Their mother had always wanted to secure a good education for Prema and Sujatha sees it fitting to make this sacrifice. When Prema heads to the city however, she is seduced and impregnated by a smooth talking womanizer named Wickie. Wickie dumps Prema who then returns to live with her older sister. They find solace in a caring doctor named Nihal who comes to fall in love with Sujatha.
The story follows two young men whose lives intersect during the political turbulence and social upheaval in Japan in the late 1800s. Dr. Ryoan Tezuka is a medical student attracted to the radical new of Western medicine, while Manjiro Ibuya is a samurai who is a staunch supporter of honor and tradition. They both encounter and fall in love with the same woman, O-Seki, the daughter of a respected Temple priest. Ryoan's idealism is gradually eroded, and he marries, settles down and takes over his father's medical practice. Meanwhile, Manjiro rises through the ranks of samurai society and the shogun initially gives him the delicate task of managing a United States emissary and later to turn farmers into an armed infantry.
The protagonists of ''Kirakira'', Shikanosuke, Kirari, Sarina and Chie are the members of the at the Christian school Ohbi Gakuen. The club was set to be closed in next March so they try to set up a band they call the to save the club. Their performance at the subsequent school festival succeeds with flying colors. That performance was put on the Internet where one of the live houses in Nagoya offered the band to put on a performance in Nagoya. They honestly want to disband after the performance at the school festival because they had to study for entrance exams or look for jobs, but they were convinced to go on a live tour by Yagihara, the vocalist of Star Generation. Shikanosuke's band d2b begins its live tour across Japan in an old van.
Chalice is welcoming a new Master. The Chalice must be the first to greet the new Master.
The reason for a new Master is that the old one, and the former Chalice, died in a fire, which was caused by some of their own actions, a few months earlier. The now-dead Master was concerned only with his own pleasure and power, and neglected his duties to his demesne. Seven years before the story begins, the Master sent his brother away, to join the priests of Fire. The brother had been concerned about the demesne, and opposed the Master's ways. When the older brother died, the Grand Seneschal sent for the younger brother, asking that he become the new Master. The brother is welcomed by the Circle, and the people of the demesne, but has changed, physically and mentally, so that he can hardly interact with the people of the demesne at all.
Mirasol, the Chalice, was a peasant, living by herself in a cottage within walking distance of the House of the demesne, but having nothing to do with its inhabitants, until, to everyone's surprise, she was chosen as Chalice. She raises bees, left to her by her dead parents. The bees are special. For a period of time, they produced so much honey that Mirasol couldn't take care of it. They are larger than normal bees, they seem to understand the Chalice, and protect her, and they produce special types of honey. The Chalice has had no training for the job. She has read every manuscript she can find that tells her what a Chalice must do, and how, but there is a lot she doesn't know. She thinks that the rest of the Circle, especially the Grand Seneschal, believes that she was a bad choice. She performs her job as best she can, operating from what she has read, and from her intuition, in deciding what vessel to use, and what to put in it, for each occasion. She mixes honey with the various drinks she offers to people involved in ceremonies of the Circle, or to pour out. This use of honey is new. It has never been used this way before.
During the seven days between the supposed insult and the time of the combat, the Chalice repairs as many of the earthlines of the demesne as possible. (She later learns that the Master has been helping her in this.) On the day of the combat, she returns to the House, to see that the Master will be forced to fight with swords, and has decided that his demesne would be better off if he was killed. But the Chalice's amazing bees have something to say about this. They blanket the combatants, kill the heir, and transform the Master back to near normalcy. Many of the bees die in the process. The Overlord departs in defeat. Some of the Circle resign their positions, because they haven't supported the Master. By the end of the book, it is clear that the Chalice and the Master will marry, and everyone live happily every after.
The film starts with Gloria (Adrienne Shelly), who is being held hostage, bothering her captors in charge of watching her, Mooney (Anthony Clark) and Titus (Matt Adler), by changing the channel the two were watching on television and jumping in front of the TV. Titus then scolds and takes the remote from Gloria and suggests she should go take a swim in the pool outside which she subsequently obliges. While playing in the pool, Gloria hauls a trampoline near the edge of the pool and begins to jump on it before slipping and falling in the pool. The film then cuts to a university where Teresa Brigger (also Adrienne Shelly), a mathematician grad student that bears an uncanny resemblance to Gloria, is talking to her friend Bruno, (Joe Pantoliano) about her plans for the upcoming spring break. She plans on not celebrating the coming holiday and wants to continue studying math. The film cuts back to the pool where Carl (C. Thomas Howell), Titus and Mooney's boss, shows up to find their hostage who is supposed to be exchanged later in a ransom deal with Gloria's half-witted brother, Michael (Casey Siemaszko) and his associate, Wheeler (Lou Diamond Phillips) for the earrings she is wearing that is secretly holograph plans to a confidential NASA space program, dead after drowning in the pool. The trio then decide to search for a girl that looks like the deceased Gloria so they can complete the deal. Teresa and Bruno then go to a gathering where she encounters Bruno's friend and her ex love interest, Rick (Jonathan Silverman).
The film centres on Jeff Stenn (Adam Baldwin), a successful writer who is happily married to his wife, Tree (Jennifer Gates). Jeff, due to a shortage of money, accepts a job to write a screenplay about a real-life homicide that happened 35 years earlier. A seemingly psychotic director (Udo Kier) who believed that creativity had unleashed dark forces, killed his pregnant wife and in-laws for no apparent reason before committing suicide.
As Jeff continues to work on the screenplay, several accidents occur around him that directly mirror events in his script. Jeff begins to think that his writing has the power to affect reality, and must question whether finishing the script will bring about the death of his own family.
The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, the She-Thing, and Ben Grimm) and young Franklin Richards return to their headquarters at New York City's Four Freedoms Plaza to discover that it has been replaced by their previous headquarters, the Baxter Building. Upon investigating, they encounter a slightly younger version of the team from an alternate timeline. After the present-day FF is defeated in battle, an alternate adult version of Franklin reveals himself. Confused by the sight of the younger Franklin, the adult Franklin uses his mutant power to flee, restoring Four Freedoms Plaza with his departure. In doing so, his energy signature is sensed by Rachel Summers (who is in Great Britain with the team Excalibur), X-Men members Forge and Banshee (also in New York City), and a futuristic mutant-hunter named Ahab. After defeating a group of miniature Sentinel droids, the Fantastic Four (joined by Forge and Banshee) search for the adult Franklin at the home of the Power family. They find him there, but their efforts to reach out to the confused man fail, and he disappears.
Although labelled "Part 2", the events in ''X-Factor Annual'' #5 actually take place after ''The New Mutants Annual'' #6, which was released later and was labelled "Part 3".
The adult Franklin observes the skyscraper-like extraterrestrial Ship which serves as X-Factor's Manhattan headquarters. Since the Ship is not in his memory of the past, he causes it to vanish. Having noticed the Ship's disappearance, Forge, Banshee and the Fantastic Four arrive, and team up with X-Factor (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Archangel, Iceman, and the Beast) to locate the adult Franklin. Above the Statue of Liberty, the adult Franklin encounters the woman who was his true love in his own time: Rachel Summers. Having journeyed to the present some time ago, Rachel is now able to access the Phoenix Force. She is confused, as she witnessed Franklin's death in the future at the hands of the Sentinels. While the collective heroes protect the adult Franklin from a Sentinel attack, Jean Grey meets Rachel for the first time. Cyclops and Jean refuse to accept that Rachel is their daughter from a future where Cyclops's baby son (Nathan Christopher Charles Summers) does not exist. Rachel repels an attack from Ahab, who was her master during her many years as a Hound. Afterward, she flees the area, stung by her parents' rejection. The heroes are joined by the New Mutants (Sunspot, Warlock, Boom Boom, and Cannonball) and their new leader, Cable. They force Ahab to retreat. The adult Franklin returns after the battle. Noticing baby Nathan, who does not exist in his future timeline, Franklin causes the child to vanish. Cyclops collapses in shock and grief.
Although labelled "Part 3", the events in ''The New Mutants Annual'' #6 actually take place before ''X-Factor Annual'' #5, which was released earlier and was labelled "Part 2".
The adult Franklin travels to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Cable and the New Mutants (Sunspot, Warlock, Boom Boom, Cannonball, Rictor and Wolfsbane) are attacked by Franklin and an adult incarnation of the team, including Cypher, who was killed during a New Mutants adventure months earlier. After the New Mutants realize the future team was conjured by Franklin, he disappears. Banshee and the Fantastic Four arrive with the present-day Franklin, and the heroes are all attacked by Ahab and his Hounds.
Appearing at the American Museum of Natural History, the adult Franklin remembers a futuristic Sentinel attack. In response, he lashes out with his power, destroying the Hounds in the present while the present-day Franklin watches. Horrified at the destructive nature of their powers, the two Franklins work in tandem to block young Franklin's power, ensuring that it can never be used again. Young Franklin lapses into a coma-like unconsciousness, and adult Franklin disappears.
After their last encounter, Rachel and the adult Franklin reunite and rekindle their love for one another. They reappear at Four Freedoms Plaza, stating that they now have a second chance at happiness. When Reed & Sue Richards bring up the problems with Ahab, baby Nathan, and X-Factor's Ship, adult Franklin induces in them a euphoric, docile state of mind, allowing him to leave. Young Franklin, still unconscious, grows weaker.
At Xavier's School, Cable and the New Mutants are joined by X-Men leader Storm and her new companion: a mutant named Gambit. Ahab transforms Cyclops and the Invisible Woman into Hounds, and uses them to locate and capture Rachel, the adult Franklin and baby Nathan. Meanwhile, Storm briefs the collective heroes on Rachel's dystopian future, where the Sentinels have conquered North America and almost all super-powered beings have been slain or imprisoned in internment camps. The heroes track down Ahab and defeat him, but he flees into the future, leaving Cyclops and the Invisible Woman as hounds.
Having learned from both Rachel and the Kitty Pryde of Rachel's timeline that Franklin is killed by the Sentinels in the future, Storm reasons that the adult Franklin is actually one of his "dream-selves", sent into the past at the moment of his death. To sustain himself, he has been subconsciously draining energy from his younger self and Rachel. Realizing that this would eventually kill them both, the adult Franklin releases the energies and allows himself to discorporate. The young Franklin regains consciousness with his latent powers intact, and Rachel uses the Phoenix Force to genetically restore Cyclops and the Invisible Woman to their natural forms. X-Factor's Ship reappears in Manhattan. The heroes are left with no way of determining if anything they have done will prevent the Sentinel-dominated timeline from coming to pass. However, Rachel still exists in her Hound uniform, leading her to believe that the future is unchanged. Jean reaches out to comfort her, but pulls back at the last moment. Devastated by this, Rachel departs, too upset to hear Jean's calls for her to come back. Later at her parents' house in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Jean studies the Shi'ar holempathic matrix crystal which Lilandra gave the Greys after Jean's supposed death. The crystal is imbued with the essence of both the Phoenix Force and Rachel, and Jean can learn everything she seeks to know about both of them simply by touching it. Filled with curiosity, fear and uncertainty, Jean wonders what she should do.
The events of this story take place between pages 10 and 11 of Part 4.
''X-Men Annual'' #14 contains a back-up story entitled "The Fundamental Things", written by Chris Claremont and pencilled by Mark Heikel. The story is set in Madripoor, where Wolverine (accompanied by Psylocke) tells his new teenage companion Jubilee about Charles Xavier and the X-Men. In the middle of the discussion, Rachel and the adult Franklin appear. Wolverine, who mortally wounded Rachel to prevent her from murdering the psychic vampire Selene in ''The Uncanny X-Men'' #207, challenges Rachel's "the-ends-justify-the-means" method of confronting threats. Franklin causes Psylocke and Jubilee to vanish, as they are not part of his timeline. Wolverine lectures Franklin and Rachel on the virtues of the X-Men's ideals, and the need for the powerful to use their power responsibly and with restraint. Taking the man's words to heart, Franklin brings Psylocke and Jubilee back, along with baby Nathan. After Rachel and Franklin thank Wolverine for his advice, the two of them (and Nathan) disappear.
''The Golden Book of Springfield'' is framed as a series of visions of the future, experienced both by members of "'The Prognosticators' Club"', and later by Lindsay, who shifts to writing in the first person. It reads much like a dream journal throughout; Lindsay was well known to experience intense religious visions throughout his life.
The book opens in 1920 with a gathering of the Prognosticators’ Club, which consists of, among others, a Campbellite minister, a Jewish boy, a black woman, and a skeptic, who offer a vision of Springfield in 2018 in prose derived from such varied sources as the Bible, Swedenborg, and Marx. The Prognosticators meet to discuss their visions of a modern Springfield achieving improvements in areas such as education, civility, technology, and spirituality.
''The Golden Book of Springfield'' describes in many different voices the arrival of the fictional ''The Golden Book of Springfield'', first describing this event through the eyes of David Carson, the Campbellite minister of the Prognosticator's Club who imagines himself "reborn three or four generations in the future."
:We behold with him how a book of air, gleaming with spiritual gold, comes flying in through the walls as though they were but shadows. It is a book open as it soars, and every fluttering page is richly bordered and illuminated. It has wings of black, and above them wings of azure. Long feathers radiate from the whirring, soaring pennons. The book circles above the heads of the congregation. From the sky comes music incredibly sweet. The book flies toward the altar, where St. Friend finds himself standing. The wings fade. This day moves with rapid breath. The congregation has been trooping in as the visitant from the world of spirit-wonder has been settling into its own holy place on the altar.
The major conflict in ''The Golden Book of Springfield'' revolves around the "Flying Machine Riots" Lindsay summarizes the conflict as such:
:"Chapter IX: Tempest in a Teapot over whether People with Buried Gold Shall Monopolize the Flying Privilege"
Lindsay tells the story of the monopolization of "flying machines," (Note: see Lindsay's poem ''The Empty Boats.'') and the quick resolution of the issue by means of cooperation and peaceful discourse. St. Friend, among others, leads the public through the hidden conflict, and tells the people of their future - in which they travel to the stars in "airships of the mind."
St. Friend is known as the "Giver of Bread," and is the religious reformer who unites all the religions of the world into "The Church of Springfield", or "The Church of the Plant and the Flower."
:In the capital of Illinois, in this year of grace, St. Friend is a healer of the body and soul. He is more of a philosopher than the fuming Black Hawk Boone, that is, he has a cooler disposition. Yet Boone heals by hard maxims, given with that lovely fruit, the Amaranth-Apple. St. Friend heals by sermons and prayers and the pictured parables, the rituals envisaged and illuminated in the celebration of the Office of the Blessed Bread.
The Church of Springfield is incarnated as a "blessed community of faith" with no "fences of creed." St. Friend describes it as such:
:"The Church of Springfield has come. It is the sunlit grass of this park; it is this Illinois sky... It will begin with sheltered faiths and will not contradict or undermine any."
In the same speech St. Friend delivers his vision of the events occurring, and the bright future he envisions for Springfield:
:"The voices of the children will be as noble as the discourses of the prairie winds that catch our tree boughs at sunset. Every house will be as delicate and subtle as the ferny hollows of the Sangamon. The convert will name many birds that will come at this call and he will feed them crumbs of this Blessed Bread in friendship. When Springfield has partaken of this manna for a generation, all things will become new. Leavening thoughts will come from all the street corners. Novel fancies will come from the coffee houses. The conferences and colloquies of fallible men will take on something of the aspect of the meetings of the inspired souls of Heaven. We walk our plain path! We eat our plain bread in a rare fellowship! Therefore all things become eternal. The Church of Springfield, the church of this sunlit grass, the church of a million days and nights, is proclaimed from the steps of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul this day."
In Chapter 3, Lindsay mythologizes the history of Springfield, Illinois, describing Hunter Kelly's pact with the Devil: :At last, when the lads returned from the war with Germany, and the girls returned from Red Cross work, and the like, in the summer of 1919, and the city began to take on glory both visible and invisible, Hunter Kelly said to the Devil: "I will now trust my town to go on. At last they are eating of the Apple Amaranth, which they thought was poison. They are even transplanting it." Thereupon Hunter Kelly drove the Devil away with the great pickaxe and spade, the same which had often dug the hunter from the ground. From this pickaxe on, the story was entirely new to the screen, and much of it new to the audience. Kelly then built himself a cell in Heaven out of old and broken fragments of forgotten palaces in the far jungles. There he wrote The Golden Book for our little city far below. By day he lived as that boy of Springfield who grew up as Saint Scribe of the Shrines, and established the discipline and ritual of The One Hundred Shrines of the World. He was rumored among a few of us to be the reincarnation of Hunter Kelly. He became the first teacher of St. Friend, who wore his mantle well after him. And now he is pictured, in many a dazzling flame-like color, throwing down from the window of his cell in heaven, this very hour of All Saint's Day, ''The Golden Book of Springfield''. All this is the first intimation to Gwendolyn Charles that stranger things than we know may happen in heaven and on earth.
In Chapter XV Lindsay describes how "when I am my American self the Thibetan boy takes me beyond the North Star and shows me the true Buddha.": This tale describes the experience of cosmic consciousness, a focal point of the New Age, or Golden Age movement, and the central tenet of Tibetan buddhism. This experience is, according to Lindsay, the means by which "the body of Christ, the whole human race, will be raised from the dead."
:July 13: — Today I meet the Thibetan Boy in Coe's Book Store. "We are both rather aimlessly turning over the magazines, and, after I have observed his idleness awhile, I take him out for a walk and say: "Why do you look at me when you pass, with your eyes a story untold? All the while I have walked the streets of this New Springfield, you have looked at me so. He answers slowly, almost whispering: — "Your fathers came from the ancient Christian world. My fathers came from the more ancient Buddhist world. Christ is my master but I cannot deny that Buddha is my friend. This is the hour for friends. Come with me.'' We walk north on Mulberry Boulevard, past the House of the Man from Singapore, and then west on Carpenter toward a little highway that finally joins the great Northwest Road. But we have not gone far on the Great Northwest Road till we flash past the Gothic double walls of our city. The Thibetan Boy takes me, in one instant, to the far edge of Space and Time, way beyond the North Star and its dandelions. And as we stand on the shaking shore of Space and Time we see and hear, rolling in from Chaos, endless smoke and glory and darkness and dissolving foam. Standing be side us, like a superb Gandhara sculpture that has taken on life is that Prince Siddartha who was the founder of Buddhism. He stands in that aspect he had, while still a citizen and householder, and twenty-four centuries before his green glass libel cursed mankind. Before us is, indeed, a vision of Buddha the dreamer, superb, thoroughbred, in all the jewels of his tribe. It is the hour before he took chariot and drove forth from home. We are back in that hour when he looked upon all things, and saw them as a dissolving foam, the hour before he set forth for his victory over this crumbling universe. His eyes are fixed upon those waves that roll in forever, that keep their forms an instant, and are gone for all time: some of men, some of wraiths and gods, some of planets and comets and suns. He turns around and beckons and over the sand comes Channa, the superb charioteer, and the horses of that chariot are nobler than the horses of the sun. Prince Siddartha is in the chariot in an instant and they drive out into that sea and the wheels of that chariot ride the waves. Those horses are like lightning, climbing waves that are like hills and mountains, till chariot, horses, and men all are veiled by the endless smoke and glory and darkness and dissolving foam. The Thibetan boy says to me: "It is the 'Great Going Forth from Home,' and thus Buddha becomes a conquerer, and Chaos and the Universe are put beneath him." But the star chimes behind us are ringing new tunes and we are back in our city again, leaving Prince Siddartha to conquer what he will.
The first section, which is itself the prologue describes the world of a pre-war Bucharest, as narrated by an aging, potentially dying, author while focusing on the improbable and explicitly impossible story of a homeless young man who serves as the stubborn center of progressively more absurd games of Russian Roulette which become progressively more peopled by the wealthy upper-crust of the capital.
The second section brings alive a universe of children through a magical realist writing style that focuses upon a prepubescent messiah who has begun to lose his magical powers while working wonders for his young followers. Which has a famous scene that makes the reader feel voyeur into the world of Proust when the main character falls into "unbearable nostalgia" by virtue of a bright pink lighter.
The third section is an exploration of the pinnacle of romantic love between two adolescents, culminating with them swapping souls after their first night together.
The final part of the main portion of this book is centered around Nana, a middle aged woman engaged in an affair with a college student, as well as her memories of being 12 years old, when she was visited by a mother and son pair of gigantic skeletons.
The last portion of this novel focuses on a man who becomes obsessed with his car horn, the repercussions of which spiral far beyond his control. The last part of the central portion of the book
Kakashi is a young islander who has always dreamed of leaving his island and exploring the world; A world radically changed because of the world war from 50 years ago. His father, a famous world traveler leaves him alone at home in their Light House. After a brief period of time, Kakashi receives his father's journal which prompts him to travel the world like his father, whom many people say is dead.
He is so determined to leave his little island home behind, that he stows away on board a marvelous zeppelin. Unknown to him, this zeppelin just happens to be loaded with treasure and is hijacked by a gang of ruthless criminals known as the Man Chicken Family. There he meets a small puppy which harbors magical powers. Kakashi befriends the puppy despite it being unknown to him. After being discovered by the gang that has hijacked the Zeppelin, he befriends their leader.
He arrives in the main continent of "Oz", where he begins his travels after the Zeppelin is shot down by the Nassau Imperial Army. After crashing in a field, he and his small puppy meet a teenage girl named Dorothy. She immediately falls in love with the puppy and names him ToTo. Almost immediately, they are confronted by Imperial troops whom Dorothy is able to dispatch with her unique "Tornado" martial arts moves. The three agree to travel together to Emerald City where Dorothy is heading to visit her parents during her time off from school. Kakashi, ToTo and Dorothy begin their wonderful adventure but are faced with various foes that quest for the strange dog collar that ToTo is wearing.
A Nassau officer in disguise of an old man, dupes the trio into letting their guard down and he, in turn, snatches ToTo. With Kakashi and Dorothy in danger and ToTo feeling threatened, ToTo's full power is openly revealed as he turns into a gigantic magic dragon which proceeds to defeat the soldiers. Their adventures continue as they continue to Emerald City where they meet an ex-Imperial Soldier turned performer named Noil.
They proceed on down the transcontinental railroad line named "Yellow Brick Road".
Twenty-one-year-old Lucilla Finch, the independently wealthy daughter of the rector of Dimchurch, Sussex, has been blind since infancy. Shortly after the narrator, Madame Pratolungo, arrives to serve as her paid companion, Lucilla falls in love with Oscar Dubourg, her shy and reclusive neighbour, also wealthy, who devotes himself to craftsmanship in precious metals.
After being attacked and knocked unconscious by robbers, Oscar is nursed by Lucilla and falls in love with her, and the couple become engaged. Their plans are jeopardized by Oscar's epilepsy, a result of the blow to his head. The only effective treatment, a silver compound, has the side-effect of turning his skin a permanent, dark blue-grey. Despite her blindness, Lucilla suffers a violent phobia of dark colours, including dark-complexioned people, and family and friends conceal Oscar's condition from her.
Meanwhile, Oscar's twin brother, Nugent, returns from America, where he has dissipated his fortune pursuing a career as a painter. Oscar is devoted to his brother, who is as outgoing, confident and charming as Oscar is diffident and awkward. Knowing of Lucilla's blindness, Nugent has arranged for her to be examined by a famous German oculist, Herr Grosse. Herr Grosse and an English oculist each examine Lucilla but disagree on her prognosis. Lucilla elects to be operated on by Herr Grosse, who believes he can cure her. After the operation, but before the bandages are taken off, Madame Pratolungo pressures Oscar into telling Lucilla of his disfigurement, but his nerve fails and, instead, he tells her it is Nugent who has been disfigured.
Nugent is secretly infatuated with Lucilla and now manipulates her into believing that he is Oscar. As Lucilla gradually regains her sight, Herr Grosse forbids family and friends from undeceiving her, since the shock might imperil her recovery. Oscar goes abroad, resigning his fiancée to his brother in despair. Madame Pratolungo intervenes decisively with Nugent, appealing to his conscience and threatening him with exposure if he continues with his plan to marry Lucilla under Oscar's name. He promises to go abroad to find his brother and return him home.
Nugent soon returns to England and tracks Lucilla to the seaside, where, on Herr Grosse's orders, she is staying with her aunt, away from her immediate family. He pressures her to marry as soon as possible, without her family's knowledge, and works to poison her trust in Madame Pratolungo, who is away in Marseilles attending to her wayward father. Detecting but not understanding the change in her supposed fiancé, Lucilla becomes distraught, over-strains her eyes and begins to lose her vision.
In the novel's denouement, Madame Pratolungo locates Oscar with the help of a French detective. His experiences have revealed an unexpected strength of character, and she conceives a new respect for him. The two of them race home to England to stop the marriage while there is still time. Held virtually prisoner at a Dubourg cousin's house, Lucilla is again totally blind. With the help of a kindly servant, she escapes to meet them, immediately recognizes the true Oscar, and is told the full story by Madame Pratolungo. A penitent Nugent returns to America, where he later dies on a polar expedition. Lucilla and Oscar settle in Dimchurch to raise a family, with Madame Pratolungo as her companion. Perfectly content in her blindness, she refuses Herr Grosse's offers to attempt another operation.
The film follows the friends Leo and Lenny, who live in Nørrebro, a working-class neighborhood in Copenhagen. Leo lives in a rundown apartment with his girlfriend Louise. Lenny is a shy and quiet film expert who works with his and Leo's mutual friend Kitjo, in a video store that rents out art films as well as a huge collection of pornographic films.
As a subplot, we follow Lenny, who is trying to build a relationship to Lea, a girl that works in a local grill bar. Lenny asks Lea out to see a movie, but he chickens out when he sees her at the theatre. Lenny spends most of his time both at home and at work watching films.
When Leo finds out that Louise is pregnant and wants to keep the baby, he becomes more and more aggressive. After witnessing a beating at a club he gets himself a gun. During a normal film night, Leo pulls a gun on Lenny and Kitjo. Leo berates Lenny for his life style, and expresses his disdain for his own life, feeling trapped in a dead end. Later Leo, in despair, hits Louise, and is threatened by her brother, Louis. When it happens again, Louise loses the baby. Louis takes a gruesome revenge by injecting HIV infected blood into Leo's body. Leo retaliates in an equally gruesome manner, shooting Louis in the stomach, then shooting off his own hand and letting the blood drip into Louis' wound. Leo then commits suicide.
Kitjo brings Lenny to Leo's funeral but Lenny cannot bring himself to go. Life continues, and Lenny casually tells Kitjo that he has been offered a job in another store, but does not think he will accept as he has to change his routine. Lenny seeks up Lea again. They both seem shy towards each other, and have trouble communicating. Lenny asks Lea out a second time; the final image of the film shows them alone in the grill/bar where Lea works thus ending the film on a hopeful note.
Professor Parkin, a fussy Cambridge academic, arrives for an off-season stay at a hotel somewhere on the English east coast. Preferring to keep to himself, Parkin spends his stay walking along the dunes and beach rather than golfing. He visits an old graveyard, abandoned and overgrown. Spotting a small object protruding from a grave which is partly undermined by the edge of the cliff he discovers it to be a bone whistle and stuffs it into his pocket. Walking along the shore, he turns twice into the setting sun to see a dark silhouetted figure standing alone in the distance.
Back in his hotel room, he cleans and inspects the whistle, revealing a carved inscription: "Quis est iste qui venit" ("Who is this who is coming?"). He blows the whistle and soon a wind storm rises outdoors. Later that night, Parkin is kept awake by mysterious noises in his hotel room. At breakfast the following morning, another guest at the hotel, a retired colonel, asks Parkin if he believes in ghosts. Parkin responds in an academic fashion, dismissing such beliefs as philosophically incoherent. (He even reverses Hamlet's famous line, saying that "There are more things in philosophy than are dreamt of in heaven and earth".) That night, Parkin appears to have disturbing dreams of a spectre pursuing him on the beach. His nerves are not helped when, the following morning, he is informed by the maids that both of the beds in his room have been slept in – although Parkin only slept in one.
Increasingly disturbed, he searches a book on spiritualism for answers. That night, he is awakened by a nearby sound of rustling. As he sits up in bed, the sheets from the opposite bed rise and stretch into the phantom from the dream. Parkin is too terrified to speak, emitting only frightened noises as he begins sucking his thumb. The disturbance wakes the colonel, who comes to investigate. Parkin sits in stunned terror at what he has just witnessed, repeating only the words, "Oh no."
The novel begins in Yorkshire in 1984, where Mark Renton and his father Davie have travelled to join a picket of the coke plant. Mark is shaken after getting caught in the violence, and he travels to Manchester, where at a party he is offered heroin, which he refuses. In the Banana flats, Sick Boy decides to seduce his neighbours' daughter, Maria. He goes to the pub with her father, Coke, but they are ejected by the violent, ex-cop landlord Dickson
Renton, Begbie, Spud, Tommy and Keezbo are watching football in a pub when teenage Samantha Frenchard arrives and confronts Begbie over her pregnancy. Renton and Sick Boy visit Swanney, a drug dealer, and Renton takes heroin for the first time. Samantha's family begin planning revenge on Begbie for his dismissive response to the pregnancy.
Sick Boy and Coke visit Dickson's pub again, but Dickson beats Coke unconscious, and he later dies in hospital. Renton moves in with Sick Boy. At a drug den in Muirhouse, Alison tells Renton that her mother is dying; her friend Sylvia takes Renton home to Lochend for sex. Renton later gives Spud his first hit of heroin. Alison learns that her boss's brother is involved in drug smuggling, and seduces her boss.
During an Aberdeen University trip to Europe, Renton begins a relationship with his classmate Fiona. Returning home, he learns that his brother has died. Amid tensions between Renton and his family during funeral preparations, Fiona arrives and soothes the situation. Meanwhile, with Maria in Nottingham, Sick Boy seduces her mother Janey and encourages her to fraudulently claim Coke's pension. Begbie stabs one of Samantha's brothers.
While Dickson is cleared of Coke's murder, Sick Boy secretly reports Janey for benefit fraud and she goes to prison, while Sick Boy takes Maria under his control. Begbie, Tommy, and others go to Pilton and besiege the Frenchard family's home, culminating in Begbie smashing her brother Ronnie's face with an iron bar.
In Aberdeen, Renton meets Don, who becomes his heroin connection. His relationship with Fiona deteriorates and eventually ends due to his heroin use. Sick Boy pimps Maria to support their heroin addictions, and lets homeless Spud stay at his flat. When Don leaves town, Renton moves back to Edinburgh to also stay with Sick Boy.
Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Keezbo, Tommy and Spud attempt a burglary, but interrupt a Spanish au pair, Carmelita, during an attempted suicide. Later, Alison, Renton and Sick Boy go to Swanney's after a club, and Alison recognises a worker from the chemical plant supplying heroin to Swanney. Alison takes Sick Boy home to Pilrig, where they engage in pegging. Sick Boy and Maria visit Janey in prison, who is distraught at their relationship. Back in Leith, Sick Boy connects a drugged Maria with more clients, including Dickson.
Alison befriends Maria and delivers her to her family in Nottingham. After witnessing her mother's death from cancer she visits Swanney, where Matty and Swanney argue about Matty's attempts to deal.
Renton and Sick Boy go to stay with Nicksy in London. Sick Boy is dating a rich woman, Lucinda, under false pretenses. He encourages Lucinda to shoot heroin, and later connects with Nicksy's neighbour and love interest Marsha. Begbie phones Renton to say he is moving in with June, whose father caught them having sex and kicked her out. Sick Boy and Renton successfully interview for a job on a Sealink Harwich-Amsterdam ferry, with the intention of smuggling heroin.
Renton and Nicksy go back to Leith for Hogmanay, leaving Sick Boy in London. At a party, Renton comforts a bereaved Alison, before spending a night with Lesley. The next morning Renton joins his friends in the pub for the Hibs-Hearts game, after which violence erupts.
Begbie has started working as an enforcer for local gangster Davie Power, and is ordered to menace his uncle Dickie, a pub-owner, resolving the situation with extreme violence.
Learning Spud is a heroin addict, Renton's parents suspect Renton is too, and argue. Afterwards, at the pub, Davie Renton has a bitter argument with Dickson. Davie's oldest son, Billy, witnesses the confrontation, and after Davie leaves, lures Dickson outside in order to beat him savagely, while his friends wreck the pub.
In London, Nicksy finds Marsha's aborted foetus in the block's rubbish chute, while trying to rescue a puppy, and resolves to bury it at sea.
Begbie interrupts Tommy with new girlfriend Lizzie, trying to persuade him to participate in a violent outing at the Hibs-Aberdeen game, but Tommy is increasingly wary of this circle. A despondent Alison meets a drunk Begbie in the street, June having suffered a miscarriage. Begbie engages in violence again shortly afterwards, and is sent to prison.
On the guys' first day on the boat, some football hooligans start a riot, during which Sick Boy steals the wallet of their supervisor, Cream Shirt, and Renton takes heroin and skives. Renton begins a sexual relationship with their colleague Charlene, a career thief. The next morning drug kingpin Marriot briefs Renton, Sick Boy, and Nicksy about their role as mules, but they decide to withdraw from the scam. Marriot, furious, is forced to transport 50 grams of heroin through customs alone. They return to Hackney, resolving not to return to Sealink. After a brief, intense fling, Charlene dumps Renton, and accidentally takes Nicksy's foetus while attempting to steal from Renton as she leaves. Nicksy goes upstairs to confront Marsha about the foetus, but during the altercation climbs out onto her window-ledge. Sick Boy and Lucinda arrive at the flats to find police trying to talk Nicksy inside. Marsha reveals Sick Boy's infidelities to Lucinda, who storms off. A social worker takes Nicksy away.
Later, Renton is on methadone, but still using. He spends a night at his family home, but argues with his family the next day, confessing his heroin habit. Renton sells records for heroin money, but Swanney pockets this for previous debts, and has no more heroin for them. Sick Boy, Matty, and Renton meet Maria and her friend Jenny at a bar, where Renton learns that two friends are both HIV+. Renton and Matty steal a charity collection tin. While trying to open it, they rescue Keezbo, whose parents have locked him on a balcony. Opening the tin, they are intercepted by police, and Renton, Keezbo and Matty are arrested. Keezbo and Renton are ordered into rehab, while Matty is given a suspended sentence. Renton, Swanney, Sick Boy, Spud and Seeker enter rehab together.
Alison is struggling to hold down her job with a heroin addiction, but is protected by Alexander, her lover and boss. After an argument, she quits, later slashing her wrists. Realizing her mistake, she calls an ambulance. Alexander comes to look after her, but ends their affair.
In rehab, Renton rebels, Sick Boy seduces a fellow inmate, and Swanney suggests that Matty is an informant. On his release, Renton is already planning to score during his welcome home party.
In prison, Begbie is asked by Renton to beat up a paedophile (in fact Hazel's father), but Begbie brutally assaults the wrong man.
Renton wakes up next to Hazel, before joining Sick Boy to look for heroin, amid a severe heroin drought in Edinburgh. Walking past the chemical plant where the morphine is made, they hatch a plan to rob it, which Renton, Sick Boy, Keezbo, Spud and Matty carry out that evening. Upon entering, they trigger the alarm, but during their escape Keezbo gets marooned inside, through Matty's fault. Renton and Sick Boy turn on Matty afterwards and he leaves, to be comforted by Spud. On their way home, Renton and Sick Boy make a pact to get clean and never touch heroin again, but as they open the door of the flat, the phone is ringing.
The book is punctuated by bulletin-style updates on the spread of AIDS in Edinburgh, including growing lists of victims featuring main and incidental characters from the plot.
Epidicus is a slave who looks only to please those he serves. In the play, Stratippocles, the son (born in wedlock) of Epidicus' master Periphanes, has fallen in love with Acropolistis, a female slave. Epidicus tricks his master out of a sum of money in order to purchase Acropolistis. Epidicus does this by convincing his master that this girl is Periphanes' daughter Telestis, born out of wedlock with a woman named Philippa. Periphanes hasn't seen Telestis in many years, and Epidicus tells him that she was captured in Thebes and brought to Athens. Believing this young woman is his daughter, Periphanes willingly hands over the money.
Stratippocles soon goes off to war, falling in love with a different woman while he is away. Stratippocles borrows forty mince from a banker to purchase this new woman. When Stratippocles returns home, he vows not to meet with his father until the debt is paid back to the banker. To accomplish this, Stratippocles tells Epidicus to accumulate the money, threatening to severely punish him if he does not succeed. Trying to convince Periphanes to give him more money, Epidicus tells his master that Stratippocles is about to purchase a singing-girl, Acropolistis, in order to marry her. Epidicus states that he needs to purchase the girl before Stratippocles can, so that the marriage can be avoided. Eventually, Periphanes decides to give his slave the money. Once the money is received, Epidicus uses it to pay off the banker. Epidicus then purchases a different singing-girl to act as if she were Acropolistis.
A captain who is enamored with Acropolistis comes to Periphanes' home in hopes of convincing Epidicus to allow him to gain custody of her. However, when the captain arrives, he realizes that the singing-girl is not Acropolistis, but instead a fraud. All the while, the real Acropolistis is presented to Periphanes as his daughter Telestis. While this is occurring, Philippa, the real Telestis' mother, shows up at Periphanes' home looking for her daughter, since she heard she was brought to Athens. Periphanes assures Philippa that their daughter, Telestis, is safe inside. When Telestis is presented to Philippa, she instantly knows it is not her daughter and is a fraud. Epidicus is confronted about his double deceit and is to be severely punished. However, the woman that Stratippocles purchased while away is brought to Periphanes' home with her former master, ready to be given to Stratippocles. When the young slave girl walks in, Philippa recognizes her to be her daughter, Telestis. Overwhelmed and confused, Periphanes finally meets his daughter for the first time. Stratippocles, upset about the "loss" of his love due to her being his half-sister, is comforted by Acropolistis, the original slave girl whom Epidicus purchased. Epidicus is quickly forgiven for his trickery, and is freed from slavery for his help in reuniting a father and daughter.
The manga tells the story of Musashi Natsuki, an aspired kendo swordsman. He was born to Eiichiro and Kayo Natsuki, in Iwate Prefecture of the Northeast region. Both his parents were acclaimed kendo swordsmen, especially his father Eiichiro who was nationally famous. After Eiichiro's death accidentally caused by his rival Kunihiko Tōdō's tsuki, Musashi vowed to defeat Kunihiko one day. Unfortunately, Kunihiko retired from kendo out of guilt, and Musashi then aimed to beat his son Shura Tōdō instead. There was no hard feeling between them, however, and they remained good friends. Musashi trained hard as a child under the guidance of his mother Kayo, who had retired from professional kendo and now only did her day job as a full-time grade school teacher at Musashi's school, but he also got more practice from the local dojo with Ranko Todoroki, who later became one of his closest friends.
From volume 13, after Musashi finally defeated Shura at the national championship, the story jumped forward to when Musashi was 15 and the "Youth Series" (青春編 ''Seishunhen'', a new "arc" for the time when Musashi was no longer a headstrong kid) started. Musashi went to Kaiyo High and met new friends and stronger fellow kendo swordsmen. But during the time there, he realized his shortcomings, and wanted to be stronger and learn more from various schools of kendo in Japan. Thanks to Kayo's words of encouragement, he made up his mind, halted his high school education, traveled from dojo to dojo and challenged their best swordsmen, just like his legendary namesake Miyamoto Musashi did (he even learned Miyamoto Musashi's double-katana technique from a reclusive old man and tailored it to suit his kendo), until he was ready to face off very strong opponents at the final national championship.
The story takes place in the Northeast region, therefore the characters spoke their local dialect and accent, and furigana is frequently used to gloss obscure dialectal words.
Dr. Kris Kelvin arrives on Solaris Station, a space station orbiting the ocean planet of Solaris. The scientists there have been studying the planet and its ocean for many decades. Shortly before Kelvin's arrival, the crew exposed the ocean to a high-energy gamma-ray bombardment. The ocean's response tests the scientists' minds by confronting them with their most painful thoughts and memories. The ocean does this by materializing physical human simulacra. Kelvin confronts memories of his dead lover and guilt about her suicide. The torments of the other researchers are only suggested, but seem even worse than Kelvin's personal ordeal. The ocean's intelligence expresses physical phenomena in ways difficult for their limited science to explain, deeply upsetting the scientists. The alien mind of Solaris appears to differ so much from the human mind that communication doesn't seem possible.
In a final experiment, Snaut and Sartorius record Kelvin's brain waves and beam them at Solaris. Unknown to Snaut and Sartorius, Kelvin, while his brain waves are being recorded, wishes that Kelvin and Snaut's visitors disappear but Harey stays. Kelvin tells the crew that he and Harey are to return to Earth. However, Snaut talks to Harey in private and says that she will not be allowed on Earth and would not make it anyway since she only exists because of the energy directed at the space station by Solaris. The night before Kelvin and Harey are due to leave, Harey tricks Kelvin into taking a sleeping draught and while he is asleep writes a second suicide note to him, then goes to Snaut and Sartorius who have built a machine to cancel out the effects of Solaris making the visitors disappear. Harey asks them what it will be like, Snaut says it 'will be like a flash and breath of wind'. Harey is gone, the visitors do not return and the three scientists agree to stay on the station.
In the prologue, Brianna (Najarra Townsend), after being harshly rejected from a sorority, is found dead at a party from overdosing on prescription drugs and alcohol. Scrawled in lipstick on a nearby mirror are the words "You made me do this."
One year later, the most exclusive and cruel sorority on campus, headed by Stephanie (Holly Madison), is in the final days of rush. For their final task, the three remaining pledges are required to tell the scariest story they know.
The first pledge, Tonya (Jessica Noboa), tells a true story she heard from a friend. In the story, Lily (Rebekah Kochan), is a beautiful blonde that lives with her boyfriend Tommy (Ryan Freeman) and his ex-girlfriend, Sarah, from England. Tommy works at a coffee shop, and finds a doll in a dumpster one day, which he brings home to Lily. At first, Lily thinks that Sarah has done something to the doll to mess with her. The doll kills Sarah first, stabbing her to death, then electrocutes Lily. The story ends with Tonya saying Tommy was convicted for the murders and was put away for life. The girls think that the story is good and take a shot.
The second story, told by Phoebe (Stephanie Sanborn), is about a former A-list actress, Eva DeMarco (Bridget Marquardt), who wants to be back on top. So she accepts a role from an elusive filmmaker (John D'Aquino) in a desolate region in Romania. However, the film crew has a deadly secret. Eva is drugged and has a dream where she's in a jail cell and killed by an angel with black wings (Christine Nguyen). When she wakes up, she goes to a dinner party for the shoot of the movie, where she discovers that all of the crew members are dead, and that they make snuff films. Eva is killed and becomes the newest member of the group. Again, the sorority girls like Phoebe's story and take another shot.
Finally, it is Haley's (Jean-Louise O'Sullivan) turn. She tells a story about a group of three girls, based on Stephanie, Amber, and Roxy. The story begins at the girls' home; the girls are about to go see a movie while their cable is being fixed. The girls come back home after one of them forgot to buy tickets in advance. Another girl suggests making prank calls. They call a man and tell him that he has won seven free pizzas. During the call, the man goes to answer the door and is killed. The girls overhear the man being killed and hesitantly call the police. The girls don't trust the cop who shows up, since he is by himself. After a killing spree occurs, only Anna and the cop remain. Anna kills the cop out of terror, thinking he is the killer. After shooting him five times, she walks into the hallway, where the real killer is waiting. She is promptly killed.
After all of the girls tell their stories, it is time for the sorority sisters to make their decision. First, Stephanie reveals the two newest members selected for their sorority are two other girls, Stacie and Rachel, who were inducted in a private rush separate from the official rush that Tonya, Phoebe, and Haley just underwent. Stephanie derides the three pledges for thinking that they could become members of the sorority. But then the sorority sisters start feeling the ill effects of the poisoned cookies provided by Haley. Haley, who turns out to be Brianna's half-sister, became a pledge solely to get close enough to the sorority (that she blames for Brianna's suicide) to kill them. She walks away from the sorority house, accompanied by her mother.
Chad Norris becomes the track and field star for the United States and appears at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, U.S.S.R.. Every time Norris gets interviewed by the popular press, he becomes suspicious and tells tall tales.
When the opening ceremonies come about, he disappears and blends with the locals. This young athlete turns out to be Dale Richardson; who had his father wrongfully accused of working for an American spy network and serving time at Lubyanka Prison. The athlete/spy and the young Russian peasant try to elude the authorities and eventually arrive at their destination.
The novel is a sequel to Doyle's 1996 book ''The Woman Who Walked Into Doors'', describing the life of alcoholic and battered wife Paula Spencer. The second book picks up her life ten years after the death of her husband.
Dave Lizewski is an ordinary teenager who lives in Staten Island, New York. Inspired by comic books, Dave plans to become a real-life superhero. He purchases and modifies a scuba diving suit and arms himself with batons. During his first outing, he gets stabbed and hit by a car. After recovering, he gains a capacity to endure pain and enhanced durability due to having some bones replaced with metal. In his absence from school, a rumor spreads that he is gay. As a result, his longtime crush, Katie Deauxma, immediately attempts to become his friend. Unhappy with the misunderstanding, Dave nevertheless appreciates the opportunity to get closer to Katie. Dave returns to crime-fighting and gains notoriety after saving a man from a gang attack. Calling himself "Kick-Ass", he sets up a Myspace account where he can be contacted for help. Responding to a request from Katie, he confronts a drug dealer, Rasul, who has been harassing her. At Rasul's place, Kick-Ass is quickly overwhelmed by Rasul's thugs. Before they can kill him, two costumed vigilantes, Hit-Girl and her father, Big Daddy, intervene, easily slaughter the thugs and leave with their money. After coming home, Dave realizes he is in over his head and plans to give up crime-fighting.
However, Hit-Girl and Big Daddy pay him a visit and encourage him. Big Daddy's real identity is Damon Macready, formerly an honest cop. Framed by Mafia boss Frank D'Amico, he was jailed. His wife committed suicide, leaving behind his daughter Mindy. Against the protest of his former partner Marcus Williams, Damon trains himself and Mindy as preparation for getting revenge on Frank. They have been undermining Frank's operations by raiding his warehouses, robbing his money and destroying his drugs. Frank believes Kick-Ass is responsible for the attacks and targets him, though he mistakenly kills a party entertainer who is dressed like Kick-Ass. Frank's son, Chris, suggests a different approach. He poses as a new vigilante, "Red Mist", and befriends Kick-Ass. He plans to lure Kick-Ass into Frank's lumber warehouse and unmask him. However, they find the warehouse on fire and Frank's men dead. Red Mist retrieves a hidden camera he earlier placed in the warehouse, and he sees recorded footage of Big Daddy killing the men and burning the warehouse. Red Mist and Kick-Ass part ways. D'Amico watches the footage and learns of Big Daddy. Following the event, Dave decides to quit being Kick-Ass.
He reveals his identity to Katie and clears up the misunderstanding about him being gay. She forgives him and becomes his girlfriend. However, Red Mist contacts him again and tricks him into revealing Big Daddy and Hit-Girl's location. At one of Big Daddy's safe houses, Red Mist shoots Hit-Girl out of a window, and Frank's men capture Big Daddy and Kick-Ass. Frank intends to have his thugs torture and execute his captives in a live Internet broadcast. While Kick-Ass and Big Daddy are being beaten by Frank's gangsters, Hit-Girl, having survived the shooting, storms the hideout and kills all of the gangsters. During the fight, one thug sets Big Daddy on fire. Big Daddy and Mindy say a tearful farewell before he dies of his burns. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl resolve to defeat Frank D'Amico once and for all. Hit-Girl infiltrates Frank's headquarters and kills numerous guards and henchmen before running out of bullets. When she is cornered by the thugs, Kick-Ass arrives on a jet pack fitted with miniguns and kills the remaining thugs. Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl then take on Frank and Red Mist. Kick-Ass fights Red Mist, which results in them knocking each other out. Frank overpowers an exhausted Hit-Girl.
Before he can kill her, Kick-Ass regains consciousness and blasts Frank out of the window with a bazooka, killing him. Red Mist then regains consciousness, grabs his father's Samurai sword and pursues Kick-Ass in order to continue their fight just in time to see Kick-Ass and Hit Girl fly away on the jet pack. Dave and Mindy retire from crime-fighting; Marcus becomes Mindy's guardian, and she enrolls at Dave's school. Meanwhile, Chris sits in his father's office, dressed in an upgraded suit, preparing to seek his revenge on Kick-Ass for killing his father. Facing the camera, he says, "as a great man once said, wait'll they get a load of me", before firing a gun at the screen.
The game involves Pole, a cowboy, rescuing his girlfriend Sharon from a kidnapper. At the end of each level Pole "rescues" Sharon, only to find she is a poorly-disguised enemy character.
Linda Wolfe, a mother of three and a compulsive spender, is invited to become a cardholder for a "last resort" credit company called The Card. Despite assuring office manager Catherine Foley that she has learned her lesson after having multiple credit cards revoked, she signs the credit agreement without reading it (ignoring Catherine's warning that there are special terms) and becomes repeatedly late on payments.
Linda's cat mysteriously disappears along with its dishes, and no one else in the family remembers that they ever had a cat. The following week, their dog disappears and none of the family remembers ever owning a dog. Linda's husband Brian, recognizing she has been repeatedly late on payments, makes her promise to stop using The Card. However, Linda's car breaks down and since she only has $12 in cash for a mechanic, she uses her credit card. As a result of using her card while delinquent, Linda's three children disappear. Brian says he is tired of her delusions that they have children, a cat, and a dog, and insists that she see a psychiatrist. She agrees to see one in the morning but instead flees into the night.
Linda suspects the credit card company might be behind it all. She goes to The Card and sees her children in the office. Catherine informs Linda that because she failed to make her payments on time, they took possession of her pets and children to cover her bills, along with all memories that anyone but her have of them. The Card then disburses its "acquisitions" in what they believe to be better environments. Linda tries to buy back her children with a check from her and Brian's joint account, since her own account is overdrawn. Catherine accepts it but warns that if it does not clear another penalty will be invoked.
Linda runs home to tell Brian about the check, but the bank has already called him and he cancelled it. Everything then starts to disappear around her: car, furniture, and Brian. As a result, her credit card reverts to Linda's maiden name (Wilson). She belatedly cuts the credit card in two as her house and everything in it including Linda disappear. The only thing left is the cut credit card, which is now nameless, implying as part of the final penalty, Linda has also been "repossessed.”
Axel Vander, famous man of letters and recently widowed, travels to Turin to meet a young woman called Cass Cleave. Cleave is a literary researcher who has discovered two secrets about Vander's early years in Antwerp. The first is that, in the years prior to World War Two, Vander contributed some anti-Semitic articles to a right-wing newspaper, and secondly, that he is not Axel Vander at all. He is Vander's childhood friend; he appropriated Vander's name and identity after the man disappeared and was presumed dead.
Twelve-year-old Nonni (Garðar Thór Cortes) and his eight-year-old brother Manni (Einar Örn Einarsson) live with their mother Sigrid (Lisa Harrow) and their grandmother (Concha Hidalgo) on a small farm in 1869 Iceland. Before Manni was even born, the boys' father had gone to South America in search of work to support his family, and they are still awaiting his return.
A stranger by the name of Harald Helgasson (Luc Merenda) appears in town one day. He presents himself as the boys' father's best friend and informs them that their father had died of a fever. Before he died, he made Harald promise he would return to Iceland to look after his family. Harald helps the family by working on the farm and becomes a close friend to the boys who immediately take a liking to Harald and start to see him as somewhat of a father figure.
Magnus Hansson (Stuart Wilson) is a local businessman who is in love with Sigrid and has been trying to convince her to marry him. Magnus dislikes Harald due to the close relationship that Harald has been developing with the family and starts becoming increasingly upset over this. When another rich local businessman is killed, Magnus accuses Harald of murder. Upon the advice of the family, Harald flees into the mountains and hides from the authorities while Nonni and Manni, who firmly believe in Harald's innocence, expose themselves to danger and adventure while trying to keep Harald safe and prove him innocent.
Out-of-towner Lily (Taylor) arrives in Los Angeles to attend a wedding reception with the man of her dreams, Jonathan (Corbett). Aided by party-girl Frances (Brewster), they embark on a night of adventure after the wedding invitation is lost. Their wild romp through the streets of Hollywood in search of the reception, takes them to club after club - including the trendy "Vapor" Room and even into the home of famous actor Darby Tipp. After being thrown out of parties, terrorized by a psycho bartender, and chased by police it seems Lily will never find her man - or will she?
Love story of Malini, a village girl who goes to town to see the Vel festival and falls in love with a rich gentleman John Jayapala who pretends to be of low class.
Sam Dietz returns to Los Angeles from "up North" and agrees to consult on a serial killer case. Not wanting to be more involved changes however, when the killer targets Dietz's latest love interest, thereby, forcing him to become actively involved in the investigation. The killer is someone he's arrested before.
Princess Rosalinda María Montoya Fioré is about to be crowned queen of the small nation of Costa Luna. General Magnus Kane, the dictator of neighboring country, Costa Estrella, invades her palace with his agents during her coronation rehearsal, and attempts to capture the royal family and take over the country. Major Joe Mason an agent of the Princess Protection Program, or the P.P.P., a secret organization funded by royal families that looks after endangered princesses, whisks her away to safety via helicopter. Kane's agents, however, succeed in capturing her widowed mother, Queen Sofía Fioré of Costa Luna.
The Princess Protection Program hides Rosalinda in Joe's home in Lake Monroe, Louisiana, where she meets his teenage daughter, Carter Mason. Carter is an insecure tomboy who works at the family bait shop and dreams of going to the homecoming dance with her crush, Donny, although her classmate, Ed, secretly has a crush on her. Rosalinda poses as "Rosie Gonzalez", Carter's cousin from Iowa. Though Carter initially treats her with hostility, she warms up to her after Rosie explains her situation, and the two become best friends. Carter teaches Rosie to act like the average American teenager, and Rosie shows Carter how to disarm those that scorn them, especially resident mean girls, Chelsea Barnes and Brooke Angels. Rosie soon becomes popular at their high school.
In an attempt to trick Rosalinda into exposing her location, General Kane announces plans to forcibly marry her mother. Brooke discovers the truth about Rosie and threatens to expose her unless Rosie drops out of the vote for Homecoming Queen. Rosie reads of the pending nuptials in the magazine and tells Carter that she has decided to return home. Knowing Costa Luna is still too dangerous, Carter secretly devises a plan to pose as Rosalinda and use herself as bait to lure Kane into capture. Carter calls Mr. Elegante, Rosalinda's royal dressmaker and friend, for help with her plan. He tells Kane that Rosalinda will be attending the homecoming dance and plans to wear a Caribbean blue dress – he actually sends the blue dress to Carter, and gives Rosie a pale pink one. In the meantime, Rosie agrees to stay for the dance.
In order to help make the event special, a group of friends, including Rosie and Carter, wear masks to the dance, helping Carter disguise herself as Rosalinda. According to plan, Kane and his agents mistake Carter for Rosalinda and lead her to Kane's helicopter. However, after winning the Homecoming Queen title despite Chelsea and Brooke's efforts, Rosie discovers and ruins the plan by exposing herself to Kane, insisting to Carter that it is not her fight. Luckily, agents of the Princess Protection Program, including Major Mason, have been waiting inside the helicopter and rescue both girls. The P.P.P. agents quickly apprehend Kane and his henchmen and turn them over to the international authorities. Rosie is crowned Queen Rosalinda of Costa Luna with Carter, Joe, Ed, Sofía, and Mr. Elegante in attendance.
In the extended ending, one year later, Rosie and Carter, who both became P.P.P. agents, are getting ready for their new assignment as they board a plane.
Quentin Collins meets the terrifying Skin Walkers in nineteenth century New York.
Richard Gaylord Jr. is a modern Lothario who has so many sweethearts that his father does not know what to do with him. Tired of paying to get his son out of one romantic entanglement after another, Richard Gaylord Sr. sends his son to the Basque region of France, believing that the women there will only accept attentions from their own people.
Almost immediately, local girl Yvonne Hurja becomes infatuated with Richard, who she sees as being able to help her break free from the unwanted attention of local guardsman Julio. A rivalry grows between Richard and Julio.
The story revolves around Santino (Zaijian Jaranilla), a wide-eyed young boy orphaned as a baby and was adopted and raised well by Franciscans, whose life was completely different from other kids his age. He might have experienced playing with other children in the fictional town of Barangay Pag-asa, but what made him stand out was his ability to see and converse with Jesus Christ in the flesh, who he fondly called “Bro”, to heal sick people – a power bestowed to him by his Almighty Friend, and to help others with their problems.
In 1932, a young lighthouse keeper returns from his father's funeral with a new bride, who quickly learns the importance of the marital bond to members of her husband's profession, which is often characterized by the hardships of physical isolation and sudden reassignment. Over the next 25 years they transfer to ten different lighthouses throughout Japan, raising two children and befriending multiple colleagues and their families. They endure wartime attacks on the strategically relevant lighthouses as well as a tragedy involving one of their children, ultimately celebrating the other's marriage and settling together into middle age.
A multi-millionaire is making out his will. His son is gay and his daughter a lesbian, yet he vows to leave his fortune to the first one who can produce a grandchild.
Jefferson Cody, whose wife was captured by Comanches, frees another man's wife and is taking her home. Three outlaws, led by the charming but malevolent Ben Lane, reveal that the woman's husband has offered a $5,000 reward, making the woman, Lordsburg resident Mrs. Lowe, suspicious of Cody's motives in coming to her rescue.
Lane is known to Cody, who helped court-martial him from the army for killing "tame" Indians. The Comanche are on the warpath due to recent scalpings. (An oddity, as the “Comanches” were inexplicably made up by the filmmakers to resemble Pawnee and thus have very little hair to scalp.) They kill Frank, one of Lane's men, and make repeated attempts to kill the rest of the party. Lane attaches himself to Cody, intending to make it look like the Comanches/Mohawks killed Cody and to take the reward for himself.
Although her husband did not try to find her himself, the reward for the return of Mrs. Lowe is "dead or alive," so Lane prefers dead so she won't be able to testify against him. He tries to ambush her and Cody, and when partner Dobie refuses to help, Lane shoots him.
In a showdown in the hills, Cody gets the better of Lane. He escorts the woman back home, discovering that her husband is blind. Before he can be paid the $5,000, Cody rides away.
The episode starts with J.D., Turk, and Izzy watching ''Sesame Street''. J.D., Elliot and Dr. Cox each choose an intern to work with. J.D. picks Denise, who lacks compassion towards patients. Also, throughout the whole show, J.D. calls Denise "Jo" because she reminds him of a character from ''The Facts of Life''. Their patient has lung cancer that has been in remission, and they haven't told his eight-year-old son of the cancer. They hope the illness is a minor infection, but after J.D. runs tests he finds that the cancer has returned. J.D. sends Denise to tell the man's distraught wife. J.D. tells her that she shouldn't let the wife put her husband on machines, which would only cause more pain. In response, Denise bluntly tells her that if she does put her husband on machines, it might lead to an infection and then to antibiotics, causing him more pain because she was "too selfish to let him go".
Elliot's intern Katie tries to use her to land a case study with Turk, who eventually gives the case study to Katie after some prodding from Elliot and Carla. In the end, however, Elliot learns that Katie has not changed at all upon overhearing her say that she'll be fine in the hospital because she "has Dr. Reid wrapped around her finger."
Dr. Cox chooses Ed, who is lazy and arrogant, but talented. He tries to figure out why he hates him so much, finally figuring it out after witnessing Ed refusing the case study.
The episode ends with J.D., Elliot, and Dr. Cox looking on solemnly as their respective interns collectively leave the hospital for the day. Elliot sighs and notes that "it's going to be a long year."
*'''Episode 1:''''' I Do a Lot of Work for Charity'' Rob is invited to the wedding of his ex-girlfriend, Linsey, to Duncan James, from Blue. In his attempt to get one up on his new nemesis, Rob decides to find Duncan's first love, Jo, and ask her to the wedding as his ‘plus one’. However, he finds her in a coma, under the care of her mother who is hoping to raise money for her treatment by holding a fun run. In an attempt to impress Nicola Dare (Susie Amy) - his own first love - after having insulted her transgender brother, Rob decides to participate in the fun run himself. Doubting his ability to run 20 km, he plans to cut through the middle of the devised route. He turns up at the event with a cheque donating the greatest amount - most of which was put in from himself instead of sponsors - which earns him great popularity. However, while cutting through the middle of the route, he trips, hits his head on a log and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up with his shoes having been stolen by a tramp, and ends up getting kicked in the crotch by someone who assumes he is also homeless. A five-year-old girl catches him holding his groin in pain, and he proceeds to run to the end of the fun run, where the rest of the participants are awaiting his arrival to celebrate his generous donation. As he arrives, Duncan appears and provides a donation of £17,000, making him the largest donor instead of Rob. Already frustrated, the parents of the eight-year-old girl appear and accuse him of masturbating in front of a young girl, and he is chased further.
*'''Episode 2:''' ''Black White and Red All Over'' T4 is featuring the buildup to Duncan and Linsey's wedding in reality show One Love. Rob feels he needs to find an impressive girl to have on his arm if he's to show his ex just what she has missed out on. Enter Rich - Rob's brother - and his girlfriend's sister, Abby (Sophie Winkleman); a gorgeous West End star who always has to have what she wants. In an attempt to secure her as his plus one, Rob agrees to go to a 'bad taste' fancy dress party with Abby, dressed as a panda. Before the party, she paints his face to resemble a panda, but ends up getting the colours the wrong way round. A car crash on the way leads to a nasty case of whiplash and Rob offending two paramedics with his facepaint. The paramedics call Linsey, who arrives at the hospital along with T4's Steve Jones, a million TV viewers and Duncan from Blue. Continuing to offend people with his accidentally racist facepaint, the episode ends with Duncan telling young children in the hospital how it's wrong to be racist and wondering why we all can't just get along.
*'''Episode 3:''' ''See it in a Boys Lies'' Rich persuades Rob that he needs a model to accompany him to the wedding. Working in the music compilation industry by placing songs in a spreadsheet, he has access to beautiful models only through the means of his colleague Laura, who works in graphic design. He convinces her to set up a photoshoot with model Aimee, who becomes more and more attracted to him when Laura tells her all the celebrities he has allegedly worked with, including mentioning that Rob and Jamelia are 'practically best friends'. After the shoot, Rob fantasizes about kissing Laura on their desk and begins to see her in a different way. Aimee invites Rob and Laura to a club night, and notice Jamelia is at the same club. Aimee begs Rob to introduce them, leading to him pleading with Jamelia to go along with the story that they're friends. She goes along with it, grudgingly, and tells Aimee that he is a very talented breakdancer. Having to go along with this story to impress Aimee, he performs a dance routine and manages to impress Jamelia, Aimee and Laura. However, this is short-lived when he kicks Laura in the face and is thrown out of the club. He drives alongside her, trying to apologise, and is arrested for mistakenly trying to solicit sex with Laura whom they think is a prostitute.
*'''Episode 4:''' ''The Competition Winner'' Rob decides the only way he can upstage Linsey and Duncan in their celebrity wedding magazine pictures is by taking a celebrity as his plus one. Spotting George Clooney's ex Lisa Snowdon across a crowded bar gives him an idea - however he needs a 'competition winner' to even have a chance at meeting her. His brother, Rich, offers his assistance with one of his pupils, Craig, who pretends to be disabled - for a price of money and video games - to get Rob in with Lisa. An allergic reaction to peanuts on Craig's part leads to Lisa having to leave the date early but scheduling a lunch appointment with Rob the next day. Rob tells her about Linsey and Duncan's wedding, and Lisa insists he takes her as his plus one in order to upstage the bride and groom. However, his happiness son comes crashing down, as Craig's mother finds him and accuses him of grooming her son with money and video games in front of a crowd of paparazzi.
*'''Episode 5:''' ''One Love'' After a catalogue of dating disasters, close shaves with the law and public disgrace in front of celebrities and models, Rob decides to give up looking for the perfect plus one to outshine Linsey and Duncan. However, before long he meets the beautiful Astrid (a millionaire, supermodel, biochemist whose dad invented Toilet Duck), and they quickly fall for each other. On spending the night together and joining Linsey and Duncan for a double date, he decides Astrid is the perfect plus one. However, on arriving at the wedding in her Aston Martin, Astrid appears to be slightly uncomfortable. The priest asks for any objections, and Astrid pulls out a knife, stabbing Duncan in his testicle. It is revealed that she is his number one stalker, believing that she should be his bride. The wedding is ruined, and Linsey and Duncan plan to do it all again in the future. Laura hints at Rob to take her to the next wedding instead of hunting down models and celebrities, but Duncan bursts into the office in tears, claiming that Linsey ran off with Steve Jones, who was covering their wedding for T4.
An Israeli-run Holocaust research office in Vienna is bombed, resulting in the death of the two female staff and serious injury to the Director. Gabriel Allon, a former assassin for 'The Office' and working under a new identity as an art restorer in Venice, is requested by former director Ari Shamron to go to Vienna to investigate. He is approached by Max Klein, a Holocaust survivor who claims to have information about a man named Ludwig Vogel. After following up this information, Allon finds Klein has been murdered. Allon is apprehended by Austrian security police and expelled from the country.
At the Yad Vashem, research reveals that Vogel is probably a Nazi war criminal and former SD officer named Erich Radek. Radek was the engineer behind ''Aktion 1005'', a Nazi operation to conceal the atrocities of the Holocaust by exhuming mass graves and burning the bodies so that no trace of them ever existed. Radek visited half a dozen concentration camps as a part of ''Aktion 1005'', and it is suggested that even he is unaware how many bodies were burned. Allon is disturbed by Radek's resemblance to a painting his mother made of one of her tormentors during the Death Marches.
The trail to establish Vogel's true identity takes Allon to the Vatican, where he obtains information that the Vatican would rather not be known: that Radek was one of many escaping Nazis helped and sheltered by the Vatican. The trail further takes him to Argentina where Radek is supposedly buried. Finding the grave and headstone of 'Radek', Allon is nearly killed by an assassin who has been following him, a man known only as "the Clockmaker". He is rescued by CIA agents who have also been trailing him and the assassin escapes.
In Langley the CIA admit that Radek was one of many Nazis recruited to set up an intelligence network in Germany in order to spy on the Soviet Union, laying a false trail through Italy, Syria and Argentina as misdirection. He is also the trustee of several billion dollars worth of investments, based on looted money and assets, which are now controlled by a Swiss banker. These assets were seeded throughout the Swiss and Austrian Alps by Nazi Party members fleeing the Allied invasion, where they were placed in escrow for a generation before National Socialism could be a viable political stance once more. Radek has since retired and is regarded by the CIA as 'disposable'. The CIA agree to cooperate in his kidnap by the Israelis. The Prime Minister of Israel reluctantly approves the operation.
With the enforced assistance of the Swiss banker, who controls the secret bank accounts and investments, Radek is enticed into the hands of a kidnap team in Vienna. Drugged and hidden in a van, he is spirited across the border into the Czech Republic and thence into Poland. He is taken to the memorial on the site of the extermination camp at Treblinka, one of the sites he visited as part of ''Aktion 1005''. Allon reveals that he knows Radek has a son, Peter Metzler, who is on the verge of being elected as Chancellor of Austria. Armed with the money from the Swiss bank, Metzler would be able to reintroduce Nazism to Austria unopposed. Allon uses this knowledge to convince Radek to surrender, or else his connection to Metzler will be revealed and Metzler's political career will be ruined. Radek is taken to Israel and placed in solitary confinement. In return for not being tried and executed, he is to prepare a detailed history of ''Aktion 1005'', which he was heavily involved in.
In Vienna, Metzler is duly elected. The knowledge that he is actually Radek's son is kept secret, known only to the CIA and The Office while Allon returns to his restoration work in Venice. In Vienna, the Clockmaker receives a parcel bomb and is killed.
Criminal mastermind Mr. Smith (Keir Dullea) is being pursued by Malcolm Philpott (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), the head of an international peace organization.
Smith draws together a team for a heist including weapons expert Mike Graham (ex-CIA) and thieves Sabrina and Clarence. Sabrina and Clarence secretly work for Philpott.
When Mr. Smith captures the Eiffel Tower and kidnaps the mother of the President of the United States (Celia Johnson), Philpott must enlist the help of spies to take him down.
Mr. Smith demands a ransom of $30 million without which he will blow up the tower and the President's mother. He has protected the tower from infiltration by stealing four high-power lasers which will shoot anyone entering who is not equipped with a protective device.
The beautiful paradise island Melonia is inhabited by the sorcerer Prospero with his daughter Miranda, the albatross Ariel, the good-natured vegetable-faced gardener Caliban and William the dog-nosed poet. They live a generally peaceful life, except for Caliban who has to work hard with the garden. A few miles away lies the dark island Plutonia, where the greedy capitalists Slug and Slagg rule. Once as green and flourishing as Melonia, Plutonia is now perceived as hell on earth, where children are forced to, under slave conditions, build weapons and tools of war, which Slug and Slagg believe is the way of the future. With Plutonia's resources nearly exhausted, Slug and Slagg turn their gaze on the unexploited Melonia, scheming to take it over with a gigantic drill.
The movie begins with one of the child slaves, a boy named Ferdinand, escaping from Plutonia in a box, and ends up on Melonia, where Miranda and Prospero nurse him back to health. Prospero has just finished a magical growth elixir (humorously labelled "power soup" for the remainder of the movie), which Caliban is entrusted. Slug and Slagg kidnap Caliban and bring him to Plutonia. Ferdinand, Miranda, Prospero and some others journey to Plutonia in order to free Caliban, which eventually turns into a quest to free Ferdinand's enslaved friends. Eventually, Miranda helps the children escape by transforming them into birds and transporting them into an old theater, where William the poet is making a less than successful attempt at staging Shakespeare's ''The Tempest''. After breaking out of his prison, the thirsty Caliban thoughtlessly drinks the elixir. Slug and Slagg, encouraged by Caliban's growth, attempt to coax him into working for them, but their rants of superiority by arms falls upon deaf ears. They then attempt to destroy Caliban using the great drill, but he easily lifts it off the ground and plunges it into the floor, causing the island to sink to the bottom of the ocean in a gigantic maelstrom. Slug and Slagg are unable to escape the maelstrom and as they do not appear again, it's safe to assume that they sink to the bottom and drown. The theater almost sinks as well, but is saved by Caliban. Prospero loses his magical powers, but accepts it readily, knowing that everybody's power will replace his magic. He frees Caliban and Ariel from his service, and the movie ends with a singing Ariel flying off into the sunset.
The film is a story about a man named Will (Mathew Newton), a young stockbroker, who makes a bet with his wealthy friend Angus (Aden Young) to prove himself and to prove who can make the most money with 50 grand in 90 days for a prize of 200 grand. Their mutual friend Benno, Will's boss tells to invest in a pharmaceutical company. In desperation he agrees to bend for a bit for insider trading. His ego-fueled obsession on the betting game forces him to measure the cost of his ambition against the true value of love. Stock prices hit low and his clients are devastated. His father also invested money with Will and lost it. Will finds out through Benno his girlfriend Tory is working with the pharmaceutical company, Will finds a note at Tory's office and finds out a way he can make back his lost money. Unfortunately, he doesn't find any investors. Will asks Trish (office assistant), whom he has jilted earlier to transfer funds from one of his clients illegally and he uses it to gain profit. Will puts back the money he transferred illegally but is arrested for fraud by officials. Tory who gets him out confronts his betting obsession, tells the pharmaceutical company he was betting against was Agnus's family business and he controls it. Will makes the connection between Benno's advice and Agnus' bet. Will confronts Agnus and he says it's he who recommended Trish in their company through Benno and Benno was bribed handsomely to reel in Will. This was because Tory was Agnus' girlfriend first and he still pines over her. Agnus is beaten up by Will but Agnus manages to pins down Will and asserts he will charge case against Will using Trish as a witness for fraud, market manipulation, insider trading...etc. enough to put Will for a long jail-time which will make Tory forget him. Betrayed and humiliated Will commits suicide. After Will's funeral Trish tells Tory about Agnus' role in Will's suicide.
The bet is a morality tale, set in the city of Sydney, about choosing friends, boundaries and betrayals, relevance and consequences of proto-self, the perils of fallacy and the value of love and life.
Susan Barton is on a quest to find her kidnapped daughter who she knows has been taken to the New World. She is set adrift during a mutiny on a ship to Lisbon. When she comes ashore, she finds Friday and Cruso who has grown complacent, content to forget his past and live his life on the island with Friday—tongueless by what Cruso claims to have been the act of former slave owners—in attendance. Arriving near the end of their residence, Barton is on the island for only a year before the trio is rescued, but the homesick Cruso does not survive the voyage to England. In England with Friday, Barton attempts to set her adventures on the island to paper, but she feels her efforts lack popular appeal. She tries to convince novelist Daniel Foe to help with her manuscript, but he does not agree on which of her adventures is interesting. Foe would prefer to set her story of the island as one episode of a more formulaic story of a mother looking for her lost daughter, and when he does write the story she wishes, fabulates about Cruso's adventures rather than relating her facts. Frustrating Barton's efforts further, Foe, who becomes her lover, is preoccupied with debt and has little time or energy to write about anything. Barton's story takes a twist with the return of someone claiming to be her missing daughter.
Long ago, the evil wizard Lizardo (Phillip Salvador) sent an army of monsters to subjugate the land and its people. Lizardo succeeded, but a prophecy tells of a comet that will fall to Earth, and a man who will wield a weapon that will free the people from Lizardo's tyranny. Flavio (Bong Revilla Jr.) is a blacksmith content with living a quiet, uneventful life in a town mostly untouched by Lizardo's evil. But when the comet of prophecy lands on the outskirts of town, Flavio's destiny is immediately made clear. Around the peace-loving but brave Flavio. His arch-enemy Lizardo attempts to ruin the peace and harmony of their dwelling place, affecting the inhabitants. Moreover, the evil warlord challenges Flavio by capturing his beautiful lady love Maria (Iza Calzado). A series of events take place, bringing the blacksmith (panday) at the forefront of a full-blown war against Lizardo's troops.
Joseph Hooper has inherited a large house, Warings, and lives with his 10-year-old son Edmund Hooper. They have a cold, formal relationship that lacks any compassion. Joseph announces that a housekeeper will be moving in, and will bring her son who is of a similar age to Edmund. Mrs. Helena Kingshaw and her son Charles arrive at Warings. Edmund becomes defensive of his house, and instantly takes a dislike to Charles. He proceeds to taunt and bully Charles.
The family take a trip to Leydell Castle. Charles exploits Edmunds's own fears as they climb the ancient monument. Edmund falls and is badly injured. As he recovers, it appears that Charles is becoming more independent, and he meets a local boy by the name of Fielding. Fielding appears confident and well-rounded, and takes Charles to his farm where he witnesses the birth of a calf. This is in stark contrast to Warings, which is filled with death and morbidity. Fielding offers Charles hope away from the manipulative clutches of Edmund. Once Edmund returns to health, the regime of taunting resumes. Edmund's cruelty climaxes, and Charles is devastated when he discovers that Helena and Joseph have agreed to marry, and that Edmund and Charles will attend school together. The novel ends with Charles committing suicide by drowning himself in the familiar stream in Hang Wood and Mrs. Kingshaw comforting Edmund, who is described as feeling triumphant.
The film concentrates more on the period spent in hospital than the novel, and emphasizes the horror of the friends' injuries. On Adrien's arrival at the ward, all the mirrors are removed and staff are instructed not to give him one, but we see from the faces of others how bad the damage is. Adrien becomes increasingly desperate to see the damage done to his face, even asking a visitor to draw him. Dupeyron ensures that we do not see the horrifying extent of Adrien's injuries until he does - by seeing his reflection in a window.
There is a focus on the fleeting romance between Adrien and Clémence, whom he met by chance shortly before the war, and his attempts to find her. When he finally does, she fails to recognise him.
Whereas the novel follows the experiences of the group right up to World War II and beyond, the film ends just after the First World War, the final scene being Adrien's chance meeting with his future wife.
Huw Morgan has become a successful businessman in Patagonia, establishing farming and civil contracting enterprises. But with political currents shifting in military-governed Argentina, he and his second wife Sûs decide to return to Wales.
Now a rich man, Huw spares no expense to buy, restore and refurbish his wife's ancestral farmhouse in Mid-Wales and make it into a fine manor house. His apparently limitless wealth also allows him to buy property and land to try to restore the fortunes of the small local town. He becomes aware of nationalist feelings amongst the people, but makes no real attempt to understand them.
As news of his arrival spreads, he meets his niece Blodwen, his sister Olwen's daughter, a piano student; he sponsors her to study in Germany. He learns that the descendants of his other siblings live in Australia, America, South Africa and New Zealand.
Huw is visited by a woman claiming to be the granddaughter of his brother Davy from Melbourne; she brings Kiri, a French girl, with her. She is later revealed to be a fraud, and an IRA terrorist, seeking an isolated country hideout for bomb-making. Kiri is a Breton nationalist and also a bomb-maker.
After his wife dies, Huw marries Teleri, also a descendant of the Patagonian Welsh. The ceremony at the farm is disrupted by a would-be assassin, seeking revenge for Kiri's imprisonment, but the attack is foiled by his many friends.
After the marriage, Huw and Teleri slip quietly away on honeymoon, planning to visit Patagonia. Before doing so, Huw finally visits his native valley, which he previously avoided, and is astonished to discover the coal tips gone and the area landscaped. Even fish have returned to the once-polluted river.
After a prologue set in 2010, the book begins in 2012, after NASA has announced its intent to hold a contest for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18. Three winners will be selected from all over the world, with the prize being a coveted spot on an upcoming mission to return to the Moon. The stunt is believed to be a way of increasing both funding and public interest, but the real reason is that NASA intends to study a mystical phenomenon with a sinister edge that was previously discovered during the original Moon landings. This is the reason that NASA stopped sending people to the Moon in the 1970s.
Three teenagers from Norway, Japan, and France (Mia, Midori, and Antoine respectively) are excited at the rare opportunity to see the Moon firsthand as well as stay in the formerly secret lunar base DARLAH 2, which was built in the 1970s during Operation DP7. Their excitement is short-lived as they realize that this base might become their tomb, discovering what keeps other from visiting the Moon: beings that can only be described as doppelgängers, which are revealed to have appeared in Earth's history before. Before the Moon landings, they were harmless, but after a radio telescope receives what has been called the "6EQUJ5" signal, humans decide to investigate. The code "6EQUJ5" has been following the three teenagers everywhere since shortly after they are selected to travel to the Moon, with Mia seeing "6E" written on a hobo's jacket, Antoine seeing "QU" on a crashing plane, which never existed, and Midori seeing "J5" as the airport gate leading to where she is to depart for the United States. Ever since the first Moon landing, the doppelgangers have attacked any and all astronauts, nearly killing the crew of Apollo 13, and after analyzing a detached doppelgänger arm, NASA finds that the beings are not living, as they are composed of an unknown inorganic material.
Meanwhile, a retired NASA custodian from the era of the first Moon landings, living in a retirement home, slowly remembers the horrible secret that will mean the teenagers' imminent death if they are allowed to travel to the Moon. Back on Earth, after the doppelgängers attack the Moon base, the children and their "chaperones" are declared dead, leaving no hope for them. One by one, each are killed by their doppelgängers: the two engineers on the mission are locked in an airless room to suffocate; Antoine and Mia's short-lived romance is extinguished by his disappearance with the mission commander; the lunar module pilot, a young woman, is murdered by Antoine's doppelgänger, leaving Mia and Midori to fend for themselves.
The retired NASA worker tries to alert the military, but because of an inability to speak, fails, and dies shortly afterwards.
Mia and Midori run to the kitchen of DARLAH 2 to hide from the doppelgängers, which have infiltrated the base, first posing as Mia. They hide in the kitchen and then run to the greenhouse, finding the moonbase commander camped out under a tree. He tells them to run to the escape pod in the underground moonbase DARLAH 1, which can only carry three people. Mia tries to persuade him to join them, since there is room, but he believes he should die on the base, saying he has a gun and can defend himself. Mia and Midori find spacesuits and go outside, having to traverse some of the moonscape to get to the pod. Along the way, they find the bodies of Antoine and the astronaut he disappeared with. Mia pauses to mourn Antoine, and moves on. Once inside the room leading to the pod, Midori suddenly acts childish and tries to thwart Mia's attempts to make it to the pod. Mia realizes Midori is dead and has been replaced with a doppelgänger, having been killed when they were hiding in the kitchen. The Midori doppelgänger muses about how "silly" Midori was, believing in urban legends, including the legend of Kuchisake-onna. Imitating the legend, the Midori doppelgänger splits her mouth, leaving two scars, and asks "''Watashi kirei?''" ("Am I beautiful now?") Mia makes a desperate escape to the pod, the doppelgänger changing its shape to match Mia's. The two Mias fight, and Mia gets into the escape pod, with the other Mia desperately beating on the sides, trying to get access, but failing and shrieking as the pod takes off.
The pod crash-lands on Earth several days later, and Mia's parents rent her the most expensive hotel room in New York. She runs into the hobo from the beginning of the book and kills him, revealing that the Mia on Earth is a doppelgänger, and can make a copy of itself with every person it kills. Mia's family comes to visit her, and her little brother is frightened by her, saying her eyes are scary. She kills Mia's family, making many copies of herself, and proceeds to kill everyone in the hotel.
A mission report appears at the end of the book from the spacecraft ''Providence'', returning to the Moon on the way to Europa in 2081, finding the bodies of Mia, the lunar module pilot, the engineers and the moonbase commander. The commander shot himself, and the rest were either suffocated (the two engineers and Mia) or had an unknown cause of death (the lunar module pilot). The ''Providence'' has not encountered the doppelgängers, and says they have found the cause of the "DP7 event on Earth in 2019" (Mia killing everybody) and have found a letter written by Mia. She says goodbye in this letter, saying she has very little time left and that the space suit's gloves make it hard to write. The report ends.
''Captain Jack'' stars Bob Hoskins as a rebellious captain of a small Whitby boat who is determined to flout petty maritime bureaucracy. Officials declare his boat unsafe for a planned voyage to the Arctic, but Jack is determined to set sail and to place a plaque there in commemoration of his seafaring hero. With his motley crew, Captain Jack succeeds in making his voyage despite an international search for his boat by maritime authorities.
One night, Daffy begins sleepwalking and leaves his house, strolls past Speedy's lakeside house, then falls into the lake itself, which wakes him up. Speedy informs him that he has been sleepwalking, which worries Daffy since "a guy could get hurt that way." Speedy offers to stay up for the night in exchange for five pesos, and promises that he will wake Daffy up if he starts sleepwalking again.
Back at Daffy's house, Speedy tells him that if he notices Daffy sleepwalking, he'll ring a bell in order to wake him up. Daffy goes to sleep, but Speedy has no intention of staying up for the whole night and ties a tripwire to the bedpost, also connecting it to the bell, so that if Daffy starts sleepwalking again the bell will wake up both Daffy and Speedy. Sure enough, Daffy begins sleepwalking and trips the bell, which wakes Speedy who then starts frantically ringing it himself to make it look like he was on guard. Afterwards, Daffy goes to sleep again, though not before Speedy makes him pay another five pesos for his continued services.
As dawn breaks, Daffy starts sleepwalking again, but this time he gets out of bed on the other side and leaves the house the other side of the bed, which fails to make the bell ring. He sleepwalks into a construction site, and ends up at the top of an under-construction skyscraper. In the meantime, Speedy finally wakes up and realizes that Daffy isn't there. Speedy then frantically leaves the house in pursuit. Using his super-speed, Speedy gets to the construction site, and gets to the top of the skyscraper just in time to prevent Daffy from falling down a hole in the girders. Daffy then nearly walks off the edge of the structure, but is woken up by the bell of an ice cream salesman at street level. He still loses his balance though, and falls partway down the structure, getting left hanging on for life. Speedy lowers a noose down to Daffy and threads it over his neck, then drops the other end down to Daffy and tells him to pull himself up with it. Daffy does so, nearly choking himself in the process, but manages to set off a jackhammer when he gets back to the top of the structure and is thrown off it again. On his way down, Daffy manages to grab onto the minute hand of a clock built into the side of another building, but then the hour hand starts traveling around extremely fast, whacking Daffy on the head, then the clock explodes and throws him into another building, where he bounces off the canopies above its windows. He grabs onto one of the canopies, but it quickly breaks off and drops him onto some telegraph lines, which he in turn bounces off of. Speedy manages to grab a wheelbarrow, and catches Daffy before he hits the ground. Daffy passes out during his final fall, and Speedy quickly wheels him back home and drops him back into his bed, which results in Daffy being convinced that the whole thing was just a nightmare when he wakes up.
The text begins with a standard invocation to Christ, but one of uncommon length; it may be the longest one in English romance.[http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/emarefrm.htm Emaré]
We are then told of Sir Artyus, an Emperor. His wife gives birth to a beautiful baby girl but dies shortly afterwards. The daughter, Emaré, is sent to live with a lady named Abro who raises her and teaches her manners and sewing.
Some years later, the King of Sicily comes to see the Emperor, bringing with him a beautiful cloth set with precious stones, woven by the daughter of the heathen Emir as a wedding gift to her betrothed. It depicts four scenes of lovers in the corners. The King had won it from the Sultan of Emir in war, and presents it to the Emperor as a gift.
The Emperor sends for his now grown up daughter, and, pleased with her beauty, becomes enamored by her. He decides he wants to marry her, and sends to Rome for Papal dispensation to marry his daughter. When the Papal Bull arrives, he has the elaborate cloth tailored into a garment, a kirtle ( ), for Emaré. She wears it and is bedazzling in her beauty. The Emperor tells her she is to marry him, but she refuses, saying it is an affront to Christ. He grows angry and has her put out to sea, still in the beautiful kirtle, with no food or drink.
A powerful wind blows the boat away. The Emperor, on seeing this, weeps and castigates himself. Emaré is blown to the kingdom of Galys. The King of that country's steward, Sir Kadore, finds her in the boat. He asks her name and she changes it, telling him it is Egaré. She is nearly dead with hunger so Sir Kadore takes her to his castle and revives her. He throws a feast for the King at which Emaré serves, wearing her kirtle. The King is overcome, and later asks Sir Kedore who she is. He tells the King that she is an Earl's daughter from a distant land, and that he sent for her to teach his children courtesy, as well as how to sew, as she is the finest embroiderer he has ever seen.
The King then presents Emaré to his mother. His mother thinks that she is the most beautiful woman in the world, but tells her son that she must be a fiend in a noble robe, and forbids him to marry Emaré. He ignores his mother, earning him her anger, and weds Emaré regardless. They have a loving marriage and eventually Emaré conceives.
The King of France, meanwhile, has been besieged by the Saracens, and the King of Galys goes to his aid, leaving his wife, Emaré, in the care of Sir Kadore. She gives birth to a beautiful son she calls Segramour, and Sir Kadore writes a letter to the King telling him of the event. The messenger stops off at the King's mother's castle on the way. He tells her of the news, and she proceeds to get him drunk. Once he is unconscious, she burns the letter and writes a new one to tell her son that his wife had given birth to a demon. The next day the messenger continues on his way and gives the message to the King. On reading it the King weeps, and curses his fortune. However, he writes a letter ordering Sir Kadore to offer any and all support to Emaré and to refuse her nothing.
The messenger sets off with this message and again stops off at the mother's castle. She again gets him drunk, and again burns the letter, and writes a new one informing Sir Kadore to exile Emaré. When Sir Kadore receives this letter he is shocked, and swoons. Emaré hears the lamentation in the hall and asks what the problem is. When Sir Kadore explains, she decides that the King has ordered this because she is not a worthy Queen for him, being a simple lady, and agrees to go into exile. Again, she is put out to sea wearing her kirtle with her baby son. For more than a week she drifts, suckling her son to keep him quiet and cursing the sea, until she arrives at Rome.
A merchant of Rome, Jurdan, finds her in her boat. Again, Emaré names herself as Egaré, and the merchant takes her and her son into his home.
Seven years pass, and the baby has grown into a fine, wise boy. The King of Galys has returned home from the siege, and asks Sir Kadore for news. He grows angry that Sir Kadore does not first tell him about his wife and child, which confuses Kadore, who tells the King that he had followed his orders and exiled them. The King reads the false letter and says that he never wrote it. They interrogate the messenger who says that he stopped at the King's mother's castle. The King is furious and says he will burn her at the stake, but his lords decide instead that she should be exiled, and she flees across the sea.
The King decides to go to Rome to seek penance from the Pope. He comes to stay at the same merchant's house who has taken in Emaré. Emaré tells her son that the next day, at the feast, he will serve whilst wearing her kirtle, and that he must tell her everything the King says to him. At the feast all admire the boy for his beauty and courtesy. The King asks him his name, and, upon learning it, grows melancholy as it is the same name as his son. He asks the merchant if the child is his, and when the merchant replies that it is, the King offers to adopt him and make him his heir.
Segramour goes to his mother and tells him of this, and she tells him to go back to the king and tell him that he should come speak to Emaré, who changed her name to Egaré in the land of Galys. He does so, and the King disbelieves him, but follows him anyway. He discovers it is his wife and all rejoice.
Meanwhile, Emaré's father, the Emperor, now an old man, decides to come to Rome to seek penance in order to get to Heaven. He sends messengers to Rome to let them know he is coming, and Emaré tells her husband to go meet the Emperor, ride in with him and show him respect, and tells her son to go as well, win the heart of the Emperor, and, once he has arrived, to ask him to come speak with Emaré. The Emperor cannot believe this, but on meeting Emaré has a joyful reunion with his daughter, the King and his grandson.
The lay ends with Segramour becoming Emperor after his grandfather, and a final thanksgiving to Christ.
Following their concert for world peace in outer space, Barbie and her band the Rockers are going back home. During the trip back to Earth, the band's space shuttle inadvertently enters a time warp. Upon landing at an airport, they meet Dr. Merrishaw and his daughter Kim, and soon learn that they have been transported back to 1959. The band then decides to go on a tour around the city alongside Kim, performing at several spots. After a performance at Cape Canaveral, Dr. Merrishaw helps Barbie and the Rockers return to their time. Back in the present, they stage a big concert in New York City, where Barbie is reunited with an adult Kim and introduced to her daughter Megan.
'''Part 1: Breaking Cover'''
Will and Chester are overjoyed to be reunited once again as the Miners' Train travels down through the Earth on its way to the Deeps. Will's younger brother, Cal, is also with them. The train passes through a series of storm gates (gates designed to block powerful winds from inside the earth) and, on the final approach to the Miners' Station, the three boys jump from it. Having escaped detection at the station, they travel further into the Deeps, where they are attacked by carnivorous bats and are forced to take shelter in an old, deserted house. Inside the house they find evidence that Will's stepfather, Dr. Burrows, has already been there.
Sarah adopts a disguise, allowing her to become a woman who has the authority to interview a deranged Mrs. Burrows, who currently is residing at Humphrey House. However, when her fear that Will actually killed Tam clouds her judgment, Mrs. Burrows quickly realizes the fake, forcing Sarah to flee. Soon, she is acquainted with a much skinnier, much weaker Bartleby, who takes her to a hiding place. There, a few days later, Rebecca and the Styx show up and make her believe for sure that Will killed Tam. Rebecca tells her that she knows where Will is, and that he is forcing Cal to come with him, and, if she doesn't act soon, Will might also kill him. Finally, they explain that Cal and Bartleby shared a strong bond, and, because of his love for Cal, Bartleby would be able to track him down anywhere...
Finally, Dr. Burrows is shown to be still alive. He has been accepted by a strange, gentle group of people called Coprolites. Sadly for them, a special detachment of the Styx called Limiters has been killing them. Having been left provisions by the Coprolites before they moved camp to a safer location, Dr. Burrows packs up and leaves, continuing further into the Deeps, keeping his notebook with him at all times.
'''Part 2: The Homecoming'''
Sarah is taken to see her mother, Grandma Macaulay, in her old home. Grandma Macaulay has been persuaded by the Styx that Will was responsible for Tam's demise, and she is full of vengeance and asks Sarah to exact revenge on the boy. Sarah is then escorted to the Styx Garrison where she rests, is given military training, and is also subjected to sermons from ''The Book of Catastrophes''.
Concerned that their food supplies are running low, Will and Chester follow Cal down into an opening of the floor of the Great Plain, where Cal enters a cavern filled with unidentified pipe-like organisms. As he stumbles, Cal touches one of these organisms, then collapses. Will and Chester discover that the boy isn't breathing, but they are forced to flee the cavern in order to save their own lives.
Back at Topsoil, it is dawn in England, and Rebecca and a squad of Styx are on the rooftop of Admiralty Arch, overlooking Trafalgar Square, with baskets of doves. Attached to the leg of each bird is a small metal ball which, when melted by the sun, will release a small amount of a non-deadly form of the virus that the Styx have been working on. The section ends with Rebecca cheering the doves on to "Fly, fly, fly!".
'''Part 3: Drake and Elliott'''
After his brother's death, Will is beside himself with grief, and Chester becomes increasingly concerned about the strange way he is acting. Shortly thereafter, they witness the execution of a group of Coprolites by a patrol of Styx Limiters. Will's abnormal behavior takes over again, and he asks for a piece of chewing gum. Before he unwraps it, knives are put at both boys' throats. A man speaks, telling them to bury the gum, and then to come with them. With no alternative but to do what they are told, Will and Chester comply with these demands.
The two strangers introduce themselves as renegades, namely Drake and Elliott. Drake soon realizes it is important to keep Will alive because he thinks Will may be the cause of the increased Styx presence in the Deeps, and also because he discovers Will is Sarah Jerome's son. For the most part, Elliott maintains a hostile attitude towards the boys, except for Chester. Cal, who Will and Chester feared had perished in a "sugar trap", is resuscitated by Drake.
Sarah persuades Joseph to allow her to leave the Styx Garrison so she can revisit the Rookeries, a place where the most deprived Colonists are left to rot, and where she and her brother Tam played as children. However, as she passes through the area, she is recognized and hailed as a hero. As she emerges from the Rookeries, she is met by Rebecca who tells her they are to leave for the Deeps on the Miners' Train.
Back at Topsoil, the virus created by the Styx scientists has been spread, and is wreaking havoc on England. The symptoms are some coughing, and swollen eyes, which make reading and looking at objects very hard. A grouchy Mrs. Burrows is visited by a man who has a distinguished voice and likes boiled eggs, hence Mrs. Burrows's nickname for him: "boiled-egg man". Boiled-egg Man tells her everything will be fine, when, in fact, it is steadily getting worse. Soon, a woman named Mrs. L dies, and not long after that, the laboratory that researches the virus is burned. When Boiled-egg Man appears on the news, claiming that there was no case of arson and that it was an experiment that blew the lab up, killing five scientists. Mrs. Burrows, who believes the opposite, becomes very angry.
'''Part 4: The Island'''
When they are attacked by Limiters, Will becomes separated from Drake, Elliott, Cal and Chester, and without any food or light, becomes completely lost in the lava tubes for several days. He eventually emerges from the lava tubes, and is reunited with Chester. Meanwhile, Drake and Elliott take Cal with them as they search the Great Plain for Will, and here they come to a place called the Bunker, which it appears was once used to breed Coprolites. One area in the Bunker is now being used to test the Dominion virus, which the Styx intend to use to decimate a large proportion of the Topsoil population. After a Styx ambush, Drake is captured outside the Bunker, while Elliott and Cal manage to escape. The two return to Will and Chester, and then Elliott leads them all to an island in a subterranean sea.
Elliott takes Will to scout, and they discover that Drake is being tortured. Elliott decides to kill him to put him out of his misery. When they return to the camp, Elliott captures a "night crab" for a meal, which Will identifies as a relic species of Anomalocaris.
'''Part 5: The Pore'''
Dr. Burrows comes across a temple-like structure, built by a civilization that worships a sun. He discovers a hoard of large dust mites and then comes across a huge, mile-long hole, which he accidentally falls into.
Elliott's initial plan is to take the boys to a place called the Wetlands, where they will allegedly be safe. She takes them through a tunnel, but before long, Bartleby appears, and Cal is delighted. Elliott shoots an advancing stranger, which turns out to be Sarah Jerome. Will and Cal assures her that he did not kill Tam, then he and the others continue on their way. At her insistence, because she is too badly injured and would only slow them down, Sarah stays behind.
Drake is revealed to have survived the bunker attack, and that the man Will shot was a different man. He sees Sarah and lures a Styx patrol away, rescuing her. He takes her to the Pore, where they witness the events that follow.
They eventually come across the huge hole; the same one Dr. Burrows fell into. It is identified as the Pore, which stretches even deeper into the Earth's surface. Before long, they are ambushed by Rebecca, and she reveals that there is not one but ''two'' of her; they are twins, and they have been alternatively living in Will's home, posing as his younger sister. They reveal their plot to kill all Topsoilers with a deadly virus called Dominion, which was extracted from the Eternal City by the Styx Division. The twins order the Limiters to open fire; Cal is killed as a result. Will, Elliott, Chester, and Bartleby are blown into the Pore by the Styx's heavy guns. The Rebecca twins presume that they have fallen to their death, and the Limiters cease fire.
Sarah, who is close to death from her gunshot wounds, witnesses this. She draws upon her last remaining strength and, in a headlong rush at the Rebecca twins, takes them over the edge of the Pore with her.
Several days later, Drake is shown Topsoil as he observes a Colonist who is, in turn, observing Mrs. Burrows. It is clear that he wants to exact his revenge on the Styx for the deaths of Sarah and Cal. The book ends when he dials a phone and waits for an answer.
''The Duchy of Ten'' is based on Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor campaign. In this scenario, the player characters need to go to the place where the terrible artifact known as the Well of Souls was forged, as that is the only place it can be destroyed. The module includes campaign setting data and a large map of the lands of the west.
Ju is a nine-year-old boy growing up in the aftermath of World War II in Italy. He is observant of the difficulties surrounding him. Both his father and mother have suffered emotionally, though his mother has suffered more due to the ongoing sexual and physical abuse caused by her husband.
Ju's orphaned fifteen-year-old cousin Nenè, comes to live with his family. Through Nenè, Ju learns even more of the strange adult world that he has yet to enter. Nenè allows him to sleep in her bed and confides in him of her growing sexuality and her secret affair with a local Mulatto boy.
Up 'n' Under follows the story of an inept pub team from the 'Wheatsheaf Arms' in a rugby league sevens competition in Kingston upon Hull in England. Ex-pro Arthur's only passions in life are his wife and rugby league. When he hears about the 'Cobblers Arms' pub team and their corrupt manager, Arthur bets his life savings with Reg Welch that he can train any team to beat them.
However, the 'Wheatsheaf Arms' can only muster a side of five whose pride lies in their unbroken record of defeat. The pitifully unfit set of men have to accept the help of a coach, who just happens to be a woman. Hazel solidifies their resolve and raises questions of their character.
They have to struggle through adversity, come up triumphant and become a team. They are given a bye to the final of the competition where they have to play The Cobblers.
Cilla and Tina are thirteen years old and identical twin sisters. As they hurry to catch the bus to school one day, Cilla is run over by a car and killed. Left behind is Tina, who now has to find her balance in life without her sister. The book follows the sisters during the months leading up to Cilla's death, and Tina's first year without her.
Kyoritsu University student Shuhei Yamamoto gets a job with his uncle's connection but learns he's missing the credits to graduate from the supervisor of his graduation thesis, Professor Anayama. He makes a deal with Shuhei that if he participates in the tournament for Kyoritsu's sumo club, he would be willing to overlook his credits. Shuhei reluctantly accepts with the request of Natsuko Kawamura, a graduate student from the Anayama Lab and a sumo club manager.
The Sumo Club's only member is Aoki Tomio, a traditionalist sumo enthusiast who has repeated years. Shuhei and Aoki struggle to recruit Shuhei's younger brother Haruo and obese Hosaku Tanaka. The amateur team loses at the tournament, and are abused by alumnus at the afterparty. Shuhei promises they'll win next, recruiting a British student and experienced footballer George Smiley who joined to save on rent. During the summer vacation, the team visits Anayama's hometown for a training camp. At the end of the camp, the team plays a practice match against elementary schoolers in the neighbourhood.
The team wins the next third league match and replaced the second league. Haruo breaks his arm in the third match, and Shuhei is injured. Masako Mamiya, a female manager longing for Haruo, volunteers to join as a member. On the day of the match, Masako binds her chest with bandages and tape but loses. The Sumo Club is inspired by her attempt and win the league match.
Tanaka is scouted for sumo wrestling, Smiley returns to Britain, Masako and Haruo leave to study abroad in London, and Aoki graduates. Shuhei declines the job offer to continue the sumo club as the sole member. Natsuko visits him in the club, and the movie ends as they playfully practice ''shiko''.
In three episodes, the film portrays the fate of women during the Meiji era:
''The Thirteenth Night:'' Young wife Seki turns up at her parents' house, announcing that she wants to divorce her abusive husband. Her father talks her into returning to her marital home, as her parents' welfare and the career of her brother depend on the marriage, also reminding her that she will have to leave her young son behind. On her way back home in a rickshaw, she discovers that the driver is Rokunosuke, a childhood friend who never got over their separation. They reminisce their once mutual affection, but part ways without an outlook to meeting again.
''On The Last Day Of The Year:'' Mine works as a maid in the strict household of Mrs. Yamamura, wife of a wealthy businessman. To help her sick uncle who is in debt, Mine asks her employer to lend her money. Mrs. Yamamura first agrees, but later withdraws her offer. Out of desperation, Mine steals money from a household drawer and gives it to her aunt. Moments before her misdemeanour is revealed, Mrs. Yamamura's carefree son Ishinosuke takes the remaining money to waste it on gambling and drinking, thus obliterating all traces of Mine's theft.
''Troubled Waters:'' Courtesan O-Riki is the "star" of a brothel in a red light district. To her disapproval, she is still being followed by her impoverished former patron Genshichi who spent all his money on her. O-Riki gets involved with a new client, Asanosuke, but is reluctant to the possible prospect of marriage, citing her profession and her poor upbringing as reasons. Meanwhile, Genshichi forces his wife and little son to leave him due to her constant complaints that he is unable to support the family. Afterwards, he waylays O-Riki, murders her and commits suicide.
''Nigorie'' centers around Oriki, the most popular courtesan at the Kikunoi, a brothel in the red light district of an unspecified town, and a group of people connected to her, during the summer Obon festival.
Through her conversations with other prostitutes, and Oriki's accounts in the presence of new customer Yūki Tomonosuke, the reader learns that a previous customer, Genshichi, a futon salesman of moderate affluence, was addicted to Oriki and spent all his money at the brothel. Now that Genshichi has been reduced to the hard labor of a construction worker, forced to move with his wife Ohatsu and his young son Takichi into a smaller flat in a run-down section of town, Oriki rejects seeing him despite his pleas.
Tomonosuke repeatedly questions Oriki during his visits. She reminisces about her poor upbringing, which she cites, together with her profession, as the reason for not wanting to marry, although she had contemplated the possibility. She recounts a childhood incident when she was seven years old, sent by her mother to buy rice for supper. On her way back, she slipped on the frozen ground, spilling the rice into the gutter, leaving the family starving for this day.
Meanwhile, Ohatsu scolds Genshichi for his ongoing obsession with Oriki and the family's poverty, which she tries to mitigate by doing piecework. When Takichi comes home with a piece of cake, which he received as a gift from Oriki (whom he refers to as "the demon-lady" ), Ohatsu angrily throws it away. Genshichi, furious about her ongoing accusations and behaviour, demands that she leaves him. Ohatsu begs him to let her stay, as she has no relatives she can return to, but finally leaves, taking their son with her.
At the end of the festivities, the dead bodies of Oriki and Genshichi are found. While it seems obvious that Genshichi committed suicide by seppuku, the cause of Oriki's death stays unclear. The passersby speculate about her fate; while one assumes a shinjū (double love suicide), another one reasons that the wounds on Oriki's body make a murder after her attempted escape more plausible. It is left to the reader to determine the true circumstance of her death.
Marta (Dolores del Río) is a woman who lives obsessed, since her brother died of schizophrenia and her mother remains interned at a mental health hospital. Fearful that the disease is congenital, Marta keeps her family background secret from her husband while overprotecting her only son. Because of her obsession, Marta does not realize that the only psychologically affected in her family is her.
Five young men have lost their ideals during the Nazi occupation. They then decided to make a living by stealing. After they have been caught and convicted they decided to become a legitimate crime organisation. In the process they get themselves in a lot of trouble including getting unwittingly involved in terrorism activities .
In the ancient times, on Paradise Island, an ancient hero named the Sea Born imprisoned an evil sea ghost called Ragnar in an underwater coral prison along with many other sea ghosts. Ragnar swore revenge against the Sea Born.
The sea ghosts are at the core of the story, and appear in almost every episode. They can be from any country, or period of history, but are the ghosts of people that have died at sea (or near to it, such as an aviator whose plane crashed on the island). They can be invisible, appear as human, or be in their "true sea ghost form" with grey skin covered in black blotches, wearing black and white ragged versions of their human clothes. If seen through water their sea ghost form is revealed. This usually happens when they are seen from behind the fish tank in the Paradise Cafe. Any item, such as money or clothes, given away by a sea ghost will turn into sand after a short time away from the ghost.
Centuries later, Megan and Robbo move to Paradise Island along with their father to open up a café there. Robbo quickly befriends Tai, a kind but very clumsy character whilst Megan eventually gets along with a spoilt, rich girl named Abi. A strange girl named Chloe is eager to get to know everyone on the island and it later discovered by the audience that she is a sea ghost spy working for Ragnar. The five kids discover that either Robbo, Tai or Megan is the reincarnation of the Sea Born and Ragnar is looking for them since he needs the Sea Born to escape from the coral prison. Eventually Megan finds out that Chloe is a sea ghost and this infuriates Chloe so she attempts to kill Megan. However, Megan promises not to tell the others (Megan still does not know that she is a spy) and they become best friends making Abi jealous. When Robbo is kidnapped by Ragnar, Chloe is forced to tell everyone that she has been spying for Ragnar all this time. The gang lose all trust in her and it soon transpires that Tai is the reincarnation of the Sea Born. The gang along with Chloe defeat Ragnar.
In the second series, there is no longer any threat to the inhabitants of the café. Although in the series 1 finale Ragnar said he would return, at the start of series 2 it was announced that he had gone. Each episode follows the same pattern: a sea ghost with a problem appears in the café, the kids help him or her, there are some comedic complications, and the ghost returns to the sea. New character Natasha is mistaken for a sea ghost in the first episode of series two, due to her awkward behaviour and unfashionable clothes, so each of the children in turn contrive to "accidentally" throw water at her.
''Big Bad Love'' shares its title and characters with those in Mississippi writer Larry Brown's short story collection, particularly those in the book's final story, "92 Days".
The main character is an unsuccessful alcoholic writer, motivated by desire for his estranged wife (played by Debra Winger) and the urging of his Vietnam War buddy Monroe (played by Paul Le Mat) to continue to write. He is angry, yet hopeful that he will sell a story. When tragedy strikes a close friend and his daughter, Leon is forced to rethink his way of life.
This book opens with Sookie Stackhouse finding the dead body of Lafayette in the backseat of Andy Bellefleur's car, which had been left at Merlotte's the night before. Sookie learns that her friend had recently attended a local sex party. She thinks the members of that group might know something about her friend's murder so she starts "listening" to people's thoughts by using her special mind reading talent while working at the local bar.
In the meantime, Bill Compton, Sookie's vampire boyfriend, informs her that they have been summoned by Eric Northman. As a way to get Eric's attention, a maenad known as Callisto attacks Sookie on their way to Fangtasia, Eric's vampire bar. Sookie's wounds are poisoned, and she is healed by a combination of Dr. Ludwig's special treatment, and blood drainings by Eric, Pam, Chow, and Bill. Sookie is later given a fresh transfusion of human blood. Eric informs Bill and Sookie that they need to go to Dallas to help the local vampire leader, Stan Davis, to find his missing "brother," Farrell, who has not returned to Davis' nest for five days.
The Dallas vampires, Sookie, and Bill learn that The Fellowship of the Sun (FotS) as well as a "renouncer" vampire named Godfrey might be behind the disappearance. Sookie decides to go to the FotS church with Hugo, Stan's human dish washer (although he is a lawyer in his regular human life) and the lover of Stan's "sister," Isabel, in an undercover mission. Sookie discovers that Hugo is a traitor, but her cover is quickly exposed when they meet Steve and Sarah Newlin, and she is badly hurt while trying to escape from the church. She does escape with the help of Luna, a shapeshifter, and Godfrey (who turns out to be a remorseful child molester and killer). After a run-in with more Supes, including an undercover doctor at a local hospital and some werewolves, Sookie ends up back at the FotS to be with Godfrey as he "meets the sun." That night at the welcome home party for Farrell, Stan's house is attacked by the FotS and many humans die. Sookie, unable to locate Bill, helps Eric remove a bullet that he took protecting her from the gunfire; he insists the only safe way to remove it is to suck the bullet out. In doing so, she ingests a few drops of his blood inadvertently. Bill returns soon after; he had chased down members of the FotS. He reveals to Sookie that Eric's insistence on sucking out the bullets was just a ruse to get her to ingest some of his blood—now he will have a connection with her. Sookie is furious at Eric. She is also angry at Bill because he killed someone and did not check on her before beginning his pursuit of the FotS. Sookie leaves the house and immediately flies back to Bon Temps.
Back in Bon Temps, Sookie avoids Bill for several weeks during which Bill "dates" Portia Bellefleur, who is trying to find out more about the sex club in an effort to clear her brother Andy of any connection to the murder. After seeing Sookie at a football game with Tara, Benedict "Eggs" Talley (Tara's fiancé), and JB du Rone (another male friend), Bill follows Sookie home and they passionately (and violently) reconcile.
The next day, Sookie is invited to a secret sex party organized by Mike Spencer. Afraid to go alone, Sookie asks Eric to accompany her as Bill is out of town. At the sex party, Sookie is surprised to see her friend Tara and Eggs and learns that Mike and Tom Hardaway murdered Lafayette. The party is interrupted when Bill, Andy Bellefleur, Sam (in collie form), and the maenad Callisto gather in front of the house. The maenad enjoys the drunkenness and lust of the party participants and eventually kills Mike, Tom and his wife, and another local named Jan. Eggs & Andy, under the maenad's spell, recall nothing of the incident - Tara is the only non-supernatural present with any recollection of the events (she was hidden and thus did not fall under the maenad's spell). Bill and Eric burn the house, and Eric glamours Tara so that she will not be able to remember what happened at the sex party.
The novel takes place in December. Sookie discovers Bill working secretively on his computer. Bill closes a file but not before Sookie sees the screen. Bill informs Sookie he has to leave to complete a task ordered by the Queen of Louisiana Vampires. Days later, a werewolf targeting Sookie comes into her workplace, Merlotte's, but he is eliminated by Bubba, sent on Eric's orders, before he can harm Sookie. As night falls, Eric and his employees tell Sookie that Bill had actually been in Mississippi, where his former lover and maker Lorena had summoned him. They continue to tell Sookie that Bill has since then gone missing, and Eric speaks of his suspicions on Lorena's involvement. He also states that the vampire queen of Louisiana will need to receive Bill's secret project on its due date, if Eric wishes not to compromise his life. Since Eric is unable to interrogate humans or vampires in the territory of Mississippi vampire king Russell Edgington without provoking a war, he invites Sookie to come along to Mississippi and utilize her telepathy to locate Bill. Sookie agrees, but is shocked at Bill's possible betrayal of her.
The next day, Sookie is introduced to Alcide Herveaux, a werewolf sent by Eric to help Sookie circulate in the supernatural community of Jackson, Mississippi. Sookie takes a liking to Alcide's physique and personality. In Jackson, Alcide escorts her to a local vampire bar, Josephine's, generally known as Club Dead. In this club, Sookie learns by telepathy that Bill is being held captive and that Russell Edgington is possibly involved. She meets Edgington when he aids her after a confrontation with a were patron angered at Sookie rebuffing his sexual advances. Edgington insists they come in the next night as well. In the same night, Sookie is confronted by Alcide's jealous ex-girlfriend Debbie Pelt, a shapeshifter who, despite being at her own engagement party, is furious with Sookie presenting herself as Alcide's escort.
The next day, Sookie and Alcide discover in their closet the dead body of the Club Dead patron who had been making unwanted advances at Sookie. After disposing of the body, that is later revealed to have been an assailant aiming for Sookie killed by Bubba, the duo head out for another night in Club Dead, where Sookie meets her friend Tara Thornton as another vampire's escort. However, she discovers the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire organization prominently featured in ''Living Dead in Dallas'', has come in Club Dead intent on killing vampires. While preventing the Fellowship from staking one of Russell Edgington's employees, she herself is staked, then rescued by Eric and taken to the King of Mississippi's compound and receives medical attention at Edgington's mansion. Sookie shares an intimate moment with Eric, but Bubba informs them Bill is being tortured in one of Edgington's poolhouses.
At dawn, Sookie heads out to the poolhouse. She frees Bill and manages to stake Lorena as she attacks, but is locked into the trunk of her own car alongside the sleeping Bill when she returns to Alcide's apartment building. When Bill, deprived of blood and sleep for a week, wakes up, he attacks and feeds on Sookie and rapes her in the trunk. Sookie asks Eric to drive her home, fed up with the whole ordeal. While on their way home, two robbers raid a gas station alongside their route looking for Sookie and Eric and in Sookie's home, several werewolves wait for her and attack her. Eric and Bill eliminate all werewolves, but Sookie angrily breaks up with Bill and rescinds both Bill and Eric's invitation to her house. The novel ends with Sookie realizing Bill's special project is inside her house, and no vampire will be physically able to retrieve it.
Shirley Valentine is a bored 42-year-old working class Liverpudlian housewife whose life and initially enriching marriage has settled into a narrow and unsatisfying rut, leaving few real friends and her childhood dreams unaccomplished and she feels as if her husband and children treat her more like a servant. When her flamboyant friend Jane (Alison Steadman) wins a trip for two to Greece, Shirley uncharacteristically puts herself first and accepts Jane's invitation.
Shirley feels considerable self-doubt, and ultimately only goes because of unexpected encouragement from her neighbour Gillian (Julia McKenzie), who drops her air of superiority to reveal her respect and emotional support of Shirley's plans, and former school enemy Marjorie Majors (Joanna Lumley), who reveals she had in fact been envious of Shirley's rebellious role at school, and had become a high class prostitute rather than a prestigious air hostess.
Upon arrival, Jane immediately abandons Shirley for a holiday romance with a fellow passenger from their flight, leaving Shirley to set out on her own. She begins to see her fellow holidaymakers through new eyes, as she genuinely enjoys Greece while they want British food and stereotypical entertainment. She remains contentedly alone until she meets Costas Dimitriades (Conti), the owner of a nearby tavern, who helps her fulfil a dream of drinking wine by the seashore in the country where the grapes were grown, and later invites her to travel around the nearby islands for a day on his brother's boat. Costas promises not to try to seduce her, while nonetheless bolstering her self-confidence in her own attractiveness ("You think I want to make fuck with you? Of course I want to make fuck with you. But boat is boat, and fuck is fuck.").
As Shirley prepares for the trip, Jane returns and begs for forgiveness for abandoning her; Jane is then stunned to find that Shirley has made plans on her own and will be going out with Costas imminently. Enjoying the day out, Shirley decides to swim in the sea; lacking a swimsuit, she swims naked instead with Costas joining her in the water. She realises that she does not want Costas to keep his promise. They kiss and later on the boat have very intense sex.
On her return, Jane believes that Shirley has fallen in love with Costas, but Shirley reveals to the audience that she has fallen in love with the idea of living. She spends more time with Costas, and at the airport turns back, and walks to Costas's tavern to find him attempting to seduce another tourist the same way. Costas is shocked to see Shirley after her departure, but she says she wants a job and is not upset at catching him in the act.
Shirley's husband Joe (Bernard Hill), who was angry and confused at her departure, waits for her return with a large armful of flowers. He is shocked and embarrassed to find Shirley chose to stay and is not on the plane, and repeatedly calls her, pleading and arguing for her to return, saying that it is her place and she is embarrassing him, or telling her that her actions result from a midlife crisis or menopause.
Shirley becomes more content with her new life. She also becomes a great success with narrow-minded holiday makers who want the same food as in Britain. Finally, their son tells Joe to go and get her instead of just phoning. Receiving a telegram about Joe's arrival, Costas makes excuses and leaves for the day, while Shirley is unperturbed. Joe walks from the airport. Shirley, wearing sunglasses and now feeling like a different person, is sipping wine by the sea in the sunset. Joe does not recognise her and walks past until she calls him back. The film ends with the two drinking wine by the sea, leaving open the question of how the matter resolved.
The majority of the story is told through flashbacks, as Helmuth Hübener, charged with treason, waits in a Berlin prison for his execution. Starting with his memories as a young boy, Helmuth recounts his childhood growing up in Nazi Germany with his mother Mutti (German for "Mom"), grandparents, two brothers, his best friends Rudi and Karl, and his future stepfather Hugo, a Nazi soldier.
As a young boy, Helmuth plans to become a soldier and fight for Germany, but that changes when he grows up, and Helmuth stands out as a very knowable young man. He becomes very opinionated about the Nazi government when he sees his Jewish classmate's father mercilessly murdered by the SA. Helmuth's brothers like Gerhard are separated as Gerhard goes to serve the country in marine work. He begins to secretly listen to forbidden enemy radio broadcasts and enlists the help of two of his closest friends in distributing anti-Nazi material. Helmuth uses pamphlets, to tell the truth about Hitler and the Nazis but ends up getting caught, because of his mistake, and he is executed by guillotine in Berlin, Germany.
In 1897, a blustery actor-manager, "The Great McGonigle" (W. C. Fields), and his traveling theater troupe is perpetually underfunded and always just a step ahead of the law and creditors. McGonigle's daughter Betty (Judith Allen) is loyal to her father, and she tries to discourage a suitor named Wally Livingston (Joe Morrison), telling him he should follow his own father's wishes and go to college instead of trying to become an actor. Along with the rest of the troupe is McGonigle's rather dim-witted assistant Marmaduke (Tammany Young).
Wally's wealthy father (Oscar Apfel) arrives in the town where the troupe is scheduled to perform a Victorian melodrama, William H. Smith's popular temperance play, ''The Drunkard''. One of the players has resigned, and Wally wins the part, affording him a chance to act and also to perform a couple of songs in his strong tenor voice. His father is impressed by his son's talent, and his skepticism about Betty is eased when he learns that she has been trying to get Wally to return to college.
McGonigle has an eye on Cleopatra Pepperday (Jan Duggan), a wealthy and untalented widow, and her infant son (Baby LeRoy), and exploits her to stave off the local sheriff, who is Pepperday's boyfriend. To secure her support, McGonigle promises her a cameo role in ''The Drunkard,'' with one line: "Here comes the prince." The play has no reference to any prince of course, and act after act comes and goes with her rehearsing her line in fond hope, but her cue never comes. At the end of the play, distraught and crying, she goes off to get the sheriff. After the play concludes, McGonigle comes onstage and performs a juggling act.
McGonigle then learns that the troupe's sponsor is canceling the tour, due to poor advance reports. McGonigle tells Betty and Wally that he has decided to close the show and to seek his fortune in New York City. The bride and groom and his father ride the train back to the Livingston home, and Betty gets a telegram from her father stating that things are going well in the big city. In reality, McGonigle has become a snake-oil salesman.
The film is about a reality show organized by Star Ananda, where the two finalists, Arka from the hills and Dodo from Sundarbans Sajnekhali, are given two tasks to fulfill. Dodo is given the duty of a police constable at Bhawanipur police station while Arka is given the duty of a driver. They have three days and two nights to battle out and win the prize of Rs. 1 crore. The one who makes fewer mistakes wins the jackpot.
Anchor Suman Dey becomes the host, a runaway from a mental hospital. Mayhem begins when Piu's older sister and brother-in-law report at the Bhawanipur police station (where Dodo and Mithu are posted) and Arka learns of Piu's problems. As Arka and Dodo are in disguise, they use fake names to cover up their identity. Arka becomes Jackie and Dodo becomes Potla. Thus while Arka flees to the hills with Piu to fulfill his job and win the money, Dodo with Goldar and Mithu start chasing them, not knowing that Piu is actually with Arka. After much hue and fuss Arka manages to take Piu to her lost love (she was escaping only to find her lost love, Abhirup) and Dodo catches up with them.
Arka and Dodo are crowned champions. Arka donates the entire Rs. 50 lakh for Piu's medical expenses. Dodo donates his share of Rs. 50 lakh for the same noble cause. It is revealed that Dodo and Arka are best friends and Dodo had persuaded Arka to participate in the show. Mithu and Dodo become love birds, while Arka devotes his concentration to the orphaned, lonely and mentally stagnated Piu.
Masaki Takatō is the second youngest of four sons, and seemingly a delinquent by nature. His hot temper has put a wedge between himself and his strict father, gotten him kicked out of one school, and tossed in another school which is notoriously horrible for the one thing he's truly good at—basketball. A chance encounter with the willful Kanako Yūki may serve as a catalyst for change, as the indefinable connection she feels with Masaki draws them together...
After discovering a conspiracy among his Scottish mercenaries, king Johan III orders them to leave the country and puts their commanders in jail. Sir Archie, Sir Filip and Sir Donald, three of the imprisoned commanders, successfully escape and flee to Marstrand, then under Danish rule, in hope of being able to return to Scotland.
Sir Arne of Solberga is introduced as a wealthy man who is said to be under a curse. His treasure is said to have been looted from the monasteries during the Protestant reform, and according to premonitions it will one day be his doom. While dining, Arne's wife has a premonition where three rogues are sharpening very long knives nearby, but is not taken seriously. At night however, the three Scots enter the family's mansion, murder the family, steal Sir Arne's treasure chest and burn down the building. The only survivor is the daughter Elsalill.
Elsalill is taken care of by a fisherman who lets her live with him in Marstrand, where also the Scottish officers have arrived and are waiting for the ice to break so they can sail away. Eslalill encounters Sir Archie, and they both fall in love without recognising each other. Eventually however, Elsalill happens to overhear a conversation between the Scots, and understands who they are. She reports the criminals, but they are backed up by other former mercenaries who also are waiting for the first ship to leave, and the situation becomes violent. Among the fighting, the emotionally shaken Elsalill seeks Sir Archie who deeply regrets his crime, but in the ongoing turmoil, Elsalill is fatally wounded as Sir Archie uses her body as a shield to protect him from the guards who are trying to kill him.
Sir Archie escapes to the frozen-in ship with Elsalill's dead body. The ice still won't break however, and according to sailor's lore it is because there are evildoers on board. The three officers are soon identified and thrown off the ship. A long procession march over the ice to fetch Elsalill's body and bring it back to land.
When Taka Sawatari and his mother were heading home after having dinner, they were attacked by a motorcycle gang. They got saved by a mysterious young man. The next day, Sawatari learned that that young man was a professional racer who has the same first name, Taka Toujou. In a race, Sawatari loses control when entering a curve, nearly killing Toujou. After the event, the two become rivals as they compete against each other with their racing skills.
The main character is an old woman, Roseanne McNulty, who now resides in the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital. Having been a patient for some fifty years or more, Roseanne decides to write an autobiography. She calls it "Roseanne's testimony of herself" and charts her life and that of her parents, living in Sligo at the turn of the 20th century. She keeps her story hidden under the loose floorboard in her room, unsure as yet if she wants it to be found. The second narrative is the "commonplace book" of the current chief Psychiatrist of the hospital, Dr Grene. The hospital now faces imminent demolition. He must decide who of his patients are to be transferred, and who must be released into the community. He is particularly concerned about Roseanne, and begins tentatively to attempt to discover her history. It soon becomes apparent that both Roseanne and Dr Grene have differing stories as to her incarceration and her early life, but what is consistent in both narratives is that Roseanne fell victim to the religious and political upheavals in Ireland in the 1920s – 1930s.
Dennis (Schoenaerts) is 26 years old but has the mind of a child. He is obsessed with trains and train schedules. His mother Rita (Dottermans) is overjoyed when Dennis returns from prison after serving a sentence for the alleged rape of an underage girl. The neighborhood, however, is not happy with Dennis' homecoming, especially Barbara (Baetens).
After Dennis masturbates at the playground – with his pants on – Rita and his father André (Damiaan De Schrijver) decide to keep him inside. However, when Rita is at her work, André is watching Dennis but falls asleeps. In this timeframe, Dennis goes outside to see the trains but does not return. Later on the evening, the police tell them that Dennis raped a woman (Maaike Neuville). Dennis is found in a train station.
Dennis is being interrogated by an alienist. He concludes there is no proper psychiatric institution where Dennis can be handled, so he is sent to jail, where he is beaten and harassed by the other prisoners. The guards, who despise sex offenders, do nothing to help him. Eventually, Dennis tries to kill himself.
Rita contacts Thomas (Tom Van Dyck), a lawyer who coincidentally happens to be Barbara's boyfriend. A medical examination proves the girl was indeed raped by Dennis. Thomas thinks Dennis belongs in a psychiatric institution, not prison, so he tries to convince the judge. Barbara changes her mind after a quarrel with Thomas. She initially hoped Rita and her family would move or Dennis would be locked up forever, but never realized Dennis does need professional help.
They try to petition the government for Dennis' release, and are able to make an appearance on a famous Belgian debate television show. Some days later, Rita gets a letter from a psychiatric institution which will accept Dennis as a patient. There, Dennis explains that the girl took him to an abandoned place as she claimed to know all about trains and schedules. She told she was cold so he gave her his sweater. She stroked his belly, but he told her she must not do that as it is forbidden. As she kept going on and looked at him very nicely, he pushed the girl away. She hit her head, knocking her unconscious. Dennis thought she was dead and removed the sweater. He felt her warm belly and became aroused, leading to the rape.
The trial and judgment are not revealed.
As described in a film magazine, upon discovering that her husband is a bigamist with a son, Nan (Cooper) goes back with her infant son to her father. She of course is ostracized by the local church people. When Donald McKaye (Graves) returns from college, he is the first to give her sympathy and understanding. Young McKaye loves Nan and wants to marry her, but his father, The Laird of Tyee (Belmore), has other more ambitious plans for his son and his mother and sisters resent the idea of the mother of a nameless child becoming the wife of the McKaye heir. Nan is ready to give him up, and when Donald yields to his father's wishes and goes to a mountain hut to think it over, she slips away. Donald falls victim to a fever and is taken to a hospital. After resorting to everything else, the mother swallows her pride and sends for Nan, for whom Donald calls constantly. Her presence restores him. The family gives her a cold "thank you" which drives Donald to the final break with his father. He marries Nan and is disinherited. The old Laird refuses to soften, even when, after the man falls into the river from a motor boat headed for the logging camp when a huge log comes down the chute and hits it, the son plunging into the river and saves the father's life. Reconciliation finally comes after a son is born to Donald and Nan.
'''I - II'''
Raban describes his development as a writer from his early youthful love for books to a university career lecturing on Literature to his final decision to become a full-time writer in London, starting out as a professional book reviewer for the ''London Magazine'' and the ''New Statesman''.
The first part is mainly composed of book reviews he wrote for various literary journals and his subjects include: living in London, the Romantic poet Byron, Thackeray, Henry Mayhew, a well-researched piece on Anthony Trollope (although it is a pity there is so little of the writer's thoughts on his great masterpiece ''The Way We Live Now''), who still remains a highly under-rated Victorian novelist, and three penetrative pieces on Evelyn Waugh, of whom Raban is a great admirer. As he says of Waugh's diaries, there is no clear division from the youthful into the adult Waugh and this element of youthfulness always maintained a strong influence on his writing:
'This disconcerting, sometimes vengeful, sometimes pathetic, childishness gives all Waugh's writing an odd innocence, a kind of brazen incorruptibility. His cult of the noble (which was much more a dream of living in a Burne-Jonesish world of sunlit castles and pure chivalry than it was of toadying after titles), his fiercely traditionalist Catholicism, his horror of the urban proletariat, were too wide-eyed to be either dangerous or mean. His sensibility had the extravagance of a brilliant child's: adult moderation never got in the say of clarity. When he admired he worshipped; when he disapproved, he was appalled. The bourgeois virtues of common sense and good manners (the besetting vices of so many modern English novelists) were totally foreign to him - not because he was a snob but because he never forgot what it was like to be a child.'
He also includes a review of Anthony Powell, rightly criticizing the first part of his memoirs, ''Infants of the Spring'', as being,
"... a book so boring, reticent and formulaic that it would hardly be a creditable effort had it come from the hand of an idle brigadier jotting down his Notess of an Old Soldier or Tales of an Officer's Mess. Mr Powell begins by tracing his family tree back to Old King Cole and Rhys the Hoarse, constructs a complete stud book of Powells and Wells-Dymokes, then embarks, in a style of stultified discretion, on a rambling, much interrupted account of his own life."
There is a very affectionate piece about Robert Lowell, the American poet who Raban knew for the last seven years of his life. As he says of Lowell's life,
"It's a life lived in full conscience by a man of preternatural quickness and sensitivity and candour. We can all count ourselves lucky that Lowell happened to be around in our messy stretch of history; more than any other writer he got down on paper what it feels like to be normally alive in our particular snakepit."
Unfortunately for Lowell he was plagued by bouts of temporary insanity that meant periods of forced incarceration in a mental hospital once a year during an attack of mania. Throughout his life Raban comments that he remained, in the deepest sense, an unknowable man and his poetry was written in order that he could at least attempt to come to terms with himself and his own character.
'''III''' Just like the young aspiring writer in Cyril Connolly's ''Enemies of Promise'', named Shelleyblake (a pun on the two Romantic poets) by Jonathan Raban, he too wanted to write plays. He states he first found a birth at Kestrel Films, a company set up by Tony Garnett, Ken Loach and Kenith Trodd. Raban wrote a play for Trodd after he moved over to Granada Television but it turned out to be a total failure dramatically. He went on to write seven plays for radio. of which six were produced by Richard Wortley but, as he states, there was a limited audience for plays of this kind - mostly the blind and "a small coterie of radio listeners who are prepared, in effect, to blind themselves for the duration of the programme. But they are few and far between." He also wrote five more plays for television of which three were broadcast, but again they did not meet with much critical success. His last dramatic effort was a commissioned full-length stage play directed by Eric Thompson at the Bristol Old Vic, but the play closed after a month. In order to get playwriting out of his system, Raban took off to travel in Arabia to research his travelogue, ''Arabia Through the Looking Glass''.
'''IV''' This part deals with Raban's experiences with writing for 'the little magazines', mainly feature journalism. He was a book reviewer for the ''Review'', edited by Ian Hamilton, and then later for the ''New Review'', which was larger and glossier but which foundered just like its predecessor. He also did some work for the ''Radio Times'', edited by Geoffrey Cannon, who was able to pay his reviewers considerably more than Hamilton out of the BBC coffers, and was also extremely liberal in terms of fitting in with his reviewers' requirements, particularly if they were working on a book. It was the ''Radio Times'' that sent Raban on a sailing ship for three days (it was being used as a prop in ''The Onedin Line''), which was to spark off two books and an obsession with sailing.
There are also some short articles. 'Christmas in Bournemouth' is a highly objective account of a group of OAPs spending their Christmas together at the Cliff Court Hotel, unwanted by their children:
'There were 59 of us. There was one real family party from Egham, complete with a trio of rather subdued children. But nearly everybody had come in a couple. There were childless couples in their 40s, and grandparents in their 50s and 60s whose grown-up children had somehow, inexplicably, failed to invite them for Christmas.'
With his partner, Linda (who appears briefly in ''Coasting'' when she collects Raban from the London Docks), they take part in all the arranged festivities. The people are the first generation after the war who had extra money to spend, shown by the expensive electronic gadgetry they all possess. However, the downside is that they have lost the family closeness that existed in the pre-war years, and their children and grandchildren prefer to be unencumbered with any elderly relatives who may embarrass their guests over Christmas. The whole experience at the hotel is a bitter-sweet one and Raban's last memory is of Frances, a lonely spinster hospital worker, waiting forlornly for her bus to 'take her back to her Christchurch maisonette and her job on the geriatric ward.'
''Living on Capital'' describes Raban's early childhood, much of which is re-presented in his travelogue, ''Coasting''. ''Living with Loose Ends'' is a rather rambling account of family life, but 'Freya Stark on the Euphrates' and 'Fishing' - describing the writer's long love affair with the rod and reel - are two well-crafted articles that have a strong merit in their own right.
'''V''' The last part - and the one in which Raban really comes into his own - deals with travelling and the writing of the travel book and goes a long way to explaining Jonathan Raban's own wanderlust. As he says about travelling and writing,
'Simple wanderlust is relatively easy to fend off, but when it starts to get tangled up with literary motive it becomes irresistible; and literature and travel are anciently, inevitably tangled. Journeys suggest stories, stories take the form of journeys - odysseys, exoduses, pilgrims' and rakes' progresses. Any travelling writer, leaving home, must find it difficult to rid himself of the idea that he's embarking on some kind of real-life picaresque. Before him lie the education and adventures of a rolling stone. Pilgrim, Gulliver, Tom Jones, Mr Yorick have been here before.'
The author also gives some insights into his own method of writing about his travelling in such books as ''Hunting Mr Heartbreak'', ''Old Glory'' - his journey in a skiff down the Mississippi - and ''Passage to Juneau'', in which he sails from Seattle to Juneau, Alaska:
'Memory, not the notebook, holds the key. I try to keep a notebook when I'm on the move (largely because writing it makes one feel that one's at work, despite all appearances to the contrary) but hardly ever find anything in the notebook that's worth using later...Memory, though, is always telling stories to itself, filing experience in narrative form. It feeds irrelevancies to the shredder, enlarges on crucial details, makes links and patterns, finds symbols, constructs plots. In memory, the journey takes shape and grows; in the notebook it merely languishes, with the notes themselves like a pile of cigarette butts confronted the morning after a party.'
And again, in 'Stevenson: Sailing towards marriage' Raban gives us a description Robert Louis Stevenson's much-admired writing style in ''The Amateur Emigrant'', about the latter taking passage for America and his fiancee in northern California, that could be a mirror image of his own:
'For Stevenson's temperament was instinctively skeptical and empirical. He hoarded detail for its own sake. He was immensely careful and sympathetic observer of other people's lives. When he came to deal with the physical conditions of the ship and the train, and with the characters of the emigrants, he was a scrupulous miniaturist. Every page of ''The Amateur Emigrant'' is dotted with the trifles of life - with smells, fragments of dialect speech, clothes, facial expressions. It has the dense and varied texture of a true record.'
'Belloc at Sea' - about Belloc's ''The Cruise of the Nona'' - is in part recreated in Coasting, and 'Young's Slow Boats' is interesting from the perspective of one travel writer writing about another. Raban gives his own thoughts on what has drawn so many writers, including himself, to the travel book:
'It is the supreme improvisatory form; one can play it by ear; it will happily accommodate all sorts of conditions of writing. At its occasional best it works like a constellation, with autobiography, essays, stories, reportage mingling together in a single controlled blaze. More often it has the casual freedom of the scrapbook, into which any old thing can be pasted at will; a lifelike form, certainly, with all of life's contingencies, dead ends, and artlessness.'
'Florida' is a remarkable article based on Raban's visit to Florida, attracted by the thrillers of John D. MacDonald, 'With their bodice-ripper covers and titles like ''Nightmare in Pink'', ''A Deadly Shade of Gold'' and ''A Purple Place for Dying''. For Raban, MacDonald (whom he meets three years before his death) created an extremely vivid portrait of a 'jungly Eden, spoilt and besmirched by human vanity and greed ... a lovely paradise that was being cut down to make room for shopping malls, condominium blocks, six-lane highways, giant billboards and pagoda-style Kingburger palaces. Taken together, the novels added up to a resounding "No! Thunder!" They protested against this violation of the innocence of America with shocked and angry vigour.'
Raban goes onto re-create this visit near the end of his later book, ''Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America'' (1991), which describes his meandering journey across the U.S.A. and its eventual conclusion in Seattle, where he now permanently resides.
The final article, 'Sea Room', makes a seamless transition from this book to his next one, ''Coasting (book)'', recording his circumnavigation of the British Isles. Raban describes his desire to purchase his own boat and take to the sea. He purchases a sextant from a junkshop, made for J.H.C. Minter R.N. and practices the determination of latitude and longitude from his home in St Quintin Avenue, London W.10. He then starts his search for a boat and ends up with the ''Gosfield Maid'', stranded on a mudbank up a Cornish estuary, which is to be his home for the next few years.
One day Charlie Strapp's good friend The Chicken is kidnapped by two villains Pudding and Karlsson. Charlie Strapp, who has just been invited by Froggy Ball to get in his new car, constructed by Sheet-Niklas and himself mainly out of an old shoe and a well-shaken soda bottle, begins the chase. But the start is miserable as their other friend The Parrot also ends up being kidnapped. It turns out, though, that the kidnappers might not be purely evil after all: they work as stage magicians and just happen to need a hen for a trick they are performing. Charlie Strapp and the others continue to chase the kidnappers through air, on the ground and on water skis until the final showdown. Maybe they can find another trick.
The film takes place in Ukraine, in the village of Lebedinki. Marina Vlasenko awaits the return of her husband, Terence Vlasenko, who left to study at the Kiev Institute of Agriculture. But when he returns home, Marina is happy for long. The husband immediately files for her divorce, because she had no education and he is an educated man. Marina remains alone, a daughter, and delves into the study, where she has great success in her work. As a result, she is awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor.
Following a prologue in the early 19th century concerning the finding of a hoard belonging to Boabdil, the fiction moves forward to 1950s' Granada, involving the arrival of an American mining company to the city and the expropiation of land plots in the surroundings in order to extract uranium.
Reggie Cooper is a young man who lives with his father in order to avoid the violent gang activity that almost claimed his life when he was a teenager. However, when his recently paroled mentor, J-Bone reconnects with Reggie, and when his father is murdered, Reggie slips back into a life of crime. Reggie murders a local preacher, whose daughter later develops a relationship with him.
The final season opens up revealing Gregory Pratt is the victim of the ambulance explosion. Despite the rallying efforts of his workplace colleagues, he succumbs to his injuries and dies. The season introduces Cate Banfield as new ER chief, a woman with a seemingly mysterious past with County General. Luka Kovač and Abby Lockhart leave for a new life in Boston, Brenner must deal with issues surrounding his childhood, and he comes to a crossroads in his relationship with Neela, Samantha Taggart and Tony Gates' relationship suffers a major setback after an accident involving Alex Taggart while Neela Rasgotra is forced to make some tough decisions, both personal and professional.
To mark the end of the series after 15 years, several former cast members make a return to the show. Mark Greene and Robert Romano appear in a flashback episode that explores Banfield's history with County General while John Carter returns to work at County although, unbeknown to his colleagues, he is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. Peter Benton, Doug Ross, Carol Hathaway, Susan Lewis, Elizabeth Corday, Kerry Weaver and Ray Barnett return in various episodes. The series ends with one final multiple casualty incident that brings multiple patients to the ER, and shows that life goes on at County General.
A small child's world is wonderful and extremely complex. A seemingly unimportant event can lead to a tragic disaster in a child's life. On the other hand, the kindness of a baby's soul is capable to work a miracle. The miracle then animates a tiny fish.
The Conchords are playing a gig at a local public library. During the performance Bret disses every rapper that comes to mind. At the band meeting the next day, Bret and Jemaine are criticized by Murray for making too much noise at the library, and for dissing the rappers. They proceed to launch into a rap about "Hurt Feelings". The meeting concludes with Murray warning the duo about the rappers hurting them back.
Dave tells Bret and Jemaine that American rappers hold grudges and seek retribution. This worries Bret so much that he begins to recruit a gang for protection. The members include "Johnny Boy" an elderly man with a history of gang involvement, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, two Asian Internet cafe owners who want retribution against vandals, and Dave (who claims to have been a Navy Seal).
Murray is harassed by several Australian men who work at the Australian consulate. Bret's gang has its first meeting. They figure out a timetable for guarding against any rapper attacks. Outside the apartment, Jemaine is accosted by Mel, who has painted a hideous portrait of him. Upon entering the apartment Jemaine is ambushed by the gang. Jemaine complains about this at the next band meeting, and Murray tries to persuade Bret to disband the gang. Bret refuses, but an argument is averted by the arrival of Greg, who informs Murray that they are invited to a function at the Australian consulate.
Mel finds her painting in the garbage. Jemaine claims that he had to throw it out because Bret was jealous. Mel promptly leaves to remedy this. Jemaine and Murray go to the function at the Australian consulate, which is much more posh than the New Zealand consulate. They are once again harassed by the Australians, who call Jemaine "Miss New Zealand". Even the ambassador joins in on the needling. The cast launches into another round of "Hurt Feelings".
Dave and Bret are keeping an eye out for ambushes by rappers. Murray, Greg, and Jemaine run into the Australians from the consulate. Bret is called on by the Lees to stop some kids from vandalizing their cafe. Both the gang and Murray launch into a West Side Story style dance off with their foes, complete with snapping. Bret ends up kicking one of the vandals, and Johnny takes him and Dave to hide at his old hideout. Upon discovering that it is no longer there, Johnny quits the gang.
That evening, Jemaine discovers that Mel has returned the painting, and now Bret is included. Jemaine tries to get rid of it, but Mel catches him and not wanting to offend, says that he is simply showing it to the neighborhood. Meanwhile, the police show up to question Bret about him kicking the boy. While Bret gets off with a warning, Dave falls off the windowsill while trying to escape. He winds up in the hospital, and quits the gang. Murray and Jemaine join, but after Jemaine and Bret quit, Murray is the only remaining member. The episode ends with Mel and Jemaine showing the horrendous painting around.
In 2288 A.D. Jared Ramirez is serving a life sentence on the moon for his role in an attempt to reduce the human population by one-third. A telescopic array that he designed and programmed has received a transmission that is clearly alien. John Shillinglaw, Associate Director of the European Space Agency arranges for him to be a member of the science team aboard the spaceship ''Galileo'' which will explore the source of the transmission, an object that has been dubbed "Spindrift".
Ted Harker is the efficient, respected first officer of the ''Galileo''. He serves under Ian Lawrence, the arrogant but politically minded and well connected Captain. Ted discovers that the Captain has taken surreptitious measures that may poison a potential first contact with an alien species. After surviving the trip to Spindrift, the captain seems almost too anxious for Ted to lead a group of four to explore Spindrift while the rest of the crew visit what looks like a hyperspace gate that is orbiting nearby. Harker's team makes amazing discoveries, witnesses the destruction of the ''Galileo'', and meets an alien who makes a surprising suggestion for what humans could use for space trade.
Sometime in a dystopian future, World War III with Afghanistan breaks out. An incurable biological weapon called the "Y-bomb", which targets the male Y-chromosome, is used and results in the eventual deaths of 97% of the world's men. Feeling that they are better off without men, the planet's women decide to outlaw men because they were too violent. As a result, cloning has become the principal meaning of reproduction, with lesbianism becoming the state ideal.
Years later, scientist Hope Chayse, fearing for the future of the species, conducts a cloning experiment to produce a new male, Adam, genetically enhanced to mature from baby to adult in weeks and to refrain from violence. When Adam reaches maturity, he soon finds himself on the run from the FBI, and hiding out with small rebel bands of the last surviving men on Earth.
The house Adam and Hope are hiding in is burnt to the ground. Kara gives Hope her car and tells her to run away. She makes up a story about the bodies in the house being Hope and Adam's, while Doe escaped in her car. Three months later, Esther visits Hope, now working as a waitress in Virginia. Esther tells her that the test was positive—-Hope is pregnant with a son, since she and Adam had sex the night before he died.
Baek Na-rim is a nine-year-old girl living happily with her big, extended family. One day, while on their way to a family vacation, Ha In-soo, an unscrupulous businessman that Na-rim's father had cut ties with, desperately tries to flag down their van. But in the process, In-soo accidentally runs their van off the road, causing a car crash. Her entire family dies, and Na-rim is the sole survivor. Grabbing his opportunity, In-soo conceals that he was ever at the scene of the accident.
Traumatized from the accident, Na-rim now suffers from amnesia and speech impairment. Her doctor advises her only remaining relative Byun, an uncle who wasn't with the family at the time of the accident, that she shouldn't be exposed to any more shock and that it would aid in her recovery if she's reminded of her happy memories with her family. So Byun hires Oh Dal-geon, a former small-time gangster who runs an agency that provides fake wedding guests and fake funeral mourners, to create a seven-member "fake family" for Na-rim, exactly the same number of members as her real, deceased one.
Dal-geon auditions and hires six oddball characters, mostly entrepreneurs from the local market who owe him money: "fake grandfather" Jang Hwang-gu is an aging ladies' man and dancing instructor; "fake grandmother" Park Bok-nyeo is a foul-mouthed mandu (dumpling) seller; "fake mother" Uhm Ji-sook is a vain coffee seller (she and Bok-nyeo are longtime mortal enemies); "fake father" Jo Gi-dong is mild-mannered and therefore useless at his job of threatening people over the phone to pay their debts; "fake brother" Gong-min is a homeless youth Dal-geon found wandering the streets; "fake sister" Kim Yang-ah is a tough young woman raising her brothers, whose fishing boat was inadvertently destroyed by Dal-geon; lastly, Dal-geon himself plays the "fake uncle."
Byun installs his niece with the fake family in a nice house, and pays them a salary; in return, every day at a designated time, they must send him a cellphone photo with all family members present.
In the beginning, the fake family members don't get along, and hilarious situations arise as they try to take care of Na-rim while hiding their true identities and relationships. Meanwhile, the market is in crisis as a new supermarket built by In-soo threatens the locals' livelihood.
As their individual backstories are revealed, the family members come to care for each other like a real family. But complications arise when Dal-geon and Yang-ah fall in love, and more dangerously, In-soo would rather that Na-rim never regains her memory.
Love Matters revolves around three main protagonists – 52-year-old Tan Bo Seng, his 17-year-old son Benny and 36-year-old Jeremy Tan, Bo Seng's ‘adopted’ brother – and their accidental journey in seeking and keeping love and happiness.
Bo Seng leads a routine life. Attempts to revive the passion with his wife Jia Li cannot improve their stale love life. Jeremy lives a colourful life, colourful in reference to his long list of girlfriends. “Never to commit” is his motto for love. Benny has just school life, his only vice is anything to do with the computer, his only distraction is his crush, Jennifer, his classmate's girl.
Bo Seng & Jia Li the old fashion couple has more misses than hits in the love department and a series of madness spin off one night.
Jeremy meets Benny's teacher, Ms Wong - a lady, unlike the wild things he has had. His charm wins him her heart, but his Casanova means refuse to take a back seat, a new lady friend threatens to change his life ...
Benny starts to see hope in relationships, when Jennifer notices him and invites him over to her place. Over the visit, Jennifer's friendly attention, takes a turn into something that Benny wish he has not been.
María Luisa and her husband had a terrible car accident, her husband dies and she lost her memory completely and she is not able to remember anything at all. Because of this incident, María Luisa forgot that she had a daughter, Isabel, who became an orphan and was therefore taken to the orphanage of Father Eugenio, where Isabel begins to live on and grow. When Isabel is 10 years old, she was adopted by Don Alejandro, a respectable man, widower and with 2 children, Juan Carlos y Lilí.
When Isabel is taken home, she meets Gloria, the maid, who becomes her friend, and so does Juan Carlos, but not Lilí or Miss Irene, Lili's tutor. Together, Miss Irene and Lily try to make life impossible for Isabel. Then, a woman named Bertha appears, who turns out to be María Luisa's sister, and she contacts Isabel and encourages her to look for her mother due to her strange disappearance. Meanwhile, María Luisa decides to name herself Lucía, due to her lack of memory, and she gets a job in the orphanage directed by Father Eugenio. When Isabel meets Lucía, they befriend each other, without knowing the familiar ties.
'''Closer, Further (Part 1)'''
The opening chapter describes how Chester Rawls is the first to regain consciousness on a fungal shelf deep down in the Pore where he, Will Burrows, Elliott and Bartleby have crash landed. After Will has located his brother’s dead body and given him a burial of sorts, he and Chester carry the injured Elliott with them as they set about exploring this alien and frightening world. The task of moving through the passages with the burden of Elliott and their equipment is made easier thanks to the reduced gravity at this depth in the Earth.
With the help of Bartleby’s tracking ability, they discover that there is someone else down there with them, but are attacked by giant carnivorous creatures called spider-monkeys. They are saved by the intervention of a new character called Martha. She takes them to where she lives, a shack evidently built by the survivors of a galleon which was sucked down another of the giant holes like the Pore, so she can tend to Elliott and protect the two boys.
Meanwhile, the Rebecca twins, who were pushed into the Pore by Sarah Jerome in her last dying act, are aware that Will is alive, and begin to plot against him with two Styx Special Forces soldiers, called Limiters. One of the Rebeccas and a Limiter approach Will's father, Dr. Burrows, and attempt to bully him into finding them a way out of the Pore. Dr. Burrows seems to have very little comprehension that the Styx are dangerous and capable of great cruelty and murder.
'''Martha's Shack (Part 2)'''
At Martha’s shack, Elliott’s condition deteriorates as she catches a voracious fever, and Martha warns Will and Chester that her son died after the same thing happened when he injured himself on an expedition two years previously. Much to Will’s surprise, the other Rebecca twin turns up alone at the shack, and her life is only spared after Will stops Chester and Martha from killing her. The twin claims that she is innocent and has had to go along with her sister’s evil plans. Will appears to give her the benefit of the doubt, but Chester and Martha are highly skeptical. Will is further won over by the Rebecca twin as she gives him two phials, which purportedly contain the Dominion virus and its antidote.
Elliott’s condition worsens, and Will and Chester discover that Martha has been less than honest with them, and that there may be a source of modern medicines to help the girl. Although Martha is reluctant for them to risk the long journey, she eventually leads them to a "metal ship" which her son had stumbled across.
'''The Metal Ship (Part 3)'''
When they get there, it turns out that the metal ship is actually a modern Russian nuclear submarine, and they are forced to shelter inside it while Elliott responds to the antibiotics. There is also the added risk that they may be attacked by "Brights", giant moth like flying creatures.
As they finally set off from the submarine, the second Rebecca twin makes her appearance with Dr. Burrows and the two Limiters. Will realizes the twin who surrendered to him has been lying all the time, as she orders Bartleby to attack him – the Hunter has been conditioned to follow her orders after being Darklit in the Colony. One of the Limiters is killed by a "Bright", but the Rebeccas still have an edge. Just when it appears as if all is lost, Elliott reveals that she is half Styx, and saves the day by priming one of the explosives from her rucksack. In the subsequent explosion, Will and his father are separated from Chester, Elliott, Martha and Bartleby, while the Rebecca twins and the surviving Limiter seek refuge in the Russian submarine, which is knocked down the giant hole it was in by the explosion.
'''The Underground Harbour (Part 4)'''
Separated from his friends and not knowing whether they are alive or not, Will is persuaded by his father to travel upwards, and they stumble upon an underground harbour, a deep-level fallout shelter from the Cold War. After Will has helped himself to various weapons from the armoury in the shelter, they manage to get an outboard engine to work, and attach it to a launch. Then they travel up a subterranean river linking the fallout shelter to the surface, and emerge in Norfolk, from where they make their way back to Highfield, and are reunited with Drake.
'''Highfield, Again (Part 5)'''
Mrs. Burrows, Will’s stepmother, has gone through a transformation after she manages to beat her TV addiction, and has returned to Highfield where she is kept under close surveillance by the Styx and their agents. At Dr. Burrows’ insistence, Drake takes him to meet his wife, so revealing to the Styx that Dr. Burrows and Will are back Topsoil. Then there follows a parting of the ways as Mrs. Burrows remains on the surface with Drake, who has asked Will to return into the Earth and make sure that the risk of the Dominion virus has been neutralised.
'''Departure (Part 6)'''
Drake, with help from a squad of former SAS soldiers, devises a plan to trap one of the leading Styx, the "old Styx", using Mrs. Burrows as bait. But the mission fails and Mrs. Burrows is captured and taken to the Colony where she is Darklit (being cast by Styx by the Dark Light). Meanwhile, Will is accompanied by his father as they retrace their route to where the submarine was blasted from the ledge in the giant hole Will has named "Smoking Jean", and he is reunited with Chester, Martha, and a fully recovered Elliott. Dr. Burrows, in a literal leap of faith, throws himself into the pore, followed by his son, and eventually by Elliott and Bartleby. Dr. Burrows’ assumption that the gravity further down the pore is progressively lower is proved to be correct, and after locating the submarine, they search for any surviving Styx. Dr. Burrows, driven by his conviction that there is a world at the centre of the Earth, risks all their lives as he makes sure that they have no option but to continue towards it.
They finally make it through to the "Garden of the Second Sun" - a hidden world at the center of the Earth, complete with its own sun, mountains, oceans, and animals long since extinct on the surface. Assisted by Will, Dr. Burrows begins to investigate one of three Mayan-type pyramids they find there, and it seems as though they are finally safe from the Styx until Elliott spots some footprints. She, Will and Bartleby follow the trail and discover that the Rebecca twins and a Limiter have also made it through to the hidden world.
After Elliott sets an ambush to deal with the Styx for once and for all, Will disobeys her and sneaks in to retrieve the Dominion phials. He is discovered by one of the Rebecca twins, and in the firefight and explosion which follow, both the Rebecca twins and Limiter perish, while Will makes off with the phials. Far from being angry at his disobedience, Will’s reward is a kiss on the cheek from Elliott. It seems as though Will’s prayers have been answered as he embarks upon his new life in this idyllic world, with Elliott as his companion and working with his father to discover incredible secrets from the past, until one day Dr. Burrows spots a WW2 German bomber, a Stuka, in the sky.
William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. One day his father suggests he should attend the University of Missouri to study agriculture. Stoner agrees but, while studying a compulsory literature course, he quickly falls in love with literary studies. Without telling his parents, Stoner quits the agriculture program and studies only the humanities. He completes his MA in English and begins teaching. In graduate school, he is friendly with fellow students Gordon Finch and Dave Masters. World War I begins, and Gordon and Dave enlist. Despite pressure from Gordon, Stoner decides to remain in school during the war. Masters is killed in France, while Finch sees action and becomes an officer. At a faculty party, Stoner meets and becomes infatuated with a young woman named Edith, who is staying with an aunt for a few weeks. Stoner woos Edith, and she agrees to marry him.
Stoner’s marriage to Edith is bad from the start. It gradually becomes clear that Edith has profound emotional problems. Significantly, she is bitter about having cancelled a trip to Europe with her aunt to marry Stoner. After three years of marriage, Edith suddenly informs Stoner that she wants a baby. She suddenly becomes passionate sexually, but this period is brief. When their daughter Grace is born, Edith remains bedridden for nearly a year, and Stoner largely cares for their child alone. He grows close with his young daughter, who spends most of her time with him in his study. Stoner gradually realizes that Edith is waging a campaign to separate him from his daughter emotionally. For the most part, Stoner accepts Edith's mistreatment. He begins to teach with more enthusiasm, but still, year in and year out, his marriage with Edith remains perpetually unsatisfactory and fraught. Grace becomes an unhappy, secretive child who smiles and laughs often but is emotionally hollow.
At the University, Finch becomes the acting dean of the faculty. Stoner feels compelled by his conscience to fail a student named Charles Walker. He is a close protégé of a colleague, Professor Hollis Lomax, and like him is physically disabled. The student is clearly dishonest and cannot fulfil the requirements of Stoner's course but, despite this, the decision to expel or retain Walker is put on hold. After his promotion to head of the department, Lomax takes every opportunity to exact revenge upon Stoner throughout the rest of his career. A collaboration between Stoner and a younger instructor in the department, Katherine Driscoll, develops into a romantic love affair. Ironically, after the affair begins, Stoner’s relationships with Edith and Grace also improve. At some point, Edith finds out about the affair, but does not seem to mind it. When Lomax learns about it, however, he begins to put pressure on Katherine, who also teaches in the English department. Stoner and Driscoll agree it best to end the affair so as not to derail the academic work they both feel called to follow. Katherine quietly slips out of town, never to be seen by him again.
Eventually, Stoner, older now and hard of hearing, is beginning to become a legendary figure in the English department despite Lomax's opposition. He begins to spend more time at home, ignoring Edith's signs of displeasure at his presence. Entering adulthood, Grace enrolls at the University of Missouri. The following year, Grace announces she is pregnant and marries the father of her child. Grace’s husband enlists in the army and dies before the baby is born. Grace goes to St. Louis with the baby to live with her husband's parents. She visits Stoner and Edith occasionally, and Stoner realizes that Grace has developed a drinking problem.
As Stoner’s life is coming to an end, his daughter Grace comes to visit him. Deeply unhappy and addicted to alcohol, Grace halfheartedly tries to reconcile with Stoner, and he sees that his daughter, like her mother, will never be happy. When Grace leaves, Stoner feels as though the young child that he loved died long ago. Stoner thinks back over his life. He thinks about where he failed, and wonders if he could have been more loving to Edith, if he could have been stronger, or if he could have helped her more. Later, he believes that he is wrong to think of himself as a failure. During an afternoon when he is alone, he sees various young students passing by on their way to class outside his window, and he dies, dropping his copy of the one book that he published years earlier as a young professor.
An astronaut from Earth named Dima (short for Dmitry) crash-lands on the fourth planet of the star LK 43. The indigenous people, whose physical appearance is almost indistinguishable from human, live in the so-called Cities, enclosed and self-sufficient habitats, providing their tenants with all life's necessities. The Cities are ruled by the ruthless and authoritarian Watchers. The official ideology of the Cities promotes absolute equality and replaceability. The official honorific is "Equal". All individual qualities are considered to be atavistic and must be mercilessly eliminated to the point that most redheads are forced to dye their hair. The most dangerous atavisms are crying, hate, love, and friendship. These are eradicated in early childhood. The inhabitants of the Cities live in dormitories, while children live and study in boarding schools and know nothing about their parents. Each person's place of residency is chosen by the Watchers and are often relocated to another City. The Watchers also choose each person's job. Reproductive couples are chosen by the computer. The same computer also chooses a person's menu (exchanging food is forbidden). At the age of 60, all citizens are killed. Those who are declared as incurable ''atavists'' or publicly promote ideologically incorrect views are publicly censured and are subjected to a mind-wipe procedure..
There are people who do not live in the Cities; they are called Outsiders. The Watchers make the Equals believe that all Outsiders are nothing more than bandits and villains. Even the word "outsider" is considered a profanity by the Equals. While the Outsiders are free from total control, they have their own problems. Long ago, there was a nuclear war on the planet, which turned most of the planetary surface into a scorching desert. Most of the survivors enclosed themselves in the Cities, while the rest chose to stay free. The Outsiders are unable to provide themselves with even the most basic necessities, so they are forced to steal from the City stores. Dima finds out all this after meeting two Outsiders and a kidnapped Equal. He agrees to aid a group of Outsiders in infiltrating a nearby City to free all Equals from the totalitarian Watchers. As Earth technology is much more advanced than local technology, this plan has a chance to succeed. Dima kills three Watchers but is himself captured. He finds out that most Watchers live in the beautiful and idyllic Thirteenth City, which consists of houses in the only forest left on the planet. The existence of Thirteenth City is covered up, so that neither the Equals nor the Outsiders are aware of it.
After getting to Thirteenth City, Dima discovers that the way of life in the Cities is the only viable one on the planet. Due to the nuclear war, there are very few habitable areas left. Besides the small forest, which fits only several thousand Watchers and the gully with a few hundred Outsiders, life is only possible in the Cities. Their population is in the millions, so overcrowding is inevitable. To avoid bloody conflicts and overall chaos, the Watchers are forced to combat love (to avoid jealousy), friendship (to avoid unions and political parties), and hate to create uniform goodwill among the Equals.
The Equals, like the Outsiders, are suffering from genetic mutations, caused by radiation. That is the reason why all sexual partners must be selected by the computer. The Outsiders, unwilling to subject themselves to rule, simply kill their children in infancy. The set lifespan of 60 is the result of extremely low supplies, even the Watchers are not exempt from this rule. Also, only those with high IQ are chosen to be Watchers, as they can grasp the severity of the situation and make the necessary decisions.
On behalf of Earth, Dima promises to help the people of this planet to remove the consequences of nuclear war. This will take years, but once it is done, the people will once again be able to live normal lives.
Constance is a young French woman who is dissatisfied with her mundane life but has a talent for reading stories to others. As the movie opens, she is reading a book called ''La Lectrice'' to her boyfriend, in which the main character, a woman named Marie, reads literature to others for a living. She becomes engrossed in the book to the point that she begins imagining herself as Marie: Constance and Marie are played by Miou-Miou, and the movie weaves back and forth between their stories.
Marie embarks on her new profession with gusto. As she reads to her clients, all of whom are seeking a little more than the solace of literature, she works a fantastical transformation on them. Her clients include the widow of a Marxist general (María Casares), a nervous businessman (Patrick Chesnais), a retired magistrate, and a handicapped teenage boy. Soon the clients' friends and families become involved, as does her professor (Christian Blanc). The general's widow's maidservant and the boy's friends from school become affected by the readings, and Constance has an affair with the businessman. Books read include ''The Lover'' (by Marguerite Duras, read to the sexually frustrated businessman), and the works of Marquis de Sade (read to the judge and his libertine friends).
Tim is a proofreader at a newspaper in Oslo by day, and a pyromaniac at night. Only one other knows about Tim's dark side: his childhood friend and editor of the newspaper. The two have kept the secret for years until the secretary, Margrethe, finds out. Eager to help she becomes Tim's confidant.
Jacques Arnaud arrives in a small town somewhere in the province. Soon a citizen reports to him that strangers have broken into his house where they stole a mysterious "black dossier". This file had been given to him by a recently demised citizen named Le Guen. The content of this file included information on the town's foremost businessman who behind his proper façade seems to be a ruthless fraudster. Arnaud has the corps of Le Guen exhumed and proof is found that this man has died of poisoning.
''The Phoenix Incident'' begins with the night vision observation of a scorpion, moving across the screen before cutting to a series of military firefight engagements in Damal, Turkey, Dayr Az Zawr, Syria and Mogadishu, Banadir, Somalia, often with alien cries heard during these engagements. Expository text explains that, since 1997, the United States military has been engaged in a covert war against "forces of unknown origin", and that "57 incidents have spread across Asia, Europe and Russia." It goes on to note that NATO notes that alien invasion forces will reach populated areas within two years, and that the conflict itself is in retaliation for an incident in Phoenix, Arizona on March 13, 1997. The film notes that it is dedicated to "members of the intelligence community who provided evidence that made the film possible".
Tying into the film's viral campaign, the film introduces the disappearance of four Arizona men. Heaven's Gate cult member Walton S. Gayson (Adamthwaite), initially held as a suspect in the murder of the four men, was taken into federal custody. Later, the search for the men was suspended, concluding that the four men had been killed in a bear attack, a conclusion which the local medical examiner denies, but was ordered to list as the cause of death.
The documentary style film moves between two complementary plotlines; the first is a filmed interview with an unidentified Air Force pilot who exposes, despite likely repercussions, the truth about what happened to four missing civilian men on the night of the Phoenix Lights. The second plotline comes from recovered filmed footage ("The Lauder Tapes") by one of four men: Glenn Lauder (Lowenthal), Mitch Adams (Willingham), Ryan Stone (Baker) and Jacob Reynolds (O'Brien). Lauder cannibalizes several different cameras, even duct taping a camcorder to the side of his ATV helmet. It is from these cameras that most of the footage is derived.
The interviewed officer details how the military detected the approach of a triangular-shaped object in the tail of the passing Hale-Bopp comet until it began to descend into Earth's atmosphere over Arizona. Later, the object goes missing and two KH satellites in the area had stopped transmitting.
The men decide to go out to the foothills by the Estrella Sierra to spend time together and ride their ATVs. Mitch, whose brother was a former US Marine is excited about the trip, his friends substantially less so. While packing their truck for the trip, the men notice a growing military air presence in the area, first helicopters and then F-15 fighter jets and A-10's, as well as odd atmospheric disturbances. When they embark on their trip in Ryan's truck, it suddenly breaks down in the foothills. Jacob tries to repair the damage to the vehicle while the others try to find someplace call for Roadside assistance. They come across a desert compound, protected by an electrified fence, owned by the reclusive Walton S. Gayson. A highly agitated Gayson accosts Jacob at the truck, warning him that they must leave immediately. Despite the warning, the men set off in their ATVs into the foothills anyway.
Further questioned, the Air Force officer details how several "bogeys" had entered Nevada's airspace before turning towards Phoenix. By this time, several eyewitnesses had already seen the multiple crafts, and Operation Snowbird goes into effect: a diversion operation to distract the civilian population with decoy flares while an aerial dogfight ensues between Air Force jets and the unidentified craft at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range.
The four men witness the dogfight when an alien craft is disabled and crashes into a nearby hill. Mitch's brother had been killed in a helicopter crash, so he decides to try and render aid to what he presumes is a human pilot. Upon reaching the downed craft, before the military can respond, the men are attacked by defensive creatures that faintly resembles man-sized scorpions; Jacob is severely injured in the attack. Their ATVs are destroyed by the aliens, and they take refuge in Gayson's compound. Gayson has been awaiting the coming of the creatures for years to be abducted and taken to a "higher plane" of existence, so he turns off the electric fence, letting the creatures in.
In the final act, Jacob is abducted, and Mitch is ripped apart in an attempt to defend Ryan and Glenn, who are almost rescued by a military helicopter. After the helicopter is shot down by one of the UFOs, Ryan distracts the creatures before being dragged off by one of them and Glenn runs into a vehicle to hide from them, before making a run for it alone. However, just as it seems he has escaped, one of the aliens attacks him. As his helmet flies off, Glenn is killed out of the view of the camcorder before the creature disappears, and one of the alien spacecraft slowly leaves the area. Gayson later finds the helmet and recovers the camcorder's film.
In a post-credits scene, it is revealed that Gayson escaped prison shortly after his interview. In the next scene, a clean-shaven Gayson douses himself in gas and sets himself on fire, preparing to 'rise above this world". The scene leads viewers into the online viral campaign, revealing how the Lauder Tapes were discovered.
Karl Thomasson, an ex-Special Forces soldier and retired mercenary, is approached by his old army buddy Teague who gives him a mission: working undercover at a military school where Ted, Teague's nephew, is one of the cadets. Teague believes that the cadets and the student faculty are part of a group of white supremacist neo nazis called the Werewolf Unit. Officially, the werewolves are a special unit being run at the school. Karl accepts the mission and begins working as a history teacher at the school, seeking to expose and eradicate the unit.
While investigating, Karl teams up with Devlin, a martial arts teacher at the school who served with Karl in the U.S. Army. They learn that Colonel J.C. Brack is leader of the unit and Ted is one of the cult members.
Azoth is an orphan who lives in the Warrens of Cenaria City. He and his two friends, Jarl and 'Doll Girl', are members of the Black Dragon Guild. They make their living stealing money to buy food and pay their guild dues to Rat, the Guild Fist, an enforcer who beats or rapes anyone who doesn't pay. One night, Azoth overhears a confrontation between Durzo Blint, the best wetboy (magically endowed and highly trained assassins) in the city, and several unknown assailants. After Durzo slaughters the assassins, he catches the escaping Azoth and tells him to not say a word about what he has seen to anyone.
Jarl gives Azoth money that he'd saved so that he can be Durzo Blint's apprentice. Azoth follows Durzo after an ambush during a contract at the Black Dragon's guild to present his offer for apprenticeship. Durzo declines his offer and disappears. Rat beats and rapes Jarl which prompts Azoth to rally other members of the guild to stand up to him. Azoth encounters Durzo again and threatens to kill him unless he apprentices him. Durzo agrees on the condition that Azoth kill Rat by the end of the week.
Before Azoth can kill Rat, Rat kidnaps and beats Doll Girl, leaving her with ugly scars all over her face. Durzo finds Doll Girl, and Azoth pleads with him to save her. Durzo agrees and Azoth sets out to kill Rat. Azoth kills Rat and cuts off his ear as proof to take back to Durzo, who has followed through and saved Doll Girl's life.
Elsewhere in Cenaria, eleven-year-old Logan Gyre watches his father, Duke Regnus Gyre, as he prepares to travel to a garrison called Screaming Winds on Cenaria's border with Khalidor. Logan asks to go with his father, but Duke Gyre refuses and leaves his son as the Lord of House Gyre.
A traveling mage from the Empire of Sethi, Solon Tofusin, arrives at the Gyre estate. He is on a mission from the prophet Dorian to help Lord Gyre. When he finds out Duke Gyre has gone to Screaming Winds, he plans to head there immediately, but his plans are disrupted when he finds out that Logan has also been named Lord Gyre. Logan forces him to spar, and Solon humiliates him. He tells him that Logan's soldiers have been losing to him on purpose, which infuriates Logan. He tells his men to treat him as no more than an equal; he is soon going to join his father at Screaming Winds, and if they truly love him, they should be preparing him for the battles there. He apologizes to Solon, who is impressed with Logan and decides to stay with him for now. Solon offends Logan's mother and she tries to send him away, but Logan reminds her he is now Lord Gyre and sends her away instead. Solon is even more impressed with Logan, and becomes less certain that Duke Gyre is the one he must serve.
Azoth begins his training with Durzo, which carries on for several years. As well as his wetboy training, Azoth learns to read from Gwinvere Kirena (Momma K as she is more widely known), a member of the Sa'kage who manages the brothels in Cenaria City who is also the older sister to Durzo's deceased former lover, Vonda. From her, Azoth learns that Durzo allowed Vonda to die at the hands of the Khalidorans in order to keep a ka'kari, an ancient item that grants immense magical power, from Garoth Ursuul, the so-called Godking of Khalidor. Azoth excels in his training but is unable to awaken his "talent," his magical ability and is forced to leave his lodgings at Durzo's hideout after Brant Agon, the chief general to Cenaria's king, attempts to blackmail Durzo into the king's service. He is sent to live with Count Rimbold Drake, who is to give him a new name, Kylar Stern, and teach him to behave in noble society. During this time, Kylar and Logan become acquainted and soon become fast friends. Additionally, Jarl also comes under Momma K's protection, becoming her right hand man in operating Cenaria City's brothels.
Much later while fighting disguised on behalf of the Sa'Kage in a tourney, Kylar encounters a former sister of the Chantry, an all-female organization of mages, who tells him that the reason he can't awaken his Talent is that he has no "conduit" to let it out, although in fact the power for magic in him (his glore vyrden) is enormous.
Durzo seeks a way for Kylar to be able to use his Talent. With the silver kakari rumoured to be in the city, Kylar is told to get into a party hosted by a powerful noble in order to steal it. Later on, Kylar encounters Dorian who tells Kylar to "ask Momma K" and that "a square vase will give you hope." Momma K tells him that she has someone who may be able to get him in. When he goes to visit this person, it turns out to be Doll Girl, now called Elene Cromwell. After Durzo saved her, Kylar had asked Count Drake to give her a good home and she was adopted by the Cromwell family. Kylar has since acted as her patron, sending money and occasionally checking up on her in secret. Despite a tearful and loving reunion, she denies him an invitation due to her obligations as a servant. Kylar finds another way in and starts a fight with Logan (at Logan's bidding to impress Count Drake's eldest daughter whom Logan wishes to marry, but whom loves Kylar) as a distraction so he can look around.
Around this time, a former member of the Black Dragons named Roth has begun to rise in prominence among the Sa'kage. During a meeting with Momma K, he threatens her with information that he has her daughter, Ulyssandra (nicknamed Uly), and thus coerces her into doing his bidding. At the same time, Durzo, who believes Uly to be his daughter by Vonda, takes this information from Momma K in a vicious argument. This embitters her against Durzo while he is unaware that Uly is in fact Momma K's daughter by him (conceived during a drug-addled fling with her many years prior)
Kylar comes to the conclusion that Elene must have the kakari. He goes to her room where he finds the kakari and ends up knocking Elene out to save himself from having to kill her. Durzo finds him in her room and they find out that the silver kakari is a fake. However, Kylar instead ends up with the black kakari, the original ka'kari which was believed to be a myth, which he unknowingly steals from Durzo. The heir to the throne, Prince Aleine, is killed that night by the hostess, Lady Jadwin, who is in the service of Khalidor while a wetboy named Hu Gibbet, Durzo's sadistic rival, also kills most of the Gyre household, including Logan's mother, leaving Regnus, recently returned from the border, to discover the massacre. Logan is blamed for the murder of Prince Aleine and is taken into custody, but is soon released by the Queen, his mother's older sister from the powerful Graesin family and his father's former betrothed. She convinces him to marry her daughter, Jenine, both as part of his bail condition, but also to preserve the family of the man she loved and to protect Cenaria from Khalidor.
The King then publicly, while in a fit of drunkenness, announces the marriage between Jenine and Logan to secure the line of succession and an heir in case of his own death. During the ceremony Durzo, who is working for Roth, now revealed to be a son of Garoth Ursuul, in order to save his daughter, poisons almost everyone in the King's court. Meanwhile, Roth and Neph Dada, a high ranking Khalidoran vurdmeister (users of the parasitic magic known as the vir) attack the castle, during which Regnus, the Queen and her children are all killed. Khalidorans arrive by sea with vurdmeisters but Kylar slows down the process by burning some ships and killing a number of the elite Khalidoran highlanders. Amidst the panic, General Agon beheads the king so that the remaining knights will focus on saving the new king, Logan, who is in his bed chambers preparing to consummate his marriage to Jenine. However, Roth kills the knights and forces his way into Logan's room. Roth apparently kills Jenine, but Neph secretly preserves her for the Godking, who is on his way. Roth then orders Logan to be castrated and fed to the holers, the lowest members of the massive Cenarian gaol known as the Maw.
Jarl has hired a guard to save Logan from being killed, but this fails so to save his life, Logan takes a knife and jumps into the hole of cannibalistic prisoners. Durzo is forced to fight Kylar so that he can unbind the Black Kakari and give it to Roth to save his daughter. Kylar bests him in the end and Durzo's dying wish is for Kylar to save his daughter, along with an apology for all he has done wrong. Following the fight, Kylar fully takes on the mantle of the Night Angel, the avatar of justice, mercy and retribution, a role formerly held by Durzo who is revealed to be Acaelus Thorne, a legendary hero from Midcyru's past. Along with the ka'kari, Kylar also takes Durzo's magical sword, Retribution, and sets off to save Logan. Kylar, as the Night Angel, helps release some prisoners from the Maw while rescuing Elene and Uly who had been captured. After hearing of Logan's location, he heads to the bedchamber where he finds nothing but blood and thus believes Logan has been killed.
Kylar later poisons Momma K, but also grants her the antidote out of mercy then comes face to face with Roth who is surrounded by vurdmeisters. Roth reveals himself as Rat, who had survived the earlier attempt on his life. Solon arrives outside with Curoch, the ancient magical sword that once belonged to Midcyru's first emperor, Jorsin Alkestes, and uses it to slay a large group of vurdmeisters. Kylar kills all of Roth's guard and eventually Roth himself, but dies in the process. While in the state of death, Kylar meets a mysterious figure known as the Wolf and is given the choice of an immortal life as the Night Angel or death in either heaven or hell. He chooses Elene and life and is revived. Kylar and Elene make up and decide to try for a life together along with Uly whom they adopt. While Roth was killed, his army successfully took over the castle and the city, allowing his father to conquer Cenaria, forcing Kylar, Elene and Uly to leave the country.
Ratty is the oldest son in a rat family that consists of a mother (who spends most of her time vacuum cleaning), a father (who is building some strange vehicle in the basement), a grandfather (who most of the time walks around saying "Sure, sure!"), and then Ratty has a whole bunch of siblings. One day Ratty meets Rosetta and falls in love. But how serious is it from Rosetta's part? She, who one day can be ready to leave Ratty after winning a trip, and the next day can ride with the leader of the motorcycle gang to the rat club "Ratz."
The story begins in the year 3870, with Galact-Captain Ivan Tamantsev of the Confederacy of Suns defending an unarmed convoy from a group of pirate ships. Despite managing to destroy four of the attacking ships, Tamantsev loses his wingman and is himself forced to eject, after his fighter sustains heavy damage. His escape pod is towed by the pirates to their homeworld of Ganio, settled by colonists of Middle Eastern descent. Tamantsev is brought before Faizullah of the Javgeth Clan, the man who ordered the raid on the convoy. He explains to the Captain his options: he can either agree to temporary employment by the Clans as a pilot, until he pays off the destruction of the four fighters and their AI modules (the fighters were unmanned), or Faizullah can let him go with the knowledge that Tamantsev will not survive long on the desert world. While Ivan agrees to fly missions for Faizullah (fully aware that the Ganian intends to go back on his word), he demands to personally inspect his fighter. Upon arriving to the hangar, he sees that it is an ancient ''Phantom''-class aerospace fighter from the days of the First Galactic War with the Earth Alliance. While he shudders at the thought of flying this 1500-year-old antique, Ivan knows that this is his best shot of escaping the planet. Faizullah's engineers agree to let him inside the fighter, as they have disabled all of the craft's AI functions. However, they underestimate the Confederate pilot training, and Tamantsev is able to restart the systems in service mode and launch the ship manually.
Upon entering orbit, Ivan faces another problem, as the ''Phantom'' does not have enough fuel to jump to another system, and the old fighter is no match for the Ganio's orbital defenses. Ivan scans the local hypersphere force lines and determines that one of them is unmarked on all star charts (i.e. it does not lead anywhere). Realizing he has nothing to lose, Tamantsev transitions into hypersphere and uses the last of his fuel to maneuver the ship to intersect with the unmarked force line, remembering that 3 million years ago, none of the known races did not possess hyperdrives (it is an invention unique to humans). Instead, they used stationary portals which used the hypersphere force lines as conduits to rapidly send objects between planets. Ivan's theory turns out to be correct, and his fighter enters one such conduit and rapidly travels to another system far from Ganio. Unfortunately, the conduit throws his ship out into normal space into a planet's low orbit. Lacking fuel, Ivan is unable to slow down his descent and is forced to eject, while the ''Phantom'' crashes in the nearby woods. Before ejecting, Ivan notices a city protected by a giant wall not too far from the crash site.
After getting out of his escape pod, Tamantsev decides to head towards the city, assuming it to be yet another lost colony, settled during the Great Exodus of the 23rd century. Following standard protocols, Ivan does not remove his spacesuit until he can determine that the air is safe to breathe and there are no harmful microorganisms in the planet's biosphere. However, after several days of walking, he runs out of air and is forced to crack the seal. Ivan finds that the air is safe to breathe but shortly succumbs to a strange ailment, which persists for several hours before going away just as suddenly as it appeared. He finds that he is able to sense living creatures without actually hearing or seeing them. His newfound empathic ability allows him to see any living thing's neural structure, which he uses to kill a local predator with a single shot to the brain (the largest neural mass). Some time later, he witnesses an ambush of a woman by a dozen shapeshifting creatures. He rescues her by using his empathic ability to determine the location of the creatures' brains before shooting them. After recovering, the woman reveals that her name is Flora Shodan, and that she is descended from the settlers who arrived aboard the colony ship ''Hope'' (they are aware that their ancestors came from Earth).
After Ivan notices that Flora is able to literally turn invisible, she reveals that all of the arrivals underwent genetic mutation to varying degrees upon first breathing the planet's air. The mutations have created four distinct subspecies: Shadows, Metamorphs, Emglans, and Chosen. Flora was born a Shadow and is able to turn her body (not her clothes) invisible, has empathic abilities, and is able to heal by touch. Metamorphs are shapeshifters, capable of assuming any shape, including flawlessly imitating another person. Emglans are telepaths and are able to sense a person's general state of mind from miles away. The Chosen have remained mostly human. All of Doom's (name given to the planet by the colonists) inhabitants have one ability in common: they are immortal. The body of any person over 30 stops aging, so some of those who arrived aboard the ''Hope'' are still alive. However, the mutations also affects the birth rate. As such, no child has been born in over 200 years (Flora herself is ''only'' 302 and is viewed as a girl by many others). Many of the colonists have gone insane as the result of the changes and have fled to the wilderness. The survivors came across a giant wall built millions of years ago and built their City behind it. The human society consists of five castes called satts (named after the captain of the ''Hope'', Satt Valtorn). The Shadow, Metamorph, Emglan, and Chosen Satts are all exclusively made up of their respective subspecies, while the Warrior Satt is made up of former members of the other satts who have chosen the life of danger and wish to protect the City from the wild metamorphs using antiquated equipment, salvaged from the ''Hope''.
After relaying all this information, Flora reveals that Ivan himself has become a Shadow. Ivan asks Flora why she was outside the City, and she replies that she was looking for a pair of invisible assailants, who have attacked a Chosen and stolen his car. The description of the attack leads Ivan to believe that he is not the only outsider on this world. He repairs her damaged vehicle, and they head back to the City, where Ivan is greeted with caution. Flora invites Ivan to be a guest at her house until he is given a place of his own (due to machines doing all menial work in the City, everybody's basic needs are satisfied (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), realizing that she was falling for the young stranger from the stars. The next day, Ivan and Flora head to the monthly Satt Council meeting, where Ivan hopes to convince the satts of the danger of the outside galaxy. However, Ivan's inexperience with his mental abilities causes a panic, and he is forced to wait outside. He overhears an argument between Flora and Derek Kelgan, the head of the Chosen Satt, who refuses to listen to her and the "infant" she brought with her and even threatens to kill her if she starts disturbing the peace. Fed up, Ivan assaults Kelgan and forces him to apologize to Flora. Upon returning to Flora's house, they realize that they have fallen in love and spend the night together. The next morning, Ivan decides to leave the City and join the Warrior Satt to both attempt to protect the colony and keep Flora safe from Kelgan's attempts at revenge. Flora refuses to listen to his reasons, only concerned with him leaving her.
Upon arriving to the Boundary (the name given to the ancient wall protecting the city), Ivan is accepted into the Warrior Satt. Meanwhile, Flora calms down and realizes that Ivan was only trying to protect her. She remembers that he was trying to find out more about the colony's past and asks her friend Nicolai Lorgen, a Chosen, to retrieve the information from his satt's archives. In the attempt to please Flora, with whom he has long been enamored, Nick copies the data onto a service droid and sends it to Flora's house. However, he is caught by his father Richard Lorgen, who decides to punish his son and tells Kelgan about it. Kelgan sends droids to assassinate Flora and Ivan. Due to some quick thinking, Flora survives the attempt and uses the maintenance shafts running under the City to get to the Boundary, along with her friends Ryben (a Metamorph) and Nive (an Emglan) and the service droid. Ivan is out on nightly patrol of the Boundary when an assassin droid tries to kill him with a sniper rifle. Unlike the locals, Tamantsev trusts technology more than his senses, and that is what saves him. After destroying the droid, he reunited with Flora and asks Lymel, the head of the Warrior Satt to give him a vehicle for traveling outside the city. After examining the wreckage of the ''Phantom'', Ivan confirms his suspicions that his entire escape from Ganio was orchestrated by someone who wants access to Doom. He reads through the data from the service droid and discovers that Satt Valtorn disappeared after departing on an expedition to a set of alien buildings not too far from the colony. They head to a complex of ancient structures on a plateau, nicknamed the Claw by the colonists. On the way there, Ivan experiences a set of visions, which are actually data implanted in his brain during his service in the Confederate special forces and activated by certain visual cues. He puts the pieces together and realizes that Doom is a site of an ancient bio-lab set up by the Harammins 3 million years ago to develop bio-weapons in their fight against the Insects. The planet Paradise, visited by humans earlier, was a test site for one of their experiments to create shapeshifters (see novel ''Paradise Lost''). The research was abandoned following the isolation of the O'Hara cluster, although it did yield an unexpected side effect — the Harramin Holy Grail, immortality. Now, someone wants to learn the secret of immortality at any cost.
Earlier, on Ganio, Gour, the last surviving member of the Harammin Immortal Quota, is watching his plan unfold. He had paid Faizullah to capture a Confederate pilot and orchestrated his entire escape, including the jump using a hypersphere conduit. The jump also activated an ancient Harammin portal on Ganio, long buried under the desert sand. Gour tricks Faizullah into digging out the portal and sending a strike force to eliminate the human inhabitants of Doom before sending out his own forces to kill the survivors, including the Ganians. Meanwhile, Ivan is setting up the defenses along the Boundary, expecting an attack, when Faizullah arrives with his troops and three ''Hoplite''-class serv-machines, capable of reducing the giant wall and the City to rubble in a matter of minutes. Tamantsev contacts Faizullah and makes him realize that he has been betrayed. Faizullah, being a man of honor, agrees to join forces with the defenders and fight off Gour's forces. Ivan takes one of the ''Hoplites'', while Faizullah takes another. They use the drain the batteries of the third one to send a message through hypersphere, calling in the Confederate fleet, knowing full well that the fleet will never get to Doom in time. Ivan asks Flora to go to the City and convince Kelgan to shut down the City's power grid, as the machines sent by Gour will interpret the City's power signatures as hostile targets and open fire on civilians. Flora calls Kelgan and explains the situation, but he refuses to listen, believing Flora and the Warrior Satt to be traitors for letting outsiders into the City. He orders Richard Lorgen to send a squad of droids to strike at the defenders from behind. Nive reveals to Flora that he used to be the ''Hope'''s chief engineer and knows the City's power grid inside-out. He goes to shut the grid down manually, while Flora and Ryben return to the Boundary to help the defenders. Unfortunately, Nive is too late, and the three attacking ''Phalanxer''-class serv-machines launch high-yield missiles at key power signatures in the City, killing many civilians, including Kelgan himself. The defenders fight serv-machines and assault droids and, never having to face such enemies before, take heavy losses. The Ganians, true to their word, fight and die with them side by side. Despite the odds, Ivan and Faizullah manage to take out most of the enemy serv-machines, although they are heavily wounded and their ''Hoplites'' destroyed. Conquering their overwhelming fear of death, the defenders charge the assault droids, dying by the dozens but also taking out a large chunk of the enemy forces. Despite the arrival of Kelgan's droids, the defenders manage to win the day. Flora and Ivan are reunited. The wounded Faizullah understands that he has now become a mutant himself, along with two dozen of his men. Knowing that they can never go home (they would risk spreading the mutating agents to the galaxy), Faizullah decides to stay and declares the creation of the Ganio Satt. Gour, who arrives through the portal several hours later is captured by Ryben, who prevents the Harammin from cracking the seal of his helmet and breathing in Doom's air.
As Takato and other Tamers' are planning a surprise birthday party for Ruki, a train-Digimon named Locomon wrecks havoc. He and Guilmon tries to stop it, but fails, and Ruki and Renamon gets on it and attempts to stop it. After Takato frees Ruki from mind control spell, they realize that Locomon is being controlled by Parasimon. Takato and Guilmon evolves into Dukemon and destroys Parasimon, but not before sending a signal to start an invasions. Ruki and Jian evolves to SaintGalgomon and Sakuyamon to stop the invasion of Parasimons, but are outnumbered. With determination, Dukemon changes to its "Crimson Mode", and destroys all of Parasimons. Locomon returns to the Digital World, and entire gang attends Ruki's birthday party. She leaves as she is asked to sing her dad's song, and then stares at the sunset.
A deputy principal of a high school takes up jogging to combat a spreading waistline and gradually enters into an affair with a co-worker's wife when his wife loses interest in him.
A group of humans arrive on Sirius 6-B to investigate an SOS signal sent out from the planet, which has been supposedly deserted since the destruction of the man-made weapons known as "screamers". Once the squad arrives, they find a group of human survivors eking out an existence in an old military outpost, but more important, they discover that the threat of the screamers has become even more insidious, now that they're able to morph into human form.
''Headlong'' is set England in the mid-21st century. There has been a civil war and reconstruction after a period of corporate excess. Advances in nanoelectronics and robotics have led to the hybridization of human and artificial intelligence (AI). These expensive interfaces have only been installed on a few architects to facilitate their direction of nanobots that are constructing beautiful cities on the Moon. However, a few years before the novel begins, the AIs take over the Moon and precipitate an economic collapse on Earth by subtle market manipulations.
The novel's posthuman protagonist Christopher Yale and his wife Joanne have enhanced senses and are telepathically linked. Christopher has lived on the Moon for years.Brooke, Keith, [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/headrev.htm Headlong by Simon Ings], Infinity Plus. When his interfaces are removed following the economic collapse, he struggles with Epistemic Appetite Imbalance (EAI), a disorder precipitated by the loss of his enhanced senses. Christopher and his wife divorce, and she is killed a few months later. Christopher is pursued by both his wife's murderers and the police.Mathew, David, 2000, [http://www.sfsite.com/03a/si76.htm Headlong, Backwards and Forwards: An Interview with Simon Ings], SF Site.
The drama depicts the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of a village called Bakulia during the British Raj. The village has two influential but feuding families, the Miyas and the Syeds.
Isabel Contreras (Lucero) is a privileged youngster. She is beautiful, wealthy, her parents love her, she is engaged to the handsome Rodrigo (Guillermo García) and they are going to marry once she finishes school. Alonso (Francisco Bernal), her horsemanship teacher, proposes her to represent the country in an international contest.
Isabel has an enemy in her own home, her cousin Alejandra (Nailea Norvind), who hates Isabel. Alejandra wants to harm Isabel, and she does, when she seduces Rodrigo and Isabel finds them. Isabel knows that her father would kill Alejandra if he realizes about this incident, so Isabel remains silent.
Isabel breaks her engagement without giving explanations and she finds comfort in the preparations of the next tournament. Before the contest starts, Alejandra cut the reins of the horse of Isabel provoking her tumble. Isabel injures her back and she must use crutches.
Lonely and depressed, Isabel entertains herself watching through the window to the opposite apartment. Luis Felipe (Omar Fierro), a photographer, who lives in that apartment falls in love with Isabel. Alejandra meddles once again and tries to separate them.
In 1948, just four hours and 45 minutes before a ceasefire takes effect, Captain Yehuda Berger instructs four volunteers - James Finnegan, an Irish former British policeman (who fell in love with a Jewish woman named Miriam Miszrahi); Allan Goodman, a tourist from the USA who fell in love with the struggle to found Israel; David Airan; and (at her insistence) Esther Hadassi (a Yemeni Jewish woman) - to take and hold the strategic "Hill 24", one of a number of hills dominating the highway into Jerusalem.
Afterward, Finnegan relates how he first met Berger in 1946, two years before the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, while serving as a British policeman in Haifa. In a flashback, Finnegan is part of the police force rounding up Jews who came ashore in British-controlled Mandatory Palestine illegally at night. Finnegan finds an ailing Berger and Miriam Miszrahi, and goes to find medical help for Berger. He is relieved to learn that the pair escaped. Berger is a concentration camp survivor who arrived in Palestine illegally during the British Mandate period and joined the Jewish Brigade group to help other Jews make ''Aliyah Bet''.
Later Finnegan and Berger encounter one another at a checkpoint, where Berger is identified. Finnegan's superior lets Berger go, ordering Sergeant Finnegan to follow him and apprehend his associates. Berger spots the police tailing him and flees. The two policemen follow him all the way to an apartment, which turns out to be Miriam's, but Berger manages to get away. When Miriam gets home, she finds the police in her apartment. Miriam, a fourth generation local resident studying to be a teacher, is taken in for questioning and detained under the Emergency Defence Regulations. She is questioned about her relationship with Berger and the Jewish Underground. As she is being questioned Berger, who has been apprehended, is brought into the station.
Miriam is released the next morning. Finnegan and Browning are ordered to keep her under surveillance. After several fruitless days, Lawson tells Finnegan he can make Miriam's acquaintance, much to Finnegan's delight. Finnegan falls in love with her and he convinces her to return to Haifa with him, where she is arrested by Finnegan's superior. Miriam later joins the army to fight in the 1948 War, and Finnegan joins also. He reveals to his fellow soldiers that he is an Irish Christian. Miriam and Finnegan meet briefly as Finnegan is deployed to Hill 24. As they drive towards the site of the operation Goodman, a New Yorker, tells the story of how he and Hadassi first met when he was wounded during the battle for the Old City. Hadassi, working as a nurse, helped care for him until the forces surrendered. They then signed up for Bergen's unit together. The four die on the hill. Hadassi's body is found still clutching an Israeli flag. It is declared that the Hill has been claimed for Israel.
Danny Wallace, a freelance radio producer for the BBC in London, takes three simple words uttered by a stranger on a bus—"Say yes more"—as a challenge and says "yes" to everything for a year. He says "yes" to pamphleteers on the street, the credit card offers stuffing his mailbox and solicitations on the Internet. He attends meetings with a group that believes aliens built the pyramids in Egypt, says "yes" to every invitation to go out on the town and furthers his career by saying "yes" in meetings with executives.
The nine characters are revealed to be:
After a string of kidnappings, these nine people are locked inside a room and handcuffed to pipes. Then a masked man enters and explains each of them is there for a reason, and to survive, they must figure out how they are all connected. He further explains that he will kill one of them every ten minutes until they figure it out. The kidnapper leaves and a countdown begins. The group begins introducing themselves, and a few early connections are made. Christian says he once borrowed money from Sully but paid it back. Coogan mentions he has been in multiple prisons. Kelley and Jackson are former lovers. Just as the group begins to think it is all a hoax, the kidnapper enters and shoots Christian.
After the masked man leaves, Leon has Sully stomp on his hand until it breaks, freeing himself from his handcuffs. He attempts to escape, but is caught and brought back by the shooter. The shooter then kills Coogan, who had mentioned earlier that he is dying anyway. The shooter whispers the reason in Coogan's ear, prompting Coogan to attack him before being shot. The shooter tells Leon he will be the next to die.
With seven people left, Mrs. Chan recognizes Kelley as her former lawyer after her store was robbed two years earlier. The group begins to see connections between themselves and the robber, Wade Greeley. The shooter returns, but as the seven only know part of the story, he shoots Leon. With the theory in doubt, it becomes clear that Father Francis knows more than he is admitting, but refuses to give further information. Eventually, it is determined that Greeley did not rob the store; the real robber, Christian, confessed to Father Francis that he committed the robbery to pay back Sully. However, when shown a line-up, Mrs. Chan mistakenly identified Greeley as the robber, and Kelley prosecuted him.
At this point, the shooter reenters, and since not all of the connections have been established, he tries to kill Eddie, but Father Francis puts himself in the path of the bullet and is killed instead. When Kelley identifies the shooter as Wade, he denies this and leaves. Once the shooter leaves, Sully realizes that before Christian robbed Mrs. Chan's store, he didn't have a gun, and must have bought one from Leon. The shooter enters and targets Mrs. Chan; instead of whispering the reason to her, he hands her a note written in Chinese. She pleads with him in Chinese (presumably revealing the shooter's motive to viewers who understand Chinese) before being shot. Kelley begs him to let her go to be with her son, but the shooter angrily berates Kelley for using her son as an excuse, and leaves, but not before hinting Jackson is the father of Kelley's baby.
Kelley confirms that Jackson is the father of her son, and also reveals she fabricated evidence to convict Greeley, saying she needed to win a case after many losses. She also reveals that Jackson unknowingly helped her falsify evidence, and that she once killed a man who raped her in self-defense, and swept it under the rug when the rapist's body was found. Eddie realizes the shooter must be Greeley's father, exacting revenge, and the remaining four begin to wonder what happened to Greeley after he went to prison. The shooter returns and kills Sully, who has no remorse for his actions.
With only Kelley, Jackson, and Eddie left, the three struggle to establish connections for Eddie and Coogan. Eddie supposes that Coogan was earlier referring to being infected with AIDS (since he mentioned the others being harmed by "blood splatter"), and, as he has been in multiple prisons, could have raped Greeley and infected him. Then the final connection is made; Greeley applied for an experimental drug treatment for HIV from Eddie's company, but Eddie would have had to reject him due to his criminal conviction. They explain this to the shooter, Greeley's father, who removes his mask and agrees to let them all go. Kelley is released, but, having slowly revealed her true nature, steals the gun and shoots Greeley's father, Eddie, and Jackson. Greeley's father, who was wearing a kevlar vest, recovers momentarily to reveal that the whole time "everybody has been watching" and that they now know "who the real Kelley Murphy is". He is then shot in the head, and Kelley escapes as the police arrive.
On the way home to the run-down shack he lives in with a can of dog food meant for himself, Johan Björk is accidentally covered by a pile of car tires thrown by a man who fails to notice him. His cries for help aren't perceived by anyone except one drunk, who is caught by the police when calling for assistance. Finally, at night, a young couple making love on the pile of tires notice him. They help him to get up and assist him to his home. He is hurt in the leg and understands that he can't take care of himself anymore, so he is put in a retirement home.
At the home, Johan is sitting in a wheelchair staring out the window, mumbling for himself about his past to an animated flashback. Johan grew up on the countryside, when the grass was always green. His father was strong, his mother liked to bake. He was also harassed by a boy named Evert, while at the same time being in love with Evert's cute sister. At his confirmation, Evert tackled him so that all the girls' dresses were ruined by the sacramental wine. This made Evert's sister laugh at him, and with his heart broken he decided to run away to Stockholm.
Johan started to work as a masonry, and carried bricks and bottles of beer to a foreman who consumed one bottle for ever brick he laid. In his loneliness, Johan fantasized about women, and made his first rousing visit to a brothel. He grew a moustache and visited an amusement park with two friends he had made, Sven and a man from Värmland who he has a hard time remembering the name of. They flirted with girls, and everybody laughed when Johan failed at kicking a can in order to camouflage a fart.
A nurse brings Johan back to reality to give him his medicine. Johan fantasizes about constructing a pyramid scheme that will give him thousands of whiskey bottles. He imagines a life of luxury in Monte Carlo, where he is also being chased by gangsters.
Once again Johan goes back to thinking about his past. He is struck by death angst while thinking of his dead parents. Johan also receives a letter from his son who ran away to America many years ago, since Johan wasn't a particularly successful father. The son is asking for money, while Johan is imagining what the American things mentioned in the letter might look like.
Johan is thinking about the modern day. The blocks he was involved in building are being demolished to give room for modernistic city planning. He summarizes his failed life for himself: poverty ruined his relationship, his son ran away and the wife died. He befriends Sven, another man at the retirement home, and together they drink to make the memories fade.
Set entirely within the seedy Atlantic club, Silver Johnny - a young and talented performer on the road to fame and fortune - is held back by his jealous and protective manager Ezra, owner of the nightclub and father to a psychotic unloved son, Baby. As Silver Johnny progresses up the ladder to stardom, local gangster/entrepreneur Sam Ross begins to take an interest, and the only way to remove opposition (Ezra) appears to be sawing him in half, kidnapping Silver Johnny and leaving the club's fate in a state of limbo.
Ezra is discovered the next morning by his second-in-command, the highly ambitious Mickey, who announces that Ross intends to take over the Atlantic Club, setting the stage for a major power struggle; "He's been fucking cut in half. He's in two bins..."
Terrified by the potential threat of extermination by Ross and his gang, associates of the now deceased Ezra, (Potts, Sweets, Skinny and Baby) begin to lose their nerve, and try to convince themselves it's Mickey's idea of a joke; "It's Mickey's joke, it's Mickey's morning joke!" When this turns out to be false, the Atlantic Club gang prepare for what could be their final night. With just an ancient cutlass and an old Derringer as defence, the group starts to argue amongst themselves and even considers joining Ross, or simply leaving.
As the day wears on, people begin to gather outside the club waiting for the doors to open, oblivious to the situation. Sweating it out inside, the small group of four have to break the tragic news of Ezra's grisly death to Baby, who takes the news in a dreamlike, distant manner. Uneasy about Baby's mental stability, the Atlantic gang begins to become restless - especially about their catering. Arguments break out over frivolous matters (Skinny's Uncle Tommy), and the group finally settles to consider just what its rivals are doing at that very moment.
In the climax to the fast-paced story, Sweets checks downstairs to see if the coast is clear for the gang to have a little space, rather than being cooped up in a single room, and finds Silver Johnny hanging from the ceiling. In sheer panic, Sweets calls for help, and is joined by the others. Baby reveals that by saving Silver Johnny he killed Mr Ross and discovered that Mickey had betrayed them all for a share in the business. Skinny arrives and insults Baby, who responds by shooting him in the head with the Derringer. Mickey, Potts and Sweets attempt to cover the wound and to calm Skinny down, while Baby wanders around aimlessly. Silver Johnny is lowered to the floor and Skinny dies. Unable to save Skinny's life, Mickey's authority and status break down, and he kneels beside his friend's body.
Hapless Walter Dinsmore undergoes his annual November breakdown at the 1964 World's Fair, has a love affair with his mother, recollects his hysterectomy operation, impersonates a cop, is sold as a piece of living art, goes to heaven, and becomes the singer in a rock band, but not necessarily in that order.
Something strange has been spotted over the treetops in the forest where Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball live, and Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) quickly builds a Binoculars to examine it. It turns out to be an emergency signal and the two friends together with Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) and Polly the Parrot (The Parrot) set out on an expedition to rescue whoever is sending the signal. While crossing a stream, though, Froggy Ball falls down a small waterfall and ends up in a dark Cave. While looking for a way out he stumbles upon the Isopoda people who live there and quickly befriends King Cone And Queen Cone.
In the meantime Charlie Strapp has met up with Princess Cone Green, a young and impulsive female cone, and soon joins Froggy Ball and the others. It turns out that the Cone people are the ones who have been sending the signal, and when elevated up to a tree top Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball see a helicopter landing, with three evil businessman from the company Tonto-Turbo who are planning to tear down a huge part of the forest. When the businessman leave, Connie ends up being with them on the helicopter. Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball hang onto the landing skids, but eventually fall off high up in the air over a lake. Luckily it turns out that Charlie's tailcoat can be used as a parachute, and Froggy Ball even learns how to steer it by pulling the tails so they can land on a steam boat.
On the boat Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) and Polly succeed to locate them so they can join them again. The boat takes them to Gripsholm Castle, which turns out to be where the businessmen were heading too, as their full plan is to move the old castle to the cleared space in the forest and turn it into a hyper modern luxury hotel, replacing most of its walls and floors with glass. This will be made possible by hacking the authorities' computers with a special program they are keeping on a floppy disk. Connie, who has been hiding in a briefcase, tries to steal the disk but fails. Instead she, Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball end up on the bottom of the castle well, but are soon rescued by Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) who has the ability to fly.
In the meantime the men from Tonto-Turbo leave again in their helicopter. Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) calculates that they are heading to Ericsson Globe, before he flies back to the cone forest with Cone Green. In the city, Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball walk up to Ericsson Globe and confront them, but are simply laughed at and disregarded. The businessmen then head off to the Nobel party where they have been invited. The two friends, left in the office, discover that the men forgot to bring the floppy disk with them. They try to find out which one of the disks at the office it is that is the real one, and while trying one in the computer the frog ends up inside of a computer game and Charlie has to control him into safety with the joystick. Soon after that, one of the men returns – and takes the right disk with him.
Unable to get into the Stockholm City Hall, Froggy Ball is ready to give up when a submarine appears. Out of it come Tin-Can Harry (Sheet-Niklas) and Connie who have returned. Through the kitchen they smuggle themselves into the party by hiding in the dessert – an ice cream parade. When inside Froggy Ball holds a speech where he accuses the men from Tonto-Turbo in public. The atmosphere becomes confused, and the men capture the two friends and decide to get rid of them once and for all. But then suddenly Phil the Fox (The Fox), who had previously only been seen in a short cameo in the very beginning of the story, arrives and causes disruption. While the men are distracted everybody can escape, and Connie steals the floppy disk. After a wild chase through, the men recapture the disk, but only to see an army of cones arrive and chase them into the water, where also the disk is dropped by The Parrot. Back in the cone forest the frog is awarded a prize from the hands of the cone Minister of Flower Pots and the businessman are given a new profession – shaving sheep which they seem to enjoy.
Rene is in the bath having a conversation with her cousin Zane, who is in the bathroom with her. He pushes her underwater, and she begins to drown. While looking up at his face from under the water, she sees the visage of an old woman above her. She awakes with a start, having fallen asleep and begun to drown. Her boyfriend Danny wakes her up, and the two make out.
Zane, who has enlisted the help of Phil to research his family history, visits his family home with Phil, Rene, Danny, and her two sorority pledges, Julie "Cow" and Laura "Dog". The two pledges have been forced to dress up as animals as an initiation. Zane constantly sees an old woman on the side of the road, culminating in her appearance in the middle of the road, which causes him to almost crash.
Lester, the caretaker, is living in a trailer on the land, searching for gold. He has found some, but does not tell anyone. The college students marvel at his stuffed oddities, since he is an amateur taxidermist. He warns the group not to go into the subcellar, or to go outside after dark.
Settling in, Rene enslaves Julie and Laura and forces Phil to explain how he knows so much about Rene and Zane's family history. Phil goes outside to get a signal on his mobile phone, but is cut in half by a ghost armed with an axe.
The five remaining teens decide to learn more about the family history. Rene has fun with Julie and Laura by making them perform "The Godiva Run", a college sorority tradition of running with the participate only wearing one item of clothing and it can't be an overcoat. The girls are dared to perform The Godiva Run to Lester's caravan and bring back one of his stuffed animals. Julie chooses to wear her pants and Laura chooses to wear her boots with Laura boldly and happily streaking naked through the desert towards Lester's caravan and accomplishes the task, but Julie doesn't because she sprains her ankle.
Rene gives Julie one more task to take off her clothes, except for underwear, and be blindfolded. Rene takes Zane's belt and uses it on Julie as a test of trust. Soon, Rene and Laura depart, leaving Julie standing there. Danny decides to go get Phil but finds out that he's dead just before his face is cut off. When the lights go out, Zane goes out to check the machine to find it's still functioning normally, but the cable was cut. Zane finds Danny's faceless body, as do Rene and Laura. Zane, Rene and Laura dash back inside the house, thinking Lester is behind Danny's murder, but they find Lester dead as well.
They try to escape with their car, but find it has been sabotaged. They grab Lester's keys and Laura dashes to Lester's caravan to get his truck. While Zane and Rene are still in the house, Zane gets locked in another room and Rene is knocked unconscious with the spirit scratching the words "Sins Of The Father" on her back. Zane finally breaks through and kills the woman, but whilst barricading them in a room, the woman appears and knocks Zane unconscious.
Laura returns with Lester's truck and the woman is about to slaughter Laura, but disappears after seeing a tattoo that's similar to the necklace Rene had throughout the movie. Laura escapes, while Rene and Zane wake to find themselves in some kind of box. The old woman quickly grabs the necklace and drops the gold ring taken by the caretaker in the beginning of the movie. Rene and Zane scream in fear as the old woman buries them alive.
Saki Miyanaga, a freshman in high school, does not like mahjong because her family would always force her to play it and punish her regardless of the outcome of the game. Due to this, she learned how to keep her score at zero, neither winning nor losing, a skill said to be more difficult than actually consistently winning. However, her friend from middle school, completely unaware of such circumstances, convinces her to visit the school's small mahjong club upon entering Kiyosumi High School. After the club discovers her ability, they recruit her permanently and convince her to win instead of breaking even. She easily does so with her skill and discovers a new love for mahjong, along with a friendship with her fellow club member, Nodoka Haramura. This leads the team to enter the prefecture's high school mahjong tournament with the goal of reaching the national high school competition.
The side-story manga, ''Saki: Achiga-hen episode of Side-A'', is based in the area around Yoshino, Nara and follows a girl named Shizuno Takakamo, an old friend of Nodoka's, who used to be in Achiga Girls Academy's mahjong club together. A few years after the club disbanded and the two split up, Shizuno spots Nodoka on television as she makes her stride in mahjong. Wanting to see her old friend again, Shizuno decides to revive the Achiga Mahjong Club so that she can face against Nodoka in the inter-high national championships. The spin-off, ''Shinohayu the dawn of age'', shows the childhood of the various pro mahjong players in the series, focusing on a girl named Shino Shiratsuki who enters the world of competitive mahjong to seek out her mother who disappeared one day.
''Liverpool 1'' focuses on Detective Constable Isobel De Pauli (Samantha Janus), a successful Metropolitan Police detective. Her boyfriend’s career move to Liverpool in turn sees De Pauli transferred there, and given a job within the Bridewell Vice Squad, under the control of Chief Inspector Graham Hill (Eamon Boland), and overseen by DI Howard Jones (Tom Georgeson). Upon arrival, she is partnered with introverted DC Mark Callaghan (Mark Womack), a no-nonsense officer brought up on the streets of the city he now polices. De Pauli initially takes a disliking to Callaghan, after discovering that he was responsible for throwing a suspect from an apartment window, which is depicted in the opening sequence of the first episode, "Fresh Meat". However, as her relationship with boyfriend Will Timmer (Tristan Sturrock) collapses, De Pauli grows closer and closer to Callaghan, and becomes friends with his sister, Julie (Gillian Kearney), eventually becoming her lodger. De Pauli shows initial disdain for her new colleagues, but continually grows to like and become good friends with them as time goes on.
A number of events occur during the first series which depict the true identity of each character. DC Frank White (Paul Broughton) is depicted as a womaniser and all-round layabout, a decision which comes to haunt him when he places De Pauli's life in danger during a surveillance op in "Pipe Dreams", where he leaves his post to engage in sexual relations with the owner whose flat is being used as the OP. DC Jo McMullen (Katy Carmichael) is depicted as somewhat of an "ice queen", and immediately causes tension between herself and De Pauli. In "Death By Misadventure", the pair finally come to blows - but the subsequent fallout leads to somewhat of an epiphany for the pair. Callaghan is depicted as having somewhat broken relationships with a number of his siblings. The relationship with his brother, drug-addicted Patrick (Scot Williams), is fractured further when he forces Patrick to become an informant, which results in him being shot by a gang of drug dealers, leaving him with only one leg. His relationship with his sister, Julie, isn't much better. His older brother, Ian (Andrew Lancel), a priest for the Catholic church, also holds him in low respect. The first series also centres on the initial personality clash between De Pauli and Callaghan.
John Sullivan (Paul Usher), is the main antagonist of the series. The ongoing saga of the squad's pursuit of him over his dodgy business dealings, doubled with the fact that is none other than Callaghan's cousin, makes for a complex interweb of events which sees him turn from criminal mastermind to supergrass. It is also revealed that Callaghan previously had a relationship with Sullivan's wife, Sue, before they got together. Callaghan's difficult relationship with Sullivan is a recurring theme throughout the series. The interconnectedness of the city and its patrons results in several minor characters making more than once appearance in the series, including DS Christian Tomaszewski, who is introduced in "Nine Till Five" as an out-of-town detective investigating drug dealer O'Brien, who the squad also have in their sights. Tomaszewski then becomes a recurring character throughout the remainder of the series. One of the main relationships featured in the series, between De Pauli and Callaghan, later re-enacted itself in real life, as Janus and Womack began a relationship during the filming of the series. They have since had two children, Benjamin and Lily-Rose, and on 17 May 2009 the pair were married.
Four kathoey—Mod, Som, Kam-pang and Wa-wa—move from a rural town to attend St. Mary's High School in Bangkok. Once there they try to join the school's cheerleading team, only to be rejected because of their sexuality. Instead they join the school's struggling rugby team, making friends with the other team members after they score a number of tries in an important game.
Toey, another kathoey from the boys hometown, comes to Bangkok with the idea of forming a new cheerleading team, which they name "The Queen". From the start the boys have to face a number of problems, but with the help of their friends on the rugby team they manage to get to the finals of the national cheerleading competition.
A pharmacist, police officer, and a toilet cleaner are riding a bus on a fateful night. The trio share a bizarre and tragic, life-altering experience when the bus becomes hijacked by a terrorist. The terrorist forces the three into a violent game of Rock, Paper, Scissors and Russian roulette, which toilet cleaner Testsu loses. The terrorist then shoots Tetsu, causing the bus to make a sudden stop. After noticing that pharmacist Saki has only one eye, the terrorist suddenly feels remorse and finally turns the weapon on himself. The tragic bus ride leaves police officer Shingo feeling humiliated and ashamed of himself, for not handling the bus hijacking.
Several months later, Shingo meets Tetsu again. After being humiliated in the police force, and saving Tetsu from the yakuza, the two decides to get revenge on society by starting a revenge-for-hire operation. By scribbling on bathroom walls to advertise their business, Shingo and Tetsu offer their services to anyone with a problem. Meanwhile, the pharmacist Saki, also affected by the hijacking becomes disillusioned and anti-social. She begins to plot her own ways of getting revenge on society by constructing a liquid bomb.
The story is about a country girl, Ange who is insecure and does not realise the power she possesses until she is invited to a sacred land along with 99 girls who is invited by 9 guardians. The guardians reveal that among them is the legendary etoile who is destined to carry out a mission of saving a galaxy. The etolite will shine brightly when visible. Ange's life changes as she is revealed to be actually a male legendary etolite .
With Fawn's prompting, Dag seeks out a teacher. A powerful groundsetter at local New Moon Cutoff Camp could be the answer to his prayers, but conflicts arise between the insular Lakewalker traditions and Dag's determination to be a healer for farmers. Dag, Fawn, Arkady the groundsetter and others embark on a long journey by wagon. They are joined by several other characters, some Lakewalker, some farmer, including Fawn's brother, Whit, and his wife, Berry. On their way up the Trace, a long wagon road, they encounter a malice, an evil being with great power. A Lakewalker kills the malice with a sharing knife. Fawn guesses that this malice was fleeing something even more powerful. That turns out to be a second malice. That malice is killed by Whit, aided by Fawn and Berry, which is unprecedented—no farmer has ever killed a malice without Lakewalker aid before.
At the end of the book, Dag and Fawn's vision of closer cooperation and understanding between Lakewalkers and farmers, as partners, is beginning to be achieved.
Prince Roger is ordered by his mother and older half-brother to attend a ceremony in Leviathan. Roger travels on the spaceship ''Charles DeGlopper'' with Eleanora O'Casey, Kostas Matsugae, and Captain Vil Krasnitsky. During the trip, a sentry is discovered shot dead on the ship, and Sergeant-Major Eva Kosutic then discovers charges in the main plasma conduits. Kosutic catches the ship's logistics officer, Ensign Guha, and shoots her just before the charges are detonated. As a result, the ship is forced to land in the nearest star system, Marduk.
Prince Roger and his body guards escape in shuttles hoping to land on the planet and capture the space port. The shuttles eventually land further from the port than planned and Bravo Company sets out on their long journey. The company reach a jungle and D'Nall Cord, a shaman of the X'Intai people, suddenly appears from the jungle. He decides to introduce them to his tribe. While in the village, Cord and Delkra (the tribal chief) consult with Roger, Pahner and O'Casey on a serious problem facing the tribe from the city-state of Q'Nkok. The city and the X'Intai have a treaty whereby the city dwellers are permitted to cut only certain trees in a specific area of the tribe's territory. In recent months the woodcutters have been cutting deeper into the jungle than permitted. To attack the woodcutters would create war. The tribe could launch a surprise attack on Q'Nkok and feast on their food stores, but Pahner requests that they delay attacking Q'Nkok until after the company has gone there.
The company proceeds to Q'Nkok. They are brought before the King Xiya Kan and state their need for supplies in exchange for hi-tech tools. The company arrange to eavesdrop on the king's council and hear him attack them for their continued misconduct. The company bugs all the great houses to discover who is involved and the marines discover that three of the great houses are conspiring to topple the king. The marines and the king's guards assault the Great Houses' homes and afterwards the company and the marines set forth into Kranolta territory. As Kranolta hunters ambush the company repeatedly, Sergeant Cobedra is killed. Meanwhile, the Kranolta assemble all of their tribes and decide to attack the human invaders. They strike and the company is forced to try to get to the walls of the city.
The next day, the Kranolta approach the Citadel. Suddenly, a new force emerges from the jungle which assault the Kranolta's remaining forces. The reduced company depart from Voitan and continue to march until they reach Marshad. They arrive at the king's palace. Later, Lt. Jasco, Kosutic, Julian, Poertena and Denat meet in the kitchen and witness a wall opening up to reveal Kheder Bijan. Kheder tells the humans that King Radj will have to send his entire army to destroy them. Kheder says that there are factions in Marshad in league with Pasule. All the marines need to do is to attack the army. On the morning of the battle, the marines set off to the battle field. The plasma cannon is hauled to the top of a hill and the bridge explodes and breaks. Three days after the battle, Roger meets with Kheder Bijan, who is the new king of Marshad and inquires as to the delay in giving them the supplies and shields that were promised. However, after getting in a conflict with Kheder, Roger shoots him.
T'Leen establishes a more rational regime, redistributing the land and dedicating more of it to food production. Roger then mounts the ''flar-ta'' Patty and gives to order to continue the march towards the mountains.
Two families, the Santos and the Olmos, face a fight of power, ambitions, selfishness and love. The Santos are provincial family that has a pottery factory with financial problems, which Ramiro Santos (Rogelio Guerra) manages along with his cousin Evaristo Olmos (Joaquín Cordero). However, this business deal finishes due to personal differences, this provokes the rancor and hate of Ramiro, and his family goes into bankruptcy, while Evaristo Olmos achieves an excellent status.
When Ramiro dies, his family moves to the capital, hoping for a good fortune. But destiny will set a trap, when Evaristo offers his house for them to live, here his family treat them very bad, with contempt and haughtiness because they are the poor relatives.
A modern-day reinterpretation of Ovid's myth of Iphis, it concerns two sisters, Anthea and Imogen (Midge) living in Inverness. Imogen works in the marketing department of a large company producing bottled water, Anthea is on work experience in the same department but then falls in love with Robin, a genderqueer environmental activist. It also vividly portrays her sister Imogen and her joyful emergence from low self-esteem.
The film takes place in Tokyo in 2003, where two reporters, Erin and Sarah Lynch, have arrived to document unusual seismic disturbances that have been picked up around Tokyo. The disturbances are originally thought to be aftershocks left over from a supposed massive earthquake on the Kanto Fault that occurred two years previously, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties and several hundred billion dollars in damage (possibly referencing the real-life Fukuoka earthquake or the Miyagi earthquake), although careful analysis of the evidence suggests otherwise.
As time goes on, all of Tokyo begins to suffer from abnormal earth tremors similar to those registered in 2005. The tremors are found not to be caused by an earthquake, but by a gigantic octopus that has been dormant for centuries. It has since been awakened by mankind and now sees Tokyo as a new feeding-ground; the filmmakers document the catastrophe as it unfolds.
It starts as Erin and Sarah are talking about filming Tokyo. The scene then switches to the interior of Erin's car as the two drive to LAX, to catch their flight to Tokyo. In Tokyo they rent a hotel room, and, the next day, Sarah films Erin talking with the global warming minister. During the interview, an earthquake strikes and the scene again switches to the reporters in the basement of the environmental building. They find a survivor named Justin Robbins, and as they flee, they hear the sounds of panic and plane engines from a tunnel.
Later, they find a mall, and another earthquake occurs. In the chaos, Justin is impaled by a pole as the reporters flee in panic. Some small text appears on the screen saying that tape #3 was damaged. As the reporters run toward a mall they find a woman (Aiko) and her grandfather, and they eat and sleep, Erin not realizing she had left the camera turned on. Then, another earthquake begins and kills the grandfather as the woman tells the reporters to flee. They hear the mall explode as they run away and soon find a building which they enter. They have gone upstairs when the building suddenly collapses. The reporters survive, but the collapse damages the camera lens.
Night arrives and they see helicopters ready to save refugees, but a tentacle destroys them and proceeds to throw cars at the people, killing many of them. Panic ensues, and Sarah abandons Erin. A tentacle slams into the ground where Erin is and she is wounded. Additionally, the camera's batteries run low. Sarah cries for Erin as the crash of a tentacle hitting the ground is heard, ending the film, which indicates that the reporters were crushed by the monster and were among the thousands, if not millions, killed.
During World War II, a squad of five American soldiers become lost in Tunisia and are killed one by one in fights with German units. Finally only one man, Private Russo, is left, in the midst of a mine field, together with a German officer, locked in a stalemate. Russo has water, while the German claims to have a map revealing the mine positions. So Russo agrees to swap water for the map, but the German officer tries to double-cross him.
When a hot air balloon crashes on a remote and uncharted island, the four balloonists and their dog Melvin are captured by a pair of drunken old pirates who take them to the hilltop laboratory home of Dr. Frankenstein's modern-day descendant Sheila Frankenstein (Katherine Victor) who is carrying on the family tradition by turning shipwrecked sailors into pre-programmed bloodless, black-garbed zombies who must wear sunglasses to protect their weird white eyes from light.
Discovering that one of the new arrivals is a doctor (Robert Clarke), the buxom, white-haired Sheila quickly brainwashes him into helping her try to save her bedridden 200-year-old husband Dr. Van Helsing using the blood of a Poe-quoting prisoner (Cameron Mitchell) and the nubile bodies of a local tribe of primitive bikini-clad Amazon jungle girls descended from highly advanced aliens who once used the rocky, desolate island as their secret Earth landing site.
Meanwhile, the mystic spirit of her ancestor (John Carradine) hovers ever near, channeling from the Great Beyond all of the arcane energies that charge her experiments as he rants about "''The Power! The Power!!''", while his immortal creation, the original Frankenstein Monster, lies trapped underwater at the bottom of a pool hidden in a cave, biding its time as it waits for its chance to escape.
Dr. Morrison has been sent into the jungles of India to investigate reports about a strange set of burning rocks, which have left many natives with radiation burns. With Jungle Boy (Sabu) as his assistant, Morrison gives the natives medical treatment, angering the local holy man (or "witch doctor"), who perceives Morrison as a threat to his power and influence over the natives. In the course of uncovering the mystery, the Doctor, Jungle Boy and other explorers encounter what appear to be flying saucers, the sources of the radiation.
Russian refugee Tanya Borisoff is suddenly abandoned penniless in Rangoon, Burma, by her lover, Tony Evans, who accepted a gunrunning deal from Nick, the owner of an amoral nightclub. Nick made the deal hoping to get Tanya as his main "hostess," which Tanya accepts after an initial refusal, just to make the best of a bad situation. She becomes notorious using the name "Spot White," but her affairs cause the commissioner of police to deport her. She reminds the commissioner of a previous tryst he had with her and extorts 10,000 rupees from him with which to make a new life. She uses a new name, Marjorie Lang, going to Mandalay, Burma, via the Irrawadi River by steamer, where she meets alcoholic Dr. Gregory Burton, who is on his way to help in an area plagued with a deadly contagious fever. As they slowly fall in love, she learns he's doing that to make amends for once operating on a patient while drunk, causing his death. She decides to go with him so they can put their pasts behind them together. But Tony is on the steamer too, and tries to convince Tanya he still loves her. Tony gets a wire from Nick telling him the police are on his trail and will pick him up at the next port, so he leaves evidence to suggest he took poison and jumped overboard, but actually he hides in the hold of the boat. The captain finds the evidence and believes Tanya murdered Tony, but at the urging of Dr. Burton and the first mate who finds the wire, he finally decides it was a suicide and frees her. When Tony returns to an astonished Tanya, he tries to convince her to open a club with him in Mandalay, where she could be a "hostess" again. Through with that life, she eyes the poison still in the cabin as Tony asks her to make him a drink.
During a football game, a piece of window glass is smashed in an Iranian school. The boy responsible for the incident, Kuchakpourso, is told that he should replace the glass or he will be expelled from the school. Kuchakpourso is helped by his friend Razam, a new boy in the school, who persuades his parents to pay for the glass. However, Kuchakpourso had been ordered to carry the piece of glass to the school alone. The weather was bitter and the wind so strong that he almost failed on the road. He tried hard and finally moved the load back to the classroom where he was supposed to fix the broken window. He was alone again with no one to turn to for help. in the end, the glass was crushed to pieces by the wind.
The player plays as characters from different countries and races on circuits from those characters' home countries.
Charles runs a website that reviews "the more macabre of the cinema world" and he has stayed up a bit too late trying to catch up on his work ala a horror movie marathon. In his rapid absorption of an endless series of dark delicacies, Charles has emerged the next day, the first day of Summer School in a bit of a mental flux. He is slipping in and out of consciousness, into a realm of sadistic, genre bending nightmares that test his sanity and question his grip on reality.
Edward the Less is a Pudge, a race of short and merry people who spend their days in the Pudgelands dancing, eating horrible food, singing inane songs and whistling. But Edward is frustrated with the overly merry lifestyle and dreams of seeking out a magical city island he has read about, which includes tall people, skyscrapers, pizza and people who ride around in yellow cars and push each other around. Edward decides to leave his hamlet of Pushington Downs, along with his faithful sidekick Soapwort McFuggletoes. During their journey, the duo come into possession of a magic token, which they are forced to destroy so it will not fall into the hands of the evil Dark Person.
A poor couple wants to have a boy but instead they get a girl. A boy is born afterwards but something terrible happens, which ruins the relationship between mother and daughter.
Pedro is a firefighter which lives in the neighborhood of Tinguá, in the border of Rio de Janeiro and Nova Iguaçu municipalities. After the sudden death of his parents, Pedro became responsible for the custody of his three brothers: Viviane, Rafael and trouble-maker Antônio, who works on GG ("''Gelado-e-Gostoso''", which is Portuguese for "''Icy-and-Delicious''"), a fictional ice cream factory located in Tinguá. At nights, Antônio and his gang ("''Gangue do Ferro-Velho''", Portuguese for "''The Junkyard Gang''") practices acts of vandalism on the neighborhood, what makes his relationship with Pedro progressively estranged. Pedro dates Ivonete, twin sister of Lieutenant Wallace, Pedro's best friend since childhood.
Carolina is the only child of Walter and Arlete, founders of GG. She lives in the upper-class neighborhood of Urca and manages her own video production company. She dates Tomás for three years. She is about to marry him, without suspecting that all he wants is to take control of GG. Tomás is the son of manipulative Vilma, co-founder of GG, which wants them to get marry for her to control GG once again. Her late husband João co-founded GG with Walter, Arlete and her, but Walter dissolved the partnership after João was accused of corruption, taking control of all the factory shares himself.
Pedro and Carolina where friends at childhood, but lost personal contact after they became adults. After Antônio set fire on a fraternization of GG workers, they meet once again. They feel a sudden attraction for each other, what causes instantaneous jealousy on Tomás. A security worker delates Antônio, who loses his job, compromising even more the troubled relationship with his brother. Carolina was filming the fraternization and returns at the factory at the same night to pick up her camera. She sees herself trapped when somebody sets the building on fire. Pedro and Wallace go for her rescue and, on the meanwhile, Wallace dies. Antônio's gang was depredating GG's wall during the same night, and he is suspected of setting the place on fire. The factory works are transferred to a second building on the same area.
Realizing the mutual interest between Carolina and Pedro, Ivonete decides to ally with Tomás to separate them. The plan fails, and Carolina starts dating Pedro, while Tomás starts a relationship with Ivonete. Vilma, the real incendiary, falsifies an insurance policy to look like Walter set his own factory on fire. She set the factory on fire to eliminate proof that she and Tomás were committing corruption. Tomás' hate against Walter and his family is fed by his mother, who tells him that Walter was responsible for João's death. According to her, João could not handle the pressure of being accused by Walter and died of a heart attack. It is then revealed that João died after being hit on the head by Miguel, Vilma's lover. After discovering this, Tomás turns against his mother, which becomes the main suspect of setting the factory on fire after the testimonies of Verônica and Ricardo, secretaries on the factory, which had seen her with her second victim, an insurance worker which she bribed to falsify the policy whose car had blown up. After Walter dies on a set-up, it is revealed that there is a second incendiary, self-named "Phoenix", who is trying to incriminate Vilma. The identity of Walter's killer (i.e. "Phoenix") remained unknown until the last chapter, when the mysterious firer armed an ambush which resulted in Arlete's death (she was exploded alive inside her own car while chasing after Vilma) and Vilma incriminated with murder, thus sending her to prison. Through a teddy bear encasing a cell phone linked with a powerful bomb, "Phoenix" revealed himself to Vilma to be indeed Leo, partnered with his older sister Darlene, the villainess's former house maid. Leo and Darlene finally reveal their prime motive to destroy Vilma: they were both children of the deceased legist doctor whom Vilma bribed to deliver a false autopsy record surrounding João's death; times later, the same doctor, unable to live anymore with the shame of doing such an unethical thing, committed suicide, thus triggering Leo's and Darlene's thirst of revenge against Vilma for their father. Vilma is then killed by the blast, but "Phoenix"'s identities remained unknown for anyone else in the series.
Lucio Fulci (playing himself) is a former medical doctor-turned director of gory horror films. He wraps up shooting for the day on his latest film, ''Touch of Death''. Fulci leaves the Cinecittà Studios for a local restaurant down the street. The waiter recognizes him and suggests his typical meal. Fulci cannot look at the sample plates of meat without having flashbacks to the cannibalistic scene he'd been filming earlier. Shaken, he leaves the restaurant without ordering. Later, while checking special effects from another movie, Fulci irritably snaps at a technician to get a plate of animal eyeballs out of his sight.
Returning home to his row house in an old suburb of Rome, the troubled director tries to sleep, but the noise of a handyman's chainsaw outside keeps him awake with recollections of his own recently shot chainsaw mayhem. In a rage, Fulci storms outside and smashes a hatchet into cans of paint belonging to the handyman. Fulci goes to see a psychiatrist, professor Egon Schwarz who accepts Fulci into his books for a session. Schwarz discusses Fulci's recent problems and suggests that he's "breaking down the barrier, the boundary between what you film and what's real."
Fulci is revealed to be making two films simultaneously: ''The Touch of Death'' and ''Ghosts of Sodom''. After Fulci leaves the set, his producer steers him into a studio suite for an interview with a Munich news crew. The sight of the tall, blond, German lady reporter's long legs triggers a vision of sexual abandon in Nazi Germany (from the film ''Ghosts of Sodom''). When Fulci recovers from his vision, Filippo then informs the confused director that he has just run amok, smashed the TV crew's camera, and tried to rip the interviewer's clothes off.
Professor Schwarz calls Fulci for another consultation after he had watched all of his films. He suggests using hypnosis. Once Fulci is under, the Professor's true colors are revealed. He switches on a buzzer device and describes a mad scheme: "You'll do everything I tell you when you hear this sound. You will slowly be possessed by madness. You'll think you've committed terrible crimes." After the session is over, Fulci leaves, unable to remember anything. Schwarz then embarks on a killing spree, starting with the murder of a local prostitute that evening. Fulci arrives on the scene and thinks he committed the murder.
Back home the following morning, Fulci is plagued with visions of violence from his movies. He goes for a drive, but Schwarz follows him and commits more murders, again Fulci thinks he committed them. Fulci hallucinates running over a tramp (from the movie ''Touch of Death''). After returning home, he phones the police station to speak to his friend Inspector Gabrielli, intending to make a "confession." But learns that Gabrielli is on vacation.
After another visit to Professor Schwarz is of little help, Fulci decides to drive over to Inspector Gabrielli's house in the hope of speaking to him. Schwarz follows him there with the buzzer device. Fulci lets himself into the house, and immediately suffers from visions of Gabrielle's family being murdered. Fulci staggers outside to be greeted by the returning Gabrielle, when Fulci expresses his visions to him he reassures the director that his family are safely on holiday in Sardinia.
Meanwhile, Professor Schwarz murders his wife with piano wire. Schwarz then follows Fulci, who, again under the influence of hypnosis, has more visions of violent imagery and faints in the middle of a field. He comes round the next morning to discover a cat digging up the loosely buried remains of another Swharz victim. As Fulci scrapes soil from the dead features, Inspector Gabrielli appears behind him. Before Fulci can protest his innocence, Gabrielli informs him that Schwarz has been shot dead by his men who were tailing Fulci which he ordered after their conversation the previous day, who caught the mad psychiatrist in the act.
Several months later, Fulci and Nurse Lilly sail on his sailboat, ''Perversion'' (named after his movie). Fulci follows the young nurse into the cabin-quarters. Suddenly, the sound of a chainsaw revs up, followed by her screams. Fulci emerges from the cabin with a basket of her body parts and attaches them onto fishing hooks. Just when it appears that Fulci is a crazed killer after all, it is revealed that it’s the end of his latest movie, ''Nightmare Concert'', captured by a film crew in another boat sailing alongside. Bidding goodbye to his colleagues, Fulci happily sails out of the harbor with his very-much-alive leading lady.
(An alternate ending added by the Italian distributor to the Italian language print ends with a bloodcurdling scream from below deck dubbed onto the soundtrack after Fulci and the girl sail away from the dock, hinting that Fulci ''was'' a maniacal killer.)
The film depicts the struggle of Luz Cuevas (Judy Reyes) to find her baby daughter, Delimar Vera Cuevas, who disappeared in 1997 after their house caught fire during a party, just ten days after she was born. The police reported that Delimar was killed in the fire. However, Cuevas suspects that she was kidnapped and that the fire was staged by an outsider. Her husband, Pedro Vera (Hector Luis Bustamante), becomes estranged from her as a result. Six years after the fire, Cuevas meets Valerie Valleja (Ana Ortiz), former wife of one of Pedro's cousins, who was also at the party on the day of the fire. She has a six-year-old girl with her, named Aaliyah. The girl bears a resemblance to Cuevas and she suspects it is Delimar. Cuevas begins an investigation into Valleja, and finds out that Aaliyah is in fact Delimar through a DNA test. Valerie is arrested and Aaliyah (Delimar) is returned to her family.
Robin finds a work permit notice from Immigration stating that if she does not get a job in the next seven days, she will be deported back to Canada. She first tries for a position on the News 10 channel but fails since she has no catch phrase to end her broadcast and simply strings together weird phrases (finishing with "wear a condom").
After Ted laughs at Marshall's basketball record listed on his resume, Marshall defends himself by mentioning a medical condition he has that prevents him from playing. It is later revealed that the condition is actually "dancer's hip", a malady common among ballet dancers. The gang jokes about it, much to Marshall's dismay, but he later admits to Lily that he does dance "more than you know". Barney shows his "awesome video résumé"; after seeing it, Robin requests to have one made.
Robin notices that Barney's video resume uses meaningless buzz words, such as "the Possimpible" to describe the nexus between the Possible and the Impossible. She does not agree with his method of getting a new job (including breaking 15 bricks with her forehead and wearing an Amazon warrior outfit). Her last remaining choice is the Lottery girl job. After Robin is turned down from that job, Ted, Marshall, and Lily are there for her in her last hours in the US. Barney finishes Robin's video résumé without her and it gets her a job at channel 12 hosting a new morning show.
Meanwhile, Ted, Marshall, and Lily reflect on the unnecessary additions to their résumé. Ted still includes his stint as a supposedly controversial DJ (a persona he named "Dr. X") at WESU, Marshall includes his basketball dunking championship from Minnesota and Lily includes her victory at a hot dog eating contest (29 dogs in eight minutes, with a nickname of Lily "The Belly" Aldrin). None of these "achievements" have anything to do with their current careers.
While Ted and Marshall delete their "special" entries from their résumés, Lily updates hers after eating 33 hot dogs in eight minutes at MacLaren's in front of a cheering crowd.
Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang-sheng), a young man in his 20s, is going up an escalator in Taipei when he meets an old girlfriend of his (Chen Shiang-chyi). She convinces him to accompany her to a film shoot that she is working on. While eating lunch, Hsiao-Kang is spotted by the film's director (Ann Hui). The scene that they are currently shooting needs an actor, so Hsiao-Kang agrees to step in. He lies face down in the dirty Tamsui River for a few seconds, pretending to be a dead body.
After the scene is completed, he and his friend get a room in a hotel so Hsiao-Kang can take a shower. The two then have sexual intercourse. Hsiao-Kang drives home on his motorcycle and begins to feel some soreness in his neck. He eventually falls off the bike, and a man, later shown to be his father (Miao Tien), tries to help him up, but Hsiao-Kang ignores him and drives the rest of the way back.
By that night, his neck pain is even worse. He goes to his mother (Lu Yi-ching), and she rubs some lotion on him. However, the pain does not go away. The family tries different methods of healing, including acupuncture, but nothing works, and Hsiao-Kang begins to wish he were dead. Meanwhile, it is apparent that the family is fractured, with communication problems. Hsiao-Kang's father regularly visits a bathhouse and has sexual encounters with other men. The mother is having an affair with a pornographer.
Finally, Hsiao-Kang and his father travel to see a provincial healer. The healer is not able to foresee anything on their first visit, so they rent a hotel room. That night, they both go to the same bathhouse, separately. Hsiao-Kang eventually walks into his dad's room in the dark, and the two give each other handjobs.
When Hsiao-Kang's father turns the light on and sees his son, he slaps him, and Hsiao-Kang runs out. They meet back at the hotel room. The next morning, the father receives a phone call from the healer, who says that he cannot help them. The father then wakes Hsiao-Kang up and says that they're leaving. Hsiao-Kang walks out onto the hotel room balcony, while clutching his neck and grimacing in pain.
Takuya and Haruka are manning a submersible during an experiment on a new laser weapon. After firing the laser from a satellite, a stranger creature appears. They are ordered to take a sample. Three years later, Takuya gets a letter from Haruka to visit him at a research center. Haruka says that nothing is wrong and that he sent no letter. Rui, a girl who works at the center says that Haruka has been acting very strange lately, and isolates himself in the lab for weeks. Later, a radar center is completely destroyed by another mysterious creature.
Takuya, attempts to figure out the mystery. He breaks into the director's lab with the help of a friend and examines files relating to Haruka's research. In the files, Haruka discusses how the laser likely opens a portal to another dimension. The military then storms the base and takes it over. Haruka calls Takuya to meet him. There he explains that he created a dimensional transfer canon, which summoned another demonic creature, which fused with the canon. Soldiers then arrive to arrest Haruka, but Haruka fuses with the giant demonic creature named Ika Oni. He then destroys most of the research center. During the escape, Rui is killed.
In an attempt to control the situation, the center's director orders the military to fire the laser canon on the island. It fails to destroy the creature. Takuya then pilots another giant demonic creature from the ocean named Hagane and does battle with Haruka's creature. He destroys Haruka's creature. The force of its destruction destroys most of the island. The OVA ends with Takuya awakening on debris floating in water.
Gamba, a brown mouse, embarks on a sailing journey with his childhood friend. They gather experienced mice sailors at a harbour. They encounter Chūta, a mouse who has been injured and is seeking help. He appeals for Gamba and Bōbo to assist him in defending the island of Yumemishima and its inhabitants from the cruel and wicked invading Noroi Clan. Gamba elects to sail to Yumemishima with Chūta to help defend the island, and Gamba recruits more mice to join their cause on the island.
The small Alaskan town of Beaver Mills is located just north of the Arctic Circle, meaning that the sun does not set during the summer solstice. As the town prepares for its annual celebration of this event, a wyvern, a fierce winged beast similar in appearance to a dragon, is released by the melting of the ice caps. A fisherman alone on the shore of a lake nearby, cuts himself while cleaning a fish, casually washes his injury over the water, and as the blood hits the lake the wyvern attacks.
Meanwhile, in town, ice trucker Jake Suttner (Nick Chinlund), acts as a handyman, fixing the steps of the town cafe and gathering place. Jake had an accident with his truck nearby a few months prior, in which his brother was killed. Jake had relatively minor injuries, and he's waiting in Beaver Mills for his insurance claim to be settled. Owner and waitress at the restaurant, Claire (Erin Karpluk), is clearly attracted to Jake, which town doctor, David (David Lewis), notices because he's attracted to Claire. David doesn't understand, doctor or not, Claire has no romantic interest in him.
In the restaurant we also meet Edna (Karen Austin) and Farley (Simon Longmore). Edna is an older woman mourning the loss of her best friend, Maggie, who died about a year ago, and this takes the form of denial; Edna behaves as if Maggie is still alive and interacts with her. Claire, Farley and the others in town humor her, and in fact when Claire clears away Edna and Maggie's breakfast plates, which she insists are on the house, she walks the plates right over to Farley for him to have Maggie's obviously uneaten food, you get the impression this is their daily routine. Farley is just a guy in town, no explanation really of who he is and what he does; he seems to be the town's buffoon.
After Jake goes to an RV he's using as a temporary home, he finds David there waiting for him, under the pretext of treating Jake's hand injury, but in reality he wants to gauge Jake's interest in Claire, saying after Jake leaves, he –David- will still be there. Jake says he looks at Claire only because she's an attractive woman, leaving David believing Jake isn't a threat. Unfortunately while en route to another house call after leaving Jake, David stops to answer nature's call, and the wyvern attacks, pulling him out of his vehicle.
The next morning, Sheriff Dawson (John Shaw) and Jake are having a conversation at about 5AM outside Claire's restaurant, waiting for her to open, and hear gunshots. They decide to investigate and find Haas (Barry Corbin), an older man described affectionately as a ‘hillbilly’ by Claire, talking wildly about being attacked by the wyvern. They don't believe him at first, thinking he's just going on too little sleep, but Jake sees a bloody arm lying nearby and identifies it as David's. The three men head back to town, and Dawson calls ahead to Claire while they drive to ask her to have the townspeople gather, telling her only that David is missing and may have been injured. He asks Deputy Susie (Elaine Miles) to go out to the arm's location to investigate. After they arrive in town, they explain Doc is missing and things don't look good for him. While he's talking, Susie comes in, holding the arm, which horrifies Claire and the others present, Dawson reprimands her, telling her to put it in the cooler at their office. Dawson advises them all to be careful, they obviously have a predator loose in the area, but then has to leave to investigate another incident.
While this happens, the Colonel (Don S. Davis), an older military man, has had a couple of odd things happen at home, like his dog disappearing and a moose's head being dropped into his hot tub. He sees the wyvern at home and again while going to town to warn the citizens; but they don't believe him. He asks Vinyl Hampton (Tinsel Korey), who runs the town's radio station, to broadcast an emergency warning, but she refuses, saying she cannot as she answers to a higher authority. The Colonel leaves in a huff.
Dawson has told Deputy Susie to keep an eye on town, so she's there watching the goings on at the solstice festival. He gets to the location he was called to, finds the owner and some animals dead in a barn, but slips on the blood as he turns to leave and hits his head, knocking him unconscious. In town, Vinyl sees the wyvern from her window, and tries to make an emergency broadcast, but is stopped when the creature rips out her antenna.
Sheriff Dawson comes to and calls Susie, tells her to stop the festival, get everyone home. She starts making this announcement to the small crowd using a megaphone, and is puzzled when they all look at her with some confusion. She doesn't see the wyvern flying up behind her, and it savagely takes her life, the megaphone falling to the ground in a puddle of blood. Several others ae killed, while some, like Haas, Vinyl, Farley, and Edna take refuge in the café.
While all this is going on in town, Jake and Claire have tracked the wyvern to a strange mound in the forest, and run into the Colonel after, who has discovered the interstate which brings people in and out of town is full of cars, trucks, and RV's, crashed and attacked by the wyvern, intent on keeping the town secluded. They decide to go back to Beaver Mills, and don't see a badly wounded David on the far side of what is truly a nest, as he is able to look in and see three large, odd, dark orange eggs. Just then the wyvern flies overhead and envelopes the doctor.
Back in Beaver Mills, Sheriff Dawson arrives to see the megaphone and blood that was his deputy in the road, and is then killed by the wyvern as those in the café yell warnings to him. When Claire, Jake, and the Colonel arrive, and everyone takes stock, some go elsewhere in town to get supplies, and while going back to the café Farley is scraped across his chest with the beast's tail, causing a bloody injury, and is helped into the building. Jake and Claire talk while everyone's trying to rest, and he tells her he believes it was his fault his brother died in the accident. He says that his brother was sick and so all the driving for a few days was on Jake, rather than resting or turning back, he insisted on continuing, even though they really didn't need the money.
The wyvern brings David, still alive, and drops him in the middle of town as bait to draw people out of the cafe. David screams for help, bloody and in pain. Jake goes to rescue him, and Farley distracts the wyvern to save the two men, but is killed himself. David tells the group the wyvern has eggs, then dies right after of his injuries. Claire, Jake, Haas, Vinyl, and the Colonel decide to electrify the nest with some of the items the beast has used to construct it and kill the wyvern. They do succeed somewhat, but the creature kills Haas and escapes after it is shocked and flies off. The Colonel immediately starts shooting the eggs, but Jakes stops him, says they could be bait.
The survivors drive away, but stop when they see what looks like brand new truck tractor on the side of the road, Jake's claim fulfilled. Jake comes up with a plan to kill the wyvern, saying he needs Doc's GPS and the egg strapped into the truck. He drives off, alone, and as the GPS tells him he's getting closer to ‘his destination’ the wyvern appears and attacks the vehicle. As the truck reaches its destination the wyvern is on the front, covering the hood, and Jake bails out as the tractor sails off a cliff, and explodes.
Everyone is waiting for Jake to appear at Claire's café, as the sky gets slightly darker. He soon does, sauntering around a corner towards the restaurant, Claire joyfully hugs him, and he hugs her right back. The others are happy to see him, but ask about his rig. He says he doesn't need it, he likes it right there, glancing at Claire.
The sons of Kozlík, a robber clan leader, ambush a group travelling to Mladá Boleslav in winter. The new Bishop of Hennau, an ally of the Bohemian king, escapes, but his young son Kristian and his assistant are taken. Mikoláš, one of Kozlík's sons, finds the neighbouring clan leader Lazar scavenging the site but spares his life as he prays to Christ. They both have a holy vision involving Lazar's virgin daughter, Marketa. At their settlement, Kozlík chastises Mikoláš for letting a man escape, bringing captives, and sparing Lazar. His rage increases when he overhears his other son Adam saying that they could have used the escaped bishop as leverage against the king. His daughter Alexandra takes a liking to Kristian, much to Adam's disgust. (She had previously once indulged and once rejected an affair with Adam. When their mother Katarina found out and told Kozlík, Adam lost his arm as punishment for the incest.)
Kozlík answers a royal summons to Boleslav. The king's captain attempts to seize him, but he escapes, chased by wolves back to the settlement. Anticipating a regiment led by the captain, the clan retreats into the woods. Mikoláš visits Lazar, urging him to help Kozlík ambush the regiment. Marketa is shocked to see Mikoláš brutally beaten and driven out. A small group sent by Kozlík to avenge the beating finds the regiment already at Lazar's settlement. They kill the captain's closest knight and retreat. The captain swears justice and revenge.
Lazar and Marketa visit the nunnery, but Lazar does not have enough money for her to take vows. Returning their settlement, they find it captured by Mikoláš and his men, who kill Lazar's mentally disabled son. As Lazar begs for his life, Mikoláš demands Marketa in exchange. He protests, but they nail him to the gate and take Marketa. At their forest stronghold, Mikoláš rapes Marketa and then protects her from Kozlík's wrath. Meanwhile, Kristian has impregnated Alexandra. Kozlík chains both couples on a nearby hill.
When the captain's regiment arrives at the stronghold with Adam as a captive, Kozlík allows the four back inside. In an initial rash attack, the captain is repulsed but Adam dies. He then mounts a successful second attack. Kristian sees Alexandra chased by the attackers and is torn between loyalty to his father and love for her. He stumbles away beaten while a dream-like flashback shows him explaining his love for Alexandra and their future child to his dismayed father. He reaches Lazar's abandoned settlement and meets Bernard, a priest and former victim of the robber clan. He collapses, recovers, and walks through a pack of wolves back into the woods. Meanwhile, Alexandra, Mikoláš, and Marketa have escaped the captain, who has taken Kozlík captive to Boleslav. Alexandra finds Kristian crawling through the woods and hits him on the head with a stone. Kristian's father eventually finds her and demands to know where his body is buried, and finally she is arrested.
Marketa returns to Lazar, who survived, but he rejects her. In a trance-like state, she travels to the nunnery and begins to take her vows just as Mikoláš attempts to free Kozlík from the Boleslav dungeon. A child finds her and takes her arm. She leaves the ceremony to find Mikoláš dying in the castle courtyard from wounds suffered in the attempt. The captain marries Mikoláš and Marketa on the spot. Kozlík sees the marriage and is taken away while Mikoláš dies. Brother Bernard finds Marketa in the wilderness and offers to travel with her in search of a new life. In the final scene, Marketa wanders on as the narrator reveals that she and Alexandra each had a son and that Marketa breastfed both boys.
The first picture would show old Kristián coming to the Royal Court asking for help to save his son. Present nobles would blame the king for being passive in the matter. The second picture would be set two years prior to the events. It would show the prince being convinced to overthrow his father. The prince would then start remembering when his father returned from a hunt injured and met his sons. The prince was afraid of him. Another picture would be set in the aftermath of the film's events. Pivo brings old Kristián and Alexandra to the king. Alexandra is to be punished for murdering young Kristián but old Kristián asks to pardon her because of her pregnancy. The king orders the prince to be brought to the court. The prince was imprisoned after his attempt to overthrow the king. Pivo starts remembering events of the military campaign against Kozlík. The king unsuccessfully tries to humiliate his son; the question of pardon for Alexandra becomes a secondary matter as the conflict between king and prince becomes a conflict about conception of rule. The king leaves the decision about pardon to Alexandra to Kristián.
The story is an autobiography of Dib, the main character in the film. Dib was brought up by a brutal father-in-law and a mother who was forced into a new marriage. This is partly an aubiography of Malas himself. It is set against the backdrop of the major political events of the 1950s in Syria and Egypt: the end of the dictatorship in Syria, Gamal Abdel Nasser's ascent to power and the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, and the short-lived The United Arab Republic between Syria and Egypt in 1958.
Elvira Madigan and Sixten Sparre are together in the Danish countryside, having run away together and abandoned their past lives. Sparre has renounced the military and now claims to be "on the women's side." Elvira, who was the main attraction at her circus, has got her identity back and starts to refer to herself with her real name Hedvig.
A friend from Sparre's regiment tries to persuade him to come back, but fails. They have no money or future and try to fish and earn money the best they can. Hedvig sells a picture of herself drawn by Toulouse-Lautrec and is paid to entertain a party with her dancing. Eventually, Sparre shot her to death and then took his own life.
The movie opens with a boat cruising through heavy fog, on a spooky night. The boat lands on a rocky island (Snape) and two older seamen go on shore. Soon they find a severed hand with a crab on it. After they see the male body it was attached to, they decide to go into the lighthouse to investigate. They find a female body with a severed head. They split up and find another murdered body. Then they find a live, young woman, Penny, hiding in a closet. Traumatized to an extreme, she stabs the older of the men who finds her to death. The other man (the captain) of the boat survives.
Next, she is being examined by doctors who talk about her state of shock and how she and her friends made it to Snape Island. After running tests they try to find out more of what happened. Penny starts to talk and remember how her friends arrived. She starts to scream as the flashbacks disturb her.
After hearing about this, a group of scientists decide to visit the Island. They know that the Island is loaded with gold and Phoenician treasures. A team of 5 men and 2 women sets out on the Sea Ghost, which is captained by the seaman who survived the opening scene.
They land and immediately start to see strange things, like a lack of sea gulls, other forms of life, and a mystery. No one believes that Penny killed anyone but the old man. They suspect that the island has another inhabitant. As the men empty the boat, the women argue over the men. Jealousy and love triangles are apparent. Their leader, Dr. Simpson, breaks away to look at a stashed away sack. The captain sees a picture of his brother in the mansion. He explains to the others that his brother, sister-in-law and their child all died on this God forsaken island. Then the movie cuts back to the mainland where the doctor is hypnotizing Penny. She is seeing the past. The murder of her friends by a large, laughing, bearded psycho. The disturbing scenes show what really happened to her 3 friends. Penny comes to and screams violently.
Back on the island, the team is discussing the island's history when they hear a strange noise. They split up to look for the cause. Two of the team bump into each other. Though the woman is terrified she learns that some of the team members have been to the island before and are keeping that quiet. Afterward they are all shown together. Dr. Simpson decides to check on the boat, or so he says. Before he goes, he says that the 3 young people must have been murdered by a madman, and he believes the madman is still on the island. While two people go upstairs to have intercourse, the rest of the men go out to look for the Doctor. They find that someone has blown up the boat. The young man having sex with the lovely Nora runs down to the boat. Nora, alone, wanders and is stalked by the murderer. She sees a decomposing body in a rocker. She screams and passes out.
The others come running and find Nora and the body. They demand answers from the captain. He admits that he has been lying and keeping secrets. He tells of how his sister-in-law, the corpse, died and how his brother Saul is still there, living in the caves under the house. The madman has also destroyed their radio. The men decide to go in pairs to find Saul. The women stay inside and talk about the story they have just heard. The captain and his search partner find Saul's cave.
Nora's friend Rose hears a man weeping. She investigates, and looking through a wall, she sees Saul, rocking the corpse of his dead wife. He hears her and stalks her. He finds Nora, who runs to the top of the lighthouse where Saul throws her off onto the rocks below. Seeing that she is dead, Rose and the 2 other men go into a cave together. Meanwhile, the Doctor, who is near a coffin, finds the treasure. He hears the strange sound again, like a flute, and pursues it. After he leaves, the captain's search partner finds the treasure. As soon as he looks it over, he hears Saul laugh, and then Saul crashes in on him. Shortly after, the remaining 5 meet up in the cave. The Doctor explains that he fired his gun at Saul and has been stalking him all night.
Then the creepy flute music starts. Rose and Dan, one of the men, stay with the treasure while the captain, the Doctor and the other man go looking for Saul. Rose is looking at a gold lantern when Saul attacks from out of nowhere. Dan comes to help, but the large Saul breaks his neck. With all of the screaming the 3 men reappear and shoot Saul dead. The Doctor reveals that he has been to the island before and left a boat and supplies on the other side of the island. The captain stays with Rose and the 2 other men go to get the boat and some of the artifacts. Then Rose and the captain go inside and talk about Saul and his diseased family. The captain says that Martha never wanted his brother Saul to be reported. The captain encourages Rose to get some sleep. She decides to wait up and he goes upstairs. Then the captain comes back down bleeding to death. He says the name Michael, Saul's son, and dies. Then the deformed son of Saul, Michael attacks Rose. She throws an oil lamp at him and sets him on fire. As he burns to death the whole house and cave catch on fire as Saul had it rigged to. Rose narrowly escapes and the 2 surviving men get out of the cave to watch the house and its mad dwellers burn to ashes.